Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

The Female Force: Gender Salience And Political Interests In The 2011 Tunisian Revolution, Katherine Meagor

Scripps Senior Theses

To acknowledge the role of women and their rights in Tunisian society, the 2011 Tunisian Revolution offers a case study for the multi-faceted dimensions of political movements that affect civil society. With the understanding that women exercised political agency differently and were affected by the changing political opportunity structure, this study aims to address the following questions: how did women navigate their female gender identity and political interests during the 2011 Tunisian Revolution? How did gender identity affect female participation during the Revolution? How did the Revolution prompt activism among women? How did the intersection of various identities contribute to …

Textile Ways Of Thinking As A Trauma-Informed Design Tool To Research And Understand Communities, Smrti Ganesan, Nishanth Srikanth

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

There has been a shift in methodologies in the broader world of design. Today, co-design and participatory methods are a vital part of the modern designer's toolkit, and designers are finding new ways to interact with communities and design solutions that are more responsive to the actual needs of those communities.

Textile design has historically been a medium for expressing and processing traumatic experiences, reflecting individual and collective traumas in society. Textiles have also historically served not only as a form of artistic expression but also as a powerful tool in activism, particularly within feminist movements. Recent developments have seen …

Solidarity Dividend With Us Wool And Community Engagement To Address Socioeconomic Inequities, Helen X. Trejo, Angela Becerril

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

As a long-standing natural fiber, wool provides an opportunity for community engagement and reflexive practice. Our process involved sourcing wool from US sheep and wool farms in lower income areas and hands-on textile development, and intersectional reflection. Being at a Hispanic Serving Institution, informed approaches to engage with concepts, such as the “zerosum paradigm” and “Solidarity Dividend” based on Heather McGhee’s NY Times Best Selling book “The Sum of Us.” It explores how racism affects intergenerational wealth among minorities. The zero-sum paradigm is the idea that progress is a tradeoff; benefits to some is at an expense for others. The …

Targeted, Harassed, And Displaced: The Role Of Discrimination In Oregon Evictions, Alex Farrington, Natalie J. Cholula, Lisa K. Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drawing on focus groups with 101 Oregon tenants who have experienced an eviction since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this report examines the role that discrimination plays in Oregon evictions. As this is not a legal investigation, we do not focus solely on legally-actionable or provable claims. Rather, we include a wide range of tenants’ descriptions of their experiences with unfair, malicious, or prejudicial treatment. We find that many tenants are specifically targeted for eviction or experience prejudicial treatment during the eviction process because of their identity or background. This includes being treated unfairly based on tenants’ race, language, …

Learning Law In Elementary And High School: Innovating Civics Education For A More Empowered Citizenry, Ariel J. Liberman, Michael J. Broyde

Faculty Articles

A principal objective of the public school system in a democracy is to promote societal cohesion by way of preparing students for civic engagement. There exists a founding belief that a democratic nation ought to be composed of educated activists, run by innovators, and kept in check by involved citizens. For, indisputably, the democratic experiment—our values, our institutions—can only be upheld anew with each generation on the backs of critique, reinvention, and reinvigoration. But, as so many have mentioned when discussing the civics education paradigm, the increase in educational opportunities and the marked expansion of our school system has not …

Centering Community Voice And Knowledge Through Participatory Action Research, Jennifer Lucko

Education | Faculty Scholarship

This paper analyzes a Participatory Action Research (PAR) Project focused on improving public safety and community lighting in one Latinx immigrant community in California as a case example to better understand the possibilities for university-community-government partnerships. The paper explores residents' motivations for their sustained participation in the project, the relationships and power dynamics that led to a $100,000 commitment from the city government to fund the recommendations of the PAR collective, and the social contexts that allowed community residents to position themselves as political actors as the PAR project progressed over the 2021-2022 academic year. This case example illustrates how …

Ledroit Park Photograph Collection, Jaclynn Martin

Prints and Photographs Department

The LeDroit Park Photograph Collection is a limited edition of ten (10) 12" x 12" gelatin silver print photographs capturing the revitalized LeDroit Park and its surroundings, taken in 2003 by Steven M. Cummings. The LeDroit Park Initiative, spearheaded in the late 1990s by then-Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert and Ms. Jamie Gorelick, Vice Chair of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), aimed to renovate and redevelop Howard University-owned properties within the LeDroit Park area. The initiative also explored innovative mortgage rates and payment assistance programs to enhance homeownership opportunities for the university-affiliated and neighboring community. Notably, the …

When Ballots Are Blank: Write-In’S Serving Local Government And The Implications For A Healthy And Vibrant Democracy, Thomas J. Ruter

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Our democracy depends on having a supply of candidates running for elected office, but in some instances, no one wants to run. This phenomenological study asks what the effects on a healthy and vibrant democracy are if ballots are blank and the seat is filled through write-in or appointment. Rooted in democratic theory, this study explores small, rural city elections where write-ins won election. Understudied, local governments are responsible for decisions affecting the lives of millions of people each day. Workforce scarcity, the alienation of young Americans from politics, government bashing, nasty campaigns, threats of physical harm, and other barriers …

Looking At The Past To Change The Future: Showcasing Featured Collections, Building Communities, And Co-Creating, Sherry Buchanan

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Academic libraries have the opportunity and the responsibility to promote and advance content that creates transformative and iterative learning opportunities. To that end, and in an effort to build communities and facilitate co-creation, Portland State University showcases three main Featured Collections in our open access repository, PDXScholar: Climate Justice, COVID-19, and Racial and Gender Equity, with a fourth pilot collection—Student Work: An Open Showcase of Outstanding Student-Created Research & Creative Work—under development. The collections include a broad range of audiovisual materials, such as podcasts and webinar series, as well as sustainability and equity work, student-created content, and numerous future-focused multidisciplinary …

Democratically Engaged Assessment On Civic Learning For Bonner Scholars, Lesley Boadu, Meredith Bacon

Other Publications

This report will cover the multi-step process to identify and define the most critical civic learning outcomes for Bonner Scholars at the University of Richmond (UR). We will detail a democratically engaged assessment (DEA) involving diverse stakeholders to gather perspectives and insights. We do this by highlighting the work that has taken place and then making suggestions to improve the overall process. Some of this work includes using surveys to capture community experiences, involving students in creating definitions and implementing reflective journaling. We will also discuss the revision of reflection essay assignments to align with the identified outcomes and the …

Towards A More Engaged Democracy: Using Statistical Methods To Detect Election Fraud In The 2022 Philippine National Elections, Juan Miguel Cardaño, Bryan Patrick Mande, Seth William Tionko, Aldrich Ellis C. Asuncion, Jeric C. Briones

Mathematics Faculty Publications

This paper aims to show how citizens can further participate in the elections, aside from just voting. Given the accusations of fraud, this study demonstrates how existing election fraud detection methods can be used in the 2022 Philippine National Elections (PNE) context. Specifically, histograms known as 2D vote turnout distributions were first utilized to model the frequency of the winner's percentage of votes based on the voter turnout in each electoral unit, with key parameters introduced to detect fraud. Vote turnout distributions were then simulated using parametric models involving the aforementioned fraud parameters, with the goal of replicating the actual …

Riverview Community Park Commoning Plan, Haley B. Keene

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Riverview Community Park began as an illegal DIY skatepark in the Maymont neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. Now, although it is a city park, it is still entirely managed by volunteer community groups (skateboarders, the neighborhood Civic League, and a community garden) who view the park as a creative, experimental community-led spatial project. Due to a dearth of communication between the three groups, the park has suffered political strife between the groups and a chaotic physical atmosphere. This plan utilizes a commons governance framework and participatory, asset-based community design to usher in a new era of enhanced collaboration, common narratives, and …

Vote Like A Man, Act Like A Woman: An Exploratory Analysis Of The Political Behavior Of Contemporary American Conservative Women, Alex Hawkins

Masters Theses

This article seeks to establish a baseline for the political behavior and participation levels of Republican women by measuring six political activities. Using CCES 2020 self-selected survey data, the six political activities measured were: made a political donation, attended a march or protest, attended a political meeting, worked on a campaign, contacted a public official, displayed political signage. The political behavior and participation levels of Republican women were compared to the levels of Republican men and non-Republican women. This comparison was established to provide further insight into the political behaviors of Republican women, including the relationship between gender and partisanship …

Participatory Video As A Capacity-Building Tool On Disaster Risk Reduction Management: The Case Of A Philippine Rurban Youth Group In Bay, Laguna, Trina Leah T. Mendoza, Benjamina Paula G. Flor

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

This study aimed to explore a youth-led participatory video (PV) process as a strategy for building the capacity of youth in disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) in a Philippine urban community. The study’s main research problem is: What constitutes a youth-led PV process? Specifically, it aimed to 1) describe a youth-led PV production process, 2) identify emergent characteristics of a youth-led PV process, and 3) examine features that explain how a PV process capacitates youth in DRRM. A series of DRRM and PV training workshops were conducted from January to March 2019 with a selected group of youth in Barangay …

Civic And Community Engagement Among Poor Rural Women In Bihar: A Pilot Study, Kirk Leach, Mirivel Julien, Tusty Ten Bensel, Avinash Thombre

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Civic and community engagement is often crucial for the successful development of rural areas and a catalyst of personal transformation. This article examines changes in civic and community engagement among women in rural Bihar, India. Using an exploratory factor analysis of survey data from n = 815 respondents who participated in Heifer’s Values-Based Holistic Community Development [VBHCD] training, the study identifies three factors that constitute civic and community engagement. Next, the study assesses the efficacy of VBHCD’s impact on participants’ civic and community engagement relative to participants’ duration in the program and type of self-help group. The results indicate that …

Community-Centric Approaches To Coastal Hazard Assessment And Management In Southside Norfolk, Virginia, Usa, Dalya Ismael, Nicole Hutton, Mujde Erten-Unal, Carol Considine, Tancy Vandecar-Burdin, Christopher Davis, Yin-Hsuen Chen

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Urban communities in environmentally sensitive areas face escalating challenges due to climate change and inadequate infrastructural support, particularly in underserved regions like southside Norfolk, Virginia. This area, characterized by its vulnerability to flooding and a predominantly low-income population, lacks equitable inclusion in broader urban flood protection plans. This research focuses on the development of community-centered resilience strategies through active engagement and collaboration with local residents. The methodology centered around building trust and understanding within the community through a series of interactions and events. This approach facilitated a two-way exchange of information, enabling the research team to gather crucial insights on …

Nebraska Snapshot #24-001: Is Nebraska Heading In The Right Direction?, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

No abstract provided.

Housing Equity In Golden Gate Village, Nicole White

Social Justice | Senior Theses

For generations, the African American community has faced many forms of housing discrimination that have created major inequalities in their everyday lived experiences (Lockwood, 2020). This study explores the long-lasting effects of discriminatory housing policies in creating disparate housing conditions within the public housing community in Marin City called Golden Gate Village, as well as the role of the Marin Housing Authority in practices of displacement and neglect. The methodology for the study included seven different interviews with Golden Gate Village residents to obtain knowledge about the community as well as grasp an understanding of the lived experiences of the …

Aboriginal Students’ Journeys To University – Privileging Our Sovereign Voices, Renae Isaacs-Guthridge

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Since invasion the trajectory of colonial education in Australia has been linear; most students are expected to complete primary and secondary education, and, if accepted, seamlessly transition to university by 18 years of age. The reality is that many students do not experience continuity in their education, let alone reach university, and this can be particularly problematic for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2024; Productivity Commission, 2024). Put simply, Australia’s education system continues to fail many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, further silencing our sovereign voices. Drawing on an Indigenist research paradigm …

Ghanaian Values In Motion: A Content Analysis Of Slogans On Commercial Vehicles In Accra, Abraham Kenin, Vivian Dzokoto, Annabella Osei-Tutu, Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Slogans on commercial vehicles are a common sight in Ghana. These material artefacts can provide insight into beliefs and values about the sociocultural, spiritual, and political experiences of life in the contemporary Ghanaian context. In this study, we collected and analysed a total of 438 commercial vehicles’ slogans from 5 main transportation terminals in the Accra metropolitan area. Our thematic analysis of these slogans shows a major emphasis on religious and spiritual values to the extent that most of the recorded slogans serve as positive affirmations of religious values and sources of spiritual encouragement. The dominance of religious references in …