The question of the meaning of Heritage has evolved for more than two hundred years. Calls for a common understanding of Heritage have developed extensively in the last four decades leading to the incorporation of diverse practices in its management. This shift in management could be perceived in a positive sense as adaptive and progressive or alternatively in a negative sense as extensive and opportunistic. The factors influencing the practice and theory of Heritage management keep increasing under these layers, leading to the inclusion of various other fields. This leads to the underlying importance of Heritage being defined as a multi-disciplinary field. The study identifies that there is a lack of coherent understanding among experts and locals on how buildings of historical importance can be listed and managed in a participatory manner. There is a need for a platform for direct communication between stakeholders involved in the management of these buildings of local historical importance. Recently, with the introduction of Localism Act 2011, National Planning Policy Framework 2012, Enterprise and regulatory Reform Act 2013, the gaps and the issues identified at the beginning of this research in 2009 are corroborated. These acts and guidance were introduced to streamline the planning system and in relation to this research will help in having a linear process in Heritage management. It supports the idea of Big Society where more power is given to citizens and helps in moving towards a participatory approach to planning. Through decentralisation, as the government gives power back to the people, it is important to understand that each stakeholder has an important role to play in any development. Hence stakeholder collaboration is the key to success of any project. The aims of this research are: to understand the decision-making processes in the management of historic buildings in London and to propose a conceptual framework to assist in participatory decision-making. This will aid the Heritage Partnership Agreements (HPA) proposed by the UK government. The literature review explores the concepts of Heritage management, Heritage production model, decision-making, participatory planning and community engagement and a conceptual framework is developed. Two case studies from London, The Brunswick and Brixton Market, are conducted for data collection. Rigorous data collection and analysis using NVivo is employed. Research findings from these exploratory studies confirm that there is a need for a common platform for stakeholder interaction and participatory planning; and different stakeholders have different priorities leading to the need of a shared vision. There exists a gap between communities’ desired management of the building and the stakeholders’ expectation. This study generates new knowledge about the needs for attaining stakeholder engagement in the management of Heritage. This study also offers a methodological contribution that could be applied to a similar study on Heritage in different cities and countries.

This thesis examines within the institutional framework settings how the concept of Sustainable and Responsible Property Investment (SRPI) has developed and to the extent SRPI has been adopted in a developing country, namely Malaysia. The question of Sustainable and Responsible Property Investment (SRPI) interpretation is important in this context given that developing countries represent the most rapidly expanding economies and most lucrative markets for property investment. Specifically the thesis examines the understandings of SRPI and the concept link with SRI, and the drivers and barriers to SRPI practice. Specifically, the thesis investigates how particular Malaysian Property Investment organisations (MPIOs) have interpreted the concept of SRPI, and whether the overall concept of SRPI has taken similar or different form than the practice in developed market. The study used a mixed-method approach. It uses triangulation of data collection methods and multiple techniques including content analysis and Delphi technique. The study used a modified institutional framework to aid in explaining, interpreting and understanding the divergence/convergence of SRPI in the developing country context. Content analysis of selected public listed property investment organisations in Malaysia i.e. real estate investment trusts (REITS), property companies and institutional investor reports from 2008 to 2011 proceeded through line-by-line analysis and coding according to inductively generated categories. The results from content analysis revealed a narrow representation of SRPI in the MPIOs reports. Despite the requirement by the Bursa Malaysia to report on CSR and sustainability activities, there were minimal disclosures on environmental and social impacts caused by their property management and investment activities, on most reports shows emphasis of MPIO’s on philanthropic activities. The Delphi study aims to explore, examine and build on the views of experts and influential people in SRPI. It was also felt necessary to combine local expertise and experts from developed countries. Overall, SRPI in Malaysia takes different form than SRPI in countries where is SRPI mainstreamed. The study points in the direction of SRPI “cross-vergence”, whereby global convergence and local divergence forces are interacting synergistically. The National and Cultural religious value in particular are two strong elements supporting the drivers of divergence of SRPI. Through the rigorous exploration this thesis contributes to the further understanding of sustainable and responsible investment and the drivers. The proposed framework has provided the principles, whereas the empirical work translated the principles into practice. The results of the thesis contribute to the literature by providing new evidence on the drivers of SRPI in emerging market. These findings would be of use to property investors and other actors in the industry, including fund manager.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

L'altération de l'environnement liée aux activités humaines a ouvert un nouveau débat, tant les conséquences, qu'elles soient à long terme comme à court terme, sont potentiellement graves, et vont jusqu’à remettre en cause, sinon la pérennité de l'Humanité, du moins ses modes de vie contemporains, conduisant à réfléchir à la perspective d'un développement durable. De portée générale et pratique, cette notion peut se décliner dans sur de nombreux objets, dont la ville, qui serait un champ d’application privilégié du développement durable et un terreau propice à l'émergence d'innovations. Dans ce contexte, on constate que les écoquartiers apparaissent comme des lieux privilégiés où fabriquer la ville durable : ils constitueraient même des laboratoires d’expérimentation et de diffusion de l'innovation. Parmi les différents thèmes de la durabilité urbaine, la mobilité, qui entretien des liens particulièrement forts avec la question de l’aménagement, est ressortie comme source d'enjeux particulièrement forts du point de vue de la durabilité ! La question centrale de la thèse est de comprendre les modalités qui régissent, dans le cadre de la fabrication d'écoquartiers, la conception d'innovations portant la mobilité durable. Partant d'un survey de la littérature, d'une étude des dossiers de candidature des lauréats aux Palmarès EcoQuartier, et d'études de cas, cette thèse montre, à travers une approche systémique, qu'il existe des dynamiques favorables à l’innovation. Elle permet aussi de montrer que l’innovation est à rechercher dans les synergies et les liens tissés entre tous les acteurs. / The alteration of the environment due to human activities has opened a new debate, as the consequences, whether in the long term as in the short term are potentially catastrophic. The consequences of the global warming, and go up to question, if not the survival of Humanity, at least its contemporary lifestyles, are leading the Humanity to consider the perspective of sustainable development. From general and practical significance, this concept of “sustainable development” can be divided in on many items – including the city – which would be a fertile ground for the emergence of innovations. In this context, we see that the eco-neighborhoods (french: “écoquartiers”) appear as privileged places where sustainable cities are designed and constructed. Moreover, they even constitute laboratories which permit experimentation and diffusion of innovation. Among the themes of urban sustainability, mobility entertains particularly strong ties to the question of urban planning. She has emerged as a source of particularly strong challenges from the perspective of sustainability! The central question of this thesis is to understand the terms and conditions which rule, during the production of eco-neighborhood, the way to design innovations in relation to sustainable mobility. Starting from a survey of the literature, a study of the applications forms of the winners to the “Palmarès EcoQuartier” and case studies, this thesis shows, through a systemic approach, that favorable dynamics to the innovation exists. This research will also demonstrates that innovation is to look for in the synergies and the links between all the stakeholders of the urban design.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / This thesis is an attempt to define the role of the circus and crescent relative to their influence upon British town planning. In this study both of these forms have been examined in light of their spiritual and aesthetic qualities, not only isolated, self-sustaining structures, but as nuclei of a greater urban organization. The unique contribution made by these forms upon British town planning during the 18th and 19th centuries can be seen in the appearance of the free space-form, a totally new concept in the articulation of exterior urban space. The dissertation does not pretend to be an exhaustive chronological history of the circus and crescent from their inception at Bath during the 18th century. Instead, the author has examined certain examples of these forms which have been principally characterized by the exploitation of free space in the urban scene, and which have influenced the directional continuum in the formation of urban space [TRUNCATED]

As more in-depth research is carried out in global warming, greenhouse gases and relevant fields, scholars are no longer satisfied with the achievements they have gained in investigating the operating mechanism of greenhouse gases; they want to develop more complex and challenging measures to reduce the impact of human behaviours on the environment and further achieve sustainable development based on the harmony bewteen man and nature. The transport sector, in most countries, has been identified as one of the major sources of the greenhouse gases, second to the industrial and energy sectors, giving rise to the assertion that a proper understanding of the CO[sub]2 emission mechanism in the transport sector, would be helpful to policy makers and urban designers with regard to reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. However, the concept and related studies of CO[sub]2 emission reduction are not yet completed, leading to an absence of a systematic understanding on the CO[sub]2 emissions from small-scale transport system in towns and small regions. Typically when trying to analyse the preference of commuters over transport modes, the increasing number of variables substantially complicates the model; further, an insufficiently clear logic among variables makes the model more complex and existing models do not address the problem clearly. To make a significant contribution to current knowledge, this study has developed a model, covering small-scale regions with full consideration of human activities, which adopts the concept of the grey system. The grey system enables researchers to use historical data to repair data records in the case of constraints and faults in the records. In addition, the model also uses the artificial network algorithm, which functions as a self-improving algorithm, provided that sufficient preliminary data are available. With resort to the self-learning ability and the fuzzy calculating function of the algorithm, the model could simulate and predict the decision making of commuters in order to infer the CO[sub]2 emissions in a small-scale region. Kingston-upon-Thames in the UK is the basis in this model which collects and analyses related data from the transport network in the area. The predictive outcome of the model is found to be consistent with the outcome from a survey conducted by the local council, supported by the UK government. Compared with traditional models, this model can use sporadic data as the basis of the analysis to ensure the accuracy of prediction while substantially reducing costs. In addition, it can build a distinctive data blueprint for specific research questions, satisfy the demand of practitioners and strategists and policy makers, and describe local transport networks with specific travel goals (such as a tourist bus). Moreover, this model is highly adaptable and developed in line with different research needs (policy making, transport system planning, travel behaviour simulation, etc.) in different target groups and regions. This study also summarizes the limitations of the model in its final section while specifying the future direction required to achieve further reduction in CO[sub]2 emissions from transport networks.

A Year in the City is a mosaic novel set in contemporary an historical Sydney. It is 70, 000 words long, and contains twelve different narratives, with the American author Mark Twain appearing as a fictional character in the opening and closing. A Year in the City seeks to represent the fragmented, multicultural nature of Sydney through a diverse range of narrators and styles. Each of the chapters is linked through the themes of belonging, race, land ownership. The Sydney portrayed in the novel is what Leonie Sandercock called a Mongrel City, a metaphor used to characterise the &quotnew urban condition in which difference, otherness, fragmentation, splintering, multiplicity, heterogeneity, diversity, [and] plurality prevail.&quot A Year in the City intends to celebrate cultural and racial heterogeneity. It is accompanied by a research dissertation of 30, 000 words, that investigates the project of writing about the city and the theme of race. It explores the imagined city through the work of James Donald and Ross Gibson, and addresses the challenge of capturing the lived experience in text, as theorised by Henri Lefebvre. The mosaic structure of A Year in the City borrows from Michel de Certeau's theory of walking the city and Walter Benjamin's flaneur. The issue of race is discussed in relation to the representation of white and non-white characters against the dominant white society.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Rice University, Houston, Texas, 2001. / Chair: James D. Faubion. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983.

This study seeks to provide an overview of the intra-urban population movement of the Malay ethnic group. It deals specifically with the housing decisions of the Malay middle-class in the context of the rapidly expanding conventional housing market. The study deals with family life-cycle, housing search, housing and locational choice, home ownership, and the spatial outcome of residential mobility. The study examines the factors leading to housing relocation amongst the Malay middle-class households. The aim of the study is to assess the relative importance of household characteristics and socio-cultural factors in determining the residential mobility of the Malay middle-class in Kuala Lumpur. The analysis of the study is based on a survey undertaken by the author in 1989 which examines the factors leading to the households' housing relocation decisions and subsequent adjustments to the new neighbourhood environment. The findings of the study indicate that the desire for home ownership is the paramount reason while the need for more space plays an important supporting role. A large majority of the moving households preferred a mixed-community neighbourhoods, perhaps reflecting the multi-ethnic character of Kuala Lumpur. In addition, many of these households placed a high value on residential areas with positive environmental and neighbourhood attributes. The study concludes that the established residential areas in the Western sector of the city, notably residential areas in Damansara, Bangsar and Taman Tun Dr. Ismail are the most sought-after neighbourhoods. Such neighbourhoods confer not only high socio-economic status, but also high environmental quality attributes.