Matching Items (4)
Description
Development is a compelling, but imprecise goal. Although the concept can motivate action and mobilize resources, fundamental questions about what it means to ‘develop’ and what actions are required to achieve that goal remain the subject of intense debate. Faced with this uncertainty, development actors can look to two sources of guidance: other disciplines, or the practice of development itself. This dissertation explores the origins of the theories which guide development action and argues that in order for development to deliver on its mandate it must reject supposedly universal theories borrowed from other disciplines (‘exogenous’ theories) and instead must develop contingent, local theories based in the on-the-ground experiences of those doing development (‘endogenous’ theories).
This argument is demonstrated using the case of innovation theory in Guyana. Innovation and development are both popular ways to make sense of change and in recent decades they have become conflated, with innovation being presented as a near-universal fix for development problems. This discourse has taken root in Guyana, where the recent discovery of oil has made the questions of development increasingly urgent and the promise of innovation increasingly attractive. The argument proceeds in four phases:
Chapter one explores how and why certain theories become influential in development, then discusses the implications of doing development work based on ‘exogenous’ versus ‘endogenous’ theory. It then proposes four guidelines for the use of theory in development.
Chapter two traces how innovation came to become understood as a solution to development problems, and assesses whether and under what conditions it can be expected to contribute to development.
Chapter three turns to Guyana, and builds on interviews and participant observation to present an endogenous theory of innovation in Guyana. The chapter also explores the practical and methodological challenges of building such a theory.
Chapter four compares the endogenous theory of innovation presented in the previous chapter to several dominant exogenous theories, exploring the policy implications of each and demonstrating why the endogenous theory provides a superior source of guidance for development action in Guyana.
ContributorsBarton, Chris J (Author) / Crow, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Anderson, Derrick (Thesis advisor) / Grossman, Gary (Committee member) / Chhetri, Nalini (Committee member) / Calhoun, Craig (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The aim of this dissertation is to develop an understanding of the relationships between the daily commute, commuting stress, and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) based on a case study in Georgetown Guyana. Three separate but connected pieces of work were attempted to accomplish this aim. First, a scoping review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Guidelines to elucidate the factors that contribute to commuting stress that have already been explored in the literature. This scoping review unearthed 11 factors across three broad categories. The commute-specific factors which contribute to commuting stress include, the length of the commute and the mode of the commute (whether active or non/active). The built environment factors include the levels of traffic congestion, the type of infrastructure that is in place, the landscape that lines the commuting route, and the experience of non-compliant fellow commuters. Personal factors include gender, age, hours of work, and quality of sleep. These factors along with a few others were then tested within a binomial regression framework that utilized data from 427 working adults. The results mirrored what was found in the literature. In addition, there was clarification of the roles of two factors for which the literature appeared to have not comprehensively addressed. These are modes of commute, that is persons who commute by private means are less likely to experience commuter stress than persons who commute via public means. In the third task, the relationship between these novel commute-specific factors and HRQOL. The result of this study demonstrated that persons who used private commuting and who were more satisfied with the commute infrastructure were more likely to have higher HRQOL scores than those who were not satisfied with the commute infrastructure in place and those who used public transportation. The results further demonstrated that commuting stress mediated the relationship between satisfaction with commute infrastructure and HRQOL, but it did not mediate the relationship between commuting mode and HRQOL. To address these issues, it is recommended that action be taken at the micro, meso, and macroeconomic levels. Keywords: urbanization, daily commute, stress, health-related quality of life, Guyana
ContributorsVan-Veen, Davon (Author) / Chhetri, Netra NC (Thesis advisor) / Jamme, Hue-Tam HJ (Committee member) / Ross, Heather HR (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Rising inequality is a defining challenge in the 21st century and although the 2030 agenda for sustainable development is far from perfect, its commitment to tackling inequalities is praiseworthy. To this end, a deeper understanding of how social inequality affects sustainable development can help us rethink development policies and practices. Social inequality is multidimensional and in the last two decades, there has been an upsurge of research in this area. However, these research do not provide a comprehensive understanding of the nature and extent of inequality and its impact on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, they ignore important dimensions such as wealth and the environment in their analysis. In this dissertation, the discourse on how inequality has evolved is first explored and the analysis reveals that the inequality discourse has shifted from its early focus on the measurement of conditions, defined as the unequal distribution of income and/or material goods, towards a more comprehensive approach of measuring inequality of opportunities. Second, the dissertation examines the short run and long run relationship between social inequality and sustainable development. This is achieved by relying on panel data for 142 countries using the Coefficient of Human Inequality and the Sustainable Development Goals Index and the findings reveal that social inequality and sustainable development share a negative relationship which appears to be robust to the inclusion of controls and the country’s level of development. Finally, this dissertation examines the inequality situation in Guyana by relying on a survey of 403 households and in doing so it computes a measure of social inequality using the Atkinson index along with the dimensions of income, education, health, wealth and the environment. The dissertation finds that Guyana is experiencing a high level of social inequality and it is hindering the country’s progress on the sustainable development goals.
ContributorsArmstrong, Sydney (Author) / Chhetri, Netra NC (Thesis advisor) / Hernandez-Cortes, Danae DHC (Committee member) / Chhetri, Nalini NC (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Inequities and exclusions, compounded by the increasing intensity of extreme weather events, pose significant challenges to urban planning for low-elevation coastal zones (LECZ). Inclusive development (ID) and urban flood resilience (UFR) have emerged as widely endorsed solutions by scholars. Granting that they gain substantial support and enthusiasm, they have the potential to transform vulnerable urban areas. While their noble intentions are commendable, the intricacies of ID cannot be overlooked, as UFR often inherits and perpetuates the inequalities ingrained in conventional development paradigms. Given the critical importance of ID and UFR in contemporary urban planning, my dissertation research devolved into their fusion by answering my main research question, what constitutes inclusive urban flood resilience? This investigation was carried out through a series of four secondary research questions distributed over three academic papers, each contributing a unique perspective and insights to this burgeoning field. Through a systematic literature review and employing bibliometric and thematic analyses, Chapter 2 offers a comprehensive understanding of inclusive development and a refined definition of the concept. Subsequently, taking Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana, as a case study, Chapter 3 estimates its UFR and employs dimensionality reduction by way of principal component analysis to present these findings in a transparent manner. Chapter 4 builds on the findings of the previous chapters, by first presenting a novel approach to evaluate inclusive development within the framework of the results of Chapter 2, and secondly, together with a systematic meta-analysis of flood resilience measurements, it offers an examination of the ID-UFR nexus. The findings suggest that the concept of inclusive development is nuanced by context-specific definitions, that flood resilience in Georgetown varies among its sub-districts, and that city dimensions (natural, built, social, economic, and institutional), as assessed by pooling global studies, do not share synergistic relationships, being a measure of inclusive development. These findings are critical to urban planning in Georgetown and similar contexts globally as they provide data-driven guidance for understanding these concepts and applying them toward developing inclusive and flood-resilient cities and communities.
ContributorsRenville, Dwayne (Author) / Cheng, Chingwen (Thesis advisor) / Vogel, Kathleen (Thesis advisor) / Chhetri, Netra (Committee member) / Zeng, Ruijie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023