This thesis seeks to assess the exposure of children in outdoor play areas of early childhood centres in Auckland City to traffic-related PM10 pollution. An estimated 400 premature deaths occur each year in New Zealand due to motor vehicle emissions. In addition to premature deaths, acute and chronic health effects including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease and bronchitis, as well as increased hospitalisations and restricted activity days (sick days) are also associated with vehicle emissions. Epidemiological studies have shown that respiratory diseases such as asthma can be exacerbated by increases in the concentration of particulates of less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) from motor vehicle emissions. Significant positive associations have been found between proximity to heavily travelled roads and increased childhood respiratory disease symptoms including hospitalisations for childhood asthma. In spite of this evidence, many early childhood centres in Auckland are located adjacent to busy roads. Children at these early childhood centres spend much of their time playing in the outdoor areas of these centres with the potential for particulates from motor vehicle emissions to exacerbate symptoms in those children already suffering from respiratory disease and asthma. Very little research has been carried out either in New Zealand or internationally on the air quality of outdoor play areas of early childhood centres in relation to motor vehicle emissions and childhood respiratory disease and asthma. The extent of monitoring is also limited and the amount of exposure data available in New Zealand relatively sparse, particularly in comparison with Europe. Levels of traffic-related PM10 in the outdoor play areas of early childhood centres were measured in centres located adjacent to busy roads and in centres away from a quiet road or adjacent to a very quiet road for comparison. Two of five early childhood centres located alongside busy roads had PM10 levels that exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline value. While PM10 levels monitored at the other three centres located alongside busy roads did not exceed the WHO guideline value, results were often only marginally within this guideline value. In contrast, PM10 levels monitored at two centres located away from a quiet road and one centre located adjacent to a very quiet road were well within the WHO guideline value. This pilot study provides preliminary evidence that children attending early childhood centres located alongside busy roads have greater exposure to traffic-related PM10 pollution than those attending early childhood centres located away from a quiet road or adjacent to a very quiet road. If the link between PM10 exposure and health effects is causal, as suggested by epidemiological studies, then children attending early childhood centres proximal to busy roads are at a greater risk of respiratory illness than children attending early childhood centres adjacent to quiet roads. Further work is required to confirm the findings in this small sample of air quality around early childhood centres in a larger sample, and possibly to undertake an epidemiological study to confirm the link to health effects. Drawing on the precautionary principle, prudent territorial local authorities should be encouraged to introduce regulations ensuring that any new early childhood centres are located at a specified distance from major roads, and that information for parents, ongoing PM10 monitoring and processes for issuing PM10 advisories when limits are exceeded are available in existing early childhood centres that are adjacent to busy roads.

This thesis interrogates immigration detention as a space of intricate ambivalence - one which seeks to exclude, but which is also entreated to protect. The focus is so-called ‘unauthorised’ asylum seekers detained both within Australia and offshore on the Pacific island of Nauru between 1999 and 2003 - when the numbers of detained asylum seekers reached its maximum and the government introduced offshore processing centres. Australia’s immigration detention regime sits awkwardly with the discourse of universal human rights and brings into sharp conflict two robust political values: the right of endangered people to seek refuge and the right of the nation to determine who will enter. Focusing on the experiences of detainees reveals immigration detention as a complex regime through which the state’s dominating power targets the stateless, non-white, male body. This targeting is intentional, serving to secure sovereign borders and to rearticulate the naturalised ties between the national population and the modern state. Immigration detention holds the seeker in a limbo that sets parameters for the seeker’s experience of ongoing and intensifying insecurity. It specifically and intentionally fractures the identity of detainees: masochistic actions and collective protests, from hunger strikes to breakouts, reflect the common currency of anxiety and violence. The creation of offshore camps was, in part, a response to ongoing protests within onshore detention and the failure of onshore detention to stop boat arrivals. My chief focus here is the largest Pacific camp, ‘Topside’, on the island of Nauru. Unlike the onshore detention centres where publicised protests and breakouts screamed of continuing detention of asylum seekers, those on Nauru were effectively silenced. The thesis explores purpose as inscribed within the body of the exile. To give up hope for asylum is to face the possibility of endless wandering and death. Mechanisms of resistance, whether explicit protest or more passive waiting, are parts of the continuing struggle by the detained against mechanisms of exclusion and exception. The detained carve out small openings to contest their exclusion and to reassert an identity as survivors. There is a complex and fluid interplay between such resistance and government policies aiming to silence protest and limit identity – and ultimately to deter all unauthorised boat arrivals.

This research engages critically with major public sector accountability theories in relation to the development of law centres in Aotearoa/New Zealand (and comparative international examples) focusing on the two centres in Otago, the Ngai Tahu Maori Law Centre and the Dunedin Community Law Centre. Definitions of accountability are argued to be embedded within theoretical discourses which produce definable models of accountability corresponding to these theoretical statements. Case studies of the discourses of both law centres and their funding bodies are described and contrasted in terms of their views of the role of law centres, interaction with various interest groups and their accountability relationships. The data identifies a desire of both community law centres to engage with a communitarian, �bottom-up�, model of accountability, in contrast to the former social democratic-bureaucratic and current liberal �stakeholder� and �contract� models of the official funding agencies. The current dominance of the liberal �stakeholder� discourse is seen as based on professional power, hierarchical legal structure and control of funding. It is argued that any shift in the dominance of power relationships surrounding community law centres in Aotearoa/New Zealand would entail a strengthening of ties and links with the community, through seeking alternative power supports, a participatory structure and locally controlled funding. Keywords: accountability; power relationships; community law centres; dominance; community.

This study seeks to uncover the opportunities and challenges in building the foundations for sustainable community development at the local level, by enhancing the capacity of a community organisation. Challenging the traditional needs-based focus of community development, the research builds from the work of Kretzmann and McKnight by applying an asset-based approach to both community development and capacity building of community organisations. This study thus shifts the focus of community development away from its traditional application on

Parmi les minorités présentes au Canada, les communautés Premières Nations ont longtemps vécu et continuent à vivre des expériences qui les placent aux marges de la société canadienne. Récemment pourtant, une éclaircie est apparue, notamment en ce qui concerne les Centres Jeunesse au Québec. Des dispositifs ont ainsi été mis en place pour aider les intervenants à prendre des décisions qui prennent davantage en compte les réalités culturelles des communautés Premières Nations. Dans ce contexte, nous avons trouvé intéressant d’observer un de ces dispositifs pour comprendre où, quand et comment la culture Anishinaabeg des Premières Nations apparaît dans les décisions des intervenants quand ils sont confrontés à des situations de compromission et ce, aux stades de l’orientation et de l’application des mesures prises dans ce type de dossier. À partir d’une approche ethnométhodologique de notre matériau empirique (entretiens et observations participantes), nous avons ainsi pu tirer cinq grands enseignements au sujet du processus décisionnel qui est suivi en matière de compromission (par processus décisionnel, nous n’entendons pas les décisions liées à l’évaluation du dossier mais seulement celles qui touchent à l’orientation et à l’application des mesures prises dans ledit dossier) : 1) La culture Anishinaabeg des Premières Nations prend différents visages selon l’acteur professionnel qui la mobilise et le contexte dans lequel il la mobilise ; 2) La culture Anishinaabeg des Premières Nations joue différents rôles (secondaire ou absent) dans le processus décisionnel en matière de compromission ; 3) Quand la culture Anishinaabeg des Premières Nations joue un rôle informel dans le processus décisionnel en matière de compromission, elle se fait toujours dans une approche différencialiste; 4) Quand la culture « blanche » joue un rôle formel ou informel dans le processus décisionnel en matière de compromission, elle se fait toujours dans une approche normalisante; et 5) Qu’elles soient formelles ou informelles, les approches différencialiste et normalisante présentent des impasses comme des ouvertures.

Parmi les minorités présentes au Canada, les communautés Premières Nations ont longtemps vécu et continuent à vivre des expériences qui les placent aux marges de la société canadienne. Récemment pourtant, une éclaircie est apparue, notamment en ce qui concerne les Centres Jeunesse au Québec. Des dispositifs ont ainsi été mis en place pour aider les intervenants à prendre des décisions qui prennent davantage en compte les réalités culturelles des communautés Premières Nations. Dans ce contexte, nous avons trouvé intéressant d’observer un de ces dispositifs pour comprendre où, quand et comment la culture Anishinaabeg des Premières Nations apparaît dans les décisions des intervenants quand ils sont confrontés à des situations de compromission et ce, aux stades de l’orientation et de l’application des mesures prises dans ce type de dossier. À partir d’une approche ethnométhodologique de notre matériau empirique (entretiens et observations participantes), nous avons ainsi pu tirer cinq grands enseignements au sujet du processus décisionnel qui est suivi en matière de compromission (par processus décisionnel, nous n’entendons pas les décisions liées à l’évaluation du dossier mais seulement celles qui touchent à l’orientation et à l’application des mesures prises dans ledit dossier) : 1) La culture Anishinaabeg des Premières Nations prend différents visages selon l’acteur professionnel qui la mobilise et le contexte dans lequel il la mobilise ; 2) La culture Anishinaabeg des Premières Nations joue différents rôles (secondaire ou absent) dans le processus décisionnel en matière de compromission ; 3) Quand la culture Anishinaabeg des Premières Nations joue un rôle informel dans le processus décisionnel en matière de compromission, elle se fait toujours dans une approche différencialiste; 4) Quand la culture « blanche » joue un rôle formel ou informel dans le processus décisionnel en matière de compromission, elle se fait toujours dans une approche normalisante; et 5) Qu’elles soient formelles ou informelles, les approches différencialiste et normalisante présentent des impasses comme des ouvertures.

The construction of benzylic quaternary stereocentres via the enantioselective copper-catalyzed 1,4-addition of dialkylzinc reagents to Meldrum’s acid acceptors in the presence of a phosphoramidite ligand is reported. Meldrum’s acid acceptors can be easily accessed and numerous derivatives have been prepared to investigate the scope of the enantioselective 1,4-addition. The reaction is tolerant to a wide range of heteroaromatic and functional groups. The significance of substituting the position para, meta, and ortho to the electrophilic centre is also highlighted. Primary and secondary organozinc reagents are shown to be compatible in this reaction. A highly enantioselective synthesis of carboxylic acid derivatives having an -quaternary centre through copper-catalyzed 1,4-addition of dialkylzinc reagents to aryl acetate derivatives is also described. This method employs a commercially available phosphoramidite ligand and readily accessible Meldrum’s acid acceptors. A brief insight into the observed selectivity is also discussed. The significance of this method was established by the expedient preparation of chiral diesters, succinimides, γ-butyrolactones, and isocyanates from highly functionalized benzyl Meldrum’s acids. In addition to 1,4-addition, the enantioselective asymmetric synthesis of benzylic tertiary and quaternary stereogenic centres via 1,6-addition of dialkylzinc reagents to Meldrum’s acid acceptors is outlined. This work represents one of the early examples of 1,6-asymmetric conjugate addition reactions and discussions on the regioselectivity of the process are disclosed. On a different subject matter, the occurrence and persistence of C–H•••X (O, S, Br, Cl, and F) bond in solution using 1H NMR spectroscopy is discussed for a large number of benzyl Meldrum’s acids. The latter are novel and reliable probes for the evaluation of this type of non-classical interactions in solution. The persistence of the C–H•••X bond in solution is demonstrated to be dependent upon structural features present on the aromatic moiety and the benzylic position of the benzyl Meldrum’s acid derivatives. The observations presented highlight the large potential of Meldrum’s acid in developing an understanding of the function and nature of C–H•••X interactions.

The construction of benzylic quaternary stereocentres via the enantioselective copper-catalyzed 1,4-addition of dialkylzinc reagents to Meldrum’s acid acceptors in the presence of a phosphoramidite ligand is reported. Meldrum’s acid acceptors can be easily accessed and numerous derivatives have been prepared to investigate the scope of the enantioselective 1,4-addition. The reaction is tolerant to a wide range of heteroaromatic and functional groups. The significance of substituting the position para, meta, and ortho to the electrophilic centre is also highlighted. Primary and secondary organozinc reagents are shown to be compatible in this reaction. A highly enantioselective synthesis of carboxylic acid derivatives having an -quaternary centre through copper-catalyzed 1,4-addition of dialkylzinc reagents to aryl acetate derivatives is also described. This method employs a commercially available phosphoramidite ligand and readily accessible Meldrum’s acid acceptors. A brief insight into the observed selectivity is also discussed. The significance of this method was established by the expedient preparation of chiral diesters, succinimides, γ-butyrolactones, and isocyanates from highly functionalized benzyl Meldrum’s acids. In addition to 1,4-addition, the enantioselective asymmetric synthesis of benzylic tertiary and quaternary stereogenic centres via 1,6-addition of dialkylzinc reagents to Meldrum’s acid acceptors is outlined. This work represents one of the early examples of 1,6-asymmetric conjugate addition reactions and discussions on the regioselectivity of the process are disclosed. On a different subject matter, the occurrence and persistence of C–H•••X (O, S, Br, Cl, and F) bond in solution using 1H NMR spectroscopy is discussed for a large number of benzyl Meldrum’s acids. The latter are novel and reliable probes for the evaluation of this type of non-classical interactions in solution. The persistence of the C–H•••X bond in solution is demonstrated to be dependent upon structural features present on the aromatic moiety and the benzylic position of the benzyl Meldrum’s acid derivatives. The observations presented highlight the large potential of Meldrum’s acid in developing an understanding of the function and nature of C–H•••X interactions.

Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Sciences économiques--Paris 8, 2003. / Bibliogr. p. 177-183.

Thèse de doctorat : Sociologie : Metz : 2001. / Thèse : 2001METZ001L. Bibliogr. f. 385-397.