Digital Commons Network^™

Policy Responses To The Closure Of Manufactured Home Parks In Oregon, Andrée Tremoulet

Dissertations and Theses

This is a case study about policy responses to a specific form of gentrification at the urban fringe: the closure of manufactured home parks in Oregon.

The study analyzes the following research questions: (a) What factors affected the quantity and distribution of manufactured home parks? (b) Why did parks close? (c) How did the state legislature respond and why? (d) What are the likely impacts of the state response? A wide variety of sources (e.g., key informant interviews, observations of meetings and public hearings, focus groups of park residents, archival materials and secondary data about manufactured home parks) are employed …

Performance Measures For Managerial Decision Making: Performance Measurement Synergies In Multi-Attribute Performance Measurement Systems, Robert Andrew Fowke

Dissertations and Theses

This research tests for correlation between corporate performance and use of financial measures, nonfinancial measures, and number of balanced scorecard categories used. Literature notes a preference for managing by nonfinancial measures because financial measures are lagging indicators, but little empirical evidence is available on the relationship between nonfinancial measures and financial performance, and few companies are found to realize the benefits of nonfinancial measurements. The balanced scorecard has been studied to find the impact of diversity of performance measures, and anecdotal improvements have been reported, but there is a paucity of empirical evidence regarding how the use of a balanced …

Community Development For A White City: Race Making, Improvementism, And The Cincinnati Race Riots And Anti-Abolition Riots Of 1829, 1836, And 1841, Silas Niobeh Crowfoot

Dissertations and Theses

This project is an historical ethnography and a cultural history of the anti-black race riots and anti-abolition riots in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1829, 1836, and 1841. It is also a case history in an urban and commercial/early industrial context of the idea that violent social practices such as riots, as well as law and the customary practices of everyday living, are deployed as race making technologies, actually constructing racial categories. By extending this constructivist concept to the conversion of space to place through the human ascription of meaning, this study also examines racial violence as a strategy for place making …

American Belly Dance And The Invention Of The New Exotic: Orientalism, Feminism, And Popular Culture, Jennifer Lynn Haynes-Clark

Dissertations and Theses

Belly dance classes have become increasingly popular in recent decades in the United States. Many of the predominantly white, middle-class American women who belly dance proclaim that it is a source of feminist identity and empowerment that brings deeper meaning to their lives. American practitioners of this art form commonly explain that it originated from ritual-based dances of ancient Middle Eastern cultures and regard their participation as a link in a continuous lineage of female dancers. In contrast to the stigmatization and marginalization of public dance performers in the Middle East today, the favorable meaning that American dancers attribute to …

Beyond The "Stalled Revolution": Stay-At-Home Fathers, Gender Identity And The Division Of Household Labor, Aundrea Janae Snitker

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how stay-at-home fathers view their role as the primary caregiver, and how they encounter opposing masculinity issues. This is explored through discussion about daily life, the decision to stay home, and household labor, a particularly interesting reflection of gender roles and equality. The two research questions used to explore this included: How do stay-at-home fathers understand their masculinity and social role? How does talk about the negotiation of household labor in stay-at-home father/career mother families illustrate masculinity issues? Through an analysis of interviews of eight present or past stay-at-home fathers, I capture …

Negotiating Meaning With Educational Practice: Alignment Of Preservice Teachers' Mission, Identity, And Beliefs With The Practice Of Collaborative Action Research, Jan Marie Carpenter

Dissertations and Theses

The case study examined how three preservice teachers within a Master of Arts in Teaching program at a small, private university negotiated meaning around an educational practice--collaborative action research. Preservice teachers must negotiate multiple, and often competing, internal and external discourses as they sort out what educational practices, policies, organizational structures to accept or reject as presented in the teacher education program. This negotiation is a dynamic, contextual, unique meaning-making process that extends, redirects, dismisses, reinterprets, modifies, or confirms prior beliefs (Wenger, 1998).

Korthagen's (2004) model for facilitating understanding and reflection was used to explore the process of negotiating meaning. …

Work-Life Integration And The Path To Social Sustainability, Eileen M. Brennan

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDF version of a presentation given at Understanding Sustainability: Perspectives from the Humanities - The Second International Conference, Portland, OR, May 2010.

“Why Are Those Leaves Red?” Making Sense Of The Complex Symbols: Ecosemiotics In Education, Creeping Snowberry, Sean Blenkinsop, Veronica Hotton

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Deciphering complex signals of constructed educational systems requires symbolic interpretation; deciphering complex signals that are inherently ignorant of their ecological roots requires a modification of a semiotic approach, which we call ecosemiotics. This paper examines one of many average classrooms through this veil of perception. As part of a larger reevaluation of learning in modern culture, we take apart some of the symbols of the classroom and its contained learning. The paper ends with the positing of several more ecosophically inclined teacher responses.

Brew To Bikes: Portland's Artisan Economy, Charles H. Heying

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Brew to Bikes: Portland's Artisan Economy explains how post-industrial economic transformations have created a space for artisan enterprises to flourish. Dissatisfied with passive consumption, many residents of Portland, OR take matters into their own hands. Associate Professor of Urban Studies Charles Heying noticed these local artisans prospering all over the city and set out to study their thriving economy. Profiling hundreds of local businesses, and with an eye on Portland's unique penchant for sustainability and urban development, Brew to Bikes is about everything from bike manufacturers to microbreweries, from do-it-yourself to traditional crafts. A treatise to local, ethical business practices, …

What’S Missing In Theories Of The Residential Energy User, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Residential energy use has been envisioned in varied ways, each highlighting different factors and capturing a partial truth. This paper outlines assumptions of core theories about household energy use. It gives an abbreviated list of major empirical findings framed by these theories. It then identifies a new set of "blind spots" created by overly-simple reliance on models and by data shortcomings that in combination may block development of a more sophisticated understanding of energy use. Policies and program strategies, in turn, can become oriented toward simplistic approaches to change. We point to the need for improved interpretation and elaboration of …

Sticky Points In Modeling Household Energy Consumption, Loren Lutzenhiser, Mithra Moezzi, David Hungerford, Rafael Friedmann

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

A variety of approaches have been proposed to explaining individual household energy consumption, its variation, and its potential reduction. Some focus on technology, some on costs, and some on a combination of behaviors, attitudes, intentions, and norms. All try to make sense of a problem that, from a modeling perspective, involves hundreds of potentially important factors, yet is supported by highly inadequate or at best selective data. While there is value in "doing the best one can" with the resources at hand, building a defensible science requires a cold hard look at the quality of theory, research and data. This …

What Drives Academic Bioscientists: Money Or Values?, David E. Ervin, Sharmistha Nag, Hui Yang, Steven T. Buccola

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article determines the factors that drive academic bioscience to better understand the role of genetically engineered (GE) crops in the sustainability of U.S. agriculture. Some challenges brought about by GE crops in the U.S. farm sustainability include tracking and controlling water pollution, protecting against herbicide resistance and nitrogen fixation. Professional norms are also considered as a great factor driving the academic bioscience.

A Community Of Scholars Educating For Political Engagement, David M. Donahue, Christine M. Cress

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

California Campus Compact (CACC) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching first conceived the Service Learning for Political Engagement Faculty Fellows Program in the autumn of 2006. The idea was to bring together a diverse group of faculty, eventually 23, from across California representing disciplines from engineering and English to agriculture and Asian American studies, from small and large colleges, as well as public, private, and faith-based institutions. These faculty, starting in the summer of 2007, would participate in a two-year effort to define political engagement, explore what their definitions meant for planning service learning projects, and assess …

A Transnational Comparison Of Leadership Development: Pedagogical Implications, Christine M. Cress, Miki Yamashita, Rebecca Duarte, Heather Burns

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose – This investigation sought to identify learning outcomes for undergraduate students at a US college enrolled in community-based learning courses. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences between American students' and international students' development of leadership skills through senior level service-learning (SL) courses and analyzed the role of teaching methods on those outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Over 150 SL courses from students representing 30 countries were examined at a major university in the USA. US and non-US student leadership and learning outcomes were cross-tabulated with instructional techniques to analyze for statistically significant differences. Findings …

A Mindfulness To Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service A Call For K-12 Schools To Invest In Social Justice Education, Olivia Jo Murray

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

In her book, "Other People's Children," Lisa Delpit (1995) criticizes the deficits of teacher education programs that avoid and repress the multicultural voices found in American classrooms today. This author supports Delpit's argument to reform teacher preparation programs, but for the purpose of this article she will explore the responsibility of individual schools that presently ignore and deny the multicultural facets of a typically diverse classroom. In doing so, the author plans to expose three main features of promoting social justice that she suggests individual schools be held accountable for in order to move toward the full inclusion of all …

Va Healthcare Costs Of A Collaborative Intervention For Chronic Pain In Primary Care, Kathryn C. Dickinson, Rajiv Sharma, Jonathan P. Duckart, Kathryn Corson, Martha S. Gerrity, Steven K. Dobscha

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Chronic pain is costly to individuals and the healthcare system, and is often undertreated. Collaborative care models show promise for improving treatment of patients with chronic pain. The objectives of this article are to report the incremental benefit and incremental health services costs of a collaborative intervention for chronic pain from a veterans affairs (VA) healthcare perspective.

Methods: Data on VA treatment costs incurred by participants were obtained from the VA's Decision Support System for all utilization except certain intervention activities which were tracked in a separate database. Outcome data were from a cluster-randomized trial of a …

Infusing Culture Into Practice: Developing And Implementing Evidence-Based Mental Health Services For African American Foster Youth, Harold E. Briggs, Bowen Mcbeath

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The lack of culturally appropriate health and mental health care has contributed to the large number of African American youth and families involved in the child welfare system. This article reviews the consequences of the insufficient access to culturally sensitive, evidence-supported interventions for African American foster youth. The authors describe a framework for the development of culturally appropriate mental health interventions responsive to the needs of African Americans.

The Pulpit At The End Of The Rainbow: How Queer Clergy Enter Into And Maintain Religious Occupations, Brian Gregory Gerow

Dissertations and Theses

This study is a description of the ways queer clergy identify with and navigate their position in a traditionally heteronormative culture. Through twelve in-depth interviews, a set of codes and categories helped to assess the major barriers to access in contemporary Protestant clergy occupations in the United States. This research was conducted in Portland, Oregon, where a thriving queer religious community made it possible to access various different Protestant faiths and compare minister's experiences as professional clergy.

Hombres En Accion (Men In Action): A Community Defined Domestic Violence Intervention With Mexican, Immigrant, Men, Rosemary Carmela Celaya-Alston

Dissertations and Theses

Studies suggest that knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about domestic violence influence the behaviors of Mexican men. However, few interventions have targeted men in efforts to provide domestic violence awareness and health education to a relevant at-risk community that is also challenged by low literacy. Mexican immigrant men, particularly those less acculturated to the dominant U.S. culture, are significantly less likely to access services and more likely to remain isolated and removed from their communities and, more importantly, from their families. The purpose of this study was to explore and examine how cultural beliefs and behaviors influence the potential of domestic …

Do Parents Matter? Parental Attachment And Its Effect On Becoming Independent In Emerging Adulthood, Cara Joy Copeland

Dissertations and Theses

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health Waves I and III are used to estimate the effect of parental attachment on independence in emerging adults ages 18 to 27. The nature of independence focused on living in a place of their own and not receiving financial support from parents, which described about half of the sample. The study finds that emerging adults who, in their youth, expressed high attachments to their parents, were slightly less likely to become independent as emerging adults. Rather, age and gender are greater positive predictors of independence.

Re-Engagement As A Process Of Everyday Resilience, Jennifer Rose Pitzer

Dissertations and Theses

Grounded in previous research on academic engagement and resilience, this study presents a clear conceptualization of re-engagement, defined as students' ability to bounce back from everyday academic challenges and setbacks, as a process of everyday resilience in school, and examines how teacher support can promote it. Data from 1018 third through sixth grade students and their 53 teachers were used to examine the extent to which teacher autonomy support and involvement (individually and in combination) predicted changes from fall to spring of the same school year in students' re-engagement (behavioral and emotional).

Overall, correlational results provided consistent support for study …

Identity, Nostalgia And Leisure: Technology Use In Second Homes, Françoise Bourdonnec

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis, based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in the US, Russia, France and Australia, focuses on technology use in second homes and its implications for technology design. I highlight the unexpectedly strong sense of nostalgia, for place as well as for richer relationships, felt in second homes around the world, and the ways in which second home residents use technology to shape space and behavior to reinforce this link to an imagined past. I show that the transition between main and second homes, with its rituals of preparation and transition between physical locations, allows residents to assume different …

American Scientists, Americanist Archaeology: The Committee On Radioactive Carbon 14, Keith David Baich

Dissertations and Theses

Willard Libby's development of carbon-14 dating at the University of Chicago immediately following World War II provided an unprecedented opportunity for the collaboration of archaeologists with a physical chemist. Libby's need for archaeological samples to test the dating process (1947-1951) meant that he relied upon the Committee on Radioactive Carbon 14, formed by the American Anthropological Association, for datable materials, as well as for assistance in all other archaeologically related aspects of the testing phase. The committee, under the leadership of archaeologist Frederick Johnson, served the mandated function of providing assistance to Libby, but simultaneously endeavored to utilize the new …

Photovoice As Authentic Civic Engagement: Lessons Learned In One Immigrant Community, Meg Merrick, Angie Mejia

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

It is widely acknowledged that equitable and sustainable public policy can only be achieved when it is informed by the concerns, hopes, and experiences of those who are affected. Public agencies wishing to engage recent immigrants can find this to be challenging, however. Effective public participation and civic engagement can be difficult when community members cannot speak English and/or come from very different cultural and political environments. The Chronic Disease Prevention Program (CDPP) of the Multnomah County Health Department and Metro, two public agencies serving the Portland, Oregon region, have actively sought to learn from the experiences of immigrant community …

War, Peace, And Principled Action: A Study Of Veterans And The Peace Movement, Laura Kay Wegener

Dissertations and Theses

Throughout the history of the United States (U.S.), there have been service members who, upon leaving the service, have spoken out against U.S. involvement in wars. The current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and their increasing unpopularity, have contributed to this trend. Recently veterans have begun to come forward in larger numbers to speak out against the current wars and have self-identified as members of peace movements. The purpose of this research project was to explore veterans' understandings of the peace movement and their involvement in veterans' peace movement organizations. This study hoped to answer the following questions: 1) How …

Globalization; But Under What Conditions? -- The Case Of The E.U., Michaelangelo Anastasiou

Dissertations and Theses

The present study explores the relationship between trust placed in national institutions and opinion of globalization. A secondary data analysis is conducted using data collected by the European Commission in a 2004 Eurobarometer survey of European Union (EU) citizens on various issues regarding the EU, globalization and national challenges. A prominent theme in the literature is that, in recent times, globalization has had the effect of compromising the sovereignty of nation-states. This has generated a backlash of nationalistic attitudes wherein globalization is posited in opposition to the nation-state. This surge in nationalism has reinforced a culture wherein any external force …

Music And Conflict Resolution: Exploring The Utilization Of Music In Community Engagement, Mindy Kay Johnston

Dissertations and Theses

This study is based on interviews conducted with twenty-two musician-activists in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States in 2009 to explore perspectives about the role of music in community engagement with the aim of considering how music might be used in the field of conflict resolution. The study followed the qualitative approach of constructivist grounded theory as designed by Charmaz (2000, 2002). Two themes, "Music for Self," and "Music for Society" emerged from interviews and comprise the internal and external meanings of music to the research informants. The results of the study indicate that the relationships people have …

Exploring School Engagement As A Protective Factor For Youth At Risk Of Joining Gangs, Lorraine M. Escribano

Dissertations and Theses

Research on gangs has traditionally focused on identifying the risk factors associated with youth gang membership in multiple developmental domains with limited attention on examining the protective factors that may buffer youth from joining gangs (Howell & Egley, 2005). Educational and psychological research have found robust evidence that school engagement protects youth from a host of risky activities and negative outcomes (e.g., substance use, dropping out of school) and may hold promise in also protecting youth from gang involvement. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is three-fold: (1) to identify students who are at risk for gangs; (2) to …

Creating Insanity In Learning Systems: Addressing Ambiguity Effects Of Predicting Non-Linear Continuous Valued Functions With Reconstructabilty Analysis From Large Categorically Valued Input Data Sets, William D. Eisenhauer

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Being told to give two different, and potentially counter, responses to the same stimulus can set up a double bind in humans, leading to a type of insanity. So what how do you deal with it when it comes up quite frequently in modeling through simplification and removal of predictive variables?

In his current dissertation research Ike Eisenhauer is using reconstructability analysis to implement K-System, U-System, and B-System approaches to predict a continuously valued function through discrete categorically valued input variables [e.g. textual data]. One of the key issues is how to address the inability of K-Systems and U-Systems to …

Raps Sheet, December 2009, Retirement Association Of Portland State

RAPS Sheet: Monthly Newsletter

No abstract provided.