Enquiry-based blended learning (EBBL) research in social work education forms the basis of this submission. The core EBBL theme is defined, developed and analysed through four avenues of research, namely, scenario-planning, teaching and learning using EBBL, researching students’ experiences of EBBL and embedding EBBL practices in interdisciplinary higher education. One software publication is submitted illustrating how the author’s ability to work at the intersection of social work practice experience, learning design innovation and digital technology development has enabled him to present a unique perspective in this area of research. Two written and two software publications set the context for the scenario-planning themes that have influenced the EBBL research. Four themed written publications explore the development of teaching and learning approaches using EBBL, and lessons from students’ experiences of engaging with these EBBL designs. Two written publications explore the barriers and enablers to embedding EBBL practices in interdisciplinary higher education. Using enquiry, a mixture of face-to-face and online teaching methods, life-like learning scenarios and opportunities to engage in independent and group-based learning, the research illustrates that EBBL approaches can help educators to enable learners to meet and, where possible, exceed the requirements of pre-qualifying social work education.

This study seeks to develop a more practical and praxis-driven approach to Dalit Theology and its engagement with grassroots Dalit Christians. Dalit Theology is contextual and liberative. It emerged as a counter to Indian Christian theology, which ignored the caste affected life experience of Dalits, who form the majority in the Indian church. It aims to go beyond the merely spiritual in seeking to empower Dalit people and transform society. However, the well reflected and articulated liberational theological themes of Dalit Theology seem to remain mostly within academia and the ecclesia. They have not adequately engaged with grass roots Dalit Christians who face severe discrimination and constant struggle against caste oppression. Therefore, this study is an attempt to analyse the status and potentials of Dalit Theology among grass roots Dalit Christians as a motivational force and to offer a methodological framework to enlarge Dalit Theology as a Practical theology of liberation. The construction of Dalit Theology as a Practical theology of praxis among the grass roots hopes to facilitate the process of bringing about change in their personal life and the formation of a transformed society for both Dalits and non-Dalits to lead a caste-free life.

Familial child maltreatment continues to be an area of concern in child protection proceedings which often involves the psychological assessment of parents. Research has demonstrated that a significant number of parents assessed in child protection proceedings report experiences of victimisation in their own childhoods. While the consequences of childhood maltreatment are well known, few studies have focused on the intergenerational patterns of child maltreatment amongst mothers involved in child protection proceedings. This thesis attempts to explore the transmission of maternal child abuse and neglect through systematic review of literature in the field, a study comparing mothers who abuse with mothers who neglect, and a critique of a psychometric measure of personality in parents subject to child protection proceedings. Understanding interpersonal differences in intergenerational neglectful and abusive mothers involved in childcare proceedings may lead to the development of effective interventions which may disrupt the generational transmission of child maltreatment.

This thesis intervenes in one of the most prominent recent debates in development theory – that between post-development theorists and their critics – and brings to it insights drawn from the experiences of a Senegalese non-governmental organisation, Enda Graf Sahel. I begin by providing a critical discussion of the post-development debate and then detail the question which guides this investigation, namely: how can we, the relatively privileged, respond meaningfully to poverty and injustice in the light of the post-development debate? I present three possible responses to my research question. Firstly, I argue that the relatively privileged have a role to play in rethinking the concepts of ‘poverty’ and ‘injustice’. Secondly, I discuss the kinds of support that we may provide to popular organisations; and finally, I describe ways in which those of us who are relatively privileged may change aspects of our own lives and settings in solidarity with the struggles of the poor and oppressed. Throughout, I draw extensively both on the post-development debate and on the experiences and insights of Enda Graf Sahel to show how we can move past a simple defence or rejection of post-development theory in order to meaningfully respond to poverty and injustice.

This doctoral thesis explores how personalisation gets done in one children’s social work team. It is concerned with the everyday work of social work. Arising from an interest in the stories told about personalisation, its slipperiness and its stickiness, the study explores how amorphous and multiple claims for user choice and control play out on the professional frontline. It does this through the prism of an agent-focused institutional ethnography of social work practice. The study is inspired by a concern with naturally-occurring talk, interaction and discourse, exploring the sense-making and disciplining activities of social workers as they are tasked with making personalisation real. I explore how performances of personalisation are made visible and justifiable within the context of social work with children and families. Through the immersive nature of the case the study encounters paradigmatic themes of contemporary social work with children and families - needs talk, the realities of market-based choice and the moral warrant of child-centred talk. These paradigmatic features impede upon and emerge within the local production of personalisation, uncovering incongruities as workers are caught between burgeoning facilitative cultures for practice and the entrapment of instrumental forms of system rationality at a time of risk anxiety.

This thesis presents the findings of an actor-centred constructivist case study into the policy community emerging around Hydrogen and Fuel Cell innovation. Emerging at the intersection between increasingly networked energy; climate and industrial policy, innovation has been the focal point of literatures advocating transitions towards more sustainable socio-technical systems. The thesis develops an interpretivist-constructivist methodology to sketch how actor interpretations of competency and context inform the interests and strategies in innovation policy processes. Drawing on interviews and extensive documentary research it argues that while innovation governance is, in part, a product of networked interactions between HFC community members, these interactions are circumscribed by prevailing policy paradigms. Expressed via a commercial logic and empowered by the resources of large industrial firms, such paradigms de-politicise governance practices and align innovation priorities around those compatible with the interests of large industrial interests. The thesis contributes to our understanding of interpretation as the means by which ideas and resources shape strategic interaction, and serves to remind us that networked governance can close down as well as open up spaces of participation in policy processes.

Both volume I and II of this thesis are submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Clinical Psychology (ClinPsyD) at the University of Birmingham. Volume I includes the research component, comprising of three papers; a literature review, empirical paper and public domain briefing document. Both the literature review and empirical paper were prepared for submission to the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, although contrary to journal requirements (see Appendix A for author’s guidelines), tables and figures have been integrated into the text. Volume II includes the clinical component, comprising of five papers; a formulation of one client from two psychological perspectives, a service evaluation, a single case experimental design and two case studies. Client anonymity is ensured throughout through the use of pseudonyms which have been applied to all individuals included within each report.

Background: Aggressive behaviour exhibited by adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) can negatively affect the person and those around them. Aims: To longitudinally investigate the topography and trajectory of aggressive behaviour and to identify cross-sectional and prospective risk factors including personal characteristics, co-morbid conditions and contextual factors in a clinical cohort. Methods: Structured interviews with carers of 100 adults with ID who exhibit aggressive behaviour were conducted three times over 12 months, at six-month intervals. Questionnaires and standardised assessment scales were administered at each time point to assess aggressive behaviour, including triggers, other problem behaviour, quality of life, carer’s outcomes, mental health problems, physical health conditions and demographic variables. Results: Aggressive behaviour was long-standing, however, behaviour improved with 43% demonstrating a reliable improvement. A model of severity of aggressive behaviour accounted for 50-54% of the variance at follow-up. Those with more severe ID were over 3 times more likely to exhibit self-injurious behaviour and females were over 5 times more likely to exhibit verbal aggression. Carers implicated a wide range of contextual variables as triggers for aggressive behaviour. Conclusions: A clinical profile of topography of aggressive behaviour, including risk factor profile among adults with ID may guide interventions and inform service provision.

This thesis explores male peasant workers’ identity formation in contemporary post-Mao China. It is a qualitative study of 28 male peasant workers. Adopting an interpretivist perspective, this thesis uses a multi-method approach, including life histories, ethnography and discourse analysis. A primary purpose is to address the absence of male peasant workers from the literature on gender and migration as a gendered category and the reductive public representation of them through government and media images. In response, the thesis argues for the need to address the men’s self-representation in the construction of their dislocated masculine identities. There is a specific focus on their gendered experiences within the family and the workplace. The thesis examines the interconnections between gender, class and other social categories. A key argument is that the men’s narratives serve to challenge the assumptions of elite commentators that the rural men’s low status is a result of their continuing to occupy a traditional cultural habitus and thus failing to take up a modern urban identity and lifestyle. Such a position assumes that tradition and modernity exist in an oppositional logic, with the former being displaced by the latter. In contrast, my empirical work clearly illustrates a more complex picture. The male peasant workers deploy traditional cultural practices, such as xiao (dao) (filial piety), as a resource to develop ‘modern’ masculine identities as urban workers.

This thesis addresses the lack of literature on rural youth employment prospects. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey and fieldwork conducted in the West Midlands, I ask to what extent is rural location a labour market disadvantage for young people? Social capital, identified as a pertinent concept in the few previous studies, is operationalised in terms of two constituent elements: norms, affecting youth earnings, and networks, determining one’s ability to find work – more so in rural areas than in urban, due to the relative absence of big business, and nepotistic recruitment practices. Transport is also a more significant barrier to employment for rural youth. I find that rural youth earn less than urban counterparts despite rural wages being higher overall. This pay penalty is a distinctly rural youth disadvantage, and can last well into adulthood for those who do not relocate to urban areas. In conclusion, I argue that investment in rural jobs and public transport or vehicle lease schemes would improve rural youth employment prospects. If such investment is not forthcoming, relocation schemes might extend opportunities to those willing to migrate for work.