During the postwar period the economy of urban housing in Greece has undergone a major transformation. The great bulk of housebuilding in the 1950's could be described as "precapitalist". "Speculative" building, i.e. the production of housing as a commodity for the market under the control of capitalists, prevailed, albeit in ~ rather primitive form, in the limited sector of middle-class apartment housing. By the 1970's, however, the latter economic form has grown into the dominant mode of housing production and distribution. The generality and significance of this transformation for the early stages of capitalist urbanisation has seldom been recognised. Thus, the study begins with a theoretical model of the different modes of housing production and housing sectors relevant to such a historical context, and the concept of the "dual" system where both speculative-capitalist and precapitalist modes operate. Analysis of postwar housebuilding on the basis of this model establishes rigorously the extent, character, and sociospatial correlates of each mode. It is argued that popular precapitalist owner-building is not reducible to a residual phenomenon of socially marginal "squatter" housing, but constitutes a major historical form based on distinctive aspects of Greek society and autonomy vis-a-vis capitalist relations and modern administrative controls. Thus, the decline of this sector has not been the outcome of voluntary assimilation into the market but the result of political and economic constraints. This hypothesis is corroborated by a detailed analysis of demand and allocation of housing in Athens. Given the decline in the role of precapitalist housing, the growth of speculative building is a corollary of trends in aggregate residential investment. The rest of the study examines the formation of the latter, first, in relation to the pattern of Greek economic development, and then, with the help of a model of household behaviour and the economics of the early capitalist housing system as a whole.

This thesis investigates the collection of levies by the state from Colombian coffee and Philippine coconut producers and the delegation of authority, to mobilise and regulate the uses of the levies, to producers associations in these sectors. The thesis suggests that these activities constitute an “institutional framework” for state-engineered rents, whereby public authority is appropriated by private agents. It asks why similarly-designed institutions for allocating rents yielded different outcomes: Colombian coffee levies are associated with growth-enhancing and producer welfare-promoting investments in coffee production and marketing, while Philippine coconut levies are depicted as non-developmental rent capture by associates of a president. The thesis explains the variation in outcomes by examining the basis in political economy of the power exercised by the leading sectoral organisations, FEDECAFE in Colombia and COCOFED in the Philippines, and how they articulated this power in the mobilisation of the levies. It finds that the conditions for collective action and the exercise of power were more robust for Colombian coffee than Philippine coconut producers. This meant that while FEDECAFE directly intermediated between coffee producers and the state in the mobilisation of rents associated with coffee levies, COCOFED shared the power of mobilising rents with other individual political brokers. This variation led to differences in rent mobilisation: a process that was production-enhancing in Colombia but not in the Philippines. This work thus shows how variations in the political organisation of rent-seeking may be linked to variations in the developmental outcomes associated with the collection and deployment of such levies. Doing so, it seeks to contribute to the understanding of the political conditions under which state-engineered rents may be production-enhancing – an important question in late developing countries, where corruption may be endemic, but state-allocated rents nevertheless necessary for promoting development.

This study explores and compares the rationales behind, and justifications for, intentions about whether or not to have a second child among Polish fathers and mothers living in the UK and Poland. Drawing on semi-structured interviews (n=42) contextualised by media and statistical analyses, the thesis interrogates the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and explores the extent to which aspects related to the theory (i.e. attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) permeate informants’ narratives. This thesis emphasises that researching fertility intentions requires more complex and context-specific operationalisations of theoretical constructs as drawing on standardised definitions and concepts across different populations could impact data validity and reliability, and I suggest ways in which survey questions could be modified. The findings demonstrate the importance of transnational groups of reference for Polish individuals’ understanding of resources deemed as adequate to have a second child, suggesting that the notion of economic wellbeing is more variable and complex than current evidence suggests. The study also illustrates that kin assistance in Poland is relevant for reproductive decisions since it relates to economic constraints to childbearing and to perceived requirements to provide children with kin support and inheritance. Moreover, individuals in both settings communicate beliefs related to childbearing intentions discursively, fine-tuning ambivalent and inconsistent cognitions while constructing a coherent narrative. The findings question the TPB assumption that people reach decisions primarily as a result of causal, regular and law-governed forces acting on theoretical constructs independent of individuals’ agency, and I point to possibilities to expand and refine theories used in demographic research. Although my empirical findings focus on Polish nationals, I argue that this research has broader implications for theorising, researching and interpreting findings on childbearing intentions.

This thesis examines how New Labour policymakers and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)-led race equality organisations articulated and connected themes of nation, multiculture and ‘race’ equality in policy discourse and discussions over the New Labour period. My study extends previous accounts of New Labour and multicultural discourses by incorporating the significant, but not always influential, role of BME civil society actors in such policy discussions. My research draws on documents and archival material from and interviews with policymakers and race equality actors. I analyse this data using a qualitative thematic approach to discern changing policy discourses and claims about the state of the multicultural nation and the place of race equality within it. In the study I suggest that, after a promising start, New Labour policymakers came to understand the relationship between nation, multiculture and race equality as a troubled and troubling one. At the same time, the three BME-led race equality organisations that I focus on in my research struggled to counter government discourses of parallel lives, community cohesion and Britishness that were detrimental to efforts to combat race inequality. Policy and policy discursive interventions of BME-led race equality organisations were thrown off course not only by New Labour but also by ‘new ethnicities’, and the idea of complex and diverse BMEness’. BME-led organisations have struggled to engage with this latter destabilisation, let alone develop a politics capable of overcoming such issues. I therefore end my thesis by suggesting that, if BME-led race equality organisations are to shape policy debates on race equality, there is much hard labour and re-thinking about BMEness and re-organising for them still to do.

Much of the literature has framed the study of Taiwanese politics in terms of the persistent existence of certain informal institutions like factional politics, patron-clientism, heijin (political corruption), and finally, heidao (gangsters). These institutions are perceived to be more characteristic of a third world country, and inappropriate to Taiwan, given it's advanced economy and democratic system. This thesis looks at the contemporary phenomenon of heidao. Heidao, in the strict sense of the word, are a new class of wealthy and powerful people from the countryside who have accumulated their wealth through dubious means and then run for political office. The thesis relies primarily on ethnographic research and it focuses on the life histories of a few rural politicians who are reputed to be heidao, namely Legislator Yen Ching-piao of Shalu Town, and the Jen brothers from Dajia Town, Taichung County. This thesis borrows the 'big man' or 'man of prowess' model from the traditional political culture of Southeast Asia. It compares the Taiwanese heidao with the Thai chaopo (godfather), rural politicians from Taiwan and Thailand. I argue two things. First, that contemporary anxiety in Taiwan about heidao represents a clash between two incompatible notions of politics and governance. The dominant notion involves contemporary western ideas of politics based on the ideal of good governance, transparency, integrity, and honesty, which predominate in the urban areas. The other involves traditional notions of power and politics based on the ideal of a benign and paternalistic patron which is prevalent in the rural areas. Second, scholarly literature portrays Taiwanese politics as anomalous. This is a result of using idealized categories of politics and governance that are characteristic of a western liberal democracy. The anomaly disappears when we look at the country within the broader context of the traditional political culture of Southeast Asia, Heidao are really Southeast Asian big men.

This research examines the presence of organised criminal groups in prison and its influence on inmate’s interaction and on the prison system of Rio de Janeiro. Information collected from a series of in-depth interviews with prisoners and ex-prisoners, members and non-members of the criminal groups and authorities of the criminal justice system, suggests that the current social organisation of prisons is working favourably towards the further development of organised crime and deviant behaviour. Prisoners are subordinated not only to the prison administration but also to the gang leaders. If a convict had no links with drug trafficking prior to incarceration, they definitely create one behind bars. Ninety-eight percent (98%) of interviewees from the sensitive sample engaged in drug trafficking while in prison. Off-brand inmates, those who are the less conspicuous convicts, end up engaging in illegal activities to avoid retaliation, perpetuating then a cycle of violence in a fragmented geopolitical gang space behind bars. Political pressure towards the validity of the classification system stratified by gang affiliation has impacted on the prison administration to create multiple categories of prisoners, which are mutually exclusive. This has had pervasive impacts on penal affairs such as allocation of sentences, lack of vacancies and disruption of prisoner’s routine. The research shows that the State goes beyond classification of inmates by gang affiliation; it has incorporated elements of gang’s violent tradition to assess and influence justice and prisoner’s progression. This study offers an interesting scope for a comparative analysis through the study of anti-prison gang strategies. Experiences around the globe have been driven to target gangs with racial and ethnical rivalries. Prison gangs in this study are devoted to a more capitalist goal: the monopoly of illegal drug markets in the streets. Such understandings and contextualizing make a significant contribution to re-examining the role of inmate culture as well as the value of contemporary penal reforms designed to making the penal institutions more responsive and interventionist in addressing inmate needs.

The thesis investigates the policy-making process underpinning the poverty-alleviation programmes created in Chile during the 1990s and the first part of the 2000s. Three programmes developed by the governing Concertacion Alliance during this period are selected. The un-researched characteristic of this subject in Chile is the main reason for choosing this topic. The thesis maps and explains the policy-making process of the three programmes, by identifying main events, actors and mechanisms behind the unfolding of events. Data is obtained from 32 interviews applied to key process actors to obtain their narratives of the processes. The Multiple Streams Model of the policy-making process is employed as theoretical framework. Results highlight that the processes occur in a highly closed fashion inside government. The main actors involved are the President and his ministers who are able to command the events that lead to the creation of a new programme. The political stream plays a fundamental role in the process as the pro-equity approach of the governing coalition creates a window of opportunity for the introduction of poverty-alleviation programmes. The problems stream is also important, thanks to the availability of poverty statistics that are produced every two years by the Concertacion Alliance governments. However, the processes differ from the Multiple Streams Model as no independent policy stream was found to exist. Instead, solutions are created by governments in a punctuated manner and during a short timeframe to accomplish political deadlines, when the government considers that the problem deserves to be addressed. The absence of a policy stream is explained by the policy monopoly that the government enjoys in the poverty arena, where no policy contestants exist. In particular, Chilean social policy experts constitute a small and non-articulated group of individuals usually excluded from the policymaking process, enabling the government to ignore them.

This thesis reports the findings of an empirical research project investigating deprivation in a predominantly rural area of southern Scotland. Many of the social and economic problems afflicting rural communities have been investigated in recent research, and this thesis makes a contribution to this body of work by addressing the relative paucity of primary information about rural deprivation in Scotland. An extensive review of the literature on deprivation reveals that it is usually discussed with specific reference to either city or predominantly urban areas. In this study the focus was on the varied manifestations of deprivation experienced by those living in the rural areas and in small towns in an attempt to shed light on how deprivation is perceived in those two types of geographical area. Analysis of the survey data involved the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Considerable differences were found between the experiences and perceptions of what constitutes deprivation in small towns and in the neighbouring countryside. The findings suggested that experiences of deprivation are to a considerable extent place specific; there was not a simple 'urban' - 'rural' split. It was also apparent that small towns may have more in common with larger urban areas when it comes to socio-economic problems such as deprivation than they do with their rural hinterland. In attempting to relate experiences of deprivation to the range of anti-deprivation initiatives operating in south-west Scotland, it was found that its economic components are almost always addressed. However, other issues commonly identified by people living in disadvantaged area's have yet to be similarly addressed. The main conclusion to be drawn from this study is that while a rural-urban split exists in residents' experiences of deprivation, individual geographical areas of the same type (i.e. rural or urban areas) display unique characteristics. From this it follows that policies to counteract deprivation and associated socio-economic problems must take account of the specific needs of individual areas rather than rely on more generalised formulations.

This study is concerned with the development of the tenants' movement and housing struggles in post-War Glasgow. It seeks to locate the changes relating to housing struggles in the context of wider social and economic changes within the `locality'. Glasgow's public sector tenants' movement has been in existence for over 60 years and there is a wealth of undocumented housing struggles that have played an important part in the history of working class life in the city. The analysis taken in this dissertation seeks to conceptualise these housing struggles in a framework based around the concept of social reproduction. It is with a class analysis of relations of reproduction, as opposed to consumption cleavages, that we can understand housing struggles at a local level.

Participation has been linked with better health outcomes for young people in a range of settings, with an extensive literature extolling the benefits of a participatory approach to youth-focused HIV-prevention programs in particular. However the processes of participation, and how the ideals outlined in the participation literature can be achieved in the difficult circumstances in which many youth health promotion programs operate, are less often discussed. This thesis responds to calls for more nuanced documentation of situated participatory practices by developing a detailed and contextualised analysis of youth participation in a Photovoice project in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The analysis draws upon data generated over a ten-month period (photo-stories, individual interviews, written accounts of participation, group discussions, artefacts produced during participatory analysis, and field-notes) to describe how participation in a project of self-reflection and self-representation can support dialogical engagement and the demonstration of critical thinking. The thesis explores the relationship between these psycho-social changes and young people’s subsequent ability to enact strategies to improve their health and well-being. Findings challenge idealised representations of youth participation, demonstrating that young people’s ability to act is mediated and bounded by the health-related contexts in which they live. They also demonstrate a disconnect between youth health priorities and the priorities of the programs ‘targeting’ them; and point to the importance of HIV-prevention programs working to support ‘in-between’ spaces where youth and community leaders can connect in order to affect wider social environments. In providing a detailed examination of a Photovoice process, this thesis extends the theoretical basis of an increasingly popular participatory research tool. In analysing the relationship between young people’s participation in a research project and their ability to take action on health, this thesis also contributes to social psychological understandings of the pathways through which participation may impact upon health, and in particular affect efforts to prevent HIV.