Digital Commons Network^™

Capstone Revival, Mary Mesele, Ruochen Lu, Quilin Jiang

School of Professional Studies

The capstone project is a culminating experience whereby students choose to research a topic that is relevant in their field of study and have been highly regarded as important learning activities. The capstone allows students to use research, analytical, problem solving and evaluation skills they have learned in the course of the graduate program. McGill indicates the benefit of the completion of a capstone project not only in gaining knowledge in capstone but also in learning how to apply the knowledge gained in other courses in the major (McGill, 2012). Currently, COPACE (College of Professional and Continuing Education) has three …

Reproductive Rights In Latin America: A Case Study Of Guatemala And Nicaragua, Katherine W. Bogen

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

A lack of access to contraceptives and legal abortion for women throughout the nations of Nicaragua and Guatemala creates critical health care problems. Moreover, rural and underprivileged women in Guatemala and Nicaragua are facing greater limitations to birth control access, demonstrating a classist aspect in the global struggle for female reproductive rights. Although some efforts have been made over the past half-century to initiate a dialogue on the failure of medical care in these nations to adequately address issues of maternal mortality and reproductive rights, the women's reproductive health movements of Nicaragua and Guatemala have struggled to reach an effective …

Mission Critical: Reforming Foster Care And Child Protective Services In Massachusetts, Emily M. Douglas Ph.D, Melinda Gushwa Ph.D, Martha J. Henry Ph.D, Denise A. Hines Ph.D, Mickayla Aboujaoude, Annie E. Casey Foundation

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

One major topic of debate during the 2014 gubernatorial elections was the functioning of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) in Massachusetts. Prior to the debates and subsequently as well, the media has highlighted some challenges and issues that plague DCF, and several high-profile cases have sparked not only the attention of our state government, but the public at large as well. After consultation with legislators, we decided that our 2015 Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar would focus on this crisis.

Calpuff And Cafos: Air Pollution Modeling And Environmental Justice Analysis In The North Carolina Hog Industry, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Liyao Huang, Hao Xin

Sustainability and Social Justice

Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) produce large amounts of animal waste, which potentially pollutes air, soil and water and affects human health if not appropriately managed. This study uses meteorological and CAFO data and applies an air pollution dispersion model (CALPUFF) to estimate ammonia concentrations at locations downwind of HOG CAFOs and to evaluate the disproportionate exposure of children, elderly, whites and minorities to the pollutant. Ammonia is one of the gases emitted by swine CAFOs and could affect human health. Local indicator of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) analysis uses census block demographic data to identify hot spots where both ammonia …

Understanding Refugees In Worcester, Ma, Anita Fábos, Maya Pilgrim, Muinate Said-Ali, Joseph Krahe, Zack Ostiller

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Worcester, Massachusetts serves as the entry point to America for more refugees than any other municipality in Massachusetts, with more than 2,000 refugees settling there between 2007 and 2012. However, there has been a lack of information about how the livelihoods and experiences of refugees differ from those of the foreign-born population. This report uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Population, Refugee, and Migration to present a snapshot of the social, educational, and economic status of refugees in Worcester and identifies several areas for future data and research needs relating to refugee resettlement both in …

Making Homes In Limbo? A Conceptual Framework, Cathrine Brun, Anita Fábos

Sustainability and Social Justice

This article aims to conceptualize home and homemaking for people in protracted displacement.The article serves three purposes: To present an overview of the area of inquiry; to develop an analytical framework for understanding home and homemaking for forced migrants in protracted displacement; and to introduce the special issue.It explores how protracted displacement has been defined-from policy definitions to people's experiences of protractedness, including "waiting" and "the permanence of temporariness." The article identifies the ambivalence embedded in experiences and practices of homemaking in long-term displacement, demonstrating how static notions of home and displacement might be unsettled.It achieves this through examining relationships …

Multi-Organizational Alliances And Policy Change: Understanding The Mobilization And Impact Of Grassroots Coalitions, Margaret Post

Sustainability and Social Justice

Grassroots coalitions are one mechanism by which marginalized groups access the policy arena. Such alliances integrate group interests in demand making and can influence the policy process through collective action. Understanding what factors lead to formation, sustainability, and success can explain how and why alliances function as political intermediaries. This paper features one national social change organization that collaborates with local grassroots groups working on three federal policy priorities: immigration, retirement security, and economic justice. It investigates what organizational structures and processes increase the access of local organizations to policymakers through multi-organizational alliances of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations. Based on …

Cultivating A Global Identity, Joseph De Rivera, Harry A. Carson

Sustainability and Social Justice

Increasing economic globalization creates conflicts that can only be constructively managed if individuals and groups realize they now belong to a single people. The required sense of such a community does not involve a social group identity—as though being human consisted of being categorized as a member of a superordinate group. Rather, it involves the realization that personal identity depends on the socio-emotional relations involved in community and that the current situation requires a community that is global rather than local or national. The nature of this personal global identity and the sort of global community that is needed is …

Microbuses And Mobile Homemaking In Exile: Sudanese Visiting Strategies In Cairo, Anita Fábos

Sustainability and Social Justice

Paying home visits to mark social events and maintain networks is an established cultural pattern in Arab countries.Northern Sudanese displaced in Cairo in the 1990s made significant efforts to continue visiting each other in their temporary homes, despite having to travel long distances to members of their widely scattered networks.The deterioration of the legal and political status of Sudanese living in Egypt during the 1990s contributed to longer-term uncertainty for those who sought safety and security in Cairo.In this article, I argue that this long-term uncertainty constitutes a protracted refugee situation, and that Sudanese visiting practices constituted a mobile homemaking …

Vulnerability Assessments, Identity And Spatial Scale Challenges In Disaster-Risk Reduction, Edward Carr, Daniel Abrahams, Arielle T. De La Poterie, Pablo Suarez, Bettina Koelle

Sustainability and Social Justice

Current approaches to vulnerability assessment for disaster-risk reduction (DRR) commonly apply generalised, a priori determinants of vulnerability to particular hazards in particular places. Although they may allow for policy-level legibility at high levels of spatial scale, these approaches suffer from attribution problems that become more acute as the level of analysis is localised and the population under investigation experiences greater vulnerability. In this article, we locate the source of this problem in a spatial scale mismatch between the essentialist framings of identity behind these generalised determinants of vulnerability and the intersectional, situational character of identity in the places where DRR …

Land Tenure And Disasters: Strengthening And Clarifying Land Rights In Disaster Risk Reduction And Post-Disaster Programming, Cynthia Caron, Gayatri Menon, Lauren Kuritz

Sustainability and Social Justice

USAid Brief.

Background:
Disaster-induced displacement is on the rise. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (Yonetani 2013; see Figure 1) estimates that in 2012 alone, 32.4 million people were displaced as a direct result of natural disasters or because they faced an acute threat of being affected by a natural disaster. These figures do not include populations affected by slower onset disasters such as drought and sea-level rise.

In addition to geophysical natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, over the last 30 years the number of climate-related disasters has increased (IPCC 2013; World Bank 2013a). Experts believe that such events …

A Critical Corporate Profile Of Li & Fung, Robert J.S. Ross, Dana Patterson, Brendon Yadegari, Chris Wegemer

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Behind the prominent Brand names and Retail stores of global supply chains are intermediaries who provide services to large volume buyers. A key feature of the global apparel industry is complex supply chains with many contractors and subcontractors and intense competition among factories – induced by the buyers – to reduce cost and increase speed. Over the past two decades, scholars have noted the dramatic increase of market power of international retail corporations gained at the expense of the fragmentation of centers of production. Enter Li & Fung, a Hong Kong based firm which is the largest sourcing agent in …

Becoming A Youth Worker In A Classroom Community Of Practice, Laurie Ross

Sustainability and Social Justice

Traditional university classrooms are more conducive to learning about youth work than they are learning how to become a youth worker. In this paper, I explore how a university classroom can function as a community of practice (CoP) in which actionable youth worker expertise is transmitted. Through narrative analysis of two youth worker dilemma stories, I show how a classroom-based CoP facilitates the development of three youth work 'abilities.' These abilities include: how to frame complex and ambiguous youth work problems; how to bring personal knowledge into practice; and how to reflect-on and-in practice.

The Next Generation Of Research On Sustainable Consumption, Halina Szejnwald Brown

Sustainability and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Vulnerability, Risk Perception, And Health Profile Of Marginalized People Exposed To Multiple Built-Environment Stressors In Worcester, Massachusetts: A Pilot Project, Timothy Downs, Laurie Ross, Robert Goble, Rajendra Subedi, Sara Greenberg, Octavia Taylor

Sustainability and Social Justice

Millions of low-income people of diverse ethnicities inhabit stressful old urban industrial neighborhoods. Yet we know little about the health impacts of built-environment stressors and risk perceptions in such settings; we lack even basic health profiles. Difficult access is one reason (it took us 30 months to survey 80 households); the lack of multifaceted survey tools is another. We designed and implemented a pilot vulnerability assessment tool in Worcester, Massachusetts. We answer: (1) How can we assess vulnerability to multiple stressors? (2) What is the nature of complex vulnerability-including risk perceptions and health profiles? (3) How can findings be used …

"Is The Concept Of A Green Economy A Useful Way Of Framing Policy Discussions And Policymaking To Promote Sustainable Development?", Sheng Fulai, Gary Flomenhoft, Timothy Downs, Maángeles Grande-Ortiz, Dana Graef, Bert Scholtens, Arthur P.J. Mol, David Sonnenfeld, Gert Spaargaren, Rajeev Goel, Edward W.T. Hsieh, Serban Scrieciu, Reinhard Steurer, Christine Polzin, Genia Kostka, Tiho Ancev, Elke Pirgmaier, Frank Boons, Karl Henrik Robèrt, Christopher Bryant, Ke Zhou, Surya Raj Acharya, David Huberman, Denis Sonwa, Michelle Mycoo, Dabo Guan, Klaus Hubacek, U. Rashid Sumaila, Hector Lopez-Ruiz, G. Jason Jolley, Michael Dougherty, André Francisco Pilon, Ravi Prakash

Sustainability and Social Justice

In this article, the authors discuss the use of green economy to promote sustainable development. Research and Partnerships Unit Head Sheng Fulai states that sustainable development is composed of economic, social and environmental development. Furthermore, it features Research and Partnerships associate Gary Flomenhoft who believes that green economy is useful when it deals with factors such as distribution of wealth and throughput of materials and energy.

Medicinal Plant Use And Health Sovereignty: Findings From The Tajik And Afghan Pamirs, Karim Aly Kassam, Munira Karamkhudoeva, Morgan Ruelle, Michelle Baumflek

Sustainability and Social Justice

Medicinal plants are indicators of indigenous knowledge in the context of political volatility and socio-cultural and ecological change in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Medicinal plants are the primary health care option in this region of Central Asia. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that medicinal plants contribute to health security and sovereignty in a time of instability. We illustrate the nutritional as well as medicinal significance of plants in the daily lives of villagers. Based on over a decade and half of research related to resilience and livelihood security, we present plant uses in …

Anatomy Of A Regional Conflict: Tarija And Resource Grievances In Moraless Bolivia, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Anthony Bebbington

Sustainability and Social Justice

In 2008, the Department of Tarija became the epicenter of national political struggles over political autonomy for lowland regions at odds with the Morales administration. In September, following a series of regional referenda on autonomy and a national recall election, citizen committees in Tarija mobilized urban-based sectors and organized a general strike against the central government. It is unhelpful to understand the strike as simply an act of political sabotage orchestrated by racist regional elites. The factors driving protest and interest in autonomy are varied and deeply related to patterns of hydrocarbons extraction in the department that have allowed for …

Extraction, Territory, And Inequalities: Gas In The Bolivian Chaco, Denise Bebbington, Anthony J. Bebbington

Sustainability and Social Justice

Conflicts over extractive industry have emerged as one of the most visible and potentially explosive terrains for struggles over distribution, territory, and inequality in the Andes. We explore these relationships in Bolivia, focusing on gas extraction in the Chaco region of the southeastern department of Tarija. We consider how the expansion of extractive industry intersects with territorializing projects of state, sub-national elites, and indigenous actors as well as with questions of inequality and inequity. We conclude that arguments over the territorial constitution of Bolivia are inevitably also arguments over gas and the contested concepts of equity underlying its governance. © …

Individual Consumption And Systemic Societal Transformation: Introduction To The Special Issue, Maurie J. Cohen, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Philip J. Vergragt

Sustainability and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Complexities Of Holistic Community-Based Participatory Research For A Low Income, Multi-Ethnic Population Exposed To Multiple Built-Environment Stressors In Worcester, Massachusetts, Timothy Downs, Laurie Ross, Suzanne Patton, Sarah Rulnick, Deb Sinha, Danielle Mucciarone, Maria Calvache, Sarah Parmenter, Rajendra Subedi, Donna Wysokenski, Erin Anderson, Rebecca Dezan, Kate Lowe, Jennifer Bowen, Amee Tejani, Kelly Piersanti, Octavia Taylor, Robert Goble

Sustainability and Social Justice

Low income, multi-ethnic communities in Main South/Piedmont neighborhoods of Worcester, Massachusetts are exposed to cumulative, chronic built-environment stressors, and have limited capacity to respond, magnifying their vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. "Neighborhood STRENGTH", our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project, comprised four partners: a youth center; an environmental non-profit; a community-based health center; and a university. Unlike most CBPR projects that are single topic-focused, our 'holistic', systems-based project targeted five priorities. The three research-focused/action-oriented components were: (1) participatory monitoring of indoor and outdoor pollution; (2) learning about health needs and concerns of residents through community-based listening sessions; (3) engaging in collaborative …

Modeling Data Envelopment Analysis (Dea) Efficient Location/Allocation Decisions, Ronald K. Klimberg, Samuel J. Ratick

Sustainability and Social Justice

Many types of facility location/allocation models have been developed to find optimal spatial patterns with respect to various location criteria that include cost, time, coverage, and access among others. In this paper we develop and test location modeling formulations that utilize data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency measures to find optimal and efficient facility location/allocation patterns. We believe that solving for the DEA efficiency measure, simultaneously with other location modeling objectives, provides a promising rich approach to multiobjective location problems. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Asia Comes To Main Street And May Learn To Speak Spanish: Globalization In A Poor Neighborhood In Worcester, Robert J.S. Ross, Kate Driscoll Derickson

Local Knowledge: Worcester Area Community-Based Research

This paper considers how and why an Asian enclave of small businesses has appeared in a poor neighborhood characterized by Puerto Rican and other Latino immigration in the post-industrial city of Worcester, Massachusetts. We begin by examining the role of the US in the world system, and argue that the US hegemonic role and specific political economic aspects of global capitalism (ie. deindustrialization) account for some of the migration stream. Next, using socioeconomic and historical data, interviews, and observations, we outline the history of Worcester’s economy and immigration patterns. We demonstrate that the increasing economic inequality leaves few promising employment …

Achieving Millennium Development Goals For Health: Building Understanding, Trust And Capacity To Respond, Timothy Downs, Heidi Jane Larson

Sustainability and Social Justice

Biomedical interventions promise achievement of health-related Millennium Development Goals provided social-, capacity- and knowledge-based constraints to scaling up and reaching marginalized people at risk, are addressed, and balance between prevention and treatment is struck. We argue for a new approach: multi-stakeholder capacity building and learning for empowerment: MuSCLE. MuSCLE is used as a way to frame three systemic weaknesses in traditional health science and policy approaches: (1) a lack of engagement with people at risk to build a collective understanding of the contexts of health problems, including social drivers; (2) a lack of multi-criteria evaluation of alternative interventions; (3) a …

The Allure Of Technology: How France And California Promoted Electric And Hybrid Vehicles To Reduce Urban Air Pollution, David Calef, Robert Goble

Sustainability and Social Justice

All advanced industrialized societies face the problem of air pollution produced by motor vehicles. In spite of striking improvements in internal combustion engine technology, air pollution in most urban areas is still measured at levels determined to be harmful to human health. Throughout the 1990s and beyond, California and France both chose to improve air quality by means of technological innovation, adopting legislation that promoted clean vehicles, prominently among them, electric vehicles (EVs). In California, policymakers chose a technology-forcing approach, setting ambitious goals (e.g., zero emission vehicles), establishing strict deadlines and issuing penalties for non-compliance. The policy process in California …

Urban Refugees: Introduction, Anita Fábos, Gaim Kibreab

Sustainability and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Growth In It And Organizational Experience In Batec, Ramón Borges-Méndez, Deborah Boisvert

Sustainability and Social Justice

The growth of the IT sector masks important dynamics: occupational complexity; the spread of the IT workforce into other sectors, and a transformation in traditional human resource practices. Handling these tensions is demanding regional workforce development strategies, especially to create institutional connections, or labor market intermediaries, that can assure the flow of talent through specific segments of the educational pipeline, from high school to higher education, and into specific employers, industries, and local sub-regional labor markets. The Boston Area Advanced Technical Education Connections (BATEC) is one of such intermediaries. BATEC has created the a basic template of practices that can …

A Conversation With Cynthia Enloe: Feminists Look At Masculinity And The Men Who Wage War, Carol Cohn, Cynthia Enloe

Sustainability and Social Justice

Interviews feminist Cynthia Enloe. Role of feminists in international politics; Understanding the dynamics of masculinity; Aim to understand the genderings of institutional cultures inside international aid organizations; Feminist investigations of institutional political cultures and monitoring of postwar demilitarization.

Sustainability Of Least Cost Policies For Meeting Mexico City's Future Water Demand, Timothy Downs, Marisa Mazari-Hiriart, Ramón Domínguez-Mora, Irwin Suffet

Sustainability and Social Justice

Meeting future water demand without degrading ecosystems is one important indicator of sustainable development. Using simulations, we showed that compared to existing policy, more sustainable water supply options are similar or cheaper in cost. We probabilistically forecasted the Mexico City metropolitan zone population for the year 2015 to be 23.5 million and total required water supply to be 106 m3 s-1. We optimized existing and potential supply sources from aquifers, surface water, treatment/reuse, and efficiency/demand management by cost to meet future supply needs; the applied source supply limits determined the degree of sustainability. In two scenarios to supply 106 m3 …

Selecting High-Priority Hazardous Chemicals For Tri-National Control: A Maximum-Utility Method Applied To Mexico, Timothy Downs, Carlos Santos-Burgoa

Sustainability and Social Justice

The dispersion of persistent, bioaccumulative toxic chemicals poses risks to human health and the integrity of the ecosystem on a continental scale. Mexico, the United States, and Canada sought to add two pollutants to an existing list of four subject to North American Regional Action Plans (chlordane, DDT, mercury, PCBs). Mexican negotiators used results from an internal selection process, applying 14 criteria in five categories - physicochemical, health-endpoint, data quality/quantity, exposure potential, and control feasibility - to a baseline group of over 4,700 substances. Using policy analysis by the multi-attribute maximum-utility method; progressive application of criteria and weighting algorithms acted …