International and Area Studies Commons^™

Epilogue: Democracy In Ghana As A Model For The African Continent, H. E. John Dramani Mahama

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Address by the President of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, to mark the formal end of Kennesaw State University’s “Year of Ghana” celebrations and academic programs.

A Street Child's Revolt Against Her Mother And Society: Lessons From Amma Darko's Faceless, Philomena Yeboah Ama Okyeso

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The writings of Amma Darko rank among Africa’s great literature. In Faceless, Amma Darko uses conflicts that bedevil mother-daughter bonds to address larger issues such as streetism, patriarchy, government indifference, irresponsible parenting, and inefficiency in the police service. Faceless may appear to be primarily an investigation of the causes, effects, and solutions of streetism, yet it also has important things to say about both the destructive and regenerative potentials of mothers. The benefits of male–female collabo-ration in addressing developmental challenges are another topic that has acquired consid-erable space in this novel. It is these issues/topics that this study explores and …

Ua35/4 2012-2013 Annual Report, Wku International Programs

WKU Administration Documents

2012-2013 report of WKU International Programs & Study Abroad & Global Learning.

Culture, Reform Politics, And Future Directions: A Review Of China’S Animal Protection Challenge, Peter J. Li, Gareth Davey

Animal Welfare Collection

Incidents of animal abuse in China attract worldwide media attention. Is China culturally inclined to animal cruelty, or is the country’s development strategy a better explanation? This article addresses the subject of animal protection in China, a topic that has been ignored for too long by Western China specialists. A review of ancient Chinese thought asks whether China lacks a legacy of compassion for animals. The article then considers how China’s reform politics underlie the animal welfare crisis. Through its discussion of the welfare crisis impacting nonhuman animals in China, this paper sheds light on the enormity of the country’s …

Property Restitution And Sustainable Return: Lessons From Bosnia Herzegovina, Dragana Marinkovic

International Studies Honors Projects

Bosnia's four years long conflict ended in 1995 with the signing of Dayton Peace Agreement and a hope that with international help and domestic cooperation, people of Bosnia will reconcile and work towards a more prosperous future. The conflict left behind not only 90 000 deaths but also around 2.2 million of displaced people. Country that used to be ethnically mixed before the war later became ethnically segregated into two regions, one with a Serb majority and the other one with Bosniak and Croat majority. In their search for safety during the war, many left their homes and cities and …

Measuring Poverty In Singapore: Frameworks For Consideration, John A. Donaldson, Jacqueline Loh, Sanushka Mudaliar, Mumtaz Md Kadir, Biqi Wu, Lam Keong Yeoh

Social Space

Singapore does not have an official poverty line. Should there be one? And what are the frameworks that have used or could be adopted for the measurement of poverty in this country? The Lien Centre for Social Innovation and SMU School of Social Sciences report on their investigation into the complex issue of domestic poverty.

Essays On The Digital Divide - Explorations Through Global, National And Individual Lenses, Maria Skaletsky

2013

The Digital Divide has emerged as an important research and policy issue during the past thirty years. The divide exists at different levels, such as global, regional and individual levels. While extensive research already exists on this subject, the complexity of the issue presents opportunities for further research. In particular, there is ample scope for significantly contributing to the literature by leveraging recent analytics techniques, all the more since most of the literature on the Digital Divide relies on descriptive methods or on simple or multiple regression models. Therefore, the motivation for this study is two-fold. First, the Digital Divide …

Facilitating War-Affected Young Mothers’ Reintegration: Lessons From A Participatory Action Research Study In Liberia, Sierra Leone, And Uganda., Miranda E. Worthen, G. Onyango, A. Veale, M. Wessells, S. Mckay

Faculty Publications

Young women and girls formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups face multiple challenges. Many become pregnant or have children while they are associated and face stigma and marginalization upon reintegration into civilian communities. This article describes a multi-year participatory action research study that took place in twenty communities in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and northern Uganda from 2006 – 2009 and included more than 650 young mother participants. We find that this community-based approach to reintegration improved the wellbeing of young mother participants and their children. We discuss the challenges and limitations of conducting participatory action research with war-affected …

Framing Resistance: How Hamas Uses Collective Action Frames To Attract And Maintain Human Resources, Thomas George Hagen

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of collective action framing mechanisms and processes by Hamas in order to aquire and maintain potential and existing human resources and to help researchers and scholars of contentious politics and social movement theory to gain a greater understanding of the role frames play in that decision by showing the ways social movement entrepreneurs use them to acquire, maintain, and motivate human resources for the purpose of collective action.

The Performative Speech And Silence Of Rape Trees: Staging Sexual Violence Against Migrant Women In The U.S.-Mexican Borderlands, Hana Masri

International Studies Honors Projects

"Rape trees"—trees and bushes in the U.S.-Mexican borderlands upon which hang bras and underwear—serve as a display of the sexual assault and labor exploitation to which marginalized migrant women are vulnerable. Women making the journey to and across the border contend with sexual violence, as well as the political and economic violences that both construct the economies of the border and compel migrant women to it. The continued performance and re-performance of rape trees attempt to reinstate the silencing of migrant women. They also shed light on the intricacies of power, citizenship, and subjectivity that migrant women confront at the …

Representations Of Argentine National Identity Via El Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes, Lindsay Newby

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

National identity is a concept that every nation constructs and celebrates through the remembrance of important events or persons, the projection of literary works, and the erection of monuments. Yet, in order to truly understand a nation’s self-imagery, one must examine and chart all of its different periods through time. This allows one to avoid narrow, static definitions by viewing a nation in a more holistic sense. In this study, it is hypothesized that museums function to preserve, assert, and disseminate a sense of heritage and, in the case of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, a sense of what …

Electoral Systems And Congressional Malfeasance: Comparing Brazilian Senators And Deputies In The Supreme Court Cases (English Version), Taeko Hiroi

Departmental Papers (PS)

This article contributes to our understanding of the relationship between electoral systems and legislative malfeasance by examining personal vote, district magnitude, and electoral accountability. Studies emphasizing individual responsibility argue that personal-vote electoral systems promote good performance by elected politicians and constrain their malfeasance by enabling voters to identify, monitor, and hold responsible individual politicians. Another strand of the literature claims that large district magnitude ensures the availability of good politicians and electoral competition, which reduce malfeasance. At first glance, personal-vote systems with relatively large magnitude districts, such as open-list proportional representation, appear to combine the beneficial attributes of the electoral …

The Recasting Of Twenty-First-Century Germany: An Opportunity Of Crisis, Gaspare Genna

Departmental Papers (PS)

No abstract provided.

"Now I Know The Law": Empowerment Of Mining Communities By An Environmental Non-Government Organisation (Engo), Yaw Asamoah, Kwabena Barima Antwi, Oheneba Akyeampong, Paul Baidoo, Daniel Owusu-Koranteng

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) became very prominent after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 as vibrant social movements. Since then, ENGOs operat-ing at the local, regional, or global levels have been instrumental in environmental man-agement in both developed and developing countries. This study sought to investigate the performance of the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), a local ENGO, in some selected mining communities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipali-ty, in the Western Region of Ghana. Situated in the intepretivist research philosophy, the study employed in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and observations to collect data from some staff of WACAM, …

Prominent Peripheries: The Role Of Borderlands In Central Africa’S Regionalized Conflict., Lindsay Scorgie

Faculty Publications

The Great Lakes region of Central Africa has been beset by conflict for close to two decades now. Aside from the unprecedented humanitarian consequences, the most striking feature of the violence has been its profoundly regional character. This paper seeks to explore how one might better understand the spread and cross-border nature of conflict in this region. It argues that the dominant contemporary model for explanation of regional conflict, with its overwhelmingly state-centric orientation, is inadequate in providing a comprehensive understanding of the structure of this type of violence. Rather, the so-called peripheries of states – borderlands – need to …

No. 64: Soft Targets: Xenophobia, Public Violence And Changing Attitudes To Migrants In South Africa After May 2008, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran, Wade Pendleton

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of Ghana's First-Past-The-Post (Fptp) Electoral System And The Proportional Representation (Pr) System, Joseph Kingsley Adjei

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Electoral systems translate the votes cast in a general election into seats won by parties and candidates. The choice of an electoral system is one of the most important institutional decisions for any democracy. In fact, the choice of a particular electoral system has a profound effect on the country concerned. Yet, once an electoral system has been used for some time, its impact on the political life of the country may be less recognized. Against this background, this paper provides an analysis of Ghana’s First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) electoral system and juxtaposes it against the Proportional Representation (PR) system to see …

History Of The Latino Experience In The Morris Area, Stacey L. Parker Aronson, Windy González Roberts, Cristina Montanez, Jordan Wente

Spanish Publications

The purpose of this study is to document the history of the Latino experience in the Morris area in the last ten years. We also wish to identify best practices in community building and intercultural awareness.

Encouraging Corporate Social Responsibility In Rayong, Thailand, Christina Spoons, Mark Gordon

2010-2016 Archived Posters

A review of literature revealed a gap in research on effective ways to promote corporate social responsibility in the Rayong province of Thailand where the Integrated Refinery and Petrochemical Company (IRPC) is located. This case study used purposeful sampling of eight key informants in a CSR program designed to help restore the environment surrounding the refinery, increase cooperation and good will between IRPC and surrounding villages, and make better use of local resources.

Particularizing Universal Education In Postcolonial Sierra Leone, Grace Pai

Publications and Research

This paper presents a vertical case study of the history of universalizing education in postcolonial Sierra Leone from the early 1950s to 1990 to highlight how there has never been a universal conception of universal education. In order to unite a nation behind a universal ideal of schooling, education needed to be adapted to different subpopulations, as the Bunumbu Project did for rural Sierra Leoneans in the 1970s to 1980s. While the idea of “localizing” education was sound, early program success was undermined by a lack of clarity behind terms like “rural” or “community.” This was exacerbated by a change …

Impact Of Sovereign Debt Restructuring On Financial Flows: The Case Of Indonesia, Hwee Kwan Chow, C. Adams

Research Collection School Of Economics

No abstract provided.

Globalization And Law: Law Beyond The State, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

The chapter provides an introduction into law and globalization for sociolegal studies. Instead of treating globalization as an external factor that impacts the law, globalization and law are here viewed as intertwined. I suggest that three types of globalization should be distinguished—globalization as empirical phenomenon, globalization as theory, and globalization as ideology. I go on to discuss one central theme of globalization, namely in what way society, and therefore law, move beyond the state. This is done along the three classical elements of the state—territory, population/citizenship, and government. The role of all of these elements is shifting, suggesting we need …

Europe’S Little Tiger?: Reassessing Economic Transition In Slovakia Under The Mečiar Government 1993-1998, David A. Wemer

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Vladimir Mečiar, the first Prime Minister of independent Slovakia, is often criticized for his suppression of free media, political repression, and the widespread corruption of his government from 1993-1998. Mečiar has also been attacked for his economic policies, which critics suggest slowed down privatization and left Slovakia in a huge debt crisis. A closer look at macroeconomic data, however, demonstrates an impressive economic record for Mečiar, who oversaw several years of strong GDP growth, and relatively low levels of unemployment and inflation. By slowing down the privatization process, retaining control of key industries, and maintaining the social safety net, Mečiar …

A New Model: Improving Adult Experiences In The Holy Land With Effective Pre-Departure Information, Resources And Procedures, Sarah A. Loan

Capstone Collection

Since September 11, 2001, Group Travel Directors (GTD) has noted an increase in self-reported anxiety among adult travelers preparing to depart to the Holy Land. This observation has been made by long-term employees both objectively and subjectively by comparing evaluation scores, cancellation percentages, tracking numbers of phone calls from anxious travelers and through staff accounts of conversations with travelers. GTD staff reports that clients often are inclined to make rash decisions based on perfunctory judgments influenced by media coverage.

GTD has collected evaluations from adult travelers for more than twenty years in an effort to better understand traveler perceptions of …

Sectarianism And External Intervention: The Us Occupation Of Iraq And The Rise Of Political Sectarianism In The Arab World, Gamal M. Selim, Dalia Rushdy

Political Science

منذ أن تبلورت في البلاد العربية ظاهرة الهوية، لم تكن تلك الهوية تمثل أي تعارض مع الدين أو المذهب. كما أن التعدد الثقافي العربي وبما تضمنه من تنوع طائفي وإثني ظل سمة أصيلة من سمات المجتمعات العربية لعقود طويلة، وكان مصدرا مهما من مصادر الثراء والتنوع الثقافي والحضاري. لكن هذا التعدد تحول منذ الغزو الأمريكي للعراق عام 2003 من مصدر لإثراء المجتمع إلى سبب لهدمه وتفكيكه، حيث برزت مسألة الطائفية السياسية بقوة، وأصبحت إحدى أكثر المشكلات التي يعاني الوطن العربي من ويلاتها. ورغم أننا لا يمكن أن ننكر أن ظهور الطائفية في الدول العربية سابق على الغزو الأمريكي للعراق، إلا …

Stalin’S Boots And The March Of History (Post-Communist Memories), Roland K. Végső

Department of English: Faculty Publications

I would like to propose here is precisely the invention of a relation to history and the public sphere of sociality that deconstructs the trauma/nostalgia opposition. The theoretical goal is to separate concrete narrative forms from actual political contents. It follows from the previous point that it might be possible to conceive of historical moments or concrete rhetorical situations in which we need to rely on nostalgic rather than traumatic narratives in order to imagine progressive political change. In these situations, the political task could be the development of a certain “critical nostalgia” that does not try to replace trauma …

Dog Burials Associated With Human Burials In The West Indies During The Early Pre-Columbian Ceramic Age (500 Bc-600 Ad), Sandrine Grouard, Sophia Perdikaris, Karyne Debue

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Across the Caribbean, the widespread presence of canine remains at archaeological sites from the Saladoid period raises questions about the role of “man’s best friend.” Dog (Canis familiaris) remains have been found located in both refuse middens and burials adjacent to human graves in a number of sites in the French Antilles and Barbuda, West Indies. This paper will critically examine dog remains and discuss the varied duality of the dog’s role in the Saladoid world: from food source to lifelong companion. The importance of dogs within Amerindian sites from Saint Martin, the Guadeloupe archipelago, Martinique and Barbuda …

January Roundtable: Responding To The Syrian Crisis, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The World Next Genocide” by Simon Adams. New York Times, November 2012.

and

“Syria is Central to Holding Together the Mideast” by Condoleezza Rice. Washington Post, November 2012.

Syrians Crushed Between Humanitarianism And Realism, Philip Cunliffe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

With the UN High Commissioner for Refugees announcing early this year that the war in Syria may have claimed as many as 60,000 lives, two op-eds published late in 2012 usefully exemplify two contrasting frames that have thus far dominated international responses to the conflict—namely, the humanitarian frame and the geopolitical frame. Yet despite the apparent contrasts between these two frameworks, both reflect a similar contempt for the Syrian people and their right to self-determination. The humanitarian framing of the conflict emphasizes the scale of human suffering and the need to alleviate it, while the geopolitical frame accentuates political interests …

Syria: Not Libya, But Let’S Treat It Like It Is Anyway, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The articles by Condoleezza Rice and Simon Adams advance a series of disquieting possibilities for the future of Syria if the US and other states fail to act. While I am sympathetic to the urgency with which both writers advance their claims, there is much strained and stretched logic—as well as outright naiveté—in both authors' arguments, especially Rice's.