Syrian Refugee Place Attachment And Place Making In Ottawa, On, Kiran Va Unger-Basappa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How can Syrian refugees’ feelings of attachment towards places and spaces in Ottawa, ON be used to indicate their own sense of integration into Canadian society? Exploring research participants’ place attachments to the city of Ottawa enables a greater understanding of their lived geographies that either hinder or elevate their integration experience. The mixed-method data collection used in this research study include an online qualitative survey, in-depth interviews, and a mental mapping exercise. The analysis of the data is based upon five factors of place attachment used to define integration. These are comfort, security, relationships, involvement, and rootedness. …

For The Love Of A'Se'k: Piktukowaq's (Re)Assertion Of Autonomy In Pursuit Of A Healthier Community, Lands, Waters, And Future Generations, Serena E. Mendizabal

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN) has experienced the impacts of being exposed to the effluent treatment facility for a pulp mill for decades, but in 2020, it was announced that the treatment facility would finally close. In my research, I will investigate and compare two sets of PLFN health data from 2014 and 2019 to answer the following research questions: 1) Does community health for the PLFN improve over time when community members have more autonomy over environmental decision-making?; and 2) Does Pictou Landing First Nation's relationship to place improve with more autonomy in environmental decision making? I will use …

Working Within Constraints: Examining The Effectiveness Of Local Network Governance In Addressing Complex Social Challenges, Merlin R. Chatwin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite sustained efforts, the pervasiveness of complex social challenges continues to confound governments at all scales. While the local manifestations are unique to socio-political and geographic context, issues such as homelessness, poverty, and food insecurity are global in nature. The centrality of local government in identifying and addressing complex social challenges is at the forefront of global agendas like the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is broad agreement on the importance of local governments, yet, how to equip them with the resources and autonomy required to meet complex social challenges remains contentious. Indeed, governance …

Participatory Knowledge Of Motion: Ezhianishinaabebimaadiziyaang Mii Sa Ezhianishinaabeaadisokeyaang. The Way In Which We Live, That Is The Way We Write Stories., Erin E. Huner

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This is a dissertation based upon the Customary Ways Dataset, which is comprised of 50 interviews given by Elders from Walpole Island First Nation, in 2010. The over-arching, community-designed research question that guided this dissertation was: How do the Elders of Walpole Island describe their relationship to the land? To answer this question, I co-designed a mixed-methods analysis that included traditional methods from the Social Sciences, including Grounded Theory, to establish emergent themes, and some simple statistical analysis using Chi-square and crosstab analysis. I also utilized methods closely related to the Humanities, deploying Story Mapping, Close Reading and a …

Examination Of Institutional Investment In The United States Of America From 1999 To 2018, Martin R. Lefebvre

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines the evolution of spatial preference of institutional investors located in the United States of America for the time period of 1999 to 2018 using a mix of exploratory data analysis techniques and more sophisticated space-time and machine learning techniques such as ESRI Space-Time cube and Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling. This thesis concludes that despite having the appearance of a footloose industry due to almost negligible fixed costs, institutional investors are attracted to highly dynamic urban centres and on the 20 year time horizon, appear surprisingly sticky in their location preference. This is consistent with the belief …

A Walkthrough Of The Canadian Video Game Industry: An Economic Geography Perspective On The Digital Entertainment Frontier, Grant L. Morin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The video game industry has been examined since the 1970’s, yet individual country analysis from an economic geography perspective has been lacking. It is the contribution of this dissertation to utilize the agglomeration economy and location theory literature in its application to the Canadian video game industry.

To understand this industry, a mixed-method approach is used. Kernel density maps, standard deviational ellipses, and mapping processes were used to illustrate the dispersion and clustering patterns of studios in Canada. In addition, a Poisson regression was performed using count data of the number of video game firms in census metropolitan areas. The …

Timely Access To Maternal, Neonatal And Child Healthcare For Rural Communities In Rwanda: The Role Of Community Health Workers, Jean Bosco Bigirimana

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

Introduction: In Rwanda, although there has been some progress in health care delivery as expressed in the reduction in maternal and child mortality, rates are still high and geographically variable. Improving equitable access to quality healthcare services for maternal, neonatal and child healthcare (MNCH), community-based maternal, neonatal and child healthcare (CBMNCH) depends upon using “community health workers” (CHWs). Yet CHWs program faces difficulties that upset delivery of the quality of the comprehensive package of services. Unfortunately, little is known about CHWs` performance and job satisfaction in the provision of CBMNCH.

Goal: The study aimed to provide insight into …

Examining Climate Change-Health Nexus In Ghana, Lucia Kafui Hussey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Climate change is one of today’s most pressing global issues with its physical, biological and social impacts widely recognized. One area of concern is its potential health consequences. The postulated health effects from climate change are far-reaching that climate change induced health risks are signaled as the most pressing problems to public health in the 21^st century. Although developing countries such as Ghana had been suggested as a vulnerable hotspot for the health consequences of climate change, there is a paucity of empirical research on climate change and its health linkages in the country.

The purpose of this dissertation …

Water Governance In The Lerma-Chapala Basin Of Mexico: A Shift From State-Centred To A Multi-Stakeholder Approach?, Luis F. Silva Jimenez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a framework for assessing water governance by consolidating and refining disparate principles of water governance in the existing research literature. The developed framework is then applied in a case study of the Lerma Chapala basin in Mexico to assess the state of water governance, and identify accomplishments and constraints in the implementation of an effective water governance system. The study conducts a content analysis of primary data collected through semi-structured interviews with multiple stakeholders in the basin (N=51) and secondary data from national water policy documents (N=18).

Overall, the study identified one …

The Other Side Of The Enclave: Local Perspectives On The Onset Of Mass Tourism In Jamaica, Shenika A. Mcfarlane-Morris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mass tourism development in the Global South is widely celebrated as a major source of jobs and foreign exchange, but it is also widely criticized for creating spatially and economically segregated enclaves that frequently have negative social, cultural, and environmental impacts. There is a large literature that details both the economic advantages and disadvantages of mass tourism development. However, critiques of mass tourism have done little to reorient the nature of the industry, as countries of the Global South such as Jamaica have generally placed much greater emphasis on the economic performance of the industry than on the associated inequalities. …

Therapeutic Landscapes Of Home: Exploring Women’S Perceptions And Experiences Of Home As A Place Of Birth In London, Ontario, Caren Thayer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Home birth is a very controversial issue in today’s research literature. Using a therapeutic landscapes approach, this thesis focuses on the perception and experiences of home as a place of birth in London, Ontario, Canada. Thirty interviews were conducted during the summer of 2014 with women who lived in the London area and either planned a home birth in the previous two years or were currently pregnant and planning a home birth. Results demonstrated that women chose home birth, and did not choose hospital birth, due to the need for comfort, control, and support. Key themes around barriers included overwhelming …

Probiotic Yoghourt For Health, Nutrition And Women's Empowerment In Kenya: A Community-Based Approach, Ellena Andoniou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The dissertation aims to examine the impacts of probiotic yoghourt on health, nutrition and women’s empowerment within the context of HIV/AIDS in Kenya. Mixed methods that combine quantiative and qualitative approaches are used to understand the effects of probiotic yoghourt on the health, nutrition and quality of life for men and women. Results of the quantiative analysis (n=227) demonstrated that the probiotic yoghourt confers a variety of health benefits – physiological (fewer urogenital conditions and digestive problems; reduced dependence on medical treatment), and psychological (perceived improvements with bodily appearance, felt an increased meaningfulness with life). Results of the qualitative analysis …

Coffee Agroecology, Food Sovereignty, And Agrarian Livelihoods In Puerto Rico, Ileana I. Diaz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research investigates whether coffee can play a role in building food sovereignty in Puerto Rico as well as how farmers perceive the effects of growing coffee agroecologically on their livelihoods. The most important contribution of this research is to raise and answer the question of whether a cash crop such as coffee can be part of a food sovereignty strategy. I conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with farmers in Puerto Rico. The findings indicate that agroecological farmers in Puerto Rico believe that growing coffee is an important part of pursuing food sovereignty - which is the framework they used to …

A Spatial Exploration Of Institutional Investment In Canada For The Year 2010, Martin R. Lefebvre

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using measures of central tendency, the average nonUS-based institutional investor has more capital invested in securities than his US-based counterpart. The present study shows that US-based investors favour manufacturing companies, whereas Canadian investors prefer companies based in natural resources. Nationally, Toronto acts more as the centre of gravity for Canadian institutional investors than New York City does for the United States. Comparatively, Toronto accounts for 70% of all Canadian investors while New York accounts for only 30% of the American total, despite it being the city with the most capital invested worldwide. Notwithstanding Alberta’s oil boom, inter-provincial investment capital show …

Agricultural Interventions As A Means To Improving Food Security: Experiences Of Hiv/Aids-Affected Households In Northern Malawi, Faith N. Mambulu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Many rural Malawians experience food insecurity, attributed to a number of factors including poverty, climate change, structural adjustment, poor governance and the impacts of HIV/AIDS. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is currently estimated at 11% amongst adults. To address food insecurity in Northern Malawi, the Soils, Food and Health Communities (SFHC) agroecological project was implemented in 2000. In 2006, the project began to focus some of its program on farmers living with HIV/AIDS, but the impact of this shift has not been studied. There are few studies examining the potential for agricultural interventions to address the food security needs of AIDS-affected …

Analytic Network Process (Anp) For Housing Quality Evaluation: A Case Study In Ghana, Lucia Kafui Hussey

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Quality of housing is crucial to an individual's quality of life as it is known to affect human health and well-being. Several studies have employed different methods to assess housing quality. These methods, however, failed to account for the interdependence among the factors (criteria) used for evaluating the quality of housing. This thesis proposes an Analytic Network Process (ANP)-based framework, integrated into Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to assess housing quality. ANP is a multicriteria analysis method. It provides a tool for identifying the relative importance of all the elements (criteria) influencing a goal of decision/evaluation problem (e.g., the problem of …

Examining The Influence Of Environmental Opportunities And Exposures On Children's Sleep Duration, Leanne B. Mcintosh

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This research aims to fill a void in knowledge on how certain characteristics of the built and natural environments may impact children’s sleep duration. Data was collected on a sample of 614 children (aged 9-14 years) drawn from 22 elementary schools throughout the City of London, Ontario, Canada. Participants completed the STEAM (Spatial Temporal Environmental Activity Monitoring) protocol which involved completion of a survey, daily activity diary, and tracking the time they spent in different environments with a portable Global Position System. This thesis incorporates an innovative analytical approach which uses two Geographic Information System techniques to examine if and …

Determinants Of Health Insurance Enrolment In Ghana's Upper West Region, Jenna Dixon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis aims to explore the determinants of enrolment in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana’s Upper West Region (UWR). While studies on the theoretically “pro-poor” NHIS have thus far focused on wealth as driver of enrolment, the high rates of enrolment in the poorest and most deprived region of the country (the UWR) suggest that other factors underpin health insurance acquisition and maintenance. This study uses mixed methods that combine quantitative and qualitative techniques in order to better understand patterned differences between enrolled, never enrolled and dropped out members of the scheme.

Results of a quantitative analysis …