The resource curse literature, which links natural resource abundance with negative political and economic outcomes, is largely based on large-N cross-national studies. This thesis examines the effects of oil production on women’s political participation at the sub-national level, comparing the 36 states in the Nigerian federation, of which some are oil-producing. Shedding new light on the negative effects of oil production at the local and community level, and exploring the gender-related dimensions of the resource curse, I argue that the effect of oil varies across different forms of political activity: while oil production may have a negative impact on women’s legislative participation, it can also have a positive impact on non-formal types of political participation, specifically protest and NGO activity. I further suggest that the underlying trigger for both of these effects is oil’s impact on women’s work, which is manifested differently at national and local levels. The analysis is based on a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative tools, including original datasets on oil production and legislative participation, women’s protests, and women-led NGOs across Nigeria’s states. The combination of evidence offers a wide-ranging repertoire of the impact of oil on women. Drawing on historical evidence and women’s testimonies, this thesis suggests that oil production has negatively affected women’s labour force participation in Nigeria, while women’s work in oil-producing states has been further diminished due to environmental degradation and regional militarisation. The extremely low levels of female legislative participation in Nigeria at both the national and state levels are linked with the negative impact of oil on women’s work. Analysing a dataset of press reports and a directory of Nigerian NGOs to compare oil and non-oil producing states in the Nigerian federation, this thesis finds strong evidence for the impact of oil on women’s non-formal political participation at the local level, in oil-producing states. Thus, evidence from Nigeria suggests that oil production may have a dual effect on women’s political participation – undermining formal participation while increasing non-formal participation,a finding that adds to our understanding of the resource curse, women’s political participation, and the link between the two.

This thesis investigates how collective action is achieved in the governance of transnational common pool resources, taking the example of the electromagnetic radio spectrum as a global common. The thesis asks what determines variation in operational and collective choice property arrangements in common pool resources such as the radio spectrum. The radio spectrum represents the totality of radio frequencies used for wireless communications around the world. It is a transnational resource that exhibits properties of other common pool resources: a) high rivalry in consumption and b) difficulty in excluding non-contributing beneficiaries from its use. This study demonstrates that the presence of a public actor – even one with established authority at transnational level such as the Commission of the European Union – cannot fully explain variations in the configuration of property arrangements in the radio resource. Instead, this study finds that private actors in the electronic communications industry – i.e. service operators and system developers – define rules of access and rules of use in the transnational radio resource, by means of negotiating the configuration of technology systems used to extract value from the resource. In addition, this study finds that industry actors are able to define common operational rules to access and use a transnational frequency pool even in complex situations of heterogeneous economic interests and heterogeneous technology capabilities. They reduce uncertainty in these complex situations by increasing participation in decision-making and by developing mechanisms of information exchange and mutual monitoring in industry associations. When industry actors agree these common rules of management, and reinforce them with common rules of exclusion, they are more likely to negotiate operational arrangements based on principles of common exclusive property rather than individual exclusive property in the transnational radio resource. These findings are derived from the analysis of four case studies, which trace the development of operational rules in five radio frequency bands across time. By revealing the central role of industry associations in defining property arrangements in transnational commons such as the radio spectrum, this research seeks to contribute to the debate about the nature and scope of private transnational governance of common goods.

This thesis examines the impact of the Estates Action (EA) programme in the UK, and Developpment Social des Quartiers (DSQ) programme in France, on run down, post war, marginalised estates. Its focus is the housing management aspects of the problems on the estates. It examines the methodological problems associated with comparative studies of housing estates, then sets out a comparative analysis of the origins, development, and nature of the estates under consideration. The origins and structure of the DSQ/EA programmes are explained, and a descriptive evaluation is given of their impact, based partly 12 detailed case studies. There is considerable use of primary documentary sources, and interviews with both local and national government officials, including with over 100 housing and other agents on the estates. It also draws on published reports and other material. I argue that there are a number of factors, shared in both counties, which create the problems: - the physical state of the estate itself - poor management of the estate - failure to carry out the necessary infrastructural works to accompany construction - the encouragement of low cost home ownership as the natural and desired tenure - the need to fill the empty properties with anyone who would pay rent, allied with social and racial "dumping". The provision of EA/DSQ resources to the estates was due to wider imperatives than simply housing problems of voids or disrepair -rather it was the problems of high pockets of unemployment, rising crime rates, and the notion of "social exclusion". Successful aspects of the programme include physical rehabilitation, new devolved management, and better infrastructural provision, although these were often quickly subject to vandalism. Less successful were the attempts to reduce residualisation by tenure mix or social engineering of allocations. Voids were tackled by a variety of imaginative solutions, and the programmes increasingly included measures to tackle the underlying problems of crime and economic marginalisation. The most effective remedies were those which involved wholesale remodelling of estates, with demolitions and the introduction of new homes, including new tenures. This type of solution is most likely to be effective in the worst estates; though the less radical measures will be effective in the less problematic areas. Note: Throughout this thesis French expressions are generally translated, and where appropriate the original is given between square brackets; for example: APL Housing Benefit [Aide Personalise a Logement] In addition, any price comparisons made at an assumed exchange rate of £1 =F10, irrespective of the year of comparison.

Despite the clinical need for children living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to access and adhere to antiretroviral treatment (ART), rates globally remain roughly half that of adults. Although the structural barriers to accessing HIV and health services are well studied, further research into the psychological and social factors underscoring children’s limited access to HIV care is needed to facilitate scale up amongst health service users and providers. Using a social representations theoretical approach, this thesis examines the interplay between psychological and social factors concerning children’s HIV service uptake in a community setting. A qualitative research study was conducted in Kabarole district, Uganda with 60 adults, including 15 health care workers (HCWs) and 45 adult carers of children, and 82 children (N=142). Methods of data collection were individual interviews, focus groups, a draw-and-write exercise, and participant observation in the main local health clinic setting. A thematic content analysis reveals multiple cross-cutting factors which mediate HIV service usage. For HCWs, despite challenging working conditions, the impact of ART has been positive both professionally and personally. Adult carers, however, continue to be negatively impacted by social stigma against HIV, and fears of potential negative consequences resulting from revealing an HIV-positive status influence their uptake of HIV services. For children, the pervasiveness of HIV in their society, and its negative personal and social impact, has created a sense of fatalism and resignation over potential HIV infection and future suffering. At present, the clinical practice environment does not provide a supportive space for these representations to be openly addressed by health service providers or users. Drawing from these findings, the thesis concludes that in order to increase children’s ART access and adherence, more supportive clinical and social environments will need to be jointly created by health service users and providers, through the building of social capital and increased social trust and cohesion between stakeholder groups. Failing to do so may result in continued low or even decreased HIV service usage for children, particularly in light of recent national legislation which may lead to further entrenchment of HIV stigma against socially vulnerable groups.

Worldwide, non-maternal care during the first years of life has gradually become more prevalent. However, there is little evidence about the effect of non-maternal care— especially for under-three-year-olds—on child development. Hence, this thesis explores the association between both maternal employment and type of care at different stages during children’s first three years of life and child development in Chile. My results indicate that there is evidence that maternal employment during the child’s first year of life is detrimental to child development and that delaying maternal employment initiation decreases this detrimental effect on child development. On the other hand, the type of care that the child attends during this first year of life also matters. First, children who are looked after by their grandparent during their first year of life exhibit a positive association with child cognitive and socio-emotional development relative to exclusive maternal care. Second, there is a negative association between relative care and child cognitive and socioemotional development compared to exclusive maternal care. Third, there is a positive association between centre-based care and child cognitive development and a slightly positive association with child socio-emotional development. Finally, controlling for unobserved and fixed child characteristics, I analyse whether the positive association between centre-based care at 6 to 12 months old and child development is also observed on children who entered centre-based care between the ages of 24 and 36 months old. The association between centre-based care between centre-based care and child cognitive development is also positive and there is no significant association with child socioemotional development. In each of my empirical chapters, I test whether child vulnerability define as lowly educated mothers, single parent and low income families, moderates the association between early non-maternal care and child development. Overall, the previously described associations are slightly more detrimental for more vulnerable children. In my three empirical chapters, I use a novel Chilean longitudinal panel survey with waves in 2010 and 2012. To deal with selection bias, in two out three empirical chapters I control for an extensive set of child, mother and family characteristics using OLS regressions and propensity score matching techniques. In addition, in the last empirical chapter I control for (unobserved) individual fixed effects.

The unfolding of our puprose with will be presented in five chapters. The titles of the chpaters are explanatory of their contents with the exception of Chapter I, the introduction: The Pastor and Evangelist, The Promoter and Financier, The Educaotr and the Theologian, and the Conclusion.

This thesis is a collection of essays on the political economy of the interwar years. It aims to address two of the most prominent and characteristic aspects of the interwar international economy; the break-up of the Gold Standard system and the rise of trade protectionism. I argue that extensions to the franchise are crucial to understanding both of these phenomena. Using evidence based on macro-level panel data analysis, micro-level public opinion surveys as well as numerous qualitative sources, I construct an argument that stresses the importance of these changes in voting rights to economic policy decisions; changes that can help explain the unusual nature of the interwar international economy. The effect of the extended franchise will not be examined in isolation however, with the influence of a number of other important aspects of the political and economic environment also taken into consideration. As arguably the most interesting and novel result of these analyses is the suggested effect of the granting of voting rights to women, the voting preferences of women are examined more closely in an additional chapter using a unique record of women’s voting from Weimar Germany. This allows for the difference between men and women’s actual voting preferences to be explored, something that is usually impossible due to the use of secret ballots. The fact that the separation of votes by gender occurred during one of the most important periods in modern history gives the analysis an even greater significance.

This thesis examines the phenomenon of civil violence in Genoa (1160-1220). Genoese civil conflicts in the period are victim to a historiographical paradox. While their importance for the survival of communal institutions has been frequently underlined, they have often been misrepresented in the historiography. Our current understanding of civil conflicts in Genoa is in need of a reassessment if we want to deepen our comprehension of the history of a city that is considered a key centre and fundamental building bloc in the rise of the European continent to economic prominence. This thesis studies civil violence from a perspective that takes into account the shifting form of Genoese conflicts and their protagonists. The civil conflicts in Genoa saw constant development in their intricacy, nature and participants (Chapter one). I distance myself from the issue of motives and causation, a pursuit which has misled scholars. Instead I focus my attention on the underlying patterns that made conflicts in Genoa possible -- the web of relationships among the families of the Genoese elite – in order to study how the individuals and families that were involved in civil violence made their decisions (Chapter two). The understanding of these links and of the development of conflict in Genoa is an important thread to follow in order to reassess several aspects of the political history of the city between the twelfth and the thirteenth century (Chapter three). In light of my findings, the institutional transition of the city from a commune led by consuls to one led by a foreign podestà (Chapter four) and the Genoese involvement in the Mediterranean scenario (Conclusion), appear shaped by the maturing phenomenon of civil violence. This thesis aims to fill the current gap in academic studies on civil conflict in Genoa and to turn the phenomenon from a footnote to the current historiography into a rich vein of historical understanding of the fundamental dynamics of the city and its development.

Glasgow, Faulkner, Warren and Caldwell, while probing "the human heart in conflict with itself," portrayed the South in transition. Each of them made substantial contribution to a deeper understanding of the region, its people and problems, and their work was only a part of the vast literary heritage established by their generation.

The three articles that make up this thesis consider the diverse forms of contentious politics and mass mobilization that emerged during the 25th January Egyptian Revolution in 2011 and its aftermath. The first article, discussing the eighteen days of anti-Mubarak protest, pays special attention to the position of the Egyptian army in and around Midan al-Tahrir, and recounts how protestors sought to co-opt and neutralize the threat posed by regime forces. It finds that fraternizing protestors developed a repertoire of contention that made situational, emotional claims on the loyalty of regime troops. The second article explores the role of elections and protests during the failed democratic transition away from authoritarian rule that began on 11 February with Mubarak’s resignation and ended on 3 July 2013 with a military coup. Highlighting the Muslim Brothers’ demobilization and privileging of procedural democracy following Mubarak’s ousting, it offers an alternative account of where and when Egypt’s democratic project went wrong. The final article considers opposition to the 3 July coup and in particular the effects of state repression on the daily street protests launched by the Muslim Brothers and their allies in the post-coup period. Far from being defeated, anti-coup contention, it is suggested, has instead been contained in ways that have made protest less visible and less disruptive over time. Taken as a whole, the thesis suggests new ways to understand and explain the 25th January Revolution, its trajectories and legacies.