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This dissertation aims to understand the mechanisms behind the adoption of smart cities technologies (SCT) and how they can promote social equity in local communities in the United States. There is a distinct lack of empirical research addressing the methods designed for the promotion of social equity despite their numerous benefits. The present study will address this omission in the scholarship by providing evidence-based insights on how public administrators can leverage SCT to promote distributional social equity through the Digital Era Governance (DEG) and Adoption Theory frameworks. This study also demonstrates the efficacy of applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to understand better the mechanism leading to the acceptance and adoption of SCT in the United States. Lastly, it provides insightful evidence demonstrating the value of these approaches and their influence on policymakers’ decisions using SCT to address one of society’s most challenging issues, fostering social equity. It utilizes data from the ICMA’s 2016 Smart Cities Survey, the 2015 Sustainability Practices Survey, and the U.S. Census Bureau. The study employs logistic and negative binomial regressions to examine the factors influencing commitment to using SCT, engagement with SCT, and distributional social equity. The findings indicate that factors such as ‘perceived usefulness’ and ‘ease of use’ influence commitment to SCT usage, which impacts SCT engagement, leading to social equity outcomes

Trafikplanering har stor och direkt påverkan på människan och därmed den sociala dimensionen. Trots den mänskliga faktorn har de sociala faktorerna hamnat i bakgrunden då det inom trafikplanering traditionellt, främst fokuserats på de ekonomiska och tekniska delarna. Syftet med uppsatsen har därför varit att undersöka hur Norrköpings kommun och Malmö stads trafikstrategier förhåller sig till social hållbarhet och att föra en diskussion kring begreppet social hållbarhets definition. Studien utgår från en dokumentanalys av respektive kommuns trafikstrategi och policydokument som kompletterats med kvalitativa intervjuer med tjänstepersoner från kommunernas infrastruktur- och mobilitetsenheter. Studien genomför en kartläggning av det befintliga forskningsfältet kring social hållbarhet som begrepp, men även inom samhällsplanering och trafikplanering. Slutsatsen visar att det i en trafikstrategisk kontext, kan finnas behov av att bryta ner och definiera social hållbarhet till mindre konkreta faktorer. Detta för att enklare och tydligare kunna diskutera hur trafikstrategierna ska främja den sociala hållbarheten. Studien visar även att social hållbarhet i respektive kommuns trafikstrategi främst kretsar kring att skapa rättvisa, och att tillgänglighet därför blir en grundläggande faktor. Därför fokuserar åtgärderna främst på gång-, cykel- och kollektivtrafik samt olika metoder för kartläggning av barriärer, fysiska och sociala / Transport planning has a major and direct impact on people and thus the social dimension. Despite the human factor, the social aspect has been overlooked as traffic planning has traditionally focused mainly on the economic and technical aspects. The purpose of the paper has therefore been to investigate how Norrköping municipality and Malmö city's traffic strategies relate to social sustainability. The study is based on a document analysis of each municipality's traffic strategy and policy documents, supplemented by qualitative interviews with officials from the municipalities' infrastructure and mobility unit. The study conducts a mapping of the existing research field on social sustainability as a concept, but also in urban planning and traffic planning. The conclusion shows that in a traffic strategy context, there may be a need to break down and define social sustainability into more specific factors. This would make it easier and clearer to discuss how traffic strategies should promote social sustainability. The study also shows that social sustainability in each municipality's transport strategy mainly revolves around creating justice, and that accessibility therefore becomes a fundamental factor. Therefore, the measures focus mainly on walking, cycling and public transport as well as different methods for mapping barriers, both physical and social.

No / Sustainability is a triad including techno-economic efficiency, compatibility with the “Planetary Boundaries”, and equity - enabling a decent quality of life for all. Circular Economy models often focus only on closing material flows in order to increase economic activity or market share. This overlooks the equity dimension. Here we focus on the Performance Economy, which extends the Circular Economy in ways that can enhance equity. The Performance Economy model concentrates on making best use of stocks in the economy, including labour which is a renewable resource. Extending product life through re-use, remanufacturing and reprocessing and shifting from non-renewable inputs (including energy) to renewable inputs (including labour) can improve resource efficiency and increase the supply of rewarding employment. The Performance Economy requires changes in business practices more than technological innovation, including a different view of the functions of value chains, and can be promoted by different approaches to taxation.

This thesis examines the discourses surrounding the subject of climate change, with particular emphasis on the discourse(s) of the emerging social movement for climate justice. Positioned within the social constructivist and critical research paradigms, the methodology involves a Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis in which discourse is defined as a historically-situated, materially-embodied, and power-imbued set of statements and rules that comprise a unique and coherent representation of the world. A review of the climate change-related literature reveals four primary discourses on the phenomenon of rising greenhouse gas emissions: early scientific, climate modernization, climate change denial, and climate justice. The statements and rules of these four discourses, as well as the theoretical trends and sociopolitical, economic, and ecological factors affecting their historical development are described. A deeper analysis using 26 primary documents representing every major climate justice organization reveals that rather than a single coherent discourse, the climate justice movement encompasses four individual sub-discourses: global, peasant-oriented, Indigenous, and civil rights. Focussed on climate-related inequities in developing countries of the Southern Hemisphere, the global discourse constructs climate change as a problem of the structures and logic of the globalized capitalist economy. The peasant-oriented discourse emphasizes inequities to peasant farmers, and represents climate change as largely the result of industrialized agriculture and food systems. With specific concern for the wellbeing of Indigenous communities, the Indigenous discourse locates the cause of climate change in the “violation of the sacred” and the loss of harmony with Mother Earth. The United States-based civil rights discourse primarily emphasizes the rights and interests of African American communities and constructs climate change as a problem of externalized ecological costs and failure to incent a “green” economy. The relations of power between the four climate justice sub-discourses and the prevailing climate modernization discourse are tentatively explored on the basis of three indicators of strength (internal coherence, material foundations, and adaptive capacity), on which basis several questions related to discursive resistance are proposed as possible avenues of future research. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-10-11 09:45:29.397

This study examines how political-economic and socio-cultural influences had impacted the institutional development of HVE in China by investigating the historical development process of HVE between 1980 and 2007, when the country was undergoing tremendous political, economic, and social transitions toward building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. With the research method of document content analysis, the study reveals causes, effects, and trends of HVE development through comparisons between HVE-related policy contents concerning major HVE institutional realities including contexts, missions, structures, access, tuition, curricula, teaching staff, graduate employment, funding and governance, and social status. Within a theoretical framework utilizing vocationalism, Confucianism, and neoinstitutionalism, analysis and discussion resulted in a number of findings. First, the development of HVE in China embodied a trend of vocationalism, which has led and is leading to higher education expansion, higher education restructuring, and a positive change of Chinese peoples views on careers. Second, in addition to its discrimination against skills/skilled workers, the mechanism of upward mobility entailed in Confucianism was another major reason causing resistance to HVE. Third, given the increasingly competitive Civil Service Examination, Chinese peoples views on careers were not synchronized to the mass higher education system that was underway in China. Fourth, while supporting HVE, vocationalism itself created problems for HVE. A new vocationalist view was needed for future HVE development. Confucianism may contribute to such a new vocationalist view drawing on humanities education and the mechanism of upward mobility, though its notion of scholar-officials was critiqued for impeding the development of HVE. Fifth, HVE students had been treated unequally in the whole process of studying in HVE from admission to participation to graduation. Sixth, from a neoinstitutionalist perspective, the development of HVE represented the process of its instutionalization, in which HVE needed to obtain legitimacy. Absence of legitimacy was the major reason causing various challenges facing the development of HVE. Seventh, the development of HVE indicated institutional isomorphic changes in Chinese higher education. Eighth, biased policy causing stratification of Chinese higher education was another major factor leading to various challenges facing HVE. / Adult Education

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xvi, 298 p. : col. map. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Cities in the United States are increasingly challenged with sharpening inequalities, social exclusion and the effects of a swelling environmental footprint. In response, city officials, political interest groups and residents have seized the framework of urban sustainability to address these mounting social and environmental problems. However, the push for environmental and social sustainability often directly contradicts the push by influential urban business coalitions for cities to be more economically competitive with other locales. I explore the compatibility of urban sustainability and economic development through a case study of Eugene, Oregon's Sustainable Business Initiative, led by Mayor Kitty Piercy. In this Initiative, the interaction between the urban sustainability and economic development discourses calls into question current entrepreneurial strategies and opens the door to exploring the implications of integrating sustainability and social justice concepts with urban economic development policy. Labor-community-environmental coalitions, with a broad vision for sustainability and regional equity, present an alternative to traditional business coalitions' influence on economic development policy and provide a strategy for economic development based in wealth redistribution and environmental health. / Committee in charge: Gregory McLauchlan, Chairperson, Sociology; Yvonne Braun, Member, Sociology; Linda Fuller, Member, Womens and Gender Studies; Michael Bussel, Outside Member, History

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“Vision Zero,” first adopted by Sweden in 1997, is a road safety policy that aims to achieve a transportation system having zero fatalities or serious injuries for all modes of transportation. It takes a proactive approach to road safety system by identifying risk and taking steps to prevent injuries. Historically, traffic related crashes have disproportionately impacted vulnerable communities and system users including people of color, low income individuals, seniors, children, and pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users (who typically walk to and from public transport). These inequities are addressed in the Vision Zero framework by prioritizing interventions in areas that need safety improvements the most. In 2016, the Alexandria City Council voted unanimously to develop a “Vision Zero” policy and program as a part of its updated transportation master plan. It required an initial equity analysis to assess the impact of traffic crashes on the traditionally underserved communities / groups (groups from at least one of these categories: low-income; minority; elderly; children; limited English proficiency; persons with disabilities; and/or pedestrians/ bicyclists/ transit users). This study combines three different methods to investigate the equity issues regarding traffic safety: 1) descriptive analysis of the spatial pattern of crashes and their relationship with the demographic profiles of neighborhoods at census block group level (for 2010-2014 period); 2) descriptive analysis of the crash trends in Alexandria; and 3) exploratory regression analyses for two different units of analysis (an aggregate regression analysis of crashes at census block group, and a disaggregate regression analysis of the individual level crash reports of traffic crashes). The analysis found that the elderly, school aged children, rail/subway users, and pedestrians had a higher risk of fatalities and severe injuries in traffic crashes. Higher job densities, alcohol impairment, and speeding were significantly related to higher KSI, whereas, smaller block sizes (higher number of street segments per sq. mile area of census block group), higher housing density, and use of safety equipment were related to lower KSI. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning