With the widening socio-economic gap and growing social exclusion in the global north as a backdrop, this study seeks to address the topic of citizen participation in the context of socio-economic inequality by contributing to a deeper understanding of the relatively unexplored perspective of the civil servant organizing and facilitating citizen dialogues. The aim of the study is to describe the lived experiences of civil servant citizen dialogue facilitators/organizers in three Swedish municipalities regarding the implementation of “citizen dialogue on complex issues” in socio-economic vulnerable neighborhoods. Through semi-structured interviews, a focus group discussion and a supplementing document analysis, their perceptions of aim and outcomes, their own position/role, and the type of communication taking place between dialogue participants are explored and analyzed using Bickford’s “political listening”, Freire’s “theory of dialogical action” and Quarry and Ramírez’s “champions in context”. In this way, the study aims to contribute new empirical data to the field of citizen participation in socio-economic vulnerable neighborhoods in Sweden.The results demonstrate how the civil servants challenged the municipality to try a more participatory dialogue form by avoiding “banking” style communication, enabling “reflection” and explicitly considering how to “power equalize”. However, focus on the form and on non-polemic joint problem solving overshadowed their reflections on the aim and placed any conflict line outside the dialogue, not fully addressing inherent struggles arising from socio-economic inequality. Furthermore, the study suggests a re-think of the “neutral” facilitator concept since it might obscure power relations, as well as highlights the risk of leaving deeper social justice issues unaddressed as frustrations manifested in the dialogue are affected by structures beyond the local municipality and don’t always lead to “action”.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:50:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SANDRA SARNO RODRIGUES SANTOS.pdf: 3093659 bytes, checksum: 64cd685d615dba517a4972e7f5664cc7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-27 / The urbanization of the Brazilian city, from the second half of the twentieth century, is a centre of cities polarizator of political, economic, cultural, in the regional and national levels. Underlines that, the cities assume the role of command of the organization of geographical area and urban, especially those cities. The disorderly growth of Brazilian cities, especially metropolitan regions is the result of a lack of urban planning, the huge socio-economic inequality between social classes. Currently, the metropolitan regions face various problems such as housing deficit, urban public transport, education, health and violence, even Goiânia, a city planned escape this reality. The metropolitan regions thus becoming areas of social tension, or even the creation and deployment of metropolitan areas by the Federal Government and state governments then passed to the imposition of same, was not able to resolve these problems. In the case of the creation of the Metropolitan Region of Goiânia - RMG, according to the interviewees was the worsening quality of life of their residents, resulting from increased housing deficit, the inefficiency of public transport to meet increasing demand and violence. Among the solutions given by respondents to resolve or alleviate the problems of RMG out the urban planning and management shared. / A urbanização da cidade brasileira, a partir da segunda metade do século XX, faz das cidades um centro polarizador da vida política, econômica, cultural, no contexto regional e nacional. Destaca que, as cidades assumem o papel de comando da organização do espaço geográfico e urbano, em especial as metrópoles. O crescimento desordenado das cidades brasileiras, sobretudo das regiões metropolitanas é fruto da ausência de um planejamento urbano, da imensa desigualdade sócio-econômica entre as classes sociais. Na atualidade, as regiões metropolitanas enfrentam vários problemas como o déficit habitacional, transporte coletivo urbano, educação, saúde e violência, nem mesmo Goiânia, uma cidade planejada foge desta realidade. As regiões metropolitanas tornam assim áreas de tensão social, nem mesmo a criação e a implantação das regiões metropolitanas pelo Governo Federal e posteriormente repassado aos governos estaduais a instituição das mesmas, não foi capaz de solucionar esses problemas. No caso da criação da Região Metropolitana de Goiânia RMG, segundo os entrevistados houve o agravamento da qualidade de vida de seus moradores, decorrente do aumento do déficit habitacional, a ineficiência do transporte coletivo para atender a demanda crescente e a violência. Entre as soluções sugeridas pelos entrevistados para resolver ou amenizar os problemas da RMG sobressaíram o planejamento urbano e a gestão compartilhada.

Plusieurs chercheurs considèrent qu’il existe un modèle québécois quant aux politiques sociales et économiques. Mais qu’en est-il sur le plan de la réduction des inégalités? Plus spécifiquement, est-ce que les citoyens du Québec perçoivent différemment les inégalités et sont-ils favorables lorsque l’État intervient pour les réduire? Et comment la presse québécoise réagit-elle vis-à-vis de cet enjeu? Ce mémoire se penche sur ces questions et vise à déterminer si le Québec se distingue de l’Ontario relativement à la perception des inégalités socio-économiques et à leur représentation médiatique. Deux types de données sont analysés : 1) une enquête de l’ISSP de 1992 portant sur les attitudes des Canadiens face aux inégalités socio-économiques 2) la couverture médiatique de l’élaboration d’une loi sur l’équité salariale visant la réduction d’une inégalité. Ces sources de données permettent d’étudier les différences de perceptions et de représentation des inégalités selon deux approches distinctes, mais complémentaires. De plus, dans une perspective comparative, le Québec est comparé à l’Ontario au cours des deux analyses. Les résultats de cette recherche montrent que sur le plan des perceptions et des attitudes, les deux provinces se ressemblaient quant à l’importance attribuée à la performance et au niveau d’études et de responsabilités pour déterminer le salaire d’un individu. De plus, les Québécois et les Ontariens allouaient un niveau d’importance similaire au réseau de contacts pour réussir dans la vie. Par contre, les Québécois étaient plus favorables à l’intervention étatique pour réduire les inégalités économiques et attribuaient davantage d’importance aux besoins familiaux pour déterminer ce qu’une personne devrait gagner. De manière marginalement significative, les Québécois considéraient dans une moindre mesure que les Ontariens, que les attributs personnels dont le sexe ou la religion affectaient les chances de réussite. L'analyse de contenu des quatre journaux a permis de constater à la fois des ressemblances et des divergences entre les deux provinces. Les deux couvertures médiatiques traitaient sensiblement des mêmes thèmes et rapportaient des sources similaires. Toutefois, il y avait trois différences majeures. Les journaux québécois se sont montrés moins favorables à la Loi sur l’équité salariale que dans la province voisine et ils ont davantage mentionné les conséquences économiques de la loi. Par ailleurs, les causes de l’iniquité salariale rapportées dans les articles au Québec concernaient davantage les différences de capital humain que la discrimination systémique vécue par les femmes, contrairement à ce qui est apparu dans les deux médias en Ontario. Le résultat le plus important de ce mémoire est que la couverture médiatique québécoise ne concorde pas avec l’opinion publique qui était favorable à l’intervention étatique pour réduire les inégalités. Ceci rappelle que les médias ne sont pas le simple reflet de la réalité ni de l'opinion publique. Ils présentent différentes facettes de la réalité à l'intérieur de certains paramètres, dont la structure organisationnelle dans laquelle ils se trouvent. / Many researchers consider that a Quebec model exists for social and economic policies, yet, how does this translate on the level of inequality reduction? More specifically, do Quebec citizens perceive inequalities differently than Ontario and are they quite favorable to government intervention to reduce them? What about Quebec’s press, do they react differently towards this issue? In this thesis, I investigate whether Quebec differs from Ontario in terms of perceptions about and attitudes towards social-economic inequalities. In order to answer this question, two data sources were used: 1) a 1992 ISSP public opinion poll 2) newspaper media coverage of the elaboration of a pay equity law aimed at reducing an inequality. These two data serve as lenses through which to consider differences in perceptions and representation and although distinct, they are complementary. I focus on the cases of Quebec and Ontario. The survey analysis revealed that perceptions and attitudes regarding the importance of performance, education levels, and responsibilities were similar in the two provinces in determining a person’s salary. Moreover, Quebeckers and Ontarians attributed similar levels of importance to social networks to succeed in life. This being said, Quebeckers gave higher levels of support to state intervention to reduce inequalities and granted greater importance to family needs in determining how much a person should earn. A marginally significant result also revealed that Quebeckers considered personal characteristics such as sex and religion less important in determining a person's chances of succeeding in life. The content analysis of four newspapers revealed that Quebeckers and Ontarians shared similarities: both media coverage had similar main themes and sources. However, there are three main differences. Quebec media was less favourable to the pay equity law than its Ontario counterpart and it more frequently mentioned the economic consequences of the law. Additionally, numerous explanations of pay iniquity brought forward by the Quebec press had more to do with differences in human capital than in systemic discrimination towards women, a situation not present in the neighboring province. The core findings of this thesis is that Quebec media representation was quite different from public opinion which was favorable to government intervention to reduce inequalities. This reminds us that the media is not a direct reflection of reality nor of public opinion It frames certain aspects of reality within given parameters notably the organizational structure within which it operates.

No description available.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA (DVS) / The South African government has earmarked infrastructure development as a key driver of the economy. The infrastructure sectors of energy, water and transport have received large Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) loans to fund new projects, repairs and maintenance. The DBSA loan approvals to municipalities for the period 2012-2013 was R2.3 billion. Loans to 'under-resourced' municipalities totalled R927 million for the same period. Key infrastructure sectors included electricity (R466 million), roads and drainage (R678 million), community facilities (R735 million) and water and sanitation (R1.2 billion). The DBSA is owned by the South African state and its relationship with municipalities is legislated and regulated through the Constitution and an Act of Parliament. One of the post-apartheid roles of the DBSA is to support the infrastructure development agenda of the State through a complexed network of infrastructure projects in the key infrastructure sectors of water and sanitation, education, housing, health and housing. It does so through project, technical and development finance support to municipalities. The underlying rationale for the relationship between municipalities and the DBSA is to forward the States' agenda of providing equal access to basic services and develop infrastructure to support its social and economic development agenda. While the DBSA does provide infrastructure grants and facilitates intergovernmental transfers to municipalities, it also provides infrastructure loans to municipalities for both capital expenditure and large-scale infrastructure projects. The premise of development banks is to provide development finance for infrastructure projects at low interest. The DBSA specifically as a state-owned bank has an overall agenda to develop the infrastructure of poorer municipalities whose credit-worthiness will not allow it to qualify for commercial loans.

Many families have been deprived access to basic human needs like food, clothing, shelter, protection, education and health services because of poverty. In South Africa poverty remains a challenge, resulting from economic and social inequalities, where 40% of its population still live in poverty (Landman, Bhorat, Van der Berg & Van Aardt 2003). The study aimed at ascertaining and describing the needs identified by adult members living in poverty, in the Lukhanji Municipality. The researcher used a probability, systematic, random sampling method to obtain respondents for the study. A non-experimental, descriptive, quantitative research approach was adopted. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 150 respondents, after which a numerical data analysis was done with the assistance of a statistician. Unemployment could be ascribed to lack of education and skills, which exposed families to poor living conditions, ill-health, insecurity and other social ills. Recommendations were made to solve these problems. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

The premise of the research concerns negative spatial legacies and questions doubting the existence of the true post-apartheid city in South Africa. The study describes the socio-spatial structure of the functional urban core of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM). An empirical analysis, a unique segregation-desegregation classification, a relative socio-economic classification and three continuity-discontinuity hypotheses was used to compare past and present socio-spatial characteristics. Structural racial-residential segregation is evident along with high levels of socio-economic inequality. Spatial polarisation of societal attributes has created a clear north-west and south-east divide in the study area. The study area is described as one with a central-south citadel (inhabited by the wealthy) and a dynamic periphery (diverse but relatively deprived). Current socio-spatial characteristics can be attributed to strong spatial legacies, ineffective policy interventions and underlying socio-spatial influences that inhibit true inclusivity and equality in the study area. / Geography / M. Sc. (Geography)

Many families have been deprived access to basic human needs like food, clothing, shelter, protection, education and health services because of poverty. In South Africa poverty remains a challenge, resulting from economic and social inequalities, where 40% of its population still live in poverty (Landman, Bhorat, Van der Berg & Van Aardt 2003). The study aimed at ascertaining and describing the needs identified by adult members living in poverty, in the Lukhanji Municipality. The researcher used a probability, systematic, random sampling method to obtain respondents for the study. A non-experimental, descriptive, quantitative research approach was adopted. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 150 respondents, after which a numerical data analysis was done with the assistance of a statistician. Unemployment could be ascribed to lack of education and skills, which exposed families to poor living conditions, ill-health, insecurity and other social ills. Recommendations were made to solve these problems. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

The premise of the research concerns negative spatial legacies and questions doubting the existence of the true post-apartheid city in South Africa. The study describes the socio-spatial structure of the functional urban core of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM). An empirical analysis, a unique segregation-desegregation classification, a relative socio-economic classification and three continuity-discontinuity hypotheses was used to compare past and present socio-spatial characteristics. Structural racial-residential segregation is evident along with high levels of socio-economic inequality. Spatial polarisation of societal attributes has created a clear north-west and south-east divide in the study area. The study area is described as one with a central-south citadel (inhabited by the wealthy) and a dynamic periphery (diverse but relatively deprived). Current socio-spatial characteristics can be attributed to strong spatial legacies, ineffective policy interventions and underlying socio-spatial influences that inhibit true inclusivity and equality in the study area. / Geography / M. Sc. (Geography)