In this thesis I reflect upon a digital mapping project I did in the rural agricultural villages of Bangoua and Batoufam in the Grassfields region of Cameroon. This thesis considers digital mapping as a possible strategy for addressing a current dichotomy in these villages. On the one hand community members express concern over observed shifts in local weather patterns, which they attribute to climate change, and on the other hand community members express desperation for “development.” Of over 130 mapped points, I use this thesis to look at three case studies of community centered development initiatives that address both development and sustainability. In the Water is Life well-building training program, locals are empowered to build water wells, reducing village dependency on foreign teams of experts, which in turn reduces the environmental impact of displacement of these foreign teams and imported materials, and also generally increases the longevity of the water infrastructure by ensuring that local people are able to maintain and repair the system. In the case study of the reforestation project at College Evangélique de Bangoua, reforestation is used as a method for teaching adolescents about the importance of protecting the environment, as well as commerce skills, since the school director has plans to let the students sell the fruits from the trees once they have grown big enough and keep the profits. In the solar panel water system in Batoufam, the local water council challenged the dominant development model for water infrastructure (single-point, manual pump) and designed an extensive network of 10 faucets throughout the village connected to a solar powered electrically pumped well and reservoir. These three examples give hope to the possibility of addressing both climate change and development needs with the same initiatives; however, this process also illuminated the shortcomings of grassroots development. This project uses the mapping process to complicate dominant narratives about top-down and grassroots development. Ultimately, I will propose that this method of digital mapping itself carries potential for addressing the sometimes-polarized desires for sustainability and development.

none

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

No description available.

Research report in partial fulfillment of the degree of MPH, Faculty of Health, University of the Witwatersrand / Background and Study Question: Adolescents are a high-risk group for HIV/AIDS infection and illness in South Africa. Despite substantial prevention efforts, high risk behaviour among adolescents continues. Several organisations have engaged in sports activities to reach out to adolescents and educate them in life-skills and HIV prevention. There is, however, very little published research on the effectiveness of such interventions. Grassroots Soccer (GRS) is one of the emerging organisations in the field of using sports for HIV prevention. Financed by De Beers’ corporate social responsibility initiative it operates in several South African mining communities. This study evaluates the HIV prevention programme in Musina, Limpopo Province run by GRS. The research focuses on the processes and the outcomes of the organisation’s activities to determine barriers and facilitators to implementation of the GRS activities and to measure changes in HIV-related knowledge, self efficacy, and attitude of the beneficiaries. Methods: A mixed-methods study design was used incorporating qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative component of the study was based on key informant interviews and a document review. Qualitative interviews were analysed using a four-step systematic approach; documents were analysed by iterative reading. Quantitative data was collected by GRS through selfadministered pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Secondary data analysis was carried out using statistical software SPSS (Version 17.0). Results: The GRS programme managed to improve beneficiaries’ knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy concerning HIV prevention. In doing that, GRS achieved its core objective. The increases, however, are modest and only significant for knowledge gain. Many beneficiaries did not increase their overall scores in the pre- and post-test questionnaire; the recognition of alcohol and drugs as risk factors for HIV/AIDS is relatively low. Furthermore, the programme operates in a difficult context with insufficient community involvement, constraint resources, and inadequate monitoring and evaluation. Volunteer retention is a major challenge, and there is a disjuncture between the GRS’ theoretical approach and the practical implementation in Musina. Although the programme is considered a success by key informants, these factors combined with a lack of support from GRS and De Beers pose challenges to the programme’s approach, its operations, and ultimately its sustainability. Conclusion and Recommendations: The GRS provides a promising approach to HIV prevention. The programme in Musina however falls behind the potential of the organisation and the needs of the community. It needs to be more locally integrated, receive additional resources, and have better monitoring and evaluation. Programme activities ought to move beyond knowledge transfer and be closer to the actual GRS approach based on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, focusing on 12 to 14 year-olds, and include income generating activities. Further research should focus on actual programme implementation, longer term follow-up of beneficiaries, and assess the impact of the programme.

none

Grassroots activist groups have received limited attention in Australia and research-based examinations of their communication and relationship to social change are rare. My central research question asks: what changes are occurring in the approach of grassroots activists to contemporary communication, and, as a form of social relations, does this differ from the approach of state and business organisations? My thesis analyses the scope and significance of three grassroots activists’ campaigns in south-west Victoria, Australia, between 1995 and 2003 that are distinctive for their sustained vigour and inclusive, ethical and novel approaches to communication. They are: Werribee Residents Against Toxic Dump (WRATD), Batesford and Geelong Action Group (BAGAG) and Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN). My thesis also focuses on the groups’ response to public relations issued by the state and business interests they opposed. To investigate the case study data – that is face to face interviews with case study participants, media transcripts and textual samples from the campaigns, such as flyers and newsletters – I use a double research methodology: discourse analysis and reception analysis. These methods reveal how meanings are created that influence power and control in society and any transformations in this. As an overarching framework for analysis, I apply Ulrich Beck’s theories of risk society, reflexive modernisation and individualisation. These theories discuss social conditions transforming the contemporary world. In particular, I use them to explain the growth of sub-political networks, what grassroots activists seek to promote and their capacity to create change in state and business sectors. I also draw on a range of other communicative and citizenship theories that shed light on some of the invisible effects of communication on society, particularly unethical practices. Lastly, my thesis sets out an alternative set of social relations to public relations that I call ‘public communication’. The principles of public communication are distilled from the case studies and are inclusive of all organisational types and seek to address the inherent problems and flawed coherences of public relations. The results of this research provide policy decision makers, educators, activists and other communication strategists with deep and unusual understanding of public communication and public relations and its relationship to social change. Overall, this thesis explores a rupture – a point of transformation in the relationship between contemporary civil, state and business sectors in Australia and the surfacing of a new discursive formation. In particular, it explores a transformation in texts, discursive practice and social practice (Fairclough 1999) and analyses its significance, within an emerging and distinct discursive formation, peculiar to late modernity.

Whereas the dramatic struggle for the suffrage has received extensive academic attention the feminist campaigns that came immediately after 1918 have been largely ignored. This thesis argues that there was vigorous grassroots feminist activity in the inter-war years which can be seen in the activities of the Society for the Promotion of Birth Control Clinics (SPBCC) who in the post-suffrage era explored their new opportunities. Themes running through this thesis include feminism, grassroots activity, locality and modernism. This research utilises the theoretical framework of comparative social movement theory as well as historical research. A Collective Biography of SPBCC committee members has been constructed to give a profile of activists. This thesis argues that the debate within the post-suffrage society the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship gave backing to the new feminist master frame which emphasised women's role as mothers. This strengthened the SPBCC which campaigned to give working class mothers the knowledge to limit their families, something available privately to middle class mothers. This research explores how the SPBCC tried to pursue its case by creating alliances with the National Council of Women and the Women's Citizenship Association,This study shows how local SPBCC groups attempted to prove the need for birth control clinics by mobilising and founding clinics. Middle class women played an important part in this direct action, but working class women, either individually or from the Women's Cooperative Guilds also participated. Class differences were important, but this research shows that volunteers, who were all mothers themselves, stressed the common bond of motherhood. The SPBCC both locally and nationally strove to counter the condemnation of the medical profession and the Churches. The interplay of religious and political forces is seen in case studies in Stockport, Glasgow, Manchester and Salford, Liverpool. The thesis compares the birth control strategies of the confrontational birth control pioneer Marie Stopes with the more analytical approach of Eleanor Rathbone of NUSEC. This research reveals that some SPBCC members felt they had to make uncomfortable choices between class and gender allegiances or feminism and eugenics. This thesis demonstrates how the SPBCC tested the new political structures by attempting to place birth control on the agenda of national political parties, particularly the Labour Party. However, there was more success in building birth control policy advocacy coalitions at the local level. In 1931 the Labour Government issued Memorandum 153/MCW which allowed municipal clinics to provide birth control advice but this thesis questions to what extent this was a victory. Arguably the SPBCC did not achieve its main objective but it did empower its feminist members in a wide range of political activities.

In examining the opportunities that lie within the larger context of Haitian development efforts, mending the strained environment upon which Haiti’s fragile rural agricultural sector depends must be a priority. Though related to other pieces of the Haitian reconstruction puzzle, the question of mending the Haitian environment comes down largely to the best way trees can be incorporated into Haiti’s existing agricultural systems. With this in mind, the purpose of this thesis was to complete an analysis of the work and practices of the community organizations of Borgne, Haiti. The organizations of Borgne have mobilized toward environmental development and the preservation of remaining natural resources through a community-wide tree-planting initiative that provides thousands of trees per year to local residents. Beyond an ethnographic assessment, this thesis explores greater implications of the project as a grassroots development model that may potentially be replicated by other communities and organizations throughout Haiti. Field research was completed on site in Borgne in the summer months of 2010. The primary methods employed in data collection were Participatory Action Research and semi-structured interviewing.

Many highly recognizable apparel brands are voluntarily adopting corporate social and environmental sustainability plans. This thesis evaluated the sustainability initiatives of the lululemon athletica Corporation and the operations of one of its retail stores, lululemon athletica Polo Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba. lululemon athletica Inc. was compared with industry sustainability leaders Nike, Timberland and Mountain Equipment Co-op. This comparison revealed that lululemon athletica has few sustainability best practices and little and out of date sustainability information available to their stakeholders. At the store level, two surveys were conducted to determine the employee and customer knowledge of sustainability initiatives at the company and store level. It was determined that employees require more training and stronger senior and middle management presence for sustainability initiatives to be a success, and that customers do not associate lululemon athletica with sustainability. lululemon athletica does not communicate about sustainability sufficiently to create a buzz about sustainability.