Dissertations / Theses on the topic '160899 Sociology not elsewhere classified'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: 160899 Sociology not elsewhere classified.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 20 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic '160899 Sociology not elsewhere classified.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Orticio, Gino C. "Towards configuring the Internet for social development in the Philippines." Thesis, University of the Philippines, 2003. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/57711/3/Towards_Configuring_the_Internet_for_Social_Development_in_the_Philippines.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The Internet is one of the most significant information and communication technologies to emerge during the end of the last century. It created new and effective means by which individuals and groups communicate. These advances led to marked institutional changes most notably in the realm of commercial exchange: it did not only provide the high-speed communication infrastructure to business enterprises; it also opened them to the global consumer base where they could market their products and services. Commercial interests gradually dominated Internet technology over the past several years and have been a factor in the increase of its user population and enhancement of infrastructure. Such commercial interests fitted comfortably within the structures of the Philippine government. As revealed in the study, state policies and programs make use of Internet technology as an enabler of commercial institutional reforms using traditional economic measures. Yet, despite efforts to maximize the Internet as an enabler for market-driven economic growth, the accrued benefits are yet to come about; it is largely present only in major urban areas and accessible to a small number of social groups. The failure of the Internet’s developmental capability can be traced back to the government’s wholesale adoption of commercial-centered discourse. The Internet’s developmental gains (i.e. instrumental, communicative and emancipatory) and features, which were always there since its inception, have been visibly left out in favor of its commercial value. By employing synchronic and diachronic analysis, it can be shown that the Internet can be a vital technology in promoting genuine social development in the Philippines. In general, the object is to realize a social environment of towards a more inclusive and participatory application of Internet technology, equally aware of the caveats or risks the technology may pose. It is argued further that there is a need for continued social scientific research regarding the social as and developmental implications of Internet technology at local level structures, such social sectors, specific communities and organizations. On the meta-level, such approach employed in this research can be a modest attempt in increasing the calculus of hope especially among the marginalized Filipino sectors, with the use of information and communications technologies. This emerging field of study—tentatively called Progressive Informatics—must emanate from the more enlightened social sectors, namely: the non-government, academic and locally-based organizations.
2
Kraal, Ben J. "Considering design for automatic speech recognition in use." Thesis, University of Canberra, 2006. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/16990/1/c16990.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Talking to a computer is hard. Large vocabulary automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems are difficult to use and yet they are used by many people in their daily work. This thesis addresses the question: How is ASR used and made usable and useful in the workplace now? To answer these questions I went into two workplaces where ASR is currently used and one where ASR could be used in the future. This field work was done with designing in mind. ASR dictation systems are currently used in the Australian Public Service (APS) by people who suffer chronic workplace overuse injuries and in the Hansard department of Parliament House (Hansard) by un-injured people. Analysing the experiences of the users in the APS and at Hansard showed that using an ASR system in the workplace follows a broad trajectory that ends in the continued effort to maintain its usefulness. The usefulness of the ASR systems is "performed into existence" by the users with varying degrees of success. For both the APS and Hansard users, they use ASR to allow work to be performed; ASR acts to bridge the gap between otherwise incompatible ways of working. This thesis also asks: How could ASR be used and made usable and useful in workplaces in the future? To answer this question, I observed the work of communicating sentences at the ACT Magistrates Court. Communicating sentences is a process that is distributed in space and time throughout the Court and embodied in a set of documents that have a co-ordinating role. A design for an ASR system that supports the process of communicating sentences while respecting existing work process is described. Moving from field work to design is problematic. This thesis performs the process of moving from field work to design, as described above, and reflects the use of various analytic methods used to distill insights from field work data. The contributions of this thesis are: * The pragmatic use of existing social research methods and their antecedents as a corpus of analyses to inspire new designs; * a demonstration of the use of Actor-Network Theory in design both as critique and as part of a design process; * empirical field-work evidence of how large vocabulary ASR is used in the workplace; * a design showing how ASR could be introduced to the rich, complicated, environment of the ACT Magistrates Court; and, * a performance of the process of moving from field work to design.
3
Ferguson, M. E. "A cross-national comparative study of the roles of men in contemporary France and Britain." Thesis, Aston University, 1988. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/10277/.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to increase understanding and contribute to knowledge about the attitudes and behaviour of men in contemporary France and Britain. The thesis has three main aims: firstly, to provide the first cross-national comparison of French and British writing and research on the place of men in contemporary society; secondly, to identify similarities and differences in the roles of men in France and Britain; and thirdly, to determine to what extent and in what way such similarities and differences are linked to the social structures and cultural background of each country. The thesis focusses on two main facets of the male experience: the relationship between men and women and the interaction between fathers and their children. Men's attitudes and behaviour are examined in relation to issues such as the division of household tasks and child care within the family, parental roles, female employment, role reversal, gender stereotyping and changes towards a new image of masculinity in society. Particular consideration is given to differences in governmental attitudes in France and Britain towards the introduction of family policy measures for men as fathers. The thesis ends with a discussion of legislative, social and educational measures which could be introduced in France and Britain in order to promote greater flexibility in men's roles and consequently improve gender equality in each country. The data analysed in the thesis are derived from a questionnaire-based empirical study involving 101 men in Britain and seventy-five men in France. The respondents' experience of and attitudes towards their roles in society are analysed and interpreted in the light of profile data relating to their family circumstances and with reference to knowledge about the broader socio-cultural context.
4
Greenfield, Sheila M. "Family and leisure: a comparative sociological study of middle-class families and their leisure patterns in France and Great Britain." Thesis, Aston University, 1985. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/10271/.
Full text
5
Matheja-Theaker, Mechthild Maria. "Alternative emanzipationsvorstellungen in der DDR unter Honecker (1971-1990) : ein Diskussionsbeitrag zur Rolls der Frau." Thesis, Aston University, 1991. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/10274/.
Full textAbstract:
Over the last twenty years the situation of women in the German Democratic Republic has been the subject of a considerable number of studies. The approach has generally been of a sociological or socio-political nature. In this thesis I propose to go one step further by examining the information that may be gained from literary sources. In a state where the media are subject to censorship, and thus controlled, one can refer to literature as an acknowledged source of inside information. Literary works often provide a forum for the formulation and discussion of ideas, which could not be aired elsewhere. Chapter 1 shows why literature, which had always been allocated a special role by the GDR's leading party, the SED, may be regarded as a reliable indicator of everyday life in that country. In this thesis I compare the findings of an analysis of women's literature with sociological data on the one hand and the portrayal of the "ideal" women in GDR media and official writings on the other. The thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach and draws on sources in political, legal, sociological, and cultural fields alike. This constellation of sources allows me to show that the views that female writers expressed in their works frequently coincide with sociological findings. Both of these sources were frequently found to be at odds with statements made in official writings and the media. Such insights could not have been provided by a study conducted from within one discipline.
6
Noble, Glen. "Spaces of privilege." Thesis, University of Brighton, 2012. https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/4ea9b6c9-da5e-4c65-b56a-adaece58bbc7.
Full textAbstract:
There have been extensive developments in 'gay rights' in the past 10 years. This has prompted the contention that some gay white men are increasingly able to access privilege at the expense of continued marginalisation for various gendered, raced and sexual others. Homonormativity describes a process through which gay white male subjects are increasingly understood as normalised and accepted within existing relations of inequalities and that this temporality is accompanied by depoliticisation and tendency towards privatisation and domesticity. I use evidence from 15 in-depth interviews with men drawn from my socio-sexual network in Brighton & Hove and autoethnographic writings in the form of reflective diary entries and short vignettes to develop a complex and fluid understanding of gay white men's spatial practices and experiences of privilege. Compared to processes of marginalisation, the study of privilege has been less prevalent, yet the concept can be found in a broad variety of disciplines and foci of study. Privilege has been predominantly developed 'on the margins' of academia to understand how certain knowledges and identities come to be 'centred'. It is only recently that privilege has been adopted as a critical tool, used to explore the production of inequalities by 'mainstream' academia. The thesis integrates Foucaultian understandings of power with a queer and feminist conception of performativity and critical geographies to contribute an understanding of privilege as processual and situated, able to explore the multiplicity of intersecting spatial practices through which individual experiences are produced occur. This thesis contributes to understandings of privilege, building upon previous work to demonstrate how participants normalise their identities and their positioning within relations of inequality. These normalising practices render the spatial production of privilege invisible through specific discourses of legitimation, in the process (re)producing relations of inequality. I develop this spatial conceptualisation of privilege, by exploring where the participants describe becoming privileged, where they feel restricted, how these processes operate and how they are experienced and understood. By using critical theories of space and place, this thesis works across multiple identities (such as race, class, gender and sexuality) to show the processes through which different individuals may be simultaneously marginalised and privileged by different apparatuses of power relations. I augment discussions of queer temporalities and the spatialities of everyday lives for gay white men by tracing an apparently normative trajectory from 'coming out' through participation in 'gay scene' spaces and towards private domesticity. This process is facilitated by the participants changing abilities to access privilege in different places as they move through their lives. However, my research demonstrates that the participants' spatial practices are not as linear as this normative trajectory suggests. While men in this research are able to access privilege, this is a fragile process, vulnerable to contestation, demonstrating the continued importance of examining processes of heteronormativity. Overall, my work contributes empirical evidence of the manifestation and maintenance of privilege in the spatial practices of gay white men living in Brighton & Hove to develop a nuanced, complex and explicitly spatial understanding of privilege in everyday life.
7
Lange, Ann-Christina. "Inclusive differentiation : a study of artistic techniques and devices of innovation." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2012. http://research.gold.ac.uk/8003/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents a study of innovation that focuses on the promotion of art as a force of genuine invention and the unfolding of a much-desired ability to profit from this development. Innovation lies at the heart of contested and divergent views on the role of artistic critique and the creation of value so pervasive in recent economic development, not least in the light of the financial crisis that erupted in 2007. This research connects to and builds upon an increasing engagement within economic sociology and social theory with the intermingling between art and business, or how art has come into view as a source of change. It takes experimental filmmaking and design methods associated with the European artistic avant-garde and anti-capitalistic critique as empirical examples. In doing so, this thesis explores an inclusive logic of differentiation centring on how ‘anti- capitalist’ critique feeds into processes of valuation, and explores how innovation practice benefits from the realities that it also excludes. The thesis draws together insights from two ethnographic studies of innovation in which artistic critique is translated into tools of innovation. In doing so, it explores the way in which artistic critique suspends, provokes and tests ‘realities’ that might stand as sources of knowledge for the purpose of business innovation. It makes the key argument that art and business exist in differential relations in which the principles and values associated with art and business coexist in multiple combinations, which are intimately bound up with new sites of action, such as the formation of camps, labs and studio workshops. Drawing attention to how such differential relations between art and business are becoming central to the construction of contemporary economies, this thesis makes a critical contribution to innovation studies expanding its vocabulary and, at the same time, its empirical field.
8
Hoechtl, Nina. "If only for the length of a lucha : queer/ing, mask/ing, gender/ing and gesture in lucha libre." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2012. http://research.gold.ac.uk/8056/.
Full textAbstract:
This PhD uses a queer reading strategy to explore the performative sites of lucha libre (wrestling in Mexico). My research inhabits the space behind the scene, the space between the ring and the audience, and the space of being part of the audience itself. My reading of the luchas takes place through the camera, the interview, printed works, theoretical investigation, and through the work of artists who draw on lucha libre – including myself. As lucha libre itself cannot be narrowed down to one specific medium, my subject matter allows me to utilize an interdisciplinary perspective to examine its various encounters, spaces, subjectivities and gestures. As well as attending live events in the arenas, watching lucha libre on television, exploring its circulation in artistic and filmic productions and its appropriation in advertisements and political discourse, I have carried out an intervention in a regular lucha libre programme by inventing a character, promoting, constructing and staging a match in an arena in the north of Mexico City. My methodology therefore makes use of a whole range of strategies including those borrowed from the discipline of anthropology and from practices of documentary making. Through my writing and my practice, I attempt to query and complicate these disciplinary conventions and my own use of them. I place particular emphasis in this PhD upon the possibility and use of a queer reading strategy in relation to lucha libre. Drawing on the works of Gloria Anzaldúa, Judith Butler, Judith ʻJackʼ Halberstam, José Javier Maristany, and José Esteban Muñoz, the thesis argues that a queer reading strategy has the potential to complicate ways of seeing gender and sexuality as well as race, ethnicity, class, time and space in this context. I identify the rich queer legacies within lucha libre, film and popular culture, and focus on the multiple and often conflicting readings made possible by adopting queer theory and reading practices. In doing so, the thesis interrogates the different ways in which popular cultures can go beyond accepted notions of what it means to be Mexican, a woman, macho, gay and so on. Throughout this work, I pay close attention to forms of audience participation, their verbal and gestural acts and how key these are in to the event of the lucha. These verbal and gestural acts, I argue, produce a unique complicity in the arena manifesting a transient trace of queer histories, and suggesting potential utopias.
9
Jones, Ian. "Football fandom : football fan identity and identification at Luton Town Football Club." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/275672.
Full textAbstract:
This study examines football fan identity and identification within the Nationwide football league in England. A preliminary examination of the literature concludes that research on fan identity with sports teams in general, focuses primarily upon the behavioural consequences of fan identification. More specific research on the football fan concentrates predominantly upon either the F.A. Premier League or the deviant fan. The research thus attempts to fill a void in knowledge by examining football fan identification of fans of less successful football teams, using a social identity theory framework. Employing a mixed-methods research design, and an embedded case study approach, the study investigates those factors that influence fan identification at Luton Town Football Club. Methods used were those of observation/participant observation, a large scale fan survey, and indepth semi-structured interviews with fans. As part of the fan survey, the sport spectator identification scale (Wann and Branscombe, 1993), revealed a fan population that was highly identified with Luton Town. Levels of fan identification were similar across age, gender, and length of support of the club. Subsequent survey and interview data allowed six themes related to this fan identification to emerge: these being the extent of fan identification; the antecedents of fan identification; the maintenance of fan identification; the effects of fan identification upon behaviour; the influence of the cultural identity within which fan identities are enacted; and the relationship between the fan and the football club. Analysis of these themes yields a model of football fan identification which can be adapted to fans of other football clubs, or fans within other contexts. It was concluded that whenever such identification provides positive social and psychological consequences for fans, levels of identification with the club remain high. For these fans, it is the process of identification with the club that is the most important component of fandom. By contrast, where the individual derives fewer benefits from fandom, identification remains low. For such less identified fans, other factors, such as the quality of facilities or team performance, become more meaningful. The findings from the study indicate that social identity theory is an appropriate framework with which to explore the concept of football fan identification.
10
Bilandzic, Ana. "New approaches to developing and commercialising IP from research in universities using open innovation." Thesis, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, 2016. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/98400/1/thesis_ana.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
There has been increasing interest in open innovation in academic research as well as industry application since the concept was introduced in 2003. The concept got much attention because of its economic benefits and novel means for facilitating innovation. This thesis aims to adapt the concept of open innovation to the university environment, in order to foster innovation in the development process for intellectual property (IP) derived from academic research activities. It contributes to the literature on open innovation adapted to the university context, i.e. open collaboration on the development of intellectual property towards a commercial ready stage. In order to investigate the potential of open innovation in the university environment, a focus group was conducted. In addition, the business process of Quirky Inc. was analysed as an example to better understand how open innovation works in the business context. The results of the study’s data analyses inform new opportunities for interventions in universities towards fostering different approaches to IP development as research outcomes. Further, it reveals interventions that can promote open innovation approaches in the university’s context more generally.
11
Stuart, Kathy Louise. "Emotional labour and occupational identity : passionate rationality in the New Zealand parliamentary workplace : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at Massey University, Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand." Massey University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10179/833.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores parliamentarians’ emotional labour in their workplace, and argues the enactment of passionate rationality is crucial to how parliamentarians accomplish vocational authenticity. The New Zealand parliamentary workplace is characterised by an elaborate set of feeling rules and a complex emotional culture. On entry to parliament, parliamentarians go through a period of identity transformation akin to a moral career. Parliamentarians must manage emotion to achieve their occupational identities according to local feeling rules. Based on analysis of in-depth group and individual interviews with parliamentarians, and focusing on the passage of the Civil Union Bill as an exemplar of parliamentarians’ emotion work, three interpretative repertoires were identified in their accounts of emotion in the workplace. These repertoires, The Game, The Performance and The Crusade are work-place specific meaning-making resources whose flexible deployment enabled parliamentarians to assert claims of occupational identity and vocational authenticity. These repertoires show the emotional labour involved in parliamentarians’ negotiation of shared meanings around ‘entering’ the occupational role and asserting the authenticity of their new identities. In particular, The Crusade repertoire makes available the subject position of the Knight, the subject position important for accomplishment of being a passionately rational worker. In this thesis, I introduce two new concepts for emotional labour in complex workplaces where that labour has both exchange and use value; emotional convocation and personified emotion. Together these concepts allow for a more thorough theorisation of emotion work than do existing concepts of emotional labour. Although developed in relation to the work of parliamentarians, personified emotion and emotional convocation have utility for understanding other contemporary experiences of work where emotion management within a complex emotional culture is fundamental to both occupational identity and the accomplishment of vocational authenticity.
12
Amsler, Sarah Suzann. "'From truth in strength to strength in truth' : sociology, knowledge and power in Kyrgyzstan, 1966-2003." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2005. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1852/.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation is a critical sociology of sociology in Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia. It explores the construction of sociology as a field of knowledge, academic discipline and professional practice in Kyrgyzstan (formerly the Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic) from 1966 to 2003, focusing on the late and post-socialist project to transform sociology from a heteronomous to autonomous field of knowledge and practice. It draws especially on the sociology of knowledge and science to explore the localised processes through which social scientific knowledge and political power have been co-constituted on the imperial periphery. Through a comparative case study of sociology in Kyrgyzstani universities, as well as smaller case studies of 'public science' in the national press, it reveals how sociologists have negotiated a fundamental tension in the institutionalisation project - the separation of the production of sociological knowledge from the logic of political power, on the one hand, and their simultaneous association, on the other - to establish both scientific legitimacy and social relevance for sociology in the republic. The types of sociology that emerge from this negotiation - the positivist, applied-professional model and the post-positivist liberal-critical model - are interpreted not as inevitable consequences of the Soviet collapse, but rather the product of decisions made by sociologists within particular intellectual and structural constraints and through the lens of partial bodies of theoretical knowledge. The ascendance of positivist and empiricist sociology in the post-Soviet period is explained as a deliberate, if often extremely uncritical, attempt to reorganise the relationship between power and knowledge in Kyrgyzstani society and to democratise the latter. Finally, the dissertation demonstrates that academic debates about the possibility of scientific truth assume deep personal and political significance when conducted in the context of pronounced social fragmentation and inequality, specifically, in the contexts of authoritarianism and neocolonialism.
13
Webb, Charlotte. "Noodle, Noodle, Cat : extra-subjective agency in Web-based art practice." Thesis, University of the Arts London, 2017. http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/12068/.
Full textAbstract:
This research investigates the complexities of artistic authorship under the production conditions of the web. It is driven by a fascination with the possibilities of expanding the authorial sphere of the artwork to include the productive capacities of other subjectivities, entities and processes. I offer the neologism ‘extra-subjectivity’ to reflect on this emerging form of production, in which the ultimate manifestation of the artwork often exceeds the author’s intentions. As well as the written thesis, it comprises seven artworks that represent a distinctive approach characterized by playfulness, humour and the use of generative computational processes. Several early works explore my authorial agency in relation to algorithmically generated variations of texts, including William Blake’s poem The Fly and the song Puff the Magic Dragon. Later, algorithmic generation is combined with the appropriation of content shared on social media, as in Infinite Violets, which displays variations of a Shakespearean verse along with images from Flickr. I draw on digital sociological methods to create a hybrid approach in which the web is understood as an evolving medium made up of digital objects and devices that can be repurposed for art practice. This approach underpins 'Flickr Nude or Noodle Descending a Staircase', which uses images programmatically accessed through Flickr’s application programming interface to remake a Marcel Duchamp painting for the web. 'Selfie Portrait' displays Instagram photographs tagged with ‘Selfie’ alongside users’ biographical information, which drives the ‘Copyright Episode’, an extended account of the legal contexts surrounding web-based art practices. Here, I demonstrate how such practices are entangled socially, ethically and legally with the distinct production conditions of the web. I argue that authorship is a question of responsibility as well as ‘ownership’, which is why ethics are as important as the law.
14
Martin, Donna. "Narrative connections : promoting the moral economy of fair trade : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Sociology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand." Massey University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10179/1174.
Full textAbstract:
Fair trade is an alternative approach to international trade. It is both a social movement and an economic approach that aims to make trade fair for the many small scale producers disadvantaged in international trade. This thesis explores the discursive devices used by fair trade organisations to promote fair trade. These devices have two roles: to promote an ethical connection from consumer to producer and to involve the consumer in the work of fair trade through purchasing behaviour and political action. This second role refers to the politicisation of consumption whereby shopping becomes an act of political solidarity with disadvantaged producers. I explore these devices through narrative analysis, focusing on a thematic analysis of Trade Aid’s publication, Vital. My research is framed by Michael Goodman’s (2004) work on the semiotic production of fair trade. The concept of a reflexive consumer is explored. This is the idea that consumer awareness of the conditions surrounding production can lead to purchasing decisions that reflect care for the distant producer. This opening up of the concept of consumption involves an active and engaged consumer who chooses to purchase fair trade because they feel a connection to the work of these organisations. I am interested in the particular form this information takes in Vital. I apply narrative research methods to explore the meta-narrative of fair trade promoted in Vital that tells the reader about the work of fair trade organisations, the impact this has on the lives of producer and how they can be involved in the story as a consumer and as a global citizen.
15
Mayer, Miriam. "Democratising the City: Technology as Enabler of Citizen-Led Urban Innovation." Thesis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/115908/1/Masterarbeit%20Miriam%20Mayer_final_opt.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This study deals with finding a way to enable citizen-led urban innovation through technology while concentrating on various aspects of controversial city developments. Therefore the literature concerning this topic is first investigated and current online systems designed for citizens to engage in city development decisions explored. In addition, literature, approaches and systems related to conflict resolution are also presented and discussed. By means of applying multiple design cycles, including several user studies, an online platform for citizens to elaborate controversial ideas for the city together was developed. These design cycles were focused on first finding a suitable process to elaborate on ideas and find consent. The process implementing this is tested during two workshops that portray the procedure that would be realised on the platform. Findings after each workshop are used to revise the process. In order to design a user interface that could implement such a process first an expert focus group was asked to brainstorm solutions for multiple design questions. Considering this input two platform mock-ups were created and shown to participants to receive feedback. A final prototype of the online platform was then implemented and tested in a final user study. During this study participants elaborated an idea together to test the whole resulting product, while being able to use the online platform in an in the wild setting. In spite of discovering how dependent the usage of the platform is on its users, the feedback received for the general idea of using an online platform to elaborate on ideas and find consent was overall positive.
16
(11022585), Bhavya Rathna Kota. "Investigation of GenerationZs' perception of Green Homes and Green Home Features." Thesis, 2021.
Find full textAbstract:
In recent years, there has been an increase in environmental awareness in the United States
leading to steady growth in environmentally conscious consumerism. These changes have come
in response to issues such as the energy crisis, climate change, exponential population growth, and
rapid urbanization. This fact is further supported by environmental campaigns and the green
movement. Looking to the future of green home marketing, understanding the green consumer
behavior of Generation Z (GenZ) is important for environmental and business reasons. The
purpose of this research is to better understand the perception of GenZ on Green Homes (GHs).
The study uses the lenses of dual inheritance and normative motivation theory to explain the
influence of benefits and norms related to environmentalism and sustainability on GenZ consumers’
green behavior. This study seeks to evaluate 1) GenZ’s preferences related to Green Home
Features (GHFs), 3) the extent of the influence of certain barriers on the adoption of GHFs, and 3)
the types of motivation (intrinsic, instrumental and non-normative) influencing GenZ towards
green home consumerism. Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire exclusively at
Purdue University during March – April of 2021 (IRB 2020-1414). One hundred sixteen GenZ participants
responded to the survey.The findings show that these GenZ consumers prefer a certain type of
GHFs over others. Additionally, based on descriptive tests of GHFs, energy-related features were
the most prized features, while the least preferred was water-efficient features. Descriptive tests
on barriers suggest that GenZ consumers perceive the lack of choice in selecting GHFs in their
homes to be a top barrier, followed by a lack of information and the perceived effort to analyze
GHFs. Inferential tests for the same indicated that GenZ consumers perceive these barriers
differently. Lastly, for GenZ consumers, intrinsic and non-normative motivations significantly
affect their willingness to buy GHs. The findings concur with previous studies on green consumer
behavior, yet they provide a new benchmark for understanding GenZ consumer behavior on GHs
and an updated view of what GHFs they prefer. This research can be used by home marketers and
policy makers to study future home trends, attract more potential homeowners to GHs, and help
create a sustainable environment for future generations.
17
Davy, Carol. "Primary health care: knowledge development and application in Papua New Guinea." 2009. http://arrow.unisa.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/unisa:38312.
Full textAbstract:
Research into the use of information by health care professionals has generally been conducted in countries dominated by the biomedical model. In these contexts, illness is considered to have a scientifically identifiable physical cause, and treatment practices within the formal health care sector are prescribed and managed in accordance with this definition. Yet there are also contexts where other belief systems inform and guide the way that people think about their health. In comparison to the biomedical model, these contexts have contributed very little to our understanding of how health professionals develop their knowledge. This research investigates how primary health care workers (PHCWs) in one such context, Papua New Guinea (PNG), develop their knowledge about the health services they provide. In order to discover and understand the differing views of these PHCWs, 69 semi-structured interviews were conducted in three culturally and geographically diverse regions of PNG. In explaining the diagnostic and treatment practices they use, these participants provided insights into not only how PHCWs engage with information but also how it informs their professional practice. These data were analysed, interpreted and discussed using a framework consisting of four, primary but interconnecting aspects: the context in which information was provided, the interactions with the sources of information, the processes by which information was understood, and the outcomes realized as a result of the information being used. Findings indicated that the majority of participants in this study acknowledged, if not incorporated, information pertaining to biomedicine, Christianity and Indigenous belief systems into their diagnostic and treatment practices. Even when these belief systems clearly contradicted each other, PHCWs did not in general feel the need to make a conscious choice between them. From their comments it would appear that four factors contributed to this ability to incorporate diverse and often conflicting ideas into the way that patients were cared for. First, all of the belief systems were considered legitimate by at least one group of people connected to the community in which the PHCW worked. Second, although varying in degrees of availability and accessibility, members of these groups were able to disseminate information pertaining to the belief system they supported. Third, the PHCW had no particular affiliation with any one of these groups but instead regularly interacted with a range of different people. Lastly, the PHCW worked in situations where health practices were not generally well supervised by their employers and therefore they were relatively free to choose between various diagnostic and treatment practices. The qualitative interpretive approach adopted in this thesis contributes to the field of human information behavior by affirming that conflict is in the eye of the beholder. When a number of belief systems coexist and all are considered legitimate, information about them is freely available, and the recipients actions are neither constrained by their own dogma, nor imposed upon by others, individuals may quite comfortably embrace diverse beliefs. These findings may also contribute to a better understanding of health management practices in developing countries by suggesting that health professionals are not merely personifications of a biomedical model. Instead, the study demonstrates that multiple belief systems can be combined by PHCWs, and that in turn this benefits the formal health care sector through increased treatment options that are both appropriate and effective in such circumstances.
18
(10746663), Samantha A. Peachey. "Examining Sexual and Relationship Satisfaction as Influenced by the Connection Between Sex Positivity and Perceived Discrimination for Sexual Minority Couples." Thesis, 2021.
Find full textAbstract:
The purpose of this research study was to look at the effects of perceived discrimination and sexual positivity on relationship and sexual satisfaction of sexual minority couples. The present study hypothesizes that there will be a moderating relationship between sexual positivity and perceived discrimination; higher levels of sexual positivity will predict higher relationship and sexual satisfaction, and perceived discrimination will negatively effect relationship and sexual satisfaction of couples with lower sexual positivity. Individuals who identify as a sexual minority were asked to participate in this study and answer survey questions pertaining to the level of satisfaction they experience in their romantic relationship and their sexual relationship, how sex positive the individuals are, and the amount of perceived discrimination that they experience; all through a minority stress lens. The results suggest that neither perceived discrimination nor the interaction between perceived discrimination and sexual positivity has a significant impact on the relationship and sexual satisfaction of sexual minority populations. However, the results of this study do suggest a statistically significant relationship between sexual positivity and relationship and sexual satisfaction of sexual minority couples.
19
(10270298), William S. Smith II. "Rethinking Internationalization." Thesis, 2021.
Find full textAbstract:
The following three articles in this dissertation challenge the current rationale of internationalization and makes the case for anew approach to internationalization within U.S. higher education. My first article delves deep into the rationale of internationalization in U.S. higher education over the years by way of U.S. study abroad. This analysis identifies and evaluates the multiple cause-and –effect relationships in a historical context in order to understand the origins that led to the expansion of internationalization efforts within U.S. higher education. My second article explores Mansilla and Gardner’s global consciousness framework as a viable solution to the issues that are currently plaguing internationalization efforts in U.S. higher education. I contend that the global consciousness framework provides an alternative approach to internationalization that is rooted in mindfulness rather than competiveness. Finally, my third article evaluates the impact of this proposed solution by examining how Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine students within the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine view their roles and careers in society after engaging with the global consciousness framework. Overall, these articles take a critical lens to our approach in preparing students for the global era.
20
(6564809), Elisabeth Krueger. "Dynamics of Coupled Natural-Human-Engineered Systems: An Urban Water Perspective on the Sustainable Management of Security and Resilience." Thesis, 2019.
Find full textAbstract:
The security, resilience and sustainability of water supply in urban areas are of major concern in cities around the world. Their dynamics and long-term trajectories result from external change processes, as well as adaptive and maladaptive management practices aiming to secure urban livelihoods. This dissertation examines the dynamics of urban water systems from a social-ecological-technical systems perspective, in which infrastructure and institutions mediate the human-water-ecosystem relationship.
The three concepts of security, resilience and sustainability are often used interchangeably, making the achievement of goals addressing such challenges somewhat elusive. This becomes evident in the international policy arena, with the UN Sustainable Development Goals being the most prominent example, in which aspirations for achieving the different goals for different sectors lead to conflicting objectives. Similarly, the scientific literature remains inconclusive on characterizations and quantifiable metrics. These and other urban water challenges facing the global urban community are discussed, and research questions and objectives are introduced in Section 1.
In Section 2, I suggest distinct definitions of urban water security, resilience and sustainability: Security refers to the state of system functioning regarding water services; resilience refers to ability to absorb shocks, to adapt and transform, and therefore describes the dynamic, short- to medium-term system behavior in response to shocks and disturbances; sustainability aims to balance the needs in terms of ecology and society (humans and the economic systems they build) of today without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations. Therefore, sustainability refers to current and long-term impacts on nature and society of maintaining system functions, and therefore affects system trajectories. I suggest that sustainability should include not only local effects, but consider impacts across scales and sectors. I propose methods for the quantification of urban water security, resilience and sustainability, an approach for modeling dynamic water system behavior, as well as an integrated framework combining the three dimensions for a holistic assessment of urban water supply systems. The framework integrates natural, human and engineered system components (“Capital Portfolio Approach”) and is applied to a range of case study cities selected from a broad range of hydro-climatic and socio-economic regions on four continents. Data on urban water infrastructure and services were collected from utilities in two cities (Amman, Jordan; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), key stakeholder interviews and a household survey conducted in Amman. Publicly available, empirical utility data and globally accessible datasets were used to support these and additional case studies.
The data show that community adaptation significantly contributes to urban water security and resilience, but the ability to adapt is highly heterogeneous across and within cities, leading to large inequality of water security. In cities with high levels of water security and resilience, adaptive capacity remains latent (inactive), while water-insecure cities rely on community adaptation for the self-provision of services. The framework is applied for assessing individual urban water systems, as well as for cross-city comparison for different types of cities. Results show that cities fall along a continuous gradient, ranging from water insecure and non-resilient cities with inadequate service provision prone to failure in response to extant shock regimes, to water secure and resilient systems with high levels of services and immediate recovery after shocks. Although limited by diverse constraints, the analyses show that urban water security and resilience tend to co-evolve, whereas sustainability, which considers local and global sustainable management, shows highly variable results across cities. I propose that the management of urban water systems should maintain a balance of security, resilience and sustainability.
The focus in Section 3 is on intra-city patterns and mechanisms, which contribute to urban water security, resilience and sustainability. In spite of engineering design and planning, and against common expectations, intra-city patterns emerge from self-organizing processes similar to those found in nature. These are related to growth processes following the principle of preferential attachment and functional efficiency considerations, which lead to Pareto power-law probability distributions characteristic of scale-free-like structures. Results presented here show that such structures are also present in urban water distribution and sanitary sewer networks, and how deviation from such specific patterns can result in vulnerability towards cascading failures. In addition, unbounded growth, unmanaged demand and unregulated water markets can lead to large inequality, which increases failure vulnerability.
The introduction of infrastructure and institutions for providing urban water services intercedes and mediates the human-water relationship. Complexity of infrastructural and institutional setups, growth patterns, management strategies and practices result in different levels of disconnects between citizens and the ecosystems providing freshwater resources. “Invisibility” of services to citizens results from maximized water system performance. It can lead to a lack of awareness about the effort and underlying infrastructure and institutions that operate for delivering services. Data for the seven cities illustrate different portfolios of complexity, invisibility and disconnection. Empirical data gathered in a household survey and key stakeholder interviews in Amman reveals that a misalignment of stakeholder perceptions resulting from the lack of information flow between citizens and urban managers can be misguiding and can constrain the decision-making space. Unsustainable practices are fostered by invisibility and disconnection and exacerbate the threats to urban water security and resilience. Such challenges are investigated in the context of urban water system traps: the poverty and the rigidity trap. Results indicate that urban water poverty is associated with local unsustainability, while rigidity traps combined with urban demand growth gravitate towards global unsustainability.
Returning to the city-level in Section 4, I investigate urban water system evolution. The question how the trajectories of urban water security, resilience and sustainability can be managed is examined using insights from hydrological and social-ecological systems research. I propose an “Urban Budyko Landscape”, which compares urban water supply systems to hydrological catchments and highlights the different roles of supply- and demand-management of water and water-related urban services. A global assessment of 38 cities around the world puts the seven case studies in perspective, emphasizing the relevance of the proposed framework and the representative, archetypal character of the selected case studies.
Furthermore, I examine how managing for the different dimensions of the CPA (capital availability, robustness, risk and sustainable management) determines the trajectories of urban water systems. This is done by integrating the CPA with the components of social-ecological system resilience, which explain how control of the different components determines the movement of systems through states of security and resilience in a stability landscape. Finally, potential feedbacks resulting from the global environment are investigated with respect to the role that globally sustainable local and regional water management can play in determining the trajectories of urban water systems. These assessments demonstrate how the impact of supply-oriented strategies reach beyond local, regional and into global boundaries for meeting a growing urban demand, and come at the cost of global sustainability and communities elsewhere.
Despite stark differences between individual cities and large heterogeneities within cities, convergent trends and patterns emerge across systems and are revealed through application of the proposed concepts and frameworks. The implications of these findings are discussed in Section 5, and are summarized here as follows:
1) The management of urban water systems needs to move beyond the security and resilience paradigms, which focus on current system functioning and short-term behavior. Sustaining a growing global, urban population will require addressing the long-term, cross-scale and inter-sector impacts of achieving and maintaining urban water security and resilience.
2) Emergent spatial patterns are driven by optimization for the objective functions. Avoiding traps, cascading failure, extreme inequality and maintaining global urban livability requires a balance of supply- and demand-management, consideration of system complexity, size and reach (i.e., footprint), as well as internal structures and management strategies (connectedness and modularity).
3) Urban water security and resilience are threatened by long-term decline, which necessitates the transformation to urban sustainability. The key to sustainability lies in experimentation, modularization and the incorporation of interdependencies across scales, systems and sectors.