This exploratory study was inspired by the author’s voluntary work with streetconnected children and youth in Kenya. It develops an understanding of the experiences of young people leaving the street in two provincial Kenyan towns. Although there has been extensive research concerned with street-connectedness, there has been a limited focus on young people’s transitions away from the street. Participants were identified with the help of three organisations: fifty-three young people, aged 12 -28, participated in semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and visual methods, during two field research visits to Kenya, in 2012 and 2013. The study found that their experiences of leaving the street were influenced by their day-to-day interactions with family, friends and other members of the communities into which they transitioned. These interactions influenced how accepted the young people felt and the extent to which they believed they were supported economically, physically and psychosocially, especially with regards to their relationships with family members. The participants’ interactions with school-based peers and teachers were particularly important in schools and training centres, where they struggled to develop a sense of belonging. Being street-connected is an integral part of the identities constructed by young people after they leave the street and establish places for themselves in their families, schools, local communities, and wider society. Such street-connectedness can be a strength: the resilience and skills developed on the street are useful attributes in adapting to new situations, potentially providing income-generating opportunities later on. However, the stigmatisation and resulting marginalisation they experienced on the street can have lasting effects. Barriers to inclusion experienced on the street influence a young person’s ability to develop a sense of belonging to their new situation after leaving the street. This study makes a conceptual contribution. Street-connectedness begins when a young person first arrives on the street, and continues until what could be years after they leave it. This street-connectedness can be characterised by three liminalities. The first is associated with living in the physical space defined as being on the street: a physical embodiment of liminality. The second, describes the process of being in transition as a young person newly arrived on the street, or having recently left the street: each being a liminal phase. The third liminality is described by an identity-forming social space, associated with being, and having been, street-connected: a liminal identity. This liminal identity, associated with being street-connected, impacts upon young people (re)entering home communities and, in particular, education, and highlights a need to consider and address the effects of these impacts.

Artwork / Streetlives is a community-based, arts-informed, research project which addresses harm reduction amongst street youth in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Nine street-involved participant researchers (supported by a team of researchers and community organizations) used art making and storytelling as ways of understanding the risks specific to street-involved youth in Thunder Bay. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the participant researcher group and a majority of Aboriginal research participants, a novel approach was used to create principles of research collaboration, in pursuit of the principles of ownership, control, access and possession for ethical research with Aboriginal peoples. The participant researchers found that their most common experience was their vulnerability to governmental social services and law enforcement personnel and policies. They further agreed that the risk of losing their children to child protection services is a source of increased vulnerability and a barrier to accessing treatment. They all agreed that the process of art making was fruitful and were surprised by the clarity and evocative nature of their artwork, finding that meeting weekly to do art is gratifying and therapeutic. They were interested to discover that the art they created, just by telling their stories, contained strong prevention messages they would have been influenced by as younger people. As such the participants want to continue making art, and showing their work, particularly to young people, social service providers, and law enforcement officers, who they think are in the best position to learn from it. This project is building capacity in the community (by teaching artmaking, group work, organizing, critical thinking, and presentation skills), is contributing to scholarship, and significantly and positively impacting the lives of the participant researchers. This work is represented in traditional academic prose and as collaborative fiction.

Artwork / Streetlives is a community-based, arts-informed, research project which addresses harm reduction amongst street youth in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Nine street-involved participant researchers (supported by a team of researchers and community organizations) used art making and storytelling as ways of understanding the risks specific to street-involved youth in Thunder Bay. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the participant researcher group and a majority of Aboriginal research participants, a novel approach was used to create principles of research collaboration, in pursuit of the principles of ownership, control, access and possession for ethical research with Aboriginal peoples. The participant researchers found that their most common experience was their vulnerability to governmental social services and law enforcement personnel and policies. They further agreed that the risk of losing their children to child protection services is a source of increased vulnerability and a barrier to accessing treatment. They all agreed that the process of art making was fruitful and were surprised by the clarity and evocative nature of their artwork, finding that meeting weekly to do art is gratifying and therapeutic. They were interested to discover that the art they created, just by telling their stories, contained strong prevention messages they would have been influenced by as younger people. As such the participants want to continue making art, and showing their work, particularly to young people, social service providers, and law enforcement officers, who they think are in the best position to learn from it. This project is building capacity in the community (by teaching artmaking, group work, organizing, critical thinking, and presentation skills), is contributing to scholarship, and significantly and positively impacting the lives of the participant researchers. This work is represented in traditional academic prose and as collaborative fiction.

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction. The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work. The organization around the direct social work varied, in spite of this showed the result a broad consensus in the experiences of discretion in direct social work.

Streets, the usual public spaces of cities, lose their popularities and users every passing day. The reason of this decline is the erroneous transport policies implemented in cities that increase the entrance of automobile into city centers and facilitate faster movement of automobiles at the expense of pedestrians. While pedestrians are marginalized in city centers, automobiles become the primary users of streets. The traffic, noise and air pollution that automobiles cause contribute to the decline of town centers and shopping streets lose their function as meeting places and public spaces. In addition, automobile oriented policies create car-dependent urban forms and cause sprawl towards the peripheries. Because of the newly developing dwelling areas on the peripheries and the increasingly inaccessible city centers, number of out-of-town shopping centers increase day by day to meet the daily needs. While shopping centers develop, there is now a new tendency to design them with streets, squares and bazaars, with a view to resemble and simulate street life in these shopping centers. This situation shows us that, users, who are the reason of existence of social spaces, actually need the atmosphere of streets. In this study, while analyzing all these trends and factors, Tunali Hilmi Street, which is a once pedestrian-friendly street in Ankara, will be analyzed. The study has two main research tasks. First, it analyses Tunali Hilmi Street&rsquo / s potentials as a public space and street, through the development of a framework that incorporates the essential urban design theorems with a special focus on street design. Secondly, it carries out a questionnaire on shopping center users in Ankara, in order to assess their choices, preferences, and perceptions regarding shopping centers and Tunali Hilmi Street. Based on the findings of these two analyses, this thesis aims to propose planning and design strategies to improve Tunali Hilmi Street as a public space and to attract more users to it.

Urban aesthetics has been the concern of many academic researches, and there have been now more than hundred definitions of urban aesthetics. It is crucial to understand that aesthetics is more than just about the form and physical qualities of a place. Likewise, urban aesthetics is not only the concerns of academics, but also the concern of urbanites of cities and daily users of urban space. It is therefore important to understand what daily users of cities understand from the concept of urban aesthetics and what kind of aesthetically pleasant spaces they desire in cities, especially when public spaces are concerned. This thesis aims to find out the aesthetic qualities of urban space and understanding of urbanites on urban aesthetics, focusing on Tunali Hilmi Street, a widely used sub-centre of Ankara. It seeks to discover the aesthetic characteristics of the street and the perception of urbanites. The examination is carried out on the architecture, street furniture, floorscape, landmarks, planting and open spaces of Tunali Hilmi Street regarding seven variables which are harmony, rhythm, balance, order, complexity, scale and upkeep. The thesis argues that it is possible to achieve better-working public spaces if we are also able to identify what the daily users of public spaces envisage as an aesthetically pleasant environment.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes special study report entitled: Sensory landscape as urban-nature-space. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986.

The phenomenon of children living and/or working on the streets is universal, in particular in developing countries in Africa including South Africa. Causal factors are complex, multidimensional and inter-related and are mainly social and economic. They impact on three social institutions: school, community and family, which are the primary agents of socialisation. Children living and/or working on the streets are exposed to hazardous challenges: diseases; poor health; poor living conditions; crime and violence; arrest and incarceration; alcohol abuse; drug and sexual abuse; poor and exploitative working conditions. Consequently, they learn and internalise the survival culture as a coping mechanism. They suffer socio-economic exclusion in that living on the streets excludes them from participating meaningfully in life of mainstream society. The exclusion is derived from the general public's perception of children living and/or working on the streets, which is derived and shaped by media and sees them as criminals or in need of care. Society responded to the challenges of the phenomenon through shelter programs of intervention and reintegration. However, the efforts of NGOs and shelters have become inconsequential due to the rising numbers and increase their population. This intensifies demands on existing facilities and resources. Research on shelters did not gain any momentum comparative to studies on causative factors of the phenomenon. This situation plausibly could have arisen due to society's acceptance that shelters intervention and reintegration programs were adequately meeting and addressing the plight of children living and/or working on the streets. Yet shelters viewed as human service organisations have their organisational procedures and structures, which either hinder or facilitate the intervention and reintegration of children into the mainstream society. This study focuses on four shelters for children living and/or working on the streets in Durban. Social exclusion and/organisation theories informed the theoretical framework of the research. The enquiry applied a qualitative paradigm whereby individual interviews with shelter managers were conducted. Focus group discussions were conducted each separately with staff and children from the four shelters. The technique revealed valuable information about the experiences of children, staff and shelter managers as they interact and interface in the course of providing and receiving shelters services and in the implementation of intervention and reintegration programs. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka vilka motiv som ligger bakom besökarnas val av gatuterapi och vilka erfarenheter de har av kontakt med offentliga myndigheter. Syftet var också att undersöka vilka upplevelser besökarna hade av gatuterapin samt studera vad som sker i mötet mellan gatuterapeuten och besökarna. Studien har genomförts utifrån en kvalitativ metodansats och bygger på intervjuer och observationer med 15 personer som besökt gatuterapin. För analysen har teorin om interaktionsritualer, teorin om transaktionella behov, stämplingsteorin, stigmatisering samt skam använts.   Resultatet visar att motiven bakom valet av gatuterapi är att gatuterapeuten har erfarenhet av missbruksproblem samt att han har tystnadsplikt och heller ingen anmälningsskyldighet. Erfarenheterna av offentliga myndigheter är både positiva och negativa. De har haft en god relation med några socialtjänsthandläggare, vilka de haft förtroende för, och de har gjorts delaktiga i beslutsfattandet. De negativa erfarenheterna handlar om att bli dömd, att känna skam, att inte bli lyssnad på eller att inte känna sig förstådd. Upplevelserna av gatuterapin är däremot enbart positiva: upplevelser av en god relation och tillit till gatuterapeuten, ett ökat självförtroende samt upplevelser av att inte bli dömd. I mötet mellan gatuterapeuten och besökarna tycktes besökarna bli lugnare samt erhålla en ökad nivå av emotionell energi. / The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons behind the visitor’s choice of street therapy and their experiences of contact with public authorities. The aim was also to examine the experiences visitors had of street therapy and to study what happens in the meeting between the street therapist and the visitors. The study was conducted based on a qualitative research approach and is based on interviews and observations of 15 people who visited the street therapy. For the analysis, the theory of interaction rituals, the theory of transactional needs, labeling theory, stigmatization and shame where used.   The result shows that the reasons behind the choice of street therapy is that the street therapist has his own experience of substance abuse problems, and that he has professional secrecy towards the visitors and towards the public authorities. The visitor’s experience of public authorities is both positive and negative. They have had a good relationship with some of the social workers, who they trusted, and they have been involved in the decision making. The negative experiences is about being judged, feelings of shame and not being listened to or felt understood. Experiences of street therapy is however only positive: experiences of a good relationship and trust with the street therapist, increased self-confidence and experiences of not being judged. In the meeting between the street therapist and the visitors it seemed liked the visitors became calmer and received an increased level of emotional energy.