Digital Commons Network^™

Environment And Social Development, Lisa Reyes Mason

Center for Social Development Research

Global environmental changes—such as pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, and freshwater decline—affect people worldwide, with impacts that are not just physical, but also social and economic. Consequences range from minor inconvenience to injury and death, and can include food and water insecurity, mental distress, family separation, income disruption, and asset depletion. a social justice issue, environmental change has consequences that are typically worse for some groups than others. The Environment and Social Development initiative examines social vulnerability and strategies for social action and adaptation to environmental change. We emphasize social action that leads to reductions in negative environmental problems and …

Designing With Bamboo: Frames And Connections In Underdeveloped Areas, Andrew Spencer, Bryson Kam

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Designing With Bamboo: Frames and Connections in Underdeveloped Areas focused on the construction and testing of specific components of a proposed structure utilizing bamboo. This structure, proposed by the Ecological Building Network, would primarily be used in Haiti and other developing countries that are prone to seismic activity. The components of this structure will consist of concrete masonry units, bamboo frames, and rebar for the connection. This project focuses specifically on the bamboo frame and it's connection to the concrete masonry wall. Tests were performed on isolated unit specimens to gain a sense of the behavior of this mechanism. Information …

The Case For The Creation Of An International Environmental Court: Non-State Actors And International Environmental Dispute Resolution, Alessandra Lehman

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Stein Center News - June 2015, Stein Center For Law And Ethics

Stein Center News

No abstract provided.

Compassion & Social Justice: 14th Sakyadhita International Conference On Buddhist Women, Karma Lekshe Tsomo Phd

Theology and Religious Studies: Faculty Scholarship

The 14 Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is an extraordinary crosscultural opportunity. Focusing on the theme “Compassion and Social Justice,” the conference introduces activists of the social justice movements in Indonesia and other Asian countries to Buddhist feminist wisdom, social analysis, lives, and experiences. At the same time, it introduces Buddhist communities to Indonesian activists and local social justice movements. The conference provides a space for attendees, volunteers, interpreters, and seminar and workshop presenters of different backgrounds to interact and break down perceived barriers. It creates a foundation for future collaborations among Buddhist feminists and social …

Meeting At Mom's: The Crisis Of Identity Within The Black Community In Syracuse, New York, Anne-Margaret Childress

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

This thesis uses a multi-sited ethnographic methodology based on interviews conducted in Syracuse, New York to examine the multiracial identity and living conditions of persons of African descent. The theorization in this project utilizes the Black Arts Movement and African Conscious theater frameworks to create an analytical play in which the black community becomes aware of itself through artistic expression that centers on what Larry Neal once described as the &;#8220;black aesthetic.&;#8221; Moreover, it examines identity within the black community &;#8211;identity that is not the product of mainstream societal conceptions of race and color, but is the result of …

The Ipe Insight. Volume 2015, No. 2. June-July, 2015., The Unm Hsc Inter-Professional Education Team

The IPE Newsletters

Health System Innovation for a Healthier New Mexico

Grappling With Cairo’S Garbage: Informal Sector Integration As A Means To Urban Sustainability, Hussein Bakry

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable waste management systems contribute to overall urban sustainability. In developing country cities such as Cairo, the informal sector plays a vital role in these systems, and policy to reform the waste sector must acknowledge that in order to achieve urban sustainability. Cairo is a city that is undergoing rapid urbanization with a rising population, putting strain on resources and public services. An increase in informal housing areas and jobs was only natural to accommodate the growing underclass within the city. One community that developed as a result was the zabbaleen. This community, most of which resides in Manshiet Nasser, …

Paalf People's Plan: East Portland Pilot, Todd Borkowitz, Lorrie Chang, Christine Corrales, Leslee Humphrey, D. H. Strongheart, Timothy Wood

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Recognizing the traumatic experience of being forced to move and losing community, this plan reflects the hopes of community members who seek to rebuild their lives in a new place. The East Portland Pilot Plan applies the urban planning practice of placemaking as a transformative intervention for addressing challenges and stabilizing the Black community in East Portland. This plan also emerges at a critical time, as existing city plans for East Portland indicate significant future public investment and development.

This plan has been written with a wide audience in mind. The material is relevant to homeowners, community activists, urban planners, …

Non-Formal Education For A Sustainable Development Program In Cairo, Mennatallah Sabry Nada

Theses and Dissertations

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is important for moving countries toward a sustainable future. In Egypt, ESD is not a common subject found in the national formal educational system, so non-formal education in ESD is needed. The research question is what is the best-suited structure for an experiential learning based ESD non-formal education program designed for private middle-school students in Egypt? To answer this question a review of existing international non-formal ESD programs and a needs assessment was conducted. The review examined five programs for common components; these components included activities such as experiments, camps, research, community engagement, general discussions …

Utility Scale Solar Projects In California: An Initial Survey, Meaghan Mroz-Barrett

Master's Theses

The lack of a comprehensive database for both concentrating and photovoltaic utility-scale solar power projects, those with a generation capacity of greater than 50 MW, hinders the ability of researchers and policy makers to examine the state of solar development in the state of California. This research project seeks to fill this gap in understanding by creating a database of proposed and developed projects in order to examine trends in proposals, process time, approvals, and construction starts. Existing literature was evaluated to determine potential factors for project success in approval and construction. Upon determination of these factors, the project database …

Cathedral Waterfront Plan, Mathangi Murthy, Tabitha Boschetti, Michelle Anderson, Saumya Kini, Rosa Lehman, Violet Brown

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association anticipated the imminent development of 15-acres of waterfront property (the Steel Hammer Site) in the heart of their community and worked with the PSU MURP team to bolster the voice of the community through public engagement and thoughtful urban planning. The student team reached out to the neighbors, talked with shareholders, conducted site analysis, and developed a shared community vision for the Steel Hammer Site, which resulted the Cathedral Waterfront Plan that includes:

• Twelve community goals for future development
• Three scenarios demonstrating how development on the Steel Hammer Site could contribute to community priorities without …

Appropriate Care Under The Brownfield Amendments: A Better Standard After The Fourth Circuit's Holding In Pcs Nitrogen V. Ashley Ii, Nicholas J. Ortolano Iii

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Erosion-Induced Community Displacement In Newtok, Alaska And The Need To Modify Fema And Nepa To Establish A Relocation Framework For A Warming World, Ashley Rawlings

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Intergenerational Partnership Community Projects : A Case Study In Hong Kong, Tyan Chyi, Nicholas Ooi

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

The Office of Service-Learning (OSL) at Lingnan University is taking the initiative to organize different non-credit bearing community based projects. These projects help to build a strong relationship among community agencies and the higher education through various events/activities which involve both local and international context. This concept aims to building a real-life experiential classroom for students and community members to work closely together and create an effective learning platform for students' based on experiential learning.

In this paper, The 4 highlighted projects focus on Intergenerational Partnership (include LingnanU Elder Academy (EA), Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) Project: Cultural Sustainable Project Through …

Building Social Sustainability From The Ground Up: The Contested Social Dimension Of Sustainability In Neighborhood-Scale Urban Regeneration In Portland, Copenhagen, And Nagoya, Jacklyn Nicole Kohon

Dissertations and Theses

In response to growing social inequality, environmental crises, and economic instability, sustainability discourse has become the dominant "master signifier" for many fields, particularly the field of urban planning. However, in practice many sustainability methods overemphasize technological and economic growth-oriented solutions while underemphasizing the social dimension. The social dimension of sustainability remains a "concept in chaos" drawing little agreement on definitions, domains, and indicators for addressing the social challenges of urban life. In contrast, while the field of public health, with its emphasis on social justice principles, has made significant strides in framing and developing interventions to target the social determinants …

Spectator 2015-05-27, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

Nepantla And Ubuntu Ethics Para Nosotros: Beyond Scrupulous Adherence Toward Threshold Perspectives Of Participatory/Collaborative Research Ethics, Monique Antoinette Guishard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Participatory Action Research (PAR) refers less to a method and more to a continuum of approaches to collaborative inquiry. Within PAR, ideally, some phenomenon has been identified as a mutual area of concern to researchers and community members; working together they design, conduct, analyze, and disseminate the findings of a shared piece of research and coordinate action(s) aimed at using research to redress injustice. If PAR is embraced holistically boundaries inevitably blur as research team members become enmeshed in each other's lives. This blurring while momentous can give rise to ethical quandaries that IRB centered research ethics are inadequate to …

Ecomusicology: Back To The Roots Of Sound/Music And Environmental Sustainability, Tiffany Challe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We are currently living in the midst of a global warming crisis, and running against the clock to counter the rapid depletion of natural resources in an increasingly technology-run world. The first step toward sustainability is to care for our world that is full of vibrant ecosystems and that we must work together to preserve. While the visual arts have served as a cogent platform for the environmental movement, this paper will argue that sound and music have been vastly overlooked in sustainability topics. Place-making music can capture a place's unique spirit and connect listeners with their local ecologies. Therein …

Super Fun Superfund: Polluted Protection Along The Gowanus Canal, Jessica Ty Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research reflects on the patterns of uneven development occurring in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, social and physical changes taking place there, and how these elements of the canal relate to the changing purpose of urban waterways. Gowanus has mimicked the development of New York City since the 1600's through several phases: city settlement and development, abandonment, and redevelopment. The redevelopment phase in Gowanus couples environmental clean up with gentrification and displacement. Using an urban political ecology framework, this research attempts to answer the following questions: Why, after many years of pollution, is the area being cleaned up? Will …

Fun With Administrative Law: A Game For Lawyers And Judges, Adam Babich

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The practice of law is not a game. Administrative law in particular can implicate important issues that impact people’s health, safety, and welfare and change business’ profitability or even viability. Nonetheless, it can seem like a game. This is because courts rarely explain administrative law rulings in terms of the public purposes and policies at issue in lawsuits. Instead, the courts’ administrative law opinions tend to turn on arcane interpretive doctrines with silly names, such as the “Chevron two-step” or “Chevron step zero.” To advance doctrinal arguments, advocates and courts engage in linguistic debates that resemble a smokescreen—tending to obscure …

Environmental Social Activism In The San Diego-Tijuana Transborder Region, Christina M. Hirt

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines the obstacles and opportunities social activists face when attempting to fight environmental injustices in the San Diego-Tijuana transborder region. The study undertakes a case study of the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) - the leading environmental justice organization in the region, which operates on both sides of the US-Mexico Border. The analyses conclude that despite a strong rhetoric of binationalism employed throughout border activists’ campaigns, the strategies that are utilized on the ground have been vastly local and short-term in focus. While activist organizations like the EHC demonstrate a keen awareness of the binational implications of environmental injustices …

Greening A Drug-Addicted Economy: Can Puerto Rico Ease Away From The Toxic Pharmaceutical Industry To A Sustainably Diverse Economy?, Natalie Galarza

Student Theses 2015-Present

Puerto Rico is not the most well known place to most Americans. The small island in the Caribbean is neither an independent nation nor a state, bur rather a commonwealth of the U.S. Life filled coral reefs surround the coasts, rainforests and lush vegetation cover the land, and an underground cave system and glowing bioluminescent bay fascinate all those that venture to them. These natural wonders as well as the vibrant culture are the primary aspects most people who are familiar with Puerto Rico think of. However, the main sector of Puerto Rico’s economy has nothing to do with any …

The Ongoing Traumatic Experience Of Genocide For American Indians And Alaska Natives In The United States: The Call To Recognize Full Human Rights As Set Forth In The United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Angelique Townsend Eaglewoman

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Bates Student - Volume 144 Number 20 - May 13, 2015, Bates College

The Bates Student

No abstract provided.

Spectator 2015-05-13, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

The Interstate Highway System And Environmental Justice: Disproportionate Environmental Impacts On Low Income And Minority Communities, Dylan T. Katz

Student Theses 2015-Present

Equity does not exist for all citizens with access to a clean, safe, and stable environment. In our present day, a number of urban populations suffer from the effects of heavy and disproportionate pollution from our major roadways and systems. Institutionalized racism and classism are pervasively linked to the development of large scale infrastructure in the United States. This thesis explores the historic roots of environmental racism through an assessment of the placement of the United States Interstate system, an infrastructural juggernaut which provided employment and an incentivized lifestyle for millions of upper class white Americans at the cost of …

Redlining The Green: Environmental Racism And Justice In The Bronx, Kelsey Vizzard

Student Theses 2015-Present

Historically, the availability of economic, social, and political opportunities has been almost absent from marginalized communities, such as the Bronx. For reasons like race, ethnicity, and class, these geographic areas have been targeted and named as risk areas in the mid 1900s by banks and other agencies. This historic phenomenon is known as “redlining.” As a result, they received little, if any, economic, social, and political support from the government and other agencies and systems. Instead, any effort to climb the economic and social ladder was initiated by community members and organizations. As a result the community has suffered difficulties …

Fracking And The Rural Poor: Negative Externalities, Failing Remedies, And Federal Legislation, Matthew Castelli

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

This Note examines the relationship between the rural poor and the negative externalities of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). It asserts that the rural poor are disproportionately burdened with fracking’s negative externalities and that comprehensive, national regulation is needed because current legal methods are insufficient to internalize these costs. The argument is made in four parts: describing fracking’s externalities; assessing their impact on the rural poor; analyzing current legal regimes; and proposing an equitable regulatory framework based on cooperative federalism.

Fracking produces three main categories of negative externalities: water, air, and land contamination. Water contamination can be caused by migration of fracking …

Ecpat: Development And Testing Of Mobile Technology To Engage Youth In Active Living Policy, Systems, And Environmental Health Promotion Efforts, Gina M. Besenyi

Theses and Dissertations

Modifying the built environment is a promising way to promote youth physical activity and reduce obesity. Parks, in particular, are key intervention venues given their low cost and legislated ubiquity. Creating healthy communities, including better parks, will require the interest and participation of multiple constituencies, including youth. Creation of mobile technology environmental audit tools can provide a more interactive way for youth to engage with communities and facilitate participation in participatory action research (PAR) and health promotion efforts.

The purpose of the first study was to describe the development and validity and reliability testing of an electronic version of the …