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Mass tourism is a critical agent of change, with a proven capacity of forging new landscapes and thoroughly modifying the internal structure of a community. Thornbury, a rural settlement located in South-western Ontario, is on the brink of such shift: With the emergence of a new culture of tourism and the introduction of ‘upscale’ resort developments, its physical conditions are rapidly being reconfigured and the character of its social landscape is on the precipice of being irrevocably altered. These luxury vacation facilities occur in a dispersed fashion on the fringe – a condition which has not only initiated a radical modification and decentralization of social and economic activity, but has also resulted in the decline of traditional neighbourhood ties. Likewise, this occurrence has introduced an influx of newcomers who advance an identity and lifestyle clearly distinct from that of Thornbury’s quiet community of rural citizens and retirees. In this context, these newly arrived inhabitants soon become dwellers of “limited liability”– those who reside within a community, but do not identify with it – as Thornbury lacks the infrastructure and amenities to support potential exchanges and direct interest to the qualities of traditional civic life. As such, the thesis will examine the question of: What is the role of architecture in sustaining local identity in an altered social fabric? Or, more specifically, how can social relations in a transformed community be advanced through the use and design of public spaces? The work will attempt to outline the trajectory of urban change and understand the factors that account for present circumstances. The outcome of the research will generate a series of responsive designs that hinge upon the idea of uplifting ordinary landscapes and everyday ruralism. Essentially, the proposed strategy is one in which rurality is integral to the solution: Methods which harness rural assets and refashion them in a progressive manner will be utilized to inspire the formation of a new local culture while establishing an interface between opposing population segments. Overall, this study is intended to serve as a template to be used by communities in Ontario for mitigating the effects of changing rural geographies.

In the face of knowledge deficits in and poor outcome assessments of Organisation Transformation (OT), there is a need for a better understanding of the relationship between change leader interventions and qualitative organisational schema change, the collective knowledge structures that must be replaced or significantly elaborated if OT is to be realised. Previous research on this relationship has (a) focused on imposed structural interventions and given little attention to large-scale human process interventions, (b) given little attention to the radical structural interventions frequently involved in the transformation of public organisations, (c) given little scrutiny to how organisational schema have been conceptualised, (d) given little scrutiny to recent propositions on schema change dynamics that may be contentious, and (e) given little consideration to the change management contexts in which leader influence may be neutralised. In the light of these gaps in the literature, this thesis investigates, from the perspective of change recipients, the relationship between complex large-scale change leader interventions and qualitative organisational schema change in change management contexts thought to be inimical to leader influence. In particular, how efficacious are change leader interventions in realising qualitative organisational schema change in such contexts? An interpretive longitudinal case study design was used to address this question. The case organisation is a spatially differentiated technically-oriented public Professional Bureaucracy located in Queensland. In this context, this thesis investigates, over a three-year period, the creation and evolution of three schema change contexts, or change trajectories, created by two temporally disconnected yet functionally inter-related change leader interventions. Data collection techniques included focus group interviews, semi-structured interviews, and secondary sources. Data were collected from several sites, including Head Office functions and Regional and District offices, across Queensland. Data were collected on four occasions across the three-year period from early 2000 to late 2002. The results reveal that (a) while there are no panaceas, public managers need more sophisticated intervention theories based on a knowledge of the relative efficacy of different interventions rather than relying on, predominantly, structural interventions, (b) viewing organisational schema in one-dimensional rather than multidimensional terms masks both the complexity of organisational schema change and the possibility of partial rather than configurational schema change, (c) while inter-schema conflict or dialectical processes were apparent, successful schema change was better explained by teleological processes than by dialectical processes, and (d) change leaders can have a powerful influence on OT in change management contexts thought to be inimical to change leader influence yet their influence is linked to high investments of time and effort.

PhD / None.

Zugl.: Karlsruhe, Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Augsburg, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-188).

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1988. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves [271]-273.

Zugl.: Karlsruhe, Univ., Diss., 2006

München, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.