This paper puts forward a new approach to the revitalization of vacant and neglected buildings and spaces by introducing the use of temporary pop-up environments. The initial research establishes groundwork for pop-up environments and temporary use, while pointing to their potential. Records from specialists, Florian Haydn, Robert Temel, and Philipp Oswalt, exhibit various types of temporary uses and interim strategies. Strategies are displayed in their selection of sites and operation. These strategic approaches will support transitioning space and present interim projects, which have the prospect of utilizing space as a secondary means, while a more primary use of space is in development. The case studies will demonstrate the temporary use strategies and social factors, which may establish new meaning to facilitate change. By presenting possibilities of repurposing through temporary and interim uses, there is the opportunity for renewal and averting the dependence on massive (re)development, sustaining a city’s heritage.

This research explores culture-led regeneration; specifically, how and why small, community-based culture-led regeneration projects potentially affect their respective communities. Methodology is founded on an in-depth case study of The Edge Artist Village in Winnipeg, supported by a literature review, quantitative research examining property values, and archival research. The practicum shows that The Edge Artist Village has had a tremendous impact on the community of North Main Street. While various stakeholders interpreted The Edge‘s impact in different ways, perceptions of safety in the community have improved, and long vacant buildings in the neighbourhood are finding new tenants. This study makes recommendations as to how planners can potentially play a role in encouraging culture-led regeneration projects such as The Edge Artist Village, and suggests ways in which private developers and municipal government can collaborate more effectively to support their communities.

Anishinaabeg (including Odawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Saulteaux, and Chippewa) are striving to maintain and revitalize Anishinaabemowin (the Anishinaabe language) throughout their territories. This dissertation explores Anishinaabemowin revitalization to find out its participants’ motivations, methods, and mobilization strategies in order to better understand how Indigenous language revitalization movements contribute to decolonization and self-determination. Interviews with Anishinaabe language activists, scholars, and teachers inform this investigation of their motivations and pedagogies for revitalizing Anishinaabemowin. Interviews took place in six Canadian cities as well as four reserves: Brandon, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Toronto and Winnipeg; Lac Seul First Nation, M’Chigeeng First Nation, Sagamok First Nation, and Sault Tribe of Chippewas Reservation. A variety of language revitalization initiatives were explored including those outside the parameters of mainstream adult educational institutions, particularly evening and weekend courses, and language or culture camps. This investigation addresses the following questions: Why have Anishinaabeg attempted to maintain and revitalize Anishinaabemowin? What methods have they employed? Finally, how does this emerging language revitalization movement intersect with other efforts to decolonize communities, restore traditional Anishinaabe governance, and secure self-determination? The study concludes that Anishinaabemowin revitalization and Anishinaabe aspirations for self-determination are interconnected and mutually-supporting goals whose realization will require social movements supported by effective community-based leadership.

Indigenous worldviews are essential to successful language education, yet it remains a challenge to integrate them into current frameworks dominated by Western paradigms and pedagogies. This research addresses one aspect of the maintenance of cultural integrity for Indigenous languages as they are taught in a contemporary context. The purpose of this research is twofold: to explore the connections between Indigenous languages and the land, and to see how these connections are reflected in current language education practices. In particular, the study looks at the use of websites for Indigenous language education, with the goal of better understanding the potential for such placeless, global media to represent the inherently place-based nature of Indigenous languages. The study is based on an Indigenist research paradigm and employs the qualitative principles of Constructivist Grounded Theory. It incorporates a synthesis of current literature regarding connections between language and land, personal interviews with Indigenous language and culture experts, and a survey of 14 language education websites from Canada and the United States. Essential ties between land and language are revealed in the words of Indigenous and other writers, and in the thoughts and practices of Indigenous thinkers actively engaged with both land and language. These ties represent an intimate relationship to land that weaves together Indigenous knowledge, spirituality, history and identity. This study contributes to our understanding of the significance of land for Indigenous languages, and the importance of Indigenous worldviews for Indigenous education. / Graduate

Nahuatl is one of the indigenous languages in Mexico that is at risk of falling out of use. The research in the last years have showed that this occurs due to the low amount of Nahuatl speakers and the social stigma and discrimination towards the indigenous peoples, among other factors.The studies of language attitudes are relevant when making attempts to revitalize a language. As Mexico City authorities have considered to implement a revitalization project, we wanted to approach the real situation of Nahuatl in that city. Our purpose was to measure the attitudes of young people towards this language. By using a direct method –a questionnaire- we asked two groups of students if they agreed or disagreed with some items about Nahuatl and its speakers. One group had contact with Nahuatl speakers and but not the other one. We compared the results and they showed that the students who have contact with Nahuatl have more positive attitudes than those who don’t have any contact with it. This study also revealed that the reason why the first group showed positive attitudes was solidarity with the Nahuatl speakers. However, the both groups considered that speaking or learning Nahuatl cannot contribute to raise their status in the Mexican society.

The issue of downtown revitalization has been much studied over the past several decades. However, much of the existing knowledge base pertains to our largest urban centres. This leaves a significant information gap with regards to mid-size cities. As a result, past renewal attempts in these cities have often been scaled down versions of what has worked in larger cities. In most cases, this has resulted in detrimental rather than reviving effects. The current trend in cities of all sizes is the implementation of Creative City Theory. This thesis seeks to study this trend and its specific relevance to the mid-size city. The scope of research will then build on the current theory by exploring the effects of well-designed public spaces and their ability to not only unleash the creative spirit but to revitalize the post-industrial mid-size city downtown. This information will then be applied to a design study for Hamilton, Ontario where failed renewal attempts have crippled the city’s downtown. The design will concentrate on Jackson Square (formerly known as Civic Square), a superblock within the very centre of downtown Hamilton. Through a redesign of Jackson Square, the thesis proposes to create a place that not only fosters creativity, but is once again meaningful and significant to Hamilton citizens. While the application of research to Hamilton is specific, the goal is to produce a body of work with principles that can be applied to any number of mid-size cities across the post-industrial world.

This research explores dynamics around Aboriginal language learning and use in Vancouver, British Columbia. With many different First Nations and Aboriginal languages represented in the city, urban Aboriginal language revitalization is complex and challenging. Sixteen research participants talked with me about competing priorities for urban Aboriginal individuals and families, the linguistic diversity of the British Columbia First Nations, and how demographic urbanization of Aboriginal peoples intersects with movements of language revitalization. The resulting analysis highlights some emerging language ideologies connected to urban Aboriginal language use and learning. Language ideologies have been defined as “the cultural system of ideas about social and linguistic relationships, together with their loading of moral and political interests” (Irvine, cited in Kroskrity 2000:5). By identifying some commonalities in research participants’ attitudes around Aboriginal languages in the city, I argue that ‘placing language’ and ‘finding a place for language’ are critical issues for looking at Aboriginal language use and learning in Vancouver. By ‘placing language’, I mean that participants stressed the locality of Aboriginal languages, drawing important connections between land and language. Many honoured local languages by stating that their use and preservation should be top priorities in urban-specific language revitalization initiatives. They also recognized that other Native languages are represented in the city and could be fostered by collaboration with home communities, including reserve language programs. By ‘finding a place for language’, I mean taking time and making effort toward language learning and use in the fast-paced urban environment. Determining a place and a time for language in daily life or during events is crucial for language revitalization efforts in the city. This thesis specifies some suggestions for finding a place for language, highlighting different ideas shared by participants about public school language education, community centres as places for language learning, and use of local languages in service organizations and educational institutions and in the public sphere.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-45).

Since 2000, gentrification has accelerated in many U.S. metropolitan areas. Nearly 20 percent of US cities have experienced this phenomenon. It has been the cause of painful conflicts in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, while minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. Though, there hasn’t been much agreement on the causes of gentrification, the government is often blamed for its policy decisions made in regards to urban revitalization. This paper examines the extent to which gentrification in four U.S. metropolitan areas, Washington D.C., Portland, Minneapolis and Philadelphia is associated with local government urban revitalization policies. In my study, I examine the neighborhoods that were affected by government revitalization efforts. Then I analyze data from the U.S. Census Bureau comparing the neighborhoods that gentrified with those that didn’t using a set of gentrification criteria. The results suggest that government policies is not the main driving force behind gentrification. In addition, these policies do not significantly improve conditions in non-gentrified tracts. Overall, neighborhoods that experienced gentrification experience tremendous neighborhood improvements.

abstract: This thesis investigates how homeless men and women who use one of only six human services campuses (hscs) in the nation negotiate the stigmatization they may feel as homeless people living in Phoenix, Arizona. An hsc centralizes services to one area of the city to decrease the run around of scattered-site service delivery. It also creates a legitimized space for the homeless in the city. A place for the homeless can be a rarity in cities like Phoenix that have a history of implementing revanchist policies and neo-liberal land use planning, most notably found in its downtown revitalization efforts. During Phoenix's development as a major metropolitan area, the homeless population emerged and lived a life on the margins until the 2005 creation of the Human Services Campus. This research unearths the experiences of homeless men and women who use the HSC today. I used qualitative methods, including document review, 14 in-depth interviews with homeless men and women, 7 interviews with service providers, informal conversations with additional homeless clients, and 14 months of field observations at the HSC to collect the data presented in this thesis. The results of this research illustrate reasons why the homeless clients interviewed were sensitive to the stigmatization of their social status, and how they managed their stigmatization through relationships with homeless peers and staff on the HSC. The presence of an action plan to exit homelessness was critical to the nature of these relationships for clients, because it influenced how clients perceived their own stigmatization as a homeless person. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Sociology 2011