Browsing by Subject "Geography"
Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Assembling place : Buenos Aires in cultural production (1920-1935)(2009-12) Poppe, Nicolas Matthew; Shumway, Nicolas; Bernucci, Leopoldo; Domínguez Ruvalcaba, Héctor; Pereiro Otero, José Manuel; Zonn, LeoIn works of cultural production, interpretations of the built, natural, and social environment engage a hierarchy of readings of place. Formed by a totality of interpretations—accepted/unaccepted, dominant/subordinate, normal/abnormal, and everything in between—this hierarchy of readings frames place as a social understanding. Interpretations of place, therefore, are social positionings: kinds of individual delineations of the meaning of place as a social understanding. Collectively, these social positionings compose and comprise our understanding of the meaning of a place. In this study, I examine the different ways in which the understanding of Buenos Aires as a place shapes and is shaped by the avant-garde urban criollismo of Jorge Luis Borges’ poetry of the 1920s, the five plays of Armando Discépolo’s dramatic genre of the grotesco criollo, Robert Arlt’s dark and portentous binary novel Los siete locos/ Los lanzallamas (1929/1931), and three early Argentine sound films [Tango! (Mogila Barth 1933), Los tres berretines (Equipo Lumiton 1933), and Riachuelo (Moglia Barth 1934)]. To get at the mechanisms that drive the interaction between these works of cultural production, which are social positionings, and the social understanding of Buenos Aires as a place, I draw from Manuel De Landa’s notions of assemblage theory and non-linear history. Wholes such as porteño society of the 1920s and 1930s are assemblages of an almost limitless number of parts whose functions within the greater entity are not always clear. Place, therefore, is an assemblage whose meaning is made up of indeterminable interpretations of space. It is also a non-linear social understanding in that its meaning is irreducible to its components (i.e. social positionings). The mutual interactions and feedback within assemblages such as Buenos Aires are indicative of how meaning is ever changing through processes of destratification, restratification, and stratification in its components, including Borges’ early poetry, Discépolo’s grotesco criollo, Arlt’s Los siete locos/ Los lanzallamas, and the films Tango!, Los tres berretines, and Riachuelo.Item Creating a Sense of Place: Using Multiple Literacies to Help Students Understand Geography(2010-12) Bustos, Charlene D.; Todd, Reese; Lesley, Mellinee; Johnson, Peggy; McMillan, SallyGlobalization is ever-apparent in our economy, our media, and our political stature, suggesting geography truly is a life-skill. In the current test-driven educational climate, certain subjects which are not under the high-stakes testing agenda get short-changed due to time-constraints and administrative pressures. One such subject is geography—a sub-topic under the umbrella of social studies. The expository text in the state-adopted textbooks provides some basic information of the topic being studied, but is frequently written in a dry, difficult, convoluted style, which often inhibits student engagement. Textbooks do not contain sufficient text or in-depth information on topics to offer experiences students need to develop critical and evaluative reading skills. This qualitative case study investigated the strategies employed by one fifth grade social studies classroom teacher as she used multiple literacies to teach social studies with a focus on geography. Data sources included detailed field notes of researcher’s observations, questionnaires and surveys (teacher and students), focus groups, transcripts of interviews with the teacher and participating students, teacher lesson plans, teacher planning resources, teacher and researcher reflective journals, and student work samples of classroom assignments. Findings revealed three themes for supporting geographic learning: storytelling as a vehicle for transmediation; writing and drawing as tools for representation; and authentic learning in a socially-safe environment. Findings also revealed that a classroom teacher can teach and meet the state and local standards while at the same time nurture an enthusiasm for learning. Vertical alignment of curriculum, teacher collaboration and student choices within parameters were key elements of the results. In general, conclusions indicate implications for the education community in the areas of classroom teacher practices, school administrator involvement and support, teacher educator institutions, curricula writers, and educational researchers.Item Destabilizing racialized geographies : the temporality of Blackness in Puerto Rico(2016-05) Machicote, Michaela Andrea; Arroyo, Jossianna; Leu, LorraineIn this thesis I analyze the way in which the de-colonial construction of Puerto Rico, and subsequent acquisition by the US as a territory, came to inform and create a whitened identity through the confinement, historicization of African influence, and erasure of Puerto Rico's Black population/heritage component via the narrative of mestizaje and mulataje. I look specifically at Loíza; Loíza is a city celebrated by Puerto Rico as a site of authentic Blackness and exemplifies efforts by the state to commodify and restrict the movements of Black Bodies. It is in these marginalized and racialized spaces that I explore the possibility of self-making and Black identity in Loíza, Puerto Rico.Item Entrepreneurial city : race, the environment, and growth in Austin, Texas, 1945-2011(2011-12) Busch, Andrew M., active 2011; Meikle, Jeffrey L., 1949-The primary concern of this dissertation is to give historical perspective to the idea of the creative city and the creative, or "new," "knowledge," or "postindustrial" economy that has produced this new form of urban space. Austin, Texas, one of the developed world's premiere creative cities, is used as a test case. Like many urban scholars, I focus on the manifestation of the city as a unique material expression of the capitalist order, and also on the city as a symbolic discourse that has helped to generate its material conditions, including consistent socioeconomic unevenness. In broad outline I am interested in the forces of capitalism that cause cities and regions to grow. I begin with a basic question asked by geographer Allen J. Scott: "How do competitive advantages (including capacities for creativity) of cities emerge, and how might they be enhanced by public action?" In the case of Austin, I argue that the city's competitive advantage was engendered by an ethos that valued free market competition and a focus on the dual economic engines of technology and leisure which city and university leaders identified during World War Two. Austin's economic ideology, which consciously eschewed fordist modes of production in favor of knowledge-based growth associated with the University of Texas, was poised to blossom when macroeconomic ruptures forced massive restructuring associated with globalization during and after the 1970s. The city's inherent advantage as a site of surplus knowledge production for Texas and the Southwest created a highly paid, educated labor market that business people and politicians viewed as the core element of a non-industrial city. Even before the 1970s Austin was well on its way to economic growth through technological accumulation and modes of production that took advantage of skilled labor markets. The creative city thus has a history that must be understood before policy is adopted based on non-transferable conditions of growth.Item Exploring the Character of Place in Lubbock through Interviews, Mental Maps, and the Place Histories of Local Musicians(2013-05) Grann, C; Elbow, Gary; Lee, Jeffrey; Tomlinson, Susan L.This research utilizes interviews with local musicians, mental maps collected from them, and the words of their music to construct the spatial character of Lubbock, Texas as expressed by its musicians. It answers three questions: Do the methods used answer the following two questions? How do musicians interact with this distinctive cultural and physical environment? To what extent is this an example of Edward Soja’s concept of Thirdspace? The trialectic framework provided by Soja’s theory of Thirdspace recognizes the spatiality of relationships not just between individuals and their landscapes, but individuals within their community. Further, it demonstrates the influence these relationships have on socially constructed space.Item The geography of inequality : a spatial assessment of the socio-economic dynamics of inequality in Memphis(2011-12) Jordan, Katasia Nicole; Sletto, Bjørn; Mueller, ElizabethLike many other cities Memphis has been hit hard by the economic downturn, but unlike other cities there are several other factors which cause the existing conditions in Memphis to be even more devastating. Memphis is one of the largest majority minority cities in the country with high rates of unemployment and, extremely high rates of crime. Foreclosures have ravaged the housing stock, graduation rates are far below the state goal, there are huge disparities in income and HIV/AIDS is on the rise at alarming rates. In Memphis, these factors combine to exacerbate the existing desert of opportunity that reproduces patterns of desolation, segregation, and social and economic disparities. This report aims to investigate the socio-economic dynamics of those areas most affected by inequality in an effort to understand the correlation between various factors, identify trends within those areas and assess how the interaction of various components could have potentially detrimental effects on the overall community.Item Here be dragons : imaginative geographies of online video games(2013-05) Schwartz, Leigh; Zonn, LeoAs articulated by J. K. Wright (1947), "terrae incognitae," or unknown lands, capture the imagination and inspire an excitement to explore and learn, but with a reduction in travel times and subsequent expansions of potential travel range, along with growth in media and the development of the video game industry, for many, terrae incognitae has shifted from places on Earth to the intangible environments of interactive media. While the virtual environments of video games can be fantastic, they are also designed and created by human beings to exist entirely in relation to the game player, who is an adventurer, explorer, settler, civilizer, or conqueror. Using qualitative research methods, this dissertation analyzes the geographies online video gaming in relation to an original framework based on the mutually constitutive concepts of representation, exploration, and geographic narrative, as well as the intersecting roles of myth, fantasy, and the virtual in shaping narratively structured imaginative environments. With specific chapters examining themes of interaction between human and software, gender and sexuality, exploration, narrative, cooperation, and creativity, this dissertation proposes that video games can be best understood as both collaborative representations and virtual environments.Item Short-term Study Abroad Programs: Where They Came From, How They Work, and Why They Often Don't(2013-12-04) Lemmons, KellyThis dissertation shows that the ideology of liberalism formed the basis of the Doctrine of Study Abroad (DSA). The DSA was formed in the 1940s and 1950s and teaches that any time spent studying abroad is beneficial and increases tolerance and world peace. The DSA was established by liberal policy makers within institutions of higher education as a method of liberal education to instill the principles of liberalism in the rising generation. The historically established DSA and its assumptions were tested against the contemporary short-term study abroad movement using three study abroad groups from Texas A&M University. Based on the results it is shown that short-term study abroad does not hold up to the assumptions of the DSA. It is therefore concluded that culture is not inherent in study abroad, that students only make shallow observations and interpretations of potentially meaningful cultural interactions when left to their own devices. It is suggested that ?interventions,? such as ?cultural coaching? and time set aside for focus and directed reflection be made within the process of student learning while abroad to enable students to have meaningful cultural interactions. This dissertation argues that suggestions proposed in this research and by the ?learning centered? movement will not be incorporated into study abroad programs due to the historical inertia of the DSA and its influence within institutions of higher education. The dissertation concludes that it is necessary to take a critical attitude toward the fundamental presuppositions of the educational paradigm one is investigating, that education research is important because education policy is prone to wishful thinking, and that making critical investigations are necessary to expose flaws in order to correct them.Item Web news in China : a new hierarchy of centrality? : an analysis of the linking pattern of China’s online news network(2010-05) Chen, Xin, 1977 Aug. 2-; Lasorsa, Dominic L.; Poindexter, Paula M.; Straubhaar, Joseph; Chyi, Hsiang I.; Alves, Rosental C.The present study explored three questions: What is the linking pattern of China’s cyber news space? What are the factors that contribute to this pattern? And what is the distribution of links in real geographic places? The concept of the cyber news space refers to the globally connected networks of online news production. It is a tool to understand the spatial distribution of online news production and the map of the world as presented in the media. This study is a content analysis of news Webpages from China’s four leading commercial portals. It sampled about 900 news Webpages during the spring of 2008. China’s commercial portals are news aggregators and distributors. They are the gatekeepers of China’s cyber news space. On their news Webpages there is one hyperlink that leads to the original publisher of the story. These links provide a clue of how news organizations were connected online. The content analysis coded these links and other information such as media type, production sites and locations of stories. This study found that the there was a pattern of concentration in terms of the distribution of links among online news organizations. A multiple regression model was used to test the factors that may contribute to this pattern. It was found that geographic location of news organizations was such a factor. The more central a news organization was located, the more links it attracted from the portals. In addition, this study also analyzed the distribution of links among difference provinces (or province level administrations) of China. It found that Beijing, Chongqing, Guangdong, Jilin, and Shanghai are hubs, while more remote provinces, such as Xinjiang, and Guizhou were largely bypassed.