Global sport competitions such as the Olympics and the World Cup were founded following universal principles of unity and peace and aiming to be celebrations of sportsmanship. Nowadays, however, they go beyond sport, being constructed as global media events in which both politics and media play an essential role. Caught in this triangle, the Olympics and the World Cup have re-emerged in the past years as sites of protests, after decades of relative calmness in this sense. This represents the point of entry into the analysis of global broadcasters, giving the chance to examine the way in which Al Jazeera English, BBC World News and Russia Today represent the protests they put in relation to sport competitions happening in different parts of the world. The chosen case studies are the London Olympics 2012, Sochi Olympics 2014 and Brazil World Cup 2014. The comparative analysis allows the drawing of similarities and differences between both the case studies and the broadcasters overall. The findings show that protests are dealt with differently according to the sport event they are related to, since some of them are legitimized and others are not. A major distinction, therefore, results in the manner in which the broadcasters use the protests in order to depict a certain version of the world. Global broadcasters offer, thus, multiple perspectives on the world as they carry what appears to be a heavy cultural baggage of the societies of origin.

The primary objective of this study is to re-tell the story of a largely neglected figure in the history of Christian missions in China, James Legge (1815-1897), from a modern missiological perspective. As a Scottish missionary from the Congregational (nonconformist) church background, Legge worked for the London Missionary Society in Hong Kong, a British Crown Colony, for almost thirty years. He later became the first Professor of Chinese at the Oxford University and probably the most important sinologist of the nineteenth century. This study tries to apply the "translation principle" proposed by A. F. Walls to illustrate that the career of Legge in scholarship, translation and evangelization has undergone a process of "conversion" and "transformation" which resulted in Legge' s constant revision of his viewpoints on Chinese cul tu re. Legge' s genuine appreciation and sympathetic understanding of the Chinese cultural heritage grew gradually and as a "converted" missionary Legge was willing to criticize severely the deed of all "Christian nations". Through the monumental task of translating the Chinese Classics into English, Legge not only served as a bridge-builder between two spheres of culture; he also came to the conclusion that the ancient religion of China was monotheistic and that the teaching of the Chinese sages like Confucius, Mencius, and Lao-tze (Laozi) would suggest valuable lessons to those who claimed themselves as Christians. He also declared that the terms "Shang Ti" (Shangdi) and "T'ien" (Tian) found in the Chinese Classics actually stood for the idea of the one true God in the Christian Scriptures. Several of Legge's Chinese colleagues like Ho Tsunshin (1817-1871), Wang Tao (1828-1897), and Hung Jen-kan (1822-1864) were involved in the two way translation of integrating Western ideas into the social, religious, cultural and political scene of nineteenth century China as well as assisting Legge to let the West know more about China. Moreover, though Legge failed to develop any kind of Chinese theology himself, with its emphasis on restoring one's historical past, his legacy still serves to remind the present-day Christians in mainland China and Hong Kong to remember and to revive their own cultural traditions. Along with all the overseas Chinese Christian communities, they have to dig their own wells so as to drink from their own spiritual fountains which would serve as a solid base for a more inculturated and liberating Chinese Christianity.

This study will outline the two great literary genres of character-writing and satire, upon the tradition and practice of which Joseph Addison and Richard Steele based their characters of women in the Spectator. The three-fold purpose of this study is to determine how the Spectator was influenced by, and what it in turn contributed to, the two literary genres, the "Character" of women and satire on women; and to present the social status of the female audience as it existed and as the Spectator sought to improve it.

The appeasement movement in England sought to remove the reasons for Adolph Hitler's hostility. It did so by advocating a return to Germany of land and colonial holdings, and a removal of the penalties inflicted upon Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. While the movement itself is well documented, the contribution of The Times under the leadership of Geoffrey Dawson is not. This work deals with his direct involvement with appeasement, the British leaders and citizens involved in the movement, and the use of The Times to reinforce their program.

The newly discovered iron based superconductors have captivated the attention of the scientific community due to the unusual mechanism behind their superconductivity and their promise as the next generation high temperature superconductors. After a century of superconductor research, the physical mechanism behind high temperature superconductivity is still not understood. These new materials bring renewed hope in elucidating the pairing mechanism responsible with high temperature superconductors and achieving the ultimate goal of the field, room temperature superconductivity. Consequently, a deeper understanding of the intriguing properties of iron based materials is essential. A great deal about the pairing mechanism of Cooper electron pairs can be inferred from the symmetry of their pairing wave function or order parameter. One of the most involved probes for studying the pairing symmetry is the London penetration depth. The low temperature behavior of London penetration depth in superconductors is directly related to the density of states and provides a powerful tool for investigating low-lying quasiparticle energy and, for this very reason, can give valuable hints on superconducting gap symmetry. The work presented focuses on investigating the pairing symmetry in the Fe1+y(Te1−xSex) system using a radio-frequency tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) technique for precise measurements of the temperature dependence of their in-plane penetration depth. The TDO technique, based on an original concept involving the use of planar inductors in an novel configuration, was implemented on a dilution refrigerator to investigate a significant number of single crystal samples, with nominal Se concentrations of 36%, 40%, 43% and 45% respectively, down to temperatures as low as 50 mK. A systematic study together with a comprehensive analysis regarding the order parameter symmetry in the Fe1+y(Te1−xSex) system is presented. In many cases we found that London penetration depth shows an upturn below at low temperatures, indicative of a paramagnetic-type contribution. Also the low-temperature behavior of penetration depth is best described by a quadratic power law with no systematic dependence on the Se concentration. Most importantly, in the limit of T → 0, in some samples we observed a narrow region of linear temperature dependence, suggestive of nodes in the superconducting gap of Fe1+y(Te1−xSex).

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This thesis analyses the experiences of ragged school pupils in England and Scotland between 1844 and 1870, focusing on the interaction between scholars and teachers and exploring the nature of the social relationships formed. Ragged schools provided free education to impoverished children in the mid-nineteenth century; by 1870 the London schools alone recorded an average attendance of 32,231 children. This thesis demonstrates the variety of interactions that took place both inside and outside the classroom, challenging simplistic interpretations of ragged school teachers as unwelcome intruders in poor children’s lives. In analysing the movement in terms of the social relationships established, this thesis counters the dominant focus on the adult as actor and child as passive subject. Wherever possible the focal point of the analysis builds on the testimony of ragged school scholars, shifting emphasis away from the actions and words of adults in positions of authority towards those of the poor and marginalised children who were the subjects of intervention. By concentrating on the voices of those who received ragged schooling, this thesis highlights the diverse experiences of ragged school scholars and underscores their agency in either rejecting or engaging with teachers. As such, it demonstrates the integral contribution of children’s testimonies when seeking to understand the impact of child-saving movements more generally. This thesis contributes to understanding on a variety of broader topics. It highlights changing attitudes towards children, education, and the poor. Through focusing on juvenile testimonies it investigates how children responded to poverty, disability, philanthropic work, and the evangelical religious message that ragged schools conveyed. The impact of Victorian philanthropy and the nature of the cross-class relationships it fostered are explored, and the significant contribution that women and working-class individuals made to such work is underscored. Finally, it sheds light on the experiences of working-class British emigrants, both their fortunes and their attachment to their homeland. A rich array of sources is used, including ragged school magazines and pamphlets, committee minutes, and annual reports. In using promotional literature in combination with local school documents, the public portrayal of children and teachers is contrasted with that found in practice. Most significant, however, are the day to day exchanges between scholars and their teacher explored through a microhistory of Compton Place ragged school in North London. Using the journals the school’s superintendent maintained between 1850 and 1867 alongside the 227 letters 57 former scholars sent him, this thesis pieces together a picture of the evolving and complex relationships forged. The journals and letters together enable an analysis that draws on the words of both ragged scholars and their teacher. Moreover, they provide rare access to how relationship developed over time and, in some cases, despite considerable geographical distance.

Contemporarily, the hosting of mega-events (MEs) is one of several strategies used by cities and governments to bring about improvements in a place s image and recognition. While London, host of the 2012 Olympic Games, is already considered to be a leading global city (e.g. Anholt & GfK Roper, 2011), the potential image benefits to be accrued from hosting the Games may in fact impact more upon internal, domestic perceptions rather than on external, international perceptions (Anholt, Oon, Masure et al., 2008). A key objective, therefore, for those involved in the development and delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games is to further enhance the image of the city (both domestically and internationally) and to minimise the risk of negative image formation (DCMS, 2008). However, image, in the context of MEs, is not an easy component to control, as previous Olympic Games have demonstrated (Shoval, 2002; Smith, 2005). The main purpose of this critical-realism-informed project, underpinned by theoretical-methodological social representation theory (SRT) (Moscovici, 1961, 1984), was to evaluate the domestic image impact of hosting the 2012 Olympics, pre- and post- Games, for the city of London. Based then on social representation theory, and a combination of abductive and retroductive research strategies, a survey was carried out among British citizens to identify their opinions concerning London as a city (or place brand), the Olympics as a ME, and the 2012 Games as a one-off event. Exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling was used to recruit participants (UK citizens, pre-event, n=561, post-event n=215) who completed a mixed-methods questionnaire both before and after the 2012 Olympics were held. The main part of this questionnaire was comprised of randomised free word-association tasks (qualitative) using London, the Olympics and 2012 London Olympics as inductor terms; i.e., Please give the first 10 words that come to mind when you hear the term . Data analysis involved collating the responses of the free word-association tasks into semantic word clusters, with one word (or phrase) representing each theme be that an object, emotion, an opinion, etc. Only words or phrases cited by 15% of participants were used to construct the image of each entity. The next level of analysis involved producing a similarity index and subsequent dendrogram, based on Kendal s correlation coefficient, that established the strength of the connections between the various elements of each social representation. The content and the structure of these pre- and post-event social representations were analysed and then compared to determine whether a.) hosting the 2012 Olympic Games represents an appropriate strategy to develop the city s domestic brand; b.) a co-branding process occurred, expressed by an image transfer, from the event to the place, or vice-versa; and c.) the major differences between the images generated by those living closest to London, compared to those living elsewhere in the UK. While London s overall image does not go through any significant changes pre-to-post event, the results of this study corroborate the value of sporting events in place branding strategies from a domestic perspective, but highlights some limitations, such as the exacerbation of London s pre-existing negative associations. In terms of co-branding, the results do not reveal a co-branding process to have occurred between London and the overall image of the Olympics, but there is some movement of elements from London to the 2012 event (related mainly to pre-Games anticipation) and between the 2012 event and the overall Olympics (related to the latter s unique defining associations). Finally, in terms of the differences between the images generated by those living closest to London, compared to those living elsewhere in the UK, there is a difference which appears to have been facilitated, at least in part, by a 2012-effect, with the event seemingly contributing to London being perceived as generally busier, more expensive and more congested by those living closest to the city, but more vibrant and more multicultural by those living elsewhere in the UK.

Background There is substantial evidence of the protective influence of social support on psychological distress in adults. Yet, levels of social support and psychological distress vary by ethnicity. There is little research investigating prospective associations between social support and psychological distress in an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents. Methods This thesis is based on secondary analysis of data from 'Research with East London Adolescents: Community Health Survey' (RELACHS). RELACHS is a prospective cohort questionnaire study conducted in a representative sample of adolescents aged 11-14 years at baseline and 13-16 years at follow-up. The analyses address three questions: (a) Are there prospective associations between baseline social support and follow-up psychological distress and depressive symptoms? (b) Does a change in social support overtime influence psychological distress or depressive symptoms at follow-up? (c) Are the effects of social support and culturally similar friendship choices independent and can these account for ethnic variations in psychological distress or depressive symptoms at follow-up. Results Low levels of family social support were significantly associated with depressive symptoms for female pupils (adjusted analyses: OR= 2.70 95% CI 1.20,6.08). A decre~se in total and family support overtime was significantly associated with depressive symptoms for female pupils (adjusted analyses: OR= 0.96 950/0 CI 0.93,0.98 and OR=0.61 95% CI 0.47,0.79 respectively). Social support could not account for ethnic variations in psychological distress or depressive symptoms. Culturally similar friendship choices were protective for psychological distress at follow-up. Conclusion Explanations for these findings include the possibility that family members [and peers from the same cultural group] provide a more consistent and healthy source of support than peers overall. Loss of family support appears to be risk factor specifically for girls from diverse ethnic groups.

This thesis explores how gender can affect experiences of health and illness, with the understanding that gender is constructed differently across the life course, and is mediated by 'race' and class relations in Britain. Research was conducted with a small sample of informants drawn from African-Caribbean community groups in east London, using focus groups and in-depth interviews. Findings are three-fold. First, participation in health research itself was problematic for informants, relating directly to their experiences of personal and institutional racism in Britain. Evidence showed that these experiences encouraged informants to use public accounts of health and illness when more structured research methods were used. In-depth interviews encouraged informants to develop more private accounts of their illness experiences. A second finding was that social relations and low social status were often implicated in private accounts as contributing factors to illness. Women and men felt that racialised experiences, especially in the workplace, were problematic for black people collectively. Older female informants also connected personal health problems to their efforts in fulfilling the more traditional expectations of women in the home, family and workplace. Finally there is evidence that women and men have developed a variety of strategies to mediate the impact that social circumstances may have on their health. Some strategies influenced the way that illness discourses themselves were constructed, whilst others focused on building self-esteem through Caribbean or Black identity, or through developing a sense of 'self. ' Besides these findings, the methodology of this study is discussed. This was developed in response to the sensitive nature of the racialised research context. Key concerns have been to develop trust and rapport with informants, and to offer them the opportunity to comment critically on this research project and its findings. It was felt that this approach enhanced the insight into informants' reporting and understandings of health and illness. Conclusions of this research have theoretical, methodological and policy implications. Most topical are implications relevant to east London's Health Action Zone strategy. There are specific recommendations for understanding the mental health needs for African-Caribbean communities, and for developing appropriate ways to involve these communities in this initiative and offering them better access to information.