This thesis constitutes five sets of photographic work of self-portraits in diptych form within an installation, with two Artists’ Books and a written component. It explores and visualises my autobiographical condition as an exiled artist from Taiwan, seeking for an imagined return.

Monitoring large forest areas is presently feasible with satellite remote sensing as opposed to time-consuming and expensive ground surveys as alternative. This study evaluated, for the first time, the potential of using freely available medium resolution (30 m) Landsat time series data for deforestation monitoring in tropical rainforests of Kalimantan, Indonesia, at sub-annual time scales. A simple, generic, data-driven algorithm for deforestation detection based on a consecutive anomalies criterion was proposed. An accuracy assessment in the spatial and the temporal domain was carried out using high-confidence reference sample pixels interpreted with the aid of multi-temporal very high spatial resolution image series. Results showed a promising spatial accuracy, when three consecutive anomalies were required to confirm a deforestation event. Recommendations in tuning the algorithm for different operational use cases were provided within the context of satisfying REDD+ requirements, depending on whether spatial accuracy or temporal accuracy need to be optimized.

Research on the origins of agriculture in western Asia has placed great emphasis on the location and pace of domestication. However, much less attention has been given to reconstructing the specific nature and social implications of early cultivation practices across the agricultural transition, and to the potentially varied land management strategies involved. By employing a functional ecological approach to the interpretation of arable 'weed' taxa associated with early cultivars, this research addresses this gap in archaeobotancial research by enabling detailed analysis of the growing conditions and farming methods involved in early plant cultivation in western Asia. The core methodology analyses the functional ecological attributes (e.g. leaf area and thickness; canopy dimensions; stomatal density and distribution) of the relevant arable weed taxa isolated from archaeological contexts to determine the specific growing conditions of early crops and hence the nature of management practices. Functional attributes are morphological or behavioural characteristics that predict species' potential in relation to major environmental variables, such as soil productivity, disturbance and moisture. Statistical analysis incorporating these attributes is used to explore variation amongst early cultivation contexts and compare them with weed survey data from contrasting (semi-)arid modern regimes, including a recent study of traditional cereal farming in Morocco. Ecological 'signatures' were determined using the isolated weed dataset from four well documented and contextually rich Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic sites, which were strategically selected to explore agricultural strategies from its initial stages through to the established Neolithic, as well as to exploit detailed sample-by-sample data and extensive in situ deposits. The sites investigated are PPNA Jerf el-Ahmar and PPNA/EPPNB Dja'de in northern Syria, PPNB Tell Aswad in southern Syria, and PPN-PN Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia. Refined identification of selected weed genera at these sites enabled more accurate indications of their arable ecologies. The results generated suggest that early farming practices were highly variable within sites, reflecting the specific affordances of local climate and surrounding landscapes, but relatively labour-intensive in comparison with later urban agrosystems. Furthermore, there are indications for greater cultivation intensity over time, as households became more autonomous.

Religious experience is a narrative reality, while it certainly relates to doctrines and rituals, it is embodied by the stories people tell which express the meaning of conversion as understood by the converts themselves. In order to enter this narrative world we must engage the actual stories told by converts, making space for their narratives as they make meaning of their experiences and thus open windows on the emic perspective. Sometimes this happens through stories that are largely thematic—expressing conversion in mainly one metaphor. Other times, narratives may touch on many different ideas, allowing us to discern various internal structures, such as some of the factors leading to conversion. Nevertheless, as important as these narratives are, they are only part of the picture because religious conversion always takes place in context. Therefore, if we are to properly understand the deeply personal experience we call conversion, we must frame it within the social, cultural and historical currents swirling around that experience. The conversions in this study are rooted in the religious history of Central Asia, particularly the seventy-odd years of Soviet rule. By the end of that era, it is probably more appropriate to think in terms of localized islam, rather than a universal religion based on the text of the Quran. Not only so, but the once proudly distinct Muslim peoples, now living under Russian rule, had become enculturated into Russian patterns of life, thought, and worldview, a process referred to as Russification, something which had profound effects on the way some of them have experienced conversion away from their natal religion. This study examines both of these aspects, first the contextual and then the personal, through the stories of thirty-six Muslims who converted to faith in Christ in post-Soviet Central Asia. By exploring the deeply personal and the broadly contextual together, this study offers a clear view of the meaning of religious conversion, in a historical, social, and religious context. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D.Lit. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

This empirical thesis explores the ways some Third World States use the patent regime as set out in the TRIPS Agreement to effect certain development and public health goals. It also investigates how non-state actors in these countries participate in patent law making, thereby creating narratives and counter-narratives that are challenging global norms on pharmaceutical patent protection. To do this, the thesis takes the three different examples of Brazil, India, and Nigeria and tells the story of patent law making within each of them. Adopting a Third World Approach to International Law as a macro-theoretical guide and nodal governance theory as a supplement, the thesis maps the broad interpretations and contestations of international patent law within the Third World. In doing this, the thesis pays particular attention to the everyday life of international patent law through the examination of practices that unfold through the different sites and objects in which international law operates today. In unpacking the patent law making in the aforementioned countries, the thesis posits that there is an emerging body of IP jurisprudence from the Third World that is expanding the aperture on norms governing pharmaceutical patent rules and medicines access discourse. In other words, the politics of international law making and implementation is shifting dramatically due to the confluence of different actors from various sectors in different forums in Brazil and India that are articulating counter-hegemonic pharmaceutical patent rules. The concomitant effect is not only the adoption of alternative pharmaceutical patent laws that are pro-human rights – especially pro-public health rights – in its articulation, but are also hermeneutic expressions of resistance against, and reform of, the international IP regime. In interrogating these narratives and counter-narratives that frame the global intellectual property regime in Third World forums, this thesis articulates successful counter-hegemonic discourses on patent law making and extrapolates lessons for Nigeria.

This thesis focuses on the role of agency during political transition processes in divided societies. To be more specific, it examines how the Iraqi political elites view democracy and what type of political institutions they support. The years between 2012 and 2015 are of great significance and the final US withdrawal at the beginning of the period marked the conclusion of military occupation. That event made the Iraqi political elite central to the political process. Previous studies have focused on structural issues in post invasion Iraq, highlighting factors that could facilitate democracy or systems that could undermine prospects for a democratic system in the country. A gap in the literature on Iraq is identifiable as there is a lack of any real attention to the issue of agency. The theoretical contribution of this study is that it illustrates and underlines the importance of elite perspectives for the democratisation process in a country divided along ethno-religious lines. The study argues that democratic institutional arrangements are needed as the means to reconcile different, and at times conflicting, political interests. Having established this point, the research analyses the role of agency in terms of key political players in forming, arranging, and setting up institutions. Extensive field research collating original empirical data was carried out in Iraq, Baghdad and Erbil, from 2011 to 2015. This study surveys the Iraqi House of Representatives, the Iraqi Presidency, and the Iraqi Council of Ministers, and involves interviews with highly placed decision makers in the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, as well as members of the Constitution Drafting Committee. Key participants include; the President and the Prime Minister, Speakers of the Parliament, and the Chair of Iraqi Constitution Drafting Committee. The participants include members from all the main ethno-religious groups in this divided country. Based on this new data, the specific views of Iraq's political elites are analysed, and their preferred types of political system are articulated, providing a concise contribution to current knowledge of democracy building in Iraq. The first empirical finding is that elites of the minority groups conceive democracy as power sharing, while members of the majority understand it as majority rule. The second finding is that larger groups support majoritarian institutions, while smaller groups support consensual ones. Those findings confirm previous academic thinking, for example Lijphart's theory on consensus democracy. The third finding is more surprising. All groups support a consensual arrangement of federalism and a majoritarian constitution. This unexpected support for these types of institutional arrangements required investigation in more depth to determine how political elites view federalism in Iraq, and how the constitution, if the opportunity arose, might be amended. It is argued that the future possibilities of Iraq’s polity depend largely on political agreements between the political elites representing the main groups in Iraq. The stability of the country rests mainly on the ability of its elites to arrange political institutions in such a way as to accommodate the different interests of the groups they represent.

This thesis provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the contentious “sovereignty” dispute between Taiwan and China, especially following the signing of the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in 2010. Distinctive from many contemporary studies of cross-Strait relations, this research analyzes Beijing’s and Taipei’s political agendas regarding sovereignty in the broader context of East Asian economic integration, as the ECFA is in fact the byproduct of their regional strategies. Commercial diplomacy and interdependence theory constitute the theoretical framework of this thesis. Moreover, this thesis employs various definitions of sovereignty in order to evaluate the extent to which China has impacted upon Taiwan’s sovereignty in the process of economic integration. By employing document analysis and elite interview methodologies, this thesis finds that Taipei has a limited ability to protect its sovereignty from China’s commercial diplomacy in the post-ECFA era. This outcome can be explained by Beijing’s efforts to marginalize Taiwan during the construction of East Asian regionalism, which has driven Taipei to shift its strategy from confrontation to cooperation with Beijing so as to secure its economic and sovereignty interests. To date, economic integration features centrally in Taiwan’s new Mainland policy. This has increased the degree of Taiwan’s economic dependence on China, which gives greater scope for Beijing to wield commercial diplomacy to infringe upon Taiwan’s domestic, functional, and de jure sovereignty. This thesis makes two overall contributions. The most significant contribution of this thesis is its pioneering research approach, which analyzes how China and Taiwan reconcile their economic interests and sovereignty concerns through the lens of commercial diplomacy. Furthermore, by categorizing sovereignty according to its different aspects, this thesis also contributes to the understanding of the effectiveness of China’s commercial diplomacy in furthering its sovereignty interests with regards to Taiwan.

This study examined teachers and learners’ beliefs about teaching English grammar at Tripoli University. It explored the role of grammar in this context and the optimal method or approach of teaching grammar in such a context. The present investigation aimed at identifying the causes behind the learners’ difficulties in using their knowledge of grammar to communicate effectively and the challenges, which confront the lecturers when dealing with grammar instruction. Grammar teaching has been and continues to be a source of controversy, and heated debate, which has led many second language researchers to rethink the status of grammar in language learning and teaching. Grammar has often generated conflicting views. Thornbury (2009) argues that no other issue has preoccupied theorists and practitioners as much as the grammar debate which has brought about a split of views, specifically into those who claim that grammar should not be taught at all, and others who believe that grammar should be given a central role in English language teaching . In order to achieve reliable and valid results, this research employed a mixed methods approach, since relying on one single research approach and strategy could reduce the effectiveness of this study. The underpinning philosophy identifying this study is positivism because of the large amount of quantitative data. The justification for combining a quantitative and qualitative research approach is related to the purpose of the study, the nature of the problem and research questions. Accordingly, quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire involving students at the English language department at Tripoli University. This was supported by qualitative data collected by using semi- structured interviews for lecturers teaching grammar at the English department. The findings of this study showed that students and lecturers at Tripoli University valued the role of grammar instruction and that it should be recognised in all the different skills. The findings also revealed that the participants were unhappy with the way grammar is taught in lectures. They also suggested that further research be conducted in all the different teaching skills. This study is pertinent because it has academic value. It has added to the literature on the importance of English grammar and contribute to the ongoing debate of whether grammar should be taught or acquired. In addition, it will benefit the students and lecturers in developing communicative competence by enhancing grammar teaching. It will raise awareness about the challenges of teaching English grammar in Libya and benefit future researchers interested in the teaching of grammar.

China’s transition from planned economy to market economy (economic liberalization) has catalyzed the private sector’s emergence and growth, as well as given birth to new forms of business associations within the private sector, such as Non-local Chambers of Commerce (NCCs, hereafter). NCCs emerged from mid-1990s, and have proliferated rapidly across China’s localities and industries. Unlike traditional official business associations, NCCs have significantly participated in local governance and demonstrated new types of state-society relations. However, they have not yet reached the attention of scholarly researchers, and have been understudied within and outside of China. At the same time, political scientists working on policy processes have begun to include China as a case to enrich their theory, but find it hard to adapt established models to China’s policymaking system. Research on the Chinese policy process have gone from elite politics in the 1950-1960s, to “fragmented authoritarianism” in the 1970-1980s, then to “fragmented authoritarianism 2.0” after 2000. During the evolution of these theories, it has been noticed that more and more non-bureaucratic actors have been involved into the policymaking process if not being the prominent actors. There have been studies on “policy entrepreneur”, environmental NGOs, international NGOs, Chinese think-tanks and different forms of business lobbying. However, within the spectrum of business lobbying, there is a gap in understanding business associations’ influence in policy processes, especially the new type of so claimed “grass-roots” business associations. This thesis sheds lights on this new type of private sector business association - NCCs and their influence in the local urban policy process. NCCs have been widely involved in local governance and political engagement. However, their political participation shows great variation due to differences in regions, organizational forms, industries and policy spheres. So the question of what lead to the variation of NCCs’ policy influence has become the highlights of this research project. By using the empirical materials from participant observation and interviews, this thesis aims to answer two main questions: How did NCCs influence the local policy process and what explains the difference in their policy influence? In this thesis, I develop a typology for NCCs by using the dimensions of “origins” and “networks”. Thus all the NCCs have been categorized into four types: “Dependent NCCs”, “Independent NCCs”, “Coupling NCCs” and “Decoupling NCCs”. Through in-depth case analysis, I argue that NCCs’ networks and their ability to mobilize resources within their networks determine their policy impact. In terms of NCCs’ network orientation, the state networks of NCCs directly affect their access to policy lobbying, while the business networks directly affect the resources for their lobbying, thus determine NCCs’ lobbying capacity in the local policy process. In terms of NCCs’ network strategy, network span influences policy making while network intensity influences policy implementations. To be specific, NCCs with network span strategy could influence more general policy agendas and policy spheres, while NCCs with network intensity strategy could exert more influence in specific policies especially in the policy implementation stage.

Ethnoarchaeological research of indigenous iron-working in Africa and, more recently, in parts of Asia, has attempted to interpret past technology through the lives and memories of blacksmiths and smelters. In India, recent archaeological and historical research of iron-working and other forms of craft production has examined the social position of specialized craft producers within regional caste-structures. This thesis incorporates both these approaches to study traditional iron-working communities in northern Telangana, a region in south-central India. Anthropological theories of craft production and power are employed to provide a nuanced interpretation of the archaeometallurgical and ethnographic data from the study area. Medieval travelogues and colonial documents attest the presence of a thriving preindustrial iron and crucible steel-manufacturing tradition in northern Telangana. Initial archaeological and historical investigations in the region by Lowe (1989) and Jaikishan (2009) identified a significant number of sites related to early iron and crucible steel production. The Pioneering Metallurgy project of 2010 (Juleff et al., 2011) surveyed within the four districts of northern Telangana to investigate the origin and development of these technologies. Besides locating and recording archaeometallurgical evidence, the project also conducted ethno-metallurgical enquiries to record the members of rural blacksmith communities at work. This highlighted the potential for an in-depth ethnoarchaeological study to understand the socio-cultural context of these indigenous technologies by unraveling the lives of the descendants of iron-smelters and steelmakers of northern Telangana. This was the starting point of the present research project. My research investigates a dynamic set of relationships between craft, people and space—physical and social. The ethnographic data for this research is collected through 63 formal and numerous informal interactions with the iron-workers of the region. These interactions and other collected data are presented in appendices. The lives of five practitioners with different specialized skills provide the entry point into this research which is presented in two-parts. After setting the background, Part A investigates the intricate relationship between indigenous smelting technologies, smelters and place. Based on interactions with older members of the Mudda Kammari (smelter) community, this study attempts to reconstruct the practices of iron-smelting from their individual and collective memory. Where possible, elderly smelters led me to the rivulets where ore was mined and showed the surviving pits for preparing charcoal, while explaining technological details. The spatial locations of these were recorded and analyzed in relation to the smelting sites and present habitations of the Mudda Kammari (smelter) communities. Apart from technological detail, their memory also provided insight into the social and economic networks in which indigenous iron-smelting operated. The demise of indigenous iron-smelting in the first half of 20th century compelled the Mudda Kammari to adopt blacksmithing on a full-time basis. As a result they lost their distinct smelter-identity. A host of specialist iron-working groups like the scissors-smiths, sword-smiths and firearm makers in the area also lost their specialized skills and distinct identities faced with competition from industrial products and government prohibition onthe domestic weapon manufacturing industries from the 1950s. All of these groups were obliged to take up manufacturing agricultural products, and therefore, became homogenized as Kammari (blacksmiths). Lopsided agrarian development, marketization of harvests and recent mechanization of agriculture have ruptured the traditional relations of exchange between the Kammari and the agrarian community. This has significantly reduced the demand for their services, and resulted in displacement of their craft and lives. Consequently, the identity and position that the Kammari enjoyed in rural social space and reinforced through cult performance has degenerated. This led to a further homogenization of artisan identities, supported by a new eclectic identity narrative, which replaced the older, individual craft-community focused identities. Part B of this research deals with this homogenization process in detail. It interrogates the relationship between the decline in craft and the evolution of artisan identity. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival studies, this section examines how identities of ironworking communities in northern Telangana are reconstituted and articulated over time with the enfeeblement of their craft. In the final section of the thesis I bring the diverse data together to form a nuanced understanding of the social, cultural and economic context of iron working in northern Telangana. Based on the complexity of iron-worker identity in northern Telangana, this section cautions against drawing straightforward ethnographic analogies to study the archaeological record. I conclude by proposing how this research can benefit future ethnoarchaeological research of craft production and in studying traditional craft and craftsmen in a growing market economy.