Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons^™

Product Categories As Judgment Devices: The Moral Awakening Of The Investment Industry, Diane-Laure Arjalies

Business Publications

Product categories are more than classification devices that organize markets; when reflecting market actors' purposes, they are also judgment devices. Taking stock of the literature on product categories and drawing on the distinction between the faculties of knowing and judging, we elaborate a framework that accounts for how and why market actors include or exclude normative attributes in a product category definition. Based on a field study of the development of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds in France, we describe the phases and conditions of a judgment framework for category definition, for both established and nascent categories. We discuss implications …

Earth Alienation And Space Exploration: Uncharted Territory For Sociology, Sam Arroyo

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Ostrom Amongst The Machines: Blockchain As A Knowledge Commons, Herminio Bodon, Pedro Bustamante, Marcela Gomez, Prashabnt Krishnamurthy, Michael J. Madison, Ilia Murtazashvili, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, Tymofiy Mylovanov, Martin B. H. Weiss

Articles

Blockchains are distributed ledger technologies that allow the recording of any data structure, including money, property titles, and contracts. In this paper, we suggest that Hayekian political economy is especially well suited to explain how blockchain emerged, but that Elinor Ostrom’s approach to commons governance is particularly useful to understand why blockchain anarchy is successful. Our central conclusions are that the blockchain can be thought of as a spontaneous order, as Hayek anticipated, as well as a knowledge commons, as Ostrom’s studies of self-governance anticipated.

Integrating Sociological And Psychological Perspectives On Collective Efficacy, Michael Gearhart

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Collective efficacy is rooted in both psychology, and sociology. Discussions of the differences between the sociological and psychological conceptualization and operationalization of collective efficacy is limited. In psychology, collective efficacy reflects a group’s belief that collective action can be successful. In sociology, collective efficacy is a theory that describes the process by which social cohesion is activated as informal social control. Mutual efficacy was designed to incorporate the psychological concept of efficacy into collective efficacy theory. In this study, I conduct a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis to study the factor structure of social cohesion, mutual efficacy, and informal social control …

Is Blockchain The Next Step In The Evolution Chain Of [Market] Intermediaries?, Marcela Gomez, Pedro Bustamante, Martin B. H. Weiss, Ilia Murtazashvili, Michael J. Madison, Wilson Law, Tymofiy Mylovanov, Herminio Bodon, Prashabnt Krishnamurthy

Articles

The blockchain is a decentralized solution for handling transactions where we are concerned (among other aspects) with the accuracy and verification of transactions. One of its main promises is to eliminate the need for centralized entities or intermediaries and legal enforcement. Rather than trusting self-interested human intermediaries, the blockchain provides an alternative that relies on transparent computational protocols (Werbach 2018).

In this paper, we delve into this broker-less claim and analyze whether the blockchain needs an intermediary to allow for widespread access to its functionality and whether the blockchain itself is an intermediary. The latter would turn the blockchain into …

The Role Of Communication Accommodation In Mother-In-Law/Daughter-In-Law Relationships, Erin Claire Shelton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The goal of this thesis was to further the literature on mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships by directly employing Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) to examine relationships between categories of accommodation and relational quality in these relationships. Daughters-in-law (N= 677) were solicited via private Facebook groups to complete an online survey regarding accommodation (their own and their mothers-in-law’s), their feelings of shared family identity, and their relationship satisfaction in their relationship with their mothers-in-law. Results demonstrated relationships between mothers-in-law’s accommodation, overaccommodation, and underaccommodation of their daughters-in-law and daughters-in-law’s feelings of shared family identify and relationship satisfaction. Additionally, relationships were present between daughters-in-law’s …

Purpose, Power, Politics, Privilege, And Promise: A Review Of International Perspectives On Autoethnographic Research And Practice, Kay Aranda Dr

The Qualitative Report

This collection of international critical scholarship seeks to question, provoke, unsettle and reengage with changing understandings of autoethnography, its research and practices. In this review I share my reading of these contributions by highlighting important themes running throughout the book. These involve the shared but differently positioned vulnerabilities present in knowledge making, alongside desires for recognition, visibility or belonging. However, equally present are processes of misrecognition, silencing and othering resulting from unequal distributions of power and privilege. This book reaffirms how autoethnographic research may recognise vulnerabilities, but these are always more than individual suffering. Vulnerability becomes political. The scope and …

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Modified Cystoscopy Technique, Khalil Hetou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Introduction

Pain, anxiety and embarrassment are well documented feelings in patients undergoing ambulatory diagnostic cystoscopy. In this study, we explored utilizing Peak-end theory in improving pain perception in patients undergoing diagnostic cystoscopy.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a randomized clinical trial at the London Health Sciences Center for patients undergoing an ambulatory diagnostic cystoscopy for the first time. Males and females as well as allocation ratios were 1:1. The control arm received a standard cystoscopy. In the intervention arm the cystoscope was left for additional 2 minutes without further manipulation in the bladder before scope removal. The primary outcome was …

Portraits With A Posthumous Voice: Reinforcing And Contesting Social Norms In The Heterotopic Museum And Cemetery, Matthew J. Crissey

Museum Studies Theses

Abstract

The following paper qualitatively analyzes and documents over 500 memorial-photographs/etched portraits on tombstones in ten Western New York cemeteries. This paper covers fourteen topics, ranging from religion to gang-violence. A juxtaposition of portraits exhibited within the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery with memorial-portraits on tombstones revealed heterotopic environments creating a public forum enabling the reinforcing or contestation of social ideologies. In other words, the author observed the similarities of identities and social norms publicly expressed on tombstones and gallery portraits.

A Social Constructionist approach enabled the study to examine how one social phenomenon contributes to the shaping of a culture. …

Commons: Can This Be The Name Of ‘Thirdness’? (Revised), Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In 1995, a journal article asked if 'commons' might be the name of 'thirdness'. In this revision of that article the question is renewed and reintroduced. The concept of the commons and common goods still offer satisfactory ways to label and characterize voluntary action outside markets, states and households. Theory is said to be a problem of language. Language creativity, including the coining of various new terms is a characteristic part of the commons theory of voluntary action. The remaining challenge is how the concept of the commons can relate to the other side of the third sector - the …

Book Review: Theory For The Working Sociologist, Joseph Van Der Naald

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Community Initiatives Multiply University Partnerships, Christopher Lafontaine

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Christopher LaFontaine is a senior studying psychology and sociology at Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW). He has concentrated on community engagement and service learning as areas of focus for the past year. He plans to pursue a career in applied sociology and he has been involved with applied research among vulnerable populations. Christopher has worked with homeless veterans in Fort Wayne and has studied health conditions in a rural county that ranks low in health outcomes. In this article, he describes his experience with service-learning partnerships between community organizations and an institution of higher education.

The Evolution Of A Collaborative Network: Understanding Partnerships In A Policy Mandated Collaboration Through Social Network Analysis, Pallavi Singh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Federal funding agencies that administer financial support in the form of program grants to non-profit organizations (NPOs) that provide child and family services increasingly require NPOs to formalize inter-organizational partnerships in order to receive this vital source of funding. That is, by mandate NPOs must participate in inter-organizational collaboration networks to receive these essential federal funds. Therefore, there is a need to understand the collaboration behavior of NPOs in a policy-mandated environment. This study considers collaboration behavior as information sharing and advice-seeking between the organizations who are part of a collaboration network as a result of a policy mandate.

Drawing …

The Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis As A Problematic: Beyond "Falsificationism", Paul Erb

Masters Theses

Halfway into its third decade, the debate surrounding the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis has stalled with political economists and socio-ecologists ascendant and modernization theorists scrambling to give their apparently moribund perspective new life. But beyond the rise and fall of the EKC, there remains a second-order question and decades of data: how do the theoretical perspectives of these contenders shape what their protagonists do and don't see? How have they mistaken episodes of "talking past each other" for genuine dialogue? Which perspective has had the biggest impact on the other’s way of thinking? A qualitative and quantitative analysis compares …

Ideology Over Evidence? The Place Of Values Within The Safe Streets And Communities Act, Alyssa Holden

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the context of Canadian policymaking, the alleged ‘punitive turn’ demonstrated by the Harper government from 2006-2015 was extraordinary. Under this turn, punitiveness coincided with a rejection of empirical evidence (Kelly and Puddister, 2017; Doob and Webster, 2015 2016; Marshall, 2015; Newell, 2013 Mallea, 2010). The controversial bill, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, has been regarded as one of the most poignant examples of this rhetoric (Marshall, 2015; Newell, 2013). This thesis investigated the role of evidence and penal populism in policymaking through a content analysis of the legislative debates of the SSCA. Drawing on a neo-Weberian framework this …

The Intentional De-Cohesion In Deportability, Talha Issevenler

Publications and Research

A critical exploration of loss or decohesion of political agency in deportability.

The Park Is Open: An Ecofeminist Critique Of Universal's Jurassic World, Nichole R. Mchugh

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

This paper explores an interpretation of Universal Pictures,’ Jurassic World (2015), to identify naturalized representations of human relationships and human relationships to the environment. Using the concepts of scholar, Noel Sturgeon, the ideological significance of these representations comes down to what she defines as “Politics of The Natural”. Through this avenue, this analysis examines Jurassic World as a text and reflection of normalized environmental worldviews, attitudes and values; as well as how these determine where humans place in this “naturalized” hierarchy. This essay will discuss environmental themes in the film, first, through Jurassic World as a symbol for the western …

Robotic Reflection: An Exploration Of Humanity Through The Bodies Of Sex Robots, Audrey Pope

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sexuality and technology have long been recognized as markers of the human experience. The burgeoning industry of sex robots exists at the junction of these features, making sex robot technology both a highly intriguing and highly relevant subject of research. This study explores sex robots from a technical and a theoretical perspective, analyzing the potential impact of the technology on sexual relationships in the future. Data analysis proved an emphasis on embodiment in intimate relationships, which, combined with theories of sexuality, self formation, fear, and desire, proves the potential of sex robots to function not only as the future of …

Anti-Queer Microaggressions Towards Queer Black Men, Camisha D. Fagan, Anna Smedley-López

McNair Poster Presentations

Microaggressions are reoccurring derogatory messages that degrade and/ or discredit one’s identity. While invisible and unknown to many, they remain visible and apparent to those impacted by them. The research questions for this project are: (1) What microaggressions do Queer Black men experience within larger society? (2) To contrast with larger society, what microaggressions do Queer Black men experience within Black communities? By conducting focus groups, I will examine the intersectional microaggressions that Queer Black males experience in their own community, as well as document microaggression that they experience in larger society. After conducting my focus groups, I will be …

Intercultural Coworker Relationships (Icors) In The Global Workplace: A Grounded Theory Study, Jennifer L. Morton

Dissertations

Previous research supports what employees intuitively sense: peers make the place (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008; Schneider, 1987). Extant research suggests coworker relationships have critical influence on outcomes ranging from turnover (Felps, Mitchell, Hekman, Lee, Holtom, & Harman, 2009) to creativity (Homan, Buengeler, Eckhoff, van Ginkel, & Voelpel, 2015) to organizational commitment (Viswesvaran & Ones, 2002) to employee health and well-being (Heaphy & Dutton, 2008). Despite the increase of Intercultural COworker Relationships (ICORs), particularly in multinational firms in the technology industry, research has yet to examine what defines coworker relationship quality in the presence of national cultural differences. In other words, …