In the 21st century, increasing demand for energy stimulated by high rates of economic development has pushed China to increase imports, leaving the country highly dependent on foreign energy sources. China’s energy security is therefore under threat from the constant risk of supply falling short of demand. Historically, various approaches have been proposed to attempt to resolve or, at least relieve, this security issue but those discussions focus on either competition or cooperation. The combined approach, co-opetition has been applied in business and this research has attempted to combine these two approaches when dealing with energy security issues, thus the original contribution of this research is to take a unique approach, combining the co-opetition approach with the added benefits of a traditional Chinese philosophy known as ‘Hehe culture’. In addition, the ‘Chinese characteristics’inherent in the energy security strategy, advocated by the Chinese government, has contributed a specific viewpoint in the academic field. Moreover, this research employs the PARTS model from game theory, an analytical tool originally applied in the field of business and economics, to build a framework for evaluating Chinese co-opetition in energy relations. Three case studies of China’s energy co-opetition with Japan, Russia and Africa are analysed according to the framework, revealing how co-opetition affects China’s energy security. The findings of this research include the prerequisites for successful co-opetition, and the value and function of incorporating Hehe culture into co-opetition. The research identifies the impact of thesen prerequisites on the strategic value of co-opetition, generating a new model for Chinese energy security, which will allow for accurate determination of the best approach to the game of energy co-opetition with different players.

This thesis comprises three chapters; a literature review, an empirical paper, and a commentary and reflective review. The literature review critiques stress management interventions for staff working in adult intellectual disability services. There is recognition that working in intellectual disability services can be stressful for staff members. Stress management interventions tended to focus on reducing stress rather than on preventing it. Interventions were categorised as cognitive-behavioural approaches, acceptance and commitment approaches or collaborative approaches where staff members were involved in developing person-centred interventions. Considerations and implications for future stress management interventions are discussed. The empirical element of this thesis focused on investigating predictors of burnout in 86 staff working in intellectual disability services. The paper explored the role of emotional intelligence, exposure to violence and self-efficacy in burnout development. The findings from the empirical paper demonstrated that low self-efficacy and high exposure to violence predicts burnout as measured by the emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalisation (DP) components of the burnout measure. Self-efficacy was found to moderate the relationship between violence and burnout (EE and DP). Emotional intelligence was found to predict personal accomplishment (PA) which can protect against burnout development. Emotional intelligence was not found to moderate the relationship between exposure to violence and burnout. Lower levels of emotional intelligence did not predict EE or DP. The commentary and reflective review provides an account of the research process critiquing the decisions made throughout. This includes the process of the literature review searches and topic selection; the empirical paper design, variables, method, data collection and measures. Reflective discussion in this review includes consideration of the ethical issues, clinical and theoretical implications and personal reflexivity.

Over recent decades there has been significant progress towards gender equality in the workplace and at home. Transformations in work and childcare domains have occurred for families in Western societies, including de-gendered parenting, in which childcare responsibilities are shared equally or assumed primarily by the father. Although these arrangements constitute a recent and rare phenomenon, this increase in proportion has been matched by an academic interest. Using quantitative data from traditional and role-reversed couples, this research aims to explore the social psychological mechanisms underlying non-normative behavioural choices, as well as the consequences for couples' relationship quality, well-being and life satisfaction. Traditional couples are those in which the mother bears primary responsibility for child care while the father is the main breadwinner. In non-traditional role-reversed couples the opposite occurs. A sample of 242 individual parents with children from birth to 12 years old, completed an extensive questionnaire. Involvement in work and childcare, social psychological variables, relationship and life satisfaction, perceptions of their division of responsibilities and socio-demographic characteristics were examined. Results show how social prescriptions and structural characteristics are limiting the intersection between the mother and the father role, and help us understand how both roles can be more similar than different. The findings also disclose how by being involved men are assisting women’s career and help make a distinction between traditional and role reversed women’s views of the appropriate parental role for men and women. Furthermore, the results contribute for a better understanding of how gender ideologies and non-essentialist perceptions differ between couples in different arrangements and how they relate to involvement in childcare and well-being, as well as the role of choice in well-being, life and marital satisfaction.

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This thesis offers a new perspective on the nature and experience of parent-child relationships c.1450-1620. Focusing on correspondence and family papers from selected aristocracy and gentry families, it argues that authority in parent-child relationships was renegotiated throughout the life cycle, particularly at points of tension or crisis such as marriage or death. These ‘crisis points’ are episodes which show us the negotiations that took place around domestic authority and give a personal insight into the emotional responses of parents and children and the nature of authority within early modern society. This thesis addresses a gap in knowledge about the changing reciprocal nature of this relationship over the life course. It understands ‘parent’ and ‘child’ as relational statuses experienced differently at different points throughout the life cycle. These new definitions argue that ‘parent’ and ‘child’ were not statuses that were limited to a single life stage but impacted on an individual throughout life. It reveals that individuals were motivated by societal expectation of family roles and also exhibited a range of emotional responses in reaction to perceived threats to the smooth running of family life according to the rules and structures of age, gender and status. The expectations associated with being a parent or a child continued to shape the actions and behaviour of individuals well into adulthood, as loyalty and obedience between parents and children was challenged and renegotiated. The thesis also considers how different roles within the family could overlap, leading to conflict as family members sought to manage their obligations and responsibilities as parents, children, siblings or step-relations. The personal source material is put into context with legal records and conduct literature considering the conflict between ideals of family life and its lived experience.

Alongside the social and economic reform of the 1980s, special education and inclusive education have been developing rapidly over the last three decades in China. Despite increasing research on the positive relationship between parental involvement and children’s educational achievement, only a limited number of studies have begun to focus on how Chinese parents get involved in inclusive education in China. The aim of this research was to explore how a small group of Chinese hearing parents support their deaf children to be ready for and educated at mainstream schools in Beijing, China. A qualitative research design combining constructivist grounded theory and autoethnography was applied to this study. Following the guidelines of Charmaz’s grounded theory, intensive interviews were conducted with 10 Chinese hearing parents of deaf children in Beijing, China. All hearing parents were interviewed twice, resulting in 18 total interviews plus back-up interviews. Additionally, my own story of being a deaf person growing up and attending regular schools in Beijing, provided autoethnographic reflections on the data and codes. The analysis of interview data has explored and developed a conceptual theory of parental involvement including three key categories: the effects of parental involvement, parental involvement strategies, and the barriers to parental involvement. Also, these findings showed that Chinese hearing parents’ ‘tried and tested’ strategies for supporting their deaf child to be ready for and educated at mainstream schools and actively removing the barriers to their involvement. In conclusion, the findings of this research discussed that these parents’ attitudes towards deafness and inclusive education could influence their strategies in deaf diagnosis, early intervention, school settings and coaching their deaf child. And these findings suggested that this theoretical model of parental involvement could influence a deaf child’s development in self-concept and deaf identity, contributing to the theories and practices of parental involvement and inclusive education for deaf children in China.

UK Government calls for more effective ways of communicating and engaging with the community to devolve power and enable local improvements in the concept of the 'Big Society'. Devolved power is often gained through local community organisations. These organisations are being tasked to manage community assets calling for a new breed of skilled community participants. They are under tremendous pressure and this additional stress may have a detrimental impact on individuals’ wellbeing. Community organisations often struggle to attract capable community participants as they compete with the well-known giants of the voluntary sector, who have significant marketing budgets. They need to develop their use of ICT to compete, attract and sustain community participants. When the public consider community participation there are a series of local social interactions that take place, culminating in a tipping point, when they decide to participate. This process is complex with varying sources of information linking into decision making. Coupled with the needs of community organisations necessitates careful management to ensure the wellbeing of both. The aim of this research was to develop a wellbeing themed framework for effective community participation, applying both complexity and design perspectives. This has repeatedly been highlighted as an area of need and yet still no real answer has been found to offer the public a process that supports the development of wellbeing whilst creating tipping points for community participation. The research started with a literature review followed by open interviews of experiences and a separate analysis of spiritual reflections to develop and clarify themes for the wellbeing semi-structured interviews. The interview process involved reflection, Mindsight and Mindfulness of each themed area to rate where participants felt they were at that point in time, where they wanted to be and what actions they could have taken to get there and when. An international evaluation was completed to add qualitative and quantitative information to the research, validate the process and understand beneficial language. This was followed up with refinements from the literature. The evidence demonstrated the effectiveness of the wellbeing process with designed tipping points for community participation. The community sector can exploit this research for their benefit, offering well-fitting roles for career development of young people, unemployed, retired or ill health recovery. The contribution to knowledge acquired is the development of a sustainable, effective, efficient and time saving wellbeing framework and process for online communication mediation for wellbeing in a community participation context.

This thesis evaluates the usefulness of post-nationalist theory in developing and understanding existing debates around national cinemas in film studies. Whilst a great deal of research has focused on the significance and importance of national cinemas, changes in the international landscape have offered challenges to the value of national cinema as a concept. To date, these challenges have been primarily addressed within discussion of transnational cinema which, although useful, has yet to fully interrogate the power relationships between nations. The importance of post-nationalist theory in this regard is that it deliberately seeks out texts which explore these power structures and often focuses on contact zones in which the dominant nationalism, and therefore national cinema, is being overtly opposed and undermined. The central question addressed by this thesis is ‘How can post-nationalist theory advance cinematic debates concerning national and transnational cinemas?’ In order to address this, the films of several migrant, exilic and diasporic filmmakers will be discussed as case studies. This is because their hyphenated identities offer access to a greater number of nationalisms, and also highlight a state of rootlessness in which oppositional positions can be more easily adopted. The filmmakers discussed are: Fatih Akin, whose work offers representations of migrant figures and literal border crossings; Ferzan Ozpetek, who expands these migrant representations to include issues of sexuality and class as non-official nationalisms; Atom Egoyan, whose cinematic style opposes cinematic forms, conventions and nations; Michael Haneke, whose films engage in an overtly oppositional style; and Gurinder Chadha, as a filmmaker who not only uses gender to advance these debates, but also enters them into discussion with mainstream cinema. The thesis will apply close textual analysis to each of the directors’ work in order to illustrate how post-nationalist theory can be used to understand the oppositional spaces they create in relation to nations and national cinemas. This will demonstrate not only the relevance of post-nationalist theory to cinema, but also develop current understanding of the strengths and limitations of the conceptual and theoretical work associated with national and transnational cinemas.

This thesis examines the bureaucratic controls designed to restrict the entry of migrants perceived to be ‘mentally ill’ into New Zealand and Australia in the period between the 1830s and 1920s. It is the first study to analyse the evolution of these practices in this region and timeframe. It addresses a gap in the current literature because it explores the tensions that emerged when officials tried to implement government policy. This study sheds new light on the actions, motivations and ideologies of the British and Australasian officials who were responsible for managing and policing immigration. While there were attempts to coordinate the work of border officials, this proved very difficult to achieve in practice: some immigration controllers were, for instance, receptive to the theories that were coming out of international debates about border control, others retained a parochial perspective. The thesis argues that every attempt to systematise border management failed. The regulation of the broad spectrum of ‘mental illness’ was a messy affair: officials struggled with ill-defined terminology and a lack of practical instructions so tensions and misunderstandings existed across local, national and metropolitan levels. Based on extensive research in British, New Zealand and Australian archives, this study reveals the barriers that were created to prevent those deemed ‘mentally ill’ from migrating to regions imagined as ‘Greater Britain’. It shows how judgements about an individual’s state of mind were made in a number of locales: in Britain; on the voyage itself; and at the Australasian borders. This thesis, by exploring the disordered nature of immigration control, will add a new perspective to the existing scholarship on transnational immigration legislation and Australasian asylum studies. The in-depth examination of border control systems also contributes to our understanding of the links between migration and illness in the British world during this period.

Mutual Support is an in depth exploration of the role and impact of peer support by people with learning difficulties. Built on one of the seven aims of Centres for Independent Living, the project has constructed a model of peer support based on accounts of direct experiences from people with learning difficulties. The overall aim of the research was to construct and critique the Mutual Support model of peer support and people with learning difficulties. This thesis reflects the process of that construction. The overall aim was met through a research situation in which knowledge was constructed in the interaction between the researcher and participants. This provided an opportunity for people with learning difficulties to reflect upon their relationships with one another, and the emancipatory potential of that support. The focus of the research was two pre-existing settings involving people with learning difficulties supporting one another: a Theatre Company using Forum Drama to facilitate changes in attitudes and policy, and a course facilitated by people with learning difficulties who mentored small groups. Methods used within the research were based on an Inclusive Research process which prioritises meaningful research interaction that is accessible and guided by participants. The research process intertwined meetings with advisory groups, and contact with other local groups of people with learning difficulties, with formal data collection within the two main settings. One to one experienced-based narrative interviews with people from the two main settings provided multiple opportunities for participants to speak about their experiences of peer support. These interviews formed the data used in formal analysis, which was a continual process, with subsequent interviews being based on views previously expressed. A further comprehensive descriptive content analysis of data, using the tools of Nvivo8 and mind-mapping, took place prior to the outputs of the whole project being evaluated during group sessions with those who had taken part. The emerging model is one of collective support which challenges assumptions about the role and impact of people with learning difficulties supporting one another and their capacity to engage in insightful interpersonal interaction. Mutual Support has the potential to break down barriers to inclusion. Mutual Support also demonstrates the value that people with learning difficulties place on giving and receiving support from one another. The outputs of Mutual Support include contribution to current debate in the areas of service user involvement, inclusive research, and the academic field of Disability Studies.