Sociology Commons^™

Reflections On Visual Field Research, Kenneth Tunnell

Justice Studies Faculty and Staff Research

This article describes ongoing visual field research by focusing on its self-reflective and auto-ethnographic components. Photographs and field notes are presented and personal encounters from the field are described. Recognizing the symbiotic order of the personal and political, the author details confrontations and emotions from ongoing efforts at recording visually.

King Of The Hill's Souphanousiphones, The New Model Minority, And The Subversive Model Minority, Robert Reece

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though the term "model minority" was only coined in the 1960s to apply to Asian-Americans, in the white imagination, a "model" way to be a minority has always existed. This model has gone through various iterations from the "happy" blacks of the antebellum years to supposedly over-achieving Asian-Americans of the 1960s. I argue that we are witnessing the emergence of a new model minority that includes not only Asian-Americans but other high-achieving minorities as well. This model minority is characterized by economic success, formal education, American values, and conservative racial politics or a complete silence about race. Because an inability …

Exploring Theology And Practice In Islamic Parenting, Mergin Akin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore Muslims’ parenting styles and determine how factors such as religion, education, income, physical and verbal punishment experienced as a child, and the perception of Islamic childrearing influence their parenting styles. The research focuses on the main tenets of parenting in the Islamic tradition such as fatherhood, motherhood, children’s and parent’s rights and responsibilities, discipline methods, and physical punishment. The study also informs the role of marriage in Islam and the adopted concepts and theories of Western sociological literature. Findings show that authoritative parenting was the most predominant parenting style among study participants. …

The Sociological Impact Of Cancer: Cancer Among The World, Jenna Kooy

A with Honors Projects

Cancer among ethnic groups and in high income/low income regions.

Sociological Impact On Cancer, Michelle Little

A with Honors Projects

Demographics of cancer and other sociological impacts on cancer.

The Social Impact Of Diabetes, Denise Lujan

Natural Sciences Student Research Presentations

This poster describes the social impact of living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Nostalgic Identities: A Study In The Interactive Process Of Mexican/ Mexican American Users In Facebook, Daniel Dominguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Online social networking is a growing phenomenon. All over the globe people engage in disembodied interactions with one another taking for granted a compression of time and space. Most social analysis of online settings has been studied from a symbolic interactionist perspective in which the concept of multiple/pluralized identity helps explain how users identify themselves in disembodied contexts.

This paper intends to discover how the Mexican / Mexican American identity is presented, managed and produced by users in the Social Networking Site Facebook using the concept of nostalgia in how identity is presented in a disembodied context.

Flowers In The Trenches : The Experiences Of Women In The Landscaping Profession, Paul E. Calarco, Jr.

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This research project aims to provide an in-depth analysis of women in the landscaping field. It is important to expand on the literature on nontraditional blue-collar occupations, as more women are moving into these jobs in this 21st century. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (2001), the landscape and horticultural services industry is ranked 11th in the top twenty fastest growing service industries, almost two times the average for job growth. This occupation represents a significant, viable and fruitful arena for sociological investigation, as well a fantastic occupational option for women.

Discursive Fault Lines: Reproducing White Habitus In A Racially Diverse Community, Meghan Burke

Scholarship

This is a qualitative study detailing the links between racial discourse and social action. Specifically, this article provides evidence for the ways in which a white habitus is reproduced in a racially diverse community, despite the best intentions of its community members. This is chiefly due to the influence of national color-blind ideologies and the diversity discourse that follows. Because this ideology and discourse are individual in nature and centered on a white norm, it chiefly produces consumption-driven actions for individuals and collective action that protects those with racial privilege. While prior studies have detailed the influence of this ideology …

The Hyperactive Fan: Characteristics Of Online Fantasy Football Players, Christopher Patera

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study examines fantasy football players and their leagues because sports are a large and influential aspect of society, with fantasy football as an emerging form of sport spectatorship that has recently gained widespread popularity. From leagues we can learn more about the social identity of sports fans and the meaning behind identifying oneself as a fantasy football player. I also examine the presence of masculinities within fantasy sports along with their influence with respect to the significant population of women affiliated with sports. Further, I explore emotional elements that are embedded within sports and how those factors apply to …

Psychosis In Films: An Analysis Of Stigma And The Portrayal In Feature Films, Yancy Aracena

Dissertations and Theses

Films have a major impact on popular beliefs in American society. The images and ideas in movies are absorbed without difficulties into the popular imagination. This effect can leave long-lasting impressions. Movies can inspire people to raise awareness of various issues such as mental illness but can lead to inaccurate assumptions and stigma. In this thesis, I write about the media and its portrayal mental illness and especially how mental illness can be cast in a negative light with little positive effects. I viewed films with depictions of mental illness and developed four categories for analysis: 1) ―The thin line …

The Management Of Feral Pig Socio-Ecological Systems In Far North Queensland, Australia, Gabriela Shuster

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The development of management programs for socio-ecological systems that include multiple stakeholders is a complex process and requires careful evaluation and planning. This is particularly a challenge in the presence of intractable conflict. The feral pig (Sus scrofa) in Australia is part of one such socio-ecological system. There is a large and heterogeneous group of stakeholders interested in pig management. Pigs have diverse effects on wildlife and plant ecology, economic, health, and social sectors. This study used the feral pig management system as a vehicle to examine intractable conflict in socio-ecological systems. The purpose of the study was …

Midwife Or Med-Wife: Examining Emotion Work With Midwifery Students In Clinical Training, Jessica Anna Cebulak

Master's Theses

Midwives follow a holistic philosophy of care that goes beyond just medical intervention, providing support to both mother and family through the various stages of pregnancy and child birth. Yet, there is a lack of research in the US that examines how midwives invest emotion in their work, and the challenges they face when doing so. Drawing on the concept of Arlie Hochschild's (1979) emotion work as a lens for this study, I examine how midwifery students experience and manage emotion when delivering care to patients during clinical training in a large, urban hospital. Using eight qualitative, in-depth interviews with …

Ecological Revival And Sustainable Living In The Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest Of Tamil Nadu: A Measurement Of Residential Perception In Sadhana Forest, Elizabeth Collette Mcguire

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Since 1970, the role and function of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been to promote environmental quality and to form strategies for carrying out environmental policy¹. The EPA has committed to sustainability as the next level of environmental protection. The agency states that sustainability calls for policies and strategies that meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs². Presently, society’s requirements have resulted in natural resource exploitation and population distention- projected to reach 10 billion people within two human generations³. These paired occurrences are …

Driving Down The Virtual Broadway: Testing The Feasibility Of Educating Young Drivers In Virtual Worlds, Christopher Ball

All Theses

The Clemson University Automotive Safety Research Institute funded the creation of a three-dimensional virtual representation of an established teen driver education program. This virtual safe driving program was created within the public virtual world of Second Life. The overall objective of this project was to explore the use of virtual worlds as potential mediums for teen driver education. The specific objectives of this study were: (1) to adapt and translate the Petty Safe Driving Program curriculum into a virtual world; (2) to create a virtual learning environment that can exist as an engaging, entertaining, and educational program addition; (3) to …

Part-Time Faculty In Higher Education: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, Robert Pankin, Carla Weiss

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications

At this writing (Fall 2011), two-thirds of the faculty in higher education are contingent part-time or full-time. Only one-third of the faculty is tenured or on the tenure-track. This selected, annotated bibliography is organized by year of publication, from 1977 to 2010. (An earlier version was published in 2008.) It is the purpose of this publication to facilitate understanding of the meaning and implications of this major change in the structure of higher education. The annotations in the bibliography were written from the perspective of a part-time faculty member, unlike most of the literature, which is written from a management …

The Undefined Middle: Exploring The Role Of The Union Representative In The Modern Teachers Union Structure, Amanda Erin Lee

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

As an integral part of the teachers union, the union representative works to serve the needs of the union on a local level while also maintaining employment as a teacher within the school system. The continuously evolving political climate that surrounds this organization including shifting educational laws and leadership on the federal and state levels, has left the role of the union representative largely undefined in the current teachers union structure. As a necessary aspect of both the school and the union, the union representative must fulfill role requirements in two structures that are frequently at odds with each other, …

For Love Or Money: Has Neoliberalism Impacted Fertility? A Historical Comparison, Elizabeth Anne Kiester

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Known as neoliberalism, an economic philosophy has spread throughout the world and may be contributing to total fertility rates that have fallen well below replacement value. I present two neoliberal mechanisms and how they may have driven total fertility rates around the world well below replacement levels and inhibited growth. These include increased social risks in the labor market as well as in the household. I then build a theoretical framework based on the social embeddedness of markets as conceived by Karl Polanyi and the concept of social risk as suggested by Richard Breen, suggesting that the unique combinations of …

Book Review: Coping With The Effects Of Deprivation: Development And Upbringing Of Romanian Adoptees In The Netherlands, By Catharina Rijk, Josephine A. Ruggiero

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Attitudes, Behavior, And Social Practice, Harris Chaiklin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The relationship between attitudes and behavior is not symmetrical. A literature review is used to organize a summary of methodological and practical problems in this area. In turn, these findings are used to comment on how sociology and social work practice can take this into account.

“Creating A Nation Of Joiners: Democracy And Civil Society In Early National Massachusetts” By Johann N. Neem, Cedric De Leon

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dying Today: Perspectives Of The Modern Hospice Worker, Nicholas Jay Mac Murray

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

From a sociological standpoint, death is relatively difficult to research. While some individuals may describe near-death experiences, the actual act of death cannot be fully known to the living. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the nature of death and dying in the United States today. This research examines the perspective of modern hospice workers. These individuals work near death on a regular basis and therefore have a privileged understanding of what death is like in US society today. Data consist of ten in-depth interviews with hospice/ palliative-care workers in the Midwestern United States. Respondents were …

We Live This Shit Rap As A Reflection Of Reality For Inner City Youth, Parag Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rap is an extremely popular form of modern music that is notorious for incorporating themes of guns and violence into the lyrics. Early rap was mainly party or dance music until the mid-80s when structural shifts in social conditions brought feelings of hopelessness and frustration into black inner city communities and youth culture. These feelings now find expression in rap lyrics. This thesis uses rap lyrics as qualitative data to understand the plight of urban black youth. Rap music can be seen as a form of resistance for young African Americans who have historically never had such a medium to …

A Qualitative Approach To Spiral Of Silence Research: Self-Censorship Narratives Regarding Environmental And Social Conflict, Christopher John Ryan

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this research is to seek narratives of self-censorship from in-depth interviews of 19 participants acquired through a purposive (criterion) sampling protocol. The primary research question driving this study is “What types of sanctions contribute to people choosing to self-censor their strongly held beliefs, values, and opinions.” Previous research conducted on the topic of self-censorship (generally under the rubric of the spiral of silence theory) has been predominantly quantitative and consideration of sanctions influencing self-censorship have been limited to fear of social isolation. I suggest that ostensibly important sanction variables have not been utilized within these existing frameworks. …

Designing Incentives For Inexpert Human Raters, Daniel L. Chen, John J. Horton, Aaron D. Shaw

Faculty Scholarship

The emergence of online labor markets makes it far easier to use individual human raters to evaluate materials for data collection and analysis in the social sciences. In this paper, we report the results of an experiment - conducted in an online labor market - that measured the effectiveness of a collection of social and financial incentive schemes for motivating workers to conduct a qualitative, content analysis task. Overall, workers performed better than chance, but results varied considerably depending on task difficulty. We find that treatment conditions which asked workers to prospectively think about the responses of their peers - …

The Holy Ghost Beyond The Church Walls: Latino Pentecostalism(S), Congregations, And Civic Engagement, Norman Eli Ruano

Dissertations

In what ways is Pentecostalism a catalyst or an inhibitor of congregational and congregant civic engagement among U.S. Latinos? And how does this compare to other religious traditions, specifically Latino Catholicism, Evangelicalism, and Mainline Protestantism? The dissertation argues that Latino Pentecostal congregations, depending on a variety of reasons such as demographics, and pastor's education, can either be very conservative, inward-looking, and otherworldly, or progressive and this-worldly--in addition to other options along this continuum. Such findings are particularly important given the common social scientific research assumption that Latino Pentecostal congregations are generally conservative, inward- looking, and otherworldly.

After surveying a representative …

November Uri Community Diversity Project 2010, Joseph A. Santiago, Riley Davis, Richard V. Travisano

November Diversity Project

November is National Novel Writing Month. For the first time at the University of Rhode Island November was a month for the URI community to share their stories, poems, art, and photos with the world. The Writing to Model Diversity project intends to connect individuals across cultural boundaries and borders by sharing the stories and experiences that challenge our everyday experiences and the dreams of the future. Built on the efforts of the World Voice series, URI presents a book that shares the stories and culture of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who embrace the idea of becoming …

November Uri Community Diversity Project 2010, Joseph A. Santiago Mr, Riley Davis Ms, Richard V. Travisano Mr

November Diversity Project

November is National Novel Writing Month. For the first time at the University of Rhode Island November was a month for the URI community to share their stories, poems, art, and photos with the world. The Writing to Model Diversity project intends to connect individuals across cultural boundaries and borders by sharing the stories and experiences that challenge our everyday experiences and the dreams of the future. Built on the efforts of the World Voice series, URI presents a book that shares the stories and culture of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who embrace the idea of becoming …

University Scholar Series: Scott Myers-Lipton, Scott Myers-Lipton

University Scholar Series

Rebuild America: Solving the Economic Crisis through Civic Works

On October 13, 2010, Scott Myers-Lipton spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Gerry Selter at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Scott Myers-Lipton is a Professor in the Sociology Department at SJSU. His recent book, titled Rebuild America: Solving the Economic Crisis through Civic Works, analyzes the history of U.S. public works and explores the federal government's new emphasis to create jobs and build infrastructure.

The Propaganda Model And Sociology: Understanding The Media And Society, Jeffery Klaehn, Andrew Mullen

Sociology Faculty Publications

This article unpacks reasons why the Propaganda Model represents a critical sociological approach to understanding media and society, explores the model’s potential within the sociological field, and considers the trajectory of its reputational reception to date. The article also introduces the three central hypotheses and five operative principles of the Propaganda Model and suggests that the model complements other (competing) approaches that explore the relationship between ideological and institutional power and discursive phenomena.