Co-neighbouring is a design exploration that aims to examine the possibilities of resident’s engagement and collaboration in a rented apartment building in Sweden. In an apartment building for rent, where resident’s agency is limited to their private apartment, I invited my neighbors to become active designers of our closest environment together. This project uncovers the power relation visible between the landlord and tenants and some tensions that arise from this project’s will to give residents more agency. It also aims to highlight the importance of collaborative processes in apartment buildings and explores what kind of innovations become possible when residents get the chance to contribute to the development of the building they live in.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 乙第12901号 / 論地環博第11号 / 新制||地環||26(附属図書館) / 31655 / (主査)教授 渡邉 紹裕, 教授 宇佐美 誠, 准教授 小林 広英 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

Most disaster management studies only assess community resilience immediately following the event with no further follow-up. Accordingly, there is a lack of research being conducted to determine whether communities truly recover over time after a disaster strikes. Thus, the purpose of this research was to examine the different factors and dimensions that facilitate or hinder community resilience more than a decade post-disaster using present day Walkerton, Ontario (16 years after the effects of the 2000 water contamination outbreak). This exploratory study utilized an interpretive description qualitative methodology. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with a purposeful sample of 29 Walkerton community members. The data were transcribed verbatim and coded using conventional content analysis to identify themes inductively. Several barriers and enabling factors were identified in maintaining community resilience under non-crisis conditions in the community. A conceptual model was developed based on the study’s findings to demonstrate the application of the life course approach within an existing community resilience framework. This model contributes to the field of disaster management in demonstrating the various ways that a disaster affects the subsequent life course of individuals post-disaster. It highlights the need to integrate a community-centred approach in disaster management to yield more effective and efficient mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery strategies. / Thesis / Master of Public Health (MPH)

Despite shifts toward a more collaborative approach to emergency management, little scholarly attention has focused on the roles of local public organizations and nonprofits that do not have explicit emergency management missions in disaster response. Scholars and government officials call for identifying key local actors and developing a more collaborative emergency preparedness approaches prior to disaster situations. In practice, emergency officials seldom recognize post-disaster efforts of these local actors. Efforts to anticipate the potential decisions and actions of organizations that do not routinely deal with disasters necessitate a better understanding of how managers perceive their post-disaster related roles and what may account for such perceptions. Focusing on public libraries in the U.S., this study draws on information gathered through surveys and semi-structured interviews with library managers and directors operating in Hampton Roads, Virginia. To further investigate variations in willingness to engage in emergency response among local jurisdictions, the study explores context-related characteristics such as organizational arrangements and features of the policy environment in which library managers operate as well as factors related to individual managerial practices. The study finds that library officials' perceptions vary across libraries. Variations range from a more defensive approach to a more proactive approach. Efforts to account for the extent to which officials would be willing to engage in a more proactive approach should consider both the emergence of individual-managers' entrepreneurial spirit and their involvement in community-based disaster planning. / Ph. D.

Nepal’s history is full of civil turbulence and the socio-economic development has been slow, however the last decade the social changes have been rapid. Some of the social changes include the profession of social work and peace initiative through inter-faith. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of social workers in peace-building in order to promote wellbeing and work-life in Nepal. This paper gives an insight into the life and relationship among the community members in Nepal, and an insight of how culture, religion, and history may impact people’s everyday-life. The data collection of this study was carried out through a field visit, with semi-structured interviews with twenty-five different key informants, during the period of February to May of 2018. The interviewees include grass-root to national level faith-leaders as well as social work academics. The result of this study indicates that there is a lack of trust among the community members, between government and its people, and government and its external influences, which effect community’s socio-economical standard. The findings also conclude that Nepali society lacks adequate and effective information-sharing, which seems to impact the community’s health and work-life. his study gives social workers an insight on how social bonds and trust among groups could be established, which could increase the well-being of the people in rural area of Nepal.

The thesis presents and inquires into a first person research story about the development of a ‘Community of Practice’ for asset-based rural development practitioners from across the UK and Republic of Ireland. It includes an account of how geographically remote members of the CoP were supported to come together over eighteen months to co-produce an online handbook called ‘Exploring Community Resilience’ (included as Appendix 1). Findings include: - Social networking and social media technologies can be powerful enablers of third and second person inquiry; - A compass tool (included here) can help hosts and curators make good design and facilitation choices as they host the emergence of complex, large scale social learning architectures (which this thesis calls ‘Digital Forests’); - Action researchers can benefit from developing skills as digital curators, producers of social media, and hosts of transformative learning processes; - Future generations of social media are likely to challenge the assumptions, methods and findings of this thesis. As we navigate our way into this fast changing future, it will be helpful to inquire into their impacts of new generations of digital technologies on our personal and collective psychological, cultural and social wellbeing.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks exposed vulnerabilities to U.S. homeland security and defense, leading U.S. officials to analyze threats to domestic and international interests. Terrorist attacks against food and water supplies (agro-terrorism), were deemed a national security threat because of the assessed fear, economic instability, and social instability that could occur following a food shortage. Research indicated a comprehensive response plan does not exist across the federal, state, and local levels of government to mitigate the public's possible responses to a perceived threat to food security and food shortages following an agro-terrorist attack. This ethnographic case study analyzed the perceived threats to food security and the possible responses to food shortages in Yuma, Arizona (the 'winter lettuce capitol of the world'). Coleman and Putnam's theories of social capital served as the theoretical framework for this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews of nine residents and six experts from Yuma's departments of government to examine the relative atmospherics between the citizens and government officials. Findings indicated that a comprehensive plan does not exist, and perceived fears and the lack of knowledge about emergency preparedness in a society with high social capital and community resilience can still create the conditions for chaos and anomie. Recommendations include improving communication, education, and expectation management of citizens. Implications for social change include improving public awareness and individual responsibility for preparedness, as well as assisting policymakers in maintaining social capital to deter social disorganization and anomie during disasters.

The concept of climate change has been in the debate, not only at the international level, but also locally, for decades. However, activists around the world have come together to raise their voices and address once and for all the environmental crisis that we are facing today. In that sense, the following research analysed the voices of activists, and their network, in South Africa. With the aim to understand the formation of community-based adaptive capacities in relation to climate change, in communities. This Thesis was conducted as a case study in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The study included five semi-structured interviews directed to activist from Bloemfontein, as well as, secondary data conformed by five interviews conducted to members of the eco-building project ‘Qala Pheland Tala. Start Living Green’, and story-telling videos. As well as, the employment of participant observation, as part of the methodology. The study looked at climate change adaptability and resilience in different communities, based on the resilience theory proposed by Carl Folke. And itaimed to understand the influence that the activists’ network is having incommunity-based adaptation strategies to climate change. Further, the results were categorized with the framework that suggests a Resilience Model, as a set of networked adaptive capacities, designed by Norris et al. (2007). The analysis of the results concluded that the link between the activists’network and the communities, has helped to build adaptive capacities and resilient societies. At the same time, it proved that we need new strategies of action towards climate change, that foresee regenerative societies.

Dominant ‘society centred’ interpretations of social capital in Australia are inadequate to explain the economic fortunes and social prosperity of rural Australian communities. Given the continued contention over interpretations and measurement of social capital, this research sought to assess the relationship between different interpretations of social capital and rural communities’ resilience and prosperity. ¶ Utilising both quantitative and qualitative techniques to establish the relative levels of social capital in two communities of divergent growth, the primary objective was to test the association asserted between levels of social capital and prosperity and resilience in the rural Australian context. ¶ The research findings highlight three notable issues. Surveying social capital with current instruments is only effective in establishing the well being of rural communities which appears related to their resilience, not their ability to prosper. Secondly, the operational frameworks and responsibilities for social capital adopted by governments dictate the manner in, and degree to which they deem bridging and linking networks necessary and appropriate. This significantly affects the role social capital is perceived to play in communities. Lastly, while interpretations of social capital regard it as a normative factor in social life, rather than being comprised of different and dynamic elements affecting communities’ ability to prosper, the concept will remain unable to effectively contribute to the policy domain.

This master thesis analyses two citizen initiatives; the flood action plan of LLanddowror, Wales and the mount plan of the Overdiepse Polder, the Netherlands. It uses the collaboration theory, the ladder of citizen participation, cross-scale interaction and community resilience to explain the role of citizens in flood risk management. The aim of this research is to see how governments facilitate citizens and if culture and context influence the roles of governments and citizens. The Welsh system is bottom-up with an increasing role for market and civil society to take responsibilities. Citizens generally insure themselves against flood damage. The Welsh system has enhanced community engagement and creating awareness is important. Dealing with big strategic issues seems to be difficult. The Dutch flood governance is more top-down which means less room for citizen initiatives. Citizens are not insured for flood damage since the government profiles itself responsible for floods therefore awareness amongst citizens is low. The Dutch system has benefits when dealing with large scaled projects but has issues with creating awareness as well as engaging citizens in water development. Assumingly there are opportunities for both countries to learn from each others’ way of dealing with flood risk management and citizen engagement.