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Ua68/2 Intercambio Internacional, Vol. Xii, No. 1, Wku Latin American Studies

WKU Archives Records

Newsletter created by WKU Latin American Studies program regarding science, politics and economic advances in Latin America as well as cooperative projects between WKU and universities across Latin America. The newsletter is written in both English and Spanish.

The State Of Department Store Retailing, Juanita Smith

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Work History On Economic Security At Old Age Among Africans In South Africa, Martha Tshitshi S. Mbatha

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Work histories of most Africans in South Africa determine whether or not they will be poor at old age. To illustrate this point, the author uses the literature and data collected from elderly Africans. Findings show racial discrimination in education and in the labor market as resulting in the concentration of the majority of Africans in low paying jobs. Low wages and the absence of a national pension scheme prevent most Africans from saving for their retirement. African workers constitute the largest percentage of the working poor in South Africa. Their circumstances are unlikely to change even after retirement. At …

Tobacco And Its Role In The Life Of The Confederacy, D. T. Smith

History Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the role that tobacco played in influencing Confederate policy during the American Civil War. Surprisingly, very little research has been done on this subject; historians have virtually ignored the influence of tobacco upon Southern economic interests between 1850 and 1870.

The southern tobacco-producing states grew 439,183,561 pounds of raw tobacco in 1860. Southern manufactured tobacco was worth $21,820,535 in 1860, and along with other agricultural products, especially cotton, played an important economic, political, and diplomatic role in the life of the Confederacy. The tobacco industry represented a very strong interest group in the Upper South during the …

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …

R C Scott: A History Of African-American Entrepreneurship In Richmond, 1890-1940, Michael A. Plater

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This study examines the socioeconomic aspects of ethnicity as a way to understand African-American entrepreneurship in the early twentieth century. In an attempt to separate the influence of ethnicity from the social and environmental elements that restrained many African-American entrepreneurs, the study focuses on the African-American funeral industry. The funeral industry provides a rare example of an industry that successfully operated on a voluntarily segregated basis. Sheltered from discrimination and racism, African-American funeral directors not only survived and surpassed their white counterparts, but also organized a national fraternity of economic and political elite who wielded significant power in the United …

To Separate The Tares From The Corn: Debts And Slaves In Post-Revolutionary Virginia, Philip George Swan

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Industrial Restructuring And Women's Homework In Appalachia: Lessons From West Virginia, Ann M. Oberhauser

Ann Oberhauser