This thesis investigated the role that local environmental factors play in influencing perceptions of crime and safety across three neighbourhoods within the Region of Peel, Ontario. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with local experts to examine their perceptions of crime and safety, and elements of the built and social environment that may influence these perceptions and identified dimensions of social capital that serve as pathways through which broader environmental determinants of crime and safety can become embedded at the local neighbourhood level. Findings of this research revealed that the perceived relationships between the social and built environment and crime are complex and that dimensions of social capital such as informal social ties serve as a mediator between the environment and perceptions about crime and how perceived and actual crime may be reduced by modifying elements of the built and social environment in order to strengthen local dimensions of social capital.

This thesis investigated the role that local environmental factors play in influencing perceptions of crime and safety across three neighbourhoods within the Region of Peel, Ontario. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with local experts to examine their perceptions of crime and safety, and elements of the built and social environment that may influence these perceptions and identified dimensions of social capital that serve as pathways through which broader environmental determinants of crime and safety can become embedded at the local neighbourhood level. Findings of this research revealed that the perceived relationships between the social and built environment and crime are complex and that dimensions of social capital such as informal social ties serve as a mediator between the environment and perceptions about crime and how perceived and actual crime may be reduced by modifying elements of the built and social environment in order to strengthen local dimensions of social capital.

Šiuo metu Lietuvoje ir pasaulyje vykstantys procesai (nedarbas, krizė, emigracija ir kt.) keičia žmonių vertybes. To pasekmė – daugėja mokyklinio amžiaus vaikų, turinčių emocinių ir elgesio sutrikimų. Be to, Lietuvoje integracijos procesui žengiant į priekį, bendrojo lavinimo mokyklose daugėja mokinių, kurie be bendrųjų poreikių, būdingų visiems mokiniams, turi ir specialiųjų ugdymosi poreikių. Savo darbe paauglių, turinčių specialiųjų ugdymosi poreikių, integruotų į bendrojo lavinimo mokyklas elgesio ir emocijų raiškos sąsajas su socialine aplinka vertinti pasirinkom BASC-2 (vaikų elgesio vertinimo sistema) metodiką. Ši metodika leidžia tirti asmenybes įvairiais aspektais. Paauglius, turinčius specialiųjų ugdymosi poreikių, integruotus į bendrojo lavinimo mokyklas vertino patys paaugliai, tėvai bei mokytojai. Taip galėjome gauti išsamesnį individualų vaizdą apie tiriamuosius. Ši metodika leidžia identifikuoti sutrikimą elgesio ir emocijų srityje. Ši vertinimo sistema suteikia pagrindą ugdymo ir sutrikimų šalinimo programai plėtoti. Darbo objektas – paauglių, turinčių specialiųjų ugdymosi poreikių, elgesio ir emocijų raiškos sąsajos su socialine aplinka. Tyrimo tikslas – ištirti paauglių, turinčių specialiųjų ugdymosi poreikių, elgesio ir emocijų raiškos sąsajas su jų socialine aplinka. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti paauglių, integruotų į bendrojo lavinimo mokyklas, specialiųjų ugdymosi poreikių pobūdį amžiaus aspektu. 2. Išanalizuoti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Nowadays processes occurring in the world as well as Lithuania (unemployment, crises, emigration) influence people’s values, as a result, the number of teenagers having emotional and behavioral problems is increasing. Apart from this, due to integration progress in Lithuania the number of teenagers who besides general needs typical of all students have special educational needs as well is increasing in secondary schools. In my project in order to evaluate the behavioral and emotional links with social environment of teenagers, with special educational needs, who have been integrated into secondary schools BASC – 2 methods has been chosen (Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition). This method enables to test a personality at different aspects. Teenagers with special educational needs who have been integrated into secondary schools were assessed by teenagers themselves, parents and teachers. This method allows to identify a problem in behavioral and emotional field. This evaluation system provides with a bases for both development of educational program and removal of the problem itself. The object – identification of behavioral and emotional links with social environment of teenagers having special educational needs. Aim of research – to explore behavioral and emotional links of teenagers, with special educational needs, self - actualization with social their environment. Objectives: 1. To set types of special educational... [to full text]

The goal of this thesis was to reposition individual preparedness within a social environmental context. First, a theoretical model was developed to more accurately represent the social environmental considerations neglected in current preparedness research and policy. A series of three studies tested this model using a mixed-methods approach: First, subjective conceptualizations of preparedness were explored in a qualitative analysis (N = 12). Findings revealed that participants evaluated their readiness not in terms of prescribed activities, but perceptions about their current resourcefulness as well as past local hazards. Participants’ had positive social environments which also reinforced their perceived coping ability in future emergency events. Subsequent thesis studies investigated the role social environment further, using quantitative data. The second study explicitly tested whether perceptions of risk and coping could explain differences in preparedness based on demographic attributes linked to variations in social environment. Data from a survey examining Canadians perceptions regarding terrorism threats (N = 1503) revealed that greater anticipated response was significantly associated with increased age, as well as female gender, higher education levels, and higher income levels. Statistically significant differences in threat appraisals were also reported based on these demographic groupings. However, mediation analyses demonstrated that with the exception of gender, differences in anticipated response could not be explained via risk perceptions or perceived coping efficacy, suggesting that social environment’s role in preparedness is not related to the internal processes often targeted in current campaigns. The third study used a multilevel design to investigate the contextual role of neighbourhood social environment in anticipated emergency response. Results demonstrated that a more deprived social neighbourhood context was related to lowered anticipated emergency response. This relationship was maintained after controlling for significant individual-level factors such as previous experience and sociodemographics, highlighting the importance of neighbourhood social context in facilitating emergency preparedness. Taken together, these findings provide novel evidence that focusing preparedness strategies to primarily target internal processes is misguided, and that future research and policy must position preparedness efforts in the context of existing social environmental resources and barriers in order to build capacity for effective emergency response.

Background: Obesity and physical inactivity rates have reached epidemic levels in Canada, but differ based on whether they are self-reported or directly measured. Canadian research examining the combined and independent effects of social and built environments on adult physical activity (PA) and body mass index (BMI) is limited. Furthermore there is a lack of Canadian studies to assess these relationships using directly measured PA and BMI. Objectives: The objectives of this thesis were to systematically compare self-reported and directly measured PA and to examine associations between neighbourhood built and social environmental factors with both self-reported and directly measured PA and overweight/obesity in adults living in Ottawa, Canada. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify observational and experimental studies of adult populations that used both self-report and direct measures of PA and to assess the agreement between the measures. Associations between objectively measured neighbourhood-level built recreation and social environmental factors and self-reported individual-level data including total and leisure-time PA (LTPA) and overweight/obesity were examined in the adult population of Ottawa, Canada using multilevel models. Neighbourhood differences in directly measured BMI and PA (using accelerometry) were evaluated in a convenience sample of adults from four City of Ottawa neighbourhoods with contrasting socioeconomic (SES) and built recreation (REC) environments. Results: Results from the review generally indicate a poor level of agreement between self-report and direct measures of PA, with trends differing based on the measures of PA, the level of PA examined and the sex of the participants. Results of the multilevel analyses identified that very few of the built and social environmental variables were ii significantly associated with PA or overweight/obesity. Greater park area was significantly associated with total PA in females. Greater green space was shown to be associated with lower odds of male LTPA. Factors from the social environment were generally more strongly related to male outcomes. Further to the recreation and social environment, factors in the food landscape were significantly associated with male and female PA and overweight/obesity. Results of the directly measured PA and BMI investigation showed significant neighbourhood-group effects for light intensity PA and sedentary time. Post-hoc tests identified that the low REC/high SES neighbourhood had significantly more minutes of light PA than the low REC/low SES. BMI differed between the four neighbourhoods, but the differences were not significant after controlling for age, sex and household income. Conclusions: Results of this dissertation show that the quantity of PA can differ based on its method of measurement (i.e. between self-report and direct methods) with implications for the interpretation of study findings. It also identifies that PA and BMI can differ by neighbourhood and recognizes that the relationships between neighbourhood environments and PA and body composition are complex, may be differ between males and females, and may not always follow intuitive relationships. Furthermore it suggests that other factors in the environment not examined in this dissertation may influence adult PA and BMI and that longitudinal and intervention studies are needed.

This study investigates the role of the state in Singapore???s political economy. The conventional methodology in the neoclassical economics tradition is essentially apolitical and is thus inadequate to appraise the inner working mechanism of the Singapore polity, given the pervasive influence of politics in policy decisions. This study therefore synthesizes a new analytical methodology, drawn from neo-institutionalism, to analyse the interrelations of state, market and social institutions in the Singapore of the People???s Action Party (PAP). Ronald Coase???s theorem of transaction costs, Steven Cheung???s economics of property rights and Douglass North???s theories of institutions and institutional change, collectively, provide a theoretical framework that allows this study to examine the intrinsic nature and characteristics of the Singapore polity. Three major areas are investigated using this research paradigm. The first is the post-war political transition from colony to self-rule and the eventual emergence of an independent Singapore in the context of Cold War politics. The second is the process of social engineering through reconstitution, resettlement and socialization, a process that has aimed to alter the institutional environment that regulates the state and people and has tended to generate a submissive social ethos. The focus of the third is the redefining of property rights through nationalization, industrialisation, and privatisation that, in effect, has resulted in the extensive transfer of private wealth to the state. Four case studies are offered to demonstrate the impact of politics in the making of economic policy, the general effect of which has been to eradicate entrepreneurs in favour of state-owned entities. The analysis concludes that Singapore is essentially to be characterised as a predatory state, and adopts Mancur Olson???s ???stationary bandit??? theory to reconcile the state???s predatory behaviour with Singapore???s record of positive economic development. The study identifies nine unique features that have characterised the Singapore polity, the single most important feature being the emergence of ???Lee???s Law??? which amounts to the paramount Singapore informal rule in regulating all aspect of social exchange. It is paramount because without reference to this rule the inner working mechanism of Singapore???s political economy cannot be explicated. But the predominance of PAP control imposes a heavy social cost as it risks Singapore???s long-term viability as a national state because of the likely emergence of distributional collusion and institutional sclerosis. Singapore???s long-term viability is therefore contingent upon the kind of political reformation that would reinstitute a low transaction cost mediation mechanism that would then facilitate incremental institutional change.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1992. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [211]-226).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 2004 / Typescript (photocopy)

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1989.