Water shortage is one of the greatest challenges that the world faces today. International and national water initiatives are increasing simultaneously with the number of implemented drinking-water projects. The provision of sustainable safe drinking-water supply is here conceptualized through the Sustainable Livelihood Approach with the view of helping poor people secure their essential basic needs, improve their quality of health and increase their livelihood opportunities. However, a lot of drinking-water projects do not end up with satisfactory outcomes. Widespread results have demonstrated low quality water resource management, worsened access to water supply, constructions shutting down and not the least, that consumers have not been able to take advantage of their new basic drinking-water systems. Projects have often failed in remote rural areas in developing countries where strong social norms, cultural values and power structures prevail. The research is based on identifying and analyzing to what extent past drinking-water projects have addressed public participation and been aware of social, cultural and structural surrounding factors. By using Gunilla Åkesson’s sociological framework the research also addresses the role and value of sociological aspects in drinking-water projects. It is found that past projects have often failed to include public participation and lacked situational awareness to a sufficient extent. The research show the importance for projects staff, managers and technicians to take into account social behaviors, cultural norms and societal structures in the local environment and to provide local people with health awareness and education. By taking this into consideration it would enable people to change their behavior and take advantage of the improved drinking-water systems provided for them. In conclusion, there is a need to address more sociological aspects in water resource management in order to promote sustainable safe drinking-water supplies in remote rural areas in developing countries. It can be argued that this is not only applicable in drinking-water projects but also in other areas of fields within grass root development work.

This research examined 50 financial education programs within the state of Florida. The purpose of the research was to survey financial education program providers to see how they are evolving to meet the sociological, psychological and behavioral factors that affect individual’s financial decision making. In constructing the survey I referenced articles, journals and publications regarding how certain factors can affect an individual and their ability to apply financial education to their daily life. This review of previous research showed that tailored education, to determine a participant’s means, ability and goals, is the best way to help participants achieve financial independence. In this literature review no specific details were found on how programs are evolving or how existing program offerings are filling the need for tailored financial education. This topic is important because financial decisions that people make will not only affect current generations but also future generations. I contacted 50 agencies with a 27 question survey regarding their basic organizational structure, funding, program details, success determinants, primary program goals and focus, and marketing strategies. 36% of those contacted, or 18 organizations, responded. All responses were compiled and compared to determine relationships among program structures, offerings, and goals. The primary findings were that most organizations opened after 2000, have budgets under $100,000 funded primarily by two main sources, and their main goals are to provide basic knowledge and education to help participants improve financial decisions. In addition, most programs conduct a pre-post survey or get participant feedback to evaluate programs and use the number of participants at meetings as their main success factor. The majority of programs do not collect financial information, however they provide one-on-one counseling to focus on tailoring education to 501+ participants per year. Recommendations for future research are to increase the number of respondents, look deeper into funding requirements, the program lifecycle, marketing strategies employed and their effectiveness, and what specific financial education topics programs are addressing. This will add to existing research by providing a broader view of the financial education landscape and help programs to evolve to meet the need for tailored education.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:55:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Lopes da Silva.pdf: 2017866 bytes, checksum: 9d8986584beaa350fa0d44c75ba8bf36 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-08-16 / The increasing quality lost of underground water all over the world, due to intensified antropic action during many decades, may make impracticable the future use of this natural resource. The modernity including its promise of adventure, power, joy, growth, interior change and change of the things around it (...) is at the same time the threat to all we have, all we know, all we are (Berman, 1988). According to this idea, the environment issue claims the problematicals consequences of the modernity and capitalist dynamics. Many are the environment problems, such as the freatic water pollution. These resources already supply more than 50% of the world population with water. The way today we face the environment problem and the way we understand them, its instruments, its politics such as all the dynamic brought in the search of its confrontation, are part of the big questions of this century. The freatic water environment problems occurs whenever more people demand higher life style standard with cheaper technologies, even if the involuntary sub products include the soil degradation, the toxic polluter, the animal species´ extinction or the climate changes. The environment is the totality of physiographic factors (soil), water, forest, relief, geology, landscape, meteorological factors and climate factors added to psycho-socials inherent to human nature (such as behavior, well-being, mind spirit, job, health, food) added to sociological factors such as culture, civility, sociability, respect and peace. So the planet Earth should be considered as a unique system. As we expand our understanding about the system which controls the environment and its never-ending interconnections, potential solutions will consolidate. The study of freatic water systems capacity/potentiality and natural geosystems as support to human needs will be a way of consolidating the scientific knowledge. It will do the necessary inter-relation between the natural environment and human potentiality. This way, an increasing consciousness related to environment issue appears as the possibility of the union between human and nature, both can t be analyzed as excludents poles. In the next pages, Goiânia and Aparecida de Goiânia cities are explore about yours underground water. / A crescente perda da qualidade das águas subterrâneas em todo o mundo, devido à ação antrópica intensificada ao longo de muitas décadas, pode inviabilizar a utilização futura desse recurso natural. A modernidade dentro de sua promessa de aventura, poder, alegria, crescimento, autotransformação e transformação das coisas ao seu redor (...) é ao mesmo tempo ameaça a tudo que temos, tudo o que sabemos, tudo o que somos . Nesse sentido a questão ambiental evoca as conseqüências problemáticas da modernidade e da dinâmica capitalista. Vários são os problemas ambientais, entre eles a poluição dos lençóis freáticos, que já abastecem mais de 50% da população mundial, a maneira que hoje enfrentamos, a circunstância como se dá esse entendimento, de seus instrumentos, de suas políticas, assim como toda a dinâmica na busca de seu enfrentamento fazem parte das grandes questões do nosso século. Os problemas ambientais com os lençóis freáticos surgem porque cada vez mais pessoas exigem padrões de vida mais altos com tecnologias mais baratas, mesmo que os subprodutos involuntários incluam a degradação dos solos, os poluentes tóxicos, a extinção de espécies animais ou alterações climáticas. Assim o meio ambiente sadio, ou seja, a totalidade dos fatores fisiográficos tais como o solo, a água, a floresta, o relevo, a geologia, a paisagem, fatores meteoros-climáticos mais os fatores psicossociais inerentes á natureza humana (comportamento, bem-estar, estado de espírito, trabalho, saúde, alimentação, etc.) somados aos fatores sociológicos como cultura, civilidade, convivência, o respeito, a paz etc. é que iluminará a sobrevivência humana. Dessa forma, planeta Terra deve ser visto como um único sistema e na medida em que expandirmos nossa compreensão sobre o sistema que controla o meio ambiente, das suas infinitas interligações, soluções potenciais se consolidarão. O estudo da capacidade/potencialidade dos sistemas freáticos e geossistemas naturais, como suporte às necessidades humanas, é ou será uma forma de consolidar o conhecimento cientifico e que dará a inter-relação necessária entre o meio natural e as potencialidades humanas. Desse modo, uma crescente conscientização acerca da questão ambiental, surge como a possibilidade de união entre o HOMEM e a NATUREZA, que não podem ser tomados como pólos excludentes. Nas páginas seguintes, exploram-se as condições ambientais, especialmente o lençol freático subterrâneo das cidades de Goiânia e Aparecida de Goiânia.

Work is an essential activity that provides goods or services of value to oneself and others. Paradoxically, in a bid for self-realisation, workers are seriously endangered. Work-related or induced diseases and stresses pose serious threats to workers’ health and the general well-being, hence, the need to seriously consider the issue of occupational health and safety of workers. In terms of safety at work, the experience of small and medium scale enterprises (SMSEs) worldwide is that of neglect. Their incomes are very low and uncertain, coupled with high levels of risk and hazard in their work, with little or no social protection coverage (Chen, 2008). This study therefore examines how environmental and sociological factors determine occupational health and safety of workers in SMSEs in Lagos State, Nigeria. Ulrich Beck “Risk Society” theory, Political Economy of Health framework (PEH) (Minkler et al 1994, Linnan et al, 2001) and Labour Process Theory (LPT) (Braverman, 1974; Marx, 1976; Bottome, 1991) underpinned the study. The study adopts both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The qualitative method includes field observation of the selected workplaces, six Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and eight In-depth interviews (IDIs). The quantitative involved the use of structured questionnaire. The sample survey involved 180 respondents in a multi-stage sampling technique from purposively selected sawmills, mechanic villages and blacksmith cottages in three Local Government Areas in Lagos State. The quantitative data analysis uses simple percentile and univariate analyses, while the qualitative data are content-analysed, based on the objectives of the study. The findings identified low level of education (60.5%), and poor awareness of OHS in SMSEs (86.1%). It further reveals poor physical (69.5%) and technological environment (70.5%), unavailability of OHS facilities (60.5%) and prevention methods by manager/owners (60.5%), carefree attitudes of workers/managers/owners to OHS (69.5), non-acquaintance of workers to OHS laws (86.1%), workers’ economic incapacitation to deal with issues of occupational hazard (76.1%), lack of enforcement of OHS (88.3%), and transferring knowledge on OHS (82.2%) in the selected SMSEs. The study recommends roles for managers/owners, workers, trade associations, government, non-governmental organisations to promote effective OHS in the selected SMSEs. / Sociology / D.Phil. (Sociology)