Domosh, Mona

This thesis explores the landscape and beliefs of a nineteenth century utopian community, the Koreshan Unity, a group who settled the town of Estero, Florida. This research explains the alternative geography of the Koreshans, a worldview that claimed that we live on the inside of a hollow sphere. Their founder, Dr. Cyrus Teed, created this theory and made it the core of a social structure that also supported celibacy and socialism. I also describe the Koreshan Geodetic Expedition, a survey of the earth's curvature, and how it claimed to use scientific methods to prove the earth's concavity. The history, beliefs, and technology of this society are then examined against the landscape to elucidate issues of power and social control.

This thesis looks at how political decisions influence the design and outcome of planning processes and how these decisions influence the urban landscape. This study looks at one specific planning process and compares the results of two different planning workshops to show how differences in representation and information dissemination can lead to different outcomes. The first workshop had broad representation and was educated by planning experts, while the second consisted of only local community representatives and was not influenced by planning professionals. Although similar, each workshop had different visions and different priorities. This shows that participatory processes have to be carefully constructed to empower communities. It also shows that decisions made in the way planning processes are structured can lead to differences in the landscape.

The pattern of decline of the mining community of Sotiras, in the island of Thasos in Greece is examined as well as its resurrection as a seasonal second home economy. Thasos has been famous for its mineral wealth since antiquity, and Sotiras, functioned as the second most important mining town on the island during the early twentieth century. The community has experienced boom and bust cycles from its continued dependence on a single activity, mining in the early part of the century and tourism and seasonal residents at the present time. The main objective of this study is to discuss and analyze the socioeconomic, cultural, and spatial effects of the boom periods and the long decades of decline in between on the population and landscape of Sotiras in a core-periphery framework.