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This thesis is the culmination of nearly four years' worth of ethnographic research on a south London housing estate which discusses a complex battle for control on many fronts. The estate has always had a chequered reputation. Squatting, petty crime and anti social behaviour meant that during the 80 and early 90s it was on the council's hard to let list. Accounts from the estate suggest that historically a network of committed residents had led action to keep the deviant side of the estate under control. However, over time, local commitment waned, resident friendship networks shrank and the criminal behaviour started to become more serious. Some more recent high profile violent incidents involving young people meant the council looked to provide added support in the form of commissioning professional services to address the perceived increase in serious youth crime. Unfortunately, these interventions largely disempowered residents, who saw the embers of their relational ways of working criticised and ignored. Previous resident run youth projects attempted to develop relationships with the young people and their families, aiming to develop social controls based on intergenerational obligations. However, very few residents were committed enough to spend their own personal time to support young people, and those who were still engaged saw their influence decreasing. By contrast, the commissioned services ran for only a couple of hours a day and attracted young people from further afield than just the estate. However, despite its popularity with young people, the professional youth delivery failed to improve the situation and was accused of making matters worse. The introduction of professionals made the residents take a step back, ending a long established norm of residents working together to tackle youth deviance through informal friendship building activities. This, coupled with the increase in young people on the estate, meant that it has become almost impossible for informal networks to develop social control mechanisms. The generational disconnect, amplified by the arrival of professional help, contributed to the development of a street based culture among the young people. This is as much an account of the battles between the residents and professionals, to prove the legitimacy of their differing approaches, as it is a battle against the increasingly deviant behaviour of particular groups of young people.

Land use change is a major driver of species loss worldwide, the extent and intensity of agricultural land use poses particular pressures for biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides. In recent years, agroecosystems have seen the introduction of 2nd generation bioenergy crops in order to tackle anthropogenic climate change, providing a renewable alternative to fossil fuels. In this thesis I study the impact of cultivating two commercial perennial energy crops (PECs), Miscanthus x giganteus and willow short-rotation coppice, when compared to the cereal crops they replace. I investigate processes relevant to the provisioning of pollination and decomposition services and explore patterns of soil element bioaccessibility alongside analyses of the similarity and diversity of soil bacterial communities. When compared to cereals, I find a consistent increase in pollinator (hoverfly, bumblebee and butterfly/moth) wildflower visitation in the margins of willow but not Miscanthus. In Miscanthus, opposing trends arose for different pollinator taxa: butterflies/moths were more frequent flower visitors in Miscanthus margins than cereal margins, while hoverfly flower visits were most frequent in cereal margins. Furthermore, the availability of margin wildflowers was enhanced in willow but not Miscanthus and the seed set of margin phytometers was similar between Miscanthus and cereals. Cultivation of willow, in particular, may therefore yield local conservation benefits for both wildflowers and pollinators. However, there was no evidence for enhancement of pollinator activity in cereals adjacent to either PEC, indicating that the strategic cultivation of these crops is unlikely to enhance pollinator service provision in the wider agri-environment. For investigated soil elements, bioaccessibility in PECs did not differ significantly to cereal controls, and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) revealed no difference in the diversity of bacterial communities. Similarly, DGGE fingerprint patterns did not indicate the development of crop specific assemblages, demonstrating that the mobility of soil elements and structure of bacterial communities were principally determined by factors other than the identity of the crop cultivated. Investigation of meso-microfaunal decomposition rates in Miscanthus using litter bags demonstrated an impact on decomposition processes, with a significant increase in winter decomposition rates in the PEC when compared to cereals.

Breakdown: Mechanical Dysfunction and Anthropomorphism is a practice-led research project examining the role of mechanical breakdown in the anthropomorphic process. Current theoretical approaches to mechanical breakdown identify it as a homogenous, revelatory event "a sort of breach opened up by objects." (Baudrillard, 2004: 62). Breakdown challenges this stereotyping and seeks to examine the range of gesture and affect that differing forms of mechanical breakdown exhibit. In doing so it also develops Sherry Turkle's notion of anthropomorphism as a connective rather than ascriptive process (2005: 351) in the light of Karen Barad's "performative account of material bodies" (2007: 139). Leading this research is Breakdown, the making, remaking, exhibition and reexhibition of 36 breaking-machines. These breaking-machines; simple mechanical devices made from reconfigured found materials; approach breakdown and fail during their exhibition. They are then repaired or reconfigured by the artist 'live' while still on show. Throughout the research this role of the artist as repairman became a key method. The continual recombination of human and machine responding to the call of breakdown allowed for a more detailed understanding of the gestures of mechanical breakdown. This performative relationship considers the posthuman decentring of the Vitruvian man in the writing of Rosi Braidotti (2013: 2) and Karen Barad's agential realism (Barad, 2007: 44) both of which insist that the human, rather than bounded and individual, be considered as part of a dispersed network of interacting parts. The thesis begins by investigating the performative relationship of Breakdown in detail. It describes a machine-human body that is materialised fleetingly by mechanical dysfunction. Through an intimate relationship with one machine, it then goes on to identify a typology of breakdown: seize, play, burnout and cutting loose, concluding that each emits differing expanding and contracting forces around which bodies disperse and coalesce. Finally, employing the flicker of a thaumatrope and the making of the science fiction film robot, the thesis posits that anthropomorphism is an integral element in the dissipation and reformation of human-machine bodies.

Many major advances in our fundamental chemical knowledge have emerged from novel metal-metal chemistry. Such complexes which exhibit metal-metal interactions, have provided excellent tools for developing our understanding of chemical structure and bonding, catalysis, metal surface chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry. However, whilst metal-metal bonding is now well understood in the p- and d- blocks and to some extent the s-block of the Periodic Table very little is known, in comparison, about that for the f-block and especially the actinide elements. Traditionally the chemistry of molecular f-element compounds has been dominated by the use of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and halogen based ligands with the implementation of metal-based fragments as ligands considerably less developed. In recent years dinuclear species containing a metal-metal bond between two different transition metal centres bridged by a supporting ligand structure have rapidly been gaining interest, as they would be expected to exhibit different reactivity to those of monometallic or homobimetallic complexes. Early/late heterobimetallic complexes, featuring metal-metal interactions supported by a phosphinoamine ligand system, have received particular attention due to their two very different reaction sites, inherent bond polarity, and synergy between the two centres resulting in unique reactivity. A range of novel phosphinoamines, including MesN(H)PPh2, have been successfully synthesised to accompany the previously reported phosphinoamines DippN(H)PPh2 and MesN(H)PiPr2. All phosphinoamines were successfully deprotonated using nBuLi to afford the corresponding lithium salts as ligand transfer reagents. Reaction of uranium tetrachloride or thorium tetrachloride with three molar equivalents of either [Li(MesNPPh2)(Et2O)2] or [{LiNMes(PiPr2)(Et2O)}2] resulted in the respective tris(phosphinoamide) actinide(IV) chloride complexes [AnCl(MesNPPh2)3] and [AnCl(MesNPiPr2)3] (An = U, Th). Treatment of the tris(phosphinoamide) actinide(IV) halide complexes with Me3SiI afforded the corresponding tris(phosphinoamide) actinide(IV) iodide complexes. The installation of cobalt iodide into the coordination sphere of the uranium was achieved in the presence of zinc powder to afford the two uranium-cobalt complexes [UCl(MesNPPh2)3CoI] and [(MesNPiPr2)U(μ-X)(MesNPiPr2)2CoI] (X = 41% I, 59%Cl). [UCl(MesNPPh2)3CoI] adopts a paddle-wheel structure whereas [(MesNPiPr2)U(μ-X)(MesNPiPr2)2CoI] exhibits a structure with at best C2v symmetry and two bridging phosphinoamides and one bridging halide ligand. These structural differences confer very different magnetic behaviour. At low temperature [UCl(MesNPPh2)3CoI] can be formulated as an S = 1 spin system resulting from a combination of a magnetic singlet uranium(IV) and triplet cobalt(I). However, in contrast [(MesNPiPr2)U(μ-X)(MesNPiPr2)2CoI] is an S = 0 spin system at low temperature with antiferromagnetic exchange between uranium and cobalt proposed. Density functional theory calculations and topological bond analyses support the notion of formally dative Co → U bonds in both complexes. In an attempt to further support the claim of antiferromagnetic exchange between uranium and cobalt the thorium analogues were synthesised. To date, investigations into the respective electronic structures are still on going and conclusions about the exact nature of the cobalt centres cannot be drawn. There is however sufficient evidence which warrants further investigation that would be expected to be very detailed and that is thus unfortunately beyond the timeframe of this PhD. Reaction of the same four tris(phosphinoamide) actinide(IV) chlorides, that resulted in the synthesis of the actinide-cobalt complexes, with [Mo(MeCN)3(CO)3] in dichloromethane afforded the heterobimetallic uranium- and thorium-molybdenum complexes [AnCl(MesNPR2)2(MesNPR2{μ-NCMe})Mo(CO)3] (An = U, R = iPr; An = Th, R = iPr; An = U, R = Ph; An = Th, R = Ph). In contrast treatment of the tris(phosphinoamide) actinide(IV) iodides [IAn(MesNPiPr2)3] (An = Th, U) with [Mo(MeCN)3(CO)3] in toluene resulted in the formation of the complexes [(η2-MesNPiPr2)AnI(MesNPiPr2)({μ-NCMe}MesNPiPr2)Mo(CO)3 (An = U, Th). These compounds show unprecedented acetonitrile insertion as a bridging ligand between the actinide metal and Mo with structural analysis suggests an activation of the nitrile group. To synthesise the analogous actinide-molybdenum paddlewheel complexes to [UCl(MesNPPh2)3CoI], the appropriate tris(phosphinoamide) actinide(IV) halides were treated with [Mo(CO)3(NCMe)3] to afford the heterobimetallic uranium- and thorium-molybdenum complexes [M(X)(MesNPPh2)3Mo(CO)3] (M = U, X = Cl; M = U, X = I; M = Th, X = Cl; M = Th, X = I,). Orbital- and density-based quantum chemical calculations reveal dative MoM σ-interactions in all cases and so these complexes constitute unprecedented actinide-group 6 metal-metal bonds, where before heterobimetallic uranium-metal bonds were restricted to a few group 7-10 metals. With a synthetic route towards actinide-cobalt complexes established future work must look towards the reduction of these complexes to result in highly reactive and polarised early-late heterobimetallic compounds. The subsequent reaction of these compounds with small molecules such as CO, CO2 and H2 etc has the potential to result in novel and unusual chemistry which can help develop our fundamental understanding of the actinides. Although the actinide-molybdenum complexes were relatively straightforward to synthesise, surprisingly, the analogous chromium and tungsten complexes were not accessible by the same method, although it has been anticipated that photolysis could be an alternative synthetic route. Photolysis could also lead to the removal of one or more of the carbonyl groups situated on the group 6 metal and result in the targeted highly reactive and polarised early-late heterobimetallic compounds suitable for the activation of small molecules.

This thesis traces the ways in which David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, and Colson Whitehead react against the historical, institutional, and formal limits imposed upon contemporary fiction and culture. It argues that in order to counteract such constraints, they embrace and co-opt older forms and values as enabling for their fiction. To map these processes and relationships, I read these five writers as engaging with and reflective of the concept of cultural reproduction. Building largely from Raymond Williams’s definitions, the lens of cultural reproduction acknowledges what Williams terms the ‘limits and pressures’ of the contemporary – such as the inheritance of postmodernism, creative writing programs, technological changes, and commercial demands – but also how these writers display agency in reaction to such limits. Chapter One uses pragmatist philosopher John Dewey’s theories of habit to suggest Wallace’s work explores the way culture is reproduced habitually. Chapter Two contends that Franzen’s attention to these processes is distinctly melodramatic, and his writing embodies melodrama, rather than his stated realism. Chapter Three examines Chabon, Egan, and Whitehead as representative of the ‘genrefication’ of contemporary American fiction, and how each embrace genre forms to respond to different elements and processes of cultural reproduction.

Multivariate correlated time series are found in many modern socio-scientific domains such as neurology, cyber-security, genetics and economics. The focus of this thesis is on efficiently modelling and inferring dependency structure both between data-streams and across points in time. In particular, it is considered that generating processes may vary over time, and are thus non-stationary. For example, patterns of brain activity are expected to change when performing different tasks or thought processes. Models that can describe such behaviour must be adaptable over time. However, such adaptability creates challenges for model identification. In order to perform learning or estimation one must control how model complexity grows in relation to the volume of data. To this extent, one of the main themes of this work is to investigate both the implementation and effect of assumptions on sparsity; relating to model parsimony at an individual time- point, and smoothness; how quickly a model may change over time. Throughout this thesis two basic classes of non-stationary model are stud- ied. Firstly, a class of piecewise constant Gaussian Graphical models (GGM) is introduced that can encode graphical dependencies between data-streams. In particular, a group-fused regulariser is examined that allows for the estima- tion of changepoints across graphical models. The second part of the thesis focuses on extending a class of locally-stationary wavelet (LSW) models. Un- like the raw GGM this enables one to encode dependencies not only between data-streams, but also across time. A set of sparsity aware estimators are developed for estimation of the spectral parameters of such models which are then compared to previous works in the domain.

This thesis examines how Íslendingasögur out¬law narratives engage with socio-political concepts of community and the individual. It demonstrates that the sagas discussed share key anxieties over the deep structural problems in society, which are shown to restrict the individual agency of their protagonists, a restriction that motivates the transgressive behaviour of these individuals. The thesis suggests that these texts force their audiences to consider how each of their protagonists, despite his desire to live on his own terms, has his life and fate primarily defined—or indeed created—by the other members of his community. The introductory chapter details important trends in literary-critical scholarship about Íslendingasögur outlaw narratives, particularly trends that have caused problems for analysis of the texts’ socio-political dimensions. Chapter two reviews the usefulness of interpreting Gísli Súrsson as a primarily anachronistic figure within his contemporary society; it argues that such an interpretation overly downplays how the society of Gísla saga is shown to be defined by conflicting systems of communal expectation, which underlie Gísli’s approach to vengeance. Chapter three discusses how Grettis saga shows that various social constructs, including outlawry, are used reductively by Grettir’s society to frame him as a figure of Otherness; it demonstrates that the text implies that society’s use of these constructs to create outsiders is a fundamentally problematic method for dealing with difficult individuals. Chapter four demonstrates how Harðar saga juxtaposes the extra-legal Hólmverjar with normative Icelandic society in order to highlight fundamental structural problems that affect both communities in their capacity to provide stable environments for their individual members. Chapter five discusses Fóstbrœðra saga’s treatment of sworn-brotherhood as a symbolically extra-legal community; it also shows how Þormóðr uses his status as an outsider to subvert familiar notions of normativity and Otherness, thereby gaining advantages in his dealings with society.

The upward trend in the prevalence of childhood mental disorders observed in the UK over the previous two decades, together with UK’s poor performance in recent international comparisons of child well-being, has brought childhood social and emotional well-being (SEW) to the forefront of policy. Key to tackling this issue is to understand what causes SEW in childhood, what interventions are successful in improving it, and what are its late-life consequences. This thesis furthers the literature in each of these areas. Firstly, we examine whether foetal (or in-utero) exposure to influenza hampers the development of childhood SEW. To do so, we examine the use of an instrumental variables approach, whereby the severity of the 1957 Asian Flu epidemic in the local authority of birth is used as an instrument for whether mothers self-report contracting influenza during pregnancy. We establish that exposure has little effect on childhood SEW, but that it results in a 60% increase in the risk of being stillborn, suggesting an increasing focus on influenza vaccination during pregnancy is needed. Secondly, we investigate the long-term effectiveness of school-based interventions to improve SEW. In order to overcome the absence of long follow-up in trial datasets, we develop a new modelling approach which involves the matching of trial participants to individuals in birth cohort datasets. An application of this method found that a Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) intervention implemented in Greater Manchester schools led to a statistically significant improvement in childhood SEW, and had a positive, although statistically insignificant, effect on health across the life-course. Finally, we address the paucity of studies examining the effects of childhood SEW on late-life health and labour market outcomes. To do so, we develop a method for generating predictions of the effects of childhood characteristics beyond the currently available follow-up periods in birth cohort datasets, adapting an existing mediation analysis framework. Applying this method, we establish that a one-standard deviation improvement in childhood SEW leads to an increase of up to 0.18 accumulated quality-adjusted-life-years in late-life, and an increase in pre-tax labour income in late-life of up to £23,850. Both of these effects are primarily driven by large positive effects of childhood SEW on educational attainment, employment, income and health in mid-life. Childhood SEW is a predictor of important outcomes throughout the lifecourse. More research is needed to identify its causes and interventions to successfully improve it.

In this thesis both the static and dynamic magnetic behaviour of complex three-dimensional nanoscale commercial hard disk drive write heads and thin film structures of interest to emerging spintronic devices have been investigated using a plurality of experimental techniques. The magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) provides the basis for an optical microscopy technique sensitive to the magnetisation of a sample, detectable as a change in polarisation of light reflected from the sample surface. With a modelocked laser light source, synchronised electrical pulse generator and lock-in amplifier (LIA), a stroboscopic technique has been used to observe the magnetisation dynamics of hard disk drive write heads at 600 nm spatial resolution and 10 ps time resolution in response to a driving electrical pulse. The equilibrium magnetic state of these devices has been directly imaged by x-ray photo-emission electron microscopy (XPEEM), as well the stability of the equilibrium state in response to the application of an external bias field. Direct images of the equilibrium state obtained by XPEEM were found to agree with inferences made from MOKE images. Time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy (TRSKM) images of magnetisation dynamics showed that flux does not form in ‘beams’ as commonly believed, but instead nucleates in separate sites across the writer. Static and time-resolved x-ray techniques have also been used to investigate a number of thin films of interest to spintronics. Spin pumping and spin transfer torque in Co2MnGe / Ag / Ni81Fe19 spin valves were explored using time-resolved x-ray ferromagnetic resonance (XFMR) carried out at Diamond Light Source (DLS), a as well as static x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) for sample characterisation. This has provided element-specific measurements of the spin state in the source and sink layers of the spin valve, revealing a clear sign of spin transfer torque, while also investigating the role of sink layer thickness in spin pumping and damping. Ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe2(FeO4)3) (YIG), a material of great interest in spintronics, has been studied by static and dynamic XMCD in comparison with ferromagnetic Co. While static and dynamic spectra for Co were identical, those for YIG differed markedly. While this may hint at a phase difference between the precession of Fe moments on different lattice sites, the true source of this difference has not been identified. Comparisons between vector network analyser ferromagnetic resonance (VNA-FMR) and XFMR measurements further suggest the presence of long-range inhomogeneities in the YIG. The spin dynamics of an antiferromagnet being driven by a ferromagnet have also been investigated using XMCD and x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD). A CoO / Fe / Ni81Fe19 trilayer wherein the thickness of the CoO layer varies across the sample has been thoroughly characterised by static XMCD and XMLD, providing information necessary to fully interpret time-resolved MOKE measurements on these samples. Measurements have shown that even small amounts of ordered CoO significantly modify the resonant field and linewidth of the adjacent ferromagnetic layers. Phase-resolved measurements of CoO spins have shown these spins to precess in phase with those of the adjacent Fe. The viability of dynamic XMLD measurements has also been confirmed. Finally, potential directions for future work in each project are discussed.

The thesis re-examines and re-configures the category of Bad Painting. By selecting a disparate group of Bad Painters, explored in the form of small case studies, the research creates an imaginary, timeless peer group that crosses over the genre. This imagined group includes Martin Kippenberger, Philip Guston, Rene Magritte, – especially of the Période vache – Lee Lozano, Sandy Guy, and Andreas Schulze. The thesis proposes a new model for understanding Bad Painting in relation to both networked painting (as advocated by David Joselit in his “Painting Beside Itself”) and new materialisms. The resonances of the latter are reflected back through Bad Painting in terms of what the thesis describes as “Soft Object Painting”. By supplying an idiosyncratic contextual framework, these case studies enabled the production of a body of Bad Paintings made over several years at Goldsmiths. These works borrowed strategies, tactics, attitudes and styles from multiple approaches. Many things entered the practice as a result, including: the outsourcing of painting labour in Chinese workshops as a form of networked production influenced by the networked production of Lee Lozano and the theories of David Joselit; overpainting commissioned paintings; colliding styles and themes in unexpected combinations, such as the juxtaposition of illustrational techniques with the conservative brushwork of painterly abstraction, in the manner of Ivon Hitchens or Howard Hodgkin; use of found images that refer to other areas and histories of cultural production. Through both the practice and the written element, the research proposes to update the genre of Bad Painting. This is largely done by associating the two ideas of “painting as network” and “soft object painting” with the notion of “flattened ontologies”. The research attempts to forge a fresh pathway for Bad Painting, allowing for the continuation of a slippery, de-centred, timeless and rhizomatically structured genre.