Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Accounting For The Gift: Theology And Ethics In Accounting, Daniel Sebastian

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Accounting is often assumed to be a neutral presentation of the facts of economic activities and actions. Its double-entry system means that it is always in balance and comports to the rigor of mathematical formulas, and it is taken to be a matter of empirical counting that lends it certainty as well. The dissertation argues that this description of accounting is inadequate. Accounting is better seen as a political tool and technology for producing trust that can help resolve social conflicts. As such, accounting is not value-neutral but carries within it a particular sociality that has moral implications. These moral …

The Waiting Room: Re-Making Adulthood Among America’S Underemployed, Susan Hill

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation takes as its starting point the problem of underemployment among young adults in the post-recession United States. Recent studies have shown that the number of college-educated Americans employed in positions not requiring a degree has reached historic highs. Such analyses are limited, however, in that they do not capture the lived effects of such trends—how underemployment insinuates itself into a person's worldview and identity. This ethnographic study delves into the intimate correlates of macroeconomic change by investigating the impact of underemployment on notions of adulthood among recent college graduates working in the Minneapolis-St. Paul restaurant industry. For the …

Kinder And Less Just: A Critical Analysis Of Modern Gleaning Organizations And Their Place In Food Recovery Discourse, Anna Clare Gorman

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The practice of gleaning began as a way for the poor to provide sustenance for themselves and their families. Changes in societal ideas about private property as well as a shift toward a neoliberal style of governance have caused gleaning to become what it is today: a practice primarily undertaken by charitable organizations, nonprofits, and church groups who then donate their bounty to local food banks, providing fresh produce to the food insecure. In modern society, gleaning is often held up as a single solution to the problems of food insecurity, poor nutrition, and food waste. This thesis complicates that …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Race, Class, And Herman Melville, Joan A. De Santis

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Analyzes two of the short stories in Herman Melville's The Piazza Tales, "Bartleby the Scrivener: a Story of Wall Street" and "Benito Cereno" and argues that these stories are highly critical of the bourgeois class structure of American society that inform Wall Street, as well as the slave trade, in mid-Nineteenth-Century America. Posits that in these works Melville addresses the questions of hierarchical power in the workplace and the effects of racism and slavery in the colonization of America.

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 …

Source Materials On The History And Development Of The San Joaquin River And The Stockton Deep Water Project, J. Norman Wenger

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

It has been the object of the writer to compile as complete a bibliography, as the time allowed, on the History of the Deep Water Project at Stockton, California.

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The thesis proper has been directed to cover the major attempts to deepen the water channel from Stockton to San Francisco. Much of this material is not in a form to be readily accessible to the layman so I have included a great deal of it in the form of an Appendix; thus bringing it together, but not making it necessary for the reader to review it unless he or …