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.

During the last few decades, strategic management and strategic human resource management theories have received a great deal of attention in many industrial sectors. The complex and constantly changing business environment has driven large construction companies more than ever before to reflect on the interplay between their organisational strategies and their strategic management processes, tools and techniques. This is despite the great value of human capital for an organisation’s strategic flexibility within different sets of environmental evolutions. This includes people in various positions, administrative, professional, managerial and unskilled, as well as numerous project stakeholders. Several researchers are increasingly interested in applying strategies and human-related studies within the construction industry; however, an integrated study of these two factors has been notably lacking, particularly in an airport context where the challenges and difficulties of managing construction projects are high. This doctoral thesis contributes to the existing literature by exploring the unique characteristics of an airport construction environment, along with reporting the findings of the impact that different airport ownership forms have on construction management efficiency. Through integrating numerous theories and concepts associated with project strategies, strategic human resource management and various efficiency management attributes, this research project presents a unique strategic framework that offers a structured approach to support airport holding bodies. Research primary data were collected following semi-structured interviews with senior construction project managers of airport operators within three distinct airport organisations in terms of their ownership structures. The resultant findings provide insight into the many differences between the case studies in term of project management practices. Furthermore, an explanation of the key practices that influence the occurrence of project success were identified. This doctoral investigation identified there is a need for flexibility and scalability aligned with adopting the strategic framework and engaging its conceptual application with actual management and controlling practices. In essence, the research framework was developed for each category of airport organisation, where an airport organisation is encouraged to focus its efforts on managing the most important framework components which are needed for effective improvement of management practices and, accordingly, to achieve expectations. The resulting theoretical framework provides a unique tool for airport operators to apply their project management knowledge effectively in order to realize complex projects and to secure potential efficiency gains. This study therefore provides a novel theoretical insight into the strategic management of human resources during airport construction projects. The primary application of the strategic framework is concerned with managing and controlling existing airport construction projects, particularly refurbishment or extension projects, however this could be also applied to new airport construction projects where the factors affecting strategic management and strategic human resource management anticipated to be different to those studied during this investigation. This has paved the way for future investigations to be conducted to tackle this dichotomy and further understand the intriguing aspects of airport construction business.

Infectious disease management system area is considered as an emerging field of modern healthcare in the Gulf region. Significant technical and clinical progress and advanced technologies can be utilized to enhance the performance and ubiquity of such systems. Effective infectious disease management (IDM) can be achieved by analysing the disease management issues from the perspectives of healthcare personnel and patients. Hence, it is necessary to identify the needs and requirements of both healthcare personnel and patients for managing the infectious disease. The basic idea behind the proposed mobile IDM system in this thesis is to improve the healthcare processes in managing infectious diseases more effectively. For this purpose, internet and mobile technologies are integrated with social networking, mapping and IDM applications to improve the processes efficiency. Hence, the patients submit their health related data through their devices remotely using our application to our system database (so-called SAIF). The main objective of this PhD project was the design and development of a novel web based architecture of next-generation infectious disease management system embedding the concept of social networking tailored for Saudi patients. Following a detailed literature review which identifies the current status and potential impact of using infectious diseases management system in KSA, this thesis conducts a feasibility user perspective study for identifying the needs and the requirements of healthcare personnel and the patients for managing infectious diseases. Moreover, this thesis proposes a design and development of a novel architecture of next-generation web based infectious disease management system tailored for Saudi patients (i.e., called SAIF – infectious diseases management framework for Saudi Arabia). Further, this thesis introduces a usability study for the SAIF system to validate the acceptability of using mobile technologies amongst infected patient in KSA and Gulf region. The preliminary results of the study indicated general acceptance of the patients in using the system with higher usability rating in high affected patients. In general, the study concluded that the concept of SAIF system is considered acceptable tool in particularly with infected patients.

This thesis investigates the use and significance of X-ray crystallographic visualisations of molecular structures in postwar British material culture across scientific practice and industrial design. It is based on research into artefacts from three areas: X-ray crystallographers’ postwar practices of visualising molecular structures using models and diagrams; the Festival Pattern Group scheme for the 1951 Festival of Britain, in which crystallographic visualisations formed the aesthetic basis of patterns for domestic objects; and postwar furnishings with a ‘ball-and-rod’ form and construction reminiscent of those of molecular models. A key component of the project is methodological. The research brings together subjects, themes and questions traditionally covered separately by two disciplines, the history of design and history of science. This focus necessitated developing an interdisciplinary set of methods, which results in the reassessment of disciplinary borders and productive cross-disciplinary methodological applications. This thesis also identifies new territory for shared methods: it employs network models to examine cross-disciplinary interaction between practitioners in crystallography and design, and a biographical approach to designed objects that over time became mediators of historical narratives about science. Artefact-based, archival and oral interviewing methods illuminate the production, use and circulation of the objects examined in this research. This interdisciplinary approach underpins the generation of new historical narratives in this thesis. It revises existing histories of the cultural transmissions between X-ray crystallography and the production and reception of designed objects in postwar Britain. I argue that these transmissions were more complex than has been acknowledged by historians: they were contingent upon postwar scientific and design practices, material conditions in postwar Britain and the dynamics of historical memory, both scholarly and popular. This thesis comprises four chapters. Chapter one explores X-ray crystallographers’ visualisation practices, conceived here as a form of craft. Chapter two builds on this, demonstrating that the Festival Pattern Group witnesses the encounter between crystallographic practice, design practice and aesthetic ideologies operating within social networks associated with postwar modernisms. Chapters three and four focus on ball-and-rod furnishings in postwar and present-day Britain, respectively. I contend that strong relationships between these designed objects and crystallographic visualisations, for example the appellation ‘atomic design’, have been largely realised through historical narratives active today in the consumption of ‘retro’ and ‘mid-century modern’ artefacts. The attention to contemporary historical narratives necessitates this dual historical focus: the research is rooted in the period from the end of the Second World War until the early 1960s, but extends to the history of now. This thesis responds to the need for practical research on methods for studying cross-disciplinary interactions and their histories. It reveals the effects of submitting historical subjects that are situated on disciplinary boundaries to interdisciplinary interpretation. Old models, such as that of unidirectional ‘influence’, subside and the resulting picture is a refracted one: this study demonstrates that the material form and meaning of crystallographic visualisations, within scientific practice and across their use and echoes in designed objects, are multiple and contingent.

There has been little comprehensive investigation of secondary office vacancy in the UK, nor its potential management or amelioration. In response, this thesis is a study of the nature, scale and location of this situation and an appraisal of the various strategies for its management and amelioration. There are three strands of research. An investigation into the nature, scale and location of secondary commercial office vacancy in the UK. An appraisal of potential management strategies and the development of policy recommendations in relation to the potential amelioration of this situation. An appraisal of the literature was conducted to develop an initial theoretical interpretation of secondary office vacancy. A multi attribute database of commercial office vacancy was then developed to evidence the stock of secondary office vacancy in the UK. Finally, a Delphi exercise was conducted to understand the underlying conditions of this phenomenon, its management and potential amelioration. Findings indicate that secondary office vacancy is ambiguous and colloquial. Vacant secondary office property exists in abundance while prime office property is in short supply. The institutions of the commercial office market over simplify and potentially disguise its manifestation. The incidence of secondary office vacancy is primarily caused by a structural change in the nature of demand. It can be held in reserve to support prime office supply, however, it can also overhang less buoyant locations. Consequently, the management strategies for secondary office vacancy are stratified, ranging from exploitation, to demand repositioning, to renewal and finally removal and redevelopment. Findings suggest that these management strategies should be predicated upon the demonstration of economic viability and mediated by the relative era of construction and underlying institutional characteristics. Finally, policy recommendations suggest that the amelioration of secondary office vacancy would be assisted by the promotion of more agile ways of working based on functional tolerance, and optionality.

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.

Uma análise do fenômeno bullying por meio das narrativas de vítimas. O teor das narrativas e sua análise interpela-nos para a fragilidade daqueles e daquelas que sofreram os mais variados tipos de violência. O primeiro capítulo apresenta uma reflexão sobre a sociedade e a educação do século XXI, o ser humano e suas relações culturais e sociais com uma visão panorâmica da educação atual, suas crises, influências e reflexos na vida dos jovens. Lança propostas de um olhar esperançoso para atender os anseios e necessidades da educação deste século. O segundo capítulo define o termo bullying e apresenta seu histórico. Descreve o desenvolvimento e a intensidade com que o fenômeno acontece a partir de sentimentos e angústias universais que afetam crianças, jovens e adultos. Trata da sua especificidade e conseqüências, do prejuízo à formação psicológica, emocional e socioeducacional do indivíduo vitimizado pelo bullying. O terceiro capítulo traz o relato de vítimas do fenômeno e a análise das narrativas, seus aspectos individuais e grupais revelam conexões existentes entre si e no espaço escolar, nos convidam assim à ética do cuidado. Apontam caminhos para a promoção da resiliência e o convívio com a tolerância na busca pela igualdade nas relações. Nesta perspectiva, as vítimas retratam o sofrimento, as angústias e o sentimento de impotência diante do bullying, suas experiências e descobertas do fenômeno. O quarto capítulo apresenta a relevância das narrativas no processo de descoberta da subjetividade, das experiências, suas implicações e discernimento acerca do bullying, enfatiza o processo das relações intrapessoais e interpessoais e a procura pelas respostas para entender o fenômeno. Na possibilidade dos relatos é nítida a importância de dar visibilidade e proporcionar entendimento do bullying, legitimando assim o valor das narrativas. No último capítulo são propostos caminhos capazes de contribuir para uma educação voltada para a esperança, fundamentada nas relações de alteridade daqueles e daquelas que sofrem ou sofreram bullying, possibilitando assim interferir e reagir diante de tão complexo e variável fenômeno. Considerou-se fator primordial para esta pesquisa a análise das narrativas a fim de permitir descobrir novos elementos que possam contribuir efetivamente para a paz nas relações interpessoais, suscitar e desenvolver sentidos que venham a integrar e servir de aporte à ética do cuidado, à promoção da resiliência, às relações de alteridade e do cuidado para com o outro, em uma educação voltada para a paz. / The bullying phenomenon analysis using the victims narratives. The tenor of narratives and its analysis interpellates us to the fragility of those who suffered the most diverse types of violence. The first chapter presents a reflection about the society and the education on the XXI Century, the human being and its cultural and social relationships with a panoramic vision of current reeducation, its crisis, influences and reflection in the youngs lives. It makes use of proposals of hopeful look in order to assist the expectancy and necessities of education in this Century. The second chapter defines the term bullying and presents its history. Describes the development and the intensity with which the phenomenon happens from the universal feelings and afflictions that affect children young adults and adults. It deals with its specification and consequences, its prejudice to psychological, emotional and socioeducational formation of individuals victimized by bullying. The third chapter shows the phenomenon victims report and analysis of narratives its individuals and groups aspects reveal existent connections among itself and in scholar environment, they invite us, thus, to the ethic of care. They point out ways to foster resiliency and the acquaintance with tolerance in searching for equality in relationships. In this perspective the victims portray the suffering, expectancy and feelings of impotence facing bullying, its experiences and findings of this phenomenon. The fourth chapter presents the relevance of narratives in the process of subjective development in experiences its implication and reasons about bullying. Emphasizes the process of intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships and the search for answers to understand the phenomenon. In the possibility of these reports its clear the importance of giving visibility and provide the understanding of bullying, legalizing thus, the valve of narratives. In the last chapter there are proposals made using ways capable to contribute for and education faced to hope, based in relationships of respect to others, those who suffer or had suffered bullying, enabling thus, to interfere and react facing so complex and variable phenomenon. We considered prime factors for this research, the analysis of narratives in order to allow the discovery of new elements which might contribute effectively for peace in interpersonal relations; suscitates and develops senses that could integrate and serve fertile ground for the ethic of care the promotion of resiliency the relations of respect and of care to the others in an education faced to hope.

For women with anorexia nervosa, control and routine are important in managing distress and maintaining a sense of self in challenging situations. The transition to motherhood is characterised by change and uncertainty. Women may struggle to integrate the demands of anorexia alongside the challenges of motherhood. The aim of this thesis was to review the literature regarding the experiences of pregnancy and motherhood for women with eating disorders and develop a grounded theory of the transition to motherhood for women with anorexia nervosa. The literature regarding experiences of pregnancy and motherhood with an eating disorder was reviewed. The findings suggested a trend for remission of eating disorder symptoms in pregnancy followed by relapse during the postpartum period. Women with eating disorders were most likely to experience depression and anxiety during the later stages of pregnancy and postpartum. The review highlighted how eating disorders impacted on women's ability to embrace motherhood and bond with their children. There was a paucity of research exploring the lived experience of motherhood for women with specific eating difficulties, most notably anorexia. A grounded theory was informed by the experiences of eight mothers with anorexia. A core process of breaking the cycle highlighted how women were attempting to make lasting positive changes. They achieved this by protecting their children from anorexia, exploring new perspectives, setting a good example to their children and battling temptation to succumb to anorexia. This study provides a unique insight into the experiences of mothers with anorexia. In the final chapter the research process is reflected upon. It is hoped that these findings will influence clinical practice and help professionals to better understand women's experiences.

“Jazz-Shaped Bodies” addresses representations of the city in black transnational literature, with a focus on sonic schemas and mapping. Drawing on cultural geography, posthumanist thought, and the discourse of diaspora, the thesis examines the extent to which the urban landscape is figured as a panoptic structure in twentieth and twenty-first century diasporic texts, and how the mimetic function of artistic performance challenges this structure. Through comparative analysis of works emerging from and/or invested with sites in American, Canadian, and Caribbean landscapes, the study develops accretively and is structured thematically, tracing how selected texts: map the socio-spatial dialectic through visual and sonic schemas; develop the metaphorical use of the phonograph in the folding of space and time; revive ancestral memory and renew an engagement with the landscape; negotiate and transcend shifting national, cultural, and geographical borderlines and boundaries that seek to encode and enclose black subjectivity. The project focuses on literary works such as James Baldwin’s intimate cartographies of New York in Another Country (1962), Earl Lovelace’s carnivalising of city space in The Dragon Can’t Dance (1979), Toni Morrison’s creative blending of the sounds of black music in Jazz (1992), and the postbody poetics of Wayde Compton’s Performance Bond (2004), among other texts that enact crossings of, or otherwise pierce, binaries and borderlines, innovating portals for alternative interpellation and subverting racially hegemonic visual regimes concretised in the architecture of the city. An examination of the specificity of the cityscape against the wider arc of transnationalism establishes how African American, AfroCaribbean, and Black Canadian texts share and exchange touchstones such as jazz, kinesis, liminality, and hauntedness, while remaining sensitive to the distinct sociohistorical contexts and intensities at each locus, underscoring the significance of rendition — of body, space, time, and sound — to black transnational writing.

In the construction industry, the relationship between clients and contractors has been usually characterized by uncertainty and adversarial behaviour. More recently, their relationship is said to be changing from a traditional and arms-length basis to more collaborative forms, e.g. partnering. There is evidence that such collaborative forms can have a substantial impact on project performance, not only with regard to time, cost and quality objectives, but also with regard to more general outcomes, e.g. greater innovation and improved user satisfaction. However, such benefits are less well understood due to limited research and in particular an absence of robust and appropriate methods of evaluation. The purpose of this research is to address this shortfall and seek to evaluate these wider aspects of project performance relative to different degrees of collaborative working. To achieve this, collaborative working and project performance first need to be transformed into a measurable form by breaking them down into a variety of attributes or indicators. Surrounding these attributes/indicators, item statements are developed and a Likert Scale is then adopted for questionnaire design. Questionnaires were mainly administered by semi-structured interviews in which the client and contractor from the same project were invited to evaluate their collaborative working and the corresponding project performance. After unidimensionality and reliability testing for the composite measures, the response difference between client and contractor group is explored through conducting paired samples t-test. Subsequently, cluster analysis is conducted to produce a taxonomy of collaborative working and correlation and regression analysis are conducted to explore the associations between collaborative working and project performance. The final conclusion strongly supports the existence of a strong positive linear relationship between collaborative working and project performance, provides valuable regression formulas to make project performance predictions and gives a more precise classification of collaborative working to help reduce the confusion over its definitions in a novel way.