Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“Ahora Es Cuando”: La Lucha Por El Derecho A La Ciudad En La Villa 31 = “Now Is The Time”: The Fight For The Right To The City In Villa 31, Margaret Scott

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the Villa 31, an extensive informal settlement in the heart of Buenos Aires, thousands of precariously constructed brick homes reach four, five or even six stories and stretch shakily toward the sky. Beneath poorly constructed foundations, the land on which the villa’s thousands of homes rest is valued at up to $6000.00 (U.S. dollars) per square meter. Villa 31 finds itself in the “heart” of Buenos Aires, built up against extensive railways (bus and train), a central automobile artery, and the city’s well developed port, all of which give the villa the potential to be some of the city’s …

Samoa: A Truly Religious Place? Views Toward Religion In Samoa, Angelica Saada

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this study was to explore the ‘religiosity’ of Samoa. Specifically, this study attempted to understand how ‘religious’ the average Samoan is, as well as examine the implications of being ‘religious’ in Samoa. It also sought to investigate the plurality of religions in Samoa, the existence of individuals moving between churches, and attitudes towards religious plurality. In addition, this study explored differences between the religiosities of younger and older generations and attitudes toward Samoan youth. Based on the results from interviews and surveys, it was concluded that Samoans view themselves and their country as ‘very religious.’ Being ‘religious’ …

“Left In The Forest And Forgotten” Land Policy And The Plight Of The Benet, Anne Dirkse

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In carrying out my independent study project on the issue of the Benet being displaced by the creation of Mount Elgon National Park, I had three main objectives in my mind. My first objective was to investigate and gain a balanced perspective of the effects of the Benet’s most recent eviction from Mount Elgon National Park. Secondly, I wished to analyze the government’s role as a duty bearer in compensating and resettling the Benet for their land. Lastly, I wished to explore the Benet Community’s options for redress within the legal system.

The methods I utilized included a literature review, …

Human Mobility Through Closed Borders: The Impact Of Morocco’S European And Algerian Relations On Sub-Saharan Immigration, Caitryn Mccallum

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In order to understand the domestic matters of any country, it becomes necessary to not only engage in the workings of its internal structures, but to also examine how its relations with foreign powers are shaping its function as a state. As is the case with Morocco, the sub-Saharan immigration that has become of prime concern to many during recent years, due to a growing and universal fear of the ‘other’ as a threat to nationhood, has not only had an impact on Morocco as a country to this day, but also continues to shape Morocco for the future. This …

Molding Memory: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Representations Of Candomblé In Public Places Of Memory And The Afro-Brazilian Community, Lauren Hobby

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over eighty-five percent of the population of Salvador, Brazil is of African descent, creating a rich history of cultural, political and social development. Nevertheless the majority of the museums in Salvador have historical spoken very little of this culture and its relationship to the city. In 1982, the Museu Afro-Brasileiro opened, introducing a small museum focused solely on the cultural exchange between Africa and Brazil as well as the development of Afro-Brazilian religiosity. Thinking critically about the importance of museums in the construction and dissemination of awareness, knowledge and respect for cultures as well as the current debates over the …

Hambre Cero And Its Impact On The Holistic Health Of Its Female Beneficiaries, Chelsea Duttweiler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This investigation focused on the study of Hambre Cero (meaning “Zero Hunger”), an anti-poverty program funded by the Nicaraguan government which gives voucher packages to poor rural women. Items given include pregnant cows, pigs, chickens, seeds, and technical assistance with the goal of generating profit for use by the families and women’s cooperatives. The study of this program is important for government accountability, and will also add to the body of knowledge concerning rural development, sustainable health programs, and the feminization of poverty so that more effective development programs can be developed in the future. I specifically studied the program’s …

Improving Beekeeping On Unguja Island, Larken Root

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current practices and methods for improvement of beekeeping on Unguja Island in Zanzibar. Beekeeping has been occurring for many years in Unguja but has retained traditional techniques with little improvement. Improvement can occur in the form of introduction of modern equipment, formation of beekeeping organizations, advancing and diversifying products, and gaining governmental support. Beekeeping is worthy of expansion because of its potential to increase rural income in a sustainable way as well as support conservation of forest areas. The study found that there has so far been little improvement of income …

Development In Morocco: Re-Examining The Effect Of Remittance Flows, Tom Lochery

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Migration statistics reveal Morocco as one of the world’s leading emigration countries. Migration is bound to Morocco’s social, political, and economic spheres. However, empirical data related to migration and its subsequent effects on development within Morocco is poorly lacking. Specifically, there is a significant lack of information concerning remittances and their effect on development in Morocco. The impact of migration on Moroccan society and economic development is addressed here through discussion of previously attained empirical data and new research gathered in accordance with this paper. This paper is by no means comprehensive but instead offers an analysis of recent research …

The Interplay Of Peace, Justice, And Logic: Bali-Bawock As A Case Study For Inter-Ethnic Land Disputes, Masumi Hayashi-Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

his paper seeks to explore the conflict existing between two ethnic groups, the Bali-Nyonga and the Bawock, as a case study for inter-ethnic land dispute. Through the process of this study the researcher tried to look past arguments of logic in order to uncover the struggle for autonomy, the struggle for respect, and how damaging the muddy relationship between tradition and modernity can be. She found that ultimately models of mediation and dialogue were the most constructive in helping the conflict’s actors heal among themselves, and to develop the tools for interacting with a globalized society.

La Mondialisation Et Les Croyants: Des Effets De La Mondialisation Sur Les Communautés Chrétiennes = Globalization And Believers: Globalization’S Effects On Christian Communities, Carrie Lee Tallichet

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research aimed to explore the different manifestations of globalization’s impact on Catholic and Protestant student movements in Toulouse, France. To accomplish this investigation, the researcher sought the opinions of students who participate regularly in religious groups regarding the cultural diversity of their group and their concept of a global Christian community. Based on information gathered in interviews, the researcher concluded, though not definitively, that Catholic and Protestant student groups both experience the effects of globalization, but each in a manner in relation with their faith’s organizational structure: Catholic students felt close ties with other Catholic groups worldwide despite the …

Fijian Art: Traditional Roots, Contemporary Expression, And A Source Of Livelihood, Emma Scanlan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research study presents a comprehensive overview of the art scene in Fiji and explores the ways in which art in a small scale society acts as a vehicle for expression and social change. The term “art” is one that is not easily defined as it is highly personal and subjective to artist and patron alike. There has been a cross-cultural and ongoing debate in trying to answer to question “what is art?”. However despite this it is unanimous in belief by those with an affinity for the arts, that the expression of a society’s people in any form creates …

Ações Para Uma Melhor Vida: A Situação De Prostituição No Novo Eldorado De Juruti, Megan Whelan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In a short preliminary study carried out by the students of SIT Amazon 2008 in Juruti, the site of a Bauxite mineral extraction project of North-American company, ALCOA, the issue of the rapidly expanding prostitution industry became a prominent point of discussion with the members of the town. Taking into consideration the importance given to the issue by the community, this study was developed to examine further the issue of sexual exploitation in the town of Juruti, with the main objective of discovering the best actions to be taken to improve the well-being of the exploited women and children, according …

Health As A Basic Human Right: Efficacy Of Quality Assurance For Healthcare In Uganda, Ally Pregulman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Quality of health care is an important aspect of health services delivery because of its ability to maximize outputs within given resource constraints. Quality assurance programs for health care are paramount to the realization of good quality health care because of their ability to identify gaps in service provision. The Ministry of Health and other stakeholders in health care have created quality assurance supervision and support programs for the health sector, yet there is a disconnect between the programs and the operational realities of the sector. The health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are far from being achieved within Uganda and …

Combating Educational Inequalities: Afro-Brazilian Youth & The Bahia Street Project, Kimberly Menendez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In her article entitled “Inequity and Human Rights of African Descendants in Brazil,” Lucila Beato insists that Afro-Brazilian rights are violated everyday. Those who experience this violation the most are Afro-Brazilian, or Black, women who are considered to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy. These women are a double minority who are condemned for being both Black and women. Many women, as do men, drop out of school early in life in order to help their families, who live below the poverty line and struggle to make ends meat. Many girls turn to prostitution, pornography, and even sexual …

Surviving The War, Surviving The Peace: Supporting Women Survivors Of War-Rape And Domestic Violence In Medica Zenica, Zoë Brennan-Krohn

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My research sought to examine the transition from war to post-war services provided in a women’s non-governmental organization, Medica Zenica, located in central Bosnia-Hercegovina. Opened in 1993, in the midst of the war in Bosnia, Medica Zenica began providing support for war-rape survivors. Today, Medica Zenica is still running, but the majority of clients are now survivors of domestic violence.

By interviewing women currently and previously employed in Medica Zenica, I pieced together a picture of how Medica has evolved in the last fifteen years, as well as how these evolutions are seen as a reflection of changing society in …

Mivumba In Kampala: Tracking The History, Trade, And Perceptions Of A Global Commodity In Local Culture, Claire Walsh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

One surprisingly unstudied and little documented aspect of the present-day African market system– almost impossible to ignore when one is walking the streets of Kampala and bombarded by its presence– is second-hand clothing. This study investigates the history, systems, and perceptions of the second-hand clothing market in Kampala, Uganda. Combining an ethnographic analysis with historical research, this paper details how a western commodity is changed, both in meaning and form, and interacted with on a local level– adding to anthropological literature that analyzes how local cultures interact, and not passively react, to globalization.

The emergence of the large second-hand clothing …

Bringing Peace Home: Experiences Of Graduates Of The Peace Camps Run By The Center For Peacebuilding In Sanski Most, Bosnia And Herzegovina., Becca Asaki

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper focus on the experiences of participants in a program called Peace Camp conducted by the Center for Peacebuilding in Sanki Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It, then, analyzes the camps within the context of the field of conflict resolution. The Peace Camps are week-long workshops which analyze the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the personal experiences of the participants. The camps invite Serbs, Bosniaks, Croat, Roma, and others to collectively share their experiences and be trained in conflict resolution. This paper’s analysis looks at who attends the Peace Camps and why and their experiences meeting ‘the other’ and …

The First Modern Diaspora Community In The Netherlands: Lessons From The Moluccan Experience, Jamie Van Wagtendonk

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Finding Balance And Identity: Second And Third Generation Immigrants In The Netherlands, Alexis Beveridge

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Netherlands has a large population of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants. With a population of approximately 16.6 million, almost 20 percent of the population is non-indigenous. Turkish and Moroccan immigrants each represent approximately one tenth of the entire population, together accounting for one fifth of the immigrant population. The Netherlands began accepting Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the 1970s. These immigrants were accepted as guest workers for manual labor jobs. Most historians agree that the first generation of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants did not intend to stay permanently in the Netherlands. Further, native Dutch people did not expect them to …

The Stories Of Juruti Velho, David Mittelman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper presents a collection of stories from the communities of the Juruti Velho region of the municipality of Juruti, Pará, Brazil. The inhabitants of this region represent just one group affected by the current mining undertaking by the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa). Following some important background information on ribeirinhos populations, Amazonian development, and Alcoa’s history of displacing communities, the study presents the past, present and potential future of these communities in their own words. Stories were collected in loosely structured interviews and transcribed, in order to capture what is important to the community members’ sense of identity and …

Global Advertising And Its Implications On The Concept Of Spatial Identity: A Case Study Of Urban Billboard Advertising In Tunis, Kristen Hackett

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tunisia is a country that has a very distinct and unique culture and collective identity that was shaped by their equally specific and unique history. With these facts in mind this, I was very shocked to see that the advertisements utilized in the city of Tunis to appeal to the Tunisian public, are very similar, if not that same to those of the United States and all around the world. At first, I was under the impression that manufacturers and advertising agencies played into spatial identities, such as those sovereign to demarcated nations or cultures, and that their advertisements would …

A Domestic Pas De Deux: The Rise Of The Muslim Brotherhood And Islamist-Regime Relations In Jordan, Simon Shogry

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During the first three decades of the Jordanian kingdom’s existence, the Muslim Brotherhood was a relatively apolitical charity organization that held a handful of seats in Parliament. From the mid-1970s onward, however, the Brotherhood grew substantially in size and influence, so much so that it is now the largest and most broad-based political party in Jordan. Looking at domestic, regional, economic, social, political and theological factors, this study seeks to explain the Brotherhood’s dramatic political ascendance and, also, how the regime has coped with its rise. A holistic explanation of this phenomenon is the study’s modus operandi. In order to …

Visiones De Pertenencia: Comunidad Tras Las Palabras De Personas Mapuche, Marissa Brodney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Central to the Mapuche reclamations of ancestral territory happening now in Patagonia are notions of “community”. Recognition, on the one hand, of an indigenous right to re-appropriate state land implies historical consciousness of indigenous pueblo preexistence, and the imposition of national communities in which indigenous groups do not find representation. Secondly: in recent decades, the “community” has become a strategic point of reference in the legal and political arenas in which reclamations are registered. A result of the struggles of indigenous activists of the past few decades, official recognition as an indigenous community implies recognition of unique rights. Thirdly: resulting …

Concentración Urbana: El Papel De La Competición, Jason Peuquet

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the year 1996 economists Paul Krugman and Livas Alizondo published a study addressing the correlation between the degree to which a country’s economy is open to foreign pressures and competition and the degree to which the country experiences the phenomenon of urban concentration. However, in 2003 another economist, Olga Alonso-Villar published another study that presents evidence against Krugman and Elizondo’s argument. This study states that after an extended period of time, during which an economy has been closed to foreign pressures and competition, such as Chile and other Latin American countries during the era of import substitution industrialization, when …

Calidad Química Y Microbiológica Del Agua Y Acceso Al Recurso Agua En La Comunidad De Solöng, Territorio Naso-Teribe, Bocas Del Toro, Shira Wrightman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study evaluated the water quality and accessibility of water resources in the community of Solöng located in the Naso-Teribe territory of the province of Bocas Del Toro. The seven chemical parameters of nitrate, phosphate, pH, alkalinity, total hardness, turbidity and dissolved oxygen were used to assess the safety of drinking water and the health of aquatic ecosystems utilized by the residents of Solöng. A microbiological assessment which included tests for total coliform bacteria and the fecal coliform strain group of Escherichia coli were conducted as well. Chemical tests were performed in a total of 15 spigots, 7 streams, 2 …

Supervivencia Cotidiana: Un Análisis De Las Estrategias De Vida De Las Mujeres Del Comedor Infantil Virgen Del Valle, Salta, Argentina, Kate Ono Rahel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the Comedor Infantil Virgen del Valle of Salta, Argentina, a group of mothers have united their time and consolidated their scarce material resources to form a communal dining hall in which they serve lunch to the children of the community, many of whom receive their only meal of the day there. The comedor is located in the marginal settlement of Juan Manuel de Rosas and in addition to the scarcity of healthy, affordable food, the inhabitants of this neighborhood daily encounter monetary difficulties, the threat of eviction from their homes and the various hazards posed by the easy access …

La Sucesión Primaria De La Vegetación Sobre Los Flujos Piroclásticos Del 2006 En El Volcán Tungurahua, Lauren Schaefer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

A year and a half after the August 2006 eruption of the Tungurahua volcano, the vegetative growth on the pyroclastic flows is young and scarce. To determine the types of plants and the mechanisms which control the dynamics of vegetative recovery, two transects were made; one in the Cusúa gorge and the other in the Bascún gorge in which the type, quantity and ages of the plants were noted. A third transect of vegetation not directly affected by the 2006 flows was made near the Bascún gorge for comparison purposes. In the two main sites, a total of 47 species …

Alcoa In Juruti, Brazil: A Case Of Environmental Injustice And Colonialism?, Caitlin Schroering

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper examines the visions of development of Alcoa, an American bauxite mining company, and the traditional ribeirinho communities in the area of Juruti Velho, Brazil. These two objectives are pursued in order to determine if Alcoa’s actions in the area constitute environmental injustice and colonialism. An explication of environmental injustice and colonialism is undertaken, and is followed later by a discussion of social invisibility and how circumstances are created that allow for the exploitation of traditional communities. The work and demands of ACORJUVE, a community association that is in opposition to Alcoa, are also discussed. A review of the …

Paradigms And Perceptions: A Chronology And Analysis Of The Events Of The Chan-75 Hydroelectric Project And The Roles And Relationships Of Participants, Bocas Del Toro, Panama, Jessica Barber

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The pending construction of the Changuinola 75 Hydroelectric Project (Chan-75) has sparked significant controversy as the affected communities, national non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and international NGO’s have protested against the conduct of the project’s promoters, the AES Corporation and supporters, the Panamanian government. Located in the Bosque Protector Palo Seco, a buffer zone to La Amistad International Park, the Chan-75 hydroelectric dam project will have significant consequences for the biodiversity, flora and fauna of the area. The dam will also displace four indigenous Ngöbe communities, a traditionally marginalized and underrepresented group, as well as flooding the farmland of many others. Hydroelectric …

Fighting The System From Within: Cmpio And Education Reform, Anna Marshall

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The current system of public education in Oaxaca is riddled with problems too numerous to list here. There is an obvious need for reform or for a new system all together. The argument presented in this paper is that the latter is not a feasible option for most in Oaxaca, especially for rural indigenous communities. For reasons explained throughout this study, it is necessary to work within the present confines of the existing education system in order to make significant improvements in the quality of education for these communities. Many activists seek to reject “the system” all together, but this …