Participatory ecological monitoring aims to bring together conservationists and members of the public to collect scientific data about changes in nature – in species, habitats, ecosystems and natural resources. Given that such monitoring not only concerns measures of nature but inherently the participants doing the measuring, it is as much to do with social processes as it is to do with ecological ones. By drawing on detailed ethnographic work from the community forests of Nepal, this thesis aims to explore some of the social dimensions of participatory monitoring and of its consequences for socio-ecological regimes. Current debates in political ecology, development studies and nature-society studies provide the theoretical basis for the investigation. The novelty of the thesis lies in its extensive empirical data, which allows it to explore current understandings of participatory monitoring. The thesis establishes the following tentative theoretical findings. It firstly draws attention to the importance of the informal, often unconscious ways in which we all observe changes in nature and of the need to recognise such ‘local monitoring’ in relation to participatory monitoring. It draws attention to the situated nature of practices of monitoring and the heterogeneity of people involved, suggesting that this has consequences for how costs and benefits arising from participatory monitoring are distributed amongst participants and beyond. It argues that without attending to such consequences, participatory monitoring may serve to (re)produce social inequalities which are the basis for marginalisation and that it may become embroiled in local power struggles. The thesis argues that whilst participatory monitoring may provide useful data on changes in nature, that this information will not automatically influence decision-making over nature conservation or the use of natural resources. A multitude of other factors are important in such decision-making and the ways in which these relate to and potentially constrain the effectiveness of participatory monitoring are discussed. The thesis finally offers a typology with which to better understand the complexity amongst participatory monitoring projects – based on who and what they are for – and with which to approach the conflicts and inconsistencies they present. The thesis concludes that without a careful consideration of their inherent social dimensions, participatory monitoring projects will ultimately fail in attempts to both improve the condition of nature and the lives of societies that depend on it, for the two are intimately connected. Interdisciplinary studies such as this are therefore seen to offer great potential to participatory and community-based approaches to conservation and natural resource management more widely.

This research began as a quest to better understand the relationships between marginalized communities, facilitators, and not-for-profit organizations, or NGO’s, in a specific Theatre for Development (TfD) process. When a TfD project that engaged and positively impacted the lives of Egyptian young garbage pickers was discontinued by the funding NGO, the researcher, who was the group’s theatre facilitator, set out to find solutions to this disempowering process. Initially, this research was created to explore how to pass on the skills of practicing theatre to marginalized communities, as a means for them to claim the process, practicing it independently of NGOs and facilitators. This initial inquiry then evolved to encompass exploring effective methods of TfD practice, where the question then became: What are the conditions that provide empowerment and autonomy for marginalized communities in the TfD context? Using Narrative Inquiry the researcher recalls her experience working with the garbage pickers in one of the biggest slums in the world, Mokkatam City, in Cairo. The narrative is used to question the choices made by both the facilitators and NGOs which ultimately compromised an otherwise life changing experience for the young community. The researcher then employs Action Research to outline a community-based participatory project carried out with a group of immigrant and refugee youth in Victoria, Canada. The study traced the progression of the three action research stages carried out to find ways of using TfD to empower this vulnerable community. The documentation of this project was completed using Reflective Practitioner Case Study which enabled the researcher to reflect on her practice with the aim of improving her approach through critical analysis. The findings of this research do not support the researcher’s initial hypothesis that the development of theatre skills will enable the community to function independently of outside support. Instead, through the careful examination of the experiences of the young participants in the slums of Cairo, and the immigrant and refugee communities in Canada, this research points to the importance of TfD integrating the celebration of life and the development of relationships as part of its process of enriching the experience of marginalized communities. This finding, together with an examination of the notion of sustainability redefines the place of the exit strategy through the ways in which the immigrant participants of the latter phases of the study, chose to integrate the benefits of TfD practice into their lives. / Graduate

This study examined the relationship between selected student and institutional characteristics and the retention rates of first-time, degree seeking, full-time and parttime, freshman student cohorts in public community colleges in Florida. Based on data obtained from the Integrated Post-Secondary Data System on selected student and institutional variables for three years beginning fall 2005, 2006 and 2007, retention rates were analyzed for the years beginning fall 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively. This quantitative non-experimental descriptive study relied on multiple regression to analyze aggregated data on eight predictor variables to determine their impact student retention rates. A moderating variable (institutional size) was used to determine its influence on the relationship between the predictor variables and the criterion variable. The results suggest that gender and age were positively related to student retention rate at the parttime level, academic support expenses were negatively related to student retention rates at the part-time and full-time levels, and institutional size moderated the relationship between certain predictor variables and retention rates at small institutions. / by Ancil DeLuz. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The main aim in this study was to investigate how the active participants of a self-organized and socially mobilizing operation called Santa Croce/Spin Time Labs in Rome, Italy described their work regarding creating an alternative and inclusive common cityspace. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with active participants in the Spin Time Labs-part of the organization that is designated to cultural-and service aligned activities. The study uses a primary theoretical framework based on Henri Lefevbre’s ideas regarding ‘The right to the city’ and the production of social space, together with the concept of ‘Parity of participation’, developed by Nancy Fraser, concerning the creation and fulfillment of social justice principles. Furthermore, scientific research regarding commons spaces and self-organization were used to analyze the phenomenon known as "Squatting” through the perspective of occupation as a form of producing alternative cityspaces.  The results pointed at a few experiences that could be seen as crucial both connected to participants current work-situation and also concerning the future of the operation. Mainly, it showed that the participants, through their active participation, have managed to create a useful balance of meeting the needs of both the occupations inhabitants and the surrounding neighborhood. At the same time, this very balance has served as a functional alternative strategy for managing to create an inclusive and open common cityspace. Altogether, it shows that with their combined effort, they could create something that potentially could have a long-lasting impact. Both on an individual level, creating a solidary sustainable resource allocation and improving the mental health for the people involved in the operation, as well as for urban society at a broader perspective. Additional research could be focused on finding possible pathways for the operations further management and development in the neoliberal society of today.