This study adds to the existing research concerning ecological relationships between suicide rates, social integration, and urbanicity in the U.S. Age-sex-race adjusted five-year averaged suicide rates for 1993-1997 and various measures of urbanicity are used. Some proposed relationships held true, while others indicate that social integration and urbanicity are so intertwined in their effects on suicide that no clear, unidirectional pattern emerges. The religious affiliation measure captured unique variations in the role religion plays in this relationship; depending on how urbanicity was measured. Findings suggest closer attention needs to be paid to how both urbanicity and religious affiliation are measured. Overall, vast regional variation exists in suicide rates and the role of urbanization can be misunderstood if not properly specified.

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Contemporary debate on the future of urban areas is open and far from finding a convergence point among disciplines. As environmental concerns rise globally and connections between urbanity and ecology are being developed, urban-rural fringes are still an overlooked territory. The thesis proposes a shift in the focus as traditional frameworks have proven to be inadequate to track land-use changes in these hybrid spaces. Starting from selected key concepts, a compelling narrative on hybrid urban-rural fringes is proposed. The thesis benefited from the work done within the Interreg Alpine Space project “Los_Dama!”. This allowed to bridge the gap between research and practice and to directly investigate local planning tools in their adoption process to understand the approach to urban-rural fringes and investigate the role of agriculture. The comparison of the tools and direct fieldwork with local stakeholders supported the understanding of barriers in the implementation of hybrid performative landscapes.

This dissertation focuses on utopian versus dystopian perceptions of rural indigenous African societies with regard to the modern metropolis. Since the evolution of the modern metropolis, rural African societies have undergone significant and complex cultural changes that have dislodged rural cultures from being perceived in terms of the traditional notion of fixity. This has lead to the modern city being seen as either utopian or dystopian by rural African societies. The dissertation questions the “utopianess” of the modern metropolis with a special focus on its central idea of “progress”. Special attention is given to artists who explore this cultural phenomenon in the utopian–dystopian paradigm. The dissertation goes further to address the cultural impact of recent technological developments on rural and urban societies, the researcher’s perceptions of this impact and how this has contributed to the dynamics that characterise the cultures of contemporary rural and urban migrants / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:21:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Flavia Blaia dAvila.pdf: 19547858 bytes, checksum: b492df89170b5f41c329295c5bc184c9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-26 / The research is based on an analysis of the changes that are occurring in trying to adapt the limitations of the planet facing the constant demands of humanity. After an initial analysis of the problems of growth of cities and the exploitation of natural resources, there is a major historical events and documents produced in the environmental area and presentation of a number of changes in the field of architecture and urbanism. There is then an analysis on techniques to improve the environment urban or peri-urban and feel the need to incorporate principles of ecology in planning and city management. The first technical deal with water resources and urban drainage, pointing the principles proposed for sustainable management of rainwater. In addition to these proposals, there is a land of bioengineering and fitorremedia??o, which are techniques for stabilization and recovery of degraded areas, especially in water courses. Shall be analysed then the permaculture, a philosophy that is creating scenarios in human space already offering a number of practices they consider the energy cycle of human actions, aimed at reduction of waste and ecological awareness in food production and actions of everyday life. The permaculture serves as the basis for ecological communities, called "ecovilas", which house thousands of people seeking to live with another form of relationship with nature around the world. The research is finished with considerations of these approaches, relating them and suggesting lines of future study. / A pesquisa baseia-se em uma an?lise sobre as mudan?as que v?m ocorrendo na tentativa de adapta??o das limita??es do planeta frente ?s constantes exig?ncias da humanidade. Ap?s uma an?lise inicial da problem?tica do crescimento das cidades e da explora??o dos Recursos Naturais, ? feita uma retrospectiva hist?rica dos principais eventos ocorridos e documentos elaborados na ?rea ambiental e apresenta??o de algumas mudan?as na ?rea de arquitetura e urbanismo. Apresenta-se, em seguida, uma an?lise sobre t?cnicas que visam melhoria do meio ambiente urbano ou peri-urbano e consideram a necessidade de incorporar princ?pios da ecologia no planejamento e gest?o das cidades. As primeiras t?cnicas tratam dos recursos h?dricos e da drenagem urbana, apontando os princ?pios propostos para um manejo sustent?vel de ?guas pluviais. Como complemento para estas propostas, destaca-se a bioengenharia de solos e a fitorremedia??o, que s?o t?cnicas para recupera??o e estabiliza??o de ?reas degradadas, sobretudo em cursos d??gua. Analisa-se em seguida a permacultura, uma filosofia que vem criando espa?o nos cen?rios humanos j? que prop?em uma s?rie de pr?ticas que consideram o ciclo energ?tico das a??es humanas, visando a redu??o de res?duos e a consci?ncia ecol?gica na produ??o de alimentos e a??es do cotidiano. A permacultura serve de base para comunidades ecol?gicas, chamadas ecovilas , que abrigam milhares de pessoas que procuram viver com outra forma de rela??o com a natureza pelo mundo todo. A pesquisa ? finalizada com considera??es sobre estas abordagens, relacionando-as e sugerindo linhas de estudo futuro.

This dissertation focuses on utopian versus dystopian perceptions of rural indigenous African societies with regard to the modern metropolis. Since the evolution of the modern metropolis, rural African societies have undergone significant and complex cultural changes that have dislodged rural cultures from being perceived in terms of the traditional notion of fixity. This has lead to the modern city being seen as either utopian or dystopian by rural African societies. The dissertation questions the “utopianess” of the modern metropolis with a special focus on its central idea of “progress”. Special attention is given to artists who explore this cultural phenomenon in the utopian–dystopian paradigm. The dissertation goes further to address the cultural impact of recent technological developments on rural and urban societies, the researcher’s perceptions of this impact and how this has contributed to the dynamics that characterise the cultures of contemporary rural and urban migrants / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

Dans la perspective d’une sociologie pragmatique, cette thèse interroge ce qu’il en est du renouveau du conte. Ainsi, il ne s’agit pas de définir les causes de ce phénomène datant des années 1970, ni d’établir des filiations – entre un conte considéré comme « traditionnel » et un « néoconte » – mais de prendre pour thème de l’enquête celles qui lui sont prêtées par les conteurs ou les chercheurs s’étant intéressés à la question. L’approche n’étant pas interprétative, la thèse ne s’intéresse pas au texte, ni même au couplage texte/contexte, mais au conte-en-acte. Elle propose de penser le renouveau du conte en termes d’acclimatation plutôt que de changement de contexte et introduit ce faisant la notion de milieu. Cette hypothèse du conte associé à son milieu est mise à l’épreuve des redéfinitions contemporaines de la pratique du conte. Une première épreuve est considérée comme centrale en ce qu’elle transforme le mode d’existence du conte : grâce aux collectes entreprises par les folkloristes puis les ethnologues, le conte existe désormais sous un état non seulement graphique mais surtout bibliographique. Cette épreuve chapeaute toutes les autres. Les deux épreuves examinées ensuite sont celles de la persistance, à la campagne ou à la ville, d’une version ethnologisante du conte qui considère que le conte est attaché à la communauté. Les deux dernières épreuves concernent la définition d’une version esthétisante du conte. La thèse montre alors que le processus d’autonomisation du conte – au plan esthétique comme au plan politique ou institutionnel – n’aboutit jamais ; surtout qu’il n’y a là ni un défaut du conte ni une défaillance de ceux qui le défendent. Au contraire, c’est là leur qualité : le conte est une parole bègue, un art en mode mineur.Prenant au sérieux la réflexivité dont font preuve les acteurs du conte, la thèse met également en évidence, chemin faisant, différents régimes de réflexivité croisée entre les chercheurs et les acteurs du conte. / From a pragmatic sociology point of view, this dissertation calls into questions what the revival of storytelling is about. It does not deal with defining the causes of this phenomenon which dates back to the 1970s, nor with drawing filiations – from a storytelling understood as “traditional” and to a “new-storytelling” – but it is about focusing on those storytellers or researchers attribute to it. As the approach is not interpretative, the dissertation does not focus on the text, nor on the articulation text/context, but on the tale-in-action. It tries to figure the revival of storytelling in terms of acclimatation rather than of context evolutions. Thus, it weaves the notion of milieu.Contemporary redefinitions of the practice of storytelling challenge this hypothesis of a storytelling connected to its milieu. A first probing test can be considered as crucial as it transforms tale’s mode of existence: through collections initiated by folklorists and later on ethnologists, tale now exists not only in a graphic, but also bibliographic form. This probing test embraces the others.The two probing tests that are then explored are those of the persistence, in rural spaces as much as in cities, of an ethnologizing version of storytelling, which considers storytelling as tied to the community.The last two probing tests deal with the definition of an aestheticizing version of storytelling. The dissertation evinces then that the process of autonomization of storytelling – on the aesthetic level as much as on the political or institutional one – is never accomplished; especially since there is neither a flaw of storytelling or a failure of those who promote it. On the contrary, it is their quality: storytelling is stuttered speech, an art in a minor mode.Considering with attention the reflexivity actors of storytelling are showing, the dissertation also underlines, along its way, different regimes of crossed reflexivity between researchers and actors of storytelling.

La population - en son sens originel de processus de peuplement - est un sujet étonnamment absent de l'énorme volume d’études sur Adam Smith. Ce thème était au centre de la philosophie morale et de l'économie politique du 18e siècle, les deux domaines auxquels les contributions de Smith sont les plus connues. Son importance dans l’œuvre de Smith a été obscurcie au 20e siècle par une focalisation étroite sur les questions économiques dans la littérature secondaire. Pour une analyse intégrale de son œuvre, il est essentiel que la place centrale du peuplement soit révélée. Trois thèmes aujourd'hui considérés comme essentiels au projet de Smith sont ainsi intimement liés à la population : le lien entre division du travail et étendue du marché ; la théorie des quatre stades du progrès de la société ; et le lien entre développement rural et urbain, lui-même au centre du plaidoyer de Smith pour la liberté du commerce. Le marché est un concept aujourd'hui assimilé au fonctionnement du système économique capitaliste ; pour Smith, il décrivait la faculté de commercer, aux vecteurs essentiellement démographiques et géographiques. Le progrès de la société est à la fois cause et effet de la croissance de la population. En son sein se trouve l'interrelation symbiotique entre le développement rural et urbain que Smith appelait le «progrès naturel de l'opulence». Adopter l’optique smithienne plutôt que néo-malthusienne dans l'examen des dynamiques de population et de développement - y compris l'analyse de la transition démographique - conduit alors à une reconsidération fondamentale des interactions causales entre mortalité, fécondité, richesse et variables institutionnelles. / Population - in its original sense of the process of peopling - is a topic surprisingly absent from the huge volume of scholarship on Adam Smith. This topic was central to 18th century moral philosophy and political economy, the two fields Smith most famously contributed to. Its importance in Smith’s work was obscured in the 20th century by a narrow focus on economic matters in the secondary literature. For an undivided analysis of Smith’s oeuvre it is crucial that the central position of the peopling process be brought to light. Three topics that are today recognised as essential to Smith’s project are thus intimately connected to population: the relation between the division of labour and the extent of the market; the stadial theory of progress; and the link between the development of town and country, itself central to Smith’s advocacy of the freedom of trade. The market is a concept read today through an institutional lens linking it to the functioning of the capitalist economic system; Smith conceived of it as facility for trade, with essentially demographic and geographic vectors. The progress of society is both cause and effect of the growth of population. At its core is the symbiotic interrelationship between rural and urban development that Smith called the “natural progress of opulence”. In turn, looking at dynamics of population and development - including the analysis of the demographic transition - through a Smithian rather than a neo-Malthusian lens leads to a fundamental reconsideration of causal interactions between mortality, fertility, wealth and institutional variables.

Migration has always been part of South African history, both in the collective and as individuals. Under apartheid, children were separated from their fathers and sometimes mothers for long periods of time, and as a coping strategy, foster care was introduced. This trend is still noticeable as we continue to find both men and women moving from rural households in pursuit of employment. In countries where gender roles are still very inflexible and the mother’s main role is perceived as that of raising children and the father’s as providing for the family, migration of mothers is perceived as a much larger disruption in a child’s life than is the father’s absence. Drawing from critical feminist theory, which pays particular attention to issues of discrimination and oppression against women, my study aimed at exploring the perceptions Madelakufa community women have about migrant women labourers who leave their children. A qualitative approach was employed, and data were collected through conducting three focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology: Research Consultation)

This thesis interrogates the dynamics of urbanisation, gender and migration in contemporary Johannesburg through the voices and images of migrant women from the rest of the African continent, now living in Johannesburg. By revealing the lives of a population group that is often hidden from view, it provides details of women’s migration to Johannesburg, and their everyday encounters in the host city. Using these experiences, it sheds light on contemporary migration and urbanisation processes on the continent, expanding our knowledge of the contours of power that shape urban life in Johannesburg and elsewhere. Using the metaphor of the “border” or “borderlands” this thesis explores how women negotiate, cross and remain “in between” the multiple physical, social and imagined borders they encounter in the city. It finds that analyses that read the city through class relationships and capital accumulation do not give adequate weight to the multiple identities and forms of solidarity that exist in cities. Women’s narratives reveal that while their class is an important identity, other identities such as ethnicity, nationality and gender also powerfully shape solidarity and modes of belonging in the city. Moreover, state-centric governance frameworks that have dominated urban policy and scholarly work on the continent are often blinded to the ways in which urban dweller’s actions shift our understanding of the nature and character of state power. Women’s encounters with the state reveal the multiple regimes of power that constitute the city, and the ways in which these subvert, fragment, and yet at times reinforce state power in unpredictable ways. The epistemological approach and findings of this research bring to the fore broader questions around the paradigmatic lenses used to read, interpret and understand African cities. Dominant paradigms tend to draw on western models of cities in ways that undermine African cities’ empirical realities and theoretical potential. For as long as scholars and policy makers fail to see African urbanity in its own terms rather than in relation to how cities elsewhere have evolved, we will continue to miss critical socio-political and economic dynamics that are shaping urbanisation in the twenty first century. / Sociology / D. Phil. (Sociology))