Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Germanic Languages and Literatures

Section One of the dissertation explicates the post-secular philosophical discourse between Jurgen Habermas and Charles Taylor, while Section Two analyzes contemporary German and American novels in which religious fundamentalism figures prominently. The genesis of Habermas' reflections on religion is shown within his overall philosophy, and is then compared and contrasted with Taylor's viewpoints. Their respective concepts of “translation” and “articulation” are extrapolated in an effort to highlight deficiencies in widely-held notions of the secular. The literary analysis of Fatah, Peters and Updike examines the way in which the authors aesthetically depict the dynamics of a religious-secular divide, thereby enhancing critical reflection on understandings of religion, secularism and their presumed or apparent dichotomy. Both the philosophical and literary discourses are guided by the fundamental question of how normativity arises-both within the individual subject and in social collectives.

Committee: Bernd Fischer (Advisor); May Mergenthaler (Committee Member); Robert Holub (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Germanic Literature; Literature; Philosophy

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Community Planning

Ohio's funding system for K-12 public education has been ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court four times within the last eleven years, yet state-level legislators have yet to make significant changes. Instead, the citizens of Ohio have been given a patchwork of solutions which, in an attempt to treat the source of the problem, have only treated the symptoms thereof. This has resulted in a confounding of the issues, a breakdown of communication between politician and constituent, and a still-broken funding system. Using Hamilton County's public school districts as a microcosm of this situation, this paper will provide quantitative evidence to support the existence of real and perceived barriers to achieving consensus and constitutionality. Analyzing this evidence and using principles of communicative planning theory, it will explain why there is an informational disconnect between policy-makers and their respective constituents as well as how the planning community can constructively contribute.

Committee: Christopher Auffrey PhD (Committee Chair); Brigid O'Kane MFA (Committee Member); Gayle Foster (Advisor) Subjects: Education; Political Science; Public Administration; Secondary Education; Urban Planning

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2012, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this study was to explore how restorative practices could help increase the social fabric within communities in order to help solve complex community problems. Although literature on restorative practices is bountiful for the purposes of restorative justice and restorative practices in schools, there is little literature on how to use restorative practices to create more restorative communities or neighborhoods. For the purpose of this study I looked at the issue of violence and safety within a particular community and implemented a framework of restorative practices that focused on asset based community development and building healthier relationships. I utilized action research to conduct intentional gatherings of communicative space that were supported by a study circle framework and collected data in ways that included interviews, pre-post surveys, and mapping documents, as well as documentation of all observed outcomes in relation to the study circles. The findings proposed that when communities are given the opportunity to intentionally gather to communicate in a restorative context, citizens learn about new opportunities or assets, and relationships spill over from study circles processes causing actions to occur directly and also on a "second degree level." These new actions can assist communities in rationing together better ways of solving complex community problems. The electronic version of the Dissertation is accessible in the open-access Ohiolink ETD Center http://etd.ohiolink.edu.

Committee: Lize Booysen DBL (Committee Chair); Jon Wergin PhD (Committee Member); Patricia Jameson PhD (Committee Member); Al Condeluci PhD (Other) Subjects: Business Community; Communication; Criminology; Economics; Public Health Education; Social Psychology; Social Research; Urban Planning

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2011, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

The purpose of this research is to seek narratives of self-censorship from in-depth interviews of 19 participants acquired through a purposive (criterion) sampling protocol. The primary research question driving this study is “What types of sanctions contribute to people choosing to self-censor their strongly held beliefs, values, and opinions.” Previous research conducted on the topic of self-censorship (generally under the rubric of the spiral of silence theory) has been predominantly quantitative and consideration of sanctions influencing self-censorship have been limited to fear of social isolation. I suggest that ostensibly important sanction variables have not been utilized within these existing frameworks. I anticipated that this research, by utilizing a qualitative framework, would reveal other sanctions that operate in the self-censorship decision calculus. I also expected that interviews would portray a broader, more complete picture of how self-censorship operates and the variables that contribute to the construct. Research expectations were partially met as new variables in regard to specific fears of sanctioning were identified. These variables should contribute to self-censorship theory and more specifically, the frequently researched “spiral of silence” theory of mass communication and could be tested in quantitative research to verify their validity. Future research in this vein might consider testing additional sanction variables as part of a quantitative study, continue to refine the definition of self-censorship, develop better strategies to locate and secure additional informants, and continue to utilize qualitative methods to probe further into self-censorship questions.

Committee: Thomas Webler Ph.D. (Committee Chair); K. Heidi Watts Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Krueger Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Environmental Studies; Land Use Planning; Mass Communications; Psychology; Social Psychology; Sociology; Urban Planning