Implications of Urban Development-Induced Resettlement on Poor Households in Addis Ababa

This article examines the outcomes of recent slum resettlement projects on the socio-economic well-being of the relocated people in Addis Ababa. Drawing on qualitative methods involving observation, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, the paper examines the benefits and challenges of urban development projects on the lives of poor relocated households. The empirical findings demonstrate that although relocated household benefited in terms of an improved quality of new houses, the city upgrading projects have negatively affected these families. Differential quality of housing and increasing costs of rent, income loss, changing schools for children, health problems and loss of savings were experienced. The study concludes that urban redevelopment and resettlement plans need to include the implications of relocation on the lives and livelihood opportunities of poor households.Keywords: Urban development; resettlement; poor households; livelihoods; social networks,Addis Abab

Eldrebølgen - en politisk utfordring : en studie av kommunenes utgifter til eldreomsorgen

Hovedfagsoppgave i samfunnsvitenskap, høsten 198

Et naturlig navnevalg? : En kritisk diskursanalyse av kommunikasjonen av navneendringen fra Statoil til Equinor

Masteroppgave samfunnskommunikasjon KOM500 - Universitetet i Agder 2019Denne masteroppgaven er en kritisk diskursanalyse av kommunikasjonen av navneendringen fra Statoil til Equinor. Statoil/Equinor er Norges største selskap, og følgelig er det interessant å undersøke hvordan et selskap av denne betydningen kommuniserer ut at de har endret navn. Formålet med oppgaven er å kunne si noe kunnskapsbasert om kommunikasjonen av navneendringen. I forlengelse av dette tar oppgaven sikte på å bidra til innsikt i de strategiene som tas i bruk når et betydningsfullt selskap kommuniserer ut at de har endret navn. For å nå dette målet foretar jeg en kritisk undersøkelse av fire tekster som Equinor har publisert på sine nettsider i forbindelse med navneendringen. Oppgaven baserer seg på et tverrfaglig teoretisk rammeverk, som kombinerer perspektiver på multimodal kritisk diskursanalyse, herunder Norman Faircloughs tredimensjonale analysemodell, med mer samfunnsmessige teorier om samfunnsansvar, grønnvasking og omdømme. Resultatene fra denne studien viser at de diskursive strategiene som Statoil/Equinor benytter seg av kan deles inn i to hovedgrupper. Den ene kategorien handler om strategier som brukes til å avspore kritisk debatt. Den andre kategorien omhandler strategier som bygger omdømme som et klimavennlig selskap.Analysen viser hvordan Equinor aldri direkte fremviser en maktposisjon i sitt kommunikasjonsmateriale, men lar denne komme implisitt til syne, blant annet gjennom å konstruere falske årsakssammenhenger. Dette grepet gjør det mulig for selskapet å knytte til seg motiver med positiv assosiativ betydning, som igjen har effekten av å flytte seernes oppmerksomhet vekk fra fossilt brensel. Analysen setter dette i sammenheng med at Equinor uttaler at de i forbindelse med navneendringen «går fra å være et olje- og gasselskap til å bli et bredt energiselskap». Gjennom dette utforsker oppgaven forholdet mellom hva Equinor uttaler i sitt kommunikasjonsmateriale og hvilke valg og investeringer selskapet foretar i den virkelige verden

An analysis of the locomotory behaviour and functional morphology of errant polychaetes

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Paradigms for biologically inspired design

Biologically inspired design is attracting increasing interest since it offers access to a huge biological repository of well proven design principles that can be used for developing new and innovative products. Biological phenomena can inspire product innovation in as diverse areas as mechanical engineering, medical engineering, nanotechnology, photonics, environmental protection and agriculture. However, a major obstacle for the wider use of biologically inspired design is the knowledge barrier that exist between the application engineers that have insight into how to design suitable products and the biologists with detailed knowledge and experience in understanding how biological organisms function in their environment. The biologically inspired design process can therefore be approached using different design paradigms depending on the dominant opportunities, challenges and knowledge characteristics. Design paradigms are typically characterized as either problem-driven, solution-driven, sustainability driven, bioreplication or a combination of two or more of them. The design paradigms represent different ways of overcoming the knowledge barrier and the present paper presents a review of their characterization and application

Wooded streets, but not streetlight dimming, favour bat activity in a temperate urban setting

Data availability: The data used as input in our statistical tests is available from Figshare - https://figshare.com/s/31c0c425512f6de67df0.Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. Urbanization damages biodiversity, reducing people's connection to nature and negatively impacting the survivability of local species. However, with small adjustments, the damage could be mitigated. In temperate regions, several bat species inhabit urban areas, and with urbanization set to increase, adapting urban areas to improve their suitability for bats is imperative. Therefore, we investigated if wooded streets and streetlight dimming in an urban setting influenced bat activity. Static bat detectors were used to compare wooded versus non-wooded, and bright versus dim streets in Leicester, UK, on predominantly residential streets. The collected calls were quantified into bat activity (passes per night). Six species were identified, but the common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) was dominant, making up 94.1% of all calls, so it was the sole species included in the statistical model. Wooded streets had significantly higher bat activity than non-wooded streets, but bright and dim streets were not significantly different. The results suggest that wooded streets were being used as green corridors, with common pipistrelles possibly following them to conceal themselves from predators, such as the tawny owl, and the proliferation of wooded streets in urban areas could allow the formation of better-connected populations. Streetlight dimming did not affect bat activity, but no light-averse bats were detected, likely because even the most dimmed streets deterred them despite street lighting increasing food availability by attracting insects. Therefore, an alternate solution, such as part-night lighting, may be required to increase the suitability of urban areas to light-averse species