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Does Soft Power Work? Evaluating the Effectiveness of China’s Confucius Institutes in Latin America
No full textChina’s soft power efforts have increased, attracting global attention through diplomacy, cultural initiatives, and economic ventures. A notable example is the establishment of Confucius Institutes (CIs). This dissertation examines how China employs soft power strategies in Latin America, with a specific focus on Argentina and Chile. Drawing on a wide range of academic literature, economic data, government databases, and news sources, this study examines the role of CIs within China’s broader cultural soft power strategy to determine the effectiveness of China’s soft power efforts.
This research employs a mixed-method approach, combining a qualitative case study analysis of China’s cultural diplomacy and political, domestic, and economic trends in Argentina and Chile with a quantitative evaluation of variables such as trade balance, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Chinese aid, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) participation, the establishment of CIs, and public opinion polls. A comparative analysis revealed a correlation between the establishment of CIs and China’s rise in soft power, but it did not establish causation. While imports, exports, and Chinese FDI increased before and after the establishment of CIs, public opinion polls declined, suggesting that China’s soft power efforts in Latin America are ineffective. The findings contribute to an understanding of China’s engagement strategy in Latin America and the extent to which cultural diplomacy and CIs are used as a soft power tool. Furthermore, these findings challenge the notion that Chinese soft power initiatives pose a direct threat to Western society, suggesting a shift in focus from soft power to Chinese economic strength
Scaling Social Enterprise: How Social Franchising Supports Sustainable Growth and Impact
No full textThis dissertation examines the franchising business model as applied to social enterprise (SE) in the context of scaling the size and geographic reach of mission-driven, socially impactful ventures. Social enterprises play a critical role in addressing societal challenges by applying entrepreneurial strategies to solve social and environmental problems while maintaining financial sustainability. Despite their potential, social enterprises often face significant barriers to scaling due to financial constraints, operational inefficiencies, and difficulty replicating impact across multiple locations. This research will demonstrate that franchising provides a uniquely effective growth model for social enterprises, offering a structured framework that enhances financial sustainability, risk mitigation, and operational efficiency. By leveraging the strengths of franchising, social enterprises can expand their reach, maintain mission fidelity, and deliver impact at scale. This research demonstrates that social franchising is not only beneficial for individual ventures but also for society at large, as it enables the widespread replication of solutions to pressing social problems. This research will provide value to the field of humanities as well as business and social entrepreneurship by examining franchising as a model for scaling social impact. It will contribute to the humanities by exploring the ethical, cultural, and societal implications of economic systems, while also offering practical insights for entrepreneurs, policymakers, and stakeholders interested in sustainable, impactful business models
Enhancing Preadmission Communication of Postictal Agitation Risk in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit: A Retrospective Quality Review
No full textEpilepsy Monitoring Units (EMUs) play a crucial role in helping patients with epilepsy understand the sequelae of seizures and adjust treatment plans to enhance their quality of life. In this retrospective quality improvement project medical records were reviewed from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024. The study assessed postictal confusion, agitation, and aggression in patients with documented preadmission evidence of these behaviors, compared with those without identified postictal risk. Records from 103 patients were examined for notes on confusion, agitation, and aggression. Safety reports were analyzed both for the total number and specifically within the EMU population. Police and security reports were also quantified, first for the entire unit and then for the EMU subgroup. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze correlations between patients with a known history of postictal behavioral risks and those without such risks. Although the data analysis did not reveal a statistically significant difference, episodes of aggression comprised 35% of safety reports, and police and security incidents accounted for 22.2% of unit events. These findings highlight the importance of recognizing behavioral risk, particularly aggression, in the EMU. Implementing a standardized epilepsy risk assessment tool and improving documentation continuity are recommended interventions to enhance patient safety
When the Past is Present: The International Relations Impacts of Cultural Artifact Repatriation Decisions
No full textWhile the repatriation of cultural artifacts misappropriated during the colonial era has garnered increasing media attention, rigorous academic inquiry into its foreign relations implications remains limited. This research addresses this gap by analyzing repatriation decisions concerning artifacts held in national collections in the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Germany. The key findings reveal that repatriation decisions do not substantially affect bilateral relations with the countries from which the artifacts originated. In addition, while domestic political considerations play a role in decisions to repatriate artifacts, they are insufficient to explain the complexities of these decisions fully. This research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the motivations and consequences of cultural repatriation in the postcolonial world
Meet Mr. Emerson
Full text linkRalph Waldo Emerson, in leaving his position as a minister, created a uniquely American world view centered on a cosmic psyche incarnating itself as the world of nature. He thus created Transcendentalism, America\u27s first great philosophy
A Blueprint for an Engaging Zoom Classroom: Shortening the Distance in Distance Learning through Media Ecology and Phenomenology
No full textThe Zoom classroom continues to be an option for many schools. In terms of bridging the fields of media ecology and phenomenology on the matter of the zoom classroom, this project is the first of its kind. While much has been said about effective teaching strategies in the Zoom classroom, a study that examines Zoom’s makeup as a distinct media environment can provide a proper anchor for the adoption of the best teaching strategies. The field of media ecology serves as the proper lens through which to examine Zoom’s makeup as a biased environment that plays upon the human sensorium in specific ways. While much of instruction on Zoom features visual stimuli of various kinds, this project contends that the auditory dimension holds the key to a more engaging classroom. The distance in distance learning is shortened in and through the human voice, especially when the human voice takes on a character of dialogue and sociality that approximates the dynamics associated with Martin Buber’s I-Thou Relationship
Suffering and Solace: Photography and Trauma in a Changing Nation
No full textDeath, grief, and mourning changed more rapidly and radically in America between the Civil War and Vietnam than ever before. America itself changed drastically over this period, becoming a diverse, urban, industrial society. Urbanization took the disposal of the dead out of the hands of community women, and the mass deaths of the Civil War aided the growth of the professional death care industry. Different ethnic groups and faiths brought new traditions to mourning. Urbanism and westward expansion changed the structure of family networks, while science changed the way remains were handled, leading to shifts in ritual.
The advent of hospitals, modern medicine, and embalming facilitated a removal of death from the home, family, and community and transformed it into an exclusive and pseudoscientific business, denaturalizing death and grief both. However, the technological advancements in process photography both facilitated and recorded these changes. Images of battlefields strewn with bloated corpses and those of domestic lynching shocked a culture that believed in \u27good death,\u27 but only temporarily. Postmortem photography meant that the dead could be kept as both memento and memento mori, as would casket images somewhat later. Then they too lost impact and importance.
With each subsequent generation, death would be further removed from life, grief and mourning would be denormalized, excised from American life, practices and images fading away
