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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Windows Of The World: Postmodern Urbanism In Los Angeles And Shenzhen, Calvin Horning May 2024

Windows Of The World: Postmodern Urbanism In Los Angeles And Shenzhen, Calvin Horning

Senior Theses and Projects

This work draws upon the ideas of Edward Soja and other spatial theorists to compare the postmodern urban development of Los Angeles and Shenzhen, China. Both cities have undergone rapid growth and become major urban metropolises, offering potential paradigmatic forms for contemporary urban studies. The thesis is based on the ideas of the LA School of Urbanism, of which Soja was a part, and reviews the school’s collective case for Los Angeles as a paradigmatic city for the postmodern age. This work then compares this account of Los Angeles with Shenzhen, a city that has risen from nothing to one …


Zamrock: Negotiating Masculine Urban Identity In Zambia And Music Success In A Postcolonial World, Emeline Avignon Apr 2024

Zamrock: Negotiating Masculine Urban Identity In Zambia And Music Success In A Postcolonial World, Emeline Avignon

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis analyzes, through predominately an ethnomusicologist approach and methodology, the lyricism, instrumentation, performance, and album art of the movement of Zamrock in Zambia from 1970 to the mid-1980s. I explore the agency and construction of urban youth masculinity by Zamrock artists in the context of Zambia’s colonial history of the Copperbelt, into its decades after independence. First, I look at the socio-political and economic context of colonized and independent Zambia, and how out of these conditions Zambian rock music was fused and forged. I break down the negotiations and desires of Zamrock artists in their identity construction via their …


Dreaming Of Al-Andalus: The Manifestation Of Spanish Orientalism And Anachronistic Space In A 5-Granadino Hotel, Aiden Chisholm Apr 2023

Dreaming Of Al-Andalus: The Manifestation Of Spanish Orientalism And Anachronistic Space In A 5-Granadino Hotel, Aiden Chisholm

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.


"Corridor-Ising" Impact Along The Belt And Road: Is The Newly Operational China-Laos Railway A Game-Changer?, Xiangming Chen Feb 2022

"Corridor-Ising" Impact Along The Belt And Road: Is The Newly Operational China-Laos Railway A Game-Changer?, Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

On 3 December 2021, amid the global surge of the Omicron variant, the China-Laos Railway (CLR), under construction since 2016, launched its maiden run from and toward its two termini at Kunming, capital city of Yunnan province in south-western China, and Vientiane, capital city of Laos. In more ways than one, the CLR is an unprecedented cross-border rail project in terms of scale, length, connected places, construction type, and potentially massive regional impact. These features exemplify the growing influence of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) along its six large-scale economic corridors and their key sub-corridors. In this essay, I …


China’S Belt And Road Initiative: An Epochal Initiative Connecting The World, Xiangming Chen Sep 2021

China’S Belt And Road Initiative: An Epochal Initiative Connecting The World, Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

In 2013, the Chinese Government launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive global infrastructure-building initiative, to increase trade by connecting cities within and across continents. The initiative is redefining globalisation, urbanisation, regionalism, and development. Professor Xiangming Chen has released a policy expo-book (sponsored by the Regional Studies Association) that traces out the changing economic, social, and spatial fortunes of the regions connected to the initiative. In this timely book, the author outlines a modern, fresh and factual account of an outward-looking China ushering in a new era of globalisation through a variety of widespread and far-reaching trans-boundary economic …


Reconnecting Eurasia: A New Logistics State, The China–Europe Freight Train, And The Resurging Ancient City Of Xi’An [Pre-Print], Xiangming Chen Sep 2021

Reconnecting Eurasia: A New Logistics State, The China–Europe Freight Train, And The Resurging Ancient City Of Xi’An [Pre-Print], Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

Large-scale transport systems project expansive geographical reach via far-reaching connectivity and spillovers. This phenomenon, however, is understudied for its impact on economic and spatial relations across geographic scales and economic domains and the mechanism carrying and transmitting that impact. Despite its short existence, the China–Europe Freight Train (CEFT) has already created a long geographical reach and major impact on the transport landscape spanning China, Central Asia, and Europe. This paper argues that a new logistics state in China at the local level is driving and sustaining the CEFT from below relative to the national government and market forces. Using the …


Connectivity, Connectivity, Connectivity: Has The China-Europe Freight Train Become A Winning Run?, Xiangming Chen Aug 2021

Connectivity, Connectivity, Connectivity: Has The China-Europe Freight Train Become A Winning Run?, Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

In “China and Europe: Reconnecting across a New Silk Road” (Xiangming Chen and Julie Mardeusz ’16, The European Financial Review, February/March 2015), we included a short section about the China-Europe Freight Train (CEFT). The CEFT was then in its fourth year of running, while the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was officially only two years old. A total of 815 freight trains ran between China and Europe in 2015. The pandemic year of 2020 saw 12,406 trains between China and Europe, with another surge during the first six months of 2021. What has changed over a few …


La Creación Y Persistencia De Narrativas Dominantes (Erróneos): Identidades Culturales Nacionales Y Subnacionales En El Perú, Kyle Fields May 2021

La Creación Y Persistencia De Narrativas Dominantes (Erróneos): Identidades Culturales Nacionales Y Subnacionales En El Perú, Kyle Fields

Senior Theses and Projects

While our identities may appear to be independently created, that is often not the case. In Peru, as in much of Latin America, cultural and national identities that formed under Spanish colonial rule continued into the post-independence years. Nineteenth century authors created narratives of cultural and national identity that used “otherness” to delineate who was a proper member of society, and the categorization of separate identities remained entrenched in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the case of Peru, separate identities based on geographic regions (the coast, the mountains, and the rainforest) and ethnic background (indigenous, afro-Peruvian, European) have persisted …


Nation-Building And Cultural Heritage: A Study Of Turkey And Its Greek Orthodox Community, Sophia E. Kyrou Apr 2021

Nation-Building And Cultural Heritage: A Study Of Turkey And Its Greek Orthodox Community, Sophia E. Kyrou

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis is an exploration of the intersection between nationalist ideology and cultural heritage policy. This thesis answers how and why states utilize cultural heritage policy to build exclusivist forms of nationalism and, more specifically, models of nationalism that exclude ethno-religious minorities. In my work, I employ a case study of Turkey and its treatment of the Greek Orthodox minority population, and examine two specific periods in Turkish history: the Atatürk period (1920 to 1938) and the Erdoğan period (2001 to present). I answer the case-specific question: How and why has the Turkish state utilized policy dealing with tangible and …


Weathering Covid-19: Lessons From Wuhan And Milan For Urban Governance And Sustainability, Xiangming Chen, Yi Teresa Wu Jul 2020

Weathering Covid-19: Lessons From Wuhan And Milan For Urban Governance And Sustainability, Xiangming Chen, Yi Teresa Wu

Faculty Scholarship

The global spread of COVID-19 has exposed the world’s largest and densest urban centres to bearing the brunt of this pandemic. The invisible virus has forced thriving metropolises to empty their streets and shops to dead spaces absent of people and activity. It even triggers the doomsday question of, “Does COVID-19 mean the end of cities?” In this article, we compare how two great cities of the East and West – Wuhan and Milan – have responded to the deadly virus, with their internal and external strengths and constraints. We also take the reader deep into the two cities’ neighbourhoods …


Hong Kong’S Housing Crisis And Proposed Solutions, Nanci Lopez Jul 2020

Hong Kong’S Housing Crisis And Proposed Solutions, Nanci Lopez

The Trinity Papers (2011 - present)

No abstract provided.


Spectacular Imaginations Of The Sinking Island, Emma Schneck May 2020

Spectacular Imaginations Of The Sinking Island, Emma Schneck

Senior Theses and Projects

As entire island nations slip beneath rising seas, how can we reimagine a political future where the effects of climate change are already in full force? In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that there is a fundamental lack of legal protections for those fleeing environmental degradation and the effects of global sea level rise. This lack of protection is felt particularly strongly in the Pacific region, where many communities are faced with existential threats to their way of life and self-determination. However, despite this historic lack of support from the international community, the Pacific Islands states have continuously …


The Dragon’S Neocolonial White Elephant Development: China’S Urban Infrastructure In Lusaka, Zambia, Kaytlin Ernske Apr 2020

The Dragon’S Neocolonial White Elephant Development: China’S Urban Infrastructure In Lusaka, Zambia, Kaytlin Ernske

Senior Theses and Projects

Presently, China is the largest donor, trading partner, and investor on the African continent. The current success of Sino-African relations can be traced back to global South-South cooperation beginning in the 1960s and 1970s when China assisted in funding independence movements across the African continent. Since then, China established itself as a reliable friend and alternative aid provider. The country has since transitioned from utilizing aid to foreign direct investment. Since 2013, China has continued to bolster its own global economic positioning by pushing a foreign policy agenda (One Belt One Road) that targets developing countries by providing massive loans …


Women's Empowerment In The Dominican Republic, Yisbell Lucia Marrero Apr 2020

Women's Empowerment In The Dominican Republic, Yisbell Lucia Marrero

Senior Theses and Projects

The term “empowerment" has in many ways been used imprecisely and in ways that can mislead the conversation we should be having as scholars but more importantly, policymakers. The term is more contested that a graph of numbers would like to show. For this thesis, I achieved gradual recognition of the social, economic, and political empowerment understanding of women in Santo Domingo and Santiago de los Caballeros and its involvement in overcoming many obstacles. Challenging, Global North and Western universal approach of the best way to progress empowerment on Third World women. In the preceding chapters, I explored the ways …


How States Respond To The Human Rights Violations Of A Past Dictatorship: The Cases Of Argentina And Chile, Michaela Drucker Apr 2020

How States Respond To The Human Rights Violations Of A Past Dictatorship: The Cases Of Argentina And Chile, Michaela Drucker

Senior Theses and Projects

Many countries around the world have suffered from disastrous dictatorships riddled with human rights abuses. This thesis aims to answer the question of what happens after the dictatorship to address these human rights violations and why the responses differ from country to country. This paper poses six possible explanations as to what motivates justice, specifically prosecutions against former perpetrators: 1) the heinousness of the human rights violations, 2) the type of transition, 3) the legal structure, 4) the role of the executive, 5) international pressure through transnational advocacy networks, and 6) diffusion theory--the occurrence of similar justice policies in geographically …


Bodies And Borders: Navigating Colonial And Capitalist Desires In Trinidad And Tobago, Hannah Grosberg Apr 2019

Bodies And Borders: Navigating Colonial And Capitalist Desires In Trinidad And Tobago, Hannah Grosberg

Senior Theses and Projects

Colonialism/capitalism1 continue to create and exploit a dehumanised labour population in the pursuit of profit and power. The current formation of such a population is formed through heterosexist, xenophobic and racist ideologies revealed in the discourses and practises surrounding the (mis)treatment of refugees, as well as sex tourism and human trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago. The legal backbone of these three modern expressions of colonialism/capitalism in Trinidad and Tobago are the Sexual Offenses Act, the Trafficking in Persons Act, and the Immigration Act. In effect, undocumented migrants, refugees, and sex workers are criminalised, barred access to human rights, and become …


The Africa Problem Of Global Urban Theory: Re-Conceptualising Planetary Urbanisation, Garth Myers Oct 2018

The Africa Problem Of Global Urban Theory: Re-Conceptualising Planetary Urbanisation, Garth Myers

Faculty Scholarship

This paper works to address what I consider the enduring ‘Africa problem’ in global urban theory. I engage and critique selected relevant urban thought from the Globalization and World Cities research group, from Henri Lefebvre and from the new wave of urban theorisation inspired by Lefebvre’s (1970) idea of ‘complete, planetary urbanisation.’ I argue that urbanisation in Africa, largely absent from Lefebvre’s works, presents new twists that are better understood from outside a Eurocentric framework. I propose the possibilities of urban comparativism built from theories and conceptualisations that emerge from the global South and that can be utilised to compare …


La Crisi Dell'identità Italiana: Ricordare E Accettare Un Passato Islamico, Mathilde Sauquet Apr 2018

La Crisi Dell'identità Italiana: Ricordare E Accettare Un Passato Islamico, Mathilde Sauquet

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.


Globalization Redux: Can China’S Inside-Out Strategy Catalyze Economic Development Across Its Asian Borderlands And Beyond [Post-Print], Xiangming Chen Mar 2018

Globalization Redux: Can China’S Inside-Out Strategy Catalyze Economic Development Across Its Asian Borderlands And Beyond [Post-Print], Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

As the narrative of globalization in crisis heats up, China has stepped up as a new champion of globalization with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This article repositions ‘China in the Global South’ to the front and center of the globalization discourse. Through a triangular framework, I differentiate and reconnect the three ‘master’ processes of urbanization, development and globalization to understand the inside-outside connections between China’s domestic transformation and strong impact in the Global South. Using China vs. Southeast Asia and Central Asia, I evaluate if and how China’s inside-out strategy can catalyze mutually beneficial development across some Asian …


Re-Centering Central Asia: China’S “New Great Game” In The Old Eurasian Heartland, Xiangming Chen, Fakhmiddin Fazilov Jan 2018

Re-Centering Central Asia: China’S “New Great Game” In The Old Eurasian Heartland, Xiangming Chen, Fakhmiddin Fazilov

Faculty Scholarship

China’s President Xi Jinping’s Central Asian tour in fall 2013 marked Beijing’s unprecedented (re)turn to Central Asia as a lynchpin of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” of the globally ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China’s BRI positions Central Asia as the crucial nexus for the cross-regional long-distance loops of trade, investment, and infrastructure development. By revisiting the classical geopolitical theory about the original Eurasian Heartland and its contemporary offshoots, we extract some insights for understanding the new China-Central Asia transboundary regional nexus. In a double-pronged empirical analysis of China’s development strategies regarding Central Asia, we examine: (1) the construction …


Globalisation Redux: Can China’S Inside-Out Strategy Catalyse Economic Development And Integration Across Its Asian Borderlands And Beyond? [Post-Print], Xiangming Chen Dec 2017

Globalisation Redux: Can China’S Inside-Out Strategy Catalyse Economic Development And Integration Across Its Asian Borderlands And Beyond? [Post-Print], Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

As the narrative of globalisation in crisis heats up, China has stepped up as a new champion of globalisation with its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. This article repositions ‘China in the Global South’ to the front and centre of the globalisation discourse. Through a triangular framework, I differentiate and reconnect the three ‘master’ processes of urbanisation, development and globalisation to understand the inside-outside connections between China’s domestic transformation and strong impact in the Global South. Using China vs Southeast Asia and Central Asia, I document how China’s westward development has created new development opportunities for its overland neighbours and beyond.


Demolition, Rehabilitation, And Conservation: Heritage In Shanghai’S Urban Regeneration, 1990–2015 [Post-Print], Xiaohua Zhong, Xiangming Chen Jun 2017

Demolition, Rehabilitation, And Conservation: Heritage In Shanghai’S Urban Regeneration, 1990–2015 [Post-Print], Xiaohua Zhong, Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

Urban heritage sites in central cities are most difficult to protect during rapid and large scale urban (re)development. Rising land values from property development conflict with and constrain heritage preservation. Compared with many cities in developed and developing countries, large Chinese cities have experienced a stronger redevelopment imperative, faster population growth, and a weaker concern for urban heritages over the last three decades. We use Shanghai to examine the contested evolution of heritage preservation against massive urban redevelopment through three stages from 1990 to the present. Using three heritage projects (Xintiandi, Tianzifang, Bugaoli), we focus on: 1) how each project …


Rwanda: Development Towards Authoritarianism?, Chinmay Rayarikar Apr 2017

Rwanda: Development Towards Authoritarianism?, Chinmay Rayarikar

Senior Theses and Projects

Since the culmination of the Genocide of 1994, Rwanda has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world, while also showing great improvements on human development indicators. This has made Rwanda a brilliant example of post-conflict reconstruction. At the same time, the nation-state has been led by a single party government that works under a framework of a nominal multi-party democracy. While a large part of Rwanda’s post-conflict development has been made possible by the government in power, this paper argues that Rwanda is developing towards a completely authoritarian state structure. Development is concentrated in very few regions …


Falta De Derechos Humanos Y Violencia: La Crisis Ambiental En América Latina, Vincent J. Gandolfo Iii Apr 2017

Falta De Derechos Humanos Y Violencia: La Crisis Ambiental En América Latina, Vincent J. Gandolfo Iii

Senior Theses and Projects

The purpose of this research is to identify the growing problems associated with environmental degradation in Latin America. For decades, a combination of corrupt governments and lack of environmental legislation has allowed large companies to exploit the environmental resources of many different Latin American countries. Latin America is an extremely biodiverse region of the world and environmental resources are valuable. Large companies have monopolized environmental resources for profit, which has caused protests and violence. Most these large international companies have been allowed to harvest valuable resources, pollute the environment, and leave without any consequences. Because many Latin American governments prioritize …


“Violencia Infantil: La Experiencia De Niños Y Jóvenes Indocumentados Cruzando La Frontera Entre México Y Los Estados Unidos”, Minying Cao Apr 2017

“Violencia Infantil: La Experiencia De Niños Y Jóvenes Indocumentados Cruzando La Frontera Entre México Y Los Estados Unidos”, Minying Cao

Senior Theses and Projects

Existing academic analyses violence that Central American and particular Mexican immigrant families and/or adults face as they try to take the dangerous journey of crossing the border between Mexico and the United States in search for a better life. However, academic analysis of violence on children crossing the border is often overlooked. As a result, this research examines 1) why children and families with children from Mexico and Central America; in particular from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala decide to take the dangerous journey to the United States and 2) how child violence appears in the border of Mexico and the …


China’S Emerging Silicon Valley: How And Why Has Shenzhen Become A Global Innovation Centre, Xiangming Chen, Taylor Lynch Ogan Jan 2017

China’S Emerging Silicon Valley: How And Why Has Shenzhen Become A Global Innovation Centre, Xiangming Chen, Taylor Lynch Ogan

Faculty Scholarship

Shenzhen is China’s very own Silicon Valley. Find out how it has become innovative by tracing its rapid growth and strategic transition; what are the four of its most innovative companies, and what are the key factors that make it an innovative ecosystem in which companies have thrived.


On Ai Weiwei’S “Remembrance”, Xinbei Lin Jan 2017

On Ai Weiwei’S “Remembrance”, Xinbei Lin

The First-Year Papers (2010 - present)

No abstract provided.


Becoming A Shanghailander: A Foreign City On Chinese Soil, Bingjie Xie Jan 2017

Becoming A Shanghailander: A Foreign City On Chinese Soil, Bingjie Xie

The Trinity Papers (2011 - present)

No abstract provided.


Demolition, Rehabilitation, And Conservation: Heritage In Shanghai’S Urban Regeneration, 1990–2015 [Post-Print], Xiaohua Zhong, Xiangming Chen Dec 2016

Demolition, Rehabilitation, And Conservation: Heritage In Shanghai’S Urban Regeneration, 1990–2015 [Post-Print], Xiaohua Zhong, Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

Urban heritage sites in central cities are most difficult to protect during rapid and large scale urban (re)development. Rising land values from property development conflict with and constrain heritage preservation. Compared with many cities in developed and developing countries, large Chinese cities have experienced a stronger redevelopment imperative, faster population growth, and a weaker concern for urban heritages over the last three decades. We use Shanghai to examine the contested evolution of heritage preservation against massive urban redevelopment through three stages from 1990 to the present. Using three heritage projects (Xintiandi, Tianzifang, Bugaoli), we focus on: 1) how each project …


Is China Building Africa?, Zhengli Huang, Xiangming Chen Jul 2016

Is China Building Africa?, Zhengli Huang, Xiangming Chen

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, the authors address the question “Is China Building Africa?” by examining the true nature of China’s infrastructure development projects in Africa, and how the different players involved interact with each other.