Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Transitioning The Canadian Democratic System Into The Era Of Digital Governance: A Longitudinal Study Of First Time Online Voting And Voter Turnout In Ontario Municipalities, Chris Bantock

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the relationship between online voting and voter turnout rates in Ontario municipalities. It uses a longitudinal research design to collect election data from municipalities that used online voting for the first time in 2014, which is compared to election data from the 2010 Ontario municipal elections, and it also uses a survey that was administered to the Clerks Department of randomly selected municipalities. The findings reveal a statistically proven relationship between online voting and increased voter turnout in Ontario municipalities.

Economic Survival And Borderland Rebellion: The Case Of The Allied Demoocratic Forces On The Uganda-Congo Border, Lindsay Scorgie-Porter

Faculty Publications

One of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s oldest, most organized, and traditionally best-trained—but, arguably, least known—rebel groups is the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Its resiliency and particularly its economic survival skills have largely been understood through the prism of Islamic extremism. Yet this narrative has proven to have serious inaccuracies and flaws. Explanations focused on terrorism, for example, do not take into consideration the ADF’s pivotal business ventures, such as cross-border trade, agriculture, and the taxing of timber forests. They not only ignore these activities but are unable to explain how the ADF was able to practice, and become successful …

State Borders In Africa, Lindsay Scorgie-Porter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Marx’S Value Theory: A Critical Response To Analyses Of Digital Prosumption, Edward Comor

FIMS Publications

Abstract

In their assessment of value creation through prosumption and other activities related to the use of digital technologies, despite significant differences, Fuchs (2010) and Arvidsson and Colleoni (2012) misinterpret Marx's value theory. Through their analyses, a totalizing or new form of capitalism is said to have emerged, but these, I argue, entail demonstrably idealist theorizations. The end result is that these authors occlude more than they clarify in their debates concerning value, exploitation, and the role played by digital technologies. However, once we understand the precision needed to apply Marx's complex theory—including his conceptualization of “labor power” and the …

Differences Over Discourse Structure Differences: A Reply To Urquhart And Urquhart, Jennie A. Abrahamson, Victoria L. Rubin

FIMS Publications

Purpose – In this paper we respond to Urquhart and Urquhart’s critique of our previous work entitled “Discourse structure differences in lay and professional health communication”, published in this journal in 2012 (Vol. 68 No. 6, pp.826 – 851, doi: 10.1108/00220411211277064).

Design/methodology/approach – We examine Urquhart and Urquhart’s critique and provide responses to their concerns and cautionary remarks against cross-disciplinary contributions. We reiterate our central claim.

Findings – We argue that Mann and Thompson’s (1987, 1988) Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) offers valuable insights into computer-mediated health communication and deserves further discussion of its methodological strength and weaknesses for application in …

Beyond Traditional Publishing Models: An Examination Of The Relationships Between Authors, Readers, And Publishers, Jen Pecoskie, Heather Hill

FIMS Publications

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of contemporary publishing, specifically the realms of fanfiction and self-publishing, for the ways in which readership is represented in conjunction with authors and publishers within the publication process. The structure of this process is then compared with Robert Darnton’s communications circuit in order to propose a new model for the publication. As the publication process has a profound impact on the teaching and practice of collection development and reader studies in LIS, the discipline must be aware of any changes to the publication process.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using the …

Journalistic Labour And Technological Fetishism, Edward Comor, James R. Compton

FIMS Publications

This paper applies and develops Marx’s concept of the fetish generally and technological fetishism specifically to how digital ICTs are influencing the craft of journalism. Although largely theoretical, its analysis of technological fetishism is applied to the findings of a survey conducted in 2013 among Canadian journalistic workers. The paper finds that these workers hold mixed and often contradictory views on how digital technologies are shaping their work and profession. By understanding ICTs to be both constitutive of journalism and, more precisely, the technological fetish as a mediating force in its development, the paper argues that the survey respondents are …

A Collaborative Approach To Improving Information Ethics Education, Alissa Centivany, Michael Zimmer, Melissa Chalmers, Rebecca Frank

FIMS Publications

Abstract Information professionals manage, organize, preserve, create, design, implement, and control the information systems, services, goods, and devices that are both ubiquitous in and essential to our daily existence. But where there is great power, there is also great responsibility. Recent events suggest that information professionals may benefit from enhanced education and training to prepare them to respond to the ethical challenges they will encounter in their work in socially responsible ways. Improving information ethics education is one step toward beginning to build a strong foundation in this space moving forward. Participants in this workshop will explore and identify key …

The Use Of Webometrics For Financial Performance Analysis And Financial Position Indicators: Exploratory Study Of Different Economic Sectors In The United States [L’Utilisation De La Webométrie Dans L’Analyse Des Indicateurs De Performance Et De La Position Financière De L’Entreprise: Une Analyse Exploratoire Dans Divers Secteurs Économiques Des États-Unis] [El Empleo De La Webmetría Para El Análisis De Los Indicadores De Desempeño Y Posición Financier De La Empresa: Un Análisis Exploratorio En Diversos Sectores Económicos De Los Estados Unidos], E.R. Frías, L. Vaughan, L.R. Ariza

FIMS Publications

Through the development of the Internet over the past two decades, a new discipline that allows the study of the Web from a quantitative point of view has arisen: webometrics. Applying webometrics techniques to management studies, points to the possible existence of a relationship between the number of inlinks that a corporate website receives, and certain economic and financial variables. Bearing in mind that the emerging evidence found is limited to companies from the technological sector, that indeed by its own nature has a strong presence on the Web, this exploratory study provides an extension in the analysis of webometrics …

Popular Music And/As Work: The Politics Of (Cultural) Labor And (Creative) Property, Matt Stahl

FIMS Publications

No abstract provided.

Transformative Geomorphic Research Using Laboratory Experimentation, Sean J. Bennett, Peter Ashmore, Cheryl Mckenna Neuman

Geography & Environment Publications

Laboratory experiments in geomorphology is the theme of the 46th annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium (BGS). While geomorphic research historically has been dominated by field-based endeavors, laboratory experimentation has emerged as an important methodological approach to study these phenomena, employed primarily to address issues related to scale and the analytical treatment of the geomorphic processes. It is contended here that geomorphic laboratory experiments have resulted in transformative research. Several examples drawn from the fluvial and aeolian research communities are offered as testament to this belief, and these select transformative endeavors often share very similar attributes. The 46th BGS will focus on …

Towards A Sociogeomorphology Of Rivers, Peter Ashmore

Geography & Environment Publications

While human impacts on rivers and other landforms have long been a component of geomorphic research, little of this work explicitly includes insights into human agency from social science or recognises that in many cases rivers can be considered to be hybrid coproductions or „socio-natures‟. A socio-geomorphic approach proposed here has parallels with some aspects of sociohydrology and can extend and enrich existing geomorphic explanations of the morphology of, for example, urban rivers by explicitly recognising and working with the coevolution of the human and natural systems. Examples from recent literature illustrate ways in which these relationships can be understood …

The Relationship Between Particle Travel Distance And Channel Morphology: Results Fromphysicalmodels Of Braided Rivers, Alan Kasprak, Joseph Wheaton, Peter Ashmore, James Hensleigh, Sarah Peirce

Geography & Environment Publications

Channel form and sediment transport are closely linked in alluvial rivers, and as such the development of a conceptual framework for the downstream controls on particle mobility and likely deposition sites has immense value in terms of the way we understand and predictively model rivers. Despite the development of conceptual models which frame flood-scale particle transport distance (termed path length) as a function of channel bar locations, an understanding of the controls on such path lengths in braided rivers remains especially elusive, in large part due to the difficulty in explicitly linking morphology and particle transport distances in the field. …

2015-6 An Economic Approach To Generalizing Findings From Regression-Discontinuity Designs, Nirav Mehta

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2015-5 Explaining The Evolution Of Educational Attainment In The U.S., Rui Castro, Daniele Coen-Pirani

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2015-4 Social Interactions, Mechanisms, And Equilibrium: Evidence From A Model Of Study Time And Academic Achievement, Tim Conley, Nirav Mehta, Ralph Stinebrickner, Todd R. Stinebrickner

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2015-3 Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, Or Constraints: Why Do Poor Children Perform So Poorly?, Elizabeth M. Caucutt, Lance J. Lochner, Youngmin Park

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2015-2 The Returns To Schooling In Rural China: Evidence From The Cultural Revolution Education Expansion, Terry Sicular, Juan Yang

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2015-1 Separating State Dependence, Experience, And Heterogeneity In A Model Of Youth Crime And Education, Maria Antonella Mancino, Salvador Navarro, David A. Rivers

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2015-3 Retail Price Differences Across U.S. And Canadian Cities During The Interwar Period, Chris Hajzler, James C. Macgee

Economic Policy Research Institute. EPRI Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2015-2 A Cge Framework For Modelling The Economics Of Flooding And Recovery In A Major Urban Area, Aaron B. Gertz, James B. Davies

Economic Policy Research Institute. EPRI Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2015-1 The Interactive Evolution Of Economic Ideas And Experience - The Case Of Canadian Inflation Targeting, David Laidler

Economic Policy Research Institute. EPRI Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Awareness And Perception Of Copyright Among Teaching Faculty At Canadian Universities, Lisa Di Valentino

FIMS Publications

This article describes the background, methodology, and results of a study undertaken in 2014 to determine university faculty awareness and perceptions of copyright as it affects their teaching. An online survey questionnaire was distributed to teaching faculty across Canada, seeking feedback about the copyright policies and training opportunities at their institutions, where they go for copyright assistance, and how they would respond to various copyright-related scenarios that may arise in the course of teaching.

Most of the respondents are aware of the copyright policies or guidelines at their universities, but much fewer know whether or not their institution offers copyright …

Hidden Online Surveillance: What Librarians Should Know To Protect Their Privacy And That Of Their Patrons, Alexandre Fortier, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

Librarians have a professional responsibility to protect the right to access information free from surveillance. This right is at risk from a new and increasing threat: the collection and use of non-personally identifying information such as IP addresses through online behavioral tracking. This paper provides an overview of behavioral tracking, identifying the risks and benefits, describes the mechanisms used to track this information, and offers strategies that can be used to identify and limit behavioral tracking. We argue that this knowledge is critical for librarians in two interconnected ways. First, librarians should be evaluating recommended websites with respect to behavioral …

Networks Of Digital Humanities Scholars: The Informational And Social Uses And Gratifications Of Twitter, Anabel Quan-Haase, Lori Mckay-Peet, Kim Martin

FIMS Publications

Big Data research is currently split on whether and to what extent Twitter can be characterized as an informational or social network. We contribute to this line of inquiry through an investigation of digital humanities (DH) scholars’ uses and gratifications of Twitter. We conducted a thematic analysis of 25 semi-structured interview transcripts to learn about these scholars’ professional use of Twitter. Our findings show that Twitter is considered a critical tool for informal communication within DH invisible colleges, functioning at varying levels as both an information network (learning to ‘Twitter’ and maintaining awareness) and a social network (imagining audiences and …

A Matter Of Time And Academic Discipline? Exploring The Use Of Resources, Lori Mckay-Peet, Anabel Quan-Haase, Dagmar Kern, Peter Mutschke

FIMS Publications

This paper reports on a survey of 26 social scientists and computer scientists. Through the vignette technique, resource use in situations in which scholars have a lot and very little time were explored. Findings suggest academic discipline and time may play a role in resource use.

Cette présentation rend compte d’une enquête auprès de 26 spécialistes en sciences sociales et en informatique. À l’aide de la technique de la vignette, nous avons exploré l’utilisation des ressources dans les situations où les savants ont beaucoup et à l’inverse très peu de temps. Les résultats suggèrent que les disciplines scientifiques et le …

Innovative Deviance: A Theoretical Framework Emerging At The Intersection Of Copyright Law And Technological Change, Alissa Centivany

FIMS Publications

This paper explores the relationship between emerging technology-enabled behaviors and established copyright law in the United States. Challenges implicated by recent technological developments have given rise to a consensus among policy-makers, scholars, public interest advocates, and various other stakeholders that copyright reforms are needed. Debates over what shape the potential reforms ought to take have been strident, unrelenting, and seemingly paralyzing to the cause. Meanwhile, courts have continued to adjudicate cases testing the balance between existing copyright doctrines and new methods of creating, managing, and sharing protected works. The paper describes a recent exemplar involving mass digitization, Authors Guild v. …

2015-3 Choice-Set Forms Are Dual To Outcome-Set Forms, Peter A. Streufert

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

2015-2 Concisely Specifying Choices In An Outcome-Set Form, Peter A. Streufert

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.

2015-1 Specifying Nodes As Sets Of Choices, Peter A. Streufert

Department of Economics Research Reports

No abstract provided.