Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Doing Business And Contributing To Conflict Prevention And Development In Ghana, Abdul Karim Issifu, Musa Essuman, Felix Dade

Journal of Global Business Insights

While some scholars argue that companies implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) for altruistic reasons, to gain an advantage over rivals in the industry, to enhance corporate reputation, and to be seen as ethical for addressing environmental and socio-economic difficulties, other scholars view CSR as unnecessary. These scholars argue that CSR initiatives adversely affect corporate profits. The understanding of this phenomenon remains incomplete, especially with the lack of empirical understanding about why corporate bodies execute CSR in spite of their primary goal of maximizing profits. To better understand this gap in knowledge, this case study of the Newmont Ghana Gold Limited …

Investing In Change: Illuminating Interactive Systems In Hiv Research, Communication Diffusion, And Financing In Lesotho, Sharon Elizabeth Watson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the field of HIV, more than 30 years into the epidemic, the need to ensure that what researchers learn makes its way into tangible actions in the real world is especially poignant. This dissertation addresses the critical divide between research production and its translation into practice. It advances ways to measure the investments of citizens and stakeholders in qualitative studies and offers new perspectives on the losses inadvertently caused by particular investments in health research and services. Unfortunately, many of the problems in how we practice and disseminate research are rampant throughout the health and development research sector. Therefore, …

Fair Trade In Transition: Evolution, Popular Discourse, And The Case Of The Cado Cooperative In Cotopaxi, Ecuador, Robyn Michelle Odegard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The literature on the changing nature of fair trade suggests it is indeed evolving and changed from the grassroots movement it once was. One of the strongest arguments that comes out in this body of literature is that the message, values, and way fair trade can encourage positive socio-economic and community development is changing. What the scholarship does not address, though, is how this evolution is changing the way that fair trade is perceived? The answer to this question about the changing perceptions of fair trade can be extended to those who produce fair trade products, those who consume them, …

Discrepancies In Labor Market Outcomes From Migration Evidence From Colombia, Liza Beatriz Pena

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As of 2012, approximately 10% of the population in Colombia has been displaced by violence. The main motivation of this paper is to estimate the effect of interregional migration on employment outcomes in the country between 1993 and 2005. Using violence as an instrument for migration, I analyzed the differential effects of migration on specific employment outcomes across gender and skill levels. I find that a one percentage point increase in net migration only increases the unemployment rates of female migrants by 0.656 percentage point. I also find that net migration rates do not affect the employment conditions of low-skilled …

The Role Of History And Political Studies In Post-Genocide Reconstruction And Development, Charles Kabwete Mulinda

Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

This paper argues for complementarity between social sciences, such as history and political studies on the one hand, and science and technology on the other hand. It insists that Africa and Rwanda in particular need the discipline of history in conjunction with science and technology in order to teach knowledge that is complete and to target African renaissance, that is, sustainable development and sustainable peace.

It also makes an advocacy for History and Political Science disciplines because of particular crises that those programmes are currently facing at the National University of Rwanda (NUR). But it does also put those crises …

Public Holidays In Post-Independence Rwanda: A Historical Reading Of Some Speeches, Charles Kabwete Mulinda

Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

Since independence, Rwandan governments have made it a culture to commemorate some events considered as important. These include the dates of 28 January in remembrance of the Gitarama proclamation of the Republic and abolition of Monarchy on 28 January 1961; 25 September to commemorate the victory of Party of Movement of Emancipation of Hutu (PARMEHUTU) victory of legislative elections, and 1 July to celebrate the Rwandan independence that took place on 1 July 1962. Other important dates include the 1^st of January of each year when the Head of State used to address the nation and the 5^{th …}

Community Arts In The Lives Of Disadvantaged African American Youth: Educating For Wellness And Cultural Praxis, Mabel Sabogal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the role and potential of community arts programs and organizations in improving the lives of disadvantaged African American youth, through the creation of a participatory video project and the internal evaluation of the same; using applied anthropological methods, and cultural praxis (an innovative educational design), and following the recommendations of expert community arts programs evaluators. The study responds to the need identified in the community arts literature to offer robust program evaluations that explain the benefits of such programs. The lack of evidence seems to derive not only from the difficulties …

A Comparative Study: How Educational And Healthcare Preparedness Affected Marketization Of The Chinese And Indian Economies, Cindy Arjoon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this archival study, I explore reasons why India's economic takeoff into marketization in 1991 failed to meet the same success as China in 1979 when it made the same transition. I analyze the impact of education and healthcare on development and how investments in both sectors can yield significant returns privately and socially. The research in this paper seeks to answer the following question: Why was the Indian economy unable to meet the same success as China when developing a global, open market economy?

In order to answer this question, I begin by proving a solid relationship between education, …

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 …

Bradenton, Fl: A Patchwork City, Rebekah G. Brightbill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The City of Bradenton is a patchwork city, whose neighborhoods vary greatly in quality. While its neighborhoods differ in type based on consumer preference, they vary in quality because of federal, state, and local planning and urban policy. These policies have resulted in inequality of place and race, clustering racial minorities in center city neighborhoods with deteriorated infrastructure and income inequality. This impacts the ability of the City to be competitive with other cities as a metropolitan whole. The City's economically and racially segregated neighborhoods are not the inevitable outcome of market forces, but rather reflect decades of federal, state, …

Program Evaluation: An Ngo's Attempt To Use Volunteerism To Promote Community Development, Adrienne Sage Mael

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides an ethnographic account of a NGOs effort to recruit and retain volunteers. Specifically, this project is a program evaluation of a community-based grant designed as a bottom-up approach to empower community residents to make changes in their community. The study details the many efforts - and obstacles - involved in this process. It is presented as a contribution to the anthropology of policy, to evaluation theory, and to applied anthropological methods. The investigator used participant-observation fieldwork and ethnographic interviews of both volunteer and non-volunteers to evaluate the program's successes and failures.

Modernization From Above: Social Mobilization, Political Institutionalization And Instability: A Case Study Of Iran (1953-1979), Jeffrey Robert Cobb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This case study is in an effort to demonstrate the disastrous effects of modernization via social mobilization and economic development when initiated from above and through foreign intrusion. Initially, this research will examine previous theoretical literature regarding the political phenomenon of modernization and social mobilization. My primary focus will center on the problems that occur when rapid modernization, based on an exogenous model, is forced onto a traditional society by elites and social mobilization outpaces political institutionalization. My case study will focus on the country of Iran, as the political and societal factors of interest seem to be highly illustrative …

Reciprocity And Development In Disaster-Induced Resettlement In Andean Ecuador, Albert J. Faas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses gaps in anthropological knowledge about how reciprocity--and a specifically Andean form of reciprocity--works in disaster and resettlement settings. This study looks at the practices of reciprocity in a disaster-affected community (Manzano) and a disaster-induced resettlement (Pusuca) in the Andean highlands of Ecuador. Specifically, it examines two aspects of reciprocal exchange practices in these sites. It first looks at some of the factors that affect the continuity of reciprocal exchange practices, which other studies have found to play a vital role in recovery from disasters and resettlement. It then looks to the roles of unequal power relations in …

Shaping Topographies Of Home: A Political Ecology Of Migration, Carylanna Kathryn Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Even from afar, transnational migrants influence how their households and communities of origin use natural resources. This study depicts the circulation of people, funds, and ideas within transnational families that extend from a Honduran village to the United States. Developing a "political ecology of migration" approach, I show how these circulations can reshape resource use practices and the socio-economic and bio-physical topographies of emigrants' former homes. The project advances anthropological thought by linking rich literatures on political ecology and transnationalism through a multi-method ethnography of transnational families. The study is also relevant to emigrants, community members, and practitioners interested in …