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The following work constitutes an inquiry into the economic, social and political composition of what are commonly known as the cultural or creative industries. My aim is to provide a critique of the discursive origins, political dimensions, economic models and subjective constructions that shape the complex set of practices and discourses that comprise the creative industries. To do so, this work looks into the production of a set of schemes, policies, plans, economic models, modes of labour, regulations and discourses that have been designed in order to transform cultural practices into economic activities. I will contextualize these transformations within a general framework of what has been branded ‘cognitive capitalism’, acknowledging that this process needs to be understood with reference to the neoliberalization of the wider economy through focusing on a set of changes in the nature of labour, value and creativity. I then attempt to understand the ecosystem in which the creative industries are enmeshed. In order to do so, I will discuss the notion of the cultural commons: the pools of collective ideas and knowledge from which these enterprises capture their raw material. Not only will this give an understanding of the nature of the sources of knowledge and ideas that feed the creative industries but will also to provide a good opportunity to understand the communities, objects and relations that shape them. Finally there is a discussion on the tensions, bifurcations and alternatives that escape the hegemonic economic models promoted by policy. This will open up possibilities in which to think of forms of self-organization and commons-based cultural enterprises that might provide new spaces in which the economy and culture can meet.

This thesis is an attempt to think through a number of questions arising from the intense circulation of Japanese brands in East Asia, which I call the East Asian Brandscape, and, in doing so, produces an innovative conceptual framework to understand brands and branding. The ubiquitous presence of American brands has been linked to Americanization, particularly Hollywood film’s global dominance, and is summarized in the phrase ‘trade follows the films’. Similarly, the East Asian brandscape has been linked to Japanization, an intense circulation of Japanese popular culture throughout the region, and may be summarized in the phrase ‘trade follows manga’. This Japanization discourse is based on the unsubstantiated assumption that the globalization of Japanese brands is closely linked to the presence (or the lack) of symbolic appeal of Japanese popular culture in a given market. This thesis investigates the largely understudied processes in which the globalization of Japanese brands is taking place in the context of Japanization through case studies on Japanese luxury cosmetics brands. In the first section, ‘analysis from outside’, the thesis draws out a contour of the East Asian brandscape, which is shaped by large multinational corporations such as L’Oréal, Shiseido, and Estee Lauder. In global capitalism, brands are routinely exchanged across national borders by these corporations in order to manage and thrive on local differences. Drawing on Appadurai, this thesis argues that we need to understand brandscape as the organization of otherwise disjunctive scapes, rather than in the image of the Americanization model. In the second section, ‘analysis from inside’, I explore the ways in which the branding is reformulated as the design and management of consumers’ experience in/through a great number of brand interfaces – material and immaterial – in which semantic and symbolic registers (such as Japan’s symbolic appeal) are engulfed in the overall affective ambience of brand experience. What is at stake in this reconfiguration, it is argued, is the unequal distribution of skills and finance resources across national borders required to global brand management, rather than distribution and consumption of national symbolic power. What emerge through the analysis of both outside and inside is a complex and contradictory relationship between Japanese brands and globalization that is no longer understood in a national framework.

Terrestrial free-space optical (FSO) communications is an emerging low-cost, licensefree and high-bandwidth access solution for a number of applications including the “last mile” access network. However, for a transmission range from a few meter to longer than 1 km, a number of atmospheric phenomena, such as rain, haze, fog, snow, scintillation and pointing errors become a major performance limiting factors in FSO systems resulting in link deterioration and ultimately complete link failure. Relay-assisted technique is capable of mitigating the signal fading and maintain acceptable performance levels. In this thesis, a two-way relay (TWR) channel technique is adopted to increase system spectral efficiency, which in turn boosts the network throughput. This is achieved by using a physical layer network coding (PNC) technique, where network coding (NC) is applied at the physical layer. It takes advantage of the superimposition of the electromagnetic waves, and embraces the interference, which was typically deemed as harmful, by performing the exclusive-OR mapping of both users’ information at the relay. Therefore, the main contribution of this thesis is to study the design of the TWR-FSO communication system that embraces PNC technique for the full utilization of network resources based on the binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation. Moreover, error control coding (ECC) in conjunction with interleaving can be employed in FSO communications to combat turbulence-induced fading, which can enhance the performance of the proposed TWR-FSO PNC system. A comparative study between convolutional code (CC) and bit-interleave coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID) code are carried out. The result shows that the BICM-ID code outperforms the CC for TWR-FSO based PNC over strong turbulence regime by ~10dB of SNR to achieve a BER of 10-4 . However, the number of users that can be simultaneously transmitted to the relay is considered the main constraint in PNC system. Therefore, to overcome this challenge, a new scheme that integrates the iterative multiuser detection (I-MUD) technique with the PNC system over RF and FSO links are introduced as another achievement. The results show that the I-MUD offers improved performance about 8, and 22dB of SNR to get a BER of 10-4 over RF and FSO channels, respectively, for number of simultaneously users equal to 14 with respect to TWR-PNC system.

This research examines diasporic transformations and the construction of belongings through new technologies of communication by looking at young Kurdish diasporas in Sweden and the UK. It argues that the diaspora concept needs to be reconceptualised in light of digital information and communication technologies and in relation to the imagined community. Empirical evidence from Kurdish diasporas has drawn attention to some missing gaps in the literature. The research asks what it means to be a Kurd in diaspora and what role new media and online communities have in the renegotiation and construction of belongings. By engaging with post-colonial and feminist studies, I unpick fixed categories of identity, belongings and home, and I argue for performativities of those belongings. Based on a year-long ethnographic online study supplemented by offline face-to-face interviews with young Kurds in these locations, and with additional reference to homeland- based Kurds, the research presents three main empirical chapters based on themes derived from the online community’s concerns, and focuses on Swedish, British, and Kurdish forums. The chapters discuss gender and religious tensions; cultural elements and historical suffering; and political engagements in homeland and settlement countries. A fourth chapter takes a step back from online and offline material and examines the comparative approach between the two diasporas, diasporic and homeland Kurds, in both offline and online environments. Against the background of such a close-up comparative study, this research argues for a reconsideration of diasporic formations that are currently fixed between homeland and settlement country, and it presents new perspectives on these that relates to new definitional positions in diasporic formations that have significant implications for the concept of the imagined community.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the theory on which professional practice of archivists and records managers drew was reviewed, in light of cultural and technological changes and of postmodernist philosophies. In particular, the theoretical narrative of the “neutral archives” was terminally disrupted, and more explicit responsibility attributed to the profession for actively seeking to redress the way that power imbalances in contemporary society were reflected in ‘the archive’. Professional archivists and records managers began to look for ways in which as professionals they could counteract these areas of neglect. There had not been any systematic analysis of “marginality” or “marginalised” as a concept, as opposed to particular instances thereof. In addition, the focus of attention in many of the responses had been those records related to situations or groups that already had been politicised. This combination seemed problematic, as a conceptualisation of marginality or exclusion was emerging and consolidating, one that focused primarily on situations of political instability or disenfranchisement or of conflict. While the disruption of the narrative of the neutral archive could in theory have resonance for all information professionals in all working environments, the particulars of the examples of exclusion and marginalisation were not applicable in every scenario. That is to say, those archivists and records managers who were not responsible for records that were in some clear way related to a politicised group or situation could assume on that basis that they were not, in their professional capacity, colluding in exclusion, marginalisation or neglect. By articulating the conceptualisation of marginality and seeking to focus on possible domestic and quotidian means by which power imbalances and exclusions are manifested, this research contributes to the extension of the relevance of the debate to politically stable environments and everyday activities, in addition to unstable or post-conflict situations. By focusing on the potentially dynamic relationship between the information curator and the records for which they were responsible – rather than the records creators or subjects – it also draws out additional opportunities for professional engagement with social and cultural imbalances.

This thesis examines the potential power of internet users to use the internet in the conduct of their everyday lives by discussing the impact of state and non-state actors on cyberspace. The debate about ‘who controls the internet?’ has avoided the question of the power of internet users, which is needed to understand the character of cyberspace. Theoretical debates identify the overwhelmingly territorial nature of cyber governance through nationally developed and enforced legislation, which is in direct opposition to the power of transnational ICTs. This thesis contributes to this theoretical debate through the use of the concepts of alternative and radical media, which are usually categorised as anti-establishment resistance strategies. I use Michel de Certeau’s notion of the heterological practice of everyday life to develop a perspective on the power of the powerless on the internet. I also adopt Franklin’s theoretical stance on the relations between state, non-state, and social actors, which is influenced by de Certeau’s ideas about the plurality of space. In order to illustrate this argument, I discuss the Korean ‘cyber asylum seeker’ phenomenon, which arose when Korean internet users migrated from local web portals to global corporations, such as Google and YouTube, who had refused to comply with the restrictions that the Korean government policies imposed on the local internet. This development allowed Korea cyber asylum seekers to become power holders, thus expanding the reach of Korean cyberspace. The Korean cyber asylum phenomenon was a result of both the Korean government’s cyber intervention following the 2008 Candlelight protest and Korean web portals’ compliance. I therefore understand the Korean cyber asylum seeker phenomenon from the perspective of a tripartite inter-relationship between the Korean government, the web portals, and internet users. This tripartite approach sheds new light on current debates about the questions: ‘Who controls the internet’, ‘Why is it controlled?’ and ‘How is it controlled?’ by adding the question, ‘What other groups have had an impact on power formations in cyberspace?’ My field research points to the significance of internet user mobility for a more complete understanding of the effect of the Korean government and the web portals on the expansion of Korean cyberspace. The research project is based on an analysis of the Korean government’s internet policy, business reports of Korean web portals, and interviews with officials from government bodies, the Korean internet industry, activists, citizens and online community members, as well as online community observation.

Contemporary democratic discourse places emphasis on accountability as the basis of power legitimacy and the scholarly literature across disciplines has reserved a special space for the media in that process, for better or for worse. But exactly who is held to account, when, how and by whom, remain troubling questions in the study of media, politics and power. Amidst displays of adversarial journalism without fear or favour, how far are powerful interests still able to control the agenda and manipulate outcomes? The research undertaken here set out to interrogate the notion of media spectacle in a different way from which it has been commonly applied in critical media theory. In particular, its intimate association with sensationalism and tabloidisation threatens to obscure the role of spectacle in what are considered the mainstays of ‘serious’ or responsible news. The Sun might still be the most popular newspaper in Britain, and online news the fastest growing platform, but it is the serious news outlets of traditional media – public service broadcasting, broadsheets, weeklies etc – which remain by far the most credible sources of news and information. And it is credibility which holds the key to ideological power. The research involved extensive analysis of archived television news programmes, supplemented by 50 interviews with a cross section of news producers and actors including journalists, news executives, politicians, campaigners, press officers, lawyers and civil servants. The core subject is terrestrial television news in the UK – a public service regulated platform with a longstanding reputation for high quality journalism. My overall concern is not so much with scandal involving official misconduct or misdemeanour, but rather controversies that point to systemic institutional corruption of the kind that transcends individuals and party politics. These controversies are no longer rare exceptions in the contemporary newscape and their existence raises profound questions about the scope of accountability through the media. There has, however, been surprisingly little critical assessment of such coverage. This provided the overarching motivation for the research; a core premise being that only by examining those instances where mechanisms of accountability appear most far reaching, can we gain a new understanding of ideological power in the age of transparency.

Television in Thailand, as in many nations, can be regarded as an essential form of popular media. Although television plays an important role within and across all levels of society, the relationship between television and Thai cultural identity is a problematic and ambiguous one; it is also a subject of study often neglected or not taken seriously enough in Thailand. This research project, "Popular Television and the Construction of Contemporary Thai Cultural Identity', is an exploration into the relationship between television and the formation of contemporary Thai cultural identity. It draws together media and cultural studies and the study of television in contemporary Thailand. Through interviews with key media practitioners and an analysis of popular television programmes (such as the controversial game show 'The Weakest Link', popular dramas, youth programmes, and broadcasts of national rituals), the research has found that television plays a prominent role in Thai cultural identity formation. One existing line of argument is that Thai cultural identity in the era of globalisation has been inevitably influenced by western homogenisation, as is suggested by the thesis of Cultural Imperialism. Yet on the other hand, globalisation has played a multi-faceted role in creating the sense of Nationalism which has led to the strengthening of Thai traditional identity, evidence of which can be seen in the Thai government's use of television to support Thai tradition and values. In this way, television has played a unifying role in the formation of Thai cultural identity. Moreover, globalisation, as a new global-local articulation, has also created a new kind of cultural hybridity which is apparent in the styles, forms, and language usage in certain youth programmes. In addition to the theoretical analyses, focus-group discussions and in-depth interviews have been conducted in order to examine the 'cultural hybridity' of 'mixed-race' youngsters in Thailand, and the roles television has played in the formation of their identity. The research has further found that 'mixed-race' youngsters (`third-culture kids' or TCKs) in Thailand have learnt to 'translate' themselves within the different cultures. And television, in some way, has helped them make sense of, and negotiate between, the different cultures they are living in.