The aim of this thesis is to investigate the workings of multi-scalar networks that connect informal economy organizations that are active locally, nationally and internationally. The study adopts a „right to the city‟ framework wherein the relation between the local and the global is discussed. The main questions that were addressed in the research were (I) how do local, national and global networks among street vendorsand marketers and their organizations shape the resistances of street vendors andmarketers and (II) how do local, national and international networks amongorganizations that work for street vendors and marketers contribute to street vendors‟ and marketers‟ claims to the rights to the city. Qualitative interviews were conducted with street and market vendors operating from urban areas in the Zambian Copperbelt as well as with organizations dealing with market and street vendors in the samegeographical area. Results showed that networks operating on different geographical scales served the street and market vendors as well as their organizations different purposes. Findings are related to the relative importance of the global for the local as well as contemporary theories of democracy and citizenship.

This dissertation focuses on the potential empowerment writing has among a homeless community in Atlanta, Georgia. Through the participation in a newly created writing workshop and a street newspaper in that community, the narrative and communication among writing participants demonstrate negotiations of self-identification as public and private writers and the situational influence writing has on their lives. The study adds to the “public turn” of writing instruction with the intention of helping to bridge the gap between traditional composition pedagogy in academia and such education in outside community. That participatory instruction reinforces the notion that writing and rhetorical performances can effect positive change in individual lives beyond that institutional space.

This thesis investigates an informally self-organized street market, Porta Portese, in Rome, Italy. As a response to the contemporary phenomenon of migration, of people and goods, Porta Portese reflects the city’s evolving urban, cultural and social dynamics under the impact of global forces. Based on fieldwork executed from 2007-2009, this thesis builds on the idea of scoring in an attempt to establish a framework of tangible notations, using mediums ranging from time-lapse photography to pattern mapping. The language of architecture is adapted to render visible the spatial dynamics in the fabrication of the market. Despite its lack of representation, Porta Portese leaves its mark as a layer of the invisible city of Rome. One can trace its terrain through palpable memories of a collective urban and cultural experience, for it transports ideas, images and values between different worlds based on universal understandings. Ultimately, this thesis advocates for an interpretive representation of places like Porta Portese as valuable urban spaces that celebrate and satisfy the needs of direct human experience. This is achieved through enabling the neglected voice of a place that can strike a resonating chord of dialogue amongst differences - and it all begins from a story about Porta Portese.

This thesis explores the various discursive strategies that black women employ when they encounter street harassment from men. To investigate the ways in which these women choose to respond to men’s attention during social interactions, I examine their perception of social situations to understand how they view urban spaces and strangers within these spaces. Drawing on qualitative interviews that I conducted with 10 black women, I focus on how the unique convergence of this group’s racial and gender identities can expose them to sexist and racist street harassment. Thus, I argue that black women face street harassment as a result of gendered and racialized power asymmetries. I found that black women rely on a variety of discursive strategies, including speech and silence, to neutralize and negotiate these power asymmetries. They actively resist reproducing racialized and gendered sexual stereotypes of black women by refusing to talk back to men who harass. Understanding silence as indicative of black women’s agency, not oppression, remains a key finding in this research.

Street harassment, the sexual harassment by strangers in public places, is a common experience shared by many women and has been linked with other forms of sexual victimization. The negative impact of street harassment, such as fear and behavior to avoid being harassed, points to the need for preventing the behavior. This study sought to determine whether the documentary-style film War Zone may be effective in impacting men’s attitudes toward street harassment, and whether the effectiveness of the film would depend on men’s hostility toward women and level of peer acceptance for street harassment. Findings do not support the effectiveness of War Zone as a component of street harassment prevention. However, the data does suggest that endorsement of hostile attitudes toward women predicts a lack of empathy, and that endorsement of hostile attitudes toward women, a lack of empathy, and peer acceptance of street harassment predict acceptance of street harassment.

Within the typical institution, social patterns are all but solidified: enter off the street, funnel through the grand multi-story lobby, take the elevator, and get to work. Everyone associates together in a single space, and everyone subsequently operates in isolation. By collapsing two-dimensional urbanism and the three-dimensional institution, the emerging articulated surface has the ability to tear down the boundary between architecture and city and integrate itself with the surroundings by leveraging the common space of interaction in the city—the street. The result is an interruption in the strict patterns of the city as street, side- walk, lot and building are disassembled, circulation is uncoupled, and the ground plane of the gridded city is reconstructed. Rather than constructing the institution around an all-encompassing connection between all of its publics in equal measure, this thesis sets out to tailor relationships between publics of the institution as well as with the segmented publics outside of it by leveraging a series of internal streets rather than a single, common one. In doing so, particular publics can be paired, specific spatial relationships can be constructed, and generative social relationships can be structured between publics. These streets will be tempered by their relationship to the ground plane and the exterior, the surrounding program, and types of connection. Relationships will not only be structured between urbanism and institution, but also within the imbedded layers of the institution, moving with and against the street. The institution that most easily encapsulates this condition is the Fashion Institute as it con- tains multiple user groups, or publics, that engage each other in multiple ways. Whether ver- bally, visually, or spatially from lectures to sketches to runways, the institutional discourse is easily penetrated by those publics that exist outside of the institution. Here, the street is brought into the school and the school is brought to the street.

Runt om Växjö återfinns många köpcentra som ständigt utökar vilket kan bli ett hot mot centrum. Växjö city domineras ur shoppinghänseende, av en enda gata, Storgatan. För att få ett mer konkurrenskraftigt centrum och dessutom ett mer spännande gatunät skulle en breddning av centrum därför vara positivt. Närmast tillhands för en vidgning är den parallella gågatan Sandgärdsgatan, vilken i dagsläget känns mer som en bakgata. Vårt projekt gick således ut på att ta fram förslag på hur man skulle kunna göra Sandgärdsgatan till en mer attraktiv gågata. Undersökningar har gjorts i form av litteraturstudier, intervju- och enkätundersökningar samt besök i olika stadsmiljöer. Förslagen vi tagit fram innefattar allt ifrån ombyggnationer och allmänna upprustningar till torghandel och affischering. De största åtgärdsförslagen har vi förutom i text valt att visualisera med olika ritningar medan mindre förslag endast nämns i text. / In the outskirts of Växjö many shoppingmalls are vastly expanding which in time could pose a threat to the city centre. Växjö city is, in shoppingaspects dominated by one main street, Storgatan. To achieve a more competitive central part of the city and complex street network, a widening of the center would be preferred. Closest at hand for a widening of the city centre is the paralell pedestrian street Sandgärdsgatan, which today is thought of as a backstreet. Our project is to propose examples on how to turn Sandgärdsgatan into a more attractive pedestrian street. Research have been carried out in the form of literaturestudies, interviews and polls aswell as fieldtrips to various urban environments. The proposals we have created include everything from remodelling and general restorations to street markets and placarding. The main proposals aside from being presented in text are also visualised in drawings whilst smaller changes are only mentioned in text.

Vår uppsats kommer beröra Zombies på film och fokusera på filmen Land of the Dead. Många människor upplever zombies som inget mer än monster, en fara för karaktärerna att klara sig undan. Vi vill uppmärksamma att all populärkultur i varierande utsträckning gestaltar verklighet, och analysera hur Zombies används för att gestalta aspekter av vårt samhälle.

This thesis investigates an informally self-organized street market, Porta Portese, in Rome, Italy. As a response to the contemporary phenomenon of migration, of people and goods, Porta Portese reflects the city’s evolving urban, cultural and social dynamics under the impact of global forces. Based on fieldwork executed from 2007-2009, this thesis builds on the idea of scoring in an attempt to establish a framework of tangible notations, using mediums ranging from time-lapse photography to pattern mapping. The language of architecture is adapted to render visible the spatial dynamics in the fabrication of the market. Despite its lack of representation, Porta Portese leaves its mark as a layer of the invisible city of Rome. One can trace its terrain through palpable memories of a collective urban and cultural experience, for it transports ideas, images and values between different worlds based on universal understandings. Ultimately, this thesis advocates for an interpretive representation of places like Porta Portese as valuable urban spaces that celebrate and satisfy the needs of direct human experience. This is achieved through enabling the neglected voice of a place that can strike a resonating chord of dialogue amongst differences - and it all begins from a story about Porta Portese.

BACKGROUND: Youth continue to be at high risk for STI and HIV transmission and unplanned pregnancies because of their liberal approach to sexual-health and their susceptibility toward engaging in risky activities. Youth who are street involved face greater risks than their peers because they occasionally participate in behaviours that places them at increased risk; for instance injection drug use, multiples sex partners, low condom use and considerable substance use. However, while street youth are predisposed to engage in many of the situations they do, some street youth are also making decisions to limit risk. OBJECTIVES: To 1) determine the basic level of HIV and STI knowledge of street youth; 2) to understand youth’s knowledge of, access to, and use of sexual-health information; 3) to explore where and from youth would like to get accurate sexual-health information and appropriate care; 4) to determine whether peer education is a useful method of transmitting sexual-health information to youth; 5) to assess the sexual risk level of youth; and 6) to develop an understanding of the proactive sexual-health behaviours and decisions youth have established for themselves. METHODS: Street-involved and homeless youth living in Hamilton, Ontario (n=97) who were between the ages of 14 and 24 were interviewed using a 112 questions interview tool. Topics covered in the interview included demographics, personal safety, health behaviour, accessing sexual-health information, accessing sexual-health services, HIV/AIDS knowledge and services use and peer education. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted using SAS. RESULTS: Youth had high rates of STI and HIV testing and good HIV knowledge when compared to the general youth population. However, the sample also had increased rates of unplanned pregnancies and young women were not well-informed about what gets tested for in pap smears. Some youth are also not accessing sexual-health services at all. CONCLUSIONS: Youth are making attempts to protect themselves, however there are areas for improvement; specifically increased condom-use, knowledge of HIV and pap smears. Youth who were found to have increased risk were youth who were under the age of 19, and youth who had experienced unstable housing before the age of 15. The findings suggest that sexual-health harm reduction needs to start at a younger age and the basics of sexual-health should not be overlooked.