The work which is submitted for the degree of PhD by publication comprises eleven papers published in peer-reviewed journals: six sole-authored papers and five jointauthored. The publications span the years 1995 to the present, and the qualitative research projects from which the data and publications are derived were undertaken over a period of approximately ten years, commencing in 1994/95. The publications are included in full and are examined, both individually and within a more general context, in an overview. The overarching focus of the research coheres around the construction and maintenance of occupational and leisure identities, and more specifically in the case of the latter, on sporting identities. All the research projects from which the publications derive were qualitative in nature, apart from the earliest work on doctoral students in the social sciences, which was based predominantly on documentary analysis of the relevant literature. Whilst the unifying theme of the research and the PhD submission might be termed 'identity work', three principal strands can be delineated and these are described in some detail in the overview: 1) Occupational identities: contract researchers in the social sciences; 2) Occupational identities: doctoral research students; 3) Sporting identities: distance runners.