This thesis presents an investigation of the community empowerment of a selection of key villagers and the SDAO (Sub-District Administrative Organisation) committee members in the Loei Province, Thailand. The research identifies an understanding of community empowerment through an exploration of the lived experiences and perceptions of the community people themselves, at the grassroots level. These are challenging times for development in Thailand. Particularly at the micro level, community empowerment is central to community development, but its concepts remain elusive. This study is an attempt to clarify developmental features within the community. A qualitative approach with multi methods was adopted in order to allow the key people to express their understandings and experiences in relation to the concepts of community empowerment, and to identify approaches that are effective in strengthening the community. Six focus group discussions were employed in six villages. Twenty five key villagers and SDAO members were interviewed and invited to participate in the workshop held to facilitate further discussion of their lived experiences. Both non-participant and participant observations were also employed within the natural settings of the six villages and the SDAO meetings in order to depict the context of the community. This provided a rich source of data illustrating community empowerment which has never before been undertaken in rural Thailand. The findings revealed that empowerment can occur at both individual and social levels. Mental strength, alongside self-reliance and self —sufficiency, as well as the peacefulness within the community are found to generate community empowerment. This was discovered to be strongly interconnected to the significant community contexts in rural Thai culture, particularly the development of community leadership, participation, learning and local government. The approaches of retaining a sense of community, generating participatory groups, enhancing culture and learning as well as building up citizenship, can be effective in promoting community empowerment in the future. Community empowerment is effectively generated within the community from the potential of its members who consistently contribute to community life. The people's being in, and contribution to, the community provides a source of dynamism as well as establishing its firm structure. This is indicative of community empowerment. This thesis makes a significant contribution to the discussion on how community development benefits from empowerment to sustain itself, via the potential of people, and to promote community strengths through its ways of life.

The traditional form of the Arab house was dictated by both its climate and the culture of its inhabitants. Islamic values, as well as socio-economic factors, have played critical roles in ordering and forming the built environment. However, the mid-1950s marked the beginning of Saudi Arabia's first rapid economic growth as a result of the discovery of oil, which dramatically increased the wealth and prosperity of the population, resulting in a new lifestyle. This period witnessed the introduction of the grid layout street pattern and the detached villa house type constructed in reinforced concrete, with large windows and balconies. This is still the prevalent style in Saudi Arabia and the central province in particular. While the traditional courtyard house created its own privacy and microclimate, this contemporary type is a solid building with a narrow open space between it and the next house. The initial investigation for this research revealed that the villa style creates fundamental problems for Saudi families, especially in terms of lack of privacy; and the air-conditioning has negative implications for the climate. The theoretical framework investigates the principles of cultures that are associated with the home, in order to clarify its concept and fundamental principles; illustrate the influence of culture on house form; and finally, demonstrate the nature of both the courtyard and villa house types. The methodology uses a survey strategy with questionnaires, interviews and building analysis. This study aims to highlight the need for a specific contemporary home style where both the treatment of place and the house design meet all the needs of Saudi households. The output of this research will be some guidance for house design that could satisfy 21st century aspirations, yet still respect Islamic culture and traditional values.

The Windward Islands are vulnerable to a number of natural hazards. This thesis examines the possibilities for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the Windward Islands. The Windward Islands offer a special case of “Island Vulnerability”. Island vulnerability is essentially defined as an increased probability in disaster events against what would be expected if vulnerability were to be measured against international levels of poverty, defined as Gross National Product per capita. There are three reasons for this namely the topography of islands, the site characteristics and the socio-economic setting. The topography is one where islands, largely of volcanic or coral origins, face multi-hazard experience particularly from flooding and storm surge. The site issue is that islands usually have a high ratio of coastline to land mass implying a relatively higher exposure to extreme events. The socio-economic conditions are peculiar to island including isolation, mono-agriculture and mono-industry essentially laid down by colonial experience, an absence of formal employment opportunities and weak capacity in local governance including the absence of NGOs. Though DRR has evolved over the last 20 years, some islands and communities remain more vulnerable than others. This research investigates the mainstreaming of DRR in the Windward Islands of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The key issue researched was whether DRR could be effectively implemented at the community level. To address this issue, the research investigates the vulnerability and capacity of communities to hazards in the Windward Islands and suggests ways to reduce risk and build community resilience. The factors affecting vulnerability and capacity to hazards in the Anglophone Windward Islands were identified as a means of determining how to reduce risks and build resilience to hazards in the Windward Islands. Efforts to enhance community development and build resilience are not effective as they fail to address fully community needs. This research concluded that some communities are more vulnerable than others and a major contributor to their vulnerability is poverty. None of the methods used in this research are unique to island vulnerability analysis as they have been applied elsewhere in DRR. What is unique is the scoping of the application of these methods to gain an overview of DRR possibilities. What emerges as a conclusion is the limited impact of top down interventions, especially those interventions that try to address poverty alleviation to lower risk. This is essentially because the poor themselves barricade their own coping mechanisms against external interventions, thus building a wall against external help. Building on local organisational capacity, including religious groups, can help address this problem. Research in this area is limited for the Anglophone Windward Islands and this thesis on vulnerability of household and communities will contribute to knowledge in this field.

This thesis critically examines governmental responses to physical and social disorder in inner-city neighbourhoods through urban regeneration policies. Through an exploration of historical, social and political narratives on urban areas, the thesis identifies that the concept of dangerous places and faces has been a dominant discourse and feature in Britain for the past 200 years. Using Chapeltown, Leeds as a case study, this thesis explores the urban regeneration interventions in this area. Chapeltown is selected because it is, historically, a community with a high population of minority ethnic people and immigrants. Thus, ‘race’ and racism, and a critique of public policies as they affect UK Black and minority ethnic communities are the primary concerns of this thesis. It is argued that the tools of urban regeneration aimed at tackling physical and social disorder such as partnership, participation and community involvement/engagement are mere ‘rhetorical devices’ that are out of sync with normative standards of citizenship and fairness. The thesis has adopted a case study research methodology. It argues that for social and physical disorder to be tackled, there is the need to consider how the concept of citizenship should be the central issue in urban regeneration policies. The thesis concludes that the processes that result in some urban neighbourhoods being considered ‘bad’, ‘dangerous’ or ‘criminal’ must be understood as part of a broader set of political-economic forces which shapes the spatial distribution of urban populations and, in particular, the ‘placing’ of the poor in urban space. Hence there is the need to examine the social and physical disorder using the lens of citizenship.

The number of social housing developments in the city of Campo Grande, Brazil, has undergone a significant growth over the past few years. Between 2014 and 2016, averages of 3,000 new homes per year have been constructed in the city, which has around 860,000 inhabitants. However, there seems to be a mismatch between the provision and residents’ needs. This research investigates the history of housing for the lower income people in Brazil; and its development in the city. The theoretical perspective focuses on the concept of community and the nature of home; and the data collection analyses whether these are being delivered in practice. The studies on the history of housing for lower income people in Brazil and its development in Campo Grande identified top down strategies adopted by the government and local authority. By contrast, the investigations of community and home development demonstrate that the residents’ views should be incorporated into any development strategy. The data collection was based in six social housing estates in the city, built between 2011 and 2015, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The first stage was an investigation of documentation regarding social housing programmes and the local regulations. The second phase involved questionnaires with 464 residents; and the final part centred on interviews with heads of departments in the local authority and 36 residents. The data collection discovered issues regarding a lack of community facilities, and inflexibility in the layout and materials of the houses; especially regarding alterations and extensions. The outcome of the thesis is a set of Guidelines for the Development of Social Housing within the My House My Life Programme, to supplement the local regulations in Campo Grande. They provide guidance from the layout of the estate, to the design of the houses. They have been evaluated by the local authority departments, who have responded positively, and stated that they are willing to incorporate them in future proposals.

In the 21st century, increasing demand for energy stimulated by high rates of economic development has pushed China to increase imports, leaving the country highly dependent on foreign energy sources. China’s energy security is therefore under threat from the constant risk of supply falling short of demand. Historically, various approaches have been proposed to attempt to resolve or, at least relieve, this security issue but those discussions focus on either competition or cooperation. The combined approach, co-opetition has been applied in business and this research has attempted to combine these two approaches when dealing with energy security issues, thus the original contribution of this research is to take a unique approach, combining the co-opetition approach with the added benefits of a traditional Chinese philosophy known as ‘Hehe culture’. In addition, the ‘Chinese characteristics’inherent in the energy security strategy, advocated by the Chinese government, has contributed a specific viewpoint in the academic field. Moreover, this research employs the PARTS model from game theory, an analytical tool originally applied in the field of business and economics, to build a framework for evaluating Chinese co-opetition in energy relations. Three case studies of China’s energy co-opetition with Japan, Russia and Africa are analysed according to the framework, revealing how co-opetition affects China’s energy security. The findings of this research include the prerequisites for successful co-opetition, and the value and function of incorporating Hehe culture into co-opetition. The research identifies the impact of thesen prerequisites on the strategic value of co-opetition, generating a new model for Chinese energy security, which will allow for accurate determination of the best approach to the game of energy co-opetition with different players.

Seaside resorts’ fortunes have changed over the past half a century, and as a consequence many of the towns’ physical environments and inhabitants have altered. Many grew in population size through in-migration, particularly as a result of retirement, which took over from the holiday industry as a process that changed the socio-economic and cultural structures of these places. Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex is among those seaside towns that have undergone such changes, fuelled by exogenous forces but also influenced by key agencies actions that have been a catalyst for altering the physical environment which encouraged the in-migration of middle-life people and the retired. This thesis analyses the effect of these changes and the role key agencies have had. In particular, it argues the changing nature of retirement in-migration of ‘middle-lifers’ (aged 50-70), those approaching or entering retirement, has had a profound effect on the town. This thesis disputes conventional retirement migration theories identifying a new form of ‘lifestyle-affirming’ migration.

Urban sprawl has one definitive characteristic - low intensity/inefficient use of land (Ewing et al., 2008) (Downs, 2000) (Peiser, 2001). Residential densification is the increase in the density of residential land use to combat the negative effects of sprawl. There has been very little academic research on either urban sprawl or residential densification in the specific context of developing countries. This research seeks to address this by looking at the issues in four Nicaraguan secondary cities using a mixed methods approach. This work develops, for the first time in Nicaragua, a housing typology for secondary cities and a consultation of urban planning professionals on sprawl, density and residential densification. Eight housing types have been identified, six of which have average densities that are low or medium (but very close to the boundary with low). The other types are outliers with higher densities – one slightly higher, the other much higher. The consultation has 17 participants and uses a 2-stage Delphi technique. There was consensus that damaging urban sprawl was occurring in each of the cities and that more compact development through residential densification would be beneficial. Participants identified appropriate methods of residential densification for the case study cities, each of which upon analysis, fits into one of the categories established by the City of Capetown Spatial Planning and Urban Design Department (2009, p. 6): either higher density development ‘on greenfield sites ... within [a] ... city’s planned growth direction;’ or higher density development on ‘vacant infill sites’ within existing urban areas; or densification lot by lot within existing urban areas, on lots which are already developed. The consultation revealed current barriers to residential densification, ranging from the enduring “culture of low housing density” in Nicaragua to poor financing options for families to include earthquake resistant foundations in their self-build properties, which would permit safe building on more than a single storey.

Technologies such as geographical information systems (GIS) have emerged during the past two decades as part of the Information Revolution and include functions such as data storage, management, integration, analysis and presentation. GIS have wide and diverse applications in disciplines such as engineering, business/marketing, urban planning and environmental management but remain underused in public health. The thesis reports the findings of a mixed methods study examining the views and perceptions of public health practitioners on the value of GIS mapping in decision-making. A case study design was chosen; the case issue (childhood lead [Pb] exposure) represents an example of the "case" which is defined as 'decision- making in public health'. The exploratory phase of the study combined heterogeneous data to produce a visualisation of lead contamination in Newcastle. The value of GIS in public health was explored in an interview phase. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with decision-makers involved either directly or indirectly in public health practice. Interview recordings were transcribed and coded thematically for analysis. Decision-makers tended to be positive about the use of GIS in public health and many volunteered potential opportunities to apply GIS mapping techniques further. Four discourses were highlighted through analyses, namely: data origins (Ontological Discourse), status (Power Discourse), application (Functionality Discourse) and reciprocity (Collaboration Discourse). The power of maps to integrate multiple, disparate datasets was found to be important and respondents felt, overall, that GIS mapping was a democratic means of communication. Complexity frameworks are drawn upon to make sense of the research findings and to illuminate the need for non-reductionist models of decision-making in the public health context. The lessons learnt through this study can be translated to other fields, thereby sharing skills, knowledge and experience to promote collaboration and integrated thinking across the public health landscape.

There is a growing realisation that pre-disaster planning is an effective approach to building the resilience of nations to adverse events. There is mounting evidence that little has been done in terms of pre-disaster planning, not only in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) but also throughout much of the Islamic world. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, there are staggering economic developments, largely based on oil and gas revenues post World War 2, which substantially change the livelihoods, and therefore the vulnerability, of local populations. In the case of UAE, this was a move from a nomadic Bedouin pastoral culture to one of living in modern urban areas. Secondly, cities in the UAE have developed to a point where they are now global cities. City growth and development is being driven by the massive growth in immigration of foreign nationals and international businesses. In the UAE, there are seven foreign nationals for every UAE citizen. These developments have substantially changed the risk profile of the UAE. Many of the risk management strategies practiced when the UAE was mainly a nomadic society are no longer appropriate. Similarly, immigrants will bring with them different kinds risk management strategies, depending on their place of origin. Though the UAE is multi-cultural, Islam is an important part of the culture of the Emirates. The research investigates the role of Islam in disaster risk reduction. The research used a mixed methods approach for date collection. Secondary research developed the overview of the UAE vulnerability. Primary research had two parts. The first was data collection from groups of male and female community members and stakeholders in each Emirate to provide a comparative analysis of risk perception and response. The second comprised key stakeholder interviews and a focus group who had broad for disaster risk reduction. This research presents the first hazard history of UAE. A vulnerability viewpoint is used to evaluate the hazard history and findings are presented in the paradigm of natural hazards research. An evaluation of UAE’s institutionalisation of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies in the context of its international obligations, e.g. the Hyogo Framework, is undertaken. Central to the argument about the difficulties of implementing DRR is the role of Islamic culture. The research offers the results of fieldwork that explore experience of disaster and emergency at personal, community and institutional level. It offers observations, from personal experience, of the difficulty of delivering interventions in traditional Arab architecture/land use patterns for emergency services as well as the challenges of the new, high rise, concrete cities. Most importantly, it looks to the governance issue of the Muslim faith, including the Quran itself, to see if there is any obligation or requirement to take community DRR seriously. It is this emphasis on understanding Muslim faith, the backbone of local lives, which underlie new directions for DRR in UAE. The research finds that there is too great a focus on institution building as opposed to improving community preparedness. It also finds there is strong support for a greater role of the Mosques in building community resilience. The research ends with an outline of the different vulnerabilities in each UAE Emirate but also with an emphasis on the importance of Muslim faith as the backbone of the total national community and the stepping-stone to a community based DRR.