Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

All The Web's A Stage: The Dramaturgy Of Young Adult Social Media Use, Jaime R. Riccio

Theses - ALL

This study presents an in-depth, qualitative examination of dramaturgy in young adult interactions on the social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter. The dramaturgical perspective introduced by Erving Goffman in the study of sociology and symbolic interactionism is applied to a new media setting, wherein the interpersonal interactions of users are influenced by a mass media context. The author ventures into the field of dramaturgy as part of a broader sphere of hyperdramatic acculturation that millennials are growing up in, with constant access to one another through social media and the prevalence of dramatic and attention-seeking behaviors in entertainment media. A …

Addressing Trans-Boundary Challenges Through Collaboration: How Organizations "Harmonize" Actions And Decisions Across Problem Landscapes, Rachel Fleishman

Dissertations - ALL

Collaborative governance- or collaboration- has become increasingly important for the design and implementation of public policy in the United States. This dissertation explores concrete and unique policy-related benefits emerging from collaboration, and the processes by which they emerge.

Collaboration is defined broadly as "any interaction between two or more organizations undertaken with the intention to cooperate." This definition is applied in the context of water quality management, where the physical nature of watersheds and the lack of regulatory authority available to policy-makers leads to a variety of collaborative arrangements.

A survey of literatures addressing collaboration from different theoretical angles revealed …

The Conceptions And Practices Of Motherhood Among Indo-Caribbean Immigrant Mothers In The United States: A Qualitative Study, Darshini T. Roopnarine

Dissertations - ALL

No abstract provided.

For Logs, For Traditional Purposes And For Food: Identification Of Multiple-Use Plant Species Of Northern Amazonia And An Assessment Of Factors Associated With Their Distribution, Anthony Ravindra Cummings

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines the multiplicity of uses associated with tree and palm species of the Rupununi, Southern Guyana and the factors associated with their distribution. As tropical forests continue to decline the most significant response has been to understand the implications for the carbon cycle, with the impacts on forest dwelling peoples and wildlife, inadequately addressed. Multiple-use plants, individual species which at their most critical level provide food for wildlife, non-timber forest products and are commercially logged, provide a suitable lens for appreciating additional ecosystem services that may be compromised as tropical forests decline. I completed a plant inventory in …

I Ain't Do Nothing: The Social And Academic Experiences Of Black Males In A Dismantled School, Don Sawyer

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of the experiences of Black eighth grade males attending an urban middle school dismantled in the midst of mandated educational reform in a Central New York school district. Some of the students were the victims of repeated school closures and were left behind because of a lack of space in other schools as a result of efforts to disperse students across the district. These students are part of a group that attends classes in a small section of their former building that has been converted into a high school. To gain insight into the …

A Decent Place To Stay: Housing Crises, Failed Laws, And Property Conflicts In Washington, D.C, Katie Jeanne Wells

Dissertations - ALL

In 1978 the District of Columbia City Council enacted a measure to tax up to 97 percent of the profits on speculative housing sales. In 1984 the District of Columbia voters approved an initiative to guarantee every resident who needed it access to overnight shelter for every night of the year. Both of these responses to the city's housing crisis marked the beginning of a politically progressive moment in Washington, D.C., when residents won the right to self-governance after a century of Congressional control and the majority-black electorate created a majority-black legislature of civil-right activists. But both laws were made …

Ordinary Families: Queer Sexuality And Adoptive Parenthood In Central New York, Sean H. Wang

Theses - ALL

This thesis argues that geographers must consider sexuality and family together as integral parts of social life. Although sexuality already entered the lexicon of geography in the 1980s, and a burgeoning field of the geography of sexuality exists today, too often it is still considered peripheral in geographic scholarship. Similarly, family either remains consigned either as merely a place for social reproduction by studies of political economy, or is relegated entirely as an object of inquiry for only feminist geographers. Drawing from sociology, feminist and queer studies, this thesis makes an important intervention by relating sexuality and family in the …

House Broken: The Functions And Contradictions Of "Housing First", Brian Richard Hennigan

Theses - ALL

"Housing first" is the new orthodoxy for homelessness policy in the United States, a program design expected to end homelessness once and for all. Unlike the traditional "treatment first" model, housing first places the most expensively homeless individuals immediately into an apartment (with treatment following). Although certainly different from the treatment first model due to its prioritization of housing, housing first remains a product of neoliberal poverty governance. By examining program operations in greater Phoenix, Arizona, it is clear that housing first proceeds as a stigma-reproducing rehabilitation program of socioeconomic discipline that works in tandem with anti-homeless laws and service …

The Choral Hierarchy Examined: The Presence Of Repertoire For Women's Choirs In Monographs On Choral Literature And Choral History, Lauren Elizabeth Estes

Theses - ALL

Women's choirs have been perceived as less prestigious than and inferior to mixed choirs. There is a well-documented choral hierarchy in academia that favors mixed choirs above other choir types. Most frequently, the delineation of the choral hierarchy places women's choirs at the bottom. Books about choral literature and choral history are influential media for those selecting repertoire for choirs. In this study, the monographs recommended as resources on choral literature and choral history by the American Choral Directors Association were surveyed to ascertain the quantity and kind of repertoire included for women's choirs as compared to the quantity and …

Expressions Of Grief On Facebook: Navigating Discomfort, Persistent Identity, And Public Memorialization, Molly Kalan

Theses - ALL

When someone dies, their online identity does not die with them. If a deceased Facebook user leaves behind a once active profile, friends and family members may choose to use this virtual space to express grief, interact with one another, and engage in active memorialization. Young adults who are traditionally marginalized in the grieving process can take advantage of the digital space to engage in mourning rituals. Through qualitative inquiry and in-depth interviews with 20 young adults who have dealt with the death of a friend or family member on Facebook, this study addresses phenomenological research questions concerning expression of …

The Role Of Ethical Evaluation Of Corporate Social Responsibility In The Perception Of Corporate Hypocrisy, The Intention Of Opinioned Communication And Behavior Toward A Firm, Kyujin Shim

Dissertations - ALL

Corporate hypocrisy refers to publics' negative perception of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a result of ethical attribution of CSR to normative ethics, and thus can be a useful indicator of the disappointing and ineffective role of CSR programs geared toward raising publics' goodwill toward a firm. However, scant scholarly effort has been made to explore the concept of corporate hypocrisy in relation to corporate issues and crises, publics' ethical orientation, cultural and national influence, and polarized sentiments toward global business in the media landscape. These aspects collectively constitute the unpredictable, uncontrollable public opinion, in particular the opinion of the …

Silence Is Golden: Older Women's Voices And The Analysis Of Meaning Among Survivor's Of Domestic Violence, Virginia Lee Cronin

Dissertations - ALL

Current estimates indicate that upwards of 3,000,000 women a year are physically abused by an intimate partner, however, it is important to note that serious limitations associated with these estimates exist. Despite media campaigns, educational efforts, community outreach, and legislation, the majority of intimate partner violence that occurs in the United States continues to go unreported. While there is a vast literature on domestic violence, the focus has been on the experiences and outcomes of younger women. Very few studies have investigated the experiences of older women as survivors of domestic violence who came of age in an era of …

In Search Of A Single Voice: The Politics Of Form, Use And Belief In The Kernewek Language, Jesse Owen Harasta

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is based upon fieldwork performed between 2007 and 2011 in Cornwall, a region of Southwestern Britain notable for its ambiguous ethnic identity - caught between England and the Celtic nations - and its unique, revived Celtic language, Kernewek. During the course of the research, work focused upon the role of the language revival movement as a tool for ethnic identification: hardening boundaries, shoring up faltering communities and nationalist purification. However, the language movement is divided into three primary factions, which take differing approaches to the language, and to their corresponding language ideology based upon their relationship to Cornish …

Persuasion In Political Discourse: Tunisian President Ben Ali's Last Speech As A Case Stud, Soufien Jarraya

Theses - ALL

Within a discourse analysis framework, this research investigates persuasion in political discourse in the last speech of the former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, delivered one day before he left the country in the middle of the Tunisian Revolution that sparked the so-called Arab Spring.

Sentences are analyzed to check their illocutionary force in light of Searle's typology of Speech Act Theory. Then, an analysis of agency is carried out to investigate the persuasive dimension of the use of deictic pronouns to construct the self-image as well as the image of the Other. The speech is also examined …

Physiological And Evaluative Differences Between Internet-Based And In-Person Interview Techniques, Joseph R. Castro

Psychology - Theses

A growing trend in job selection is the use of automated online interviews as a cheap and easy tool for gaining many applicants. The use of the Internet for selection interviews may have ramifications on the interviewer's perception of the candidate's personality and performance. It can also affect the candidate's physiological responses and ability to process information. Two types of interviews were conducted, a face-to-face interview and a computer-mediated interview. Comparisons between the two conditions were made for ratings of performance, the accuracy of an observer's estimation of the participant's personality, cognitive interference, and physiological reactivity. There was no difference …

Relationships Between Parenting Styles, Severity Of Punishment, Importance Of Religion In Child Development And Childhood Social Behaviors In Caribbean Immigrant Families, Elif Dede Yildirim

Theses - ALL

Using cultural ecological, parenting frameworks, and immigrant adjustment perspectives as a guide, this study explored the relationship between parenting style, severity of punishment, parental assessment of the importance of religion in child development, and children's social behaviors among Caribbean immigrant families in the US. The sample consisted of 57 mother-father pairs who had a pre-kindergarten or kindergarten-age child. Parents provided assessments of their parenting styles using the Parental Authority Questionnaire and answered two Likert-type questions about parental importance of religion in child development, and severity of punishment. They also provided assessments of their children's social skills. Paired sample t-test indicated …

The Piratical Ethos: Textual Activity And Intellectual Property In Digital Environments, Justin A. Lewis

Writing Program – Dissertations

The Piratical Ethos: Textual Activity and Intellectual Property in Digital Environments examines the definition, function, and application of intellectual property in contexts of electronically mediated social production. With a focus on immaterial production - or the forms of coordinated social activity employed to produce knowledge and information in the networked information economy - this project ultimately aims to demonstrate how current intellectual property paradigms must be rearticulated for an age of digital (re)production. By considering the themes of "Piracy", "Intellectual Property", and "Distributed Social Production" this dissertation provides an overview of the current state of peer production and intellectual property …

Perceived Cultural Proximity And Perceived News Source Credibility In Puerto Rico, Camila Espina

Media Studies - Theses

This study examines the relationship between interaction with the United States, perceived cultural proximity between Puerto Rican and American culture, and perceived source credibility of American news media. Existing literature on media credibility, cultural proximity, and acculturation was used to design an online survey. The sample of this study consists of three hundred and seventy two Puerto Ricans that resided in Puerto Rico at the time of data collection (N=372).

Data analysis procedures involved paired samples t-test as well as Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. The current study yielded three key findings. The first finding demonstrates that respondents perceive American news media …

Supportive Alignments & Teams In Group Supervision For School Counselors-In-Training, Christopher Sean Perrello

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - Theses

This thesis focuses on the formation of supportive alignments and interactional teams through particular linguistic strategies within the group supervision classroom, especially as participants provide one another with feedback on their professional behaviors. Through discourse analysis of transcripts of a video-recorded group supervision meeting, I illustrate how graduate level school counselors-in-training use language to construct alignments and teams. Discursive features that are identified and explicated include positive assessments of others, repetition, co-narration, constructed dialogue, and matching. In investigating these particular linguistic strategies, I emphasize how some of the major goals of group supervision (including feedback and reflection) are discursively expressed …

Banking On The Impossible: The Political Life Of Wetlands In Southern Louisiana, Michael Kantor

Geography and the Environment - Theses

Wetland banking is an increasingly prominent environmental governance strategy in the United States. Associated with larger trends toward the financialization of ecosystem services, wetland banking acts as a mode of social regulation while stabilizing a particular regime of accumulation. Its use by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the development of wetlands has certain implications for the distribution of and access to land, water, and capital. This thesis investigates a particular wetland development project in southeastern Louisiana and its relation to a local wetland bank, the Army Corps of Engineers, and a multinational oil …

Battle For The Mountains: Restructuring Extractive Production And The Socio-Ecological Crisis In West Virginia's Coalfields, Ben Marley

Geography and the Environment - Theses

The coalfields of southern West Virginia have faced recurring crises linked to its regional political economy. Today's crisis is constituted by the decimation on the United Mine Workers of America and the greater use of mountaintop removal coal mining in conjunction with policies and market conditions. This thesis argues that crisis in southern West Virginia's coalfields, like previous crises, will mean the reorganization of human and extra-human natures in which social movements along with economic conditions play an integral role in transcending the crisis. Tracing the history of crises in southern West Virginia's coalfields and interviewing retired coal miners, community …

Using Ontology-Based Approaches To Representing Speech Transcripts For Automated Speech Scoring, Miao Chen

School of Information Studies - Dissertations

Text representation is a process of transforming text into some formats that computer systems can use for subsequent information-related tasks such as text classification. Representing text faces two main challenges: meaningfulness of representation and unknown terms. Research has shown evidence that these challenges can be resolved by using the rich semantics in ontologies. This study aims to address these challenges by using ontology-based representation and unknown term reasoning approaches in the context of content scoring of speech, which is a less explored area compared to some common ones such as categorizing text corpus (e.g. 20 newsgroups and Reuters).

From the …

A Subcontinent's Sunni Schism: The Deobandi-Barelvi Rivalry And The Creation Of Modern South Asia, William Kesler Jackson

History - Dissertations

This work presents the first-ever history of the 150-year religio-political rivalry between the Deobandis and the Barelvis--arguably the most important schism in the "Muslim world," and certainly the most significant within Sunni Islam. More recently, that rivalry has often been expressed by means of bullets and bombs, especially in Pakistan. But beyond the headline-grabbing violence of the Deobandi-Barelvi schism lies the story of a century-and-a-half-long religious antagonism: at first over converts, later for competing visions of the political future, then for a place within a new "Islamic" polity--for dominance within its political structure. For Deobandis, the rivalry was defined by …

Bridging The Gap: An Invitational Approach To Confucianism And Daoism, David Munson

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - Theses

The idea of cross or multiculturalism in today's rhetorical scholarship is essential because it allows scholars to apply a critical perspective to traditional modes of rhetorical scholarship. Many contemporary scholars, such as George Kennedy, Xing Lu, Roberta Blinkley and Carol Lipson have recently embraced a cross-cultural rhetorical perspective in their works. At the same time, other scholars have critiqued the traditional canon as too limiting and too reliant on notions of rationality, logic, antagonism and truth. Sonja Foss and Cindy Griffin provide one such critique of the Greco-Roman tradition by approaching the idea of rhetoric through an invitational lens that …

'Twas The Night Before Black Friday: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Hegemonic Consumerism In Mediated, Consumptive, And Resistance Spaces, Emily Anne Soule

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - Theses

This thesis analyzes Black Friday media, consumption, and resistance spaces to interrogate the construction of and opposition to the hegemonic consumer. In order to investigate hegemonic consumerism, my work is divided into three chapters in which I perform a rhetorical critique of Black Friday spaces: mediated space, consumptive space, and resistance space. In the first chapter, I analyze mediated space, offering a close analysis of 10 Black Friday commercials to identify mediated constructions of the hegemonic consumer. In the second chapter, I employ ethnographic research to assess consumptive space, specifically the retail space of Target on Black Friday to engage …

The Impact Of Cultural Assumptions About Technology On Choctaw Heritage Preservation And Sharing, Jake A. Dolezal

School of Information Studies - Dissertations

Neither the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on culture nor the cultural roles of ICT are widely understood, particularly among marginalized ethno-cultures and indigenous people. One theoretical lens that has received attention outside of Native American studies is the theory of Information Technology Cultures, or "IT Culture," developed by Kaarst-Brown. This theory was a groundbreaking and foundational way to understand underlying assumptions about IT and the conflicts surrounding IT use. Kaarst-Brown identified five archetypal cultural patterns or sets of "underlying cultural assumptions" about IT that impacted strategic use, conflict, and technology innovation. These dimensions included assumptions about the …

Essays On Agglomeration, Access To Medical Services, And The Real Estate Market, Jing Li

Economics - Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three papers that study how external economies of scale help to explain geographic variation in access to medical services as well as potential implications on the real estate market. Specifically, the first two papers examine whether an increased concentration of the hospital service industry promotes productivity in treating patients and if so, what are the specific channels through which agglomeration economies might take place in the health care industry. The third paper explores how the productivity variation is reflected in the real estate market.

Chapter 2 examines two factors that help to explain geographic variation in health …

Socio-Cultural Influences On Adolescent Smoking In Mainland China: The Mediating Role Of Smoking-Related Cognitions, Yan Wang

Child and Family Studies - Dissertations

The etiology of smoking behaviors involves the interplay among multiple systems at the cultural, familial, and personal levels, but few investigations have explored the effects of multiple environments on adolescent smoking behaviors. Survey data were collected from 658 parent-child dyads of Chinese adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years from Jiande, Zhejiang province in mainland China. Using data from multiple informants, the direct and indirect roles of socio-cultural influences, parenting strategies, smoking-specific parenting behaviors, and smoking-related cognitions on adolescent smoking behaviors were examined. Results indicated that smoking-related cultural values, extended family members smoking, and parental psychological control had direct effects …

Experiencing Citizenship In A Globalizing World: The Impact Of Off-Campus Programs, Ryan Owen Williams

Political Science - Dissertations

College serves as a critical time in the lives of young adults in the formulation of their identification with citizenship, of their sense of belonging or affiliation. In an era of increasing globalization, this psychological dimension of citizenship requires further research and elaboration. This project seeks to determine if and how the academic and off-campus choices students make in college impact their worldview, their loyalties and sense of responsibility toward others. How far do students' allegiances extend and what experiences in college help to create these bonds and commitments? This study asks whether international experience via study abroad is a …

Deepening Democracy At The Grassroots Level: Citizen Participation In State Devolved Funds (Cdf) In Kenya, Fredrick Omondi Otieno

Pan African Studies - Theses

That democracy is the most suitable form of government is no longer contested. However many questions shaking this global consensus continue to abound. Why is there a growing cynicism and apathy with the notion of democracy across the globe? Why has the concept of democracy had to attract adjectives that attempt to qualify or categorize it in different parts of the world? And perhaps most importantly, if in deed democracy is such a good "thing" how can it be made meaningful? This thesis looks at citizen participation in a state devolved fund (CDF) in Kenya as a space through which …