Abstract: Undoubtedly climate change is already impacting and changing natural and human systems. However, climate change has just started to happen, and more severe and frequent impacts are expected to happen in the next decade. Therefore, climate change adaptation is an immediate and imminent need for future development options. Among the various approaches to adapting to climate change, Ecosystem-based Adaptation measures are seen as a no-regret or low-regret option. But like any other anthropogenic intervention, adaptation measures such as EbA can have detrimental impacts and side effects that adversely affect human and natural systems. This unintended process is called maladaptation. Since recent evidence about maladaptation has been studied, EbA practitioners are increasingly concerned about avoiding maladaptation risks in adaptation projects. Yet, there is not enough literature that explores maladaptation in EbA measures. Responding to this gap, the purpose of the present thesis was to propose a prospective participatory tool for identifying, diagnosing, and avoiding maladaptation risks in EbA measures to support practitioners in designing more holistic, resilient, and sustainable adaptation projects. As a result, the maladaptation concept was initially analyzed using the existing related literature to develop a conceptual framework consisting of drivers, mechanisms, dimensions, attributes, forms, outputs, and outcomes of maladaptation. At the same time, a harmonized and integrated definition of maladaptation was developed based on its current understanding. Following that framework, a tool for analyzing maladaptation risks was drafted, validated with various experts, and tested in a pilot EbA measure to conserve, sustainably use, and restore mangroves in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Through the case study, not only the proposed tool was tested for analyzing maladaptation risks, but also the conceptual framework was used to understand maladaptation in an EbA measure better. By doing that, this master’s thesis expects to contribute to the emerging climate change adaptation discipline while providing means to practitioners to improve the design of future EbA measures using the maladaptation lens.

Resumen: La idea de ciudad en el contexto del poblamiento hispanoamericano puede encontrarse en tratados políticos y urbanísticos del siglo XVI. No obstante, este no es un discurso que deba analizarse unilateralmente, como algo impuesto desde arriba por la Corona o por sus oficiales reales. Más bien, puede cuestionarse el hecho de que los tratados reflejaban el pensamiento extendido en la población o cómo circulaban las ideas y el conocimiento en torno a la ciudad en diferentes esferas de la sociedad. Este artículo no intenta definir lo que era la ciudad sino llamar la atención sobre uno de los aspectos que no ha sido atendido por la historiografía: la apropiación social y política del concepto de ciudad a partir de su definición como civitas, como comunidad política. Para ello se toma como referencia centros urbanos que atravesaron momentos de crisis o coyunturas en las que sobresale el arraigo y aprovechamiento de la idea de ciudad por sus habitantes hispanos. Así, se busca analizar la idea de ciudad desde abajo, desde los pobladores de los núcleos urbanos, soldados, oficiales de cabildo y gobernación que estaban construyendo las ciudades o villas en territorio americano para notar cómo se configuró la realidad política. Estos tenían una visión particular de la esencia de la ciudad, la ponían en práctica en sus diversas manifestaciones y negociaciones con la Corona.

Resumen: Este artículo analiza el traslado de la ciudad de Santiago de las Atalayas, en 1780, a la luz del ideal de ciudad y de las condiciones ambientales y físicas que expresaron quienes estuvieron a favor o en contra de esta determinación, lo cual permite comprender cómo una comunidad entendía la ciudad y procuraba su sostenimiento y perdurabilidad por medio de diferentes estrategias y de los argumentos que expuso cada bando. Un traslado del centro urbano genera interrogantes orientados a conocer qué factores contribuían al sostenimiento o permanencia de los mismos y por qué eran aceptados o rechazados cuando se procuraba su conservación.

Abstract: As we move deeper into the 21st century, reggaeton has expanded to become a major genre in US mainstream media culture. Because it is so versatile, it blends easily with other Latin American genres, as well as US pop music styles. It is a transnational and intercultural genre, adopting aspects from an amalgamation of styles, sounds, and aesthetics. What is the appeal of reggaeton music in the midst of the 21st century? Is it the rhythm or beat? Or the controversial lyrics, and the machismo (hypermasculinity) that they express? Both producers and consumers agree that Reggaeton is more than a music genre, and that its appeal is due not only to the characteristics outlined above, but to the fact that it represents a complete lifestyle. While Latin American producers are attempting to market a generic Latin American lifestyle, US. Latino consumers understand reggaeton as a lifestyle that is emblematic of both their heritage and their contemporary identity within the larger US culture. This thesis aims to understand how different groups of people within the US consume, understand and identify with reggaeton in order to begin to explain the growing phenomenon of Latin American popular music as a means of mass expression at a global level. Resumen: A medida que nos adentramos en el siglo 21, el reggaetón se ha instaurado como uno de los géneros más importantes en la cultura de los medios de comunicación en los Estados Unidos. Debido a su versatilidad, se mezcla fácilmente con otros géneros latinoamericanos, así como con estilos de música pop estadounidense. Es un género transnacional e intercultural que adopta aspectos dentro de una amalgama de estilos, sonidos y estéticas. ¿Cuál es el atractivo del reggaetón en pleno siglo XXI? ¿Será su ritmo o el sonido? ¿O serán las letras controversiales y el machísmo (hipermasculinidad) que expresan? Tanto los productores como los consumidores coinciden en que el reggaetón es mucho más que un género musical y que su atractivo se debe no solo a las características descritas anteriormente, sino al hecho de que representa un estilo de vida completo. Mientras que los productores latinoamericanos intentan comercializar un estilo de vida latinoamericano genérico, los consumidores latinos que crecieron en Estados Unidos entienden el reggaetón como un estilo de vida emblemático tanto de su herencia como de su identidad contemporánea dentro de la cultura estadounidense en general. Esta tesis busca entender cómo diferentes grupos de personas en Estados Unidos, consumidoras del reggaetón, se identifican con el género para así buscar la manera de empezar a explicar el fenómeno de la música pop (y popular) latinoamericana como medio de expresión masivo a nivel global.

Abstract: While there is strong evidence of the association between oil wealth and internal armed conflicts, the literature is less conclusive about the processes linking the two. Despite myriad mechanisms hypothesised by the literature, much uncertainty still exists about the causal pathways between oil and armed conflicts. How does oil revenues affect the occurrence and course of internal armed conflicts in contexts of political decentralisation? The main argument of the thesis is that the control of abundant oil revenues by subnational governments contributes to shape the strategies undertaken by armed groups at the local level. Subnational governments become a prize for armed groups, which pursue oil revenues through the political capture of local democracy. The armed groups interfere with democracy through a mix of violent and non-violent strategies. The thesis identifies political connections between oil revenues and armed conflicts and traces mechanism which I term the subnational-government-astarget. The pathway contributes to explain how oil revenues can undermine the workings of the subnational government through the dynamics of the armed conflict. A comparative case study approach was implemented to examine how oil revenues affected conflict and public management at the subnational level in Colombia. Drawing on data collected over five months of fieldwork in oilroyalty-abundant municipalities, the thesis also constitutes one of the first studies to examine the effects of oil revenues accrued by non-oil-producing municipalities in Colombia. The qualitative and quantitative data was triangulated to carry out a process-tracing analysis covering the period from the early 1960s to 2017.

Abstract: Political exclusion from public decision-making processes is one of the main causes of conflicts worldwide. The scholarship on the political inclusion of marginalised populations in a broad range of contexts and fields is growing rapidly. A specific subject that is receiving increased attention is participatory budgeting, a process that allows citizens to decide how to spend part of the local government budget. Still, the studies that examine the influence of offline and online participatory budgeting on political inclusion in peacebuilding contexts remain scarce. This thesis aims at contributing to the literature by analysing the influence of participatory budgeting on political inclusion in Medellín, Colombia’s second-biggest city. A case study approach was used to explore the participatory budgeting process in Medellín, from its launch as a city-wide policy in 2004 until its last regulatory change in 2017. Instead of testing pre-specified hypotheses, the thesis uses grounded theory to identify the factors and pathways that contribute to explain the influence of Medellín’s offline and online participatory budgeting on political inclusion in the view of its participants. The qualitative data collected and analysed suggests that participatory budgeting could boost political inclusion, while sometimes, even simultaneously, also reducing it. Using a grounded theory approach, this thesis develops a framework that explains how power dynamics and the deployment of the public budget through the participatory budget might foster or hinder political inclusion, depending on the design and implementation of the participatory budgeting process. The thesis also advances the literature by providing a thick description of political inclusion in Medellín’s participatory budgeting process, that characterises who are the actors that participate in the process and the distinctive dynamics of their interactions, along with how this participation may influence political inclusion.

Abstract: The constant evolution of power systems and their protection and control systems has brought the need to investigate different concepts that could help improve the implementation and testing of protection and control systems during the complete lifecycle of electrical substations. Centralized protection and control system is a concept that has been under study for many years already but has gained more force lately, thanks to the evolution of computing technology and the more substantial influence of the standard IEC61850 in electrical substations. This thesis has studied the centralized protection and control systems starting with the development of a market availably. The result shows that even though the general concept between the available systems is the same, the specific architecture depends on the technology used to implement the centralized concept. The result also shows that the two technologies leading the market availability are the SASensor from Locamation and the SSC600 from ABB. The technologies virtualization and Synaptec’s Refase system are also investigated in this thesis. Protection and control test methodologies do also depend on the technology to be tested. Therefore, this thesis shows an overall protection and control testing lifecycle analysis of a centralized protection and control system. The architecture of the reference system used for the testing lifecycle evaluation has similarities to a decentralized digital substation architecture. Using that kind of architecture allows fully IEC61850 based protection and control testing, as the results have shown it. Therefore, knowledge, tools, and procedures developed for decentralized digital substations also apply to the centralized concept. The last part of this work presents a practical application example that uses the SSC600 as a protection and control central unit. The device configuration is based on a power system example designed for the thesis. The IEC61850 system engineering of the system and test procedures are part of the results of the practical part.

Abstract: In recent years, breweries have had to adapt the way they use resources and manage the by-products of the production chain, such as organic and packaging waste. Likewise, they’ve needed to find a way to respond to the environmental pressures of the beer industry, such as energy and water usage as well as resource depletion. Several alternatives have been proposed to face these environmental burdens, one example is the application of Circular Economy principles in the production process. This research focuses on the supply chain-related challenges that small craft breweries face when they use circular or alternative raw materials in their production chain. This research seeks to understand the circular supply chain in the brewing industry by analysing three small European breweries. Data collection consisted of multiple sources, among which were interviews. The main goal is to identify the challenges faced by the companies that switched their production methods leaning toward circularity and to find a possible way to address them. The challenges will be analysed following the Circular Business Model and the Circular Supply Chain Theoretical Approaches. The contribution of this project is in terms of management decision-making for a circular supply chain in small businesses in the food industry.

Abstract: The CDM (Clean Development Mechanisms), VCM (Voluntary Carbon Markets) and PES (Payment for Ecosystem Services) that support the REDD+ pathway, have long been part of the sustainable development policy arena. The competition for resources to ‘develop for the developed’ has taken many turns (de Soussa Santos, 2006), and the consequent commodification of nature can be traced to different cultures, and back to an unknown history of who was the first. This research asks whether market-based solutions like REDD+ have failed. Some say they have, some that this is part of the process, and others, that –-‘better this than nothing’-, but is there a correct answer? The reason for placing REDD+ inside of CDM-VCM-PES is clarified through the green growth agenda, where forests are one of the main subject of carbon offsets in biodiversity programs. Of the 501 developing countries that have submitted assessments to the UNFCCC, just 15 submitted a summary on how safeguards are being addressed and respected (UNFCCC, 2022). For now, safeguards are the only mechanism for securing rights, but we need to ask which rights, and whose rights. This research uses a decolonizing perspective to address these question in the example of Colombia. The research offers guidance to those that seek to keep applying environmental safeguards as a direct way to address land rights and climate, environmental and social justice. It also attempts to advance the social constructions of different pathways to sustainable development and the strategies for tackling the underlying drivers of climate change from a decolonizing perspective.

Abstract: This document is about the meanings of place, the processes of displacement, community building, and struggles for empowerment narrated by Afro-Colombian women community leaders in Cali, Colombia. The section Reforma Rural Integral of the peace agreement signed by the Colombian government and the FARC-EP defines the place as an economic asset restricting it to its physical meaning in contrast to the definitions given by the women who also attached to place symbolic and social meanings. Three research questions guide this article: What is the social and symbolic meanings given to the places left behind and newly inhabited, by displaced Afro-Colombian women? How do women narrate their belonging to different places and communities, and their struggles to establish a new life after displacement? How are gender and ethnicity/race embedded in these narratives? Based on participant observation, in-depth interviews, and thematic analysis, it was possible to demonstrate how, through individual and collective political struggles, these women build their roles within the new communities in Cali by following or challenging patterns of gender identity. What allows them to create a place for themselves, through intersections of gender, race, age, and family, as well as through loss and struggle. Resumen: Este documento trata de los significados del lugar, los procesos de desplazamiento, la construcción de la comunidad y las luchas por el empoderamiento narradas por cinco mujeres afrocolombianas lideresas comunitarias en Cali, Colombia. La sección Reforma rural integral del acuerdo de paz firmado por el gobierno colombiano y las FARC-EP define el ‘lugar’ como un activo económico que lo restringe a su significado físico en contraste con las definiciones dadas por las mujeres quienes le añaden significados simbólicos y sociales. Tres preguntas de investigación guían este artículo: ¿Cuáles son los significados sociales y simbólicos dados por las cinco mujeres desplazadas afrocolombianas a los lugares que han habitado? ¿Cómo narran las mujeres su pertenencia a los diferentes lugares y comunidades, y sus luchas por establecer una nueva vida después del desplazamiento? ¿Cómo se integran el género y la etnia / raza en estas narraciones? A partir de la observación participante, entrevistas en profundidad y un análisis temático, fue posible demostrar cómo a través de luchas políticas individuales y colectivas, estas mujeres construyen sus roles dentro de las nuevas comunidades en Cali siguiendo o desafiando patrones de identidad de género. Lo que les permite crear un lugar para sí mismas, a través de intersecciones de género, raza/etnia, edad y familia, así como a través de la pérdida y la lucha.