Digital Commons Network^™

Max Weber's Living Legacy, Hermann Kurthen

Peer Reviewed Articles

June 14, 2020 was the hundred-year anniversary of Max Weber's death. He died in Munich at age 56 after most likely contracting the Spanish flu. He is often considered one of the founding fathers of sociology next to Marx and Durkheim, despite Weber resisting this label. Given Weber's worldwide reception, his enduring relevance for sociology and beyond is unbroken, even though he left a huge unfinished work not intended as a conventional sociological grand theory but as a historical-comparative attempt to understand how humans interact within their social environment and how they construct a social reality of their own making. …

The Welfare States: Examining U.S. State-Level Benefits For Families With Children, 1987-2015, Anthony Huaqui

Masters Theses

Welfare state scholars have amassed competing theoretical explanations for the development of welfare policies. When considering the U.S. case, a discussion of federalism is central to these theoretical examinations. How power in policymaking is distributed amongst the varying levels of government is influential in the construction of the U.S. welfare state. Standard quantitative approaches to U.S. welfare research have offered a limited analysis of how theoretical explanations change after historical moments of welfare reform. In this study, I examine the institutional changes introduced to U.S. welfare in 1996 by way of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). …

A Crisis Within A Crisis: Nyc Landlords Ramp Up Harassment Of Vulnerable Tenants In Wake Of Pandemic, Joseph A. Jungermann Iii

Capstones

Already burdened with more sickness and death during the pandemic than other New Yorkers, low-income tenants and tenants of color are particularly vulnerable to additional harassment by landlords who seek to take advantage of the city's health and financial crisis to force them out. Brooklyn residents Delene Ahye, Dexter Lendor and Sonny Singh tell stories of their landlord, landlord agents and building manager’s harassment, which began during the pandemic’s most dangerous spikes in New York City. These forms of harassment included intimidation, abusive construction, constant buyout offers and biometrics and surveillance technology.

Link to capstone project: https://joseph-jungermann.medium.com/a-crisis-within-a-crisis-nyc-landlords-ramp-up-harassment-of-vulnerable-tenants-in-wake-of-e09d67968208

The Causes, Contributors, And Consequences Of Colorism Among Various Cultures, Mahima Rahman

Honors College Theses

Along with issues like racism, sexism, and classism, colorism exists and works alongside these other “-isms” to dehumanize people with darker skin all around the world. To tackle the problem of colorism and have people unlearn it, a deeper analysis needs to be done of how it originated, how it continues to be perpetuated, and what its effects are. The causes, contributors, and consequences of colorism share similarities and vary across different cultures. This literature review will examine the three aspects of colorism mentioned within five different cultures: South Asian, Western, East Asian, Latino, and Caribbean culture. After examining previous …

Cannabis For Therapeutic Purposes: Older Adult Perspectives, User Characteristics And Motivations For Use, Lean Fiedeldey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Use of cannabis among adults 55 years of age and older is increasing. In Q4 of 2018, slightly over half of cannabis users used for therapeutic purposes at least once, where many reported using for both medical and non-medical reasons (mixed use). Research on older adults regarding the use of Cannabis for Therapeutic Purposes (CTP) is fragmented and there are no comprehensive or in-depth studies on their perceptions or self-reported motivations. Understanding in these areas is important to inform policy that takes the protection of public health and safety as central aims. Does policy affect one of, if not both, …

Feminist Participatory Action Research As A Tool For Climate Justice, Naomi J. Godden, Pam Macnish, Trimita Chakma, Kavita Naidu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) uses Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) to strengthen grassroots women’s movements to advocate for an alternative development model – the ‘Feminist Fossil Fuel Free Future’ (5Fs) – to ensure new, gender-just, economic, political, and social relationships in a world free from climate injustices. Grassroots women of the global South face the extreme impacts of climate change resulting in reinforced and exacerbated inequalities driven by a patriarchal capitalist economy. APWLD’s Climate Justice-FPAR 2017–2019 (CJ-FPAR) supported young women researchers across Asia to lead grassroots research to expose the disproportionate impacts of climate …

The Yakuza: Organized Crime In Japan, Darlene N. Moorman

The Downtown Review

Examining organized crime groups should not be purely economic; in other words, the culture, social structure, political contexts, and so on, are also critical in an insightful analysis of any organized crime group. For this paper, the Japanese yakuza are considered both in an economic viewpoint, such as how they make money, but also in other areas, such as its syndicates' notable cultural contributions and specific social characteristics. Moreover, this paper explores the dynamic changing of the organization overtime, especially in regards to its shifting relationship with the Japanese government.

Ibram X. Kendi's How To Be An Antiracist, Quatez Scott

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

This book review of Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist (2019) addresses the importance of exploring race relations in the U.S. from a framework that focuses on racial policies. Commonly referred to as “systemic racism” and “institutional racism”, racist policies maintain racial inequities. Antiracists aim to eliminate those racial policies. Kendi’s ability to address these issues head on with deeply researched historical narratives brings light to the ways racial policies are reinforced, which reproduce racist ideas. This book drives straight to the heart of racial challenges and takes a new approach at examining how and why humans should …

A Colonized Cop: Indigenous Exclusion And Youth Climate Justice Activism At The United Nations Climate Change Negotiations, Corrie Grosse, Brigid Mark

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Youth activists around the world are demanding urgent climate action from elected leaders. The annual United Nations climate change negotiations, known as COPs, are key sites of global organizing and hope for a comprehensive approach to climate policy. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews at COP25 in 2019, this research examines youth climate activists’ priorities, frustrations and hopes for creating just climate policy. Youth are disillusioned with the COP process and highlight a variety of ways through which the COP perpetuates colonial power structures that marginalize Indigenous peoples and others fighting for justice. This is intersectional exclusion - the …

The Torch (December 2020), Crtp

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

Civic and Community Engagement | Civil Rights and Discrimination | Education | Gender and Sexuality | Inequality and Stratification | Politics and Social Change | Public Policy | Race and Ethnicity

Health Is Political: Public Health Practitioners And Researchers Should Be Trained Accordingly, Claire Pendergrast

Population Health Research Brief Series

Policy has long been considered a core element of public health practice. The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that public health practice and research exist within a political context that cannot be ignored.

A Peaceful End? Exploring The Correlates Of When Terrorist Groups Negotiate, William Berry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite significant advances in the terrorism literature since the September 11th attacks, there remains very little research into the processes by which terrorism might come to a peaceful end. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating politicization, a process by which terrorist organizations negotiate with authorities and the two parties enter a peace agreement or otherwise agree to cease hostilities. The study explores the politicization outcome as predicted by important organizational and behavioral characteristics that prior literature identifies as affecting how terrorist groups end, including group size, organization lifespan, target type for terroristic activities, and the …

Throwing Off The Corset: A Contemporary History Of The Beauty Resistance Movement In South Korea, Hyejung Park

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The tal-corset movement, a beauty resistance campaign, swept South Korea’s feminist scene in 2018 and became a phenomenon bringing about unprecedented social changes in South Korea. This article explains sociocultural contexts to South Korea’s tal-corset movement through group interviews and examination of online materials. It documents the contemporary history of the development of the movement from a feminist perspective. Findings show that movement participants see beauty practice as social oppression imposed on women’s bodies and appearances and the marker of women’s low social status. The new wave of an online feminist movement that emerged in 2015 created women-only communities that …

The European Union And Violence Against Women: Fundamental Rights And Con Games, R. Amy Elman

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Deciphering the European Union’s (EU) commitment to countering violence against women is challenging. To date, much of its response has been rhetorical. This article opens with a brief consideration of the EU’s first few initiatives to counter violence against women before turning to the polity’s enthusiastic endorsement of the Council of Europe’s 2011 Istanbul Convention, which defines such violence as a human rights violation. Not least, it offers a critical analysis of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency’s 2014 survey on violence against women, the world’s largest international survey of its kind. That inquiry involved 42,000 in-person interviews with a representative …

Seeing The Shadow Women: The Hidden Victims Of Prostitution, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

A group of hidden victims of prostitution has been brought to light by Ingeborg Kraus, a trauma therapist in Germany, and Andrea Heinz, a woman with experience in the sex trade in Canada. Dignity has published four articles by these two writers in the last year. Their nascent body of work is uncovering important new information and perspectives on prostitution. Through their own experience and interviews with wives of sex buyers and women with sex trade experience they show us a more holistic view of the harm of prostitution. They write about the wives and families of men who are …

The Female Face Of Misogyny: A Review Of Decriminalizing Domestic Violence: A Balanced Policy Approach To Intimate Partner Violence By Leigh Goodmark And The Feminist War On Crime: The Unexpected Role Of Women's Liberation In Mass Incarceration By Aya Gruber, Dianne L. Post

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Cuban Immigrants’ Experience With Acculturation And How They Cope In The United States, Lourdes Araujo

Dissertations

Objective: This research examines how Cuban immigrants experience cope and adapt to the United States. Cuban immigration is associated with specific stressors related to the immigration experience and the necessary process of acculturation and assimilation. These major stressors can result in mental health concerns among Cuban immigrants; however, no studies have examined how acculturation may influence Cuban immigrants’ coping skills and resultant mental health concerns. This unique study is the first to examine the coping skills Cuban immigrants use during acculturation and the effects of these skills on Cuban immigrants’ mental health. Methods: Seventeen participants completed a semistructured interview and …

Nelson I La Bombolla Electoral De Nova York, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Durant molt de temps m’he enganyat a mi mateix, i de rebot he enganyat els altres: em pensava que no coneixia cap republicà. Quan els amics d’Europa em demanaven detalls sobre les idiosincràsies de la vida nord-americana, sabent que jo vivia a Nova York, la conversa començava o acabava dient: «Però, és clar, tu vius a NY. NY no és els EUA». Certament la «bombolla» de NY és un fet fefaent que en el meu cas s’accentua i es blinda gràcies a una membrana protectora de múltiples teguments.

Why Can't Homeless Addicts Get Help Too, Rachael D. Causland

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Homeless people today struggle more with addiction than people who have stability in their life. Whether it’s due to financial issues, or not having a support system, homeless people struggle to get the help they need for both their addiction and their homelessness. A high number of homeless people report to have started an addiction since being homeless, and they do so to stay alive, in turn people are continuing to stay homeless and many of these people are dying of overdoses or just staying stuck in the situation they are forced to deal with alone. There are some states …

Reducing Violence Without Police: A Review Of Research Evidence, Charles Branas, Shani Buggs, Jeffrey A. Butts, Anna Harvey, Erin M. Kerrison, Tracey Meares, Andrew V. Papachristos, John Pfaff, Alex R. Piquero, Joseph Richardson Jr., Caterina Gouvis Roman, Daniel Webster

Publications and Research

Arnold Ventures sought to review the research evidence for violence reduction strategies that do not rely on law enforcement. The John Jay College Research and Evaluation Center (JohnJayREC) and an expert group of researchers from public policy, criminology, law, public health, and social science fields conducted the scan. The research group members worked collaboratively to identify, translate, and summarize the most critical and actionable studies.

United States Police & Society Reform, Madisen Sterner

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

For many years, people of color have had an unsteady relationship with police departments and law enforcement due to police misconduct, use of force, and police brutality. We’ve had many of the same conversations over and over again about what we can do to bring upon change within our departments, but no true, consistent action has been taken. In this paper we discuss multiple solutions to help address the issue of police misconduct, the need for police and society reform, and ways we can work towards mending the relationship between citizens and our police departments. In today’s society, change is …

What A Delay In Singapore’S Political Succession Portends, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan discussed what a delay in Singapore’s political succession arising from the COVID-19 crisis might portend and explained the impact of such a move.

Opinions And Perceptions Of Residents In New York City Public Housing: More Findings From Household Surveys In Map Communities And Non-Map Communities. Map Evaluation Update Number 6., Gina Moreno, Jeffrey A. Butts, Hans Erickson

Publications and Research

This is the sixth of six updates presenting interim findings from the evaluation of the NYC Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP). Researchers conducted surveys of residents in housing developments operated by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), half involved in MAP and half not involved. The survey measured opinions and perceptions about public safety and resident well-being. Surveys were conducted well after the 2014 launch of MAP, but the data allowed the study to examine differences between MAP and non-MAP communities.

Two Decades Of Imperial Failure: Theorizing U.S. Regime Change Efforts In Venezuela From Bush Ii To Trump, Timothy M. Gill, Joseph Marshall Brown

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ushered in the Pink Tide and the rise of the left in Latin America at the turn of the 21st century. Chávez initially won presidential elections in 1998 based on the promise of participatory democracy and tackling economic inequality, and thereafter by championing 21st Century Socialism. From the beginning, Chávez challenged U.S. global leadership by condemning its vision for the world and by cultivating an anti-imperial nexus of allies. This pattern has continued under current President Nicolás Maduro. In response, the U.S. has opposed the Venezuelan socialists throughout three successive presidential administrations: Bush II, Obama, …

Yes We Can Bookmark

Textual material from the Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Papers

Book mark with quote on back and Barak Obama image, signature and slogan for 2008 presidential campaign on the front.

Measuring ‘Closeness’ In 3-Candidate Elections: Methodology And An Application To Strategic Voting, Daniel Kselman, Emerson Niou, Austin Horng-En Wang

Political Science Faculty Research

Past research suggests that voter behavior is influenced by perceptions of electoral competitiveness. For example, when an election is perceived to be close, voters will be more likely to turnout and/or cast strategic votes for their second-most preferred candidate. Operationalizing electoral competitiveness in three-candidate elections presents previously unrecognized methodological challenges. This paper first shows that many past strategies for measuring ‘closeness’ in three-candidate contests have violated at least one of three basic properties that any such measure should satisfy. We then propose a new measurement grounded in probability ratios, and prove formally that ratio-indices satisfy these axiomatic criteria. Empirical analyses …

“Light Is The Normal Course Of Events, Darkness Is Only A Temporary Interruption”: Lessons From Lucy Thompson, Elizabeth Mcclure

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Che-Na-Wah Weitch-Ah-Wah Lucy Thompson (1856–1932), a Yurok medicine woman, was born in Pecwan on the Klamath River in California. She is one of the first Native American women authors known for her book To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman (1916). Written in Wiyot territory, in what is now Myrtletown, just outside the city limits of the City of Eureka. Her purpose was to preserve her people’s stories, and to tell the truth about the historical genocidal targeting Indigenous Californians. She also expressed concern for the continued stewardship of Klamath River. Lucy used her skills as a storyteller …

Ishi And The California Indian Genocide As Developmental Mass Violence, Robert K. Hitchcock, Charles A. Flowerday

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Ishi represents a form of sentimental folk reductionism. But he can be a teaching tool for the California Indian Genocide, John Sutter also. His mill was where gold was discovered – setting off a frenzied settlement in which Indians were legally enslaved and slaughtered, finally ending a decade after the Emancipation Proclamation. They had already experienced wholesale devastation under Spanish and Mexican colonization. The mission system itself was inhumane and genocidal. It codified enslavement and trafficking of Indians as economically useful and morally purposeful. Mexican administration paid lip service to Indian emancipation but exploited them ruthlessly as peons. The California …

In #Flatearth We Trust: The Danger Of The Self-Representation Of Flat Earthers On Twitter, Lauren Gomes

MA Research Paper

The Flat Earth movement has gained substantial online publicity over the last few years as demands for the ‘truth’ in an era of post-truth are increasingly centered on anti-government and anti-expert regulations of knowledge. More individuals are self-identifying as Flat Earthers, or those who believe the earth is flat, on social media applications, such as Twitter. Flat Earthers self-represent on their Twitter accounts as ‘truth seekers’ or uncorrupted by knowledge authorities endorsed by the government, but in representing themselves this way, they mislead the public and further aggravate the public mistrust of the government, experts, and science. Flat Earthers claim …

Nguyễn An Ninh’S Anti-Colonial Thought: A New Account Of National Shame, Kevin D. Pham

Political Science Faculty Publications

A source of national shame can be the perception that one’s nation is intellectually inferior to other nations. This kind of national shame can lead not to despair but to a sense of national responsibility to engage in creative self-renewal and to create national identity from scratch. An exemplar of someone who recognized and engaged with this kind of national shame is Nguyễn An Ninh (1900–1943), an influential Vietnamese anti-colonial intellectual in French colonial Vietnam. Ninh’s account of national shame challenges existing assumptions in political theory, namely that national identity requires national pride, that national shame comes from bad actions …