In Salvador da Bahia's high crime/violence peripheral neighbourhoods, black youth are perceived as criminals levying high social costs as they attempt to acquire employment, enter university, or political processes. Low-income youth must overcome the reality of violence while simultaneously confronting the support, privileged urban classes have for stricter law enforcement and the clandestine acts of death squads. As youth from these neighbourhoods begin to develop more complex identities some search for alternative peer groups, social networks and social programmes that will guide them to constructive life choices while others consign themselves to options that are more readily available in their communities. Fast money and the ability to participate in the global economy beyond ‘passive’ engagement draws some youth into crime yet the majority choose other paths. Yet, the majority use their own identities to build constructive and positive lives and avoid involvement with gangs and other violent social groups. Drawing from Brazil's racial debates started by Gilberto Freyre, findings from this research suggest that while identity construction around race is ambiguous, specific markers highlight one's identity making it difficult to escape negative associations with criminality and violence. The discourse surrounding social capital suggests that such individuals can rely on it to overcome these problems. However social capital is used more often as a tool to spatially and socially segregate and consolidate power and opportunity among the powerful and well-connected. That race does not contribute significantly to the debate misses key elements in how social relationships develop and are maintained. This research was conducted over the period of ten months in a peripheral neighbourhood in Salvador through a community social development programme. The study used a mixed qualitative methodology that was part ethnographic examining social networks and protective factors that assist young people at risk from becoming involved in crime or violence.

The availability of antiretroviral treatment (ART) is enabling people living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA) to reconsider their sexual and reproductive lives. The sexual and reproductive health (SRH) decisions that PLWHA make have implications for HIV transmission and prevention. Yet very little is known about SRH of PLWHA in subSaharan Africa, as studies as well as prevention strategies have historically neglected them and SRH matters are often not part of HIV/AIDS treatment and care services. This study looks at how HIV-positive men and women negotiate their sexual and reproductive lives and the barriers to the realisation of SRH needs in Nairobi slums. This study employs a mixed methods study design involving both quantitative (survey n=513) and qualitative (in-depth interviews n=41 and key informant interviews n=14). Respondents were systematically recruited from the community in two slums in Nairobi for quantitative interviews, a subset of which was followed on for in-depth interviewing. Quantitative analyses include univariate, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression modelling. Qualitative data were transcribed, and coded and thematically analysed. SRH outcomes of the study include sexual activity/inactivity, condom use, multiple sexual partnerships, fertility intentions, contraceptive use and unmet need for family planning. Quantitative and qualitative components of the entire study are integrated throughout both analysis and interpretation. The findings show that the SRH outcomes of PLWHA are somewhat different from the general population, but similar with other PLWHA in similar settings. Condom use at last sex is high although consistent use is an issue. PLWHA exhibit fertility desires and contraceptive behaviour that is more geared towards limiting fertility, but face barriers, and hence the high unmet need for contraception. The SRH outcomes are shaped by demographic (e.g. age, parity), socio-cultural (gender, societal norms)relationship (disclosure, intimacy, pleasure) and health factors (ART use, duration of HIV and side-effects and health concerns). Their SRH outcomes are reflective of their efforts for social approval. However, there is a conflict between social validation and moral pressures for HIV prevention presenting a dilemma to many about “proper” SRH behaviour in the ART era. There is need to include SRH counselling and services as part of the standard HIV treatment and care services for PLWHA.

Following their conquest of Punjab, the British erected an administrative apparatus that relied heavily upon the support of the province’s powerful landed elite. The relationship between the two was one of mutual benefit, with the British using their landed allies to ensure the maintenance of order and effective economic accumulation in exchange for state patronage. Over a century and a half later, the politics of Pakistani Punjab continues to be dominated by landowning politicians, despite significant societal changes that could have potentially eroded their power. In order to answer the question of why this is so, this thesis uses a historical institutionalist approach to argue that the administrative framework emerging out of the initial bargain between the colonial state and the landed classes gave rise to a path-dependent process of institutional development in Punjab that allowed the latter to increasingly entrench themselves within the political order during the colonial and post-colonial periods. In doing so, the landed elite were also able to reinforce their bargain with the colonial state and, after independence, the Pakistani military establishment, perpetuating a relationship that facilitated the pursuit of the interests of the actors involved. In order to account for this path-dependent process of institutional development, this thesis treats the initial period of colonial rule in Punjab as a ‘critical juncture’, tracing the factors that led the British to rely on the landed elite for support, and enter into the bargain between the two actors that drove subsequent institutional developments. The thesis then explores the mechanisms used to perpetuate this arrangement over time, focusing in particular on the use, by the state and the landed elite, of legislative interventions, bureaucratic power, and electoral politics, to reinforce and reproduce the institutional framework of politics in Punjab. Finally, the thesis also looks at points in time during which this dominant institutional path has been challenged, albeit unsuccessfully, with a view towards understanding both the circumstances under which such challenges can emerge, and the lessons that can be learnt from these episodes with regards to the prospects for the creation of a democratic and participatory politics in the province.

The thesis examines pay among British childcare workers from 1994 to 2008. It uses childcare as an example of female care occupations and selects the UK as a case study because in recent years childcare services have expanded substantially. As childcare provision has become increasingly formal, the issue of the rewards attached to this type of work has become more pressing. The thesis asks why childcare workers in the UK have traditionally received low pay and to what extent they continue to do so. It explores the changes in childcare policy that have taken place since the mid-1990s in order to understand whether Government’s increased commitment to childcare services has resulted in an improvement in workers’ pay. The thesis develops a multi-layered analysis. First, based on a review of policy documents and secondary sources, the thesis examines British childcare policy and identifies the challenges to higher pay in the sector. Second, the thesis investigates changes in the characteristics and pay of the childcare workforce between 1994 and 2008 by using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and from the Early Years and Childcare Providers survey. Finally, cultural assumptions about caring motivations and pay are explored on the basis of data from the LFS as well as findings from interviews with childcare workers. The thesis makes three main contributions. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and a variety of information sources, it offers evidence on changes in the remuneration of British childcare workers, paying close attention to the way childcare policy, education policy and labour market institutions influence wage levels. Furthermore, drawing from the example of childcare in the UK, the thesis contributes to the wider debate on the undervaluation of women’s work by pointing to some of the institutional dynamics that account for low pay in the sector. Finally, the thesis highlights the direct labour market impact of a childcare and early education policies, thus exploring an important dimension of welfare state analysis.

This thesis seeks to examine the appropriate role of individual behaviour and responsibility in relation to cancer and weight-control policy in German and US health care systems. It contains six main parts. The first describes and compares the ways in which personal responsibility features in law and policy in both countries. It analyses salient differences in underlying motivation and characterization and highlights ethical tensions that arise from these provisions and their implementation. The second part reviews what established normative theories can do to address the issues that have been identified. It argues that these frameworks lack specificity and are ill-suited as a basis for policy in pluralist societies. It provides an analysis of different notions of the concept of personal responsibility, and makes a proposal for an overarching framework, adopting a procedural justice account that draws on work by Norman Daniels, Jim Sabin and Thomas Scanlon. The third part systematically reviews survey literature on the proper role of personal responsibility and develops an instrument for semi-structured interviews with physicians and population-level surveys in the US and Germany. The instrument complements this earlier survey work and explores key themes that arose in the analysis of policy documents and the philosophical literature. Based on this instrument, the fourth part analyses the findings from twenty semi-structured interviews with primary care physicians and oncologists in Berlin, Germany and Philadelphia, USA. The fifth part presents findings from three population level surveys of 1,000 respondents each. Two surveys with identical instruments were conducted with nonprobability samples (census-adjusted proportional quota sampling with regard to income) in Germany and the US, and one, using a subset of questions, was administered to a probability-based sample in the US. Findings are discussed comparatively between countries and in view of the interviews with physicians. The last part concerns the policy implications of the analysis, and applies the framework proposed in the thesis to the case of colon cancer screening. It seeks to defend an incentive policy that attaches financial advantage to attending counselling on the advantages and disadvantages of colon cancer screening, building also on findings from the surveys, and interviews with physicians. The final chapter highlights a range of general policy implications for the evaluation and implementation of programmes seeking to incentivise personal responsibility.

Why do people support the harsh punishment of criminal offenders? This dissertation starts from the premise that views about punishment go far beyond concerns about crime and security. Punishment is a central component of the social order and a means by which social order is produced. It follows that ideological preferences will be crucial in understanding people’s punitive reactions. People who have a preference for collective security might support punishment to restore order and cohesion. Yet, by committing crime, offenders also seem to gain power in society and punishment can restore the status quo. Punishment might therefore have positive value for people motivated to achieve social order (people high in right-wing authoritarianism, RWA) as well as for people motivated to achieve power and dominance (people high in social dominance orientation, SDO). In this dissertation I build on criminological and socialpsychological research to propose a dual-motivational model of punitive attitudes. I examine whether the effects of RWA and SDO are mediated by different beliefs about crime and symbolic motives of punishment (Paper 1) and whether they predict different retributive goals of punishment (Paper 2). Finally, I explore the circumstances under which RWA and SDO predict punitive attitudes (Papers 3 and 4). The four papers presented in this dissertation suggest that there are, indeed, two ideological antecedents to punitive attitudes. High RWA individuals favoured harsh punishment to restore collective security, maintain hierarchies and avoid powerful criminals disrupting social order. High SDO’s did so to establish and maintain power and status hierarchies in society. However, the effect of SDO was limited to situations where crime was associated with a competitive situation. Punitiveness seems to be related to a groupbased competition for status and power with criminal offenders. Yet, high SDO individuals are not predisposed to think of criminal offenders as threats to hierarchies.

The underlying argument within this thesis is that cities are a reflection of transformations in society which manifest themselves in spatial structures and these spatial configurations vice versa influence society. The enclosure of residential neighbourhoods is accordingly understood as a spatial expression of social processes, which itself influences society and urban civic processes. This empirical research investigates social contacts, political engagement and civic concerns and links these processes to the following urban forms of residence: high income closed neighbourhoods; high income open neighbourhoods; middle income open neighbourhoods and low income open neighbourhoods, all situated within the suburban municipality of San Isidro/Buenos Aires. The criteria of analysis were residents’ social contacts, their social and political engagement, their opinions about local government and local politics, and their values given to the public realm, collective goods and other issues of common interest. This thesis mainly draws on two areas of literature: Firstly, interdisciplinary literature about gated communities and focusing on their implications for society, including social, legal, political and institutional perspectives. Secondly, literature from within sociology, social psychology and political theory, which comprise debates about the consequences of the privatisation of public space; contact and conflict and its impact on civic concerns; and the implications of the spread of private urban governance. The core argument is that as civic concerns are influenced by lived experiences with others, the urban forms people inhabit have social and political implications for society. The main finding of this research is that private urban governance in the form of closed neighbourhoods, significantly impacts residents' relationships with their municipal administration and residents' opinions about local government and local politics. An increase in gated communities will thus, in the long run, have substantial consequences for urban civic processes and urban democracy more broadly.

This thesis looks at how Mexico’s new democratic regime led by President Vicente Fox (2000–2006) faced past state crimes perpetrated during the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI’s) seventy-year authoritarian rule (1929–2000). To test the new regime’s democratic viability, Fox’s administration had to settle accounts with the PRI for the abuses the party had perpetrated in the past, but without upsetting it in order to preserve the stability of the new regime. The PRI was still a powerful political force and could challenge Fox’s efforts to democratise the country. Hence, this thesis offers an explanation of the factors that facilitated the emergence of Mexico’s ‘transitional justice’ process without putting at risk Fox’s relationship with the PRI elite. This thesis is framed by a cluster of literature on transitional justice which follows a social-constructivist approach and it is supported by exhaustive documentary research, which I carried out for six years in public and private archives. This thesis argues that Fox established a Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) as he sought to conduct ‘transitional justice’ through the existing structures of power: laws and institutions (e.g., the General Attorney’s Office) administered by members of the previous regime. So, Fox opted to face past abuses but left the task in the hands of the institutions whose members had carried out the crimes or did nothing to prevent them. The PRI rapidly accepted the establishment of the SPO because the most relevant prosecutorial strategy to come to terms with the PRI was arranged by the PRI’s own elite during the authoritarian era – prosecutorial strategy that led to impunity. In this process, the language of human rights played a decisive role as it framed the SPO’s investigations into the past: it determined the kind of violations that qualified for enquiry and, hence, the type of victims who were counted in the process, which perpetrators would be subject to prosecution, and the authorities that would intervene. Categories of human rights violations (e.g. genocide or forced disappearance) were constructed and manipulated in such a way as to grant a de facto amnesty to perpetrators. Fox was able to preserve the stability of the new regime as his prosecutorial strategies never really threatened the PRI elite.

This thesis contributes to understanding two demographically important phenomena: African ageing, and the ageing of the African HIV epidemic. Building on the body of interpretivist demography that privileges context and meanings, it explores older adults’ experiences of becoming old, sexuality and living with HIV in rural Malawi. The research uses a constructivist grounded theory framework. It is based primarily on data produced using repeat dependent interviews (N=135) with older men and women(N=43). These are supplemented by fieldwork observations, as well as data from a three-month multi-site pilot study, interviews with HIV support groups (N=3), and key informant interviews (N=19) and policy documents. The thesis identified sets of meanings surrounding old age and ways of discussing ageing that, taken together, formed an analytical framework. The framework is focused on the importance of maintaining an ‘adult’ identity and draws insights from sociological and psychological identity theories. The adult identity was aligned with personhood. It was situated within the body-centred livelihood system of rural Malawi, and associated with physical production. Old age was understood to limit productivity and thereby an individual’s adult identity. This thesis argues that ostensibly contradictory narratives about ageing experiences can be understood as rhetorical strategies respondents employed to maintain their adult identities. A central tenet of the thesis is that the adult identity (and its childlike counter identity) influenced older adults’ broader experiences and behaviours. This framework is used to explore ageing, as well as sex and HIV infection. The grounded understandings of older adults’ experiences developed in the thesis are presented against dominant understandings of the situation of older adults documented by the academe and in policy and programmatic arena emerging in Malawi. The findings highlight the centrality of wider experiences of ageing for older adults’ experiences of sex and HIV, as well as the broader importance of identity for understanding demographic behaviours and processes. In addition, they demonstrate how grounded theory and repeat dependent interviewing can be used within demographic studies to produce nuanced analytical accounts of the experiences that are most salient for the population of interest.

The aim of my thesis is to investigate the politics of the civil society organizations in policy advocacy for gender equality in China. It adopts an agency-oriented approach to illustrate how women civil society organizations of various kinds actively negotiated gender interests in policy change within limited space and access. Through two advocacy activities, I seek to understand why the desired outcomes were different in these two cases by identifying the variables that either hindered or enhanced the realization of their goals. I focus on two policy issues, namely the equal retirement age in the development of the Civil Servant Law (2005) and domestic violence in the revision of the Marriage Law (2001) and the Women’s Law (2005). These two cases are of interest because the actors of the CSOs involved in advocating policy change met with different success in their efforts. In the case of domestic violence issues, the women’s organizations were able to bring about a change. In the case of the retirement age issue, however, the women’s federation was unable to bring about any desired change. The assumed variables include legitimacy, leadership, organizational forms, organizational learning and sources of funds. These conditioning factors are drawn from previous scholarship in civil society, public policy and social movements. I integrate these factors into a pentagon shaped framework that serves as a road map to guide my discussion throughout the thesis. The theoretical purpose of this study is to enrich understanding of the conditioning factors that are responsible for the results of CSO advocacy in China. On the other hand, it also contains a practical purpose, namely to provide implications for civil society actors seeking to influence policy process in China.