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- Genre: Academic theses
Description
Principles of climate mitigation in environmental ethics often draw on either considerations of fairness and forward-looking concerns, or on justice and backward-looking concerns. That is, according to some theorists, considerations of the current distribution of climate benefits and burdens are foremost, while others take repairing historic wrongs as paramount. Some theorists integrate considerations of fairness and justice to formulate hybrid climate principles. Such an integrative approach is promising particularly in the context of environmental harm to indigenous subsistence peoples, who are among those suffering the most from climate change. I argue that existing integrative climate principles tend not to sufficiently emphasize considerations of backward-looking justice. This is a problem for indigenous peoples seeking reparations for environmental harm and violations of their human rights. Specifically, indigenous people in the Arctic suffer a cultural harm from climate change as they lose their land, and their way of life, to erosion, cementing their status as climate refugees. I argue that the current climate situation facing Native Arctic people is unfair according to Rawls' second principle of justice. In addition, the situation is unjust as indigenous people suffer from emissions by others and few attempts are made for reparations. Thus, Rawlsian fairness combined with reparative justice provide a befitting theoretical framework. I conclude that an acceptable climate principle will adequately integrate considerations of both fairness and justice, both forward-looking and backward-looking considerations.
ContributorsSweetland, Lauren (Author) / Brake, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Tsosie, Rebecca (Committee member) / Portmore, Douglas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The sacred San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona have been at the center of a series of land development controversies since the 1800s. Most recently, a controversy arose over a proposal by the ski area on the Peaks to use 100% reclaimed water to make artificial snow. The current state of the San Francisco Peaks controversy would benefit from a decision-making process that holds sustainability policy at its core. The first step towards a new sustainability-focused deliberative process regarding a complex issue like the San Francisco Peaks controversy requires understanding the issue's origins and the perspectives of the people involved in the issue. My thesis provides an historical analysis of the controversy and examines some of the laws and participatory mechanisms that have shaped the decision-making procedures and power structures from the 19th century to the early 21st century.
ContributorsMahoney, Maren (Author) / Hirt, Paul W. (Thesis advisor) / Tsosie, Rebecca (Committee member) / White, Dave (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this writing is to explore the relationship students have with popular media as well as the call to implement a Critical Media Skills course at the high school level. The research was interested in finding what images from popular media students were taking into their personal lives and how implementing a Critical Media Skills course could make positive benefits into their lives. From casual observations, informal student interviews, and the creation of an online survey in which 72 high school students participated I was able to collect data about the extent students were consuming popular media and how they believed that skills teaching them to analyze media would be beneficial. From these findings I was able to build upon Patricia Hill Collins (2009) to develop techniques for a classroom in which critical dialogue would be a focus. This exploratory study takes into account student voices, as well research from others in the field of Education and Media Literacy.
ContributorsGonzales, David (Author) / Ovando, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Sandlin, Jennifer (Committee member) / Surbeck, Elaine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In The Archive and the Repertoire, Diana Taylor discusses how performance, gestures, resistances within a community holds an embodied memory and enacts the transmission of knowledge within that community. Taylor discusses how this embodied memory is alternative to the written archive of history, history of interaction, history of meaning, history of language. Through the consideration of performance, Taylor urges her reader to reconsider oral and performative transmission of culture, knowledge, customs, traditions, and resistance. This project considers whether this reconsideration can be extended or expanded to oral and performative transmission of law within a community. Specifically, this research explores the conflict between the project of nationality and the reality of social organizing on a community/collective level. It asserts that this conflict is manifested most dramatically within border communities. The dissertation examines how the role of written law in the borderlands divides land and inhabitants and reconstructs a new understanding of the borderlands through oral histories and resistance by border communities. The overall goal of the dissertation is to challenge current scholarship to address the conceptual and sociopolitical task of a world in which legal representations and abstractions supersede the complex reality of community relations. As legal anthropologist Sally Falk Moore identified, we must consider carefully whether or not law controls the social context and what this means for our own definitions of community, what are the boundaries and borders of communities, and the seemingly limitedness of social interaction that becomes based on such legal definitions. The dissertation analyzes the defining disconnect of law from the social context that manifests itself amongst border communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. By exploring how law creates, sustains, molds, and connects the phenomenon of sovereignty, economy, and international borders, we can begin to understand how actions of border communities along the U.S.-Mexico border define the disconnect of law from the social context by redefining community itself.
ContributorsNatividad, Nicholas (Author) / Lauderdale, Pat (Thesis advisor) / Quan, Helen T. (Thesis advisor) / Gomez, Alan E. (Committee member) / Tsosie, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The presence of language minority students in American schools is a growing phenomenon in present-day times. In the year 2008, almost 11 million school-age children spoke a language other than English at home. Educational language policy is largely influenced by the attitudes that society holds regarding the presence of language minority speakers in the community. One of the sources of these attitudes is the written press. This research aimed at identifying and analyzing the ideologies that newspapers display in connection with language minority speakers. The underlying assumption of the study was that the English language occupies a dominant position in society, thus creating a power struggle in which speakers of other languages are disenfranchised. Using critical theory as the theoretical framework enabled the study to identify and oppose the ideologies that may reproduce and perpetuate social inequalities. The methodological approach used was critical discourse analysis (CDA) which aligns with the main tenets of critical theory, among them the need to uncover hidden ideologies. The analysis of articles from English-language (The Arizona Republic and the East Valley Tribune) and Spanish-language (La Prensa Hispana) newspapers allowed for the identification of the ideologies of the written press in connection to two main hypothetical constructs: education and immigration. The analysis of the results revealed that the three newspapers of the study held specific ideologies on issues related to the education of language minority students and immigration. Whereas the East Valley Tribune showed an overarching ideology connected to the opposition of immigrant students in schools, the hegemonic position of theEnglish language, and a belligerent stance toward the immigrant community, The Arizona Republic showed a favorable attitude to both English Language Learners and immigrants, based on reasons mainly related to the economic interest of the state of Arizona. La Prensa Hispana, on the other hand, showed ideologies favorable to the immigrant community based on humanitarianism. In summary, the results confirm that newspapers hold specific ideologies and that these ideologies are reflected in the content and the manner of their information to the public.
ContributorsGonzález-Carriedo, Ricardo (Author) / Ovando, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Wiley, Terrence (Thesis advisor) / Fischman, Gustavo (Committee member) / Mccarty, Teresa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
ABSTRACT This study focuses on second language acquisition process amongst East Asian adult learners at an English and Culture Acquisition Program (ECAP) classroom. To understand their English learning experience, this study employs classroom observation, participant interview and document collection as research methods. The findings of this work suggest that ECAP does intend to help learners acquire English language proficiency in ways that were responsive to both the sociocultural backgrounds and individual needs of participants. ECAP also respects and promotes the learners' autonomy in the learning process. However, the program administrators and teachers still need to deepen their understanding of East Asian learners' sociocultural heritage and individual needs and improve facilitation accordingly.
ContributorsMi, Ximin (Author) / Danzig, Arnold (Thesis advisor) / Ovando, Carlos (Committee member) / Szecsy, Elsie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Abstract
On a daily basis I am bombarded with images in every walk of life. I encounter images crossing my path constantly through media such as the internet, television, magazines, radio, social media, even in the grocery store line on screens intended to capture our attention. As I drive down the roadways, I am invaded by images that at times can be distracting with their dazzling displays, attempting to get our attention and get us to consume their product or service or understand a historical meaning. In this dissertation I intend on looking at murals and two social studies textbooks to focus types of media; then construct an argument about how these media impact social studies curricula in the communities in which they are located taking into consideration race, social class, language, location, and culture. The intent is to critically analyze traditional curricula and curricula found in public pedagogy in communities located on the borderlands. I also asked local high school-aged students, teachers, artists, and activists from both sides of the border analyze the images through photo elicitation and traditional interviews. Students were interviewed with a focus on interpreted meanings of images presented. Teachers and artists were interviewed to discover their intended meanings as displayed through their production and circulation of intended meanings via lessons and the images they select or create. Activists were interviewed to discover local history, images, and history of the educational space where the artwork and schools are located. I used these data to create an argument as to how these forms of media impacts school curricula in the areas on both sides of the United States/Mexico border. The study was conducted in border cities El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Chihuahua. The ultimate goal was to look at how academics and curricula developers can use this information to decolonize curricula in the field of curricula studies. Moreover, this information can be used to create decolonized ideologies in curricula that can be used at the school sites to promote diversity and social justice for students in their schooling experience.
On a daily basis I am bombarded with images in every walk of life. I encounter images crossing my path constantly through media such as the internet, television, magazines, radio, social media, even in the grocery store line on screens intended to capture our attention. As I drive down the roadways, I am invaded by images that at times can be distracting with their dazzling displays, attempting to get our attention and get us to consume their product or service or understand a historical meaning. In this dissertation I intend on looking at murals and two social studies textbooks to focus types of media; then construct an argument about how these media impact social studies curricula in the communities in which they are located taking into consideration race, social class, language, location, and culture. The intent is to critically analyze traditional curricula and curricula found in public pedagogy in communities located on the borderlands. I also asked local high school-aged students, teachers, artists, and activists from both sides of the border analyze the images through photo elicitation and traditional interviews. Students were interviewed with a focus on interpreted meanings of images presented. Teachers and artists were interviewed to discover their intended meanings as displayed through their production and circulation of intended meanings via lessons and the images they select or create. Activists were interviewed to discover local history, images, and history of the educational space where the artwork and schools are located. I used these data to create an argument as to how these forms of media impacts school curricula in the areas on both sides of the United States/Mexico border. The study was conducted in border cities El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Chihuahua. The ultimate goal was to look at how academics and curricula developers can use this information to decolonize curricula in the field of curricula studies. Moreover, this information can be used to create decolonized ideologies in curricula that can be used at the school sites to promote diversity and social justice for students in their schooling experience.
ContributorsGonzales, Darlene M (Author) / Margolis, Eric (Thesis advisor) / Ovando, Carlos (Committee member) / Malewski, Erik (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Law and science are fundamental to the operation of racism in the United States. Law provides structure to maintain and enforce social hierarchies, while science ensures that these hierarchies are given the guise of truth. Biologists and geneticists have used race in physical sciences to justify social differences, while criminologists, sociologists, and other social scientists use race, and Blackness in particular, as an explain-all for criminality, poverty, or other conditions affecting racialized peoples. Social and physical sciences profoundly impact conceptualizations and constructions of race in society, while juridical bodies give racial science the force of law—placing legal benefits and criminal punishments into play. Yet, no formal rules govern the use of empirical data in opinions of the Supreme Court. My dissertation therefore studies the Court’s use of social scientific evidence in two key cases involving race and discrimination to identify what, if any, social scientific standards the Court has developed for its own analysis of scientific evidence. In so doing, I draw on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Institutional Ethnography (IE) to develop a methodological framework for the study and use of social sciences in the law. Critical Race scholars generally argue that race is a social and legal construct and racism is endemic, and permanent, while Institutional Ethnography provides a social scientific method for rigorous study of the law by mapping and illuminating relationships of power manifested in social institutions that construct consciousness and place for marginalized groups in society. Combining methods of IE with epistemologies of CRT, I propose Critical Race Methodologies in the study of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin and Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. These two cases from recent terms of the Supreme Court involve heavy use of social sciences in briefing and at oral argument, and both cases set standards for racial inclusiveness in Texas. Throughout this dissertation, I look at how law and social sciences co-construct racial meanings and racial power, and how law and social science understand and misunderstand one another in attempting to scientifically understand the role of race in the United States.
ContributorsChin, Jeremiah Augustus (Author) / Brayboy, Bryan McK.J. (Thesis advisor) / Tsosie, Rebecca (Committee member) / Gomez, Alan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Natural resources management is a pressing issue for Native American nations and communities. More than ever before, tribal officials sit at the decision-making tables with federal and state officials as well as non-governmental natural resource stakeholders. This, however, has not always been the case. This dissertation focuses on tribal activism to demonstrate how and why tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and treaty rights protection are tied closely to contemporary environmental issues and natural resources management. With the Klamath Tribes of southern Oregon as a case study, this dissertation analyzes how a tribal nation garnered a political position in which it could both indirectly influence and directly orchestrate natural resource management within and outside of its sovereign boundaries. The Klamath Tribes experienced the devastating termination policy in the 1950s. Termination stripped them of their federal status as an Indian tribe, the government services offered to recognized tribes, and their 1.2-million-acre reservation. Despite this horrific event, the Klamaths emerged by the 2000s as leading natural resource stakeholders in the Klamath River Watershed, a region ten times larger than their former reservation. The Klamaths used tools, such as their treaty and water rights, and employed careful political, legal, and social tactics. For example, they litigated, appropriated science, participated in democratic national environmental policy processes, and developed a lexicon. They also negotiated and established alliances with non-governmental stakeholders in order to refocus watershed management toward a holistic approach that promoted ecological restoration.
This study applies spatial theory and an ethnohistorical approach to show how traditional values drove the Klamaths’ contemporary activism. From their perspective, healing the land would heal the people. The Klamaths’ history illuminates the active roles that tribes have had in the institutionalization of the federal self-determination policy as federal agencies resisted recognizing tribes and working with them in government-to-government relationships. Through their efforts to weave their interests into natural resource management with state, federal, and non-governmental stakeholders, the Klamaths took part in a much larger historical trend, the increased pluralization of American society.
This study applies spatial theory and an ethnohistorical approach to show how traditional values drove the Klamaths’ contemporary activism. From their perspective, healing the land would heal the people. The Klamaths’ history illuminates the active roles that tribes have had in the institutionalization of the federal self-determination policy as federal agencies resisted recognizing tribes and working with them in government-to-government relationships. Through their efforts to weave their interests into natural resource management with state, federal, and non-governmental stakeholders, the Klamaths took part in a much larger historical trend, the increased pluralization of American society.
ContributorsBilka, Monika (Author) / Fixico, Donald L (Thesis advisor) / Hirt, Paul (Committee member) / Tsosie, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This dissertation engages with the philosophical, psychological, and scientific literature on two important topics: empathy and human enhancement. My two broad goals are to clarify the role of empathy in ascriptions of responsibility and to consider how enhanced empathy might alter those ascriptions.
First, I argue that empathy is best thought of as a two-component process. The first component is what I call the rational component of empathy (RCE). RCE is necessary for moral responsibility as it allows us to put ourselves in another's shoes and to realize that we would want help (or not to be harmed) if we were in the other's place. The second component is what I call the emotive component of empathy (ECE). ECE is usually an automatic response to witnessing others in distress. Expanding on Michael Slote's view that moral distinctions track degrees of empathy, I argue that it is ECE that varies in strength depending on our relationship to specific people.
Second, I argue that in order to achieve Peter Singer's goal an "expanding circle" of care for all human beings, it will be necessary to use some form of artificial empathy enhancement. Within this context, I try to show that empathy enhancement is 1) a reasonably foreseeable possibility within the next decade or so, and 2) morally defensible.
Third, I argue that philosophers who argue that psychopaths are not morally responsible for their actions are mistaken. As I see it, these philosophers have erred in treating empathy as a singular concept and concluding that because psychopaths lack empathy they cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. The distinction between RCE and ECE allows us to say that psychopaths lack one component of empathy, ECE, but are still responsible for their actions because they clearly have a functional RCE.
Fourth, I paint a portrait of the landscape of responsibility with respect to the enhanced empath. I argue that the enhanced empath would be subject to an expanded sphere of special obligations such that acts that were previously supererogatory become, prima facie, morally obligatory.
First, I argue that empathy is best thought of as a two-component process. The first component is what I call the rational component of empathy (RCE). RCE is necessary for moral responsibility as it allows us to put ourselves in another's shoes and to realize that we would want help (or not to be harmed) if we were in the other's place. The second component is what I call the emotive component of empathy (ECE). ECE is usually an automatic response to witnessing others in distress. Expanding on Michael Slote's view that moral distinctions track degrees of empathy, I argue that it is ECE that varies in strength depending on our relationship to specific people.
Second, I argue that in order to achieve Peter Singer's goal an "expanding circle" of care for all human beings, it will be necessary to use some form of artificial empathy enhancement. Within this context, I try to show that empathy enhancement is 1) a reasonably foreseeable possibility within the next decade or so, and 2) morally defensible.
Third, I argue that philosophers who argue that psychopaths are not morally responsible for their actions are mistaken. As I see it, these philosophers have erred in treating empathy as a singular concept and concluding that because psychopaths lack empathy they cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. The distinction between RCE and ECE allows us to say that psychopaths lack one component of empathy, ECE, but are still responsible for their actions because they clearly have a functional RCE.
Fourth, I paint a portrait of the landscape of responsibility with respect to the enhanced empath. I argue that the enhanced empath would be subject to an expanded sphere of special obligations such that acts that were previously supererogatory become, prima facie, morally obligatory.
ContributorsGurney, David (Author) / McGregor, Joan (Thesis advisor) / Brake, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Marchant, Gary (Committee member) / Tsosie, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016