Lack of access to adequate housing in Mexico City's urban core and sprawling settlement patterns have led to numerous social and environmental issues. Current development patterns sharpen social fragmentation and segregation, create imbalances in the provision of infrastructure and services, and encourage human occupation of high-risk and environmentally susceptible areas. Furthermore, expansive urbanization has become increasingly expensive, both at the individual and collective level. This has happened because private interests often overshadow public ones; economic growth rather than equitable and sustainable development has been the mark of success. Thus, commercial uses have displaced residential uses, particularly low-income housing, to remote areas of the metropolitan region. Local government efforts, albeit significant in comparison to other parts of the country, have been unable to adequately address this issue. Government inefficiency, lack of inter-institutional coordination, corruption, and lack of resources, among other factors, have hindered the success of housing and densification projects. The present research evaluates recent densification efforts and their goals to increase housing access and repopulate the urban core. Some of the individual benefits enjoyed by residents of densification projects, such as access to infrastructure and services, as well as some of the difficulties experienced by them in the process of obtaining government credits and access to housing are also identified. The conclusion is that only the rigorous integration of environmental and social planning agendas and the renegotiation of concepts of spatial justice will lead to more effective policies and housing programs, and a just, accessible, and sustainable city, region and country. / text

In this set of essays, I grapple with issues related to the core questions of urban economics. Why are people so heavily clustered in urban areas? Why do some cities grow while others decline? What explains where people live within urban areas? My first essay focuses on understanding patterns of racial segregation within metro areas. One factor that has long been hypothesized to contribute to this divide, but has proven difficult to test empirically, is that local zoning regulations have an exclusionary impact on minority residents in some neighborhoods. I focus on variation in block-level racial composition within narrow bands around zone borders within jurisdictions. My results imply a large role for local zoning regulation, particularly the permitting of dense multi-family structures, in explaining disparate racial location patterns. The second essay returns to core issues of agglomeration and the role of cities. The fact that wages tend to be higher in cities, and that this premium grows with density, has been seen as strong evidence for urban agglomeration forces enhancing productivity. In modern data this density premium seems only to exist in areas with above average levels of human capital. Agglomeration models emphasizing learning and knowledge spillovers between workers in close proximity seem most compatible with the data. Finally, I investigate the impact of local governance structure on urban growth over the last 40 years. Some economists have touted the virtues of competition between fragmented local governments in efficient provision of local public goods, while regionalists have pointed to the need to coordinate planning and infrastructure across jurisdictions, and warned of the impacts of fractionalization on segregation and sprawl. While cities with regionalized governments have grown more rapidly, a small set of strong historical correlates with local government density can account for this. Impacts on segregation are more robust. / Economics

Low-income students of color have the difficult task of navigating their educational pathways in an era of resegregation, where they have higher chances of being tracked to lower academic courses (Mickleson & Heath, 1999) and are more likely to attend low-performing, racially and socioeconomically isolated high schools (Orfield & Lee, 2005). Research promotes the positive educational outcomes of integrated school settings (Wells, 1995), but limited research contextualizes (Wells, 2001) the experiences of low-income students of color in these settings. In light of research on the impact of the racial and socioeconomic composition of a high school on students’ educational outcomes, this dissertation used social capital and network theory to examine how networks of opportunity in accessing postsecondary resources differed between one integrated and one high poverty, high minority high school. Interviews of students and faculty identified by students as institutional agents (Stanton-Salazar, 1997)—individuals who connect students to postsecondary resources—helped frame the two high school portraits (see Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997). Without systematic supports in both the integrated and segregated high school settings, only a select group of students were tied to resources that would lead them to their postsecondary aspirations. Students connected to postsecondary resources were at a structural advantage due to opportunities, such as enrollment in advanced placement (AP) courses, which would help broaden their networks of opportunity. In contrast, most students without the same structural advantages as high achieving students often felt lost navigating high school, disconnected from academics, and misdirected in navigating their postsecondary trajectories. Consequently, although the integrated high school was perceived as the gateway to accessing better educational opportunities, stratification occurred, tracking low-income and students of color to non-college preparatory courses. Therefore, low-income and students of color who transferred to the integrated high school in search of better educational opportunities received limited academic preparation similar to what was offered to them in their former low-performing, high poverty, high minority high school. The findings suggest that without both institutional and structural transformations and systematic supports, school integration alone is not the single element to offering greater educational opportunities to low-income and students of color. / text

This essay will focus on the significance of gender in toys´ portrayed in children books for the age 3-5years. The aim for the essay, partly, is to highlight how gender stereotypes can come forth and affect children through the way toys are illustrated within children’s books. The essay will address books from two different time periods, the first period being the 40-50- 60's and the other being the 00´s. The questions to be addressed in this essay is; what type of toys’ children play with in the books used in the analysis, and if a change can be detected between the different time periods in terms of gender awareness in what type of toys are presented in the books. The main method used in this essay is an iconological image analysis in which the first step is mapping, other methods used is analysis and interpretation. Four books have been analyzed from each time period compared, the comparison are done both time period to time period and within each time period, mainly using gender theory from Davis and Hirdman. Prominent concepts used in this essay is the once of socialization and segregation and that the modern view of gender is as something we create and instead of something entirely biological. In the essay the toys’ are divided into three categories; toys for girls, toys for boys and gender neutral toys, where boy-toys and girl-toys are categorized as gender-stereotyped toys. In the books from the older time period the gender-stereotyped toys were the most frequent and few books were transgender (boys playing with girl toys´ and girls with boy toys´). However, one of the older books stood out, showing gender neutral toys and even containing a picture indicating transgender child’s play. In the books from the 00s, however, most of the toys were neutral. In these books there were also direct transgender pictures. To prevent the children from creating a more gender-stereotypical image of society it is important to consider that the toys’ that appear in children's books can influence children's views of gender. The books, in which the gender neutral toys’ are the most prominent, is the least prone to invite children to segregate and create basic differences between the sexes.

This study examines the legal struggle over school desegregation in Alabama in the two decades following the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision of 1954. It seeks to better understand the activists who mounted a litigious assault on segregated education, the segregationists who opposed them, and the ways in which law shaped both of these efforts. Inspired by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) campaign to implement Brown, blacks sought access to their constitutional rights in the state’s federal courts, where they were ultimately able to force substantial compliance. Whites, however, converted massive resistance into an ostensibly colorblind movement to preserve “law and order,” while at the same time taking effective measures to preserve segregation and white privilege. As soon as the NAACP implementation campaign began, self-styled moderate segregationists began to abandon self-defeating forms of resistance and to fashion a creed of “law and order.” When black activists achieved a litigious breakthrough in 1963, the developing creed allowed segregationists to reject violence and outright defiance of the law, to accept token desegregation, and to begin to stake their own claims to constitutional rights – all without forcing them to repudiate segregation and white supremacy. When continuing litigation forced school systems to abandon ineffective “freedom of choice” desegregation plans for compulsory pupil assignment plans, these so-called moderates began using their individual rights language to justify flight to private segregationist academies, independent suburban school systems, and otherwise safely white school districts. Political and legal historians have underappreciated the deep and broad roots of the narrative of white racial innocence, the endurance of massive resistance, and the pivotal role which school desegregation litigation played in channeling both into a broader movement towards modern conservatism. The cases considered here – particularly the statewide Lee v. Macon County Board of Education case – demonstrate the effectiveness of litigation in bringing down official state and local barriers to equal opportunity for minorities and in enforcing constitutional law. But they also showcase the limits of litigation in effecting social justice in the face of powerfully constructed narratives of resistance seemingly built upon the nation’s founding principles.

Pasirinkta tema – “Nedarbas ir užimtumas Lietuvoje: lyčių lygių galimybių aspektas”. Vienas svarbiausių šiuolaikinių visuomenių raidos bruožų yra esminiai moterų socialinių vaidmenų pokyčiai – per pastaruosius keturiasdešimt-penkiasdešimt metų jos aktyviai įsitraukė į darbo rinką, švietimą, politiką ir kitas visuomenės gyvenimo sferas. Tačiau tiek ES valstybėse, tiek ir kitose išsivysčiusiose šalyse moterų ir vyrų padėties skirtumai tebėra gana ryškūs, nors pagal įstatymus jie turi lygias teises. Šiandieninė moters situacija šeimoje yra dvilypė: nepaisant to, kad dažniausiai jos yra lygiavertės partnerės, priimant sprendimus, tvarkant biudžetą ir pan., jos tuo pačiu yra ir neapmokama darbo jėga namų ūkyje, visų šeimos narių aptarnautojos ir kasdieninių buitinių poreikių tenkintojos. Būtent nelygus pasidalijimas namų ruošos darbais bene labiausiai atspindi patriarchalines mūsų visuomenės nuostatas, kurių nepakeitė penkiasdešimt aktyvaus moterų dalyvavimo ekonominiame Lietuvos gyvenime metų. / Transformation in social process determined changes of women status. In recent decades new opportunities have opened to women and the gender roles of women have changed greatly. These changes led to changes in the attitudes of women about work which resulted in women becoming more career and education oriented. Today's women are actively participated in economic, political and education life. Although in EU and other developed countries laws make men and women legally equal in their rights changes between men and women are visible. Despite of certain adaptation of society to social changes, it has still remained high degree of traditionality. For instance, although nowadays a role of a woman as an economic provider, decision maker had been significantly enforced, the role of a caretaker in a family still remains to be a prerogative of a woman. As part of the historical process in the development of a patriarchal system, roles and behavior deemed appropriate to the sexes are expressed in values, customs, laws, social roles. Differences between men and women in family jobs share are still showing patriarchy, or the establishment and practice of male dominance over women. While Lithuania had made progress by passing new legislation and creating mechanisms for their implementation, gender equality had not been achieved yet in all spheres. In this thesis was analysed employers approach to the gender equality in labor force in Anyksciai area with the aim to show the situation... [to full text]

The 2-micron circle of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of a small number of similar DNA plasmids found only in budding yeast. To understand how this cryptic parasite persists, despite conferring no advantage to the host, I investigated the plasmid-encoded Rep1 and Rep2 proteins. Interaction of Rep1 and Rep2 with each other and with the plasmid STB locus is required for equal partitioning of plasmid copies at mitosis. The Rep proteins also repress expression of Flp, the recombinase that mediates plasmid copy-number amplification. In this study, absence of Rep1 and Rep2, or over-expression of the plasmid-encoded Raf antirepressor, increased expression of a longer, novel FLP transcript. Translation of this mRNA may explain elevated Flp activity at low plasmid copy number. Raf competed for Rep2 selfassociation and interaction with Rep1, suggesting the mechanism of Raf anti-repression. Deletion analysis identified a target site for Rep protein repression of FLP that is also repeated in the STB locus, suggesting this as the sequence required for Rep protein association with both regions of the plasmid. Distinct roles for Rep1 and Rep2 were identified; Rep1 was found to depend on Rep2 for post-translational stability, with Rep2 dependent on Rep1 for stable association with STB. Lysine-to-arginine substitutions in Rep1 and Rep2 impaired their association with the host covalent-modifier protein SUMO, suggesting these were sites of sumoylation. The substitutions did not affect interaction of the Rep proteins with each other or their stability but did perturb plasmid inheritance, suggesting that Rep protein sumoylation contributes to their plasmid partitioning function. When Rep1 was mutant, both Rep proteins lost their normal localization to the nuclear foci where 2-micron plasmids cluster, and were impaired for association with STB, supporting this as the cause of defective plasmid inheritance. The potential sumoylation-dependent association of the Rep proteins with the 2-micron plasmid partitioning locus suggests the plasmid has acquired a strategy common to eukaryotic viral and host genomes that depend on sumoylation of their segregation proteins for faithful inheritance. Collectively, my results shed light on how the 2-micron plasmid maintains the delicate balance of persisting without harming its host.

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Det här är en systematisk litteraturstudie vars syfte är att se vilken betydelse skolors arbete med integration har på elever med utländsk bakgrund. I studien diskuteras det hur olika skolor arbetar med integration och vilka konsekvenser det leder till hos elever med utländsk bakgrund, samt vilka svårigheter dessa elever kan stöta på. Denna studie utgår från ett interkulturellt förhållningssätt. Metoden som använts i denna studie är databassökningar för att finna tidigare empiriska studier. Den här studien använde sig av 17 sökord totalt i fyra olika databaser. Tio studier har hittats och granskats och de redovisas i resultatet. Det som framkom i resultatet var att integration i vissa skolor har fått positiva följder, medan andra skolor har visat att integrationen inte alltid har fungerat bra. Vidare framkom det att flera faktorer spelade in i varför integration inte alltid har fungerat, där både ledning, lärare, hemmiljö samt bostadsområde har påverkat elevens integrationsmöjligheter i skolan. I diskussionen görs kopplingar till resultatet, den teoretiska bakgrunden och det teoretiska perspektivet. Denna studies slutsatser visar att varje elev ska bli behandlad på ett likvärdigt vis oavsett vilken kulturell bakgrund denne har.

This historical and conceptual thesis examines the cultural and socio-economic situatedness of education and development in the different epochs of South African history from the arrival of the first European settlers in 1652 up to the present post-apartheid era. The project assumes that cultural domination is utilized for the creation and long-term maintenance of systems of learning that are embedded in colonial and exploitative relationships. These relationships are generally defined by the socio-economic development of the dominant group at the expense of subordinated populations. Moreover, the thesis argues that colonial, and specifically apartheid education in the South African situation were deliberately designed and implemented for the purpose of assuring and perpetuating divergent and at times "opposing" schemes of development for the colonizing Europeans vis-a-vis the colonized populations. As evident from the examination of policy objectives and the resulting economic and social situations, therefore, the development of one group, i.e., the Europeans, was achieved at the relative underdevelopment of the indigenous population and other oppressed groups. With the establishment of these observations, the body of the thesis moves to critically examine the current educational and cultural situations of what is "romantically" being called the new South Africa. The still depressing educational and development character of the post-apartheid situation confirms the immensity of the current and potential social "problematic" that may be capable of derailing the present agreed-upon political enterprise. In conclusion, the thesis critically examines the case for a genuine multicultural development education that assures or, at least demonstrably promises a more just and equitable education for all South Africans. Hence, the project's main assertion that the formulation and implementation of this type of education is essential for the development of the hitherto dis