Sociology Commons^™

The Expansion Of The Mandarin Mind, Tyler Okney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study will examine and contrast two periods of xenophobia and stagnation, late Qing dynasty China, and the PRC under Mao, with a genuine market place of ideas, Shanghai and the other foreign treaty ports in the period 1849 to 1949, and explain how this period of cosmopolitan ferment has had beneficial effects on China today. Countries that have shut themselves off from the outside world have frequently suffered first stagnation, and then decay. While this might appear a commonplace in the abstract, the application of this insight in the development of particular nations has been neither as thorough or …

Sewing Garments, Sowing Lives: Two Generations Of Migrant Workers' Back And Forth To The Chinese Coast, Alice Tzou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Migrant workers in China have been at the center of popular news media and scholarly attention for three decades, since they started to migrate to work in factories on the coast in the post-1978 Economic Reform era. As western and central China has developed and work opportunities have arisen in these migrant-sending regions, internal migrants have started to return home. Push and pull factors of internal migration have been reversed. Poverty and lack of job opportunities used to be the push factors; they are now replaced by new push factors—long hours of work and long-distance travel to and from the …

Procedural Justice For Youth: Discrepancies In The Provision Of Defense Counsel For Youth In The Juvenile Justice System, Emily K. Pelletier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Youth in the juvenile justice system experience racially disparate outcomes at all contact points throughout the system process, despite race-neutral state policies governing the juvenile justice system. States provide defense counsel for indigent youth in the juvenile justice system through policies containing race-neutral language; however, each state maintains different policies protecting youth rights to defense counsel. This study questions the relationships among state policies protecting youth rights to defense counsel, racially disparate outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system, and state socioeconomic and racial composition. The study relies on content analysis to transform qualitative state policies into quantitative data …

Culture And Class In Marginalized Minority Educational Attainment, Alan R. Takeall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using a national sample of Black and Latino high school students, I ask: What is the relative impact of demographic factors, aspirations, adherence to an ideology of achievement, and sociocultural capital on future educational attainment? Additionally, how do poor students compare to their non-poor counterparts on these measures? Employing the Educational Longitudinal Study (2002 & 2012) and multivariate statistical techniques, this dissertation examines the role of cultural and other factors on the educational attainment of Black and Latino students and then explores the role of poverty on those outcomes.

In recent years educational reform efforts have placed considerable emphasis on …

Denial: A Sociological Theory, Christina Nadler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation develops a theory of sociological denial through an investigation of contested social problems. I begin by reviewing the literature on denial, both sociological and psychological, in order to situate the project and exemplify the relevance and need for a sociological theory of denial. Then, through examining three scales of the social, I account for multiple layers of the social structure and denial’s place in each. These scales are the sites at which denial happens: geographic, cognitive, and unconscious. I explore five contested social problems through varied paradigms that allow me to analyze each scale of the structural. I …

Medical Transnationalism: Korean Immigrants’ Medical Tourism To The Home Country, Sou Hyun Jang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines Korean immigrants’ barriers to formal U.S. healthcare, three distinctive types of healthcare behaviors that they exhibit, contributing factors to their medical tourism, and their experiences and evaluations of medical tourism. Analyzing survey data with 507 Korean immigrants and in-depth interviews with 120 Korean immigrants in the New York-New Jersey area, the study finds that more than half of Korean immigrants have barriers to healthcare in the U.S., the two biggest being the language barrier and not having health insurance. The study also finds that there are three distinctive types of healthcare behavior that Korean immigrants employ to …

Black Models Matter: Challenging The Racism Of Aesthetics And The Facade Of Inclusion In The Fashion Industry, Scarlett L. Newman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The global fashion market is expanding every day, but often, the global fashion runways do not reflect that reality. On average, black models make up for six percent of models used on the runway during the fashion month calendar. This small percentage is also mirrored in advertisements and editorials featured in popular fashion magazines. In the 1970s, black models were met with great opportunities, and that success trickled down into the 1980s and the 1990s. As the 90s came to a close, top designers opted for an aesthetic that ultimately excluded models of color, but black models beared the brunt …

Bricolage Propriety: The Queer Practice Of Black Uplift, 1890–1905, Timothy M. Griffiths

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bricolage Propriety: The Queer Practice of Black Uplift, 1890-1905 situates the queer-of-color cultural imaginary in a relatively small nodal point: the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Through literary analysis and archival research on leading and marginal figures of Post-Reconstruction African American culture, this dissertation considers the progenitorial relationship of late-nineteenth century black uplift novels to modern-day queer theory. Bricolage Propriety builds on work about the sexual politics of early African American literature begun by women-of-color feminists of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Hazel V. Carby, Ann duCille, and Claudia Tate. A new wave of …

The Role Of Socioeconomic Context In The Association Between Educational Attainment And Morbidity And Mortality, Jennifer Brite

Dissertations and Theses

Although the association between educational attainment and health is one of the most studied in the social science, little is known about the role of social and economic context. Fundamental Cause Theory suggests that the education-health gradient will be weakest in contexts where the better educated are unable to leverage their resources to achieve better health. This dissertation tests several different factors that may moderate the association between educational attainment and morbidity and mortality: 1. Demographic characteristics, including race, immigration status, and gender, 2. Status consistency (defined as education equivalent to that required for current occupation), 3. Unemployment rates at …

How Are 9/11-Era Veterans Faring In The Modern Economy? A Quantitative Study By Sex, Race, And Ethnicity 2005-2015, Cappello Lawrence

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This study examines key socio-economic and demographic trends among non-active duty American veterans who served in the armed forces during the post-9/11 era. It focuses on nationwide developments between 2005 and 2015. To achieve a richer understanding of the conditions facing former servicemen and servicewomen as they transition into civilian life, this examination moves beyond general population demographics by looking at topics such as sex, race/ethnicity, age, employment, income, poverty rates, and educational attainment.

Methods:

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for …

Comparative Study Of Uniformed/Undercover Loss Prevention Agents In Reducing Shrinkage In Retail Businesses, Rustam Zakirov

Student Theses

This research examines the effectiveness of loss prevention strategies, specifically, uniformed and undercover Loss Prevention Agents (LPA), to determine the proper implementation of these strategies and provide necessary recommendations for the retail stores to lower the rate of shrinkage. It has been found that to date $13 billion worth of merchandise is stolen per year nationwide. Therefore, in order to reduce shoplifting, retail stores implement various loss prevention strategies among them: LPAs and others. Much research has been conducted in order to find an effective strategy for reducing shoplifting which among others impacts the rate of shrinkage. However, to date, …

Post-9/11 Media Coverage Of Terrorism, Zachary S. Mitnik

Student Theses

Media coverage of terrorist attacks plays an important role in shaping the public understanding of terrorism. While there have been several studies analyzing coverage of terrorist incidents prior to 9/11, there has been little research examining post-9/11 coverage. This study fills this gap by examining the media’s coverage of terrorism in the United States between the dates of September 12, 2001 and December 31, 2015. The analysis is based on a list of terrorist-related incidents and New York Times articles written on each incident. This study documents the amount of coverage received by these incidents and identifies the variables influencing …

"Why Wouldn't You Like It?": Exploring Masculine Identities In Discussions Of Male Rape, Bridget Woods

Student Theses

Empirical research on the topic of male rape is scarce within the discipline of psychology. Current research focuses on negative perceptions of male rape victims, but does not take into account the role hegemonic masculinity plays in constructing beliefs about male rape. The present study aims to gather narratives of young men’s beliefs of male rape and male rape myths and analyze how masculinity and masculine identities shape these beliefs. Narratives were gained through collection of journal writings and focus groups, and an integrated narrative analysis was conducted to identify themes and discursive strategies that men employed to balance their …

Foreign-Born Artists Making “American” Pictures: The Immigrant Experience And The Art Of The United States, 1819–1893, Whitney Thompson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite the fact that historians centralize immigration as a defining social phenomenon of the nineteenth century, art historians maintain nationalistic parameters that suppress artists’ immigration and assimilation experiences. While scholars have foregrounded the transatlantic migration of artists who entered during the postbellum Great Wave (1881-1920) and the twentieth century, immigration in the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century has been largely neglected, a striking omission given that roughly six million people arrived to the United States between 1820 and 1865. To reconcile this gap, this dissertation examines artists who were part of the major antebellum- and Civil War-era migration streams …

Pension Fund Evictions: Lessons For Housing And Labor, Marnie F. Brady

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation I analyze an institutional investor portfolio of over-leveraged multifamily rental housing in East Palo Alto, California to demonstrate how changing forms of landlordism produce both new and familiar targets for tenants organizing against displacement and for housing security. Venture capital investors in the first decade of the 2000s exploited the Silicon Valley regional conditions of racial exclusion, uneven development, and municipal rent control. I introduce the legacy of Black political organization in East Palo Alto as a way of contextualizing the tenants’ and the city leaders’ response to the monopoly investment purchase. The structure of this rental …

Cooperative Membership And Community Engagement: Findings From A Latin American Survey, Sangdong Tak

Publications and Research

Cooperatives as organization have mainly been explored in the field of business and management due to their operation in the business sector, and studies of nonprofit organizations have given little attention to them. Consequently, cooperatives studies have tended to examine economic outcomes, such as productivity and job security, comparing them to conventional business firms. Nevertheless, cooperatives are membership associations and have organizational characteristics in common with other types of voluntary associations. Furthermore, one explicit organizational principle of cooperatives is concern for community, and their contributions to the community have been covered frequently by media. Therefore, it is imperative to examine …

Older Adults And Mobile Technology: Factors That Enhance And Inhibit Utilization In The Context Of Behavioral Health, Alexis Kuerbis, Adina Mulliken, Frederick Muench, Alison A. Moore, Daniel Gardner

Publications and Research

While numbers and proportions of older adults with behavioral health issues are expected to substantially increase, there is also a widening gap in available services for older adults. Mobile health interventions (mhealth) are a way to address existing barriers to treatment, provide frontline assessment and increase access to services for older adults. Due to perpetuated stereotypes, many assume that older adults do not utilize mobile technology nor will they accept a mHealth intervention. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize contemporary literature from information technology and healthcare regarding: (1) current mobile technology utilization by older adults, particularly in regards …

Demographic Transition And The Dynamics Of Measles In Six Provinces In China: A Modeling Study, Sheng Li, Chao Ma, Lixin Hao, Qiru Su, Zhijie An, Fubao Ma, Shuyun Xie, Aiqiang Xu, Yangyang Zhang, Zhengrong Ding, Hui Li, Lisa Cairns, Huaqing Wang, Huiming Luo, Ning Wang, Li Li, Matthew J. Ferrari

Publications and Research

Background Industrialization and demographic transition generate nonstationary dynamics in human populations that can affect the transmission and persistence of infectious diseases. Decades of increasing vaccination and development have led to dramatic declines in the global burden of measles, but the virus remains persistent in much of the world. Here we show that a combination of demographic transition, as a result of declining birth rates, and reduced measles prevalence, due to improved vaccination, has shifted the age distribution of susceptibility to measles throughout China.

Methods and findings We fit a novel time-varying catalytic model to three decades of age-specific measles case …

Puerto Ricans In Florida, 2015, Center For Puerto Rican Studies

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

In 2015, Florida had the second largest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the United States (1,069,446) after New York (1,084,872). Florida and New York were the only states with more than one million Puerto Ricans during this year. Puerto Ricans accounted for 5.3 percent of the total population in Florida, but 21.5 percent of the state’s Latino population in 2015. In other words, one in every five Latinos in Florida was Puerto Rican.

From Plato To Nato. 2,500 Years Of Democracy And The End Of History, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

As’Lem: An Ethical Diagnosis Of The Contemporary, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

In recent scholarly literature, refugees have proliferated: they are the “political figures par excellence” and “border concepts”; they are understood through their infrastructures, both camps and laws; and they are approached as suffering subjects. But Fassin, Wilhelm-Solomon, and Segatti have a different approach: they understand asylum—or as’lem, the term used by asylum seekers in South Africa—as a form of life.

Puerto Rican Housing Characteristics, Jennifer Hinojosa

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

This research brief reviews housing characteristics among the Puerto Rican population in the United States. Puerto Ricans are compared to Hispanics overall, non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and the nation’s total population. Data from the 2007 and 2014 American Community Survey (1-year estimates) are used to analyze and compare regional and national housing characteristics.1 Housing characteristics, such as housing tenure, costs, and conditions, are discussed.

“Minority Banks, Homeownership, And Prospects For New York City’S Multi-Racial Immigrant Neighborhoods”, Tarry Hum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Juveniles Lead Adults In Declining Rate Of Drug Crime, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics, juvenile drug arrest rates fell more drastically and quickly than drug arrests involving adults. This databit examined the trajectory for drug-related arrests between 1980 to 2015 and compared the peaks and declines in youth versus adults.

Guest Studies The Diversity Of New York’S Chinatown., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Chinatowns are common sights in almost every major city in the U.S. To westerners, they appear to be homogeneous places where one goes to find good Chinese food and a little more. However, researchers have found that there is much more to them than that. It turns out that these Chinese communities can tell us a lot about not only the Chinese immigrants but also the cities where they are located.

One of those researchers is Dr. Ken Guest. He comes from a very religious family from New Jersey. “My mother is the fourth generation of United Methodist ministers in …

Young Men In Neighborhoods With Cure Violence Programs Adopt Attitudes Less Supportive Of Violence, Sheyla A. Delgado, Laila Alsabahi, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

New York City neighborhoods with operating Cure Violence sites show stronger declines in less violence-prone attitudes. This databit displays data collected by the NYCCure study at JohnJayREC. It demonstrates that the presence of Cure Violence in a neighborhood is associated with significant reductions in the willingness of young men to use violence in conflict situations.

Savings Rate: How Wraparound Advocacy May Reduce The Consequences And Costs Of State Commitment For Justice-Involved Youth, Douglas N. Evans, Megan O'Toole, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

John Jay College conducted a quasi-experimental evaluation of Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. by comparing justice system outcomes for a sample of Florida youth served by YAP, Inc. with a matched comparison sample of youth supervised by the public juvenile probation department. This report discusses the outcomes for YAP youth and provides estimations for the savings generated from reducing the need for commitment and out-of-home placement among court-involved youth.

Invest In Your Librarians: An Open Thesis To Nypl President Tony Marx, Wilfredo Rivera-Scotti

Publications and Research

An exploration of the resources required to address the issues New York City public libraries – particularly those in underserved, low-income communities – face in dealing with patrons afflicted by homelessness, mental illness and addictions.

Using a New York Public Library branch in the Bronx as a case study, there will be ample evidence indicating a lack of resources for both employees and patrons alike.

Beyond Inclusion: Critical Race Theory And Participatory Budgeting, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Critical Race Theory (CRT) researchers maintain that mainstream liberal discourses of neutrality and colorblindness inherently reify existing patterns of inequality, and that privileging the voices of people of color and the marginalized is essential to addressing issues of equity and equality. Participatory budgeting (PB) aims, too, to include the voices of the marginalized in substantive policy-making. Through a CRT lens, I examine the ways in which the New York City PB process has thus far worked to simultaneously disrupt and maintain racial hierarchies. I pay particular attention to how social constructions of the “good project” shape the discourses around community …

From Porto Alegre To New York City: Participatory Budgeting And Democracy, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Because of its popularity, there is now a large literature examining how participatory budgeting (PB) deepens participation by the poor and redistributes resources. Closer examinations of recent cases of PB can help us to better understand the political configurations in which these new participatory democratic spaces are embedded, and articulate the conditions that might lead to more meaningful outcomes. Who participates? For whose benefit? The articles in this symposium, on participatory budgeting in New York City (PBNYC), highlight both strengths and challenges of the largest American PB process. They focus less on redistribution, more on the dimensions of the process …