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- Genre: Masters Thesis
Description
The increasing isolation and segregation of children in American cities and suburbs is of special significance. This has meant a loss of freedom for children to explore their neighborhood and city as they get older, their exclusion from varied contacts with diverse adults in a variety of settings, and their consequent inability to learn from personal experience and observation, so essential to social and emotional development. The purpose of this study is to measure the differences in child-friendliness between neighborhoods with different income levels by developing an indicator framework that can be used by planning departments and other local authorities based on available data. The research also focus on what other factor (besides income) influences child-friendliness in a city at the neighborhood level. If a relationship does exist, how big is the difference in terms of child-friendliness between low-income and high-income neighborhoods, and what indicators play the most important role in creating the difference? Neighborhoods in the city of Glendale, Arizona serve as case studies to aid in refining the assessment method, and show the potential for how cities can become more child-friendly. The neighborhoods were selected based on income, same size and different location.
ContributorsRakhimova, Nelya (Author) / Stein, Jay (Thesis advisor) / Pijawka, David (Committee member) / Crewe, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The United States has a long history of providing public parks and amenities, especially for children. Unfortunately, children today are spending less time in public parks, less time getting physical activity and more time being indoors and sedentary. While multiple factors may be responsible for this lack of activity, multiple researchers have found the availability of parks is a significant influence on the physical activity levels of children as well as on the occurrence of obesity related illness. Public parks are ideal locations for children to get physical activity, however they are not always equitably distributed within communities. Income and race/ethnicity especially are common variables found to impact availability of parks. Such socioeconomic variables typically have an impact on the availability of public parks within a community. Such variables may also impact the quality of the parks provided. A case study of Scottsdale, Arizona was conducted analyzing the availability of public parks within the City between the years of 1990 and 2000 and the current quality of the parks. Statistical analysis and observation were utilized to assess the amount of park space available (in acres) and the quality of the parks in comparison to selected socioeconomic variables including ethnicity, income and total percent housing type (single family or multi-family). All analysis was conducted using U.S. Census data from the years 1990 and 2000 and was at the tract level. The results of the analysis indicate that in contrast to the initial hypothesis and past research, within the City of Scottsdale, lower income neighborhoods actually have more public park space available to them than higher income neighborhoods. Between 1990 and 2000 the difference in park space between the lowest and highest income quartiles increased considerably, approximately 230% over the ten years. The quality analysis results indicate that the overall quality of parks is slightly higher in the highest income neighborhoods, which also have no parks that could be considered of poor quality. Given the atypical results of this analysis, further research is necessary to better understand the impacts of socioeconomic characteristics on park, especially regarding children.
ContributorsSamples, Samantha (Author) / Crewe, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Booze, Randy (Committee member) / Pijawka, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
There is a conflict in the profession of interior design over regulation through legislation. For some organizations and individuals, regulation via legislation is the next perceived step in the professionalization process which has been evolving for over 40 years and is needed to protect the health, safety and welfare (HSW) of the public. For other organizations and individuals, legislation is deemed unnecessary and an affront to the free trade market and serves only to create anti-competitive barriers resulting in the formation of a "design cartel" (Campo-Flores, 2011; Carpenter, 2007). Research exists on the professionalization of interior design and on the reasons stated for and against legislation (ASID, 2010, Anderson, Honey, Dudek, 2007, Martin, 2008). However, there is little research on understanding how the actual stake-holders view legislation. For the purpose of this research, the stake-holders are the professional interior designers themselves. The purpose of this study was to examine the current status of relevant issues to the subject of regulation in interior design and to pose the question if there is an option to legislation. If so, could third party certification be an acceptable alternative? An on-line survey was developed and posted on interior design networking sites on LinkedIn. The results of the survey suggest that interior designers are completely divided on the issue of legislation but favorably view certification. The survey has also revealed the lack of understanding of the legislative process in interior design and confusion in the role that interior design organizations play. The study has also revealed that interior designers identify the distorted view the public has of this industry as a problem. Interior designers surveyed in this study see a need to separate commercial and residential interior design. Overall, this study has concluded that interior designers would actually prefer a certification process to legislation.
ContributorsPliess, Catherine (Author) / Bender, Diane (Thesis advisor) / Crewe, Katherine (Committee member) / Kroelinger, Michael D. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This thesis explores the extent to which entrepreneurship is possible for women in Saudi Arabia, and it's potential to increase Saudi women's socio-cultural autonomy, financial independence, and overall well-being. The study uses interviews and an online surveys to gather information from recognized female entrepreneurs, those officially registered with the Women's Business Center in Alkhober, Saudi Arabia, about how they founded their businesses, the challenges they have experienced, and the effects of business ownership. These women are interesting because their experience seems to run counter to Saudi society, which generally restricts women's activities. The study's findings show that despite their successes, Arab traditions still hinder the success of Alkhober female entrepreneurs, for instance, by requiring male guardianship and prohibiting travel unaccompanied by a man. From an institutional perspective, administrative and legal requirement can prevent women from fully realizing their potential as businesswomen. The existing women's rights legislation lacks authority because political opportunities for Alkhober women are still limited. For Saudi women entrepreneurship remains an alternative to joblessness and dissatisfaction derived from other employment sources. The challenges women entrepreneurs experience while starting businesses are lack of support from the executive branch of government, lack of quality education, and lack of available financial resources, in addition to the cultural barriers caused by Arab traditions restricting the activities of women. However, a key finding from this study is that the women interviewed all showed a high level of resourcefulness and creativity that helped them to circumvent such obstacles. This study recommends that the government provide financial services, or training programs to aspiring female entrepreneurs and offer incentives for women to register their businesses. This will benefit not just Saudi women but for the Saudi economy overall.
ContributorsAlhabidi, Mariam (Author) / C. Parmentier, Mary Jane C. Parmentier Jane (Thesis advisor) / Grossman, Gary M. (Committee member) / Crewe, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Education for sustainable development (ESD) is an academic goal for many courses in higher learning. ESD encompasses a specific range of learning outcomes, competencies, skills and literacies that include and exceed the acquisition of content knowledge. Methods and case studies for measuring learning outcomes in ESD is absent from the literature. This case study of an undergraduate course in urban sustainability examines the processes, curriculum, pedagogies, and methods to explore whether or not learning outcomes in education for sustainable development are being reached. Observations of the course, and the statistical analysis of student surveys from course evaluations, are explored to help identify the relationships between learning outcomes in ESD and the processes of learning and teaching in the case study. Recommendations are made for applying the lessons of the case study to other courses, and for continuing further research in this area.
ContributorsFrederick, Chad Paul (Author) / Pijawka, David (Thesis advisor) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Crewe, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Winter storms decrease the safety of roadways as it brings ice and snow to the roads and increases accidents, delays, and travel time. Not only are personal vehicles affected, but public transportation, commercial transportation, and emergency vehicles are affected as well. Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, both suffer from mild, but sometimes extreme, storms that affect the entire city. Taking a closer look at the number of crashes reported by the City of Portland and the City of Seattle, it is seen that there is an increase in percent of crashes with reported road conditions of snow and ice. Both cities appear to have nearly the same reported crash percentages. Recommendations in combating the issue of increased accidents and the disruption of the city itself include looking into communication between the climate research institution and city planners that could help with planning for better mitigation during storms, a street or gas tax, although an impact study is important to keep in mind to make sure no part of the population is at risk; and engineering revolutions such as Solar Roadways that could benefit all cities.
ContributorsHoots, Danielle (Author) / Crewe, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Golub, Aaron (Committee member) / Brazel, Anthony (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015