Society's need for industry has been at odds with maintaining a sound and healthy natural environment. The concept of sustainability has arisen to bridge the gap between the competing forces of industry and environment. Through sustainability, industry is promoted, natural resources are protected, and both the economy and the environment gains. One example of sustainability in action is the eco-industrial park. This park differs from conventional industrial parks in how it embraces the principles of sustainability in construction, operation, and production. This thesis will examine the development of the eco-industrial park concept from the broader concepts of sustainability and industrial ecology. Sustainability will be further conceptualized and operationalized through the use of indicators. Then, those indicators will be in a case study of the former Fort Devens Army Base to evaluate, qualitatively and quantitatively, which better achieves the goals of sustainability: an eco-industrial park or a conventional industrial park.

<p> Current economic development policy is unevenly effective across Appalachia. At the root of this policy is the annual determination of County Economic Status, a metric intended to measure performance in relation to the rest of the nation. This designation, calculated from income, unemployment and poverty data, is deeply flawed. Understanding how public investment and economic accessibility interact can yield improved results when implementing development policies and funding initiatives aimed at the region. Failure to recognize the assets and challenges unique to the region, coupled with an imperfect understanding of the regional interactions between local economies, have led to mis-targeted programs and unsatisfactory results. </p><p> A comprehensive examination of how public and private facilities interact to improve the overall well-being of a region in terms of the spatial patterns of accessibility and investment can increase understanding of the role of public investment in Appalachia, and improve program targeting. An economic accessibility model is generated and evaluated at the community level, and evaluated in conjunction with public investment practices, to uncover important information about the effectiveness of development efforts and the evolution of economic regions.</p>

Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is revolutionizing spatial data visualization, handling, manipulation and analysis in planning and related disciplines. The objective of this dissertation was to document the infiltration of GIS and other information technologies into planning schools; to clarify the difference between the GIS Revolution, and the Quantitative Revolution of the sixties; and to highlight and address the theoretical-technological disparities in planning school curricula. A comparison of the GIS Revolution with the Quantitative Revolution confirmed that unlike the large scale models and techniques that emerged in academia during the sixties, GIS technology is not an academic venture. It is a big business, with the software products of commercial vendors driving the teaching and research agendas at U.S. planning schools. The GIS profession has emerged, and there is a high demand for schools to turn out planners with relevant knowledge and experience. The soaring popularity of GIS courses and GIS specialties in planning schools was documented, and the implications of GIS technology for computer and human resources, and for the nature and style of instruction, assignments, studios, research projects, theses and dissertations, is discussed. It was noted that, despite the impact of GIS technology on course offerings, the planning pedagogic model has changed little. In particular, planning theory has remained a core course since its inception in the planning curriculum. A review of course outlines, course content and literature revealed that GIS and planning theory courses do not complement each other. In fact, academic criticism of GIS and related information technologies has further intensified with the barrage of post-positivist philosophies, advanced by many theorists. Given the importance of both types of courses, it was concluded that the theorist-technician dichotomy is counterproductive, and that viable methods of integration must be researched. The concept of links was introduced and exemplified to demonstrate the contexts within which planning theory topics can be integrated with GIS topics.

Since its inception roughly 100 years ago, urban planning has tried to address problems of sprawl, congestion, pollution, and social inequities. Until roughly 20 years ago, these planning attempts were structured by a self-consciously modernist "paradigm." In some cases, modern urban planning was also influenced by left-wing concerns for transcendence of "class" injustices and inequalities. From a Marxist perspective, however, modern urban planning was also, uncritically, structured by modernist essentialisms, both epistemological and methodological. These essentialisms conditioned its focus on certain processes and relations (deemed essential) at the expense of others (deemed inessential), specifically class (in the Marxian sense). One consequence of these essentialisms and foci has been a blindness to the connections between class and the built environment, to struggling and designing policies for justice and democracy in the production process. In the 1970s-'80s, both cities and urban planning underwent tremendous changes. Both liberals and leftists, often citing Los Angeles as quintessential example, have explained these changes as a shift from modern to postmodern ways of using and understanding space. Many liberals and leftists have indeed been critical of postmodern land use and planning for heightened "class" (in a non Marxian sense) polarization, unseen since modern planning's attempts to ameliorate it. Yet in their recognition of and shift to a postmodern paradigm, liberals and leftists have, uncritically, continued to use modernist, essentialist, epistemologies and methodologies. They thus have reproduced conditions under which planners remain unable to see the effects of class and thus unable to help transform it to a more democratic form. This dissertation, in chapter IV, contributes a nonessentialist analysis of urban form, with a focus on class. It decenters the knowledges and issues planners have traditionally deemed essential, putting class on the map of issues addressed by planning. That is, it argues for planning to consider, in addressing urban problems, class, not as some (modernist) key to social change but as one more possible site for bettering urban conditions.

Habitat loss is one of the most serious threats to biodiversity today. A host of natural and human activities, including fire, agriculture, and resource extraction can have profound impacts on the transformation of native habitats. In the Northeast, habitat loss occurs primarily from land use changes from small to mid-scale residential development. Essential to maintaining biological diversity in the Northeast is the protection of important conservation areas from destructive land-use change, especially residential development. In order to maintain biodiversity, communities must set aside vulnerable open space and areas of native habitats. To aid in this it is necessary to predict the vulnerability of areas of conservation interest to development. Through an analysis of land use change, a predictive model can be developed to be used as a tool in the selection and management of conservation areas. An historical land use change analysis was conducted for two counties in Massachusetts, USA. Through logistic regression modeling the variables that best predicted land use change were determined. The most influential land use change variable was found to be the initial land use of the site. The density of buildings in the surrounding area was also found to be a significant predictor. A sensitivity analysis of the logistic regressions showed that these two variables were robust predictors of land use change. Transition analysis was used to further understand the processes of land use change for the two counties. It was found that the transition systems for both areas was not stable over time, which indicates that the mechanisms influencing land use change over time. Transition sensitivity analysis indicates that relatively few of the transitions were sensitive to perbutations of the system. This work will help to better understand land use change in New England. With better understanding of land use change, planners and land managers can make better informed decisions about land acquisition, protection and management to help conserve biodiversity throughout the region.

Changes in the landscape mosaic are natural, and are ideally associated with fluid and ecologically balanced processes (Forman 1994). Human induced transformations of wilderness landscapes are often conducted to support the clearing of agricultural land and other human dominated land uses. These processes, fueled by rising populations and demands for land, are associated with unbalanced, or unsustainable land use practices which most often result in the fragmentation of natural wildlife habitats (Robinson 1996, p. 111). Declines in wildlife resources are often reflected by overall decreases in the availability of wildlife resources, or in a decrease in the number of species. Either of these processes may serve as indicators of decreased levels of biodiversity. This research explores the roots, justifications, and threats to wildlife associated with national park planning in British Africa. The Lukusuzi National Park Region, located in Zambia's Luangwa River Valley, serves as a case study for the application of the research, through an assessment of three associated areas: (1) The adoption and implementation of national park policies, as examined through an historical assessment, which traces the national park model from the United States to England to British Africa; (2) The identification of physical evidence in the landscape, which is used as an indicator of environmental health in and around selected national park lands (supported by Landsat TM), and; (3) An assessment of the founding principles of landscape ecology and environmental planning, and the potential application of these principles to support conservation initiatives in British Africa. A synthesis of findings from the three themes resulted in the development of an integrated conservation plan, respecting historical and cultural links to the environment; physical landscape characteristics; and ecological and environmental principles. This research offers a unique approach to conservation planning in Africa, by integrating local knowledge collected through empirical observations 'on the ground' with scientific knowledge, collected and processed with modern planning tools (including satellite remote sensing and GIS). The integration of local participation in the management of conservation areas is identified as an integral part of a larger conservation strategy.

Export Processing Zones (EPZs) are about thirty years old now (ILO and UNCTC. 1988). Their effects and influence on third world economic development and on international industrial restructuring have been criticised by different literatures. I wish to combine my practical experience of working in Shenzen Special Economic Zone for four years, with research to compare four EPZs’ development in four East Asian countries and area: Massan Zone in Korea, Kaohsiung Zone in Thailand, Shenzen Zone in China and Lat Krabang Zone in Thailand. This intended to explore the effect of EPZs on the economic development of those countries, and to provide a series of comparative data (especially on the zone of China about which there is little information).

Export Processing Zones (EPZs) are about thirty years old now (ILO and UNCTC. 1988). Their effects and influence on third world economic development and on international industrial restructuring have been criticised by different literatures. I wish to combine my practical experience of working in Shenzen Special Economic Zone for four years, with research to compare four EPZs’ development in four East Asian countries and area: Massan Zone in Korea, Kaohsiung Zone in Thailand, Shenzen Zone in China and Lat Krabang Zone in Thailand. This intended to explore the effect of EPZs on the economic development of those countries, and to provide a series of comparative data (especially on the zone of China about which there is little information).

<p>In many ‘Third World’ societies tourism is seen as a force for economic development and socie-tal change. Employment in tourism has increased, new destinations have been drawn into tour-ism circuits, and many ‘Third World’ governments have adopted ‘pro-poor’ tourism policies as part of their poverty reduction strategies. However, the tourism sector appears to be particularly volatile and can be subject to dramatic fluctuations, both in terms of volumes and tourists’ des-tination choices, which means that people working in tourism are exposed to globalising forces and preferences far beyond their control.</p><p>The aim of this study is to explore the contents and meanings of work within tourism as narrated by formal and informal tourism workers in an urban backpacker enclave in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The study is concerned with the ‘receiving end’ of international tourism, and specifi-cally with the experiences of people who make their livelihoods within the low-budget tourism sector, in which ‘Western’ backpackers are key actors.</p><p>In this study the tourism phenomenon is seen from the context of global asymmetrical power relations, but social relations at the local level in Yogyakarta city are given centre stage. The social relations that constitute the Sosrowijayan area as a place are complex. While back-packers come to Sosrowijayan in search of cheap tourism facilities, the general public in Yogya-karta construct the area as the centre of prostitution in the city. However, the inhabitants of Sosrowijayan draw boundaries between people and places in very refined ways.</p><p>These boundaries are gendered in the sense that above all female sex workers are blamed for the negative perceptions of the area. They are constructed as ‘outsiders’ because of their ‘deviant’ lifestyle and ‘choice’ of occupation (social class) and because they are said to be migrants from other areas in Indonesia. In Sosrowijayan boundary constructions also take place between male tourism workers who claim allegiance to different groups and categories within their profession or livelihood niche. They make distinctions between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’; the ‘insiders’ are born in the area, while the ‘outsiders’ are narrated as being from other parts of the city, or the country, and/or engage in sexual relations with Western tourists.</p><p>The study shows that relations of class, gender, and colonial and/or ‘race’ stereotypes come into play in encounters between tourists and tourist workers. Tourism workers consider themselves to be ‘providers of fun’ which means that they are supposed to meet the needs of the tourists, whatever those needs might be, such as material or sexual. In this relationship the Indonesian tourism workers might be interpreted as the racialised service class that make the backpacker-consumer possible. The study also shows that tourism workers in Sosrowijayan are not only immobile in comparison to the highly mobile backpackers from whom they earn their livelihoods, but also that they are at the receiving end of a type of mobility which is initiated and performed far beyond their control.</p>

<p>The aim of this dissertation is to explore how and under what conditions life strategies of young men and women unfold in the towns of Masasi in southern Tanzania and Montepuez in northern Mozambique. These towns are located in regions which in their national contexts are perceived as peripheral and rural. The thesis examines the life strategies of youth, with particular emphasis on livelihood, education and mobility. How the life strategies can be related to the representations of young people in national and local discourses, and how global processes are involved in young people’s daily lives are also examined. The fieldwork was conducted between 2002 and 2004 and the main part of the empirical material consists of structured and semi-structured interviews.</p><p>Many young people are under substantial pressure to support themselves and their families, but a conflict exists between the expectations on youth to contribute to the household economy and their possibilities to do so. There is also a contradiction between being needed for labour and being trusted with responsibilities. Harsh economic conditions, combined with a weak position in terms of power, increase the vulnerability of young people in these places.</p><p>Global processes influence young people’s lives, primarily expressed through changed patterns of consumption. However, there is a feeling of exclusion from globalisation in terms of work. Self-employment is promoted as a solution to poverty by the government and by various organisations, but young people contest this discourse and demand ‘real’ employment for themselves and for their children. Young people’s mobility experiences are mainly local due to a local social network and limited resources. Those with larger resources tend to be more mobile and the more privileged youth aspire to move to the larger cities or abroad. Agriculture is a complementary livelihood strategy, which implies that the rural economy still has an important function as a safety net within the urban landscape.</p>