Digital Commons Network^™

Reclaiming Housing For Sustainable And Equitable Development, Ethan Harner, Gabrielle Fraizer, Bradley Wilson

Undergraduate Scholarship

Across West Virginia, Appalachia, the South, and other regions which have borne the historic brunt of extraction, capital flight, and systemic lack of opportunity, cooperative and community-based solutions to economic challenges have historically and presently been found in and amongst marginalized communities. As a critical component of community wellbeing, development, and prosperity, we situate housing as a necessary component to the understanding of cooperative, grassroots, and solidarity forms of economic organization. In this we explore the ways community-based housing solutions contribute to senses of community and solidarity both within housing structures and the broader community. We place these findings in …

Complex Impacts Of Marketization And Digitalization, Deniz Atik, Nikhilesh Dholakia

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Spilling The Tea: A Comparative Analysis Of Development In Ex-British Colonies, Niamh L. Harrop

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The British Empire was the largest empire the world has ever seen, and as such, has significantly impacted many of the countries it formerly held as colonies. Imposing a Western style of governance would change the political operations of a nation and would fundamentally shift power dynamics within the country. Through a review of the existing literature on the subject, this thesis examines the effects that British imperial rule had on four different countries in both their social and economic development in the post-colonial era. Overall, the results indicate that Britain failed to set their colonies up for long-term development …

Wellness Practices’ Contribution To Social Sustainability: A Review Of The Literature, Zeina Mazloum

BAU Journal - Creative Sustainable Development

Despite being emphasized as one of the main pillars of global sustainable development, social sustainability has been vastly neglected in research, and its importance has been undervalued. This paper aims to highlight the important role that wellness practices play in enhancing social sustainability by uplifting individuals and progressing communities. In turn, social sustainability strengthens the circular economy, resulting in global sustainable development. The paper also raises questions about future sustainable communities, quality of life, and wellness programs, which open up new avenues for future research and implications.

Can Funded Development Projects Be Sustainable? The Case Of Limpopo Idc Nguni Cattle Development Project, Limpopo Province, South Africa, Godswill Makombe Prof

The Qualitative Report

The typical cases of funded development projects are donor-funded. One of the major problems faced by donor-funded projects is that after the withdrawal of donor funding, the projects are not sustainable. Literature has identified some of the factors that cause lack of sustainability including low stakeholder ownership and commitment, lack of understanding of community context, lack of community empowerment, leadership, technology choice, and over-ambitious objectives. I use the social constructivist approach to study the Limpopo IDC Nguni Cattle Development Project in Limpopo Province of South Africa which I got in contact with through student supervision. The project is based on …

Disease, Development, And Disorder: Examining The Effect Of Health On Subnational Development And Conflict In Sub-Saharan Africa, Dlorah C. Jenkins

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been uneven across and within countries - particularly in Africa, least developed countries, and low-income countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened to reverse much of the progress made towards achieving the SDGs, especially SDG 3, which aims to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.

The tendency for disease, underdevelopment, and conflict to occur concomitantly suggests potential causal mechanisms linking them. This study attempts to address two pieces of the puzzle: the causal effect of disease on underdevelopment and the impact of development on conflict risk. Focusing …

Relevance Of Availability Of Information Resource Centres On Rural Development In Akure North Local Government Of Nigeria, Adewusi Akinola, Felix Akinola Adewusi Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

This study attempts to x-ray relevance of availability of information resource centres on rural development in Akure North Local Government, Ondo State, Nigeria. The study reveals that information resource centres are not available in the communities under the local government. The essence of rural development, appraisal of various initiatives in Nigeria, information needs of rural dwellers and information resource centre were discussed in the study. The need for provision of information resource centres in rural communities was also discussed. It is revealed that with valuable up-to-date information resources in the centres it would empower and enable the people irrespective …

The Manifestation Of Neighborhood Effects: A Pattern For Community Growth?, Michael R. Cope, Jorden E. Jackson, Scott R. Sanders, Lance D. Erickson, Tippe Morlan, Ralph B. Brown

Faculty Publications

Neighborhood effects, or the development of community by neighborhoods, are often studied in an urban context. Previous research has neglected to examine the influence of neighborhoods in nonurban settings. Our case study, however, contributes to the existing literature as it takes place in a small, rural-to-urban town at an important point in time where the town was urbanizing. We find that neighborhood effects also influence community satisfaction and attachment in Creekdale, an urbanizing town. Using survey data (N = 1006) drawn from the Creekdale Community Citizens Viewpoint Survey (CCVS), we find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, population size and density …

Empowering Rural Participation And Partnerships In Morocco’S Sustainable Development, Yossef Ben-Meir

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This essay explores the vast potential for participatory and sustainable human development in Morocco. Though Morocco is a country with many diverse resources, it remains burdened by severe levels of poverty and illiteracy, and now growing social discord. There have recently been increased public calls for participatory development programs designed and implemented by and for local people. The essay identifies six existing Moroccan Frameworks intended to initiate decentralized human development programs, and critically examines their efficacy. Ultimately, the purpose of the article is to suggest a new model to implement these Frameworks with maximum impact. The six Frameworks deal with …

Urban Waterfronts And Planning For Industry, Anne Taufen, J. Mark Pendras

Urban Design

The 2019 studio and this report foreground two main issues. First, WE NEED INDUSTRY. The jobs and economic prosperity that are created through industrial development are essential to the sustainability of this region. People need reliable, living-wage employment in order to provide for themselves and their loved ones; contribute to the local housing, service, and retail economies; make use of their intrinsic capacities; and give back to the communities of which they are a part. Industry is the act of working hard, as well as a certain kind of production and manufacturing economy. People in the South Sound want and …

Mapping Development In Cameroon: Challenging Dominant Narratives, Hannah Skutt

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis I reflect upon a digital mapping project I did in the rural agricultural villages of Bangoua and Batoufam in the Grassfields region of Cameroon. This thesis considers digital mapping as a possible strategy for addressing a current dichotomy in these villages. On the one hand community members express concern over observed shifts in local weather patterns, which they attribute to climate change, and on the other hand community members express desperation for “development.” Of over 130 mapped points, I use this thesis to look at three case studies of community centered development initiatives that address both development …

The Role Of The Built Environment In Transforming Underserved Neighborhoods Into Smart And Connected Communities, Mary Claire Nabors

All ETDs from UAB

The goal of this report is to create a model for transforming underserved neighborhoods into smart, connected, healthy, and sustainable communities by focusing on the built environment. To do this, there must be a thorough neighborhood analysis of the existing conditions with recommendations for what needs to be done, both short term and long term. The built environment impacts many aspects of a neighborhood and the quality of life for residents. Sidewalks, streets, lighting, landscaping, and accessibility are all components of the built environment and research has continuously shown how the deterioration of the built environment affects the health and …

Beyond Localism: Harnessing State Adaptation Lawmaking To Facilitate Local Climate Resilience, Sarah J. Adams-Schoen

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Notwithstanding the need for adaptation lawmaking to address a critical gap between climate-change related risks and preparedness in the United States, no coherent body of law exists that is aimed at reducing vulnerability to climate change. As a result of this gap in the law, market failures, and various “super wicked” attributes of hazard mitigation planning, local communities remain unprepared for present and future climate-related risks. Many U.S. communities continue to employ land-use planning and zoning practices that, at best, fail to mitigate these hazards, and, at worst, increase local vulnerability. Even localities that have implemented otherwise robust adaptation plans …

Creating And Implementing Diverse Development Strategies To Support Extension Centers And Programs, Christopher S. Page, Michael A. Kern

The Journal of Extension

Declining government funding for higher education requires colleges and universities to seek alternative revenue streams, including through philanthropic fund-raising. Extension-based subject matter centers and other programs can benefit from the thoughtful supplementation of traditional revenue sources with individual, corporate, and private foundation philanthropy. In this article, we examine funding strategies identified in existing Extension literature and then describe the development strategy created for the William D. Ruckelshaus Center as a case study, emphasizing the importance of strong board leadership and cultivation of a diverse mix of income streams.

After Post-Development: On Capitalism, Difference, And Representation, Kiran Asher, Joel Wainwright

Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Faculty Publication Series

The post‐development school associated with the thought of Arturo Escobar treats development as a discursive invention of the West, best countered by ethnographic attention to local knowledge of people marginalised by colonial modernity. This approach promises paths to more equitable and sustainable alternatives to development. Post‐development has been criticised vigorously in the past. But despite its conceptual and political shortcomings, it remains the most popular critical approach to development and is reemerging in decolonial and pluriversal guises. This paper contends that the post‐development critique of mainstream development has run its course and deserves a fresh round of criticism. We argue …

Planning Cities, Economically Or Communally: A Comparative Study Of Amsterdam And San Francisco, Raina Dawn Whittekiend

Master's Theses

Globalization has spun “community” off its axis. What once defined community is no longer the current state of the community. Increased economic transactions have led to the instability of communities that once depended on one another at the local level. These communities are now dependent on systems that do not know nor understand their actors. This lack of relationship between development and subject is witnessed and highly scrutinized in developing countries all over the world and has been intensely researched in academic literature. This thesis intends to better understand why in modernized global cities these same processes of development and …

African Indigenous Knowledge: An Underutilised And Neglected Resource For Development, Njabulo Bruce Khumalo, Charity Baloyi

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Indigenous knowledge points to the fact that Africa has been able to generate, test and apply knowledge through its own methodologies and approaches. This knowledge sustained communities for years prior to colonialism which somehow downplayed the value of indigenous knowledge and promoted western knowledge systems. Colonialism created dependence on western knowledge systems and Africa has over the years neglected its own rich indigenous knowledge. This paper sought tohighlight challenges faced in the quest to incorporate IK into developmental goals and projects. Furthermore, the study also sought to recommend ways through which Africans can promote IK in its developmental projects. A …

People, Land, And Profit In The South Of Market: A Critical Analysis Of The Central Soma Plan, David Woo

Master's Theses

The South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco has undergone several transformations, especially since WWII, that have largely characterized the broader relationships among local city government, private interests, and the public in San Francisco. These transformations have included deindustrialization and the restructuring of the local economy after WWII, Urban Renewal, the intensification of office uses, and the first and second technology booms. City planning and the implementation of area plans (a type of city planning development tool) have also played a significant role in facilitating these changes. By historically situating the current moment in San Francisco, this research paper seeks …

Community Radio Development And Public Funding For Programme Production: Options For Policy, Niamh Farren, Ciaran Murray, Kenneth Murphy

Irish Communication Review

This paper originates in a wider research project funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s media research scheme.1 The project arose out of collaboration between community media practitioners and academics. The project sought to provide a comparative analysis of national ‘programme production schemes’ which are open to the community radio sector in other states. A key context for that research was the legislative requirement that the programme production scheme run by the BAI pay attention to the ‘the developmental needs of community broadcasters’. An additional context for the research was the criticism from within the sector that the BAI’s scheme …

Analyzing The Recent, Rapid Tourism Development In Panama's Bocas Del Toro Archipelago: Is Socioenvironmental Justice Attainable?, Olivia R. Bourque

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The Bocas del Toro archipelago of Panama has seen a rapid growth in its tourism industry since the 1990s. From a neoliberal perspective, tourism development is beneficial for all. Alternatively, I analyze the recent, rapid tourism development in Bocas from a critical development theoretical perspective, identifying its positive and negative implications, as well as who they accrue to. While there are economic benefits to tourism in Bocas, only foreign investors, the Panamanian government and English-speaking residents appear to earn them. The Bocas residents, and indigenous Ngöbe residents in particular, suffer from a range of economic, sociocultural, environmental and land access …

Where The Yak Became One With The Soil: Reflections On Life And Research In A Himalayan Village, Geoff Childs, Alyssa A. Kaelin

HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies

This article explores the role that Briddim, a small village in northern Rasuwa District, Nepal, played in the intellectual development of two students who visited nearly three decades apart. After a brief historical survey focusing on the village’s position on a trans-Himalayan trade route connecting Kathmandu with Kyirong, the authors use a personal and reflective lens to explore Briddim’s changing fortunes in relation to international exchange networks and geopolitical forces. In many ways Briddim encapsulates the socioeconomic and cultural changes sweeping contemporary highland Nepal as a result of rising educational opportunities, tourism, and migration. By comparing notes from 1984 and …

Valuing Natural Space And Landscape Fragmentation In Richmond, Va, Lee Wyatt Carpenter

Theses and Dissertations

Hedonic pricing methods and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) were used to evaluate relationships between sale price of single family homes and landscape fragmentation and natural land cover. Spatial regression analyses found that sale prices increase as landscapes become less fragmented and the amount of natural land cover around a home increases. The projected growth in population and employment in the Richmond, Virginia region and subsequent increases in land development and landscape fragmentation presents a challenge to sustaining intact healthy ecosystems in the Richmond region. Spatial regression analyses helped illuminate how land cover patterns influence sale prices and landscape patterns that …

Network-Based Development In Chattanooga, Tennessee: Processes And Potentials, Kathryn Ansley Taylor

Masters Theses

Chattanooga is a city of networks. The goal of this project is to provide examples of how developers, by tapping into Chattanooga’s most vital networks, can create buildings that speak to the city’s unique character, build interest in the city, and foster a stronger future for Chattanooga.

Chattanooga has four networks that serve as its backbone. They are the Cultural Network, the Blue Green Network, the Fiber Optic Network and the Dwelling Network. These networks are linkages between people and places, bound by common hopes and affinities. They are platforms for social connection, economic growth and physical change.

Three developments …

Leadership For Sustainability And Peace: Responding To The Wicked Challenges Of The Future, Rian Satterwhite, Whitney Mcintyre Miller, Kate Sheridan

Education Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"In the past century our understanding of leadership has changed as the contexts in which leadership occurs evolve. Today, constructs of leadership that do not incorporate emergent concepts such as systems thinking no longer match the realities of the world in which it is exercised and the challenges it seeks to address. The challenges we face as a global community have increased in complexity, size, scope, and consequence. As a result of this contextual evolution, our definition of effective leadership is evolving as well."

Efficacy According To Viewing Length And Video Content Of Promotional Videos For Sustainability Graduate Education., Bryan T. Ogden

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Sustainability communication opens up a range of perspectives on the definition and theory associated with concepts of sustainability and communication. An overview of the literature dealing with sustainability communication and its measure is presented with a dialogic perspective in mind. Practical matters of the video length, production methods and design are described. The Project is evaluated with the sustainability testing rubric advanced by Polk, Reilly, Servaes, Shi and Yakupitijage. The study compares three videos of different length and environmental images through an online survey. It is hypothesized that related environmental images and a three minute video will prompt more positive …

Learning From Cinara: Exploring The Depths Of Participatory Water Engagement In Cali, Colombia, Zachary T. Strickland

Honors College Theses

Located within the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, CINARA is an academic institution, comprised of both engineers and social scientists, that has almost three decades of experience regarding participatory approaches to water supply and environmental sanitation. In this paper, I argue that CINARA’s work is important due to its emphasis on meaningful community participation that significantly involves communities in decisions on technical matters that are usually allocated exclusively to “experts.” Furthermore, the valuation of social considerations and non-technical knowledge found amongst CINARA’s engineers stands in distinct contrast to traditional development practices and engineering mindsets. This paper will go on …

Sustainability, Ideology, And The Politics Of Development In Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur, Mexico, Ryan B. Anderson

Faculty Publications

Based upon twelve months of anthropological fieldwork in Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur, Mexico, this article uses political ecology and theoretical work on ideology to examine how local residents use the concept of sustainability to advocate for alternative visions of development. Conceptually, the idea of sustainability has a long, often conflicted history. As political ecologists have pointed out, sustainability can be everything from a tool of dominance and pacification to a strident defense of environment, place, and local rights. Between 2010 and 2012, the residents of Cabo Pulmo waged a campaign against a large-scale tourism development that was perceived as …

Reconnecting Urban Planning With Health: A Protocol For The Development And Validation Of National Liveability Indicators Associated With Noncommunicable Disease Risk Behaviours And Health Outcomes, Billie Giles-Corti, Hannah M. Badland, Suzanne Mavoa, Gavin Turrell, Fiona Bull, Bryan Boruff, Christopher Pettit, Adrian E. Bauman, Paula Hooper, Karen Villanueva, Thomas Astell-Burt, Xiaoqi Feng, Vincent Learnihan, R Davey, Rob Grenfell, Sarah Thackway

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Aim: Liveable communities create the conditions to optimise health and wellbeing outcomes in residents by influencing various social determinants of health - for example, neighbourhood walkability and access to public transport, public open space, local amenities, and social and community facilities. This study will develop national liveability indicators that are (a) aligned with state and federal urban policy, (b) developed using national data (where available), (c) standard and consistent over time, (d) suitable for monitoring progress towards creating more liveable, equitable and sustainable communities, (e) validated against selected noncommunicable disease risk behaviours and/or health outcomes, and (f) practical for measuring …

Towards An Articulation Of Architecture As A Verb; Learning From Participatory Development, Subaltern Identities And Textual Values., Richard Bower

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

Originating from a disenfranchisement with the contemporary definition and realisation of Westernised architecture as a commodity and product, this thesis seeks to explore alternative examples of positive socio-spatial practice and agency. These alternative spatial practices and methodologies are drawn from participatory and grass-roots development agency in informal settlements and contexts of economic absence, most notably in the global South. This thesis explores whether such examples can be interpreted as practical realisations of key theoretical advocacies for positive social space that have emerged in the context of post-Second World-War capitalism. The principal methodological framework utilises two differing trajectories of spatial discourse. …

Sessional Academic Success: A Distributed Framework For Academic Support And Development, Jillian Hamilton, Michelle Fox, Mitchell Mcewan

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

With approximately half of Australian university teaching now performed by Sessional Academics, there has been growing recognition of the contribution they make to student learning. At the same time, sector-wide research and institutional audits continue to raise concerns about academic development, quality assurance, recognition and belonging (Red Report, 2008; May, 2013). In response, universities have increasingly begun to offer academic development programs for Sessional Academics. However, such programs tend to be centrally delivered, generic in nature, and contained within the moment of delivery, while the Faculty contexts and cultures that Sessional Academics work within are diverse, and the need for …