Digital Commons Network^™

Choque Cultural In Higher Education: The Lived Experiences Of Two Transnational Doctoral Students On The U.S. Mexico Border, Lyn Mckinley

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the experience of transnational students in higher education in a U.S. public university. The setting for the study is the U.S.-Mexico border between Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. While numerous studies examine the experience of transnational K-12 populations in U.S. schools, there is limited research on students in advanced levels of higher education in this context.

The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth perspective of the experiences of two transnational doctoral students enrolled at the doctoral level at a U.S. university on the U.S.-Mexico border. The …

Transferability Of Child Labor Norms: Examining The Link Between Foreign Direct Investment And Child Labor Practices In Developing Countries, Ijtsuri Anayantzin Viveros

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Why do child labor norms often fail to be transferred or enforced in developing countries even if the implementation of such norms already proved to have substantially reduced child labor practices in developed regions? In the field of international political economy, a number of studies examine how international trade in general and foreign direct investment (FDI, hereafter) in particular influence economic growth, income equality, and balance of trade in developed and developing countries. Extending the literature on international trade and investment, this thesis examines the relationship between FDI and child labor practices in developing countries.

Specifically, I investigate whether and …

Pacto Por La Cultura: The Power And Possibility Of Cultural Activism In Ciudad Juárez, Kerry Doyle

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This paper is a qualitative study of Movimiento Pacto por la Cultura , a group of cultural activists that operate in the hyper-violent reality of 21st century Ciudad Juárez. This work looks at Pacto as a case study to explore the possibilities of culture as a tool of activism in a particular time and place, exploring in the ways in which economic development policies, deficiencies in infrastructure, and rising violence both effect and can be affected by cultural processes. Through analysis of the group's original documents and qualitative interviews with organizational members, the paper documents both the successes of the …

Restoring Damaged Trust With Promises, Atonement And Apology, Eric Schniter, Roman M. Sheremeta, Daniel Sznycer

ESI Working Papers

In an experiment using two consecutive trust games, we study how “cheap” signals such as promises and messages are used to restore damaged trust and encourage new trust where it did not previously exist. In these games, trustees made non-binding promises of investmentcontingent returns, then investors decided whether to invest, and finally trustees decided how much to return. After an unexpected second game was announced, but before it commenced, trustees could send a one-way message. This naturalistic quasi-experimental design allowed us to observe the endogenous emergence of trust-relevant behaviors and focus on naturally occurring remedial strategies used by promise-breakers and …

Conflicted Minds: Recalibrational Emotions Following Trust-Based Interaction, Eric Schniter, Roman M. Sheremeta, Timothy W. Shields

ESI Working Papers

We investigated whether 20 emotional states, reported by 170 participants after participating in a Trust game, were experienced in a patterned way predicted by the Recalibrational Model. According to this dynamic model, new information about trust-based interaction outcomes triggers specific sets of emotions. Emotions, in turn, recalibrate the short-sighted or long-sighted programs in self and/or others that determine trust-based behavior propensity. Unlike Valence Models that predict reports of large sets of emotional states according to interdependent positive and negative affect alone, the Recalibrational Model predicts conflicted, mixed-affect emotional states. Consistent with the Recalibrational Model, we observed reports of mixed-affect (concurrent …

Real Effort, Real Leisure And Real-Time Supervision: Incentives And Peer Pressure In Virtual Organizations, Brice Corgnet, Roberto Hérnan-Gonzalez, Stephen J. Rassenti

ESI Working Papers

We propose a novel approach to the analysis of organizations by developing a computerized platform that reproduces relevant features of existing organizations such as real-effort tasks and real-leisure alternative activities (Internet). In this environment, we find strong incentives effects as organizations using individual incentives significantly outperform those relying on team incentives. Combining real-time peer monitoring with team incentives, we report striking evidence of positive peer effects as production increases by 50% and Internet usage decreases by 54% compared with organizations using team incentives alone. Peer monitoring allows virtual organizations using team incentives to perform as well as those using individual …

How Age And Religiosity Affect Forgiving Others, Andrew Schaefer

Master's Theses and Capstones

Using data from the General Social Survey (1998), Robert Wuthnow's Forgiveness Survey (1999), and ten in-depth interviews of members of an evangelical church (2010--11), I investigate three research questions: (1) How are age and religiosity related to people's attitudes toward forgiving others? (2) Do age and religiosity have the same effect on people's forgiving behaviors? (3) How do respondents' accounts of their own experiences forgiving others help explain and contribute to answers of the first two questions? I found that those with the highest levels of religiosity were most likely to have positive attitudes toward forgiving and to have engaged …

The Second-Generation Effects Of Microcredit In Western Guatemala, Jordyn Elizabeth Haught

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most microfinance institutions have assumed that positive second-generation effects follow involvement in microcredit, but the nature of these effects has been unclear since few scholars have directly focused their attention on them. To address this gap in the literature I conducted exploratory survey research in Western Guatemala in January 2011. I returned with 97 interviews conducted with 68 Guatemalans who had received a microloan at some point in their lives, and 29 who had never received a formal loan. In the sample of their 306 children, the parents of 94 had never received a loan, while the parents of 212 …

Child Development And Child Rearing In Ciudad Juárez, México Colonias: Economic, Social, And Cutural, Alma Angelica Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Supporting the development of healthy children is a goal for parents. Proper development becomes a challenge when children do not receive adequate health care, educational enrichment, and housing. These challenges are amplified by the continuous rise in violence in the U.S.- México border region. This study looks specifically at child development and child rearing practices in two poor colonias (neighborhoods) in Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua, México). It relies on and extends from a project conducted by Gente a favor de gente and funded by the Paso del Norte Health Foundation. There were 2 phases in this study: a quantitative phase (N=151) …

Political Socialization Through Education As A Form Of State Building, Aldo Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study is to observe the effect of political socialization through education as a tool for state building in three case studies. A background into the topics of political socialization and civic education is made. Civic education theory is applied to the state building experiences of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. After a qualitative review of the data available, findings are presented and discussed. Further commentary of the impact of such studies within the field of political socialization is also discussed.

Responding To Haiti's Earthquake: Volunteer Health And Community Relationships, Mary Nelan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Disaster volunteers are an important group of workers on the ground after a disaster. International volunteers have not been the subject of much research in the past. Following the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, an American-based NGO set up a base in Leogane, the epicenter of the earthquake. The purpose of this research is to further understand the disaster volunteer population and help inform international NGOs who respond to disasters. This thesis focuses on the volunteers who worked with that organization during 2010. As a volunteer, I witnessed the situations that inspired this research through my own experiences for …

Assessment Of Intra-Urban Traffic-Related Air Pollution On Asthmatic Children's Exposure At Schools In The Paso Del Norte Region, Amit Ugamraj Raysoni

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Traffic-related air pollution can be a major public health concern in any urban area. This problem is compounded in the Paso del Norte region that has experienced rapid economic growth, and a substantial number of people living in close vicinity of major roadways. The desert surroundings, arid weather, frequent temperature inversions, heavy border traffic at the international ports of entry between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, and poorly maintained vehicle fleet further exacerbates this problem. A growing body of air quality and epidemiologic research has discerned the linkage between traffic emissions and respiratory disorders.

Initial health investigations in the Paso …

Making The Honor Roll: Can Schools Learn From Business Excellence?, Oscar Humberto Salcedo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Our schools and school systems are feeling crunched from different directions. Some stakeholders are clamoring for more accountability, others for better results, and still others to do more with less funding. It is not surprising then that school communities are trying different approaches in an attempt to be responsive to different voices. Several schools have decided to borrow the disciplines of the International Standard known as "ISO 9001:2000" (hereafter ISO 9001) from the business realm in an attempt to address these pressures. This research investigates the applicability and benefits of ISO 9001, as perceived by school administrators and educators …

Studying Rape Through A Theorectical Lens: The Development Of A Serial Rape Model Using Fbi Data, Brooke Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current study assessed whether there is an empirical foundation for different theories of rape including the feminist, evolutionary, social disorganization, psychopathy, and rapist type theories. Using a data set from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on serial rapists collected in the early 1990's, the study included two phases. The first phase assessed whether FBI data supported the previously mentioned theories of rape by analyzing associations between individual variables that are thought to support each theory. Support was demonstrated for the evolutionary and psychopathy theories. Using MPlus statistical software to accommodate the multi-level nature of the data, the second …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Origin And Divine Causation Of Death In Ancient Near Eastern Literature And In The Old Testament, Lazarus Castang

Dissertations

The present dissertation attempts a comparative analysis of both the origin of death in the creation accounts and the divine causation of death in the main flood accounts in the ancient Near Eastern (ANE) literature and the Hebrew Old Testament (OT). Both literatures are examined for their implicit or explicit conceptions of the origin and divine causation of death. The origin of death in the ANE literature is located in the Egyptian Osirian myth and the Mesopotamian Enki-Ninmah myth, Enûma Elish, Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Adapa legend. The divine causation of death is studied in the Eridu Genesis, Atra-Hasis …

The Myth Of Endless Accumulation: A Feminist Inquiry Into Globalization, Growth, And Social Change, Martha Freymann Miser

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This theoretical dissertation examines the concept of growth and its core assumption—that the continual accumulation of wealth is both socially wise and ecologically sustainable. The study challenges and offers alternatives to the myth of endless accumulation, suggesting new directions for leadership and social change. The central question posed in this inquiry: Can we craft a more ethical form of capitalism? To answer this question, the study examines conventional and critical globalization studies; feminist scholarship on standpoint, political economy, and power; and the Enlightenment notions of progress and modernism, drawing on a number of works, including Aristotle on the three intelligences, …

The Meaning Making That Leads To Social Entrepreneurial Action, Kathleen Roberts

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation is an exploratory study of the meaning making that leads to social entrepreneurial action; specifically, action that has either moved beyond the local or at the local level has impacted several different systems. Recent leadership research suggests that to meet today's complex challenges and create sustainable change, leadership must possess bigger minds, meaning advanced and mature ways of understanding the world (Cook-Greuter, 1999; Torbert, 1999). By challenging and changing established equilibriums with new structures, new systems, and new relationships, social entrepreneurs reflect a capacity to understand the world in complex ways. Through the lens of constructive-developmental theory (Kegan, …

Employment Restrictions For Individuals With Felon Status And Racial Inequality In The Labor Market, Darren Wheelock, Christopher Uggen, Heather R. Hlavka

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Marxist Sociology, Michael A. Mccarthy, Jeff Manza

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Convict Criminology Prisoner Re-Entry Policy Recommendations, Stephen C. Richards, Jeffrey Ian Ross, Greg Newbold, Michael Lenza, Richard S. Jones, Daniel S. Murphy, Robert S. Grigsby

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Battle Cries: Black Women And Intimate Partner Violence, By Hillary Potter, Angelique Harris

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Women Under Attack: Violence And Poverty In Guatemala, Corinne Ogrodnik, Silvia Borzutzky

Journal of International Women's Studies

In 2009 Guatemalan women experienced the highest level of violence in Latin America and one of the highest in the world, and death rates have continued to increase in 2010. At the core of the issue are two major problems: pervasive poverty and legal exclusion. In turn, these two issues are closely connected since legal/judicial exclusion is a consequence of poverty. This paper aims to analyze the question of violence against women in Guatemala, to discuss women’s limited political, legal and economic rights, as well as the policies pursued since the end of Guatemala’s civil war to deal with the …

Women In Administration In India, Jayasheela George

Journal of International Women's Studies

Administration is the performance of the executive functions of the state and it differs from legislature and judiciary. In the present research study, administration refers to Managerial view of administration and here the study is on women administrators of All India Services - Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFS). Though the services were in existence from the Britishers Period, the entry of women into these services was very late and in two of these services, women got in only after few decades of independence. This article is written based on the primary data …

Gender Empowerment And Equality In Rural India: Are Women’S Community-Based Enterprises The Way Forward?, Maria Costanza Torri, Andrea Martinez

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the renewed commitment of the international community to provide economic opportunities for poor women, most observers suggest that the majority of the past and current experience of community enterprise programmes for women has failed to make any significant impact on women’s incomes and social empowerment. Based on ethnographic research methods, this paper presents a feminist analysis of a singular women’s community enterprise promoted by local NGOs in the state of Tamil Nadu in India, usually known as GMCL (Gram Mooligai Company Limited). GMCL has been promoted by local NGOs in the state of Tamil Nadu and is an example …

Book Review: Global Perspectives On War, Gender And Health: The Sociology And Anthropology Of Suffering, Zitha Mokomane

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Global Perspectives on War, Gender and Health: The Sociology and Anthropology of Suffering, Hannah Bradby and Gillian Lewando Hundt, editors.

Fan Commitment And Its Transformation Into Communitas Through The Process Of Proxemic Exchange, Arthur Alexander Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Live performances are comprised of various elements that scholars have utilized to understand the artist-fan relationship as well as the relationship among the fans themselves. In this study, I look at fandom in independent, or “indie” music and utilize my findings to creation a foundation for the understanding of fan commitment. I then argue that when a fan of a particular artist attends a live performance by that artist, they inherently engage in a proxemic exchange with the artist as well as the fans around them. This proxemic exchange is driven by fan commitment and facilitates the creation of communitas …

The Effects Of Tai Chi On Balance And Peripheral Somatosensation In Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, Elisabeth Inge Cavegn

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in older adults is a major health concern, as older adults with diabetes have a two- to threefold risk of injurious falls and physical disability. Although studies on the effects of Tai Chi on balance and fall prevention have increased over the last two decades, the benefits for older adults with diabetes, specifically for those with impaired somatosensation in the lower extremities, are limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Tai Chi exercise on balance, peripheral somatosensation, and fitness in older adults with type 2 diabetes. The …

The Existence, Perpetuity, And Proliferation Of Payday Loans: Impact On Vulnerable Populatons And The Regulatory Policy Process In Texas, Azuri Lizeth Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

If you have ever driven by a street, typically not in a very wealthy neighborhood, where a store front displayed signs with words like "Instant cash!," "No Credit Check," "First loan free," then you likely witnessed the marketing of a product called a payday loan. Payday loans are a form of a short-term loan product that is usually grouped with other loan products within the subprime lending industry, alternative financial resources, or fringe economy markets. This loan product has been the focus of a number of controversial debates among consumer protection groups, financial institutions, state regulatory entities, and legislators, regarding …

Segundo Barrio: Rich, Poor, Or Both?, Julie Anne Krill

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This manuscript describes an exploratory study which was undertaken in Segundo Barrio; a historic neighborhood in El Paso, Texas. The purpose of the study was to identify formal and informal sources of social support through the perceptions of female residents in different stages of life. This community, while economically disadvantaged, has unique characteristics and resources and the researcher was interested in seeing how different age groups perceive them.

Guiding Research Questions:

What sources of social support do residents of Segundo Barrio identify as key sources of support within their neighborhood, Greater El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua?

* Social …

Three Essays On Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Carole Louise Cangioni

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The association between entrepreneurial activity and economic growth appears to be robust: the source of half of job creation emanates from new ventures which, in addition, are a source of technical and market innovation as well as higher labor productivity (Gartner, Shaver, Carter, & Reynolds, 2004). Also, there is a growing percentage of ethnic entrepreneurship in immigrant receiving metropolitan areas, and marginal economic conditions, often experienced by immigrants, increase self-employment. According to the U.S. Census Bureau: "By 2010, Hispanics will be the largest minority group in the U.S with more than 20% of the nation's population" and "minorities, now roughly …