Date of Graduation

Winter 12-15-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS)

College/School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department/Program

International Studies

First Advisor

Stephen Zavestoski

Abstract

Globalization has spun “community” off its axis. What once defined community is no longer the current state of the community. Increased economic transactions have led to the instability of communities that once depended on one another at the local level. These communities are now dependent on systems that do not know nor understand their actors. This lack of relationship between development and subject is witnessed and highly scrutinized in developing countries all over the world and has been intensely researched in academic literature. This thesis intends to better understand why in modernized global cities these same processes of development and subject take place without community input. This thesis will analyze two major global cities, San Francisco, California and Amsterdam, Netherlands. The analysis will review the accessible green space in both cities which will determine the access to non-transactional activities. The results should show that increased access to non-transactional activities through access to green space increases a city’s level of sustainability through increasing community access to natural environments or more broadly to non-transactional spaces with natural environments being the most prevalent type. Having access to green space and non-transactional activities has the ability to increase awareness and community development surrounding sustainable living.

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