Abstract not available.

This thesis adopts a hermeneutical framework in order to undertake a discourse analysis of the representation of Mongolia in five works of contemporary travel writing. It argues that this travel writing is characterized by a discourse that reflects and reproduces an 'imaginative geography' of Mongolia as a traveller's frontier. Evidence of this discourse can be found in sets of collective, cohesive representations that cross-cut the works studied and have the effect of naturalizing a very particular conceptualization of Mongolia as a travel destination in an age of globalization and mass tourism. This research adds to the growing body of geographical scholarship on travel writing, but departs from it by considering contemporary works rather than ones from the colonial period.

The United Nations Environment Programme's Regional Seas Programme (RSP) is one of many international regimes for the protection and management of the marine and coastal environment. However, the literature suggests that this programme has, above others, attracted numerous accolades. Notably, the RSP has been referred to as "the jewel in UNEP's crown". Absent from this literature is evaluation based evidence to corroborate such declarations. The complexity of the evaluation science literature necessitates the creation of a three-part Model of Evaluation Science to capture recurring themes and concerns. The first part presents a typology of evaluation forms. The second part details the generic steps involved in the policy and programme evaluation process. The third part decants a set of key barriers and challenges to conducting evaluation. The Model is tested through a diagnostic field study in the case study of the Caribbean RSP. Evidence obtained from Content Analysis of the literature and Key Informant Interviews with strategically-placed personnel at the Caribbean Regional Co-ordinating Unit, indicates that capacity does not exist to evaluate the RSP's impacts on the state of the environment. As such, the Model is used to examine the state of programme evaluation capacity. Data obtained from the Interviews is presented as a set of "actual" capacity conditions, contrasted with the ideal or "expected" conditions provided by the tenets of the Model. Finally, the thesis concludes by passing judgment on the "jewel in the crown" declaration, and presents a set of recommendations to strengthen evaluation capacity in the Wider Caribbean Region.

The thesis focuses on the factors that account for variations of salaries and self-employed income among individuals---both born in Canada and immigrants---residing in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver in 2001 based on the Canadian Census data. The research addresses the influence of place of birth and linguistic profile on income. Other independent variables such as age, sex, schooling and occupation are included in the analysis. The ultimate goal of the study is to highlight income differences among paid and self-employed workers (both incorporated and unincorporated) as well as to demonstrate that self-employment status can improve the financial performance of an individual. Descriptive and general linear model types of analysis are employed. Both types of analysis demonstrate significant differences in income with respect to the different factors under study. My hypotheses addressing income differences among paid and self-employed workers and regarding the increased beneficial role of self-employment for certain groups of individuals are partially or generally confirmed. The regression models for all three classes of worker reveal low R 2 values. Nevertheless, the contrast analysis in the regression models, as well as the descriptive analysis, demonstrates statistically significant differences between the mean income values of the different categories of variables and reference categories. This suggests that if the chosen variables explain just the main fluctuations in income variations and more precise results would require more details on individuals of the research approaches. The analysis is, however, meaningful at the level of major trends and influence of selected variables on income variations.

This thesis is an exploration, conducted in the open-minded spirit of humanistic geography, of the geographical meanings of the personal garden space as it is portrayed in selected contemporary personal gardening literature. Through an interpretive framework based on three geographical metaphors---the personal garden as a microcosm, landscape, and place---the personal garden revealed itself to be a cultural, social and personal space, essentially human, as well as a biological, ecological and environmental space, essentially nonhuman. This fundamental human-nonhuman duality at the core of the personal garden reflects the human-physical duality at the heart of the discipline of geography, as such making the personal garden a space of particular geographical significance. This thesis adds a new type of literature, personal gardening books, to geographical inquiry and contributes to growing geographical dialogue on the topic of personal gardens. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This research takes a social geography approach to studying different aspects of the lived space of francophones residing in two villages located on Quebec's Lower North Shore: Lourdes-de-Blanc-Sablon and Tete-a-la-Baleine. These villages are part of an archipelago of isolated communities situated at the eastern end of the province. Though they are located in Quebec, they are closer to Newfoundland and Labrador, with no road network linking them to the rest of the province. For the francophone communities, this geographical isolation is two-fold due to the fact that the Lower North Shore region has a predominantly anglophone population. This thesis explores how this dual isolation shapes identity. We interrelated certain behaviours and perceptions, both geographic and linguistic, as well as feelings of regional belonging and linguistic identity. By focusing on identification as essential to understanding lived space, the main objective of this research is to shed light on this key factor of community vitality in minority isolated locations. With data obtained mainly through a community survey administered to francophones living in each of the study areas, we show that the interrelation of a territorial sense of belonging and linguistic identity can contribute to maintaining and developing the region economically and culturally.

Surface salinity processes are highly dynamic and the methods needed to properly detect them must respond to that dynamism making remote sensing a tool particularly well-suited for the management of salinized lands. It allows the monitoring of affected lands for the prevention of serious degradation through appropriate and timely action it is less costly in terms of time and resources than conventional methods and it is suited to the monitoring of large areas. Researchers are exploring how it can be adapted to the detection of moderate levels of salinity that could perhaps help to better prevent further degradation. The main aim of this research is to assess for the first time the potential of the ALI sensor (Advanced Land Imager) on board the EO-1 satellite, with its rich infrared bands, for the identification and mapping of salinity and sodicity. Through the testing of different salinity indices found in the literature, semi-empirical predictive models were developed which could be suited to the characterization and mapping of sodic and saline soil conditions in semi-arid agricultural areas, using the Tadla's irrigated perimeter of Morocco as a test case. Predictive models were based on a second order regression analysis calculated between the E.C. of soils affected by salinity and sodicity, and different spectral salinity indices using spectroradiometric ground measurements. Emphasis was placed on detecting slight and moderate soil salinity and sodicity, which has been considered a challenge in the past. Semi-empirical models were derived from the data, and applied to an ALI image for analysis. Visual comparisons and statistical validation of these models using ground truth were undertaken in order to identify the best model for the mapping of salinity and sodicity in the Tadla's irrigated perimeter of Morocco.

Within this thesis I explore the idea of using feminist fiction to further women's empowerment in the context of a developing area. Taking the use of feminist fiction as a conscious raising resource during the second wave of feminism in Canada, the United States and England as a starting point, I look to the canon of feminist fiction of Haiti as an unmined resource that may be used for similar purposes. I argue that texts within this canon may be used in the same way if it can be shown that they deal with the evolution or manifestation of feminist (oppositional) consciousness through the narratives of female protagonists. As such, I undertake the qualitative content analysis of five texts from five Haitian female authors using, as a measuring gauge, the four elements of minimal oppositional consciousness as put forward and defined by Mansbridge (2001). As oppositional consciousness plays an important causal role in the motivation to work for or act as agents within liberation movements, the potential within these feminist texts to rouse or crystallize such a consciousness within Haitian women provides the link between feminist fiction and the ultimate empowerment of Haitian women.

This thesis examines the channels of communication that facilitate the transfer of gendered ecological knowledge from 'women and plants' to international law. It investigates the source of women's ecological knowledge in Latin American rural villages and identifies characteristics of this knowledge by exploring ethnographic case studies. Rural Latin American women's knowledge of their ecosystems and the plants they use is essential not only to household survival, but also to the conservation of biodiversity. Given the concern over the rapid decline in global biodiversity and the importance of the Convention on Biological Diversity as an international binding (to the parties that have ratified it) agreement that enjoys widespread support, this study examines the role of the bodies of the CBD in considering and documenting gendered ecological knowledge. It suggests that the role of civil society in the capture and transfer of women's ecological knowledge is key. Despite policy that includes a comprehensive Gender Plan of Action, a profound understanding of the need for a gender focus when considering ecological knowledge is still lacking within the actions of the bodies and parties of the CBD. NGOs and TANs are well positioned to bring evidence from their work in rural villages in Latin America (and across the world) that will help bring the issues of gendered ecological knowledge closer to the policy table. It is suggested here that giving rural women in Latin America and the world over a voice in the international arena is essential, not only for biodiversity conservation but also for poverty eradication.

This thesis is about belonging, about people's ties to others and the nature of those ties; such ties are referred to by social scientists as social support. Social support has traditionally been studied with respect to two dimensions: structural dimensions refer to the characteristics of the individuals who are part of an individual's social support network (such as their number, or the frequency with which they interact); functional dimensions refer to the types of support that are exchanged between people (such as practical help, or affection). In the early 1980s, Graham Rowles, an American geographer studying the elderly, proposed that the combination of the support received by the elderly, and the place in which it was provided, gave rise to sociospatial support---a concept that has lain dormant ever since. This thesis is an attempt to reinvestigate this concept, and explore how place (i.e., the neighbourhood) and proximity influence the social support that is received by the elderly (those aged 55 to 74) in the Outaouais region of the Province of Quebec. The research makes use of three data sources: information on basic structural and functional dimensions of support in the lives of the elderly is provided by the National Population Health Survey; a regional survey of the Outaouais elderly provides insights into the role of the neighbourhood and neighbours in the provision of support, with a particular interest in the provision of support by nonkin; and, finally, a series of interviews with selected elderly allow for understanding of the previous two stages within the context of individual experience. The research findings enabled the proposal of the kinship continuum, in which it was hypothesized that ties to nonkin could be placed along a continuum of intimacy or propinquity, with kindred of recognition anchoring one end, and kindred of communitatis securing the other. The most substantial contribution was the proposal of a framework for a geography of belonging, in which three modalities---network, properties of the person, and milieu---were identified and delineated along a number of attributes, in an attempt to advance Rowles's original concept.