Sociology Commons^™

Public Health Contagion Of White Supremacy: Examining The Pipeline Of Attitudes About Racism And Racial History Education Among High School Students., Trinidad Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We are living in compounded states of upheaval. Violence and exemption from it across socioecological levels have shaped how humans survive, thrive, and die. While different violence typologies exist, the U.S., prioritizes interpersonal violence as its primary target of intervention, often through structural means that foster and reinforce interpersonal violence. The omission of structural and cultural agents and outcomes of violence allows perpetrators to infiltrate and reproduce savage, dehumanizing ideologies in perpetuity. Instead of sustaining societal pillars that oppress and destroy, we must fertilize public health research, practice, and sociopolitical activism with pillars that both inform and activate liberatory consciousness …

Contextualizing The 2019 “Chile Despertó” Movement: The Impact Of Historical Relational Processes On Mobilization And Repression, Tanya Leon

International Studies (MA) Theses

To expand our theoretical and empirical understanding of mobilization and repression in Latin America, this thesis asks three critical questions. Are economic indicators sufficient predictors of social movement emergence in Latin America? What other factors contribute to large-scale mobilization in Latin America? How do government’s respond to large-scale Latin American social movements? Specifically, when, and why do democratic governments choose to employ repression against social movements? Accordingly, I construct a quantitative model to test the correlation between rise in protest and worsened economic conditions. I apply it to a comprehensive dataset of political events in multiple South American countries throughout …

A Discursive Approach To Analyzing The Social Construction Of Exercise During Pregnancy, Savanna Kerstiens

The Qualitative Report

While research has demonstrated that exercise is healthy for pregnant women (Ramirez-Velez et al., 2017), many pregnant women do not meet medical recommendations and hesitate to engage in exercise. This may be related to the dominant discourses circulating in society and popular media. For this study, I selected a sample of top-selling pregnancy books to explore the attitudes, beliefs, and ideas circulating in these texts surrounding exercise during pregnancy. I conducted a discourse analysis to deconstruct the meaning of the language used and the advice given. Throughout the analysis, a postmodern feminist epistemology is employed to consider the implications …

Encounters With Caqdas: Advice For Beginner Users Of Computer Software For Qualitative Research, Jakub Niedbalski, Izabela Ślęzak

The Qualitative Report

We intend this article to be predominantly for researchers who would like to use software of the CAQDAS family in their research projects. Our experience as researchers and CAQDAS instructors shows that the introduction of software into the analytic process often poses a challenge. This is true for both novice and more seasoned researchers with entrenched habits of conducting research in a traditional manner. The literature available provides few answers to the questions preoccupying inexperienced users; our aim is to close this gap by providing useful information. We discerned major problem areas for scholars who are just setting off on …

Soundtracking: Method(Ological) Development Via Intuitive Feminist Inquiry, Maria P. Rybicki-Newman, Earle Reybold

The Qualitative Report

How does one be different, methodologically, and/or socially without being ignored, invalidated, or even erased? This is a conundrum for qualitative researchers who are with tasked with valuing difference within socio-political education systems fixed on ideas of truth, rightness, and validity. To explore these tensions, we provide an authentic and transparent illustration of how intuition, an often-invalidated way of knowing, instigated the development of a novel method(ology), soundtracking. Proceeding from an embodied, engaged feminist perspective, we re-conceptualized reflexive praxis as critical, compassionate, and actionable. We explored method(ological) development via layered reflexivity: self, epistemological witness, and social contexts. Through our inquiry …

The Medical Policing Of Transgender And Gender Nonconforming Adults, Gabrielle Hawkins

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This research aims to better understand the discriminatory health care experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming adults. Conducted through a non-positivist sociological methodology, a primary objective of this research is to uplift transgender and other gender nonconforming voices through a study of lived, personal health narratives. In open-forum, semi-structured interviews, eight participants were asked questions relating to their health narratives, including questions concerning health care experiences and any encounters with discriminatory behaviors/actions by medical professionals and/or other medical affiliated personnel (i.e., receptionists, community health advisors, pharmacists, etc.). Potential questions ranged in theme (but were not limited to): gender identity, gender …

Action Research In Hospitality And Tourism Research, Denise O'Leary, David Coghlan

Books/Book Chapters

In the context of tourism and hospitality studies, the potential of action research for generating robust actionable knowledge has not been yet realized. This chapter provides an account of the theory and practice of action research, demonstrates how it may be designed and implemented, and how it may generate actionable knowledge. It provides illustrative examples and shows how this research approach aligns effectively with some of the themes that currently engage the attention of researchers in the fields of tourism and hospitality such as process improvement, sustainability, and community-based tourism development. Thus, it makes a case for more widespread use …

Improvising: A Grounded Theory Investigation Of Psychology Students' Level Of Anxiety, Coping, Communicative Skills, Imagination, And Spontaneity, Olga Temezhnikova

The Qualitative Report

The aim of this study was to gain insight into the phenomenon of improvisation, how it is manifested in communication, and to conceptualize the process of improvisation in general. I aimed to construct a model for use in teaching and further analysis of training programs that target and develop improvisation skills in communication. The ability to communicate is part and parcel of psychologists’ work. I develop and supervise interactive classes and training programs to promote improvisation and communication skills, using the grounded theory of improvisation in communication under conditions of high uncertainty. The improvisation sessions were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed. …

Qualitative Data Analysis For Health Research: A Step-By-Step Example Of Phenomenological Interpretation, Sue Monaro, Janice Gullick, Sandra West

The Qualitative Report

Phenomenological studies have been critiqued when analytic activities and intersection with the underpinning philosophy lack clarity. This methodological discussion paper describes data analysis in hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology. Data management strategies (transcript preparation, coding, philosophy application, tabling/concept maps, and Microsoft Word) and data analysis processes (reduction, display, and conclusion drawing/verification) are illustrated. Deconstruction, reconstruction, and reorganisation of themes/subthemes using hierarchical heading styles to populate the navigation pane and philosophical tenets acted as analytic hooks. This paper has outlined data analysis in hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology, including the use of MS Word and its functionality, which was supported by other data display strategies …

Solipsism As A Challenge Of Doing Autoethnographic Inquiry, Chet Nath Panta, Bal Chandra Luitel

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this paper is to unpack and critique different forms of solipsism and whether its impacts on autoethnographic inquiry are overly self-referential. This paper offers thoughts on Western and Eastern perspectives on the self. It is argued that autoethnography as a genre and method of inquiry confronts challenges and tensions in terms of epistemology, methodology, and ethical issues, particularly the issues of solipsism as a major challenge. It is often critiqued that autoethnographers are not able to establish a clear theoretical standpoint and the autobiographic texts lack convincing arguments and scholarly rigor. In the meantime, it is not …

Using Conference Sessions As Research Settings: A Field Note, Micah Saviet, Elizabeth Ahmann

The Qualitative Report

Recruiting subjects for research studies can be challenging. Respondent time and burden may pose challenges when trying to recruit busy professionals as participants. Holding a focus group during a research-oriented conference session is a novel way to address recruitment barriers for such subjects. In this field note, we address recruiting participants by word of mouth and snowball sampling for a focus group study held during a research session about Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) coaching at a professional conference. We found that this novel approach yielded experienced participants, with a depth of perspective, who were already primed to think about important issues …

Feeling Socially Anxious At University: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Jennifer Lee, Daniel Waldeck, Andrew Holliman, Moitree Banerjee, Ian Tyndall

The Qualitative Report

For those with feelings of social anxiety, university can present unique challenges. Socially anxious students can face functional impairments such as interpersonal and academic deficits, as well as social maladjustment due to a shift in their social networks. Despite this, there is surprisingly little research exploring their experiences at university using qualitative designs. The present study set out to explore how a small sample of undergraduate students experienced feeling socially anxious at university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight psychology undergraduates and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to explore their experiences and interpret deeper meaning. Five main themes emerged, …

Can Funded Development Projects Be Sustainable? The Case Of Limpopo Idc Nguni Cattle Development Project, Limpopo Province, South Africa, Godswill Makombe Prof

The Qualitative Report

The typical cases of funded development projects are donor-funded. One of the major problems faced by donor-funded projects is that after the withdrawal of donor funding, the projects are not sustainable. Literature has identified some of the factors that cause lack of sustainability including low stakeholder ownership and commitment, lack of understanding of community context, lack of community empowerment, leadership, technology choice, and over-ambitious objectives. I use the social constructivist approach to study the Limpopo IDC Nguni Cattle Development Project in Limpopo Province of South Africa which I got in contact with through student supervision. The project is based on …

Making Forests, Making Communities: An Ethnography Of Reforestation In Monteverde, Costa Rica, Megan Brown

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

Reforestation is not just planting trees in the ground. More than net increase in forest cover, reforestation is a complex political endeavor undertaken by both humans and non-humans and a popular climate change mitigation tactic. However, little research has examined the dynamics between selection of specific reforestation strategies, health, and community resilience, particularly with attention to entanglements between the lives of both human and non-human forest dwellers. This ethnographic work, based on six months of in-person fieldwork and six months of digital ethnography, examines reforestation and forest relations in Costa Rica’s Monte Verde zone, a region which experienced widespread deforestation, …

An Exploration Of Online Sex Work, Olivia Haffey, Carolyn Miller, Emily Isbell

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Sex work is deemed one of the world’s most ancient professions, but it has undergone substantial changes within even the last 20 years (Kipling 1888; Jones 2015; Sanders, Connelly and King 2016). The emergence of the Internet has shifted the work locations of sex work from saunas, brothels, and street work to online platforms as well as the use of the Internet as a mediator for in-person sex work (Jones 2015; Jonsson, Sveden and Hyden 2014). This migration in the nature of sex work has changed its delivery and interaction for both workers and clients. The appeals of online sex …

Factors Driving Changing Community Acceptance Of Gays And Lesbians In Cato Manor, Kwazulu-Natal, Isabella Van Der Weide

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Acceptance of LGBTQ people is an important and encouraging area of social progress. As attitudes change in South Africa and across the world, it is important to understand the drivers of change and how that change is experienced within communities. Using both semi-structured interviews (n=19) and collection of survey data (n=30), this study interrogated the factors that formed and changed views on gay and lesbian people among respondents from a community in Cato Manor, a peri-urban area near Durban, South Africa. About half of all participants reported an opinion change. Interview participants who experienced opinion change most commonly reported the …

Perceptions Of Race, Status, And Instructional Modality As Predictors Of Degree Attainment For African American Male Community College Students, Roderick C. Lewis Sr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given the large number of students who begin their college education yet never graduate, it is essential that, as higher education leaders and policymakers develop student success strategies, they consider the persistence and degree attainment dynamics of all populations. This study focuses on the problem of degree attainment from the perspective of male, second-year, African American, community college students. A qualitative narrative case study approach was used to ascertain their perception of race, status attainment, and instructional learning modalities as predictors of degree attainment. Accordingly, those perceptions were then evaluated to determine their utility as predictors of degree attainment. Six …

Desert Power: Exploring How Jordan Can Democratize Through Tribalism, Shahab A. Khan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This independent study project will analyze tribal institutions in Jordan to understand how conducive they are to democracy. In the wake of the Arab Spring and the collapse of many burgeoning democracies in the Middle East, it is important to find ways in which pro-democracy advocates can build strong democratic states in the Middle East. Democracy allows a polity to choose who rules them. Furthermore, it has proven that peopling living in a democracy live longer, more fulfilling lives than those who do not. Given Jordan’s unique history as a stable regime with a strong tribal tradition, the researcher has …

The Power Of The Middle Class In The United States And China, Sarah Kent

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The global middle class has been experiencing exponential growth, but because of differences among countries in regard to stages of development, the growth has not been spread evenly across the world. The United States and much of the Western World is undergoing a shrinking middle class due to economic deregulation and automation whereas China and other countries in the Eastern World have had middle class growth in recent years (OECD, 2019). The juxtaposition between the middle classes is also reflected in the juxtaposition of the respective countries’ GDP growth. Therefore, the United States and China, because of their pronounced systemic …

Evaluating The Validity Of Restrictions On Blood Donation Eligibility For Men Who Have Sex With Men (Msm) In The United States, France, And Switzerland, Swathi Gorantla

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For the first time in a decade, the number of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnoses is higher for heterosexual people compared to gay and bisexual men (Florêncio, 2022). Additionally, in the United States, the American Red Cross has declared a national blood crisis due to the nationwide shortage of donated blood. During this crisis, charged with the new information on HIV diagnosis rates, many advocates for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) community question why discriminatory policy surrounding gay and bisexual men donating still exist around the world. These policies are changing worldwide – several European countries have …

“Antes ÉRamos De Tierra Firme”: Community Perspectives On The Past, Present, And Future Of Isla Narganá And Isla CorazóN De JesúS, Comarca Guna Yala In The Face Of A Changing Climate, Izabella R. Klosterman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The objective of this research was to learn about Isla Narganá and Isla Corazón de Jesús, Comarca Guna Yala residents’ perspectives on climate change and, to learn about what needs to be done to mitigate the effects of climate change on the islands. In April 2022, eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted in Spanish with residents of the islands. Interviews revealed that flooding caused by sea level rise, intensification of precipitation events, extreme heat, and biodiversity loss were the most reported impacts of climate change on participants’ lives. Poor waste management opportunities were also discussed as a critical environmental issue affecting …

Research Data Management Policy, Munster Technological University, Ireland

Policies & Procedures

The purpose of this policy is to provide a framework for Research Data Management (RDM) in the University throughout the stages of the research cycle. This includes, but is not limited to, collection, curation,secure storage, organisation, retrieval, re-use, sharing, archiving, and access of research data, in accordance with international best practice, legal, statutory, ethical, contractual and intellectual property obligations, and the requirements of research funding bodies, publishers and stakeholders.

The University and researchers will make all best efforts to make sure they are consistent with this policy.

The Pink Tax, Scott T. Grether

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Memory Rewriting As A Method Of Inquiry: When Returning Becomes Collective Healing, Ethan Trinh, Giang Nguyen Hoang Le Mr., Ha Dong, Trang Tran, Vuong Tran

The Qualitative Report

Writing is collective healing to build a community. We, five Vietnamese bodies, enquire, how can individual memories be collective healing to rewrite a better future of education? We borrow Nhat Hanh’s philosophy to touch on our suffering to heal and Barad’s returning as a multiplicity of processes for reconnecting with the pastpresentfuture. We use the recollection of individual memories to share critical incidents of past experiences to build a collective community for healing purposes. We have demonstrated our deep commitment to creating a resilient system in retelling stories and rewriting for hope for educational change through this process.

The Lively Science: A Book Review, Ashley N. Schmidt, Megan K. Mitchell

The Qualitative Report

A book review on The Lively Science by Michael Agar, published in 2021. In this review, we examine the three underlying points around which Agar structures the book, then appraise the book from our lens as novice female researchers. We end the review by sharing a reading guide novice researchers could use to document their reading and understandings.

Del Silencio A La Acción Colectiva: Voces De Mujeres Víctimas De Acoso Sexual En Las Instituciones De Educación Superior, Bibiana Catalina Cano-Arango, Luisa Fernanda Duque-Monsalve, Mónica Cecilia Montoya-Escobar, Ana Milena Gaviria-Gómez

The Qualitative Report

En el artículo analizamos las reacciones de las víctimas de acoso sexual en dos universidades de Medellín - Colombia. La investigación tuvo un diseño mixto, con enfoque de género. Implementamos las siguientes técnicas de generación de datos: encuestas, entrevistas en profundidad y talleres reflexivos. Los resultados indican que las mujeres son las principales víctimas de esta problemática y que sus respuestas van desde la evitación (huida del lugar de la agresión), la confrontación (manifestación explícita del rechazo) hasta la denuncia (queja ante superiores, activación de rutas internas o externas, entre otros). Las reacciones más frecuentes son evitativas y no contribuyen …

Storying Ways To Reflect On Power, Contestation, And Yarning Research Method Application, Cammi Murrup-Stewart Dr, Petah Atkinson, Karen Adams Professor

The Qualitative Report

Internationally within academia settler-colonial processes occur in various ways alongside a growth in the use of research methods conceived with Indigenous knowledges. However, most research environments and practices are built upon and privilege dominant non-Indigenous settler-colonial knowledge systems. It is within this power imbalance and contested space that Yarning research method is being applied and interpreted. Underpinned by an Indigenous Research Paradigm, we employed storying ways to examine researcher experiences of settler-colonialism and the Yarning research method. The story outlines challenges and pitfalls that researchers can fall into and critically examines how researchers can fail to recognise the depth of …

Social Inclusion And Exclusion Places: The Point Of View Of Young Adults, Nadia Rania, Ilaria Coppola, Laura Pinna

The Qualitative Report

In the literature places have been defined as First (home), Second (work and school) and Third places (physical and virtual). The present study aims to analyze the perception of inclusion/exclusion that young adults have of the places that they live. The research was conducted using the Photovoice technique and involved 50 young Italian adults. Results highlight how participants perceive some Second and Third places in most cases as inclusive places, even if they highlight the exclusion dimension for some categories of people. We think that reflecting on inclusive/exclusive places can stimulate greater awareness and sense of belonging, which affect well-being.

“Advancing Our Collective Awareness In Doing Social Justice Research”: A Book Review Of Anna Cohenmiller And Nettie Boivin’S Questions In Qualitative Social Justice Research In Multicultural Contexts, Norma R. A. Romm

The Qualitative Report

In the book, Questions in Qualitative Social Justice Research in Multicultural Contexts, the authors, Anna CohenMiller and Nettie Boivin, ask provocative questions meant to stimulate us as qualitative researchers to strengthen options for conducting “better” research which is likely to advance inclusion and equity for communities who have been historically marginalized, colonized and/or oppressed. The book is adeptly structured so to invite us to (re)consider possible answers to their questions posed. As part of explicating the diversity of approaches to questions that can and should be asked regarding the doing of inclusive qualitative research, they include vignettes of a …

“I Needed To Become A Mother”: Poetic Representations Of Maternal Embodiment, Autonomy, And Birth Trauma, Elizabeth A. Bennett, Lori E. Koelsch

The Qualitative Report

While poetic inquiry has been used to explore many aspects of motherhood, there has been less attention given to pregnant, birthing, and immediately postpartum/fourth trimester embodiment. Here, we utilize poetry to explore a topic that is understudied and embodied experiences in the transition from pregnancy to early motherhood. The poems we present in this article are part of a larger project exploring experiences of embodied transition into motherhood. In the context of this larger project, 14 women were interviewed about their experiences of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. In order to maintain focus on the embodied transition to new motherhood, only …