Digital Commons Network^™

The Power Of Autobiography: Unpacking The Past, Understanding The Present, And Impacting The Future While Establishing A Community Of Practice, Angela Branyon, Mark Diacopoulos, Kristen Gregory, Brandon Butler

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Vous De Amatongas: The Voice Of Amatongas, Matthew T. Adler

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Green Infrastructure In The Community Ratings System: A Proposed Path To National Flood Insurance Program Recognition, Kevin Macwhorter, Kathleen Zaratzian

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Turning Waste Into Compost In Napa, California, Liana D. Solis

Pomona Senior Theses

Two significant pieces of legislation in California have mandated that cities and counties must reduce their waste streams. Assembly Bill 341 establishes that California must divert 75% of its waste from landfills by the year 2020. The first bill that included composting, Assembly Bill 1826, was passed in 2014 and requires that commercial users enact composting beginning in 2016. These initiatives have led cities and counties to seek ways of implementing composting programs. Using the City of Napa as a case study, this thesis argues that a composting program can be integrated into any existing waste hauling service. Although there …

Theories Of Civil Society And Global Administrative Law: The Case Of The World Bank And International Development, Francesca Bignami

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

For over two decades, the concept of civil society has informed institutional design in the international realm. Empowering civil society has served as a key rhetorical and policy response to the criticism that the social and economic processes of globalization and the international organizations that have emerged to govern the global realm are illegitimate, elite driven, and anti-democratic. This chapter, which appears in the Elgar Research Handbook on Global Administrative Law, unpacks the concept of civil society with the aim of understanding the institutional reforms that have been undertaken in one important area of global governance—the international development law of …

Toward A Better Understanding Of Community Benefits Assessment Practices., Peter B. Meyer, Lauren Heberle

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

One Person, One Weighted Vote, Ashira Pelman Ostrow

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that weighted voting should be used to comply with the constitutional one-person, one-vote requirement while preserving representation for political units on the legislative body. First, this Article demonstrates that weighted voting satisfies the quantitative one-person, one-vote requirement by equalizing the mathematic weight of each vote. Second, this Article demonstrates that weighted voting has the potential to remedy several negative consequences of equal-population districts. Specifically, this Article argues that by preserving local political boundaries, weighted voting eliminates the decennial redistricting process that gives rise to claims of partisan gerrymandering, enables local governments to function both as administrative arms …

The Geographies Of Uk University Halls Of Residence: Examining Students' Embodiment Of Social Capital, Mark Holton

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Recent investigations into ‘student geographies’ have recognised the complex ways in which students from different backgrounds go about ‘fitting in’ among their peers within universitymanaged accommodation. Halls have been characterised in the literature as highly pressurised spaces in which multiple (and potentially conflicting) identities can perpetuate disadvantage through incongruous accessibility to student-centric social activities and behaviours. This paper joins these debates by critically examining universities’ ‘Student Accommodation’ web pages alongside qualitative interviews in order to question notions of halls being inclusive and encouraging a cultural mix. Using Bourdieu’s reading of social capital this paper suggests that, while these spaces may …

Designing For Online Collaborations And Local Environmental Action In Citizen Science: A Multiple Case Study, Ruth Kermish-Allen

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Traditional citizen science projects have been based on the scientific community’s need to gather vast quantities of high quality data, neglecting to ask what the project participants get in return. How can participants be seen more as collaborative partners in citizen science projects? Online communities for citizen science are expanding rapidly, giving participants the opportunity to take part in a wide range of activities, from monitoring invasive species to identifying far-off galaxies. These communities can bring together the virtual and physical worlds in new ways that are egalitarian, collaborative, applied, localized and globalized to solve real environmental problems. There are …

Communication Asset Mapping: An Ecological Field Application Toward Building Healthy Communities, George Villanueva, Garrett M. Broad, Carmen Gonzalez, Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Sheila Murphy

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Guided by an integrated theoretical approach combining communication infrastructure theory with methods of assets-oriented community field mapping, this study reports the findings of an engaged scholarship project we term communication asset mapping (CAM). Ecological in orientation and participatory in practice, CAM represents a tool for analyzing urban spaces’ potential as mediums for building healthy communities. This article offers two case studies from different low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, the first a researcher-directed CAM application and the second undertaken in collaboration with community health promotion workers. Both offer insights for researchers and practitioners interested in the intersecting roles of communication and …

Valuing Natural Space And Landscape Fragmentation In Richmond, Va, Lee Wyatt Carpenter

Theses and Dissertations

Hedonic pricing methods and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) were used to evaluate relationships between sale price of single family homes and landscape fragmentation and natural land cover. Spatial regression analyses found that sale prices increase as landscapes become less fragmented and the amount of natural land cover around a home increases. The projected growth in population and employment in the Richmond, Virginia region and subsequent increases in land development and landscape fragmentation presents a challenge to sustaining intact healthy ecosystems in the Richmond region. Spatial regression analyses helped illuminate how land cover patterns influence sale prices and landscape patterns that …

A Next, Big Step For The West (Part Ii): Model Water-Climate Enabling Legislation With Commentary, Michelle Bryan, Zach Coccoli, Graham Coppes, Dylan Desrosier

Faculty Law Review Articles

This model legislation is the culmination of an earlier work, A Next, Big Step for the West: Using Model Legislation to Create a Water- Climate Element in Local Comprehensive Plans.' That articleargues that local governments, as the primary regulators of land use and population planning, are integral to our climate and drought response in the West. That article then calls for a new, freestanding "waterclimate element" in local government comprehensive plans that integrates the often disparate realms of land use, water use, and climate planning and better prepares communities for "managing water in wise, resilient, and collaborative ways."2 This approach …

Intercultural Competence Development Through Civic Engagement, Ruta Shah-Gordon

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Today, the field of intercultural communication is becoming even more important.People are increasingly interacting more with others from around the globe, whether for work or recreation.Globalization is creating an increased interdependency between nations; it is critical that institutions of higher education develop leaders who are competent in cross-cultural awareness and practice, have a solid understanding of cultural differences and their effects on leadership performance, and are culturally sensitive to different perspectives (Northouse, 2010).Since many studies of intercultural competence development focus on study abroad experiences, this dissertation focuses on developing intercultural competence in college-aged students through civic engagement experiences.Through a mixed …

Research That Matters: Transforming Community Based Education Through Feminist Pedagogy And Public Scholarship, Amber J. Johnson

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This is a qualitative analysis of focus groups conducted with "Community Partners" (mostly Directors of non-profit social service agencies who have previously partnered with Eastern Washington faculty in community-based education efforts) in the Greater Spokane Area. This research is designed to address shortcomings of current forms of community based education, identify strategies for strengthening the partnerships that exist between Eastern Washington University and the surrounding community, and to establish the need for community based research at the graduate level. By conducting focus groups, this study analyzed Community Partner perceptions of community based education and research before and after watching a …

Community-Based Tourism: An Exploratory Study Of Barbados, Bertram O'Brian Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Tourism, Barbados's primary industry, declined substantially from the outset of the 2008 global recession, triggering an economic slump in the local economy. The purpose of this exploratory study was to explore the views of 20 Barbadian tourism executives regarding the ability of community-based tourism (CBT) to resuscitate Barbados's tourism industry. The participants included 10 from the government and 10 from the business sector; all possessed knowledge of CBT and worked with tourism for at least 10 years. Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation constituted the conceptual framework of this study. Participants were recruited by snowball and purposive sampling. Data were collected …

Inclusion, Exclusion, And The "New" Economic Inequality, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

Is racial inequality an unwelcome intruder to the new discourse on economic inequality? The present discourse on economic inequality emphasizes decades-long trends that have increased economic inequality, whether as a result of reoccurring features in the structure of capitalist economies or more recent changes in institutional, structural, and economic conditions. Researchers direct us to the rising fortunes of the top earners and asset holders relative to the rest, the declining fortunes of the middle class harmed by stagnating wages, and the declining share of industries (like manufacturing) in the economy. This new economic inequality discourse has preoccupied economists, garnered its …

Food Policy: Urban Farming As A Supplemental Food Source, Bessie Didomenica, Mark Gordon

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Food policy has a unique role for public, nonprofit, private, and academic stakeholders. Growing food in the city is a challenge worldwide. Food systems can be destroyed by external (weather extremes) and internal (zoning regulations) forces. This study explores urban farms as a secondary food source and their common themes across four sectors. A Northeastern U.S. city was the case study to examine how it implemented its formal urban agriculture program. The positive social change implications of urban farms include greater food visibility and food access in low-income areas and more consumer awareness about growing fresh food. This study contributes …

Living Together In Student Accommodation: Performances, Boundaries And Homemaking, Mark Holton

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Recent discussions of the geographies of students have drawn attention to the trajectories of UK students electing to leave home for university. While such debates recognise these important mobilities, little has been discussed as to how students interact within their term‐time accommodation. Through a qualitative study of the living arrangements of UK students, this paper will demonstrate that much can be drawn from focusing on the micro‐geographies of non‐local students within their term‐time homes. Student accommodation is more than simply somewhere to live. Student homes are intensely dynamic places, perhaps more so than family homes as they contain multiple, disconnected …

Cooperative Housing Systems, Shane Madden, Andrew Mcallister, Kieran Brady, John Flynn, Emma Conway, Holly Carton, Yi Shi, Benjamin Cooney, Sean Conlon-Smith

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Understanding Influences On The Critical-To-Success Factors In Online Brand Communities, Stephanie A. Meek

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In an internationally competitive market a company’s brand is its most valuable asset, and increasing and retaining loyal customers is key to long-term success. Forging binding relationships between consumers and their brand is therefore of critical importance to most organisations (Lhotáková, 2012). Previous studies indicate that online brand communities (OBCs) effectively facilitate such relationships (Backhaus, Steiner & Lugger, 2011; Madupu & Cooley, 2010) and provide companies with reliable marketing intelligence to potentially gain a competitive advantage.

OBCs are online forums dedicated to a specific brand, where consumers gather and exchange information and socialise. Today they are more prevalent than ever …

Relationship Between Sustainable Environmental Practices And Sustainable Value Creation: A Conceptual Study On Readymade Garments Industry Of Bangladesh, Mohammed S. Chowdhury, Zahurul Alam, Mizanur Rahaman Chowdhury

Graduate School of Business Publications and Research

Because of the increasing level of industrial contamination the demand for sustainable products and raw materials aligned with the ecological pollution has been on the rise in this horizon. This study theoretically explores the impact of sustainable environmental practices on financial performance of Ready-made Garment (RMG) companies of Bangladesh following the growing literature linking corporate sustainable environmental performance with revenue development and profitability. Various sustainable environmental practices have diverse effects on firm’s performance, as the literature review suggests. From literature review this paper reports four key areas (community, employee, environment and governance) of sustainable practices for sustainable financial performance that …

Taming The Super-Wicked Problem Of Waterfront Hazard Mitigation Planning: The Role Of Municipal Communication Strategies, Sarah Adams-Schoen

Scholarly Works

In the Adaptation Report of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identifies floods in urban riverine and coastal areas as among the key climate-related risks for North America. Not surprisingly for residents of coastal and riverine communities devastated by recent extreme weather events, the Adaptation Report acknowledges that risks related to sea-level rise, increased frequency and duration of extreme precipitation events, and increasingly intense coastal storms are not only future risks, but are current risks that are already manifesting in property and infrastructure damage, ecosystem and social system disruption, public health impacts, and water …

Developing Agritourism In The Caribbean: Critical Ethnography And Sustainable Landscape Design To Improve The Human Experience At Letan Bossier, Haiti, Kristen Maria Lonon

LSU Master's Theses

The Letan Bossier, Haiti community is in need of continued investment from international agencies, in an effort to improve conditions for locals, along with shaping the experience of the tourist, at and around an attractive natural basin, three miles north-west of Cayes-Jacmel, Haiti, at about 187 meters above sea level. In order to improve one’s journey through this mountainside community to the Grand Basin, capital investments must be made. The goal of the proposed design solutions is to solve for the locals first, in turn, attracting tourists to experience a space that’s supported by its own people. The goal of …

The Role Of Portland State University As A Community Partner In Addressing Homelessness, Jennifer Hoskins

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the role of Portland State University as a community partner in addressing the issue of homelessness. The research includes a literature review, findings from a 10-month participant observation study, and interviews with community and academic leaders. The findings from the study focus on community needs, which include having a citizenry educated on issues of poverty and homelessness; having vocal support for public policies that serve people who are homeless; insight from research; and having labor to get work done. The research findings also focus on university needs, which include classroom curriculum centered on poverty and homelessness; service …

Pdxscholar Annual Report 2015, Karen Bjork, Sherry Buchanan, David Coate, Bertrand Robinson, Stacey Schlatter

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

This report details the fifth year of operation for PDXScholar, Portland State University's institutional repository. The report covers the period between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015.