Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 111-121).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Sociology, August 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-121). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes special report study entitled : Communal space in Hong Kong. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Since 2000, gentrification has accelerated in many U.S. metropolitan areas. Nearly 20 percent of US cities have experienced this phenomenon. It has been the cause of painful conflicts in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, while minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. Though, there hasn’t been much agreement on the causes of gentrification, the government is often blamed for its policy decisions made in regards to urban revitalization. This paper examines the extent to which gentrification in four U.S. metropolitan areas, Washington D.C., Portland, Minneapolis and Philadelphia is associated with local government urban revitalization policies. In my study, I examine the neighborhoods that were affected by government revitalization efforts. Then I analyze data from the U.S. Census Bureau comparing the neighborhoods that gentrified with those that didn’t using a set of gentrification criteria. The results suggest that government policies is not the main driving force behind gentrification. In addition, these policies do not significantly improve conditions in non-gentrified tracts. Overall, neighborhoods that experienced gentrification experience tremendous neighborhood improvements.

Fruit d’une enquête ethnographique de trois ans menée dans un quartier de Samarcande, ce présent travail questionne les fondements et l’usage du sentiment d’appartenance à une communauté locale. Depuis l’éclatement de l’Union soviétique, l’Ouzbékistan indépendant fonde en effet sa légitimité sur l’affirmation d’un ethos particulier qui s’incarnerait dans ces communautés. Cependant leur rôle central semble, de prime abord, fragilisé à la fois par leur institutionnalisation et par le développement rapide des migrations internationales. Toutefois un faisceau d’hypothèses laisse penser que le sentiment d’appartenance s’enracine moins dans un passé commun que dans un système de valeurs qui se manifesteraient dans des pratiques communautaires constamment réactivées par des liens de voisinage et de parenté. Les discours insistent de fait sur le caractère plus ou moins contraint et spontané de la participation à ces pratiques selon qu’elles sont prescrites par l’État ou préconisées par la communauté. L’accent mis sur la commensalité permet de concevoir la consubstantialité des membres de la communauté. De plus, filiation agnatique et patrivirilocalité consolident le socle idéologique d’une autochtonie imaginaire. Tandis que sur ce fond de forte idéologie agnatique, sociabilités masculines et féminines se déploient dans des sphères distinctes, les liens cognatiques conservent toute leur importance. Enfin, l’accomplissement de soi passe par l’organisation de rituels qui donnent lieu à des cérémonies ostentatoires et dispendieuses, souvent financées par les migrations. Le faste occasionné, manifeste par le nombre de personnes mobilisées, est source de prestige individuel tandis que la circulation des dons, conçus comme le remboursement d’une dette originelle, rend possible la reproduction de la communauté. / Based on three years of ethnographic research in a Samarkand neighborhood, this study explores the grounds for and the use of the sense of belonging to a local community. Indeed, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, independent Uzbekistan founds its legitimacy on the assertion of a particular ethos supposedly embodied in local communities. Yet their centrality seems, at first, weakened by their institutionalization and by the rapid development of international migrations. However, various hypotheses suggest that the feeling of belonging is less grounded in a shared past than in a system of values allegedly expressed in community practices, continuously reactivated through neighborhood and kinship ties. Discourses reveal that participation in these practices is diversely challenged depending on whether they are prescribed by the State or recommended by the community. The emphasis on commensality enables us to perceive the consubstantiality of the members of the community. Moreover, agnatic descent and patrivirilocality strengthen the ideological base of imaginary autochthony. Against this background of strong agnatic ideology, while men and women socialize in separate spheres, cognate ties maintain their significance. Finally, self-accomplishment occurs through the organization of rituals, combined with ostentatious and costly ceremonies, often financed by migrations. The pomp of these ceremonies, manifest through the gathering of many people, is at the root of individual prestige while the flow of gifts, thought of as the repayment of an original debt, enables the reproduction of the community.

abstract: This research addresses the ability for neighborhoods to assess resiliency as it applies to their respective local areas. Two demographically and economically contrasting neighborhoods in Glendale, Arizona were studied to understand what residents' value and how those values link to key principles of resiliency. Through this exploratory research, a community-focused process was created to use these values in order to link them to key principles of resiliency and potential measureable indicators. A literature review was conducted to first assess definitions and key principles of resiliency. Second, it explored cases of neighborhoods or communities that faced a pressure or disaster and responded resiliently based on these general principles. Each case study demonstrated that resiliency at the neighborhood level was important to its ability to survive its respective pressure and emerge stronger. The Heart of Glendale and Thunderbird Palms were the two neighborhoods chosen to test the ability to operationalize neighborhood resiliency in the form of indicators. First, an in-depth interview was conducted with a neighborhood expert to understand each area's strengths and weaknesses and get a context for the neighborhood and how it has developed. Second, a visioning session was conducted with each neighborhood consisting of seven participants to discuss its values and how they relate to key principles of resiliency. The values were analyzed and used to shape locally relevant indicators. The results of this study found that the process of identifying participants' values and linking them to key principles of resiliency is a viable methodology for measuring neighborhood resiliency. It also found that indicators and values differed between the Heart of Glendale, a more economically vulnerable yet ethnically diverse area, than Thunderbird Palms, a more racially homogenous, middle income neighborhood. The Heart of Glendale valued the development of social capital more than Thunderbird Palms which placed a higher value on the condition of the built environment as a vehicle for stimulating vibrancy and resiliency in the neighborhood. However, both neighborhoods highly valued public education and providing opportunities for children to be future leaders in their local communities. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.U.E.P. Urban and Environmental Planning 2011

A presente tese tem como objetivo compreender a produção do espaço urbano a partir das práticas e representações de jovens do Bairro Guajuviras, espaço representado como uma periferia do município de Canoas, Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre. O estudo parte da relação de coprodução entre juventudes e espaço de um bairro popular. Evidencia os conflitos inerentes às disputas representacionais que constituem, de um lado, imaginários urbanos que generalizam essas juventudes como problema e definem o bairro como espaço periférico e, de outro, produção de representações do espaço que reafirmam tanto o local, quanto os/as jovens. As narrativas e experiências desses/as jovens redirecionam as perspectivas teóricas para a compreensão do espaço no rompimento com as dualidades centro-periferia, desconstruindo os estereótipos embasados nas hierarquias sócio-espaciais e orientando para perspectivas que evidenciam as diferenças, aqui acentuadas na elaboração conceitual do bairro popular. Dessa forma, a pesquisa percorre a produção do Guajuviras nos diálogos a partir das teorias da produção do espaço de Henri Lefebvre (2013), as práticas microbianas de Michel de Certeau (2009) e as concepções de ator e agente de Guy Di Méo e Pascal Buléon (2007). As práticas espaciais identificadas nas narrativas dos/as jovens do Guajuviras orientam pelo reconhecimento de práticas de apropriação do espaço urbano no bairro, através das relações de convivência e dos usos de ruas e praças como espaços de permanência e sociabilidade e, nos espaços metropolitanos mais distantes, nas relações de trabalho e comunidades de sentido (BERGER; LUCKMANN, 2004). A relação juventude-espaço revela feições do urbano de coprodução entre espaços e sujeitos através das trajetórias de vida e formas de inserção nas relações sociais do bairro e do espaço metropolitano. Dessa forma, a pesquisa demonstra os processos de produção do espaço através de relações de condicionamentos e transgressões, identifica aspectos e conflitos do urbano através dos quais são indicadas perspectivas para pensar o bairro popular e suas juventudes. / This thesis aims to understand the production of the urban space from the practices and representations of young people of Guajuviras neighborhood, space represented as a popular suburb of Canoas city, in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre. The study starts from the co-production relationship between youths and space of a popular neighborhood. It shows the inherent conflicts of the representational disputes that, on one hand, constitute some urban imaginary that generalize these youths as a problem and define the neighborhood as a peripheral space and, on another hand, the production of space representations that reaffirm the local and also the young people. The narratives and experiences of these young people redirect the theoretical perspectives to the understanding of the space in the rupture with the centre-periphery dualities, deconstructing stereotypes grounded in socio-spatial hierarchies and guiding to perspectives that show the differences, here accented in the conceptual elaboration of the popular neighborhood. Thus, the research explores the production of Guajuviras in the dialogues from the space production theories of Henri Lefebvre (2013), the microbian practices of Michel de Certeau (2009), and the concepts of actor and agent of Guy Di Méo and Pascal Buléon (2007). The spatial practices identified in the narratives of the Guajuviras youths guide trough the recognition of appropriation practices of the urban space, trough the conviviality relationships and the use of streets and squares of the neighborhood as permanency and sociability spaces and, in the most distant metropolitan spaces, in the work relationships and in the sense communities (BERGER; LUCKMANN, 2004). The youth-space relationship reveals urban features of co-production between spaces and individuals trough the life trajectories and insertion ways in the social relations of the neighborhood and the metropolitan space. Thus, the study demonstrates the processes of space production trough the relations of conditioning and transgressions. It identifies aspects and conflicts of the urban space that allow indicate perspectives to think the popular neighborhood and its youths.

abstract: The only elements that were made in significant quantity during the Big Bang were hydrogen and helium, and to a lesser extent lithium. Depending on the initial mass of a star, it may eject some or all of the unique, newly formed elements into the interstellar medium. The enriched gas later collapses into new stars, which are able to form heavier elements due to the presence of the new elements. When we observe the abundances in a stellar regions, we are able to glean the astrophysical phenomena that occurred prior to its formation. I compile spectroscopic abundance data from 49 literature sources for 46 elements across 2836 stars in the solar neighborhood, within 150 pc of the Sun, to produce the Hypatia Catalog. I analyze the variability of the spread in abundance measurements reported for the same star by different surveys, the corresponding stellar atmosphere parameters adopted by various abundance determination methods, and the effect of normalizing all abundances to the same solar scale. The resulting abundance ratios [X/Fe] as a function of [Fe/H] are consistent with stellar nucleosynthetic processes and known Galactic thin-disk trends. I analyze the element abundances for 204 known exoplanet host-stars. In general, I find that exoplanet host-stars are not enriched more than the surrounding population of stars, with the exception of iron. I examine the stellar abundances with respect to both stellar and planetary physical properties, such as orbital period, eccentricity, planetary mass, stellar mass, and stellar color. My data confirms that exoplanet hosts are enriched in [Fe/H] but not in the refractory elements, per the self-enrichment theory for stellar composition. Lastly, I apply the Hypatia Catalog to the Catalog of Potentially Habitable Stellar Systems in order to investigate the abundances in the 1224 overlapping stars. By looking at stars similar to the Sun with respect to six bio-essential elements, I created maps that have located two ``habitability windows'' on the sky: (20.6hr, -4.8deg) and (22.6hr, -48.5deg). These windows may be of use in future targeted or beamed searches. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Astrophysics 2012