Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Alternative Power: The Politics Of Denmark's Renewable Energy Transition, Robert Darrow

Doctoral Dissertations

Global climate change is one of the defining political challenges and opportunities of the current era. Experts widely agree that technical means already exist for making the necessary transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy; the obstacles to doing so are primarily political. Careful observers also recognize that this period of transition creates an opening for political innovation and development. How can the political will be generated to take action to prevent climate catastrophe? And what will the process of transitioning mean for the political systems that have been built on cheap and abundant oil? Political scientists have largely ignored …

Three Essays On The Political Economy Of Cultural Production And Creative Labor, Luke Pretz

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the relationships between capital, cultural production, and creative labor. Essay one theorizes the basis for the intensification of pop music stardom following the introduction of on-demand streaming technology. Prior to the emergence of on-demand streaming, record labels and broadcasters had a mutualistic relationship, wherein the near cost-free music provided by record labels formed the basis for radio broadcasts, which in turn formed the basis for the consumption of that music. Following the emergence of on-demand streaming the mutualistic relationship was ruptured. Broadcasters, in the form of streaming platforms, transitioned to the cost-efficient cultivation of masses of highly …

Debris Of Progress: A Political Ethnography Of Critical Infrastructure, Ethan Tupelo

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I advance a political ethnography of critical infrastructure to better understand terminal capitalism, in which the waste products of commodification and resource depletion are destroying the ecological systems that support life. My object of study is the massive disjuncture between individual knowledge and intention, and these catastrophic collective planetary outcomes. Theoretically, I develop critical infrastructure theory to diagnose these destructive structures. By “infrastructure,” I mean systems of material and discursive flows fundamental to sedentary human organization, connecting local actions with global systems. Such infrastructure is “critical” in three senses: A) denoting the most important forms of infrastructure …

Using Visual Media To Empower Citizen Scientists: A Case Study Of The Outsmart App, Megan E. Kierstead

Masters Theses

To be successful citizen science projects need to do two key things: (1) they need to meaningfully engage the public and they must also provide people with the tools, expertise, and/or training needed to participate in rigorous research that can be used by the scientific community. In some ways, these requirements are potentially at odds. Emphasis on rigor and expertise risks excluding members of the public who do not feel qualified to participate in esoteric or technically difficult scientific research. Conversely, projects that eschew rigorous methods in favor of wider participation might lead to bad data that cannot be used …

Re-Thinking ‘Sustainability’: Management And Organization Theorizing For A More-Than-Human-World, Seray Ergene

Doctoral Dissertations

A widespread conversation has emerged around the concept of sustainability in management theory and practice today. The origins of this notion have forwarded a vision of economic development for improving social conditions in different parts of the world, as well as promoting environmental protection to reduce the harmful effects of economic activity on Earth (Brundtland Report, 1987). Emerging from these origins, solving sustainability problems today has come to signify attending to three seemingly distinct pillars: social equity, environmental protection, and economic development. In this dissertation I join these conversations by following recent theoretical discussions suggesting the pillars are actually interrelated …

Mapping Wifi Measurements On Openstreetmap Data For Wireless Street Coverage Analysis, Andrea Valenzano, Dario Mana, Claudio Borean, Antonio Servetti

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

The growing interest on smart cities and the deployment of an ever increasing number of smart objects in public locations, such as dumpsters, traffic lights, and manholes, requires ubiquitous connectivity for these devices to communicate data and to receive configurations. Opportunistic WiFi connectivity is a valid alternative both to ad hoc solutions, like LoRa, which require costly deployments, and to communicating through the mobile network, which is both pricey and battery power hungry. In this paper we present a tool to analyze the WiFi coverage of home Access Points (AP) on the city streets. It can be of interest to …

Access To Technology And Student Academic Achievement: Empirical Evidence From Nepal, Palista Kharel

School of Public Policy Capstones

My research explores the linkage between access to technology and student academic achievement in Nepal. I measure access to technology using four proxies: availability of electricity, radio, TV and computer at home. I measure academic achievement using student test scores in the Grade 10 national level examinations.

My results indicate that students with access to electricity, radio, TV and computer at home, have higher average test scores overall. Particularly, access to a computer has the largest positive effect on a student’s academic achievement. Simple OLS regression results suggest that those with access to a computer score 64 points higher than …

In Theory, There's Hope: Queer Co-(M)Motions Of Science And Subjectivity, Cordelia Sand

Masters Theses

Given the state of the planet at present —specifically, the linked global ecological and economic crises that conjure dark imaginings and nihilistic actualities of increasing resource depletion, poisonings, and wide-scale sufferings and extinctions—I ask What might we hope now? What points of intervention offer possibility for transformation? At best, the response can only be partial. The approach this thesis takes initiates from specific pre-discursive assumptions. The first understands current conditions as having been produced, and continuing to be so, through practices that enact and sustain neoliberal relations. Secondly, these practices are expressive of a subjectivity tied to a Cartesian worldview, …

The Formation Of Youth-Led Participatory Networks In Urban Bangladesh: A Case Study Of The Bgreen Project, Fadia Hasan

Doctoral Dissertations

Through the lens of a participatory action research platform that I founded called The BGreen Project (BGreen), my research explores networked political economic connections that were developed as a result of this academic-community initiative. BGreen was a participatory action research platform that connected urban high school, college, university youth in an assortment of participatory/deliberative activities in the fields of education and environment. With their ongoing engagement in the participatory network called BGreen, Bangladeshi youth are negotiating their affiliation to diverse political economic structures (for example, their educational institutions) in creative ways and forging innovative methods of transformative participation as …

Materiality And Location: A Geographic Study Of Log Home Manufacturing, James S. Peters

Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation presents a material-geographic analysis of the materiality of log home manufacturing and may be the first quantitative application of ‘new materiality’ concepts. It tests the thesis that log home attributes reveal a manufacturer’s geographic region and building culture. A study of human-environment interaction, the research investigated the organization of log home manufacturing in the Eastern Woodlands of North America and illustrates relationships between manufacturers, their perspectives on forest resources and their choices of log conversion (i.e., processing) methods. Data were obtained from secondary sources and by surveying managers of log home manufacturing firms. Methods included hierarchical cluster analysis, …

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 …

American Inequality, A Prose/Poem 3/2/2014, Charles Smith

Charles Kay Smith

Science has made possible an increased productivity that creates an economic surplus--science continually teaches us how to do more with less resources. Why should the fruits of science be enjoyed only by the rich, since most of the innovations of science and technology have been funded or subsidized by citizen taxes. If the added productivity of science were shared among all citizens instead of only the 1%, poverty and homelessness could be ended.

Participatory Visual & Digital Methods, Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Table of contents and introduction of Participatory Visual and Digital Methods by Aline Gubrium and Krista Harper. Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book editions from Left Coast Press .

Reflections On The Fog Of (Cyber) War, Diego Rafael Canabarro, Thiago Borne

National Center for Digital Government

No abstract provided.

Brazil And The Fog Of (Cyber) War, Diego Rafael Canabarro, Thiago Borne

National Center for Digital Government

No abstract provided.

Mapping Participation Gaps In Wikipedia, Laura Quilter

Laura Quilter

No abstract provided.

Cultural Discourse Of Dwelling: Environmental Comunication As A Place-Based Practice, Donal Carbaugh

Donal Carbaugh

In this essay we contribute a response to intellectual and practical problems by using and developing a perspective on environmental communication that is reflexively grounded in place and that explores human relations with nature, while embracing cultural and linguistic variability in these processes. Our goals are to introduce a way to think through communication to places, and further to link that understanding to issues of engaged environmental action, to deeply seated notions of identity, and to the affective dimension of belonging that place-based communication often brings with it. Our way of doing this is to theorize and study cultural discourses …

Systemic Bias In Wikipedia : What It Looks Like, And How To Deal With It, Laura Quilter

Laura Quilter

No abstract provided.

Mapping “Diversity Of Participation” In Networked Media Environments, Martha Fuentes Bautista

National Center for Digital Government

In the United States the transition to an increasingly digital communication environment under pro-market policies has challenged traditional formulations of media diversity and localism regulation centered on content origination requirements and media ownership. Building on an overview of the participatory development and media policy literatures, this paper argues for a participatory community development approach to the redefinition of these public interest policies in networked scenarios. Asking who is participating in what, and for whose benefit, I propose a diversity matrix of various modalities of community participation in key public service functions of digital information organizations. The paper discusses …

An Investigation Of Human-Error Rates In Wildlife Photographic Identification; Implications For The Use Of Citizen Scientists, Megan Chesser

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Rapid technological advancements in digital cameras and widespread public access to the internet have inspired many researchers to consider alternative methods for collecting, analyzing, and distributing scientific data. Two emerging fields of study that have capitalized on these developments are “citizen science” and photo-id in wildlife capture-mark-recapture (CMR) studies. Both approaches offer unprecedented flexibility and potential for acquiring previously inconceivable datasets, yet both remain dependent on data collection by human observers. The absence of rigorous assessment of observer error rates causes many scientists to resist citizen science altogether or to fail to incorporate citizen-collected data into ecological analyses. This same …

News Media Environment, Selective Perception, And The Survival Of Preference Diversity Within Communication Networks, Frank C.S. Liu, Paul E. Johnson

JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science

There is a natural tension between the effects on public opinion of social networks and the news media. It is widely believed that social networks tend to harmonize opinions within them, but the presence of media may accentuate diversity by inserting discordant messages. On the other hand, in a totalitarian state where the government controls the media, social networks may mitigate the homogenizing pressure of a regime’s propaganda. The tendency of opinion to follow the “official line” may be mitigated because opponents of the government interact on a personal level and bolster one another’s views. This paper employs agent-based modeling—an …

Bringing Institutions Back In To Strategic Management: The Politics Of Digitally Mediated Institutional Change, Jane E. Fountain

National Center for Digital Government

No abstract provided.

Situated Architecture In The Digital Age: Adaptation Of A Textile Mill In Holyoke, Massachusetts, Dorcas A. Brooks

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The City of Holyoke, Massachusetts is one of many aging, industrial cities striving to revitalize its economy based on the promise of increased digital connectivity and clean energy resources. But how do you renovate 19th century mills to meet the demands of the information age? This architectural study explores the potential impact of sensing technologies and information networks on the definition and function of buildings in the 21st century. It explores the changes that have taken place in industrial architecture since 1850 and argues for an architecture that supports local relationships and environmental awareness. The author explores the industrial history …

Infoextractor – A Tool For Social Media Data Mining, Chirag Shah, Charles File

JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science

We present InfoExtractor, a web-based tool for collecting data and metadata from focused social media content. InfoExtractor then provides this data in various structured and unstructured formats for easy manipulation and analysis. The tool allows social science researchers to easily collect data for quantitative analysis, and is designed to deliver data from popular and influential social media sites in a useful and easy to access way. InfoExtractor was designed to replace traditional means of content aggregation, such as page scraping and brute- force copying.

Researching Real-World Web Use With Roxy, A Research Proxy, Ericka Menchen-Trevino, Chris Karr

JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science

Outside of a lab environment, it has been difficult for researchers to collect both behavioral and self-reported Web-use data from the same participants. To address this challenge we created Roxy, open source software that collects real-world Web-use data with participants’ informed consent. Roxy gathers Web log data as well as the text and HTML code of each page visited by participants. We describe Roxy’s data gathering capabilities and search functions and then illustrate how we used the software in a multi-method study. The use case examines selective exposure to political communication during the November 2010 U.S. general election campaign.

Tradeoffs In Accuracy And Efficiency In Supervised Learning Methods, Loren Collingwood, John Wilkerson

JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science

Text is becoming a central source of data for social science research. With advances in digitization and open records practices, the central challenge has in large part shifted away from availability to usability. Automated text classification methodologies are becoming increasingly important within political science because they hold the promise of substantially reducing the costs of converting text to data for a variety of tasks. In this paper, we consider a number of questions of interest to prospective users of supervised learning methods, which are appropriate to classification tasks where known categories are applied. For the right task, supervised learning methods …

Facilitating Encounters With Political Difference: Engaging Voters With The Living Voters Guide, Deen G. Freelon, Travis Kriplean, John Morgan, W. Lance Bennett, Alan Borning

JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science

Unlike 20th-century mass media, the Internet requires self-selection of content by its very nature. This has raised the normative concern that users may opt to encounter only political information and perspectives that accord with their preexisting views. This study examines the different ways that voters appropriated a new, purpose-built online engagement platform to engage with a wide variety of political opinions and arguments. In a deployment aimed at helping Washington state citizens make their 2010 election decisions, we find that users take significant advantage of three key opportunities to engage with political diversity: reading, acknowledging, and writing arguments on both …

Politics 2.0 With Facebook – Collecting And Analyzing Public Comments On Facebook For Studying Political Discourses, Chirag Shah, Tayebeh Yazdani Nia

JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science

Analyzing publicly available content on various social media sites such as YouTube and Twitter, as well as social network sites such as Facebook, has become an increasingly popular method for studying socio-political issues. Such public-contributed content, primarily available as comments, let people express their opinions and sentiments on a given topic, news-story, or post, while allowing social and political scientists to extend their analysis of a political discourse to social sphere. We recognize the importance of Facebook in such analysis and present several approaches and observations of collecting and analyzing public comments from it. In particular, we demonstrate what it …

An Automated Snowball Census Of The Political Web, Abe Gong

JITP 2011: The Future of Computational Social Science

This paper solves a persistent methodological problem for social scientists studying the political web: representative sampling. Virtu- ally all existing studies of the political web are based on incomplete samples, and therefore lack generalizability. In this paper, I combine methods from computer science and sampling theory to conduct an automated snowball census of the political web and constructs an all- but-complete index of English political websites. I check the robust- ness of this index, use it to generate descriptive statistics for the entire political web, and demonstrate that studies based on ad hoc sampling strategies are likely to be biased …

Nanotechnology And Society: Emerging Organizations, Oversight And Public Policy Systems, Sarah Keister, Goncalves Michelle, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

This report summarizes key points of a National Science Foundation supported national workshop, “Nanotechnology & Society: Emerging Organizations, Oversight, and Public Policy Systems,” that was held on September 23-24, 2010 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA). The central lessons drawn from three panels form the body of the report. The first panel focused on constructing policy frameworks for policymaking with presentations by Terry Medley, Global Director of Corporate Regulatory Affairs, DuPont; Timothy Malloy, Professor of Law, University of California Los Angeles; and Jordan Paradise, Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall University. The second panel, International and Federal Policy Emergence, …