Sociology of Culture Commons^™

The Fall And Rise Of Bengali Muslim Conciousness: Conceptualising The Identity Of The Bangla Universal, Habib Khan

Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of modern-nation states saw the end of the empirical era of exploitation and exercise of inherent racist tendencies towards the 'other'. However, the effect of that colonial system is still ever-present in the creation and governance of these newly independent states. While every new state aims to be 'modern', they adopt the international legal framework of the West as their own - a system they had initially wanted to escape. The concept of Muslim universality in the form of the ummah should have freed Pakistan from the shackles of its former colonial masters. Instead, this phenomenon was replaced …

Alternative Approaches To Police Interventions When Responding To Mental Health Crises Incidents, Karen Rivera Apolinar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Purpose: This study explored mental health workers perspectives on alternative approaches in responding to mental health crises.

The study was carried out in Southern California, in collaboration with mental health workers who currently work or previously have worked in mental health crisis. It adopted a post-positivists paradigm and data was gathered through individual interviews with mental health workers who have direct experience with mental health crisis response in the community and with the police. The twenty participants in the study were men and women working in the mental health field, and of various backgrounds, licensures, and ages.

The study found …

The Maldivian Language Predicament: Language Loss Through The Lens Of Students, Azka Hassan

Senior Theses and Projects

This study dives into Maldivian students’ experiences of learning languages in classrooms, as well as how they perceive their proficiency in English relative to their first language, Dhivehi. I investigated the issue of language loss and its contributors via a qualitative study which consisted of 9 semi-structured 45-60 minute interviews with lower secondary Maldivian students who are in public schools in Male’ city. (Key stage 4, ages 13-17) Through this study, I argue that the Maldives is suffering from language loss among youth because students often have negative experiences in Dhivehi classrooms and feel pressure rooted in higher social and …

Césaire, Mills, & De Beauvoir In Sociological Theory, Louis Edgar Esparza

The Journal of Social Encounters

The values and priorities of sociology as a discipline have changed dramatically over the past 70 years. Theories of race, class, and gender that had been excluded or marginalized in the positivist twentieth century now make up the classical core of social justice reading lists. Where did these central ideas germinate from? This article identifies and illustrates the influence of three representative theorists: Aime Césaire, C. Wright Mills, and Simone de Beauvoir. These three are commonly read for their incisive critiques of colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy, respectively. Focusing mainly on a critical appraisal of their principal texts in these respective …

Salty: A Diffractive Inquiry Of Visceral Knowing And Embodied Aesthetics, Mei Ling Chua

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation takes a diffractive, onto-epistemological approach to everyday practices with salt in order to articulate an expanded understanding of meaning making and knowledge production. This research reckons with and challenges dominant modes of knowing that engage a Cartesian perspective to situate knowing as the exclusive domain of the mind in both form and topic of inquiry. This research acts simultaneously as both a direct practice of and metacognition about knowledge production by examining 1. the embodied (including sensory and emotional aspects) and 2. the relational (including interpersonal and socio-cultural) dimensions of experience as visceral knowing. This articulation of …

Skin Stories And Family Feelings: The Contradictions Of Skin Picking In Mother And Daughter, Katrina Jacinto

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Skin picking, otherwise known as dermatillomania, is considered to be a medical disorder by the DSM-5. However, the embodied experiences of skin picking in myself and my mother do not align with the neat definitions offered by psychiatry. Through autoethnographic material and an ethnographic interview with my mother, I argue that skin picking is a bodily technique that is pathologized through stigma. In particular, I suggest that skin picking reveals the body as a polyvalent entity, in which the same features and practices take on different meanings in different bodies. This frames the discrepancies between mine, and my mother's, experiences. …

Seeing And Unlearning Whiteness: A Mindfulness Workshop For Racial Justice, Emily Haranas

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Racism is a deeply embedded, foundational aspect of American society. However, because the privilege of Whiteness insulates White individuals from the workings of systemic injustice and oppression and enables them to choose the conditions of their accountability in the movement for racial justice, many remain painfully blind to this fact. As such, there is a significant need for those who have been racialized White to develop a critical awareness of the powers and privileges ascribed to their racial identity. The working premise of this thesis is that mindfulness can assist White individuals in unlinking the socialized habits of mind that …

The Rise Of Russian Peasant Witchcraft: A Response To Social Unrest In Imperial Russia, Katrina Sommer

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Imperial Russia became home to a unique form of witchcraft from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Combining its religious history, patterns of imperial expansion and governance, and social hierarchies, witchcraft accusations arose during especially troublesome economic and political times. Differing from eighteenth-century America Witchcraft trials, these trials were not only femicide. Targeting anyone who might subvert established social or cultural norms, these accusations often led to violent expungement, ending with a ritual of communal bonding.

Airplane Hangars And Triple Hills: Renovation, Demolition, And The Architectural Politics Of Local Belonging At The Our Lady Of Csíksomlyó Hungarian National Shrine, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

In 2019, Pope Francis, leader of the global Catholic Church, celebrated an outdoor Mass at the Our Lady of Csíksomlyó Hungarian national shrine in Romania. When the Franciscan Order that runs the shrine published renovation plans for the altar where the pope would appear, the Facebook post received over 800 outraged comments, including one man who asked, “How can such a beautiful Hungarian symbol, so perfectly integrated into the landscape, be humiliated like this?” By situating these expressions of outrage in the history of Eastern European material politics, I argue that the aesthetic value the commentators were defending – a …

Girls’ Education And Child Marriage In Central Africa | Insights From Qualitative Fieldwork Part Ii: The Republic Of Congo, Jean-Christophe Boungou Bazika, Wolf Ulrich Mféré Akiana, Quentin Wodon

Journal of Global Catholicism

Child marriage is defined as a formal or informal union before the age of 18. As in much of sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of child marriage remains high in the Republic of Congo (RoC), in part because educational attainment for girls is low. Based on qualitative fieldwork, this article looks at communities’ perceptions of child marriage and girls’ education and their suggestions for programs and policies that could improve outcomes for girls. The article also discusses potential implications for Catholic and other faith-based schools, as well as faith leaders.

Girls’ Education And Child Marriage In Central Africa | Insights From Qualitative Fieldwork Part I: The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Geneviève Bagamboula Mayamona, Jean-Christophe Boungou Bazika, Quentin Wodon

Journal of Global Catholicism

Child marriage is defined as a formal or informal union before the age of 18. As in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of child marriage remains high in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in part because educational attainment for girls is too low. Based on qualitative fieldwork, this article looks at communities’ perceptions of child marriage and girls’ education and their suggestions for programs and policies that could improve outcomes for girls. The article also discusses potential implications for Catholic and other faith-based schools, as well as faith leaders.

The Parish Choir Movement And Generational Festivals In Romania’S Socialist Period: New Community Festivities In Transylvania’S Gheorgheni (Gyergyó) Region, Eszter Kovács

Journal of Global Catholicism

Among the post-1945 East European socialist regimes, Romania and Poland were the only countries where the Catholic Church—despite government interventions, controls, and bans—managed to play a significant social and political role in community life. This case study provides an ethnographic description of the parish choir movement and graduating class reunions, called “generational festivals” in Hungarian, in the Gheorgheni (Hu: Gyergyó) region in the 1970s and 1980s. The gatherings will be analyzed in the context of everyday life, the socialist system’s distinctive shortage economy, and official limits on religious activity that characterized the era. I will first describe the world of …

Overview & Acknowledgments, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

25 Years Of Garage Review – Music Documentary Falls Prey To The Same Mistakes That Killed The Scene, Monique Charles

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

"A host of veterans from the heyday of the UK’s garage scene (including Heartless Crew, Dane Bowers and members of So Solid Crew) star in 25 Years of Garage, a new documentary co-directed by former promoter Terry Stone.

As an academic who specialises in Black music and advocates for its serious intellectual study, I find it encouraging to see active members of the garage scene documenting the culture.

UK garage was a genre of electronic dance music, which peaked between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Incorporating elements of R&B, jungle and pop, its sound was marked by pitch-shifted vocal …

Chinese Celebrities’ Political Signaling On Weibo, Dan Chen, Gengsong Gao

Political Science Faculty Publications

In China, celebrities can dominate public discourse and shape popular culture, but they are under the state’s close gaze. Recent studies have revealed how the state disciplines and co-opts celebrities to promote patriotism, foster traditional values, and spread political propaganda. However, how do celebrities adapt to the changing political environment? Focusing on political signaling on Weibo, we analyze a novel dataset and find that the vast majority of top celebrities repost from official accounts of government agencies and state media outlets, though there are variations. Younger celebrities with more followers tend to repost from official accounts more. Celebrities from Taiwan …

Elucidating Evolutionary Principles With The Traditional Mosuo: Adaptive Benefits And Origins Of Matriliny And “Walking Marriages”, Jose C. Yong, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Mosuo, arguably the last surviving matrilineal society in China, offers interesting insights into kinship practices that support reproduction. In particular, the modes of courtship and reproduction of the traditional Mosuo revolve around a practice known as walking marriages, which involves no contract or obligations, where the men do not use social status or resources to court women, women do not expect commitment from men, and multiple sexual relationships are permitted for both sexes and seldom incite conflict. Children borne from walking marriages are cared for not so much by fathers but rather their mothers' brothers, and wealth and property …

Biopolitics And Belief: The Impacts Of Religious Attitudes On Reproductive Rights In The U.S., Katlyn Barbaccia

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade (1973)—a groundbreaking case that legalized the right to have an abortion—which signified a deep rift in the nation between the opinions of its lawmakers and citizens in the wake of a widening partisan gap. Biopower, according to Foucault, can be defined as the governing of bodies wherein citizens are stripped of bodily autonomy and are closely regulated by the nation-state. Manifested in political consequences, this can be defined as biopolitics, or when the nation-state’s ideas are made into a reality in the political realm. …

How Has Grandparenthood Changed In Rural China?, Merril D. Silverstein

Population Health Research Brief Series

China’s rapid modernization and development have led to changes across Chinese society, including within the family. China is experiencing declining birth rates, meaning that fewer older adults are becoming grandparents. At the same time, there has been growing demand for grandparents to serve as caregivers for their grandchildren. This data slice examines the changes in grandparenting in rural China and calls for policies that decrease caregiver burnout, stress, and associated poor health outcomes.

Predictors Of College Student Support Toward Colin Kaepernick’S National Anthem Protests, Brooke Coursen, Nicole Peiffer, Sakira Coleman, Philip Lucius

VA Engage Journal

Racial discrimination and inequality have perpetuated within the U.S. since its inception. In 2016, Colin Kaepernick initiated the national anthem protests to oppose the oppression of people of color in America. This study was developed in 2018 to identify social determinants of health underlying discriminatory beliefs and behaviors. The objective was to investigate the impacts of college students’ race, gender, political ideology, socio-economic status [SES], NFL interest, patriotism, and general protest support on support for the national anthem protests. We administered paper-and-pencil surveys across locations on the James Madison University campus using a convenience sample. There were 408 participants included, …

Prevention Of Child Sexual Abuse In South Africa: Assessing The Role Of Parents, Community Leaders, Educators, And Social Workers, Nosisa Mabetshe, Emeka E. Obioha, Ishmael Mugari, Elphina N. Cishe

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Child sexual abuse is a global problem and is prevalent in South Africa. Child sexual abuse significantly harms the victims. This study looked at child sexual abuse prevention, focusing on the community, school system, and social workers. A mixed methods research method was used. Data were collected from 115 questionnaire respondents, of which 15 in-depth interview participants were selected. The sample was selected using purposive sampling and stratified random sampling techniques. Low reporting of incidents is hindering the effective response to child sexual abuse. The study revealed the significant role parents and community members could play in preventing child sexual …

Black Voices And Perspectives On Portland's Black Lives Matter Protests With Shirley Jackson, Shirley A. Jackson

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORERS, Professor Shirley Jackson discusses research in which she examines how members of the Black community in the Portland metro region perceived the Black Lives Matter/George Floyd protests that took place during the summer of 2020. Jackson, a sociologist and expert in race, social movements, and gender, is interviewing members of the Black community in the metro region to better understand individual and community sentiments on issues including the government response to the Black Lives Matter protests, participation of whites in BLM protests, and "Defund the Police."

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio …

Tiempo Y Gubernamentalidad: Aproximaciones Al Gobierno Del Tiempo En El Neoliberalismo, Edwin Alexander Hernández Zapata, Mauricio Hernando Bedoya Hernández

The Qualitative Report

En este trabajo problematizamos los diagnósticos sobre gubernamentalidad neoliberal, analizando las formas en que hoy son dirigidas las conductas de los sujetos con base en ritmos caracterizados por la velocidad, el presentismo y la competencia. Estudiar estas formas marcan un precedente para el abordaje de los procesos de subjetivación contemporánea a partir de la analítica de la temporalidad. Así, la pregunta de investigación que guía este trabajo es la siguiente: ¿Cómo los diagnósticos sobre la racionalidad neoliberal describen la experiencia del tiempo que tienen los sujetos contemporáneos? Utilizamos el método histórico crítico, específicamente lo que Foucault denominó ontología del presente, …

Building Up A Culture Of Respect, Siow-Heng Ong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Recently, we have become more acutely aware of a variety of undesirable workplace circumstances and practices in Singapore. personal time; discriminatory workplace practices against members of various categories of minority groups; and bias against women staff.

The Influence Of Demographic Characteristics On Satisfaction With Adventure Tourism Experience, Tahir Albayrak

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Although the researchers extensively investigate white-water rafting as an adventure tourism type, little is known about the influence of participants’ demographic characteristics on the formation of rafting satisfaction. This study examines the influences of gender, marital status, age, and previous experience on overall satisfaction with the rafting experience by using data obtained from 319 German tourists, who participated in white-water rafting on holiday. Research results revealed that the respondents’ ages and previous experiences significantly contribute to their overall satisfactions with rafting experience. The findings of this study give comprehensive insights to scholars and practitioners targeting to identify white-water rafting participants’ …

Looking Beyond The 'Middle Class' For Other Chinas, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There are high hopes for China’s middle class. Thanks to their rising disposable income, this group of Chinese is expected to unleash a consumer revolution in the domestic market. However, I argue that the ‘middle class’ as a concept provides at best a partial understanding of the Chinese consumer population; at worst, it can even provide a misleading perspective that brings us to erroneous conclusions about its profile and size. Instead, I propose the notion of ‘three Chinas’ as an alternative way to make sense of China’s consumers. ‘First China’ comprises residents in medium and large-sized cities, ‘Second China’ consists …

Entramados Discursivos De Las Maternidades Contemporáneas A Través De Los Contextos Digitales, Catalina Echeverri Gallo, Nicolasa M. Durán Palacio

The Qualitative Report

Las narrativas sobre las maternidades heteronormativas son cada vez más debatidas en la contemporaneidad desde los escenarios digitales. A través de blogs en diferentes plataformas y sitios web, las mujeres comparten sus experiencias sobre, avatares, encuentros y desencuentros frente a una de las instituciones insignias del patriarcado: la maternidad. En estos espacios digitales, las madres blogueras y sus seguidoras crean redes de apoyo para tejer y entretejer sus sentidos, saberes, sentires y prácticas sobre las maternidades, más allá de la dominación patriarcal. Este texto deriva de una investigación doctoral que se sirvió de una etnografía digital con siete blogueras colombianas …

Predictors Of Enhancing Human Physical Attractiveness: Data From 93 Countries, Marta Kowal, Piotr Sorokowski, Katarzyna Pisanski, Jaroslava V. Valentova, Marco A.C. Varella, David A. Frederick, Laith Al-Shawaf, Felipe E. García, Isabella Giammusso, Biljana Gjoneska, Luca Kozma, Tobias Otterbring, Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Gerit Pfuhl, Sabrina Stöckli, Anna Studzinska, Ezgi Toplu-Demirtaş, Anna K. Touloumakos, Bence E. Bakos, Carlota Batres, Solenne Bonneterre, Johanna Czamanski-Cohen, Jovi C. Dacanay, Eliane Deschrijver, Maryanne L. Fisher, Caterina Grano, Dmitry Grigoryev, Pavol Kačmár, Mikhail V. Kozlov, Efisio Manunta, Karlijn Massar, Joseph P. Mcfall, Moises Mebarak, Maria Rosa Miccoli, Taciano L. Milfont, Pavol Prokop, Toivo Aavik, Patrícia Arriaga, Roberto Baiocco, Jiří Čeněk, Hakan Çetinkaya, Izzet Duyar, Farida Guemaz, Tatsunori Ishii, Julia A. Kamburidis, Hareesol Khun-Inkeeree, Linda H. Lidborg, Hagar Manor, Ravit Nussinson, Mohd Sofian B. Omar-Fauzee, Farid Pazhoohi, Koen Ponnet, Anabela Caetano Santos, Oksana Senyk, Ognen Spasovski, Mona Vintila, Austin H. Wang, Gyesook Yoo, Oulmann Zerhouni, Rizwana Amin, Sibele Aquino, Merve Boğa, Mahmoud Boussena, Ali R. Can, Seda Can, Rita Castro, Antonio Chirumbolo, Ogeday Çoker, Clément Cornec, Seda Dural, Stephanie J. Eder, Nasim Ghahraman Moharrampour, Simone Grassini, Evgeniya Hristova, Gözde Ikizer, Nicolas Kervyn, Mehmet Koyuncu, Yoshihiko Kunisato, Samuel Lins, Tetyana Mandzyk, Silvia Mari, Alan D.A. Mattiassi, Aybegum Memisoglu-Sanli, Mara Morelli, Felipe C. Novaes, Miriam Parise, Irena Pavela Banai, Mariia Perun, Nejc Plohl, Fatima Zahra Sahli, Dušana Šakan, Sanja Smojver-Azic, Çağlar Solak, Sinem Söylemez, Asako Toyama, Anna Wlodarczyk, Yuki Yamada, Beatriz Abad-Villaverde, Reza Afhami, Grace Akello, Nael H. Alami, Leyla Alma, Marios Argyrides, Derya Atamtürk, Nana Burduli, Sayra Cardona, João Carneiro, Andrea Castañeda, Izabela Chałatkiewicz, Wiliam J. Chopik, Dimitri Chubinidze, Daniel Conroy-Beam, Jorge Contreras-Garduño, Diana Ribeiro Da Silva, Yahya B. Don, Silvia Donato, Dmitrii Dubrov, Michaela Duračková, Sanjana Dutt, Samuel O. Ebimgbo, Ignacio Estevan, Edgardo Etchezahar, Peter Fedor, Feten Fekih-Romdhane, Tomasz Frackowiak, Katarzyna Galasinska, Łukasz Gargula, Benjamin Gelbart, Talia Gomez Yepes, Brahim Hamdaoui, Ivana Hromatko, Salome N. Itibi, Luna Jaforte, Steve M.J. Janssen, Marija Jovic, Kevin S. Kertechian, Farah Khan, Aleksander Kobylarek, Maida Koso-Drljevic, Anna Krasnodębska, Valerija Križanić, Miguel Landa-Blanco, Alvaro Mailhos, Tiago Marot, Tamara Martinac Dorcic, Martha Martinez-Banfi, Mat Rahimi Yusof, Marlon Mayorga-Lascano, Vita Mikuličiūtė, Katarina Mišetić

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from mating market and parasite stress perspectives, in a large cross-cultural sample. We also test hypotheses drawn from other influential and non-mutually exclusive theoretical frameworks, from biosocial role theory to a cultural media perspective. Survey data from 93,158 human participants across 93 countries provide evidence that behaviors such as applying makeup or using …

“A Life Of Ambiguity”: Lgbtqia Mixed-Race Experiences Of (In)Visibility, Alyssa Harmon

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Colombian Women’S Experiences Of The Canadian Refugee And Asylum Adjudication Process, Camila N. Parra Carrillo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present thesis “Colombian women’s experiences of the Canadian refugee and asylum adjudication process” is an ethnographic description and analysis of the experiences of Colombian refugee women as they move through the refugee and asylum adjudication system in Ontario, Canada. Using concepts such as liminality, politics of waiting, hermeneutics of suspicion and arbitrariness, the refugee and asylum adjudication system is shown to be a site of power and domination that creates negative emotions in the people who face it, especially in the oral hearing as a central event in the process. Centering Colombian refugee women’s voices, their experiences and emotions …

Spectral Analysis Of Multiscale Cultural Traits On Twitter, Chandler Squires, Nikhil Kunapuli, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Alfredo Morales

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Understanding and mapping the emergence and boundaries of cultural areas is a challenge for social sciences. In this paper, we present a method for analyzing the cultural composition of regions via Twitter hashtags. Cultures can be described as distinct combination of traits which we capture via principal component analysis (PCA). We investigate the top 8 PCA components of an area including France, Spain, and Portugal, in terms of the geographic distribution of their hashtag composition. We also discuss relationships between components and the insights those relationships can provide into the structure of a cultural space. Finally, we compare the spatial …