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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
Description
Gender and sex are often conflated. Our laws, policies, and even science establish sex and gender as intrinsically linked and dimorphic in nature. This dissertation examines the relationship between sex and gender and the repercussions of this linked dimorphism in the realms of law, politics, and science. Chapter One identifies the legal climate for changing one's sexual identity post-surgical reassignment. It pays particular attention to the ability of postsurgical transsexuals to marry in their acquired sex. Chapter Two considers the process for identifying the sex of athletes for the purposes of participation in sex-segregated athletic events, specifically the role of testing and standards for categorization. Chapter Three explores the process of identifying and assigning the sex of intersex children. Chapter Four examines the process of prenatal sex selection and its ethical implications. Chapter Four also offers an anticipatory governance framework to address these implications.
ContributorsParsi, John (Author) / Crittenden, Jack (Thesis advisor) / Guston, David H. (Committee member) / Marchant, Gary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
ABSTRACT Whole genome sequencing (WGS) and whole exome sequencing (WES) are two comprehensive genomic tests which use next-generation sequencing technology to sequence most of the 3.2 billion base pairs in a human genome (WGS) or many of the estimated 22,000 protein-coding genes in the genome (WES). The promises offered from WGS/WES are: to identify suspected yet unidentified genetic diseases, to characterize the genomic mutations in a tumor to identify targeted therapeutic agents and, to predict future diseases with the hope of promoting disease prevention strategies and/or offering early treatment. Promises notwithstanding, sequencing a human genome presents several interrelated challenges: how to adequately analyze, interpret, store, reanalyze and apply an unprecedented amount of genomic data (with uncertain clinical utility) to patient care? In addition, genomic data has the potential to become integral for improving the medical care of an individual and their family, years after a genome is sequenced. Current informed consent protocols do not adequately address the unique challenges and complexities inherent to the process of WGS/WES. This dissertation constructs a novel informed consent process for individuals considering WGS/WES, capable of fulfilling both legal and ethical requirements of medical consent while addressing the intricacies of WGS/WES, ultimately resulting in a more effective consenting experience. To better understand components of an effective consenting experience, the first part of this dissertation traces the historical origin of the informed consent process to identify the motivations, rationales and institutional commitments that sustain our current consenting protocols for genetic testing. After understanding the underlying commitments that shape our current informed consent protocols, I discuss the effectiveness of the informed consent process from an ethical and legal standpoint. I illustrate how WGS/WES introduces new complexities to the informed consent process and assess whether informed consent protocols proposed for WGS/WES address these complexities. The last section of this dissertation describes a novel informed consent process for WGS/WES, constructed from the original ethical intent of informed consent, analysis of existing informed consent protocols, and my own observations as a genetic counselor for what constitutes an effective consenting experience.
ContributorsHunt, Katherine (Author) / Hurlbut, J. Benjamin (Thesis advisor) / Robert, Jason S. (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Northfelt, Donald W. (Committee member) / Marchant, Gary (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
In response to the rapid rise of emerging markets, shorter product lifecycles, increasing global exchange and worldwide competition, companies are implementing `sustainable development' as a mechanism by which to maintain competitive global advantage. Sustainable product development approaches used in industry focus mainly on environmental issues, and to a certain extent on social and economic aspects. Unfortunately, companies have often ignored or are unsure of how to deal with the cultural dimensions of sustainable product development. Multi-nationals expanding their business across international boundaries are agents of cultural change and should be cognizant of the impact their products have on local markets. Companies need to develop a deeper understanding of local cultures in order to design and deliver products that are not only economically viable but also culturally appropriate. To demonstrate applicability of cultural appropriate design, this research undertakes a case study of food systems in India specifically focusing on the exchange of fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV). This study focuses on understanding the entire supply chain of FFV exchange, which includes consumer experiences, distribution practices and production processes. This study also compares different distribution channels and exchange practices and analyzes the pattern of authority between different players within the distribution network. The ethnographic methods for data collection included a photo-journal assignment, shop-along visits, semi-structured interviews, a participatory design activity and focus group studies. The study revealed that traditional retail formats like pushcart vendors, street retailers and city retail markets are generally preferred over modern retail stores. For consumers, shopping is a non-choreographed activity often resulting in exercising, socializing and accidental purchases. Informal communication, personal relationships and openness to bargaining were important aspects of the consumer-retailer relationship. This study presents cultural insights into interactions, artifacts and contexts relevant to FFV systems in India. It also presents key implications for the field of design, design research, cultural studies, consumer research and sustainability. The insights gained from this study will act as guidelines for designers, researchers and corporations interested in designing products and services that are culturally appropriate to contexts of production, distribution and consumption.
ContributorsDhadphale, Tejas (Author) / Giard, Jacques (Thesis advisor) / Boradkar, Prasad (Thesis advisor) / Broome, Benjamin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This dissertation examines the use of color in lowrider car customizations. It studies the relationships among car owners, car painters, and car clubs in the process of selection, and manipulation of color. This research studies how color is constructed as an element for individual and community differentiation. Also included is the examination of the influence of car clubs in the design process, the understanding of color by car painters and car owners, and the cultural values associated with color in this community. This research argues that through the use, manipulation, and implementation of color as a visual/design element, lowriders challenge, transgress, and resist the preconceived notions of space, aesthetic hegemony, and social disparity they experience. In this case, color as a cultural expression, becomes a pivotal element to narrate and retell their stories of struggle and endurance, as well as to envision a different world. This research frames Chicana/o vernacular production, and color use as being central to the borderland experience of this community. Finally, this research follows the discourse of taste, as this concept has been used to create social categories of exotic otherness and the perpetuation of specific aesthetic epistemologies. In this context, it presents lowriders as expression of a Chicana/o network of vernacular border knowledge. This dissertation concludes by framing the Low n' Slow movement, in the context of healing and emancipating practices enacted by subjugated communities in order to survive, give sense to their reality, and to envision a more egalitarian world.
ContributorsCalvo, William (Author) / Giard, Jacques (Thesis advisor) / Boradkar, Prasad (Committee member) / Foster, David William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Starting from 21st century BC, China has had strong but isolated philosophies for making things, which dominated the style and spirit of Chinese design. With globalization, however, contemporary Chinese design fell under the influence of Western design including design practice, design theory, and education. Today, by improving capacity for independent innovation, and creating its own brand, China may be able to change its current practices of production that are defined by high consumption of resources, high pollution and low value-add. The search for high-quality Chinese design, which is both original and innovative with unique and identifiable features, has become a vital challenge for the Chinese government, organizations, and companies. Promoting original Chinese design with adding cultural values, in the past decade, has become prominent in various design fields because of the growing need to support economic development, upgrade industrial infrastructure, and promote national identity. In this context, many small-medium, creative and design-focused companies have been established with the goal of pursuing original Chinese design all the while concentrating on Chinese culture and users. In order to understand the present scenarios of original Chinese design, this research examines furniture design in select SMEs in China by studying relevantly critical issues: the motivation of designers for pursuing original Chinese design; the design ideas, practices and business strategies of these SMEs to build original and influential design brand; the challenges and opportunities in the furniture design industry while promoting original Chinese design; and the emerging picture of future Chinese design. This research applies the methodological framework of grounded theory with qualitative research methods including semi-structured interview and in-depth case studies. As a result, regarding interaction among Chinese culture, original design, and entrepreneurship, the research reveals three key findings regarding the interaction among Chinese culture, original design and entrepreneurship. First, “reflect Chinese culture”, particularly essential traditional Chinese culture, is a common ground of original Chinese furniture design, which has been shown both from design ideas and practices of the select SMEs. Second, insufficient entrepreneurship influences the promotion of original design brands both in domestic and international market. Third, innovative design among contemporary furniture designers is constrained by a morass of Chinese culture impediments, such as lacking critical thinking and overemphasizing on inheritance of traditions. Moreover, the research presents a theoretical framework with key implications for developing and promoting Chinese design that is original, innovative and socially impactful. The insights gained from the research also provide a foundation and possible direction for future studies on design, culture, entrepreneurship, and other creative industries both for China and other nations.
ContributorsRen, Liqi (Author) / Giard, Jacques (Thesis advisor) / Boradkar, Prasad (Committee member) / Lan, Zhiyong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Eat Your Heart Out is a visually rich qualitative ethnic food research that examines consumption, production, and distribution practices transnationally. Through the example of Mumbai’s street foods, the study aims to discover how design participates in fashioning the street food experiences locally and globally.
Food is an important cultural artifact in the world. However, past research in design suggests that the discipline has mainly focused on food as a catalyst for creativity and imagination or as a tool to examine materialistic, economical, sensorial, and emotional connections. Studying the user-focused involvement in the creation of food artifacts and focusing on cultural, global, and historical aspects of that participation are important to address the gaps in the knowledge required to solve increasingly “wicked problems” (Buchanan, 1992; Rittel, 1971). To achieve this goal, Eat Your Heart Out implemented a comparative practice-based study of the Indian street foods in Mumbai and Phoenix to examine consumption, production, and distribution practices at both places. The methodological design was highly multi-disciplinary in nature and included rapid ethnographic assessment, interviews, visual research, and a generative method of co-creation.
The study revealed that street foods as cultural artifacts were deeply rooted in specific traditional values specific to the context, which significantly influenced personal and communal consumption, production, and distribution practices of Indian street foods in Mumbai and Phoenix. The values of standardization, formality, and higher food regulation practices limited the diversity and radically transformed the central values of Mumbai’s street foods when the foods re-territorialized in Phoenix. This resulted in lowering the consumption.
Eat Your Heart Out presents cultural and practical insights into the interactions between contexts, artifacts, practices, and participants. Eat Your Heart Out recommends new frameworks of correlation for various consumption and production practices and suggests how street food artifacts alter when they move across cultures. Such knowledge can be valuable for similar ethnic food culture studies and the development of innovative research tools incorporating transnational and multidisciplinary methods in the future.
On a broader scope, Eat Your Heart Out provides a unique opportunity to study a culture that has not been examined by scholars much in the past. It also focuses on gaining knowledge about ethnic culinary practices of Indian immigrants in the United States and encouraging enhanced cross-cultural acceptance.
Food is an important cultural artifact in the world. However, past research in design suggests that the discipline has mainly focused on food as a catalyst for creativity and imagination or as a tool to examine materialistic, economical, sensorial, and emotional connections. Studying the user-focused involvement in the creation of food artifacts and focusing on cultural, global, and historical aspects of that participation are important to address the gaps in the knowledge required to solve increasingly “wicked problems” (Buchanan, 1992; Rittel, 1971). To achieve this goal, Eat Your Heart Out implemented a comparative practice-based study of the Indian street foods in Mumbai and Phoenix to examine consumption, production, and distribution practices at both places. The methodological design was highly multi-disciplinary in nature and included rapid ethnographic assessment, interviews, visual research, and a generative method of co-creation.
The study revealed that street foods as cultural artifacts were deeply rooted in specific traditional values specific to the context, which significantly influenced personal and communal consumption, production, and distribution practices of Indian street foods in Mumbai and Phoenix. The values of standardization, formality, and higher food regulation practices limited the diversity and radically transformed the central values of Mumbai’s street foods when the foods re-territorialized in Phoenix. This resulted in lowering the consumption.
Eat Your Heart Out presents cultural and practical insights into the interactions between contexts, artifacts, practices, and participants. Eat Your Heart Out recommends new frameworks of correlation for various consumption and production practices and suggests how street food artifacts alter when they move across cultures. Such knowledge can be valuable for similar ethnic food culture studies and the development of innovative research tools incorporating transnational and multidisciplinary methods in the future.
On a broader scope, Eat Your Heart Out provides a unique opportunity to study a culture that has not been examined by scholars much in the past. It also focuses on gaining knowledge about ethnic culinary practices of Indian immigrants in the United States and encouraging enhanced cross-cultural acceptance.
ContributorsZunjarwad, Renu (Author) / Margolis, Eric (Thesis advisor) / Boradkar, Prasad (Thesis advisor) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Serious play—the notion of bringing the benefits of play to bear on work-related tasks—is receiving more attention as a remedy to many challenges of the modern knowledge economy. Exploring and defining the role of serious play approaches to facilitate collaborative problem-solving and value creation, this dissertation consists of four related research papers.
The first research paper (RP1) reconciles three different conceptualizations of knowledge into a new theory of knowledge. This pluralistic definition allows knowledge to change character across the span of the value creation process. The paper further introduces a model called the Wheel of Knowledge (WoK) for mobilizing knowledge throughout the different knowledge conversions of the value creation process. The second research paper (RP2) advocates that serious play can scaffold and accelerate these knowledge conversion processes, it disaggregates existing serious play approaches, and starts to operationalize the WoK by using it to match different types of serious play approaches to different types of knowledge conversion challenges. The third research paper (RP3) validates the WoK by sorting the serious play literature according to how it applies to the different knowledge conversion processes. The paper provides a framework for ascertaining the applicability of serious play methods to specific knowledge conversion challenges and identifies under-explored research areas of the serious play field. The fourth research paper (RP4) tests the recommendations of RP3 by applying the LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) method to a knowledge conversion challenge focused on tacit knowledge sharing. It reports on a mixed-methods, multi-session case study in which LSP was used to facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue and deliberation about a wicked problem. Results show that LSP is particularly useful in the beginning of a value creation process and that it facilitates socialization and tacit knowledge sharing. Taken together the papers demonstrate the necessity, potential, and application of serious play as a catalyst for the knowledge conversion processes presented in the WoK. It is now clear that different serious play approaches are suitable as respectively: an accelerator for trust-building and collective creativity, as a conduit for iterative innovation, and as a way of making rote tasks more engaging.
The first research paper (RP1) reconciles three different conceptualizations of knowledge into a new theory of knowledge. This pluralistic definition allows knowledge to change character across the span of the value creation process. The paper further introduces a model called the Wheel of Knowledge (WoK) for mobilizing knowledge throughout the different knowledge conversions of the value creation process. The second research paper (RP2) advocates that serious play can scaffold and accelerate these knowledge conversion processes, it disaggregates existing serious play approaches, and starts to operationalize the WoK by using it to match different types of serious play approaches to different types of knowledge conversion challenges. The third research paper (RP3) validates the WoK by sorting the serious play literature according to how it applies to the different knowledge conversion processes. The paper provides a framework for ascertaining the applicability of serious play methods to specific knowledge conversion challenges and identifies under-explored research areas of the serious play field. The fourth research paper (RP4) tests the recommendations of RP3 by applying the LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) method to a knowledge conversion challenge focused on tacit knowledge sharing. It reports on a mixed-methods, multi-session case study in which LSP was used to facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue and deliberation about a wicked problem. Results show that LSP is particularly useful in the beginning of a value creation process and that it facilitates socialization and tacit knowledge sharing. Taken together the papers demonstrate the necessity, potential, and application of serious play as a catalyst for the knowledge conversion processes presented in the WoK. It is now clear that different serious play approaches are suitable as respectively: an accelerator for trust-building and collective creativity, as a conduit for iterative innovation, and as a way of making rote tasks more engaging.
ContributorsNørgaard Jensen, Camilla (Author) / Seager, Thomas P (Thesis advisor) / Selin, Cynthia L (Thesis advisor) / Boradkar, Prasad (Committee member) / Giard, Jacques (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was a significant event in the story of fetal personhood—the story of whether embryos and fetuses are legal persons. Roe legalized abortion care in the United States (US). However, the story of fetal personhood began long before the 1970s. People have been talking about embryos, fetuses, and their status in science, the law, and society for centuries. I studied the history of fetal personhood in the United States, tracing its origins from Ancient Rome and Medieval England to its first appearance in a US courtroom in 1884 and then to the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973.
But this isn’t a history of events—of names and dates and typical details. This is a history of words. In the twenty-first century, words used to discuss embryos and fetuses are split. Some people use humanizing language like “unborn children” and “human life.” Others use technical words like “embryos” and “fetuses.” I studied what words people used historically. I charted how words moved from science to the public to the law, and how they impacted court rulings on fetal personhood.
The use of certain words nudged courts to grant additional rights to embryos and fetuses. In the 1960s, writers began describing the science of development, using words like “unborn child” and humanizing descriptions to make embryos and fetuses seem like people already born. That helped build an idea of embryos and fetuses as having “life” before birth. When people began asking courts to legalize abortion care in the 1970s, attorneys on the opposite side argued that embryos and fetuses were “human life,” and that that “life” began at conception.
In those cases, “life” was biologically defined as when sperm fertilized egg, but it was on that biological definition “life” that judges improperly rested their legal rulings that embryos and fetuses were “potential human life” states had a duty to protect. It wasn’t legal personhood, but it was a legal status that let states pass laws restricting abortion care and punishing pregnant people for their behavior, trends that threaten people’s lives and autonomy in the twenty-first century.
But this isn’t a history of events—of names and dates and typical details. This is a history of words. In the twenty-first century, words used to discuss embryos and fetuses are split. Some people use humanizing language like “unborn children” and “human life.” Others use technical words like “embryos” and “fetuses.” I studied what words people used historically. I charted how words moved from science to the public to the law, and how they impacted court rulings on fetal personhood.
The use of certain words nudged courts to grant additional rights to embryos and fetuses. In the 1960s, writers began describing the science of development, using words like “unborn child” and humanizing descriptions to make embryos and fetuses seem like people already born. That helped build an idea of embryos and fetuses as having “life” before birth. When people began asking courts to legalize abortion care in the 1970s, attorneys on the opposite side argued that embryos and fetuses were “human life,” and that that “life” began at conception.
In those cases, “life” was biologically defined as when sperm fertilized egg, but it was on that biological definition “life” that judges improperly rested their legal rulings that embryos and fetuses were “potential human life” states had a duty to protect. It wasn’t legal personhood, but it was a legal status that let states pass laws restricting abortion care and punishing pregnant people for their behavior, trends that threaten people’s lives and autonomy in the twenty-first century.
ContributorsAbboud, Carolina (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Justice, George (Committee member) / Marchant, Gary (Committee member) / Pyne, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
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
Description
Images are ubiquitous in communicating complex information about the future. From political messages to extreme weather warnings, they generate understanding, incite action, and inform expectations with real impact today. The future has come into sharp focus in recent years. Issues like climate change, gene editing, and smart cities are pushing policy makers, scientists, and designers to rethink how society plans and prepares for tomorrow. While academic and practice communities have increasingly turned their gaze toward the future, little attention is paid to how it is depicted and even less to the role visualization technologies play in depicting it. Visualization technologies are those that transform non-visual information into 2D or 3D imagery and generate depictions of certain phenomena, real or perceived. This research helps to fill this gap by examining the role visualization technologies play in how individuals know and make decisions about the future.
This study draws from three phases of research set in the context of urban development, where images of the future are generated by architects and circulated by built environment professionals to affect client and public decision-making. I begin with a systematic review of professional design literature to identify norms related to visualization. I then conduct in-depth interviews with expert architects to draw out how visualization technologies are used to influence client decision-making. I dive into how different tools manage the future and generate different forms of certainty, uncertainty, persuasion, and risk. Complementing the review and interviews is a case study on ASU at Mesa City Center, a development project aimed at revitalizing downtown Mesa, Arizona. Analysis highlights how project-specific visual tools affect decision-making and the role that client imagination and inference play in understanding and preference. This research unpacks the social, technical, and emotional knowledge embedded in visualization technologies and reveals how they affect decision-making. Information about the future is uniquely mediated by each technology with decision-making bound up in larger sociopolitical processes aimed at reducing uncertainty, building trust, and managing expectations. This suggests that the visual tools we use to depict the future are much more dynamic and influential than they are given credit for.
This study draws from three phases of research set in the context of urban development, where images of the future are generated by architects and circulated by built environment professionals to affect client and public decision-making. I begin with a systematic review of professional design literature to identify norms related to visualization. I then conduct in-depth interviews with expert architects to draw out how visualization technologies are used to influence client decision-making. I dive into how different tools manage the future and generate different forms of certainty, uncertainty, persuasion, and risk. Complementing the review and interviews is a case study on ASU at Mesa City Center, a development project aimed at revitalizing downtown Mesa, Arizona. Analysis highlights how project-specific visual tools affect decision-making and the role that client imagination and inference play in understanding and preference. This research unpacks the social, technical, and emotional knowledge embedded in visualization technologies and reveals how they affect decision-making. Information about the future is uniquely mediated by each technology with decision-making bound up in larger sociopolitical processes aimed at reducing uncertainty, building trust, and managing expectations. This suggests that the visual tools we use to depict the future are much more dynamic and influential than they are given credit for.
ContributorsSelkirk, Kaethe (Author) / Selin, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Boradkar, Prasad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019