This research project explores the integration of the concept of urban green infrastructure (GI) into three “green plans” developed by four Winnipeg inner-city neighbourhoods. Through a literature review, “green plans” evaluation, key-informant interviews, and a focus group interview, many factors that influence on the urban green infrastructure planning in Winnipeg have been identified. These factors were synthesized with a SWOT-TOWS framework to identify strategies and measures to address situations that these inner-city neighbourhoods might face in the process of urban GI planning. Several conclusions have been drawn to summarize the research results, including: green infrastructure planning in the Winnipeg urban neighbourhood context will be taking different physical forms in terms of network connection, which will have great impact on the GI benefits, GI planning principles and processes, and planning practices in those Winnipeg inner-city neighbourhoods; the “green plans” of the four Winnipeg inner-city neighbourhoods provide valuable lessons for preparing for future urban GI planning; and incorporating urban green infrastructure into current neighbourhood “green plans” will face various opportunities and challenges. Combined with some internal factors, these opportunities and challenges put GI planning in different situations, each of which needs their own strategies and measures.

The Neighbourhood Centres (NCs) in Sydney, Australia, were established to encourage forms of local control and resident participation and to provide a range of activities to build, strengthen and support local communities and marginalised groups. This thesis is concerned with exploring the personal conceptions, passions and frameworks, as well as the political and professional identities, of activists and community workers in these NCs. It also explores stories of practice and of how these subjective experiences have been shaped through the discourses around the NCs, some of which include feminism, environmentalism, multiculturalism and social justice. The following key research questions encouraged stories of community practice: What do the terms empowerment, participation, community service and citizenship mean for community organisation? What did community workers and organisers wish for when they became involved in these community organisations? What happened to the oppositional knowledges and dissent that are part of the organisational histories? Foucault’s concept of governmentality is used to explore the possibility that these NCs are also sites of ‘government through community’. This theoretical proposition questions taken-for-granted assumptions about community development and empowerment approaches. It draws on a willingness of the research participants to take up postmodern and poststructuralist theories. ‘Practising place’ emerges in the research as a description of a particular form of activism and community work associated with these inner city Sydney NCs. The central dimensions of ‘practising place’ include: a commitment to identity work; an openness to exploring diverse and fluid citizenship and identity formations; and the use of local knowledges to develop a critique of social processes. Another feature of ‘practising place’ is that it involves an analysis of the operation of power that extends beyond structuralist explanations of how to bring about social change and transform social relations. The research has deconstructed assumptions about empowerment, community participation, community organisations and community development, consequently another way of talking about the work of small locally based community organisations emerges. This new way of talking builds upon research participants’ understandings of power and demonstrates the utility of applying a poststructural analysis to activist and community work practices. Overall the research suggests that if activists and community workers are to work with new understandings of the operation of power, then the languages and social practices associated with activist and community work traditions need to be constantly and reflexively analysed and questioned.

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

The purposes of the investigation were (1) to determine whether differences in attitudes, values, an dogmatisms exist between volunteers for an inner-city student teaching experience and other student teachers prior to a student teaching experience; (2) to determine whether differences in attitudes, values, and dogmatisms exist at the completion of student teaching between the experimental group and a control group composed of student teachers assigned to suburban schools.

This dissertation investigates public space within a South African con¬text as part of inner city regeneration. The architectural exploration aims to respond to a specific site and neighbourhood needs as identified. Protecting the openness of the site, integrating the site with its surroundings to enhance the potential of social engagement. The proposal provides a framework for spatial possibility in which architecture is used as a framework through which users influence a building’s design. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

The focus of this dissertation aims to bring about a dialogue between craft and design by using interior architecture as design medium. The study will investigate how craft can be implemented in space, in the form of products and as a part of place-making, in order for it to be elevated to the status of design. The roles of the producer and the user are of particular focus and are the means by which this re-establishment of craft’s identity, previously prey to local and global perceptions, will take place. An intervention that enables a productive work ethic is envisioned, to help contextualise a product effectively in order for it to reach its full potential. This concern for craft can raise awareness of local and global trends in its innovation and encourage the continuous integration of various creative fields. Furthermore, the investigation anticipates a redefinition of the term, commonly associated with souvenirs or curios, into an entity that harbours independence: an attribute that many designed products have. A vacant building in the Pretoria CBD is home to this crafts centre and its refurbishment aims at addressing the needs of those within the creative fields, as well as the general public. This Pretoria regionalist building from the 1960s poses an opportunity in terms of its materiality and its interior, comprising only a column grid. Thus a design opportunity arises in the form of vertical planes as infill, light entry and pedestrian movement, allowing surfaces and details to illustrate craft’s potential within the built environment. The value in the Modern facade is considered to a great extent in terms of retention, whereas the interior allows for a bolder intervention. / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

The way in which a city is spatially laid out effects the natural environment of the planet (for example: pollution and the depletion of natural resources) as well as the social environment (the community and daily life) of its residents. Through the exploration of various modern urban planning theories, I will begin to look at some different approaches to urban planning. This document favours the compact city approach which advocates higher densities, mixed use development, public transport and community living. This approach relates to initiatives currently underway in the inner city of Johannesburg. This document is about the exploration of how people live in the city and the issues surrounding housing in the urban context. The proposed architectural project is a housing scheme located in Newtown, Johannesburg. Central concepts include: urban regeneration, inner city living, visual variety in the urban realm, street edge conditions and public to private hierarchies

After half a century of neglect and disinvestment, pub lic, private, and nonprofit developers are beginning to realize the potential of inner city retail. Accordingly, there have been tremendous redevelopment efforts in low income inner city neighborhoods over the last 15 years. While this development physically revitalizes commercial strips, it sometimes contributes to gentrification, driving out long-time neighborhood residents. However, redevelopment is not synonymous with displacement and when revitalization efforts seek to address community needs and concerns, neighborhoods and their residents benefit from positive change. / text

Student Number : 9907324E - MSc research report - School of Architecture - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / This dissertation explores poverty in the inner city of Johannesburg. The World Bank perspectives on describing poverty have been adopted as a theoretical framework for understanding poverty in the inner city. The report looks at the local government’s planning framework for the inner city, and through Flyvberg’s theory of power and rationality, critically assess the potential of the RSDF to alleviate poverty in the inner city. Through Healey’s collaborative planning theory, the dissertation looks at possibility of improving poverty alleviation in the inner City of Johannesburg. Views were obtained from planning officials and community based organisations engaged in development of the poor. Additionally, statistical information from census 1996 and 2001 provide the reader with concrete figures on poverty in the inner city of Johannesburg.

Informal street trading has played a role in the decline of the inner city. In restoring the inner city to its splendor and attracting people plus investments back into it, there has been an acknowledgement of informal street trading and a move to organise the activity. The City of Johannesburg has taken action towards dealing with informal street trading within the CBD by having trading and non-trading zones, constructing markets and providing stalls along pavements in busy streets from where traders can sell. This study was carried out as a response to the major issue at hand of cleaning up the city and ridding the streets of informal traders and only letting them trade in a controlled manner preferably in enclosed markets. While not dwelling on matters of whether regulating traders is good or bad, the main purpose of the study was to probe into the systemisation of informal street trading in the CBD, further investigating the alternative of a street market as that which can be done in other parts of the inner city as a means of keeping the vibrancy of the city through the provision of minimal infrastructure. Hence, this study explored the functionality of a street market plus certain issues pertaining to informal street trading in terms of what is being done in regulating the activity, whether trading permits are being issued and whether traders are more secure trading from designated trading areas. The outcomes were then used to outline any lessons learned from the case study that can in turn be applied or be used as an insight to other parts of the inner city. In analysing informal street trading in the inner city and Kerk Street, street market it was shown that the provision of minimal infrastructure through a street market enables informal street trading to be controlled and managed in a well organised open environment while maintaining a vibrant area in which both traders and passer-bys are able to interact.