To meet the European Union’s target of climate neutrality by 2050 ambitious measures need to be taken. The electricity sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions globally, which makes it an important sector to decarbonize. For this to happen, fossil fuels must be replaced by renewable energy sources. A relatively new way of generating renewable electricity is through solar parks, which is a technology that has seen rapid growth in the last decade. A solar park consists of a large collection of photovoltaic modules which converts solar energy to electricity which is later transferred to the grid. However, numerous external factors, such as permit-processes, grid capacity, social acceptance and land availability, can hinder the deployment of solar parks.  The solar park market which was previously driven by small regional players is demonstrating a shift towards large multinational companies. Companies may therefore need to enter new, foreign markets to remain competitive. A country which might be attractive to enter is Germany due to their ambitious targets for solar energy. Thus, the objective of this thesis is to investigate the external environment of the solar park market in the German region Lower Saxony, and its implications on foreign companies’ entry strategies. Two highly controlled entry modes are considered: entering through a joint venture, i.e. with a partner, or with a wholly owned subsidiary. The examined conditions are: regulatory, technical, social, geographical, and economic. A literature study was conducted to frame the different conditions and the empirical evidence was collected mainly from grey literature but the information was also supplemented by interviews with specialists within the area. By analyzing the external conditions, a number of drivers and barriers for establishing solar parks in the region are identified and discussed. Further, the possibilities for a foreign solar park company to enter the market are discussed based on the identified drivers and barriers.  One of the main drivers is the promising potential, due to the region’s ambitious targets for solar parks, an expected increase in electrification as well as the halted use of nuclear and current phase out of coal. This will open a large share of the electricity production that needs to be covered, which gives solar parks the opportunity to gain large market shares. Additional drivers are the high public acceptance and the high electricity price, which enables a faster payback time on investment. One of the most significant barriers in the region is the lack of clear permit processes for establishing solar parks. Permit processes are handled on a local level, which means that they can differ between communities and be rather lengthy due to lack of resources in the communities. Another key barrier is the difficulties of accessing attractive land in Lower Saxony considering the importance of the agriculture sector resulting in competition of land. These barriers make Lower Saxony a rather uncertain market. However, an increasing amount of land is being released for solar park developments and the permit processes are anticipated to be clearer in the near future.  The promising potential of the solar park market speaks in favor of entering the market with a wholly owned subsidiary due to the possibilities for a high return. The market uncertainties, such as unclear permit processes, uncertainties within the policies for solar parks, and the difficulties of accessing suitable land areas, are also in favor of entering with a wholly owned subsidiary due to the strategy’s flexibility. However, it has been found that having local connections is important since there are many processes with high local involvement, e.g., in the permit processes and land acquisition. This indicates that entering through a joint venture with a local partner might be more suitable for a foreign company when entering the solar park market in Lower Saxony. Entering through a joint venture is also a faster way to enter a rapidly growing market, which enables the company to become an early player and obtain larger market shares.

Kampung is a pervasive concept in Malay Culture and considered counter urban in contemporary discourse. Rural to urban migration of the Malays from kampung to cities occur at an accelerated pace in urbanizing Malaysia. Rural migrants are said to remain attached to their rural kampung lifestyles and find the socio-spatial character of urban environment difficult to adapt to. Previous studies on rural kampung by anthropologists and social scientists have unpacked the socio-economic and cultural aspects of kampung Malays in rural area. My study of migrants in Alor Star and Kuala Lumpur is focused on the landscape meanings of kampung and explores how these ideas have been brought across to a city environment. I investigated the meanings and symbolic values that kampung holds to the rural-urban migrants through a ‘landscape lens’. I recorded the experiences of the rural-urban migrants in adapting to an urban landscape, identified kampung elements to which people have strong attachment with and highlighted the kampung characteristics that could be maintained or replicated in order to address the maladaptation of the migrants and enhance their urban living experience. Study participants were rural-urban migrant respondents from rural kampung in Yan, Kedah who have either moved to Kuala Lumpur or Alor Star. The case studies in the two cities were carried out using qualitative methods including photo elicitation, in-depth interviews, model mapping techniques and participant observation. Respondents provided narratives of their journey from kampung, moving to the city, and their process of adapting and settling in cities. Challenges in adaptation to city living spaces included spatial use, privacy, social relationships, safety and surveillance. My findings demonstrated that the memory of kampung plays a significant part in guiding the life of respondents in the city, and that the image of kampung is pervasive in the daily social and spatial practice of rural-urban migrants, guiding respondents’ level of adaptation and place-making in the city landscape. The use of landscape as lens was helpful in interpreting the complex and multivalent kampung meanings. Addressing a dynamic kampung idea through a landscape framework highlights the strong parallels between kampung and the early landscape concepts. The process of unweaving the meanings of kampung have illustrated that kampung ideas have the potential to inspire a landscape design language that could mitigate the harsh contrast between rural and urban Malaysia.

Since the introduction of economic reforms in the late 1970s, China has experienced phenomenal economic growth along with rapid urbanization. The accelerated urbanization coincides with remarkable social-economic transformations and urban landscape changes. A city, as an urban system, is composed of social and physical subsystems that interact with each other. Equally assessing each component is necessary for a comprehensive understanding of the urbanization process. The goal of this thesis research is to deconstruct the urbanization process through a social-ecological perspective. More specifically, this study examines social transformations, physical evolutions, and their relationships. Four research questions are proposed as (1) How does urban social landscape transform in time and space? (2) What trends are apparent in the urban land growth process and spatial heterogeneity? (3) How does social transformation relate to urban land growth, within a spatio-temporal perspective? and (4) How do social-demographic features relate to residents’ use and perception of urban green open spaces, focusing on the ecological services provided by and the need to improve those spaces? Given the lack of research on second-tier cities’ growth processes, this study selects Wuhan, a megacity in central China, as a case study, with a focus on its urban development zone (UDZ). A social-ecological approach is applied to study the multi-dimensional features of an urban system. The thesis is in paper format, containing five chapters. Besides the Introduction (Chapter 1) and Conclusion (Chapter 5), the main body consists of three articles. These three articles correspond to the four research questions proposed. Chapter 2 responds to the first research question by addressing how the urban social landscape transforms. Chapter 3 seeks to answer the second and third questions by evaluating urban land growth and its links with social factors from a spatio-temporal perspective. Chapter 4 matches the fourth question by seeking to understand residents’ preferences and feelings toward the urban green open space. Chapter 1 introduces the research context, reviews the urban ecology theory and relevant empirical research, as well as assesses the social-ecological approach related to studying the urban system. In this chapter, we also propose an improved social-ecological system (ISES) framework which guides the equally weighted study of both social and physical subsystems in an urban area. Chapter 2 (the first paper) seeks to investigate progressive transformations in the social dimensions of Wuhan UDZ while also focusing on their spatial transformations, using national census data in 1990, 2000, and 2010. We used varimax rotated principal component analysis (PCA) for the extraction of social dimensions and ArcMap for spatial visualization. This allows us to further analyze the spatial distribution of social clusters. The results suggest that industrial relocation, educational attainment increase, population aging, and migration are the main characteristics of social transformation during 1990 and 2010. Industrial relocation along with the spatial separation appeared as principal social dimensions in the 1990s but became more prominent in the 2000s, accompanied by the improvement of workers’ education levels. Aging population presented spatial movement outward from the city center. Population mobility increased significantly, and immigration became an important social dimension and presented spatial expansion in the 2000s. The socio-spatial patterns transform with a combination of concentric rings and sectoral clusters in different stages. These transformations are formed by the regional push-pull forces and the centripetal-centrifugal forces inside the city. We conclude that the social landscape transforms in a way with diversity and inclusion. Government dominates socio-spatial transformations in the initial stages, while market plays an increasing role in the later stages. To build a more inclusive society requires continuous and systematic improvement of relevant policies. Chapter 3 (the second paper) discusses urban land growth patterns and answers how social factors are associated with the evolution patterns between 1990 and 2010. We extract land cover information based on Landsat images with the vegetation area – impervious surface –water area (V-I-W) model and examine the urban growth patterns during various stages using landscape metrics of the area, aggregation, and shape. Then, we apply geographically weighted regression (GWR) to depict the link between urban land metrics and social factors. The results show that urban land coalescence and diffusion simultaneously exist; the city center is dominated by redevelopment, infilling, edge expansion; and the peripheral areas by outlying expansion. GWR coefficient surfaces show little differences in the models between social factors and urban land area metrics PLAND while remarkable differences are present in the coefficients of GWR models for the urban land patch shape irregularities and social factors. Urban land growth patterns relate to the government-led land supply system, the functional zoning of urban space planning, and the agglomeration and dispersion of social space under the market orientation. The authors conclude that urban management should consider the coexistence of different spatial growth modes and introduce factors such as social preferences in the urban land layout. This may apply to rapidly urbanizing areas. Chapter 4 (the third paper) aims to understand social-natural relationships, with a focus on how socio-demographic features can shape residents’ preference toward green open spaces and their perceptions of ecological services and improvements. Data is collected through online questionnaire surveys and interviews. The results indicate that preferences toward green open spaces vary among different social groups. Demands for improvement to green open spaces are rooted in residents’ appreciation for daily relaxation and health benefits, and link with their preference for visiting. However, how residents perceive green open spaces’ benefits does not rely only on an in-person visit. Interaction experience with nature and knowledge of natural development affect perception of daily use and health-related services. Residents’ perceptions of green open space’s ecological functions are associated with the changes in nature reported by those respondents. Responses to improving green open space reflect the residents’ pursuit of the aesthetics and practicality of such spaces. Though respondents are commonly aware of the ecological importance of green open space, there are differences in their willingness to voluntarily participate in its management. We conclude that to encourage the public to participate in configuration and improvement of green open spaces through a variety of ways, including considering residents’ opinions, is an efficient way in order to better social-ecological relationships. Chapter 5 reviews the main findings and conclusions, research limitations as well as future possibilities. This study establishes a dialogue between urban social and physical subsystems, with an integrated quantitative study of the urbanization process, emphasizing the relationships between two urban subsystems. It provides a comprehensive social-ecological view on a second-tier city based on the social and physical transformations that occurred in Wuhan during a transitional period of a socialist market economy. We conclude that the development of China's second-tier cities between 1990 and 2010 is characterized by the transformations of social dimensions and landscape, the coexistence of multiple urban spatial development modes, and the spatial differentiation between the center and the periphery of the city. The GWR models present spatial non-stationary relationships between social factors and the urban patch shape regularities. The further examination of social-natural relationships finds that residents’ social-demographic features and environmental experience affect their perceptions toward green open space, especially ecological services and improvement necessity. The evolution of urban social and physical systems and their relationships has brought increased attention to inclusive urban social management, public participatory planning, and people-centered social and ecological interactions. This research provides a constructive rethinking of second-tier cities’ growth in China and may serve as a reference for other rapidly urbanizing areas.

Analitzo els rituals a santuaris no monumentals fenício-púnics de la Península Ibérica, Eivissa i Sardenya (ss. VII-II a. C.) tenint en compte la Teoria de la Pràctica (Bourdieu) i la ritualització (Bell). Estudio els rituals com a processos dinàmics i contextuals construïts a travès de la percepció dels paisatjes i les corporalitats dels participants als santuaris (gesticulacions, sentits i decoració). Defineixo els rituals en relació amb les rutines diàries (menjar, beure o caminar) ja que son activitats ritualitzades que es realitzen amb un èmfasi especial. Finalment, interpreto els rituals com a àmbits en què es construeixen tradicions i es negocien dinàmiques de poder. / Se analizan los rituales en santuarios no monumentales fenicio-púnicos de la Península Ibérica, Ibiza y Cerdeña (ss. VII-II a.C.) tomando en consideración la Teoría de la Práctica (Bourdieu) y la ritualización (Bell). Se estudian los rituales como procesos dinámicos y contextuales construidos a través de la percepción de los paisajes y las corporalidades de los participantes en los santuarios (gestos, sentidos, movimientos y decoración). Se concluye que los rituales están en relación con rutinas diarias (comer, beber o caminar) en tanto que actividades ritualizadas que se realizan con un énfasis especial. Finalmente los rituales se interpretan como ámbitos en los que se construyen tradiciones y se negocian dinámicas de poder. / Rituals in Phoenician and Punic non-monumental sanctuaries from the Iberian Peninsula, Ibiza and Sardinia are analized, taking into account the Theory of Practice (Bourdieu) and the Ritualization Theory (Bell). Rituals are studied as dynamic and contextual processes constructed through the perception of the landscapes and the corporealities of the participants in each sanctuary (gestures, senses, movements and decoration). I conclude that rituals are related to everyday practices (eating, drinking, walking) as ritualized activities overemphasized. Finally, rituals are interpreted as arenas in which traditions are constructed and power dynamics are negotiated.

Dès le Bronze final, on assiste en Europe occidentale à la mise en place d’une géographie culturelle qui positionne les bassins de l’Escaut et de la Meuse moyenne à la charnière des grands complexes traditionnels :atlantique, nordique et continental. <p>Par l'étude du mobilier céramique issu de sites en grande partie inédits (provenant à la fois de fouilles récentes et anciennes) de l'aire géographique considérée, l'objectif principal de notre thèse était de déterminer le paysage socio-économique, son évolution au cours du temps et finalement son insertion dans une mouvance européenne. Des questions sur la circulation des biens mais également sur celle des populations sont dès lors soulevées.<p>\ / Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished