Place and Environment Commons^™

Yaya: Philippine Domestic Care Workers, The Children They Care For, And The Children They Leave Behind, Maria Rosario De Guzman

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

The domestic and care labor sector is integral to the economic and social fabric of almost every nation. Although there has been increasing attention to the plight and experiences of international migrant workers within this field, less is known about the experiences of rural-to-urban migrants employed in this same sector. This study focuses on “yayas”—domestic workers caring for children in affluent families in the Philippines and draws from fieldwork and interviews conducted in Quezon City. Participants were female “yayas” caring for young children while they themselves were separated from their own offspring, most of whom were left behind in their …

Reused Refuse: Freeganism And The Shifting Hegemonies Of Consumption And Waste, Jamie Corliss

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

Freeganism is a counter-culture practice, lifestyle, and philosophy that resists the waste and exploitation inherent to capitalism. By examining freegan practices and philosophies, specifically dumpster diving, this project reveals how these actions help make apparent and shift dominant ideologies about waste and consumption by re-injecting value into wasted items. The project argues that the waste that freegans live on has the semiotic power to shift dominant attitudes about waste and gives freegans the means to survive with limited participation in the economy, but this waste is a byproduct of capitalist production, not a cause of it. Freegans are conceptually paving …

Staff Perceptions Of Work-Environment Factors Affecting Morale In Southeastern Registrar's Offices, Rheanna Plemons

Dissertations

Studies on morale are prevalent in industry, healthcare, and public educational systems. However, morale studies are limited within higher education and focusing on the support staff at universities. This qualitative study used focus groups to identify themes among support staff in selected Registrar’s Offices in the Southeastern region of the United States. Institutions were chosen based on comparable enrollments and similar organizational structure. The researcher asked participants to discuss their perceptions on current morale levels in the office and how different work responsibilities affect morale. In addition, participants were asked to discuss motivators used by leaders and whether those motivators …

"I Want To Be Brave": A Baseline Study On The Vulnerabilities Of Street-Working Boys In Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Jarrett Davis, Glenn Miles, M’Lop Tapang

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

Focusing on street-working boys in Sihanoukville, this study partnered with social workers and child protection officers from M’lop Tapang (a key social service provider in Sihanoukville) to identify locations where young boys were known to be working along the beaches and within the town center. In recent years, Sihanoukville has become known as a rapidly developing commercial beach area, which has received increasing attention from foreign tourists, backpackers, and ex-patriots. Within this context, it has become a destination for migrant workers from surrounding provinces who have hopes of generating income through selling, begging, and other various means. The study conducted …

All That Sprawl, Y’All: An Analysis Of Development On Steinwehr Avenue And York Street In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, From 1971 To 2014, Elizabeth K. Emmons, Kalley S. Hansel, Daly Simpson

Student Publications

The advent of the automobile transformed the American landscape in the 20th century. In conjunction with the increasing importance of the automobile, numerous post-WW II government programs such as the Interstate Highway System encouraged suburban sprawl. Towns and cities adjacent to tourist attractions, known as gateway communities, face unique problems caused by sprawl. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is an example of a gateway community as it includes the Gettysburg National Military Park. Two study sites, portions of Steinwehr Avenue and York Street, were studied to analyze the effects of sprawl in Gettysburg. The sites were analyzed using ArcGIS, data compiled from historic …

Exploring The Neighborhood Preferences Of A Segment Of Millennials In Omaha, Nebraska, Aaron Kloke

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

In 2010, Millennials, or those between 18 and 34, surpassed the Baby Boomers in population size. Today, Millennials, also known as Generation Y, make up over 25 percent of the United States’ population. In Omaha, they make up 26.9 percent of the population. The next largest generation in Omaha, the Baby Boomers, make for 19.2 percent of the population. Clearly, this emerging demographic has the ability to change the way we create and design our built environment if it so chooses.

To review how this generation may choose to change the way we design our future neighborhoods, national trends were …

Fearless: Anastasia Maisel, Anastasia M. Maisel

SURGE

Working to create a meaningful, respectful, and community-minded Day of Service in honor of Gettysburg College student Emily Silverstein ’11, and continually involved in different farming and food initiatives in the Gettysburg area to promote food justice and environmentally friendly farming practices, Anastasia Maisel ’14 fearlessly gives her time, energy, and passion to promoting social justice on and off campus. [excerpt]

"Growing It My Way": A Qualitative Analysis Of Rural Organic Growers, David Adam Sizemore

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Sociology by David Adam Sizemore on April, 2014

Modern Portraits Of Childbirth In Exile In Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala: A Melding Of Tradition And Innovation, Luna Adler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The exiled Tibetans of McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, India1 are caught between two worlds; forced to live outside of their native land, some cling to Tibetan tradition while others embrace their new environment and its protocol. Because their 1959 exile was relatively recent, the Tibetans I spoke with during my four weeks of research for this paper were nearly split: many of my interviewees were born in their homeland while a number of others were born into exile. This juxtaposition made for a wide range of perspectives and answers to my queries, as well as heightened insight into the ways that …

Adolescent Perceptions Of Health Through Photovoice In Cato Manor, South Africa, Renee Lamoreau

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study will investigate how youth in Cato Manor perceive health in their community using photovoice as the primary methodology. Photovoice is a participatory action research method that gives participants the power to answer research questions through imagery. Participants take pictures in response to a question or prompt, and then describe a self-­‐selected number of pictures using the SHOWED process. This study will employ this methodology to answer the following questions: What objects, people, and events do youth associate with health? How do youth in Cato Manor define health and sickness? The following report will summarize the social and physical …

The Post-Industrial And The Urban Village: A Study Of Land And Space In Beijing’S Caochangdi Art District, Ke Li

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Arts districts have traditionally been associated with industrial areas that have been reconstructed to fit post-industrial economies. From Tate Modern in the U.K. to 798 in Beijing, abandoned factories have been refitted into cultural clusters. Yet, there is a research gap when concerning arts district in less traditional spaces. This study examines how this framework applies in Beijing’s Caochangdi art district, aiming to understand how place-specific factors influence the development of an arts district and what Western gentrification theory looks like in a Chinese light. During the month of May 2014, I conducted twenty interviews, including nine with members of …

The Self-Supporting Women Of Wanita Hindu Dharma Indonesia (Whdi) Province Bali And Their Modern Way Of Thinking, Olivia Gregorius

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During my independent study period, I spent four weeks with the members of WHDI Province Bali. During this time I was able to participate in their organization’s activities and events in order to gain first hand knowledge about what programs the women are involved in. Some of the events I attended include cultural activities such as seminars about traditional hair and makeup as well as marriage preparation, etiquette discussions, gamelan and traditional singing lessons and religious ceremonies such as weddings, cremations, a mediksa the blessing of new houses and shops and visits to different temples such as Batur temple and …

Memoirs Of A Mother: Life Between An Islamic Fantasy, Cultural Patriarchy, And The Startling Reality., Nicole Fauster

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Article 490 of the Moroccan Penal Code deems sexual relations outside of marriage illegal and punishable by one month to one-year prison time. But in a society where marriage is often delayed due to financial restrictions, premarital sex is common and pervasive. Though premarital sex is the norm amongst many, if a lady becomes pregnant, the tables turn she is labeled a “whore” or a “street woman”. If a man fathers a child out of wedlock; he can simply deny affiliation and walk out of the picture.The woman is marginalized, and the father of the child does not bear any …

Limits To Literacy: The Perceived Relationship Between Functional Literacy And Political Empowerment Amongst The Forest-Dwelling Van Gujjars, Nicola Soekoe

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The failure of countrywide basic literacy campaigns to enhance social mobility has led to the promotion and development of localized, comprehensive functional literacy campaigns. These campaigns are particularly applicable to marginalized groups; as they aim to empower communities by providing them with the necessary skills to navigate their socioeconomic and political environments. This qualitative study examines the long-term impact of one such functional literacy campaign on the semi-nomadic pastoral Van Gujjar community. I use the Assets, Opportunity Structure, and Degrees of Empowerment (DOE) method to investigate community members’ perceptions of the level of political empowerment that followed their participation in …

Livelihood Strategies Of People In The Himalayan Region Of Nepal: A Study In The Villages Of Eastern Manang, Prashanta Chhetri

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This is a study on the changing livelihood strategies of people in Manang -a district that lies on the northern side of Annapurna Himals. I have focused my study on the villages in the eastern part of lower Manang. Primarily, my study has been done in these villages: Besisahar, Khotro, Nachai, Tachai, Tilche, Dharapani, Yak Kharka, Surki Khola and Bhimthang. As defined locally, these villages fall under the region of Nyishang and Gyasumdo in the Manang district. In this paper I talk about the shifts made by the people in their livestock keeping/raising from yaks to dzhopas to mules, depending …

Identidades Sociales En Situación De Pobreza: La Construcción De Identidad Y Comunidad En La Villa 31, Sam Gips

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The villas of Buenos Aires began to form in the 1940’s as immigrants poured into the city from Argentina’s interior and from neighboring countries like Paraguay and Bolivia. These villas formed in precarious conditions without adequate government assistance, which has led to difficulties with public services such as running water and electricity. Estimates say that over 300,000 of the 3 million residents in Buenos Aires live in villas today. Unlike most villas located in the southern outskirts of the city, Villa 31, which was the first villa in the city, is a community of 30,000 residents located in the center …

“Kallawaya Siempre Soy” La Descolonización De Ajayu En La Cosmovisión Kallawaya, Rizky Rahadianto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Based on the lessons learned in this program about multiculturalism, globalization and social change in Bolivia, this project connects these themes through a character study of a kallawaya man named Ramón Quispe Lizárraga and examines the analogy between traditional ritual and social activism; between restoration of ajayu and decolonization. A village of kallawaya healers in the province of Bautista Saavedra has a long tradition of maintaining ancestral values and at the same time confronting modernism. I used the participant observation method to be able to immerse myself in this community and understand the Andean cosmovision internalized in people’s actions and …

Emergency State Cultural Imagination And Expression Among Afro-Descendant Youth In Pearl Lagoon, Jennifer Lunceford

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Various societal factors demonstrate that Pearl Lagoon is in state of emergency. The youth today live in a Pearl Lagoon that is gradually losing cultural ground. However, the young people are not silent witnesses to this decline. The youth desire to learn more about their cultural traditions. Many of them romanticize their community’s past and emphasize the importance of their traditions, even though others are breaking away from their customs. The younger generation also critiques their community. This is hopeful because Pearl Lagoon needs cultural rescue. Technology is increasing the youth’s exposure to the outside world, which is not necessarily …

“We’Ve Lost Sight Of The Blue And White, And We Need To Find It Again.” Youth, Divergence Of Memory, And Political Polarization In Post- Conflict Nicaragua, Cameron Kesinger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this essay, I analyze the results from 20 interviews I completed in Managua, Matagalpa, and San Ramon, selecting 8 to delve into in depth. I conducted the interviews in pairs, asking parents about their memories of the Nicaraguan Contra war in the 1980s and then asking their children about the histories their parents shared with them and their personal views of Nicaragua. Through these interviews, I sought to understand in a Nicaraguan context the presence of historical memory, the politicization of historical memory, the diversity of youth activism, and the way that youth view reconciliation within their countries. My …

Tabasará Libre: A Case Study Of Development And Indigenous Rights, Katharine Evans

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since the 1960s, indigenous groups in Panama have been fighting to maintain their land and ways of life against the growing threat and reality of national development. This study uses the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Power Project as a case study to examine the consequences of development and the ultimate role that development plays in indigenous marginalization and assimilation. Data was collected through interview, participatory observation, and outside research over the course of a three week period. Findings include the role the government, legislation, and the public have played in this fight.