Digital Commons Network^™

Advancing Knowledge Sharing In Development Organisations: Barriers, Enablers And Strategies, Peter Gatiti

Libraries

This paper aims to examine the obstacles and enablers of knowledge sharing in development organisations and determine how each factor affects knowledge sharing in different organisations. It also highlights strategies for successful deployment of knowledge sharing techniques.

The paper opted for a mixed-method approach with a sequential explanatory design. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires administered to development practitioners (n=331) and in-depth interviews with key informants (n=11).

The paper provides empirical insights on different knowledge sharing barriers and enablers encountered in development organisations. Overall, eight categories of knowledge sharing enablers emerged from the study. These include culture, strategy, reward system, …

Redesigning Schools Of Social Work Into Schools Of Social Work And Social Justice: Opportunities For Civic And Organizational Renewal In A Justice Reform Environment, Bowen Mcbeath, Michael J. Austin

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper explores the re-envisioning of a school of social work into a School of Social Work and Social Justice. The thought experiment identifies how a school can meet its educational and social justice mission in response to the historic crises of 2020. An outgrowth of the aspirational strategic vision statement is the proposed strengthening of democratic learning spaces involving students and faculty members, better alignment of school curricular reform with human service workforce dynamics and social work practice needs, and an emphasis on culturally responsive leadership. The overall intention is to identify opportunities for social work schools and departments …

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Fair Housing And Transit-Centric Development: Finding A Path Forward, Alison Cingolani

Master's Projects

This study examines the implementation of land use planning under SB 375, and analyzes the siting of low-income housing related to areas rich in opportunity in Santa Clara County. How do sites planned or chosen for the development of housing in the current planning cycle relate to areas of opportunity?

The Role Of Culture In Sustainable Communities: The Case Of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), Pamela A. Mischen, Carl P. Lipo

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

We explore how the combination of cultural heritage and present-day cultural affili- ations influences the construction of the concept of sustainability at the scale of the community using the case study of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). We argue that overlapping affiliations—expressed through administrative culture, organizational culture, and professional culture—influence the views held by governance leaders. Furthermore, the role of cultural heritage must be considered in efforts to change and perpetuate sustainability-related behaviors within a community. Using archeo- logical and historical evidence from the pre-contact and historical record of Rapa Nui, we discuss how cultural heritage evolved endogenously in response …

The Role Of Culture In Sustainable Communities: The Case Of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), Pamela A. Mischen, Carl P. Lipo

Anthropology Datasets

We explore how the combination of cultural heritage and present-day cultural affili- ations influences the construction of the concept of sustainability at the scale of the community using the case study of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). We argue that overlapping affiliations—expressed through administrative culture, organizational culture, and professional culture—influence the views held by governance leaders. Furthermore, the role of cultural heritage must be considered in efforts to change and perpetuate sustainability-related behaviors within a community. Using archeo- logical and historical evidence from the pre-contact and historical record of Rapa Nui, we discuss how cultural heritage evolved endogenously in response …

Going Green: A Comparative Analysis Of Green Urbanism In Paris And Shanghai, Jeanne Torp

Honors Theses

As climate change becomes more pressing with each day and as we scramble to slow down the challenges it poses, adapting the means of operation within our cities will become an invaluable tool for reducing humanity’s carbon footprint. This paper seeks to study the ways in which green infrastructure in global cities can be used to do just that—adapting to and mitigating the effects of challenges resulting from climate change. In order to provide a broad overview of the effectiveness of such green infrastructure systems across the globe, this research will focus on two cities that vary greatly in their …

Where Is The Social Democracy In Subscription Paywalls? Effects And Impact Of Transitioning Journals From Subscriptions To Open Access On Researchers In Developing And Transition Economies, Colleen Campbell, Rick Burke

Digital Initiatives Symposium

Nearly 20 years after the Budapest, Berlin and Bethesda Declarations on open access, the global academic community continues to struggle toward realizing its objective of an open information environment in which the world’s scholarly and scientific literature is freely available and at the service of society to accelerate research, enrich education and lay the foundation for a common, global intellectual exchange. Championing the cause, stakeholders in some geographic contexts have succeeded in delivering open access publishing options for their research outputs by fostering highly-regarded, locally-developed journals, platforms and repositories, yet a an enormous portion of the world’s scholarly literature continues …

Navigating Conversations Of Environmentalism On Social Media: From The Apocalyptic To The Aesthetic, Megan Provenzale

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

This project examines environmental discourse and rhetorical appeals used on Instagram by environmental influencers and addresses the lack of scholarship about social mobile commerce, Instagram, and the popularity of “eco-influencers.” My research applies post-composition studies, circulation, and visual rhetoric to two eco-influencers, Greta Thunberg (@gretathunbeerg) and Jessica Clifton (@impactforgood). I argue that Thunberg and Clifton employ aesthetic and apocalyptic rhetoric to educate and communicate with their following about reducing their carbon footprint and reversing climate change. By collecting three months of Instagram posts employed by each influencer, I identify patterns related to environmentalism, stylistic choices in captions, and presentation of …

The Impact Of A Sustainable Muslim Model On Community Development With Special Reference To Religious Tourism, Tariq H. M. Elhadary

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper uses the descriptive qualitative approach to answer questions about how a Sustainable Muslim Model (SMM) could work as a new approach to developing and sustaining communities. This study embraces the textual analysis method to examine the prevailing published research in the context of sustainability and community development. A number of scholars have approved this textual analysis method as a tool to study religious texts.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview and discuss the status, issues and challenge of community development in tourism. As religious tourism is gaining more ground over time, the need to …

Pulling The Food System Up By The Roots: How Do We Build An Equitable Food System In The Twin Cities?, Aubrey A. Hagen

Geography Honors Projects

Prior to 2020, food insecurity was already a pervasive problem in the United States, with limited access to adequate, nutritious foods being linked to numerous poor physical and psychological outcomes. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and civil uprisings in response to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence, the Twin Cities communities are facing overlapping crises that threaten individual and community wellbeing and food security. How do we build a just, equitable, and “crisis-proof” food system? Drawing from theoretical frameworks in social epidemiology and radical food geography, this paper assesses how the local food system and community food insecurity in …

Assessment Bank, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 01: Introduction to Urban Ecology

No abstract provided.

Forest Stories, Victoria Bearden, Nate Berger, Kristen Cooney, Peter Scuderi

Environment and Sustainability Presentations

In the fall semester, the Forests and People class examined diverse human-forest interactions and how people find value within these ecosystems. To apply the lessons learned in class, student teams conducted four separate in-depth interviews with individuals who reside or work in forested areas to examine how these individuals define their relationship to local forests. The interview format encouraged open, personalized engagement between students and speakers, focusing on identifying ecological values and their importance in shaping forest management. This presentation focuses on an ARCgis storymap production composed of two selected interviews with individuals in western Oregon. One interview evaluated the …

Theory And Practice: Selecting And Implementing Effective Framing To Present Climate Science To A Lay Audience, Lauren Wilson

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the advantages and effectiveness of using storytelling in the form of narrative journalism to communicate the topic of climate science to a lay audience. The thesis combines personal experience with secondary research in order to support the claim that framing the issue in such a manner effectively communicates the severity and impact of climate change.

Through my research I discovered that storytelling is not only a social tool for humans, but a means to safely and efficiently pass on vital information to those unfamiliar with certain knowledge. The use of narrative has …

Conjunto Sounds In A Company Town: Decolonizing Movidas, San Antonio’S Quarrytown, And “La Piedrera” Polka, Alejandro Wolbert Pérez

NACCS Annual Conference Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Incorporating Environmental Justice Into Youth Education, Morgan F. Prittie

Community Engagement Student Work

Social Justice is a concept which is often glossed over or excluded from student education, particularly the issues associated with Environmental Justice. Discrimination, oppression, and poor environmental practices all coalesce into dangerously impactful issues, which can be combated by further education and exposure. This project seeks to spread awareness of Environmental Justice issues, provide educators with the tools to implement social justice education, and express the importance of such exposure to students. This interdisciplinary project utilizes the facilitation of a workshop with lessons, activities, and opportunities for participants to engage in discussions. The goal of the workshop was to describe …

Net-Zero Affordable Housing, Nash Kelly, Calee Martin, Morgan Davis

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, spring 2021

Poster titled Net-Zero Affordable Housing with client City of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Communication And Social Education Of Emissions And Energy Use In Nebraska, Maya Kaechele, Diana Mcgraw, Kyle Hauder

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, spring 2021

Poster titled Communication and Social Education of Emissions and Energy Use in Nebraska with clients City of Grand Island, Nebraska; City of Norfolk, Nebraska; and University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Adult Education For Japanese Immigrant Community: Social Bonding To Social Bridging, Naomi Nakamura

Community Engagement Student Work

Many Japanese who have been living in the U.S. for more than decades identify themselves as Japanese, not U.S. citizens. This so called transnational identity has an impact on how they assimilate or integrate to American social life. The purpose of this project is to explore the better learning environment and the effects of education for Japanese adult immigrants who may not actively participate in local communities. A workshop was held with Japanese residents in the Boston area to explore microaggressions and how people can think about their engagement with their communities. Workshop evaluation findings suggested that there is a …

City Best Practices To Improve Transit Operations And Safety, Michelle Derobertis, Christopher E. Ferrell, Richard W. Lee, David Moore

Mineta Transportation Institute

Public, fixed-route transit services most commonly operate on public streets. In addition, transit passengers must use sidewalks to access transit stops and stations. However, streets and sidewalks are under the jurisdiction of municipalities, not transit agencies. Various municipal policies, practices, and decisions affect transit operations, rider convenience, and passenger safety. Thus, these government entities have an important influence over the quality, safety, and convenience of transit services in their jurisdictions. This research identified municipal policies and practices that affect public transport providers’ ability to deliver transit services. They were found from a comprehensive literature review, interviews and discussions with five …

Urban Mayors Press-Spring 2021, John S. Watson Institute For Urban Policy & Research At Kean University

Urban Mayors Policy Center

The Urban Mayors Press is a digital newsletter created to highlight the impactful work of New Jersey Urban Mayors Association (NJUMA) members and to provide resourceful information to municipalities throughout New Jersey from federal, state and local agencies.

Exploring Shared Leadership And Multi-Organizational Collaboration In Sport For Development And Peace, Seungmin Kang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although multi-organizational collaborations have become a trend in the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector, existing research remains limited to collaborations between two organizations. Further, researchers continue to report managerial challenges of the multi-organizational collaborations and emphasize leadership as a key component for achieving desired outcomes in SDP collaborations. Thus, the purpose of this research was to explore the role of shared leadership in multi-organizational SDP collaboratives. Three research questions guided this study to explore the role of shared leadership through the lived experiences of SDP practitioners: (a) How is leadership shared between members in multi-organizational SDP collaboratives?, (b) …

Planning Batch Cataloging Projects, Rebecca B. French

Libraries

Many libraries have uncataloged collections or backlogs which could benefit from batch processing, and much professional development for metadata specialists focuses on software tools that can facilitate this work, but it is not always clear how to get started putting those new skills into action. This webinar will introduce the basics of planning a batch cataloging project. Attendees will be led through a series of questions to help them identify appropriate projects for a batch cataloging approach, evaluate available technological and personnel resources, and assess their starting point based on a batch cataloging framework. The webinar will cover designing a …

Don's Conference Notes- Shopping The New Status Quo: The 41st Society For Scholarly Publishing Meeting, Donald T. Hawkins, Leah H. Hinds

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Decentralized Governments: Local Empowerment And Sustainable Development Challenges In Africa, George Atisa, Aziza Zemrani, Matthew Weiss

Public Affairs and Security Studies Faculty Publications

This study examines the extent to which decentralization is being utilized as a vehicle for sustainable economic development outcomes at all levels of governance in Africa. Research shows that decentralization is missing the triple-bottom line of sustainability: economic, social and environmental prosperity that meets current needs and does not take away from future generations in regions settled by indigenous communities. In this study, selected peer-reviewed literature and reports from conservation organizations on decentralization are analyzed. This research explores ways decentralization can be integrated with sustainability to minimize the short-term and long-run consequences of human actions on the environment at local …

Facilitators And Barriers To Implementation Of Community-Based Socio-Ecological Approaches To Obesity Prevention Among Cooperative Extension Agents, Denise Holson, Jessica Stroope, Melissa Cater

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes of Cooperative Extension Service (CES) Family and Consumer Science (FCS) agents related to the planning and implementation of community-based multi-level ecological obesity prevention strategies were identified through qualitative, exploratory research. Focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted in the five regions of the Louisiana State University CES (LSU AgCenter). Participants included CES FCS Extension agents (n = 35; 97% of agents). Participants were female and responsible for conducting programming in parishes (counties). Thematic analysis of data found principal factors that influenced FCS Extension agents’ perceived ability to plan and implement community-based multi-level obesity prevention approaches to include …

Is “Just Googling It” Good Enough For First-Year Students?, Maureen Richards

Publications and Research

This study analyzes citations by first-year students to determine what content they were citing and whether it was available through the open web or the library. Examining the role of these two places as content providers for academic work fills a gap in the literature. Most of the cited works were available through the library and the open web. As the line between content providers continues to blur, these results can help academic libraries prioritize what to teach students about information literacy, where to focus collection development efforts and how to promote the discovery of library resources.

Bi-Objective Optimization For Battery Electric Bus Deployment Considering Cost And Environmental Equity, Xiaoyue Cathy Liu, Yirong Zhou, Ran Wei, Aaron Golub, Devin Macarthur

TREC Final Reports

Public transit, compared with passenger cars, can effectively help conserve energy, reduce air pollution, and optimize flow on roadways. In recent years, Battery Electric Bus (BEB) is receiving an increasing amount of attention from the transit vehicle industry and transit agencies due to recent advances in battery technologies and the direct environmental benefits it can offer (e.g., zero emissions, less noise). However, limited efforts have been attempted on the effective deployment planning of the BEB system due to the unique spatiotemporal features associated with the system itself (e.g., driving range, bus scheduling). In this project, we developed an innovative spatiotemporal …

Beyond Community Characteristics: A Leader's Gender And Local Government Adoption Of Energy Conservation Practices And Redistributive Programs, George C. Homsy, Kristina T. Lambright

Public Administration Faculty Scholarship

Most research examining factors associated with local government adoption of sustainability practices focuses on the impact of community characteristics. Little is known about whether adoption is also related to the characteristics of the leaders in these jurisdictions. To address this gap in the literature, this exploratory study uses data from a national survey of U.S. local governments (n = 1,672) to examine the potential correlation between adoption of certain sustainability practices and the gender of a jurisdiction’s highest elected official. Our regression models find that jurisdictions led by women were more likely to have adopted redistributive programmes and practices encouraging …

Internationalization Of Environmental Education For Global Citizenship, Bowen Mcbeath, Qing Tian, Chen Wang, Bin Xu

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present a teaching-and-learning case study of a 2018–2019 university-based summer institute in Beijing, China that concerned environmental education in support of global citizenship, involving Chinese and international faculty from education, social work, and related disciplines. The case study identifies: (1) the context of the summer institute; (2) its goals, design, and basic content; and (3) lessons learned for social work education. Specific attention is paid to: the importance of connecting university-based ecosocial work education with community-based practice in a Chinese context; addressing global social and environmental justice concerns through rural collaborative problem-solving; and navigating disciplinary boundaries involving social work …