Global ETD Search

1	Degree completion in the UK : individual, institutional and contextual factors that explain students' chances of educational success in British universities Canales, Andrea January 2013 (has links) Degree completion is as important as participation in higher education. To date, most of the research on this subject has investigated the association between socio-economic background and academic preparation to explain lower rates or non-completion. This thesis explores the role that individual, institutional and contextual factors have on degree completion chances. The first empirical chapter uses an individual-level longitudinal dataset to study the role that attainment on entry and socio-economic background have on students’ chances of completion. The chapter finds that attainment on entry significantly affects students’ chances of degree completion. It also reveals, however, that attainment on entry does not completely explain the socio-economic differences in degree completion chances in the system. The second empirical chapter examines the role that institutions have on students’ chances of degree completion. Like the first chapter, this one draws on the individual-level longitudinal dataset. Although the analyses discover institutional effects, they show them to have a small effect on the system. The third empirical chapter examines the role that teaching has on the probability that students complete their degrees in higher education. The findings show that teaching has a small but significant effect on students’ chances of degree completion. Teaching effects take place only at the most selective institutions of the system. The final empirical chapter examines the role that unemployment has on students’ decisions to complete a university degree. Using data from the Labour Force Survey, the research finds that higher unemployment rates have a positive effect on students’ chances of degree completion. This thesis contributes to the field by showing that stratification of higher education also translates to degree completion. The results confirm that selectivity and institutional effects are strongly associated. In addition, they show that where the institutional framework is concerned, there is a gradient for class effect in educational outcomes. 371.264
2	TROUBLED PASTS AND FILTERED FUTURES: FRAMING SOLIDARITY, RIGHTS, AND THREATS ACROSS RACIAL LINES IN THE REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE MOVEMENT Ellen Rochford (13171407) 29 July 2022 (has links) <p> </p> <p>Can a reproductive health organization address the history of eugenics with 140 characters and some emojis? Can a 10 second video establish the link between abortion access, child protective services, and prison abolition? This dissertation explores the framing – the use of narratives, symbols, and discourse used to motivate collective action – in social media posts social movement organizations (SMOs) in the reproductive health field. I ask: How do organizations frame the past and how does the past influence contemporary frames? While the organizations in my study share a field, they do not necessarily share the same collective memory of that field. Instead, organizational depictions of time and history may be divided across racial lines. Using SMOs’ social media posts on Instagram, I look at six reproductive health SMOs, three historically white (HW) and three POC-led. I use quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore differences in framing by organization type in my 1,200 Instagram post dataset. While all the organizations broadly claim inclusivity I hypothesize differences in framing around the past, legal rights, and threat. My work shows, both quantitatively and qualitatively, there are variations between HW and POC-organizations both in what frames are used and who is centered in those frames. I find HW-organizations are more likely to use rights framing, encourage participation in formal political institutions, and focus on inclusion along a single axis. In comparison, POC-organizations are less likely to use rights frames or call for formal political actions. They are more likely to encourage protest actions, highlight threats outside of legal restrictions, and center marginalized groups using an intersectional lens. I conclude that organizational understandings of temporality constrain historically white organizations’ capacity for intersectional solidarity and undermine POC-led organizations tactics, framings, and goals. Understanding frame variation across organizations in this field has broader implications for diversity, solidarity, and sustainability within social movements more broadly.</p> Sociology of inequalities Social Movements race inequality social media framing reproductive health
3	<b>The Social and Health Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Adulthood</b> Callie J Zaborenko (18403638) 18 April 2024 (has links) <p dir="ltr">Background—Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are events that occur before age 18, such as abuse and neglect, which are potentially traumatic. ACEs can lead to profound negative impacts on physical and psychological health and social relationships. Despite this, positive social connections can mitigate these effects. However, individuals with ACEs may struggle to form healthy relationships because of mistrust, leading to continued exposure to detrimental social environments. Additionally, ACE-exposed adults often internalize stigma.</p><p dir="ltr">Methods—Utilizing data spanning from 1995 to 2014, Chapter 2 examines 629 adults from the MIDUS II: Biomarker study. Employing counterfactual modeling, the study estimates the treatment effect of ACE exposure on well-being and employs weighted multilevel mixed models to analyze life course changes. Chapter 3 uses 1,243 respondents from the MIDUS II: Biomarker study, employing latent class analysis to identify social relationship patterns and assess their mediation between ACEs and the pursuit/enjoyment of new relationships. Chapter 4 uses experimental data from 493 respondents, employing vignette experiments to gauge perceptions of warmth and competence, with gender and happiness examined as moderators, and threat, status, four stigmatizing descriptions as mediators.</p><p dir="ltr">Results—ACE exposure is associated with increased chronic conditions, lower self-rated health, diminished psychological and social well-being. However, the strength of the treatment effects differs based on the type and number of ACE exposures. Latent Class Analysis of social relationships indicates four classes: healthy, ambivalent, kin-focused, and difficult, with higher ACEs linked to a decreased probability of being in the “healthy” class. ACEs also predict reduced enjoyment of interactions with new people, mediated 41% by the current social relationship class. ACE vignettes are perceived as less warm and competent, with happiness moderating some ACE-related perceptions. Status, “mentally ill”, and “damaged” emerged as strong mediators.</p><p dir="ltr">Conclusion—While ACE exposure is related to lower well-being, the rate of decline does not differ from non-ACE-exposed individuals across time. Those in strained relationships are less likely to enjoy new social interactions, potentially perpetuating ACE-related health consequences. Addressing interpersonal trust issues in ACE-exposed adults through social interventions may mitigate these effects. Additionally, there is stigma against each of the ten ACEs, and the medicalization of ACEs contributes to stigma.</p> Sociology of health Sociology of inequalities Sociology of the life course
4	<b>Life Course Context of Disparities in Disability</b> Madison Sauerteig (19144471) 16 July 2024 (has links) <p dir="ltr">As the US population ages, scientists and policy makers are giving renewed attention to not just increasing the quantity of years lived but improving the quality of those years. Disability, defined as difficulty in performing basic, necessary, socially defined tasks such as bathing and eating, represents a threat to quality of life. Disability has been acknowledged as a major public health issue among policy makers, practitioners, and multidisciplinary researchers for older adults, yet few have investigated the lifetime predictors of this condition. The purpose of this dissertation is to (1) identify how exposure to stressful events across the life course influences disability, (2) examine the role that social relationships play in disability onset in later life, and (3) investigate the appraisal of stress rather than just the discrete occurrence of an event to understand how this subjective experience alters disability status in later life. This dissertation aims to understand how these relationships vary among demographic groups, with two chapters identifying racial, ethnic, and nativity disparities, and one explaining the moderating effect of gender. Drawing from life course theories including the stress process and cumulative inequality, this dissertation uses longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the effect of lifetime stress exposure, adult social relationships, and chronic stress appraisal on the occurrence and onset of disability among adults 50 years and older. This dissertation is composed of an introductory chapter, three empirical chapters, and a concluding chapter.</p><p dir="ltr">The first empirical study investigates disparities in stress and disability and further examines how the relationship between stress exposure (both cumulatively and domain-specific) and disability differs by race, ethnicity, and nativity. The second empirical chapter examines the gendered relationship between patterns of social relationship quality in adulthood (identified by high quality, adverse, indifferent, or ambivalent) and the onset of disability in later life. The third empirical chapter builds on the conceptual design of the first chapter, but instead examines chronic stress exposure and chronic stress appraisal and how each has a unique influence on later-life disability for White, Black, US-born Hispanic, and foreign-born Hispanic adults. Overall, findings reveal that higher levels of stress exposure, more detrimental patterns of relationship quality, and appraising stress as upsetting are associated with an earlier onset of disability in later life among adults in the United States. Although empirical chapter 2 did not find any racial, ethnic, and nativity differences among social relationships and disability, negative relationship patterns (i.e., adverse and ambivalent) are associated with disability at a younger age for all older adults. In addition, men who report adverse or indifferent relationships have higher odds of disability than men in high quality relationships. The two chapters examining different conceptualizations of stress exposure and disability find racial, ethnic, and nativity differences. Compared to White adults, cumulative stress burden, particularly childhood traumatic events, are especially harmful for US-born Hispanic adults. Moreover, appraising chronic stressors as more upsetting has a detrimental influence on later-life disability for Black adults, but a protective effect for foreign-born Hispanic adults.</p><p dir="ltr">This dissertation highlights several lifetime antecedents of disability and identifies that it is important to account for demographic factors when addressing interventions to reduce the overall occurrence of disability. Disability is more prevalent among older adults and represents a threat to quality of life. Interventions aimed at reducing exposure to stressful experiences and improving quality of relationships may alleviate some of the noxious effects that disability has on optimal aging.</p> Sociology of health Sociology of inequalities Sociology of the life course life course stress disability race, ethnicity, and nativity social relationships stress appraisal
5	Black Food Trucks Matter: A Qualitative Study Examining The (Mis)Representation, Underestimation, and Contribution of Black Entrepreneurs In The Food Truck Industry Ariel D Smith (14223191) 11 August 2023 (has links) <p>Food trucks have become increasingly popular over the last decade following the Great Recession of 2008. Scholars have begun to study the food truck phenomenon, its future projected trajectory, and even positioning it within social justice discourse along cultural lines; however, scholarship has yet to address the participation of Black entrepreneurs in the food truck industry.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The objective of this dissertation is to expand the perception of Black food entrepreneurs within the food truck industry by interrogating how Black food truck owners are misrepresented, under analyzed, and underestimated. Using a series of interdisciplinary qualitative methods including introspective analysis, thematic coding analysis, and case studies, I approach this objective by addressing three questions. First, I analyze movies and television to understand where Black-owned food trucks are represented in popular culture and how they are depicted. In doing so, we come to understand that Black business representation, specifically Black food truck representation consistently falls victim to negative stereotypes. These stereotypes can influence the extent to which Black food truck owners are taken seriously and seen as legitimate business leaders in their community. Second, I interview 16 Black food truck entrepreneurs to understand why the mobile food industry appealed to them and how it has become a platform for them to explore other opportunities. Finally, I review eight cities that have launched Black food truck festivals and parks within the last 6 years to gain an understanding of the collective power wielded by Black food truck owners and its impact Black communities. Moreover, this dissertation challenges the myth that collectivism does not exist among Black entrepreneurs and the Black community broadly.</p> Business systems in context Food and hospitality services Business and labour history Entrepreneurship Cinema studies Screen media Digital heritage Heritage and cultural conservation Heritage collections and interpretations Social and cultural anthropology Urban community development Sociology of inequalities Urban sociology and community studies Media studies Consumption and everyday life Cultural and creative industries Cultural studies of nation and region Culture, representation and identity Screen and media culture Food Truck food trucks Black owned Black owned food truck mobile food street food street food vending street food entrepreneurship Black food Black food truck studies food truck studies African American Studies African American foodways Black foodways Black food entrepreneurship Black movies Black television The Food Truck Scholar The Food Truck Scholar Podcast Black business Black businesses Barbershop 3 The Last OG The Chi Think Like a Man food truck festivals food truck park foodtruck Roi Choi The Great Food Truck Race Chef Chef movie Black representation Black men Black women Black men representation Black women representation critical race theory case study introspective analysis Black entrepreneurs African American entrepreneurs food truck industry mobile food vending Black food truck owner Black food truck entrepreneur food truck owner food truck operator food trucker Black food trucker African American food truck owner African American food trucker food truck podcast food truck show storytelling African American storytelling Black studies africana studies entrepreneurial storytelling food studies Black food studies African American food studies enterprise food truck enterprise Black food trucks matter Black businesses matter Buy Black Black dollars Black economics Black dollar soul food southern studies Black diaspora \

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