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This paper aims to assess the Jos Plateau Tin-mining region as an abandoned mine area being used for housing development with a view to make recommendations.

Utilising secondary data, which maps out ten different locations in the region, this paper highlights the level of radioactive substances (X-ray, beta and gamma rays) and the presence of heavy metals in the environment, abandoned mines, home for the people as well as housing development within a derelict region. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with heads of selected settlement within the Jos Plateau Tin-mining region.

Subsequent analysis shows that the radioactive substances exceed the international standards and therefore have a serious impact on the health of the local population who reside in the affected area. This is particularly significant as people use the contaminated soil as a basic material for their homes as well as farming and food production.

With overpopulation of neighbouring city and rising house prices, an increasing number of people have moved to the Tin-mining areas often without any knowledge about the perils of contaminated soil. At the same time, the planning authority has no presence in the affected area, as it falls outside its jurisdiction.

However, there is an urgent need to address this problem and prevent people from moving to this area, otherwise this would become a serious long-term human catastrophe.

Drawing from international experience, the paper argues that it is possible to develop housing in former Tin-mining areas but require careful remediation and engagement by the public and private sector.

The discussion in this paper makes a case for appropriate physical planning measure as people build their homes on the abandoned Tin-mining areas, with the presences of heavy metals and radioactive substances which are dangerous to human health where the governments have not made provision to address the problem. It is a bridge linking a previous paper on the environment and now consideration on housing/home which together form part of an ongoing PhD research “A potential application of spatial planning in Jos, Nigeria”.

In comparison with the relations between the human and natural environments that have been the central focus of environmental psychology for many years, the interactions between the psychological processes underlying human behaviour and the built environment have only recently regained the interest of researchers. In this paper, the author first discusses the reasons for the slower development of human – built environment relations. Afterwards, the author systematically examines the impact that the research of environmental stress, namely, poor housing and poor neighbourhood quality, had on the contemporary understanding of human – built environment relations.

The author focuses on social, biophilic and evidence-based design. The author proposes deeper psychological engagement in correlation with human behaviour, psychological well-being and society. The author highlights the inclusion of psychologists in interdisciplinary research teams addressing the development of sustainable solutions to the issues of residential environments.

It has been shown that substandard house quality, high noise, lack of natural light in houses, poorer physical quality of urban neighbourhoods, living in a low-income neighbourhood, etc. are linked to elevated physiological and psychological stress. Despite this evidence, there is still a gap between building designers and building users in modern industrialised societies, which could deepen tenants’ dissatisfaction due to specific behavioural needs and consequently lower their psychological well-being and health risk behaviour.

These are potential risks of error arising from the use of assumptions, limited samples size and data from the secondary resources.

The major contributions of this paper are as follows. If the environment is understood as a dynamic, constantly changing and complex system of a wide range of players, the author can discern in this environment a dynamic that is otherwise characteristic of emotional dynamics. Expressed participants’ high satisfaction with residential status does not necessarily generate high expectations regarding real estate factors.

Despite the restricted interpretation of the principle of equality and non-discrimination made by some members of the prison staff in Costa Rica, most of the authorities and policymakers are committed to the express prohibition of unjust treatments on grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation. Notwithstanding, there is a gap between the normative framework and the reality of the detention facilities in the country. This paper aims to present the progress and challenges in the Costa Rican penitentiary system on the specific needs of LGBTI persons deprived of liberty, from a human rights perspective.

This paper is the result of the analysis conducted by United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD) from the data collected and systemized during a qualitative study, led by the same institution in 2016, regarding the situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Persons (LGBTI) persons deprived of liberty. These findings and a review of the actions implemented recently by the competent authorities to protect the rights of these population groups allowed to present an approach of the current situation of the Costa Rican penitentiary system.

While acknowledging the gravity of the violations of fundamental rights of LGBTI people in prison, they are far from showing a systematic pattern of aggression or discrimination against those people. What they do indicate is a penitentiary system that reproduces and exacerbates the marginalization and discrimination experienced by these populations in society. Despite the implementation of some measures to meet the particular needs of these groups, there is also evidence of an institutional culture that tolerates and normalizes certain levels of verbal violence and non-lethal aggression perpetrated by some system staff and by other individuals deprived of liberty.

Visualize the discrimination faced by some of the most invisible prisoners in the penitentiary system. Highlight some of the challenges that might be addressed to protect the rights of certain groups of prisoners affected by structural discrimination provide key data to identify the task list that should be guiding the actions to strengthen human rights guarantees for LGBTI people in prison. Present some good practices implemented by the Costa Rican penitentiary system, which might be useful for some other countries of the region.

There is a lack of information in Latin America about the rights situation of people that, besides the imprisonment, faced some other conditions of vulnerability, such as gender identity or sexual orientation. In a region where overpopulation, precarious living conditions and the critical situation of the prisons are no longer news, this paper pretends to draw attention to the progress and challenges of the penitentiary system concerning some of the most marginalized people in prison. In that regard, this document constitutes also a way of vindication of their rights.

Hormonal contraceptives are complicated reproductive technologies – both biologically and socially. Deeply embedded in global political-economic agendas and historically underpinned by eugenic movements, hormonal contraceptives have a social life often beyond their intended or imagined uses. Because so much of the discussion around contraceptives focuses on their complex history and volatile present, there has been minimal space to talk about the future of hormonal contraceptives. In this chapter I show that while the past and present are complex, the future is even more so!

As the threat of climate change becomes more palpable, two key anxieties (re)surface. First, a fear around growing populations in the Global South (while in reality Total Fertility Rate (TFRs) are in decline) and second, that of a hormonal body out of sync in the face of environmental changes. Similar anxieties have historically mobilised draconian ‘family planning’ measures in countries (like India) in the first instance. And in the second instance, hormonal manipulations to find ‘balance’ in the body, as opposed to balancing (or coming to a reckoning with) contemporary environments with/in which the body exists.

This chapter is an attempt to bring to the fore the importance of studying hormonal contraceptives in environmentally unstable times. To imagine a space beyond coercion or ‘choice’ as variously imagined, when it comes to reproductive justice vis-à-vis hormonal contraception. I suggest that, just as contraceptives have allowed us access to conversations about both women's autonomy and reproductive control, they now allow us to unpack the limits and potentials of hormonal management via the hormonal contraceptive pill.

Immigration reform, anti-immigrant fervor and pro-immigrant protests in 2006 make the causes of Mexican migration an important political issue. In this chapter, survey data and interviews with Zapotec- and Spanish-speaking female household heads from Oaxaca, Mexico examine the relation between migrant destinations and labor demand in Mexico and the US. The goal of this piece is to assert the importance of structural and world economic processes (e.g., demand for labor) in the configuration of historically specific migration patterns.

Cities are both at risk and the cause of risk. The interconnectedness of urban features and systems increases the likelihood of complex disasters and a cascade or “domino” effect from related impacts. However, the lack of research means that our knowledge of urban risk is both scarce and fragmented. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to examine the unique dynamics of risk in urban settings.

Based on literal reading, grounded theory and systems analysis, this conceptual paper presents a framework for understanding and addressing urban risk. It conceptualizes how interdependent, interconnected risk is shaped by urban characteristics and exemplifies its particularities with data and analysis of specific cases. From this, it identifies improvements both in the content and the indicators of the successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA2) that will be adopted in 2015.

While it is common to see disasters as “causes”, and the destruction of the built environment as “effects”, this paper highlights that the intricate links between cities and disasters cannot be described by a unidirectional cause-and-effect relationship. The city–disasters nexus is a bidirectional relationship, which constantly shapes, and is shaped by, other processes (such as climate change).

This paper argues that in-depth knowledge of the links between cities’ characteristic features, related systems and disasters is indispensable for addressing root causes and mainstreaming risk reduction into urban sector work. It enables city authorities and other urban actors to improve and adapt their work without negatively influencing the interconnectedness of urban risk.

This paper presents a framework for understanding and addressing urban risk and further demonstrates how the characteristics of the urban fabric (physical/spatial, environmental, social, economic and political/institutional) and related systems increase risk by: intensifying hazards or creating new ones, exacerbating vulnerabilities and negatively affecting existing response and recovery mechanisms.