This thesis is an attempt to improve the economic problems of the homeless people, either scrappers or squatters living in abject poverty, in the shrinking city of Flint by trying to balance the social problems of the city. This balance in the social life will not be real unless there is a kind of resilience architecture that is able to adjust and be adjusted to that degradation in the social and economic conditions in the shrinking cities. The resilience architecture, from which the self built spirit may spur, may be the only way to give the poor their lost dignity.The specific research deals with the problem of shrinkage in the Rust Belt cities in the USA and the means of its improvement by readopting three terms: evolution, resilience, and alchemy from a social perspective. Suggesting a resilient architecture design project in the particular city of Flint, Michigan relies on the large number of the homeless people living in these devastated places.Shrinking cities, living a state of flux all time, are much more insecure and weighty. The potential profound role of the architecture profession to work with the poor societies, and assist them in the execution of their spiritual needs, relies upon some of the key questions: could architects be a reason in building a resistant community? What kind of architecture do we collectively want to combat the degradation of the world? The key question is: Will architecture able to activate this self built spirit, by reusing some of the leftover materials, in Flint? In this context, I will investigate the architects' ability to intervene by providing an implementation proposal designed to use the city materials. This intervention of the architect will be effective when the potentials of those homeless are empowered. Therefore, I suggest an initial idea for a particular design proposal titled `Scrap and Build; On Our Own Village' that could be used as a catalyst for self builders' spirit. The project is seeking a resilient new vision for the future of shrinking cities, which necessitates surpassing the barriers which exist in the real complexities in these cities' lives. / Department of Architecture

The purpose of this study was to describe the migration of a selected group of church members from their Appalachian counties of origin to Muncie, Indiana, with specific attention being given to religious beliefs, causes for migration, urban residential patterns, the degree of occupational mobility, and the establishment of migrant churches. The sample studied consisted of members of four migrant churches that had been founded between 1936 and 1959. The migrants' Appalachian origins were obtained from the records of transfers of membership from their original church to the one in Muncie. Tabulation of these transfers revealed that 90.1 percent of them came from four counties: McCreary and Wayne in Kentucky, and Fentress and Scott in Tennessee.Data on living conditions in these Appalachian counties were derived from census material, with detailed attention being given to population, birth rates, economy, employment, education, and housing. The impact these factors had on migration was evaluated. Information as to the migrants' residential patterns and occupational mobility was drawn from the censuses and Muncie city directories. The rates of residential and occupational mobility were determined by examining data at five-year intervals beginning with 1940.The role played by religion in the area of the migrants' origin also was explored. Extensive treatment was given to the establishment of migrant churches and their role in the migration process. Church records and interviews were used to describe the founding of churches as well as how they compared with their counterparts in Appalachia.One of the findings of this study is that a decline in coal mining and subsistence farming was not the chief factor accounting for migration from this four-county region. In the 1940s the decline in these two categories of employment only accounted for 18 percent of the out-migration. But in the following decade, they did account for 58 percent of the exodus. Census data before 1950 indicated that more jobs in other categories had lessened the impact of mining and agriculture on migration. However, after 1950 employment in other categories also declined, making migration even more pronounced.The chief factor responsible for migration from this area was the high rate of natural increase. Birth rates were twice as high as the national average and half of these counties' inhabitants were under twenty years old. Population pressure existed because the economy could not absorb the annual increase. Approximately 60 percent of the out-migration resulted from this high rate of natural increase.An investigation of residential patterns did not reveal the clustering of migrants within city blocks. Instead, concentrations of migrants were found within larger housing districts. They tended to move into the central part of the city as well as four other districts with substandard housing. When those areas filled up, they moved over into the southeast side. Significant concentrations were also found in the Black areas.Study of the migrants' occupational patterns revealed only marginal mobility. All of them started as unskilled or semi-skilled laborers, with only 8.4 percent improving their position over the thirty-five year period studied. The latter were upgraded as industrial supervisors or skilled laborers. However, none of the migrants became white-collar employees or managed to move into new or elaborate housing. Overall, these people have preferred the step-by-step marginal advancements that are consistent with their culture.The most significant fact about these migrant churches is that they were established and are maintained by extended family groups which originated and still have deep roots in Appalachia. Urbanization was found to have had some impact in the sense that they eventually had adopted more church programs, more worship services, and full-time ministers like other urban churches. However, in their basic religious practices and beliefs, and in the way they depend upon bonds of kinship these churches still reflect many of the basic characteristics of those back in Appalachia.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 444-460). / xxi, 460 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / A study based on a case study with integrated macro and micro approaches to investigate some effects of the development and industrialisation processes in Indonesia. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001

Thesis (M.A.), Australian National University, 1983. / Title from start screen (viewed Sept. 2, 2004). "January 1983.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 270-294). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

No description available.

This study explored the perceptions of beneficiaries of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) with regard to the role that RDP houses play socially, psychologically, and physically in the lives of occupants after moving from an informal settlement into RDP houses. Given that the said housing programme targets disadvantaged people, it was important to understand their own perceptions of these houses. The study also explored the perceptions of government officials in regard to their experiences relating to RDP houses. A case study approach was adopted and Bronfenbrenner‟s ecological theory of human development was used as the theoretical framework to guide this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with two groups of participants. First, Group A comprised three RDP participants who lived in an informal settlement before relocation to their RDP houses. Second, Group B comprised three participants from the national, provincial and local offices of the governmental human settlements departments respectively. Data were analysed and four main themes as well as the subthemes emerged from the analysis. The four main themes are the bolstered sense of psychological well-being; access to basic services, amenities, and benefits of an improved infrastructure; pride of ownership; and ownership as a form of personal economic development or empowerment. Findings suggested that the participants reflected expressions of joy, a sense of permanence, a feeling of being home, hope for the future, and an absence of worry. These meanings and interpretation of home ownership reflect how the participants identify with their RDP houses and how pleased they are to own a house. Basic services enhance their overall quality of life in relation to their psychological, physical and social well-being. Interestingly, access to socio-economic services and amenities such as connected water and electricity inside The Experience of Moving from an Informal Settlement to a Secure Stable Home 4 the houses, the availability of schools and clinics, transport services, and a habitable environment, were found to play an important role in the lives of the participants. However, factors which hamper the success of RDP housing and compound the hopelessness of living in an informal settlement as well as the problems that RDP home owners encounter, which restrain their pride of ownership are: ambivalence over restrictions or limitations imposed by building regulations, the size of the houses, the poor quality construction, and envy at improvements made to subsequent RDP houses. In conclusion, the findings add to a greater theoretical understanding of the factors contributing to human development and the factors that impede the effectiveness of the housing programme. These factors draw attention to a number of important issues regarding RDP housing, which may assist housing practitioners, and in particular, policy developers, in developing policy that may be more useful in meeting the needs of the people. This could enhance the existing housing programme as well as alert the housing practitioners to existing shortcomings and offer them the opportunity to become acquainted therewith. These factors that impede RDP ownership suggest a need for the government and other relevant stakeholders to engage in the issues that prevent the successful implementation of the housing programme thereby maximising the effectiveness of the housing programme, primarily in order to strive to improve the lives of previously disadvantaged people. / Social Work / MA SS (Psychology)

This study used integration as the overarching conceptual framework to investigate socio-spatial integration in post-apartheid South Africa. The study adopted the embedded case study design to investigate the spatial and social aspects of integration in former white residential suburbs in East London, South Africa. Recognising that integration occurred in different registers, this study used data from the South African Property Transfer Guide (SAPTG) database to investigate spatial-temporal integration in East London‟s residential suburbs from 1993 to 2008. A total of 21,683 residential property transfers were reviewed in 46 suburbs, and transfers to Blacks were identified. The residential property transfers were mapped to identify the nature of spatial integration. To investigate social integration, in-depth personal interviews were conducted on a purposively drawn sample of residents in the three case study suburbs of Southernwood, Cambridge and Gonubie. The interviews focused on three proxy indicators of social capital at neighbourhood level. The results of the study showed that post-apartheid spatial integration in East London closely followed the class-based residential template. Contrary to predictions prior to, and following apartheid‟s demise, the study showed that spatial integration occurred without racial conflicts. The study also found that social integration in the residential suburbs reflected the neighbourhood context and personal preferences, and was highly fluid. Although feelings of racial distance were evident, there were also indications of social cohesion, which were dynamic and uneven in time and space. Based on the data and the dialectical nature of spatial and social integration, the study concluded that fragmentation and integration are likely to continue coexisting in the South African city.

No description available.

This dissertation uses original datasets from the U.S. and Japan to explore issues in spatial economics and public finance. In the first chapter, I study how the relocation of inventors affects local and aggregate growth through technological diffusion across U.S. cities. I propose a quantitative spatial theory of growth and knowledge diffusion through internal migration. My model highlights two mechanisms by which productivity growth can be higher in one city than in another: (1) agglomeration forces and (2) knowledge inflows through internal migration. Using data on US cities, I find that knowledge diffusion explains approximately 40 percent of the spatial variation in productivity changes, and agglomeration forces explain the rest. I quantify the dynamic effects of place-based policies and find that reducing the costs of migrating to a small number of cities can improve aggregate efficiency while reducing disparities in productivity across cities. Growing spatial inequality has led policymakers to enact tax breaks to attract corporate investment and jobs to economically peripheral regions. In the second chapter, co-authored with Cameron LaPoint, we demonstrate the importance of multi-plant firms’ physical capital structure for the take-up and efficacy of place-based policies by studying a national bonus depreciation scheme in Japan which altered the relative cost of capital across locations, offering high-tech manufacturers immediate cost deductions from their corporate income tax bill. Combining corporate balance sheets with a registry containing investment by plant location and asset type, we find the policy generated big gains in employment and investment in building construction and in machines at pre-existing production sites, with an implied partial equilibrium fiscal cost per job created of $16,000. The policy produced a welfare gain of $56.72 billion, or roughly 40% of one year’s worth of average annual corporate profits. For eligible firms, plant-level hiring in ineligible areas outstripped that in eligible areas, suggesting reallocation of resources within firms’ internal capital and labor markets mitigates the spatial misallocation inherent in subsidizing low-productivity areas. How governments should choose the frequency of payments has received little attention in the literature on the optimal design of benefits programs. In the third chapter, co-authored with Cameron LaPoint, we propose a simple model in which the government chooses the interval length between payments, subject to a tradeoff between the costs of providing more frequent benefits and welfare gains from mitigating consumption non-smoothing. Using a high-frequency retail dataset that links consumers to their purchase history, we apply the model to the Japanese National Pension System. Our evidence suggests suboptimal intra-cycle consumption patterns with negligible retailer price discrimination. Model calibrations support the worldwide prevalence of monthly payment systems.