http://hdl.handle.net/1842/1635 2013-05-25T09:00:14Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/4445 Title: The association between green space and cause-specific mortality in urban New Zealand: an ecological analysis of green space utility Authors: Richardson, E.; Pearce, J.; Mitchell, R.; Day, P.; Kingham, S. Abstract: Background: There is mounting international evidence that exposure to green environments is associated with health benefits, including lower mortality rates. Consequently, it has been suggested that the uneven distribution of such environments may contribute to health inequalities. Possible causative mechanisms behind the green space and health relationship include the provision of physical activity opportunities, facilitation of social contact and the restorative effects of nature. In the New Zealand context we investigated whether there was a socioeconomic gradient in green space exposure and whether green space exposure was associated with cause-specific mortality (cardiovascular disease and lung cancer). We subsequently asked what is the mechanism(s) by which green space availability may influence mortality outcomes, by contrasting health associations for different types of green space. Methods: This was an observational study on a population of 1,546,405 living in 1009 small urban areas in New Zealand. A neighbourhood-level classification was developed to distinguish between usable (i.e., visitable) and non-usable green space (i.e., visible but not visitable) in the urban areas. Negative binomial regression models were fitted to examine the association between quartiles of area-level green space availability and risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease (n = 9,484; 1996 - 2005) and from lung cancer (n = 2,603; 1996 - 2005), after control for age, sex, socio-economic deprivation, smoking, air pollution and population density. Results: Deprived neighbourhoods were relatively disadvantaged in total green space availability (11% less total green space for a one standard deviation increase in NZDep2001 deprivation score, p < 0.001), but had marginally more usable green space (2% more for a one standard deviation increase in deprivation score, p = 0.002). No significant associations between usable or total green space and mortality were observed after adjustment for confounders. Conclusion: Contrary to expectations we found no evidence that green space influenced cardiovascular disease mortality in New Zealand, suggesting that green space and health relationships may vary according to national, societal or environmental context. Hence we were unable to infer the mechanism in the relationship. Our inability to adjust for individual-level factors with a significant influence on cardiovascular disease and lung cancer mortality risk (e. g., diet and alcohol consumption) will have limited the ability of the analyses to detect green space effects, if present. Additionally, green space variation may have lesser relevance for health in New Zealand because green space is generally more abundant and there is less social and spatial variation in its availability than found in other contexts. 2010-05-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/3202 Title: Citizenship Education in South Africa: A report to schools Authors: Hammett, Daniel P; Staeheli, Lynn Abstract: This report addresses findings from the research project 'Education, Citizenship Formation and Democratisation in South Africa'. This research asked: - How are citizens imagined by state institutions? - What educational practices are used in citizenship education? And - What tensions emerge between education policy, practice and learning? 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/3037 Title: The modern touch: interior design and modernisation in post-independence Singapore Authors: Jacobs, Jane M; Cairns, S. Abstract: The authors take as their focus the advice on interior design and decoration that Singapore's Housing Development Board (HDB) distributed to residents as part of its programme of universal housing provision. Through a series of regular articles appearing in the HDB publication Our Home (1972 - 1989), readers were presented with stories that showed how selected HDB residents decorated their newly acquired highrise flats. The authors detail the relationship between this design advice and the commitment to modernist design principles, the self-conscious pragmatism of the HDB, and the reliance on a limited market logic ('homeownership'). The HDB's vision of the benefit of its highrise housing programme was, from the outset, complexly entangled with cultivating individual investments in the home by way of interior design and decoration practices. The paper contributes not only to the specific story of Singaporean housing, but also to wider scholarship on modernism, the everyday practices of interior design, and housing consumption. 2007-06-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/3036 Title: Living room: rematerialising home Authors: Jacobs, Jane M; Smith S.J. 2008-03-01T00:00:00Z