This dissertation contains three articles on shared equity homeownership (SEH). SEH is resale-restricted, owner-occupied housing for lower income households that remains affordable in perpetuity. To examine the viability of SEH in a relatively affordable locality, the first article presents findings from focus groups with potential SEH beneficiaries in Nashville, TN. The study found that the majority of participants expressed an interest in SEH and perceived benefits of SEH relative to existing rental and homeownership options. The second article presents national performance data on SEH. Based upon data from a national survey of community land trusts (one form of SEH), the study found that owners of community land trust homes were substantially less likely to be seriously delinquent or in foreclosure proceedings than owners in the conventional market at the end of 2010. The final article reviews problems in the current landscape of SEH, which are hindering sector formation and growth; it puts forth recommendations to overcome these obstacles in order to take the sector to scale.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth are historically an under-studied subpopulation of youth. Over the past decade however, the subpopulation has garnered increased attention from scholars of education and youth development, primarily with regard to how experiences of stigma and victimization negatively influence school and family life. During this same time period, the transformative paradigm of positive youth development (PYD), which focuses on the positive or adaptive factors that support a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood (Durlak, 1998), has become increasingly prominent. Despite the potential value of this approach in offering a fuller picture of youth development inclusive of risk as well as positive supports, its application to LGBT youth thus far remains limited. A parallel growth in literature has attended to how new, Internet-based technologies affect adolescent development models, and how they may be especially useful for some socially marginalized groups. These new media, when viewed through a PYD framework, have the potential to re-energize civic participation and help create a more just society, particularly if they support development and assist in overcoming experiences of marginalization. This dissertation applies the PYD model to LGBT youth and examines a) the factors that influence access to PYD resources; b) how LGBT-related experiences of marginalization influence access to and use of positive resources and well-being; and c) whether LGBT-specific and Internet-based additions to the PYD framework facilitate well-being. Results show that online and LGBT-specific spaces and resourcesincluding resources related to LGBT identity development, social support, and participation in extracurricular and civic activitiescan contribute to well-being and thus, expand existing understandings of PYD for LGBT youth.

This thesis is based on a case study of faculty collaboration and community in a postsecondary education setting. Drawing on what educational theorists and practitioners have learned in their research on faculty collaboration, development, and professional community building, the study investigated specific aspects of collaborative processes that can help create strong professional educational communities. The study focused on 6 full-time faculty members at a postsecondary college in Ontario. As participant observer in this study, I worked in an environment that enabled me to interact both individually and collectively with faculty members through a program accreditation process, particularly in completing an accreditation self-study. Using transcripts and field notes from semi-structured interviews, observations, and my own reflections, I analyzed faculty interactions and perceptions of the self-study process. The thesis recounts the past history of the program as told by the faculty participants, outlines the nature of the program accreditation, and presents faculty perceptions of their role and identity within the faculty community. The thesis outlines the changes that occurred among the faculty and the factors that appeared to contribute most profoundly to those changes. It suggests specific ways in which leaders within the world of postsecondary education can foster a culture of faculty engagement and trust geared toward facilitating curricular and educational change. It also identifies factors and resources needed to attract, retain, and empower faculty to work together to ensure sustainable program quality and, ultimately, student success. Besides the need for strong leadership to promote and guide change, and structural factors rooted in and responsive to faculty experience, the study points to the critical role that relational factors play in fostering a collaborative culture. The thesis concludes with specific suggestions arising from the study regarding: institutional policy and practice, how to facilitate professional growth among faculty in postsecondary environments, and avenues for further research on collaboration and faculty community.

The International Township of Auroville was inaugurated as an international experiment in Human Unity on the southeast coast of India in 1968. My research on Auroville constitutes a case study of collective decision-making. Coding extracts from the weekly internal newsletters of the Township 1975 to 2000 in the qualitative software program, NVivo, I reconstruct features of decision-making in the township which I argue form implicit agreements on principles of organization. Illocutionary action, the effort to reach mutual understanding, underscores each of these principles. Illocutionary action is the building block of Jurgen Habermas Theory of Communicative Action and his Discourse Ethics. Because of the correspondence between decision-making in Auroville and the formulations of Jurgen Habermas, I apply key dimensions of Habermas theory to developments in the township in order to identify the practical consequences of adherence to the primacy Habermas pays to illocutionary action. In this way, I submit his theory to practical test. Contrary to the theoretical expectations of Habermas, decision-making characteristic of lifeworld continues to play a role in steering the systems developed to facilitate the expansion of the Auroville Township.

Nowadays, most aspects of our daily lives have been changed by digital technology. Digital content as a new medium has been used widely as memorial to bring back memories of a person, an event or old times. Since all the data probably will exist longer than our lifetime, how should we deal with them and treat them as a heritage? In this project, I am exploring the possibilities of an innovative service that would engage people to preserve memories in the digital age by sharing their stories with future generations. I aim at result that not only allows people to collect stories, but also brings new perspective on how people view their present lives in the community. Moreover, I hope this design will not be limited to Norsjö municipality, but could also bring an extra value to other small communities with similar needs.

The International Township of Auroville was inaugurated as an international experiment in Human Unity on the southeast coast of India in 1968. My research on Auroville constitutes a case study of collective decision-making. Coding extracts from the weekly internal newsletters of the Township 1975 to 2000 in the qualitative software program, NVivo, I reconstruct features of decision-making in the township which I argue form implicit agreements on principles of organization. Illocutionary action, the effort to reach mutual understanding, underscores each of these principles. Illocutionary action is the building block of Jurgen Habermas Theory of Communicative Action and his Discourse Ethics. Because of the correspondence between decision-making in Auroville and the formulations of Jurgen Habermas, I apply key dimensions of Habermas theory to developments in the township in order to identify the practical consequences of adherence to the primacy Habermas pays to illocutionary action. In this way, I submit his theory to practical test. Contrary to the theoretical expectations of Habermas, decision-making characteristic of lifeworld continues to play a role in steering the systems developed to facilitate the expansion of the Auroville Township.

This thesis is based on a case study of faculty collaboration and community in a postsecondary education setting. Drawing on what educational theorists and practitioners have learned in their research on faculty collaboration, development, and professional community building, the study investigated specific aspects of collaborative processes that can help create strong professional educational communities. The study focused on 6 full-time faculty members at a postsecondary college in Ontario. As participant observer in this study, I worked in an environment that enabled me to interact both individually and collectively with faculty members through a program accreditation process, particularly in completing an accreditation self-study. Using transcripts and field notes from semi-structured interviews, observations, and my own reflections, I analyzed faculty interactions and perceptions of the self-study process. The thesis recounts the past history of the program as told by the faculty participants, outlines the nature of the program accreditation, and presents faculty perceptions of their role and identity within the faculty community. The thesis outlines the changes that occurred among the faculty and the factors that appeared to contribute most profoundly to those changes. It suggests specific ways in which leaders within the world of postsecondary education can foster a culture of faculty engagement and trust geared toward facilitating curricular and educational change. It also identifies factors and resources needed to attract, retain, and empower faculty to work together to ensure sustainable program quality and, ultimately, student success. Besides the need for strong leadership to promote and guide change, and structural factors rooted in and responsive to faculty experience, the study points to the critical role that relational factors play in fostering a collaborative culture. The thesis concludes with specific suggestions arising from the study regarding: institutional policy and practice, how to facilitate professional growth among faculty in postsecondary environments, and avenues for further research on collaboration and faculty community.

Brain injuries (BI) are the leading cause of death and disability among people under the age of 45 (Ontario Brain Injury Association, 2004). With improved survival rates, more individuals each year return to the community with impairments and disabilities caused by their injury (Smith, Magill–Evans, and Brintnell, 1998). Adjusting to these impairments may affect the individual’s subjective well being; therefore, attention to community reintegration by researchers, policy developers, and health care providers is important. Using qualitative research methods and systems theory as the theoretical framework, the purpose of the study was to examine community reintegration from the perspectives of three key groups: individuals with BI, community based agencies, and primary care physicians regarding the meaning attributed to “successful reintegration”, as well as the key characteristics and barriers experienced during reintegration. “Successful” reintegration appears to be an individually derived concept. Participants consistently identified the need for information about the process of community reintegration, and resources available both during rehabilitation and after discharge from the hospital as being both a key aspect of community reintegration, as well as a barrier experienced during the return to community. / October 2006

The objective of this research is to analyze the extent to which the information and computer technology (ICT) industry in Winnipeg contributes to or detracts from the objectives of a particular economic theory of the whole community—namely, community economic development (CED). This was achieved by developing a CED framework for analysis, conducting a survey of ICT businesses in Winnipeg to gather the required data, and using the collected survey data to complete the analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that the ICT industry is contributing significantly more to some of the objectives of CED than it does to others. / October 2005

A major objective of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BDEF) research is to determine the consequences of species loss, caused both naturally and anthropogenically, on the functioning of ecosystems. The impact of plant species loss on the soil microbial community has not received much attention even though soil microbes influence many important ecosystem functions such as decomposition and nutrient cycling. The objective of this research was to investigate how the functional group composition of the aboveground plant community influenced the belowground microbial community. Plant functional groups (graminoids, legumes and non-leguminous forbs) were removed from a northern grassland system in the Yukon Territory, Canada. One metre square plots had one of the three functional groups removed or left intact as a control and this was crossed with a fertilizer treatment and a fungicide treatment that targeted mycorrhizal fungi. After five seasons (2003-07) of implementing treatments the soil microbial community was analyzed using substrate-induced respiration (SIR, a measure of metabolic diversity) and phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA, a measure of community composition). Plant functional group removal had almost no effect on the soil microbial community. The only response detected was an increase in stress (indicated by the PLFA stress ratio of cy19:0 to 18:1ω7c) which occurred when legumes were removed and fertilizer was not added, indicating that legumes had a positive effect on the nutrient status of microbes. Likewise, soil properties (total carbon, pH, moisture and nutrients) showed limited response to plant removals. Fertilization decreased the metabolic diversity of the soil microbial community. We detected no soil microbial or plant biomass response to the fungicide indicating that mycorrhizae had little influence in this system. Based on the low-productivity of the grassland, and the lack of response in both the soil properties and the microbial community, we hypothesize that the main determinants of the microbial community may be litter input. When litter decomposition rates are slow, such as in this northern system, five growing seasons may not be sufficient to detect the impact of a changing plant community on the soil microbes.