In the 1950s, the Republic of China (ROC) on the island of Taiwan was a Cold War ally of the United States. Led by President Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling Kuomintang Party, the ROC received military, financial, and humanitarian assistance from the U.S., and enjoyed support in the White House, from the Departments of State and Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Democratic and Republican Parties. President Chiang even employed public relations firms and political pressure groups to help generate public support and to sway American policymakers to favor his cause. By the end of the 1970s, however, the ROC had lost its seat in the United Nations and no longer maintained formal diplomatic relations with the United States. Why would the United States abandon a long-standing World War II ally, recipient of American aid, and fellow anti-communist? The 1960s proved to be a pivotal decade in the diplomatic and military relationship between the United States and the ROC. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, both Democrats, publicly promised support for Chiang and the Chinese Nationalists on Taiwan. Chiang hoped to secure continued military aid and diplomatic support by relying upon allies in the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and in the U.S. Congress, and even occasionally making threats to take actions detrimental to American policy. Throughout the 1960s, the U.S.-ROC relationship was tested by events in the United Nations, the Taiwan Strait, and Southeast Asia. By the end of the decade, the ROC had lost millions in American aid and the United States had publicly started to consider normalizing relations with the People?s Republic of China. This dissertation will show that U.S.-ROC relations in the 1960s deteriorated due to a combination of factors. The Vietnam War was one of several factors that helped bring an end to formal American relations with the Republic of China. The Vietnam War caused a conflict of interest, whereby American containment of communism in Southeast Asia clashed with ROC plans to maintain its international legitimacy and to restore its rule over all China. Additionally, bureaucratic changes within the State Department, the demise and ineffectiveness of the China Lobby, and the changing make-up of the United Nations resulting from decolonization also contributed to the decline of U.S.-ROC relations.

Carbon Capture and Storage Potential Contribution to Mitigate Climate Change By Angel Mario Baca, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 Supervisor: Dr. Eric Bickel This thesis evaluates the potential of the Carbon Capture and Storage technologies to mitigate climate change. This work emerged from the current debate regarding when CCS technologies are going to be ready in a commercial-scale, or whether they are going to be economically viable. Geologically, the world contains enough room for storing CO2 emissions, but it is still unsolved if leakage can be controlled and monitored. This research focuses on the development of an economic model to estimate the value of CCS.. This model uses equations from the DICE (Dynamic Integrated model on Climate and the Economy). Then, it estimates what change in temperature could occur, and computes the present value of damages to the economy. Moreover, emissions are simulated using the 40 scenario emissions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As the main conclusion of this model, CCS has to be deployed in almost in the entire number of fossil fuel plants around the world and has to be done in the next 30 years to see CCS having an impact, otherwise it would be relatively small and not worth it. Moreover, CCS technologies are part of the components to reduce climate change, but not the main one. It is required that governments, companies, and institution focus their efforts in working collaboratively towards the enforcement of new policies and development of more technologies. / text

This thesis examines the continually reconfiguring response of a youth organization towards a renovation project, Järvalyftet, run by the City of Stockholm in the Million Program suburbs. By analyzing this relationship, I aim to discuss how the youth organization works to mediate inclusion in political and representational spheres. More specifically, I will discuss the intersections between Järvalyftet’s development and the claims of belonging made by the youths upon the particular suburb, Husby, where they resided. My interest lies in understanding the conjuncture and disjuncture of claims that have been made to community, locality, and local knowledge in the interaction between the youth organization and the project Järvalyftet. I argue that the forms of community instigated by the youth organization, which were based on locality and “blackness”, allowed them to position themselves as key proponents of social and political change, as well as mobilize allies in others who identified with those experiences.

Zugl.: Uppsala, Univ., Diss., 2009

Housing has always been an urgent question in modern times: how to provide for increasing demand and quickly changing patterns of living. One of the main issues with it is that the very people who will buy, rent and use housing have mostly have little or no say in the design— or how they would like the house to change over time. One of the most audacious experiments in modern housing, the Swedish Million Programme, is over 50 years old; these estates are ageing and have become misaligned with modern ways of living, rendering them susceptible to segregated neighbourhoods and neglect, and out of date in terms of energy use. While a new housing shortage looms, the renovations to million program buildings could potentially provide some insights into the housing problem. The ageing infrastructure of the million programme is an opportunity to reconsider the way we think of housing today. The million programme was scientifically designed and constructed with state-of-the-art methods in the 60s and 70s, and was an example to the world. Today, the buildings are not up to environmental standards and need refurbishment to improve thermal performance. Also: the particular family sizes that the estates were designed for some decades ago, do not exist in the same proportions today. There is not as much diversity in sizes and types of apartments as are required for today’s different and unpredictable demographic changes. This project proposes a system of extensions to the facades of the buildings that challenge the existing plans and allows newer typologies to be remade from the old buildings. This would necessarily require the participation, conversation and negotiation of the residents, as well as facilitating agencies like the Kommun, Housing companies, Tenants’ Associations, Manufacturers, Construction companies and so on. Residents have been the most marginalised group of all the parties who come together to make housing; I contend that this is one of the fundamental issues of all housing that are designed with little adaptability and hence are dated with a fixed lifespan, after which changing lives begin to make them redundant. However, a user-driven process and designs that afford adaptation according to changing needs may allow housing to have an inherently longer life, and affect the social cohesion and sense of place of the city as well. The method is to test architectural strategies to a building of the million programme
in Umeå, to bring out potentials and possibilities of participation in such a context. The main strategy is a Support and Infill model of incremental addition: the design of fixed infrastructure and of potential changes that may be added onto it. Speculating possible configurations of addition may provide some insight about the benefits and pitfalls of such and similar systems of refurbishment, and of participation. Perhaps a built environment that is able to change more easily to accommodate people’s changing lives and needs over time produces more energetic, active and livable cities that are more resilient to change and unpredictability that is characteristic of our world today.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur förvandlingen kring synen påmiljonprogramsområdena gått till. Miljonprogrammet som till en början sågs som en modern satsning som skulle lösa de akuta problemen på den svenska bostadsmarknaden men som under årens gång övergått till något negativt där det talas om stigmatiserade utanförskaps områden som domineras av sociala problem. Kritiken mot områdena visar att boende i dessa områden ofta beskylls för de problemen som finns, kopplat till etniska och sociala faktorer. Studien undersöker huruvida den kritik som lyfts kring miljonprogrammet, dess områden och boende stämmer överens med verkligheten. Med hjälp av olika teorier som, stigmatisering, gentrifiering och begreppet segregation undersöka de bakomliggande faktorerna till att boende i miljonprogramsområdena beskylls för de problem som finns samt för att undersöka om denna bild stämmer överens med verkligheten. / The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how the view of the million programareas changed from positive to negative. The million program, which at first was seen as amodern investment that would solve the problems that existed in the Swedish housing market, but through the years turned into something negative where areas are spoken of as problematic. Criticism of the areas shows that residents in these areas are often blamed for the problems that exist, linked to ethnic and social factors. The purpose of this studiy is to examine whether the criticism raised about the millionprogram and its areas is in line with reality. Using, Ervin Goffmans theory of stigmatization, Ruth Glasss definition of gentrification and the notion segregation, examine the underlying factors of people living in the million programareas that are often blamed for the problems that exist and to examine if this is a true and fair picture or not.

The current shortage of senior housing and the lack of accessibility in today's million-program housing creates concern among the older age group when the need to move becomes necessary with aging. Nowadays, more and more older groups are experiencing a fear of no longer being able to stay in their current homes due to lack of accessibility, which can make everyday life more difficult. Between the period 1965-1974 a million homes were built, which today are facing extensive refurbishment. By increasing the availability of these homes, the demand for senior housing can be accommodated while contributing to a more accessible society. In order to increase accessibility and contribute to an optimal living environment for seniors, technical building measures are required to be taken, as well as improvement regarding the floor plan. A pleasant indoor climate, access to a lift, spacious bathrooms and meeting places are some of the accomodationg that seniors value in their residential building. This report thus examines the required construction technical solutions to increase accessibility and improve the living environment in an existing residential building built under the million program in Finspång municipality. It also examines whether these solutions are technically and financially feasible to carry out, as well as researching what seniors generally appreciate in their living environments.

The houses which were built during the million programmes are now facing extensiverenovations and refurbishment, some have also been demolished. The houses that still standtoday have now reached their lifespan, this however, does not necessarily mean that theyshould be demolished. The construction industry has, during these last years, flourishedimmensely. Resources, methods, and construction techniques are constantly evolving and arenow being applied when working with renovations of old buildings. And it is now resulting inhouses that are durable and energy efficient, which enables them to endure even longer.Unlike new buildings, renovations are more complex and require wider knowledge in severaldifferent areas to address the problems in the best possible way. In addition to the technicalaspects, it also shows that the preservation of cultural-historical aspects, for the millionprogramme houses, must be considered when it comes to remodelling.In this study, it is investigated how a renovation is carried out and which measures are usedon these houses in terms of technology, sustainability, and the preservation of theenvironment. In addition, how such buildings are designed in regard to their culturalhistoricalvalue and influence.

This thesis is a quest to identify the factors that influence social capital in one spatially isolated, multi-ethnic neighborhood, Kungsmarken. The commonly held view that many Modernist-style housing estates have evolved into dead-end areas that breed social ills and require endless outside assistance (Jane Jacobs), does not contain the whole truth. A fraction of this complex problem will be tackled in this thesis. The study case of Kungsmarken in Karlskrona, Sweden, is studied to better understand the links between an area’s physical structure, demographics, socio-cultural trends, economy, and social capital. By analyzing these various potential factors, interviewing the residents and other key persons, and examining public statistics, the author draws several conclusions. One main conclusion is that the social capital developments in Kungsmarken can be directly linked to the broad economic trends in the municipality. Other conclusions include that while the physical structure is a hindrance, trust and close relationships still exist between the residents, which indicates that social capital exists there. The ultimate objective of this study is to identify and explain the factors that either help or hinder the development of social in Kungsmarken.

This analysis utilizes the computer-based content analysis program DICTION to gain a better understanding of Oprah Winfrey's specific discourse types (praise, blame, and standard) and her language surrounding the James Frey Controversy. Grounded in Social Influence Theory, this thesis argues that is important to understand the language styles of such a significant rhetor in society because she has the potential to influence the public. The findings indicate that Oprah's discourse types differ in the level of Optimism her language represents and that the two episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show relating to the James Frey Controversy differ in terms of the Certainty. Also, this thesis provides a new application of the program DICTION and the implications for such procedures are discussed. / Department of Communication Studies