Volunteerism is a popular form of community engagement among youth and can involve helping organizations, such as nonprofits, as well as directly assisting neighbours or friends through informal types of helping. A large body of research has examined the different ways in which economic, social, and cultural resources impact on volunteerism. Fewer studies have considered the influence of place characteristics. This dissertation comprises three studies. The first study used secondary data to explore the moderating effects of urban/rural place of residence and certain resources (e.g., religiosity, work status) on youths’ volunteer propensity and intensity. Results revealed significant urban/rural interactions. For example, belonging to youth groups (versus not) was particularly a strong lever for rural youth volunteerism, while higher religious attendance frequency was associated with greater volunteer intensities for urban youth. The second study used a mixed methods approach to investigate urban/rural differences in motivations for and barriers to volunteering, and skills acquired. Financial costs were associated with nonvolunteer status for rural youth, while urban nonvolunteers reported lacking interest. During the interviews, youth described reasons for volunteering, challenges to volunteering, and strategies to improve volunteerism. These discussions differed by urban/rural residence. Rural youth reported more contextual barriers, whereas urban youth questioned the significance of their impact. Rural youth discussed volunteering more as a general learning experience, whereas urban youth tended to mention specific skills they acquired (e.g., technical, interpersonal). In the third study, the relationships between perceptions of the neighbourhood environment (e.g., cohesion, amenities) and volunteer outcomes were explored. Results revealed that neighbourhood cohesion was particularly important to informal volunteering. Further, different clusters emerged based on volunteer type (informal/formal) and level of intensity. The findings from this dissertation suggest that understanding youth volunteerism within a socio-ecological perspective can widen our understanding of the volunteer process, including antecedents, challenges, experiences, and outcomes. This research may have practical implications for nonprofit organizations. For example, methods of outreach should consider how the environment impacts on volunteerism when trying to recruit young volunteers. Finally, the literature on youth volunteerism may benefit by adopting a holistic approach to volunteerism that considers the different ways in which place characteristics, rather than only individual-level factors, influence youth community engagement.

This qualitative study was designed to explore the transition experiences of youth with learning disabilities (LD) educated in the province of Ontario and their families. The primary purpose of this research was to understand what influences the decisions adolescents who have LD make about post-secondary education and employment goals and paths. The expectations and experiences of youth with LD and their families during the transition process were investigated. Adolescents and their parents were the main informants. Facilitators and barriers to the process in terms of each of the systems described in Bronfenbrenner ecological theory and Turnbull and Turnbull’s family systems theory were also examined. A case study method was used in the design of this research and data were collected following Seidman’s three-interview process. Five families consisting of the youth with LD, at least one parent, and in four cases, a sibling participated in this study. The questions focused on family interactions, roles, and the decision-making process. Data from the 18 participants were coded and arranged according to the research questions which were linked to the central ideas in the theoretical framework. The findings revealed that parents’ expectations influenced the decision-making about post high school goals and paths by the youth and their families. In contrast to previous research, it was found that parents’ expectations were generally high for their children with LD and were shaped by their own post high school experiences. The dynamics of family relationships and roles during transition planning depended on the time of diagnosis of LD (primary grades vs. senior high school), attitudes towards LD by the parents, advocacy by parents, self-advocacy abilities of the youth with LD, and the nature of relations among siblings. Additionally, none of the youth with LD had a formal transition plan and the data showed that teachers could facilitate or hinder the transition process. Also emerging from the data were three types of advocacy that were practised by parents. The study findings add to our knowledge about the transition process and in particular how decisions are made and the factors that influence them. Moreover, this study gives a voice to youth with LD and their families as they described their transition experiences to post-secondary education or employment.

In this thesis I aim to query the Ecological Modernisation vision of green growth by focusing on the emblematic case of desalination technology as the solution to the threat of water scarcity. I focus the study on a drought crisis, which resulted in the adoption of desalination in the Eden District Municipality (EDM) of South Africa. Focusing on the towns of Sedgefield and Knysna, in the Knysna Local Municipality (KLM) of the EDM, I ask the questions of ‘what, how, by whom, why and to what end was desalination adopted?’. This interrogation is characterised by two movements, firstly tracing the process and mechanism through which this consensus was manufactured; and secondly countering this by examining the underlying metabolic relations constituting crisis and solution. The research was carried out over a period of 11 months, from October 2011 to August 2012, during which I undertook 91 semi-structured interviews, extensive document analysis and participant observation. The theoretical strands drawn upon are a blending of post political theory, to inform an analysis of the techno-managerial orientation of consensus manufacture; and a Marxian relational ontology, to examine what is produced and foreclosed by the logic. This project is undertaken in five parts. Firstly, I show that the dominant representation of 'drought crisis' insisted upon the indisputability of drought as a threat posed by an externalised nature. Next, in examining the metabolism of drought I counter this narrative by showing the drought crisis to be a socio-natural assemblage, rather than an externalised threatening nature. This is a vital finding, showing that the support for the adoption of desalination technology as a necessary response to 'nature's crisis', pivoted on the maintenance of an ideological fiction, obscuring the relational 'becoming' of drought. In the third chapter, moving on to an examination of the solution, it emerges that an essential aspect of the solidification of consensus was the employment of exceptional disaster and environmental legislation which had the effect of neutralising drought as 'nature's crisis' and desalinationas the indisputable solution. Enabling the urgent release of disaster funding to ensure water security for economic growth. This chapter also argues that the maintenance of the dominant crisis narrative produced an opportunity for the desalination industry, by treating 'nature' as a direct accumulation strategy. In the remaining two empirical chapters I evaluate the 'promise' of the desalination techno-fix. Through focusing on the conditionality placed on disaster funding and how this impacted on project assembly, resulting in problems and costs emerging out of the desalination solution from the outset. Fundamentally, it is argued that, rather than being external to, these problems are intrinsically connected to the mechanisms and logic through which consensus emerged in the first place. To clarify, through the preceding chapters it was shown that the basis for the 'disaster funding' release was an insistence on 'nature's crisis', as an ideological fiction. These remaining chapters show that this had the effect of placing limitations on what was spent on, when, and how much. Thereby informing project assembly, with these constraints resulting in problems emerging out of the solution. In sum, the thesis concludes that the adopted E.M. logic was a false promise that served to intensify the penetration of nature by capital, resulting in a deeper movement into crisis by moving the problems around as opposed to resolving them.

This study examines the relationship between ecological sustainability and violent conflict at both the interstate and intrastate level. In particular, this study explores the effect of ecological sustainability of a society on the initiation and the occurrence of violent conflict. By developing a theory, which is named "Eco-peace," this study hypothesizes that the more ecologically sustainable the socioeconomic system of societies, the less likely the society is to initiate interstate conflict. Regarding intrastate conflict, it is hypothesized that the more ecologically sustainable the mode of development pursued by the Third World society is, the more likely that society is to experience intrastate conflicts. To test the hypotheses, this study conducts cross-national time-series analyses for 97-127 countries. Negative binomial and Poisson models are used for interstate conflict during 1960-2001, and logit and rare event logit models are used for intrastate conflict during 1960-1999. Militarized interstate dispute dataset and Uppsala Armed Conflict Program dataset are employed for interstate and intrastate conflict. For ecological sustainability, Ecological sustainability factor index and Environmental sustainability index are used. Through the analyses, this study found the supports for the theoretical argument that the ecologically unsustainable modes of development cause the initiation of interstate conflict and the incidence of intra-state conflict in the Third World.

Masters of Art / The aim of this study was to investigate indigenous knowledge of vegetation resource utilisation, in particular the use of traditional medicinal plants in the provision of health care in the community of Khayelitsha and to determine traditional resource management approaches. / South Africa

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Early childhood development has been recognised to be the most important contributor to long-term social and emotional development. Whatever occurs in a child‘s life in the early years may be an indicator of the child‘s developmental trajectory and life-course. Therefore positive parenting is paramount to foster quality parent-child interaction. However, previous research shows that for parents to adopt a positive parenting style, some degree of parental knowledge is required. The aim of this study was to compare the relationship between knowledge of child development and parenting styles in low and high socio-economic groups of parents in early childhood development centres. The study used a mixed methods approach with a two-phased sequential exploratory design. A systematic review was conducted in phase 1 followed by a quantitative study for phase 2. The sample consisted of N = 140 parents with children between 2-5 years old from low and high socio-economic groups. The participants completed the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory (KIDI-P) and Parenting Styles Dimension Questionnaire (PSDQ). Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation were used to analyze the data. Findings of the study show that the authoritative parenting style is the prevalent parenting style in both low and high socio-economic groups. Furthermore the results indicate that parents are fairly knowledgeable across all subscales for both the low and high socio-economic group with a significant difference in degree of knowledge with the high socio-economic group being more knowledgeable than the low socio-economic group. The findings also show that there in no correlation between knowledge of child development and authoritative parenting styles. However correlations do exist between the other variables.

This research assesses changes in Canada’s national park system between the years 2000-2015 and places these changes within the broad social, political, and economic context in Canada, as well as within trends in international conservation policy and practice. The animating research questions include: how did Parks Canada respond in the fifteen years following the report of the 2000 Panel on Environmental Integrity? What political, economic, and cultural factors influenced Parks Canada Agency in this period? A further research question emerged from my findings: Why has it been so hard for Parks Canada to lead with ecological integrity as its first priority? Through a political ecological lens, the research utilizes a mixed methods approach. Using semi-formal interviews with retired Parks Canada managers, I was able to establish what had changed and how these changes were interpreted by these former employees. I also interviewed environmental NGOs to gather information on how those outside the Agency viewed the changes taking place within Parks Canada. I then collected and reviewed primary Parks Canada documents to establish the main changes, including of policy, as well as budgets and expenditures. My research found that in this period, despite efforts to shift the culture of the organization of Parks Canada to ecological integrity (EI) the Agency deepened its emphasis on visitor experience. The most recent "decade of change" in Canadian national parks policy and practice is thus reminiscent of the century-long struggle to determine whom or what parks are for and the role that Parks Canada plays in the production of Canadian identity. Although we are tempted to conclude that the decades repeat themselves like a pendulum swinging between “use” and “preservation,” this analysis suggests that this decade of change is distinct from the previous decades, with the institution increasingly emphasizing its role as nation-builder and tourism provider. This research purposes that a kind of Polanyian “double movement” is playing out on a new foundational terrain characterized by neoliberal solutions for conservation, a terrain influenced by a broader, global neoliberal transformation within state institutions. / Graduate / 2021-05-18

BACKGROUND: There is significant evidence supporting a link between excessive digital media use and adverse mental health outcomes. Since the average American teenager spends approximately 7 hours a day using digital media, this relationship has become of considerable interest in the field of public health. Studies have shown that anxiety and depression may both be associated with increased screen time as well as with Problematic Internet Use (PIU). PIU refers to a set of symptoms related to an individual’s inability to control their use of the Internet and appears to have characteristics of both substance use disorders and impulse control disorders. However, research on PIU has many limitations, including the lack of formal diagnostic criteria, unequal gender representation in study samples, and the relative dearth of studies conducted in adolescents, especially those with pre-existing mental health issues due to their status as a protected population. This study aims to address these limitations in existing literature through use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA), a research method that samples participants in their own environment repeatedly using one of various data collection methods (e.g. paper and pencil diary, text message surveys, app-based surveys). The specific aims of this study were: 1) to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a six-week daily EMA protocol in a clinical population of adolescents and young adults using a smartphone application, 2) to describe the relationship between PIU and depression/anxiety in a clinical sample of adolescents and young adults ages 12-23, and 3) to identify possible relationships on which to focus future studies of problematic digital media use and psychiatric symptomatology in this vulnerable population. METHODS: The study enrolled 25 adolescents and young adults ages 12-22 years who owned a smartphone and received mental health services at a community hospital in the greater Boston area. Participants were surveyed once a day for six weeks using a smartphone application, mindLAMP, to record self-report data. The daily survey included validated depression, anxiety, and PIU scales (the PHQ-8, GAD-7, and PIU-SF-6, respectively) as well as two sub-surveys inquiring about risky online behaviors and screen time use, and were collected via mindLAMP surveys. Participants also completed a short exit survey once their study period concluded. Feasibility was assessed by evaluating the sample-wide mean rate of response on daily surveys for the six-week protocol, rates of daily survey initiation and completion, and study completion rate. Acceptability was determined based on whether this data collection method provided more data than the current standard of care, which typically involves one meeting per week for psychotherapy. RESULTS: 96% of participants completed the study, and results demonstrated a 39.8% mean response rate, 43.2% mean survey initiation rate, and 38.5% mean survey completion rate. Type of phone use (overall rate p=0.029, initiation rate p=0.023, completion rate p=0.037), presence of an anxiety disorder (overall rate p=0.006, initiation rate p=0.038, completion rate p=0.004), and presence of co-morbid diagnoses (overall rate p=0.042, completion rate p=0.047) were significantly related to response rate, whereas age, gender, symptom severity, presence of an affective disorder, gender dysphoria, or ADHD were not. Regarding specific aim two, significant associations were detected between symptom scale scores and PIU and risky online behavior assessment (QUAL) scores such that: PIU-SF-6 and GAD-7 scores were positively correlated (p=0.032), PIU-SF-6 and PHQ-8 scores were positively correlated (p=0.050), GAD-7 and QUAL scores were positively correlated (p=0.004), and PHQ-8 and QUAL scores were positively correlated (p=0.0002). These results replicate findings in the literature of a significant relationship between anxiety and depression and both PIU and risky online behaviors. The lack of observed significant relationship between PIU and QUAL contradicts findings within the literature, and is possibly due to our small sample size. Significant associations were not detected between between categorical diagnoses of ADHD, Anxiety Disorders, Affective Disorders, or Gender Dysphoria and PIU-SF-6 scores. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that this EMA protocol is feasible and acceptable in this population, suggesting that this methodology may represent a new avenue to conduct research in adolescents and young adults with mental health concerns and, in the future, deliver treatment to these individuals. Limitations of this study include small sample size and participant bias in self-report data. Recommendations for future research include replication of this EMA protocol with a larger number of participants, incorporating methodologies that address the self-report bias. / 2022-06-07T00:00:00Z

Le travail de Sraffa avait pour but decritiquer le paradigme néoclassique marginaliste,en prouvant qu'une théorie économique basée surdes données objectives concernant la productionet la répartition du surplus pouvait expliquer lesvaleurs d'échange. L'économie écologique avaitégalement initialement pour but de proposer unecritique de l'économie de l'environnementnéoclassique, en mettant en avant que lesdécisions en matière d'environnement nepouvaient seulement se baser sur des analyseséconomiques. Ma thèse étudie les relations entreces deux écoles de pensée.Ma conclusion principale est que l'analyse deSraffa ne rejette pas l'évaluation monétaire de lanature parce que la nature n'a pas d'importancepour la production économique (de ce point devue-là, la nature a au contraire une importanceinfinie) mais parce que le discours économiquen'est pas capable d'exprimer la valeur de lanature. La théorie de Sraffa aide à définir ce quepeut dire le discours économique et sur quelsobjets ontologiques il peut porter. Sur cette base,une économie écologique Sraffienne peut êtreconstruite et peut servir d'alternative àl'économie de l'environnement néoclassique. / Sraffa's original work was intendedto be a decisive criticism of the neoclassicalmarginalist paradigm, trying to reveal that aneconomic theory based on objective data aboutproduction and distribution of the surplus canexplain exchange values. Ecological economicswere also intended as a criticism of theneoclassical environment economics, trying toexpress the fact that decisions about theenvironment cannot be taken according toeconomic analyses alone. My thesis investigateshow both schools interrelate.The main point of my conclusion is that Sraffa'sanalysis rejects natural resources in hisexplanation of exchange value, not becausenature is not important for the economic process(the contribution of nature is infinite in thisrespect), but because the economic discourse isnot able to express its value. The theory of Sraffahelps to define what the economic discourse cansay and what are the ontological objects of theeconomic analysis. From there, a Sraffianecological economics can be built on Sraffa'sbasis, and it would help to construct a classicalalternative to the neoclassical environmentaleconomics.

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