Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Art Of Not Being Freshened: The Everyday Politics Of Infrastructure In The Mekong Delta, Timothy Gorman

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

With the growing threat of climate change, states are increasingly turning to large-scale infrastructure projects in order to control environmental conditions, especially in coastal areas. These projects are often planned and implemented in a centralized, top-down manner and sometimes fail to achieve their stated objectives in the face of “everyday resistance” from local residents and farmers. This study draws on interviews and secondary research to examine the contentious everyday politics of infrastructure in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, focusing specifically on how small-scale, surreptitious acts of “counter-infrastructuring” on the part of farmers, such as the construction of illicit wells …

Should Sociologists Stand Up For Science? Absolutely!, Janet M. Ruane

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Standing up for science is part of sociology's mission as a social science. Standing up is also consistent with our field's ethical obligation to identify and avoid research compromised by conflict of interests.

Social Media And Symbolic Action: Exploring Participation In The Facebook Red Equal Sign Profile Picture Campaign, Joel Penney

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

This study investigates symbolic action on popular social media platforms by empirically exploring the subjective experiences and motivations of participants in an exemplary campaign. Previous debates regarding the relationship between symbolic action and more traditional forms of political participation suggest a binary between up‐the‐ladder “civic culture” engagement and down‐the‐ladder “slacktivism.” Interviews with participants in the Facebook red equal sign profile picture campaign for marriage equality provide some evidence to support the former (particularly in terms of building an identity‐focused political movement), and comparatively little to support the latter. However, a third model suggests how sympathetic citizens who would not otherwise …

Liberalism And Postliberalism In Bolivarian Venezuela, Tony Petros Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In the last half-decade, the “rise of the left” in Latin America has been studied extensively by many scholars. Whether framed as one, two, or many lefts, its various party leaders have been vocal in opposition to neoliberalism, although the orientation of their policies and governments toward neoliberalism has been mixed (Panizza 2009). The most influential and visible case of an anti-neoliberal government is that of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez Frías.

The five books reviewed here, drawing on research on Venezuela, share a common scholarly interest in liberalism, pluralism, and account- ability, although some defend liberalism (Brewer-Carías, Corrales and Penfold), …

Visible Identities, Visual Rhetoric: The Self-Labeled Body As A Popular Platform For Political Persuasion, Joel Penney

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

This study examines how political T-shirts--i.e., those featuring printed images, symbols, or words that make explicit reference to electoral politics--are used by their wearers as identity labels for the purpose of advancing persuasive messages in the public sphere.

The Forum Mailbox, Amy L. Wax, Jennifer Glass, Jeremy Reynolds, Norval D. Glenn, Scott Coltrane, Janet Ruane, Susan Markens, Julie E. Press, Laura Kramer, Kathleen Gerson, Paula England

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Reviewed Work: Understanding Institutional Diversity By Elinor Ostrom, Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Ballot Position On Election Outcomes, Jonathan G.S. Koppell, Jennifer A. Steen

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

This article presents evidence of name-order effects in balloting from a study of the 1998 Democratic primary in New York City, in which the order of candidates' names was rotated by precinct. In 71 of 79 individual nominating contests, candidates received a greater proportion of the vote when listed first than when listed in any other position. In seven of those 71 contests, the advantage to first position exceeded the winner's margin of victory, suggesting that ballot position would have determined the election outcomes if one candidate had held the top spot in all precincts.