Browsing by Author "Hempel, Lynn, advisor"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Open Access
Demand management' and injustice in rural agricultural irrigation in western Colorado: an anatomy of ambivalence
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) MacIlroy, Kelsea E., author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Carolan, Michael, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member; Kampf, Stephanie, committee member
The Colorado River is overdrawn. Decisions made a century ago created an institutional framework allowing overuse while climate change has exacerbated it with increasing temperatures and reduced natural flows. 'Demand management', a key component of the 2019 Upper Basin Drought Contingency Plans, would utilize water conserved from consumptive use to create a 500,000 acre-foot storage pool, only used to protect the Upper Basin of the Colorado River in the event they were unable to meet water delivery obligation to the Lower Basin. Rural irrigators on Colorado's West Slope would be the prime contributors to such a program, but largely responded with ambivalence. Increasingly, collaborative water governance is cited as the best way to create change in water distribution. However, if rural irrigators respond with ambivalence, why would they participate voluntarily in such a program? Using a grounded theory approach, interviews and focus groups with 45 participants, and participant observation, I explore why rural irrigators were ambivalent towards a program that would, ostensibly, protect them in times of water shortage. Drawing from the concept of sociological ambivalence and the literatures of water justice, hydrosocial analysis, and rurality, I describe the symbolic and material landscape that shapes perceptions of 'demand management'. I argue irrigators were ambivalent because they understood the need for water conservation, but they also perceived injustice in terms of distribution, recognition, and representation. Since rural irrigators are the linchpin in any water conservation program that would address overuse in the Colorado River Basin, their perceptions of injustice must be addressed. Findings provide key insight into water governance as it relates to crafting effective water policy.
Open Access
Dramaturgy and gender performance in fitness spaces
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Macartney, Remo, author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Mao, KuoRay, committee member; Daum, Courtenay, committee member
This study uses theories from symbolic interactionism and feminist theory to understand performance in fitness spaces. Dramaturgical Theory and the theory of Doing Gender are used to address this topic. The first theory is used to examine the way that actors perform their gender within a gym. This includes space, appearance, and props from Dramaturgical Theory. The second concept incorporates ethnomethodology to examine how the actor fashions an intelligible body and uses their modified body to complete certain performances. Along the way the actor builds competency with certain props. This allows them to complete new performances. This research is important in understanding how power is distributed across fitness spaces. Additionally this study provides insights into participant behavior and can be used to understand how actors use and arrange space.
Open Access
Questioning the carnivalesque: poetry slams, performance, and contemporary forms of resistance
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Freitas, Isaac Richard, author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Taylor, Pete, committee member; Dickinson, Greg, committee member
This thesis explores the form that resistance takes in poetry slams. In this study, Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of carnival is applied to the poetry slam as a contemporary form of resistance. Carnival provides a place outside of everyday life where different rules are in effect. Through the carnival, participants see new possibilities for their everyday lives. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate whether poetry slams show carnivalesque resistance. Research was conducted using a hermeneutic perspective. The data was collected through observation and interviews with subjects at two poetry slams: the Open Counter Poetry Slam and the Rue Vermilion Poetry Slam. Observations were conducted at multiple occurrences of each slam. Thirteen individuals were interviewed with eight coming from the Open Counter Poetry Slam and five from the Rue Vermilion Poetry Slam. Thematic analysis was used in interpreting the data. Two approaches were used to examine the results of the analysis. A spatial approach was used to see how the times and spaces that poetry slams occur show carnival resistance. The second approach used the perspectives of the interviewees and observations of poetry slam participants' interactions to explore carnival's role in poetry slam events. By showing how carnival manifests within poetry slams, this research shows how events can provide safe havens from the pressures of power that permeate the social hierarchies of everyday life.
Open Access
Relative deprivation, globalization, and reflexivity: a cross-community comparative analysis of tourists as a salient reference group in the Mexican Yucatán peninsula
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Sydoriak, Stacia, author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Raynolds, Laura, committee member; Velasco, Marcela, committee member; Taylor, Pete, committee member
As developing countries are becoming more globally engaged, inequality continues to persist. As a result, there has been an increased interest in relative deprivation and its implications for societal health and wellbeing (i.e. Wilkinson and Pickett 2007, Ravallion 2008, Mangyo and Park 2010). To advance the current literature of relative deprivation, I will explore the impact that increased interactions with tourists have on participants' perceptions of relative deprivation and inequality in six different communities in the Mexican Yucatán peninsula. A principle tenant of relativity in the context of deprivation is the existence of a comparative component, known as reference groups. A central question in the relative deprivation literature poses is: When we speak of the relative deprivation of a population, just who is it that we are comparing them to? In this study, I conduct 64 semi-structured interviews to addresses what type of differences in reference group formation exist at the community and individual level in a globalizing world. Specifically, I explore the way the constant flow of international tourists through the communities in the Yucatán Peninsula might create a type of "global-local" reference group that extends beyond the literature's traditional understandings of reference groups. An important methodological contribution to reference group theory is also made, as opposed to previous research, participants' in this study self-selected salient reference groups for themselves. Findings suggest that the way in which an individual defines inequality impacts their perceptions of its existence and persistence within their own communities, as well as the basis for how their reference group(s) for self-comparison form. In addition, salient reference groups extend beyond the traditional types of reference groups, and, in this case, include foreign tourists. Drawing on these findings, I posit that in this study, participants' daily interactions, with whom they frequently interact, and at what level of depth these interactions take place influences the way in which they perceive themselves in comparison to others, and with whom they tend to compare themselves to. Essentially, the salience of tourists as a reference group represent one of a multitude of ways increased global interactions under the umbrella of globalization influence reference group formation. This suggests that there are likely a variety of ways that a developing nation's move toward a more globalized society impact individuals perceptions of inequality, and that there are a plethora of individuals and groups that can emerge as salient reference groups as a result of the globalization process. In the future, it appears that as countries continue to develop, relative deprivation will become an increasingly important way to conceptualize and address poverty and social problems as a whole. Moving forward, qualitatively building on relative deprivation and reference group theory advancements may prove to be integral to enhancing both individual and societal wellbeing, and so must continue to be examined carefully as part of the solution to decreasing inequality and relative poverty around the globe.
Open Access
Serene tea: understanding contemporary conservative environmentalism in the United States using a mixed methods approach
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Thunell, Elijah, author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Duffy, Robert, committee member; Hastings, Pat, committee member; Luna, Jessie, committee member
Climate change will require action that transcends political divides, yet environmental politics in the US appear as polarized as ever. This thesis investigates conservative environmentalism using a mixed methods approach. Quantitatively, I find that liberals are increasingly uniform in their pro-environmental attitudes post the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, while conservatives have substantial amounts of intra-ideology dispersion on environmental spending. I interview self-identified conservative environmentalists and progressive environmentalists to explore this dispersion. Conservative environmentalists unite in their staunch belief of market-driven solutions to ecological degradation but diverged between a market-based ecological modernization framework or a more libertarian free market environmentalism. The conservative interviewees shared focus on increasing market access and outcomes of conservation contrast with progressive interviewee's market skepticism and support for intersectional processes aimed at socially equitable, system-altering solutions that jointly address combined "wicked" ecological and social problems. Practically, two contrasting solutions to ecological degradation were salient: conservative interviewees sought to relegitimize the current social system; progressive interviewees seek to restructure the current social system.
Embargo
The stories of U.S.: nationalisms among college educated white women who voted in the 2016 U.S. presidential election
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2025) Strapko, Noel, author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Opsal, Tara, committee member; Lacy, Mike, committee member; McIvor, David, committee member
Relatively recent sociological theories of nationalism understand the nation as variable processes whereby the nation is (re)constructed, albeit in different ways, via nationalism. Nationalism includes nation-oriented meanings and sentiments people embedded within socio-political contexts continually (re)formulate and imbue the nation with, which is how the nation is subjectively (re)created. Research on U.S. nationalism, however, primarily focuses on the subjective content of nationalism while the subjective contextualization of it remains understudied. In addition, although many aspects of nationalism are gendered, how women experience the nation and (re)create it is rarely examined. Addressing these gaps in the literature, this dissertation examines both the subjective content and the contextualization of U.S. nationalisms from the standpoint of college educated white women who voted in the 2016 presidential election. Utilizing in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews, I describe the various, yet patterned, ways America and Americans were constructed among interviewees and I examine the how they contextualized their expressions of nationalism. I argue "true" Americans' experiences with the American Dream were used to evaluate America's greatness, or lack thereof, which shaped the national sentiment the interviewees expressed. Findings provide key insight regarding: 1) the relevance of the American Dream for constructions of America, 2) how Americans and "true" Americans were constructed, 3) how gender relations, as well as those concerning other statuses, were used to contextualize nationalisms, 4) why expressions of nationalism can be ambivalent, and 5) how forms of nationalism are intertwined in constructions of American national membership.
Open Access
Victimhood and actorhood: constructions of agency in anti-trafficking advocacy
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Casey, Emma Elizabeth, author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Opsal, Tara, committee member; Roberts, Anthony, committee member; Zahran, Sammy, committee member
This study seeks to advance understanding of how anti-trafficking organization websites construct victims' agency, and to engage in critical analyses of these constructions. Using content analysis of 264 websites for organizations which advocate for adult victims of human trafficking in the United States, I inductively identify themes in the ways victimhood and agency are portrayed. The use of 'survivor stories', definitions, images, and relational comparisons with other actors were several of the most common ways in which organizations represented victimhood, and I find that the majority of organizations construct victims' agency as insufficient and misused for self-advocacy. To interpret my findings, I turn to neo-institutional theory to understand how victims' agency is constructed, and patterned in the same way, across the majority of anti-trafficking organizations.