In recent decades there has been a rekindling of academic interest in place, and with the way in which processes associated with modernity, globalisation and individualisation may have diminished place based communities, and weakened the attachment between individuals and the neighbourhoods in which they live. There are also debates about the importance of neighbourhood context, particularly whether neighbourhood level material deprivation and increased ethnic diversity act to reduce individual belonging to neighbourhoods and interactions between neighbours. This thesis aims to contribute towards an understanding of the ways in which individual belonging to neighbourhoods, and interaction with neighbours, may have changed over time, in relation to individual and neighbourhood context. Data from the British Household Panel Survey, for England, for the period 1998 to 2008, measuring the outcomes of individual level belonging to neighbourhoods and the likelihood of talking to neighbours, are combined with neighbourhood level Census data. Longitudinal models are used to test for age and cohort effects, and then extended to consider neighbourhood level context. Specific attention is given to the relationship between the outcomes under study and neighbourhood material deprivation, neighbourhood ethnic diversity, household income and individual mobility between neighbourhoods. Some evidence was found for cohort effects, with younger cohorts, particularly those in higher income households, being less likely to talk to neighbours. There were no apparent cohort effects for the outcome of belonging to the neighbourhood, which is found to be associated with age (generally increasing as individuals get older), and neighbourhood context. In materially deprived neighbourhoods levels of belonging are lower, but only for individuals in households with low incomes. Similarly any effect of individual mobility was found to be conditional on household income and neighbourhood level material deprivation. In general, high or increasing neighbourhood level ethnic diversity was not associated with reduced individual belonging to neighbourhoods or likelihood of talking to neighbours once other contextual variables were considered. Also, increased ethnic diversity had a small positive effect on the outcomes under study for individuals living in neighbourhoods with high levels of material deprivation.

Increasing cultural globalisation and the assertion of cultural identities present an interesting opportunity for cities in the postmodern Western World. An increasingly multi-situated polity must better reflect and serve an increasingly self-aware and heterogeneous population in search of better planning, community and social justice. A great deal of research in diversity issues has been conducted in various disciplines, but there is little integration of this theory and even less instruction as to its application. This thesis attempts to address the deficiencies - providing some rationale and some guidance towards the diversification of civic culture as a model of incorporation. Diversification requires a significant shift in our understanding of culture, identity, community and self - an end to mainstream and its hegemony. It places the onus for change on local institutions and operates on an assumption of difference, a desire for meaningful incorporation and a commitment to equality as equity. These principles translate into the pursuit of increasingly differentiated benefits, inclusive participation, varied discourse and inclusive definitions. For the transformation to be truly meaningful and systemic, it must take place in all agencies of civic culture: government, civil society, business, the media and family. A conceptual, prescriptive and evaluative framework for cultural diversification is thus elaborated. Change will require deliberate purpose and action. This thesis attempts to provide some direction by applying the discussion to a level at which most urban leaders, planners and cultural producers work. A local organisation in Vancouver, Canada - a reputed leader in diversity - is selected as a case to illustrate application of the developed framework and to enrich it with an initial investigation of how practitioners work towards the diversification of their individual institutions and their larger socio-cultural environment. It is hoped that strategies learned here, and in future applications of this research, can provide guidance for other organisations and that numerous small efforts will be rewarded with the gradual transformation of the whole. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Background: In addition to the influence of an individual’s socioeconomic status, the neighbourhoods in which people live may influence health-related behaviours including smoking. This study therefore sought to determine the influence of the socioeconomic context in which South African adults lived on their smoking behaviour, and explore the potential gender differences of contextual influences. Method: This study involved a representative sample of South African adults (≥16 years) who participated in the 2010 (n=3,112) and 2011 (3,003) South African Social Attitude Survey (SASAS). The 2009 General Household Survey (n =25,548 households) was used to obtain the socioeconomic characteristics of the neighbourhoods where SASAS participants lived, including proportion of households with access to tap water, access to flush toilets and the level of employment in the area (3-item deprivation index; α=0.84). Information obtained from SASAS included participants’ tobacco use status and socio-demographic characteristics, including participants’ self-rated socioeconomic position within the society. Data analysis included a multi-level Poisson regression analysis. Results: Of the respondents who participated in the 2010/2011 survey, 19.4% (n=1302) were current smokers (30% men and 9.8% women). Smoking was more prevalent among those living in areas in the upper-third socioeconomic status (SES) than in areas in the lower-third SES (22.9% vs. 13.5%; p= 0.01). The neighbourhood socioeconomic context had a greater influence on the prevalence of smoking among women than among men. In particular, the gender gap in smoking prevalence was higher among those living in areas in the lowest-third SES (24.6% men vs. 4.6% women) than among those in areas of highest-third SEP (31.5% men vs. 15% women). Overall, smoking was less likely among those with greater than high school education than among those with less than high school education (OR=0.68; 95%CI=0.56-0.82). Conclusion: The findings suggest a greater neighbourhood socioeconomic contextual influence on women than men and highlight the need for community-level interventions targeting the least educated living in areas of highest socioeconomic position in South Africa. Interventions and public health policies to decrease tobacco smoking should be developed with some neighbourhood-specific modifications and should also be actively implemented. / Dissertation (MPH)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2015 / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / MPH / Unrestricted

The façade as boundary is studied in an attempt to create a public ground floor where boundaries start functioning as thresholds. It could be argued that the boundary [potential threshold] becomes the introduction to the interior space. The study will explore the effect of an interior application on its surrounding urban context and whether an interior intervention can add a positive contribution to the neighbourhood regeneration. The perceived limit of interior design will be extended to include the boundary as an integral part of the design. The project will address the lack of communication between the interior and the exterior context. The boundary will be considered the end of exterior space and the start of interior space. The theory is applied to a site located in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. / Dissertation MInt (Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Architecture / MInt(Prof) / Unrestricted

of The PhD Thesis by Bogdana DEPO 'Goliath Versus Goliath: EU Democracy Promotion in the Eastern Neighbourhood and Russia's Alternative Agenda' The proclamation of the ultimate victory of the liberal democracy, which was popular in the 1990s, has clearly become inconsistent today, especially if one looks at the Eastern Partnership countries. Whereas EU was the biggest democracy promoter in the world, establishing stable democracy in its Eastern European neighbourhood remains a challenge. The main assumption of these thesis is that Russia's competitive agenda has outbalanced EU's efforts in democracy promotion, or at least challenged it. This competition was manifested by considerable evolution of the policy instruments developed by both competitive actors. Goliath versus Goliath describes EU's growing assertiveness with democracy promotion and Russia's alternative agenda which offsets EU's influence in the shared neighbourhood. Theoretically speaking it might appear as a clash of the liberal democracy concept versus realism. The main conclusion of these thesis is that the EU was not be able to advance its democracy promotion as every new step in democratization was met with a spiral of Russia's assertive actions.

No / This paper presents a new class of heuristics which embed an exact algorithm within the framework of a local search heuristic. This approach was inspired by related heuristics which we developed for a practical problem arising in electronics manufacture. The basic idea of this heuristic is to break the original problem into small subproblems having similar properties to the original problem. These subproblems are then solved using time intensive heuristic approaches or exact algorithms and the solution is re-embedded into the original problem. The electronics manufacturing problem where we originally used the embedded local search approach, contains the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) as a major subproblem. In this paper we further develop our embedded search heuristic, HyperOpt, and investigate its performance for the TSP in comparison to other local search based approaches. We introduce an interesting hybrid of HyperOpt and 3-opt for asymmetric TSPs which proves more efficient than HyperOpt or 3-opt alone. Since pure local search seldom yields solutions of high quality we also investigate the performance of the approaches in an iterated local search framework. We examine iterated approaches of Large-Step Markov Chain and Variable Neighbourhood Search type and investigate their performance when used in combination with HyperOpt. We report extensive computational results to investigate the performance of our heuristic approaches for asymmetric and Euclidean Travelling Salesman Problems. While for the symmetric TSP our approaches yield solutions of comparable quality to 2-opt heuristic, the hybrid methods proposed for asymmetric problems seem capable of compensating for the time intensive embedded heuristic by finding tours of better average quality than iterated 3-opt in many less iterations and providing the best heuristic solutions known, for some instance classes.

<p> This paper aims to produce a paradigm of community dissent. The main argument revolves around the actions of residents who are dissatisfied with either the conditions in their neighbourhood, or with proposed changes to it. Thus far fundamental types of strategies are identified for such residents and these take the form of 'exit', 'voice', 're'signation' and 'outlaw activity'. </p> <p> In using a conflict approach, the constraints which bear upon the initial choice decision and subsequent implementation of the strategies are constantly emphasised. The strategies and their attendant constraints then form the basis for the construction of a dynamic model with which to view the development of community conflicts. </p> <p>In order to provide some substantive basis for the assertions made in the model the major hypotheses derived from the model are tested in an empirical example of community conflict in Victoria Park, Hamilton. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This article is about the alternative forms of power emerging in contemporary activism. It conceptualizes this new form of power as ‘non-dominating’, and puts forward six propositions which characterize this form of power. It builds on work about power with eight diverse communities in the North of England, to argue that this form of power does exist in practice at the neighbourhood level, even though it is not articulated as such. While neighbourhood activists have difficulty in making this form of power effective, at the level of the ‘square’ and global activism, new understandings and practices of power are under conscious experimentation. This contribution therefore suggests that better connections need to be built between these levels of activism. At the same time, non-dominating power should be recognized as enhancing the debate about effective and transformative change and how it can avoid reproducing dominating power.

<p>Because of the socioeconomic and ethnic segregation in many Swedish towns, residents with different social backgrounds are often living in separate neighbourhoods. This thesis focuses on children aged between 11 and 14 and explores the spatial extent of their social networks, their spatial mobility and spatial representations. By studying these aspects of children’s daily lives the study attempts to contribute to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind neighbourhood effects.</p><p>The spatial extension of the daily lives of children in seven adjacent neighbourhoods in a medium sized Swedish town is mapped. By using children’s activity diaries, surveys with parents and children’s maps the study explores to which extent children with different personal characteristics and from different neighbourhoods have friends outside their own neighbourhoods, where they spend time and what kind of activities they engage in and with whom. The study shows that the possibility to get their own direct experience of other neighbourhoods differs between groups of children, much depending on the geographical extension of their social networks, which in turn appears mainly to be a consequence of school reception areas and, indirectly, school popularity.</p><p>By using children’s maps and group interviews children’s perspectives of their own and other neighbourhoods are analysed. The thesis illustrates how children feel about and discuss their own neighbourhoods and other neighbourhoods in town. The children in the study emphasize their own neighbourhood as a good and quiet neighbourhood, irrespective of the neighbourhood’s character and status. One of the neighbourhoods is stigmatised in the public discourse. Among the children there is a living debate in relation to this neighbourhood. In group interviews the children sometimes confirm, sometimes critically question the rumours about this neighbourhood. The children which live in this neighbourhood are aware of the bad reputation and also act and react upon it</p>

Because of the socioeconomic and ethnic segregation in many Swedish towns, residents with different social backgrounds are often living in separate neighbourhoods. This thesis focuses on children aged between 11 and 14 and explores the spatial extent of their social networks, their spatial mobility and spatial representations. By studying these aspects of children’s daily lives the study attempts to contribute to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind neighbourhood effects. The spatial extension of the daily lives of children in seven adjacent neighbourhoods in a medium sized Swedish town is mapped. By using children’s activity diaries, surveys with parents and children’s maps the study explores to which extent children with different personal characteristics and from different neighbourhoods have friends outside their own neighbourhoods, where they spend time and what kind of activities they engage in and with whom. The study shows that the possibility to get their own direct experience of other neighbourhoods differs between groups of children, much depending on the geographical extension of their social networks, which in turn appears mainly to be a consequence of school reception areas and, indirectly, school popularity. By using children’s maps and group interviews children’s perspectives of their own and other neighbourhoods are analysed. The thesis illustrates how children feel about and discuss their own neighbourhoods and other neighbourhoods in town. The children in the study emphasize their own neighbourhood as a good and quiet neighbourhood, irrespective of the neighbourhood’s character and status. One of the neighbourhoods is stigmatised in the public discourse. Among the children there is a living debate in relation to this neighbourhood. In group interviews the children sometimes confirm, sometimes critically question the rumours about this neighbourhood. The children which live in this neighbourhood are aware of the bad reputation and also act and react upon it