Denmark, being a much smaller country than Britain, has, in absolute terms, a smaller housing problem. Nevertheless, there are surely lessons to be learned from the highly successful system which the Danish people and Government have worked out for themselves. A housing society, or some equivalent organization, provided for each separate region or sub-region in Great Britain might offer a solution to the difficult [sic.] that design for our working-class housing is under the controls of councils of very varying degrees of technical knowledge, which then have to be prodded and supervised to some extent by various Government departments. The housing society seems an admirable compromise, provided that it can be kept on the completely non-profit making basis that is successfully secured in Denmark. Ian Bowen, Housing Policy in Denmark, The Architects' Journal, August 4, 1949, p.133 A generation of competent technicians and fearless, idealistic politicians [in Britain] have been able to make a contribution which will persist as a good example of the capabilities of the present and as an incomparable field of study for others who are working in planning. Aage Jedich, Report from Holme-Tranbjerg Council Committee's visit to England, 12.07.19631 A comparison of the housing provided by two cities within separate nation states may encourage a mutually admiring gaze from each position. Comparisons have provided a tool in learning about new housing practices, understanding one's own position from a different vantage point and throwing light on areas that may have remained unquestioned until a visit abroad revealed different approaches to a similar problem. As the quotes above suggest, professional groups involved in the provision of housing and urban planning in post-war Denmark and Britain held each other's national strategies in high regard as they contemplated their local problems of creating spaces for effective urban communities. It will become clear for the cities studied in this thesis that local councillors, public officials and social housing providers at times sought to explore the wider areas of learning that practices abroad could offer. Yet the main approach adopted in this thesis is the comparative historical approach: the thesis studies the origins and history of social housing systems in Arhus, Denmark, and Newcastle, Britain. The comparison creates contrasts and similarities between the two cities through an urban social history approach. The key theme explored in the work is the notions of local democratic culture arising within the social housing systems of the two cities covering most of the twentieth century, but with an emphasis on the period 1945-1979. The introduction will discuss themes running through the work and will consider how the structure of the thesis allows for the comparison to illuminate aspects of the local political culture of the two cities that was directly affected by and affected in turn the local provision of social housing. Like most Western European cities in the twentieth century Arhus and Newcastle faced the problems of providing adequate housing for large groups of working people as the cities grew or older housing types became outdated. The study examines the options and strategies that were explored and adopted by the housing authorities in the two cities to recover from slumps in housing provision. It is clear that each city approached housing provision through different groups of facilitators: in Arhus, as in Denmark in general, the housing association was the primary generator of social housing, while Newcastle followed the British pattern — providing social housing through the municipality. Thus the agency of provision was different in the two cases from the outset. How the mediating influence of housing associations between the Arhusian Council and residents in social housing contrasted with the direct provision of council housing in Newcastle is a key issue for the the...

The essays presented here for submission for the degree of PhD by publication were published between 1998 and 2006 and (with one exception) consist of sole-authored studies in cultural history focused on the development of tourist culture in the period 1800-1914. Cultural history as a field of academic study is a rich area for interdisciplinary research and these case studies draw on a wide range of disciplines — anthropology, cultural geography, the history of medicine, visual culture, media and literature for theoretical and methodological support. Together, they constitute a coherent examination of the material and cultural factors influencing the development and expansion of tourist culture across the European continent and an exploration of its role in the formation of the social and cultural identities of people and places in the period 1800-1914, in different contexts and from different perspectives. The essays fall into two main groups. The first focuses on material and cultural factors influencing the growth of tourism in central Europe: its relationship to the development of urban culture and nationalism in the region and to the discourses and practices relating to health and leisure that supported the spa trade. A particular concern is the contribution of a developing tourist culture to the formation of cultural identities within the Habsburg Monarchy in an era of growing nationalism. For the state, tourism represented an opportunity to counteract its growing weakness by capitalising on the imperial image (a key element in touristic images of Vienna), to bolster the image of the Monarchy abroad and attract valuable foreign currency. At the same time the growth of tourism contributed to that weakness by reinforcing perceptions of cultural distinctiveness in areas influenced by growing national and regional self-consciousness. The second group of essays focuses on the production of tourists and the creation of a market for different types of tourism through an examination of the discourses influencing tourist motivations and behaviours, the experience and performance of place and the broader question of how and why tourists were attracted to particular places. A theme running through both sets of essays is that of the way that the spread of tourist culture, geographically and socially, contributed to the formation of cultural identities as particular social groups incorporated tourist practices into their lifestyles, and the places they visited acquired distinctive tourist images. Key factors in this process were the media and cultural industries responsible for the production and dissemination of travel-related forms of literature and visual culture. These industries helped to shape tourism as an economic and social institution by influencing the way in which particular places were produced for tourists and the manner in which they were perceived, experienced and performed as, for example, in case of the relationship between the British and different parts of continental Europe.

This thesis examines architectural taste and patronage in Newcastle upon Tyne between 1870 and 1914. During this period, the city experienced dramatic expansion as the wealth generated in industry, finance and retail was channelled into commercial and public architecture. The overall aim is to determine whether Newcastle formed a distinctive architectural culture. Newcastle's economic and social profile gave rise to specific patterns of taste and patronage. The thesis explores the cultural networks that shaped the built form of the city, arguing that architectural patronage in Newcastle was dominated by a cultural oligarchy. This group formed an 'architectural culture', a relatively self-contained community in which particular styles and architects were favoured above others. Newcastle was a major centre of industry, finance and retail, and played a significant role in the national economy. The thesis seeks to reposition Newcastle within the context of the dynamic forces that were reshaping Britain's built environment. As the period progressed, the distinctive patterns of taste and patronage within the city were eroded by the increasingly national economy, the influence of the metropolis and the more active role played by the centralised state. The thesis relates the architectural culture under study to the national mainstream, thus shedding light on the relationship between provincial architecture and the metropolis. The thesis employs a range of methodological strategies in order to bring the different facets of architecture into focus. With clearly defined geographical and temporal boundaries, it seeks to clarify the economic, social and cultural factors that underpin architectural production, thus offering a new insight into architectural patronage.

This research fills a gap in seventeenth century English social history. In studies of the early modem period, women are generally situated within the formal structures of marriage and the family, where their relationship to the masculine is the defining feature of their position. This thesis examines women's relationships with other women operating outside the expected range of relationships and look at groupings that were not based around the formal social structure of the time. It demonstrates that women in early modern England created and used networks which provided functions beyond their maternal and familial obligations. It also shows that these networks had an impact on wider society, inspiring strong reactions from both supporters and detractors. This study provides a functional, descriptive and developmental analysis of women's networks and locates their sphere of influence within early modem society. It asks questions about the different types of women's networks that existed in the early modem period, how they were organised and what environmental conditions helped to create them. It looks at the individuals who made up the networks and what effect age, social and marital status and religion had on the form and nature of these networks. It examines the impact of the networks on the women and what effect opposition had on them and on their networks. The research also questions whether women were conscious of their networks; if they were able to recognise their potential power and ability to influence events in their communities. The period considered by the thesis includes significant developments in the organisation of women's networks and it therefore also examines why a number of them chose to become formally organised and officially recognised during the seventeenth century.

This thesis explores the nature of the second folk revival in the North East of England. While there have been several major studies of the various national folk revivals during the 1950s, '60s and '70s, there is a paucity of scholarly accounts viewed through a regional lens. This study therefore builds on a common perception of North Eastern regional particularity to establish the ways in which the folk revival as experienced by its members within the region was distinct from that detailed in the literature on the wider (inter-)national folk scene. Using comparative examples drawn from the regional and international folk movements, the thesis contextualizes and differentiates the general trends within the second revival as a whole and its North Eastern manifestation. There are some evident discrepancies relating, for example, to levels of political involvement in the respective folk scenes but also broad similarities in chronological developments. These trends are explored through a number of themes, beginning with the weaving of a constructed regional folk-cultural identity out of a diversity of ethnic, local and occupational strands. Secondly, the common assumption that the North East is a region with a rare continuity of traditions is interrogated, alongside an acknowledgement that this was a time of rapid social change, mobility and dislocation from older cultural practices. The basic dichotomy of 'mediator' and `mediated' is questioned and found wanting, particularly in a region where young revivalists were rarely far — temporally, geographically or socially - from the source of their tradition. The ways in which the media represented and altered folk traditions, and how these representations were used to build regional consciousness is considered, as are the 1960s developments in heritage and tourism which saw vernacular culture taking on a much greater significance in the region's economy. Further, celebratory imagery is shown to have a long history in musical representations of the region, but with a contemporary focus on stoicism in the face of decline. Finally, the reasons behind the folklorists' imperative to locate the `authentic' are sought in relative degrees of alienation from contemporary society, resulting in a dissolution of the barriers between 'genuine' and 'invented' tradition.

This study explores the themes of continuity and change in twentieth-century British cultural history, particularities of place and regional identity in the North of England, and the cultural transfer of North American popular music in Britain between 1956 and 1965. By means of a comparative historical investigation of youth culture and popular music in Liverpool and Newcastle upon Tyne, the work engages with existing debate among historians surrounding the nature and extent of cultural change for the period usually referred to as 'The Sixties', and whether or not it is possible to speak of a 'Cultural Revolution'. Spanning the years between the initial impact of rock 'n' roll and the immediate aftermath of the Beat Boom of 1963-64, a phenomenon described by one commentator as representing 'perhaps the North's greatest single cultural 'putsch?', the thesis examines the role of urban and regional identity in the process of cultural production, reproduction, and consumption. Theoretical insights derived from the associated disciplines of sociology and cultural studies are employed which offer an opportunity for a novel and dynamic analysis and interpretation of the empirical historical evidence. This research is especially pertinent at a time when historians are increasingly looking to the regional and inter-regional, as opposed to the national and international, for explanations of continuity and change. There is a burgeoning interest in the history of popular culture inspired by the transition of post-modern society from one of production to consumption. Cultural and economic theorists have called for more historical investigation to inform current debates regarding the post-modern city's ability to attract a 'creative class' as a means towards urban regeneration. This study informs these debates by bringing the above themes together in a unique historical analysis of cultural continuity and change, Northern identity, and popular music.

This thesis explores the ways in which seventeenth-century nonconformist writers used the Puritan model of spiritual autobiography to record their individual forms of dissent. Spiritual autobiography is read against the political and religious turmoil that existed in England in the aftermath of the Civil Wars and during the subsequent Restoration. Through a study of four dissenting writers I show how a genre seen usually as a record of spiritual crisis and ultimate reconciliation, was also used as a way of communicating gendered, psychological, domestic, and religious dissent by writers from the extreme margins of society. The argument differs from other studies of spiritual autobiography in that I situate the genre beyond the strict confines of soteriology and adopt an interdisciplinary approach that deploys literary, historical, and theoretical readings. I draw upon the theories of Jean-François Lyotard in order to illustrate a mood analogous to postmodernism apparent in the nonconformist psyche as well as to contextualise the wider dissent shown to exist in the seventeenth century. By applying Lyotard’s concepts of Svelteness, competing Phrase Regimens, and the Differend to spiritual autobiographies by John Bunyan, Agnes Beaumont, Laurence Clarkson, and Richard Norwood this study raises questions with regard to assumptions associated with the genre, the context in which they were written, and so presents new readings of often marginal texts.

This thesis investigates the life and work of six eighteenth-century writers, two male and four female. It explores their experience of depression through their letters and other autobiographical material, and examines the ways in which they represent melancholy in their poetry and prose. The subject of Chapter Two is Thomas Gray, whose real life persona as the lonely intellectual is also identifiable in his poetry. The Scottish poet Robert Fergusson is studied in Chapter Three. Fergusson’s lively and vigorous mind was shattered in the months leading up to his death, during which time some of his writing became darkly nihilistic. Chapter Four looks at Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, a lifelong depressive who often wrote about her feelings of despair in her poetry. Chapter Five explores Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She was a courageous and controversial figure, but despite her resilience, on occasion in her letters she reveals her vulnerability and susceptibility to low spirits, a mood which is sometimes expressed in her creative writing. Sarah Scott, whose life and work have not yet been considered in relation to the subject of melancholy, is examined in Chapter Six. Her novel includes several low-spirited and depressed female characters who are continually seeking asylum from a hostile world. Chapter Seven analyses Charlotte Smith, a mother of twelve children whose unhappy marriage ended in separation. Smith wrote extensively about her depression in her letters, prefaces, poetry and novels. This study shows that the women in particular use their writing on melancholy and depression to express their discontent with the confined way in which they are often expected to live out their lives.

This thesis discusses the development of design history in Britain from the 1970s to 2012, arguing that it is a clear example of a network of relationships, intersections of ideas, approaches and intellectual influences that are representative of the complexity of current academic practice. This study engages with discourses and debates concerning attempts to define academic recognition in a subject area that resists drawing boundaries and is by its very nature multidisciplinary. The period with which this study is concerned is characterised by considerable change in society, the approach to education and academic endeavour, and the consumption of histories. All of these changes have significance for the formation and development of design history, in addition to its contribution to academic practice and its impact beyond narrow scholarly circles. This thesis acknowledges that the overlapping and interweaving of threads of knowledge, methodology, approaches and paradigms is a feature of contemporary academic practice, and applies the concept of communities of practice to discussion of the multiple types of scholarship that have constituted design history. In doing this no claim is made for design history as a distinct academic discipline but rather it is discussed as a much broader academic network. Additionally, the thesis offers an evaluation of the role of this network, including the Design History Society as a distinct community of practice, in the context of developments in education, academic changes, museums and publishing. This leads to a consideration of the various arenas in which the products of design history are consumed thus demonstrating the importance and impact of the network outside academia.

This thesis looks at design practice as a method of investigating the relationship between design and identity in interwar Britain; in particular it considers design from the perspective of practice, not solely as the final object or the story of the maker. For it is in the process of making that the varied aspects of design as it is practiced are configured to create the greatest impact on everyday life. This research proposes that the quest to construct one’s identity, in particular a feminine identity, can be demonstrated by the making of goods and objects through the traditionally feminine practice of sewing and needlework, specifically those made at home. It argues that home sewing, as an understudied everyday practice, was intrinsically bound up with ideas of who women were, how they imagined themselves, and how their feminine identities were represented. Between the wars, home-sewing was an integral daily practice for middle-class women that left indelible memories of not only the items made, but of specific types of sewing and design practice, who it was made for and how it was used. It also explores these specific practices during a period of enormous change- culturally, technologically and politically – and particularly important for this study are the themes of femininity and domesticity, as well as the boundaries of private and public life in relation to modernity. Methodologically it focuses on sewing practices by utilizing mass media, specific objects and oral histories to elucidate this. This thesis considers the breadth and extent of home sewing as an everyday practice aligning individual narratives, original source material and theoretical analysis.