Browsing by Subject "Social Networks"
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Item Are they truly divine?: a grounded theory of the influences of Black Greek-lettered organizations on the persistence of African Americans at predominantly White institutions.(2012-02) Mitchell, DonaldThis study explored the influences of Black Greek-lettered organizations (BGLOs) on the persistence of African Americans at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). To investigate the relationships, emphasis was placed on social capital that may be gained through BGLO involvement. Nan Lin's (1999) network theory of social capital was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The theory highlights the idea that social capital is embedded in resources gained though social networks. Grounded theory - a qualitative research approach - was used in the study. Focus groups were conducted with four BGLOs, and a series of twenty-four one-on-one interviews were conducted with eight interview participants at a PWI in the Northeast. The study revealed that (1) relationships/connections, (2) increased social lives, (3) gaining community and administrative experiences, (4) academic monitoring, and (5) leadership development, which were all framed as "returns," influenced persistence in different ways. Additionally, women found gender to be important in establishing social networks in BGLOs, whereas men de-emphasized the role of gender in their experiences. The study closes with discussion of the findings and implications for research and practice.Item Burning through boundaries: collaborative governance and wildland fire planning in the United States and New South Wales, Australia.(2010-10) Brummel, Rachel FassbinderWildland fire is a complex socio-ecological phenomenon that `burns through' environmental, organizational, and geo-political boundaries. The management of wildland fire has emerged as both a crucial hazard management concern and a critical conservation priority as those living in fire-prone ecosystems experience more severe fire events and altered fire regimes contribute to biodiversity loss. This research examines two policies - the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 in the United States and the 1997 Rural Fires Act in New South Wales (NSW), Australia - which both seek to enhance inter-organizational coordination and integrated management by mandating collaborative wildland fire planning within legislation. This `top-down' approach is a departure from previous forms of collaborative environmental management that view collaboration as an emergent and voluntary process. Thus, it is unclear whether mandated collaboration fosters the flexible governance, positive social outcomes, and innovative management associated with `bottom-up' collaboration. Taking a multiple case study approach, I explore this question in four chapters, examining, in particular: 1) social learning processes in US collaborative wildland fire planning groups, 2) development of inter-organizational communication networks in NSW bushfire planning groups, 3) processes through which participants in NSW planning groups `co-construct' the fire environment, and 4) modes of governance upon which the US and NSW policies draw and the influence of these governance modes on collaborative processes and outcomes. Most broadly, I find that wildland fire planning processes and outcomes are dependent on the design of the policy mandate for collaboration, as well as planning context. For example, US wildfire planning groups had to commit to a learning-centered process on the local level, but the design of the policy mandate for collaboration influenced the type of learning that was most likely to occur. Additionally, the legislative mandate for collaboration in NSW fostered the creation of more active inter-organizational communication networks during planning than they had been prior, with important mediating factors such as group size and history of inter-organizational conflict. I also find that the imposition of a standardized planning template led to risk being the primary organizing feature of planning in NSW, promoting the co-construction of a governable fire environment that was not necessarily amenable to achieving broader, landscape-level ecological goals. Though both the NSW and US policies were created with similar goals, each draws upon distinct modes of governance to structure collaboration. The bureaucratic NSW policy focused planning towards strategic outcomes, while the network-based US policy facilitated positive relational outcomes. This dissertation has implications for collaborative environmental planning theory and practice, begins to evaluate mandated collaboration as a public policy tool, and contributes to international discussions on sustainable wildland fire policy and planning. Policy-mandates create the structural context for multi-stakeholder collaboration, but do not facilitate meaningful collaborative planning processes on their own. Mandates must be met with strong leadership, diverse participation, facilitation, and innovation on the local level. When designing collaborative mandates, policy-makers need to consider the balance of flexibility and administrative direction within the policy structure. Though bureaucratic directives may promote accountability, standardization, and strategic planning, they may also limit innovation on the local level, place power and influence in the hands of a few organizations, and promote specific (and perhaps narrow) understandings of the environment and the `appropriate' means by which to manage it. Conversely, flexible policy mandates for collaboration may allow for contextual interpretation on the local level and facilitate positive social outcomes, but may also promote limited accountability and be met by a limited set of players with `business-as-usual' approaches to management. However, in a context as dependent on coordination as wildland fire management, mandated collaboration represents a positive public policy innovation by providing a forum for inter-organizational interaction and coordinated planning. Yet, as large fires continue to be a prominent feature of certain landscapes, addressing both hazard reduction and ecological conservation objectives will be a consistent challenge. Policies need to provide substantive guidance and procedural direction on how to achieve broader conservation goals within fire management and planning.Item Computational Trust at Various Granularities in Social Networks(2015-12) Roy, AtanuTrust has been a ubiquitous phenomenon in human lives. The phenomenon of trust has been studied at various granularities over the centuries by various researchers encompassing all disciplines of academia. Historically, it has been witnessed that the primary mode of studying trust has been surveying subjects and documenting the results. But the burgeoning electronic social media have provided us with the unique opportunity of studying trust under a new perspective, which is known as computational trust. Computational trust is defined as the generation of trust between two human actors mediated through computers. This is an active area of research due to the proliferation of various socially rich datasets over the past decade. This includes massively multi-player online games (MMOs), online social networks and various web services, allowing actors to trust each other in an online virtual setting. The first part of this thesis investigates various aspects affecting dyadic (or interpersonal) trust, i.e., trust between two actors. This includes formation, reciprocation and revocation of trust. Taking into account various nuances of dyadic trust, this thesis predicts the occurrence of these three phenomena in the datasets. Instead of looking at these phenomena by itself, this thesis looks at this phenomena in conjunction with social relations for better predictive modeling. One of the major requirements in trust applications is identifying the trustworthy actors in the social networks which will be the subject of investigation for the second part of this dissertation. An important factor in the prediction of trust is an actor's inherent ability to trust others and the perception of the actor in the network. This thesis proposes a pair of complementary measures that can be used to measure trust scores of actors in a social network using involvement of social networks. Based on the proposed measures, an iterative matrix convergence algorithm is developed that calculates the trustingness and the trustworthiness of each actor in the network. Trustingness of an actor is defined as the propensity of an actor to trust his neighbors in the network. Trustworthiness, on the other hand, is defined as the willingness of the network to trust an individual actor. The algorithm runs in O(k * |E|) time where k denotes the number of iterations and |E| denotes the number of edges in the network. This thesis also shows that the algorithm converges to a finite value very quickly. Lastly, this thesis introduces the concept of "vulnerable paths" and identifies those paths in a social network. Based on the hypothesis that these vulnerable paths are imperative for influence flow, a new algorithm proposed in this thesis, exploits these paths for better and more targeted viral marketing using trust scores. It is shown that there is an improvement as high as 9% in identifying these paths using the proposed algorithm than state of the art trust scoring algorithms. This thesis makes the following contributions. It studies the generative mechanisms of trust not in isolation, but in conjunction with the social processes(relations) around trust. Whereas earlier studies were interested in looking at the cross-sectional view of trust, this study investigates the longitudinal view of trust. Instead of looking only at the dynamics of initiation of interpersonal trust, this study looks at the various other dynamics such as reciprocation and revocation of interpersonal trust. This study also exploits the negative feedback property in trust to propose computationally stable pair of global trust measures, which can be used to measure the propensity of actors to trust and be trusted in a network. Finally, this pair of scores is leveraged to be used in various applications such as viral marketing, identification of "vulnerable paths" and inoculation of a network from rumor spread.Item Hold the Line at 99: Reflections of Identity, Race, and Relationships in the Professional and Educational Experiences of Retired Teachers of Color(2018-05) Yeboah, MaryAbstract The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the reflections of identity, race, and relationships in the professional and educational experiences of retired African American teachers. The findings contribute knowledge to the field of education about how race mediates collegial relationships through identifying how racialized dynamics are remembered and understood by African American teachers within the context of their careers over time. The study amplifies the voices of Black educators in historically White-dominated professional and academic spaces. The stories and perspectives of retired African American public school teachers about their teaching careers can be a starting point for seeing, understanding, and appreciating the complexities and nuances of promoting racially just organizational dynamics in US public schools. Through this phenomenological study, I answered the following questions: 1. In what ways do retired African American public school teachers describe the historical and contemporary context of US race relations in schools and in society, and the implications for urban public schools, especially in relation to their own work? 2. In what ways do retired African American public school teachers conceptualize their personal identities and collegial relationships in the context of their workplaces over time? 3. In what ways did retired African American urban public school teachers evaluate how, when, and why race was talked about, if at all, either formally or informally in schools? I organized the findings of this study into three main themes that emerged during individual interviews with ten retired African American public school teachers in Chicago and the greater Chicago area. The themes include: 1) the perpetuation of the myth of racial progress: national-level racism; 2) the problem of racial segregation for schools and societies: school-level racism; and 3) the potential of relational networks for enhancing racial justice: prospects for change. The findings demonstrate that strengthening teacher relationships through facilitated cross-racial dialogue may be important for improving the professional experiences of African American teachers and ultimately for addressing systemic injustices as a way forward for accomplishing racial justice in schools and society. Key Words: cross-racial, social networks, identity, dialogue, professional developmentItem Informal social networks, civic learning, and young women’s political participation in Egypt(2017-12) Mohamed, HassanWhen traditional avenues for learning and participation become inaccessible for marginalized people to learn and participate, people tend to develop other unconventional avenues to learn and participate in decisions that affect their lives. This dissertation examines how rural young women in Egypt utilize self-created social networks as unconventional avenues to learn and advance their civic and political participation. It turns the focus of public participation away from classical, formal Tocquevillian understandings to the unconventional avenues of participation that have remained outside of the scope of much research. It uniquely places the question of the pedagogical and political consequences of social capital into an analysis of women’s social interactions within social networks. The Study adopts constructivist qualitative approach to penetrate women’s realities and capture their unique forms of participation. 49 participants were interviewed through 36 individual in-depth semi-structured interviews and 3 focus group discussions to collect the primary data for this research. The findings reveal that self-created social networks create a space that is not found in other areas of marginalized rural young women’s lives; and that create a unique space for these young women to learn and participate in different civic activities in private and public political domains in Egypt in unconventional ways. Finally, this dissertation sets the groundwork for future study to examine political participation beyond the conventional civic and political activities aimed at marginalized groups in developing democracies around the globe. It also provides policy recommendations for education and international development.Item Keeping Your Friends Close: The Influence of Socioeconomic Status, Residential Stability, and Economic Uncertainty on Interpersonal Orientation(2016-08) Myers, JohnFrom a life history perspective, individuals from higher-SES backgrounds should adopt a slower life history strategy, whereas individuals from lower-SES backgrounds should adopt a faster life history strategy. However, some researchers have found that lower-SES individuals behave more prosocially than higher-SES individuals. This finding is somewhat problematic for the popular view that faster life history strategists ought to behave more opportunistically than slower life history strategists. The goal of the current line of research was to resolve this paradox by identifying a moderator¬ (the cohesiveness of one’s social network) that might help to explain the prosocial interpersonal orientations observed among lower-SES individuals. Three studies were designed to test the notion that there are two ways faster life history strategists might interact with members of their social networks: (1) a dependent strategy among faster life history strategists who live in residentially stable environments that provide immediate, on-demand resources from members of narrower and deeper social networks, and (2) an opportunistic strategy among faster life history strategists who live in residentially unstable environments that allow them to maximize the resources they can extract from their environments in the absence of narrower and deeper social ties. Although the current studies provided very limited support for the hypothesis that faster life history strategists (lower-SES individuals) who possess more social network/residential stability would behave more prosocially than slower life history strategists (higher-SES individuals) or faster life history strategists who lack social network/residential stability, some of the current findings suggest that this hypothesis should not be abandoned out of hand.Item Negotiating marriage: artisan women in fifteenth-century Florentine society(2009-07) Bender, TovahSocial ties determined status, community membership, and even identity for all fifteenth-century Florentines. The marriage formation process was one of the most important opportunities to form social ties, not only between spouses but also with those friends, neighbors, and patrons who served as witnesses, guardians, and providers of dowries. This dissertation examines the process of marriage formation among Florentine artisans, defined as members of the minor guilds and their families in the late 1420s. The study relies on 1425-1429 notarial records of marriages, betrothals, and dowry receipts, and on the 1427 Florentine Catasto. The narrow chronological range makes it possible to cross-reference the two documents, thereby increasing the amount of information available for the couples and their families. It also centers the study on a period of transition in Florence. At this time, Florentine artisans represented a sizable and politically active community. However, the Florentine republic was edging closer and closer to an oligarchy, and, increasingly, artisans were politically marginalized in favor of progressively more powerful elite factions. Artisans' social ties--including those created during marriage--became ever more important for a continued sense of political power. From these sources, this dissertation makes three major points: First, although numerous studies of elite marriage exist for Florence and their results have been held to be representative of all Florentine society, marriage formation differed in significant ways across the social spectrum. Second, marriage formation provided artisans with an excellent opportunity to form and cement social bonds among themselves. This study also highlights the central role of artisans in both tying together those at different social levels and providing an avenue for social mobility, however limited. A focus on marriage also demonstrates the importance of women, particularly non-elite women, in Florentine social networks. Third, by demonstrating the variety of marriage patterns in Florence, and through comparison with the ever more diverse picture of marriage in England, this dissertation argues that the established contrast between marriage patterns in the two regions is increasingly untenable.Item The role of social networks in medication information seeking behavior(2009-05) Kjos, Andrea LeeThe study purpose was to determine the role of social networks in medication information seeking behavior by describing the structure of social networks that provide information, the content provided, and the function of information in addition to individual characteristics of people who use various types of social networks to obtain medication information. This was an exploratory qualitative research study, which used volunteering participants who were at least eighteen years old. Forty subjects completed a personal interview that measured aspects of one's social network as a modality to seek medication information. Data were audio recorded and transcribed using theory and prior research driven themes as a basis for ethnographic content analysis. Phase I analysis found that social network structures used for obtaining medication information were made up of health professionals and lay social contacts. Content themes included factual information, personal experiences, and beliefs and attitudes. Function themes were identified as decision making, diagnosis, monitoring, prescriptive or recommendations, social support, staying informed, or validation. Phase II analysis used clustering of social network types and themes to create coding intersections within the data to explore co-occurring thematic concepts. Social network contacts displayed different roles for what content was provided and the subsequent function of the information. For health professionals, the strongest content related role was to provide factual information functioning to support patient decision making, monitoring, recommendations, staying informed, and validation of information. In contrast, the role of content provision from lay contacts was to provide factual information, personal experiences and beliefs and attitudes functioning to support decision making, monitoring, recommendations, social support, staying informed, or validation of information. Findings from this study described the role of social networks in medication information seeking behavior of patients as complex, dynamic, and important to the medication use experience. The study concluded that patients use social network contacts from both inside and outside of health care to satisfy all types of information needs. Finally, by coming to a more complete understanding of the social nature of the information environment, health professionals can better understand information needs from a patient's perspective.Item The Role of Social Networks in Memory Formation and the Social Reintegration of Ex-combatants(2023) Soto, MichaelThis doctoral dissertation examines the social reintegration of ex-combatants with a focus on the role of social networks and the formation of collective memory. The case is that of FARC ex-guerrillas in Colombia. Building on the work of Maurice Halbwachs ([1952] 1992), it understands memory as evolving over time by present circumstances and interpersonal interactions. The work engages with the focus on groups in Collective Memory scholarship and infuses insights from social network theory and relational sociology. Empirically, the work is based on interviews and participant observation in Colombia. Settings include two cities and two rural areas. Following a review of literature and a presentation of methods and data, chapter four analyzes the role of space in shaping interactions. Chapter five examines the role of an education initiative in fostering relationships between civilians and FARC ex-combatants. Chapter six discusses the importance of incorporating a life course perspective in the social reintegration of ex-combatants. The process of reintegration presents an opportunity to examine how collective memories transform through new forms of interactions. These chapters show how a civilian's understanding of the conflict changes by interacting with ex-combatants. It similarly examines how the ex-combatant perspective changes. The relevance of the findings goes beyond the specific setting, as this dissertation shows for an increasingly polarized world, how it is important to understand the way in which individuals’ perspectives of conflicts are formed and transformed.Item Using social learning theory as a conceptual framework to examine determinants of teen marijuana use.(2010-02) Depue, Jacob BjornThe present research assesses determinants of teen marijuana use. It uses social learning theory as a conceptual framework to examine the impact of sensation seeking, usage status, interpersonal communication, social networks, and media use on attitudes about marijuana and intention to use among teens. Results show significant main effects and mediation effects for many of these variables. Results are discussed in terms of their contribution to both the literature and future antidrug campaigns.