This study constitutes the first socio-historical reconstruction of Scotland-based anti-racist formation, spanning the post-WW” period to the present day. Historical in that a chronological map of anti-racist mobilisation is reconstructed; sociological in that anti-racist formation is analytically founded with the purpose of subjecting conceptualisations of ‘racism as a social problem’ to historical scrutiny by tracing its increasing public profile across time. This thesis is concerned with the making of the meaning of ‘racism as a social problem’, an understanding of which is framed by the interplay between anti-racist formation and the policy agenda of the British state. This interplay is contextualised and scrutinised specifically in Scotland, such that the state’s role in defining racism as a social problem is subject to critique. Focus is on the perceived role of ‘race’ and migration as social conflict variables, and state institutions as agents of legitimation, incorporation and regulation. Scotland provides a robust geo-political framework for analysis in that there is explicit recognition that the problem of racism in Scotland has been neglected historically. We have moved from a social policy context in which racism was not given sufficient attention by the Scottish arm of the British state, to a newly devolved institutional set-up which has allowed a significant place to the social problem of racism as specifically a ‘Scottish problem’. The newly devolved Scottish polity’s commissioned anti-racist media campaign – One Scotland, Many Cultures – provides an explicit statement of what the state means when it declares itself-anti-racist, how its agenda informs the signification of ‘racism’, and consequently how ‘racism’ is typified as a social problem requiring state intervention. This study explores ‘problem definition’ with the use of multiple methods of enquiry, including: archival recovery; elite interview; policy analysis; event analysis; media analysis; visual analysis; and audio analysis. Media analysis incorporates representations of anti-racist claimsmaking, which takes a specifically Scottish focus in the Scottish press and is systematised over a particular period ranging from 1994 to 2004. This is supplemented by interviews with anti-racist activists and policy officials, with a specific focus on those who played a key role at an institutional level pre-devolution and those with a close involvement in the development of One Scotland, Many Cultures. This triangulation is grounded via a historical approach which seeks, through archival recovery, to unravel the contextual construction of ‘racism as a Scottish problem’ from 1968 to 2004. This thesis concludes that the devolved polity’s problem typification draws on historical currents specific to representations of ‘racism’ as influenced by Scotland-based anti-racist formation, but adds a new dimension, such that the definition of ‘racism’ is ‘therapised’.

This thesis is comprised of four main chapters. Although the chapters are distinct works, they are related by their focus on housing and land markets and their reliance on urban economic theory and methods. They aim to contribute to the understanding of how these spatial markets function in order to work towards an improved implementation of urban policy. In particular this thesis tries to understand how house prices are determined by demand- and supply-side factors across different scales. It provides support for the idea that at a local level prices are determined by demand, in that they compensate for differences in locational amenities. It also investigates some of the consequences of price determination such as displacement of original residents from gentrifying neighbourhoods and welfare losses as a result of planning restrictions to development. The overall message that emerges from the body of work is that urban policy should pay close attention to the way that supply and demand interact to determine prices in markets for housing and land.

This study contributes to our understanding of the social organisation and lived experience of men in China’s sex industry. It employs a social epidemiological model to analyse the multiple levels of influence on HIV (and other non-HIV) risks to which this highly marginalised group are exposed. It highlights the complex interrelations between different factors influencing the lives of male and transgender sex workers (MSW) in China. It is the first mixed methods study of its kind in the Chinese MSW context. The thesis analyses data collected during five months of fieldwork in Shenzhen, China. Working through a community-based MSW organisation, a participatory approach was taken to study design and data collection. Community advisory boards were organised and used to develop and test study instruments. A structured survey was undertaken with MSW (n=251), with a sub-sample purposely selected for semistructured interviews (n=21). Key informant interviews were conducted with representatives from local and international organisations (n=5). Multiple linear and binary logistic regressions were used for quantitative data analyses, while qualitative data were coded thematically. Both data types are given equal weight throughout the analysis. The thesis demonstrates how China’s recent macro-level social and economic changes, characterised here through the microcosm of life in the city of Shenzhen, interact with the lived experiences of the men in the study, driving their rural-urban migration and contributing to their entry into sex work. The phrase “laugh at poverty, not at prostitution” was used by many of the respondents to explain their decision to sell sex, but this apparently simple idiom belies a more complex reality in which economic factors intersect with social networks, sexual orientation and an escalation in the provision of sexual services. Sex work careers are represented as providing both opportunities (for escaping poverty, expressing sexual identity, and accessing cosmopolitan lifestyles), as well as risks. Risk, understood as a socially constructed phenomenon, refers not only to HIV transmission, but also violence from clients, control by mami (pimps), and entrapment and arrest by the police. Multiple risks and opportunities arise through a range of social and professional interactions between the different actors involved in the industry, necessitating their dynamic management by the MSW. Sex work, HIV and homosexuality alongside migrant identities are highly stigmatised in China, and the active management of these intersecting identities, in part through their sexual practices, allows the MSW in this study to continue in their work without ‘losing face’. The MSW have complex sexual networks of male and female, paid and paying, and non-commercial partners. In exploring their partner concurrency, this complexity is examined, through the lenses of stigma and identity. Local, emic understandings of ‘safe sex’ indicate that while levels of HIV fear are substantial among the MSW, and condom use is commonly discussed, safety and hygiene are frequently conflated, and both are associated with HIV-avoidance. Hygiene, through showering and general cleanliness, is considered an important part of ‘safe sex’ for this group, but also emerges as a metaphor employed to counter the perceived dirtiness of selling sex for some of the MSW. The findings highlight the complexities involved in selling sex for these men. They must actively negotiate their work, risks and identities, while also being subject to unequal power relations and forces largely beyond their control. This thesis aims to present a nuanced account of these dynamic processes.

This thesis analyses the experiential, performative and lived realities of the Zimbabwean diaspora in Britain. It is based on an innovative multi-sited ethnography, comprising 33 in-depth interviews and participant observation in four research sites, and draws upon concepts of diaspora and transnationalism as theoretical and analytical frameworks. Whereas the concept of diaspora typically emphasises group cohesion and solidarity, this thesis argues that the Zimbabwean diaspora in Britain has to be understood as fractured and fragmented. The diaspora is fractured in terms of ethnicity and gender; the various strategies and routes used to enter Britain; migrants' contrasting characteristics and degrees of participation in diaspora politics; the diverse meanings of the homeland and the multiple diasporic identities etched in the hostland. On the basis of data from Coventry, Birmingham, London and Wigan, the thesis examines the triadic relationship of the diaspora to the homeland and to the hostland, as well as to the group itself. Core themes and sub themes that are addressed include the phases and patterns of migration from Zimbabwe; transnational diaspora politics; the participation of the diaspora in paid work; the configuration of gender relations and roles; and the meanings of diaspora and attitudes towards return or settlement. The thesis is distinctive in the following respects: its use of multi-sited ethnographic methodology to generate data; the theoretical and empirical demonstration of how migrants participate in transnational diaspora politics; the investigation of the ability of social actors to resist institutional structures in their everyday lives in the hostland; the exploration of how gendered identities are configured in the public and private spaces of the diaspora; and the conceptual and theoretical interpretation of the Zimbabwean diaspora vis-a-vis other accounts of global diasporas. This research represents a contribution to our knowledge of the Zimbabwean diaspora in particular and to the field of diaspora and transnational studies in general.

A key aim underpinning the regeneration of the Thames Gateway in the 1990s and 2000s was to ensure that the region’s existing ex-industrial communities were able to derive tangible social, economic and infrastructural benefits from the new development taking place on brownfield sites. A more inclusive and socially aware form of regeneration that learned the lessons from the property led regeneration that took place in the London Docklands in the early 1980s was promised. This study examines the extent to which this ambition has been achieved in Kent Thameside, one of the key ‘growth areas’ identified by the Government in the Thames Gateway. Using evidence from extended interviews with residents living in three existing Kent Thameside communities and key regeneration officials, as well as detailed observation of events and developments in Kent Thameside, this study examines the impact of the principal regeneration objectives relating to the area’s existing communities. It looks first at the extent to which new developments and existing communities have been integrated both physically and socially. It then considers the impact of policies which were designed to empower existing residents by enabling them to participate in the design and delivery of programmes relating to the area’s physical and economic regeneration. This study uses this analysis to examine whether the Kent Thameside regeneration model, which is predicated on the private sector led redevelopment of large, brownfield sites outside the existing residential footprint, is best placed to achieve to the regeneration objectives relating to existing communities. This study also considers what lessons can be drawn from the case study of Kent Thameside to inform our understanding of the policy and practice of regeneration in the wider Thames Gateway and the UK.

The focus of my PhD is to examine the role of cultural regeneration through arts and architecture using Tate Modern as the principal case study. My analysis questions the role of culture in acting as an urban regeneration tool in north Southwark and in London more widely and how cultural output connects with those who influence the urban environment of Tate Modern. I begin by examining the ways in which the establishment of Tate Modern as an internationally acclaimed gallery of art has influenced the cultural regeneration of Bankside and London more broadly. I discuss local planning policy in which the former Power Station was situated, in order to understand the impact of the subsequent gallery of art socially and economically. I then discuss the wider ramifications of the establishment of Tate Modern by examining the recent history of developments around Tate Modern, in relation to the changing urban environment, as well as the jostling for urban ʻimaginariesʼ that potentially prioritises one direction of urban growth over another. In discussing how the regeneration affected the social conditions and concepts of community I consider how the institution adopted and implemented a strategy of inclusion towards the local community prior to its opening in 2000. Through my research I embedded myself within key grass roots organisations working directly or alongside Tate Modern (Better Bankside and Bankside Open Space Trust) and the local community in order to gain close access and observation of and into the field. Key to this project is identifying how the public interact with the gallery, and the ability of the building to act as a key urban element by knitting the hitherto underused North Southwark site into the surrounding urban fabric, whilst at the same time enabling key connections through and across the site. The focus of my research narrows from a micro to the macro-analysis in which, central to resolving the debate about the unique urban potential of the site and the building and institutionʼs ability to extend a definition of public within the urban environment, I focus on the spatial condition of the Turbine Hall. My analysis of the Turbine Hall as a public space, mediated through a major arts institution, enables me to arrive at a definition of public, which transgresses the urban and art sphere. This research is supported by an architectural theoretical analysis combined with art theory, and examines primary research material made up of photographic images posted on the social networking site Flickr as well as my own photographic images of the area.

Housing in Britain, and public housing in particular, has undergone a decade of turbulent flux. This thesis analyses the developments which have resulted in a changed emphasis and attitude towards council housing, investment patterns and systems, management organisations and forms of ownership. These changes mean that local housing authorities must adapt their policies and seize the new opportunities which present themselves. The discussion in chapter 2 provides the context for the main contribution of the thesis, which is an assessment of the Department of Environment's Estate Action (EA) initiative. The thesis argues that EA springs from this new housing context and, therefore, provides a useful framework with which to examine trends in English public housing, since it enables the changes and frictions between central and local government to be analysed, as well as indicating the potential consequences and outcomes of adaptation to the new housing setting. A series of issues are examined which form the focus of the empirical analysis. Particular attention is placed on the following aspects: the structure of central/local relations arising from implementing the EA initiative, the effects of EA on financial and management effectiveness and EA's housing policy consequences. Chapter 3 discusses the policy context and outlines the methodology to be employed. The main empirical analysis is presented in five chapters. In chapter 4, interviews with the EA Central team are reported as well as an analysis of documentary material on the background to EA. This discussion allows the origins and objectives of EA to be established from both the government's and the Department of Environment's viewpoints. In chapter 5, the results of a postal survey of all local authorities involved in EA are analysed in detail. This enables chapter 6 to develop a general assessment of the local authority response to the EA initiative. Chapter 7 presents the responses of EA Central and Department of Environment Regional Offices to the survey findings. Finally, chapter 8 reports on four case-studies which assess EA in the context of specific localities. The analysis attempts to establish EA's success in implementing schemes via a discussion of managerial data, tenant opinions and staff assessments. EA's wider impact on local housing authorities' policies towards public housing is also evaluated and found to be influential. Chapter 9 synthesizes the main empirical and theoretical findings and assesses the implications of the research for an understanding of the council housing system in general and EA in particular. Issues worth further investigation are also discussed.

Using a relational state-society framework, this research examines the relationship between land use violations and the urban planning process. This thesis seeks to answer how and why land use violations in the non-poor neighbourhoods of Bangalore are produced, sustained and contested in spite of the elaborate planning, implementation and enforcement mechanisms present in Bangalore. Land use violations are identified as a key geographic site to empirically examine power and politics in urban planning practice in Bangalore. Critiquing the simplified representations often used to explain informality and illegality in the cities of the developing south as deviation, implementation failure and corruption; I propose that violations in Bangalore are an outcome of the planning practice rather than a deviation. In the process, I highlight how particular planning institutional systems operate when located in specific socio-political and governance contexts where vernacular networks of association transform the ‘governmentalised’ state into one that is amenable to specific interests through forging various forms of alliances. Providing evidence from ethnography of planning and violation networks in operation, this thesis argues that planning practice in Bangalore is inhabited by a variety of public and private interest networks. These associational networks, I argue, capture planning power, and prevent the possibility of a planning authority. Various case studies of plan violation, planning for violation, neighbourhood activism along with planning practice narratives, documents, and court cases form the extensive data set analysed in this thesis.

This thesis develops a public interest methodology for assessing the impact of regulatory reforms in microfinance, applies this methodology to the case study of Uganda and explains the results by analysing the political economy of policy change. It thus combines public and private interest approaches in assessing microfinance regulation. Firstly, the study develops a methodology for regulatory impact assessment based on the public interest theory of regulation. The first step is an analysis of market failures as the main rationale for regulation. Regulatory objectives are then defined with reference to these market failures. Finally, a variety of quantitative and qualitative impact indicators are identified to measure the benefits of regulation with reference to the achievement of the regulatory objectives while also considering the costs. Secondly, the thesis applies this rationale-objectives-indicators approach to the new legal framework for microfinance deposit-taking institutions (MDIs) in Uganda using similar, but unregulated microfinance institutions as a control group. The results show that the MDI regime‘s generally positive impact was only achieved at substantial cost to the regulator and regulated institutions and is skewed towards safety and soundness and systemic stability without adequate consideration of other objectives such as consumer protection and access. Thirdly, the thesis explains the degree to which public interest objectives were achieved by analysing the political economy of regulatory change. It shows that the three stakeholder groups with the best knowledge of microfinance regulation and whose interests were most closely aligned with the public interest objectives - the Central Bank (Bank of Uganda), the MDI candidates, and donor agencies - were also those who had the strongest influence on the policy change process. The thesis concludes that its unique contribution is to develop a thorough methodology for assessing regulatory impact in microfinance. The methodology is used to measure the strengths and weaknesses of the MDI regime in Uganda, while the political economy analysis explains why these strengths and weaknesses arose.

This thesis investigates whether the regeneration, and in particular, housing refurbishment-led regeneration of deprived urban areas can contribute to the creation of sustainable communities, by looking specifically at the impact of the current Housing Market Renewal Programme on three areas in the North of England. Research has long acknowledged the multifaceted nature of sustainable communities. Evidence has shown how sustainable communities are determined by the complex interdependencies of economic, social, environmental and institutional phenomena and the need to balance these over time. At the same time, the government’s drive to ‘create sustainable communities’ through its prominent and ‘holistic’ Housing Market Renewal Programme has been well publicised. Many studies have challenged what is and what is not a sustainable community, and whether progress towards sustainable communities is currently being made in Housing Market Renewal areas. This study addresses these two issues. First, the thesis seeks to address issues related to framing, defining and evaluating sustainable communities within the context of the built environment. It suggests a framework for doing so which is anchored in the Housing Market Renewal context and draws on the values and understandings of those involved in the ‘making’ of sustainable communities in this context. Second, the framework is applied to three case study Housing Market Renewal areas: Langworthy North in Salford, North Benwell in Newcastle and the Triangles in Wirral. The study involves a survey of approximately 150 residents, semi-structured interviews with over 50 regeneration officials and other stakeholders, and secondary analysis of existing survey data and Census analysis. We find that the proposed framework for assessing sustainable communities is overwhelmingly supported by residents in the three areas and that housing refurbishment-led regeneration has had an overall positive impact on community sustainability in those areas. However, the impact is varied in intensity and scale: all aspects of an area’s physical environment and some economic and social aspects of areas benefit significantly following regeneration, while aspects of local governance, resource use, services and facilities benefit to a lesser degree. We also examine the scale and extent of the Housing Market Renewal Programme and assess how the Programme’s wider challenges impact on local communities. The research concludes by acknowledging that sustainable communities are subject to a continual process of change and that housing refurbishment-led regeneration can contribute to creating more sustainable communities. The thesis also observes that urban intervention, no matter how holistically’ delivered, is only one among many dimensions of sustainable communities; the integration of different policy areas, continued investment and support, and, above all, community empowerment are key to the sustainable communities agenda.