VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Learning Sustainability through Participation in the Ecovillage: A Study of Four Cases

Ecovillages provide ideal sites for the study of sustainability learning, as learning is integral to the envisioning, development, management, and everyday experience of these sustainable communities. Insight on the learning experiences of ecovillage residents and visitors can contribute to understanding the factors and conditions necessary for learning that fosters transitions to “one-planet living.” Three research questions guided a deep exploration of such learning experiences at four North America ecovillages: (1) Through the ecovillage experience what is learned about living sustainably; (2) How does learning occur through the ecovillage experience; and (3) What is the impact of the ecovillage experience/learning on the learner.A multiple case study approach, with document review, participant-observation, and in-depth interviews with key informants and participants engaged in sustainability-oriented learning opportunities, resulted in robust case data on each ecovillage as a sustainable community and learning environment, learning processes and outcomes, and the learner experience. Cross-case analysis enabled comparisons of the role of the environment and community interactions on learning outcomes and processes, conditions that facilitate or constrain learning, and the potential for application of learning beyond the context of the ecovillage. The study illuminates each ecovillage as a unique place for learning, but that similarly provides a sustainable living environment that is low-impact, connected, cooperative, and holistic. Each of these learning environments fosters awareness, perspective, knowledge, skills, and transformation in all three categories of ecovillage-based learning: eco-living, socio-relational learning, and shifts in worldview / values. Ten key findings highlight the importance of a supportive learning environment, the social and participatory nature of the learning, and the potentials and limitations of ecovillage-based sustainability learning. Comparing the empirical evidence to a theoretical understanding of learning sustainability as a transformative, social practice, this dissertation reveals how this learning happens “in real life,” through on-going processes of individual and collective learning, out of unsustainable living embedded in capitalism, consumerism, and individualism, and into sustainable living that embraces life-supporting ways of being and relating, resilience, sufficiency, and commoning, while engaged in dynamic, sustainability-oriented ecologies of living and practice.

Keywords: Community-based learning and practice
Ecology of learning and practice
Ecovillages
Sustainability learning
Sustainable living
Transformative social learning
Advisor: Vieta, Marcelo
Essays in the Economics of Crime

This thesis collects three papers on various ways to encourage inmates' social reintegration. The first chapter, Can Recidivism Be Prevented From Behind Bars? Evidence From a Behavioral Program, of which I am the sole author, studies the effects of a cognitive-behavioral intervention targeted at adult incarcerated offenders. Using varying propensities in the likelihood of being recommended for the program, I find large effects in the short term: within a year, the participants' risk of recidivism drops by 16 percentage points. I analyze heterogeneity with respect to the group composition, finding that first-time offenders improve the other participants' receptivity to the treatment. The second chapter, Prison Rehabilitation Programs and Recidivism: Evidence From Variations in Availability, is co-written with Guy Lacroix and Steeve Marchand. We explore the impacts of other programs, such as self-development workshops, addiction interventions and educational activities, on inmates' reintegration. Using an instrumental variable strategy, we show that participation in such programs diminishes reincarceration, while slightly increasing community sentences. This is consistent with participants committing less severe crimes in the future. In the third chapter, Can Parole Reduce Both Time Served and Crime, co-written with Steeve Marchand, we ask how can inmates be effectively released from prisons. In a context where parolees receive substantial rehabilitation assistance, we find that parole, consistent with papers in other contexts, causes an increase in reincarceration, but a decrease in reoffenses. To interpret these findings, we propose a novel framework for studying criminal justice policies that affect reentry by studying the total time spent in prison. We show that the increase in reincarceration is completely driven by technical violations, as parole successfully reduces total time spent in prison.

Keywords: Incarceration
Prison
Programs
Recidivism
Advisor: Oreopoulos, Philip
The Political Economy of Information Literacy: A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy: Policy Strategy Guidelines

This dissertation explores the relevance of information literacy to information policy. While information policy makers have been concerned about access to information through ICTs, there has not been a robust consideration for the role of information literacy education in information policy. With the emergence of the term in 1974, information literacy has been discursively linked to ICTs. This study uses a political economy of information lens to examine the discursive relationship between the increasing centrality of ICTs to the global economy and the development of information literacy policy and strategy guidelines at the supranational level. It examines how the production, distribution, and use of information is presented in UNESCO’s 2013 publication Media and Information Literacy: Policy & Strategy Guidelines. Critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics are employed to analyse how the words information and technology are constituted and reproduced in the document. The study illustrates that the growing global interest in developing both information literacy policy and programming relates to, is influenced by, and mirrors ideological narratives of technologies as forms of empowerment that ultimately embed information literacy in a capitalist mode of production. The study questions the suggestion that media and information literacy are solutions to reduce gender inequality, ensure democratic engagement, and empower people in social decision-making. The concluding chapter demonstrates a disjuncture between the problems and underlying issues the authors suggest media and information literacy education can solve for all people with the social, political, and economic realities in 10 sub-Saharan Africa countries. Autonomist Marxism is used in the concluding chapter to identify and amplify various sub-Saharan African efforts to resist and struggle against a Western imposed digital capitalism. This resistance is demonstrated in how leaders in these countries describe their information needs, limit the use of ICTs in education, and develop their intellectual property laws, particularly laws related to traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. The dissertation encourages librarians and information policy makers to consider and engage with the political economy of information literacy—a definition of which is proposed.

Keywords: autonomist Marxism
corpus-linguistics
critical discourse analysis
information literacy
political economy of information
UNESCO
Advisor: Caraway, Brett
Essays on Innovation, Intellectual property, its trade and enforcement

This thesis contains three papers about how imperfections in the intellectual property trade and enforcement may undermine incentives for innovation. In Chapter 1, I discuss Patent Assertion Entities (PAE) which are firms specialized in patent enforcement, and whose effect on innovation are theoretically ambiguous. I exploit a Supreme Court decision affecting PAEs incentives to file patent infringement lawsuits and cross-industry differences in exposure to empirically estimate the casual effect of PAE activity on innovative firms’ performance. I find that the Supreme Court’s ruling effectively discouraged PAEs’ litigation and I show that sectors exposed to PAEs experienced a remarkable increase in their successful patent applications in response to the reduction of PAEsactivity. Chapter 2 investigates the mechanism linking patent litigation and innovation. I develop a dynamic model of litigation here the defendant screens out heterogeneous plaintiffs through a series of out-of-court settlement offers. Employing granular information on patent infringement cases filed in the US from 2007-2021, I estimate my model. I find that patent litigation costs over $48.8 billion a year to listed defendants, $24.7 billion of which from settlement transfers. Furthermore, cases filed by PAEs have smaller stakes, lower quality, and are more likely to settle for smaller amounts. I consider two counterfactuals. First, I introduce a conditional fee-shifting rule, finding it effective in discouraging frivolous litigation, but likely to induce costly delays. Then, I turn to forum shopping, finding that restricting plaintiffs’ discretionality in the choice of venue would dramatically reduce the incentives to file low-quality cases. Finally, Chapter 3 investigates systematic acquisitions of startups, which are prevalent in digital markets. I introduce a model of competition where demand depends substantially on the quality ranking of incumbents, which can be improved by R&D or acquisitions. I find that the prospect of acquisitions incentivizes startups investments when the incumbents are engaged in a neck-and-neck technological race, however these incentives fade as the leader escapes competition. Hence, when network externalities are strong enough, a forward looking industry leader has significant incentives to lock the industry in a state of stagnation, where startups’ investments are low, and killer acquisitions are prevalent.

Keywords: Acquisitions
Industrial organization
Innovation
Litigation
Patent Trolls
Structural Estimation
Advisor: Mitchel, Matthew
Producing law and governance: Disciplinary practices in the Colleges for Doctors and Nurses

Professional self-regulating bodies define the boundaries of their occupational group membership, and the standards by which practitioners must abide to remain in that membership. This includes developing and employing discipline mechanisms through which professionals are surveilled and sanctioned. These mechanisms shape how we experience expert services, dictate which issues of professional conduct warrant correction and punishment, and wield the power to strip or curtail the livelihood of practitioners who have invested considerable time, money, and identity in obtaining the credentials and experience necessary to their trade. Despite the consequential scope there are, aside from lawyers, few studies of the formal discipline processes of self-regulating professions. Using a comprehensive data set of all discipline records from 1992 through 2017, as well as two years of in-person discipline tribunal observation, I trace the discipline processes of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) and the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) to examine how the boundaries, practices, and criteria of discipline compose the health professions and governance of doctors and nurses. I find, first, that the CPSO and CNO enact discipline in ways that serve the priority of maintaining self-regulation. Specifically, I show that patterns of allegations and punishments are imbued with practices that expand the scope of the Colleges' jurisdictions, enable discretion that obscures the severity of conduct, and solicit resources and compliance from their memberships. Further, I show that the Colleges prioritize tribunal performances of "governability" to prove their capacity to control their members. Second, I find that that the historical regulatory trajectories, regarding labour autonomy and status and professionalization, result in distinct experiences and outcomes of discipline for doctors and nurses that persist in the contemporary self-regulatory arrangement (despite ostensibly being standardized by the Regulated Health Professions Act).

Keywords: administrative justice
professions
regulation
socio-legal studies
Advisor: Maurutto, Paula
The Effects of Chemotherapy Treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma Cancer on the Singing Voice

Hodgkin Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system in which the disease spreads from one lymph node group to another. A combination chemotherapy treatment known as ABVD (Adriamycin, Bleomycin, Vinblastine, Dacarbazine) is commonly used to treat Hodgkin Lymphoma. Chemotherapy can have strong negative impacts on the body and specifically, the singing voice. Although there are multiple sources related to treatment protocols for laryngeal, thyroid, breast and other cancers, there are few studies associated with Hodgkin Lymphoma or how ABVD chemotherapy treatment might affect the singing voice. To date, there are limited resources that inform singers and voice teachers on coping strategies for maintaining vocal health during chemotherapy treatment. Further, there is limited information on how chemotherapy treatment and cancer-related medications might affect general health, breath management, vocal stamina, range, or ensuing repertoire choices. This study aims to investigate the effects of standard chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma cancer on the singing voice. The study addresses two research questions: 1) What are the effects of ABVD chemotherapy for Hodgkin Lymphoma cancer on the singing voice? and 2) Are the effects of chemotherapy on the singing voice heard by Expert Listeners in the vocal field? To answer the first research question, a Singer Questionnaire is used to interview cancer patients on the perceived effects of chemotherapy on their voices. I also reflect on my experience of chemotherapy on my singing voice. To answer the second research question, voice professors, pedagogues, and speech-language pathologists (Expert Listeners) listened to recordings that I made of my voice pre-chemotherapy, during, and post-chemotherapy, and they rated specific vocal characteristics using devised rating scales. I describe how ABVD chemotherapy and antiemetic medications affect the following parameters of the voice: range, resonance through vowels with dynamic contrasts, and staccato to legato articulation through vocal exercises and one song. With the data, written feedback, and my personal experience, this study will provide information to singers and singing teachers on the possible anticipated effects of ABVD chemotherapy on the singing voice and give insight into what vocal changes may occur during chemotherapy treatment and while taking antiemetic medication.

Keywords: chemotherapy
Hodgkin Lymphoma
music
pedagogy
singing
voice
Advisor: MacDonald, Lorna
On the Evaluation of a State Power aimed at Preventing Urban Sprawl in Peri-Urban Areas of Chilean Cities. A Justification from Property Law

In recent years, Chilean cities have experienced urban sprawl driven mainly by numerous residential projects located in rural areas close to the urban limits. This paper aims to evaluate one of the state powers that Chilean law offers to address this phenomenon. Since the exercise of such power implies a constraint on the property rights of the rural landowner, we will approach our study from Christopher Essert’s Property Law Theory complemented with a Kantian philosophical perspective. Under this conceptual framework, we will seek to justify the attribution of the Regional Agencies of the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism to prevent constructions and subdivisions in rural areas from generating new urban centers outside urban planning.

Keywords: Periurbanization
Property Law
Public Power
Sprawl
Urban Planning
Advisor: Essert, Christopher
The Role of BLK in the Pathogenesis of Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes

Kawasaki disease (KD), systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) share some clinical and pathobiological similarities. All three syndromes are accompanied by massive innate immune activation, similar pro-inflammatory cytokine signatures and successful clinical response to inhibition of shared cytokines. GWAS have identified that SNPs in BLK are linked to increased susceptibility in both KD and JIA. Common disease-associated SNPs are known to cause a 20-70% decrease in the expression of BLK, however, the association between the decrease in BLK and increased susceptibility in development KD is unknown. Using the LCWE induced coronary arteritis model of KD, we show that Blk-/- mice developed significantly larger coronary artery lesions compared to their WT counterparts evident by increased recruitment of inflammatory cells. Using bone marrow chimeras (BMCs), we demonstrate that the contribution of Blk in both stromal cells and immune cells is necessary for development of coronary inflammation in this disease model. Importantly, in KD patients, BLK gene expression is negatively correlated to circulating levels of IL-6, sIL-1R2, and sTNFR II. Furthermore, we found that the loss of Blk in mice has an important impact on monocytes and macrophages, evident by decreased percentage of CCR2+ monocytes within the bone marrow and macrophages within the peripheral blood at steady state. Blk-/- BMDMs have increased production and release of key pro-inflammatory cytokines including IL-6, TNFα, CXCL10, G-CSF, GM-CSF and CCL2 post-TLR2 stimulation. Furthermore, differential gene expression analysis demonstrated that the absence of Blk induced upregulation of ISGs in mice in accord with patient data showing that those with decreased BLK gene expression, have higher IFN responsive gene scores. Our results highlight the important role of BLK as a negative regulator of proinflammatory cytokine response in the pathogenesis of both mouse and human systemic inflammatory syndromes.

Keywords: BLK
Immunology
Kawasaki Disease
Macrophages
Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes
Advisor: Yeung, Rae S.M.
Trans Youth’s Family Lives Where Law Meets Science

This dissertation examines how Canadian courts deploy scientific authority as an epistemic and discursive resource to allocate power and shape the autonomy of trans youth within the family. To understand how courts use scientific authority, I draw on the conceptual tools of trans-affirmative scholarship—most notably the notions of cisnormativity and transnormativity—and on the sociological theory of medicalization. By carefully analyzing the case law on social gender affirmation and parental behaviour towards trans youth, I demonstrate that scientific authority acts as a double-edged sword in the legal lives of trans youths. On the one hand, scientific authority secures limited forms of social gender affirmation. On the other hand, judges’ deployment of scientific authority medicalizes transitude and expands the power of healthcare professional over trans youth’s lives. Having medicalized transitude, family law seeks less the self-determination of trans youth than their management. This dissertation contributes to the growing body of legal scholarship on trans youth by problematizing family law’s recourse to science and forging a path towards gender self-determination.

Keywords: cisnormativity
medicalization
trans youth
transgender
transnormativity
Advisor: Cossman, Brenda
Decisional Needs of Parents of Children with Non-Ambulant Cerebral Palsy Recommended for Hip Reconstructive Surgery

Abstract Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a paediatric motor disability characterized by motor symptoms and hip displacement. Children with non-ambulant CP typically experience co-occurring comorbidities and higher incidences of hip displacement, which is associated with decreased quality of life (QOL). Treatment of hip displacement has focused on elective hip surgery with little evidence for optimal timing. Parents may struggle with the decision on when to proceed with hip surgery and may benefit from supports such as a decision aid. Purpose: To identify potentially relevant decision-aids and understand the decisional needs of parents who will make or have made a hip surgery decision for their child with non-ambulant CP including the level and associated factors of decisional conflict and regret. Method: A scoping review of decision-aids was followed by two studies conducted within an existing longitudinal study, CP Hip Outcomes Project (CHOP), that examines how surgical and non-surgical hip interventions affect health-related QOL in children with non-ambulant CP. Study 1 was a mixed methods study focused on decisional conflict in parents presented with the option of hip surgery and included a cross-sectional survey analyzed descriptively and interviews guided by Interpretive Description. Study 2 was a cross-sectional survey study where multiple linear regression was used to examine the level and predictors of decisional regret in parents of children with CP who had hip surgery. Results: The scoping review yielded no decision aids related to hip surgery. Of the 11 parent participants in Study 1, 36.4% reported clinically elevated levels of decisional conflict. In Study 2, 13 of 45 parent participants (28.9%) reported moderate to severe decisional regret, which was significantly predicted by lower levels of shared decision-making. Parents in Study 1 identified four key factors which supported their decision-making: Necessity of Surgery; Focus on Future QOL; Processing Time; and The Importance of Information. Conclusion: To reduce decisional conflict and regret related to hip surgery in parents of children with non-ambulant CP support should focus on engaging in shared decision-making, optimizing time for deliberation, and providing certainty around the trajectory of QOL. A decision aid may be an important tool for providing support.

Keywords: Cerebral Palsy
Decision-Making
Nursing
Paediatrics
Advisor: Widger, Kimberley