Browsing by Subject "culture"
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Item A comparison of diagnostic techniques for detecting salmonella spp in equine fecal samples using culture methods, gel-based pcr, and real-time pcr assays(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Smith, Shelle AnnSalmonellae are enteric bacteria infecting animals and humans. Large animal clinics and Veterinary Teaching Hospitals are greatly affected by Salmonella outbreaks and nosocomial infection. The risk of environmental contamination and spread of infection is increased when animals are confined in close contact with each other and subjected to increased stress factors. This study was designed to compare double-enrichment culture techniques with Gel-based and Real-time PCR assays in the quest for improved diagnostic methods for detecting Salmonella in equine fecal samples. 120 fecal samples submitted to the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory of the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at Texas A&M University (CML, VMTH, TAMU) were tested for Salmonella using all three techniques. Double-enrichment bacterial culture detected 29 positive results (24%), Real-time PCR detected 33 positive results (27.5%), and Gel-based PCR detected 73 positives results (60.8%). While culture and real-time PCR methods had similar results, the gel-based PCR method detected many more positive results, indicating probable amplicon contamination. Real-time PCR can be completed as soon as the day after submission while culture techniques may take 2 to 5 days to complete. However, viable bacterial cells are needed for antimicrobial susceptibility testing and serotyping: both important for epidemiological studies. Therefore, double-enrichment bacterial culture performed concurrently with real-time PCR methods could be efficient in clinical settings where both accurate and expedient results are required.Item Adult attachment and self-construal: a cross-cultural analysis(2009-06-02) Friedman, Michael DavidA cross-cultural survey study examined the impact of adult attachment and self-construal on relationship and mental health outcomes in Hong Kong, Mexico, and the United States. Approximately 200 university students (each currently involved in a romantic relationship) from each culture were recruited to participate. Participants completed self-report measures of adult attachment style, self-construal and several questionnaires about their romantic relationships. The dependent measures examined were relationship satisfaction, commitment, and perceived social support, along with the mental health variable of depressive symptoms. Both universal and culture-specific patterns of adult attachment were observed. Attachment insecurity was negatively related to relationship and mental health outcomes in all cultures under study, providing support for a universal interpretation of attachment theory. However, the negative effects of avoidant attachment on relationship outcomes were found to be stronger in Hong Kong and in Mexico. These findings provide support for a degree of cultural specificity to attachment processes. Additional findings centered on self-construal, and showed that independent self-construal was particularly detrimental to relationship outcomes in Hong Kong. Implications for attachment theory and self-construal research are discussed.Item Any Base USA: The Significance of Military Culture in the Construction of Identity(2014-05-02) Girard, Jessica NicholeA retrospective qualitative study was designed to gain insight into the degree to which an emotional attachment to place assisted in the construction of the personal identities among military dependent children. The premise was that military children developed an increasing identification with the military, military bases and the community the base is located within, as a core component of their identity. Two different reminiscence qualitative method collection strategies were utilized to identify key components of identity ? interviews and favorite place analysis. A three article format was followed and focuses on the development of identity and its relationship to place attachment. A literature review of military dependent youth and identity development with suggested theoretical and methodological implications is provided. Interviews were conducted constructed from a social identity theory framework and applied to the development of a personal identity for military dependents. Results from the study indicated that military dependent identity has many facets and were they illustrated in four themes: being a military dependent, accepting military culture, experiencing cultural differences, and the reinforcement of military social rules. The possibility of military dependents developing place attachments and their identity development due to the study participant?s experiences with the cycle of parental deployment and familial mobility (domestic and abroad) was also examined. This study also highlighted some of the areas in literature that was lacking for military dependents. It provided a qualitative study examining personal identity development in a rather understudied population. There are 15 million former military dependents that live in the United States. There is a likely possibility that the majority of them have been exposed to parental deployment and/or mobility. More understanding is needed to grasp what effect deployment had during their childhood phase and whether or not there is lasting effects throughout adulthood.Item Cultural differences and perceptions of autism among school psychologists(2009-05-15) Tasby, Calissia ThomasBehavioral manifestations of autism are said to be exhibited across cultures and socioeconomic status with little variation. The majority of the epidemiology studies have not studied race, and have typically used Western definitions to conceptualize autism when studying other non-Western cultures. Autism does not have a known etiology that is biologically based so the diagnostic criteria and procedure for diagnosing autism is based upon subjective judgment. In the medical and educational community, autism remains a disorder that is not diagnosed evenly across cultures. Discrepancies exist among ethnicity groups in the diagnostic rate of autism in the health community and in the identification of autism among diverse cultural groups in special education. Understanding the factors that may be influential in impeding early identification and diagnosis of autism among certain cultures is important. Currently, factors that influence interpretation of autistic symptoms by school psychologists are not overall clear. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that may influence the diagnostic decisions of school psychologists as they relate to identifying behavioral symptoms associated with autism in African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic boys of varying SES. Three hundred and eight school psychologists sampled from the general membership of the National Association of School Psychologists were utilized in the present study. The results are promising in that school psychologists appear able to accurately identify symptoms associated with autism regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic status. School psychologists are also able to recognize when patterns of behavior diverge from normal development; however, school psychologists were more likely to indicate the child?s problem was due to Child Abuse for a child from a low SES versus a high SES regardless of ethnicity. Furthermore, school psychologists were more likely to indicate the child?s presenting problem was due to Child Abuse for the Caucasian child and not likely for the Hispanic child. Likewise, the child?s socioeconomic status influenced school psychologists to more likely indicate the child?s presenting problems was due to Cultural Deprivation for the child from the low SES and least likely for the child from the high SES. SES by ethnicity interactions were not evident for any of the analysis. Thus, results indicate school psychologists may be influenced by factors beyond the behavioral presentation of autism. Consequently, this may explain the variation currently seen in the identification and diagnoses of autism by ethnicity. Explanation of results, implications for practice, and potential areas of future research are also discussed.Item Development and Characterization of an In-Vitro Tissue Culture Model for Equine Laminitis(2014-07-25) Johnson, MargareteEquine laminitis, a disease affecting the laminar tissue in the hoof, is a common and debilitating disease in horses with a significant impact on the equine industry. Currently nearly all laminitis studies are conducted in live horses, a process that is both expensive and limited in biological replicates. Thus the development of an in vitro model for the disease is an important step in advancing laminitis research. Recent evidence suggests that apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) may be involved in the chronic form of the disease but little is known about this protein in the horse, and its effects on the laminar tissue are unknown. The primary goal of this project was to produce a model for inducing inflammation in slices of laminar tissue in culture. We tested two inflammatory agents: interleukin 6 (IL-6) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and measured their effect on the expression of inflammatory cytokines and seven laminitis-associated genes found to be differentially expressed in horses with induced laminitis. The second goal of the project was to test the effects of apoA-IV on laminar tissue inflammation in our model in the presence and absence of the two inflammatory agents, and to further characterize the protein in horses by determining its sequence and expression pattern in this animal. The laminar tissue remained alive and contamination-free over the course of the experiment, showing the viability of our culture. IL-6 did not induce changes in gene expression consistent with those found in horses with laminitis. However, the addition of LPS led to changes in cytokine expression mimicking those seen in horses with induced laminitis and increased two of the seven laminitis-associated genes. The addition of apoA-IV had no effect on laminar tissue inflammation by itself or in the presence of IL-6 or LPS. We found the highest expression of APOA4 in the liver followed by the small intestine, a pattern unique in its high hepatic contribution. A better understanding of how apoA-IV is produced and functions in horses may shed light on its role in laminitis. In the future our tissue culture model could be used in testing agents suspected of causing laminar tissue inflammation and eventually in the development and testing of potential treatments for laminitis.Item Development of a culturally appropriate process for assessing distance learning readiness in Latin America(2009-05-15) Villalobos Pe?alosa, PatriciaThe purpose of this study was to develop an instrument for assessing distance learning readiness of institutions in Latin America for international projects of food and agriculture with higher education institutions in the U.S. The data collection followed two approaches: a quantitative, which was processed statistically, including mean (percentage), mode and cross-tabulation, and a qualitative, through semi-structured interviews. The population of this research was animal biotechnology institutions in Latin American countries, Spanish speaking, partners with the major funding organizations in the U.S., with Web pages on the Internet. Population included 17 countries with N=150, a random sample of n=83 for the quantitative analysis and n=20 for the qualitative approach. The instrument was developed by the researcher. Items were based on readiness surveys used widely in the U.S., and founded in two culture theories: Bank?s (2001) cultural elements and Hosfstede?s (1984) cultural dimensions. Using Bank?s theory it was concluded that English proficiency was considered an essential tool for research. Interviews exposed that researchers were aware of nonverbal communication differences between Latinos and Americans. Cultural cognitiveness showed to be exposed when researchers were confronted with another culture. The perspective of distance education showed to be considered different from face to face education. There was an appropriate perception of the need, ownership, and use of computer technologies and Internet accessibility with fast connections. Researchers perceived computer technology equipment as a measurement of the quality of their institution. Using Hofstede?s (1984) dimensions it was concluded that Latin American countries were considered to have high power distance on four of the six items assessed; had strong uncertainty avoidance with four of the six items assessed, where a collectivist society, with five items out of six. Interviews determined that a masculine dimension was predominant in the study. Assessment of technology involved: Internet, technological resources, computer proficiency, distance education and instructional design experience. Results of this assessment showed that technology must be measured through a cultural perspective to achieve accurate responses because people express and understand through their mental constructs which are tainted with their cultural experiences and their perception of life, work, academics, and society.Item Discourse indicators of culture in online courses(2009-05-15) Gazi, YakutThis study examined the electronic discourse in an online course to investigate if culture exhibited itself in the communication of students. The researcher also sought to find out if a third culture was built in this course and if so, what design features facilitated the emergence of this third culture. A graduate-level online course at a Southwestern university was examined in a case study. Computer-mediated discourse analysis was used as the method. The students were administered an online demographic survey to collect information about their background. The online communication of the students, the instructor, and the assistants were analyzed. A semantic analysis matrix was developed based on the pilot study that was used to investigate the content of the messages posted in the discussion conferences. The results showed that culture did not exhibit itself in the discourse. A third culture, however, was formed by the students. The discourse characteristics of this third culture are producing timely and intelligent comments and equal levels of participation; use of materials from both cultures; constant interaction among participants; creating a side conversation between two different cultures; a common discourse accent; words, expressions, acronyms created in the course; curiosity, sensitivity, openness towards otherness, critical engagement with others; and ability to understand and tolerate different perspectives and cultural phenomena. The design features of the particular online course were discussed. The design features that may have helped create a third culture among students are face-to-face meetings and introductions conference in the course; instructor?s teaching strategies such as creating expectations for participation and her scaffolding and mentoring throughout the course; and features of the course communication platform such as the ability to embellish the thoughts through the use of fonts, colors, and quoting.Item Heavy Metal Humor: Reconsidering Carnival in Heavy Metal Culture(2013-06-05) Powell, Gary BottsWhat can 15th century France and heavy metal have in common? In Heavy Metal Humor, Gary Powell explores metal culture through the work of Mikael Bakhtin?s ?carnivalesque theory.? Describing the practice of inverting commonly understood notions of respectability and the increasing attempts to normalize them, Bakhtin argues that carnivals in Francois Rabelais? work illustrate a sacrilegious uprising by the peasant classes during carnival days against dogmatic aristocrats. Powell asserts that Rabelais? work describes cartoonish carnivals that continue in as exaggerated themes and tropes into other literary styles, such as comedy and horror that ultimately inform modern-day metal culture. To highlight the similarities of Bakhtin?s interpretation of Rabelais? work to modern-day metal culture, Powell draw parallels to between Bakhtin?s carnivalesque theory and metal culture with two different, exemplary ?humorous? metal performances, GWAR and Anal Cunt. Powell chooses ?humorous? metal groups because, to achieve their humor, they exaggerate tropes, and behaviors in metal culture. To this end, Powell explores metal culture through GWAR, a costumed band who sprays their audience with fake body fluids as they decapitate effigies. He points out examples of Rabelais? work which Bakhtin uses to describe carnivalesque tropes, and threads them to modern-day metal culture. Powell then indicates how carnivalesque performances amplify with Anal Cunt, a ?satirical? hateful, grindcore group. In the band?s performance which is both serious and humorous at once, Anal Cunt draws on several carnivalesque behaviors. To dissect this band?s performance, Powell augments Bakhtin?s carnivalesque theory with Richard Schechner?s theory of ?dark play? and Johan Huizinga?s ?play communities? to more describe and illustrate why some aspects of modern-day metal culture do not match Bakhtin?s theory based on medieval French literature. However, carnivalesque humor becomes ambiguous and social and political problems arise as it escalates. As disrespectability is promoted, social and political tensions surface. Countering Bakhtin?s utopian notion of carnivalesque uprising, Powell highlights how socio-political turmoil presents itself in carnivalesque performance by referring to examples of confusion and concern regarding racism and sexism, something left unexplored in Bakhtin?s work. Powell suggests expanding and modernizing Bakhtin?s carnival could open pathways toward solutions to carnival culture?s socio-political ills.Item Lau vs. Nichols 40 Years Later - Where Are We Now? A Study of Philosophical, Political, Cultural and Societal Issues Impacting Bilingual Education in the Early 21st Century(2011-02-22) Everling, Kathleen M.Bilingual education in the United States has been at the forefront of educational politics and debates since its inception. Arguments over language of instruction and program goals overshadow the deeper philosophical, political and societal issues rooted at the heart of bilingual education. This purpose of this study was to present a critical view of the issues impacting a small Central Texas school district?s early childhood bilingual program. Over the course of a year, I conducted a focus group interview followed by individual interviews with two preschool and two kindergarten Spanish bilingual teachers. I collected field notes and observational data on site for two years. Based in grounded theory, the data dictated the focus of the study. The open coding process used to analyze the focus group interview data uncovered the foundational themes for this study. The individual interviews were analyzed using open coding, confirming and elaborating on the themes. Field notes and observational data were used to triangulate the data. The themes were: philosophical and theoretical foundations, politics and policies, and social and cultural issues. Through the lens of the data, I examined the impact of No Child Left Behind, Reading First, and the corresponding Texas regulations. The participants found the testing requirements to be distracting from their teaching. They believed the requirements, particularly for assessment, to be inappropriate and of limited use in their classrooms. From a sociocultural perspective, I discovered discrimination and segregation, but the teacher participants never opened a dialogue about these practices with each other or their administrator. The bilingual classes were isolated, given inferior and inappropriate materials. The school's culture was one of assimilation, not diversity. Finally, I examined the underlying issues that impacted this bilingual education program and the implications for further research. There is a need to conduct further research into bilingual teacher education, including alternative certification and continuing education, the hidden curriculum and bilingual education and empowerment of bilingual teachers through dialogue. Bilingual education holds the promise of closing the gaps in education, but further research must include the critical areas of influence including philosophy, politics and sociocultural issues, not just program goals and language acquisition.Item Long-Term Marriages Among Nigerian Immigrants: A Qualitative InquiryNwachukwu, Thomas KizitoItem Managing the Yellowstone River System with Place-based Cultural Data(2011-10-21) Hall, Damon M.This project aims to create new research tools within the human dimensions (HD) of the natural resources field to improve environmental policy decision making. It addresses problems that arise from the recent trend towards decentralized natural resource management (NRM) and planning (e.g., community-based planning, watershed-based and collaborative management, others). By examining one decentralized riparian management planning effort along the Yellowstone River (Montana), this study finds that decentralization forces new needs such as localized information requirements and a better understanding of the rationales behind local interests. To meet these new scale demands and to ensure that policy best fits the social and biophysical settings, this project argues that local cultural knowledge can serve as an organizing framework for delivering the kinds of understanding needed for decentralized planning. This was tested by interviewing 313 riverfront landowners, recreationalists, and civic managers to understand how residents conceptualize the river?s natural processes, its management, and their desires for the future of the river. Analysis of the transcribed in-depth interview texts?the Yellowstone River Cultural Inventory (YRCI)?found that: (1) altering decision venues places more significance upon interpersonal working relationships between managers and citizens; (2) while local expertise can provide higher quality information to managers, local decision making cultures still retain power dynamics that can inhibit or advance conservation policies; (3) how natural resource places are symbolically communicated has a material impact upon resource uses; (4) how residents conceptualize the ownership of land is complicated along a dynamic river; and (5) this dynamism impacts planning efforts. In sum, this project argues that for social research to provide the data and analysis appropriate, a modification in scale and a commensurate shift in the lenses used for social inquiry is necessary. An in-depth understanding of local cultures?like the YRCI?enables agencies to best manage in decentralized scales of planning by calling attention to site-specific nuances such as power dynamics and place representation which are often missed in traditional large-scale HD methods and lenses. This research also functions as a preemptive way to engage the public in environmental planning helping decision makers? best fit policy to particular socio-cultural and ecological settings.Item Pre-service Teachers' Knowledge of Algebra Teaching for Equity(2013-12-09) Anderson, LatoyaThis study examined validity and reliability of an instrument used to measure the cultural awareness beliefs and problem-solving strategies of pre-service mathematics teachers created by the Knowledge for Teaching Algebra Equitably (KATE) project team at Texas A&M University. The dissertation was comprised of three journal articles. The first article synthesized literature pertaining to teacher?s cultural awareness knowledge and beliefs for teaching mathematics equitably in the middle grades. A search of the Texas A&M Library database was used to find articles that matched criteria related to instruments that determined information from pre-service mathematics teachers pertaining to cultural awareness knowledge and beliefs, equity, and mathematical content knowledge. An exhaustive meta-synthesis showed that there were no current instruments that matched all of the above criteria. The second article estimated the reliability and validity of the KATE instrument. Internal consistency reliability for the equity items was estimated to be .77 using Cronbach?s alpha. An alpha value of .6 was used as the baseline for determining suitable internal consistency reliability. Content validity was estimated for the entire KATE instrument by discussing the appropriateness and wording of the items from the Knowledge for Teaching Algebra Equitably (KATE) instrument with a panel of experts reading responses PTs gave on the KATE instrument, and assessing feedback from PTs enrolled in the course. This resulted in the insertion, deletion, and rewording of items. Construct validity was estimated by conducting an exploratory factor analysis of the equity items which estimated six factors. Lastly, the third article revealed preliminary results from pre-service teachers who participated in the Knowledge for Teaching Algebra Equitably Project at Texas A&M University in the fall of 2011 and fall of 2012. An analysis of the test scores from the pre-service teachers (PTs) from the pre-test to the post-test was done comparing scores from PTs in both semesters. The two groups were not statistically different. The effects of the course on (a) beliefs about equity, (b) problem solving, and (c) teaching problem solving was reported in confidence intervals that showed the equity items were not statistically significantly different, but the problem solving and teaching problem solving items were. A MANOVA was used to determine the difference in teaching problem solving scores was due to semester, race, and class by certification. The adjusted R^(2) values were reported to provide the correlation between the independent and dependent variables.Item Promoting Blood Donation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Role of Culture and Interventions(2013-12-13) Appiah, BernardInadequate blood donation is a major public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study examines the influence of culture and communication on blood donation in Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular focus on Ghana. The literature was systematically reviewed for aspects of culture and communication that influence blood donation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Also, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with physicians, media professionals, and voluntary blood donors in Ghana were used, both to identify barriers to blood donation and to obtain some recommendations for designing interventions to boost blood donation. Literature searching yielded 3020 publications, including conference abstracts. Of them, 41 publications?representing 36 studies?met inclusion criteria and were critically appraised. Aspects of culture that were identified as influencing blood donation in Sub-Saharan Africa included blood donation-related misconceptions, religious beliefs, and influence of relatives. Communication channels that were identified for increasing blood donation included mass media, mobile phones, and face-to-face contacts. In Ghana, beliefs and attitudes of the public that were identified as barriers to blood donations included misconceptions about blood donation, such as the erroneous belief that hospital authorities were using donated blood for rituals. Some respondents perceived that health professionals have not educated the public and journalists enough about blood donation. Another perceived barrier to blood donation was negative media reporting, such as indicating the percentage of blood donors found to be HIV-positive. The lack of mutual trust between health professionals and journalists also served as a barrier to using the mass media to promote blood donation. To promote blood donation, respondents in Ghana suggested several strategies, including broadcasting radio or television dramas about blood donation in English and local languages to engage both literate and illiterate populations; providing media recognition of donors who achieve blood donation-related milestones; having blood donors serve as ambassadors of blood donor drives; using social media to engage prospective younger blood donors; and using mobile telephone caller tunes or ringback tones to publicize blood donation. Thus, many culture- and communication-related factors influence blood donation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Those designing interventions to increase blood donation in this region should consider these factors, including misconceptions, religious beliefs, family influences, and language.Item Ribbon reign: 20 years of postmodern influence on a cultural phenomenon(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Spillane, Debra L.Diverse sociology theoretical constructs serve as the lens to examine the evolution of two popular symbols of US culture in the last 20 years: yellow ribbons displayed as decoration and awareness ribbons worn as personal accoutrement. This research was motivated by society's weakened state of "collective consciousness," whereby shared beliefs and values have declined and some have completely disappeared, and sought to determine whether symbols will survive in a culture without commitment to the social. Invoking Christopher Lasch's Culture of Narcissism, Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, David Riesman's theory of other-directedness from The Lonely Crowd, and Stjepan Mestrovic's Postemotional Society, this work examined the significance of public displays of ribbons (whether on animate or inanimate objects), theorized why certain diseases and social causes "earned" their awareness ribbons and others did not, and demonstrated that these ribbons have served as multivalent symbols to accommodate our culture in a postmodern world. These symbols have not maintained their unifying function and now serve at the whim of the individual participant or observer. Ultimately, the act of wearing or displaying awareness ribbons and yellow ribbons, like so many other symbols, has been severed from the idea and is a freefloating, simulacrum to be used in whatever mode our postmodern, postemotional society requires.Item The incorporation of World War II experiences in the life stories of alumni from the Vrije University in Amsterdam: an exploration at the crossroads between narrative, identity, and culture(2009-05-15) Visser, Roemer Maarten SanderFor this study, twelve life stories of alumni from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, who were enrolled during the Nazi Occupation between 1940 and 1945, were collected and analyzed. Besides exploring the extent to which the interviews were co-constructed jointly by the interviewer and interviewees, this study addresses three questions. First, it acknowledges methodological concerns associated with an overabundance of narrative data, and suggests a new method for arriving at a core narrative based on the distribution of time. This core narrative can then be analyzed further. Second, it is suggested that early memories serve as identity claims; because of their congruency with the remainder of the story, they appear to foreshadow what is to come. As a result, it is argued that childhood memories merit special attention in the analysis of narratives. Third, and finally, the constraints on narratives imposed by cultural conventions, or master narratives, are explored. Narrators use a variety of strategies in order to satisfy sometimes competing demands on their narratives. It is argued that culture makes its influence felt in ways that are not always obvious, particularly if the interviewee and interviewer share the same culture.Item The mediating effect of perceived organizational support on espoused safety attitudes: a field study(2011-02-17) Apodaca, Steven P.; Apodaca, Steven P.; Schell, Kraig L.; Hack, Tay; Davidson, William; Walker, Molly; Gee, Donna; Angelo State University. Department of Psychology, Sociology and Social Work.This research examined a proposed mediated model of safety attitudes and perceived organizational support in affecting safety outcomes in a population of nurses within a West Texas community hospital. Participants completed questionnaires pertaining to the aforementioned measures, and supervisors were solicited to complete a questionnaire pertaining to safety behaviors of subordinates within their respective departments. Data analysis revealed significant correlations among safety attitudes and perceived organizational support but failed to show support for a mediated model. Explanations as to why hypotheses were not supported are discussed, as well as avenues for future research.Item Towards a culture of sustainable preservation : sustainable design, historic preservation, and cultures of building(2009-05) Kleon, Meghan F.; Moore, Steven A., 1945-; Holleran, MichaelThe growing sustainable design movement in the United States focuses almost exclusively on the construction of new buildings, largely ignoring the existing and historic building stock that constitutes the majority of our built environment. Historic preservation, a discipline that deals exclusively with the existing building stock and puts an emphasis on long-term management of the built environment, would seem to be an ideal partner for the sustainable design movement as it begins to address existing buildings. The practice and goals of the two fields, however, are currently perceived to be in opposition to one another by the building community and the general public. This thesis argues that sustainable design and historic preservation represent two unique and distinctive building subcultures – distinct subsets of the larger building culture of which they are a part, and that the opposition between the two disciplines stems from not only their historically distinct discourses, but also from cultural and ideological conflicts between the two fields. Different languages, code typologies, cultural identities, and conflicting attitudes toward the use of technology in contemporary building practice all stand as barriers to a significant partnership between the two disciplines. This thesis explores the cultures of sustainable design and of historic preservation in order to provide a view for practitioners in both fields into the culture of the other, and ultimately proposes a path towards developing shared cultural understandings by placing a new emphasis in both fields on social sustainability.