18431 research outputs found
Sort by
World as Other, World As Self: Beyond Dualism in Environmental Narratives
Get PDFStories of place matter to the way we live with the Earth. A dualistic perspective that pits culture against nature enables environmental degradation on small and large scales. Conversely, understanding humans and nonhumans as entwined allows us to think and act differently with our planetary community. This view entails integrating the self and the other. Instead of being antithetical to the other, the self arises through engagement with others, human and nonhuman. Understanding our mutuality with others while respecting their alterity and agency fosters caring and dedication. Our sense of connection with the more-than-human world inspires our compassion. However, such connection and compassion are missing from some of the West\u27s most popular environmental narratives. In this dissertation, I examine three examples of prominent frameworks for understanding climate change as they appear in mass media in the United States. I investigate the assumptions about humanity\u27s relationship to nonhumans on which these narratives rely and consider their ramifications for the work of building sustainable communities. I also examine an example of an alternative to these frameworks. I show that story-making in and with place enables a more holistic, more beneficial perspective on humans\u27 relationships with the environment
The Women’s Legal Rights Index: A New Approach to Measuring Women’s Autonomy
Get PDFExisting indicators of women’s empowerment focus on women’s educational attainment. Yet theories of women’s empowerment in politics, in particular their role in democratization, extend beyond the consequences of education to require agency and autonomy in their lives. In the first chapter of this dissertation, I argue that in an effort to measure women’s citizenship and standing in their respective societies, access to legal rights should be measured and considered. My theoretical framework builds on literature that demonstrates that while education is critical to women’s prosperity in many facets of life, other measures related to their legal rights can provide a deeper understanding of their level of autonomy and substantive equality. In the second chapter, I create an index that measures women’s equality and citizenship based on the aggregation of a set of legal rights. The Women’s Legal Rights Index is made up of fundamental legal rights through which women gain independence, make individual life-changing choices and the ability for social, political and economic mobility without being dependent on men but through guarantees by the state. The Women’s Legal Rights Index is made up of 10 variables for which data is collected and computed to generate an index for 18 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. I then correlate the Women’s Legal Rights Index with the Gender Inequality Index (GII) to determine the substantive level of agency and autonomy women have in MENA, showing that this new measure provides explanatory power. In the third and final chapter, I use the Women’s Legal Rights Index to showcase that high levels of education and access to the labor market in Iran and Tunisia produce different results for women. Both countries prioritize education for their population. Both have low mortality rates, and both provide women with access to the labor force. Their universities are made up of mostly women students – around 60 percent in both countries – and yet the lives of women in both non-democratic nations look very different. Women in Tunisia are considerably empowered through legal rights that are guaranteed through the constitution and numerous laws that took place decades ago and were strengthened overtime through various governments and legislations. Meanwhile, despite their long-standing educational achievements, women in Iran have little agency and independence. In comparing Tunisia and Iran, I make the case that measuring women’s autonomy and independence must include their access to legal rights and that substantive change is realized through the law. My dissertation contributes theoretically and empirically to the literature by providing an additional mechanism of measuring women’s autonomy and empowerment
Postsecondary Enrollment Demand-Gap Estimation Model: Projecting the Postsecondary Demand-Gap for California by 2035
Get PDFThe postsecondary education system in California has been under the pressure of expansion by the means of opening a new campus for several years. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has been recommending whether to open new campus or not as a part of its mandate. In 1990, it recommended opening up of one campus of CSU, however, its projections grossly underestimated the future demand. In 2017, the LAO in its report recommended that given the demand projections there is no need for a new campus. The study commissioned by the Chancellor’s office of California State University also made the same recommendation. The problem of underestimation of future projections can be detrimental for the economy of California as a lot of studies and white papers hint toward a huge skilled labor gap in California’s labor market. Moreover, these future projections are based on data sourced from Department of Finance’s projections, which is perhaps not considering anticipated success of the policy initiated toward improving student outcomes in the TK – 12 ecosystem in California. Through this study, I present the first version of a system dynamics model for the estimation of California’s postsecondary enrollment demand . The model has policy handles to simulate projections to measure successes in policy initiatives focused on improving TK – 12 student outcomes. The model helps make appropriate forecasts taking into consideration the outcomes of policy implementation being undertaken by the California Department of Education for improvement of student outcomes. These outcomes were observable in the increased demand for the postsecondary seats in the California’s public education system and were also being highlighted by the think tanks and policy analysts but were left unrecognized due to lack of methodology to estimate impact of such outcomes on the postsecondary enrollment demand. With my model it has been possible to estimate impact of such policy measures by undertaking sensitivity analysis of policy measures. The model not only proves to be a better method to carryout intangible measurements of policy outcomes for policy analysis and policy evaluation, but also to undertake sensitivity analysis on several policy measures
The Mixed Effects of Procedural Justice in Novel Organizational Policy Decisions
No full textOver the last several years, it has been particularly challenging for organizations to protect their employees from experiencing various negative job attitudes as a result of unprecedented external events. In this persistent, broader context of uncertainty, organizations have had to make numerous challenging decisions that pose additional, unwanted risk to employee attitudes. This dissertation includes two research papers that examine the impact of two unique organizational decisions on different types of uncertainty, and whether certain moderating factors, with particular interest in procedural justice, might mitigate adverse impact on employee uncertainty in the wake of different decision situations. In paper 1, I examine the impact of the organizational decision to close or remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic on employee job, financial, and health uncertainty. Moreover, it considers the interactive effects that employee expectations and procedural justice have on the relationship between the organizational decision and employee uncertainty. Cross-sectional study data were obtained from a sample of 273 U.S.-based employees in April and May of 2020, when job uncertainty had spiked to historic levels. Results showed that the impact of organizational decision depended on other moderating factors. First, employee job uncertainty was higher in the unexpected decision to close, and health uncertainty was higher in the unexpected decision to stay open. Furthermore, three-way interaction regression analyses found that procedural justice tended to exhibit varying directions of relationships with uncertainty depending on whether alignment existed between employee expectations and organizational decisions. In some instances, the findings are consistent with uncertainty management theory. However, other counterintuitive findings emerged that are inconsistent with uncertainty management theory and instead exemplary of a less common form the fair process effect. In paper 2, I consider the impact of the organizational decision to implement (or not implement) a return-to-office (RTO) policy on employee job insecurity. This paper builds on paper 1 by considering psychological contract breach as the psychological mechanism that moderates the potential impact of the decision, and tests hypotheses across two studies. Data collection of employee participants occurred in both studies during Winter of 2025, when RTO policies had become a nationwide norm. Study 1 was a lagged survey-based field study on 370 U.S. employees’ experiences with RTO policies. Study 2 was an online experimental vignette study with a different sample of 382 U.S. employees. This study utilized random assignment in a 2 (RTO: yes, no) x 2 (psychological contract breach: yes, no) x 2 (procedural justice: high, low) experimental design to test the causal nature of hypothesized relationships. Findings across both studies varied but ultimately emphasize the relationship between the decision to implement an RTO policy and job insecurity depended largely upon employees’ perceptions of psychological contract breach, procedural justice, and the interactive effects between the two. Through the examination of novel organizational decision-making situations, these three studies across two different papers collectively illuminate the complexity through which such decisions can impact employee job attitudes. Findings offer new insights for both uncertainty management theory and the fair process effect. Additionally, they illustrate the need for further research examining the contextual features that determine the status and direction of relationship between procedural justice and resulting job attitudes
On Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem
No full textGödel’s Incompleteness Theorem is about the logic of mathematics. It is that a certain mathematical structure is so rich that its theory cannot be completely axiomatized. This means there will always be true statements about the structure that cannot be proved as theorems from previously given axioms. To give meaning to this conclusion, we review some examples of mathematical theorems, and their proofs, in geometry, algebra, and logic; we also give an example of a structure that is so simple (while still being interesting) that its theory can indeed be completely axiomatized. First we look at a couple of popular descriptions of Gödel’s Theorem; these can be misleading. We pass to Raymond Smullyan’s interpretation of Gödel’s Theorem as a puzzle; then to an analogy with the incompleteness of an English guide to English style. Gödel’s argument relies on converting statements about numbers into numbers themselves; we note how to argue similarly by understanding geometrical statements as geometrical diagrams. Geometry is thus somehow incomplete; likewise, physics
Exploring Commutativity in a Hindi Language Classroom
Get PDFCommutativity is an important concept in mathematics. However, not much emphasis is given to it in the elementary or secondary school curriculum, as there is a lack of interesting noncommutative examples at this level. Since most examples of binary operations provided deal with numbers, commutativity appears trivial. In this article we offer an interesting example of noncommutativity that is familiar to Indian school children from a different context. Students in India study a chapter based on the joining of vowels in Hindi grammar. This process is analogous to producing commutative as well as noncommutative operations. When we bring in mathematical and linguistic ideas together, we hope to provide students the opportunity to explore the mathematical theme of commutativity in a nonmathematical context and appreciate its versatility
A Study of the Parental Decision to Homeschool
Get PDFThis phenomenological qualitative study provides context and understanding of why parents choose to homeschool their children using Rational Choice Theory as the framework. As of 2024, while there is quantitative data that breaks the reasons why parents homeschool down into several categories, scholars often criticize these data for being poorly done because these studies lack context. There have also been many qualitative studies that investigate certain reasons why parents homeschool, but almost all of them do not use a decision-making framework nor were they studying the decision-making process on why parents choose homeschooling. The literature has shown that parents homeschool for various reasons because they have a desire to provide the best education possible for their children. This study refers to this desire as parental goals. These parental goals are categorized in this study as personal factors, resource limitations, societal norms, and perceived risks/benefits. Through Rational Choice Theory as a framework, this study provided much needed context into the decision-making process that parents use when considering the variety of reasons for homeschooling. This study found that parents are choosing to homeschool for the level of freedom it gives them, the context to invest in and nurture the relationships with people around them, the assurance that they are protecting their children physically, emotionally, and ideologically, the trade-off of access to barriers is favorable in their situation, and the validation and confidence instilled in them through others or from their own self. Some participants felt compelled to homeschool, not because they ever planned to, through circumstances out of their control which led to choosing homeschooling out of desperation or because the other options became undesirable. In this case, the rationale for starting to homeschool is different from their reason for continuing to homeschool. It is the hope that this study can bring more color to the conversation around school choice so that educators, lobbyists, and policymakers have more knowledge to meet the needs of a growing population that is opting out of the public school system
The Influence of AI-Literate Leadership on AI Adoption in Healthcare Organizations
Get PDFThe adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare has the potential to revolutionize patient care, optimize operations, and advance diagnostic precision. However, successful adoption depends on AI-literate leadership capable of addressing ethical, technical, and organizational challenges. This study examined how healthcare leaders in Saudi Arabia perceived and engaged with the role of AI in healthcare, addressing a critical gap in understanding leadership competencies within the framework of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. Using a qualitative case study design, the research explores leadership perceptions and their influence on AI adoption through semi-structured interviews with 22 healthcare leaders across diverse institutions. Thematic analysis is employed to identify patterns in the data, revealing how leadership demographics, organizational context, and varying levels of AI literacy influenced adoption strategies, perceived barriers, and readiness for digital transformation. The findings contribute theoretically to the understanding of leadership in the context of digital transformation and provide practical strategies to support AI adoption in healthcare organizations. By highlighting the role of AI-literate leadership in navigating challenges such as workforce resistance, ethical concerns, and infrastructural limitations, the study offers insights to guide sustainable and strategic AI adoption within Saudi Arabia’s evolving healthcare system
