This research seeks to establish a more coherent and comprehensive grip on the complex, often chaotic reality being addressed by the policy actors in the process of governance of the historic city centres and the policy coordination entailed by that process. The twofold objective of this research is to increase our understanding of governance of the historic city centres in Serbia, and to identify and explain barriers to and opportunities for policy coordination. In so doing, this research embraces the interpretative paradigm to examine conservation and governance of the historic city centres as a contextualised and subjective process that takes into account what is meaningful to policy actors. This research is important as it highlights the importance of studying the micro-social processes because policy-relevant, organisational learning is situated within ongoing policy-related practices. This research demonstrates the complexity of policy process and the amount of coordination needed to address policy agenda. This research makes three contributions to knowledge. First, it provides interpretation of governance of the historic environment in the new context, namely Serbia. Second, it extends our knowledge of micro-social and micro-political aspects of heritage governance. In so doing, it applies interpretive approaches to explore the research field that has been underresearched. And finally, this research extends our knowledge about the policy coordination in urban governance and governance of the historic environment by identifying a range of factors that combined could inhibit or support an overall effort towards policy coordination.

This study brings new empirical research on sub-state government in contemporary Spain, addressing a gap in the literature concerning the approaches taken and choices made by Autonomous Governments regarding their institutional design. It tests the hypothesis that decentralisation to territories with distinct and different characteristics will result in diversity in public administrative institutions. A multi-method investigation compares the responses of the Junta de Andalucía and the Generalitat de Catalunya to the opportunities of decentralisation and the challenges of the post-2008 economic crisis. It analyses budgets, ministerial and civil servant hierarchies, policies and strategies. It also evaluates the perspectives and statements of key politicians, senior civil servants, academics and trades unionists, obtained through one-to-one interviews carried out in Spain during 2014 and 2015. The research finds that despite recognisable differences in the characteristics of Andalusia and Catalonia, and constitutional recognition of Spain’s nations and nationalities, decentralisation has not resulted in significant divergence between these two Autonomous Governments. Priorities, structures, employment practices and administrative cultures demonstrate more continuities than variation. The constitutional and institutional framework and Spain’s political culture have been shown to reduce the scope for differentiation. This case study highlights the Napoleonic administrative tradition as the most significant influence for homogeneity. Self-identity, strong but distinct in each community, has contributed to a divergence in style and emphasis in the Junta and the Generalitat, and also to dissimilarities in their responses to the economic crisis. This research adds to public administration studies evidence that decentralisation does not necessarily result in variation in governmental institutions at sub-state level. The study concludes that the historical legacy of centralism and in particular the continued influence of the administrative tradition have acted as forces for continuity in the Autonomous Governments of Andalusia and Catalonia.

Relationships between Libya and Italy, both during and post Colonel Gaddafi’s rule, have witnessed many developments and changes, with the Italian colonialism of Libya from 1911 to 1942/1943 playing an important role in shaping those relationships. Thus, this thesis seeks to examine the roles of Public Relations (PR) and Public Diplomacy (PD) in building the Libyan-Italian relations. In order to explore those roles, the Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) Four PR Models, and the two International Models, have been applied. Furthermore, Relationship Management has been applied as a general theory of PR. For the purpose of this study, twenty Libyan and Italian diplomats, including Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors, were interviewed. Significant attention has been paid to the process of selecting the sample, where the method of purposive sampling has been selected as the most appropriate qualitative method for this study. Moreover, the thematic analysis technique has been applied in order to identify patterns and meaningful themes about the phenomenon under investigation. The results of this study reveal that PR and PD, as important communication tools, have played a significant role in building the Libyan-Italian relations. Furthermore, it has been made clear that the Libyan and Italian diplomats, had been aware of practising the original four models and the two international models. This study has also found evidence suggesting that these models could be applied to the field of PD. Furthermore, the two-way symmetrical model, the cultural interpreter model and the personal influence model are the most suitable models in building relationships between governments as they are considered to be the bridges that connect PR with PD in terms of theory and practice. Findings of this research have also shown that there are convergences between both fields, especially concerning their roles in building relationships; however, a difference between the fields does also exist.

This thesis examines trends and issues in the policing of money laundering in Dubai focusing on the role of Dubai Police in money laundering control. It acknowledges that money laundering is a global phenomenon and Dubai is not an exception. It explores the existing governmental initiatives aimed at addressing money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Whilst the unit of analysis in this thesis is the Emirate of Dubai, the thesis also considered the impact of regional (GCC) and international legislations and regulations (UN and FATF) on the policing of money laundering in Dubai. It is argued in this thesis that the major problem with policing of money laundering in Dubai is the lack of accountability of the AMLSCU that plays a leading role in the fight against money laundering. In addition, the information sharing amongst various government agencies and financial institutions is extremely poor. Where information pertaining to money laundering cases is shared, they are inconsistent and haphazard. Consequently, the government is facing problems to effectively combat money laundering in the Emirate. Other factors identified as major impediments are the lack of national database of money laundering cases which can be shared amongst the Police, the Customs Authority and the AMLSCU of Central Bank of UAE. The thesis also argues that poor training and lack of multi-agency/ interagency working is making the work of Dubai police difficult. Finally, it is argued that an a formal, integrated and intelligence-led information sharing model such as the UK National Intelligence Model (that draws on the importance of multi-agency working, information sharing and accountability) can serve as a more effective approach to the policing of money laundering in Dubai.

The Coalition government’s (2010-2015) programme of public sector reform and austerity resulted in fundamental changes to the orientation of community development in England. This thesis investigates what happened to community development in England during this five-year period and its implications for professionals, volunteers and local people involved in community development processes. A post-structuralist discourse analysis methodology was operationalised and the empirical work consisted of 20 interviews with key social actors involved in community development processes in a case study local authority in the north east of England. Using post-structuralist discourse analysis, the transcripts were analysed alongside 54 key texts including: discourse by political and policy leaders, national and local policies, and academic debate. This thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by demonstrating how the Coalition programme silenced community development as a distinct and legitimate practice, and re-shaped it as social enterprise, volunteering and community organising. The empirical findings establish four available discourses of community development. Yet, the hegemonic Enterprise discourse totalised the policy landscape and ‘othered’ community development as a bureaucratic, top-down, inefficient and ineffective relic of the previous New Labour government. In conjunction with the public sector cuts, this resulted in the decline of the community development worker subject position in England; with community development professionals increasingly nudged to adopt the subject positons of social entrepreneurs, professional volunteers and, to a lesser extent, community organisers. Local people were similarly nudged to volunteer in community development, social enterprise and community organising processes; and more skilled volunteers encouraged to take on professional responsibilities unsalaried. These findings suggest that the silencing and re-shaping of community development as social enterprise, volunteering and community organising is a ‘new’ permutation of neoliberal hegemony to roll-out citizen responsibilisation where local people provide community services rather than ‘relying’ on state intervention and resources. This thesis concludes that the Coalition programme exploited the ambiguity of community development and, in doing so, exposed four historical problems in the community development field. To protect community development from future attacks, this thesis proposes a genealogical post-doctoral study to unearth these problematic roots to then cultivate a community development free of such underpinnings.