This study takes a spatial perspective to analyze traditional land-use and production systems in humid tropical environments, with emphasis on the agricultural dimension. The setting is the Pastaza River Basin in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Achuar and Shiwiar indigenous groups are used to highlight the elements of these systems. This dissertation relies on land use/land cover change and agricultural change theories to analyze indigenous land use systems. The study uses empirical data to examine the linkages between decision making, the demand for land resources, and landscape change. Results suggest that the transition from nomadic-dispersed to permanent-nucleic villages leads to the implementation of a land-use zoning system that responds to changes in resource availability. This system can be represented by a concentric land-use-zones model that depicts an efficient distribution of land resources around service infrastructure such as landing strips, health centers, or schools. Overall, the demand for land resources varies with changes in household composition. At the beginning of the household’s life cycle, the demand for farmed land is relatively low because the family’s food requirements are minimal. As households grow, the demand increases and agriculture expands. As young adults leave the house for any reason, the demand for cultivated land decreases and the extent of agricultural land use contracts. In addition, the demand for land resources is associated with ecological conditions of the habitats in which production occurs and with distance to the community. Areas with good soils have smaller agricultural plots than areas with poor soils. People living in poor-soil environments manage larger fields but produce less food per unit of area than households with good soils. The probability of an area of becoming agriculture increases in sites farther away from existing cultivation fields, service infrastructure, and homes since areas closer to these features have already been used and are recuperating as fallows. Additionally, people are cultivating in areas that are relatively steeper than older agricultural fields. These findings suggest that indigenous people are expanding agriculture into areas with adverse pedologic and topographic conditions, which may be an indication of overall scarcity of land resources for food production. / text

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Perspective taking (PT) is the ability to imagine perspectives that differ from our own. Understanding what others believe (cognitive PT) and feel (affective PT) allows us to better navigate social situations, and understanding what others see (spatial PT) allows us to better navigate spatial environments. Deficits in spatial, cognitive, and affective PT are apparent in several DSM–5 categorized clinical populations including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). Further, differences in the severity of PT impairments may be related to general mechanisms that support this ability rather than diagnostic categories. However, the general cognitive mechanisms that support PT and whether spatial, cognitive, and affective PT share behavioral co-variance and rely on common neural mechanisms is not yet understood. There are at least two theoretical accounts regarding the association of spatial, cognitive, and affective PT. Common mechanisms accounts propose that the three types of PT are associated because all rely on manipulation of frame-of-reference representations coordinated by dorsal and ventral attentional networks. Alternative proposals suggest that attentional mechanisms support spatial PT, but cognitive and affective PT are supported by a distinct module for mental state reasoning. In this dissertation, I begin by summarizing prior evidence from studies which examined the developmental emergence of PT abilities, behavioral co-variance of PT in neurotypical and clinically diagnosed adults, and neuroimaging studies of PT. Review of the literature indicates mixed findings with support for both common and distinct mechanisms accounts. Thus, the present work probes the association of spatial, cognitive, and affective PT across two experiments. In Experiment 1, a systematic activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of spatial, cognitive, and affective PT and attention switching was conducted. Results indicated no single neural region that was commonly associated with all three types of PT, but several overlapping regions among cognitive and affective PT, and separately among spatial PT and attention switching. In Experiment 2, two behavioral tasks and one self-report measure each of spatial, cognitive, and affective PT, a behavioral measure of attention and general reasoning ability were administered to large sample of young adults. Performance on spatial PT tasks did not significantly covary with cognitive PT, attention, nor two of the three affective PT measures in neurotypical adults. In sum, neural and behavioral experiments provided substantial support for distinct mechanisms accounts and only limited support for common mechanisms accounts of PT in neurotypical adults. / Psychology

Text in Afrikaans / The growth and development of Randfontein is analysed within a spatial perspective. The theoretical point of departure is found in settlement geography and in the spatial economic approach. As continuous perspective, the PWV serves as major metroplitan region, of which Randfontein is a functional subsystem. Information has been obtained from businessmen, industrialists, the local authorities and the inhabitants of Randfontein. The economic sectors (mining, manufacturing and services) are analysed 1n terms of their contribution (or lack of) to the course of the economic realities in town. The behaviouristic approach provides a perspective 1n the sense that behavioral patterns are prominently analysed. A special technique of analyses is used to highlight the economic activities of Randfontein (with the graphic illustrations), by determining strong and weak factors. Problems that have been experienced in terms of the economic activities of Randfontein are identified and possibilities for the future are stipulated. / Educational Studies / M.A. (Geography)

Dagvattenhanteringen är ett aktuellt ämne i dagens stadsplanering. Forskning som denna studie utgår ifrån visar hur dagens traditionella system inte klarar av kommande klimatförändringar med mer och intensivare nederbörd. Dagvatten för med sig föroreningar samt miljögifter som kväve och fosfor, men även tungmetaller som klorid, olja, organiska miljögifter och bakterier. Det traditionella systemet leder dagvatten ofta rakt ut i våra vattendrag via recipienterna då endast 8 procent av Sveriges dagvatten blev renat år 2016. För en djupare förståelse kring detta utgår studien ifrån teorier inom hållbar utveckling, antropocentrism, ekocentrism samt det rumsliga perspektivet. Materialet består av litteratur, artiklar, tidigare forskning samt fyra intervjuer. Informanterna består av en konsult, en som arbetar på en branschorganisation och två från Karlstad kommun för att få förståelse kring dagvattenhantering, hur en hållbar dagvattenhantering definieras och hur Karlstads kommuns vision för dagvattenhanteringen ser ut. I resultatet för denna uppsats har det framkommit att informanternas syn på dagvatten stämmer överens med Naturvårdsverkets riktlinje av hållbar dagvattenhantering. Karlstad kommuns visioner kring dagvatten lever även upp till denna definition. Utifrån materialet kan uppsatsen visa på att informanterna har en bred kunskap kring framtidens klimatpåverkan på dagvatten samt dess åtgärder. Teorierna har kopplats med resultatet där det går att förstå hur det rumsliga perspektivet påverkas beroende på hur dagvatten hanteras och att en intergenerationell antropocentrism samt svag ekocentrism kan utläsas från intervjuerna. / The stormwater management is topical in today’s urban planning. The research that this study is based of shows how today's traditional system can not cope with future climate change with more intense precipitation. Stormwater also spreads pollution and environmental toxins such as nitrogen and phosphorus, but also heavy metals as chloride, oil, organic pollutants and bacteria. The traditional system often leads the stormwater straight into our waters via the recipients. Only 8 percent of Sweden's stormwater was purified in 2016. For a deeper understanding about this, the study is based on theories in sustainable development, anthropocentrism, ecocentrism and the spatial perspective. The study is based on the theories above, previous research as well as four interviews with a consultant, one who works on a industry sector organisation and two people who works on Karlstad kommun. The people are chosen for a deeper understanding about stormwater, how a sustainable stormwater management is defined and how Karlstad kommuns visions for stormwater management are. The result of this thesis has revealed that the informants view of stormwater is in line with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's guideline on sustainable stormwater management. The visions of stormwater in Karlstad kommun also live up to this definition. Based on the empirical data, the essay can show that the informants have a broad knowledge of future climate impact on the subject and its measures. The theories are linked with the result, where it is possible to see how the spatial perspectives are affected depending on how stormwater is managed and that an intergenerational anthropocentrism and weak ecocentrism perspective can be read from the interviews.

Text in Afrikaans / The growth and development of Randfontein is analysed within a spatial perspective. The theoretical point of departure is found in settlement geography and in the spatial economic approach. As continuous perspective, the PWV serves as major metroplitan region, of which Randfontein is a functional subsystem. Information has been obtained from businessmen, industrialists, the local authorities and the inhabitants of Randfontein. The economic sectors (mining, manufacturing and services) are analysed 1n terms of their contribution (or lack of) to the course of the economic realities in town. The behaviouristic approach provides a perspective 1n the sense that behavioral patterns are prominently analysed. A special technique of analyses is used to highlight the economic activities of Randfontein (with the graphic illustrations), by determining strong and weak factors. Problems that have been experienced in terms of the economic activities of Randfontein are identified and possibilities for the future are stipulated. / Educational Studies / M.A. (Geography)

Die Dissertation befasst sich am Beispiel Berlins mit den Wechselwirkungen zwischen der Alterung der Gesellschaft und wachsender Diversität. In sechs Fachartikeln werden methodologische Zugänge zum Zusammenspiel von Alter und Diversität entwickelt und neue empirische Befunde aus qualitativer und quantitativer Empirie vorgestellt. Auf Basis der empirischen Erhebungen wird gezeigt, inwiefern gängige gesellschaftliche Altersbilder den komplexen Lebenslagen im Alter nicht gerecht werden, und entsprechend auch der institutionelle Umgang mit Diversität im Alter vielfach nicht adäquat ist. Daran anknüpfend schlägt die Arbeit eine räumliche Perspektive als methodologischen Zugang für die Analyse des Zusammenspiels von Alter und Diversität vor. Aus dieser räumlichen Perspektive werden drei empirische Beispiele analysiert: Die Nutzung öffentlicher Parks durch ältere Menschen, Umzugspläne und Umzugsmotivationen im Alter, sowie die Bedeutung der räumlichen Nähe für das Entstehen von sozialen Netzwerken in der Nachbarschaft im Alter. Die Arbeit leistet damit sowohl auf empirischer als auch auf analytischer und methodologischer Ebene einen wissenschaftlichen Beitrag: Sie vermittelt zunächst vertiefte Einblicke in die Lebenslagen älterer Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Hintergründen. Auf dieser Basis hinterfragt die Arbeit die implizite Normierung der mittleren Lebensjahre als objektiven Beobachterhorizont und unterstreicht die Notwendigkeit, Diversität mehrdimensional zu denken. Die Arbeit plädiert insofern dafür, die Konzepte Intersektionalität und Superdiversität zu verknüpfen, um auch innerhalb sozialer Gruppen genauer differenzieren zu können. Dabei erlaubt eine räumliche Perspektive einen offenen Blick auf Diversität und ermöglicht es, die bislang getrennten Forschungsfelder der Diversitäts- und Altersforschung zu verbinden. Die Arbeit schließt mit Handlungsempfehlungen für Politik und Planung. / The dissertation deals with the interplay between the aging of society and growing social diversity, drawing on Berlin as a case study. In six papers, the dissertation develops methodological approaches to scrutinize the interplay of age(ing) and diversity and presents new empirical findings from qualitative and quantitative empirical research. Based on the empirical findings, the dissertation shows that prevalent societal images of old age do not do justice to the complex life situations of older people and, accordingly, the institutional handling of older people’s diversity is inadequate. In addition, the thesis develops a spatial perspective as methodological approach to analyze the interplay between age(ing) and diversity. Employing this spatial perspective, the thesis examines three empirical cases: The use of public parks by older people, relocation plans of older people, and the importance of spatial proximity for older people’s social networks in the neighborhood. The dissertation thus makes a scientific contribution on an empirical as well as on an analytical and methodological level: First, it provides in-depth insights into the life situations of older people with different backgrounds. On this basis, the thesis questions the implicit norming of middle age as an objective perspective and underlines the necessity of thinking diversity in a multidimensional way. In this respect, the paper argues for linking the concepts of intersectionality and superdiversity in order to differentiate more precisely within social groups. A spatial perspective allows an open view on diversity and makes it possible to connect the previously separate fields of research on diversity and gerontology. The work concludes with recommendations for policy and planning