Other Sociology Commons^™

Officer Use Of Force: A Multicase Study Of Institutional Betrayal, Margarita Mcauliffe

Theses & Dissertations

Law enforcement officers in the United States are authorized to utilize force (Alpert & MacDonald, 2001); however, the use of force can cause physical and emotional trauma to the person against whom it is used, and to the person’s loved ones (WHO, 2002; Bloom, 2012; APA, 2013). The needs and rights of traumatized individuals must be addressed for healing to occur (U.S. DOJ, 2013). It was not known if the needs and rights of the survivors of officer use of force were being met. Filling a gap in the literature, this exploratory multicase study investigated 5 use-of-force incidents with demographically …

Gender, Gender Roles And Academic Success In Diverse College Students, Noelle Rowe

Honors Capstone Projects - All

More than ever before, college serves as an important entity to further an individual’s personal and professional goals. An interesting pattern has emerged: women are outpacing men in college enrollment, as well as in degree attainment. Hegemonic masculinity serves as one of many theories to explain this gender gap. Additionally, little research has focused on the topic of hegemonic masculinity exhibited by men of color. Thus, this study had three purposes: to understand the academic behavior and achievement of racially diverse college students, understand how hegemonic masculinity contributes to decreased academic achievement among males, and how hegemonic masculinity differs across …

Creativity And Budgeting: Improving The Budget Process With Creativity, Janet K. Stormes

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

In this master’s project I explore ways to improve a budget process by integrating the principles and tools of creativity and Creative Problem Solving. I do this by prototyping, testing, and revising a creativity-budget model. The creativity-budget prototype model was based on my professional experience in federal budgeting and a literature review on topics including governance, the budget process, stakeholders, collaboration, the impact of the budget process on the creativity of an organization, and the principles of creativity and creative problem solving. In July 2018, I tested the prototype model by conducting creativity-budget workshops in Myanmar. Based on my experience …

Making It Pay To Be A Fan: The Political Economy Of Digital Sports Fandom And The Sports Media Industry, Andrew Mckinney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a series of case studies and sociological examinations of the role that the sports media industry and mediated sport fandom plays in the political economy of the Internet. The Internet has structurally changed the way that sport fans access sport and accelerated the processes through which the capitalist actors in the sports media industry have been able to subsume them. The three case studies examined in this dissertation are examples of how digital media technologies have both helped fans become more active producers and consumers of sports and made the sports media industry an integral and vanguard …

The Politics Of Wounds, Jonathan Nash

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

What configuration of strategies and discourses enable the white male and settler body politic to render itself as simultaneously wounded and invulnerable? I contextualize this question by reading the discursive continuities between Euro-America’s War on Terror post-9/11 and Algeria’s War for Independence. By interrogating political-philosophical responses to September 11, 2001 beside American rhetoric of a wounded nation, I argue that white nationalism, as a mode of settler colonialism, appropriates the discourses of political wounding to imagine and legitimize a narrative of white hurt and white victimhood; in effect, reproducing and hardening the borders of the nation-state. Additionally, by turning to …

San Bernardino And Riverside County Foster Family Agency Social Workers' Awareness Of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, Cristin Elizabeth Campbell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking is a crime happening right in our own backyards. Social Workers are seeing this vulnerable population fall through the fingers of social services and into the clutches of traffickers at alarming rates. This research project analyzed San Bernardino and Riverside County Foster Family Agency Social Workers' Awareness of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking. This project was a quantitative exploratory research design. A paper survey was distributed to Foster Family Agency Social Workers within San Bernardino and Riverside County, California using a snowball sampling. A bivariate analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship that social work experience in …

What I Learned From Losing, Steven Zilberg

Culminating Projects in Social Responsibility

The main purpose of this document is to discuss the impact I made upon the St. Cloud community while running for Minnesota Senate as well as to serve as a reflection of what could have been if I won. In addition, I have included what caused me to enter the political realm. It is formatted as a culminating project/portfolio containing both a literature review as well as an appendix made up of surveys pertaining to balancing a budget, law enforcement, and immigration. Fundamental problems that I believe Minnesota residents need to care more about and focus their attention on are …

Explaining Animosity Towards The Roma: A Case Study Of Twitter Communication In Italy During The Refugee Crisis, Mayuko Nakatsuka

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Italy is known for hostile treatment of the Roma, one of the largest ethnic minority groups in Europe. This paper seeks to understand what is causing Italians to talk negatively about the Roma on Twitter. Statistical analysis is performed utilizing the data mined from Twitter along with other variables. The study finds that Roma population, foreign population, and number of refugees all have significant effects on the total number of tweets or the average negative sentiment of tweets. The results indicate that native Italians may group minority groups all together and regard them as “others”. Although the research design has …

The ‘Meanings’ And ‘Enactments’ Of Science And Technology: Ant-Mobilities’ Analysis Of Two Cases, Farrukh Chishtie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this work I study two cases involving practices of science and technology in the backdrop of related and recent curricular reforms in both settings. The first case study is based on the 2005 South Asian earthquake in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan which led to massive losses including large scale injuries and disabilities. This led to reforms at many levels ranging from disaster management to action plans on disability, including educational reforms in rehabilitation sciences. Local efforts to deal with this disaster led to innovative approaches such as the formation of a Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) model by a local NGO, which …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

On Equal Footing? A Study On How Adult Members Of The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Community (In The United States) Perceive That The Procurement, Use, Or Absence Of Assistive Technology Has Influenced Their Lives, Brad Andersen

Capstone Collection

Technology has changed each of our lives, that is certain. Findings from previous studies about assistive technology plus personal interviews and a survey were used for this interpretive phenomenological study. Interviews were conducted with people associated with the researcher’s work. Existing literature regarding assistive technology produced themes revolving around systemic policies & practices, various types of assistive technology, the users of assistive technology themselves (situation, age, circumstances, etc.), and the impact of assistive technology. The last theme is the focus of this qualitative study: how adult members of the Deaf and hard of hearing community’s lives have been affected by …

Death And Taxidermy: How The Process Of Taxidermy Ties In To Modern Society’S Discomfort With Death, Caitlin Monroe

History Undergraduate Theses

“Death and Taxidermy: How the Process of Taxidermy ties in to Modern Society’s Discomfort with Death” examines the relationship between current western discomfort with taxidermy and the strengthening relationship of companion animals with humans. This strengthening of the relationship is facilitating the rising level of grief that comes with losing a pet thus allowing that loss to equate to the loss of a family member. By dispelling the mystery surrounding the process by which a taxidermy specimen is made, where it comes from and why these specimens are vital to educational advancement in the museum, we can discuss why society …

Post-Truth Overexposure: Media Consumption And Confidence In Institutions, Nicholas Papazian

Sociology Senior Seminar Papers

Does increased consumption of media affect how the public views the institutions of government and media? This study analyzes the relationships between time spent consuming television and Internet, where a respondent gets their news from (television vs. Internet), and confidence in these institutions. I predict an inverse relationship between exposure to television and Internet and confidence in media and government. I further hypothesize that people who get their news primarily from the Internet have less confidence in these institutions than those who get their news from television. I test this relationship using a sample of 370 respondents from the 2016 …

Who’S In Charge Here? Exercising Authority In The Organization-Volunteer Relationship, Patricia A. Groble

ETD Archive

One facet of being a volunteer is the freedom to choose one’s work and schedule. When this ability to choose conflicts with the organization’s need to ensure that volunteers’ work activities fulfill its mission, it creates tension between staff members and volunteers and presents a challenge to the organization’s ability to exercise authority over its volunteers.

Existing research on volunteerism studies volunteer engagement, motivations, and best practices for managing volunteers, as well as how volunteers can be considered a sustainable resource. The volunteer management literature pays little attention, however, to authority’s role in the relationship between organizations and their volunteers. …

Dinjik Enjit Nerrzhrii (We Are Hunting For Moose): An Evaluation Of Tribal Co-Management In The Yukon Flats, Interior Alaska, Kelda E. Britton

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Gwich’in People of Interior Alaska have historically exercised self-governance in the Yukon Flats to protect traditional and customary use practices. A number of factors have challenged Gwich’in self-governance: land ownership in rural Alaska being under multiple jurisdictions, which has created complicated parameters for management of fish and wildlife; and the legal history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), which has created an arbitrary and fragmented management system. Despite these challenges, Alaska Native communities have been working to reassert their self-governance over important lands and resources. One example is the co-management arrangement between the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments …

A Little Dab Will Do Ya: An Exploration Of First Time Dabbers On Youtube, Christopher L. Coker

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis project is an in-depth examination of a rising subculture within cannabis users. With this research project, my aim was to explore and provide insight into the initial experiences of novice cannabis concentrate use as represented on YouTube while they are initiated into this emerging cannabis subculture. Referred to as “dabbing” or “dabs,” this highly potent and concentrated form of cannabis is being utilized by cannabis users to achieve greater highs and effects than those from the traditional cannabis flower. In this study I explored first-time “dabbers” by drawing from social media content in the form of YouTube videos …

Listening To Our Graduate Students' Feedback: Graduate Student Exit And Alumni Surveys, Alison W. Hong-Novotney

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Student and alumni surveys have become some of the most widely-used methods of assessment of student learning in higher education. While the majority of literature on student surveys and assessment focuses on undergraduate students, this study looks specifically at why graduate student exit and alumni surveys can be valuable tools within a comprehensive assessment plan. Listening to the feedback of current and former graduate students, and then acting upon that feedback, is crucial for the engagement and success of this unique population of students who bring their particular strengths and needs to their educational experiences. This study examined how master’s …

Fatally Female: A Study Of The Treatment Of Women In True Crime Narratives, Jessica R. Washak

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This thesis studies book-length literature from four cases of violent crime—the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947, the prosecution of O.J. Simpson by Deputy Assistant District Attorney Marcia Clark, the shooting at Columbine High School by Harris and Klebold, and the trial of American exchange student Amanda Knox for the murder of her roommate in Italy in 2007–in order to analyze the way in which authors characterize the women and events involved in each case. Regardless of their positioning to the crime, the women who are close to these cases are repeatedly criticized by those chronicling their actions for …

Live Thy Neighbor, Milica Njezic

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This project explored the concept of neighboring from the cultural perspectives of the Bosnian refugees and the researcher who is Bosnian herself. The goals were to answer several research questions: (1) what kinds of tensions do we battle in liminal spaces and how do they, grounded in culture, shape the way we communicate our roles as neighbors, (2) how do Bosnian immigrants perform neighboring, (3) what constitutes a good neighbor, and (4) what are the researcher’s personal stories and are those experiences shared with others? The author argues that neighboring is something we perform, that Bosnian co-participants show unconditional hospitality …

Social Conflict On The Seas: Links Between Overfishing-Induced Marine Fish Stock Declines And Forced Labor Slavery, Jessica L. Sparks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite media attention detailing labor abuses in fisheries, social-ecological systems research has largely failed to consider whether fish stock declines could be contributing to increases in forced labor slavery. Empirical fisheries data suggests, though not a ubiquitous response to declining stocks, many vessels will fish longer, farther from shore, and deeper in waters to maintain yields. This effort intensification increases production costs, and Brashares et al. (2014), consistent with slavery theory, posited cheap and/or unpaid labor as an approach to offset increasing costs and continue harvesting fish species at a rate otherwise cost-prohibitive.

Using fuzzy cognitive mapping - a participatory, …

The Famished Road: Oil Dependency And Socioeconomic Underdevelopment In The Niger Delta, Nelson Caban

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the social and political relationships between indigenous communities within the Nigerian Delta region and the Federal government regarding the management of petroleum resources and its implication for the general socioeconomic development of the Nigerian State. It investigates the correlation between the broader issues of sociocultural sovereignty, representation of ethnic minorities in the body politic and infrastructural development of the country. Furthermore, the thesis explores trends such as the development of native-led cultural institutions that foster the continuation of cultural praxis through the theoretical tropes of Globalization and Modernization.

Campus Climate Sexual Assault Survey (2015) Analysis, Felicia Rosin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The issue of sexual assault has garnered widespread attention in recent years, as is evident by the growing number of high-profile cases and mainstream social movements. With this increasingly bright spotlight, it is no surprise that The University of Akron has interest in improving the sexual violence education programs offered to students. In 2015, the university conducted a survey to gather information on the campus climate surrounding sexual assault. This analysis dives into a deeper analysis of the data gathered in an attempt to pinpoint areas that require the university’s attention. The analysis covers topics identified by Dean of Students …