Bangladesh is known for two things: poverty and floods. It is a delta country burdened with draining large amounts of water from surrounding countries and a heavy monsoon season that have caused numerous severe floods with large scale destruction throughout the country. Rapid urbanization and migration have put an immense pressure on the urban centres. Dhaka, the capital city and the largest urban centre of the country, is struggling to provide adequate housing and basic services for the urban poor who are forced to find accommodation in the flood-prone slums and squatter settlements of the city. The alarming rate of population growth further aggravates the problem of environmental degradation which in turn causes more severe floods. As one of the most vulnerable countries for climate change, Bangladesh must work towards providing flood-resilient, safe and affordable housing for all its citizens. My response was the LIFT (Low Income Flood-proof Technology) House: an affordable, flood-resilient housing solution for the low income families of Dhaka. The LIFT house consists of two amphibious structures that are capable of adapting to rising water levels. The amphibious structures float up on buoyant foundations during floods, and return to ground level when water recedes. It is a sustainable, environmentally friendly house that provides all basic services to its residents without connection to the city service systems, through the use of indigenous materials and local skills. This thesis documents the research, design, and construction of the LIFT house with funding provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The LIFT house was completed on January 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and has become a symbol for the city’s desire to provide sustainable, low-cost accommodations that are protected from floods.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 318-331) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-212). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Today for the first time in history, over 1.15 billion people live in urban slums. Of these, 581 million live in Asia, 120 million in Latin America, and 199 million in sub-Saharan Africa (UN-HABITAT 2010). Over 90% of the urban slum dwellers live in the cities of low income countries under severe deprivation of urban services such as improved drinking water, adequate sanitation and shelter (UNHABITAT 2006a), (UN-HABITAT 2010), (Martínez, Mboup et al. 2008), (Cross, Morel 2005) and (Brocklehurst, Malhotra et al. 2005). This deprivation of the poor has been associated with bias meted against them (the poor) by the public and private sectors. Unless this bias and subsequent deprivations are dealt with, new constraints will always emerge to perpetuate the deprivations (Solo, Perez et al. 1993,). However, can certain approaches by a specific kind of organisations address the bias? This research was encouraged by the success of faith based organizations (FBOs) in treating the poor communities well and their success in delivering social services to the poor in America (White House. 2001), (Sherman 2003) and (Wuthnow, Hackett et al. 2004). The role played by human values in influencing day to day behaviour was encouraging too (Schwartz 1992), (Schwartz 2007), (Williams Jr. 1979), (Schwartz, Melech et al. 2001), and (Rokeach 1973). Reviewed literature show that the people who identify with self-transcendence values are predisposed to treat other people well and also work towards the welfare of other people (Schwartz 1992), (Schwartz 1994), and (Schwartz, Melech et al. 2001). The knowledge gap about the role that faith based organizations and human values could play towards addressing the deprivations of the urban poor in a low income country context led to the research question: ―how could faith based organizations possibly contribute towards the delivery of urban services to the poor in a low-income country context‖. To answer the research question, a case study strategy was adopted and data gathered from three FBOs in Nairobi (Kenya), using 29 in-depth interviews, 8 observations and 41 case study documents. The case studies were selected after a preliminary survey involving 256 telephone interviews and 135 subsequent self-administered mail questionnaires to probable organizations. Qualitative data from the selected case studies was analysed using the thematic analysis approach to understand the FBOs‘ involvement with urban services to the poor. Data from the Portraits Value Questionnaire (58 questionnaires) was also analysed to determine the values orientation of the FBOs‘ personnel. This inquiry found that the FBOs‘ staff oriented with self-transcendence values and also treated the poor well. The FBOs were also involved with urban services for the poor through infrastructural programmes (or projects) and the empowerment of the poor. As a result, the poor were enabled both to access and also afford the urban services, lobby, advocate and demand for urban services. These findings have illuminated the possibility of Public-Faith Partnerships in the delivery of urban services for the poor and the need for personal values to be central in staff recruitment towards eliminating bias against the poor and the subsequent deprivations.

Studies across low- and middle-income countries document quality shortfalls in both public and private sector health care. They notably highlight a “know-do” gap in primary care delivery: doctors possess requisite medical knowledge but do not expend adequate effort to treat patients. In explaining low quality, researchers have largely emphasized transactional aspects of health care, viewing doctors’ actions as shaped by their skills and incentives to perform and arguing that the micro-institutions that drive doctors’ clinical behavior are faulty. In contrast, in this project I analyze the social and political conditions in which public sector doctors deliver primary care in urban India. Viewing the doctors as both medical practitioners and state agents, I argue that health service outcomes depend on how doctors interpret policy mandates and relate to the communities they serve. I conceptualize their actions not just as medical transactions but also as social acts, shaped by the meanings they attach to their experiences and informed by the institutional history and social imaginary of state-provided care. During a year of ethnographic fieldwork (2013-2014), I observed clinical and non-clinical encounters of doctors employed in municipal government clinics and hospitals in a midsize Indian city; interviewed doctors, other health workers, elected officials, administrators, and staff of non-governmental organizations; and examined policies and administrative arrangements for urban health care since India’s independence. I demonstrate that municipal doctors confront a trifecta of challenges: a legal obligation to deliver urban primary care from within an outdated urban governance structure; a largely unregulated private sector that residents widely prefer; and rising commercialization in medical practice, under which specialized medicine has crowded out primary care in popular ideas about “good” medical care. Unable to remedy the low legitimacy of their services, doctors circumscribe their actions, seeking, as one doctor put it, only to ensure the ordinary. My findings suggest that transaction-specific interventions to improve quality, such as focused on skills and incentives alone, may do little to circumvent these local effects of the policy neglect of urban health care.

Yue Yin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-106). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iii / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Literature Review --- p.6 / The Poor in the Market Transition --- p.6 / Political Impacts in Collective Era and Beyond --- p.8 / Cultural Capital´ة Effects on Stratification in Western Countries --- p.13 / The Analysis on Habitus: Szelenyi's Researches in Eastern Europe --- p.18 / The Transfer Mechanism of Cultural Capital --- p.22 / The Poverty Cycle: Lewis's Culture of Poverty --- p.28 / Chapter III. --- Methodological Design --- p.31 / Chapter IV. --- Before 1978，the Idol of Collectivism --- p.33 / Influences from Parents' Generation --- p.36 / Occlusive Living Circumstance and Personality --- p.40 / Insensitive to Education --- p.42 / Satisfaction with the Lives --- p.46 / Distributed Education Chances and Good Job Positions --- p.49 / Send Down Recommendation to Colleges --- p.51 / Big State-Owned Factories and Good Job Positions --- p.57 / Work In the Factories --- p.60 / Value Attached to Hard Work --- p.61 / Lack of Confidence and Impetus --- p.63 / Ineffectual Intercommunication --- p.66 / Limited Horizon --- p.70 / Chapter V. --- After 1978，Under Marketization --- p.75 / Reformation of Enterprises and Its Effects on My Interviewees --- p.76 / The Unconsciousness to the Coming of Crisis --- p.77 / Good Working Ability? --- p.82 / After Lay-off --- p.85 / Chapter VI. --- The Next Generation --- p.87 / Chapter VII. --- Discussion --- p.92 / Chapter VIII. --- Appendices --- p.98 / Chapter IX. --- References --- p.100

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 240-253). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "May, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-66). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-299). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-162). Also available on the World Wide Web.