Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review Of The Limits Of Participation: Members And Leaders In Canada's Reform Party By Faron Ellis, David J. Hall

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The Reform Party began as a populist party of regional protest in western Canada in 1987. Its policies were mostly on the right of the political spectrum, and from the early 1990s it developed ambitions to become a national party. In 2000 it amalgamated with some Progressive Conservatives (PC) to form the Canadian Alliance (CA), and in 2003 the CA and a rump of the PC Party united to form the Conservative Party of Canada; in January 2006 the Conservatives won a minority government. Although Faron Ellis's book was completed too early to include much about the denouement of this …

Book Review Of New Destinations: Mexican Immigration In The United States Edited By Victor Zuniga And Ruben Hernandez Leon, David M. Heer

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

A noteworthy feature of Mexican immigration to the United States during the decade from 1990 to 2000 was a significant change in destinations. Traditional receiving states gained a much smaller proportion of all Mexican immigrants while numbers in various Southern and Midwestern states soared. The percentage of all recent Mexican immigrants in California in 1990, for example, was 62.9 % percent, and only 35.4% in 2000. On the other hand, the percentage of all recent Mexican immigrants in North Carolina in 1990 was 0.3% as compared with 4.0% in 2000.

Book Review Of Laud Humphreys: Prophet Of Homosexuality And Sociology By John F. Galliher, Wayne H. Brekhus, And David P. Keys, Stephen Valocchi

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

As an undergraduate sociology major, the only thing I learned about Oklahoman Laud Humphreys's classic, Tearoom Trade (1970) was how it violated standards of informed consent in social science research. As Galliher, Brekhus, and Keys recount in their biography, Laud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology, sociology graduate student Laud Humphreys needed to supplement his (quite likely, participant) observational research of men who had sex in public bathrooms (i.e., tearooms) in St. Louis in the mid-1960s with a formal questionnaire. Knowing that these men would never agree if they knew they were selected because of their participation in highly …

Book Review Of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?": Aboriginal Communities, Restorative Justice, And The Challenges Of Conflict And Change By Jane Dickson-Gilmore And Carol La Prairie, Tim Quigley

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Over the past decade or two, restorative justice has become a popular approach for the criminal justice system to take in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. In part, this is due in all three countries to an appalling disproportionality in the incarceration rates for racialized minorities. As the authors of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" point out, however, governments have been attracted to restorative justice for cost-cutting reasons as well. A burning question, therefore, is whether restorative justice works.

Book Review Of Improved Earth: Prairie Space As Modern Artefact, 1869-1944 By Rod Bantjes, Arn Keeling

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

In this short but suggestive study, sociologist Rod Bantjes examines how contending visions of modernity shaped the social and physical landscapes of the Canadian prairies. "[B]oth statesmen and prairie farmers were infused with the modernist spirit of innovation, the will creatively (and destructively) to transform their worlds," Bantjes argues. His provocative view of farmers as agents of modernity reflects recent scholarship that seeks to explore "multiple modernities," or the notion that ideas and practices of modernism must be regarded not as monolithic but rather as contested and multivocal, and must be examined in their historical and geographical contexts.

The Future Of International Law Is Domestic (Or, The European Way Of Law), William W. Burke-White, Anne-Marie Slaughter

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Factors Influencing Soil Invertebrate Communities In Riparian Grasslands Of The Central Platte River Floodplain, Craig A. Davis, Jane E. Austin, Deborah A. Buhl

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

In the Platte River Valley of central Nebraska, USA, riparian grasslands (also known as wet meadows) have been severely impacted by a reduction in river flows, causing lower ground-water levels and altered seasonal hydroperiods. The potential impacts of these hydrologic changes, as well as the environmental factors that influence wet meadow soil invertebrate communities, are not well understood. An understanding of the ecological processes that influence these invertebrate communities is crucial for maintaining and restoring wet meadows along the Platte River. Our objectives were to describe the soil invertebrate community of wet meadows throughout the growing season and to examine …

Factors Influencing Soil Invertebrate Communities In Riparian Grasslands Of The Central Platte River Floodplain, Craig A. Davis, Jane E. Austin, Deborah A. Buhl

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

In the Platte River Valley of central Nebraska, USA, riparian grasslands (also known as wet meadows) have been severely impacted by a reduction in river flows, causing lower ground-water levels and altered seasonal hydroperiods. The potential impacts of these hydrologic changes, as well as the environmental factors that influence wet meadow soil invertebrate communities, are not well understood. An understanding of the ecological processes that influence these invertebrate communities is crucial for maintaining and restoring wet meadows along the Platte River. Our objectives were to describe the soil invertebrate community of wet meadows throughout the growing season and to examine …

Managed Democracy, Market Economy Or The Dichotomy Of Russia’S Political Economy, Evgenia A. Ustinova

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis examines the present day nature of Russian political and economic developments. The argument put forward is that President Putin has deliberately chosen a course of market economy, managed democracy – whereby an through an increasingly potent state and executive branch, Putin ensures sustainable growth for the Russian economy. Good economic performance ensures that the President is popular with the voters, no matter that his policies are designed to curtail democracy. The author concludes that current political and economic dichotomy will result in further development of the economy and eventual movement towards democratic ideals.

Kidnapping Terrorists: Extraterritorial Forcible Abductions In The Global War On Terrorism, Matthew R. Mcnabb

Honors Capstone Projects - All

For those who have an interest in targeting, neutralizing, detaining, and adjudicating terrorists amidst the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), few tools are more poorly understood than the acquisition and subsequent movement of the alleged terrorists. Rendition is that process by which the body of an individual is taken from State A to State B. It may occur in either a “regular” or an “irregular” form. Regular rendition occurs when the individual is moved pursuant to the express terms and procedures of a given extradition treaty. Irregular rendition, on the other hand, is principally comprised of the rare instances in …

Representation Of Middle Eastern Culture Through Belly Dance In The Us, Elisabeth Johnson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In light of the myriad misunderstandings about the Middle East and its people, this paper will seek to analyze how Middle Eastern culture has been represented in the US through the art of belly dance. This project examines what is currently known about the roots of belly dance, especially in relation to how such origins may be presented within the dance, and the first exposures that the American public may have had to belly dance through literary accounts, theatre, and design in the late 19^th century and the early 20^th century. The representative accuracy and impact of these …

The Food Fight Between The United States And Europe: Why Gmos Divide The West, Sarah A. Delude

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have quickly become an abundant source of food, especially in the United States. But as GMOs have grown, Europeans have raised major concerns over health and environment issues posed by GMOs. In 1998 the European Union imposed a moratorium restricting the approval of any new GMOs in Europe. But the United States saw this as a block to free and fair trade and has taken a case up with the World Trade Organization to resolve the matter. The final decision is past due, but the EU has already lifted the moratorium. Instead, it has imposed rules …

Understanding Al-Qaeda: History, Ideology And Infrastructure, Sarah Dickens

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Understanding al-Qaeda: History, Ideology, and Infrastructure is a critical analysis of the formation and evolution of the global terrorist organization commonly referred to as al-Qaeda. The work provides a foundation for understanding al-Qaeda’s operations and organizational strategies by detailing its historical origins, ideological framework, and infrastructural installations.

The thesis is divided into three segments, each containing two chapters. The first segment is devoted to a discussion of al-Qaeda’s historical formation. The initial chapter relies on the investigation of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the hunt for terrorist Ramzi Yousef as a point of departure in understanding al-Qaeda. This …

Review Of Weather Extremes Of The West By Tye W. Parzybok, John Nielsen-Gammon

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Some books can serve multiple purposes. Weather Extremes of the West is one of them- well suited for use as a resource for middle school and high school students, as a good read for any self-proclaimed weather nut or person fascinated by the weather, and as a bathroom book fit for sporadic bursts of reading spread out over several months.

Review Of Wildflowers Of Montana By Donald Anthony Schiemann, Clayton Mccracken

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Wildflowers of Montana is in the stack of books I take on botanizing expeditions. At bedtime one or two pages read as I fall asleep ends the day nicely. The book is well designed as a quick reference to 350 of Montana's best flowering plants.

Review Of Biological Control Of Invasive Plants In The United States Edited By Eric M. Coombs, Janet K. Clark, Gary L. Piper, And Alfred F. Cofrancesco, Jr., Andrew Norton

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

As pointed out in the volume's introduction, biological weed control is an increasingly important tool for managing invasive plants on public and private lands at a time when this strategy is under increasing scrutiny over real (and perceived) threats to native pants and ecosystems. The volume updates and expands upon Biological Control of Weeds in the West (1996) and should be considered an essential reference for policy makers, land managers, students, and researchers involved with biological weed control throughout North America.

Review Of Grasslands: Toward A North American Conservation Strategy By David A. Gauthier, Alberto Lafon, Theodore P. Toombs, Jugen Hoth, And Ed Wiken, David Gibson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

In this short book the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America (CEC) outlines its vision for conserving the central grasslands. The CEC is a trinational organization created under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) by Canada, Mexico, and the United States to address regional environmental concerns.

Reducing Smooth Sumac Dominance In Native Tallgrass Prairie, Susan Tunnell, James L. Stubbendieck, Sal Palazzolo, Robert Masters

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra L.) is a resprouting shrub native to the tallgrass prairie region that increases in density without an active disturbance regime. Our objective was to use prescribed fire and herbicides to decrease smooth sumac density as a strategy to improve a degraded tall grass prairie remnant. In two separate experiments repeated in space and time, we used prescribed fire in combination with herbicides at various rates and two application methods to develop an effective management scheme for reducing smooth sumac. We used a randomized complete block design with 13 herbicide treatments and a control with three …

Review Of Species At Risk: Using Economic Incentives To Shelter Endangered Species On Private Lands Edited By Jason F. Shogren, Mace Hack

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Consider the fact that approximately 80% of the species listed as endangered or threatened in the United States rely in part or completely on privately owned lands for their survival. For residents of the Great Plains, this statement certainly rings true. Most Great Plains states have public land ownership percentages below 10%, ranking among the lowest in the nation. And although we lack the abundance of listed species "enjoyed" by some of our neighbors, those we do have could not possibly subsist on the scattered fragments of suitable habitat found on public lands. Species-at-risk conservation, in the Great Plains especially, …

Review Of Civic Communion: The Rhetoric Of Community Building By David E. Proctor, Brett Zollinger

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

David Proctor advances the concept of "civic communion" as both a useful heuristic and a process. As the former, it supplies the community researcher and development practitioner with a "lens" for understanding the community scene. As a process, Proctor argues, it constructs and reinforces community. He defines civic communion as "community-coalescing events that establish and open an ethical rhetorical space for creating, crystallizing, and organizing community-building talk," those "collective moments of intense, yet transitory praise for community . . . [and] moments of enthusiastic praise for local community structures." His book sheds social interaction/constructionist light on the phenomenon of community.

Review Of The Settlement Of The American Continents: A Multidisciplinary Approach To Human Biogeography Edited By C. Michael Barton, Geoffrey A. Clark, David R. Yesner, And Georges A. Pearson, Steven Holen

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Organized into three sections-"The First Settlers," "The Trail to the Americas," and "The Land and People Transformed"- The Settlement of the American Continents: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human Biogeography is one of the latest edited volumes on the subject of the peopling of the Americas. Between the editors' introduction and closing, chapters by a number of authors offer diverse views of the early peopling event from the disciplines of physical anthropology, linguistics, genetics, ecological anthropology/archaeology, and paleontology. The volume is well edited, containing copious notes and a good bibliography.

Bison And The Food Distribution Program On Indian Reservations, David Lulka

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

In recent years, bison products have been incorporated into the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). This paper examines the factors leading up to this particular development and the structural problems that have yet to be resolved within the program. Altogether, the findings illustrate that cultural traditions, health problems, and economic concerns instigated the federal government to embark upon this new policy. Unfortunately, while the program has responded to tribal demands in certain respects, it has not resolved underlying structural inequalities between tribal and nontribal communities. In particular, the FDPIR does not acknowledge the problematic nature of production-consumption networks …

Grazing And Military Vehicle Effects On Grassland Soils And Vegetation, John A. Guretzky, Alan Anderson, Jeffrey Fehmi

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Vehicle training, a common disturbance of military lands, is part of a suite of land uses that also includes cattle grazing. Yet, no studies have examined their interaction. Our objective was to review the effects of vehicle training and grazing on grassland soils and vegetation and develop a state-and-transition model that incorporates grazing and training for Fort Hood, TX. Both grazing and training can cause soil compaction and vegetation disturbance, altering hydrology and increasing erosion. While the effects of grazing largely depend on stocking rate, vehicle training causes greater disturbance when wet soils are driven on, when vehicles are turned …

Review Of One House: The Unicameral's Progressive Vision For Nebraska By Charlyne Berens, James Johnson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This is a book that needed to be written-a valuable, though flawed, addition to the literature on Nebraska's unique legislative body. It is the first addition to research on the Nebraska Legislature in some time and presents a new approach to the subject: has the Unicameral lived up to the promises of its founders? The answer is, by and large, yes.

Review Of On Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes Of North America By Michael Forsberg, Dale Hjertaas

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Michael Forsberg is a gifted photographer. I opened this book for a quick look, saw the first photograph, a stunning full-page photo of a dancing Sandhill crane leaping for the sky, and did not put the book down until I had looked at everyone of its 154 photographs. Particularly beautiful is a two-page photograph silhouetting a dozen Sandhill cranes against a golden sky, their legs extended, preparing to land at a roost along the Platte. Through the photographs Forsberg shows us the places where cranes live and gives us a look into their lives, capturing copulation, hatching, chick rearing, feeding, …

Review Of Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status Of United States Species Edited By Michael Lanoo, William Duellman

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Since 1989, biologists and conservationists have become concerned about the worldwide decline of amphibians, especially frogs. What species are declining? Where? Why? What can we do about it? These questions, easy to ask but difficult to answer, are broadly addressed in this thick tome containing the contributions of 215 individuals, many of whom have spent years gathering information pertinent to their discussions. The book is divided into two major parts-"Conservation Essays" and "Species Accounts." In the former are essays on declines, causes, conservation, education, surveys, and monitoring. Each species account of an amphibian known from the United States has sections …

Great Plains Research Volume 16, Issue 1, Spring 2006: Front And Back Matter, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Front and back matter from the spring 2006 issue (volume 16, issue 1) of the scholarly journal Great Plains Research.

A Delicate Balance: Rainfall And Groundwater In Nebraska During The 2000-2005 Drought, Mark Burbach, R. Matthew Joeckel

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Recent decreases in rainfall and the accompanying decreases in groundwater levels since 1999 indicate heightened vulnerability to drought in Nebraska and the surrounding Great Plains. Precipitation across Nebraska during 2000-2005 ranged from 72% to 108% of the 30-year normal value, with fully 90% of 150 stations reporting below-normal precipitation. Simultaneously, groundwater levels declined more than 9 m in the most heavily impacted areas, most of which were already experiencing declines due to extensive irrigation development and low recharge rates. Thus, recovery from the drought and long-term intensive land use will be particularly challenging in densely irrigated areas of Nebraska. In …

Hydrological Effects And Groundwater Fluctuations In Interdunal Environments In The Nebraska Sandhills, David Gosselin, Venkataramana Sridhar, F. Edwin Harvey, James Goeke

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Nine years of groundwater monitoring data has documented the important influence that topographic relief and location in the groundwater flow system have on the hydrologic function of interdunal valleys. The western "wet" valley at the Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory in central Nebraska, which is a net discharge area, is more strongly buffered from the effects of annual-scale climatic variability than the eastern "dry" valley. The east valley is generally an area of net recharge and as such is more responsive to climatic variability. This study employed a simple water balance approach to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) from water level measurements in the …

Ecophysiolgoical Responses Of Schizachyrium Scoparium To Water And Nitrogen Manipulations, Amy Kochsiek, Veronica Ciganda, Neal Bryan, Lena Hite, Tala Awada

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Nitrogen is increasing in terrestrial ecosystems as a result of agricultural practices and the burning of fossil fuels. This increase is expected to be accompanied by changes in water availability due to global warming. We examined the effects of nitrogen and water manipulations on Schizachyrium scoparium, one of the dominant grasses in the Great Plains. Schizachyrium scoparium responded positively to watering, with an increase in photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, water and nitrogen use efficiencies, and water potential. Under watered conditions, fertilization had no significant effect on measured parameters, except for nitrogen-use efficiency. Significant differences appeared between fertilized and nonfertilized plants …