This study explores the factors urban residents consider when making residential location decisions. The context of the study is informal residential areas in a rapidly urbanising African city – the city of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. A central concern in the study is how the urban poor make their residential location decisions; the assumption is that with income limitations the urban poor rely on other non-economic resources to enable their residential location decisions in the context of rapid urban growth and urban poverty. The study attempts to question residential location choice concepts that rely on economic approaches as well as question explanations based on the developing world experiences.The study suggests that in the absence of reliable incomes, social networks and informalchannels prevail in the decision-making process. The concept of social capital where networks and social relationships are used as a resource by individuals or groups to achieve goals is explored in a residential choices framework. Demonstrated through in-depth interviews with heads of households settling close to the CBD (termed the inner city), the intermediate informal residential areas and the peri-urban residential areas; the study shows how socio-cultural factors play a role in the decision makingprocess of households. This is illustrated inter alia, in the form of informal channels for information on accommodation and residential plots, being accommodated rent-free by a relative, the actions of subsequently making short-distance moves to a location within proximity of a relative, or seeking people of the same socio-economic status. The context within which the actions have taken place has also been shown to be important in corroborating the network and relationship elements in the concept of social capital. The uncertainty that residents in rapidly urbanizing cities have to deal with on an everyday basis calls for networks and relations as an important resource for survival. The study goes further to suggest how urban planning practice can learn from the social processes. The study is based on qualitative methods such as in-depth interviewing with heads of household and key informants.

Progressive spatial segregation of Whites from other ethnic races in South Africa started in 1886. Apartheid rulers evicted three and a half million Blacks, Coloureds and Indians from white urban and residential areas between 1904 and 1994. Apartheid planners used natural, mining, industrial, and infrastructural buffer zones to spatially enforce segregation. They based their apartheid spatial governance on separation and control and not on urban development. Today remnants of apartheid remain deeply embedded in the urban framework, where large buffer zones continue to enforce segregation and disrupt economic growth. Victims of apartheid legislation believed the eradication of apartheid in 1994 meant the right to live in the city and the end of forced evictions. Since then the post-Apartheid government has conducted 2 million evictions, reminiscent of the 3.5 million evictions during the apartheid years. In an attempt to make Johannesburg a `world class city`, the municipality forcefully removed the poor from the city, and relocated them to rural locations where their livelihoods are severely challenged. To many, a new ``apartheid` has been born; one that segregates the rich and the poor. The government has released several strategies to provide land for the poor near the city, but the high cost of land in urban areas has disrupted implementation. The thesis proposes a three-fold strategic design intervention to provide land for the poor near the city and dissolve the apartheid-designed buffer zone between Soweto and Johannesburg. The site, a landmark from the apartheid spatial legacy and part of the Witwatersrand gold mining belt, separates Soweto, home to four million Blacks, from the city of Johannesburg. About one and a half million people commute to the city each day passing by the 14 km stretch of this toxic mining land. The thesis proposes three urban design strategies to transform the site into a community, which the local people would build: Remediation strategies to address the toxic mining landscape, infrastructural strategies to provide basic services and economic strategies to promote economic growth. These strategies operate in a codependent structure. Co-op centres implement these strategies, transfering strategy technologies to the local community.

This study is about a Middle Mississippian (A.D. 1150-1350) burial mound site known as Oak Level Mound. Located in the back swamps of Bryan County, Georgia 2.4 km south of the Ogeechee River, the site is situated amongst Live Oak hammocks and Palmettoes. The earthen architecture and material remains found at Oak Level Mound during the fall of 2012 and winter 2013 tell a tale of ancient people whose subsistence included oysters, snail, and nuts. Their daily practices are expressed in burial mounds and utilitarian and/or status goods, such as plain, cord-marked, and complicated-stamped pottery. This study, then, seeks to understand those daily practices taking place at Oak Level Mound between A.D. 1150 and A.D 1350, both locally and regionally.

No description available.

Storage is an important part of the background in many archaeological studies of the origins of early complex societies. Yet, a problem with many of these studies of formation and change in complex societies is that the social significance of storage is assumed rather than demonstrated. In this dissertation, I examine the practice of storage in three regions of prehistoric Korea and its relationship with socio-political structural changes. I analyze the distribution of storage artifacts and features such as pits, large-capacity pottery, and raised-floor structures in the context of their spatial relationships with other archaeological features and elite precincts at the household and settlement levels. The archaeological features used for storage in the Mumun Pottery Period (3390-2290 calibrated years B.P.) changed in form diachronically and show that underground pit storage remained constant during the period of study and that clandestine storage was not completely replaced by above-ground visible storage. Elite actors seem to have had some influence on the nature of storage in at least two central settlements, Daepyeong I and II and Songguk-ri, but appear to have been unable to completely control stored agricultural surplus in the two settlements and had little control over the surrounding areas.

Storage is an important part of the background in many archaeological studies of the origins of early complex societies. Yet, a problem with many of these studies of formation and change in complex societies is that the social significance of storage is assumed rather than demonstrated. In this dissertation, I examine the practice of storage in three regions of prehistoric Korea and its relationship with socio-political structural changes. I analyze the distribution of storage artifacts and features such as pits, large-capacity pottery, and raised-floor structures in the context of their spatial relationships with other archaeological features and elite precincts at the household and settlement levels. The archaeological features used for storage in the Mumun Pottery Period (3390-2290 calibrated years B.P.) changed in form diachronically and show that underground pit storage remained constant during the period of study and that clandestine storage was not completely replaced by above-ground visible storage. Elite actors seem to have had some influence on the nature of storage in at least two central settlements, Daepyeong I and II and Songguk-ri, but appear to have been unable to completely control stored agricultural surplus in the two settlements and had little control over the surrounding areas.

The dissertation explores how distinctive institutional factors related to property rights determine urban development patterns and housing tenure modalities in a developing economy context. The first part proposes a choice-theoretic model that explains the existence of the Antichresis contractual arrangement as a way to temporarily divide property rights. The model explains why the Antichresis contract dominates the Periodic-Rent contract in terms of landlord profits for certain types of property in which the gains in expected profits from solving the problem of adverse selection of tenants offset the loss of expected profits created by the moral hazard in landlords investments. The empirical section of the dissertation provides evidence in support of the model. Using data from Bolivia, I find that property types that require less landlord maintenance investment have higher capitalization rates under Antichresis contracts than they would under Monthly-Rent contracts and vice-versa. Additionally, the model shows that the Antichresis contract has limited capacity for helping the poor as suggested by recent literature. On the contrary, it can be hurtful for the poor in markets were landlords have limited information about tenants, in markets with inefficient court systems, or in markets with tenant-friendly regulations. The second part of the dissertation explores the issue of squatter settlements in the developing world. The theoretical model presented in this part explains how the landlord squatter strategies based on credible threats drive capital investment incentives and ultimately shape urban land development in areas with pervasive squatting. The model predicts that squatter settlements develop with higher structural densities than formal sector development. This prediction explains why property owners of housing that originated in squatter settlements take longer periods of time to upgrade than comparable property owners who built in the formal sector even after they receive titles to their property. The higher original structural density increases the marginal benefit of waiting in the redeveloping decision creating a legacy effect of high-density low-quality housing in these types of settlements. Geo-coded data from Cochabamba, Bolivia, support the hypotheses proposed by the theoretical model and raise questions about the unintended consequences of current policies affecting informal development.

Tovesson. R 2012: Orientering av liv och död under mellanneolitikum. Irland, Orkneyöarna och södra England under perioden ca 4000 f.kr – 2000 f.kr. The orientation of life and death- Ireland, Orkney, and Southern England during c 4000-2000 BC. Magisteruppsats i arkeologi. Linnéuniversitetet Kalmar Vt. 2012 Master theses in Archaeology. Linnaeus University Kalmar spring 2012. In this essay I have chosen to study how the orientation between the living and the dead during the Middle Neolithic differed. How were the settlement sites orientated in comparison with the monuments for the dead. I am also studying the way the landscape in the different regions looked like during the time the monuments were used, but also how it looks like today. Were the settlements and the grave/monuments located after a ritual scheme or just randomly. The investigation area is : Ireland as a western point, Orkney as a north point and south England as a south point. I have chose these areas to achieve a geographical approach and to look at different landscapes.   Keywords: Orientation/s, Settlements, Graves, Monuments. Ireland, Orkney, southern England. 4000 BC - 2000 BC.

This minor field study has explored what factors cause vulnerability to community members living in informal settlements exposed to localized urban flooding. Particularly, the effects of flooding that women living in Bwaise Parish III, Kampala, Uganda have to encounter were studied. Eight weeks were spent in Kampala, Uganda for field work, which included interviews and a workshop with community members from Bwaise Parish III, interviews with scientists at Makerere University and thesis writing. Generally, small-scale disasters surface because of poor urban management. The results showed that inadequate urban planning was affecting the poor that were living on marginal lands. Bwaise Parish III had emerged on a location that was both hazardous and unhealthy. The analysis showed that poor people were limited in their options of risk limitation because of their lack of basic capabilities. Women in Bwaise Parish III were affected by flooding directly and indirectly through the loss of livelihoods and belongings and through time spent getting water out of their houses. Women were generally disproportionally affected by flooding because of their vulnerabilities such as lower socioeconomic status and responsibilities that confined them to their homes. The way forward in order to mitigate localized flooding impacts would entail reducing vulnerabilities, strengthening capabilities and developing infrastructure. / Denna Minor Field Study har undersökt vilka faktorer som orsakar sårbarheter för samhällsmedlemmar som bor i informella bosättningar som exponeras av småskaliga  översvämningar. Det som studerades var effekterna av dessa översvämningar och hur kvinnor i Bwaise Parish III i Kampala, Uganda drabbades. Åtta veckor tillbringades i Kampala för fältarbete som innehöll intervjuer och en workshop med samhällsmedlemmar från Bwaise Parish III, intervjuer med forskare vid Makerere Univeritetet samt uppsatsskrivande. Generellt sätt så brukar småskaliga katastrofer uppstå på grund av dålig stadsförvaltning. Resultaten visade att bristande stadsplanering påverkade de fattiga som levde på marginella marker och att Bwaise Parish III låg på en plats som var både farlig och ohälsosam. Analysen visade att fattiga människor var begränsade i sina möjligheter att minska sina risker på grund av att de saknade grundläggande förutsättningar. Kvinnor i Bwaise Parish III påverkades av översvämningar både direkt och indirekt genom förlusten av försörjningsmöjligheter och tillhörigheter och genom att de var tvungna att spendera tid med att få bort vatten från deras hem. I allmänhet drabbas kvinnor oproportionerligt av översvämningar på grund av deras sårbarhet såsom lägre socioekonomisk status och ansvar som begränsar dem till deras hem. Vägen framåt för att minska småskaliga översvämningar och konsekvenser skulle innebära att minska sårbarheten för samhällsmedlemmarna, öka deras förutsättningar och utveckla en fungerande infrastruktur.

In this essay I have chosen to write about graves, settlements and historical, important central places during the late Iron Age and the introduction of Christianity in the east of Blekinge. The reason why I have chosen to write about this is because the area has many ancient monuments and not much have been written about the area. The main question is who where the people who lived there and why did they choose to settle there.