Honour killings are considered by the perpetrators the only path to maintain theirs and their family honour, preventing other's to follow behaviours that move away from traditional patriarchal values. With the aim of exploring how honour killings are characterised, a qualitative study within three European newspapers, in three different languages, was conducted. The findings showed that often the victims are characterised as young women and girls that want to live independently from their birth cultures or that acted in a way considered to be a dishonour to their family culture. Perpetrators are often described as family members, mostly males to whom honour is worth more than life. However, some of the news articles launch the debate of the thin line that divides honour crimes and domestic violence making this not a cultural problem but a widespread cross-cultural reality.

This thesis challenges the conventional wisdom that the W.S.P.U.'s strategy choices were unimportant in regard to winning women's suffrage. It confirms the hypothesis that the long-range strategy of the W.S.P.U. was to escalate coercion until the Government exhausted its powers of opposition and conceded, but to interrupt this strategy whenever favorable bargaining opportunities with the Government and third parties developed. In addition to filling an apparent research gap by systematically analyzing these choices, this thesis synthesizes and tests several piecemeal theories of social movements within the general framework of the natural history approach. The analysis utilizes data drawn from movement leaders' autobiographies, documentary accounts of the militant movement, and the standard histories of the entire British women's suffrage movement. Additionally, extensive use is made of contemporary periodicals and miscellaneous works on related movements.

Chenopodium album is considered one of the most important weeds adversely affecting agricultural production due to its highly competitive influence on field crops. Chemical herbicides have increased the efficiency of farming, but recently problems of herbicideresistant weed populations and herbicide residues in soil, water, food products and effects on non-target organisms have increased, consequently, other methods of control of weeds by using specific fungi as herbicides have been suggested. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the biological control of the weed Chenopodium album by the fungus Ascochyta caulina. Some of the factors which control dormancy and germination of Chenopodium album seeds have been investigated to understand better the weed population dynamics. The results showed that seeds from two populations (UK and Libya) differ in their response to factors such as light, chilling, and burying in soil. This could have implications for effective control of the weed in different regions. Two formulations of mycoherbicides (Tween 80 and Gelatine based applications) were tested in the laboratory, and showed promise in reducing growth of the weed, especially the formula of Tween 80. There was extensive shoot fresh and dry weight reduction of inoculated Chenopodium album, as well as reduced root growth. Highest disease severity rates were observed on plants in the first three week of life. A field trial revealed similar results but less disease severity was observed, possibly because of dry weather. However, it was concluded that the fungus Ascochyta caulina is a potentially useful biological control agent but many factors still can be modified in relation to application of the mycoherbicide to increase its efficacy.

The recent collapse of the Dublin system, a system meant to distribute responsibility towards asylum-seekers and refugees between EU Member States (MSs), has marked a new phase of the so-called European Refugee “Crisis”, where the inability of EU MS governments to address the situation in a unified and coherent manner ultimately harms those most in need of protection. Public discontent with EU and MS government responses to the crisis has led to strong citizen mobilisation in the form of civil society. This study focuses on the case of the UK and examines the role played by policy advocacy Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). The concept of Political Responsibility is used to establish the emergence of a Governance Gap in the UK's response to the crisis, where the government finds itself unable to bridge a growing distance between its representation and responsible governance functions. Policy advocacy CSOs are found to be now minding this gap. Critical Discourse Analysis is used to study how CSOs react to the UK government's response in terms of practice and discourse, and to highlight the consequences which language use can have on how we perceive and treat refugees and asylum-seekers in this context.

La France possède une industrie qui en couvre les principales branches, dimensionnée pour faire face aux besoins de la consommation, mais partie avec retard dans la révolution industrielle, elle n’est pas apte à soutenir la concurrence de nations rivales plus avancées; le gouvernement est contraint d’appliquer des mesures protectionnistes pour sauvegarder l’emploi; de nombreuses institutions ont pour but de favoriser le développement du commerce et de l’industrie; mais les Français ont un esprit d’entreprise peu développé; la prudente circonspection des négociants français s’oppose au caractère hardi et aventureux des Anglo-saxons. La Grande-Bretagne s’est dotée, surtout dans le textile, d’un outil de production industrielle innovant et performant, dimensionné pour dépasser largement les besoins du marché intérieur; ses négociants et ses fabricants possèdent un esprit qui les tourne vers le commerce extérieur dans leur recherche de profit; enfin le pays possède des institutions financières solides et une flotte de commerce à laquelle le Navigation Act pris sous Cromwell a permis de donner un grand développement; mais une détresse profonde qui sévit dans les classes laborieuses vient sérieusement ternir ce tableau flatteur. Entre 1822 et 1850 la France voit la production de son industrie manufacturière plus que doubler, son commerce extérieur tripler; elle double la part de marché qu’elle possède dans les exportations de produits naturels et manufacturés au Brésil; cela constitue pour la France une réussite, mais n’aurait elle pas pu mieux faire? La thèse tente d’apporter des éclairages sur les responsabilités relatives de la politique suivie par le gouvernement et du comportement des acteurs privés. / The French industry covers the main branches of which it is composed, and is designed to cope with the consumption of the country; but having started tardily it cannot withstand the competition of more advanced rival nations; the government has to promote protectionist measures to safeguard employment; numerous institutions exist to boost the development of trade and industry; but French people lack the spirit of enterprise; the prudent circumspection of French merchants is opposed to the bold and adventurous character of Anglo-Saxons. Great Britain has developed, mainly in their textile industry, an innovating and performing tool for industrial production, designed to exceed considerably the needs of domestic market; the merchants and manufacturers have a spirit oriented toward international trade to make a profit; and the country has solid financial institutions and a merchant shipping to which the Navigation Act promulgated by Cromwell gave a big advantage; but a big distress which exists in the working classes tarnishes this flattering landscape. Between 1822 and 1850 the production of French industry more than doubled, the foreign trade tripled; and its market share for exports of natural and manufactured products to Brazil doubled; this was a success for France, but could she have done better? The thesis tries to throw some light on the comparative responsibilities of the governmental policies and the behaviour of the private sector.

Cette thèse se donne pour objet l’étude du fonctionnement de ce que l’on appelle « langue de bois » dans le discours politique contemporain au Royaume-Uni. Cet hyperonyme désigne un ensemble de stratégies déployées en langue, selon des modes divers, à des fins manipulatoires. Ce travail distingue ainsi, au sein de ce discours « codé », des procédés linguistiques qui relèvent de ce que nous appelons parler politique contemporain qui, insidieusement, diffuse une idéologie dominante. Bien qu’aucun procédé, linguistique ou rhétorique, ne soit intrinsèquement manipulatoire, ce parler remplit différentes fonctions selon le contexte (linguistique, générique, situationnel). L’exploration d’un corpus de general election manifestos comparé à un corpus d’éditoriaux britanniques vise à mettre au jour le fonctionnement sémiolinguistique de ce parler, manifestation d’une activité de construction de valeurs idéologiques et/ou de manipulation langagière. Notre étude linguistique s’appuie sur la Théorie des Opérations Prédicatives et Énonciatives d’A. Culioli, complétée par le recours à d’autres théories (Analyse du/des Discours et sémiotique). Les phénomènes linguistiques sont contextualisés au moyen d’autres disciplines (sociologie et sciences politiques). Partant du principe que le sens idéologique et les valeurs destinées à être reconnues, reconstruites et interprétées, sont construits dans et par l’énonciation, nous montrons, au moyen de l’analyse de marqueurs (WILL, SHALL, WOULD, les pronoms personnels YOU, WE, I) et de notions (/change/ et /be green/), que la co-énonciation est une clé essentielle pour la compréhension des stratégies manipulatoires mises en œuvre au sein de ce parler. Les opérations fondamentales de « représentation », « référenciation », « régulation » (Culioli) et les stratégies de naturalisation et/ou d’oubli (Barthes/Pécheux) déployées au sein des textes se présentent sous différentes formes, parmi lesquelles on peut citer l’ajustement anticipatif paratextuel, et le brouillage des frontières entre différents niveaux de spécification du paramètre S de la situation d’énonciation ou entre les différentes valeurs construites par les auxiliaires de modalité/les notions. / The purpose of this thesis is to study the workings of what is usually called “langue de bois” in French (Newspeak or Doublespeak) in the field of politics in the United Kingdom. The collocation refers to a set of strategies implemented within political discourse, according to various modes, for manipulative purposes. We propose to differentiate between Newspeak-like strategies and linguistic processes belonging to the realm of contemporary political speech (CPS) which circulates a dominant ideology insidiously. Although no process, be it linguistic or rhetorical, is inherently manipulative, CPS fulfils various functions depending on the context (linguistic, generic, situational). The study of a corpus of general election manifestos compared to a corpus of editorials aims at uncovering the semiolinguistic workings of CPS, the expression of how ideological values and/or linguistic manipulation are constructed. Our linguistic study is conducted through the lens of the Theory of Predicative and Enunciative Operations (A. Culioli), supported by comparisons with other linguistic theories (Discourse Analysis and semiotics). The linguistic phenomena are contextualized by means of other disciplines (sociology and political sciences). Considering the fact that ideological meaning and values designed to be recognized, reconstructed and interpreted, are constructed through and by uttering, we show, through the analysis of markers (WILL, SHALL, WOULD, and the pronouns YOU, WE, I) and of notions (/change/ and /be green/), that co-enunciation is essential to the understanding of manipulative strategies that are implemented within CPS. The fundamental operations of “representation”, “referencing”, “regulation” (Culioli) and naturalisation/forgetting processes (Barthes/Pécheux) that are implemented within the texts arise in various forms. Among these forms, markers of anticipatory paratextual adjustment, and the scrambling of boundaries between the levels of specification of the subjective parameter of the situation of uttering or between the various values constructed by modal auxiliaries/notions can be mentioned.

Ao longo dos últimos trinta anos, entre meados das décadas de 1980 e 2010, os sistemas de saúde da Alemanha, França e Reino Unido foram reformados, gerando uma crescente mercantilização no financiamento e na prestação de serviços. O trabalho analisa as raízes dessas mudanças, assim como identifica que a mercantilização não ocorreu nem mediante os mesmos mecanismos e nem com a mesma profundidade, havendo importante inércia institucional. As diferenças observadas atestam as especificidades de cada país, em termos de seu contexto econômico, de seus arranjos políticos, das características institucionais de cada sistema e das formas que assumiram os conflitos sociais (extra e intra sistema de saúde). Os sistemas de saúde alemão, francês e britânico, enquanto sistemas públicos de ampla cobertura e integralidade, são frutos do período após a Segunda Guerra Mundial. Um conjunto de fatores contribuiu para aquele momento histórico: os próprios impactos do conflito, que forjaram a ampliação na solidariedade nacional e a maior pressão por parte dos trabalhadores; a ascensão socialista na União Soviética; o maior apoio à ação e ao planejamento estatal; o forte crescimento econômico, fruto da emersão de um regime de acumulação fordista, pautado na expansão da produtividade. A acomodação do conflito capital-trabalho, neste contexto, ocorreu mediante a expansão dos salários reais e ao desenvolvimento do Estado de bem-estar social, ou seja, de políticas públicas voltadas à criação e/ou ampliação de uma rede de proteção social. No entanto, a crise econômica da década de 1970 corroeu a base de financiamento e gerou questionamentos sobre sua eficiência, em meio à transformação do regime de acumulação de fordista para financeirizado, levando à adoção de reformas constantes ao longo das décadas seguintes. Além disso, as transformações específicas do setor saúde complexificaram a situação, tendo em vista o crescente envelhecimento populacional, a demanda por cuidados mais amplos e complexos e, principalmente, os custos derivados da incorporação tecnológica. Este cenário impulsionou a implementação de uma série de alterações nesses sistemas de saúde, com destaque para a incorporação de mecanismos de mercado (como a precificação dos serviços prestados, a indução à concorrência entre prestadores de serviços), o crescimento da responsabilidade dos usuários pelo financiamento do sistema (como o aumento nos co-pagamentos e a redução na cobertura pública) e a ampliação da participação direta do setor privado na prestação dos serviços de saúde (realizando os serviços auxiliares, a gestão de hospitais públicos, comprando instituições estatais). No entanto, de forma simultânea, as reformas ampliaram o acesso e a regulamentação estatal, além da modificação na base de financiamento, principalmente na França. Isto significa que a mercantilização não foi o único direcionamento das reformas, em decorrência de dois fatores principais: a própria crise econômica expulsou parcela da população dos mecanismos pós-guerra de proteção à saúde, demandando reação estatal, e diferentes agentes sociais influenciaram nas mudanças, bloqueando ou ao menos limitando um direcionamento mercantil único. / Over the last thirty years, between mid-1980 and 2010 decades, Germany, France and the United Kingdom healthcare systems have been renovated, creating a growing marketisation in the financing and provision of services. This Thesis analyzes the roots of these changes, and identifies that marketisation did not take place or by the same mechanisms nor with the same depth, with important institutional inertia. The observed differences attest to the specificities of each country in terms of its economic context, their political arrangements, the institutional characteristics of each system and the different social conflicts (intra and extra healthcare system). The German, French and British health systems, while public systems of broad coverage and completeness, are the result of the period after the II World War. A number of factors have contributed to that historic moment: the very impact of the conflict, which forged the expansion on national solidarity and greater pressure from workers; the rise of socialism in the Soviet Union; a bigger support for action and state planning; strong economic growth, thanks to the emergence of a Fordist accumulation regime, based on the productivity expansion. The accommodation of the capital-labor conflict in this context occurred through the real wages expansion and the development of the Welfare State, ie public policies for the creation and / or expansion of a social safety net. However, the 1970s economic crisis eroded the funding base and raised questions about its effectiveness amid the transformation of Fordist accumulation regime in a finance-led one, leading to adoption of constant reforms over the next several decades. In addition, specific health sector transformation complicate the situation, given the growing population aging, the demand for broader and more complex care, and especially the costs derived from technological resources. This scenario boosted the implementation of a number of changes in the three systems, with emphasis on the incorporation of market mechanisms (such as the pricing of services, the induction of competition between service providers), the growth of the responsibility of users for funding the system (such as the increase in co-payments and the reduction in public coverage) and the expansion of the direct participation of the private sector in the provision of health services (performing ancillary services, public hospitals management, purchasing state institutions). However, simultaneously, the reforms expanded access and state regulation in addition to the change in funding base, mainly in France. This means that marketisation was not the only direction of the reforms, due to two main reasons: the very economic crisis drove portion of the population of postwar health protection mechanisms, requiring state reaction, and different actors influenced the changes, blocking or at least limiting a single market direction.

The focus of interest in this thesis is the social and personal trajectories of men and women who were born in the Soviet Union in the 1970-1980s and then, after growing up in post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s in an atmosphere of change and uncertainty, decided to exploit the opportunities to go abroad to study and work that started opening up in the early and mid-1990s. The thesis analyses these moves as the individual strategies of either escaping or waiting on the career insecurities in Russia, or consciously enhancing one's social standing and professional and educational capital. It traces their social and professional trajectories, showing that, apart from developing the desired expertise and gaining experience, these Russians went through intensive changes in their self-identifications and senses of belonging, including the acquisition of new habits of mobility, international social networks and cosmopolitan dispositions. This thesis argues that, while their Soviet-Russian cultural past and their belonging to a particular social group of 'Soviet intelligentsia' was still important to them, they continuously acquired new social, cultural and cosmopolitan forms of capital that influenced their coming back to Russia as different persons from their contemporaries who had stayed in the country. They brought with them new dispositions and new social practices resulting from their active comparisons of their lives in Russia and Britain, and in many respects they actively maintained their differences in creating clubs for returnees. While able to integrate successfully into the emerging Russian middle classes, they still expressed the cultural and intellectual heritage of the past Soviet intelligentsia, now reborn in the guise of Westernizing attitudes and practices, different degrees of cosmopolitan patriotism, intellectual pursuits, a quest for education and self-development, interest in world travel, an ethical concern for sustainability, opposition to excessive consumerism in Russia and conspicuous practices of status performance. The materials for this research were mainly gathered through the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews, one third of them longitudinal, with informants talking to the researcher several times during the course of fieldwork between 2007 and 2012. Some additional participant observation has been conducted in informal Russian circles in the UK and among returnees from Britain in Russia. This research consists of an ethnography with elements of a biographical approach. This has made the researcher attentive to the inclusion of a certain event within a person's whole biography, aimed at putting the period researched within the context of the past and future lives of the informant. The participants of this research were aged between 22 and 40 and belonged to a transition cohort generation (Miller 2000), as they had all passed their childhoods in the Soviet Union, their adolescence and teenage years coinciding with the period of dissolution of the USSR, with the transitional break up of one system and the formation of another, while their young adulthood developed in post-Soviet Russia. They were mainly single when they initiated their move to Britain, and had various professional profiles within the broadly defined groups of 'highly skilled' and 'highly educated', the latter term being preferred in this research. The dissertation includes an introduction, four ethnographic chapters, a conclusion and one appendix. The introduction presents the historical and research context, the methodology and the design of the study. The first chapter traces the professional and educational trajectories of participants, while the second chapter focuses on informants' spatial mobility and habits of extensive travel acquired during the move to Britain. The third chapter deals with the negotiation of informants' belonging to a particular cultural and social past, which is associated both with Russian-Soviet culture and with their social status as the children of Soviet-era intelligentsia. The fourth chapter argues that, while belonging to Soviet intelligentsia families was still important for informants' self-identifications in Britain, new social, cultural and cosmopolitan forms of capital were acquired during this period, resulting in new cosmopolitan dispositions, ethics and moral values, and new practices socially remitted (Levitt 2001) from Britain. The conclusion places this ethnography within the state-of-the-art research on the mobilities of Russians to the UK.

Since 2011, the brutal and complex war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people and created millions of refugees. This dismaying and rapidly unfolding crisis has contributed to the biggest movement of people through the continent since the Second World War. The United Kingdom was one of many destinations for Syrian refugees seeking protection. With this, members of the Syrian community have come together to provide support to newly arrived Syrian refugees. Literature documenting the mental health difficulties that Syrian refugees present with and the range of support provided by these community services remains severely limited. In the context of this gap, the overall aim of this study was to explore the psychological needs with which Syrian refugees in the UK present, as well as the service provision responses to these needs. In order to do this, the research utilised a qualitative methodology and elicited in-depth data from multiple perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and the inductive thematic analysis generated the following themes: Pre-displacement challenges; Displacement challenges; Post-displacement challenges; Coping and Resilience; Service providers' role and Challenges for contextually appropriate mental health care. The findings of this study suggested that Syrian refugees in the United Kingdom present with wide range of mental health needs, including struggles caused by exposure to brutal conflict, violence, multiple losses and cultural stressors. Findings stated that community services are providing an array of basic and social support; however, mental health needs are unmet. Barriers to accessing mental health resources in the UK have been addressed and the need to develop a multi-layered, culturally sensitive response to Syrian refugees' mental health difficulties has been identified. The Discussion proposed the need to support community services in order to raise awareness, enhance Syrian refugees' psychological well-being and inform the development of culturally sensitive mental health services. With the growing number of Syrian refugees in the UK, this research has provided a contextualisation of this population's culture, religion, resilience, coping strategies and mental health needs from the provider perspective, which is important to improve awareness and identify specific issues contributing to mental health well-being. Recommendations are suggested for developing culturally sensitive mental health services for Syrian refugees, alongside acknowledging limitations of the research and suggestions for further investigation and practice.

The topic of this diploma thesis is the analysis of activities of the Czech biggest automotive producer, Skoda Auto company, on the UK market. The thesis maps historical development of the Skoda Auto's activities in that country, goes into the company's chosen growth strategy and provides an analysis of weaknesses and suggestions for possible improvements, which could lead to strengthening of Skoda Auto's position on that market. The first chapter is dedicated to the presentation of Skoda Auto company, outlining the historical development of that car maker and describing of importance, which has that company and also the whole automotive industry for the Czech Republic. The chapter also analyses the sales situation on other markets and the company's global growth strategy. The second chapter focuses on the British market. At first it researches the economic background of the country and then the automotive market. Historical development, current situation and the competition of Skoda Auto are analysed afterwards. The third chapter analyses more deeply Skoda Auto's activities on the UK market. It deals with the historical development of the company's operation in that country, analyses in detail the current growth strategy, which is implemented from 2011 to 2015. The chapter analyses the four main pillars of the strategy, sales, marketing, dealer network and aftersales, and the fulfilment of the objectives, which were set for the previous year. After that it provides the proposals for the possible improvement and steps that the company could take to consolidate its position on that market.