The purpose of this study is to develop a sustainable community in a village called Sahmuratli inYozgat, Turkey based on the remarkable case of a Swedish eco-village called Hagaby. TheKerkenes Eco-Center in Sahmuratli village provides the essential baseline for the village toconvert it into a sustainable community in terms of social and economic dimensions ofsustainability. Survey and interview methods were used to collect information about the Eco-Center. The overall outcome of the study is that the the Kerkenes Eco-Center can become asignificant initiative to promote sustainable community development in terms of promotingeconomic welfare and increasing social relationships among the village community throughvarious practices influenced by Hagaby in Uppsala, Sweden.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985.

Public press and companies have increasingly strong interests in the impact on businesses brought about by virtual communities. In recent years, virtual communities have become significant sources of information for consumers and businesses by offering unprecedented opportunities for information sharing. Scholars recognize that information posted in virtual communities has important implications for the behaviors of community members and subsequent economic decisions and market performance. However, relatively less is explored about how the informational value of virtual communities results from an aggregated or fragmented community of information. In particular, the underlying motives and mechanisms of user interactions in virtual communities are challenging to understand because of the amount of information available and the potential noises. To investigate user dynamics and the resulting informational value in virtual communities, I explore three major issues in my dissertation. First, I empirically examine whether community fragmentation or aggregation prevails in the context of virtual investment communities. Results indicate that instead of the common belief of virtual communities serving as melting pots that comprise opinions, online investors, in particular, show strong homophily behavior in virtual investment communities. Second, using data from virtual investment communities, I investigate the interactions among online investors that drive homophily and community fragmentation. I find that psychological needs for supportive opinions mainly drive the information seeking and interaction behaviors of online investors as compared to economic rationales. Following this line of exploration, I also identify the informational impact of virtual communities on user behaviors in the context of electronic markets. With data from online retailers, I examine the possible shrinkage of consumer product consideration that is reinforced by online recommendations. A resultant change of consumer consideration leads to a landscape shift of product competition for online retailers, suggesting strategic implications to manufacturers. All in all, my dissertation contributes to an understanding of the value of virtual communities as informational media, how virtual communities shape online user opinions, and how online user preferences impact businesses and markets in a networked economy. My research pushes the frontier toward understanding virtual communities and sheds light on the insights into exploring online network dynamics. / text

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The thesis approaches the phenomenon of ethnic residential segregation in Sweden froma critical perspective in which the structures of social, and in particular of racial relationsare central. Firstly, the role of the Swedish state in processes of what is called urban racialization isexplored through an examination of the sequential ideological discourses and housingpolicies valid during the twentieth century, seeking a historical continuity in processes ofresidential segregation as well as in social constructions of the Other Secondly, a cluster analysis is carried out in the medium-sized Swedish city of Uppsala.The analysis indicates that a spatial division of residence along racial lines to some extentis taking place in Uppsala, as can be the case in other Swedish cities, Thirdly, a phenomenological survey is carried out in the suburb of Gottsunda, Uppsala,The interview survey finds no empirical support for the culturally deterministic postulatebased on the otherwise common belief that spatial patterns of ethnic segregation couldhave been generated by immigrants when choosing their allocations in the city, strivingthus the proximity to countrymen. Finally, symbolic mechanisms, such as everyday discourses, the drawing of invisibleboundaries between We and Them and media representations, are explored. These,together with structural ideological and political factors, are constantly interacting in theprocesses of maintenance and reproduction of racialized residential patterns in theSwedish urban structure.

In the context of democratisation in the early 1990s, the governments in Central and East Europe (CEE) had to decide how to deal with property that had been confiscated under state socialism. Nationalised housing and collectivised land were to a varying extent returned to former owners and their heirs by means of restitution, as well as being distributed to other citizens who were in possession of the users’ rights to such properties. This thesis examines the spatial impacts, in terms of ownership patterns, of the way the redistribution of nationalised housing and collectivised land has been dealt with politically and at the local level in post-socialist Romania. It also locates the Romanian property reforms in relation to those of the rest of CEE. The impact of political directives on the property redistribution is analysed in relation to both structural influences, such as democratisation and antecedent property regimes, and implementation patterns in varied place-contexts. The thesis demonstrates that restitution was stifled due to disagreements between leftist and rightist political blocs, with the latter arguing for restitution whilst their opponents wrote the first restitution laws. A re-privatisation law allowed for the public sale of nationalised housing to tenants and thereby blocked the implementation of a restitution law, thus constituting a dilemma for constitutional democracy. In liberal place-contexts in West Romania, these obstacles to housing restitution were in part avoided. By contrast, land restitution was most widespread in the east, a stronghold of the left. This was because the legislation gives priority to restitution in areas of this kind, where smaller land-holdings dominated prior to 1945. The left-wing government pursued an electoral strategy of distributing small properties to a large number of citizens, and to current users in particular. This resulted in a fragmentation of historical property.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 357-386). Also available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-223). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thèse (M.E.R.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, avec l'Université du Québec à Hull, 1995. / Page 99 manquante. CaQCU Bibliogr.: f. 209-216. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985. / Also available in print.