Sociology Commons^™

Update On The Demography Of Rural Disability Part One: Rural And Urban, Tom Seekins Ph.D., Alexandra Enders, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Independent Living and Community Participation

Defining Rural: The 2005 Merriam-Webster Dictionary simply defines rural as “of or relating to the country, country people or life, or agriculture.” Most people have an idea of what makes an area rural, but the perception of ruralness may not always match the specific definitions used by agencies responsible for counting, analyzing, or distributing community resources. It’s common to use counties as the measurement unit. Counties are categorized as metropolitan or non-metropolitan, with the non-metropolitan counties considered rural. (See Update on the Demography of Rural Disability, Part Two: Non-Metropolitan and Metropolitan for more information.) However, “rural” and “urban” areas are …

Update On The Demography Of Rural Disability Part Two: Non-Metropolitan And Metropolitan, Alexandra Enders, Tom Seekins Ph.D., Zach Brandt, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Independent Living and Community Participation

Based on our research, only 35 U.S. counties have no rural people with disabilities, and almost half of rural Americans with disabilities live in metropolitan counties.

Promoting Safe Mobility Among Elders By Increasing Awareness Of Vehicle Modifications (Executive Summary), Elizabeth Van Ranst, Nina M. Silverstein, Alison S. Gottlieb

Gerontology Institute Publications

This research project looks at one strategy to address the safety of older drivers, vehicular modifications. Specifically, a video demonstrating low-tech, low-cost features that may alleviate some driving challenges was produced to determine whether viewing the video would increase awareness of and motivation to use those features. Prochaska and DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model of intentional behavioral change provides the theoretical framework for this study. This model posits five stages of change, a continuum over which the individual becomes more receptive to taking action.

Motivation For Active Aging: Results Of A Pilot Study, Francis G. Caro, Laney Bruner-Canhoto, Jeffery Burr, Jan Mutchler

Gerontology Institute Publications

The current research explores the question whether activity on the part of older people can be explained, in part, by a general motivation to be active that cuts across various forms of activity. One premise is that motivation defined as “personal interest or desire” is one of a number of forces that contributes to participation in an activity. A further premise is that a distinction may be made between motivation that is specific to a particular activity and general motivation to be active. A general motive to be active may help to explain specific forms of activity. Further, a general …

Buscando El Cusco: Análisis Del Turismo En La Ciudad De Los Incas, Nicole A. Grant

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Al principio, yo empecé ésta investigación con motivos de exponer la inautenticidad de las experiencias turisticas debido a la increíble dependencia de las guías de viajes tales como Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Fodor’s, Moon’s Handbook, etc. Andando por las calles de Cusco, uno no puede evitar una vista en que casi cada turista tiene una guía de viaje entre sus manos en búsqueda de la experiencia descrita en su libro. El turismo masivo ha creado un cierto tipo de turista que vienen a Cusco con poco conocimiento de la ciudad y muy poca iniciativa de descubrir algo más allá de …

“Sacar A La Familia Adelante:” El Impacto De La Emigración En La Comunidad Salvadoreña De Nuevo Amanecer, Elisabeth Golub

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La camioneta azul saltaba por el camino pedregoso, y pensé que si no fuera por la vista dramática de los cerros del campo salvadoreña podría ser en el carro de un@ de mis amig@s en los Estados Unidos. Un disco de Bob Marley sonaba en la casetera, y estaba platicando con el muchacho que conducía sobre nuestras carreras universitarias. Le pregunté que estaba estudiando. “Sistema ingeniería,” me dijo. “¿Y que piensa hacer cuando termine?” Se reía, y me contesto, sin hesitación: “Voy a los Estados, a trabajar en la lechuga.” Hoy en día en El Salvador, su respuesta no es …

Las Abejas Y Los Zapatistas: Una Comparación Y Contraste De Dos Movimientos Indígenas En Chiapas, México, Anna H. Lifson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Me llamo Anna Lifson. Soy estudiante de mi tercer año en Macalester College en St. Paul, Minnesota, Estados Unidos, con una concentración en las ciencias políticas y los estudios hispánicos. Desde que puedo recordar, siempre he tenido un interés en la “justicia.” A mi padrastro le gusta recordarme que mis palabras favoritas de mi niñez eran, “¡no es justo!” He crecido con la búsqueda de la justicia y el deseo de mejorar el mundo como principios fundamentales de mi identidad. Cuando estaba buscando programas para estudiar en el extranjero, me fijé en el enfoque del programa de SIT en México, …

Non-Formal Education And Autonomous Spaces: Cideci’S Independent Alternative And The Regeneration Of Indigenous Cultural Spaces In Chiapas, Rachel Beatty

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this study I explore CIdeCI’s role in regenerating autonomous cultural and physical spaces for Indigenous learning, and thus living, outside of the government system through its alternative educational methods and non-formal, independent status. I argue that non-formal education plays an essential role in regenerating cultural and physical spaces necessary for ensuring that Indigenous forms of social organization retain and/or obtain their autonomy from state and national governments. I will begin by presenting a brief overview of my research methodology, followed by theoretical background regarding education and cultural spaces, specifically pertaining to the Indigenous population of Chiapas. I will then …

A Child’S Dance Of The Sankofa: Redefining, Reconstructing, And Reclaiming Identity, Shawnrey Notto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The following research focuses on a major health crisis that exists within the black Brazilian population, that of identity and self esteem. The study will deals with the possibility of reconstructing black identity, through dance. Children are being socialized into a society whose system practically equivocates anything of Afro-descent, anything black, with negativity. This is a serious problem that is cultivated in a culture of violence, which is profoundly detrimental to the social and psychological development of a people. As such this is an offense to human kind. By using participant-observation and interviews the research traces how some empowerment, consciousness, …

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 …

¿Qué Mas?: Una Mirada A Las Posibilidades De Un “Instrumento Político.”, Rebecca Bor

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Llegué a Bolivia y estaba sorprendida de la polarización entre los partidos políticos y los movimientos sociales. Me pareció que habían dos caminos políticos distintos en Bolivia, y ni el camino política institucional ni el camino política no-institucional funcionan bien para el progreso de Bolivia. Dentro de este paradigma, una tercera opción ha sido formada como posibilidad de una alternativa. Esta opción es el instrumento político del Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS). El Movimiento Al Socialismo no es un partido político ni un movimiento social. Por eso, es necesario entender las teorías de los movimientos sociales y cómo ellos han cambiado …

Identities In Dialogue: Deconstructing The Dynamics Of Bošnjak-Muslim Identities In Novi Pazar, Christine M. Debacker

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My research was aimed at understanding how individual identify with larger, collective identities (national, ethnic, religious, etc.). In studying the history and current social situation of the former Yugoslavia countries, I learned that often individuals identify themselves within the terms of nation, ethnicity and religion. And I learned that often in this region those terms were used exchangeably. To better understand how differences among individuals and groups were conceived, I turned to the abounding academic theories written on the topics of nation, nationhood and nationalism.

In looking though the mass of theories, I realized that each academic creates theories of …

Post-Velvet Jazz Baby, Jack Elkin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Throughout the past fifty years, two principle agents have inhibited experimentation in Prague's jazz scene, totalitarian states and the conditions that followed after the fervor of the Velvet Revolution died out. What has resulted is an environment that has embraced variation but not typically new or contemporary ideas, which is only just beginning to change.

Strategies For Intervening In Situations Of Sexual Violence: Does Gender Matter?, Emily Olsen

Inquiry Journal 2005

No abstract provided.

Citizen's Satisfaction With The Police, Kim Barshanet Baskerville

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research project is to examine three competing models of citizen satisfaction with the police: 1) citizen characteristics, 2) citizen experience with the police, and 3) citizen quality of life issues. Data were taken from Criminal Victimization and Perceptions of Community Safety in 12 Cities, 1998. The relationship between citizen satisfaction and the three models were tested by examining different types of contact between police and citizens, race, age, gender, and quality of life, which was measured by satisfaction with neighborhood and satisfaction with city. In addition, an item labeled disorder, which takes into consideration acts of …

Comparing Domestic Assaults In Military And Non-Military Populations: A Test Of Social Learning Theory, Crystal S. Carey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

This study examined factors relating to the severity of domestic assaults in military and non-military populations by examining a sample of 599 clients admitted to battered women's shelters over a 22-month period. This study addressed the following question: What differences, if any, exist between the severity of domestic assaults committed by military and non-military offenders, and what explains those differences?

The following factors as they may relate to severity of domestic assault are measured: batterer race, batterer income, victim income, batterer military status, and weapon involvement. Analyses reveal no significant differences in injury severity between assaults perpetrated by military and …

Service Learning And Faculty Involvement, Peter A. Maresco

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper begins with an overview of service learning programs at colleges of business and specifically details faculty/student involvement in the service learning process at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT. and its positioning with regard to other similar programs. The paper also highlights three specific areas of program differentiation; its Problem Based Service Learning program, a Community Based Service Learning program nationally recognized by Campus Compact, and a globally focused service learning program established between its students in the College of Business and students in an elementary school in Nepal.

Fractured Identities: Siblings And Doubles In Video Games, Laurie N. Taylor

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

In her essay on “Fractured Identities: Siblings and Doubles in Video Games” Laurie Taylor explores how certain norms of video game design – originally derived from technological constraints of code space and processing speed – continue as the narrative parameters of many if not most contemporary video games. Synthesizing approaches from literary studies and narratology, Taylor offers an innovative angle on the fractured identities of doubles and siblings as the narrative correspondence to now largely obsolete technological constraints. Game-play, related to but nevertheless distinct from the literary type of narrative, as Taylor insists, is a key factor in determining what …

Creating A Reading Culture In An Academic Library, Kathy A. Campbell, Debbie O'Brien, Jean Flanigan

The Southeastern Librarian

Aliteracy is becoming a growing concern on college campuses, including East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Several years ago, a colleague emailed the librarians at Sherrod Library an article from the online edition of the Washington Post (Weeks 2001) about a graduate student at Park University in Kansas City who was making it through school by skimming texts, drawing information and themes from dust jackets, watching television, and listening to audio books. Jeremy Spreitzer, the focus of the Washington Post story, represented the growing number of students in the United States who are aliterate. After discussing this article at our faculty …

Akinbola E. Akinwumi On Sickness And Wealth: The Corporate Assault On Global Health By Meredith Fort, Mary Anne Mercer And Oscar Gish (Eds). Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. 237pp., Akinbola E. Akinwumi

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health by Meredith Fort, Mary Anne Mercer and Oscar Gish (eds). Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. 237pp.

Predictors Of Social Network Composition Among Homeless And Runaway Adolescents, Kurt D. Johnson, Les B. Whitbeck, Dan R. Hoyt

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Recent research on the social support networks of homeless and runaway youth suggest the social networks of runaway youth are made up largely of transient deviant peer relationships. This paper examined social network characteristics of 428 homeless and runaway adolescents from small to moderate-sized cities in four Midwestern states. We investigated size, homogeneity, and correlates of the composition of the instrumental and emotional support networks as reported by the adolescents. Results showed the networks are considerably heterogeneous, comprised of relationships from home and the street as well as family and non-related adults. Further, the composition of these networks is related …

Hiv/Aids And Condom Usage: Factors That Contribute To African American Women's Vulnerability To Hiv Infection, Monica P. Washington

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

HIV/AIDS poses an enormous health threat to African Americans, specifically African American women. According to the Center for Disease Control "1 in 160 African American women are believed to be infected with HIV (Center for Disease Control 1999:1). In 2000, although African American women only represented 12% of the female population, they accounted for 64% of HIV cases reported among women (The White House 2000; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 2004).

This study examined HIV/AIDS and African American women and attempted to answer the question: Why are African American women not consistently using condoms to protect themselves against …

Differential Police Treatment Of Domestic And Nondomestic Assaults, Gina Michelle Sajko

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The current study examines the effects of type of assault and victim gender on police response. Victim accounts of domestic and nondomestic assaults in the San Diego region were examined. This study found that domestic assaults were significantly less likely to result in arrest than nondomestic assaults. Female victims of domestic assaults were more likely to receive police referrals to outside agencies. Assaults with victim injury were more likely to result in arrest for domestic assaults, and within the sample as a whole. The gender of the victim had no effect on arrest.

An Examination Into The Effects Of Social Positioning And Capitalist Immersion On Gendered Attitudes Towards Homosexuality In The United States, Fiona J. Blee

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Previous research on attitudes towards homosexuality has concentrated on characteristics of individuals, and neglected the capitalist structure of society that provides the contextual setting for the creation and maintenance of cultural attitudes.

This thesis uses responses collected in the general social survey of the United States between 1993 and 1998, to provide a more comprehensive explanation of differences in attitudes towards homosexuality, through an analysis of social position and the capitalist agenda. The analysis revealed significant relationships between sex, age, race, income, beliefs regarding the domestication of women, and attitudes towards homosexuality.

The analysis showed that respondents categorized as black …

Socioeconomic Attainments Of Africans Versus African-Americans In The United States, Azeb Berhane

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) of the 2000 U.S. census, the socioeconomic attainments of African immigrants was compared to African Americans in the United States. This comparison was made within the context of assimilation perspective, human capital perspective, and the family investment model. Consistent with previous research findings, the current study found that African immigrants have higher educational attainments than African-Americans in the United States. However, when breaking down the African group by country of birth, African-Americans were found to have higher educational attainments than a few African countries. Generally, the results reveal that African …

Women And The Law: Gender Discrimination In The American Legal System, Amanda Colvin

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Link Between Corporal Punishment And Teen Pregnancy, Jennifer M. Hagberg

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between corporal punishment and teen pregnancy among women participating in the 2000 survey round of the NLSY Child and Young Adult Surveys. Zero order correlations were used to examine the bivariate relationship between the corporal punishment and teen pregnancy. OLS regression was used to determine if a direct relationship exists between corporal punishment and teen pregnancy after controlling for a host of variables. It was hypothesized that the more frequently a respondent received corporal punishment, the more likely she was to have reported a pregnancy during adolescence, and that this relationship would manifest itself primarily …

Adversaries And Allies Rival National Suffrage Groups And The 1882 Nebraska Woman Suffrage Campaign, Carmen Heider

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In September 1882, Nebraska was the setting for a significant moment in the history of the United States women's rights movement: the two rival suffrage organizations, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) and the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), both held their annual conventions in Omaha, an event Sally Roesch Wagner describes as "an unprecedented move." Furthermore, the AWSA and NWSA "act[ed] in conjunction with the Nebraska Woman Suffrage Association" to schedule speakers during the 1882 campaign. Susan B. Anthony even participated in the AWSA thirteenth annual meeting held in Omaha in 1882. "I feel at home," she said, "on …

An Examination Of Claims Concerning College Student Credit Card Issues, Michael J. Macaluso

Masters Theses

This research project empirically examines claims and counterclaims regarding the matter of college students credit cards issues from a social constructionist perspective through a contextual qualitative examination of public data. First, I first focus on social and historical factors that have brought about claims and counterclaims concerning college student credit card issues. Next, I examine the structure of these public issues through the claims and counterclaims from a purposeful sample made from three specific "owners" or claims-makers of college student credit card issues, including the credit card industry, consumer interest groups, and sociologists. The specific claims examined in this research …

Activism Through Music, Cherry Muhanji, Jack C. Straton

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article discuses the pedagogy behind a University Studies freshman inquiry class taught at Portland State University. Portland State University has been engaged in a 10-year revolution in general education (Journal of General Education, 1999) that has inculcated activist education as central to instruction. In addition to the Critical Thinking and Communication instruction that any general education program must provide, Portland State’s University Studies Program promotes Social Responsibility and Diversity as central goals of its efforts.