This study examines persons' trust in the federal government using data from the National Election Study for the presidential election years 1980 through 2000. I hypothesize that person's perceptions of the national economy's health and their affect toward the incumbent president are both positively correlated with their trust in the federal government. I also hypothesize that a person's level of affect toward the president is a stronger predictor of their trust in the federal government than persons' perceptions of the national economy's health. All of these hypotheses are supported in my findings. I also present a serendipitous finding that relates to political party culture. This study finds significant differences between Democrats and Republicans in the trust they afford the government via affect toward the president, suggesting a difference in how self-identified Democrats and Republicans view the president's role in government. / Master of Science

Yes

The past several years have seen increased awareness of environmental degradation, climate change, and energy concerns—and with good reason; addressing the problem of sustainability is vital if American culture is to both persist and thrive. Because this issue affects all aspects of our lives, it can easily seem overwhelming, encouraging the belief that solutions to these problems lie beyond the scope of individual action. This study seeks to identify legitimate personal responses one can make to issues of sustainability. I approach this subject with an eye toward answering a simple series of questions: Where are we?; How did we get here?; Where are we going?; Is that where we want to go? I briefly investigate the history of the idea of progress, focusing especially on our culture's fascination with and embrace of technological progress. Following this investigation, I examine two works that offer critiques of progress: Thoreau's classic text, Walden, and Wendell Berry's, The Unsettling of America. These texts are chosen for a few reasons. First, a clear tradition of critical inquiry can be traced from Thoreau to Berry. Second, the historical distance between these authors makes a comparison of their work particularly illuminating. Though they are citizens of the same country, speak the same language, and ask similar questions, each author writes in response to different worlds—Thoreau's just beginning to embrace industrial capitalism and technological progress, and Berry's very much the product of that embrace. Most importantly, however, both authors focus on individual action and responsibility. / Master of Arts

No / Brochs are one of the ultimate expressions of regional diversity in the British Iron Age, a geographically restricted, monumental and complex variant of the roundhouse. They are the best-preserved Iron Age dwellings in Britain if not Europe, often requiring the visitor to duck to avoid the lintel as they enter the building, and yet too often they have been sidelined as local curiosities in wider narratives of the period. This trend has been bucked in recent years in the specialist literature, with more theoretically-informed interpretations; here Armit sets out to place broch studies before a wider audience.

No / This book seeks to analyse the development of the European Union (EU), which was founded upon the principle of the free movement of capital, goods, services and people in 1957. Its central thesis is that, from a practical and theoretical point of view, such a basis is fundamentally at odds with the creation of an interventionist regime that the construction of a social Europe would require.

This study provides a strategy from which Economy, Indiana may find structure for future improvement and growth, en route to establishing this Town as a model community for small, rural Indiana towns adjoining rails-to-trails networks. After conducting a visual inventory of the Town, significant physical design components were selected for analysis, including land use, circulation, streetscape, vegetation, buildings/structures, park area, open space/vacant land, and a surveyed historic district. The evidence suggests that even though most of Economy's original visual historic patterns and components still exist, they are in a continual decline. Using the Cardinal Greenway rails-to-trails project as a catalyst, the recommendations will assist the improvement of Economy's visual character, and take advantage of rails-to trails tourism as one means of revitalization. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The main aim of this paper is to measure the underground economy of India and to review previous attempts to do the same. In this paper I provide estimates of the size of the hidden economy of India for the period 1971 - 2004. Analysis on previous attempts is done with a focus on the dynamic multiple indicators multiple causes (DYMIMC) and the currency demand methods. I estimate the size of the Indian economy using indicator and causal variables chosen by Schneider, Chaudhuri and Chatterjee in their paper, “The Size and Development of the Indian Shadow Economy and a Comparison with other 18 Asian Countries: An Empirical Investigation”.

The creator economy is a growing phenomenon in business, entrepreneurship and the global economy. This thesis seeks to explore the identity of content creators and the format of creator accelerator programs to help understand the growing phenomenon of the creator economy. In comparing the two ecosystems of content creators and entrepreneurs we can begin to understand the effects and implications. The thesis also aims to understand the similarities between upcoming content creator accelerator programs and mature startup accelerator programs. Through qualitative methods, primary sources are collected to compare content creators to entrepreneurs and creator accelerator programs to startup accelerator programs. By reviewing one hundred eighty-two (182) content creators and four hundred and three (403) entrepreneurs, the results are divided into three categories; the top roles identified, the number of times the role appeared in the group, and the percentage of roles based on the total number of people. The primary difference between content creators and entrepreneurs is content creators focus on the content produced, whereas the entrepreneur focuses on the organization, product or services. In exploring similarities between the two types of accelerator programs four categories emerge in organizing the program information: length of the program, goals, mentorship or networking opportunities, and funding. This paves the way in understanding the growing creator economy phenomenon by finding overlap amongst content creators and traditional entrepreneurs alongside accelerator programs.

This thesis will examine some of the basic principles of Classical and Marxian Political Economy. At the center of the project is an examination of two distinct but related subjects: 1) value and 2) internal critique. I begin with a broad overview of the methodological and theoretical principles integral to the study of Marxian political economy and highlight its link to the content of Marx's work. I demonstrate the riven-ness of the concept of value throughout the thesis and show that this riven-ness is integral to rather than accidental to the concept of value itself. In essence, I propose that in order to fully grasp how Marx is taken up by political economists, feminists, ecologists, and critical race scholars in order to understand exploitation and oppression, it is necessary to return to the basic premises of political economy as the foundation of many of these theories. / Master of Arts / Value is a concept which carries with it many different meanings and connotations. It is central to our everyday language and to various fields of study. This thesis aims to examine value and its role as a fundamental concept in the history of economics. To do this, I map out how value emerges as a crucial category in the work of economic theorists. By carefully following these theorists, I seek to uncover what they call attention to and what remains hidden within their work. Another crucial part of this thesis is how to investigate, how to read, and how to think. While the content of the thesis is focused around "value" and what constitutes value, a larger project consumes it. I propose that in order to get to the substance of value, how we think directly affects what we think.

Background: Circular economy (CE) is one of the most recent ways to address environmental sustainability. It aims to extend the value of products, materials, and resources for as long as possible, and minimize waste generation by maintaining them in the economy for as long as possible to mitigate climate change, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and resource short­ages. Businesses play a crucial part in protecting the environment and have been urged to incorpo­rate CE practices. Leadership and top management have been found crucial for the transi­tion and the CEO has the power to shape strategic plans and directions for the company. Despite the growing research on CE and what influences the transition, literature on individual roles of the top management team is scarce. Existing literature focuses on different factors driv­ing the transition but not the specific roles of the top management team. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to add to the literature regarding CE and how the CEO influences the transition. With this research, we aim to contribute to the current discussion on the transition towards CE, both theoretically and practically. Method: We have conducted a qualitative study with an inductive approach. It follows a relativist ontology and a social constructionism viewpoint. The methodology is an exploratory multi­ple-case study where the companies were selected by purposive sampling. Five companies were selected and in total 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted where we gathered data from both CEOs and their employees. The data was analyzed by combining the Goioa method with Eisenhardt’s multiple case study approach. Conclusion: Based on our findings we identified that the CEO influences the transition towards CE. We distinguished the CEO role within top management and found that they influence CE through strategic management and power. Within strategic management, the CEO influences through setting the strategy, being the decision maker, allocating resources, and setting the direc­tives and goals for the organization. The aspect of power was found to influence the inter­nal organization and external parties. Additionally, we showed how these contributions can be applied practically.