“It’s not just about the money”: the meaning of work for people with severe and enduring mental health problems – an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Aim – to explore the meaning of work for people living with severe and enduring mental health problems. Method - Ten participants were recruited and interviewed initially; eight at six months; four at eighteen months. A longitudinal approach was chosen to facilitate capturing changes in the participants’ life worlds. The method used was interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings - Three overarching themes were identified. Building and maintaining an occupational identity expressed the ways in which participants used occupations as the building blocks of an evolving identity; some viewed work as a socially valued way of doing this. Most of the participants had aspirations towards work, and occupation in a broad sense was seen as an essential component of recovery from mental ill health. Work, and other ways of belonging encapsulated the need to feel connected to others. Many of the participants envisaged working as a way of achieving this. Others had experienced work as isolating and excluding, and had found leaving or changing work roles to be liberating. Work values, personal values; the need for accord reflected the attitudes that participants held about the role of work in their lives, and in society. These views reflected ambivalent feelings about working which often seemed to stem from distressing experiences of work. The longitudinal nature of the study facilitated engagement with the developing narratives and exploration of the changes and consistencies in the participants’ meaning making about work. Conclusion - work may contribute to recovery, as can other forms of occupational engagement. Attention to identity building and fostering a sense of belonging is important. Implications relate to the need for service providers to utilise a flexible approach to occupational participation.

This thesis is concerned with the heart of Caithness, the northernmost region of mainland Scotland. Based on 18 months participant observation in the coastal village of Lybster and the surrounding area, it explores concepts of kinship and belonging. The thesis examines characters, places, and events in both everyday and ritual settings. I trace the creation and maintainence of community, and the construction and blurring of the boundaries of belonging as well as paths of social transformation. I examine how Caithnessians perceive themselves as 'strangers' in their own nation, thus creating increasingly localized ties that bind. Significant in all of this, in a locality where migration has historically been important, is an analysis of how 'others' and their identities play a constitutive role in the self-identification processes of Caithnessians. I consider ascribed and achieved ways of belonging - the genealogical and performative journeys that are involved in fitting into this locality. I examine the contradictions, nuances, and negotiations that are evident in definitions of selves and others and the constitutive relationship between them. All of this is part of a wider investigation into how people conceptualise themselves and others. I argue that what I have called ‘island-mindedness’ characterises the identities of this mainland population and leads to a side-stepping of national identity. In the context of current research on the nation, such ethnographic illumination of the complexity of notions of identity in specific regions is essential for a rounded anthropological understanding of Scotland. By offering a close exploration of a community based on kinship, this thesis aims to illuminate new ways of approaching the nuances of everyday life. I suggest that it is in the encounters of everyday life - more than in claims and categories - that identity work and kinship are most complex and most meaningful.

The scope and principal arguments of the research in this thesis are as follows. This thesis is centered on exploring the identities and sense of belonging of Muslims in Britain. There is a strand of academic research which claims that Muslims in Britain are withdrawn from mainstream Britain because they live in segregated ethnic enclaves, participate in non-mainstream religions, and politically organize themselves via ethnically and religiously homogenous networks. This thesis attempts to go beyond such existing research and advance our understanding of the identities and sense of belonging of Muslims in Britain. Accordingly, the research questions that guide the thesis are: <b>1. What is the strength and relative importance of British identity for Muslims in Britain and what are its drivers? 2. What does ‘belonging to Britain’ mean to Muslims in Britain? 3. What do the identities, British, Pakistani, and Muslim mean to Muslims in Britain, and how easy do they find it to integrate these identities?</b> These questions are dealt with in three main empirical chapters, with the use of a multi-methods approach, combining survey data, cognitive survey methodology interviews, and in-depth qualitative interviews. The first empirical chapter presents regression results, from the Citizenship Survey and Ethnic Minority British Election Study, which confirm the strength of British identity for Muslims and present the various drivers that motivate it. These quantitative findings however do not tell us much about what ‘belonging to Britain’ really means for Muslims. The second empirical chapter delves further into this the concept. I ‘question’ the survey question ‘How strongly do you belong to Britain?’ through 30 cognitive interviews that are used to evaluate survey methodology. This exercise displays two key meanings of the question on belonging to Britain: a ‘cultural’ feeling (at ease) and an ‘affective’ feeling (feel attached). Most respondents interpreted the question as ‘cultural’, reflecting upon the practices, ethical values, and lifestyle that characterises a country. The third empirical chapter takes a look at the identities of Muslims, their national, ethnic, and religious identities through 61 qualitative in-depth interviews. The findings from the structured and unstructured identity questions help to understand the way Muslims in Britain relate to their British, Pakistani, and Muslim identities. The results from the structured identity question took a categorical view of identity as opposed to the themes that emerged from the unstructured identity questions and took a dimensional view of identity. These themes generated a six-group typology of identity with the groups: cultural, unambiguous, emotional, emergent, ambivalent, and none of the above. It was found that identities were not simply additive but were emergent and creative with processes of fusion and mesh. There were some tensions and contradictions in Muslims trying to integrate their different aspects of identity.

The uniqueness of this study is primarily in the application of a visual research methodology to generate knowledge and understanding in an area that is often associated with quantitative research. Careers and employment research typically focuses on statistical information which can provide general information but does not give an in-depth understanding of the area under study. Visual research can give an in-depth understanding; in addition to giving access to a different kind of knowledge, supported by Harper (2002) who proposes “that images can evoke deeper elements of human consciousness than words alone.” I explore the various ways in which students perceive and develop different career aspiration including what motivates and what might inhibit students’ development of their career aspirations. This understanding will enhance my professional practice and encourage the Careers and Employment department within the University to adapt their service and give students the relevant tools and information to prepare them for employment. A visual research methodology is utilised as this fits comfortably with my background in art and gives the in-depth knowledge I require for my research (see Clark-Ibáñez, 2004; Collier (1957); Collier and Collier, 1986; Cousin, 2009; Guillemin and Drew, 2010; Harper, 2002; Harris and Guillemin, 2012 and O’Brien, 2013 for further information on the benefits of using a visual research methodology). Auto-driven photo-elicitation (ADPE) is used with six fine art and six business management students. These students often have less career direction and tend to struggle to secure graduate level positions (Swani, 2016); in addition, the two subject areas were chosen because they are a contrast in terms of how their curriculum is delivered. Using visual research to inform careers and employment is unique and through sharing my research and research experience I want to initiate a shift in how careers and employment research is approached in the future. In addition to the uniqueness of using a visual research methodology in careers and employment my findings indicate there are five orientations business management and fine art students’ use when developing their career aspirations: a strong sense of direction, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, weak planning and dreams. This research discusses the five orientations and the factors that might contribute to a rich learning environment for career building. Subject and professional identity are discussed in relation to identity formation and career building. Four main sources of identity formation are identified: identity through being (transition from study to profession), identity through self-discovery, identity through belonging (concerning the informal and cultural aspects of community life), and identity through peripheral participation (activities that are akin to peripheral participation in a professional community). This research establishes there is a relationship between the development and building of identity and self-efficacy through belonging, professional experience and working alongside mentors when developing strategies to develop career aspirations.

Cette recherche doctorale est consacrée à l'analyse des perceptions de la citoyenneté française chez les immigrés originaires de Turquie et leurs enfants en lien avec leurs parcours migratoires. S'appuyant sur les différentes appartenances identitaires de ces immigrés, elle propose une analyse de l'articulation des appartenances particulières et de l'appartenance citoyenne qui se produit pendant les parcours migratoires. Cette analyse révèle les modes de compositions identitaires qui se réalisent d'une manière variée par rapport à des appartenances culturelles et politiques dans le cas des immigrés originaires de Turquie et leurs enfants. Les perceptions de la citoyenneté des enquêtés sont affectées, à la fois pour les immigrés et leurs enfants, non seulement par le lien établi avec la France du point de vue juridique, économique, social, culturel et identitaire mais aussi avec leur pays et leur culture d'origine via les activités associatives. Ce qui nous montre que l'appartenance citoyenne dans le parcours migratoire doit être analysée comme un processus qui débute en Turquie et qui continue en France, provoquant parfois des ruptures identitaires. / This doctoral research tried to analyze the perceptions of French citizenship among immigrants from Turkey and their children in relation with their migratory paths. Based on the different identities belonging, it studies the articulation of particular belongings and the citizenship belonging during the migratory paths. In the example of immigrants originated from Turkey, this analysis reveals the patterns of identity compositions that are realized in different ways in relation with cultural and political affiliations. The immigrant's perceptions of the citizenship are affected, for both the immigrants and their children, not only by the legal, economic, social, cultural and identity link with France but also with their country of origin and their native culture through associative activities. So that, citizenship belonging in the migratory process must be taken as a process that is beginning in Turkey and continuing in France, and sometimes causes identity disruption.

This study examines changes in the governance of Nottingham and Derby in the period 1945-1968 from a local and national perspective. In so doing it foreshadows the changes wrought by the Local Government Act 1972, which usually receives greater academic attention. Post-war, local authorities became the nation’s principal landlords, while utilities, such as electricity and gas, were nationalised. In fulfilling their new responsibilities, urban authorities were forced to build estates on the periphery of, or outside, their boundaries. The relocation of residents resulted in an exportation of urban identity and greater urban-ness, but was not accompanied by a corresponding redrawing of administrative boundaries. Nevertheless, when urban authorities sought boundary extensions they were fiercely contested by county authorities, local associations, and residents’ groups. Such associations and groups claimed to possess characteristics distinct from the authorities that wished to incorporate them. There was also a fear that democratic accountability would be lost in the creation of larger units of governance. The local feelings aroused by boundary extension proposals demonstrate that local government is more than merely an agent of central government. It is a living organism: changes to it affect not only services, but also the identity of that place. The expansion proposals of the county boroughs of Nottingham and Derby differed markedly. Uniquely amongst county boroughs nationwide, Nottingham sought no expansion under the review initiated by the Local Government Act 1958. The thesis assesses the political motivations behind this and the wider reactions to reconfiguration proposals for both county boroughs. The role of conurbations is considered in terms of local governance, including the extent to which Nottingham and Derby could be classified as one. The thesis concludes that the maintenance of existing party political strengths outweighed local sentiment, and that only those proposals for reform which benefited the former were enacted.

Swedish curricula and syllabi constitute a richness of different considerations. Withinthis composition of principles, it is distinctly declared that all Swedish schools should counteract any inclination of discrimination and that intolerance must be answered with different measures, including knowledge (Skolverket, 2011b, 1). Scrutinizing ways in which knowledge can be used as an instrument towards these issues is therefore incentivized. On this token, the following essay investigates the potentiality of usingthe novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros in English 7 instruction in upper secondary school, as teaching material for imparting knowledge about different forms of discrimination. To achieve this purpose, the essay first examines the experiences of narrator and protagonist Esperanza Cordero through close reading, to explore how tacit and explicit racial and class-based discrimination shape her identity and inhibit her sense of belonging. Belonging is conceptualized through Benedict Anderson’s notion of imagined communities wherein an individual is viewed as bargaining for belonging towards delimited and delimiting communities. Identity is viewed through a sociological lens as a transformative, negotiable, and revocable phenomenon and as interlinked with asymmetrical power relations. In addition, the essay analyses the findings from the close reading in relation to the syllabus for the course English 7, and the curriculum for upper secondary school. On this basis, the essay maintains that The House on Mango Street is suitable teaching material for the course English 7 at upper secondary school. The results indicate an alignment between the principles stated in the steering documents and the findings of the analyses, illustrating the applicability of The House on Mango Street as teaching material within a Swedish school setting. Furthermore, the results reveal how the novel presents teachers with ample opportunities to mediate how forms of discrimination are intertwined with questions of identity and belonging.

This thesis examines the philosophical notion of selfhood in visual representation. I introduce the self as a modern and postmodern concept and argue that there is a loss of selfhood in contemporary culture. Via Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, Gerhard Richter and the method of deconstruction of language, I theorise selfhood through the figurative and literal analysis of duration, the frame, and the mirror. In this approach, selfhood is understood as aesthetic-ontological relation and construction based on specific techniques of the self. In the first part of the study, I argue for a presentational rather than representational perspective concerning selfhood by translating the photograph Self in the Mirror (1964), the painting Las Meninas (1656), and the video Cornered (1988), into my conception of a cinematic theory of selfhood. Based on the presentation of selfhood in those works, the viewer establishes a cinematic relation to the visual self that extends and transgresses the boundaries of inside and outside, presence and absence, and here and there. In the second part, I interpret epistemic scenes of cinematic works as durational scenes in which selfhood is exposed with respect to the forces of time and space. My close readings of epistemic scenes of the films The Congress (2013), and Boyhood (2014) propose that cinema is a philosophical mirror collecting loss of selfhood over time for the viewer. Further, the cinematic concert A Trip to Japan, Revisited (2013), and the hyper-film Cool World (1992) disperse a spatial sense of selfhood for the viewer. In the third part, I examine moments of selfhood and the forces of death, survival, and love in the practice of contemporary cinematic portraiture in Joshua Oppenheimer’s, Michael Glawogger’s, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ work. While the force of death is interpreted in the portrait of perpetrators in The Act of Killing (2013), and The Look of Silence (2014), the force of survival in the longing for life is analysed in Megacities (1998), Workingman’s death (2005), and Whores’ Glory (2011). Lastly, Dogtooth (2009), Alps (2011), and The Lobster (2015) present the contemporary human condition as a lost intuition of relationality epitomised in love.