Considering revitalization as a way of improving three interrelated aspects of quality of life including physical quality, social and economic welfare, this study sets out an evaluation framework to measure the success of implementations aiming to revitalize historic commercial places. This framework emerges from the qualities of built environments which are defined with reference to the normative urban design theory developed by Kevin Lynch. Urban qualities are defined with a comprehensive approach which takes into account spatial, social, and economic aspects of creating urban places. The Main Street Program, subject of this study, is a historic commercial district revitalization program developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. This program introduces a preservation-based revitalization model. Based on a comprehensive approach, the program suggests working simultaneously on organization, design, economic restructuring, and promotion. This study analyzes the revitalization model of the Main Street Program by looking at its various aspects including organization models, funding tools, involvement of local communities, contributions of the federal and local governments, implementation, and self-evaluation. Besides, it introduces a citywide coordinating program, Boston Main Streets. Finally, it analyzes the revitalization of Washington Street in South End, Boston, one of the places where Main Street Program has been implemented. The street has been transformed from a vacant and deteriorated commercial street into a more vital, pedestrian oriented, mixed use place in a decade. This study aims to analyze the case from three different points. First, the success of the program is evaluated within the above framework. Second, the effectiveness of the program is examined through an outcome analysis. Finally, the organizational performance of the Main Street organization is analyzed.

The relationship between urban design and economic activity is seldom studied through empirical studies with a large number of cases due, in part, to the implicit and intangible nature of design. This study was intended to understand, analyze, and evaluate the complex relationship between the design and the economic revitalization of downtown districts with reference to the 78 active Texas Main Street Program districts. First, the design, promotion, organization, and economic restructuring components of the Main Street Program's comprehensive four-point approach were investigated. Next, the economic changes that occurred within those districts were analyzed from 1997-2001. Finally, employment, the number of jobs, the number of business establishments, the number of sales tax permits, the retail sales volume, and the commercial property values were compared for the same time period among three categories of cities: those active in the Main Street Program, those formerly active but now inactive, and those who have not participated. Findings revealed that several positive changes occurred in design, promotion, organization, and economic restructuring components of the four-point approach within the active Texas Main Street districts. It appears that these changes produced several positive outcomes for the physical, social, and economical environment of the active Main Street districts. Moreover, the findings suggests that these changes in the Main Street districts resulted in an increased economic activity, not only within the Main Street district by generating jobs, or producing private and/or public investment, but also across the Main Street city by creating community wide economic activity in most of the variables that were under investigation. The results indicate that the Texas Main Street Program, part of which is urban design oriented, is having a positive effect on economic activity within the active Main Street districts.

As an emerging urban design tool, form-base codes have been increasingly used by urban planners and designers since the 1980s. Focusing on the actual built environment, form-based codes can provide more predictable results of future development and help planners to more easily communicate with people through detailed diagrams to develop consensual visions. Despite all of these advantages, however, there is no study identifying the advantages of form-based codes over conventional codes in both quantitative and qualitative ways. This thesis proposes what aspects of form-based codes have a positive impact on community revitalization compared with conventional zoning and the differences between the regulation systems by establishing evaluation criteria - sustainability, connectivity, diversity, and design optimization and compactness. For clearer analysis, physical standards in both regulation systems will be considered, and those standards will be directly applied to the actual community development project, the Fort McPherson Redevelopment Plan.

Through a case study analysis of the Central Park placemaking initiative in Winnipeg, this Major Degree Project explores the process of collaborative planning with new immigrant communities. While existing research examines the potential of placemaking to promote physical improvements through collaborative planning, we know less about whether placemaking initiatives achieve the long-term social outcomes associated with collaborative planning theory. Located in downtown Winnipeg, Central Park is surrounded by a diverse multi-cultural community, consisting of many new immigrants. In 2008, the CentreVenture Development Corporation launched a placemaking initiative to revitalize Central Park. The community was a key collaborator in the planning and design process. This thesis examines the long-term social outcomes of this initiative. The main research methods for this project include key informant interviews, and archival and secondary source analysis of existing data. The research finds that collaborative planning processes offer the potential to promote sustainable inner city neighbourhood revitalization. Placemaking through collaborative planning can develop new institutional capacity for participants. By developing and harnessing relational, intellectual and political resources communities can mobilize co-ordinated action toward future initiatives. The findings of this research advance the literature and understanding of collaborative planning processes, particularly within the context of placemaking with new immigrant communities. This thesis adds to the literature of inner city neighbourhood revitalization and collaborative planning theory. / October 2015

In response to the highly exclusionary Guatemalan state and the genocide of Mayas during the 1980s, the paradigmatic currents of the Maya Movement have been engaging the state in their struggle for rights. Some have been negotiating from within the Guatemalan government by occupying bureaucratic positions within less powerful state ministries. Other Maya actors press for more favorable socioeconomic policies using social movement tactics. While most literature focuses on the above two currents as a dichotomy, I argue that a third current of Maya politics has the most political potential. One promising example emerged in the course of the land struggle of San Jorge La Laguna (1992-1999). A sector of rural Mayas (mostly poor farmers and teachers) began to look away from the state in their quest for empowerment. They became less concerned with rights granted from a distant state, and prioritized instead practices that reach towards community self-determination and ontological autonomy. This clearly represents a third current of Maya politics grounded in the social fabric of rural Maya communities and their values, social relations, and worldview. This current, which I call Tejido Social (social fabric), is also possibly present in other spaces in Guatemala and likely had existed in prior times but did not pronounce itself publicly until this period. I use Escobar’s theorization of postliberal, postcapitalist politics of relationality to analyze the significance of this third tendency of Maya politics. This study contributes to the theorization of emerging third current / Afro-indigenous movements in the Americas through an ethnographic approach which focuses on political interventions that are lived principles embedded in socio-political practice. / text

This report, situated in Birmingham, Alabama, explores the best strategies for implementing arts-based adaptive reuse development in vacant or available downtown buildings. Through adaptive-reuse, a strategy of repurposing old buildings for new uses, the arts sector in Birmingham can be nurtured and strengthened. In this report, I present the major implications associated with the strengthening of the arts community. These implications include economic development, central city revitalization, community building, and gentrification. / text

Recent census data have shown that the number of Breton speakers in Lower Brittany has continued to drop despite revitalization efforts. A problem minority languages face is struggling to maintain a place in the lives of the people who have adopted the dominant language. In this study, I assess the current problems faced by the Breton language today by examining a few select problems. First, I highlight the lack of situations in which speakers can use Breton. Even children attending immersion programs often do not live in a Breton-speaking household, nor do they have settings outside the school where they can practice the language. Secondly, I consider the ideological place of Breton in the minds of speakers. Many people feel that while Breton is important to their heritage, they do not need to actively speak it in order to associate with a Breton identity. Related to this is the opinion of many people that Breton is an outdated language with no future ahead of it, as revealed by recent research (Broudic 2009, Jones1998, Timm 2001). Finally, the creation of a new, standardized Breton known as neo-Breton adds to the problem of finding a place for the language; older speakers who use traditional Breton are marginalized, while it is the young speakers using neo- Breton. I use current census data as well as personal research conducted in Brittany in July 2010 to supplement my assessment of the current Breton situation. While progress has been slow, Breton is gaining a stronger presence in society. / text

This analysis of the Downtown areas in US- Mexico Border Cities such as Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, and San Diego will chronicle the history and foundation of each city and also the current revitalization efforts underway in many of these cities. Brownsville, Texas is one of those cities located along the border with a rich history and a unique downtown that some have called the New Orleans on the Rio Grande. The architecture has a heavy New Orleans influence thereby making this downtown the most unique in the Rio Grande Valley. Revitalization Efforts in Brownsville continuously resurface only to be unsuccessful due to many variables including the lack of political will to take on perhaps the biggest challenge to face Brownsville. Nonetheless, revitalization of this area must occur and in order to fully understand the intricacies of Downtown Brownsville one must look back in time to see what exactly made Downtown Brownsville so special. This report will seek those answers and give positive and realistic recommendations that could assist in the revitalization of Downtown Brownsville. / text

This study focuses on the theme of technology-based Indigenous language revitalization and maintenance efforts by looking at new developments in mobile technology and how they are used within Indigenous communities for language learning and teaching. I assessed four mobile apps through the use of an evaluation rubric, online user reviews, and developer consultations. The findings from the assessments were then used to determine what essential themes are important when developing an effective and successful language application model (Appendix C), with the intention of developing a user-friendly template for use by other Indigenous communities. Three essential elements were found to be common among the four language applications assessed: (1) successful integration of interactive and digital media that provides a purposeful learning environment for the user; (2) accuracy and testing of both media and the user-interface, and; (3) successful usability and functionality of the mobile platform.

As a scientific field, phonetics systematically analyzes human speech sounds using segmental distinctions and state of the art technology. Ideally, these analyses are based on cross-linguistic data from a wide variety of language families. This dissertation provides the first phonetic analysis of Southern Ute, a severely endangered Uto-Aztecan language and presents the only published discussion of language policies and revitalization efforts on the Southern Ute reservation, located in Southwestern Colorado. This research is important because although there are 1,419 enrolled members of the Southern Ute tribe, according to a 2002 informal language survey, there are only forty remaining speakers, who are all over the age of sixty. It is important to note that the previous work on Southern Ute, three dictionaries (Goss 1961, Givon 1979, Charney 1996), one grammar (Givon 1980), one dissertation (Goss 1972) and a collection of traditional narratives (Givon 1985), does not include phonetic analysis or discussion of language policy or revitalization efforts on the Southern Ute reservation. This research benefits the Southern Ute community, the linguistic community and other indigenous communities in two ways. First, it provides a model for phonetic analysis of an endangered language utilizing fluent speaker intuition about stress. Second, the language policies and revitalization discussion adds to revitalization resources especially in the area of curriculum development. In the theoretical domain, Southern Ute offers rich data. It is imperative that Southern Ute phonetic properties are analyzed, documented and archived before the small number of fluent speakers die, leaving no digital audio recordings behind for future generations.