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Title: The integrity of the individualism-collectivism cultural syndromes under conditions of social change.
Creator: Santiago, Jose Hiram., Florida Atlantic University, Tarantino, Santo J.
Abstract/Description: This study was an attempt to examine the validity of the view that the constructs of individualism and collectivism (I-C) are coherent "cultural syndromes." It was hypothesized that different "probes" of these syndromes within the psychological domain of attribution patterns could show divergent I-C characters in a culture under conditions of social change. Ninety-eight university students from the United States and Puerto Rico were administered the Singelis, Triandis, Bhawuk, and Gelfand I-C...
Show moreThis study was an attempt to examine the validity of the view that the constructs of individualism and collectivism (I-C) are coherent "cultural syndromes." It was hypothesized that different "probes" of these syndromes within the psychological domain of attribution patterns could show divergent I-C characters in a culture under conditions of social change. Ninety-eight university students from the United States and Puerto Rico were administered the Singelis, Triandis, Bhawuk, and Gelfand I-C Scale, Rotter's I-E Scale, and Miller and Luthar's (1989) justice-related moral accountability vignettes. Contrary to expectation, the Puerto Rican sample was found to be less external in locus of control than the United States sample, and there were no cultural differences in moral accountability. In addition, no strong relationships were found among the variables at the individual level of analysis. Possible causes for these results discussed are sample unrepresentativeness, the non-equivalence of the levels of analysis, and social change.
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Date Issued: 1999
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15684
Subject Headings: Individualism, Collectivism, Social change
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: THE POWER OF PEOPLE: HOW GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS INSPIRE CHANGE IN SCHOOL COMMUNITIES.
Creator: Vance Noelk Debra S., Mountford, Meredith, Florida Atlantic University, College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Abstract/Description: This research study examined how the United Opt Out grassroots movement grew from a small listserv in 2011 into a national formidable organization, now referred to as the Opt Out movement, which rallied against the use of high stakes tests as the primary determinant of student achievement as defined in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002). While educators and parents did not oppose testing, they rejected the focus on a singular assessment created at the state level and the...
Show moreThis research study examined how the United Opt Out grassroots movement grew from a small listserv in 2011 into a national formidable organization, now referred to as the Opt Out movement, which rallied against the use of high stakes tests as the primary determinant of student achievement as defined in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002). While educators and parents did not oppose testing, they rejected the focus on a singular assessment created at the state level and the blatant disregard of other school-based assessments. It was soon evident that educators and parents had minimal input, while private corporate foundations and think tanks exerted a tremendous amount of influence on education policy. To counteract the corporate reform movement and to gain voice in education policy, grassroots movements, started and led by educators, began to organize. The Opt Out movement was one such movement that called on students to engage in civil disobedience by opting out of high stakes tests.
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Date Issued: 2019
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00013347
Subject Headings: United Opt Out (Organization), Social movements, Schools, Change
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Very Useful Notion: A Rhetorical History of the Idea of Human-Made Climate Change, 1950-2000.
Creator: Brooten, Gary, Marin, Noemi, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Abstract/Description: This dissertation tests an original hybrid methodology to explore the rapid spread of the idea of human-made climate change that began in the 1950s after the idea had lain dormant for half a century. It describes the 1950s rhetorical events that triggered the idea’s diffusion, then traces how its rhetorical uses gradually gave root to the end-of-thecentury political impasse over how to respond to the societal implications of the idea. The research methodology rests on the simple logic that an...
Show moreThis dissertation tests an original hybrid methodology to explore the rapid spread of the idea of human-made climate change that began in the 1950s after the idea had lain dormant for half a century. It describes the 1950s rhetorical events that triggered the idea’s diffusion, then traces how its rhetorical uses gradually gave root to the end-of-thecentury political impasse over how to respond to the societal implications of the idea. The research methodology rests on the simple logic that an idea can only spread by being used in human discourses. It combines traditions of rhetorical historiography with a philosophical view of intellectual history as the cumulative effect of a “natural selection” of ideas and their spread by human individuals over time and geography. It calls for sampling and analyzing rhetorical artifacts in light of the rhetorical situations in which they originate, focusing on how the idea of human-made climate change is used rhetorically in scientific and other discourses. The analyses form the basis of a narrative giving emphasis both to rhetorical continuities and to conversation-changing rhetorical events. They also show how these rhetorical dynamics involve interactions of human communities using or attacking the idea for their communal purposes. The results challenge science-focused understandings of the history of the idea itself and also suggest that the methodology may be more broadly useful. As to the history, the analyses highlight how changes in the rhetorical uses of the idea made possible its 1950s breakout in climate science, then led to uses that spread it into other sciences and into environmentalism in the 1960s, attached it to apocalyptic environmentalism in the 1970s, injected it into partisan politics in 1980s and shaped the political impasse during the 1990s. The data show that the methodology reveals elements of the discourses missed in histories emphasizing the “power of ideas,” suggesting that a focus on the usefulness of ideas may be more fruitful. A focus on rhetorical uses of ideas grounds the causation of intellectual change in human motivation and agency, expressed in material acts that multiply and disperse naturally through communities and populations.
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Date Issued: 2016
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004691, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004691
Subject Headings: Climate change mitigation, Climatic changes -- Philosophy, Climatic changes -- Social aspects, Global environmental change, Human beings -- Effect of climate on, Rhetorical criticism
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: From weekend retreat to commuter's paradise: the intrusion of suburbanization into dacha territory in post-Soviet Russia.
Creator: Clark, Sean., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: From the time of Peter the Great the dacha has fulfilled various roles in the environs of Russia's cities : in the 18th century it was the palatial mansions of the aristocratic elite outside of St. Petersburgand Moscow ; in the 19th century the dacha became a summer rental property for urbanites to escape the cramped and dirty cities ; in the Soviet dominated 20th century the dacha was organized into garden plot communities for subsistence farming. However, the privatization of land following...
Show moreFrom the time of Peter the Great the dacha has fulfilled various roles in the environs of Russia's cities : in the 18th century it was the palatial mansions of the aristocratic elite outside of St. Petersburgand Moscow ; in the 19th century the dacha became a summer rental property for urbanites to escape the cramped and dirty cities ; in the Soviet dominated 20th century the dacha was organized into garden plot communities for subsistence farming. However, the privatization of land following the collapse of the Soviet Union signaled a shift in the dacha's existence. Lamp-lined streets and perfectly pruned lawns began to fill the territory beyond the belt of gray, generic apartment structures where the dacha was once king. In light of the dacha's decline, this thesis explores the origins and development of suburbanization in post-Soviet Russia and discusses its shared and dissenting characteristics with that of the West.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3359292
Subject Headings: Country homes, Social change, Cities and towns, Growth, Social life and customs
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Perceptual Acuity and Social Attitudes Survey (PASAS).
Creator: Morgan, Hunter, Lanning, Kevin
Date Issued: 2012-04-06
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3350920
Subject Headings: Human behavior, Perception, Behavior responses, Sensory inputs, Psychology, social, Attitude change
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A conceptual model of the emergence of shared leadership: The effects of organizational structure, culture, and context variables on public employee perceptions of leadership.
Creator: Choi, Sanghan, Florida Atlantic University, Patterson, Patricia M.
Abstract/Description: This study rejects the hierarchical perspective of traditional leadership approaches in public administration. The hierarchical perspective tends to treat public managers at the top as leaders, public employees at the bottom as followers, and leadership as management. This study proposes shared leadership as an alternative to traditional leadership approaches. In theory, shared leadership is not about a hierarchical position but about a mutually shared process that occurs throughout public...
Show moreThis study rejects the hierarchical perspective of traditional leadership approaches in public administration. The hierarchical perspective tends to treat public managers at the top as leaders, public employees at the bottom as followers, and leadership as management. This study proposes shared leadership as an alternative to traditional leadership approaches. In theory, shared leadership is not about a hierarchical position but about a mutually shared process that occurs throughout public organizations. The literature has made assertions that shared leadership emerges from horizontal organizations, adaptable cultures, and turbulent environments. However, little research has been conducted to test the effects of these organizational dimension variables on shared leadership in either the public or private sector. This study is a first step to examine the multiple relationships among organizational structure, culture, and context and shared leadership. It is also a first attempt to measure the concept of shared leadership. This study presents case-based empirical research. The study collects data from public employees across the bottom and the top of Broward County government in Florida because the study asserts that every public employee, regardless of hierarchical position, can be a public leader and display leadership. The data was collected using a mail survey of 261 public employees in the county government. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the conceptual model developed in this study. The model consists of five hypothesized positive relationships (hierarchy of position, functional specialization, supportive culture, technology, and organizational crisis), five hypothesized negative relationships (hierarchy of authority, centralization, bureaucratic and innovative cultures, and organizational size), and one positive or negative control variable (gender) with shared leadership. The results show that organizational crisis, technology, innovative culture, and hierarchy of position variables are significantly and positively associated with shared leadership. Public employees' perceptions of shared leadership are partially explainable from organizational structure, culture, and context factors. Indicating that shared leadership occurs in the perceptions of street-level public employees, this study implies that the horizontal and hierarchical perspectives on leadership coexist in bureaucratic organizations. This study concludes that every public employee displays leadership and is a public leader.
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Date Issued: 2006
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12228
Subject Headings: Leadership, Teams in the workplace, Psychology, Industrial, Social perception, Organizational change
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: An examination of gender-related attitudes among managers.
Creator: Massey, Mary Ann., Florida Atlantic University, Guglielmino, Lucy M.
Abstract/Description: This two-part study included two procedures: (1) the development of an instrument to assess gender-related attitudes among male and female managers, and (2) the collection and analysis of data on gender-related attitudes among male and female managers. Male and female managers (n = 165) responded on a Likert scale to 30 gender-related statements about male and female managers from their own perspective and then based on their opinions of how other male and female managers might respond to the...
Show moreThis two-part study included two procedures: (1) the development of an instrument to assess gender-related attitudes among male and female managers, and (2) the collection and analysis of data on gender-related attitudes among male and female managers. Male and female managers (n = 165) responded on a Likert scale to 30 gender-related statements about male and female managers from their own perspective and then based on their opinions of how other male and female managers might respond to the statements. The topic addresses the undercurrents of conflict and dissension that are accompanying paradigmatic changes in traditional management practices and the integration of women into all aspects of management. Although women have demonstrated managerial capability in the workplace, the existence of gender differences warrants further investigation into gender factors influencing co-managing. An extensive review of the literature relating the changes in gender studies over the past 30 years is included. Statistical treatment of the data included the use of paired t-tests, independent samples t-tests or ANOVAs for 20 hypotheses. Through the hypotheses, male and female managers' perspectives on 30 gender-related statements were explored. In addition, male and female managers' responses were compared across different levels of specific demographic data. Ten of the hypotheses showed statistical significance at p <.05. For the gender-related statements, male and female managers rated female managers more positively than males; male and female managers each rated their own gender more positively than did the opposite gender. Male managers rated female peers more positively and other males less positively than they perceived other male managers would; they rated female managers less positively and male managers more positively than they perceived female peers would. Female managers rated their own gender more positively than they perceived males would and rated male peers less positively than they perceived other females would; their own ratings of females were similar to their perceptions of the ratings of other females. When the managers' mean responses for the gender-related statements were compared across different levels of demographic data, no significant relationships were found with level of management, size of company, training experiences, and female managers' preferences for working with male or female managers. However, male managers who stated a preference for working with male managers rated the statements about male managers more positively than did those who had no gender preference. In addition, male managers who stated no preference for the gender of peer managers rated statements about female managers more positively than those who stated a preference for working with male managers.
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Date Issued: 1994
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12390
Subject Headings: Sex role in the work environment, Executives--Attitudes, Organizational behavior, Social change
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Imprinting Effects of Founding Conditions, Structure, and Capabilities on Social and Financial Organizational Outcome Satisfaction.
Creator: Lortie, Jason, Castrogiovanni, Gary J., Florida Atlantic University, College of Business, Department of Management
Abstract/Description: My work investigates the effects of founding conditions for organizational founders on the eventual satisfaction founders have with the financial and social outcomes of their organization. First, I introduce two new constructs, social salience and economic salience, which represent the intended social or economic goals of the founder for their organization when they found the new organization. I then utilize organizational imprinting theory to argue that the social and economic salience,...
Show moreMy work investigates the effects of founding conditions for organizational founders on the eventual satisfaction founders have with the financial and social outcomes of their organization. First, I introduce two new constructs, social salience and economic salience, which represent the intended social or economic goals of the founder for their organization when they found the new organization. I then utilize organizational imprinting theory to argue that the social and economic salience, along with founders’ previous work experience, influence the structure of the new organization via the legal form. I then argue that the legal form influences the specific capabilities that the organization will acquire or create early in the organization’s life. Finally, I argue that the capabilities established at founding will influence the eventual satisfaction founders currently have with their organizations’ social and financial outcomes as the capabilities endure over time. Based on a sample of 150 organizational founders that are still actively managing their organizations, my results support the idea that founding conditions for individual founders influence the capabilities that their organizations create or acquire. Further, founders’ current level of satisfaction with the financial and social performance of their organizations is significantly related to these capabilities. These results largely support the process based model of imprinting effects on organizational outcomes, and suggest that founders play a critical role in setting the original imprint of an organization that will endure via organizational inertia, perhaps long after the imprint’s originally designed purpose.
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Date Issued: 2016
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004655, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004655
Subject Headings: Corporate governance, Organizational change -- Management, Performance -- Management, Performance -- Measurement, Rational expectations (Economic theory), Social entrepreneurship, Strategic planning
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Understanding the Cultural Changes of Family Creation, Size and Unity Through the Analysis of the Changing Behaviors and Meanings of Their Symbols.
Creator: Everest-Aranguren, Ida, Cameron, Mary, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Anthropology
Abstract/Description: This study seeks to explore longitudinally the changing behaviors and meanings of the symbols bound to family creation, size and unity in order to understand why and how they changed. The research method fuses historical facts collected from historical literature, the data from the participant’s interviews, and the ethnology of the American family made by David Schneider (1980), using symbolic anthropology as the guiding theoretical framework. The imposed gender differentiation, religious...
Show moreThis study seeks to explore longitudinally the changing behaviors and meanings of the symbols bound to family creation, size and unity in order to understand why and how they changed. The research method fuses historical facts collected from historical literature, the data from the participant’s interviews, and the ethnology of the American family made by David Schneider (1980), using symbolic anthropology as the guiding theoretical framework. The imposed gender differentiation, religious precepts, the shifting economic models, economic recessions, World War I and World War II, intellectual and technological developments, and the ideologies accompanying these events caused changes of human behavior and the redefinition of main cultural meanings of the symbols bound to family creation, size and unity. These resulted over time in a systematic shrinking of family creation and size and caused the re-conceptualizing of family unit. Yet, numbers of American family creation and size did not reach negative extremes, as they did in other developed nations. The resisting behavior emerges from the rich ethnic diversity in the nation that offers behavioral alternatives, the people’s trust their government and the American identity rooted on the founding ideals of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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Date Issued: 2016
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004800, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004800
Subject Headings: Kinship--United States., Social change--United States., Families--United States--Historiography., Families--Psychological aspects.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Letter from the inside: a conventional farmer’s daughter on the need for a new agriculture.
Creator: Anderson, Stephanie, Schmitt, Kate, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: In “Letters from the Inside,” Stephanie Anderson presents a vision for sustainable, regenerative agriculture from the perspective of someone born and raised on a conventional cattle ranch. From Florida to New Mexico to the Dakotas, she traces the stories of farmers and ranchers who are already creating such an agriculture. She argues that producers, in tandem with consumers and government, hold the power to change what is currently an environmentally and socially destructive food system.
Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004342, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004342
Subject Headings: Agriculture--Environmental aspects, Agriculture--Economic aspects, Agriculture--Social aspects, Alternative agriculture, Sustainable agriculture, Climate change mitigation
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Mind the gap: buck angel and the implications of transgender male in/visibility.
Creator: Stanic, Emilija, Barrios, Barclay, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores the implications of visibility and invisibility of transgender people, their constructed bodies, and how these bodies are used for both personal empowerment and education. By using various gender theorists for support, I argue that the transgender male body obtains power through visibility. Despite the many obstacles transgender males face, putting their bodies in a space of visibility gives them both personal power and the power to educate others about their bodies and...
Show moreThis thesis explores the implications of visibility and invisibility of transgender people, their constructed bodies, and how these bodies are used for both personal empowerment and education. By using various gender theorists for support, I argue that the transgender male body obtains power through visibility. Despite the many obstacles transgender males face, putting their bodies in a space of visibility gives them both personal power and the power to educate others about their bodies and sexuality. In doing a study of the human body and the different definitions applied to it, I show how we, as a society, are restricted by gender binaries and how the transgender body serves as a gap between the socially-constructed terms. Ultimately, transgender people are able to break through these barriers by subverting the definitions and meaning of “male” and “female.”
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Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004334, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004334
Subject Headings: Gays in popular culture, Gender identity, Identity (Psychology), Marginality, Social, Sex change, Sex role, Transgender people, Transgenderism, Transsexualism
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: How Jamaican administrators in a large school district in Florida perceive ethnicity, gender, and mentoring have impacted their career experiences: a phenomenological study.
Creator: Barrett-Johnson, Denise P., College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Abstract/Description: The purpose of this study was to discover how ethnicity, gender, and mentoring influenced the career experiences of Jamaican administrators in Sunshine County Public Schools (SCPS), a pseudonym that was used for a large public school district in Florida. This qualitative, phenomenological study focused on the career experiences of eight Jamaican administrators in SCPS. Seven of the participants were all native-born Jamaicans and one was a first generation Jamaican, born in England to Jamaican...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to discover how ethnicity, gender, and mentoring influenced the career experiences of Jamaican administrators in Sunshine County Public Schools (SCPS), a pseudonym that was used for a large public school district in Florida. This qualitative, phenomenological study focused on the career experiences of eight Jamaican administrators in SCPS. Seven of the participants were all native-born Jamaicans and one was a first generation Jamaican, born in England to Jamaican parents and raised in Jamaica until the age of 14. The researcher gained this understanding by interviewing participants in-depth about how their Jamaican ethnicity, gender, and personal mentoring experiences impacted their personal and professional journey as administrators in SCPS. Findings and conclusions will inform mentoring and educational leadership literature on strategies for success geared toward this understudied population.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3356889
Subject Headings: High school principals, Attitudes, Educational leadership, Critical pedagogy, Mentoring in education, Women school administrators, Attitudes, Educational change
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Bowling in Different Alleys: A Study of Neighborhood Organizations and Schools.
Creator: Brown, Pamela M., Pisapia, John, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: This research study explored the nature of the relationship between neighborhood organizations and schools using social capital theory as the conceptual framework. The researcher chose a qualitative multiple case study design to examine three neighborhoods within the same city, their respective neighborhood organizations and the public schools within each neighborhood's boundary. The researcher found that the neighborhood organizations in this study help build social capital through the...
Show moreThis research study explored the nature of the relationship between neighborhood organizations and schools using social capital theory as the conceptual framework. The researcher chose a qualitative multiple case study design to examine three neighborhoods within the same city, their respective neighborhood organizations and the public schools within each neighborhood's boundary. The researcher found that the neighborhood organizations in this study help build social capital through the bonding ties they create with one another, and the bridging ties they form with other organizations and with local public schools. The positive impact of those ties for neighborhood social health, and for the maintenance and improvement of neighborhoods, can be found within each community. This finding adds to what has already been written related to neighborhood organizations and the concept of social capital. The researcher also found that neighborhood organizations faced significant barriers in their attempts to use the bridging ties of social capital to connect with schools in the community. One of the most problematic of those barriers was the attitude of the schools' personnel themselves to matters they believed to be outside of the school gate and therefore beyond their consideration. Nonetheless, the neighborhood organizations did find ways to interact with the schools and some positive impacts have been documented. The concept of enlightened self-interest, rather than simple self-interest or community spiritedness, was found to be a motivator for neighborhood organization members. This finding adds to the existing literature on both social capital and neighborhood organizations, and is significant for future research on why and how social capital is built in communities.
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Date Issued: 2007
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000653
Subject Headings: School management and organization--Case studies, Volunteer workers in community development--Case studies, Social change--United States--21st century--Case studies
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Cross-cultural stories of race and change: a re-languaging of the public discourse on race and ethnicity.
Creator: Oliver, Eloise D. (Kitty), Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: A progressive discourse on race is impeded by several factors: debates on the reality or unreality of the term race itself; discussions of ethnicity that tend to marginalize a discussion of race; the view by majority members of society that race is a topic for discussion principally by minorities; and the lack of models for non-confrontational public conversations on the subject. In the process, a discussion of racial change rarely enters the discourse beyond brief responses in opinion polls....
Show moreA progressive discourse on race is impeded by several factors: debates on the reality or unreality of the term race itself; discussions of ethnicity that tend to marginalize a discussion of race; the view by majority members of society that race is a topic for discussion principally by minorities; and the lack of models for non-confrontational public conversations on the subject. In the process, a discussion of racial change rarely enters the discourse beyond brief responses in opinion polls. This study proposed the Race and Change Dialogue Model to facilitate the exploration of how race operates in society on an interpersonal level in everyday lives of people across cultures and how changes in racial attitudes occur over time. Theories of race and ethnicity, language, effective communication strategies, and social change provided a starting point, but a "re-languaging" approach was used to advance the innovative nature of this work. In audiorecorded oral histories for public dissemination and interviews in a documentary series on public television, cross-cultural narrators were provided with a safe rhetorical space to tell their stories and to be heard, and a framework of "racenicity" allowed for the discussion of the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, class, and culture as fused aspects of the same issue. An environment was created that enhanced effective communication of a difficult subject. Despite the challenges that arose in the patterns of talk about racial change, the door has been opened to bring change into the dialogue in a more prominent way that moves the discourse on differences in more productive directions. An alternate model for public discussions on race as "racenicity" was created that has the potential to build coalition in the U.S. and has implications for other societies as well.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3337184
Subject Headings: Pluralism (Social sciences), Discourse analysis, Psychological aspects, Language and culture, Social change, Ethnic relations, Psychological aspects, Race relations, Psychological aspects
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Public Perception of Health Risks Related to Climate Change in Broward County, Florida.
Creator: Buck, Jeanmarie A. Steckler, Cameron, Mary, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Anthropology
Abstract/Description: Scholars agree that global climate change is a major threat to the physical environment, affecting all aspects of life on the planet. However, the general public do not feel that climate change is a major risk or threat, especially to humans. It is important to understand the public’s perception and opinions of climate change as it affects and influences the creation and passing of climate change adaptation and mitigation policies. Specifically, little is known about public perceptions in...
Show moreScholars agree that global climate change is a major threat to the physical environment, affecting all aspects of life on the planet. However, the general public do not feel that climate change is a major risk or threat, especially to humans. It is important to understand the public’s perception and opinions of climate change as it affects and influences the creation and passing of climate change adaptation and mitigation policies. Specifically, little is known about public perceptions in regards to the greater health risk imposed by global climate change. This study examines the public's perception of health risks related to climate change in Broward County, Florida by using mixed methods. An online survey was conducted along with in-person interviews with the general public and a physician. The study found majority of respondents to believe climate change affects health, but lacked an understanding of how it is harmful to their health. It also found that gender affects their perceptions and political ideology appears to have an effect, but the effect of socioeconomic status on their perceptions were unable to be determined at this time. Broward is just developing policies to adapt and mitigate the health effects of climate change.
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Date Issued: 2017
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004813, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004813
Subject Headings: Environmental health--Florida--Broward County., Health risk assessment--Florida--Broward County., Human beings--Effect of climate on., Climatic changes--Health aspects., Social change--Health aspects., Global warming--Health aspects., Public health surveillance--Florida--Broward County.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Soil of misfortune: Education, poverty, and race in a rural south Florida community.
Creator: Gonzalez, Juan Carlos., Florida Atlantic University, Kirsch, Max H.
Abstract/Description: This dissertation addresses the structural components of education in the United States and how they have hindered the ability of a community's black and brown children to obtain the knowledge and resources needed to succeed and adapt to the changing circumstances of their region and beyond. It will do so through a case study of a small community in the American South, where the failure of education to provide access to the American dream has been clearly demonstrated in persistent poverty...
Show moreThis dissertation addresses the structural components of education in the United States and how they have hindered the ability of a community's black and brown children to obtain the knowledge and resources needed to succeed and adapt to the changing circumstances of their region and beyond. It will do so through a case study of a small community in the American South, where the failure of education to provide access to the American dream has been clearly demonstrated in persistent poverty and lack of opportunity available to its residents. Belle Glade, Florida is a rural community centrally located within the Everglades Agricultural Area. Fifty years after the historic 1954 Brown vs. Board decision, which outlawed school segregation and the separate but equal claims of Plessy vs. Ferguson, little has changed in this poor rural community. This study shows that this community, rather than representing an isolated case, is reflective of many small non-metro communities of the American South. Though integration initially intended to balance the great disparity that existed between the schools for black children and schools for white children in regards to facilities, materials, and curriculum, in Belle Glade and throughout the South those same disparities still exist today. This study argues that current state education policies, modeled after the federal government's "No Child Left Behind Plan," are a veneer for a separate and unequal educational policy and practice in the state of Florida. It seeks to explore and document why this has occurred, and place this case study within the larger context of structural inequalities on the local, national and global levels. How is it that the "freest nation in the world" with the largest gross national product has yet to fulfill its most fundamental promise to this community---equal opportunity and access to quality education? Thus, this dissertation asks why regardless of the policies, plans, curricula and tests the district and state adopt, at times with the best of intentions, nothing seems to improve the conditions of these black citizens? More importantly, when these issues are addressed, who speaks, under what conditions and for whom?
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Date Issued: 2005
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12161
Subject Headings: Social capital (Sociology)--United States, Segregation in education--Florida--Belle Glade, African Americans--Education--History--20th century, Educational change--Florida--Belle Glade, Race relations in school management--Florida, Discrimination in education--Florida
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Inviting but frustrating over-simplification: (re)reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Creator: Smith, Kathryn M., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: Many critics and readers assume that Tess of the d'Urbervilles is simply the tragedy of a ruined country maiden and that the sexually-driven scenes are the most important aspects of the novel. In my thesis, however, I argue that Thomas Hardy created a novel centered on his complex heroine, Tess, not on simplistic notions of sexual ruination and sensational plot developments. In other words, Tess is an autonomous, detailed character who cannot be relegated to the usual stereotypes of Virgin,...
Show moreMany critics and readers assume that Tess of the d'Urbervilles is simply the tragedy of a ruined country maiden and that the sexually-driven scenes are the most important aspects of the novel. In my thesis, however, I argue that Thomas Hardy created a novel centered on his complex heroine, Tess, not on simplistic notions of sexual ruination and sensational plot developments. In other words, Tess is an autonomous, detailed character who cannot be relegated to the usual stereotypes of Virgin, Whore, Mother, etc. Through my reading, we gain a greater understanding of the novel as a whole, instead of as a fractured, deterministic, and plot-driven tragedy. I begin my argument by examining Hardy's subtitle, "A Pure Woman," asserting that our focus should be on the word "Woman" and Tess's subjectivity, not reductive concepts of "purity" or chastity. In Chapter Two, I examine two significant scenes that occur in Alec's carriage, showing how many critics' readings underestimate Tess as helpless, and arguing that she fights against her oppressor in covert ways. My third chapter continues this defense of Tess by critiquing the critical debate surrounding the sexual encounter in "The Chase". I posit that the entire debate is flawed and that Tess should be defined based upon her actions and not simply her sexuality. Lastly, in my conclusion I present a broader defense of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, in which I assert that the ambiguous plot scenes in Tess are conscious attempts by Hardy to subvert traditional assumptions about what is important in a novel. My goal in this thesis is to critique popular but simplistic interpretations of Tess of the d'Urbervilles which diminish Tess's role; instead, I emphasize the way her character, in the words of critic Kathleen Blake, "invites but frustrates oversimplification."
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Date Issued: 2007
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/11601
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Social change in literature, Literature and society
Format: Document (PDF)

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