Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bikeability Disparities In Orange County, California: Intersection Of Place And Demographics, Jeanette Gritton, Maria Cristina Martinez, Georgiana Bostean, Megan Thiele Strong

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Active transportation modes such as walking and biking are gaining popularity for their extensive health and environmental benefits, yet scholars know little about how place-based accessibility varies by area sociodemographic composition. This study is among the first to examine sociodemographic disparities (by both race and socioeconomic status) in bikeability while allowing for heterogeneity in disparities. Consideration of bikeability disparities is particularly critical within the framework of urban planning concepts that promote equitable accessibility and reduced dependency on automobiles, such as the 15-minute city. Geographically Weighted Regressions examined associations between census tract-level bikeability (using an index that combines five components), socioeconomic …

An Examination Of The Ways In Which Transdisciplinary Research Could Be Used To Incentivize Local Communities To Combat The Illegal Wildlife Trade, Jessica Rios

FIU Undergraduate Research Journal

The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is currently one of the most critical conservation concerns, given its direct impact on biodiversity loss, endangering local ecosystems, and adding pressure to all species at a point when they face dangers like deforestation and mass extinctions. This industry also significantly impacts local communities, many of which are compelled to engage in it as a result of their precarious socioeconomic conditions. While effective countermeasures to this global issue have been identified, successful implementation of these countermeasures require diverse disciplines and collaborators. This paper argues that a transdisciplinary approach that converges knowledge and skills from social …

Farmers Markets And Single-Use Plastic: Why Environmentally Conscious Consumers Don’T Bring Reusable Bags, Scott Hardy, Jill Bartolotta

The Journal of Extension

This study looks at the role of Extension in helping local officials reduce plastic bag use at farmers markets in three Lake County, OH communities. We distributed free reusable bags to shoppers and conducted an education and outreach program. We then took observations to determine if the free reusable bags were being used. We also invited shoppers to take a voluntary survey about their environmental attitudes, why or why not they use the reusable bags, and how best to reduce plastic bag use moving forward. Results from the study suggest that supplying free reusable bags at farmer markets is not …

Understanding Tourism Within A Social-Ecological System: Ometepe Island, Nicaragua, Chelsea Leigh Leven

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tourism endures as a major component of development strategies worldwide, despite a dearth of documented successes. Tourism failures arise in part from simplistic and reductionist approaches to sustainability and tourism. Successfully implementing tourism to support sustainable futures requires, at a minimum, a more holistic and complex conceptualization than tourism currently receives, including recognition of how human values shape a system. To achieve a more complex understanding of tourism, I analyzed tourism through a social-ecological system (SES) perspective using the paradigm of resilience thinking. Through a case study in Ometepe, Nicaragua, my research considered opportunities for tourism contributions to sustainable futures …

"Integrated Science 3002a: Big Bike Giveaway: Changing London's Environment, Health, And Economy One Bike At A Time", Jermiah Joseph, Katelyn Melo, Devanshi Shukla, Tony Nguyen, Katherine Teeter

Community Engaged Learning Final Projects

There are significant benefits that manifest when an individual chooses to ride a bicycle as their primary mode of transportation. To investigate these benefits, the environmental, health, economic, and social impacts of biking were evaluated through research and data analyses. This revealed that numerous advantages can be obtained at an individual and local scale through citizens choosing to adopt a biking lifestyle. However, it was found that many Londoners are deterred from biking due to poor biking infrastructure. This paper calls into question the current cycling framework in London and it’s limitations on achieving the numerous benefits that biking offers. …

Community Initiatives Multiply University Partnerships, Christopher Lafontaine

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Christopher LaFontaine is a senior studying psychology and sociology at Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW). He has concentrated on community engagement and service learning as areas of focus for the past year. He plans to pursue a career in applied sociology and he has been involved with applied research among vulnerable populations. Christopher has worked with homeless veterans in Fort Wayne and has studied health conditions in a rural county that ranks low in health outcomes. In this article, he describes his experience with service-learning partnerships between community organizations and an institution of higher education.

An Analysis Of Poverty In Latin America And Three Community Development Strategies As A Solution, Grace Higgins

Selected Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyze three community development models and the impact they have on poverty in Latin America. This thesis also develops an understanding of how inequality effects poverty in Latin America and explores three community development strategies that could be implemented in Latin America consisting of agropolitan development, modernization development, and development by market expansion. In addition to these three development models, this thesis analyzes critical factors that contribute to the sustainability of a community, and how each of the three models incorporate or do not incorporate those factors.

Prisons, Policing, And Pollution: Toward An Abolitionist Framework Within Environmental Justice, Ki'amber Thompson

Pomona Senior Theses

Environmental Justice defines the environment as the spaces where we live, work, and play. The Environmental Justice (EJ) Movement has traditionally used this definition to organize against toxics in communities. However, within EJ work, prisons or policing have often not been centralized or discussed. This means that the approximately 2.2 million people in prison are excluded from the conversation and movement. Additionally, communities and activists are identifying police and prisons as toxics in their communities, but an analysis of policing and prisons is largely missing in EJ scholarship. This thesis explores the intersection between prisons, policing, and pollution. It outlines …

The Role Of Placemaking In Sustainable Planning: A Case Study Of The East Side Of Cleveland, Ohio, Sarah Lang

Masters Theses

The notion of placemaking and sustainability are central to planning practice. However, is there a connection between the goals of sustainability and the impacts of placemaking initiatives? The ultimate goal of sustainable planning is the creation of a sustainable community which include the defining features of a healthy climate and environment, social wellbeing, and economic security. Yet, sustainable planning is heavily focused on the environment. Placemaking initiatives focus on underutilized space, permanently or temporarily highlighting location, locale, and sense, the three realms of place. In attempt to answer whether placemaking can contribute to sustainable planning, this research focuses on the …

Environment And Sustainability In Nevada, Jennifer Stevens, Genevieve Minter, Robert Futrell

Social Health of Nevada Reports

When the inaugural Earth Day launched the first environmental decade in the U.S. more than forty years ago, protecting our air, water, land and other natural resources seemed a relatively straightforward task. Environmental polluters and exploiters would be brought to heel by tough laws. The U.S. and other industrialized nations responded to quality of life concerns associated with environmental degradation by adopting dozens of major environmental and resource policies and creating new institutions such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to manage environmental programs. Following these national developments, states and local communities began systematic efforts to address environmental problems.

What …

Un Nuevo Fenómeno En Un Mundo De Tradición: Percepciones Del Cambio Climático En La Isla De Taquile / 99/5000 A New Phenomenon In A World Of Tradition: Perceptions Of Climate Change On The Island Of Taquile, Daniel Meagher

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El cambio climático amenaza el estilo de vida tradicional de los agricultores de subsistencia de los Andes. Este trabajo resume y analiza las percepciones del cambio climático de los Taquileños, una comunidad de 2.500 campesinos indígenas de subsistencia que viven en la isla de Taquile en el Lago Titicaca. Esta comunidad no está aislada del mundo exterior, y hay una fuerte presencia de la iglesia cristiana y el turismo.

Los datos fueron recolectados a través de entrevistas y observación participante entre las fechas del 2 de noviembre al 15 de noviembre, 2016. Las veinte entrevistas contienen las perspectivas de siete …

When The Hunt Is Over: Culture And Conservation In Kazakh Eagle Falconry, Nolan R. Ebner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The last large scale practice of falconry that uses Golden Eagles takes place in Bayan- Ulgii, Mongolia. Recent media exposure allowed for the development of a tourism industry in the region that culminates in two annual festivals celebrating the cultural heritage. Modern eagle falconry practices have been shown to deviate from traditional hunting and training methods. While Golden Eagles are listed with a regional conservation status of Least Concern by the Mongolian Red List, these new practices place the health of Golden Eagle populations in the region at risk, especially as tourism continues to grow. Furthermore, a changing environmental climate …

Plain & Simple: The Will To Live Sustainably In An Unsustainable World, Brandi Nichole Button

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sustainability is a buzzword covering a variety of fields and subjects. For the purposes of my research sustainability is “the ability to keep going over the long haul. As a value, it refers to giving equal weight in your decisions to the future as well as the present” (Gilman 1). The sustainability movement refers to activists, educators and researchers who are dedicated to finding high quality ways of living in the world that are environmentally benign for all who are now living as well future generations to come (Gilman 1). This research focuses on three women who engage in voluntary …

Results Of The 2013 Good To Go Commuter Challenge Impact Survey, Mike Mccurdy, Tyler Curtis

Community Project Design and Management Reports - Sociology

This report contains results of an impact study of previous participants of the Good To Go Commuter Challenge in McLean County, IL. The survey was designed to gauge the impact of the 2011 and 2012 Good To Go Commuter Challenges in promoting year-round sustainable commuting among Challenge participants.

221 surveys were completed out of possible 1077 user registrations on the Good To Go online registration tool, a response rate of 20.5%. Results revealed that the Challenge appears to be successful in at least modest travel behavior change by participants.

Overall, 40.4% of respondents increased the frequency in which they chose …

Introduction, Linda Silka, Bridie Mcgreavy, Brittany Cline, Laura Lindenfeld

Maine Policy Review

Introduces special issue of Maine Policy Review focused on Maine's "Sustainability Solutions Initiative," an NSF/EPSCoR-funded project that brings together faculty from higher education institutions around the state to work with stakeholders on sustainability issues through the lens of sustainability science.

Advancing Science And Improving Quality Of Place: Linking Knowledge With Action In Maine’S Sustainability Solutions Initiative, Damon Hall, Linda Silka, Laura Lindenfeld

Maine Policy Review

The authors give an overview of how research carried out through Maine’s Sustainabilty Solutions Initiative (SSI) improves traditional models of science by providing a fuller picture of the interaction between social and ecological systems. They provide examples of university-community research partnerships, where there is a continuous communication and feedback process that identifies problems and develops projects with a solutions-oriented focus. SSI projects, they argue, “focus on issues that may make lasting improvements to Maine’s quality of place.”

Recipes Of Resolve: Food And Meaning In Post-Diluvian New Orleans, Jessica Claire Menck

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In 2005 the city of New Orleans experienced catastrophic flooding as a result of the failure of the federal levee system following Hurricane Katrina. This was an immediate disaster that evolved into a longer-term crisis as the city, state, and national government struggled to respond to the event. This study focuses on one part of managing crisis: meaning making. Specifically, the study investigates meaning making within the food community of New Orleans, asking the questions: is food a way for individuals and groups to make meaning following critical change events such as the failure of the federal levee system in …

Ecological Revival And Sustainable Living In The Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest Of Tamil Nadu: A Measurement Of Residential Perception In Sadhana Forest, Elizabeth Collette Mcguire

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Since 1970, the role and function of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been to promote environmental quality and to form strategies for carrying out environmental policy¹. The EPA has committed to sustainability as the next level of environmental protection. The agency states that sustainability calls for policies and strategies that meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs². Presently, society’s requirements have resulted in natural resource exploitation and population distention- projected to reach 10 billion people within two human generations³. These paired occurrences are …

सुन्दरबंस की मात्स्यिकी- समस्याएं और प्रत्याशाएं. (Sundaraban Ki Matasyaki- Samasyayen Evam Pratyashyen), Ganesh Chandra, R L. Sagar

Ganesh Chandra

This paper gives an insight into the fisheries of Sundarban delta region of west Bengal India.

Fisheries In Sundarbans: Problems And Prospects, Ganesh Chandra, R L. Sagar

Ganesh Chandra

Sundarbans, the largest delta on the planet earth is famous for its marine and estuarine fish resources. A large population is dependent on fishery activity and capture fisheries is treated as the backbone of Sundarban economy. Sundarban boast around 172 species of fishes, 20 species of prawn and 44 species of crabs including two edible crabs. But fisheries in Sundarbans faces some difficult problems which have an impact on the biodiversity, sustainability and livelihood of fish resources and fisher folk viz. shrinking tiger prawn population, indiscriminate fish seed collection, lack of post harvest and other infrastructures, natural calamities such as …