Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2010, Arts Policy and Administration

As the sun sets on the industrial age, cities all over the world are preparing themselves to be competitive in the new information age. In the United States of America, cities are eager to differentiate themselves from each other in order to attract residents, businesses and tourists. The city is expected to offer some cohesive vision of this atmosphere in order to make it attractive to tourists, residents and businesses. An increasingly popular way for a city to stay relevant is to develop a cultural plan to foster a vibrant scene. A cultural plan provides an overview of the cultural amenities that a city currently possesses, assesses the needs of the city and the community, and produces a roadmap for future cultural developments for the purpose of enriching the lives of its citizens, making the city stand out to tourists and businesses, and encouraging economic development. Cultural plans are often undertaken with different motives, varying levels of preparation and understanding, uneven implementation, and rare evaluation. There is a need for concise and compelling research on the subject that policy makers can access and utilize in their cultural planning processes. The absence of evaluative criteria and research makes it difficult to know the best way to undertake new cultural plans. Evaluation of cultural plans allows cities to determine if their plan was successful and if public resources were properly utilized. Using research done on by The Urban Institute on Cultural Vitality Indicators and the evaluation of the European Capitals of Culture program forms an analytical framework by which to evaluate cultural plans. There are many good reasons for studying the cultural planning process in the US. Strong cultural plans will benefit city economies. Cultural plans can have a positive effect on the community and on urban regeneration. It is a responsible use of public money to make cultural plans realistic and executable. Better understanding of the cultural plan (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wayne Lawson (Advisor); Margaret Wyszomirski (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, Arts Policy and Administration

The cultural economy of American cities emerged as an important topic in cultural policy at the end of the 21st Century, when cultural policy makers started to highlight the multifaceted dynamics of cultural activities and city officials started to pay attention to their great potentials for the growth and well-being of the city. This moved cultural policy from the national to the local level and two main problems emerged. First, it is not always agreed what constitutes cultural economy; the academic literature and reports are not consistent in the language, and their object of analysis is defined by different boundaries. Second, the connections between the cultural economy and urban policymaking are unclear due to the lack of standardized structure in city bureaucracy and the intricacy of metropolitan governance, in particular, for what concern suburbanization. The purpose of my dissertation is to inform decision making for cultural planning by exploring the connections between cultural economy and urban policymaking. To this end, I develop a research strategy that entails two steps: (1) build a definition of cultural economy that can be operationalized, and (2) find an analytical approach that can link the data about the cultural economy to the complexity of urban policymaking. First, I review a broad range of literature, categorizing the different approaches and identifying three main domains: industries, institutions, and districts. They are characterized by three main differences - foundational concepts, economic functions, and interaction mechanisms - but merge in an inclusive definition of the cultural economy. Second, I use a geographical information system (GIS) as method of analysis. GIS is a powerful analytical tool; creating maps, it grasps the administrative, social, and economic aspects intertwined with culture. My empirical analysis focuses on Columbus, Ohio, USA, and its suburbs. I locate their cultural economy identifying its breadth and articu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Wyszomirski J. (Advisor); Trevor Brown L. (Committee Member); Wayne Lawson P. (Committee Member); Edward Malecki J. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Public Administration; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

From 2010 to 2019, China's film industry experienced the fastest growth in history. Along with its rapid growth, numerous opportunities and problems emerged in the industry, which are addressed by a series of film policies issued by China's government. This dissertation aims to study the dynamic relationship between the development of China's film industry and the evolution of China's film policy. By bridging the theory of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory and the concepts of competitiveness and cultural entrepreneurship, this dissertation focuses on exploring the policy process and policy system of the film in China, which are demonstrated by evidence of policy changes and industry changes. Supported by secondary data collected from multiple sources and first-hand data collected through semi-structured interviews with twenty film professionals, this case study enables an in-depth analysis of China's film policy process at the national level, the competition and mutual interests between large film enterprises and small and medium-sized film enterprises at the industry level, and the firm strategy and feedback at the organizational level. The findings from the multi-level analysis indicate a dynamic relationship between the policy change and industry change of film in China, where the subsystem plays an intermediate role bridging the government and the film industry. Large film enterprises and small and medium-sized film enterprises share mutual interests, while they participate in the film policy process to different degrees. China's film policy enables film enterprises to perform entrepreneurial practices for innovation and financial sustainability, and its focus shifts in different conditions. Policy implications for film professionals and film policymakers are discussed, and recommendations are proposed for the sustainable growth of China's film industry.

Committee: Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller (Committee Chair); Marjorie Chan (Committee Member); Margaret Wyszomirski (Committee Member); Rachel Skaggs (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Arts Management; Economics; Entrepreneurship; Film Studies; History; Public Administration; Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

This research is a comparative case study of the dynamic cultural policy design in American and Chinese urban settings, with the city of Boston and the city of Qingdao as the two sample cases. Each of the two separated in-depth case studies is based on the general analytical framework of the dynamic urban cultural policy design. Specifically, each case has discussed three cultural creative economy (CCE)-based development strategies, which have further played certain roles in urban development, framed as intra-urban vitality and inter-urban competitiveness. The Boston case manifests a dynamic layering strategy of the CCE development from organization-based cultural nonprofits support to industry-based creative industries facilitation, then to occupation-based creative workforce cultivation and attraction. Organizational mobilization, financial incentives and informational advocacy become the three main pillars in Boston's cultural policy tools portfolio in pursuit of mobilizing stakeholders, facilitating cultural nonprofits and creative businesses, promoting public private partnerships and building regional networks. The case also finds that the CCE-concerned advocacy coalition, policy learning and transfer and political leadership change have caused a dynamic evolution of the policy image and fundamental values of the cultural creative sector in Boston, together with which, Boston's cultural policy design has also evolved in terms of both policy goals and policy toolkits. In contrast, the Qingdao case reveals the long-term cultural institutional reform in China, from public cultural institutions (PCIs) to the dichotomy of PCIs and cultural industries, then to creative businesses and cultural creativity-anchored economic restructuring. The authoritative guidelines and regulations, organizational ownership and operation, financial incentives and information campaign constitute the four major cultural policy tools in Qingdao's cultural policy design. The Qingdao c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Wyszomirski (Advisor); Edward Malecki (Committee Member); Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative; Public Policy; Urban Planning

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Media and Communication

This dissertation explores the lived experiences of Millennials organizing around a social enterprise. It details critical ethnographic methods that include 12 in-depth interviews, and participation and observation for nearly three years of a TOMS shoe company campus club in Northwest Ohio. Visual analysis, political economy, and audience engagement add to a cultural studies perspective that frames this study. Grounded theory principles inform analyses and reveal that the organizing efforts of these particular Millennials involve three processes: living precarity, living affect, and making a local place from a global space. The processes intersect continually yet are distinguishable by various themes that influence a Millennial organizing experience. Laboring as an entrepreneur, laboring in servant leadership, doing charity, and defining needy, work throughout and within club communication in ways that affect members' meaning-making about the club and the TOMS corporation. This research helps define the Millennial experience with one social enterprise in an effort to better understand Millennials and social enterprises in general.

Committee: Radhika Gajjala PhD (Advisor); Barbara Bergstrom PhD (Other); Alberto Gonzalez PhD (Committee Member); Kate Magsamen-Conrad PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Arts and Sciences: History

This dissertation examines the evolving American landscape from the Early Republic to Reconstruction through the lens of one man's life. During James Dinsmore's lifetime, Americans experienced rapid change in all aspects of their lives. Industrialization created new opportunities just as the extension of democracy gave increasing numbers of white men decision-making powers within their government. As Americans like Dinsmore moved west to the frontier, they often confronted new conditions: economic, social, environmental, political, and cultural. How they, and he, chose to accommodate themselves to these new realities is fundamentally a story about creating cultural economies. Further, this dissertation analyzes Dinsmore's migrations. Raised in New Hampshire, he moved to Natchez in the Mississippi Territory, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and Boone County, Kentucky. In choosing these locations he confronted new conditions that he either adapted to or he risked isolation. His early life in New England encouraged him to be proud of its imagined free heritage; nevertheless, he accepted plantation slavery in the Southwest and created a mixed labor force in the border region. These economic realities were accompanied by social and cultural influences that were not always compatible with Dinsmore's own convictions, leaving him in an uncomfortable position. Dinsmore's adaptations to the regions he successively inhabited and his subsequent discomfort, offer a unique perspective on how those regions were changing. Educated at Dartmouth College to appreciate the economic contributions of all sections of the nation, the transformation of that region into a more competitive, urban, and industrial society influenced his decision to move south. Natchez and Terrebonne Parish represented the transformation of the Old Southwest from a frontier to a plantation-based, hierarchical cultural and social economy based on the labor of large numbers of slaves. Boone County, Kentucky, with a m (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christopher Phillips Ph.D. (Committee Chair); James C. Klotter PhD. (Committee Member); Wayne Durrill Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mark Lause Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation analyzes the construction of a pervasive social imaginary of unequal order in Central America between 1870 and 1900. This period was crucial in the region, which underwent a series of economic, political, and social reforms that would forever transform the natural and social landscapes of the isthmus. Although most of these structural changes have already been studied, it is still unclear how literary and cultural production intersected with the liberal elites' endeavors of social classification, economic modernization, and political institutionalization. This dissertation addresses that problem through theoretical elaborations on the social imaginary (Cornelius Castoriadis) and the distribution of the sensible (Jacques Ranciere). I specifically analyze three different types of cultural texts: household economy guides for girls and young women; cuadros costumbristas (sketches of manners); and sentimental novels and theater plays. Part 1 deals with the cultural measures that contributed to a symbolic and material division of public spaces and private spaces, both ruled by the rationale of capitalism. Chapters 1 through 3 study in detail the role of household economy manuals in the dissemination and implementation of the new capitalist logics of productivity, rationalization, and accumulation across the domestic or private spaces. Chapter 1 analyzes how these cultural texts created two opposing female archetypes: the "economic woman" or "productive housewife", figured as an agent of domestic modernization, and the "abject servant", a subaltern subject that would undergo a set of new domestic policies of surveillance, discipline, and exploitation. Chapter 2 addresses the role of the productive housewives in the implementation of new modes of regulation of time and desire within the urban households, while Chapter 3 covers the rearrangements in domestic spaces brought by the new concepts of comfort and hygiene. Part 2 deals with the simultaneous reo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Abril Trigo (Advisor); Ana Del Sarto (Committee Member); Fernando Unzueta (Committee Member); Marta Elena Casaus Arzu (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Art Education

This study examines how select aspects of art and practice are apprehended in Singapore, in terms of how they come into being, how they are known, lived and responded to. Situated within the broader context of postcolonial globalization, the study considers how art and practice can be understood within situated conditions in Singapore as a means towards decolonizing the pre-constitution of subjectivity of Singapore art in the curriculum. This qualitative research uses grounded theory, Adele Clark's situational analysis (2005) and case study to examine the interviews and works of six art/design practitioners. The work draws on concepts from Karen Barad's theory on the materialization of entities in human and non-human actions and relations (2007), Michel Foucault's grid of intelligibility (1971; 1978), and Appadurai's disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy (1990). Using these concepts, the study considers how subjectivities are made intelligible or constituted within physical-discursive conditions in phenomena. The research investigates how practitioners come to know aspects of art and practice; how they experience, enact, and act against pre-existing subjectivities embedded in structures of practice; and how they respond to these structures in and through their work. The study examines how art/design practitioners traverse and transgress pre-existing subjectivities, and reconfigured these dynamically through splicing strategies in their ongoing becoming in the global cultural economy.

Committee: Christine Ballengee-Morris Dr (Committee Co-Chair); Deborah Smith-Shank Dr (Committee Co-Chair); Sydney Walker Dr (Committee Member); Amy Shuman Dr (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Curriculum Development; Education; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Tests and Measurements; Epistemology; Ethics

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Engineering and Applied Science: Industrial Engineering

The field of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) is currently facing two main challenges: 1) Increasing awareness and buy-in among stakeholders and 2) Considering differences (cultural, behavioral and anthropometric) in an increasingly diverse and global workforce; work environments and practices designed for one group of workers may not be appropriate for other groups. These challenges are most relevant in the context of worker health and safety in emerging economies; a large and comparatively cheaper workforce is a mainstay of these countries and OHS is an imperative to make their economic growth sustainable. This study addresses needs on two fronts: From a research perspective, there is a dearth of data on contextual and cultural variables in a developing country work environment that impact safety performance; most existing safety research on this topic is Western or developed country centric. From a practitioner perspective, worker health and safety is a relatively nascent field in developing countries; practitioners are struggling to understand safety perceptions and attitudes that can help localize safety practices and enable more effective implementation of safety programs. This empirical study has 3 objectives: 1) Determine if a safety culture is present in a developing country, 2) Understand contextual influences (perceptions, behaviors and cultural context) that affect safety culture, and 3) Demonstrate a positive correlation between improved worker health and safety and key business outcomes; a "business case" for worker health and safety will especially help gain support from management teams in the highly cost competitive business climate in developing countries. For the first two objectives, an empirical study was conducted in India using a sample set of 500 individuals (senior managers/executives, supervisors and workers) derived from 22 organizations across 5 sectors (Infrastructure/Energy, Mining, Biotech, Services/IT and Manufacturing) and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Henry Spitz Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Sundararaman Anand Ph.D. (Committee Member); Thomas Richard Huston Ph.D. (Committee Member); David Thompson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Industrial Engineering

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2011, Communication Studies

Digital media and Web 2.0 media properties have democratized the authorship of mass culture. At the same time sophisticated marketing strategies have harnessed the creative energy of users to contribute to tasks such as brand building. Through a critical analysis of user generated advertising, this thesis argues that users serve both a cultural and economic function. While users are empowered to create media and engage in social networks, their participation is also harnessed as the basis of the value of commercial web properties. Amateur web videos are analyzed in which users adopt the identity of the Burger King mascot. It is argued that the users' performances serve their own cultural interests in manipulating mass images but also serve commercial interests in social branding. Future studies should further examine the socialization of users into participatory cultures and the blending of individuals and brands in digital identities.

Committee: David Sholle PhD (Committee Chair); Kathleen German PhD (Committee Member); Shira Chess PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2008, Geography

Andersonville is a gentrifying neighborhood in Chicago, exemplified by rising property values. Today, Andersonville is often described as a lesbian neighborhood. Yet, it became clear during field research that lesbian identities in Andersonville were part of a more complex politics of neighborhood identity from which sexual identities could not be isolated without losing their important context. The research expanded to address the larger and more porous issues of community politics, encompassing broader cultural identities beyond lesbian, in circulation around the challenges of neighborhood gentrification. The research examined the cultural economies of community identity as expressed through, and in reaction to, the practices of gentrification and consumption. The findings suggest that lesbian space cannot be easily 'read off' the landscape but may be submerged in material cultural practices and politics that build upon different sexual identities, among others.

Committee: Carl Dahlman PhD (Advisor); Madelyn Detloff PhD (Committee Member); Bruce D'Arcus PhD (Committee Member); Prytherch David PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2011, American Culture Studies/Communication

This dissertation explores the political economy and cultural history of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It demonstrates how Wikipedia, an influential and popular site of knowledge production and distribution, was influenced by its heritage from the hacker communities of the late twentieth century. More specifically, Wikipedia was shaped by an ideal I call, “the cyborg individual,” which held that the production of knowledge was best entrusted to a widely distributed network of individual human subjects and individually owned computers. I trace how this ideal emerged from hacker culture in response to anxieties hackers experienced due to their intimate relationships with machines. I go on to demonstrate how this ideal influenced how Wikipedia was understood both those involved in the early history of the site, and those writing about it. In particular, legal scholar Yochai Benkler seems to base his understanding of Wikipedia and its strengths on the cyborg individual ideal. Having established this, I then move on to show how the cyborg individual ideal misunderstands Wikipedia's actual method of production. Most importantly, it overlooks the importance of how the boundaries drawn around communities and shared technological resources shape Wikipedia's content. I then proceed to begin the process of building what I believe is a better way of understanding Wikipedia, by tracing how communities and shared resources shape the production of recent Wikipedia articles.

Committee: Victoria Ekstrand PhD (Committee Chair); Nancy Patterson PhD (Committee Member); Radhika Gajjala PhD (Committee Member); Donald McQuarie PhD (Committee Member); David Parry PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Epistemology; Information Technology