This research used tuberculosis (TB) as a lens to elucidate how migration, settlement, local agency and support networks influence migrants’ health in New Zealand. The study also examined specific characteristics of TB such as delays in diagnosis and the stigma attached to the disease to gain a broader understanding of TB experience for migrants in New Zealand. The research addressed these aims through the analytical framework of political ecology and incorporation of interviews, participant observation and media analysis. Participants in the research included immigrants from Mainland China, South Korea, and India, and New Zealand health care professionals. The study found that immigration policies, social discrimination and isolation have created structural inequalities between dominant host populations and Asian migrants in New Zealand. These inequalities compounded settlement problems such as language difficulties and limited employment opportunities, resulting in low income levels and perceived stress for Indian, Korean and Chinese people, which has affected their health and well being. Transnational policies and experiences of health care systems in immigrants’ countries of origin and in New Zealand strongly influenced health seeking behaviour of migrants, along with structural barriers such as lack of Asian health care professionals and interpreting services. Local cultural and biological factors including health cultures and physical symptoms also affected these practices. In relation to TB, structural processes along with clinic doctor-patient relationships and social stigmas created barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Factors that facilitated access to health care in general, and TB diagnosis and treatment in particular, included the use of support networks, particularly local General Practitioners from countries of origin, and Public Health Nurses, along with flexible TB treatment programmes. This study shows that the incidence and experience of TB is shaped by migration and settlement processes. It also builds upon other medical anthropological studies that have employed political ecology by demonstrating its usefulness in application to developed as well as developing countries. In addition, the study contributes to the growing area of Asian migration research in New Zealand, illustrating that migration and settlement processes are complex and need to be understood as multidimensional, thus demonstrating advantages in approaching them from a political ecological framework. / Human Research Council, University of Auckland

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Geography, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], vi, 99 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-93).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146 - 153). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-210).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 285-298). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet, 2002. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-317).

States increasingly rely on ambient environmental monitoring systems to provide information on environmental conditions in order to make science-based decisions on resource management. This kind of monitoring relies on a network of state and intergovernmental agencies to generate indexes, thresholds, and indicators to assess the status of air, water, and biodiversity. As a result, these thresholds and indexes generate representations of environmental change, and they establish acceptable limits on pollution. However, in settler states like Canada, there are often major gaps in how First Nations experience environmental change compared to the agencies that produce the science. In recent years, monitoring has taken on a new importance because the findings from these agencies contribute to understanding how industrial development impacts First Nations’ treaty rights. Many First Nation communities have called for greater say in government agencies and have advocated for indicators that represent both their basic environmental concerns and their treaty rights. Using oil sands monitoring agencies as a lens, this dissertation examines the politics of environmental knowledge production between Indigenous groups and the state. I employ the “logic of elimination” concept from settler colonialism studies to explore the extent to which Indigenous groups have been incorporated in research design, decision-making, and the establishment of environmental thresholds. I use interviews, participant observation, and a Q-method survey to develop an understanding how settler colonialism functions not only through policies and legislation, but also scientists’ positionalities. The findings from this research demonstrate that monitoring agencies have no uniform policies to guide how they work with First Nations. Because of this, agencies have continually engaged with First Nations as stakeholders—not rights holders. This designation places First Nations on the same level as other interest groups and limits their abilities to shape what is monitored and how thresholds are set. As a result, the stakeholder position offers few avenues for First Nations to ensure treaty rights are considered in monitoring activities. / 10000-01-01

African agriculture has attracted increased global policy attention over the last 10 years due to concerns over both food security and economic growth. In this context, social impact investing (SII)—where investors use financial models to achieve positive social impacts as well as financial returns—is presented as a viable means of financing agricultural development in the context of reduced public funding This thesis is concerned with how SII (and its understandings, assumptions, and models of agricultural development) interact with smallholder farming in Tanzania. I unpack how the concept of SII takes shape, how it is translated into the Tanzanian context, and how it interacts with farmer livelihoods through a case study of Cheetah Development in Lower Kilolo District. I take a political ecology approach drawing mainly on qualitative methods. The concept of assemblages is employed to investigate how diverse actors enter into relationships, how those relationships hold together, and how they fall apart. I focus on three key analytical themes: power (discursive, disciplinary, and institutional), moral economies, and the role of socio-material entities. My findings show that SII is being driven by the pursuit for new profit frontiers and concerns over business risks, and also by a belief that a more ethical capitalist economy can be built. This has resulted in a narrative of ‘Africa rising’. How exactly ‘social impact’ is being defined and the motivations for pursuing it, however, differ widely within SII. To investigate how agricultural SII is translated in Tanzania I focus on Cheetah Development, an American social impact investor that provides agricultural inputs on credit to smallholder farmers and attempts to involve them in new maize value chains. Cheetah’s model identifies existing maize value chains centred around middlemen as features of an immoral capitalism. It also views smallholders as not only lacking market access and inputs, but also lacking in business-orientated mindsets. The Cheetah model builds various mechanisms to discipline farmers and render them bankable. Through examining farmer livelihoods, I find that farmers conduct diverse livelihood activities, and maize plays a variety of roles in village life. Farmer livelihoods are underpinned by a moral economy involving flexible relations of borrowing and lending. I conclude that assumptions of ethical capitalism embedded in the Cheetah model clash with farmer livelihoods and their conceptions of just socio-economic relationships.

abstract: The manner in which land and water are used and managed is a major influencing factor of global environmental change. Globally, modifications to the landscape have drastically transformed social and ecological communities. Land and water management practices also influences people's vulnerability to hazards. Other interrelated factors are compounding problems of environmental change as a result of land and water use changes. Such factors include climate change, sea level rise, the frequency and severity of hurricanes, and increased populations in coastal regions. The implication of global climate change for small islands and small island communities is especially troublesome. Socially, small islands have a limited resource base, deal with varying degrees of insularity, generally have little political power, and have limited economic opportunities. The physical attributes of small islands also increase their vulnerability to global climate change, including limited land area, limited fresh water supplies, and greater distances to resources. The focus of this research project is to document place-specific - and in this case island-specific - human-environmental interactions from a political ecology perspective as a means to address local concerns and possible consequences of global environmental change. The place in which these interactions are examined is the barrier island and village of Ocracoke, North Carolina. I focus on the specific historical-geography of land and water management on Ocracoke as a means to examine relationships between local human-environmental interactions and environmental change. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2014