Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Wellness And Prevention Program Sustainability Design For Clark University Athletics Department, Emily Corbett

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this work is to design a wellness based prevention program that is tailored to fit the campus community within Clark University, Worcester, MA, called the Peer Athletes Advocating for Wellness (PAAW) initiative. This paper first presents the current research on wellness related issues within a college campus, specifically surrounding sexual violence. It then outlines the current sexual violence prevention programming that takes place yearly for incoming first year students at Clark University, as well as a one-time initiative during which student athletes participated in the sexual violence prevention programming. There is a review of the current most …

Swot Analysis Of Comprehensive Anti-Gang Strategies (Cags), Jenelle Howard

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Worcester has faced many challenges with violence among youth in underserved areas. Over the past couple of years, there has been an increase in violent behaviors on the East-Side of Worcester. This dual degree report will evaluate a program that was developed to help with combating youth violence on the Eastside of Worcester. Comprehensive Anti-Gang Strategies (CAGS) is funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the amount of $327,312 for two years. This evaluation of CAGS will include an analysis using the SWOT framework to help analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that CAGS …

Building A Sense Of Community: A Case Study Of The Fairmount Neighborhood In Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Bethany Yeo

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This thesis study examines the relative sense of community by isolating key factors that contribute to a sense of community: social trust, identity, and bridging/social cohesion. It also analyzes the relationship, if any, between these three factors and the built environment. Data was collected from 107 archived community impact measurement surveys from NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley. The results show that residents experienced a lack of sense of community despite the built environment although results were not significant.

Foreclosures For Sale: Revisiting Stories Of Worcester's Mortgage Crisis, A Radio Documentary, Hallie Blashfield, Beatrice Misher

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This radio documentary uses the personal stories of homeowners fighting to keep their homes in Worcester Massachusetts to explore the state of Foreclosure in Worcester ten years after the Great Recession. It follows the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team (WAFT) and its members in their fight against illegal foreclosures and their battles in Worcester Housing Court. Grounded in personal narratives, the documentary highlights systemic issues with the banking and legal system.

Social Justice In Outdoor Experiential Education: A Literature Analysis Of K-12 Outdoor Education Programs In The United States, Digby Kalert

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Historically, the field of outdoor experiential education (OEE) has been exclusionary and has primarily served white middle- and upper-middle class male populations. Scholars have called for research on how to address issues of social justice in the field for decades, and leaders are finally making steps toward becoming more inclusive. Through a secondary analysis of empirical studies on OEE, this paper examines how the field has modified its focus towards minority populations in K-12 OEE programs in the United States and provides recommendations for practitioners of OEE. There is evidence of an increase in studies on how OEE is perceived …

An Analysis Of Trade-Offs: The Artisan Fair Trade Sector, Stephanie Leiderman

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This paper examines the history, frames, critiques and current applications of Fair Trade in the artisan sector, with an eye to raising up the specific trade-offs being made, and their implications for an evolving artisan market in the global north and south. It includes a discussion of the history of the Fair Trade idea, including that sector’s increasing focus on certification, agricultural commodities, and corporate involvement. It investigates the potential lessons the artisan sector can learn from the agricultural one, as well as the lessons learned from current actors in the artisan Fair Trade field. Using a continuum of trade-offs …

The Rise, Fall, And Revival Of The Moviegoing Experience: The Viability Of Independent Theatres In A Multiplex World, Isabel S. Cruz

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Moviegoing has been a leisure activity since the early twentieth century. From their origination, movie theatres have served as a community gathering place for people from different socioeconomic backgrounds to come together for a shared experience. Even as substitutes for movie viewing options threaten the movie theatre industry, independent cinemas are surviving and thriving. This paper includes results from interviews with independent cinema owners and managers on steps they are taking to preserve moviegoing as an immersive and personal experience. Findings are used to explore how lessons can be applied to create a credible business proposal to locate an independent …

Commodification And Resistance: Migrant Labor In Jordan, Matthew Walleser

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Neoliberal globalization, which has guided the economic system of the world for the last forty years, claims to offer opportunities for equality and wealth for all citizens. However, I argue that the structural violence inherent in the neoliberal system and its drive for maximizing profits leads to cycles of abuse and discrimination, as well as a transfer of wealth and power toward elites and away from average citizens. I discuss how Jordan, like other developing countries, has been a locus for this violence. Through the lens of migrant workers within Jordan, this research paper traces the effects of these policies …

United In The Struggle: The Role Of Land Titles For Communities Of Internally Displaced Persons In El Salvador, Corie Welch

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Multiple episodes of dispossession and displacement characterize the lives of landless rural and semi-rural families across El Salvador. The residents of 30 de Abril, a semi-rural community in El Salvador formed from displaced families, engaged in a five-year struggle to force the government to make good on its promise of land to the rural poor. Now, with legal titles in hand, residents continue to work together to seek additional services and resources for their community, proving their resilience in the face of displacement. Based upon the experience of 30 de Abril, this paper explores the trajectory of one community‟s struggle …

Exploring Existing Innovative Education Models: A Best Practice Guide For A New School Design In Lewiston, Maine, Katie Bosse

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this research is to both identify best practices in innovative school design and then identify a guide to assist new school design teams on how to make the transition out of current practices of traditional education. First, I describe the current structure of traditional education, the challenges schools face in regard to school structure, community, and academics. Then I examine six public schools that are working to create strategies to address the challenges stated in traditional schools. Through school site visits and interviews with teacher and faculty, I explore the strategies of existing innovative school models and …

Refugee Case Files As An Indicator Of Housing Needs, Molly Weilbacher

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This study utilizes basic indicators captured from refugee case files at Ascentria, a local resettlement agency, to explore the barriers to housing stability refugees face in the 90-day resettlement process. By piecing together raw data with insight from the data collection process, this research centers refugee households, housing, and the reporting process to answer the question “in what ways can the reporting process better serve resettled refugees in their ability to maintain housing in Worcester?” Looking at how country of birth, household size, and employment eligibility affects refugee households, this research turns to the complexity of housing stability in terms …

The Etm And Alce Testing: Summer Internship In Clark Labs, Wenle Jiang

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Abstract

The ETM and ALCE testing: Summer internship in Clark labs

Wenle Jiang

This paper is a description of my internship with Clark Labs in the summer of 2017. I worked as research assistant responsible for testing the Earth Trends Modeler and the American Land Change Explorer. Earth Trends Modeler is a revolutionary earth observation tool that allows for the modeling and analysis of earth trends and ecosystem dynamics. The American Land Change Explorer (ALCE) is a free web application designed to illustrate the potential of predictive land change modeling using a subscription-based service called the American Land Change Modeler …

Creating Web Maps Of Forest Restoration Plots At Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research Center, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Daniel Lassila

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this report is to provide a detailed account, discussion, and analysis of my internship at Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research Center in Minas Gerais, Brazil during the summer of 2017, where I worked under the direction of GIS Supervisor Mr. Cliff Jones. The central focus of my work dealt with consolidating existing GIS data on the organization’s rainforest restoration effort into a single normalized database - based on the Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact, creating a structure for future forest restoration volunteers including enabling offline field collection using Collector for ArcGIS, then creating an ArcGIS Online web map based …

Seabird Distribution And Oil & Gas Potential Along The Northern Sea Route, Russia: An Arctic Marine Conservation Case Study, Meghan Kelly

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Seabirds are indicator species for the marine environment. Their populations are simultaneously affected by access to food resources and anthropogenic pressures including direct disturbance and habitat degradation associated with industrial development (Parsons et al. 2007). Therefore, using seabird distribution as a policy-relevant indicator for the Arctic marine environment supports an ecosystem based management approach aimed at protecting sensitive habitats from increased offshore oil and gas development.

This research identifies seabird habitat in the Russian Arctic utilizing in situ seabird observations from the Northern Sea Route to create a species distribution model. The spatial location of these areas will be compared …

Centering People In The Economy: Worker Cooperatives And The Solidarity Economy In Barcelona, James Hooks

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Are worker cooperatives and the solidarity economy viable tools for revolutionary change in a neoliberal, capitalist system? I approach this question by considering the arguments of utopian socialists, scientific socialists, and anarchists from the Industrial Revolution and the influence of these on the theory of the solidarity economy today. These theoretical perspectives are compared to the reality of members of worker cooperatives in the solidarity economy in Barcelona. The experiences of worker cooperative members are elucidated through focus group discussions and participant produced drawings. A comparison of worker experiences with theory shows worker cooperatives can be spaces for practicing equitable …

Contesting The Normalization Of Violence Through Counter-Storytelling: How A Grassroots Youth Organization Subverts The Perpetuation Of Interpersonal And Structural Violence In Cape Town, South Africa, Nicole Le Roux

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this study is to describe the knowledge shared by youth development staff in an NGO in Cape Town about the impact of violence on youth development work. Through five open ended interviews and review of organizational materials, the study uses a narrative and feminist intersectionality analytic to asks how Educo has and could use the critical race theory method of counter-storytelling to subvert the normalization and perpetuation of interpersonal and structural violence. The paper demonstrates how the knowledge and expertise of the people in the organization, as they respond violence youth face, is not valued by funders …

Degrowth Lessons From Cuba, Claire S. Bayler

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Cuba is the global leader in practicing agroecology, but agroecology is just one component of a larger climate-ready socio-economic system. Degrowth economics address the need to constrain our total global metabolism to within biophysical limits, while allowing opportunity and resources for "underdeveloped" countries to rebuild themselves under new terms. Degrowth recognizes the role of overdeveloped countries in surpassing the ecological limits of our planet at the cost of wellbeing for billions of dispossessed people within and between countries. Cuba's circumstances during and following the Special Period exemplify both sides of the degrowth scenario, as well as demonstrating policy and grassroots …

A Place To Call Home: The Fight For Affordable, Erin Lavitt

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

ABSTRACT A PLACE TO CALL HOME: THE FIGHT FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN HIGHINCOME AREAS BY ERIN LAVITT This paper provides a focus on the national affordable housing crisis, using the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts as a case study. The project looks at the difficulties of overcoming resident resistance, entrenched zoning difficulties, and how the politicization and depoliticization of the crisis has influenced the effectiveness of affordable housing programs. The structure of the paper is as follows. First, a background is provided on the history of affordable housing. This history begins with M.G.L. Chapter 40B, the 1969 Massachusetts act concerning …

Mapping Energy Access In Rural Tanzania: 2017 Summer Internship With The World Resources Institute, Naramena Mccray

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This report details my 2017 summer internship experience; both the report and the internship being requirements of the GIS for Development and Environment Graduate Degree at Clark University. My internship was hosted by the World Resources Institute, an international non-profit organization in Washington D.C. As implied by my position title, “Energy Access-GIS Intern”, I spent the duration of my internship (14 weeks) applying my geospatial expertise to address the topic of energy access which is an issue effecting rural areas of many developing countries. I was given the responsibility of creating an interactive map application of Tanzania accessible by energy …

Identifying Gaps In United States Federal Environmental Policy & Practice Through Greening Big Box Infrastructure, Elizabeth Kubacki

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this report is to identify policy and practice gaps in resource consumption reduction in the United States, and doing so by using big box retailers as the case study industry.

Through reviewing the history of U.S. federal resource reduction policies, and standard industry practices for greening big box infrastructure, I explore how regulations on sustainability and consumption agree with the Porter Hypotheses. By using the Porter Hypothesis as a theoretical framework for the regulation of green infrastructure in big box retailers, I will identify gaps in both literature and industry practices that can be filled by following …

Haiti: The Relationship Between Political Instability And Post-Disaster Response, Ashly Brun

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti represents what Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine refers to as an event leading to the exploitation of disaster-shocked countries. With this idea in mind, this paper seeks to analyze the hidden setbacks of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and their counterproductive relationship with Haiti's unstable government in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. The ways in which corruption operates within the Haitian government and international NGO structures pre-and post-neoliberalism, is an important factor in understanding this post-disaster relationship. Before neoliberalist ideologies expanded throughout the world, corruption in Haiti was evident under the Duvalier regime and …

Media Analysis Of City-Wide Local News Portrayals Of Youth Criminality: Worcester, Massachusetts, Andrea Boffice

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This study consists of a comprehensive media analysis of local news in Worcester, Massachusetts that explores portrayals of youth criminality of an entire city’s local media landscape. It examines how local media portrayal of youth is primarily dominated by coverage of youth crime and youth victimization. As our nation is questioning our trust and reliability in ever-changing news, this study asks whether our local news, with the new platforms that are emerging, have been compromised in providing a fair portrayal of youth. Particularly, whether it fairly portrays Black and Latinx youth in representations of criminality proportional to crime occurring. During …

Agribusiness, Food Insecurity, And Chronic Diet-Related Ailments In Worcester, Ma: Toward A Nuanced Narrative, Adam Wriggins

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The following research paper begins with an acknowledgement of the global food crisis and, more specifically, the agribusiness model of food production and distribution in the United States. It then zeroes in on the fundamental issues with many of the United States food movements. It then outlines a narrative with the frame that food security is a human right by elucidating concepts of food justice and food sovereignty. Once this foundation has been laid, the paper examines chronic food-related ailments (diabetes and coronary heart disease) in Worcester, Massachusetts, and how these ailments are related to racial/ethnic minorities (Black and Hispanic/Latino …

Worcester Community Clean Energy Project: A Preliminary Assessment Of Project Aims And Potential, Gabe J. Epstein

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

E4TheFuture is orchestrating two pilot Community Clean Energy Projects (CCEP) in the state of Massachusetts. This paper is a preliminary analysis of the Worcester CCEP and is commissioned by E4TheFuture. The CCEP incorporates multiple types of renewable energies and a cooperative energy approach to provide clean energy access to any community member regardless of income level or homeowner status. The paper examines the CCEP’s mission statement and project estimates, using data provided by E4TheFuture and academic literature. The analysis seeks to determine the feasibility of the Worcester CCEP, its potential impact on underserved communities, and the potential for project replication.