Sociology Commons^™

In Memory Of Jane Widtfeldt Meged, Luis Miguel Brito, Cristina Carvalho

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

Short piece in Memory of Jane Widtfeldt Meged, founder member of Editorial Board of the International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

Connecting Tourism And Mobility: The Emerging Role Of Interpreter-Driver Guides After Deregulation In Japan, Naoko Tanaka

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

Recent regulatory changes in Japan have enabled licensed interpreter-guides to engage in driver-guiding, combining guiding and driving within a single professional role. While driver-guiding has attracted attention as a means of improving tourist mobility and diversifying tourism services, limited research has examined how interpreter-guides themselves experience and negotiate this emerging form of work under conditions of deregulation. This study explores interpreter-guides’ engagement in driver-guiding through qualitative interviews with 14 licensed interpreter-guides operating in rural and urban contexts in Japan. Drawing on thematic analysis, the study examines how driver-guiding is practiced, understood, and experienced in relation to mobility, working conditions, and …

Harassment Risks, Reporting Decisions And Institutional Responses During Hospitality Internships In Ghana, Ebenezer Junior Afful, Yaa Akubia

ICHRIE Research Reports

Hospitality internships can expose students to sexual harassment while leaving them uncertain whether reporting will bring protection or further risk. This study examined exposure, reporting decisions and perceived institutional response among hospitality students in Ghana. It combined a survey of 277 students from three technical universities with follow-up interviews involving 13 participants. Among valid responses, 27.0% reported personally experiencing harassment, while 30.4% reported witnessing it during placement. Only 43.2% of personal incidents and 38.3% of witnessed incidents were reported. Interviews showed that silence was shaped by normalised conduct, customer-service expectations, supervisory power, fear of consequences, unclear reporting routes, and distrust …

Using Status Characteristics Theory To Predict A Jury Foreperson, Mohona Mandal, Shane Thye

Feminist Pedagogy

The topic of social inequality as it relates to status structures is a foundational topic taught in many courses in contemporary sociology.  Today the theory of status characteristics and expectation states (SCT) is the predominant account of the causes and effects of status stratification in groups. The purpose of this paper is to share a classroom exercise that explicates the connections between SCT and critical theory, specifically intersectionality as an analytic framework. Using only the basic theoretical assumptions, students apply the underlying logic of SCT to predict who was selected as the jury foreperson based on brief biographies of each …

Theory In Service Of Students: Feminist Pedagogy, Status Processes, And Rotating Leadership, Alison J. Bianchi

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

From Awareness To Action: The Group Processes Course As Design Laboratory, Kimberly B. Rogers

Feminist Pedagogy

In this article, I describe several pedagogical tools used in my group processes course to help students understand how group processes contribute to inequality and how to effectively intervene on these processes. I pair experimental research with work in natural settings to help students trace the development of theories across levels of application and understand their usefulness outside the laboratory. I incorporate reading reflections and simulation exercises that encourage students to apply course material to their own group experiences and make abstract group processes and their consequences more visible for analysis and action. I use complex instruction to promote more …

Showing Students Their Power: Demonstrating How Status Is Afforded In Interactions, Christianne Corbett

Feminist Pedagogy

The Showing Students their Power original teaching activity conveys to students in a visceral, embodied – and therefore hopefully memorable - way the concept of status, how it is afforded by others, and how quickly and accurately individuals perceive the status with which others view them. Students are informed that characteristics like gender, race, class, sexual orientation are status characteristics and that people who are viewed as lower status tend to be treated less respectfully. By identifying the existence of status, how it is conveyed from person to person, and the power we all have to influence other people, students …

The Adapted Socratic Circle As A Tool For Learning Sociological Social Psychology, Justin Huft

Feminist Pedagogy

This paper presents an adapted Socratic Circle as a feminist pedagogical strategy for teaching sociological social psychology. Unlike traditional Socratic methods that often privilege rapid recall, professorial authority, and dominant communication styles, this approach reimagines the circle as a collective practice of creating and applying knowledge. Students alternate between inner and outer groups, engaging both as discussants and evaluators, while formal assessment is distributed equally across professor, peers, and self-evaluations. This multi-source structure decentralizes authority, resists meritocratic norms, and affirms students as co-creators of knowledge. The feminist commitments of the activity are threefold. First, it centers process over product by …

“All The World Is A (Debate) Stage”: College Debates As A Form Of Civic Engagement, Sara S. Whipple, Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl, Kim Connolly

eJournal of Public Affairs

Political division and self-censorship in the United States have risen considerably in recent years. One means of countering such divides and siloed dialogue is through civil discourse that exposes people to diverse viewpoints. In an effort to bridge partisan divides, the Braver Angels Organization developed a debate format centered on these principles. Virginia Military Institute is one college campus that has adopted such debates as a form of civic engagement. In this paper we describe the development of the VMI College Debates and Discourse Program which has become a leading community of practice in civil discourse and engagement across college …

The Quilt On The Roof, Janny G. Santos

Persimmon Creek

This creative nonfiction essay explores the meaning of home, stewardship, and healing through the story of a veteran who restored a neglected house on a hill in Greenville County, South Carolina. Built in the 1950s by another veteran on land once belonging to the Perry family, the home becomes a place of repair for both the structure and the person caring for it. When the roof fails after years of restoration, the author creates a massive quilt to protect the house, transforming scraps of fabric into a signal of distress and resilience. The essay reflects on land, memory, family, and …

Outlaws In The Shoals, Al From Bernie Delinski And Mike Goens Of The Times Daily, April 27, 2000, Bernie Delinski, Mike Goens, William L. Mcdonald

Correspondence

Correspondence from Bernie Delinski and Mike Goens of the Times Daily requesting a list of the "10 worst outlaws" from the Shoals, Alabama for a series of articles they planned to write. William L. McDonald's reply with a list of eight groups of outlaws, dated April 30, 2000, is also enclosed, and provides a small synopsis of their crimes.

The list includes:

1. John Melton
2. John A. Murrell
3. Clerk from John Edie's Store
4. Mountain Tom Clark
5. Elias "The Man" Thrasher
6. Frank and Jesse James
7. Arline "Speck Wylie, his younger brother Eugene Wylie, and Elmer Bentley "Slick Pickens
8. F. W. Seay

How States Can Design Better Economic Development Incentives, Timothy J. Bartik

Reports

No abstract provided.

How The Economic And Fiscal Benefits Of Economic Development Incentives Are Affected By Targeting, Housing Policy, And Incentive Design, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

This report finds that reformed state economic development policies can raise residents' per capita incomes by over 5 percent while generating a fiscal surplus exceeding 4 percent of state and local tax revenue. In other words, they can pay for themselves. Traditional policies, by contrast, boost incomes by less than half a percent and carry a net fiscal cost of more than 3 percent of tax revenue. Traditional policies rely on untargeted cash incentives such as tax abatements, credits, and grants, and leave zoning unchanged. Reformed policies instead provide customized business services (site-specific infrastructure, job training, business advice, incubators), target …

Higher Education Pathways For Native American Students In Nevada, David Damore, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Policy Briefs and Reports

This policy brief examines educational performance and outcomes for Native American learners in Nevada using data from the Nevada P-20 to Workforce Research Data System provided by the Nevada Department of Education and the Nevada System of Higher Education. Based upon analysis of these data and information collected from state and national sources, we propose public policy interventions to support Native American students in Nevada. The brief also evaluates the significant measurement and data challenges that limit researchers’ ability to evaluate Native American educational pathways and the implications this has for policy decisions.

Advancing Equity Through Mentorship: Supporting Racialized Immigrant And International Students In Canadian Higher Education, Cecilia Bukutu Phd, Viola Manokore Dr, Michael Safo Ofori

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Mentorship initiatives have increasingly supported racialized students in Canada, yet gaps remain in addressing their intersectional needs. This study examines the experiences of Black postsecondary immigrant, refugee, and international students in the Mentorship and Resilience Project (MRP), a racially concordant mentorship initiative. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, data were drawn from interviews, focus groups, and post-workshop surveys. Guided by Anti-Black Racism and Intersectionality frameworks, the study explores how institutional diversity discourses may operate as non-performative practices that obscure structural inequities. Findings show students faced intersecting challenges related to migration status, race, and gender, marked by tensions between invisibility and hypervisibility. …

Wage Inequalities In Informal Work: Race, Sex, And Citizenship Among Latino Workers In New York State, Amalia Torrecillas Fernandez

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

This report examines wage variation within informal work in New York State from 2016 to 2022, with particular attention to Latino workers. Using American Community Survey data from three five-year periods (2016, 2019, and 2022). The analysis explores how median hourly wages differ by ethnicity, sex, citizenship status, race, age, and nativity.

Informal workers represented 4.6%-4.7% of New York's workforce, approximately 569,000 to 589,000 workers between the years of study. A substantial wage gap persisted throughout the study period. Formal workers earned $18/hour in 2016 versus $12 for informal workers; by 2022, this widened to $24 versus $14, underscoring the …

The End Of Unmeasured Exploitation: How A.S.M., C.A.S., And S.I.A. Challenge Digital Attention Capitalism, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Digital attention capitalism generates value through the capture and monetization of human attention, yet it has historically lacked standardized mechanisms for measuring attention-related harm. This paper argues that the Attention Safeguard Models (A.S.M.), Cognitive Attentional Standards (C.A.S.), and Sociological Impact Assessment (S.I.A.) collectively challenge this system by introducing an integrated framework for classifying, measuring, and evaluating digital attention harm and its societal consequences. C.A.S. provides standardized measurement of digital attention harm, A.S.M. identifies and classifies patterns of attentional disruption and manipulation, and S.I.A. evaluates broader impacts on institutions, communities, civic engagement, education, social cohesion, and inequality. Together, these systems transform …

Teaching Medical Students To Identify Social Determinants Of Health Through Observation And Reflection, Bridget Croniger Ockunzzi, Kathleen Liu Young, Jennifer Mendez, Rima Charara

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Purpose: Social determinants of health (SDOH) impact 80-90% of health outcomes in the United States. To address SDOH, innovative teaching of future healthcare professionals is needed. At one large urban medical school in an area with a high population of underserved individuals, first-year medical students participated in a Service Learning curriculum, assessing community needs in local ZIP Code areas. This single-institution descriptive program evaluation describes the implementation and feasibility of this educational activity and reports students' identified community priorities and self-reported engagement.

Participants and Methods: During the 2022-2023 academic year, forty-one groups of 6--8 first-year medical students conducted neighborhood observations, …

Are Accountability Courts In Georgia A Cost-Effective Public Health Policy Alternative?, Brian D. Graves, Orion Mowbray, Leaanne Derigne, Holly Lynde, Angel Ellis, Rachel Meyer

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: This study evaluates the cost-effectiveness of accountability courts in Georgia, presenting them as a viable alternative in public health policy.

Methods: The research utilized survey data collected from 37 court programs across 40 distinct accountability court programs; it was conducted by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government in collaboration with the Council of Accountability Court Judges. The analysis includes a comparative assessment of cost savings, benefits, and differences among various court types, specifically focusing on drug courts, DUI courts, mental health courts, family treatment courts, and veterans treatment courts.

Results: Results reveal that …

The Importance Of Social Capital And Community Dynamics For Effective Extension Programming, Samuel Ch Mindes, Katherine Dentzman

Journal of Extension

The Iowa Pest Resistance Management Program was formed to encourage community-level pesticide resistance management. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach collaborated with four Iowa stakeholder communities to establish pilot projects. Despite initial momentum, these programs floundered. We investigated the program's challenges in establishing sustained success in the pilot projects using interviews and focus groups with participants. Our analytical approach considered the critical roles of bonding social capital and bridging social capital in creating entrepreneurial social infrastructure. We provide lessons learned for future community coordination efforts.

Do Employer Challenges Drive Unemployment Insurance Benefit Nonpayment?, Marta Lachowska, Stephen A. Woodbury

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

How Wisconsin Extension Educators Talk About Climate Change Without Talking About ``Climate Change'', Sky Hershberger, Todd P. Newman

Journal of Extension

Climate change touches all areas of Extension's programming. To understand how educators approach talking about climate change with constituents, we interviewed 15 Extension educators and three program managers in Wisconsin. Crops and Soils educators view climate change as interwoven with their work, Financial Education educators view it as mostly disconnected, and Community Economic Development educators range between these extremes. Educators in all three programs avoid the polarizing phrase ``climate change,'' instead focusing on specific, local, and relatable issues. Educators show empathy and emphasize resilience (adaptation) rather than mitigation. These findings can inform Extension's organizational strategy on climate change.

Horticultural Diplomacy: A Framework For Growing Culturally Aware Gardeners, Stephen Stresow-Cortez, Stephen Reiners, Ashley Miller Helmholdt

Journal of Extension

Derived from person-to-person diplomacy models, a ``horticultural diplomacy'' framework was implemented in a statewide vegetable variety trial program for two seasons to introduce Master Gardeners to diverse crops and cultures. Scaffolding learning with relevant recipes, bed groupings, community tasting events, and collecting community (citizen) science data helped participants build garden skills, gain a greater appreciation for other cultures, and inform new educational materials. Horticultural diplomacy is part of a deliberate effort aimed at growing food and building understanding among (primarily White) volunteers. The techniques that helped make this program successful, adaptable to other garden programs, and aspects that require improvements …

Victim Behaviour And Phone Snatching In Kano Metropolis: A Literature Review Based On Victim Precipitation Theory, Mu'azu Ya'u Abdullahi

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

This paper reviews studies on the problem of phone snatching in Kano Metropolis, with focus on the behaviour of victims. Many studies have explained the crime by linking it to poverty, unemployment, and weak policing among others. However, less attention has been given to how people’s everyday actions may increase their risk. Using Victim Precipitation Theory, this review shows that behaviours such as openly displaying phones, walking alone in unsafe places, or using phones while distracted create easy chances for offenders. The review also notes that wider issues, such as poor street lighting and active black markets, combine with victim …

Examining The Challenges Of Providing Mental Health Treatment In Female Correctional Facilities From The Perspective Of Mental Health Professionals, Lacretia Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women in correctional settings frequently experience significant mental health issues that are linked to histories of trauma, abuse, and victimization. Despite increased attention to trauma-informed and gender-responsive approaches, numerous obstacles continue to affect the delivery of mental health treatment within female correctional facilities. Existing literature focuses on systemic and policy concerns, overlooking mental health professionals' experiences. Guided by general systems theory, this qualitative study examined the challenges encountered by providers, including how organizational, environmental, and institutional factors influence treatment implementation. Data collected through semistructured interviews with 10 mental health professionals revealed multiple barriers to effective service delivery, including the complex …

Beyond Annual Dose: Assessing Lifetime Cancer Risk From Dietary Radiocesium Exposure And Public Risk-Perception Gaps In Japan, Yuxin Liu, Qian Zhuang, Shipeng Dong, Jingsong Huang, Zhenzhong Hu, Boyang Huang, Guoyi Han, Robert L. Goble, Ana Maria Cruz, Tong Liu, Xiaolin Hou, Yingzhe Du, Liang Mao, Lei Huang, Michael Siegrist

Sustainability and Social Justice

Radiocesium in food poses an ongoing challenge in environmental health risk assessment. Annual dose compliance (1 mSv/year) is essential for radiological protection but may not reflect cumulative lifetime cancer risk (LCR) under chronic exposure or corresponding public risk perceptions. We developed an integrated radiological risk assessment framework to evaluate dietary radiocesium-related health risks and determine whether these estimates align with public risk perceptions. We estimated prefecture-level LCR and risk-perception gaps through multilevel regression and poststratification using a nationwide survey in Japan, together with food-monitoring data on radiocesium concentrations. The annual dietary radiation dose was well below the 1 mSv/year benchmark, …

You’Ve Got Junk Mail: Prevalence Of And Factors Related To Sending And Receiving Unsolicited Nudes, Aimee Adam, Brittany Sizemore, Todd Manson

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Unsolicited nudes are common, but most of the research in this area has focused on the motivations of men sending such images and the reactions of women who receive them. In this online study, we attempted to investigate the prevalence of sending and receiving unsolicited sexual images in a broader population, and variables related to this behavior. In our sample of 357 participants, we found few people (less than 20%) acknowledged ever having sent such images, and no difference in whether people had ever sent unsolicited nudes based on gender identity. However, we found that most people (almost 68%) had …

Learning By Doing To Teach Research Skills In Econometrics, Christie Byun

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This paper examines a revision in an introductory econometrics course at an undergraduate liberal arts college. The instructors have incorporated extensive use of data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series from the Current Population Survey (IPUMS-CPS), with applied examples that demonstrate econometric theory. The key element is a short empirical paper assignment in which all students work on a common research question, but with different data sets. The paper assignment includes a series of scaffolding assignments using IPUMS-CPS data. This approach has several benefits, including ease of implementation into any course that has an empirical paper component, significantly streamlined …

Why Publish With Mssj?

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.