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This thesis aims to advance the study of linguistic justice as a variable in public policy and contribute to the development of fair and efficient language policy and planning (LPP). Hence, the focus of the present work lies in the role of the state and creates indicators to evaluate language policy and guide a state's choices under the premise that language policy follows the same rules as any other public policy. The thesis presents an indicator to evaluate linguistic justice. To realize such an instrument, first, it addresses questions of theory and methods. In particular, it formulates an operational definition of linguistic justice suitable to be transposed into instruments for measurement. Secondly, it proposes a set of indicators to analyze and compare the strategies of language policies and planning of different jurisdictions. The field of linguistic justice is fairly new and highly interdisciplinary. Therefore, this thesis applies an interdisciplinary approach to answer the research questions, using methods from normative political theory, welfare economics, and public policy analysis. While addressing the theoretical issues around linguistic justice, this thesis employs concepts from the capability approach. Within this study, linguistic justice is conceptualized as the condition that allows the enjoyment of as many language-based capabilities as possible, where language-based capabilities are those beings and doings that necessarily need language to be enjoyed. In order to select the most relevant language-based capabilities to represent the most fundamental public goods and services, this thesis has applied the Constitutional Approach. Derived from the capabilities' tradition, this method of capability selection looks at the constitutions of a sample of countries to identify the most important beings and doings that the people have decided to codify within the document. This approach is used to select a list of fundamental capabilities that absolutely need a common language between the state and its people. The language-based capabilities identified are assigned a statistical indicator,cwhich responds to a series of criteria, such as accessibility of data and simple computations, to make it an effective yet quick index to populate. Each indicator is populated for the different linguistic groups living in a given jurisdiction, including autochthonous and allochthonous minorities - even though the computation is slightly different according to the identity claims specific to the autochthonous minority. The values of the different indicators are finally aggregated through arithmetic mean, resulting in a unique number that represents the Multidimensional Index of Linguistic Justice for a given jurisdiction. The results of different jurisdictions, or the same one over time, are represented visually through a variation of a box plot organized into four clusters according to the value of linguistic justice scored (low, medium-low, medium-high, high). The Multidimensional Index of Linguistic Justice is a tool designed for policymakers, civil servants, and academics. Like any other policy instrument, its main goal is to bring the attention of the political and scientific community to the issue of the management of linguistic diversity by comparing and commenting on the results of different jurisdictions.

Universal health care - understood as sufficient and equitable coverage, generosity (in the extent and quality of services) and financial protection for obtaining health services - has remained elusive in Latin America. Instead, segmentation has endured, despite recent unprecedented fiscal effort and coverage expansion to counter it. Moreover, dissatisfaction with poor quality services has escalated from more disadvantaged groups to the middle-classes, who perceive themselves as abandoned by social protection, thus having progressively turned towards private options. Latin American scholarship has broadly recognised the importance of middle-classes in pushing quality welfare provision and higher degrees of universalism. Furthermore, most recent contributions have benefited from the analytical framework of 'policy architectures' to explain the institutional drivers of universalism. Nevertheless, there is a clear lack of research considering the policy designs and middle-classes perceptions and practices in tandem, especially in the domain of health care. This thesis presents a cross-national study that examines how the policy architecture of health care conditions middle-classes' practices for meeting their health needs and how these practices contribute to the reproduction of segmented health care or advance universalism in three Latin American countries (i.e. Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay). The research involves drawing upon the critical realist ontological approach to understanding social processes, with a comparative case analysis design being adopted. Each case study examines the historical development of the health care policy; the current welfare regime, policy architecture and policy outputs as well as the middle-classes' perceptions of and practices regarding health care. The empirical analysis draws on government reports; memories and public accounts elaborated by governments and international organisations; interviews with policy-makers and scholars; and 54 semi-structured interviews with members of the middle-classes conducted between October 2017 and July 2018. It is concluded that the three countries studied have made progress towards universalism, especially regarding coverage. However, segmentation persists in Chile, generating equity gaps in generosity and financial protection. Segmentation also persists in Ecuador, especially with regard to the sufficiency and equity of generosity and financial protection. Meanwhile, Uruguay shows more significant advances, despite still having pending challenges. I argue that there are three key generative mechanisms that drive the relationship between the policy architectures, the middle-classes´ practices, and the policy outputs of health care in the three studied countries. First, the scope and mode of the market presence in health care provision; second, the presence/absence of a non-commodified alternative capable of providing sufficiently generous health services for the middle-classes; and finally, the effects of policy legacies on both the possibilities of policy reforms and day-to-day practices for health care.

BACKGROUND: Scotland has an ageing population, so an increasing responsibility for old age social care. Research elsewhere has demonstrated that several socio-demographic, geographical and health factors predict entry to a care home. Scotland has some key originalities, even compared to other UK countries. Thus, it was important to investigate the factors associated with using social care here. OBJECTIVES: This thesis used routinely collected administrative data to identify socio-demographic, self-rated health, geographical and household factors which were associated with institutional social care use in later life in Scotland. It aimed to investigate whether factors known to be associated with care use for older people through research elsewhere, were generalisable to Scotland. Additionally, it aimed to explore some factors which may not have been investigated elsewhere. METHODS: Linked administrative data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS), a 5.3% representative sample of the Scottish population (https://sls.lscs.ac.uk/) - provided a longitudinal dataset including people aged 65 years and older, who were still living at home. Information about socio-demographics, household members, informal care, geography and health were gathered from their census responses. Then care status - living in a nursing/care home or not - was determined from the next census. Logistic regression was used to model the associations of these factors with care outcome at follow-up. KEY FINDINGS: The analyses considered two time periods: 1991-2001 and 2001-2011. In the 1991-2001 sample, three lesser researched factors were found to be associated with care use - 1) living in a flat (1.21 (1.04, 1.41))*, 2) recent employment (0.66 (0.53, 0.80)), and 3) population density (Low density 9.71 (7.85, 12.03)); plus an interaction between population density and urban rural classification - with highest attributable risk in low-density city areas (12.83 (9.64, 17.07)). Additionally, patterns for living with different relatives originally found in a Northern Irish study were replicated, with living alone or with siblings associated with increased odds of being in care at follow-up. In the 2001-2011 sample, most associations were consistent, however, this was not the case for the area-based measures such as deprivation and measures of geography, which were no longer associated with care outcome. It was also possible to look at the association of receiving and providing informal care in this later sample, both of which were associated with care outcome (1.81(1.42, 2.29) and 0.70 (0.53, 0.91) respectively). Sex/gender differences were also evidenced for several factors. CONCLUSIONS: Administrative data were used to identify both lesser researched and known factors associated with institutional care use in Scotland, over two different time periods. The factors associated with being in a care home at follow-up in Scotland were broadly similar those evidenced by previous literature in other global-northern populations. The possible explanations for the differences between the samples, which evidence reduced spatial inequality in the later cohort, are discussed, such as the introduction of a new social care policy in 2002 and broader changes to the health and social care landscape in Scotland. Recommendations for future policy and practice are also considered. *(Odds Ratio (95% Confidence Interval)) Note: for the odds ratio the null value is 1. Source: SLS. The help provided by the staff of the Longitudinal Studies Centre - Scotland (LSCS) is acknowledged. The LSCS is supported by the ESRC/JISC, the Scottish Funding Council, the Chief Scientist's Office, and the Scottish Government. The authors alone are responsible for the interpretation of the data. Census output is Crown copyright and is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland.

During the past decade Greece has been experiencing a tremendous fiscal crisis. The recession ensued by the crisis along with the adopted austerity measures have dealt a severe blow not only to the basic, daily operations of Greek HE institutions but even to their very survival. Within this adverse financial context, a major framework act was passed (Law 4009/2011 "Structure, function, quality assurance of studies and internationalisation of institutions of higher education") with a view to address some of the deficiencies and challenges in the sector. The major changes that this law brought referred to a new governance and structure model and the reintroduction and strengthening of quality assurance procedures, with the aim to set the Greek higher educational agenda one step closer to the Bologna process and the European Union directives. Albeit being voted by a wide political margin in the Greek parliament the 2011 Law failed to be efficiently implemented within the specified time period. This failure can be attributed to the interweavement of various structural and political factors, such as the strong opposition by the academic community and the inconsistent political communication and amendments taking place after the 2011 Act's enactment. Consequently, these developments gave rise to a variety of new competing ideas and discourses about the character of higher education reform and its social and economic implications. This thesis critically explores the role and function of the competing discourses between the various political and public actors (politicians, academics, students, etc.) in the construction and (de-) legitimation of the Greek HE reforms during the financial crisis, from 2011 until 2014 focusing on the enactment of the 4009/2011 Law. The objectives of this study are (a) to explore how the political and public debate regarding the HE reforms that were introduced by the 4009/2011 Law in Greece has been developed in the light of the recent financial crisis; (b) how the debate has impacted on the construction and dissemination of the HE policies introduced by the 4009/2011 Law; and (c) to examine the co-articulation of the debate with the structural and contextual features that surround it. The research is rooted in a critical realist theoretical approach that acknowledges the co-articulation and interaction between policy, discourses and contextual/ structural factors. A qualitative approach was adopted, which involved the analysis of parliamentary policy speeches and face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with actors that have been specifically involved in the policy-making process of the 2011 reforms (i.e. rectors, academics, journalists, trade union members and politicians). The framework of Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDAF) was used for the analysis of the textual data. The analysis of the data revealed two overarching discourse themes: (a) University Governance and the issue of University Councils and (b) Quality Assurance and Internationalisation of Greek Higher Education. Overall, the thesis has identified a division between the ideas, imaginaries, goals and/or interests that underpin policy actors' discourses - which was discursively built upon a political and ideological polarisation. Two discursive coalitions thus emerged: those who support the 2011 reforms and those who oppose them. However, the new knowledge discovered through this research indicated the existence of moderate or even similar opinions - especially with regard to the implementation of quality assurance and accreditation processes. The external policy actors' influence (such as the EU and OECD) along with the pivotal historical moment of financial crisis have been crucial to building the common ground found in the actors' discourses. Overall, the commonly accepted imaginaries tend to be promoted by different coalitions in such a way that contribute to a hyperbolic account of the various differences that separate the political parties. This results in the misconception of having two distinct, polarised coalitions involved in the policy process. This has influenced the way policy problems have been defined as well as what solutions are being offered by the policy actors, creating more conflict and increasing ambiguity in regard to core issues such as the purpose of HE, its governance, academic freedom and the character of higher education degrees. This study provides novel insights about the discourse dynamics that take place within the Greek HE policy sphere. At the same time, it contributes to relevant literature through the adoption and use of a critical discursive approach to policy-making while at the same time providing a robust analysis of the interaction between policy discourses and contextual and structural factors (such as the financial crisis).

Case Management Systems (CMS) are a software tool which guides practitioners case work. The tools have evolved as the dominant method to ensure consistent, efficient, and accountable practice. Typically, CMS have been designed around a risk management agenda and to enforce standardisation in a bid to ensure quality practice. More recently the rate of adolescents entering the care system have grown rapidly and social work with the cohort is emerging as a specialist area of practice. The present thesis recognising that development of CMS has occurred within a socio-economic and political context of neoliberalism and the risk society, explores the previously unconsidered effects of CMS on social work practice and the potential influence this has on practitioners constructions of adolescents in care. Important findings indicate CMS can contribute indirectly and directly to how and when young people in care are observed by practitioners, creating cyclical events whereby negative behaviours and characteristics are amplified or constructed. Risk reduction oriented case management is shown to be in obvious tension with the unpredictability and relationship-oriented stage of adolescent development creating unfavourable conditions for how young people in care come to be perceived by their social workers. Four negative characteristics are identified as becoming commonly associated with young people through the mechanism of CMS and in the context of the present political and economic context of social work. The labels of risky, resistant and responsible are observed to emerge from the practice context facilitated by CMS and also label this cohort as harder to work with or representing increased workload. In summary the research addresses a gap in knowledge regarding the appropriateness of CMS as a tool guiding social workers work with adolescents and considers ways to inform future design and implementation of CMS in emerging specialism of social work with adolescents.

Since the fall of socialism in the 1990s, the Republic of Serbia has experienced the heightening of some complex demographic issues: an ageing population; "brain drains" of labour; and declining fertility rates, to name but a few. Declining fertility rates have been especially politicised in the last two decades, with the country's government administrations and political periphery seeking to resolve the so-called "low fertility problem" via (family and social) policymaking. Some of the political discourses surrounding the policymaking discuss the onset of a "white plague", claiming that the Serbian population is at risk of serious decline if fertility issues are not resolved promptly. To some extent these concerns are not wholly displaced: Serbia has been identified in the low fertility and demography literature as a "lowest-low fertility country" since 2000, with an average fertility rate of 1.4 births per woman - well below the recommended "replacement level" of 2.1 births per woman. Demographic data covering the period 2000-2019 from UNICEF's (United Nations Children's Funds) Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and the Serbian Office of Statistics also show an increasing number of Serbian adults experiencing general difficulties in their transitions into independent adulthood, as well as some adults delaying the entry into parenthood altogether. Throughout the 2010s and now into the 2020s, an array of representatives from different branches of government and political parties, on multiple occasions and in various public forums, have remarked on the broader socio-economic effects of these later parenthood and low fertility trends. The issues have been highly politicised. The thesis begins with this demographic and socio-economic background, within the context of pro-natalist policy making. It then moves to the core empirical study of the thesis: understanding contemporary microlevel behaviours and attitudes among Serbian adults of childbearing age. The methodology relies on a reflexive and constructivist grounded theory approach. For theory-building, the study uses the theoretical and sociological lens and language of the "traditional" low fertility literature and the Life Course Perspective. These are used to deconstruct and examine the pathways to parenthood among 23 Belgrade-dwelling married couples, aged 25-45, and with children. The data were gathered via semi-structured joint and individual interviews with the couples. The thesis asks of the data three overarching research questions: (1) How does a Serbian married couple reason, navigate, and negotiate their pathways towards parenthood on an interpersonal level? (2) What do their pathways look like? (3) And how are these pathways influenced by cultural, political, and social factors? Using the interview material gathered, the analysis traces the various "milestones" in the participants' pathways. The data are studied and presented using two qualitative text analysis methods: interpretative phenomenological analysis and (thematic) discourse analysis across the empirical chapters. The analyses show that, although the sequencing of important milestone moments may vary across individual life courses, there appear to be some key milestones that matter in the pathways to parenthood and may deserve more attention in Serbian social policymaking. Adults are enabled by conditions that allow two adults to form a couple and establish financial and housing independence and empower them to make choices that lead towards their preferred childbearing decisions. The findings show that, for couples who embarked on a pathway towards parenthood, there were interpersonal and structural conditions that helped form "positive" and empowering experiences. In particular, the findings show the following to hold true. Firstly, high-level agreement in the couple's dyadic decision-making, as well as the freedom to form decisions independently of a family of origin. Secondly, the couple's ability to rely on different forms of "capital" when negotiating their pathways within healthcare and children's education structures. Thirdly, good working relationships and mutual support between the couple's family of origin and family of procreation. And, fourthly, the perception and experience of a life balance within the household, especially for female participants. Finally, gender consistently came through as a key theme in the analysis and findings, reinforcing the idea that parenting is still guided by various social and cultural expectations, roles, and responsibilities around motherhood and fatherhood. Our findings identify women as "double agents", often needing to operate at the intersection of - sometimes competing - roles and responsibilities. In these arrangements, women are expecting (or expected) to fulfil a multitude of responsibilities and to undertake these in various spheres of their lives. This type of balancing can be grating on the life balance, with medium- and long-term implications for families. Our findings look to highlight the importance of further expanding Serbia's social policies to truly capture the gender asymmetry we, and others, have identified as existing in the spheres of parenting, work, and home. While some of the pro-natalist policies have been effective in their aims, across the board conditions for mothers are lacking in support. We conclude that Serbian fertility rates will remain at lowest-low and low levels if women continue to experience unequal burdens in their many life spheres. Remedying the gender asymmetry, we argue, will support healthy motherhood, and contribute towards improved life conditions for Serbian women and, consequently, their families.

This dissertation contributes to the literature on the politics of social assistance in Emerging Market Economies. It builds upon existing theoretical frameworks across several academic fields and offers empirical evidence on the influence of politics in the expansion and distribution of social assistance programs. Paper 1 provides a novel contribution to existing political explanations of social assistance expansion by theorizing and testing how electoral competition and contentious politics mediate each other's effect on social assistance spending on a global scale. The analysis finds this election-contention-nexus to influence social assistance spending in Middle-income countries in particular. Paper 2 offers a longitudinal analysis of the influence of the interaction of protests and electoral competition on social assistance in Turkey to uncover how the election-contention-nexus plays out at the national level. In addition, due to the available micro-data, it assesses the targeting of programs to characterize who receives benefits as a response to political factors. The results suggest that this co-occurrence can lead to higher levels of coverage of social assistance benefits among the poor in Turkey. Paper 3 introduces a framework to examine differences in the distributional logic used by governments across different social assistance types to provide a systematic understanding of political distribution of benefits that goes beyond aggregate spending or single flagship programs. The results suggest that the main benefit types that are used for political purposes in Turkey are meager cash and in-kind benefits that I classify as poverty mitigating social assistance. Further, the type of challenging party is found to have differential effects on the distribution of social assistance programs. Lastly, Paper 4 examines the role of federal politics in India to explain stark differences in unmet demand for the world's largest public works program. It finds that state-level party strategy and party alignment across levels of government are important factors that can explain unmet demand in the program. Further, it highlights that one benefit can be utilized by many political actors across levels of governments for different purposes. Surprisingly, district-level economic or political dynamics are not found to influence rationing rates of the public works program.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is frequently used as a proxy for well-being. Such use of GDP is problematic for many reasons, for GDP excludes activities that contribute to well-being and includes others that have a negative impact instead. A vast array of metrics has therefore been developed that aim to complement or replace it and put well-being at the heart of policymaking. Nonetheless, previous research has shown that their use and impact has been limited to date. This thesis examines the use and impact of well-being metrics and the factors affecting them in the crucial cases of Scotland and Italy. Despite being at the forefront of the well-being debate, both countries have never been studied before in the context in question. This thesis fills this gap, collating views from 120 stakeholders on different facets of the well-being debate gathered through interviews that were conducted between 2018 and 2020. Of uttermost importance was the study of informants' awareness of problems and solutions and the extent to which these were regarded as such, problem and solution awareness and recognition being the founding pillars of a theory of policy change that I developed drawing on Kingdon's Multiple Stream Approach. Furthermore, this thesis provides an extended analysis of the use of well-being metrics in parliamentary debates and media reporting in both countries before and during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the first of its kind to be undertaken. The research was conducted using the archives made available by TheyWorkForYou and the Italian Parliament as far as the study of parliamentary debates is concerned, and Factiva and TVEyes as far as newspaper and radio and TV coverage are concerned, employing advanced search strings and a robust methodology aimed to reduce the number of duplicates and potentially irrelevant hits returned. Findings reveal low awareness of well-being metrics and of GDP's limitations, especially among policymakers and journalists; a prevailing view of economic growth as a prerequisite for well-being which translates into the preference for GDP to be integrated with other metrics rather than replaced altogether and which results in economic crises generating punctuations that strengthen the status quo and hinder attempts to bring about change; and an almost unanimous scepticism of subjective indicators. Most importantly, findings reveal very limited use and impact of well-being metrics, particularly of official national frameworks, in line with what the theory of policy change that I developed would predict. Ten recommendations are made to increase the use and impact of well-being metrics in both countries, among which is the need to put more effort into promoting the well-being agenda when the economy is expanding as opposed to periods in which economic growth is lacking and to divert resources to awareness campaigns that enhance the use and impact of already existing metrics rather than to the development of new metrics altogether.

Almost 30% of all deaths in England are now of care home residents, with care homes predicted to become the most common place-of-death in England by 2040. However, end-of-life care (EOLC) in care homes is often reported as suboptimal. In the first in-depth and wide-ranging study on the topic in nearly 20 years, this thesis examines the management of residents' dying in and by English care homes. Applying a mixed-methods design, the thesis is based on secondary quantitative analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), ethnographic fieldwork in five residential and nursing care homes in the South-West of England, and recorded interviews with 25 staff members. Building on Marxist-feminist social reproduction theory and Foucault's biopolitics, the thesis conceptualises issues of paid care work, the predictability of resident's dying, the governance of EOLC, and the good death in the care home context. The thesis argues that care work in care homes is shaped by the governance priorities to keep residents on the care home's premises (custodial), keep them alive (medico-legal), and achieve both while curtailing costs to NHS England and care home providers (economic). These priorities reduce care work to bodily care, extend residents' dying trajectories, and construct the good and natural death in care homes as the regulations-compliant death. The unpredictability of residents' deaths is the result of both residents' underlying conditions and the over-extension of their dying trajectories by the health and social care provided by carers, senior staff and GPs. The thesis concludes by arguing that the devaluation of the non-instrumental aspects of carers' emotional work marginalises existential questions about residents' desires to live or die and the loss of their capacity to act as persons. The devaluation of the non-instrumental aspects of emotional care work mirrors the devaluation of social reproduction work in English society. It further constrains carers' ability to treat residents as people with emotions and desires about the way they die as opposed to the mere recipients of bed and body care/work aimed at the realisation of regulations-compliant deaths.

Current literature suggests that poverty is an affront to a person's dignity. Yet, there is limited research that explores the lived experiences of dignity (or its absence), for people in poverty. This research addresses this gap through a qualitative case study of people in poverty in a city in Punjab in India. Focus group discussions and interviews were conducted, in order to understand what the everyday existence of dignity looked like. The doctoral thesis shows that in people's experiences, respect, recognition, worth, value and honour (attributional values) overlap in a manner that manifests dignity. The absence of dignity, however, makes itself visible through the loss of one's humanness, i.e. the ability to live a life that is considered to be worth living, for a human being. The thesis also argues that dignity in experience is a result of how people perceive themselves to be, how they perceive others' perceptions of them and how others conveyed those perceptions (through verbal and non-verbal cues such as treatment accorded). This process of perception is a result of the three facets of who people are (identities), what people have (entitlements) and what people do (roles within settings). Who people are encompasses the individual self as well as the collective and relational self, thus bringing within its purview individual, relational, collective and social identities. For people in poverty in this study, individual identity is relational, and at times, ceases to exist, with collective identities subsuming the individual identity. As far as social identities are concerned, poverty becomes a primary identity, nuanced by caste and gender identities. Dignity tends to vary, with respect to different identities, and takes on the nature of the identity that is primary, at a particular point of time. For instance, if identity is relational, dignity also becomes embedded in relationships. What people have ties into the concept of entitlements, and highlights material resources, and the impact the actualisation of these resources can have for the dignity of people in poverty. Entitlements, in theory and practice, have been defined as legitimate claims against 'someone' (mostly the State, though public, civil and social entitlements can exist as well). However, this thesis furthers current theorisations of entitlements as though legitimate claims exist within people's narratives of dignity, but they are not necessarily made in relation to a particular institution. Furthermore, processes of realisation of entitlements are as important as entitlements themselves, for dignity, therefore, establishing hitherto lesser-known entitlement implications for dignity. What people do refers to the roles that people play, encompassing their responsibilities and duties, in various settings within the realms of family, community, society, market as well as the state. Within these realms, there is constant negotiation of dignity (making dignity dynamic), as people move between settings. Dignity is not only determined by what people do themselves, but also by what other people (through relationships) and institutions (interfacing) do. The construction of human dignity in lived experience is complex, diverse and multifaceted. Dignity of an individual could become subordinate to either the dignity of another individual, or to a relationship and dignity could also moves between different identities (without necessarily existing with respect to each one of them). Though the thesis affirms that the impact of poverty on dignity is by and large negative, it argues that the lives of people in poverty are not necessarily completely devoid of dignity. Thus, the thesis not only enriches the understanding of dignity, by concretising the concept through its linkages with attributional values, identity, entitlements and roles within settings, but also provides the experiences of dignity of people in poverty a place within poverty research.

This doctoral thesis contributes to research on over-time trends in the intergenerational transmission of inequality in two major European societies. Paper 1 entitled 'Intergenerational Class Mobility of Labour Market Entrants in Germany and the UK since the 1950s' shows that absolute mobility between parents' social class and their children's first social class has continuously changed. Still, increases in relative mobility rates have come to a halt for cohorts entering the labour market from the 1970s onwards in both countries. Paper 2 entitled 'Why do Trends in Social Fluidity at Labour Market Entry and Occupational Maturity Differ? Evidence from Germany and the UK' identifies increases in counter mobility as the main driver of observed divergence between trends in relative intergenerational social class mobility based on class destination measured at labour market entry and later career stages. It links the growth in counter mobility to compositional shifts in the origin distribution during the second half of the twentieth century. Paper 3 entitled 'The Effect of Social Benefit Reform on Educational Inequality' finds that children of parents receiving long-term unemployment assistance have a lower chance to attend the academic secondary school track compared to children of parents receiving no unemployment or social benefits after the 2005 Hartz reform in Germany. Besides changes in the socio-demographic characteristics of benefit recipients, this rise in educational inequality was mainly due to reductions in benefit levels. Paper 4 entitled 'Parental Employment and Children's Education in Historical Perspective' shows that parental employment conditions have increasingly become economically insecure for cohorts born since the mid-1980s in Germany. No weakening in the positive association between parental employment and children's education can however be observed.

The discourse of child participation stemming from the UNCRC has been criticised for adopting modernist ideas of personhood which over emphasise the child as an autonomous, independent individual, overlooking the importance of relationships and interdependence of actors. It is argued as a result, that much child participation falsely searches for ways to access the pure, inner, authentic, voice of the child, free from mediation by adults. So whilst voice is not synonymous with participation, a critical exploration of 'children's voice' which takes account of emerging relational conceptions of childhood and child participation is now necessary. This thesis builds on these recent criticisms of voice, positing that dominant models of child participation have implicitly assumed child to adult communication occurs monologicaly, as the transmission of information from child to an adult. I argue that transmission based notions of communication overlook the role context plays in the production of meaning, and the potentially polyphonic nature of communication. Using the epistemic perspective of dialogism, I develop a relational and intersubjective model of 'children's voice'. With this, I argue that 'children's voice' can be understood as an intersubjective act of knowledge creation, occurring between at least two intersectional dynamic standpoint-identities, and interrelated with mutual recognition and potentially occurring both within and across generational boundaries.

Lack of English language proficiency impedes access to the curriculum in UK schools. The objective of this thesis is to determine (a) the nature of the association between English language proficiency and educational outcomes, (b) its implications for policy (c) and the impact on students' life chances. Improved outcomes follow improved proficiency, to the extent that some English as additional language (EAL) students are among the top performers. However, the point where EAL shifts from disadvantage to advantage is unclear, and research on the topic more broadly across the UK is limited. Focusing on the city of Glasgow, with a bespoke dataset including a disaggregated measure of language proficiency, student background characteristics, years (2007-2016), and school characteristics, this thesis investigates in depth the relationships between English language proficiency and educational outcomes of 15-16 years-old students as well as their subsequent initial post-school destinations. This is accomplished in four empirical papers. Paper 1 investigates the association between language proficiency and educational performance using fixed effects regression models. Paper 2 explores differences between schools in that relationship via multilevel regression models. Paper 3 considers how consistent the association between proficiency and educational performance has been over time and the impact of a policy shift towards mainstreaming using multilevel difference-in-differences regression. Paper 4 assesses post-secondary school transitions within a multinomial regression framework. Each paper hypothesises an intermediate EAL level as the proficiency threshold at which those students match English as first language student outcomes. They confirm the association and hypothesised threshold. The first paper shows a positive association between higher language proficiency and attainment, which holds with a range of statistical control variables. The second paper identifies and highlights differences across schools, particularly in effectiveness for English language beginners, as well as finding an association between increased numbers of EAL students and worse outcomes for beginners. The third paper shows that those beginners may benefit from separate instruction. The fourth paper finds that a shift from further education to higher education as initial post-school outcome is associated with greater English language proficiency. This thesis contributes to scholarship by studying EAL in the distinctive Scottish context, adding to the very limited UK literature on educational performance incorporating various levels of English language proficiency rather than relying on a binary variable, exploring whether a language proficiency threshold in terms of that performance can be identified, and extending this analysis beyond schooling to encompass initial post-school destinations. By doing so it substantially adds to understanding of how lower levels of English language proficiency shape students' outcomes in Glasgow secondary schools, with relevance to policies and practices across the UK.

Section A: Presented here, is a systematic review of qualitative literature exploring people with learning disabilities' experiences of social inclusion and exclusion. A critical appraisal of the 15 included studies is discussed. The studies were synthesised using thematic synthesis. Two major analytic themes emerged: "Striving for an 'ordinary' life" and "Being denied an 'ordinary' life". Implications for service- and policy-level changes to alter approaches to promoting social inclusion and develop anti-stigma initiatives are made. Recommendations for future research include understanding social inclusion/exclusion following the Covid-19 pandemic and exploring experiences of personal finances and benefits. Section B: Presented here, is a study exploring the processes by which people with learning disabilities navigate the UK benefits system. Informed by a constructivist grounded theory methodology, the constructed model identifies 15 interacting categories organised within five concepts: "Being stigmatised and excluded in society", "The dependence trap", "Navigating the 'circles and roundabouts", "Feeling abused by the system" and "Responding to the system". Findings highlight the negative impacts of navigating the benefits system on people with learning disabilities' mental health, identity, and potential for independence. Implications for clinical practice and research are discussed.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the effect that the recent expansion of higher education has had on the role of inequality by social origins in attendance to this level in Latin America. To do so, the following 12 countries were included in the analyses: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Particular attention is paid on Chile, an adjudicative case within the region as this piece gradually reveals. The thesis is comprised of two main parts, with one of them dedicated to exploring the recent expansion and the effects of social origins on higher education at the regional level, and the other is dedicated to addressing the Chilean case in depth. In total, the piece is comprised of four empirical and two theoretical chapters, organised as follows. The first part of this thesis is composed of four chapters. The first chapter entitled "The recent expansion of higher education in Latin America" describes the general scenario and characteristics of the recent expansion of higher education in the region, which occurred in the last two decades in most of the country under study. In addition, the chapter presents the methodology used for all the empirics at the regional level, including data, sample, variables, and modelling strategy. The second chapter "The more ... the merrier in higher education?" examines whether the recent expansion has reduced the effect of social origins on attendance in higher education in Latin America. To do so, the chapter discusses the general perception, according to which the recent expansion has been a positive change - because "the more, the merrier" in higher education - as if expansion was sufficient to democratise access to this level by itself and by default. The third chapter "Does privatisation matter?" starts to unveil the role that institutional settings play in inequality in higher education. To do so, the chapter dedicates a section to developing a classification of models of expansion for Latin America, based upon the degree of privatisation and market-orientation in tertiary education. The fourth chapter "To what extent do countries differ?" continues to unveil the role of institutional settings, examining if there are any differences by country within a certain model of expansion. For the three models, cases that deviate from the group trends are identified, and for each of them the social dynamics behind their results are discussed. The second part of this thesis is dedicated to the case of Chile and is composed of two chapters. The fifth chapter is entitled "Expansion and student support policies in a context of high privatisation: The case of Chile" and details the expansion policies implemented in higher education in Chile after 2002, with particular emphasis on the student loan regimes. Chile is considered an adjudicative case in Latin America because the country has been able to combine trends related to different models of expansion, despite having one of the highest degrees of privatisation and market-orientation in education. The sixth chapter "Changing educational inequality in contemporary Chile?" draws on the particularities of the Chilean case, exploring to what extent the student loan policies implemented in the last decade have been effective in reducing inequality by social origins in higher education attendance between different social sectors. In addition, not only higher education attendance is addressed, but also access to different tiers and institutions. Through working with a different dataset, CASEN allows for the expansion of the comprehensive definition of social origins, increasing the number of indicators related to parental sociocultural and economic resources, providing more up-to-date estimates about their effect on contemporary educational stratification. The final part presents the conclusions, including policy implications and recommendations for further research, both at the regional level and for the case of Chile. The thesis, then, closes by reinforcing the role of institutional settings in tackling inequality by social origins in tertiary education and the limitations of the current policies at this level.

Adolescent-to-parent abuse is a harmful social problem that has received increasing academic and media attention over the past decade. Despite a number of high-quality studies from the UK and overseas drawing on parent and practitioner accounts, the voices of young people are relatively absent, with scant attention to how they perceive and experience this type of family abuse. This study represents the most in-depth examination of young people's accounts of violence and abuse towards parents to date, exploring the forms it takes, the people involved, its causes and contexts, and its impacts. It also generates new insights into how it might be prevented or addressed. This mixed methods study generated data from 221 self-report surveys on conflict behaviours, analysed descriptively, and 21 in-depth interviews, analysed using a thematic and discursive approach. Participants were aged 14 to 18 years attending a college in south-east England and a youth offending service in north-west England. This is the first UK parent abuse study to interview young people within an education and youth justice context and the first to use a self-report survey as a screening tool. Ten percent (10%) of the student sample met at least one of the devised parent abuse thresholds, with only 7% and 2% reporting a pattern of 'minor' or 'severe' physical aggression over the previous 12 months, respectively. Interviewees gave rich insight into the impact of their abuse, as well as the pathways through which it developed, including experiences of past and ongoing child abuse, domestic abuse and peer violence, as well as pre-existing behavioural difficulties. Importantly, the study developed an ecological framework for explaining how factors relating to stress and coping, trauma, emotion regulation, gender, and communication interacted to shape the dynamic. The gendered nature of both parenting and family violence resulted in mothers being the most likely victims, although the study was limited in its analysis of adolescent gender or violence towards fathers. As other studies suggest, aggression was described as being both reactive and instrumental, framed as a form of emotional release, a way of hurting or punishing mothers, gaining control over privileges, space and movement, expressing distress, and defending or retaliating. New insight revealed that some young people's accounts of their behaviour mirrored those of adult male domestic abuse perpetrators by justifying, minimising, and shifting blame. Practice recommendations include providing sustained keyworker support to improve adolescents' and mothers' well-being, parent-child communication, and address trauma. The ecological framework has potential to inform practice assessments and prevention/early intervention in schools and domestic abuse services.

This thesis moves beyond the limitations of the consumption measure, to exploring the merits of applying a multidimensional framework to the analysis of poverty within the developing world, using Indonesia as a case study. It confirms that how one defines, and measures poverty may significantly affect who and how many are identified as poor and argues for the crucial need for transparency and public discussion on the reasons behind the choices made within poverty measurement. In support of the above, three existing measures were first examined; i.e. the Consumption measure, the Global MPI and an existing nationally developed multidimensional measure, which I call the Adjusted MPI. Analysis was conducted using one wave of Indonesia's nationally representative National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas 2013). Weak overlap was found between these measures, indicating that firstly, using consumption as the sole indicator of poverty may not be enough and secondly, localised measures may be needed when measuring multidimensional poverty within a country as diverse as Indonesia. The above results in mind, this thesis proposed the use of the Delphi method to address the arbitrariness in the way existing multidimensional measures, including those examined above, selected their components; i.e. the dimensions, indicators and weights to include within measurement. The Delphi exercise was conducted with policy makers within one district in Indonesia, i.e. Bogor City, West Java. This exercise found consensus on the importance of five dimensions; i.e. (1) Education, (2) Employment and Assets, (3) Living Standards, (4) Health and Safety and (5) Child Health and Contraception, alongside eighteen indicators to proxy deprivation within these dimensions. Agreement was also achieved on a range of weights indicating the relative importance and possible trade-offs between each of these components. In order to determine the 'exact value' of these weights, opinion data resulting from the Delphi was analysed using an optimisation exercise based on Data Envelopment Analysis and the benefit-of-the-doubt approach to weighting. The weights resulting from this optimisation exercise, dubbed as 'expert' weights, were then utilised to aggregate the dimensions and indicators chosen by Delphi participants to form a 'new' measure of multidimensional poverty using Susenas 2013 data. Two comparative exercises were subsequently conducted. The first exercise evaluated the effects of using these 'expert' weights versus the commonly applied, 'equal nested' weights, within the 'new' measure. Both weighting schemes assigned similar ranks to households and identified relatively similar types of households as poor. The 'expert' scheme, however, identified a significantly higher extent of poverty compared to the 'equal nested' scheme. The second exercise compared the 'new' measure using 'expert' weights, with the existing measures examined previously within this thesis. Low levels of overlap were also found. The weak overlap found between the Consumption and the 'new' multidimensional measure confirmed the importance of applying both uni and multidimensional approaches when measuring poverty; whilst differences between the globally and nationally constructed multidimensional measures vs. the 'new' district level Delphi-based measure supported the argument that internationally-generated measures should be supplemented with localised measures to support the formation of sound policy which aims to address the myriad welfare priorities that are relevant for specific areas.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the expansion of Social Healthcare Insurance coverage and public health service provision in China were compromised by regional policy fragmentation and correlated discrimination against the domestic migrant population, who moved across geographic areas. Nevertheless, how has the Chinese healthcare reform developed a new trend over the last decade, which has emphasised expanding effective Social Health Insurance coverage and equalised basic public health services to migrants, thus taking a crucial step towards Universal Healthcare Coverage? This trend is buttressed by a more unified and coordinated system that is amiable to benefit portability and wider healthcare access. Nevertheless, the received wisdom does not provide an effective explanation for such a trend. The literature shows that due to the hefty amount of autonomy enjoyed by local leaders who seek revenue-based or promotional opportunities through intense competitions with counterparts in other regions, localism is likely to persist. These local leaders have gained power from national leaders through top-down political delegation. While such a "principal-agent" framework facilitates the understanding of the complex policymaking and implementational processes within China's multi-level governance structure, it does not show how the country overcomes some substantial institutional barriers and makes progress towards Universal Healthcare Coverage, albeit having not achieved full universalism. This thesis offers an explanation by bringing technocrats back in. I developed a nuanced "principal-agent" model, which considers the autonomy and policy impact of the technocratic community. This thesis argues that technocratic interests and actions generate an important counterbalancing impact on the policymaking tendency to fragmentation and localism, which is inherent in the incentive mechanism concerning leaders. Ministerial technocrats utilise the "promotion tournament 2.0" mechanism as an institutional guarantee to rein in local officials, while also mobilising subordinates on the basis of esprit de corps. With a collection of empirical papers, this thesis takes a mixed-methods approach to address academic debates situated at the intersection of Chinese politics, public administration and social policy disciplines.

Existing scholarship indicates that there are divergences between objective and subjective poverty; yet subjective poverty remains under-researched and not well understood. This research contributes to addressing this gap by identifying and exploring influential factors contributing to high rates of subjective poverty in Ukraine, where nearly 70 per cent of people self-identify as being poor. This rate is surprisingly high given that the World Bank and the National Statistical Service of Ukraine estimate poverty in the country to be around 30 per cent. To understand the drivers of high rates of subjective poverty, the thesis investigates the questions 'what does self-identification as poor entail in the context of Ukraine?' and 'why does the attribution of subjective poverty not correlate with income and material circumstances?' The questions are explored through a qualitative case study in Rivne city in Western Ukraine, using recognition theory as the main theoretical lens. The analysis draws on data from 50 in-depth semi-structured interviews across low- and high-income groups and across three age groups, with individuals ranging from 20 to 81 years old. Amongst the 50 participants, 39 were subjectively poor, 11 of whom were high-income. The thesis posits that self-identifying as poor is simultaneously a claim of deservingness for a better life, and an internalization of negative stereotypes associated with low social status. In the context of Ukraine, self-identification as poor also has a strong element of collective identity and is accompanied by a binary understanding of inequality, with a perception of a large poor majority and a small rich elite. Consequently, for subjectively poor participants, the average Ukrainian is seen as poor. Moreover, structural explanations of poverty dominate, making it less shameful to self-identify as poor compared to other contexts, in which poverty is associated with individualistic failure. The thesis further illustrates that subjective poverty does not correlate straightforwardly with income and material circumstances because the main drivers of subjective poverty affect everyone on the stratification curve, but to varying degrees. The interview data shows that the feeling of being poor arises from experiencing long-term economic volatility, fears about the future due to vulnerability to shocks, lack of meaningful and secure work, and perceptions of deprivation relative to Western Europe and Ukraine's small economic elite. The combination of these factors leads to shared profound feelings of powerlessness, resentment, and misrecognition due to not being valued by the government. The consequent demands for recognition amongst the subjectively poor include the provision of social protection in the spheres of healthcare and pensions, procedural justice within social institutions, and inclusion in the material standard of living characteristic of EU countries. Given the above findings, the thesis argues that analysing subjective poverty can provide important insights into policy failures. The thesis also contributes to the literature applying recognition theory to the topic of poverty, provides evidence for the importance of psycho-social dimensions in the conceptualization of poverty, and sheds light on the under-researched topic of the poverty experience in Ukraine.

This thesis examines the Conservative Party's attitude towards the role of the state between its loss of the 1929 election and the downfall of the National Government in May 1940. The appropriate extent of government intervention was one of the most important political debates in the twentieth century, and is critical to understanding the social and economic policies of a controversial decade. Despite this, how the governing Conservatives viewed the state remains neglected. Historians of 1930s Tory domestic policy have variously argued it was too interventionist, not interventionist enough, or quite reasonable. This thesis answers this question by examining an extensive range of archival and other primary sources. In doing so, it provides the first overview of the National Government's domestic policymaking. The thesis has six chapters. Chapter one outlines the evolution of Conservatism from the advent of the mass electorate up to 1929. Chapter two explores the development of Conservative policy in opposition up until the party's unexpected return to government via the multi-party National Government 1931. This is treated separately to the remaining chapters to better assess the impact being in coalition had on policymaking. For the 1931-40 period, the thesis breaks into four case studies: industrial reorganisation, welfare, housing, and education. These four topics were chosen because they were of great contemporary significance. Additionally, because the Conservatives reacted differently in each policy area, comparing them reveals where Tory ideological boundaries lay. This thesis argues that while most Conservatives were reluctant to turn to the state at first instance, they would at least tolerate state intervention when they believed a key institution was threatened. It further argues that while Conservatism was open to outside influences, whether from coalition partners, ex-Liberals, or civil servants, this was only where those ideas were in accordance with what they understood as Conservative principles.

The policy making approaches, social policy agendas and instruments deployed by large, Western philanthropic donors - referred to as big philanthropies in this study - have tangible consequences for the institutions, mechanisms and processes of social policy formation and social policy delivery across the Global South. Over the past decade, big philanthropies have also become increasingly integrated and influential actors in the processes and structures of global social governance. Given their significance in shaping global social policy trends as well as aid architecture and welfare outcomes in the Global South, this research seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the social policy approaches deployed and promoted by contemporary philanthropic donors, as well as the theoretical frameworks that explain them. This doctoral thesis examines these issues through a qualitative case study of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's work in the health sector in Tanzania. Two primary research interests guide the analysis: (i) understanding whether the ideologies, policy goals and instruments promoted by big philanthropies represent a coherent and distinctive global social policy paradigm; and, (ii) identifying the sources of authority and strategies deployed by the Gates Foundation to instigate transnational social policy transfer. The research also explores the perspectives of a wide range of stakeholders on the comparative advantages and potential risks of social policy delivery by big philanthropies in a development context. Crucially, in addition to interviews with representatives of the Gates Foundation itself, the study examines the views and experiences of the government and civil society actors on the ground in Tanzania. The analysis is primarily guided by: Peter Hall's theory of policy paradigms; policy transfer analytical frameworks; and Global Social Policy theory. The findings of the thesis suggest that big philanthropies are significant policy actors and operate within a coherent social policy model. Underpinned by the view that poor populations lack the necessary assets to fully realise their economic capacity, the model constitutes an instrumental 'social investment' approach. It is primarily focused on strengthening individual capacity in order to spur employment, productivity and economic growth, in contrast to approaches that pursue social justice or social equality through universal welfare systems. It is also differentiated from other paradigms by its emphasis on private sector methods and targeted vertical interventions (focusing on specific diseases or targets as opposed to broader system-wide objectives) that prioritise innovation, use of data and technology. The overall method is analogous to Third Way models - driven by short-term pragmatism rather than dogma, and promoting social policy approaches that integrate private, public and third sector actors. The analysis also shows that big philanthropies have unique forms of normative and epistemic authority, derived from the legitimacy of altruism, celebrity status, up-to-date scientific knowledge and private sector expertise. Combined with extensive access to different cross-sectoral networks, these characteristics enhance their policy influence as global policy entrepreneurs. The evidence also demonstrates that the Gates Foundation's policy transfer strategies combine high visibility policy promotion, covert influence notably through local policy intermediaries, and subtle financial pressure through 'soft conditionalities'. Local stakeholder perspectives pointed to several risks and caveats associated with the involvement of big philanthropies, and the Gates Foundation specifically. These included the omission of national policy plans and priorities, exacerbation of fragmentation of development efforts, and friction with the domestic policy environment - potentially leading to inappropriate policy transfer. This thesis underscores the fact that external actors - including Western big philanthropies - continue to influence social policy directions in the Global South and that this renders their involvement problematic. The study also demonstrates the robustness of policy transfer frameworks in explaining this phenomenon and shows that social policy ideas and approaches travel transnationally both through epistemic-hegemonic influences and hard mechanisms drawing on financial pressure.

This thesis examines the significance of ideas of social rights in shaping social assistance policies for the unemployed and lone parents in Britain and Ireland over the period 1985-2015. Adopting a qualitative, comparative case study approach and based on a combination of elite interviews and primary and secondary data analysis, the study finds that different ideas about social rights account for substantive and otherwise unexplained social assistance policy variation across Britain and Ireland. A blended human rights-positive rights idea was consistently relevant to Irish social policy-making while varying ideas of positive rights and social citizenship rights were associated respectively with periods of Conservative and Labour Party governance in Britain. The thesis shows that cultural legacies and political ideologies were significant in determining the ideas of rights that became salient in each country context, suggesting important three-way interactions between ideas, interests and institutions and lending support to theoretical arguments about the ‘mutual constitution’ both of ideas and interests, and of interests and institutions.

Amidst the so-called refugee and migration crisis, the 'European Integration Network' (EIN) was established in 2016 as a European Union soft-governance practice. The thesis analyses how administrators learn in soft-governance networks, studying in particular what mechanisms are involved in facilitating different types of learning and conditions under which they operate best. Studies on micro-level roots and mechanisms of learning are surprisingly scarce. Relying on 50+ interviews with EIN practitioners and documents, this thesis finds that facilitated networking and 'soft' interactions result in updating individual administrators' beliefs regarding policy instruments ('instrumental learning') and their paradigmatic frames ('paradigmatic learning'). This is triggered, amplified, and sustained by transformational conduits. Professional trust within peer groups determines which instruments administrators choose. Meanwhile, informal, emotionally-charged interactions with stakeholders frame instruments. Updated frames may in turn penetrate a trusted peer group with a specific instrumental focus. Alongside the organic interaction of conduits, their purposive activation in two ideal-type practices is explored: (i) platforming, recurrent interactions within a formal network structure, and (ii) elevating, accelerated experiences within network sub-groups. The European Commission asserts itself in learning by managing the net-work and encouraging members with aligned paradigms and organisational resources to co-shape these practices. In particular elevating activates conduits that establish direct paradigmatic experiences resonating in subsequent networking. Findings are probed by exploring learning about Portuguese migrant one-stop-shops and Swedish collaborative governance. The probes underscore a social dimension of learning. Ties created at the elevating stage iterate back to the platform and compound network effects as peer groups re-shuffle and gateways open. Overall, the focus on administrative learning contributes to better understanding how soft governance operates quietly under the political or legalistic surface. Under the right conditions, exchange on policy instruments and frames about migrant integration appear more successful than posited by other studies.

The politics surrounding the recognition of same-sex couples has found uneven analysis in the extant literature. While the dynamics in the United States and Western Europe are well-documented, the processes in the Anglo-Saxon countries is less advanced. This oversight is two-fold. First, the empirical record regarding the historical evolution of same-sex couples' rights is wanting. Second, the theoretical framework of morality policymaking is unevenly theorised and therefore ill-equipped in dealing with this set of countries. This set of countries, therefore, is chosen to advance the extant theories regarding the politics of same-sex couples' rights. In short, this thesis aims to add to the empirical evidence and advance the theorisation of morality policy in 'secular' countries; that is countries which do not feature a politically relevant state-church conflict. The thesis pursues this goal through four cases studies that each rely on qualitative research methods. First, it develops a theoretical framework to show the secularisation and contractualisation of opposite-sex marriage and outlines these processes' importance for same-sex marriage advocacy. Second, it uses the experience of the Anglo-Saxon countries to develop a new judiciary-based mode of international policy transfer. Third, it uses the case of same-sex union recognition in Australia to develop the morality policy framework in regard to secular countries. This analysis expands to the extant understanding of morality policymaking in particular regarding parliamentary democracies of the Westminster type. Fourth, the thesis analyses the Adoption and Children Act 2002 in England and Wales to understand why same-sex couples were granted joint adoption rights before any form of formal union recognition. The results of these case studies indicate that the morality policy framework is only partially useful for explaining the politics in Anglo-Saxon countries. In setting the parliamentary agenda, the executive has very strong albeit not absolute control. In the legitimation of policy, the competition between 'progressive' and 'traditionalist' frames is confirmed, as is the ability of the executive to reinforce its preferred policy definition in the case of latent morality policies. However, the treatment of manifest morality policy requires the careful analysis of intra-party fractions and vested interests. Further research is required to test the theoretical frameworks built in this thesis and in particular the applicability of the morality policy framework in similar countries.

This thesis analyses a particular social policy episode: that of the turn to tax credits (instead of benefits) to support low-income groups in France and Britain in the 2000s. It asks about the rationale that led left-wing governments in both countries to deviate from institutional traditions in matters of income-support, and to instead use policy instruments pertaining to a seldom-studied domain of social policy: fiscal welfare, or tax provisions serving a social policy purpose. Drawing on original archival sources and interviews with policymakers, the thesis reconstructs the genesis of the change of instrument in both contexts. It advances a novel explanation for the turn to fiscal welfare for income-support purposes: namely, that it was driven by left-wing governments' adoption, at that time, of a logic of negative welfare expansion. While welfare expansion is often synonymous with spending increases, negative expansion entails decreasing taxes instead. It involves taking less from low-income individuals instead of giving more to them. In both countries, policymakers saw negative expansion through fiscal welfare as functionally equivalent to positive expansion through benefit increases, which allowed bypassing constraints on traditional income-support. Tax cuts were economically respectable instruments, at a time when concerns with economic credibility led politicians to avoid spending increases. Tax credits could also be used as a means of unifying different constituencies, at a time when governments aimed to assemble cross-class coalitions centred around middle-class voters. As well as building a novel argument about the origins of the policies, this thesis also puts forward and investigates the notion that this turn had unanticipated political consequences. In particular, it argues that taking less is not the same as giving more when it comes to the formation of policy preferences and attitudes to redistribution. Using a mix of regression analyses and quasi-experimental designs, this thesis shows that the change of instrument failed to alter attitudes to redistribution towards low-income groups in the UK. Further, despite their generosity the British tax credits failed to generate lasting support among beneficiaries of the policy themselves. These findings suggest that the turn to tax credits led to an erosion of the overall support for policies benefiting low-income groups. Over time, policies implementing a negative expansion risk shifting the balance of preferences away from income-support. This thesis also sheds light on the understudied phenomenon of fiscal welfare for low-income groups. Using microsimulation, it produces original estimates of the budgetary incidence and actual redistributive effect of fiscal welfare for low-income groups in six countries. The budgetary costs involved are in the same order of magnitude as amounts spent on family benefits. Looking at the redistributive incidence of these schemes reveals an important pattern: often times, schemes ostensibly designed to benefit low-income groups actually have a regressive impact.

Introduction Uganda has a high maternal mortality rate combined with poor use of maternal health services among unmarried youth. Improved use of maternal health services by unmarried youth would help reduce maternal deaths in the country. A better understanding of the reasons for the poor use of maternal health services, and the needs and priorities of young women is necessary for designing appropriate policies to address the problem of maternal mortality in Uganda. The Andersen's behavioural model of access to medical care provided a framework for this study. This thesis explores: predisposing and enabling factors associated with the use of maternal health services among unmarried (compared to married) youth aged 15- 24 years between 1995 and 2011; and the experiences of unmarried youth aged 15-19 years during the maternity period in Uganda. More specifically, it examines: i). predisposing and enabling factors associated with the timing and the number of antenatal care visits among unmarried (compared to married) youth aged 15-24 years; ii) the variation in enabling and predisposing factors associated with the use of health facilities at childbirth among unmarried (compared to married) youth, aged 15-24 years; iii). the experiences and support for unmarried youth aged 15-19 years at home and in the community during the maternity period; and iv). the health providers' perspectives in the use of maternal health care services for unmarried youth aged 15-19 years in Uganda. Methodology Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, two-level binary logistic and linear regression models with district as a second level of analysis were conducted on pooled data of the 1995, 2000/01, 2006 and 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Surveys. This analysis was among 581 unmarried, compared to 5,437 married youth, aged 15-24 years. Qualitative data collection that followed was conducted among purposively sampled unmarried youth who were pregnant or had had a birth within three years before fieldwork aged between 15-19 years (14 in-depth interviews & 8 focus group discussions). Seven in-depth interviews with youth parents and seven key informant interviews with health providers in Bushenyi and Kibale districts of western Uganda were also carried out. Lived experiences and support to unmarried youth at their homes, in the community, and health facilities were explored using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results The levels of using antenatal care in the first trimester were generally low among youth, and unmarried youth were less likely to start antenatal care early compared to married youth. Education was the only factor that was significantly associated with the use of antenatal care in the first trimester among unmarried youth. Education predicted use of antenatal care in the first trimester among both unmarried and married youth, but the association was in the opposite direction. Whereas high education was associated with higher chances of the use of antenatal care in the first trimester among married youth (OR=1.30, 95%CI=1.08-1.57), it was associated with late start among unmarried youth (OR=0.56, 95%CI=0.31-0.98). In addition, higher parity, protestant membership and residence in eastern region were associated with late start of antenatal care, while access to radio and television, and at least primary education level of the partner were associated with higher odds of the use of antenatal care in the first trimester among married youth. It was observed that overall, married youth were more likely to have more frequent antenatal care visits than unmarried youth during the study period. Among unmarried and married youth, higher educational attainment and greater access to radio were associated with frequent antenatal care use. Although high wealth index was associated with more antenatal care visits among unmarried youth (Estimate=0.889, SE=0.424), married youth in highest wealth quintile were associated with infrequent antenatal care (Estimate= -0.334, SE=0.131). Residing in western region was associated with fewer antenatal care visits among both married and unmarried youth. Additionally, married youth living in esstern Uganda had fewer antenatal care visits. Also, access to newspaper was associated with more antenatal care visits among married youth though not among unmarried youth. Overall, unmarried youth had higher chances of having a childbirth within the health facilities than married youth. Most individual level factors were consistent with patterns observed in the literature among youth, for instance higher educational attainment and access to mass media were asoociated with higher odds of the use of health facilities at childbirth while higher parity and rural residence were associated with a lower likelihood of the use of health facilities at childbirth. However, some unique patterns emerged. For instance, both unmarried and married youth engaged in agriculture activities had a lower likelihood of using health facilities at child birth compared to non- working youth (OR=0.47, 95%CI=0.25-0.89 for unmarried vs OR=0.70, 95%CI=0.57- 0.87 for unmarried). Among married youth, use of health facilities was lower among those residing in western region compared to those residing in central region (OR=0.55, 95%CI=0.34-0.88), yet not among unmarried youth. Membership of other religions, middle and highest wealth quintiles, more access to radio, high partner education, and residing in a district with a middle education level district were associated with increased chances of the use of health facilities at childbirth among married youth but not among unmarried youth. The qualitative results reveal that unmarried youth in Bushenyi and Kibale districts of western Uganda had mixed experiences through the maternity period. Most youth experienced psychological distress because of negative attitudes from family, partners and community, and health providers. They were abused by parents, partners denied responsibility for the pregnancies, and most had limited support for their needs during this difficult time. Some got support with information, hospital requirement, and basic needs from parents especially mothers. Few youths got support from their fathers, partners, and community members. Mothers were supportive of the youth mostly to discourage them from engaging in risky abortion. At the health facilities, sharing of information was not tailored to unmarried youth who were pregnant for the first time. Most young women were mistreated by health providers. They waited for long hours to receive the services in a non-private general waiting area, and some were denied services because they did not go with their partners as the implementation of a policy aimed at increasing male involvement in reproductive health gave priority to couples. A few were satisfied with the competence of the health providers, reported better treatment from the male providers, good maternal and child care information, and appreciated supplies like mama kits provided at the health facilities. All these experiences influenced the unmarried youth' use of maternal health services. The qualitative data were also used to explain some of the observed trends and associations in the quantitative analysis. Conclusion Although predisposing and enabling factors are important predictors of the use of maternal health care services, the findings on environment, need, and health provider factors like provider attitudes and implementation of a policy on increasing male involvement in reproductive health services as well as the change in parents' attitudes provide crucial areas for policy intervention. The study provides important findings where policies should be focused to overcome barriers to the use of maternal health care services and reduce maternal deaths among unmarried youth in Uganda.

This thesis using sequential mixed-methods design underpinned by the Social Ecological Model (SEM), examines the determinants of adolescents' access and utilisation of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Services in Nigeria. The quantitative strand of the study applied multilevel modelling to pooled data from the 2003-2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) comprising 18,255 unmarried adolescents aged 15-19 years, whereas the qualitative strand (8 FGDs and 16 in-depth interviews) informed by Foucault's Theory of sexuality were analysed following an inductive thematic approach guided by Gioia's analytical framework. Overall, the results showed that although most of the variations in SRH (contraceptive use and comprehensive knowledge of HIV) service use occur at the micro level, there were significant macro level effects on adolescent's access to and use of services. The key predictors of SRH service use among adolescents were gender, age, ethnicity, education, employment, ever been tested for HIV, age of household head, educational years in state and region of residence. The qualitative findings supported and contextualised these results by revealing the individual level (limited knowledge of available services, fear of embarrassment), community level (Socio-cultural norms and values) facility level (service providers attitude, lack of confidentiality/privacy) and state level (lack of government commitment/funding) barriers to adolescents use of SRH services. This study aid the understanding of the application of SEM in advancing the field of adolescent SRH and re-contextualised Foucault's theory of sexuality from a non-western perspective. It contributes significantly to key policy and global debates on the importance mainstreaming youth-friendly health services into the national health programmes. The findings highlight the urgent need for a multisectoral and multilevel approaches to meeting the changing needs, and addressing the contextual factors that influence adolescents' use of services. Making the Primary Healthcare Centres youth friendly through service provider's reorientation, ensuring confidential service delivery, and accelerating the nationwide implementation of quality school-based SRH education is a sure path to improving adolescent poor health outcomes in Nigeria.

This thesis is situated in the core idea of policy evaluation that evidence should be used to identify the impact of an intervention and inform future social policies. The aim of this thesis has been to re-purpose evaluation through a deliberate engagement with normative foundations. This thesis is based on a critique of what scholars such as Carol Weiss have identified as establishment forms of evaluation. Establishment evaluation can privilege technocratic forms of knowledge and uncritically follows the original framings of policy. Establishment evaluation is problematised as it tends to produce knowledge with a limited scope for policy-learning about social transformation. The thesis uses an abductive approach to re-purpose evaluation through empirical investigation into more open and contextualised forms of research. The empirical investigation involved four action research projects: a photovoice project about everyday life; an evaluation of a project designed to tackle food poverty; an evaluation of a project focused on supporting low income families; and a collaboration to adapt the evaluation approach of the charity Save the Children. The research questions for this thesis are: (1) in what ways can more open forms of research inform an evaluation? (2) What types of contextualised research are most relevant for an evaluation? (3) How can narratives of impact produce causal explanations through an evaluation? The findings suggest that a more open and contextualised approach to research can develop a broader investigative scope for evaluation, beyond the original framing of a policy. Three foundations for a new form of counter-establishment evaluation have been developed: firstly, a cooperative approach is proposed to co-construct situated causal explanations through an evaluation with participants; secondly, a new regulative ideal of participatory parity has been constructed to enable a normative assessment of how an intervention has delivered social justice; and finally, an original concept of everyday radicalism has been created to produce knowledge that can disrupt dominant discourses of political economy and existing frames of social policy. The thesis develops an approach for a more publicly engaged normative political sociology that can contribute knowledge to support social change.

East-Asia-specific institutional characteristics, especially family-related and cultural contexts, raise a question regarding the ‘political terrain’ in the region – whether a certain section of the population is clearly supportive of a particular social policy, while others are not. East Asian societies including Korea are characterised by the Confucian culture and experiences with developmental welfare states, both of which emphasise the role of family in welfare provision. From the perspectives of new institutionalism, such contexts may create distinctive reasoning patterns in relation to social policy preferences. In this regard, this thesis investigates social policy preference formation of individuals in Korea, with a particular research question of how policy preferences of a particular social group - female labour market outsiders - are shaped by family-related and cultural contexts. This study employs a mixed-methods approach that collects and analyses data using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative analysis tests the validity of existing theories on welfare attitudes, using individual-level data of ‘2013 Public Attitudes towards Welfare Policy Survey’. In the light of quantitative analysis, the subsequent qualitative analysis interrogates about how social policy preferences of female labour market outsiders are affected by family-related and cultural contexts. Specifically, semi-structured interviews with 27 female labour market outsiders were carried out from June to December 2016, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. The overall argument of the thesis is that in Korea, family welfare and prevailing ideas of a desirable society play a significant role in shaping social policy preferences of individuals, particularly female labour market outsiders. Family welfare is found to motivate research participants to share reinterpreted problem recognition within the family, which eventually encourages them to assess social policy for the sake of maximum utility for the family, not for themselves. Prevailing ideas of a desirable society, notably selective compassion for the deserving poor and pro-developmental view, appear to increase individuals’ preferences for the selective provision of social welfare. These findings can be understood as suggesting that in Korea, social policy preferences of women in the labour market outsider position could be different from what is expected by the individualist self-interest-based assumptions. Also, it is likely that social cleavages between female labour market outsiders and other socioeconomic groups on the issues of redistribution are less likely to be generated in Korea, relative to countries with individualist culture. The thesis makes three original contributions to knowledge. Firstly, this thesis extends the regional coverage of welfare attitude study beyond Western countries by shifting scholarly attention to Korea. Secondly, the thesis theorises social policy preference formation in Korea through new institutionalism that mediates the relationship between institutions and individuals’ self-interest and value-orientation. Lastly, the thesis moves beyond a quantitative analysis by employing a mixed-methods approach.

The central aim of this research was to explore and understand the grief experience of male prisoners as it occurs, and the impact of cumulative loss caused by death, prior to custodial sentencing. The responses of other inmates and the ways in which staff facilitated and managed prisoners' grief were also the focus of enquiry. The research methods used were participant observation and semi-structured interviewing. Twenty-three bereaved prisoners participated. Also involved were 23 members of staff of different occupations and grades, and three volunteers. All participants were residing or working within a male, Category C prison in the north of England. Findings demonstrated that grief could not easily be confronted and processed as a result of: the many restraints imposed institutionally, the hegemonic culture, lack of trust and high levels of felt frustration due to constricted agency. Avoidant coping strategies were common, alongside an unwillingness to reach out for support. The evidence strongly suggests that prisoners can be at heightened risk of a more complex grief reaction than the normal population. This study provides a major contribution to both the criminological and thanatological fields. It makes policy and other recommendations, and widens the current international debate by offering a critique of the proposed Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (APA, 2013). The narrative accounts have produced evidence of negative and positive stressors uniquely found within the prison setting, demonstrating in a new way how they can impact upon the grieving process, using Stroebe and Schut's (1999, 2016) Dual Process Model. Recognising excessive grief reactions, a theory is proposed - 'Prisoners' Grief Overload theory.' Finally, a proposition is put forward for future inquiry: a significant bereavement can become a factor in putative desistance from crime if grief stressors are adequately confronted and processed, and a new individualised truth is attained.

Soviet policy-makers, in order to aid and abet industrialisation, seem to have chosen science as an agent for development. Soviet science, mainly through the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, was driving the Soviet industrial development and a key element of the preparation of human capital through social programmes and politechnisation of the society. This provided a broad set of the skills, including management and governance, multidisciplinary synthesis, and analytical ability which were required to ensure sustainable technical and industrial development. This process of human capital development in the USSR could not take place without a particular Soviet social policy which was designed by the Party and Government and included the development of science, education, healthcare in synchronisation. The success was achieved due to the implementation of the large programme for human capital development in whose preparation both basic research and education played the critical role. Science was regarded in the USSR as an indispensable tool for modernising the country, and, for the first time in world history, was recognised as a natural resource beyond the doctrine of Marxism which helped cope with the challenges, including industrialisation, WWII and the import substitution programme. The investments in the development of fundamental science eventually paid off both nationally and later - at the global level. Many of the Soviet scientific discoveries started to appear as products in global households only decades after the Soviet collapse. Without many Soviet discoveries and developments, the current digital and industrial development would be hardly possible as they are integral parts of the global technology chains which constitute the modern hi-tech industry, economy, and most various markets.

The thesis investigates the "problematic" inflation in bridewealth among the Nuosu people in contemporary Liangshan, Southwest China, to elucidate how ethnic minorities engaged with various state-steered development projects. The study treats "development" as a historical process, in which the practice of bridewealth has been associated with the ethnicity of the Nuosu, and the inflation in bridewealth has been attributed to the "backwardness" of the Nuosu culture both in political discourses and policy-making of the state. The thesis discusses, through ethnographic materials, how the Nuosu of various statuses indigenise the "humiliation" inflicted on them by state development. The historical perspective and ethnographic method serve to show empowerment of the Nuosu as reflectors of their society. Nuosu on-going and dynamic negotiation and engagement with state definitions of ethnicity and legitimacy has thus led to the reification of the state as an interlocutor at the most local level and in core events of Nuosu's daily life, importantly the practice of bridewealth. The thesis reveals "the variants of development" rooted in the understanding/misunderstanding of planned templates for development. The variants are manifested by the multiplicity of voices and the creativities found in the narrations and implementation of development. By engaging with anthropological debates on the themes of "value" and "the anthropology of the good", the thesis demonstrates how the shift in the value attached to the Nuosu brides transvalues the external environment such as manifested in state investigations, regulations, and legislation. More importantly, the humiliation inflicted on Nuosu culture in the process of promoting development has not resulted in the depreciation of the value that define being a "real" Nuosu. Instead, the practice of bridewealth is informed by Nuosu collective values which simultaneously are creating values. The inflation in bridewealth highlights and transvalues the yearnings and desires of the Nuosu in their most exalted form, leading to a core insight of the thesis that values associated with a "real" Nuosu identity acquired their most forceful impact in the Nuosu encounter with state developmentalism.

This dissertation examines bureaucrats' engagement in social policy processes in low- and middle-income countries. Each paper in the dissertation investigates a different set of factors that affect the scope and nature of bureaucrats' policy engagement. "The Millennium Effect?: When and Where does Bureaucratic Quality Matter for Human Development" looks at an international factor, the global advocacy for Millennium Development Goals, and examines its effect on the relationship between bureaucratic quality and social policy outcomes across different policy areas and task types. Designed as a cross-country comparative study, it uses country-level quantitative data. "Trusting Relations, Learning Bureaucrats: International Organisations and Early-Stage Policy Diffusion" focusses on another international factor, the World Bank, and examines its role in the adoption of the conditional cash transfer model in Turkey and Indonesia. The study employs within-case process tracing with a comparative lens and uses data from interviews and document reviews. "The Bargaining Bureaucrat: Policy Bargains and Effects of Political Context and Organisational Traits on Bureaucrats' Policy Influence" investigates the influence of individual bureaucrats in policymaking processes with a focus on the effects of political context and organisational traits. The study uses data from interviews and employs a novel analytical model built on bargaining theory. "After the Dust Settles: Mergers, Policymaking Processes, Mid-Level Bureaucrats" examines the effect of organisational structure on policymaking processes and bureaucrats' engagement in these processes. It is a case study of the merger of five social policy agencies in Turkey and uses data from interviews and document reviews. By putting a spotlight on the often-invisible bureaucrats, these four papers contribute to our understanding about the factors shaping the scope of bureaucrats' policy influence in low- and middle-income countries. More generally, this dissertation draws attention to the need for a more systematic incorporation of bureaucracy into our analyses of social policy change.

Poverty studies worldwide have continuously demonstrated that poverty entails not only material hardships but also other non material hardships, such as shame. Yet, a substantive empirical investigation of why and how shame is experienced in poverty and its relevance for social policy interventions has been significantly lacking in the literature. Accordingly, this thesis documents an in-depth empirical investigation of an increasingly significant, yet under-researched, psycho social dimension of shame in poverty. Acknowledging the limitations of focusing either on the individual or the social level processes alone in poverty and shame research, it employs a psycho social approach that takes a comprehensive account of the dual dimensions of shame. Empirical investigations are conducted with three different qualitative research methods (in depth interviews with people living in poverty, sociological discourse analysis of popular films, and social policy analysis of the social assistance programme in South Korea), together with a historical contextualization of the empirical findings with secondary historical sources. Taking South Korea as a case study, it offers an empirically based theoretical framework that explains the root causes, working mechanisms and impacts of shame in poverty, and the fundamental nature of the association between poverty and shame. It demonstrates that the current psycho social dynamics of shame in poverty is a contemporary phenomenon underpinned by the socio relational conditions that emerged from the major socio historical shift to modern capitalism. The social level dynamics are shown to equally manifest in the personal level working mechanisms and subsequent impacts of shame in poverty. The findings show that in order for the anti poverty social assistance in South Korea to continue promoting the improvement of people's lives via their own self agency, its design and implementation should equally be geared toward improving people's self agency rather than undermining it as it currently stands.

In 2011, the Football Association (FA), the national governing body of football in England, launched the first semi-professional league for women. The inception of the FA Women's Super League (FA WSL), created the opportunity for football as work for its elite women footballers, in an occupational field tied historically to a highly masculinist and thus, gender exclusive culture. In 2018, the FA WSL adopted full- time professional status. The professionalisation of women's football in England, has provided both the opportunity to offer insight into football as work for women, and examine the workplace and employment policies available to professional women footballers. Ambiguity exists between the growing professionalisation of women's football and the precarious work conditions in which players operate. The low visibility and status afforded to women's football, means that research on women working as professional footballers remains particularly limited. Ergo, the outcomes and consequences of professionalisation in England are largely unknown. This research examines the experiences of women working as professional footballers in England. Drawing upon the theoretical apparatus of Pierre Bourdieu, the research investigates how professional women footballers learn the values and dispositions (habitus) of the intrinsically male dominated football field and incorporate this into their practice. A qualitative approach was undertaken which involved conducting 30 semi-structured interviews with professional women footballers. This study employs a qualitative interpretative framework that allows for an in-depth understanding of football as work for women in England, acknowledging participants' realities and perspectives. Key themes examined here include, demographic information, operating with dual career/education, life in Women's Super League, contracts, policy, life and identity as a player and post-career considerations. The key findings of this research demonstrate women are unprepared for their new, highly gendered careers as professional women footballers. The prospect of a professional football career means women embody professional expectations of clubs and the FA. The roles, remits and expectations placed on players are increasingly complex and dynamic, placing obligations on players personal/private lives. Women are mixed into an existing system of professional football, with limited policy consideration for their needs as women professional footballers. A key contribution of this research is the neglect of essential employment and workplace policy such as education, maternity leave and post-career options. This neglect reflects the disempowered position of professional women footballers, who are devoted to making it as a professional footballer. The contribution of this research identifies implications for those players highly invested in their career as a professional footballer, once their short careers reach a conclusion.

Aim Using semi-structured interviews and IPA, explore mothers' experiences of wellbeing during the different phases of their sons' recovery and rehabilitation Background This thesis reports on the deleterious effect on six mothers' wellbeing as a result of their son's traumatic combat injury during deployment to Afghanistan between 2008-2009. Method/ Methodology Six mothers were recruited to the study by purposive sampling. The mothers were interviewed on 2 occasions using a semi-structured interview schedule. Analysis adhered to an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach, which seeks to uncover the meanings of participants descriptions of their lived experiences. Each mother's transcript was analysed separately to reflect the idiographic element of IPA. Three superordinate themes emerged from the cross-case analysis of the mothers' narratives: "The stressful event unfolds", "The support of others", "Life after the stressful event." The emergence of a dialogue between my interpretations of the mothers phenomena and psychological concepts found in the extant literature, provided a link between the mothers lived experiences and Attachment Theory, Coping Theory, Social Suppport Theory and the Myth of Motherhood. Findings A son's Traumatic Combat Injury has the potential to impact on the relationship between mother and son during the son's recovery and rehabilitation. Mothers who had a close relationship with their son called upon a range of adaptive coping strategies to help them mitigate the stressors they encountered during their son's recovery and rehabilitation. Support of family and friends was helpful to the mothers who had a close relationship with their son, depending on the mothers' coping strategies, predispositions towards motherhood and the quality of the relationship with their son. Mothers who had a poor relationship with their son and daughter-in-law demonstrated withdrawal from the relationship, maladaptive coping strategies and relied less upon the support of family and social networks. Contribution to knowledge of the subject This is the first study to examine the impact on a mother's wellbeing whose adult son has been traumatically injured in combat. The relationship between mother and son and the type of coping strategies called upon by mothers who adopt a caring role should be heeded. It is recommended that running concurrently with a son's recovery and rehabilitation programme, all mothers should receive emotional support from a counsellor who specialises in psychodynamic family therapy. Drawing upon attachment and coping theory will enable the counsellor to identify the psychosocial stressors associated with caring for their injured son and concomitantly lead the counsellor to an earlier treatment strategy and level of support appropriate to the mother's needs. Additionally, medical staff at role 4 of the son's care-pathway should receive interpersonal skills training to maximise the emotional support they provide to mothers and other family members during a son's recovery in hospital. Army Welfare Staff should also be familiarised with the findings of this study so that they are equipped to support the emotional and instrumental needs of mothers adjusting to their son's traumatic injuries during their initial recovery in hospital. Mothers would also benefit from being signposted to the Armed Forces charity Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) , who provide specific support to family members of wounded, injured or sick (WIS) service personnel.

This thesis considers whether free movement law is sufficient for balancing the interests of Member States with fundamental EU objectives. Free movement law has expanded to allow non-economically active citizens to reside in another Member State; resulting in the possibility of financial responsibility for those non-national citizens shifting to the host Member State. The traditional boundaries of welfare systems rely on nationality and territoriality, in order to protect the finite resources of States to look after their citizens. This thesis will determine how EU law and the CJEU has addressed this clash of principles, in the development of secondary legislation and the case law on free movement of economically inactive citizens. Ultimately, it determines that there is a growing culture of imbalance in the law, with Member State interests being conflated and overly protected, to the detriment of free movement objectives. The legitimacy of this is reviewed by considering the different competences of the EU and Member States in the Treaties, in relation to free movement of inactive citizens.

With the dramatic changes in the extent to which women and men contribute to unpaid domestic work and paid employment, work and family life reconciliation (WFLR) has become more prominent than ever before within the European Union (EU) agenda. Particularly from the 2000s, the EU began to require a relatively stronger convergence from member and candidate states. However, this does not necessarily result in total policy change. Existing domestic political and cultural conditions may facilitate or prohibit the change at national levels. This comparative study thus endeavours to examine the Europeanisation patterns of WFLR policies of a longstanding candidate country, Turkey and a founding member country, Germany, over the last decade, with a particular emphasis on intervening domestic actors and factors. To interrogate the subject, the study draws on a combination of Europeanisation literature and New Institutionalism (NI) theory. The term Europeanisation has been applied when explaining the domestic impact of the EU on Turkish and German WFLR policies, whereas the NI theory has been applied when explaining the domestic responses to the EU influence. This study employs a qualitative research design and adopts a comparative approach. The comparison is conducted between the Europeanisation process in Germany and the Europeanisation process in Turkey around this specific policy area. The data have been collected through the combination of document analysis and 80 semi-structured in-depth interviews with EU representatives; German and Turkish political elites; representatives of civil society organisations (CSO); and academics. The collected data is then analysed through the combination of thematic analysis and process tracing. The findings show that, at the time when the EU started to require a stronger convergence, the gaps between the German and Turkish WFLR policies and the EU WFLR policies were considerable. Therefore, each country received a high level of adaptational pressure in this specific policy area. In response to this adaptational pressure, both governments introduced a number of laws with respect to WFLR. However, a close examination of these laws indicates an incomplete and a contradictory Europeanisation process in each country. This study viii further found the simultaneous existence of domestic actors supporting the Europeanisation process and of those supporting the status quo; their contributions to the process are key reasons for this contradiction and incompleteness, which adds to the view that Europeanisation is a twofold process, which comprises both the push from the EU and the pull by the domestic actors. Through its uniquely developed theoretical framework that compares Europeanisation patterns of a founding member and a candidate state from an actor-centred lens, this study contributes to three different literature strands: Europeanisation, gender studies, and comparative social policy studies. Additionally, due to the wide range of data collected throughout the fieldwork, this study also provides an empirical contribution by giving more insight into Europeanisation and social policy knowledge at national levels.

This thesis examines the variation in levels of inequality between late-industrialising countries in Latin America and East Asia from the 1960s. Latin American countries have more advanced welfare states, higher social spending, and more abundant left power resources than their East Asian counterparts. Yet, economic inequalities are much greater in the former than in the latter. This thesis argues that inward-looking industrialisation versus outward-looking industrialisation make a huge difference in levels of inequality by influencing the characteristics of labour market and welfare policies. The main theoretical claims of this thesis have two parts. Firstly, I argue that authoritarian leaders in both countries faced a set of incentives that shaped the probability of their initial adoption of inward-looking versus outward-looking industrialisation. Contrary to the existing literature which considers the choice of openness and closedness as exogenously given, this research argues that the choice of openness is a rational choice of a dictator, under political and economic impasse such as lack of financial resources and a higher office holding cost, in an effort to fulfil his economic and political interests. Secondly, I argue that this choice influences the progressivity of welfare policies and labour market. Inward-looking industrialisation produces social policies that favour small and narrow insider coalitions, which in turn lead to higher levels of inequality, and vice versa for outward-looking industrialisation. By providing clear theoretical mechanisms connecting industrialisation to inequality, this thesis explains the institutional trajectories of different types of industrialisation on inequality. These claims are tested in an unbalanced pooled time-series cross-sectional analysis of sixteen Latin American and East Asian countries from the 1960s to the 2000s. Using a newly constructed original data set, the findings show that countries that adopted outward-looking industrialisation strategies have more flexible and unregulated labour markets and minimal welfare spending. By contrast, countries with inward-looking industrialisation strategies have more bifurcated and highly regulated labour markets, and generous but highly stratified welfare states. As a result, labour market institutions and welfare policies conditionally affect inequality depending on the types of industrialisation. Whereas labour market institutions and welfare spending exacerbate inequalities in countries with inward-looking industrialisation, they are linked to relatively low levels of inequality in countries with outward-looking industrialisation. The causal mechanisms are also explored in qualitative case studies of Latin American and East Asian countries. This thesis makes important theoretical and empirical contributions to the comparative studies of inequality. It broadens the theoretical and empirical scope of comparative studies of inequality by incorporating two regions that have been traditionally under-explored. In addition, this thesis calls for a reconsideration of the existing theories on the relationship between openness, social policies, and inequality.

Education is a key mechanism for supporting peace-building and the restoration of relations in post conflict societies. The Belfast Agreement contained a commitment to develop a more integrated system of education in Northern Ireland, yet, twenty years later, schools remain largely separated in-line with the community divisions that defined many years of civil conflict. A series of policies also limit teachers' options for moving across this divide. The impact of this separation upon pupils has been extensively investigated but there has been a deficit in inquiry into teachers' experiences. Prior to this research project, nothing was known about the current community/ethnic profile of the teaching workforce in the separated sectors of education. Furthermore, no research had been conducted into the experiences of those teachers who were teaching in a sector not associated with their community of origin. A mixed method approach was adopted to address these twin lacunae. An online survey (completed by 5% of teachers in mainstream primary and post primary schools) identified that the separate systems are served by workforces that are generally consistent with the community composition of the school where they are employed. This pattern is endemic in primary schools and least prevalent in grammar schools where onein-five teachers have crossed the divide. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of thirty cross-over teachers - these explored their formative experiences, their practice and their career aspirations. These narratives were thematically analysed; perspectives were obtained on the factors that maintain the ethnic separation of the teaching profession and how this may affect the potential of cross-over teachers to engage with their identity, achieve agency and effect change. It was found that the experiences of cross-over teachers, and their capacity to engage their 'otherness' constructively, was affected by a spectrum of personal and structural factors.