The underlying theme of this dissertation is to focus on analysing complex and incremental change by applying the concept of regime change. Only when we undertake an analysis, which focuses on changes within a specific political-economic setting, will we be able to assess the extent and dynamic of political-economic change that occurred over a specific period of time. Regime as applied in this dissertation refers to a middle level of cohesion in the political economy of a nation state. It therefore differs from its common usage in linking a regime to a specific government or the state; as such this thesis also contributes towards generating additional awareness in distinguishing between the state, the government and a regime. It is further argued that the concept of regime change is both specific and flexible enough to cover a diverse range of case studies. To test the application of the theoretical framework two distinctive case studies, China and Japan, were selected. The concept or regime change also informs our understanding of the complexity and particularity of specific cases and the processes of complex change they experienced, like in the cases of China and Japan.

This thesis is part of ongoing research examining the interconnections between human geography and urban planning; simultaneously, it is part of a wider research agenda aiming to address gaps between Western and Non-Western literatures. Under the broader theme of spatial justice, understood as the manifestation of social justice in space, this thesis looks at two urban phenomena in the Middle Eastern context of Amman, Jordan: derelict and underutilised spaces known as brownfields, and; the practice aiming to revitalise vacant spaces in urban areas known as temporary urbanism. Over the past few decades, these two urban phenomena have been extensively investigated in Western contexts using methods and tools designed in and for those contexts and using Western-centric theoretical frames. As highlighted by this study, in the Middle Eastern context, there is little or no work investigating brownfields, temporary urbanism or spatial justice; as a result planning practices and frameworks fail to address them. Accordingly, this thesis seeks to establish the debate on these three central themes and the links between them in Arabic literature and Middle Eastern planning frameworks. By examining both the brownfield sites and temporary uses that perforate Amman’s urban fabric, a Lefebvrian and Lefebvrian-influenced critical spatial perspective is adopted that emphasises the social production of space and the right to the city. This thesis thereby argues that the reclamation of brownfield sites through temporary urbanism may enhance spatial justice within a wider global quest for just cities and just communities.

An analysis of Gandhi’s ideology and educational aims and processes, emphasising the role of the mother. The central feature of education as envisaged by Gandhi is that it should be through a productive craft.

The numbers of acutely ill patients (AIP) are admitted in general hospital wards increased. The failing to identify, manage and deliver timely and optimal care to AIPs may lead to catastrophic outcomes. A qualitative study aimed to define the current state of AIPs in Iranian hospitals showed the flaws and shortcomings in the current services for identifying and managing AIPs. An evaluation study was designed to explore the potential impact of Critical Care Service (CCS) in an Iranian University Hospital. The study design was a Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. The study included, for each ward, an unexposed to the intervention, training, and an exposed to the intervention phase. The data was analyzed using three methods: all patients, matched randomized and before-after. The null-hypothesis was tested using the mixed effect logistic regression, linear mixed and the mixed effects models. The results showed that there are no significant differences in mortality, CPR, ICU admission and length of stay. A second qualitative to find the views of staffs toward the CCS indicated that the CCS had several favorable effects, however; overcoming contextual problems in the hospital, prior to implementation of CCS, may facilitate its implementation.

This thesis explored whether, why and how leadership or other factors in Punjab’s District Governments were related to participatory development programme introduced in Pakistan’s local governments in 2001. Networking/Partnering and transformational styles were found to be significantly correlated with participatory programme utilization levels in sixteen districts. Qualitative analysis in two districts concluded that leadership; local socioeconomic and power patterns; public awareness, trust and confidence; institutional-legal design of participatory development; policy-orientation of higher-level government(s); and local group politics were important factors affecting participatory development programme. Charismatic leadership is highly conductive to change when it builds integrity and trust in a novel public programme, but strong charisma could also lead to discouragement or even suppression of a poorly designed change when leaders intellectualize it in an unfavourable way. Participative leadership led to building follower ownership in participatory policy. Individualized consideration sub-style led to building follower capability for participatory development while intellectual stimulation was the most important leadership sub-style for checking elite-capture. The extent of participatory programme utilization was determined by Networking/Partnering leadership style. ‘Deliverance’ leadership behaviour was idealized by followers under conditions of poor citizen-rights. An ongoing uninterrupted participatory programme was found to be generally empowering for the communities in the long-term.

This thesis aims to examine the channels of monetary policy transmission relating to the banking sector (mainly the bank lending channel, firm balance sheet channel and the interest rate channel), and also to investigate the effect of financial development on these channels in Thailand. We first examine the bank lending channel by introducing the micro-data based study (bank panel data) and using the panel data estimation (fix effect, 2SLS, and GMM estimation). Our result confirms the theoretical aspect of the bank lending channel and we also found that the higher the banks’ size, liquidity, and capitalization will weaken the bank lending channel. The second study will investigate the firm balance sheet channel by examining the effect of firms’ financial condition on firms’ investment and using the GMM estimation. We also found that the less financial constraint firms will have a weaker effect of monetary policy via the firm balance sheet channel than the more financial constraint ones. The third study will examine the interest rate channel by focusing on the interest rate pass-through and using the VECM cointegration technique. We found the pass-through in both long-run and short-run with a relatively high degree in long-run than short-run. For the effect of financial development, we found that banking sector development, capital market development, financial liberalization, financial innovation, and financial competition will cause a weaker effect of the policy interest rate via the bank lending channel and the firm balance sheet channel. However, all of these different aspects of financial development (except the banking sector development) shown a stronger effect on the interest rate pass-through and hence strengthen the interest channel.

This thesis explores native resistance to settler colonialism through its focus on the ’48 Palestinians (also known as the Palestinian citizens of Israel). It innovatively brings together postcolonial theory and settler colonial studies to explore the racialised, ethnicised, gendered and sexualised dimensions of settler colonial violence, how these shape native modalities of resistance and subordination, and the ways in which the transnational is imbricated within these processes. The thesis undertakes two case studies – on the Palestinian Bedouin struggle for land rights and on the Palestinian queer movement – drawing upon archival research, other primary texts and ethnographic exploration. The case studies are interrogated in relation to the liberal-nationalist framework that dominates ’48 Palestinian discourse and resistance. The thesis radically critiques the frameworks of ethnocracy, ethnonationalism and minority studies that have been most prevalent in earlier research on ’48 Palestinians. Instead, this study builds on an understanding of resistance as diagnostic of power (Abu-Lughod 1990). It argues that the resistance of Palestinians in Israel is diagnostic of the structure of Israel as a liberal settler state, and unfolds in relation to the liminal positionality of ’48 Palestinians between (semi)liberal citizenship and colonial subjecthood. It further argues that the subjectivities and modalities of resistance of ’48 Palestinians are shaped through the racialising logics of settler colonialism, and the intersectionalities of these logics with ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Through the focus in the two case studies on indigeneity (and the fetishisation of the indigenous subject as premodern) and LGBT rights (and the folding of queer subjects into modernity), the thesis further suggests that the resistance of ’48 Palestinians is also shaped in complex and ambivalent ways by their ongoing encounters with the liberal frameworks of multiculturalism and human rights. The case studies illuminate that while these frameworks can serve as vehicles for empowerment, they can also reproduce the racialising logics of settler colonialism and further its entrenchment. This means that ’48 Palestinians constantly (re)negotiate their identities, their struggles and their political agendas within multiple circuits of power. The ambivalence of the encounter with the liberal settler state, as inclusionary and exclusionary, and human rights, as empowering and oppressive, produces native resistance to settler colonialism to be shaped and reshaped by competing political projects and hybrid modalities of resistance that include practices of self-essentialising, Bhabian notions of resistance as subversion, and a Fanonian politics of rejection as both pedagogy and a political imperative. The thesis concludes that the mobilisation of a more radical vision of decolonisation requires transcendence of both liberal settler colonialism and the liberal politics of human rights.

'The Tale of Genji' had been out of print in Japan for nearly two centuries when its first English translation debuted in 1882. Ironically, as fin de siècle Anglophones encountered early reviews of 'Genji' in 'The New York Times' and elsewhere as a Japanese classic, the text was unavailable in Tokyo bookstores. This study investigates the millennium-long history of 'Genji', shedding light particularly upon how its English translators introduced textual and marketing strategies that were adopted by Japanese to domestically popularize the work. Such findings will extend those of G.G. Rowley (1997), who first contended that 'Genji' had fallen out of print between the years of 1706 and 1890. This study builds upon Rowley's research, clarifying how English translations of 'Genji' were responsible for the work's return to print in Japan, where 'Genji' has subsequently become the country's national classic. Methodologically, in exploring how translators have creatively enriched Murasaki's legacy up until the present, this study applies Anthony Pym's notion of humanization (2009) and Pascale Casanova's call for literary historicization (2007). Additionally, this thesis contributes to translation research by introducing the Japanese concept of reverse-importation. The term describes a process through which objects can gain recognition in their domestic market due to perceptions of popularity achieved abroad. Murasaki's tale provides a case to better understand how English translations of 'Genji' have, through reverse-importation, altered the work's standing in Japan.

The reliance on firewood leads people to be affected by indoor air pollution, which has negative impact on human health. Hence, a reduction on households using traditional fuels, through providing cleaner fuels, is imperative. Indonesia was before 2007 one of the Asian countries with a high proportion of people relying on traditional energy for cooking. However, in 2007, the government of Indonesia aimed to increase the usage of LPG for cooking through the Energy Conversion Program from Kerosene to LPG (ECPKL) policy. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the policy on the development of access to modern energy between 2007 and 2011. Data from Statistics Indonesia and interviews with government and members of the public were collected. The statistical data was obtained to analyse the broader pattern of use of modern energy and traditional fuel in Indonesia over 2007-2011. Thematic maps of fuel use were produced and analysed in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The effect of the policy on the change of fuel use in Indonesia was investigated through non-parametric statistical analyses. The effects of household income and rural-urban location on change in fuel use were also investigated. Interviews with central government and local government were conducted to identify the role of government in ECPKL policy and their aims in instigating the change in fuel use from kerosene to LPG. Interviews with members of society were also conducted to investigate societal acceptance of LPG and the factors that influence willingness or reluctance to use LPG. Results of the study show that, in terms of quantity of energy, share of expenditure and source of energy measures, the number of households using firewood in Indonesia from 2007 to 2011 was reduced. In 2011, more households had access to LPG in comparison to 2007, and households using kerosene in 2011 were in smaller number than those in 2007. This indicates that the implementation of policy to replace kerosene with LPG had achieved the target of improving LPG use and reducing kerosene on one hand and only had a small influence on the reduction of traditional fuel for cooking use on the other hand, because there was no attempt from the government through the ECPKL to reduce firewood and other traditional fuel use. It was also found that injustice in the distribution of cleaner fuel for cooking use in Indonesia was apparent, but it reduced from 2007 to 2011. Similarly, the policy implementation led to a reduction in the difference between rural and urban areas in proportions of modern and traditional users, between 2007 and 2011. Interview analysis revealed that there are three levels of adoption of LPG, i.e. full adopters, partial adopters and non-adopters. The factors affecting adoption of LPG include price and the market for LPG and kerosene; trust; the tangible and intangible characteristics of appliances; the campaign for LPG by family and neighbours, and kitchen architecture. Some people decided not to adopt LPG and continued to rely on firewood. There are four main factors that were connected with continuing firewood use: behaviour and life style, economic reasons, being elderly in a rural area, and living in a location that had plentiful firewood resources.

After 171 years of British colonial rule, Hong Kong has developed its distinct identity, with a laissez-faire economy, freedom of the individual, and the rule of law, in contrast with the historical experience of mainland China. Combined with the tragic experience of the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, this led the people of Hong Kong to the fear of reintegration, creating a mindset of ‘binary opposition’ among the people of Hong Kong. The contested identities destabilise mutual trust and encourage local resistance against the ‘encroachment’ from China. This thesis looks beyond the identity of binary opposition and argues that to resist China’s re-absorption is not necessary to take the form of antagonism. The mode of hybridity is not only a useful strategy to resist national assimilation, but also creates the necessary space for the possibility of cultural reconciliation. Christian churches, part of the ambiguous colonial tradition and recent opposition, could become such a space for reconciliation if they can learn from the Biblical experience as well as contextual theologies in other parts of Asia.