Situated in the postcolonial modernizing discourse of development, many empowerment narratives tend to pre-identify, pre-construct and categorize community development workers/ mobilizers as empowered bodies, catalysts, and change agents. These bodies are expected to and are assumed will facilitate a transformation in oppressed peoples’ self image and belief’s about their rights and capabilities. Although feminist academics/activists have been critical of imperialist, neo-liberal and politico-religious co-optations of understandings of empowerment, limited attention seems to have been paid to the material effects of empowerment narratives on the lives of these community development workers. Nor does there appear to be sufficient analysis into how local community development workers/mobilizers who find themselves in precarious positions of employment, engage with these narratives. Provided with guidelines based on project objectives and lists of targets, many development workers/mobilizers in Pakistan tend to live with expectations of how best to ‘translate/transform’ empowerment from the abstract into the concrete while restricted in their space to critically reflect on theoretical notions that drive their practice. This thesis provides insight into the economy of empowerment narratives and the potential they have to mediate ‘encounters’ shaping ‘subject’ and ‘other’ by critically exploring how bodies of community development workers are put to work and are made to work. Drawing on feminists poststructuralist and postcolonial theory my work explores how these community workers/mobilizers located in the urban metropolis of Karachi, embedded in a web of multiple intersecting structures of oppression and power relations ‘encounter’, theorize, strategize and act upon understanding of empowerment and community development through an arts informed cooperative inquiry. Through the use of prose, creative writing, short stories, photo narratives, artwork and interactive discussions my participants and I begin to complicate these narratives. As a result empowerment narratives begin to appear as colliding discourses, multi-layered complex constructs, which may form unpredictable, messy and contradictory assemblages; as opposed to linear, universal, inevitable and easily understood outcomes and processes. I conclude that the insistence to complicate and situate such messy understandings in specific contexts is important for women’s movements if empowerment is to retain its strategic meaning and value in feminist theorizing.

This thesis examines the characteristics of a community that positively influence the success of a community renewable energy project. As the first stage of a two-stage inductive research process, a review of relevant bodies of literature results in the development of 5 characteristics of a community that?based on the literature?have the potential to positively affect the success of a community renewable energy project. Those characteristics are: a large stock of social capital and a strong sense of community; effective leadership from local government and local organizations; past experience with cooperation and innovation, and access to technical resources; economic perceptions and realities; and biophysical resources appropriate to the technologies being used. <br /><br /> Following an examination of how these characteristics might manifest themselves in a Chinese context, the five characteristics were used as a heuristic to guide the second stage of the research process: a case study of a community biogas project in Cang Dong Village in China's Hainan province. This case study suggests that the success of Cang Dong's biogas project was directly influenced by four main factors: effective leadership from local government, access to technical resources, economic perceptions and realities, and biophysical resources appropriate to the technologies being used. The impact of the community's past experience with innovation & cooperation and their strong stock of social capital were more ambiguous; although the community had past experience with cooperative and innovative projects, along with a high stock of social capital, a direct link between these characteristics and the success of the biogas project could not be conclusively determined. <br /><br /> As a result of the case study, this thesis concludes with an outline of a general framework that could be used to evaluate the suitability of a community for a community renewable energy project. This outline is presented acknowledging the exploratory nature of this research and follows the need for more research on this topic.

During the last decades, sustainable development has generated a growing attention in the world.Eco-city projects, as a step towards practical application of sustainable development theories, havesprung up in various defined spaces. Besides the technical achievements in environmentalsustainability, it is also necessary to develop social sustainability in human habitats. The initialmotivation of this study was to present Augustenborg as an example for other projects to borrowexperience. Based on the PEBOSCA framework, the theoretical system of sense of community,and the interdisciplinary theories of sustainable community development, the study assessed anexisting sustainable community - Augustenborg considering the sense of community by utilizingliterature review and field study. Furthermore, residents’ needs and participation management, twotopics were discussed in an interdisciplinary way to help to optimize sustainable process incommunities.

This thesis examines the characteristics of a community that positively influence the success of a community renewable energy project. As the first stage of a two-stage inductive research process, a review of relevant bodies of literature results in the development of 5 characteristics of a community that?based on the literature?have the potential to positively affect the success of a community renewable energy project. Those characteristics are: a large stock of social capital and a strong sense of community; effective leadership from local government and local organizations; past experience with cooperation and innovation, and access to technical resources; economic perceptions and realities; and biophysical resources appropriate to the technologies being used. <br /><br /> Following an examination of how these characteristics might manifest themselves in a Chinese context, the five characteristics were used as a heuristic to guide the second stage of the research process: a case study of a community biogas project in Cang Dong Village in China's Hainan province. This case study suggests that the success of Cang Dong's biogas project was directly influenced by four main factors: effective leadership from local government, access to technical resources, economic perceptions and realities, and biophysical resources appropriate to the technologies being used. The impact of the community's past experience with innovation & cooperation and their strong stock of social capital were more ambiguous; although the community had past experience with cooperative and innovative projects, along with a high stock of social capital, a direct link between these characteristics and the success of the biogas project could not be conclusively determined. <br /><br /> As a result of the case study, this thesis concludes with an outline of a general framework that could be used to evaluate the suitability of a community for a community renewable energy project. This outline is presented acknowledging the exploratory nature of this research and follows the need for more research on this topic.

This case study was designed to test the hypothosis that members of a residential community, when faced with a large scale development project, hold a broad range of opinions and ideas, rather than a single perspective. These opinions, drawn from a wide range of local experiences, represent a wealth of potential design ideas which may be lost if the development process assumes that public opinion is uniform and homogenous.Accordingly, research proceeded in meetings with the Collier Hills North neighborhood association with the purpose of ascertaining whether or not the the priorities of the community reflected in public meetings during development debate provided an accurate view of the preferences of neighborhood residents, due to the self-selecting nature of the population in attendance. After initial investigations into the perceived agenda of the residents of Collier Hills North regarding potential redevelopment issues surrounding the adjacent Colonial Homes apartment complex, the investigator prepared a survey instru-ment and delivered it in two stages; first, at a neighborhood association meeting, and sec-ondly via a door-to-door survey. Results of the suvey suggest that different priorities are placed on certain key issues by the self-selecting population that attended the meeting than the random sample of residents contacted by the interviewer during the second stage of the investigation. These differences exist in areas which could shape the framework of possible future discussions among residents, the developer and city hall regarding this potential redevelopment program. Results from the survey were then used to create a set of design priorities and strategies with the intention of balancing the needs of the interested parties.

Upon identifying the multifaceted and disparate array of ever-changing environmental informants to architectural discourse, one is confronted with how to unite this dialogue in meaningful ways to current modes of thought and action. The question gains more significance as our knowledge of the greater environmental domain becomes more systemic and complexly heterogenic, while at the same time, approaches to the issues have proved to be progressively more reductivist, disconnected, overtly abstracted or theorized, and universally globalized in regard to multifaceted and content-rich human particularities in situ. This research focuses on the implications and applications of Critical Environmentalism (CE) to propose a corresponding epistemological framework to wide-ranging socio-environmental complexities occurring across architectural endeavors, primarily within urban and community developments as comprising the greatest number of intersections between human constructions and the greater environmental domain. CE addresses environmental issues reciprocally emerging across numerous disciplines and theoretical stances and fosters critical and systemically collective approaches to knowledge integration, amalgamating multiple stakeholder perspectives within an interconnective and operational goal of creative communal development and betterment of the human condition in relation to environmental concerns. Situating the environment (Umwelt) as an interconnecting catalyst between divergent points-of-views, CE promotes a multi-methodological, co-enabling framework intended to foster increased ethical and participatory dynamics, communal vitality, co-invested attention, and productive interchanges of knowledge that cultivate an overall quality of knowing and being within the intricacies of the greater domain. As such, it engages broader definitions for architecture within its social community, significantly embodied and epistemologically co-substantiating within a shared, environmental life-place. Fundamentally a hermeneutic standpoint, this investigation elucidates conceptual connections and mutual grounds, objectives, and modes-of-operation across knowledge domains, initiating an essential, socio-environmentally oriented framework for architectural endeavors. In this, it brings together common threads within critical social theory and environmentalist discourse to subsequently promote distinct interconnective components within a framework of socio-environmental thought for architecture. The research then provides case examples and recommendations toward stimulating progressive environmental initiatives and thus increased capacity to improve existing epistemic conditions for architecture, urban design, and community development within the broader scope of Critical Environmentalism.

Loss of wetland habitats across the nation is staggering and continues, especially in urbanizing areas. Thus, wetland restoration has become a priority. However, questions remain regarding system function and biotic communities. We studied a constructed floodplain wetland complex near Dallas, Texas. We sought to improve understanding of wetland ecosystem development under the influence of different approaches to wetland restoration in an urbanizing landscape. In the wetland complex, 10 constructed sloughs, approximately 70m by 15m, were designated for this study. Our experiment monitored the establishment of aquatic plant and invertebrate communities under different experimental conditions. In 5 sloughs, 5 native perennial hydrophyte species were transplanted in blocks in each slough, with the remaining 5 sloughs unplanted. Portions of each slough were caged to determine the effects of protective caging. Using 1m2 caged and neighboring uncaged areas as quadrats, we sampled vegetation and the invertebrate community over two years to determine the effects of restoration treatmentsSlough planting did not result in statistically different levels of plant cover. However, invertebrate abundance was greater in planted sloughs, and plant composition was different, comprised more of perennial species in planted sloughs than in unplanted sloughs. Caging did not have an effect on plant or invertebrate communities. However, changes due to time resulted in significant increases in plant cover and invertebrate abundance and shifts in community composition. Four of 5 transplanted species were emergent growth forms. Emergent cover and the remaining species, Potamogeton nodosus, a floating-leafed plant, accounted for invertebrate community variation. Transplanted emergent species did not fare well, though other emergent species did colonize the site, along with widespread coverage by submerged Najas guadalupensis. Potamogeton spread rapidly, colonizing unplanted sloughs, and this will likely affect community development across the site. Plant and invertebrate richness values were low, likely due to hydrological extremes and the short period of time since construction. Water level fluctuations resulted in plant communities dominated by obligate wetland plants, though drought stress took a toll on survival of plants and invertebrates in late summer. Community development and system function were dependent mostly upon time and hydrology. on the communities.

The community empowerment is a process of improvement of community power through the professional assistance and training to inspire residents to develop the collective power, community participation and to create the culture characteristics. However, the concept of social capital was not focused and analyzed in traditional community discussion. That is, this research not only distinguishes the relation between community empowerment and sense of community, the factor of social capital is also added to investigate influence among all factors. Finally, this research proposes some related suggestions as a reference for future policy in Integrated Community development filed. The objective of this research is focused on the Gang-kou village, Siao-gang district, Kaohsiung City, and 208 questionnaires are investigated. Factor analysis, the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient, Cluster analysis are employed and several focal points are found: (1) There is significance between the correlations between sense of community with empowerment cognition, and social capital with empowerment cognition. (2) The correlation between basic characters of residents (such as sex, age, time of living (residential period), occupation, and accommodation) and empowerment cognition are significant. (3) In terms of Cluster analysis, the empowerment cognition is divided into three groups, ¡§high collective efficiency cognition¡¨, ¡§high community recourse cognition¡¨, and ¡§high self-recourse cognition¡¨. It reveals the differences between sense of community and the eight factors of social capital in the ANOVA test are all significant. The resident should be able to develop their own characteristics, employing the ability of independence, self-supports, and self-restraints with empowerment and social capital to create the opportunities of community growth and collective cooperation. In accordance with the research results, five recommendations are proposed: (1) to activate and deepen the empowerment training model for residential talents to strengthen the community¡¦s identification and to create and to cultivate common values; (2) to condense community care by connecting community nets (webs) and information communicating systems; (3) to improve the community participation by holding the localized activities; (4) the empowerment results in positive effects on self-confidence of residents; (5) the impacts of family interaction on empowerment should be emphasized.

Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Special Arrangements: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 215-220). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.