Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Consumption As Lifestyle: The Use Of Western Lifestyle As A Status Symbol In Multinational Corporations' Advertising In India, Alissa Goddard

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper examines the use of Western lifestyle as depicted in advertising by multinational companies through the use of English in advertising; sexually evocative imagery; and background images in advertisements that reflect Western lifestyles. These messages perpetuated by multinational companies of the elite status of Western lifestyle are further enhanced due to the pervasive influences of the mediums in which these lifestyles are communicated to Indian consumers (e.g. primarily television and magazines). However, this paper also examines how the products that the Indian consumer purchases to emulate this Western lifestyle are actually not the same products sold in the Western …

Integrating Identities: Negotiating The Religious Lives Of Homosexual Christians In The Netherlands, Scott Mitchell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper explores how homosexual Christians experience their religious life, as well as the various methods used to negotiate any difficulties or conflicts between these two identities. Data for this study consists of in-depth interviews with homosexual Dutch adults who participate in worship services at a Catholic congregation in North Holland which ministers specifically to the homosexual community. Findings reveal that respondents describe their religious life as taking place on three different levels: the denominational, the individual, and the community level. These descriptions were characterized by an overall rejection of official denominational doctrine concerning homosexuality, an isolation of religious practice …

Street Culture Of Mombasa: Are The Survivors Really Surviving?, Danny Low

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Street children of Mombasa, Kenya were ethnographically studied in order to determine the effects of Swahili culture and structural violence on the children’s culture and place within greater society. It was discovered that Mombasa magnetizes street children as a result of the generosity of Swahili culture. Drug use was inextricably linked to street culture, yet children nonetheless held strong dreams of education. Since street children were also discovered to be significantly stratified, future policy and programming must account for these divisions to appropriately address the education and health problems facing Mombasa street children.

“We Didn’T Choose To Live In A Transition Society:” The Youth Of Milošević’S Serbia Ten Years Later, Jessica Tsunami Acosta

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The 1990’s were an extremely dark time in modern Serbian history, mired by wars, sanctions, dictatorship, and struggle. Those who came of age in that time find their entire lives to be defined by their country’s transition process. Because of this experience, these individuals are in a unique position to make connections between past conflicts and present challenges in Serbia. In particular, through understanding their narratives of this recent past and their perceptions of Serbia’s current progress in its transition phase, one can glean a better picture of this generation and what it holds for Serbia’s future. In allowing these …

Black & Red The Impacts Of Development On Culture: A Case Study Of Dogon People Of Sangha, Mali, Kathleen Remington

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For my Independent Study Project (ISP) I focused my research on struggling to understand the relationship between development and culture in an isolated community. I chose to study the Dogon people located in Sangha, Mali and spent 17 days studying and living among them. By conducting a series of interviews daily, I explored the land and the hearts of the people in order to obtain a meaningful understanding of their culture as well as, to acquire first hand knowledge of the ongoing development.

My paper begins by analyzing general definitions and discourses of both culture and development. I then detail …

Globalization’S Impact On Identity Through Billboard Advertisements, Sarah Hogan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

When one walks down the main streets of Tunis it is clear that the faces represented in billboards do not match the faces of those walking along the streets. Why is this? Are the ads representative of the layering of civilizations that Tunisia has undergone? Are the ads from another source, such as the French, and just implementing their system on top of Tunisians expecting it to be successful? Moreover, what are the implications of these advertisements on the Tunisian identity? W.E.B. DuBois discusses the phenomenon of a “double consciousness” that has developed in African-Americans due to the portrayal of …

Naši Narodi? Moji Identiteti: Four Youth Perspectives On National Identity In Post-Dayton Bosnia And Herzegovina, Jacob Seigel-Boettner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

On December 14th, 1995, the Dayton Peace Accords stopped the bullets in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dayton split BiH along ethno-national lines. The Dayton-established constitution recognized three national groups as the constituents of BiH: Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats. Three presidents, three languages, three textbooks. Residents of BiH are often required to identify themselves as either one of the constituent identities or Other. Bosnian and Herzegovinian is not an option.

Unlike the pre-war generations, young people in BiH today do not have a unifying Yugoslav identity to bring them together. For many, there is no such thing as a collective “Bosnian” national …

“Samoanizing” Human Rights: A Generational Comparative Of Views On Human Rights In Contemporary Samoa, Margaret R. Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This report consists of a generational comparative of views on human rights in contemporary Samoa. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948, and is now compulsorily for all member nations. Samoa’s independence in 1962, with the implementation of a liberal democracy, meant an inescapable adoption of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Though Samoa’s constitution is unique with its incorporation of tradition and custom within a democratic system, the universal human rights bill is generic, allowing that it should mesh will all counties and cultures – an outcome that does not …

‘They Have To Know That They Are Moroccan’: A Sending Country’S Perspective On The Second Generation Of Emigrants Abroad, Olivia Paquette

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this project, I set out to understand the relations that Morocco has with its second-generation population abroad, the children of emigrants from Morocco who were born and are living in a foreign nation. As citizens of Morocco and as members of Moroccan families, who nonetheless have lived their lives in another country and may perhaps identify themselves in many ways other than Moroccan, I wondered what role these individuals had in the eyes of the Moroccan state and in the eyes of their relatives who live in Morocco. My questions extended to the very categorization of this group that …