Discussions of citizenship and citizenship education have been conducted largely within the worldview of stable, Western societies and have been based on psychological models that emphasize individual cognition. The concepts of citizenship that evolved in this context have become taken for granted. But during the past decade, different concepts of citizenship have arisen from emergent democracies, from societies in transition, from the dissolution of the left-right spectrum in Western society, and from a changing perspective in psychological theory that attends to language and to social and cultural context. These developments have implications for defining the goals of citizenship education and for formulating educational programs, particularly in relation to identity, positioning, narratives, and efficacy.

Constructing the citizen

This thesis considers the emerging character of asexual activism in Western societies. It asks what the key factors are impacting on triggering, mobilisation, organisation and performance that motivate asexual-identified individuals into collective activism. It considers the significance of wider LGBT+ and Q activism exemplified by Pride as performed spectacle, as a factor influencing the character of contemporary asexual activism. This is considered both in terms of how the staging, setting and scripting of Pride speaks to asexual activists in the West, and, how they speak back to Pride as actor-activists, audience and bystanders to its political theatre. Methodologically, this thesis is based on 15 months of ethnographic research: online semi-structured interviews with asexual activists in both Europe and North America; auto-ethnographic participant-observation of Pride events in Europe and North America, and, specific case studies of WorldPride 2014 and Berlin Pride 2015. Theoretically, it draws cross-disciplinarily on: insights from Social Movement Theory, particularly recent work which emphasises the significance of emotive, cultural drama in contemporary activism; insights from Sexuality & Gender Studies concerning scripted behaviour and LGBT+ and Q identity-formations, and, emerging research in Asexual Studies concerning asexual orientations, identities and socialised behaviours. The thesis emphasises the work of Goffmann (1971, 1974, 2017), Jasper (2008), Plummer (1994), Rubin (2011), Stallybrass and White (1986) and Tilly (1995) to analyse the presentation of the asexual activist self, the collective activist performances through which that self is embodied, and the interrelated asexual and Pride narratives that are contended. Through auto-ethnography it considers the researcher’s engagement with these contentious repertoires, as academic and participant-observer who is also an actor-activist, audience member and bystander. This analysis reveals a disconnect between the ongoing, framed scripting of Pride activism in the West and the emerging core-frames of asexual activist scripts; even as asexual activists seek alignment.

“Asexy and we know it”: The Emergence of Asexual Activism as a Sexual and Gender Social Movement

................................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iii Table of

Agency and wellbeing in the context of early marriage: A qualitative inquiry into the northern Nigerian context

When New Labour were elected in 1997, the party’s leader, Tony Blair, claimed the dawn of radical labour market reforms that would substantially reduce long-term unemployment and welfare dependency. This thesis is an evaluation of New Labour’s active labour market policy (ALMP), and focuses on the three central components of that policy agenda: the New Deal programmes, Tax Credit programmes and the National Minimum Wage. These reforms were targeted at key client groups such as the young (defined as those aged 18 to 25 year olds), the long-term unemployed, those aged over 50, the disabled and lone-parents. This thesis adopts Economics of Conventions (EC) as its focal theory, and uses a range of quantitative methods to analyse official labour market data while drawing into question the trajectories of improvement found in the official statistics. It also provides a systematic review of existing evaluative research including that conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions, Low Pay Commission and HM Treasury. 

This thesis found that rates of unemployment declined while New Labour were in power, arguably as a result of strong economic growth but potentially as a result of their ALMP. Rates of economic activity and inactivity did not significantly change, even after the introduction of additional obligations on lone parents. However, due to the introduction of programmes like the New Deal for Young People, individuals were re-categorised, drastically altering labour market statistics and trends. Indeed, when it comes to the justification and evaluation of their ALMP, New Labour made clear moral judgements about ‘the deserving poor’ and ‘the undeserving poor’ based on links between rights and responsibilities of benefit claimants. Indeed, the economic policies of New Labour continued and promoted neo-liberal precepts of labour market management, i.e. they focused on individual behaviour and personal responsibility, at the expense of potentially more effective policy alternatives.

Working hard or hardly working? : Evaluating New Labour's active labour market policy.

The present PhD thesis develops and applies an evaluative methodology suited to the evaluation of policy and governance in complex policy areas. While extensive literatures exist on the topic of policy evaluation, governance evaluation has received less attention. At the level of governance, policymakers confront choices between different policy tools and governance arrangements in their attempts to solve policy problems, including variants of hierarchy, networks and markets. There is a need for theoretically-informed empirical research to inform decision-making at this level.

To that end, the PhD develops an approach to evaluation by combining postpositivist policy analysis with heterodox political economy. Postpositivist policy analysis recognises that policy problems are often contested, that choices between policy options can involve significant trade-offs and that knowledge of policy options is itself dispersed and fragmented. Similarly, heterodox economics combines a concept of incommensurable values with an appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of different institutional arrangements to realise them. A central concept of the field is coordination, which orientates policy analysis to the interactions of stakeholders in policy processes. The challenge of governance is to select the appropriate policy tools and arrangements which facilitate coordination. Via a postpositivist exploration of stakeholder ‘frames’, it is possible to ascertain whether coordination is occurring and to identify problems if it is not. Evaluative claims of governance can be made where arrangements can be shown to frustrate the realisation of shared values and objectives.

The research makes a contribution to knowledge in a number of ways a) a distinctive evaluative approach that could be applied to other areas of health and public policy b) greater appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of evidence in public policy and in particular health policy and c) concrete policy proposals for the governance and organisation of diabetes services, with implications for the NHS more broadly.

The political economy of co-ordination challenges in the National Health Service: a postpositivist evaluation of diabetes policy and governance

Preface. Introduction. 1. Conservatism: Radicalism Embraced. 2. Socialism: The Retreat from Radicalism. 3. The Social Revolutions of Our Time. 4. Two Theories of Democratization. 5. Contradictions of the Welfare State. 6. Generative Politics and Positive Welfare. 7. Positive Welfare, Poverty and Life Values. 8. Modernity under a Negative Sign: Ecological Issues and Life Politics. 9. Political Theory and the Problem of Violence. 10. Questions of Agency and Values. Notes. Index.

Anthony Giddens

Papers

超越左与右 : 激进政治的未来 = Beyond Left and Right : the future of radical politics