This thesis comprises two papers exploring aspects of public finance and environmental economics in Namibia. Paper [I] estimates the shadow prices of capital, labour and foreign exchange for the Namibian economy. The results suggest that the shadow price of capital for Namibia is 8%. The economic costs of Namibian labour, as a share of financial costs, are 32% for urban semi- and unskilled labour, and 54% for rural semi- and unskilled labour. The economic cost of foreign labour as a share of financial costs is 59%. The estimated range for the shadow exchange rate factor is between 7% and 14% for the Namibian economy. Paper [II] studies the determinants of property prices in the township areas of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. The study reveals that properties located close to an environmental hazard, such as a garbage dump, sell at considerable discounts. On the other hand properties located near an environmentally favourable location, such as recreational open space, sell at a premium. These results provide evidence of the importance of environmental quality in lower income property markets in developing countries. It is therefore important for Namibian urban planners to incorporate environmental quality within the planning framework for lower income areas.

This thesis examines the everyday experiences of Anglophone communities in three different regions of Quebec – the Gaspésie, Gatineau and Eastern Townships – with the aim to understand their sense of place. Specifically, the focus is on the role of different geographic contexts on everyday access to social services, particularly healthcare, and how these experiences contribute to Anglophones’ place attachment. Data collection involved semi-structured personal interviews with ten participants in each region. Comparative analysis yielded three main findings: (1) issues with accessing healthcare in English reinforces Anglophones’ minority status; (2) in spite of the challenges faced as a linguistic minority, Anglophones demonstrate a strong sense of place to their region; and (3) feelings of home, heritage, and rootedness constitute elements in Anglophones’ place attachment and contribute to their sense of place in Quebec. The study also concludes that age, mobility, and location are important variables in influencing everyday experiences in each of the three regions.

This thesis examines the everyday experiences of Anglophone communities in three different regions of Quebec – the Gaspésie, Gatineau and Eastern Townships – with the aim to understand their sense of place. Specifically, the focus is on the role of different geographic contexts on everyday access to social services, particularly healthcare, and how these experiences contribute to Anglophones’ place attachment. Data collection involved semi-structured personal interviews with ten participants in each region. Comparative analysis yielded three main findings: (1) issues with accessing healthcare in English reinforces Anglophones’ minority status; (2) in spite of the challenges faced as a linguistic minority, Anglophones demonstrate a strong sense of place to their region; and (3) feelings of home, heritage, and rootedness constitute elements in Anglophones’ place attachment and contribute to their sense of place in Quebec. The study also concludes that age, mobility, and location are important variables in influencing everyday experiences in each of the three regions.

Since local governments in Taiwan were given the power of self governance in 1950, the administrative divisions haven¡¦t been readjusted. After 60-year development, the population distribution and urban modes have totally changed. Without readjustment of the administrative divisions, human resource could not be reasonably deployed, resources wasted, regional development gaps widened and the entire country development was severely influenced. Under the impact of globalization and in response to new development in all aspects, such as politics, economics, society and territory, the governmental system and function have to be re-defined and administrative divisions and organization structure have to be readjusted to build an idealized and high-effective government. In recent years, local self-governing groups around the world also moved on to merging to cope with local fiscal predicament and promote the empowerment of local governing groups to enhance their administrative ability. The academic also comprehend the urgent importance of the merging of urban and rural townships and thus propose different resolution projects and strategies and directions of merging and adjustment. The author managed to sort different literature into supporting theories of merging and foreign cases about the merging of local self-governing groups. Based on the above theories and cases and through data envelopment analysis (DEA), the author simulated different merging programs of urban and rural townships, compared the efficiency before merging and that after merging, and proposed concrete suggestion towards the inefficient self-governing groups. The result showed that the program of merging urban and rural townships could increase the efficiency in every aspect. The conclusion can serve as reference to the future implement of the program of merging urban and rural townships.

The aims of this research were to investigate, by means of both literature review and empirical research, the incidence and manifestation of conduct disorders among adolescents growing up in the Vaal Triangle townships, with a view to suggesting a psycho-social intervention programme to help them learn life-skills which will decrease their susceptibility to depression and anxiety. According to the literature findings, depression and anxiety co-occur with conduct disorders during adolescence. An intervention progamme can therefore help these learner adolescents develop effective coping skills to help them deal with environmental factors that cause stress, depression and anxiety. The findings from the literature review revealed that adolescence is the highest risk period for the onset of conduct disorders such as, inter alia, substance use disorders, aggressiveness, destruction of property, defiance of authority, frightening and disturbing of adults, fighting, bullying, lying, destructiveness and defiance. The conduct problems also include the more or less troublesome and involuntary behaviours commonly associated with adolescence such as tempertantrums, bouts of screaming and crying, surliness and episodes of commanding or pestering behaviour. The co-occurrence of depression, anxiety and conduct disorders in adolescents was, according to various researchers, also associated with more severe alcohol and drug-related problems, more prolonged depressive and anxiety episodes and increased frequency of behavioural problems, more severe impairment in interpersonal and academic competencies, increased utilization of mental health services, as well as elevated risk of suicide. The literature also revealed that the period of adolescence is also marked by conflicting feelings about security and independence, rapid physical changes, developing sexuality, peer pressure and self-consciousness. This becomes a time of rapid physiological and psychological changes, of intensive re -adjustment to the family, school, work and social life and of preparation for adult roles. These changes are noticeable for their conduct disorders and behavioural accompaniments, and problems arising at this time may attract attention because the adolescent"s conduct and behaviour become obtrusive in the school and the home or elsewhere and evoke a sense of urgency for response. Effective support programmes such as individual educational support and group educational support were regarded by the literature as having the efficacy to prevent the development of conduct disorders. The empirical research findings revealed that adolescent participants who formed the population sample of this research were aggressive; characterized by risky behaviour such as staying with friends until very late at night and coming to school carrying a knife and bullying other children in class; deceitfulness or theft which manifested in the form of stealing from other children's schoolbags, stealing food and pens, and lying; serious violation of rules such as being disruptive in class, bunking school, and not coming to school regularly, conflict with parents, educators and others which manifests in the form of always being in trouble for beating up other learners in class, especially those that are younger, and being rebellious at home, mood disruptions such as bursting in anger, aggressive, being happy one moment and then angry and sad the next, and poor performance at school resulting in failing grades. Recommendations for educational practice and further research were made. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.

The aims of this research were to investigate, by means of both literature review and empirical research, the incidence and manifestation of conduct disorders among adolescents growing up in the Vaal Triangle townships, with a view to suggesting a psycho-social intervention programme to help them learn life-skills which will decrease their susceptibility to depression and anxiety. According to the literature findings, depression and anxiety co-occur with conduct disorders during adolescence. An intervention progamme can therefore help these learner adolescents develop effective coping skills to help them deal with environmental factors that cause stress, depression and anxiety. The findings from the literature review revealed that adolescence is the highest risk period for the onset of conduct disorders such as, inter alia, substance use disorders, aggressiveness, destruction of property, defiance of authority, frightening and disturbing of adults, fighting, bullying, lying, destructiveness and defiance. The conduct problems also include the more or less troublesome and involuntary behaviours commonly associated with adolescence such as tempertantrums, bouts of screaming and crying, surliness and episodes of commanding or pestering behaviour. The co-occurrence of depression, anxiety and conduct disorders in adolescents was, according to various researchers, also associated with more severe alcohol and drug-related problems, more prolonged depressive and anxiety episodes and increased frequency of behavioural problems, more severe impairment in interpersonal and academic competencies, increased utilization of mental health services, as well as elevated risk of suicide. The literature also revealed that the period of adolescence is also marked by conflicting feelings about security and independence, rapid physical changes, developing sexuality, peer pressure and self-consciousness. This becomes a time of rapid physiological and psychological changes, of intensive re -adjustment to the family, school, work and social life and of preparation for adult roles. These changes are noticeable for their conduct disorders and behavioural accompaniments, and problems arising at this time may attract attention because the adolescent"s conduct and behaviour become obtrusive in the school and the home or elsewhere and evoke a sense of urgency for response. Effective support programmes such as individual educational support and group educational support were regarded by the literature as having the efficacy to prevent the development of conduct disorders. The empirical research findings revealed that adolescent participants who formed the population sample of this research were aggressive; characterized by risky behaviour such as staying with friends until very late at night and coming to school carrying a knife and bullying other children in class; deceitfulness or theft which manifested in the form of stealing from other children's schoolbags, stealing food and pens, and lying; serious violation of rules such as being disruptive in class, bunking school, and not coming to school regularly, conflict with parents, educators and others which manifests in the form of always being in trouble for beating up other learners in class, especially those that are younger, and being rebellious at home, mood disruptions such as bursting in anger, aggressive, being happy one moment and then angry and sad the next, and poor performance at school resulting in failing grades. Recommendations for educational practice and further research were made. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.

This thesis examines the everyday experiences of Anglophone communities in three different regions of Quebec – the Gaspésie, Gatineau and Eastern Townships – with the aim to understand their sense of place. Specifically, the focus is on the role of different geographic contexts on everyday access to social services, particularly healthcare, and how these experiences contribute to Anglophones’ place attachment. Data collection involved semi-structured personal interviews with ten participants in each region. Comparative analysis yielded three main findings: (1) issues with accessing healthcare in English reinforces Anglophones’ minority status; (2) in spite of the challenges faced as a linguistic minority, Anglophones demonstrate a strong sense of place to their region; and (3) feelings of home, heritage, and rootedness constitute elements in Anglophones’ place attachment and contribute to their sense of place in Quebec. The study also concludes that age, mobility, and location are important variables in influencing everyday experiences in each of the three regions.

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This thesis examines the everyday experiences of Anglophone communities in three different regions of Quebec – the Gaspésie, Gatineau and Eastern Townships – with the aim to understand their sense of place. Specifically, the focus is on the role of different geographic contexts on everyday access to social services, particularly healthcare, and how these experiences contribute to Anglophones’ place attachment. Data collection involved semi-structured personal interviews with ten participants in each region. Comparative analysis yielded three main findings: (1) issues with accessing healthcare in English reinforces Anglophones’ minority status; (2) in spite of the challenges faced as a linguistic minority, Anglophones demonstrate a strong sense of place to their region; and (3) feelings of home, heritage, and rootedness constitute elements in Anglophones’ place attachment and contribute to their sense of place in Quebec. The study also concludes that age, mobility, and location are important variables in influencing everyday experiences in each of the three regions.

The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the resilience processes employed by families from a low socio-economic background living in a predominantly black township (Mamelodi). The study further aimed to assess how the participants’ experiences have shaped their perceptions of their society. Walsh’s family resilience framework (2003) served as a conceptual framework for the study. Two grandparent-headed households were selected from an ongoing study at a nongovernmental organisation and drop-in centre in Mamelodi. A qualitative methodology was suitable for this study, because it aims to understand how the participants derive meaning from the social and cultural contexts within which they live. The two focus group discussions were conducted in isiZulu, with a translator present during the grandmothers’ focus group discussion, because one of the grandmothers spoke Xitsonga. The sessions were audio-recorded and later transcribed. The transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis in order to deduce themes that emerged from the participants’ experiences. Based on the results, a better understanding of how families from low socio-economic backbackgrounds develop their resilience was established through the themes that emerged, which were as follows: belief system, flexibility of roles and connectedness, unsupportive environment, and self-empowerment. The results were related to existing literature and Walsh’s family resilience framework. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Educational Psychology / MEd