Mais da metade da população do planeta é urbana. No Brasil, a urbanização foi acelerada na década de 1960, atingindo a taxa de urbanização de 84% em 2010. Este rápido processo de ocupação da área urbana não foi acompanhado de um adequado ordenamento territorial, resultando na formação de assentamentos precários. Estes núcleos, geralmente habitados por famílias de baixa renda, e muitas vezes localizados em áreas inadequadas à urbanização e sujeitas a diferentes tipos de riscos. O objetivo desta dissertação foi analisar, sob a ótica da gestão de risco, o processo de qualificação urbana de um assentamento precário – Núcleo Habitacional Canyon, a partir da política pública de habitação de interesse social desenvolvida no município de Caxias do Sul/RS, no período de 1997 a 2004. Esta política adotou como diretriz geral o “Habitar Pleno” - melhorias urbanas, habitacionais, acesso a equipamentos e serviços públicos, participação comunitária, capacitação e desenvolvimento sociocultural da comunidade. O processo promoveu a integração entre gestores, técnicos e moradores, agregando outras parcerias. O Núcleo Habitacional Canyon foi escolhido devido à presença de moradias localizadas em áreas sujeitas a enxurradas e movimentos de massa, e por ter a redução do risco como eixo condutor do processo de qualificação do assentamento. As intervenções realizadas contemplaram melhorias urbanas e de recuperação ambiental, reforma de moradias, relocações na própria área e reassentamentos. A experiência se alicerçou na organização e participação comunitária, no fomento de parcerias, na capacitação dos técnicos para atuação em áreas irregulares, e na qualificação da percepção de risco dos moradores, privilegiando a interlocução e a integração do saber técnico com o saber local. A metodologia adotada para a análise desta experiência foi adaptada da Teoria Fundamentada de Dados, caracterizada por permitir que a visão do autor seja considerada. Foram selecionadas 113 intervenções relevantes para o processo de qualificação urbana desenvolvido no Núcleo, constantes de resgate histórico elaborado através de uma Linha do Tempo. Para a análise, as intervenções foram classificadas em Categorias e Subcategorias, sendo atribuídos graus de influência no processo para cada intervenção e cada Subcategoria. O estabelecimento de níveis de dependência entre as Subcategorias resultou em uma matriz de hierarquização, possibilitando a identificação das Subcategorias fundamentais para o desenvolvimento do processo. A partir desses resultados foram identificadas as práticas mais recomendadas para intervenções em assentamentos precários com características semelhantes. / More than half of the planet’s population live in urban areas. In Brazil, the urbanization accelerated during the 1960s, reaching a mark of 84% in 2010. This fast occupation of the urban area did not had a suitable territorial ordination, resulting in the formation of precarious settlements. These cores, generally occupied by families with low income, are located in areas improper for occupation and subjected to different types of risks. The main objective of this dissertation was to analyze, from the risks management perspective, the urbanization process of a precarious settlement (Canyon Area) developed through the public policy of the habitation of social interest developed in the county of Caxias do Sul/RS, from 1997 to 2004. This policy adopted, as a general guideline, the “Live Fully”, consisted by urban and habitational improvements, access to equipment and public services, community participation, capacitation and socioeconomic development. The process promoted the integration between managers, technicians and dwellers, adding partnerships. The Canyon Core region was chosen due to the presence of settlements located in areas subject to mass movements and floods, and by having a reduction of the risk as a conductor axis of the urbanization process. The interventions included urban and environmental recovery improvements, house restorations, relocations in the area and resettlement. The experience was based on organization and community participation, promotion of partnerships, capacitation of technicians to act in areas with irregular occupation, and with dwellers allowing an interlocution with the technicians, privileging the integration of the local technical knowledge. The methodology adopted for the analysis of this experience was adapted from the “Data Grounded Theory”, through which 113 interventions relevant to the urban qualification process developed inside the Core, through historical review, elaborated using a timeline. For this analysis, the interventions were classified in Categories and Subcategories. The establishment of dependency levels between Subcategories resulted in a ranking matrix, allowing the identification of key Subcategories to the development process. Through these results, the most suitable intervention practices in precarious settlements with similar characteristics were identified.

Os assentamentos da reforma agrária no Rio Grande do Sul surgiram como produto da luta social das famílias Sem Terra, organizadas pelo MST. O conflito social marca o espaço geográfico, gerando territórios onde se estabelecem novas relações sociais, como o trabalho familiar e a democratização a partir da distribuição da posse da terra. Em base a estas novas relações sociais, famílias assentadas desenvolvem um novo governo, entendido como o rumo, a orientação ao desenvolvimento deste território. Este governo é fortemente disputado pelas forças econômicas, políticas e ideológicas presentes nas regiões. Inspirado pela nova estratégia do MST, expressa na consigna da Reforma Agrária Popular, o MST gaúcho, estabeleceu como orientação a organização dos assentamentos como força política, através da organização da produção de alimentos em base agroecológica. A produção do arroz ecológico soma-se a esta orientação política do MST. Articuladas no Grupo Gestor do Arroz Ecológico, 546 famílias assentadas produziram na Safra 2016/17, 464.409 sacos, em 4.886 ha. Atrás destes números existe um conglomerado de cooperação, com gestão democrática, onde quem trabalha planeja, decide e define o destino da produção gerada, envolvendo grupos de produção, associações, cooperativas singulares e uma cooperativa em âmbito regional, controlando o conjunto dos elos da cadeia produtiva do arroz por elas produzidos, desenvolvendo neste processo social um conjunto de conhecimentos expresso no Itinerário Técnico da Lavoura Este Conglomerado de Cooperação é expressão das forças produtivas autenticas que o trabalho social desenvolveu, orientado por uma organização política. Ao influir no processo de objetivações das famílias assentadas, permitindo escolhas que remetem os indivíduos ao plano humano genérico, o MST, ao organizar a produção de alimentos saudáveis, afirma na cotidianeidade destas famílias uma ética fundando uma individualidade participe do gênero que se reconhece como tal. O conglomerado é a síntese que vincula a nova qualidade ético-político em meio a uma práxis coletiva que expressam as autenticas capacidades humanas. Num contexto de avanço do agronegócio, expressão de uma nova aliança de classes no campo, as famílias assentadas na RMPA, desenvolvem em seu cotidiano produtivo relações sociais e técnicas que não podem ser absorvidas pelos agentes produtivos do agronegócio. Aqui se expressa o conteúdo da resistência ativa dos camponeses assentados, gerando territórios de resistência e emancipação. / The agrarian reform settlements in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul emerged from the social struggle of the Sem Terra (landless) families, organized by the Landless Rural Workers Movement, the MST. The social conflict marks the geographic space, generating territories where new social relations are established, such as family work and democratization from the distribution of land tenure. Based on these new social relations, settled families develop a new government, understood as the direction, the orientation to the development of this territory. This government is strongly disputed by the economic, political and ideological forces present in the regions. Inspired by the new strategy of the MST, expressed in the slogan of the Popular Agrarian Reform, the MST of Rio Grande do Sul, established the orientation of the organization of settlements as a political force through the organization of agro-ecological food production. The production of organic rice sets within this political orientation of the MST. Articulated in the Ecological Rice Management Group, 546 settled families produced in the 2016/17 harvest, 464.409 sacks of rice, in a extension of 4.886 hectares. This production is managed democratically by a conglomerate cooperative, where those who work plan, decide and define the destination of the production generated. It involves production groups, associations, singular cooperatives and a cooperative in a regional scope, controlling all the links within the rice production chain produced by them This experience has developed within this social process a set of knowledge expressed at the Technical Itinerary of the Plantation. This Cooperative Conglomerate is an expression of the authentic productive force that social work has developed, guided by a political organization. The MST organizing the production of healthy food, influencing the process of the settled families gain, which permits choices that refer individuals to the generic human plan, affirms within the daily life of these families an ethic founding, an individuality that participates and recognizes as such. The conglomerate is the synthesis that links the new ethical-political quality in the midst of a collective praxis that expresses the authentic human capacities. Within the context of the advance of agribusiness, which is the expression of a new class alliance in the countryside, the families based on the RMPA (Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre), develop at their daily production social and technical relations that can not be absorbed by the productive agents of agribusiness. Here the content of the active resistance of the settled rural workers is expressed, generating territories of resistance and emancipation.

Como resultado de um crescente número de pessoas se movendo para as cidades, as condições urbanas estão continuamente em modificação e com tendência ao agravamento de riscos. Aproximadamente 60% da população urbana mundial está localizada em regiões expostas a pelo menos um tipo de risco de desastre natural. O rápido processo de ocupação da área urbana não foi acompanhado de um adequado ordenamento territorial o que acabou resultando na formação de assentamentos precários, compostos principalmente por famílias de baixa renda e localizados em zonas sujeitas a diferentes tipos de risco de desastres. A perspectiva de mitigação do risco de desastres e a promoção da resiliência urbana levam à reflexão sobre quais as possibilidades podem ser desenvolvidas junto a essas comunidades para que levem a progressos que venham ao encontro da agenda mundial de redução de riscos de desastres. Esta pesquisa se dedica, como principal objetivo, a identificação de possíveis bases para a qualificação urbana de assentamentos precários sob a ótica da gestão de riscos de desastres. Para isso, foram utilizadas três estratégias de pesquisa. A primeira estratégia de pesquisa foi a realização de um estudo de caso a fim de levantar subsídios para as demais etapas, utilizando uma tecnologia social de mapeamento da percepção de riscos de desastres, desenvolvida pelo Grupo de Gestão de Riscos de Desastres – GRID/UFRGS, em um assentamento precário em Porto Alegre. A segunda estratégia de pesquisa foi coletar dados por meio da aplicação de duas reuniões de grupos focados, onde foram convidados 11 especialistas de diversas áreas com atuação em assentamentos precários, a fim de levantar ações e auxiliar na busca por uma melhor maneira de avançar frente aos riscos mapeados Para a análise, os dados foram classificados de acordo com possibilidades de ações nessas áreas, correlações com a comunidade, correlações com o poder público e elementos de suporte ao desenvolvimento das bases para a qualificação urbana. Um total de 54 ações foram identificadas e categorizadas em quatro grupos: diagnóstico; articulação do poder público; melhorias do ambiente natural e construído; e capacitação. A Estratégia Integrada para Redução de Riscos – EIGER, desenvolvida no âmbito do projeto “Desenvolvimento e Apoio à Implantação de uma Estratégia Integrada de Prevenção de Riscos Associados a Regimes Hidrológicos na Bacia do Taquari-Antas – RS” foi utilizada como a terceira estratégia de pesquisa, para avaliar as ações selecionadas conforme as nove dimensões da EIGER: planejamento; organizacional; integração; estrutura de gestão de riscos; gestão hídrica; gestão ambiental; e qualificação urbana e rural. O estabelecimento de relações das ações com as dimensões EIGER contribuiu para evidenciar as relações existentes e para o entendimento da complexidade do processo de qualificação urbana sob a ótica da gestão de riscos de desastres, também evidenciando a importância da atuação do Poder Público como o grande articulador no processo. O método aplicado a partir da seleção das ações para este estudo possibilitou determinar que, todos os quatro grupos de ações levantadas, possuem importância no processo de qualificação urbana. Assim, a solução encontrada se caracteriza principalmente como uma aproximação para as bases da qualificação urbana sob a ótica da gestão de risco, aliando o conhecimento local com o conhecimento técnico. / As result of the increasing number of people moving to cities, urban conditions are constantly in motion. Around 60% of the urban population is located in zones susceptible to, at least, one type of natural disaster. This occupation of urban areas was not followed by an adequate territorial organization strategy, which allowed the development of precarious settlements, mainly inhabited by families with low income, generally located in zones vulnerable to many types of disaster risks. The effective management for risk disaster reduction in regional, national and global levels contributes to community protection, also strengthening the resilience. The disaster of mitigation point of view and promotion of urban resilience brings the brainstorming of which possibilities can be developed alongside these communities, bringing progress related to the global platform for disaster risk reduction. This research is focused mainly on the investigating urban of qualification foundations of precarious settlements through the perspective of disaster risk management. To accomplish this goal, the application of a case study was used as the first strategy, in order to raise funds for later research steps, using a social mapping technology of disaster risk perception, developed by Group of Disaster Risk Management – GRID/UFRGS, in a precarious settlement located in Porto Alegre. The second research strategy was the data collection using information gathered from focused groups, in which 11 experts from different areas related to precarious settlements were invited to take action and support the search for a better way of being prepared for the risks actions discovered. To carry out this analysis, the data was ranked according to the possibilities of action in these areas, correlations with the community, correlations with public management and support elements for the development of urban qualification foundations. A total of 54 actions were identified and ranked into four groups: diagnosis, public management articulation, improvements in natural and constructed environments; and urban and rural qualification. The establishment of existing action relations coupled with Integrated Strategy for Risk Reduction - EIGER dimensions highlighted existing relations and brought up the understanding of the urban qualification process focusing on disaster risk management, also evidenced by the importance of the public management being the main process articulator. The applied method allowed the conclusion that, from the four action groups that were raised, all of them are important in the urban qualification process. Thus, the solution is to link all urban qualification foundations together and focused on risk management, to adding local and technical knowledge.

A presente tese de doutorado é resultado de uma pesquisa realizada na Escola do Campo Florestam Fernandes, localizada no Projeto de Assentamento 12 de Outubro, Município de Cláudia, entrada do Bioma Amazônia mato-grossense. O trabalho de pesquisa tem como perspectiva analisar como se dá o fluxo entre as orientações do Movimento Camponês, da proposta de Educação do Campo e o Currículo desenvolvido pela Escola Estadual Florestan Fernandes, num contexto em que o bioma Amazônia Mato-grossense é devastado de forma avassaladora desde os anos 1970 quando os planos militaristas para essa região instituíram o processo colonizatório. Prioritariamente, o projeto militar, através da mercantilização dos territórios sob o álibi de integração e segurança nacional, “Ocupar para não Entregar”, interpôs o aniquilamento da floresta/biodiversidade, empreendido pela expansão do metabolismo social do capital na região. Num contexto macrocósmico, esse processo vem assolando tanto as possibilidades do Bem-Viver quanto nutrindo o modo de produção hegemônico. E por isso, concomitante ao desmatamento na região, um dos maiores do País, avançam os índices de desigualdade social. O mito do desbravamento e do progresso sedimenta-se na atualidade pelo modus operandi do agronegócio. Na vivência de lutas pelas condições vitais o sujeito histórico camponês se vê diante do grande desafio histórico de se aproximar da natureza, seu corpo inorgânico, como forma de sobreviver. Para isto, faz-se necessário romper com os ranços da Revolução Verde e o mito do desbravamento, ainda fortemente impregnados nas práticas sociais. À formação desse camponês convicto do seu trabalho interdependente à floresta/biodiversidade a Educação do Campo é convocada, prioritariamente, pelo Movimento Camponês, mas também, por todas as pessoas que, de uma forma ou de outra, entendem que a transformação social é urgente e nela perpassa, também, a construção de outra relação do gênero humano com a natureza. O aporte teórico metodológico utilizado neste trabalho funda-se no materialismo histórico e dialético como meio de contribuir, através da investigação científica, com a luta social para transformação da realidade socioambiental e educacional estudada. Para sustentação desta pesquisa estabeleceu- se um contínuo diálogo com autores de diversas teorias críticas, como: Triviños, Mészáros, Charlot, Taffarel, Ribeiro, Apple, e com os educadores-estudantes-camponeses. Essa trajetória densa e intensa de investigação conduziu-me à compreensão de que, embora os migrantes, base do campesinato local, possuam pouco conhecimento do Bioma Amazônia, e a luta pela terra-floresta não seja antagônica às lutas socioambientais, esse tema não integrou o currículo da escola estudada. O mito do desbravamento tem sido muito forte, dificultando uma práxis proximal camponês-floresta/biodiversidade, fazendo com que a floresta seja vista como selvagem e perigosa ao humano civilizado. Mesmo que o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST) e a Educação do Campo na região tenham contribuído para uma formação omnilateral do sujeito histórico camponês, a perspectiva de se constituírem em “cuidadores da floresta” ainda é uma construção incipiente diante da hegemonia do agronegócio da soja. Faz-se necessário, então, que sejam integrados nos currículos escolares os estudos sobre a agroecologia e suas práticas a fim de que possam corroborar com a compreensão dos Sistemas Agroflorestais, uma modalidade produtiva importante para manutenção da floresta em pé. / The present thesis is the outcome of a research carried out at Escola de Campo Florestam Fernandes, located in Settlement Project 12 de Outubro, Municipality of Claudia, gateway to the Mato Grosso Amazonian Biome. The research perspective has been to analyze how the flow between the orientations of the Peasant Movement of the proposed Field Education and Curriculum developed by the State School Florestan Fernandes, in a context where the Mato Grosso Amazonian biome has been overwhelmingly devastated since the 1970s when the militaristic government policies for the region begun the colonization process. Ultimately, the military project through the commodification of territories under the alibi of integration and national security, "Occupy not surrender" brought the destruction of the forest / biodiversity undertaken by the expansion of social metabolism of capital in the region. In a macrocosm context, this process has been sweeping both the possibilities of Good Living and has been nursing the hegemonic production way. Therefore, along with deforestation in the region, one of the largest in the country comes the advance of social inequality. The myth of progress by clearing and settles has its basis on the current modus operandi of agribusiness. Rural workers have been now struggling for vital living conditions where the historical peasant subject has presently been facing the historical challenge of approaching nature, its inorganic body, as a way to survive. For such, it is necessary to break with the stuffiness of the Green Revolution and the myth of the clearing, still strongly impregnated in social practices. The formation of this peasant convinced of his work interdependently to the forest / biodiversity Field Education is convened primarily by Peasant Movement, but also for all the people who in one way or another, understand that social change is urgent and it also pervades the construction of another relationship of humanity with nature. The methodological theoretical approach in this work is based on the historical and dialectical materialism as a means to contribute, through research, to fight for social and environmental transformation of the educational reality studied. To support this research we have established a continuous dialogue with authors of various critical theories: Triviños; Meszaros; Charlot; Taffarel; Ribeiro; Apple; and students-teachers-peasants.This dense and intense trajectory of research has led me to the realization that, although migrants as base of local peasantry, have little knowledge of the Amazonian Biome, and the struggle for forest-land is not antagonistic to environmental struggles, this topic has not integrated the curriculum of the school studied. The myth of the clearing has been very strong; making it difficult to peasant-forest/biodiversity proximal praxis, leading the forest to be seen as wild and dangerous to civilized humans. Even if the Movement of Landless and the Rural Education and in the region have contributed to unilateral formation of peasant historical subject, the perspective of getting themselves established as "caretakers of the forest" is still a fledgling construction in front of the hegemony of soy agribusiness. Therefore, it has been necessary the inclusion of a school curricula on agro-ecology study and its practices so that they can corroborate to the understanding of agroforestry systems, an important modality for the maintenance of productive forest.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / This study is concerned with aspects of housing and urban development related to the lower income groups in the context of urbanization in Athens, Greece. It identifies and evaluates typical low income housing settlements presently existing in Athens and develops a land utilization model along with a set of related planning guidelines to provide for future planned low income urban developments. The approach has been to determine the requirements of a low income housing program by identifying and evaluating the inadequacies and potentials of related existing conditions. / by Triada Kitsiou. / M.S.

No cenário brasileiro atual, em que se consolidam e se intensificam as práticas de políticas públicas no campo da urbanização de assentamentos precários, mostra-se pertinente buscar uma abordagem de intervenção que priorize o planejamento urbano como fio condutor do processo, de modo a possibilitar a qualificação de espaços urbanos que atendam ao interesse público, dando um passo além das soluções primárias para os problemas emergenciais das situações de risco e de provisão de infraestrutura básica. Ao colocar o espaço público no foco da questão, todos os demais componentes de projeto e ação se reposicionam no conjunto da intervenção numa lógica que prioriza o interesse da coletividade, a partir do qual se definem com maior consistência as diretrizes de intervenção. Este estudo busca um caminho pragmático para o enfrentamento deste desafio, construindo uma matriz para avaliação das intervenções de urbanização de assentamentos precários a partir do espaço público. Nela os indicadores agrupam-se nos eixos: inserção social; inserção ambiental; inserção urbana; inserção da moradia; áreas de encontro e lazer; e dinâmica de uso do espaço público, visando à avaliação da inserção dessas localidades e de suas comunidades na cidade consolidada. Dois assentamentos paulistanos foram estudados a partir da metodologia desenvolvida no trabalho: Jardim Iporanga/ Esmeralda (Cidade Dutra, Programa Guarapiranga, 1998/ 2007) para análise dos resultados da implantação, e Favela do Sapé (Rio Pequeno, Programa de Urbanização de Favelas da Prefeitura de São Paulo, obras em andamento em 2011) para análise do processo de projeto. / In the current Brazilian scenario, the practice of public policies is being intensified and reinforced in the environment of precarious settlements. Therefore, it is relevant to seek for an approach of intervention that prioritizes the urban planning as a guiding principle for this process, so as to enable urban spaces to attend public demands and take a step forward to rudimentary solutions for emergency problems on risky situations, offering appropriate basic infrastructure. By placing the public space in the heart of the question, all components of the project and the action are repositioned to prioritize the collective needs, from which intervention directions are more consistently defined. The purpose of this study is to seek a pragmatic way to face this challenge, by creating a matrix for the assessment of urban interventions in precarious settlements, having the public space as a starting point. In this matrix, the indicators are subdivided as follows: social insertion, environmental insertion, urban insertion, housing insertion, meeting and leisure areas, and the dynamic and use of the public space, aiming to evaluate the insertion of those places and its communities in the city. Two settlements in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, were studied with the methodology developed in this study: Jardim Iporanga/ Esmeralda (Cidade Dutra/Guarapiranga Program 1998/ 2007) for the analysis of the results after implementation, and Favela do Sapé (Rio Pequeno, Slums Upgrading Program by the São Paulo Municipal Administration) for the analysis of the process of the project.

This thesis examines Malay identity construction by focusing on the complex processes of self-identification among queer-identified Malays living in Malaysia and beyond. By analysing representations of queer Malays in the works of contemporary Malaysian Malay writers, scholars, and filmmakers, as well as queer Malays on the internet and in the diaspora, the thesis demonstrates how self-identifying gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Malays create and express their identities, and the ways in which hegemonic Malay culture, religion, and the state affect their creation and expression. This is especially true when queer-identified Malays are officially conflated with being “un-Malay” and “un-Islamic” because queer sexualities contravene Malay cultural and religious values. This thesis begins by discussing the politics of Malay identity, particularly the tension between “authority-defined” and “everyday-defined” notions of being Malay that opens up a space for queer-identified Malays to formulate narratives of Malayness marked by sexual difference. The thesis then discusses how queer-identified Malays specifically construct their identities via various strategies, including strategic renegotiations of ethnicity, religiosity, and queer sexuality, and selective reappropriations of local and western forms of queerness. The ways in which “gay Melayu” identity is a hybrid cultural construction, produced through transnational and transcultural interactions between local and western forms of gayness under current conditions of globalization is also examined, as well as the material articulation of queer narratives of Malayness and its diverse implications on queer-identified Malays' everyday lives and sense of belonging. The thesis concludes with a critical reflection on the possibilities and limitations of queerness in the context of queer Malay identity creation. Such reflection is crucial in thinking about the future directions for research on queerness and the politics of queer Malay identity. It is hoped that this study will show that queer-identified Malays reshape and transform received ideas about “Malayness” and “queerness” through their own invention of new and more nuanced ways of being “queer” and “Malay.” This study also fills up the lacunae in the scholarship on Malay identity and queer Malays by addressing the productions of Malay ethnicity and sexual identity among queer-identified Malays within and beyond Malaysia's borders.

A prevailing urban phenomenon of the 21st century is that more people than ever before are living in informal settlements. As residents of informal settlements, the majority of shack dwellers can be considered socially, economically and politically marginalised citizens. The combination of poverty, marginalisation, and precarious living conditions has in many cases given rise to a vicious cycle. In this cycle, shack dwellers lack an effective voice and are unable to participate in political decision-making processes that affect their lives, leading to deepening deprivation and marginalisation. To break this cycle, the development of a genuine political voice of shack dwellers is essential. However, the process of developing a political voice in shack dwellers has only received scant academic attention and is poorly understood. One aspect of this process is the role of information communication technologies (ICTs) in enabling political voice. This has received some attention and has become a salient topic in academic study and development policy. Despite growing adoption of certain ICT tools by marginalised individuals, there is little evidence of their meaningful use for political voice. Access to ICTs is not the same as meaningful use of ICTs for political voice. Only a few studies have examined the issue of meaningful use of ICTs for political voice. This dissertation explores the factors influencing the processes by which marginalised individuals are able to develop a political voice, with a particular focus on the role of two increasingly ubiquitous ICTs – mobile phones and internet. A qualitative case study of a shack dweller grassroots organisation in South Africa (Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM)) is used to explore different types of political voice. The case study looks at the circumstances under which members of AbM are able to develop individual and collective forms of political expression, and the role that the use of ICTs play in this development. Data collected from semi-structured interviews and participant observation for this study suggests that, individual differences in combination with entrenched traditions and social structures based on patronage may undermine the development and or expression of political voice. However, active engagement in a grassroots organisation was found to be useful to overcome these limitations and for some individuals to develop their political voices. AbM members were able to engage in collective processes which led to the development of social bonds, trust, self-confidence, and critical reflection. Both the internet and mobile phones were found to play an important role in the development of political voice of AbM members. However, interaction between the use of ICTs and the development of a political voice is complex. In many instances the technology has enabled mobilization, as well as given individuals a feeling of security. Where this has happened, the appropriation and re-purposing of ICTs to fit the needs of AbM members has come about as a result of attaching meaning to these technologies, which did not exist before AbM. ICTs can facilitate the development of political voice, in particular by facilitating collective processes (e.g. mobilization), channelling support and trust, as well as raising self-confidence. Yet, as the case of AbM demonstrates, ICTs have not operated as a political equalizer within AbM. The use of ICTs for political voice might have even created new barriers for the development of political voice of some members. This dissertation brings together disparate stands of literature dealing with ICTs, political voice, social movements, empowerment, community psychology, and participation to conceptualise the development of a political voice. Moreover, a framework is devised to analyse the nature and the process of this development in marginalised individuals, as well as the role played by ICTs in this process. This dissertation aims to bring an understanding of the complex relationship between ICTs and political voice of marginalised individuals. An understanding of the process can provide important inputs to devise more effective design and implementation of policies and projects aimed at increasing political participation of an ever-growing population of disenfranchised and marginalised people living in informal settlements.

This research explored the process of creating a shared future and the evolution of cooperative collective endeavours in a regional rural community through a bottom-up planning process that involved professionals, public leadership and residents of a rural region in Israel. Using the MT rural region in Israel as a case study, the research was an interpretive exploration of how this community changed the way it collectively functions to achieve individual and shared aspirations. It examined how the community restructured its patterns of interaction, changing the social dynamics – which people interacted with each other, how they interacted with each other, and who felt committed to whom. The motivation for this inquiry stemmed from my desire as a practitioner to better understand the processes by which communities learn to function cooperatively. What are the elements that contributed to enabling a community to create the conditions for collectively utilizing and sustaining common resources rather than dividing them up for private consumption and exploitative narrow interests? What type of cooperative mechanisms enabled people to accomplish together what they cannot accomplish alone? Specifically, there are three research questions: how the change process was initiated in MT, what was significant in the nature of participation in the planning process, and how the mechanisms for regional community cooperation evolved. It was a case study of the planning and development process that I facilitated in MT from 1994-1999 (prior to my intention to undertake research) and is based mainly upon recent interviews of the participants (in that process), their recollections, and retrospective interpretations of that experience. The case has been explored from the theoretical perspective of viewing society in general, and community life in particular, as processes of constructing shared social realities that produce certain collective behaviours of cooperation or non-cooperation (Berger and Luckmann, 1967). This research was about understanding the process of making social rules that incorporate shared meanings and sanctions (Giddens, 1986) for undertaking joint endeavours (Ostrom, 1990, 1992, Wenger, 1998). Specifically two primary insights have come out of this case analysis: 1. In the MT case there was a mutually reinforcing three-way interplay between the strengthening of commitments to mutual care on the regional level, the instrumental benefits from cooperative/joint endeavours, and the envisioning of a shared future. 2. The community development process was owned by the community (not by outside agencies) and they (the community members) set the rules for community involvement. They structured the social interactions which formed the basis for creating shared understandings as a collective to achieve their common future. These insights shed light on how a community's structuring of its interactions and development interventions influenced its ability to act in a collectively optimal manner. By looking at the interrelation between trust as a function of social esteem (Honneth, 1995) and risk taking linked to instrumental benefits of cooperation (Lewis, 2002; Taylor, 1976; White, 2003) we can better understand what contributes to the way some communities continue to miss opportunities (Ostrom 1992), while others are able to promote their collective development and mutual wellbeing. By examining the process of designing (not only the design itself) community development programmes (Block, 2009) and by observing participation not as technique but as an inherent part of the way a community begins structuring its social interactions with their tacit (Polanyi, 1966) and explicit meanings, we can better understand the role of practitioners. And finally, perhaps the elements of chance and opportunity that bring certain combinations of people together in a given time and space may need to be given more weight in what remains a very unpredictable non-linear field of professional practice.

The study of the integration of the children of migrants—the so-called ‗second generation‘—is a recent trend in migration literature. Their integration is thought to be an important indicator of the degree of integration of immigrants in general into a specific society. This thesis is the first full-length comparative study of the Albanian second generation. Using a variety of field methods, it compares the ethnic identities, transnational ties and integration pathways of Albanian-origin teenagers in three European cities—London, Thessaloniki and Florence—by focusing on intergenerational transmission between the first and the second generation. Greece, Italy and the UK are, in that order, the three main European countries where Albanian migrants have settled during their short but intense migration experience of the past two decades. My study shifts the focus partly to the situation and developments in Southern Europe, where the awareness and interest in issues of the integration of the second generation are still at an initial phase. The research involved fieldwork in each of the above-named cities, where quota samples of three categories of informants were interviewed: parents, their second-generation teenage children, and teachers and other key informants within the host society. Findings show significant differences in the integration patterns of both generations, affected by sharp differences between the three contexts and the history of immigration in each context. They also point to important within- and inter-group differences, based on various socio-economic indicators. Intergenerational transmission appears as a dynamic process affected not only by context and the parents‘ socio-economic background, but also by parents‘ stage of integration. By studying a settling immigrant group and their descendants, the thesis takes a proactive approach towards the integration of ethnic minorities.