Sociology Commons^™

On Steven Duncombe's Cultural Resistance Reader (2002), Adam Reed

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

While the debates over the dis/connections between theory and practice have become essentially metaphysical, it is still useful to distinguish between micro, grassroots struggles and macro, ideological political agendas. In a world in which one of the Left's (old, new and contemporary) main achievements has been to merge the micro and macro in the popular imaginary, this distinction helps one appreciate the myriad of forces affecting social change that are condensed in primarily ideological narratives. A similar perspective is called for when one turns to cultural forms of resistance, which are usually erased by political narratives or mystified …

Gender, Crime, And Desistance: Toward A Theory Of Cognitive Transformation, Peggy C. Giordano, Stephen A. Cernkovich, Jennifer L. Rudolph

Sociology Faculty Publications

his article analyzes data derived from the first detailed long-term follow-up of a sample of serious adolescent female delinquents and similarly situated males. Neither marital attachment nor job stability, factors frequently associated with male desistance from crime, were strongly related to female or male desistance. A symbolic-interactionist perspective on desistance is developed as a counterpoint to Sampson and Laub's theory of informal social control, and life history narratives are used to illustrate the perspective. This cognitive theory is generally compatible with a control approach but (a) adds specificity regarding underlying change mechanisms, (b) explains some negative cases, and (c) fits …

Eleven Principles Of Effective Character Education, Tom Lickona, Eric Schaps, Catherine Lewis

Special Topics, General

There is no single script for effective character education, but there are some important basic principles. The following eleven principles serve as criteria that schools and other groups can use to plan a character education effort and to evaluate available character education programs, books, and curriculum resources.

Service As A Pathway To Political Participation: What Research Tells Us, Tobi Walker

Special Topics, General

Historically, there has been a rich American tradition connecting service to politi­cal engagement. To test whether this pathway remains significant, research on the political outcomes of young people's service participation is reviewed. The author argues that most research operationalizes citizenship as a helping behavior, contributing to a perspective that service is an alternative to politics. The article Concludes with a set of recommendations for reinvigorating service to support more robust political participation.

Consortia And Institutional Partnerships For Community Development, Mitchell R. Williams

Special Topics, General

The need for effective community development to address social, economic, and environmental issues is perhaps stronger now than at any other time. Making communities functional and livable is critically important to our society. There is a renewed interest in using the resources of higher education to assist communities and regions through community development initiatives (Livermore and Midgley, 1998; Usnick, Shove, and Gissy, 1997), To illustrate the contribution of colleges and universities to building sustainable communities, this chapter examines the development of community leaders through institutional partnerships and consortia involving different types of institutions of higher education.

Can Private Sector Strategic Information Systems Planning Techniques Work For The Public Sector?, Donna Dufner, Lyn M. Holley, B. J. Reed

Gerontology Faculty Publications

This study investigated strategic information technology planning (SISP) at the statewide level. Even though thirty-eight states reported having a strategic information technology plan in place and ten reported having a plan in progress; analysis of the data shows that the executive and legislative or highest levels of state government are “not involved” in SISP. A lack of integrated statewide governmental strategic information systems planning (SISP) suggests that SISP as defined by private sector models may not be accomplished easily in the public sector. Significant differences in the process of setting organizational objectives, planning horizons, and stakeholder involvement are barriers to …

Service Helix: A Grounded Theory Of College Student Development And Outcomes Through Involvement In Community Service, Mary Kay Schneider

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Community service and service learning have been lauded as ways of teaching civic and social responsibility during college. In order to better understand the concept of social and civic responsibility and whether students gravitated toward these concepts, this study was undertaken. The grounded theory was designed to understand students' experiences with community service, what they see as outcomes from their involvement, and the role of responsibility in this dynamic.

Grounded theory was utilized as the methodology because of the lack of research and theory regarding service and the outcomes for the servers. To achieve depth of understanding, information-rich participants were …

Serving Safely: A Risk Management Resource For College Service Programs, Sharon A. Joyce, Elaine K. Ikeda

Guides

This resource book has drawn upon the expertise of individuals in the fields of service learning, community service, risk management, insurance, and law. The valuable feedback and input from the experts in these fields has not only made this book possible, but it has strengthened the readability and technical accuracy of a complex subject.

Destination Democracy: An Educator's Guide To The Activities, Rahima C. Wade

Guides

Destination Democracy is the high school service-learning curriculum produced by Kids Voting USA. Through the lessons and activities in Destination Democracy, high school students practice the skills of democratic living as they learn important civic lessons in the classroom and participate in activities in their communities. The service-learning activities in the curriculum focus on meaningful civic involvement through voting, voter registration, working for political candidates, educating young children about the political process, and addressing community issues of interest to high school youth. Destination Democracy can be used by high school teachers, club advisors, youth group leaders and others interested in …

Learning To Serve: Service Learning Toolkit, Disney

Guides

Why serve?
If you're ready to initiate a service learning program with your students and want to know where to begin, you've come to the right place! This section will give you a step-by-step guide to starting a service learning program.

Community College Engagement In Community Programs And Services, Lisa Phinney, Mary Kay Schoen, Ellen Hause

Partnerships/Community

In 2001, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) conducted a national survey of community colleges to identify their community programs and services. Survey responses demonstrated a strong level of community college commitment to improving the quality of life in their communities and offering a place to pursue lifelong learning. Responding colleges indicated that they are engaged in a wide variety of programs and services designed to reflect the diverse needs of the communities they serve, with many partnering with local and state government, nonprofit organizations, and local schools.

Eric Resources On Service-Learning And Related Topics: An Annotated Bibliography, Unknown

Bibliographies

No abstract provided.

Searching For The Meaning Of Youth Civic Engagement: Notes From The Field, Molly W. Andolina, Krista Jenkins, Scott Keester, Cliff Zukin

Civic Engagement

This article reports on the early lessons from a multiphase, multimethod study of youth civic engagement. It uses insights from expert discussions along with a series of focus groups to explore how young adults approach politics, volunteerism, community, civic duty, and generational identity. The study finds many of the distinguishing characteristics of today's youth to be subtle and nuanced, which poses unique challenges for qualitative research of the generation. The important implications of language are discussed in detail.

The New Student Politics Curriculum Guide, Keith Morton, Sandra Enos, Sarah E. Long

Curriculum

The New Student Politics: The Wingspread Statement on Student Civic Engagement (2002) can be assigned as a text in a political science service-learning course that has as an explicit course objective the exploration of contemporary conceptions of citizenship, or a sociology service-learning course that focuses on community building and social transformation. Additionally, the text can be incorporated in service-learning courses across the disciplines with the aid of The New Student Politics Curriculum Guide. The Curriculum Guide is designed to provide a structure for engaging students in reflection on their community service experiences in a way that allows for the …

Editorial Statement

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Contributors

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Inducing Voluntary Community Service In Undergraduates: The Relative Contributions Of Prior Experience, Coursework, And The Dispositions Of Empathy And Moral Development, Susan M. Hudec

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

In the past twenty years, higher education has been criticized for what is perceived to be a failure to create better citizens. As a result of this criticism, a variety of pedagogical and curricula innovations have been attempted. One of these innovations is service learning, a form of experiential learning, which engages students in activities that combine fulfillment of community needs and opportunities for promotion of student learning and development (Kendall, 1990). This study hypothesized that moral development and empathy would increase over the course of the required service learning experience in the first semester of college and that required …

Writing Toward Democracy: Service-Learning And Composition, Glenn C. Hutchinson Jr.

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This study will show how encouraging students to write toward democracy could help them to become better writers and citizens. Service-learning can help students learn to write through active inquiry, collaboration with different discourse communities, and consideration of their roles as citizens. However, service-learning must meet three challenges in order to be successful.

First, I will argue that freshman composition's subordinate status as a service course to the university can inhibit a pedagogy of service-learning. Even though service-learning may be a useful term to name this pedagogy, I propose that we find a different name in order to emphasize student …

Midline Survey Results: Integrating Adolescent Livelihood Activities Within A Reproductive Health Program For Urban Slum Dwellers In India, Mary Philip Sebastian, Dale Huntington, Barbara Mensch, Wesley H. Clark, Shahina Begum, Bela Patel Uttekar, Sohini Roychowdhury

Reproductive Health

The Population Council in collaboration with CARE India has been conducting an operations research (OR) study to investigate the impact of adding a livelihoods component to the Action for Slum Dwellers' Reproductive Health, Allahabad (ASRHA) Project in Uttar Pradesh run by CARE India. The ASRHA Project selected peer educators from the slums and trained them in providing reproductive health (RH) information, communication skills, and group formation techniques. After the peer educators completed training, they conducted group sessions about livelihoods and savings. RH sessions were held alongside vocational counseling sessions. Population Council staff provided vocational training courses, both in the slums …

Kenya: Community Sensitization Must Precede Alternative Coming-Of-Age Rite, Frontiers In Reproductive Health

Reproductive Health

Female genital cutting (FGC) is practiced as a rite of passage in over half of Kenya’s districts. Kenyan nongovernmental agency Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (MYWO) has long conducted community sensitization focused on discouraging this practice. In 1996, MYWO began implementing the “alternative rite” (AR) intervention in sensitized communities. Girls participating in AR receive family life education in seclusion, followed by a public graduation ceremony recognizing them as adults. They are not cut as part of the ceremony. In 2000, the Population Council carried out an assessment of the AR program that sought to identify the impact of MYWO’s activities on knowledge …

Winter Visitors To Yellowstone National Park, Their Value Orientations And Support For Management Actions, William T. Borrie, Wayne A. Freimund, Mae A. Davenport

Society and Conservation Faculty Publications

The idea of a National Park contains a diversity of values and missions. This paper takes a multi-dimensional, context- specific approach to measuring the perceived values of Yellowstone National Park. It is an initial step in recording how perceptions of National Parks are changing over time. Responses of 1064 winter visitors to 24 park value items were factor and cluster analyzed to produce four groups. Examination of the relationship between cluster membership and support / opposition to a variety of management actions showed significant differences for all 19 proposed actions. Groups of visitors with different value orientations showed correspondingly different …

How Does Childhood Incest Affect The Interpersonal Relationships Of Adult Females, Lyle Potter

Graduate Research Papers

Incest has been occurring in families for many years, often behind a cloak of secrecy and fear of disclosure. More recently, the taboo in talking about incest has diminished, and many survivors of incest have come forward with their experiences to seek needed help. A major portion of the research has dealt with trying to understand the family dynamics. But a growing number of studies are beginning to look at the long term effects of the abuse, and some of them focus on adult interpersonal relationships. It is in this direction that this literature review and study will focus.

See Me, Touch Me, Feel Me':(Im)Proving The Bodily Sense Of Masculinity, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Ultimately, this paper stems from two cultural strands which intersect in one cultural form, self-improvement advertising aimed at men. The first of these is the figure of the new man, which appeared in the mid-1980s. The novelty lies in the positioning of masculine bodies precisely for the purpose of being seen. The available criticism was not equipped to account for these positionings. The second cultural strand, the proliferation of technologies which alter the body itself, as opposed to its coverings, makes the gap in the criticism more apparent. The two cultural trends intersect most noticeably in the advertisements …

Ideology And Public Sphere: A Preliminary Bibliography, Giorgio Bertellini, C. Paul Sellors

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Bibliography accompanies Bertellini & Sellors article Breaking the Mimetic Contract: Notes on Ideology, Intersubjectivity, and Film Theory

Balance And Conflict: Variation In Attaining Work-Family Fit Among A Homogeneous Population, Laura C. Koch

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of work-family fit has recently emerged in the work and family literature, comparable to work-family balance in that it represents interactions between work and family, and yet distinct from balance in its sense of universal ownership and responsibility. Using Barnett's (1998) model of the work-social system interface as a framework, this study explores the relationship between and predictive factors of work-family fit and work-family balance. Data are from a survey of Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management (MSM) graduate school alumni (n = 273). Findings indicate that fit and balance are indeed two separate constructs, with fit …

Anti-Minority Riots In Unified Germany: Cultural Conflicts And Mischanneled Political Participation, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Anti-foreigner riots in eastern Germany in the early 1990s have usually been explained by ethnonationalism or racism, ethnic competition for scarce resources, and opportunistic political elites. If anti-minority riots are analyzed as a distinct phenomenon with a cross-sectional approach, local political processes emerge as more important causes. Cultural conflicts, the channeling of mobilization from nonviolent into violent forms, local political opportunities for success, and mobilization by social movement organizations convert ethnic conflict and violence into riots. A comparison of riot and non-riot localities in eastern Germany supports this argument.

Experiential Learning In Webcasting For Peace Through Tourism, Courtlandt Butts

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this paper is to report on a project to develop cultural awareness and knowledge of the tourism profession; and to bring the team of students to Amman, Jordan to facilitate the first ever-global webcast of a conference. Within the international experience itself, the major components of the overall project involved grant writing, technological hands-on training, international student presentations, and the production of a professional videotape. The possibility of gaining such access had been made possible through the Undergraduate Research/ Experiential Learning Grant (UREL Grant) offered by the College of Education at UNI, which provided the ideal avenue …

An Investigation Of Factors That Influence How Students Decide On A Major At Western Kentucky University, Cinnamon C. White

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

During telephone interviews, students at Western Kentucky University were asked to explain how and why they chose a particular academic major. The students' race and majors were used in an attempt to determine if there were any noticeable differences in race/major categories. the study also examined some factors in students' backgrounds to determine if past experiences affected their decisions regarding majors.

How Long Do We Live?, John Bongaarts, Griffith Feeney

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Period life expectancy is calculated from age-specific death rates using life table methods that are among the oldest and most fundamental tools of demography. These methods are rarely questioned, much less criticized. Yet changing age patterns of adult mortality in contemporary countries with high life expectancy provide a basis for questioning the conventional use of age-specific death rates and life tables. This paper argues that when the mean age at death is rising, period life expectancy at birth as conventionally calculated overestimates life expectancy. Estimates of this upward bias, ranging from 1.6 years for the United States and Sweden to …

The End Of The Fertility Transition In The Developing World, John Bongaarts

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Fertility declines are now underway in many developing countries, and the focus of the debate about future fertility trends is shifting from the early to the later phases of the transition. This study examines patterns and determinants of fertility in the developing world using UN estimates of the total fertility rates for 143 developing countries from 1950 to 2000. The main objective is to identify regularities in the past record that may provide clues to future trends. Three key findings emerge from this analysis. First, the pace of fertility decline decelerates as countries reach the later stages of the transition. …