A common platform for both disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) has been sought around the world to reduce human vulnerability, enhance adaptive capacity and achieve other contemporary global targets. This policy framework at global and national level creates a challenge for local level implementation: climate change is a global risk predicted by scientists whereas disaster vulnerability is experienced by local people. To consider these circumstances, the thesis examines how DRR and CCA can be integrated at local level and what kind of governance and institutions are needed to ensure community participation in the whole process of local development. In order to address the research question, the thesis focuses on four inter-related themes: (i) redefining social vulnerability in a changing environment; (ii) understanding local knowledge, experiences and practices in terms of coping with climate induced disasters; (iii) investigating the DRR and CCA conundrum of implementing national policies at local level; and (iv) exploring the transformation of socio-cultural landscape of rural Bangladesh through external interventions at local level in a DRR–CCA context. The study has gone through an in-depth empirical data analysis of DRR and CCA processes both in flood prone Jamuna river basin and cyclone prone coastal areas in Bangladesh. Fieldwork involved qualitative approaches and methods, and some use of quantitative survey method; including 29 semi-structured in-depth interviews, varied participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools applied in nine focus group discussions (FGDs) and a questionnaire survey conducted in three selected study villages. Respondents included local people, particularly disaster survivors, local level practitioners, national level professionals formally linked to disaster and climate issues and academics. The findings of the thesis show that local knowledge and practice, particularly through recent experiences of environmental crisis help communities to adapt to climate related disaster risks and that the survivors of floods have more distinct coping and adaptive capacity than those of cyclones. The research found that disaster management in Bangladesh is strong up to local level and that recent government and nongovernmental initiatives for DRR and CCA assist communities coping with extreme events. However, the whole system often fails to identify and understand localised disaster and climatic risks due to a lack of effective community inclusiveness in decision-making processes. The study argues that a ‘whole-of-society’ approach should be a pervasive aspect of internal and external interventions aiming to implement more integrated DRR–CCA at local level.

To address the growing frequency and intensity of disasters a global effort is underway to change the dominant approach to disaster policy from disaster response to integrating disaster risk reduction (DRR) throughout development activities. Research into how DRR policy progresses in a government context is lacking. Using a qualitative case-study approach this research examines how the global policy prescription of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR) is unfolding within the Government of Nepal. In particular, this research a) challenges the rhetoric of substantive policy change that underpins the concept of mainstreaming and b) questions its efficacy as a neoliberal post-New Public Management policy tool given that the disaster vulnerability literature implicates neoliberalism as a driver of disaster risk. Finding change to be the dominant theme throughout the research, it applies theories and frameworks from the policy paradigm change literatures (e.g. Advocacy Coalition Framework, social learning and paradigm policy change) to explain what was found in the Nepal case-study. Eight months of fieldwork took place throughout 2014-2016. In total, eighty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted with bureaucrats and political party members at the central, district, and local levels. This research advances the disaster vulnerability scholarship through its critique of neoliberal policy discourse and its application of policy change literature. It is argued that the concept of mainstreaming fits the criteria of a neoliberal buzzword; the findings of this research demonstrate why this is problematic. The lead ministry responsible for disaster management appropriated the global policy rhetoric of mainstreaming DRR in order to minimize any substantive policy change that the DRR agenda promotes. Despite this, evidence is also found of a growing awareness and advocacy of DRR within the Government of Nepal. This is suggestive of an advocacy coalition starting to develop, which is being built through social learning. The role of individual bureaucrats and political party members, rather than a centralised legalistic approach, is found to be fundamental to changing the disaster response policy paradigm. This research calls attention to the need to critically analyse how top-down global DRR policy prescriptions are interpreted by nation-states. Empty and hollow global policy buzzwords are easily translated into a rhetoric that does not match with the reality of the governing and the policy environment.

Disasters, both natural and human-made can have severe impacts on communities and infrastructure. The approach to minimising the impact of such events is Disaster Risk Reduction. This research looks at weather related disasters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and methods used to reduce risk. The research was undertaken using a mixed methods approach. Some 200 people, both male and female, were sampled using questionnaires in four different provinces of the kingdom. The purpose was to gain an understanding of their knowledge of hazards and preparedness. Interviews were held with a number of key stakeholders in disaster management. Focus groups were conducted with religious leaders in order to gain an understanding of the role of Islam in risk reduction. The results showed that the majority of questionnaire respondents lacked knowledge and information about disasters in their places of residence. Further, they are not well prepared to face the risks of natural disasters and lacked knowledge of how to mitigate their risks. However, the majority of participants strongly believed they can minimize the risk of disasters and they were enthusiastic to participate in any efforts of disaster risk reduction in the kingdom. The Saudi government is building a disaster management system. However, it needs a greater focus on raising community awareness and preparedness. The research finds that the mosques has the opportunity to play an important role of in raising community awareness and preparedness. The Holy Quran teaches that protecting the environment and all creatures is part of Islamic worship. An extreme version of the fatalistic view of natural disasters is not fully supported in this study, which argues that natural disasters might have many other interpretations, such as a test from God, a natural process and a result of humankind’s negative intervention in nature. The role of the mosque, which has a special sacred place in the life of every Muslim, has been researched. The research shows that the mosque has a central role in the life of Muslims but this role seems to have declined recently. The strategic position of the mosque and its special status in the life of every Muslim make it a very important place for effective natural disaster risk reduction. This study suggested possible roles for the mosque to raise awareness and to help with preparedness. Some practical steps are suggested to integrate Islamic teachings into the policies and strategies of natural disaster risk reduction in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These steps are based on previous research about the role of religion in disaster risk reduction and the findings of this research.

An interest in human coping applicable to endemic disease environments such as Bangladesh now includes disease mitigation and management through self-care. Although a frequently utilised treatment, research into the reasons behind self-care preference, types of self-care practised and the implications this has for individuals and communities in developing countries such as Bangladesh is lacking. This research therefore examines the adoption of self-care in Bangladesh and seeks to understand if it is an effective disease management strategy. A mixed methods approach was employed, targeting a representative sample of different gender, age and socioeconomic status across three locations. 630 questionnaires, 47 semi-structured interviews, 15 focus group discussions, 20 key informant interviews and a series of participatory research tools were applied to explore how and why people use self-care. Data were also used to identify behaviours indicative of appropriate and inappropriate self-care that are beneficial or detrimental to the individual. A detailed and complex picture of self-care emerged. It is widely used to prevent and respond to illness through traditional, herbal and modern pharmaceutical actions. Common illnesses and endemic diseases such as fever and diarrhoeal diseases were most frequently treated through self-care. A declining natural resource base, a hazardous flood environment and communication breakdown between doctors and patients can restrict self-care adoption. However, economic savings on healthcare expenditure, reduced opportunity costs and the means to preserve dignity represented positive aspects of self-care amongst participants. Examination of these factors demonstrated the failings of current health service provision as well as the potential for better self-care integration into existing healthcare approaches. Wider lessons for disease management were therefore derived from self-care including the importance of low cost manifold strategies and the value of local knowledge and ownership. It is concluded that although self-care is not a panacea for the burden of ill health there is evidence to suggest it can play a crucial role in coping with the insurmountable disease risks people face in Bangladesh. In doing so the research contributes to understanding self-care in developing countries as an integrated and integral component of the primary health care system and infectious disease risk reduction more widely.

The United Kingdom is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 as part of a strategy to mitigate climate change. As housing is responsible for approximately 26 percent of all UK carbon emissions, housing carbon reduction is a key component in meeting this target. Local Authorities are faced with the problem of how to improve the quality of existing housing stock, provide additional social housing to meet increasing demand, and cutting emissions from both new and existing housing stock. The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is being used as a means to deliver new and refurbished social housing using private, rather than public capital, and is expected to enable the delivery of sustainable, rented homes. However there have been concerns about the use of the PFI model to deliver public sector housing which meet sustainability goals. The overall aim of this thesis is to examine whether the UK’s Public Finance Initiative (PFI) can achieve the procurement of sustainable social housing. In order to address this aim, the study considers the technical and contextual issues that affect sustainability in PFI housing projects, focussing specifically on one such project in the North East of England. With regard to the technical issues, the research introduces a methodological tool that has been developed to assess the sustainability of PFI housing projects. It is envisioned that the tool will be useful for assessing the sustainability of other housing projects procured under a public private partnership arrangement. The contextual issues are examined by means of an ethnographic study carried out from within North Tyneside Councils PFI procurement team over a period of 2 years. The results of the study suggest that the PFI procurement model can be used to deliver sustainable housing, but is currently hampered by a lack of skills, knowledge and understanding. These problems are particularly acute at the project management and governance level within the procuring local authority. The study identifies the need for clear guidance on incorporating sustainability into the procurement of PFI projects. It also recommends the use of appropriate tools to assess the sustainability of plans and build capacity within local authority procurement teams.

This study investigates the effective measurement of employee commitment within the Nigerian banking sector. The relevance of the research originates from various research findings that shows that in most organisations, evidence abounds of employees' emotional and physiological distancing of themselves from their organisation even when the pay is highly competitive. In addition, there are also evidences of inconsistencies in research outcomes when Western commitment scale is employed within non-Western organisation. This study is therefore aimed at filling literature gaps on identified inconsistencies from the use of Western scales in measuring commitment in non-Western organisations and also to comprehend employee commitment behaviour in organisations within non-Western culture. In exploring the above issues, this research developed a 28-item, 7-point Likert scaled questionnaire, distributed to 200 participants with a 42% response rate. The research also employed exploratory factor analysis in the form of PCA and Varimax for factor extraction and scale reduction and Cronbach's Coefficient alpha internal consistency measure for reliability assessment. To take the study a step further, the scale was additionally subjected to statistical test using One Way ANOVA, Pearson's Chi-Square test, and Spearman' s rank order correlation in measuring employee commitment behaviours, using two variables: income and age. The outcome from the study was two-fold. The 28 items were reduced to 18 usable items with 3-factor extractions representing three components of commitment. Scale reliability was also measured. The first outcome shows that the scale is indeed a culturally suitable and usable (valid and reliable) scale for the assessment of employee commitment to their organisation in Nigeria with an alpha score of .930, evidence of strong scale reliability. The second outcome was from the test aimed at assessing the behavioural aspect of employee commitment to their organisation in relation to the two variables income and age. The outcome shows that the higher income earning Nigerian employees (employees within the income band 1.1 million and above), and employees within the age group 31-35 are likely to be less committed to their organisations than their counterparts. The study concludes with the view that to effectively measure employee commitment to organisations in non-Western Nigerian cultures, requires the development and use of an appropriate and culturally motivated usable and suitable (consistent and dependable) scale. The conclusions are also discussed in terms of the links between income, age and commitment. It identified that high income and age are not necessarily indicators of commitment; rather some factors associated with culture might have stronger influence on employee expression of commitment to their organisation.

The study compares the total number of dwellings in Newcastle-upon-Tyne according to the 1991 Census and the local authority Housing Department. This is to assess whether the explanation of the differences at the local scale, can contribute to the understanding of Census underenumeration at the national scale. The significance of dwelling figures is established by reference to Census underenumeration, the Estimating with Confidence (EwC) project, housing need and government finance. The study also draws on literature about GIS in local government in order to highlight the need for the local analysis of dwelling figures for research and policy purposes, and to demonstrate the benefits of integrating Census and local authority data. The study describes the processes of data collection, integration and interpretation from both the Census and local authority sources. Total residential dwellings, occupied council stock and total vacant dwellings from both sources are compared and the differences are standardised. The standardised differences are then mapped (using z- scores) at the District scale and at Housing Area, Housing Neighbourhood, Ward and ED resolutions. Areas with large differences above or below the expected differences are highlighted and their characteristics are noted. The observed differences are then correlated with some of the characteristic of the areas in the form of dwelling structure, tenure, imputed residents and accommodation not used as main residence. These characteristics are then compared with those of areas with EwC non-response adjustment figures. The correlation analysis is carried out at two scales with the same resolution. This includes all the EDs in the City, then focuses on the EDs within Benwell and Scotswood Wards. This is to highlight the significant associations, specific to these Wards. Benwell and Scotswood are selected because of their patterns of vacancy differences, which are found to be in contrast to the city-wide pattern. The Census excess of vacancies in these Wards are also found to be greater than those in other Wards and greater (more than 1.4 standard deviations) than the city-wide expected average difference. The correlation analysis at the City scale finds that EDs with higher Census vacancy counts than the local authority data, share similar characteristics with EDs containing high EwC non-response adjustment figures. These are EDs with greater number of flats in residential buildings and local authority rented dwellings. In Benwell and Scotswood this pattern changes to greater number of flats in commercial buildings, converted flats and privately rented dwellings. The last stage of the study explains the differences in the selected variables using the individual property records (ED profiles). The study finds that at District (City) scale, the Census counts of total residential dwellings and occupied council stock are slightly higher than those from the local authority data. The Census vacancy figures however, are significantly less than local authority figures, mainly due to definitional differences and data collection methods used. The opposite pattern of higher Census vacancy figures is observed in Benwell and Scotswood. The reason for this is found to be due to vacant dwellings awaiting demolition, which were included in the 1991 Census vacancy figures but not in the local authority datasets. An example of how different definitions and data collection methods caused the observed differences. The study illustrates that the comparison of local authority and Census data can highlight areas with large differences (in vacant, occupied council stock or total residential dwelling counts) through data standardisation. The characteristics of these areas are found to be similar to those of areas reported as difficult to enumerate, in the national studies of Census underenumeration. The study also illustrates that these differences can be associated with Census non-response an...

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Walking in the countryside is an increasingly popular pursuit in Britain. Much previous research within the social sciences has tended to concentrate on the physiological benefits, barriers or facilitators to walking. This thesis explores particular walkers’ complex motivations for and modes of walking, their individual engagements with certain types of (northern) landscapes and the significance of specific kinds of visual images, traditions and wider practices of looking. Constructions and discourses of landscape are considered in relation to the persistence of certain ideas and aesthetic traditions as well as and in relation to current concerns about individual health and social well-being. The research is multi-disciplinary and engages with studies of art history and visual culture, cultural geography, anthropology and sociology. Visual studies research methods are used to explore individual interpretations and experiences of landscapes, and how the circulation and consumption of particular kinds of images might inform attitudes to walks and walking. Walkers’ views and attitudes have been investigated using an ethnographic approach. In-depth qualitative interviews (including photo elicitation) have been undertaken with walkers who regularly walked five or more miles in the countryside either in organised groups, on their own or with friends and family, in order to capture how walking is perceived, felt, and made sense of. A grounded theory approach has been used for the interviews, building on theories that emerged from systematic comparative analysis, and were grounded in the fieldwork. Overall the thesis observes a marked persistence of and some striking similarities between particular ideas, cultural traditions and interpretations of walking in and ways of looking at types of countryside from the Romantic period to the present day.

This research is located in the aftermath of Argentina’s economic collapse in December 2001. In broad terms, it questions how subaltern or marginalised populations contest disadvantage in an environment of economic meltdown. Following the economic crash, unprecedented levels of unemployment, poverty and social marginalisation generated a variety of organic ‘survival’ responses. These initiatives took various forms and adopted differing approaches, including confrontational activity of piquetero organisations, whilst more institutional or structured actions of co-operative projects formed from workplace recovery. A further response was cartoneo, the practice of gathering and selling recyclable waste. Working as a cartonero, or waste gatherer was generally adopted as a last resort strategy by desperately poor, marginalised individuals from predominantly informal and semi-formal settlements in peripheral areas of the Greater Buenos Aires Province (GBA) and other urban areas nationally. Possibly taking their lead from the broader trends in co-operative organisation, numbers of waste gatherers, or cartoneros, banded together to form co-operatives. The subject of this thesis is one such project, the Tren Blanco co-operative, established in Villa Independencia, an impoverished shanty town in José León Suárez, San Martín department, GBA. The topic was selected on the basis of the opportunity it afforded to present a subaltern study and bottom–up account of the event from the perspective of the protagonists. Appropriate to this aim, the focal aspect of the study was obtained by a qualitative oral approach of informal and semi-structured interviews combined with ethnographic observation conducted between July and August 2007. Secondary resource materials, including academic literature and other media sources, were used to provide a contextualisation of the event within both the broader context of Argentina’s socio-economic history and the more specific context of late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century history. Literature on the subject of social responses to Argentina’s economic crisis is limited. Research into the specific phenomenon of cartonero co-operatives is even sparser. As such, this study contributes to the body of Argentine socio-economic history in both the broad and more specific sense. This work is valuable in that it provides an alternative reading to traditionally top-down recording common to some historiographical traditions and accounts. However, the core value of this research is that it provides an original contribution to knowledge by considering the meaning and human relevance of work and co-operative organisation in a marginal community in the chronological and geographical context of early twenty-first-century Argentina.