Digital Commons Network^™

Ski Areas, Weather And Climate: Time Series Models For New England Case Studies, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Cliff Brown, Barry D. Keim

Sociology

Wintertime warming trends experienced in recent decades, and predicted to increase in the future, present serious challenges for ski areas and whole regions that depend on winter tourism. Most research on this topic examines past or future climate-change impacts at yearly to decadal resolution, to obtain a perspective on climate-change impacts. We focus instead on local-scale impacts of climate variability, using detailed daily data from two individual ski areas. Our analysis fits ARMAX (autoregressive moving average with exogenous variables) time series models that predict day-to-day variations in skier attendance from a combination of mountain and urban weather, snow cover and …

Demographic, Economic, And Social Transformations In The South Bronx: Changes In The Nyc Community Districts Comprising Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose, Longwood, And Hunts Point, 1990 - 2005, Astrid S. Rodríguez

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report analyzes demographic and socioeconomic characteristics among the five largest Latino nationality groups during 1990-2005 in South Bronx, specifically the neighborhoods of Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose, Longwood, and Hunts Point.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Puerto Ricans are the largest Latino subgroup in the South Bronx, accounting for over half of the total population by 2005 although their …

Gender Disparity In Nigerian Education: Women’S Experience Of Barriers To Equal Educational Opportunity, Eugene Okoli

Dissertations

Discrepancies between males and females in access to schooling, school completion rates, and participation in employment opportunities are still more the norm in some regions of the world than others. Limited access to education plagues women in Nigeria as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa. Disparity in access to educational opportunity is a pressing gender equity issue in Nigeria (World Bank, 2003).

Relatively few studies have focused on obtaining the viewpoints of women who experience this phenomenon. To hear the voices of these women regarding how they gained or were denied access to education in the Nigerian context, a cross-section of …

Letting Go Of Data In Aboriginal Australia: Ethnography On “Rubber Time", Sara Stevens Zur

The Qualitative Report

While attempting to investigate modes of musical transmission among the Yol ŋ u People in Northeast Arnhem Land Australia, questions regarding the meaning of the word “research” led to the decisive abandonment of data collection. Specifically, the processes of observation, recording, and other typical Western means of genera ting data seemed to be in direct opposition to the way knowledge was traditionally shared. The author critically examines her multiple attempts at conducting this research, and discusses why eventually giving up on the research led to a more profound understanding.

Does Welfare Reform Work In Rural America? A 7-Year Follow-Up, Ann Tickamyer, Debra Henderson, Barry Tadlock

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Even before the advent of welfare reform, studies of low income working and welfare dependent groups showed that low wage working women are worse off than those who combine welfare with other income sources and that most used a wide variety of livelihood strategies. This is especially the case in poor rural settings where work is scarce and additional obstacles to employment such as lack of transportation and childcare are endemic. Data from a selfadministered survey of users of human service agency programs in four counties in a distressed region of Appalachian Ohio in 1999, 2001, and 2005, provide a …

Beyond Confronting The Myth Of Racial Democracy: The Role Of Afro-Brazilian Women Scholars And Activists, Nathalie Lebon

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications

This paper offers a synopsis of the current scholarship mapping the social and economic exclusion of women of African descent in Brazil. It highlights the work of and role played by Afro-Brazilian women scholars and activists in redressing the paucity, until recently, of basic data and research on the life conditions of women of African descent. Finally, it provides some initial thoughts on the national and transnational dynamics of knowledge production underlying this state of affairs.

Loop Analysis Of Causal Feedback In Epidemiology: An Illustration Relating To Urban Neighborhoods And Resident Depressive Experiences, Alexis Dinno

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

The causal feedback implied by urban neighborhood conditions that shape human health experiences, that in turn shape neighborhood conditions through a complex causal web, raises a challenge for traditional epidemiological causal analyses. This article introduces the loop analysis method, and builds off of a core loop model linking neighborhood property vacancy rate, resident depressive symptoms, rate of neighborhood death, and rate of neighborhood exit in a feedback network. I justify and apply loop analysis to the specific example of depressive symptoms and abandoned urban residential property to show how inquiries into the behavior of causal systems can answer different kinds …

Toward Understanding The Human Dimensions Of The Rapidly Changing Arctic System: Insights And Approaches From Five Harc Projects, Henry P. Huntington, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Craig Nicolson, Ronald Brunner, Amanda Lynch, Astrid E. J. Oglivie, Alexey Voinov

Sociology

Human dimensions research focuses on the interrelationships between humans and the environment. To date, human dimensions research in arctic regions has concentrated primarily on local events and contexts. As such, it complements analysis elsewhere of adaptation and sustainable development within broad institutional, social, and environmental contexts. This paper reviews five projects from the Human Dimensions of the Arctic System (HARC) initiative, established by the US National Science Foundation in 1997. Common themes and findings are highlighted: climatic variations or change affect societies through interactions with human activities; population dynamics provide key quantitative indicators of social impacts and well being; and …

Refugees And Migrants From Eritrea To The Arab World: The Cases Of Sudan, Yemen And Saudi Arabia 1991-2007, Hélène Thiollet

Faculty Journal Articles

Since the early 1960s, exiles have been fleeing from Eritrea to neighbouring Sudan, the Arab world, and more recently to the West. The independence war that saw Eritreans rise against the Ethiopian state after the annexation of the former Italian colony in 1962, raged until 1991 and caused massive population displacement. Ongoing violence and poverty created over one million refugees in the 1980s and continuous flows of emigrants until the beginning of the 1990s. Eritrean independence, established in 1993, was expected to put refugees on their way back home. With the outbreak of a new war in 1998 and the …

Iraqi Refugees In Syria, Mohamed Kamel Dorai

Faculty Journal Articles

Since the beginning of the 20th century, Syria has hosted different refugee groups in large numbers such as Armenians, Palestinians and more recently Lebanese escaping the last war during the summer 2006. Since 2003, Syria hosts a large Iraqi community. It is important to note that despite the reception of different waves of refugees, Syria, like most countries in the region, is neither part of the 1951 Convention nor the 1967 Protocol, and there is no specific memorandum of understanding between UNHCR and the Syrian authorities. Syria is, along with Jordan, one of the main host countries for Iraqis fleeing …

Contemporary Migration And Transnational Families: The Case Of Somali Diaspora(S), Mulki Al-Sharmani

Faculty Journal Articles

In this paper, I argue that a central feature of Somali contemporary migration is a transnational way of life, which an increasing number of diasporic Somalis and their families are leading. Transnational families become an important space in which Somalis strategize with their relatives, pool resources, share obligations, and arrange for the movements of individual family members. This kind of transnational way of life becomes a fairly effective mechanism through which diasporic Somalis seek security, protection, opportunities for a better life, and different forms of capital for themselves and their relatives in the homeland and elsewhere. However, living transnationally is …

Lebanese Diaspora And Homeland Relations, Guita Hourani

Faculty Journal Articles

Although Lebanese emigrants have always been part of Lebanon’s life, Lebanon has not actually had a specific diaspora policy. This discussion paper will not deal with the migration process, or the motives for migration. It will focus, instead, on some selected aspects of the Lebanese diaspora and homeland relations. It will draw attention to some of the important networks connecting the Lebanese diaspora with Lebanon and will review courses of action undertaken by the Lebanese government to strengthen ties with its diaspora.

Memory, Place And Nation-Building: Remembering In The ‘New’ South Africa, Kate Ronan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this project was to look at memory and memorialization in Cape Town in order to better understand the role of sites of memory and memory initiatives in the making of the ‘new’ South Africa. This study focuses on connections between memory and place and memory and identity. It also looks at the Cape Town landscape, the ways in which it has changed over time and contestations over sites on this landscape. This project was conducted as a social analysis project over the period of one month. Visits to monuments and museums, interviews with people involved in memory …

Achieving Millennium Development Goals For Health: Building Understanding, Trust And Capacity To Respond, Timothy Downs, Heidi Jane Larson

Sustainability and Social Justice

Biomedical interventions promise achievement of health-related Millennium Development Goals provided social-, capacity- and knowledge-based constraints to scaling up and reaching marginalized people at risk, are addressed, and balance between prevention and treatment is struck. We argue for a new approach: multi-stakeholder capacity building and learning for empowerment: MuSCLE. MuSCLE is used as a way to frame three systemic weaknesses in traditional health science and policy approaches: (1) a lack of engagement with people at risk to build a collective understanding of the contexts of health problems, including social drivers; (2) a lack of multi-criteria evaluation of alternative interventions; (3) a …

Ziya Gökalp On Modernity And Islam: The Origins Of An Uneasy Union In Contemporary Turkey, Üner Daglier

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The Protean Career: Exemplified By First World Foreign Residents In Western Europe?, Marian Crowley-Henry

Articles

This article presents findings from a qualitative study exploring the career-related motivations and experiences of a sample of 20 expatriates living and working on a permanent basis in the South of France (Sophia Antipolis) and in Germany (Munich). By virtue of their having established local links in the host country, either in having local working contracts or being installed in the area on a permanent basis (home owners; children born/being schooled in the host country), these expatriates could also be termed foreign residents in the host country. The study’s sample of highly educated workers originating from the United States of …

The Construction Of Ethnic Identity Of Balkan Muslim Immigrants: A Narrativization Of Personal Experiences, Maya Miskovic

The Qualitative Report

This paper explores the construction of ethnic identity in the first generation of Balkan Muslim immigrants now living in the Chicago metropolitan area, with the aim of showing the intricacy of global events (civil wars in the homeland and war on terror in the host society) and local contexts (meaning- making occurring during the interviews). In-depth interviews conducted with three men were treated as a series of narratives in order to emphasize the importance of personal meaning-making. With awareness that “Muslim” can denote various subjectivities, this paper proposes research that theorizes the constant shift of identities, the interplay between ascribed …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 83, No. 1, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

An Assessment Of Read 180 Regarding Its Association With The Academic Achievement Of At-Risk Students In Sevier County Schools., Jayson Nave

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

READ 180 is an intensive reading intervention program designed to meet the needs of students whose reading achievement is below the proficient level. The program addresses individual learning styles through adaptive software, interesting literature, and direct instruction with reading skills. The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement of academically at-risk students in Sevier County Public Schools in East Tennessee who participated in the READ 180 pilot program with the achievement of their academically at-risk peers not enrolled in the intervention program before and after its implementation in order to assess the reading intervention program. The Sevier County …

Chicago And Hope Vi: Examining The Dislocation Of Urban Poor, Todd W. Sink

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inception of HOPE VI in 1992 was proposed as a solution to concentrated poverty and disinvestment in inner city neighborhoods. The US General Accounting Office estimates that as of November 2003, approximately 49,000 people have been forced to relocate to permanent or temporary residences since the nationwide implementation of HOPE VI. Today, the effects of HOPE VI on the urban poor of Chicago have received little attention. This research examines the dislocation of urban poor and possible gentrification in Chicago's public housing areas, and the socioeconomic condition of new destinations for voucher movers. 111 Twenty public housing tracts and …

Collaborative Success And Community Culture: Cross-Sectoral Partnerships Addressing Homelessness In Omaha And Portland, Patrick T. Mcnamara

Student Work

This dissertation explores the impact of community culture on the success of cross-sectoral collaboratives addressing homelessness in Omaha, Nebraska, and Portland, Oregon. A comparative case study approach is used to build theory about how the environment helps to make conditions conducive or challenging to collaboration between government, business and nonprofit organizations. The concept of community culture is operationalized by including three interrelated factors - social capital, community power, and political history - to assess the two cities. Omaha is a model of a private sector community culture, high in bonding social capital, where central control of decision making and elite …

Affordable Housing And Civic Participation: Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Goutam U. Jois

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Nativity And Environmental Risk Perception: An Empirical Study Of Native-Born And Foreign-Born Residents Of The Usa, Francis O. Adeola

Sociology Faculty Publications

This study examines the major differences between native-born and foreign-born residents of the United States on measures of environmental risk perception and risk attitudes. Hypotheses derived from the cultural theory of risk were tested. Discriminant analysis of the General Social Survey (GSS) and International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data was conducted using environmental and technological risk perception and attitudes modules. The results indicate that foreign-born respondents are more risk averse and skeptical about sources of information about environmental risks than their native-born counterparts. While there are some points of agreement, these groups exhibit dissimilar environmental risk perception on several measures. …

"Dirt Farmer" Vs. "Soil Scientist": Representative Tensions In The Constructed Identities Of Farmer-Writers Walter Thomas Jack And Edward H. Faulkner, Zachary Michael Jack

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This extended case study of Edward Hubert Faulkner, one-time extension agent turned overnight agricultural sensation, and Walter Thomas Jack, a former Quaker schoolteacher and self-professed Iowa “dirt farmer,” and their respective, point/counterpoint soil conservation classics, Plowman’s Folly (1943) and The Furrow and Us (1946), illuminates key tensions within the fields of rural sociology and agricultural history: namely subject versus object, inside versus outside, and “peasant” versus “professional” practice as they were played out in the American popular and agricultural press from 1943 to 1948. While it is true that Plowman’s Folly, as its title implies, goads the American farmer …

Impact Of Intercultural Service-Learning On Students : A Quantitative Self-Evaluation, Enrique G Oracion

Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning 亞太地區服務研習會議

No abstract provided.

Cts Split 2007 The (Audio) Diary In Tourism Research, Deirdre Quinn, Nigel Morgan, Annette Pritchard

Articles

No abstract provided.

Sampling Designs In Qualitative Research: Making The Sampling Process More Public, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Nancy L. Leech

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this paper is to provide a typology of sampling designs for qualitative researchers. We introduce the following sampling strategies: (a) parallel sampling designs, which represent a body of sampling strategies that facilitate credible comparisons of two or more different subgroups that are extracted from the same levels of study; (b) nested sampling designs, which are sampling strategies that facilitate credible comparisons of two or more members of the same subgroup, wherein one or more members of the subgroup represent a sub-sample of the full sample; and (c) multilevel sampling designs, which represent sampling strategies that facilitate credible …

Evaluation Of A Ninth Grade Transition Program For At-Risk Students., Terry William Caldwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have identified the transition from middle to high school as a critical point in teenagers' educational development. Despite sweeping educational reforms, many students are leaving high school without graduating. Local school districts are struggling to redesign high schools to provide the educational programs necessary for at-risk students' success. Creating smaller learning communities and developing transition programs have shown success in addressing these problems.

Sustained research shows promise in minimizing the effects of the transition process and adds to the body of knowledge.

A case study approach using archival data was used to explore the differences in three Bearcat "PRIDE" …

Metropolitan-Micropolitan Difference In Available Labor Force Characteristics: Three Great Plains Labor Basins, Michael Walker, Brett Zollinger

Sociology Faculty Publications

This study explores differences in labor availability characteristics among those living in metropolitan and micropolitan areas. Data used in this study are from surveys of adults in two adjacent Midwestern states and from three separate labor basins. Primary patterns under examination include wage demands, benefit demands, distance willing to commute for a job, perceived underemployment and entrepreneurial propensity. Bivariate analyses show no relationship between basin size and entrepreneurial propensity nor between basin size and willingness to commute. However, basin size has significant influence on four of the seven dependent variables, even after controlling for many sociodemographic characteristics. In multivariate analyses, …

Organizing For Community Benefit: Anti-Gentrification Effort In Providence, Ri, Katiuska Pérez

Senior Honors Projects

Throughout my college experience I didn’t really gain any basic foundation on how to organize and work with a group of people in a collective effort. I thought the best way to learn these skills in such a short amount of time would be to work with an organization that has been campaigning for positive social change for many years. I was referred to DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) in Providence. I approached the director of the organization, Sara Mersha, and shared with her what I wanted to gain from a possible internship in her organization. She gave …