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This paper employs combined critical discourse analysis/ membership categorization analysis to examine social representations of peace that appear within two UK talk radio debates about terrorism. After an initial overview of how and where social representations of peace feature throughout the data, three extended sequences of talk are subject to detailed discursive analysis. Whilst a range of Muslim and non-Muslim callers participate in these debates, analysis identifies that it is only Muslim speakers who engage social representations of peace. Analysis of three differing elite Muslim speakers reveals that in these debates: (i) peace is positioned as central to Muslim identity but also as a common value that is accessible to non-Muslims and Muslims alike; (ii) upholding and maintaining peace and challenging violent ideologies is constructed as an ongoing moral duty for Muslim communities; (iii) upholding peace as core to Islam does not mandate an absolute rejection of all violence in all contexts. These findings are discussed in the context of mainstream UK terrorism discourse where Muslim category membership and adherence to Islam is routinely linked to concerns regarding the presumed threat of extremist terror attacks in the UK.

This paper adopts a social representations approach to examine the ‘9/11’ symbol which is argued to be a centrally organising, communication oriented, symbolic resource within contemporary representations of terrorism. Within the context of the events of September 11 2001 as a point of shared history which has come to be understood as a significant world event (Liu et al, 2009), the ‘9/11’ symbol is argued to fulfil a triple function in contemporary representations of terrorism. Firstly, the ‘9/11’ symbol provides a central anchor for the events of September 11 2001. Secondly the ‘9/11’ symbol acts as a powerful rhetorical resource for objectifying the abstract concept of terrorism. Lastly, alongside the capacity to objectify the abstract, the ‘9/11’ symbol also enables a counter process of transcendentalisation (Billig, 1988) whereby it transforms the object into the abstract. As a result the ‘9/11’ symbol is highly suited to widespread mobilisation of easily apprehended notions defining what terrorism is, which do not readily provoke contest and are widely constructed as mundane forms of ‘truth’ amongst a community of users.

Fathers who are involved with their infants have the potential to make significant positive contributions to their children’s future health, wellbeing, and development. Transitions to fatherhood and the factors that shape those experiences, for some men, are poorly understood. There is a need for an improved awareness of the experiences of first-time fathers to inform policy and practice and improve support and outcomes for these men and their families.\ud The primary aim of this work was to explore contemporary transitions to fatherhood. To this end, a constructivist grounded theory study (CGTM) was undertaken. Twelve new fathers were recruited in the North of England and data were gathered from semi-structured interviews where participants shared their experiences and perspectives of becoming fathers for the first time.\ud Concepts relating to becoming and being fathers were explored in addition to fatherhood identity development. Following analysis of the data via processes fundamental to CGTM, the core category of reconciling father identities was constructed consisting of three theoretical categories: anticipating fatherhood, tensions in fathering and the fluidity of fathering.\ud All participants had strong aspirations for involved fathering performances and took steps to prepare for their new roles. However, they faced various tensions in the workplace, in healthcare and in the normative, often traditional, expectations influenced by social and structural gendered norms.\ud The father roles that they were ascribed by others frequently did not fit with their aspirations during pregnancy and the early months as fathers. They therefore found themselves working through periods of identity reconciliation which impacted upon their self-concept as fathers, their parenting confidence, and their parenting autonomy.\ud Broader consideration of the needs of fathers is required across the arenas in which they perform fatherhood to support the development of positive father identities. This has the potential to benefit the wellbeing of the men themselves, their partners, and their infants. The implications for workplace, healthcare policy and practice are offered including suggestions for future research.

The 1st January 2014 was a political milestone for speculation and warning in the UK as Romania’s citizens became free to live and work visa-free across the EU. This thesis is a constructionist social psychological study drawing upon Shotter’s (1993a) writing on citizenship and Balkanism studies (Todorova, 2009) to investigate how citizenship and belonging were rhetorically mobilised within this epoch. Employing a dual-site methodology, receiving society (extracts from the BBCs Question Time and political interviews from The Andrew Marr Show), and mover voices (narrative interviews with ten self-defining Romanians living in Sheffield) were analysed using interpretative repertoire analysis and discourse analysis, respectively (Potter & Wetherell, 1987). The receiving society analysis explored how two interpretative repertoires were occasioned argumentatively as well as justified or contested rhetorically to construct the nation as under ‘threat’ from Romanian migration or the body politic as being ‘abused’ by Romanian migrants. Conversely, the mover voice analysis focused upon rhetorical features underpinning two key ‘moments’ of identity construction in the interviews: ‘civic becoming’, where participants narrated their acculturation and attempt to overcome ‘otherness’, and ‘civic belonging’, where ‘good migrant’ or ‘active citizen’ narratives in the receiving society were invoked. The thesis concludes by drawing upon critical psychology (Fox, D., Prilleltensky, & Austin, 2009) and Balkanism studies to make sense of the empirical findings. Future avenues of identity exploration, in light of the post-2014 political climate, are considered. The thesis provides three novel contributions to knowledge: firstly it examines the previously undocumented period whereby Romanian identity and migration were constructed in relation to commentary over lifting transitional controls; secondly it utilises a dual-site methodological approach concerned with how distinctive acculturative voices make sense of this epoch; lastly it employs Balkanism studies to historicise the legacy of such contemporary discourse, an important theoretical undertaking not previously undertaken in social psychology.