Sociology Commons^™

Biruh Tesfa ('Bright Future'): A Program For Poor, Urban Girls At Risk Of Exploitation And Abuse In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Low-income and slum areas in urban sub-Saharan Africa attract large numbers of rural-urban migrants in search of work and educational opportunities. Many are adolescents from poor rural areas, who risk the hazards of life in the slums in hopes of carving out a better life. These girls arrive knowing little about life in dense urban centers, often with little or no education, and no family members or friends to turn to. Many new arrivals are initially absorbed into domestic work; some eventually drift into sex work either for lack of choice or in pursuit of better pay and fewer working …

“Peace Is More Than The End Of Bombing”: The Second Stage Of The Vieques Struggle, Sherrie Baver

Publications and Research

The nature of colonialism in Puerto Rico has caused most political issues to be viewed within the framework of status politics. In the first stage of the struggle to expel the U.S. Navy from the island (1999–2003), civil society in Puerto Rico united when the issues were reframed with links not to status politics but to human rights and social justice. Viequenses symbolized for Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico, on the mainland, and in the world at large the costs of military colonialism. In the second stage of the struggle, since the military’s departure, Viequenses have struggled to control the …

Multiple Disadvantages Of Mayan Females: The Effects Of Gender, Ethnicity, Poverty, And Residence On Education In Guatemala, Kelly Hallman, Sara Peracca, Jennifer Catino, Marta Julia Ruiz

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Although access to primary education in Guatemala has increased in recent years, particularly in rural areas, levels of educational attainment and literacy remain among the lowest in Latin America. Inequalities in school access and grade attainment linked to ethnicity, gender, poverty, and residence remain. Age trends show that Mayan females are the least likely to ever enroll, and, if they do enroll, start school the latest and drop out earliest. Innovative programs for girls that combine instruction with social interaction in safe local community spaces may increase their educational attainment and their social networks and means of social support. In …

Poverty, Wealth Inequality, And Health Among Older Adults In Rural Cambodia, Zachary Zimmer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This working paper examines the distribution of household wealth and tests whether associations exist between wealth inequality and health outcomes among older adults living in one of the world’s poorest regions, rural Cambodia. Results confirm difficult economic conditions among most elderly in rural Cambodia. This study suggests there is some validity to generalizing the relationship between wealth inequality and health to extremely poor populations and that a very small difference in wealth makes a relatively large difference in regard to the association with health among those living in impoverished surroundings.

Unemployment And Labor Force Participation Rates Among Racial/Ethnic Groups And Latino Nationalities In The New York Metro Area And The Five Boroughs, Laura Limonic

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report details the unemployment rates among Latino origin groups and racial/ethnic groups in the New York Metro area. The data are broken down by boroughs and by the eight largest Latino origin groups in New York: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Cubans, Colombians, Guatemalans, Peruvians and Ecuadorians.

Methods:

The data for this report were derived from the 2005 American Community Survey published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Data examined in this report are unemployment rates and rates of labor force non-participation rates. The U.S. Census classifies those not in the labor force as anyone who is not working nor …

Private And Public School Attendance Patterns Among New York City’S Racial/Ethnic Groups And Latino Nationalities In 2000, Cecilia Salvatierra

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning New York City racial/ethnic groups in 2000 – particularly private and public school attendance rates.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Data indicated that total White educational enrollment for all grades was evenly divided between public and private education, with 49.6% of all students enrolled in public educational institutions and 50.4% enrolled in …

Changing Patterns Xii: Mortgage Lending To Traditionally Underserved Borrowers And Neighborhoods In Greater Boston, 1990-2004, Jim Campen

Gastón Institute Publications

The present study is the latest in a series of annual updates of the original report, Changing Patterns: Mortgage Lending in Boston, 1990-1993. Beginning in 1998, the reports’ geographic scope was expanded to include an examination of mortgage lending patterns in 27 cities and towns surrounding the city of Boston. In 2003, the report’s geographic coverage was further expanded to include a total of 108 communities.

The text that follows this introduction highlights some of the most significant findings that emerge from the extensive set of tables and charts that constitute the bulk of the report. Part I, together …

Disrupting Preconceptions: Postcolonialism And Education, Ed. By Anne Hickling-Hudson, Julie Matthews, And Annette Woods, James C. Carl

Education Faculty Publications

Book review by Jim Carl:

Hickling-Hudson, Anne, Julie Matthews, and Annette Woods, eds. Disrupting Preconceptions: Postcolonialism and Education. Brisbane: Post Pressed, 2004.

ISBN 1-876682-56-6

The book grew out of a conference held in August 2001 at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. It is composed of a collection of thirteen essays that address postcolonialism in education. The presenters examine the postcolonial in educational structures and practices in Asia, Africa, North America, and Australia, but the colonial legacy remains—the language of the conference is English, the publisher is Australian, and the book is printed in Great Britain.

Overall, this …

Hate Crimes Against The Homeless: Warning-Out New England Style, Sandra Wachholz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article reports on the hate crime victimization experienced by thirty individuals over the course of their homelessness in a New England city. Indepth interviews were conducted with the participants in order to provide a detailed, contextual account of the nature and forms of their hate crime victimization in public and semi-public spaces. Central to the article is the argument that hate crimes against homeless people function as informal social control mechanisms that impose spatial constraints, not unlike the character and objectives of the warning-out laws that were used to exclude homeless people from the public and private space of …

Review Of One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All. Mark Robert Rank. Reviewed By Joel Blau., Joel Blau

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Mark Robert Rank, One Nation Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. $29.95 hardcover.

Poverty And Fertility In The American South, Leonard M. Lopoo

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This project first reports descriptive evidence of the characteristics of mothers in the American South and compares them to mothers in other regions of the country. Women in the South (and West) tend to have their children at younger ages than those in the Midwest and Northeast. Mothers in the South (and West) also have much lower levels of education and are more likely to be African American or Hispanic compared to women in the Midwest and Northeast. Next, this paper attempts to link the characteristics of the mothers in the American South to the high rates of poverty there. …

Evaluation Of The Civic Engagement Initiative, 2003-2004, Paul Watanabe, Anne W. Gathuo, Claudia Green, Michael Liu, Mary Jo Marion, Carmen Vivian Rivera

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

The CEI integrated high levels of data collection, use, and analysis into its implementation model. TBF and members of the coordinating team also conducted evaluative and summary research at different periods throughout the project. To assess the CEI's impact on voter participation, therefore, the evaluation team reviewed analyses by these stakeholders, including primarily data from the Massachusetts Voter Education Network (MassVOTE, January 2005), LeLievre Information Systems (March 2004; May 2005, ) and Northeast Action (June 2003); reports to the funders group by the donor collaborative liaison Bates Consulting (March 2004; various dates 2005); an evaluative report to TBF by the …

Gender Based Violence In Jordan: Domestic Violence And Honor Crimes, Danielle M. Becknell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper analyzes the social, psychological, religious, and legal interactions of gender-based violence that manifest themselves within the Jordanian society in various ways. Honor crimes are the ultimate manifestation of this phenomenon in this culture, and as such cannot be separated from the society, gender-relations, or violence against women. Interviews with specialist within the field allow for a more in depth exploration of the topic.

El Movimiento De Mujeres Y El Estado Nicaragüense: La Lucha Por La Autonomía, Sarah Moberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Movimiento de Mujeres ha sido un movimiento social vital, diverso e influyente en la historia de Nicaragua, comenzando a mediados del siglo veinte. Ha tenido tres etapas en su evolución, bajo las tres diferentes estructuras del Estado: la dictadura Somocista, el gobierno Sandinista, y los gobiernos neoliberales. Durante las tres etapas, el Movimiento tuvo cambios en sus agendas, sus debates, su membresía y su forma de organización. La relación con el Estado es un gran factor en el rumbo de un movimiento social. Ha influido en las estrategias políticas y las formas de participación, las cuales también han influido …

La Participación De La Juventud En El Desarrollo Comunitario: Un Estudio En La Organización Juvenil De Cantera, Ciudad Sandino, Surya Karla

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Cuando pensamos en las formas de exclusión, discriminación y opresión que existen en la sociedad, usualmente pensamos en términos de clase, género o raza. Muchas veces, se nos olvida pensar en otro sector enorme de la población oprimida: los jóvenes, adolescentes y niños. El poder en la sociedad puede ser concentrado en personas ricas, blancas y masculinas, pero significativamente también en las personas adultas. En una entrevista con Aura Lila Ulloa, Directora de la organización CANTERA, respecto al enfoque de este proyecto, me informó:

… “Vivimos, desgraciadamente, en una sociedad adultista. Dejar de ser una sociedad adultista y dar espacio …

The Needs Of The Marginalized; Documenting A Crisis Defined As Such By The Catadores De Lixo Of Jangurussú, Jane Hudson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Catadore de lixo is a general term used by Brazilians to refer to those people who work with garbage. It encompasses those who work (and often live) in open landfills and scavenge for salvageable goods to consume, use, or sell; those who work in the street collecting garbage; those who collect only recyclables; and those who work within associations, companies, or cooperatives that sort, sell, and/or recycle refuse. Such a cooperative and the catadores who comprise is the focus of my research.

My objective for spending three weeks in the homes and community of the catadoras de lixo was to …

Poverty, Race And The Contexts Of Achievement: Examining Educational Experiences Of Children In The American South, Maryah Stella Fram, Julie Miller-Cribbs, Lee Van Horn

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper reports findings of a study examining child-, classroom-, and school-level factors that effect academic achievement among public school children in the South. Using ECLS-K data, we compare and contrast the learning environments in high/low minority and high/low poverty schools. A sizeable minority of Southern children attend schools that are race and/or class segregated; on multiple dimensions these schools are less desirable than are schools attended by more privileged children, and children attending these schools have lower levels of academic achievement. Results from 3-level random intercepts models show that a range of child and family factors, as well as …

English Non-Fluency And Income Penalty For Hispanic Workers, Song Yang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Using the 2001-2002 California Workforce Survey, this paper examines the income gap between Hispanic and Caucasian workers. I attribute the income gap between Hispanic and Caucasian workers to differentials in their human capital. However, data analyses indicate that classical human capital indicators such as education,job training, and work experiences are not sufficient to account for the observed income gap between Hispanics and Caucasians. Instead, English fluency is a highly valuable aspect of human capital for Hispanic workers. English non-fluency, along with less education, job training, and work experiences explain why Hispanic workers earn less than Caucasian workers. However, variations in …

The Poverty Wars, Nicholas Harrigan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Expectations & Experiences Of Resettlement: Sudanese Refugees’ Perspectives On Their Journeys From Egypt To Australia, Canada And The United States, Martha Fanjoy, Hilary Ingraham, Cyrena Khoury, Amir Osman

Faculty Journal Articles

A key center for refugee­based activity is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regional office, located in Cairo. In recent years, this unit has referred approximately 4,000 recognized refugees per year for resettlement to the United States, Canada, Australia and a number of other smaller receiving countries, making it the largest such program in the world. But despite the size of the refugee population and the resettlement program in Cairo, there has been little research conducted into the expectations and experiences of the refugees themselves on this process. These perspectives could be significant determinants of success in the …

Living On The Margins: The Analysis Of The Livelihood Strategies Of Sudanese Refugees With Closed Files In Egypt, Katarzyna Grabska

Faculty Journal Articles

Throughout history Cairo has enjoyed the status of a cosmopolitan city attracting diverse populations from across the globe. Although refugees have not constituted a significant share of its foreign residents, Egypt has also been seen as a place of exile by sizeable refugee populations, including Armenians who fled the 1915 massacre under the Ottomans, Palestinians after 1948, and Sudanese after 1983. Palestinians are said to constitute the largest share of exiled residents, numbering between 50,000 and 70,000 (El Abed 2003). In the 1950s and 1960s Cairo was host to exiles from liberation movements across Africa and the Middle East, representing …

Review Of Inequality In America: What Role For Human Capital Policies. James J. Hechman And Alan B. Krueger. Reviewed By Sondra Beverly., Sondra Beverly

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of James J. Heckman and Alan B. Krueger, Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. $40.00 cloth.

Gender Poverty Disparity In Us Cities: Evidence Exonerating Female-Headed Families, Sara Lichtenwalter

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Utilizing data from the 2000 Census, this study examines the impact of family composition, education, and labor force factors on the difference between female and male poverty rates in the 70 largest U.S. cities. A stepwise regression analysis indicates that 41 % of the difference between female and male poverty rates can be explained by the percent of women in the three US Bureau of Labor Statistic's lowest wage occupations. There was no evidence of a unique impact from the percentage of female headed families in each city, or the study's other independent variables, on the gender poverty gap, with …

The Poverty Of Unattached Senior Women And The Canadian Retirement Income System: A Matter Of Blame Or Contradiction?, Amber Gazso

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Structural and financial inadequacy of Canada's retirement income system, especially with respect to income support benefits (i.e. Old Age Security), are often identified as one major reason unattached senior women experience poverty. While it may be compelling to blame low benefit levels and changing eligibility requirements, particularly because 'crisis' policy discourses have influenced questionable restructuring over time (i.e. the clawback), this paper argues that this is too simplistic of an account of the relationship between these women's poverty and the retirement income system. Other broad social-structural factors are at play in women's lives that have the potential to disentitle their …

Theories Of Urban Poverty And Implications For Public Housing Policy, Alexandra M. Curley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Urban poverty has been the subject of sociological and political debate for more than a century. In this article I examine theories of urban poverty and their place in American housing policy. I first discuss theories that have arisen out of the sociological and policy discourse on urban poverty and the research that supports and challenges these theories. I then review current public housing initiatives and discuss the impact of these theories on current housing policy.

Gated Cities In Greater Cairo, Wesam Mohamed Ibrahim Younis

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Extraterritorial Processing Of Refugee Claims & The Refugee Convention, C Frederick Sheffield

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Africa Citizenship And Discrimination Audit: The Case Study Of Egypt, Tarek Badawy, Abdallah Khalil, Amal Abdel Hadi

Faculty Journal Articles

This report summarizes the relevant laws, policies, and practices pertaining to access to citizenship in Egypt as well as the rights of non-citizens in Egypt. The report was the outcome of CMRS’ partnership in a project implemented by the Open Society Institute covering 12 African countries with the objective of improving access to rights and justice for non-citizens in Africa. This report on Egypt was completed in May 2005. The report consists of two chapters prepared by three researchers and edited by CMRS’ research coordinator Kasia Grabska. The first chapter by Tarek Badawy and Abdallah Khalil gives the essence of …

Providing Health Care Information To Refugees In Cairo: Questions Of Access And Integration, Emily K. Eidenier

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper began as an investigation into medical services currently offered to refugees in Cairo. The ultimate goal was to update the medical section of the Refugee Yellow Pages , an on-line information resource available through the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies department at the American University in Cairo. The impetus for this project was the idea that the provision of up-to-date listings of service providers was vital to refugees’ access to social services, including health care. In the course of my research I discovered that while information does play a large role in an individual’s ability to access health …

A Falta De Voz Quilombola No Canto Brasileiro: As Conseqüências Da Desvalorização Da Terra Quilombola Pelo Estado Brasileiro, Maíra Dos Santos

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No Brasil, existe uma longa história de um racismo institucional. Ou seja, desde a escravidão, a população afro-brasileira tem sido abandonada pelo Estado brasileiro. Esta pesquisa explora a relação entre o Estado e uma comunidade remanescente de Quilombo situada na Chapada Diamantina no Estado da Bahia. A relação entre os dois é estudada em termos dos direitos à terra Quilombola. Para os Quilombos, o direito à sua própria terra é o mais importante para a preservação das comunidades e também é o direito mais negado pelo Estado brasileiro. A negação desse direito tem muitas conseqüências para os quilombolas porque eles …