Political Science Commons^™

Nonprofit Spotlight 1: The Hydrous

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

The mission of the Hydrous is to create “open access oceans” so that all people may explore, understand, and engage with marine environments, which are severely threatened by climate change and human impacts.

Nonprofit Spotlight 2: Days For Girls International

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

At Days for Girls International (DfG) we are turning periods into pathways. We increase access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, cultivating social enterprises, mobilizing volunteers, and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter stigma and limitations for women and girls.

Latest Research: Summary 4. Environmental Nonprofit Campaigns And State Competition: Influences On Climate Policy In California

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

In the last three decades, nonprofit organizations have tried to address climate change through specific climate campaigns that are aimed at influencing US government policy. Hall and Taplin (2010) dive into the relationship between nonprofits, levels of US government, and relevant policy.

Nonprofit Spotlight 3: Techcharities (Applied Technology Foundation)

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

The mission of TechCharities is to help low-income families build technical skills and confidence by providing computer resources and basic technical training as they move toward self-reliance.

A Case Study: Do Board Consultants And Funders Have It Wrong?, Mike Burns

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

The following case, a moment in time for a 25+ year-old nonprofit, features a smart, committed, driven, savvy, and uber persuasive nonprofit founder/executive who decided it was time to expand the building. Also featured: a board that has never been more than a figurehead to the executive and the public. This case is intended to highlight that the popular thinking about board and executive as partners may be no more than a false narrative throughout the nonprofit sector that should in-fact be rewritten to reflect more of a reality. As a subplot, this case acknowledges that when a board cannot …

Latest Research: Summary 2. Importance Of Food-Demand Management For Climate Mitigation

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

As the global population rises, demand for food increases across the globe. This demand simultaneously expands unsustainable agriculture practices, which contribute significant amounts of carbon emissions to the atmosphere, primarily through the increase in the number of livestock and production of livestock feed.

Decentralization And Centralization In Sociocratic Organizations—Dynamics, Combinations, And Hybrid Solutions, Ted Rau, Phd

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

The article discusses the interplay between decentralized and centralized aspects of governance in the context of decentralized self-governance and shares learnings from Sociocracy For All’s (SoFA) experience, including that decentralization is an active process that requires preparation, budget, strategy, and information can act as centralizing forces, and decentralization requires different ways of thinking about responsibility and leadership. SoFA is a young membership organization founded in 2016 promoting sociocracy, a governance system with consent-based decision-making in small groups, in nonprofits and other organizations.

World Less Than Satisfied With Climate Efforts, Julie Ray, Mary C. Evans

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) summit that took place in Egypt from November 6 to 18, 2022, nearly 200 nations rushed to seek deals to keep climate goals moving forward. The summit ended with minimal progress and many criticisms that more needs to be done.

To measure how people feel about their country’s efforts to preserve the environment, the Gallup World Poll asks people worldwide if they felt satisfied or dissatisfied with those efforts. Below, we explore the global data from this question and dive into the trend on this question in the United States …

Full Issue - Climate Change

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Latest Research: Summary 5. A Review On The Impact Of Climate Change On Food Security And Malnutrition In The Sahel Region Of Cameroon

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Climate change has direct and indirect impacts on human health. One indirect impact is food insecurity, which can lead to malnutrition. In the Sahel region of Cameroon, the population regularly experiences high levels of malnutrition, because harsh climate conditions (including extreme drought) have a negative influence on agriculture. In particular, the extreme drought conditions lead to a reduction in agricultural production, an important parameter of food security.

Latest Research: Summary 3. Exploring The Impact Of Climate Change On The Future Of Community-Based Wildlife Conservation

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Rural populations with local, small-scale agricultural economies across southern and eastern Africa have adopted community-based conservation (CBC) as their wildlife governance approach. This approach is based on the idea that communities will sustainably govern their wildlife resources when they “receive an enduring interest in and are able control and profit from those resources” (p. 1). The key to the success of this approach is the people within those communities need to believe that the benefit from CBC outweighs the costs associated with living with human-wildlife conflicts (HWC). Human-wildlife conflicts include killing of crops or livestock, destruction of infrastructure, and human …

Full Issue - Trauma Informed Approaches

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Learn more about the latest research of trauma informed care.

Trauma Defined: “Trauma is the experience of, or perception of, something disturbing or dangerous.” -Julie Karlinsey, LMT, CMHC

Trauma Statistics: “Estimates: six in 10 men and five in 10 women experience at least one trauma… in their lives. Trauma and distress can arise from a wide array of causes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, racism, bias, harassment, economic uncertainty, political division, and more. New challenges arise every day, and conflict and strife anywhere in our globally connected world affect us …

Case Study 6: Yoga Interventions Involving Older Adults

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

“There is growing scientific evidence that yoga interventions have positive impacts on health in community-dwelling older adults. Older adults are an exponentially growing cohort; efforts to improve their health can also contribute to community health. The objective of the current integrative review was to examine quantitative evidence concerning effectiveness of yoga interventions related to the health of community-dwelling older adults. Six studies met inclusion criteria of community-dwelling older adults, randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, and yoga intervention in the past 10 years. Hatha yoga was most frequently used; interventions were well-received with high adherence rates."

Case Study 5: Sos: A Simple Trauma-Informed Strategy For Teachers

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

“A child's trauma response can be violent, with the child hitting others, harming himself, or destroying objects-but the teacher remaining calm, and caring is critical to resolving the situation in the short term and building the child's social and emotional skills in the long term. First and foremost, it shares key research that shows teachers can make a difference: About the author Brian Hutchison, PhD, LPC, CCCE, is department chair and associate professor of counselor education at New Jersey City University.”

Yoga For Mental Health And Healing, Angie Holzer Edd

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Overview: Yoga has been shown to be a great tool in dealing with a variety of different mental health topics. To utilize yoga as a healing tool, there needs to be a broader understanding of yoga beyond using yoga as an exercise. When we engage other aspects of yoga into our practice, such as mindfulness and pranayama (breath), we increase the possibilities of healing by making it a holistic approach.

Intuitive Eating: A Nutrition Component Of Self-Care And Healing, Maria Givler M.Ed., Rdn

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Intuitive Eating (IE) supports that the weight-centered health paradigm (WCHP) can result in a variety of mental and physical harms.

Book Review: Hans-Joachim Gehrke, Ed. Making Civilizations: The World Before 600, Robert Bedeski

Comparative Civilizations Review

Studying ancient civilizations is not a precise enterprise, and many statements are approximations, subject to validation or dispute. Several key concepts describe the flow and progress of collective human development. Individuals, families, clans, and tribes precede formation of civilization, which provides the foundation for states. Governments are managerial organizations of more complex societies, providing concentrated focus on defense, currency and infrastructure. Civilizations improve life security as urbanization, innovation, and division of labor increase, requiring more complex and powerful governing institutions.

Table Of Contents

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Two Modes Of Cyclicality In The Ancient World, Yanming An

Comparative Civilizations Review

The cyclical view of time and history appears in two modes represented respectively by the Indo-Hellenic and the Chinese tradition. The former contains a conception of Mahayuga or Great Year, which signifies the periodic destruction and reconstruction in the cosmos and human world. In addition, it analogizes human affairs to the celestial cycle and therefore generalizes the mode of cyclical movements in both the cosmos and the human world as “uniform rotation.” In contrast, the Chinese tradition incorporates Heaven and human into a unity, containing no conception of periodic interruption in the movement of Heaven-human unity. At the same, it …

Book Review: Mokhtar Mokhtefi. I Was A French Muslim: Memories Of An Algerian Freedom Fighter; Benjamin Stora. Les Clés Retrouvées: Une Enfance Juive À Constantine, Leland Conley Barrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

If one were to choose two words to characterize the books under review, they would be ambiguity and nostalgia. Both are personal reflections of how the final years of Frenchruled Algeria affected the authors.

Mokhtar Mokhtefi (1935-2015) was an Algerian Muslim freedom fighter who, in 1956, having completed high school at the Lycée Aumale in Constantine, enlisted in the National Liberation Army (ALN) of Algeria. We follow his story from early childhood in Berroughaia, a small town south of Algiers, to his re-entry into Algeria from Tunisia in July 1962, just as Algeria achieved independence.

Benjamin Stora (1950- ) …

Book Review: Zheng Wang. Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory In Chinese Politics And Foreign Relations, Constance Wilkinson

Comparative Civilizations Review

“Never Forget National Humiliation!”? Really? Yes. This is Zheng Wang’s very interesting study of the post-Mao Chinese Communist Party’s massive re-education campaign. It was created in the years following the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989 when post-Mao CCP hard-liners approved a military response to civilian protesters that would crush China’s emerging pro-democracy movement.

Case Study 1: Trauma-Informed Care For Children And Young People Who Have Been Trafficked: From Theory To Practice

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Human trafficking is known as modern day slavery, and it is a human rights violation that impacts millions of children and young people (CYP) around the globe. “Research suggests a high prevalence of physical and mental health consequences from the trauma experienced, with potentially profound neuro-developmental and life-long health consequences for survivors. Trauma-informed care (TIC), which aims to meet the complex and unique needs of trauma survivors, is suggested as a way of working with trafficked CYP.” There is currently little research on the needs of trafficked children and young people and how to address these needs by implementing TIC …

Sound Bathing As A Healing Modality, Dhyani Bella Niedelman

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Sound therapy is thousands of years old. But today the ancient practice of singing bowls is hitting the mainstream. What is a sound bath?

Case Study 4: “We Really Need This”: Trauma-Informed Yoga For Veteran Women With A History Of Military Sexual Trauma

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

“Up to 70% of women service members in the United States report military sexual trauma (MST); many develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-occurring disorders. Trauma-informed yoga (TIY) is suggested to improve psychiatric symptoms and shown feasible and acceptable in emerging research, yet no work has evaluated TIY in MST survivors. The current quality improvement project aimed to examine TIY’s feasibility, acceptability, and perceived effects in the context of MST.”

Case Study 8: The Effects Of Aroma Essential Oil Inhalation On Stress, Pain, And Sleep Quality In Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Patients

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Abstract Summary Purpose

“Patients undergoing cholecystectomy report experiencing stress related to the surgery, complaining of pain and poor sleep quality. Aromatherapy is known to have positive effects on these complaints. However, the effect of aromatherapy on cholecystectomy patients has yet to be determined. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effects of aromatherapy on laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients’ stress, pain, and sleep quality.”

Massage Therapy And Trauma, Julie Karlinsey

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Trauma is the experience of, or perception of, something disturbing or dangerous. Examples may include witnessing a disturbing scene; physical, emotional or sexual abuse, vehicle accidents, wartime events, injuries, and many other situations.

Review: We Need Trauma-Informed Workplaces

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

We are seeing a growing number of articles about the need for organizations to support employees through trauma-informed approaches. “Organizations have had to confront issues they never expected and find new ways to support their employees through repeated traumatic experiences.”

Hope And Pessimism In ‘Classical’ 20th Century Civilizational Theory, David J. Rosner

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper will involve an analysis of the relation between optimism, pessimism, and realism in 20th century classical civilizational theory, through the perspective offered specifically in Ernst Bloch’s magnum opus The Principle of Hope. Bloch, a German Jew and unorthodox Marxist, wrote The Principle of Hope during 1938–1947 in exile fleeing the Nazi holocaust. Today, humanity in its entirety now faces another set of crises — pandemic, overpopulation, climate change, political impasse, economic inequality, social unrest, growing lawlessness and nuclear threat. One can easily be tempted to give up on the future of our increasingly fragile and endangered world. …

Nationalism In The Context Of Globalization, Mariana Tepfenhart, M.A.

Comparative Civilizations Review

To understand the connection and consequences between nationalism and globalism, I will start with a basic definition of nationalism. According to Websters Dictionary, nations that are focused on national, not international goals, are nationalistic. A nation comprises the same language, customs, and traditions.

Some scholars have argued that nationalism has historical roots. People have been bonded by ethnicity and politics from ancient times. Others consider nationalism as a modern phenomenon due to industrialization, democratization, and modern technology. Jonathan Hearn1 from the University of Edinburgh has argued that some states are more homogeneous than others and they have strong senses of …

Pointers From Sociology: Looking At Trevor Noah’S Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

The book is a study of a basic change in social stratification. It is also a study of poverty in South Africa. Plus, it is a study of the changing nature of community and society in that land.

We know that almost every society organizes inequality by ranking categories of people in a hierarchy. Four important principles of social stratification are:

• Social stratification is inclusive of all, not a reflection of individual differences, and shapes our lives.

• Social stratification carries over from generation to generation.

• Social stratification is universal but variable.

• Social stratification involves both inequality and beliefs about the …

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