Russian people living in Scotland – and the UK more broadly – are exposed to a political climate where Russian domestic and foreign policy is the subject of intense media scrutiny and, often, criticism. This thesis explores the intersection between UK and Scottish media discourse on Russia and Russian people, Scottish public attitudes towards Russia and Russian people, and the everyday lives of Russian migrants living in Scotland. The thesis is based upon data gathered from a critical discourse analysis of 1200 Scottish and UK newspaper articles, two surveys carried out with approximately 400 Scottish and 100 Russian respondents, and interviews conducted with 24 Scottish and 21 Russian participants. The thesis argues that Russia is ‘othered’ in UK and Scottish media discourse, frequently associated with negative characteristics such as aggression and dishonesty. Through such discursive strategies, Russia is portrayed as fundamentally different from the UK, Europe and the West. While identifying some positive media engagement with Russian culture and travel, I highlight the way in which such coverage often relies upon exoticised and orientalised tropes. My findings show that there is limited press engagement with Russian people, other than President Vladimir Putin. I demonstrate that Putin has become intrinsic to contemporary imaginings of Russia, often represented as ‘Russia personified’. Ultimately, I suggest that the way in which Russian and Russian people are represented in media discourse reflects contemporary and historical power dynamics between the UK and Russia. The thesis explores how these findings intersect with Scottish participants’ attitudes towards Russia and Russian people, analysing the way in which interviewees articulated and differentiated Russian, Scottish or British, and Western identities. Throughout my discussion of both popular and media perspectives, I stress the ongoing significance of the Soviet legacy upon perceptions of contemporary Russia. I suggest that there is a complex relationship between media discourse on Russia and popular attitudes towards the country, arguing that, while Scottish participants often challenged the ideas about Russia put forward in the press, they nevertheless reproduced dominant discourses. The thesis explores this process of challenging, but nonetheless internalising, dominant media narratives. Finally, I examine how media and popular representations of Russia affect the lived experiences of Russian migrants in Scotland. I suggest that representations of Russia can have a stigmatising effect, creating ontological and social insecurities for Russian people. I suggest that such vulnerabilities often result from day-to-day encounters in seemingly banal settings, such as on public transport or in the pub. However, I emphasise the complexity of the way in which Russian participants responded to public attitudes, exploring times when they felt stereotyped, cases when interviewees were misrecognised as Polish migrants and, finally, drawing attention to positive experiences. Finally, I stress the ways in which close and trusting relationships, as well as managing media consumption, can play a key role in coping with and mitigating everyday experiences of vulnerability. The thesis makes several original contributions to knowledge. I build upon a small, but growing, body of work on the representation of Russia in contemporary media discourse. My focus on the UK and Scottish media environment, as well as the use of critical discourse analysis to critique media sources, differentiates the thesis from existing work within the field. Further, I add a contemporary perspective to existing literature on British representations of Russia, most of which has focused on receptiveness to Russian culture, particularly during the Tsarist and early Soviet periods. My use of empirical – rather than archival or secondary – data further distinguishes the thesis, with this research offering the first detailed and critical account of British popular perceptions of Russia. More broadly, I offer a bottom-up perspective into the ways in which Western (and Eastern) identities are represented and utilised on an everyday basis. The emphasis upon the stigmatising effect of media and popular attitudes towards Russia upon Russian migrants living in Scotland is also distinctive, as well as my exploration of the social and ontological vulnerabilities such stigmatising experiences can create.

Thesis (MA)--PU for CHE, 1999.

Thesis (MA)--PU for CHE, 1999.

In Part Two I present a series of analyses of nineteenth century discourses. In Chapters Five and Six my focus is on texts which describe the history, geography and ethnology of Africa. I establish evidence of the prevalence of racist accounts of the continent during the period and argue that the texts exemplify contradictions between different racist ideologies. I also argue that these contradictions are related to a historical shift between two distinctive ways of constructing social collectives. In Chapter Seven I pursue this argument further through discussion of the nineteenth century discipline of phrenology. I show that Scottish theorists and practitioners of phrenology made a significant contribution to the development of scientific racism, and that the biological determinism which is fundamental to the phrenological project corresponds to a distinctive way of constructing social collectives. I explore the history of the discipline and its relationships to orthodox science and to Christianity in this context. In Chapter Eight I offer an analysis of some aspects of the significance of racism of the construction of collective categories identifying populations within Scotland. I pursue this analysis in two directions. First, I cite and analyse nineteenth century histories of Scotland which refer to the "racial" composition and "racial" qualities of the population of Scotland. Second, I discuss scholarly and governmental literature which describes the contemporary Irish and Highland populations of nineteenth century Scotland. In the final chapter I summarise the results of the analyses presented in Chapters Five to Eight, and conclude by drawing out the implications of these results for the problems raised in Part One. I pursue the issue of the construction of Scottish "national identity" through discussion of recent debates concerning nineteenth century Scottish politics and culture, and I suggest that this area could be more fully researched by taking account of the significance of imperialism and racism.

The aim of this study is to investigate conflict as a literary technique in general, and in J. M. Ntsime's play, Pelo e ja Serati, in particular. The discussion will focus on the structural causes and the effect of conflict in drama. The study comprises seven chapters. The aim, scope and methods of research are outlined and motivated in chapter one. The second chapter provides background about Ntsime's text. This mise en scene includes a plot summary, discussion of the genre of the play as well as information about the cast of characters. The chapter further considers some of the aspects upon which conflict relies, including characterisation, naming and setting. The third chapter offers some theoretical perspectives on conflict in general. These serve to determine the nature of conflict and its importance in drama. Chapter four deals with the structural analysis of conflict in Pelo e ja Serati. Emphasis is placed on the internal structure of conflict, to demonstrate its vital role in the development of dramatic action, from the beginning of the play through to its conclusion. Chapter five explores the relationship between dialogue and conflict in the play. It explores the ways in which dialogue develops and sustains conflict, Chapter six focuses on the style of the author. It discusses general stylistic techniques, including poetic language, imagery, proverbs and idioms. Particular attention was given to the use of these devices in Pelo e ja Serati and the manner in which they develop and sustain the conflict. Chapter seven revisits the main points of the study. By way of conclusion, I argued that the moral and ethical lessons portrayed by Ntsime in Pelo e ja Serati remain relevant to today's reader/audience. / Thesis (MA)--PU for CHE, 1999

The aim of this study was to explore representation and use of character in J. M. Ntsime's play, Pelo e ja Serati, with special reference to the ways in which the general attitudes and thinking processes of the characters are influenced by the social environment in which they find themselves. Conflict between traditional and modern marriage customs, a major theme of Ntsime's play, will also be examined. Although this study confines itself to Ntsime's drama, it intends to highlight the significance of characterisation in plays generally. Reference will be made to the views of, inter alia, Levitt, Pfister and Barry. This study comprises a total of seven chapters, including the introduction which details the aim, scope and method of research. Chapter two provides a backdrop to the analysis, exploring the life and career of J. M. Ntsime and also summarises the cast of characters and the plot of Pelo e ia Serati. Following this mise en scene, chapter three takes up the concept of "characterisation" and considers the author's use of setting (temporal as well as geographical) and the significance of place names. Chapter four focuses on one of Ntsime's most effective methods of characterisation, his naming of the characters. Chapter five examines Ntsime's use of imagery and comparison. Chapter six considers the crucial role of conflict in Peto e ja Serati. Here, I examine the fundamental conflict between traditional and modern marriage customs as well as the character Dithole's personal struggle between duty/destiny and desire. Chapter seven concludes this minidissertation by considering, in the spirit of comedy, the lessons about social change contained in the play. / Thesis (MA)--PU for CHE, 1999

Over the last three decades, and most recently during the Brexit debate, migration has increasingly been framed as a security issue in the UK and beyond. Amidst what has become a divisive and at times toxic debate on migration, the importance of developing a nuanced understanding of the security-migration nexus, particularly regarding the construction of immigration attitudes, is more pressing than ever. While research has determined a series of variables that impact on immigration attitudes, the influence of elite cues has been underexplored and restricted to political elites and political parties. Moreover, the analysis of the content of migration cues espoused by UK elites has been underdeveloped. Drawing on and extending the Copenhagen School’s securitization theory and applying a mixed-methods approach, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to our understanding of how immigration attitudes are shaped. Using discourse analysis, the central migration frames from the four largest UK-wide parties (Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and UKIP) are identified, between 2005-2015. The thesis then expands on this limited set of actors to include a previously neglected, but potentially highly influential group – religious elites – and conducts a discourse analysis of elite migration messaging for the two largest UK faiths (Anglicanism and Catholicism). Unsurprisingly political elite cues present migration in predominantly negative terms (securitizing frames). This is in contrast, however, to the predominantly positive migration cues (desecuritizing frames) from religious elites. Nevertheless analysing discursive constructions of migration alone cannot determine whether these elite cues are having any effect on public attitudes. Therefore, quantitative analyses using data from the European Social Survey are introduced to connect elite discourse to immigration attitudes – in securitization parlance, to ‘bring in the audience’. The findings from the statistical analyses broadly support the argument that elite cues can influence immigration attitudes, and therefore contribute to the de/construction of security issues. Overall this thesis enriches our understanding of the drivers of immigration attitudes, the discursive de/construction of migration as a security issue and the role of non-traditional elite actors in the de/construction of migration as a security issue. More broadly, the thesis also speaks to the strengths and limitations of securitization theory both theoretically and methodologically.

Climate change and the continuing changes that accompany it require society and its broader institutions to evolve continuously. Today’s continual atmospheric damage requires a commitment to ecological considerations that show consistent and meaningful carbon reductions. The success of global carbon mitigation depends entirely on the capabilities of individual governing bodies agreeing and delivering upon their climate ambitions. However, delivering impactful progress on emissions is a considerable challenge. Although there has been significant research as to what climate mitigation goals should encompass, the policy path and resulting incremental changes needed to achieve them require additional scholarly attention. This thesis analyses the role of institutions as they adapt to support societies addressing climate change. Adopting a historical institutional approach provides a pathway for understanding the coordination of information, individuals, institutional adjustments, and their role in the carbon policy process. By focusing on the impact of ecological modernisation ideas, this work addresses the ambiguity that lies between contradicting approaches to climate governance and instead, analyses the incremental changes needed to support societies as they address climate change. Systemically gathering policy tools from 1992-2012, this research empirically examines the nature, ambition, and achievements of mitigation policy in the EU and US as they transition to a low-carbon future.

This thesis is about the power of the regional policy actors in two European Union countries: Poland and the Czech Republic. Aiming to answer the question of whether their regions are powerful enough to decide on the directions of their development, this thesis describes power struggles between regional policy actors at European, national and sub-national levels. A particular analytical approach is developed which takes into account the following aspects of power: legal credentials, social capital, financial potential, decision-making ability, executive capacity and political potential. Therefore, the thesis is a major contribution to the reduction of the knowledge gap in multi-level governance (MLG) theory in terms understanding of the domestic factors influencing regional engagement in EU policy-making. Moreover, in the light of the opinions that only together with other theoretical approaches may MLG offer meaningful explanations, the author places the deliberation about MLG within the framework of power, offering an innovative and coherent approach to MLG analysis. This thesis aims to answer three major questions: Are the regions in a position to drive their own development and do they have enough power to do so? How has their power to influence regional development been changing for the last few years? If the regions are powerless, who is leading the process? The Polish and Czech regions had no power in the period 2002-2006. In comparison, the 2007-2013 period has seen a major capacity enhancement; both political and decision-making power allow the Polish and Czech regions to be serious players in the domestic arena. The only major difference between Poland and the CR is the level of executive power, which has been significantly reduced in the latter country by the Cohesion Regions. Nevertheless, the governments act as gatekeepers, trying to secure their power. The EC offers major developmental resources but also encourages the regions to adjust to pre-selected objectives in order to maximise the use of financial assistance. The regions still do not have full discretion to drive their development; the EC conditionality is vast in the CEE and its impact is proportional to the EC’s unprecedented financial power. The idea that guided the methodological design was to present the regional policy-making process from different angles. The best way to achieve this was to run a quantitative Delphi Panel, supplement its findings by qualitative semi-structured interviews, and cross-check the conclusion with information available in the literature.

This thesis examines the transition between working-class radicalism and labour politics in two provincial English constituencies, Bristol and Northampton, between 1867 and 1918. By combining local case studies with a textual analysis of empirical material and a conceptual approach to ideology, it offers fresh insights into popular political change in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. Its central argument is that, contrary to the prevailing historiography on labour politics and identity, a distinctive sense of class could shape working-class radical and labour strategies, languages, identities, and ideologies continuously between 1867 and 1918. In particular, it demonstrates that before the mid-1880s, working-class radical activists in Bristol and Northampton exhibited a non-adversarial sense of class that shaped their perceptions of the social order, their interpretations of radical ideology, and their relationships with both mainstream liberals and middle-class radicals. It also suggests that while working-class radicals came to use 'labour' to describe themselves and their organisations from the mid-1880s, this was primarily a rhetorical move rather than one reflecting a substantive change in their political identity. Over the next thirty years, labour activists in both Bristol and Northampton remained fiercely committed to the dominant strategy, the non-conflictual conception of class, and the political ideology that had long shaped local working-class radical traditions. In these constituencies, the Victorian tradition of working-class radicalism left an indelible mark on twentieth-century labour politics. This study has important implications for our understanding of political and ideological change in modern Britain. Firstly, confirming the existence of a decidedly working-class radical movement makes it easier to understand the rise of a class-based labour politics in late Victorian Britain without having to account for either discontinuities in popular politics or the re-emergence of a dormant class consciousness within the British working class. Secondly, establishing a line of continuity between working-class radicalism and later labour politics helps us to explain some of the tensions that characterised progressive politics in the Edwardian era. Finally, seeing working-class radicalism as a distinctive ideology with its own conceptual framework enriches our understanding of non-liberal progressive thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.