Digital Commons Network^™

Crime And Social Strain In Fairfax County, Va: Using Geographical Information Science To Test For Social Strain In The Aftermath Of The Great Recession, Jason D. Reyes

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Robert Merton, through the Social Strain Theory, suggests that crime exists because of society’s demands do not meet individuals needs. The following study is a qualitative study that first explains what the Social Strain Theory is, then tests to see if this theory has any validity to one of the most affluent counties in the United States. This study compares Fairfax County’s socioeconomic variables with the their crime data during the Great Recession to uncover any trends or patterns for which Robert Merton would say are due to high amounts of Social Strain. The overall results of the study suggest …

Organizing For Freedom: The Angola Special Civics Project, 1987-1992, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

During the 1980s and 1990s, the US prison system was expanding at an unprecedented rate. This research charts how prisoners at the nation’s largest maximum-security prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly referred to as Angola, founded the Angola Special Civics Project to collectively organize for prison reform. Using a combination of oral history and archival research, this thesis argues that the Angola Special Civics Project emerged during an era of political opportunity created by the coupling of political openings and contractions. Unlike outside advocates who focused their reform efforts on internal conditions, the Angola Special Civics Project centering of prisoners’ …

Helping Behavior In A Globalized Community, Jenny M. Savely

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the participation of post-Katrina residents in neighborhoods of New Orleans’ Upper 9 th Ward. I examine respondent self-concepts and attachment to the community to gain understanding of how individuals participate in voluntary helping behavior in their locality. Interview data, brief economic and cultural examination of the area, and my observations as a resident of the Upper 9 th Ward inform analysis. The experiences of respondents suggest that there is a tension between an individual’s need to seek selfverificationand their understanding of themselves and others within their own neighborhood. Respondents’ understanding of the impact of their own …

Primetimes Newsletter, Fall 2011, Office Of Lifespan Studies

PrimeTimes Newsletter

PrimeTimes is the newsletter of the Office of Lifespan Studies in the College of Science at Coastal Carolina University.

Amenity Migration, Exurbia, And Emerging Rural Landscapes: Global Natural Amenity As Place And As Process, Kirsten Valentine Cadieux, Patrick T. Hurley

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Do-It‐Yourself Urban Design: Making Local Improvements Through Unauthorized Alterations Of Urban Space, Gordon Douglas

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

This study examines “spatial interventions”: street art, guerrilla gardening, public space invasions, and other unauthorized practices of place-based, site-specific art or activism that challenge the normative uses or meanings of particular urban spaces. In recent years, a growing number of individuals have taken up these forms of site-specific direct action. Some argue that they represent new strategies of political expression, even “resistance”; others, that it is little more than vandalism or pointless juvenile acting out. Yet my research suggests that many of these actions are rather connected by something more subtle, a simple willingness to reimagine the built environment on …

Is Capital Punishment Just? Assessing The Death Penalty Using Justice Theory, Matthew Robinson

Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Criminology

No abstract provided.

Transportation's Section 5310: Where Are We Going?, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Independent Living and Community Participation

No abstract provided.

Pengetahuan Dan Relasi Kuasa Global, Oki Rahadianto Sutopo

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Collecting International Merchant Seafarer Oral Histories: Experiences And Reflections, Tom Matyók

The Qualitative Report

Investigating highly mobile labor populations presents researchers with unique challenges and opportunities. In this paper, I share my experiences and reflections in collecting international merchant seafarers' oral histories and propose to move the dialogue forward regarding the use of hybrid qualitative research practices. Seafarers are constantly moving, at sea and in port, and traditional research methodologies are inadequate in determining the nature of modern-day seafaring. I suggest how qualitative research methods must be flexible enough to accommodate researchers' needs in a chaotic global milieu. Investigators researching highly mobile labor populations, as well as mobile immigrant and refugee communities, can gain …

Visualizing The Intersection Of The Personal And The Social Context - The Use Of Multi-Layered Chronological Charts In Biographical Studies, Patrick T. Hiller

The Qualitative Report

This paper outlines the theoretical reasoning and technical implementation of a particular approach to creating multi-layered chronological charts in qualitative biographical studies. The discussed method elucidates the interpretation of traditional life chronologies where the individual's "objective" life facts are reconstructed free from analysis. The novelty of multi-layered chronological charts lies in their ability to enrich the visualization of a temporal connection between personal and social contextual factors based on categories determined by the researcher. In doing so, such charts make existing interview data more accessible and processable. In-depth, thematic data analysis can be supported through the visualization of prominent life …

The Digital Age: Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans’ Use Of Technology 2011 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Over the past decade, people have increasingly used the Internet for shopping, social networking, government services, learning and education. Are rural Nebraskans using the Internet for these applications? What do they believe are the benefits and drawbacks of these applications? In addition, people are increasingly using mobile devices to connect to the Internet. Are rural Nebraskans using their cell phones to access the Internet? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions.

This report details 2,490 responses to the 2011 Nebraska Rural Poll, the sixteenth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions …

An Analysis Of Women’S Participation In Peace Negotiations; 1992 - 2010, Tuohy Ahern

Capstone Collection

This paper will present an analysis of several women’s peacebuilding movements and describe their efforts to participate in formal peace negotiations. This analysis includes the design, development and implementation of the female and community-based initiatives as well as the strategies, tactics and approaches used by these women throughout the peace negotiation process. It is important to consider the central role women’s organizations have played in ensuring women’s involvement when examining peace negotiations. Despite a lack of formal invitations to participate in negotiations, many female community-based initiatives have gained entry through efforts outside the political realm.

To provide a framework on …

Police Community Partnerships: A Review Of The Literature, Portland State University. Criminology And Criminal Justice Senior Capstone

Criminology and Criminal Justice Senior Capstone Project

To better understand community/police collaborations, this study researched several different types of successful partnerships. Our objective was to learn why the partnerships were formed and who was involved. Our research also sought to determine the goals of the partnerships, and the methods used to achieve those goals. The study also highlights several practices used by police agencies successfully to solve community problems.

Breaking The Criminogenic Code: A Frame Analysis Of Neo-Nazi And Violent Jihadi Propaganda, William Travis Morris

Student Work

This dissertation focuses on neo-Nazi and violent jihadi propaganda and its role in defining social boundaries. Frame analysis was used to gain a deeper understanding of how neo-Nazis and violent jihadis construct propaganda to neutralize objections and promote drift. Specifically, diagnostic and prognostic frames were analyzed for 10 "effective" propagandists and two "ineffective" propagandists in a comparative framework. This research uses a social psychological perspective, paying particular attention to the emotion of shame and advances the "violence as communication" model into "terrorism as criminogenic propaganda." Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze how neo-Nazi and violent jihadi propagandists incorporate …

Pengantar Redaksi, Fransisca Sse Seda

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Touching Hearts Through Service Learning : The Taiwan Experience, Belen M. Sy

Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning 亞太地區服務研習會議

No abstract provided.

Environmental Service Learning : Experience Of A Few Indian Colleges, Nirmala Jeyaraj

Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning 亞太地區服務研習會議

No abstract provided.

Queering Art Before, After And During The Sexual Revolution (1960-1980): A Study Of Aesthetics And Subversion, Gary C. Kilian Mr.

The Macalester Review

Works produced by the queer artists in 1970s America is oftentimes not considered to be an integral part of the sexual revolution’s narrative. Not only is this problematic in that it demonstrates the heteronormative discourse that permeated liberatory pro-sex rhetoric of the time, but this exclusion also makes the LGBTQ struggle for visibility ahistorical. In this paper, I argue that notable artists who self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer created art that fostered gradual acceptance of the queer community before, during and after the sexual revolution, explaining that resistance to dominant paradigms were rendered unseen due to the …

Buying Racial Capital: Skin-Bleaching And Cosmetic Surgery In A Globalized World, Margaret Hunter

Sociology

The merging of new technologies with old colonial ideologies has created a context where consumers can purchase "racial capital" through skin-bleaching creams or cosmetic surgeries. The use of skin-bleaching creams is on the rise throughout Africa and the African Diaspora and cosmetic surgery has increased dramatically among people of color in wealthy countries. Public discourse, however, is fraught with tension over these manipulations of the body. This paper examines three competing discourses: 1) the beauty discourse, based on the mass-marketing of cosmetic whitening products, 2) the public health discourse, designed to dissuade potential skin-bleachers by exposing health risks and 3) …

Relationship Of Vitamin D Levels To Blood Pressure In A Biethnic Cohort, Rosario O. Sakamoto

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background: Serum hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] has been well-accepted as not an ordinary vitamin but a pro-hormone that has many benefits beyond its well-known effects on bone. Cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension remain a huge health burden and Blacks have been recognized to have higher prevalence of hypertension compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Despite increasing evidence of the benefits of vitamin D on blood pressure control, there is much more to be learned about the relationship of serum 25(OH)D to blood pressure among different ethnicities.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine whether vitamin D serum 25(OH)D levels were …

'Mai Pen Rai': A Cultural Ecology Of Thailand, Darcie Plocher

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Global Sex Trade And Women Trafficking In Nigeria, Rasheed O. Olaniyi

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Academic discourses and policy debates on the phenomenon of women trafficking have focused on the threat of illegal migration, migration management, and the stereotypical linkages between criminality and migration. Such themes neglected the perspectives of trafficking victims and the social context, most especially closed borders and poverty. Obviously, women trafficking constitute one of the anxieties and disruptive effects of globalization. For many women, migration across the polarized economy under the regime of globalization is associated with exploitation, criminalization, and insecurity. This paper argues that trafficking in women reflects inequality on a global scale: transfer of resources from depressed economy to …

Ghanaians In Amsterdam, Their "Good Work Back Home" And The Importance Of Reciprocity, Ton Dietz, Valentina Mazzucato, Mirjam Kabki, Lothar Smith

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper discusses the particular and strategic roles, which migrants play in the development of their country of origin, notably their rural "hometowns." It is based on a multi-sited, contemporaneous study in cultural economics that explores the influence of transnational ties between Ghanaian migrants in Amsterdam with individual and collective actors in Ghana, notably in rural Ashanti communities. This paper highlights the role of institutions, linking communities living abroad to their people back home, or broader: in the home country. In this contribution two of these, inter-linked institutions get special attention: community development, and funerals.

A Survey And 5-Point Analysis Of Modern Day Human Trafficking, Sarah Wietbrock

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Cosmopolitan Nation-Building: The Institutional Contradiction And Politics Of Postwar Japanese Education, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The education system has been a quintessential state apparatus of nation-building since the emergence of the modern nation-state; however, recent comparative studies demonstrate the growing presence of cosmopolitanism in education policies and school curricula around the world. This trend indicates that the education system now operates according to two different institutional logics, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. To understand how the education system negotiates the potential contradiction between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, in this paper, I analyze the case of postwar Japanese education. Theoretically, I synthesize studies of institutional logics and social movements: while the former shed light on a contradiction between different …

Ua51/1 Collections & Connections, Jennifer Wilson

Collections & Connections

This issue of WKU Libraries' biannual publication features the Libraries' events that happened in the latter part of 2010 and early part of 2011, including the Kentucky Literacy Week, SOKY Book Fest, the Kentucky Writers Conference, the literary partnership with OCLC, and the US Bank Art Show. It also reports achievements made by the Libraries such as milestone publication efforts made by TopSCHOLAR, the Libraries' reception of the NEH grant for Alcott events as well as professional achievements of the Libraries' faculty and staff. Events of the Kentucky Museum and the Main Library are also highlighted.

A New Paradigm: Brazilian Catholic Eco-Justice Activism In The Neoliberal Age, Lena R. Connor

Environmental Analysis Program Mellon Student Summer Research Reports

This paper analyzes how traditional liberation theology in Brazil has been adapted in the neoliberal age to encompass ecological goals and rhetoric. In this research report, I first examine the work of prominent Brazilian ecotheologians, Ivone Gebara and Leonardo Boff. I then look into the applications of such ecological liberation theology in Catholic activism in Brazil, focusing on the role of religious advocacy in dam controversies, land reform, and mining.

Democratic Nationalistic Privilege And The Exclusion Of Europe's "Gypsy", Eli E. Roth

Senior Honors Projects

Europe is the world’s best example of a group of countries offering similar levels of political freedom, tolerance, and economic prosperity and security. Following the fall of Communism, Europe began to outpace the rest of the planet on aggregated indicators of development, and, according to Freedomhouse.org, only two of the world’s forty seven “not free” countries, Belarus and Russia, can be found on this continent. The Roma, frequently mislabeled as “Gypsies,” are among the few troubled populations residing in Europe. In the comprehensive 2006 Final Report on the Human Rights Situation of the Roma in Europe, one Romani man describes …

Book Reviews, Dick Jonsson, Bizeck Jube Phiri, Gear M. Kajoba, Obrian Ndhlovu

Zambia Social Science Journal

Reviews of:

Why Africa is Poor – and what Africans can do about it. By Greg Mills;

Living the End of Empire: Politics and Society in Late Colonial Zambia. Edited by Jan-Bart Gewald, Marja Hinfelaar and Giacomo Macola;

Left Behind: Rural Zambia in the Third Republic. By Jeremy Gould;

Gender Budgeting as a Tool for Poverty Reduction. By The African Capacity Building Foundation. African Capacity Building Foundation