The meaning of both Integrated Water Management and Public Participation (PP) are subject to interpretation by stakeholders, because the concepts of uncertainty, risk management and construction of a societal project challenge scientific expertise, political power and democratic decisions concerning public good management. I do not study PP and IWM with a normative aspiration to identify the ‘true’ problem and participation, but to investigate constructions of reality of water management challenges (WMCs) and of participation from different perspectives: which type of participation is perceived as appropriate for which type of water management challenges? The study areas are river basins in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. The EU Water Framework Directive provides an analytical framework to study meanings of PP in River Basin Management Plan. Grounded Theory Methodology is used to elicit understandings of both PP and WMCs via qualitative and quantitative data (questionnaires, interviews, medium-scale survey). This thesis presents grounded typologies of objectives of PP, types of PP, of WMCs, of the roles of the competent authority and of hurdles to initiate PP. Even in countries where criteria characterising a democratic society are not all entirely satisfied there is a case for promoting PP in IWM. Although an uneducated public, with poor knowledge of the far reaching consequences of WMC is seen as a hurdle to initiate PP, the evidences show the contrary: a public aspiration, readiness and willingness to express ones’ voice. Conditions to foster PP require both political stability and an open society where opinions can be formed and exchanged; but also pressure on resources and services for the public to be interested and willing to take part in water management, and for the competent authority to be willing to engage with both stakeholders and the public in order to complement experts’ understandings of complex societal problems. Public Participation is not only about the pursuit of power over the final decision, but about defining what problems are about according to different constructs of reality. The newly developed grounded typologies of objectives of PP and of types for PP help identifying appropriate forms of participatory practices in relation to the contextual water management crisis.

This research examines temporal variations in tourism demand in Wales from two different perspectives. It looks at Wales in general as a destination as well as the Welsh serviced accommodation sector, the focus of the thesis being on the latter. A range of methods is used when analysing the annual demand patterns for Wales at a national level. A comparative evaluation highlights the merits and limitations of various seasonality measures. The study demonstrates that tourism demand in Wales is significantly different from that observed in Scotland and England. It shows that lessons learned from other UK regions can only to a limited extent be transferred to Wales. Regarding the accommodation sector, room occupancy rates from 1998 to 2002 are analysed from the viewpoint of seasonal variations. The extent to which the outbreak of foot and mouth disease and the September 11th terror attacks in 2001 affected demand patterns is also a prominent research question. The approach used is based on a combination of principal components and cluster analysis. Some modifications to existing methodologies in this area are made in order to focus on seasonality and changes in occupancy patterns. The work seeks to identify the structural components which underlie the empirical observations of occupancy performance. It also attempts to pinpoint statistically significant relationships between the characteristics of establishments and a range of typical performance profiles. As the study extends not only to the hotel sector, but also to other parts of the serviced accommodation industry, comparisons can be drawn between the different sectors. The study's main contributions lie in the area of industry segmentation. The research reveals that conventional classifications of accommodation establishments are o f only limited use when explaining the observed seasonal fluctuations and occupancy changes. Performance clusters, identified through the data-driven approach used in this study, provide a much more comprehensive picture of which establishments performed poorly and which did well. The research also demonstrates the use of the identified performance indicators for the purpose of benchmarking. In terms of the changes in 2001, the study illustrates that the effects of the crisis were by no means uniform across individual regions or particular types of establishments. The conclusions drawn from the analysis o f both seasonal demand variations at the national level and for the serviced accommodation sector are put forward as a basis for refining tourism marketing and development policies aimed at tackling seasonality in Wales.

In 1990 the United Nations Convention of the rights of the child recognised children as a minority group, social actors with a right to be heard. In parallel, interest in children's voices increased within academia. TIlls research adds to current work witllin children's geograpllles, through an exploratory case study in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, with a group of children (6 to 12 years old). Based on a series of workshops, participants were invited to become artists-inresidence on the theme of land within their everyday lives. Tllls thesis set two substantive questions: what are participants' meanings of land in the Outer Hebrides and how do these meanings relate to current theories around human's relationship with land? Findings sho'.'.'eo that meanings of land were not uniform though meanings embodied movement through daily lives, creating a sense of self and 'belonging' Participams were nor controlled excessively by adult narratives of stranger-danger but by the physical topography, wlllch mirrored many inhabitants' experiences. Participant's meanings of land are understood through two theories of human's relationslllp with land. First, Ingold's phenomenological concept of landscape as dwelling, recognising the influence of past generations (walking the land tending sheep), and more 'modern' activities, (watching soap operas at home). Second, Massey's concept of progressive sense of place, recognising the influence of wider social forces and explains an everyday land inhabited by a Bengal tiger. Tllls research has a number of original contributions. First, this research increases knowledge on an under researched part of the Scottish Islands around inhabitants everyday lives and land. Second, a third, and methodological, research question explored the debate: is doing research with children different from doing research with adults? Here I argue that pre-labelling any participants by social identities contradicts the bottom-up approach of participatory methodologies (Thomson, 2007), as identities are multiple and are something we do not have. Tllls flnal issues aims to address the narrow readerslllp within children's geograpllles and persmde all researcbers to uo longer yjew the 'chjld' as 'other' to the adult and outside mainstream social research.

This thesis explores how to promote, through education, environmental sustainability, intercultural understanding and personal signification in a mutually compatible manner. These aims are considered to be particularly well served through a transdisciplinary approach which combines perspectives drawn particularly, but not exclusively, from the fields of geography and environmental studies with 'place' and 'landscape' representing powerful integrative concepts. An 'enactivist' epistemology is presented which sees both a continuity, but also qualitative distinction, between human perception and that found in the non-human world. Such a perspective stresses the importance of both the milieu and the human subject in the perceptual process, and the neologism emplaced imagination is presented to stress this dyadic relationship. In addition, a neo-Piagetian epistemology is defended in which the emplaced imagination is understood to undergo a series of qualitatively different developmental (shifts', with a 'postformal' stage (heuristically referred to as 'wisdom' and characterised by a multiperspectival outlook and a motivation to work towards the Common Good) being seen as the desirable goal. This goal is seen to be promoted by transformative or 'fourth order education' which is most likely to be associated with adult learning. A special focus is therefore placed on Higher Education and, in particular, the development of 'transformative' or 'vanguard' educators. An attempt is made to generate a 'mixed discourse' that permits a rapprochement between science, religion and art through the presentation of a non-materially reductive ontology within which to set this educational project. Implications of such a perspective for human-environment/place transactions are considered, drawing heavily on recent thinking in geography and environmental psychology and philosophy. Finally, important educational implications of the preceding chapters are considered.

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This thesis is concerned with the social context of land regeneration projects. Land regeneration projects aim at finding new uses for degraded or derelict land. The social and cultural dimensions of land regeneration projects are often overlooked. Thus, this thesis aims at examining the social dimensions of a land regeneration project. As a case study, this thesis examines the project RECOAL (Re-integration of coal ash disposal sites in the western Balkans). The aim of RECOAL was to develop sustainable and low-cost solutions for the regeneration of coal ash disposal sites in the western Balkans. The project ran from January 2005 to December 2007 and was largely funded by the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Union. The research team included research organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Austria, Germany and the UK. This thesis adopts a social constructionist perspective to understand the problem of coal ash pollution `as the actors see it'. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to explore how RECOAL stakeholders construct the environmental problems to be addressed by the project and how these perspectives influence, and in turn are influenced by the project development. This thesis also examines the tensions that occur between competing `definitions of the situation' and evaluates the implications of this analysis for land use regeneration projects. Qualitative methodologies were used to examine the perspectives of researchers, local residents affected by pollution and institutional representatives. This thesis argues that, in environmentally degraded areas, there may be multiple social constructions of the environmental problem and thus, tensions may emerge between competing definitions of the situation. These tensions are part of the social context in which land regeneration projects are developed and they influence their results. Moreover, the results of the research suggest that land regeneration projects adapt to accommodate these contesting definitions of the situation using different mechanisms that include `expectations management' and `knowledge management' procedures. `Knowledge management' procedures, for example, include formal and informal rules to deal with the uncertainty of the results in risk assessment. `Expectations management' procedures require the project members to liaise with stakeholders at different levels. While both expectations and knowledge management procedures are embedded in the scientific practice they are rarely stated explicitly. Finally, this research argues that examining the social context may help land regeneration projects to improve their expectations and knowledge management procedures. In particular, adopting a social constructionist perspective may help exploring the social context of land regeneration projects by revealing the multiplicity of perspectives that intervene in the definition of environmental problems. The research recommends including local actors' perspectives earlier on in the framing stage of land regeneration projects.

No description available.

This thesis is a study of the Slow Food Movement (SFM), charting the journey of this grassroots organisation from its ideological and material roots in Bra, Italy to its meteoric development in the advanced capitalist landscapes of England and USA as a consumer-driven, 'eco-gastronomy' movement. It takes to heart the movement's promise for a 'revolution of taste', from which was derived four significant themes, namely: Commodity, Time, Ethics and Aesthetics. Fieldwork was carried out in Italy, England and USA, including sixy-four recorded interviews and ethnographic, moment-to-moment research. The thesis argues that the seemingly archaic attitudes held towards the commodity object, relations of time, ethical values and aesthetic pleasures are the very radical and social action that the SFM and its members undertake in their quest to lead, and live a comtemporary life. A 'nesting' approach was employed to demonstate the strength of this assertion. Firstly, a Marxist analysis moved an undifferentiated commodity towards exploring the character and typology of 'slow food'. Secondly, theories on speed and time consciousness urged a rethinking of time's linearity and the affordance of memory. Thirdly, a dialogue engaged Aristotelian virtues with relations of one and an/other. Fourthly, art encountered aesthetics in delineating the movement's sensorium. The SFM speaks to a modem politics of emotions, ideas and timeliness. The materiality of 'slow food' exhibits taste-in-action, a constantly productive knowledge, sensation and expression of palatable bodies. The complexity of time entwines imagination with responsibility. A good, balanced life - eudaimonia - is fashioned from a touching sociality. Geographies of physicality, sociability and sensuality increasingly influence a contentious food world. This thesis demonstrates that the SFM is a force of life. For the members and chosen food matters, the SFM is that which they in name advocate as well as exceed to, in effect, impel its aims and ambitions. This thesis regards an ontology of 'going there', and a philosophy of living creatively.

No description available.

The main purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of women's behaviour in the built environment of Najd. In other words, to discover the way that women interact with their built environment and the factors playing a role in this interaction. The crucial need for this study emerge from the fact that during the last few decades drastic changes have occurred in the built environment of Najd and have produced a sort of mismatch between social and psychological needs of people of Najd (women in particular) and their built environment. This mismatch is manifested in both physical and non-physical forms. The physical sign is represented in; blocked windows (completely or partially), high walls, unused balconies and so on. On the other hand, social consequence of physical inappropriateness is represented in lack of social contacts between neighbours and the limited involvement of women in the outdoor life. The absence of such studies that examine the phenomenon of Najdi women's environmental behaviour enforce the need and important of this research. This thesis explores Najdi women's behaviour to determine the factor playing role in their interaction with the built environment. The hypothesis is that there is a mismatch and the existing mismatch is not a temporary one that occurs in a transition period towards a fully modernised society. It argues that the mismatch is associated with factors that have a relative permanence. These factors are difficult if not impossible to overcome in many generations to come, because these factors are rooted deeply in the people of Najd. To tackle the problem involved in this research, a traditional and a contemporary context are examined through the application of two sets of techniques. The data collection concerning the traditional context is dependent upon a reconstruction of the women's way of life connected to the documented traditional built environment. On the other hand, the data concerning the contemporary physical environment is dependent upon its immediate observation. Generally speaking, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used as tools for the above data collection and analysis, after an adequate modification is made to serve the purpose of this study.