Digital Commons Network^™

The Trek With Telos: A Rememberance Ofpaul Piccone (January 19, 1940—July 12,2004), Timothy W. Luke

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Salvaging Democracy After Election 2004, Douglas Kellner

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Two Wars, Two Movements: Iraq In Light Of Vietnam, Tom Wells

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Where In The World Are We? Elections, The Color Line, The Decline Of Empire And Fireflies, Bernardine Dohrn

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Killing The Field Of Dreams: George W. Bush, Empire And Politics Of Misrecognition, Jeremy Varon

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

The Antinomies Of Brexit, Paul Smith

Fast Capitalism

Author Biography

Paul Smith, George Mason University

Paul Smith was educated at Cambridge and at the University of Kent in the UK and has a PhD in American Studies. Most of his working life has been spent in the US, including posts at Miami University OH, and Carnegie Mellon before his appointment to George Mason University in 1996. Between 1999 and 2002 he was chaired Professor and department head of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex in the UK. At Mason he has been director of the Center for the Study of the Americas and currently teaches …

Twenty-Five Years And Still Recovering: A Brief Reflection On Nafta's Impact On Southside, Virginia, Sandra Via

Fast Capitalism

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a detrimental effect on Southside, Virginia. Southside, Virginia, particularly Martinsville, VA and Henry County, VA served as a hub for the furniture and textile industries, such as Bassett Furniture and Bassett-Walker Apparel, in the United States. After NAFTA's implementation, these companies eliminated jobs and moved manufacturing overseas to China or across the border to Mexico where they could exploit low wage workers. Neglecting the social responsibility that these corporations had to the workers that had built their companies and made their products world renown, manufacturers closed their doors leaving workers without …

Neoliberal Fascism As The Endpoint Of Casino Capitalism, Henry Giroux

Fast Capitalism

This article explores neoliberal fascism as a distinctive political formation within the current historical moment. In doing so, it first analyzes neoliberalism as a project that has since the 1970s destroyed all the commanding institutions of democracy while consolidating power in the hands of a financial elite. In addition, it analyzes neoliberalism as a movement, that produces and legitimates massive economic inequality and suffering, privatizes public goods, dismantles essential government agencies, and individualizes all social problems. Under such circumstances, neoliberalism creates the conditions for right wing extremists to mobilize the anger of white disenfranchised working class populations by both appealing …

Effectiveness Of A Health Literacy Program For Enhancing Self-Care Behavior And Diabetes Prevention Among Pre-Diabetic Buddhist Monks In Upper Northeastern Thailand, Supattra Noo-In, Thidarat Somdee, Chitkamon Srichomphoo, Jirarat Ruetrakul, Chaloemporn Namyota, Le Ke Nghiep, Santisith Khiewkhern

Journal of Health Research

Background: Buddhist monks in Thailand experience distinctive lifestyle constraints—such as dependence on alms-based diets and restrictions on strenuous physical activity—that heighten their vulnerability to type 2 diabetes. This study examined the effectiveness of a structured health literacy program in improving diabetes-preventive self-care behaviors among pre-diabetic Buddhist monks in upper northeastern Thailand.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 72 pre-diabetic monks, evenly allocated to intervention and comparison groups. The intervention group completed a 24-week structured health literacy program. Health literacy and self-care behaviors were assessed using validated questionnaires before and after the intervention, and the data were analyzed using descriptive …

Understanding Mobility Limitations And Public Transportation Accessibility For People With Disabilities, Jada Meria Stringer

ETDs from 2020-2029

Mobility for people with disabilities (PWDs) depends on both the availability of transportation and public services and the accessibility of these systems. The presence of public transportation systems does not ensure usability. Vehicles, infrastructure, and the built environment must be designed to accommodate diverse physical, sensory, cognitive, and other needs. PWDs must also be able to navigate public buildings and surrounding spaces safely and comfortably. This thesis examines mobility limitations for PWDs in India and the United States, focusing on accessibility along the full mobility chain. A review of existing literature provides context on accessibility policies, design standards, and the …

Predicting Perceived Immigrant Threat To National Identity Based On Christian Nationalism, White Racial Centrality, And Social Dominance Orientation, Anna Caroline Kinney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Immigrants remain frequent targets of anti-immigrant hate speech, often amplified by right-wing media. Demographic factors such as Christian nationalism (i.e., the desire to preserve Christian symbols, beliefs, and policies preserved as the established religion of the United States), White racial centrality (i.e., an automatic association between the self and the White ingroup), and social dominance orientation (i.e., support for group-based hierarchies and inequality) significantly shape perceptions of immigrants as a threat to national identity. Although prior research has examined these factors independently, their relative importance in predicting perceived immigrant threat remains limited. Informed by intergroup threat theory, this quantitative study …

Reflective Parenting, Psychological Needs, And Parental Interpretation Of Children’S Negative Emotions, Julia Pappas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Parents’ ability to understand and respond effectively to children’s negative emotions plays a critical role in children’s emotional development and regulation. However, it remains unclear whether parents interpret negative emotions as potential signals of underlying psychological needs. Based in the conceptual framework of parental reflective functioning and basic psychological needs theory, and grounded in interpretivist- constructivist paradigm, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to examine how parents interpret children’s negative emotions and how their meaning-making processes relate to basic psychological needs. Semistructured interviews were conducted with parents of children between ages 3 and 9 years old (N = …

An Assessment Of New Employee Training In A U.S. Government Agency, Kisaana Fernanders

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study evaluated the utility of a newly developed employee training initiative within a U.S. government disaster recovery agency. The purpose of the professional administrative study was to examine the existing training architecture and recommend improvements aligned with the agency’s mission. A general qualitative approach was employed, using interviews and surveys with government personnel to elicit their perceptions of the training’s effectiveness. The research aimed to identify key elements to incorporate into a revised employee training program, with the goal of enhancing disaster response readiness and policy implementation. It also sought to recommend strategies for continuous improvement. The study was …

Pandemic Mask Mandates And Closures Were Linked To Increased Gun Violence, Douglas A. Wolf, Emily W. Wiemers, Iliya Gutin, Jennifer Karas Montez, Shannon M. Monnat

Population Health Research Brief Series

Gun violence worsened substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief summarizes findings from a study using weekly gun violence casualty data from 2016-2021 for 304 U.S. counties from the Gun Violence Archive and COVID-19 policy data from county-level measures of activity restrictions and masking requirements. The authors find that policies requiring masking and activity restrictions were associated with significant increases in gun violence. Indoor masking requirements were linked to a 28% increase in gun violence, while activity restrictions were associated with a 4.2% increase.

Micromobility In Nyc: 2025, Mike Owen Benediktsson Phd, Xuemeng Li Phd

Publications and Research

This report offers a statistical snapshot of micromobility across the city over a three-week period in late 2025. Our team of trained researchers systematically observed over 1,700 micromobility vehicles at 155 separate intersections across the five boroughs of New York City. Our primary findings describe overall patterns in the demographics of micromobility and vehicle behavior at city intersections, and show how this behavior is shaped by variations in infrastructure as well as individual-level attributes.

Characterization Of Social Media Use Patterns Among Hispanic/Latinx Dementia Caregivers And Its Impact On Mental Health, Sofia Mildrum Chana

ETDs from 2020-2029

Hispanic & Latinx (H&L) family caregivers of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs) experience high levels of stress that can negatively impact their mental health and may turn to social networking sites (SNS, commonly known as ‘social media’) for coping or social support. However, no research has yet examined how SNS use influences H&L caregiver mental health. The primary purpose of the present study was to characterize patterns of SNS use among H&L ADRD family caregivers and examine the associations between SNS use and caregivers’ mental health and well-being. Data for the present study come from the …

Hard Hats And Second Chances: A Phenomenological Study Of Employer Support In Construction-Based Reintegration, Christofer M. Pacheco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study examines how formerly incarcerated individuals perceive and experience employer support during workplace reintegration in the construction industry. Although employment is widely recognized as a protective factor against recidivism, post-hire experiences from the perspective of justice-involved employees remain underexplored. Grounded in an interpretivist paradigm and informed by Social Support, Social Learning, and Identity perspectives, the study investigated how structure, self, and environment interact to influence retention, growth, and desistance.

Nineteen interviews were completed with six construction workers in New Mexico who had maintained employment for at least one year following incarceration. Through the use of Seidman’s three-interview …

Examining Pain- Related Stigma And Sources Of Resilience In Children With Disorders Of Gut-Brain Interaction, Tolulope Adetayo

ETDs from 2020-2029

Background. Painful disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBI) affect approximately one in five children. In addition to functional impairments, DGBI increase risk for felt stigma (FS) from providers, school personnel, family members, and peers. Children with DGBI may also belong to other minoritized groups that intersect with pain-related FS. However, little is known about how intersectionality impacts the stigma and pain experiences of youth. Further, little is known about the protective capabilities of psychosocial resources (e.g., social support and hope) against FS. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of FS and its potential moderators in a sample of …

Posterior Cerebellar Lobe Deviations And Social Cognition In Individuals With Psychosis And Their Unaffected Relatives, Andreea Maria Stanica

ETDs from 2020-2029

Social cognition deficits observed in psychotic disorders contribute to functional impairments. The cerebellum has been identified as a critical brain region involved in social cognitive processes, but the relationship between cerebellar structural deviations and social cognition in individuals with psychosis (probands) and their unaffected relatives remains unclear. Using normative modeling, this study examined cerebellar volume deviations in probands and their unaffected first-degree relatives and investigated associations with social cognitive and motor performance. Probands exhibited significant theory of mind deficits compared to relatives. Probands showed negative deviations in anterior cerebellar lobe relative to the norm, whereas relatives did not. Deviations in …

The Effectiveness Of A Web-Based, Edutainment Intervention On Hiv-Related Stigma, Hiv Knowledge, And Condom Use Self-Efficacy Among Black/African American Emerging Adults, Shirlacia Gray

ETDs from 2020-2029

The Effectiveness of a Web-Based, Edutainment Intervention on HIV-Related Stigma, HIV Knowledge, and Condom Use Self-Efficacy among Black/African American Emerging Adults SHIRLACIA S. GRAY APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY ABSTRACT Background: Edutainment interventions were developed to increase knowledge, to influence people’s attitudes and behaviors toward sexual, social and public health issues, and to promote behavior change. This current study implemented an edutainment intervention to examine its effectiveness on increasing HIV knowledge, reducing HIV-related stigma, and increasing condom use self-efficacy among Black/African American Emerging Adults in Birmingham, AL. Methods: This current study used longitudinal data from the City Health-II intervention for secondary data …

Exploring Criminality Through A Developmental Lens: Contextual Effects From Childhood To Emerging Adulthood, Abigail Jeanette Anderson

ETDs from 2020-2029

Adolescent delinquency is a key predictor of later criminal behaviors and is associated with negative outcomes across education, employment, and health. Despite extensive research, gaps remain regarding the interplay of individual- and context-level factors in the development of delinquency, as well as the reliance on cross-sectional or retrospective designs. Guided by a social-ecological framework, the present dissertation examines how family, school, and neighborhood contexts interact with individual behaviors to shape pathways toward delinquency and adult criminality across childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. The first study investigated the cascading effects of paternal engagement, parental aggravation, and early child behavior problems in …

Minding Machines: A Note On Alienation, Sascha Engel

Fast Capitalism

This paper discusses an underrepresented dimension of contemporary alienation: that of machines, and particularly of computing machines. The term 'machine' is understood here in the broadest sense, spanning anything from agricultural harvesters to cars and planes. Likewise, 'computing machine' is understood broadly, from homeostatic machines, such as thermostats, to algorithmic universal machines, such as smartphones. I suggest that a form of alienation manifests in the functionalist use and description of machines in general; that is, in descriptions of machines as mere tools or testaments to human ingenuity. Such descriptions ignore the real and often capricious existence of machines as everyday …

Max Weber's Odyssey: The Wild West, The Frontier, And The Capitalist Spirit, David Norman Smith

Fast Capitalism

This article examines one aspect of Weber's thinking with respect to the United States: his view of frontier regions as new horizons for capitalism. This was not an incidental or side issue for Weber, whose famed analysis of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was only half-finished when he traveled through the United States in 1904. Nor is Weber's outlook on this topic immaterial for contemporary historians, many of whom now affirm quasi-Weberian views under such rubrics as "the New Western" history. A full account of Weber's notion of the frontier would exceed the limits of a journal …

Divining Domination: Steve Bannon As A Political Mystagogue, Tony Allen Feldmann

Fast Capitalism

Right-wing commentators (on tv, radio, newspapers, documentaries, or the internet) are often considered a source of misinformation and radicalization in American politics. Understanding the role of such commentators in the political sphere has taken on new significance since the election of Trump, who regularly takes talking points as well as political advice from prominent figures in right-wing media. The purpose of these political "shock jocks" also extends beyond mere political commentary: They offer their audience a framework for understanding the world. This framework contains certain reified perceptions of society and history. Durkheim and those working in his tradition have long …

Hamlet's Father: Hauntology And The Roots Of The Modern Self, Lukas Szrot

Fast Capitalism

In his 1949 work Hamlet's Ghost, Richard Flatter wrote of the ghost of Hamlet's father that the play ultimately belongs to him, to the ghost.   Modernity, like the play, belongs to its ghosts, to its dead fathers haunting their wayward sons, the metaphysical specters it imperfectly endeavors to exorcise. Critical theory has often focused on the possibility, and the contours, of a utopia populated by liberatory spirit and liberated persons. Less well explored, however, are the implications for tradition, religion, and the transmission of culture at a metaphorical echelon—those ostensibly "pre-modern" ideas which the broader project of Enlightenment liberalism never …

Sociopoetics In The Works Of Shakespeare, Thomas Bechtold

Fast Capitalism

This study is meant to develop an immanent critique following the dialogism of socio-poetics in the literary criticism of Mikhail Bakhtin. Socio-poetics in the reception and composition of Shakespeare's works reflect the first intimations of social and political transformation to a modern nationalized society from a premodern feudal society. This study explores Shakespeare's use of metaphor through his dramatizations and characterizations at the dawn of modernity and the decline of feudalism: identifying contradictions and tensions that intimate this transformation in English society and language, and, providing an approach to this globalizing language that partakes in simultaneous modes of confabulation and …

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves, Mark P. Worrell

Fast Capitalism

Introduction to the Symposium: "Cultural Reflections of Capital."

Author Biography

Mark P. Worrell, SUNY Cortland Professor, Retired

The Indispensable Role Of The Sister Disability Agencies: Safeguarding Progress And Enhancing Outcomes Through Collaboration, Lesley Cottrell, Susan Given, Christina E. Wiseman

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

This manuscript emphasizes the critical importance of having a Disability Network of services—including University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs), State Councils on Developmental Disabilities, and Protection & Advocacy organizations - in promoting systemic innovation and improved outcomes for individuals with developmental disabilities. Highlighting a case study from West Virginia, where collaboration between West Virginia University’s Center for Excellence in Disabilities, Disability Rights of West Virginia, and the West Virginia Developmental Disabilities Council has resulted in cost-effective, sustainable improvements, this paper underscores the urgent need to protect and expand these programs amidst current policy threats. The evidence underscores that …

Increasing Participation Through Online Focus Groups With Adults With Intellectual Disabilities, Emily L. Cary, Chris A. Taylor, Susan Havercamp, Andrea Witwer

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

The aim of this study was to develop and describe methods on how to conduct virtual focus groups with adults with intellectual disability. Using a community-engaged research approach, adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities helped develop virtual focus group methods. We report on the implementation of these methods through an illustrative application of applying these adaptations to virtual focus groups with 13 adults with intellectual disability in a study assessing their perspectives on mental health therapy.

This work resulted in several adaptations that can enhance inclusivity of focus group research to individuals with intellectual disability. Adaptions broadly included: involving guardians …

Training On "Learn The Signs. Act Early." In Head Start And Early Head Start Shows Ineffective Without Supporting Implementation Policy, Kayla Livingston, Mary O'Donnell, Kate G. Barlow

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Early identification and intervention for children with developmental delays improves child outcomes, yet many children are not monitored, screened, or identified early despite its effectiveness. The relationship between the use of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” developmental monitoring program and referrals to intervention services is not well understood. This study investigated how “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” implementation practices within Massachusetts’ Head Start and Early Head Start agencies correlated with the rate of referrals to intervention services. Researchers utilized a non-experimental quantitative design. Secondary data on referral rates from Head Start and Early …