Faced with global challenges, like environmental degradation, poverty, social injustice, and discrimination against marginalized societal groups, it is important to develop strategies that promote concern for the well-being of others and encourage prosocial action. Engaging in prosocial behaviors can contribute to positive social change through reducing discrimination, improving the situation and well-being of those in need, and fostering more sustainable personal lifestyles. One important factor that limits human prosociality is our ‘finite pool of worry’, the fact that humans have only finite resources, physiologically, cognitively, and socially (Linville & Fischer, 1991; Weber, 2006). Effortful and costly prosociality (Dovidio, 1984; Gneezy, Imas, Brown, Nelson, & Norton, 2012; Rand, Greene, & Nowak, 2012; Rand & Nowak, 2013; Simpson & Willer, 2008), especially towards distant and unknown others, stigmatized groups, or the natural environment, may not receive preference in the allocation of resources over self-related goals and the fulfillment of crucial personal needs. One of the most fundamental human needs is establishing and maintaining a positive self-image (Epstein, 1973; Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999; Leary, Tambor, Terdal, & Downs, 1995). This dissertation investigates two strategies for motivating prosocial behavior that leverage this need for a positive self-image and the fact that humans are motivated to fulfill it. Paper I explores anticipated emotions in the context of pro-environmental decision making. It assess the effects of inducing people to consider their future feelings with a certain decision they are about to take. Results show that inducing people to anticipate pride from prosocial action versus guilt from inaction is relatively more effective at instilling pro-environmental motivation. Furthermore, exploratory findings point toward potential reactance to attempts to solicit prosocial behavior by prompting anticipated guilt. Papers II and III explore the potential of a values affirmation intervention to motivate prosocial behavior. Starting from self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988), paper II hypothesizes that the act of affirming one’s values may increase positive self-directed emotions (‘positive self-regard’) which can translate into downstream prosociality. It proposes a potential explanation for this effect, such that a heightened positive sense of self, stemming from engaging in the affirmation intervention, may reduce worry about the self, thus freeing up cognitive and emotional resources to engage in behaviors directed towards others. Results show that a values affirmation intervention can successfully promote prosocial behavior towards unknown and distant others in the form of volunteering time and donating real money to charity. As hypothesized, positive self-regard mediates the effect of the affirmation intervention on prosociality. Paper III extends the scope of the work to situations in which the beneficiaries of the prosocial action are members of marginalized and stigmatized societal groups, such as ex-prisoners. It tests the generalizability of the hypothesized affirmation effects in two countries, Nigeria and the United States. Results show that engaging members of the public in a values affirmation intervention can reduce discriminatory tendencies and promote prosociality towards ex-prisoners in both countries under investigation. Implications and recommendations for policy and practice are discussed in each paper. This dissertation is of high theoretical as well as applied relevance and makes important contributions to scholarship and practice. It contributes to the advancement of psychological theory as well as its application potential to help foster social change in an endeavor to address some of the most pressing and challenging social issues nations around the world face.

This thesis investigates the effects of participating in activism on the people who struggle for social change. Using a critical pedagogical framework, the study contributes to the theorisation of 'social movement learning' by drawing distinctions between processes, outcomes and implications of learning, and by developing the concepts '(un)learning'and 'pedagogical adversaries'. The research examines how activists who participate in social and political action develop different perspectives of social change. The conclusions draw on data collected throughout 2014, specifically interviews with, and observations of, UK-based Egyptian activists who engaged in social action during the continuing 25 January revolution between 2011-2014. As activists reflect on their understandings in the context of revolution and counter-revolution, coup d'etat, elections, strikes and various forms of social and political change, they reveal many 'pedagogical entry points'. The findings illustrate that social movements are continuous processes and sites of important, rich and potentially transformative learning because they generate pedagogical moments through which activists can engage with and develop critical perspectives of the way the world is and should be. Analysis of social movement learning as (un)learning exposes the cumulative and continuing nature of learning and unlearning, and generates important insights into how social movements challenge established 'knowledge' and 'truths' to create progressive alternatives. Drawing on critical and radical theories of social change, the thesis demonstrates the importance of continuing to question conceptualisations of social change and of a political imagination that understands the pedagogical potential of disjuncture and challenge.

This thesis explores how Chilean teachers understand their life trajectories in terms of life-course change, socio-historical change and social mobility, examining whether they make distinctions between these different kinds of understandings of transitions. In a context of 40 years of transformations in Chile, teachers are used as a case-study for examination of the subjective dimension of social mobility, and people's sense of class location and inequality. Methodologically, this research adopted the approach of exploring people's sense of life course and social movement in its broadest sense, examining how teachers talked about their life trajectories in order to consider whether questions of social change, life-course change, social structure and social mobility featured. It is built on data collected through interviews with 41 teachers who live in Santiago, who were asked to outline their personal timelines as a way to reflect on the main changes which they regarded as significant in their life stories. The argument of this thesis draws on and contributes to sociological work on class and social mobility. Most social mobility research has been dominated by quantitative work about occupational patterns of movement, with subjective social mobility neglected because people's subjective understandings of social movement have been seen to be contradictory and inconsistent. It has been suggested that 'lay' understandings fail to distinguish 'social mobility' from socio-historical change and life-course change, so people fail to recognise the true extent of inequality and the limited nature of social mobility. This thesis foregrounds subjective social mobility and critically examines these assumptions. On the basis of my empirical research, I argue that the apparent inconsistences in 'lay' subjective social mobility disappear, or at least make more sense, when we locate people's understandings of social location, social change and social mobility within their broader sense of their life stories. These inconsistencies are partly the result of the complex ways in which people understand their life stories and position themselves within a broader social structure, and are best explained using an analytical focus which emphasises the multidimensional nature of trajectories in social space (Bourdieu, 1984) and a methodological focus which is sensitive to the multifaceted and practical ways in which people speak about their lives. The teachers in my sample resisted a linear summary of their timelines and issues of life-course change and socio-historical change also framed their accounts, adding additional layers of complexity to them, in narratives of trajectories along different dimensions which qualified or disrupted each other. Despite that the teachers framed their trajectories as complex, non-linear constructs, and some rejected 'social mobility' stories, they still all offered overall evaluations of their changing life circumstances. They looked beyond their own trajectories to make different sort of comparisons which helped them to establish a sense of relative social movement, characterising their lives as showing social improvement, stability or decline as different views of their relative social position, and of the social structure and inequalities. I argue that rather than focusing on whether or not ordinary people correctly recognise relative or absolute mobility, it is more pivotal to examine how these different understandings come into play when ordinary people reflect about their location in an unequal society. The thesis argues that subjective social mobility needs to be analysed in term of a multidimensional model of class location and class movement, and this also argues for a greater understanding of the complexities of issues of social location, trajectories and social mobility in which 'class' emerges in different way in people's accounts. Therefore, a more open-ended approach to how people understand their relative situation is needed, in order to explore whether and how issues of class position, social inequalities and social mobility feature in the accounts of 'ordinary' people when they discuss the key transitions of their lives.

In the Ming dynasty, Ming Taizu had restructured county society by the lijia system, in which the sacrificial organization lishe was incorporated to help maintain social morality and social order. This reform in Hongwu era had influenced Zezhou country in some aspects but the influence did not last. From mid-Ming times on, cunshe, symbolized by the cult of the spirits and the she temple, substituted the lishe as the basic community organization in the countryside again. At the same time, the gentry had become increasingly important in local society. To meet the challenges from commercialization and social mobility, the gentry tried lineage reconstruction in the countryside but they seem not to have been successful as they had desired. They also attempted to reform the organization and the function of cunshe to practice Confucian doctrines in the country. The gentry's compromise with the cunshe in time allowed the cunshe to improve its authority in social affairs. / The gentry of Zezhou and their families, with great success in civil service examinations, became local heroes and saviors during the rebellious and chaotic Ming-Qing transition. In the mid-Qing, they declined service to the government and local society while cunshe became much more active and powerful in country life. Changes in fiscal and tax policies brought changes to local administrations as well. Cunshe, as a non-official system in the rural area, came to control more and more village affairs. In the last years of the Qing dynasty, cunshe had actually become a local self-government organization and was authorized by the county government in various degrees. / The history of cunshe in Zezhou reveals the close relationship between the cult of she and social integration in the rural area. Cunshe there was both a religious and a territorial organization. Its architectural structure also provided a public space for the community. The long interaction among the state, gentry and cunshe in Zezhou gives a typical example of traditional administration in rural China. Religion and cult in a community worked alongside formal institutions of the state for the control of local populace. / Zezhou, at the southern end of Taihang Mountain in the southeast of Shanxi province, has a long history of agricultural civilization. Spirits related to rain-praying were popularly worshipped in localities. When the North Song dynasty made its capital at Kaifeng, Zezhou became much nearer to the political center of the state than before. Official awarding of titles to the local spirits and regulating the sub-county administrative units were two main policies that the government had employed to control local society. These policies were effective in Zezhou. Some changes were obvious in the villages: the sacrificial offerings to the earth god in the village altar every spring and autumn were replaced by the offering to the rain spirits in the village shrine. Villages around the new shrines or temples were organized by this new cult in addition to sub-county level government arrangement. Cunshe (territorial sacrificial association) became the basic social organization outside the family in the countryside. The wars between nomadic and Han regimes in north China broke the lineages in Song times. The Jin and Yuan reigns that followed the Song relied on the cunshe to form the basis of its local administration. / 杜正贞. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2005. / 參考文獻(p. 286-295). / Adviser: Hung-lam Chu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0296. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (Zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2005. / Can kao wen xian (p. 286-295). / Du Zhengzhen.

In the light of the interest in transnationalism and other relevant anthropological theories, this thesis reflects on the study of China and contributes to the theoretical discussion and ethnography of China, from the perspectives of qiaoxiang and transnationlism. / Nevertheless, the local peoples' experience with the Chinese Overseas has great impact on shaping their attitudes. There is the spirit of continuing to better their livelihood, and this has encouraged many people in qiaoxiang to continue to emigrate to other countries, establishing a new transnational network in the context of globalization and global market economy, beyond the traditional network of the Chinese Overseas. / Qiaoxiang refers to the ancestral hometown of the Chinese Overseas. Since a century ago, the coastal regions in Fujian and Guangdong have become well-known qiaoxiang. In the beginning, migrants went abroad to make a living, sojourning between the places of residence overseas and hometowns in China. Thus, a transnational network of family ties gradually came into being. People in qiaoxiang usually relied much on their clansmen abroad in aspects ranging from financial support to decisions in local affairs. Due to the influence of the Chinese Overseas, social changes took place in qiaoxiang, and these promoted development in the surrounding areas too. / There are two major foci in this research. One involves vertical analysis of history, explaining how qiaoxiang came into being and how it developed. The other focus is on transnationalism of space, demonstrating the transformation of the transnational network from both the point of view of the Chinese Overseas and the local villagers in China. In this way, I studied the transformation of family structure in Shudou Village, the contributions of the Chinese Overseas to education, public health and medical treatment in qiaoxiang, the dynamics of local organization and local politics, and the economic development of qiaoxiang. The study shows that nowadays people in qiaoxiang no longer rely on financial support from their clansmen abroad. In village affairs, decisions are generally made by the local organizations independent of the Chinese Overseas. Thus qiaoxiang has become increasingly independent. / With the passage of time and changes in national politics, the national identification of Chinese Overseas has changed too. What has happened to the traditional network among the Chinese Overseas? What effect does it have on qiaoxiang? Taking Shudou, a village in Fujian, as an example, this dissertation discusses the transformation of transnational network among Chinese overseas as well as the roles of qiaoxiang in this network, by investigating the relations between the local villagers and their clansmen in Indonesia. / 丁毓玲. / Adviser: Chee Beng Tan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-09, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong,2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 198-207). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Ding Yuling.

This dissertation focuses on three different organizational approaches to introducing change in the Global South. In so doing, it explores how organizations can design and structure 'solutions' for deep-rooted social problems and support marginalized groups who lack voice to speak for themselves. Theoretically, I draw on institutional theory and social movement theory, and it is to these perspectives that my research seeks to contribute. Empirically, my work focuses on Tanzania, Indonesia and Nigeria. Studying how and why three different types of organizational forms - including a social enterprise (Paper 1), a quasi-social movement (Paper 2) and a social movement (Paper 3) - succeeded or failed in their attempts to introduce change in the Global South provides an intriguing opportunity to build new theoretical insights and to shed light on strategic and organizational processes about which relatively little is known.

This dissertation builds upon a 25-year old study by Mizrahi and Rosenthal (1993) which examined how coalition leaders defined and perceived success and failure in their respective coalitions. This study replicates the Mizrahi and Rosenthal study by returning to participants from the original study and, adapting the original instrument, interviewing those participants to examine their perceptions after 25 years has passed. Utilizing the same instrument, new coalition leaders from the originally studied coalitions which are still intact are also interviewed and their responses are compared against responses from leaders of coalitions which have since dissolved. The current study uses basic descriptive analysis for the structured survey items and grounded theory methodology for the qualitative analysis of open-ended questions. The analysis examines participant responses in the following areas: participant information; coalition information; demographic information of working group, board and constituency; characterization of coalition; internal and environmental predictors of dissolution; political and social climate during dissolution; political forces influencing dissolution; events in the lifespan; benefits and drawback of permanency; target information; definition of success; internal and environmental predictors of success; goals; strategies and tactics; decision-making processes; modes of communication; coalition resources; membership and participation; leadership; and practice wisdom. Utilizing organizational, ecological, social capital and collaboration literature and theory, indicators of coalition success are reviewed. Specifically, findings from this study confirm that coalition success should be defined multi-dimensionally and that coalitions should be operationalized as networks more than as organizations. Findings demonstrate that coalition success is predicted by the following internal factors: impetus to form and coalition purpose; goal-setting, identification of target and strategy; internal resources; leadership; power and decision-making; coalition structure; member contributions; diversity; and relationships, including dynamics of respect, trust, commitment and communication. Additionally, findings demonstrate that coalition success is predicted by the following environmental factors: external resource and resource dependence; goal-setting, identification of target and strategy; relationship with community and degree of coupling; and political, fiscal and social climate. Theoretical and practical implications for these findings are discussed along with limitations to current research and areas for potential future research.

The idea of "region" in America has often served to isolate places from each other. Whether in the nostalgic celebration of folk cultures or the urbane distaste for "hicks," certain regions of the country are identified as static, and culturally disconnected from everywhere else. This title explores this trend and offers alternatives to it. / https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1005/thumbnail.jpg

The panelists will be sharing information about gun violence in the U.S, proposed firearm legislation in Tennessee, research examining gun violence patterns in other states, and education to help parents and others prevent unintentional shootings by children.

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