Traces of Being: People and Coyotes in Urban and Suburban Canada

My thesis examines how human/coyote interactions in urban and suburban Canada are representative of larger issues surrounding our relationship to nature and non-humans. I have created a series of drawings and laser-cut coyote bodies that respond to a set of limited cultural perceptions of coyotes through observing, exploring, and engaging those perceptions. My work is informed by the collection of data from online surveys, interviews, participatory and observational research, and photographs from wildlife cameras. These pieces represent multiple perspectives of coyotes based on community responses and biological studies

Unemployment alters the set-point for life satisfaction

According to set-point theories of subjective well-being, people react to events, but then return to initial levels of happiness and satisfaction over time. We test this idea by examining reaction and adaptation to unemployment in a 15-year longitudinal study. In accordance with set-point theory, individuals first reacted strongly to unemployment and then shifted back toward their former (or “baseline”) levels of life satisfaction. However, on average, individuals did not completely return to their former levels of life satisfaction, even after they became re-employed. The findings suggests that even a short period of unemployment can cause an alteration in a person’s long-term set-point. Within-person analyses showed, however, that there are considerable individual differences in reaction and adaptation to unemployment. Although there was substantial stability in life satisfaction over the years, unemployment did influence long-term levels, thus suggesting that in addition to personality, long-term subjective well-being can also be influenced by life circumstances

Economic Consequences of Mispredicting Utility

A framework is proposed for organizing phenomena related to the (mis)prediction of utility, in particular neglecting adaptation. A categorization is introduced that accounts for asymmetries in misprediction. In decision-making, goods and activities satisfying extrinsic desires are more salient than those serving intrinsic needs. Accordingly, there is an overconsumption of the former compared to the latter. The theoretical analysis is consistent with econometric evidence on commuting choice using data on subjective well-being. People show substantial adaptation to a higher labor income but not to commuting. This may account for the finding that people are not compensated for the burden of commuting.adaptation, extrinsic/intrinsic attributes, individual decision-making, misprediction, subjective well-being, time allocation

The (Indispensable) Middle Class in Developing Countries; or, The Rich and the Rest, Not the Poor and the Rest

Inclusive growth is widely embraced as the central economic goal for developing countries, but the concept is not well defined in the development economics literature. Since the early 1990s, the focus has been primarily on pro-poor growth, with the “poor” being people living on less than $1 day, or in some regions$2 day. The idea of pro-poor growth emerged in the early 1990s as a counterpoint to a concern with growth alone (measured in per-capita income) and is generally defined as growth which benefits the poor as much or more than the rest of the population. Examples include conditional cash transfers, which target the poor while minimizing the fiscal burden on the public sector, and donors’ emphasizing primary over higher education as an assured way to benefit the poor while investing in long-term growth through increases in human capital. Yet these pro-poor, inclusive policies are not necessarily without tradeoffs in fostering long-run growth. In this paper I argue that the concept of inclusive growth should go beyond the traditional emphasis on the poor (and the rest) and take into account changes in the size and economic command of the group conventionally defined as neither poor nor rich, i.e., the middle class.middle class, developing countries, growth, economics, development, poverty, human capital

Becoming and Being 'People Like Us': A Study of Students Who Experience Difficulties With Literacy in National Curriculum History at Key Stage 3

My study considers a group of students who experience difficulties with literacy and investigates the factors, at the levels of the social order, the arena of school and the settings within it, which either fostered or hindered their participation and therefore their learning in the history classroom at Key Stage 3. My research is set within a sociocultural framework which emphasises the importance of collaborative learning and considers that factors, not only within settings in the classroom but also those outside, impact on participation and contribute to the construction of identity. A sociocultural framework invites certain research tools such as case studies and comparative methods. I undertook a study at two different levels, that of the Humanities Faculty but also of each student. This took the form of a longitudinal study over a two year period when the students were in mixed ability groupings in Year 8 and setted groupings in Year 9. I undertook the study in this way to investigate not only the moment by moment interpersonal action, but also the development of identity over time. Methods used on the research in both years included questionnaires, classroom observation and semi-structured interviews using a projective technique ‘Talking Stones’ to provide rich data on interpersonal interaction and intrapersonal reflections on this. The study indicated that factors which affect participation and learning are multilayered and difficult to separate. These factors include financial factors at government level outside the arena of school, the demands of the curriculum as imposed from outside and how it is interpreted within the arena of school, pedagogy and practice of teachers, the attitude of peers in the classroom and wider arena of school and the sources of a subject (in this case History) to which the students are exposed outside school

Double Fault: The Negative Impact of the US Tennis Association on Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and Surrounding Communities

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (FMCP), Queens\u27 flagship park, is the only major green space in the working class borough of over 2 million people. Queens residents and families use it for recreation, family gathering, soccer, baseball, cricket, picnics, boating, running, and other exercise. The park is heavily utilized with more than 20,000 people playing soccer every week in the organized soccer leagues - with countless others enjoying the park seven days a week. It is also currently home to several major private sports facilities, including the stadiums of the USTA\u27s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (NTC) and Citifield, home of the New York Mets. The communities surrounding the park are diverse and lower income, with 75% of the surrounding residents being people of color and 40% living below the poverty line. Corona, a heavily immigrant neighborhood adjacent to the park, has the worst childhood obesity rate in the entire city at 51%. In the waning days of the Bloomberg Administration, the park is being targeted as a building site for several of the Mayor\u27s stated Legacy\u27\u27 projects. Corporations are eager to acquire valuable land at low cost and wi.th generous public subsidies for their own developments. The park and surrounding communities are under siege by corporate and political interests seeking to exploit this valuable public asset at the expense of the largely working class,immigrant population of Queens. One of the three proposed projects is the Urtited States Tennis Association\u27s (USTA) bid to expand their already sizable footprint inside the park by capturing an additional .94 acres to their leasehold. The USTA estimates that the NTC expansion would bring an additional 10,000 spectators per day dlu·ing the U.S. Open. The proposed $500 million renovation would include the consh-uction of a third tennis stadium, renovations to enlarge two existing stadiums, two new parking garages, a new road, up to 170,000-gsf of new retail space, and a dirty diesel­ fueled power plant. This report examines the revenues and profits USTA has at its disposal as a result of their special siting within Flushing Meadows Corona Park. It further studies how much economic development occurs in the surrounding communities as a result ofUSTA\u27s presence. Finally, this report will explore the extent to which the NTC is really open to the public as paikland

The management of absence: why it matters : an analysis of absence management issues, with a case study based in a UK academic library

This paper seeks to give an overview of some ongoing research into absence management practices in a UK university library. The aim of the research in question is to evaluate the effectiveness of current management practices

Sit Down Together at a Table of Brotherhood : Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

As we walked along the tidal basin back toward the Smithsonian Metro Station, I began to cry. Just a few tears, here and there, welled in my eyes. It wasn\u27t the monument or the quotes. It wasn\u27t the deep feelings I had looking at his face. It was overhearing a simple conversation. Two 30-something black women in a group of tourists were talking to one another about photos. You need to get your picture taken, girl, one asks the other. Why? she responds, I\u27ve got plenty of pictures. To prove you were here, the first woman responds. [excerpt