With millions of people involved in collecting and treating recyclable products, waste recycling provides a critical entry point to an investigation of the spaces and dynamics of the Chinese economy. Based on sixteen months of in-depth ethnographic research, this thesis, 'Invisible spaces: variegated geographies of waste in China', describes and analyses waste and its boundaries, as well as the actors that deal with it at different scales within the country. The work examines how waste circulates, how it is regulated, and how it is represented in China. It presents stories of the people and places that configure the waste industry, and situates its analysis at the intersection of three different strands of literature: i) variegated capitalism; ii) informal economy; and iii) geographies of waste. The research contends that the 'afterlives' of goods are a productive prism which can be used to understand the variegated mode of capitalism in contemporary China and thus investigates the following question: to what extent do the different cultural, social, political, economic, and material dimensions of waste reveal the heterogeneous characteristics of Chinese capitalism? Central to my analysis is the concept of invisibility. I conceive invisibility as a socio- political process that brings about an uneven access to resources and labour for subaltern groups, as well as a relational concept encompassing the three complementary and dialectical dimensions of absolute, relative, and relational space. Invisibility is not only a metaphor to define the agency of informal workers, but also an allegory to describe the marginalisation of their activities and spaces. It is an asset and a curse, a condition and a strategy. These multiple dimensions make invisibility a productive device bringing to light the geographies of different accumulation regimes and everyday practices, as well as a potent tool to analyse the alternative representations of waste, value, labour, and development at play in contemporary China. With this in mind, the thesis engages with a number of important debates in geography. In particular, the five empirical chapters engage with literature on global production networks, labour geography, primitive accumulation, geographies of waste, and urban political ecology. While drawing these literatures into conversation with the variegated capitalism framework, the work suggests that the invisibility of waste activities is a powerful tool to analyse the nature and the mechanisms of the variegated modes of production in contemporary China.

A district-wide school garden project has been initiated in the Toledo District of Southern Belize in response to reported high rates of poverty and undernutrition. This paper will discuss research conducted in the summer of 2007 with Q'eqchi' Maya in the Toledo District to determine the effect of school gardens on household diet and gardening, the composition of the household diet, and the makeup of homegardens. Food frequency questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted in two rural villages, one with a school garden program and one without. Various members of NGOs working on school garden projects in the district were also interviewed about the functionality and purpose of the projects. Results discussed herein include the limited effects of the school garden program, the role that both homegardens and school gardens play in household diet and nutrition, the diverse array of fruit trees utilized by the Q'eqchi, and a description and inventory of a typical Q'eqchi' homegarden in Belize.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

My broadest aim in this thesis is to explore some of the central ethical concerns of social anthropologists vis-a-vis the phenomena of development. In particular, what I want to bring out and examine is the dynamics of the 'moral experience' and 'moral force' of anthropologists in this area. I go about this by considering the historical unfolding of the anthropological conceptual and evaluative apprehension of planned social and economic change. On this basis, I also consider the nature of the critiques and contributions that social anthropology has generated. I also make an attempt to review the major conceptual moral controversies and agendas that are intrinsic to development from an anthropological perspective. Whilst the concepts and values that emanate from social anthropology are multi-faceted and many stranded, I believe that the anthropological standpoint is both distinctive and potentially counter hegemonic. I look specifically at the moral resources that can be unearthed from the emerging field of 'development ethics' which is largely articulated in terms of the maxims that are fundamental to Western moral and political traditions. I attempt to set out the terrain of the ethical deliberation of anthropologists involved in development in terms of some of the moral difficulties of Western society. I argue that Western moral reasoning, as a result of deep disagreements about the sources of value human life and society, tends to rely upon procedural, instrumental and coercive ethical frameworks. On this basis, one of my assertions is that communitarian arguments, whilst also being needed as a healthy antidote to the excesses of liberal individualism, also constitute a reflection of the aspirations of people(s), many of whom are beleaguered by the alienation, atomism and instrumentalism of modern society. The communitarian perspective also underpins a political commitment to supporting those besieged indigenous communities that struggle to defend their integrity in the face of the aggressive intrusions of the market mentality. This may involve supporting the maintenance of 'traditional' versions of moral reasoning, well being, and sociality (such as indigenous life-worlds), collective rights in the face of the fragmentary and individuating neo-liberal development policies, and to support the 'construction of new associative networks such as 'new social movements' that represent the aspirations, and embody the values, of marginalised and disempowered social groups.

The quality of workplace morale can positively and negatively affect employee engagement. Engaged employees are more likely to participate in active communication with one another. They are also more likely to adopt the organizational goals and work towards creating a productive work environment. Communication and engagement build trust. Established trust between employees and executive leadership is a delicate relationship to maintain, though it is necessary when contending with periods of stress. The organization profiled below experienced the stressor of needing to grow without alienating those afraid of change or used to operating in one predictable direction. There was a desire to generate engagement, build trust and make room for employee-directed change. This desire left the organization open to exploring its culture and its impact on employee engagement.

Beginning in the 1930's a debate emerged within the American Anthropological Association over applied versus pure research. With a few exceptions the members refused to endorse or support the attempt to introduce applied anthropology as a discipline recognized by the Association. This refusal resulted in the creation of a separate organization, the Society for Applied Anthropology, in 1941. In order to prove the validity of their discipline the members of the Society needed an opportunity. That opportunity appeared with the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal of Japanese-Americans from the west coast. Members of the Society believed the employment of applied anthropologists by the War Relocation Authority would demonstrate the value of their discipline. When provided with this opportunity, however, applied anthropology failed.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 323 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This dissertation reports the activities, methods, and key findings of a doctoral research project in applied anthropology and an environmental anthropology fellowship. The research project was conducted through the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, while the fellowship was sponsored jointly by the Society for Applied Anthropology and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and was conducted through the Great Lakes Fellowship Program of the Great Lakes Commission, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Together, these projects demonstrated the utility of an ethnographic approach called Risk Perception Mapping (RPM) to the public consultation and social research interests of the Commission and its associated network of environmental management agencies and organizations. / Through consultation with these organizations I identified an environmental management problem to which anthropological perspectives and methods would be particularly well-suited: Can the undesirable social phenomenon of environmental discrimination be minimized by assuring greater equality in access to public participation in environmental management? To address this problem, I conducted an RPM demonstration project in a five county area surrounding the Fermi II nuclear power plant in southeastern Michigan. My research focused on cultural, geographical, and social-contextual factors that influence the nature and distribution of perceived risk among populations that are potentially affected by environmental management projects. Key findings pertain to perceptually-specific communities of environmental risk and have implications for what I call "participatory equity" in environmental management. / Potential applications to Great Lakes environmental management center on developing equitable population-specific exchanges of information through which more culturally sensitive indicators of Great Lakes ecosystem integrity may emerge. Anthropological contributions to public participation in environmental management are discussed with particular attention to anthropological perspectives on the multiple publics that comprise locally affected communities of environmental risk. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Recent developments in the field of education have led to a proliferation of educational technologies (or “ed-tech”), yet access to educational content for students with special needs remains a challenge. This research study aims to assess the current state of accessibility in emerging ed-tech and to identify barriers in enabling educational content to be born accessible. Detailed discussions with various ed-tech platforms revealed less of a need for technical tools, but a more prevailing need for knowledge and education around accessibility – what it means and how best to incorporate accessibility into their platforms. The more experienced teams advocate incorporating accessibility into product development right from the design phase, while the younger teams expressed challenges in navigating accessibility laws and the dire need for easy-to-follow guidelines and best practices. A detailed review of educators' content creation processes reveals multiple dependencies in the ecosystem of ed-tech where partnerships and compatibilities are crucial in enabling accessibility throughout the process. Likewise, an urgent need exists for increasing awareness of accessibility among instructors authoring educational content using emerging ed-tech.

Education reform initiatives continue to push schools to improve methods of measuring accountability intended to improve student achievement in the United States. Federal programs like the Teacher Incentive Find (TIF) provide school districts with funds to develop and implement school accountability and leadership programs. Teacher leadership is one of the concepts being formally developed amongst these initiatives. My applied thesis project focused on work I conducted with a team of researchers at American Institutes for Research, where we evaluated a teacher leadership program in its third year of implementation. Teacher leadership is facilitated through distributive leadership. School leaders distribute responsibilities that provide teachers with opportunities to extend their expertise outside of their own classrooms. My thesis explores teacher leadership roles and investigates implementation across the client school district. It also discusses how particular anthropological theories about communities of practice, learning, and identity can provide a foundation for conceptualizing teacher leadership implementation and the social interactions between program actors.

<p></p><p>The objective of this dissertation is to highlight the way history is taught in Perú, more specifically in Chavín de Huántar. As well as bring to the light the complex dynamics that revolve around this teaching, including the education system and the archaeological, local, and national government policies. This study becomes important in a world where Indigenous Peoples and women continue to be excluded from historical narratives made for the public. The main motivation to conduct this work was the need to decolonize the way history is taught and transform it into an empowering topic that can potentially contribute to a more just world. </p><p>The aim of this research project was to answer the following research questions: (a) What do children in Chavín de Huántar, Perú know about their local past? (b) How do different institutions, organizations, and community members influence such teachings? and (c) How can archaeologists contribute to a more empowering and less oppressive teaching of the past? To accomplish this objective an ethnography of learning with a critical epistemology was conducted during August 2016 and August 2017. This ethnography included participant observation, semi-structured interviews, photo and drawing elicitation with children, and two outreach projects (a summer camp and a teacher workshop). This work also includes a large number of photographs to contextualize the reader and make her/him/they feel more present at Chavín during my research, while I describe the surroundings and circumstances in which learning occurred while I was there. </p><p>This dissertation is divided in seven chapters. Chapter one provides the reader with a literature and theoretical background, while in chapter two I provide a general discussion and context of Chavín de Huántar as a town and as the archaeological UNESCO world heritage site with the same name. Chapter three will be dedicated to describing the methods used throughout this ethnography and applied public archaeological outreach. In chapter four, I begin to answer the proposed research questions. While in Chapter seven I will provide final remarks and conclusions. </p><p>My research and analysis has brought to light that children in Chavín de Huántar have a basic understanding of Chavín as a “Golden-Age”. This time period is promoted by the local and national government to incentivize tourism as well as what most archaeological work is concentrated on. In addition, local and national institutions mostly concentrate on this time period ignoring over 3000 years of local history, with some exceptions, especially the National Museum of Chavín. In addition, the political and communication problems between the town and the archaeological project “Research and Conservation project in Chavín de Huántar” influence strongly the lack of knowledge children and other community members have about the archaeological site. </p><p> </p><p>Although there is a constant blaming among the institutions of whose fault it is that children do not now too much about their history, my research provided evidence that in each one of these institutions there are people willing to work in collaboration in order to benefit children. In chapter six, I will provide details about two projects created and implemented in collaboration: a summer camp and a teachers’ workshop. These projects seemed to be well received in the community but more like them need to continue in order to have sustainable results. However, these projects proved that collaboration is possible and necessary. I conclude this dissertation providing recommendations for numerous stakeholders in Chavín de Huántar and in Perú, including the archaeological project, the municipality of Chavín, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Education. </p><p></p>