Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Blake Belanger / This master’s project and report examines the correlation between social inequity and vacancy to develop a phased revitalization strategy for Raytown, Missouri. The perception of vacant built landscapes cause people to interpret places as having no productive use (Corbin 2003). Vacant spaces appear void of opportunities and are fueled by a capitalist society where markets move toward the urban fringe in order to remain competitive (Fainstein 2010). Vacancy creates a cultural response that “erodes the local social fabric, [signifying] the ills of neglect, [and] communicating to people the futility of inner-city living” (Jakle and Wilson 1992, 175). As a result, people passing through a community dismiss these vacant spaces because what they see is a place of little value. The perception of vacancy can lead to severe social inequity as society’s affluent members move from inner-city cores. Economic viability and the overall quality of life begins to decrease. Building on the Creating Sustainable Places Initiative for the Kansas City region and planning efforts for redeveloping the currently unused Rock Island Rail Corridor, this project explores how vacant built landscapes within Raytown’s Central Business District can be reprogrammed to establish place identity. Through critical mapping, key equity dilemmas at the metropolitan level are brought forth to identify issues that can be addressed through corridor redevelopment in Raytown. Mapping vacancies in the Raytown CBD identifies current vacant parcels. Together, the identification of vacant parcels with parcel size indicates primary redevelopment sites that can readily support higher density development in anticipation of a potential rail transit system. Using a phased approach, temporary design solutions regain public interest in the community, while working to develop mixed-use neighborhoods, pedestrian oriented streetscapes, and improved open space amenities at future build out. Strategies at each phase provide opportunities for community gathering and living choices that accommodate a variety of people. Studying social inequity and vacancy allows landscape architecture professionals the opportunity to better understand this phenomenon and promote community revitalization through the creation of welcoming places for all people.

This thesis deals mainly with the Middle Neolithic period (ca. 3200-2300 BC) on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The aim is to deepen the understanding of how the islanders related to their surroundings, to the landscape, to places, to objects, to animals and to humans, both living and dead. The archaeological material is studied downwards and up with a focus on practices, especially the handling and deposition of materials and objects in graves, within sites and in the landscape. The study is comparative and the Middle Neolithic is described in relation to the Early Neolithic and the Mesolithic period on the island. From a long term perspective the island is presented as a region where strong continuity can be identified, regarding both way of life and economy. In contrast, substantial changes did occur through time regarding the islander’s conceptions of the world and of social relations. This in turn affected the way they looked upon the landscape, different sites and animals, as well as other human beings. During the Mesolithic, the islanders first saw it as possible to create their world, their micro-cosmos, wherever they were, and they saw themselves as living in symbiosis with seals. With time, though, they started to relate, to connect and to identify themselves with the island, its landscape and its material, with axe sites and a growing group identity as results. The growing group identity culminated during the Early Neolithic with a dualistic conception of the world and with ritualised depositions in border zones. The Middle Neolithic is presented as a period when earlier boundaries were dissolved. This concerned, for example, boundaries towards the world around the islanders and they were no longer keeping themselves to their own sphere. At the same time individuals became socially important. It became accepted and also vital to give expression to personal identity, which was done through objects, materials and animals. Despite this, group identity continued to be an important part in their lives. This is most evident through the specific Pitted Ware sites, where the dead were also treated and buried. These places were sites for ritual and social practices, situated in visible, central and easy accessible locations, like gates in and out of the islands’ different areas. The dead were very important for the islanders. In the beginning of MN B they started to adopt aspects from the Battle Axe culture, but they never embraced Battle Axe grave customs. Instead they held on to the Pitted Ware way of dealing with the dead and buried, and to the Pitted Ware sites, through the whole period, with large burial grounds as a result.

This Master thesis is devoted to the local marketing on-line of the small and medium businesses (SMEs). The aim of this thesis is to provide SMEs with suggestions for local marketing on the internet with respect to their limited budget. The outputs of the survey which deals with local search show how users search for services (products) on-line and how they use a location in the search queries. The results appearing on the first page (SERP) were analyzed with special focus on the listings from Google Places. Such listings can significantly influence the businesses visibility and conversion rate on-line.

Etudier les lieux et les hommes décrits dans une œuvre littéraire permet de mettre au jour l'intensité de la relation qui lie des habitants à leur espace de vie. A travers le concept de territoire et à l'aide d'un logiciel d'analyse automatique de discours, cette recherche propose une analyse de la Provence que Frédéric Mistral évoque dans Calendal (1867). Une trame conceptuelle du territoire, élaborée à partir des définitions de géographes actuels, nous aide à faire émerger les composantes matérielles et immatérielles du territoire provençal que l'auteur a voulu livrer, en particulier de la fin du 18ème siècle. Dans cette tâche, une attention particulière est accordée aux couples appropriation/territorialisation et identité/territorialité. De cette approche originale de l'œuvre et de ce regard porté sur l'auteur, tous deux choisis pour leur indissociabilité à la Provence, naissent de nouvelles perspectives de compréhension des pratiques territoriales d'une population attachée à un lieu et à une époque donnés. / The study of the places and people described in a literary work enables us to reveal the intensity of the relationship that links people to the place they live in. Through the concept of territory and using software for an automatic analysis of discourse, this research provides a survey of Provence as evoked by Frédéric Mistral in Calendal (1867). A conceptual environment of the country – developed from the definitions of present-time geographers –, helps us to bring out the tangible and intangible components of the provençal territory that the author wished to convey, especially in the late 18th century. In this work, special attention is given to the couples : “appropriation / territorialization” and “identity / territoriality”. From this original approach to the poem and its author, both chosen for their close links to Provence, are born new perspectives for a better understanding of the local pratices of a population attached to a place, at a given period.

Au-delà des représentations et des pratiques des alpinistes et trekkeurs, toujours plus nombreux, les conditions du développement et de la pérennisation du système touristique associées à la région népalaise de l’Everest – le Khumbu – semblent de plus en plus reposer sur la valorisation de ressources comme l’eau, l’électricité et l’emplacement foncier. Source de revenus considérables pour les populations locales, et plus particulièrement pour les hébergeurs touristiques, l’accès à ces différentes ressources ne va pourtant pas de soi. Tous les acteurs n’occupent pas les mêmes positions, ni ne possèdent les mêmes moyens pour les valoriser. Cet accès aux ressources, et par extension à de nouvelles positions socio-spatiales, donne lieu à de multiples stratégies fondées sur les capitaux, compétences et intérêts de chacun. Dans cette petite région, néanmoins hautement symbolique, ces stratégies d’accès aboutissent à une lutte des places entre d’une part les membres de la communauté sherpa – qui revendiquent une position d’insiders mais se déploient à l’extérieur du Khumbu par des modes d’habiter très polytopiques –, et d’autre part, de nouvelles populations originaires des basses vallées, en position d’outsiders, qui cherchent à s’y implanter. Dans le contexte d’un espace de plus en plus ouvert sur le monde, en pleine recomposition sociodémographique et culturelle, ce qu’incarne le « Yak Donald’s » – l’un des nombreux nouveaux pubs implantés dans la région –, se pose ainsi la question du partage et de la gouvernance des ressources et des revenus de ce haut-lieu du tourisme. Loin d’être passifs, mais plutôt à l’origine de ces nouvelles dynamiques, cette thèse montre comment les manipulateurs de symboles sherpas contrôlent encore largement le territoire et l’économie du tourisme. / Beyond the representations and practices of mountaineers and trekkers, conditions for the development and functioning of the touristic system linked to the Nepalese Mount Everest area (the Khumbu region) seem to be increasingly based upon resources such as water, electricity and property. With the rise of tourism, these various resources are source of considerable incomes for local populations, especially for lodge owners. However, sharing these resources is not simple. First, the different actors do not occupy the same positions in relation to them. Second, they don’t have the same capacities (i.e., capital and skills) to exploit them. Eventually, they do not have the same interests depending on their social status, so their cooperation is not always guaranteed. In this small but highly symbolic region, local access to resources leads to “locational struggles” (Lussault, 2009). This struggle opposes members of the Sherpa community - who claim to be deeply rooted inhabitants, but whose ways of life are very polytopic – and on the other hand, new populations from the lower valleys, who seek to establish themselves within the Khumbu region. In the context of intense interrelations with the rest of the world, as well as wide socio-demographic and cultural changes, which is embodied in one of the many new pubs established in the region; the "Yak Donald's", this questions the good resources governance of this tourist hub. Far from being passive, but rather very proactive, this thesis shows how the Sherpas still control the territory and its touristic economy.

Forskning visar att elever, på många skilda sätt, kan ha nytta av att delta i undervisning utomhus, vilken ger komplement till den traditionella undervisningen i klassrummet. Trots det får eleverna mindre undervisning utomhus ju äldre de blir. Det har i tidigare studier undersökts vad som hindrar lärare från att komma ut, vilket gör det intressant att fortsätta studera hur eventuella hinder kan överkommas. Syftet med den här studien är därför undersöka på hur lärare i årskurs 4–6 arbetar för att komma förbi hinder för utomhusundervisning. Undersökningen har genomförts med en pragmatisk teori om att kunskap blir till när det finns en balans mellan teori och praktik. I fenomenologiska intervjuer har fem lärare, med erfarenhet av utomhusundervisning, berättat om hur de kommer förbi hinder för den här typen av pedagogik och vad de anser skulle underlätta för att bedriva utomhusundervisning. Resultatet visar utöver likheter med tidigare forskning, att samarbete i arbetslaget, och tydliga läranderum utomhus är viktiga komponenter för att övervinna hindren. / Research shows that pupils, in many ways, benefit from participation in outdoor education, which makes a complement to the traditional pedagogy in the classroom. Nevertheless, our pupils get less outdoor education the older they become. In earlier studies barriers for outdoor educations have been investigated, which make it interesting continue study how to overcome possible barriers. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate how teachers in grade 4-6 work around barriers for outdoor education. The investigation was performed assuming a pragmatic theory with the belief that knowledge is acquired by a balance between theory and practice. In phenomenological interviews five teachers, with experiences from outdoor education, have contributed with their solutions to overcome barriers, and what they find facilitate outdoor pedagogy. The results show, besides results from earlier research, that cooperation among colleagues, and distinct places for learning are of great importance to overcome the barriers.

Ao longo da década de 90 algumas transformações marcaram o Brasil. Entre elas, se destacam: o ingresso do país no processo de globalização, o aumento dos fluxos internacionais de investimento, a maior descentralização político-administrativa promovida pela Constituição de 1988 e, ainda, a diminuição das políticas de desenvolvimento regional do governo federal. Nesse contexto, os governos subnacionais intensificaram a prática de políticas individuais e competitivas para atrair investimentos, evento que foi denominado guerra fiscal. O objetivo da presente dissertação é entender o papel do território na guerra fiscal e as conseqüências territoriais decorrentes desse evento. Para isso, analisamos a competição entre estados pela atração de investimentos do setor automotivo e o aprofundamento da guerra fiscal nos municípios. Sabemos que a tecnoesfera revela elementos fundamentais para a análise, mas demos também a devida ênfase à psicoesfera que envolve esse evento. E, finalmente, tratamos dos desdobramentos da Reforma Tributária do governo Lula, que de alguma forma conduziu a novos conflitos entre estados. Mais do que uma guerra fiscal, uma visão renovada da geografia permite entendê-la como uma guerra dos lugares. / Brazil has undergone a certain number of transformations throughout the 1990s. Amongst these, the insertion of the country in the globalization process, the intensification of the foreign investment flows, the greater political decentralization engendered by the 1988 Constitution and the debilitation of the Federal Government\'s regional development policies should be outlined. In this context, sub national governments intensified the practice of individual policies in order to attract investments, competing with each other. This process was given the name of \"Fiscal War\". The main aim of this dissertation is to understand the role of the territory in the Fiscal War, and the territorial consequences of this process. To accomplish this goal, the competition between States in order to attract investment in the Automobile Manufacturing sector, and the intensification of the fiscal war amongst municipalities were analyzed. As the technosphere reveals important elements for this analysis, proper emphasis was also given to the psycosphere that involved this event. At last, the consequences of the fiscal reform brought by the President Lula\'s administration and the new disputes between States that it engendered were also treated in this work. More than just a Fiscal War, a renewed geographical point of view allows it to be understood as a War Between Places.

A presente tese tem como objetivo apresentar os resultados alcançados por meio de pesquisas sistemáticas de campo, laboratório e gabinete, que interligadas coligiram dados responsáveis uma compreensão mais assertiva sobre o modo de vida e dinâmica cultural dos grupos pré-históricos que ocuparam a Área Arqueológica de Xingó durante quase oito milênios. A pesquisa baseou-se em diferentes posicionamentos teóricos, tendo como foco as indústrias líticas evidenciadas e coletadas em dezesseis sítios arqueológicos, todos da área 03 de Xingó. Essa característica foi fundamental e nos permitiram inferir com maior segurança sobre as diferentes escolhas/estratégias envolvidas para concepção e manufatura dos conjuntos artefatuais (similaridades e diferenças), porém sempre cerceando a possibilidade de compreensão de como as populações pré-históricas que ocuparam a região estabeleceram seu sistema regional de assentamentos em terraço, tendo como hipótese norteadora que todos os sítios contemporâneos estariam conectados entre si no chamado complexo situacional de sítios. Metodologicamente, nossos dados foram sistematizados por meio da análise dos atributos formais e tecnológicos das indústrias líticas e de técnicas estatístico-comparativas, de forma que nos possibilitou reconstruir, mesmo que parcialmente, as seqüências operacionais dessa cultura material, inclusive partindo do pressuposto de variabilidade isocréstica. Em relação ao referencial teórico, foram utilizados múltiplos conceitos e abordagens que convergiram para a compreensão da paisagem enquanto construção social que, dotada de valores e significados, foi ser compreendida como o loci de ocupação continuada, ou lugares persistentes. / This thesis presents the final results of a long-term study after systematic research in field, in laboratory and in office that interconnected unify data which give us an assertive understanding of the life and cultural dynamic of prehistoric societies who occupied the Archaeological Zone of Xingo during eight thousand years. The research is based in different theoretical approaches, but focusing the lithic assemblage revealed and collected in sixteen archaeological sites, all of them into the included in the Area 3 of Xingo. These different approaches were essential in this research, giving me the opportunity to infer with security the differences on the co-participating strategies related to the conception and manufacture of the artefactual assemblages (similarities and differences), hence delimitating the possibility to understand how the Xingo an prehistoric populations established their regional settlement system on the fluvial benches. I used as a guide hypothesis the fact that all contemporaneous sites were connected among them in a situational complex of sites. Methodologically, my data was systematized through of formal analysis of the morphological and technological attributes of the lithic assemblages and through statistical-comparative techniques, which helped me to reconstruct partially the operational sequences of the material culture manufacture, including the isocrestic variability. In relation to my theoretical frames, I used multiples concepts and approaches that worked together to understand the landscape while a social construction immersed in social means and values which have been understood as a loci of continuous occupation or persistent places

Esta dissertação é o resultado de uma investigação sobre o processo de recepção da telenovela brasileira exibida por uma nova categoria de mídia digital móvel - a out of home - no transporte público da cidade de São Paulo. Buscou-se identificar os tipos de experiências, comunicativa, cultural, estética e social que emergem nesse novo lugar de assistência da teledramaturgia brasileira. Pretendeu-se ainda compará-la com a experiência tradicional do espectador e do fã que recepciona a telenovela no conforto de sua casa. Por meio da observação etnográfica e da coleta de dados primários, procurou-se conhecer como se dá a relação entre essa mídia digital móvel e suas audiências; salientando que essa nova forma de produção da telenovela (de fato, pós-produção) é exibida de forma condensada, sem áudio e com legenda. A tentativa de compreender o papel exercido pelos meios de comunicação televisivos no cotidiano da sociedade contemporânea nos levou à necessidade de repensar a recepção do modo tradicional, dentro de casa para este momento em que ela acontece em outra plataforma, como narrativa transmídia. Nossa pesquisa trouxe resultados interessantes, entre outros, os de que, nesse novo lugar de recepção da telenovela, a mesma é utilizada como \"recurso comunicativo\", pois inúmeros passageiros do transporte coletivo compartilham e interagem sobre variados temas que fazem parte do contexto social e que estão inseridos nas novelas, a partir do momento em que são exibidas no ambiente de dentro acionando assim dispositivos de comunicação e de reflexão. / This dissertation is the result of an investigation into the process of reception the Brazilian telenovela displayed for a new category of mobile digital media, the out of home, on public transport in the city of São Paulo. Sought to identify the types of communicative, cultural, aesthetic and social experiences, that emerge in this new place assistance of Brazilian soap telenovela. Still, wanted to compare it with the traditional experience of the viewer and the fan who welcomes the telenovela in the comfort of the house. Through ethnographic observation and collection of primary data, tried to know how is the relationship between this mobile digital media and its audiences, emphasizing that this new form of production of soap telenovela (in fact, post-production) is displayed in a condensed form, without audio and withsubtitle. The attempt to understand the role played by the media in television everyday contemporary society has led us to the need to rethink the reception from the traditional way, inside the house until the moment it happens on another platform, such as transmedia storytelling. Our research has brought interesting results, among others, that in this new place of receipt of the soap opera, it is used as \"communicative resource\" because many passengers of public transportation share and interact on various topics that are part of the social context and that are present in the soap telenovela, from the moment they are displayed within the environment, triggering devices of communication and reflection.

No último século, a inserção de temas explorados segundo características figurativas, alegóricas e narrativas tornou-se freqüente em locais voltados para comércio e lazer. Estes chamados Espaços Temáticos encontram paralelo em cidades que, visando o turismo, passaram a adotar elementos do modelo temático em escala urbana. Este trabalho procura identificar as possibilidades de utilização do temático no espaço urbano, associando-o ao marketing de lugar. Além disso, relaciona reflexos do temático na produção arquitetônica contemporânea, como a utilização do figurativo, mas, especialmente, o caráter espetacular que permeia a arquitetura atual. / Throughout the last century, the inclusion of themes exploited according to figurative, allegorical and narrative characteristics, has become frequent in commercial and leisure oriented places. These so called Themed Places find similarities in cities that, aiming for tourism, adopt elements of the theme formula in urban scale. This research intends to identify different possibilities on theming urban space, according to place marketing. Also, it finds reflexes of the theme formula in contemporary architectural production, such as the use of figurative, but most of all, the exploitation of spectacle present in nowadays architecture.