Academic literature on the topic 'Villages Vanuatu Case studies'

<p>Corruption is defined as the abuse of public office for private gain. Often, corruption has devastating consequences, the two main consequences of which are economic and social. Unfortunately corruption exists most in developing countries, where people already live under hard economical and social conditions. The Pacific Islands are a region where corruption is a problem. Some countries are doing better than others, some have improved and some have got worse. But almost all of the Pacific island countries have faced cups or riots, breakdown of law and order as a consequence of corruption. The region is unique and characterized by ecological and cultural diversity, colonization, tribes, a human history rich in epic ritual, travel, narrative, and innovation. This thesis has examined one small Pacific Island country, Vanuatu which is a typical example of an island country in the region. 76 % of the people lives on 83 different islands and have little contact with the central island and its public and political administration. The purpose was to examine why corruption exists in the region with the help of different corruption theories. The result was that many Islands in the Pacific have been colonised and have had very little time to build up a stable public and political administration. Results also showed that the islands have a strong tribal tradition and people lives isolated on islands far away from the “real political life”, there is also a culture which accepts e.g. bribery and the general attitude is that parliamentarians should look after their original tribe rather than the entire country.</p>

Entertainment-Education (EE), or ‘Edutainment’ as it has come to be known, is a prominent discipline and communicative practice, both in international and community development, and is utilised to address social issues and culturally specific norms, some of which may be taboo or harmful.  This research sets out to explore the application of edutainment, in particular Theatre for Development (TfD), through an examination of its practice in a Pacific context; namely, a case study of Wan Smolbag Theatre (WSB), a grassroots NGO based in Vanuatu. Using tangible examples of WSB’s theatre work, the interplay between listening, participation, and dialogue will be examined as they bear on WSB’s diverse operations in Vanuatu. It will also be suggested that edutainment and TfD sits at the intersection of communication, culture and development and in fact, requires all three elements in order to be realised.  Through its use of edutainment and TfD, WSB’s core strength lies in its sensitivity and responsiveness to both culture as aesthetic activity and as a way of life, enabling a dialogic, participatory approach that provides a stage for subaltern community voices to identify issues, and importantly, solutions to their own problems.  The Pacific Region poses a complex landscape for development research and the same applies in the area of communication for development and social change. Due to its vast geographical area but often small population sizes, Pacific-focused research and data can be difficult to source, both of a qualitative and quantitative nature. This study aims to address one such gap, while also attempting to situate this research in the wider historical context of edutainment.

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2015.<br>This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.<br>Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 85-87).<br>Tiny homes, no larger than a parallel parking spot, are an emerging trend in housing for those uninterested, unwilling or unable to participate in traditional housing markets. Five groups across the United States have harnessed this minimalist movement to provide free or extremely low-cost housing for those experiencing homelessness. This thesis is a comparative case study of two such tiny house villages: Dignity Village in Portland, Oregon, founded in 2004 and Occupy Madison Village in Madison, Wisconsin, founded in 2012. This work explores issues related to zoning, NIMBYism, financing, governance, sanitation and building quality and both celebrates the independence and ingenuity of tiny house villages and makes the case for greater municipal regulation of the structures.<br>by Catherine Mingoya.<br>M.C.P.

With rapid urbanization and population growth in urban areas, urban development is necessary and urgent. However, with tight land supply from expropriating new farmland, redeveloping urban villages at central urban area would be full of potential. Basically, an urban village is the byproduct of rapid urbanization, with collective-owned non-agricultural use land surrounded by a state-owned urban area. Because of the particular land ownership structure in urban villages, conventional urban redevelopment methods are not suitable for the redevelopment of urban villages, public-private partnerships had been introduced into urban redevelopment to integrate the power and resources of private sector into the process of urban redevelopment with a legal contract, to form a collaboration between public and private sections, and to share the profits and benefits. A study on such partnerships in the redevelopment of urban villages could be instructive and enlightening for the future redevelopment of rural non-agricultural land in China. The major aim of the research is to discover the conditions under which partnerships for the redevelopment of urban villages could be established in China. The redevelopment of three urban villages in Shenzhen, namely the villages of Yunong, Gangxia and Huanggang, were thoroughly studied. A research framework has been established by examining the power relations of such partnerships and has been tailored to the scenario of redevelopment of urban village in China. The partnership synergy between local government, urban village communities and private developers, and role conflicts of each participants have been analyzed by considering the impact factors inherent in the institutional context of municipal government and the cultural context of urban villages in Shenzhen. These factors affect the composition, the process and the outcome of partnership in redevelopment of urban villages. The study found that because institutional support and land resource are exclusively and irreplaceably provided by the local government and the urban village, local government with systematic power is the primary partner who influences the partnership in redevelopment of urban villages the most. The local government arranges and executes the redevelopment timetable, decides the objective of redevelopment and devises rules of redistributing redevelopment profits. Under some conditions like better location, larger size and well-organization and efficient leadership, the secondary dominator namely village community becomes more important on the power balance of partnership. Private developer has no unique advantage in the partnership and could only be the follower of other two partners. Case studies from different cities with diversified institutional and cultural context are expected to be included into the future research areas.<br>published_or_final_version<br>Real Estate and Construction<br>Doctoral<br>Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-42).<br>The thesis analyzed the reason for the incidence of lodging popular complaints triggered by a land requisition in two villages in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China. The thesis only took the popular protests on land compensation as a background. The main topic was how charismatic leaders mitigated the dissatisfaction toward land compensation. A field research was performed during which intensive interviews were conducted with the villagers and village leaders concerned in the case. The possible factors of causing the different results of popular complaints were discussed. The factor of village leadership was studies in detail. The thesis explained the relationship between village leadership and the happening of complaints. By analyzing the results of interviews, four aspects of village leadership were specified: leadership and economic rewards, leadership and communication, leadership and social norms, and leadership and historic trajectory. The thesis showed that the case in the background of current China could only partially be predicted by the existing theories in western world. Further research need to be conducted specifically against the background of China.<br>by Li Li.<br>M.C.P.