International and Area Studies Commons^™

Litigating Socio-Economic And Women’S Rights In Benin’S Constitutional Court, Alice J. Kang, Susanna D. Wing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Scholars debate the role of legal institutions in promoting human rights in Africa. Much of the discussion focuses on Anglophone countries and does not examine the gender of litigants. We propose a constitutionalism constrained perspective that argues that which and whose rights are adjudicated are shaped by the context of constitutional reform. Where reformists are primarily concerned with safeguarding civil and political rights, high courts may protect civil and political rights claims more often than socio-economic ones. Examining hundreds of human rights decisions issued by Benin’s Constitutional Court, we ask, which and whose rights does the court protect? We find …

On The Influence Of Incentive Mechanisms For China’S Current Mixed Ownership Reform On Corporate Performance, Hui Yong Ren

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Since the Central Economic Work Conference set the mixed ownership reform as where China’s state-owned enterprises (SOE) can make breakthroughs on reforms in early 2017, enterprises at all levels, from central to local state-owned, have continuously introduced new measures and new deployments involving the reform. The mixed ownership reform (hereinafter referred to as the “mixed reform”) introduces flexible market response mechanisms and innovative management systems from private enterprises into state-owned enterprises to enhance the market awareness of state-owned enterprises, to increase their own competitiveness, vitality and creativity. It aims to build a system that conforms to modern corporate governance and …

From Tajikistan To Russia And Back: Understanding Changes In Gender Relations Through The Lived Experiences Of Tajik Migrant Workers In Russia, Tahmina Shokirova

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation is the story of Tajik migrant workers who have lived and worked in Russia. It examines how gender relations of power change in the context of labour migration through the lived experiences of the migrants. The study asks the overarching research question: How do gender relations change in the context of Tajik labour migration to Russia? Following the social constructionist epistemology, gender is framed through the lens of post-structural, intersectional, and transnational feminist theories. The study employs a conceptual framework that integrates the following into a coherent whole: feminist theories of gender relations, the general context of international …

Military Industry And The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Military Aid, Technology, And Barriers To Peace, Brandon A. Sandoval

Dissertations and Theses

This study reviews the current US and Israel militarized response to Palestine, the negative impacts on the Palestinian and Israeli people that result from this policy, and the military-industrial complex that benefits from the US-Israel relationship. I also note that the military industry profits from the Israel-Palestine conflict and, thus, has an incentive for the conflict to continue. I argue that despite billions of US dollars that have been appropriated by the U.S. Congress for Israel’s security, the US and Israel have failed to build peace in the region, ultimately wasting funds and exacerbating current conflicts. I also argue that …

The Internal Determinants Of International Organization Actorness: The European Union And Climate Change?, Vanessa West

Dissertations and Theses

Climate change mitigation and adaptation requires global, coordinated responses. Each region/country must do its part, led by multinational, multilateral actors and organizations on the local, national and regional level. The European Union (EU) is the region’s representative. The effectiveness of the Union, as an actor has been the subject of constant debate and scrutiny. A review of existing International Relations (IR) theories and literature outlines the many factors and conditions that influence and facilitate the EU’s ability to exert power and authority on this issue. Drawing on that existing body of knowledge, this paper will argue the EU’s capacity as …

Ethnic Conflict In Côte D’Ivoire, Ayouba Doumbia

Dissertations and Theses

Since the early days of independence, the African continent has been the theatre of many ethnic conflicts. While people, in general, assume these conflicts to be political and blame the conflicts on authoritarian regimes, they dismissed the fact that conflict between ethnicities is a phenomenon that has occurred for hundreds of years and in all corners of the Earth. Entire countries have been devastated by years of ethnic strife. Once ethnic conflict breaks out, it is difficult to stop. Conflicts in the Balkans, Rwanda, Chechnya, Iraq, and Darfur are among the deadliest examples from the late 20^th and early …

Becoming Citizens: Policy Feedback And The Transformation Of The Thai Rice Farmer, Jacob Ricks, Thanapan Laiprakobsub

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the past twenty years, Thailand’s rice farmers have become one of the country’s most important and active political constituencies, a sharp contrast from the previous decades wherein they were treated with neglect or even derision by the Thai political elite. These “political peasants” now actively advocate for and successfully receive extensive subsidies from both authoritarian and democratic governments. What has driven this change? In this essay, we draw on theories of the policy feedback loop wherein policies yield both material and cognitive benefits, which change the political behavior of populations. We argue that the Thaksin Shinawatra government’s (2001-2006) paddy …

Understanding International Immobility Through Internal Migration: ‘Left Behind’ Nurses In The Philippines, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Romeo Luis A. Macabasag

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Migration scholars have tended to portray internal mobility as a step toward broader cross-border movement, reinforcing the notion of ongoing progress toward international migration. This article argues for a need to recognize how internal mobility can also explain international immobility, or why people do not move across national borders. Using the case of Filipino nurses, we argue that while internal migration does allow aspiring migrants to build the potential ability to emigrate, individual trajectories are much more diverse and multi-directional, often prolonging or reinforcing their international immobility. As a result, and in our case study, the costs and burdens of …

Does Ict Result In Dematerialization? The Case Of Europe, 2005-2017, Annika Marie Rieger

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Current levels of resource use are unsustainable, but there is a debate about the most feasible way to reduce them. One proposed mechanism is technological innovation: specifically, the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) could result in significant reductions in material consumption by substituting virtual for material goods, increasing resource efficiency, and replacing more resource-intensive sectors. Critics of this view argue that dematerialization due to ICTs is unlikely: they consume large amounts of resources and encourage additional consumption. Additionally, increased efficiency resulting from ICT use could lead to rebound effects, reducing their environmentally beneficial impact. This paper uses a …

Guest Editorial: Disaster, State And Science: Historical Narratives Of Extreme Weather In East Asia And The Pacific, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This curated special issue asks how history can be used as a lens into disaster and disaster management. It takes as its premise the idea that approaches from different disciplines - including the humanities and social sciences – can offer new perspectives on understanding disaster, managing disaster and disaster risk. The concept is not new, historically focussed studies have long provided meat for hazard investigations and modelling, especially those focused on geological or hydrological time-series analyses; multi-hazard interactions and identifying historical underliers for contemporary risk. It has become increasingly common, for example, to include historians in collaborative efforts to better …

The Family Business: Dna Ancestry Tests And White Identity, Callan Keeter

International Studies (MA) Theses

DNA ancestry tests have emerged in the past two decades as a exponentially growing industry, and advertisements for these products in recent years have permeated households throughout the global West. This research explores the history of nation and race as human social categories and how these concepts relate to modern studies on the consumers of DNA ancestry tests and participants in the hobby of genealogy. Using both quantitative and qualitative content analysis on key pages from the websites of top DNA ancestry testing companies, this research identifies examples of advertising where historical oppression is ignored in favor of highlighting pseudoscientific …

Remote Sensing Applications In Population Estimation, Regression Analysis, And Urban Growth Simulation Modeling For A Middle Eastern City, Elaf Amer Alyasiri

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Due to a change in government regime and population migration, the City of Hillah in Iraq has been facing several urban issues, particularly population estimating and urban growth planning. Since the last census conducted in 1997, population in Iraq has been estimated based on the annual growth, without considering migration as factor of the population growth. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation study was to develop a population estimation method and an urban growth simulation method for the City of Hillah. Population data were estimated for Hillah, using the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) derived from Remote Sensing (RS) and …

Mortalidad Por Diabetes En Guatemala 2018: Patrones E Inequidades, Alejandro Cerón, Gila Goldstein

Anthropology: Faculty Scholarship

El presente estudio busca analizar la mortalidad por diabetes en Guatemala con el propósito de identificar posibles criterios epidemiológicos que orienten la priorización de acciones de salud pública. El riesgo de morir de diabetes en Guatemala muestra marcadas desigualdades por departamento, las que son aún más marcadas al comparar por municipio. El riesgo de morir es también más alto en mujeres, en personas mestizas o ladinas, en niveles educativos bajos, y en personas que se dedican a ocupaciones elementales. Deberían implementarse medidas de salud pública orientadas a los municipios y grupos en mayor riesgo de morir de diabetes. Este estudio …

Interventions To Slums And Informal Settlements: A Case Study Of The Integrated Housing Development Program In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nathan Teklemariam

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid urbanization is currently taking place in developing regions that have yet to address already existing and persistent inequities within their urban centers. There is perhaps no urban policy issue more critical for governments of the global South than the elimination of slums and informal settlements, along with the development of equitable access to affordable housing for low-income residents. Ethiopia has taken on this challenge through its Integrated Housing Development Program (IHDP), which incorporates slum clearance and resettlement through a government-led development of condominium housing targeting those displaced and other low and middle-income residents in the city.

Since the launch …

Examining The Relationship Between Acculturative Stress And Religion/Spirituality Among International Students, Ly'jerrick Ward

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between acculturative stress and religion/spirituality of international students. This study utilized Sandhu and Asrabadi’s (1994) Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS) as well as the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSORF) created by Plante and Boccaccini (1997). Much research exists on how international students adapt and acculturate to a host country. This research will add to the body of literature that exists regarding how international students use their religion/spirituality to deal with acculturative stress. Students in this study were asked a number of questions from the ASSIS …

Integration Of The Pochaiv Lavra Into The Structure Of The Russian Orthodox Church Between 1830s And 1860s, Ella Bystrytska, Nadiia Volik

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A series of imperial decrees during the 1820s contributed to the spread of the autocratic and synodal system of government, and the installation of control over the Greek Uniate Church institutions in the territories of Right Bank Ukraine.1 The Greek Uniate Church was moved in “standby mode” for favorable conditions for the government to rapidly localize its activities. The accusation of the Basilian monks in support of the November Uprising of 1830-1831 in Poland contributed to the liquidation of this order and most of their monasteries. The transfer of the Pochaiv Lavra to the ownership of the Orthodox clergy in …

Impact Of Body Image On Middle-Aged Thai Men’S Self-Esteem And Job Performance, Chachadapa Vichitrananda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Body image issues are generally associated with a person’s dissatisfactions toward their body. Body image dissatisfaction can adversely affect a person’s mental and physical well-being, self-esteem, and behavior. Previous studies on men’s body image issues have focused on younger men, their desire for muscularity and mostly used quantitative research methodology. There is a gap in the literature regarding the effects of body image dissatisfaction on middle-aged men’s self-esteem and job performance using the qualitative research method. This study aimed to investigate body image perceptions of middle-aged men in Thailand aged 35-50 years to determine how their body image perceptions affect …

A Sociological Perspective On Pidgin's Viability And Usefulness For Development In West Africa, Victoria M. Time, Daniel K. Pryce

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This essay examines the viability and usefulness of pidgin for development in West Africa. Pidgin in West Africa has endured as a unifying medium of communication among people who do not share a common language. It has been lauded as a neutral language that facilitates trade, commerce, and everyday dealings among people of all walks of life. Some have proposed supplanting English, which is the official language in most of the West African countries where the use of pidgin is prevalent, with either pidgin or some other indigenous language. Contrarians, however, consider pidgin to be a limiting factor, in that, …

Revisiting Ramayana Through Oppositional Telling Of Anand Neelakantan’S Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished (2012), Natawan Wongchalard

Asian Review

The Ramayana is a well-known epic in India. It is also widely recognized in many other regions around the world. The myriad forms of presentation of this epic allow for a collective audience’s imagination to thrive and rise. Oppositional tellings of the original storyline make the epic even more intriguing as it caters to the ‘other voices’, who have alternative opinions of Rama and who happen to perceive the epic from differing ideological positions that are in contrast to the original version. Through the Ramayana’s oppositional telling, this article is an attempt to represent the identity of Asura (the Deva’s …

The Indic Perspective Of The Pro-Democracy Agitation (2020) In Thailand, Pulind Samant

Asian Review

The pro-democracy agitation in Thailand, which attacked the institution of Thai monarchy, the strongest pillar of the Thai society, can be interpreted in India as an attack on the Thai branch of the common Indic civilisational roots, exemplified by the royal title Rama. There is a long history of attack on the institution of monarchy in the Southeast Asian neighbourhood of Thailand, from Laos to Indonesia, where a pattern of downfall of royalty followed by gradual weakening of the state can be observed. Thailand can be considered, within the region, as being culturally closest to India, apart from being a …