Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Media And Its Potential Effects On Civic Engagement, Kathleen Elizabeth Walpole

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Social media has been predicted as a tool to change the democratic process and turn around the substantial decline in political participation that has occurred among American citizens in the most recent years. Yet, since it is still relatively young and unharnessed, many argue that any effect that social media can have on civic engagement cannot be determined yet. This thesis explores and discusses how the emergence of social media as a campaign tool could effect traditional forms of civic engagement as well as produce new forms.

In the 2008 election, social media was capitalized by the presidential campaign of …

Foundations Of Euroskepticism In The United Kingdom: Declining Support For The European Union, Kayla Walsh

Honors Capstone Projects - All

I discuss two questions pertaining to the relationship of the United Kingdom and Europe: why has support always been lower in the United Kingdom for Europe than other member states and why is support for Europe in decline?

To show the low support as well as the decline in support, I look at two referendums in the UK on membership, one in 1975 and another in 2011 that show two end points for how low support has fallen. I then discuss the history of the United Kingdom and her relationship with the European institutions to lay the foundation of the …

The Egyptian Revolution Goes Viral: Reading Categories Of Tweets In The Twitter-Created Networked Public Sphere, Alexander Craig Benson Fay

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The expansion of online social media (OSM) and networked information technology (NIT) use has coincided with reinvigorated democratic movements around the world, including the toppling of authoritarian governments in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011. This paper examines the variety of uses for Twitter during the Egyptian revolution, as Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed in less than three weeks after 30 years in power.

To achieve this analysis, this paper first divided the revolution into Fisk’s four stages of political crisis. Next, the authors extracted 37,634 tweets containing key words from an archive of 16 million tweets collected from January 23-February 8, …

Collaborating To Build Futures The Role Of Non-Governmental Organizations In Creating Education Opportunities For Migrant Workers’ Children In China, Emerson A. Gale

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project examines how informal and legal relationships between the Chinese government, migrant communities, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are useful for educating migrant workers’ children. Market reforms have increased internal migration of Chinese families and have sparked a growth in non-profit NGOs which assist under-privileged migrant youth. Contemporary Chinese urban education literature notes legal and financial obstacles which prevent millions of migrant students from being entitled to the same education opportunities as their non-migrant peers. I note that creating equitable schooling for migrant youth is highly important for the political, economic, and social health of the Chinese state. By drawing …

The "Troubles:" Northern Irish Political Contention From Sunningdale To The Good Friday Agreement, Daniel J. Foley

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper looks to answer the question: Can the contentious politics thesis of Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly explain why the Good Friday Agreement (1998) (GFA) successfully produced a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, when the Sunningdale (1973) and the Anglo-Irish (1985) agreements failed to do so? I set out to study the buildup and aftermath of each agreement and subsequently examine each through the lens of the contentious politics thesis, searching for causal mechanisms and processes that explain the success of the GFA. The purpose of the contentious politics thesis is not to examine various forms of …