This research report examined the implementation of villager self-governance in China, of which the election of village leader is the most distinct feature. Unlike previous studies of village self-governance, which focused on policy intentions of the Chinese leadership or the speculation of scholars about what may happen, this study attempted to examine whether or not the elections are competitive and what the consequences of self-governance are.

This study examines how well California's Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) evaluates land use redesignations on transit projects, in particular light rail. A case study of the Natomas Village Center, a proposed project in Sacramento, California, is analyzed in relation to its Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and the CEQA process.Specifically, the focus of the investigation is on assessing the impacts of land use changes on the Downtown-Natomas-Airport light rail alignment. The CEQA methodology and how it is employed are critiqued for their effectiveness in documenting and mitigating the environmental impacts on light rail transit adjacent to the Natomas Village Center. / Department of Urban Planning

L’étude de cas qui compose ce mémoire de maîtrise cherche à expliquer sous l’optique sociologique la pérennité des relations conflictuelles qu’entretiennent le festival permanent Uzeste Musical et le village du même nom, peuplé de 450 habitants et dans lequel il se déroule depuis plus de 35 ans. Fondée sur une enquête de terrain mêlant approche ethnographique et entretiens semi-dirigés au sein de ce village du sud ouest de la France, l’analyse combine in vivo une description ethnographique du conflit à différents éléments théoriques susceptibles d’en rendre raison. Principalement, le recours à la théorie des champs et des sens pratiques de Bourdieu et à celle, pragmatique, de Boltanski et Thévenot, permet de saisir dans le discours des différents acteurs du conflit les raisons pour lesquelles un festival de jazz comme celui-ci se révèle être à bien trop d’égards étranger aux structures et à la culture d’un tel village pour s’y faire pleinement accepter. Il permet également de rendre compte de la manière par laquelle ces mêmes acteurs tendent à redéfinir un conflit – dont la longévité pourrait a priori sembler insoutenable – en des termes qui leur sont familiers, posture qui leur permet alors de relativiser une conflictualité qu’ils assimilent à l’histoire ordinaire de leur village et avec laquelle ils sont ainsi en mesure de composer. / This master’s thesis is a case study that uses a sociological perspective to seek the reasons of the persistent conflict between the Uzeste Musical festival and a village of 450 inhabitants going by the same name, and last for the past 35 years. Based on a fieldwork, it combines an ethnographical approach and semi-structured interviews within this southwest village of France. The analysis mixes in vivo an ethnographical description of the conflict to different theoretical elements. The field and the practical sense theory of Bourdieu, in addition to the Boltanski & Thévenot’s pragmatic theory will help us understand the true implication of this problematic cohabitation. Through discussions with the different actors of the conflict rise the very reasons why this jazz festival seems foreign to the structures and the culture of the village, thus not being accepted by its inhabitants. Furthermore, it demonstrates the way the actors will try to redefine the conflict itself with familiar terms, even thought the latter seems unsustainable. This position allows them to put the conflict into perspective like it was always a part of the village’s history, thus redefining a way to cope with this problematic cohabitation.

During the search for a thesis topic, the researchers established contact with a civil servant at Växjö Municipality in Sweden who introduced them to the prospective project of the Reuse Village as part of the city’s waste management plan to enhance circular economy. Hence, the researchers’ purpose for this thesis is to explore the determined values and stakeholders’ involvement linked to the engagement of entrepreneurs towards a circular economy. Moreover, a thorough explanation of the literature review is conducted including the environmental, economic and social sustainability, in addition to the entrepreneurial and stakeholders’ involvement and the different sustainable oriented entrepreneurs and the values that could possibly influence the entrepreneurs. The researchers used mixed research methods that comprise of qualitative interviews, secondary research, and case studies based on documentary secondary data to give a deeper explanation of the stakeholders and entrepreneurial involvement and show their position in the field of circular economy especially in the Reuse Village project. The main findings of the thesis elaborate more on the importance of circular economy that governments and local municipalities are pushing for. The outcome presents the directions that stakeholders lean towards, regarding the Reuse Village, and shows how the relationship between the stakeholders plays a major role in the progress of the notion of circular economy.

The study focuses on social interaction networks in Vacation Village Estates mobile home community. Analysis involves relevant data from an eleven-item questionnaire obtaining demographic variables and results of fifty-seven participating families' mutual ratings on an Acquaintance Volume Scale, ranging from 5, "very close friend," to 1, "do not know." Specifically examined were two social interaction constellations, reciprocal choices, high-scoring families and isolates. Three hypotheses tested measured greater length of residence, greater similarity of occupations, and greater similarity of religious activity, as relevant to "the greater amount of social interaction." Hypothesis 1, "greater length of residence," tested with correlation coefficient and F score was retained at .05 level of significance. Remaining hypotheses were rejected not achieving significance.

Media are very powerful in present days, they are bringing conversational topics, they can easily manipulate our opinions. Media influence our thinking and our ideas about the world around us. Media influence are everywhere, media affect all areas of life including the religion. It is just religion what is one of the most important cultural factors. The religion is the source of values and morality from the beginning of human society. In order to religion could exist across the centuries, it had to adapt to the type of media which was dominant at the time. This dissertation discusses the link between media and religion, specifically about the connection between media type which is provider of religion and the nature of religion. This work also represents the most important church media and religious channels in the world and in the Czech Republic. The first goal of this work is to prove that religion still has big influence on society and that's the reason, why is religion in media so often. The second goal is confirmation of the technical determinism hypothesis (according Marshall McLuhan) in relationship between religion and media - it means confirm that the type of media presentation of the religion influences the religion character. To prove these hypotheses I mostly used media analysis of big...

Anotation The thesis concentrates on a description of the action Kulak, focusing on the region Louny with an explanation of the general trends of the collectivization of agriculture. The goal of this work is to show different problems of the action Kulak by thorough analysis of whole course of events. These problems appeared as far as in final period between 1949-1953. Last chapter sketches the diversity of forced resettlement with describing life stories of the individual farmers. The work is micro-probe in proces of forcible resettlement of farmer's families from year 1951 to 1953. The thesis covers historical circumstances of the action Kulak and gains primarily from archive files.

Cette thèse examine le phénomène des company towns dans le Nord-Est du Brésil. La première partie retrace son développement historique de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle à la fin du XXe siècle, en examinant les aspects fondamentaux des dynamiques économiques et sociales du développement industriel de la région afin de comprendre les interconnexions entre les vicissitudes des company towns et leur base industrielle. En outre, elle analyse l’émergence de company towns articulée dans la construction des archétypes d’habitation ouvrière dans la région. Enfin, elle fournit une caractérisation du phénomène des company towns dans le Nord-est, en examinant son développement historique, dès les premières expériences de logement ouvrier établies par les premières manufactures du Brésil et la naissance des premières company towns à la fin du XIXe siècle, leur expansion pendant la première moitié du XXe siècle et leur déclin au cours de la crise de la base industrielle traditionnelle du Nord-Est vers la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle. La deuxième partie de la thèse considère la présence des company towns dans le contexte actuel, c’est-à-dire le patrimoine de ce type particulier de logement ouvrier dans le but de comprendre les enjeux de leur patrimonialisation, en particulier par rapport aux attitudes, perceptions, connaissance et utilisation de ces espaces actuellement, à la lumière des approches avancées par le domaine du patrimoine industriel. / This research examines the phenomenon of company towns in the Northeast of Brazil. The first part of the thesis trace their historical development from the second half of the nineteenth century to the late twentieth century by examining the fundamental aspects of the region’s industrial development, with its economic and social dynamics, in an attempt to understand the interconnections between the vicissitudes of the company towns and their industrial base. Furthermore, it analyses the emergence of the company towns articulated within the social construction of the working-class home and of positive and negative dwelling archetypes in Northeastern Brazil. Finally, it provides a characterization of the company town phenomenon in the Northeast, looking into its historical development, examining the first housing experience established by Brazil’s early manufactories, the birth of the first company towns at the turn of the nineteenth century their expansion throughout the first half of the twentieth century and their decline during the crisis of the traditional Northeastern industrial base during the second half of the twentieth century. The second part of the thesis considers the presence of the company-induced settlements in the present-day context, that is, the heritage of this particular type of working-class dwelling. It represents an effort to understand the “enjeux” of their heritagization, and particularly the attitudes and perceptions towards, and knowledge and uses of the company town spaces by their present-day users, in light of the approaches advanced by the field of Industrial Heritage.

The aim of this dissertation thesis is an analysis of the modernization process during the 1850 - 1938 period in the given region extending from the city of Prague to the regional centre Kolín. The modernization proces is in particular seen in terms of economic history. In the thesis I will analyse demographic and economical development, the building up of the transport, infrastructure, economic elites and partially also some subjects related to democratisation. In addition to the modernization itself, the transformation of the regional structure, mutual relations and development of typologically different settlements will also be assessed. Particular analysis will be done in the frame of the region as well as on selected settlements of Český Brod, Kostelec nad Černými lesy, Kouřim, Pečky and Úvaly. Keywords Modernization / Modernisation, economic, demographic, Region, Urbanization, City, Town, Village, rural, Infrastructure, Elite, Czech, Bohemia

The idea for this project is to design an eco-village on a property in Glimåkra in Skåne of southern Sweden, which is owned by the municipality of Östra Göinge. All of the designs in this eco-village would be built with materials that will benefit the environment and the people living there. This community would also have low energy consumption and will achieve the Miljöbyggnad Gold certification. Initially, a few eco-villages in Sweden were studied and reviewed in order to get more experience in the subject and to find inspiration. Three different types of housing units were chosen to be compared to one another to determine the two most efficient candidates.  Two townhouses, two duplexes, and two villas were designed. One of each type was a simple and square compact design while the other was a more aesthetic shaped design. While reviewing the energy consumption calculations, the aesthetically designed duplex and the aesthetically designed townhouse proved to consume smaller amounts of energy than the remaining building designs. These two designs consumed smaller amounts of energy to heat the buildings and provided additional space for solar cells. The compact duplex design ended up being the only design to be able to achieve the Miljöbyggnad Gold certification, but the energy consumption of the building did not compete with the aforementioned designs. The exterior materials to be used were chosen because of their low ecological impact and how well they blend with the surroundings. The comparisons of three different types of buildings with two different designs of each helps highlight the many factors that affect the efficiency and sustainability of a building. After studying and comparing many real-world examples of energy efficient housing with these theoretical designs, the aesthetically designed duplex and townhouse will be the best performing floor plans for the eco-village in Glimåkra, Skåne. / Detta examensarbete har gått ut på att planera en ekoby i Skåne. En situationsplan innehållande radhus och parhus har tagits fram med diverse vägar, grönska och gemensamma byggnader. Arbetets övergripande syfte är att uppmärksamma ekobyar och dess miljövänliga ekohus. Det är beräkningar, modellering, extern och intern handledning samt diskussioner kring energi, miljöbyggnad och estetik som genomsyrat arbetet. För att nå ett resultat dras kopplingar från tidigare forskning och publiceringar med detta arbete. Litteraturstudien innehåller certifieringssystemet Miljöbyggnad, där betygskriterierna för Guld är det som arbetet har strävat mot för byggnaderna som modellerades. I Miljöbyggnad finns även nivåerna Brons och Silver, men om någon av indikatorerna ger nivå Brons är det inte möjligt att uppnå Guld som slutgiltig nivå. En av två studerade fasadmaterial valdes till byggnaderna i ekobyn och trä valdes på grund av dess fördelar och användningsgrad i området. Den uppvärmningskälla som studerades var pelletspanna och vid valet av elkälla genomfördes en kritisk granskning av solceller samt en mer grundläggande faktainsamling av direktverkande el. Genom platsbesök, ritningar och kartor samt diskussion och revidering modellerades två utformningar av parhus, radhus och villa. Det blev tre kompakta byggnader och tre mer estetiskt utformade och dessa modellerades i Autodesk Revit. Beräkningar genomfördes både manuellt och digitalt och hjälpmedel som formler, tabeller och antagna värden användes. Parhus Estetisk och Radhus Estetisk valdes ut för att placeras i ekobyn. Dessa valdes ut på grund av dess energiförbrukning, antal bostäder och dess estetik. Parhus Estetisk på 113m² och Radhus Estetisk på 114m² hade en total energianvändning per år på 10 500 kWh respektive 10 100 kWh, där ingår uppvärmning, tappvarmvatten och hushållsel. Det får plats 20 bostäder och 80 personer för den valda situationsplanen. Utifrån beräkning och simulering resulterade parhuset och radhuset i den slutgiltiga nivån Silver. Slutsatserna av detta arbete var att det var svårare än tänkt att uppfylla betygskriterierna för Guld i certifieringen Miljöbyggnad, endast Parhus Kompakt nådde nivån Guld. De valda byggnaderna i ekobyn var de bästa alternativen och en övergripande slutsats var att arbetet blev mer som ett förarbete som måste tas vid och utvecklas.