Environmental degradation and concepts of 'sustainability' have recently become a focus of political, commercial and social concern. This thesis addresses one of the issues concerning human impact on the environment, namely the environmental awareness and action of those involved with design and development. This project provides an overview of designers' current attitudes to environmentally responsible design and investigates design that is perceived to be more environmentally responsible. The research was exploratory and qualitative in nature. The postal and telephone pilot surveys and the main study of 20 in-depth interviews were carried out with individuals involved in design and development in design consultancies and a range of design-based manufacturing companies within the UK. It was found that most designers were unaware of many of the issues surrounding environmentally responsible design. Few companies were including environmental criteria within design and development processes, the exceptions generally responding to legislative or market demands. Three main levels of environmentally responsible design are discussed in this project; <i>green design</i> addresses a focus on one or two environmental impacts of a product, <i>ecodesign</i> refers to a comprehensive product lifecycle design strategy, and <i>sustainable design </i> describes a move beyond the current context of design and questions, for example, the need, value, and ethics of a product's development. The significant qualitative data gathered during the project led to the development of a visual analysis method, the 'Environmental footprint'. Different types of business approach (proactive, reactive and cynical) to incorporating environmental issues within product development emerged from this analysis. These were further developed into a hierarchy of environmental business strategies which aided the identification of approaches that relied on 'bottom-up' action (e.g., action of an individual 'environmental champion' within the company), and those which tended to be a result of 'top-down' action (e.g., a company's strategic environmental policy). The research showed that to achieve effective, long-term environmentally responsible design and development the following are desirable: (a) design-specific information on environmentally responsible design, (b) effective communication channels within companies and throughout the supply chain, and (c) greater understanding of the qualities and scope of design by senior management. The research also questions how a design profession focused almost entirely on increasing the production and consumption of goods can re-evaluate its role in society and move towards a more responsible and environmentally sustainable existence. 'Sustainable design' is discussed as a concept which moves beyond 'green design' and 'ecodesign', and hence the remit of the designer, to one which can only be successfully addressed by a change in the political and economic global development system.

Until relatively recently, 'child labour' remained a pejorative term used primarily by historians to describe the grinding and unremitting work routines and hostile work environments to which nineteenth century children were exposed. The start of the twentieth century, though, is frequently identified as marking the emergence of a more humanitarian attitude towards children, epitomised by the increasing willingness of the state to intervene in arenas such as child welfare. Historians have cited the intensification of legislation designed to protect the child as evidence to suggest that by the turn of the nineteenth century the vast majority of children were no longer significant workers. Before the publication of Emrys Davies' government funded 1972 study, which concluded that the employment undertaken by school children was frequently arduous and harmful, such claims were taken at face value in the academic world. As a result, until recently, the labour of school children throughout the twentieth century has not been subject to adequate social research, and the experiences of working school children have been largely ignored. However, as the recent upsurge in academic and political interest in child employment illustrates, the debate over what is an effective and appropriate level of child labour regulation remains a heated political question. One of the problems, though, is that a lack of information on the period c1900-1973 is hampering our understanding of the forces and interests which have helped shape child labour policy in Britain. Hence, this thesis has two main aims. Firstly, it seeks to provide detailed empirical information on the levels and types of work performed by children. Secondly, and more importantly, it aims to deepen our appreciation of the concerns which have influenced thinking and policy on this subject in the twentieth century. It is hoped that an analysis of these two issues will help us understand the origins and nature of current debates over school child labour, and to evaluate the 'solutions' advanced by politicians and academics in the twenty-first century. The potential impact of the range of factors and interests which are traditionally seen to be present within the policy-making process, such as ideologies, political parties and pressure groups, are assessed. Particular emphasis, though, is placed on the conservative role played by civil servants within the Home Office, the government department charged with responsibility for the administration of legislation for school children's employment throughout the period under examination. The thesis concludes that of all the agents active in the policy-making process, civil servants were the most influential in shaping the approach adopted by successive governments towards the question of child labour reform. It suggests that officials were guided by a pervasive 'departmental view' of the phenomenon, a key element of which emphasised its potential for channeling the potentially 'problematic' leisure hours of working class youths into creative outlets. Finally, the thesis highlights the extent to which the ideas and beliefs which underpinned thinking on child labour regulation between 1900-1973 continue to have an enduring influence on the current policy debate.

The marked disintegration of the UK banking system in 2008 led to significant Government ownership in two major banks: The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) (National Audit Office, 2009). The banks are termed ‘quasi-nationalised’ due to the retention of stock exchange listings alongside Government ownership The thesis offers a documentary analysis on the public accountability of these banks. The research themes are: - The impact of Government intervention on the accountability of the quasi-nationalised banks - The banking crisis through the lens of financial reporting for RBS and LBG - Newspaper reporting of the banking crisis in RBS and LBG A multiple theory framework is utilised in the study. Property rights (Alchian, 1974; Alchian and Demsetz, 1973; Demsetz, 1967) and agency theory (Fama, 1980; Jensen and Meckling, 1976) explore the implications of Government Intervention. Impression Management and Stigma (Goffman, 1968; Goffman, 1956a) are used to critique financial reporting since the crisis. Critical Discourse Analysis assesses newspaper reporting of the banks’ finances (Fairclough, 2010; Fairclough, 1995). Summary findings for the three research themes are as follows. Quasi-nationalisation has been a positive response to the banking crisis. Banks acknowledge they must consider societal responsibilities as well as corporate profits. Yet the increased accountability mechanisms have been difficult to define and enforce. Property rights theory applauds the retention of private sector scrutiny. Agency theory, however, identifies the muted disciplinary effects of the markets in the circumstances. The banks’ financial reporting gives an alternative perspective on the banking crisis. Both banks acknowledge their role in the crisis but simultaneously distance themselves from it. RBS highlights the virtues of a ‘new’ bank different from the failed one. LBG explains poor results through ‘market dislocation’. The statutory accounts themselves are relegated in favour of managerially defined pro forma numbers and promotional materials. In this way, the statutory numbers can be seen as part of the ‘dirty work’ (Goffman, 1956b) of the crisis. Using critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010; Fairclough, 1995), findings are that newspaper reporting of the banks’ accounting results occurs across a broad spectrum of titles and articles. Headlines favour big numbers for impact. But constant focus on banking pay endures. The accounts provide an important counterpoint to the news context of the banks. Positively, accounting is portrayed as a neutral challenger to the public relations news process and fulfils democratic accountability. Critically, however, it is in the interests of papers to create and sustain media panics (Leach, 2006). The thesis responds to calls for literature on the financial crisis (British Accounting Review, 2012; Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 2011; Arnold, 2009), multi-theoretical research in the public sector (Jacobs, 2012; Kurunmäki et al., 2003), linguistic theory in accounting (Evans, 2010) and accounting in the tabloids (Jeacle, 2012) as well as interpretive research in financial reporting (London School of Economics, 2011; Brennan and Solomon, 2008; Parker, 2007).

This thesis presents a spectrum of different practices, with many different ways of thinking about the application of theatre with problem drug users. It starts from the question of how applied theatre might assist problem drug users to socially reintegrate, and moves on to ask further questions with regard to its potential to promote personal change and contribute to the participants' social acceptance. The two research questions that have driven my enquiry are: to what degree can participation in applied theatre assist problem drug users towards their social reintegration? And: how does the implementation of applied theatre with this specific client group inform us about its potential to promote personal change? By using evidence from theatre projects carried out in England and Greece, this thesis attempts to illustrate how different forms of theatre can be implemented with the aim of supporting the individual's journey to recovery and reintegration. This thesis is divided in three thematic units: community; creativity; and hope. Each unit explores the potentially powerful relationship between the dramatisation of stories of recovery and their presentation to a public audience. By positioning the outcomes of the research in relation to the debates around current drug policies and applied theatre's potential to act as a transformative agent, this thesis sets out to explore factors by which participation in applied theatre has the potential to have an impact on problem drug users by operating as an 'alternative substance'. In particular, it seeks to examine the possibility of applied theatre operating as an alternative form of 'escapism' from the participants' current community (community of exclusion), thus functioning as a motivational force towards their social reintegration. It will suggest that applied theatre has the power to promote personal change by regenerating the individuals' social and creative components and by awakening their desire for affiliation and belonging.

Why is International Relations (IR) silent on the issue of belonging? Conventional IR appears to be prevented from engaging with the concept of belonging by the inside-outside ontology on which it draws and its assumption of a foundational difference between inside and outside, which are understood to be neatly separated and mutually exclusive. Since belonging describes the relationship between individuals and the community and community is restricted to the inside sphere, it is beyond conventional IR’s remit. In its silence and relegation of belonging to the inside, however, we see the traces of what amounts to an implicit discourse of belonging. The concept of autochthony appears to offer a mirror-image reflection of conventional IR’s assumptions about belonging. Autochthony discourse also sees belonging as strictly limited to the community located on the inside of the binary, and here too the demarcation of inside from outside is considered to be foundational. As such, autochthony seems to provide a credible approximation of what IR’s implicit discourse of belonging might look like, if made explicit. The migrant represents a dislocatory figure for both of these accounts of belonging and the inside-outside ontology on which they are grounded. Where does she belong in an inside-outside configuration of the social? Moreover, as a marker of the outside but located on the inside, she contradicts the idea that the two spheres are separate and exclusive. Using British housing discourse as an example of an active discourse of autochthony, this thesis explores the puzzle of how migrants and the questions which they raise about the location of belonging are dealt with in an inside-outside discourse. The thesis generates three key findings which have relevance for conventional IR theorising. Firstly, the account of belonging which autochthony discourse produces is partial, impoverished and highly exclusionary. In this account, migrants represent the ultimate outsider. Secondly, the analysis demonstrates the impossibility of finalising the separation of inside from outside. Attempts to differentiate between the two require ongoing political interventions, which refutes the notion of foundational difference. Finally, in the absence of a foundational difference between inside and outside, IR needs to engage with the concept of belonging, since its continued silence seems to endorse an autochthonous discourse and the exclusionary politics of belonging which that entails.

No

Criminals and other threat actors are adapting to the growing reliance individuals, organisations, and nations have upon technology and the internet and have augmented their capabilities to be oriented in that direction for malevolent purposes. Cyberspace has become an extremely large vulnerability for countries because it facilitates any person with access to a computer or other technology along with malicious intent, to cause harm. The increased risk people and organisations now face in cyberspace is not isolated to just them. Nations now are also at an increased risk because of the evolving ubiquity of cyberspace and technology. States are at risk of cyber threats because of vulnerabilities in individual citizens and organisations. Nations have now become intended targets by a larger spectrum of threat actors. This research examines how the United Kingdom has developed their specific national cyber security strategy to improve national resilience to threats, and how well the UK government adapts to an ever- changing threat landscape. The UK is still deficient in the appropriate and thorough execution of their proposed strategies and strategic policies to attain national resilience and security. There have been strides to achieve that goal, but the national strategy continues to fail to...

Yes / Boyer, Dermott, James and MacLeavy discuss the rise of fathers in primary caregiving positions within the United Kingdom following the recessions from 2008 to 2009 and 2011 to 2012 and outline a number of key questions. In this commentary, I consider the aims of their piece, both within contemporary parenting culture and the negotiation of gendered binaries of care. I note that a more intersectional understanding of the decisions that families are making with regard to combining work and childcare is timely.

No / This paper examines the concept of mass customisation from the point of view of the customer. Although the theory of mass customisation has received considerable attention in recent years, the emphasis has been on identifying and classifying the ways in which mass customisation can be implemented efficiently and effectively. There appears to have been no empirical evidence to support the notion that customers are indeed ready for this approach. The aim of this study is to examine how far customers are ¿ready¿ for mass-customised products, using the UK new car market as its basis for analysis. A framework is developed and results presented which suggest that a sizeable section of the market is ready to accept the ¿inconveniences¿ of mass-customised products. However, the main inconvenience of mass customisation is identified as increased price, even for ¿ready¿ customers. It would seem, therefore, that both global standardisation and mass customisation strategies are appropriate in this market.

No / This is a re-publication of an earlier journal article that was selected by the editor for inclusion in the 2015 volume. The original article was: Richardson S and McMullan M (2007) Research ethics in the UK: What can Sociology learn from health? Sociology. 41(6): 1115–1132.