Thesis and Research Data Repository Leeds Beckett University
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Managing the Risks of COVID-19
No full textSociety is now, more than ever, surrounded by uncertainty and risk. The COVID-19 pandemic is an issue that contemporary society has not experienced which means we are confronted with risk. Risk is created by the uncertainty concerning future events that may occur (Beck, 2009). This essay will explore the coronavirus pandemic in relation to the concept of risk society, investigating whether the pandemic is a typical result of living in a risk society, looking at responses to risk, and considering how the rise in individualisation affects the impact the pandemic has had on society.</p
Unravelling the role of the sport psychologist in talent development
No full textThe field of talent development (TD) has benefitted from a burgeoning of research over the last couple of decades, including psychological factors associated with successful TD. However, there is a notable gap in the literature relating to how practitioner sport psychologists can implement this knowledge into their applied practice. To address this research-practice gap, this thesis adopts an action research approach to understand how sport psychologists can go about supporting effective TD of athletes. Within the thesis, I outline the four-stage action research process I undertook as a researcher-practitioner working within a professional men’s rugby league academy. The first stage included a process of planning an evidence-informed and contextually-relevant intervention through exploration of the existing literature to understand what evidence already existed in this area, and interviews with players at the academy to explore their experiences of this developmental stage in their careers. Specifically, I was able to identify demands, resources, and barriers experienced by players during their time in the academy. This information was used to inform the delivery of a solution-focused groupwork intervention to relevant stakeholders (including players, coaches and support staff, and parents) in the next stage of the process. I then went on to observe the impact of the intervention, focusing particularly on any learning and/or change action that had occurred. Finally, I spent time reflecting on how these outcomes had been achieved, through exploring the processes and mechanisms that underpinned the observed learning and change action. Through engaging in this four-stage process, I have been able to deliver real-world impact and positive change within the academy in which I was working, improve my own applied practice as a practitioner sport psychologist, and also produce new knowledge to help bridge the research-practice gap within TD
Acid-soaked molluscs: a xenophoric approach to practising sculpture and print
No full textThis thesis examines three bodies of work produced in 2019: Feeling the Underside, an artist’s book; Mollusc Series, a series of etchings; and Coiled in a Single Plane, Skimmed and Separated, an installation. The catalyst for these works was an encounter with a xenophora carrier snail shell at the Leeds Discovery Centre archive. Xenophora are marine gastropods known for their collecting behaviour, they gather shells, stones, fragments of coral and other detritus from the sea floor and attach this material to the outside of its own shell. They become museums of the sea floor, specific to their locality. This thesis considers the process of making the three works and the subsequent evolution of a xenophoric research methodology, that shadows the xenophora’s habits as a creative process. The methodology is contextualised by the theories of Donna Haraway (tentacular thinking), Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (ecological assemblages) and Jane Bennett (vibrant materials). A main contribution of this thesis is the proposed xenophoric research methodology, which uniquely combines thinking with the xenophora with material knowledge and tactility, to produce sculpture and print. New materialism and material culture studies inform much the work discussed and the proposed xenophoric research methodology. The three works discussed throughout, bridge the divide between print and sculpture and combine research into conchology, sculpture production and the mutability of print. These bodies of work are discussed in relation to key works by Marcel Duchamp, Mark Dion and the practices of artists Helen Chadwick, Alice Channer and Carol Bove alongside others. Throughout this thesis is a focus on material processes and how they overlap with equivalent processes found in geology, nature and the activities of non-human lifeforms. This PhD by practice is the result of a collaboration with Yorkshire Sculpture International (YSI), a new festival of visual art in Yorkshire focusing on contemporary sculpture. The first iteration of the festival (22 June to 29 September 2019) was held across four partner galleries: Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and in the public realm between Leeds and Wakefield. This research developed while being embedded in the team delivering Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019 and supporting the delivery of public programming and public sculpture commissions by international artists.</p
Post Occupancy Evaluation in Social Housing: Triangulating tenant experience, estate management and environmental impacts
No full textObtaining feedback on building design and use is currently rarely sought for, even if its value has been recognised since the middle of the 20th century through Post Occupancy Evaluation methodology. This research investigates both the barriers and the usefulness of introducing Post Occupancy Evaluation methods in the Social Housing sector. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to create an understanding of in-use building data and occupant information Social Housing providers need to make decisions regarding major refurbishment and new developments. The history and theory of Post Occupancy Evaluation methodology is combined with the real-life reports of representatives of Social Housing providers, consultancy practices and tenants on the operations and policies of Social Housing providers. This research proves that Post Occupancy Evaluation can be used in the Social Housing sector as an integrated data collection tool. It also provides and presents the principles for the design of a Post Occupancy Evaluation method fit for the practices of Social Housing providers. Such a tool would streamline the operations, simplify the communication between tenants and the Social Housing provider and inform corporate decisions on major refurbishment and new developments
Trauma, Technology and the 'Haunted' Male Bodies of Interwar Literature
No full textThe First World War ‘haunts’ the present day and remains in the public consciousness through literature, film and national rituals such as Remembrance Day. This haunting is highly Gothic and exposes a socio-cultural trauma caused by the Great War. Then, as now, the male soldier’s body is a site of competing narratives regarding what is perceived as ‘ideal’, ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’. At the Great War’s outbreak, the soldier’s body was conflated with nationalism, eugenics, technological advancement and perceived as a machine-like technology of war. However, the soldier’s engagement with industrial war technologies exposed the fragility of the human body as well as the illusionary ideals and constructs which rendered it more than human.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach and using a range of theoretical models, this study investigates masculinity through representations of the soldier’s body in popular and lesser-known literatures of the interwar period. Interwar literature is haunted by the spectre of the war and socio-cultural anxieties regarding gender, masculinity, and physical and mental ‘norms’ are manifested in representations of the soldier’s body. The soldier’s body is explored as a symbol of Futurist, machine-like, warrior masculinity as well as a physically and mentally broken body juxtaposed against the idealised body of the cultural imagination. The body is revealed as an object belonging to the state with a specific use-value as well as an embarrassment for the state and society when this use-value is depleted or falls short of the national ideal or ‘norm’. Analysing bodily categorisation, idealised machine-like bodies, the mutilated body, the facially-disfigured body and the shell-shocked, mentally damaged, suicidal body this study argues that all these representations highlight a deviation from a ‘norm’ in the interwar period and that these ‘monstrosities’ still have a relevance to ideas of masculinity, mental health and disability in the present day.</p
The international, the global and the intercultural: an exploration of the graduate attribute of the ‘Global Outlook’ at one UK university
No full textThis research was prompted by a perceived lack of meaningful interaction between the home and international students in one UK university, which has a graduate attribute of a ‘global outlook’. It aimed to investigate the role of this attribute in the development of intercultural understanding by examining the different stakeholder perceptions of graduate attributes and the approach taken by the institution, the different interpretations of the ‘Global Outlook’ and the factors affecting the development of intercultural understanding through intercultural interaction.
The research sits within an interpretive paradigm and uses a case study methodology to hear the voices of senior managers, academics, and students and to capture their experiences and perceptions of the graduate attribute of a ‘Global Outlook’. Individual interviews were carried out with senior managers, academics, recent graduates, and undergraduate students. Five focus groups were held with undergraduate students and a questionnaire was completed by 152 students. Mezirow’s (1991) transformative learning theory was used as a theoretical framework, not to test for transformative learning in the delivery of the graduate attribute, but to explore the potential for a transformative learning experience.
The findings suggest that group identity as an international student creates a sense of belonging, which excludes the home students. This sense of exclusion combined with the marginalisation of the home students in comparison to their international peers appears to lie at the heart of the segregation on campus. The top-down approach taken by the institution to embed the graduate attributes in the curriculum seems to have resulted in a tick-box exercise rather than provide an opportunity for reconsideration and full-scale change of the curriculum. These findings imply that meaningful intercultural interaction will only be brought about when the different groups of students come to realise that they have shared goals and equal status, with a learning environment which embraces who they are and who they are becoming.</p
A machine learning approach to understanding falls in older women
No full textBackground: Falls are a significant public health concern for older adults, and are associated with many detrimental physical, psychological and economic consequences. The aim of this thesis was to identify which functional variables (i.e. balance, gait and clinical measures) and physical characteristics (i.e. strength and body composition) could best distinguish between older female fallers and non-fallers, using a novel machine learning approach.
Methods: 60 community-dwelling older women (≥65 years), classified as fallers and non-fallers based on falls history, attended three data collection sessions. Centre of pressure data were collected during five static posturography protocols. Ground reaction force (GRF) and kinematic data were measured during walking trials at two gait speeds. Participants completed five clinical measures, and strength assessments were performed at the trunk, knee and ankle for both limbs using an isokinetic dynamometer. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry scans were conducted to assess body composition, bone mineral density and hip structure. The data (281 variables) were partitioned into five data packages (balance, gait, clinical measures, strength and body composition) and a uniform analysis strategy was applied to each in the single-domain analyses. Random forest and leave-one-variable-out partial least squares correlation analysis were employed to assess variable importance. The important variables selected were combined into two refined datasets, and classification models were constructed to differentiate between fallers and non-fallers. Subsequently, the strongest discriminators from each data package were compiled and analysed in the multi-domain analyses using the same strategy.
Findings: Overall, this thesis demonstrates that it is possible to distinguish between fallers and non-fallers with a high degree of accuracy, using a refined set of variables and a sophisticated multivariate approach, in both a single- and multi-domain context. Important balance, gait, clinical measures, strength, and body composition variables were identified for discriminating between groups, alongside redundant factors. In the balance data package, multiple variables measured during the limits of stability, unilateral stance, and Modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction on Balance were identified as important discriminators. In the gait data package, a combination of spatiotemporal, kinematic, GRF, and variability variables were selected as important. In the clinical measures data package, several variables measured during the Timed Up and Go, Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment, and gait speed protocols appeared useful when differentiating between groups. In the strength data package, a combination of peak torque variables, namely knee flexion, dorsiflexion and plantar flexion, alongside three asymmetry variables were identified as important. In the body composition data package, several muscle quality indices were selected as important. In the multi-domain data package, a combination of gait, clinical measures, strength, and body composition variables appeared to be the most important discriminators between fallers and non-fallers. This study is one of the few comprehensive analyses to include important variables from multiple domains with a sophisticated machine learning approach. The findings can be used to inform the design of optimal falls screening and prevention methods. Furthermore, this work highlights the applicability of machine learning techniques when investigating falls in older women.</p
Genetic Testing: Certainty in a World of Uncertainty?
No full textGenetic testing has displayed a significant rise in late modernity, especially with increased awareness of new risks. With the nature of what we know continually shifting, it is hard to grasp anything certain about risk, or our knowledge of it. Could genetic testing be our source of certainty? This is unclear, as methods of genetic testing defy traditional characteristics and forms of new risks, specifically those in accordance with Beck’s (2009) new risk theory. The objectivity of genetic testing allows calculability and directed solutions contrasting with the unpredictability of new risks. However, in spite of this similarities can be identified. The increase in the dissemination of scientific knowledge leaves individuals more informed than ever, increasing the creation of risks. None of these risks are objectively certain allowing neoliberal product production to facilitate strategic responses. This then poses the question answered by this reflection: does the factuality and reliability of scientific confirmation within genetic testing provide individuals with certainty in a world of uncertainty?</p
Written in the Stars? The Occult As Risk Management in the Age of Aquarius
No full textThe times in which we live are punctuated by events of unrest, uncertainty, and fear for many in society. Although many theories seek to explain the turbulent landscape of modern life, Beck’s theory of Risk Society (1992) is one that is often explored when one aims to understand contemporary socio-political crises. Alongside its exploration of the theory of Beck’s ‘Risk Society’, this paper will begin to understand occultism, or what Christopher Partridge (2004: p.4) calls “Western ‘occulture’”. For Partridge, “occulture” includes a ‘vast spectrum of beliefs and practices, sourced by Eastern spirituality, Paganism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, alternative science and medicine, popular psychology, and a range of beliefs emanating out of a general interest in the paranormal’ (Ibid.). This paper explores the use of occultism in the search for new knowledge, as a form of risk management in modern society, as well as providing insight into its growing popularity and commercialisation over the past decade.</p
In-Work Poverty in Consumer Culture: A Contradiction of Our Times?
No full textIn recent years, many theorists (Bauman 2005, Fisher 2008, Fukuyama 1992) have acknowledged a marked shift in social structures across the globe. New trends in late modernity have demanded fresh tools of understanding to keep pace with the late/post-modern world. The purpose of this critical reflection is to demonstrate and apply several of these relatively new interpretations of the social world to a current and specific social phenomenon. I hope to do this by arguing that for poor, low-skill service workers in Britain today conditions are rapidly declining, seemingly reverting or regressing us back to the days of liberal capitalism. I will use concepts such as post-Fordism, risk, consumerism and surveillance to explain how and why this might be occurring.</p