Firstly, I would like to express my eternal gratitude to my loving sister Tinuola for her continuous support in my academic, professional and spiritual pursuits. To my family, for their patience, motivation, discussions and immense contribution to unlock and give meaning to past experiences, I am eternally grateful. I thank my good friend and mentor Eamon Byrne for his support and immense knowledge of people, and the politics they consciously and unconsciously engage in. To Tokie Laotan-Brown and Vanessa Stout for the many valuable discussions that helped me understand my research area better. My deepest gratitude to Dr. Gordon at the University of Greenwich for his thoughtfulness and guidance in helping me grow as a researcher. In particular, I am grateful to Les Brown for opening my mind to recognise the endless possibilities and opportunities in my life. My heartfelt gratitude to my supervisors Professor Corcoran and Dr Ryan for their encouragement and insightful comments. Their guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having better advisors for my study. To the staff at the sociology department of the National University of Ireland Maynooth, thank you for making this experience a memorable one.