Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The War On Women And The War In The Self : A Foucaultian And Kleinian Analysis Of Anti-Choice Ideology, Shoshana A. Funk

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This theoretical study explores the external power dynamics and internal psychic processes involved in both historical and contemporary anti-choice ideology, practice, and rhetoric. The three primary tactics of the anti-choice movement and current "war on women" involve 1) promoting the establishment of fetal personhood through measures—both rhetorical and political, 2) the co-opting of feminist and liberal rhetoric in establishing a woman-centered, as opposed to fetus-centered, anti-abortion strategy, and 3) the use of incremental policy measures and restrictions at the state and local level, including the creation of legal and practical barriers to the procedure for both women and abortion providers. …

Identifying Local Entrepreneurship Development System Policy In Rural Areas And How Local Context Shapes Entrepreneurship Policy Formation, Stacey Wright Mccullough

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As rural communities struggle to maintain a sustainable economic base in today's global economy, many are exploring strategies to encourage entrepreneurial development. The purpose of this study was to better understand how local public policy is being be used to support the creation of entrepreneurship development systems in rural communities and how local context shapes entrepreneurship public policy formation. In phase one of the study, a survey and analysis of documents available on the Internet were used to identify county and municipal policy actions associated with entrepreneurial development in 16 counties in North Carolina. In the second study phase, two …

The Relationship Among Training Policy, Knowledge Transfer, And Performance Improvement: A Study Of Private Sector Organizations In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Fayez M. Shafloot

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore human resource (HR) managers' perceptions of training practices (i.e., needs assessment, trainee preparation, training program review, accountability, management support, knowledge transfer, and performance improvement) in Saudi private sector organizations. The research questions were: (1) How do HR managers perceive the importance and or occurrence of training needs assessment, trainee preparation, training program review, accountability and management support? (2) How do HR managers perceive knowledge transfer and performance improvement as a function of training? and (3) What training factors do HR managers identify as being important to the delivery of training?

Data were …

Essays On Attractiveness Of Multinational Corporations, Nikolay Anguelov

All Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes selected policies designed to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) as a means of economic growth. The focus is on multinational corporations (MNCs) because most foreign direct investment is done by MNCs. The dissertation first shows the effects that the presence of MNCs has on economic growth before examining tradeoffs between direct costs (i.e., transportation and production costs) and policy factors in attracting MNC FDI.
Essays 1, 'Multinational Corporations and Their Effect on Gross Domestic Product' and 2, 'Competing for Innovation: The Economics of Knowledge Acquisition' examine how FDI in combination with socioeconomic, economic, and policy factors affect …

Superfund Evaluation: The Families Of Tar Creek, Gary D. Wilson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Tar Creek Superfund Site is located in far northeastern Oklahoma near the Oklahoma/Kansas border in Ottawa County. The Site generally consists of a forty-square-mile area which is also part of the larger Tri-State Mining District that includes areas of Kansas and Missouri. The Site includes parts of five communities: Picher, Cardin, Quapaw, North Miami, and Commerce in Oklahoma. It also includes Treece, Kansas, and affects a total population of roughly 30,000 residents. Following Superfund designation, families in the Tar Creek area had to decide whether to accept or reject buy-out offers. This project explored the decision-making processes employed by …

Mobilizing Alumni Constituents For Legislative Advocacy In Higher Education, Elizabeth Saxman Underwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adequate funding has become a critical issue for institutions of higher education, affecting outcomes such as accessibility, affordability, and quality of education. The recent economic recession has been detrimental for state funding, resulting in budget cuts for higher education in a majority of states. Overall, state funding has not kept pace with the rising costs of education. Additionally, the issues of state governance and institutional autonomy have also become heightened. Thus, many higher education institutions are initiating advocacy programs with their external constitutions. Because alumni are integral group of an institution's constituent base, and often exhibit the most passion for …

Livestock Production And Wildlife-Based Tourism: Articulating Land-Use And Policy Conflicts In The Okavango Delta Ramsar Site In Botswana, Nelson Kgamanyane Sello

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The management of common pool resources and policy conflicts between livestock and wildlife, two land-use types that take place in the same geo-spatial area has been a subject of debate among scholars for decades. This conflict in policies has engendered in communities which are beneficiaries attitudes that are either negative towards wildlife or favorable depending on the benefits they derive from them. This research therefore set out to understand the conflicts in the management of the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site (ODRS) where the OD is situated. The study used the grounded theory to collect and analyze the data in the …

The Effect Of Casino Tax Policy On Short-Run Gaming Development, Kahlil Philander

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the effect of casino tax rate structure on investment by casino operators. Using a panel data set consisting of all states with legal commercial casino gambling from 1998 to 2009, a fixed-effect model with two-stage least squares is estimated to examine the effect of gambling taxes on firms' short-run behavior. The study finds that maximum casino tax rates decrease casino employment, with an estimated average elasticity of -0.5. This result is noted to be robust to several different model specifications and data subsets. No robust relationship is found between maximum tax rates and casino wages. No significant …

Cyberbullying Policy In Public Schools, Alison Humphries

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many schools and school districts have had direct experience with the negative psychological effects of cyberbullying in their schools, ranging from high profile suicides to lower profile incidents that affect the ability of students to receive an education. Federal, state, and local regulations, as well as mandates from state educational agencies, require schools and school districts to address cyberbullying. Experts advocate that schools play a major role in addressing cyberbullying with anti-bullying policies in general and anti-cyberbullying policies in particular. This study presents case study portraits of two exemplary school districts, with a comparison to similar school districts, suggesting that …

The Effect Of Legal Financial Obligations On Reentry Experiences, Breanne Rae Pleggenkuhle

Dissertations

In 2010, over 700,000 offenders were released from prison (Guerino, Harrison, and Sabol, 2012), and on any given day over seven million individual are under some form of correctional supervision (Glaze, 2011). Research has documented the collateral consequences of transition such as diminished employment prospects and limited housing availability. Fiscal concerns have shifted some of the costs of prosecution and correctional supervision to the offender, resulting in accumulation of legal financial obligations. However, little research has examined of the effect of legal financial obligations on reentry outcomes. This study has two broad goals. The first objective was to document the …

A Multilevel Analysis Of County And State Variation In The Severity Of Sentences Imposed In Large Urban Courts, Kimberly Helen Martin

Dissertations

This study explored the structural sources behind variability in the sentences applied to felons convicted in state courts located across the U.S. Multilevel regression models were used to explore whether various state and county-level attributes help to account for why defendants experience a significantly higher probability of incarceration versus probation in certain jurisdictions. Drawing upon a broad theoretical landscape, the analyses test several hypotheses derived from macro level theories of social control which predict that that the legal and organizational culture of courts, and the socioeconomic and political attributes of the communities they serve, influence sentencing outcomes. This study sought …

Supply Vs. Demand: Re-Entering America's Prison Population Into The Workforce, Marissa Leigh Enfield

Scripps Senior Theses

Because rejoining the workforce may prevent against ex-offender recidivism, securing gainful employment is one of the best indicators of successful societal reintegration for released prisoners. However, the stigma attached to a criminal history, combined with ex-prisoners’ lack of human capital, may threaten their ability to obtain a job. The present study examines hiring managers’ attitudes towards previously imprisoned offenders applying for positions in their workplace. Using a combination of brief, fictional applicant biographies and surveys, this mixed-groups factorial study explores how hiring managers (N= 28) consider gender, type of offense, and race when an ex-offender is assessed during the application …

Walking And Cycling In Waterville: Bike And Pedestrian Planning For An Active Community, Scott E. Workman

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

This is an initial plan for the City of Waterville focused on making realistic headway in building a safer city that accommodates even the most vulnerable transportation system users. While it makes strides to capture every needed improvement and opportunity, it is by no means a complete document and should be accepted as a first of a continuing effort. Future efforts will make evaluations of accomplishments and failures of this plan, and continue this effort.

Working Beyond 9 To 5: The Impact Of A University-Wide Alternative Work Arrangements Policy On Student Affairs Employees, Pamela D. Anthony

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

Alternative work arrangements (AWA) policies allow employees to select varied work schedules that are both conducive to the organization’s goals and to employees’ personal needs. Though common in the business sector, such policies are rarely articulated within American colleges and universities. Practitioners within the student affairs profession regularly work beyond the average 40-hour week due to the fundamental nature of their work with students’ co-curricular involvement outside of the classroom; as a result, the lack of work-life balance can result in high employee turnover which can be detrimental to an organization. Utilizing grounded theory, a qualitative methodology that allows researchers …

An Assessment Of United States Ethanol Policy, Mark Chapin Johnson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

From 1978 on there have been a series of legislative acts that have placed substantial protectionist burdens on the American taxpayer to provide incentives, credits and mandates for the production and use of ethanol under the rationale of reducing U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil while purporting to economically benefit the American economy and strengthening American security. While there has been much discussion about the economic benefits of ethanol policy, there is growing literature suggesting that in addition to being neither economically nor environmentally beneficial, ethanol policy may not be achieving its intended goals. Connection between political contributions, policy …

Parental Leave: Policy And Practice, Amanda Parr

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parental leave is a broad term that encompasses maternity and/or paternity leave to care for an infant. Parental leave provides job protection for workers and may be paid or unpaid, with provisions varying throughout the world. Every industrialized nation offers some form of paid parental leave, with the exception of the United States, whose only federal policy regarding parental leave is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a law that allows eligible workers to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job protected leave for the birth or adoption of a child.

This research project explored how parents understand …

From Bootleggers To An Obey The Law Campus: An Analysis Of The Alcohol Policies At The University Of Mississippi, Scott Thomas Wallace

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

College drinking is one of the most prevailing problems on college campuses today. To navigate the issues surrounding college drinking, institutions of higher learning spend countless hours and monetary resources putting together educational pieces, developing governing policies, and implementing stringent sanctioning practices. At the University of Mississippi, a Two-Strike policy was implemented in 2006. The policy is rooted in educational motives and interventional philosophies, but since its implementation the question posed by many is, "Does it work?" Additionally, the University of Mississippi, in an effort to gain clarity and better educate students about the dangers of illegal and abusive drinking, …

Grace Under Fire : Altruistic Behavior And The Risk Of Criminal Victimization, Andy Lucas Blaize Davies

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Two studies investigate whether the perceived risk of criminal victimization reduces altruistic behavior as social disorganization theory predicts it will. The first study, of 160 nation-states, suggests not. Rather, the relationship depends on national culture. In highly religious countries, for example, the perceived risk of victimization actually appears to increase altruistic behavior. The second study, an experiment conducted on samples both of undergraduate students and internet users, suggests that certain individuals for whom the risk of criminal victimization may be particularly salient - volunteers worried they may be put in harm's way, and fatalists paranoid about the inevitability of victimization …