The primary objective of the research is to examine the attempt of new urbanism principles to promote a sense of community through its pedestrian-oriented design guidelines of neighborhoods. The following questions will be addressed to examine the subject. First, do residents of a new urbanism neighborhood have a higher level of sense of community than residents of a typical suburban neighborhood? Second, is there an evidential support that pedestrian-oriented design features of new urbanism enhance the sense of community in a neighborhood? Finally, do residents of a pedestrian-oriented design neighborhood have more out-of-door activities in their neighborhood than residents of a typical suburban neighborhood? To examine the relationship between neighborhood design and sense of community, a comparative study was conducted in four subdivision neighborhoods located in the Houston metropolis, Texas. The first two neighborhoods exhibit pedestrian-oriented design principles and features of new urbanism, although each to different degrees. The other two neighborhoods are typical suburban neighborhoods that are not specifically designed to accommodate pedestrians and usually have less public spaces. The methods of collecting data are self-administered questionnaires, systematic observations, and unstructured interviews of residents in the four neighborhoods. The research findings provide evidence that the residents in pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods have a higher level of supportive acts of neighboring (SAON) and neighborhood attachment & weak social ties (NA&WST) than those of typical suburban neighborhoods. The findings also provide partial support for the relationships between the design factor (pedestrian-oriented design) and two dimensions of sense of community investigated-SAON and NA&WST. Additionally, the findings strongly indicate that the social processes, measured through selected demographic and nonenvironmental design variables, have their own unique and vital role on the sense of community in the neighborhoods, and that physical design has no impact on the way the social processes work on the sense of community in the neighborhood. The roles of physical design and social process are independent from each other. Finally, the results partially support the hypothesis that residents of pedestrian-oriented design neighborhoods have a higher level of out-of-door activities than residents of typical suburban neighborhoods.

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In an Idaho-based hospital, the registered nurse (RN) turnover rate in the float pool was excessively high. The purpose of this project was to examine the effect of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) on a RN's sense of community (SOC) in a float pool and an RN's intent to stay employed after attending an AI event. Although much had been written about nursing retention, AI, and SOC separately, there was nothing on how AI could be used to increase a RN's SOC or intent to stay employed. AI is a change management framework that has been used to engage employees in a meaningful way. The goal of this project was to engage RN float staff in a 6-hour AI workshop to generate ideas on improving the work environment. The SOC theory by McMillan and Chavis provided the context for measuring RN perception. It was anticipated that participation would lead to an increased SOC and an increased likelihood of staying employed in the float pool. The Sense of Community Index 2 survey was administered pre and postworkshop to a convenience sample of RNs (n = 22) recruited from the float pool. Additionally, RNs were asked before and after the workshop how likely they were to leave their current position in the next 12 months. Data analysis was a paired t test based on a 1-group pretest and posttest design. Demographic data were collected to describe the sample population. The results, although not statistically significant, showed both an increased SOC and an increased intent to leave following the AI workshop. The findings show that AI may be useful for increasing SOC. However, as a tool for nursing retention, both AI and SOC require better understanding. It is hoped this study will provide leaders with a starting point for further investigation into how AI and SOC can be used to improve the nursing work experience.

L'objectif de ce travail doctoral est de tester et d'expliquer l'influence des bénéfices que les membres perçoivent dans les communautés virtuelles de support initiées par les entreprises sur leurs intentions comportementales à l'égard de ses produits. Une étude ethnographique a d'abord été menée et a complété les enseignements tirés de la revue de littérature. Ensuite, une collecte de données quantitative a été menée sur des communautés virtuelles des éditeurs des logiciels. A l'issue des résultats de la recherche, nous avons principalement démontré que les bénéfices perçus par les membres favorisent leurs intentions de réachat et de recommandation des produits de l'entreprise sous conditions que cette dernière participe activement dans les activités de sa communauté. Par ailleurs, cette influence positive s'opère aussi à travers le sentiment communautaire du membre. / The objective of this doctoral work is to test and to explain the influence of the benefits that are paid to members in virtual communities of support initiated by companies on their behavioral intentions with respect to its products. An ethnographic study was first conducted and completed the lessons learned from the literature review. Then, quantitative data collection was conducted on virtual communities of software publishers. At the end of the search results, we mainly demonstrated that the benefits received by members promote their intentions of reachat and recommendation of the products of the company under conditions that the latter actively participates in the activities of its community. Moreover, this positive influence also operates through the community feeling of the Member.

During the last decades, sustainable development has generated a growing attention in the world.Eco-city projects, as a step towards practical application of sustainable development theories, havesprung up in various defined spaces. Besides the technical achievements in environmentalsustainability, it is also necessary to develop social sustainability in human habitats. The initialmotivation of this study was to present Augustenborg as an example for other projects to borrowexperience. Based on the PEBOSCA framework, the theoretical system of sense of community,and the interdisciplinary theories of sustainable community development, the study assessed anexisting sustainable community - Augustenborg considering the sense of community by utilizingliterature review and field study. Furthermore, residents’ needs and participation management, twotopics were discussed in an interdisciplinary way to help to optimize sustainable process incommunities.

The first encounter with the ¡§Green Map¡¨ was astonishing because it entailed learning about our environment through caring for the land and the ecosystem. Such a simple tool, and yet it activates a wonderful power and becomes a long and lasting effect. Through the process, the researcher became a promotional instructor and set the research goal as the effects of the ¡§Green Map.¡¨ The literature review on the ¡§Sense of Community¡¨ reveals that most concentrate on dissecting the formation of the sense of community. The researches often look into the various factors that affect the sense of community. The goal of this research was to see the effects of drafting the ¡§Green Map¡¨ on the ¡§sense of community¡¨ through the viewpoint of a ¡§community medium.¡¨ It further compared the different results obtained from a ¡§country-style community¡¨ (the ¡§Zhu-wei Community¡¨) and a ¡§city-style community¡¨ (the ¡§Fu-shan Community¡¨) during the same process of drafting the ¡§Green Map,¡¨ both during and after the process. The sampling masses of this research were the ¡§Zhu-wei Community¡¨ (a country-style community) and the ¡§Fu-shan Community¡¨ (a city-style community). General analyses revealed the differences in the sense of community by pre- and post-tests were more uniform for the residents of the Zhu-wei Community and more diverse for those of the Fu-shan Community. The induced effects after the drafting of the Green Map were evident in ¡§Community Participation,¡¨ ¡§Community Identity,¡¨ and ¡§Neighborhood Interaction¡¨ for the Zhu-wei Community; and were significant in ¡§Community Participation¡¨ and ¡§Community Identity¡¨ for the Fu-shan Community. Post-test feedback revealed clearly that for both Zhu-wei Community and Fu-shan Community, participants all agreed that the drafting of the Green Map affected the sense of community. This is especially true for ¡§Environmental Thinking,¡¨ ¡§Environmental Sustainability,¡¨ ¡§Activity Participation,¡¨ and ¡§Community Identity.¡¨ The results indicated a high degree of change in recognition. In general, the scale of the change is greater in the Zhu-wei Community than in that of the Fu-shan community. This research concluded that the ¡§Green Map¡¨ showed significant impact on the ¡§sense of community.¡¨ The results are beneficial to the current simple and effective way of promotion by using the ¡§Green Map¡¨ as the medium to concentrate the sense of community. It is advised that in order to push policies forward, the training programs on the macro-construction of communities should include promotional courses on the ¡§Green Map¡¨ and to cultivate seed instructors to serve as promotional manpower.

The community empowerment is a process of improvement of community power through the professional assistance and training to inspire residents to develop the collective power, community participation and to create the culture characteristics. However, the concept of social capital was not focused and analyzed in traditional community discussion. That is, this research not only distinguishes the relation between community empowerment and sense of community, the factor of social capital is also added to investigate influence among all factors. Finally, this research proposes some related suggestions as a reference for future policy in Integrated Community development filed. The objective of this research is focused on the Gang-kou village, Siao-gang district, Kaohsiung City, and 208 questionnaires are investigated. Factor analysis, the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient, Cluster analysis are employed and several focal points are found: (1) There is significance between the correlations between sense of community with empowerment cognition, and social capital with empowerment cognition. (2) The correlation between basic characters of residents (such as sex, age, time of living (residential period), occupation, and accommodation) and empowerment cognition are significant. (3) In terms of Cluster analysis, the empowerment cognition is divided into three groups, ¡§high collective efficiency cognition¡¨, ¡§high community recourse cognition¡¨, and ¡§high self-recourse cognition¡¨. It reveals the differences between sense of community and the eight factors of social capital in the ANOVA test are all significant. The resident should be able to develop their own characteristics, employing the ability of independence, self-supports, and self-restraints with empowerment and social capital to create the opportunities of community growth and collective cooperation. In accordance with the research results, five recommendations are proposed: (1) to activate and deepen the empowerment training model for residential talents to strengthen the community¡¦s identification and to create and to cultivate common values; (2) to condense community care by connecting community nets (webs) and information communicating systems; (3) to improve the community participation by holding the localized activities; (4) the empowerment results in positive effects on self-confidence of residents; (5) the impacts of family interaction on empowerment should be emphasized.

Since 1987, the interaction between the cross-strait turned into a varied pattern. The political interactions displayed an absent status in each of particular periods. However, on another side, the lower level of the economic, trade, social and cultural integration aspects between the strait has become more interdependent and animated. In reviewing theories of the cross-strait relationship, this paper will take the approach of the integration theories, and employ the viewpoint of Karl W. Deutsch of the Communications. The paper also attempts to examine the critical factors that have influenced the integration on the relations between China and the Taiwan in the integration system. And have a thorough understanding of the effect and development in the integration process. The conclusion is that the integration situation has been separated into two sides of pro-independence and pro-unification. The aspect of political integration is in the position to choose one side or the other while non-political aspects of economic, society, and culture have developed to closed relationship. In other words, this paper will explore how the two actors interact from lower politics to higher politics such as political integration and cooperation.

The purpose of this study was to understand residents¡¦ sense of community and their cognition of community empowerment of metropolitan communities, and to investigate the relationship between residents¡¦ sense of community and their cognition of community empowerment in He-ti Community, Kaohsiung City. Hopefully, this study might offer related suggestions to boost community empowerment of metropolitan communities. The methodology of this study was using questionnaire survey to collect data on the He-ti Community for analysis. The subjects of this study were community residents of 20 year-old and above. ¡§Questionnaire about residents¡¦ sense of community and their cognition of community empowerment¡¨, which was developed and based on related literatures, was adopted as tool for this survey. 600 questionnaires were issued while 505 valid questionnaires were received, with valid sample rate 84.17¢H. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: 1. Residents of the community have the above average degree on sense of community, especially on the ¡§community identification¡¨ domain, but the domain of ¡§community familiarity¡¨ in need of improvement. 2. The cognition of community empowerment among the residents¡¦ are below the middle with the highest on the domain of ¡§actual boost¡¨ and the lowest on the domain of ¡§policy content¡¨. 3. The residents of male, the age above 50, the education below junior high school, married, having children with the age below 18, with house self-having and filling the autonomy post, have higher degree of sense of community. 4. The residents of male, the age between 50 and 59, having no children with age below 18, living in community 5~9 years and filling the autonomy post, have higher degree on cognition of community empowerment. 5. There is a positive correlation between residents¡¦ sense of community and their cognition of community empowerment. 6. Residents¡¦ sense of community has a significant prediction on their cognition of community empowerment. The prediction capacity of factor ¡§community concern¡¨ is the highest with the factor ¡§community familiarity¡¨ the second highest. Based upon the above conclusions, this study offers several related suggestions to the governments, community autonomies and future researchers for their reference to boost ulterior community empowerment and researches.

Sport providers should be concerned with the participant experience, and in particular extraordinary experiences, as they have the potential to shift participant behaviors and attitudes to those desired by sport organizations. Extraordinary experiences are characterized by interpersonal interactions, separation from the usual, and feelings of self-transformation or personal growth (Arnould & Price, 1993). Due to the power, intensity, and transformative effects of these experiences, they can generate lasting shifts in beliefs and attitudes (Schouten, McAlexander & Koenig, 2007). This research project examined the relationship between the extraordinary experience and the personal transformation by examining the characteristics of the experience and impacts on participants. Texas 4000 is a community of cancer fighters who “train, fundraise, educate, and bring hope to those with cancer” for one year before their experience culminates with a 4,000 mile bike ride. University students apply to participate, and once accepted they begin planning, fundraising, volunteering and training for their ride to Alaska. Along the ride, they interact with members of the communities they pass through to spread “hope, knowledge, and charity.” Over 400 individuals have completed the ride within the last ten years. For this study, alumni participated in in-depth interviews about their experience and how it impacted their life. Participant impacts included feelings of empowerment, new perspectives and appreciations, a sense of meaning and purpose, and strong relationships that resulted in a sense of community with other riders, the organization, and the larger cancer community. Importantly, participants’ history and backgrounds influenced how participants interacted with the community and the impacts that they felt. Additionally, the extraordinary experience of the ride created enduring change in participants; the preparation for the extraordinary experience was not as impactful and merely allowed participants to develop the necessary skills to participate in the summer ride. / text