Projeto Axé is a non-governmental organization that carries out political-pedagogical work and art education for children and adolescents living in a street situation in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. I conducted an exploratory ethnographic study with Projeto Axé's Street Education program in order to observe its day-to-day activities and to conduct a utilization-focused program evaluation (Patton 1997) of its pedagogical praxis. This thesis will describe how ethnographic fieldwork methods are interwoven with the political-pedagogical approaches of Projeto Axé's Street Education program and explain how street educators attempt to construct citizenship with participants in the Street Education program. Findings are based on an analysis of data collected during three months of fieldwork, during which I observed the day-to-day activities of the Street Education program and formally interviewed seven street educators. Projeto Axé's street educators employ ethnographic fieldwork methods in order to more holistically understand the everyday lives of street youth, as well as the dynamics of "street culture" that emerge in the particular urban spaces frequented by street youth. The result is an anthropological understanding that serves as the foundation for street education activities, through which street youth are provoked to think critically about their everyday reality in order to transform it (Freire 1970). The construction of citizenship through Street Education is based on the "pedagogy of desire" (Carvalho 2000), a psychological-sociocultural theory of learning developed by the organization specifically for working with youth living in a street situation. Street education and the construction of citizenship begin and happen with the desire of street youth. The content of street education is not fixed or predetermined, but emerges out of a particular street youth's desires, needs, and dialogues with street educators. I conclude that, combined with Freireian-inspired political pedagogy and the pedagogy of desire, the use of ethnographic fieldwork methods by street educators is crucial for Projeto Axé's attempts at realizing radical transformations in the lives of street youth. Furthermore, Projeto Axé's anthropological approaches to the social and political inclusion of street youth increase the adaptability of its street pedagogy to the local socio-cultural realities emergent in other urban spaces.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / ABSTRACT It is estimated that there are currently 3.9 million people living in urban poverty in Thailand, without the existence of an effective social assistance safety-net. This thesis presents an analysis of Thai governments’ urban poverty alleviation policy. The central aim of the thesis is to question whether Thai government policy on urban poverty alleviation can be effective for the poor and the poorest in urban slum communities. Qualitative methods are used, supported by documentary research, and the author’s own experience of being a community development worker and researcher in the urban slums of Thailand over a period of 18 years. I have endeavoured to elicit information from the range of stakeholders engaged with contemporary urban poverty alleviation policy in Bangkok. Thus the research includes the perspectives of policy makers, the poor, and the poorest. I distinguish between these latter two groups by describing those who have access to some government provision for the urban poor and those who are excluded from such provision. I interviewed 18 policy makers, 15 community savings groups committee members, and 65 of the excluded poorest. I investigated the development of policy relating to the urban poor through an analysis of key government reports and documents. I examined all of the government policy documents relating to policies for urban poverty alleviation and the Thai Governments’ five year National Economic and (later) Social Development Plans from 1961 to 2006. I also analysed each of the fifty four Government statements on their policies to the National Assembly covering this period. This research produced two major new vehicles for understanding and interpreting Thai government urban poverty alleviation policy. First, the policy document research enabled me to construct a critical account of the historical development of policy relating to the urban poor, particularly those in slum communities. Second, the interviews produced a unique view of the often desperate lives lived by some Thai citizens who are part of communities residing in what is estimated as 2,000 slums in Thailand. This view is seen through the eyes of both the urban poor and the policy makers. I found attitudes of the policy makers towards the urban poor contain a number of diverse stances, both negative and positive. The Government’s preferred way of helping, previously by housing improvements, and recently by promoting credit and loan schemes with a low interest rate to strengthen community-based organisations and emphasise self-reliance, does help some of the poor; it also excludes others. An important discussion in the thesis is about self-reliance. This is widely referred to by all stakeholders-from HM The King, through leading thinkers including Buddhist scholars, to the poorest in the slum communities. I analyse what such a concept means to each of these groups. I have found there may be little agreement, either on what is being spoken about, or what the implications of self-reliance are for helping Thailand’s poorest citizens. The thesis is also concerned with how to improve the situations of the poor. There is therefore a review of some curricula relating to the training of social/community workers to assess how well students are prepared for their work. The conclusions make some practical recommendations for change at a policy level, via civil society, and in professional education. The direct education and training of the poor is seen as crucial to any substantial improvements. My own experience, producing the thesis in a western country, is included throughout. This is in order to reflect on my learning and the challenges of researching within and outside the Thai social structure.

The allotments scheme was a complex and diverse social, political, and economic movement that provided the labouring classes with small plots of land, usually no larger than one-eighth of an acre, on which to grow vegetables. From the late nineteenth century to the end of the First World War in 1918, the East End of London experienced an overwhelming increase in allotment cultivation and provision. Working-class men in the boroughs of Hackney, Poplar, East Ham, and West Ham participated in the allotments scheme for a variety of reasons. Allotments were places in which a working man could grow his own food with his familys help to supplement low, casual or seasonal wages, and his gardening kept him out of the pub and on the land. During the war period, food prices increased to intolerable levels in the East End so that the allotment was one of the few ways to reasonably feed the family, especially for the casual dockers. East Enders maintained personal and collective connections to the land that they had lost both through the Enclosure Acts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the urban sprawl of the early twentieth century. Finally, allotment gardening provided the healthy leisure activities of exercise, horticultural education, and civic participation. </p><p>The allotment was embedded in a social ethic that espoused industriousness, sobriety, respectability, and independence and in this way was a middle class solution to a working class problem. Yet, working men adopted the scheme as their own with enthusiasm and dedication and created natural spaces in the degraded landscape of the East End. By 1916, with the passage of the Cultivation of Lands Order, the East End boasted thousands of allotments growing vegetables on Londons vacant lots largely due to the persistent demands of residents on their local borough councils. The allotment association provided East End men with an unparalleled opportunity for grassroots political participation and gave way to a marked increase in working-class political awareness during the period. East Enders gained a foothold in local, regional, metropolitan, and later national politics for the first time in decades. The allotment in the East End also significantly changed the environment in which it was situated. The green space improved the esthetic of the area, adding to the general well-being of all of the boroughs citizens. East End allotments brought life to an area that many believed was lifeless. Not only did working men prove they could bring their sooty surroundings to life, but that they could also bring back to life the long-latent self-sufficiency of their ancestors. They were attracted to the scheme at a higher rate than many of the other 28 London boroughs because of their poverty, their maintained connection to green space, their cultural and political interest in land, and their profound sense of the loss of the land and the independence it brought.

The allotments scheme was a complex and diverse social, political, and economic movement that provided the labouring classes with small plots of land, usually no larger than one-eighth of an acre, on which to grow vegetables. From the late nineteenth century to the end of the First World War in 1918, the East End of London experienced an overwhelming increase in allotment cultivation and provision. Working-class men in the boroughs of Hackney, Poplar, East Ham, and West Ham participated in the allotments scheme for a variety of reasons. Allotments were places in which a working man could grow his own food with his familys help to supplement low, casual or seasonal wages, and his gardening kept him out of the pub and on the land. During the war period, food prices increased to intolerable levels in the East End so that the allotment was one of the few ways to reasonably feed the family, especially for the casual dockers. East Enders maintained personal and collective connections to the land that they had lost both through the Enclosure Acts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the urban sprawl of the early twentieth century. Finally, allotment gardening provided the healthy leisure activities of exercise, horticultural education, and civic participation. </p><p>The allotment was embedded in a social ethic that espoused industriousness, sobriety, respectability, and independence and in this way was a middle class solution to a working class problem. Yet, working men adopted the scheme as their own with enthusiasm and dedication and created natural spaces in the degraded landscape of the East End. By 1916, with the passage of the Cultivation of Lands Order, the East End boasted thousands of allotments growing vegetables on Londons vacant lots largely due to the persistent demands of residents on their local borough councils. The allotment association provided East End men with an unparalleled opportunity for grassroots political participation and gave way to a marked increase in working-class political awareness during the period. East Enders gained a foothold in local, regional, metropolitan, and later national politics for the first time in decades. The allotment in the East End also significantly changed the environment in which it was situated. The green space improved the esthetic of the area, adding to the general well-being of all of the boroughs citizens. East End allotments brought life to an area that many believed was lifeless. Not only did working men prove they could bring their sooty surroundings to life, but that they could also bring back to life the long-latent self-sufficiency of their ancestors. They were attracted to the scheme at a higher rate than many of the other 28 London boroughs because of their poverty, their maintained connection to green space, their cultural and political interest in land, and their profound sense of the loss of the land and the independence it brought.

The aim of this study is to find some indications about social exclusion in some neighbourhoods in Ankara. Social exclusion has increasingly gained importance as a concept in contemporary social sciences. To attain this aim, firstly, a theoretical framework, through which theories of the concept of social exclusion, main dynamics and differences of this concept from the concept of poverty were discussed. Secondly, a field work was carried out in some squatter settlements in Ankara known as &ldquo / poor&rdquo / , to see whether there is social exclusion perceived and lived, by analysing recent immigrants&rsquo / daily life experiences of urban poverty and social exclusion. In this study, a qualitative approach formed the basis and in-depth interview were collected. The in-depth interviews were realized with 8 men, as heads of households, and 7 women, as spouses of heads of households, living in squatter settlements in Ankara in February and March 2007. All interviews were recorded and transcribed for the analysis Since De Haan&rsquo / s (1998) theory of social exclusion shaped the theoretical fame, his methodology and operationalization of social exclusion&rsquo / s multi-dimensionality were adapted in an attempt to identify experiences and &ldquo / examples&rdquo / of excluded and processes forming their exclusions. In conclusion, two main indicators&rsquo / , gender and ethnicity, impacts on the respondents&rsquo / experiences and perceptions of social exclusion appeared as follows: Gender has not appeared as a striking indicator that makes women perceive themselves as excluded. The reason for this has to be seen in the fact that do not have had any serious experiences of social exclusion. They did not mention any conditions of exclusion in terms of economic, social, cultural and political participation in the society that would lead to the experience of exclusion or to a perception of themselves as excluded. The recent women migrants interviewed have a very limited social interaction and direct participation in the social and local life. A reason might be seen in the existing patriarchal system still controlling gender roles in general and a lack of trust of the interviewed women migrants towards their social environment. Ethnicity, however, as an indicator has more determining effects on the respondents&rsquo / experiences of exclusion and on their perception of being excluded. Forcibly migrated Kurdish respondents&rsquo / experiences after migration to Ankara indicate that, their ethnic identity is a dynamic factor since: first, it results in exclusion from economic and social domains of life, though it does not make them be the &ldquo / poorest&rdquo / second, it makes them perceive themselves as excluded from these domains. Thus, at the last stage, it leads them into a kind of &ldquo / isolation&rdquo / from society, as response to exclusive attitudes of the society. In reaction they form ethnic based &ldquo / semi-isolated communities&rdquo / which can be described as: strong ethnic and familial/kinship-ties determining their social, cultural, economic life and also their geographical living spaces.

Understanding the dynamic relationship between culture and structure is a fundamental sociological question. Since the founding of the social sciences -- when Marx explored the connection between the 'macrostructure' and popular culture or Weber studied the development of the 'protestant ethic' -- to the present, the structure-culture dynamic has motivated and puzzled researchers. This thesis joins this longstanding conversation by focusing on social science research on poverty, or what is also called poverty knowledge. Despite the tremendous size and breadth of poverty research, historians of poverty suggest that poverty knowledge demonstrates a frame. That is, a coherent, consistent understanding (and thereby study) of poverty. Building on prior research, the thesis seeks to: (1) verify whether poverty knowledge indeed does demonstrate a frame; (2) and if a frame is present, map the contours and shape of a poverty frame. I do so by focusing on social science research focused on urban poverty published from 1960 to 2010. Conducting a content-frame analysis of 50 journal articles randomly sampled from a universe of 781 eligible articles reveals that poverty knowledge does demonstrate elements of a frame. In particular, the sampled articles understand urban poverty as primarily an individual issue, and moreover, demonstrate an ambivalent evaluation of the urban poor's behavior and culture. The pressing question that arises from this research, and which has continued to drive research on the structure-culture dynamic, is: how do existing social practices ('society') - especially systems of inequality such as racism and patriarchy -- influence our cultural understanding of urban poverty specifically and inequality generally. This is an important question for the social sciences in general, but especially for the areas of critical theory, framing research, poststructuralist discourse studies, the sociology of knowledge, and status construction theory.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / ABSTRACT It is estimated that there are currently 3.9 million people living in urban poverty in Thailand, without the existence of an effective social assistance safety-net. This thesis presents an analysis of Thai governments’ urban poverty alleviation policy. The central aim of the thesis is to question whether Thai government policy on urban poverty alleviation can be effective for the poor and the poorest in urban slum communities. Qualitative methods are used, supported by documentary research, and the author’s own experience of being a community development worker and researcher in the urban slums of Thailand over a period of 18 years. I have endeavoured to elicit information from the range of stakeholders engaged with contemporary urban poverty alleviation policy in Bangkok. Thus the research includes the perspectives of policy makers, the poor, and the poorest. I distinguish between these latter two groups by describing those who have access to some government provision for the urban poor and those who are excluded from such provision. I interviewed 18 policy makers, 15 community savings groups committee members, and 65 of the excluded poorest. I investigated the development of policy relating to the urban poor through an analysis of key government reports and documents. I examined all of the government policy documents relating to policies for urban poverty alleviation and the Thai Governments’ five year National Economic and (later) Social Development Plans from 1961 to 2006. I also analysed each of the fifty four Government statements on their policies to the National Assembly covering this period. This research produced two major new vehicles for understanding and interpreting Thai government urban poverty alleviation policy. First, the policy document research enabled me to construct a critical account of the historical development of policy relating to the urban poor, particularly those in slum communities. Second, the interviews produced a unique view of the often desperate lives lived by some Thai citizens who are part of communities residing in what is estimated as 2,000 slums in Thailand. This view is seen through the eyes of both the urban poor and the policy makers. I found attitudes of the policy makers towards the urban poor contain a number of diverse stances, both negative and positive. The Government’s preferred way of helping, previously by housing improvements, and recently by promoting credit and loan schemes with a low interest rate to strengthen community-based organisations and emphasise self-reliance, does help some of the poor; it also excludes others. An important discussion in the thesis is about self-reliance. This is widely referred to by all stakeholders-from HM The King, through leading thinkers including Buddhist scholars, to the poorest in the slum communities. I analyse what such a concept means to each of these groups. I have found there may be little agreement, either on what is being spoken about, or what the implications of self-reliance are for helping Thailand’s poorest citizens. The thesis is also concerned with how to improve the situations of the poor. There is therefore a review of some curricula relating to the training of social/community workers to assess how well students are prepared for their work. The conclusions make some practical recommendations for change at a policy level, via civil society, and in professional education. The direct education and training of the poor is seen as crucial to any substantial improvements. My own experience, producing the thesis in a western country, is included throughout. This is in order to reflect on my learning and the challenges of researching within and outside the Thai social structure.

A tese analisa as estratégias individuais e familiares de sobrevivência e melhoria de vida entre moradores de uma favela paulistana. O objetivo é observar ao longo dos percursos de vida a evolução de suas condições de vida e bem estar, problematizando a produção e reprodução das desigualdades no interior da pobreza. / This thesis analyses familial and individual survival and improvement strategies of favela inhabitans in the city of São Paulo. The objective is to observe through their life courses the evolution life conditions and well-being, making problematic the production and reproduction of inequalities in poverty.

¿Bajo qué circunstancias aparece la acción colectiva? ¿Cuáles son los factores que le dan mayoresposibilidades de éxito? ¿En qué medida las comunidades pobres tienen capacidad para organizarsecon el objetivo de mejorar sus condiciones de vida? Estas preguntas no son nuevas y se hanhecho muchas investigaciones, pero usualmente para el mundo rural. La investigación sobre laacción colectiva en el mundo urbano parece estar más desarrollada en la ciencia política que en laeconomía. La pregunta fundamental se mantiene: ¿cómo se producen y se mantienen los bienespúblicos en comunidades urbanas pobres?Este artículo presenta un conjunto de hipótesis sobre los determinantes de la acción colectiva. La accióncolectiva en barrios urbanos pobres enfrentan tres restricciones básicas: el problema olsoniano,el problema de Maslow y el problema de la exclusión. La parte empírica del artículo utiliza datosrecolectados en barrios marginales de Lima, Perú, en seis tipos de organizaciones comunales. -- Under what circumstances does collective action arise? What contributes to the likelihood that aparticular collective initiative will succeed? To what extent are poor communities capable of organizingthemselves to improve their quality of life? These questions are not new, and economic researchershave studied a number of models in rural settings. Yet the research on collective action in urban areasseems to be more in the political sciences, and an economic model is still lacking. The fundamentalquestion remains: How are public goods produced and maintained by poor urban communities?This paper presents a set of hypotheses on collective action determinants. Collective action in poorneighborhoods faces three key barriers to success: the Olsonian free-rider problem, the Maslowianproblem, and the exclusion problem. The empirical portion of this paper uses data collected inpoor urban and peri-urban areas of Lima, Peru, in six types of community organizations.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Social dynamics and sustainability in three community garden projects in the City of Johannesburg M. Lewis MPhil Master’s full thesis, the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), Faculty of Economic and Management Science, University of the Western Cape This Master’s thesis explores the social dynamics of three urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) community projects in the City of Johannesburg (COJ), Gauteng. It explores how these projects originated, are organised and supported, while describing how these factors impact on their sustainability and on the livelihoods of the people who work within them. Sayer’s (1984) combined, extensive and intensive research design was adopted and utilised participant observation methods, key informant interviews, literature reviews, and surveys to gather data. A political economy framework was used to situate this data. The thesis argues that in Johannesburg, UPA has an important role to play as a livelihood strategy for city residents. Urban food production is typically one of many livelihood strategies that the urban poor pursue to survive in the city. Support offered to UPA needs to consider these dynamics and aim to provide the necessary space and assistance to facilitate such varied livelihood activities. I argue that the current co-operative model that is being promoted for UPA community projects is not suitable within this multiple livelihood context and that a reconceptualization of the model should be considered that incorporates an allotment approach. An allotment model, appropriately tailored to each individual context, could enable multiplelivelihood strategies to flourish. The thesis also contends that informal food networks are important food distribution mechanisms within the South African urban context and that local food producers should be supported in their efforts to supply to them. I argue that an allotment model would support informal food networks which could ultimately foster various niche market sectors. Ultimately, I argue for a better conceived support structure for UPA community projects that is less prescriptive, more facilitative, and bases its support and development solely in participatory decision-making and community engagement. Successful and sustainable agricultural projects in urban and peri-urban areas will be key components in ensuring food security in Africa in the future.