Digital Commons Network^™

Scrutinizing Precarity: In Search Of Emancipatory Potential, Jaime Aznar Erasun

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

This paper provides a review and discussion on the emancipatory potential of the notion of ‘precarity’. Since the 1980s, the notion of ‘precarity’ has been used increasingly by scholars and activists to account for variegated grievances. Specifically, it has been used to address issues related to the transformations of labour in the XXIst century: neoliberal reorganization of labour markets, increasing unavailability of stable jobs, increased personal debts, debilitating labour unions or the lack of accessible housing among other issues. However, beyond structural grievances voiced by everyday workers, precarity can also serve as an analytical tool to pin down socially induced …

Neocolonialism In Cape Town: The Municipal Spatial Development Framework (Msdf) Through Critical Theory, Emily Dionne

Capstone Collection

Once the apartheid system in South Africa ended in the early 1990s, spatial planning in Cape Town needed to be reassessed to address its historically-racialized use. Led by city planners, this assessment resulted in the 1996 Municipal Spatial Development Framework (MSDF) Technical Report. Yet, there ended up being a disconnect between planning and implementation, and by the late 2000s, economic growth and development had largely remained in the historically-white areas of the city. Meanwhile, historically-Black neighborhoods and communities of color remained systemically neglected. In 2012, a new MSDF was approved to address the shortcomings of these efforts. While some integration …

Grandchildren Of Ottomans Vs. Children Of Atatürk: A Script On Turkey's Emerging Political Identities Towards 2023, İrem Taştan, Ezgi Karanfil

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The aim of this script is to take the initiative to open an updated discussion of the ways in which the global ideological market is shaping the collective political identities in the context of contemporary Turkey. We craft two seemingly opposing yet deeply connected political identities, namely the "grandchildren of Ottomans" and the "children of Atatürk", to critically explore the future possibilities for Turkey's contested ideological market.

The Eastern Atomic Rise: Defining Nuclear Hegemony In A Multi-Lateral World, Eric Rodriguez

Capstone Collection

Most existing literature in the field of international relations on the hegemonic dimension of nuclear technology is written from a realist, western perspective within the context of the Cold War. It focuses on its military, defense, and security dimensions, non-proliferation and safety, and some analyses of hegemony from a cultural media perspective. This theory-building paper offers contrasting understanding of nuclear hegemony, which recognizes three recent developments: 1) diminished Western Hegemony in nuclear technology; 2) growing Chinese nuclear capacity in energy geopolitics; and 3) growing concerns about global energy security. This paper begins with an overview of these developments and a …

The Stamford Experience In The Twenty-First Century: Analyzing Urban Development Conflict At The Neighborhood Level, Michael Hernandez

Honors Scholar Theses

At a time when mid-size cities around the country are growing rapidly and taking on all kinds of development, it is important for scholars to understand residents’ views on development. This paper reviews some of the extant literature on urban development conflict, with a focus on the legacy of urban renewal, models of citizen participation, urban redevelopment, and the back-to- the-city movement towards an understanding of resident opposition to development. The literature review also helped create a framework to answer three questions: (1) what is (or are) the central conflict(s) over urban development in Stamford, Connecticut since 2007, (2) considering …

Union County Solar Energy Awareness, Amanda Pennett

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

Ai: Capturing Core Processes In The Us-China Hegemonic Cycle, Connor Murphy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

World systems analysis is a historically based framework that makes looking at the world easier with trends and patterns. Using this framework and the concepts inside of it, the reader will be able to see the potential that artificial intelligence has in regard to the social, political and economic changes that will come about in the United States and China from the adoption of this technology.

The Effect Of Congressional Committee Assignments On National Park Annual Operating Budget Appropriations, Braden T. Morrill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Yearly funding for individual national parks is overseen and determined by the House Appropriations and Natural Resources Committees. This process has resulted in the National Park Service being underfunded and facing a $12 billion maintenance backlog. Congress has passed temporary funding to help reduce this backlog but has not indicated a shift in how funding decisions are made to prevent future shortfalls.

This thesis uses statistical analysis to explore how individual members of Congress are impacting funding for national Parks in their states or districts. Often congressional committee’s act on personal incentives to make funding decisions rather than basing their …

The Political Economy Of Global Private Currencies, Girish Sreevatsan Nandakumar

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines regulatory responses to global private currencies (GPCs). Through detailed analyses of the history and evolution of private digital currencies, and through case studies of the United States, the European Union, and China, this dissertation identifies five factors that condition regulatory responses: (1) compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) laws, (2) compliance with systems built for fiat currencies, (3) degree of transparency in operations, (4) culture of sovereignty within the nation, and (5) great power competition with other nations. Throughout the dissertation, various political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental (PESTLE) characteristics of GPCs are highlighted. This dissertation also …

Review Essay: Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen: A Still And Quiet Conscience, William L. Portier

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Archbishop Desmond Tutu, And The Quest For Justice And Reconciliation, Hak Joon Lee

The Journal of Social Encounters

This paper studies Marin Luther King, Jr.’s and Desmond Tutu’s strivings for justice and reconciliation as the leaders of movements against white racist systems in the US and South Africa. Despite their differences in terms of nationality, age, religious denomination, and geography, the paper demonstrates how King’s and Tutu’s quests were grounded in the distinctive communal ethics informed by their Christian faith and their shared spiritual heritage as African peoples, which emphasize community, the ubiquity of religion, the moral order of the universe, and hopefulness. Contrasting their communal approach to a secular rational ethical approach to justice and peace, the …

Enabling A More Externally Focused And Operational Pla – 2020 Pla Conference Papers, Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, David Brewster, Christopher Cairns, Roger Cliff, R. Evan Ellis, April Herlevi, Roy Kamphausen Mr., Roderick Lee, Paul Nantulya, Meia Nouwens, Rebecca Pincus, Joel Wuthnow

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

Although the People’s Liberation Army is not yet a global expeditionary force on par with the US military, the former has nevertheless significantly expanded its ability to operate abroad. Through enhanced technological capabilities, robust relationships with foreign militaries, increased access to overseas military bases and dual-use facilities, and the implementation of major structural reforms, the People’s Liberation Army has built a more integrated joint force capable of conducting a wider and more complex array of missions. This volume advances the understanding of the People’s Liberation Army’s capability to conduct overseas missions by examining China’s military relations with Europe, Africa, and …

Environment, Power, And Justice : Southern African Histories, Graeme Wynn, Jane Carruthers, Nancy J. Jacobs

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Spanning the colonial, postcolonial, and postapartheid eras, these historical and locally specific case studies analyze and engage vernacular, activist, and scholarly efforts to mitigate social-environmental inequity.

This book highlights the ways poor and vulnerable people in South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe have mobilized against the structural and political forces that deny them a healthy and sustainable environment. Spanning the colonial, postcolonial, and postapartheid eras, these studies engage vernacular, activist, and scholarly efforts to mitigate social-environmental inequity. Some chapters track the genealogies of contemporary activism, while others introduce positions, actors, and thinkers not previously identified with environmental justice. Addressing health, economic …

Masthead 2022, Dujpew Editorial Board

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editor 2022, Dujpew Editorial Board

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

No abstract provided.

Volume I | Issue Iv | 2022, Dujpew Editorial Board

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

No abstract provided.

Triple (Identity) Threat: Multi-Layered National Identity Appeals In Republican Political Narratives During The 2016 And 2020 Presidential Elections, Brita Mackey

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

National identity, as a broadly constituted social identity category, has been shown to hold power both as a source of political mobilization and as an enforcer of democratic stability. In recent years, Republican voters have reported stronger national attachments than Democrats, perhaps due to national identity’s longstanding implicit associations with white racial identity – and the rising prominence of multiculturalist and globalist ideologies in recent decades. In light of such findings, I propose that the rhetoric of Republican political elites may function to further exacerbate a stronger sense of national identity among their base by appealing to conjoined national and …

Econometric Analysis Of The Relationship Between Domestic Economic Growth And Levels Of Inflow Of Remittances In Developing Countries, Mihail Naskovski

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

The international global migration has produced an exponential growth of remittances, which can be defined as the transfer of funds from one country to another. This study will inspect the macroeconomic impact of remittance inflow on economic growth using panel regression, covering the period from 1981 to 2020 and focusing on a sample of 152 countries, then filtered by 4 geographical regions for additional analysis. Like many studies before, a consensus about an overall effect of the flows on global level could not be reached from his study following the analysis of the general sample. However, on a more specific …

Identifying Potential Pork-Barrel Legislation Using Machine Learning: A Preliminary Analysis, Sunil Green

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

Pork-barrel legislation has been criticized by some as an excessive and potentially corrupt use of Congressional appropriations. The task of finding the specific parts of legislation that have been “pork-barreled”, however, requires many hours of labor by policy researchers. Using data from government watchdogs and machine learning algorithms, the research explores the idea of creating a model to flag specific line items of appropriations bills for policy researchers to further explore as potential pork-barrel legislation. The model constructed uses data from the Earmark Database by Taxpayers for Common Sense, and the Congressional Pig Book by Citizens Against Government Waste to …

Conservatism, Collaboration, And Capacity: Political Explanations For Canada’S Shift In Immigrant Admissions Logic, Jaidyn Appel

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

Canada is often regarded as the United States’ friendlier neighbor to the north, but how welcoming is it really? A critical analysis of immigration and citizenship policy throughout Canadian history reveals that Canada may not be the inclusive member of the world community it is often conceptualized as. This paper examines some of the recent key changes in Canadian immigration policy and their broader contexts, while benchmarking the policies against two leading scholars' thoughts on how the relative presence of certain political ideologies in a country drives its immigration policies to the left or right of the political spectrum. As …

Studying The Economic Impact Of The Demonetization Across Indian Districts, Arnav Joshi

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

This thesis studies the economic impact of the Indian demonetization which was a unique monetary event that made 86.9 percent of the total currency in circulation illegal tender overnight. The decision to demonetize high-value currency notes was taken by the Indian government on November 8th, 2016, leading to a severe shortage of cash. This thesis tries to analyze how the impact of the demonetization differed across districts in India and how the characteristics of those districts pertaining to education, electricity and tap water access, employment, and technology access can help explain these differences. The thesis uses satellite data on human-generated …

Bias In The Jury Box: The Sociological Determinants Of Jury Selection For Capital Cases In North Carolina, Alessandra Quattrocchi

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

An evaluation of four Wake County capital cases from 2014-2018 reveals the disparate effects that the jury selection process had on Black and female potential jurors and especially on Black female potential jurors. The requirement that capital jurors be willing and able to sentence death systematically excluded Blacks and females, with Black females excused for this reason at a rate over three times higher than White males. Black potential jurors not struck for death qualification were disproportionately excluded by prosecutorial peremptory strikes at a rate nearly two times greater than Whites. Final analyses conclude that Black females had significantly lower …

Early Childhood Intervention And Income Inequality: An Analysis On The Intergenerational Mobility Of Head Start Participants, Paul Hinton

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

The Head Start program is an early childhood intervention program funded by the federal government. Designed for low-income families, it promotes school readiness among its participants. In my research, I examine the effects of Head Start on the intergenerational mobility of its participants. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and the NLSY Child and Young Adult Supplement (CNLSY), I measure the degree of earnings persistence between parents and their children for students in preschool and Head Start. I find that participation in Head Start is associated with an increase in mobility, which remains true after controlling …

“Pure People” And “Corrupt Elites:” Corruption Talk In The 2020 Election, Milan Loewer

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

The word “corruption” has two separate but interrelated meanings. The first kind of corruption refers specifically to an abuse of public office for private gain; the second is broader and indicates a disjunction between a political reality and the ideal to which that reality ought to conform. This paper explores the role of various forms of “corruption talk” in the 2020 presidential election. The first part of the paper examines the “supply side,” looking at the kinds of “corruption narratives” that politicians offered in 2020. Using natural language processing, I analyze how Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders spoke …

The Religious Seculars: How Does Yom Kippur Impact Electoral Turnout?, Gall Sigler

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

Does Yom Kippur impact electoral turnout in religious and secular Jewish communities in Israel? By collecting data on electoral behavior in elections to local councils from 1983 to 2018 in Jewish-secular, Jewish-religious and non-Jewish municipalities, this research attempts to elucidate the relationship between the communal Yom Kippur experience and electoral turnout. This research finds that the Yom Kippur experience appears to decrease turnout in secular municipalities, while no statistically significant impact was observed in religious municipalities. Research on the psychological significance of novelty and religious events, as well as ethnographic analysis of Israel, suggests that the Yom Kippur experience undermines …

Summary Report Of Discussions At The Forum “Nepali Diaspora Organizations In North America: Achievements, Opportunities, And Challenges”, Coppell, Texas, Usa July 2022, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

The forum “Nepali Diaspora Organizations in North America: Achievements, Opportunities and Challenges” was held at the annual convention of the Association of Nepalis in the Americas (ANA) in Coppell, TX, USA on July 2, 2022. Nepalese Society of Texas (NST) hosted the convention and forum. As studies related to diaspora have become important topics in the fields of development, community culture, sociology and anthropology, ANA decided to include this topic in the forums organized at the national convention.

The global Nepali diaspora population in 2022 is estimated at 800,000. Although no authoritative statistics is available, the Nepali diaspora in North …

Riverine Plastic Pollution In Asia: Results From A Bibliometric Assessment, Peter Yang

Faculty Scholarship

Rivers are important ecosystems, vital to the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of humans and other species. Despite their environmental, social, and economic importance, current use of rivers is unsustainable, due to a combination of solid waste and high levels of pollutants. Plastic materials are among the most predominant of such pollutants. Based on the need for additional research in this area, this study examines pressures put to rivers and explores trends related to riverine plastic pollution, with a focus on Asia. Apart from the bibliometric analysis, and relying on the collected information, examples describing the drivers of riverine plastic …

Hybrid U-Net: Semantic Segmentation Of High-Resolution Satellite Images To Detect War Destruction, Shima Nabiee, Matthew Harding, Jonathan Hersh, Nader Bagherzadeh

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Destruction caused by violent conflicts play a big role in understanding the dynamics and consequences of conflicts, which is now the focus of a large body of ongoing literature in economics and political science. However, existing data on conflict largely come from news or eyewitness reports, which makes it incomplete, potentially unreliable, and biased for ongoing conflicts. Using satellite images and deep learning techniques, we can automatically extract objective information on violent events. To automate this process, we created a dataset of high-resolution satellite images of Syria and manually annotated the destroyed areas pixel-wise. Then, we used this dataset to …

Call And Response? Neighborhood Inequality And Political Voice, Amber Wichowsky, Paru Shah, Amanda Heideman

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Over the past 20 years, many cities across the United States have adopted a range of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to make it easier for residents to get informed, communicate their preferences, and hold public officials accountable. In this paper, we ask two questions. First, are service requests and responses illustrative of existing neighborhood differences across a city? Second, do patterns of request and response differ by the type of complaint made to the city? We leverage data from the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to examine neighborhood variation in service requests and subsequent response times to those complaints. Our …

Calling In “Sick”: Covid-19, Opportunism, Pretext, And Subnational Autocratization, Philip Rocco, Matthew Stenberg, Safia Abukar Farole

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

As governments sought to manage the coronavirus pandemic, many pursed temporary increases in centralized authority, a general tactic of crisis management. However, in some countries, public health was not the only motive for centralization. The COVID-19 response coincided with broader worldwide trends toward autocratization. Some of these efforts happened while the world was preoccupied with responding to the pandemic without concretely referencing coronavirus; however, in other cases, public-health rationales are clearly and explicitly invoked as a pretext for actions that instead aid the consolidation of regime authority. This has been especially pernicious in subnational politics, where efforts have been made …