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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
61

Rural Industrialization: Integrated and Sustainable Solutions for Poverty Reduction in Rural China

Tischenko, Igor 01 January 2013 (has links)
China has achieved unprecedented economic growth and consequent successes in poverty alleviation over the past three decades of economic liberalization and market-oriented reforms. Yet, in order to continue its progress in poverty reduction, while addressing pressing environmental and sociopolitical concerns, it is crucial for China’s leaders to achieve and sustain green, equitable, and robust economic performance in all parts of China. This thesis argues that a reconceptualized and strengthened rural industrialization program would enable China to maintain economic growth and assist with the transition to a domestically driven consumer economy. Moreover, rural industrialization, coupled with targeted administrative and institutional policy modifications, will enable the Chinese government to provide support to millions of its rural poor, thus avoiding social instability and potentially severe internal conflicts. Such a program would also lessen pollution and its associated costs on China’s densely populated cities, by shifting heavy urban industries to relatively less contaminated areas while adopting cleaner, environmentally sustainable technologies, introduced in a participatory manner in consultation with local communities. This approach would concurrently address regional, rural-to-urban, and intra-communal disparities, provide opportunity for “green growth” initiatives, and better equip rural populations to address growing vulnerabilities as a result of climate change.
62

Farmworkers and Strawberry Cultivation in Oxnard, California: A Political Economy Approach

Larsen, Jean 01 January 2014 (has links)
I argue that although the abusive conditions experienced by farmworkers have complicated causes, they have persisted and will continue to persist as long as farmworkers are stripped of virtually any political and economic power. The chapters build upon each other logically, beginning with the second chapter, which uses farmworker testimony to establish that a combination of economic and political circumstances have kept farmworkers from protesting not only methyl bromide, but every other dangerous condition they face in the fields. In the third chapter, I argue that despite commonly held assumptions, growers are virtually powerless to change the circumstances of farm workers because competition they face in the strawberry market precludes any single grower from paying their workers more than the going rate. I will conclude by arguing that to begin to improve the working conditions of farm workers, consumers will need to engage with the issue on both political and economic levels. The conclusion builds on the arguments established in the second and third chapters; namely, given that neither growers nor farmworkers will be able to leverage change within the current political and economic context, consumers are the only remaining actors with both the incentives and power to influence both the political and economic arenas. Just as scholarship that focuses on only one set of actors (i.e. only growers or only regulators) will necessarily fail to provide practical solutions because such papers tend to discount the pressures faced by and produced by other actors, so too will change be impossible without consumers who advocate that farmworkers both receive a just share of political voice and fair wages.
63

An Archaeology of Capitalism: Exploring Ideology through Ceramics from the Fort Vancouver and Village Sites

Holschuh, Dana Lynn 23 July 2013 (has links)
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), a mercantile venture that was founded by royal charter in 1670, conceived, constructed and ran Fort Vancouver as its economic center in the Pacific Northwest, a colonial outpost at the edge of the company's holdings in North America. Research into the history of the HBC revealed that the company was motivated by mercantile interests, and that Fort Vancouver operated under feudal land policies while steadily adopting a hierarchical structure. Following the work of Marxist archaeologist Mark Leone whose work in Annapolis, Maryland explored the effects of capitalist ideology on archaeological assemblages of ceramics, this study sought to locate the material signatures of ideologies in the ceramic assemblages recovered from the Fort and its adjacent multi-ethnic Village sites. In Annapolis, matching sets of ceramics were used as a material indicator of the successful penetration of capitalist ideals of segmentation, division and standardization that accompanied the carefully cultivated ideology of individualism, into working class households. Following this model, this study analyzed six assemblages for the presence of matched sets of ceramic tablewares using the diversity measures of richness and evenness. The results of this analysis for five assemblages from households in the Village were then compared to those expected for a model assemblage that was inferred to represent the ultimate model of participation in and dissemination of the same ideals of segmentation and division: that recovered from the Chief Factor's House within the fort. Documentary research confirmed that ideology was used to indoctrinate workers into the unique relations of production at Fort Vancouver however it was an ideology of paternal allegiance to the company rather than one of possessive individualism, as in Annapolis. At Fort Vancouver the notion of individuality was subtly downplayed in favor of one that addressed the company's responsibility to its workers and encouraged them to view its hierarchy, which was reinforced spatially, socially and economically, as natural. Analysis of the archaeological assemblages revealed that it is unlikely that the Village assemblages are comprised of complete sets of matching ceramicwares. The lack of these sets is likely the result of the multivalent nature of the economic system at the fort and its distinct ideology of paternalism, as well as the diverse backgrounds and outlooks of the Village occupants themselves, who appear to have purchased and used these European ceramics in unique ways.
64

A study of the development of the Recreation Department of Stockton, California

Coston, Margaret Fitzgerald 01 January 1948 (has links) (PDF)
Stockton is a city suffering from the sudden realization that it is no longer a small farm town, end that in the process of becoming a moderate-sized city, a community faces inevitable growing pains. The municipal recreation phase of city government well illustrates this fact. Because of the great need for expansion in this field, and because the city is now just beginning to rise to meet the occasion, a study of the Recreational Department and the program of the Metropolitan Recreation Commission in Stockton City Government and San Joaquin County, is a particularly interesting activity. In contrast to many theses which are based upon research in books and periodicals, this thesis has been the outgrowth of investigation based largely upon interviews with persons concerned with this phase of city government and upon personal observation, as well as reports and newspaper accounts of activities. As a resident of Stockton during much of the time covered in this report, as an attendant at periodic meetings of both the Junior Youth Council and the Stockton Youth Council, as a participant in some of the Recreation Department's activities, and as a former employee of a Stockton group work agency, the author has had to guard against subjective reporting in writing this paper. She has. attempted to record evaluations which she considered valid and to include facts and sources on which her opinions were based.
65

A Content Analysis of Jihadist Magazines: Theoretical Perspectives

Udani, Catalina M 01 January 2018 (has links)
During its violent spread across the Middle East, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) amassed both a local and international following in large part due to its usage of emergent media distribution. Beginning in 2014, ISIS’s Ministry of Media published an English-language magazine, Dabiq, disseminating its issues through online platforms. Dabiq and its successor Rumiyah both serve as propagandistic recruitment material for ISIS’s international community as well as broadcasting the message of the jihadist movement to ISIS’s enemies. This study analyzed ISIS’s publications using a qualitative content analysis in order to identify jihadist recruitment strategies through the perspectives of agenda-setting theory, the diffusion of innovations, symbolic convergence theory, and speech codes theory. These communication theories characterize the roles that civilizational conflict, population demographics, narrative themes, and emergent media play in the diffusion of the jihadist movement. This study samples the textual content and imagery of issues of Dabiq and Rumiyah, using thematic analysis to procedurally code the data by recognizing shared characteristics and concepts. The fundamental goal of this study is to gain a greater understanding of the way ISIS, its members, and the jihadist movement communicate their intentions, with the hope of preventing further recruitment and radicalization. The two following research questions drive this study: (1) What themes are present in the ISIS publications of Dabiq and Rumiyah? (2) How do the themes of these publications vary over time?
66

The Effect of Unemployment on Democratic Warfare

Rakower, Andres 01 January 2018 (has links)
This study was done to see the effects of a war on the economy and the internal politics of the United States. In selecting the engagement, we would study we agreed the Iraq War would be aided by a large amount of sampling of public opinion that was more nuanced than in previous wars. The Iraq War was a very complicated war, as it was controversial from the beginning and became a political issue while continuing to be a war fought by Americans abroad. Based on the literature, there were many starting effects and assumptions that were accounted for such as the ‘rally round the flag effect.' As a historical landmark, the Iraq War is important for being a significant conflict after the Vietnam War, another very controversial conflict in the eyes of the American public. The hypothesis that I presented were not supported by the data. The impact of the war on the economy was not strong enough that it would create pressure for the sort of model I created to apply. In this model the economic problems faced domestically could lead to more unemployment and therefore to higher military recruitment rates. While this was partially true in 2008, the consequence was not a significantly higher amount of people in the military. Ultimately, this project requires to be done in a more thorough setting where effects may be compared with those of other similar countries in similar scenarios.
67

Landscapes to Learnscapes: Exploring Schoolyard-based Education

Palena, Emily I., Spurgin, Caroline T. 01 April 2013 (has links)
This thesis explores schoolyard-based education as a viable and necessary method for rectifying the shortcomings within the American public school system and the Nature-deficit Disorder epidemic. We argue that schoolyard-based education should be fully integrated into the school system, not in the sole form of popularized school gardens, but as a standard teaching method. We show this using extensive research and a case study of three elementary schools in Claremont, California.
68

NATURAL PHENOMENA AS POTENTIAL INFLUENCE ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOR: THE EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD

East, Jackie R 01 January 2014 (has links)
Researchers use natural phenomena in a number of disciplines to help explain human behavioral outcomes. Research regarding the potential effects of magnetic fields on animal and human behavior indicates that fields could influence outcomes of interest to social scientists. Tests so far have been limited in scope. This work is a preliminary evaluation of whether the earth’s magnetic field influences human behavior it examines the baseline relationship exhibited between geomagnetic readings and a host of social and political outcomes. The emphasis on breadth of topical coverage in these statistical trials, rather than on depth of development for any one model, means that evidence is only suggestive – but geomagnetic readings frequently covary with social and political variables in a fashion that seems inexplicable in the absence of a causal relationship. The pattern often holds up in more-elaborate statistical models. Analysis provides compelling evidence that geomagnetic variables furnish valuable information to models. Many researchers are already aware of potential causal mechanisms that link human behavior to geomagnetic levels and this evidence provides a compelling case for continuing to develop the line of research with in-depth, focused analysis.
69

Stasi Brainwashing in the GDR 1957 - 1990

Solbrig, Jacob H., Solbrig, Jacob Hagen 20 December 2017 (has links)
This thesis examines the methods used by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), more commonly known as the Stasi, or East German secret police, for extraction of information from citizens of the German Democratic Republic for the purpose of espionage and covert operations inside East Germany, as it pertains to the deliberate brainwashing of East German citizens. As one of the most efficient intelligence agencies to ever exist, the Stasi’s main purpose was to monitor the population, gather intelligence, and collect or turn informants. They used brainwashing techniques to control the people of the GDR, keeping the populace paralyzed with fear and paranoia. By surrounding themselves with a network of informants they prevented actions against the dictatorial communist regime. Using the video testimonies of former prisoners, and former confidential informants who worked closely with and collaborated with Stasi agents, in combination with periodicals and previous historical studies, this work argues that the East German Police State’s brainwashing techniques had long and lasting consequences both for German citizens, and for the psychiatric health of former GDR citizens. The scope and breadth of the techniques and data compiled for use by the Stasi were exhaustive, and the repercussions of their use are still being felt and discovered twenty five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This study aims to show the lasting effects brainwashing had on former informants and the Stasi’s victims.

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