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This research falls within the scope of the Thusano project to evaluate families concerning a variety of aspects of which this research specifically focuses on crime. Crime therefore is an act that must take place contradictory to the judicial system. The aim of the research is to determine the causes of the perceptions of the community with regard to crime, to identify the crimes that occurs most and to determine how crime in this community can be reduced. Through this research it was found that an increase has occurred with reference to certain crime categories, such as violent crime, women abuse and house theft. The community is of opinion that heavier punishment will lead to prevention of crime and to more job opportunities. Alcohol abuse also plays a large role in the assaults that take place during weekends. Furthermore they believe that, with the assistance of the police and the community, crime can decrease. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Many small towns in the state of Indianan hold yearly festivals. This thesis asks the question, "Do small town festivals have the capacity to build community?" The answer to this question was sought by first looking at prior research and then devising an Index to determine the primary components to community. The index identified Networks, Communion, Collaboration, and Behavior as the four primary components of community. Field study and data collection were conducted by the means of surveying festival visitors at seven small town festivals in Indiana and also by observing the visitors, events, and booths of each festival. Through statistical analysis of the data, it was determined that small town festivals do have the capacity to build community in that they possess and encourage the four main components of community. / Department of Urban Planning

World of Warcraft (WoW) is the most successful massively multi-player role-playing game (MMO). It currently consists of over ten million players world-wide. This study focuses on how American players use the game to play with the meanings of individuality and community. This tension between individualism and community is one of the key elements of American culture. Too much individualism leads to a loss of community. The same occurs in WoW. Player-run guilds, which operate as a community of memory, begin to suffer from players who operate on individualistic terms. Ultimately, players play WoW because they get the chance to experience what a strong community commitment can be like. / Department of Anthropology

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Within the UK the concept of the ‘city-region’ has gained increasing prominence in both academic and policy realms, particularly within the inter-related domains of spatial planning, public service delivery and economic development. However, our knowledge on the concept is currently limited in several respects. This includes a paucity of de-tailed accounts of how city-regions are formed and an over-reliance in existing analyses which consider city-regions as contingent responses to globalising economic impera-tives. The main aim of the thesis is to show how powerful city-regional narratives are materal-ised. To achieve this aim the research considers three key theoretical, methodological and empirical issues. In terms of theory, the research considers the role played by processes of narrative construction and institutionalisation in mediating the development of city-region agendas and subsequent material change. Methodologically, it asks how research can be designed to understand the relationship between these processes. Empirically, the research looks to increase our knowledge and understanding of these processes and events within South East Wales. South East Wales was identified as a fertile geographic location for research attention in light of the significant progression of a city-regional debate and the unique social, historical, institutional, and economic characteristics of the area. The research covers a period between 1992 and 2008 and explores the changing geographies of state spatiality and region-building processes operating in and around the case study area. The research approach draws on literature from several disciplines including human geography, political economy, international relations, and urban and regional planning. A three-stage analytical framework was developed to focus attention on particular elements of city-regionalism: i) the narrative construction of the city-region by key stakeholders; ii) institutionalisation of the narratives; and iii) materialisation of the city-region concept. Evidence was generated through the use of semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis and participant observation. The results indicate that greater attention should be given to the specific contexts in which city-regional agendas are promoted, including the roles played by personal relationships and the socio-economic conditions in the hinterland. The results also highlight the role played by the politics of scale as part of city-regional contestation and the tangible links which exist between discursive processes and the materialisation of city-regions.

Communities and their specific consumptions is a fundamental subject to understand our world which is, most of the time, different from what we already know. In a period of globalization and of profound changes in human relations, it is important to understand other cultures, other spiritualities and other conceptions of life. Marc Aurelius said “We are the other of the other”, which means that our conception of the world is not the right answer, but one of the possible answers. This research studies the relation between the consumption and community. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the key elements that influence the consumption of an individual within a community, the impact of the community members on the community consumption behaviour, and how industries and professionals could answer to the community needs in terms of products and services. In addition, we have made a focus on the influence of a specific member of a community: the leader. To be more precise, the research fulfils different objectives which are: first, to review and identify key principles of communities, from existing literature; second, to adopt a 360° study method which allows us to have an overview of our problem by collecting data from different actors of the subject (Opinion leaders, professionals and customers); The literature review and this qualitative data collection helped us to identify the key elements which lead and determine the relation between consumption and communities. With this purpose in mind, we were motivated to collect qualitative primary data through an interpretivism paradigm. We conducted semi-structured interviews with open questions with selected participants who have a key role in the community. The main objective of the interviews was to gain a comprehensive and reliable perception of the situation from different key points of view. Our main goal is to identify what are the key elements in the relation between communities and consumption. On this road, we also wanted to know why a community is tightening on its practices and if their consumption may attract non-members of the community.