Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Flavor Of Money: The Vanilla Industry And The Economy Of Antalaha, Elizabeth Packer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The objectives of my research were to understand how the vanilla exporting business has changed in Antalaha in recent years, to assess the impact of cash crops on people’s livelihoods, to examine the benefits and drawbacks associated with vanilla cultivation, and to explore the economic impact of the vanilla industry on the town of Antalaha and its inhabitants. Through my research, I wanted to understand how the fruit of an orchid becomes the flavoring of ice cream, to look at the many processes and people involved in the vanilla supply chain. I was also interested in getting to know how …

Mivumba In Kampala: Tracking The History, Trade, And Perceptions Of A Global Commodity In Local Culture, Claire Walsh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

One surprisingly unstudied and little documented aspect of the present-day African market system– almost impossible to ignore when one is walking the streets of Kampala and bombarded by its presence– is second-hand clothing. This study investigates the history, systems, and perceptions of the second-hand clothing market in Kampala, Uganda. Combining an ethnographic analysis with historical research, this paper details how a western commodity is changed, both in meaning and form, and interacted with on a local level– adding to anthropological literature that analyzes how local cultures interact, and not passively react, to globalization.

The emergence of the large second-hand clothing …

From Subsistence To Existence: Worker Strategies In The Recovery Of Talleres Union, Ryan Merz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The questions of how and why social movement actors develop and modify their strategies of contention have been the work of a significant amount of past political process theory work (Kurzman 1996;Kitschelt 1986; McAdam etc. all 1986). Although a correlation has been shown between Political Opportunity Structures and repertoire change (Kitschelt 1986), there is a lack of in depth qualitative research on these questions (Meyer 2004). In this paper I will attempt to help fill this void by using a case study of the recovered factory movement in Argentina. In this study I will begin by summarizing current academic research …

Global Advertising And Its Implications On The Concept Of Spatial Identity: A Case Study Of Urban Billboard Advertising In Tunis, Kristen Hackett

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tunisia is a country that has a very distinct and unique culture and collective identity that was shaped by their equally specific and unique history. With these facts in mind this, I was very shocked to see that the advertisements utilized in the city of Tunis to appeal to the Tunisian public, are very similar, if not that same to those of the United States and all around the world. At first, I was under the impression that manufacturers and advertising agencies played into spatial identities, such as those sovereign to demarcated nations or cultures, and that their advertisements would …

Community-Based Income Generation: A Case Study Of Its Effects And Replicability In Urucureá, Santarém, Lucy Midelfort

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the method of income generation through handcraft production used by Projeto Saude e Alegria, or the Health and Happiness Project, in Urucureá, a small community in the region of Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Urucureá is a rural community of ribeirinhos (or caboclos), traditional populations living along the banks of the Amazon River and its tributaries. The project of organizing community-based handcraft production in the community began in 1995, and since then the TucumArte group has been quite successful in strengthening their production of woven basketry from the straw of tucumã, a locally abundant species of palm tree. This …