Les Hauts-de-Seine constituent, depuis leur création en 1964, la place forte de la droite francilienne. L’enjeu politique est de taille, car ce « département-métropole » est souvent qualifié de « département le plus riche de France après Paris ». A l’image du pôle de La Défense, devenu le premier quartier d’affaires d’Europe, les Hauts-de-Seine ont connu ces dernières décennies de profondes transformations urbaines et d’importants bouleversements sociologiques et économiques. L’analyse géopolitique s’avère fructueuse pour comprendre ces mutations. En effet, elles sont étroitement liées à un ensemble de stratégies territoriales dont le but est le contrôle politique des Hauts-de-Seine. La droite a donc imaginé, mis en place et développé un système géopolitique local très efficace, que nous avons nommé la « banlieue bleue » et qui, par bien des aspects, constitue le double inversé de la banlieue rouge. Dans un premier temps, cette thèse montre la formation géopolitique de la « banlieue bleue » des Hauts-de-Seine. Puis, elle s’intéresse au fonctionnement et aux acteurs du système géopolitique local en insistant sur la dimension éminemment géopolitique des politiques publiques d’aménagement urbain qui ont transformé la physionomie des villes du département. Elle revient enfin sur les rivalités de pouvoirs à l’échelle métropolitaine. Face au risque d’absorption des départements de petite couronne dans la nouvelle Métropole du Grand Paris, le département développe un projet géopolitique d’envergure, la fusion des Hauts-de-Seine et des Yvelines, qui, si elle aboutit, ferait de ces deux départements une « banlieue bleue » XXL. / Since they were created in 1964, the Hauts-de-Seine have been a stronghold of the Ile-de-France's right wing. The political stakes are high as this 'departement-metropole' is often qualified as the second richest after Paris. Like the hub of La Defense, which has become Europe's first business centre, the Hauts-de-Seine have lately undergone deep sociological and economical changes as well as consequent urban transformations. The geopolitical analyse proves itself meaningful to understand these mutations. They indeed are tightly connected to a set of territorial strategies, the aim of which is the political control of the Hauts-de-Seine. The right-wing thus contrived, set up and developped a local geopolitical system which, to many aspects, is the mirror image of the red suburb. This dissertation first shows how the Hauts-de-Seine's blue suburb was organized. It then focuses on how the actors of the local geopolitical system operate by insisting on the outstanding geopolitical dimension of the public policies of the urban planning and on how this transformed the aspect of the department's cities. It also focuses on the competition for power at a metropolitan scale. Confronted to the risk of being assimilated by the Greater Paris, the departement is developping a large-scale geopolitical project, the merging between the Hauts-de-Seine and the Yvelines which, if put in practice, would make these suburbs a major blue suburb.

La thèse s’intéresse aux enjeux de maîtrise de la croissance urbaine au travers du modèle de Ville Compacte et de sa caractéristique spatiale clé : la densité. Ce travail de doctorat s’inscrit dans une démarche théorique, méthodologique et empirique. Premièrement, la thèse replace la densité dans les modèles de microéconomie urbaine relatifs aux choix de localisation des agents. Nous identifions ainsi les différents déterminants de la localisation résidentielle (centre d’emploi, aménités, service résidentiel) et analysons l’organisation spatiale – dense ou dispersée – qui en découle. De plus, la thèse ne considère pas uniquement une densité mais des densités urbaines telles des densités de contenu (population, emploi) et de contenant (bâti). Elle met ainsi en évidence divers enjeux méthodologiques associés au traitement et à l’analyse des densités urbaines et propose une mesure plus juste de l’intensité de l’occupation de l’espace, le ratio de densité net. Pour illustrer ces résultats, deux études empiriques portant sur le Grand Dijon sont réalisées. La première consiste en une typologie des quartiers dijonnais qui met en relation les déterminants théoriques de choix de localisation et les types et niveaux de densités urbaines. La seconde étude empirique s’intéresse aux conditions d’acceptabilité des densités urbaines par les individus. Elle consiste en une évaluation hédonique appliquée au prix du logement qui appréhende la valorisation de la densité perçue (bâti) et de la densité en tant que vecteur d’interactions sociales. La thèse apporte des éclairages sur les conditions de réalisation et d’acceptation des politiques d’aménagement actuelles visant la Ville Compacte. / The thesis is focused on urban growth control challenge through the Compact City model and its key spatial characteristic: the density. This work deals both with a theoretical, methodological and empirical approach. First, we place ourselves in the theoretical framework of Urban Economic addressing agents’ location choices. We mobilize these theories to identify the key determinants of residential location (employment center, spatial amenities, housing’s service) and analyze the spatial organization that follows (dense or spread). This literature leads us to consider different types of density: structural density, population density and social density. This thesis highlights various methodological challenges associated with the treatment and analysis of urban densities and proposes a more accurate measure of the intensity of space occupancy, the net density ratio. To illustrate this results, we realize two empirical studies on the agglomeration of Grand Dijon. The first is a typology on Dijon urban area neighborhoods that links density levels to theoretical determinants of residential location. The second empirical study implements the method of hedonic prices applied to housing. Relying on the methods and tools of spatial econometrics, we estimate the valuation of the density on the Grand Dijon and identify the conditions for its acceptance by individuals. This thesis sheds light on the conditions of realization and acceptance of current planning policies aiming at achieving Compact City.

Hållbar stadsbyggnad är ett ideal som syftar på att ta hänsyn till ekologiska och sociala såväl som ekonomiska aspekter så att utveckling av dagens samhälle inte skall inkräkta framtida generationers rätt till ett gott liv. Rent praktiskt måste stadsplanerare formulera om idealet till konkreta mål och åtgärder anpassade till lokala förutsättningar och tillgängliga medel. I Stockholm pågår två stadsbyggnadsprojekt med höga hållbarhetsambitioner; Norra Djurgårdsstaden (NDS) och Stora Sköndal (SSK), båda har som en del av hållbarhetsarbetet antagit s.k. hållbarhetsmål och krav kopplade till olika styrdokument och processer för att uppnå dessa ambitioner. Målet för arbetet var att genom att kvantitativt och kvalitativt jämföra projektens egna mål, krav och även andra relaterade aspekter av hållbarhetsarbetet samt tillgängliga resultat avgöra vad som är jämförbart, vilket projekt som har högst ambitioner ochprestera bäst samt finna punkter där projekten eventuellt kan förbättras. Noterbara slutsatser är att projektens ekologiska mål överlag liknar varandra och är kvantitativt jämförbara, medans de sociala målen inte är det dels som en följd av skiljda koncept för social hållbarhet och dels på grund av olika organisationer och processer. Förslagen på förbättringar gäller dels specifika höjningar av enskilda mål/krav och mer generella råd att öka antalet standardiserade och mätbara mål och krav. Trots att NDS har något högre ambitioner tyder jämförelsen av de tillgängliga sammanställda resultaten på att Stora Sköndal verkar prestera bättre än Norra Djurgårdsstaden för vissa särskilda målområden som energianvändning och grönytor / Sustainable city planning is an ideal aiming at consideration to ecological and social as well as economic aspects so that development of today’s society won’t interfere with future generations’right to a decent life. In practical terms city planners have to reformulate the ideal to concrete targets and actions adapted to local conditions and available means. In Stockholm there are two ongoing city development projects with high sustainability ambitions; Stockholm Royal Seaport (Norra Djurgårdsstaden, NDS) and Stora Sköndal (SSK), both have as part of the sustainability work adopted so called sustainability goals and requirements tied to governing documents and processes to achieve these ambitions. The goal for this examination paper was to quantitatively and qualitatively compare the projects own goals, requirements and some other aspects of the sustainability efforts alongside with available results to ascertain what comparable elements there are, what project seems to have the higher ambitions and perform the best, and find aspects where the projects may improve. Notable conclusions are that the projects’ ecological goals overall are similar and comparable, while the social one’s aren’t as a consequence of both differing concepts of social sustainability and different organizations and processes. The improvement proposals address raising specific goals/targets as well as more general advice to expand the number standardized and measureable goals and requirements. Despite NDS having somewhat higher ambitions the first comparison of available results suggest that SSK manage to accomplish better results than NDS in key areas such as energy use and green spaces.

This study examines the efficacy of collection development and management practices, policies, guidelines and standards in universities of technology to meet the information needs of academics and researchers at such institutions. In South Africa, as in Australasia, technikons or polytechnics have been upgraded first into degree granting institutions and then, at the beginning of the 21st century, into universities of technology. The researcher was concerned that library collections in South African universities of technology have not grown to meet the research and teaching needs of academics at the level of universities offering instruction up to a doctoral level. As research funding, government grants and the general prestige of the institutions depend on the research output of the institutions, it is essential that academics and researchers find the information resources they require in their institutional libraries. Case studies of universities of technology in New Zealand and South Africa reveal that, while Auckland University of Technology has been successful in extending its collection to meet the increasing demands placed on it, the collection development policies, standards and guidelines in a South African university of technology need to be upgraded in order to meet the information needs and information behaviour of their researchers and academics. Current levels of funding for the acquisition of information resources in South Africa lag behind those found at the New Zealand university of technology. The university of technology that was the object of the South African case study needs to bring its collection in line with that of similar institutions worldwide. This entails adapting goals and objectives stating how the collection is to develop, evaluating the collection and the needs of users, changing the Collection Development Policy to reflect the direction collection development will take and ensuring that the institution and the government back this project financially. To this end, a model Collection Development Policy has been drawn up that can be adapted to the local requirements of South African universities of technology to assist with the process of developing and managing library collections that will be worthy of such an institution. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

This study is a contribution to the research projects in Africa that are concerned with the analysis of the various conflicts that currently face the continent. Political, ethnic, religious, cultural, and other forms of conflicts have increased in number over the past five decades. The academic community has been making its contribution to the understanding and resolution of the conflicts through its research projects. The contributions of the academic community are widely acknowledged in this regard. This study is about those conflicts emanating from differences in the cultural interpretations of natural resources between crop farmers and nomadic herdsmen. The example selected belongs to those conflicts, which are entrenched in the cultural practices of rural communities. These conflicts are unique, since most of them predate the political, economic, and ethnic-based conflicts, most of which have emerged since the colonial era. Understanding these types of conflicts thus constitutes an important area of the development process of countries such as the Republic of Sudan, which already has many conflicts to contend with. The areas elected the North, South and West Kordofan States constitute some of the conflict hotspots of the Republic of Sudan in terms of the cultural-natural resource conflict dynamics. The understanding and resolution of the conflicts between the crop farmers and nomadic herdsmen in the region have the potential to offer enormous benefits to the peace needed for the long-term development of Sudan. The objectives of this study were chosen purposely to contribute to the research projects on the peace-conflict discourse of the Republic of Sudan. They were aimed at finding out how the cultures of the crop farmers and nomadic herdsmen of the Greater Kordofan states explain the conflicts and the efforts of the Sudanese authorities to help address them. The critical realist research approach has been selected as the framework for the study. This involved a number of steps. First, information on the nature of the current policies and plans of the government of Sudan to address the conflicts has been collected as one basic element of the challenge of development of the Greater Kordofan region. The challenge has been discussed in terms of the gap currently existing between the government’s peace building plan objectives on the one hand and the actual outcomes on the other. Next, information was collected from the relevant stakeholders on the reasons for the persistence of the conflicts between the nomadic herdsmen and the crop farmers despite the efforts on the part of the government at building peace between them. Generating information in this way led to the recommendation that the stakeholders identified in this study hold the key to the success of the attempts at building long-term peace between the crop farmers and the nomadic herdsmen of the Greater Kordofan States. The recommendations of the study are based on the idea that opportunities always exist for the stakeholders to introduce positive change in their society. / Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Sciences)

This study examines the efficacy of collection development and management practices, policies, guidelines and standards in universities of technology to meet the information needs of academics and researchers at such institutions. In South Africa, as in Australasia, technikons or polytechnics have been upgraded first into degree granting institutions and then, at the beginning of the 21st century, into universities of technology. The researcher was concerned that library collections in South African universities of technology have not grown to meet the research and teaching needs of academics at the level of universities offering instruction up to a doctoral level. As research funding, government grants and the general prestige of the institutions depend on the research output of the institutions, it is essential that academics and researchers find the information resources they require in their institutional libraries. Case studies of universities of technology in New Zealand and South Africa reveal that, while Auckland University of Technology has been successful in extending its collection to meet the increasing demands placed on it, the collection development policies, standards and guidelines in a South African university of technology need to be upgraded in order to meet the information needs and information behaviour of their researchers and academics. Current levels of funding for the acquisition of information resources in South Africa lag behind those found at the New Zealand university of technology. The university of technology that was the object of the South African case study needs to bring its collection in line with that of similar institutions worldwide. This entails adapting goals and objectives stating how the collection is to develop, evaluating the collection and the needs of users, changing the Collection Development Policy to reflect the direction collection development will take and ensuring that the institution and the government back this project financially. To this end, a model Collection Development Policy has been drawn up that can be adapted to the local requirements of South African universities of technology to assist with the process of developing and managing library collections that will be worthy of such an institution. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

The TVET colleges in South Africa contribute to the social and economic development of the country. It is for this reason that TVET colleges are expected to provide quality teaching and learning, but this core business of the colleges has been hampered by a lack of professional development or irrelevant professional development of lecturers. The study aims to investigate the relevance of professional development offered at a selected TVET college in the Free-State province and the improvement thereof. The study employed a qualitative research design involving 22 participants. The participants comprised of two executive managers, two campus managers, four heads of department, six senior lecturers and eight lecturers. The participants were purposively selected using purposive sampling. Face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted to collect data from managers and two focus group interviews were employed to collect data from lecturers. The findings of the study revealed that there is a need for relevant professional development of lecturers at the selected TVET college. The most important recommendation with the potential to change the situation at the studied college is that the planning, organising, leading and control of professional development need to be done more professionally. If managers utilise management functions (planning, organising, leading and control) properly to manage lecturer’s professional development, lecturers will be in a better position to provide quality teaching. Other relevant recommendations are also provided. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)