This thesis presents the story of what members of a low-income and marginalized community see as appropriate community development for them, an understanding of which involves appreciation of the words AND music of community development. In presenting this story, the thesis explores the role of community development in addressing social exclusion in inner-city areas and identifies how the knowledge and experiences of lowincome communities can inform theory and practice. Based on qualitative research undertaken in Downtown Eastside Strathcona, an innercity neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, this thesis also endeavors to exemplify research that is situated in the practice of the researcher, in my own community practice. To achieve this, I, a practitioner-researcher, worked with a community group with which I was already involved to develop a guide to community development from their perspective. The guide, entitled Getting the Words AND the Music, and the conversations that informed the preparation of it, were analyzed to determine the contributions that are made to community development theory and practice. In this research, I identified four key principles to which these residents of Downtown Eastside Strathcona make a unique and valuable contribution: community development needs to be inclusive of all community members, particularly the marginalized; resident involvement in decision-making should be promoted; social justice through the equitable distribution of goods and services should be pursued; and the contribution of residents and agencies working together to strengthen their community should be celebrated. While these principles are clearly evident in community development theory, the analysis suggests that fulfillment of these principles requires a commitment to resident-centred approaches, to learning to listen to residents, to promoting the voice of the voiceless, to ensuring access to services to meet basic needs, and to redefining community to be inclusive of all. I conclude this thesis by showing that, in the experience of this researcher, a commitment of this nature may require personal change and a comfort level with messy, unpredictable practice. This change, while at times uncomfortable, may also be a gift - an ability to discern the music of community development as understood by low-income communities. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Many transportation and other social problems would be eased or solved if the automobile dependency which is now so pervasive in North American cities were reduced. Many planners, transportation engineers, and other professionals and activists are advocating walking, among other things, as a viable transportation alternative. Various measures and programs are being applied in an attempt to get people out of their cars and onto their feet. This thesis discusses an addition to the pro-pedestrian tool kit: community-based social marketing. Adapted from marketing concepts which have been remarkably successful in influencing the consumption of goods and services, social marketing is a bundle of techniques intended to influence the adoption of socially desirable behaviours. A demonstration of community-based social marketing in the community of West Point Grey in Vancouver, British Columbia shows how social marketing can be used to encourage walking within neighbourhoods. The demonstration shows social marketing to be a promising new tool in the hand of those eager to promote walking, although more work needs to be done to verify this conclusion. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Public involvement in planning processes is increasingly expected and demanded by members of the local community and it is also a key method that the planner can use to gain insight into a community. The challenge which professional planners face is in finding effective methods for involving the public in complicated and technical decisions which planners have traditionally made in isolation. Specifically, technical zoning law can be overwhelmingly complicated for members of the public. Today's planners are challenged with establishing processes which are inclusive and which generate consensus-based solutions. This thesis examines the use of collaborative planning to address the issue of compatible single-family infill housing. Specifically, this thesis addresses three questions: what are the elements of a collaborative public involvement process which can assist in creating a new single-family infill-zoning category; what are the limitations of using collaborative public involvement processes in neighbourhood re-zonings; and how does the Delbrook case study exemplify the use and implications of collaborative public involvement? These questions are examined via two avenues: a literature review focusing on public involvement, collaboration and monster house infill construction; and a case study analysis examining the Delbrook neighbourhood zoning project. The major findings of this thesis define evaluation criteria, emerging from the literature that can be applied to analyzing collaborative public involvement processes and also extract key lessons learned from the Delbrook case study. Significant conclusions of this thesis are that the public expects inclusive processes; the public is capable of rising to technical zoning challenges; it is important that the levels and opportunities for involvement are appropriate to the planning process; it is important to identify and periodically re-visit the roles of those involved in public involvement processes; and a clear and attainable goal must be set for collaborative public involvement processes. The Delbrook case study further illustrates that issues which inspire a great degree of controversy and which are complex in nature will require a more collaborative public involvement framework; the time spent on collaborative processes can cause the public to burn out; consensus building among those involved must always consider the larger community; and that collaborative processes are dynamic. In conclusion, it is noted that more research should be conducted on how the increasing empowerment of groups may or may not affect the power of the individual, the impact which the process chosen may have on the product or results; the extent to which limitations exist for lay persons involvement in technical planning subjects; and an exploration of other practical applications for dealing with large house infill construction. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Understanding how government's plan, make decisions and implement policy programmes is of vital concern to the planners who are expected to intervene in society's complex problems and formulate solutions that can be implement ed. A recent model examines political decision making processes and isolates four factors which influence decision outcomes: 1) the roles played by actors in the issue; 2) the nature of the decision making environment; 3) the characteristics of the issue; and 4) the type of planning and intervention strategies used. The model was used as a framework for examining a decision making episode in the District of Chilliwack, which centered around the issue of community growth in an area that had been circumscribed by the Agricultural Land Reserves. The model hypothesized that comprehensive, classical planning methods, which are goal-oriented and focus on long-term horizons, are likely to be rejected in decision making processes. This was confirmed in the Chilliwack case, along with the hypotheses that a proposal for change that is ideologically controversial, inflexible, and difficult to predict in its consequences, will likely be rejected. The fact that the Chilliwack plan was easy to programme and had a limited scope of costs and benefits could not overcome its drawbacks, therefore, these hypotheses were not upheld in the case study. The model's framework provided a useful means of examining and understanding why the particular outcome of the case study occurred. It clarified the inappropriatness of methods and means used by the Chilliwack decision makers and planners in attempting to achieve their goals. Consequently, the study points out that planners need new approaches, skills and knowledge in order to achieve socially acceptable and workable solutions to complex societal problems. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The rational comprehensive approach to planning has proven unable to reduce urban poverty due either to the exclusion or to the inappropriate inclusion of indigenous knowledge in planning practice. As an alternative, this dissertation analyzes (1) the capacity of local residents to apply their indigenous, contextual, experience-based knowledge towards the reduction of urban poverty and (2) the processes by which they do so. The research was based on an ethnographic case study of a single, low-income, urban neighborhood, Gondolayu Lor, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The primary research methods included: 22 months of field observation, 48 in-depth interviews, 44 oral histories, and a census of the 275 households in the case study community. The dissertation found that local residents conceptualized poverty in terms of multifaceted deprivation, and for the purposes of community-based planning, three manifestations of poverty were identified for alleviation: (1) land tenure insecurity, (2) lack of preventive health care, and (3) the inaccessibility of information and reading materials. Through an analysis of community-based planning efforts in these areas, this study uncovered a diverse array of social spaces that provided windows of opportunity as well as obstacles to the community's poverty alleviation efforts. It was concluded that the capacity of indigenous knowledge depends largely on the ability of local residents to navigate these spaces. At times, this required commumty activists to redefine existing spaces, create new spaces, and/or abandon those that were deemed ineffective. It was also found that local residents engaged in community-based planning in a way not previously accounted for in either the inclusion or social mobilization models of citizen participation. This alternative form of citizen participation, referred to as pragmatic empowerment, was incremental in nature, grassroots in origin, yet practical (as opposed to political) in its objectives. In conclusion, the three examples of community-based planning analyzed demonstrate that local residents hold valuable knowledge for alleviating community-level poverty; however, they were unable to address chronic household-level poverty. In terms of implications for practice, this finding led the author to conclude that, in addition to community-based planning, a reliable social safety net must be provided if household-level poverty is to be substantially reduced in the future. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Health and social policies identify empowerment as a guiding ideal for health promotion, yet there is little theoretical understanding of youth empowerment. The need for theory to guide practice and research in working with youth in a health promotion context led to this grounded theory study to develop a theory of youth empowerment. A community health nurse acting on BC Ministry of Health's adaptation of the World Health Organisation's Healthy Cities Initiative initiated a community organising project in an inner city community of Vancouver, which merged with the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation Blueprint for Youth Services policy. The study was based on 32 months of participant observation where the researcher was a co-facilitator of a community organising effort aimed at engaging youth in identifying their quality-of-life issues, and developing and implementing their solutions. Of the ,123 youth entering the process, 66 attended at least three meetings of which 18 demonstrated ongoing commitment to the community action process. Partnering between adults and youth as the process of empowering youth emerged as the core category in the analysis, comprised of two sub-processes, Creating an Empowering Environment for Youth and Becoming Empowered. An empowering environment allowed youth to take responsibility in a welcoming social climate with enabling support from adults. The adults demonstrated their belief in the capacity of youth to act in the community, expected youth to take responsibility, cared for youth, and offered encouragement through acting-with interactions with young people. Youth felt welcome and participated in the process, taking responsibility for voicing, decision making and action on their qualityof- life issues. The adults transferred the power to youth by giving up their responsibility for voicing, decision making and taking action. By taking responsibility and acting in the community with enabling support, the youth became empowered by controlling the process and incrementally developing their competence, self-esteem, confidence and understanding, which cultivated their belonging to the community. Participating in an empowering process enhanced their development and set in motion a social change process that raised the consciousness of adults and influenced organisational practice. The theory identifies youth empowerment as an ecological construct and a capacity-building process. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to critically examine elements of public participation in environmental decision-making and to propose that public participation processes may be made more meaningful through the provision of comprehensive and flexible procedural mechanisms coupled with a true ability to affect the outcome of the process, rather than through simply granting more rights. Over the years, natural resources management has grown as a response to ecological concerns over the state and future of our environment. The law too, has developed to accommodate environmental concerns and define legal rights and procedures. Public participation becomes a vehicle for ensuring that affected interests are taken into account in environmental decision-making. In Chapter 1, the established and traditional means of involving the public in environmental decision-making such as litigation and public hearings are examined; however, they have been characterized as too restrictive, not only in terms of the parties who are included, but also the issues. Furthermore, agency administration of complex resource management issues has fuelled public discontent, as many groups understand it is an inherently political process and doubt its legitimacy. In exploring this phenomenon, this paper is first placed in a theoretical context, drawing upon ecological, legal, and ethical philosophies. However, it is also informed by the perspectives of local environmental groups and residents. The turn to other techniques, or Alternative Dispute Resolution, may seem a logical and appropriate evolution, suggesting ways for all affected parties to be involved. Chapter 2 reviews different forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution which provide some principles about the use of mediation and agreements to supplement the regulatory processes of resource management. It is important to consider the mediation process itself, the desire to remedy what is considered to be the failings of the traditional adversarial system, the psychological dynamics of the process, and the parameters for successful negotiations leading to implementation. Chapter 3 commences with an analysis of the legal context of public participation in British Columbia. It determines the discretionary authority of the administrative agencies, and the formal window of opportunity for public input, under the (federal) Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the (provincial) British Columbia Environmental Assessment Act. This chapter also discusses an additional and interesting vehicle for public participation, although not yet implemented in British Columbia - the Environmental Bill of Rights. Chapter 4 provides a more concrete setting for the use of public participation processes, through the use of a case study - the British Columbia Transit Sky Train Extension Project. The "NIMBY", or "Not In My Backyard" scenario involved has the potential to facilitate negotiation; however, real inroads will be made through improving existing legal avenues of participation such as consultation. In fact, this key concern has been the sore point with respect to the Sky Train Project for many residents of Vancouver. In conclusion, the utility of public participation processes expressed in environmental legislation is reliant not only upon the ability of the law to be flexible enough to serve the various natural resource interests of all stakeholders, but also to be conducted in a manner that is inclusory and substantive. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

M.A. (Public Management and Governance) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how adult education principles were being implemented in the teaching of adult learners at the Meadowlands Community Development Project (MCDP). The MCDP is a non-governmental organization (NGO) offering HIV and AIDS education to the community of Meadowlands and other townships of Soweto in Johannesburg. In attempting to educate and protect people against the HIV and AIDS epidemic, the organization has introduced and is currently implementing an adult and community education programme. This programme aims at assisting people, particularly adults in acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills to help curb the explosive death statistics in South Africa, and thereby improve their own lives and the lives of those in their communities. Problematic issues associated with the delivery of this programme related to how adult education principles were incorporated into teaching and learning activities. A qualitative research design was used to establish how adult education principles were being incorporated in a community health education programme that targeted adults. The methods of data collection that were utilised were non-participatory observations and semi-structured individual interviews with six participants. I used the constant comparative method of data analysis to search for recurring themes and patterns. The study revealed that most or all of the adult education principles prevalent in the literature were largely neglected in the planning and execution of the community health education programme and that facilitators need training in the area of learning for adults. Facilitators, for example, neglected most or all adult education principles: multiple roles of adult learners, to actively engage learners in what they were learning, the psychological safety of learners, team work and, among others, immediacy of learning. The study concludes with a few recommendations: the MCDP should utilise the services of educators who received specialised training in adult and community education. Additionally, more staff development training programmes, focusing on the incorporation of adult education principles, should be introduced. Also, facilitators should be taught to incorporate adult education principles and practices in their lesson plans. / Mrs. N.F. Petersen

M.A. (Development Studies) / During the past decade, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), featured increasingly in development thinking as possible roleplayers in the development process. Initial optimism however, made way for a more realistic view of their abilities and possible contribution to the development effort. The main goal of the study could be identified as the investigation of the possible contribution of NGOs to the development process and especially community development, in terms of the optimised role of NGOs as development agents. To facilitate the analysis and evaluation of the development role of NGOs, a theoretical framework of reference was constructed by presenting an overview of the main development theories. The social development-management approach - one of the most recent development approaches offers excellent opportunities for the application of NGOs in the development process. Diverse historical reasons for the or~g~n and growth of NGOs in the First - and Third World as well as South Africa can be discerned. Although South African NGOs can be compared with similar organisations in the First - and Third World, unique social and political influences led to the formation of NGOs with a distinct character and highly politicised nature. The politicised nature of South African NGOs excluded any possibility of cooperation between the South African government and local NGOs. However, if the potential development role of governments, NGOs and the private sector is analysed, it becomes clear that all development actors need to fulfil a limited albeit complementary role in the development process...