published_or_final_version / Geography / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / abstract / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

This dissertation examines the works of four Chicana/o writers who write about Los Angeles, California urban spaces, and how the literary protagonist experiences the material realities of everyday life. The objective of this dissertation is to look at the mechanisms used by the narrator and the meaning they transmit through the description of urban space. David Harvey's theory on the Urbanization of Consciousness is used to analyze the spatial transformation taking place in Los Angeles from the 1960's to the 1980's. Moreover, I utilize Michael de Certeau's explanations of how the practices of everyday life influence the author's cartographic imaginary. These practices are manifested in the narrator's description of the physical and social space and they convey an ideological message that points to the process of urbanization of consciousness in a capitalist society. Additionally, it draws together the work of important theorists such as Henri Lefebvre, Rodolfo Acuña, Mario Barrera, and James Diego Vigil. Chapter one introduces the theoretical framework that is used throughout this study. It establishes a definition of the urbanization of consciousness and how the main characters' interact with money, family, community, class, and the State. Chapter two explains how the rapid urban development in East Los Angeles during the 1960's shaped the characters' upbringings in the novel Their Dogs Came With Them (2007) by Helena María Viramontes. Chapter three analyzes how urban space molds the consciousness of the individual in Always Running, La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (1993) by Luis J. Rodríguez. Chapter four examines the architectural imagination in the novel of Alejandro Morales' Caras viejas y vino nuevo (1975). Chapter five studies the urbanization of gang violence among Chicana/o youth in the work of Yxta Maya Murray, Locas (1997). My investigation leads me to conclude that the Chicana/o community became urbanized when its members began to mirror its fragmented environment and when they began to see themselves as wage workers.

Abstract: The study deals with the interplay between migration and metropolitan growth in Peru during the last decades. The key question is to what extent Peru's rural-urban migration and rapid urban growth is triggered by opportunities within the formal and informal sectors in the growing metropolis of Lima. Aggregated data about migration have been related to information of socioeconomic and geographical conditions in rural and urban areas. Multivariate models of interregional migration are constructed and tested. A study of the life paths of a limited group of migrants has generated hypotheses about causes of migration and the assimilation of migrants in the city. Migration is related to historical changes in Peruvian society and to structural and individual conditions affecting migrants. The historical transformation of the rural and urban sectors is one important precondition for the increasing rural-urban migration in 20th century Peru, including the declining importance of the traditional socio-economic structure (the hacienda system and the peasant communities), population growth, and the increasing importance of capitalistic forms of exchange and production as well as of interregional interaction and non-agrarian sectors. Regional disparities appear to be the most important structural condition affecting migration in Peru, in accordance with the so-called gap-theories, which indicate that changes and conditions in urban areas are more important for temporal and spatial variations in the migration pattern, than corresponding changes in rural areas. Furthermore, young and better educated individuals are overrepresented in the migrant groups and outinigration seems to be highest from rural areas with well-established urban contacts. Urban pull is more important than rural push. The study reveals that personal contacts are essential as a generator of migration, for information flows and for the migrants' adaptation to the urban society. In general, the rural-urban migration can be regarded as a rational adaptation to living conditions in rural and urban areas, since most migrants seem to have a higher living standard in the cities in comparison with their former situation in rural areas. A significant conclusion is that informal solutions are important for solving migrants' housing and subsistence problems. The informal sector is interpreted as an integrated and often dynamic element in the urban economy, rather than as an indicator of over-urbanization. The study provides empirical support for a conjecture termed metropolitan informal sector pull, in which the informal sector of Lima is a major part of the magnet that pulls people from the rural areas and generates metropolitan growth and migration in Peru. / <p>Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1988 ;</p><p></p><p></p><p></p> / digitalisering@umu

Urban open spaces are of strategic importance to the quality of life of our increasingly urbanized society. Trees and related vegetation are planted and managed within the communities and cities to create or add value to the busy lives of the city dwellers. Trees in towns and cities form an important part of complex urban ecosystems and provide significant ecosystem services and benefits for urban dwellers, for example: reducing particulate pollution, carbon sequestration, decreasing air temperature, decreasing water runoff, aesthetic value and an increase in human health. Trees are solarpowered technology that can help restore balance to dysfunctional urban ecosystems. Trees form strands in the urban fabric that connect people to nature and to each other. The urban environment puts tremendous strain on trees by trenching, limited space for root growth and emission of pollutants into the atmosphere, water and soil. The problem is that the real impact of the urban environment on the trees within our community is unknown. The aim of this investigation was to assess the overall anthropogenic and environmental impacts on urban trees by measuring the tree vitality of Acacia karroo using chlorophyll fluorescence kinetics (JIP-test) and the leaf water potential using a pressure chamber. Tree vitality was quantified as the chlorophyll fluorescence-based performance index (PIABS)T. ree vitality measurements were also correlated with soil physical and chemical data. In the comparative study, an urbanization gradient approach was followed in which results of trees in rural areas were regarded as controls. The gradient approach is used worldwide and provides a background for questions of ecological structure and function. The urbanization gradient was quantified using the V-I-S model, based on % cover of vegetation, impervious surface and soil. Additionally, a model to determine the monetary value of trees in urban environments (SATAM) was tested. All this information could eventually contribute to develop an urban tree management program for Potchefstroom. It was evident from the current study that urbanization has a negative impact on tree vitality. The leaf water potential of a tree was, however, not necessarily negatively impacted upon. Although trees in urban environments did not always have a high vitality (PIABS)t, hey still played a major role in the urban environment. According to the tree appraisal method (SATAM), some of these trees have a value of R60 000. / Thesis (M. Environmental Science (Ecological Remediation and Sustainable Utilisation))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This thesis is concerned with distributive politics arising from land development and territorial changes in reform China. It adopts a historical institutionalist approach in examining the evolution of rural institutions, with a specific focus on the rural shareholding cooperative and the village joint stock company. It argues that despite the move towards the market in the reform era, core elements of the state socialist redistributive economy imposed upon rural society in the Maoist era have been sustained and reproduced in the two reform-era institutions. The re-collectivisation of the village through the shareholding reform has provided the institutional foundations for the continued deployment of redistributive power and the reproduction of paternalistic relations that generate expectations of the fulfilment of an implicit social contract. This thesis argues that while the reforms have helped to hold the village together in the midst of drastic territorial change, the very operation of the institutions may be generating endogenous pressures for change as they heighten propensity of power abuse and produce unequal distributive outcomes. These internal contradictions were exacerbated by the checun gaizhi reform, which abolished grassroots organisations of self-governance and created semi-private entities, which by their straddled nature were not subjected to any effective mechanisms of checks and balances. This privatisation of rural governance has profound implications on rural outcomes. By comparing and contrasting the divergent trajectories undertaken by three villages that shared similar characteristics, this thesis sheds light on some of the deeply problematic aspects of rural governance in contemporary China.

Over the next few decades, urban populations in Pakistan and India are projected to increase by 350 million. Considered to be a critical driver of economic modernization and sociopolitical progress, urbanization can catalyze numerous benefits. However, the extent to which it proves beneficial is contingent on the manner in which national and sub-national leaders respond to the multitude of challenges associated with urban spatial expansion and population growth. This thesis outlines key policy priorities for Indian and Pakistani leaders and puts forth recommendations that aim to optimize urban expansion for greater prosperity and livability. It employs a comprehensive set of methodologies to examine the true extent and characteristics of urbanization in India and Pakistan. On the basis of existing and projected dynamics of urbanization and identification of key factors that currently impede the leveraging of urbanization, it offers a range of policy proposals that aim to leverage urban growth through optimizing urban planning processes and governance, urban mobility and the spatial distribution of urban populations.