Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

Book Review: Palaces For The People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, And The Decline Of Civic Life, Eric Klinenberg, Georgia Westbrook

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Activism And The Fossil Fuel Industry By Andrew Cheon And Johannes Urpelainen, Alexandra Watt Simpson

The Goose

Review of Andrew Cheon and Johannes Urpelainen's Activism and the Fossil Fuel Industry

The Torch (June 2019), Crtp

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

Civic and Community Engagement | Civil Rights and Discrimination | Education | Gender and Sexuality | Inequality and Stratification | Politics and Social Change | Public Policy | Race and Ethnicity

Kids These Days: Increasing Youth Engagement In Community Heritage And Social Justice Through The Implementation Of A Youth Participatory Empowerment Model, Melanie Canaday-Talley, Lindsay Clemens, Amanda J. Dworak Rowland, Mary Gillis, Curlinda Mitchell Blacksheep, Jancarlos Jose Romero

Dissertations

The purpose of this co-authored, qualitative, action research study was to examine how to empower youth to become active participants in their communities. Citizen engagement in community and public life is vital to a healthy democracy and young people have a unique place in community citizenry, but are often dismissed or excluded from decision-making. The research team developed a model, the Youth Participatory Empowerment Model (YPEM), to guide youth through a process of identifying and engaging a community heritage or social justice need in their community. The team assembled a guidebook of activities to engage groups in difficult self, group, …

Coastal Plastics Abatement On Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island: Stakeholder Perspectives And Lessons Learned, Paige Myatt

Sustainability and Social Justice

This practitioner research focuses on the stakeholder perspectives and lessons learned about mitigating plastic pollution in the marine environment of Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island. It uses a mixed method approach of surveys, interviews, focus groups, and active participation in mitigation strategies to answer four main research questions. These questions aim to gather perspectives on the problem from multiple stakeholders in the community, including the general public, the restaurant industry, and local and state governments. This research also investigates what factors make this community a leader in igniting social change and reducing plastic pollution. The active involvement of the researcher via …

Best Training Practices For Probation Officers And Staff Toward Building A More Sophisticated, Fair, And Effective System Of Juvenile Justice In San Diego County, Carissa Carrasquillo

Ethnic Studies Senior Capstone Papers

This report illustrates how probation leadership, officers, and staff in San Diego County can adopt best training practices to address and alleviate incidents in juvenile detention facilities and build a sophisticated, fair, and effective system of juvenile justice. The goal of implementing best training practices for probation officers and staff is to build a knowledgeable workforce to better serve youth and families and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. This report analyzes how innovations in management and the introduction of new programs has proven effective through research- and evidence-based practices and direct community involvement. In particular, …

Female Genital Mutilation In The United States: Estimating The Number Of Girls At Risk, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Female genital mutilation (FGM) destroys the capacity of women to experience sexual pleasure. It causes serious medical complications such as bleeding, painful urination, cysts, dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, the growth of scar tissue that make marital intercourse a nightmare and that turns childbirth into an experience of danger and torture. Due to immigration, FGM now poses a potential health crisis in the West, both in Europe and in the United States. To estimate how many girls who live in the West are at risk, one can measure the prevalence of FGM in the non-Western countries where …

Diversity And Health: Three Essays Exploring Social Context And Outcomes, Aaron Novotny

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the world becomes more diverse and more integrated, examining how racial, political, and food diversity influences individuals’ consumption, behaviors, and health becomes more paramount than ever before. The United States grows more racially diverse with large racial and ethnic shifts on the horizon regarding the proportion of the population. With the U.S. population expected to become more diverse, individuals’ political affiliation becoming more prevalent to personal identity, and food security becoming more problematic; we examine how racial, political, and food diversity influences individuals’ consumption and preferences with the intent to understand what changes in health and preferences may occur. …

Descriptive To Substantive Representation: A Study Of Gender Quotas In The National Assembly Of Pakistan, 2002-2018, Ameena Zia

Dissertations

Women’s political representation is linked to the empowerment of women in society. In efforts to alleviate women’s disenfranchisement from the political discourse, the international development framework included gender quotas as mechanisms to facilitate an increase in the presence of women in parliaments. Existing research has examined the link between Hanna F. Pitkin’s conceptualization of descriptive representation and substantive representation with a focus on performative measures of women parliamentarians. This longitudinal study expands the scope of existing inquiry and captures the transformational change in power relations as an outcome of the increase in women members of parliaments. This research provides an …

The If Men Project – The Design And Implementation Of A Healthy Masculinity Curriculum For Young Men, Scott Kaltenbaugh

Capstone Collection

This paper examines the creation of the If Men Project, a healthy masculinity training curriculum aimed at young men. The If Men Projectseeks to create a better world by helping young men find a stronger sense of their own identity in a way that creates positive relationships with everyone around them. In short, it helps young men be good men.

The paper will track the creation process from my own social justice journey, through the conception of the project, the design of the training, multiple implementations of it, and finally to the reflections and learnings that came from …

Forjando Un Feminismo (No) Transgeneracional: Una Examinación De La Memoria Y La Construcción De Identidades En El Movimiento Estudiantil Feminista Del 2018-19, Isabel Guarnieri

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The student feminist movement of 2018-19 was dubbed Chile’s “third wave” of feminism. Media outlets framed it not only as a push to address violence against women and establish a non-sexist education system, but as a revolt against the neoliberal system that generates gender-based inequality – a legacy of the military dictatorship. This paper sought to investigate the processes by which the activists of the 2018-19 student feminist movement constructed a transgenerational movement through the mobilization of memory, as well as to interrogate the intergenerational perspectives surrounding the effectiveness of this mobilization, recognizing feminism’s continuities and the importance of remembering …

Local Democracy And Education Policy In Newly Federal Nepal, Jack Shangraw

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In 2017, Nepal held its first local elections in twenty years. These were the first elections held under Nepal’s new constitution, ratified in 2015, which transitioned the country from a unitary state to a Federal Democratic Republic. This case study analyzes the effect of the transition to federalism on decision-making and community representation in local governance in Annapurna Rural Municipality in West-Central Nepal. This study focuses specifically on education policy, one of the more public and contentious policy responsibilities devolved from the federal level to the local units under the new constitution. This research is based on interviews with government …

Post-Colonial Restructuring Of Human Rights Systems In Morocco, Kristen Hansen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

A surge of academic criticism has followed the NGO corporatization trend (‘NGOization’) of the 1980s. NGOs have been called an extension of neoliberal ideology as they are pressured to depoliticize and corporatize their structures. NGOs have been forced to fit into an international schema of aid work that compromises their ability to bring about impactful change within their own communities. This trend has been cultivated by shrinking neoliberal governments and an intensified reliance on NGOs to fulfill international human rights requirements. This project examines the role of Rabat women’s rights organizations within the context of Morocco as a neoliberal state …

Reaching And Supporting Trafficked Women In Austria And Germany: A Call For Training On Attachment And Trust-Building, Silke Gahleitner, Katharina Gerlich, Roschan Heiler, Heidemarie Hinterwallner, Edith Huber, Mascha Körner, Josef Pfaffenlehner, Yvette Völschow

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Many victims of trafficking in women are not reached by the available support services despite numerous measures that have been put in place on both the national and international levels. This deficiency is due to the inadequacy of the support systems, which do not meet the needs of the women concerned. A bilateral Austro-German research project entitled “Prävention und Intervention bei Menschenhandel zum Zweck sexueller Ausbeutung (PRIMSA) [“Prevention and intervention in the trafficking of human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation”] was set up with the aim of developing ideas for a multidisciplinary prevention and intervention scheme. This article …

"I Assumed Chicago Would Be In The Forefront": Comments On The Movement To End Prostitution With Survivor-Leader Brenda Myers-Powell, Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

For many years in the 2000’s, researcher Jody Raphael, teamed with prostitution-survivor Brenda Myers-Powell, undertook a myriad of speaking engagements in the Chicago metropolitan area, intended to raise awareness of the violence and coercion in the sex trade industry. Ten years ago, they were asked to make a video of their presentation. Recently, Dignity editors came across the video and asked for an update on the conversation. This piece is the result.

When A Stone Is Not A Stone: Memories Of Clerical Abuse, Charles V. Sords

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

From the fourth to the sixth grades, Charles V. Sords suffered traumatic sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. He suppressed these memories, yet the pain of what happened impacted every aspect of his life. As an adult, several strong, sensory experiences brought the truth of his childhood into focus. He confronted the Church—and the system that protected clerical criminals. This memoir is an account of childhood sexual abuse, the particularly shameful nature of being raped by priests, and how the Catholic Church’s method of handling this and similarly horrifying revelations has re-traumatized survivors.

"Root Causes Not Symptoms": Sustainable Organizational Structures, Réseau De Lutte Contre La Faim: The Decision-Making Process In Combatting Systemic Issues, Ambar Deleon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper attempts to understand the basis for how an organization structures itself and their vision. This research draws its focus to the civil society sector in Cameroon, particularly looking at Reseau de Lutte Contre la Faim (RELUFA) and their organizational structure in the battling against systemic issues. The main research question for this study looked at how RELUFA reflects and monitors its performance to keep the organization sustainable in the long-term. For this research the methodology included interviews, observations and secondary resources along with tertiary resources that offered the context for the analytical part of this research. The interviews …

Puzzling Together: Avenues For Applying Motivational Interviewing To The Transformation Of Intractable, Intergroup Conflict (U.S. Context)., Brian Chevalier

Capstone Collection

This paper explores the current state of political left/right division in the United States and explores the use of Motivational Interviewing in “unfreezing” the two sides of this intractable conflict. The author interviewed four people (two conservatives and two liberals) as well as surveyed over one hundred and fifty respondents in an online survey exploring this theme. While the two sides differ in many ways, the evidence seems to show that both sides overwhelmingly admit that there is a problem, that both sides must get better, and that communication would be easier if both sides practiced more reflective listening. This …

Radical Empathy And Community Empowerment In Practice: International Student Retention At Suny Plattsburgh, Courtney Gehen

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this capstone project is to design a program that tends to sociocultural challenges of SUNY Plattsburgh international students and Plattsburgh area community members to improve campus and community relations in order to, ultimately, improve the retention of international students. U.S. higher education institutions depend on the recruitment and retention of international students due to lack of funding at the state and federal levels of government. However, amidst turbulent political times, international student numbers are decreasing in the United States at a startling rate. Through observations of the 2017-2018 academic year and interviewing SUNY Plattsburgh international students and …

Like Mother, Like Daughter: The Intergenerational Link Between Mother Activists And Their Daughters In Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, Shana Kleiner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The concept of motherhood is often paired with notions of nurturing and caretaking, but it is rarely seen in the context of activism or social and political change. Thus, by researching the relationship between mother activists and their daughters, this paper delves into the concepts of how motherhood is perceived through a feminist lens, and what it means to be a mother while also performing duties as an activist. The research tackles the questions of whether daughters of mother activists become activists themselves, and how they were affected by their mother’s activism during adolescence, if at all.

A narrative approach …

Understanding Civil Rights In A Democratic South Africa: A Case Study Of Students At Ukzn, Ella Shlonsky

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the extent to which the principles and values of human dignity and non-discrimination laid out in the South African Bill of Rights resonate with South African university students. The objective is to understand how university students value or do not value these constitutional principles and how they see these principles being implemented in South African society. I examine both students’ personal views and how they see human rights, human dignity and non-discrimination playing out on campus and their communities. I conducted seven one-on-one semi-structured interviews with university students at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. …

The 25th Anniversary Of South African Democracy: Exploring Perspectives Of 10 Stellenbosch Residents On Patriotism And National Pride, John Mitchell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and qualities of a South African patriotism in Stellenbosch. 25 years after the transition to democracy and an election in 2019, this study aims to develop a sense of national pride using a small sample size. The major question is how is that pride expressed? Is it using rhetoric from the post-1994 ANC nation-building projects? Or have those efforts lost salience in people’s lives?

To conduct this research, I used mainly a 'vox pop' style interview, meaning participants were chosen randomly to answer a short, 5-6 question survey about national …

Examining The Culture Of Poverty Argument In Morocco: How Development, Criminalization, Education, And The Makhzen Craft Perceptions, Raegan Loheide

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper explores if and how stakeholders in Moroccan poverty reduction invoke the culture of poverty argument. The thesis originally proposed by Oscar Lewis has been used and transformed to justify a variety of policies or lack thereof over the past several decades and varies according to history and cultural context. We understand the notion of what it means to be poor in Morocco through the lens of NGOs working with vulnerable populations. The organizations interviewed in this research were all connected to government or foreign aid funding, which inserts a particular development and Western oriented lens to solutions. Although …

La Construcción De Espacios Para La Memoria: El Rol De Los Actores En Tres Ex Centros Clandestinos De La Ciudad De Buenos Aires, Quentin Bernhard

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En esta investigación, cuento la historia como espacios de memoria de tres ex centros clandestinos en la ciudad de Buenos Aires y noto aspectos importantes de ellos que me conocí a través de entrevistas con trabajadores en los sitios en visitas ambas formales y informales. Analizo el rol de los actores sociales como el gobierno, el barrio y los visitantes en el funcionamiento de cada sitio, y a partir de eso exploro la identidad única de cada uno y cómo construyen la memoria por medio del espacio de memoria.

Este trabajo se base en parte en la cantidad de obras …

Falta De Dirección: Conflictos Dentro Del Movimiento Indígena De La Provincia De Chimborazo, Yann Dardonville

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Desde la llegada de los españoles al Ecuador hace más de quinientos años, la provincia de Chimborazo ha sido la cuna de mucha resistencia y rebelión. Pero es en el último medio siglo que el movimiento indígena ha podido lograr cambios significativos: en primero con la abolición del sistema hacendado; y después, con la ratificación de dos constituciones que reconocen la plurinacionalidad y el modelo social del Sumak Kawsay, entre otras cosas. Sin embargo, en Chimborazo, estos logros han sido acompañados por nuevos conflictos dentro del movimiento. Esta monografía tiene como meta identificar estos nuevos problemas, y utiliza los conceptos …

La Lucha Por Urbanización: El Derecho De Elegir Donde Y Como Vivir, E. Joella Hartzler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Despite Chilean government efforts to eradicate campaments, or informal settlements, the number of campamentos has drastically increased in the recent years. These informal settlements originate from the urban migration in 1940-60, but persist today due to the difficulty to access affordable housing and the lack of appeal of social housing projects. To be considered a campamento, there must be eight or more families living on unregulated land without at least one of the three basic services: electricity, potable water, or a sewage system. The department of Housing and Urban Development, the Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo, recently reinforced the efforts …

La Radio Es Más Fuerte Que La Espada : La Percepción De La Eficacia De La Radio Comunitaria De Familiares Y Amigos De Luciano Arruga En La Visibilización Del Problema De La Violencia Institucional. / The Radio Is Mightier Than The Sword: The Perception Of Efficiency Of The Community Radio Of Familiares Y Amigos De Luciano Arruga In Making Visible The Problem Of Institutional Violence., Isabel Torres

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este trabajo investiga la percepción de la eficacia de las radios comunitarias en la visibilización de su lucha contra la violencia institucional. En particular, examina las percepciones de la eficacia que los miembros de la organización Familiares y Amigos de Luciano Arruga tienen sobre la radio comunitaria de su organización, Radio Zona Libre. A través de entrevistas semi-estructuradas y la investigación archivística, indagué como los objetivos de la organización y la radio han cambiado con el tiempo, y con esos cambios surgió un cambio posterior en los tipos de visibilidad que querían lograr y sus percepciones sobre el éxito que …

Life Events Which Motivate Youth To Become Climate Activists In Sydney And Canberra, Phoebe Dolan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Climate activism is the tool of young people to rise and fight for their future and the future of the planet. Today it is necessary that young people engage as climate activists. My research asks what life events motivate youth to become climate activists. I looked into the initial life events which spark the motivation of young people to understand their initial motives for joining the climate movement. I looked into where the motivation came from, a concern for nature, a concern for social justice or the interconnectedness of the two. I also looked into the life events of individuals …

The Guthi System Of Nepal, Tucker Scott

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this research is to understand the role of the guthi system in Nepali society, the relationship of the guthi land tenure system with Newari guthi, and the effect of modern society and technology on the ability of the guthi system to maintain and preserve tangible and intangible cultural heritage in Nepal. This research took place in three different sections of Kathmandu. The methodology behind this research was a combination of historical analysis of the traditional role of the guthi system in Nepal along with three case studies of guthi organizations with different assigned functions. These case studies …

The Process Of Conducting Socioeconomic Research In Vietnam: An Internship With The Development And Policies Research Center (Depocen), Kira Le

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As Vietnam continues its rapid development, its government and people will be increasingly reliant on research organizations such as the Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN) to study the socioeconomic issues that demand to be addressed in the interest of the sustainable development of the country. DEPOCEN is an independent research organization that has studied issues ranging from poverty and gender equality, to business & investment environment and trade liberalization. Since its establishment in 2005, DEPOCEN has developed collaborative relationships with many other research institutions like Oxford Economics and the Korean Institute of Economic Policy, and has offered its services …