No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This body of work explores the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893 and looks at how African American challenge the built environment of the Fair. The African American community contested the white constructed spaces by reimaging and claiming them for the self. At the Fair, black subordination was achieved and was maintained by the unabashed use of white power structures. After Reconstruction Black people began to turn to racial solidarity as a means of survival. Prior to Emancipation Blacks had been segregated and denied equal participation in the larger society regardless of their individual achievements. The result has been that race pride had, to a large degree, been conspicuously absent. The Fair pushed African Americans towards greater solidarity through inadvertently promoting pride in their racial heritage. Through examining the Fair, this work illuminates that the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893 served as a nexus for pivotal African American movements. I argue that the fair served as a turning point for African Americans and sparked radical movements that focused on Black independence at home and abroad. The Fair became a pivotal site of protest that paved the way for the Black Nationalist Movement, Pan-African Movement, the creation of the National Association of Colored Women, and the New Negro Movement.

Zambia has ratified vital international conventions that promote the rights of PWDs and domesticated some of them in various legislatures and policies. However, access to the built environment for PWDs does not seem to be improving. There is, therefore, a need to understand the challenges that the Zambian legal framework that regulates the design of the built environment faces in ensuring adequate access to the built environment for PWDs. This study explored Zambia's legal framework that regulates the designing of the built environment for sufficiency in ensuring adequate access to the built environment for PWD. The study is a qualitative descriptive case study of the said legal framework. The study reviewed Zambia’s architecture, equality and disability laws from 2012 to the present from a socio-legal perspective. They were then analysed by transformative equality principles for accessibility. It has been established that the legal framework in Zambia is not sufficient to ensure adequate access to the built environment for PWDs.

The social and structural determinants play a significant role in community health, and differences in the experience of these factors facilitate some of the health disparities that are seen in the US along racial and socioeconomic lines. In this manuscript, I propose a conceptual model of the social determinants of health hierarchy and discuss the positioning of the structural determinants of the built environment within that hierarchy. I discuss the research connecting some of the structural determinants to health outcomes. Finally, I review several opportunities for local government to alter the built environment in ways that can promote community health and mitigate health inequity. / Urban Bioethics

Character is a term used in urban development and research to describe aspects of the built environment ranging from aesthetics and design to place identity and sense of place. This wide range of interpretations has led to a vague understanding that differs depending on the perception of users and actors in urban development. In the face of increasing housing demands and incentives to expand, Swedish urban environment has begun expansion that mirrors that of the Million Programme. To avoid a detached environment, character is investigated and proposed to be used as a tool for municipalities in the development. The focus is on answering what ‘character’ is perceived as by municipal officials involved in the urban development process, how character should be used and lastly how character should be approached when developing existing areas. Based on interviews for a practical understanding, literature for a theoretical understanding and contemporary studies for a contextual understanding, character is found to be perceived as the connection between not only existing buildings but also new ones as well as the users themselves. With emphasis on cohesion, originality, traditionality, diversity among other attributes, the character of an area should act as a binding agent for urban development moving forward. Finally, the approach to character is recommended to be cautious based on its vague nature but be treated as exploratory where a base set of two foundational attributes are to invite discussion to bridge the perceptions between actors.

One of the most challenging issues within the planning and development process of our cities and societies is the changing climate that already can be seen in several parts of the world. To be able to decrease the cities’ and societies’ vulnerability towards these projections it is important to actively work with climate adaptation. Today, the majority of the climate adaptation measures are implemented in new developments, and not in the same extent in the existing built environment. Because the projected climate changes will affect all parts of the cities and societies it is important to work with an overarching climate adaptation. Within the Swedish context, the municipality has an important role in the work with climate adaptation. The aim of this master thesis is to generate an understanding of how Swedish municipalities work with climate adaptation within the existing built environment, and what challenges they face within their work. Additionally, the study will look at how the current legislation affects the municipal climate adaptation work, and how the new amendments in PBL, will affect the municipalities’ work. Three municipalities (Täby, Vellinge, and Gothenburg) have been studied to be able to conduct this master thesis, where sixteen interviewees from the municipalities, as well as from the Stockholm County Administrative Board and from Sweco, a Swedish consulting company, have been interviewed. The results from the study show that several challenges that the municipalities, in the current situation, are facing and are affecting their climate adaptation work. The main challenges that was identifies were the uncertain forecasts, the political will and priorities, the division of responsibility, the financial responsibility, and conflicting legislations. These challenges are creating limitations and difficulties for the municipalities to act in the issue of adapting to the changing climate, especially within the existing built environment. In the current situation, the three studies municipalities have started their climate adaptation work but are facing difficulties with going forward in the process. / En av de mest utmanande frågorna inom dagens planering och utveckling av våra städer och samhällen är klimatförändringarna och dess effekter som redan är synliga i flera delar av världen. För att minska städernas och samhällenas sårbarhet gentemot dessa förändringar är det viktigt att aktivt arbeta med klimatanpassning. Idag implementeras majoriteten av dessa typer av åtgärderna inom den nya bebyggelsen och inte i samma utsträckning i den befintliga bebyggda miljön. Eftersom de beräknade klimatförändringarna kommer att påverka alla delar i våra städer är det viktigt att arbeta med en övergripande klimatanpassning. I Sverige har kommunen en viktig roll i arbetet med klimatanpassningar. Denna masteruppsats syftar till att skapa en förståelse för hur svenska kommuner arbetar med klimatförändringar inom den befintliga bebyggda miljö, samt vilka utmaningar de står inför i detta arbete. Studien kommer även att undersöka hur den nuvarande lagstiftningen påverkar det kommunala klimat-anpassningsarbete samt vilken påverkan de nya lagändringarna i PBL kommer att resultera i. Tre kommuner (Täby, Vellinge och Göteborg) har studerats för att kunna genomföra denna masteruppsats, där sexton intervjupersoner från kommunerna samt från Stockholms länsstyrelse och Sweco har intervjuats. Resultatet från studien visar att kommunerna står inför flertalet utmaningar som skapar hinder och svårigheter i deras klimatanpassningsarbete. De främsta utmaningarna som har identifierats är de osäkra prognoserna som påverkar kommunernas planering av åtgärder samt deras vilja till klimatanpassning; den politiska viljan, prioriteringarna, och stöder för att anpassa kommunen; ansvarsfördelningen gällande arbetet med klimatanpassning mellan de olika nivåerna i samhället, samt mellan olika aktörer; det ekonomiska ansvaret att finansiera klimatanpassningsarbete; och den motstridiga lagstiftningen som skapar svårigheter för kommunerna. Dessa utmaningar försvårar för kommunerna att aktivt agera i frågan angående klimatanpassning och därmed att säkra den befintliga bebyggda miljön för de förväntade klimatförändringarna. I dagsläget har de tre studerade kommunerna påbörjat sitt klimatanpassningsarbete, men på grund av de identifierade utmaningarna, har de svårigheter att gå vidare i denna process.