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During the 1990's a wave of protests against road and motorway building spread across the UK to develop into perhaps the most confrontational, and indeed successful, challenges to government policy since the protests against the poll tax in the late 1980's. Using analytical concepts developed within the field of social movements theory this thesis interprets research data gained from the application of quantitative and qualitative research methods in two case studies to explore the key sociological dimensions of the protests. The first case study focuses on Alarm UK, the national umbrella co-ordinating organisation for local grassroots action groups opposing road building which in the mid- 1990's had over 250 such groups affiliated to it. The second case study focuses on the protests against the M77 extension in Glasgow which reached a dramatic climax in early 1995 when local opposition groups joined together with eco-activists based at the Pollok Free State, a fortified encampment set up in the path of the construction route, to employ direct action tactics against the building contractors. These two case studies bring into high relief the complex dynamics of the inter-relationships between protesters, organisations and social movements which are central to the sociological interpretation of the mobilisation against road-building presented in this thesis.

The thesis draws upon six published and peer reviewed papers and a peer reviewed book chapter. An overview of each paper is followed by the publication and then an explanation of how each has contributed to the emerging research profile and methodology. There follows a critical overview and rationale of the developing and emerging research profile and the move from a constructivist grounded methodology to a Bourdieuian theoretical and methodological position. This thesis focuses on the process of social reproduction and change in the contemporary mountaineering and climbing field. A central theme in this thesis is the relationship between social structure and individual agency. The adoption of the Bourdieuian approach represents a conceptual break with previous understandings of action, agency, objectivism, subjectivism, the individual and society. Habitus becomes a main mechanism to explore and analyse the process of social change and reproduction in the contemporary climbing and mountaineering field. Habitus makes it possible to understand and account for the dynamic and spontaneous actions of individuals as well as the process of social reproduction and change. At the centre of the process of social change is the relationship between the habitus and the field. It is through a detailed analysis of the relationship between the habitus and the field that is possible to understand the process of structural change and the conditions where individuals are most likely and able to challenge doxa. In the modern climbing context, women, particularly from the middle classes, are becoming empowered through the transformation of their bodies and the construction of often complex and contradictory identities. These women are placed to take advantage of new emerging social relations and opportunities occurring as a result of hysteresis. However, this has implications for the identities and position of established climbers, particularly men whose habitus was formed under a previous set of objective conditions, but also other women from subordinate social positions.