Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

On Making A Difference: How Photography And Narrative Produce The Short-Term Missions Experience, Joshua Kerby Jennings

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Short-term missions participants encounter difference in purportedly captivating ways. Current research, however, indicates the practice does not lead to long-lasting, positive change. Brian M. Howell (2012) argues the short-term missions experience is confined to the limitations of the short-term missions narrative. People who engage in short-term missions build assumptions, seek experiences, understand difference, and convey meaning, as a result of this narrative. The process of telling and retelling travel stories is integral to the short-term missions experience. Drawing upon literature on tourism, narrative, development, and photography, this study intends to evaluate the inefficacy of short-term missions through the stories which …

A Study Of The Determinants Influencing The Legislative Success Of A Government-Proposed Bill In Korea, Byung Jun Ahn

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

As there is a widespread perception of legislative gridlock and subsequent failure in addressing national problems in Korea, this study examines what factors influence the legislative success and legislative time of a government-proposed bill in Korea. This study uses government-proposed bills from 1988 to 2016 to estimate the effect of explanatory variables such as divided government, the year of presidential term (one to five year), the presidential approval rate, the unemployment rate, filibusters, jurisdictional area of a bill, and the ratio of members’ bills to government-proposed bills.

The results of regression analyses show that there is no evidence divided government …

The Effects Of Land Use Deregulations In The Capitol Region On Gross Regional Domestic Product In South Korea, Youngchul Kim

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

South Korea has implemented strong land use regulations controlling the growth of the capitol region (Seoul, and around areas) in order to encourage balanced regional development between the capitol area and the non-capitol area. However, there are ongoing debates about the relationship between the regulatory policies and the balanced regional development.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of the effect that the land use deregulation in the capitol region has on growth of both regions. To address this question, I use a difference-in-differences model to empirically analyze how the land use deregulation in the capitol region …

Empowering Women For Economic Growth: A Measurement Of Social And Demographic Impacts On Afghan Women In Business, Tracy Taylor

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Non-governmental organizations working in conflict-prone, resource-deprived developing countries face a very unique set of challenges. Like with other non-profits, program dollars and other resources must be allocated carefully and thoughtfully so the maximum output is achieved with the inputs allotted. Unlike other non-profits, however, the political, social, and economic environment is constantly changing in developing countries like Afghanistan. Basic human needs are not being met, leaving the path to NGO program success fraught with seemingly impossible challenges. This is the case for Peace Through Business, a training and development program serving women entrepreneurs in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Peace Through Business seeks …

A Study On Change And Determinants Of South Koreans' Perceptions Of Unification, Seong Koo Ham

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

South Koreans’ interest in and aspirations for unification have decreased recently. This decrease of desires for unification is one of the obstacles to achieve unification. This study analyzes the change of South Koreans’ perceptions of unification and examines various factors that affect those perceptions toward unification. I use unification perceptions survey data from 2007 to 2014 collected by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies Seoul National University.

The dependent variables of this study are perceptions of the necessity of unification and the possibility of unification. Independent variables are classified into four types. They are expected benefit factors, the political …

Quality Measures Of Universities And The Determinants Of Tuition In South Korea, Young Hoon Ko

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

University tuition had increased in highly excess of the inflation rate from 1990s until 2008. Many people are wondering whether the quality of university education is proportional to the tuition level. Thus, this capstone project examines whether the quality measures in higher education can predict the tuition level.

After analyzing eight-year data of 146 private universities in South Korea, I get the result that university tuition is not a function of quality measures in terms of educational costs. However, tuition is a function of quality measures related with attractiveness, accomplishment, and satisfaction. Incoming student recruitment rate, and drop-out rate have …

The Impact Of Intellectual Property On Provincial Unemployment Rates In South Korea, Soon Ho Shin

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Intellectual property is drawing attention as an important policy tool to lower the unemployment rate in low-growth economies. The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) provides services that facilitate companies to effectively create intellectual property by operating local intellectual property support centers in connection with local governments. In this context, this research examine how the differences of intellectual property registration affect provincial unemployment rates by analyzing 10 years (2006-2015) of panel data with a fixed-effects regression model. According to my estimation results, intellectual property registrations have a statistically significant impact on provincial unemployment rates in South Korea. Since the reduction of …

Prevalence Of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer In India: Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Gurprataap S. Sandhu, Sebhat Erqou, Heidi Patterson, Aju Mathew

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Purpose There is considerable variation in prevalence rates of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) reported by various studies from India. We performed a systematic review and literature-based meta-analysis of these studies.

Methods We searched databases of Medline, Scopus, EMBASE, and Web of Science for studies that reported on the prevalence of TNBC in India that were published between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2015. We extracted relevant information from each study by using a standardized form. We pooled study-specific estimates by using random-effects meta-analysis to provide summary estimates. We explored sources of heterogeneity by using subgroup analyses and metaregression.

Results …

Beyond Metropolises: Hybridity In A Transnational Context, Raihan Sharif

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

Beyond metropolises and within transnational contexts, investigating hybridity discourses is long overdue. This article argues that the epistemic violence embedded in such discourse has grave implications for the very impoverished nations and peoples with whom it claims solidarity and that, because this discourse is trendy in academia, its service to neoliberal capitalism is both easy to miss and important to expose. Interstices of postcolonial hybridity discourses, development discourses, and environmental justice discourses—dominant versions of which are segregated from contextual issues—as produced in Western academia and exported to third world countries for appropriation as developmental efforts—reveal epistemic violence, the manipulation of …

Impermeable Assemblages: Flooding, Urban Infrastructure, And Stormwater Politics In São Paulo, Brazil, Nate Millington

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This project analyzes efforts to remake the relationship between water and city in São Paulo, Brazil. Currently experiencing overlapping problems of flooding, scarcity, and pollution, São Paulo illustrates the challenges of managing water in a contemporary mega-city. This dissertation subsequently considers the city’s water management through an approach that borrows from urban political ecology, social studies of science, and post-colonial urban theory. With an epistemological grounding in these literatures, this project analyzes ongoing conversations about water management in São Paulo, and focuses on how water is encountered and engaged with in the landscape by engineers, artists, and activists. This project …

Housing Satisfaction In South Korea, Yoo Gunseuk

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since April 2013, the Korean government has implemented a series of plans to stabilize the housing market, which has suffered from falling housing prices and surging rent after the 2008 financial crisis. This study estimates the effectiveness of the government's plans by analyzing the housing satisfaction of 2012 and 2014 Korea Housing Survey (KHS). The data used in this study are collected from the KHS carried out by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT)

This study uses 2012 and 2014 KHS to show that some variables and subcategories of household and housing attributes have positive or negative correlation …

Misdiagnosis: Dysfunction Between Western Health Organizations And Developing Nations, Dannette Smith Cook

Ex-Patt Magazine

Improving the global public health system is no simple task. Find out how Indonesia can help explain a culture of distrust between developing nations and international health organizations.

Breaking Boundaries: The Timely Demise Of The Third-Order Enclave, Travis Cady

Ex-Patt Magazine

No abstract provided.

Prevailing Against Polio: India's Holistic Development Strategy, Anonymous Submission

Ex-Patt Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Universality Of Strength And Pain, Portia Watson

Ex-Patt Magazine

A graduate student specializing in international development details her experience at a traditional medicine clinic in Thailand. Includes a photo spread.

Gold Mining And Unequal Exchange In Western Amazonia: A Theoretical Photo Essay, Gordon L. Ulmer

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

I combine fieldwork photography and ethnographic documentation of gold mining in Madre de Dios, Peru, to examine the localized material, social, environmental, and health outcomes of the global gold boom. This 'theoretical photo essay’ examines how local and global forces coalesce around gold mining and influence peoples and environments in Western Amazonia. I use embodiment theory in anthropology, ecological economics, and theories of underdevelopment to understand local consequences of the global gold trade and to elucidate how opulence and the machinations of capital accumulation in economic centers of the world occur at the expense of human lives and environments in …

Religious Extremism And Sectarian Violence: The Rise Of Isis, Jordan Haven

Ex-Patt Magazine

How has the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as IS, ISIS, or ISIL) managed to take over such a large swath of territory in the Middle East?

Trouble In The Family, Travis Cady

Ex-Patt Magazine

Europe is experiencing separatism - is there trouble in the family?

The Future Of Sino-Russian Cooperation: A Rough Road Ahead, Cassidy Henry

Ex-Patt Magazine

After spending two semesters on the Chinese-Russian border, Henry reflects on the future of Sino-Russian relations and whether the West should worry.

The Decision To Invade: Stalin In 1950, Elliot Estebo

Ex-Patt Magazine

Examining the past and recently discovered Soviet-Era documents to determine how Stalin came to the decision to invade.

The Sleeping Giant Wants A Veto, Elizabeth Suparmanto

Ex-Patt Magazine

The sleeping giant wants a veto. Will Brazil be able to convince the world it deserves a permanent seat?

The Use Of Improved Technology And Market-Based Incentives To Increase Forest Resource And Biodiversity Conservation In Rwanda, Kelly M. Rayens

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

This study evaluated the effectiveness of two distinct approaches to ecosystem conservation in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park: cookstove technology adoption and market-based policy instruments. A June 2014 survey of 250 households revealed that use of improved cookstove technology dramatically decreased fuelwood consumption for households in rural Rwanda, but that design, engineering and conflicting policy issues can hamper the widespread use of energy-efficient cooking technology. The second component of this research used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) within a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) framework to explore the options for designing and implementing market-based instruments around the country’s conservation targets, particularly the highly …

State Violence, Mobility And Everyday Life In Cairo, Egypt, Christine E. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

State violence in Egypt is an embedded part of daily life and popular culture, and well documented in social and news media. The uprisings of January 11, which took place in Egypt were organized in large part against violence and torture regularly delivered by police forces. In this dissertation I examine the implications of chronic state violence on everyday life for low-income Egyptians. In doing so, this dissertation provides analysis of how violence shapes forms of intimacy within social life, how it shapes urban landscapes and the politics therein and how it informs individual piety and banal practices of security. …

Living Care-Fully: Labor, Love And Suffering And The Geographies Of Intergenerational Care In Northern Ghana, Kelsey B. Hanrahan

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Care is socially constructed, shaped by expectations embedded within particular relationships and the culturally-specific understandings of what it means to work, love and suffer. In this dissertation, I conceptualize care as a fundamental component of everyday life in which individuals are oriented towards the needs of others. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a rural Konkomba community in northern Ghana, I explore the geographies of care shaping the everyday experiences of women engaged in intergenerational relationships as they encounter emerging dependencies associated with ageing. Dependencies emerge when an individual requires support and care from another, and in turn the struggles for, …

A Study Of Determinants Of The Birthrate Change In South Korea, Kyunghoon Ahn

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

South Korea has experienced a sharp demographic transition from a high birthrate of 4.5 children per woman in the 1970s to a low birthrate of around 1.19 in 2013. A low birthrate can lead to big problems for South Korean society.

In response to such a low birthrate, the South Korean government introduced policies to increase the birthrate, such as providing subsidies for daycare costs and the supply of daycare facilities. The South Korean government has spent heavily on these programs. However, the birthrate stays very low. Also, other social and economic factors could affect the birthrate.

Therefore, I studied …

Cartel Leniency Program And Cartel Enforcement In South Korea, Kyung Jong Han

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) is in charge of competition and consumer protection policies in South Korea. Of these policies, the cartel leniency program is the most powerful enforcement tool to regulate cartel activities which expropriate consumer surplus and create social welfare deadweight loss. The cartel leniency program grants exemptions or reductions in penalties to firms involved in the cartel activities when they cooperate with the cartel investigation of a competition authority. The Korea cartel leniency program was first adopted in 1997 and considerably revised in 2004.

The cartel leniency program can enhance the cartel detection or discovery ability of …

A Marriage Of Convenience: The Role Of The Russian Orthodox Church In Contemporary Russian Politics, S. Elliot Estebo

Ex-Patt Magazine

Since 2000, the roles of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in society and its ties to the Russian government have grown.

The Mourides Of Senegal: A Gospel Of Work, Solidarity & God, Mark Titus Hoover

Ex-Patt Magazine

Islamic religiosity is a phrase that often conjures up images of patriarchal societies, conservative, bordering repressive moral tenents, angry demonstrations, even violence. But the Mourides are different.

The Primary Colors Of Political Dysfunction, Dillon Nichols

Ex-Patt Magazine

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Troubles In Paradise: The United States’ Biggest Challenge In The Carribean, Juan Clar

Ex-Patt Magazine

As many Caribbean economies grow, and the threat of Cuban communism fades, the challenge in the Caribbean for the US comes from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.