Sociology of Culture Commons^™

Diversity Plan: Academic Year 2017/2018 Status Report, Illinois Mathematics Amd Science Academy

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Resources

Below are some highlights of IMSA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work, Academic Year 2017-2018:

• Created Equity and Excellence Policy based on a model of Inclusive Excellence that is now board approved.
• Developed Diverse Fellows program, to be piloted Academic Year 2018-2019.
• Created Diversifying STEM Equity Model.
• Implemented “I am not racist, am I” e-learning curriculum, film and discussion with all juniors, n = 20; 50 faculty/staff were trained to facilitate discussions.
• Conducted a train-the-trainer Safe Zone workshop for 27 faculty/staff, which led to the creation of 68 safe spaces.
• Rolled out Live-Safe app, which promotes student safety and can be …

Effects Of Cultural Tightness-Looseness And Social Network Density On Expression Of Positive And Negative Emotions: A Large-Scale Study Of Impression Management By Facebook Users, Pan Liu, David Chan, Lin Qiu, William Tov, Victor Joo Chuan Tong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Using data from 13,789 Facebook users across U.S. states, this study examined the main effects of societal-level cultural tightness–looseness and its interaction effects with individuals’ social network density on impression management (IM) in terms of online emotional expression. Results showed that individuals from culturally tight (vs. loose) states were more likely to express positive emotions and less likely to express negative emotions. Meanwhile, for positive emotional expression, there was a tightness–looseness by social network density interaction effect. In culturally tight states, individuals with dense (vs. sparse) networks were more likely to express positive emotions, while in culturally loose states this …

P-06 Faith, Hope And Love: An Integrated Conceptual Framework For Examining Religious Outcomes In A Global Church, Karl G. D. Bailey, Duane C. Mcbride, Shannon M. Trecartin

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

The 2017-18 Global Church Member Survey conducted by the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is designed to assess the quinquennial Church Strategic Plan (2015-2020). In designing this survey, we considered a variety of theoretical frameworks that could explain relationships between the target outcomes in the Strategic Plan. The resulting novel theoretical framework is based on Biblical principles and an integration of a number of frameworks in the social sciences: motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2008; Greenberg, Solomon, & Arndt, 2008; Koole, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2006; Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Goldenberg, 2003; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and hope (Bernardo, 2010; Snyder, …

Cultural Variations And Socio-Ecocultural Understanding On Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Awang Rozaimie

The Qualitative Report

Cross-cultural adaptation is a challenging process while sojourning abroad. The inability to understand cultural variation triggers psychological, physical or behavioral difficulties and maladjustment or misunderstanding. Socio-ecocultural underestimation is the root of intercultural resistance, stereotyping, ethnocentrism and racist sentiments among sojourners. Most of the cross-cultural adjustment studies have quantitatively demonstrated factors and predictors of adaptation success. However, the specific forms of cultural variation that impacted sojourning adaptability is blindly explained. Hence, this phenomenological paper autoethnographically observed the socio-ecocultural environment while sojourning in New Zealand. The findings highlighted that cultural awareness and sensitivity assist sojourner’s cross-cultural adaptability due to the socio-ecocultural variation.

The Intentional De-Cohesion In Deportability, Talha Issevenler

Publications and Research

A critical exploration of loss or decohesion of political agency in deportability.

La Tierra Aquí Es Amable: Soil Macrofauna Density And Producer Perceptions Of Agricultural Soil Fertility In Cerro Punta, Chiriquí, Clara Fernandez Odell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ethnopedology, as a subfield of ethnoecology, is the study of localized symbols and values, knowledge, and practices relating to soils. One key framework for ethnopedological studies is the Kosmos-Corpus-Praxis model, which synthesizes local and traditional ecological into three overlapping, interrelated spheres. Cerro Punta, Chiriquí is the primary vegetable-growing region in Panama, an industry highly dependent on the region’s fertile volcanic soils. Semi-structured interviews (n=8) and soil macrofauna density surveys as an indicator of soil fertility (n=9) were used to gather information regarding producers’ beliefs, knowledge, and decisions about soil fertility.

Among producers in Cerro Punta, religious beliefs and land symbolism …

Sustainable Tourism Practices In Vietnam: The Influence Of Institutions And Case Study Of Sapa’S Growing Tourism Industry, Alexandria Cahill

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As tourism becomes increasingly important to Vietnam’s economy, and subsequently the development of the country, it will become ever more critical to examine the impact of tourism, including both the positive and negative consequences. The intention of this paper is to continue the analysis of the tourism industry in Vietnam; in particular, this paper considers sustainable tourism, which can be defined as minimizing impact on local culture and environment while simultaneously resulting in economic gains and employment, all while operating in a way that can be continued in the future. As Vietnam is rich in diverse cultures and natural landscapes, …

Rebuilding Tunisia, One Artist At A Time, Caitlin Kelley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper argues that Tunisia’s engaged artists are playing a key role in the development of Tunisian civil society and democracy. The bulk of the research is in the form of interviews with five Tunisian artists. Each artist is actively engaged in the project of building a stronger, more democratic society. Through their art, they exercise and protect the political rights won in the 2011 revolution. These artists resist censorship, powerfully and loudly exercise their right to free speech, and help Tunisian society envision a better future for itself. The five artists interviewed for this research represent the type of …

Women’S Movement: Traveling Nepal, Shaelyn Mchugh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Nepal is a country formed by the highest peaks in the world, numerous unique cultures and ethnicities, religious pilgrimage sites for both Buddhist and Hindus, and more festivals than days in the year. For Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2017, Nepal was deemed the world’s “Best Value Destination”. Tourism plays a vital role in Nepal’s economy, but its inds is heavily aimed towards the international market. Nepalis in the hospitality industry, scholars, and economists have argued that domestic tourism could be a key component for overall socioeconomic and cultural changes in their society1.

There has been a surge of domestic …

Think Outside: Exploring The Influence Of Nature On The Individual And Of The Individual On Society, Brielle Wells

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This video project has an overarching goal to question the influence the natural environment has on the development of individual people and society as a whole. It begins by looking into the important role played by creativity in societal and economic development. From here a brief background is given on the requirements of maintaining and producing a creative environment. The piece alludes to the possibility that a relationship with nature has a deeper meaning than just being conducive to creativity. It also shows the effects pollution has had on the work of local artists and briefly the challenges faced by …

Something Old, Something New: Historicizing Same-Sex Marriage Within Ongoing Struggles Over African Marriage In South Africa, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

This article examines contemporary struggles over same-sex marriage in the daily lives of black lesbian- and gay-identified South Africans. Based primarily on 21 in-depth interviews with such South Africans drawn from a larger project on post-apartheid South African marriage, the author argues that their current struggles for relationship recognition share much in common with contemporaneous struggles of their heterosexual counterparts, and that these commonalities reflect ongoing tensions between more extended-family and more dyadic understandings of African marriage. The increasing influence of dyadic understandings of marriage, and of associated ideals of romantic love, has helped inspire same-sex marriage claims and, in …

Mda As A Research Method Of Generic Musical Analysis For The Social Sciences: Sifting Through Grime (Music) As An Sft Case Study, Monique Charles

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Using Grime as a case study, I employ the analytical framework I created, that is, Musicological Discourse Analysis (MDA) as a holistic mode of analysis to contextualize Grime sociologically and musicologically. This method retheorizes genre, providing a more specific, useful, and detailed musical classification system; the sonic footprint timestamp (SFT). The MDA framework provides a generic mode of musical analysis for research projects in sociology, cultural studies, and the social sciences fields. This article evaluates key musical influences in the evolution of Grime as both (i) a musical form and (ii) an analysis of influences in relation to its social …

Woven Narratives From Tsum Valley: Reconfiguring Local, Erica Gibble

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tsum Valley is on the border between Nepal and Tibet. It exists as a border land and a trekking trail and a home. Despite its label as a “Hidden Himalayan Valley,” Tsum is currently undergoing changes that make it increasingly connected to the globalized world. I set out to study and learn weaving in Tsum. I dispersed within my account of learning the craft with scenes from everyday life to better understand how weaving and production of the chu pa fits into work, family, economy and community. For my study I stayed in one home in Lamaguan, Upper Tsum to …

Exploring The Space Between Healers: A Narrative Approach To Understanding The Relationship Between Traditional Healers And Biomedical Practitioners In Kwazulu-Natal, Marisa Delsignore

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Despite playing essential and parallel roles in the lives of patients, there exists a frictional, imbalanced relationship between traditional healers and Western doctors in South Africa. While national policy encourages a seamless system rooted in both Western science and indigenous knowledge, biomedical institutions are hesitant to accept traditional medical practices, which are based on less tangible and more spiritually-oriented elements. This research project turns to these two ideologically different entities to assess their perspectives on the roles of themselves and the other within the context of the South African health system.

Responses from semi-structured interviews with seven health practitioners from …

Who And What Is Amazigh? Self-Assertion, Erasure, And Standardization, Alexis Colon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research focuses on the identity of the indigenous peoples of Morocco, or the Amazigh. While this culture has endured different iterations of colonization, self-assertion and activism in favor of preserving culture and improving conditions for Amazigh can often be viewed as controversial to the elites of Morocco. This controversy, however, does not stop Moroccans from proclaiming their Amazigh background or portraying their culture. This paper aims to describe qualitative data taken from numerous interviews on the subject of self-identification of Amazigh and different hopes and expectations for the continuation of the language and culture of Amazigh among common peoples.

Examinando La Relación Entre El Ecoturismo Y La Migración En La Nevería, Pueblos Mancomunados, Oaxaca / Examining The Relationship Between Ecotourism And Migration In La Nevería, Pueblos Mancomunados, Oaxaca, Thomas Canny

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Los proyectos ecoturísticos en los Pueblos Mancomunados de la Sierra Norte de Oaxaca son un ejemplo de organización comunitaria para disminuir la emigración y mejorar la calidad de vida. Esta investigación intenta de analizar los cambios en el fenómeno migratorio del pequeño pueblo de La Nevería por medio de entrevistas personales con pobladores, y trazando la historia del proyecto ecoturístico que han implementado en su comunidad.

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The ecotourism projects in the Mancomunados Towns of the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca are an example of community organization to reduce emigration and improve the quality of life. This research tries to analyze …

The Making Of A Construct: Lessons From 30 Years Of The Kogut And Singh Cultural Distance Index, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Gokhan Ertug, Pursey Pmar M.A.R. Heugens, Bruce Kogut, Tengjian Zou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The 30-year anniversary of Kogut and Singh’s (1988) groundbreaking study that introduced the concept of cultural distance and its accompanying measure provides the opportunity to take stock of what makes for a good construct. We organize our discussion around the issues of concept, algorithm, and data to clarify and gauge their contribution, before highlighting the impact of their work more generally. Many of the challenges raised by critical observers focus on one of these three dimensions. As there is value in looking systematically at the construct from concept to data, we set out the argument of the index and discuss …

Uphill Struggle: Impediments And Facilitators To Porter Health In The Khumbu Region, Nate Barott

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The surge of Nepal’s tourism industry has resulted in new waves of tourists visiting popular trekking areas such as the northern Khumbu region of the Solukhumbu District. One effect of this growing industry has been the increased prominence of porters in the area. Coming mostly from lowlands south of the Khumbu, porters are composed mainly of young individuals looking to make a career in the enticing business of trekking and mountaineering tourism. The current status of porter health in Solukhumbu is poor. Many ailments exist to physical and social well-being, and social segregation, incentives to carry heavier loads and a …

Honor And Violence: An Account Of Feuds, Duels, And Honor Killings, John Thrasher, Toby Handfield

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

We present a theory of honor violence as a form of costly signaling. Two types of honor violence are identified: revenge and purification. Both types are amenable to a signaling analysis whereby the violent behavior is a signal that can be used by out-groups to draw inferences about the nature of the signaling group, thereby helping to solve perennial problems of social cooperation: deterrence and assurance. The analysis shows that apparently gratuitous acts of violence can be part of a system of norms that are Pareto superior to alternatives without such signals. For societies that lack mechanisms of governance to …

Anti-Queer Microaggressions Towards Queer Black Men, Camisha D. Fagan, Anna Smedley-López

McNair Poster Presentations

Microaggressions are reoccurring derogatory messages that degrade and/ or discredit one’s identity. While invisible and unknown to many, they remain visible and apparent to those impacted by them. The research questions for this project are: (1) What microaggressions do Queer Black men experience within larger society? (2) To contrast with larger society, what microaggressions do Queer Black men experience within Black communities? By conducting focus groups, I will examine the intersectional microaggressions that Queer Black males experience in their own community, as well as document microaggression that they experience in larger society. After conducting my focus groups, I will be …