This thesis is an investigation of landscape as boundary: a study of its formation, inhabitation, and symbolic meaning. The study is situated in a valley located south of Jerusalem’s Old City walls; known as both Gei Ben-Hinnom and Wadi al- Rababa, it is an ethnic, cultural, socioeconomical, and mythological boundary. In the ethnically polarized Jerusalem, valleys often act as boundaries between Jewish and Palestinian populations. For nineteen years an official no-man’s-land divided the Hinnom/Rababa Valley, a result of an armistice agreement between Israel and Jordan. Since the 1967 annexation of East Jerusalem to Israel, the valley has transformed into a boundary between the two populations. Responding to this boundary, the thesis addresses an urgent need for a wastewater treatment facility, proposing new infrastructure as a vehicle to explore the ability of architecture to embody multiple narratives. By documenting built form, geology, hydrology, history, and mythology, the thesis illustrates the Hinnom/Rababa Valley as the space of the in-between, neither east nor west, bridging the urban hilltops with the underworld. The boundary partakes in both and neither sides simultaneously. Building on its multiplicity of meanings – of its ‘stories so far’ – the thesis attempts to re-imagine a new relationship to the ground.

This thesis is an investigation of landscape as boundary: a study of its formation, inhabitation, and symbolic meaning. The study is situated in a valley located south of Jerusalem’s Old City walls; known as both Gei Ben-Hinnom and Wadi al- Rababa, it is an ethnic, cultural, socioeconomical, and mythological boundary. In the ethnically polarized Jerusalem, valleys often act as boundaries between Jewish and Palestinian populations. For nineteen years an official no-man’s-land divided the Hinnom/Rababa Valley, a result of an armistice agreement between Israel and Jordan. Since the 1967 annexation of East Jerusalem to Israel, the valley has transformed into a boundary between the two populations. Responding to this boundary, the thesis addresses an urgent need for a wastewater treatment facility, proposing new infrastructure as a vehicle to explore the ability of architecture to embody multiple narratives. By documenting built form, geology, hydrology, history, and mythology, the thesis illustrates the Hinnom/Rababa Valley as the space of the in-between, neither east nor west, bridging the urban hilltops with the underworld. The boundary partakes in both and neither sides simultaneously. Building on its multiplicity of meanings – of its ‘stories so far’ – the thesis attempts to re-imagine a new relationship to the ground.

Light Rail Transit (LRT) has been getting more attention in U.S. cities due to its socio-economic benefits, such as reducing pollution and congestion, as well as promoting regional economic development. However, huge capital costs remain an obstacle to the construction of a new light rail system. For this reason, cities in the planning phases of LRT want to use value capture tools to finance transit construction and operation. In theory, any improvement in a transportation structure that increases accessibility and reduces transportation cost can be capitalized into property values in an area. In turn, governments levy taxes on a portion of the additional value of adjacent properties. This study, however, aims to empirically examine whether value capture is possible in the recession when property and land values continue to decrease. The study uses the case of the DART Green Line, which started to run in 2009 just after a financial crisis in the U.S. The 5745 residential parcels are analyzed with using a hedonic price model in order to detect the Green Line’s influence on residential values before and after the recession. To enhance the proficiency of the regression, this study includes several structure and neighborhood characteristics. The statistical results found the Green Line’s benefits on residential values both in the pre-Green Line period (before the recession) and the post-Green Line period (during the recession). It is noteworthy there are still positive influences of transit accessibility on residential values even in the unstable housing market, although the magnitude of the variable has diminished compared to the pre-Green Line period. / text

Only a few industries face challenges regarding sustainability to the same extent as the fashion industry being one of the largest consumer industries and the second most polluting industry in the world. These challenges are encouraged by the fast fashion business model, which is dominant in the sector and relies on the quick responsiveness to latest fashion trends while maintaining low prices, encouraging more consumption and shorter product life cycles. On the other side, a consumer shift towards more environmental consciousness can be observed leading to most fast fashion brands integrating sustainability in various forms into their products and services. A path that many fast fashion brands take in order to become more sustainable is the strategy of green branding through green brand extensions. Green brand extensions (GBEs) involve the application of an established brand name to new and greener products due to environmental considerations of the brand and can be divided into green line extensions (GLEs) and green category extensions (GCEs). Due to identified research gaps concerning how green brand extensions change consumer attitudes as well as the relationship between brand loyalty and the green image of brands, the following research question got developed to gain in-depth in consumer behavior in the fast fashion industry related to green brand extensions: RQ: How do green brand extensions of fast fashion brands affect the consumers’ parent brand attitude and brand loyalty? This primary study that aims to answer the research question was conducted following a deductive research approach and adopting a quantitative research design through collecting data by means of a web questionnaire. Thereby, the brand attitude of fashion consumers on green line and green category extensions as well as the relationship to brand loyalty got investigated focusing on Generation Y and Z as largest consumer groups of fast fashion. The main results of the study are that the introduction of a GLE by a fast fashion brand generally leads to a more positive brand attitude and a slightly improved brand loyalty of consumers towards the parent brand. However, when introducing a GCE, the launch has rarely a positive effect on the brand attitude and brand loyalty of consumers towards the parent brand. The relationship of GLEs and brand attitude is thereby moderated by the environmental concern of consumers as well as their friends and by the initial brand attitude towards the fast fashion brand. The relationship of GLEs and brand loyalty on the other hand is only moderated by environmental concern of consumers and the initial brand attitude. Looking at GCEs and their relationship with brand attitude as well as brand loyalty, it is influenced and moderated by the age of consumers, the environmental concern of their friends as well as consumers’ initial brand loyalty towards the parent brand.

Cette thèse Çtudie les rapprochements bi-communautaires dans la société civile à Chypre depuis 1974, les mouvements concernés, leurs membres, leurs actions, leurs réussites et leurs difficultés face à des nationalismes vigoureux dans une île coupé en deux hermétiquement jusqu'en 2003. Ces mouvements ne peuvent être coupés de leur contexte, les négociations infructueuses sous l'égide des Nations Unies, le développement des nationalismes, l'influence pesante des Mères-Patries. Il convient également de prendre en compte le passage du temps, les jeunes adultes de 2015 n'ont pas connu les affrontements de 1964 ni l'invasion turque de 1974. / This thesis studies the bicommunal reconciliation movements in Cyprus born in the civil society since 1974, the associations concerned, their members, theirs actions, their success or difficulties in front of vigorous nationalisms in an island tightly halved in two until 2003. Of course these movements cannot be separated from their context, the unsuccessful negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations, the development of nationalisms, the heavy influence of the Mother Countries. We must also take into account the passage of time, the young adults of 2015 have lived neither the 1964 bicommunal clashes nor the 1974 Turk invasion.

Cette thèse étudie les rapprochements bi-communautaires dans la société civile à Chypre depuis 1974, les mouvements concernés, leurs membres, leurs actions, leurs réussites et leurs difficultés face à des nationalismes vigoureux dans une île coupée en deux hermétiquement jusqu'en 2003. Ces mouvements ne peuvent être coupés de leur contexte, les négociations infructueuses sous l'égide des Nations Unies, le développement des nationalismes, l'influence pesante des Mères-Patries. Il convient également de prendre en compte le passage du temps, les jeunes adultes de 2015 n'ont pas connu les affrontements de 1964 ni l'invasion turque de 1974. / This thesis studies the bicommunal reconciliation movements in Cyprus born in the civil society since 1974, the associations concerned, their members, theirs actions, their success or difficulties in front of vigorous nationalisms in an island tightly halved in two until 2003. Of course these movements cannot be separated from their context, the unsuccessful negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations, the development of nationalisms, the heavy influence of the Mother Countries. We must also take into account the passage of time, the young adults of 2015 have lived neither the 1964 bicommunal clashes nor the 1974 Turk invasion.

This thesis investigates the European Union (EU) effect on the economic activity across the Green Line in the divided Cyprus between 2004 and 2016. The primary focus is on the development and implementation of the EU's Green Line Regulation (GLR), which regulates and enables such activity from three aspects: movement of goods, services, and persons. In tracing the EU effect, this thesis provides a critical appraisal of the GLR on whether it provides an adequate legal framework for the economic activity in those three aspects and the extent to which it has contributed to the development of economic cooperation between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities across the divide. The analysis also pays an equal level of attention to the extent to which the EU effect has been mediated by the factors at the domestic level: the roles of legal framework, ethno-politics in political elites, ethno-politics in civil society, and governance. The investigation of this study is pegged in two academic literatures. The first one is the Europeanisation debate, which concerns with the EU effect in the domestic affairs of countries associated with the EU. This thesis borrows three mechanisms of Europeanisation from this debate in order to test the EU effect on the three aspects of economic activity across the divide in Cyprus: i) institutional compliance, ii) change of domestic opportunity structures, iii) cognitive change. The second academic literature is the liberal peace, which it proposes that greater economic interactions and development of economic interdependence between countries facilitate resolution of their conflicts. The insights from this debate is utilised for conceptualising the EU's GLR as a liberal peace project. While Europeanisation is portrayed as a 'process', liberal peace objectives are seen as the 'ultimate destination', which the 'vehicle' of the EU's GLR will drive the island towards it. This thesis argues that the GLR has only achieved a limited success and largely failed to contribute to the development of economic cooperation across the divide in Cyprus. This is mainly because the Europeanisation process have been heavily mediated and negated by the design shortcomings of the GLR as well as the factors at the domestic level, which are inherently linked to the politics of division. In this context, this thesis aspires to make contribution in both empirical and conceptual terms. The in-depth and critical investigation of the GLR as well as of the economic activity across the divide in Cyprus provides a much-needed contribution to the contemporary politics of Cyprus, which has been largely ignored by the existing academic literature. Additionally, the conceptual framework developed in this thesis allows exploring synergies between the theoretical literatures of Europeanisation and liberal peace and combines them with examination of new empirical evidence. This focus captures insights on how Europeanisation can be used as a 'tool' for pursuing liberal peace objectives in contested statehood, beyond what has been researched so far and also provides a blueprint for other similar cases of conflict.

This thesis takes the position that it is not clear that the aspirations and assumptions expressed by theories of international relations predicated on the narrative about the emergence of mature sovereign nation states acting within a system of such states offers a particularly helpful guide to political practices concerning boundaries and borders that are identified on the ground. This is especially the case if we pay attention to the specific practices of bordering in Cyprus. Through a reading of various sites of limitation and excess of Cypriot sovereignty – in relation to the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, the modern system involving Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, the United Nations and the European Union, ongoing complexities such as British Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) and the ethnically mixed village of Pyla/Pile – this thesis investigates the consequences and considers the implications, both theoretical and actual, that arise in Cyprus.

Cette thèse Çtudie les rapprochements bi-communautaires dans la société civile à Chypre depuis 1974, les mouvements concernés, leurs membres, leurs actions, leurs réussites et leurs difficultés face à des nationalismes vigoureux dans une île coupé en deux hermétiquement jusqu'en 2003. Ces mouvements ne peuvent être coupés de leur contexte, les négociations infructueuses sous l'égide des Nations Unies, le développement des nationalismes, l'influence pesante des Mères-Patries. Il convient également de prendre en compte le passage du temps, les jeunes adultes de 2015 n'ont pas connu les affrontements de 1964 ni l'invasion turque de 1974. / This thesis studies the bicommunal reconciliation movements in Cyprus born in the civil society since 1974, the associations concerned, their members, theirs actions, their success or difficulties in front of vigorous nationalisms in an island tightly halved in two until 2003. Of course these movements cannot be separated from their context, the unsuccessful negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations, the development of nationalisms, the heavy influence of the Mother Countries. We must also take into account the passage of time, the young adults of 2015 have lived neither the 1964 bicommunal clashes nor the 1974 Turk invasion.