Place and Environment Commons^™

Nebraska’S Rural Population: Historical Facts And Future Projections, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

Drive down any rural highway in our state and you will quickly conclude that we are a collection of small towns and villages, with a few larger cities thrown in. Some of them are thriving while others are not. You might ask yourself, why the difference? To fully appreciate this current situation, you need to think back to how our state developed.

Our state has 530 incorporated places with 89% of these communities having fewer than 3,000 people. Nebraska is not alone in this fact, with our neighboring states of Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa in the …

Orange County Parks Trail Use Designation Pilot Project, Christopher Monz, Noah Creany

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

This report provides an analysis and summary of the survey research findings from the Orange County (OC) Parks Trail Use Designation Pilot Project conducted during the summer of 2021. Repeat ecological monitoring flights were completed in May 2022 and the analysis and findings of the ecological effects of the Trail Use Designation Pilot Project will be delivered in a forthcoming addendum to this report.

Iskandar Malaysia: International Education Hub For Japanese?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

A few hundred Japanese families have made Johor Bahru home in the pursuit of English fluency and Global Cultural Capital for their children

The Equity Theory: A Quantitative Perspective Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Parto Ahmadpour-Samani, Hosein Arman, Amirali Foukerdi, Abdollah Hadi-Vencheh, Reza Kiani Mavi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Equity theory (ET) is an organizational theory investigating how fairly people feel they have been treated. The literature on ET does not address two essential questions: what is the magnitude of the equity that one may perceive compared to other members in an organization?, and how much should be the resources (outcomes) of an underpaid member reduced (increased) to feel equal? The group members may respond to these questions emotionally, and their answers could be biased based on their personalities. This paper proposes a novel method using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to quantify the ET and answer these questions more …

The Arts And Changing Rural Places, Bernadette Quinn Dr

Blog Posts

This blog post reflects on how recent changes to rural Ireland is influencing the arts. It recognises that rural places are very vibrant and dynamic, and that this offers many opportunities and challenges from an arts perspective. The blog also reflects on a panel discussion that the FADE project team hosted on ‘The arts and changing rural places’ at the Arts Council & Local Government’s biennial Places Matter conference in March 2022.

The research activities conducted for this publication were funded by the Irish Research Council.

Socio-Economic Resilience Of Natural Resource Dependent Communities, Gabrielle Sherman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Resilience is described as the ability of a system to absorb shocks and stressors while retaining functionality. Within the context of communities, shocks may consist of disruptive events such as recession, natural disaster, local losses of industry, and social unrest. Resilience therefore is the ability of a community to continuously support human well-being in the aftermath of such an event. Although it is observable that certain communities perform this function better than others following a shock, no exact measurement of resilience exists. Instead, its presence is implied through the measurement of proxies known to contribute to socio-economic condition as well …

Lesbian Neighbourhoods: The Disappearance And Displacement, Tahlia H. Shannon

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Gay neighbourhoods, defined by their high concentration of gay men and unique culture, have seemingly become a staple in major cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Their notion of a ‘safe space’ has allowed gay men to socialize and find partners, initiate successful political movements and the protection of gender and sexuality rights, and be their authentic selves (Ghaziani, 2015). Geographers and sexuality scholars have been researching the implications of physical space and the importance of occupying neighbourhoods for gay men, as their gentrification and consumerist culture has drawn significant attention (Bell & Binnie, 2004). However, scholars have …

Constructing Scale, Eroding Responsibility: The Politics Of Scoping In Canadian Energy Project Reviews, Yanqi Li

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This project investigates the practice of strategic boundary drawing in energy and resource project reviews. Focusing on applications to Canadian federal and provincial review bodies over the past 20 years, we ask: to what extent have proponents of oil and gas projects, hydroelectric dams, mines etc. used two strategies: 1) ‘slicing’ complex projects into multiple parts and filing separate applications for each, or 2) ‘splicing’ multiple actions together into a single application – with what outcomes for regulatory approval? This study contributes to three areas of scholarship: 1) theoretical work on the relational nature of space and scale; 2) decolonial …

Weathering The Storm: Navigating Urban Ecologies Of Communication In Times Of Crisis, Austin Hestdalen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores cities as urban ecologies of communication in which crises emerge and are given significance within the dialogic relations cultivated among public actors attempting to make a living, together, within the shared historical-cultural contexts of everyday life. To describe cities as urban ecologies of communication is to describe them in terms of urban communication and its interdisciplinary foundations in the study of rhetoric, philosophy, planning, policy, architecture, sociology, geography, and media. The first chapter introduces the challenges of urban risk and crisis management within the complex ecologies of communication constituted by cities and reviews how ‘risk’ and ‘crisis’ …

Strategies Of Adaptation And Coping To Climate Change Impacts Among Women Farmers In Guinayangan, Quezon, Philippines: A Life History And Comparative Approach, Miranda Salters

Capstone Collection

The unique struggles and needs of marginalized communities must be considered in a local context prior to addressing climate change mitigation on a global scale. The study uses life history interviews and focus group discussions to capture the challenges, diverse adaptation strategies, and coping mechanisms of women farmers from upland and coastal areas of Guinayangan, Quezon, Philippines. These perspectives may initiate advocacy efforts for increased support so that these agricultural livelihoods can continue to feed populations in the future, as climate change persists. Results suggest that both women from upland and coastal areas experience similar climate vulnerabilities, but the way …

In The Eyes Of The Beholder: Race, Place And Health, Alfredo J. Velasquez, Jason A. Douglas, Fangqi Guo, Jennifer W. Robinette

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Racial and ethnic health disparities are fundamentally connected to neighborhood quality. For example, as a result of historical systemic inequities, racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to live in neighborhoods with signs of physical disorder (e.g., graffiti, vandalism), and physically disordered environments have been noted to associate with increased risk for chronic illness. Degree of exposure to neighborhood disorder may alter peoples' perception of their neighborhoods, however, with those most exposed (e.g., historically marginalized racial/ethnic groups) perhaps perceiving less threat from signs of neighborhood disorder. The purpose of the present study was to examine the complex interrelationships between people …

The Role Of Leisure In Older Adults Moving Homes, Kristin Prentice

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Moving homes is a common experience for older adults in later life. Concomitant with moving is the transition process of adapting to the new home and developing a sense of place. When older adults change residences they experience disruption in place and risk losing identities. Leisure engagement has been known to help older adults adapt to new transitions in their life, such as death of a spouse, health decline and retirement. Leisure engagement has been linked to the development of sense of home and maintaining identity when moving to residential care settings and congregate living, however, these processes are not …

Cottagecore And Rural Gentrification, Zoe Johnston

The Compass

The internet has become filled with images of stone cottages covered in ivy, sepia-tinted tea parties abundant with home-baked pastries, women in peasant dresses trailing their fingers across tall grasses, and flower bouquets set into mason jars. Each of these scenes is categorized under the aesthetic of “cottagecore,” which is growing in popularity. This aesthetic movement draws upon people’s desires for simplicity and a nostalgia for a pre-industrial lifestyle. However, an unexamined consequence of this idyllic fantasy is the subsequent gentrification of rural communities. Gentrification is the process of funneling capital into low-income neighborhoods to make them more attractive to …

An Intergenerational Study Of The Entrepreneurial Nature Of Agritourism Operators, Will Culler

All Dissertations

Economic and non-economic trends have left farm operators of all ages contemplating enterprise diversification strategies to create advantages and to ensure their farms' sustainability for future generations. One such strategy is agritourism, in which a visitor to a working farm or other agricultural setting interacts with the farm landscape or participates in an agricultural process for tourism or leisure purposes. This study aims to contribute to academics, researchers, extension educators, practitioners, and farm service providers who offer training and resources to better equip current and future agritourism operators. The study tested the general hypothesis that agritourism operators' entrepreneurial goals and …

Disparate Sense Of Exclusion Between Young People Of Color Living Within Variable Social Infrastructures., James M. Joyce

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I analyzed transcripts of listening sessions with youth/young adults of color in 2021-2022 for the purpose of addressing local racial inequity during COVID-19. I used inductive coding methods and found three themes on sense of exclusion to be most salient. These themes related to racial exclusion, exclusion of social infrastructures in the community, exclusion of young people of color by people working in schools and other public settings, and exclusion or disconnection of young people of color from opportunities for building community. I show how these themes vary across some dimensions of the local social infrastructure, and I discuss implications …

A Tale Of Two Gentrifications: Reconceptualizing Gentrification Using Third Places, Demolition And Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Kylil R. Martin

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

A growing body of research points out that communities in the most need of assistance are often the ones established by racially biased processes and have not been invested in for generations – with little to no attention ever positively directed toward these spaces. Instead, because of policies and tactics used to label areas as problematic and divest from them, public actors are reluctant to consider the lived-lives, both good and bad, of the residents of these communities when discussing needed changes. Criminologists have long been interested in neighborhood change and its relationship with crime. There has also been theoretical …

Putting The Meat In Meat-Less?: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Corporate Marketing Of Plant-Based Products, Samantha A. Mcintyre

Masters Theses

The plant-based industry has sustained rapid growth within recent years due to awareness surrounding environmental harms. Due to the rise in profitability of plant-based products in the consumer market, multiple corporations have either acquired or created plant-based brands. The corporations that have done so (Tyson, Smithfield, Kellogg’s, Nestlé, and Conagra Foods) are the subjects of study for this project. These major corporations are also part of the industrial animal agriculture system, and garner profit from meat and dairy businesses. This study explores the way the marketing is embedded in ideologies of Western capitalism and patriarchy. I use critical discourse analysis …

Where We Are From Matters: Assessing The Impact Of Immigrants On Firm Environmental Performance, Narae Lee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines the impact of immigrant populations on firm environmental performance. Leveraging a longitudinal dataset of more than 11,000 manufacturing facilities in the US in which I match the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) facility toxic emissions data with the location’s census immigration data, I document the negative impact of local immigrant populations on a facility’s environmental performance, which strengthens as heterogeneity among immigrant increases. I argue that this is because a more heterogeneous community is less cohesive and hence less capable of organizing effective pressures against pollution. Further, I show that because co-nationality links create unique bonds between the …

Reunification In Informal Foster Care Child Placement: Examining The Different Pathways In Ghana, Hajara Bentum, Esmeranda Manful

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Informal foster care remains the preferred alternative care option for children in many parts of the world. However, the processes of reunification in informal foster care are largely unknown. This qualitative study sought to explore the reunification processes within informal foster care in Ghana to inform child protection services for better program design for such children. Twenty interviews were conducted with reunified fostered children and their biological parents. Data from the in-depth interviews with parents and children were analyzed thematically. Three main processes of reunification were identified in this study namely; open, flexible exit plans and educational threshold arrangements. The …

Revisiting Rural Education Access, Elizabeth Wargo, Ian Hoke

Educational Considerations

Drawing on a contemporary construction of rurality, which acknowledges rural education amplified by technology, we capture two examples where online mathematics resources were used in a rural middle school setting. As such we examine issues and consider rural education access as it is changed with technology towards a more nuanced understanding of rural contexts necessary to inform future rural education policy, practice, and research.