This thesis consists of a series of papers relating to the nature, purpose and measurement of social impact. Paper 1 makes an empirical contribution to the understanding of firm incentives to be perceived as social, and finds that even quite distinct variants of social enterprises can nevertheless benefit form a strategic use of social responsibility. Paper 2 relates to the theoretical prediction that non-profits will deliver higher standards of quality in markets where this quality is hard to observe, and tests this, possibly for the first time in the literature, in the case of unemployment support services. In contrast to existing literature, we do not find strong evidence of for-profit vs. non-profit differentials in product quality, be it observed or unobserved. The immediate focus of Paper 3 and Paper 4 is on the role of access to light in the socio-economic transformation and growth of rural communities in the developing world, which partly constitutes a second strand of this thesis. Using a randomised controlled trial, Paper 3 identifies strong evidence of a causal link between access to light and educational attainment. Through a further randomised controlled trial, Paper 4 finds that access to light contributes to a diversification in household livelihoods from agricultural to non-farm economic activities. To our knowledge, this constitutes the first robust evidence that small-scale lighting sources can help stimulate the very first steps in the direction of economic transformation. Importantly, Paper 3 and Paper 4 also speak to the questions of measurement of social impact evoked in Papers 1 and 2 and some of the practical challenges typically faced in this pursuit. Bringing these various threads together, these papers contribute to our understanding of contemporary social enterprise, with a particular focus on the role of information and its measurement in tightly linking social enterprise with genuine social impact.

The thesis concentrates on examining how images and representations have shaped a discourse on homosexuality, and how, in turn, this has shaped a gay and lesbian social and group identity. It explores the political, media, and social spheres to show how at any point during this period, images of homosexuality and identity were being projected in society, contributing to public ideas about sexual identity. This is broken down into three chronological time periods: a ‘gay liberation’ period during the 1960s and 1970s, a ‘visible subculture’ period during the late 1970s and 1980s, and a ‘becoming mainstream’ period in the 1990s and early 2000s. The central premise of this thesis is that identity is not just self-created, but is often the result of the images and messages we see around us. Thus while other historians have concentrated on how men and women have created and adopted their own sexual identities, this thesis looks at how images in society have influenced a public discourse on homosexuality which has helped create social and group identities. Taken together, these images help create a group identity, which often has much more relevance for how the majority of people understand what it means to define someone as a gay man or a lesbian in any of the three periods studied. Thus, a publically-perceived sexual identity is created which is used by both heterosexual people in forming ideas about gay life, and homosexual people in discovering their own sexuality and sexual identity. The political/legal sections of the thesis use a wealth of primary sources including Hansard, Government reports, oral testimony, lobbying papers, manifestos, memoirs, public statements, newsletters, minutes, and social surveys. The media sections use newspapers, magazines, films, and television programmes, while the social sections rely on oral testimony, the records of gay groups, pictures, newsletters, maps, health campaign literature, memoirs, and news articles. Taken together, they provide examples of the dominant images being projected in the three time periods, by these three media. While this thesis recognises that there is no single gay identity at any one point – with various exclusions and competing ideas being presented – there is a more general picture framed in each of these periods. The conclusion recognises the role of images in society in creating sexual identities, while also examining the overall development of a gay social and group identity from its inception at the beginning of this period, to its place at the end.

The phenomenon of rapid global urbanisation, urban trends and processes have recently become a topic of increased scholarly inquiry. Yet, little attention has been paid to how urbanisation fits within the post-Malthusian framework and how it affects the most basic resources essential for human survival. By attempting to fill this gap, this thesis contributes, both conceptually and empirically, to the current body of literature on population and development. The thesis is composed of three stand-alone yet interconnected papers (Chapters 3-5), each addressing a set of distinct research problems and questions. Each paper uses a separate dataset developed for the purpose of the study, analysed by means of regression modelling. While anchored in the Malthusian and post-Malthusian literature, all papers are supplemented by additional theoretical and conceptual lines of thought, thus aiming to adapt a holistic approach. Paper One seeks to reorient the Malthusian theory by proposing an initial post-Malthusian framework with a focus on the urbanisation-food security nexus. The quantitative analysis of country-level data confirms that urban growth has a significant negative impact on food security and that the strength of this association is altered by the human development context. In particular, countries’ education has been found to have a significant attenuating effect on the relationship between urban growth and food in security risk. The research questions in Paper Two have been motivated by the Simonian arguments related to the power of human capital in overcoming challenges presented by population growth. The paper tests five interrelated hypotheses pertaining to the impacts of urbanisation on households’ access to safe drinking water in the least developed countries (LDCs), as well as the presumed mitigating impact of human capital on these associations. The results show a differential effect of urbanisation on water access, which is moderated by households’ human capital. Finally, Paper Three aims to examine intra-urban inequalities in children’s nutritional outcomes in selected LDCs experiencing differen t pace of urbanisation. The results confirm that most rapidly urbanising LDCs suffer from greater intra-urban inequalities, which are exacerbated by parents’ lack of education. In addition, mother’s socio-economic characteristics and child’s birth weight are confirmed to be significant predictors of child undernutrition. Overall, this research highlights that the Malthusian theory remains a relevant source of inspiration for contemporary population and development studies; in particular with reference to investigating the determinants of basic necessities, such as food and water. Inasmuch, the revised post-Malthusian framework can constitute a useful basis for future empirical studies and policymaking which deal with practical challenges resulting from global urbanisation processes.

The thesis is a geographical study of the rural and urban settlements of the United Provinces. the work falls into three sections. Part 1 deals with the salient geographical features of the area, and the distribution and recent changes of population in relation to the geographical setting; Part II and III are devoted respectively to rural and urban settlements. In Part II the distribution, sitting and size of rural settlements have first been discussed in relation to physiography, soils, hydrography and arable land. The types of settlements (agglomerated, dispersed and intermediate arrangements) have nest been considered and the physical and cultural factors influencing the various types and their distribution have been examined. Thereafter are describe and interpreted the shape and pattern of villages (on the basis of the arrangement of their dwellings and lanes) and lastly the main house types and their regional distribution. In Part III the origin and growth of towns has been discussed, their existing distribution examined and explanations offered for their regional concentration. The size and functions of the towns have next been considered bringing out the relation between the town and country and the relative importance of the various functions in the cities and smaller towns. After this we study the morphology of the towns with some detailed discussion of the five biggest cities, followed by a general classification and interpretation of the town plans of the Province. Finally the main findings have been brought together in a concluding chapter. The new contributions consist essentially in a detailed study of the correlations of the physical and cultural features with settlements. The analysis of the relations between the number, size and spacing of villages is new as are the studies of village patterns and settlement types. Original observations have been made on the aspect and morphology of towns and attention has been drawn to their historical origins as affecting their general distributional pattern.

This thesis concerns itself with the effects of factor mobility on the economic development of geographically distinct regions. In Chapter 1, it is shown with a simple model of endogenous growth that brain drain leads to divergence of growth rates. But if return migration is introduced as a source of technology diffusion, a trade-off between brain drain and technology gain arises. Return migration leads to convergence of economic development, if the cost of remaining in the foreign country are relatively high and the transferability of technology is good. This is, because then returnees bring not only along the new technology but also high talent. In a model, where a less developed country imports high quality products and produces low quality products, there might be a trade off between imports and foreign engagement in technology transfer to the local industry. Chapter 2 shows under which conditions a tariff induces technology transfer. Two cases are considered: market integration and market segmentation in prices. In both cases there exists a tariff that induces technology transfer to the low-quality firm. The positive welfare effect of the quality upgrade is more pronounced in the second case, however, because the tariff induces a reduction in the high-quality firm's price in addition to the improvement of the local quality. A spatial model of foreign direct investment (FDI) is analysed in Chapter 3. In that framework the distance between production locations increases with the size of the market covered and therefore with firm size. If a surprise-investment-location arises close by, it attracts less investment than if it had been anticipated and mainly from firms in the vicinity. We find empirical support for our model with German industry survey data. Small investing firms go mainly to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Medium sized firms are dissuaded from investing in CEE, if they have already invested elsewhere. Big investing firms typically go to CEE and to the rest of the world.

In seeking to explain social exclusion. politicians. academics. and commentators alike have highlighted the role of social relationships in securing life chances. In recent years, these discussions have been characterised by three debates; those around the underclass, social cohesion and social capital. Each offers a commentary on the causes of social exclusion and community breakdown which is rooted in a focus on the social interactions within deprived neighbourhoods. As a result these debates raise many questions about the relationship between people, place and the public realm. This thesis contributes to our understanding of these issues by looking at these issues using a social psychological approach. Using a methodological framework grounded in the paradigm of social representations it analyses the cognitive actions of individuals and groups within a locality. This reveals how they generate and maintain a "cultural stock of knowledge". the social relationships which underpin this "lifeworld" and its influence on the life chances of the residents. In particular this research looks at the impact of this lifeworld on public services and regeneration projects in the research area. seeking to understand what effect the lifeworld has on their success or failure. This thesis builds on previous studies grounded in sociological and anthropological research methods in two ways. In the first instance it confirms the importance of socially constructed knowledge to social structures and the role they play in life chances. Yet using a social psychological approach also otTers an innovative way of exploring how socially constructed knowledge is created.maintained and changed by individuals and groups in their mental processes. In doing so, this thesis shows how important such knowledge is in determining social networks, social acts and social change. It therefore reveals how a social psychological approach to social exclusion can complement other forms of research into this phenomenon.

In health care, decision makers are faced with increasing innovation and demand for services accompanied by escalating costs. As a result, governments and institutions have sought to promote health care value (i.e. better outcomes per moneys spent). A summary measure of health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) to help decide how to allocate available resources is thus highly desirable. In no other area of public policy has a measure similar to the widely-used quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) been developed. The QALY is therefore unique in both its ambitions and in the political, philosophical and measurement challenges it faces. This thesis set out to examine health state valuation using the time-trade off (TTO), a tool used to measure HRQoL, in the context of a behavioural economic framework. Observed violations of procedural and descriptive invariance, cornerstones of decision theory (on which the TTO is based), have been witnessed in health state valuation and elsewhere. Behavioural economics offers a framework by which such inconsistencies can potentially be better understood. Although behavioural economics has gained traction in other areas of decision research, its application to health state valuation has been limited. Drawing on the decision-making literature and health-specific considerations, the empirical studies in this thesis: provide insight into why previous studies of the TTO have yielded inconsistent findings, showcase violations of internal consistency due to behavioural economic phenomena, and identify issues relevant to the choice of TTO ‘version’ (i.e. how values should be elicited). Implications of the research in terms of stated preference methods and their role in policy are discussed. A strict focus on the TTO was intended, as it is the tool most widely implemented in health state preference elicitation, both in research contexts and clinical studies that seek to demonstrate cost-effectiveness. However, importantly, the empirical findings and discussion in this thesis are relevant not only to researchers of health state valuation but to policy makers in health and other areas of social policy which seek input for their decisions through stated preference exercises.

In June 2013, the largest series of protests that Brazil had experienced in more than twenty years erupted in cities across the country. News from Brazil and abroad reported that people protested against the money that local authorities spent on hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, rather than on the provision of basic public services. The demonstrations, which journalists and academics called the June Journeys, challenged the Brazilian authorities’ efforts to construct and project an image of Brazil as a harmonious and modern nation. This thesis focusses on the reasons and conditions underpinning the media coverage of the June Journeys in relation to the image of Brazil. The study explores the tensions for and over the symbolic construction, projection and contestation of the nation in the current interrelated, transnational and contentintensive media environment. Theoretically, the thesis draws on scholarship on nationalism, media and nationhood, media and social movements, and mediated visibility. Empirically, the study analyses two datasets: (1) 797 newspaper articles, television reports, online videos and photos produced by Brazil’s main newspapers and television newscasts, alternative media collectives, and a selection of foreign media from the United States and Western Europe; (2) sixty-three interviews with Brazilian journalists, foreign correspondents, activists and government officials, who participated in the media coverage of the protests. The analysis of these two datasets suggests that the current media environment is a space of constraint rather than pluralism, in which traditional power imbalances are reproduced. The authorities, activists and journalists constructed competing images of Brazil and then employed strikingly similar strategies to make these images visible. The research also underlines how norms, routines, market imperatives and technologies shape and limit the type of images of the nation shown by these various individuals and organisations through the media.

The thesis is a study of social assistance policies and practices towards separated wives and divorced and never-married women with children between 1948 and 1966 in Britain. It uses historical analysis of archival documents to address questions regarding gender and welfare state change. In doing so, the thesis builds on and critically examines existing social policy discourse concerned with the historical shift away from assumptions that women would be wives and/or mothers towards an assumption that all adults are, or should be, workers that has been linked to restructuring, the rise of neo-liberalism and social-economic change. The research focuses on policies towards this group of women because they have long been identified as a kind of ‘litmus test’ of women’s more general position within the welfare state. Policy towards this group of women offers a window into the relationship between ideas about gender, class, race, political economy and the state. The research makes three distinct contributions to different areas of scholarly debate. First, it further develops the conceptual analysis of gender and welfare state change. In contrast to much of the existing literature that has emphasized the significance of recent changes in the structural context and principles that shape policies, this research draws attention to important continuities in the interaction between social-economic shifts, political ideas and the position of women in relation to the state. Second, the research brings to light a great deal of previously unexplored archival material that provide new perspectives on the 1950s. While they support and build on recent revisionist histories of the decade, they challenge the conventional wisdom about the postwar welfare state and the idea of postwar ‘consensus’ that social policy scholarship tends to rely on. Finally, the research provides an empirical study of the role of institutions and bureaucratic agents in policy development, and demonstrates the important insights gained from multilayered historical analysis in understanding the complex interactions between actors, ideas and structures that underpin the policy process.

In Scotland, medical understanding of, medical practice in relation to, and medical attitudes towards stillbirth, its prevention and management underwent significant changes throughout the twentieth century. This thesis argues that these changes were shaped by technological and scientific advances in medicine, greater specialisation, and changes in public health practices. It also argues, however, that medical developments were closely linked to broader social, legal and religious concerns around the meanings given to stillbirth. This thesis focuses particularly on the ways in which these developments were evident in Glasgow, and locates change more broadly within Scotland, and indeed, Britain as a whole. This thesis underlines the reasons behind the medical attention towards stillbirths and the prevention of stillbirths from the early twentieth century onwards. It also shows how the legislations in regards to stillbirths as well as the societal perspective on stillbirth influenced and were influenced by the changing medical attention. Medical articles and reports on stillbirths in Glasgow, Scotland and the rest of Britain were analysed to investigate the progress and increase knowledge in understanding the causes of stillbirths and how to prevent those stillbirths. It is highlighted how the medical community focused first on purely obstetric causes of stillbirths to then extend their gaze towards broader causes such as social class and nutrition. The thesis also emphasises how the attention towards stillbirth by the medical profession encouraged always greater medicalisation and hospitalisation of childbearing and childbirth, and this trend was accelerated after the establishment of the National Health Service. The welfare system was a promise of a healthy population, in regards to pregnancy and childbirth, of live births. This meant a medical responsibility was felt to offer the best care, skills and technologies available in order to deliver healthy live babies, hence averting any preventable stillbirths. A lower fertility rate, the promise of live birth through highly skilled medical care and the increased use of obstetric ultrasound changed the societal view of fetuses towards them being regarded as babies even during pregnancy, and thus changed societal perceptions of stillbirth. From the late 1970s, the evolution in society’s views towards stillbirth influenced the medical perspective by demanding a change in the management of stillbirth alongside the provision of support to mothers and, where applicable, their families. Medical professionals, for example, stopped telling women to just start planning for a new pregnancy, but emphasis on the loss that was a stillbirth and the need to grieve became central. This is one of the numerous transformations around the management and support to mothers/families that will be highlighted. This thesis also argues that the evolution in the understanding and prevention of stillbirths by the medical profession as well as the changes of the societal view on stillbirth resulted in developments towards the religious perspective on stillbirth in the late twentieth century, with regards to theology and pastoral care. The changes in medical perspectives towards stillbirths are highlighted, and also how they influenced legalisations, and societal and religious views. The evolution throughout the twentieth century, and especially in the late twentieth century, of those different perspectives are the reasons behind our current understanding of stillbirths and the way we respond to stillbirth. This thesis contributes to increase our understanding of the medical developments around stillbirth as well as the inter-relationship between these different aspects influencing stillbirths in twentieth century Scotland and Britain. An example of this would be that the medical advances helped prevent stillbirth as well as increase the fetal viability earlier in pregnancy, explaining the change of the legal definition of stillbirth in 1992 in Scotland, England and Wales.