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The research in this thesis is an exploration of the experience of students on work placement as a part of their degree. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and the Change Laboratory (CL) methodology it investigates the barriers to business students using taught theoretical structures to understand their concrete practice and the use of the CL to address these barriers. The CL is a tool to raise awareness of contradictions that participants experience in their practice settings and seeks to empower them to resolve the contradictions. 12 participants from a Russell Group business school, working in a variety of organisations and locations, partook in an exploratory online CL. It was found that the primary contradiction that affected the students was expressed in their conception of education. The study suggested that they see taught theory as simply something to be learnt for assessment and not necessarily as a tool for shaping interventions in the business environment. The mediating power of theory was diluted, if not eclipsed, for the placement students by their experience of an education they felt to be focused on exam performance more than understanding the social world around them. The study further suggested that the use of a Change Laboratory, through its intentional intervention in the students’ development helped them address this contradiction and begin to remediate theory. From this analysis the thesis examines the role of mediation in the internalisation/externalisation process detailed in CHAT. It extends the idea of vectors of mediation where each mediating component in an Activity System has both a magnitude and direction of mediation. Different mediating components can vary in the strength that they mediate a subjects understanding. The manner in which a subject perceives a mediating component can actually redirect the mediating force in such a way that it can be limited in its ability to mediate effectively.

Despite the potential importance of the link between peak oil and the geography of world trade, so far remarkably little research has been conducted for that matter. Particularly, there is a gap in the literature regarding the impact of peak oil on international trade patterns at the industry level. The dissertation contributes to filling that gap. The study uses the VEC model approach to analyse the influence of peak oil on the geography of international trade, thereby using the example of steel exports to the United States between 1998 and 2008. The hypothesis tested is that peak oil, which involves high oil prices and rising international transport costs, leads to an increasing regionalisation of international trade flows at the cost of long-distance trade. Steel exports to the U.S. are analysed by steel export category, country and region. Steel exports per steel product category are analysed for 18 countries, total steel exports are analysed for 64 countries, and steel exports per region are analysed for 8 regions. The findings suggest that following an oil price shock, steel export volumes decrease for countries/regions geographically distant to the U.S. and increase for countries/regions geographically close to the U.S. The evidence also reveals the significant explanatory power oil prices have for steel exports to the United States and that price patterns play a role in the realignment process of international trade flows in the global steel industry. The findings are in line with economic trade theory with regard to the importance of the distance of trade and indicate that due to peak oil, trade globalisation, at least in the steel industry, may be at risk.