Browsing by discipline "Aluetiede"
Now showing items 21-40 of 168
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(2018)Human-elephant conflicts (HECs) pose a threat for both the survival of elephant populations and for the wellbeing of the rural people who live adjacent to wildlife. Problems are common especially in those rural areas where human settlements and agriculture have expanded on elephant ranges and where agricultural villages border the remaining elephant habitats. Sri Lanka is one of the countries where human and elephant territories commonly overlap and where the presence of elephants causes serious challenges for the rural communities. This paper presents a study of human-elephant conflict at Bogahapalassa forest reserve in south-central Sri Lanka. Instead of studying HEC as a hindrance to elephant conservation I was interested of its impact on the local communities. The aim was to find out where, when and how this conflict takes place. The study focuses on areal differences in HEC’s prevalence, on the challenges of the used mitigation strategies, and examines the perceived causes and solutions for the elephant issue. The study area comprised 28 agrarian villages that are located adjacent to protected areas. The research was conducted using qualitative methods. We carried out group interviews with the inhabitants of the studied villages and individual interviews with different key informants. The collected data was later analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results show that human-elephant conflict takes place in all the studied villages without clear areal differences. Elephants cause problems around the year but especially during the dry season. The villagers suffer of various direct and indirect hindrances. The major cost of the conflict comes from crop losses that were commonly perceived as serious hindrance for livelihoods. The HEC has its roots in the shrinkage and deterioration of the forest areas that have been under continuous pressure from human activities. An invasive flowering species called Lantana is also spreading in the forests replacing native eatable grasses, therefore further decreasing the available food sources for elephants. It was also commonly believed that elephants are becoming increasingly used to crop raiding and to the deterrent methods that villagers use and thus the situation is worsening. There are various mitigation strategies being used to tackle the issues with elephants. Most of these seemed to be losing their effectiveness which must party contribute to the strong support of electric fencing that is now the main official strategy for HEC mitigation in this area. The villages that already have the electric fence from the Department of Wildlife Conservation reported various deficiencies in the fence. It is clear that the mitigation strategies that are currently being used are not sufficient to solve or effectively reduce the issues with elephants. Thus, other multi-pronged strategies need to be tested and implemented to sustainably mitigate the HEC.
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(2015)Crime in cities and the safety of urban environment has created broad debate and interest. Fear of crime and perceptions of safety can be affected by many socio-demographic, socio-psychological and environmental factors, such as age, sex, media stories or different characteristics of the built environment. Fear of crime and insecurity in urban environments can restrict the use of public spaces and influence the quality of life. Crime and fear of crime are distributed unevenly in the environment and previous research has identified some concentrations of fear and crime. Crime and fear of crime are related to the urban environment in many ways. There has been a growing interest towards different kinds of strategies and security plans, which might improve the safety of cities. Crime Prevention through Environmental design (CPTED) is one example of planning methods aimed at preventing crime and fear of crime. CPTED model seeks to provide safer urban environments. CPTED approach has been influenced especially by the works of Jane Jacobs and Oscar Newman, who drew attention to the relationship between crime and urban planning. The main principles of CPTED are territoriality, surveillance, maintenance/image, access control, activity support and target hardening. CPTED strategies have been a part of urban planning since the 1970s and CPTED principles have been widely used in North America, England and Australia. In recent years there has also been wider interest in Europe towards the relationship between crime prevention and planning. In Finland CPTED model has been used only in a couple of places so far. This research has focused on the role of the built environment from the factors that are related to the safety of neighbourhoods. The aim of this study was to examine how does the 'feared places' in the neighbourhood of Leppävaara in Espoo look like from the CPTED perspective. The 'feared places' were identified by the use of a previous study called 'safety walks in Leppävaara' and supported by data from the police. The research data was collected through observations. A 'CPTED checklist' was used as an evaluation form which was based on previous CPTED safety audit checklists. CPTED observations revealed that there are many CPTED elements present in the 'feared places' of Leppävaara. However, the quantity and quality of these elements varied between the places. CPTED analysis clearly showed how the different elements of CPTED are connected to each other and partly overlap. The biggest problems concerning territoriality where related to poor signage and the separation of certain functions. The possibilities of surveillance seemed to be closely related to the activities and land uses in the areas. The overall level of maintenance and image was good, and the biggest problems were general litter and graffiti. The means of access control and target hardening were mostly natural/informal and moderate. The built environment is by no means the only and most important factor which influences the safety of urban environments and crime. However, the evaluation of the environment by the use of CPTED model could make it possible to identify places which have safety or crime related problems. The use of CPTED or other similar design concepts as a part of urban planning and development may increase the feeling of safety and help prevent crime.
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(2019)Citizen participation and equality in digital spaces The importance of digital space and digital inclusion has increased due to processes of digitalization. Citizens can participate in democratic decision-making processes online and through several platforms organized by public administration or citizens themselves. Digital participation has an opportunity to enhance interaction and communication between citizens and governments or governmental organizations. Technology has long been seen as a way of making people’s everyday lives easier as well as levelling up the playing field through easy and affordable access to information, education and knowledge distribution. However, studies have shown that digital space can similarly exclude or include people based on norms and power relations that exists in those spaces and between people interacting in them. Digital inequality and exclusion have to be taken into consideration when planning on including people in decision making processes through digital participation in order to ensure equal opportunities and inclusive policies as a result. In this master’s thesis I study digital participation in particularly from the perspective of the residents. This study focuses on meanings and value given to digital participation and on how residents themselves experience digital space and the opportunities gained through accessing it. My thesis aims at understanding the motivations for participating in digital space and the meanings given to it. Through understanding meanings and motivations, I also thrive to analyse the possibility to create more inclusive digital spaces on a more structural level from the perspective of the public administration. The thesis in based on theories of space as created through interaction, and participation which in this study is understood as a subjective experience. Methods of this study were ethnographic observation and surf interviews, which combines interviews with participatory observation. This study concludes that digital participation is enhanced at the interfaces of digital and physical space through belonging and competence. The interviewees felt confident in their ways of using digital space and believed that the channels provided for participation were usable and that the administration was open towards their ideas. Being able to participate in digital space gave the interviewees experiences of learning and broadened their world view through exposure and interaction. However, the interviewees had negative experiences from participating in decision-making processes and felt that citizen participation did not have a true impact. But nevertheless, they believed in their possibilities in creating change and finding ways to participate if they would deem a case worthwhile. The importance of a physical place such as Maunulan Mediapaja was also brought forward in this study. It was evident that the place was meaningful to many users and that it also plays a role in activating and encouraging people to get involved in local issues, in physical events and also in digital spaces. It is portrayed as a low threshold space that functions at the interfaces of physical place and digital space.
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(2017)Tourism is one of the main contributors in the fight against poverty, as it has become one of the strongest drivers of trade and prosperity in the global south. Protected area tourism is an especially quickly growing segment of the industry, having an important role in regional development on many rural areas of global south. However, territories labelled as protected areas represent a great variety of spaces. This research aims at unifying the holistic picture of protected area tourism governance by analysing, how protected areas with divergent landownership arrangements, management objectives and associated regulations influence tourism development and its local socio-economic impacts at the grass roots. This comparative case-study survey scrutinizes local-level tourism governance and territorial regulations on three neighbouring protected areas in Taita Taveta County, Kenya. The Tsavo National Parks are state-owned conservancies focusing on conserving biodiversity. LUMO community wildlife sanctuary is a nature tourism project owned and orchestrated by a local community, which aims to advance local socio-economic development via tourism while preserving the environment at the same time. The third area, Sarova, is a private-owned conservancy harnessed solely for nature tourism and profit-making. The areas are liable to same legislative framework and international phenomena have similar influence on them, which makes comparison on their divergent management objectives and local-level regulations expedient. By giving voice to local-level tourism stakeholders, it is possible to point out how the category (i.e. public, private or community) of the land owner and the areas’ respective management objectives influence tourism operations and impact the socio-economic outcomes from both conservation and tourism. The comparative analyses focus first on spatial socially constructed preconditions for tourism development and second, on its developmental outcomes that will primarily be analysed by reflecting the livelihood changes generated by protected area tourism and protection regulations in place. The data-set was gathered during field research in February–March 2016, and it is mainly based on semi-structured interviews with tourism employees, employers and regional experts. The principal method of interviewing is supplemented by observation and statistics, and the data is analysed by thematic and qualitative content analyses. The protected areas’ management objectives and associated regulations have drastic impacts on tourism development within their respective borders. The local administrations of the protected areas were identified as the primary institutions to explain the stark spatial differences in the case-study areas tourist numbers. Instead of the mere ”type” of the landowner, the areas’ respective management objectives and associated regulations determined whether protected area tourism generated livelihoods or other positive socio-economic outcomes. Altogether, similar preconditions for tourism development and similar socio-economic outcomes cannot be expected from all territories labelled as protected areas.
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(2013)East Usambara Mountains situated in North-Eastern Tanzania, are globally recognized tropical forests that have a high biodiversity value. The Amani Nature Reserve encloses a high concentration of endemic species within versatile biodiversity. The aim of this study is to measure the ecotourism possibilities and potential of the Amani Nature Reserve and to provide sustainable areal development and livelihood option and outline the regional characteristic important in terms of ecotourism. The data for this study was gathered during a field trip in Tanzania, in January-March 2012, as part of an internship for WWF Finland, Coastal East Africa Initiative. The qualitative methods used included a structured questionnaire, semi-structured and in-depth interviews, field observation and literature analysis. Also, several discussions between different regional stakeholders were carried out. Six villages in the East Usambara Mountains are studied. The study concludes that the Amani Nature Reserve has high potential for ecotourism development and the area offers diverse nature related activities albeit the current visitor statistics are low. The overall results indicate the high value and possibilities with regional biodiversity, the locals' positive attitudes towards tourism but also the areal weaknesses; poor infrastructure, lack of facilities and services. The locals' willingness to cooperate and participate in ecotourism functions and existing cultural assets were also recognized. The Amani Nature Reserve's location, uniqueness and existing facilities strongly support the future ecotourism development. However the locals' knowledge on tourism impacts and conservation issues should be reinforced because there are currently multiple threats towards these tropical forests such as population growth and forest fragmentation. Ecotourism could reinforce forest conservation, local empowerment and sustainable livelihoods. In order to safeguard the ecotourism resource base, the environment, the ecotourism actions need to follow the ecotourism objectives and principles and consider different spatial environmental, social and economic characteristics. According to these principles the locals must be integrated in actions and decision-making processes at all levels and careful ecotourism planning, management and monitoring must take place. The ecotourism network development in Tanzania is highly possible because of the country's spectacular natural beauty and political stability. In order to safeguard the remaining life supporting wildlife also different stakeholders and locals should be engaged to work in cooperation seeking sustainable conservation means, such as ecotourism.
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(2016)In the past few years the role of green space as part of the condensing urban structure has increased significantly. As a result of habitat fragmentation and environmental change, the value of green areas is emphasized, for example in managing future uncertainty and adapting to changing conditions. A comprehensive approach based on ecosystem services and green space functionality has become the norm of several strategic land use plans, which are targeted at maintaining connectivity, multifunctionality and ecosystem production in urban green space. The national and international aims to restore biodiversity, increase energy efficiency and enhance well-being of the citizens have set new quality requirements for urban green space planning. Along with this change the practices and criteria of traditional land use planning system have turned out to be insufficient in sustaining the quality of green infrastructure. An update to the green area and landscape based plan symbols, set by the Ministry of the Environment in 2000, has been strongly demanded by the planners and professionals of land use. This thesis is based on the examinations of MAMA -working group (Considering landscape as a part of land use planning), aimed at strengthening the role of green space and landscape in nationwide legislation and planning system. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the deficiencies and the needs for improvement related to present green area symbols, from the viewpoint of comprehensive green infrastructure and ecosystem services. By comparing the plan symbols and provisions between different Finnish cities and by interviewing the professionals of land use, I am pursuing a well-rounded knowledge of the functionality of the existing master plan and detailed plan symbols and practices behind them. Based on the needs and problems discovered within the research material and through the interviews, the final part of my thesis aims at gathering an understanding of how plan symbols could be developed in the future. According to research, the green area and landscape based plan symbols vary significantly between different Finnish cities, a result of inadequacy related to the planning practices and instructions applicable for today's expectations and needs. Even though green infrastructure comes up in land use plans, the functionality and continuity of urban green space is not fully taken into account in the plan symbols. In addition to utilizing green infrastructure more diversely, the practices of green space planning should deal better with the changing conditions of the environment and be based more on the efficient use of different assessment and planning tools.
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(2015)Ecosystem services are benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Ecosystem services can be classified to provisioning, supporting/regulating and cultural services. The target of ecosystem services framework is sustainable management of nature. By applying the ecosystem services framework we can identify ecosystem services and understand the way in which nature benefits people. Ecosystem service approach can be applied for example in landscape planning. This research focuses on urban ecosystem services. Urban landscape is constantly developing. Therefore, decisions that strongly affect ecosystem services are required in landscape planning process. Especially, green areas are decreasing due to new urban structure. Via the concept of green infrastructure, green infra can be designed particularly to produce ecosystem services that support thewhole city structure. Before this is possible, ecosystem services and structures that creates them must be identified. Ecosystem services mapping produce background information for planning. There is no single mapping method as we can map ecosystem services for example by demand, supply or production potential. The objective of this case study was to examine the ecosystem services potential in Kivenlahti by using GIS data. Research was carried out producing two mappings both based on same method but different datasets. First dataset, the green infrastructure map, is based on aerial photos and field surveys. The other dataset is 'Corine Land cover'. Hypothesis was that using different data would create different results. Both green infra and Corine land cover data were compared to ecosystem services in order to find out different land cover types' capacities to provide the individual service. The relation between land cover classes and ecosystem services was valued on a scale 0-3. 0 stands for no potential to produce ecosystem service and 3 that potential is high. Based on these results and using GIS, it was possible to survey single ecosystem services, ecosystem service sectors and to find out where ecosystem hot-spots and blind spots are located. There are five ecosystem hotspots recognized in the area. Blind spots include densely built areas. Both forests and ocean have high potential to produce major of provisioning, supporting/regulating and cultural services. The meaning of provisioning services is least important whereas cultural services are significant. The variance of supporting and regulating services is wide. The most significant difference between the two mapping methods is that the grid size in Corine land cover is 25 meters whereas the green infra data is very detailed. On the other hand, Corine data covers the whole Finland therefore it is possible to conduct the research in other areas. The findings in the research can be used as a background information in upcoming planning process. Ecosystem hot-spots should be included into planning of green infrastructure. Functional ecosystem service network supports in various ways city structure. In addition, well-planned and functional green infrastructure ensures sustainability of ecosystem services in the future.
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(2013)Microfinance has been introduced to poor people as a means for economic and social development. The movement has received significant support worldwide and as a result microfinance is considered an essential part of the current development discourse. Microfinance as a self help strategy depicts the microborrower as an active actor who helps oneself. Yet it is still unclear how and when microfinancing promotes development. Although microborrowers are considered responsible for 'climbing out of poverty' themselves, only little theoretical understanding of the perspective of the customer exists. Against this backgroud the purpose of this study is to research the attributions that microborrowers give to explain the success or failure of microlending. Additionally, this research examines the influence microborrowers have on the success of the microlending process, as seen through the given attributions. The research is based on fieldwork which was conducted in three rural villages in Cambodia. Thirty members of a local non-governmental organisation's Village Bank programme who had been granted a microloan were used as informants in this study. The aim of this research is to give voice to the borrowers themselves, thus the data was gathered by using the method of empathy based stories. The borrowers were asked to tell stories on the success or failure of microlending based on two short frame stories. The data was then analysed using qualitative content analysis that was guided by the attribution theory, which describes how individuals develop causal explanations for behaviours and outcomes. Attributions given to the success or failure of microlending were planning and effort, motivation, devotion, ability and features of personality, influence of other people or the lack of it, as well as chance, conditions and the model used in lending. Attributions found in the stories were distributed in dimensions of control, stability and controllability according to the attribution theory. Attributions given to success as well as failure of microlending were distributed evenly in the locus of control, but in the locus of stability, stable attributions were somewhat emphasised. Also, in the locus of controllability, uncontrollable attributions were told more often, especially in stories on the failure of microlending. The results of the research implicate that borrowers have limited possibilities to change the course of the microlending process. On the other hand, other actors than borrowers themselves can have an influence on many of the given attributions. The depiction of a borrower that helps oneself seems idealised and romanticized according to these results. In reality, the possibilities and limitations of ones' action always form in relation to the local institutional, social, cultural and historical context of microfinance. Also the various attributions given to the success and failure of microlending were seen through local context. Since local aspects define the possibilities of the microlending process, the question of wether microfinancing can perform to further development should always be examined and resolved locally.
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(2014)New transportation links tend to have a major impact on the location decisions of businesses. Although the decision-making process of the location of businesses is too complex to fully open up with a theoretical framework, accessibility in all of its different forms seems to be one of the key factors for all industries. Globalization and the development of ICT were believed to diminish the importance physical location for businesses. However, the impact has been the opposite. In the new urban form, it is possible to find relational economic spaces, which do not depend on borders or predefined areas. Still the predefined area remains a key factor in the coordination and identification of the business. With Kehärata, a commuter railway link set to open in 2015, a new horizontal transportation rail-link and several highly accessible locations will emerge in Vantaa and in the Helsinki region. The purpose of this thesis was to research how Kehärata will affect the locations of workplaces and businesses in Vantaa. The research methods were thematic interviews and GIS analyses. 10 thematic interviews were conducted with real estate investors, businesspeople, construction company representatives and local politicians. The GIS analysis showed that already in the current state, the workplaces in Vantaa form various regional patters in different industries. During the last decades, the workplaces in the Helsinki Metropolitan Region have moved strongly towards a polycentric form and so-called Metapolis structure. This kind of urban form has also been in the core of the new paradigm of urban geography research. The thematic interviews showed that Kehärata is a welcomed improvement to the horizontal transportation network in Vantaa and in the whole region. The urban form in Vantaa is already now polycentric, but Kehärata will increase the number of sub-centers even further with areas like Vehkala, Leinelä and Kivistö, which are highly dependent on the railway. From the point of view of firms, all stations cannot be equally appealing. In this situation the new polycentric urban form should be seen as a resource, where the locations with highest accessibility are developed within the city. However these locations should not be homogenous, but rather be differentiated through branding and urban planning. Differentiated areas within the city enable high level of specialization and make it possible for firms to gain agglomeration benefits. For instance the development and future prospects of Aviapolis area was highlighted in the interviews as very positive. According to the GIS analysis, the amount of workplaces accessible by train in Vantaa, will increase approximately by half after the railway is operational (From one third, to almost half of all workplaces in Vantaa). Additionally new railway connections have the tendency to concentrate workplaces near the stations, so the workplace accessibility by rail is probably even higher in the future. However car transport has had a major impact on the current urban form of Vantaa. The accessibility by car and by train are very different in nature and with Kehärata, two overlapping transportation networks are formed to the city. Despite of the negative environmental impacts of private cars, the city has to be still strongly planned also form the point of view of car owners. Interviewees were hoping that the new station areas would be built as compact urban environments, but contradictory they also saw that good logistical accessibility (with trucks) was one of the key benefits of the current economic environment in Vantaa and it should be supported also in the future. The somewhat poor imago of Vantaa was not seen as an obstacle when firms located to Vantaa, but it was seen as a problem when attracting new residents to the city. In the post-industrial society, the importance of employees to firm location is higher than ever and through tax income it is also a key factor in the public finance of cities.
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(2014)This research concentrates on microfinance and microcredit and the empowerment of women. This particular method of financing is targeted towards people who are the poorest and who cannot use normal channels of financing. Policymakers, development agencies and politicians promote microfinance as an effective anti-poverty intervention. Nevertheless there is no consensus yet whether microcredit is the right and most effective tool for empowering women. Another key concept in this thesis is empowerment. Empowerment is a process of change by which individuals or groups with little or no power gain the ability to make choices that affect their lives. Women`s empowerment in particular refers to a process by which women redefine gender roles and have the capacity to increase their own self-reliance and internal strength. The aim of this research is to discover what kind of impact microcredit has on poor rural women in the village of Devichaur In Nepal. The role of women`s groups is essential in the context of microfinance in Devichaur. The research question of this thesis is whether microcredit is a valuable tool in empowering poor women. Another important question is what kinds of changes that can be said to associate with the increased access to credit can be discovered in poor women`s situation. This research concentrates on the experiences of local women in Devichaur. The empirical data was collected via personal interviews with twenty-three women. The empirical research findings are compared with the theories concerning the empowering effect of microfinance and microcredit for poor women. The research was conducted using a descriptive, qualitative method. Qualitative research emphasizes processes and meanings not measured in quantity, amount or frequency. Instead it stresses socially constructed reality and it seeks to find out the quality of phenomena. Semi-structured theme interviews were carried out to get insights into the genuine feelings and thoughts of the interviewees. Content analysis was used in analyzing the research material collected from the field. The units of analysis derive from the main themes of the interview questions. The results of this research show clear improvements in the status and self-esteem of women within their households and the whole community. Women in Devichaur felt empowered as individuals as well as a group in comparison to the situation before microcredits and women's groups. Women are more independent economically and also more independent in their decisions about the use of money. Although microfinance has a great potential and ability to empower women, the connection is neither straightforward nor automatic. Lending money to women and giving them access to financial assets can create new challenges and extra burdens for women. Microfinance operations should also include well-planned and long lasting non-credit aspects such as training on literacy to have long lasting positive impacts on empowerment. It is important also to make sure that evaluation and monitoring of the loan cycles occurs, in order to channel microfinance systems into more profitable use.
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(2015)This thesis explores territorial stigma in the Helsinki capital region from residents' perspective. The aim of the study is to find out, whether there are stigmatised neighbourhoods in the region. Another purpose is to analyse what kind of neighbourhoods are stigmatised and what kind of people experience the stigma. In this study people are considered to experience the stigma if they are unwilling to tell where they live. The analysis focuses on the socioeconomic structure of the neighbourhoods and the socioeconomic status and the cultural orientation of the residents. The primary research data is a survey about the wellbeing of residents in the Helsinki metropolitan region conducted in 2012. The experience of the territorial stigma is determined based on the agreement with a statement 'I don't like telling where I live'. Statistical data about the structure of neighbourhoods is provided by Statistics Finland. The study is quantitative, and the main research methods include descriptive analysis, comparison of means and factor analysis. In addition, GIS methods are used to combine and visualise the data. The results show that territorial stigma is an existing phenomenon in the Helsinki capital region. There are mainly two types of stigmatised neighbourhoods: areas with either a very low or high socioeconomic profile. However, the stigma is not very strong since even in the most stigmatised neighbourhoods only a clear minority experiences it. On the individual level the stigma does not seem to be related to respondents' socioeconomic status but rather to their cultural orientation. The respondents who don't like telling where they live find challenges, success and personal development less important than the other respondents. Not all low and high-profile neighbourhoods are stigmatised, however. It seems that the stigma is a problem mainly in those neighbourhoods that have a significantly bad or an elite reputation. In the light of international research the stigmatisation of low-profile neighbourhoods is not a surprise. What makes the Helsinki region an interesting and special case is the stigma attached to living in elite neighbourhoods. The reason for this phenomenon might lie in the 'Finnish mentality' that stresses normality and modesty. This study focuses solely on the existence of the territorial stigma. Previous international research shows that living in a stigmatised neighbourhood may have a negative impact on many aspects of life including social relationships and employment. Therefore it would be important to study the consequences of the stigma and the possible ways to prevent them in the Helsinki capital region as well.
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(2018)One of the most important purposes of urban planning is to create good living environments for city residents. However, there are several conflicting interests that city planners should be able to reconcile in urban planning. For example, city planners should be able to accommodate a variety of functions and modes of transport in a limited street area. In addition to the different modes of transport, accessibility should also be taken into account in urban planning. Urban planning can have a strong influence on the accessibility of physical urban space, and to create accessible urban areas special focus has to be given to accessibility. In this master's thesis, urban planning is researched from the point of view of accessibility. The aim in this thesis is to find out how to coordinate accessibility and different modes of transport (pedestrian, cycling and trams) in urban planning. The thesis sought answers to the following research questions: How accessibility of urban space appeared in planning legislation, guidelines and regulations? What are the biggest challenges of combining accessibility and different modes of transport in same street areas? And how can these challenges be solved? The methods used in this thesis are literature analysis and interview surveys. The aim of literature analysis was to find out, what accessibility is and what is the relationship between accessibility and different modes of transport. Expert interviews were performed to find out, what are the challenges of combining accessibility and different modes of transport in street areas. City of Helsinki was used as a case example in this thesis. Based on this study, it seems that accessibility is taken quite well into consideration in urban planning of Helsinki. The challenges of combining accessibility and different modes of transport in same street, are caused by the lack of available street space, and the conflicts of interest related to the division of street space. These challenges can be avoided if accessibility is taken into account at the beginning of the planning process. However, best results require that accessibility is taken into account in all stages of urban planning.
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(2015)This thesis examines the concepts of accessibility in the process of urban planning. Conducted thesis emphasises the political aspect of the planning and is focused on the use of power. The objective of this thesis is to develop a new approach to accessibility debate. By examining the use of power, this thesis highlights the notion of accessibility as a process, its ongoing nature and the importance of local-historical context. The adapted conceptual framework consists of intertwined theoretical concepts which are related through their connection to the political aspect of urban planning and marginalization. The main perspective is the power analytics by Michel Foucault. Research questions, developed based on literature, are examined with the help of the project of Matkakeskustunneli in Tampere, Finland. Data obtained from this project consists of eight interviews of the key project actors during the beginning of the project of Matkakeskustunneli. Early stages are analyzed with narrative method. The results are presented as local stories on micro level and as research findings on macro level. According to the results, the planning concept of accessibility is dynamic and projects are custom-made. The key in accessibility research is to understand actual political and administrative behavior in each case because of the unique nature of the planning processes. The conducted brings forth that the accessibility should be understood as a part of process of urban planning and special attention should be paid to the local-historical planning context. The empirical results from the project of Matkakeskustunneli indicated that the forming the subject of accessibility requires more attention. This will expand the understanding of those (hidden) starting points which affect to the procedures and planning policies. Moreover, this study argues how the planning of accessibility should be understood as a two-part planning process where each actor has a different position and emphasis and the key points of planning of accessibility are formed in both actor arenas. Results of this thesis also demonstrates how power relations and the use of power affects to accessibility planning in a positive way allthought it requires favorable context.
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(2019)The Structural Funds of the European Union includes both strong and soft governance of the Union. In strong governance the state reforms their legal system and institutions functions based on the obligations of the Structural Funds. Soft governance, in contrast, is focused on the inhabitants of the unions, who then are governed indirectly by transmitting them the union´s values and by inciting. This thesis deals with the soft governance that is included in the Structural Funds. Additionally, the focus is on the innovation funding share of the Structural Funds. The theory framework of the thesis is governmentality literature, which states that governing consists of rationality and technology of government. Rationality means transmitting values and mindsets, and technology of government means the practical tool to do this. In the Structural Funds the distribution of funding forms the technology of government. There are several kinds of these technologies. This thesis focuses on the technologies of agency and productivity, as well as, transmitting regimes of practices. The Structural Funds program of Finland and the areal plans for the term 2014-2020 form the study material. The first part of the study is content-based, and it examines what kind of actors and what kind of acting the Structural Funds target. The second part of the study is theory-bounded, and it combines the results of the first part with the technologies presented in the governmentality literature. A new feature of this thesis is the division of actors into second and third parties. The second parties are the distributors of the funding, all of whom the European Union can govern directly, that is, using strong governing. The third parties are those actors who have the possibility to apply for the funding, but whom the Union cannot control directly. The only possibility to affect their acts is to induce, which is soft governing. The purpose of this division is to make clearer the difference between the two modes of government, strong and soft, in the second part of the study. The distributors of funding and their actions were not very visible in the study material. Both the distributors and their actions were referred mostly in general terms, if any. The most important actions required from the applying participants were to internationalise, specialise, and innovate, although innovation was also a defining feature when choosing the study material and therefore an obvious study result. All of these three actions were seen in the study material only in a positive light, although a lot of research has done where innovations have cut down those actions the Structural Funds are developed at the beginning: jobs and decreasing the differences between areas. In the study material the emphasis on the individual's responsibility, especially, in matters of obtaining training and skills represented the technology of agency. However, this was much more common in the programme documents related to the Social Fund than to the Regional Development Fund. The participants in these projects supported by the Social Fund should also benefit the companies that were funded by the Regional Development Fund. Ultimately, all the required features and results of the projects are the result of people's activities. The technology of performance was strongly present in the study material. The distribution of the funding is entirely based on the existence of predetermined numerical objectives and the funding applications must demonstrate how they can meet these objectives. Transmitting the regimes of practices was represented in the material by the presence of regions as subjects and the participation of the public organizations, along with the companies, in the project funding competitions.
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(2016)The conventional understanding and model of development is based on economic growth. This dominant way of creating development has consequences to natural, cultural and social environments, which cannot be overlooked. The transformations within these environments are increasingly connected to the prevailing socio-economic model of neoliberalism, but are often not considered in its contextualization at a local scale. The processes of production of space and nature under the neoliberal doctrine have led to economic restructuration and to conformation of geographies of neoliberal environment, which together transform localities. There is an increasing need to investigate how the local inhabitants understand and experience these processes and their outcomes. In this research, place is introduced as an insight to observe these problematics. Place in this research is understood as a changing and dynamic terrain, which articulates experiences of development. This research is qualitative case study which investigates the consequences of production of space and nature in Curepto, Chile. Curepto is one of the localities where the implementation of a normative framework for economic growth has resulted in extensive areas of foreign tree species monoculture and important physical and socio-spatial transformations related to them. The primary aim of this research is to investigate the local inhabitants' accounts of these transformations. The thesis investigates how the locality has changed, but focuses on what these changes have meant for the local community and their sense of place. Physical, sociocultural and emotive dimensions of place as well as their transformations were investigated using qualitative methods, mainly semi-structured interviews. Residents were interviewed both in urban and rural districts. The findings of this research indicate that the forest industry and tree plantations have been important drivers behind the physical and socio-spatial transformations. The extensive plantations of pine and eucalyptus have changed the physical environment and these transformations are reflected in the social and cultural geography. Environmental degradation, changed circumstances of land property, loss of native forests and drought constitute transformations that affect livelihoods negatively especially in the rural districts, and come in parallel with a loss of local tradition and culture. The meaningful space the inhabitants experience diminishes and is made more one-sided, as access to the natural environment becomes more difficult and the interaction with it is lost. Although transformations within place are considered negative, the meaningful relation inhabitants have with place remains positive. Participants redetermine their practices and livelihoods, and re-articulate the relation with their surroundings in order to stay in their place. The local community lives in a space that is both familiar and foreign to them, loved and hated at the same time.
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(2017)The aim of this study is to find out about away trips that Finnish ice hockey supporters make within Finland. The idea is also to find out if destination cities of the trips could better benefit from traveling hockey fans. The study aims at finding the basic frame by which the fan organizations choose their destinations, the motives of those who participate and visitors' perceptions of services available at the destination ice halls. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used. Not many earlier studies about the topic exist. Literature about sport tourism concentrates mostly on people doing the sports themselves. Academic literature about sport fans, in turn, is usually about the psychological side of fandom. Several studies of Finnish ice hockey fans exist though. Also their point of view is often psychological. Many of Finnish studies are also only thesis-level works. Because of lack of earlier research about the topic, this work can be seen as a baseline research. Fan organizations choose their travel destinations mostly based on game schedule. Trips are mainly made to games played on Saturdays. On other days of the week the destination should be within a short distance. Distance to destination isn't very important on Saturdays unless the destination is very far away. Visiting fans don't spend much time at the destination city on a regular trip. Usually the fans enter the ice hall straight after stepping out of the bus and return soon after the game. However, overnight trips might interest the fans especially if the destination is far away. Previous experience about destinations also affects the choices fan organizations make. Most important reasons for participating in a trip are especially seeing the favorite team play and supporting the team. Traveling itself as a process isn't an important factor while making the decision to travel yet there could be interest to go on overnight trips more often than fans currently do. Also company affects travel decisions as people prefer going to games with friends or acquaintances. SM-Liiga ice halls seem to have all the different service types away trippers need. There's not much demand on a variety of services as visiting fans mostly buy just drinks of food. Supply of these services is good but visitors are less happy with quality, variety and price of the products sold. An important factor for game experience are the seating arrangements at the ice hall. They were found to correlate with happiness with overall game experience. Ice halls are considered safe and security works well. All in all visiting fans are happier with the service they receive at the ice halls than with the services itself. To improve their service in the eyes of visiting fans, the hosts should pay attention to variety of food and drinks and offer visitors seats that are suitable for their needs. Host organizations and local stakeholders could benefit from offering visiting fans moderately priced packages that could include for example transportation, game ticket, a meal and accommodation or some of these services. This way they could get visitors spend more money at the destination city and at the same time income would spread to a larger number of stakeholders.
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(2014)The term 'Third World women' has its connotations back in the history reflecting both the juxtaposition of developed and developing world, and the dichotomy based on sex. It is still a widely used concept in current everyday life. The women of developing countries are portrayed under one category as Third World women in news, journalism and textbooks. As a term Third World women is understood in context of certain geographical locations and stagnant representations of people. In core are also their victim roles in relation for example to religion, culture or men. The aim of this master's thesis is to examine representations of the Third World women in Finnish development journal. Temporal changes in representations are discovered by observing the forty-year long publishing history of Kehitys -journal (former Kehitysyhteistyö). The main premise of this thesis is the idea of social constructionism. In social constructionism actions and thoughts are seen creating the social reality and language used both reflecting and creating it. The thesis questions media's representational power to name, illustrate and portray women in developing countries. This is done by utilizing theories of feminism, postcolonialism and development studies. Caroline Moser's and Janet Momsen's listings about the policy approaches on Third World women can be held as the frame work of this thesis. They have categorized global trends in development discourses relating to women. By comparing these approaches, trends in feminist and development theories, with the Finnish development journals, linkages between context and place specific representations of the Third World were found. Even though Finnish trends in Third World women's representations were less varying, still universal relations were able to be discovered. By conducting critical discourse analysis and content analysis of the women related articles in Kehitysyhteistyö and Kehitys -journals during the publications period from 1969 to 2009, it was possible to find five different kinds of discourses: women in development discourse, welfare discourse, efficiency discourse, misery discourse and life story discourse. Within these discourses main changes were in the ways to write and position women. Changes occurred for example in the themes relating to women and in their subjective narration. During forty years, the representations of the Third World women have changed back and forth, but it seems that the current trend in development journalism in Finland is highlighting the subjectivity and expertise of women. Women's own interests and thoughts are getting more exposure and the representational top-down dictation is decreasing while giving the floor to personal depictions.
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(2015)Involuntary displacements are more common than ever, and the reasons vary from natural disasters, wars and conflicts to environmental degradation and development-induced displacement. Typically, the victims of these phenomena inhabit the Global South, and are further impoverished due to the lack of having a say where and how to live. The lack of social justice and recognition of social development is typical in large-scale involuntary displacements, and also affects to the abilities of people to reconstruct and recover after resettlement. The linkage between forced migration and risk to impoverishment has been widely acknowledged especially in cases that lack participatory measures and proper compensation for the victims. When the impacts are recognized, it is understood that forced resettlement has effects in the economic, social, and physical spheres of life, and can be a major burden for the urban poor. However, involuntary displacement also disrupts the attachments and constructions of sense of place, which have further impacts on social cohesion. The question of community reorganization is crucial in the context where resettlement is simultaneous and combines various heterogeneous groups. The aim of this research is to examine the extent and quality of rehabilitation after involuntary displacement in an urban environment in Sri Lanka. The focus in this research is given to women, as gender is a significant factor in resettlement outcomes, yet it is often ignored in planning and implementation. Gender roles and norms in Sri Lanka are still fixed and conventional, making it an interesting approach to study resettlement and rehabilitation and the daily interactions and perceptions on them. A case study for this research took place in four resettlement sites in the outskirts of Colombo Metro Region, Sri Lanka, which is in the midst of significant urban development plans that aim to relocate tens of thousands of slum dwellers in the need to release prime lands for investments, simultaneously beautifying the city and fighting frequent flooding. The methodological approach applied in this study addresses feminist geography while it looks at rehabilitation measures in the everyday life point of view. It utilized semi-structured interviews of resettled women as a key research method. The case study took place in upgraded underserved settlements that inhabit tsunami-displaced people and development-induced displaced people. Also local experts were interviewed in order to gain a broader understanding of the dynamics and urban policies in the Colombo Metro Region. The case evidences that rehabilitation is a slow process of adaptation, and that physical assets alone cannot improve the livelihoods of slum dwellers. More emphasis should be put into the social relations and community dynamics if participatory measures and development-from-within are to fully deliver. Also full tenure is needed in order to the people to adapt to the mainstream society. For women the question of belonging and reconstructing the sense of place is essential as they spend a lot of their time at home and the immediate environment, and are traditionally in charge of homemaking. Therefore the sense of place and community are essential in the creation of social cohesion and management of the new neighborhood, and along with gender sensitive approaches should not be overlooked if sustainable resettlement is to be pursued as a consequence of ever more crowded cities of the South.
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(2020)This study addresses the ways in which environmental challenges and power relations are manifested through tourism in the easternmost province of Panama, Darién. Historically, the area of Darién has remained relatively isolated from the rest of the country and tourism in the area is of small-scale. However, the high biodiversity and natural resources have drawn increasing attention, thus resulting in tensions and competing interests between different stakeholders. Local perceptions of tourism bring insight about how people make sense of and engage with touristic activities, and how geopolitical and ecological discourses contribute to environmental inequalities. The theoretical background draws from geopolitical ecology, which states the role and impact of the environment in the shaping of political space and power relations. The research is based on 37 thematic interviews and participant observation carried out during a one-month ethnographic fieldwork in Darién. The findings indicate that tourism has contributed to exposing the environmental challenges in Darién, but also caused controversy over the use of resources for tourism. Tourism brings forward power relations and demonstrates that different players are in an uneven position. The results show that tourism in Darién has been influenced by its remoteness and the nowadays largely misleading assumption of its unstable security situation. Darién faces a broad range of environmental problems, resulting mainly from the State´s weak presence and poor environmental policies. However, tourism has been locally able to enhance environmental awareness and interest towards conservation. Different tourism actors have unequal possibilities in making use of natural resources depending largely on their wealth and social networks. Further geopolitical interests appear through territorial issues and questions concerning land ownership. The findings indicate that by looking at tourism, many underlying tensions related to existing social inequalities, power relations and distribution of ecological benefits can be revealed.
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(2016)China's identity in climate politics can be argued to be in a dilemma of being a responsible leader or a developing country that still requires time for its emissions to peak. In 2015 in COP21 in Paris, China was negotiating with the BASIC countries and bilaterally with the US. The objective of research was to recognize China's geopolitical identity in climate politics in the BASIC and US-China frames and to discuss the possible similarities and differences. The hypothesis was that China identifies itself geopolitically differently in the two frames. The analysis was conducted on the basis of two questions in geopolitical identity: who is China and where is China? China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), as the most important body of China's climate politics, has published news releases of the meetings with the BASIC countries and the United States. These documents were analyzed with a critical discourse analysis frame. Discourses of who is China -question were discussed under four themes emerged from the data: climate change, the principle of CBDRC, leadership and Paris Agreement. Where is China -question was considered based on places that most frequently appeared in the documents: developing countries, the US-China coalition, BASIC countries, developed countries, Convention, Parties, Climate Change Working Group, Green Climate Fund, G-77 and China, and Annex B -countries. The results were applied by evaluating the BASIC and the US-China frames as discourse-practice regimes, recognizing the climate change framings of the these two and then, suggesting a geopolitical climate mapping of the frames. The conclusion confronted the hypothesis as China tolerably considered itself as a representative of developing countries in both frames, while instead the discourse of climate change was different between the two. Thus, China is not negotiating in the two frames because of different identities but has distinguished goals for them. The worldviews of the two frames are different. The BASIC one is strongly based on confronting the developed nations and building on the dichotomy. The worldview of the US-China frame is a more postmodern one and thus, questions the 'norm' of being a developing country in international climate politics. The BASIC frame is a one-question coalition, whereas the US-China frame includes more diverse cooperation and is slightly closer to China's own climate policy like its INDC document.
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