This research investigated the feasibility and benefits of integrating geospatial technology with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of an indigenous Louisiana coastal population in order to assess the impacts of current and historical ecosystem change to community viability. The primary goal was to provide resource managers with a comprehensive method of assessing localized ecological change in the Gulf Coast region that can benefit community sustainability. Using Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other geospatial technologies integrated with a coastal community's TEK to achieve this goal, the objectives were (1) to determine a method for producing vulnerability/sustainability mapping products for an ecosystem-dependent livelihood base of a coastal population that results from physical information derived from RS imagery and supported, refined, and prioritized with TEK, and (2) to demonstrate how such an approach can engage affected community residents who are interested in understanding better marsh health and ways that marsh health can be recognized, and the causes of declining marsh determined and addressed. TEK relevant to the project objectives collected included: changes in the flora and fauna over time; changes in environmental conditions observed over time such as land loss; a history of man-made structures and impacts to the area; as well as priority areas of particular community significance or concern. Scientific field data collection measured marsh vegetation health characteristics. These data were analyzed for correlation with satellite image data acquired concurrently with field data collection. Resulting regression equations were applied to the image data to produce estimated marsh health maps. Historical image datasets of the study area were acquired to understand evolution of land change to current conditions and project future vulnerability. Image processing procedures were developed and applied to produce maps that detail land change in the study area at time intervals from 1968 to 2009. This information was combined with the TEK and scientific datasets in a GIS to produce mapping products that provide new information to the coastal restoration decision making process. This information includes: 1) what marsh areas are most vulnerable; and 2) what areas are most significant to the sustainability of the community.

MA, Forced Migration Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011. / Rationale: Urbanization is rapidly taking place in Africa: fifty percent of the continent‘s population is expected to be living in urban areas by 2030 (Kok and Collinson in Vearey 2010b). Both internal1 and cross-border migrants2 are moving into South Africa’s urban centers at a faster rate than her neighboring countries; approximately 60 percent of the population is estimated to be urban (ibid). The worldwide increase in urbanization requires that research recognize the trajectories of people moving into these urban spaces, as well as the experiences that people encounter as they navigate urban centers (Kihato, 2010, Landau 2006a, 2006b, Vearey 2010a, 2010b, Venables, 2010). Many migrants in inner-city Johannesburg engage in unconventional survival strategies, including sex work (e.g. Richter 2010). Although sex work is considered an informal livelihood strategy, it is currently illegal in South Africa (UNAIDS, 2009). Research on sex work in South Africa is limited; however, there is significant evidence that sex workers in inner-city Johannesburg experience unsafe, unhealthy- often times violent- working and living conditions (e.g. Nyangairi, 2010, Richeter, 2010). This research is primarily interested in exploring the ways in which “marginalized” urban migrant groups choose to represent themselves versus the incomplete (re) presentation that is often relegated to them. A focus on representation will provide an opportunity for policy makers, programmers and academics to gain insight and better comprehend the experiences of migrant urban populations. In this case, the researcher is looking specifically at migrant women who sell sex as an entry point into the larger issues of (re) presentation among individuals and communities who are often described as “vulnerable” and/or “marginal”. Aim: The aim of this research project is to explore how migrant women who sell sex in Hillbrow, Johannesburg (re) present themselves, and how (or not) urban space affects these self- (re) presentations. Methods: The epistemological framework for the methodologies used in this study was Participatory Action Research (PAR), and the primary data collection methodology used consisted of an eleven-day participatory photo project where the research participants were given digital cameras and asked to photograph the “story” that they would like to share. Upon completion of the participatory photo workshop, five research participants were randomly selected to participate in 2-3 sessions of in-depth, semi-structured narrative interviews where the researcher explored the choice of photos taken, as well as the reasons why the photos were selected to (re) present themselves. Conclusion: This study has shown that use of Participatory Action Research as an epistemological framework is both conducive and appropriate when researching ‘hard to reach’ groups of people residing in complex urban areas. Furthermore, this research signals the need for greater inclusion of participants in studies aimed at understanding individual/group experience, especially when working with marginalized communities. This study also reveals a host of future research opportunities for those interested in exploring: (1) identity in urban space/urban health, (2) livelihood experiences/strategies of people living in densely populated urban spaces, (3) issues of belonging and access to health care, (4) impacts of structural violence on the lives of migrant women sex workers, (6) ways that perceptions and representations are impacted in group settings, and (5) the use of ‘innovative methodologies’ as a viable tool in social science research.

This doctoral thesis is a practice-led and corporate-grounded enquiry into the role of design research methods in a global technology company. The work aims to understand and communicate through a series of case studies how locally conducted participatory action research can be integrated into the processes of an in-house design team at the global NCR Corporation. It questions the current approaches taken in the design and development of consumer transaction technologies in the context of a global organisation and new markets. The thesis starts by introducing the reader to the global corporation in which the study is focused and author employed, the NCR Corporation. The contextual grounding of the corporate environment, its heritage, history and continued evolution will illustrate the dynamic yet traditional role design has played within the corporation. As a senior member of the Consumer Experience Design (Cx Design) team in the corporation the author is well placed to evaluate the role of design and how it can evolve. The immediate contextualisation is then followed by a broad examination of the literature in the field of design in a corporate culture, research methods and socially-led innovation. This will define the boundaries of interest and influence in the thesis. A participatory action research approach was taken to address the research questions. Informed by a series of hyperlocal and global community engagements framed and directed from within the corporate culture, the author defines an understanding of the levels of community engagement through design research. The resulting outputs are then applied within the context of the NCR Corporation where the impact and influence on such engagements can be understood. The author concludes that his contribution to new knowledge, the development of a Participatory Action Based Strategic Design Process, can be applied within a global technology company. The process adapts McNiff’s and Whitehead’s (2011) seven phases of action research reporting and Ravi Chhatpar’s strategic decision-making process. The thesis demonstrates the value and influence of design research methods in the design of consumer transaction technologies. The thesis provides an understanding of how design research methods have been applied in a corporate environment, how the insights are applied, and demonstrates how the research has influenced the author’s practice and therefore the wider Cx Design group.

This dissertation project seeks to address the sociological processes, dynamics, and mechanisms inflecting how and why U.S. society reproduces a sexually dimorphic, binary gender structure. The project builds upon the work of sociologists of gender on the doing gender framework, intersectional feminist approaches to identity formation, and hegemonic masculinity and relational theories of gender. In a 2012 article in Social Science and Medicine presenting contemporary concepts in gender theory to the health-oriented readers of the journal, R. W. Connell argues that much public policy on gender and health relies on categorical understandings of gender that are now inadequate. Connell contends that poststructuralist theories highlighting the performativity of gender improve on the assumption of a categorical binary typical in public policy, but they ignore the insights of sociological theories emphasizing gender as a structure comprising emotional and material constraints of the complex inter-relations among social institutions in which performances of gender are embedded. According to Connell, it is the task of social scientists to uncover “the processes by which social worlds are brought into being through time – the ontoformativity, not just the performativity, of gender.” This project explores the ontoformativity of gender in consideration of Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of the four domains of power. According to Collins, matrices of domination are intersecting and interlocking axes of oppression including but not limited to race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, nation, age, ability, place, and religion that reproduce social inequalities through their interoperation in the cultural, interpersonal, structural, and disciplinary domains of power. West and Zimmerman contrast gender as an axis in the matrix of oppression with site-specific roles, arguing that gender is a master status that is omnirelevant to all situations such that a person is assessed in terms of their competences in performing activities as a man or a woman. The doing gender approach has been accused of theorizing gender as an immutably monolithic social inequality. This project seeks to explicate the dynamics of gender ideology by probing its weaknesses in the interpersonal and cultural domains of power. As Collins and coauthor Sirma Bilge posit, for people oppressed along axes of gender, race/ethnicity, class, age, place, ability, and other binaries that constrain their actions in the structural and disciplinary domains of power, “the music, dance, poetry, and art of the cultural domain of power and personal politics of the interpersonal domain grow in significance.” Each of the three components of the dissertation project addresses a facet of mechanisms and processes of the interpersonal and cultural domains of power in (re)producing the binary gender structure in U.S. society. Paper #1, titled, “Integrating Black Feminist Thought into Canonical Social Change Theory,” explicates how people in marginalized social locations mount definitional challenges to their received classifications in the cultural domain of power by rejecting the consciousness of the oppressor and wielding rearticulated collective identity-based standpoints as contextually attuned technologies of power to recast historical narratives. Paper #2, with teenaged co-researcher Emma Draper, titled “Ordering Gender: Interactional Accountability and the Social Accomplishment of Gender Among Adolescents in the U.S. South,” maps how youth theorize interactional accountability processes to binary gender expectations in the interlocking social institutions of medicine, the family, schools, and peer social networks. Paper #3 is a book proposal comprising an introductory chapter. The book will tell the story of how young feminist arts-activists challenge the binary gender structure through resistance in the cultural and interpersonal domains.

With homelessness continuing to rise over the past two decades, disenfranchised unhoused people have sparked a national movement to build for themselves democratically governed communities of affordable housing. Dignity Village, in Portland Oregon, is one of the longest running and most organized self-help housing communities in the nation. This paper presents a theoretical systems-based model of a developmental pathway out of homelessness in the U.S. that has as one of its key steps membership and participation in humane and dignified "self-help micro-housing"; communities such as Dignity Village. This research involved working collaboratively with Dignity Village on a participatory action research (PAR) project aimed at understanding and facilitating processes for mobilizing community and socio-political engagement. The research process involved a team of up to 24 co-researchers (nine attended meetings regularly) working once weekly over 15 months, with consultation from the broader Village community throughout. The research followed a systems approach to creating five action tools as multiple points of leverage to create long-term positive change within the community. One point of leverage utilized participatory video methodology to co-create a video action tool as an orientation video for newcomers, intended to build cooperative relationships and facilitate empowerment within the community. The impact of the research process was documented on multiple levels in the community using multiple data sources. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach to identify key themes and processes that influenced participation and empowerment in the community. The predominant themes suggested three paradoxical tensions that were creating barriers to change in the community. This PAR process attempted to create movement beyond these barriers. Findings suggested that four main changes occurred in the community during and after the research: a) an increase in collaborative participation, b) enhanced engagement and sense of community, c) an emergence of critical consciousness, and d) changes in the organizational leadership/power structure. These findings are critically examined and discussed with respect to the effectiveness of utilizing this PAR process to facilitate community empowerment. A portion of this dissertation (Results section) was created in video format to enhance report accessibility for community partners and other non-academic audiences.

My Thesis posits a novel method of utilizing emerging web semantics, through HTML5 markup; to improve experience of Health Information seekers through a framework for creating functional, tailored Health Information Resource Collections potentially hosted by their own Health Information Support Networks; and based upon long-standing principles of online Information Retrieval. Most such organizations have websites, with links to useful Resources. This research exemplifies how to design and to present the Resource Collections as pathfinders to existing online Health Information, adding context to each link, to directly address the needs of each community served. The research appeals to a Needs Analysis process rooted in Everyday Life Information Seeking research methodologies, especially Participatory Action Research. As a pilot project, the Needs Analysis focuses necessarily on the Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus community – with which the author of the Thesis is intimately familiar as a person living with Hydrocephalus, making the choice of a Participatory Action Research framework ideal – and enlisted just one National (Canada) and one Regional (British Columbia) Association for the same rationale. Results of the Needs Analysis were used to identify necessary Resources, but also to select familiar web tools and technologies for design of the Resource Collection and Resource Cards. At completion, there is a functional Collection of Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Resources for researchers, caregivers, or patients with Spina Bifida and/or Hydrocephalus – not limited to members of any organization, but best suited by design to the two through which analysis was done. / Graduate

The fieldwork for this study was conducted in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia between 1997 and 1999. Qualitative and quantitative information provided by 170 Aboriginal participants enabled an exploration of the context and patterns of Aboriginal alcohol use; Aboriginal perceptions of the alcohol issue, existing interventions, research findings, 'culture' and its role in prevention and intervention; and participants' incorporation of these perceptions into an Aboriginal model for alcohol misuse prevention, intervention and evaluation. Findings were based on the results of individual and focus group interviews, serial model-planning focus groups, documentary data and observation.Study findings generally suggest that in addition to self-determination and support components, 'cultural context' retains an important role for many remote area Aboriginal people. The findings from a small sub-sample tentatively suggest that 'cultural' disruption, in addition to the socio-economic consequences of colonisation and dispossession, may play an important role in alcohol misuse. Consequently, it appears that in combination with self-determination and support components, the strengthening of a locally-defined 'cultural' context may have an important role in alcohol misuse prevention and intervention - an approach frequently unrepresented in existing symptom-focused models and one inviting further investigation. The model developed by study participants expands significantly on existing symptom-focused approaches through a comprehensive life-enhancement focus on aspects of identity, opportunity and hope. This approach adds depth and meaning to understandings of cultural appropriateness and of culturally relevant models for substance misuse prevention and intervention.

The unsatisfactory achievement of adult competency among emerging adults aging out of foster care is well documented. However few studies have examined how development within the child welfare system impacts the ability to achieve competence. In this study, homeless emerging adults who had not aged out of foster care were compared to peers who were homeless and aged out of foster care. The child welfare system is a unique environment with its own policies. In order to better understand the process of development within the child welfare system, the current study used life course developmental theory to understand how the child welfare system affects the development of children and their ability to achieve competencies. Specifically, the role of learned helplessness in influencing the developmental trajectory of children aging out of foster care was examined. The data were collected utilizing participatory action research methods and the use of this methodology among homeless emerging adults is explored. The current study analyzes data collected by the Texas Network of Youth Services. The study examined issues surrounding the transition to adulthood among homeless emerging adults using a participatory action research methodology. The sample included emerging adults 18 to 25 years old who were homeless (n=134). A subset of the sample aged out of foster care. The results indicated that, 1) homeless emerging adults who have not aged out of foster care may be an appropriate comparison group for those who have aged out, 2) homeless emerging adults who aged out of foster care were more likely to have a perception of learned helplessness that may impede their ability to achieve adult competency when compared to those who did not age out of foster care, and 3) despite receiving services to prepare them for adulthood, homeless emerging adults who aged out of foster care had just as much difficulty achieving adult competency as their homeless peers who did not receive these services. Finally, results showed that the use of participatory action research among homeless emerging adults may be a promising approach for future research. Participants expressed feeling empowered and having perceptions that indicated self-efficacy. This indicated that this type of methodology may be promising in altering perceptions of learned helplessness. / text

This dissertation covers the subject of how abstract concepts and complex situations can be concretized through research together with practitioners. The dissertation is based on four empirical studies. The researcher role, the practitioner participation and the methods for data collection and analysis have varied. In study I the concept ‘Närsjukvård’ was explored to understand how practitioners, managers and politicians in hospitals, primary health care and municipalities interpreted the concept. The researcher acted as consultant who collected data by interviews and questionnaires. Practitioners’ participation was limited. ‘Närsjukvård’ was interpreted as accessibility to hospital beds, accessibility to primary health care, collaboration between care providers and continuity and developed home care. Study II aimed to explore how people experienced leg ulcer care. The researcher acted as a consultant who performed the interviews and analysed the data. Although the informants experienced their encounters with the nurses as satisfying, the study illuminated low participation in the care and low practitioner involvement in issues about daily living with the leg ulcer. The findings were brought back to the informants and the practitioners. The project did not proceed towards development and change. In study III the aim was to explore the Swedish concept ‘trygghet’ by using stories from daily life. Four older women were interviewed and the Story Dialogue method was used together with assistant nurses and registered nurses who participated in data collection and analysis. Two themes emerged: Sense of Security and factors strengthening the Sense of Security. Together with the assistant nurses, areas for improvements were identified. Study IV aimed to explore the discharge planning situation in order to generate ideas for development. Members from a discharge planning network participated in the whole research process. Conditions for a successful coordinated discharge planning situation were a system including: the participation of the patient, the competence of the staff and the support from the organisation. The group arranged a workshop about communication and interdisciplinary collaboration. The findings resulted in a form with self-evaluation questions. In conclusion, this thesis illustrates that it is possible to clarify abstract concepts and complex situations together with practitioners. To do this successfully, sense making activities and to start from practitioners’ experiences and their own context are key factors. The studies illuminate that building trust, relationship and sense of participation are essential in health and social care in general and specifically in the participatory action research process.

Public health nurses (PHNs) are ideally situated to reduce health inequities and based on documents articulating their role, should be working upstream to promote equity, prevent chronic diseases, and improve population health outcomes. In reality however, numerous barriers contribute to lack of role clarity for PHNs, and this goal has not been attainable in practice. A common vision for PHN practice based on discipline specific competencies and full scope of practice has been identified as a priority by Canadian experts. The intention of this study was to develop a model to support PHN practice in an urban Canadian city. This study used a participatory action research approach, grounded in local experience and context. The action was the development of a professional practice model. Data were gathered using semi-structured interview guides during audio-recorded research working group (RWG) meetings from November 2012 to July 2013. A researcher reflexive journal and field notes were kept. The data were analyzed using qualitative methods. A significant feature was full participant involvement throughout the course of the study. A professional practice model was a key organizational tool that provided the framework to develop an autonomous PHN role and the structures necessary to support PHN practice within the health system. The professional practice model fostered full scope of practice and role clarity, with a focus on population health and equity, so that a consistent and evidence-based practice was attainable. The result was that RWG participants reported a shift in their practice, with greater awareness of theory. Participatory action research was essential in developing the framework and common language, and is a research methodology that should continue to be explored with nurses in Canada.