This study evaluates, by means of face to face interviews and a postal survey, aspects of the Market Towns Initiative (MTI), the Beacon Towns Programme (BTP), and related programmes of community-led work, the majority of which arose from the British Government’s Rural White Paper of 2000. Particular emphasis is placed on: participants’ experiences, achievements and opinions about the programmes; their understanding of rural poverty; the extent to which they thought that the programmes should have had poverty alleviation as an aim, and to which they believed that the programmes had helped to identify and address rural poverty. A review of the literature relating to rural policy reveals that political interest (and, therefore, policymakers’ interest) in the functions of England’s country – “market” - towns, and their place in the settlement hierarchy, has waxed and waned since the Second World War. During this period the nature of government, in particular the balance between the various tiers, has tilted in favour of central government. Consequently, the powers available to County and District/Borough Councils, if not Town/Parish Councils, have reduced. Central government has increasingly looked to partnerships formed from public, voluntary, and private sector organizations to implement policy. It is governance, therefore, rather than government, that has grown in importance in recent years. The MTI/BT programmes were both designed for implementation by broad-based partnerships of professionals and volunteers. The literature also reveals that the post-war period has seen research into poverty become increasingly nuanced and sophisticated, with definitions moving away from the relatively simple to understand (eg lack of money) to more complicated notions of disadvantage, deprivation, and social exclusion. The factors that affect rural poverty have, since the 1970s, been remarkably constant (eg access to services, affordable housing, low income self-employment). The problems of rural poverty have not been solved. It is argued, based on the results of the data acquired from this research, that community-led development programmes such as the MTI/BTP, have the potential to inform the development of policy and practice relating to community-led development and poverty alleviation, to add to the body of knowledge about rural poverty, and to improve the overall understanding of the functions of England’s small towns. Despite the potential of partnerships to effect change, the important role of local authorities as democratically accountable organizations, and contributors to partnerships’ success and effectiveness, is noted.

This thesis discusses the role and function of the temporary use of urban space within the context of the development process and urban regeneration across the core cities of England. The research utilises the concept of gaps in the cycle of utilisation in land and property to develop a single structured analytical framework to assess the relationship between disuse, interim development as a means to alleviate vacancy and the property development industry. In doing so it attempts to extend existing efforts to interpret temporary urban development by exploring what the thesis comes to define as 'extraordinary' and 'ordinary' forms of short-term reuse. An exploratory, mixed method and multi-scalar approach is used to discuss this dichotomy. Research findings, through a national landscape of the phenomenon of temporary development in the core cities, highlight the characteristics of high profile compared to everyday temporary solutions. In doing so, it exposes the limited frequency of landmark interim solutions in comparison to their more mundane counterparts over a fifteen year period (2000-15). Set against this contextual and temporal backdrop, extraordinary temporary uses are demonstrated to be a marginal but emerging practice of land and property re-use, associated in particular with the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-08. Subsequent testing of the spatial distribution and patterning of temporary uses in two selected cities - Bristol and Liverpool - revealed that landmark interim solutions were more commonly centralised in cities than everyday versions, with disproportionately large shares in principal regeneration areas. Through a programme of interviews with key regeneration and development actors, connectivity to urban renewal was shown to be dependent on how the shape and form of local development processes evolve and how regeneration actors' outlooks on temporary use vary over time, as institutional agendas shift and urban economic circumstances change. The thesis explores this shift in the function and emphasis of temporary development in England's second tier cities, from ordinary, everyday forms toward cultural-creative, extraordinary solutions, to discuss the implications of employing high profile short-term uses as mechanisms to incentivise regeneration. Here, the use gap framework developed in this research is shown to be a useful method for conceptualising the rationale behind the variation in stakeholder perspective on temporary development. The model highlights how fluctuating externalities and the interrelating variables of risk, value and time can affect responses taken toward temporary development by the development industry, elucidating a more complete understanding of the role and function of temporary urbanism amongst the wider (re)development process. Ultimately, this thesis argues that while the consensus on temporary use is that it is an effective tactic to assist in the continuation of regeneration, it can also leave some temporary users exposed to the vicissitudes of the market. Extraordinary users bear a disproportionate share of the potential risks associated with development, often without commensurate reward. This illustrates how temporary use can engender opportunity for creativity and innovation as part of the regeneration process, but also, demonstrates how risk-shifting rationalities in the development industry can mean that economic, social and political costs accrue inordinately for temporary users. The research specifies that recognition of the locally specific and multi-dimensional nature of the development process and appreciation of the complexity of the interrelationships between the actors involved are of critical importance in any attempt to understand the role and function of temporary use. It concludes that by understanding the evolution of local structures and actions, over time and across space, the nature and form of temporary development can be better appreciated and strategies to successfully manage it developed.

To step into a character and a world of the past, the actor must not discard the present, but seek to find connections and links between the worlds. I was cast in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater production of Sense and Sensibility, a Jon Jory adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, in the role of Lucy Steele. This was an equity production, and it ran February 6th – March 17th, 2013, in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s Margeson Theater. Lucy is a female character from England in a period often referred to as the Regency era. As a woman from today’s United States of America, first I explored how Lucy’s words and actions fit into the society of her time, and second I explored how I, a contemporary actor, could organically step into her shoes. One of the greatest tools I had to help me address these questions was the playwright himself, Jon Jory. He was at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater for the 2012 Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays, during which he gave a keynote address and taught a master class in acting, in which I participated. Furthermore, I had the unique opportunity to personally interview him regarding Sense and Sensibility and his connection to the world of Austen and her characters. Along with applying this insight, I applied tools from his acting master class to my work on his Sense and Sensibility text. This special access to the playwright greatly influenced the work and served as a key into Lucy’s world. In addition to working with the playwright, I further researched Austen and her work, because Lucy and her world originate there. I explored various resources about England’s Regency era society and the role of women in this society. By comparing the world and people of the play to the current cultural and political landscape with which I am most familiar, I found iii fundamental links between people living in different times and places, breaking down walls between Lucy’s world and my own. Finally, this performance thesis project utilized the practical acting, voice, and movement skills, which I cultivated in my studio work as an MFA acting candidate at the University of Central Florida. It was a wonderful opportunity as an aspiring young actor to participate in an equity production and work with professional actors. I exercised my stage dialects training by using a standard British dialect, and I applied what I learned in my theatre styles acting class and in various movement classes to develop the behavior and physicality of my character. In order to preserve the new information gained from this study, I chronicled my explorations and discoveries throughout the rehearsal and production process. Through my work with the playwright Jon Jory, my research on Jane Austen and the Regency era, and my application of what I learned in the studio, I strove to create a model process for an actor to utilize when stepping into a role and a world of the past.