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This study examines the concept of local food and the discourses surrounding the concept, both of which have played a significant role during Kentuckys agricultural restructuring. Since the mid-1990s, Kentucky farmers who were dependent on tobacco production began to struggle financially after the substantial reduction of quota allotments, and they were encouraged to diversify their agricultural production. Subsequently, practices of producing, marketing, and consuming locally-grown food were implemented. Drawing primarily on qualitative data, this study investigates the meanings of Kentuckys local food discourse development in four dimensions: 1) the political economy of tobacco production and the structural change of Kentuckys agriculture; 2) the role of diverse actors who prompted the adoption of local food; 3) the construction of local scale and micro-scale politics for marketing local food at farmers markets; and 4) the symbolization of local food at county food-related festivals. Kentuckys tobacco production declined not only because of the national anti-tobacco movement, but also because of a constellation of causes including the influence of a free-trade ideology that decreased American burleys competitiveness with global markets, and the increase of part-time farmers that led local tobacco farms to struggle with labor shortages and meeting production demands. Farmers opposition to tobacco controls and their discourses were transformed to attract supporting small food-producing farms, which ultimately merged with societal interests in the production and the consumption of local food. Commoditized local brands at increased direct-sale venues such as farmers markets, however, became political entities as regulations and surveillance were required to maintain their definition of local food. Semiotic interpretation of county food-related festivals in Kentucky shows changes in how people attach their place-identities to agricultural products and how they understand local food. Although the distribution of venues is spatially uneven, the production and the consumption of local food have gradually been adopted throughout Kentuckys landscape over the last decade. To maintain the success of localized markets, this study proposes three potential requirements: 1) the credibility of and the transparency for understanding local food; 2) the resource investment to support future producers; and 3) the expanding adoption of community food security ideals.

This thesis examines the formal introduction of Localism in the South West county of Cornwall, UK. Using data taken from three distinct areas of the county, this work critically analyses strategies of Localism, where it takes place, who is involved and how it is performed. This research is contexualised within an era of localism, advocating the devolution of political governance with the aim to produce sustainable democratic communities. Changes to local government in 2009 saw Cornwall Council restructure from a two-tiered to a unitary local authority. The previous six district councils and one county council were dissolved and instead, Cornwall was divided into nineteen Community Network Areas with one centralised council. These Areas were provided with dedicated Localism officers, administrative and public service facilities and given the remit to employ the ethos of Localism to everyday interaction between the local authority and citizenry. This introduction of a formal style of conducting Localism followed the then Labour Party’s design for a Third Way; for revolutionising governance to make it increasingly civic-focused and for devolving local decision-making in the hands of communities. The findings of the thesis conclude that Localism has been a largely top-down endeavour by government and as such, widespread bottom-up governance has not been able to emerge through governmental structures. Local resistance to these structures, and the rigid frameworks and targets introduced by Localism, have meant that parts of Localism appear and disappear at certain moments. The ideological vision for Localism has therefore been interrupted, however it is through localism with a small ‘l’, historically part of the day-to-day operations of those at the heart of civic engagement, such as town and parish councils, which has emerged as pivotal in on-going local governing opportunities.

This research examines the sustainability and participatory objectives of the UK’s planning system in a geographical context. It aims to explore the relationships between communities and place, and the connections between national government, local governments and communities in planning processes and outcomes. It also considers the role of planning in shaping places and communities, and how planning endeavours to include communities in decision-making through encouraging participation in community activities. This thesis argues that there is a gap between planning policy and rhetoric and the implementation of policy within specific community contexts. The research is a piece of collaborative research conducted with the planning department at North Devon Council (NDC). Through developing an original empirical case study of data from parishes within North Devon, planning’s sustainability and participatory agendas are examined through the framework of second homes considered a distinct yet related form of tourism (Jaakson, 1986). The research unpicks popular understandings of second homes through quantitative and qualitative research and argues that there are nuanced existences and experiences of second home properties, compounding the difficulty of defining these properties that produce both non-permanent residents and semi- permanent tourists. Exploration of the socio-economic contributions of second homes within host communities suggests that second homes have potential to contribute unsustainable traits, particularly social impacts, to host communities while also having potential to bring positive, predominantly economic, contributions. The empirical research demonstrates that notions of community from resident and policy maker perspectives illustrate that place is not necessary to understanding or experiencing community but has a key role in framing both policy and North Devon residents’ perceptions of community. Through examining the most recent round of democratic renewal in the planning system, issues of power and responsibility within planning functions are reviewed. It argues that the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition neighbourhood planning obligations reveal a dichotomy between community desire for power and the realism of heightened responsibility.

The project will explore Cittaslow as an alternative to traditional urban development. Sprawl and consumption of non-local resources are discouraged with Cittaslow and preservation of culture and history become the tangible benchmarks of the community. It will explore the history of Cittaslow as a movement and an organization; as well as its influences on existing member cities and the criteria used to distinguish them from others. The City of San Luis Obispo is used as a case study to determine whether existing conditions measure up to Cittaslow criteria.

No / This introduction presents how views on ‘the local turn’ in peacebuilding has evolved into a significant discourse. Currently, it has ‘its moment’ and is widely used by theorists and practitioners alike, by normative localists as well as by liberal policy-makers, albeit for different reasons and with differing intensions. We suggest that international interventions for the purpose of peacebuilding cannot be justified a priori, but requires resonance at the ‘receiving end’, which the local dimension potentially offers. It is however an elusive and contested concept that requires thorough scrutiny and critical assessment. Here a collection of conceptual and empirical articles is contextualised and introduced, painting a broad state-of-the-art of the pros and cons of the local turn.

A central concern of media scholars such as Ben Bagdikian and Robert McChesney is the undemocratic potential of the U.S. mainstream media system, dominated by a small number of highly consolidated, multinational, corporate media firms. In this context, other scholars, including Chris Atton, John Downing, Stephen Duncombe, Nina Eliasoph, and Clemencia Rodriguez, have argued for the importance of citizens' media, defined as citizen-run, non-profit, independent media projects that may have greater democratic potential. Since the majority of research into citizens' media has focused on media from urban cities, this thesis offers discussion and analysis of a progressive citizen'­s paper, the New River Free Press, located in a rural, Appalachian community that is home to a large technical, military, state university. After first reviewing major scholarly criticism of mainstream media in a democratic society and characteristics and debates about citizen'­s media, this thesis uses interviews of key staff members and textual analysis of archived past issues of the New River Free Press to situate the paper in the citizen'­s media literature. Ultimately, this thesis locates citizens' media as a necessity for democratic societies, suggesting methods of resistance against undemocratic practice and the further consolidation and monopolization of the global media system. / Master of Arts

The local food movement has become a prominent force in the U.S. food market, as represented by the explosive expansion of direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketplaces across the country. Concurrent with the expansion of these DTC marketplaces has been the development of the social ideal of localism: a political and ethical paradigm that valorizes artisanal production and smallness, vilifies globalization, and seeks to recapture a sense of place and community that has been lost under the alienating conditions of capitalism’s gigantism. Supporters of localism understand the movement to be a substantial political and economic threat to global capitalism, and ascribe distinct, counter-hegemonic attributes to localized consumption and production. However, critics argue that localism lacks the political imagination and economic power to meaningfully challenge global capitalism, and that it merely represents an elite form of petite bourgeois consumption. While scholars have debated this issue feverishly, there is a dearth of empirical cases measuring whether or not actual local consumers understand their local consumption within the political and ethical frame of localism, leaving much of the discussion in the realm of esoteric theorizing. This study seeks to uncover whether or not local consumers interpret their local consumption habits within localism’s moral framework by using an original survey instrument to gather primary data, and conducting an exploratory quantitative inquiry.

Esta pesquisa traz 3 estudos independentes, sobre temas ligados às questões do que é nacionalização partidária e como nacionalização, regionalização e localismo são afetados por e afetam os sistemas eleitorais e partidários. Mais especificamente, no capítulo 1 proponho uma nova definição teórica de nacionalização dos partidos e sistemas partidários. Argumento que tal conceito pode ser dividido em 4 dimensões, que são a nacionalização da organização partidária, da oferta eleitoral, da demanda eleitoral e dos resultados eleitorais. Em seguida, aplico esse quadro teórico ao caso brasileiro para mostrar como, de fato, maior precisão conceitual altera a leitura empírica que se faz de um sistema. No capítulo 2, exploro uma das consequências da nacionalização partidária, que vem sendo teorizada pela literatura mas nunca testada de modo direto. Trata-se da ideia de que nacionalização seria o que conecta as circunscrições eleitorais e faz as proposições de Duverger passarem do nível local ao nacional. Para testar isso, incluirei nacionalização dos sistemas partidários pela primeira vez num modelo de número de partidos - aptos lidar com problemas de endogeneidade que vêm impedindo autores de fazerem isso. Assim, será possível provar e demonstrar que a não inclusão de nacionalização vem causando viés de variável omitida nos modelos da literatura. Quando esse é corrigo, através da inclusão de nacionalização por um sistema de equações simultâneas, altera-se algumas das interpretações canônicas sobre a fragmentação partidária. Por fim, no capítulo 3 reavalio a ideia comum de que sistemas eleitorais com voto pessoal levariam candidatos a ter apoio eleitoral geograficamente concentrado, portanto localista. Ofereço uma discussão teórica e evidências de que tal padrão territorial não é a regra do que vem ocorrendo, por exemplo, em sistemas de lista aberta. Além disso, tanto concentrar votos como espalhá-los vem dando dividendos eleitorais e poucos candidatos conseguem atingir patamares altos de concentração, a um nível que prediga real aumento nas chances de eleição. / This research oers 3 independent studies on the questions of what is party nationalization, how nationalization, regionalization or localism are aected by and aect the electoral systems and the party systems. More specically, in the 1st chapter a new theoretical denition of party and party system nationalization is presented, dividing such concept into four dimensions - the nationalization of party organization, of the electoral supply, of the electoral demand and of the electoral outcome. After that, such a theoretical framework is applied to the Brazilian case to demonstrate how, in fact, more conceptual precision can alter empirical readings about a given party system. The 2nd chapter explores one of the consequences of party system nationalization, which literature has theorized but never tested directly. Namely, the idea that party nationalization would be what puts the electoral circumscriptions together and what makes Duvergerian propositions move from the local to the national level. To test that, party system nationalization is included for the rst time in a model of eective number of parties, after handling endogeneity problems that have prevented scholars from doing the same. With such inclusion, it will be proven and demonstrated that omitting party nationalization from models of number of parties, which is a common practice, incurs in omitted variable bias. In fact, such correct inclusion of party nationalization trough a system of simultaneous equations corrects that bias, altering some of the canonical interpretations about party system fragmentation. Lastly, in the 3rd chapter I reevaluate the common idea that electoral systems with personal voting would lead to geographical concentration (i.e. localization) of candidates\' electoral support. I oer a theoretical discussion and then empirical evidence that such territorial pattern is not the rule of what happens for instance in open-list PR. Besides, both concentrating and spreading votes are electorally protable results and very few candidates achieve levels of concentration that predicts eective increases in the odds of being elected.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:23:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mauricio Bacic Olic.pdf: 1592247 bytes, checksum: 8c4dd706852ccef0675e669eea8bd83e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-02 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This theisis analyzes the ways in wich the skaters take ownerships of urban space through motion-generating forms of ownership and property in urban spaces. For this, the research drew on an ethnographic work with the population of skateboarders in order to follow the route of these subjects using a dynamic three-dimensional by metropolis: the body, the skatepark and de city. In this study, therefore, sought to follow the experience of the skaters do in the city, between the smooth and striated from the way they deal with your body to forms more dense clusters in areas predetermined for this practice, even in broader dimensions of sprawl in different lanes, squares ande streets of the metropolitan region of São Paulo / Esta Dissertação tem como objetivo analisar os modos pelos quais os skatistas se apropriam do espaço urbano por meio de movimentos geradores de formas de apropriação e de propriedade sobre o espaça urbano. Para isso, a pesquisa valeu-se de um trabalho de cunho etnográfico junto ao universo de skatistas com o objetivo de acompanhar o itinerário destes sujeitos através de uma dinâmica tridimensional pela metrópole: o corpo, a pista e a cidade. Neste trabalho, portanto, buscou-se seguir a experiência dos skatistas em fazer cidade, entre o liso e o estriado, desde o modo como lidam com seu corpo, passando por formas mais densas de agrupamentos em espaços pré-determinados para sua prática, até em suas dimensões mais amplas de espraiamento por diferentes pistas, praças e ruas da região metropolitana de São Paulo