Most past research on migration has focused on young adults or recent retirees since these are the two groups most likely to migrate. Very little research has looked at the factors that affect the migration of people in the middle stages of life. The purpose of this research is to identify those factors, and determine if there are differences between whites, blacks, and Hispanics. The data utilized for this research were from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 79, a study funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that has been ongoing since 1979. Migration was defined as the movement across county lines, and was calculated for 1979 and all subsequent even numbered years between 1980 and 2000. Other variables controlled were demographic, socioeconomic status, and household status, and were measured as categorical variables. Descriptive and logistic analyses were used. (77 pages)

This thesis seeks to challenge the dominant narrative that oil has been a positive contributor to Houston's development as a city by exploring the real lived consequences for those who live along the Houston Ship Channel--the home of Houston's oil industry. This is done through an examination of historical processes which look at how a pro-oil sentiment has been intertwined into Houston's identity juxtaposed to the historical processes which have shaped the lives of communities near the Houston Ship Channel. This thesis then ends by delving into how it is difficult to organize around the environment in Texas because of how much influence oil has on the state politically and physically.

This research is about examining the way in which racialized environmental violence contributes to exploitative social relations becoming embedded in the everyday world. I argue that the space of the everyday has been produced through cycles of social relations proceeding from and/or tied to racialized environmental violence. I continue the work of critical scholars in asserting that social and environmental violence is linked in the same ideological impulse which seeks to hide itself behind a variety of alienating processes. The slow way in which environmental violence works is particularly impactful in these processes because of its attritional lethality, contributing to premature death. I studied these processes by examining the histories surrounding the site of a construction day labor firm in Richmond, Virginia. My methodology includes archival research on newspapers, public documents, and secondary sources establishing that the patterned co-location of social and environmental violence does not occur by chance.

Planning a future for the landscapes we live in can be a daunting challenge for many communities in Vermont. Conservation initiatives affect the quality of life for all community members and can be difficult if not impossible to change in the event of poor planning. Through examining stakeholder relationships with land trusts I have explored the complexities of planning processes used by land trusts in Vermont for conservation initiatives The study involved one statewide land trust, the Vermont Land Trust, and two community land trusts, the Stowe Land Trust and the Duxbury Land Trust. I used qualitative methods including document review, observation and interviews to gather data on land trust planning. My study shows how stakeholder relationships shape conservation initiatives, what strategies land trusts use to aid stakeholder involvement, and finally, how stakeholder input affects conservation easements and stewardship. Interviews with multiple internal and external stakeholders for the three land trusts indicate a negative feedback loop within the organizational structure of each land trust I call "management by crisis." My case study examples suggest that stakeholders do not get involved in conservation until there is a threat to the landscape. This makes strategic planning difficult and limits a land trust's ability to link important parcels together for environmental and social benefit. I suggest that management by crisis can be replaced with positive feedback using Community Based Participatory Research. This approach relies on communities initiating projects and being an integral part of the planning process from the beginning of a conservation initiative. By involving stakeholders from the conception of a conservation project, a land trust can better evaluate community needs in relation to social and environmental wellbeing.

Risk perception is the judgment people make about the characteristics and severity of a risk. Numerous theories and models exist which have identified the factors that influence risk perception. Among these factors, location, health status, and demographic characteristics are known to shape risk perception. To measure the influence of these factors on environmental perception, a series of surveys conducted in four Louisiana communities between 2004 and 2005 describe community perceptions about environmental issues and health status. The objective of the study was to characterize and compare environmental concerns relative to location, health status, and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that location has a strong influence in framing an individual’s concerns about environmental issues, particularly those living close to industry. Concern for general environmental and natural preservation issues were comparable among the communities indicating that concern for these issues is independent of residential location.

This research investigates the uses and perceptions of the population of the East Carrollton Area in New Orleans so as to evaluate the possible outcomes of urban design intervention and policy changes. Using GIS, field notes, structured interviews and a population survey, this research evaluates how much the built environment influences the uses of the neighborhood open space. Subsequently, it evaluates how the neighborhood open space is perceived as a place as opposed to a transportation infrastructure. Overall, the built environment affects the experience of the residents when they perform leisure activities in the neighborhood open space. Major deterrents to functional use and active transportation are related to social factors and the social environment. The neighborhood open space is largely perceived as an asset by the residents. It can be a valid replacement for urban parks when the population cannot access them.

Through in-depth interviews with 21 participants, this thesis investigates how graduate students at East Tennessee State University feel about their finances. Although all adults, by necessity, have everyday money concerns, this study explores the unique experiences that post-baccalaureate students have with debt, how they talk about it, and what meanings they attach to student loans in their daily lives. This study is novel in that little research to date has examined how graduate students' perceptions of adulthood are connected to their financial situations and their stage in life. For example, saving money is important to this population mainly because it signifies the achievement of adulthood. Debt, on the other hand, signifies dependence and questionable adult status. Although graduate students' future incomes will vary, they share similar strategies for managing the stigma of debt.

The debate over what factors actually influence behaviors and attitudes of urban residents is the impetus which generated the idea behind this study. Urban literature suggests several explanations for attitudes including for example, alienation and anemia. These same explanations are assumed to influence behaviors such as: 1) smaller number of children, 2) involvement in voluntary organizations, 3) specialized voting behavior and 4) less kinship contact.

The diffuse runoff of agricultural nutrients, also called agricultural nonpoint source pollution (NPS), is a widespread threat to freshwater resources. Despite decades of research into the processes of eutrophication and agricultural nutrient management, social, economic, and political barriers have slowed progress towards improving water quality. A critical challenge to managing agricultural NPS pollution is motivating landowners to act against their individual farm production incentives in response to distant ecological impacts. The complexity of governing the social-ecological system requires improved understanding of how policy shapes farmer behavior to improve the state of water quality. This dissertation contributes both theoretically and empirically to NPS pollution governance by examining the impacts of water quality policy design on farmer nutrient management decision making and behavior. In the first study, I theoretically contextualize the issue of agricultural NPS pollution in the broader discussion of environmental public goods dilemmas to suggest that an increased focus on the link between policy and behavior can improve sustainable resource management. I propose two empirical approaches to study the policy-behavior link in environmental public goods dilemmas: 1) explicit incorporation of social psychological and behavioral variables and 2) utilization of actor mental models, or perceptions of the world that guide decision making, to identify behavioral drivers and outcomes. In the second and third studies, I then use these approaches to examine how water quality policies for agricultural NPS collectively change farmer behavior to reduce nutrient emissions. The second chapter uses a quantitative, survey-based approach to examine the relationship between mandatory policy design and behavior change in New Zealand. I find that a shift to mandatory policy is not immediately associated with increased adoption of nutrient management practices, but the mandatory policy design is important for potential future behavior change and long-term policy support. In the third study, I combine qualitative methodology with network analysis of qualitative data to examine a spectrum of agricultural NPS pollution policies in Vermont, USA and Taupo and Rotorua, New Zealand. I use farmer mental models to examine behavior change within each of the regions, the perceived drivers of behavior change and perceived outcomes of the policy. In this study, farmers across all three regions cite mandatory water policy as a key behavioral driver, but in each region, policy design interacts with the social-ecological context to produce distinct patterns of behaviors and perceived outcomes. Taken together, this dissertation demonstrates that agricultural NPS pollution policy design must consider the interactions between policy and other social-ecological behavioral drivers in order to achieve long term water quality improvements.

Visitors to parks and protected areas within the United States and worldwide often visit these areas with a particular destination in mind, such as seeing Old Faithful erupt in Yellowstone National Park or standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park. These visitor use destinations, and the pathways leading to them, such as trails and roadways, see high levels of use, and as a result, impacts to soil, vegetation, air, water, soundscapes, and night skies that result from this use. The field of recreation ecology studies these impacts to park and protected area resources resulting from recreation use. Research conducted by recreation ecologists helps park and protected area managers prevent and minimize these impacts and preserve park resources for future generations. However, not all recreation use and impacts occur along designated pathways and at visitor destinations. The impacts that result outside of these designated areas often cause more damage to park resources such as vegetation and soil. The studies presented in this dissertation examine what factors are influencing visitor behavior outside of these destinations and pathways, such as when visitors travel off of designated trails. The results provide managers with a set of factors that may influence visitor behavior outside of visitors’ intended destinations. These factors will enable managers to better understand existing visitor spatial behavior patterns and associated resource impacts, and also predict where resource impacts may be likely to occur due to visitor recreation use, enabling prevention of future impacts from occurring.