As populations in informal urban settlements continue to grow, an increasing number of people are exposed to unsafe living conditions. Children are particularly vulnerable to the environmental risks associated with this settlement type. While much is known about child morbidity and mortality in informal urban settlements, little is known about maternal perceptions of child health. This thesis explores the determinants of maternal perceptions of child health in the informal urban settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. Data utilized in this thesis come from A Kenya Free of AIDS (KeFA), a research-based, National Institute of Health-funded project. Through Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS), 320 women in Kibera were recruited for interviews. Of these, 277 reported having children in their care and were accordingly selected for analysis. Questions selected for analysis were divided into four categories: child health, maternal background, social and economic support, child characteristics and maternal health. Data were analysed using Student’s t-tests, chi-squares, and multiple regression methodology. Two different response variables were used in the regressions: general child illness rating and infrequency of child illness. Analysis indicated that women in the sample were significantly more likely to report poor child health if they: had more children in their care, had younger children in their care, were involved in an intimate relationship, and had experienced a recent barrier to medical treatment for a child. Exploring maternal perceptions of child health is critical because these perceptions are the precursor to healthcare-seeking behaviour. / Graduate / 0573 / 0766 / jdrengson@gmail.com

There exists a vital need to increase our understanding of the fast-growing informal settlements (IS) within the burgeoning mega cities of the less developed countries. Previous attempts have used descriptive speculation about underlying social, political and cultural forces, but they have not generated sufficient understanding to underpin useful and effective management policies. The result has been the piecemeal application of planning procedures and IS policies that were developed elsewhere, in developed nations. This thesis explains why such methods tend not to work within developing countries.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / ABSTRACT It is estimated that there are currently 3.9 million people living in urban poverty in Thailand, without the existence of an effective social assistance safety-net. This thesis presents an analysis of Thai governments’ urban poverty alleviation policy. The central aim of the thesis is to question whether Thai government policy on urban poverty alleviation can be effective for the poor and the poorest in urban slum communities. Qualitative methods are used, supported by documentary research, and the author’s own experience of being a community development worker and researcher in the urban slums of Thailand over a period of 18 years. I have endeavoured to elicit information from the range of stakeholders engaged with contemporary urban poverty alleviation policy in Bangkok. Thus the research includes the perspectives of policy makers, the poor, and the poorest. I distinguish between these latter two groups by describing those who have access to some government provision for the urban poor and those who are excluded from such provision. I interviewed 18 policy makers, 15 community savings groups committee members, and 65 of the excluded poorest. I investigated the development of policy relating to the urban poor through an analysis of key government reports and documents. I examined all of the government policy documents relating to policies for urban poverty alleviation and the Thai Governments’ five year National Economic and (later) Social Development Plans from 1961 to 2006. I also analysed each of the fifty four Government statements on their policies to the National Assembly covering this period. This research produced two major new vehicles for understanding and interpreting Thai government urban poverty alleviation policy. First, the policy document research enabled me to construct a critical account of the historical development of policy relating to the urban poor, particularly those in slum communities. Second, the interviews produced a unique view of the often desperate lives lived by some Thai citizens who are part of communities residing in what is estimated as 2,000 slums in Thailand. This view is seen through the eyes of both the urban poor and the policy makers. I found attitudes of the policy makers towards the urban poor contain a number of diverse stances, both negative and positive. The Government’s preferred way of helping, previously by housing improvements, and recently by promoting credit and loan schemes with a low interest rate to strengthen community-based organisations and emphasise self-reliance, does help some of the poor; it also excludes others. An important discussion in the thesis is about self-reliance. This is widely referred to by all stakeholders-from HM The King, through leading thinkers including Buddhist scholars, to the poorest in the slum communities. I analyse what such a concept means to each of these groups. I have found there may be little agreement, either on what is being spoken about, or what the implications of self-reliance are for helping Thailand’s poorest citizens. The thesis is also concerned with how to improve the situations of the poor. There is therefore a review of some curricula relating to the training of social/community workers to assess how well students are prepared for their work. The conclusions make some practical recommendations for change at a policy level, via civil society, and in professional education. The direct education and training of the poor is seen as crucial to any substantial improvements. My own experience, producing the thesis in a western country, is included throughout. This is in order to reflect on my learning and the challenges of researching within and outside the Thai social structure.

Thesis (M.A. (Health Social Sciences))--Mahidol University, 2005.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-04-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:19:01Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 estevam_ea_me_prud.pdf: 2562197 bytes, checksum: cf459f1290bd6066156656a02c32f29c (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Com o avanço da tecnologia de sensoriamento remoto e conseqüente maior disponibilidade de sistemas sensores, houve grande aumento nas opções de uso de produtos orbitais, principalmente com significativa melhoria nas resoluções. Com isto, a utilização desses produtos em áreas urbanas tem crescido demasiadamente à medida que suas potencialidades têm sido demonstradas e confirmadas em diferentes aplicações. Porém, um pré-requisito para extrair informações desses produtos é o conhecimento do comportamento espectral dos objetos da superfície a serem analisados e os fatores que interferem neste comportamento. Isso tornou-se possível devido aos sensores a bordo dos novos satélites estarem cada vez mais adequados a estudos urbanos, em função do aumento das resoluções espacial, espectral e radiométrica. A resolução espacial tende a se igualar a das fotos aéreas e com menor custo de produção. A quantidade de detalhes apresentados pela resolução de 1 metro ou sub-metro, possibilitará análise e mapeamento da terra a um nível ainda não realizado com imagens orbitais. Com a utilização de técnicas de sensoriamento remoto, foi proposto um método que teve por objetivo, analisar a aplicabilidade da classificação orientada a objetos para classificação de cobertura da áreas de favela em produtos de alta resolução... / With the technology progress of the remote sensoring and consequent greater sensor systems availability, there was a large increase in the significant improvement in the resolutions. In this way, the use of these products in urban areas has been increasing so much as while their potentialities has been demonstrated and confirmed to in the different applications. However, one prerequirement to remove information from these products is the knowledge of the spectral behavior from the objects from the surface to be analysed and the agents which interfere in this behavior. This became possible because of the sensors aboard the new satellites that are each more appropriate to the urban studies, functioning as the spatial, spectral and radiometry increase. The spatial resolution extends to equate to the aerial pictures and with less production cost. The detail quantities presented by 1 meter or submeter resolution will become possible the analysis and the mapping of the earth to a level never reached in orbital images. With the remote sensoring techniques use, it was proposed one method that had the propose of analyzing the applicability of the guided classification to the objects for the classification of slum areas in light resolution products... (Complete abstract, click electronic address below)

[pt] A pesquisa analisou as condições do acesso à energia elétrica dos apartamentos construídos pelo Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento - PAC, cinco anos após sua inauguração no Morro do Preventório, em Niterói. A remoção de pessoas em condições de risco de deslizamentos, foi a tônica do projeto, que realocou 248 famílias em três conjuntos construídos na mesma localidade, um caso particular pela alta valorização imobiliária do entorno. Tal cenário, ao menos temporariamente, regularizou o fornecimento de energia no conjunto habitacional. Os detalhamentos quantitativos e qualitativos das questões gerais que envolvem as irregularidades na medição (gatos), tornam claras as influências práticas e simbólicas sobre a regularização do fornecimento que levaram a novas (e antigas) estratégias de consumo. Além disso, permitem também a compreensão do impacto das perdas sobre a distribuição. Para abordar a questão da eletrificação das favelas, foi realizado um paralelo entre a pobreza energética e as consequências da concentração da energia em diferentes períodos históricos e, no próprio caso brasileiro. Ao final, o estudo tece apontamentos para melhores desenhos de políticas públicas habitacionais e de eficiência energética para a população de baixa renda nos condomínios populares. / [en] The proximity with the first decade after the beginning of the work of Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento - PAC (Growth Acceleration Program) in Preventório and around six years of the occupation of the apartments, represent an opportunity for academic investigation to value if there was an integral success of one of the main Brazilian housing policy, focusing on the perspective of regularization of electric energy consumption. With the high housing deficit and the state solving part of the demand, the public services concessionaires observe a great opportunity to reduce their non-technical losses, specifically in the case of the energy distributors, improving the design of the supplying and their measuring form, for example. However, this factor generates an increase of the resident s fixed expenses, ergo, new possibilities to return to informality. Accordingly to this, the perspective of alteration of the territory generated by the state in this locality, by the construction of 248 popular apartments to resettle families who used to live up on the hill, in the mudslide risk area, turns out as an important parameter to the configuration of different social actors with the urban space. Still for terms of comparison of the thematic range, according to the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), about 16 percent of the population of Niterói, where is located the Preventório s hill, inhabit in subnormal agglomerates. Thus, the main objective of the present research is to analyze the consequences of the PAC, applied in Preventório, especially regarding to the relations between the residents, their consumption and payment of electrical energy in the new residences. In face of that, were elaborated relations between the growth or not in energy losses and the decreasing of the cobrabilidade. Remaining in this aspect, the behavior of the consumers were also segmented, by the ones that received the energy efficiency actions and the ones that did not.

[pt] Após pressões e táticas de convencimento do poder público, parte da população da Vila Autódromo aceitou a oferta de reassentamento no conjunto habitacional Parque Carioca ou de indenização. A Vila Autódromo consiste em um assentamento regularizado, considerado favela para o Estado, que se localiza ao lado da área destinada ao complexo esportivo do Parque Olímpico. Mesmo com algumas garantias legais, sua remoção vem ocorrendo, mais sobre um campo biopolítico do que jurídico - na investida na vida dos moradores. Torna-se importante refletir a reatualização das remoções e as normalizações do espaço urbano carioca. A favela muitas vezes significou uma heterotopia, um espaço outro, o diferente ou o anormal para o urbanismo. Ao percorrer produções teóricas no campo da sociologia e história urbana se verifica a criação de diferentes respostas ao problema favela , principalmente mediante políticas habitacionais. Não se trata, porém, de entendê-la apenas como habitat, produto da exclusão e segregação do poder. A favela consiste também em uma produção de espaço: um habitar como poeta que compreende a constituição de rede de relações e afetos, da história, da memória, do trabalho e da luta pela liberdade de produzir diferenças. Com o aporte teórico de Michel Foucault e de Henri Lefebvre, se investigará a resistência dos moradores da Vila Autódromo e os procedimentos que a Prefeitura adota para realizar a remoção através da interferência da própria produção urbana dessa comunidade. Pretende-se nesse trabalho elevar à reflexão não apenas os aspectos macroeconômicos ou macropolíticos, mas o campo subterrâneo dos próprios desejos e necessidades que envolvem a política sobre a vida e a resistência na cidade. / [en] After pressures and tactics of persuasion by the government, part of the Vila Autódromo population accepted the resettlement offer in an Housing Project called Parque Carioca , or compensations. Vila Autódromo consists in a regularized settlement, considered favela by the state, which is next to the area for sports complex of the Olympic Park. Even with some legal guarantees, it removal has been taking place, not only in a judicial arena, but, mainly, over a bio-political terrain - which invests in the lives of residents. It is important to develop a reflection about the updating of the favela s removals and the normalization of Rio s urban space. The favela often meant a heterotopia, the other space , different or abnormal for urban planning. Academic research in urban sociology and history have created different responses to slum problem . The favela won t be considered as an habitat, a product only of exclusion and segregation of power. The favela also consists in a production of space: a sort of living as a poet , that involves the formation of network relations and affections, history, memory, work and the struggle for freedom and the production of diference. With the theoretical contribution of Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre, it will be investigated the resistance of the residents of Vila Autódromo and the procedure that the City adopts to perform the eviction through the interference of the urban production of this community. This study guides the reflection not only to macroeconomic or macro-political aspects , but to the underground field of personal desires and needs that involve a politics of life and resistance in the city.

[pt] As transformações no ambiente em decorrência da industrialização do Rio de janeiro deram espaço à consolidação do Complexo da Maré que foi fruto de resistências e reinvenções para a ocupação desse território. A pesquisa realizada tem como objetivo principal compreender o que os moradores da Maré pensam sobre meio ambiente na favela e que relações os mesmo experimentam a partir dessas reinvenções. Nessa perspectiva foi possível identificar conhecimentos locais que possam dar subsídios à educação ambiental nessas favelas. O recorte utilizado na pesquisa foi construído a partir de uma rede de parcerias e trocas que venho experimentando na Maré desde 2011 com o projeto de extensão da UFRJ Muda Maré. Quanto à metodologia, foram feitas observações em quatro favelas do complexo, oito entrevistas semi estruturadas e análises de quatro documentos relevantes ao tema da pesquisa. Levando em conta que a literatura sobre educação ambiental em favelas é pouco desenvolvida, me aproximo da Justiça Ambiental e do Racismo Ambiental para compreender como os movimentos sociais pautam o meio ambiente como um direito básico da população. Temas geradores e educação popular também são fundamentos utilizados para compreender a educação ambiental em contextos não escolares. Outra linha de reflexão é a ecologia de saberes que propõe o diálogo horizontal entre diferentes conhecimentos. A pesquisa teve como resultado um conteúdo que identifica algumas propostas de processos transformadores que dão luz ao desenvolvimento desse debate sobre educação ambiental em favelas. / [en] The transformations in the environment as a result of the industrialization of Rio de Janeiro gave way to the consolidation of Complexo da Maré that was the result of resistances and reinventions for the occupation of this territory. The main objective of the research is to understand what the residents of Maré think about the environment in the favela and what relationships they experience from these reinventions. From this perspective it is possible to identify local knowledge that can give subsidies to environmental education in these favelas. The research was built from a network of partnerships and exchanges that I have been experimenting in Maré since 2011 with the Muda Maré extension project from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. About the methodology, observations were made in four favelas of the complex, eight semi-structured interviews and analyzes of four documents relevant to the research theme. Whereas that the literature on environmental education in favelas is poorly developed, this study approach to the Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism to understand how social movements guide the environment as a basic right of the population. Generative themes and popular education are also foundations used to understand environmental education in non-school contexts. Another line of reflection is the ecology of knowledge that proposes the horizontal dialogue between different knowledge. The research resulted in content that identifies some proposals for transformative processes that give light to the development of this debate about environmental education in favelas.

[pt] Quando analisamos o cotidiano das favelas percebemos que além da exclusão de parcelas da população existe a sua legitimação por ocupar um espaço considerado anômalo à cidade, o que nos leva a interpretá-las enquanto manifestação do processo de segregação socioespacial. Nesta dissertação partimos do princípio de que a segregação é fundamento e condição da violenta urbanização capitalista. A associação da favela com as imagens de perigo, de crime e de descontrole, se perpetua até os dias atuais, criando estereótipos que no caso da capital fluminense comporta aproximadamente um quarto da população. Outra questão relevante é que boa parte dos moradores de favelas introjetam essas representações do seu espaço de vivência, sofrendo a violência simbólica ao não se sentirem pertencentes à cidade, na maioria das vezes reforçada pela escola assim como pela geografia escolar quando aborda a favela como um problema urbano. O preconceito é categoria do pensamento e do comportamento cotidianos que se objetiva nas práticas espaciais, levando aqueles que são o alvo dessas práticas preconceituosas a conviver com a violência simbólica e até mesmo física. Acreditamos que a docência, e de maneira mais específica o ensino de Geografia, possa constituir mediação fundamental para estabelecer a lógica das classes populares a partir de formas espaciais de resistências, como as favelas, dando visibilidade a esses sujeitos, exercendo um papel de contrainternalização da hierarquia social a qual estão submetidos no decorrer de suas trajetórias de vida, ou seja, a partir de um projeto de educação para além do capital. / [en] When we analyze the daily life of the favelas, we realize that besides the exclusion of plots of the population there is their legitimacy to occupy a space considered anomalous to the city, which leads us to interpret them as a manifestation of the socio-spatial segregation process. In this dissertation we assume that segregation is the foundation and condition of violent capitalist urbanization. The favela association with images of danger, crime and uncontrolled, perpetuates to the present day, creating stereotypes that in the case of the capital city of Rio de Janeiro comprises approximately a quarter of the population. Another relevant issue is that most favelas dwellers introject these representations of their living space, suffering symbolic violence by not feeling belonging to the city, most often reinforced by the school as well as by the school geography when it approaches the favela as a urban problem. Prejudice is a category of everyday thinking and behavior that is objectified in spatial practices, leading those who are the target of these biased practices to coexist with symbolic and even physical violence. We believe that teaching, and in a more specific way the teaching of Geography, can be fundamental mediation to establish the logic of the popular classes from spatial forms of resistance, such as the favelas, giving visibility to these subjects, playing a counterinternalization role of social hierarchy to which they are submitted in the course of their life trajectories, that is, from an education project beyond capital.

[pt] Consiste em um estudo sobre a ação da polícia militar em favelas, especificamente no Complexo da Maré, conjunto de 16 (dezesseis) favelas localizado na zona da Leopoldina, Rio de Janeiro. O intento maior da pesquisa foi analisar as representações e práticas dos profissionais da segurança pública com foco na forma diferenciada como eles atuam em uma mesma cidade. O pressuposto é o de que a construção de novos paradigmas no campo das políticas públicas requer uma compreensão densa das representações e vivências presentes nesses espaços. O trabalho apresenta um olhar específico sobre a ação do Estado no campo da Segurança Pública. Analisou-se, em particular, a ação policial nos territórios populares, marcada pela diferença em relação aos espaços ditos formais. Procurou-se mostrar essa intervenção como um elemento integrado à lógica que norteia o estabelecimento e conservação da ordem social vigente, na qual as práticas diferenciadas afirmam características identitárias condicionadas por pressupostos sociais sustentados em hierarquias sociais distintivas e pela reprodução de um processo de privatização da soberania nas favelas conduzido por Grupos Criminosos Armados, em geral. Nesse quadro, o Estado, que deveria garantir a segurança pública de toda polis, age nos territórios favelados sem considerar os condicionantes e necessidades dos cidadãos. Essa postura naturaliza o uso da violência como eixo axial da estratégia policial para conter os grupos criminosos vinculados ao comércio de drogas no varejo, forma de crime transformada em prioridade absoluta de combate pelo Estado no espaço urbano brasileiro. Desse modo, a superação das formas de soberania diferenciadas na cidade e, em função disso, dos modos distintos de ação das forças de segurança é o caminho necessário para a construção de uma cidade democrática, onde exista apenas um tipo de cidadão. / [en] Consists of a study of the activities of the military police in slums, specifically in Maré, a set of sixteen slums located in Leopoldina, Rio de Janeiro. The main goal of the research was to analyse the representations and practices of public security professionals focusing on the differentiated ways they perform within the same city. Its assumption is that the construction of new paradigms in the field of public policies requires a full understanding of the representations and experiences present in these spaces. This work presents a specific gaze at State action in the field of public security. I have analysed, in particular, police action in popular territories, as opposed to so-called formal spaces. I have tried to show such intervention as an element obeying to the rationale that guides the establishment and maintenance of the current social order, in which differentiated practices affirm identity characteristics conditioned by social assumptions based on distinctive social hierarchies and by the reproduction of a privatization process of autonomy in slums by Criminal Armed Groups, in general. In such a context, the State, which should guarantee public security to the whole polis, acts in slum areas without considering the contingencies and needs of their dwellers. This attitude naturalizes the use of violence as the guideline of police strategies to contain criminal groups associated to drug dealing, turned into the State’s main target of crime combat in Brazilian urban areas. Hence, putting an end to differentiated forms of autonomy in the city and, as a result, to distinct modes of action of security forces is the necessary path to the construction of a democratic city, in which there is one only type of citizen.