A presente pesquisa partiu de uma etnografia realizada na região conhecida como Cracolândia no centro de São Paulo, considerada a mais famosa territorialidade de uso de crack no país. Alvo de intervenções estatais desde seu surgimento, nos anos 1990, essa territorialidade continua no centro de muitos programas e instituições. Em 2012, com o conflito erguido em torno da Operação Sufoco, há, no entanto, uma mudança nas formas de gestão desse espaço: de uma racionalidade de dispersão, que visava impedir o agrupamento de usuários de crack por meio do uso da força, para uma lógica de governo que precisa desse espaço concentrado para executar seus programas. Minha hipótese é que a fixação territorial combinada a essa malha concentrada de programas e instituições assistenciais acabou por construir um campo de gravitação em torno da Cracolândia, de modo a atrair pessoas com trajetórias muito diferentes mas que se encontram ali por terem uma vida errante. A partir do percurso de uma jovem que conheci durante a pesquisa, argumento que o Estado produz espaços e territorialidades como a Cracolândia, ao induzir e condicionar o movimento de diversos sujeitos. Como a personagem dessa pesquisa evidencia, sua circulação é incessante e ilegível, como na imagem do labirinto, mas guiada por uma racionalidade de buscar um local seguro das investidas policiais para estabelecer suas malocas e modos de vida, e onde há concentração de recursos e possibilidades. Dessa forma, a Cracolândia só faz sentido dentro de uma experiência urbana mais ampla, o que envolve outros espaços não contingentes territorialmente. / This research started from an ethnography in the region known as Cracolândia in downtown of São Paulo, considered the most famous crack use of territoriality in the country. Target of state interventions since its inception in the 1990s, this territoriality remains at the heart of many programs and institutions. In 2012, the conflict erected around the operation Suffocation, there is, however, a change in the forms of management of this space: a rationality dispersion, which was intended to prevent the grouping of crack users through the use of force, to a logic of government that needs this concentrated space to run their programs. My hypothesis is that the territorial fixation combined with this concentrated mesh programs and charitable institutions eventually build a gravitational field around the Cracolândia in order to attract people with very different paths but they are there to have a wandering life. From the journey of a young man I met during the research, I argue that the state produces spaces and territoriality as Cracolândia, to induce and influence the movement of various subjects. As the character of this research shows, their movement is unceasing and unreadable, as the labyrinth image, but guided by a rationality to seek a safe place police invested to establish their \"huts\" and ways of life, and where there is a concentration of resources and possibilities. Thus, Cracolândia only makes sense within a broader urban experience, which involves other spaces not contingent territorially.

This thesis explores the role of expert-led policy processes in addressing water quality. It does so by drawing on the ‘peri-urban' as a setting which exemplifies contemporary social and environmental challenges associated with river and groundwater pollution, as well as the health and livelihood implications for the poorest citizens in peri-urban areas. The peri-urban area of Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, provides a good reference point for understanding those challenges, while India's environmental regulatory agency (the Central Pollution Control Board) demonstrates how policy experts influence such a setting by enacting their institutional role and mandate. The thesis examines the ways in which problems associated with deteriorating water quality in peri-urban areas are often neglected in expert-led policy processes, and the consequent implications for peri-urban poor communities. It argues that expert-driven policy approaches to addressing water quality are formulated almost exclusively on scientific grounds, while underlying ‘non-scientific' decisions and choices, emerging from actors operating at levels from policy framing to policy implementation, are not awarded the same importance, thus ignoring issues that pertain to the social, environmental and political implications of the problems. By drawing on qualitative research, the thesis focuses on two case studies. One examines the Central Pollution Control Board's framing of policy initiatives while the other follows the implementation of such policies in peri-urban Ghaziabad. The thesis demonstrates how the scale of monitoring water quality is heavily biased towards national rather than local level priorities. This leads to an understatement of important water quality problems that affect peri-urban areas in favour of large-scale analyses of pollution in river basins. This has the effect of understating important water quality problems that affect peri-urban areas in poorer localities such as villages within the Ghaziabad district. The centrality of technical discourses in the articulation of and response to water quality problems makes it difficult for non-technical perspectives (derived directly from those people who are exposed to pollution) to feed into formal decision-making. This research also identified the key influence of a number of actors (municipal engineers, public health officials and district magistrates) in shaping and implementing policy outcomes on the ground in local contexts (i.e. peri-urban areas), even though their roles are often not recognised formally. The thesis is original in its attempt to merge insights from policy studies and science technology studies (STS) and apply them to the domain of water quality, a field that has not traditionally been subjected to critical social science inquiry. It also unpacks ethnographically the Board's dual role as both a policy advisor and regulator, and further illustrates how the enactment of these roles can lead to contradictory outcomes on the ground, particularly for the poorest periurban citizens.

This thesis addresses the implications of Australian and South Australian government policies for the provision of online health information. It focuses on subjective meanings about internet use and access by questioning the use of information and communications technology (ICT) for health information. It analyses egalitarian approaches by government entities for universal access and explores how the phenomenon of the internet is claimed to be a potential conduit for social inclusion to reduce health inequalities.

It has long been acknowledged that housing is essential for access to employment, social services, healthcare, and other forms of assistance that help move people out of poverty. Through identifying dimensions of housing insecurity, policymakers, as well as researchers, will have a better understanding of the protective factors that make families more secure and the risk factors that raise their level of insecurity. These analyses use resident and non-resident, low-income, urban fathers’ responses to the five publicly available waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (n = 4378) dataset to examine the relationship between protective and risk factors and housing insecurity. As access to protective factors increases, fathers’ risk of housing semi-insecurity and insecurity decreases, and as fathers are more exposed to risk factors, both their housing semi-insecurity and insecurity risks increase.

The aim of this thesis is to explain the production of urban space at the southwestern periphery of Ankara between 1985 and 2007. It has been argued that urban development is not a self-regulatory process / on contrary it is a process produced by urban planning practice. In this respect this thesis asks how and what extent urban planning produces particular urban pattern at the peripheral areas. The southwestern periphery is taken into account as a field of case study due to the peculiar development dynamics. Historical development in this area reveals a contrast between planned development directed by master plans and problematic development that has been produced by fragmented and incoherent planning processes. The difficulties of urban plans and urban planning are intimately related with the legal and administrative structures of the planning system. A methodology offered in this thesis is devised to analyze the incremental and piecemeal nature of planning process with reference to these structures. The results of the research has shown that when confronted with legal and administrative conflicts and struggles, fragmented planning decisions manipulating the existing master plan intensify and become the root cause of dispersed, awkward and haphazard spatial patterns of urban expansion.

The aim of this thesis is to explain the production of urban space at the southwestern periphery of Ankara between 1985 and 2007. It has been argued that urban development is not a self-regulatory process / on contrary it is a process produced by urban planning practice. In this respect this thesis asks how and what extent urban planning produces particular urban pattern at the peripheral areas. The southwestern periphery is taken into account as a field of case study due to the peculiar development dynamics. Historical development in this area reveals a contrast between planned development directed by master plans and problematic development that has been produced by fragmented and incoherent planning processes. The difficulties of urban plans and urban planning are intimately related with the legal and administrative structures of the planning system. A methodology offered in this thesis is devised to analyze the incremental and piecemeal nature of planning process with reference to these structures. The results of the research has shown that when confronted with legal and administrative conflicts and struggles, fragmented planning decisions manipulating the existing master plan intensify and become the root cause of dispersed, awkward and haphazard spatial patterns of urban expansion.

This study is based on a comparison of the spatial choices of two middle class groups residing in &Ccedil / ayyolu and Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren in Ankara. Spatial choices include the residences and neighborhood, the consumption of various places and activities in urban space and evaluations of the urban space. To search for the effects of alternative factors on the spatial choices along with well-known economic capital, two upper middle class groups are chosen as the basis of comparison. In line with the effects of Bourdieu&amp / #8217 / s cultural capital and social and symbolic capital on the differentiation of middle class / the location choice, spatial use and evaluation differences of the two groups at hand are investigated. Based on the effects of consumption sphere in class formation, the influence of the concept of &amp / #8216 / taste&amp / #8217 / and the differentiating aspect of lifestyle is discussed and how the resulting spatial tastes and choices may affect the development of urban space is presented in the case of Ankara. The importance of considering theoretically the local variations in studies conducted in urban space based on the daily practices of urbanites is revealed by the discussions of cultural factors that are special to Ankara and Turkey.

In Turkey, by 1980, a transformation has been observed on both the character of the societal opposition and the meaning, function, and spatial form of public spaces, which were characterized to be essential political spaces of a period. Kizilay Square was &lsquo / the preferred space&rsquo / by the opposition during the struggle against Democrat Party in 1960&rsquo / s / however demonstrations were expelled out of the square by legal regulations and sanctions. On one hand, legally, Kizilay Square could not be the scene of societal opposition / on the other hand the meaning on the base of being a &lsquo / political scene&rsquo / has continued. However, spatial implementations, regulated by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, occurred as an attempt to turn the square from a possible pedestrian zone to a junction. Since the period it has been conceived and designed as a socio-spatial project of new established republic in 1925, Kizilay Square has been transformed within its (historical) meaning, (urban) function and (spatial) form through changing contradictions and actors within political, social and economic context. This transformation has been experienced through political contradiction and struggle. Between the years 1960 and 1980, during which the societal opposition arouse, with respect to differentiating actors and movements, the conflict over meaning, function and form of the square also has differentiated from the meaning, form and function determined in the nation state construction process. Through this research, it is aimed to examine how the political contradiction and struggle on three dimensions of Kizilay Square has been transformed, within a historical perspective.

Space is a social product and produced socially. For a social analysis, it is therefore necessary to put equal emphasis on conceptualisations of time and space and to analyse the production process of space. This thesis aims to analyse the production of capitalist space and it is based on Lefebvre&rsquo / s conceptualisation of &lsquo / production of space&rsquo / within the context of Marxist urban space theories. It is based on the argument that every mode of production creates its own spaces and the new spaces call for new social relations. In the analysis of space, historical geographical materialism and realist geography are used. In this thesis, the production of urban space of Ankara is analysed with an emphasis on social relations of planning and architecture. Ankara as the capital city is a spatial representation of nation state and national identity. Spatial representations and practices are analysed in terms of Atat&uuml / rk Boulevard and the squares of Ulus, Sihhiye and Kizilay. Within this scope, public buildings and monuments, housing, transportation and commercial spaces are examined by drawing on Lefebvre&rsquo / s conceptual triad of &lsquo / spatial practices&rsquo / , &lsquo / representations of space&rsquo / and &lsquo / spaces of representation&rsquo / . In the production process of the urban space of Ankara, history of space is considered as the history of its forms and representations and the production of urban space is examined in historical periods. The exploratory type of research used in this study is primarily based on documentary-historical data.

The aim of the master thesis is to understand how neighborhood, family and school influence on the educational attainment of young people. Within the scope of this work, I conducted thirty two in-depth interviews with youth living in the G&uuml / zelyaka gecekondu (squatter) neighborhood in Ankara. Gecekondu neighborhoods are residential areas where rural migrants might initially or permanently move when they come to the city in order to improve their life standards. However, many of them have to survive here against conditions such as poverty and the insufficiency of social services during the early years of their migration. Nevertheless, families can develop survival strategies based on self-help networks like kinship and hemSehri (people with same geographic origins) connections. Throughout this master thesis, I discuss how young people&rsquo / s interactions within the disadvantaged neighborhoods, school climate around the neighborhood, family background, conditions at home and parental involvement influence the educational attainment of youth The research revealed that despite the specific conditions of gecekondu neighborhoods and heterogeneity amongst working class families, there is little variation in educational attainment of the youth. The main reason for this low level of educational attainment is the poverty they experienced or are still experiencing at home. While such poverty may compel them to take up positions in the labor market participation early in life, the influence of peer groups also discourages school attendance, as the environment is one in which schools provide neither a good quality education, nor a competitive educational environment. Furthermore, poverty, the disadvantaged nature of the neighborhood and the strength of the family network among the residents all serve to reproduce the inferior value of iv education in their life. On the other hand, family practices regarding education vary with the transformation towards a nuclear family life, improvement in household income and with increasing length of stay. Early migrant families who have better life standards are more likely to encourage their children to stay in school in order to find regular income jobs than are newcomer families who need a supplement to the family budget since they are exposed to the worst conditions in the neighborhood. The younger parents among early migrant families are more involved in their children&rsquo / s schooling, and provide personal space for their children, enabling them to adequately complete school work.