Digital Commons Network^™

People, Place, Process: Unpacking Local Efforts To Produce Social Sustainability, Hannah Lebovits

ETD Archive

This three-paper dissertation seeks to understand the factors that drive social sustainability in local contexts, giving attention to institutional efforts of local governments and nonprofit agencies as well as the interdependence between the built environment and collective action efforts. It marries two separate literatures, in public affairs and urban studies, by conceptualizing the relationships between the way spaces have been planned and designed to function and they ways they are lived in and governed. The first paper measures the relationship between modes of housing settlement within a city and the number of social sustainability policies a city adopts, finding a …

A Journey Toward Sustainable Behavior: A Project To Stimulate Reduced Electricity Consumption, Albert A. Bragg Jr.

ETD Archive

Housing organizations continuously face competition from other providers of low to moderate-income residential housing. That competition motivates those agencies to perpetually search for cost savings methods, which will enable them to continue providing supportive services to their residents. Additionally, the government has entrusted certain agencies with substantial funding that can inspire the organization to search for ways to demonstrate they are competent shepherds of those resources. Given that Alpha Homes’ residents do not pay their electric bills, the fundamental question guiding this research was: could a housing organization significantly reduce the average tenant electricity usage through a combination of resident-focused …

Adoption Of Residential Solar Energy: Exploratory Study Approach And Spatial Decision Support System, Ahmed Omar Alzahrani

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Stakeholders have recognized a need to employ and advance renewable-energy technologies. Renewable energy plays a crucial role in sustaining governments’ energy resources security, mitigating environmental risks associated with extensive use of fossil fuels, and offering long-lasting energy resources for industrial, commercial, and residential needs for electrical power. This study focused on providing a better understanding of solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption at the residential level. Although many researchers investigated solar energy adoption in a search for what may motivate individuals to invest in such a technology, previous studies of solar energy adoption did not address spatial and nonspatial factors simultaneously. Geographic …

Footprints In The Atmosphere: Quantitative Analysis Of Carbon Emissions To Identify The Potential Of Community Climate Action, Meredith Todd

Theses & ETDs

With the challenges to development presented by the increasing causes and effects of climate change, an important piece to focus on it allowing all people to join the conversation and create a community to solve it. Where the idea of carbon emissions makes limited sense to average people and cannot convey a responsibility to act, carbon footprint measurement can overcome that obstacle and convey the impact of individual habits by distributing carbon emissions on a per capita scale. By comparing the carbon footprints of ecovillages, intentional-ecological communities, to national and global carbon footprints, it is possible to communicate a level …

Adaptive Reuse Of Heritage Architecture And Its External Effects On Sustainable Built Environment—Hedonic Pricing Model And Case Studies In Hong Kong, Yee Chun,Tristance Kee, Kwong Wing Chau

Faculty of Design & Environment (THEi)

The integration of the sustainable development perspective into the discussion of heritage conservation by UNESCO in 2015 represents an acknowledgement of the values of heritage conservation in the agenda of sustainable development. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence regarding how heritage conservation fits into the overall sustainable development in Hong Kong by examining the external effects generated by architectural heritage conservation onto their adjacent neighborhood. By two adaptive reuse heritage case studies with respective hedonic pricing analysis on their adjacent property prices, this paper presents the results of how residential property prices have been increased as a result of …

From Civil Rights To Human Rights: The Pandemic’S Aftermath Requires Environmental And Reproductive Justice Mechanisms To Reinforce Global Public Health, Elena D. Gartner

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Sdlp After 20: Sustainable Development In The Anthropocene, David Hunter

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Water Sustainability Leadership Fostering Stakeholder Engagement, Rosa Elena Bustillos Wong

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Water conservation management and water use behaviors of U.S. citizens are critical to secure water for future generations. An American citizen consumes approximately 88 gallons of water per day. On a local scale, a Florida citizen uses 134 gallons per day and wastes 71% of the total municipal drinking water provision in landscape activities. The problem addressed in this study was that administrators working on water conservation programs undergo difficulty fostering stakeholder engagement to advocate a water use behavioral change. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to understand how citizen water use behaviors influence stakeholder water …

Using Site Visits To Strengthen Collaboration, Victor Piercey, Rebecca Segal, Afroditi Vennie Filippas, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone, Rosalyn Hobson Hargraves, Jack Bookman, John Hearn, Debbie Pike, Kathy S. Williams

Publications and Research

The SUMMIT-P project is a multi-institutional endeavor to leverage interdisciplinary collaboration in order to improve the teaching of undergraduate mathematics courses in the first two years of college. One goal of this work is to establish collaborative communities among the institutions involved. As part of the project, institutions visit one another on site visits that are structured according to a common protocol. The site visits have been valuable to the project. Participating institutions report the exchange of actionable ideas and feedback; members of the grant leadership team have used the site visits to direct the overall project, and evaluators have …

Stakeholder Perceptions On Transitioned Foster Youth Work Outcomes: A Mixed Methods Study In San Antonio, Bonnie Inkel

Occupational Therapy Program Student Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Purpose: This examination of stakeholder perceptions on transitioned foster youth work outcomes is a crucial step to identify service strengths and barriers, characteristics of successful/unsuccessful outcomes, and opportunities for occupational therapy collaboration in San Antonio, Texas.

Method: A mixed-methods approach identified perceptions from two groups of stakeholders. Group I included transitionedfoster youth ages 18–24, and group II involved public/private agency professionals working with youth. Small sample sizes prevented traditional statistical analysis, but the Excel VARA (variance) statistical function analyzed numerical spread combinations from collected data, thus providing quantitative analysis.

Results: Participants confirmed they had not completed a similar survey on …

Balancing Complex Social And Technical Aspects Of Design: Exposing Engineering Students To Homelessness Issues, Diana A. Chen, Mark A. Chapman, Joel Alejandro Mejia

School of Engineering: Faculty Scholarship

This paper describes the development and implementation of a classroom experience involving problem-based and project-based learning with community engagement in an engineering design context. While most User-Centered Design courses ask students to critically analyze and synthesize user needs, particularly of users who they see as “not like them”, our version is unique in having students wrestle with concepts of power, privilege, and oppression alongside developing prototypes that address sociotechnical aspects of engineering design that are rarely discussed in engineering courses. The course project described in this paper was developed to integrate issues of homelessness with engineering design. To achieve this …

Key Concepts In Sustainable Development, William Grunkemeyer, Myra Moss

Web Book of Regional Science

The question we are concerned with in this document is whether sustainable development can be a community wide priority and behavior that expands, and perhaps even at times replaces, existing priorities and behaviors. The materials contained in this document are intended to help both those entering the sustainability discussion and those with a rich history of implementing sustainable activities to consider ways traditional development leadership can be integrated into current sustainable development efforts. Included in our effort to encourage this integration is a history of the sustainable development concept, a review and discussion regarding the actual definition of sustainability, a …

Pulse@Fass, Issue 2, 2020, Faculty Of Arts And Social Sciences University Of Malaya

Archival Material (2020s)

No abstract provided.

Implementing The Icelandic Model For Preventing Adolescent Substance Use, Alfgeir L. Kristjansson, Michael J. Mann, Jon Sigfusson, Ingibjorg E. Thorisdottir, John P. Allegrante, Inga Dora Sigfusdottir

Public and Population Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is the second in a two-part series of articles about the Icelandic Model for Primary Prevention of Substance Use (IPM) in this volume of Health Promotion Practice. IPM is a community collaborative approach that has demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in reducing substance use initiation among youth in Iceland over the past 20 years. While the first article focused attention on the background context, theoretical orientation, evaluation and evidence of effectiveness, and the five guiding principles of the model, this second article describes the 10 core steps to practical implementation. Steps 1 to 3 focus on building and maintaining community …

Transformative Education For Autistic Students: Sustainable Employment Readiness Training For Autistic Students, Maryellen Stephens

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Higher education institutions are in the business of transforming neurotypical students into becoming fully human and flourishing into employable graduates that contribute to societal development while failing to be fully inclusive of the needs of students on the autism spectrum. To address these concerns, I propose a developmental employment readiness program for matriculated autistic students. The Autism Workforce Program will transform the system of higher education to be more inclusive of the needs of the autism population and their growing unemployment rate. This program will provide employment training opportunities, job shadowing, internships, and paid positions through campus mentorships from faculty …

Impact Of Coaching By Extension Professionals On Rural Wellness Coalition Success, Taylor Willhite

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To quantitatively assess coaches perceived confidence in coaching rural wellness coalitions and to qualitatively determine barriers and facilitators to success in coaching rural wellness coalitions.
Design: A mixed methods design was utilized with quantitative (scorecard) and qualitative (key informant interviews) methodologies.
Setting: Six rural South Dakota wellness coalitions.
Participants: Extension wellness coalition coaches (n=7), one previous and six current.
Intervention: A component of the broader SDSU Extension 1416 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) intervention.
Analysis: STATA was utilized for the quantitative scorecard data by running paired ttests. NVivo was utilized in the …

Dig Social Media Manager Guidebook: Style Guide, Julia Jenak, Bryn Pellowe

Miller Center Fellowship

DIG does not currently have an established Social Media Style Guide. A style guide establishes consistent brand messaging across all public communication channels and allows DIG to communicate more consistently and effectively with its current and target audiences. This consistent brand messaging will build loyalty and trust, both of which are important in growing DIG’s donor base and establishing strong partnerships. The style guide will also serve to guide Social Media Managers in crafting captions for posts on social media.

Editor’S Note, Janie Harden Fritz

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the Editor’s Note to Volume 39, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Music Identity And Listening Preferences Of Students In High School Performing Ensembles, Caitlin Harris

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to examine and identify the listening preferences and musical identity of high school members of performing ensembles. Participants were involved in five stages of data collection; the initial questionnaire, the first listening journal, a feedback questionnaire, the second listening journal, and individual interviews. Data was collected during the 2017-2018 school year, and participants completed all phases during their personal time. Three research questions framed this study:

1) How do the listening preferences of students help shape their musical identities?

2) Do students’ listening preferences outside of school conflict with their in …

Paul By Paul By Paul, Paul Finch

Theses and Dissertations

In 2020 flamboyant fashion is associated with queer performativity. Psychologist Alan Downs and queer theorist madison moore understand this to be a response to a culture that is hostile to sexual behaviour and gender expression that falls outside a rigid binary. I study the history of flamboyant aesthetics and camp sensibilities from an intersectional perspective, and locate designers and artists who have produced clothes in ways that materialize the political implications of fashion. As a studio-based artist, I employ traditional sewing techniques, digital technologies, and performance to create clothes and new media works that demonstrate a circular understanding of time, …

Building Efficacy In Early-Career Teachers: An Applied Research Study On The Role Of Professional Development On Teacher Efficacy, Duncan Gray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teacher efficacy is closely connected to student achievement and teacher retention. The applied research explored how rethinking certain aspects of professional development would impact the efficacy of the teachers in an upper elementary building. The research program included two distinct components. School administrators redesigned after school professional development sessions in order to allow teachers to facilitate their own learning and lead sessions on areas of interest. The second component was a structural model that alloearly-career educators to visit other classrooms. Both of the components shosome promise for increasing teachers’ sense of efficacy, but the response from the after-school sessions was …

Framework For A Community Health Observing System For The Gulf Of Mexico Region: Preparing For Future Disasters, P Sandifer, L Knapp, M Lichtveld, R Manley, P Sandifer, R Caffey, D Cochran, T Collier, K Ebi, L Engel, J Farrington, M Finucane, C Hale, D Halpern, E Harville, L Hart, Y Hswen, B Kirkpatrick, B Mcewen, G Morris, R Orbach, L Palinkas, M Partyka, D Porter, G Prather, T Rowles, G Scott, T Seeman, H Solo-Gabriele, E Svendsen, T Tincher, J Trtanj, A H. Walker, R Yehuda

Faculty Publications

The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region is prone to disasters, including recurrent oil spills, hurricanes, floods, industrial accidents, harmful algal blooms, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. The GoM and other regions of the U.S. lack sufficient baseline health information to identify, attribute, mitigate, and facilitate prevention of major health effects of disasters. Developing capacity to assess adverse human health consequences of future disasters requires establishment of a comprehensive, sustained community health observing system, similar to the extensive and well-established environmental observing systems. We propose a system that combines six levels of health data domains, beginning with three existing, national surveys …

Analytical Variables Leading To The Involvement Of Consumers And Farmers In Sustainable Urban Agriculture In The Indianapolis Region, Olivia Holabird

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

200,000 people living in Indianapolis have low food access, most of whom live in low-income areas. One solution to these food deserts is sustainable urban agriculture. I investigated what factors bring people living in the Indianapolis region to become involved in sustainable agriculture in the hopes of increasing future involvement. To do this, I conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with 6 farmers and 6 consumers across the Indianapolis region. I used Vermeir and Verbeke’s analytical categories of values, social norms, certainty, perceived availability, and perceived influence. Through my interviews, however, I found my own variables of sense of identity, accessibility, health, …

Using Site Visits To Strengthen Collaboration, Victor Piercey, Rebecca Segal, Afroditi Filippas, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone, Rosalyn Hargraves, Jack Bookman, John Hearn, Debbie Pike, Kathy Williams Phd

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

The SUMMIT-P project is a multi-institutional endeavor to leverage interdisciplinary collaboration in order to improve the teaching of undergraduate mathematics courses in the first two years of college. One goal of this work is to establish collaborative communities among the institutions involved. As part of the project, institutions visit one another on site visits that are structured according to a common protocol. The site visits have been valuable to the project. Participating institutions report the exchange of actionable ideas and feedback; members of the grant leadership team have used the site visits to direct the overall project, and evaluators have …

Hospitality And Tourism Program, Hospitality & Tourism

Program Revisions/Additions

No abstract provided.

Information Systems Strategies For Small And Medium Size Enterprise Sustainability, Oluseyi Solomon Awotayo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium size business owners who do not use information systems effectively degrade business models, reduce customer value, and diminish the prospects for business stability, profitability, and growth. Grounded in the resource based view framework, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the information systems strategies small business owners used to sustain their business beyond 5 years. A purposeful sample of 5 owners of 5 different small and medium sized businesses in the state of Texas participated in the study. Data were collected via semistructured, face-to-face interviews, company documents, and member checking. Data were analyzed using …

Organizational Capacity-Building To Battle Addiction In The Oneida Community, Anita F. Barber

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Oneida Nation community members created a new and developing organization The Healing Society (fictious name) operated by a volunteer board. The board needed strategic direction to build organizational capacity and sustainability to address the lack of awareness in the community about the increase in opioid and heroin abuse after a well-known community member died from an overdose. The purpose of this postpositivist constructionist qualitative case study was to gather empirical data from the perspectives of internal and external stakeholders through a SWOT analysis focused on their perspectives. Their answers addressed: (a) the organizational strengths and weaknesses of The Healing Society …

High-Performance Organizational Culture And Corporate Success, Alexander Lapshun

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some Singapore global corporation business leaders experience difficulties building a high-performance culture. Building a high-performance culture encourages high performance, promotes excellence, and nurtures a continuous improvement climate. Grounded in Gilbert's behavioral engineering model, the purpose of this qualitative mini ethnography single case study was to explore strategies midlevel managers in Singapore use to create a high-performance organizational culture. Six midlevel managers representing a Fortune 500 information technology firm in Singapore participated in the study. Data collection included semistructured interviews followed by member checking, direct observations, and a review of the company's documents. Marshall and Rossman's 5-step data analysis process identified …

Sustainability In Agriculture And Local Food Systems: A Solution To A Global Crisis (Chapter From Zero Hunger), Jerry H. Kavouras, Christina Gibbons, Brianna Morgan, Marie Asma Ben-Othmen

Biology Department Faculty Books/Book Chapters

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines a food system as the entire range of stakeholders and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, distribution and aggregation, processing, marketing, consumption and waste management of food products that originate from agriculture, forestry, and parts of the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which they are embedded (Take and Systems 2015). To be considered sustainable, a food system must deliver food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social, and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for future generations …

Interventions And Community Models That Lead To Successful Long-Term Meaningful Competitive Integrated Employment For Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Literature Review, Eileen Annette Baker

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines interventions and community models that lead to successful long-term, meaningful integrated employment for individuals with ASD. The literature review outlines the barriers to successful employment experienced by individuals with ASD, followed by strategies for success. The author suggests that promising research-based programs and interventions should be further examined through longitudinal studies and then implemented in secondary, post-secondary, and worksites. The current paucity of research addressing interventions and programs focused on adolescents and adults with ASD, combined with the high rate of unemployment and underemployment in adults with ASD, creates a necessity that sufficient studies be commenced.