Matching Items (109)
Description
This document outlines the formation and development of Worth the Weight, or WTW, a platform that seeks to sustain the Breaking community in Phoenix, Arizona and connect the generations by bringing them together in a newly and never before seen event in Breaking, an all weight class and division competition. In the last five to ten years there has been a noticeable decline in the local Breaking community, in part due to the introduction of new dance categories, economic and social changes, the cross over of academia and traditional studios in Phoenix; all combining to create a lack of longevity in veterans of the culture to pass on the tools of the trade to the next generation.
WTW is an event that occurs monthly for three consecutive months followed by a month off, totaling nine events and three seasons per calendar year. At each event dancers go head to head in battle in a single elimination style bracket, where they will add a loss or win to their overall season record. The goals of WTW are self-empowerment as well as ownership and investment in the community by those involved through participation in both the event and the planning process; all built on a foundation of trust within the Breaking community. This researcher has thirty years of direct involvement in the Breaking culture with twenty-two of those years as a practitioner in Phoenix, Arizona and co-founder of Furious Styles Crew, Arizona’s longest running Breaking crew. The development of WTW was drawn from this experience along with interviews and observations of Breaking communities worldwide. WTW intends to provide a reliable and consistent outlet during a time of instant gratification, allowing a space for self-discovery and the development of tools to be applied beyond movement. It is hoped that the format of WTW will be a model that can be adapted by other Breaking communities worldwide.
WTW is an event that occurs monthly for three consecutive months followed by a month off, totaling nine events and three seasons per calendar year. At each event dancers go head to head in battle in a single elimination style bracket, where they will add a loss or win to their overall season record. The goals of WTW are self-empowerment as well as ownership and investment in the community by those involved through participation in both the event and the planning process; all built on a foundation of trust within the Breaking community. This researcher has thirty years of direct involvement in the Breaking culture with twenty-two of those years as a practitioner in Phoenix, Arizona and co-founder of Furious Styles Crew, Arizona’s longest running Breaking crew. The development of WTW was drawn from this experience along with interviews and observations of Breaking communities worldwide. WTW intends to provide a reliable and consistent outlet during a time of instant gratification, allowing a space for self-discovery and the development of tools to be applied beyond movement. It is hoped that the format of WTW will be a model that can be adapted by other Breaking communities worldwide.
ContributorsMagaña, Jorge Edson (Author) / Vissicaro, Pegge (Thesis advisor) / Schupp, Karen (Committee member) / Gabbert, Kenneth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This study intended to identify what children's perceptions and experiences are with contact improvisation and how these experiences relate to their education; their understanding of being an individual within a community; and their physical, social, and intellectual development. An interpretive phenomenological research model was used, because this study aimed to understand and interpret the children's experience with contact improvisation in order to find meaning relating to the form's possible benefits. The research was conducted over the course of ten weeks, which included classes, interviews, discussions, questionnaires, and journals. This study showed that contact improvisation empowered the children, opened the children's awareness, developed critical thinking, and created a deeper understanding and trust of the self and relationships formed within the class. The experiences found through teaching contact improvisation to these children showed that there are benefits to teaching children the form.
ContributorsCrissman, Angel (Author) / Schupp, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Dyer, Becky (Committee member) / O'Donnell, Timothy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This research examines the communicative processes of resilience in the organizational context of public education. The research utilizes one-on-one interviews to elicit descriptions of resilience and well-being and collect stories of success and overcoming challenges. The study purpose is two-fold: (1) to understand the ways in which organizational members construct and enact resilience individually and collectively through their talk and stories, and (2) to extend the communication theory of resilience through an empirical investigation of resilience in an organizational context. An iterative, thematic analysis of interview data revealed that resilience, as lived, is a socially constructed, collective process. Findings show resilience in this context is (1) socially constructed through past and present experiences informing the ways organizational members perceive challenges and opportunities for action, (2) contextual in that most challenges are perceived positively as a way to contribute to individual and organizational goals and as part of a “bigger purpose” to students, (3) interactional in that it is constructed and enacted collaboratively through social processes, (4) reciprocal in that working through challenges leads to experience, confidence, and building a repertoire of opportunities for action that become a shared experience between educators and is further reciprocated with students, and (5) is enacted through positive and growth mindsets. This study offers theoretical contributions by extending the communication theory of resilience and illuminating intersections to sensemaking, flow, and implicit person theory. I offer five primary practical applications, discuss limitations, and present future directions highlighting community development and strengths-based approaches.
ContributorsKamrath, Jessica K (Author) / Tracy, Sarah J. (Thesis advisor) / Adame, Elissa A. (Committee member) / Cloutier, Scott (Committee member) / Waldron, Vincent R. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
No Doors: A Personal Exploration of Movement and Technology, details the interdisciplinary strategies that were used in the making of a series of interactive/reactive/immersive (IRI) installations that drew audiences into an experience and encouraged active observation and/or participation. The interdisciplinary IRI installations described in this document combined movement, sculpture, production design, and various forms of media and technology with environments in which participants had agency. In the process of developing this work, the artist considered several concepts and practices: site-specific, various technologies, real-time processing, participant experience, embodied exploration, and hidden activity. Throughout the creative process, the researcher conducted a series of four focus labs in which a small audience was invited to engage with the work as a way of gathering data about the effectiveness of the installations in facilitating active audience observation and/or participation. The data collected after each focus lab informed the revision of the work in preparation for the next focus lab, with the ultimate result being the production of a final exhibition of five interdisciplinary IRI installations. The installations detailed in this document were loosely based on five elements: water, fire, air, earth, and spirit.
ContributorsMcCaman, Sharon (Author) / Schupp, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Rajko, Jessica (Committee member) / Pinholster, Jacob (Committee member) / Tinapple, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Positive Youth Development (PYD) programs include intentional efforts by peers, adults, communities, schools, and organizations to provide opportunities for youth to increase their skills, abilities, and interests in positive activities. The goal of PYD is to provide positive outcomes where youth are viewed as resources to be developed rather than problems to be managed. Future generations rely on youth as active contributing members of society and PYD programs promote sustainable futures for young individuals and the community. PYD programs started in the United States and grew out of interest in prevention programs targeting risky behavior of youth.
Interest is growing in expanding PYD programs internationally as they may promote resilient characteristics and sustainable life skills. In particular, and one focus area of this dissertation, interest is growing in rural Asia. However, given the interdisciplinary nature of PYD programs, there are no standard assessment metrics or tools in place. Without standards, comparing PYD programs effectively is impossible. Within this dissertation, in four papers, I 1) develop a universal PYD assessment tool, the Positive Youth Development Sustainability Scale (PYDSS), 2) apply the PYDSS to two PYD programs in rural Thailand as a quantitative analysis, 3) use the categories of the PYDSS as a coding guide for qualitative analysis of two PYD programs in rural Thailand, and 4) assess a PYD program in the Phoenix-metro area that integrates physical activity, academics, and ethics. Results indicate that the PYDSS can be applied to PYD programs in both Thailand and Phoenix and that a mixed methods approach is a suggested form or data collection. My research could lead to the further improvement of current PYD programs and their intervention role, while also promoting universal PYD assessment techniques that support sustainable impacts on youth as a result of program intervention and design.
Interest is growing in expanding PYD programs internationally as they may promote resilient characteristics and sustainable life skills. In particular, and one focus area of this dissertation, interest is growing in rural Asia. However, given the interdisciplinary nature of PYD programs, there are no standard assessment metrics or tools in place. Without standards, comparing PYD programs effectively is impossible. Within this dissertation, in four papers, I 1) develop a universal PYD assessment tool, the Positive Youth Development Sustainability Scale (PYDSS), 2) apply the PYDSS to two PYD programs in rural Thailand as a quantitative analysis, 3) use the categories of the PYDSS as a coding guide for qualitative analysis of two PYD programs in rural Thailand, and 4) assess a PYD program in the Phoenix-metro area that integrates physical activity, academics, and ethics. Results indicate that the PYDSS can be applied to PYD programs in both Thailand and Phoenix and that a mixed methods approach is a suggested form or data collection. My research could lead to the further improvement of current PYD programs and their intervention role, while also promoting universal PYD assessment techniques that support sustainable impacts on youth as a result of program intervention and design.
ContributorsSieng, Michael (Author) / Cloutier, Scott (Thesis advisor) / Dooley, Kevin (Committee member) / Eder, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
ABSTRACT
The tourism industry continues to mature as many consumers are demanding more responsible and sustainable development. Mindfulness has been studied in tourism as a cognitive trait recognized by actively processing information through an acute sensitivity to an individual's environment and openness to new information. Mindfulness has been shown to predict behaviors related to tourism and recreation. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been extensively applied to understand human behavior. Despite TPB's extensive history in the social sciences, researchers continue to incorporate new social factors to explain behavior. This study employs an emerging psychological construct, mindfulness, into the TPB model as an enhancement to conceptual and empirical discrepancies.
This study aimed to: (1) understand the presence of mindfulness among those who travel, and (2) test a hypothesized relationship between mindfulness and intent to be sustainable on vacation. The research seeks to answer - does mindfulness add to a traveler's likelihood to behave sustainably in a destination with active sustainable initiatives? The purpose of this study is to showcase emerging consumer traits, like mindfulness, to enhance visitor experiences through sustainability initiatives.
A survey research method was employed to provide a broad, generalizable set of findings from a group of people who were planning a trip and may have visited a specific destination. This study partnered with Sedona Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau to access such a population. The survey was conducted with a self-administered online survey and 550 completed surveys were obtained. Behavior intention to be sustainable, in any visited destination, was regressed twice to address the research question. The first regression included original TPB independent variables (such as attitude, social norms, perceived behavioral control). The second regression added the mindfulness variable. The mindfulness variable was found to be positive and significant in a general context. The model was tested for those who traveled to Sedona and mindfulness and actual behaviors associated with sustainability were strongly related. A traveler's perception of their ability to control behaviors had a significant role when paired with mindfulness. Results suggest the TPB model has availability to incorporate new consumer behavior traits to understand behavior intention.
The tourism industry continues to mature as many consumers are demanding more responsible and sustainable development. Mindfulness has been studied in tourism as a cognitive trait recognized by actively processing information through an acute sensitivity to an individual's environment and openness to new information. Mindfulness has been shown to predict behaviors related to tourism and recreation. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been extensively applied to understand human behavior. Despite TPB's extensive history in the social sciences, researchers continue to incorporate new social factors to explain behavior. This study employs an emerging psychological construct, mindfulness, into the TPB model as an enhancement to conceptual and empirical discrepancies.
This study aimed to: (1) understand the presence of mindfulness among those who travel, and (2) test a hypothesized relationship between mindfulness and intent to be sustainable on vacation. The research seeks to answer - does mindfulness add to a traveler's likelihood to behave sustainably in a destination with active sustainable initiatives? The purpose of this study is to showcase emerging consumer traits, like mindfulness, to enhance visitor experiences through sustainability initiatives.
A survey research method was employed to provide a broad, generalizable set of findings from a group of people who were planning a trip and may have visited a specific destination. This study partnered with Sedona Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau to access such a population. The survey was conducted with a self-administered online survey and 550 completed surveys were obtained. Behavior intention to be sustainable, in any visited destination, was regressed twice to address the research question. The first regression included original TPB independent variables (such as attitude, social norms, perceived behavioral control). The second regression added the mindfulness variable. The mindfulness variable was found to be positive and significant in a general context. The model was tested for those who traveled to Sedona and mindfulness and actual behaviors associated with sustainability were strongly related. A traveler's perception of their ability to control behaviors had a significant role when paired with mindfulness. Results suggest the TPB model has availability to incorporate new consumer behavior traits to understand behavior intention.
ContributorsAzzi, Maya Violette (Author) / Vogt, Christine A (Thesis advisor) / Buzinde, Christine (Committee member) / Cloutier, Scott (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The resilience of infrastructure essential to public health, safety, and well-being remains a priority among Federal agencies and institutions. National policies and guidelines enacted by these entities call for a holistic approach to resilience and effectively acknowledge the complex, multi-organizational, and socio-technical integration of critical infrastructure. However, the concept of holism is seldom discussed in literature. As a result, resilience knowledge among disciplines resides in near isolation, inhibiting opportunities for collaboration and offering partial solutions to complex problems. Furthermore, there is limited knowledge about how human resilience and the capacity to develop and comprehend increasing levels of complexity can influence, or be influenced by, the resilience of complex systems like infrastructure. The above gaps are addressed in this thesis by 1) applying an Integral map as a holistic framework for organizing resilience knowledge across disciplines and applications, 2) examining the relationships between human and technical system resilience capacities via four socio-technical processes: sensing, anticipating, adapting, and learning (SAAL), and 3) identifying an ontological framework for anticipating human resilience and adaptive capacity by applying a developmental perspective to the dynamic relationships between humans interacting with infrastructure. The results of applying an Integral heuristic suggest the importance of factors representing the social interior like organizational values and group intentionality may be under appreciated in the resilience literature from a holistic perspective. The analysis indicates that many of the human and technical resilience capacities reviewed are interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent in relation to the SAAL socio-technical processes. This work contributes a socio-technical perspective that incorporates the affective dimension of human resilience. This work presents an ontological approach to critical infrastructure resilience that draws upon the human resilience, human psychological development, and resilience engineering literatures with an integrated model to guide future research. Human mean-making offers a dimensional perspective of resilient socio-technical systems by identifying how and why the SAAL processes change across stages of development. This research suggest that knowledge of resilient human development can improve technical system resilience by aligning roles and responsibilities with the developmental capacities of individuals and groups responsible for the design, operation and management of critical infrastructures.
ContributorsThomas, John E. (Author) / Seager, Thomas P (Thesis advisor) / Clark, Susan (Committee member) / Cloutier, Scott (Committee member) / Fisher, Erik (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The purpose of this qualitative study was to design and assess a dance pedagogy curriculum intended to cultivate private sector dance educators’ somatic perception. Research questions were framed to understand the nature of knowledge encouraged by the curriculum and each educator's experience of knowledge formation and application to each participant's pedagogical context. The study was conducted in four overlapping stages: 1) Philosophical inquiry, 2) Curricular design, 3) Limited case-study, and 4) Data analysis. The stages employed mix methodologies that included: action research, autobiographical reflection, ethnographic and phenomenological approaches. The limited case-study explored two private-sector dance educators’ experiences of the curriculum. Data collected during the limited case-study conducted with the dance educators revealed thematic clusters about the nature, cultivation, expression, and experience of somatic perception. The themes suggest that the nature of somatic perception reflects an individual educators’ lived experiences that shape values, movement patterns, and phrasing. The expression of somatic perception aligns with the individual educator’s narrative and was evident in patterns and phrasing of movement and learning. The cultivation of somatic perception is an ongoing process that requires active engagement to acquire, assimilate, and integrate the knowledge of content, context, self, and student. Finally, somatic perception manifested itself in each educator’s unique expression of confidence, empathy, creativity, and spontaneity resulting in skillful enactment of knowledge within an immediate pedagogical context.
ContributorsWisniewski, Stacy (Author) / Dyer, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Schupp, Karen (Committee member) / Hannah, Christina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
ContributorsLandes, Heather (Performer) / Schupp, Karen (Performer) / Creviston, Hannah (Performer) / Micklich, Albie (Performer) / Aspnes, Lynne (Performer) / Schuring, Martin (Performer) / Gardner, Joshua (Performer) / Kocour, Mike (Performer) / Hedquist, Ben (Performer) / Moio, Dom (Performer) / Landschoot, Thomas (Performer) / Kuo, Yi-Chun (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2018-02-18
Description
“In Spirit - An Archetypal Journey of the Soul” is a document illustrating the process of creating an evening length autobiographical aerial dance theater performance, In Spirit, through the investigation of theoretical, kinesthetic and choreographic research of archetypal symbolism, as well as aesthetic, choreographic and pedagogical aspects of aerial dance. The Jungian research specifically informed the identification of symbolism and the roles that archetypes play in creating a clear storyline within aerial dance theatre. In addition, research of aesthetic voice and current aerial dance practitioners became important and gave perspectives on creative pedagogical engagement in contemporary dance and aerial dance-making. For the duration of the process of creating In Spirit image-based creative tools, tarot symbolism, Jungian archetypes, aerial dance training and collaboration were explored with the cast of ten dancers. Through this research and embodying the spirit of collaboration, the choreographer and dancers worked diligently to train dancers with no previous experience in aerial dance to perform in aerial roles. The evening-length performance of In Spirit synthesized contemporary dance, aerial dance, theatre and symbolism regarding rebirth.
ContributorsReed, Elisa M (Author) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Schupp, Karen (Committee member) / Winnemann, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020