8411 research outputs found
Sort by
Bridges Out of Poverty as an Anti-Poverty Strategy in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Get PDFThis paper explores the initial results of the Bridges Out of Poverty (“Bridges”) community framework as implemented by the organization Kennett Area Community Service in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The aim of this research is to provide perspective on Bridges Out of Poverty’s contribution to the understanding of poverty in the United States and its potential as an antipoverty intervention. It does so first through an exploration of the historical and current discussion on poverty and anti-poverty interventions in the United States, followed by research on the Bridges model itself and its implementation in Kennett Square. This latter research includes content analysis of Bridges publications, interviews with Bridges leaders across the United States, additional interviews with those involved in the initial Bridges programming in Kennett Square, and finally survey data collected by Kennett Area Community Service in the beginning stages of program implementation. The research finds that by situating the individual-level effects of poverty in structural context, Bridges has the potential to change the conversation on poverty in the communities engaging with its framework. While Bridges’ stated goals reach into the level of large-scale structural impact, I find that the change inspired by Bridges is primarily happening on the community level, and with bigger impacts happening as they “trickle up” from local contexts. I argue, therefore, that Bridges has potential as a set of tools to bring a critical analysis of poverty to circles where it is often overlooked, and in doing so to change mindsets and practices that address poverty at the local level
Culture, Inner-city Education and Improving Economic Growth In Birmingham, Alabama
Get PDFPerhaps the greatest reminder of the economic inequities in American society is the drastic deficiencies in educational outcomes, based on class and race. Birmingham, Alabama, vividly portrays this reality. Families with means send their children to private schools and/or concentrate in the suburbs, leaving largely poor, and oftentimes, predominantly minority in densely populated crime-ridden areas with suboptimal schooling. The schooling patterns are clearly reflected in the economic outcomes, though Black are a majority in the city they are vastly underrepresented in the middle to upper middle class, while grossly overrepresented among those in poverty. These inequities are often mirrored in the school system. Poor literacy and numeracy scores on tests illustrate the poor schooling. The implications of continual school failure have constricted, and will continue to impede Birmingham’s economic growth horizon.
This paper seeks to explore why these schools are failing and their impact on Birmingham’s economy. This exploration is done by examining whether or not a culturally and experientially insensitive approach to education is impeding the city’s progress.
This capstone paper is, in part, the outcome of my personal experiences working in the school system during my practicum. Primarily, though I have leveraged the connections I have made in the Birmingham area during my practicum to hold 9, 30 minute to an hour long conversations with educators, former students and Business leaders in the Birmingham area. These conversations have guided me in examining additional secondary and tertiary stories to provide greater context and increased collaboration.
The goal of this paper is to provide readers with several key Birmingham voices whose thoughts can be leveraged in adding to the conversation of how Birmingham maximizes the pipeline of high school graduates qualified for high paying jobs and to take part in growing Birmingham
Media, Borders, and Citizenship: Internationalization and Social Justice in an Undergraduate Communication Program at a Public University in New England
Get PDFHigher education in the U.S. is becoming increasingly internationalized, a process which is necessitated by the global economy and the increase in communication and mobility across borders. The process of internationalization has many effects on institutions, programs, faculty, and students. It also has many purposes, among them to improve students’ future employability and to foster understanding of social issues. The communication discipline, which encompasses a variety of studies ranging from media production to interpersonal communication, has seen the effects of internationalization. Those effects are evident in evolving curriculum and pedagogy that reflect the shifting dynamics of the media landscape and the changing interactions between individuals and organizations. This qualitative study sought to answer the question of how faculty and administrators approach the internationalization process in an undergraduate communication program at a mid-sized public university. The research, completed through a series of interviews and document analyses, illuminates the successes and challenges of internationalization in this communication program. The findings of this study show that both building students’ employability and giving students tools to understand social justice issues are key components of internationalizing the discipline. Understanding the relationship between those components is essential for the discipline to educate future communication professionals to become responsible global citizens
Barriers to Empowerment: How can gender equality training reduce the barriers that women farmers face in Nicaragua?
Get PDFWomen farmers worldwide face difficulties, unrelated to men, in their control over and access to resources and participation within farming systems. In Nicaragua, women are legally allowed to own land and participate in cooperatives, however, due to social, political, and economic factors they face barriers in their equitable access to resources and participation. Feminist political ecology theorizes that gender plays a key role and determines access to knowledge and resources, additionally, gender motivates people to social and political activism differently, which in effect shapes human-environment interactions. Can women, women’s groups, and NGO’s find ways to reduce the barriers women face through various forms of consciousness raising to help change the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of communities? This paper studies the impact of 20 years of gender equality training at a cooperative in San Ramon, Nicaragua. Here, women came together with men to challenge the norms that acted to subordinate women - reducing barriers women farmers faced and transforming their roles both in the cooperative and their households. Though land ownership allows women a certain degree of empowerment, gender equality training further grows women’s empowerment by reducing the barriers women face. This paper contributes to the academic and development community by more deeply examining the dynamic between gender equality training and the building of women’s empowerment
Bridging Training Gaps in Leadership Capacity: A Critical Approach to Assessment and Evaluation for Program Improvement and Development
Get PDFThis research paper seeks to explore leadership capacity of Civil Service employees whose job it is to develop young adults with job skills and positive life changes within the framework of a modern-day workforce development program serving industry needs within environmental conservation work. The purpose of this study is to identify gaps in training and program functions so that recommendations could be made towards increasing leadership capacity of Civil Service employees as well as program development. The use of both feminist and institutional cultural theories informs the philosophical framework of this paper. These help to explain the case study’s hierarchical organizational structure that drives decision-making processes. A program evaluation design is used to analyze three different sets of data collected from surveys administered to program staff and sponsors between 2016 and 2017. I conducted a thematic analysis of recurring themes in these data sets. The findings identify a lack of individual support for program participants during their first two months in the program, and the need to enhance training for Civil Service employees to include mentorship ‘soft skills’ encompassing subjects such as career development and pathways, working with disabilities, and overcoming drug and alcohol addictions. It is the responsibility of management to address this critical program deficiency if they are serious about upholding an equitable program mission of putting people on a path to making positive life changes and becoming productive members of society
El Suma Qamaña: La convivencia en relación a la salud según la gente Aymara de Arica, Codpa, y Putre / El Suma Qamaña: Coexistence in relation to health according to the Aymara people of Arica, Codpa, and Putre
No full textSuma qamaña, comúnmente conocido como buen vivir o convivir bien, es un concepto andino relacionado con la manera en que la gente entiende la vida y conceptualiza la salud. Es un modelo de armonía en que se busca un equilibrio con todas las cosas, incluida la comunidad, la naturaleza, la espiritualidad, la familia, el cuerpo, y la mente. Esta investigación busca responder a la pregunta ¿Cómo se entiende y vive la salud en el marco del concepto del buen vivir de la gente aymara de Arica, Codpa, y Putre? También, intenta explicar el concepto del buen vivir o suma qamaña, tanto a nivel teórico como práctico, según la gente aymara en estos tres lugares.
Para realizar la investigación etnográfica, las técnicas de observación y entrevistas semi-estructuradas fueron utilizadas en cada uno de los tres lugares de Arica, Codpa, y Putre. Los requisitos de participación en la investigación eran autoidentificarse como aymara, ser mayor de dieciocho años y vivir en una de las localidades mencionadas. Las entrevistas fueron realizadas con gente que conocía el tema de suma qamaña y también con gente que no lo conocía. A través de quince entrevistas, tres componentes integrales de suma qamaña salieron a relucir: familia, tierra y trabajo. También fue posible identificar un espectro amplio de contenidos en los discursos sobre el tema. Un primer grupo de entrevistados elabora un discurso político en un nivel público en que se concibe el suma qamaña como un modelo de desarrollo alternativo al capitalismo y como un tema significativo de la cosmovisión aymara. Un segundo grupo conceptualiza el suma qamaña en un plano doméstico, como parte natural e inseparable de la vida cotidiana, más que como un tema específico. Por último, se identificó un tercer discurso de tipo religioso, en el cual la gente identifica su religión cristiana o católica como el factor que guía su vida y salud. Estos tres niveles de discurso tienen implicaciones en la potencial inclusión del suma qamaña en los modelos de atención, como parte de las políticas de salud pública.
/
Suma qamaña, commonly known as “buen vivir” or “convivir bien”, is an aymara tradition that pertains to the way in which people conduct their lives and conceptualize their health. It is a model of living, which emphasizes harmony and searches to balance all aspects of life including community, nature, spirituality, family, body, and mind. This study investigates how aymara people in Arica, Codpa, and Putre understand and pursue their health in relation to the concept of suma qamaña. Through this question, the investigation intends to explain the concept of “buen vivir” in theory and practice according the aymara communities living in the three aforementioned places.
This ethnographic study utilizes the tools of observation and semi-structured interviews. In order to participate, subjects must have been over the age of eighteen, self identify as aymara, and live in one of the three selected cities. Both people who were familiar with the term “suma qamaña” and those who did not formerly know the term were invited to participate in the study. After conducting fifteen interviews, three common themes emerged: family, land, and work. All participants talked about these three themes. Within the discussions, a range of levels of discourse appeared. On one end of the spectrum, participants spoke about suma qamaña using academic language and thinking on a public policy level. On the other end of the spectrum, participants discussed suma qamaña as simply an inseparable part of their daily lives instead of an overarching topic or philosophy. A third discourse emerged in the form of religious beliefs that guide the participant’s personal philosophy. There are several implications for understanding this spectrum of discourses if suma qamaña is to be further incorporated into public health efforts
Un Rescate Incompleto: Los Éxitos y Limitaciones del Programa de Educación Intercultural Bilingüe Como un Proyecto Anticolonialista / An Incomplete Rescue: The Successes and Limitations of the Bilingual Intercultural Education Program As an Anticolonialist Project
No full textThis project is an exploration of the Bilingual Intercultural Education Program (EIB) mandated in Chilean schools with a high density of indigenous students. It focusses on the implementation and impacts of EIB in Putre, a small town in the Arica and Parinacota region of Chile where the majority of the residents are Aymara. After gaining the region in the War of the Pacific at the end of the 19th century, the Chilean government waged a violent campaign of forced cultural assimilation known as “Chilenization” against the local Aymara people. The effects of the linguistic repression that occurred during this period is evident today in the low rates of Aymara in Chile who speak their indigenous language.
The purpose of this project is not to evaluate the success or failure of EIB as a measure to revive the Aymara language. Instead, the aim is to evaluate the potential of the program to succeed as an anti colonial project that strives to bolster the self esteem of students within their indigenous identities, thereby combating the centuries of shame associated with Aymara language and culture. Since the arrival of the Spanish to Latin America, language has been used as a site of mental colonization, with schools serving to enforce the shift from indigenous to European languages. EIB is a partially successful effort to reverse this process. EIB does not attempt to teach students to speak Aymara beyond basic phrases, and its limited ambition sends the message that Aymara language, and by extension, culture, is not relevant or valuable enough to warrant the time and energy required to achieve fluency. However, the lessons on Aymara history, culture, and worldview, and the presence of Aymara words in the classroom, provide students with a powerful connection to the past, and give them the opportunity to see themselves and their culture represented and valued in an academic setting.
In this investigation, I use the scholastic community in Putre as a case study in the implementation of EIB. In addition to interviews with the EIB teachers and the family members of students enrolled in the program, I incorporate observations of EIB classes in order to combine the reality inside the classroom with the theory of language and power in a post colonial world
Remembering Negdels: Nostalgia, Memory & Soviet-Era Herding Collectives
Get PDFDuring the socialist period Mongolia’s nomadic herders were grouped into collective herding units called negdels. Today, over twenty years after Mongolia transitioned to democracy, herding has been privatized completely and negdels are a distant memory. This study explores the history of negdels by conducting twenty-five oral interviews with herders about their memories of collective herding. This study focuses on a soum in the Mongolian countryside, Bayandelger, while also incorporating interviews with people from Ulaanbaatar. Bayandelger is a unique location for this project because it was selected by the Soviets to receive assistance in an effort to make it a model of a successful negdel. The study’s findings show that many of the participants, particularly those who were part of the Bayandelger negdel, remember the socialist time fondly and express significant nostalgia for their days in the negdel. Building on work about postsocialist nostalgia in other countries, broader conclusions can be drawn about the nostalgia expressed by participants in this study. Nostalgia is a remembrance of the past but it is also a reflection on the present, so interviewees’ memories are examined as a commentary on their attitudes towards Mongolia’s current economic and political situation
The Environmental Paris-ite: The Current and Potential Impacts of the Paris Agreement on Sustainable Finance and the Global Market
Get PDFSince the passing of the Paris Agreement in December of 2015, organizations in relation to sustainable finance have received fresh attention. The purpose of this study revolves around this new legislation and the financial, environmental, political and social impacts it has had on the market and on sustainable finance. It also analyzes the future potential of carbon markets and renewable energy under the environmental pressure produced by the Paris Agreement. The underlying objective is to confirm whether or not the Paris Agreement has made substantial progress in the fight against climate change. This research is a blend of field research conducted through interviews of business professionals in the Geneva area and my own personal research. After an in-depth analysis, I conclude that there has been substantial progress due to the Paris Agreement on positively impacting the environment and market. However, there is still a necessity for even more legislative pressure if we want to live in a sustainable, climate-neutral world
Supermarket savvy: An analysis of psychological exploitation within grocery stores
Get PDFAs obesity rates continue to climb around the world, an increased effort is needed to explore all means of prevention and intervention. Although previous research has examined the effectiveness of strategies like nutritional education, little research has been conducted surrounding the interplay of psychology and marketing within the context of grocery stores. As such, this paper examines the presence of psychological manipulation within grocery stores and the influence is has upon product choice, and ultimately consumption. Several key variables have been taken into account for this analysis, including store layout, location, product placement, packaging, and others, to provide a holistic understanding of the shopper’s experience. Although the marketing systems and displays within grocery stores were comparable between the United States (US) and Switzerland, the Swiss system was found to exhibit fewer profit-based marketing tactics. Moreover, strategies that are used in Switzerland were found to be less forceful. Further research should seek to examine why this is, how it relates to the profound difference in obesity rates, and also the average level of shopper’s awareness for these tactics