Salford

This thesis is the first to focus on grassroots political opposition to fracking development in a city-region. It examines the political space opened by activists in Greater Manchester between 15th November 2013 and 12th April 2014, situating their political struggle in a broader urban terrain of protest. Data collection was conducted between 28th August 2013 and 20th October 2014. The thesis looks beyond simple interpretations of community opposition, toward theoretically grounded understandings of anti-fracking dissent. Paradoxically, in this case a local struggle emerged primarily from social movements unrelated to the development site itself, whose actors converged on the issue of stopping fracking in the cityregion and engaged disadvantaged communities neighbouring the exploratory well. Research illustrates how activists drew on the tactics and organisational practices of radical urban uprisings to open-up and sustain an anti-fracking camp outside the exploratory well for five months, and examines ways that their dissent challenged what was being contested, who could engage in the struggle and which grievances were recognised as legitimate.  Understanding the complexities of the struggle contributes to existing research on the politics of contemporary urban environmental movements by examining how solidarity and an emancipatory politics can emerge from disparate groups that have seemingly discordant perspectives. This has practical as well as theoretical relevance, because the Greater Manchester anti-fracking movement successfully presented a united front against ‘fracking’, despite internal conflict between actors. Using ostensibly horizontal and less-obvious vertical organisational modes of practice to organise the anti-fracking movement, activists sustained a protest camp and limited access to the exploratory well while it was in operation, before leaving of their own volition. This means that analysis contributes to a politics of hope, offering lessons for similar struggles that emerge from disparate, autonomous groups.

This essay investigates "She's Lost Control" (SLC); four versions by Joy Division and a cover version by Grace Jones. The essay explores the assertion that 'music can represent mental states directly, including those classified as illnesses or disabilities, without the mediation of language'. (Lerner and Straus, 2006, p8). Musical and extra-musical factors contribute to the process by which the song generates meaning and remains open to interpretation by disparate social groups and generations. I argue that Joy Division's various versions are inherently unstable and heighten the loss of control indicated in the lyrics. Conversely, Jones' version is musically stable. Her theatrical vocal delivery creates a distance between her and the often-harrowing lyrics.

This paper contributes to a critical understanding of the production of space through an exploration of notable spatial moments in the 1990s work of the Central Manchester Development Corporation (CMDC), particularly its role in the creation of new public space. Henri Lefebvre's ideas regarding the production of urban space provide rigorous theoretical grounding for the empirical research. Two chronologically overlapping 20th century discourses: the inner city urban policy discourse from the 1960s and the modernist city planning discourse that peaked in the era of technological optimism after World War Two are shown to be vital for a critical understanding of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) regime. The paper unravels the as yet unproblematised origins of UDCs and CMDC and shows how the reorientation of the 1960s Urban Programme by the Labour government laid the ground for some of the subsequent Conservative government's urban policy shifts. New evidence from archival sources, supplemented by interviews with key informants, is presented which challenges and disrupts some conventional wisdoms regarding UDCs and CMDC. Research findings point to the crucial role of CMDC in stimulating the creation of significant new public spaces akin to differential space, which remain of great importance for Manchester. CMDC's deployment of large scale resources compounded the spatial practice of the previous decade leading to the production of unanticipated public space potentials and the politicised appropriation of urban space. In closing, the paper highlights the unintended and inadvertent legacies of the CMDC for public space in the 2000s.

The overuse of hospital accident and emergency (A&E) departments has long been an issue ofconcern in most Western countries. Patients who attend A&E with non-urgent needs consume limitedA&E resources and they may impede access for other patients with urgent and emergency needs. Anumber of studies have found that patients often turn to A&E for care because they lack timely access to general practitioner (GP) services. Recent advances in technology may help GP improve patients‟access to GP services andallow them to be more responsive their patients‟ needs. Digital and online technology can ease interaction and information-sharing between patients and their GPs. In this study, exploratory data mining is carried out in order to better understand the reationship between A&E attendance and various GP practice characteristics. The data used in this exercise is GP practice data publically available from the NHS Information Centre website. This data covered 39 different practice attributes r...