Local diversity is often credited with being a driver of creative economic activity. Comparative research on this topic is often however highly structural in nature and does little to address questions of agency. This work seeks to link the traditional regional science approach to questions of potential advantages of local diversity with a more bottom-up view of the creative process. From a theoretical perspective this involves incorporating the social psychology literature on the creative process as well as concepts from social network analysis with more aggregated spatial notions of creativity and diversity. More specifically, it addresses how different knowledge is connected through social interaction and how this fuels the creation of new ideas and ultimately creative economic activity. A number of empirical innovations are made in order to test these theoretical constructs beginning with an agent-model/simulation which illuminates how social networks form and evolve over space and time. These artificial networks suggest how agents embedded in diverse local contexts have a creative advantage by possessing greater access to a variety of knowledge. Subsequent statistical analysis of large secondary datasets seeks to provide external validity to the agent-model. The first demonstrates a strong relationship between local diversity and the concentration of creative economic activities across 140 Canadian city-regions. A key implication of this finding is that local diversity is more closely associated with certain types of economic activity, rather than overall economic performance. The second statistical analysis uses the Canadian General Social Survey to compare the social network characteristics of individuals. This analysis shows that people engaged in creative industries and occupations tend to have larger, more dynamic, and more diverse sets of social relations than any other category of worker. The dissertation concludes with a model that suggests policy interventions should focus on developing local environments that provide the necessary conditions in which creative activity can thrive, rather than attempting to intervene directly in the creative process itself.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / Kendra K. McLauchlan / Fossil pollen assemblages are widely used in paleoenvironmental reconstruction of vegetation regimes and climate conditions. The modern analog technique (MAT) is a popular method used for analysis of these fossil pollen assemblages, but a large modern pollen dataset, such as the North American Pollen Database (NAPD), is needed to provide modern comparisons for interpretation of analog/no-analog situations. While many climate types are well represented within the NAPD, the climates of the southern and central Great Plains of North America are poorly represented. In this study, I collected 31 sediment samples containing pollen from these underrepresented climate types across the Great Plains in the U.S.A. Analysis of these 31 pollen assemblages, along with 504 samples classified as “prairie” from the NAPD and 24 pollen samples from the Flint Hills of Kansas, U.S.A. was conducted to determine if the three major prairie types (short grass, mixed grass, and tallgrass prairies) could be delineated from pollen records alone. Two different MAT dissimilarity metrics (Squared Chord Distance and Canberra Distance Metric) were assessed for their ability to delineate among prairie types and Squared Chord Distance (SCD) was found to a be the better prairie type classifier than Canberra Distance Metric (CDM). Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to assess the ability of each metric to identify similar pollen assemblages. It has been show in previous studies that two genera found in this region – Ambrosia and Artemisia –respond to temperature and moisture availability in different ways. Using the ratio of the proportions of Ambrosia and Artemisia pollen grains in a pollen assemblage it was found that tallgrass prairies are significantly different from the other two prairie types. The Ambrosia/Artemisia ratio is also useful in determining climatic conditions. This ratio provides paleoenvironmental researchers with a simple quantitative tool to quickly assess general climatic conditions and prairie type.

\medskip\noindent{\it Résumé.~} En utilisant une méthode due à L. Schwartz, nous établissons une conjecture due à N. Kuhn qui affirme que l'action de l'algèbre de Steenrod sur la cohomologie d'un espace topologique à coefficients dans le corps premier $\mathbb{F} _2$ est soit localement finie, soit non polynômiale. Pour cela, nous construisons une suite spectrale d'Eilenberg-Moore dans le cadre de la théorie homotopique des espaces profinis de F. Morel (cette partie du travail est une collaboration avec F.-X. Dehon). \smallskip\noindent Nous démontrons pour cette suite spectrale, qui converge toujours au sens naïf, un théorème de convergence forte, dans l'esprit de celui de W. G. Dwyer. Nos preuves sont simplifiées par la propreté du calcul homotopique des espaces profinis, que nous établissons. \smallskip\noindent Nous montrons également qu'une algèbre instable connexe dont l'idéal d'augmentation n'est pas localement nilpotent admet une série de Loewy infinie 'aux nilpotents près'. \smallskip\noindent Enfin, nous donnons quelques exemples de modules instables non réalisables en utilisant des méthodes élémentaires.

This three-paper dissertation explores how broader (and often unchallenged) changes to political economy at multiple geographic and economic scales impact long-standing ‘informal’ practices of waste recovery and recycling in Hanoi, Vietnam. This research is based on a survey of 575 informal waste collectors and 264 waste intermediaries as well as 73 in-depth interviews. Paper I engages in a critique of methodological disclosure in current academic writings on informal waste-recovery activities and discusses the methodological difficulties of researching informal populations. My aim in this paper is to highlight that the lack of methodological disclosure in waste-recovery literature is problematic because it compromises the academic rigour of this field and impedes the reliability of researchers’ policy recommendations as well as to initiate a dialogue with the aim of improving methodological rigour in waste-recovery literature. Paper II examines urbanization processes in contemporary Vietnam and how these changing spaces accommodate labour, and in turn support livelihoods. I argue that Vietnam’s globalizing economy and urban transition have been a catalyst for the growth of the informal waste collector population in Hanoi, as well as a partial player in the gendering of the industry. Paper III explores how one particular segment of the informal waste-recovery trade, waste intermediaries, is impacted by Hanoi’s rapid urban change. I demonstrate in this paper that 1) waste intermediaries simultaneously gain and lose as a result of Hanoi’s urban transition; and 2) the underlying forces of urban spatial change in different areas of the city are quite distinct, which will have an impact on the future of waste-recovery in Hanoi. The key findings of this dissertation are: 1)A more thorough engagement with methods and a broader approach to understanding waste-recovery actors (through an engagement with political economy at multiple geographic and economic scales) will produce a more context-appropriate and compassionate understanding of this group of urban actors. 2)The livelihoods of informal waste-recovery workers are both directly and indirectly impacted by shifts in political economy, albeit in Hanoi these impacts (both positive and negative) vary by sex and sub-occupation (with respect to waste collectors), and scale of business and location in the city (with respect to waste intermediaries).

Over the past decade the introduction of MP3’s, file sharing networks and illegal downloading has fundamentally changed the music industry, structurally and spatially. In the wake of this restructuring it is now estimated that 95% of all musicians in Canada operate independently of record companies (Canadian Independent Recording Artist Association or ‘CIRAA’). Digital technologies afford independent musicians greater freedom and control over how and where they live and work. Although economic geographers have been quick to examine the impact of the so called ‘MP3 Crisis’ on record sales and the major record labels, little is known about how changes at the macro-scale affect the working lives of individual musicians in specific locations. As a result, this dissertation focuses on the employment experiences and spatial dynamics of independent musicians in Toronto. Drawing on sixty-five in-depth interviews with musicians and key informants in the music industry, the thesis documents the intersections between technology, work and space. In particular, the analysis highlights the ways in which the new creative and spatial freedoms, associated with independent music production, are accompanied by intensified competition and employment risk, which musicians experience in an increasingly individualized way. Surviving in the current marketplace requires independent musicians to perform a range of new tasks and exhibit a higher degree of professionalism. Accordingly, the research outlines some of the reasons why some musicians are rejecting and reworking traditional bohemian lifestyles, spatial patterns and risk mediation strategies. In particular, there is growing evidence of new forms of networking and of the increased importance of strategic collaborations between musicians and fashion designers. There are also signs that some musicians are relocating from the downtown core to the surrounding suburbs, and that musical talent is becoming redistributed across the city-region. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates the need for specialized policies to incubate and retain creative talent in an increasingly global and digital marketplace.

Vermont, like many rural places in the developed world, has been the destination of many urban migrants seeking lifestyle amenities unavailable in the city. This migration has been blamed for intractable conflicts over land use governance, with newcomers pitted against long-time residents on such issues as wilderness designation, agricultural impacts and motorized recreation. How accurate, though, are these representations of political visions polarized along lines of residential status? This dissertation maps out the complexity of popular outlooks on land use governance in Vermont using a Q-method survey and semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the survey found evidence for two distinct perspectives on land use governance, which were termed Green Governance and Government Scepticism. While distinct, these perspectives were not diametrically opposed; on many issues of concern to one group the other group was neutral. These groups did not map directly onto residential status; in particular, long-time residents were clearly evident in both groups. Looking deeper into the stances on land use, tensions between stances are evident at both the level of the group and the individual. The dissertation traces these tensions and considers their implications for how individuals are enrolled in larger political projects such as neoliberalism. In many cases, uncertain enrolment suggests places where groups could productively engage each other and develop less antagonistic relationships. The dissertation fits the political orientations it examines into a broader cultural reading of social divisions that goes beyond residential status. It posits the existence of cultural complexes with an array of components contributing to social identity. These components – which include residential status and political orientation – influence each other without being determining. Compared with more established moral economy frameworks, this model seeks to provide a more flexible theorization of the relationship between social identity and political outlook.

In this thesis I argue that the management of Muslim pilgrims and the Haj traffic in Bombay was the result of the localization of an international regime of regulation aimed at controlling Hajis as mobile threats to public health and imperial security. International scientists, doctors, and politicians problematized Hajis as diseased, dangerous and disorderly through discourse produced in print material and at international conferences taking place across the globe. Local, elite concerns over their own power, Bombay’s urban spatial order, and the city’s international trade shaped the way these larger global and imperial projects were implemented in Bombay. These findings point to the importance of local, place-based social, political and economic structures in the day-to-day governance of empire.

The majority of Kenya’s wildlife exists outside the network of national parks and reserves, predominantly in private and community-owned lands. Although works must be acknowledged for having explored the community conservation approach, the body of research examining how Kenya’s wildlife conservation approach is being negotiated by local stakeholders and incorporated into local livelihood strategies is limited. Based on a case study of the Meibae Community Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya, this study examines the motivations of local and non-local groups to pursue wildlife conservation. Viewed through a political ecology lens, this paper analyzes how local people moderate the influence of external conservation values and interests. Findings suggest that local people adopt wildlife conservation projects to access better systems of rangeland management, pursue strategic linkages with external stakeholders and develop basic industries. I conclude that this process represents how Samburu pastoralists strategically embrace externally driven wildlife conservation efforts in self-defining ways.

The local food movement has been offered as an alternative to the conventional food system. This thesis identifies the barriers that are constraining the local food movement using the case study of Ontario, Canada, by performing qualitative analysis of informal interview responses. In addition to generating a comprehensive account of the barriers constraining local food, barriers to local food procurement in the institutional context are also identified. Findings suggest that the barriers to the local food movement can be related to a lack of access, lack of resources, poor governance structures, poor information sharing and uncooperative relationships between local food actors. I argue that these barriers are reflective of the broader challenges associated with attempting to create food systems change from within the dominant system. Daunting as they may be, they can be overcome in an incremental, pragmatic way. Nineteen recommendations are made to this end.

This research examines settlement services and their ability to provide assistance with social inclusion for newcomer youth in the Peel Region, Ontario. Focus groups are used to examine the experiences and perceptions of settlement services and their ability to enhance social inclusion among 44 newcomer youth. The findings indicate that newcomer youth have positive perceptions of settlement services. Furthermore, there are five arenas in which settlement services are assisting with social inclusion for newcomer youth. These include relational inclusion, labour market inclusion, spatial inclusion, educational inclusion, and socio-political inclusion. Additional research is required to examine the social inclusion impacts that settlement services have on newcomer youth over the life-course. Moreover, reconsidering government initiatives and policies involving funds for settlement services and community organizations is necessary.