Contemporary migration patterns are complex and diverse; the reasons for migration are multiple. Further, the relationships migrants share with different locales extend beyond places of origin and reception. In the context of globalisation, the social location of individuals within local and global networks, constrains and enables their spatial mobility and their level of inclusion and exclusion (Massey 1994). Against this backdrop, this thesis analyses migrant women’s sense of belonging experienced through their everyday spatial practices. The specific focus is on women of Indian origin in two contexts: as internal migrants within multilingual, multicultural India, and as international migrants to Australia. The spatial routines of these women are analysed using Hagerstrand’s time-geography notational diagrams to arrive at different migrant typologies of belonging. The emphasis is on movement (particularly habitual time-space routines) and the affective dimensions attributed to everyday spaces to arrive at a conceptualisation of place-belonging. Further, an intersectional lens is overlaid to understand the variation in these experiences of belonging with time and context, based on the migrant women’s complex identities. Place-belonging is shaped continually by both external structures and individual subjectivities during the women’s life course, which determine their spatial activities and patterns at a given context and time. Maintaining kinship ties is considered an integral part of Indian culture; thus, Indian women migrants often navigate patriarchy and other socio-cultural practices in old and new contexts. Agency is, therefore, an important aspect of understanding how gender is articulated in different places through migration. The findings of this thesis aim to offer new insights into the relationships between migrant women and cities and contribute to the literature on everyday experiences of place-belonging for women of Indian origin. This thesis also proposes a replicable methodology for analysing the everyday life of an individual, particularly to identify spaces of belonging from a gendered perspective.

The environmental consciousness leading to a widespread belief in the existence of an 'environmental crisis' has been spreading through western societies since the late 1960s. A materialist view of society, based on the belief in the importance of the economic base in the political and social evolution and structure of societies, has been present for even longer. Paradigmatic debates relating to the appropriateness of the materialist viewpoint have been apparent in discussions of environmental problems as with other social issues. For some time, however, the materialist debate ignored environmental problems, for two main reasons: because it was felt that the social principles of primary concern to those within the materialist paradigm were incompatible with concern for environmental problems; and because environmental problems were seen to be peculiar to capitalist conditions This paper takes the view that environmental problems have an objective reality which must be debated within the materialist paradigm. The aim is to take a first step towards an analysis of the role of "nature conservation" - one type of environmental issue - in a materialist theory of society. The method used is to examine nature conservation issues in Victoria using materialist concepts or theoretical tools. The main concept used is the materialist theory of the state, but other concepts such as surplus value extracted from the environment, the commodification of natural values, and the role of nature appreciation as 'culture', are also discussed. Throughout the paper, the previously-mentioned themes of the elitism of environmental concerns, and the particular relationship between environmental problems and capitalist society, are highlighted, in an attempt to end the argument that the materialist viewpoint and the environmental viewpoint are incompatible.