To reconstruct the thesis the files should be arranged in order :

abstract, intro, chap1 to chap12, appA to appD, bibliography.

A separate file contains the diagram for page 8.

Eventually I will add a full list of acknowledgements of the massive list of people who helped me, in a separate file.

CONTENTS

Click here 
to return to the homepage.

Click on the chapter numbers below to go to the relevant position in the text.
 

Please note also:

(1) I have not obtained copyright clearance to publish quotations from the works of T.S.Eliot on the web. In the meantime, I have removed the quoted passages and replaced these with lines of xxxx to keep the page layout unchanged. This should enable you to make accurate quotations from my thesis, if you want to.

If you email me I will send you the missing passages.

(2) I do not understand the web but I think the files are stored as continuous text rather than as separate pages. To help you reference any quotes accurately, therefore, I have numbered each page in the body of the text in the form #[p123]. It is not a very elegant solution, and it ruins my attempts at "good writing", but it seems to work. To get back to the original page layout, if you want to, set the line spacing to 1.5.

(3) One diagram is included separately. The wording  is in the chapter on the relevant pages (p8), but not the lines - I drew those by hand. (To see a scanned version of the original, click on the link on that page.)

I trust it downloads OK. If not, e-mail me a fax number with your full international code and I will fax it  to you.

(4) To protect identities even more, I have made some small changes to the material concerning Mike and Celia. Also, to protect psychology colleagues from unwitting upset, I have cut out some material from chapter 7. I have made one or two other small change, marked in the text. None of these seem relevant to the major arguments of the thesis and I doubt anyone would ever want to reference the material that has been changed. Contact me if you have a problem here.

(5) Acknowledgements I have been asked to include for the web version are:

My articles Mellor 1997b, 1998a and b appear with permission of the publishers. The editors of Young Minds invite you to visit their web site www.youngminds.org.uk.

Quotations from Coming Up For Air by George Orwell (Copyright George Orwell 1939) by permission of Bill Hamilton as the Literary Executor of the Estate of the late Sonia Bronwell Orwell and Secker and Warburg Ltd.

Quotation from The Devil’s Advice to Storytellers by Robert Graves by permission of Carcanet Press Ltd.

Quotations from A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth by permission.

Please accept my best wishes for your research project! I am sure you will find "messy method" an exciting, although demanding approach. The article entitled "Messy Method" (listed on the web site) is now published in the Educational Action Research journal.

Finally, I would stress that the thesis is not "anti science". If it is anti anything, it is anti a naïve, uncritical "scientism". For information on seminars on "Messy Method", please contact me.

Nigel Mellor