Black Spots: Roads and Risk in Rural Kenya

This dissertation examines “post-agrarian” transformations in Kenyan rural areas. But where rural transformation is usually written as a story about land, Black Spots is a story about roads. Kenya’s massive investment in roads infrastructure over the last decade has intersected with the decline in smallholder agriculture in such a way that, for many rural residents, fortunes are now imagined on the road rather than on the land. Roadside trade, transport, and even salvage from crashes provide supplementary livings for rural populations facing declining agricultural opportunities. The dissertation argues that in the context of austerity policies and rural abandonment, road work and its “fast money” not only expose roadside residents to physical danger, but also entrench entrepreneurial risk ideology into local imaginaries. With the road accident as a lens illuminating a wider landscape of rural hazard, the dissertation shows how rural residents refashion relationships to land, work, technology, and loss in high-risk environments. At the same time, it demonstrates the limits of “risk”—that is, a calculated engagement with potential loss, conducted in the interest of profit—as a framework for managing contingency. In this sense, Black Spots is both an ethnography of risk and of what risk fails to capture. It tracks how rural residents learn to engage bodily and economic hazard and to understand it as risk; how they coordinate the disparate temporalities and technologies of life on the road and life on the land; and how they withstand loss when these attempts do not go as planned. The dissertation thus advances two parallel concerns: on the one hand, it demonstrates how economic practice is at once bodily and reasoned. On the other, it considers how experiences of and ideas about contingency are shaped in relation to shifting economic, social, and infrastructural possibilities

Bus bridging disruption in rail services with frustrated and impatient passengers

Urban rail networks play an important role in urban transportation. An unexpected disruption in a rail network can cause a significant degradation in the level of service. When a disruption occurs, it is crucial to provide quick and efficient substitution of services via alternative transportation modes, including bridging disconnected railway stations using bus services. The amount of disruptions, surprisingly, is high; for example, there are more than 15 000 disruptions in six months in Melbourne, Australia. The provision of bus bridging services calls for proper planning and designing of a temporary bus bridging network considering limited bus and driver resources, and prevailing urban traffic conditions. Among a number of tasks concerning bus bridging, the demand modeling of affected train passengers is a prerequisite for a satisfactory bus bridging practice. This paper explores this demand modeling problem based on the theory of compound Poisson processes and formulates it as a bulk queuing problem involving balking and reneging. The problem is carefully studied, with a series of analytical results delivered. Large-scale Monte Carlo simulations were designed and implemented to demonstrate a range of mathematical conclusions

Quotidian bus journeys : city life reflections on Lothian buses

The main objectives of this research are to investigate the interaction between the city of Edinburgh, Lothian Buses (Edinburgh's principal public transport provider) and people using specific bus routes within the city boundaries. A single overarching question dominated the nature of this research: ‘What can we know about the local character of the city from the vantage point of the bus?' The primary means of data collection were systematic participant observations along specific bus routes from 2004 to 2005. Consideration moves beyond solely examining the interaction between passengers, and treats the bus and the city as complex phenomena with which people have an interactive relationship. Through these observations, it explores the ways in which the bus is more than a mode of transport that links places, and instead maintains that the bus network forms its own multi-stranded signature within the city. Unravelling these strands reveals a mobile place where heterogeneous types of bus users engage in sense making procedures. In addition, the quotidian conversations that take place within the bus add their own unique rhythms and provide an added dimension to city life. Analysis draws on these systematic observations, delving beneath the surface of the familiar practice of bus travel, seeing the new in the familiar and subjecting these observations to philosophical enquiry. This research also considers the multifarious dimensions of the embedded experience of travel within its in-situ spatial and temporal imagination. The changing temporal and spatial nature of the bus creates a highly complex place within which contested identities produce knowable and recognisable corporal inscriptions upon the bus. Through the everyday practices and accomplishments within the lifeworld, we treat the city as a work in progress, in which there is an enduring tension between a community's need for inclusiveness and the concomitant practices that contribute to the process of exclusion. The embodied time spent travelling is the substantive life-blood of this thesis and the rich veins of the bus network present themselves as an essential part of the city's anatomy. In chorus, the theoretical foundation reflects upon itself as principled speech.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Coastal Storms in Western Britain, 1800-2020

This multidisciplinary study combines environmental science and environmental history to improve storm understanding in Western Britain from 1800 to 2020. Storms have persistently impacted coastal communities, infrastructure and environments in this region and climate change is predicted to increase storm threats and impacts. A sedimentological study analysed saltmarsh storm impacts in Carmarthen Bay. High magnitude storm surge deposition in 1954, 1977 and 1981 was identified through sedimentological, meteorological and tidal gauge analyses. The results show storm surges irregularly contributed to sustaining saltmarsh elevation suggesting the value of continued research into saltmarsh storm impacts. An archival newspaper analysis produced a comprehensive original storm database from 1800 to 2020. Three environmental history investigations followed. The first investigation analysed a major storm using the concept of storm subcultures. The 1859 Royal Charter Storm and the ensuing developments in storm prediction were analysed. Storm catastrophes were shown to evoke long-term social, political and cultural responses. The event changed storm understanding and prediction with long-term community and governance implications. The analysis highlighted the importance of inclusive decision making and adaptive storm subcultures. The second study employed statistical and qualitative newspaper analyses of written storm representations from 1800 to 1953. Rapidly declining religious storm interpretations and progressively increasing scientific interpretations reflected changing beliefs in Britain. The analysis showed that epistemological change profoundly affected public storm representations and understandings. A contemporary study analysed meteorological, tidal gauge and newspaper data from Storms Ciara and Dennis. While the storms were climate anomalies and the short-term response was effective, shortcomings in long-term climate change-related government policies likely enhanced vulnerability and therefore policy adaptation was recommended. Multidisciplinary research ultimately improves the understanding of the often interconnected community and environmental storm impacts and can inform inclusive and effective response. Further multidisciplinary research can therefore contribute towards enhancing resilience to increasing storm threats

Views on minibus taxi drivers and their role in supporting education

The emphasis of this research is on minibus taxi drivers, how they can support education, and how they are viewed by all role players, namely users and non-users (observers). Education may make the minibus taxi drivers aware of the views held about them and how they can support education more effectively. Fostering the participation and learning of all role players may lead to more support for education. In doing so, the possibility exists that the minibus taxi industry can become aware of ways and means to support education. Hence, viewing the minibus taxi industry though alternative lenses may lead to the development of a model which can be used to encourage and guide the empowerment of minibus taxi drivers on a micro level but not forgetting the macro level. As Lefebvre (2020:68) argues, ‘There is a middle way between the dismissal of totality and the fetishism of the total, and a critique of everyday life can help define it.’ It may ultimately lead to an improvement in the attitudes of minibus taxi drivers. A qualitative research approach for exploring and understanding the views was followed. This study was situated within an interpretivist paradigm. A case study design was used. Lefebvre’s production of space theory and asset-based theory were used as the theoretical framework in conjunction with the Johari Window model. The research design and methodology including the case study design, convenient sampling, focus group interviews, semi-structured questionnaires, field notes, and observation were used for data collection and construction. Minibus taxis are not formally recognised as scholar transport by the Department of Basic Education (Gauteng Department of Education, 2011; Mngaza, van Zyl & Dhlamini, 2001), but are the most common mode of transport used by the majority of people in Gauteng and the country at large (Boudreaux, 2006). The Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council found that nearly 50% of all daily trips generated per household were education related (Mngaza, van Zyl & Dhlamini, 2001). When taking into account that there are 12 932 565 million school learners (1,5 million from Gauteng) who are transported to schools or educational institutions daily, it becomes clear that transport plays a significant role in the lives of numerous school going learners, especially in urban areas (Mngaza, van Zyl & Dhlamini, 2001). Many of these learners use public transport, specifically minibus taxis, to attend school. The main findings contribute to the people-centred view of minibus taxi drivers. The concept of minibus taxi spaces supporting education is a universal one. Minibus taxi spaces have the possibility to support education through the methodology of the Johari Window combined with the typology of space for the development of minibus taxi drivers and scholar transport minibus taxi drivers. This study recommends the development of minibus taxi drivers; partnerships between schools, minibus taxis drivers and taxi associations; the creation of an educational, developmental and supportive space in the minibus vehicle; and a policy framework on the importance of a dedicated portfolio on minibus taxi drivers and scholar transport at schools. Minibus taxi space has the potential to be used for learning. Minibus taxi drivers are the only role players who can make this development in the minibus taxi space work. Key terms: views, public minibus taxis, scholar transport, space, Johari WindowThesis (PhD (Humanities Education))--University of Pretoria, 2022.Humanities EducationPhD (Humanities Education)Unrestricte

The user experience of crowds

This thesis is concerned with the user experience of crowds, incorporating issues of comfort, satisfaction, safety and performance within a given crowd situation. Factors that influence the organisation and monitoring of crowd events will be considered. A comprehensive review of the literature revealed that crowd safety, pedestrian flow modeling, public order policing and hooliganism prevention, has received the greatest attention with previous research on crowds. Whereas crowd performance, comfort and satisfaction has received less attention, particularly within spectator events (sporting and music for example). Original research undertaken for this doctoral thesis involved a series of studies: user focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and observational research within event security and organisation. Following on from these investigations, the findings have been integrated with a tool to assist crowd organisers and deliverers during the planning of crowd events, and accompanying user feedback interviews following use of the tool. The overarching aim of the research within this thesis was to explore the complex issues that contribute to the user experience of being in a crowd, and how this might be improved. The crowd user focus groups revealed differences in factors affecting crowd satisfaction, varying according to age and user expectations. Greater differences existed between crowd users, than across crowd situations, highlighting the importance of identifying expected crowd members when planning individual events. Additionally, venue design, organisation, safety and security concerns were found to highly affect crowd satisfaction, irrespective of group differences or crowd situations, showing the importance of these issues when considering crowd satisfaction for all crowd events, for any crowd members. Stakeholder interviews examining crowds from another perspective suggested that overall safety was a high priority due to legal obligations, in order to protect venue reputation. Whereas, comfort and satisfaction received less attention within the organisation of crowd events due to budget considerations, and a lack of concern as to the importance of such issues. Moreover, communication and management systems were sometimes inadequate to ensure compliance with internal procedures. In addition a lack of usable guidance was seen to be available to those responsible for organising crowd situations. Eleven themes were summarised from the data, placed in order of frequency of references to the issues: health and safety, public order, communication, physical environment, public relations, crowd movement, event capacity, facilities, satisfaction, comfort, and crowd characteristics. Results were in line with the weighting of the issues within the literature, with health and safety receiving the most attention, and comfort and satisfaction less attention. These results were used to form the basis of observational checklists for event observations across various crowd situations. Event observations took two forms: observing the role of public and private security, and observing crowd events from the user perspective. Observations within public and private security identified seven general themes: communication, anticipating crowd reaction, information, storage, training, role confusion, financial considerations and professionalism. Findings questioned the clarity of the differing roles of public and private security, and understanding of these differences. Also the increasing use of private over public security within crowd event security, and the differing levels of training and experience within public and private security were identified. Event observations identified fifteen common themes drawn from the data analysis: communication, public order, comfort, facilities, queuing systems, transportation, crowd movement, design, satisfaction, health and safety, public relations, event capacity, time constraints, encumbrances, and cultural differences. Key issues included the layout of the event venue together with the movement and monitoring of crowd users, as well as the availability of facilities in order to reduce competition between crowd users, together with possible links to maintaining public order and reducing anti-social behaviour during crowd events. Findings from the focus groups, interviews, and observations were then combined (to enhance the robustness of the findings), and developed into the Crowd Satisfaction Assessment Tool (CSAT) prototype, a practical tool for event organisers to use during the planning of crowd events. In order to assess proof of concept of the CSAT, potential users (event organisers) were recruited to use the CSAT during the planning of an event they were involved in organising. Semi-structured feedback interviews were then undertaken, to gain insight into the content, usefulness, and usability of the CSAT. Separately human factors researchers were recruited to review the CSAT, providing feedback on the layout and usability of the tool. Feedback interviews suggested the CSAT was a useful concept, aiding communication, and providing organisers with a systematic and methodical structure for planning ahead, prioritising ideas, and highlighting areas of concern. The CSAT was described as being clear and easy to follow, with clear aims, and clear instructions for completion, and was felt to aid communication between the various stakeholders involved in the organisation and management of an event, allowing information to be recorded, stored and shared between stakeholders, with the aim of preventing the loss of crucial information. The thesis concludes with a summary model of the factors that influence crowd satisfaction within crowd events of various descriptions. Key elements of this are the anticipation, facilities, and planning considered before an event, influences and monitoring during an event and reflection after an event. The relevance and impact of this research is to assist the planning of crowd events, with the overall aim of improving participant satisfaction during crowd events. From a business perspective the issue is important with competition between events, the desire to encourage return to events, and to increase profit for organisers. From an ergonomics perspective, there is the imperative of improving the performance of crowd organisers and the experience of crowd users

The D.C. Freeway Revolt and the Coming of Metro

Monograph on the revolt that lead to the creation of the D.C. Metro