Matching Items (13)
Filtering by
- Creators: Arizona State University
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Status: Published
Description
This study compares some sites, structures, theories and praxis of transnational feminisms in India and the U.S., simultaneously guided by and interrogating contemporary academic feminist theoretical and methodological trends. The goal is twofold: to understand similarities and differences in feminist praxis of two geo-epistemological spaces; and to interrogate the notion and currency of the "transnational" within feminist knowledge-creation. The phenomenon of transnational feminist knowledge-making is interrogated from a philosophical/theoretical and phenomenological/experiential standpoint. The philosophical inquiry is concentrated on the theoretical texts produced on transnational/global/postcolonial feminisms. This inquiry also focuses on some unpublished, uncirculated archival materials that trace the history of academic feminisms and their transnationalization. The phenomenological side focuses on interview and survey data on transnational feminism, gathered from feminist practitioners working in the U.S. and India, as well as being "transmigrant," or "traveling scholars." Digital/institutional ethnography is used to ground the findings in operational spaces of knowledge-making, including cyberspace. This research shows that the global logic of circulation and visibility organize the flow of knowledge as data, narratives and reports from the global south, which are analyzed, clarified and theorized in the global north. Perhaps responding to many critiques on "speaking of" and "speaking for" the "other," the trend to represent third world women as perpetual victims has given way to newer representations and accounts of resistance, collaboration, and activism. However, this creates a fresh "theory-here-activism-there" model of transnational feminism that preserves unequal feminist division of labor. This comparative and critical study focuses not just on feminist discourses in two countries but also their relationships, suggests some viable models of transnational feminism that can preserve epistemic justice, and aims to contribute to the theoretical corpus of transnational feminism.
ContributorsChakravarty, Debjani (Author) / Kitch, Sally L (Thesis advisor) / Fonow, Mary M (Committee member) / Koblitz, Ann H (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Amidst studies attempting to fix the U.S., China, and their relationship into preconceived frameworks of international relations, presupposed definitions, and models of reality, this dissertation adopts an identity centric approach to understanding the nature of U.S.-China relations and, more generally, international politics. This approach involves utilizing an interpretive method to understanding, analyzing the narratives of self and other expressed by political actors and how their identities--expressed through narratives--interact with one another and thus how they influence or reflect social behavior. Striving for greater understanding and a more intellectually honest approach to the study of international politics, this study seeks not theory building or generalizability in a traditional "scientific" sense. Rather, informed by thinkers from Karl Popper through those more recent, this dissertation develops and outlines an in-depth, contextual approach to understanding, applying this approach to analyzing the nature of U.S.-China relations. Ultimately, this study argues that U.S. and Chinese identities and how their identities interact influence the nature of U.S.-China relations, whether the relationship tends towards cooperation or conflict, and that in order to glimpse this nature researchers must delve into the details of their subjects of study. Attempting to do so, this study analyzes U.S.-China relations surrounding the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, relations regarding the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute between China and Japan as it pertains to U.S. relations with China, and relations regarding encounters between the U.S. and China in cyber space (paying special note to attempts to define this "space" itself).
ContributorsKoehler, Clifford Eugene (Author) / Simon, Sheldon (Thesis advisor) / Doty, Roxanne (Committee member) / Ashley, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
In the United States, there is a national agenda to increase the number of qualified science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) professionals and a movement to promote science literacy among the general public. This project explores the association between formal human evolutionary biology education (HEB) and high school science class enrollment, academic achievement, interest in a STEM degree program, motivation to pursue a STEM career, and socioscientific decision–making for a sample of students enrolled full–time at Arizona State University. Given a lack of a priori knowledge of these relationships, the Grounded Theory Method was used and was the foundation for a mixed–methods analysis involving qualitative and quantitative data from one–on–one interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, and an online survey. Theory development and hypothesis generation were based on data from 44 students. The survey instrument, developed to test the hypotheses, was completed by 486 undergraduates, age 18–22, who graduated from U.S. public high schools. The results showed that higher exposure to HEB was correlated with greater high school science class enrollment, particularly for advanced biological science classes, and that, for some students, HEB exposure may have influenced their enrollment, because the students found the content interesting and relevant. The results also suggested that students with higher K–12 HEB exposure felt more prepared for undergraduate science coursework. There was a positive correlation between HEB exposure and interest in a STEM degree and an indirect relationship between higher HEB exposure and motivation to pursue a STEM career. Regarding a number of socioscientific issues, including but not limited to climate change, homosexuality, and stem cell research, students' behaviors and decision–making more closely reflected a scientific viewpoint—or less–closely aligned to a religion–based perspective—when students had greater HEB exposure, but this was sometimes contingent on students' lifetime exposure to religious doctrine and acceptance of general evolution or human evolution. This study has implications for K–12 and higher education and justifies a paradigm shift in evolution education research, such that more emphasis is placed on students' interests, perceived preparation for continued learning, professional goals and potential contributions to society rather than just their knowledge and acceptance.
ContributorsSchrein, Caitlin M (Author) / Toon, Richard (Thesis advisor) / Johanson, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Hackett, Edward (Committee member) / Molina-Walters, Debra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This study uses the ontological lenses of discourse theory to conduct a critical mixed-methods analysis of state statutes related to prostitution and sex trafficking. The primary research question of the study was, "How do state laws communicate and reinforce discourses related to sex trafficking and prostitution and how do these discourses reinforce hegemony and define the role of the state?" A mixed methods approach was used to analyze prostitution and sex trafficking related annotated and Shepardized statutes from all fifty states. The analysis found that not all prostitution related discourses found in the literature were present in state statutes. Instead, statutes could be organized around five different themes: child abuse, exploitation, criminalization, place, and licensing and regulation. A deeper analysis of discourses present across and within each of these themes illustrated an inconsistent understanding of prostitution as a social problem and an inconsistent understanding of the legitimate role of the state in regulating or criminalizing prostitution. The inconsistencies in the law suggest concerns for equal protection under the law based upon a person's perceived deservingness, which often hinges on his or her race, class, gender identity, sexuality, age, ability, and nationality. Implications for the field include insights into a substantive policy area rarely studied by policy and administration scholars, a unique approach to mixed methods research, and the use of a new technique for analyzing vast quantities of unstructured data.
ContributorsMayo, Andrea, Ph.D (Author) / Herbst, Chris M. (Thesis advisor) / Lucio, Joanna (Thesis advisor) / Segal, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
ABSTRACT Following the tragic events of 9-11, top Federal policy makers moved to establish the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This massive realignment of federal public safety agencies also loosely centralized all U.S. civilian security organizations under a single umbrella. Designed to respond rapidly to critical security threats, the DHS was vested with superseding authority and broad powers of enforcement. Serving as a cabinet member, the new agency was administered by a secretary who answered directly to the President of the United States or the national chief executive. At its creation, many touted this agency as a new security structure. This thesis argues that the formation of DHS was not innovative in nature. Rather, its formation was simply the next logical step in the tiered development of an increasingly centralized approach to policing in the United States. This development took place during the early settlement period of Texas and began with the formation of the Texas Rangers. As the nation's first border patrol, this organization greatly influenced the development of centralized policing and law enforcement culture in the United States. As such, subsequent agencies following this model frequently shared a startling number of parallel developments and experienced many of the same successes and failures. The history of this development is a contested narrative, one that connects directly to a number of current, critical social issues regarding race and police accountability. This thesis raises questions regarding the American homeland. Whose homeland was truly being protected? It also traces the origins of the power to justify the use of gratuitous violence and the casting of particular members of society as the symbolic enemy or outsiders. Lastly, this exploration hopes to bring about a better understanding of the traditional directionality of the use of coercive force towards particular members of society, while at the same time, justifying this use for the protection of the rights and safety of others. It is hoped that the culmination of this work will assist American society in learning to address the task of redressing past wrongs while building more effective and democratic public security structures. This is of the utmost importance as the United States continues to weigh the benefits of centralized security mechanisms and expanding police authority against the erosion of the tradition of states' rights and the personal civil liberties of its citizens. Because police power must continually be monitored and held in check, concerns regarding the increasing militarization of civilian policing may benefit from an objective evaluation of the rise of centralized policing as experienced through the development of the Texas Rangers and rural range policing.
ContributorsTurner, D. L., 1957- (Author) / Simpson, Brooks D. (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott H. (Committee member) / Gomez, Alan E. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
I present a new framework for qualitative assessment of the current green purchasing practices of U.S. state governments. Increasing demand from citizens for green public purchasing has prompted state governments to adopt new, and improve existing, practices. Yet there has been little assessment of public green purchasing in academic research; what has been done has not provided the conceptual support necessary to assess green purchasing practices as a single component of the procurement process. My research aims to fill that gap by developing a conceptual framework with which to assess the status of green purchasing practices and by applying this framework to determine and describe the status of green purchasing in the five most populous U.S. states. The framework looks at state purchasing practices through the lenses of policy, policy implementation, and transparency.
ContributorsSharma, Lucky (Author) / Melnick, Rob (Thesis advisor) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Basile, George (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In the United States, seasonal influenza is responsible for enormous medical costs and lost earnings as well as thousands of deaths. Medical masks are effective non-pharmaceutical preventions for minimizing the spread of illness in the event of an influenza outbreak. However, people in the United States rarely wear face masks the way many people in Asian countries do.
In a previous study of public response to the 2009 influenza A H1N1 pandemic, 71% of United States respondents supported the recommendation to wear a mask during the flu outbreak, while only 8% of respondents reported they wore a mask in public to protect themselves from getting sick. What are the factors that cause this gap? The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify barriers to the wearing of masks among adults in the United States.
The research was conducted through an online survey of 84 American residents via the Survey Monkey Audience service to collect their opinions on influenza, mask-wearing, and the perceived barriers to wearing face masks for flu prevention. The results are presented in the descriptive analysis and the non-parametric analysis.
The results showed a barrier against social interaction is a significant factor (p=0.003) regarding the impact between flu experience and the perceived barriers. The participants believed mask-wearing may lead other people difficult to perceiving their feelings. Regarding the relationship between mask-wearing experience and the perceived barriers, there were significant differences in perceived benefits (p=0.028), perceived risks (p= 0.003), and social value (p=0.021). Participants who have had worn masks had perceived higher benefits of mask-wearing, higher risks of catching the flu, and a higher agreement of importance to protect other people from getting the flu from them. The most common perceived barrier among the participants is product satisfaction. 85.71% of the participants agreed that wearing face masks is uncomfortable. 80.95% of the participants agreed with the importance to wear face masks as it protects other people from getting the flu from them, but only 37.5% of the participants with flu history had worn face masks.
By examining barriers to the wearing of masks for influenza prevention, this study can assess public willingness to adopt personal prevention behaviors and provide information for related policies in the future.
In a previous study of public response to the 2009 influenza A H1N1 pandemic, 71% of United States respondents supported the recommendation to wear a mask during the flu outbreak, while only 8% of respondents reported they wore a mask in public to protect themselves from getting sick. What are the factors that cause this gap? The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify barriers to the wearing of masks among adults in the United States.
The research was conducted through an online survey of 84 American residents via the Survey Monkey Audience service to collect their opinions on influenza, mask-wearing, and the perceived barriers to wearing face masks for flu prevention. The results are presented in the descriptive analysis and the non-parametric analysis.
The results showed a barrier against social interaction is a significant factor (p=0.003) regarding the impact between flu experience and the perceived barriers. The participants believed mask-wearing may lead other people difficult to perceiving their feelings. Regarding the relationship between mask-wearing experience and the perceived barriers, there were significant differences in perceived benefits (p=0.028), perceived risks (p= 0.003), and social value (p=0.021). Participants who have had worn masks had perceived higher benefits of mask-wearing, higher risks of catching the flu, and a higher agreement of importance to protect other people from getting the flu from them. The most common perceived barrier among the participants is product satisfaction. 85.71% of the participants agreed that wearing face masks is uncomfortable. 80.95% of the participants agreed with the importance to wear face masks as it protects other people from getting the flu from them, but only 37.5% of the participants with flu history had worn face masks.
By examining barriers to the wearing of masks for influenza prevention, this study can assess public willingness to adopt personal prevention behaviors and provide information for related policies in the future.
ContributorsHung, Yu-Wen (Author) / Herring, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Velasquez, Joseph (Committee member) / Lamb, Gerri (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The utopian impulse represents hope for another world; a reflection of the injustices inherent to the hegemonic order that are understood as natural, necessary, desirable, and unchangeable. Those who challenge this orthodoxy are heretical utopians; pioneers of the counterintuitive who explore the types of relations that rather than reproduce the dominant order, shatter it, and manifest new ones based upon principles of justice. This project explores how ideological mechanisms of control embedded within the hegemonic fascist imaginary landscape of the United States render the visions of emancipatory social movements, that challenge dominant ways of knowing and being, as the "merely utopian" so as to instrumentalize the behavior of civil-society towards the maintenance of the established social order and the suppression of alternatives (Gordon 2004). In a rapidly changing world reeling under the pressures of late-stage capitalism, it is essential for those who value social and political justice to incessantly cultivate the cultural imaginary so as to shift the boundaries of what types of social relations are possible, feasible, and desirable through the process of struggle in heretical spaces.
ContributorsBrown, Andrew (Author) / Quan, H.L.T. (Thesis advisor) / Lauderdale, Pat (Committee member) / Romero, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Fisheries in the news: how the media sets the agenda for seafood sustainability in the United States
Description
The media is a powerful force in shaping public discussions about marine issues. Many people lack first-hand experiences and direct sources of information about fisheries topics, so they rely heavily on the information presented to them in the news. Thus, the media has the potential to influence public agendas based on their selective coverage of topics, which primes people to take certain information into account when making decisions. This study examines the contents of 412 newspaper articles from five national newspapers to determine which topics are receiving the most coverage and how they are being communicated to the public. The analysis considers fisheries and seafood discussions overall, as well as focusing on the three most commonly consumed seafood items in the United States: salmon, shrimp, and tuna. Systematic coding of newspaper articles shows that economic and social fisheries concerns are emphasized more than environmental concerns. Additionally, fisheries articles tend to be emphasize the importance of fishermen’s livelihoods, the dangers of international seafood trade, the economic utility of fish, and a consumer’s right to make informed decisions about seafood. Overall, there are a number of conflicts and weaknesses in the media’s coverage of fisheries, which would likely make it challenging for Americans to make informed, sustainability-minded decisions about seafood purchases and fisheries policies.
ContributorsChipman, Danielle (Author) / Larson, Kelli L (Thesis advisor) / White, Dave (Committee member) / Klinsky, Sonja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
When the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency recently declassified documents relating to the 1953 Coup in Iran, it was discovered that American involvement was much deeper than previously known. In fact, the CIA had orchestrated the coup against democratically-elected Mohammed Mossadegh. This action was sold to the United States public as being essential to democracy, which seems contradictory to its actual purpose. U.S. political leaders justified the coup by linking it to what Charles Mills calls “racial liberalism,” a longstanding ideological tradition in America that elevates the white citizen to a place of power and protection while making the racial noncitizens “others” in the political system. Political leaders in the United States relied on bribing the American media to portray the Shah as the white citizen and Mossadegh as a racial other, the white citizen was restored to power and the racial other was overthrown.
ContributorsAnderson, Kira C (Author) / Forrest, M. David (Thesis advisor) / Murphy Erfani, Julie (Committee member) / Behl, Natasha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016