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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Local Governmental Collective Action And Mandated Policy Implementation, Michael D. Roberts Mar 2024

Local Governmental Collective Action And Mandated Policy Implementation, Michael D. Roberts

Doctoral Dissertations

Groundwater depletion is a global concern. Around the world, groundwater supplies more than half the water used for agriculture and human drinking. Many other species and ecosystems are supported by groundwater and rely on the integrity of groundwater and surface water connections. Like many social and environmental problems, addressing the overextraction of groundwater requires collective action across governmental authorities and jurisdictions. To date, there are few examples of successful, voluntary groundwater management. To steer collective action at the local level, higher levels of government often use policy mandates. This dissertation examines the implementation of one such mandate. California’s Sustainable Groundwater …


The Puzzle Of Debutant Ingo Participation In Guatemala’S National Reading Program Leamos Juntos: A Comparative And Multi-Sited Case Study, Jacob A. Carter Nov 2023

The Puzzle Of Debutant Ingo Participation In Guatemala’S National Reading Program Leamos Juntos: A Comparative And Multi-Sited Case Study, Jacob A. Carter

Doctoral Dissertations

The dynamics of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) working in Guatemala can be understood as processual, evolving with and being shaped by social and cultural events in Guatemala and around the world. Central to understanding these dynamics is NGOs’ historical relationship to the State, which has ranged from collaborative to homicidal. However, as the number and activity of NGOs increase globally and in Guatemala, specifically within the education sector, some scholars characterize them less by their opposition to the State and more by their provision of education and myriad affiliations with the State. The purpose of this dissertation is to situate …


Resource Allocation In Subsidy Welfare Programs: Managerial Insights For Nonprofits, Governments, And Service Providers, Wei Wei Nov 2023

Resource Allocation In Subsidy Welfare Programs: Managerial Insights For Nonprofits, Governments, And Service Providers, Wei Wei

Doctoral Dissertations

Subsidy welfare programs provide financial assistance to economically disadvantaged individuals and families to access essential and life-altering services (e.g., education, child care, and housing) that they might not otherwise have access to. Access to these services is considered critical to achieving a better and more sustainable future for all. As such, these high-quality services are directly related to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted as a universal call to action to end poverty, save the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere." In particular, the need for these affordable and high-quality services has been …


Essays On Market Inefficiencies Arising From Information Asymmetry And Market Power, Ming Ge Nov 2023

Essays On Market Inefficiencies Arising From Information Asymmetry And Market Power, Ming Ge

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three chapters that empirically investigate various kinds of market inefficiencies arising from seller misbehaviors. The first two chapters focus on physicians' overtreatment in healthcare markets. A standard reputation system falls short of effectively curbing overtreatment due to the credence-good nature of such a market: patients cannot tell whether a high-cost treatment recommendation (versus a less costly and complex treatment) is necessary even after the service is completed. In the first chapter, I propose a novel solution to reinstate the function of reputation by combining a reputation mechanism with patient search for second opinions. I conduct a laboratory …


"The Land That Feminism Forgot": Birthzillas, Madwives, And The Politics Of Chilbirth, Amber Vayo Aug 2023

"The Land That Feminism Forgot": Birthzillas, Madwives, And The Politics Of Chilbirth, Amber Vayo

Doctoral Dissertations

“The Land that Feminism Forgot” is an in-depth exploration of the politics of childbirth that draws together qualitative and quantitative evidence to theorize the connections between treatment in childbirth and maternal mortality. Situating the qualitative research in the larger national context, the second chapter offers a State Reproductive Autonomy Index that provides an overview of the reproductive policy landscape at the national level. The dissertation then explores the role of institutionalized childbirth, medical mistrust, and obstetric violence in the U.S.’s longstanding maternal mortality crisis and offers policy suggestions in key public health areas. Through 120 qualitative interviews with people who …


The Economics Of Information And Communication Technologies In Our Society, Augusto Espin Apr 2023

The Economics Of Information And Communication Technologies In Our Society, Augusto Espin

Doctoral Dissertations

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play a fundamental role in today's society. As ICTs they become more mature and widely adopted, societies become more dependent on their use to operationalize daily activities. However, there are multiple societal impacts of ICTs that are not yet well understood. In this dissertation, I explore three different aspects of ICTs that have been widely discussed by media and industry during recent years. I analyze these topics from an economic perspective, contributing to the debate with rigorous modeling and the ensuing discussion of its implications. First, I study the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had …


Hospital Assessment And Response To Environmental Pollution As A Population Health Need: Identifying Prevalence And Predictors In Community Benefit Practices, Sarah Valentine Apr 2021

Hospital Assessment And Response To Environmental Pollution As A Population Health Need: Identifying Prevalence And Predictors In Community Benefit Practices, Sarah Valentine

Doctoral Dissertations

Hospitals have a growing role in improving population health. Environmental pollution is an important determinant of health with disproportionate effects on Communities of Color. This warrants hospital action. To advance such action, it is important to take stock of current hospital engagement with environmental pollution and to identify factors associated with such engagement. I investigated the following. To what extent do New York State (NYS) non-profit hospitals assess, identify, and respond to environmental pollutants as part of community benefit practices? Do factors previously reported as associated with hospital engagement of social determinants predict engagement with environmental pollution as a community …


It’S All The Rage: An Animated Approach To Screening For Postpartum Depression, Amanda Gorham Dec 2020

It’S All The Rage: An Animated Approach To Screening For Postpartum Depression, Amanda Gorham

Doctoral Dissertations

Postpartum depression presents a complication for mothers which can, in some cases, be severe and even life-threatening. Instruments commonly used to screen for this psychological condition have been challenged by an extensive body of literature, with many mothers being unidentified and even untreated for their symptoms. The presented research introduces a newly developed screening instrument for detecting probable postpartum depression using text-free scenario-based animations, based on the lived experience of the condition as qualified by empirical research and the existing body of literature. Developed items were controlled for quality via Think Aloud Protocol and alignment studies with subject matter experts …


The People Who “Burn”: “Communication,” Unity, And Change In Belarusian Discourse On Public Creativity, Anton Dinerstein Jul 2020

The People Who “Burn”: “Communication,” Unity, And Change In Belarusian Discourse On Public Creativity, Anton Dinerstein

Doctoral Dissertations

The main intellectual problem I address in this study is how everyday communication activates the relationship between creativity, conflict, and change. More specifically, I look at how the communication of creativity becomes a process of transformation, innovation, and change and how people are propelled to create through everyday communication practices in the face of conflict and opposition. To approach this problem, I use the case of communication in modern-day Belarus to show how creativity becomes a vehicle for and a source of new social and cultural routines among the independent grassroots communities and initiatives in Minsk. On one level, I …


Understanding China’S Discourse On South-South Cooperation And China-Africa Higher Education Exchange: A Field Research Study At Zhejiang Normal University’S China-Africa International Business School, Yi Sun Oct 2019

Understanding China’S Discourse On South-South Cooperation And China-Africa Higher Education Exchange: A Field Research Study At Zhejiang Normal University’S China-Africa International Business School, Yi Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation research attempts to distinguish China’s model from that of the traditional North-South relationship, with a focus on how China’s philosophy articulates its foreign policy and the nation’s higher education engagement with African countries. It examines the China-Africa higher education partnership in response to China’s discourse on South-South Cooperation (SSC), Africa’s human resource flows, and the benefits and constraints of current China-Africa cooperation. In order to achieve these goals, the dissertation uses one of the China-Africa partnership universities in China, Zhejiang Normal University (ZJNU) as a site for its field research. The fieldwork looks at both a student level …


"The Whole Nation Will Move": Grassroots Organizing In Harlem And The Advent Of The Long, Hot Summers, Peter Blackmer Nov 2018

"The Whole Nation Will Move": Grassroots Organizing In Harlem And The Advent Of The Long, Hot Summers, Peter Blackmer

Doctoral Dissertations

“The Whole Nation Will Move” provides a narrative history of grassroots struggles for African American equality and empowerment in Harlem in the decade immediately preceding the era of widespread urban rebellions in the United States. Through a street-level examination of the political education and activism of grassroots organizers, the dissertation analyzes how local people developed a collective radical consciousness and organized to confront and dismantle institutional racism in New York City from 1954-1964. This work also explores how the interests and activities of poor and working-class Black and Puerto Rican residents of Harlem fueled the escalation of protest activity and …


Why Education Matters: Political Participation And Interpretive Experiences At High School, Samuel V. Stoddard Oct 2018

Why Education Matters: Political Participation And Interpretive Experiences At High School, Samuel V. Stoddard

Doctoral Dissertations

Political scientists have long recognized educational attainment as a strong predictor of voter turnout, but the mechanisms through which educational experiences lead voters to the polls remain under-explored. This research begins the process of opening the proverbial black box of education to understand the specific types of scholastic experiences that encourage voting. Grounded in previous findings by scholars of policy feedback and political socialization, I use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data analyses to reveal that nonacademic high school experiences can have powerful and lasting interpretive effects. Results show that participants in performance and service-based extracurricular activities are commonly …


Overcoming Biological Data Deficiencies In Environmental Permitting For Offshore Wind Energy, Kendra Ryan Jul 2018

Overcoming Biological Data Deficiencies In Environmental Permitting For Offshore Wind Energy, Kendra Ryan

Doctoral Dissertations

The offshore wind final net technical resource of 2,059 GW in the United States is unrealized in part due to a cumbersome permitting process. In this dissertation, I examine the role of biological data in the permitting process, and explore frameworks for overcoming identified deficiencies. Criteria analyses and semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand how biological data impede impact assessments of offshore wind projects, which are required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). In addition, spatiotemporal scales of biological data in NEPA assessments were evaluated against federal requirements. Case studies and semi-structured interviews were then conducted to …


The History Of Massachusetts Transfer And Articulation Policies In Contexts Of Evolving Higher Education System Structure, Coordination, And Policy Actors, Daniel De La Torre, Jr. Jul 2018

The History Of Massachusetts Transfer And Articulation Policies In Contexts Of Evolving Higher Education System Structure, Coordination, And Policy Actors, Daniel De La Torre, Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Community colleges carry out dual missions providing occupational and collegiate preparation in local communities across the United States. These institutions prepare students for advanced study via transfer policies that lead to enrollment in baccalaureate institutions. State higher education systems use transfer and articulation policies to strengthen academic pathways between two-year and four-year institutions. These policies rely on established governance to facilitate student transfer between sectors. The transfer and articulation literature stresses the importance of statewide policy guidelines, yet little has been written about the process of transfer policy development involving state higher education governance and policy groups and actors. The …


Three Essays On The Theory Of Environmental Regulation: Hybrid Price And Quantity Policies And Regulation In The Presence Of Co-Pollutants, Insung Son Nov 2017

Three Essays On The Theory Of Environmental Regulation: Hybrid Price And Quantity Policies And Regulation In The Presence Of Co-Pollutants, Insung Son

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation contains three original essays in the economic theory of environmental regulation. The main motivations for this work are two problems: the design of greenhouse gas (GHG) policies when emissions of these gases interact with so-called co-pollutants and the design of hybrid price and quantity policies to deal with the uncertainty in the benefits and costs of controlling GHG emissions. Abstract Concerns about how best to control GHGs have generated intense interest in the co-benefits and adverse side-effects of climate policies. Efforts to reduce CO2 emissions can reduce emissions of flow pollutants that are emitted along with CO …


The Government Role In Creating Innovation Technological Clusters In Developing Countries (The Case Of Saudi Arabia), Khalid Mahmoud Dashash Nov 2017

The Government Role In Creating Innovation Technological Clusters In Developing Countries (The Case Of Saudi Arabia), Khalid Mahmoud Dashash

Doctoral Dissertations

Many governments around the world are committed to the idea of creating high-tech industries in their territories. Often they do so by imitating other well-recognized models such as the Silicon Valley. This dissertation investigated three countries economic development plans to understand how government policies could support or hinder the establishment of an Innovation Systems in developing countries. This dissertation claims that to create a successful high technological innovation cluster in any area, a successful innovation needs to be existed to support these clusters. This study used a comparative qualitative pragmatic method that implemented both case study and process tracing to …


Factors That Shape Arab American College Student Identity, Abdul Rahman F. Jaradat Jul 2017

Factors That Shape Arab American College Student Identity, Abdul Rahman F. Jaradat

Doctoral Dissertations

Arab American identity has not yet received the research attention and scholarship that it deserves. In this dissertation, I have qualitatively studied the narratives of young Arab American college students and recent graduates. The research questions that I explored include what makes them Arab Americans, and what are the factors that help them identify as such. By focusing on Arab Americans and their identity factors, I have presented the narratives of those women and men who self-identify as Arab American and quoted their accounts of how they navigate this undervalued, misunderstood, and stereotyped identity. I have used ethnic and racial …


Participatory Planning In The Brazilian Cerrado: Mainstreaming Land Use, Climate Adaptation, And Vulnerability In The State-Led Program City For Us, Euripedes De Oliveira Jul 2017

Participatory Planning In The Brazilian Cerrado: Mainstreaming Land Use, Climate Adaptation, And Vulnerability In The State-Led Program City For Us, Euripedes De Oliveira

Doctoral Dissertations

The research highlights the urgency of communicating information about climate change, and to seeks to advance generalized knowledge about alternatives to mainstreaming land-use, climate adaptation, and vulnerability in participatory planning processes. It examines the state-led community-based planning process under the program City for Us (2005-2007), that took place in the state of Goiás, Brazil. My leading argument contemplates that vulnerability assessments developed through community-based planning processes might pave the way to further mainstreaming climate change adaptation in planning processes. The research investigates whether the planning process integrates vulnerability in the land-use discussion by the participants of the program. This research …


The Role Of Social Class And Construal Level In Social Justice And Fairness Beliefs, Prerana Bharadwaj Jul 2017

The Role Of Social Class And Construal Level In Social Justice And Fairness Beliefs, Prerana Bharadwaj

Doctoral Dissertations

What predicts support for the redistribution of resources to improve socioeconomic inequality? Social class, or the subjective perception of one’s resources and position in relation to others in a larger society, was examined as one relevant characteristic. Across four experiments, social class as subjective social status was manipulated (two) and measured (all four), and found to have a significant negative effect on support for the moral values of group-based equality (social justice) but not on individual deservingness (fairness) separate from political identity and other demographic characteristics. This effect was seen on stated principles but particularly relevant in approval ratings of …


Multi-Criteria Decision Making When Planning Sustainable Multimodal Transportation Routes In A Linear Corridor, Marie Louis Jul 2017

Multi-Criteria Decision Making When Planning Sustainable Multimodal Transportation Routes In A Linear Corridor, Marie Louis

Doctoral Dissertations

In urban and suburban locations, public transit can be seen as an effective mode of daily transportation. The majority of the time, travelers would seek the cheapest, shortest, and possibly most eco-friendly means of transit. When designing public transit network systems, transportation planners and decision-makers, with input from stakeholders, should strive to optimize transportation services to meet the needs of the population most efficiently and at the lowest cost, that is, providing a transportation system that s the three E's of the sustainability concept: environment, social equity, and economic. Previous studies have focused on sustainability as the primary concern in …


The Role Of Foster Parents In Improving Educational Outcomes For Youth In Foster Care, Gwen Bass Mar 2017

The Role Of Foster Parents In Improving Educational Outcomes For Youth In Foster Care, Gwen Bass

Doctoral Dissertations

Foster parents have been excluded from efforts to improve educational outcomes for foster children, yet they have the potential to serve as powerful advocates for youth in schools if they are adequately trained and supported on how to do so. The purpose of the present study is to identify key skills and to develop an instrument that can be used to assess competence among Massachusetts foster parents in parenting skills that have been identified in the literature to underlie academic engagement. This research is based on the idea that foster parents have the potential to contribute positively to youth engagement …


Examining The Civil-Military Divide Through New (Institutional) Lenses: The Influence Of The Supreme Court, Allen Linken Nov 2016

Examining The Civil-Military Divide Through New (Institutional) Lenses: The Influence Of The Supreme Court, Allen Linken

Doctoral Dissertations

Civil-military relations have existed for as long as there has been a military, but only in the last sixty years has research in the field began to examine the relationships between civilian elites and the military. Who controls the military? What level of influence by the military is acceptable in a liberal society, such as the United States? What is the appropriate role of the military? Who serves in the military? What pattern of civil-military relations best ensures the effectiveness of the military instrument? The study of these questions began with examining relationships between the military and the President, and …


Managing The Agricultural Biotechnology Revolution: Responses To Transgenic Seeds In Developing Countries, Alper Yagci Jul 2016

Managing The Agricultural Biotechnology Revolution: Responses To Transgenic Seeds In Developing Countries, Alper Yagci

Doctoral Dissertations

There has been heated debate over transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops in agriculture. Advocates and critics argue over possible economic, environmental, public health implications of this technology. This study examines varying policy approaches to regulating GM crop cultivation in four developing countries where the technology has large potential application. Why have some countries banned GM crop cultivation in their territory while others encouraged it? In countries where GM crops were allowed, why have varying systems of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection been constructed? To investigate these questions I comparatively examine the policy experience (1995-2015) of Argentina, Brazil, Turkey relying …


Transformative Learning Facilitated Dialogue: As A Tool For Social Change An Autoethnography, Leslie A. Saulsberry Jul 2016

Transformative Learning Facilitated Dialogue: As A Tool For Social Change An Autoethnography, Leslie A. Saulsberry

Doctoral Dissertations

It is my goal, through this autoethnography, to take you through a reflective journey and present to you my personal theory of how facilitated dialogue in the context of transformative learning, critical reflection, systems thinking, shared vision, and holarchy can create a paradigm shift in our personal consciousness, decisions, behaviors, practice, and social policies—social change. My objective is to show how each theory is like a stepping-stone in the path towards social change. The purpose of this living work is to offer an alternative way of creating a healthy and whole society by exploring how facilitated dialogue can lead to …


Who Is Like Whom? Reclassification And Performance Patterns For Different Groupings Of English Learners, Molly M. Faulkner-Bond Jul 2016

Who Is Like Whom? Reclassification And Performance Patterns For Different Groupings Of English Learners, Molly M. Faulkner-Bond

Doctoral Dissertations

Approximately 10 percent of the US K-12 population consists of English learners (ELs), or students who are learning English in addition to academic content in areas like English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. In addition to meeting the same academic content and performance standards set for all students, it is also a goal for ELs to be reclassified – i.e., to master English so that they can shed the EL label and participate in academic settings where English is used without needing special support. Working with a longitudinal cohort of ~28,000 ELs in grades 3 through 8 from one state, …


Analysis Of The Impact Of Technological Change On The Cost Of Achieving Climate Change Mitigation Targets, Robert W. Barron Nov 2015

Analysis Of The Impact Of Technological Change On The Cost Of Achieving Climate Change Mitigation Targets, Robert W. Barron

Doctoral Dissertations

There is widespread consensus that low carbon energy technologies will play a key role in the future global energy system. Many of the low-carbon technologies under consideration are not yet commercially available, and their ultimate value depends on a host of deeply uncertain socioeconomic, environmental, and technological considerations. While it is clear that significant investment in the energy system is needed, the optimal allocation of these investments is unclear. This dissertation develops a methodology for (1) analyzing the impact of low carbon energy technologies on the cost of meeting emission reduction targets (policy cost) and (2) using this information to …


Southie Versus Roxbury: Crime, Welfare, And The Racialized Gubernatorial Politics Of Massachusetts In The Post-Civil Rights Era, Daniel T. Kirsch Nov 2014

Southie Versus Roxbury: Crime, Welfare, And The Racialized Gubernatorial Politics Of Massachusetts In The Post-Civil Rights Era, Daniel T. Kirsch

Doctoral Dissertations

Racial and ethnic divisions at the national level and their effects on politics take on an abstract character when not discussing specific communities. To obtain a reliable, consistent, and potentially reliable measure of a relationship, demographic information and voting behaviors at the small community, submetropolitan level must be examined in high-turnout, same-office elections over a protracted period, ideally in a polity with a penchant for racial tolerance. The political language of Boston has been mired in racialization since at least the Civil Rights era, particularly since the Boston anti-segregation busing crisis of the 1970s. While previous research has focused on …


The Colonial Legacies Of “Fiesta Island”: A Critical Study Of Live-Music Events Production In Puerto Rico, Anilyn Diaz Nov 2014

The Colonial Legacies Of “Fiesta Island”: A Critical Study Of Live-Music Events Production In Puerto Rico, Anilyn Diaz

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the historical relationship between the state and national culture in Puerto Rico as seen through the case of the entertainment industry, specifically live-music events production. The dissertation is located within two bodies of literature: critical post-colonial cultural studies of cultural industries and cultural policy, and cultural approaches to scholarship on collective action and state-civil society relationships in neoliberal contexts. The research design includes archival work and analysis of organizational material, supported by a cultural ethnography approach to semi-structured informant interviews and group interviews. The interviews focus on the historical development, cultural legacies, and practices of the entertainment …


Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent Aug 2014

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …


School Counselor Advocacy With Lgbt Students: A Qualitative Study Of High School Counselor Experiences, Maria E. Gonzalez Aug 2014

School Counselor Advocacy With Lgbt Students: A Qualitative Study Of High School Counselor Experiences, Maria E. Gonzalez

Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years, advocacy has become a centerpiece of the school counseling profession, (American School Counseling Association (ASCA), 2005; Field, 2004). Nevertheless, there exists a dearth of empirical research on school counselor advocacy in general and virtually none as it relates to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students specifically. To begin addressing this gap in the literature, the purpose of this qualitative dissertation study was to examine the experiences of high school counselors in the southeastern United States who have served as advocates for and with LGBT students across identity groups, with a specific focus on race and class. …