Place and Environment Commons^™

Relocation Remembered: Perspectives On Senior Transitions In The Living Environment, Tam E. Perry, Troy C. Anderson, Daniel B. Kaplan

Social Work Faculty Publications

The experience of aging may necessitate transitions in living environments, either through adaptations to current residences or relocations to more supportive environments. For over a half century, the study of these transitions has informed the work of researchers, health and mental health providers, policymakers, and municipal planners. In the 1970s and ‘80s, knowledge about these transitions advanced through Lawton & Nahemow’s ecological theory of competence and environmental press, Wiseman’s behavioral model of relocation decision-making, and Litwak & Longino’s developmental perspective on senior migrations. This paper revisits influential theoretical frameworks which contribute to our understanding of senior transitions in living environments. …

“Obesity Is A Disease”: Examining The Self-Regulatory Impact Of This Public-Health Message, Crystal L. Hoyt, Jeni L. Burnette, Lisa Auster-Gussman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

In the current work, we examined the impact of the American Medical Association’s recent classification of obesity as a disease on weight-management processes. Across three experimental studies, we highlighted the potential hidden costs associated with labeling obesity as a disease, showing that this message, presented in an actual New York Times article, undermined beneficial weight-loss self-regulatory processes. A disease-based, relative to an information-based, weight-management message weakened the importance placed on health-focused dieting and reduced concerns about weight among obese individuals—the very people whom such public-health messages are targeting. Further, the decreased concern about weight predicted higher-calorie food choices. In addition, …

Tending The Flowers, Cultivating Community: Gardening On New York City Public Housing Sites, Lauren Sepanski Fcrh '12

The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal

Founded in 1934, The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the nation’s oldest and largest public housing agency. Nearly half a million people live in NYCHA’s 334 housing developments located throughout the five boroughs. If a NYCHA resident wants to garden, he or she may submit a garden application to his or her development’s management office and begin to garden in a place approved by the development’s manager. Some developments have preordained places for their residents to garden, complete with fences. In other developments, residents simply choose a place on the development’s grounds, such as a part of a …

The Geography Of Stuck: Exceptions To Brain Drain In West Virginia, Lindsay Heinemann

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Brain drain, also known as “human capital flight,” can be defined as “the mass emigration of technically skilled people from one country to another country” (Weeks, 2008, p. 250) or one state to another state. This theory surmises that highly skilled people or those with high education levels are more likely to migrate from places with little to no economic opportunities to places with better economic and job opportunities. West Virginia has largely been a state with few high paying or prestigious job opportunities. So why do highly educated people stay in West Virginia? Using census data and personal interviews, …

Participatory Action And Drought As A Symbolic Context: The Case Of Aldama Chihuahua, Mexico, Sara Soledad Garcia

Teacher Education

This paper presents a field-based project and a theoretical framework for work with an Action Research paradigm. The complexities of process are illustrated and synthesized in two theoretical models. The design of the study required constant change in the focus of projects as a result of the action produced from genuine involvement. As a result a working template of the execution of the action research projects involving multiple educational institutions was generated by bi-national collaborations. Participants were ecological researchers and schoolteachers, actively engaged in schools and in the education of the community at-large on the effects of drought in their …

Harvesting A Knowledge Commons: Collective Action, Transparency, And Innovation At The Portland Fish Exchange, Jennifer F. Brewer

Geography

While localist visions of alternative food systems advocate for the expansion of local ecological knowledge through more proximate producerconsumer relationships, globalized seafood supply-demand chains persist. Moving beyond this dichotomy, commons scholars recognize that collective action among resource users at the local level can shape cross-scalar producer relations with government and more capitalized firms operating in regional and global markets. In the case of the New England groundfishery, a quasi-public fish auction not only transformed the scalar, logistical, and financial parameters of harvester-buyer relationships, it altered the production and use of local knowledge among some harvesters, and their technological choices. Resulting …

The Changes In Mainland Chinese Families During The Social Transition: A Critical Analysis, Anqi Xu, Yan Ruth Xia

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Modernization theory offers possible explanations for family changes related to advances in science and technology, and socio-economic development in industrial societies. Modernization impacts family structure, relationship, values and beliefs. Families become nuclear while people become mobile and the society becomes urban. Economic development provides employment opportunities outside the birthplace. Away from kinship network, a nuclear family is less influenced and controlled by elder members in the extended family in fulfilling its traditional roles and obligations (Parsons, 1943). The changes occur in all societies although they may vary in pace across societies (Goode, 1982). Modernization theory is criticized for valuing Western …

Family Policy In China: A Snapshot Of 1950–2010, Yan Ruth Xia, Haiping Wang, Anh Do, Shen Qin

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The Chinese family policies are shaped by the country’s political, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts and have evolved over the years. China has passed its most significant family policies and laws in marriage; child rearing; child, women, and elderly protection; family planning; and health care in the past 60 years. This chapter will cover the most important laws and policies that affect Chinese families from 1950 to 2010. The discussion focuses on policy development, implementation and analysis, and the challenges China faces in relation to these policy issues.

Are We Really Making A Difference?: Lessons From Nesta's Innovation Lab, Philip Colligan

Social Space

Are public and social innovation labs achieving impact? Philip Colligan from Nesta's Innovation Lab looks at how we can answer the most important question of whether labs are indeed making a difference to societies.

Earning A Living In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2014 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskan households have full-time employment and many employed households derive part of their household income from self-employment. Self-employment is more prevalent in smaller communities. Most rural Nebraskans living in or near the smallest communities have self-employment in their household.

Some rural Nebraska households also have multiple job holding by members of the household. Again, this is more likely to occur in the smallest communities.

Most self-employed rural Nebraskan households get less than one-half of their total household income from self-employment. However, over one-quarter (29%) of self-employed rural Nebraskans get almost all of their household income from self-employment. Many …

Charting A Future Course For Development: Natural Resources, Conservation, And Community Character In Coastal Alaska, Thomas G. Safford, Megan Henly, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Keith Perkins

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Dramatic social changes are occurring across rural America as traditional natural resource-based industries such as fishing and forestry decline, and amenity-driven development attracts new residents and visitors. These changes are altering not only the economies and cultural identities of rural communities, but also entire regions where seemingly similar towns respond to these social and economic shifts in distinct ways. Using survey data from 1,541 residents of Southeast Alaska, we examine individual views regarding the role of fishing, forestry, and tourism in this region’s economic future. We also assess beliefs about the importance of conserving natural resources and the preservation of …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #5: Under Water? Sea Level Rise And Environmental Risks, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

This report examines regional and sub-regional measures of environmental risk perceptions from the 2014 Life In Hampton Roads survey (LIHR 2014) conducted by the Old Dominion University Social Science Research Center.

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #1: Regional, Neighborhood, And City Quality Of Life, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

The Old Dominion University Social Science Research Center is proud to release the first part of the 2014 Life in Hampton Roads (LIHR) Survey Report. LIHR has been conducted by the Social Science Research Center with support from the Old Dominion University Office of Research and the College of Arts and Letters since 2010 and is now in its fifth year. Release #1 focuses on regional quality of life indicators. Subsequent releases will focus on health and education, the economy and politics, transportation and tolls, crime and police, and flooding and sea level rise.

Life In Hampton Roads Report: The Fifth Annual Life In Hampton Roads Survey, Steve Parker, Charles Bush, Jesse Richman, Tancy Vandecar-Burdin

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

[From the Executive Summary]

The Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at Old Dominion University recently completed data collection for the fifth annual Life in Hampton Roads telephone survey. The purpose of the survey was to gain insight into residents’ perceptions of the quality of life in Hampton Roads. The survey also attempted to determine the attitudes and perceptions of citizens regarding topics of local interest such as transportation and traffic, local and state government, crime, education, and other issues. The SSRC completed interviews with 853 Hampton Roads residents via landline and cell phones.

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (Nasis) 2013-2014 Methodology Report, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

This report presents a detailed account of the design and fielding of the 2013-2014 Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS). Users of the 2013-2014 NASIS data will find it an important reference source for answers to questions about methodology. The Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey was conceived as a vehicle both for producing current, topical information about Nebraskans and also for monitoring change in quality of life. As in earlier surveys, NASIS 2013-2014 was a joint effort of the Department of Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and a variety of public agencies. While the final responsibility for the …

Nasis 2014: Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey Questionnaire, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

We need your help to learn about how Nebraskans think, feel, and live. Researchers from the University of Nebraska and across the state are counting on your help to learn about a variety of issues. Your responses will help shape program and policy development in Nebraska now and into the future.

93 questions; 12 pages

Trafficking In Child Labor In Ghana And Senegal, Steven Brandt

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 6th (2014)

The goal of this paper is to determine the efficacy of anti-trafficking governance in Senegal and Ghana and what social, political, legal and economic factors work for or against those policies such as: - social policies for and against the growth of the NGO community - enforcement of anti-trafficking laws - economic policies for impoverished urban and rural communities - government rehabilitation policies for minors - federal, state and local corruption - border security/immigration - religious and political freedom This research comprises a comprehensive literature analysis as to the current state of trafficking of minors in Ghana and Senegal. First …

From Food Desert To Food Mirage: Race, Social Class, And Food Shopping In A Gentrifying Neighborhood, Daniel Monroe Sullivan

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

New supermarkets in previous “food deserts” can benefit residents by improving their access to healthful, affordable food. But in gentrifying neighborhoods characterized by the inflow of middle-class, white residents and the outflow of working class, minorities, who benefits from a new supermarket that emphasizes organic food and environmental sustainability? This paper contributes to the food access literature by examining the food shopping behavior of diverse residents by using survey data and probability sampling in the Alberta neighborhood in Portland, Oregon (USA). Regression results show that college-educated (62%) and white residents (60%) are much more likely to shop there weekly, regardless …

Region-Urbanicity Differences In Locus Of Control: Social Disadvantage, Structure, Or Cultural Exceptionalism?, Dara Shifrer, April Sutton

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

People with internal rather than external locus of control experience better outcomes in multiple domains. Previous studies on spatial differences in control within America only focused on the South, relied on aggregate level data or historical evidence, or did not account for other confounding regional distinctions (such as variation in urbanicity). Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, we find differences in adolescents' loci of control depending on their region and urbanicity are largely attributable to differences in their social background, and only minimally to structural differences (i.e., differences in the qualities of adolescents' schools). Differences that persist net …

Summiting In The Last Wilderness: A Cultural And Environmental History Of Mountaineering In Alaska, Allison M. Barnwell

CMC Senior Theses

Mountaineering is not typically considered an academic subject. Nor is there much scholarship on the sport, let alone its history in the state with the smallest population, Alaska. Yet through analysis of the sport, deeper connections in the relationship between humans and the environment, the history of colonizing both indigenous peoples and land, and the place of gender and sport in Alaska come to light. Mountaineers that traveled to Alaska in the late 19th century and early 20th century were some of the first advocates for protecting its land, yet also displayed their imperialist and masculine values in the mountains. …

Self-Reliance Beyond Neoliberalism: Rethinking Autonomy At The Edges Of Empire, Karen Hébert, Diana Mincyte

Publications and Research

Across scholarly and popular accounts, self-reliance is often interpreted as either the embodiment of individual entrepreneurialism, as celebrated by neoliberal designs, or the basis for communitarian localism, increasingly imagined as central to environmental and social sustainability. In both cases, self-reliance is framed as an antidote to the failures of larger state institutions or market economies. This paper offers a different framework for understanding self-reliance by linking insights drawn from agrarian studies to current debates on alternative economies. Through an examination of the social worlds of semisubsistence producers in peripheral zones in the Global North, we show how everyday forms of …

The Story Of Delray: A Case Study On Environmental And Restorative Justice In Detroit, Danielle Trauth-Jurman

Honors Projects

An in-depth case study on environmental and restorative justice in Delray, Michigan. Delray was a vibrant, immigrant community with rich history and cultural significance that was slowly transformed into an industrial dumping ground. This evolution drove many middle class families out of Delray and into nicer parts of the city, leaving behind only the elderly and the individuals too poor to move away. Exploring the ideas of environmental justice and examining the current research on environmental inequality.

Sustainability Policy’S Inherent Dilemmas – Exemplified Via Critical Examination Of The Las Vegas Metropolitan Sustainability Campaign, Kathryn A. Zimmerman

All Master's Theses

In response to a dual problem of critical water scarcity and rapid population growth, leaders of metropolitan Las Vegas implemented a region-wide, internationally marketed sustainability campaign. Preliminary studies found that, while sustainability policy attains its rhetorical goals, solutions initiated not only perpetuate but also purposefully expand the original dual problem to justify continuous water resource acquisitions. To examine this sustainability conundrum constructed by leadership—problem-perpetuation rather than problem-resolution—a critical examination in resource management asked two basic questions: what is being sustained and by what means? Via this inquiry, specific processes by which leaders perpetuate problems can be identified; and, so-informed, new …

Mountain Roots: Artistic Inquiry Into The Science And Spirit Of Mountains, Celeste Bickford

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The future of mountain landscapes will be shaped by the landscape-related decisions we make today. These decisions are influenced by two major factors: what we know and how we feel. The interplay between emotional and analytical information is what motivates the decisions we make related to mountain environments and landscapes. Taking this into consideration, a partnership between art and science and a conversation between emotion and analysis can be instrumental in forming a holistic view of how humans relate to particular landforms such as mountains. This interplay between emotional and analytical information manifests in the decisions people make in relation …

A Thin Blue Line And The Great Black Divide: The Inter And Intra Departmental Conflict Among Black Police Officers, Their Agencies, And The Communities In Which They Work Regarding Police Use Of Force Perception By Black Americans In A Southwestern State, Vance Debral Keyes

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between Black police officers, Black citizens, and their external environment using a group of 30 police officers and citizens to establish the connection between police officer race and perceptions by same race citizens within the context of police use of force. I use the term Black to be inclusive of African Americans as well as others of African descent without regard to their ethnicity or national origin. Criminal justice means system application whereas criminology is the study of criminal behavior. In America, there exists a history of volatility between the police and Black communities. While …

Science Wars As Culture Wars: Fracking And The Battle For The Hearts And Minds Of Women, Jenrose D. Fitzgerald

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

In this thesis, I examine how claims regarding the environmental and health impacts of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” are constructed by industry advocates who promote the practice and environmental and social justice groups who reject it. More specifically, I examine the cultural underpinnings of the debate over fracking, and the prominence of gender as a central framing device in that debate. While the controversy over fracking is often presented as scientific or technical in nature, I maintain that it is as much a culture war as it is a science war. I demonstrate this by showing how both pro-fracking and …

Talking Food: Motivations Of Home Food Preservation Practitioners In Kentucky, Lisa Conley

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Recent reports detail a rise in the practice of home food preservation in the United States due to economic woes, nutritional concerns, and increasing devotion to local food production.Home food preservation is the processing of foods in order to extend its shelf-life. Current common approaches to preserving foods at home include pressure canning, freezing, drying, water bath canning, and cellaring/storing. Local food production in four Kentucky counties were examined through in-depth qualitative interviews with home food preservation practitioners to yield a rural/urban comparison. Forty home food preservation practitioners were interviewed between Fall 2009 and Fall 2013. The primary question driving …

Rural Latino Adolescent Health: Preliminary Examination Of Health Risks And Cultural Correlates, Timothy D. Nelson, Katherine M. Kidwell, Brian E. Armenta, Lisa J. Crockett, Gustavo Carlo, Les B. Whitbeck

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Latino adolescents living in rural settings may be at increased risk of health problems; however, data describing the health status of this population are limited. This study examined 60 rural Latino adolescents and found high rates of health risk, including at-risk/clinical results for hemoglobin A1C (23.3%), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (55%), systolic blood pressure (21.7%), and overweight/obesity (55%). Time in sedentary behaviors was high and physical activity was limited. Adolescent language use was associated with health risk status, with greater use of English associated with lower risk. Health psychologists could promote improved health by providing health behavior interventions to this underserved …

Youth's Comprehension Of Environmental Justice Across Multiple Countries, Alexa L. Stovold

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Global climate change is an issue of environmental justice, because neither contributions toward the causes nor its consequences are equally distributed across and within countries (Roberts, 2001). Given the importance of framing climate change as an environmental justice issue, the present study sought to understand how youth conceptualize and engage with environmental justice across multiple countries. Youth are an important target population for engagement, because they often are active agents of social change by challenging the status-quo, and becoming civically engaged (Blythe & Harré, 2012; De Vreede, Warner & Pitter, 2014; United Nations, 2004).

The current research is a secondary …

Food Landscapes: A Case Study Of A Cooking And Art- Focused Program For Teens Living In A Food Desert, Jessica R. Norris

Theses and Dissertations

This study constructs themes and propositions about the experiences of youth participants in the fall 2013 Food Landscapes program at the Neighborhood Resource Center in Richmond, Virginia. During the program, youth participated in cooking-based volunteerism with adults with disabilities and created short videos about their experiences. In this study, I analyzed pre- and post-program participant interviews, twice-weekly program observations, and facilitator reflections to understand how Food Landscapes affected youths’ conception of community engagement and communication strategies. This case study offers insight into how youth experience after-school programming of this design. Based on my findings, youth develop and rely upon a …