Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Creatures: The Impact Of Solitary Confinement On Psychophysiological Health And How Inmates Percieve Their Humanity And Social Well-Being, Julia Austin

Honors Projects

This paper will define and examine the use of solitary confinement within the United States prison system and review its mental, physical, and social impacts. As social creatures, human mental and physical well-being depends on meaningful social interactions absent in segregation units. As it currently stands, vulnerable populations, including racial minorities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and those with developmental disabilities or psychological disorders, are at risk of irrevocable harm and abuse within these facilities from staff as well as other inmates. With a rotating 80,000 inmates held in solitary confinement every day, the current structure of the prison system deemphasizes rehabilitation and …

Defining Your Double Bottom Line: Philanthropy And The Investment Landscape, Stephane Ligonde, Garrett De Temple, Tuokpe Ajuyah

The Foundation Review

Grantmaking traditionally has been at the heart of philanthropy, whereas impact was the exclusive expectation of any desired result. While there is still a place for this kind of pure push for change, many investors today expect more, leveraging the power of the markets to invest in a way that is both impactful and able to maximize their financial rewards. This is particularly true of foundations with an eye toward supporting the perpetuity of their missions and organizations.

This approach also offers a range of innovative mission-based benefits, including extending the utility of philanthropic capital and generating more capital to …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Lived Experiences Of Community Garden Participants In Local Food Deserts, Abigail Gwendolyn Brock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Community gardens were designed to bring communities together while providing an area of comfort and solace, social interactions, and a physical place for those living in apartments or areas in which they are not able to garden. Often, community gardens are started by nonprofit organizations looking to solve problems that plague urban areas. An abundance of literature described and analyzed the role of community gardens in addressing food insecurities, but little has been done in understanding the experiences of participants in the garden. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gather and identify the perceptions and thoughts of community …

Do Esg Funds Deliver On Their Promises?, Quinn Curtis, Jill E. Fisch, Adriana Z. Robertson

All Faculty Scholarship

Corporations have received growing criticism for their role in climate change, perpetuating racial and gender inequality, and other pressing social issues. In response to these concerns, shareholders are increasingly focusing on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) criteria in selecting investments, and asset managers are responding by offering a growing number of ESG mutual funds. The flow of assets into ESG is one of the most dramatic trends in asset management.

But are these funds giving investors what they promise? This question has attracted the attention of regulators, with the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) …

About Medieval Egyptian Historians, Zukhra Aripova

The Light of Islam

This article is dedicated to the life and work of historians of the Mamluk period (1250-1517) in Egypt and the rich heritage left by them. In the XIII-XV centuries, Egypt had a special place among the countries of the Middle East due to the activities of the Mamluks. The prestige of the Mamluk sultans increased due to their victories in the fght against the Crusaders and the Mongols in the Middle East. The establishment of Mamluk rule in the history of Egypt, the growth of the superiority of military Mamluks in the country, the rise of the Bakhrit Mamluk sultans …

The Practical Applications Of Video Games Beyond Entertainment, Jack Martin

School of Professional Studies

Much of the attention directed toward video games is focused on their role as entertainment. However, researchers have found that video games can have other, more practical uses for society. This thesis is designed to examine three specific examples of the practical applications of video games: video games in education, video games as accessible technology, and the social uses of video games. This project is based on pre-existing research conducted by professionals studying the aforementioned subtopics. Anecdotal stories from educators, people with disabilities, and developers are also discussed. The thesis explores specific examples of video games being used practically, and …

Honoring Our Community Heroes, Juan C. Ruiz Jr

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The financially disenfranchised population of Santa Cruz County constantly face the challenges of being taken advantage of by employers when it comes to being allotted the appropriate wages, illegal evictions, as well as discrimination and health care access. California Rural Legal Assistance is a non-profit legal aid agency that provides the citizens of Santa Cruz County with legal aid and court representation at no cost. Currently, CRLA is facing a visibility dilemma with some contributing factors being citizens don't know about them or are too scared to attend because of their legal status, not enough donors or discretionary funding and …

Public Policy Response To Violence: Case Study Of Boko Haram Insurgency In Nigeria, Emmanuel Baba Mamman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The violence of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria has generated an increased need for public policy responses. Nigerian authorities and community stakeholders have attempted myriad responses to the challenges created by Boko Haram. However, there is a poor understanding of policy frameworks for handling the Boko Haram violence on the immediate, medium-term, and long-term dimensions. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to improve the understanding of the public policy measures that may help to address the Boko Haram challenge. John Burton's theory of human needs provided a theoretical foundation for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used, …

Stigma Mitigation Through Fine Arts, Kendall Owens

Honors Theses

Social stigma has plagued our society for centuries. It isolates groups of people based on erroneously defined characteristics causing stigmatized persons to be viewed as socially “abnormal”. This debarment from full social acceptance results in poor population health and well-being. Fine arts have been an integral component of society since the beginning of civilization; current and past research have found involvement in fine arts to improve health and well-being in many ways. In this project, relevant studies related to stigma, fine arts, and population health will be reviewed to support the argument that “fine arts combat and mitigate the …

Social Service Workers Knowledge On The Use Of Technology For Human Trafficking, Raquel Monique Holguin, Athena Noel Barber

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Human Trafficking is the modern-day equivalent of slavery. Those who perpetuate it do so because it is lucrative to invest in a product that can be resold multiple times (Ellis, 2017). The recent advancement of technology has tremendously helped traffickers thrive in the illicit business of Human Trafficking. Social media websites, online classifieds, and mobile applications are quickly becoming some of the major mediums perpetrators utilize to traffick their victims (Latonero, 2012). The purpose of this study was to examine social service workers’ knowledge on the use of technology for Human Trafficking. Face-to-face interviews were conducted and the participants were …

Child Abuse Prevention In Rural Southern California: A Participatory Action Research Project, Nelly Zambrano

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project examines resources and services to prevent families and children from entering the child welfare system in a rural town in Southern California. There is constant struggle to get the adequate services, resources and trained staff in this rural area because it is isolated and it takes about two hours’ travel time to get to the metropolitan cities. The literature review discusses child welfare services challenges, strengths and social capital to support families and children as well as the child welfare system itself in rural areas. Constructivism is the appropriate framework for this research project, because the goal …

Patronage As A System Of Insiders And Outsiders : Lessons From The Commonwealth Of Puerto Rico, Elizabeth H. Perez-Chiques

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although in place for more than 100 years, Puerto Rico’s merit-based civil-service system still does not function to uphold merit as officially intended. Patronage—the disbursement of public resources or benefits in exchange for political support—is a normal and routine part of governing in Puerto Rico. How does a patronage system work within a formal merit-based system? And, what are the mechanisms that keep patronage in place? Through a mixed-method strategy—including in-depth interviews with public employees, limited participant observation, and analysis of political discrimination and public corruption cases—this research aimed to understand: how patronage works, how patronage relates to the formal …

Laying The Groundwork For A National Impact Investing Marketplace, Stephanie L. Gripne, Joanne Kelley, Kathy Merchant

The Foundation Review

The practice of impact investing is rapidly gaining momentum, but the level of activity among individual and institutional investors, including philanthropists and foundations, has barely penetrated projections of market potential.

The marketplace that should connect impact investors with investees or social ventures does not function effectively.

Developing cost-effective ways to engage new investors and break down barriers to investment is an essential part of growing the industry.

Developing cost-effective ways to “prime the pump” for social ventures to become investor-ready — through a capacity-building process that includes outreach, education, and technical assistance — is an essential part of growing the …

Effective Combat Leadership: How Do Individual, Social, And Organizational Factors In The U.S. Army Reserve Cultivate Effective Women's Leadership In Dangerous Contexts?, Diana Drita Ellerman

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This research centered on the experiences of a dozen women who served in U.S. Army Reserve leadership positions. Although they served in dangerous contexts the Army had an exclusionary policy at the time that formally excluded the women from direct combat. The impetus for the research was Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's announcement in January 2013 that the U.S. military would be eliminating the exclusionary policy. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into what individual, social, and organizational factors support women's effective leadership in dangerous contexts. The research utilized narrative inquiry in order to bring forth the …

Value For Money In Project Procurement, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Extract: Public private partnerships are a method for the delivery of social and economic infrastructure services in over 80 countries worldwide. PPPs are a contractual arrangement between public and private entities through which the skills, assets and/or financial resources of both sectors are allocated in such a manner that provides optimal service delivery and good value to society. The international evidence suggests that public private partnership procurement methods using value for money evaluation criteria are delivering better infrastructure services at lower cost than traditional procurement methods.

Agenda: Innovations In Managing Western Water: New Approaches For Balancing Environmental, Social, And Economic Outcomes, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Many aspects of western water allocation and management are the product of independent and uncoordinated actions, several occurring a century or more ago. However, in this modern era of water scarcity, it is increasingly acknowledged that more coordinated and deliberate decision-making is necessary for effectively balancing environmental, social, and economic objectives. In recent years, a variety of forums, processes, and tools have emerged to better manage the connections between regions, sectors, and publics linked by shared water systems. In this event, we explore the cutting edge efforts, the latest points of contention, and the opportunities for further progress.

'Loose Tweets Sink Fleets' And Other Sage Advice: Social Media Governance, Policies And Guidelines, Jane Johnston

Jane Johnston

While social media represents a broad range of benefits to organisations and institutions, such as enhanced brand engagement, it also presents challenges and risks to reputation and security, such as confidentiality breaches. Employee use of popular social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, both at work and about work has resulted in organisations developing social media policies and guidelines as part of contemporary governance practice. This paper investigates this recent approach to corporate governance by examining 20 social media policies and guidelines from a sample of corporate, government and third sector organisations that are active social media users. It …

Charting A New Course For The Colorado River: A Summary Of Guiding Principles, Colorado River Research Group

Books, Reports, and Studies

[4] p. : color illustrations ; 28 cm.

Corporate Social Responsibility And Its Effects On Corporate-Community Relationships: A Case Study Of Chevron's Richmond Refinery Fire In 2012, Afshan Khan

Master's Projects and Capstones

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a practical and strategic implementation process corporations often use to build social trust with the communities they serve. This process of developing social trust, according to Francis Fukuyama, creates conditions for corporations and communities to deepen their investments in each other, thus increasing the probability of economic prosperity. By seeking to balance social, environmental, and economic imperatives, corporations seeks to create a lasting, sustainable relationship with the communities they partner with. CSRs are not merely about re-branding and impression management, for they are about establishing a healthy, trusting relationship with the customers that corporations identify …

Reducing County Costs: Transitioning People From Sna To Ssi, Qu Zhang

MPA Capstone Projects 2006 - 2015

The Disability Review Unit (DRU) with Broome County Department of Social Services (BDSS) assist county Safety Net recipients with transitioning from the Safety Net Assistance (SNA) program to federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Transitioning clients from the SNA to SSI program reduces local costs since SNA is funded by the federal government . However, according to DRU monthly reports, the SSI approval rates for both initial applications and the appeals (after the initial applications were denied) are relatively low. Therefore, in order to reduce the local SNA population and save local costs, BCDSS wants to find out the best …

Slides: Impacts Of Energy Deficits In Cooking, Illumination, Water, Sanitation, And Motive Power, Paul S. Chinowsky

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Dr. Paul Chinowsky, Director, Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities; Professor, University of Colorado

25 slides

The Social And Behavioral Implications Of Location-Based Services, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael

Associate Professor Katina Michael

The social and behavioral implications of location-based services (LBS) are only now beginning to come to light in advanced markets where the services have been adopted by just a little over half the market (Microsoft 2011). Depending on one’s definition of what constitutes location-based services, statistics on the level of adoption differ considerably. While it is helpful to provide as broad a list of applications as possible in what constitutes LBS (e.g. everything from in-vehicle navigation systems to downloading a map using a computer), it can also cloud the real picture forming behind this emerging technology. Emerging not in the …

Social Networking And Individual Performance: Examining Predictors Of Participation, Michael Anthony Brown Sr.

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses relationships between social networking and individual performance. The "act" of social networking is a process and practice by which people and organizations are drawn together by family, work or hobby to interact via websites. The explosion of these new network connections in the workplace suggests the need for an exploration of the various ways organizations can affect and improve performance and productivity.

This dissertation suggests a social networking participation model that may help organizations predict and understand the value proposition that affects acceptance or rejection of participation. Innovation adoption, governing by network and social capital are important …

Enculturation, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

Enculturation is the process by which individuals of an ethnic group unintentionally, unconsciously, and naturally, acquire culture specific values, knowledge, behaviours, manners, and identities (Gob, Lee, & Yoon, 2008) (Grovtevant, Gunnar & Hellerstedt, 2006) (Kim & Omizo, 2006) (Constantine & Miville, 2006). There are many psychological concepts that can be linked to enculturation such as psychological protective factors, perceived sense of well being, social connectedness, psychological health, cultural identity, help seeking, self efficacy, and self esteem. Research literature pertaining to enculturation has illustrated that, the degree to which these psychological concepts are present within individuals, are strongly influenced by enculturation. …

Sonomaworks A Community Health And Welfare Program Evaluation: Moving People From Welfare Dependence To Employment And Independence, Peter Wales

Ned Wales

SonomaWORKS was a ‘welfare to work’ program that was evaluated through grant funding from the US Department of Justice in the late 1990's. The outcomes from the research show some indication of success in moving long term welfare dependant families into full time and part time work. The core objective of this community services program was to improve the quality of life of the participants and encourage participation in the workforce. This policy approach along with other economic rationalisation incentives have been duplicated in other parts of the world in recent years. The evaluation findings on this program highlight the …

China- Tibet Conflict, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

China- Tibet tensions are continually growing, as Tibetans are protesting for total independence from China, despite condemnation from their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who is only seeking a sense of autonomy for Tibet (Sinder, 2008). As Tibetan protests are becoming violent and aggressive, the Dalai Lama has also threatened to resign as Tibet’s government in exile (Sinder, 2008), however, his rhetoric is not being exposed to the Tibetan people, due to government censorship in China. Therefore the Dalai Lama, an exiled institutional entrepreneur, has to find new methods that will enable his influential message, to be received by the …

Healing Earth, Helping Neighbors: Using Brownfield Remediation Projects To Advance Environmental Justice [Outline], Willie Shepherd

The Climate of Environmental Justice: Taking Stock (March 16-17)

Presenter: Willie Shepherd, Chairman and Co-Founder, Kamlet Shepherd & Reichert, LLP

2 pages.

"Presentation Outline"

Rivers At Risk For International Violent Conflict [Abstract], Melodie Kertis

Allocating and Managing Water for a Sustainable Future: Lessons from Around the World (Summer Conference, June 11-14)

1 page.

Soziale Arbeit Und Ökonomie : Politische Ökonomie - Arbeitsmärkte - Sozialpolitik Grenzen Der Ökonomisierung - Soziale Ökonomie Gemeinwesenentwicklung - Bürgergesellschaft, Susanne Elsen, Dietrich Lange, Isidor Wallimann

Books

Globalization has seen the removal of borders and increased global flows of capital and goods and services, changing the employment landscape, pressuring revenues and social-welfare spending of modern welfare states. This collection of essays brings together perspectives from different disciplines to discuss the role globalization has had on social policies of the modern welfare state and the changing relationship between social policy, social work and the economy, describes its consequences and presents innovative approaches for action.

What Can We Learn From Past Reform Efforts, R. Max Peterson

The National Forest Management Act in a Changing Society, 1976-1996: How Well Has It Worked in the Past 20 Years?: Will It Work in the 21st Century? (September 16-18)

7 pages.

Contains footnotes and references.