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.

[pt] Muitas empresas brasileiras, estimuladas tanto por fatores internos quanto externos, têm buscado a expansão internacional como forma de atingir novos mercados e reduzir os riscos de concentração em um único mercado, além de outros fatores. O processo de internacionalização de firmas já estabelecidas tem sido explicado, desde a década de 1970, por teorias comportamentais e econômicas. Além disso, diversos autores exploraram a forma pela qual as empresas desenvolvem estratégias internacionais. No entanto, a literatura sobre internacionalização de empresas de países emergentes é ainda bastante limitada, havendo espaço para novos estudos que se preocupem com o tema. O presente estudo teve por objetivo, então, analisar as estratégias empresariais adotadas para expansão internacional. A metodologia adotada foi o estudo de caso único, baseado em múltiplas fontes de evidências. A empresa selecionada foi a Natura, atuante no setor de perfumaria e cosméticos, que vem ampliando seu processo de internacionalização. O recorte da pesquisa é longitudinal, tendo-se estudado o desenvolvimento histórico da empresa e de seu processo de internacionalização, explorando-se as estratégias adotadas no decorrer do mesmo. A análise consistiu inicialmente na elaboração de um relatório do caso. Em seguida, foi realizada uma análise baseada nas questões que nortearam a pesquisa. Os resultados mostram que a internacionalização da empresa seguiu um processo de tentativa e erro, e que o aprendizado obtido nos estágios iniciais levou ao desenvolvimento de uma estratégia de internacionalização que serviu como guia nas etapas subseqüentes do processo. / [en] Many Brazilian companies, stimulated by both internal and external factors, have sought international expansion as a way to reach new markets and reduce the risk of concentration in a single market, beyond other factors. The internationalization process of firms has been explained since the 1970s, for behavioral and economic theories. In addition, several authors have explored the way companies develop international strategies. However, the literature on internationalization of firms from emerging countries is still very limited, providing a place for new studies regarding this issue. This study aimed to analyze the business strategies adopted for international expansion. The methodology adopted was a single case study, based on multiple sources of evidence. The company selected was Natura, active in the field of perfumery and cosmetics, which has been expanding its internationalization process. The outline of the research is longitudinal, the historical development of the company and its internationalization process has been studied, exploring the strategies adopted. The first analysis consisted in preparing a case report. Next, we performed an analysis based on questions that guided the research. The results show that the internationalization of the company followed a process of trial and error, and the learning process in the early stages led to the development of an internationalization strategy that served as a guide in subsequent process steps.

Market-driven changes have led managers in Middle Eastern countries to globalize their local consumer brands to enhance and diversify their business opportunities. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used to globalize local brands to global brands. The criteria for participation included 15 executive directors and division heads from 3 companies in the consumer goods industry in Saudi Arabia used to globalize their brands. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with executive leaders, because each person possessed specialized knowledge of successful brand globalization strategies in the consumer goods industry. The interviewees also provided pertinent internal documents that traced the decision-making processes of their companies. The conceptual framework for this study was the Uppsala internationalization model, modified by organizational learning theory. The data were coded key words, phrases, and concepts identified through analysis software and organized into themes. Themes were interpreted by applying a case-study discussion format and comparing findings to published peer-reviewed research. The analyses revealed 5 major themes: focus on long-range strategic objectives, be flexible to adapt to market and environmental changes, satisfy consumer needs while expanding brand acceptance, standardize marketing of product attributes, and maintain quality assurances. The findings from this study could lead to social change by providing business leaders with information they need to become positive global citizens contributing to society through the generation of revenues, employment, and products for the betterment and benefit of society.

Approaching $400 billion for its establishment and production, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is the Department of Defense's (DoD) largest acquisition program in U.S. history. Unfortunately, significant delays have immobilized the program's production rate, and little research has examined whether and how such delays directly affect national security. The purpose of this study was to determine whether and how production delays in the JSF program directly affect national security. The theoretical foundations for this qualitative case study were Condorcet's modernization theory and Giddens's globalization framework. Data were collected from interviews with 15 senior DoD civilian, military, and JSF officials and were coded and categorized to identify themes and patterns related to the source of production delays and reasons behind their persistence. Data were triangulated using archival records and government research documents. Key findings revealed concurrency issues, Helmet Mounted Display malfunctions, engine concerns, scheduling mishaps, national security vulnerabilities, and astronomical funding outside of the budget. Such factors were responsible for fighter program delays, which affect national security. The results are deemed significant, as the fighter has been a critical 'piece to the puzzle' in the national security strategy as well as other national defense guidance issues. These findings have implications for social change in that they may inform senior DoD officials of policy-related concerns due to continued delays and their impacts on national security interests. Additionally, the study identifies concerns related to sustaining international partnerships that have significant interests embedded into this program.

Modernization theorists posit that rapid economic development can produce increased rates of homicide (Durkheim 1951 [1897]; 1984 [1902]; 1997 [1893]; Shelley 1981). As nations develop, individuals migrate to regions that have greater opportunities for employment. Here, they may experience conflicting norms, a lack of adequate housing and education, and possible underemployment. While modernization theory has been tested extensively, it has not accounted for the way in which nations currently develop. Many nations are recipients of inward foreign direct investment. This form of investment, by multi-national corporations, has produced economic growth, inequality, and urbanization in many countries (Bengoa and Sanchez-Robles 2003; Blomström et al. 1994; Campos and Kinoshita 2002; Sit and Yang 1997). These correlates, economic growth, inequality, and urbanization, have all been linked to homicide (Cole and Gramajo 2009; Nivette 2011). In an examination of up to 62 nations, inward foreign direct investment is found to promote urbanization and inequality. In separate analyses, urbanization is found to increase homicide - suggesting that foreign investment produces homicide by increasing urbanization. Several scholars have suggested that a strong civil society can mitigate societal ills (Currie 1997; Messner and Rosenfeld 1997). Analyses show that a strong civil society, represented by the presence of international-non-governmental organizations, is associated with decreased rates of homicide. The results suggest that nations should be cautious when receiving foreign investment. City infrastructure should be monitored to keep up with the needs of a rapidly growing population. International organizations that deal with issues of rapid growth, including those that provide access to housing and education and those that work at reducing inequality and poverty, should be sought after.

In late 19th century Norway, a small urban elite chose nature as a distinctive trait to define the young Norwegian nation. Ever since, this constructed nature mythology, based on real nature (dark forests, fjords and high mountains), has been a recurrent symbol equated with Norwegianness in the rhetoric of the nation. While this foundational narrative has been represented in most of the arts, it is depicted in a more complex manner in contemporary Norwegian films. Thus the main question in "Nature, Nation and the Global in Contemporary Norwegian Cinema" is the following. What is the relationship between Norwegian national culture (as established in national Romanticism) and contemporary Norwegian cinema in a globalization context? My hypothesis is that investigating the national category of nature in Norwegian films discloses Norwegian cinema as a transnational cinema. To this day, there has only been one major study on Norwegian nature mythology applied to literature and culture. However, the relation between nature and national identity in Norwegian cinema has not been the subject of a thorough study either in English or in Norwegian. Thus, "Nature, Nation and the Global in Contemporary Cinema" is the first study to investigate the representation of nature in Norwegian cinema in a global context. This dissertation thus fills a gap in providing a study of nature in Norwegian cinema. This dissertation joins other recent studies of a minor national cinema, originating in a small nation, that place their cinemas in a global context. Methodologically, I rely on cultural, genre, global, and transnational cinema studies. Each chapter takes one type of natural geography as a starting point (the wild forest, the sea and the mountain) in order to analyze how, in the film texts, each aspect of nature negotiates the local and the global contexts. Thus, each chapter creates a bridge between cinematic representations, Norwegian national and global culture. As a result, this project has demonstrated that the relationship between cinema and culture is complicated by the relationship both have cultivated with nature. This dissertation has confirmed that as a mode of representation cinema is fundamentally transnational, crossing borders and, thus, contradicts the attempts of national ideologies to contain culture and identities within enclosed borders. At the same time, I have shown that cinema and nature are equally transnational, fluid and porous and that they are places of negotiation between the local and the global.

This dissertation is a case study of the dissemination and circulation of Japanese popular cultures in the U.S., specifically focusing on the collective reception practices of individuals who identify as fans of Japanese animation, comic books, and video games. The key questions driving this project are: what difference does it make that young Americans are consuming popular cultures that are 1) international in origin and 2) specifically Japanese in origin? To answer these questions I carried out ethnographic research - such as subject interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation - to understand the significance of young adults' interest in Japanese animation and comic book works (usually referred to as "anime" and "manga," respectively). In response to my ethnographic investigation of U.S. fans' practices and experiences, I argue that many young Americans use their practices of consuming and circulating these international popular cultures to transform their immediate social landscapes, and therefore, their social and national identities as well. I also draw on methodologies from a variety of disciplines, pairing ethnographic fieldwork practices with audience reception and fandom studies, transnational media studies, and book studies approaches in order make connections between the social, cultural, performative, and national dimensions of Japanese popular culture fandom in the U.S. In addition to exploring subjects' relationship to the texts they consume, I also target the embodied spaces and processes by which Japanese popular culture is actually circulated and experienced by local U.S. audience groups. In doing so, I strive to follow the "digital life" Japanese popular culture has taken in its jump to English-language translation world-wide and the significant role fans have played in facilitating unofficial flows of Japanese popular culture through specific translation practices. I examine the scholarly and fandom struggle over ideological questions of the "authenticity" and "Americanization" of adaptations of Japanese media in the North American marketplace, as well as the struggle between fans and official adapters to assert forms of ownership over these representations. Such struggles involve these groups' often conflicting practices of adaptation, translation, and circulation of these cultures. This research adds an important dimension to current scholarship on cultural manifestations of globalization and so-called "Americanization" processes as I show how commodities from outside the U.S. are first received by U.S. audiences and then transformed through this audience's participatory engagement with the production and circulation of these works in the English language. As such, this research engages with key issues of cultural transmission, translation, practices of media localization, transnational flows, and identity formation and fandom.

In October, 2007, two hundred American educators traveled to Japan for three weeks as guests of the Japanese government under the Japanese Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Abroad program. The purpose of the trip was to increase understanding between the people of Japan and the United States; to enrich American and Japanese curricula with international perspectives; to encourage appreciation for the people, culture, and educational system of Japan; and to expand professional development opportunities for educators. Broadly speaking, these are the goals of global education. The question this qualitative case study examined is whether teachers who participate in isolated, short-term international professional development programs (such as JFMF) become more competent global educators or if the experience remains an isolated incident, referred to during a single, obligatory lesson presented to students each year. Questions pursued were how teachers incorporate such experiences into their curricula; how an isolated, short-term experience can contribute to the development of a global educator; and how teachers' perceptions of themselves and their responsibilities change as a result of cross-cultural experience. This study examined eight K-12 teachers as they experienced Japan and then returned to implement self-designed follow-on plans in their classrooms. Data was gathered through application materials, observations, interviews, and follow-on plans and revealed three categories: Anticipation details why the teachers applied for the JFMF program and what they expected to gain from the experience; Direct Impact examines the effect the experience had on teachers' curricula, students, and selves; and Deep Impact portrays the multiple realities experienced by the teachers through an anti-colonialist lens. In sum, a short international sojourn can positively effect teachers' perceptions of themselves and their responsibilities as educators. Beyond the obvious effects on these teachers, their curricula, and students, the experience underscored the need for more Americans to engage in international experiences. While being privy to the voices and perspectives of other nations and cultures can help us in our global social, political, and economic dealings, the greatest benefit from a program such as this is that it helps us gain a more accurate picture of ourselves, as individuals and as a nation.

This dissertation examined the relationship between food security status and cultural congruence and indicators of child growth and development in a rural mountain town in Costa Rica. Results show that children from food secure households are significantly shorter and shorter-legged than their food insecure counterparts. It is theorized that these findings correspond to low quality diets associated with increasing commodification of food systems in rural Costa Rica. Identity-based mechanisms are discussed as potential factors contributing to the increasing commodification of life through the encroachment of the global market economy.

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