M. Tech. Economics and Finance / The main aim with the current study was to explore the complexity and mobility of rural-urban migration, as well as its relation to the housing crisis and many other rural-urban socio-economic implications in Namibia. The features of rural-urban migration were analysed, alongside the migration processes and socio-economic complications. The rationale with the present study was to identify the factors responsible for the rural-urban migration in Namibia and to investigate migration mobility patterns. In addition, policy implications were explored with the aim of formulating a possible new migration policy, as well as to offer recommendations to protect urban migrants' socio-economic status. Furthermore, the current rural-urban migration patterns and imbalances in housing - which has led to the illegal erection of informal settlements around towns and cities - were uncovered.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

McGee in his recent writings on Asian urbanization highlights extended metropolitan regions and proximate non-urban settlement systems with an intense mixture of agricultural and non-agricultural activities. The latter McGee terms as desakota, a neologism coined in Bahasa Indonesian, to signify the fusion of desa (rural) and kota (urban). Some of the ecological preconditions for desakota are high rural population densities; labour intensive rice cultivation with agricultural labourers in need of non-farm work in the off seasons and/or labour shedding by green revolution effects. McGee however recognizes that desakota can also occur in other ecologically dense habitat of non-rice crops with high population densities. Kerala State in India is one such region with a mix of rice and non-rice crops. This study examines the urban-rural fusion that is observed in Kerala and provides an empirically informed assessment of the McGee desakota hypothesis. While basically affirming the desakota hypothesis, the study at the same time raises some caveats. First, desakota in Kerala is not dependent on any central urban system and intra-desakota dynamics are significant. While M c G e e has recognized that such desakota do occur, his writings tend to neglect this type of desakota. Second, McGee's writings on extended metropolitan regions and desakota are increasingly associated with the recent rapid e c o n o m i c growth occurring in some of the Asian countries. Desakota in Kerala blurs this characteristic as it appears to have occurred beginning in the late colonial p e r i o d of the British Raj. Third, a unique mix of factors in Kerala make the political economy central to making desakota in Kerala intelligible. Undoubtedly in the specificity of the Kerala context the political economy is important. Nonetheless this study raises a critique of the underemphasis of the political economy in McGee's work on extended metropolitan regions and desakota. The research on desakota in Kerala involved the examination of the regional geography of Kerala. Kerala with its radical politics and remarkable social development in a context of low economic growth, attracted the attention of social scientists. But in these studies the spatial dimensions were largely ignored. This study emphasizes that geography matters in understanding Kerala, and that there is an important nexus between the space and political economy of Kerala.

This study examined factors that influenced loneliness among rural elders in China. Data were collected from the latest wave of Living and Employment of Population Survey in 2005 (provided by Renmin University, China). The sample of this survey consisted of 284 rural elders in China. T‐tests was used to examine the influence of gender, marital status, health, financial support, and living arrangements differences in loneliness perception among Chinese rural elders. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to understand the influences of age and socio‐economic status on loneliness among the rural elders. This study provided insights for a better understanding of individual, social, and familial factors that influenced subjective loneliness in later life. Findings from this study might contribute to policymaking decisions regarding improvements of psychological well‐being among older adults in China.

One of the most persistent popular notions of gay men and lesbians is that they either live in or move to larger cities. In this thesis, the geography and migration paths of gay men and lesbians are studied using the life course perspective to challenge this idea. It is argued that gay men and lesbians are affected by the time and place into which they are born. Like heterosexuals, they are subject to the normative conceptions of life paths that are present at a specific historical period and place. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, four studies related to this aim are conducted. The first study shows that the tendency for gay men and lesbians to be concentrated to the largest cities in Sweden is greater than for heterosexuals. However, it also shows that the concentration tendency of lesbians and couples is less strong. The second study illustrates that tolerance plays no role in the geographical concentration of gay men and lesbians. Although perceived tolerance is often assumed to matter, this study shows that measured intolerance does not have an effect on the concentration tendency. The third study explores the migration motives of gay men and lesbians living in the city of Malmö, Sweden. It shows that the life stories of older cohorts resembled typical rural-urban flight stories but that the youngest cohort stressed motives similar to the overall population. This is in sharp contrast to the fourth study, which scrutinises migration stories from Izmir, Turkey. Because legal recognition is lacking, following the same life path as heterosexuals is problematic for gay men and lesbians. Because moving out is connected to this path, they remained living at home longer or never moved. Accordingly, the family played a core role in their lives rather than the rural-urban binary. Taken together, these four studies show that the geography and migration patterns of gay men and lesbians are more multifaceted than living in or moving to a larger city. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: In press. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 228-238). / Microfiche. / xiv, 238 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

The objective of this study was to investigate the application of multiscale satellite remote sensing data for assessment of land cover change in the rural-urban fringe. Inherent in this assessment process was the interpretation of multispectral data collected by several medium resolution satellite systems and evaluation of the quality of the resulting change information. Each dataset was acquired for a single date and classified at two levels of detail using standard classification algorithms. The optimum classification approach for each date was identified and the changes in land cover evaluated in several ways. The contribution of spatial and thematic errors and their propagation through the analysis process was investigated.Data for this research were acquired over an area approximately 4.5 km square located in the southern metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia. At the time of the initial data acquisition in 1972 the area was predominantly rural and comprised mostly dense pine plantations, however by the final stages of data acquisition in 1991, the area was almost completely given over to urban residential land use. Changes were interpreted from classified Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and SPOT (System Pour l'Observation de la Terre) High Resolution Visible (HRV) multispectral data, and were compared to reference maps compiled from medium scale aerial photographs. The geometric properties of high resolution panchromatic IRS1-D data were also evaluated to test the geometric potential of high resolution satellite data.Supervised and unsupervised classification algorithms were used for derivation of land cover maps from each multispectral dataset at two levels of detail. Data were classified onto four general levels at the broadest (Level I) classification, and into nine levels at the finest (Level II) classification. The ++ / Kappa statistic and its variance were used to determine the optimum classification approach for each dataset and at each level of detail. No significant differences were observed between classification techniques at Level I, however at Level II the supervised classification approach produced significantly better results for the Landsat TM and SPOT HRV data. Classification at the more general Level I did not produce substantially higher classification rates compared to the same data at Level II. Additionally, higher spatial resolution data did not provide increased accuracy, however this was due mainly to a much greater complexity of land covers present at the time the higher resolution Landsat TM and SPOT HRV data were recorded.Land cover changes were assessed separately at Level I for all datasets, and also between Landsat TM and SPOT HRV data at Level II. Integrated multiscale assessment of land cover change was undertaken using classified Landsat MSS data at Level I and Landsat TM data at Level 11. This enabled the continuity of change to be established across classification levels and sensor systems, even though there were variations in the level of detail extracted from each image.The sources of spatial and thematic errors in the data were investigated and their effects on change assessment analysed. The evaluation of high resolution panchromatic satellite data emphasised the contribution to the analysis of spatial errors contained within the reference data. The multiscale data also indicated that combined propagation of spatial and thematic errors requires investigation using appropriate simulation modelling to establish the influence of data uncertainty on classification and change assessment results.This research provides useful results for demonstrating a process for the integration of information derived from remotely sensed data at different measurement ++ / scales. Availability of data from an increasing range of remote sensing platforms and uncertainty of long term data availability emphasises the need to develop flexible interpretation and analysis approaches. This research adds value to the existing data archive by demonstrating how historical data may be integrated regardless of the spectral and spatial characteristics of the sensors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-221).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 2000? / Bibliography: leaves 339-372.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Department of Geography, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-404).