In the late 1990s, several areas in Northwest of England were identified as suffering from social and economic deprivations with low housing demand, abandoned neighbourhoods, where local people and services have moved out. To address these problems, the HMR initiative was introduced by the Department of Communities and Local Government in 2003. Nine Pathfinders supported by the HMR Funds were established aimed at rebuilding communities through creating places where people want to live and work for the present and for future generations. This puts local communities at a centre of the programme and they should act themselves as agents for HMR. The Government has recognised that community engagement is vital to the success of the HMR process. What little written guidance is available from the Government for community engagement in the HMR process is inaccessible or unused in HMR. However, the local protests on the way that the HMR is being delivered suggest that local communities are not fully engaged, and highlights that the Pathfinders need the necessary skills for improving the engagement with local communities in the HMR process. The Egan report (which is further supported by the professionals in built environment) has recognised the need for considering new skills and ways of working in delivering sustainable communities. However, the report does not specifically address how these skills need to be allocated among different stakeholders. It also fails to describe the skills necessary to improve engagement with the communities. This study aims to critically appraise Government policies for community engagement practice in the HMR process, and investigate the skills needed for attaining the full level of community engagement in the HMR process. It explores the roles of key stakeholders and their levels of involvement in the community engagement process; barriers for attaining the full' level of community engagement; and the stakeholders' expectations from the engagement process that leads to the skills needs for improving the engagement of communities. The study applies qualitative research within a nested research methodology with two phases of case study design (an exploratory study at Elevate East Lancashire Pathfinder, Blackburn Borough Council and Bank Top; and a detailed case study in Bank Top, Blackburn). Rigorous data collection and analysis using Nvivo is employed. Research findings from the exploratory study confirm that local communities were poorly engaged in the HMR process. This stimulated a definition of the research questions. A framework for identifying the skills needed for attaining the full level of community engagement was further developed and applied for a new play area in Bank Top. Findings from the case study identify the skills needed for attaining the full level of community engagement in the HMR process aimed at consulting young people and show some engagement, but this did not really empower the community. This study generates new knowledge about the skills needs for attaining the full level of community engagement in the HMR process. This study also offers a methodological contribution that could be applied to a similar study for different community groups and different Pathfinder areas.

Based on 10 months’ qualitative fieldwork and the filming of a documentary conducted on the islands of Lampedusa and Fuerteventura, this thesis examines ground-level Europeanisation, concentrating on two well-established Communitarian policy frames -- the Common Fishery Policy (CFP) and the management of the external border of the Schengen space of free movement of people – and two populations of artisanal fishers who were exposed to them. It analyses how governmental logics operated on the ground through individuals’ engagement with Communitarian policies, and it reconstructs the major transformations that the two islands’ fishing industries underwent in the duree of more than fifty years of European integration. While until less than thirty years ago the economy of the Italian island of Lampedusa was centred on bluefish fishing and canning industries, on the Spanish island of Fuerteventura most islanders lived from agriculture for centuries. Following the European integration of Italy and Spain, both islands turned into major tourist destinations and the centres of frequent European migration crises. By focusing on these two territories, this investigation explores how EU governance contributed to transforming the local sociocultural and economic fabric and the islanders’ everyday life. Following the overview of how both policies were played out on the ground, I analyse the effects that the CFP produced on the two islands, and those that the management of the European external border generated in Lampedusa. Giving centrality to the marine element, I push the study of Europeanisation towards the sea and reveal how European policies had reconfigured the islanders’ relation with the seawaters surrounding them. Concurrently, by exploring the ways in which individuals interacted with EU governmentalities, I also unearth the several unintended consequences of Communitarian governance – as conservation policies aiming at recovering overfished fish stocks actually generated the conditions for increasing and uncontrolled overexploitation, while border policies for the securitisation of the European space de facto de-securitized life in Lampedusa.

The primary objective of this thesis is to identify why sectarianism has declined in Liverpool. In doing, it is necessary to identify what sectarianism was in a Liverpool context, whilst also outlining its development. In relation to this, the part played by nineteenth century Irish immigration, the Orange Order, and the Roman Catholic Church will be analysed. Although assessed, it is not the intention of this work to concentrate primarily on the sectarian violence that gripped the city, nor the complex relationship between sectarianism and politics in Liverpool: the latter having already been expertly covered by Waller (1981) and the former by Neal (1988). Nonetheless, in analysing the degeneration of denominational antagonism both the reduction in sectarian violence and the rapidity of its political disintegration will be considered. For a period spanning two centuries the sectarian divide in Liverpool soured relations between its residents. Indeed, the city’s political representatives were often elected on the basis of their ethno-religious pedigree. Politics continued to be influenced by religion until the mid-1970s. Weakening sectarianism, in the limited existing studies, is attributed largely to post-war slum clearance, but this thesis asserts that causality is much more complex. There are a range of factors that have contributed to the decline. As this thesis demonstrates, the downfall of sectarianism coincided with the creation of a collective identity; an identity based not on ethno-religious affiliations, but on a commonality, an acknowledgment that principles which united were more significant than factors which divided. Importantly, the success of the city’s two football teams, Everton FC and Liverpool FC, gave the city a new focus based upon a healthy sporting rivalry rather than sectarian vehemence. A complex interplay of secularism and ecumenism, the economic misfortunes of Liverpool and their political impact in terms of class politics, the growth of a collective city identity and the omnipotence of (non-religiously derived) football affiliations combined to diminish Liverpool’s once acute sectarian fault-line. This thesis examines how and why.

This research aimed to explore the extent to which young people with learning/communication difficulties see themselves affected by feeling unsafe/bullying in the community. This research also investigated the views of parents of young people with learning/communication difficulties. The researcher wished to explore the extent to which parents endeavour to support their vulnerable offspring by curtailing their exposure to potential risks, as against helping them develop coping strategies to enable them to stay safe in community settings and be competent to avoid and address potential or actual risks. Finally, the study aimed to explore the perceptions of teachers who work with young people with learning/communication difficulties, of how much the young people are at risk of being bullied in the community, and how the school curriculum seeks to minimise/prepare young people to address any such risks. Through a multiple case study design, the perceptions of six young people with learning/communication difficulties were explored, as were the perceptions of one of the parents of each of the young people. Three schools were involved: one mainstream and two special schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the young people, with their parents and with one member of staff from each school. In addition, rating scales and photographs were used with the young people. The research was collaborative in that the young people were involved in identifying which places in the community to take photographs of, and took some of the photographs themselves with the help of school staff. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis (Thomas, 2009). Findings point to the importance of taking an eco-systemic approach to the issue of how safe young people with learning/communication difficulties feel in the community, and to the issue of bullying.

From the aftermath of Suez to the Kosovo campaign, Britain lost most of its colonies and ended up taking a moral interventionist stance on the world stage with the US its major ally. Against that contextual background, this thesis considers the attitudes in Britain towards its Armed Forces and war from 1960 to 2000. Using a range of lenses, the paper highlights the complexity of change. Homosexuality was a scandalous issue for society in the 1960s, such that the 1967 Act which decriminalised it was not really widely accepted. For the Armed Forces, searches for homosexuals increased on grounds of security. The Act of Remembrance, as recorded in churches, shows the mixed approach of the clergy to war, particularly dependent on their own experience, and also the change in mood from a religious service to a secular one. In the notable campaigns that did take place over the period, Borneo, the Falklands, Bosnia, Kosovo and the Gulf War, a methodical view is taken of opinion polls, press coverage, and letters pages to establish trends at the political, elite and public levels. The media has been used as a reference throughout the thesis as a measure of opinion, but here is analysed for its own biases and approaches, since it has a clear effect on people’s opinions, both from fiction and fact. Overall, the thesis paints a complex web of declining interest in defence issues, greater self-interest amongst many, increasing secularisation, and greater tolerance, yet conversely, points to underlying themes of pride in individual servicemen and the institution of the Armed Forces.

The link between economic development and urbanisation has placed urban sustainability on national and city agendas. Designing sustainable city centre regeneration projects remains a crucial challenge, particularly in understanding the ways physical planning and social issues interact. Urban regeneration has been criticised for creating issues related to gentrification, displacement, social segregation, lack of coherent spatial planning, rising living costs, poor quality of life, etc. An optimum balance of state/market/civil society forces throughout the decision-making process is crucial to delivering sustainable cities, with policy, politics, governance and resources influencing the dynamics and types of (re)development. This thesis investigates the strategies and processes of urban regeneration in the Malaysian context by exploring the connections between social sustainability and physical planning/urban design. Malaysian urban development is examined in the context of an aspiring world city, Kuala Lumpur, where models of regeneration operate at the intersection of developed and developing country models. Three case studies were selected within Kuala Lumpur to explore how these governance processes and design interventions have impacted on local communities and the urban environment.

The thesis employs the political process approach within social movement theory (SMT) to examine in a comparative fashion two distinctly different opposition movements in southern Russia. One is the environmental movement in Krasnodar Krai and the other is the ethno-national Balkar movement in Kabardino-Balkaria. The political process approach focuses on the role and interaction of political opportunities, mobilising structures, and social movement framing for both movements, and seeks to explore their role in social movement mobilisation dynamics in Russia’s non-democratic context. The combination of the analysis of the three variables of political opportunities, mobilising structures, and social movement framing allows for fresh perspectives on both SMT and post-Soviet area studies. The thesis is particularly concerned with networks. It argues that in non-democratic contexts, the role of networks is more important than in democratic contexts.

This thesis examines written, audio-visual and musical representations of real-life British serial killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady (the ‘Moors Murderers’) and Peter Sutcliffe (the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’), from the time of their crimes to the present day, and their proliferation beyond the cases’ immediate historical‐legal context. Through the theoretical construct ‘Northientalism’ I interrogate such representations’ replication and engagement of stereotypes and anxieties accruing to the figure of the white working-class ‘Northern’ subject in these cases, within a broader context of pre‐existing historical trajectories and generic conventions of Northern and true crime representation. Interrogating changing perceptions of the cultural functions and meanings of murderers in late--‐capitalist socio--‐cultural history, I argue that the underlying structure of true crime is the counterbalance between the exceptional and the everyday, in service of which its second crucial structuring technique – the depiction of physical detail – operates. Applying the theories of David Schmid and Lisa Downing to a new range of figures and artefacts I demonstrate ways true crime can expose and explore the unequal power relations inherent in capitalism, both constructing the figure of the criminal as – and uncoupling that figure from a mythology that renders them – falsely ontologically separate from normalised forms of violence.

This thesis considers the reputedly constitutive effects of violence and (intergenerational) loss on youth political subjectivities and agencies, with specific regard for young Tibetans of the refugee-diaspora of Northern India. While the effects of violence on socialisation and agency are currently a significant concern, prevailing clinical, cultural, and even radical psychoanalytical explanations tend – in universalising the traumatic event – to advance underdetermined accounts of experience, subjectivity and agency, leading to depoliticisation of the young or overstatement of their agency. In contrast, this study draws on the Foucauldian concept of political subjectification to reflect on the displaced wider overdeterminative material-discursive field through which young subjects, their subjectivities, and agencies are constituted. Through an ethnographically-informed genealogical method I attempt to trace the signification and affective-internalisation of a specific masternarrative of (national) loss, and the displacements the advent of this account has caused –with specific regard for the displacement of classed, gendered and generational experiences of loss. Finally, drawing on Foucault’s parrhesia as a heuristic for decentred agency, I consider how far young people in exile are able to resist patrifilial hegemony through indexing alternative forms of loss.

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-07-09T21:40:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 20b.pdf: 3176393 bytes, checksum: b85ec1ddba048cc511f230d9d7018d2c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-09T21:40:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 20b.pdf: 3176393 bytes, checksum: b85ec1ddba048cc511f230d9d7018d2c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Nenhuma / O presente estudo teve como finalidade compreender a utilização da inteligência cultural em joint ventures internacionais em setores de alta tecnologia, tendo como estudo de caso a HT Micron, que nasceu da união do Grupo Parit, brasileiro, e da Hana Micron, sul-coreana, para compreensão dos passos realizados para a consolidação do negócio. A utilização da inteligência cultural ainda é um desafio para muitas pessoas e empresas, além de ser uma área pouco conhecida na academia, como aponta Livermore (2010), havendo um vasto campo de pesquisa a ser explorado e desenvolvido. Buscou-se apresentar uma série de informações sobre a empresa, avaliando os aspectos culturais envolvidos, a gestão intercultural e a inteligência cultural numa perspectiva melhor visualizada através do lado brasileiro da joint venture. Com base na fundamentação teórica, realizada através de pesquisa bibliográfica relacionada ao assunto, foi feito um estudo de caso exploratório, através de entrevistas e visitas pessoais a diferentes áreas da empresa e a pessoas que estiveram envolvidas na criação da empresa, desenvolvendo-se uma análise de conteúdo. A dissertação contextualiza sobre a área de semicondutores, descreve o processo de construção da joint venture HT Micron, apresenta como se dá a gestão intercultural na HT Micron e a utilização da inteligência cultural nesse contexto, além de sugerir um conjunto de recomendações nessa área para joint ventures internacionais, como a HT Micron. Como resultado da pesquisa, pode-se verificar que a empresa acaba por utilizar ações esporádicas para o desenvolvimento cultural, caracterizando uma baixa utilização de princípios de inteligência cultural na formação da joint venture, que poderiam ser melhor explorados no seu dia-a-dia. / The present study aimed to understand the use of cultural intelligence in international joint ventures in high-technology sectors, taking as case study the HT Micron, which was born from the union of the Brazilian Parit Group and South Korean Hana Micron to understand the steps performed to consolidate the business. The use of cultural intelligence still a challenge for many people and companies, as well as being an area little known in academy, as pointed Livermore (2010), with a wide field of research to be explored and developed. In this research was tried to provide a sequence of information about the company, assessing the cultural aspects involved in intercultural management and cultural intelligence, more visualized through the Brazilian side of the joint venture. Based on the theoretical reasons, performed through a literature research related to the subject, was created an exploratory case study, conducting interviews and personal visits to different areas of the company and people who were involved in the creation of the company, developing a content analysis. The theses contextualizes the semiconductor area, identifies the cultural aspects of the realization of the joint venture, shows how is the HT Micron in intercultural management and use of cultural intelligence, and suggest a set of recommendations in the area of cultural intelligence for international joint ventures as the HT Micron. As a result of the research can be seen that the company had sporadic actions in the cultural development, featuring a low utilization of the principles of cultural intelligence in the shaping of the joint venture, which could be better explored in the day-by-day operation.