Spurred by changing retail and development patterns, as well as continuous suburban growth, greyfield sites can be found at the heart of most postwar suburbs in North American municipalities. Ranging in definition, greyfields are best described as an “underused, economically obsolete, retail tract located in an inner ring suburb that requires significant public and private involvement to curtail decline” (Feronti, 2003, p.11). However, tied to demographic trends and increased municipal urbanization, these vacated retail sites are positioned well for redevelopment. Yet, the redevelopment process of these sites is fraught with impeding and facilitating factors that can have significant implications for redevelopment options and viability. As such, research questions considered were: Do municipalities address greyfield challenges and opportunities? What factors impede and facilitate greyfield redevelopment? This thesis also asks these questions within the context of the City of Edmonton’s current policy and existing built form, and asked: How should greyfields be planned in the City of Edmonton? This thesis attempts to answer these questions through a review and analysis of existing literature, case studies (Belmar in Lakewood, Colorado and Century Park in Edmonton, Alberta) and through primary research conducted with key stakeholders. The research found that municipalities were largely unacquainted with the challenges and opportunities of greyfield redevelopment. Where support guidelines did exist, they were largely aspirational and lacked consideration for the unique impeding and facilitating factors of greyfield redevelopment. It was found that impeding factors to greyfield redevelopment ranged from administrative hurdles fraught with inexperience in greyfield redevelopment, to financial and land economic constraints. Facilitating factors were found in collaborative stakeholder consultation, municipal and administrative leadership, and a range of supportive fiscal mechanisms. Lastly, ten recommendations to facilitate greyfield redevelop within the City of Edmonton were discussed.

Deeper understanding of family health and support after childbirth from the perspective of first-time parents and their informal support network is needed. Postpartum experiences and health concerns of first-time mothers and fathers and, discourses on sexuality and informal support after childbirth were explored in low-income, suburban areas in Ilala, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Individual qualitative interviews with first-time mothers (n=10) and fathers (n=10), and 14 focus group discussions with first-time parents (n=40) and informal support persons (n=42) provided the data, which were analyzed through qualitative content and discourse analysis. First-time parents’ areas of concern were newborn care and hygiene, infant feeding, handling crying infant, maternal nutrition and hygiene, uncertain body changes for the mother and, sexuality. The mothers were burdened with caring responsibilities and fathers felt neglected and excluded from the care of the mother and infant after childbirth, both by the families and the health care system. Sexuality after childbirth created tension between new parents due to the understanding that abstinence would protect child health during the breastfeeding period, which could be several years. Women’s adherence to sexual abstinence was more emphasized compared to men’s. Men’s engagement with other sex partners and the risk of contraction HIV was a threat to family health. First-time parents drew on support from both informal and formal sources. Informal support networks played a major role in providing information, materials, guidance and supervision while conveying stereotypic gender norms. Contradictions in the messages to parents within and between the support systems created uncertainties that might have negative implications for family health. Poor parents and those who did not adherence to the social norms were less likely to get informal support than others were. There is a need for information and practical guidance on basic aspects of care for the mother and infant, male involvement, and the importance of social support to first-time parents, as new parents face physical, social and relational challenges after childbirth. The link between the health care system and informal networks need to be strengthened to enable them to complement each other in promoting family health after child health.

This research draws upon the writings of Michel Foucault and a range of governmentality texts to problematise those planning techniques and practices promulgated in an attempt to produce particular ideals of community. To accomplish this I have focused predominantly on the discourses pertaining to the Golden Grove Development. The histories I re-construct from these discourses demonstrate how ideals of community have been constituted and how they act as technologies of government. The goals of these governmental technologies, I argue, were the normalisation of particular suburban subjectivities, with the intent to maximise economic gains and minimise financial, temporal, spatial and social risks. / PhD Doctorate

This research draws upon the writings of Michel Foucault and a range of governmentality texts to problematise those planning techniques and practices promulgated in an attempt to produce particular ideals of community. To accomplish this I have focused predominantly on the discourses pertaining to the Golden Grove Development. The histories I re-construct from these discourses demonstrate how ideals of community have been constituted and how they act as technologies of government. The goals of these governmental technologies, I argue, were the normalisation of particular suburban subjectivities, with the intent to maximise economic gains and minimise financial, temporal, spatial and social risks. / PhD Doctorate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 2007. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-321).

Lic.-avh. Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 2 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2005.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: Bernard L. Herman, Dept. of Art History. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references p. 44. Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.