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Come on Baby, Light My Fire: A study on Dutch Millennial Usage of Dating Applications and Morals
Get PDFThis is an explorative study of Dutch Millennials and their usage of mobile dating applications in better understanding the connections between youth culture, technology, and intimate relationships. This research also explores common behaviors and beliefs of a specific age group using generational theory. Five qualitative interviews with Dutch Millennials born between 1983 and 1997. The data from the interviews was analyzed using a generational theory framework, but also in relation to common understanding of the Millennial generation’s characteristics and behaviors. Participants spoke about their identities as Millennials, their relationship with technology and social media, as well as their experiences dating in the 21st century. With the introduction of IT technology early on in their lives, Millennials have come to be defined by their use of tech devices, but strive to find a balance offline. I found that while Dutch Millennials are using mobile dating applications, like Tinder, they are also still using more traditional methods of meeting possible partners in person. This research is important for anyone studying or interested in the rise of online dating, the Millennial generation, or youth cultur
Globalization of the Food Industry: Transnational Food Corporations, the Spread of Processed Food, and Their Implications for Food Security and Nutrition
Get PDFWe are currently experiencing a significant shift in our world’s food systems and dietary patterns. Access, availability, and the quality of food are changing and the need for proper nutrition and food security has come to the forefront of the global health agenda. While globalization has fostered greater variety and access to food in many places; access to healthy, affordable food is not universal, leaving many populations buying cheaper food that has poor nutritional value. My purpose for this paper is to determine how the forces of globalization, the business practices of transnational food companies, and the prevalence of processed foods contribute to these shifts in food security and nutrition.
I have found that urbanization and foreign direct investment lead to greater availability, affordability, and consumption of processed westernized foods due to an increased presence of transnational food corporations in local markets. This presence highly influences consumer preference and consumption of processed foods due to the advanced advertising, marketing and business strategies of large companies. Additionally, the sheer control that large food corporations have over domestic markets puts small farmers at a disadvantage because they are often unable to compete with the high international standards and market power of such corporations. As a result, food security, food sovereignty, and the presence of healthy food can be diminished. This creates adverse health affects like malnutrition, which can lead to disease and lower economic productivity, among other things. Certain forces of globalization and business practices of transnational food corporations, when they go unmonitored and unaccounted for, can contribute greatly to food insecurity and malnutrition. However, globalization and the private sector can also be a part of the solution in combatting these ills. Overall, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on flaws within the global food system so that we may better approach more equitable, sustainable, and healthy food systems in developing countries
Navigating Cape Town: A Poetic Cartography
Get PDFCape Town has long been the site of conflicts over urban space. This study explored the potentials of a place-based poetry workshop as a tool for critically engaging with the urban environment. With the assistance of a well-established local poet, the researcher facilitated a poetry workshop that brought three young and emerging poets to contested public spaces including District Six, Company Gardens, and Church Square. After the workshop, poets submitted their writing to the researcher, who compiled and narrated a poem that showcased the voices of these poets while drawing attention to salient ideas evoked by the poets’ work. The researcher also wrote reflexively during the entire research process and included reflexive writing samples in the book of poetry that contained the longer narrative poem. The poetry written by participants and researchers alike, as well as the researcher’s observations from the workshop, indicate tremendous potential for place-based poetry workshop methodology. Participants engaged in a critical, self-reflexive process in which they learned about their own identities in relation to contested public space. Their poetry represented a form of democratized, interdisciplinary qualitative research, producing knowledge marked by critical engagement with memory and a focus on human and geographic bodies. The group writing process allowed participants to find commonalities that transcended their differences in identity and illuminated a common ownership of history and public space. This methodology shows promise as a tool for personal and social change in any urban locale, and should be adopted by researchers, activists, and artists alike
A Systems Approach to Evaluation Metrics: A Case Study of Salvation Farms
Get PDFThis paper examines how integrating systems thinking into nonprofit work and evaluation metrics can help to advance an organization’s mission and clarify that mission to the public. The researcher will utilize her practicum site at Salvation Farms, a small nonprofit in northern Vermont, as a case study to observe the extent to which this organization utilizes systems thinking and how current evaluation metrics can be improved to more effectively inform and involve the community. Salvation Farms’ mission, after all, is to build greater resilience into Vermont’s food system through agricultural surplus management.
The researcher offers a literature review on systems thinking and performance measurement and analyzes the results of a mixed methods evaluation of 8 participants through interviews, surveys, and focus groups to answer the research question: to what extent can systems thinking and approaches help redesign performance measurement at Salvation Farms and ultimately help to clarify its mission to the public?
Initial findings indicate that while Salvation Farms is growing its programs and community presence, there is still only a superficial understanding of its work, both by those close to the organization and by the general public. Often Salvation Farms’ specific programs are more easily understood or relatable than the overarching philosophy of resource management. This suggests that, even though Salvation Farms is having a meaningful impact on the community, the organization can expand its evaluation metrics, further define its indicators for success, and connect more with state-wide and regional partners to further clarify its role in Vermont’s food system. Improving the systemic linkage with other stakeholders, including the immediate community Salvation Farms operates in, will not only help the organization grow but also help advance the conversation in Vermont regarding how to strengthen the food system
B.E.I.B. and Financial Inclusion in NorthWest Cameroon
Get PDFThe Bee Effect Initiative Bank uses an integrated approach to foster financial inclusion in the North West region of Cameroon. This paper has several services under three main themes; economic wellbeing, capacity building, and insurance. Its theory of change and objectives while seeking to make profit centers on creating social change. The mechanics in the paper seek to evoke sustainable economic change in cross sectors- savings, credit, capacity building, and insurance with ROSCAs as target clientele
Defining and Analyzing Internationalization at the University of Northern Iowa
Get PDFOver the last few decades, internationalization has become an important topic in higher education. More institutions are incorporating global learning into their mission and vision plans and increasing internationalization initiatives at their respective institutions. This capstone focuses on the internationalization efforts of the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), a large four-year public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The capstone analyzes internationalization at UNI using the American Council on Education’s (2012) Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement Model for Comprehensive Internationalization. This capstone highlights existing strengths and weakness of internationalization at the University of Northern Iowa and sheds light on the challenges of comprehensive internationalization without an internationalization plan in place and proposes recommendations for internationalization improvement at the University of Northern Iowa
A Comparative Study of Women’s Health Care: Non-Syrian Refugee Women Living in Amman and Syrian Refugee Women Living in Refugee Camps
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to compare access and quality of women’s health care in Amman for non-Syrian refugee women and women’s health care in Syrian refugee camps. I also sought to understand how women’s health care could be improved in both Amman and in Syrian refugee camps. I hypothesized that Syrian refugee women in camps will have less access and lower quality women’s health care since refugee camps’ funding is limited, making medical equipment and women’s health care providers short. Since women in Amman often have more stable family situations and jobs, I thought they would have more access to high quality women’s health care. I started by researching the most pressing women’s health care issues in Jordan, such as lack of postpartum care for new mothers. I interviewed women’s health care providers and patients in Amman, as well as women’s health care providers and patients in Zaatari and Azraq Camp. I also interviewed a staff member at the National Women’s Health Care Center in Amman to obtain an overview women’s health care in Jordan as a whole. I found that there are many aspects of women’s health care, such as newborn education and access to contraceptives, that Amman excels in more so than in the refugee camps. However, there are other areas of women’s health where women in refugee camps are actually roughly the same or slightly better off than some groups of women in Amman, such as breastfeeding education. Thus my findings were different from my hypothesis, since women’s health care was not always more limited in Syrian refugee camps than in Amman.Women’s health care is incredibly important to a woman’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, and when women’s health care is inadequate, it disempowers women. Thus, I wanted to understand the state of women’s health care in two different Jordanian settings to see what can be done in terms of improvement, which would better the lives of women living in both settings
Sub-Saharan Refugees Finding Space and Place in Rabat, Morocco
Get PDFIn an attempt to affiliate itself with the Europe, Morocco has aligned its policy closer to the desires of the European Union, including stricter migration borders. As a result, Morocco is becomingmore and more the interstice between a refugee’s past and dreamed future until one can manage the journey to Europe or meet their needs in Morocco and return to their country of origin. Under prevailing notions of space as it accommodates systems of power and thought, and with consideration of Asef Bayat’s theory of ordinary encroachment, I explore the experiences of Sub-Saharan refugees, economic and political, in Rabat, Morocco, as they occupy and claim space for their own goals. Exploring the opportunities present for Sub-Saharan refugees to access space and obtain private space reveals the spatial bounds put upon them, and consequently, the bounds of their power through financial, political, and social restrictions, which allows insight into the degree to which this population is welcome in Rabat. Gleaning information from reports and interviews with individuals and groups, I find that the understanding of this space as temporary is the largest factor affecting the refugee’s use of the space and treatment from locals while inhabiting it
“It’s Not the Pride Parade Model”: Investigating Changes in Queer Activist Practices in Sarajevo after 2008
Get PDFIn 2008, a group of queer activists in Sarajevo organized the Sarajevo Queer Festival in an attempt to raise the visibility of queer people in Sarajevo, but the event resulted in a violent attack on the queer community. Since 2008, the actors and tactics of activists have changed, moving from the single, more radical, Organization Q, to the emergence of more groups with a more moderate approach. My research poses the question how have the tactics of queer activists in Sarajevo changed since the attack on the Sarajevo Queer Festival and the passage of the 2009 anti-discrimination law. Through semi-structured interviews and observational study of queer-friendly spaces and activist events, I conclude that activist tactics have taken a more moderate approach that has resulted in legal protection, but has not yet built a strong community amongst queer people in Sarajevo. These changes lead me to analyze current challenges in queer activism and the trajectory of practices
Foraging Time and Food Resource use of Geoffroy’s Tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi) in an Urban Forest Landscape, Parque Natural Metropolitano, Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá
Get PDFSaguinus geoffroyi, a small neotropical primate that ranges from the Chocó region of Colombia along the Pacific coast of Panamá to the eastern side of the Azuero peninsula. They are known to be a disturbance tolerant species and are mostly found in secondary growth and forest edges where understory growth is moderately dense. They have 3 main food sources: insects, small fruits and exudates (plant saps), which are located in different layers of the forest, although the composition of these may change depending on the season. This study attempted to determine the common food resources, foraging time and location of a population of Geoffroy’s tamarins living within Parque Natural Metropolitano, a secondary, tropical dry forest located within the Panama City Metropolitan area. A combination of instantaneous and focal scans was used to record behavior, location and food resources. During 13 days of observation, 23 detection events occurred, for a total of 9.267 hours. The average number in each group was 4.47±1.92 individuals. There was a significant difference in the time at which the groups were observed at different sites (df=5, p=0.04232). A significant difference between the frequency of activities was found (d.f.=2, p=0.0101). Comparison of wet and dry season use revealed a greater presence in the southern, lowland regions of the park during the dry season. Foraging time represented the smallest portion of time spent, which aligned with observations found in other studies. Because of increasing urbanization, conservation of species, especially those that are known to be tolerant of habitat disturbance, need to be better understood for future conservation efforts of protected areas located within urban areas. Future studies are recommended to further understand habitat and resource use of this species