The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area faces numerous transportation challenges now and in the future: congestion, population growth, and an inadequate public transit network. The metropolitan region has also changed in form in past decades, shifting from a monocentric to a polycentric region, further compounding the challenges. Currently, the public transit service is delivered by 9 different agencies comprised of 6 municipal providers, 2 sub-regional providers, and 1 regional provider. A region possessing a multiplicity of agencies suggests an overabundance of jurisdictional borders - borders that can potentially restrict travel across them. This thesis seeks to determine the impact of the presence or the omission of jurisdictional borders on transit patrons. A comparative approach is employed to investigate the benefits and costs to patrons and agencies through greater integration of specific origin-destination (OD) pairs. The chosen methods selects OD pairs that are known to be transit competitive, possess a high travel demand, and cross a transit-jurisdictional border. The relationship between transportation and land-use is relied upon to select clusters of dense employment or population, called activity centres, where public transit is known to compete well with the private auto. The travel demand between these centres is obtained using the 2006 Transportation Tomorrow Survey and the current optimal transit routing is determined using Google Trip Planner. Three OD pairs are selected that possess the most onerous transfers, a proxy for poor integration. Another three OD pairs are selected that possess seamless or no transfers using a variety of modes. In both cases, the existing transit routing is compared to an alternate routing to understand the benefits achieved through inter-jurisdictional integration; the first compares existing trips to improved inter-jurisdictional routes while the second compares existing trips to exclusively intra-jurisdictional routes. Through identification of 40 employment and 29 population activity centres in the region, and the acquiring of travel demand between them, the six case study OD pairs are selected. The three OD pairs investigated, with onerous transfers, are comprised of trips between Brampton-Mississauga, Hamilton-Burlington, and Brampton-Toronto. The remaining inter-jurisdictional case study OD pairs are made up of three different modes: conventional bus, express bus, and regional rail. They comprise trips between Toronto-York Region, Brampton-Mississauga, and Mississauga-Toronto respectively. This study finds that in all cases, the routes with greater integration reduce total travel time and the generalized cost to patrons. Additionally, the penalty due to transferring is reduced through integration implying a current barrier existing at some jurisdictional borders. For the agencies, the cost of delivering the suggested inter-jurisdictional service varies dramatically. The costs are translated into a quantity of additional patrons necessary to justify the operation investment while maintaining the current revenue/cost ratio. These findings provide insight into the current transit network. Promoting integration throughout the network will help attract new riders as the generalized cost of travel is reduced. Also, when inter-jurisdictional connections are made, such as in the case of the Brampton-Mississauga Zum service, the beneficiaries of that service are widespread and not limited to the corridor in which the service operates.

Call centres have in the last three decades come to define the interaction between corporations, governments, and other institutions and their respective customers, citizens, and members. From telemarketing to tele-health services, to credit card assistance, and even emergency response systems, call centres function as a nexus mediating technologically enabled labour practices with the commodification of services. Because of the ubiquitous nature of the call centre in post-industrial capitalism, the banality of these interactions often overshadows the nature of work and labour in this now-global sector. Advances in telecommunication technologies and the globalization of management practices designed to oversee and maintain standardized labour processes have made call centre work an international phenomenon. Simultaneously, these developments have dislocated assumptions about the geographic and spatial seat of work in what is defined here as the new international division of knowledge labour. The offshoring and outsourcing of call centre employment, part of the larger information technology and information technology enabled services sectors, has become a growing practice amongst governments and corporations in their attempts at controlling costs. Leading offshore destinations for call centre work, such as Canada and India, emerged as prominent locations for call centre work for these reasons. While incredible advances in technology have permitted the use of distant and “offshore” labour forces, the grander reshaping of an international political economy of communications has allowed for the acceleration of these processes. New and established labour unions have responded to these changes in the global regimes of work by seeking to organize call centre workers. These efforts have been assisted by a range of forces, not least of which is the condition of work itself, but also attempts by global union federations to build a bridge between international unionism and local organizing campaigns in the Global South and Global North. Through an examination of trade union interventions in the call centre industries located in Canada and India, this dissertation contributes to research on post-industrial employment by using political economy as a juncture between development studies, critical communications, and labour studies. / Thesis (Ph.D, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-08-18 11:21:44.794

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the consumers' decision-making process in the selection of shopping centres. The South African society is undergoing a rapid transformation in its consumption patterns. The development and expansion of shopping centres means that consumers, in most cases, have an increasing choice of shopping destinations that meet their needs for goods, services and entertainment. The development and rapid expansion of planned shopping centres, often called Shopping Malls, has been one of the greatest retail revolutions in South Africa in the last twenty years. The competitive retail environment poses serious threats and opportunities for growth and profitability of shopping centres. The empirical research, which was conducted amongst shoppers at the various centres in the greater Durban area, confirms the significance of the various situational influences, which are the physical surroundings, the social surroundings, time, task definition and antecedent states as they impact on the shopping centres. The findings of this study reveal that stakeholders of shopping centres should go beyond the tactical aspects of shopping centre operations and adopt a strategic approach to business, in which customers' needs and competitors' actions are monitored in their quest to obtain preference vis a vis their competitors. The need to create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage over other centres is at the heart of ensuring the continued viability of individual shopping centres. Against the urgent need to adopt a strategic approach to shopping centre development and management, recommendations are provided for developers and managers to acknowledge the impact of the dynamic aspect of the factors that influence the consumers' decision-making process and their implications for shopping centre development and promotion. This study is aimed at providing valuable information to a variety of stakeholders such as the tenants, property developers, investors, shopping centre managers, retailers and consumers at shopping centres as well as academics interested in consumer behaviour and the impact of shopping centres in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

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This is an empirical study which a/ describes and evaluates the role of day centres with regard to young people with physical impairments aged between 16 and 30, b/ describes and evaluates the interactions between users and staff within the day centre environment, c/ outlines and assesses the level of user participation in the centres with reference to activities, the decision making process and control, and d/ suggests a set of policy recommendations which are applicable to both the service studied and day services generally for this user group. Four ideal types of day centre for the younger physically impaired are identified. All are criticised on the basis that they are inherently segregative, emphasize difference and perpetuate stigma. Within this context day centres are perceived as the 'dumping ground' for those people who are excluded, because of physical impairment, from the normal social and economic life of society. Empirical evidence to support this view is provided firstly by the overtly negative features of the general organization and admission policies of the system studied, secondly by the degree of social and economic disadvantage experienced by the users interviewed prior to day centre use, and thirdly by the manner in which they were similarly labelled and 'directed' toward the centres. I argue that day centre use reinforces disadvantage because a/ although helper/helped relations within the system are viewed positively by both users and staff, user participation and control of services is low and, b/ while the system provides a range of facilities which give many users a level of self determination unavailable in the community at large, its capacity to extend those experiences beyond the day centre boundary is limited to only a few. Consequently attendance for the majority will be long term. I list a number of recommendations, including the formulation of a national policy clarifying the role of day services for this user group, which might help to alleviate this problem. I conclude that present policies which successfully disable young people with impairments are no longer simply socially unacceptable. They are economically inept.

This thesis describes and analyses the ways in which employees in two front line call centre settings report their experience of qualitative and quantitative monitoring in the workplace, and its impact on their work and work life. I conducted ethnographically informed fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews, in two financial service call centre sites. Emerging from the rich descriptions participants shared about their work life, identity and accountability stood out as key themes. The sites, which use similar methods of monitoring and performance measurement, had quite different management strategies in place which affected staff perceptions of identity and accountability. I modified an activity theory framework to create a model of organisational, professional and peer identities and accountabilities, and to examine the ways these connect, interact, and sometimes disconnect, with one another. Call centres are contentious workplaces in the literature, generating ongoing debate about the extent to which electronic monitoring is effective as a method of control and about the way monitoring and surveillance affects workers. Using this framework allows me to look at common call centre issues, such as the quality/quantity dichotomy, through a different and potentially helpful lens, one that is novel in the call centre literature. My findings suggest that when the various facets of identities and accountabilities are poorly aligned, workers are forced to prioritize one over the other, often to the detriment of both. In the financial service call centres I studied, workers often chose to prioritize professional and peer identity over organisational accountability when organisational requirements were strongly felt to conflict with the ways in which a professional banker should behave towards customers and colleagues. Workers made these choices despite clearly understanding the potential consequences to themselves in terms of achieving performance metric targets and supervisory approval. Conceptualizing call centre workers’ responses to monitoring and measurement from an identity and accountability perspective offers new insights into the reasons why financial service call centre workers are often dissatisfied or frustrated with standard call centre measurement practices, leading to potential practical solutions.

This thesis describes and analyses the ways in which employees in two front line call centre settings report their experience of qualitative and quantitative monitoring in the workplace, and its impact on their work and work life. I conducted ethnographically informed fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews, in two financial service call centre sites. Emerging from the rich descriptions participants shared about their work life, identity and accountability stood out as key themes. The sites, which use similar methods of monitoring and performance measurement, had quite different management strategies in place which affected staff perceptions of identity and accountability. I modified an activity theory framework to create a model of organisational, professional and peer identities and accountabilities, and to examine the ways these connect, interact, and sometimes disconnect, with one another. Call centres are contentious workplaces in the literature, generating ongoing debate about the extent to which electronic monitoring is effective as a method of control and about the way monitoring and surveillance affects workers. Using this framework allows me to look at common call centre issues, such as the quality/quantity dichotomy, through a different and potentially helpful lens, one that is novel in the call centre literature. My findings suggest that when the various facets of identities and accountabilities are poorly aligned, workers are forced to prioritize one over the other, often to the detriment of both. In the financial service call centres I studied, workers often chose to prioritize professional and peer identity over organisational accountability when organisational requirements were strongly felt to conflict with the ways in which a professional banker should behave towards customers and colleagues. Workers made these choices despite clearly understanding the potential consequences to themselves in terms of achieving performance metric targets and supervisory approval. Conceptualizing call centre workers’ responses to monitoring and measurement from an identity and accountability perspective offers new insights into the reasons why financial service call centre workers are often dissatisfied or frustrated with standard call centre measurement practices, leading to potential practical solutions.

This thesis reports on research carried out in five Neighbourhood Houses in a disadvantaged area. The main aims of the research are two-fold and inter-related. They are to describe the work of the Neighbourhood Houses from the perspective of the women who attend them and those who work there; and to analyse the role and functions of the Neighbourhood Houses from the standpoint of feminist theories of womens wellbeing and of theories of social capital. / Following a brief history of the Neighbourhood House movement the thesis describes the qualitative methodology- semi-structured interviews- that was utilised to gather information from the thirty five recruited participants about their experiences at the Neighbourhood Houses. The womens voices provide richly detailed accounts that reveal not only the womens self understandings of their needs and aspirations but also much about the internal politics of the Neighbourhood Houses as well. This data is clearly connected with theories of womens wellbeing in terms of the positive impact that attending Neighbourhood Houses has had on these womens lives. / Social capital theory, recognised here as a large and growing body of theoretical work, is initially described in terms of Putnams approach as his work is seen as being responsible for the popularisation of the concept. A comprehensive account of critiques of Putnams approach give rise to questions about its appropriateness for the analysis of small mutual aid/ social care organisations, such as Neighbourhood Houses. The issue of positioning the work of small social care institutions in relation to social capital theories becomes a focal question for the thesis. / The case for Neighbourhood Houses actively contributing to social capital was found to be somewhat ambiguous. In terms of Putnams theory the outcomes of their activities and operations do not appear to be sufficiently prominent to support the claim that they contribute to social capital in any significant way. However, in terms of the work of Bullen & Onyx (1998) and Cavaye (2002) that focuses on the importance of the contributions of group and individual social capital to the overall accumulation of social capital, the findings of this thesis find firmer ground. Ultimately, the thesis argues for a less rigidly defined, more in-depth definition and understanding of what constitutes social capital, whilst at the same time retaining Putmans basic elements of trust, reciprocity, networks and the common good to underpin the concept of social capital. / The achievements of this thesis, like its aims, are two-fold. I have shown how Neighbourhood Houses can be seen to be quasi-government organisations whose socially responsible operations meet the needs of a vulnerable, disadvantaged and politically overlooked group in society. And importantly, this work has been instrumental in making the work of these little-known and under-funded social institutions more visible. Also, by interrogating the work of Neighbourhood Houses in terms of theories of social capital I have shown that they have connections with and contribute to the wider community fabric in a number of significant ways that are not always visible to the wider community. / As such, this thesis has engaged in the ongoing debate about the usefulness of social capital theory, which in certain quarters has been adopted as a potential panacea to transform existing social problems with minimal policy change or increased resources. The perspective urged here is a much more cautious reading of social capital theory that takes into consideration the contextualization of its application. The thesis concludes with a plea for increased government recognition and resources for Neighbourhood Houses to enable them to more actively participate in their own wider communities. / Thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2005.

The Neighbourhood Centres (NCs) in Sydney, Australia, were established to encourage forms of local control and resident participation and to provide a range of activities to build, strengthen and support local communities and marginalised groups. This thesis is concerned with exploring the personal conceptions, passions and frameworks, as well as the political and professional identities, of activists and community workers in these NCs. It also explores stories of practice and of how these subjective experiences have been shaped through the discourses around the NCs, some of which include feminism, environmentalism, multiculturalism and social justice. The following key research questions encouraged stories of community practice: What do the terms empowerment, participation, community service and citizenship mean for community organisation? What did community workers and organisers wish for when they became involved in these community organisations? What happened to the oppositional knowledges and dissent that are part of the organisational histories? Foucault’s concept of governmentality is used to explore the possibility that these NCs are also sites of ‘government through community’. This theoretical proposition questions taken-for-granted assumptions about community development and empowerment approaches. It draws on a willingness of the research participants to take up postmodern and poststructuralist theories. ‘Practising place’ emerges in the research as a description of a particular form of activism and community work associated with these inner city Sydney NCs. The central dimensions of ‘practising place’ include: a commitment to identity work; an openness to exploring diverse and fluid citizenship and identity formations; and the use of local knowledges to develop a critique of social processes. Another feature of ‘practising place’ is that it involves an analysis of the operation of power that extends beyond structuralist explanations of how to bring about social change and transform social relations. The research has deconstructed assumptions about empowerment, community participation, community organisations and community development, consequently another way of talking about the work of small locally based community organisations emerges. This new way of talking builds upon research participants’ understandings of power and demonstrates the utility of applying a poststructural analysis to activist and community work practices. Overall the research suggests that if activists and community workers are to work with new understandings of the operation of power, then the languages and social practices associated with activist and community work traditions need to be constantly and reflexively analysed and questioned.