A vibrant place is abundant in energy and life. This vibrant energy comes from the presence of a great diversity of people performing a great diversity of activities. Vibrancy is an atmosphere we can intuitively feel in certain public spaces, and likewise we intuitively feel when a place is dead. This thesis investigates why some places are alive while others are dead, and dives into the relationship between planning ideology, the built environment, and the social environment. This is situated within the context of Umeå, the largest city in Northern Sweden. I study how planning ideology and practice has shaped Umeå by interviewing two key actors in Umeå’s post war development. I also conduct case studies of public life in four of Umeå’s neighbourhoods to explore how different urban forms facilitate or impede vibrant public life. I conclude by exploring how these neighbourhoods might be made into more vibrant communities. My findings indicate that Umeå’s post-war development aligns closely with the global Modernist trend of that era. This paradigm created monofunctional suburban neighbourhoods with detrimental impacts on vibrancy. These neighbourhoods are composed of public spaces which, in ideal weather, facilitate a great deal of leisure activity, but not much else. Furthermore, I find that vibrancy can be encouraged through diversity (as opposed to homogeneity) and integration (as opposed to segregation), and that by allowing for more diverse land uses and institutions which stay open at a wider variety of times (especially later into thenight), public life in Umeå’s suburban neighbourhoods can become more lively.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第17536号 / 工博第3695号 / 新制||工||1562(附属図書館) / 30302 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻 / (主査)教授 中川 大, 教授 藤井 聡, 准教授 松中 亮治 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

Magister Artium - MA / As a minister who is deeply involved in Christian counselling I am constantly reminded just how many problems marriages are facing today. There is no question that the failure of this fundamental relationship has unquantifiable devastating results in the lives of couples, their children, and society as a whole. The more one works with people one realises that many couples in relationships are just hurting individuals in search of happiness and wholeness. Marriage provides the perfect relationship with elaborate promises and expectations of love and warmth, where all needs and dreams are to be met by the husband or wife. Sadly, however, as substantiated by divorce statistics, too many couples find this sacred space intended for love and fulfilment become the most vulnerable, unsafe space. As a minister searching for a systematic process to unravel this mystery of failed or failing marriages, I discovered a psycho-social model for therapy, called Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT), which not only produced excellent counselling results, but also seemed compatible with more theological approaches to couples therapy. IRT unravels for me the “why” and gives me a quantifiable aspect to my work which helps me grasp conceptually that which I instinctively have discovered and known theologically. I have embarked on this research, firstly, to understand the problem and the extent thereof facing our society; secondly to identify the strengths and shortcomings in Pastoral Care theory and praxis (such as the recurring problem of a realistic and workable Biblical counselling model for pastors), and thirdly to investigate the feasibility whether and how the Imago Relationship Theory could be integrated in Pastoral Care praxis. The intention was, and remains, that after I have done this research to make it available, in appropriate format, to help pastors in assisting couples to avoid pitfalls in their marriages. In turn, it is hoped that this new found perspective would also benefit the pastor and his wife, since many pastors find their marriages also under strain. Every pastor who works with the lives of congregants understands the volatility of relationships. This understanding has been built over long periods of time with them and he has witnessed how their lives have morphed under pressure due to problems that at times have been overwhelming. Sadly some of the pain is self-inflicted or has been inflicted upon them. As one delves into this subject matter one becomes aware of just how inadequately equipped some pastors really are and how important it is to equip them to effectively help others. I chose to examine Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT), knowing its efficacy, and wondered how this would fit into a Pneumatological counselling model. Various practical theologians (such as DJ Louw and JJ Rebel) have recently been discovering Pneumatology – the reflection on the work of the Holy Spirit, through whom the work of God the Father and God the Son is being applied and appropriated in the person, in the congregation, and in the fullness of life in the world – as the framework for practical theology, especially Pastoral Care. I thus deliberately explored Pneumatology as such a theological Sitz im Leben for reflecting on IRT integrated into a Biblical model for counselling. I needed an affective therapeutic model which would could be integrated, and enhance the biblical framework in counselling. Furthermore this therapeutic mechanism needed to be subservient to attain the greatest goal of God and that is to serve and help transform humankind created in His Image. I conducted a systematic literature review of IRT and relevant theological insights from Pastoral Care theory. This investigation is to establish the viability of an integration of IRT into a Pneumatological Pastoral Care theory and praxis to be used as a Pastoral Tool for ministers dealing with the crisis of broken marriages. It was surprising to see how well IRT fits into the theological framework and can enhance an already effective psychological therapy process.

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