Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Human Dimensions Of Natural Resources: A Case Of Farmers In Northern Rwanda, Jean Francois Regis Nisengwe

Doctoral Dissertations

As food demand increases globally, the world faces the challenge of feeding everyone without harming the environment. Meeting this challenge requires increased food production. Paradoxically, increased food production can harm the environment and natural resources. Change in consumption patterns offers an opportunity to reconcile the increase in food production and environmental protection. However, consumption patterns can only change if they are perceived first, then acted upon. Research shows that people who perceive their consumption of natural resources are more likely to conserve them as they can see how much they are consuming. This study investigated perceptions of natural resources and …

Organizing And Sustainable Development Between The Local And Global: The Case Of A Tibetan Enterprise, Haitao Yu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I investigate how place and space guide organizations towards sustainable development. The current paradigm for business organizing seeks economic efficiency, whereas a sustainable development paradigm requires businesses to accommodate the ecological, social, and economic principles between the local and global. Yet, as organizations are increasingly globalizing and virtualizing, they are becoming increasingly placeless. The loss of local connection to place is one of the primary reasons sustainable development is so elusive.

I am motivated to understand better organizations' role between the local and global on sustainable development. To answer the question, I collected qualitative data through conducting …

The Hotelling Valuation Principle: Does User Cost And Reserve Differentials Improve Validity?, Brian K. Hicks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Hotelling Valuation Principal (HVP) implies that the value per unit of an in-ground exhaustible natural resource is equal to the current price less the cost of production. The assumptions required for this principle include a certain and homogenous reserve stock, unconstrained extraction, and constant costs. Extensive research has empirically investigated the HVP. This paper expands the HVP framework and relaxes the theory’s assumptions to account for reserve differentials. The results show that the original net price model is more closely aligned with developed reserve value, than total reserve value. In addition, this paper develops two- and three-factor net price …

Three Essays In Regional Economics, Zachary Keeler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation consists of three essays that use applied econometric analysis and other analytical methods from various economic fields, including regional and urban economics, natural resource economics, housing economics, and sports economics. In all three essays, I use housing data to value various amenities and disamenities. Using several variations on the hedonic method, I am able to uncover the values based on the capitalization effect. I consider the effect of natural resource development by examining shale gas development, as well as the effect of urban development projects, including public transportation and sports facilities.

In the first essay of my dissertation, …

The Tongass Futures Roundtable: Distrust, Inequity, And Collaboration In Southeast Alaska, Hannah M. Wilson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Collaborative processes are increasingly being used to address complex natural resource management challenges, and trust between participants has been highlighted as a key component of successful collaboration. However, little research has focused on why collaboratives fail and the role of distrust in collaboration. This study examined trust and distrust in the Tongass Futures Roundtable, a collaborative group in Southeast Alaska that attempted to address timber, conservation, and Alaska Native land management issues, but was widely perceived to have failed. The history of conflict between timber and conservation interests as well as between Alaska Natives and other stakeholder groups meant that …

Urban Greenway Vegetative Communities And Environmental Drivers In The Southeastern United States, Erika Y. Chin

Theses and Dissertations

Greenways serve as parks or non-motorized transportation routes for urban residents, but as greenspaces they also have the potential to enhance habitat quality and availability. This dissertation examined two aspects of urban greenways: the motivations for establishing greenways and the structure of vegetative communities found within them. Analysis of greenways plans revealed that the provision of natural resources and societal benefits are not promoted equally. In general, social and recreational functions are prioritized in greenway designs, while environmental benefits and services are expected to be inherently and equally possessed by all greenspaces and greenways. Consequently, specific conservation actions (e.g. habitat …

Gendered Recreational Fisheries Management And North American Natural Resource Policy, Erin Burkett

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation applies feminist theory to investigate women’s participation in wildlife-based recreation and how natural resource management organizations conduct stakeholder engagement in a North American context. Gendered social processes, including norms and expectations, as well as gendered cultures, can constrain women’s participation in recreation through social sanctions and disenfranchisement. Gender and leisure scholars have studied these dynamics in sport and leisure contexts, but how individuals negotiate these constraints is understudied in a wildlife-based recreation context. Social constructions of gender also contribute to imbalances of power within formal natural resource management organizations and influence how stakeholder engagement policies and programs are …

The Impact Of Dutch Disease: The Case Of Nigeria, Halimat Atinuke Laguda

Masters Theses

Nigeria, over the years, has been showing a rapid appreciation of the domestic currency, a rise in real wages and the service sector and a slow-down in the industrial production which are all signs of presence of Dutch disease which predicts that a country with large natural resource rents may experience a de-industrialization and a lower long term economic growth. This paper analyses the impact of Dutch disease in Nigeria Ordinary Least square method, Two-Stage Least Square and Autoregressive Distributed Lag with a system of equation from 1981 to 2017 and found that the real wage rate emphasizes on the …

Institutional Adaptation To Water Scarcity In Utah Irrigation Companies, Grant Patty

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A review of how water institutions in the American West have changed in response to arid conditions as a means of examining the possibility of further change as an adaptation to climate change induced water scarcity. Two institutions are examined, prior appropriation and shares.

While much of the American West operates under prior appropriation formally, irrigators have found Coasian methods of lowering transaction costs by forming irrigation companies. Irrigation companies own appropriative rights and redefine them, typically as shares. Lower transaction costs allow irrigators to trade more freely within companies, though trades between companies still face high transaction costs.

Using …

Natural Resources-Based Conflicts In Coastal Louisiana: A Multi-Faceted Social And Ecological Setting, Audrey Grismore

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Louisiana coastal zone supports numerous natural resource-based economies and due to overlapping demands on the same territory, conflicts among users and resource managers have emerged. When the state recognized serious depletion of oysters in the late nineteenth century, it intervened with a set of conservation polices to try to establish sustained yields that produced one set of conflicts. When the oil industry began operating in the coastal estuaries and wetlands in the 1930s, it produced additional conflicts with fishing folk. The zone of conflict gave rise to cyclic adaptations as each group struggled to sustain its environmentally based economic …

Lived Experiences Of Congolese Women Refugees Living In Indianapolis: Voices Of Women, Nyangau Jane Mokaya

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been at war for decades. Since its self rule in 1960, the country has been dealing with civil war, and has the largest number of refugees from Africa to the United States. Mineral wise it is the richest country in Africa, and yet it is the poorest in the standard of living. In this dissertation, I sought to research the lived experiences of Congolese women refugees settled in Indianapolis, Indiana. The purpose of this study was to explore, through their own voices, the challenges these women face as they resettle in a new …

Economic Growth, Natural Mineral Resources And Education In Developing Countries, Kasimu J. Mayundo

Applied Economics Theses

The contributions of education in achieving the modernization of developed countries has attracted much attention. Perhaps, underdeveloped countries have provided a limited contribution toward economic development and growth because educational funding was not a priority. Therefore, some underdeveloped countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, rely heavily on their natural resources for economic development and growth, minimizing the importance of high quality education in economic growth.

The question is: Why has the Democratic Republic of Congo not been able to transform its abundant resources into a blessing for a prosperous nation? And how does education contribute to economic growth and …

Mortality And Conflict In The Developing World, Stephen Partin

Student Scholarship - College of Business

To varying extents, the world one is born into does not provide equal opportunities. This study measures the extent to which survivability across the developing world is affected by factors outside of the health and lifestyle choices one can make: industry, foreign markets, conflict, and the demographics around them. These variables are tested for a balanced panel of 102 countries over 7 years, allowing country-specific factors to be controlled.

Comanagement Between Federal Agencies And Native American Tribes: Applications And Lessons, Rachel Grabenstein

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The Badger Two Medicine Area in the Lewis and Clark National Forest has faced conflict over management since the 1980s due to leasing of what is considered sacred land. Recently those leases were cancelled. However questions about how to manage the land still remain. This paper explores examples of comanagement between the federal government and Native American tribes in an effort to understand what options and obstacles the Blackfeet tribe will face in future management of the Badger Two Medicine Area. I examined the National Bison Range and Badlands National Park efforts at comanagement in depth and additional current comanagement …

The Natural Resource Curse In Sub-Saharan Africa: Transparency And International Initiatives, Meaza Zerihun Demissie

Dissertations

The Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region has become a classic case of the resource-curse phenomenon characterized by the abundance of natural resources, low economic development, and misuse of natural resources. Economic-development experts debate ways to overcome or avoid the resource curse to advance SSA countries into developed countries. Only one natural resource-rich country in the region, Botswana, has succeeded in becoming an upper middle-income country using its natural resources, making the possibility of replication of this achievement difficult. The literature aligns in the belief that the economic and political well-being of resource-rich nations depends highly on the actors involved. National and …

The Globalization Of Natural Resources: How External Actors Affect Political Survival In Resource Rich Countries, Chia-Yi Lee

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation examines the effect of external actors, including foreign investors, the home governments of foreign investors, and international organizations: IOs), on leadership survival in resource rich countries. According to the existing literature, resource rich countries care less about external reputation and have a higher level of political risks for foreign investors, so, theoretically, they would tend to nationalize the resource sectors, especially in the presence of resource nationalism. In reality, however, resource rich countries cooperate closely with foreign actors and join IOs that constrain themselves. This dissertation provides a theory to explain this puzzle, by modeling the interaction among …

Turning Water Into Wine: The Political Economy Of The Environment In Southern California's Wine Country, Jason Simms

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines questions of water sustainability in contexts of wine production and state-led neoliberal development in the Temecula Valley, southern California, where wine tourism is at present being harnessed as an engine of economic growth. Natural and anthropogenic forces, such as global climate change, desertification, urban development, and the marketization and commodification of natural resources, affect the distribution and availability of water throughout the globe. As a result, the use of water, and associated political and environmental processes and consequences, in the production of global commodities, including wheat, citrus, and coffee, recently have come under increased scrutiny. Given wine's …

The Politics Of Rsfs: An Antidote To Reversing The Resource Curse In Latin America?, Sarah Gagnon

Honors Theses

Over the past three decades, the world has become highly globalized. As such, most countries around the world depend on exports for a large portion of their national income. However, some countries’ dependency on exports is extreme, especially those that heavily rely on natural resource commodities. Despite the natural resource wealth that these commodities grant countries, due to the instability of global prices and the intensive focus of the resource extraction industry, scholars have theorized this type of dependency as a “resource curse.” The resource curse is a paradox where countries that are so rich in natural resources have not …

China To The Rescue? The Implications Of China’S Engagement With Resource-Rich Countries, Sean Rice

International Political Economy Theses

China’s interest in developing countries has exploded in the past decade as it continues to search for resources to fuel high growth rates. This paper examines China’s activity in various resource-rich countries through the lens of the resource curse. What are the implications of China’s involvement in developing countries in terms of the resource curse, and what factors or circumstances determine whether a country will benefit from these strategic relations with China? By viewing the resource curse in terms of specific challenges associated with resource wealth rather than an overarching curse, I analyze how China’s involvement has altered the severity …

Sleeping With The Enemy, Or Putting The Enemy To Sleep? A Theory Of Insurgency-State Interaction, Andres Rangel

Political Science Theses

This paper presents a theory of insurgency-state strategic interaction based on the insurgency’s mode of survival. The theory postulates that, ceteris paribus, illegal resources discourage the insurgents from desiring to control the state and the state from regaining control of the insurgent territory, whereas legal lootable resources “force” the insurgency to embrace the suboptimal strategy of trying to topple the government, while causing the state to desire full control of the insurgent territory. Intensity, the number of combatant deaths over time, will be used to test the theory. Civil conflicts involving insurgencies that rely on illegal resources for most of …

Tackling Tax Evasion: Transfer Price Manipulation, Extractive Natural Resources And A Strategy For The Southern African Customs Union, Patrick Grant Mclennan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increase in the number of multinational enterprises (MNEs) has increased the attention on cross-border challenges, such as transfer price manipulation (TPM). TPM is a development issue - it undermines institutions as well as siphons money from government revenues that could be directed towards programs for human development. Pervasive corruption in the natural resource sector supports an environment where TPM can flourish. This paper develops a strategy for combating TPM within the countries of the Southern African Customs Union. It does this by 1) defining the terrain of illicit flows, both generally and specifically to the abuse of transfer pricing …

Privatization Of Water In Latin America: A Case Study In Bolivia, Jason Segers

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of Natural Resources Management Conflicts In The Working Landscapes Of Mediterranean Turkey (Turkiye): Koprulu Kanyon National Park, Nedim Kemer

Open Access Dissertations

Environmental conservation and natural resources management are critical global issues of the 21st century. The management of protected public lands emerges as a challenge particularly in developing countries because of the biophysical and socio-cultural importance of these lands. These lands are often referred to as 'working landscapes' where the natural systems and the collective actions of local residents have shaped one another in well-balanced interactions for generations. The working landscapes of the Köprülü Kanyon National Park (KKNP) in Turkey have provided the case study for this dissertation. Eleven villages exist within the park with a total of approximately 7,100 residents. …

Collaboration As Paradox : The Case Of The Patuxent River, Md Nutrient Control Strategy, Morris Bidjerano

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Collaboration has increasingly emerged in recent years as a new paradigm in public management. This collaborative trend, however, has contradicted the longstanding American political tradition of conflictual contestation of competing interests and adversarial legalism. Consequently, it has presented public managers with the challenge of dealing in reality with the "tensions between alternative forms of management practice" (Huxham and Vangen 2005, 245). In most accounts, watershed management has recently become a particularly active arena for that clash of opposing collaborative and conflictual managerial practices.

Dilemmas Of China's Modernization: Population Problem And The Strategy Of Sustainable Development., Hongbo Tang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By reexamining the process of China's modernization centered on its population in the past half century, this paper explores the grim situation of China's population, historical factors, the relationship between population, resources and environment. Also, focused on controlling the size and improving the quality of China's population, this paper discusses how China's population policy coordinates with the sustainable development strategy. Based on statistics and preliminary data released by the Chinese government and international organizations, this paper analyzes specific problems and implication found under the framework of Western modernization theory, and concludes that China faces a dilemma on population problem and …

The British North Sea: The Importance Of And Factors Affecting Tax Revenue From Oil Production, Mark Hill

Theses and Dissertations

The oil industry is the richest and most influential industry in the world. The industry has moved the fates of nations. Oil is required to fight wars and exert power, and the restriction of this energy source is paramount to the restriction of movement, control, and in the end, power. Management of this resource and the tax revenue it generates are of serious strategic importance, both domestically and internationally. Understanding the results of taxation for this important commodity is important to international relations as well. The tax system affects tax revenue, government actions, oil company actions, and the oil supply …

An Interpretive Trail In Amazonian Ecuador, Bruce Evan Farnsworth

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Dichotemies Of The Human Perception Of The Environment, Janet K. Robson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Environmentalism was not introduced in the year 1991, nor was it introduced with the era of the sixties. Perhaps, it is best to say that environmentalism has existed since the dawn of time--an environmentalism consisting of a "hands-off" policy. However, movements based on the environment have experienced an evolution in the past 30 years pertaining to the nature of preservation of wilderness areas and natural resources.