Digital Commons Network^™

Farmers’ Place-Based Discourse About Water Relations: Ways Of Knowing Water And Multispecies Survival, Jeffrey Alan Hoffmann

Communication ETDs

The present study looks at farmers’ discourse about water and water relations. Through qualitative interviews using the method of cultural discourse analysis (CuDA), and the framework of ecocultural dialectics, the study reveals how, as farmers talk about water, they also make explicit and implicit arguments about specific cultural relations with the biosphere, as well as the role of identity, place, and power in designing and implementing agricultural solutions to ecological and social problems. I argue that the contradictions in how farmers discursively envision the problems of water pollution and scarcity, as well as solutions to those problems in their farming …

Beyond Gatekeeping: Propaganda, Democracy, And The Organization Of Digital Publics, Jennifer Forestal

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

While there is disagreement as to the severity of the digital disinformation problem, scholars and practitioners have largely coalesced around the idea that a new system of safeguards is needed to prevent its spread. By minimizing the role of citizens in managing their own communities, however, I argue that these gatekeeping approaches are undemocratic. To develop a more democratic alternative, I draw from the work of Harold D. Lasswell and John Dewey to argue that we should study the organization of digital publics. For citizens to engage in democratic inquiry, publics must be organized so that they can (1) easily …

A Colonized Cop: Indigenous Exclusion And Youth Climate Justice Activism At The United Nations Climate Change Negotiations, Corrie Grosse, Brigid Mark

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Youth activists around the world are demanding urgent climate action from elected leaders. The annual United Nations climate change negotiations, known as COPs, are key sites of global organizing and hope for a comprehensive approach to climate policy. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews at COP25 in 2019, this research examines youth climate activists’ priorities, frustrations and hopes for creating just climate policy. Youth are disillusioned with the COP process and highlight a variety of ways through which the COP perpetuates colonial power structures that marginalize Indigenous peoples and others fighting for justice. This is intersectional exclusion - the …

Enhancing Students’ Global Competence Through International Business Study Missions, Mark Chong, Benjamin Gan, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article shares how an Asian University enhanced students’ global competence through international business study missions (BSMs). More specifically, it focuses on (i) how the design of these BSMs enabled “deep” learning beyond industry tourism and (ii) how 21st century competencies such as ‘global competence’ can be acquired through participation in short-term, faculty-led study missions.Using the case study approach, it critically analyses the learning goals and objectives, design decisions, implementation details and learning outcomes underlying three business study missions led by three instructors from the same university to the USA (New York), Germany (Berlin and Stuttgart), and South Korea (Seoul).The …

What Is Environmental Consciousness? A Thematic Cluster, Sophia Perdikaris

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay serves as the introduction to this issue of Ecocene (December 2020, volume 1, issue 2).

First two paragraphs:

For its second issue Ecocene welcomed cross-disciplinary contributions on what it means to be environmentally conscious in the world today, what it might have meant in diverse social-environmental pasts, or indeed what it may mean in our shared futures. The ambition of the cluster has been to engage with some key reassessments of the ways in which ecologies, identities, communities, temporalities, heritage, spatiality, risks, or agencies have been rethought in recent years, or in new waves of research, scholarship, theory, …

Love Of Place: Toward A Critical Pacific Studies Pedagogy, Emalani Case

Pacific Studies

Growing up in Hawaiʻi, I was raised with aloha ʻāina. Loosely defined as “love of place,” aloha ʻāina is a way of being in and with the world. It is built on relationship and stewardship. In this article, I will use aloha ʻāina to reflect on my role as a Pacific studies teacher and on what responsibilities educators may have to confront our common challenge and most dire threat: the destruction of the natural environment. I will articulate “love of place” to a critical Pacific studies pedagogy, one that addresses environmental issues, contributes to the well-being of the Pacific (people, …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Afro-Latinos, Trevor Mattos, Phillip Granberry, Quito Swan

Gastón Institute Publications

Afro-Latinx communities are critical stakeholders in Black and Latinx demographic groups, and they also make up a critical fabric of Boston, Massachusetts and the United States politically, economically and culturally. The Afro-Latinx experience sheds light on the critical intersections of race, ethnicity, culture, economics, gender, and class in not only America, but in Afro-Latinx Diasporas across the Americas and the world. Afro-Latinx individuals and institutions often face racism within broader Latinx communities and White America and are often stigmatized by their non-Latino Black counterparts. At the same time, there is a strong tradition of Afro-Latinx political advocacy, cross cultural movements …

The Sea Will Rise, Barbuda Will Survive: Environment And Time Consciousness, Sophia Perdikaris

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

In this article, we examine the link between environmental consciousnesses and time consciousness. We argue that the way people think about time shapes their experience of climate change threats. We contrast western hegemonic concepts of time—the Gregorian Calendar, the Dooms Day Clock, linear time—with the way Barbudans of Antigua and Barbuda, an island nation in the Caribbean experience time—cyclical, through boom and bust cycles. We found that this boom and bust framework was indeed supported by climate change and weather experiences on the island—hurricanes, droughts, changes in the lagoons—as well as economic experiences—cargo boat delays bringing supplies, paycheck delays. By …

Revisiting The Trail Of Tears: Tribal Control And Environmental Justice., Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In early October 2020, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt. The letter granted Stitt environmental regulatory control over all of the tribal lands in the state. Among other things, this gives Stitt the power to determine whether hazardous waste can be dumped on tribal lands, the ability to make decisions regarding whether and where fracking can take place, and the ability to determine if and where large-scale industrial animal agriculture, with all its attendant pollution, can operate in tribal jurisdictions.

Enclosing Water: Privatization, Commodification, And Access, Daniel Jaffee

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter examines the global political economy of access to drinking water, with particular attention to the implications for environmental and social justice. After reviewing theoretical approaches to the privatization and commodification of drinking water, the chapter examines the institutional and ideological drivers, dynamics, and effects of the enclosure of municipal (tap) water supplies, and the substantial countermovements it has generated, drawing on case studies from both the global South and the North. The chapter briefly reviews the present status of municipal water privatization, and then turns to another major modality of water commodification: bottled water. It explores the dramatic …

Environmental Justice Organizing In A Gentrifying Community: Navigating Dilemmas Of Representation, Issue Selection, And Recruitment, Amy Krings, Colette Copic

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Environmental justice organizations aim to secure an equitable distribution of environmental resources through the participation and self-determination of affected people, particularly communities of color. Yet organizing in a market economy is complicated: As communities become greener, gentrification can follow, thereby inadvertently displacing low-income communities of color and reproducing environmental injustices. This study informs antiracist community practice methods by examining strategic and ethical dilemmas embedded within an environmental justice organization that is located in a gentrifying Mexican American neighborhood in Chicago. Drawing from interviews, we examine members’ perceptions relating to representation, recruitment, and issue selection. We reveal key considerations for community …

Lindenwood Digest, November 20, 2020, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Examining Environmental Injustice In Detroit Over Spring Break, Aakrista Shakya

The International Undergraduate Journal For Service-Learning, Leadership, and Social Change

Detroit is a city with Environmental Injustice, but yet its story is unheard of. In my Journal, investigate the extent of Environmental Injustice in Detroit by sharing my experience of my service-learning trip to Detroit over Spring Break and the story of people in Detroit.

The Charismatic Revolutionary Leadership Trajectories Of Fidel Castro And Lázaro Cárdenas: From Guerrillas To Heads Of State In The Age Of Us Imperialism, Joseph J. Garcia

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

After attempting to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista in 1953, Fidel Castro fled to Mexico where he, his brother, Raul Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara, and other revolutionaries were later jailed by the Mexican government under the orders of the Batista dictatorship to be returned to Cuba. Using his knowledge of the Mexican Revolution, Castro wrote a letter asking for help from former president and revolutionary general, Lázaro Cárdenas, appealing to his sense of revolutionary history and social justice. Cárdenas was impressed by this young revolutionary and worked to obtain political asylum for he and his comrades. This allowed Castro …

What If Black Lives Meaningfully Mattered In Research?, Monique Guishard

Black Lives Matter in Research

No abstract provided.

Spartan Daily, November 12, 2020, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2020

Volume 155, Issue 36

Supporting Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Research Partnerships, Rosalind Edwards, Helen Moewaka Barnes, Deborah Mcgregor, Tula Brannelly

The Qualitative Report

This commentary discusses the framing of the production of a series of online text-based and visual resources aimed at researchers embarking on Indigenous and non-Indigenous research partnerships, and in particular supporting non-Indigenous researchers to think about our/their methods, assumptions and behaviour. We identify the tension in mainstream funding for such partnerships, and discuss the implications of Northern epistemological claims to agendas and universality as against Southern epistemologies acknowledging diversity and challenging oppressions. We note the distinct bases for Indigenous methodologies. Our commentary outlines and illustrates the online downloadable resources produced by our own Indigenous and non-Indigenous research partnership, including a …

Are We Planning For Equity? Equity Goals And Recommendations In Local Comprehensive Plans, Carolyn G. Loh, Rose Kim

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Problem, Research Strategy, and Findings:

Social equity goals are supposed to be prioritized in planning along with economic and environmental goals, yet in practice they are often de-emphasized. We develop a publicly available plan equity evaluation tool to investigate to what extent and in what ways local governments include goals and recommendations that would advance equitable outcomes in their comprehensive plans. Using plan content analysis, we find that most plans do not talk about equity, nor do they include many goals and recommendations that would advance equity. More recent plans, plans in communities with more planning capacity, plans in …

Landscape-Scale Differences Among Cities Alter Common Species’ Responses To Urbanization, Mason Fidino, Travis Gallo, Elizabeth W. Lehrer, Maureen H. Murray, Cria Kay, Heather A. Sander, Brandon Macdougall, Carmen M. Salsbury, Travis J. Ryan, Julia L. Angstmann, J. Amy Belaire, Barbara Dugelby, Chris Schell, Theodore Stankowich, Max Amaya, David Drake, Sheryl H. Hursh, Adam A. Ahlers, Jacque Williamson, Laurel M. Hartley, Amanda J. Zellmer, Kelly Simon

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Understanding how biodiversity responds to urbanization is challenging, due in part to the single-city focus of most urban ecological research. Here, we delineate continent-scale patterns in urban species assemblages by leveraging data from a multi-city camera trap survey and quantify how differences in greenspace availability and average housing density among 10 North American cities relate to the distribution of eight widespread North American mammals. To do so, we deployed camera traps at 569 sites across these ten cities between 18 June and 14 August. Most data came from 2017, though some cities contributed 2016 or 2018 data if it was …

Uncertain Regional Urbanism In Venezuela. Government, Infrastructure And Environment, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro

Faculty Publications

Uncertain Regional Urbanism in Venezuela explores the changes cities face when they become metropolises, forming expanding regions which create both potential and problems within settlements. To do so, it focuses on three metropolitan areas located in Venezuela’s Center-North region: Caracas, Maracay and Valencia, designated as "Camava."

Considering three core topics, government and territorial administration, infrastructure and environment, as well as looking at the reciprocal impact, this book describes and analyzes the determinant variables that characterize the phenomenon of regional urbanization in this area and in the wider Global South. It includes documentary research, semi-structured interviews and Delphi methodology, involving a …

Gateway To Outdoors: Partnership And Programming Of Outdoor Education Centers In Urban Areas, Piage O'Farrell, Hung-Ling (Stella) Liu

Health and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study is to understand the challenges and opportunities of urban outdoor education centers in partnership and programming. The context for this study involves efforts by all-season outdoor education centers, Outdoor Campus (OC), in two urban areas in South Dakota (SD). Outdoor education scope and social-ecological framework were applied to guide this qualitative study. Semi-structured interview questions were used to interview eight outdoor educators in 2019, including four individuals from each service location composed of three males and five female educators. Qualitative content analysis was applied to identify common themes and essential quotations that emerged from the …

Case Studies Of Travel Demand Analysis On Transport Disadvantaged Communities, Tierra Bills

PSU Transportation Seminars

Travel Demand Models are the backbone of decision-making for public transportation infrastructure investment. Yet, critiques of these models with respect to their usefulness and performance for transport disadvantage communities are rare in the academic literature. These disadvantage communities may include (but are not limited to) low income travelers, transit dependents, un/underemployed, and the elderly. With the objective of promoting travel demand models that are better equipped for assessing transportation impacts for disadvantaged communities, this presentation highlights lessons learned from two case studies of applying travel demand analysis to understand the transportation accessibility of low income, elderly, and transit dependent communities. …

Odu Researchers Work With Pamunkey Tribe To Address Sea Level Rise On Its Lands, Amy Matzke-Fawcett

News Items

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Social, Economic, & Environmental Justice: Ethics Of Samfundssind & Agape, Claire L. Dente

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

No abstract provided.

A Sustainability Machine: The Incineration-Based Waste Regime In Tampa, Fl, Usa, Kevin P. Martyn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent history has seen some significant changes in terms of how society thinks about and deals with its wastes. Increasingly troubling indications of the immediacy of ecological concerns, now often described by the Anthropocene concept, have been provocative of a reinvigorated fervor for a sustainability transition. As a result, sustainability has become well-established as both an urgent pursuit and an eminently pliable buzzword. This research describes and explains one key aspect of society’s pursuit of some version of sustainability: our relationship with waste.

The site of this research is Tampa, Florida, a sunbelt city with a unique waste management system. …

The Prospector, October 21, 2020, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: Jill Biden Visits El Paso

The Four Pandemics, Joshua Miller

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

COVID 19 interacts with white supremacy, economic insecurity and politcal terrorism, adversely affecting many people and populations. This article considers the consequences of these four interacting pandemics and suggests that social work, particularly clinical social work, requires radical revisioning and decolonizing to be able to ethically and adequately serve affected people.

Racial & Environmental Justice: A Primer, Corrie Grosse

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Blue Infrastructures: Natural History, Political Ecology And Urban Development In Kolkata, Dana E. Hellman, Melissa Haeffner

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

What role does a river play in shaping urban justice and resilience? Jenia Mukherjee tackles this provocative question with an equally provocative answer: rivers are critical infrastructures with biophysical and social histories, both of which inform their physical condition and socio-ecological assets. In Blue Infrastructures, Mukherjee masterfully illuminates the intersection of materiality and history in the urban environment, exploring its implications for a just and resilient future city. Tracing the uses and evolution of Kolkata's “blue infrastructures”—rivers, wetlands, seas, etc.—from the colonial period to the present, Mukherjee's analysis addresses a pressing question in this era of the Urbanocene: How …

Greening Inequality: How Urban Sustainable Development Fails Under Neoliberalism, Josie R. Allison

University Honors Theses

Despite its banner of common-good altruism, urban sustainable development becomes a branding scheme for municipalities when it operates under and prioritizes a neoliberal agenda. Neoliberalism is the dominant economic philosophy within the United States, and other western economies, that emphasizes extreme economic liberalism and open markets with public fiscal austerity and the diminished role of governments. This has transferred a great portion of power and funding once held by the public sector into the hands of the private sector. Under neoliberalism, city governments function with stripped federal funding and limited budgets, while leaning on private companies for public operations, like …