If there was ever a question about the subject of this work, I had only to return to the landscape. There was a strangness, a newness, an inevitability to those urban spaces around the city that insisted on my attention. Those landscape, often called suburban, of subdivision homes, strip plazas, malls and big box stores, of arterial roadways and parking lots, ascendant since the middle of the twentieth century, have overwhelmed their host cities and now claimed urban dominance in North America. My interest in the sprawl landscapes started with the homes that occupy them. Sprawl is made up mostly of housing. The essence of this circumferential city of sprawling growth is the home. If there is a unifying element in the wildly-different suburbs built over the last two centuries, it is that they are wrought on the foundation of the suburban home. The idea of the home as centre of the suburb didn’t take root until after the war, when the lack of affordable housing became a matter of national concern. In Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and Family Life, Dolores Hayden argued that by the 1950s, the American suburban house had become a private utopia. The home -- something separate from its neighbours and separate from its community, an ideal in and of itself - is both the beginning and the essence of sprawl. In 1950 the average size of a new home was 800 square feet, 1,500 in 1970, 2,190 in 19981. The home as a symbol of the American, Canadian, indeed the industrialized dream, took hold in the-postwar environment and bore the offspring we call sprawl. Although the sprawl landscape is inextricably connected to the single family home, it has evolved into a post industrial cityscape, a place that is in fact, but not in feel, urban. What is the nature of this strange place? How and why does it differ from the industrial urban landscape? And what are the phenomena that propel the building of this place. I set out to understand this landscape by looking for its proponents, but in the end couldn’t fi nd any. I didn’t talk to anyone - see, hear, or read anything - that explained the changes in the landscape as a function of an urban ideology or even a choice. Duany Plater-Zyberk argue that “[w]e live today in cities and suburbs whose form andcharacter we did not choose. They were imposed upon us, by federal policy, local zoning laws, and the demands of the automobile2”. Most of the literature - books, websites, government and non government studies - bemoan the expansion of the sprawl landscape, and criticize our inability to plan our way out of it. The sprawl landscape, the landscape characterized in large part by the subdivided tract homes is, virtually, without a social or cultural advocate. It is a place that seems to have been built for everyone, without anyone advocating on its behalf. From homes to highways, the landscape, whose photographs make up this work, was for me, the discovery of a place with which I was almost too familiar to see. The images bear witness to the changing urban condition; they are a documentation of our rural spaces as they are annexed by the sprawl that, like a wave, has rolled over virtually every major city in North America.

If there was ever a question about the subject of this work, I had only to return to the landscape. There was a strangness, a newness, an inevitability to those urban spaces around the city that insisted on my attention. Those landscape, often called suburban, of subdivision homes, strip plazas, malls and big box stores, of arterial roadways and parking lots, ascendant since the middle of the twentieth century, have overwhelmed their host cities and now claimed urban dominance in North America. My interest in the sprawl landscapes started with the homes that occupy them. Sprawl is made up mostly of housing. The essence of this circumferential city of sprawling growth is the home. If there is a unifying element in the wildly-different suburbs built over the last two centuries, it is that they are wrought on the foundation of the suburban home. The idea of the home as centre of the suburb didn’t take root until after the war, when the lack of affordable housing became a matter of national concern. In Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and Family Life, Dolores Hayden argued that by the 1950s, the American suburban house had become a private utopia. The home -- something separate from its neighbours and separate from its community, an ideal in and of itself - is both the beginning and the essence of sprawl. In 1950 the average size of a new home was 800 square feet, 1,500 in 1970, 2,190 in 19981. The home as a symbol of the American, Canadian, indeed the industrialized dream, took hold in the-postwar environment and bore the offspring we call sprawl. Although the sprawl landscape is inextricably connected to the single family home, it has evolved into a post industrial cityscape, a place that is in fact, but not in feel, urban. What is the nature of this strange place? How and why does it differ from the industrial urban landscape? And what are the phenomena that propel the building of this place. I set out to understand this landscape by looking for its proponents, but in the end couldn’t fi nd any. I didn’t talk to anyone - see, hear, or read anything - that explained the changes in the landscape as a function of an urban ideology or even a choice. Duany Plater-Zyberk argue that “[w]e live today in cities and suburbs whose form andcharacter we did not choose. They were imposed upon us, by federal policy, local zoning laws, and the demands of the automobile2”. Most of the literature - books, websites, government and non government studies - bemoan the expansion of the sprawl landscape, and criticize our inability to plan our way out of it. The sprawl landscape, the landscape characterized in large part by the subdivided tract homes is, virtually, without a social or cultural advocate. It is a place that seems to have been built for everyone, without anyone advocating on its behalf. From homes to highways, the landscape, whose photographs make up this work, was for me, the discovery of a place with which I was almost too familiar to see. The images bear witness to the changing urban condition; they are a documentation of our rural spaces as they are annexed by the sprawl that, like a wave, has rolled over virtually every major city in North America.

The main ambition of this study is to investigate and examine how informants between the age of 18-26 experience the suburbs. Furthermore, my study is based on three main questions which are 1. How does the informants describe growing up and live in the suburbs? 2. What experience does the informants have regarding the interaction with people who lives outside the suburbs? Does living in the suburbs affect the daily life of the informants, such as the workplace or education? The main motive to this study is my ambition to examine if the picture that often are described in the media are true according to the studies informants. Point to be noted is that my study is not about the representation of the suburbs by the media, rather it is about the informants’ subjective reflections about living in the suburbs. The empirical data have shown some similarities of the informants in terms of describing how it is to live and being raised in the suburbs. Furthermore, the empirical data have shown that some positive aspects regarding living in the suburbs. The positive aspects in this chase are for example belonging, acceptance and unity which the informants have described. On the other hand, some of the informants in the study describe some negative aspects regarding living in the suburbs. The difficulty in this case is about attitudes towards the suburbs and the people who are living there and exclusion for example in the labor market or in the workplace. The theoretical perspectives which I have used in my study are theories about stigma by Erving Goffman, discrimination, and marginalization.

The purpose of this study was to find out what some young adults who have grown up in Husby themselves for perception of the area, what do they think they brought with them of their childhood there, and find out what they think others do not live in Husby has view of the area. In our study we also tried to find out what the young adults raised in Husby think about the media's influence on public perception of the area Husby, and what they think about the neighborhood's future. The main results that we believe we have come up with is that the media seems to have a big role in the creation of our beliefs. The respondents indicate that they think the media portrays an unfair picture of the suburb and its inhabitants. We believe it is very important that people meet to avoid the categories "us" and "them" to be formed. We have also seen that the boys stamp as suburban guys have both advantages and disadvantage depending on context. Several of the guys expressing a frustration that they sometimes needs to take responsibility for the actions of others just because of their appearance or the area they live in. They also tell that they mostly have negative reactions when they say that they come from Husby. Sometimes they feel that they are not beeing seen for the person they are. Some positive things they have brought with them from their childhood in Husby is the multicultural mix and they have learned to meet people from different cultures. Other benefits they have brought with them is the love and the community that childhood was marked by. There are different opinions about Husby's future in our interviews. Everyone likes the area but many of the interviewees say that they do not want to live there in the future when they start families. because they want their children to grow up in a more integrated setting than what they think Husby is today.

This study was conducted to obtain information about a mentoring program through the eyes of eleventh and twelfth grade student mentors. These students were able to tell what needed to be known about the strengths and weaknesses of this mentoring program and what they felt needed to be done to make the program more effective and meaningful. This study will serve to inform school leaders who may be planning a peer mentoring program at an educational institution.

On September 4, 2013, two men were shot in the suburb Biskopsgården in Gothenburg. This was the catalysts to a very problematic autumn in both Biskopsgården as in another suburb, Hisingsbacka. The local media reports of the events were very through, where the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten took a leading role. It’s these reports which form the basis, the so called material of our essay. Our purpose with this essay is to examine which kind of medial message about the suburbs and their inhibitors the articles sends out to Göteborgs-Posten’s readers. We did this by putting our material against three issues, the first one was how Göteborgs-Posten did portray the suburbs when it came to; choice of words and phrases, angles and how the photos was composed. The second one was if Göteborgs-Posten had failed in its objective reporting when it came to; an “us versus them” perspective, which kind of medial message was sent out and if the journalist took a subjective position in the article. We also examined which actors were heard and what they represent in the society? We approached this study in a qualitative method way because we felt that we needed to examine the theme in its depth. The result were then linked to our three theories which were; framing, stigma and representation theory. The results from our study showed that our first thoughts about the subject did not match the reality of Göteborg-Posten’s reports. The medial image that was sent out wasn’t that negative as we first expected. The result shows that most of the articles in our sample had not a stigmatized tone or gave a misleading media image of the suburbs. In the cases that did send out a negative image it was mostly in the form of words and phrases. Other results obtained by our content analysis of the Göteborgs-Posten’s reporting on the subject was, for the most part were Swedes in the judicial system followed by affected immigrants who took the most place in the articles. Another interesting result was that both negative and positive stigma was encountered in the articles.

This research examines the challenges and barriers to service provision that newcomer settlement service providers (SSPs) encounter in Peel Region, Ontario. Semi-structured interviews are used to examine if suburban SSPs in the cities of Brampton, Mississauga and town of Caledon, encounter challenges related to providing services to both adult and youth newcomers. The findings indicate that government funding, and the conditions tied to that funding, are the greatest challenge for SSPs in Peel. Funding restrictions also produced challenges related to the structure and continuity of services and competition between service providers. Due to Peel's varied geography, transportation and organization location are challenges for some rural service providers. Service specific challenges are encountered largely in providing employment and mental health services. Reconsidering government policies around funding for settlement services is necessary. It is recommended that both SSPs and municipalities be integrated into settlement policy decisions.

This research examines the challenges and barriers to service provision that newcomer settlement service providers (SSPs) encounter in Peel Region, Ontario. Semi-structured interviews are used to examine if suburban SSPs in the cities of Brampton, Mississauga and town of Caledon, encounter challenges related to providing services to both adult and youth newcomers. The findings indicate that government funding, and the conditions tied to that funding, are the greatest challenge for SSPs in Peel. Funding restrictions also produced challenges related to the structure and continuity of services and competition between service providers. Due to Peel's varied geography, transportation and organization location are challenges for some rural service providers. Service specific challenges are encountered largely in providing employment and mental health services. Reconsidering government policies around funding for settlement services is necessary. It is recommended that both SSPs and municipalities be integrated into settlement policy decisions.

Esta dissertação se propõe a fazer um balanço da produção editorial de literatura existente na periferia paulistana a partir de um estudo crítico de 39 obras, entre romances, contos, crônicas e poesias, publicadas no período de 1988 a 2012. Agrupadas em duas vertentes, 19 obras pertencem ao segmento denominado Literatura Hip Hop, todos em prosa escritos por seis autores com destaque para Ferréz, Alessandro Buzo e Sacolinha. Já os 20 títulos vinculados à corrente da Literatura Periférica são todos de poesia e os autores e autoras são, ou foram vinculados aos dois saraus literários mais antigos Da periferia de São Paulo: Cooperifa e Binho, ambos da da zona sul da capital. A obra de Sergio Vaz mereceu destaque neste segmento. Procurei, dessa forma, refletir sobre uma ampla produção e não sobre uma obra especificamente, ou um determinado autor, ou, ainda, um pequeno grupo de obras ou autores, como até então as pesquisas acadêmicas sobre o tema têm feito. Orientado pelos conceitos de estrutura de sentimento e cultura emergente, de Raymond Williams, analisei as obras a partir de seus aspectos internos, ressaltando suas características mais gerais em função das quais se estabeleceram as segmentações acima mencionadas. Levantei aspectos relacionados às temáticas, aos gêneros e subgêneros, às experimentações estéticas e ao padrão editorial. O resultado é um trabalho híbrido entre a historiografia e os estudos literários, orientado pela perspectiva dos Estudos Culturais e que oferece uma apreciação estética da literatura produzida na periferia da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. / This essay proposes a balance of the editorial production of literature on the suburb of São Paulo based on a critical analysis of 39 works among novels, tales, chronicles and poesy, published on the period between 1988 and 2012. Gathered in two groups, 19 of the works belong to the section named Hip Hop Literature, all of them written in prose by six writers with emphasis to Ferréz Alessandro Buzo and Sacolinha. The other 20 titles are entailed to the section of Peripheral Literature are poetry and the writers are or were connected to two most ancient literary soirees of São Paulo: Cooperifa and Binho, spotted around the suburb of the southern part of the capital. The work of Sergio Vaz is noteworthy on this section. I sought this way to ponder about a wide production, not only about a specific work or a certain writer, or also about a narrow group of works or writers, as the academic researches have done about the subject till then. Guided by the concepts of structure of feeling and emergent culture of Raymond Williams, I analyzed the works based on their internal aspects, emphasizing their general characteristics according to which were settled the sections previously mentioned. I collected aspects related to the themes, genders and subgenres, to the esthetic trials and to the editorial sample. The result is a hybrid work between the historiography and the literary studies, guided by the Cultural Studies perspective and that offers an esthetic appreciation of the literature produced on the suburb of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo.

Durant plusieurs décennies, au sein de ce qui s'est appelé la « banlieue rouge », Ivry-sur-Seine faisait figure de « bastion » modèle pour le Parti Communiste Français. Le communisme municipal ivryen avait fait de ses cités ouvrières des espaces laboratoires au service d'un creuset d'affiliation sociopolitique particulièrement efficace. Jusqu'au tournant des années 1980, aux cités Maurice Thorez et Youri Gagarine, les résultats électoraux enregistrés par les différents représentants communistes en ont attesté. Avec la remise en cause du modèle de politisation fondé sur l'écosystème industriel, le renouvellement des générations pose avec acuité la question des conditions de reproduction d'une affiliation sociopolitique favorable aux représentants communistes. Une approche ethnographique sur la longue durée a permis de renseigner cette question. Depuis le milieu des années 1980, la trajectoire sociopolitique contrastée des deux quartiers atteste des ruptures infra-communales touchant ce type de territoire de la banlieue parisienne. Dans le quartier Youri Gagarine, la majorité des anciennes familles ouvrières a été remplacée par les nouveaux milieux populaires essentiellement composés de populations issues de l'immigration. Entretenant une historicité tout à fait différente à l'égard de l'étiquette « communiste(s)», les nouvelles générations participent, parfois activement, d'une contestation de l'ancienne autorité politique locale. À l'inverse, dans le quartier Maurice Thorez, situé au cœur du centre-ville, les descendants des familles ivryennes les plus proches de l'appareil partisan et/ou municipal ont maintenu résidence. Dans ce quartier, autour d'une endocratie politique locale, se maintiennent des liens communautaires fonctionnant de manière relativement indépendante de l'ancien encadrement partisan. Pour de nombreuses familles ivryennes appartenant à la classe moyenne, le maintien d'une certaine autorité communiste facilite leur accompagnement social, politique et électoral des métamorphoses contemporaines du communisme municipal. / For decades, Ivry-sur-Seine was seen as a model Communist stronghold within the Paris ‘Red Belt'. The particular brand of communism practiced by Ivry's municipal government had turned its working-class housing estates into laboratories directed towards the production of a singularly efficient political affiliation system. Until the watershed of the 1980s, electoral results for the various communist representatives in the Maurice Thorez and Yuri Gagarin housing estates seemed to corroborate this. The decline of the politicization model born of industrialization as well as the generation gap have radically undermined the conditions in which a socio-political affiliation system favourable to communist representatives can survive, however. The choice of a long-term ethnographic approach can give us insight into this phenomenon. Since the middle of the 1980s, the contrasting socio-political evolution of the Thorez and Gagarin allotments has testified to the intra-municipal disruption that affects this type of suburban Parisian territory. In the Yuri Gagarin area, the majority of older working-class families have been replaced with a new working-class population essentially stemming from immigration. Often unaware of the rich history of communism in their municipality, these new generations are sometimes actively involved in the challenging of the older local political authority. Downtown, on the contrary, the descendants of the families that were closest to the local party machine have maintained residency in the Maurice Thorez area. Community links have survived around a local political “endocracy” that works relatively independently from the older partisan frame. For many middle-class families living in Ivry, the maintenance of a certain communist authority makes it easier to accept the social, political, and electoral transformations of contemporary municipal communism.