Inequality and Stratification Commons^™

I Think I Can: Identity And Social Experiences Of Adolescents With Physical Disabilities., Amy Sorensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An online survey was completed by 40 adolescents and young adults (ages 12 to 22) with physical disabilities for the purpose of exploring their social experiences. The survey focuses on key variables associated with individual identity, group identity, social relationships and activities, and future aspirations. Positive outcome variables were explored including: self-esteem, self-efficacy, body satisfaction, cultural identity, relationship quality, activity participation, and future orientation. Independent variables included sex, population size, ability level, and proximity to disability. Ability level proved to be the most predictive of positive outcomes. Sex, population size, and proximity to disability exhibited small associations to some of …

Torch (December 2007), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Demographic, Economic, And Social Transformations In The South Bronx: Changes In The Nyc Community Districts Comprising Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose, Longwood, And Hunts Point, 1990 - 2005, Astrid S. Rodríguez

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report analyzes demographic and socioeconomic characteristics among the five largest Latino nationality groups during 1990-2005 in South Bronx, specifically the neighborhoods of Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose, Longwood, and Hunts Point.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Puerto Ricans are the largest Latino subgroup in the South Bronx, accounting for over half of the total population by 2005 although their …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 83, No. 23, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

Does Welfare Reform Work In Rural America? A 7-Year Follow-Up, Ann Tickamyer, Debra Henderson, Barry Tadlock

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Even before the advent of welfare reform, studies of low income working and welfare dependent groups showed that low wage working women are worse off than those who combine welfare with other income sources and that most used a wide variety of livelihood strategies. This is especially the case in poor rural settings where work is scarce and additional obstacles to employment such as lack of transportation and childcare are endemic. Data from a selfadministered survey of users of human service agency programs in four counties in a distressed region of Appalachian Ohio in 1999, 2001, and 2005, provide a …

Institutional-Anomie, Political Corruption, And Homicide Rates, Jerry K. Daday, Lisa M. Broidy, Dale Willits

Sociology Faculty Presentations

Messner and Rosenfeld’s institutional-anomie theory (IAT) has advanced our understanding of cross-national variation in homicide rates. Empirical tests of IAT have primarily examined how non-economic institutions alleviate or mitigate the mal-effects of economic inequality and economic deprivation. As economic institutions gain strength and dominance, non-economic institutions tend to weaken and are forced to accommodate the market. This creates an elevated state of institutional anomie that is conducive to higher violent crime rates. Most cross-national quantitative tests of IAT have examined the comparative strength of economic and social support institutions (especially social welfare) and find support for the theory. However, prior …

Torch (November 2007), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Cracking Silent Codes: Critical Race Theory And Education Organizing, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Critical race theory (CRT) has moved beyond legal scholarship to critique the ways in which “colorblind” laws and policies perpetuate existing racial inequalities in education policy. While criticisms of CRT have focused on the pessimism and lack of remedies presented, CRT scholars have begun to address issues of praxis. Specifically, communities of color must challenge the dominant narratives of mainstream institutions with alternative visions of pedagogy and school reform, and community organizing plays an important role in helping communities of color to articulate these alternative counter-narratives. Yet, many in education organizing disagree with CRT's critique of colorblindness. Drawing on five …

Paying Executives To Not Work -- While Most Work Til They Drop, Gil Villagran

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

It’s a great job,  if you can get it.  Colleen Wilcox,  Superintendent of the County Office of Education,  turned in her resignation after allegations of racial harassment of a Latina employee,  sexual  inappropriateness with a male employee,  and other behavior that created a hostile work environment.   However,  she will continue to collect  her half-million dollar salary for another year and a half.  

Refugees, Migrants And Law In Palestine, Asem Khalil

Faculty Journal Articles

The topic of this paper is problematic due to the lack of shared understanding of its terms (refugees, migrants, law and Palestine). Research of such a topic, therefore, must be delimited as to prevent misunderstanding, misanalysis and misjudgement. The definition of one of these terms shall delimit and define the content of the others. Unless specified differently, in this paper “Palestine” refers to the territories known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt), covering what was called before 1967 as the West Bank (including East Jerusalem)1 and the Gaza Strip (for many Palestinians, this definition forms the territorial basis of a …

Relations Between Palestinian Diaspora (Al-Shatat), Palestinian Communities In The West Bank, And Gaza Strip, Jamil Hilal

Faculty Journal Articles

The following paper addresses the issue concerning relations between the Palestinian diasporas (al-shatat) and Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, within the historical context in which diasporas were formed (ethnic cleansing, military colonial occupation, statelessness, etc). It situates relations between the shatat communities and communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip within their regional and international socio-economic and power relations. The paper formulates preliminary hypotheseis on the political, economic and cultural impact of relations of the diaspora and immigrant communities on the home society.

Refugees And Migrants From Eritrea To The Arab World: The Cases Of Sudan, Yemen And Saudi Arabia 1991-2007, Hélène Thiollet

Faculty Journal Articles

Since the early 1960s, exiles have been fleeing from Eritrea to neighbouring Sudan, the Arab world, and more recently to the West. The independence war that saw Eritreans rise against the Ethiopian state after the annexation of the former Italian colony in 1962, raged until 1991 and caused massive population displacement. Ongoing violence and poverty created over one million refugees in the 1980s and continuous flows of emigrants until the beginning of the 1990s. Eritrean independence, established in 1993, was expected to put refugees on their way back home. With the outbreak of a new war in 1998 and the …

Iraqi Refugees In Syria, Mohamed Kamel Dorai

Faculty Journal Articles

Since the beginning of the 20th century, Syria has hosted different refugee groups in large numbers such as Armenians, Palestinians and more recently Lebanese escaping the last war during the summer 2006. Since 2003, Syria hosts a large Iraqi community. It is important to note that despite the reception of different waves of refugees, Syria, like most countries in the region, is neither part of the 1951 Convention nor the 1967 Protocol, and there is no specific memorandum of understanding between UNHCR and the Syrian authorities. Syria is, along with Jordan, one of the main host countries for Iraqis fleeing …

Migration Policies And Challenges In The Kingdom Of Bahrain, Mohammed Dito

Faculty Journal Articles

Although small in terms of land area,1 Bahrain has long and rich traditions in terms of human migration throughout its ancient and modern history. Several natural, socio-economic and political factors have contributed toward making Bahrain a destination of regional as well overseas migration. Archeological evidences from the ancient civilization of Dilmun 4000 years ago are witness to dynamic trade relations between Bahrain and its neighboring regions, and human migration was an active force strengthening the role of cultural and economic interactions between the people of the Gulf and other civilizations. In the last century until the mid of the 20th …

Refugees From And To Sudan, Munzoul A. M. Assal

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper attempts to provide an overview of refugees to and from Sudan. It is a preliminary contribution that seeks to highlight the question of refugees coming to Sudan (with focus on Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees), and Sudanese refugees fleeing Sudan to neighbouring countries and further a field. The paper is an overview and is based on the existing knowledge on the subject. It does not represent research findings and aims at initiating debate around the question of refugees. It also seeks to highlight possible future research areas. In addition to the sources consulted, the author also uses his own …

Migration To Kuwait: Trends, Patterns And Policies, Nasra M. Shah

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper outlines the major trends in migration to Kuwait and describes the salient characteristics of the foreign population in comparison with the nationals. It also highlights the past and current policies of the country to manage and regulate migration. The paper is organized as follows. It begins with an overview of the population growth disaggregated by nationality, focusing especially on the growth in trends of Arabs vs. Asians. This section also describes the demographic structure of the population in terms of age, sex, and educational characteristics. The second section looks at the trends in the contribution of non-Kuwaitis to …

Aspects Of Migration And Development In Jordan, Riad Al Khouri

Faculty Journal Articles

Due to expansion of the public sector, high rates of economic growth, and demand for Jordanian workers in regional labor markets, Jordan enjoyed almost full employment from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. This resulted in labor shortages in some job categories and paved the way for importing migrant laborers, particularly Arabs, to work mainly in unskilled and semi-skilled occupations. That prosperity did not last long, however, and unemployment began to rise in the mid-1980s due to slow growth of the regional labor market and the gradual return of Jordanian expatriates from the Gulf countries (though there was no parallel …

Contemporary Migration And Transnational Families: The Case Of Somali Diaspora(S), Mulki Al-Sharmani

Faculty Journal Articles

In this paper, I argue that a central feature of Somali contemporary migration is a transnational way of life, which an increasing number of diasporic Somalis and their families are leading. Transnational families become an important space in which Somalis strategize with their relatives, pool resources, share obligations, and arrange for the movements of individual family members. This kind of transnational way of life becomes a fairly effective mechanism through which diasporic Somalis seek security, protection, opportunities for a better life, and different forms of capital for themselves and their relatives in the homeland and elsewhere. However, living transnationally is …

Lebanese Diaspora And Homeland Relations, Guita Hourani

Faculty Journal Articles

Although Lebanese emigrants have always been part of Lebanon’s life, Lebanon has not actually had a specific diaspora policy. This discussion paper will not deal with the migration process, or the motives for migration. It will focus, instead, on some selected aspects of the Lebanese diaspora and homeland relations. It will draw attention to some of the important networks connecting the Lebanese diaspora with Lebanon and will review courses of action undertaken by the Lebanese government to strengthen ties with its diaspora.

Gaaro: Nepali Women Tell Their Stories, Sarah Cramer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“In the 1970s, women were discovered to have been “bypassed” by the development interventions. This “discovery” resulted in the growth during the late 1970s and 1980s of a whole new field, women in development (WID), which has been analyzed by several feminist researchers as a regime of representation” (Escobar, 13). This “regime of representation” was a way in which development discourse linguistically, and consequently practically, imposed a homogenized identity on these “bypassed” women, in order to bring them into development programs. This homogenizing discourse was constructed by Western development efforts and takes place by constructing all third world women as …

“Happy Dancing Natives” Minority Film, Han Nationalism, And Collective Memory, Benjamin D. Shaffer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Cinematic representations of China’s ethnic minorities have been prominent in Chinese visual culture and collective memory since the 1950s. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party led campaigns to classify China’s diverse range of ethnic groups. These social experiments inspired a number of documentary and narrative films about the ostensibly “exotic” and “colorful” non-Han peoples of China. The audience for these depictions of minorities in visual culture varied considerably. Some early documentaries fueled the rise of Han nationalism and political agendas within the Communist Party. Several narrative films had large audiences in mainstream Chinese …

Unholy Union: The Convergence Of Agendas Between The Gay Community And The Political Right-Wing In The Netherlands, Michael Wayne Perry

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The introduction of immigrants from traditionally Islamic countries has created a new dynamic within the Dutch social system. Seemingly clashing with the established facade of Dutch “tolerance”, this group of Muslim immigrants has logically found a natural enemy within right-wing political parties. However, on a more interesting level, we see that the political agenda of the gay movement has seemingly converged with the agenda of those right-wing groups. In a sense, this convergence of agendas seems odd considering the general association of the gay movement with leftist, more progressive political movements. This study intends to examine this convergence of agendas; …

The Politics Of Engagement: The Influence Of Identity On The Experiences Of Activists Involved With The Roma Community In Serbia, Becca Gardner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Debate and mystery surrounds the origin and culture of the Gypsies in Europe; however, there is no question that the space they inhabit today reflects their position of marginalization and discrimination. During the last five years, there has been a surge of activism and interest in the experiences of the Roma, largely due to the implementation of the Decade for Roma Inclusion . The Decade is a commitment among governments, intergovernmental, non-governmental organizations, and Romani civil society to address the inequality of Roma in Europe by focusing on employment, education, health, and housing within the specific context of each participating …

Torch (October 2007), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Unemployment, Women, And Taxis: A Study Of The Taxi-Sister Program In Its Test Phase, Mackenzie Israel-Trummel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In May of 2007, the Senegalese Ministry for Family and Female Entrepreneurship in collaboration with a private car dealership, Espace-Auto, announced plans for the Taxi-Sister program, which introduced ten women into the taxi driving profession. The first ten women, who hit the streets in September 2007, are considered a test-run for the program, as the Ministry seeks to expand women’s roles in Senegalese society and presence in the economic sector. The program is considered to be both an effort to address women’s poverty and to establish a feminine presence in professions formerly reserved for men.

This study attempts to describe …

Helping Women Help Themselves: Sex Work, Health, And Development In Mahajanga, Madagascar, Rachel Pryzby

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Poverty is an inescapable reality in Madagascar, a force that permeates the lives of many Malagasy people. Approximately 75 % of the population lives below the poverty line, defined as one United States dollar per person per day . This poverty proves to be particularly cruel to women who are often illiterate, unmarried, and have children to support. In cases such as these, often the quickest and most lucrative type of work available is sex work. The proportion of sex workers (called makorelina in Malagasy and travailleuses de sexe in French ) in the city of Mahajanga is quite large—approximately …

Leprosy: A Study Of Identity Through A “Marginalized” Population, Aarti Bhatt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

People of all different cultures use identity as a way of mediating with surrounding institutional structures and personal communities. Identity however, is not a concrete idea but a multidimensional and dynamic condition. For communities of so called "marginalized people" an identity perceived or created from the outside and imposed can have drastic implications on a person's capacity to act as an agent. Stefen Ecks argues for the value of ethnographic study from the point of view of the marginal people, going on to say that "this is of critical importance since marginality puts health most under stress when it is …

Creating Dreams, Fighting For Rights: A Study With Centro De Cultura Negra Do Maranhão, Brazil, Laura Jenks

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The history of race in Brazil is a long and complicated one which has resulted in a contemporary racial climate fraught with hidden racism and the systematic oppression of the entire black population. Because of this complex history, black movements in Brazil have struggled to gain political power and unified support from the black population. Today, the black movement is made up of many independent organizations, working in their own way to fight racism and inequality within Brazil. This research project looks at the work of one such organization of the Brazilian black movement, the Centro de Cultura Negra in …

State Policies On Migration And Refugees In Jordan, Francoise De Bel-Air

Faculty Journal Articles

Jordan has historically acted as a regional cross-road for migration. This role can be attributed to regional political instability forcing migrants to the country, as much as due to Jordan’s policy of openness to Arab migrants, an openness which has sustained the pan-Arabist claims of the ruling Hashemite dynasty. In recent years, however, Jordan has progressively restrained its open-door policy. The country is hosting today some 900,000 work migrants of various nationalities, some 750,000 Iraqi refugees and numerous Syrians, Lebanese, West Bank Palestinians, while an estimated 50% of the population is descendent of the naturalised Palestinian refugees of 1948 and …

Egyptian Workers In Paris: An Ethnographic Account, Reem Saad

Faculty Journal Articles

On both sides of the Mediterranean, labour migration from North Africa to Europe is seen as a problem. At the official levels, this problem is mainly treated from a security perspective with the greatest efforts directed at closing the loopholes through which migrant labour manages to reach Northern shores. Young men from many parts of the “South” go to extreme lengths and bear great risks to get to Europe. This paper addresses the case of Egyptian labour migrants in France. This research attempts to understand this issue from the point of view of the migrants themselves, and in the context …