Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic are two recent crises whose combined effects exacerbated the exclusion of irregular migrants in Europe. In this thesis, I will explore the structure-agency linkages that shaped the everyday survival strategies of irregular Filipino migrants (IFMs) in navigating a post-Brexit, mid-pandemic UK. Using Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson’s frameworks of political-civil society, differential inclusion, and internal borders, I examine how IFMs exercised their agency against the “formal” rules of the state as well as the “informal” rules set by fellow social actors. The themes that emerged from the analysis underscored the long-debated sociological tensions between structure and agency. Among these, the most recurring one is that IFMs’ agency were expanded or delimited by their positionality vis-à-vis various social actors such as employers, landlords, co-tenants, “benevolent” individuals, and immigration middlemen. This necessitates further studies that could link these micro-level structurations to the broader epistemic shifts within Europe’s migration governance framework.

The paper shows that the use of linguistic mechanisms of political discourse plays a large role in the construction of electoral campaigns in all cases examined. The mechanisms of manipulation of different countries depend on the characteristics of the country's political communication. The study and the correct use of mechanisms allows a politician to wage an effective struggle for power, which is the main goal of any political activity. / В работе показано, что использование лингвистических механизмов политического дискурса играет большую роль при построении электоральных кампаний во всех рассмотренных кейсах. Механизмы манипуляции разных стран зависят от особенностей политической коммуникации страны. Изучение и корректное использование механизмов позволяет политическому деятелю вести результативную борьбу за власть, что является главной целью любой политической деятельности.

Operating through complex supply chains and multiple jurisdictions, today’s business enterprises can outsource manufacturing to different parts of the world where they can take advantage of low labour- and production costs. In the global quest for businesses to maximise their profits, deteriorating working conditions for offshore labour workers are increasing the risks of human rights abuses. Such abuses often take the form of ‘modern slavery’, which refers to situations of exploitation in which labour workers are trapped and unable to leave due to threats, violence, deception, abuse of power or other forms of coercion. In 2015, the United Kingdom (UK) enacted the Modern Slavery Act (MSA), aimed at combatting modern slavery by requiring business enterprises to be transparent with the steps they have taken to ensure that modern slavery is not taking place within their supply chains. By putting pressure on business enterprises to display their actions taken to address adverse human rights impacts, the MSA has brought the responsibility of business enterprises to conduct ‘human rights due diligence’ (HRDD) – as stipulated in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) - into domestic law. While the MSA has been regarded as a ‘world-leading instrument’ and a ‘historic milestone’ by the UK government, its effectiveness in counteracting modern slavery has been questioned in various studies, pointing towards a risk that the MSA is allowing human rights abuses to prevail under a form of a legal veil. Bearing in mind the country’s long colonial history, the enactment of the MSA can be seen as carrying an important symbolic value for the UK when it comes to taking accountability for human rights abuses committed overseas. However, adopting weak or ineffective legislation could instead, paradoxically, reflect an interest by the UK government to maintain beneficial trade relationships based on exploitative working conditions in a manner that reflects a continuation of former colonial power structures. This thesis is set out to examine this potential paradox by analysing the MSA’s level of compliance with the UNGPs from a postcolonial perspective.

In 2010, the reverberations of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis had created a whole new crisis in Europe. Five Eurozone countries, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Cyprus all had requested financial aid packages, unable to repay their national debt. The crisis is ongoing in Europe ever since, becoming the greatest challenge presented to the Eurozone since the monetary union was formed. The intent of this thesis is to explore the effects of the Eurozone crisis on the political systems of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. This thesis will study the effects utilizing the most prominent perspectives in political economy: neoliberalism, neomercantilism, and structuralism. This thesis also attempts to explain the recent rise in Euroscepticism in each country, whilst seeking an explanation in the rise in three Eurosceptic parties: Alternative für Deutschland from Germany, National Front from France, and the United Kingdom Independence Party. Lastly, this thesis conducts a comparative analysis to find the common elements in each case study, as well as the areas in which the studies diverge.

Tourism is one of the largest sectors in the world, contributing to one in ten jobs globally and 10% of the global GDP. However, the climate is facing many challenges and the tourism sector must become more sustainable. Food and drink consumption is playing a more important role in tourism, and particularly food is recognised as one of the biggest polluters due to the way it is produced, the miles it is transported and the waste it generates. Consumers are therefore increasingly requesting food and drink produced locally and in season. For the same reason, restaurants are serving locally produced food, beverages are produced around the corner and destinations are using local food and drink in their marketing as part of their offers. Everybody must eat during their holiday and research shows that tourists are increasingly interested in culinary experiences and prepared to pay more for local food. Through eight qualitative interviews with respondents from five tourist destinations in the UK, with specific food and/or drink offerings, as well as research done on their specific websites, an understanding of what role local food plays in the marketing of tourist destinations in the UK was obtained. The case studies were conducted across the following UK destinations: Bristol, Cornwall, Cumbria, Kent, and Scotland. The present research suggests that local food and drink is an important part of the overall package offer as well as a crucial element in the collaboration between different stakeholders. However, there is no official definition of what local food and drink is, and the reputation of British food is still challenging, and although one could argue it is no longer deserved, it is proving an issue when promoting the UK as a food destination. Though not explicitly stated, storytelling appears to be an important factor for all respondents in marketing their tourism offers.

La violence conjugale est une problématique sociale très répandue au sein des peuples autochtones (Jones, 2008). Malgré ce constat, les travaux de recherche sur le sujet ne sont pas légion et ont été majoritairement réalisés auprès de femmes ou d’intervenants, le discours des hommes étant éclipsé par la perception qu’ont les chercheurs de la problématique. Cette recherche vise alors à rendre compte de l’expérience et du point de vue des hommes amérindiens ayant vécu des incidents de violence conjugale au Québec. L’analyse de contenu des neuf entrevues réalisées suggère la nécessité de considérer l’interaction dynamique et l’influence mutuelle de différents facteurs (historiques, environnementaux, individuels et culturels) qui façonnent les conceptions de la violence conjugale et les logiques d’action des hommes amérindiens. Ce mémoire met également en lumière la diversité des rôles joués par ces derniers lors des incidents, qu’ils soient les instigateurs et/ou les victimes, à travers les différents types de violence dans lesquels ces rôles s’inscrivent (violence conjugale situationnelle ou terrorisme conjugal).

The quest towards resolving concerns about transportation energy consumption and emissions across nations has created more interests to investigate factors responsible for households’ car ownership. While literature holds an extensive body of investigation usually compartmentalised in individual different disciplines, limited efforts have been made to promote inter-linkages of this strand of research across different disciplines. To fill this gap, this study developed an integrating Multinomial logit (MNL) model to examine the impact of some rarely-investigated and conventional explanatory variables, including: ethnicity, accommodation tenure, settlement nature, mental belief, environmental concern, geographical regions, household structure, driving licence, number of household income earners and household income, on car ownership. Analysis based on rich data sets of British Household Survey and US Consumer Expenditure Survey found not only the conventional explanatory variables to be significantly linked to the number of cars in the US and UK households, but also the rarely-investigated psychological variables were found to be significantly linked as well. As Socio-demography, Geography and Psychology impact on how people and households process information and assess market offers (e.g., products and services), this study presents findings which have beneficial implications for policymakers and transportations planners, including those who would like to alter people’s behaviour from private car ownership to public transportation use, car sellers in terms of how to identify and reach potential customers, provision of alternative forecasting approaches to car ownership scholars as well as possible consideration for general car ownership decision making. Caution should be taken when interpreting the relationship between psychological factors and car ownership since the psychological factors adopted are measure representatives from databases used with limitations in the factor structure for a representative sample of the countries’ population.

No / To assess clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of using a two-layer cohesive compression bandage (TLCCB; Coban 2) compared with a two-layer compression system (TLCS; Ktwo) and a four-layer compression system (FLCS; Profore) in treating venous leg ulcers (VLUs) in clinical practice in the UK, from the perspective of the National Health Service (NHS). METHOD: This was a retrospective analysis of the case records of VLU patients, randomly extracted from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database (a nationally representative database of clinical practice among patients registered with general practitioners in the UK), who were treated with either TLCCB (n=250), TLCS (n=250) or FLCS (n=175). Clinical outcomes and health-care resource use (and costs) over six months after starting treatment with each compression system were estimated. Differences in outcomes and resource use between treatments were adjusted for differences in baseline covariates. RESULTS: Patients' mean age was 75 years old and 57% were female. The mean time with a VLU was 6-7 months and the mean initial wound size was 77-85 cm2. The overall VLU healing rate, irrespective of bandage type, was 44% over the six months' study period. In the TLCCB group, 51% of wounds had healed by six months compared with 40% (p=0.03) and 28% (p=0.001) in the TLCS and FLCS groups, respectively. The mean time to healing was 2.5 months. Patients in the TLCCB group experienced better health-related quality of life (HRQoL) over six months (0.374 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) per patient), compared with the TLCS (0.368 QALYs per patient) and FLCS (0.353 QALYs per patient). The mean six-monthly NHS management cost was pound2,413, pound2,707 and pound2,648 per patient in the TLCCB, TLCS and FLCS groups, respectively. CONCLUSION: Despite the systems studied reporting similar compression levels when tested in controlled studies, real-world evidence demonstrates that initiating treatment with TLCCB, compared with the other two compression systems, affords a more cost-effective use of NHS-funded resources in clinical practice, since it resulted in an increased healing rate, better HRQoL and a reduction in NHS management cost. The evidence also highlighted the lack of continuity between clinicians managing a wound, the inconsistent nature of the administered treatments and the lack of specialist involvement, all of which may impact on healing. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: This study was supported by an unrestricted research grant from 3M Health Care, UK. 3M Health Care had no influence on the study design, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or on the writing of, and decision to submit for publication, the manuscript.

Yes / It is argued in this paper that: ethnic minority population and their enterprises, predominated by South Asians, are growing faster than their mainstream counterparts in the UK; past research paid more attention to either South Asian ethnic minority SMEs based in and around London only or owned by Indian entrepreneurs only than South Asian ethnic minority SMEs elsewhere in the UK or owned by Pakistani and Bangladeshi entrepreneurs. Further, scholarly investigation is needed to explain: the relationship between educational levels and entrepreneurial orientation; and intra-ethnic minority entrepreneurial differences between South Asian ethnic minority entrepreneurs in the UK by expanding the research scope both geographically and contextually.

Questo lavoro intende analizzare la correlazione tra innovazione delle imprese e capital sociale, misurato da indicatori classici (come la partecipazione politica e le attività nel tempo libero) e da indicatori maggiormente legati alla dimensione aziendale (come accordi e cooperazioni). L’analisi viene fatta sia per l’Italia che per il Regno Unito attraverso l’uso della Community Innovation Survey 4, la survey europea sull’innovazione e la R&S nelle imprese per i dati su innovazione e capital sociale aziendale. Inoltre vengono utilizzate l’Indagine Multiscopo 2000 per l’Italia e l’Indice di Deprivazione per l’Inghilterra come misure di capitale sociale classico. Infine viene proposta una comparazione dei risultati per i due paesi per l’analisi sul capitale sociale aziendale. Questa comparazione è riletta alla luce di più generali considerazioni sui due differenti sistemi produttivi ed economici. / This work would try to test the correlation between innovation in firms and social capital, measured by classic indicators (like political participation, leisure and activities) and more corporate indicators (like agreements and collaborations). The analysis is carried out for Italy and UK and we use the Community Innovation Survey 4, the European survey on innovation and R&D in the firms, for the data on innovation and corporate social capital. We use the Multipurpose Survey 2000 for Italy and the Index of Deprivation for England like measures of classic social capital. We further try a comparison of the results between the two countries for the analysis on corporate social capital. This comparison is finally referred to more general issues like the two different productive and economic systems.