Thesis and Research Data Repository Leeds Beckett University
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Does YouTube Facilitate Knowledge or Surveillance?
No full textYouTube is the second most popular website online globally, bested only by their parent company, Google (Alexa Internet, 2017). With over a billion global users, YouTube arguably creates a platform for democracy wherein we can discuss our views and listen to others, freely. However, YouTube is now regulating the allowed content and placing restrictions on content that is not ‘advertiser friendly’. Arguably, this restriction on what was once allowed on YouTube could be seen as a reflection on a surveillance society that censors us according to the consumerist ideals that corporations demand we live by. To consider the purpose and effects of YouTube on society, I will mainly be focussing on YouTube as part of an information society as well as the easy access to online surveillance and the ability to subject oneself to invasive surveillance, often directly or indirectly for commercial purposes.</p
How the Obsession With the Self Creates Global Warming
No full textSelf-esteem, self-worth, vanity and the need to feel positive about ourselves, seems to be a prominent aspect of society’s everyday life in the Twenty-first century. The idea of ‘beauty’, ‘accomplishment’, ‘wealth’ and ‘selfcenteredness’ has always been a somewhat dominant area of a community. However, recently it has become the main focus of how we function as a society.</p
Consumer Culture and Post-Fordist Customization
No full textModern societies are characterized by ‘dialectic penury’ (Baudrillard, 1998), insatiable needs and a constant sense of differentiation and competition and feeling of never having enough. Thus, Baudrillard attributed the underlying problem to ? social relationships and social logic, reflecting on? affluence of symbolic exchange, rather than condemning ‘luxurious and spectacular penury’. According to his theory, the modern world represents a series of simulations, whereby nature is carefully managed, policed and tailored to the needs of humans, offering an abundance of signs with the false pretence of being real, i.e. in objects referred to as ‘sham objects’, that define our consumer society (Baudrillard, 1998).</p
Sunday league football and potential for social change
No full textThis thesis examines the role and importance of football in the lives of players from a Sunday league football club representing a pub in the north-east of England. It considers the extent to which the club provides a context for social change and what influences this. The study employs a predominantly Bourdieusian analysis to consider how various forms of capital are accumulated and operationalised by different individuals within the club to gain status and influence. The thesis also evaluates the researcher’s role(s) within the club, particularly how leadership and social change can be understood as an interdependent dynamic.
Drawing on a three-year ethnographic study, influenced by the researcher’s role as founder and manager of the club, a deep insider status gave access to all aspects of club life. A research diary was maintained, supported by eight semi-structured interviews with two or three participants in each interview, culminating in 21 people in total. Interviews were conducted to explore players’ and supporters’ views, provided first-hand accounts of which forms of capital are valued within the club and directly informed the analysis of how successful the club was in achieving social change. Further, narratives based on the researcher’s experiences, provide insight into embedded and embodied relationships with football.
The thesis concludes that football continues to be a significant aspect of habitus for individuals and the community at the centre of this study. Football shapes and influences dispositions, values and lives. In a wider context, the thesis locates football as an opiate, distracting players and supporters from other, potentially counter-hegemonic, activity. Conceptually, bonding social capital is regarded as critical in the sense of belonging created within the club. Embodied cultural capital is critical in influencing behaviour, status and relationships within the club. The thesis introduces football capital as an emergent concept complementary to other forms of capital.
Social change has occurred at the club, helped by adherence to a club Constitution and dialogue with influential members of the club. Data demonstrate that individuals with significant football capital who consciously adopt a sociology of leadership approach can be influential in instigating social change, including challenging dominant dispositions and learned values, with a resulting emphasis on inclusivity and equality and that can be adopted and embodied in a community based football club. It is concluded that the club here, understood as a cultural field, can be regarded as successful at resisting and challenging dominant hegemonies to an extent.</p
Telling Life Stories Autobiographical performance in the Third Angel repertoire
No full textThis study explores the contribution of three solo performances created by
Alexander Kelly and Third Angel to the field of autobiographical
performance: Class of ’76, The Lad Lit Project and Cape Wrath. The three
Existing Published Works are preceded by a contextual, critical synopsis and
a Timeline of Submitted and Related Projects, positioning them in their
immediate context of Third Angel’s 22 years of practice. The study recognises
the political potential of autobiographical work to give voice to those whose
stories are often overlooked by the dominant media around us as the central
argument for the value of this work. Consequently it considers what the
ethical implications are of using autobiographical performance to tell other
people’s stories.
Chapter 1 introduces the study, and identifies the key literature that has
framed and informed the work: Heddon’s Autobiography and Performance,
Govan et al’s Making A Performance and Maguire’s Performing Story on the
Contemporary Stage. Chapter 2, Mapping The Territory, identifies the key
themes that have emerged in this theoretical consideration of
autobiographical performance in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, notably
the importance of authenticity, the construction of the self, the role of
persona, the relationship to place. It places the work in a lineage of devised
and autobiographical performance, notably the work of Spalding Gray,
Bobby Baker and Bryony Kimmings. Chapter 3, Telling Other People’s
Stories, identifies the importance and impact of the submitted projects.
Recognising the devising methodology of the work, the different roles of
Kelly (deviser, writer and performer) and his principal collaborator Rachael
Walton (director) are identified. Through exploration of a process of real world investigation, the study demonstrates a model of reportage
performance that tells both the stories uncovered and the story of their
discovery. Autobiographical narratives are utilised as a frame to explore
wider themes and to tell other people’s stories. Processes that solicit and value
contributions of auto/biographical stories from participants facilitate the
construction of ‘multi-author solo-performances’ that give voice to those not
positioned or inclined to make performances of their own. Re-telling these
stories, performers find their own resonances, and place their own emphases.
Therefore mechanisms need to be deployed that genuinely invite
contributions, and recognise the responsibility we have as researcher performance-makers to the stories and lives that we tell. Through producing
performances that ‘show their working’, these autobiographical works invite
audiences to imagine, and even make, their own versions, in recognition that
everyone has a story worth telling, and worth hearing.
The three projects are presented in their own volumes that detail their
intentions, their unique devising processes and the evolution of the
performance material. The full touring history of each show is included,
alongside a demonstration of its critical reception and impact. Finally, each is
represented with photographs and a full performance text or transcript
Associations between the physical environment and obesity
No full textThe physical environment is considered a contributing factor to elevated body mass index
(BMI) and odds of obesity in adulthood. However, associations within current literature are
inconsistent in scale and direction. This thesis used individual-level data from The Yorkshire
Health Study including self-reported BMI (wave one: 2010-12, n=27,806 and wave two:
2013-15, n=11,164). The physical environment was characterised using measures of the
food (fast-food, large supermarkets, convenience and other food outlets) and physical
activity (PA) environment (PA facilities, parks, green, and blue space) corresponding with
the baseline individual-level data. Home addresses were geocoded to postcode zone
centroids. A 2km radial buffer defined neighbourhood. Analyses used multi-level models,
latent class analysis (LCA) and subgroup analyses by socioeconomic status. In most cross sectional (n=22,889, age 18-86 years), and especially longitudinal findings (n=8,864), the
physical environment, BMI, and obesity were inconsistently related. While PA facilities were
associated with reduced BMI in longitudinal and cross-sectional findings, effects were very
small. An original measure of neighbourhood typologies, was associated with BMI and
obesity in cross-sectional findings, yet was unrelated in longitudinal evidence.
Acknowledging the risk of residual confounding, this thesis advances evidence by
suggesting that the physical environment may be relevant for BMI and obesity, but only
among certain population sub-groups, for instance, low socioeconomic status individuals.
Compared to current evidence, this research provides an original and rigorous longitudinal
perspective that utilises advanced analytical approaches in a large sample. An extensive
measurement of the physical environment from several different data sources, allowed a
unique synthesis of evidence. However, even given these strengths, associations between
the physical environment, BMI, and obesity are convincingly shown to be small in scale,
and inconsistent in direction across this thesis. This provides preliminary evidence for an
opportunity to reconsider the current trajectory of both research and policy in this field
Using story and drama with adoptive and foster families in their home
No full textThe need for therapeutic support for families of Looked After and adopted children is recognised in the literature and UK government reports. Numbers in care are rising as is the proportion of children showing impairment and self-blame affecting their capacity for relationships. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrines the child’s right to information about their birth family and reasons for care decisions. There is an absence of research combining aspects of therapy (a) being in the family home, (b) using dramatic narrative play and (c) enlisting substitute parents in reconstructing the child’s life story. The focus of this inquiry is on how change came about in such intervention incorporating multiple techniques to meet individual need. In therapeutic context, this ‘theatre of attachment’ model replicates the ‘attachment dance’ of interactions between children and their caregivers. The nine families recruited comprised 17 parents and 14 children aged 6-9 years. In order to enable safety for securing the children’s attachment, of the 212 sessions that took place, 90% were in the home, the other 10% were in school. Primarily a phenomenological study, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of interviews and records was used. To establish a firmer evidence base, mixed methods included tables of (a) ‘use of self’ and techniques and (b) changes observed in children, as problems were resolved. By the conclusion of the project, all the placements were intact. One prominent finding concerned changes occurring faster than expected. Specifically, instances of children’s joy in transformation were observed at twice the frequency of any other factor seen to influence change. Participant parents attributed this to the family home being a safe place to process painful memories. Collaboration and life story plays raised the parents’ empathy. They valued learning the ‘attachment dance’. Children’s creation of stories led to development of “The Storying Spiral” paradigm. Other significant themes were the safety of metaphor in play, repetition, and flexibility. Recommendations include situating therapy in the family home (when viable), involving parent/caregiver and addressing the life story. Also, birth parents’ predicaments need to be contextualised to relieve children of self-blame. Finally, creative play is posited as an effective means of communication to enable healing
The governance of conservation and economic restructuring in a historic city : York 1966-2011
No full textMany historic cities have experienced the challenges common to other cities since the 1960s, including deindustrialisation. An additional issue has been the need to conserve the historic built environment in a period of economic change. Historic cities have also seen a growth in the appreciation of heritage related employment opportunities in the service economy and especially in tourism. This thesis focuses on the role of local governance practice in the management of that process of change, examining what specific characteristics in historic cities might build and reinforce effective governance mechanisms. This focus has provided the opportunity to position historic cities, and particularly conservation, in the wider theoretical discourse on local governance.
York provided an opportunity for a single case study, being a ‘jewel’ historic city that also experienced significant losses of manufacturing employment. An historical institutionalist approach was adopted enabling a thick and deep understanding of the processes of institutional change over a long period of development and economic restructuring. Narratives were prepared on the governance of conservation, economic development and tourism that demonstrate how the qualities of a place influenced governance mechanisms. Evidence was gathered from documentary and interview sources, the latter especially informing the motivations of participants in governance processes.
The thesis concludes that regime theory is appropriate to explain the interaction of national, local and voluntary organisations in conservation in the research period. The role of independent institutions in York, with the financial capacity to act, (in science development and tourism as well as conservation), enabled some of the governance mechanisms to be categorised as regimes. Underpinning governance activity in York has been strength in social capital formation, occurring over a very long historic period and maintained through processes of path dependence. The discovery of regimes challenges a literature that postulates regimes as USA centric and not a feature of UK governance. Overall the thesis demonstrates the importance of a historical approach to institutionalist studies.</p
Tinder: the Marketplace for Love
No full textOnline dating has become a global phenomenon within contemporary society with one in five relationships now starting online (Match.com, 2010) and Tinder ranking the third most popular online dating service in the UK (Statista, 2017). Clearly, wider societal changes are forcing the dynamics of social relationships to adapt. Thus, this contribution will explore and assess how contemporary consumerist values, technological innovations, and increased individualisation have come to influence our private sphere.</p
Curriculum innovation : navigating the tensions betwen a standardised curriculum and professional autonomy
No full textBased on the belief that the current curriculum was not developing necessary skills or preparing pupils adequately for their next stages of education and for future employability, this research project documents the curriculum development journey of Castle School. The castle’s special story is told in an attempt to discover how teacher practitioners experience curriculum innovation against the backdrop of an externally configured National Curriculum and system of accountability.
The research focuses on an innovative curriculum model, Mission Possible (MP) and adopts an ethnographic approach incorporating the use of participatory action research. This methodology was employed in order to gain an understanding of teachers’ views, perceptions and social interactions throughout the curriculum development journey. Telling the school’s story, it reveals the accounts of teachers, pupils and other members of the school community. It analyses the issues raised by teachers and explores their interpretations and explanations in relation to their own delivery of the curriculum model. It explores the tensions and risk associated with curriculum innovation, in relation to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment alongside teacher behaviours and a readiness and capacity to innovate.
During this journey, the MP approach changed the interactional dimensions within the classroom, focussing on pupil collaboration. Driven by an ideology of learning and its measurement, contradictions then occurred between what was considered to be a good lesson, what good teaching looked like and how outcomes were assessed. Teachers found that learning could not be measured in the same way, as with written outcomes, resulting in assessment and curriculum coverage difficulties and a sense of uncertainty as the roles of both teacher and pupil changed. This challenged teachers’ professional identity in terms of control and performativity as their indicators of success were placed under the microscope.
The researcher tells the story as a personal, autoethnographic account of a participative, action research project in order to present a personal narrative of the ethnography of the castle’s inhabitants. This allows for teachers’ views, perceptions and social interactions to be explored subjectively. It places the researcher as narrator of the castle’s unique seven year, collaborative curriculum development journey.
The story of Castle School’s journey will support the curriculum development of future schools in their attempts to provide the type of education which will deliver vital tools for the future, more sophisticated skills which will prepare pupils for their next stage of education and subsequently employment.</p