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Full-Text Articles in Other Sociology
Social Systems And Psychic Confluence: Flash Mobs, Communications, And Agency, Nicholas John Hauman
Social Systems And Psychic Confluence: Flash Mobs, Communications, And Agency, Nicholas John Hauman
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation involves two components: 1) an analysis of the history of flash mobs including detailed descriptions of specific flash mobs and 2) an exploration of what this analysis elucidates concerning the interaction between individuals and social structure. By focusing on the flash mob as a form of communication, the dissertation displays how the flash mob has communicated multiplicitously through various social systems (e.g. art, mass media, economy, politics) to achieve various and often divergent ends. Within this larger understanding of the interaction between flash mobs and social structure this dissertation also finds, through an application of Luhmannian systems theory, …
Egocentric Conversion Social Networks: Context, Process And Identity In Explaining Conversion To And Reversion From Islam In The United States, Sakin Erin
Theses and Dissertations--Sociology
This dissertation investigates conversion to Islam in the United States analyzing egocentric networks of 30 converts to Islam and that of 30 people in the control group. By comparing Michigan, where there is a large Muslim community, to Kentucky, where there is smaller community, it demonstrates that conversion occurs through weak Muslim ties in the former, while it occurs through strong ties in the latter. Conversion is a life changing event with lasting consequences on both the structure and composition of people’s egocentric social network. The egocentric social network data from prior-to-conversion and post-conversion indicate that conversion influences change in …