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[Introduction To] Conceiving Spirits: Birth Rituals And Contested Identities Among Lauje Of Indonesia, Jennifer W. Nourse

Bookshelf

For most of the Lauje' of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, birth spirits are of primary importance. The spirits inhabit a mother's birth fluids and placenta, nurturing fetuses in the womb and children after birth---or bringing sickness and death if rituals are neglected.

Jennifer Nourse describes how Lauje' from both modernized coastal and isolated highland villages attribute to birth spirits competing meanings that hinge on an individual's gender, social class, and religion. At the beginning of her fieldwork, Nourse collaborated with two Lauje' men whose concepts of birth spirits as divided into good and bad, male and female, or local and foreign …

Why Start-Ups?, Joseph Bankman, Ronald J. Gilson

Faculty Scholarship

The prototypical start-up involves an employee leaving her job with an idea and selling a portion of that idea to a venture capitalist. In many respects, however, the idea should be worth more to the former employer. The former employer can be expected to have better information concerning the employee-entrepreneur and the technology, have opportunities to capture economies of scale and scope not available to a venture capital-backed start-up, and will receive more favorable tax treatment than the start-up should the innovation fail. In connection with an auction of the idea, the former employer should have both a more accurate …

A Government For Our Time? Business Improvement Districts And Urban Governance, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

The emergence and rapid spread of business improvement districts ("BIDs") is one of the most important recent developments in American cities. BIDs have been controversial, with both supporters and proponents viewing the districts as part of a trend toward the privatization of the public sector. By examining the legal and political structures that determine BID formation, functions, finances and governance, this Article determines that BIDs are not private entities but are, instead, a distinctive hybrid of public and private elements. Moreover, although the particular fusion of public and private institutions, values and concerns embodied in the BID is unique, Professor …

Lifetime Employment: Labor Peace And The Evolution Of Japanese Corporate Governance, Ronald J. Gilson, Mark J. Roe

Faculty Scholarship

In Japan, large firms' relationships with their employees differ from those prevailing in large American firms. Large Japanese firms guarantee many employees lifetime employment, and the firms' boards consist of insider employees. Neither relationship is common in the United States.

Japanese lifetime employment is said to encourage firms and employees to invest in human capital. We examine the reported benefits of the firm's promise of lifetime employment, but conclude that it is no more than peripheral to human capital investments. Rather, the "dark" side of Japanese labor practice – constricting the external labor market – likely yielded the human capital …

Virtuous Lying: A Critique Of Quasi-Categorical Moralism, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

Popular and professional moralists have a tendency to over-condemn lying. This Article is a critique of that tendency and the more general outlook it exemplifies, which I call Quasi-Categorical Moralism. I begin with an illustration from my own experience of morally appropriate lying that is condemned by the legal profession's ethics norms. I proceed to a critical examination of the arguments against lying in what is perhaps the best known contemporary work on professional ethics – Sissela Bok's Lying. I then explore the more sympathetic treatment of lying in a broad range of literary and philosophical works typically ignored …

Verification Institutions In Financing Transactions, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most common problems in commercial transactions is the resolution of information asymmetries, situations in which one party to the transaction knows more about a relevant fact than the other party. The natural response of the disadvantaged party is to attempt to investigate the transaction for itself – to investigate the matter with "due diligence" – but often such an investigation will be expensive and, however diligently undertaken, leave the truth of the matter uncertain. A law-centered approach to the problem would call for the development of warranties and covenants that the party with superior information would give …

Georgia's Globally-Minded Principals: Backgrounds, Attitudes, And Perceptions, Catherine Cummings Wooddy

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

This study sought to provide information concerning the high school principal's global-mindedness and whether that global-mindedness had an effect on globally focused teaching and programming within that school. The study also attempted to identity demographic and background factors, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that have an association with the global-mindedness of the person. Underlying the study was the premise that today's students need to be prepared for the globalized world in which they will live, that their preparation will come primarily from school and home, that educators must understand the globalized world if they are to prepare students, and that the …

A Study Of Elementary Teachers' Attitudes Toward Mathematics Instruction And Mathematics Teaching Methods Used In The Elementary Classroom, William Otis Lacefield Iii

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

This study involved an investigation of elementary (grades K-4) teachers' attitudes toward mathematics instruction and the mathematics teaching methods elementary teachers plan and implement in the classroom setting. The population consisted of 492 elementary teachers (grades K-4) currently teaching in the Bibb County, Georgia, Public School System. The sample represented a cluster sampling of the population and consisted of 90 elementary teachers currently teaching in six public elementary schools. One inner city school, four suburban schools, and one rural/semirural school were randomly selected. The research design used was a correlational design. The sets of data considered were elementary teachers' self-expressed …

The Construction And Experience Of Nature: Perspectives Of Urban Youths, Lily Kong, Belinda Yuen, Navjot S. Sodhi, Clive Briffett

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper, we explore the ways in which young people in a highly urbanised setting experience and develop constructions of nature. We do so by using Singapore as our case study, an Asian context in which urbanisation is total (Singapore's population is totally urbanised), Based on focus group discussions, we conclude that young Singaporeans have little interest in and affinity for nature. This stems from a few factors: growing up in a highly urban environment in which contact with nature is limited; over-protective parents of two-children families who worry about the 'dangers' their children are exposed to when playing …

Negotiating Cultural Boundaries: Confucianism And Trans/National Identity In Korea, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay looks to the complex intercultural relations of China and Korea to highlight two important issues in political theory and international relations: the transnational nature of world politics and the limits of analytical binaries such as East‐West and tradition‐modernity. Discussions of international politics in East Asia characteristically address issues of security and development studies. More recently, Confucianism has been mobilized as part of the clash of civilizations of Asia with the West. This essay will consider how cultural boundaries are negotiated within the region via an analysis of the workings of the transnational discourse of Confucianism in the construction …

Le Play, Warner, And The Sociology Of Fieldwork, Michael R. Hill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Several American sociologists have earlier noted, albeit briefly, Frédéric Le Play’s contributions to sociology, for example: Amos Warner (1886), George E. Howard (1904, III: 378), Elsie Clews Parsons (1906: 305, 337), Robert Park and Ernest Burgess (1921: 215), Emory S. Bogardus (1928: 615-16), Charles H. Cooley (Cooley, Angell and Carr 1933: 479), Floyd House (1936), and Lewis Mumford (1948: 678, 683). To this list, Luigi Tomasi (below) adds the names of Merle Frampton, Walter Goldfrank, Robert Nisbet, Catherine Silver, Albion Small, Pitirim Sorokin, and Carle Zimmerman. E.R.A. Seligman and Alvin Johnson included a short biography of Le Play in their …

Bio-Bibliography: Eva J. Ross – Catholic Sociologist, Michael R. Hill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The major accomplishments of Eva Jeany Ross’ productive but largely unknown sociological career present opportunities for sociobiographers to examine several contending institutional forces on the professional lives of academic sociologists. Ross’ career unfolded at the intersection of five major institutional arenas: religion, education, the nation-state, family, and patriarchy. Each made a profound impact on the shape of Ross’ sociological work.

Edward Alsworth Ross, Michael R. Hill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Edward Alsworth Ross (Dec. 12, 1866 - July 22, 1951), sociologist and writer, was born in Virden, Illinois, the son of William Carpenter Ross, a farmer, and Rachel Alsworth, a school teacher. Orphaned by his mother’s and father’s deaths (1874 and 1876, respectively), Ross was sheltered in turn by three Iowa farm families. Of the latter, Ross regarded Mary Beach as his foster mother. Alexander Campbell, Ross’ lawyer guardian, shepherded his inheritance, thereby providing ample funds for his schooling.

Continental Congress, Michael R. Hill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The convening of the First Continent

The network of committees throughout Massachusetts had become firmly established by early 1773, and dissidents in other colonies rapidly imitated the Massachusetts pattern. The committees of correspondence provided a model and a working mechanism for revolutionary agitation and organization on a national scale.

Undergraduate And Graduate Catalog [1998-1999], Georgia Southern University

Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Despite Increases, Women And Minorities Still Underrepresented In Undergraduate And Graduate S&E Education, Kristen M. Olson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Participation of women and minorities1 in science and engineering (S&E) higher education continues to rise, but this involvement is not yet equivalent to their representation in the U.S. population of 18- to 30-year-olds. In 1995, women were 50 percent of U.S. residents between the ages of 18 and 30; blacks were 14 percent; Hispanics, 13 percent; and American Indians, 0.8 percent. 2 However, in the same year, 46 percent of S&E bachelor’s degrees were earned by women, 7 percent by blacks, 6 percent by Hispanics, and 0.6 percent to American Indians. The proportions of S&E doctorates earned by these groups …

Multiple Perspectives On Multimedia In The Large Lecture, Helen A. Moore, Timothy D. Pippert

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Students, graduate instructors and the classroom professor responded in journals, on objective tests, in focus groups and on survey questionnaires to the effects of computer media in four large lecture classes. Graduate instructors and students responded in focus groups to multimedia technology with consistent themes, including enhancement of cognitive strategies (note taking and organization of ideas) and motivation. However, students also expressed distancing from the instructor. Student achievement outcomes using pre- and post-test scores showed no differences across two experimental applications of multimedia presentations: static and dynamic. Discussion of findings emphasizes the need to balance considerations of resource scarcity and …

Rural Images, Tourism And Sustainability: Perceptions Of Rural Accommodation Operators And Their Visitors In Waterloo-Wellington Region, Ontario, Kelley Anne Mcclinchey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to investigate rural images and perceptions of rural accommodation operators and their visitors, and to explore the contribution of tourism to sustainability in the Waterloo-Wellington region. The objectives were; to investigate and compare images, as perceived by rural hosts and visitors, and as projected through accommodation brochures; to compare perceived and projected images with ideal rural images; and to explore the role of rural tourism in sustaining rural cultures and contributing to sustainable rural development. Images and perceptions of rural accommodation operators were obtained via personal interviews and visitors’ perceptions were gathered through the …

Impact Of Gender And Culture: Contributing Factors To Satisfactory Long-Term Marriages, Maria Yip Ling Cheung

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The constructs of gender and culture have been neglected in our understanding of marital relationships. With the recent upsurge of postmodernism, the two constructs have come into focus as essential to furthering our understanding of these relationships. My doctoral dissertation research is a cross-cultural comparative study of five Hong Kong Chinese immigrant couples in Canada and five Euro Canadian couples who were born in Canada I used a social construction perspective to examine the gender and cultural processes that evolve in the long-term satisfactorily married couples. Couples who have been married for thirty to thirty-six years were under study.

I …

Quilts As Social Text, Helen Kathryn Ball

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The acts of writing and reading are exquisitely intertwined at a level that is deeper than the mere writing of a report. These acts are social. Given that our intent is to study social phenomena and re-present them in a text, how can we accomplish this task in a way that does not perpetuate the social scientific discursive tradition that privileges the positionless, invisible, disengaged account? Using a feminist-postmodernist approach to qualitative research, this paper explores the crisis of representation in social science writing. The discursive practices of social scientific knowledge production are explored through the creation of quilts as …

The Social Construction Of A Nonabuser Image: A Study Of A Post-Treatment Male Abuser Self-Help Group, Bruce Alan Bidgood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper chronicles the experiences of the members of a post-treatment mutual support group for wife abusers (MS group). A review of the accumulated research on male abuser interventions suggests that this field is dominated by positivist program evaluative efforts. There is a paucity of qualitative research initiatives into the experiences of this population. The paper attempts to contribute to the very small but growing body of qualitative research on male abusers through the description of a grounded theory-naturalistic inquiry investigation into the individual and organizational strategies used by the members to construct an image of themselves as non-abusers. The …

A Healing Story: A Family Systems View Of The Intertwining Of Family Stories With The Biblical Narrative, John Frederick Nunns

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

God's covenant with Abraham embodied a promise of a great family beginning with a son being born to Sarah in her old age. Abraham is considered a man of great faith. What drove Abraham's faith? Was it an altruistic desire to serve God or was it a strong desire to have a family or an intertwining of both‘? This thesis proposes to examine how emotional family process shapes our faith and how faith development shapes our ‘families’. Every family has a story to tell. ln the introduction I share my family story. The focus of chapter one is how God's …

Systems Of Belief In Modern American Law: A View From Century's End, Gerald B. Wetlaufer

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Danish Soldiers' Song In America, Finn V. Nerland

The Bridge

In the revolutionary year of 1848, governments throughout Europe were being overthrown by popular risings demanding liberty and representationD. enmarkf aced a doublec risis. In Copenhagen,m ass meetings calledfo r an end to absolutisma nd a written constitution coveringb oth Denmark and Schleswig, the half-Danish, half-German duchy on the southern border.I n Schleswigi tself and neighboringH olstein,b oth ruled by Denmark since the middle ages, the German element demanded self-government and closert ies to Germany. By April of 1848, these irreconcilabled emands led to war, and Prussian troops crossed the border to aid the SchleswigHolsteiners. The war pitched Denmark, with …

A Norwegian In The Pew Of Budolfi Cathedral In Aalborg: The Annunciation Of The Virgin Mary, 1996, Oyvind T. Gulliksen

The Bridge

As an alien soul from the Norwegian church, I sought refuge in Aalborg cathedral on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary ("Marire bebudelses

Themes And Issues In The Experience Of Child Survivor Friends, Katherine Jane Adolphus

School of Psychology Theses

This study was interested in the experience of adults who had been bereaved of close friends during childhood (aged 5-12 years). This was identified as an area that was both underresearched and of potential importance to mental health professionals. Six participants were recruited through newspaper articles and requests placed in G.P. surgeries. All of the participants met with the researcher for an open-ended, unstructured interview lasting between 1 and 11/2 hours. The interviews were explored using the qualitative approach of 'Interpretative Phenomenologjcal Analysis'. Several themes and issues emerged as important in the experience of child survivor friends. These themes were …

Facing Challenges: Irish Public Television In The Digital Age, Ellen Hazelkorn

Books/Book chapters

This paper traces some of the main challenges facing public television in Ireland.

School Vision, Teacher Autonomy, School Climate, And Student Achievement In Elementary Schools, Connie J. Erpelding

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to determine within an elementary school context (a) the relationship among teachers' perceptions of their principal's school's vision, of their sense of autonomy, and of the school climate; and (b) how these core variables were associated with student achievement and student socioeconomic status. Leadership and effective schools literature link the visionary principal with a variety of school-related variables including those in this study.

Data were collected using three survey instruments and a questionnaire administered to fourth grade general education teachers in the sample. The principals of the schools included in this study were also …

Bully/Victim Problems In A Japanese Junior High School, Yukari Kajishima

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine affective factors of bullying behavior among Japanese junior high school students, with specific emphasis on anger, envy, revenge, and self-esteem.

Data were collected by using five instruments: STAXI, Olweus's bully/victim questionnaire, revenge scale, dispositional envy measure, and the Coopersmith Inventory. The participants in this study were 107 seventh and eighth graders; 58 males and 49 females. They were classified as bullies, victims, bully/victims, or neither bullies nor victims.

Analysis of the data included an examination of correlations between bullying and emotion ,and an investigation of differences in emotions, among bullies, victims, bully/victims, …

Exploration Of Namibian Adolescents’ Sexual Knowledge, Attitudes And Behavior, Shamani-Jeffrey Shikwambi

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sexual knowledge, sexual attitude, and sexual behavior among Namibian adolescents.

Data were collected by using a ~edified version of the Prevention Minimum Evaluation Data Set (PMEDS) instrument. The participants were 45 twelfth graders, of which 23 were females and 22 males.

Analysis of the data included an examination of intercorrelation between sexual knowledge, sexual attitude, and sexual behavior, and an investigation of gender differences among these three variables. Pearson correlations were calculated for each variable and t-tests were run to look for the gender difference. Multiple regression was also …