This dissertation investigates pro-poor urban adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh. Dhaka city, a capital of Bangladesh, is widely recognised to be one of the most climate vulnerable mega cities in the world. Climate change impacts are likely to affect the poorest urban residents disproportionately as having the least capacity to adapt to a changing climate. However, the assertion that the poorest are the most vulnerable to climate change is commonly made as a generalisation, with limited examination of the dynamic and differentiated nature of poverty. This research therefore aims to examine pro-poor urban adaptation in the context of climate variability and change. In analysing climate change vulnerability and asset adaptation from urban extreme poverty, this research identifies a differentiated view of poverty and vulnerability and also provides an analysis of how extreme poor households get access to assets and build asset adaptation strategies. This research found that extreme poor households do their best to adapt to perceived climate changes, but in absence of savings, access to credit and insurance, they are forced to adopt adverse coping strategies. Social policy and social protection could therefore become more of a priority sector for adaptation than it has been so far. This can create opportunities for the poorest to accumulate assets which help them to build asset adaptation or resilience strategies. By reviewing key theories and practices, this research first addresses the question of whether there is any interrelation between poverty dynamics and vulnerability. The research then explores drivers of climate change vulnerability for the urban extreme poor. This research critically analyses autonomous adaptation and planned asset based adaptation in order to build a conceptual framework of pro-poor asset adaptation for the urban extreme poor households and groups. Following this framework, this research aims to identify the individual adaptation practices and role of institutions and policies in supporting or constraining these adaptation practices. This research also examines the role of social policy and social protection for pro-poor adaptation. The research then applies the concepts drawn from a critical literature review to analyse the context of Bangladesh. Thus, the research has conducted household life-history interviews to explore the vulnerabilities and asset adaptation strategies of the extreme poor households. To understand household asset endowments (and their returns) descriptive statistics are derived from secondary sources. In addition to household interviews, key informant surveys, focus group discussions, grey materials and analysis of secondary academic materials were analysed to acquire qualitative information on the role of formal and informal institutions and policies for adaptation practices. The household life-history findings support the idea that poverty traps are likely to be linked to vulnerability. The empirical evidence also shows that there is a clear relationship between vulnerability to the market (exclusion from market opportunities), low asset holdings (and their returns) and ill-health. The slums and squatter settlements in Dhaka city are marked by high levels of physical vulnerabilities in the context of climate change, mainly as a consequence of their high politico-legal and socioeconomic vulnerabilities. The individual adaptation practices are impact-minimising, short lived, ad hoc and even harmful measures because the urban poorest are excluded from formal policies and institutions and in the absence of formal rights and entitlements, the process of facilitating and maintaining patron–client relationships is a central coping strategy for the poorest. The social policy and social protection are found to be effective in facilitating asset adaptation for the urban extreme poor and contribute to greater resilience to climate change. Analysing the empirical evidence through the lens of the pro-poor asset adaptation framework, this research reveals that the asset transfer approach was an effective programmatic intervention for building household adaptation strategies. Social funds and supports to community driven development can enhance the capacity of community organisations to develop small infrastructures that actually stops or greatly reduces flooding. However, challenging the adverse structural context is not a matter of building at a household and collective level assets but also capacity to participate in and influence the institutions from which they have previously been excluded. Attention must be paid to building a strong collective organisation in order to break the existing social order and inequalities. The city and municipal government can create an enabling environment for this grassroots mobilisation by providing services and information, and ensuring their access to the decision making process. A combination of micro (household), meso (community) and macro (city and municipal) level asset-based actions can ensure the long term resilience of extreme poor households and groups.

This thesis seeks to support the longer-term development of the community sector in Scotland, the United Kingdom (UK) and further afield, through consideration of a community sector theory and practice (CSTP): where, such a theory and practice is assumed to involve elements of both theorising as to actual, developing practices and theorising as to the impact of the broader workings of society (structure) on the forming and performing of such practices. The thesis focuses on a particular model and narrative of a community organisation as a ‘community anchor’: where, such an organisation is understood to be community-based and led, and to undertake a multi-purpose role across a range of local development, service provision and advocacy. The term community anchor has been/is active within policy-making, namely that of the New Labour UK Government (1997-2010) and, currently, SNP Scottish Government (2007-present). Within Scotland, the Scottish Community Alliance (SCA) has positioned a community anchor narrative within a particular narrative of community empowerment; the latter rooted in themes of community ownership and enterprise, local democracy, and local economic and social development (Pearce, 2003). This community anchor/community empowerment narrative (CACE) can be understood as one particular strand of a wider CSTP, a ‘CACE within a CSTP’ (CACE/CSTP) in fact, such that a CACE too can be supported and informed through theorising on practice and structural context. The thesis works to strengthen theoretical understanding and development relating to a CACE/CSTP, and then to draw from this to inform, interpret and analyse an empirical inquiry, using a qualitative and critical case-study research methodology, of three community anchor organisations and their respective communities – one from each of urban, rural and remote island contexts. Theoretical discussion that supports an understanding of a CSTP is developed through consideration of theorising on: post-1945 political economic trends in relation to public policy, particularly urban public policy, in the UK and currently as a dominant neo-liberalism, although as distinctive variants within policy-making in England and Scotland; the practices of community development and social enterprise, in particular relative to social structure and inequality; and, social structure and agency, through use of structuration theory (Giddens, 1984). The understanding of a CACE is deepened through consideration of: policy-making on community anchors within Scottish and English policy-making contexts; matters and issues of practice for community anchors – in particular as being ‘community-led’, developing ‘sustainable independence’ and undertaking a diverse, multi-purpose role; the role of the community sector and its development as part of the social economy; and the wider political economic dynamics of the nation state (Giddens, 1984; Pearce: 1993, 2003; Harvey, 2009 [1973]). The empirical inquiry, and the related interpretation and analysis, explore the three case-studies, and illustrate and develop theoretical understandings of a CACE/CSTP and a CSTP, more generally. In focusing on practice, the complexities of community-led practices, organisational independence (sustainable independence) from the state, and the integration of the breadth of working of a community anchor are considered both as activities on-the-ground and in relation to the state and market. In focusing on political economy, the complexity of the community sector’s relationship with the state and the market is explored. It is recognised that the sector will find itself undertaking a ‘community management’ role, seeking to limit social and economic crises, in response to neo-liberal economic and social marginalisation of many communities. Yet, such recognition can support the community sector in continuing with aspirations for a ‘community ownership’ and in seeking alternatives in relation to local economic and social development, service provision, political advocacy and policy-making. The resulting articulation of a CACE/CSTP can be used to inform a developing community sector research agenda(s) for both ‘the research community’ and community sector, and to inform and support discussions of policy and practice within community sector and wider policy-making.

Person-environment relationships in five urban-fringe science parks in central Scotland were investigated through the application of a mixed method case study design. The study sought to explore the impact of greenspace at these knowledge-sector workplaces on employee wellbeing, with particular focus on restorative effects of viewing and spending time in green environments. The thesis also aims to develop understanding of how workers at these sites engage with, and relate to, the outdoor environment at their workplace. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected; the former through an online questionnaire (n=366), and the latter through in-depth semi-structured walking interviews (n=16) conducted on and around the sites. This research is the first to provide evidence of wellbeing benefits of greenspace in the context of UK workplaces. Its focus on the landscape of science parks is of particular relevance given the prominence of this development model in planning policy to promote regional economic growth, as well as the central role of employee functioning in the productivity of innovative knowledge-sector businesses. The insights gained through the research point to a number of conclusions for the planning and design of future business sites at the urban fringe. The research also makes an original contribution to the international research on restorative environments in its exploration of how different types and designs of open space impact on the wellbeing of workers and, in particular, how individual factors influence responses to elements of open space design and management in the workplace context.

Fibre-reinforced polymer, FRP, composites have been used successfully for the strengthening and repair of steel beams in order to increase the flexural strength of the beams by up to 40%. However, little attention has been given to the use of FRP composites to increase the ultimate strength of steel plate-girders where failure is initiated by shear buckling of the slender webs. This thesis presents the details and results of an experimental and numerical investigation in which the web panels of the steel plate-girders were strengthened either by bonding GFRP pultruded section stiffeners or layers of carbon or glass FRP composite fabrics. The objective of the strengthening was to obtain an increase of a minimum of 20% in the ultimate load of the steel plate-girders by increasing the out-of-plane stiffness of the web in the web panels. The tests of one un-strengthened control specimen and seven FRP-strengthened specimens were carried out. The test results showed an increase up to 54% in the ultimate load of the FRP-strengthened specimens, compared to that of the unstrengthened control specimen. In the tests there was no breakdown of the steel-GFRP bond, at the ultimate load, in the specimens strengthened using the GFRP pultruded sections, whilst a breakdown of the steel-fabric bond occurred in the specimens strengthened using FRP fabrics. Before testing, nonlinear finite-element analyses, FEA, of the specimens were carried out using shell elements and the LUSAS FE program. Both material and geometrical nonlinearities were modelled. The test results and the FEA predictions for the un-strengthened and GFRP pultruded section strengthened specimens were in good agreement. For the FRP fabric-strengthened specimens, there was agreement between the test results and FEA predictions up to the breakdown of the steel-fabric bond. Design procedures for FRP-strengthened plate-girders have been developed based on those in Eurocode 3. The design procedures can be used to estimate the ultimate loads of the FRP-strengthened plate-girders and to determine suitable cross-sections of GFRP pultruded sections as intermediate, load-bearing and diagonal web stiffeners. The procedures have been validated using the results of the tests and FE analyses of nine FRP-strengthened plate-girder specimens and those of the FE analyses of thirty-five models of the plate-girders. The design procedures for the FRP-strengthened plategirders can therefore be used in practice.

District heating and cooling (DHC) systems are a sound solution to environmental, energy security, climate change, and fuel poverty concerns in cities. As an environmental policy goal not fully controlled by government and subject to complex multi-actor negotiations, building DHC can be understood as requiring network governance patterns of behaviour. This thesis investigates the role of planning in delivering DHC, employing a conceptual framework of Actor-Centered Institutionalism to unravel the relationships between industry, government, and citizen organizations in governance networks. It contributes to a growing area of study on the intersection of urban development, energy infrastructure, and environmental policy goals. It responds to calls for further practical research on governance patterns of behaviour, applying a recognised network governance approach to the analysis of five international case studies. It also investigates the weight of institutional context and the purported connection between network interaction characteristics and policy outcomes. The research categorises a range of potential roles for planning organisations and planning interventions in governance networks for DHC. The comparative analysis suggests that planning organisations rarely negotiate for DHC but that planning interventions are regularly used to initiate governance networks for DHC and to shape negotiations by other actors. The findings outline a number of specific institutional factors, actor orientations and capabilities as well as qualities of interaction which affect the capability of governance networks to deliver DHC. The research contributes to the explanatory ambitions of network governance research and expanded understanding of the capacity of planning in building and managing urban energy infrastructure. The findings can potentially be extended to other urban utility infrastructure and environmental policy goals.

Tehran, the capital of Iran, on the one hand faces extensive deterioration in its inner-city neighbourhoods and on the other hand, faces rapid population growth. The government has adapted urban regeneration as a policy that not only accommodates this growth within the city boundaries, but also tackles the deterioration problems. In this respect, this research compares two urban regeneration models, namely piecemeal and comprehensive redevelopments. In doing so it tries to understand how these two redevelopment models operate in deteriorated neighbourhoods of Tehran. This question is addressed by analysing the implementation and property development aspects of each redevelopment, with a specific focus on developers’ behaviour regarding these two models. At the theoretical level this research compares direct versus indirect planning in urban regeneration interventions from an institutional perspective. This derives from the work of Webster and Lai (2003) where they examined spontaneous planning versus centralised planning and Carmona (2009) where he analysed different modes of planning that on the one hand ranges from plan-based to opportunity-based, and on the other hand, from state-led to market-led modes of planning. Further, by building on the institutional perspective offered by Healy and Barret (1990) and Guy and Henneberry (2000) this thesis utilises the structure and agency approach to unravel the behaviour of property actors. Two neighbourhoods that have undergone redevelopments in Tehran, one piecemeal and one comprehensive, are chosen as case studies. As such, this research is an empirical account of two developments, utilising institutional analysis as a qualitative methodological approach in unravelling the ways in which property actors see the development process and their subsequent actions. Semi-structured interviews with property actors are a critical part of data collection, alongside documents and local and national census, and direct observations. The thesis improves our understanding of the process of built environment production, and the role of the state in the development process. It has demonstrated that the development decision-making cannot be solely understood as the result of economic rationality, as it occurs within institutional contexts structured by dynamic needs and concerns of actors. In advancing institutional analysis, this thesis by focusing on two specific projects, demonstrates the different approaches taken by property developers, development organisations and planners as they engaged differently with the wider structures set by the government through different policies.

The research examines whether organised food retail formats contribute to the formation of urban inequalities and if this is the case to see how this contribution is realised. Conventional approaches are found only to produce partial explanations and the research thus followed a Marxist methodology. With this comprehensive and also critical approach, it aims to first contextualise retail activities within the broader system of capitalist political economy and within the urbanisation process and investigates how inequalities are transferred between these systems. Initial researches suggested that the capitalist system, urbanisation process and retail production processes are tightly linked to each other. Further, inequalities created in the production processes are reflected in the urbanisation process. The research focuses on some particular elements to empirically test the theoretical findings in the neo-liberal era. The case of organised food retailers is taken as an exemplar activity both representing the key aspects of the capitalist system and urbanisation process. The case of Ankara (Turkey) is chosen as the spatial focus. Ankara, in addition to being the second largest city in Turkey, carries the privilege of having the largest active retail area per capita in Turkey. Furthermore, as a result of its stable employment profile the city is not only attractive for financial institutions but for other investors as well. All these are among the factors which make the city of Ankara a very interesting place to analyse the dynamics of capitalist political economy, the development of organised food retail landscapes and injustices born with the interaction of these processes. The empirical part of the research concentrates on spatial differentiations in Ankara’s organised food retail pattern and to discover the underlying reasons. It focuses on the relationship between the observed organised food retail geography and socio-economic characteristics of the neighbourhoods. The findings reveal that retailers tend to locate at most advantageous locations, reinforce established socio-economic differentiations and thus consolidate urban injustices with their selective locational preferences.

The governing of urban public space involves the management of knowledge about them and about the practices that produce them. This research examines how a type of policy tool in public space production, nominally labelled ‘multicriteria tools’ (MCTs), are deployed to manage the construction of knowledge by diverse stakeholders in the interest of achieving a desired public space outcome. Mainstream governing practices characterised by the very words ‘measuring’ and ‘value’, refract preferences through a narrow and usually positivist frame, often leading to unauthentic communication and perverse outcomes. In this research, an interpretivist paradigm is applied, which assumes that people are rationalising rather than rational. Thus the MCT’s role is conceptualised as attenuating people’s beliefs and actions. The research seeks to articulate and theorise an alternative conceptualisation of governing as ‘the management of meaning construction’, where ‘value’ is a subset of ‘meaning’. In so doing, the research aims to increase the intelligibility of multi-stakeholdered governing situations in ways that would be directly relevant for the stakeholders themselves since familiarity with the substantive issues and dynamics of meaning making would help those actors become more effective. The research fleshes out a heuristic in the form of a ‘field’ model of meaning-making. This deploys an interpretivist paradigm in explaining how governing happens; governing, is thus seen in terms of the management of meaning to address societal problems. This research adds to those voices challenging the grip of orthodox ‘evidence-based’ policy-making and positivist ‘scientistic’ social science. Its original contribution is to explore this debate in the philosophy of social science within the area of built environment production. Ultimately, the aim is to increase the potential of such an alternative in addressing some practical, real and well-documented problems in public space governing.

This dissertation investigates the place marketing aspect of the London 2012 Olympic Games and the complexity of different geographies and interest groups surrounding such urban mega-events with theories on different levels of abstraction. Adopting the hegemonic political and economic theories of Neoliberalism on the general and macro level, and the more specific theories of place marketing on the micro level, this research argues that place marketing is one of the neoliberal imaginaries used to legitimate neoliberal practices, such as Olympic land acquisition. The author connects the abstract theories of Neoliberalism and the concrete theories of place marketing with Sklair’s Transnational Capitalist Class (2001) theory which suggests the formation of globally mobile elites who with their highly mobile capital have become very influential in the staging of urban mega-events and mega projects. In the particular case of the Olympic Games, some of these mobile capitalists have been very active in providing official sponsorship in exchange of exclusive marketing rights to associate their brands with the Olympics. Based on reviews of major Olympic-related official documents, a news survey on national, city and local newspapers and 31 elite interviews covering official place marketers of London, local governments, regional governmental bodies, Olympic Delivery Authority, official Olympic sponsors, small business owners and NGOs, this study points out the conflict of interests between place marketers and product marketers at the junction of urban mega-events. Understanding London’s top world city status and taking into account the desire to host the Olympic Games for a third time in response to fierce inter-city competition, this research indicates how place marketing is in theory a development strategy but in practice a difficult task due to the financial dilemmas and legal issues faced by neoliberalised governments. Legislations passed and contracts signed specifically for the Olympic Games have provided priorities and exclusive rights to official sponsors who are the product marketers in this case over place marketers. This thesis explores the complex legal issues surrounding Olympic place marketing which has a distinct but limited literature, and how localities on different geographical levels are affected by such legal arrangements.

Background: The increasing interest in Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of educational buildings has been underpinned by the rising incidence of asthma and respiratory disease among children, who spend a substantial amount of their lives on the school premises. The susceptibility of children compared with adults has led to the formulation of guidelines regulating IAQ in school buildings. WHO guidelines provide the scientific basis for legally enforceable standards for non-industrial environments. Reflecting the relative difficulty and expense of obtaining measurements of specific pollutants, guidelines for the provision of adequate IAQ in UK schools have been typically framed around thermal conditions, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, and estimated ventilation rates as a primary indicator of IAQ. Aim: Drawing on detailed monitoring data from 15 primary and three nursery London classrooms, this thesis sets to evaluate if indoor CO2 levels in classrooms are a good indicator in ensuring a healthy and satisfactory school environment. To fully answer this question this thesis aims to associate levels of specific indoor pollutants with CO2 levels and ventilation rates after controlling for environmental and behavioural factors; to identify specific exposures in the classroom that may affect asthma prevalence, self-reported health symptoms and perceived IAQ. Method: The study was organised as a case-crossover study of the heating and non-heating season, and employed a multi-disciplinary methodology, including direct-reading instrumental sampling, passive sampling for long-term measurements, and determination of microbiological contaminants with molecular methods. The monitored data were matched with school and classroom characteristics, self-reported health symptoms and IAQ perception of 376 primary school students attending 15 classrooms with standardised questionnaires. The integrated database was analysed with Bayesian multilevel models that provide a concordance between theoretical approaches and statistical analysis, while taking into account the hierarchy of the data. Results: Indoor CO2 levels and estimated ventilation rates were a reliable predictor for some outcomes, such as indoor temperature, Particulate Matter (PM) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) levels. Overall evidence from this study suggests that limiting CO2 levels below 1000 ppm (which is lower than current guideline values of BB101 performance standard in England (DfE, 2014)) is necessary in order to achieve indoor PM levels in classrooms below WHO 2010 annual guideline values, after removing indoor furnishing acting as dust reservoirs. A strong relationship between indoor temperatures and Total VOCs (TVOCs) levels emerged, and the predictive models estimated that after removing indoor TVOCs sources, keeping indoor temperatures below 26 °C, and preferably below 22 °C depending on season, may keep indoor TVOCs levels below 250ppb. Based on the self-reported satisfaction with IAQ at baseline and follow-up period, it was found that keeping indoor temperatures below 26 °C and CO2 levels below 1000ppm, may additionally reduce predicted percentage of dissatisfaction with IAQ below 30%. The air was perceived as less acceptable with increasing indoor temperature and CO2 levels, stressing the importance for an integrated approach for the simultaneous provision of thermal comfort and IAQ. However, indoor CO2 levels were a poor predictor of traffic related pollutants, such as indoor NO2 levels, which were significantly associated with the high asthma prevalence reported in this study (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.04-1.19). Exposure to traffic-related pollution levels was additionally associated with increased IAQ dissatisfaction, and higher prevalence and incidence of Sick Building Syndrome SBS symptoms. SBS describes a constellation of non-specific health symptoms including mucosal, dermal, respiratory and general, that have no clear aetiology and are attributable to exposure to a particular building environment. Recommendations for future research: The methodological framework used in this study could be potentially applied to large scale investigations enhancing our understanding of the factors affecting indoor pollution levels in educational settings. More research is necessary to validate the predictive model of satisfaction with IAQ in different climatic and geographical areas. Implications for policy: This study shows that complaints about poor air quality and health symptoms were related to deficiencies in the indoor school environment, and identified that management and operation of classrooms are key in creating healthy and comfortable school buildings. Greening programmes around school buildings, simple passive measures of the building envelope, altering ventilation strategies among seasons, and timely control of ventilation may improve perceived IAQ and alleviate SBS symptoms. Together with increasing average and background ventilation rates, elimination of indoor sources that impact IAQ is necessary.