This dissertation is based on qualitative and quantitative research conducted via a case study of CouchSurfing.org, a hybrid online/offline hospitality exchange network that enables travelers to locate locals who offer them free accommodation. Chapter one begins with a statistical analysis of CouchSurfers to determine if they hold a cosmopolitan orientation. My analysis incorporates nationally representative samples from 21 different countries, over 1400 CouchSurfers, and 74,000 respondents to the World Value Survey into a single statistical model. My results demonstrate that being a CouchSurfer was the single most important predictor of self-identifying as a global citizen with the world as a whole. Chapter two tackles the concept of trust, which is the glue that holds the CouchSurfing community together. Trust is required to deal with the uncertainty inherent in CouchSurfing. Both trust and trustworthiness are established explicitly and implicitly through multiple elements and layers of the CouchSurfing process. I came to understand that the development of trust within this network was multi-causal but was largely dependent on a member's perception of familiarity. Each of the CouchSurfing stages identified helps to embed a "familiar world" in the individual members of the CouchSurfing community and describe how trust is then embodied and exchanged in both online and offline settings. Chapter three enters the discussion of the globalization process that fosters questions regarding the detriments and benefits of a shrinking world. By delving into various critiques of globalization from CouchSurfers I will trace the seemingly impervious path of rationalization and disenchantment. However, by also moving beyond CouchSurfers' critique of globalization, this chapter intends to provide an account of how CouchSurfers seem to find freedom and meaning within a world they see ensnared by disenchantment. Taken as a whole, the chapters weave together a narrative of what it means to be a CouchSurfer and elucidate the larger values and worldview of this community. As society changes and adapts to rapid globalization and technological advancements, CouchSurfing offers insights and implications for society

Increasingly, social scientists are recognizing the limitations of traditional measures (e.g., geographic, demographic, economic) when trying to explain differing regional prosperity outcomes. This research seeks to understand how regions’ differing personalities can help describe economic variance. We test this by employing least squares linear regression on an exploratory battery of 16 psychosocial variables (the “Big 5” personality profiles, plus other General Social Survey items) and four dependent variables of economic output: per capita income, employment rates, income mobility, and rates of entrepreneurship. All items, aggregated at the county level across the US, exhibited a unique constellation of relationships, emphasizing the great need for more work on the economic impact of what we coin the personality of place.

Literature shows that religiosity can provide individual resilience to life shocks as well as regional resilience to disasters caused by natural hazards. Related work has examined the complicated links between religion and economic growth. Yet few, if any, studies examine the role of regional levels of religiosity on a region's resilience to recession—or how quickly the employment rate returns to pre-recession levels (a common measure of resilience in the economics literature). As the recovery period of the Great Recession cools and economists warn of future economic downturns, all known variables that may be linked with regional resilience are worthy of exploration. Using survey results from the Gosling-Potter Internet Project and General Social Surveys, we applied logarithmic functions to pre- and post-Great Recession employment data for 2,836 U.S. counties. We found a modest and statistically significant association between religious belief and regional resilience to recession. Religiosity was the strongest of sixteen psychosocial variables that we examined in association with the speed of job recovery; despite having negative links with other economic variables. This has particular salience for more rural economies; policy implications are discussed.