The premise of this thesis is the relationship between community participation and public satisfaction in urban renewal projects. Public satisfaction is different from those evaluation indicators used in most previous studies. Public satisfaction level evaluates performance of renewal projects based on public’s perspectives instead of a set of standards. Performances of renewal projects in satisfying the public personally, in environmental and social aspects were appraised. Both quantity and quality of community participation of the renewal projects and other factors believed to have effects on people’s perception were studied. Quantity of community participation was measured as community participation level based on the variety of community participation activities organized in the renewal projects, while quality of community participation was assessed by the satisfaction level on community participation perceived by the public using questionnaire survey. Also, public satisfaction levels of renewal projects in different aspects were collected by questionnaire survey. The relationship between community participation and public satisfaction was examined by linear regression analysis. Data was collected from 181 respondents responding to 5 sample projects regarding their satisfaction level towards the renewal projects in different aspects. Quality of community participation and public satisfaction level of urban renewal projects are positively related in different aspects while negative effect of quantity of community participation on the public satisfaction level was found. It is anticipated that if the public are satisfied with the community participation activities organized in a renewal project, they will also be satisfied with the project itself. However, results unexpectedly showed that public satisfaction level would increase as less community participation activities were organized in the renewal projects. This thesis gives insights into the optimum practice of community involvement in renewal projects and that of urban renewal to satisfy the public’s needs. The results are suggestive to the ideas that private developments can better formulate the needs of the public and the public concern more about the quality of community participation than the variety or number of it. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Philosophy

This paper concerns with a study of policy of Hong Kong Government in effective building management. With the Government’s established policy in advocating building management, the Home Affairs Department (HAD) make use of competitions to induce property management companies (PMCs) and owners’ organizations to improve the management standard. After semi-structured interviews with organizer, judges and participants of competition, the Government’s policy is analyzed. Laguna Verde (LV) in Kowloon City District is taken as an example for illustration. It was found that they make use of techniques similar to business competitive strategies for preparing the competition. This may be the reason for their continued championship. It was concluded that the policy is well address to the objective of advocating quality building management and therefore effective. In addition, the policy has attributes of being an efficient policy, with equity and community acceptance. The institutional constraints are also less because the policy well aligns with other policies. In addition, the policy is flexible and different format can be adopted to address different policy and social needs. Quality Building Management Competition (QBMC) is a territory-wide district-base programme organized by the HAD. LV has been successful in obtaining the championship in Kowloon City District QBMC for five consecutive terms, i.e., 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2008-09 & 2009-10 (the term of 2007-08 was suspended). Using LV as an example, it is considered the factors for achieving quality management. The various strategies adopted by LV in obtaining the championship are studied. It is then utilized to illustrate the key elements of quality management through owners’ and occupiers’ participation. These include the set up of management committees / owners’ corporations (OCs), the representative groups, to manage common parts of buildings and the appointment of PMCs, the trade practitioners, to provide services including professional support and management of common areas. It is also illustrated in this paper that there are other dimensions of institutional arrangements, ranging from the establishment of legal framework, provision of professional and support service to OCs by the Government, to the statutory regulation on the property management industry, which contribute to effective building management and maintenance. HAD, in response to government’s call on encouraging owners’ / occupiers participation in private building management, makes use of this competition to promote the good practice of building management. PMCs and OCs also make use of the competition in promoting their public image and enhancing the value of their properties. Therefore, a case study of how LV obtains the championship and an analysis in the implication of the competition in implementing the Government’s policy and serving the objective in private building management is valuable. The literature review includes the conceptual framework of challenge in managing common property, i.e. the tragedy of the commons versus the tragedy of the anticommons: when multiple owners hold rights to exclude others from a scarce resource and no one exercises an effective privilege of use, the resource might be prone to overuse / underuse. In the context of building management, this refers to the attribute that common area of the buildings is of multiple ownerships. If the rights and obligations of such communal private property are not clearly defined, this will inevitably lead to lack of proper maintenance of the common parts and in turn the dilapidation of buildings and the diminishing value of properties. This problem known as the tragedy of the commons and the anitcommons gives rise to different institutional arrangements for property right governance or property management. It is further investigated into the choice among different institutional arrangements and the collective action of owners’ active participation in building management by referring to transaction costs analysis and Collective Interest Model. Besides, the literature review gives background information of the competition, property management in general in Hong Kong, description of Kowloon City District QBMC and competitive strategies, in which both positioning and resources based approach will be applied. This is a descriptive research and qualitative method will be adopted. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted to the key staff participated in the competition. The organizer, that is, HAD and District Council (DC), as well as key members of the judging panel will also be interviewed. From the analysis on various opinions from participating parties in the QBMC, it is concluded that QBMC, being a competition programme, together with a series of individual and continual publicity and educational programmes, performs the function of facilitating effective building management by OCs and service quality improvement committed by PMCs. It echoes to and is efficacious in achieving the Government’s policy in encouraging owners’ / occupiers participation in private building management. To a certain extent, the Government’s role in provision of well-established statutory framework and support services for OCs, as well as in implementation of regulatory framework for private property industry in Hong Kong contributes to effective building management. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

When citizens participate in risk assessment and decision-making for environmental and other issues that affect members of the public, more robust decisions may be made. Public participation in policy decisions is not only more democratic, but it also enables members of the public to contribute valuable expertise to the decision-making process. However, the development of an effective forum for such participatory projects has been difficult. Participation mechanisms that foster dialogue and interactive exchange between participants have been regarded as the most beneficial, but the practical application of these mechanisms has been observed to be problematic. The goal of this study is to examine the role of talk as a contributing factor to the limited success of dialogue-based participation mechanisms. To do this, this study performs a qualitative analysis of the dialogue that takes place when a group of scientists and a group of farmers participate in a project concerning sustainable biofuels in Iowa. This analysis finds that the scientists and farmers, as members of distinct communities of practice, have different ways of talking about their work, even as they talk about the same subjects. This observation illustrates that the discourse that takes place within participatory mechanisms, and not only the mechanism forum itself, is an important contribution to the success or failure of a citizen participation project.

In this degree project, a study of the teacher’s identity in the Swedish curriculum of 1980 and 2011 is presented. The aim of this study is to examine and compare how the Swedish curriculum of 1980 and 2011, respectively, portraits the teacher’s role in creating democratic citizens. With discourse analysis of the teacher’s identity as the method, the study aims to answer the questions below: How is the character of the teacher’s role in creating good citizens, described in the curriculum and the syllabus for social sciences? What is included and excluded in the teacher’s duty within the task of creating good citizens? What kind of perspectives on the purpose of education is formulated in the curriculum? The theoretical bases of this study are taken from; Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne’s categorizations of the democratic citizen, Gert J.J. Biesta’s account of the different functions of education, Leonora. M Cohen’s definitions of three philosophical perspectives on education and Carsten Ljunggren and Ingrid Unemar Öst’s model of teachers different reactions to controversy. As a conclusion this study finds that the portrait of the teacher’s role in creating democratic citizens has changed in its description from the curriculum of 1980 to the curriculum of 2011.The identity of the teacher has gone from describing a qualifying, socializing and pragmatic mediator of social standards in 1980’s curriculum to in the 2011’s curriculum describing a qualifying promoter of knowledge and discussion. The study also finds that the professional authority of the teacher is, in the curriculums, given very little room and instead focus lies on either the aspect of knowledge or pragmatism.

This study aims to analyze the current discourse on citizen’s dialogue and its link to deliberative democracy, with hope to find that it is taken for granted in dialogues with citizens at local government level. The aim is to show, with a discourse analytical approach to the current democratic renewal in Swedish municipalities, how the discourse is designed and what is reproduced or restructured through printed texts published by the SKL. This by finding what is seen as truth or a form of objective reality in the deliberative democratic discourse and by analyzing the reproduction of the same. The purpose may also partly be considered creating an understanding of how this relates to or what effects this has in the discursive and social practice, as well as in seeing what consequences it can bring. Citizen´s dialogues are becoming more common. Powerful actors like SKL encourage Swedish municipalities to implement the dialogue in the organization. Information about the positive effects is spreading, while unintended consequences are not given any room at all. This can be seen as a social problem, a lack of awareness about the discourse and its social consequences or changes. Structural inequalities are reproduced by SKL publications, which give this study social relevance. The results also indicate that citizen´s dialogues have a connection to deliberative democracy yet still differ in several categories.

Despite the trillions of dollars spent over the past decades on foreign aid 80% of humanity still lives on less than $10 dollars a day. There is an alarming need to deliver quality healthcare services and products to developing countries. The healthcare industry for developing countries is estimated to be $202 million and growing exponentially. However, intrinsic obstacles have prevented companies from fully deploying solutions in these countries. With the emergence of Citizen-Sector Organizations companies now have an alley to create High Value Chains enabling companies to deliver solutions to developing countries. Thereby, increasing shareholder value and increasing the living conditions of global citizens. As citizens of developing countries have better health care they are better equipped to succeed economically and consume other services and products the company has to offer. This paper discusses how an engineering manager can increase shareholder value by aligning corporate responsibility with the company’s strategic goals by leveraging High Value Chains. Specifically this paper discusses how open source methodologies can be utilized to improve healthcare in developing countries while increasing shareholder value. / text

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management