The study makes a claim for a critical cosmopolitanism situated in daily performances and encounters of difference in Athens. In the wake of mass migration and economic crisis, the contemporary urban environment changes, creating new social spaces where identities and cultures interact. Festivals are seen as sites of creative dialogue between the Self, the Other and local communities. Festivals are examples of those new spaces where different performances of belonging give rise to alternative social imaginations. This study explores the emotional, cultural and political aspects of cosmopolitanism with the latter leading to the formation of an active civil society. As such, it seeks to evidence cosmopolitanism as an embodied, everyday practice. The research thus extends the current field by locating its empirical lens in a specific milieu. Empirical analysis of grounded cosmopolitanism anchored in behavioural repertoires redefines ubiquitous polarities of margin and centre, pointing towards social change in Athens. Fieldwork was conducted in Athens over eighteen months, comprising of building communities of participants involved in three festivals, including both artists and organisations. Research methods included observation and participation in the festivals, which were photographically documented for research visual diaries. Semi-structured interviews formed the core of the fieldwork. The approach allowed access to experiences, feelings and expressions through artworks, embodying ‘third spaces'. In the milieu of rapid social change, as urban localities transform as a result of economic and social crisis, the need for redefining politics emerges. The case studies explore how change in a celebratory moment can have a more sustainable legacy encouraging active citizenship. The analysis highlights the value of a model of cosmopolitanism in action, positing that transformation of the social and political must be local and grounded in everyday actions if it is to engage with promises of alternative futures.

This thesis asks questions about the meanings and practices of citizenship, and how they change in a context of violence. Questions of citizenship are relevant because violence shifts the fundamental circumstances for citizenship. Much of the existing literature on participatory governance and democratisation assumes a certain degree of safety and security, which is a distant reality for people whose daily lives are ordered by violence and insecurity. The overarching question at its heart is: what does citizenship mean in a context of violence? In order to answer this larger question, this thesis explores the following: • How does violence shape how people perceive and practice their citizenship? • How does a spatially‐specific context of violence and insecurity affect the way that the state acts and intervenes? What are different forms of authority (both legitimate and illegitimate) mediating the relationship of citizens with the state? And how do these different relationships shape the prospects for citizens claiming substantive rights? • How can participatory action research be used to investigate citizenship in a context of violence, where there are significant risks in speaking publicly about power, violence, and democracy? This thesis focuses on three specific dimensions of the citizen‐state relationship: a) the ways that the meanings of citizenship are formed (and the processes of socialisation that lead to a sense of citizenship); b) the ways that citizens are able to act in order to make claims on the state; the way that state and other forms of authority act in relation to citizens; and, c) the types of mediators that intervene between citizens and state institutions. The starting point for this analysis is the empirical reality of favelas in Rio de Janeiro, where power and patterns of authority operate in certain ways that are shaped by violence.

Urban poverty is rising as economic development is accompanied by rural-urban migration and the majority of the world's population becomes urbanised. Policymakers and researchers are only now coming to grips with the implications for education. Educational deprivation still tends to be seen as a primarily rural problem, especially in a historically rural economy such as Bangladesh's. Little is known about educational access and outcomes for the urban poor, what resources they need to use to get children admitted to school and keep them there, and what benefits they can expect to get in return. This thesis examines how poor households living in slums of Dhaka city, Bangladesh, make decisions about their children's education. In particular it asks what aspects of education are valued by parents and children; what the costs of education are; and how these costs and valued outcomes combine to influence the decisions that parents and children make with regard to school. The study is based on a survey of 1599 households and in-depth interviews with 34. Quantitative methods are used to examine associations of different household and individual characteristics with educational outcomes, and qualitative methods to explain the underlying processes. The data show that the slum environment is far from being an easy one to live in, and most households live below the poverty line. They face high rents and food prices, are time-pressed, and have limited support from friends and relatives. Households had to draw on their resources to cover the costs of school, support their children's learning, and manage the relationship with the school. Direct financial costs of education were substantial compared to income. More than half of children in primary school took private tuition, despite the low incomes of their parents. There were also important opportunity costs. Children could work instead of going to school, especially at older ages. Parents and children valued a range of aspects of education. They aspired to professional or formal-sector employment and saw education as key to this, but were ambivalent about whether a small amount of primary education would bring substantial benefits. School education was enjoyed in its own right and also seen as the way that one ‘becomes a real person,' respected in the community and by a future spouse, with correct moral and social behaviours. It was seen as useful, if not strictly necessary, for a girl to marry and fulfil her expected future role as a wife and mother. Households had to balance these valued benefits of education against the resources they needed to use for it, and the resulting decisions – to enrol in school, to stay in or drop out, to spend more, and to go to a government, non-government organisation, or private school – were strongly influenced by the wealth, location, social connections, and education of the parents. Children from wealthier households tended to stay in school longer, but location was also important, probably reflecting the different availability of schools in different slums. Drop-out decisions were sometimes made by children themselves, especially for boys. The thesis concludes by summarizing the findings, reflecting on the conceptual model used, and putting forward policy implications. It argues that the framework based on a mixture of livelihoods and human capital theory is broadly a useful one for considering education decisions. Among the priority areas for education policy for the urban poor, it highlights the lack of government provision of school places, problems caused by evictions and uncertain legal status of slum dwellers, poor coordination between government and non-government organizations, and the inequitable effects of widespread private tuition.

This qualitative study investigates subjective experiences of social mobility amongst parents whose children attend the same London state primary school, at a historical moment when the Conservative-led Coalition government claims social mobility as the principal goal of its social policies. I argue that the government's understanding of social mobility is founded on a neoliberal discourse that holds individuals responsible for their own life trajectories. This individualist view aligns with individualization theory's emphasises on reflexive selves, understood as disembedded from class groups. By examining how participants' experiences are shaped by class processes I interrogate this dominant perspective, and consider alternative conceptions of social mobilities that expand the existing discourse. I take a case-study approach that utilises a range of qualitative methods, enabling crossclass comparisons as well as examining parents' intersectional identities. I draw embodied and emotional geographies into the analysis, including everyday distinctionmaking and face-to-face interactions. I relate subjective experiences to class structures across a range of social fields, inter-weaving material and cultural analyses to examine the impacts of economic and political processes on lived experiences. The thesis demonstrates how class processes significantly impact on social mobility experiences, and thus argues that the individualist social mobility discourse is flawed. However, whilst the individualist model denies the role of class structures, I argue that it constructs class identities by attaching stigma and status to individuals, who are held responsible for their own social trajectories. This narrative is implicated in processes of dominance and hegemony, and works to justify the current welfare cuts. I also argue, however, that by attending to participants' experiences and using a class analysis it is possible to reframe social mobility within an equality agenda based on the redistribution of resources. This study therefore makes a significant academic contribution because it expands the understanding of how class impacts on social mobility experiences, it explicitly addresses the individualist discourse of social mobility, and it suggests an alternative more equitable model.

This thesis seeks to understand how and if the popular claims that hockey is an integral part of the culture in Toronto and Montreal are referenced, oriented to, and/or negotiated in everyday life. Taking the cases of the moves of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens from Maple Leaf Gardens and the Montreal Forum, respectively, the thesis asks: What can these similar cases tell us about the culture of the cities in which they occurred and, if it is possible, in what ways can the culture of the cities (as a shaping force) be made recognizable in the discourse generated in, around, and by the moves? The perspective taken is a 'radical interpretive' approach, involving a critical blend of interpretive theories and methodologies - including semiology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and dialectical analysis - that aim to reflexively question the themes that the cases themselves bring to light. The thesis thus concerns itself with issues of cosmopolitanism, globalization, and modernity as well as the concomitant questions of identify, commitment to place, and practical social action in the modern city.

Author's dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Amsterdam, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-284). Also available in print.

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In this thesis I explore the experiences of a group of Australian women who became first-time mothers between 1950 and 1965. I interviewed twenty-four mothers, half of whom were selected as practising Roman Catholics. The other half was AnglicanfProtestant by co-incidence rather than selection. The data in this research have been collected via in-depth, unstructured interviews with the participants. The interviews were taped and transcribed verbatim, before the data were analysed. I present a grounded theory of transformative power in motherwork that has emerged from the analysis of interviews. The mothers talked about what they did in their active mothering years. I argue that despite being constrained by the gender bias in the patriarchal context, these mothers were agents who developed skills that enabled them to resist or creatively deal with the constraints they faced. Their emphasis was on their agency and the power to nurture their children into responsible adults. Their awareness of the importance of their motherwork acted as a motivator in this development. My thesis is that the relationship between each mother and each of her children is a transformative power relationship in which both mother and child are transformedthe child into an independent adult and the mother into a skilled self-motivated agent through her mothenvork. Any threat to this process resulted in the mother doing all she could to resist or counteract the constraintls she was encountering. Transformative power expressed in motherwork can be recognised analytically by several characteristics. It empowers both parties in the motherlchild duality. Complexity, diversity, fluidity, and responsiveness to the physical, intellectual, and emotional aspects of the relationship are all evident in transformative power relationships. Through their own transformation, the mothers saw the falsity of the master narratives of motherhood, prevalent in society in the 1950s and 1960s, which they had believed as inexperienced girls. From their stories about motherwork, I reveal a counter narrative that was portrayed not only in their telling of their stories: but in their discursivelreflexive practices as mothers.

In this thesis I explore the experiences of a group of Australian women who became first-time mothers between 1950 and 1965. I interviewed twenty-four mothers, half of whom were selected as practising Roman Catholics. The other half was AnglicanfProtestant by co-incidence rather than selection. The data in this research have been collected via in-depth, unstructured interviews with the participants. The interviews were taped and transcribed verbatim, before the data were analysed. I present a grounded theory of transformative power in motherwork that has emerged from the analysis of interviews. The mothers talked about what they did in their active mothering years. I argue that despite being constrained by the gender bias in the patriarchal context, these mothers were agents who developed skills that enabled them to resist or creatively deal with the constraints they faced. Their emphasis was on their agency and the power to nurture their children into responsible adults. Their awareness of the importance of their motherwork acted as a motivator in this development. My thesis is that the relationship between each mother and each of her children is a transformative power relationship in which both mother and child are transformedthe child into an independent adult and the mother into a skilled self-motivated agent through her mothenvork. Any threat to this process resulted in the mother doing all she could to resist or counteract the constraintls she was encountering. Transformative power expressed in motherwork can be recognised analytically by several characteristics. It empowers both parties in the motherlchild duality. Complexity, diversity, fluidity, and responsiveness to the physical, intellectual, and emotional aspects of the relationship are all evident in transformative power relationships. Through their own transformation, the mothers saw the falsity of the master narratives of motherhood, prevalent in society in the 1950s and 1960s, which they had believed as inexperienced girls. From their stories about motherwork, I reveal a counter narrative that was portrayed not only in their telling of their stories: but in their discursivelreflexive practices as mothers.