Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Opportunities And Challenges Of Geospatial Analysis For Promoting Urban Livability In The Era Of Big Data And Machine Learning, Anna Kovacs-Györi, Alin Ristea, Clemens Havas, Michael Mehaffy, Hartwig H. Hochmair, Bernd Resch, Levente Juhasz, Arthur Lehner, Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Thomas Blaschke

GIS Center

Urban systems involve a multitude of closely intertwined components, which are more measurable than before due to new sensors, data collection, and spatio-temporal analysis methods. Turning these data into knowledge to facilitate planning efforts in addressing current challenges of urban complex systems requires advanced interdisciplinary analysis methods, such as urban informatics or urban data science. Yet, by applying a purely data-driven approach, it is too easy to get lost in the ‘forest’ of data, and to miss the ‘trees’ of successful, livable cities that are the ultimate aim of urban planning. This paper assesses how geospatial data, and urban analysis, …

Online Dating During A Pandemic, Evangely Esther Santiago Duclerc

Global Strategic Communications Student Work

Over 32 million Americans have used online dating applications in 2020 alone. This year has been one of many changes and challenges ever since the coronavirus made its way into the United States spreading to every state, killing millions of people. Due to the nature of the virus, states were forced to lockdown and residents had no choice but to social distance, quarantine, and abide by city curfews. Because this virus is relatively new, little research to no research has been conducted to examine the impact the pandemic has had on the online dating culture, specifically in South Florida. The …

National Material Capability Buildup And The Rank-Magnitude Distribution Of Wars, Matthew Felice

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Are there physical laws, rather than conventions like diplomacy, that determine when war will break out and how severe it will be? On the eve of World War II, L. F. Richardson discovered a curious pattern: Major wars are rare and minor wars are common to such a predictable degree that the size-frequency offset can be plotted with a straight line. Complex-systems theorists have since confirmed those findings and tested them with computer models. Yet none of the research has fully synthesized this law-like observation with the established theoretical approaches in international relations that would apply, such as power transition …

Virtual Dss: Don't Be Satisficed! Survey Writing, Part 1, Kelley Rowan

Digital Scholar Studio Resources

Part one of a two-part webinar on using social science to write better surveys. Presented Wednesday, November 18, 2020 by Kelley Rowan.The workshop shares best practices in survey construction including consent forms, types of questions, and question creation. Information regarding data preservation and IRB policies are also covered and resources are provided.

Children's Creative Processes In Music Composition Through The Orff-Schulwerk Approach, Ashley Viera Espinal

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to explore the creative processes of elementary school students in music composition through the Orff-Schulwerk approach. Twenty-two 5th grade students and a music teacher with all three levels of the Orff-Schulwerk certification participated in the study. There were three main focal points that were investigated within a span of five-weeks: 1) children’s creativity in an Orff-based composition task, 2) children’s perceptions of their creative processes employed during the composition task, and 3) the teacher’s perceptions of teaching/learning music composition through the Orff-Schulwerk approach. Data were generated through observations, field notes, interviews with …

Sea Level Rise Impact Assessment Tool – A Web-Based Application For Community Resilience In Coral Gables, Florida, Levente Juhasz, Hartwig H. Hochmair, Sheyla Aguilar De Santana, Zhaohui J. Fu

GIS Center

No abstract provided.

Social Processes Through The Lens Of Network Science In Spider Monkeys, Emily R. Boeving

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a series of empirical studies which aim to deepen and broaden what is known about social processes in spider monkeys. In recent decades, the burgeoning field of network science has brought a new perspective to many disciplines. Although network science has emerged in multiple content areas (e.g., neuroscience, economics), the application and utility of social network analysis to quantify social processes has seen great advances. Sociality and component processes have been described as mystifying and left many perplexed at the basic question, “What is social?” There is no easy answer to this question but one issue is …

Virtual Dss: Excelling With Excel Part 2, Jill V. Krefft, Jamie Rogers, Rebecca Bakker, Molly Castro

Digital Scholar Studio Resources

Part two of a two-part webinar series on best practices, tips, and tricks for beginning to advanced tabular data wranglers.

Part one is available to view here.

The Bolivarian Dream: Alba And The Cuba-Venezuela Alliance, Victor Lopez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to answer why the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) has failed to achieve its two major goals: to create a socialist alternative to neoliberalism and foster mutual cooperation among the members. Important constructivist works from Nicolas Onuf and Alexander Wendt were used throughout. Emphasis is given to the debate between social construction and material reality that has hindered ALBA’s goals.

Three reasons led to why ALBA could not achieve its two major goals. First, the successors to the founding leaders of ALBA did not share the same sympathy toward socialism, and instead carved …

Going Local: An Assessment Of China's Administrative-Level Activity In Latin American And The Caribbean, Margaret Myers

Research Publications

Local-level engagement is becoming an increasingly central feature of the broader China- LAC relationship, as Chinese central government, quasi-governmental, provincial, commercial and other actors seek to engage more extensively in LAC markets, shape external views of China, and advance China’s various policy objectives and political interests, including vis-à-vis Taiwan. Though prompted by Chinese government policy, the nature of this engagement is exceedingly wide-ranging, however, featuring a complex cast of generally uncoordinated characters with distinct interests and approaches. The outcomes at the subnational are also distinct. Some local-level partnerships have been exceedingly productive, resulting in numerous commercial deals and other forms …

The Afl-Cio’S Foreign Policy Program: Where Historians Now Stand, Kim Scipes

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The struggle to end the AFL-CIO’s foreign policy program, as part of the effort to build global labor solidarity, began in the late 1960s but has qualitatively escalated since 2010. This paper details these efforts, while showing the advances over the preceding ten years. Interestingly, while labor historians have provided some important contributions in the past, they have refused to engage with the work of Kim Scipes, a major writer in the field, ignoring his path-breaking work yet supporting some of his major claims. The question is asked whether historians in this sub-discipline are being taught to over-prioritize archival works …

A Left Critique Of Class Reductionism, Ronald W. Cox

Class, Race and Corporate Power

An overview of three recent books examining the politics of class and race provide lessons about how to avoid a “class reductionist” politics that interferes with building a multiracial and inclusionary working class movement.

Revolution In The High Castle: Interpretation & The Political Implications Of Hope, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This essay explores the politics of Amazon Prime's The Man in the High Castle by focusing primarily on how the series deals with the politics of hope, as well as how certain events in the narrative condition or exclude certain potential interpretations. The crux of the argument here is that the show tends towards a revolutionary conclusion, despite also bearing the marks of the depraved society this work emerged within.

Why The Labour Party Lost The British 2019 General Election: Social Democracy Versus Neoliberalism And The Far Right, Jamie Gough

Class, Race and Corporate Power

After Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the British Labour Party in 2015, the party for the first time took a stance against austerity. The new leadership proposed to raise investment and productivity; nationalise some utilities; end privatisations; improve trade union rights, wages and conditions; a Green New Deal creating a million jobs; a rise in taxation of capital and the rich, to fund a 10% rise in spending on public services and benefits; consequent expansion and improvements of services, better wages and conditions, some services made free; large scale council house building, and re-regulation of private renting. This programme …

Two Decades Of Imperial Failure: Theorizing U.S. Regime Change Efforts In Venezuela From Bush Ii To Trump, Timothy M. Gill, Joseph Marshall Brown

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ushered in the Pink Tide and the rise of the left in Latin America at the turn of the 21st century. Chávez initially won presidential elections in 1998 based on the promise of participatory democracy and tackling economic inequality, and thereafter by championing 21st Century Socialism. From the beginning, Chávez challenged U.S. global leadership by condemning its vision for the world and by cultivating an anti-imperial nexus of allies. This pattern has continued under current President Nicolás Maduro. In response, the U.S. has opposed the Venezuelan socialists throughout three successive presidential administrations: Bush II, Obama, …

Virtual Dss: Introduction To Text Analysis For The Humanities, Molly Castro

Digital Scholar Studio Resources

Text analysis harnesses the power of computing to let us count, visualize, and analyze words and other textual elements as data. This introductory webinar covers basic concepts, vocabulary, methods, and tools for getting started with text analysis in the humanities. Part of the 2020-2021 Virtual Digital Scholar Studio webinar series. This webinar was held on October 21st, 2020 and was presented by Molly Castro.

A Rising Regional Power: Making Sense Of Ethiopia's Influence In The Horn Of Africa Region, Yonas K. Mulat

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the conditions under which a state’s regional influence increases, or a state becomes a regional power, using an in-depth analysis of the case of Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. I make a two-fold argument (a) developments in the Horn of Africa over the last two decades show that the regional influence of Ethiopia has been growing, and (b) analysis of attributional capabilities – population, military, economy – alone do not fully explain this development. This dissertation tests a hypothesis derived from neo-classical realism recognizing that relative power (vis a vis the neighbors), although key to …

Virtual Dss: Excelling With Excel Part 1, Molly Castro, Rebecca Bakker, Jill Krefft, Jamie Rogers

Digital Scholar Studio Resources

Part one of a two-part webinar series on best practices, tips, and tricks for beginning to advanced tabular data wranglers.

Part two is available here.

Religion, Place, And Identity At The Intersection Of Cultural Bricolage: The Miami Santo Daime Church Revisited, Alfonso Matas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an exploration of the Santo Daime Church in Miami, focusing on the challenges of balancing institutional stability with continual growth and innovation. Santo Daime—whose central ritual entails the consumption of the mind-altering ayahuasca brew—is a new religious movement that amalgamates indigenous Amazonian, Afro-Brazilian, and popular Catholic traditions. Between June 2016 and December 2018, I employed participant observation, semi-structured interviews, exegesis of sacred songs, and document analysis to investigate the meanings and lived experiences of church leaders and adherents as they relate to their religious identity and agency. Specifically, this study asks three research questions: What global processes …

Digital Commons Annual Report: Fy 2019-2020, Jill Krefft

FIU Digital Collections Center Annual Reports

The Digital Commons Annual Report is a document that interested parties may use as a means of monitoring the yearly progress of Florida International University Libraries’ institutional repository. The report includes download and page hit statistics for all collections held in FIU Digital Commons.

Orcid And Embargo Options: Do Students Make The Connection?, Kelley Rowan

Works of the FIU Libraries

This presentation shares recent research exploring how and why students choose to use or not use the available ORCID and embargo options when submitting their research for publication in the institutional repository. The initial assumption was that students choosing to embargo their research were planning to publish and would therefore find ORCID a helpful tool going forward.

However, it was found that students who chose to embargo often did not bother to sign up with ORCID and those that did sign up with ORCID did not always embargo their research. It became clear that students either did not understand the …

Privacy, Ethics, And Access In Digital Libraries, Kelley Rowan, Rebecca Bakker

Works of the FIU Libraries

This presentation shares privacy challenges that librarians in the Digital Collections Center at FIU have encountered when working with the creators of content in the institutional repository and digital collections. The presenters share a brief history of privacy laws and the ethical concerns inherent in the juxtaposition between access and privacy. This presentation suggests possible solutions for other digital librarians concerned about privacy and take down requests.

Applicant Reactions To Organizations That Allow Religious Expression: The Role Of Interviewer And Organizational Characteristics, David A. Beane

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the 21st century we desire to express who we are across all domains – including the workplace. This is due, in part, to the fact that we spend more time at work than we ever have. Part of this awakening has included expressing our religion. However, while people desire to express their religion they simultaneously do not want to be impinged upon by other’s religious expression - as numerous legal cases demonstrate (Malone, Hartman, & Payne, 1998). This contrast is the basis for an ever-burgeoning conflict in the workplace for which HR managers have no legal or philosophical framework …

Virtual Dss: Building Interactive And Media-Rich Timelines With Timelinejs, Rebecca Bakker

Digital Scholar Studio Resources

In this hands-on virtual workshop participants learn how to build an interactive timeline using a google spreadsheet template and TimelineJS. Part of the 2020-2021 Virtual Digital Scholar Studio webinar series, this webinar was held on September 9th, 2020 and was presented by Rebecca Bakker.

Tracking Departmental Name Changes For Electronic Theses And Dissertations, Ivy Torres-Morales, Rebecca Bakker, Jill Krefft

Works of the FIU Libraries

No abstract provided.

Virtual Dss: Digital Humanities Toolkit For Remote Teaching, Molly Castro

Digital Scholar Studio Resources

This workshop introduces some easy digital humanities tools for instructors to use in remote classes to increase engagement and move discussion beyond the message board. Part of the 2020-2021 Virtual Digital Scholar Studio webinar Series, this webinar was held on August 26th, 2020 and was presented by Molly Castro.

Ai For Archives: Using Facial Recognition To Enhance Metadata, Rebecca Bakker, Kelley Rowan, Liting Hu, Boyuan Guan, Pinchao Liu, Zhongzhou Li, Ruizhe He, Christine Monge

Works of the FIU Libraries

The goal of this research project was to determine the most effective facial recognition applications that could be implemented into digital archive image collections from libraries, museums, and cultural heritage institutions. Computer scientists and librarians at Florida International University collaborated to conduct qualitative assessments of both face detection and face search using photographs from FIU’s digital collections. Specifically, the facial recognition platforms OpenCV, Face++, and Amazon AWS were analyzed. This project seeks to assist LYRASIS community members who wish to incorporate facial recognition and other artificial intelligence technology into their digital collections and repositories as a method to reduce research …

Adopting Machine Learning At The Fiu Libraries, Jamie Rogers

Works of the FIU Libraries

Over the past five years, the FIU Libraries have developed and implemented various machine learning and AI technologies with the goal of improving discovery and access to materials as well as provide new methods for analysis of content. A sampling of these projects include the development of resource recommendation functionality using machine learning, which is embedded into our digital library system; the use of Microsoft's Cognitive Services AI for transcription of audio files as well as translation of text in over 60 languages; the evaluation of serval AI systems and training data sets for facial recognition in archive photographs; and …

Intermedialidad En El Documental Cubano Contemporáneo, Esteban Alfonso Lopez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cuban documentaries, which have experienced dramatic changes in the last two decades, are now more in tune with the most recent global trends in cinema. However, the scarce implementation within the documentary genre of other perspectives and modes of analysis, outside those that are purely cinematographic, has stalled investigations in the field, thus creating a disengagement with the structural and thematic renovation that has been taking place within the discourse of contemporary Cuban documentaries.

My dissertation “Intermedialidad en el documental cubano contemporáneo” examines a select sample of representative texts and Cuban documentaries, with a view to adapting and/or developing an …

Considering Culture And Context: A Mixed-Methods Approach To Examining Adolescent Engagement And Parent Satisfaction In Urban Out-Of-School-Time Programs, Jacqueline Oluwakemi Moses

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents of color living in poverty are at elevated risk for mental health problems with limited access to quality care, and 21% of youth in poverty are diagnosed with mental health disorders that, left untreated, lead to significant long-term consequences. Positive future orientation – optimistic expectations for graduation, gainful employment, and healthy relationships – among vulnerable adolescents has been identified as a unique protective factor associated with positive mental health trajectories. Out-of-school-time (OST) programs in neighborhood settings can promote positive future orientation and maximize benefits for adolescents, but we know little about cultural and contextual influences on youth enrollment and …