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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Ruinous Natures: The Approach Of Social Timespace, Thomas Frederick Bechtold Aug 2023

Ruinous Natures: The Approach Of Social Timespace, Thomas Frederick Bechtold

Doctoral Dissertations

This Dissertation advances across three areas: first, a theory of social timespace that borrows from critical social theories, post-ontological systems theory, and literary critique; second, it proposes a revisioning of sociological ‘methods’ by an historical reproachment: how sociology is a method among others for the study of society and culture, what are called variously the social sciences, and how sociology also has a method of its own developed in the work of the first sociological institutions in the United States, Germany, and France, that is parallel to linguistic structuralism in the same historical period and has mostly been advanced outside …


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 …


Bangladesh's Energy Policy: Economic, Environmental, And Climate Change Impacts, Rohini Kamal Oct 2019

Bangladesh's Energy Policy: Economic, Environmental, And Climate Change Impacts, Rohini Kamal

Doctoral Dissertations

The research examines Bangladesh’s energy policies with respect to development, climate change, and environmental risks by comparing three plans for 2050: business-as-usual (BAU), a government renewable plan, and an alternate green plan, along five aspects: investment costs, employment, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, environmental costs, and social costs. The model used is an Input Output Model, which calculates factor inputs (land, water, labor, emissions: GHG and co-pollutants) for energy-related sectors considered in the three plans. To apply the model to specific plants for a more accurate estimate of localized environmental and social costs, and to analyze distributional impacts, a supplemental field-study …


Capitalist Organizing And Organizations: The Case Of The American Petroleum Institute, Elizabeth Ashley East Dec 2017

Capitalist Organizing And Organizations: The Case Of The American Petroleum Institute, Elizabeth Ashley East

Doctoral Dissertations

Sociologists have underestimated the importance and power of organizations established to unify capitalist firms and interests. Existing research on trade associations tends to take one of two approaches, either atheoretical studies developing typologies of trade association activities or cultural sociological approaches overemphasizing the cultural significance of these organizations for business communities. Utilizing Marxian organizational theory, this dissertation conceptualizes trade associations as inherently capitalist organizations created to build and maintain the interests of the capitalist class. This perspective is applied to build an historical sociological case study of the formation and subsequent activities of the American Petroleum Institute (API), the largest …


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 …


Emerging Climate Change Publics: Cultivating Sustainability And Justice In The Pioneer Valley, Vanessa Adel Nov 2015

Emerging Climate Change Publics: Cultivating Sustainability And Justice In The Pioneer Valley, Vanessa Adel

Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is setting off erratic weather patterns and environmental changes that threaten the livelihood, stability, and survival of the planet. Communities and institutions around the globe are sounding the clarion call about these devastating impacts, advocating for sustainable practices and deep changes to every facet of our lives. This dissertation research consists of an ethnography of a local network of actors and organizations who are responding to climate change, centered on those who define sustainability as integrally connected to justice. I analyze this network of activity through the lens of the concept of an emerging public. I start from …


Self, Society, And Environment In The 21st Century: The Development And Assessment Of An Ecological Identity Scale, Tobin N. Walton Aug 2014

Self, Society, And Environment In The 21st Century: The Development And Assessment Of An Ecological Identity Scale, Tobin N. Walton

Doctoral Dissertations

Through a mixed-methods approach, this dissertation develops and assesses a multi-item scale measure of ecological identity (EI). Although recent decades have seen increased attention devoted to research on identity in relation to nature and the bio-physical environment, a valid and reliable scale capable of encompassing the complexities of this construct has yet to be developed. This dissertation uses an integral approach to build upon and extend recent attempts to develop measures of similar constructs. Key facets of multiple theories and perspectives on identity are integrated into a unified framework capable of multi-level identity analysis. A rigorous statistical approach that combines …