Sociology thesis and dissertation collection
Welcome to Sociology, part of the School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Edinburgh. The Department began in 1964 and remains one of the most eminent in the UK for research, undergraduate teaching and postgraduate research.
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Recent Submissions
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Using intimacy as a lens on the work and migration experiences of ethnic performers in Southwest China
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-08-06)This research explores how the lens of intimacy can be used to understand migration and inequalities and demonstrates the value of such a theoretical lens. It does so by focusing on the experience of a group of rural to ... -
Populist communication and strategic behaviour on Twitter
(The University of Edinburgh, 2018-11-27)Background While earlier studies on the German right-wing populist party AfD on Twitter have noted a very high frequency of the party’s hashtag use, there is a lack of understanding if this expresses support or opposition ... -
Women and religious racisms in Inverclyde: feminised intra-Christian sectarianism and gendered Islamophobia
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-07-06)This thesis re-problematises the issue of intra-Christian sectarianism from the standpoints of women from different denominational backgrounds, social classes and age groups. It foregrounds alternative gendered knowledge, ... -
Limits of liberal plurality: from political identity to strong recognition
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-07-06)Through the analysis of liberal theories of plurality and diversity –multiculturalism, interculturalism, nationalisms, cosmopolitanism, communitarianism-, I make a series of arguments regarding the positive recognition ... -
Imagined futures of same-sex couples
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-07-06)This research explores how older same-sex couples in Scotland imagine their future. While there is a growing number of sociological studies looking at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) ageing, ... -
Only true philosophers? Charismatic performances of unofficial philosophy in socialist Czechoslovakia
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-07-06)In this thesis, I explore the phenomenon of unofficial philosophy seminars in socialist Czechoslovakia, focusing on the period from 1968 to 1989. After the democratizing movement known as the Prague Spring was terminated ... -
Parental socio-economic background and children’s school-level GCSE attainment
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-01-22)The principal aim of this thesis is to better understand the contemporary relationship between parental socio-economic background and children’s General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment. Previous ... -
Fashioning labour rights? Understanding the efforts of transnational stakeholders in the responsible fashion and apparel (RFA) movement post-Rana Plaza, Bangladesh
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)In the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Savar, Bangladesh, transnational stakeholders and stakeholder groups working within the global movement for responsible fashion and apparel (RFA) mobilised in ... -
Dealing with uncertainty: a historical sociology of evaluation practices in UK life insurance, 1971-present
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019)This dissertation examines the evolution of UK life insurance arrangements by investigating how the ways in which life insurers evaluate the economic worth of insurance contracts have changed since the early 1970s. It draws ... -
Azadi activists abroad: transnational activism in the New Kashmiri Freedom Movement
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)The Kashmir movement for azadi, or freedom, from India is rooted in pre-Partition mobilisation, but has evolved over time. With the end to the violent resistance throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, a predominately ... -
‘What nursing’s all about’: the caring ideal and ambivalence to ‘profession’ in nursing’s occupational discourse
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)This thesis examines the occupational discourse(s) of a group of nurses working on a single medical unit in a Scottish NHS hospital, in light of debates concerning the contemporary function and focus of nursing. There ... -
Constructing legitimacy: an ethnography of the struggle for financial capital in two Paris-based private equity funds
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)This dissertation uses an original qualitative empirical material (two ethnographic observations of private equity funds and 44 interviews with managers of these funds) to investigate how fund managers construct their ... -
Traveller community and health practitioner stories of self and each other: a poststructural narrative analysis
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-07-08)Research attention to Gypsy and Traveller health has grown in recent decades and highlights significant inequalities in health and access to services experienced by these groups. Existing work in this area tends to ... -
“But they’re gay though”: how LGBTQ+ audiences are queering contemporary drama
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-07-08)Previous research and the existing literature on LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender, Queer) representation in the media has neglected to examine how LGBTQ+ audiences are actively queering media in order to fill ... -
“I am who I am because of who I was” – refiguring childhoods through Colombian former child soldiers’ stories
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-07-08)The recruitment and use of children in war are common characteristics of modern conflict. In 2017, the Child Soldiers World Index reported that at least 46 States still recruit and use children under the age of 18 into ... -
In sight and in mind: social implications of marine renewable energy
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-07-08)Scotland has significant marine energy resources and is at the forefront of the research and development of wave and tidal marine renewable energy technologies. Much of this research has focussed on the technological ... -
Diverse individualisations and interdependences: how adult only-children's marriage and family formation affects parent-child relationships in urban China
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-07-08)My research focuses on the first generation of only-children and their parents, to see how the only-children's marriage affects the relationships with their parents thus contributing to debates around intimacy and ... -
Improving health care access for low-income patients in a mixed insurance market: investigating the impact of the U.S.’s Affordable Care Act on Federally Qualified Health Centers
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-07-08)Background: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to enhance access to health care in the United States, particularly for those without comprehensive insurance. This thesis examines the impacts of the ACA on equity of ... -
Gender, cultural capital and transnational mobility: Chinese female international students’ transnational aspirations and transnational lives in the UK
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-07-08)Drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews and participant observation at a Scottish university, this thesis explores the ways in which gender and cultural capital are closely linked with Chinese female international students’ ... -
Doing feminist text-focused institutional ethnography in UK universities
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-07-08)My thesis concerns how to do feminist sociology using Dorothy Smith’s ideas about Institutional Ethnography (IE), exploring the textually-organised relations of ruling focusing on UK higher education. How and in what ...
