A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, 1995 / This thesis presents an analysis of the relationship between social processes, cognitive understandings and the organisation of space, as this pertains to local-level politics in a section of Alexandra township, South Africa, during 1991 and 1992. The context of the thesis is the attempts by the Alexandra Civic Organisation and the Alexandra branch of the African National Congress to elicit support from people living in formal and inform~i housing during a period of intense violence. The focus of the ethnographylis on local-level civic structures and political leadership, which in some ways support and in others contradict the aims and objectives of these two organisations. The reason for this internal political diversity is that local-level politics is embedded within social maps - cognitive orderings of space that represent patterns of social relations and structures of power. This points to the main theoretical focus of the thesis: the interrelationship of space, culture and society in an urban context. Urbanism is conventionally defined in sociological and geographical terms as the articulation between social process and urban spatial form. The thesis shows how anthropology can make a contribution to this field of study by incorporating a concern with culture. The mutually constitutive relationship of urban space, culture and society presents a way of looking at urbanism that does not depend on a rural-urban dichotomy; a social. and cultural dualism which is conventionally fitted into a modernist narrative of urbanisation. The ethnography in the thesis demonstrates the inapplicability of this narrative, and the categories of rural tradition and urban modernity which it implies. Keywords: anthropology, urbanism, urbanisation, rural-urban dichotomy, space, Alexandra, politics, civic organisation, informal housing. / AC2017

70% of the world’s population will be living in cities by 2050. Cities are growing faster than can be designed. Townships and informal settlements are becoming a common site within cities around the world. South African cities are ill and require healing. It has inherited an intrinsic genetic flaw, apartheid’s social and spatial planning. This urban DNA structure encouraged weakness in the connectivity systems and was designed to prevent people from connecting and contracting. It is Postapartheid times and this weakness continues. Therefore the location of interest is Diepsloot, a disconnected post apartheid township. Over 400 000 people reside in this township which is located between two major cities in Gauteng. The conceptual framework is based on the analogy of the Recombinant DNA applied to how urban design unfolds. The scientifically engineered process of healing through sharing, recombining, accepting and adapting is a strong methodology to adopt into the urban design process and methodology. The theoretical framework looks at Peter Calthorpe’s New Urban Network is based on reorganising transport networks into a hierarchy which assists in increasing connectivity and improving the quality of the urban network. While Complex Adaptive Systems theory is understood through Sanders’ five complexity-based observations about cities and urban environments. David Grahame Shane’s explanation of the theory of recombinant urbanism involves the theory that cities emerge from armatures, enclaves and heterotopias which are all constantly combined and re-combined. In addressing spatial inequalities and disconnectivity, three bases of literature have been reviewed. The literature review includes Compact City and Decentralised Concentration, New Urbanism and Transit Oriented Development – Urban Network System. The work researched and developed in these design movements and approaches are vast. This study touches on the essence of the design movements and approaches. The challenge is the application of these strong design approaches or movements into a local context. The hypothesis says that it is possible to develop a design methodology that works from a parallel system of both bottom up and top down design processes. It is possible to extract a strength in the current organic structure of a township development, and incorporate it into formal urbanism design tools. This is to ensure that the formal design intervention is adopted into the current system, or study area, and adapts and grows incrementally. Similar to the process of how the host would accept the recombinant DNA of the antivirus. The aim of the design intervention is to apply local lessons learnt in the existing spatial context and link the strengths found with contemporary urban design principles of transit oriented development that encourage connectivity and intensity of development around intermodal facilities. This approach demonstrates a design methodology that employs a parallel system of bottom up and top down processes. The approach developed is specifically, a design and a physical built morphology analysis and does not include the arm of social interaction in the form of public participation, etc. The findings demonstrate that connectivity and density is a critical component to healing the city. This discussion is held within the Transit Oriented Development model. The study analysed the level of connectivity Diepsloot exhibits from a regional scale, to a district scale and finally to a neighbourhood scale. Healing the weakness of disconnectivity requires tackling it from all scales.

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of the Built Environment in Housing. APRIL 2016 / One of the most critical housing issues of concern today is the continued proliferation of informal settlements and the failure of government to meet the housing demand. Party to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which includes the goal to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020 introduced the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP). Despite the introduction of this new paradigm shift, its implementation has been minimal. This report investigates: if metropolitan municipalities are implementing the programme and the underlying challenges faced by municipalities in implementation. The study points to the importance of the 5 crucial variables: Policy content, context, commitment, capacity and coalitions and clients in implementation. The research made use of qualitative methods, which included literature review of books, academic and media articles. The people interviewed comprised of political leaders, both senior and junior officials of the Municipalities and former employees of the City of Johannesburg, all tasked with informal settlement intervention implementation. The data collected was analysed using cross comparison between the various municipal officials’ responses, evaluating officials’ interpretation against policy interpretation, analysing the complexities of the policy, teasing out the comparisons, summarising data in order to make sense of what has been collected, identifying and classifying key concepts that emerge from the interviews, sorting data obtained through semi-structured interviews into smaller units in order to interpret how the two municipalities interpret and implement the programme (Gray, 2004:210), categorising data in order to understand the funding mechanisms used by the various municipalities and using the key concepts for descriptive analysis. Based on the findings of the study it was concluded that the Municipality has not been implementing UISP as per the housing code, however it has been utilising formalisation as an intervention in its informal settlement. The findings of the current study provide answers to the guiding research questions on whether municipalities are implementing UISP and interventions within the two municipalities. The conclusion is that both municipalities are not implementing UISP. However they have their own interventions which are biased toward the realities of project managers rather than the organized informal settlement communities thus disconnecting from the premise of UISP. The envisaged limitation was getting hold of municipal officials as this research was conducted in the first quarter of the new financial year and municipal officials were engaged in strategic meetings. This is an unfortunate limitation that could not be avoided therefore interviews especially in EMM were not carried out as planned but as and when the contact persons were available. This resulted in only 5 officials being interviewed as compared to the anticipated number. Secondly, one of the municipalities that the research was conducted on was reluctant to give out information.

Student Number: 9804661E Master of Arts: Social Work Faculty of Humanities / Given the high incidences of child abuse not only in informal settlements, but in South Africa as a whole. The present study looks at the social factors that contribute to child abuse in informal settlements. To identify specific social factors in an informal settlement i.e. Ivory Park, which make children in this community to be vulnerable to child abuse. The study aims to identify different forms of child abuse, which occur in Ivory Park, to develop an understanding of the family structure and the functioning of the families. The study further explored the perception of community members on child abuse, and their knowledge and awareness on children’s rights. The study also attempts to bring to our attention that concern about the problem of child abuse is not new. It acknowledges the historical context of this problem, that throughout history children world-wide have been subjected to domination, murder, abandonment, mutilations and forced labour. Practices that seem brutal and senseless today like infanticide and ritual sacrifices of children are actually recorded in the Bible. These were considered normal and acceptable practices at the time. The systematic study of child abuse is fairly a recent phenomenon, it’s only in the sixties that this issue has been discussed and debated in certain parts of the world. The study also points out that the problem of child abuse is not unique to South Africa, but it is a problem in many parts of the world. Also that the understanding of child abuse has shifted over time. The central force behind these changes has been the establishment of various organisations in North America and Europe. These organisations opposed violence against children and advocated for the rights of the children. In South Africa this change came about when the present South African government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children in 1996 and also when the Rights of the Child were enshrined in Section 28 of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The study poses a question as to why child abuse cases and statistics seem to be on the rise and understanding why children are being abused when there are so many pieces of legislation and human rights documents, that aims to safeguard the interest and the protection of children particularly in South Africa. The study also looks at different theoretical perspective on child abuse to help us in terms of explaining and understanding as to why children are abuse. Finally, the study looks at different social factors specific to South Africa that might contribute to child abuse, and the history and location of Ivory Park. On the basis of the findings of this study, the researcher makes some recommendations through which professionals in the helping professions together with community members can address the problem of child abuse in informal settlement.

Orientador: Bernardo Mançano Fernandes / Banca: Rosemeire Aparecida de Almeida / Banca: Mirian Cláudia Lourenção Simonetti / Nesta pesquisa, analisamos as formas organizacionais de produção dos camponeses assentados no município de Batayporã/MS. Partimos do pressuposto de que embora exista o ideal de cooperação e de cooperativas de produção para os assentamentos rurais exposto nas publicações do e sobre o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), a predominância na forma de trabalho tem sido aquela que possibilita maior autonomia para o assentado e sua família no tocante ao processo de produção, e com isso, sobre o seu próprio modo de vida. Dessa maneira, visamos apreender o que o MST tem construído/praticado em termos de cooperação, bem como os desafios enfrentados pelos assentados nestas frações camponesas do território capitalista, os assentamentos rurais. Para isto, procuramos, através de leituras de obras referentes à temática, principalmente, dos documentos produzidos pelo setor de produção do MST e de análises da realidade a partir de entrevistas realizadas com os assentados e observações em campo, verificar as condições econômicas, políticas, sociais e culturais que essas formas de organização da produção proporcionam as famílias assentadas. Os resultados desta pesquisa evidenciaram, entre outras coisas, que no Mato Grosso do Sul a luta pela resistência na terra tem feito os assentados lançarem mão de diversas formas de trabalho de acordo com as circunstâncias de mercado e de vida na terra, onde a alternância de formas organizacionais de produção tem sido a marca mais evidente, tornando os assentamentos um verdadeiro campo de lutas e de permanentes redimensionamentos da experiência de cooperação. / In this research we analysed the production (labour) organization forms used by peasants settled down in Batayporã/MS. We found out that although there is an ideal of cooperation and several production cooperatives for the rural settlers, as present in many publications written by and for the Landless People Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST) the prevailing labour form has been the one that permits greater autonomy for the rural settler and his family, as far as production is concerned, and so, greater control over his own life. Thus, we tryed to capture what the MST Movement has built/practiced in terms of cooperation, as well as the challenges faced by rural settlers on these small areas belonging to capitalist territories, the rural settlements. For this purpose, we had access to reading concerning this subject, mainly the documentation produced by the production sector of the movement and we also interviewed rural settlers and did field observation, trying to check the economic, political, social and cultural conditions that these production organization forms offer the rural settled families. The results of this research showed basically that in Mato Grosso do Sul the struggle and resistance for the land has forced the rural settlers to make use of different labour forms according to circumstances and their own survival, where alternative production forms of organization have been evident, showing that the small settlements have become vast struggling fields and a permanent reavalution in cooperation experiences. / Mestre

O potencial da agrobiodiversidade em fortalecer a segurança e soberania alimentar de comunidades rurais, com sustentabilidade ambiental e inclusão social, está amplamente reconhecido. Contudo, parte dessa diversidade biocultural tem sido perdida com a expansão da urbanização, da agricultura moderna e suas variedades comerciais, geneticamente homogêneas. Os assentamentos rurais de reforma agrária representam espaços de resistência, importantes para manter as pessoas no campo e estimular os processos que geram e mantém agrobiodiversidade. O objetivo da tese foi analisar como os contextos socioeconômicos e culturais, em diferentes regiões de reforma agrária, impactam o manejo e a manutenção da agrobiodiversidade associada à mandioca (Manihot esculenta), e contribuir para o aprimoramento de ações direcionadas ao seu uso e conservação. A tese está dividida em sete capítulos. O Capítulo 1 - Introdução geral - apresenta as origens e os manejos da agrobiodiversidade e suas estratégias de conservação, em nível global, a importância da mandioca nos estudos em agrobiodiversidade no Brasil, e as abordagens metodológicas em torno do tema. O Capítulo 2 - A não reforma agrária brasileira e seus impactos na conservação da agrobiodiversidade - traz um histórico das políticas públicas de reforma agrária no Brasil, e discute as possibilidades de aliar a organização social no campo, o desenvolvimento de assentamentos rurais e os programas de manejo e manutenção da agrobiodiversidade. O Capítulo 3 - O contexto socioeconômico dos assentados no Extremo Sul da Bahia e no Pontal do Paranapanema - apresenta as duas regiões selecionadas para esse estudo e faz apontamentos sobre os contextos socioeconômicos dos assentamentos rurais e dos agricultores amostrados em cada região. O Capítulo 4 - A estrutura da diversidade de variedades de mandioca nos assentamentos rurais - analisa, por meio de uma abordagem etnobotânica e genética, a estrutura e amplitude da diversidade de variedades de mandioca amostrada nos dois diferentes contextos regionais. O Capítulo 5 - Os conhecimentos locais e as práticas agrícolas associadas à diversidade de mandioca - analisa os elementos socioeconômicos e culturais que influenciam sobre a diversidade de mandioca amostrada, considerando os parâmetros de identidade, manejo agrícola e formas de uso das variedades locais. O Capítulo 6 - Ações de valorização e conservação da agrobiodiversidade: aprendizados dos Parques Naturais Regionais na França- apresenta ações de valorização e conservação da agrobiodiversidade a partir da experiência vivenciada pelo autor nos Parques Naturais Regionais, na França. E, por fim, o Capítulo 7 - Considerações Finais - revisita as questões iniciais da tese, analisa os resultados e conclusões apresentados e sugere ações para a valorização e conservação da agrobiodiversidade em assentamentos rurais de reforma agrária, em especial no Extremo Sul da Bahia e no Pontal do Paranapanema. / The potential of agrobiodiversity to strengthen food security and sovereignty is widely recognized. However, part of this biocultural diversity has been lost due expansion of urbanization, modern agriculture, and its genetically homogeneous varieties. Rural settlements of agrarian reform are spaces of resistance, relevant for keeping people at the countryside, and stimulating the process that generate and maintain agrobiodiversity. The main goal of the thesis was to analyze how socioeconomic and cultural contexts impact the management of cassava agrobiodiversity, in different regions of agrarian reform, and contribute to the improvement of actions to use and conservation it. The thesis is divided in seven chapters. Chapter 1 - General Introduction - presents the origins and management of agrobiodiversity, the conservation strategies at a global level, the importance of cassava in agrobiodiversity studies in Brazil, and the methodological approaches. Chapter 2 - The weak agrarian reform in Brazil, and the impacts on the conservation of agrobiodiversity - brings a history of agrarian reform in Brazil, and discusses the possibilities to allying rural social movements, the development of rural settlements, and maintenance of agrobiodiversity. Chapter 3 - The socioeconomic context of the settlers in Extreme South of Bahia, and Pontal do Paranapanema - presents the two study regions, and discuss the rural settlements and farmers socioeconomic contexts. Chapter 4 - The structure of diversity of cassava varieties in rural settlements - analyzes, through an ethnobotanical and genetic approach, the structure of cassava diversity sampled in the two different regional contexts. Chapter 5 - Local knowledge and agricultural practices associated with cassava diversity - analyzes the socioeconomic and cultural elements that influence cassava diversity, considering the parameters of identity, management, and uses of local varieties. Chapter 6 - Actions for the valorization and conservation of agrobiodiversity: notes from the Regional Natural Parks in France - presents actions for the valorization and conservation of agrobiodiversity on the author experience in the Regional Natural Parks in France. Finally, Chapter 7 - Final Considerations - revisits the thesis initial questions, analyzes the presented results and conclusions, and suggests actions to agrobiodiversity valorization and conservation in rural agrarian reform settlements, especially in Extreme South of Bahia, and Pontal do Paranapanema.

A caracterização da biodiversidade de comunidades bentônicas resume-se, no litoral brasileiro, a pouco mais de uma dezena de trabalhos estudando, na totalidade, uma área aproximada de apenas 3400 m2. Pretendeu-se aqui propor um novo método, inédito para comunidades marinhas de substrato consolidado, baseado na amostragem de unidades de heterogeneidade da paisagem, denominados povoamentos, visando um aumento na velocidade e abrangência das amostragens neste ambiente. Este estudo foi realizado em um trecho de 260m do costão leste da Praia do Presídio (Enseada das Palmas, P. Est. de Ilha Anchieta, Ubatuba, SP) e divididiu-se em quatro abordagens: 1) identificação e descrição dos povoamentos presentes e spécies neles dominantes; 2) mapeamento da repartição horizontal geo-referenciada de cada povoamento e determinação de sua amplitude vertical máxima; 3) quantificação de seus recobrimentos percentuais médios a partir de imagens; 4) avaliação da composição específica e da variação espacial de povoamentos selecionados. Trinta povoamentos, incluídos nas categorias Banco, Colônia, Crosta e Tapete, além de um atributo não-biológico incluído na categoria Região, foram identificados e descritos e as informações serão disponibilizadas em um banco de dados na internet. O mapeamento foi realizado em apenas 6 mergulhos, em cada estação, de 50 a 80 minutos. A maior parte os povoamentos ocorreu pontualmente. O número de povoamentos e a repartição horizontal dos mesmos praticamente não se alteraram entre verão e inverno. A análise da freqüência relativa dos povoamentos evidenciou que Banco de Sargassum (BSG) apresentou maior valor no verão (25,3%) e Tapete de Amphiroa e Jania (TAJ), no inverno (21,3%). Quanto à distribuição vertical, foram delimitadas quatro principais zonas baseadas na freqüência relativa: uma mais rasa definida por BSG, outra intermediária superior definida por TAJ, outra intermediária inferior definida por Tapete de Ectoprocta (TEC) e uma mais funda definida por povoamentos variáveis com a estação. Foram obtidos 84 elementos amostrais fotográficos no verão e 100 no inverno, os quais evidenciaram 26 e 28 povoamentos, respectivamente. Foram realizadas análises de repartição espacial nos modos R e Q e avaliação de heterogeneidade dos agrupamentos formados. BSG apresentou maior valor de recobrimento percentual médio tanto no período de verão (26,1%) quanto de inverno (32,0%), seguido de TEC (19,7% no verão e 24,2% no inverno), significativamente maior que a maioria dos demais povoamentos (p<0,05). Os povoamentos fitobentônicos foram mais representativos na área (62,2% de recobrimento médio no verão e 61,8% no inverno). Quando consideradas as categorias de povoamentos, os bancos fitobentônicos foram mais representativos (31,2% no verão e 37,0% no inverno). Se somados animais e algas, a categoria ?tapete? foi a mais representada (46,3% no verão e 41,4% no inverno), com grande contribuição dos povoamentos TAJ e TEC, indicando uma possível influência da sedimentação na área. A análise de repartição espacial em Modo R evidenciou a existência de seis grupos no verão e cinco no inverno, sugerindo povoamentos com as mesmas exigências ecológicas. Já em Modo Q observou-se que a comunidade da área é bastante heterogênea, apresentando um padrão em manchas, sendo os povoamentos BSG, Região de Substrato Inconsolidado, TAJ, TEC (e algumas de suas variações) e Tapete de Gelidiopsis e Hypnea (TGH) os responsáveis pela formação dos grupos com o Índice de Similaridade de Morisita-Horn. A análise da composição específica dos povoamentos BSG, TAJ, TEC e TGH evidenciou que os mesmos podem ser considerados homogêneos ou apresentam-se na forma de fácies na área de estudo, podendo ser utilizados como unidades operacionais de forma consistente. Entretanto, estudos em outras áreas são necessários para fornecer suporte aos dados obtidos, principalmente em relação aos dois últimos povoamentos, que carecem de estudos ecológicos. A análise espectral evidenciou suficiência amostral para todos os povoamentos em relação aos pontos Calleja adotados. Os espectros de riqueza foram diagonais e os de diversidade foram retangulares. Para os quatro povoamentos, o Índice de Diversidade de Shannon ficou entre 1,6 e 2,2 e o de Diversidade de Simpson, entre 2,6 e 5,7. O povoamento TGH foi o mais rico e o mais diverso. A comunidade estudada no presente estudo pode ser considerada característica da região sudeste do Brasil. O método dos povoamentos, tanto a partir da Abordagem 2 quanto da 3, possibilitou a caracterização estrutural da comunidade de forma rápida. A análise da micro-heterogeneidade de 4 povoamentos evidenciou que podem ser utilizados como unidades ecológicas consistentes. / The biodiversity characterization of benthic communities in the Brazilian coast is limited to a few works, which studied an area of about 3,400 m2. The objective of this study was to propose a new method, unprecedented in hard bottom marine communities, based in the sampling of landscape heterogeneity units, named physiognomies and settlements, aiming at an increase in sampling speed and covering in this environment. This study was performed in a 260 m infralittoral stretch of Presidio Beach eastern coast (Palmas Bay, Anchieta Island State Park, Ubatuba, SP) and was divided in four approaches: 1) identification e description of settlements and their dominant species; 2) georeferenced spatial repartition mapping of each settlement and determination of maximum vertical amplitude; 3) mean percent cover quantification from digital images; 4) evaluation of specific composition and spatial variation of selected settlements. Thirty settlements, included in Bed, Colony, Crust and Turf categories, besides a non-biological attribute included in Region category, were identified and described and the information will be available in a database in the internet. Mapping was performed in only 6 dives of 50 to 80 minutes in each season. The major part of the settlements occurred punctually. Settlements number and horizontal repartition practically did not change between summer and winter. Sargassum Bed (SGB) was more frequent in the summer (25.3%) and Amphiroa and Jania Turf (AJT) in the winter (21.3%). In relation to vertical repartition, four main zones were delimited based in relative frequencies: a shallower one defined by SGB, another upper intermediary defined by AJT, another lower intermediary defined by Ectoprocta Turf (ECT) and a last one, deeper, defined by variable settlements according to season. Eighty four sampling units were obtained in summer and 100 in winter, from which 26 and 28 settlements could be recognized, respectively. Cluster analysis in R and Q modes and heterogeneity evaluation of the obtained groups were made. SGB showed the highest mean percent cover as much in summer (26.1%) as in winter (32.0%), followed by ECT (19.7% in summer and 24.2% in winter), significantly higher than most of the other settlements (p<0.05). Phytobenthic settlements were the most representative in the area (62.2% of mean cover in summer and 61.8% in winter). When settlements categories were considered, phytobenthic beds were the most representative (31.2% in summer and 37.0% in winter). With animals and algae altogether, the category ?turf? was the most represented (46.3% in summer and 41.4% in winter), with great contribution of AJT and ECT, indicating a possible sedimentation influence in the area. The cluster analysis in R Mode showed the existence of six groups in summer and five in winter, suggesting settlements with the same ecological exigencies. In Q Mode a highly heterogeneous community could be evidenced, showing a patchy pattern. The settlements SGB, Unconsolidated Substrate Region, AJT, ECT (and some of its variations) and Gelidiopsis and Hypnea Turf (GHT) were the responsible for group formation with the use of Morisita-Horn Similarity Index. Specific composition analysis of SGB, AJT, ECT and GHT showed that these settlements can be considered homogeneous or present themselves as facies in the study area and can be consistently used as operational units. However, studies in other areas are necessary in order to give support to the obtained data, mainly regarding ECT and GHT, which lack ecological studies. Spectral analysis made evident sampling sufficiency for all settlements in relation to Calleja points adopted. Richness spectra were diagonal and diversity spectra were rectangular. For the four settlements, Shannon?s Diversity Index was between 1.6 and 2.2 and Simpson?s Dominance Index, between 2.6 and 5.7. GHT was the richest and most diverse settlement. The community studied in the present work can be considered typical of Brazilian south eastern region. Settlements method, through approaches 2 and 3, facilitated community structural characterization in a fast way. Micro-heterogeneity evaluation of four settlements showed that they can be used as consistent ecological units.

L'état de Sonora se situe au nord-ouest du Mexique. S'étalant sur 184 934 km2 c'est le deuxième plus grand état du pays de par sa superficie. Sa condition d'état frontalier du nord du Mexique, ainsi que son accès au golfe de Californie lui confère une place unique au niveau géostratégique et géopolitique dans le continent américain. Les particularités géographiques, historiques et économiques de la région de Sonora, éloigné du Centre du pays, rendent nécessaires une analyse du rôle des acteurs locaux et fédéraux dans l'évolution de la dynamique urbaine et industrielle. La présence, dans l'état de Sonora, de zones désertiques associée à des ressources hydrauliques limitées imposent donc la nécessité d'un regard croisé pour comprendre les particularités de l'aménagement de son territoire. Depuis la fin du XXème siècle et la signature du traité de libre-échange nord-américain (ALENA), les acteurs de la région s'emploient à faire de Sonora une région dynamique et prête pour les défis engendrés par la mondialisation. / The state of Sonora is located in northwest of Mexico. Spread over 184,934 square kilometers, it is the second largest state in the country. Its border state condition in the northwestern Mexico and its access to the Gulf of Ca|ifornia,gives Sonora an important geostrategic position in the American continent. The geographical, historical and economic characteristics of the region of Sonora, distant from the center of the country, imply to measure and understand the role of the local and federal actors in the evolution of urban and industrial dynamics. The presence of desert areas associated with limited water resources impose the need for an original and sustainable approach and allows to understand the peculiarities of the development of this territory. Since the late twentieth century and the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the different actors are working to build a dynamic region, able to face the challenges posed by globalization.

Proposal submitted in partial fulfilment for the award of MTech in Environmental Management / It is widely believed that experts often have a more rational approach towards risks. This is because they are known to use algorithms, formal logic, risk assessments and normative rules to make decisions about risks. The central tenet of this research is that communication based on an understanding of how people conceptualise and evaluate risk communication efforts is critical for translating risk management knowledge into effective risk practices necessary for value generation in flood risk mitigation. Rational decisionEmaking requires both analytic and intuitive systems to operate on a parallel level. Therefore, this research proposes a Flood Risk Communication Model that takes cognisance of lay perceptions. The model emphasises on how risk communication efforts are evaluated by the lay using a combination of descriptive psychological and social construction theories. In particular, the prospect theory, heuristics and biases, cultural theory and trust theory are used to provide explanatory sketches on how flood risk communication efforts are perceived in highly vulnerable environmental contexts such as informal settlements. The challenge in this research however, lies in verifying the model empirically. The associative group analysis technique will be used to generate empirical data from a case study population. Two basic analytic methods will be employed to measure psychological dispositions of respondents. Firstly, word associations are scored and weighted based on frequency of occurrence to generate a dominance score. The higher the dominance score, the greater the interpretation and the more meaningful the theme is for that particular group. Secondly, the different theories of the model are factored into a questionnaire to measure priorities. All the responses are then compared to the proposed model and also used to evaluate actual lay perceptions and feelings towards the current risk communication interventions. The results showed a high level of consistency with the FRCM and hence with the descriptive psychological models of Kahneman and Tversky. However, we conclude that what is has been proposed to be biases are intuitive tendencies to adapt and make sustainable decisions in the face of applicable contextual influences. Thus, these contextual hierarchies determine the reference point and status quo of the recipient in decision making. Therefore, these influences and hierarchies need to be factored in the designing of a risk communication.

La vision du monde rural du haut Moyen Age a été profondément modifiée durant ces dernières décennies grâce à l'archéologie préventive. Les grands travaux d'aménagement franciliens depuis les années 1980 ont offert l'occasion de fouiller de nombreux sites d'habitat avec plusieurs étapes dans cette exploration et un changement d'échelle dans les ouvertures. Jusqu'à cette période, les rares exemples d'habitats connus avaient nourri une vision pessimiste des historiens tels Georges Duby et Robert Fossier (Nissen sous presse) sur les conditions de vie et des pratiques agricoles durant le haut Moyen Age. / No English summary available.