Theses / Thèses
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Item Étude de l'anthracnose du manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) et son agent pathogène Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz f. sp. manihoti Henn(Université de Clermont-Ferrand II, Clermont-Ferrand, FR, 1987) Makabila, C.Item Smallholder dairy production and marketing of milk in Hai District, Tanzania(University of Reading, Reading, GB, 1993) Mdoe, N.; Department of Agricultural Economics and Management, University of ReadingItem Sustainable development : the story of the Ivory Park EcoCity(Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, CA, 2005-09) Carman, TaraItem Being young in Old Town : youth subjectivities and associational life in Bamenda(2008) Fokwang, JudeYoung people are redefining their place in society as they face challenges of AIDS, unemployment, and the failure of nation-building in a post-independence Africa. This study explores youth responses to socio-economic and political marginalization and the kinds of individual and collective agency needed for negotiating transition to social adulthood. It is an ethnographic investigation about what it means to be young in Bamenda, the north-west province of Cameroon. Although biologically adults, young men and women may be far from achieving adult-like independence.Item Community-based conservation and protected areas in Namibia : social-ecological linkages for biodiversity(Natural Resource Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, CA, 2008) Hoole, ArthurThis study investigates the premise that national park designations and management in Southern Africa decoupled indigenous communities from their local ecosystems. The research explores ways and means to recouple communities and national parks to promote biodiversity. The relationships are characterized between Namibia’s community-based resource management program (CBNRM), conservancies, and protected areas system, with particular reference to the Ehi-rovipuka Conservancy and Etosha National Park in northern Namibia. This is a sparsely populated, arid region, marked by recurrent drought, a stunning wildlife spectacle, and ethnically diverse, communal area villages. The nature and consequences of decoupled social-ecological systems between community and national park are elucidated. Institutional linkages and interplay are identified and described in and between community-based conservation and national parks. Alternative approaches are suggested to the strict protection regimes that typify IUCN Category II National Parks. A qualitative research approach is employed, featuring a case study and several different and interrelated methods of data collection and analysis. Fieldwork in Namibia was completed over a 6 month period. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 51 different key informants representing a cross-section of NGOs, private enterprise, international donors, Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism, communities and conservancies. Structured interviews were conducted in the case study community of Otjokavare with 40 Herero villagers in the Otjiherero language, employing a community interpreter and field assistant. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods were also employed, including participant observation, memory mapping by 3 village elders, local knowledge mapping by 6 village men and women, and a national park and conservation awareness exercise by 34 Grade 7 pupils at the community primary school. Field research findings were supplemented and triangulated with park and wildlife legislative and policy analyses, as well as the extensive study of regional literature and data sources. Findings reveal an historic and systemic decoupling of social and ecological linkages by national parks in Southern Africa. Colonial wildlife and protected areas legislation, policies and management practice decoupled indigenous peoples from places and resources they traditionally occupied and used in protected areas, iv criminalizing their use of wildlife. The separate removals of Hai||om Bushman and Herero communities from Etosha National Park by central government are presented as compelling examples. Herero elders in Otjokavare shared their memories in narratives and maps, telling a story of forced relocation from and denied return to their ancestral place in the park. Namibia’s CBNRM program and the creation of conservancies on communal lands have recently devolved rights in wildlife to communal area villagers, fostering institutions for community-based conservation. This has been an evolutionary process spanning a 25 year period. Institutional interplay, multiple level linkages and partnerships have proven to be important in this process. Dense social networks of national NGOs, working in support of communal conservancies, and mediating international donor funding, are especially noteworthy. But, partnerships and supportive networks in community-based conservation do not yet bridge the gap between communities and national parks, which still emphasize a command-and-control approach to wildlife management. Villagers of the Ehi-rovipuka Conservancy identify a range of prospective benefits they would like to enjoy from living next to the Etosha National Park. These are then portrayed as potential mechanisms in a model for recoupling social-ecological linkages between communities and national parks. Key attributes of community and natural resources are suggested for effective monitoring, as are incentives and sanctions, to achieve biodiversity and sustainable development outcomes. Dynamic and mobile community-conserved areas, integrated conservation corridors, integrated communityconserved areas and state protected areas are envisioned within a collaborative, adaptive and wide area landscape approach to biodiversity conservation. These represent alternatives to the strict protection regimes of IUCN Category II National Parks, emphasizing ‘community’ and community-based conservation, in contrast to typologies of park and protected area.Item Community-based urban environmental management : a case study of low-income settlements in Delhi, India(University of Toronto, 2008) Sider, David R.; Graduate Department of Geography and Program in Planning and Centre for EnvironmentThis thesis investigates community-based approaches to environmental management in a low-income area of Delhi, India. The research site consists of several neighbourhoods within Sultanpuri Resettlement Colony, a sprawling residential area situated on the northwestern fringe of the city that was established by the government during the 1970s for relocation of squatter households. Given that the level of planned infrastructure and services is fairly basic in Sultanpuri, the study focuses on collective action under the PLUS Project, a recent community-NGO-government collaboration to improve water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, and local municipal parks. The study is motivated by the general lack of documentation about environmental conditions in low-income settlements in urban India and the limited academic attention thus far. Further rationale is the largely unanswered matter of whether, and how, the urban poor can be reasonably expected to act together, either by mutual-help or with external assistance, to achieve a better-quality environment. The research design is a mixed-method case study comprising a community-wide household survey; several smaller purposive surveys of local residents; semi-structured interviews with NGO staff, government officials, and other informants; and a literature search. Social capital and collective action theories are utilized to characterize the prevailing social dynamics in the study community and to assess the inherent potential for collective action around local environmental management. Empirical findings show a somewhat low level of social capital in Sultanpuri, as evidenced by patterns of informal social interaction, associational life, and generalized trust. The outcomes of various collective activities, moreover, are found to be partial, in accord with social capital theory. However, the research highlights a number of shortcomings to the explanatory power of the social capital paradigm, in particular, the importance of human capital for collective action, and also raises important questions about the efficacy of the bottom-up, consensual approach to development in the dominant discourse.Item Embeddedness and the dynamics of strategy processes : the case of AMUL Cooperative, India(McGill University, Montreal, QC, CA, 2010) Ghosh, AbhijitStrategy scholars point to the need for developing more dynamic views of strategy formation that can transcend the paradox between agency and change. This thesis sets out to understand the embeddedness of strategy making, which recognizes the agency of actors in interaction with intra- and extra-organizational contexts. Social enterprises provide an ideal context for studying an embedded view of strategy, as they embrace both social and economic goals and adopt unconventional business models that allow for greater participation of constituents at multiple levels. Though they are ubiquitous, few strategy formation studies have been conducted in social enterprises. Given the scope for better understanding how organizational strategy is embedded in the larger context, this study focuses on an exemplary social enterprise, AMUL, India’s most successful cooperative, organizing millions of milk producers. Among the most trusted indigenous brands, it has competed successfully with bigger multinationals. This study provides a rich analysis of the strategy process in this organization and its evolution. I make three contributions to the extant strategy process literature. First, using social movement theory, I show how organizational formation interacts with the political and social contexts. As strategies implicated in the organizational formation process are under-theorized, this study fills that gap. Second, I provide a contextual understanding of the processes by which social enterprises grow to achieve scale and scope economies. The study shows the interactive dynamics of AMUL’s strategic intent and the government, and the effects on AMUL’s growth through product diversification. Third, I depict the interaction of planning and emergent processes that set AMUL on an extraordinary growth path, through active social embedding of AMUL in relations with its members. The interactive intra-organizational dynamics between the middle management, boundary actors, and members is documented to enhance our understanding of processes that underlie the achievement of economies of scale and scope typically taken for granted as being achieved without explaining how.Item Divorced women who engage in micro-entrepreneurship in Sudan : out of the frying pan and into the fire?(School of Graduate Studies, Laurentian University, 2010) Ali, Nada Mohamed; School of Graduate Studies, Laurentian UniversityThis research is taken from the perspectives of women who were internal migrants, displaced mainly by the war in Darfur as well as drought. Their divorce and taking up street vending for survival can be traced to global economic restructuring measures taken in Sudan. The analysis was based on open-ended, semistructured in-depth interviews with fifteen divorced Sudanese women street vendors. Their perceptions of the divorce process and their experience of entrepreneurship were central to revealing the mediated social relations that shaped their street vending work and their mothering. In particular, patriarchal and capitalist relations were found to be responsible for maintaining women at a survivalist level of entrepreneurship despite their use of business practices. Their use of a traditional funding source consisting of money pooled by neighbourhood women for discretionary spending could be seen as a basis for a micro-credit scheme for their business. The divorced women street vendors indicated their willingness to consider economic and social supports for their street vending businesses but these supports would need to address the intense competition with each other to which street vending exposes them. Under the circumstances in which they worked, their mere survival was an accomplishment. Seen in this light, the possible intervention of NGOs was evaluated through a critical review of the literature.Item Famine, displacement, and destitution among pastoralist communities in Northeastern Kenya(University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CA, 2010) Mohamud, HabibaThis doctoral thesis focuses on pastoral vulnerability to famine, and the survival strategies of internally displaced Somali pastoralists living in the Northeastern province of Kenya. It examines the causes of famine and subsequent effects of displacement and destitution in order to provide context for site-specific interventions. Findings show that a community economic development model would be more effective than past practices. As well as climate change, the displaced pastoralists face barriers in finding meaningful livelihoods due to weak governance (failures of market institutions; untimely responses to famine). Their experiences have created mistrust in government led initiatives.Item India and China : conflict and cooperation(2010) Malone, David M.; Mukherjee, RohanThis article (Survival; vol. 52, no. 1, 2010) reflects on relations between India and China, including historical background, diplomacy measures, security concerns and global ambitions. The unconnected nature of China’s and India’s economic rise is striking. Bilateral trade is a small share of overall trade for both countries. Major strategic partnerships have been made with third parties, including Pakistan and the United States. With more systematic dialogue, India and China should be able to manage their parallel rise without generating shocks on their own continent.Item Grounding global seeds : a contextual comparison of the politico-ecological implications of genetically modified crops for farming communities in Alberta (Canada) and Andhra Pradesh (India)(Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CA, 2010) Kumbamu, AshokThe adoption of GM canola in Alberta and GM cotton in Andhra Pradesh are used as comparative case studies. The dissertation analyzes and compares socioecological implications of the adoption of genetically modified (GM) seeds and alternative agroecological farming methods for farming communities in Alberta, Canada and Andhra Pradesh, India – localities situated in contrasting geopolitical, socio-cultural, and structural-institutional contexts in the global economy. The paper examines social and cultural aspects of farmer decision-making in the adoption of new seed technology, farmer receptivity to new cropping methods, knowledge translation between laboratory and farmer, and the impact of global knowledge-based technology on local knowledge systems.Item Critical evaluation of the appropriateness of ceramic and biosand filters in rural Cambodia(University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, CA, 2010) Murphy, Heather M.Household or point of use (POU) water treatment technologies have been identified as successful interventions for providing safe water to rural households. In terms of water treatment technology, no one method can treat every type of source water and the process of matching a technology to a particular water source is missing from current POU implementations. Currently, there are two water treatment technologies widely implemented across Cambodia: ceramic water filters and BioSand filters. Both have proven to reduce diarrheal disease by up to 50%; this study contributes to debate on the sustainability of these systems in terms of effectiveness and long term health impact.Item Resource access and livelihood resilience in Tam Giang Lagoon, Vietnam(University of Manitoba, Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, Winnipeg, MB, CA, 2010) Ta Thi Thanh HuongThe research examines local livelihood systems in terms of re-investment strategies to expand livelihood assets. In Tam Giang Lagoon aquaculture is governed by both customary and legal access rights. The move from a centrally-planned (collectivization) economy to a market-oriented economy in conjunction with the development of the aquaculture sector, has reduced the available lagoon areas for mobile-gear fishers, polarized different user-groups, and raised the issue of resource access inequity. The thesis examines the influence of property rights on local livelihood systems, and changes in resource access and types of resource use in the lagoon. It assesses elements that contribute to resilience in livelihood systems.Item Criminal Resistance? The Politics of Kidnapping of Oil Workers in Nigeria(2011) Babatunde Oriola, Temitope; Haggerty, Kevin; University of Alberta Department of SociologyThis data provides insights into how the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) seeks to frame insurgency as a form of protest. Impression management pervades kidnapping episodes. While insurgent commanders have succeeded in inventing an alternative political structure for accessing the conventional structures of society, the major concern of the Nigerian state is to provide an atmosphere that is sufficiently safe for oil extraction. For others, kidnapping is a dangerous but innovative means of livelihood in a perpetually depressed economy. While the insurgency generates harms for the oil-producing communities, it also creates benefits for some participants.Item Governing Land Use in Kenya: From Sectoral Fragmentation to Sustainable Integration of Law and Policy(2011) Machatha Kibugi, RobertThe research aims to develop a legal and policy framework that will facilitate integration of environmental protection with socio-economic activities during land use decision-making, as a mechanism to achieve sustainability. A statutory duty of care, with respect to land use, would make it clear that land owners or occupiers have definite responsibilities to protect and enhance the sustainability of the land that they use or manage; it would aim to reverse existing land degradation, or include a duty to inform other land owners or the state about some kinds of foreseeable degradation. The paper proposes some models for codes of practice.Item Surviving the “Sasachacuy Tiempu” [difficult times] : the resilience of Quechua women in the aftermath of the Peruvian armed conflict(University of Toronto, 2011) Suarez, Eliana B.The trauma paradigm has served as the dominant explanatory framework for human suffering in post-conflict environments, while the resilience of individuals and communities affected by mass violence has not been given equal prominence. This study strengthens understanding of adult resilience to traumatic exposure by examining the courage and resilience of Quechua women in the aftermath of the political violence in Peru, and their endurance of racially and gender-targeted violence. Results indicate higher resilience is associated with lower level of avoidance symptoms; enhanced resilience was associated with women’s participation in civic associations, as well as being a returnee of mass displacement.Item Intersection of National Policies on Nurses' Work in District Health Care Systems in Kenya(2011) Juma, Pamela; Edwards, Nancy; University of Ottawa Faculty of Health Sciences School of NursingThe thesis examines Kenyan policies to enhance access to health services. Findings indicate that policies that support decentralization and primary health care enable nurses’ work while those aimed at increasing efficiency, such as structural adjustment programs, in effect act as constraints. The thesis presents a qualitative analysis of the impact of policies on nurses’ work (Chapter 2). It presents qualitative results regarding nurses’ involvement in policy processes (Chapter 3) as well as the results of a quantitative survey of frontline nurses’ experiences with policy reforms (Chapter 4). The last chapter presents an integrative discussion of key findings.Item Neo-liberalism and Resistance in Ghana: Understanding the Political Agency of the Subalterns in Social-historical Context(2011) Ayelazuno, Jasper; Kannae, Lawrence; York University Political ScienceThe dissertation documents distinct elements of the social and historical contexts of Bolivia and Ghana, focusing on underpinnings of differences in political behaviour of the subalterns in an era of neo-liberalism. Unlike their Bolivian counterparts, Ghanaians have not independently resisted the free market policies of a neo-liberal state. The key finding is that a materialist framework of agency in anti-neoliberalism literature does not capture the complexity of subaltern agency and their contradictory political behaviour in the way that a social-historical framework does. In critical theory the term subaltern designates the populations who are outside the hegemonic power structure of the colony.Item Gouvernance des réseaux de politique publique : le cas du programme VIH en Haïti(2011) Foro, Anne; Champagne, François; Denis, Jean-Louis; École de santé publique de l’université de Montréal Faculté de MédecineCette thèse concerne la gouvernance des réseaux de politique publique. Elle cherche à mieux comprendre le phénomène par l’analyse des caractéristiques du réseau d’acteurs impliqués, les défis qui se posent relativement au processus de gouverne, et l’influence qui en résulte pour les interventions. Le cadre d’analyse s’appuie essentiellement sur deux théories de la sociologie des organisations, en l’occurrence la théorie de l’acteur stratégique (Crozier et Friedberg 1977), et la théorie des réseaux de politique publique (Rhodes 1997). Il s’agit d’une étude de cas portant sur le programme VIH/Sida en Haïti, celui-ci étant documenté à partir de données d’entretiens, d’observations et de groupes de discussion. Les résultats de la recherche sont structurés en quatre articles. Le premier article rend compte de l’étape préliminaire, mais non moins importante, de la recherche, c’est-à-dire le travail de terrain. Il présente les défis méthodologiques et éthiques inhérents à la rencontre entre chercheur et participants pour la coconstruction des savoirs, notamment dans le contexte de la recherche en santé mondiale. Le deuxième article analyse les caractéristiques du réseau d’acteurs et montre la nécessité de prendre en compte les attributs propres des acteurs en plus de la structure de leurs interactions pour comprendre la gouvernance des réseaux de politique publique. La plupart des analyses, surtout celles s’appuyant sur l’approche réseau, cherchent à comprendre comment la structure des relations entre les acteurs influence la gouverne, le contenu ou les résultats de politiques. Or, dans le cas du programme VIH en Haïti, il apparaît que ce sont en réalité les attributs des acteurs en termes de ressources et de pouvoir, qui orientent leurs interactions avec les autres acteurs. Le troisième article présente un cadre d’analyse et illustre, à partir de celui-ci, l’influence des outils et des structures, ainsi que du contexte sociopolitique et économique sur la gouvernance du programme VIH/Sida en Haïti. Il argumente ensuite sur les défis que cela pose à la coordination des interventions et à la mise en place des relations de partenariat au sein du réseau d’acteurs. Le quatrième article se penche sur l’émergence de besoins nouveaux chez les personnes vivant avec le VIH (PVVIH) et met en lumière la faiblesse des processus de planification à les cibler. Il renouvelle l’intérêt de l’approche participative, notamment dans le contexte des pays en développement, où il devient crucial d’adapter les interventions au contexte local en utilisant le potentiel et les ressources des communautés. L’étude a donc permis de montrer : 1) les liens qui existent entre les attributs des acteurs, la configuration particulière de leurs interactions et le processus de gouverne; 2) les défis qui résultent de l’influence des outils et structures mis en place, ainsi que des facteurs socioéconomiques et politiques sur le processus de gouverne, et enfin; 3) le lien qui existe entre le mode de gouvernance – via la participation - et la prise en compte des besoins émergents des PVVIH.Item Decision making and role playing : young married women’s sexual and reproductive health in Ahmedabad, India(School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, 2012) Sharma, RichaYoung women and men are deeply situated in patriarchal systems where core structures of dominations remained unmoved. This thesis aims to better understand the sexual and reproductive health of young women married during their adolescence, in a marginalized Muslim community in a predominantly Hindu state. Capacities to make and assert decisions were largely determined by a need to conform to socialized expectations for their bodies. Interventions focusing on enhancing contraceptive use among adolescents, or addressing their social vulnerabilities through life-skills program is insufficient in this context. Expressed needs were for information on rights, sexual health, coalition building, and increased livelihood opportunities.