This Master’s thesis aims to fill the research gaps by providing a study that clearly defines and concretizes the social benefits in river restorations. By further analysing the significance of the social benefits the aim is further to gain a better understanding of the factors that enable people to reap greater social benefits in river restoration. Given the dearth in research, an exploratory research approach is chosen to guide this thesis, on the premises that it provides and generates greater descriptions and broader understandings of the social benefits in river restorations. In addition, the exploratory approach enables analysis and arguments using both primary and secondary research methods, which are applied through literature reviews, official website analysis and interviews with representatives of the single organizations. The factors considered to constitute the social benefits in river restoration are well-being, aesthetics, recreation, play and learn, cultural expression, social cohesion and sense of belonging. When analysing the key factors that enable people to benefit from the social benefits of river restoration, the recognition includes relational values, active citizenship, public participation, knowledge sharing and social dynamics. In addition, the data collected from the single organizations indicate different levels of citizens’ activity and participation, i.e., semi-active, participating, active and highly active. Lastly, this thesis’ contribution to the research field is of great value, as the main findings demonstrate a coherence and consistency between the theoretical reasonings and the identifications of the four single organizations.

Influencée par la complexité des projets de design, la pratique du designer change. Cette dernière a évolué d’une approche plutôt intuitive, à une production industrialisée, jusqu’à des pratiques très sociales, notamment participatives, favorisant la prise de décisions démocratiques et l’engagement actif de non-experts. Dans ce contexte, le designer prend de nouveaux rôles et crée de nouvelles méthodes en vue d’impliquer des acteurs variés dans les projets. Or, dans cet exercice, la mobilisation de non-experts soulève divers enjeux relatifs à leur encadrement et participation. Ainsi, malgré l’expertise que l’on reconnaît au designer pour aborder des situations mal définies, faciliter la collaboration et co-construire des solutions, l’implication des non-experts doit être faite de façon réfléchie. Cette problématique nous incite à interroger de quelles manières le designer conduit-il le projet de design lorsque celui-ci est abordé selon une approche participative ? En posant cette question, nous espérons amener les praticiens à s’intéresser à leur rôle, au moment même où leur pratique se construit. Pour atteindre cet objectif, nous avons défini l’approche participative avec ses principes guides et fondements théoriques. Ensuite, nous avons mobilisé le modèle de l’Éclipse de l’objet (Findeli et Bousbaci, 2005) pour définir la pratique du projet de design. L’étude du modèle a permis de mieux saisir qui sont les acteurs du projet de design et les expériences qu’ils tirent de ce contexte. Une collecte de données organisée autour d’une revue intensive de la littérature a permis de brosser le portrait de la pratique participative du designer. Pour interpréter les données tirées de cette revue, le modèle de l’éclipse de l’objet a été mobilisé. Ainsi, des thèmes dominants concernant les acteurs experts et non-experts des approches participatives ont pu être extraits. Leur analyse a permis de formuler des constats quant aux rôles, aux postures et aux responsabilités des différents acteurs ainsi qu’à leurs dynamiques sociales et aux bagages de chacun. L’ensemble de la recherche nous fournit une meilleure compréhension des manières avec lesquelles le designer développe le projet de design selon une approche participative. / Influenced by the growing complexity of design projects, the designer’s practice is evolving. What used to be a more intuitive approach has progressed to industrialized production, and highly social practices, including participatory approaches, which favour democratic decision making and active involvement from non-experts. In that context, designers are taking on new roles and developing novel methods to engage various players. Involving non-experts, however, is bringing forward a range of issues surrounding their supervision and participation. Notwithstanding a designer’s recognized expertise addressing wicked situations, facilitating collaboration and building solutions with others, involving non-experts must be done thoughtfully. This issue prompts the question: in what ways does a designer navigate a design project when a participatory approach is taken? In examining this, the goal is to encourage practitioners to consider their role as they are building their practice. Achieving this has involved establishing what constitutes a participatory approach and defining its guiding principles and theoretical foundations, as well as leveraging the Eclipse of the object (Findeli & Bousbaci, 2005) model to define design project practice. Study of this model has allowed for a better understanding of the actors involved in a design project and of the experience they gain from contributing. Data collection organized around a scoping review has also helped provide an overview of a designer’s participatory practice, using the Eclipse of the object model to interpret the information gathered and extract overarching themes related to participatory approach experts and non-experts. Analysis of this data has helped draw conclusions regarding the role, position, responsibilities, social dynamics, and experiences of various actors. This research, as a whole, unlocks a deeper understanding of the ways in which a designer develops a design project using a participatory approach.

"The Danger of a Simple Story" explores the complexities of urban transformation and its impact on social dynamics through a multifaceted exhibition and archival project. Initiated by architect Mads Christo0ersen and artist Clara Diab, the project is rooted in their radio show "Kældersnack med Mads och Clara," which delves into the history and remains found in a basement in the Lasarettsbacken area in Umeå, Sweden. The exhibition critiques the oversimplification of urban development narratives and engages the public through workshops, performances, and architectural models that speculate on future inhabitants of redeveloped areas. By juxtaposing utopian and dystopian scenarios, the project challenges neoliberal urban planning practices and emphasises the importance of preserving collective memory. This multidisciplinary approach combines elements of architecture, garbology, and performance art to foster a deeper understanding of the layered histories embedded within urban environments. The exhibition was praised in the regional news outlet Västerbottens- Kuriren for its insightful and thought-provoking presentation. Editor Sara Meidel, in her article titled "Vem är den kriminelle – den som pajar ett fönster eller den som tillåter ett förfall?" highlighted the project's exploration of the delicate balance between preservation and development. / "The Danger of a Simple Story" utforskar komplexiteten i stadsomvandling och dess påverkan på sociala dynamiker genom ett mångfacetterat utställnings- och arkivprojekt. Initierat av arkitekt Mads Christo0ersen och konstnär Clara Diab, är projektet rotat i deras radioprogram "Kældersnack med Mads och Clara," som fördjupar sig i historie och kvarlämningar hittat i en källare på Lasarettsbacken i Umeå, Sverige. Utställningen kritiserar förenklingen av stadsutveklingsnarrativ och engagerar allmänheten genom workshops, performance och arkitektoniska modeller som spekulerar om framtida invånare i ombyggda områden. Genom att ställa utopiska och dystopiska scenarier mot varandra utmanar projektet nyliberala stadsplaneringsmetoder och betonar vikten av att bevara det kollektiva minnet. Detta tvärvetenskapliga tillvägagångssätt kombinerar element från arkitektur, ’garbology’ och performancekonst för att främja en djupare förståelse för de lager av historia som finns inbäddade i urbana miljöer. Utställningen lovordades i den regionala tidningen Västerbottens- Kuriren för sin insiktsfulla och tankeväckande presentation. Kulturredaktör Sara Meidel lyfte i sin artikel med titeln "Vem är den kriminelle – den som pajar ett fönster eller den som tillåter ett förfall?" fram projektets utforskning av den känsliga balansen mellan bevarande och utveckling.

Since the 1950s modernization theory predicted within the Third World a trajectory for social evolution and development mirroring perceived social and developmental evolution in Western societies since the 17th Century. Despite this theory being much discredited in both Western societies and the developing world; this theory still forms the basis for much analysis and policy formulation within post-1990 South Africa. This thesis looks at various aspects of urban black South Africans' existence and concludes that African tradition has found a place within an urban existence due to it's flexibility in dealing with peoples' daily challenges. An urban existence can thus no-longer be thought of as supplanting tradition in favour of western influences, but rather as bringing about a mixture of western and traditional influences - with positive and negative theoretical and practical developmental consequences / Development Studies / M.A.

Since the 1950s modernization theory predicted within the Third World a trajectory for social evolution and development mirroring perceived social and developmental evolution in Western societies since the 17th Century. Despite this theory being much discredited in both Western societies and the developing world; this theory still forms the basis for much analysis and policy formulation within post-1990 South Africa. This thesis looks at various aspects of urban black South Africans' existence and concludes that African tradition has found a place within an urban existence due to it's flexibility in dealing with peoples' daily challenges. An urban existence can thus no-longer be thought of as supplanting tradition in favour of western influences, but rather as bringing about a mixture of western and traditional influences - with positive and negative theoretical and practical developmental consequences / Development Studies / M.A.

The dynamics of many aspects of social behaviour, such as spread of fads and fashion, collective action, group decision-making, homophily and disagreement, have been captured by mathematical models. The power of these models is that they can provide novel insight into the emergent dynamics of groups, e.g. 'epidemics' of memes, tipping points for collective action, wisdom of crowds and leadership by small numbers of individuals, segregation and polarisation. A current weakness in the scientific models is their sheer number. 'New' models are continually 'discovered' by physicists, engineers and mathematicians. The models are analysed mathematically, but very seldom provide predictions that can be tested empirically. In this work, we provide a framework of simple models, based on Lotka's original idea of using chemical reactions to describe social interactions. We show how to formulate models for social epidemics, social recovery, cycles, collective action, group decision-making, segregation and polarisation, which we argue encompass the majority of social dynamics models. We present an open-access tool, written in Python, for specifying social interactions, studying them in terms of mass action, and creating spatial simulations of model dynamics. We argue that the models in this article provide a baseline of empirically testable predictions arising from social dynamics, and that before creating new and more complicated versions of the same idea, researchers should explain how their model differs substantially from our baseline models. / Matematiska modeller kan hjälpa oss att förstå många typer av sociala fenomen, som ryktesspridning, spridning av memes, gruppbeslut, segregation och radikalisering. Det finns idag otaliga modeller för sociala beteenden hos människor och djur, och fler presenteras kontinuerligt. Det stora antalet modeller försvårar navigering inom forskningsfältet, och många av modellerna är dessutom komplicerade och svåra att verifiera genom experiment. I detta arbete föreslås ett ramverk av grundläggande modeller, som var och en modellerar en aspekt av socialt beteende; det gäller sociala epidemier, cykler, gemensamt handlande, gruppbeslut, segregation och polarisering. Vi menar att dessa modeller utgör majoriteten av de verifierbara aspekter av socialt beteende som studeras, och att de bör behandlas som en utgångspunkt när en ny modell ska introduceras. Vilka av mekanismerna från utgångspunkten finns representerade i modellen? Skiljer den sig ens nämnvärt från utgångspunkten? Genom att ha en god förståelse för grundmodellerna, och genom att förklara på vilket sätt en ny modell skiljer sig från dem, kan forskare undvika att presentera modeller som i praktiken är mer komplicerade varianter av sådana som redan finns. I detta arbete visar vi hur dessa grundläggande modeller kan formuleras och studeras. Modellerna bygger på enkla regler om vad som händer när individer i en befolkning möter varandra. Till exempel, om en person som har vetskap om ett rykte träffar någon som inte har det, kan ryktet spridas vidare. Därför har antaganden om vilka personer som kan träffa varandra stor påverkan på de resultat som modellerna ger. I detta arbete studeras varje modell med två olika metoder: i den ena har alla personer i befolkningen samma sannolikhet att träffa varandra, i den andra representeras befolkningen av ett rutnät, där varje plats motsvarar en individ. I den senare har alltså varje person ett begränsat antal grannar att interagera med. Vilken av dessa två metoder man väljer har stor betydelse för vilka beteenden modellerna förutspår. Som ett komplement till detta arbete presenteras ett verktyg i form av ett Python-program som utför analysen av modellerna. Detta kan användas för att undersöka grundmodellerna som presenteras i detta arbete, men också för att formulera och analysera nya modeller på samma sätt. På det viset kan nya modeller enkelt jämföras mot grundmodellerna. Verktyget är användbart både som introduktion för de som är nya inom social dynamik, men också för de forskare som som vill ta fram nya modeller och föra forskningsfältet vidare.