Digital Commons Network^™

Rural Prison Politics: The Impact Of Correctional Facilities On Community Voting Behavior In California, Corey Smith

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how the building of a prison impacts local political behaviors and public opinion. Economic development during the late 20th century left agricultural and manufacturing based regions of the United States struggling to maintain a reliable sense of financial prosperity, thereby propelling rural regions into the prison-building business. In this thesis, I analyze the voting data of five rural Californian towns concerning Proposition 7 (1978) and Proposition 47 (2014). Through this data analysis and a synthesis of the literature on prison host communities, this thesis investigates whether the construction of a prison has influenced political action regarding prison …

Book Proposal: Reimagining Higher Education: A Guide To Creating The Competent College Graduate, Molly Kerby

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Given the climate of distrust, colleges and universities are examining strategies to enable them to remain relevant. Efforts to answer the recent outcry for productive, effective, and evidencedbased outcomes include adapting curricula and degree programs to better prepare graduates for employment. Competency-based education (CBE) programs are at the forefront of these approaches. Although not a new concept, CBE has shifted from its vocational training roots to its current attention on student results. The acquisition of competence requires an engaged learner who practices self-reflection (Dreyfus, 2004). Albanese, et al. (2008) suggest competencies should be outcome focused, emphasize applied-learning, and be measurable. …

Tribal Consultation Policy And Practice:A Case Study Of The Confederated Salish And Kootenai Tribes And Nmisuletkʷ (The Middle Fork Of The Clark Fork River) As A Tribal Trust Resource, Jennifer J. Harrington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Formal, government-to-government Consultation between sovereign nations is a process of continuous relationship-building, a partnership and an agreement made with all points-of-view included in the process, with results that have the fingerprint of all nations involved evident. The Federal Government is obligated to work with Federally-recognized Tribes as sovereign nations in matters that have or will impact each Nation’s people and places (reservations, treaty-protected areas)—a process legally known as Consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as a federal agency, must uphold the Federal Trust responsibility which includes the act of Consulting with Federally-recognized Tribes on matters involving human health and the …

Social Climatology: An Age Comparison Of Women's Sustained Commitment To Collective Action Against Climate Change, Sara A. Humphers-Ginther

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate activists urgently emphasize action to prevent catastrophic and apocalyptic-like damage from climate change. The foundation of the institutional change needed to combat climate change is collective action, which I study here through a collective action frame. These frames can gain traction for policy agendas: they are solution- and action-oriented. I interviewed women climate activists to understand how they frame the problems from, causes of, and solutions to climate change, as well as how they urge others to act against climate change. I compared my informants based on age because beliefs, values, and lived experiences are important in how activists …

An Exploration Of Zero Waste Policies And Recommendations For Missoula, Sarah Blyth Lundquist

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

“Zero Waste” is a concept and community goal that has arisen to challenge the current consumerist economic system and offer solutions for a number of environmental issues. In adopting this goal, individuals and communities pledge to reduce and divert at least 90% of their waste in a certain number of years. These goals can be reached by employing policies, programs, and other intervention tactics which establish Zero Waste infrastructure, ensure equitable and widespread access to Zero Waste services, and provide educational outreach and resources to the community. Missoula adopted a Zero Waste goal in 2016 and created a Zero Waste …

Earth Mothers, Soy Boys, And Cool Dudes: Practicing Law While Protecting The Environment, Elizabeth J. Hubertz

Scholarship@WashULaw

As a public-interest environmental lawyer, this author explores gender in the legal profession. Specifically, gender in environmental law. Through a recognition of the gendered dimensions of environmental law, this Article explores the nature-culture binary, the relationship of meat to masculinity, and perceptions of the risks and threats of climate change.

Moving Toward Sustainable Residential Integration With Racial Justice And Social Equity, Kermit Lind

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Regulatory Performance: Learning From And Institutionalizing Retrospective Analysis Of Epa Regulations, Joseph E. Aldy

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A Role For Protest In Environmental Law, Emily Hammond

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wisdom As Loving Justice: An Interfaith Perspective, Deborah Zawislan

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Centering Social Equity In The Climate Action Planning Process: Lessons For Richmond, Virginia, Melissa M. Marquette

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The client of this plan is the City of Richmond's Office of Sustainability. The purpose is to assist RVAgreen 2050's in its equity-centered climate action planning and to reach the City of Richmond's frontline communities (those impacted first and worst to climate impacts of intense heat, low-lying flooding, and severe storm events). The method and approach include the content analysis of ten cities' climate action, sustainability, or resiliency plans. It makes suggestions of best practices and recommendations for the City of Richmond to reach those historically left out of the planning process and to shift power from the local government …

Transit Feasibility Study For Chesterfield County, Va, Taylor D. Jenkins

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This capstone presents a transit feasibility study for Chesterfield County, VA in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Urban and Regional Planning in the VCU Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. GRTC Transit System (GRTC) is the primary public transportation operator for the Richmond region. In 2016, the Greater Richmond Transit Vision Plan created a regional transit network that would guide cohesive future transit development in the region. This plan intends to support building the bridge between the existing state of transit in Chesterfield County and implementation of the transit vision plan. Through the completion of …

3014 Meadowbridge Rd: A Community-Engaged Opportunity-Based Re-Investment Action Plan, Antwan L. Hoy

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This plan is an asset-based community response for 7^th Street Memorial Baptist Church CDC as a way to revitalize and uplift the Six Points neighborhood of Highland Park. This plan was designed to provide a template for community engagement that would reintroduce a legacy of service to the community while partnering with other community assets to reinvest into the community. The primary action that makes this a prime engagement opportunity is the restoration of 7^th Street Memorial Baptist Church location at 3014 Meadowbridge Rd. Treating the building as an asset for the community and not only the church …

Posters As An Effective Assessment Tool For A Capstone Course, David Gosselin, Doug Golick

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

A rubric was developed to assess student posters as a mechanism to evaluate learning outcomes for a senior capstone course. The analytic rubric allows for the efficient and systematic collection of data from posters by students who worked across a variety of disciplines including the physical, biological, Earth sciences, social science, and the humanities. The rubric effectively addressed a fundamental assumption and requirement put forth during rubric development, that is, it needs to be relatively easy to use without training while at the same time producing consistent results across evaluators. The overall Chronbach’s alpha of 0.80 across semesters indicates acceptable …

International Law And Theories Of Global Justice: Remarks, Steven R. Ratner, James Stewart, Jiewuh Song, Carmen Pavel

Articles

International law (IL) and political philosophy represent two rich disciplines for exploring issues of global justice. At their core, each seeks to build a better world based on some universally agreed norms, rules, and practices, backed by effective institutions. International lawyers, even the most positivist of them, have some underlying assumptions about a just world order that predisposes their interpretive methods; legal scholars have incorporated concepts of justice in their work even as their overall pragmatic orientation has limited the nature of their inquiries. Many philospophers, for their part, have engaged with IL to some extent—at a minimum recognizing that …

Exploring Young Acb Women’S Experiences Of Navigating Sexual Health In The Greater Toronto Area., Natasha Afua Darko

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis explores the experiences of young African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) women in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) regarding how they navigate sexual health. Young ACB women face challenges that put them at increased risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Despite this, few studies have focused on the social contexts that affect sexual health for ACB women in Canada. This Community Based Participatory Research ( CBPR) study (N = 24) utilized focus groups to examine young ACB women's experiences navigating sexual health. In the following thesis document, I present two manuscripts where I share a) a reflection …

Seeking A Path To Wellness And Flourishing: Exploring Ecological Citizenship, Systems Thinking, And Environmental Governance In Southwest Yukon, Amanda Solmes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While efforts toward environmental management (EM) have been increasing, the state of our natural world is getting worse. Numerous reports have outlined that today’s environmental problems are predominantly human-induced, yet approaches to EM often only address “environmental” rather than “human” issues. More holistic approaches are required. This thesis explores “ecological citizenship” (EC) as an alternative framework that may have the potential to address elements too often left out of top-down and reductionist approaches. Academic and case-based notions of this concept are explored, and a new definition for the term is developed. A case study, drawn from the rich results of …

International Dispute Resolution And Access To Justice: Comparative Law Perspectives, Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Future Of Thailand's Captive Elephants, Antoinette Van De Water, Michelle Henley, Lucy Bates, Rob Slotow

Animal Sentience

Removal from natural habitat and commodification as private property compromise elephants’ broader societal value. Although we support Baker & Winkler’s (2020) plea for a new community-based rewilding conservation model focused on mahout culture, we recommend an expanded co-management approach to complement and enhance the regional elephant conservation strategy with additional local community stakeholders and the potential to extend across international borders into suitable elephant habitat. Holistic co-management approaches improve human wellbeing and social cohesion, as well as elephant wellbeing, thereby better securing long-term survival of Asian elephants, environmental justice, and overall sustainability.

Assessing The Performance Of Voluntary Environmental Programs, Luis Inaraja Vera

Law Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, government agencies have increasingly relied on voluntary programs to achieve a variety of goals, from improving worker safety to creating healthier living conditions in urban areas. This type of government initiative is based on a bargain between the agency and private citizens: the government provides certain incentives—economic or otherwise—and private actors voluntarily adopt behaviors that benefit the public. One example is cleaning up a contaminated site and building an affordable housing project.

While agencies have made substantial progress since the creation of the first voluntary programs, much work remains. To move forward in this area, and especially …

Toxic Floodwaters: Strengthening The Chemical Safety Regime In The Climate Change Era, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

Extreme flooding linked to climate change has caused toxic chemical spills across the United States, yet policymakers are not prioritizing industrial chemical safety in planning for climate change. Many scholars and industry executives have argued that existing private law mechanisms, such as insurance and tort-based deterrence, can adequately manage the risk of flood-induced chemical releases from industrial sites. But private law mechanisms have failed to prevent past incidents of mass contamination, and there is little evidence that tort law deters industrial firms from the practices that put communities at risk. In this Article, I engage in a comparative analysis of …

The Virocene Epoch: The Vulnerability Nexus Of Viruses, Capitalism And Racism, Jude Fernando

Sustainability and Social Justice

COVID-19 has ushered in a new planetary epoch—the Virocene. In doing so, it has laid bare the limits of humanity’s power over nature, exposing the vulnerability of ‘normal’ ways of living and their moral and pragmatic bankruptcy in coping with those vulnerabilities. ‘Normal’ is powerless against the virus and has not worked for a majority of the world’s human and non-human population. Whatever new normal humanity fashions depends on the socio-ecological change set in motion by mutations between human and non-human species. The outcomes of society’s responses to the pandemic depend on how human agency, as an embodiment of social, …

Emergent Women's Global Political Leadership: Progress Despite Constraints, Aoife Meehan

Dissertations and Theses

“Emergent Women’s Global Political Leadership: Progress Despite Constraints” seeks to trace why and how female political leaders emerge at the global level. Evidence points to certain cultural factors, often expressed by laws, constraining or supporting women as they seek political advancement. Data shows women leaders are emerging more and more, though slowly, as political leaders around the world. Reviewing women’s participation and representation regionally and nationally in parliaments, as ministers, and as heads of governments and states confirms that women can and do emerge as political leaders. Finally, learning about and examining women leaders themselves, their style and substance, proves …

Viewing Bornean Human–Elephant Conflicts Through An Environmental Justice Lens, Elena C. Rubino, Christopher Serenari, Nurzhafarina Othman, Marc Ancrenaz, Fauzie Sarjono, Eddie Ahmad

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Sabah, on the northeastern corner of Borneo, is concurrently Malaysia’s largest producer of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and home to the endangered Bornean elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis; elephants). Concomitantly, Sabah has been experiencing increasing and unsustainable human–elephant conflicts (HECs), which have not been thoroughly investigated from a human dimensions standpoint. To address this void, in March 2019, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 villagers located in the Sabah districts of Lahad Datu, Tawau, and Telupid to investigate villager cognitions regarding elephants, behaviors toward elephants, the formal and informal village institutions employed to mediate HECs, and the …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Teaching Of Climate Change, Daniel Diego

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which educators address climate change and the impacts of human activity on the environment in conjunction with the Next Generation Science Standards. This study utilized qualitative methods, a phenomenological methodology informed by Moustakas, and a Systems Theory and Ecojustice Education conceptual framework. The central research questions was: in what ways do educators who are implementing the Next Generation Science Standards address climate change and the impacts of human activity on the environment? The supporting research questions were: in what ways do educators who are implementing the Next Generation Science …

Addressing Long-Standing Water Contamination Issues In Diné Communities Using Indigenous And Western Scientific Approaches, Ranalda Lynette Tsosie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The intent of this study was multifaceted and based on a research framework that incorporated the Diné worldview and Diné Science. Diné Science describes a holistic approach to conducting scientific research. It encompasses Diné foundational concepts and philosophies and applies them to the scientific method and western scientific approaches. The four major philosophies, Nitsáhákees (Thinking), Nahat’á (Planning), Iiná (Implementing/Living) and Siih Hasin (Reflection/Assurance), were applied to this research process.

The main motivation is first and foremost to improve the quality of life of the Diné people especially those living in close proximity to abandoned mines and who are continuing to …

Brownfield Redevelopments In Birmingham, Alabama: An Evaluation Of The Role Of Citizen Participation Utilizing The Framework Of Arnstein's Ladder, Sandra Cutts

All ETDs from UAB

The primary research objective is investigating the extent of citizen participation decision-making in the brownfield redevelopments in Birmingham, Alabama’s downtown revitalization to develop best practices for brownfield redevelopment collaboration. The technical literature affirms the need for citizen participation in project decision-making processes. Limited literature exists on how to best evaluate and incorporate participatory activities in brownfield redevelopments. This research adds to the literature, filling this gap by utilizing Arnstein’s ladder as an evaluative framework to quantify public participation in practice. It is important to understand how the extent of public participation in project decision-making may promote or hinder brownfield redevelopment. …

Public Participation As Peacebuilding: A New Model For Environmental Justice Communities, Kathryn E. Fagan

All ETDs from UAB

Environmental justice seeks to address the unequal burden of environmental problems experienced by minority and low-income communities and to ensure their meaningful participation in decision-making processes. While there is increasing attention being paid to the unequal distribution, there is a lack of work that focuses explicitly on public participation in an environmental justice context. Environmental problems, in general, are complex and involve a variety of stakeholders, and environmental justice problems are further complicated by the interconnections of structural racism, historical trauma, and damaged relationships. Many of these complexities can be seen in the ongoing efforts at the 35th Avenue Superfund …

What Happens When The Green New Deal Meets The Old Green Laws?, J. B. Ruhl, James Salzman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The multi-faceted infrastructure goals of the Green New Deal will be impossible to achieve in the desired time frames if the existing federal, state, and local siting and environmental protection statutory regimes are applied. Business, labor, property rights, environmental protection, and social justice interests will use them to grind the Green New Deal to a snail's pace. Using the renewable energy transition as the infrastructure case study, this Essay is a call to arms for the need to design New Green Laws for the Green New Deal. Part I briefly summarizes what we are learning about the pace and magnitude …

Rethinking Rewilding Through Multispecies Justice, Danielle Celermajer

Animal Sentience

Baker & Winkler’s argument that some humans, especially some Indigenous peoples, neither conceive of themselves as ontologically distinct from nature, nor do they organize their lives as such, is an important one. However, one needs to understand how colonialism and global capitalism have drawn Indigenous peoples and animals into new political economies. The new situation and the constrained opportunities available may have introduced a range of injustices or forms of violence that did not previously exist. This commentary proposes how a multispecies justice lens might assist in evaluating the most just arrangement for all parties, human and non-human.