This thesis examines people’s attempts to (re)construct belonging and authority after rapid socio-political and economic change. It is a study of the lives of those living alongside each other in a new resettlement area in Zimbabwe a decade after ‘fast track’ land reform. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted on a series of farms in the Mazowe area (March 2012-May 2013), I show that in the uncertain socio-political context of this new resettlement area, belonging was a dynamic social process involving complex moral bonds, and relationships of dependence and obligation. ‘Fast track’ land reform can be understood as a process of state-making in which the Zimbabwean state reconfigured its relationship with its citizens via the redistribution of land. After ‘fast track’, farms were transformed from socially and politically bounded entities under the paternalistic rule of white farmers, to areas in which land beneficiaries and farm workers lived alongside one another under the rule of the ZANU PF state. Land was allocated according to ZANU PF loyalty. Farmworkers due to their associations with white farmers and oppositional politics, were rarely allocated land. Thus farms in Mazowe consisted of landless farm workers who had lived and worked in the area for generations, and landed beneficiaries who came from a variety of places. In addition, ‘fast track’ was framed in terms of redistribution rather than restitution but many chiefs saw it as an opportunity to ‘return’ to their ancestral lands. However, their claims to authority in the areas remained uncertain. I examine how people dealt with the various tensions thrown up by ‘fast track’. By leaving these tensions unresolved, a contingent stability was generated on farms, even as this was fragile. My work contributes to better understanding the socio-political effects of land reform. Research on Zimbabwean land reform has tended to rely on official framings of people’s relationships to each other and the land, and has largely failed to capture the complexity and negotiated nature of these in everyday life. Anthropological work on belonging has mostly focused on explicit claims. I show how history and the micro-politics of everyday relationships profoundly shaped local forms of belonging which crosscut state delimitations of who belonged, and what land reform meant to those living in this area.

This thesis present three studies that aim to investigate and compare different definitions of standard drinks and alcohol intake recommendations worldwide and explore University students' knowledge of, attitudes toward, and use of unit-based guidelines in the UK. Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with a range of economic, social and health problems. Heavy drinking patterns among University students are well documented. Like most developed countries, the UK government introduced the “sensible drinking” message and guidelines for alcohol consumption to encourage people to reduce their drinking. The first study was a review of official definitions of standard drinks and guidelines of 57 countries. Analyses showed a lack of international consensus in terms of the size of “standard drinks” or recommended daily or weekly maximum alcohol intake. The results suggested that a global system of units and low risk drinking guidelines could help people make better-informed choices about alcohol consumption and help consistency among researchers, health professionals and governments developing public health initiatives. The second study used an online survey to examine the multivariate correlates of motivation to use guidelines and accuracy of estimates of alcohol consumption among 640 students aged 18-37. Results showed that motivation and ability to accurately estimate the unit content of beverages were linked to various cognitive and behavioural variables such as conscientiousness and extraversion, familiarity with, and frequency of use of the guidelines and perceptions of how easy and useful the unit-based guidelines are. The third study employed semi-structured interviews in a sample of 12 students selected from the second sample. Thematic analysis revealed that participants were not motivated to adhere to the guidelines and lacked skills to apply them to manage their own drinking. Findings suggest that multifaceted public health interventions should include provision of information, efforts to motivate young people to change their behaviour, and strategies to develop skills for managing alcohol consumption.

Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo que teve como objetivo investigar o planejamento das ações de saúde mental no contexto da reforma psiquiátrica, bem como conhecer a compreensão dos gestores municipais de saúde acerca desse processo. Utilizamos como referencial teórico, para embasar este estudo, o Planejamento Estratégico Situacional proposto por Carlos Matus e os pressupostos da Reforma psiquiátrica. O estudo foi desenvolvido em nove municípios da região Oeste do Paraná. A coleta de dados deu-se por meio da análise documental dos Planos Municipais de Saúde e também pela realização da entrevista semi-estruturada com gestores municipais. O trabalho de campo foi realizado no período de julho a dezembro de 2004. Para discutirmos os dados referentes à análise documental utilizamos os momentos do Planejamento Estratégico Situacional e para organização e análise dos dados obtidos nas entrevistas utilizamos como técnica o Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo proposto por Lefèvre & Lefèvre. Construímos quinze Discursos do Sujeito Coletivo com fragmentos dos discursos individuais e nestes foram identificados treze temas geradores de significações. Em relação ao entendimento dos sujeitos sobre a reforma psiquiátrica percebemos que o consenso é de uma sociedade mais justa para estes indivíduos, quando apontam a humanização e a reintegração social como positividade da proposta da reforma. Quanto ao planejamento em saúde mental, percebemos que existem muitas dificuldades no sentido de sua utilização como ferramenta para a constituição e a consolidação de uma rede de atenção aos familiares e indivíduos portadores de transtornos psíquicos. No entanto, resgatamos na fala dos gestores os esforços e iniciativas que revelam um pensar estratégico no interior deste processo. / This paper is about a quantitative study aimed to investigate mental heath action planning in the context of psychiatric reform, as well as, to know the municipal health administrator’s conception on these processes. We made use of the Situational Strategic Planning proposed by Carlos Matus, and those involved with psychiatric reform, to encompass this study. The study took place in nine cities in the Western region of Paraná, Brazil. Data was collected from Health Municipal Plan documental analysis and from semi-structured interviews with municipal committee. Fieldwork was performed from July to December 2004. To confer documental analysis data we utilized Situational Strategic Planning instants, and for the organization and analysis of data obtained in the interviews, we used as a technique the Collective Subject Discourse proposed by Lefévre & Lefévre. We built fifteen Collective Subject Discourse with fragments from individual discourses, and in these, fourteen meaning generation themes were identified. In relation to the understanding of the subjects on psychiatric reform, we noticed that consensus is of a more fair society for these individuals when pointing to social humanization and integration as positiveness of the reform’s proposed. As far as the planning on mental health, we noticed that there are many difficulties in the sense of its utilization as a tool for the constitution and consolidation of a care network to family members and individuals suffering from psychic disturbance. Nevertheless, it was perceived for the board’s speeches initiatives and efforts that reveal a strategic thought in these processes.

The thesis is focused on the community, their management and reporting. There is also mention of the financial reform, which took place in 2010. The work is divided into two parts on the theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with the characteristics of communities, their financial management and the impact of the accounting reform. The practical part is focused on the performance of a particular community and that is the town of České Budějovice. It is broken down budget of 2009 and 2010, and balance sheets, profit and loss, attachment and cash flows and changes in equity. Finally, it outlined the draft budget for 2012.

This thesis examines the history of Scottish settlement houses from 1886 until 1934. The Scottish settlements have attracted little attention from academics and no overarching study of these organisations has previously been done. This thesis seeks to address this lacuna and situate their achievements within the wider context of the changing role of voluntary organisations in this period. Using archival resources, it argues that settlements made important contributions to Scottish society through social work, training courses and adult education. They pioneered new methods, explored new areas of work and provided their local communities with access to services that they may not otherwise have received. This thesis demonstrates the way in which voluntary bodies evolved in response to local and national pressures and changing social attitudes in order to remain successful and relevant in a period during which their role was changing. There were six settlements in Scotland, each with their own agenda and areas of interest. The settlements remained distinct and independent organisations and there was a limited amount of cooperation between them. This diversity in both location and aims of the settlements gives rise to a range of themes that will be examined in the thesis. The original settlement ideal focused on ameliorating class differences by reforming the characters of working-class individuals through personal connection between them and middle-class settlers. The thesis will examine how this evolved over time. As the state at both a local and national level assumed more responsibility for social services, the role of settlements adapted to encompass training for professional social workers and as the working classes gained more political power the settlements sought to make them ‘fit for citizenship’. Likewise, as the original settlement ideal had denied the legitimacy of working-class culture and community, this attitude also evolved and settlements began to focus on developing strong communities within working-class areas.

The increasing international concern about the consequences of warfare for civilian populations has led to a growing body of demographic and health research. This research has been essential in providing estimates of war-induced excess mortality, a primary indicator by which to assess the intensity of wars and the adequacy of humanitarian responses. Far less attention has been paid to war-induced changes in fertility and population health, and the limited existing literature has rarely adopted a longitudinal approach. This is especially evident in the case of the 2003–2011 war in Iraq. Several studies have sought to quantify excess mortality, whereas other demographic and health effects of this war have been largely overlooked. This thesis fills substantive knowledge gaps using longitudinal data from the 2000, 2006 and 2011 Iraq Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (I-MICS). The data collected during wartime are found to be of similarly good quality as those collected during peacetime. The analysis shows that, besides causing a heavy death toll, the Iraq war also had profound long-term consequences for women and newborns. It provides the first evidence on the effect of the war on early marriage and adolescent fertility, with implications for women’s empowerment and reproductive health. It is also the first to quantify the effect of the war on neonatal polio immunisation coverage, with relevance for the recent polio outbreak. It finally assesses the main challenges to Iraq’s health sector rehabilitation efforts, namely the ongoing insecurity and persistently high rate of population growth. Overall, the findings have important documentation functions for the international community and serve as inputs for the design of humanitarian relief strategies in Iraq and similar war-torn countries, such as neighbouring Syria.

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of Lavasa, a new town planned, built and managed by a private company in India. It examines the ideologies, institutional arrangements, and political processes at work in the making of this town. It takes seriously the attempt to create a ‘market utopia’ (an inclusive, environmentally sustainable, properly planned, and profitable town), treating it as an empirical phenomenon with social consequences, and asks: why, how, and with what effects did Lavasa come to be? In tracing its conception, production, and contestation, the dissertation analyses the processes and consequences of transforming a rural landscape into an urban place. I make two main arguments. First, the construction of Lavasa is fundamentally speculative and is centred on the ability to transform cheap rural land into urban real estate. I show that the land market that enables the city is actively manufactured by the state, through powerful local political actors, and networks of brokers and agrarian intermediaries. The construction of this land market produces a speculative environment: one in which trading in land simultaneously becomes an opportunity to make money, a cause of dispossession, and a way to lay claim to the city. Second, such speculation generates both resistance against and support for the project. It also, paradoxically, emboldens the ideological project of city-making. Collective action is rendered difficult as it is mediated by the same conditions and state that created the land market. Therefore the contestation takes another form that moves beyond the domain of land, is couched in environmental concerns, and leverages a different level of the state to ultimately stall the project. I demonstrate how the symbolic power of this ‘market utopia’ conceals the conditions of its possibility, that is, the ways in which it was made through the state, through speculation, and the discursive and material operations of the land market. I show how this land market is historically and socio-politically constructed, and how its construction shapes and informs the politics of planning, privatisation, and resistance.

Esse estudo teve por objetivo analisar os desafios apresentados pela literatura no campo da Saúde Mental acerca da relação da cidade contemporânea e a loucura fora dos muros manicomiais, tendo em vista os avanços da reforma psiquiátrica brasileira. Considerando os objetivos desta pesquisa, foi necessário percorrer alguns caminhos, como, inicialmente, o contexto social e histórico de emergência da loucura enquanto um problema social e a institucionalização da psiquiatria no país. Em seguida, foi preciso compreender o movimento da reforma psiquiátrica brasileira e suas proposições, considerando seus atuais desafios e conflitos. E, por fim, analisar as transformações nas grandes cidades, em busca de substratos para se pensar as políticas públicas no âmbito da saúde mental. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório de natureza qualitativa, o qual adotou a pesquisa bibliográfica como procedimento metodológico. Os dados da pesquisa foram obtidos através da base de dados Lilacs, no período de 2000 a 2014. Foram selecionados, no total, 14 artigos científicos para a análise. Na análise dos resultados foram utilizadas categorias (temas) predominantes nas obras analisadas: a vivência da loucura na cidade, os muros (in)visíveis na cidade e a transposição dos muros. Diversas narrativas indicam novas experiências e dilemas na circulação da loucura pelos espaços urbanos. Os resultados obtidos indicam uma tendência a novas discussões no campo da saúde mental que problematizam a relação entre loucura e cidade. Dessa forma, evidenciam a relevância de novos debates no campo da saúde mental que considerem a cidade como potencialidade como palco da ação humana onde são produzidos efeitos e afetos no (re)encontro com a loucura. / This study aims to analyze the challenges presented by the literature in the field of Mental Health about the relationship of contemporary urban city and the madness outside the asylum walls, given the advances in brazilian psychiatric reform. Considering the objectives of this research, it was necessary to choose some ways, initially the social and historical context of madness emergency as a social problem and the institutionalization of Psychiatry in the country. Then, it was necessary to understand the movement of the Brazilian psychiatric reform and its propositions, considering its current challenges and conflicts. Finally, it was proposed an analysis of the changes in the big cities in search of substrates to think public policy under the Mental Health. This is an exploratory qualitative study, which adopted the bibliographic research as a methodological procedure. Survey data were obtained through the Lilacs database, from 2000 to 2014. It was selected a total of 14 scientific articles for analysis. In the analysis of the results were used categories (themes) predominant in the works analyzed: the experience of madness in the city, the (in) visibles walls in the city and transposition of the walls. Several narratives indicate new experiences and dilemmas in the circulation of madness by urban spaces. The results indicate a tendency to further discussions in the field of mental health considering the relationship between madness and city. Thus, highlights the need to produce new discussions in the field of Mental Health considering the city as a potential - as a stage of human action - the place which are produced effects and affects in the (re)encounter with madness.

This thesis examines the livelihood outcomes of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). It asks, what has happened to rural livelihoods following land redistribution; how did land occupations and redistribution unfold; who gained land in the A1 resettlement areas; what new patterns of production can be identified and how do these compare between different settlement types and across time; how have smallholders responded to new opportunities and challenges on and off the farm; and what are the experiences of women and former farm workers? The thesis adopts a multi-methods, comparative approach, drawing on survey data from over 500 rural households and in-depth interviews with 132 “new” farmers. The thesis is a comparative assessment of livelihood outcomes in the new resettlement areas vis-à-vis the old resettlement and communal areas. The results of a series of statistical analyses and interviews show that the “new” A1 farmers are mostly poor and landless people from neighbouring communal areas. These resettlement farmers also produce more maize, cotton and tobacco than their counterparts in other rural areas. The main constraint to smallholder development in these areas has been the general lack of inputs (especially fertilisers), credit and markets. Resettlement farmers, old and new, have responded to these challenges by engaging in contract farming and/or a wider range of non-farm income generating activities, earning higher incomes than those in the communal areas. The data also shows that income from farm and non-farm activities is then reinvested in productive assets and agricultural production. The final chapter presents smallholders’ perceptions about their own tenure security. While many feel secure on their new land, land rights for women and former farm workers continue to be mediated through men and settlers, respectively. Their livelihoods thus rest precariously on their abilities to manage these relationships. Thus, in addition to offering a detailed, empirical analysis of the livelihood outcomes of Zimbabwe land reform, the thesis also contributes to wider theoretical debates, challenging narratives of deagrarianisation and emphasising the importance of multi-methods approaches to understanding complex livelihood changes in the context of land reform.

Liturgical interpretation is the application of the methods of patristic and medieval biblical exegesis to public worship. This thesis examines for the first time its importance in the religious culture of Scotland during a period of renaissance and reformation. The first section defines the genres and method involved with reference to the most popular liturgical commentary of that time, the Rationale divinorum officiorum of William Durandus of Mende (c.1230-1296). The reasons for the decline of this genre and its neglect by modern scholarship are then explored. The central section of the thesis employs a wide variety of evidence, including material culture, to argue, firstly, that liturgical interpretation was a fundamental part of the culture of Catholic Scotland; secondly, that interest in it was a sign of commitment to Catholic reform. It is also argued that it had an important place in the education system and influenced the design and understanding of churches and their furnishings. Drawing upon inscriptions in liturgical commentaries, networks of clergy in Scotland committed to Catholic reform and the liturgy are identified. The ‘Aberdeen liturgists’ were the most significant group. Formed by Bishop Elphinstone of Aberdeen who was consecrated in 1488, it is shown that their influence lasted beyond 1560 and created a distinctive religious culture in the North-East. The final section examines what happened to this intellectual tradition during the period of the Scottish reformations, both the Catholic reform associated with Archbishop Hamilton in the 1550s and the Protestant reform which triumphed in 1559-60. While interest in liturgical interpretation survived in Aberdeen after 1560, its use by Catholic writers declined in the later sixteenth century. A Reformed version of liturgical interpretation did, however, emerge combining an anti-commentary on the Catholic liturgy with the use of aspects of the medieval method to interpret the liturgy of the Reformed church. This can be found in official Protestant texts and, in its fullest form, in the 1590 sermons on the Lord’s Supper by Robert Bruce. This hitherto unnoticed genre demonstrates an important continuity across the Reformation divide. It suggests that ‘the Scottish Reformation’ is best seen as a phenomenon which was both Catholic and Protestant and that the reformers on both sides had more in common than they or subsequent historians allow.