Sociology of Culture Commons^™

“All Things Considered”: A Comparative Case Study Examining The Commercial Presence Within Public Radio, Peter P. Nieckarz Iii

Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the commercial presence within public radio. A case study of three NPR affiliate stations was conducted to determine to what extent public radio is being influenced or compromised by increased commercial rationality. It also addresses how they have been able to resist commercialism and remain true to the original ideals of public radio. The research included active interviews, observations, and document analyses of data collected from field research at each o f the three stations in the sample. Analysis of the data indicates that public radio stations have grown more commercial due to declining tax-based subsidies, and …

Building “A Home Of Our Own:” The Construction Of The Lesbian Herstory Archives, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

This article traces the founding of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in the context of radical archiving and lesbian institution building. It includes an outline of problems presented by "extra-legal" or outlaw material in archival settings. Discussion of the New York Public Library's Becoming Visible exhibit reflects the 1990s growth of mainstream institutional interest in gay, lesbian, and transgender archives, and the complications this interest presents.

A Study Of Ideological Change In Reggae Music From 1971 To 1993, William H. Stanley

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to see if the reggae music that became popular in the United States was ideologically different from the reggae that originated in Jamaica. The hypothesized change was derived from a model developed by Humphrey Regis (1994, 1988) labeled “cultural domination by re-exportation”. It was determined that early reggae music and the Rastafarian religion had very similar ideologies. The change within reggae music was measured against the Rastafarian belief system.

A content analysis of twenty-five songs was undertaken. The method of doing ideological analysis of the reggae lyrics was derived from Cormack (1992). The sample …

Popular Music In A Transnational World: The Construction Of Local Identities In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As an area of geographical inquiry, popular music has not been explored to any large extent. Where writings exist, they have been somewhat divorced from recent theoretical and methodological questions that have rejuvenated social and cultural geography. In this paper, I focus on one arena which geographers can develop in their analysis of popular music, namely, the exploration of local influences and global forces in the production of music. In so doing, I wish to explore how local resources intersect with global ones in a process of transculturation. Using the example of English songs by one particular songwriter and artiste …

Seducing America: Is Gambling A Good Bet?, Rex M. Rogers

Alumni Book Gallery

In Seducing America, Rex Rogers stirs Christians into action with heart wrenching true stories of lives destroyed by the "acceptable addiction" of gambling. He provides a biblical analysis and hard-hitting look at legalized gambling's effects on America's social, cultural, and political welfare.

Jane Addams On Autonomy And Responsibility, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Addams understands autonomy and responsibility from the perspective of American pragmatism. Like her collaborator and friend, John Dewey, Addams believes one ascertains an idea's meaning and truth by applying it in practice. Hull House was founded explicitly as a pragmatist test for her ideas on ethics and social change (Lagemann 1994, 77).

Verifying philosophical ideas rests on two methodological prerequisites: concrete experience and sympathetic understanding. Addams repeatedly stresses how emotions serve as the starting point for ethical change, although they need to be cultivated and guided by experience and reason. In addressing social problems, Hull House residents first gathered statistics …

Creating And Measuring Media Literacy : A Case Study, Darin M. Johnson

Graduate Research Papers

Seven years later, I stood before high school students in Ames, Iowa, with the proposition that we study media as a collection of cultural artifacts. Behind many of our discussions was the assumption that media convey values and that these values influence our personal values. What was missing from my instruction was an organizational structure that would help students see the necessary patterns, methods and stereotypes in order to better comprehend the values in these messages.

After a summer of contemplation, I decided thematic instruction would most naturally allow us to examine important media while capstoning themes from the required …

Ideology, Social Commentary And Resistance In Popular Music: A Case Study Of Singapore, Phua Siew Chye, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Popular music as a site of struggles over meaning is focused upon, where the social and political relations between different groups in Singapore society are mirrored. How ruling elites and everyday people make use of the same cultural form--popular music--for different purposes is examined.

The Cross-Cultural Use Of Sexually Explicit Language To Express Anger And Aggression, Deanna May

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Freud postulated that the instincts of sex and aggression are fused. One possible example of the expression of this fusion is the use of sexually explicit language to convey anger and aggression. If this usage is universal, then it may be construed as evidence for Freud's theory. The present study attempted to determine the pervasiveness of the use of sexually explicit language to express anger and aggression (SEL). Thirty-one epresentatives of languages other than American English completed questionnaires detailing the use of SEL in their native cultures. Results indicated that 28 of the respondents reported use of SEL in their …

Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Formalist critics and aestheticians have argued that music does not possess any kind of "extra-musical" significance, that there is no meaning beyond the form and structural relations of the notes. For them, music exemplifies the laws of mathematical harmony and proportion rather than the social and political contexts within which it is produced, reproduced and consumed. This view has been challenged by a number of social theorists: Max Weber, Theodor Adorno and Edward Said have all argued for an understanding of music within its social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Such analysis of popular music is now unquestioned. Indeed, it …

Popular Music And A Sense Of Place In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper illustrates how popular music written, produced, and performed by Singaporeans provides a means through which the culture and society of Singapore may be understood. Music with English language text conveys a sense of place and reflects a distinctively Singaporean spirit and identity. The paper examines four themes: the portrayal of Singapore's multiracial population which reflects a unique cultural synthesis; the Singaporeans' concept of urbanity, manifested as the simultaneous attraction and repulsion towards the city and the desire for nature and the rustic; the distinctive social engineering in Singapore; and the way in which global issues are imported into …

Music And Cultural Politics: Ideology And Resistance In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper focuses on popular music written and produced by Singaporeans to illustrate the nature of social relationships based on ideological hegemony and resistance. Analysis is based on two groups of music: 'national' songs supported by the government in the 'Sing Singapore' programme; and songs brought together in Not the Singapore song book. Interviews with local lyricists and analysis of video productions provide supplementary information. Music is used by the ruling elite to perpetuate certain ideologies aimed at political socialization and to inculcate a civil religion that directs favour and fervour towards the nation. Music is also a form of …

Vilifying The Enemy: The Christian Right And The Novels Of Frank Peretti, Jay R. Howard

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Peretti's novels provide a clear statement of the worldview of conservative Christians who hold the Bible to be literally true and without error. Not only is the reader presented with doctrinal positions, but the implications of those positions for life in modern society are spelled out as well. In this essay, I analyze Peretti's views of the modern world, its heroes and villains, and argue they are representative of the views of the New Christian Right (Liebman and Wuthnow) in the late 1980s and the 1990s.

Book Review, Suzanne B. Watson

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Review of the book: HELENA SZEJNWALD BROWN, ET AL., CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTALISM IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY: SOCIETAL VALUES IN INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER. (Quorum Books 1993) [264 pp.] Acknowledgments, bibliography, figures, index, tables. LC 92- 19851; ISBN: 0-89930-802-3. [$49.95. P.O. Box 5007, Westport CT 06881.]

Sericulture, Silk And South Union Shakers, Donna C. Parker, Jonathan J. Jeffrey

SCL Faculty and Staff Publications

Kentucky Shakers were particularly adept at the process of producing silk. Kentucky's temperate climate was conducive to mulberry tree cultivation and sericulture, the raising of silkworms. South Union Sisters hatched and grew silkworms to harvest the delicate silk fibers they used in the manufacture of kerchiefs, neckwear, hat bands, bonnets, and sewing silk. Occasionally entire garments such as dresses were made from the luxurious silk.

Genocide In Our Time : An Annotated Bibliography With Analytical Introductions, Michael N. Dobkowski, Isidor Wallimann, Alison Palmer, Alan Rosenberg, Evelyn Silverman, Sidney M. Bolkosky, Agi Rubin, Rouben Adalian, Lyman H. Legters, Eric Markusen, Israel W. Charny

Books

Genocide is a modern term whereby groups of people are killed on the basis of their religion, race, ethnicity, or nationality. This book suggest that modernity and the tremendous social differentiation that is a part of our modern world may, in part, be to blame. The authors examine textbook 20^th century horrors: from the massacre of the Armenians, to the planned famine in the Ukraine, to the Holocaust, and links of modern warfare to genocide. By studying cases of genocide, the authors hope to inform and connect to all other efforts to understand and to prevent the mass destruction …

Contemporary Christian Music: Where Rock Meets Religion, Jay R. Howard

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

...In the midst of this controversial relationship between rock music and religious messages, and as a response to a feeling of being "locked out" of the secular music industry, there has been a burgeoning Christian recording industry using rock music, known as Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). CCM involves the pairing of a Gospel message or Christian worldview with popular forms of rock music...

A Cross-Cultural Study Of The Collectivism-Individualism Paradigm: The Influence Of Confucian Values On The Conflict-Handling Behavior Of Male Graduate Business Students In Hong Kong And The United States, Randy Ki-Kwan Chiu

Dissertations

Problem. The Collectivism-Individualism literature argues that there is a difference in the way that Americans and the Chinese handle conflict based on differences in culture. It is also speculated that these differences have been influenced by Confucian values. However, these positions have not been conclusively supported by empirical findings.

Method. Both the Chinese Value Survey and Thomas and Kilmann's Management-of-Differences Exercise were administered to 124 U.S. White American graduate business students and 142 Hong Kong Chinese graduate business students. Three null hypotheses were formulated. These hypotheses stated that there is no linear combination of Integration, Human-heartedness, Confucian work dynamism, and …

Commentary: Honor And Martialism In The U.S. South And Prussian East Elbia During The Mid-Nineteenth Century, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

A commentary of Shearer Davis Bowman's essay on Honor and Martialism in the U.S. and Prussian East Elbia during the Mid-Nineteenth Century.

"Without a second and unarmed, I have no inclination to offer a fundamental challenge to Professor Bowman's argument or his character. In fact, he has served us well by focusing on honor, martialism, and dueling as indices of comparison between the antebellum planters and the pre-1848 Junkers. I would like to build on the wealth of detail he has provided to help clarify the larger comparison between the South and Prussia."

Variation Procedures In Northern Ewe Song, V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

The major organizational principle of Northern Ewe song is one shared by numerous African, Oriental, and European musical traditions: a small number of models (variously described as "basic shapes," "archetypes," "background structures," "basic designs," "core patterns," "deep structures") is transformed in a wide variety of ways during performance. Variation takes place on different hierarchic levels both within and between songs and includes practically all of a song's dimensions (rhythm, interval, register, contour, harmony, and so on). This principle, although widely demonstrated in the literature on African song (see, among others, Jones 1976; Kauffman 1984; Schmidt 1984; and Erlmann 1985), is …

Culture: From The Garden To The City, John Struyk

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Cultural Diversity, Dallas Apol

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

A Cluster Analytic Study In Intercultural Communication Of Rokeach's Intrumental Values Among Lds Returned Missionaries, Lisa Bradford

Theses and Dissertations

Although much has been done in the study of values several important questions relative to the study of values remain. This thesis discusses the questions of what happens to the value systems of those who leave their culture for extended periods of time, do the perceptions of value systems become more accurate after exposure, and how does religiosity affect value systems.

The study was based on the idea that each of the cultures being tested (Latin and United States) had a distinct, general value system which differentiated it from the other and yet unified the individuals within it. In this …

Judi Thompson's Review Of Joan Abramson's Photographers Of Old Hawaii And Rick Golt's Hawai'i Hawai'i, Judi Thompson

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

The Degree Of Acculturation And Success Patterns In Three Generations Of The Japanese Americans In The Portland Area, Toshimasa Fujii

Dissertations and Theses

Past research shows that Japanese Americans have been successful occupationally, financially and educationally. This thesis examines factors leading to this success. It is generally argued that the greater the congruence between minority and majority value systems, the less likely conflict would be generated in the minority group's acculturation. There appear to be two opposed aspects in the acculturation of the Japanese Americans, relinquishment or retention of traditional Japanese values. Also important is the degree to which Japanese Americans identify themselves as American, or Japanese, or some mixture. This thesis focuses on the following questions: What types of values have been …

The Maine Indian Land Claims Case: Pro And Con, Joseph Pecoraro

Maine Collection

The Maine Indian Land Claims Case: Pro and Con / Materials compiled by Dr. Joseph Pecoraro, curriculum consultant, State Department of Educational and Cultural Services, 1979.

"This is a collection of articles taken from The Church World dealing with the Maine Indian Land Claim issue."

Fandom Is A Way Of Life: A Folkloristic Ethnography Of Science Fiction Fandom, David Axler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A science fiction (“sf”) fan is an individual whose interest in this literary genre has extended past reading into involvement in such things as local science fiction clubs, fan magazines (“fanzines”), and sf conventions (“cons”). Science fiction fandom is the loosely-structured, geographically-dispersed organization of these fans. Drawing on both written sources and field interviews with eight informants, the history, composition and structure of sf fandom is examined from a folkloristic viewpoint. The forms of folklore which serve to bind the individual fan to the larger social entity of fandom are detailed.

Despite its literary orientation, fandom is primarily a social …

Ua62/7 Archaeological Survey Of Proposed Realignment Of Highway 119, Harlan & Letcher Counties, Kentucky, Gary Foster, Jack Schock

WKU Administration Documents

Archaeological Survey Report No. 4 created by WKU Sociology & Anthropology prior to realignment of Highway 119.

Ua68/10/1 Sociological Symposium No. 7 – Childhood Life Cycle Series, Wku Sociology

WKU Administration Documents

Table of Contents:

• Bachelor, David L. & Rosalie S. Donofrio. Poor Children: Images & Interpretations
• Birenbaum, Arnold. The Recognition & Acceptance of Stigma
• Denzin, Norman K. Childhood as Conversation of Gestures
• Miller, James Jr. A Comparison of Racial Preference in Young Black & Mexican American Children
• Rath, Robert A. & Douglas J. McDowell. Coming Up Hip: Child Rearing Perspectives & Life Style Values Among Counter Culture Families
• Thomas, Darwin L. & James M. Calonico. Birth Order & Family Sociology: A Reassessment

"Opening Remarks And Responses To Questions From The Audience", Edmund S. Muskie

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.