ii Abstract The topic of his thesis, "Social Sustainability", arising from the social sciences, specifically sociology, has naturally its core focus on society and its functioning. To be more exact, the functioning of society in context of integration, which is an ever more growing topic in the globalised world we live in. In relation to this thesis, an integrational project/workshop has been carried out at a folk high school, Brandbjerg, in Denmark, with the purpose to practically test, the methodological measurability of change in subjectivity. Worth mentioning, that the hosting community, in terms of immigration, was in focus and its perception on variation of habitus. Hereto, Q-Methodology from William Stephenson functioned as the foundation for the development of the workshop, as well as it aided the analysis of the therefrom taken data, to determine a change in the participants subjectivity. The aim of this practical implementation, was to put the findings into perspective of the theoretical framework of sustainability, specifically social sustainability. The findings served in combination with face to face interaction as part of social integration, to underline the need for sustainable integration and an alteration of social sustainability upon further research. A tendency was determined as being the...

The study's purposes were to understand how students with physical disabilities perceive a) normative pressures identified in Weidman's (1989) Model of Undergraduate Socialization as affecting their social integration; b) their own disability as influencing their social integration; and c) their levels of satisfaction with social integration.

In recent years, organizations have sought to address historic inequities by adopting ameliorative policies ranging from providing merit-based avenues of entry and promotion to members of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups to creating a new organizational function that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion (hereafter DEI). My dissertation comprises three case studies of the implementation and unanticipated consequences of such policies. I find that in all three cases, even the most far-reaching attempts at reform tend to reproduce existing ethnoracial and class barriers, thereby illustrating the dynamic of “reproduction through change” (Bourdieu 1988). The first paper is a case study of what happens when a relatively limited form of inclusion is introduced into a context marked by firm class boundaries. The analysis is based on interviews and participant observation with administrators and recipients of a prestigious and merit-based scholarship to an elite university in Peru. While administrators described themselves as committed to inclusion, their message to scholarship recipients was ambiguous, often counseling them to hide their scholarship status. This more insidious form of gatekeeping, together with evident class boundaries, entailed enormous social-psychological and interactional costs for scholarship recipients and transformed their pride in winning the scholarship into shame. The second paper describes a similar dynamic but in a different and more surprising context. Drawing from in-depth interviews conducted with current and former Foreign Service Officers to explain how recipients of the Pickering Fellowship, a U.S. Department of State fellowship, learn to accept a devaluing status belief about this accolade once they enter the Foreign Service. Within this organizational context, there is an established belief that Foreign Service Officers who are not the prototypical “Male, Pale, and Yale” workers must be “diversity hires” who entered the U.S. Department of State through a “back door” and have a “leg up” because of their race. This racialized negative evaluation gets linked to the Pickering fellowship and affects all fellows. This paper offers insights into the intersection of racial diversity and status processes in organizations. The third paper analyzes the structural tension concentrated in the position of Black DEI workers, explicitly hired as part of an organizational effort to implement a more thoroughgoing set of reforms addressing historical inequities. The case study examines the work lives of DEI workers in an elite public university. Between 2019 and 2021, we conducted in-depth interviews with DEI workers, students, and high-status organizational actors. The analysis suggests that DEI workers and their organizational colleagues envision the prototypical DEI worker as a member of a minoritized racial group. This race-typed prototype dictated (1) how colleagues and organizational leaders evaluated the expertise of DEI workers who belong to different racial groups and (2) how DEI workers of color intertwined their life narratives in accounts of their expertise, while White DEI workers did not do so. The development of this form of racialized expertise leads to a (3) racial task segregation among DEI workers of different groups. Even as the organization seeks to implement a far-reaching form of inclusion, minority DEI workers are assigned the task of managing internal and external organizational boundaries.

This dissertation asks how local planners, elected officials and activists have negotiated the recent implementation of inclusionary zoning projects in historically disinvested neighborhoods of New York and the Grand Paris. Instead of focusing on potential issues with the involvement of the private sector in cases of affordable housing provision, I shed the light on the strengths and limitations of the public sector, its land use ideologies and its accountability in terms of affordable housing provision. I look at a policy program that has widely circulated in both countries since the 1970s. Inclusionary zoning was developed as a strategy to leverage market-rate and affordable housing by channeling capital from private real estate developers. It has also always been rooted in a genealogy of initiatives that were attempting to reverse the exclusionary outcomes of zoning. While inclusionary zoning programs have now been widely adopted across North America and Europe, their use seems to be highly incremental and context-specific, and efforts to compare and contrast programs have not succeeded in systematically explaining what works and what does not work. Few studies consider how neighborhood context, local politics and power relations shape inclusionary zoning outcomes. Few studies consider how the implementation of inclusionary zoning programs in historically disinvested neighborhoods is shaped by path dependency and national contexts, which orient so much of our planning traditions, political economies and multi-scale governance structures. This dissertation intends to fill such a gap by contrasting the Fort d’Aubervilliers housing project where local public sector agents secured a more redistributive housing project (more affordable units and deeper affordability levels) because they had more power and were backed by resources, programs, institutions operating at a more macro level, to the East Harlem housing project where local public sector agents did not secure a redistributive housing project (more affordable units and deeper affordability levels), because they had less power and there was a disconnect with resources, programs, institutions operating at a more macro level. My research project goes beyond a standard macro-level comparison of national or metropolitan programs. It proposes a finer-grain “N of Two plus Some” comparative framework, with a single case study for a neighborhood in New York and a single case study for a neighborhood in the Grand Paris, both informed by other secondary cases. I present it as a chronological narrative research which “restories” my findings. I uncover the political mediation and micro-processes behind the implementation of two inclusionary housing projects, Fort d’Aubervilliers in the banlieue of the Grand Paris, and Sendero Verde in New York’s East Harlem. I map the multi-level negotiation processes that unfolded in each case among agents of the public sector, using close to 150 semi-structured interviews and shadowing meetings and hearings across the two cities. Findings follow Jenny Schuetz’s proposal that empowered but not autonomous local actors, subject to regional or federal public governance structures, represent the most just and redistributive model of urban governance when it comes to inclusionary zoning implementation (Schuetz et al. 2009). I contrast the story of an affordable housing project “locked” through the cooperation of the agents that make up the mille-feuille multi-scale public sector in the case of Aubervilliers with a contested public-private project where city agendas overlook a community-led neighborhood plan in the case of East Harlem. I underline how local levels of governance - the intermunicipal Établissements Publics Territoriaux in the case of Paris and the City Council in the case of New York - played a critical role in each case to negotiate the social justice outcomes of inclusionary zoning implementation in these historically disinvested neighborhoods, with more or less success. The investigation of two inclusionary zoning cases in East Harlem and the banlieue of Aubervilliers offers lessons about the social justice and equity aspects of real estate development projects undertaken in the two global cities of New York and the Grand Paris. It uncovers the “mixité de façade” question I ask, whether the social mix component of these two projects is truly achieved, or just a façade. In so doing, I intend to underline that there is a large enough gradient of ways to make the redistribution of economic growth, and goals of social justice, feasible in the two cities I work on. I also hope to reintroduce the type of opportunities the agency of public sector agents in charge of residential landscapes can grant us with, even in historically disinvested neighborhoods. New York and the Grand Paris, two cities which are still respectively at the forefront of securing subsidized housing markets for their residents, allow me to fuel a rich literature on global cities and transatlantic planning. Only this time, I decenter the standard comparative narrative on Paris and New York, and start chronicling the challenges of metropolitan policy making, progressive “New Proceduralism” and “New Public Management” illustrated by programs like inclusionary zoning, by situating the conversation in the historically disinvested neighborhoods of both cities. Eventually, while both contexts differ in several ways, they tell us something valuable. The major takeaway is that a strong public institutional landscape and a solid net of programs and resources available for public agents in charge of neighborhood planning plays a huge role in determining the success or failure of implementation processes for this type of inclusionary zoning-financed housing projects.

Through the lens of dramaturgy theory, this study conceptualizes Israel as the stage, North American and Chinese students as two groups of actors, and social integration as their play, seeking to answer this question: how do the different roles North American students and Chinese students play in Israel lead them to different experiences of social integration? This study attempts to understand what roles American and Chinese students initially wanted to play and what shaped them, where, how and with whom they conducted their performances, and if the roles they played were adjusted during the process. Eight sets of semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with four American students and four Chinese students. The research findings and analysis reveal that although American and Chinese students do have different experiences of integration, they nonetheless share similar strategies that a dramaturgical framework can successfully elicit. Moreover, the analysis presented in this thesis, also, suggests that the experience of international students is likely much more layered than what is reflected in much of the literature that addresses the integration of international students.

This thesis looks to explore from a user-centered standpoint, which mobile application features are relevant in the social integration of new arrivals in Sweden. Mobiles are used by individuals who are moving away from home not only to stay connected to their close ones but also as a way for empowerment and adaption in their new homes. Access to information helps immigrants to face the new challenges new host societies present. Nowadays mobiles and more specifically smartphones are becoming the principal sources for new arrivals to obtain information. As mobiles become more common among immigration groups, governments and institutions are turning to them as new ways for addressing migration challenges such as integration. This thesis, through a participatory design study, explores possible mobile digital application features that could be relevant in the social integration of immigrants. The goal is to develop through a cooperative and co-design method a prototype of a mobile application that can fit better with the necessities of new arrivals and can also facilitate better ways for social integration. As a result, it could be determinate that features that provide users the ability to gather information from one source are the most important for immigrants. Additionally, users want to be able to have control over the information they are receiving according to what phase they are at the integration process. Also, digital features seem not to be enough and digital and offline cooperation are suggested. In the process, participants provided innovative ways on how integration challenges can be addressed.

No description available.

This project investigates the role of the built environment in securing our practical and social needs. This is done based on research in the context of Cairo, Egypt. Banati foundation is an organisation established in 2010 which works on the rehabilitation and social reintegration of children in street situations in Cairo. This project takes Banati Foundation as its case study, offering architectural solutions to its process of social and psychological rehabilitation.This project required thorough research methodologies including primary fieldwork such as interviews and site visits, making it a project of co-creation. In building up the programme, the architect’s role was transformed to the additional role of a mediator, gathering information, exposing opportunities and assembling ideas.Banati foundation have existing tangible and intangible infrastructures with different levels of care to offer children a smooth transition into a rehabilitated safe, secure and comfortable life. My project aims to complete the cycle by investigating what being part of the Banati family means, and how Banati’s principles and objectives can extend beyond their institutional care, namely: how can young women moving out of Banati’s home transition smoothly out of their care, while maintaining Banatis role as a forever family?With a careful consideration of the social dimension of architecture, this project hopes to facilitate the final stage of care offered to the young women leaving the foundation upon reaching adulthood. The masterplan tackles questions of how to carve an easier path out of Banati’s care and into society for Banati’s graduates through socially aware architecture.

This qualitative discourse analysis examines the way in which the state’s intervention in issues concerning the public library in Sweden is depicted before the establishment of said institution, and more spefically during the years 1898 to 1903. The general aim of said analysis is to act as a kind of balance to the prevailing representation of the public library as an altogether democratic institution. In summary the public library is presented in the source material as being the solution to an array of societal issues. The background to these matters is furthermore explored to some extent. Among these, pulic library initiatives as one of the components in a larger popular education project can be mentioned. The further goal of this project is in turn to produce a more effective workforce and thereby strengthen the competetivness of the nation’s industries, as well as to function as an intrument for social integration, pacification of the working class, and development of a civic subject position. The theoretical approach has been composed of a number of various orientations. What can be said to be the common denominator of these, is the point of departure in historical materialism, as well as to some extent an understanding of the relation between state and civil society as being integrated in each other, rather than separated by a distinct boundary. In short the study concludes that the subsidization of public libraries by the state constitutes part of the transition from the an industrial capitalism, to that of an organized such. This change is pursued by efforts towards conjuring a mobilization behind the national project, and the strengthening of the nation’s industries in relation to international competition. Simultaneously a form of renegotiation of the social contract takes place, in which the cultivation of the subject position of the citizen as an alternative to that of the class-related subject can be said to be a crucial component. Altogether the long-term purpose of said activities can be interpreted as ways of suppressing an open class conflict, and turning it into a latent one. The public library is presented as a significant component in said process, since it contributes to an increase in the general level of education, an experience of national affinity and participation, as well as a concession to demands for social reforms.

This research was conducted to study the social integration of Syrian refugees in Sweden and their feeling of inclusion in the Swedish society, or exclusion from it. The research also targeted illuminating and analyzing potential reasons for the social exclusion of some Syrian refugees according to first-hand experiences, perspectives, and opinions collected by semi-structured interviews with 10 informants who left Syria due to civil war and sought asylum in Sweden. This paper serves as a platform on which voices and views of Syrian refugees were echoed, and conclusions on their settlement and inclusion in their new country were based on their own feelings, struggles, and matters of their social lives. To achieve that, social, cultural, and human aspects were prioritized over mainstream economic and legal aspects as all informants were documented and integrated into the Swedish labor market or education system.  Nonetheless, the study results have shown a worrying lack of social inclusion that Syrian refugees have experienced so far in their new country, reducing them into underprivileged, ethnic social circles where they had limited access to social networks from different backgrounds, resources, and opportunity. The nature of the Swedish society, as well as the negative image of Syrian refugees, Ethnic-segregated residencies, cultural incompatibility, and racism, were found to be the main reasons behind this phenomenon