For nearly three decades, the United States of America has been the consistent leader in incarceration rates worldwide. A number of structural social problems have contributed to this reality (e.g., the school-to-prison pipeline, the 1994 Crime Bill, and aggressive surveillance and policing of poor and minority neighborhoods). Recently, a number of structural solutions have presented themselves in effort to decarcerate prisons and consider pathways for returning citizens with emphasis on housing, healthcare, and education. This dissertation focuses on the education component with an eye toward higher education-in-prison programs (HEPPs). The last decade denotes an inflection point for mass incarceration and HEPPs in part due to increased funding from public and private sectors as well as bipartisan support for making higher education accessible for incarcerated people. In the midst of cross-sector support for these programs, the colleges and universities providing the core elements – teaching and learning – have been mostly silent actors. This study looks at partnerships between prisons and higher education institutions and centers the voices and narratives of higher education faculty and administrators responsible for leading HEPPs. Drawing on the civic mission of higher education, as well as participants’ conceptions of their work, this study considers how faculty and administrators describe the intent and function of their HEPPs and the extent to which they align with the civic mission of higher education. Through a qualitative multisite case analysis of three higher education institutions in New York State, the findings of this study reveal that these programs view themselves as being responsive to historical structures of inequity in higher education and broader society. They also conveyed a desire for their programs to become an institutionalized component of their college or university. There were five patterns, across cases, that provided insight into these programs and multiple levels including: (1.) program professionals, (2.) program place and space, (3.) programs in service to the institutional mission and civic mission, (4.) program attentiveness to external factors, and (5.) program conceptualization: the two-way partnership misnomer. These patterns might also prove relevant to university partnerships more broadly. The study concludes with implications for theory, practice, and future research related to HEPPs with emphasis on the need to situate all aspects of these programs not, as they often are, in economic and workforce metrics, but rather in the experiences of faculty, staff, and students participating in college-in-prison as well as returning citizens attending college.

Comparatively little literature has been written about the wind-band as a musical institution.1 still less has been recorded regarding the integrative social potenti- alities of the wind-band in American musical life--especi- ally for the horden of "Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen" who constitute the back-bone of our Nation's communities. Specialized and localized efforts are being made throughout the country toward making musical life a definite part of community life. General observation tends to leave us believing that strides in this direction are just beginning and that the impetus will increase.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Background: Emile Durkheim (1897/1985) theorized that sociological variables (e.g., social, political, economic) are more helpful for understanding suicide than individual or psychological explanations. This study extends the previous sociological work on suicide by testing a theoretical model that includes economic, political, and social variables. The purpose of this study was the development and testing of a predictive model of firearm suicide among the general population and among older adults in the US.

This paper reports on efforts to improve socioeconomic conditions and natural resource use in the El Pina lito community, department of Chiquimula, Guatemala. Students participating in supervised practical training at Centro Universitario de Oriente/Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (CUNORI) developed projects to address these issues. A general diagnostic instrument was created for this community to assist in the development of specific work projects. Students prepared community first-aid kits, agricultural activities with school children, and instructional sessions with farmers on how to prepare a family garden and efficiently manage domestic animals. Other activities included ornamental tree preparation for female participants and a yucca demonstration plot for the Maraxco village.

In 2007, juveniles were involved in a minimum of 1,063 murders in the United States (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2008), and a concern over juvenile homicide offenders remains. While increasingly more macrolevel research on juvenile homicide offending has been accumulated, particularly since the 1980s, research focusing on macrolevel correlates of juvenile homicides is still relatively scarce (MacDonald & Gover, 2005; Ousey & Campbell Augustine, 2001). In the first part of this study, several variables relating to the offender, victim, setting, and precursors to the homicide by race and gender were examined in order to provide details on the context of youth homicides between 1965 and 1995 in Chicago. The Homicides in Chicago, 1965-1995 data set and Census data for 1970, 1980, and 1990 were used in this study. The results indicate that changes in youth homicides over the 31-year time period involved increases in lethal gang altercations, particularly among Latinos, and increases in the use of automatic weapons. Young females had very little impact on homicide rates in Chicago. The second part of the study examined whether measures of social disorganization can aid in the prediction of homicides committed by youths, and a total of ten negative binomial models were run. The results of the analyses in the three time periods indicate that racial/ethnic heterogeneity, educational deprivation, unemployment, and family disruption are significantly and positively related to homicides. Foreign-born population and median household income were found to be significantly and negatively related to homicides. The significant indicators of social disorganization varied in the seven models for the disaggregated groups. Overall, the results reflect support for social disorganization theory. Limitations, suggestion for future research, and policy implications are also addressed.

Critical theory cannot say, today, what the rise of new technologies is changing for the socio-political order. By reducing the impact of digital technology to the specific interests of those who exploit it, the constructivist approach to technology only gives a segmental and tactical vision of its issues. Furthermore, if they indeed diagnose ruptures in practices and representations, epistemological analyzes of digital technology remain silent as to the structurally political dimension of these transformations, however radical. This thesis therefore proposes to articulate these critiques with an epistemic, unified postulate of the impact of digital transformation on the implicit theoretical framework which underlies the legitimacy (and even more profoundly, the condition of possibility) of liberal democracy. It puts the critical theory of technology into perspective using a classic approach to political theory, which consists of recalling the contingency and dependence of regimes on a certain social reality (relevant not only to practices but to symbolic, epistemic order that results from it). The political issues of technology are thus approached through the notion of the imaginary - not only to show the influence of digital transformation on the representations which form the basis of the common world, but to affirm that the fundamentally political issue of digital technology is above all a poetic issue: we must restore to theory its creative power, to dare to imagine a socio-political landscape, and an ideal horizon, radically transformed. Une relecture des enjeux politiques du numérique: la technologie et la production de l'imaginaire social La théorie critique ne sait pas dire, aujourd’hui, ce que change l’essor des nouvelles technologies pour l’ordre socio-politique. En réduisant l’impact du numérique aux intérêts ponctuels de ceux qui l’instrumentalisent, l’approche constructiviste de la technologie ne donne de ses enjeux qu’une vision segmentaire et tactique. Par ailleurs, si elles diagnostiquent bien des ruptures dans les pratiques et les représentations, les analyses épistémologiques du numérique demeurent muettes quant à la dimension structurellement politique de ces transformations pourtant radicales.Cette thèse propose donc d’articuler ces critiques à un postulat épistémique, unifié, de l’impact de la transformation numérique sur le cadre théorique implicite qui sous-tend la légitimité (et plus profondément encore, la condition de possibilité) de la démocratie libérale. Elle met en perspective la théorie critique de la technologie à l’aide d’une approche classique de la théorie politique, qui consiste à rappeler la contingence et la dépendance des régimes à une certaine réalité sociale (relevant non seulement des pratiques mais de l’ordre symbolique, épistémique qui en découle). Les enjeux politiques de la technologie sont ainsi abordés au travers de la notion d’imaginaire — pas seulement pour montrer l’influence de la transformation numérique sur les représentations qui fondent le monde commun, mais pour affirmer que l’enjeu fondamentalement politique du numérique est avant tout un enjeu poétique : il faut rendre à la théorie sa puissance créatrice, pour oser imaginer un paysage socio-politique, et un horizon idéel, radicalement transformés.

In this dissertation, I investigate the socioeconomic causes of consequences of ethnic conflict, and evaluate interventions that can reduce social animosity and misperceptions about outgroups. In particular, I focus on conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India. In recent years, online misinformation has emerged as a major contributor to misperceptions and animosity towards Muslims in India. In Chapter 1, I investigate if we can inoculate people against misinformation and mitigate its impact on people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behavior? We conduct a large field experiment in India with an intervention providing weekly digests containing a compilation of fact-checks of viral misinformation. In these digests, we also incorporate narrative explainers to give details and context of issues that are politically salient and consistent target of false stories. Specifically, we address misperceptions about Muslims increasingly fuelled by online misinformation. We find that familiarity with fact-checks increases people’s ability to correctly identify misinformation by eleven percentage points. However, belief in true news also decreases by four percentage points. We estimate a structural model to disentangle the two mechanisms of impact—truth discernment, which is the ability to correctly distinguish between false and true news; and skepticism, which changes the overall credulity for both false and true news. The impact is driven by an increase in both truth discernment and skepticism. Whereas skepticism increases immediately, it takes several weeks to become better at discerning truth. Finally, our intervention reduces misperceptions about Muslims, as well as leads to changes in policy attitudes and behavior. Treated individuals are less likely to support discriminatory policies and are more likely to pay for efforts to counter the harassment of inter-faith couples. In Chapter 2, I investigate the economic impacts of conflict and social animus by estimating the causal impact of ethnic violence on economic growth in India. For causal identification, I use shift-share instruments to isolate exogenous national shocks to violence from endogenous local shocks. On average, a riot reduces state GDP growth rate by 0.14 percentage points. To investigate mechanism, I estimate the dynamics of impact using the synthetic control method and compare it to theoretical predictions from a shock to social capital versus physical capital. This shows that the negative impact of violence is likely driven by a negative shock to social capital from higher animosity and discrimination among communities exposed to violence. This impact of violence on growth creates a vicious cycle when one also considers the effect in the opposite direction – lower growth leading to more violence. The multiplier due to this vicious cycle magnifies the impact of external growth shocks by 40 percent in equilibrium. Overall, the results highlight the importance of strong institutions to manage conflict for the long-term prosperity of societies. In Chapter 3, I investigate the historical origins of ethnic violence in India by comparing violence in regions that were directly ruled by British, versus those that were indirectly ruled through native kings who had significant autonomy. I find that regions that are directly ruled have more violence in post-independence period. I then use direct British rule as an instrument for ethnic violence to estimate the impact of violence and residential segregation.

This author conducted a qualitative interview study of community orchestra musicians to better understand why they have sustained their music-making. The first chapter of this dissertation outlines the three research questions along with a rationale and author’s narrative. A problem statement along with a conceptual framework are also included within the first chapter. Three key areas of connected and relevant literature are identified and discussed in the second chapter of this proposal: 1) Socioeconomic Status (SES), parental involvement, efficacy, and attrition in formal school settings: Motivations of students to start learning an instrument and sustain that learning through high school; 2) Characteristics of members of community orchestras; and 3) Studies examining why adults sustain their music-making. The first dimension enables comparisons and contrasts between community orchestra members and school music students. The second and third domains offer a context for both the musicians' individual work and adult music-making in general. The third chapter is a description of the methods, research questions, and timeline of data collection. Data were gathered via a semi-structured interview and a PhotoVoice activity from 10 community orchestra musicians in the New York City area. A description of the pilot study is also included along with the findings. Additionally, the third chapter includes a detailed description of the PhotoVoice method. There were three main findings for each of the three research questions and those findings and the supporting themes/codes are described in chapter 4. The discussion chapter includes extensive thoughts on the implications of the findings. The concluding chapter summarizes the research, lays out plans for future research, and reflects on the study.

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Thesis (MBA. (Business Administration)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This study investigated the socio-economic effects of the youth unemployment on the economy of Limpopo Province. Youth unemployment is rife in the province whereby drugs, alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS, and crime affect young people. A great number of these young people are unskilled or semi-skilled and are therefore not able to create jobs for themselves; they rely on government for job creation. Thus, a research was conducted in Capricorn District of Limpopo Province, wherein participants were drawn from two municipalities. The two municipalities that were identified for the study were Polokwane and Lepelle-Nkumpi. These municipalities were identified due to the number of active youth programmes that they conduct. A total of 54 individuals participated in the study. They included the municipality officials and the young people. A quantitative research approach was used to collect and analyse data. A Likert scale was used as a research instrument to collect data. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the selected participants. Thus, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to analyse data. The major finding in the research was that unemployment affected all the youth across the entire education spectrum. The study therefore recommended changes in the education system, and rigorous programmes on entrepreneurship.