Inequality and Stratification Commons^™

"These Illegals": Personhood, Profit, And The Political Economy Of Punishment In Federal-Local Immigration Enforcement Partnerships, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

Contemporary popular discourse linking immigration and immigrants to crime has proved extremely difficult to dislodge, despite clear evidence that immigrant labor provides broad and direct economic benefits to a significant proportion of the US population. The criminalizing discourse directed at immigrants may in part be functional, by leading to restrictionist immigration policies and practices and subjecting immigrants to intensified economic exploitation.

This study examines the economic context in which state and local governments adopt restrictionist immigration policies and practices, and implicates the political economy of punishment (Rusche and Kirchheimer, Punishment and social structure. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939) …

Remarital Chances, Choices, And Economic Consequences: Issues Of Social And Personal Welfare, Kevin Shafer, Todd M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

Many divorced women experience a significant decline financial, social, physical and psychological well-being following a divorce. Using data from the NLSY79 (n = 2,520) we compare welfare recipients, mothers, and impoverished women to less marginalized divorcees on remarriage chances. Furthermore, we look at the kinds of men these women marry by focusing on the employment and education of new spouses. Finally, we address how remarriage and spousal quality (as defined by education and employment) impact economic well-being after divorce. Our results show that remarriage has positive economic effects, but that is dependent upon spousal quality. However, such matches are …

Evaluating Rawls: Equality In The Family, Devan Griffith

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

This paper examines the latest developments in feminist critiques of the seminal Theory of Justice, written by John Rawls, the late preeminent American moral philosopher. Rawls is recognized as one of the most influential moral political philosophers of the twentieth century and is increasingly relevant because of his discussions on pluralist societies. With the current diverging of liberal, conservative and libertarian philosophies among Americans, as well as the fragmentation of parties to accommodate an increasingly diverse public, a clear philosophy and understanding of liberal theory is necessary for its future in American politics. The current pressure to address the needs …

Women's Mobilization In Latin America: A Case Study Of Venezuela, Brianna Russell

Master's Theses

Abstract

I examine the following elements in regards to women’s mobilization in Latin America and Venezuela from the late 1950s to the present: (a) the influence of the state and economy on times when women mobilized (b) class division within the movement (c) women’s demands during different time periods (d) the ways in which women were successful in working towards gender equality. This thesis reviews the literature on women’s mobilization in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. I find that women mobilized across class lines with the masses to end dictatorships. Women demobilized during transitions to …

Re-Evaluating Peacebuilding In The Democratic Republic Of Congo: A Case Study In Dongo, Wilita Sanguma

Master's Theses

Re-evaluating Peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A case study in Dongo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo) is a country rich with natural resources centered in the heart of Africa. Since the colonial era, the country has seen more bloodshed than peace and development. From 1996 to 2003, Congo experienced the worst conflict since World War II, with over six million people dead. Despite having the largest United Nations peacekeeping troops present; Congo continues to be plagued by violence. This research thesis argues that the international community failed to promote a lasting peace in Congo because the international …

The Globalization Of Cosmetic Surgery: Examining Bric And Beyond, Lauren E. Riggs

Master's Theses

What is driving the globalization of cosmetic surgery? Using BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries as a model, this master's thesis systematically identifies and analyzes (1) the origins of cosmetic surgery in historical, regional, and country-specific terms, and (2) examples of how cosmetic surgery has become normalized. As a result, clear patterns emerge in regards to: embedded power structures related to racism and war; the results of Western interests rapidly opening countries’ markets to high media and corporate influence—especially in the wake of political oppression and austerity; the exacerbation of pre-existing class, color, race, and gender prejudice by hyper-consumerism; the …

World Hunger, Keegan Flanigan, Garrett Cruz

Anthropology 100: Feast and Famine In a Global World Poster Assignment

U.S. to Mauritania Comparisons

• 40% of food processed in the United States is thrown away
• 1.3 billion tons of food, more than 1/3 of the world's food production is lost or wasted annually.
• If food waste in the United States was reduced by 15%, the amount of food could feed 25 million people (five times the population of Mauritania) for a year.

Hunger In America, Kamay Tu

Anthropology 100: Feast and Famine In a Global World Poster Assignment

Hunger in America is becoming more and more an issue. Although the advance from hunting and gathering to farming and agriculture should solve this issue, it hasn't. The question is why?

The Flow Of Water, Power, And Ideas: Water Commodification In Cape Town, South Africa And The Stratified Experiences Of Time And Space Compression, Jenna Washburn

Master's Theses

I use the neoliberalization of the water sector in Cape Town, South Africa in order to test my theory of unequal development. I assert that the neoliberal economic practices of water commodification, business-friendly tariff policies, and prepaid management devices keep people along the periphery from accessing water, power, and ideas – thus causing a stratification of time and space compression between the core and the periphery.

By painting a theoretical picture of world cities, I wish to complicate the dominant views of time/space compression and suggest that, much like development and arguably because of it, time and space compression actually …

Is There More To Food Insecurity Among Children Than Poverty? The Importance Of Measurement, Neeraj Kaushal, Jane Waldfogel, Irwin Garfinkel, Vanessa Wight

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper examines the association between poverty and food insecurity among children using the official measure of poverty and the newsupplemental poverty measure of the Census Bureau based on a more inclusive definition of family resources and needs. Our objective is to study whether the association between food insecurity and poverty improves with a more comprehensive measure of income and needs. We find a strong and statistically significant association between income-to-needs ratio based on the official poverty metric and food insecurity among children—particularly very low food security among children. A more inclusive measure of income-to-needs-ratio, based on the supplemental poverty …

Does Economic Decline Contribute To A Decline In Children’S Food Security?, Kimberly Groover, Bradford Mills, George Davis

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Most Americans believe that children should not experience persistent worry about the quality or quantity of food consumed due to low household resources. Since 1995, the USDA has tracked children’s food security based upon household responses to the annual Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS). During this time, a small, but recently growing, share of U.S. households report multiple indicators of reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns among children due to inadequate resources to obtain food (Coleman- Jenson et al, 2012). The USDA classifies children as food secure, low food secure, or very low food secure based upon …

The Institutionalization Of Minority Students In Education, Andrea P. Garibay

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Social Ties, Social Support, And Collective Efficacy Among Families From Public Housing In Chicago And Baltimore, Rebecca Joyce Kissane, Susan Clampet-Lundquist

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores the social ties and capital of women relocating to low-poverty neighborhoods through the Moving to Opportunity program and a "regular mover" group who did not. Findings suggest the low-poverty movers seldom made close ties in their new neighborhoods; they also had fewer childhood friends and exchanged less support than the regular movers. Many, however, welcomed escaping the constant exchange that characterized their former neighborhoods and moved to areas higher in collective efficacy--experiencing neighborhoods rated high in child supervision, facing less conflictual relations with neighbors, and exhibiting greater trust in others-relative to the regular movers.

Social And Adversarial Varieties Of Democracy: Which Produces Fewer Criminals?, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article explores the relationship between two prominent varieties of democracy and the size of a country’s prison population. Theoretically, it proposes that social democracies increase social and economic equality which reduces both the “demand for crime” and the number of criminals. Adversarial democracies, on the other hand, generate higher levels of inequality and insecurity that lead to higher levels of crime. Utilizing a structured, focused comparison of Nordic social democracies and Anglo-American adversarial democracies complemented by cross-sectional multiple regression analysis of twenty industrialized democracies, I find empirical support for both of these conjectures. A major implication of this study …

Torch (November/December 2012), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Multigenerational Families And Food Insecurity, James P. Ziliak, Craig Gundersen

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The prevalence of multigenerational families is on the rise in the United States, as is food insecurity. We estimate the effect of resident grandchildren on the risk of and transitions in food insecurity using repeated cross sections and longitudinally linked two-year panels of the Current Population Survey from 2001-2010. We find that rates of food insecurity in families with a grandchild present are at least twice as high in a typical year compared to families without a resident grandchild, and the extent of very low food security increased substantially faster among these households over the past decade. The rise in …

The Delimitation Of Corporate Social Responsibility: Upstream, Downstream, And Historic Csr, Judith Schrempf-Stirling

Management Faculty Publications

The dissertation abstract and the reflection commentary present the work of Judith Schrempf. The dissertation examines the latest trends in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and advances a social connection approach to CSR to understand and explain those recent trends. The dissertation abstract provides an overview of the research questions and conclusions of the three-article dissertation. The reflection commentary discusses the author’s views of research process as a junior scholar (see Appendix).

How Do Latino Groups Fare In A Changing Economy? Occupation In Latino Groups In The Greater New York City Area, 1980-2009, Stephen Ruszczyk

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic factors of racial/ethnic groups in New York City between 1980 and 2009 – particularly the Latino population.

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: Trends from 1990 continued in 2000, with numbers of Puerto Ricans in production dropping to only 14% of that group. More than a fifth of Puerto Ricans worked in management and professional …

Utilization Of Preventative Health Services By Nevadans With Disabilities, Jennifer R. Pharr, Sheniz Moonie

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Health disparities are differences in access to health care, quality of health care and health outcomes observed between population-specific groups of people (Health Resources and Services Administration, 2000). Previous research has found that people with disabilities experience unequal access to preventative health care services. The purpose of this study was to conduct a secondary data analysis using data from the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to determine differences in utilization of preventative health services between adults with and without disabilities in Nevada. Nevadans with disabilities were significantly more likely to have access to health insurance and to have …

Food Insecurity Across The First Five Years: Triggers Of Onset And Exit, Alison Jacknowitz, Taryn W. Morrissey

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Very low food security among young children is associated with developmental deficiencies. However, little is known about the factors that predict entry into or exit from very low food security during early childhood. This study seeks to: (1) Understand the triggers that explain movements into or out of very low food security among children from birth to age five; (2) Examine the first aim using different definitions of food insecurity. The analysis relies on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a longitudinal, nationally representative dataset of approximately 10,700 children, to estimate linear probability models. Results suggest that residential moves …