This thesis explores the way in which people constructed their identities using the cultural, public and social narratives made available to them in mid-twentieth-century England. Focusing on the construction of masculinities, this study argues that, contrary to popular opinion, for many men during this period ontological narratives expanded beyond the ‘masculine’ discourses of politics, work and sport, to encompass ‘feminine’ discourses of family, home and romance. In the first section of this thesis the argument is advanced that ideal domesticity was promoted to men, just as it was to women, as integral to the construction of personal identity. As such, an exploration is undertaken of the ways in which discourses about family and home life incorporated men above and beyond a bread-winning role. Section two of this thesis argues that during these same decades romance became an overriding preoccupation for men and searching for a soul mate became a masculine pursuit of the utmost importance. The third section of this thesis looks at various attempts to bring these opposing discourses into a workable whole, concluding with a detailed examination of the divorce reform debates of the mid-twentieth century, and refuting the contention that divorce reform was fought for, and won, on behalf of women. Through an examination of the language and rhetoric expressed in a collection of private letters written by men during the 1960s, this study will demonstrate that men’s consumption of domestic and romantic narratives was as active and as enthusiastic as women’s, and that it was this participation which publicly altered perceptions of our most private relationships. By understanding historical processes in the context of narrative, and recognising men’s position within ‘feminine spaces’, this thesis claims that stories of domesticity, romance and divorce need to be retold.

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At the outset of the twenty-first century and despite the challenges presented by the global networks and communities, conceptions of culture, religion and rights in the West remain firmly situated within the moral frameworks of western universalism and cultural relativism. Indeed it seems that the uncertainties of local and global conditions have only served to entrench cultural and religious diversity as fixed, bounded and uncontested. A striking feature of this development in the West has been the rigid adoption of liberal multiculturalism to accommodate the emergence and settlement of diasporic minority ethnic communities into mainstream society. More recently, the specific cultural practices that can lead to intra-family inequalities for women from minority ethnic communities as generated much discussion in political and social theory. While much of this literature has contributed to our understanding on the relationship between gender equality, justice and the limits of liberal multiculturalism, it also seems that the fluid and contradictory understanding of identities has been lost and replaced by the acceptance of culture as essentialized and homogeneous. In this context we have also witnessed the emergence of a 'culture of rights' and the 'politics of recognition' under the framework of human rights. Yet in the process the contestation over 'meanings' and the intermeshing and complexity of cultural and religious practices have in essence been lost, only to be replaced by static and fixed definitions of culture, religion, identity and community. It is within this context of liberal multiculturalism that we have seen the emergence and development of unofficial non-statutory bodies identified as Shariah Councils in Britain. Framed as sites upon which family law matters are resolved according to Muslim family law they have developed frameworks that are characterized by specific cultural and religious norms and values. This mobilisation of communities challenges the hegemonic power of state law and unsettles the multicultural project in its attempt to reconfigure social and legal discourse in matters of Family Law. Most interestingly, for the socio-legal scholar this process opens up the conceptual space in which to see in evidence the multiple legal and social realities in operation, within the larger context of state law, liberal multiculturalism and the rights discourse. This thesis explores the ways in which these bodies constitute as unofficial dispute resolution mechanisms between and within the context of local 'community' and the overarching determinancy of state law. Of particular concern is how gender is transformed through the position and participation of women in this process of 'privatized dispute resolution'. The discourses produced by the participants in such processes constitute and transform understandings of British Pakistani Muslim women that are significant to their position and autonomy in the family, home and community. Drawing upon fieldwork data and interview material the study explores the socio-legal reality of these women's lives in relation to the complexities of attachment, belongingness and identity that multicultural society introduces.

The Mental Capacity Act (2005) (MCA) is part of the legislative framework of the NHS. Small scale studies in a range of health settings have shown that the understanding and use of the MCA (2005) varies considerably in different services and across staff of differing occupations and grades. The experiences of individual staff in using the MCA has received little attention. This grounded theory study aimed to explain how staff working with people with a learning disability (PWLD) make sense of and use the MCA, whilst also exploring the factors that influence applying the MCA in clinical practice. This study involved 11 healthcare staff from a specialist learning disability service that had used the MCA in the six months prior to their participation in the research. Staff interviews provided narratives about how they had used the MCA. A theoretical framework was developed from the analysis which underpinned three core conceptual categories. The first core category was that of ‘professional risk’ in which staff have awareness of a series of risks that pertain to themselves or the service user that could have negative professional or legal consequences. The second core category described ‘emotional risk’, which affected both the staff and service user. Staff appeared to experience those risks as feelings in the form of anxiety or concern. Both ‘professional risk’ and ‘emotional risk’ bring about ‘strategies’ which mediate the risk; allowing staff to justify and document their position, creating what feels like safe practice for both the staff and service user. Factors which facilitate the use of the Act are concerned not only with these risks but the significance of the decision that the service user has to make. The findings suggest that there is much uncertainty in the process of using the Act, some of which is due to the subjective nature of evidence gathering. The study suggests that peer support offers a range of factors important to education and development of experience in using the Act, along with helping staff cope with the outcome of decision making. The findings have clinical implications for those involved in managing difficult assessments and decision making, including how to gain an appropriate balance between risk and human rights against a backdrop of adversity that can be present for people with a learning disability. Further implications clinically and for future research, along with limitations of the study are also discussed.

This thesis is conducted as a descriptive comparative case study with the aim to explore the utilisation of different forms of nationalist arguments for secession by the Scottish National Party in the Scottish Parliament and Plaid Cymru in the Welsh Assembly. Based on the application of nationalist theories from three different modernist scholars, statements made by each party are analysed from politico-ideological, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives. The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru share both secession as the ultimate goal and perceptions of being in a subjugated position within the United Kingdom. However, the results of the qualitative textual content analyses show that the approach towards secession is fundamentally varied between the two parties. The Scottish National Party utilises predominantly economic arguments for independence whilst Plaid Cymru find themselves arguing for further devolution of powers together with attempts to differentiate themselves from the UK. This study confirms a number of claims and ideas from previous research within the academic fields of nationalism and secessionism while simultaneously delivering findings on unexplored idiosyncrasies of nationalist discourses in Scotland and Wales. Subsequently, it is our aim to contribute to a deeper and more structured understanding regarding the content of nationalist arguments for secession.

This dissertation examines the symbiotic relationship between intellectual property (“IP”) law and cultural heritage law, with an emphasis on intangible cultural heritage (“ICH”). These two fields of law have historically operated in relative isolation from each other, but the overlap of subject matter and practical effect of implementation is evident; the actual creative and traditional practices by individuals and communities are the subject matter of both fields. The central thrust of the research is to locate the effects of these two legal fields and to inform policy, research, and legislation when this previously under-considered effect and influence exists. This is accomplished through case studies of ICH and statutory intervention in three countries with diverse ICH: tartan in Scotland; cultural tourism and branding in Ireland, and the Welsh language and eisteddfodau in Wales. These countries were selected as they 1) are geographically proximate, 2) have shared cultural history, 3) are or were recently in a union legal structure with partially devolved governance powers, and 4) are ‘knowledge-based’ economies with strong IP laws. This selection facilitates the dissertation’s original contributions to research, which include highlighting the influence of ICH on IP law and how IP shapes ICH. This interaction challenges the domestic and international differential legal treatment between developed, Global North countries as IP- and knowledge-producing and developing and Global South countries as ICH- and culture-producing. Theoretical patterns emerged from the case studies: namely, first- and second-wave adoption, which is complementary to Hobsbawm and Ranger’s invented traditions; and ‘tangification’, which identifies the process through which ICH becomes IP in a modern legal framework and highlights the risks to ICH integrity as well as the over-extension of IP law. Each of these contributions support the assertion that properly managing risk to and safeguarding ICH, which provides social and economic benefits, can also help to ensure that IP law is functioning in a manner reflecting its jurisprudential underpinnings, facilitating longevity and enforceability of the law.

Rural change and the ability of farming communities to respond and withstand change is a topic of ongoing concern in the current research agenda. ‘Rural community resilience’ is a concept that has become a core theme of academic, policy and lay discourses discussing dynamics of rural change, widely associated with community studies and allied to notions of social capital. This work reviews approaches to community relations developed within community studies and social capital scholarship, and suggests that the relational agency of the network ties might also be explored through the application of an assemblage approach. However, and unlike many previous approaches to community resilience that use the concept in a normative way and which understandably highlight agency of social relations, this research has been constructed in such a way that network ties established through day-to-day community practices are characterized both vital and far from passive. Developing this current line of thinking in rural studies, this project argues that more-than-social agency evoked by relations between human and non-human components of the rural assemblage is an important factor affecting community resilience. The empirical research feeds from two case studies and gathers evidence from two distinctive agricultural communities of Hungary and Wales, whilst also recognizing similarities in the context of globalization. It argues that rural community resilience lies in relations between the humans, the land and the agricultural commodities.

Despite the fine’s position as the most commonly imposed sentencing disposal, it has been the subject of limited research. This dearth is a particular concern as recent statistics show that a large proportion of financial penalties are in arrears, with significant amounts being written-off. There have been various attempts in recent years to improve the enforcement process, which underscores the need for an evaluation of current policies and practices. The thesis is based on a study evaluating the enforcement of financial penalties by the Birmingham and Manchester city centre magistrates’ courts. The fieldwork was conducted both inside and outside the court building: defaulters’ appearances at the fines court, and fines clinic, were observed, and bailiffs and Civilian Enforcement Officers [CEOs] were accompanied as they attempted to execute distress warrants and bail warrants respectively. The thesis outlines various problems, and makes a number of proposals designed not only to raise the levels of effectiveness and efficiency but also the quality of justice. Taken together they provide a new coherent framework for the enforcement process.

In the last 30 years English law has seen a small but steady proliferation of shari’a councils though exact numbers are unknown. They have been set up to meet the religious needs of the British Muslim population focussing on providing a forum for the resolution of marital disputes. Shari’a councils offer mediation and reconciliation services as well as issuing religious divorce certificates. In the academic research to date it is apparent that the primary applicants to shari’a councils are Muslim women. In order to understand why one must investigate Islamic law which differentiates between the way in which men and women may divorce. Muslim men are free to pronounce a unilateral divorce without seeking the approval of any judicial body. Muslim women are arguably not granted any equivalent rights and must either secure their husband’s consent or apply to an authority to provide them with a religious determination. Shari’a councils have emerged to meet that need. My research demonstrates that whilst Muslim women are generally satisfied with the outcome of a shari’a council ruling they are critical of the processes. This becomes even more apparent to them when they compare their experiences of shari’a councils with the civil court system. Nonetheless, civil law alone is insufficient to meet the women’s needs and access to a religious authority remains a vital resource for many Muslim women. There is, however, a dynamic and evolving relationship emerging between Muslim family law practices and English law, which is still only at the embryonic stage.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to knowledge in the form of a new theory for supply chain strategy formulation. The objective is to design evaluation criteria, specific to the context of greenfield project architecture and integration design. This study addressed the aim and objective by synthesising existing methods and techniques which are outlined into a research framework of supply chain strategy problems. The study applied the case study and action research methods to pursue conceptual validity from the process of investigating the supply chain strategy formulation in a specific situation and presented the data collection and analysis process. The thesis derived a conceptual framework for investigating and identifying the relationship between multiple elements, dimensions, forces and factors that influence and affect supply chain strategy formulation in a greenfield project context, specific to the mining industry. The contribution to knowledge emerged from building upon the architecture of the conceptual framework, through synthesising existing techniques and adapting these techniques, to extend and redefine the existing knowledge on the practice of supply chain strategy formulation. Through critical analysis, a number of critical problems emerged and the process of addressing these problems, resulted with a new framework for evaluating the relationship between business and supply chain strategy, specific to greenfield project and integration context. The contribution to knowledge also derived from addressing the emerging obstacles in the process of identifying, defining and formulating, the visions and goals of individual supply chain participants from implicit into an explicit form. The process synthesised the knowledge for conceptualising the idea, through developing and evaluating information and issues, to derive insights into the complex and abstract concept, of greenfield project business and supply chain strategy formulation. The conceptual framework and evaluation framework advanced into designing greenfield project supply chain integration strategy. The process involved categorising individual supply chain strategic interests, decisions and problems into formulation areas, and was aimed at defining the process of greenfield project integration strategy as a system of concepts containing formulation areas, formulation principles, segregated into subcategories of formulation imperatives and formulation concepts. The thesis contributed to knowledge with advancement of the design engineering method, which enables visualisation of the supply chain strategy evaluation process. The design is not personalised for individual company business strategy or supply chain strategy formulation. The method was personalised to evaluate the integration of individual goals, and concepts in a supply chain strategy formulation. The novelty that emerged from the thesis was a conceptual framework for greenfield project architecture and integration design. The greenfield project architecture and design derived in the thesis a proposed conceptual system for applying the conceptual framework and the evaluation criteria.