Digital Commons Network^™

Is The Concept Of The Person Necessary For Human Rights?, Jens David Ohlin

Jens David Ohlin

The concept of the person is widely assumed to be indispensable for making a rights claim. But a survey of the concept's appearance in legal discourse reveals that the concept is stretched to the breaking point. Personhood stands at the center of debates as diverse as the legal status of embryos and animals to the rights and responsibilities of corporations and nations. This Note analyzes the evidence and argues that personhood is a cluster concept with distinct components: the biological concept of the human being, the notion of a rational agent, and unity of consciousness. This suggests that it is …

Examining The Social Networks Of Internationally Married Couples And Divorced Individuals: Are Relationships Autonomous Entities?, Kimberly Johnson-Diouf

Anthropology Theses

Research on international relationships is plentiful but research on the roles of social contacts in international relationships has not been forthcoming. Additionally, recent research on companionate marriages suggests that couples who have relationships that mimic companionate marriages have weak ties to their community. This research uses participant narratives to understand the social network of internationally married couples and divorced individuals in an effort to understand the roles that social contacts may play in international marriages. The research findings challenge pre-existing arguments about the companionate model of marriage and suggest that simplistic marriage models are inadequate frameworks used to understand complex …

Toward A Less Adversarial Relationship Between Chevron And Gardner, James D. Ridgway

University of Massachusetts Law Review

Veterans benefits are a creature of statute. As such, nearly every veterans benefits issue presented to the courts for resolution involves the interpretation of a statute, regulation, or sub-regulatory authority. Although veterans law has been subject to judicial review for over twenty-five years, the courts still have yet to develop a coherent doctrine regarding when to resolve ambiguity in favor of the veteran versus when to defer to the interpretations of the Department of Veterans Affairs. This Article explores three possible approaches to developing a coherent vision of how veteran friendliness and agency deference can coexist and provide more predictability …

Pathways To Mental Health In Young Adulthood And Beyond: The Long-Term Effects Of Childhood Experiences Expressed Through Self-Esteem, Haosen Sun

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Utilizing the stress process paradigm and the life course perspective, the present study examines whether and how experiencing economic strain and family instability in adolescence has long-term effects on depressed affect (one component of psychological distress) in young adulthood. Using the 1992-1994 and 2000-2002 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), this research focuses on children age 10-17 in 1992-1994 who also participated in the 2000-2002 follow-up survey as adults, aged 18 and above (N=868). Results from multiple regression models suggest that both economic strain and family instability in adolescence may impair individual’s development of self-esteem and …

Gender, Humor And Quality Of Life In Workplace Sitcoms: A Content Analysis Examining Agency In Post-Recession Situation Comedies, Gwendolyn Logan Bost

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used content analysis to analyze gender representations in post-recession workplace sitcoms using a typology developed using Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. 100 episodes of programming were analyzed by five graduate researchers for a total of 2579 cases. Though men dominated the sample, results were dissimilar from previous findings within some of the literature on televised representations of gender. Findings indicated that need type for most commonly expressed needs were split fairly evenly by gender, but that less expressed needs were more polarized with regard to gender representation. Women also met their own needs more than men did, and had …

Agent Red: Fashioning Agency In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Christopher M. Yalen

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, we are introduced to a dystopian patriarchal society named Gilead, where women are relegated to the roles of wife, servant, and surrogate. Although the men of Gilead have built this society with men at the top, the women of the novel show a surprising amount of agency within their own spheres of influence. So the question remains: who is really in control of Gilead? While men are certainly remain the figureheads of power in The Handmaid's Tale, we find that the women of the novel have copious influence within their own realms, …

Becoming An Altruistic Learner, Aaron W. Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

This master’s thesis is a qualitative research project that explored the transformation of multiple individuals who initially learned for self-interested purposes, but later had a shift in their desire to learn so as to benefit others. The author collected rich narratives that described this phenomenon and provided insight into the following question: what is the experience of a learner who transitions from learning out of self-interest to learning out of altruistic purposes? The author found the following five major themes across six participants as they transitioned to more altruistic learning: humility, self-efficacy, resources, success and agency. These themes give insight …

South African Principalship, Agency & Intersectionality Theory, Michèle Schmidt, Raj Mestry

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Gender bias towards South African female principals remains a problem and compelling issue for research. The Constitution policy addresses gender equality, yet women still do not experience equal rights in practice. This study uses a theory of intersectionality to examine two Black South African women’s leadership experiences in their roles as principals in two South African schools. The goal of the paper is to examine how these women negotiate obstacles in their work that may constrain their agency as leaders in South African schools. The project involves semi-structured interviews and the results provide a significant contribution to the small body …

Understanding The Experience Of Successful Study Abroad Students In Russia, Olga Iongkhionovna Ookhara

Theses and Dissertations

The present study was designed to understand the retrospective account of the learning experience of four successful learners of Russian who made substantial oral gains as measured by the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) during a semester study abroad (SA) program in Moscow, Russia. Each participant made as much as two sublevels' improvement on the ACTFL scale, even those who began with Advanced level proficiency. Specifically, the study examines what students believe, how they exercise their agency, cope with constraints, and take advantage of affordances in out-of-class contexts. The qualitative data includes semi-structured interviews while quantitative data consists of pre- …

Agency Support For Self-Care And Burnout Among Licensed Social Workers, Catherine Wyman

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

Social workers often work in stressful environments and experience secondary trauma through their clients. An examination of the available literature has found that social workers experience symptoms of burnout. Previous research also indicated that self-care is beneficial to decreasing stress levels in social workers. In this study, a quantitative and qualitative survey was distributed to licensed social workers in the state of Minnesota examining burnout and self-care within the context of the social work agency. Quantitative data was evaluated using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data was analyzed and coded using grounded theory methodology. There were no significant quantitative findings. …

Women's Activism And Social Networks In Post-Genocide Rwanda., Michelle Cecelia Marie Fox

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Following the 1994 genocide the social networks of many Rwandan women changed. The loss of kin, particularly men, left many women needing new sources of social and material support. Beginning in the early 1990s the international development and aid community recognized the need to integrate gender analysis in their work and began to focus on women’s activism and efforts to improve the position of women in the supposed developing world. Using social network data and structured interview data gathered in Rwanda in June and July 2013 from 30 women, this study attempts to answer the question: Do women who were …

The Power Of The Weak, Martin Gargiulo, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Weak organizational actors can overcome the consequences of their dependence by securing the control of valuable resources or by embedding dependence relationships into social networks. While these strategies may not eliminate the underlying dependence, they can curtail the ability or the willingness of the stronger party to use power. Embedding strategies, however, can also have unintended consequences. Because the network structures that confer power to the weak are inherently more stable, they can persist beyond the point of being beneficial, trapping weak actors into unsuitable network structures. The power of the weak can thus become the weakness of the strong.

A Home With Dignity: Domestic Violence And Property Rights, Margaret E. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the legal system should do more to address intimate partner violence and each party's need for a home for several reasons. First, domestic violence is a leading cause of individual and family homelessness. Second, the struggle over rights to a shared home can increase the violence to which the woman is subjected. And third, a woman who decides to continue to live with the person who abused her receives little or no legal support, despite the evidence that this decision could most effectively reduce the violence. The legal system's current failings result from its limited goals-achieving …

Invisible But Essential: The Role Of Professional Networks In Promoting Faculty Agency In Career Advancement, Elizabeth Niehaus, Kerryann O'Meara

KerryAnn O'Meara

The benefits of professional networks are largely invisible to the people embedded in them (O’Reilly 1991), yet professional networks may provide key benefits for faculty careers. The purpose of the study reported here was to explore the role of professional networks in faculty agency in career advancement, specifically focusing on the overall relationship between the social capital gained from networks and faculty agency in career advancement. Findings suggest that off-campus networks are particularly important for faculty agency but that the benefits of networks may take time to develop.

Enabling Possibility: Women Associate Professors’ Sense Of Agency In Career Advancement, Aimee Terosky, Kerryann O'Meara, Corbin M. Campbell

KerryAnn O'Meara

In this multimethod, qualitative study we examined associate women professors’ sense of agency in career advancement from the rank of associate to full. Defining agency as strategic perspectives or actions toward goals that matter to the professor, we explore the perceptions of what helps and/or hinders a sense of agency in career advancement. Our participants consisted of 16 women associate professors at a major research university who participated in an institutional intervention program designed to enhance sense of agency in career advancement, and a subset of 12 attendees who also participated in a follow-up focus group 6 months later. Participants …

Inclusion And Sport: Analysis Of Selected South African Township Schools, T. M. Makoelle

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

In 1994, South Africa adopted an inclusive system of education in line with the rest of the world. The doors of learning were opened to all learners regardless of their background or disability. However, in spite of the changes, the notion of inclusive school sport as enshrined and articulated in White Paper 6 on special needs’ education published by the South African Department of Basic Education in 2001 has not been fully realized in terms of enabling a diverse inclusive sporting environment for all learners. The research on which this article is based therefore attempted to analyze the nature of …

Development And Women's Rights As Human Rights: A Political And Social Economy Approach Within A Deep Democratic Framework, Haider A. Khan

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Retention, Revival, And Subjugation Of Indigenous Fire Knowledge Through Agency Fire Fighting In Eastern Australia And California, Christine Eriksen, Don L. Hankins

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This article explores the potential impact of training and employment with wildfire management agencies on the retention of Indigenous fire knowledge. It focuses on the comparative knowledge and experiences of Indigenous Elders, cultural practitioners, and land stewards in connection with ''modern'' political constructs of fire in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, and California in the United States of America. This article emphasises the close link between cross-cultural acceptance, integration of Indigenous and agency fire cultures, and the ways in which knowledge types are shared or withheld. While agency fire fighting provides an opportunity for Indigenous people to connect and …

What Does The 'Q' Stand For Anyway? : Queerness And Agency Competence, Eleanor C. Taylor

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This exploratory study’s purpose was to explore queer identity in mental health practice through the question, "Does queerness emerge as a distinct cultural category through the language of conversation, clinical practice, and administrative policy in mental health agencies that serve queer people, and in what practices is this reflected?” This project was undertaken in order to begin to fill gaps in existing cultural competence literature, particularly regarding queer identity.

This project entailed semi-structured interviews with ten participants, who worked in direct service at mental health agencies that serve LGBTQIA+ populations. This study examines the meanings and effects of queerness in …

An Analysis Of Erickson's Concept Of School Legitimacy In Relationship To School Success And Failure, Michael Griggs

Theses and Dissertations

School legitimacy is the approval of principal and teacher authority that derives from the school community's trust (Erickson, 1987). When clients--the various stakeholders, including parents and students--recognize their school as legitimate, they trust that those in authority will help their economic future, protect their personal identities, and look out for their best interest. The concept of school legitimacy is applied to four case studies that involve poor and minority students to examine its role in a school's success or failure. The dissertation seeks to examine the process for constructing school legitimacy through reviewing literature, case studies, and surveys. Surveys are …

Examining Emotional Responses To Effective Versus Ineffective Virtual Buddies, Kathleen Ingraham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the impact of virtual character design on user emotional experience and user behavior in a simulated environment. With simulation training increasing in popularity as a tool for teaching social skills, it is essential that social interactions in virtual environments provide authentic opportunities for practice (Swartout et al., 2006). This study used Interactive Performance Theory (Wirth, 2012) to examine the effect of designing a virtual buddy character with ineffective traits instead of effective or expert traits. The sample population for this study (n = 145) consisted of first year university students enrolled …

Conceptions Of Agency In Social Movement Scholarship: Mack On African American Civil Rights Lawyers [Comments], Susan Carle

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This essay examines the theory of individual agency that propels the central thesis in Kenneth Mack's Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (2012)-namely, that an important yet understudied means by which African American civil rights lawyers changed conceptions of race through their work was through their very performance of the professional role of lawyer. Mack shows that this performance was inevitably fraught with tension and contradiction because African American lawyers were called upon to act both as exemplary representatives of their race and as performers of a professional role that traditionally had been reserved for whites …

Conceptions Of Agency In Social Movement Scholarship: Mack On African American Civil Rights Lawyers [Comments], Susan D. Carle

Susan D. Carle