Consequences of Content Diversity for Online Public Spaces for Local Communities

While there is significant potential for social technologies to strengthen local communities, creating viable online spaces for them remains difficult. Maintaining a reliable content stream is challenging for local communities with their bounded emphases and limited population of potential contributors. Some systems focus on specific information types (e.g. restaurant, events). Others allow many different information types. This paper reports our findings about the consequences of content diversity from a study of neighborhood-oriented Facebook groups. The findings raise questions about the viability of designs for local online communities that focus narrowly on single topics, goals, and audiences

Democracy and Law: Situating Law within John Dewey’s Democratic Vision

In this paper I argue that John Dewey developed a philosophy of law that follows directly from his conception of democracy. Indeed, under Dewey’s theory an understanding of law can only follow from an accurate understanding of the social and political context within which it functions. This has important implications for the form law takes within democratic society. The paper will explore these implications through a comparison of Dewey’s claims with those of Richard Posner and Ronald Dworkin; two other theorists that intimately link law and democracy. After outlining their theories I will use the recent United States Supreme Court case, Citizens United, to discuss how practitioners of the three theories would decide a case that implicates both the rule of law and democratic procedures. In order to do this judges following each theory, “Dews, Dworks and Poses,” are imagined. Ultimately this paper will show that drastically different results to Citizens United would follow. The (tentative) conclusion of the paper is that Dewey’s conception of the relationship between democracy and law is a superior option to either that of Dworkin or Posner

The Sun Also Sets: British Authors and the Death of the Empire

This thesis traces the decline of the British Empire through the perspectives of prominent British authors, beginning with Rudyard Kipling\u27s Kim, which establishes the height of the British Empire. Thereafter, the Empire\u27s decline is incisively chronicled through the various catalysts that contributed to the overall demise of the Empire: E.M Forster illustrates the impact of the introduction of British women into India in A Passage to India; George Orwell demonstrates the significance of burgeoning native dissent and the empowerment of the compradore class in Burma in Burmese Days; Anthony Burgess offers an exhaustive fictional meditation of the zenith of native resistance in Malaysia in The Long Day Wanes; and finally, Paul Scott provides insight into the death of the Empire where the inversion of British and native authority in liberated India has occurred in Staying On

Ecological Balance: The Greater Goal of the Environmental Manager

Whether realized or potential there are a multitude of goals that the environmental manager may be working toward achieving. This thesis evaluated the hypothesis that regardless of the operational goal(s) that the environmental manager may be working toward, the ultimate goal is to achieve ecological balance. This research defines ecological balance, with specific regard to a company\u27s activities, as a stable and productive (rather than destructive) interrelationship of a company with its environment with regard to the contrasting, opposing, or interacting elements that are present as a result of the company\u27s actions. This research defined five operational goals of the environmental manager: regulatory compliance, helping the company to reduce environmental costs, communicating environmental performance, helping the company to reduce environmental liability, and improving stakeholder support. The research conducted was aimed at uncovering any correlations between these five operational goals of the environmental manager, and the hypothesized ultimate goal of the environmental manager. In addition to a review of the literature in-depth interviews were conducted with eight environmental managers, and group workshops were held at three separate International Environmental Management Leadership symposia (RIT, Budapest, and Dubrovnik respectively) in order to collect data on the environmental manager\u27s operational goals and the link between these goals and the existence of an ultimate or greater goal. The data collected show strong support that there in fact may be a greater goal for the environmental manager and additionally, whether known or unknown to environmental managers, this goal may already be unifying environmental managers

Facing the challenge: the impact of recession and unemployment on men’s health in Ireland.

The economic recession with its accompanying rise in unemployment rates is linked to extremely adverse effects for men’s mental health. This research report Facing the Challenge – The Impact of the Recession and Unemployment on Men’s Health in Ireland identifies a strong expectation of increased mental health problems for men given the very strong correlation between unemployment and male mental ill health. The report is the result of a research and consultation process carried out, in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, by Nexus Research Co-operative on behalf of IPH. 93% of frontline organisations, North and South, in contact with unemployed men linked health challenges to unemployment and recession and all organisations surveyed noted adverse health challenges for men they work with. In addition to health challenges being higher for unemployed men, they were also very high for men who saw themselves as being threatened with unemployment. The organisations surveyed and the men who were interviewed identified the challenges to health as: • High levels of stress or anxiety • Dependency on or over-use of alcohol/other drugs • Deterioration in physical health • Development of conflict in family or close personal relationships • Isolation (including sharing or communicating problems) • A reluctance to approach services or seek hel