The transition to a low carbon future is necessary to ensure humanity’s sustainable future, yet the expanding introduction of renewable energy technologies (RETs) is a central driver for transformations in rural landscapes worldwide. Introducing renewable energy (RE) infrastructures in rural landscapes raises concerns about the reduced naturalness and attractiveness of such landscapes for tourism and recreation as well as the transformation of people-place bonds as established through people’s interactions with and experiences in the surrounding landscapes. Few have examined how landscape transformation resulting from RE developments reshapes land users’ bonds with places. Furthermore, previous research has primarily relied on crosssectional quantitative data. This study addresses that literature gap and uses the Nature's Contributions to People (NCP) framework and the evolutionary theory of place attachment as theoretical underpinnings to examine how individuals perceive and experience evolving landscapes. By exploring individuals’ perceptions of and affective bonds with physical landscapes, this study provides a holistic understanding of the bonds that different groups of people may have with a certain place and how these bonds are manifested in the context of RE development and RET-related place change. In-depth interviews with private landowners and recreationists from the municipality of Mönsterås, Sweden, and observations in the Åby-Alebo wind park allow for the coconstruction of narratives reflecting individual accounts of meaning-making processes. The findings demonstrate that place attachment was evident in respondents’ descriptions of how they make a place meaningful to themselves through personal experiences and (recreational) practices. Along with landscape changes, for some individuals, meanings towards and bond with place evolved as well. The discussion shows that the emotional relationship to place reflects respondents’ particular journey in the world and over time. The study also highlights that differences in how recreationists and landowners bond with places is manifested in a changing context, disclosing the relationality of place attachment along social, practical, and temporal contextual factors. This points to encouraging possibilities for discussing the reconceptualization of humanity’s transition towards a low carbon future and fostering more sustainable landscape management in rural recreation areas.

Historical narratives and anecdotes concerning Captain John Smith have been told and retold throughout the entire history the United States of America, and they have proved to be sacred, influential, and contested elements in the construction of the individual, sectional, regional, and national identity of many. In this thesis, I first outline some of the history of how narratives and discourses surrounding Captain John Smith were directly connected with the identity of many Americans during the 18th and 19th century, especially Virginians and Southerners. Then I outline how these narratives and discourses from the 18th and 19th centuries have continued and evolved in the 20th and 21st centuries in American scholarship and popular culture. I demonstrate how Captain John Smith went from being used as a symbol for regional and sectional identity to a symbol for broader national American identity, and how he has anachronistically come to be considered an American. I then show how Captain John Smith has continued to be constructed, to a seemingly larger degree than previous centuries, as a hero of almost mythic proportions. Finally I demonstrate how this constructed American hero is used as a posterchild for various interest groups and ideologies in order to legitimize the places of certain discourses and behavior within constructed and contested American identities.

This autoethnography explores the phenomenon of marriage after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Capturing as its data, through a series of audio-recorded conversations and journal entries, the first-hand, co-constructed experiences of a married couple, it provides an ‘insider’ and as such, intimate perspective on life together following such an unexpected, disruptive and life-altering event. Situated within ‘a systemic constructionist’ epistemology, it spotlights, in particular, the relational aspects of the post-TBI marriage unfolding over time, rather than just the individual perspectives of each spouse at a single point in time - as most existing studies on the topic do. As a qualitative study, it made allowance for the collection and use of rich, nuanced data so as to do some justice to the complex nature of the topic being studied. David Reiss’ explanatory theory on ‘crisis and the development of the family paradigm’ was applied deductively during the carrying out of a thematic analysis of the data, with the intention of bringing new insights to the understanding of the phenomenon of the post-TBI marriage. Data were also analysed inductively, in that themes emerging from the data itself were also used. A discussion based on the findings of the data analysis was proffered. Based on these findings, recommendations on what issues therapists working from within a family-systems orientation might focus their attention on were made. A recommendation for TBI couples to receive support from early intervention and follow-up services was also made, along with identifying the consequent need for research first to be done on developing and implementing such a service / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This autoethnography explores the phenomenon of marriage after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Capturing as its data, through a series of audio-recorded conversations and journal entries, the first-hand, co-constructed experiences of a married couple, it provides an ‘insider’ and as such, intimate perspective on life together following such an unexpected, disruptive and life-altering event. Situated within ‘a systemic constructionist’ epistemology, it spotlights, in particular, the relational aspects of the post-TBI marriage unfolding over time, rather than just the individual perspectives of each spouse at a single point in time - as most existing studies on the topic do. As a qualitative study, it made allowance for the collection and use of rich, nuanced data so as to do some justice to the complex nature of the topic being studied. David Reiss’ explanatory theory on ‘crisis and the development of the family paradigm’ was applied deductively during the carrying out of a thematic analysis of the data, with the intention of bringing new insights to the understanding of the phenomenon of the post-TBI marriage. Data were also analysed inductively, in that themes emerging from the data itself were also used. A discussion based on the findings of the data analysis was proffered. Based on these findings, recommendations on what issues therapists working from within a family-systems orientation might focus their attention on were made. A recommendation for TBI couples to receive support from early intervention and follow-up services was also made, along with identifying the consequent need for research first to be done on developing and implementing such a service / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)