Sociology Commons^™

The Emerging Adulthood Gap: Integrating Emerging Adulthood Into Life Course Criminology, Christopher Salvatore

Christopher Salvatore

The aim of this study is to provide a theoretical mechanism, the ‘emerging adulthood gap,’ to integrate emerging adulthood into the life course or developmental area of criminological theory. This paper will present the ‘what’ of the emerging adulthood gap by introducing the concept and integrating it into existing theoretical paradigms, the ‘how’ by examining how social circumstances have altered the life course leading to the evolution of emerging adulthood as a distinct stage of the life course and to the ‘emerging adulthood gap,’ and the ‘why’ of the ‘emerging adulthood gap’ by discussing the decreased level of informal social …

Using Qualitative Behaviour Assessment To Investigate Human-Animal Relationships In Zoo-Housed Giraffes (Giraffa Camelopardalis), Freisha Patel, Françoise Wemelsfelder, Samantha J. Ward

Françoise Wemelsfelder, PhD

Human-Animal Relationships (HAR) in zoos develop from repeated interactions between animals and their caretakers. HAR have been shown to affect health and welfare in farm animals, but limited zoo-based studies exist. This study investigates the association between the qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA) of emotional expression in giraffes and keeper action score in four types of keeper-animal interaction (KAI). Three giraffes generating 38 clips. QBA, using a free-choice profiling methodology, was applied instructing 18 observers to assess giraffe expressions shown in these clips. QBA scores were analysed using Generalized Procrustes Analysis. Keeper actions during each KAI event were rated by an …

“We Always Hurt The Things We Love”—Unnoticed Abuse Of Companion Animals, Bernard E. Rollin

Bernard Rollin, PhD

Despite the fact that companion animals enjoy the status of “members of the family” in contemporary society, there are numerous diseases affecting the longevity of these animals and their quality of life. Some of the most pervasive and damaging problems accrue to pedigreed animals whose genetic lines contain many major and severe diseases which are detrimental to both the quality and length of life. If one considers the most popular dog breeds in the United States, the top 10 include the Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, French Bulldog, Beagle, Poodle, Rottweiler, Yorkshire Terrier, and German Shorthaired Pointer. Some idea …

Was Jack The Ripper A Slaughterman? Human-Animal Violence And The World’S Most Infamous Serial Killer, Andrew Knight, Katherine D. Watson

Andrew Knight, PhD

Hundreds of theories exist concerning the identity of “Jack the Ripper”. His propensity for anatomical dissection with a knife—and in particular the rapid location and removal of specific organs—led some to speculate that he must have been surgically trained. However, re-examination of a mortuary sketch of one of his victims has revealed several aspects of incisional technique highly inconsistent with professional surgical training. Related discrepancies are also apparent in the language used within the only letter from Jack considered to be probably authentic. The techniques he used to dispatch his victims and retrieve their organs were, however, highly consistent with …

Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses To Dog-Walking And Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions, Lauren Powell, Kate M. Edwards, Adrian Bauman, Adam J. Guastella, Bradley Drayton, Emmanuel Stamatakis, Paul Mcgreevy

Paul McGreevy, PhD

Several studies suggest human–dog interactions elicit a positive effect on canine oxytocin concentrations. However, empirical investigations are scant and the joint influence of human–dog interaction and physical activity remains unexplored. The aims of the current study were to (a) examine the canine endogenous oxytocin response to owner-led dog-walking and affiliative human–dog interactions and (b) investigate the moderating effect of the owner-reported strength of the human–dog bond on such responses. Twenty-six dogs took part in a random order cross-over trial, involving dog-walking and human–dog interactions. Urinary samples were collected before and after each condition. The data were analyzed using linear mixed …

Networked Human, Network’S Human: Humans In Networks Inter-Asia, Eric Kerr, Connor Graham, Alfred Montoya

Alfred Montoya

This special issue explores the conceptions of the human that emerge out of the form and the design of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Geographically, our focus compares two countries with a relatively high level of ICT penetration—South Korea and Singapore—and two countries with a relatively low level—India and Vietnam. In each country we see how different forms of the human emerge, in part out of the ways in which technological infrastructure develop and intertwine with social order. In this introduction we reflect on the long genealogy of “human” and “humanity” and the more recent history of ICTs in Asia.

The Force Of Absent Things: Hiv/Aids, Pepfar Vietnam, And The Afterlife Of Aid, Alfred Montoya

Alfred Montoya

This article examines emerging strategies employed by nongovernmental organizations working in HIV/AIDS prevention and control in Vietnam that have been put to work in the recent past in the context of precipitous declines in US funding for such work through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). These strategies foreground specific personalities in an instrumentalization of experience, expert knowledges, and identity in a delicate balance between projecting strength and indicating urgent need. These strategies are played out in the realm of social media, facilitated through information communications technologies (ICTs) that are quickly restructuring forms of sociality and the tradecraft …

Death In Life And Life In Death: Forms And Fates Of The Human, Connor Graham, Alfred Montoya

Alfred Montoya

This chapter traces the origins, meanings and characteristics of “the human” in recent time – its forms. The chapter contends that, instead of being immutable, “the human” has taken different forms, been ascribed different meanings, and exhibited different characteristics over time. Our approach to “the human” contributes to this volume on digital existence, which confronts existential questions centered on being and technology, with historical and anthropological awareness. We aim to show, through Foucault’s (1971 ) insistence upon the forms of subjectivity as opposed to its substance, how understandings of “the human” are subject to change and transformation. Exploring these diverse …

Ecology Of Conflict: Marine Food Supply Affects Human-Wildlife Interactions On Land, Kyle A. Artelle, Sean Anderson, John D. Reynolds, Andrew B. Cooper, Paul C. Paquet, Chris T. Darimont

Chris Darimont, PhD

Human-wildlife conflicts impose considerable costs to people and wildlife worldwide. Most research focuses on proximate causes, offering limited generalizable understanding of ultimate drivers. We tested three competing hypotheses (problem individuals, regional population saturation, limited food supply) that relate to underlying processes of human-grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) conflict, using data from British Columbia, Canada, between 1960–2014. We found most support for the limited food supply hypothesis: in bear populations that feed on spawning salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), the annual number of bears/km2killed due to conflicts with humans increased by an average of 20% (6–32% [95% CI]) for each 50% …

What Is The Use Of The Colonial Model (Or, Better Yet, The Concept Of Coloniality) For Studying Appalachia?, Jacob L. Stump

Jacob Stump

No abstract provided.

The Practitioner, The Priest, And The Professor: Perspectives On Self-Initiation In The American Neopagan Community, Marty Laubach, Louis Martinie’, Roselinda Clemons

Marty Laubach

Initiation is a religious practice that is generally understood as involving socialization and acceptance into a religious community, but American Neopaganism, with its emphasis on individualism and autonomy, has evolved a meaning that challenges that simple understanding. American Neopagan communities are marketplaces of ideas that are comprised of groups and solo practitioners, all in interaction in which they might conduct main holidays together, but not necessarily work together in what they would consider more “serious” practices in which they receive the spirit communications with which they develop the ideas. Among groups, these practices include initiations through which candidates are trained …

Paranormal Activity In West Virginia, Marty Laubach

Marty Laubach

Follow the Mountain State Spirit Seekers Society as they hunt ghosts at Moundsville State Prison; bigfoot hunters in Dolly Sods with Virginia Sasquatch Watch; and Point Pleasant's mysterious Mothman.

The Social Effects Of Psychism: Spiritual Experience And The Construction Of Privatized Religion, Marty Laubach

Marty Laubach

What is the relationship between spiritual experiences and privatized religion? This study defines spiritual experiences in terms of “psychism,” or psychic intrusions in the stream of consciousness that are not perceived by the actor as originating within the “self.” Intrusions interpreted as psychism are regarded by the actor as having the same facticity as empirical experience and are regarded as “proof” of an esoteric belief system. Psychism originated beliefs are therefore resistant to refutation or change, and support spiritual autonomy. Psychism theory is tested using 1988 GSS data on religious beliefs, where psychism is measured using GSS questions on “paranormal” …

Gu 2018.Pdf, Chien-Juh Gu

Chien-Juh Gu

Living With 'Risky' Bodies, Simanti Dasgupta

Simanti Dasgupta

In Kolkata, female sex workers’ well-being is overshadowed by practices and conceptions around HIV/AIDS. This article describes an outreach program designed to prevent the spread of HIV infections through condom programming based on a public health initiative, Sonagachi HIV/AIDS Intervention Program (SHIP). However, the identification of female sex workers as a high-risk group for HIV has compounded their existing struggle in which the state medical regime now construes and constructs the women as "risky" bodies in need of targeted intervention. High-risk group status has conferred a kind of hyper-visibility on female sex workers -- unthinkable were it not for the …

Fat Vegan Politics: A Survey Of Fat Vegan Activists’ Online Experiences With Social Movement Sizeism, Corey Lee Wrenn

Corey Lee Wrenn, PhD

The author examines the consequences of stigma strategies in vegan activism as it is experienced by fat vegan activists. The fat politics of veganism in online spaces is examined in data provided by a 2016 qualitative survey of fat-identified vegan activists. Results highlight the subjective experiences of fat vegans, illuminating the meaning of healthism, sizeism, and thin-privilege in vegan social justice spaces. Sizeism is a significant concern for fat vegan activists as respondents report only medium-level feelings of comfort and community, with one in four reporting having experienced fat discrimination in the movement. Most indicate that online vegan spaces feel …

International Migration In Macro-Perspective: Bringing Power Back In, Marcel Paret, Shannon Gleeson

Shannon Gleeson

This paper challenges the inward looking perspective of recent immigration research by situating migration to the United States within a global and historical context. This macro-stratification perspective breaks out of the confines of national contexts to explore how international migration is shaped by global power divides. We argue that in order to fully understand international migration, it is necessary to account for both the emergence of global power structures and the historical domination of Europe. We develop our argument by first outlining the significance of global power divides, with a particular focus on the United States. We then demonstrate how …

Health Coverage Expansion For The Undocumented And Potential Impacts For Unaccompanied Migrant Youth And Families In California, Óscar G. Gil-García

Óscar F. Gil-García

Health Coverage Expansion For The Undocumented And Potential Impacts For Unaccompanied Migrant Youth And Families In California, Óscar F. Gil-García, Kalissa Sawyer

Óscar F. Gil-García

Food Justice Youth Development: Using Photovoice To Study Urban School Food Systems, Krista Harper, Catherine Sands, Diego Angarita, Molly Totman, Monica Maitin, Jonell Sostre Rosado, Jazmin Colon, Nick Alger

Catherine Sands

Undocumented Fears: Immigration And The Politics Of Divide And Conquer In Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Jamie Longazel

Jamie Longazel

The Illegal Immigration Relief Act (IIRA), passed in the small rust-belt city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in 2006, was a local ordinance that laid out penalties for renting to or hiring undocumented immigrants and declared English the city’s official language. The notorious IIRA gained national prominence and kicked off a parade of local and state-level legislative initiatives designed to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

In Undocumented Fears, Jamie Longazel uses the debate around Hazleton’s controversial ordinance as a case study that reveals the mechanics of contemporary divide-and-conquer politics. He shows how neoliberal ideology, misconceptions about Latina/o immigrants, and nostalgic imagery …

Why “Good Welfare” Isn’T “Good Enough”: Minding Animals And Increasing Our Compassionate Footprint, Marc Bekoff

Marc Bekoff, PhD

In this brief essay I take a broad perspective on the notion of unraveling welfare and consider animals living in different conditions ranging from caged individuals in laboratories and zoos to free-living or almost free-living wildlife. I’ll step outside of the laboratory because billions of animals are slaughtered for food in an industry that tortures them on the way to their reprehensible deaths and at the places at which they are slaughtered. Furthermore, government agencies around the world kill millions of free-living and wild animals because they’re supposedly “pests”. This is a different sort of essay but I hope it …

Bits Of Belonging:Information Technology, Water, And Neoliberal Governance In India, Simanti Dasgupta

Simanti Dasgupta

India’s global success in the Information Technology industry has also prompted the growth of neoliberalism and the re-emergence of the middle class in contemporary urban areas, such as Bangalore. BITS of Belonging shows that this economic shift produces new forms of social inequality while reinforcing older ones. The study investigates this economic disparity by looking at IT and water privatization to explain how these otherwise unrelated domains correspond to our thinking about citizenship, governance, and belonging. The ethnographic study in this book shows how work and human processes in the IT industry intertwine to meet the market stipulations of the …

Culture, Reform Politics, And Future Directions: A Review Of China’S Animal Protection Challenge, Peter J. Li, Gareth Davey

Peter J. Li, PhD

Incidents of animal abuse in China attract worldwide media attention. Is China culturally inclined to animal cruelty, or is the country’s development strategy a better explanation? This article addresses the subject of animal protection in China, a topic that has been ignored for too long by Western China specialists. A review of ancient Chinese thought asks whether China lacks a legacy of compassion for animals. The article then considers how China’s reform politics underlie the animal welfare crisis. Through its discussion of the welfare crisis impacting nonhuman animals in China, this paper sheds light on the enormity of the country’s …

Urban Sprawl, Patrick G. Donnelly

Patrick Donnelly

In the early 21st century, urban sprawl continues to be a source of considerable controversy and political debate, yet many Americans quietly accept sprawl. They express their acceptance by moving farther away from central cities into housing and business developments on land that was formerly rural and undeveloped. While a significant number of suburban communities have existed in the United States since the late 19th century, the greatest growth in suburbs occurred after World War II.

At the dawn of the 20th century, the suburban population represented less than 12 percent of the total U.S. population. By 1950, that figure …

The Juarez Wives Club: Gendered Citizenship And Us Immigration Law, Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Activism After Daca: Lessons From Chicago's Immigrant Youth Justice League, Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Slavery And Freedom In Theory And Practice, David Watkins

David Watkins

Slavery has long stood as a mirror image to the conception of a free person in republican theory. This essay contends that slavery deserves this central status in a theory of freedom, but a more thorough examination of slavery in theory and in practice will reveal additional insights about freedom previously unacknowledged by republicans. Slavery combines imperium (state domination) and dominium (private domination) in a way that both destroys freedom today and diminishes opportunities to achieve freedom tomorrow. Dominium and imperium working together are a greater affront to freedom than either working alone. However, an examination of slavery in practice, …

Forty-Two Thousand And One Dalmatians: Fads, Social Contagion, And Dog Breed Popularity, Harold A. Herzog

Harold Herzog, PhD

Like other cultural variants, tastes in companion animals (pets) can shift rapidly. An analysis of American Kennel Club puppy registrations from 1946 through 2003 (N = 48,598,233 puppy registrations) identified rapid but transient large-scale increases in the popularity of specific dog breeds. Nine breeds of dogs showed particularly pronounced booms and busts in popularity. On average, the increase (boom) phase in these breeds lasted 14 years, during which time annual new registrations increased 3,200%. Equally steep decreases in registrations for the breeds immediately followed these jumps in popularity. The existence of extreme fluctuations in preferences for dog breeds has implications …

Attitudes And Dispositional Optimism Of Animal Rights Demonstrators, Shelley L. Galvin, Harold A. Herzog

Harold Herzog, PhD

Mail-in surveys were distributed to animal activists attending the 1996 March for the Animals. Age and gender demographic characteristics of the 209 activists who participated in the study were similar to those of the 1990 March for the Animals demonstrators. Most goals of the animal rights movement were judged to be moderately to critically important, although beliefs about their chances of being realized varied considerably. Movement tactics judged to be least effective included the liberation of laboratory animals and the harassment of researchers. Education was seen as being a particularly important instrument of future social change. Demonstrators' scores on the …