Dissertation (DPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)(Landscape Architecture)--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Bibliographical references included (p. 207-215).

This thesis explores animic and perspectivist notions in the context of Nordic Seamanship with a biocultural framework. It examines the history, cosmologies, terminology, practices, physiology and phenomenology of Nordic crafts and arts of boat building, rope-making, seafaring and fishing. Rope-making, its molecular basis and the social organization in a boat reveal the way in which physical and social bodies coalesce in the harmonies of the differing intentionalities of their constituents, forming symmetric hierarchical structures, which are at the basis of Nordic egalitarian and individualistic society. Through the enskillment in seafaring and fishing, we explore the perspectival transformations involved in nausea; the development of sea-legs (the attunement to the rhythms of the sea), fishiness (empathy with the fish) and the meiths (a system navigation, perception and theorization of the coastal environment), showing the role of normal microbial biota in the perception and interactions with the environment. Based on the experience at sea, it is suggested that the ontologies developed through the interactions of seamanship constituted a cosmology that influenced the development of the Medieval Perspectivist theories in Natural Philosophy, Norse poetry and hermeneutics, which were means of secularization of pagan knowledge in the Nordic conversion to Christianity. Elaborating on some aspects of medieval perspectivist theory through their comparison with Amerindian animic theories and the biology of the eye it is suggested that its morphology entails an entoptic (inner-vision) microscopy, affording a means of visual perception and interaction with microbial entities. Finally, with the aid of a Treponema pallidum, a transatlantic traveller with a copious Amerindian mythology, it is shown that animic notions about spirits, dwarves and gods are coherent with an ecological physiology that takes into account microbial sociality and their role, both in health and in disease, in our metabolism, perception and relations with the environment in particular ecological communities. In so doing, it demonstrates that animic perspectivist ontologies are compatible with a naturalism that takes into account intentionality as a generalized physical property constituent of beings and things, and therefore sociality as generalized characteristic of the interactions between beings/things in the environment.

Planning is the ultimate expression of a community responding to growth and change, shaping its future through a collective set of values, goals and strategies. Over the past four decades planning policies and practices have largely focused on issues related to the growth of urban regions. Given the realms of change that will shape communities over the coming decades, these policies and practices need to reorient themselves away from aggregate notions of growth and towards the relevant agents of change. The goal of this research is to articulate a framework for the investigation of issues that will shape communities over the coming four decades; specifically how demographic change will impact on the future of community housing, land and financial resources. Although it presents one region as a case study (the Central Okanagan Regional District in British Columbia, Canada) the framework is intended to be used by any community or region to evaluate the extent of demographic change and its impact on issues related to community and regional planning. The first finding of the framework shows that over any strategic time horizon planning issues will be related to changes in a population's composition rather than aggregate notions of its growth. It is the patterns of lifecycle and lifestyle change that will shape issues ranging from land uses, housing markets and transportation demand to school enrolment, medical requirements or even funeral services. None of which can be accurately represented by the aggregate size of a region's population, as each are impacted by changes in its underlying composition. The second finding is that it is current residents, rather than new migrants to the region, that will direct changes in the age composition of a population. This leads to the assertion that we have a good approximation of the region's future population in those who are residents today: they will be slightly older, wiser and possibly a little wearier. Finally, this research also calls attention to a substantial lack of information. A lack of information concerning the fundamental processes of community change, and a lack of information regarding the economic, environmental and social costs associated with the location, density and timing of future development. Most importantly, current planning decisions are still largely predicated on aggregate notions of population growth, without sufficient information about the external costs and tradeoffs associated with these decisions. The future quality of life in any region will be directly determined by the degree to which both planning jurisdictions and the general public acknowledge and, more importantly, choose to respond to the challenges presented by change.

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.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 538-580). / Microfiche. / 2 v. (xvii, 580 leaves, bound) ill., maps 29 cm

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2008. / A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Centre for Social Ecology Research in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Social ecology). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2007. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-202).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2007. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-202).