Michael Meitner

Immigrant women’s needs and their experiences of neighbourhood livability in multicultural countries such as Canada have been demonstrated to be worthy of study because they face barriers to settlement, accessing supports, and social integration. This dissertation, therefore, aims to achieve a deeper knowledge of immigrant women’s experiences in residential neighbourhoods and specifically asks the main question of what makes a neighbourhood livable for them in multicultural cities? This study was conducted in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada, using mixed methods. The findings of this study have been organized into three major manuscript-based chapters. Using a survey, the first manuscript examines how immigrant women perceive the importance of livability factors and tests the combined effect of those factors on their neighbourhood selection. The results stress the importance of neighbourhood safety, housing affordability and quality, and proximity to public transit. This manuscript also argues that immigrant women who valued socio-cultural amenities/events, ethnolinguistic signs, and social contacts among neighbours preferred to live close to co-ethnics. Finally, this study reveals that participants who highly valued the factors of nightlife and proximity to workplaces, restaurants, and cafes had a tendency toward Vancouver neighbourhoods, while those who valued the factors of proximity to schools and daycares, police stations, and having friendly neighbours had a tendency toward suburban neighbourhoods.Data for the second manuscript was collected through interviews. Exploring how newcomer women experience the social aspects of neighbourhood livability, this manuscript identifies four potential actions to make neighbourhoods socially livable for newcomer women: boosting social cohesion, building multicultural neighbourhoods, developing settlement supports, and improving neighbourhood safety. The research data in the final manuscript was drawn from mental mapping exercises, investigating how newcomer women perceive their physical neighbourhood boundaries. The results of this manuscript demonstrate the contribution of the following four main amenities to shaping the perceived neighbourhood boundaries and livability: lively social and community-based spaces, inviting green spaces, shopping streets and shopping malls, and ethnic markets. According to these results, I proposed a guiding framework in the concluding chapter, including ten dimensions, for the design and development of more livable neighbourhoods in multicultural cities.

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Urban vegetation provides a suite of ecosystem services to urban residents, from regulating microclimate to supporting good physical health. As more and more people make cities their home, urban vegetation is becoming a key part of urban residents’ well-being. Urban green equity is a central aspect of the distribution of and governance over urban vegetation and its associated ecosystem services. While issues of equity in urban forestry are of clear importance in a just society, it is unclear how the concept should be defined and analyzed. To begin to address this gap, this dissertation 1) examines the theoretical dimensions of urban green equity from multiple perspectives, 2) explores how urban forestry practitioners understand and use the concept of urban green equity in three case-study cities in the United States (US), and 3) conducts a spatial analysis of distributional green equity across 10 urbanized areas in the US. The research found 1) that there are multiple, related dimensions of urban green equity centred around two principle dimensions: distribution of urban vegetation and recognition of stakeholders in urban vegetation decision making, 2) that urban forestry practitioners collectively have a nuanced and complex understanding of urban green equity and tend to focus on distributional equity in their definitions and use of the concept, and 3) that distributional green inequity exists across multiple urbanized areas in the US, education and income are the factors most strongly predictive of the spatial distribution of urban vegetation, and public parks tend to be more equitably distributed than mixed and woody vegetation in cities. It is my hope that these results, and the methodological and conceptual approaches and frameworks provided by this research will be used to advance the rigorous study of urban green equity and improve urban green equity in practice in cities around the world.

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This dissertation is aimed at improving understanding of the mechanisms at play in prosocial behaviour, as a function of recipient group identity (i.e. in-group vs. out-group member), self-construal, and social inclusion. While some research has examined the impacts of self-construal on prosocial behaviour, as well as the downstream reactions to threats of exclusion, little research has looked at the impact that perceptions of inclusion may have on prosocial behaviour. Moreover even less research has looked at how promises, or reminders, of social inclusion may be specifically experienced by individuals with high independent self-construal, and how this may impact their subsequent prosocial behaviour towards out-group (vs. in-group) targets of concern. The goal of this dissertation is to explore the interaction between inclusion and independent self-construal, with a focus on the downstream consequences for prosocial behaviour directed at out-groups. Across five experimental studies I demonstrate that individuals with high independent self-construal may behave more prosocially towards out-group targets (more inclusively in two grouping tasks, and more prosocially in two donation tasks) under normal conditions, in comparison with individuals high in interdependent self-construal. I also offer evidence that following an affirmation of social inclusion status the pattern reverses and individuals with high independent self-construal behave less prosocially towards out-group targets. Furthermore, I provide some tentative evidence to support the argument that individuals with high independent self-construal may be motivated to behave prosocially towards out-group targets in order to maximise social connection potential, and that feelings of similarity may increase this. Finally, I demonstrate that feelings of connection to cause may mediate these mechanisms in the case of donation intentions. Taken together this dissertation builds on previous research, and then extends it to demonstrate that while individuals with high independent self-construal may behave more prosocially to out-groups under normal circumstances, promises or reminders of inclusion may reverse this pattern, decreasing prosocial behaviour. I provide some preliminary evidence that the increase (decrease) in prosocial behaviour is as a result of increased (decreased) motivation for social interaction.

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Using a transdisciplinary approach the dissertation explores how change occurs in human systems, and what is needed from us to mobilize such change. Part 1 explores the topic of change in human systems. It includes a literature review regarding the difficulties and realities of mobilizing change on all levels of human systems: individual, organizational, and societal. To complement current change theories and increase their effectiveness in explaining the process of change, two psychological concepts are introduced: individual cycles of emotional experience in the face of loss and crisis, and individual developmental meaning-making structures. From a perspective of practice and mobilizing change the challenges created by different sustainability worldviews are discussed. A simple framework and ten recommendations are presented to aid in the process of diagnosing and mobilizing change. Part 1 concludes with a case study in Costa Rica, diagnosing soil erosion challenges. The study explored motivations of local farmers regarding soil conservation practices, and analyzed their responses to a hypothetical payment for ecosystem services (PES) bidding scheme. It concludes that a PES scheme, in this context, does not address the reasons why farmers are not engaging in soil conservation practices; and is possibly counterproductive to the goal of behavioural change and soil conservation. Part 2 explores how we can better support university students to develop the skills needed to mobilize change and argues that the challenges of sustainability require individuals that have more practical know-how skills and more developed know-who awareness. It concludes that in the context of sustainability, higher education institutions can do more to contribute to the development of these ways of knowing. The cornerstone of part 2 is a case study of a sustainability leadership course taught at UBC. The course aimed to increase individuals’ adaptive leadership skills, and to support transformative learning. The course was successful at both increasing leadership skills and supporting transformative learning, however shortcomings of the course are also presented. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of what has been learned about the limitations of a course based approach to addressing the shortcomings of practical sustainability skills development in a university setting.

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As sustainable forest management continues to influence forest planning and the balance of social, economic and ecological goals is evaluated, managers must find ways to ensure that forests provide for a variety of products and services for people and the environment. This dissertation focuses on finding new ways to more effectively manage forest aesthetics, including the development of methods that are human-centered; methods that are based on human perception and empirical research. The research explores a variety of geospatial and visualization technologies designed to aid managers in the process of planning for the conservation of visual resources.The first development is based on findings from empirical research that present a quantifiable expression of how the shape of harvest blocks can influence preferences. A study was conducted which required individuals to rate 52 near photo-realistic images which simulated different possible harvests in a forested landscape. Three difference shape characteristics were controlled for: geometric primitive (atomic shape), complexity (irregularity), and aspect ratio (elongation). The results indicate that geometric primitive has the largest effect on preferences followed closely by complexity. The research shows that complex, rounded-edged circular shapes are most preferable, and regardless of shape, moderate levels of complexity dramatically increase preferences.The second development is the Human-Centered Viewshed (HCV). Viewsheds are used in landscape management, but may lack important landform detail. The HCV combines an efficient algorithm, XDraw, with three characteristics of landform to provide a measure space an object occupies within an individual’s field of view. The three characteristics involve the effect of slope, aspect and distance from an observer to a target location. The output is a simple, discrete 2D image that supplies a degree of visibility for each location in space which can be used to determine how an individual may experience the landform as they move through the landscape.Applications of these discoveries on the management of forest aesthetics are presented, followed by a discussion of management trade-offs with ecology. The research in this dissertation can improve the current visual resource management process by providing planners with new information to help them more effectively manage forest aesthetics.

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