Th. 3e cycle--Math. pures--Toulouse 3, 1977. N°: 2001.

Work is a privileged activity, often considered central to a meaningful life and sustainable development. However, the ways in which different types of work such as volunteering, domestic labour and paid work intersect, as well as their impacts on people’s lives are not well understood. This thesis aims to better understand the work that people do, the value attached to work, the gendered nature of work, and the relationship between work, decision making, and development narratives. I draw upon the research I conducted with four different community groups in Dar es Salaam, which used a mixture of interviews, focus groups and participant observation. I reflect upon the use of translation in research, in particular questioning the impact upon research of linguistically hybrid interviews. Participants engaged in many different and intersecting types of work, which fulfilled different needs, and in which wage earning is not always prioritised. Young men in particular used their work as volunteers, through which they engage in labours of care, to negotiate their own masculinities in a context of severe un(der)employment in Dar es Salaam. By identifying their work as volunteering, participants benefit from an increased sense of self-worth and use this identity as a primary way to define themselves. For many of the young men, it is in part through this volunteer work that they achieve markers of masculinity such as leadership and status. The spaces of the community groups are continually being negotiated through work done, and values assigned to different work. I suggest ways in which a greater understanding of work and masculinity within these contexts could influence development interventions in a bid to make interventions both more equitable and more relevant to those they are intended to help.

This thesis aims to advance the understanding of the connections between cultural geography and semiotics on the basis of which to analyse the multiple interpretations of the built environment. To do so, this thesis focuses on the interpretations of a specific part of the built environment: monuments and memorials. Monuments and memorials are built forms with commemorative as well as political functions: national elites use monuments and memorials to articulate selective historical narratives, focusing attention on convenient events and individuals, while obliterating what is uncomfortable for them. Articulating historical narratives, monuments and memorials can set political agendas and reproduce social order. Human and cultural geographers have focused on the social and power relations embodied in monuments and memorials. However, they have paid little attention to the processes through which monuments and memorials can effectively convey meanings and reinforce political power. Semiotic analysis has concentrated on the signifying dimension of monuments and memorials, while underrating the role of the material and the political dimensions. This thesis argues that a holistic perspective based on the connection between cultural geography and semiotics can overcome the limitations of previous research on the interpretations of monuments and memorials. This holistic perspective conceives the interpretations of monuments and memorials as depending on three interplays: a) between the material, symbolic and political dimensions; b) between designers and users; and c) between monuments and memorials, the cultural context and the built environment. These ideas are explored through an examination of two monuments in Estonia: the Victory Column, a war memorial erected in Tallinn in 2009 and the so-called ‘Kissing Students’, a fountain with a sculpture featuring two kissing young people unveiled in Tartu in 1998.

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The ‘global refugee crisis’ has captured much of the world’s attention in recent decades and has thus led to several consequent declarations of policy and policy changes. However, a rising number of internal displacements are occurring around the world each year without attracting much attention. As a result, resettlements are implemented by the concerned entities, particularly in the developing countries, in order to diminish the impact of the crisis. Nevertheless, large-scale resettlement schemes have often been criticised for their inability to meet the long-term aspiration of the communities. Accordingly, this research seeks to explore the potentials of an adaptable built environment to resolve the issue. This research inquires the available institutional arrangements, namely the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach, to provide affordable solutions. Thus, attempt is made to propose a framework to enhance the ‘post-disaster recovery’ process, by identifying the gaps in the resettlement and proposing steps to resolve built-environment related issues within disaster-induced resettlements. As selection of a specific developing country would permit an in-depth understanding of the process of resettlement, Sri Lanka was selected for the proposed purpose of this research. This study adopts a concurrent nested mixed method that follows a survey within a case study. The case study and the survey data were collected simultaneously in Sri Lanka from June 2016 to August 2016. The collected qualitative data was analysed using a template analysis technique to identify themes and patterns. The quantitative data was further analysed using the factor analysis technique in order to understand the underlying concepts. The results show that the resettlement process in Sri Lanka has improved considerably since the time of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Nevertheless, some gaps exist in current procedures, that arise from the top-down approach, besides issues inherent to such approach. Further, it was found that the involvement of the communities in the resettlement process has been minimal, and the expectations, needs, and obstacles of the communities are rarely addressed. Cross-case analysis showed that the needs and expectations of the communities vary with specific parameters such as type of disaster, involvement of host community, phase of resettlement, involvement of displacement, and voluntariness for the resettlement. The analysis further showed that several of the empirical findings replicate the findings in similar contexts reported in the literature for other developing countries. The framework produced in the course of the study and presented at the end of the thesis is intended to enable the arrival at plausible means to overcome the gaps in the resettlement process and the outcomes. The proposed framework is expected to benefit governments, policymakers and academics to overcome process-related and outcomerelated issues that lead to resettlement failure. It is also expected to benefit funding bodies and non-governmental organisations to determine the best practices for fund allocation and resettlement design in future programmes.

The aim of this thesis is to critically interrogate the question of ‘what is’ Geographical Information Systems (GIS) from an arts and humanities perspective, and to contribute to the emergence of what scholars have called a ‘third stage’, or ‘creative’ GIS. A significant element of this thesis is a practice-based research component that allowed for unpredictable avenues to emerge as the research unfolded, and the cultivation of an experimental approach that ‘tinkered’ with objects of inquiry regardless of preconceived outcomes. I begin with a critical assessment of the conceptual heritage of GIS, and related debates that situate GIS in the context of digital technologies and objects, structuralist, humanist and post-humanist geographic literatures on practice, and creativity as a productive geographic practice, before offering the notion of the ‘archive’ as a productive means of framing and interrogating GIS. In order to understand the doing of GIS, field studies were conducted to investigate what it means to learn and become immersed in GIS. I deployed more established social science methods at several sites, such as interviewing and participant observation, supplemented with auto-ethnographic accounts. From here, I sought to investigate how my own creative practice brought something new to the study of GIS, working through an abundance of materials, insights, and feelings amassed over the course of the PhD. Several artworks were created to tease-out, distil, and probe the aesthetic qualities of GIS that had become known to me throughout the PhD. This was a matter of ‘interfacing’, between GIS as broad discipline and my creative and aesthetic sensibilities and determining how my singular approach could recast our understanding of what GIS indeed is. This thesis renders GIS not only as a tool, as a means of producing geographic knowledge according ontologies past and present, but as a set of practices that the user takes part in, and asserts his or her agency, but also must surrender themselves (at least in part) to the agency manifest through GIS as a historically, socially, and technologically produced mechanism. The practices involved in GIS are not just productive to particular ends, such as map making. The emotional dispositions, frustrations, anxieties, affective atmospheres of GIS practice produce a material and embodied residue that must be taken into consideration when we consider what GIS is. The thesis thus concludes with a proposal for a curated exhibition to ‘open up’ the dissemination of the thesis beyond the page and provide some sense of the what of GIS via other mediums. This curated installation offers a moment of closure for the project, as a culmination, a coming together of many of the materials built up and collected during the project.

During any period marked by conflict, potential investors (domestic and foreign) are reluctant to invest in the tourism sector of a country or region, owing to weak investor protection and the general climate of instability, in parallel with the lack of comprehensive planning for the tourism industry. Moreover, after a period of conflict, major challenges have to be faced in rebuilding the social, cultural, educational, service and economic infrastructure. Thus, the tourism industry in conflict and post-conflict areas often suffers a number of challenges, in the form of poor infrastructure, low investment and a lack of proper tourism management planning, or, poor implementation. In the case of the Kurdistan Federal Region of Iraq (KFR), conflict caused major challenges to heritage protection and consequently to the development of cultural tourism. The region was subject to ethnic conflict between the Iraqi government and Kurdish opposition, in particular the armed conflict in 1961 to 2003. There was lack investment in transport infrastructure. The absence of essential facilities such as motorways, rail networks and airports severely restricted the development of a tourism industry from 1991 (the year in which Kurdish autonomy in the region was achieved) to 2005 (when the KFR was officially recognised in Iraq's Constitution of 2005) and continued until 2006. Thereafter, the tourism industry recorded an increase of approximately 700% from 2007 to 2013, after the building of two international airports and thousands of miles of motorways in the KFR. However, so far, in the KFR, no consideration has been given to the conservation of cultural heritage, either as a legacy to the nation or in terms of its potential use to develop tourism. This underdevelopment is attributable to a number of problems, but notably the conflict, which led to the lack of an integrated tourism policy, lack of knowledge on how to protect heritage assets, poor infrastructure and low investment. The preservation of heritage assets has been discussed in the literature, but mostly the focus is on preservation of resources in the context of sustainable tourism (often in the context of over-utilization), and there is a lack of studies undertaken to investigate how post-conflict issues affect the protection of heritage assets, that is, what the potential challenges are to the conservation of heritage assets in post-conflict countries, and how these challenges impact on the future potential for cultural tourism development. This thesis investigates how post-conflict issues affect heritage protection and cultural tourism, in terms of both planning and management, by exploring heritage protection and cultural tourism in the KFR as an example of both a post-conflict area and a new autonomous region. It suggests solutions and makes recommendations for the development of successful, competitive and sustainable cultural heritage tourism in the KFR. The results show that the KFR is rich in cultural resources, but currently not enough governmental consideration is given to cultural heritage conservation. The managerial issues caused by lack of legislation and poor government administration, in parallel with some other challenges, notably a lack of funding, are the core barriers to investment in heritage protection in the KFR, and consequently creating major problems to the development of cultural tourism. Other issues include: a lack of investment and poor implementation, a negative destination image and marketing difficulties. The findings will help decision makers to develop a strategy for cultural protection and to establish a proper cultural tourism policy in the KFR through recommendations to government. The findings will also be of interest to other post-conflict nations and regions. The thesis reports data from a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews conducted in 2015 and 2017.

This research explores the socio-spatial impact of tourism in a central neighbourhood of Barcelona. Tourism is a significant cause of neighbourhood change in several places but research on the impact of urban tourism remains scarce. The research argues that a process of tourism gentrification is taking place. From a political economy perspective, the dissertation combines demographic analyses with ethnographic fieldwork and reveals that tourism leads to different forms of displacement. In addition, the research relates neighbourhood change driven by tourism with leisure migration. By doing so, it sheds light on understanding a growing process of transnational gentrification. By putting into conversation gentrification and tourism, the dissertation contributes to both strands of research. Firstly, it points to a geography of tourism gentrification that has been overlooked by research. This provides an alternative understanding of gentrification that differs from conceptualisations originating from the Anglo-Saxon world. Secondly, it shows why the leisure industry in cities should be understood as an example of accumulation by dispossession. In this regard, the research suggests the need to place tourism at the centre of critical urban theory. The demographic findings show (i) that lifestyle migrants represent the main group of gentrifiers in the area of the case study; and (ii) that the neighbourhood experiences a process of population flight led by the out-migration of Catalan-Spanish residents. The ethnographic fieldwork reveals that population flight results from a process of tourism-driven displacement and an unmistakable change in land use involving the conversion of residential space into a tourist district. Displacement is linked to the growth of holiday rentals and hotels as well as to daily disruptions caused by tourism. Tourism makes residential life increasingly unpleasant. The research identifies a process of place-based displacement in which the impact of tourism is experienced as a sense of expulsion from the place rather than as a process of spatial dislocation.

This thesis seeks to provide a better understanding of the informal economy within informal settlements, particularly the importance of agglomeration economies or economic activity hubs (EAHs), within the context of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The research seeks to understand the spatial and economic networks of EAHs as their agglomeration processes, socio-cultural dimensions, and other factors or characteristics to determine potential drivers and operations of these economies. This research also examines the potential of GIS and spatial analysis as a tool in researching the informal economy in developing cities. This investigation was conducted through a case study of EAHs in two informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Keko and Manzese, using a mixed-methods approach. In many developing cities, urbanisation and growth coincide with a large informal economy, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. However, despite research suggesting that the informal economy provides an important source of economic opportunity and development, many policies and planning practices still maintain a largely negative perception, resulting in marginalisation of the working poor. Most existing research on the IE has focused on street traders; however there is little research regarding economic activity occurring within low-income settlements. As the contexts in these spaces is very different, there is a gap in existing research regarding the role of clustering economies within the settlements as well as the wider urban economy. The research reveals that EAHs play an important role in not only informal settlements, but also the wider urban economy and operate with a high degree of specialisation and complex agglomeration processes. These economies are largely misunderstood or simply overlooked by the regulatory environment. A better understanding of the informal economy and the potential of EAHs may enable policy makers and urban planners to use the concept of informality to alleviate the incidence of working poverty in developing cities.

Street traders operate in and around spaces that facilitate optimal interactions with potential customers - a distribution pattern which coincides with the busiest and most central parts of a city. In Lagos, street trading is ubiquitous and its appropriation of public space is contentious for spatial governance. Attempts at regulation exacerbate the precarious status of street traders and are mostly unsuccessful, and this is due to the limited understanding of the spatiality of street trading. The locations where street trading thrives are thus investigated in this thesis to unravel what aspects of spatiality creates the milieu that encourages their activities - an area of research that has received little attention in recent years. The aim is to contribute to the discourse on inclusive urban practices and policies in developing country cities. In literature, the determinants of street traders workplace locations are referenced to externalities from locational centrality and potent human activity (Dewar and Watson 1990; Monnet et al. 2007; Skinner 2008b; Skinner 2008a; Dobson et al. 2009). However, this body of work has not employed a systematic analysis in the study of such locations. This gap in research is addressed by using a novel methodological framework known as ‘Spatial Design Network Analysis for Street-Based Enterprises’ (sDNA-sBEL), which combines the systematic analyses of multi-scale network accessibility distribution with morphological properties of urban form. As a principle of sDNA-sBEL, open-source data and freeware applications were used to ensure replicability and accessibility to a broader audience. The sDNA-sBEL analyses identified that the most prolific street trading locations in Lagos have high values of macro-scale betweenness – spaces traversed most frequently while Lagosians take the shortest routes for long distance (inter-city) vehicular journeys. However, other compositional spatial factors must coincide with macro-scale betweenness to sustain street trading.