Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2025, Anthropology

Swidden agriculture is one of the oldest forms of human agriculture, having been practiced in some form for over 10,000 years in tropical forest landscapes throughout the globe. Swidden exerts a strong influence on the ecosystems and landscapes where it is practiced, with many of its sociocultural and economic characteristics being integrated into ecological processes. Yet, contemporary ideas about the socio-ecology of swidden agriculture are dominated by theories that reduce this dynamic system to a simplistic, destructive force on forest landscapes, forming the foundation of efforts to eliminate swidden from tropical regions. At the same time, scholars working on the fringes of this dominate paradigm have accumulated considerable evidence documenting how swidden practices can benefit forest ecosystems and contribute to the heterogeneity and species diversity observed in tropical forests. In this dissertation, I argue that these divergent perspectives are due to different ways that scholars have theorized about inherent complexity and dynamism of swidden agriculture. To over come these opposing views, I conceptualize swidden as a complex socio-ecological system and contribute three studies looking at 1) social organization of agricultural labor in swidden; 2) the emergent configuration and composition of swidden landscape mosaics; and 3) the architecture of human-centered food webs. By combining theory and methods from complexity science, ecological anthropology, landscape and community ecology, and statistical modeling, this dissertation attempts to rethink the socio-ecology of swidden and contribute to a theory of swidden as a complex adaptive system.

Committee: Sean Downey (Advisor); Sean Downey (Committee Chair); William Peterman (Committee Member); Mark Moritz (Committee Member); Barbara Piperata (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Cultural Anthropology; Ecology; Latin American Studies; Remote Sensing; Social Structure; Statistics

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Anthropology

The popularization of the phrase “save the bees” both within and beyond conservation research has significantly shaped our understanding of the challenges faced by bees. It is a proposed solution that negatively impacts our conceptualization of the problem itself. We approach it with the expectation that it can and should be solved. This solution-based perspective limits our ability to imagine alternative management practices that are adaptive and ongoing. In chapter one of this thesis, I argue that humans and bees are faced by a wicked problem, and that framing it as such is essential for addressing its structural complexity, uncertainty, and stakeholder diversity. In chapter two, I build on my argument for the complexity of pollinator protection by reflecting on my own experience taking on different stakeholder roles. Examining the problem in this way highlights key details about stakeholder relationships that are often overlooked. Bringing them to the forefront exemplifies the appropriateness of a wicked approach to pollinator protection.

Committee: Nicholas Kawa (Advisor); Mark Moritz (Committee Member); Mark Hubbe (Committee Member) Subjects: Conservation; Cultural Anthropology; Entomology; Wildlife Conservation

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

Attention is a cognitive process that, when stable, allows the mind to focus on relevant information. While attention can shift and fluctuate nonlinearly, research shows that a two-factor model can be used to capture the stability of selective sustained attention. Nevertheless, nonlinear dynamics of attention remain elusive under this two-factor model of attention. Hence, a one-sided focus on attentional stability undermines ways to control the processes of focusing and ignoring. To shed light on non-linear shifting in attention, I applied ideas from complexity science, a framework that anticipates such nonlinear phenomena. Specifically, I sought to apply a cusp model of selective sustained attention to explore the extent to which complexity science could be a useful approach to attention. The following demonstrates how a cusp model anticipates the presence of two orthogonal factors that align with those already identified in extant research on selective sustained attention. I also found that the empirical findings of selective sustained attention are conducive of fitting data to a cusp model. This research provides the first step in establishing a consistent framework for taking a dynamical complexity approach to the study of attention that inherently changes.

Committee: Heidi Kloos Ph.D. (Committee Chair); John Holden Ph.D. (Committee Member); Anthony Chemero Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Public Policy and Management

This research analyzes the impact of U.S. Federal technology policy on the emergence of a complex network of strategic alliances in the semiconductor industry during a critical period in its evolution. During the mid-1980s the U.S. region of the global semiconductor industry was on the verge of collapse. A tectonic shift in the technological landscape occurred favoring the robust networked organizational form found in the Japanese keiretsu, and by 1985 Japan had taken the largest share of the global market. In the United States, industry leaders and policymakers moved to support and protect the U.S. manufacturing and supply infrastructure, crafting an organizationally innovative technology policy, called Sematech, which was implemented in 1987. Sematech was a public-private industry consortium that included fourteen U.S. firms, featuring sponsorship and protection by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Sematech is widely regarded as a critical element in the recovery of the U.S. region of the semiconductor industry. However, very few studies exist that demonstrate empirically how policy implementation achieved policy outcomes. This dissertation presents new evidence and analysis revealing a global network of research and development (R&D) based strategic alliances residing between policy and outcomes. The primary argument of this dissertation is that the emergent R&D contract network in the semiconductor industry represents a critical but overlooked element in the causal logic of policy implementation, which represents an intermediate causal mechanism residing between technology policy formulation and implementation, on one hand, and industry recovery and firm performance outcomes, on the other. The central propositions of this research are, first, that technology policy, via Sematech, facilitated the emergence of a complex self-organizing strategic alliance network and enhanced the network centrali (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Caroline Wagner S (Advisor); Michael Leiblein J (Committee Member); Trevor Brown L (Committee Member); Anand Desai (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Administration; Public Policy

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

This qualitative study is an in-depth exploration of the experiences of 20 executive-level leaders from American corporations, government agencies, hospitals, and universities. At the heart of this investigation are stories that reveal the challenge of leading change in complex systems from the leader perspective, creating an opportunity to explore sense-making and sense-giving as guided by individual values and organizational contexts. Complexity Science, the framework for this research, is the study of relationships within and among systems. The aim of approaching this research from a complexity perspective is to gain a more realistic view of the issues and challenges that leaders face during change, and how they make meaning and respond in today's richly interconnected and largely unpredictable information age. Results highlight the critical role an individual's beliefs and values—as shaped by experience and guided by context—have on leadership and the organization's approach to change implementation. This study identifies three leadership conceptual categories: (1) traditional (linear and hierarchical in nature); (2) complexity (non-linear, suited to densely interconnected and rapid-paced environments), and (3) complexity-plus (including change goals beyond the organization and its members). Though traditional and complexity styles are largely known in the literature, the complexity-plus style is a newly identified category. Drawing from Uhl-Bien, Marion, and McKelvey's (2007) Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT) model, which delineates three leadership functions: (1) administrative (results orientation); (2) adaptive (learning orientation); and (3) enabling (support orientation), the key conclusions of this investigation are integrated with the CLT model to create the Leadership Values Framework. The results of this research contribute to our understanding of the influence of a leader's values, enhancing our ability as academics and practitioners to bette (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Guskin Ph.D (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D (Committee Member); Merryn Rutledge Ed.D (Committee Member); Peter Martin Dickens Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Organizational Behavior; Social Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

Distributed cognition refers to situations in which task requirements are distributed among multiple agents or, potentially, off-loaded onto the environment. The idea assumes that the cognitive system is flexibly composed of various CNS components as well as non-neural bodily and environmental components, including other agents. Important to understanding distributed cognition is a consideration of how cognitive components become coordinated, and whether multi-agent cognitive coordination yields as a single cognitive system—an emergent, interpersonal cognitive synergy. Synergies are organizations of anatomical (and, potentially, environmental) components into a single, functional unit, such that the components work together and regulate one another to promote task performance. Synergies exhibit reciprocal compensation, or the interaction of components to accomplish the desired goal even in the face of obstacles. Synergies have a number of additional features found in complex systems, or systems with numerous, nonlinearly interacting elements across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Complex systems offer tools for identifying some of the features of cognitive synergies. For example, 1/f scaling has been demonstrated in a range of cognitive tasks, supporting the notion that features common to both complex systems and synergies play a key role in cognitive functioning. 1/f scaling, or “pink noise,” can be used as an indicator of coordination or task interdependence, with “white noise” as an indicator of independence. Three experiments compared isolated and distributed cognition to determine which are appropriately characterized as cognitive systems composed of individual agents or as distributed among (and irreducible to the behaviors of) multiple agents. Each experiment tested for interdependent and emergent properties of cognitive performance during distributed temporal estimation (TE) tasks. 1/f scaling was present during solo and dyadic tasks, providing evi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Holden Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Michael Riley Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Anthony Chemero Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Therapy

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

Mechanistic frameworks of investigation and explanation dominate the cognitive, neural, and psychological sciences. In this dissertation, I argue that mechanistic frameworks cannot, in principle, explain some kinds of cognition. In its place, I argue that complexity science has methods and theories more appropriate for investigating and explaining some cognitive phenomena. I begin with an examination of the term `cognition.' I defend the idea that “cognition” has been a moving target of investigation in the relevant sciences. As such it is not historically true that there has been a thoroughly entrenched and agreed upon conception of “cognition.” Next, I take up mechanistic frameworks. Although `mechanism' is an umbrella term for a set of loosely related characteristics, there are common features: linearity, localization, and component dominance. I then describe complexity science, with emphasis on its utilization of dynamical systems modeling. Next, I discuss two phenomena that typically fall under the purview of complexity science: nonlinearity and interaction dominance. A complexity science framework guided by the theory of self-organized criticality and utilizing the methods of dynamical systems modeling can surmount a number of challenges that face mechanistic frameworks when investigating some kinds of cognition. The first challenge is epistemic and concerns the inadequacy of mechanistic frameworks to facilitate the comprehensibility of massive amounts of data across various scales and areas of inquiry. I argue that complexity science is more appropriate for making big data comprehensible when investigating cognition, particularly across disciplines. I demonstrate this via an approach called nested dynamical modeling (NDM). NDM can facilitate comprehensibility of large amounts of data obtained from various scales of investigation by eliminating irrelevant degrees of freedom of that system as relates to the target of investigation. The second shortcomi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anthony Chemero Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Rick Dale Ph.D. (Committee Member); Valerie Hardcastle Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Richardson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy

PHD, Kent State University, 2010, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

In our complex and interconnected world, scholars of international relations seek to better understand challenges spurred by intensified global communication and interchange. This dissertation investigates how network-based solutions of knowledge creation and dissemination may enhance our capacity to produce better policies. This research suggests that in order to overcome policy problems transnationally, three critical aspects should be considered. First, as science and technology policy becomes increasingly critical to resolving global issues it should be regarded as an integral element of the foreign policy process. Second, as liberal IR theory argues, the increasing role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and transnational networks call for an alternative approach in unraveling patterns of cooperation in the twenty-first century. Third, scholars from various theoretical perspectives have emphasized the potential value of transatlantic governance in the global economy. This dissertation concentrates on the idea that knowledge network (KNET) participants constitute a “linchpin” in transatlantic relations. To test this empirically, this research uses hyperlink network analysis to investigate cooperative arrangements and virtual communication patterns between the European Union and the United States. This study reveals the knowledge-based structure of the transatlantic relationship as a core element of the international system, and a primary catalyst in the resolution of transnational policy problems. This research also demonstrates that there is a variety of actors actively involved in these transatlantic virtual networks. While state actors are not invisible, they are not predominant actors in these networks.

Committee: Steven W. Hook PhD (Committee Chair); Andrew Barnes PhD (Committee Member); Julie Mazzei PhD (Committee Member); Alberta Sbragia PhD (Committee Member); Ruoming Jin PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2013, Mass Communication (Communication)

This study aims to contribute to the theoretical development and the effective practice of Communication for Social Change by exploring the application of the principles and ideas of Complexity Science to Communication for Social Change endeavors. The study provides a theoretical framework for the analysis of Communication for Social Change initiatives and presents guidelines for organizations, including both practitioner organizations and donor agencies, interested in using Complexity Science principles and ideas to inform their Communication for Social Change strategies. The study employs an interpretive approach and an instrumental case study method of inquiry. Five principles distilled from the literature on Complexity Science are used to identify examples from the work of Puntos de Encuentro, a feminist, non-profit organization working in Communication for Social Change in Central America, in order to illustrate how Complexity Science principles can be applied to Communication for Social Change strategies and to explore possible challenges and implications, for organizations working in the field of Communication for Social Change, of applying these principles in their work. The major conclusions and insights of the study are, first, that Complexity Science can provide social change organizations, development agencies, donors, scholars and policy makers with a useful framework for addressing complex social issues and it may make Communication for Social Change strategies more effective at creating social change, and second, that Communication for Social Change strategies need to be supported by organizational cultures that guarantee a shared vision and directions and promote power decentralization, self-organizing and innovation as this is what provides organizations with the level of flexibility and adaptability required by a continuously changing environment. The study concludes with a set of recommendations that aim to serve as guidelines for Communicat (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Rafael Obregón (Committee Chair); Josep Rota (Committee Member); Arvind Singhal (Committee Member); Lynn Harter (Committee Member); Steve Howard (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Entrepreneurship; Evolution and Development; Mass Communications; Multimedia Communications; Organizational Behavior; Systems Science