A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Development Planning / The advent of democracy opened avenues for South Africa’s integration into the global economy. The international influences of governance and political economy have since transcended into the South African public management and its economic policies. The implications of this approach have led to the transformation of the local government sphere as an interfacing agent for service delivery, economic development and promoting democracy. Therefore, consolidation of municipalities towards becoming competitive cities lies on the justification that amalgamation can yield improvement in service delivery, redressing socio-economic and spatial disparities as well as improving economic growth. Using the West Rand district case study, it emerges that competitive cities require certain features of competitiveness ranging from sound infrastructure development, inclination to innovation, efficient governance, the ability to attract relevant labour, indigenous markets and the quality of life. However, the upsurge of creating competitive cities in South Africa is not purely for economic reasons but also political and developmental justifications. Against these features, the West Rand district possesses strategic strengths in natural endowments, governance, and a potential human capital. However, an innovation agenda for varied economic sectors, information technology and for building strategic networks must be developed in order to meet the long term vision. The report suggests that collaborative planning can be useful in building consensus and bringing on board the marginalised groups into decision making. Together with equity planning, it is considered as a guide for implementing redistributive justice as one of the objectives for amalgamation. Also, spatial reform towards a competitive region is proposed through strategic spatial planning approach to uphold democratic principles in planning for the district. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the amalgamation process is geared towards establishing a competitive West Rand region as a means of galvanising economic growth. However, the realities of service delivery challenges and a fragile economic base suggest that the mergers should also aim to enhance social justice and a redistributive developmental agenda.

Este trabalho procura destacar o desenvolvimento urbano de São Paulo, levantando as principais normas e eventos - além dos mecanismos de financiamento das infraestruturas - que condicionaram a formação da metrópole. O início da regulação urbanística do município ocorre no final do período imperial, quando são introduzidas as primeiras normas e políticas de segregação da pobreza. A partir de então a cidade se estrutura mediante arranjo institucional que relaciona norma e finança, como os institutos de aposentadorias, o sistema BNH, sem, no entanto, obedecer um planejamento específico. Somente no governo militar, em 1975, o Estado divulga a elaboração de um documento para direcionar desenvolvimento das cidades, cujo abandono poucos anos após sua publicação ampliou a precarização da cidade, aliada à crise econômica na década de 1980. A reforma normativa da Constituição de 1988 revigora o orçamento municipal e estabelece regras para as políticas urbanas, mas o avanço concomitante do neoliberalismo traz forças que entrecruzam as leis nacionais e municipais e durante toda a década de 1990 são reduzidos os investimentos públicos em desenvolvimento, habitação e urbanização. Somente em 2003, com a criação do Ministério das Cidades, a política urbana se estrutura em bases territoriais articuladas, pensando o espaço público das metrópoles a partir dos instrumentos ativos de cidadania, articulando os entes federados e a principal instituição financeira pública do país, a Caixa Econômica Federal. Para colocar em relevo tais propostas, será analisado o programa de urbanização de favelas em São Paulo, no sentido de realizar uma interpretação dessa interlocução, procurando entender em que medida os projetos de desenvolvimento urbano podem agir para recuperar os traços de cidadania perdidos nas normas, planos e projetos. / This work seeks to highlight the urban development of São Paulo, emphasizing the main rules and events, in addition to infrastructure financing mechanisms that conditioned the formation of the metropolis. The joint between urban regulation and political rules starts at the end of the imperial period, when was introduced the firsts acts of segregation of poverty. Since then, the city has been structured by institutional arrangements relating rules and finance, such as embedded on the institutes of retirements and the BNH system, regardless of any specific planning whatsoever. During the military government, in 1975, the state discloses a document to guide the urban development, whose abandonment few years after its publication increased casualization of the city, coupled with the economic crises in the 1980s. The regulatory reform of the 1988 Constitution strengthens the municipal budget and establishes new rules for urban policy, but with the advance of neoliberal ideas comes forces that intersect national and local laws throughout the 1990s. On these bases, the government reduces public investment in development, housing and urbanization. Nevertheless, in 2003, through the Ministry of Cities, urban policy tends to be articulated on territorial bases, considering the public space of the metropolis from the instruments of active citizenship, articulating the federated entities and the main public financial institution in the country, the Caixa Economica Federal. It is important to highlight such proposals, using the slum upgrading program in São Paulo, in order to conduct an analysis of this dialogue, trying to understand the extent to which urban development may take action, in order to recover the lost traces of citizenship standards, plans and projects.

Those who are given access to develop and plan our urban areas are in possession of great power and potential. With the vast sums of both private and governmental money associated with the creation and organization of urban areas, the motivations of those constructing plans and deciding developmental strategies need to be considered. When a city has a dual identity and is socially and spatially conflicted, then the task of planning equitably for all residents becomes even more complex. The extent to which planners address the needs of their community, and the divisions which may exist, reveals the intentions of the city regarding which residents are to be included within city life. This study examines these factors as they appertain to the city of St Petersburg, Florida which contains a population that is polarized racially, socially and spatially. St. Petersburg promotes itself as a city of consumption, with a focus upon the tourist trade and its related support services. There exists an excluded 'underclass' which is incongruous alongside this promotion of the city as a tourist destination, but essential to the maintenance of the services needed. Faced with these conflicting city identities, the Developmental Services Department is under pressure to address resident contentions and to provide equitably for the city. Vision 2020 is a recent development which seeks to address some of the residents' concerns, and plan for the future development of the city. The document makes claims to citizen participation and asserts that it has addressed the concerns of residents. However, methods employed to illicit citizen participation failed to actively encourage participation from all social groups within the city and potentially alienated low-income residents.

The successful economic growth and the rapid changing of urban development had changed Singapore from a developing to a developed country. The living environment of Singapore has been changed with in the last 25 years. My thesis mainly describes foods and food markets in Singapore. Due to better educational background, higher consumption power and small family planning, the eating habit of Singaporeans has changed. A lot of young Singaporeans today, don't buy their daily marketing needs from the traditional wet market for they prefer to do their weekly marketing in the comfortable, clean, convenient and air conditioned modern supermarket. With the advance electronic cooking equipment in kitchen, they save time in cooking to buy prepared or instant cooked food from supermarkets, instead of raw foodstuff from the traditional wet markets. These rapid changes of the Singaporeans' life style and eating habit created an opportunity. For me to look into the area that directly or indirectly involved with my professional work as a practicing graphic designer and a design educator. The area I am looking into is 'the value of food packaging'. I realized that the contrast of the traditional foodstuffs selling in traditional wet market and the imported foodstuffs displayed within the modern supermarket, the difference has signaled a strong message. If the traditional foodstuffs still does not improve their dull and unhygienic image to catch up with the rapid changing urban living environment. They will disappear from our dining table sooner or later. My thesis has to reach 2 aims. Firstly, to awake the design students (tomorrow's designer). To be more sensitive towards the local traditional food markets. Discover the values of the local ethnic foodstuffs and going to find out why these delicious and remarkable local foodstuffs been rejected outside of the modern supermarket. To create a new image through packaging design to replace with the original dull and unhygienic image. Secondly, the contents and the criterias of the modern packaging design I proposed within this thesis, could be applicable in the practicing design field, food manufactory and most importantly, in the design institutions / Master of Design (Hons)

Increased development pressure in inner city areas of many Australian and North American cities has resulted in the loss of locally valued cultural landscapes. Accompanying this process is palpable concern by local residents that their values have not been taken into account. While architectural and historical values are well recognised by heritage and planning practitioners, less tangible social values are often ignored. This thesis argues that a gap has formed between the process through which people interact with place and the process of landuse planning. The aim of the research is to critically examine this gap. Pyrmont and Ultimo, an inner city redevelopment area of Sydney, provides a context of rapid social and physical change. Open-ended, unstructured and semi-structured interviews with residents of Pyrmont and Ultimo, and professionals involved in planning and development provide insight into perspectives about the consideration of social values in landuse planning. The results indicate that the loss of valued places may have physical and social implications on people and place including loss of local character and identity, increased conflict, resident anxiety and disillusionment with planning processes. Residents and planners develop strategies for coping, but these do little to improve limited information flow and understanding. Bridging the gap between the two processes calls for a stronger link between heritage conservation and planning, in addition to planning reform. The research suggests the need for formal landuse planning to recognise the value of situational knowledge and social significance, rather than rely on technical expertise and physical fabric. Efforts spent on refining methods for identification and assessment of social value may be better directed towards developing and improving methods for integrating the concept of social value into the planning framework.

An evaluation was undertaken of four selected social impacts of the Integrated Urban Infrastructure Development Program (IUIDP) on the community in three kelurahans in Western Java (Jamika, Warung Muncang, and Maleber), with particular emphasis on low income people, using Social Impact Assessment methods. The impacts studied were changes in employment, household income, land and rental values. The evaluation suggests that the execution of the IUIDP generated beneficial as well as adverse effects. The beneficial effects include that the program created employment for several residents in the study areas and generally improved the household income of the residents concerned. Also some benefits have accrued to a number of land owners as the value of their land increased. Other benefits identified include improved access, water supply, sewerage and garbage services. The adverse effects of the IUIDP include that the government did not provide either compensation (for those who had to sacrifice their land) or reconstruction assistance (for those who had to cut back their property for access routes). Another adverse effect was experienced by tenants who found their rent increased. There was a widely held perception among the residents surveyed that, on balance, the project had been beneficial.

Thesis (D.Phil. (Town and Regional Planning)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This thesis tries to identify the new city-governance mechanisms deployed in the Western Aegean small town of Seferihisar, following the town&lsquo / s membershipto the international Cittaslowassociation of small towns. The membership has quickly transformed the place into a yearlong touristic destination, while leading several other agendas for the improvement of theurbanquality of life in the town. Regarding Turkey&lsquo / s EU Accession Process, this thesis regards Cittaslow as a multi-scalar meta-governance mechanism, which guides the municipalities of small towns in rescaling their urban governance as tailor-fit to their corresponding sociospatial specificities. The thesis argues that the social-democratic municipality in Seferihisar plays a key energizing role in the

Housing problem had firstly emerged in Ankara after the establishment of Turkish Republic and increased after the 2nd World War. With the population increases in the cities, due to the migration from rural to urban areas, the housing need have increased also as well as the other requirements. Housing Cooperatives that had first developed at 1934 represent a new type of licensed residence. Some precautions such as financial support were taken by the governments to solve this continuously rising housing problem. Therefore, the housing cooperatives had been supported effectively by the governments especially after 1960&rsquo / s. In 1980&rsquo / s, the housing necessity caused different searches in governmental level. Then, a clear resurgence observed in the housing sector with the means of Mass Housing laws accepted. The housing efforts in Adana had been accelerated with the establishments of housing cooperatives after 1960&rsquo / s and the constructions had performed great leaps nearly in every decade. This thesis analyzes the effects of housing cooperatives on the urban development of Adana city.

In this dissertation constructions of contemporary urban ideals are in focus, starting from the understanding that they are constructed in relation to both an idea of an urban renaissance and one ofa dissolving, or sprawling, city. The aim of the dissertation is to investigate and analyse how the city and the urban are discursively constructed in contemporary Swedish urban planning discussion. This is done by analysing articles from the Swedish Journal of Planning (Plan) and publications from the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket) and the Urban Environment Council (Stadsmiljörådet). The main research topics are: How is the city and its history constructed? What norms are constructed about the city and the urban? How is planning and the role of the planner constructed, and what kind of knowledge and practices are emphasised? Methodologically, the dissertation is inspired by social constructivist methods, and mainly discourse theory. Applying this to the urban context means understanding urbanity and cities as constantly constructed and reconstructed discursively, even if both appear to be defined, absolute and recognisable. The analysis investigates these appearances and the meanings they are given – in this case in an urban planning context.  The analysis shows that history plays an important part in both the construction of ideals and problems. Both contemporary planning and the urban ideals are conceptualised in the light of a modernist planning era, which is emphasised as the period when the “real” city was dissolved or even destroyed. An “original”, pre-modern city is constructed and guarded as the norm, and the categorisation of places appear as important. Concepts both open and defined appear as central, such as diversity, variation, identity and urbanity. The planning practice that supposedly creates the good city is ideally a sensitive and emotional practice and practitioner, in line with communicative planning theory. Binary conceptual couples structure the discourse to a high degree, resulting in polarisations such as compact/sparse, city/countryside or inner city/suburb. The problematic or contradictory, such as the suburb, is marked off from the “real” city, and an inside and outside of the good city is created. The importance of a holistic and comprehensive planning perspective is emphasized, but at the same time the urban ideal that comes out appear as a strongly normative outlook from the traditional inner city. An inner city “we” is constructed, and the suburb, the suburban and its inhabitants are seen as an Other.  The dissertation also discusses some openings and contrary voices in the discourse and in other urban research indicative of an attempt to move beyond the polarisations. By questioning hierarchies and polarisations, and opening up for influence from outside of the discourse, concepts such as diversity and urbanity could be given alternative meanings instead of being used to mourn the loss of a “real”, original city or urban public space. / <p>QC 20130204</p>