Digital Commons Network^™

Uncovering Medical And Mental Health Professionals' Decision-Making In The Treatment Of Trans-Variant Patients, Jodie M. Dewey

Dissertations

This project is a study of medical and mental health professionals who treat trans-variant patients. Using in-depth interviews, I show how providers describe the process by which they make decisions with patients who desire, through formal means, to hormonally and/or surgically transition from one gender to the other. This work uncovers the ways professionals make decisions in the absence or limitation of formal knowledge while simulaneously attemping to ground their work in this same knoweldge to obtain respect and legitimacy. Professionals must also acknowledge that they relinquesh some power to patients to make decisions which involve high risk for them. …

The Practice And Meaning Of Communitarian Spirituality In The Focolare Movement, Nori Henk

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore how individuals come to embrace the FM spirituality as radical, making the spiritually meaningful and plausible for social change through a communitarian lifestyle that affects their everyday life. Within the sociological tradition of studying religion and social movements, this study addresses how religiously-motivated, "non-elite" individuals can be collectively recruited and mobilized into life-long agents of change. My study is based on seventy-five interviews and fieldwork at three sites in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

In the dissertation, I addressed the following research questions: 1. If a member is defined as one …

The Effect Of Plea Bargaining Vs. Trial Conviction On The Sentencing Of Offenders Charged With A Drug Offense In Cook County, Illinois, Joseph George Dusek

Dissertations

Traditional wisdom suggests those who lose at trial for a criminal charge receive a heftier prison sentence than those who plea bargain. Plea bargaining reduces strain on the courts, expedites adjudication and may indicate the defendant's propensity for rehabilitation as they accept responsibility for their actions. Some ask why two people charged with the same crime should receive different sentences based on the adjudication method. The Constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial. Innocent defendants may decide to plead guilty for a sure short sentence rather than risk a trial conviction's lengthier one. This study using statistical procedures examined …

Exploring The Relationship Between Work, Family And Religion Among Clergy Families, Lenore Johnson

Dissertations

Studies examining how working adults manage the competing demands of family, home and work shed light on the interconnectedness of public and private life. The notion that private life is a refuge separate from work is highly contested, and the experiences of clergy families add further support to such claims. However, while clergy families experience many of the same strains as other families, the relationship between public and private life is noticeably impacted by the inclusion of religion, adding further complications to the process of balancing multiple responsibilities. In this study, I explore the complex relationship between these aspects of …

In The Driver's Seat: Living And Working As A Trucker, Cassandra Lively

Dissertations

This project examines the work and personal lives of truck drivers. Using data from fieldwork at a Midwestern trucking company, along with interviews with 38 drivers, dispatchers, company management and spouses and partners of drivers, I explore the questions: Thirty years out from deregulation, how are drivers' lives affected by the economic state of the industry? How do drivers and unions interact with public policy and company regulations that shape their on-the-job autonomy and their own and others' safety on the road? What are the dynamics of the industry around race, gender and sexuality? How does working in a high-stress, …