Sociology Commons^™

Of Shoulders And Shadows: Selected Amish Scholarship Before 1963, Joseph Donnermeyer

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

John Hostetler’s first edition of Amish Society in 1963 is a milestone in the advancement of scholarship about the Amish. It was revised and re-issued through three more editions. Even though the fourth and final edition was released nearly a quarter century ago, in 1993, Amish Society remains the most frequently cited authoritative sources about the Amish. Yet, there was a wealth of other solid scholarly work about the Amish before 1963, by such notable authors as Elmer Lewis Smith, Calvin Bachman, Walter Kollmorgen, Charles Loomis, and William Schreiber. The purpose of this review essay is to re-consider the merits …

Birthing New Kinships: The Cross-Pollinating Potential Of Amish Health Research, Natalie Jolly

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

In this article, I explore the connections between Amish gender socialization and Amish birth practices to suggest that an Amish construction of femininity shapes the ways that Amish women experience childbirth. This study is framed by Amish women’s health research and takes as a point of departure two observations often made about Amish childbirth practices: (1) medical research has found that Amish women have shorter labors than their non-Amish (English) counterparts, and (2) doctors, midwives, and birth attendants have argued that Amish women’s expression of pain during labor and delivery differs substantially from their English counterparts. I draw on my …

Reviving The Demographic Study Of The Amish, Corey Colyer, Cory Anderson, Joseph Donnermeyer, Rachel Stein, Samson Wasao

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The Amish exhibit distinctive demographic patterns, notably high fertility. While scholars have studied Amish population dynamics for more than a half century, recent research in this area is limited. We believe the time is ripe to reverse this trend. This article reviews data collection methods, points to a variety of accessible sources of new data, presents some preliminary results from the analysis of one such source (the McKune dataset for Holmes County, Ohio), introduces the research agenda and work of the newly formed Amish Population Research Group, and reviews past demographic findings to situate our agenda. An invitation is extended …

Seventy-Five Years Of Amish Studies, 1942 To 2017: A Critical Review Of Scholarship Trends (With An Extensive Bibliography), Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

After 75 years, Amish studies has received no field reviews, an oversight I rectify with this article using several citation analysis techniques. I offer criteria for defining Amish research, which results in 983 references that are analyzed. Amish studies has a very highly centralized core of works; the top one percent of cited references account for nearly 20% of every citation in Amish studies, with Hostetler, Kraybill, Nolt, and Huntington dominating the top list. Few consolidated subareas exist, exceptions being language and health- population research. Analyzing Amish studies chronologically, the field early on accepted the definitive-sympathetic-authoritative-comprehensive-insider research approach, which legitimated …

Doubling Time And Population Increase Of The Amish, Joseph Donnermeyer

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Current estimates of Amish population growth often cite a “doubling time” figure, but fail to substantiate the source from which the estimate was derived. As well, some estimates of population increase, such as by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, use net change in the number of church districts as a proxy to determine population change, rather than a more precise counting up of children and adults. Unfortunately, a direct “head count” of the Amish, and changes in this count overtime to create a doubling time estimate, would be very daunting, Until there is a …

Amish Education: A Synthesis, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Amish education is one of the most researched subtopics in Amish studies. This article is a meta-analysis of the existing literature about Amish education, finding that most research discusses how the parochial school system functions to socialize students into the broader Amish social system. In particular, the school socializes students into (1) several major Amish-defining internalized dispositions, ideologies, and outlooks and (2) the meso- and micro-level Amish social structure. Several anomalies do exist, including their educational approach to special needs children, parochial school dysfunctions, and alternative schooling methods. The article concludes with suggestions for future research, including more rigorous ethnographic …

Conservative Mennonite Storybooks And The Construction Of Evangelical Separatism, Jennifer Anderson, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Group-produced literature is representative of and reinforces group behaviors, norms, and beliefs. This study focuses on the missionary theme in literature from three Conservative Mennonite publishers, identifying two major constructs of what we term evangelical separatism. First, Rod & Staff depicts evangelism as establishing stable, integrating church communities in places where none exist, making their offering accessible to any who would care to join while also withholding assessment of outsiders. Second, Christian Light Publications and TGS present missions in a more aggressive, individualized mode, whereby the outside is viewed as a land of darkness and the missionary, in embodying Christ’s …

Reliability And Validity Of A Scale To Measure Prejudice Toward Old Order Amish, William Mcguigan

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Numerous studies have examined prejudice in regard to race, age, sexual orientation, and gender, among others. However, there remains a paucity of research on prejudice toward Christian religious groups. In particular, prejudice towards one of America’s fastest growing religious groups, the Old Order Amish, is rarely examined. Using social categorization theory and based on McConahay’s modern and old-fashioned racism scale, an “Attitude Toward Amish” scale is developed and tested. Factor analysis revealed one dominant component and high internal reliability. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for future research of this rapidly growing population.

The Role Of Social Capital For Amish Entrepreneurs In Pursuing Informal Economic Opportunities, Sunny Jeong

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This study explores the specific types of social relationships that influence initiation into and involvement in informal businesses. In particular, it examines the social capital possessed by Amish entrepreneurs who establish home-based, off-the-books tourism businesses. This paper theoretically refines social capital by identifying three dimensions of social relations: cognitive, reciprocal, and structural. I explore the relationship between social capital and Amish involvement in tourism businesses by using measures of tie strength, expected roles in one’s network, structural equivalence of network position, common culture, and religion. The results suggest that neither tie strength nor diversity alone accounts for one’s involvement in …

A Peculiar People Revisited: Demographic Foundations Of The Iowa Amish In The 21st Century, Elizabeth Cooksey, Joseph Donnermeyer

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This article describes the demographic foundations of the Amish in Iowa. We note that since the publication of “A Peculiar People” by Elmer and Dorothy Schwieder in 1975, the demographic dynamics of the Amish have changed little. They remain a high fertility group; and when coupled with increases in their retention of daughters and sons in the Amish faith, the Amish are currently experiencing rapid population increase and settlement growth. In turn, the occupational base of the Iowa Amish has become more diverse and less reliant on agriculture. We observe that the first or founding families for new settlements in …

The Amish Population: County Estimates And Settlement Patterns, Joseph Donnermeyer, Cory Anderson, Elizabeth Cooksey

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This article presents the findings of a county-based estimate of the Amish population. The results are from work commissioned by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies for the recently released 2010 U.S. Religion Census, plus research and updates associated with tracking the growth and geographic spread of Amish settlements in North America. County estimates are restricted to Amish church groups who rely on horse-and-buggy for travel. Using the terminology of the larger ASARB report, we break the Amish population into three groups: communicants (baptized members), non-baptized members (mostly children/young adults still living at home), and adherents (both baptized …

Who Are The Plain Anabaptists? What Are The Plain Anabaptists?, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

I define the plain Anabaptists by answering two essential questions: “Who are the plain Anabaptists” and “What are the plain Anabaptists?” In asking “Who are the plain Anabaptists?” I investigate several dimensions of identity. First, I trace the history of seven religious traditions within Anabaptism: the Swiss Brethren/Mennonites, the Low German/Russian Mennonites, the Hutterites, the Amish, the Brethren, the Apostolic Christian Churches, and the Bruderhof. Second, I explore three categories of people in each group—mainline, conservative, and Old Order—describing the last two as “plain.” Third, I explore scales and indices on which plainness is measured, as well as other measures …

Do Social Movements Encourage Young People To Run For Office? Evidence From The 2014 Sunflower Movement In Taiwan, Austin Horng-En Wang

Political Science Faculty Research

The 2014 Sunflower Movement led to rising political participation among young Taiwanese. Hence, opposition parties and civic groups created programs to support young candidates running in the village chief elections. Compared with the 2010 election, however, fewer young challengers ran in 2014, and they received fewer votes and won fewer seats. Propensity score matching shows that the presence of young candidates on ballots did not increase turnout. However, young candidates affected the election indirectly: young, new candidates attracted more votes from incumbents than from challengers and therefore decreased the incumbent re-election rate.

Can A New Layer Of Leadership Save Sectarian Practice? A Decentralized Denomination’S Experiment With A Central Committee, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The Beachy Amish-Mennonite bishop committee was established at the 1991 annual ministers’ meeting as a conservative response to uncertainty about religious practices across the denomination. The committee was tasked with developing 18 concerns from the meeting into a denomination-wide standard of practice. While majority support was forthcoming for this statement, leadership from some influential, moderate congregations worked against the committee for two reasons. First, the congregation’s leaders wanted a think tank-style advisory committee, not a committee that made and enforced regulations. Second, these congregations feared being ousted due to eventually falling out of conformity. Due to this opposition, the committee …

The Economic Integration Of Mexican Mennonite Immigrants In Canada, Marina Wiebe

MA Research Paper

With a rapidly shrinking proportion of Canadians that live in rural areas, there have been some attempts to settle immigrants in rural communities. With few exceptions, these attempts in Canada have been unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the Mennonite people are considered to be a population that maintains their retention in rural areas with some success. The literature regarding this specific immigrant group is limited and lacks context of the economic environment of Canada today. It is in the interest of government policy to have a working and current understanding of Mennonites’ economic outcomes and retention in rural communities. The integration patterns of …

An App A Day Keeps The Doctor Away: A Visual Case Analysis Of The Self-Optimization Ideologies Downloaded Onto Apple Users As They Download Applications, Ismahan Yusuf

MA Research Paper

This visually thematic qualitative case analysis seeks to advance cyber-sociology by analyzing the hyper-under-attended relationship between interfaces and discourses. Here, the interface under investigation is the Apple App Store, examined for the ways in which the platform is discursively encoded with particular ideologies, ideals, desires and narratives downloaded onto users as they download applications. Such is explored via a two-part research question inquiring: Which type of applications enjoy the most promotion on the Apple App Store and what cyber-architectural tools are herein used to optically exalt them? To investigate this, an iOS 11-operating iPhone was used to frequent the store’s …

Surveillance And The Self: Understanding Privacy And Identity In Digital Environments, Alecea Ritter Standlee

Friday Forum

The widespread use of internet enabled devices among contemporary US adults has given rise to a series of questions about issues of identity, privacy and group behaviors. The increasing use of algorithmic systems in social media and the attendant privacy concerns among users may also contribute to increased levels of strategic management of identity among users. In order to contribute to this discussion, this project examines perceptions and practices of privacy and self-representation in digital spaces among college age adults 18-24. This project utilizes semi-structured interview data collected with college students in the Eastern United States and focuses on both …

Reducing Health Disparities Among Low Socioeconomic Status Hispanics In The United States, Johnathan Tran

Sociology Between the Gaps: Forgotten and Neglected Topics

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Moral Imagination Through Deliberative Pedagogy: Reframing Immigration Deliberation For Student Engagement Across Differences. A Response To "Deliberating Public Policy Issues With Adolescents: Classroom Dynamics And Sociocultural Considerations", Lisa Weasel

Democracy & Education

In “Deliberating Public Policy Issues with Adolescents,” the authors described what they determine to be an unsuccessful attempt at deliberative pedagogy on the topic of immigration in three high school classrooms that differed demographically. Specifically, the authors observed that students failed to engage with evidence, stuck with their initial viewpoints, and only listened politely to those with different views, rather than interacting across differences to reach consensus. While student positionality, as the authors suggest, is important to take into account, there may be ways to reorient deliberations on “wicked problems” such as immigration, which are by their nature prone to …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 95, No. 8, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Civil Suit: Ex-WKU Player Accused of Sex Assault – Marlon Hunter
• Burris, Lily. WKU to Be Tobacco-Free, Smoke-Free Campus
• Burris, Lily. Behind the Mask – Big Red, O’Brian McKinley
• Burris, Lily. WKU Expects Freshman Enrollment Drop, University of Kentucky & Murray State University Up
• Dobbs. Jack. Graduate Programs for Criminology, Sociology Set to Be Cut
• Stack, Madalyn. Editorial Cartoon re: Matt Bevin Email
• Schmalbert Schmells – Matt Bevin Email
• Mattison, Reed. Not Horsing Around – Ethan Harrington, Farriers
• Tolbert, Eleanor. Shoot Your Shot – Gun …

Ua12/2/1 Wku Homecoming, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Metcalf, Taylor. Honored at Home – Scott Applewhite
• Williams, Matthew. 3 Alumns Inducted to Hall of Distinguished Alumni – Scott Applewhite, Shirley Gray, Dixie Snider
• Spencer, Jesse. All-Time Greats – Anthony Winchester, Megan Argabright, John Bushong, Jackie Cooper
• Benningfield, Chloe. Coming Together: Fraternities Build Spirit Through the Decades
• Coyle, Cameron. Funding the Future
• WKU Homecoming Bar Map
• Jessie, Alec. Then There Were Two – Parker Howell, Miles Pate
• Alvey, Rebekah & Griffin Fletcher. WKU Alumni Pick Bowling Green’s Best Bars
• What Decade Are You?
• Mitchell, …

Continuing The Conversation: Dying Of Whiteness, Anne E. Figert

Sociology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Social Dimensions Of Student Debt: A Data Mining Analysis, Dirk Witteveen, Paul Attewell

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Media commentary on undergraduates' loan debt portrays a crisis in which many students are unable to pay back their loans, having borrowed large sums and lacking sufficient post-college income to repay. Several scholars have questioned the media accounts, noting that indebtedness is highest among students from high income families, while defaults predominate among low debt students. Using a data mining technique known as CART, we analyze national data on the indebtedness of recent baccalaureate graduates, to uncover combinations of social characteristics that are associated with loan pressure: the ratio of indebtedness to post-college earnings. We find that students from lower …

Exiting The Fragility Trap : Rethinking Our Approach To The World’S Most Fragile States, David Carment, Yiagadeesen Samy

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

State fragility is a much-debated yet underinvestigated concept in the development and international security worlds. Based on years of research as part of the Country Indicators for Foreign Policy project at Carleton University, Exiting the Fragility Trap marks a major step toward remedying the lack of research into the so-called fragility trap. In examining the nature and dynamics of state transitions in fragile contexts, with a special emphasis on states that are trapped in fragility, David Carment and Yiagadeesen Samy ask three questions: Why do some states remain stuck in a fragility trap? What lessons can we learn from those …

Hayfa El Mansur, Nappily Ever After (2018): Chasing Perfection, Lena Cavusoglu

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

2018 Netflix movie Nappily Ever After voices the relationship of Black women with their natural hair and try to free them from the white beauty ideals imposed by the modern culture. By delving into historical connotations, this film review aims to understand how and why stereotypical narratives about African-American beauty and hair exist in media and shows the societal and psychological consequences of underrepresentation.

At The Nexus Between The National And The Global: The Discursive Construction Of The Turkish Halal Market In The Neoliberal Age, Yesim Kaptan

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This article analyzes a recently emerging halal market in Turkey and illuminates how discursive strategies foster the halal movement in an Islamic culture, and in a neoliberal economy. By exploring websites of the Turkish halal regulatory institutions and employing critical discourse analysis of the media materials, I demonstrate how Islamic actors (halal certification institutions and businesses) adapt, appropriate, and contest different discursive strategies to achieve legitimacy, to compete for distinction and to acquire power in a newly emerging and fiercely competitive, yet a globally defined field in a national economy. The discursive contestations of the actors shaped by the ambivalent …

More On The Pressing Global Problems, Socially And Ecologically, Deniz Atik, Nikhilesh Dholakia

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Relationship Between Members Of Lifelong Learning Institutes And Host Institutions, Jon Charles Neidy

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between an individual’s involvement in Lifelong Learning Institutes (LLIs) and his or her propensity for philanthropic giving to the institute or its hosting college or university. The dataset was acquired through a survey administered to eleven Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLIs) in the United States. Data analysis was conducted on seven research questions which explored how the length, type, and frequency of participation, as well as the level satisfaction, commitment, and feelings of community may relate to an LLI participant’s inclination to donate. The findings of this study reveal these …

Research, Reflections, And Resistance: A Review Of Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, And Transformations, Alexandra Ch Nowakowski

The Qualitative Report

Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, and Transformations offers a superb learning resource for exploring the body in social, emotional, cultural, and political contexts across many different career stages and disciplines. Edited by seasoned embodiment scholars Dr. Chris Bobel and Dr. Samantha Kwan, this new collection brings together 13 research reflections and 16 personal essays on different aspects of embodied resistance. It offers an expansive view of intersecting forms of body marginalization and ways to center these experiences in seeking embodiment justice. It also makes a superb resource for orienting learners at all career stages to embodied resistance and its crucial role …

Does She Want You To Open The Door? New Realities For Traditional Gendered Sexuality, Angela Towne, Elliot Ruggles, Betsy Crane, Meghan Root

The Qualitative Report

In contemporary United States culture, young people may face contradictory gender-related pressures. Changing gender norms resulting from social movements in the latter half of the twentieth century (e.g., sexual revolution, feminism) collide with traditional expectations, such as female virginity until marriage. This study used cross-gender focus groups to examine young people’s gendered experiences in the wake of social change. Data were collected with 35 millennials (ages 18-27) in Pennsylvania who self-identified as having traditional views about relationships and sexuality. Participants articulated current traditional expectations, which included educational and career responsibilities for women as well as behavioral expectations that participants associated …