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Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #1: Quality Of Life, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2022 - Quality of Life

More than two-thirds of respondents rated the quality of life in the region as excellent or good (69.3%). This is slightly higher than last year (65.4%) during the pandemic and more closely reflects previous, non-COVID years (ranging from 68% to 71% between 2017-2019). About one-fourth rated Hampton Roads’ quality of life as fair (24.7%), and 4.5% rated it as poor.

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #3: Economy & Employment, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2022 - Economy & Employment

Hampton Roads residents had mixed perceptions of the economy but showed some optimism about their own financial situation. Less than half (42.4%) of those surveyed rated the economic conditions in Hampton Roads as excellent (3.1%) or good (39.3%). A similar percentage (42%) rated economic conditions as fair and 14.6% rated them as poor. Interestingly, despite the impacts of COVID-19, these ratings are not much different than in past years of the survey, during or prior to the pandemic. For example, in 2021, 47.5% rated economic conditions as excellent or good and …

Nasis 2022: Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey Questionnaire, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

No abstract provided.

Ambiguous Appalachianness: A Linguistic And Perceptual Investigation Into Arc-Labeled Pennsylvania Counties, Crissandra J. George

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

The Appalachian Regional Commission (2022) designates 52 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties as Appalachia, excluding only the southeast portion of the state. Matthew Ferrence, in Appalachia North, states that his "home is sometimes called Appalachia, sometimes Rust Belt, other times Midwest, even though very few who live there would accept any of those labels as correct" (xi). This ambiguous and fluid identity is due to the shaping, forming, and changing of Pennsylvania’s role within society from a founding colony to a thriving state with industry, unselfishly spoiling others, to the grounds of converging identities (Ferrence xi). This ambiguous identity makes …

Manila’S Black Nazarene And The Reign Of Bathala, Antonio D. Sison

Journal of Global Catholicism

A consideration of how the dynamics surrounding Manila's Black Nazarene express crucial themes in the Filipino psyche. The article specifically addresses the importance of "felt-experience" (pagdama) in devotion to the Black Nazarene as well as its connections to indigenous Filipino religion.

Catholicism In Context: Religious Practice In Latin America, Gustavo Morello Sj

Journal of Global Catholicism

A critical problem to study Catholicism in the context of Latin American modernity, is that the conceptual tools we use to study religion were designed to understand the transformations that modernity provoked in European religiosity. Studies on the religion of Latin Americans have largely explored the religiosity of the population through surveys that measure attendance, adherence and affiliation. While some anthropologists have explored religious practices among particular groups, we do not know how ordinary, urban Latin Americans practice religion. To fill this gap, a group of researchers from Boston College, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Catholic University of Córdoba, and …

Fraternity, Martyrdom And Peace In Burundi: The Forty Servants Of God Of Buta, Jodi Mikalachki

Journal of Global Catholicism

During Burundi's 1993-2005 civil war, students at Buta Minor Seminary were ordered at gunpoint to separate by ethnicity—Hutus over here, Tutsis over there! They chose instead to join hands and affirm their common identity as children of God. The forty students killed were quickly proclaimed martyrs of fraternity. Their costly solidarity defused the cry for reprisals and continues to inspire Burundians and others on the path of reconciliation. Drawing on fifty interviews with survivors, parents of martyrs, neighbors, religious leaders and other Burundian intellectuals, this essay examines how Burundian Catholics understand the significance of the Buta martyrdom to their …

Editor's Introduction, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Religious Mega-Events And Their Assemblages In Devotional Pilgrimages: The Case Of Círio De Nazaré In Belém, Pará State, Brazil, José Rogério Lopes, André Luiz Da Silva

Journal of Global Catholicism

The article presents a typological categorization of contemporary mega-events and their characteristics, in order to interpret the assemblages mobilized by sectors of the Catholic Church in traditional devotional pilgrimages in the northern region of Brazil. It uses ethnographic accounts of the Círio de Nazaré feast, in Belém, Pará state, Brazil, considered the largest Catholic procession in the West, in order to analyze how the promotion of this event is organized through institutional and market logics that overlap with the religious phenomenon, evincing a contemporary trend. These assemblages open a field of possibilities for institutional religious reproduction and generate concentric flows …

Young Brazilian Catholics Reaffiliating: A Case Study In The City Of Campos, Rj, Brazil, Cecilia L. Mariz, Wânia Amélia Belchior Mesquita, Michelle Piraciaba Araújo

Journal of Global Catholicism

Through a case study in Campos, a northern city of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, this article analyzes reports from young people who state that they have undergone a process of revival or reactivation of their Catholic faith. They all declared to have participated in the “St Andrew’s School of Evangelization.” They also mentioned having experienced an "encounter with God." Their narratives were similar to conversion accounts reported by practitioners of other religious traditions. The interviewees describe faith as a personal choice, and emphasize the need for religious study and the value of religious knowledge. To what extent these values …

Contemporary Brazilian Catholicism And Healing Practices: Notes On Environmentalism And Medicalization, Juliano F. Almeida

Journal of Global Catholicism

Anthropological studies on Brazilian Catholicism traditionally focused on popular variants of this religious practice and their relationship with the official Catholicism. Encouraged by recent anthropological perspectives, which highlight the relevance of devoting researches not only on the margins, but also on the center of social practices, this paper analyzes contemporary practices of Brazilian Catholic friars and priests on health promotion. The analysis of their publications (books that include practices and tips on health and that became best sellers etc.), as well as interviews, allows us to perceive a process of environmentalization on the contemporary Brazilian Catholicism. This process seems to …

Strong Church, Weak Catholicism: Transformations In Brazilian Catholicism, Carlos Alberto Steil, Rodrigo Toniol

Journal of Global Catholicism

In this paper we explore data on Catholicism from the 2010 census in Brazil, as well as other data from the Center for Religious Statistics and Social Investigation. Using these statistics, we question those arguments that explain the reduction in the number of Catholics in Brazilian society as a problem in the institution’s adaptation in response to the challenges of evangelization, or as a lack of ministerial vocations to meet the religious demands of the people. Pursuing an alternative argument, we consider the weakening of the relationship between the Catholic institution and traditional popular Catholicism to be a fundamental aspect …

Editor's Introduction, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Water Elites’ Perceptions Of Water Security In The Middle East And North Africa Region, Ghaleb Akari

Dissertations

The Middle East and North African region continues to face significant water security challenges. The purpose of this dissertation is to gain a deeper understanding of water elites’ perceptions of water security in the MENA region. It is not meant to generalize the findings. Instead, the intention for the research is to identify, explain, and analyze by national elites' contrasting perceptions in Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Tunisia.

The study examines water elites’ perceptions in four areas: current knowledge level of water security, water resource management, water service delivery, and water-related risk mitigation. These elites’ perceptions of water security will help …

Catholics & Cultures As An Act Of Improvisation: A Response, Thomas M. Landy

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay responds to seven articles published in the same issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism on the use of Catholics & Cultures, a multimedia website, as a pedagogical resource for college classrooms. The site is deliberately presented in a fashion that undermines notions of center and periphery and presents Catholicism from a lay, lived-religion perspective as the multicultural faith that it is, minimizing reference to religious typologies. Particular attention is given to how to navigate tensions around theorizing, categorizing and sorting information for cross-cultural comparison. Given scholars’ current state of knowledge, writing about and teaching about global Catholicism …

The Value Of Online Resources: Reflections On Teaching An Introduction To Global Christianity, Hillary Kaell

Journal of Global Catholicism

Reflecting on my experience teaching Introduction to Global Christianity, this essay ponders questions at the heart of undergraduate teaching: How can we encourage students to utilize online sources? How can we empower them to seek out answers to their questions? It offers practical examples of how I have used the Catholics & Cultures website in my classroom at a large public university. In particular, I reflect on my experience working with students who are mostly of Catholic heritage, but from many cultural and social contexts.

Teaching Sexuality On The Catholics & Cultures Website: A Refreshing Turn Toward The Longue Durée, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

I present a close reading of the Catholics & Cultures (C&C) website’s treatment of sexuality-related issues and discuss this material in relation to debates about how to teach sexuality in religious studies and theology classrooms. The C&C website occasionally and intermittently uses a typical “contemporary issues” approach that considers sexuality in relation to legal and legislative decisions and government policies. In contrast, country profiles consistently situate sexuality in relation processes like nation building, urbanization, and lay Catholics’ growing authority. My interpretation highlights the site’s decision to emphasize the longue durée, long-term and deep structural processes driving cultural and religious changes. …

Ritual Among The Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, The Nacirema, And Interfaith Studies, Anita Houck

Journal of Global Catholicism

More than six decades after its publication, Horace Miner’s 1956 article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” remains a reliable pedagogical tool, remarkably successful in helping students see their own ethnocentric biases. Catholics & Cultures has potential to do similar work. The site lacks some of what makes Miner’s text so effective, in particular its capacity to bring about a sudden shift in perception. The site also shares some of the article’s limitations, particularly in focusing on ritual to the relative exclusion of other aspects of religion. That said, the site can help students gain the religious literacy and develop the …

Focus On The Busy Intersections Of Culture And Cultural Change, Laura Elder

Journal of Global Catholicism

The dynamics of religious resurgence reveal the important ways that religious ritual and performance are meaning making spaces which are not self-contained or cut off from the rest of culture, but rather are a key locus of cultural change. A renewed emphasis on the busy intersections of meaning making – as rituals are connected, disconnected, and reconnected to other domains of social life – would improve the utility of the Catholics & Cultures website for understanding global cultural change. And a renewed emphasis on cultural change would also provide a better means for exploring reflexively by seeking to understand both …

A Widened Angle Of View: Teaching Theology And Racial Embodiment, Mara Brecht

Journal of Global Catholicism

Today’s undergraduate students are digital natives, shaped by constant access to information and countless experiences of encountering the world through the convenience of a screen. The ostensible comfort students have with difference gives way to a paradox, and one that’s made especially apparent in the theology classroom: Students are comfortable with seeing difference and particularity at a distance, but not adept at locating difference and particularity “at home.” I contend that Catholics & Cultures can help students from the dominant culture—namely, white students who comprise the vast majority of Catholic college students—destabilize their notion of the Catholic tradition as tightly …

Introducing Catholics & Cultures: Ethnography, Encyclopedia, Cyborg, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

In introducing the Catholics & Cultures site and the articles in this special issue, this essay initially locates the overall Catholic & Cultures project within the traditions of ethnography and encyclopedia. Drawing extensively on the work of J. Z. Smith, this essay reflects upon the theoretical implications of emphasizing the diversity of Catholicism in and through a web-based platform that facilitates comparative study and pedagogy. This essay then more specifically considers the web-based aspects of Catholics & Cultures by identifying a nascent cyborgian aesthetic in the site and considering how the site might eventually engage post-modern themes and concerns.

Surgical Patients’ Hospital Experience Scores: Neighborhood Context Conceptual Framework, Ashley Wendell Kranjac, Dinko Kranjac, Michelle A. Fortier, Pat Patton, Brad Giafaglione, Zeev N. Kain

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective:

Through geocoding the physical residential address included in the electronic medical record to the census tract level, we present a novel model for concomitant examination of individual patient-related and residential context-related factors that are associated with patient-reported experience scores.

Summary Background Data:

When assessing patient experience in the surgical setting, researchers need to examine the potential influence of neighborhood-level characteristics on patient experience-of-care ratings.

Methods:

We geocoded the residential address included in the electronic medical record (EMR) from a tertiary care facility to the census tract level of Orange County, CA. We then linked each individual record to the …

Life In Hampton Roads Report: The 12th Annual Life In Hampton Roads Survey, Tancy Vandecar-Burdin, Randy R. Gainey, Jesse T. Richman, Steve Parker, Wendi Wilson-John, James Valliere, Joshua Behr, Jennifer Whytlaw, Drew Avery, Adam Pyecha

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

[From the Executive Summary]

The Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at Old Dominion University is pleased to present the results from the 12th annual Life in Hampton Roads (LIHR) survey. The purpose of the survey was to gain insight into residents’ perceptions of the quality of life in Hampton Roads. It is important to note that the methodology for this year’s survey differs from previous Life in Hampton Roads surveys. The first ten years of the survey were conducted using a random sample of Hampton Roads residents via telephone. Last year state and university COVID-19 restrictions did not allow for …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #4: Politics & Ethics In Government, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2021 - Politics & Ethics in Government

The Life in Hampton Roads survey typically includes a few questions about political attitudes. In 2021, the questions asked included party affiliation, job approval of President Biden and preferences for the 2021 gubernatorial election. The survey also included a set of questions about ethics in local government that have been asked in previous surveys.

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #2: Education & Public Schools, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2021 - Education & Public Schools

About one in four (26.1%) of respondents reported having a school-aged child/children, and 17.7% of those parents indicated they had a school-aged child with a disability. Those with school-aged children were asked where/how their children attended school in the spring of 2021 given COVID-19 conditions. Similar percentages of parents reported that their child attended public school with only virtual classes (44.4%) or attended public school with at least some in-person classes (44%). Another 10.6% indicated that their child was home-schooled and 8.7% indicated that their child/children attended private school with …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #6: Perceptions Of Police, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2021 - Perceptions of the Police

This year about 17% of respondents reported that they (or someone close to them) had had a negative experience with the police, down from the 20% reported last year. The percentage of residents having heard of someone in their local community who had had a negative encounter with the police was much larger. Indeed, nearly a third of respondents reported such knowledge in 2021 (31.1%) and 2020 (32.8%). This number is probably much higher because there are so many ways of hearing about unpleasant incidences – from family, friends or …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #5: Perceptions Of The Economy & Employment, Social Sciences Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2021 - Perceptions of the Economy & Employment

Hampton Roads residents had mixed perceptions of the economy but showed some optimism about their own financial situation. Less than half (47.5%) of those surveyed rated the economic conditions in Hampton Roads as excellent (6.5%) or good (41%). More than four in 10 (41.4%) rated economic conditions as fair and 8% rated them as poor. Interestingly, despite the impacts of COVID-19, these ratings are not much different than in past years of the survey. In 2019, 49.9% of respondents rated economic conditions as good or excellent. This year’s …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #1: Quality Of Life, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2021 - Quality of Life

Almost two-thirds of respondents rated the quality of life in the region as excellent or good (65.4%). This is slightly lower than in previous, non-COVID years (ranging from 68% to 71% between 2017-2019). A total of 28.5% of respondents rated Hampton Roads’ quality of life as fair and 3.9% rated it as poor.

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #7: Perceptions Of Flooding, Hurricane Evacuation, & Sheltering During Covid-19, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2021 - Flooding, Hurricane Evacuation, & Sheltering During COVID-19

The changing climate and rising sea levels touch nearly every aspect of life in Hampton Roads, with some neighborhoods and communities experiencing it more acutely. But, overall, how persistent is recurrent flooding as perceived by Hampton Roads residents? This year’s survey finds that nearly 23% of respondents state that recurrent flooding is a problem in their neighborhood, a number broadly consistent with the responses seen since this question was first asked in 2013 when 23% of respondents also indicated that recurrent flooding was a problem in their …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #3: Health & Experiences With Covid & Vaccines, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2021 – Health & Experiences with COVID & Vaccines

More than 72% of respondents rated the quality of their own health as excellent (17.9%) or good (54.4%). This is lower than previous years, which is not surprising given ongoing pandemic conditions. Further, the percentage of respondents rating their health as excellent or good has been declining over recent years (e.g., from 82% in 2017).