Amusement space embodies hegemonic and Utopian dialogue concerning urban conditions. Throughout the twentieth century, two rival urban visions have reigned: the Coney Island model, a chancy, participatory theatre where patrons can confront head-on current conditions; and the Disney model, a carefully planned setting where guests are made to feel comfortable and secure. The current ascendancy of the Disney model, evident in urban and suburban landscapes increasingly shaped in the Disney image, has attracted the attention -- and alarm --of critics who interpret this trend as urban planning with a 'sinister twist.' A case study of Disney's involvement with Seattle Center, originally the site of the 1962 World's Fair and now Seattle's premier urban park, demonstrates, however, that people actively challenge, negotiate, and reform the Disney model to meet their needs by infusing the space with traces of the rival Coney model. The suggestions Disney made for renovation of Seattle Center sparked a city-wide debate that centred on the roles of local participation, cultural sensitivity, and aesthetic design in urban space; Disney was found lacking on all accounts and eventually rejected entirely. Seattle's experience with Disney demonstrates that amusement space offers a rich terrain upon which people can dream about, and implement, urban change. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Public involvement in decisions about mine reclamation presents challenges to government, industry and the public. Among them are inclusion of relevant interests, representation, dealing with ignorance and misconceptions, uncertain science and technology, conflicting values, and very long spans of time. Planning theory suggests there is no preferred method, "no ideal solution to the conflict among the legitimate demand for public participation, the need for technical and economic rationality, and the necessity of assuring accountability and responsibility of decision making bodies" (Renn et al., 1993). In the 1990s, public involvement was introduced into reclamation planning and decision making processes at three metal mines in British Columbia: Brenda, Sullivan and Island Copper. A review of them shows that different techniques have been used. At Brenda a public surveillance committee was formed to review and comment on reclamation options produced by the mine in co-operation with a technical committee comprised of regulatory officials. At Sullivan a single committee consisting of public representatives, mine staff and regulatory officials met to review a draft reclamation plan and recommend amendments. At Island Copper a round table was convened to examine the use of the site as a regional landfill. Based on unpublished primary documents (mainly minutes), supplemented by published material and informal interviews, the public involvement processes were first classified and then evaluated. Criteria for the classification and evaluation were drawn from planning literature. The classification focused on purpose and methods. Public involvement mainly functioned at a consultative or advisory level. Of the three processes reviewed, the single committee method developed at Sullivan comes closest to shared decision making (CORE, 1995). All three processes used consensus negotiations as the primary means for reaching decisions. Only at Island Copper was this formally defined and intentionally used. At the others, consensus was undefined and operated informally. The processes were also qualitatively evaluated in terms of whether they fulfilled their own goals, were equitable, efficient, effective, and representative, and whether they promoted good public participation and contributed to good decision making. The processes mostly, fulfilled their own goals (as defined by their terms of reference). The processes are rated about the same with respect to procedural and distributional equity, effectiveness of outcome, representation, and promoting good public involvement. The Sullivan and Island Copper processes are rated relatively better than the Brenda process with respect to administrative equity, efficiency and process effectiveness. The Sullivan process, with half the number of meetings and exchanging written answers to questions in advance of meetings, minimized demands on participants. All three processes were well structured with respect to promoting good public involvement. However, judged by the norms of decision literature, the processes were relatively weak with respect to decision making. Problems were not defined, nor were interests or objectives. Empirical measures for goals or objectives were not identified. Few alternatives were proposed; nor were they evaluated in a way that could lead to a clear understanding of the trade-offs involved. Although few decisions were actually reached in the processes, their quality may be inferior because of these shortcomings. Notwithstanding these theoretical and empirical shortcomings, public involvement in each case found general support among government, industry, and public participants. Consequently the processes received a high degree of approval. It remains uncertain, however, whether more public involvement processes will be undertaken. Although, the province's mines ministry is formally committed to greater public involvement in reclamation decision making (MEMPR, 1991b), the ministry seems stretched to support even the two processes now underway (Brenda and Sullivan). Additional processes would require more resources than are currently allotted. As well, staff training, participant funding, professional facilitation, and clerical services could be improved. Further research is suggested, in particular applying techniques of decision analysis to public involvement processes to facilitate the making of informed and insightful reclamation decisions. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The progress in information and communication technologies has also touched the sphere of public administration. The electronization of individual areas of public administration allows time and money savings not only for the citizens, but also for the offices and their employees. The main purpose of e-government is to determine the situation of the Czech Republic compared to selected countries regarding to the standards of state administration (confirmed by statistical datas). The benefits of this thesis on the level of the local self-government are suggestions for improvements of running of municipality with extended sphere of influence Černošice in the area of electronization with support of awarded e-government projects. The thesis is divided into theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical part describes projects in the sphere of state government including legislative and programme support of e-government development. Benefit of the practical part of this diploma thesis is the possibility to compare the Czech Republic with other European countries and to provide suggestions for improvements of the situation of e-government, especially in the sphere of influence of the local self-government in Černošice.

This master thesis focuses on an evaluation of eGovernment of the Czech Republic from a citizen's perspective. The main goals of this thesis are to give an overview of services provided by the government to citizens in electronic way, to evaluate Czech eGovernment in comparison to foreign countries and to explore the relationship between Czech citizens and eGovernment. The goals will be accomplished by the research of literature resources concerning Czech eGovernment and by analysis of international studies which evaluate eGovernment from a global, world-wide, point of view. The relationship between citizens and eGovernment of the Czech Republic will be explored via a questionnaire survey, within which citizens' satisfaction with particular services, broadness and frequency of usage of eGovernment services will be examined, along with the citizens' opinion on innovations, which could be introduced in Czech eGovernment. The theoretical part of this thesis is comprised of an overview of Czech eGovernment services, followed by an evaluation of Czech eGoverment in relation to a number of foreign eGovernments. The questionnaire survey, together with the Czech eGovernment evaluation, and with the suggestions of innovations to be introduced in Czech Republic, forms the practical part of this thesis.

Complex diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are often diagnosed too late, which significantly impairs treatment options and, in turn, lowers patient’s survival rate drastically and increases the costs significantly. Moreover, the growth of medical data is faster than the ability of healthcare systems to utilize them. Almost 80% of medical data are unstructured, but they are clinically relevant. On the other hand, technological advancements have made it possible to create different  igital health solutions where healthcare and ICT meet. Also, some individuals have already started to measure their body function parameters, track their health status, research their symptoms and even intervene in treatment options which means a great deal of data is being produced and also indicates that patient-driven health care models are transforming how health care functions. These models include quantified self-tracking, consumer-personalized-medicine and health social networks. This research aims to present an open innovation digital health platform which creates value  y using the overlaps between healthcare, information technology and artificial intelligence. This platform could potentially be utilized for early detection of complex diseases by leveraging Big Data technology which could improve awareness by recognizing pooled symptoms of a specific disease. This would enable individuals to effortlessly and quantitatively track and become aware of changes in their health, and through a dialog with a doctor, achieve diagnosis at a significantly earlier stage. This thesis focuses on a case study of the platform for detecting breast cancer at a  ignificantly earlier stage. A qualitative research method is implemented through reviewing the literature, determining the knowledge gap, evaluating the need, performing market research, developing a conceptual prototype and presenting the open innovation platform. Finally, the value creation, applications and challenges of such platform are investigated, analysed and discussed based on the collected data from interviews and surveys. This study combines an explanatory and an analytical research approach, as it aims not only to describe the case, but also to explain the value creation for different stakeholders in the value chain. The findings indicate that there is an urgent need for early diagnosis of complex diseases such as breast cancer) and also handling direct and indirect consequences of late diagnosis. A significant outcome of this research is the conceptual prototype which was developed based on the general proposed concept through a customer development process. According to the conducted surveys, 95% of the cancer patients and 84% of the healthy individuals are willing to use the proposed platform. The results indicate that it can create significant values for patients, doctors, academic institutions, hospitals and even healthy individuals.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BIANCA DISSERTACAO_MESTRADO.pdf: 220668 bytes, checksum: 0f020760b864adfe4635def7cd123c06 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-17 / This dissertation deals with family conceptions and contemporary school and its correlation with the constitution of the subject in its ethical dimension. Derived from our concern with everyday educational problems, such as lack of boundaries, difficulties in responding to society s demands, difficulty in wearing others shoes, impulsive behaviors towards shopping habits, eating habits, substance use, beverages, reckless behavior in traffic, etc. Discusses the dynamics of social relations pointing to the importance of ethical values and mutual respect to build a just society and able to respond to new demands of our time. Supported by qualitative research methodology from the following authors: Kehl (2002), Winnicott (1999 - 2005), Benedetti (2009), Tedesco (2001), Di Giorgi (2004). Through the analysis of family institution and school, we ask which one plays the primary role in education, where starts the process of ethical formation, and which factors are constitutive of the structure of the educational conception and practice of citizenship. We listed as essential for the formation of the ethical practice of citizenship, the integrated work between school and family, having as crucial element, the distance from the call-crowded consumption, rescuing the subjectivity as the main tool to preserve thef individual psychic structure in a healthy way and fit to live in society / A presente dissertação trata dos conceitos de família e escola contemporâneas e sua correlação com a constituição do sujeito em sua dimensão ética. Derivou de nossa preocupação com problemas educacionais cotidianos, tais como falta de limites, dificuldades em responder às demandas da sociedade, dificuldade em se colocar no lugar do outro, impulsividade expressa nos comportamentos excessivos nas compras, alimentação, uso de substâncias, bebidas, comportamento imprudente no trânsito, etc. Discorre sobre a dinâmica das relações sociais apontando para a importância dos valores éticos e respeito mútuo para a construção de uma sociedade justa e capaz de responder às novas demandas do sujeito do nosso tempo. Referencia-se na metodologia da pesquisa qualitativa apoiada nos autores: Kehl (2002), Winnicott (1999 2005), Benedetti (2009), Tedesco (2001), Di Giorgi (2004). Através da análise das instituições família e escola, questionamos qual delas desempenha o papel prioritário na educação, onde se inicia o processo de formação do sujeito ético, e quais fatores são constitutivos da estrutura educacional do conceito e prática da cidadania. Elencamos como fatores essenciais para a constituição do sujeito ético e prática da cidadania o trabalho integrado entre escola e família, de modo fraterno, tendo como elemento essencial o distanciamento do apelo massificado ao consumo, unificador das personalidades, repressor da individualidade e resgatando a subjetividade como elemento capaz de preservar a estrutura psíquica individual de modo saudável e apto a conviver em sociedade

Associé à la démocratie représentative, le vote en France est souvent observé à travers ses résultats (chiffre d’abstention, du vote blanc, inscription ou non inscription sur les listes électorales, etc.), ce qui laisse entendre que le fait démocratique serait caractérisé par les suffrages exprimés. Or, pour le citoyen le vote a un sens qui va au-delà du rituel des urnes. En tant que Sujet socio-psychologique, il vote en agissant autour d’enjeux fondamentaux dans le but de construire et de se construire par un acte puissant et utile en confirmant son histoire.Pour comprendre la signification du vote en tant qu’agir politique articulé à de nombreux agir (s) sociaux, eux-mêmes reposant sur des fondements psychologiques de l’agir humain, nous nous sommes positionnés en amont et en aval de la dynamique électorale et envisagé le comportement votant en fonction des connaissances, des croyances, des prédispositions normatives, affectives, bref, de l’attitude qui le sous-tend.La question générale de notre recherche est de décliner les conditions qui construisent le comportement votant. / Associated with representative democracy, voting in France is often seen through its results (abstention, blank vote, registration or non-registration on electoral lists, etc.), which suggests that the actual democratic would be characterized by the votes cast. For the citizen, the vote has a meaning that goes beyond the ritual of the ballot box. As a socio-psychological subject, he votes regarding fundamental issues in order to bring out solutions and construct himself through this historical action seen as a powerful, effective and useful. In order to understand the significance of voting as a political act expressed in many social actions, which are based on the psychological foundations of human action, we positioned ourselves upstream and downstream of the vote and considered the voting behavior relatively to knowledge, beliefs, normative, affective dimensions, in short, to the attitude that supports it.The general aim of our research is to specify the conditions that construct the voting behavior.

Contrary to Texas Ranger myth, Stephen F. Austin's settlers were not the first Texas Rangers to ride across Texas. As early as the 1540s, almost three hundred years before Austin arrived in Texas, mounted Spanish subjects on the frontiers of northern New Spain ranged, scouted, pursued, and waged offensive war against Chichimeca enemies. These methods were employed and accepted actions on the hostile frontier, and were also the characteristics Texans so highly revere in Ranger traditional lore. Several of these colonial military and ranching families from Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, settled Texas in the first half of the 18th century. They intermarried and developed kinship bonds and were community leaders. In the 1820s, and 1830s Spanish surnamed descendants of early military men and ranchers became acquainted with newly arrived Anglo-European settlers. Friendships and alliances were forged based on political ideology and even kinship. As the winds of rebellion blew, several of the leading military and ranching families chose to fight for Independence in the Army of the Republic. They also joined the ranks of the Republic of Texas Rangers, and finally the Texas Rangers. Despite their loyalty, they lost political powers as more Anglo-Europeans arrived. Tejanos lost property, status and ultimately their right to be identified as Texas Rangers. The object of this work is to contribute a small piece to the literature regarding the development and evolution of ranging traditions from a southern to northern frontier perspective. The military and law enforcement traditions of colonial era New Spanish soldiers and ranchers were passed on to their Tejano descendants through continuous participation in ranging and ranching activities within their communities. Tejanos participated in the Independence of Texas, the Republic Rangers and the Texas Rangers throughout the 19th century, and based on connections with Anglo settlers may have taught Anglos mounted ranging technique, and how to survive on the Texas frontier.

Very few empirical studies in migration and citizenship focus on immigrants' perceptions of the concept of citizenship and its prominent features. Based on the semi-structured interviews of 8 Pakistani immigrants (Swedish citizenship holders and non-citizenship holders) in Sweden, this study aimed to understand how these immigrants perceive and define Swedish citizenship, and how do they value it in material, symbolic, and emotional terms. Through conceptual framework and literature review of citizenship in its symbolic, materialistic, and emotional term, three central approaches mobility, sense of security, and sense of belonging were derived and analyzed. The findings of this research suggest that immigrants who participated in this study tend to value Swedish citizenship. They are very concerned about their security and protection which is provided by the state to a citizen in every sphere of life; economically, socially, politically; protection against the deportation; and while traveling anywhere in the world. These immigrants perceived that passport makes a difference, and during travel, it enables and constrains inequalities, restrictions, and uncertainties in the mobility arena. Furthermore, when it comes to belongings: the interviewee relate it to work, spending time in the country, and participation in the society. Finally, this study recommends further research with different migrants groups in Sweden to understand the true essence of Swedish citizenship in immigrants' worldview.

The most contemporary approach to biodiversity conservation within South Africa is that of community-based initiatives, which seek to combine biodiversity conservation with socioeconomic development. As a challenge to the Western, science laden approaches to conservation there is an increasing need for community initiatives to reflect the values of local communities. Values of local communities and the management body, CapeNature, with regards to Driftsands Nature Reserve, Cape Town, were captured and analytically coded through the qualitative methods of interviewing and participant observation in order to develop a grounded theory and model. A discussion of the expressed values suggests that community-based conservation initiatives are doing little to include community values even though there is a large degree of agreement between these and corporate values. As such, it is questioned whether community-based conservation can be practised within an organisation which, due to procedures and protocols, is top-down in its approach. / Geography / M. Sc. (Geography)