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This thesis examines the education of pupils who speak English as an additional language (EAL) and how languages and multilingualism are negotiated across and within school spaces. A lack of existing scholarship on language, and EAL more specifically, within geography presents a gap that this thesis intends to address. This thesis utilises data from ethnographic fieldwork in a secondary school in the English Midlands where I undertook the role of a Teaching Assistant (TA) one day a week for a year to become immersed in the everyday lives of EAL pupils and the staff who teach and support them. Ethnographic fieldwork was followed by 37 interviews with teachers and educators from different schools across the UK, providing wider context around the teaching and support provision for EAL pupils in schools with different demographics and practices. Through analysis of research data, I argue that the spatialities and geographies of schools impact the way that EAL pupils and their learning and emotional needs are positioned and provided for, and more broadly how languages and multilingualism are negotiated across school spaces. This research contributes a new empirical area to the geographies of education sub-discipline around EAL education. Theoretically, the spatial and scalar lens used within this investigation of EAL pupil education contributes an enhanced understanding of the impact of the spatialities and geographies of schools, whilst also contributing a more nuanced understanding of the reciprocal relationship between space and language. This thesis also contributes to the geographies of multiculturalism, where, in existing scholarship, there is minimal reference to language despite being an identity characteristic that contributes to ethnicity and culture, through placing language as central in shaping young peoples' educational encounters.

Sex, romance and love between women and men of different nationalities and, or ethnicities were everyday features of twentieth century British life. Until now, they have attracted relatively limited scholarly attention. This thesis explores the lived experiences of 23 such women in Leicester between the late 1950s and early 1990s. The existing historiography accentuates colonial and early post-colonial intersections of race, gender, class and British identity, by focusing on public representations of intercultural relationships until the early 1960s. Although overt and judgemental racism suggests life was problematic, these relationships continued. Their numbers increased. A missing chronology and alternative, private perspectives provided by the collection and analysis of new oral life-histories, underpin the continuation and nuanced expansion of this history. The women's narratives illustrate the opportunities and challenges of intercultural loving in a city undergoing its own historical ethno-demographic transformation. 1970s Leicester especially, was characterised by cultural difference, individual and political racism and anti-racism. Interviewees' memories and reflections highlight a mass of gendered similarities and contrasts not necessarily driven by their different cultural backgrounds. They show unique forms of domestic agency that enabled women to form, sustain and flourish in their relationships, considered transgressive by some. This was a fluid, informal, sometimes naïve feminism that exuded a complex mix of anti-racism and inculcated racism. Resourceful women differentially championed new family lifestyles and sometimes strove to regain a respectable femininity they perceived had been lost. The women's messy, rich and diverse subjectivities shed light on a population in cultural transition. New romantic opportunities, cultural difference and exchange and female agency reformed cultural practices. The women were affected by and contributed to the origins of an everyday multiculturalism in Leicester; the organic development of new identities which reshaped notions of blackness and whiteness and challenged what it meant to be British.

This thesis contributes to the literary and cultural debates surrounding multiculturalism and questions of home and identity in contemporary Britain, using the British South Asian novel as a case study. Through close readings of six novels, including Maps For Lost Lovers (2004) by Nadeem Aslam, Londonstani (2006) by Gautam Malkani, The Year of Runaways (2015) by Sunjeev Sahota, Home Fire (2017) by Kamila Shamsie, Exit West (2017) by Mohsin Hamid, and In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) by Guy Gunaratne, the thesis brings theories of multiculturalism, class, and race into conversation with contemporary British South Asian fiction. It re-examines multiculturalism, as represented in the fiction, in light of recent key events that have catalysed its reconfigurations (e.g. 9/11, 7/7, the 2011 England riots and Brexit) alongside conceptual developments of notions of race, class, home and identity. Stuart Hall (1990) suggests that identity is constructed "within, not outside of, representation", which indicates that literature plays a potentially important role in the public perception of identity (222). The thesis seeks to demonstrate that terms like diaspora, migrancy, hybridity and liminality do not fully capture the experience of multiculturalism as depicted in the selected novels. Whilst the thesis does not fully dismiss these terms, it redirects attention to critical, non-celebratory conceptions of multiculturalism. In so doing, it makes interventions into debates on multiculturalism. It shows how the UK government has tended to present multiculturalism as "a management exercise" (Mishra 2007, 133) through a "series of hesitant moves and recommendations", which, as Peter Morey argues, it would be "hard to call [...] a multicultural policy" (Morey 2018a, 5). It argues that theories of multiculturalism might become more 3 coherent if approached from specific theories of race, ethnicity, and class. Such mapping, as Vijay Mishra (2007) advocates, allows us to think more precisely about these theories, so that we can view multiculturalism as "a critical concept" rather than "a management exercise" (133). The thesis first sets out a theoretical framework by which to explore its central concerns with the modalities of representation of British South Asians in fiction and their engagement with ideas of home and identity that are always already inflected by the complexities of race, class, religion and multiculturalism. It then turns to the historical and socio-political contexts of diverse British South Asian experiences as they are depicted in the fiction. The research employs a mixed-method approach synthesising theories of multiculturalism, race, ethnicity, and class, with close readings of British South Asian fiction written between 2000 and 2020. In the process, this enables a critical re-evaluation of these theories (Gilroy 2004, Mishra 2007, Ahmed 2015). Finally, the thesis offers new ways of reading the various permutations of British South Asian identity as culturally diverse in contemporary literature produced by British South Asian authors.

Despite the benefits of workforce cultural diversity, media and societal structure biases have led to a failure to recognise any internal attitude differences towards migrant communities (Hack-Polay, 2006), leading to a lack of migrants' opportunities being manifested internally rather than across national boundaries (Anderson, 2010). Based on migrants' lived experiences, while profit maximisation enabled by their presence in the workforce is valued, institutional structures to aid integration of new migrants remain lacking (Alberti, 2016; Fernández-Reino et al., 2020; Holgate, 2018; McDowell et al., 2008; Portes, 2018). Prevailing literature mainly focuses on the native population and migrants rather than also considering relations within organisations' migrant communities: a gap this study aims to fill. Hence, this research investigates whether attitudinal conflicts exist between new migrants and long-term immigrants by exploring working relationships in FoodPro.Co (anonymised) a major UK food producer. To identify and explore barriers and facilitators, the impact of organisational policies on new migrants' workplace integration is further questioned. This qualitative cross-sectional case study, within a critical realist philosophy, depicts migrant lives via semi-structured interviews at all occupational levels. The themes developed comprise: 1) Challenges Faced by FoodPro.Co; 2) Working Relationships and Attitudes; and 3) Motivations, Opportunities and Costs. Contrary to existing literature which suggests unity among diverse labour in precarious working conditions (Wills et al., 2009; Roy, 1973), the interview data portray the obvious presence of conflict between long-term immigrants and new migrants, specifically between different ethnic groups, driven by ethnicities and language, thereby fuelling discrimination and segregation attitudes. This study's contemporary stand, examining UK migrant labour market patterns, is crucial in the ever-changing global environment and encourages academia to delve into in-group workplace dynamics between migrant groups. The main recommendations, from key insights, comprise further diversity and inclusion training, and emphasis on employee well-being, engagement, and equality in practice.

The concept of radicalisation post 9/11 has been at the centre of debates for many years. More so, since education was given a role to play in countering it. National counterterrorism policies within educational institutions have been criticised for securitising education and potentially pushing radical students' views underground. The introduction of the Prevent duty, a statutory obligation posed on schools in England and Wales in 2015, shouldered schools and their staff with the responsibility of preventing individuals from being drawn to terrorism. Using qualitative thematic analysis, this study looks at conceptualisations of radicalisation from an educational perspective through the narratives of thirteen secondary school teachers in comprehensive schools in England and fourteen Prevent practitioners. Teachers' conceptualisations of radicalisation were also assessed against measures they adopt in the classroom. Prevent practitioners' views were used to attest whether what they desire of the Prevent duty matched what teachers are doing on the ground in schools. The study also investigated the Prevent duty enactment by secondary school teachers, and the way the guidance impacted on teachers' professionalism. Furthermore, it sheds light on secondary school teachers' classroom-level interventions. Attention was also given to teachers' attempts to address radicalisation and/or extremist activity implicitly or explicitly in the classroom through the teaching of their subject. Prevent practitioners' views provided further insight on the interplay of contextual factors within schools. A thematic analysis was used to present and organise teachers' and Prevent practitioners' views. Through this analysis, twenty-one themes have been identified and are presented across four main chapters. Research data findings show that teacher interviewees expect an educational response to prevent radicalisation rather than a security response through safeguarding. This has implications for teacher training as teachers envisage a curriculum response which targets not just radicalisation but social issues at large. Furthermore, results show that teachers' perceptions of the Prevent duty as a non-educational response to prevent radicalisation pushes teachers to use agency to challenge the Prevent duty or to implement the Prevent duty through their own interpretative framework. Lack of adequate teacher training may result in biased judgements which, in turn, may lead to more harm than good.

This research study aims to investigate how cultural dimensions influenced students' achievements in secondary schools in London. This was achieved by exploring the relationship between cultural backgrounds, cultural dimensions, school activities and the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) grades of individual students from Bangladeshi, Black African and Pakistani ethnic groups from three state-funded sixth form secondary schools in London. This thesis focuses on the comparison of these three ethnic groups regarding their achievements in schools. Three research questions were created to address comparisons between the three ethnic groups. A quantitative approach was used for this research. A questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. A sample of three hundred and six students fully completed and returned their questionnaires within the three schools. Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation and multiply regression analyses were used to present and interpret the findings. One of the main findings of my thesis was that there were no relationships between cultural backgrounds, cultural dimensions, school activities and GCSE grades of Bangladeshi, Black African and Pakistani students. At the same time, there were statistically significant relationships between cultural dimensions, school activities, and GCSE grades of the Bangladeshi, Black African and Pakistani students who took part in the study. Moreover, the low power distance of cultural dimension and the mediating factor of school activities (learners learning on their own and the use of examples from learners' cultures in teaching) were the most statistically significant variables that influenced GCSE grades in all the three groups of students in the schools. The findings of this research provide useful information, associated with greater multicultural teaching and learning environments, for the practice of teachers, and those involved in teacher training, curriculum development and leading learning and teaching in schools and universities.

Development scholars and practitioners have comparatively studied South Korea and Kenya because they had the same GDP in the 1960s, but South Korea has since developed into one of the world's top fifteen economies and was the first aid recipient in the OECD to become a donor nation. A significant portion of South Korea's humanitarian aid budget is now devoted to Africa, and the Korean government's strategy for African development focuses on advancing the arts and culture as a means of exerting 'soft power.' In addition to this bilateral aid from the government, Korean businesses are seeking new investment opportunities in many African countries, including Kenya. Korea is just one of the so-called 'Asian Tiger' economies that have mainly followed China's lead to promote domestic economic growth in emerging markets. As Asian economic entanglements increase exponentially throughout Africa, new opportunities for cultural contact are arising. However, many Kenyans remain suspicious of what they perceive as neo-colonial endeavours on the part of Asian corporations and governments while the general South Korean population tends to have limited understandings of Africa that rely on largely negative stereotypes. Through comparative case studies in Seoul and Nairobi, this thesis examines how the arts can foster transcultural exchange between seemingly disparate groups of people as contact between Asia and Africa increases. Research methods include a combination of case studies, narrative enquiry and qualitative interviews with artists, curators, arts administrators and other cultural practitioners. Analysis of specific art exhibitions, a public festival and an institutional case study in each city demonstrate that the arts can construct and reflect converging national and global identities as well as be a means to negotiate and understand cultural differences. While analysis focuses specifically on South Korea and Kenya as microcosms, the issues identified in this study resonate with wider debates concerning the role of art museums relative to migration, globalisation and multiculturalism.

Urban studies have often neglected the racial-colonial grounds on which space-power and space- subjectivity articulations operate in Latin America. This dissertation addresses that gap by exploring the city of Bogotá as normatively mestizo, epistemically white and factually blind to racialised practices of societal and spatial organisation. It maintains that urban space-making is still governed by racial coloniality despite being increasingly challenged by relational ontologies of life. By drawing on longitudinal and mobile fieldwork, the research employed participant observation, ethnographic field diaries, oral histories, and semi-structured interviews with residents, academics, urban professionals, activists, government officers, and social organisations. It examines complex entanglements of racial and spatial formations at the conjuncture of forced displacement, social inequality, territorial stigma, urban divisions, neoliberal governance, and the urbanisation of ethnicity. It shows how such intersections articulate border dynamics of simultaneous confinement and contention, rather than bare “marginality” or “peripherality.” After an overview of key literature, the research examines the racial-colonial underpinnings of urban modernity and neoliberal multiculturalism in Bogotá. It then illustrates how the racialisation of Afro- Colombian bodies and subjectivities shape contemporary urban space, while race is concealed under a multiplicity of guises. Subsequently, different trajectories of collective black life are reconstructed and analysed, pointing to the need to expose not only the racial secretions of coloniality but also the spatial relations that govern everyday life and the politics of emplacement. Conclusively, the research shows how Afro-Colombian spatial praxis and everyday tactics of placemaking can foreshadow new urban futures for the pluri-ethnic Latin American city. While broadening studies on postcolonial urbanism through disciplinary intersections, this research proposes a decolonial research agenda for urban studies, urging a special attentiveness to its scarcity in Colombia. Finally, it complements global and Southern urban literature with Critical Black Geographies and Latin American debates on coloniality and multiculturalism.

This thesis explores the ways in which schools accommodate the national vision of a multicultural society, specifically focusing on Indonesia's national vision of "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" (Unity-in-Diversity). Employing a multiple-case-study research approach, it examines the ways head teachers, teachers, students, and parents from six state and private schools with different mixes of student ethnicity and religiosity promote this national vision in terms of educational practice. The research considers the perspectives of education stakeholders on the meanings of Unity-in-Diversity and their responses in promoting Unity-in-Diversity in schools and classrooms in contemporary Indonesia, drawing data from observations, interviews, photos, and documentary analysis. Using multicultural education as a conceptual lens, this research finds that promoting religious diversity is key to achieving Unity-in-Diversity in religious and democratic Indonesia, and schools generally have demonstrated some commitment to promoting inter-religious harmony as mandated. Yet, it argues that the discourses of diversity, particularly of religious diversity, continue to be spaces of complex interpretation, rather than settled policy positions. In schools, this process of interpretation is manifested in the school policies, school cultures, and teaching across subjects in classrooms. The strong narratives of religiosity and piety in the current education system, which are found to privilege the dominant religious culture(s), have ramifications in the accommodation of Unity-in-Diversity in practice. In response to the different schools' demographies, the nuanced accounts regarding the implementation of Unity-in-Diversity suggest the importance of considering identity and power dynamics, positionality, and contextuality in the school accommodation of the vision of diversity. In light of this research, this thesis also presents the usefulness and challenges of applying a theory of multicultural education, which has focused mainly on ethnic and racial diversity, in researching the issue of religious diversity. Based in the largest Muslim country in the world, this thesis offers a critical insight into the complex role of education in the development of an inclusive, religious society.

This dissertation proposes a contribution to comparative political theory and postcolonial feminist theory, based upon ethnographic fieldwork of a social movement for gender justice led by Muslim women and its networks with state and non-state actors in contemporary India, a liberal democracy where Muslims are a minority. Moving away from approaches in normative political theory that focus on elective affinities between religion and reified liberal categories such as individual autonomy and the individual rights-bearing person, this dissertation explores notions of agency beyond autonomy that animate the performance of rights. Notions of agency beyond autonomy are undertheorised in debates on religion and liberalism in political theory. I reconceptualise the rights-bearing person and her agency by underlining the ways in which rights-bearing citizenship is mediated by concerns of ethics and a form of agency that entails submission to authority. I argue that such forms of submission to authority are compatible with a collective struggle against everyday gendered oppression and inequality. This dissertation also conceptualises located universalism as an entry point into the paradoxes of postcolonial feminist projects by exploring the entanglement of a transnational discourse of Islamic feminism and piety, and a territorially bounded conception of minority rights and Muslim family law. I argue that postcolonial feminist projects map on to normative feminist aims of a struggle against everyday gender inequality while remaining circumscribed within the postcolonial nation’s gendered imaginary of the family. The ethnographic chapters explore the itineraries of rights claims and their entanglements with notions of piety and ethical self-fashioning in workshops on the Quran and the Indian Constitution of this movement and a women’s shariat court. I then explore the paradoxical assertion of a transnational Muslim identity in urban spaces in Mumbai marked out as Muslim minority spaces by the violence of the state. Through engagements between comparative political theory, postcolonial theory, and political ethnographic study, this dissertation aims to answer questions such as: What notions of agency and ethics vis-à-vis the family and the community underwrite the rights claims of women in particular contexts? What imaginaries of space and time do these rights claims enclose and how do they speak to a territorially bounded conception of minority rights? In doing so, I urge for exploring religion and liberalism through everyday ethical modes of negotiation and beyond reified intellectual traditions in comparative political theory. I expand the field of postcolonial feminist theory beyond putative oppositions between the universal and the contextual to explore the paradoxical entanglements of the two registers.

This thesis looks at the three significant Muslim minority communities in Vietnam, Cambodia and Southern Thailand from the perspective of living in a predominantly monocultural, non-Muslim society, and how they function economically, socially, religiously and politically in this context. It particularly focuses on the time period from 1945 to the present day, from the end of the Second World War and the post-colonial era as this is a significant break-point and begins the recent era of local societies. The end of the Second World War brought about significant change in all three countries. All three had been occupied by the Japanese. (Thailand had joined an alliance with the Japanese, but this was a face-saving accommodation, leading to de facto Japanese government and rule.) After the Japanese defeat, the French colonial power attempted to reassert itself in Indo-China, followed by a similar American exercise of influence. In Thailand, a return to independence saw Thailand become a close ally and client state of the USA, a bulwark against Communist insurgency in the rest of Southeast Asia. By 1975 all three states were free of foreign control, and pursued policies of self-determination and independent development, albeit in dramatically different ways. I examine this situation from Muslim perspectives, from the governing policies of the states themselves and from the viewpoint of the non-Muslim majority citizens of the states. I endeavour to identify common themes and strategies and divergent reactions to their lived environment. I seek to answer the question: how have long-existing Muslim minorities come to terms with their environment in the societies of Southeast Asia that have a dominant, if not monocultural ethos, what will this mean for their future in the region, and what is its impact on the Muslim and global community? There are two distinct and clearly identifiable ethnic groups – the lowland Cham of Vietnam and Cambodia’s Mekong Delta and the Malay Muslims of the Southern border provinces of Thailand. The first group are ethnically homogenous, although split in two by a political border that can be rigid but is also a fluid means of communication and economic activity. The second are also ethnically homogenous, but exist within the borders of modern Thailand, where they vary from the majority population in language, economic status, allegiance to and treatment by the Thai state. By understanding the way in which these groups exist, survive, accommodate (or resist) their non-Muslim state and government structures, I draw conclusions about the success and future development of these societies – and of course, their failures. There are also interesting lessons to learn for multicultural societies coming to terms with Muslim minorities, and other Muslims working to develop in a non-Muslim environment. Although these groups are relatively small and have a low profile in the Muslim world, they are also deeply rooted, having been resident in their areas for significantly longer than the modern states that now surround them.

This thesis deals with the perceptions of migrants facing vulnerability about the changes in their lives after migrating to a developing context, especially in terms of their agency, fundamental rights and cultural liberty. It emphasises the need to focus more on the impacts of migration on the individuals migrating, and not simply on the impacts on the economies of their places of origin and destination. To further explore this human-centred dimension of migration, the thesis' theoretical framework is grounded in Amartya Sen's line of the Capability Approach (CA), adding some contributions from a rights-based approach (Benhabib, & Sassen) and a hybrid multiculturalist framework (Fry & Sansone) in order to advance the discussions on transnational rights and cultural rights raised by Sen and the CA. The context chosen to develop the research was Brazil owing to its contributions to both capability and migration studies, since its particular approach to transnational rights and to multiculturalism brings innovative ways to rethink current international debates in these fields. Following the theoretical framework indicated, the thesis analyses the main findings of a fieldwork with mixed methods (qualitative + quantitative) held with a hundred Latin American and African migrants temporarily living in two charity houses in São Paulo, addressing the key research question of how they perceive changes in their lives after having migrated, in terms of agency, basic rights and cultural liberty. Considering the main needs and difficulties observed during the fieldwork, the thesis concludes with policy recommendations to tackle these challenges.

This thesis seeks to answer the question how should the criminal law of England and Wales respond to the relationship between culture and legal responsibility? It undertakes a socio-legal and interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship between culture and legal responsibility within the parameters of (i) the foundations, practice and policy of the criminal law of and criminal justice system in England and Wales; and (ii) understandings of multiculturalism as social reality, policy and philosophy within the socio-political system of the United Kingdom in the twenty first century. The analysis therefore draws on theory, practice and policy to develop a renewed and specifically nuanced 'culture-responsibility relationship', distinguishable from the 'cultural defence', and its importance for contemporary justice is established. Evidence is presented to confirm that the criminal law and criminal justice system of England and Wales manifest an absence of consistent and coherent engagement with culture and with the culture-responsibility relationship. Multicultural policy in turn manifests an absence of engagement with the criminal law. These omissions need to be addressed. A practical and policy-facing framework for the place of the culture-responsibility relationship in the criminal law and criminal justice system of England and Wales is therefore suggested. This reflects the current limits of the law and is intended as a starting point for ongoing dialogue.

Multicultural educational policies in school advocate respect for all cultures. These policies are considered important in facilitating the inclusion of students from ethnically diverse backgrounds (Banks, 2008, 2019). Multicultural policies aim to increase equality and social acceptance of minority ethnic communities by decreasing negative racial attitudes and racial inequality (Bourne, 2007; Howarth and Andreouli, 2012). Therefore, multiculturalism is a key to the development of positive attitudes amongst ethnically diverse communities and it aims to challenge and prevent racism or prejudice (Bourne, 2007). The aim of this study was to analyse experiences of British Pakistani students in schools; to investigating how the concept of multiculturalism with multicultural policies is promoted in schools, to ensure their inclusion. The situation of British Pakistanis is complicated by issues relating to how the Muslim faith is perceived, and in particular the Prevent Agenda. Both of these topics are covered within this study. This study investigated the experiences of British Pakistani students in multi-ethnic secondary schools in England in order to understand how BPS as a minority ethnic group are culturally supported and included in schools. This study focused on multiculturalism by using Banks’ (2008, 2019) theory of multiculturalism with his model of multicultural education as a conceptual framework. Hence, year 9 BPS’ experiences in relation to multiculturalism, multicultural education policies including the Prevent Agenda and FBV in three different multi-ethnic secondary schools in the East of England were explored. All three schools were multi-ethnic in nature and more than enough to provide sufficient data to do a good cross-section from schools with differing level of BPS, through student and teacher interviews, in addition to document analysis of school policies. The major findings of the research revealed that the case study schools have a positive inclusive cultural environment and the more general inclusive policies schools employ seem to meet a number of elements and dimensions that Banks (1989b, 2008, 2019) has identified in relation to multiculturalism. Findings also indicated that no single model espoused by Banks (2008, 2019) could fully capture the range of themes emerging when focusing on issues related to multiculturalism when applied to this group of students in the current context. BPS identify themselves as British Pakistani and prefer dualism/integration to carry two different cultures together. There are no concerns that Prevent is impacting on teachers in terms of the way BPS behave, and teacher training in relation to this was perceived as insignificant. BPS generally experience positive attitudes from their peers and teachers. British Values caused a variety of responses indicating lack of clarity about what British Values are, and that they are not required for the integration of BPS in schools. Overall, the findings concluded that although British Pakistani students’ needs are being met by current practices in schools, some aspects of Banks’ (2008, 2019) model could be beneficial in reducing potential issues faced by this group of students.

In spite of the recent reform of the curriculum, Religious Education (RE) in Cyprus remains confessional and it is dominated by the Greek Orthodox Church, reflecting the island's history of occupation, colonization and partition and the need to promote national unity amongst a presumed-to-be homogeneous population, with imperatives for nation-building superseding concerns with the island's historic cultural diversity. However, a series of changes, broadly since Cyprus' independence in 1960 but especially since 2000, present challenges to this confessional RE. Therefore, the aim of this PhD thesis is to assess the implications of changes in Greek-Cypriot society for the provision of RE in Greek-Cypriot primary schools, and to identify ways of addressing the challenges posed by these changes; and especially to respond to the increasingly multicultural character of Cyprus. At the same time, it aims to provide some suggestions as to how RE can be reformed along the lines of multiculturalism in order to promote the reconciliation of the island and to encourage students' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This thesis primarily considers the way RE is taught in Cyprus, but at the same time it examines the RE curricula frameworks of other European countries, since Cyprus is a part of the European Union and thus, shares similar visions and challenges with them. For the conduction of this PhD thesis, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods were applied. However, the main research tool was a RE booklet which was developed by the researcher and it was used as an additional teaching material which aimed to reform students' knowledge, views and attitudes about a variety of topics. This PhD research has revealed that some of students' knowledge, views and attitudes regarding different spiritual, moral, social, and cultural issues have been enriched and changed, in some way, after being taught from the RE Booklet. Most of their original misconceptions and false knowledge have also been successfully redressed. However, their views and attitudes towards the minority community of Cyprus, Turkish-Cypriots, have not been changed, and this reveals that a systematic effort needs to be made in order to change well-embedded confessional views. Another finding was that the majority of Greek-Cypriot students, teachers and educators prefer a more multicultural RE rather than a confessional one, but there are some reservations which need to be addressed before putting this into practice. These include: the Church of Cyprus' preference for a confessional RE, its influence on the educational system, the confessional teaching material, the inadequate guidance and support offered to teachers by the Ministry of Education and individual prejudices towards people of different cultural and religious origins. This research has also revealed that the three representatives from the religious minorities of Cyprus (Maronite/Armenian/Turkish-Cypriot) believe that the majority of Greek-Cypriot teachers have very negative attitudes towards religious and cultural diversity, and so they are unwilling to promote multicultural education within their classrooms. They also perceive the Greek-Cypriot community as being more nationalistic and religiously fundamentalist than their own communities. Finally, this PhD thesis has reached the conclusion that the integration of citizenship and religious education can promote intercultural dialogue which will help individuals to coexist, cooperate, understand and respect each other. However, the Cypriot society is not prepared yet for a radical change in the way RE is taught. Therefore, it is a better option initially to combine confessional and multicultural RE; to orient RE to multiculturalism, and not to change radically the way that RE is taught, because that would provoke adverse reaction. At the same time, the Ministry of Education has an instrumental role to play in improving RE; it needs to seriously take into consideration the presence of non-Orthodox children attending schools, to correct students' misconceptions and combat their social and religious prejudices, to encourage assessment for learning and to ensure that education is free of political interests and Church influences.

Since the publication 20 years ago of reports, which identified parallel living between diverse communities in northern towns, including Bradford, there has been increasing concern about how difference can be accommodated alongside commitment to a collaborative, national enterprise. I examine this conundrum, with the assistance of a cohort of 18 people whose families hail from India and Pakistan, from the perspective of the Council of Europe's recognition of the duty of the immigrant to integrate. I do this by considering how a sense of ethnic social group identity may constrain meaningful engagement in wider society. Framing this sense of ethnic social group identity is distance of the heart, the term coined by one of the cohort to explain ongoing emotional ties to homeland, long after migration, which have the potential to distract from total commitment to society here. My primary question was: what factors, inherent in ethnic social group identity, and elaborated by the term distance of the heart, may have shaped the experience of integration of Asian communities in Bradford? My secondary research questions explore how sense of belonging and home, parallel living, religion, heritage language usage, cultural endogamy, and caste and clan allegiances may impact integration. Utilising a critical realist approach I identify factors, or mechanisms, underpinning ethnic social group identity, which help to sustain minority exclusivity and result in a sense of living on the edge. However, my findings challenge assumptions about the dangers of parallel living by suggesting these can be trumped by agential choice. I found that while cohort members have a strong sense of ethnic identity, and commitment to minority community, they also engage with people from other communities and describe a British identity, which encompasses their ethnic identity. This demands a more nuanced response to parallel living, which treats it as a characteristic of, rather than a barrier to, cohesion.

Identity politics in the Nordic region, that is, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway, is in crisis. While these five small nations have garnered a reputation for their perceived exceptionalism, liberal progressiveness and strong welfare-orientated agendas, over the last thirty years, immigration into the Nordic region has increased significantly, and the political and cultural debates over ethnicity and belonging have become more intensely polarised. However, the film cultures of these five small nations have responded to these developments in complex and multifaceted ways giving rise to a broad calibre of film texts that both challenge and reinforce dominant perceptions of national identity. This thesis attempts to provide some insight into how wider political and ideological shifts have influenced onscreen representations of ethnicity and race over the last three decades. It does so by exploring a range of genres including comedy, social realism, art-house and documentary cinema using close textual and thematic analysis to unearth a region wrestling with the influences of globalisation. The thesis also situates this analysis in relation to film policies relevant to each respective national Nordic film institute, all of whom play an essential role in dictating the direction of Nordic film and media culture. Consequently, this research shows that representations of ethnic identity are shaped by ethnocentric perceptions of Nordic whiteness where 'ethnic Nordic' characters typically turn the experiences and perspectives of ethnic minorities into their own. However, it also demonstrates how a diversification of production channels, media policy directives and an emerging generation of filmmakers are challenging fixed perceptions of ethnic and racial identities and their relationships with conventional notions of 'Nordicness.' These contributions enhance the current scholarship on Nordic film culture by foregrounding the politics of race and ethnicity and further developing the theoretical argument for locating Nordic cinema in the global, transnational context.

The aim of this dissertation is to discuss the image of the city of Diyarbakır as emerging from Kurdish and Turkish literature throughout the twentieth century. Diyarbakır city represents a highly contentious place in socio-political and cultural terms for the Kurdish vis-à-vis the Turkish imagined community. The first chapter is dedicated to the image of the city previous to the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 as emerging from accounts of travellers from different ages and different languages. Then, in four different chapters, four different corpuses of Turkish and Kurdish literature are taken under the focus of the analysis. Each corpus allows the discussion of certain aspects and themes related to the city. Overall, each chapter and each corpus constitute a piece of the deconstructed literary image of the city, which is at the centre of this research. Since Diyarbakır is a contested city, its representations are deeply involved in processes of appropriation and symbolization of place. Therefore, in the shaping of literary Diyarbakır throughout the twentieth century, the conflicting political dynamics between the Turkish State and local Kurdish actors play a crucial role.

This study was designed to describe and analyse the nature of the integration processes of the Libyan community in the UK. It explores the experience of their integration in order to understand how Libyan migrants have come to live in Britain and their relationships with wider UK society. The study also explores the extent to which the experience of Libyan immigrants supports the idea that Britain is a multicultural society. Whilst studies have been conducted examining the issue of Arab migration in the UK and the difficulties which they face (integration, equity, rights, social marginalization and stigmatization) no study has been carried out on Libyan migrants in the UK, so this study is unique. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 38 participants of Libyan migrants living in the UK (aged 18-65). Using snowball sampling, individual interviews were conducted with 27 participants; with the leaders of six selected Libyan civil migrants associations; and in addition to this a focus group with five young Libyans was conducted in order to explore the ways in which Libyans are integrating into UK society. The participants are mixed with regard to terms of age and length of stay in the UK. 13 of the participants were born in Britain or raised in Britain from an early age, whereas the rest emigrated from Libya as adults. 17 of the respondents are male and 21 are female. All of the participants in this study have lived in Britain for a minimum of 12 years, and the longest time span is 41 years. A large proportion of Libyans in the UK have emigrated to the UK due to their desire to gain graduate qualifications to improve their future career opportunities, as well as to make the most of economic opportunities, particularly in skilled sectors. In addition, some come to the UK to for political reasons. The results highlighted most of the participants' desire to integrate into the host community. To facilitate their integration, the first and second generations' participants revealed that the transition to the UK has required a balance between their past and present lives, resulting in adapting a dual identity through the combining of their strong sense of cultural heritage with the determination to contribute to their society. This dual identity is even more pronounced among the younger generations of Libyans as most of them were born and /or grow up in the UK. The study suggests that questions remain about the success of multiculturalism in the UK. While some participants described positive experiences and how they were able to practice their culture, others expressed concern about resentment towards immigrants, in particular after the Brexit vote. In addition some of the interviewees described how migrants are expected to integrate into the host society but that more needs to be done by the government to promote a multicultural environment. Thus, from the experience of Libyan immigrants while the UK is a multicultural society and they appreciate the freedom to practice their culture and religion, more can be done to improve relations in the society.

Over the course of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Wales experienced its most sustained and prononounced phase of demographic growth. Migration was a critical catalyst in this process, of which the most substantial contributors in terms of absolute volume were English migrants. By 1900, approximately 16% to 25% of the Welsh population was either English-born or the first-generation relations of English migrants. However, the significance of their presence in Welsh society during this period is inversely proportional to their presence in the historiography: there exists no major study devoted solely to the issue of English migration to Wales, while tangential academic discussion of the topic generally tends to focus on its negative aspects (primarily in the context of the decline of the Welsh language). This thesis will thus seek to address the aforementioned historiographical shortcomings, while endeavouring to present a more rounded analysis of the socio-cultural traits of English migrants in Wales as well as their role in shaping the complexion of contemporary public discourse. It will deploy both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to achive these objectives, making use of relevant data from both the 1891 and 1901 censuses, the abundance of material derived from contemporary newspapers, journals and other publications, and a limited range of personal accounts from English migrants themselves. The overarching aim is to contextualise the particular experiences of English migrants within the broader development of Wales' modern national identity.

This thesis presents an ethnographic account of the everyday meanings and processes associated with the idea of ‘community’ within the London neighbourhood of Kilburn. In policy and popular discourse, community is cast both as somehow able to unite people across difference, and as under threat from the proliferation of difference, which is seen as impeding mutual understanding, cooperation and belonging. Within scholarly writing, ‘community’ is often challenged as too archaic, too rigid or too ambiguous a concept to provide sufficient analytical leverage or to work as a normative ideal. Against this background, my PhD takes a look the neighbourhood of Kilburn, where amidst significant diversity, tropes of community are still widely used. I investigate how residents imagine various forms of community in relation to diversity, as well as the connections and discontinuities between these various imaginings. I draw on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, following over a dozen community projects and groups, tracing informal local networks and getting to know residents individually. My ethnography ranges from community cafes, to religious youth groups, to urban ‘gangs’, to government-led urban regeneration projects. Despite the variation in how different individuals imagined ‘community’, there was a shared view of community as a space which facilitated the bridging of difference and the construction of shared moral projects. These spaces did not exist sui generis. Rather they were opened up through the balancing of two traits: fixity and fluidity. Fixity involved defining community in terms of a clearly identifiable and familiar set of boundary markers, which serve to give it an ‘objective’ existence. Fluidity involved suspending this attempt to define community in terms of the familiar, once people were involved, in order to allow for new, shared understandings and values to emerge. The first two chapters unpack this balancing of fixity and fluidity. Chapter 1, traces inclusion and exclusion in a range of community projects, and Chapter 2 looks at tropes of race and ethnicity, examining how such ideas might be treated as simultaneously fixed and fluid. . The two chapters unpack the transformational power of community. Chapter 3 looks at a community centre for young Muslims, as well as at a local community radio station, and argues that community spaces have the potential to foster an ethic of continual openness to difference. Chapter 4 looks at a group of ‘street youth’ and their diverse views of success, and argues that community can act as a collective repository of future potential, allowing community members to transform their ethical trajectory within their own lives. The final two chapters look at contestations over community. Chapter 5 looks at clashing uses of public spaces and argues that such spaces are often read in highly fixed ways, and as lacking the potential for community-like negotiations. Chapter 6 looks at local regeneration projects and contrasts the ways in which community is valued locally, to the ways in which it is valued by state and market actors. The thesis concludes by emphasizing the necessarily plural, dynamic, contested and grounded nature of the idea of community described here.

This thesis examines the ideological nexus of nationalism and heritage under the social conditions of neoliberalism. The investigation aims to demonstrate how neoliberal economics stimulate the irrationalism manifest in nationalist idealisation of the past. The institutionalisation of national heritage was originally a rational function of the modern state, symbolic of its political and cultural authority. With neoliberal erosion of the productive economy and public institutions, heritage and nostalgia proliferate today in all areas of social life. It is argued that this represents a social pathology linked to the neoliberal state's inability to construct a future-orientated national project. These conditions enhance the appeal of irrational nationalist and regionalist ideologies idealising the past as a source of cultural purity. Unable to achieve social cohesion, the neoliberal state promotes multiculturalism, encouraging minorities to embrace essentialist identity politics that parallel the nativism of right-wing nationalists and regionalists. This phenomenon is contextualised within the general crisis of progressive modernisation in Western societies that has accompanied neoliberalisation and globalisation. A new theory of activist heritage is advanced to describe autonomous, politicised heritage that appropriates forms and practices from the state heritage sector. Using this concept, the politics of irrational nationalism and regionalism are explored through fieldwork, including participant observation, interviews and photography. The interaction of state and activist heritage is considered at the Wewelsburg 1933-1945 Memorial Museum in Germany wherein neofascists have re-signified Nazi material culture, reactivating it within contemporary political narratives. The activist heritage of Israeli Zionism, Irish Republicanism and Ulster Loyalism is analysed through studies of museums, heritage centres, archaeological sites, exhibitions, monuments and historical re-enactments. These illustrate how activist heritage represents a political strategy within irrational ideologies that interpret the past as the ethical model for the future. This work contends that irrational nationalism fundamentally challenges the Enlightenment's assertion of reason over faith, and culture over nature, by superimposing pre-modern ideas upon the structure of modernity. An ideological product of the Enlightenment, the nation state remains the only political unit within which a rational command of time and space is possible, and thus the only viable basis for progressive modernity.

May the state, from a liberal point of view, operate laws and institutions that impede the mobile lifestyle of nomadic Roma and Travellers, or should the state take steps to accommodate their nomadic way of life? This is the essence of the problem of Roma and Traveller itinerancy and the question that is at the heart of this three-partite dissertation. The first part of the dissertation looks at public policy in France and the United Kingdom and describes the six public policy problems that constitute the problem of Roma and Traveller itinerancy. These problems concern the education of children, the French travel permits system, the legal conditions for voter registration and for GP registration, the housing benefits system, and the public provision of halting sites. The second part looks at liberal political theory. It suggests that contemporary liberalism divides into two strands that take different views on the entitlements of cultural and religious minorities, and it provides a detailed outline of the prime articulations of each approach, namely the multiculturalist liberalism of Kymlicka and the classic neutrality liberalism of Barry. The third part investigates what the two said liberalisms imply for the six policy problems from part 1. These analyses suggest that the two liberalisms have slightly diverging implications for the halting sites problem, the housing benefits problem and the problem of GP registration. They suggest furthermore that the two accounts converge on the question of voter registration and agree that the voter registration system must accommodate nomads, and may not make the possession of a fixed residence an absolute condition for voter registration. And the analyses suggest finally that the two liberalisms also converge over the education question and the travel permits question, but here support polices that are potentially inimical to Roma and Traveller itinerancy. The broader implications of these findings are that liberalism is potentially, but not necessarily and not intrinsically, inimical to Roma and Traveller nomadism, and that the disagreement between classic neutrality liberalism and multiculturalist liberalism is weak insofar as public policy is concerned.

Following the war in Kosovo in 1999, the international community embarked on the most extensive international peace- and state-building project to date. From the early UN administration of Kosovo until the end of 'supervised independence' in 2012, various international organisations played a critical role in shaping the post-war polity. Throughout this engagement, the international community was driven by normative commitments to multi-ethnicity. However, while international organisations were committed to making Kosovo 'multi-ethnic', lack of clarity prevailed about what this goal entailed, or why it was so important. The thesis seeks to answer two inter-related questions: what was meant by multi-ethnicity on the part of its proponents, and what explains the prominence of commitments to this idea. Taking the form of three sections, the thesis examines these commitments' origins, manifestations, and explanations. International normative commitments to multi-ethnicity are found to originate in a shifting conception of the relationship between ethnic diversity and legitimate statehood during the twentieth century. Their manifestations in Kosovo are studied in three policy domains: the return of displaced persons, decentralisation of government to the local level, and minority rights. The thesis finds that international efforts in the pursuit of multi-ethnicity in Kosovo exhibited conflicting notions of multi-ethnicity, which shifted from integrationist ambitions to notions that reconciled the reality of segregation between ethnic groups on the ground through a 'politics of recognition'. The goal of multi-ethnicity remained, but was transformed. Explanations for the commitments to multi-ethnicity are found in both normative and consequentialist considerations, by uncovering unspoken underlying assumptions, and in the identity and self-image concerns of international actors. These findings indicate the power of the normative environment in shaping the actions of international organisations and provide insights into the thus far under-theorised normative dimension of the international state-building project in Kosovo.

This dissertation follows an interdisciplinary approach that weaves practice and theory in the disciplines of visual communication, semiotics, cultural studies, linguistics, and new media art. The research methodology is practice-based located within a historical and contemporary context that allows for artistic experimentation and new knowledge to be generated through reflected creative practice This research proposes a context within which society can develop a transcultural means of communication with the objective of gaining completely unambiguous forms of understanding. This research explores the possibility of an open source scaffold for pictorial language that fosters self-enhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. The dissertation explores research strategies and visual practice in relationship to a proposed global use of a common system of visual semantic decoding that would allow for visual synthesis by individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is proposed that a shared collective knowledge of signs, symbols, and pictographs, supported by the advancement of future communication and information systems, can lead to a visual communication system that will be universally accepted. There is a historic, on-going and collective consensus on the need for a universal language in the near-future posthuman condition. In answer to this need, this dissertation contextualises and goes on to explore a realised case study of a practice-based solution for a universal pictorial communication system. The system may at times seem ambitious and abstract, however, it aims to include all cultures of the world, seeking to establish a direction that identifies and locates cultural similarities over cultural difference. This practice-based enquiry proposes a direction that should maintain coherence, logic, and veracity in order to develop a pictographic communication system that is a valid representation of the human experience in a posthuman condition.

This thesis investigates the negotiated interpretations of “self” amongst 2nd generation Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch-Turkish individuals. It thus enhances our understanding of a national identity that is both cohesive as well as susceptible to the multicultural dimensions the modern nation-state inhabits. As part of a theoretical evaluation of multiculturalism, the focus is on the relationship between nationalism and multiculturalism, and between acknowledging the civic and ethnic dimensions that embody and unite the national “self”. The thesis unpicks how and in which ways these elements influence the accommodation, the respect and inclusion of the ethno-culturally diverse “other”. Multiculturalism theory tends to overlook this important symbiosis which might explain the current, widespread public and political stance that no longer regards multiculturalism as a viable, sustainable approach to diversity. The Netherlands is an interesting case study not least because it was portrayed as the multicultural example and yet illuminates a gradual, yet devastating and definite abandonment of multiculturalism. This was symbolized by the assassination of film maker and Islam critic Theo van Gogh whose murderer, a young, educated, Dutch-Moroccan man, claimed to have killed in the name of Islam. The main analysis involves data from thirteen interviewees conducted with seven Dutch- Moroccans and six Dutch-Turks. Such 2nd generation migrants have seen their “Dutchness” contested and/or questioned despite the fact that their upbringing, education and daily life has largely occurred in the Netherlands. Other forms of data collection include a small scale online survey, a pilot participant observation session, and conducted interviews with experts of relevant organisations. This hybrid mélange of data illuminates methodological issues of researching a target group that is highly “researched”. The thesis commences with a contextual chapter that illuminates changing (inter)national public and political discourse on integration and offers a critical overview of Dutch immigration and integration policies (chapter 4). The Dutch approach of “pillarized multiculturalism” illuminates a key flaw in the practical implementation of multiculturalism where the focus on bonding rather than bridging accentuated a rigidified, “pillarized” segmentation of cultural difference according to social categories rather than individual integrity. As a consequence of these policies, an embedded notion of categorical “differentness” is sustained, and is reflected in Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch-Turkish individuals’ identification processes of “self”. In this regard, the role of culture is highlighted in two distinct ways that acts a) as a tool that serves Dutch-Moroccans and Dutch-Turks to negotiate an individualistic, civic, inclusive “Dutchness” as part of their religious and ethno-cultural affiliations and b) as an essentialist force that embodies a “culturalist” Dutch identity that is ethno-ancestrally exclusive (Chapter 5, 6 and 7). The thesis thus demonstrates the civic-ethnic dialectic inherent in national identity. This dialectic, comprising dilemmas of exclusion and inclusion and boundaries between majority and minority cultures, can shape a better understanding of a national membership that induces both national cohesion as well as accommodates multicultural diversity.

By focusing on women’s lived experiences of family abuse, this thesis argues that state policy shows a lack of understanding of the nature of family abuse in one of Scotland’s largest minority communities: South Asian Muslims. Through a combination of a critical exploration of mainstream conceptualisations of domestic abuse, empirical research and policy analysis, I argue that by focusing on one-dimensional explanations such as gender and culture, state policy and some research evade the more practical and structural issues that operate against women. By adopting an intersectional approach, I focus on the complex interplay between factors such as socio-economic status and structural inequalities at the micro- and macro-levels bound up with experiences of family abuse. Through in-depth interviews with South Asian Muslim women, this thesis highlights the specificity and complexity of South Asian Muslim women’s experiences of family abuse within the home, framed through the impact of kinship structures and immigration status. Furthermore, my focus on the macro- as well as the micro-level brings to light structural inequalities and harmful policies, such as immigration rules, that act as additional constraints on women in abusive relationships. This thesis then examines women’s strategies and choices within abusive relationships by exploring the relationship between agency and oppression. I identify a crucial point: access to resources, such as economic support, ultimately shapes women’s strategies, including if, when and how to exit. I do not posit an overarching theory to explain family abuse, nor do I offer one key solution to the problem. I do, however, argue for nuanced and sensitive policymaking not only for South Asian women, but for all marginalised women, By underlining the specific experiences of one group of women I emphasis that needs are likely to differ in other groups of women.

This thesis is centred on exploring the identity options and orientations of young British Indians, from Sikh and Hindu backgrounds, who are British born and living in the London area. Recent socio-political debates have assumed a lack of Britishness amongst these young people, an assumption that is rooted in the belief that high bonding capital within ethnic minorities has led to a lack of bridging capital. This thesis argues that such statements are an essentialisation of the reality of these young people. In fact, their sources of belonging are far more complex, and far less threatening than we may be led to believe. Through the utilisation of eighty in-depth interviews, this thesis presents the intricate social worlds of these young people and the range of orientations (positive and negative) they feel towards component parts of their social worlds, as well as examining the strength and permeability of boundaries that demarcate these social worlds. The final substantive chapter deals with Britishness, and uncovers and presents the different perceptions and understandings that these young people have about British national identity and the ways in which it is accommodated (or not) alongside other important sources of belonging. It is found that a multi-dimensional approach to identity and belonging is best suited to understand the diverse and highly individualistic trajectories of these young people and that 'diverse-dual identities' are the most common pattern of belonging in this particular empirical case. This thesis make a significant contribution to the existing theoretical frameworks on identity and assimilation as well as the current socio-political debates on Britishness and the cultural integration of ethnic minorities in Britain, by presenting data on an under-researched group, British Indians, and highlighting the range of experiences within this group and the sources of this diversity.

Previous scholarship has highlighted the validity and reliability of a bidimensional acculturation model for migrants, allowing for simultaneous endorsement of one’s heritage and national culture. So far, however, no empirical research has explored whether the bidimensional acculturation model can be extended from migrants to members of the mainstream society (i.e., locals). Thus, the broad aims of this dissertation were threefold: (a) to validate a new framework, termed the Extended Acculturation Model for Locals (EAML), which consists of two dimensions (i.e., national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation), and (b) to examine the outcomes as well as (c) antecedents of these dimensions. In this dissertation, the General Introduction outlines the growth of multiculturalism across societies, followed by a review of existing acculturation research on migrants and the analogous work on locals. It is noted that migrants’ acculturation process implies individual-level changes, whilst locals’ acculturation process implies attitudes and behaviours which hinder or foster migrants’ individual-level changes. The Study Overview outlines the dimensionality of locals’ acculturation process, their adjustment outcomes and antecedents. Using a modified Vancouver Index of Acculturation (Multi-VIA), Study 1 found support for a bidimensional acculturation model for locals consisting of two reliable and valid subscales indicating national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation. Study 2 buttresses the validity and reliability of the Multi-VIA across cultures as well as demonstrates the ability of national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation to predict locals’ sociocultural and psychological adjustment outcomes. Study 3 explains why the correlation between locals’ national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation is either orthogonal or positive oblique; more specifically, the correlation is moderated by locals’ degree of multicultural exposure, their likeliness to compartmentalize or blend their multicultural identity as well as through high or low self-construal endorsement. Study 4 demonstrates that national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation predict local employees’ organizational behaviour in multinational corporations. Study 5 revealed that cultural values endorsed at the individual-level predicted locals’ national culture maintenance and multicultural adaptation. Moreover, these individual-level value-outcome associations were moderated by compatible societal-level pro-diversity messages. The General Discussion reviews all of the study findings as well as discusses their implications. The General Limitations and Future Directions describes the theoretical and methodological shortcomings of the Extended Acculturation Model for Locals whilst setting future directions for research. Last, the Final Remarks stresses the overall strengths of the present dissertation – that is, it fills the present research gap on locals’ acculturation towards multiculturalism, and in turn, provides a new route towards harmonious intergroup relations and social cohesion in mixing societies.

Since the conflicts in the Gulf and Bosnia in the 1990s, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7/7, a large sociological and political literature on British Muslims has appeared. It is often a contention of these works that Muslims in Britain did not identify, and were not seen in terms of, their religion prior to the time of the Rushdie affair. This thesis contends that, contrary to these arguments, religion has been a significant referent for the claims-making of Muslim communities in England since essentially the time that those communities settled (the early 1960s). This is demonstrated through the consideration of Muslim claims-making and elite practice and policy in a number of thematic areas, including education, employment, social services, and party politics. Building on these insights, it is suggested that such misconceptions about English Muslim social and political mobilisations are attributable to the absence of an historical perspective upon British multiculturalism. This thesis, particularly in two concluding chapters, attempts to correct this absence, offering a broader consideration of British multiculturalism in the studied period. It suggests that – rather than a relatively coherent ideology or policy approach – British multiculturalism has been an institution, produced in an ad hoc manner through the largely uncoordinated actions of a large number of actors, often lacking shared aims, at both local and national level. Although subject to changes over time, this institution has observed a number of consistent ‘rules’ in the form of concepts shared by actors involved in it (such as the ‘ethnic group, ‘community leadership’ and ‘special needs’). Finally, it is suggested that multiculturalism in Britain has endured primarily due to a process of ‘path dependence’ through which many actors have ‘learned’ how to operate within the rules of the institution, and may owe their existence of prestige to it.

This thesis examines the role of the modern democratic state as a sponsor of literature in the English-speaking world between 1945 and 2000. Working with, and modifying, Bourdieu's conception of the literary field, it considers the often paradoxical consequences of the state's shift from censor to guarantor in this period. Granting 'official autonomy' in this way had numerous unexpected and often fraught effects on the writers, readers and institutions that shaped the literary field. To keep this large subject firmly based on available historical evidence, this thesis considers a series of distinct 'moments' of state intervention through detailed case studies of three specific institutions: the international Congress for Cultural Freedom (1960-1968), the Arts Council of Great Britain (1960-1990), and the private examination boards that implemented the National Curriculum in the UK (1989-2000). In each case, it shows how these different but related moments, and the larger diachronic narrative of which they form a part, take place against a backdrop of interlinking historical and socio-political transformations, including the Cold War, decolonisation and multiculturalism. Drawing on evidence in literary and other public archives, the thesis not only brings into view questions about the public status of literature in recent history, it shows how an understanding of the state's role enables us to think differently about the cultural consequences of modern democratic liberalism. The methodological emphasis it places on institutions challenges critical and popular orthodoxies, associated chiefly with the liberal tradition, which conventionally set the overbearingly powerful and monolithic state against the inescapably vulnerable but also courageous individual. The alternative picture that emerges reveals a world in which the actions of various individuals can be understood partly via the institutional roles they perform, and institutions operate as sites that negotiate competing ideas of literature and literariness, and implement state power in variegated, diffuse and contested ways. Each of the case studies provides a different, though comparable, perspective on this larger picture. As such, the thesis opens up a nuanced way of analysing the interventions of writers, critics and reading communities, while also offering a differentiated approach to understanding the state and its evolution.

Against the backdrop that multiculturalism has failed in Western Europe, this thesis argues that minority rights standards should be applied to Western European Muslims. Western European States have consistently excluded Muslims from minority rights protection under international law on the basis that they constitute 'new minorities'. However, this thesis asserts that the justifications given by States for the exclusion of Western European Muslims from minority rights protection no longer hold true and have the potential to undermine the object and purpose of the minority rights regime – security and justice. Furthermore, by considering the content of both generally applicable human rights standards and minority rights standards in the light of the situation and specific claims made by Muslim minorities in Western Europe, in relation to the preservation of their identity, this thesis proves that there is an added-value to minority rights protection for these communities. Minority rights standards and multiculturalist policies adopt a similar approach to the accommodation of societal diversity. Thus, given the exclusion of Western European Muslims from the additional protection offered by minority rights standards, this thesis submits that multiculturalist approaches to the accommodation of European Muslims have not failed; insufficient measures have been adopted to ensure their success. If a multiculturalist approach to the accommodation of diversity is to be pursued in Western Europe, States must allow Muslim minorities to benefit from the protection available under minority rights standards.

Korea became a multicultural society through the influx of foreigners: migrant workers, international married couples, foreign students, and naturalized citizens. This social change challenges Korean churches to reflect on their mission styles and theology. The theology of the welcomed stranger is a theological response to the Korean context, requiring a profound understanding of globalization and migration. It focuses mainly on the lives of migrant workers in Korea and suggests a model of settlement for both Koreans and migrant workers for peaceful living while exploring a community of toleration, friendship, and harmony for co-existence and emphasizing social justice for the poor and marginalized. Interfaith dialogue between Korean churches and migrant workers is also an important facet of this theology. The introduction outlines my personal life story in relation to Minjung theology and the theology of the wanderer as preconditions to the theology of the welcomed stranger. Chapter One explains the theological responses to globalization and the context of globalization and migration while researching the role of international economic institutions and international laws for migrant workers and their families. Chapter Two explores the situation of migrant workers in Korea, especially women, while highlighting the work of Korean NGOs working for migrant workers and showing the viewpoints of NGO staff on globalization. Chapter Three reflects on Minjung theology and suggests its new responsibility in the era of globalization. Chapter Four considers the theology of the wanderer, comparing it with Minjung theology. Chapter Five outlines the theology of the welcomed stranger and argues for the virtue of a multicultural society, challenging Korean churches to understand the social reality of migrant workers and accepting them as “welcomed stranger.” Chapter Six emphasizes interfaith dialogue and relations between Korean churches and migrant workers, examining the religious context of Korea and the historical background of the Korean church. This chapter also provides the viewpoints of NGO staff in Korea on interfaith dialogue, supporting Korean churches and migrant workers to work together for the realization of a “basic human community,” which I understand as a response to the idea of the kingdom of God.

This thesis examines the performance of Indian classical dance in the contemporary 'diaspora space' (Brah 1996) represented by the city of London. My aim is to analyse whether and how performances of "national" art, assumed to represent an equally "national" culture, change when performed in transnational contexts. Drawing upon theories of postcolonialism, multiculturalism and diaspora, I begin my study with an historical analysis of the reconstructed origins of the dance in the intertwined discourses of British colonialism and Indian nationalism. Using this analysis to ground my ethnography of the present-day practice of the dance, I unearth its relation to discourses of contemporary multiculturalism and South Asian diasporic identity. I then demonstrate specific ways in which the relationship between colonial and postcolonial artistic production on the one hand and contemporary performances of national and multicultural identity on the other are visible in the current practices and approaches of diasporic and multicultural Indian classical dancers. My thesis advances the scholarship that has demonstrated the link between the construction of Indian classical dance and the Indian nationalist movement by highlighting particular ways in which historical narrative, national and religious identities, gendered ideals and racialised categories are constituted through, and help produce in turn, contemporary Indian classical dance practices in the diaspora. Locating my study in the UK while still accounting for the Indian nationalist aspects of the dance, my contribution to the scholarly literature is to analyse its performance in relation to both Indian and British national identity. My research demonstrates that Indian classical dance is co-produced by both British and Indian national discourses and their respective cultural and political imperatives, even as the dance contributes to the formation of British, Indian and South Asian diasporic politico-cultural identities.

The past four decades have witnessed a tremendous amount of change and development in the area of British Muslim identity politics. From the establishment and growth of local and regional community groups, to international Islamic movements taking root in the VK and making an impact on the attitudes and aspirations Muslim communities. From the Rushdie affair and its legacy, through to the impact of international terrorism (9/ 11), and terrorism on home soil (J /7), all of these events have left their unmistakeable mark on Britain's Muslim communities. While there has been much recent academic study on British Muslims, there has been a lack of in-depth focus given to critically charting the development of a formal identity politics through official representative organisations, in the context of the rationale for claims that have been put fOlward towards government, their evolution and refinement over time and the impact of factors such as multiculturalism, Islamophobia and securitisation. With this thesis, I aim to contribute towards filling this gap in the literature. I first examine how formal Muslim identity politics 'scene' developed into the current familiar form. I look at some of the theory that has been used both to explain and to justify it. This includes examining aspects of British culture, and that of immigrant Muslim communities, which have informed and complicated approaches to engagement and dialogue at one and the same time. It also involves looking at notions of equality as recognition, and the idea of misrecognition. I propose that ever since the Rushdie affair of 1989, political claims put forward by Muslim organisations have been driven by the existence of an 'equality gap', and a keen desire to close this gap has informed and motivated their identity politics. Freedom of expression is a theme of particular interest. In the form of the Rushdie affair, it was a major trigger for the coming together of disparate Muslim groups to collectively engage with the govermnent. Since then it has consistently been a site of much sensitivity, contention and debate. Deploying examples relating to freedom of expression, I illustrate how Muslim identity politics has evolved over the years and how priorities as well as tactics for Muslim groups and successive governments with whom they have engaged have both shifted and changed. Comparing and contrasting Muslim identity politics with the experiences of Britain's Jewish communities, I draw out salient points of commonality and difference in their respective communal organisations. By pointing out how similar Muslim claims towards government have been to those made by Jews in the past, I show not only how Muslim identity politics has comciously benefited from the prior experiences of Bricish Jewry, but, importantly, that Muslim political claims are not as exceptional or unreasonable as critics might suggest. Finally, r take stock of how British Muslim identity politics has progressed over this period, assessing the extent to which the 'equality gap' has been closed. I argue that while it has been considerably narrow, the events of recent decades have led to a change in its focus. I present projections and recommendations on the future of Muslim identity policies in the VK. I argue that whereas in the past period, Muslim organisations were overwhelmingly preoccupied with lobbying of the state, the future of identity politics lies in harnessing the potential of civic partnerships based on shared interests between diverse communities. Tlus approach, when supplemented with the traditional lobbying role played by representative groups, can more effectively address the 'equality gap'.

This PhD in Creative Writing consists of three parts. The first part is a full-length novel, approximately 80K words, entitled Pure Mafia. It is a drama about child labour and the Pakistani “carpet mafia”. This is intertwined with the story of an unhappily married man undergoing a midlife crisis who has an affair with a younger woman; the latter is instrumental to the main plot about child labour. The book’s second main theme is British Pakistanis. An overarching theme is abuse and exploitation, both personal and global, but ultimately of redemption and renewal. The story is set in 2010/2011, mainly in London, England, with a middle section in Lahore, Pakistan. The second part is an academic thesis, approximately 20K words, entitled Cheap Labour = Child Labour, on the main theme of the novel, child labour. It attempts to show that child labour is an inevitable consequence of cheap labour generally, and that the only way to tackle child labour is to address cheap labour. The thesis has been consciously and deliberately written as an objective, third person, standalone document and for this reason does not mention the novel. It is partly designed to fulfil the general PhD criterion of demonstrating scholarship and research. The third part is a subjective, first person critical commentary, approximately 15K words, on the writing of the novel and the thesis, the connection between them, and the research context; it is entitled Pure Mafia: A critical commentary. It explains why the main thesis is on child labour, rather than on the creative process or an English Literature thesis; however, the commentary does include in some detail an insight into the creative process, as well as a discussion of influences and tradition of writing. The final section of the commentary summarises this entire PhD’s original contribution to knowledge.

Focusing on Mirpuris and music in Bradford, this doctoral thesis offers an ethnomusicological dimension to continuing debates on multiculturalism in Britain, within the fields of anthropology, sociology and political science. I engage ethnographically with three spaces of Mirpuri music making – the mehfil, the street, and the festival – in order to develop a ground-level perspective on what it means to live in an increasingly diverse society. By paying close attention to intra-communal generational discourses and practices of music, a synchronic picture of multiculturalism is developed that takes into account local, national and transnational histories. I argue that discursive senses of belonging, articulated through and by music, offer alternative and more broadly inclusive insights into what it means to migrate to Britain, what it means to be born in Britain, and, ultimately, what it means to ‘be’ British. Drawing on theories of multiculturalism, music and migration, nationalism and segregation, my broad argument is that an ethnographic map of Mirpuri music making in Bradford provides a more contemporarily relevant picture of multicultural society than one drawn along racial, or religious, lines alone.

This thesis examines the Indian system of personal laws (‘the PLS’), under which the state applies a version of religious doctrine to the family matters of citizens whom it identifies as belonging to different religious groups. There has been a lengthy and persistent debate over the PLS, particularly in relation to its discriminatory effects upon women. However, another problem with the PLS has been little commented-upon. Supporters of the PLS emphasise its positive impact on religious freedom to such an extent that there is a pervasive assumption that the PLS is, indeed, good for religious freedom. But there has been surprisingly little critical assessment of the truth of this claim in either academic or political debates. This thesis, a work of applied normative legal theory, attempts to fill this important gap in the literature on the PLS. The thesis addresses the question of how the PLS affects one conception of religious freedom, namely religious autonomy. Its principal findings are that the PLS interferes with the religious autonomy of those subject to it by affecting their religious options (by interfering with their freedom from religion and their freedom to practice religion) and by harming their self-respect (by discriminating on the grounds of sex and religion, and by misrecognising their religious identities). Furthermore, the thesis finds that the PLS cannot be defended in the name of religious autonomy based on the possibility of exit from the system, the advantage of having the ‘option of personal law’, the power it gives people to bind their future selves, the expressive potential of the personal laws, the contribution it makes to membership in a religious community, the contribution it makes to religious group autonomy, or the recognition or validation it provides for religious identities. These conclusions imply that concerns relating to religious autonomy constitute an important set of objections to the PLS. The thesis then considers several reform proposals, including certain modifications of the PLS, a move towards a millet system, ‘internal’ reform of individual personal laws and the introduction of a Uniform Civil Code. It particularly focusses on one reform possibility – religious alternative dispute resolution – which has not been considered closely in the Indian context.

Despite its imprecision, social capital is a powerful tool for examining how and why particular forms of social interaction lead to the health and well-being of communities, organisations, and even businesses. Community cohesion as a policy prescription emerged in the UK, following the social disturbances in certain northern cities and towns in the summer of 2001. The official reports into these disturbances identified lack of social interaction between different ethnic groups as a principal cause. Furthermore, social housing was seen as a key factor that could be used to prevent future disturbances. Accordingly, this research focuses on how the assets and forms of social capital act as good predictors of community cohesion, in the context of the New Labour government's aim to use social housing to build cohesive communities. Unless otherwise specified, references to 'the government' throughout this thesis apply to the New Labour administration that came to power in the UK on 2nd May 1997 and ended with the Coalition administration led by the Conservatives on 11th May 2010. This thesis makes use of the linearity between the goals of social capital and the policy aims of community cohesion to match forms of social capital to specific forms of social interaction, in six selected social housing schemes in Bradford. Bradford was one of the cities affected by the disturbances in 2001. Analysis of the forms of social interaction in the case study housing schemes shows that bridging and linking forms of social capital, which could lead to enduring cohesive communities, were mainly latent in the schemes. This suggests that the peaceful co-existence in the case study housing schemes today is, possibly, postponed social conflict in the long term.