Constructing desire(s) and consuming taste(s) among Egypt\u27s elite: an ethnongraphic study of The American University in Cairo\u27s new campus

This thesis demonstrates that The American University in Cairo (AUC) is a novel configuration of neo-liberal restructuring through which we can understand new trends in food consumption and new Egyptian understandings of cosmopolitanism. This study is based on anthropological fieldwork carried out predominantly on AUC\u27s campus as well as in greater Cairo where ethnographic data was collected through interviews and participant observation. Based on the research conducted, it was found that the Egyptian government and private corporations are modernizing Cairo\u27s cityscape in accordance with neoliberal and high modernist ideologies through promoting the construction of new social spaces which cater to emerging elite classes in Egypt. Next, the thesis argues that AUC\u27s administration and Delicious Inc., the company chosen to provide food services on campus, are reinforcing emerging food consumption habits and participation in a global lifestyle while perpetuating social inequalities between the different social groups that study and work on the new campus. Lastly, the study argues that the corporate project is largely successful, since corporations know (a) how to discipline people to consume certain products and (b) how to modify their offerings to facilitate the kinds of foods students consume

Diffusion Of Innovations And Public Communication Campaigns: An Examination Of The 4r Nutrient Stewardship Program

This project is an examination of how strategies for innovation in fertilizer application are communicated to agricultural communities. Specifically, this project examines the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Program‒a public communication campaign seeking to encourage the use of specific strategies, tools, and best practices in fertilizer application. The campaign is advanced by the Fertilizer Institute, an industry trade association, and targets local agricultural communities within the United States. To understand how this campaign functions to encourage adoption of innovative fertilizer application behaviors, this project draws on the principles of diffusion of innovations theory as well as established concepts within public relations, including issues management (Rogers, 2003)

Effects of Electronic Media Messages on the Perceived Self-Efficacy of Pedestrian Commuters Living in the Unincorporated Central Florida Community of Conway

Urban pedestrianism is increasingly perceived as a dangerous form of travel. While roadway design has been historically scaled to cars instead of people, planning professionals are now re-thinking their approach to make roads more inclusive for all travelers. Scholars, however, have learned harbored fear can trump behavior even under ideal travel conditions. Such fear can adversely impact perceived pedestrian self-efficacy, which is the self-generated internal assessment or belief in a traveler\u27s agentive abilities to navigate the travel environment. The challenge thus becomes twofold: improve the built environment while bolstering traveler confidence. The following study, therefore, employed a qualitative phenomenological research design to ascertain the concerns and perceptions of vulnerable travelers as it pertained to and was affected by travel-specific media. The study employed denizens selected from the Central Florida community of Conway, who were interviewed using a multi-method approach employing a semi-structured interview technique utilizing individual interviews and small focus group sessions. Using Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) as the theoretical framework, the researcher studied and documented the elements contributing to the perceptions of pedestrian travelers. The rationale for this approach is found in the dynamic relationships that exist between the objective travel environment, the perceived travel environment, and travel behavior - all representing the triad of cognition, the external environment, and social stimuli, which encompass Bandura\u27s Triadic Reciprocal Determinism (TRD). The four themes that emerged from the data analysis - communication, safety, cost, and happiness - characterize the experiences of the participants as they watched positively-themed media images modeling civil travel behavior. This research adds to existing literature on the magnitude such themes have on perception, to include latent perceptions harbored by pedestrian commuters concerning dangers - real or imagined - of traveling on local roadways

Leisure’s Race, Power and Place: The Recreation and Remembrance of African Americans in the California Dream

In this dissertation I examine how African Americans pioneered leisure in America’s “frontier of leisure” through their attempts to create communities and business projects, as Southern California’s black population grew during the nation’s Jim Crow era. With leisure’s reimagining into the center of the American Dream, black Californians worked to make leisure an open, inclusive, reality for all. They made California and American history by challenging racial hierarchies when they occupied recreational sites and public spaces at the core of the state’s formative, mid-twentieth century identity. Their struggle over these sites, helped define the practice and meaning of leisure, confronted the emergent power politics of leisure space, and set the stage for them as places for remembrance of invention and public contest. In reconsidering the formation of California’s leisure frontier, my research joins and complicates analysis by historians demonstrating how the struggle for leisure and public space also reshaped the long civil rights movement. Val Verde, Santa Monica's Bay Street Beach/Inkwell, Manhattan Beach's Bruce's Beach, Lake Elsinore and the Parkridge Country Club in addition to the Pacific Beach Club in Huntington Beach and other sites. I document the history and public memory of the sites, which includes a heritage conservation component

University of San Diego News Print Media Coverage 2004.12

Printed clippings housed in folders with a table of contents arranged by topic.https://digital.sandiego.edu/print-media/1023/thumbnail.jp