Sociology Commons^™

Making The Connection Between Prayer, Faith, And Forgiveness In Roman Catholic Families, Mindi Batson, Loren Marks

The Qualitative Report

This study examines meanings and processes associated with religious practices of prayer, building faith, and forgiving through in-depth, qualitative interviews with six highly religious Roman Catholic families with children. Families were interviewed using a narrative approach that asked participants to share experiences and challenges related to faith and family life. Three primary themes in the interviews included: (a) prayer helps piece the puzzle together, (b) faith builds a foundation, and (c) forgiveness allows unity to flourish.

How To Be Happy By Calling For Change: Constructs Of Happiness And Meaningfulness Amongst Social Movement Activists, Alice Mills, Jeremy Smith

The Qualitative Report

This paper focuses on how social movement activists view happiness in relation to their political involvement. Interviewers asked activists questions about their personal histories and feelings. The phenomenological strategy involved focused on interviews with subjects who could speak richly about their commitments and emotions. The data from the 11 subjects revealed that there was no simple relationship between a commitment to social activism and subjects’ experiences of happiness. Several subjects oriented their responses to the relationship between meaningfulness, activism, and happiness. In discussion of the analyzed data, the authors suggest that a relationship is evident between the positions articulated by …

A Qualitative Study Investigating Gender Differences In Primary Work Stressors And Levels Of Job Satisfaction In Greek Junior Hospital Doctors, Alexander-Stamatios Antoniou, Cary L. Cooper, Marilyn J. Davisdson

The Qualitative Report

Primary work stressors and job satisfaction/dissatisfaction in Greek Junior Hospital Doctors (JHDs) are investigated to identify similarities and differences in the reports obtained from male and female hospital doctors. Participants in the study included 32 male and 28 female Greek hospital doctors who provided information through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The findings revealed that a majority of Greek JHDs considered their profession very stressful, and that various differences were identified between male and female JHDs, with regard to perceived stress and satisfaction. The study has implications for the possible introduction of in-house stress management training programmes, both at a generic, and …

The Contributions Of Dr. William Heffernan And The Missouri School Of Agrifood Studies, Anna M. Kleiner, John J. Green

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

“The Missouri School” refers to a collection of faculty and students studying agrifood systems who have been connected to the Department of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri–Columbia. Heavily influenced by the populist pragmatist William “Bill” Heffernan, Missouri School analysts focus their attention on structural arrangements, power relationships, and spaces in which struggle for change might result in alternatives to the prevailing system. This article is an introduction to the special issue of Southern Rural Sociology devoted to research and theorizing done by students and faculty of the Missouri School. It includes an overview of the development of the …

Visualizing Food System Concentration And Consolidation, Philip H. Howard

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Visualization of the changing structure of the food system has played an important role in the Missouri School of Agrifood Studies’ research and outreach. The analogies and diagrams Missouri researchers have used to describe concentration and consolidation have aided our understanding of the extent of these phenomena, as well as their social impacts. This article discusses why visualization is effective for analyzing and presenting data. Recent advances in visualizing concentration and consolidation are described—these methods include 1) treemaps, 2) cartographic maps, 3) cluster diagrams, 4) taxonomic tree/timelines, and 5) animations. Examples utilizing data from the North American organic food industry …

Agribusiness Concentration, Intellectual Property, And The Prospects For Rural Economic Benefits From The Emerging Biofuel Economy, Leland L. Glenna, Daniel R. Cahoy

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

United States policy makers are promoting bio-fuels as an economic development opportunity, especially for rural America. A USDA study claims that developments in energy production from biomass could increase profits for agricultural commodity producers. However, as William Heffernan and his colleagues have demonstrated, concentration in the agrifood sector limits the economic benefits going to the commodity producers. Relying on Heffernan’s framework, we compare the distribution of intellectual property of corn and other genetically modified crops with that of the emerging biomass technologies. We find that patent ownership in the emerging biofuel sector is not yet as concentrated as in the …

World Trade, Farm Policy, And Agribusiness Accountability: The Role Of Reflexive Modernization In Constructing A Democratic Food System, Robert Gronski, Leland Glenna

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The future of farm policy in the United States will be influenced by trends in economic and political globalization, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), due to the obligation of member nation-states to make domestic policies conform to international trade agreements. Commentators have noted that the WTO has been structured to favor transnational agribusiness at the expense of small farmers, food consumers, and the natural environment. However, the WTO contains contradictions that might be exploited by alternative agriculture advocates to influence Congressional interpretations of the trade agreement. This essay uses reflexive modernization theory to highlight efforts by alternative agriculture …

Ownership Characteristics Of Heir Property In A Black Belt County: A Quantitative Approach, Janice F. Dyer, Conner Bailey, Nhuong Van Tran

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The existing literature identifies heir property, land held communally by heirs of someone who has died without a will, as a primary cause of land loss among African Americans and a major factor contributing to persistent poverty in the South’s demographically-defined Black Belt. Despite the importance of this form of property, little systematic research has been done to quantify the extent of heir property or the potential wealth tied up in clouded titles. This study documents the presence of more than 1,500 heir property parcels in one Alabama Black Belt county (Macon) and describes the methodological challenges involved in such …

Escaping The Bondage Of The Dominant Agrifood System: Community-Based Cooperative Strategies, John J. Green, Anna M. Kleiner

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The “Missouri School” of critical agrifood studies has provided an effective framework for documenting and understanding the structural dimensions of the global agrifood system and locating important nodes of power.This has directed attention toward the negative impacts of industrialization and corporate concentration on agricultural producers, local communities and economies, and the environment. Using these criticalinsights, pressure on the dominant agrifood system by civil society organizations has resulted in important changes to production and marketing strategies and related public policies. We broaden this discussion by using social movement and livelihoods theory to explore the position of limited resource and minority producers …

Keep Public Places Open To The Autistic, Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, Carol Salber, Shawn Neff

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

What does it mean to be "well-behaved"?

A recent Associated Press article (Aug. 17 World-Herald) discussed the "disruptive behavior" of individuals with autism. As mothers and activists on behalf of children with autism, we have a different perspective.

Creating Alternatives: A Participant Observer's Reflections On The Emerging Local Food System In Kansas City, Mary Hendrickson

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The Missouri School has been known for its study of the structure of agriculture and food, and what affects structural arrangements have on farmers, communities, and environments. A lesser known aspect of the Missouri School is its use of structural analyses to analyze and promote alternatives. As a participant observer of the Kansas City food system for more than 15 years, I highlight the continual evolution of alternatives in the region, documenting the long involvement of the Missouri School with the development of these alternatives, from providing structural analyses to extension programming. This case study shows the struggle that farmers, …

Sociology Of Agriculture And Food Beginning And Maturity: The Contribution Of The Missouri School (1976-1994), Alessandro Bonanno

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Sociology of agriculture and food (SAF) is one of the most visible substantive subareas in Rural Sociology and a growing subarea in Sociology. While the studying of agriculture has always been a part of Rural Sociology, it was in the 1970s that the process that led to a clear and formal distinction between Rural Sociology and SAF began. SAF grew stronger in the 1980s and became established in the 1990s. This paper reviews salient theoretical and historical events that engendered the establishment and growth of SAF as a separate substantive area from Rural Sociology. Additionally, it reviews its development in …

2009 Srsa Presidential Address: Modification And Adaptation In Rural Sociology: Part I, Gene L. Theodori

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The 2009 Southern Rural Sociological Association Presidential Address

Contested Globalization Of The Agrifood System: A Missouri School Analysis Of Sanderson Farms And Seaboard Farms In Texas, Douglas H. Constance

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The Missouri School of Agrifood Studies began with a focus on the power of agribusiness corporations in relation to quality of life of farmers and their related communities. The poultry industry was the first commodity studied, with later research into other commodity sectors and then the global dimensions of this process. In this paper I continue the Missouri School agenda by focusing on the entry of the poultry firm Sanderson Farms and the hog firm Seaboard Farms into Texas. This paper combines a sociology of the agrifood system conceptual framework with two case studies of agribusiness expansion in Texas to …

Masculine Identity Work Among Missouri Noodlers: Community Providers, Pleasure Seeking Comrades, Family Men, And Tough Courageous Men, Mary Grigsby

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This qualitative research, based on interviews and participant observation conducted between 2005 and 2008, examines patterned variations in the masculine identity work of Missouri men noodlers between the ages of 18 and 90. Noodling or hand fishing is a folk tradition that involves submerging in lakes or rivers and feeling under the banks for holes where large catfish are spawning. The fingers are used as a lure to catch the catfish by hand. Noodling is contested terrain in which men with differing age cohort-based identity needs emphasize certain aspects from the tool kit of noodling culture over others. Cohort differences …

Bios Of Contributors To This Special Issue, Anna M. Kleiner, John J. Green

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

biographies of the contributors to this special issue of Southern Rural Sociology, in alphabetical order

Dmitri Shalin Interview With Gary T. Marx About Erving Goffman Entitled "Marx-Shalin Exchange On The Goffman Project", Gary T. Marx, Dmitri N. Shalin

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

The following email exchange between Dmitri Shalin and Gary T. Marx, Professor Emeritus of sociology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took place between August 27, 2008, and October 16, 2008. The exchange was occasioned by Shalin’s paper “Goffman’s Biography and Interaction Order: A Study in Biocritical Hermeneutics.” The original text is in black, Marx’s comments are marked red, and Shalin’s response is in blue.

Dating In Midlife: A Dyadic Approach Examining Partner Perceptions On Relationship Quality, Rachel Sheffield

Theses and Dissertations

Using a matched-partner dataset of 660 midlife couples, this study examined dating relationships at midlife from the perspective of both male and female partners. It also explored ways various life course factors such as marital history, children, cohabitation, relationship length, and social approval related to partners' perceptions of one another and to subsequent relationship quality. Findings indicated heterogeneity in midlife dating experiences. Actor and partner effects of enhancement were most often linked with greater satisfaction and fewer problems for never-married couples, yet enhancement was not related to relationship stability for them. For couples where only one partner had been previously …

Happiness And Punishment, Christopher J. Buccafusco, John Bronsteen, Jonathan S. Masur

All Faculty Scholarship

This article continues our project to apply groundbreaking new literature on the behavioral psychology of human happiness to some of the most deeply analyzed questions in law. Here we explain that the new psychological understandings of happiness interact in startling ways with the leading theories of criminal punishment. Punishment theorists, both retributivist and utilitarian, have failed to account for human beings' ability to adapt to changed circumstances, including fines and (surprisingly) imprisonment. At the same time, these theorists have largely ignored the severe hedonic losses brought about by the post-prison social and economic deprivations (unemployment, divorce, and disease) caused by …

Children In Central Cities And Rural Communities Experience High Rates Of Poverty, Sarah Savage

Carsey Publications

New U.S. Census Bureau data released in August highlight increasing similarities of poverty rates between children in urban and rural communities. This common indicator of child well-being is closely linked to undesirable outcomes in areas such as health, education, emotional welfare, and delinquency.

Rationality And Reproduction: Health Insurance Coverage And Married Women's Fertility, Jennifer Adams Mendoza

Theses and Dissertations

Health insurance has become essential in mediating the extremely high costs of childbirth; however, it has been neglected in fertility research. This study examines health insurance coverage as an economic determinant of fertility and includes discussions of the cost of raising children, contraception and childbirth as well as opportunity costs to illustrate that the effect of health insurance may differ by resources, such as income and education. Using data from the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation, I analyze the effects of insurance on the probability of pregnancy and birth with Discrete-Time Hazard Models. Results show that health insurance …

Alcoholic Beverage Sales To Underage Buyers In The Commonwealth Of Virginia: Deterrence And Equality, William L. Goodman

Theses & Honors Papers

The Commonwealth of Virginia relies on the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to enforce laws designed to deter alcohol and cigarette sales to underage persons. ABC employs underage buyers (UAB) who attempt to make controlled purchases of alcoholic beverages and cigarettes.

The primary purpose of this research project is to determine if compliance checks deter alcohol sales to underage persons. Second, this study attempts to find if underage buyer demographics align with state demographics. Finally, this research attempts to determine if businesses are more likely to sell alcohol to underage buyers based on their race, ethnicity, and gender. This …

Urban And Rural Children Experience Similar Rates Of Low-Income And Poverty, Allison Churilla

Carsey Publications

Data in this brief shows that the percentages of children living in low-income areas and poverty over the past fifteen years in rural and urban America are converging.

An Analysis Of Perceived Faculty And Staff Ccomputing Behaviors That Protect Or Expose Them Or Others To Information Security Attacks., Chiwaraidzo Judith Nyabando

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A mixed-methods study, conducted in 2007-2008, designed to quantify and assess behaviors that either protect or expose data at academic institutions to information security attacks. This study focused on computing practices at two academic institutions: East Tennessee State University and Milligan College. Interviews with six information technology professionals and online surveys were used to assess faculty and staff members' awareness and practice of safe computing behaviors. The constant comparison method was used to analyze qualitative data. Descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariate analysis of variance techniques were used to analyze the quantitative data.

Overall, the analyses indicated that the faculty …

Family Structure And The Criminal Behavior Of Juveniles In Tennessee., Ronald D. Pickard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between family type and criminal behavior of juveniles in Tennessee who were referred to Juvenile Court in 2006. The population used in the study comprised the juveniles who were referred to the Tennessee Juvenile Courts as reported by the Tennessee Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in 2006.

This investigation focused on the criminal behavior as indicated by number and type of referrals to the Juvenile and Family Court system in Tennessee. The data were analyzed by family-of-origin type, age group, and geographic region in Tennessee.

The findings of …

Self-Esteem In Relation To Casual Sex Behavior, Attitudes, And Affect., Kathryn Bieda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Casual sex is common on college campuses and is potentially relevant to a person's self-esteem. Unfortunately, data are mixed regarding how self-esteem is influenced by casual sex. This thesis is an attempt to understand how casual sex influences women's self-esteem through a series of questionnaires. Three hypotheses were of interest. The first predicted that sociosexuality and desire would explain casual sex engagement. Second, that casual sex behaviors and attitudes would predict self-esteem. Third, looking only at those who engaged in casual sex; casual sex attitudes and affect would predict self-esteem. Using hierarchical regression, results indicated that there was a curvilinear …

Expectations And Experiences Of African American Students At Two Predominantly White Universities In Southern Appalachia., Brenda White Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addressed the academic, cultural, and social expectations and experiences of 20 African American juniors and seniors at 2 predominantly White universities in the southern Appalachian region of the United States. The participants' described experiences revealed how institutional practices promoted or obstructed their persistence to graduation.

Qualitative ethnographic methodology with critical race theory as the conceptual framework guided the study. This approach allowed for the perspectives and lived experiences of the students to be voiced and heard. Data collected included their stories based on semistructured interviews, document reviews, and observations. The constant comparison method was used to analyze the …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Empowerment In Their Work Environments As Measured By The Psychological Empowerment Instrument., Corey Ray Gardenhour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher perceptions of their empowerment. Six school systems in the Northeast Tennessee region were used in the study. Of the 600 teachers who were surveyed, 312 responded (52%). The Psychological Empowerment Instrument was used to survey the sample.

Research supported the notion that teacher empowerment could be influenced by organizational structure, relationships, communication, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, motivation, job satisfaction, and transformational leadership. Teacher empowerment also involved servant leadership.

One research question guided the study. From this question, 12 null hypotheses were generated. Means were compared for the 4 dimensions of the …

Differences In The Opinions And Attitudes Of Student Athletes Relative To Expenditures For Intercollegiate Athletic Support Services (Social, Athletic, And Academic)., Patricia Hieronimus Dillman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Athletic programs within Division I-A universities and colleges have maintained a unique relationship with both the NCAA and their governing academic institutions. Resources in support of academic, social, and athletic services for student athletes vary across the country for Division-I collegiate athletes. The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes and opinions of student athletes concerning academic, athletic, and social services provided to them at numerous Division-I athletic programs. Student athletes have not been assessed through a questionnaire concerning their own perceptions and opinions of the specific services (athletic, academic, and social) provided to them at their designated …

Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy And Gender In Social Class Reproduction, Spencer L. James

Theses and Dissertations

The observation that middle class parents tend to have middle class children is rather obvious. Why this is so has been the subject of less research than the fact that it is so. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), I employ theories about social class reproduction to examine and evaluate a model that scrutinizes the influence of self-efficacy and self-esteem on college completion or current enrollment and investigate gender differences. I find that self-esteem and self-efficacy play a vital role in social class outcomes. However, I find no evidence of gender differences in the social class reproduction …