Jamaica is faced with a number of serious environmental problems. Perhaps the most promising approach to address these problems is to subject development proposals to a process of environmental review while they are in the central government's planning approval process. Jamaica has never had such an environmental review process. In this thesis an attempt was made to develop the framework for an environmental review process that can be integrated into the Jamaican planning approval process. Guided by case studies of the environmental review processes in three U.S. states and Puerto Rico, as well as an analysis of Jamaica's unique conditions as they affect the implementation of an environmental review process, an attempt was made to synthesize a framework for an environmental review process that can be both implementable and effective in Jamaica. In addition, an attempt was made to suggest some general strategies for achieving the implementation of the environmental review process. A simple yet potentially effective EIA framework was developed. However, the necessary preconditions for effective implementation, i.e., political support, do not exist in Jamaica. Unless the environment becomes a major issue in Jamaica's political economy, it is unrealistic to expect the implementation of an effective process. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

This is an interdiscliplinary qualitative study which uses an exploratory research design and builds on Fariclough's Critical Discourse Analysis methodology to analyze the discourses surrounding an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for livelihood development project in Jamaica, introduced by the United Nations Development Programme - the Jamaica Sustainable Development Networking Programme (JSDNP). The primary objective of this project is to provide the poor in Jamaican communities with access to, and training in ICTs. In this research, I specifically focus on the discourses surrounding the JSDNP Cybercentre Project for a group of microenterprise entrepreneurs in the Jamaican tourism industry to access the epistemological assumptions of this project. From the data collected it was found that at one level, the JSDNP Cybercentre Project encouraged specific ways of acting and organizing congruent with the configurations, processes and structures of corporate firms of industrialized countries, by representing the achievement of livelihood expansion through the use of specific ICTs in a particular way which excluded other discourses. The particular ways of acting and organizing promoted by the Cybercentre encouraged the use of non-indigenous technologies, undervalued indigenous technologies and excluded the indigenization of non-indigenous technologies. These discourses were incompatible with the operational and structural configurations of trans-temporal poor entrepretrepreneurs interviewed and were more favourable to the non-poor and spatio-temporal ones. One of the wider implications of the discourse therefore was that they play a fundamental role in perpetuating entrenched inequalities through the preservation of social practices, along with their associated systems and structures. It was also found that these modalities limited the operational processes of all microenterprise entrepreneurs who were exposed to the Cybercentre Project. These entrepreneurs have limited control over the configuration of non-indigenous technologies; their technological and creative capabilities are restricted; their ability to indigenize non-indigenous technologies impaired; and they are highly dependent on non-indigenous technologies (which themselves have a number of limitations).

Teacher training institutions in Jamaica have been introducing, developing, and revamping undergraduate degree programs. There is, however, little evaluation of these efforts. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine The Mico University College's early childhood education undergraduate degree program by exploring the lived experiences of its graduates. The research questions elicited from the participants their views about how changes were being implemented in the program, and how they impacted the institution's development and improvement, how major policy shifts related to changes in national educational policies, and how together these shifts may impact future processes at The Mico and at similar institutions in Jamaica. The study used theoretical frameworks of organization development and performance improvement. In-depth semi-structured interviews were the main source of data collection and were supported by thick description, memoing, reflexive journaling, and document review. Data analysis methods consisted of coding interview transcripts and identifying common themes. The results of the study indicated that the participants commended many of the program's underlying policies and operational practices, but they identified some challenges and areas of weakness. This study may be used as a backdrop to program development and policy initiation at The Mico and at other institutions in Jamaica and the Caribbean as it encapsulates a wide breadth of the lived experiences of the participants and examines key components such as curricula, pedagogy, and assessment. By strengthening their program offerings, The Mico and other teacher training institutions have the potential to improve performance and to contribute to sustainable national development.

Violence against women is an issue affecting women worldwide. Due to the high rates of women exposed to intimate partner violence, it is nearly impossible not to meet them in everyday nursing practice. Intimate partner violence is complex since it concerns physical violence as well as emotional, sexual, financial, and material aspects of abuse. Some women go to seek medical attention and herein lies the responsibility of the nurse to respond. Whilst many countries have handbooks or guidelines on how to support women exposed to intimate partner violence, nurses may encounter challenges in supporting these women in practice. This is particularly challenging in Jamaica, where there are reportedly high rates of intimate partner violence, but where various factors including limited resources and social and cultural norms, may limit the opportunities for nurses to support women exposed to intimate partner violence. Due to limited earlier research on the topic in Jamaica, there is a need for increased knowledge and understanding about how nurses in Kingston, Jamaica experienced the care they provide and how it affects them. / Våld mot kvinnor är ett problem som påverkar kvinnor globalt. På grund av den höga andelen kvinnor som utsätts för våld i nära relation är det nästan omöjligt att inte möta dem i den vardagliga vårdverksamheten. Våld i nära relation är komplext eftersom det berör fysiskt våld samt känslomässiga, sexuella, ekonomiska och materiella aspekter av övergrepp. En del av dessa våldsutsatta kvinnor uppsöker vård, och här ligger sjuksköterskans ansvar att reagera. Trots rutiner kring våld i nära relation, kan sjuksköterskor stöta på utmaningar vid mötet med dessa kvinnor i praktiken. Detta är särskilt utmanande i Jamaica, där det rapporteras att det förekommer höga siffror av våld i nära relation, men där olika faktorer inklusive begränsade resurser, sociala och kulturella normer kan begränsa möjligheterna för sjuksköterskor att stödja dessa kvinnor. På grund av begränsad tidigare forskning om ämnet i Jamaica finns det ett behov av ökad kunskap och förståelse om hur sjuksköterskor i Kingston, Jamaica upplevde den vård de ger och hur den påverkar dem.

<p>This dissertation examines how the crisis of World War I impacted imperial policy and popular claims-making in the British Caribbean. Between 1915 and 1918, tens of thousands of men from the British Caribbean volunteered to fight in World War I and nearly 16,000 men, hailing from every British colony in the region, served in the newly formed British West Indies Regiment (BWIR). Rousing appeals to imperial patriotism and manly duty during the wartime recruitment campaigns and postwar commemoration movement linked the British Empire, civilization, and Christianity while simultaneously promoting new roles for women vis-à-vis the colonial state. In Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the two colonies that contributed over seventy-five percent of the British Caribbean troops, discussions about the meaning of the war for black, coloured, white, East Indian, and Chinese residents sparked heated debates about the relationship among race, gender, and imperial loyalty. </p><p>To explore these debates, this dissertation foregrounds the social, cultural, and political practices of BWIR soldiers, tracing their engagements with colonial authorities, military officials, and West Indian civilians throughout the war years. It begins by reassessing the origins of the BWIR, and then analyzes the regional campaign to recruit West Indian men for military service. Travelling with newly enlisted volunteers across the Atlantic, this study then chronicles soldiers' multi-sited campaign for equal status, pay, and standing in the British imperial armed forces. It closes by offering new perspectives on the dramatic postwar protests by BWIR soldiers in Italy in 1918 and British Honduras and Trinidad in 1919, and reflects on the trajectory of veterans' activism in the postwar era. </p><p>This study argues that the racism and discrimination soldiers experienced overseas fueled heightened claims-making in the postwar era. In the aftermath of the war, veterans mobilized collectively to garner financial support and social recognition from colonial officials. Rather than withdrawing their allegiance from the empire, ex-servicemen and civilians invoked notions of mutual obligation to argue that British officials owed a debt to West Indians for their wartime sacrifices. This study reveals the continued salience of imperial patriotism, even as veterans and their civilian allies invoked nested local, regional, and diasporic loyalties as well. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on the origins of patriotism in the colonial Caribbean, while providing a historical case study for contemporary debates about "hegemonic dissolution" and popular mobilization in the region. </p><p>This dissertation draws upon a wide range of written and visual sources, including archival materials, war recruitment posters, newspapers, oral histories, photographs, and memoirs. In addition to Colonial Office records and military files, it incorporates previously untapped letters and petitions from the Jamaica Archives, National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados Department of Archives, and US National Archives.</p> / Dissertation

The West Indies College is an institution of higher education in Jamaica which was established by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in 1909. It has had three names: 1909-1923, West Indian Training School; 1924-1958, West Indian Training College, and 1959-present, West Indies College. The school has been served by over 20 presidents. The needs of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the Mandeville community, Jamaica, and the West Indies region continue to play an important role in the addition and elimination of academic programs at the college. Present programs have attracted students from Africa, North and South America, the West Indies, and Europe. The college has industries that are used as facilities to provide the work-study program for students to fulfill the college's operational philosophy of educating the entire person. The industries assist students in the development of manual skills and in the payment of tuition. The West Indies College is funded by grants of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, tuition fees, profits from industries, and individual contributions. The school also receives a financial advantage in the form of tax exemption from the Jamaican government. An organized Department of Alumni Affairs assists the college in moral, professional, and material support. Due to the generosity of individual alumni, scholarships have been established to help needy students.

Thesis. 1975. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / Bibliography: leaves 86-88. / by Charles. E. Davies. / M.C.P.

Several studies posit a positive relationship between class attendance and student performance. Grades for students enrolled in Introduction to Management during the fall 2015 semester at a community college in Jamaica revealed that evening students on average scored a grade higher than students enrolled in the day sections. Lecturers noted day students missed more classes than evening students but the relationship between attendance and performance was not known. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine the relationship between attendance and performance, measured by grades. Guided by Knowles's theory that adults are self-directed, this study was designed to explore the relationship between attendance and performance for first year day (n=99) and evening students (n=40). Pearson's Correlation was used to assess the correlation between students attendance and performance regardless of their attendance status. Additionally, independent t tests were used to compare the means of day and evening students' attendance and performance variables. Findings revealed that attendance and performance were significantly positively associated. Further, findings indicated that there were significant differences in the mean performance and mean attendance variables between day and evening students. Students with partial matriculation attended fewer classes and performed poorer than students with full matriculation. To address the results, a policy recommendation was developed to provide guidance on attendance in the local setting. The study contributes to social change by offering an approach to class attendance as a means to improve students' grades.

This study is about informal institutions in informal finance and microfinance in Jamaica and Trinidad-Tobago. Informal institutions as understood in this study are unwritten social norms that cater to specific needs in the society, and can be indirectly captured and measured in their outcome. Informal institutions are deeply embedded in the socio-cultural matrix of a society. In the context of informal finance and microfinance, the outcome of the existence of informal institutions are the indigenous financial intermediaries like Roscas, community based lending, and individual financial brokers. The institutional theoretical framework of this study helps capture the institutional dynamics and the processes in informal finance and microfinance. The theoretical framework demonstrates the following: (1) Informal institutions exist in both informal finance and formal microfinance. (2) It exposes the interface between the financial intermediaries and the informal institutions that govern informal finance and microfinance through certain mechanisms like ‘joint liability’ and ‘social collateral’, which reduce information asymmetries and transactions costs. An implication is that informal institutions address the crucial issue of ‘moral hazards’. (3) The same informal institutions governing informal finance are being adapted and innovated by microfinance. Lending methodologies of informal finance are becoming embedded in microfinance. (4) Microfinance organizations are being transformed into formal financial intermediaries, thereby exposing the process by which informal institutions are also being formalized. (5) An empirical investigation of peoples’ needs, preference and benefits provides the evidence as to why they subscribe to informal institutions via the various financial intermediaries. The findings of this study provide some interesting insights: Firstly, models of financial services based on indigenous institutions have better chances of surviving than imported models. Secondly, informal institutions compete, coexist and even complement formal institutions in providing financial services to the economically active poor. Thirdly, microfinance has not just bridged the gap between formal and the informal finance; it is also becoming a catalyst through which informal institutions are slowly being formalized. Lastly, the client base’s needs, preferences and benefits account for the pervasiveness of informal institutions in informal finance and in microfinance.

<p>At the heart of "American Realities, Diasporic Dreams" lies the following question: How and why do people generate longings for diasporic experience, and what might this have to do with nationally-specific affective and political economies of race, gender, and age? This dissertation focuses on the women of Girlfriend Tours International (GFT), a regionally and socio-economically diverse group of Americans, who are also members of the virtual community at www.Jamaicans.com. By completing online research in their web-community, and multi-sited ethnographic research in multiple cities throughout the U.S. and Jamaica, I investigate how this group of African-American women makes sense of the paradoxical nature of their hyphenated-identities, as they explore the contentious relationship between "Blackness" and "Americanness." </p><p>This dissertation examines how these African-American women use travel and the Internet to cope with their experiences of racism and sexism in the United States, while pursuing "happiness" and social belonging within (virtual and territorial) diasporic relationships. Ironically, the "success" of their diasporic dreams and travels is predicated on how well they leverage their national privilege as (African) American citizens in Jamaica. Therefore, I argue that these African-American women establish a complex concept of happiness, one that can only be fulfilled by moving--both virtually and actually--across national borders. In other words, these women require American economic, national, and social capital in order to travel to Jamaica, but simultaneously need the spiritual connection to Jamaica and its people in order to remain hopeful and happy within the national borders of the U.S. Their pursuit of happiness, therefore, raises critical questions that encourage scholars to rethink how we ethnographically document diasporic longings, and how we imagine their relationships to early 21st century notions of the "American Dream."</p> / Dissertation