Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Indicators In Promoting Gender Equality Through The Millennium And Sustainable Development Goals, Sara Rose Taylor

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

With the global rise of evidence-based policy, indicators have become an increasingly important part of governance. Indicators are statistics that represent social experiences, turning complex norms into simplified representations. Although seemingly objective, indicators reflect the values and beliefs of the actors who create them. An indicator’s normative underpinnings have significant consequences for social governance and policy because of an indicator’s power to shape understanding. This multi-manuscript dissertation analyzes the impact of governance by indicators as seen in the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals (MDGs and SDGs), two major United Nations initiatives in the field of global social governance. The focus …

Responses To Change In The Global Political Economy Of Innovation – The Role Of Sub-National States In Industrial Transition, Dan Herman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation seeks to explore how sub-national levels of the state promote the development of new industrial sectors. To do so this dissertation builds on a series of theoretical perspectives on the role of the state in the economy and develops a unique view of how sub-national states coalesce and contrast within these perspectives. It does so through a series of empirical case studies focused on sub-national jurisdictions in North America that highlight diverse varieties of state actions that contribute, if not lead, industrial transitions and the development of new innovation-oriented industrial sectors. In so doing, the dissertation presents a …

Pushing The Limits: International Land Acquisitions In Comparative Perspective, Ariane Goetz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The role of investor countries in large-scale land acquisitions is poorly understood in the contemporary “land grab” literature. Orthodox explanations largely build on deductive analyses that deviate from the emerging empirical evidence, and/or face analytical difficulties when trying to capture why large-scale land acquisitions happen. This thesis investigates the global phenomenon of “land grabbing” from the comparative perspective of two major investor countries: the UK and China. The regional focus is on Sub-Saharan Africa, a major target of land-consuming investments since 2000.

The dissertation advances three arguments: Firstly, the specific details of the home country’s industrial set-up, development challenges, ideological …

The Impact Of Large Plant Closure On Small Firm Creation In Kitchener, Ontario, 1987 To 1998, Christopher William Charman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The impact of restructuring in the manufacturing sector of Kitchener, Ontario has been felt in many ways. For those who were displaced, the alternatives for re-employment were limited. In some cases, workers have turned to self employment and small firm creation as a source of income. This study attempts to quantify the business dynamic at work in the Manufacturing and Business Service sectors in Kitchener between 1987 and 1998. Using a database developed from the Kitchener Business Directory the process of manufacturing loss and service industry increase is studied. The examination follows new business creation, the change in activity within …

The Role Of Wine Tourism In Economic Development: A Case Study Of Niagara Region (Ontario), Gillian Mary Northwood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Wine tourism is an expanding form of rural tourism which has recently become popular in several wine regions of the world One such area, the Niagara Region in southern Ontario, Canada, is used as a case study for this research. This study examines the role that wine tourism plays in sustainable rural tourism, and determines if wine tourism can be used as a tool for economic development. By completing a survey of winery visitors in the Niagara Region, as well as performing interviews with winery personnel, it was found that wine tourism plays several roles in rural tourism and can …

Recent Changes In Domestic Accessibility In The Canadian Airline Industry: The Pre- And Post-Deregulation Situation, Ruben Jose De Castro Furtado

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In 1987 the Canadian National Transportation Act was amended. Airlines became free to enter/exit markets as they saw fit, and a network-wide reform of airline services began. This thesis examines the extent of network development since 1970, and attempts to determine the some of the spatial effects of the 1987 deregulation of the airline industry on nodal accessibility. Accessibility is a relative term and difficult to define explicitly. While it can be measured in distance or time, it may also be measured as the frequency of links between places over time. In this thesis the connectivity among places is used …

An Attitudinal Evaluation Of Collaboration In The Community Economic Development Process In Southwestern Ontario, Lisa Susanne Mccormick

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Many small communities in Southwestern Ontario suffer from economic decline. Several areas have faced devastating plant closures and layoffs. In response, communities have been encouraged to adopt a community economic development strategy by senior levels of government. This strategy focuses on community participation, entrepreneurship and the retraining of the workforce. This thesis examines the accomplishments of eight predominantly rural areas in Southwestern Ontario. Attitudes and perceptions of sixty-four local actors involved in the CED process were evaluated. These eight areas received similar levels of funding and all have mechanisms in place for community economic development. However, the extent of CED …

The Impact Of The Bruce Nuclear Power Development Planned Workforce Increase On Kincardine, Ontario, Robert Mark Flesch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigates the underlying dimensions of public attitudes toward the impact of the Bruce Nuclear Power Development planned workforce increase on Kincardine, Ontario. Kincardine, a small rural community of approximately 5900 inhabitants (Statistics Canada, 1986), is located in the southwestern portion of Bruce County. Much of the current landscape, demographic composition, and industrial structure can directly be attributed to the locality’s function as a residential nucleation for the Bruce Nuclear Power Development workforce and their families (Hecht and Sharpe, 1990; Chalk, 1990). Two propositions form the basis for this study of community response. The first states that the underlying …

Technological Development In Mississauga And Canada's Technology Triangle: A Calibrated Application Of The Product Life Cycle, J. Colin Wright

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

University Growth-Poles And The Canadian Aggregate Situation, Stephen Paul Meyer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The utilization of higher education resources in a regional development function has become an increasingly popular ploy within the realm of government policy. The university, typically through an interaction with today’s growth-inciting high-technology industry, has tended to replace the traditionally-used manufacturing plant as the ‘new’ growth-pole. It is likely that no other single institution could benefit a region in as wide an array of economic and social capacities as can the university. And, it is with respect to this notion that a Canadian university study was pursued. However, where most university ‘impact-type’ assessments have tended to look at individual cases, …

Economic Imperialism And Oligopolization Of Trade In The Gold Coast: 1886-1939, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Entrepreneurship And Economic Development: A Critique Of The Theory, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

This thesis is a criticism of the "entrepreneurial school" of economic development, which contends that a major cause of underdevelopment in the Third World is the poor "entrepreneurial spirit" in these areas. The entrepreneurial spirit consists of certain values and behaviour which it is presumed existed in the West at the time of its development. To test the validity of this theory empirical evidence on entrepreneurs is examined; this evidence includes historical data on the West, especially the United States and France, and twenty-one area studies of entrepreneurs in the Third World. The evidence suggests that there is little difference …