This thesis investigates the effects of change and modernization on rural women’s livelihoods in northern India. Infrastructural development projects have been identified by research agencies and scholars as beneficial to people in rural areas. I reconceptualize infrastructural development – which here consists of a road, electricity, and irrigation – to act as a lens in which to define and understand the processes of change and modernization. Grounded in feminist methodology, this research is based on interviews with fifty women from six different villages in Tehri-Garwhal, India. I found that while infrastructural development did increase the quality of life for women, women did not experience empowerment. Rather, I argue that the changes brought upon by infrastructural development restructure and redefine the gender inequalities that exist in a region. Infrastructure development acts as a catalyst in a liminal space.

This study examines the impact of transport infrastructure on the economic growth of South Africa from the period 1970 to 2015. The researcher adopted a conceptual and theoretical framework related to infrastructure development and economic growth. The Johansen multivariate Co-integration and Granger causality test were adopted, consisting of stationary and directional causality of variables. The findings disclosed a strong unidirectional causality relationship in the long run between economic growth and gross domestic fixed capital formation, which runs from the former to the latter. The results also indicated a causal relationship between economic growth and transport infrastructure in both railway and ports transport. Moreover, there exist links between economic growth and railway transport, which run from the former to the latter. The findings further showed that the correlation between economic growth and ports transport runs from the former to the latter. On the contrary, the findings revealed a non-existence of causal relationship between economic growth and transport infrastructure (roadways and airways), though the theoretical framework demonstrates a link between them. The findings also revealed a non-existence of a causality association between economic growth and transport infrastructure performance. The overall findings demonstrated the existence of a unidirectional causality relationship between economic growth and gross domestic fixed capital formation, and between economic growth and transport infrastructure (both railways and ports transport). Economic growth expands commercial and industrial sectors and as such, there is a need to suggest that transport infrastructure development policies align with it to maintain sustainable economic growth in South Africa.

This research was aimed at establishing the contributions of developmental nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to social welfare service delivery in Gauteng, South Africa, and to examine the challenges they have faced since the transition from Apartheid social welfare to a developmental welfare paradigm. This study revealed how developmental NGOs function to meet the needs of citizens, especially the marginalised and vulnerable class of the society. It also examined the contributions of developmental NGOs in terms of capacity building, physical infrastructure development and their sustainability. The research was qualitative and exploratory in nature, and a multiple case study design was applied. The research sample of 15 participants was drawn from three developmental NGOs registered with the Department of Social Development, Gauteng, South Africa. Five employees from each developmental NGO were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. A face to face interview was the method of data collection. The data collected was analysed. The main findings showed that there is evidence of positive contributions to capacity building and infrastructural development at the grassroots level. However, funding remains the biggest challenge, which then affects the sustainability of development.

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This thesis has studied urban to rural migration, often referred to as counterurbanisation. The study has adapted a mixed method where quantitative statistical data has been complemented with a qualitative interview study. The quantitative results have established to what extent counterurbanization movements flow in Uppsala County. The quantitative results show small flows of migrants, which the qualitative results verify. The study has also investigated people's motivations for the move to more rural areas to determine aligned motives. The results show that the motives are more or less the same as in previous studies and can be summarized in the motivational factors, economy, structure, and behavior. Furthermore, the study has also identified enabling factors that facilitate people's possibility to move to rural areas. The results show that the last decades fast digital and infrastructural development has had an impact on this possibility, where commuting, road network, growing rural communities, internet and remote work are the most crucial enabling factors.

Thesis (LLM. (Development and Management Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / This mini-dissertation articulates the socio-economic challenges faced by South Africans, such as poverty, unemployment and lack of infrastructural development. The mini- dissertation establishes that tourism is an engine that drives socioeconomic transformation thus elimination poverty, creating employment and bringing about infrastructural development. It highlights tourism law, policies and international instruments that ensure that factors such as environmental protection, travelling, skills development, and so on ensure that tourism is promoted and thrives to transform the lives of historically disadvantaged South Africans. It identifies tourism impediments that stand as obstacles hindering tourism to provide socio-economic transformation and makes a moderate attempt to offer sustainable solutions. It recommends that the Department of Tourism through co-operative governance with other organs of state should strengthen implementation of legislation, institutions and policies vested within its power to ensure that tourism is developed to create employment and alleviate poverty. As a comparative analysis the approaches of Australia and Canada were utilised and useful lessons were drawn from them.