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Juggling With Three Identities: Ideology Of Yugoslavism Among The American Serbs (1900--1993), Vladimir B. Pistalo

Doctoral Dissertations

During the late 19th century and throughout the 20 th century, three waves of Serbian immigrants left the constant political flux of the Balkans to arrive in a constantly changing America. This dissertation examines how the political changes in the mother country and in the United States influenced the self-identification of each wave of immigrants as Serbs, Yugoslavs and Americans. I draw upon oral histories of Serbian-American intellectuals, Serbian language newspapers in the United States, immigrant memoirs and literature, and secondary sources in both Serbian and English to document the construction and reconstruction of Serbian, Yugoslav and American identity.

Before …

Complexity: Theoretical And Methodological Applications For Sociology, Kathryn A Gilpatric

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the usefulness of Complexity as a new tool for sociology. Complexity, as its own branch of study, developed from the new science of Chaos. Recent paradigmatic disputes occurring in the scientific community have been the force of a growing sense of change in the way many different disciplines view complex systems. Since it is evident that social systems are typically highly complex, it makes sense that a scientific paradigm, which investigates the nature of complex systems, should also be applicable to social systems. Science now argues that the old Newtonian clockwork mentalities and classical experimental models cannot …

Postmodern American Sociology: A Response To The Aesthetic Challenge, Jongryul Choi

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Over the past two decades, American sociologists have debated about the postmodern and what we might call "postmodern American sociology" began to emerge at the turn of this century. This dissertation examines the nature of the postmodern in general, and postmodern American sociology in particular, in terms of three models of knowledge: science, morality, and aesthetics; This dissertation pays close attention to the fact that science, morality, and aesthetics began to be differentiated from religion in the modern era, which posited two problems: the problem of legitimacy of knowledge and the problem of figuring out the relationship among science, morality, …

An Exploration Of Animal Abuse In The Context Of Family Violence., Amy Jean Fitzgerald

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have found high rates of coexistence between animal abuse and other forms of family violence. This study explores the resultant questions of how and why animal abuse and other forms of family violence frequently coexist. In an effort to address these questions, information was gathered through in-depth, semi-standardized interviews with abused women who had at least one pet while they were with their abusive partner. In particular, this study focuses on the women's experiences and interpretations of how and why these forms of abuse coexist, and the degree to which the animal abuse perpetrated by their partners was …

Sources And Types Of Formal And Informal Assistance: Patterns Among Louisiana's Welfare Population., Alison Kay Neustrom

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

My purpose in this dissertation is to examine the extent to which recipients report social capital in the form of social support and what I call informal assistance. I define informal assistance as those assets that assist in the daily lives of welfare recipients. This dissertation examines the role of residence, human capital, family of origin, and current household structure on informal assistance. I also compare the forms of assistance and instrumental resources of non-metropolitan and metropolitan welfare recipients to determine whether geographic context mediates the use of informal assistance. Data for this study were from the Louisiana State University …

A Study Of Japanese Animation, Michele Gibney

Honors Program Theses

This paper takes a sociological approach to the question of popular culture’s ability in Japan--specifically that of Japanese animation--to be reflective of the country's sociological concerns. This is not to say that all anime shows consciously reflect Japanese life, but by extrapolation of recurrent themes one can construct a model of certain sociological issues in Japan. The author split the paper up into five sections each of which tackles a different theme. These sections are: Education, Social and Class Differences, Environment, Post-Nuclear Visions, and An Emergent Feminism. The main point that the author conveys in each section is a way …

Management In The Financial Services : Emotional Labour And Gender, Sarah Watson

School of Society and Culture Theses

This thesis examines the development of management in financial services and its implications on managers' activities and socialisation. The thesis uses gender and emotional labour as the main themes for the discussion of management in the financial services. The thesis reports on two ethnographic case studies within two UK retail banks. Analyses are based on data derived from interviews, observations and documents. Both the literature and data suggest that management in the service sector centres around the management of organisational cultures. Managers must disseminate the organisational values in order to extract excellent customer service from the front-line staff. Managers themselves …