End-Users Housing Requirements in Tumfure Housing Estate in Gombe Metropolis, Nigeria

One of the critical success indicators of projects is to meet the requirements of end-users on which their satisfaction depend upon. This study aimed to examine end-users housing requirements in a Tumfure housing estate in Gombe metropolis, Nigeria, to improve end-user satisfaction. The study objectives were: To identify end-users housing requirements in Tumfure housing estate in Gombe metropolis. The survey design was used to collect responses from occupants of the estate using a structured questionnaire that produced a 65 % response rate. The collected data was analysed using descriptive statistical tools of tables and means. The research found that end-users basic housing requirements in the Tumfure housing estate were the flow of natural ventilation and illumination, rooms suitable for a family unit, modern convenience, circulation spaces, and adequate security. The research recommended that end-users requirements and their peculiarities be the primary consideration in designing and developing public housing estate to ensure higher end-user residential satisfaction.

Chronic disease self-management competency and care satisfaction between users of public and private primary care in Singapore

Introduction: Primary healthcare providers play a crucial role in educating their patients on chronic disease self-management (CDSM). This study aims to evaluate CDSM competency and satisfaction in patients receiving their healthcare from public or private healthcare providers. Methods: A cross-sectional household study was conducted in a public housing estate using a standardised questionnaire to interview Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 40 years and above, who were diagnosed with at least 1 of these chronic diseases: hyperlipidaemia, hypertension or diabetes mellitus. CDSM competency was evaluated with the Partners In Health (PIH) scale and a knowledgebased questionnaire. Satisfaction was evaluated using a satisfaction scale. Results: In general, the 420 respondents demonstrated good CDSM competency, with 314 followed up at polyclinics and 106 by general practitioners (GPs). There was no significant difference between patients of polyclinics and GPs in CDSM competency scores (mean PIH score 72.9 vs 75.1, P=0.563), hypertension knowledge scores (90.9 vs 85.4, P=0.16) and diabetes knowledge scores (84.3 vs 79.5, P=0.417), except for hyperlipidaemia knowledge scores (78.6 vs 84.7, P=0.043). However, respondents followed up by GPs had higher satisfaction rates than did those followed up at polyclinics (odds ratio 3.6, confidence interval 2.28–5.78). Favourable personality of the doctors and ideal consultation duration led to higher satisfaction in the GP setting. A longer waiting time led to lower satisfaction in the polyclinic group. Conclusion: Polyclinics and GPs provide quality primary care as evidenced by high and comparable levels of CDSM competency. Redistribution of patients from public to private clinics may result in improvements in healthcare service quality. Keywords: Care satisfaction, chronic disease self-management, primary care, Singapore

Temporalities, a Disability Chronotope, and Empathetic Horizons in Still Human

The article engages with arrangements of time and space and how they conjoin to constitute a disability chronotope that combines with other textual elements to both expand and limit empathetic horizons in Still Human, a film about a physically impaired middle-aged man and his Pilipino foreign domestic helper (FDH), set largely within a Hong Kong public housing estate. The study distinguishes between the text’s declarative and descriptive layers, albeit while recognizing the forced and perhaps violent nature of this division. Structuring the surface of the film are technical codes and a chronological, optimistic, and sometimes humorous overcoming narrative through which protagonists triumph over tragedy. However, the surface of the text is intermittently disturbed by descriptive layers, or figurative currents. Although this troubling content appears peripheral to, and on the margins of, the text, this underlying and seemingly extraneous content is a crucial supplement which may more effectively realize authorial intentions to disclose the protagonists’ humanness and engender empathy than the more prominent technical codes that structure the text’s surface. Such coexisting layers illustrate how texts are stratified and how the content of texts and the intentions of authors are haunted by undecidability.

Residents’ Perception of Importance and Satisfaction with Infrastructure in Selected Public Housing Estates in Osun State, Nigeria

This study examined residents’ level of satisfaction with the available infrastructure in Moremi, Oroki and Akoda Estates in Osun State, with a view to enhancing provision of infrastructure. Primary data was used for the study. Questionnaire was used to elicit information from the residents of the three selected public housing estates from the three senatorial districts in Osun State, each public housing estate representing one senatorial district. These public housing estates are under the portfolio of Osun State Property Development Corporation (OSPDC), Osogbo. The public estates include, Moremi Estate in Osun east senatorial district with 416 residential buildings, Oroki Estate in Osun central senatorial district with 816 residential buildings and Akoda estate in Osun West senatorial district with 46 residential buildings. These reflect a total of 1,278 residential buildings where systematic random sampling was adopted in selecting 20% of the residential buildings in the three selected public housing estates. A total of 255 residential buildings were selected, from which a resident was selected for questionnaire administration. The data collected were analyzed using relative importance index (RII) and Residents' Satisfaction Index (RSI) analysis. The result showed that the average Residents' Satisfaction Index (RSI) for the level of satisfaction derived from the infrastructure in the study area was 2.49 which showed that the residents were not satisfied. This study concluded that the residents were not deriving adequate satisfaction from the infrastructure available in the public housing estates. The study recommends that there is need to integrate residents’ preferred infrastructure into development policies: The residents’ preferred infrastructure identified in this study should be linked and integrated into the development policy designs for the estates.

Empowerment and the individualisation of resistance: A Foucauldian perspective on Theatre of the Oppressed

Waterloo, in Sydney, Australia, is a neighbourhood currently dominated by a large public housing estate. The estate is to be redeveloped to be a ‘socially mixed’ community largely comprised of private residents. Many current residents of Waterloo have organised in opposition to the redevelopment. At the same time, government and community development agencies have implemented a number of capacity building and consultation programmes for residents, including a theatre performance. Programmes of empowerment are increasingly used by the state and the third sector to encourage disadvantaged or marginalised citizens to ‘take responsibility’ for their own lives. In this article, I examine a performance coordinated by a community theatre group that uses the ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ format, intended to allow participants to identify ways to overthrow the forces that oppress them. I use a Foucauldian conception of power, subjectivity and resistance to critically examine the performance in its context. I explore ways in which the Theatre of the Oppressed format was applied (perhaps unintentionally) in such a way that it reinforced a vision of the situation as immutable and unchangeable, placing the onus on residents to transform their own actions to deliver change. Such framing makes any effort at resistance appear absurd, and is anything but empowering for residents.