Digital Commons Network^™

Living Arrangement Patterns Among The Latino Population In New York City, Debora Upegui

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines living arrangement patters of racial/ethnic groups in New York City as of the year 2000 – particularly Latinos.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: New York State is the third ranking state in population and households in the country. Data for New York City (NYC) indicate that national patterns are not replicated when the number of family households …

Do Rural Land Markets Increase Inequality? Evidence From A Chinese Province, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Using a 2001 provincial survey, we find that disparities in land-rights distribution have greatly increased in rural China, and the growth of land markets is directly responsible for that. The land markets tend to concentrate land in those who can more efficiently use it. This translates disparities in land-rights distribution to magnified inequality in farm income. However, such widening disparities caused by land markets have compensatory effects on overall rural inequality, as land markets tend to bring up families who would fall at the bottom of income distribution in the absence of such markets. Expansion of markets, in this case, …

Democratization In Afghanistan, Chris Rowe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

What determines whether a specific country embarks on the road to democracy, if it completes that voyage successfully, and finally consolidates democratic values, practices, and institutions? Analysts have debated these issues for decades and have identified a number of historical, structural, and cultural variables that help account for the establishment of successful democracies in some countries and its absence in others. Frequently cited prerequisites for democracy include social and economic modernization; a large and vibrant middle class; and cultural norms and values relating to politics.

Ownership Structure, Investment Behaviour And Firm Performance In Japanese Manufacturing Industries, Eric Gedajlovic, Toru Yoshikawa, Motomi Hashimoto

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using data spanning the 1996-98 fiscal years of 247 of Japan's largest manufacturers, we empirically evaluate the extent to which a firm's investment behaviour and financial performance are influenced by its ownership structure. To do so, we examine six distinct categories of Japanese shareholders: foreign investors, investment funds, pension funds, banks and insurance companies, affiliated companies and insiders. Our findings strongly indicate that the relationship between the equity stakes of a particular category of investor and a firm' s financial performance and investment behaviour is considerably more complex than is depicted in simple principal-agent representations. Such a result emphasizes the …

A Hundred Flowers Bloom: The Reemergence Of The Chinese Press In Post-Suharto Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Western Corporate Forms And The Social Origin Of Chinese Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks, Wai Keung Chung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Servant-Leadership In A Changing Culture: Reflections On The Brazilian Context, Robson Moura Marinho

Faculty Publications

As in any other society, the principles of servant-leadership have an incontestable appeal to Brazilian corporate environment, but the term servant may not sound terribly attractive to people from the Brazilian culture. In fact, this is one of the struggles we face when spreading the servant-leadership philosophy among business corporations and Brazilian society at large. Recently, in a class on Leadership Teamwork for Masters students at University of Santo Amaro, in Sao Paulo, I strategically decided to explore the servant-leadership concept as the foundation of the course, so I outlined the topic on the course syllabus. As I introduced the …

Development Of Land Rental Markets In Rural Zhejiang: Growth Of Off-Farm Jobs And Institution Building, Qian Forrest Zhang, Qingguo Ma, Xu Xu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We employ survey data collected in 2001 in Zhejiang province to investigate patterns and determinants of land market development. Previous studies have noted the correlation between growth of off-farm jobs and rental-market development at the aggregate level, but failed empirically to demonstrate mechanisms at the disaggregate level. Our analyses find concrete evidence at the household level connecting developments in labour and land markets. Growth in off-farm jobs allow rural households to transfer labour out of farming and prompt them to relinquish land rights, generating a supply of land that drives rental activities. We also go beyond interactions between factor markets …

Measuring And Indigenizing Social Capital In Relation To Children's Street Work In Mexico: The Role Of Culture In Shaping Social Capital Indicators, Kristin M. Ferguson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Drawing from social capital theory, this study assessed the relevance of existing conceptions of social capital-largely from the United States and Canada-in the Mexican context, in an effort to contribute novel variables to the street-children literature. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 204 mothers of street-working and non-working children were interviewed within one community in Monterrey, Nuevo Le6n, Mexico. Factor analysis was used to corroborate the internal construct validity of two dimensions of social capital: family social capital and community social capital. Findings reveal that culture can play an influential role in how social capital indicators are defined and measured.

Economic Transition And New Patterns Of Parent-Adult Child Coresidence In Urban China, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study uses national data from the 1996 Life History and Social change in Contemporary China survey (N = 3,087) to gauge the effect of the economic transition on parent-adult child coresidence in urban China. Previous studies find that, thanks to state actions, traditional patterns in coresidence persisted in post-Mao urban China. This study still finds high levels of coresidence. China's aging population, coupled with an underdeveloped social security system, means that the traditional role of family will remain strong. It also uncovers three new patterns, however, best explained as caused by changes in the economic realm. First, the coresidence …

Strengths And Challenges In Chinese Immigrant Families, Xiaolin Xie, Yan Xia, Zhi Zhou

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This qualitative study involved interviewing 40 Chinese Americans residing in Lincoln and Omaha, NE, and Naperville, IL, on their perceptions of family strengths and acculturative stress. Themes related to family strengths include family support leading to achieving a renewed sense of family, contextual support from friends and community, communication among family members, spiritual well-being, and balancing host and heritage cultures. Themes pertaining to acculturative stress are language barriers, loneliness, and loss of social status and identity at the early stage of immigration. New dimensions are being added to the current family strengths model. Implications for health professionals are provided.

Review Of Who Are Canada's Aboriginal Peoples? Recognition, Definition, And Jurisdiction Edited By Paul L. A. H. Chartrand, Roy Todd

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Official recognition of indigenous peoples in North America has been a slow and uneven process. Many groups in Canada and the United States remain unrecognized and are thus denied collective and individual rights. This book deals with legal policy relating to recognition of indigenous peoples, analyzing Canadian constitutional issues and case law with particular emphasis upon the Metis, and with some comparisons between Canada and the United States.

Examining Strengths And Challenges Of Rapid Rural Immigration, Rochelle L. Dalla, Francisco Villarruel, Sheran C. Cramer, Gloria Gonzalez-Kruger

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Intensive, in-depth interviews were conducted with 45 non-Hispanic white residents of three rural Nebraska meatpacking communities. The purpose of the investigation was to document (I) perceptions of community change; (2) community-wide benefits of a new Latino population; and (3) strategies for strengthening multi-ethnic rural communities. Data were analyzed using Thematic Analyses (Aronson 1994). Application of the findings, for strengthening rural communities, is discussed.

The composition of rural populations is changing at a remarkable rate largely due to immigration (movement into a country in which one is not a native) and migration (movement within a country). The population growth of US …

A Case Study Of The Impact Of Population Influx On A Small Community In Nebraska, James Potter, Rodrigo Cantarero, X. Winson Yan, Steve Larrick, Blanca Ramirez-Salazar

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This paper discusses the impact of population influx on small communities using the city of Schuyler, NE, as a case study. As a small city of 4,000 some residents, Schuyler experienced a proportionally significant population influx in the past decade largely due to an increase of immigrant population. Unlike large cities, Schuyler has fewer resources to cope with the impact of a drastic population increase on its physical conditions and environment. The population expansion also impacted its previously homogeneous social and cultural environment. Through surveying long-time and newly arrived residents and comparing responses of the two groups, the study revealed …

Review Of The Trajectories Of Rural Life: New Perspectives On Rural Canada Edited By Raymond Blake And Andrew Nurse, Michael Gertler

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The Trajectories of Rural Life presents papers from a Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy conference designed to go "beyond the myths of rural Canada's past to develop a clear picture of the present reality from all perspectives .... " This could be a complicated project. The chapters range from research reports to policy essays, with notable diversity in terms of discipline and approach. Despite some lack of clarity in overall concept, many of the contributions shine through. In addition to chapters on the cultural reconstruction of rural life in Quebec, minority experiences in rural Atlantic Canada, family violence in rural …

Review Of American Arrivals: Anthropology Engages The New Immigration Edited By Nancy Foner, Mcc. Heyman

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Immigration to the United States since 1965, usually labeled "the new immigration," has several distinguishing features. First, the predominant source nations are in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, rather than Europe. The second is a new trend within this scenario, the diversification of destinations, such that migration involves not only Los Angeles and New York, but also numerous small cities in the Prairie and Great Plains states, locations that once received Europeans and Mexicans but have been little involved in international migration for decades. In order to understand the dramatic social and cultural changes stemming …

Surviving English, Connie Schomburg

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Noncredit English as a Second Language (ESL) classes often serve as a starting place for new immigrants aged eighteen or older who want to learn "survival English." The students attending these classes are widely diverse in terms of motivations, educational and cultural backgrounds, English-language fluency, life experiences, and learning styles. Classes are designed to equip these adult learners with basic English-language abilities in the context of the situations they are likely to encounter daily at work and in the community. This personal essay explores the challenges faced and the strengths revealed by students in these classes as witnessed by an …

East European Women And The Battle Of The Sexes In American Culture, Nanda Dimitrov

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

How do women from patriarchal cultures adapt to gender equality and feminism in the Great Plains? How do women from Eastern Europe change as a result of living in a gender-neutral environment? The study (I) identifies the major cultural differences that Eastern European women perceive between gender-related norms in Eastern Europe and the American Midwest, (2) examines the strategies that women use to cope with these differences, and (3) investigates when encounters with American feminists help and when they hinder immigrants' adaptation.

Eastern European culture is characterized by a greater separation of gender roles and little concern about sexism. Women …

Review Of Uniting Mountain And Plain: Cities, Law, And Environmental Change Along The Front Range By Kathleen A. Brosnan, Richard Hogan

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Brosnan offers a remarkably well-researched and well-written analysis of the Colorado Front Range urban ecology, focusing on Denver (the financial and commercial capital), Colorado Springs (the tourist town), and Pueblo (the factory town). Denver's business leaders receive the bulk of the attention here, but their efforts to promote a diverse regional industrial hinterland lead the reader through the mining, farming, and grazing regions of nineteenth-century Colorado. The narrative does not follow localities so much as problems and possibilities, beginning with the problem of extinguishing Native American claims (chapter 2) and establishing irrigated agriculture (chapter 3). The histories of Colorado Springs …

Bönker, Müller, & Pickel's “Towards A New Paradigm In Transitology Postcommunist Transformation And The Social Sciences: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches" - Book Review, Boyka Stefanova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Self-Help Group Participation And Empowerment In Hong Kong, Bong-Ho Mok

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper reports on the first comprehensive study of self-help groups in Hong Kong. Initial findings from the quantative and qualitative data suggest that self-help group participation has an impact on intrapersonal, interpersonal and community/political empowerment. Based on existing data, this study has resulted in the development of a hypothetical model encompassing the interrelationships among self-help group participation, social support, social learning, leadership and empowerment, for testing in future research.

Mexico As Seen Through American Eyes: The Evolution Of U.S. News Media Coverage, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

Sociology Faculty Publication Series

The traditional Mexican view of the U.S. news media's treatment of Mexico and Mexicans is that those media have been mired in prejudice, owing to what Octavia Paz has called "the twin sisters ignorance and arrogance." Mexicans of all social levels have held to this view for many decades, denouncing the obsession of American journalists with drug trafficking, illegal migration, and governmental corruption, and for forming or reinforcing in generations of Americans a vague, exotic, touristy, sometimes downright surreal vision of Mexico.

This view, however, began to shift very markedly during the administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994). Especially …

Reflections On The Contemporary Religious "Revival" Religion, Secularization, Globalization, Nonka Bogomilova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Queer Studies In Eastern Europe: Lgbtq Scholars Convene In Fifth Conference In Poland, Tomek Kitlinski, Pawel Leszkowicz

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The International Conference of LGBTQ Studies was held in Poland from May 24-26, 2004. Themed as "Europe without Homophobia," the conference at Wroclaw University brought together an international group of scholars and activists to discuss homophobia, both in its global and East European forms.

Mango Beti Et Les Mythologies Postcoloniales : Héritier Et Inspirateur, Nathalie Etoke

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Mango Beti belongs to a nationalist tradition embodied by Ruben Um Nyobe, the Cameroonian revolutionary. This paper analyzes how the writer manages to rebuild the aborted Rubenist ideal through fictional devices. Charismatic leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, who have been able to bring about social change and improve the living conditions of their people, also nurture Beti's political commitment. What is the link between the writer and these inspiring men? Is Mongo Beti himself a similar inspiration for other African writers?

L'Image Des Réfugiés Et Des Personnes Déplacées Dans La Fiction Africaine Francophone, Augustin H. Asaah

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In their capacity as moralists and committed intellectuals, African Francophone writers such as C.C. Sow, N.N. Ndjekery, M.S. Keita, F. Couao-Zotti, Ahmadou Kourouma, Nimrod and E. Dongala portray various images of refugees and internally displaced persons in their works. This depiction is driven by the perceived need to humanize these displaced members of society by establishing moral/affective bridges between unfortunate members of society and readers. It is also sustained by the desire to reduce the damage caused by wars and natural disasters, as well as the need to reveal the plural identities of humans to the world.

The Sound Of Silence: Social Work, The Academy, And Iraq, Scott Harding

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the imposition of economic sanctions against Iraq in 1990, the social work academy has ignored the impact of this global social policy promoted by the international community. Though evidence existed for more than 10 years that sanctions contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children and other vulnerable groups in Iraq, while also crippling the nation's health care and social infrastructure, the profession has remained silent. The implications of this case study suggest a need for greater engagement by social work researchers and the profession on global issues.

What Makes Small Firms Grow? Finance, Human Capital, Technical Assistance, And The Business Environment In Romania, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Dana Lup

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Although the development of a new private sector is generally considered crucial to economic transition, there has been relatively little empirical research on the determinants of startup firm growth. This paper uses panel data techniques to analyze a survey of 297 new small enterprises in Romania containing detailed information from the startup date through 2001. We find strong evidence that access to external credit increases the growth of both employment and sales. Taxes appear to constrain growth. The data suggest that entrepreneurial skills have little independent effect on growth, once demand conditions are taken into account. The evidence for the …

Orthodoxy In America: Diaspora Or Church?, Reverend Leonid Kishkovsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Social Capital, Wealth, And Nebraska Towns, John Anderson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The relationship between political theory and economic development is often overlooked. In this research, political theorizing about what makes democracies work is linked to the production of wealth in rural Nebraska towns. Evidence shows that social capital in rural settings actually can help with economic development. The evidence also shows that suburban towns may actually inhibit the development of social capital.