^ Moving to College of Arts, Law and Social Sciences http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8602 2026-04-10T01:21:57Z 2026-04-10T01:21:57Z Burroughs, Janine Renee http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/32020 2025-12-16T09:07:46Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: An exploration of shifting constructions of human trafficking: A study of newspaper discourses between 2000 and 2020 Authors: Burroughs, Janine Renee Abstract: Newspaper focus on forced migration has increased over the last two decades, highlighting the significance of human trafficking for policymakers. Prior research on American newspapers and human trafficking concluded data collection in 2006, overlooking power dynamics and promoting a liberal democratic view, obscuring the understanding of how dominant discourses are shaped by power within socioeconomic and presidential agendas. This study expands previous research by examining how five major U.S. newspapers discursively constructed human trafficking across four presidential administrations from 2000 to 2020, exploring the power dynamics behind discourses used in the meaning-making process. Using a political economy approach and a Foucauldian understanding of power, the study bridges the fields of criminology and media theory. The findings are contextualised within a historical discursive archive, tracing the emergence of trafficking discourse from the early 1900s and its resurgence through the 2000 Palermo Protocol. The study begins with a thematic content analysis that maps newspaper engagement patterns and key themes, followed by three chapters of critical discourse analysis that explore the meaning-making surrounding human trafficking. The content analysis revealed that human trafficking remains a relevant topic for newspapers despite fluctuations. Outlets varied in approach but presented consistent views. The thematic analysis noted shifts in presidential agendas shaped by socio-political imperatives, which met with varying support depending on the newspaper's ideologies, suggesting a liberal democratic theory. This thesis argues that this view is reductionist due to minimal divergences from the dominant discourses identified in the CDA chapters, which identified ongoing discourses around the criminalisation of human trafficking, victimhood, and national security, with few counter-discourses on decriminalisation. The study identified an archive of trafficking discourse dating back to the early twentieth century. These discourses gained legitimacy through legal codification and presidential agendas. The thesis examines how the discourses employed in the human trafficking debate evolved to justify geopolitical and socioeconomic agendas. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Dasgupta, Bhaskar http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31460 2025-06-14T02:00:26Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Spices in early modern England – a cross disciplinary study Authors: Dasgupta, Bhaskar Abstract: Reading popular English literature of the last hundred years would lead one to believe that English food always has been bland. This is surprising, considering that England, during the early modern period (1500-1850 AD) established the East India Company, partially for the spice trade and became the largest global spice merchant, centred on London. Hence, it cannot be that the English spice trade did not influence English Culture. What happened during the early modern period that significantly changed the usage of spices in English culture? Using an enhanced food choice model, this dissertation analyses how factors such as imports, exports, storage, consumer income, historical/geographical antecedents, spice production and pricing influenced the spice supply into England, which then impacted spice-buying behaviour and usage. The research has used primary data sources from the British Library’s East India Archive, UK National Archives, Newspaper Archives and English Ports Data, and relied on secondary academic data sources. This data was used for an economic historical analysis of the English spice trade, spices used as financial assets, crimes, spice usage in food and medicine, its representation in art and literature, religion, magic, perfumes, fashion, and clothing. The findings show that spice usage was common until 1800-1850. Thereafter, cultural, political, and scientific factors led to its decline. War necessitated distinguishing bland English food from spiced French food after Waterloo; the repudiation of the medical humoral theory positing that spices heal the sick; and a rise in atheism/non-religiosity and better education combined to substantially reduce spice usage across many aspects of English Culture. Since mid-twentieth century, the Chicken Tikka Masala curry has become the English national dish. This is no novelty. The study shows that English food has been spiced since Roman Times; the century of bland food (1850-1950) was an aberration. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Butler, Tom http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31376 2025-06-03T11:25:30Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: An emergent sense of place: Examining the socio-cultural impact and experiential change of the new London museum in Smithfield Authors: Butler, Tom Abstract: In 2026 the London Museum opens in former market buildings in Smithfield, a historic working district on the edge of the City of London. The Museum’s £437m relocation is a major component of a culture-led development scheme, one that is radically transforming the local area. This interdisciplinary research interrogates what constitutes the identity and social experience of an area undergoing accelerated change, a ‘sense of place’ that I conceptualise as simultaneously socio-cultural, political, embodied, and imagined. This frames an analysis of how a museum that is both an instrument and agent of change can establish an equitable relationship with its new locality. Undertaken between 2020-2024 as a Collaborative Doctoral Award with the London Museum, this study follows a grounded theory approach, engaging with the diverse experiences of Smithfield’s social actors as well as the strategies of municipal and institutional agents. I apply a mixed methodology incorporating document analysis, ethnographic observation, walking interviews, and participatory workshops. This thesis argues that local identity and experience is relationally mediated by shared material, sensory, and imagined cues, produced through the rhythmic expression of power over time, and given meaning through real-and-imagined encounters. My research reveals the tangible and intangible effects of culture-led development processes, and their multiple aesthetic and experiential strategies of commodification and control. Ultimately, I argue for the reconceptualisation of a ‘sense of place’ into a dynamic concept that accounts for the inter-dependence of place and processes of urban change, the multiplicity of experience, and the uneven and negotiated effects of globalised capitalism. Drawing together literature from sociology, urban studies, and museum studies, I make key methodological, theoretical, and practical contributions to researching cultureled development. Respectively, these comprise the adaptation of Lefebvre’s (2004) rhythmanalytical method through Massey’s (1991) notion of place as process, a theory of accommodation within senses of place, and the development of a strategic blueprint for equitable museum approaches to new local contexts. The latter is disseminated as a research output through an online resource for museum professionals. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z Halstead, James http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/30848 2025-03-01T15:48:54Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Development and learning at the operational level in the British and Indian armies during the second world war Authors: Halstead, James Abstract: Contextualised with an examination of pre-war doctrine and military thought within both the British and Indian Armies this thesis examines doctrine, training, and selection of personnel to understand how the British and Indian Armies developed more effective ways of conducting warfare at the operational level between 1939-1945. It argues that the War Office failed to settle key doctrinal and organisational questions before the war, and subsequently failed to centralise authority over doctrine and training during the war. This meant that there was limited uniformity in doctrine and that this negatively affected the ability of the British and Indian Armies to learn and adapt together. Ultimately the War Office preferred to influence military conduct through the Military Secretary’s branch which instituted increasingly centralised control throughout the war. This thesis therefore emphasises the agency of national armies, local theatre headquarters and individual commanders in controlling their own individual courses of development over the central control of the War Office. This thesis offers a new perspective on the extent to which the armies of the British Empire worked and learned as an integrated ‘Imperial Army’ during the Second World War. Recent research has emphasised the integrated, and Imperial nature of the British, Indian and Commonwealth Armies. This especially emphasises their ability to work together, it is claimed, because of shared doctrine and staff procedures. To date, research has focused upon pre-war War Office doctrine and examination of military activity at the tactical level. This thesis has a different scope and conducts a comparative examination of the development and conduct of the operational level within the British and Indian Armies. This, therefore, studies the development of the British and Indian Armies and their doctrine at the operational level from across the world, not just that which was produced by the War Office. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London

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