This thesis looks into the later ‘Asylum Age’ in Scotland, concentrating on the legislation and construction of Scotland’s district lunatic asylums from the passing of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1857 to the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1913. Concentrating on the specific geographies of the asylums, what Foucault refers to as “the space reserved by society for insanity” (Foucault, 1965:251), the thesis weaves a new route between previous radical/critical and progressive/simplistic interpretations of the ‘Asylum Age’, by integrating a Foucauldian interpretation with non-representational theories around the engineering of affective atmospheres. This more nuanced approach, which concentrates on the ‘affective power’ of the institutions across different geographical scales (site and situation, grounds and buildings), recognises the ways in which Scotland’s district asylums, constructed predominantly for pauper patients, were moulded and reshaped as the discourses around the treatment of insanity were developed. The moral, medical and hygienic dimensions to the discourses ultimately outlined the institutional geography, by having a profound influence on asylum location and layout. The ideal district ‘blueprint’ for asylum siting and design, as put forward by the Scottish Lunacy Commissioners, is uncovered and reconstructed by ‘picking out’ the macro and micro-geographies discussed in the annual reports of the General Board. The research then moves to uncover the system ‘on the ground’ as it was constructed in bricks-and-mortar by the various district boards. As asylum location and architecture was a relatively novel concern, questions of siting and design became more pertinent, and indeed central, in institutional planning during the decades after the mid-century lunacy reforms. Thus, despite periods of waning enthusiasm for the institution as a mechanism for ‘curing’ insanity, fitting the building to its purposes continually involved a variety of structural innovations, stylistic refinements and new ways of organising the external and internal spaces of the asylums.

This thesis investigates the phenomenon of memoir competitions in communist-era Poland, focusing on contributions to them by Poles of rural origins inhabiting the lands – known as the Recovered Territories – acquired by the postwar Polish state from Germany in 1945. I explore the history of the memoir method in postwar Poland, the processes involved in producing published volumes of competition memoirs – including editing and censorship, and the use of these sources in communist-era and post-1989 sociological, historiographical and interdisciplinary studies. I focus on existing research both on the Recovered Territories, particularly Polish settlement of those lands and the development of new communities there, and also on postwar peasants’ lives, particularly where theories of social advance are applied. In this respect, this investigation adds to existing literature in social history on early postwar Poland. My study also contributes to work in censorship studies by considering Polish censors’ approach to quite exceptional sources. Because in many cases original competition entries are available, it is possible to establish where editors, publishers and censors have intervened, something that is rarely possible with standard works of literature or academic scholarship produced under communism. I consider what strategies different scholars used in presenting published sources and circumventing restrictions imposed. Subaltern studies approaches to speaking and its critique of nation-centred historiography are, meanwhile, applied in investigating the intersection of peasant autobiographies, academic research, scholars and Party-state institutions and their discourses, as I consider how the published communist-era compilations of competition entries framed peasant writing, experience, culture and consciousness, and how these frames potentially conflicted with the authors’ own interpretations of their experiences and social reality. This investigation also contributes to memory studies, a discipline whose approach to communist and totalitarian states is particularly problematic as many studies assume significant restrictions were imposed not only on publication but also on autobiographical memory expressed in usually unrecorded private and local spheres. I explore whether memory studies’ typical approach, based in notions of competing claims might also apply to Poland under state socialism. Bakhtin’s theories of dialogism prove useful in exploring the history of memory under communism, rather than the memory of it – as is commonplace today in oral history-based studies, for example. It is in respect of censorship studies and memory studies that this thesis makes its most substantial original contributions to research. My research draws on substantial archival research conducted in Poland, where I explored censorship archives in Warsaw and Poznań, Party and ministerial archives, and the Polish Academy of Science archive, since numerous memoir sociologists and rural sociologists were based there. I also used archives housing original competition entries, the main locations being: The Institute of Western Affairs in Poznań (Instytut Zachodni – IZ), the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Science (Instytut Historyczny PAN – IH PAN) and the Museum of the History of the Polish Peasant Movement (MHRPL in Piaseczno, near Tczew). I consider published volumes alongside original sources where possible, although substantial losses have occurred to the store of popular autobiography. Chapter 1 outlines the background of Polish memoir sociology and the main methods and theories used in this investigation, ranging from subaltern studies through Bakhtin to autobiography studies. Chapter 2 focuses on memory studies, including the field’s approach to communist and postcommunist countries, before outlining aspects of censorship studies relevant to this investigation. I end Chapter 2 on a case study of the memoir compilation Miesiąc mojego życia [A Month in my Life – MMŻ; (1964)] and its treatment by censors. Chapter 3 explores recent English- and Polish-language historiography on the Recovered Territories, concentrating on, firstly, how historians have used the memoir resources in considering the early postwar years, and, secondly, how peasants are represented within the recent wave of works exploring Polish communism through nationalism and popular legitimation. I end on a case study of one particular memoir by a female settler to the new Polish lands, highlighting the value of the competition entries as thick descriptions. Chapter 4 investigates the mainstream communist-era memoir movement where the leading analytical concept for approaching peasants and social change was ‘social advance’, developed from Józef Chałasiński’s prewar sociology. I explore how the nine-volume series Młode pokolenie wsi Polski Ludowej [The Young Generation of Rural People’s Poland – MPWPL; (1964-1980)] and other memoir-based studies approached peasants and the Recovered Territories, which were often framed as a site of quicker and more intensive social advance and urbanisation. I also explore the autobiographies of Poles who lost their homelands in the prewar eastern borderlands in the context of today’s assumptions that ‘repatriants’, as the eastern Poles were known under communism, were largely absent from communist-era publications. 4 Chapter 5 considers the academic sociology of the Western Territories, developed at IZ, and how materials from its 1956/57 memoir competition on settlers were used alongside fieldwork. I explore the sociological frameworks developed for analysing migration, settlement and community development, noting that some studies from the 1960s can today be considered forerunners of migration studies and memory studies. Chapter 6 specifically considers the publication Pamiętniki osadników Ziem Odzyskanych [Memoirs of Recovered Territories Settlers – POZO; (1963)], investigating original entries alongside published materials to explore editors’ and academics’ role in censorship, while also investigating how the volume was received in the press. Chapter 7 explores the production of the four-volume series Wieś polska 1939-1948 [Rural Poland 1939-1948; (1967-1971)] by historian-editors Krystyna Kersten and Tomasz Szarota, who treated these previously-unpublished texts written in 1948 explicitly as historical sources, thus contrasting with previously dominant sociological approaches while also posing specific problems for censors as the editors employed a unique method of summaries in an attempt to make the entire set of some 1700 texts available to readers. Exploring different approaches to memoir publication, I aim to illustrate the diversity of the published sphere in People’s Poland, while demonstrating the heterogeneity of ordinary Poles’ memories submitted to different competitions between 1948 and 1970. While the value of the archived sources should be quite evident, exploration of censorship and editing processes should demonstrate the value of compilations and indeed communist-era scholarship, which is often overlooked today. By avoiding totalitarian schools of historiography and memory studies, I aim to demonstrate that competition memoirs illustrated ordinary Poles’ agency within historical and social processes, while also stressing their agency over their memories and autobiographical narratives which at the same time were, as in any society, cultural and social constructs.

Over recent years, the issue of how to manage waste sustainably has intensified for both researchers and policy makers. From a policy perspective, the reason for this intensification can be traced to European legislation and its transposition into UK policy. The Welsh Government in particular has set challenging statutory targets for Local Authorities. Such targets include increases in recycling and composting as well as waste reduction and reuse targets. From a research perspective there has been dissatisfaction with behavioural models and their willingness to explore alternative social science thinking (such as leading approaches to practice). Despite policy interest in sustainable waste practices, there remains little research which focuses specifically on waste minimisation at the individual or household level. What research exists focuses on pro-environmental or recycling behaviour, and tends to focus upon values, intention and behavioural change, rather than on what actual practices occur, and for what reasons. This research focuses on what practices take place in order to access a more complex range of reasons why such practices take place. The methodology adopts a qualitative approach to uncovering practices in a variety of contexts, and discovers a number of key insights which underpin waste minimisation practice. This thesis demonstrates that waste minimisation performances take place, but often do so ‘unwittingly’. Coupled to this, many witting or unwitting waste minimisation actions occur for reasons other than concern for the environment. Furthermore, this research suggests that practices (and their motivations) vary dependent upon the context in which they occur. In general, three key themes were found to be significant in influencing the take up and transfer of practice: cost, convenience, and community. As a waste practitioner, the researcher is able to engage with these themes in order to suggest future directions for waste minimisation policy as well as research.

The overall goal of this thesis is to examine three divergent literature streams, cultural capital, social capital and communities of practice (CoPs), in the context of social marketing theory. The thesis explores the means through which social and cultural capital are exchanged between two groups using social marketing techniques within a CoP framework and considers anti-social behaviour, experiential marketing and relationship marketing literatures. Four theoretical propositions are examined using mixed method and longitudinal action research approaches within a practical road safety intervention. The goal of the ‘live’ intervention sought to encourage the adoption of advanced driving practices in a group of young male drivers. Behaviour change was measured pre- and post- intervention using In Vehicle Data Recorders (IVDRs), questionnaire surveys and measured driver assessments. Supplementary qualitative insights were generated using observations, one-to-one interviews and focus groups. An understanding of advanced driving practices was achieved through extensive participation in advanced driver training by the researcher. The results of the investigation identified two groups of road users each exhibiting distinct tastes and preferences within a framework of concepts derived from the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The evidence suggests that following intervention, and including the socialisation of these groups, a positive shift occurred in the adoption of advanced driving practices. Contribution is made to social marketing theory through the application of Bourdieu’s cultural capital ‘taste zones’ applied to a social marketing context. Social marketing is then portrayed as playing a ‘bridging’ function between two groups. This approach portrays the role of social marketing as a facilitator of positive ‘customer–customer’ interactions as opposed to a more traditional ‘customer–change-agent’ orientation. Furthermore, the CoP concept is suggested as a viable mechanism through which this modified orientation can be achieved. Key words: social marketing, cultural capital, social capital, communities of practice, road safety, advanced driving.

The years 1853 to 1960 constituted a period of prohibition for off-course cash betting on horses. Despite this, and in the face of a vocal anti-gambling lobby, the working-class flutter flourished as the basis of a commercialised betting market. Over this period, gambling changed from the informal wagering between friends and associates which characterised pre-industrial society, to the commercialised forms, supplied by bookmakers and leisure entrepreneurs, in which, ostensibly, the punters were mere passive consumers. By 1939, the three most popular forms of gambling were off-course betting on horses, the football pools, and betting at greyhound tracks. Beyond this was a hinterland of friendly but competitive petty gaming with coins and cards, and on local sports, which remained relatively untouched by commercialisation. A study of popular gambling tells us much about the relationship of the state to working-class recreation, and about the nature of working-class recreation itself. The unifying theme of this thesis is that the predominant forms of betting which had developed by 1960 were a testament to the moderation and self-determination of working-class leisure. Betting had become central to a shared national culture which defined itself only apolitically in class terms, and more in terms of `sportsman' or punter versus `faddist'. Those who berated gambling were un-English. The law was ignored by those who enjoyed, as they saw it, a harmless flutter. The state eventually came round to this viewpoint.

This thesis investigates volunteering and place-belonging amongst historical and environmental interest groups in The National Forest. With the main focus on the nature of environmental and local historical interest groups, the volunteers who are involved with these groups and their senses of belonging and relationships with place. Based on a review of 59 environmental and historical interest groups, 41 interviews, seven ethnographic participations and consideration of various group documents this study investigates the composition of these environmental groups, the volunteers who choose to be involved with these groups and their senses of belonging and relationships with the changing places they are active within. The geographical study area focuses on a specific place which has recently undergone significant landscape changes in relation to the designation of the area as The National Forest. Within The National Forest there are a number of voluntary environmental and historical interest groups operating, which have, through the nature of their interests, developed particular relationships with places. This thesis is based within the wider context of environmental and historical interest volunteering. The groups considered are centred round often interrelated local historical and environmental interests, involving active volunteering in and around the area designated as The National Forest. The scene is set for this research with a critical review of literature relating to volunteering, relationships with place and the development of voluntary environmental and historical interests.

This thesis compares the identity politics of Frantz Fanon and ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy. After framing an interpretative paradigm through which the core ideas of Fanon could be deciphered, an interpretation of Fanon as a rigorous critic of identity politics is arrived at. Exploring Fanon’s strained relation with the particularist Black identity politics of Negritude and his own imperative for the need to transcend from particularist identity politics to a genuine, universal humanism, I seek to prove that while Fanon rejected the false universalism of European humanism, he did not support rigidly identitarian movements either. Fanon’s universalism was based on a reciprocal and respectful recognition between cultures and peoples, working towards a universal humanism. After a brief introduction to the socio-historical context of Ramasamy’s politics, I then use this Fanonist lens to critique the anti-caste political discourse of Ramasamy, especially how he articulated his concerns towards the Brahmin Other and the non-Brahmin Self, and his approach towards the untouchable Dalit castes. I argue that his fixation with the Brahmin identity as the ultimate Other responsible for the inferiorization of the non-Brahmin castes, and his consideration of this identity as immutable and irredeemable, made a lasting universality impossible. Yet, Ramasamy’s penetrating insights on the myriad ways in which native culture in the colony oppresses minorities and marginalized groups challenges Fanon’s beliefs in the redemptive power of Third World anti-colonial universality. In the conclusion, based on the dialogue between Ramasamy and Fanon, I explore the limits of particularism and the needs of universalism, making a case for a constitutive, but conditional, pluralism.

This study focuses on the issue of internalised racism depicted in contemporary African American children’s and young adult literature, utilising Critical Race Theory (CRT) as its key theoretical framework. The study addresses three main thesis questions: (i) What effects does internalised racism have on the marginalised characters, and what are its manifestations? (ii) What narrative strategies have been utilised by the authors to help the characters regain and reclaim their sense of self? (iii) What is the contribution of CRT to children’s and young adult literature? Through critical analyses of the following texts-Tanita S Davis’s (2009) Mare’s War, Jacqueline Woodson’s (2007) Feathers and her 1994’s I Hadn’t Meanto Tell You This, Sharon G Flake’s (2005) Who Am I Without Him and her 1998’s The Skin I’m In, and Sapphire’s (1996) Push—the study examines the effects of internalised racism and offers the young characters the way forward. From a CRT standpoint, it is argued that the study shifts the boundary of literary landscape and enriches both race and literary scholarships by offering new messages, viewpoints and positions, and, crucially, developing a new critical discourse regarding the issue of internalised racism, particularly in critical literary research representing children’s and young adult literature. It defamiliarises the very issue that otherwise has become normalised in American racial discourse, and reaffirms the relevance of ‘race, racism, and racialisation’ in the American landscape. It also argues that literary texts included in this study are a consequential chapter of African American history, or “a new collective history”, which can be used to heal both the individual and the collective, balance the stories, and alter the dominant discourse. The study also analyses the concept of paradigmatic optimism typically found in children’s and young adult literature, and argues that this generic feature is not a flaw but is rather a different trait.

During the prelude to the Cold War a substantial section of the British press gave a noticeably cool response to the new line towards Soviet Russia proposed first by Churchill at Fulton from Opposition and pursued subsequently at the policy-making level by Ernest Bevin and the Foreign Office. These newspapers looked in particular with sympathy upon the security aspirations of the Soviet Union in eastern Europe and were not therefore predisposed to see in unilateral Soviet moves in that region conclusive evidence of a sinister overall design on the part of the Soviet Union for continental mastery. What is most remarkable about this understanding attitude towards Soviet moves in eastern Europe is that it extended beyond the progressive press (defined for our purposes as the Labour and Liberal press) to include leading elements in the Conservative press. For important sections of that press signally failed to respond with appropriate enthusiasm in a partisan manner to the foreign policy lead offered by the Conservative leader at Fulton. These same newspapers had disagreed with Churchill's foreign policy views in the thirties, supporting the appeasement of Germany when he had opposed it. In the nineteen forties their natural inclination again would be to support policies of conciliation and accommodation in international affairs, this time in regard to Soviet Russia, at a time when the Conservative leader was himself urging a policy of firmness in confronting the soviet danger and had given at Fulton a deliberate warning against those who advocated a policy of `appeasement' with regard to Russia. This thesis attempts to trace the background to the development of such sympathetic press attitudes towards the Soviet Union during the prelude to the Cold War. It attempts to analyse the content and the range of press coverage of Anglo-Soviet relations in the period before the Cold War had crystallized, with an eye in particular to identifying those lessons drawn by the press and offered to the policy-makers as to how in future British policy towards Russia might most wisely be conducted.(DX89814)

This thesis aims to expand scholarship on civil society and peace-building through exploration of civil society’s experiences, perspectives, and practices in relation to the politics of peace-building and human (in)security in instances of victor’s peace, using post-war Sri Lanka as case study. It adopts Human Security as an analytical approach calling attention to insecurities operating on and through Sri Lankans but also the nature of power dynamics underlying these insecurities based on the subjective and political nature of ‘peace’ itself. The thesis contributes conceptually and empirically to knowledge of the operation of victor’s peace and its implications for civil society in peace-building. This thesis’s central contention is that acts of securitization and governmentality carried out by Sri Lanka’s central governmental elite within and enabled by the victor’s peace have constricted spaces for civil society to articulate alternatives or engage in critical dialogue within the political process fostered under the victor’s peace. This study, thus, questions romanticized notions of the potentiality of ‘local’ resistances to shift structural inequalities and power asymmetries in victor’s peace. At a disciplinary level, the thesis also deepens knowledge, first, on civil society as complex and contested sphere. It argues that to conceptualize civil society as homogenous or inherently altruistic risks drastically oversimplifying its highly diffuse nature and politics within the sector in which certain actors may benefit within the victor’s peace and engage in ‘peace’-building activities in order to both capitalise on those benefits and sustain the victor’s peace. Second, the thesis addresses the nexus between civil society and peace-building, and specifically the politics of peace-building, in the victor’s peace. In not being constrained by negotiated peace settlement it asserts that, as in Sri Lanka, instances of victor’s peace can quickly transition into repressive environments. Here it is unlikely that civil society, despite innovative methods of exercising agency, can significantly alter the trajectories of the ‘peace’, and further that those civil society actors that support the victor’s peace may seek to exploit the benefits they gain from it at the expense of the human security of others. Finally, the thesis asserts that, ultimately, Human Security’s utility may lie not as political agenda that validates external intervention based on a ‘responsibility’ to intervene, but as a conceptual framework for developing deeper understandings of the nature of (in)security and factors driving (in)security at multiple levels of analysis within different articulations or ‘types’ of peace.