In sociology in general, community is often seen as an expression for something seriously threatened or even destroyed by modernity. In urban sociology, this question has traditionally manifested itself in a ‘search exhibition’ of communal bonds within the city landscape. This analytical approach tends to split up ‘community’ and ‘city’ into two different forms of social experience. By adopting a socio-ontological approach, this study argues that experiences of community cannot be ontologically separated from experiences of the city. The aim of this study is to examine how the interviewees, living in the same neighborhood within a minor city in southern Sweden, create a perception of the city as a whole in relation to their own positioning therein. From this aim, two research questions have been formulated as follows: How is Milltown socio-ontologically constituted as a social space of relations? And: How do the interviewees construct a purified community? In order to examine this, nine in-depth interviews were conducted with residents in a middle class neighborhood (Greenwood), located in a minor city in southern Sweden (Milltown). The material was analyzed using a socio-ontological approach combined with Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of social space and habitus, and Richard Sennett’s concepts of purified community and collective personality.   The results of this study show how the perceived social complexity of Milltown as a whole is purified into an authentic experience of community. Greenwood is being constituted as a private sphere, which is isolated from the rest of the city. Greenwood represents a simplification of the social environment within the city landscape, where personal feelings and values are projected. It is also shown how interaction between neighbors in Greenwood is almost completely absent, and how the interviewees compensate this absence by constructing a collective personality. This collective personality envisages how they are the same, rather than what they actually do in their relations to each other. The feelings of belonging stem from shared expectations that neighbors have on each other, rather than from interactions. Finally, the results show how this purified community identity is constructed against other neighborhoods in Milltown, which are seen to represent different ways-of-life.   This study contributes to a more complex understanding of how feelings of belonging are constituted in relation to a specific locality, but also how this understanding enables a perception of the city as a whole. Accordingly, insights have been achieved on how recent attempts to ‘redefine’ the community concept in sociology can be used empirically, and to be further built upon theoretically. Further, urban sociology has traditionally been concerned with big cities. This study argues that the urban sociological tradition has exaggerated the differences between minor and larger cities. The argument is that minor cities should be approached as socially complex milieus as well, where people are aware of each other but do not know each other. Gesellschaft relations should therefore not be understood as something exclusive to the metropolis, but rather as a condition of life in modernity in general. Finally, this study also gives an insight about the mechanisms behind voluntary segregation. This is a matter that is often neglected in urban sociological research, which traditionally has worked in paradigm of poverty, thus focusing on stigmatized neighborhoods.

Orientador: José Misael Ferreira do Vale / Banca: Marisa Ramos Barbieri / Banca: Ana Maria de Andrade Caldeira / Resumo: Considerando fundamental a necessidade da análise conjunta das práticas sociais educação e saúde inseridas no espaço eminentemente social, o objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar, em uma coorte de jovens de 18 anos, a disponibilidade de acesso aos aparelhos de educação (escolas públicas) e de saúde (postos e hospitais) e sua relação com a distribuição geo-econômica da população e o acesso a essa práticas sociais em Ribeirão Preto - São Paulo. Todas as crianãs nascidas vivas de parto hospitalar de mães residentes em Ribeirão Preto foram estudadas por ocasião do nascimento, no período de junho de 1978 a maio de 1979. Do total, 2083 meninos foram avaliados aos 18 anos, na época do alistamento militar. Foram analisados os dados referentes a hospital de nascimento, escolaridade da mãe na data do parto, escolaridade e bairro de residência do conscrito. Foi feito levantamento do endereço e da data de início de funcionamento de todas as escolas estaduais e postos de saúde do município de Ribeirão Preto. Esses endereços foram colocados no mapa da cidade e a distribuição geo-econômica foi discutida, baseando-se na classificação proposta por GOLDANI (1997). A maior parte das escolas está localizada em bairros pobres (39,65%) e em bairros médio-baixos (37,93%). As escolas que oferecem ensino médio foram criadas, em sua maioria, na década de 70, evidenciando a importância da Lei de Diretrizes e Bases nº 5.692 de 1971, cuja política era expandir o ensino médio. Os postos de saúde, principal acesso da população que depende do Sistema Único de Saúde, estão localizados em bairros classificados como médio-baixos (45,75%), pobres (37,14%), médio-altos (8,57%) e apenas um em bairro rico (2,86%). Esses postos foram inaugurados, em sua maioria, na década de 80, legitimando a reforma sanitária, luta dos profissionais da saúde. Neste trabalho ficou evidente... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In view of the fundamental necessity to analyze jointly the social practices of education and health within an eminently social space, the objective of the present study was to assess in a cohort of 18-year old boys the availabity of access to educational (public schools) and health (health stations and hospitals) facilities and its relation to the geoconomic distribution of the population, and the access to these social practices in Ribeirão Preto - São Paulo. All liveborn infants delivered in hospitals by mothers residing in Ribeirão Preto were studied at the time of birth from june 1978 to may 1979. Of these, 2083 boys were evaluated at 18 years of age at the time of recruitment for military service. Data concerning hospital of birth, mother's schooling at the time of delivery and neighborhood of residence of the conscripts were analyzed. The address and the date of the beginning of functioning were recorded for all state schools and health stations in the municipality of Ribeirão Preto. These addresses were superimposed on a map of the city and the geoeconomic distribution was discussed based on the classification proposed by GOLDANI (1997). Most of the schools are located in poor neighborhoods (39.65%) and middle-lower class neighborhoods (37.93%). The schools that offer secondary education were mostly created in the 1970 decade, demonstrating the importance of the Directives and Bases Law nº 5,692 of 1971, whose policy was to expand secondary education. The health stations, the main points of access for the population that depends on the Unified Health system, are located in neighborhoods classified as middle-lower class (45.75%), poor (37.14%), and middle-high class (8.57%), and only one is located in a rich neighborhood (2.86%). Most of these stations were inaugurated in the 1980 decade as part of the sanitary reform, the fruit of a struggle on the part of health professionals... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Essa pesquisa tem como objetivo fundamental analisar o processo de produção e reprodução social do espaço urbano e como se processa o desenvolvimento da contradição entre apropriação/dominação do espaço urbano na metrópole São Paulo, em especial na Região da Luz, área central da cidade. Entender esse processo implica considerar, em sua diversidade, a realidade sócio-econômica, política e cultural vivenciada pelos habitantes, comerciantes e usuários da Região da Luz, que também traduz a dinâmica da sociedade capitalista contemporânea. No desenvolver da pesquisa foi necessário estabelecer uma mediação e esta se deu com a realização de vínculos de amizade com habitantes, usuários e comerciantes da área. A análise mostrou que na base do processo de produção e reprodução do espaço na metrópole São Paulo está a reprodução contraditória do espaço urbano. Enquanto Estado e iniciativa privada, de modo interligado e ou independente disputam o uso do espaço, transformando-o em instrumento de dominação, as pessoas de modo geral tendem a se apropriar do espaço para a sua reprodução da vida. Nesses momentos é possível a emergência das insurgências contra o concebido; o estabelecido pelas ações que normatizam o espaço. Dimensão relevante como ponto de partida para a compreensão dessa produção espacial foi a reflexão sobre o conceito de espaço elaborado ao longo da história e sua possibilidade de apropriação e de uso, enquanto necessidade premente para a vida. Como o espaço produzido pela sociedade capitalista é apropriado privativamente, o uso tende a subordinar-se à troca pela mediação do mercado. A produção da cidade se dá, portanto, no embate entre os interesses divergentes dos diferentes grupos e sob a intervenção do Poder Público. Essa pesquisa apontou a constante luta pela sobrevivência, diferenciadas formas de compreensão e participação na luta pela apropriação do espaço urbano e pelo direito à cidade; e, de modo especial, apontou que o uso do espaço conquistado se deu no lugar possível e traz a marca da segregação socioespacial verificada na metrópole São Paulo, o que justifica a continuidade da luta pelo território desejado. / This study aims to examine the fundamental process of social production and reproduction of urban space and how they can develop the contradiction between appropriation and domination of urban space in metropolitan Sao Paulo, especially in the region of Luz, in the downtown area of the city. Understanding this process entails consideration in their diversity, the socio-economic, political and cultural life experienced by residents, traders and users of the Region of Luz, which also reflects the dynamics of contemporary capitalist society. In developing the research it was done necessary to establish a scale of measuring and this was through bonds of friendship with people, and merchants in the area. The analysis showed that the basis for the production and reproduction of space in metropolitan Sao Paulo is the contradictory reproduction of urban space. While state and private enterprise, so interconnected and independent dispute of the use of space, transforming it into an instrument of domination, people generally tend to take ownership of the space for the reproduction of life. In these moments it is possible to see the emergence of insurgencies against the unborn child, as stipulated by the actions that regulate the area. Relevant dimension as a starting point for understanding this production of space is a reflection on the concept development throughout history and the possibility of ownership and use, while there is pressing need for life. As the space produced by a capitalist society is appropriated exclusively, the use tends to be subordinated to the mediation of the exchange market. The production of the city is, therefore, the clash between the conflicting interests of different groups and under the intervention of the government. This research pointed to the constant struggle for survival, differing ways of understanding and participation in the struggle for the appropriation of urban space and the right to the city and, in particular, pointed out that the use of conquered space happened in a possible place and bears the mark of segregation in social and space allotted to used in metropolitan Sao Paulo, which justifies the continuation of the struggle for territory desired.

Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar as redes construídas por jovens que utilizam a rua como espaço social de encontro e produções no município de Diadema, em São Paulo. A pesquisa pretendeu colaborar para a construção de estratégias mais eficientes, eficazes e efetivas que enlaçando modos de ser e da cultura despertem, agucem e mobilizem os jovens para a produção social de ambientes acolhedores. A metodologia utilizada incluiu observação participante e registros escritos de vozes que revelaram fragmentos de seus cotidianos e de seus pensamentos sobre aspectos pessoais, sociais, familiares e grupais, permitindo identificar redes de conexão existenciais e as formas como processam suas vivências. / This study aimed to analyze the networks built by young people who use the streets as a space for social gatherings and productions in Diadema, São Paulo. The research intended to contribute to the construction of more efficient, productive and effective strategies that, intertwining ways of being and culture, stimulate, sharpen and mobilize young people for the social production of welcoming environments. The methodology included participatory observatios as well as written records of voices that reveal fragments of their day-to-day and their thoughts on personal, social, family and group aspects, allowing the identification of existential connection networks and ways they process their experiences.

O presente trabalho analisa a territorialização da sociedade civil no Conselho Municipal de Assistência Social de Porto Alegre. A compreensão de que uma sociedade com maior equidade depende da ampla participação nas deliberações sobre as políticas e verbas públicas é o motor deste estudo, que a partir dos conceitos de cidadania, subjetividade, desenvolvimento sócio-espacial e horizontalidade estuda as atribuições dos conselheiros, os seus vínculos com as regiões da cidade e com a política de assistência social, bem como os motivos para exercerem o cargo, os dados sobre a assistência social na capital gaúcha e os suportes legais para as deliberações junto ao poder público. Os objetivos dessa pesquisa são de compreender quais os limites e potencialidades da participação da sociedade civil em espaços institucionais de deliberação sobre políticas e verbas públicas, analisando o modelo municipal de política participativa e refletir sobre estratégias para potencializar e ampliar a apropriação dos conselheiros dos meios para conquistarem suas demandas. Nele são realizadas entrevistas com os conselheiros das Comissões Regionais de Assistência Social (CORAS), espacialização de dados com a confecção de mapas e a leitura das atas do período de 2013 a 2015. / The present work analyses the territorialization of the civil society in the Social Assistance Municipal Council of Porto Alegre (CMAS). The understanding that a society with a high level of equity depends on a large participation in the decisions about public politics and money is the motivation for the study. It uses the concepts of citizenship, subjectivity, social-space development and horizontality to study the attribution of the council members, their bounds with the city regions and with the social assistance politics. It also researches the reasons for them to choose this kind of work, the data about social assistance in the city and the legal support to deliberations with the government in the council. The objectives of this research are to comprehend the limits and potentials of the participation of the civil society in institutional spaces of deliberation on public politics and money, analyzing the municipal model of public participation and reflect about strategies to amplify the appropriation of the council members to achieve their objectives. In it are made interviews with representations of the Regional Commissions of Social Assistance (CORAS), specialization of the data through maps and the reading of the record of the reunions of the council in the period of 2013 to 2015.

Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar as redes construídas por jovens que utilizam a rua como espaço social de encontro e produções no município de Diadema, em São Paulo. A pesquisa pretendeu colaborar para a construção de estratégias mais eficientes, eficazes e efetivas que enlaçando modos de ser e da cultura despertem, agucem e mobilizem os jovens para a produção social de ambientes acolhedores. A metodologia utilizada incluiu observação participante e registros escritos de vozes que revelaram fragmentos de seus cotidianos e de seus pensamentos sobre aspectos pessoais, sociais, familiares e grupais, permitindo identificar redes de conexão existenciais e as formas como processam suas vivências. / This study aimed to analyze the networks built by young people who use the streets as a space for social gatherings and productions in Diadema, São Paulo. The research intended to contribute to the construction of more efficient, productive and effective strategies that, intertwining ways of being and culture, stimulate, sharpen and mobilize young people for the social production of welcoming environments. The methodology included participatory observatios as well as written records of voices that reveal fragments of their day-to-day and their thoughts on personal, social, family and group aspects, allowing the identification of existential connection networks and ways they process their experiences.

L’âge de l’adolescence est celui de l’expérience quotidienne d’un espace de vie à soi tout en flirtant avec le monde. Dans une société où la division du rôle des sexes est encore prégnante, où les lieux sont des supports de maîtrise masculine de l’espace, comment appréhender la mise en configuration de l’espace par l’adolescent.e à l’épreuve du genre ? L’expérience sociale et spatiale de soi, des autres, de la relation aux lieux est constitutive de l’adolescence. Cette expérience questionne alors le rôle du genre et de l’espace dans la construction identitaire. Dans quelle mesure ces deux concepts, genre et espace du quotidien, se combinent-ils dans la construction identitaire de l’adolescent.e ? Si le genre est une catégorie structurante de l’expérience spatiale, comment les lieux en tant que condition de l’expérience humaine agissent-ils sur les attributs de genre ? Pour répondre à ces questions, il s’agit d’observer les rapports des adolescent.e.s à leurs lieux de vie à la fois en termes de pratiques (espace de vie), de représentations (espaces vécus) et de genre. Cet âge de vie n’est-il pas constitué d’expériences de rapport au monde, c’est-à-dire d’élargissement du territoire de vie et des temporalités à travers des expérimentations faites d’appropriation, de cheminement, de contournement et d’évitement en quête d’autonomie sociale et spatiale ? Notre terrain d’étude porte sur les lieux de vie de collégien.ne.s en classe de 4ème dans sept établissements scolaires du Calvados et de la Manche aux contextes géographiques différents (urbain, périurbain, rural). Cette approche suppose une analyse multiscalaire des pratiques routinières dans les espaces de vie (domicile, lieux de loisirs, école) par des méthodes combinées d’enquêtes quantitative et qualitative, de séances d’observation et de productions graphiques de la part des adolescent.e.s eux-mêmes. Se pose alors la question des mobilités des jeunes car expérimenter les lieux c’est territorialiser son rapport au monde. Les effets de lieu (urbain, périurbain, rural) participent à la construction identitaire d’un territoire. Et réciproquement : l’adolescent.e agit sur l’espace, en ce sens, il ou elle expérimente l’espace. / Teenage years are synonymous with the daily experience of one’s own social space while approaching the wider world. In a society where gender role division is still significant, where places are means to assert the masculine control of space, how can we comprehend the construction of space in the everyday life of teenagers faced with gendering? Is experimenting social space during adolescence partitioned according to one’s gender? This thesis aims at analysing the relationship between teenagers and the space they inhabit in terms of practices (social space), representations (lived space) and gender. During adolescence, teens experiment with the world around them. Don’t they expand their territory, their temporality through different spatial experiences such as appropriation and progress but also avoidance and alternative routes on the way to social and spatial independence? Approaching the spaces occupied by teenagers means analysing their daily social practices within their lived space (home, leisure, school) thanks to mixed quantitative and qualitative inquiries, periods of observation and the production of mental maps by the teens themselves. Hence the importance of mobility since roaming space means turning it into a territory and influences one’s relationship to the world. The effects of place (urban, suburban, rural) are essential in the construction of identity within a territory and reciprocally: teenagers act on space, in the sense that they experiment with space.

Uppsatsen är en fallstudie som berör ett förflyttningsprojekt av invånare i informella bosättningar, allmänt känt som slumområden, i Sri Lankas kommersiella huvudstad Colombo. FN:s hållbarhetsmål för Agenda 2030 belyser utvecklingen av den informella bostadssektorn som ett problem i flera utvecklingsländer, däribland Sri Lanka. Utvecklingen som ofta är ett resultat av urbaniseringsprocesser tenderar att skapa ett ökat tryck på mark och kan därmed begränsa de fattigas förmåga att äga mark och bostäder. Modernisering av städer tenderar att förändra stadens rumsliga struktur och gå i linje med marknadsdriven markanvändning och kommersialisering som är tänkt att främja den ekonomiska tillväxten. Marknaden och kommersiell utveckling som ställer stor efterfrågan på central och attraktiv mark i Colombo ockuperas till stor del av informella bosättningar. Marknaden, en statlig agenda för utveckling och modernisering kan vara pådrivande faktorer till att grupper i befolkningen blir förflyttade och tvingade till att påbörja nya liv i en ny livsmiljö. Som ett svar på liknande omständigheter initierades ett omfattande förflyttningsprojekt i Colombo år 2011. Projektet vid namn Urban Regeneration Project grundades med visionen att förflytta 68.000 familjer från informella boendeformer till nybyggda höghuskomplex, och därmed uppgradera invånares levnadsstandard, samt nyttomaximera markanvändningen i staden. Förvisso kan ett projekt av denna sort i flera avseenden ses som någonting positivt, där många människor får en förbättrad boendesituation. Däremot, när omstruktureringar av staden sker tenderar inte bara den fysiska miljön att moderniseras, utan även invånarnas vardagsliv. Människor och grupper i alla dess konstellationer av nätverk och relationer kan ses som väsentliga för en levande och fungerande stad. Invånare investerar år av sina liv för att bygga upp relationer till sitt grannskap och medmänniskor vilka inte enkelt är utbytbara. Dessa relationer och nätverk bringar en känsla av tillhörighet men också tillit till sin omgivning som främjar stabilitet och trygghet. / The study concerns a relocation project of residents in informal settlements, commonly known as slums, in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo. The UN's Sustainability Goal for Agenda 2030 highlights the development of the informal housing sector as an issue in several developing countries, including Sri Lanka. The development that is often a result of urbanization processes tends to create increased pressure on land and can thus limit the poor's ability to own land and housing. Modernization of cities tends to change the spatial structure of the city and align with market-driven land use and commercialization that are intended to promote economic growth. The market and commercial development stand great demand on central and attractive land in Colombo are largely occupied by informal settlements. The market, a state agenda for development and modernization can be driving factors why groups of the population are being displaced and forced to start new lives in a new living environment. In response to similar circumstances, an extensive relocation project was initiated in Colombo in 2011. The project called the Urban Regeneration Project was founded with the vision to move 68,000 families from informal housing to newly built high- rise complexes, thereby upgrading the living standards of residents, and maximizing land use benefits in the city. Indeed, a project of this kind can in many respects be seen as something positive, where several inhabitants get an improved housing situation. On the other hand, when restructuring of the city takes place, not only the physical environment tends to be modernized, but also the everyday lives of the inhabitants. People and groups in all its constellations of networks and relationships are essential for a living and functioning city. Residents invest years of their lives to build relationships with their neighborhood and fellow human beings that are not easily interchangeable. These relationships and networks bring a sense of belonging but also trust in their surroundings that promotes stability and security.

Digital media technologies are becoming increasingly and extensively integrated into our way of living. We communicate, inform and entertain ourselves through media technologies in disparate spaces. When digital technology is integrated into our everyday environment, the border between media interfaces and physical environments is blurred. Traditional divisions of spaces dissolve and are rearranged, complicating the linkages between private and public spheres.   The key phenomenon shaping these experiences with digital media technologies is interactivity. Interactivity intersects these spaces allowing users of mediated content to be affected by the actual, and vice versa. This study has emerged through the need for further research focusing on the term interactivity in today’s media practices, contributing with more targeted research and theoretical work concerning the interconnection between space and digital technologies. The study pursues interactivity by taking on a different perspective than earlier research, staging a qualitative study from a grounded theory perspective complemented by phenomenological theory. In this way interactivity is approached from diverse angles, moving away from earlier fixations on technology and placing it within social and spatial contexts.   The study uses three contemporary Scandinavian interactive art installations, ‘Colour by Numbers’, ‘Emotional Cities’ and ‘Climate on the Wall’, to explore how interactivity plays into the relation between humans, technology and social space. The integration of interactive art installations in public space raises issues regarding humans’ sense of space and human relations vis-à-vis interactions with such artworks. The study finds evidence that interactive art installations can shift humans’ perceptions of space, allowing them to have social experiences and feel locally connected or anchored. Humans do not necessarily become placeless due to interactive technology. It may as well enhance space by converging with existing spatial references. The mediated and the actual may re-enforce each other expanding and transcending diverse spaces.

This thesis aims to explore the role of social practice in the production of space within an anthropological perspective. In particular I drew my empirical data from my fieldwork in the site of Banyabashi Mosque. Banyabashi Mosque is the only active mosque which is located at the very representative, cultural and commercial center of Bulgaria&rsquo / s capital city, Sofia. The historical background of Bulgaria together with its current socio-political situation as the country having the largest historically indigenous Muslim population among the EU member states and its geopolitical location make it an intriguing geography to study the dynamism of Islam in the European context. In regard with this socio-political background this study seeks to understand the transformation of meaning through spatial practice within the perspective of the congregation of the only mosque in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is a cultural and political expression itself as Islam in Bulgaria in its broadest sense is represented as part of daily interactions of everyday urban life. Seeing the built environment as a system of conjoining parts, looking at the spatial practices and the established relations through the site of Banyabashi Mosque this study aspires to provide a perspective on having a better insight on the causal relationships between power, society and culture. In the pursuit to reveal the production and reproduction of power relations, difference, identities and their maintenance this thesis puts Banyabashi Mosque in the center of the study as a meeting point where all those relations manifest themselves through spatial practice and discourse.