Digital Commons Network^™

Finding A Place To Belong: The Role Of Social Inclusion In The Lives Of Homeless Men, Meaghan Bell, Christine A. Walsh

The Qualitative Report

This study explores the role of informal social support networks of male homeless shelter residents. Authors utilized ethnographic methods, relationality and reflexive research approaches and key informant interviews with 10 shelter residents to investigate perceptions of belonging in overcoming social exclusion and countering the stigmatization cast onto as a result of their condition of homelessness. Study findings challenge our normative conceptions of homelessness by discerning between “rooflessness” and “rootlessness” suggesting that homelessness is more than the absence of shelter, but rather denotes the absence of support and inclusion in one’s community. This research highlights a community within the shelter characterized …

A Case Study: The Role Of Women In Creating Community On The Dakota Frontier, 1880 To 1920, Ruth Page Jones

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

A CASE STUDY: THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CREATING COMMUNITY

ON THE DAKOTA FRONTIER, 1880 TO 1920

by

Ruth Page Jones

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Genevieve G. McBride

During the Dakota Boom years of 1878 to 1887, Dakota Territory welcomed droves of new families, adding close to 400,000 people in the 1880s. Creating new homes on the treeless prairie, many people faced the challenge of sustaining life without the benefit of an established community. The conditions were too harsh, the weather too unpredictable, and the economy too fragile for anyone to live in …

Cenotes As Conceptual Boundary Markers At The Ancient Maya Site Of T’Isil, Quintana Roo, México, Scott L. Fedick, Jennifer P. Mathews, Kathryn Sorensen

Jennifer P Mathews

Ancient Maya communities, from small village sites to urban centers, have long posed problems to archaeologists in attempting to define the boundaries or limits of settlement. These ancient communities tend to be relatively dispersed, with settlement densities dropping toward the periphery, but lacking any clear boundary. At a limited number of sites, the Maya constructed walled enclosures or earthworks, which scholars have generally interpreted as defensive projects, often hastily built to protect the central districts of larger administrative centers during times of warfare (e.g., Demarest et al. 1997; Inomata 1997; Kurjack and Andrews 1976; Puleston and Callender 1967; Webster 2000; …

In Search Of Safety, Negotiating Everyday Forms Of Risk: Sex Work, Criminalization, And Hiv/Aids In The Slums Of Kampala, Serena Cruz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers an in-depth descriptive account of how women manage daily risks associated with sex work, criminalization, and HIV/AIDS. Primary data collection took place within two slums in Kampala, Uganda over the course of fourteen months. The emphasis was on ethnographic methodologies involving participant observation and informal and unstructured interviewing. Insights then informed document analysis of international and national policies concerning HIV prevention and treatment strategies in the context of Uganda. The dissertation finds social networks and social capital provide the basis for community formation in the sex trade. It holds that these interpersonal processes are necessary components for …

From Isolation To Collaboration: An Autoethnographic Account, Andrew Sutherland

The Qualitative Report

In this paper I explore my personal experiences with collaborative music performance projects. Collaborations between different groups of musicians can be a transformative moment in the lives of students and music educators. The process of collaboration provides opportunities that cannot always be achieved when an ensemble performs alone. Many of these projects were undertaken in my role as a music educator responsible for school music ensembles but in one case, as a conductor of a community band. This idiographic auto-ethnographical study is based on my own reflective journal, which was analysed using Autoethnography and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. The themes identified …

Applying The Pedagogy Of The Oppressed: A Review Of Creatingtogether: Participatory, Community-Based, And Collaborative Artspractices And Scholarship Across Canada, Bruce Lilyea

The Qualitative Report

Creating Together: Participatory, Community-Based, and Collaborative Arts Practices and Scholarship across Canada offers a series of real-life practical examples where the concepts of the book title are effectively applied and an impact is made in a range of places across Canada and with a range of marginalized groups. By using a comparative approach, this review links the material presented in Creating Together: Participatory, Community-based, and Collaborative Arts Practices and Scholarship across Canada to the concepts presented in Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The examples in Creating Together offer pragmatic applications of Freire’s concepts and provide a series of pragmatic illustration …

Expanding Community Identity: Opportunities For Interdisciplinary Collaboration In Government Practices To Engage Local-Born And Foreign-Born Residents In Building A Stronger Community, Lara Tobin

21st Century Social Justice

Neighborhood building is essential to a diverse and strong New York. We are currently in a progressive political climate where legislation is being crafted so that the laws of New York reflect its residents. This includes foreign-born residents, who have successfully advocated for, and been a part of, this changing legislation. There is work to be done now by local-born residents to increase their ability to change their definition of community to be inclusive, facilitated by social workers and local government offices to ensure that the legislative changes are implemented in the spirit fought for by the coalition of advocates.

What Does It Mean To Be Pro-Life?, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"For me, being pro-life means being pro-adoption, pro-foster care, and pro-social programs."

Posting about the many dimensions of a pro-life stance from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-pro-life/

National Assessment Program : Civics And Citizenship Years 6 And 10 Report 2013, Julian Fraillon, Wolfram Schulz, Judy Nixon, Eveline Gebhardt

Julian Fraillon

This report presents the findings of the 2013 National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship (NAP – CC) and is conducted under the auspices of the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC) Education Council. Under the National Assessment Program, the Civics and Citizenship sample assessment is administered to a representative sample of Year 6 and Year 10 students on a triennial cycle. After three rounds of assessments – which were undertaken in 2004, 2007 and 2010 – this report looks at the 2013 assessment and examines emerging trends. The National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship measures …

National Assessment Program : Civics And Citizenship Years 6 And 10 Report 2013, Julian Fraillon, Wolfram Schulz, Judy Nixon, Eveline Gebhardt

Dr Wolfram Schulz

This report presents the findings of the 2013 National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship (NAP – CC) and is conducted under the auspices of the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC) Education Council. Under the National Assessment Program, the Civics and Citizenship sample assessment is administered to a representative sample of Year 6 and Year 10 students on a triennial cycle. After three rounds of assessments – which were undertaken in 2004, 2007 and 2010 – this report looks at the 2013 assessment and examines emerging trends. The National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship measures …

Parole And Probation Officers' Perceptions Of Management Effectiveness In Baltimore County, Maryland, Valencia Tamir Johnson Dr.

Valencia T Johnson

Management practices in the rehabilitation and criminal justice system are primarily concerned with how employees sense, collect, organize, and process information regarding the criminal offender. The purpose of this quantitative study was to measure parole and probation officers' perceptions regarding management support and effectiveness in the workplace, with particular emphasis on communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution. Herzberg's 2-factor theory of motivation served as the theoretical framework for the study, supporting the concept of participatory management as a central factor in job satisfaction. A researcher-designed, Likert-type questionnaire was administered to a randomly selected sample of 31 parole and probation officers in …

[Re]Constructing Community: A Strategy For Post-Disaster Recovery, Ryan James Stechmann

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on exploring a viable solution for permanent housing after a natural disaster with an emphasis on community rebuilding in a southern coastal context. This region will continue to be affected by hurricanes and it is only a matter of time until another major disaster will happen. In any major disaster the fabric of the community is torn and takes a long time to recover. Communal places are vital to recovery after such disasters because they serve as a place where the people of the community can gather and provide support or receive support from each other and …

Experiences And Perceptions Of Community: The Fayetteville High School Community Photography Project, Stephanie Collier

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Fayetteville High School Community Photography Project was conducted with 10th-12th grade students in Spring 2014 as part of a participatory art project through their Sociology class. This study uses participant photographs and surveys to better understand student variation in community perceptions and connections. Participant photographs serve as a way to “see” how high school students perceive community. Survey data gathered on the same sample are used to measure individual-level characteristics such as perceived neighborhood deterioration, neighborhood satisfaction, and Social capital to better understand how they impact feelings of community connectedness in youth. Results indicate that Social capital plays an …

Exploring Diverse Perspectives On The Mental Health And Community Support Systems For Immigrant And Refugee Children, Taylor Marlow

Sociology Major Research Papers

Despite an extensive history with immigration, structural barriers and health inequities for immigrant and refugee populations continue to be widely documented within Canada. As a result, attention to particularly vulnerable subgroups such as newcomer children has become increasingly paramount. However, large gaps concerning newcomer children’s wellbeing persist within previous literature. In response, this study examines newcomer children’s issues, the roles of family and community support systems, and the impact of sociopolitical factors from the perspective of key stakeholders. A total of 15 newcomer parents and community professionals were interviewed in order to illuminate the current context of support for immigrant …

Defining The Other, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

G. W. F. Hegel said: “Everything is what is not.” Throughout human history, we find a continuous struggle to define the other, the foreigner, the unknown, the opposite of we or I. And, as the quote from Hegel indicates, what they are, that we are not, helps define the frontiers of personal and group identity.

Otterbein University Diversity And Inclusion Plan 2015_2020, Jefferson Blackburn-Smith

Diversity and Inclusion Committee Documents

Otterbein recognizes that in order to live up to the standards of inclusion and diversity that were present at our founding and throughout our history, we must be strategic, deliberate and diligent in our efforts to actualize a diverse and inclusive community. Simply hoping for the best will not suffice.

This multi-year Plan for Diversity and Inclusion is the framework to actualize a diverse and inclusive community. The Plan is a series of strategies and recommendations for the Otterbein community which, when fully implemented, will significantly enhance the sense of diversity and inclusion in our community. Chief among these strategies …

Museum Activism And Social Responsibility: Building Museum Education Programs For Juvenile Offenders, Elizabeth E. Sirhall

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Museums are important to their communities and serve many significant purposes to society. The traditional viewpoint of a museum’s function is that they are there to preserve and interpret collections for the sake of facilitating deeper understanding and education for museum audiences. However, museums are also viewed as institutions that can bring people in the community together, promote social activism, and develop programs aimed towards creating positive changes within communities. In today’s world, museums are finding this task increasingly difficult due to financial challenges and struggling to stay socially relevant for diversified audiences. In facing this challenge, it is imperative …

Gather, Katie M. Meek

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Food is both basic and multifaceted. It nourishes satisfies, levels, defines and gathers us. Food unifies and brings people together as part of the human experience. When people embrace food and make it their own, it can shape and define their lives in big ways.

Food can cultivate a lifestyle, preserve cultural identity, foster a small business, nurture relationships and serve a community.

This project is a documentation of five different groups of people that experience food in uniquely different ways. Through photo essays and written stories I strive to capture what how food brings people together in specific ways …

Application Of Heritage Tourism Development Frameworks To Jenkins County, Georgia, Shelby R. Herrin

Honors College Theses

With the decline of traditional agriculture and extraction industries, many small towns in the Southeast US are facing challenges of economic decline and looking for alternative development trajectories. The city of Millen in Jenkins County, Georgia is one of such small towns. With the discovery of a large Civil War heritage resource, Millen’s administration became interested in developing the town’s tourism potential. However, the community possesses neither the resources nor knowledge to develop and promote this potential. In this project, the combination of Gunn’s functioning tourism system model as a conceptual framework and Jamal and Getz’s three-step collaborative community tourism …

Why Getting People To Write An Emergency Plan May Not Be The Best Approach, Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

Many government agencies and not-for-profit emergency organisations throughout the world encourage those community members and businesses at risk to write disaster survival or emergency plans. In Australia, community flood education and engagement programs such as FloodSafe promote the preparation of home and business emergency plans. In some cases, agencies use the writing of these plans as an indicator of community preparedness. There has been little research conducted into the efficacy of personal or business emergency plans, although there is evidence to show that business damages could be reduced by having an emergency plan. On the other hand, some social research …

A Community Is More Than A Group Of People, Alaina Bernard

UCF Forum

I recently met someone from Bolivia through a mutual friend. She was telling me how different it is in Florida, as no one ever is outside or takes walks. I thought that was an odd statement, given that I see plenty of fellow Floridians outside enjoying our beautiful state.

Disrupting Individualism And Distributive Remedies With Intersubjectivity And Empowerment: An Approach To Justice And Discourse, John A. Powell

john a. powell

No abstract provided.

Rewriting The Break Event: Mennonites And Migration In Canadian Literature By Robert Zacharias, Jenny Kerber

The Goose

Review of Rewriting the Break Event: Mennonites and Migration in Canadian Literature by Robert Zacharias.

Competing Voices: Negotiating Power And Place In Mixed-Income Housing Development, Kimberlee S. Guenther

Dissertations

Public housing internationally is undergoing a transformation due to the implementation of mixed-income policies. Based on two years of research in Chicago and Sydney, this project aimed to understand how resident leaders experience this transformation and the strategies they used to contribute to placemaking in new communities. The research also investigated new methods of conducting community-based, participatory research that emphasized resident perspectives and inquiry. Findings show that resident leaders utilize negative narratives about public housing to make claims to new neighborhoods. The research also revealed that highly stigmatized, but demolished places continue to function in people’s lives through the process …

Discourse As Social Process In Outdoor Recreation And Natural Resource Management: Arguing, Constructing, And Performing, Monika Marie Derrien

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines the language-based, discursive processes through which meanings and experiences are socially constituted in outdoor recreation and natural resource environments. Language use and discourse are seen as interactive, constructive processes, approached through the theoretical perspectives of argumentation, social constructionism, and performance.

Three qualitative studies, based in data collected at Acadia National Park and forest-related sites throughout Vermont, comprise this dissertation. The first study uses rhetorical analysis to examine the ways National Park Service managers and community leaders argue for the meanings and management of dark night skies in and around Acadia. The second study examines how national park …

The Influence Of Power Distance On Csr Programs In Hainan China, Carol Ann Hoshiko

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As China emerges as one of the world's top 5 economies, it attracts more multinational corporations (MNCs) that want to expand there and implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. Despite this emergence, since China entered the World Trade Organization, it has not perceived or welcomed MNCs in the same manner as in the 1970s to 1990s. Further, MNCs have had challenges adapting Western-style CSR programs in China's local communities. There is no widely-accepted multidisciplinary theory that integrates CSR, organizational culture, and culture. Hofstede's theory of cultural relativism classified China as a high power distance country where the population has a …

Social Vulnerability In The Wake Of 2010 Bp Oil Spill: The Case Of Southeast Louisiana, Michael Ray Cope

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation assesses the social impacts of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon (BP-DH) oil spill in South Louisiana. The coastal region affected by this disaster is made up of rural communities whose residents rely on the Gulf of Mexico and its resources for their livelihoods. Understanding how this disaster has impacted the general quality of life in spill-affected communities, and how community characteristics have influenced vulnerability and resilience to negative outcomes, has important implications for basic and applied research and public policy. To examine these issues I use one-of-a-kind household survey data from the Community Oil …

Community Identity, Rebecca F. Aronhalt

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Community Identity: Abstract

El propósito de esta investigación fue identificar la identidad de la comunidad latina alrededor del vecindario de ¨North Hill¨ en Akron, Ohio, según los ciudadanos latinos que viven allí. Tiene valor describir esta comunidad porque es un componente de la comunidad entero de Akron que es menos visible. Entendiendo cómo ellos se ven a si mismos me ayudó, como estudiante de español en la Universidad de Akron, a entender mejor la tela compleja de la ciudad. Para conseguir esta información, hice entrevistas en español con seis adultos latinos que viven en North Hill. Utilicé un método narrativo …

Cultivating A Global Identity, Joseph De Rivera, Harry A. Carson

Sustainability and Social Justice

Increasing economic globalization creates conflicts that can only be constructively managed if individuals and groups realize they now belong to a single people. The required sense of such a community does not involve a social group identity—as though being human consisted of being categorized as a member of a superordinate group. Rather, it involves the realization that personal identity depends on the socio-emotional relations involved in community and that the current situation requires a community that is global rather than local or national. The nature of this personal global identity and the sort of global community that is needed is …

Physician Role In Enhancing Patient Communication, Tamanna Sahni

Undergraduate Research Posters

Communication in the in-patient environment is crucial, and the relationship between a patient and physician enhances patient health and wellness. Patients should feel confident with their abilities to feel comfortable conversing with physicians, which would thus treat symptoms more effectively. This communication has decreased over time, hence patients are often are unable to obtain medical information from their healthcare providers. What is the relationship between psychological factors, such as self-esteem, and quality of patient-physician communication? And can physicians ensure increased patient comfort in the medical environment?

Various factors can affect the patients’ comfort with their physicians, and when addressed, these …