Sociology of Culture Commons^™

Should Sociology Care About Theories Of Human Nature?: Some Durkheimian Considerations On The ‘Social’ Individual, Michael W. Raphael

Graduate Student Publications and Research

Theories of human nature underlie major positions not only in social science but also in the public sphere and its relationship to inequality. When it comes to Durkheim, his theory of human nature is often confused with his critiques of intellectual individualism and his historical argument concerning moral individualism. This paper proposes to analytically separate Durkheim’s apparently intertwined positions to show Durkheim’s concept of the ‘social individual’ as found within his theory of human nature. This is the difference between society as the object of analysis where the individual is slowly expressed historically in regard to the transition from mechanical …

Examining The Influence Of Race, Class And Gender Inequalities On Perceptions Of The American Dream Since The 2008 Economic Recession, Scarlett D. Marklin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

America has a national ethos embodied in the moniker “land of the free” and defined by a set of ideals in which being free means all men and women have an equal opportunity for prosperity, the pursuit of happiness and success. In essence, simply having access to upward social mobility achieved through one’s own perseverance and hard work, the quintessential American Dream. The first use of the phrase American Dream was by James Truslow Adams to characterize the ideal that every man should live a richer and fuller life than his ancestors based on opportunity according to ability or achievement …

The Influence Of Religion On Attitudes Toward Alcohol Use In Jewish Adolescents, Toby R. Levin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Historically, the Jewish faith has used alcohol in rituals and religious holidays in which adolescents are permitted to fully participate and this exposure to alcohol may influence attitudes and beliefs about underage drinking among Jewish adolescents. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between the Jewish religion and attitudes toward alcohol among Jewish adolescents. The theoretical frameworks, on which this study was based, were the social bond theory and the social development theory. Each of these theories indicates that community is important to the individual. Using a cross sectional study design, 160 adolescents participated …

North Versus South: The Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment And Historical Legacies On Poverty Reduction In Post-Đổi Mới Vietnam, Scott R. Sanders

Faculty Publications

This research examines the factors that account for variance in provincial poverty reduction rates between 2002 and 2008 in Vietnam. In particular, this paper uses spatial regression modeling to show that foreign direct investment (FDI) and the capitalist legacies of southern Vietnam significantly affected provincial poverty reduction during this time period. These findings suggest that although Vietnam as a whole has benefited from post-Đổi Mới economic reform and FDI, the historical capitalist legacies of the former Republic of Vietnam played a strong role in aiding provinces in the south in attracting FDI and subsequently reducing provincial poverty.

Social Capital Of Last Resort: The Role Of Religion, Family, And Trust Among People With Low Socio-Economic Status, Jean Reid Norman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This qualitative study finds evidence that poverty and homelessness undermine primary social relationships for many low-income people, eroding social capital, and that generalized trust may not be a good proxy for social capital, at least among a largely homeless population. This study also finds a surprising number of references to God, religion and spirituality among largely homeless populations when talking about their social networks, which addresses literature suggesting that church affiliation and religion may be unique in the formation of social capital. Twelve focus groups were conducted with a total 46 participants self-identified as low-income to explore social capital. A …

Parenting Behaviors, Adolescent Depressive Symptoms, And Problem Behavior: The Role Of Self-Esteem And School Adjustment Difficulties Among Chinese Adolescents, Cixin Wang, Yan Ruth Xia, Wenzhen Li, Stephan M. Wilson, Kevin Bush, Gary Peterson

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Cross-sectional data from 589 Chinese adolescents were used to investigate whether parenting behaviors are directly or indirectly (through self-esteem and school adjustment difficulties) associated with adolescent depressive symptoms and problem behavior. Structural equation modeling results showed that school adjustment difficulties fully mediated the relations between two parenting behaviors (parental punitiveness and paternal monitoring) and adolescent problem behavior and partially mediated the relation between maternal monitoring and adolescent problem behavior. Adolescent self-esteem partially mediated the relations between maternal punitiveness and adolescent depressive symptoms and fully mediated the relations between parental support and adolescent depressive symptoms. Parental love withdrawal was not significantly …

Adult Third Culture Kids: Does Their Concept Of Home Have An Impact On Their Career Paths?, Kelly B. Wisecarver

Capstone Collection

For decades, social scientists have been conducting studies about Third Culture Kids (TCKs). TCKs are children who have been raised outside of their passport countries as a result of their parents’ professions abroad. One sociologist refers to TCKs as “prototype citizens of the future,” citing their backgrounds a playing a role in today’s increasingly globalized world. How have TCKs’ multicultural backgrounds and experiences shaped them? What types of professions are they prone to? What qualities and characteristics do they commonly share and why are they an important group to study? My capstone aims to address these questions.

The combination of …

Emerging From The Shadows: Civil War, Human Rights, And Peacebuilding Among Peasants And Indigenous Peoples In Colombia And Peru In The Late 20th And Early 21st Centuries, Charles A. Flowerday

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Peacebuilding in Colombia and Peru following their late-20^th and early 21^st century civil wars is a challenging proposition. In this study, it becomes necessary as indigenous peoples and peasants resist domination by extractive industries and governments in their thrall. Whether they protest nonviolently or rebel in arms, they are targeted for human-rights violations, especially murder, disappearance and displacement. The armed actors, state, insurgency, paramilitaries or drug traffickers, destroy civic institutions (local or regional government) and the civil (nonprofit) sector and replace them with their own authoritarian versions. Therefore, peacebuilding has emphasized rebuilding civic institutions, civil society and local …

Sabato Rodia's Towers In Watts: Art, Migrations, Development (Appendices B-D), Luisa Del Giudice

Sociology

The extraordinary Watts Towers were created over the course of three decades by a determined, single-minded artist, Sabato Rodia, a highly remarkable Italian immigrant laborer who wanted to do “something big.” Now a National Historic Landmark and internationally renowned destination, the Watts Towers in Los Angeles are both a personal artistic expression and a collective symbol of Nuestro Pueblo—Our Town/Our People. Featuring fresh and innovative examinations that mine deeper and broader than ever before, Sabato Rodia’s Towers in Watts is a much anticipated revisitation of the man and his towers.

In 1919, Sabato Rodia purchased a triangular plot of land …

Intergenerational Conflicts In Iran: Myth Or Reallity?, Mohammad Hossein Panahi

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

One of the important social issues attracting the attention of social thinkers in post WWII era has been the issue of intergenerational conflict. Presented by scholars such as Karl Manheim and Margaret Mead, it was thought that in post WWII era intergenerational conflicts or gap rose to a degree that it made the communication and understanding between pre and post WWII generations very difficult. It was theorized that this unbridgeable gap between the two generations was due to grave and rapid social changes that occurred in that era, so that these two generations experienced and lived in two totally different …

The Future Of The Music Experience, Kayla Caballero

Graphic Communication

This study was intended to gain a strong understanding of where the music industry and accompanying artwork is today, how music is primarily experienced, and how it will develop in the future. The widespread shift from physical to digital platforms has reached the music industry and how listeners experience their favorite music. Although there are many positive results from this shift, it is important to pay close attention to how these changes affect how one experiences music and what is lost in the shift to digital. Even more importantly, where this shift might take music and its artwork’s relationship in …

Competing Logics Of Commemoration: Cosmopolitanism And Nationalism In East Asia's History Problem, Hiro Saito, Yoko Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent studies in collective memory point to the emergence of cosmopolitan commemoration that takes humanity, rather than nationality, as a primary frame of reference. But these studies have yet to specify how cosmopolitan commemoration emerges and articulates with existing nationalist commemoration. To solve this problem, we examine the “history problem” between Japan and South Korea by focusing on how relevant political and civic actors negotiated cosmopolitanism and nationalism in commemorating Japan’s past colonial rule and wartime atrocities. In light of our historical analysis, we argue that a synthesis of theories of institutional logics and social movements is useful in illuminating …

打造香港道德 = The (Re)Making Of The Hong Kong Ethic, Ching Yau

《新自由主義下的新道德》研討會 NEO-MORALISM UNDER NEOLIBERALISM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

過去關於港人價值觀的論述一般認為華人難民社群有「功利家庭主義」的非政治化取向 (Lau)、殖民政治強化「固有的保守和怯懦心理」(曾31)、「港人(主要是年青一代)普遍都表現了十分內向與退卻心理…… 極端的物慾主義、享樂主義或消極意念」(曾35)。雖然貧富懸殊嚴重，但直至本世紀初以前，「多數居民都相信有能力肯苦幹就有機會出頭」；「法律觀念深入民心」，所以「個人和家庭利益放在集體利益的前面」(李41) ；八十年代後是「利益團體政治」及伴隨而來的「公民權利」及「社區意識」興起，「歸屬感政治」轉變至「權益政治」(黃偉邦 184) ° 戰後出身的一代因為並未經歷中國內戰所以較為「理想主義」(張炳良58) ，大多「出身低下家庭」，「故對社會公義問題特別敏感」(張炳良59)，普遍認同「民主自由、公義平等」原則；不是「福利派」，「要求其本階級利益獲得一定的注重」(張炳良61)，「重視自我奮鬥，強調獨立」(張炳良63) ，要求機會平等而不是均等主義 (Lau and Khan 66; 呂1998b : 203) °「競爭性資本主義」環境提供的「雙軌發展」社會流動機能鼓勵沒受過專上教育的透過「搏殺」來晉升中產階級 (呂1998b : 98) ° 即使看到資本主義「有不平等」，但仍然接受「競爭性的制度」; 九七後的焦慮是害怕失去「一個個人自由得到尊重、個人高度的自由活動空間和依法行事的制度」，導致「自身利益受損」，「毋須因政治理由而委屈、妥協」，面對「強權的、家長式的環境」(呂 1998b : 203-206)。

以上大概描述了上世紀八十年代及以後的港人主流價值觀，經常被統稱為「獅子山下精神」的。過去學者一般傾向把香港本土意識的崛起，「獅子山下精神」(《獅子山下 》為1974-1994年間，香港電台製作的一套電視劇) 的形塑 追塑至七十年代 。六十年代末至七十年代是香港經濟結構急劇轉型期 (如1969-1972年間就有三家證券交易所成立：1969年遠東交易所、1971年金銀證券交易所及1972年九龍證卷交易所)，而五十至六十年代中則通常被指為南來人口無法或企圖適應香港、心懷祖國的過渡期。本文借爬梳五十年代的流行電 影文化來闡述當時社會-我認為同樣是「紮根」香港，以香港作為想像共同體 - 深入民心的價值觀跟「獅子山下精神」的不盡相同甚至矛盾，從而企圖重新想像香港文化中的一些被歷史斷裂化了、地下化了的聲音，如何被有系統地排除在「香港本土」的界定以外。 我追溯這過程作為在香港被「競爭性資本主義」全盤洗禮之前，經歷了的一項去（舊）道德，同時也是去政治化工程。而把「香港本土意識」定性於在七十年代才出現這種說法，是把香港人對殖民資本主義的認同作為香港成為想像共同體的條件，這也是香港最新自由主義化的「本土性」。

Present discourse on Hongkongers' value systems considers this community of Chinese refugees as having an apolitical "utilitarian familism" (Lau); that colonial politics reinforced “an existing psychology of conservatism and timidity” (Tsang 31); that "Hongkongers (mainly its younger generations) express generally a very inward-looking and regressive mentality… an extreme materialism, hedonism and negativity.” (Tsang, 35) Despite a severe gap between the rich and poor, until …

道德漠視與遠端資本主義 : 《蝸居》受眾研究 = Moral Indifference And Capitalism From Afar : An Audience Research On Woju, Iam Chong Ip

《新自由主義下的新道德》研討會 NEO-MORALISM UNDER NEOLIBERALISM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

本文是一個電視劇《蝸居》的受眾研究，並聚焦在中國大學畢業生的新自由主義主體的構成。《蝸居》於2009年夏天播放，並迅速產生了「蝸居」這個關鍵詞，指中國城市裡中下階級的狹窄的居所環境，媒體亦經常報導受過高等教育的年青人的階級期望與生活及工作條件之間的巨大差距。研究發現，儘管媒體經常把《蝸居》連繫上中國的裙帶資本主義的問題，例如腐敗、道德危機及經濟不平等，但是，我的受訪者在閱讀電視劇角色及故事時，其道德說辭與關注並不顯著，相反，從他們對《蝸居》的閱讀，我們發現他們透過協議一個遠離社會及道德矛盾的主體位置，擁抱一種大都會生活方式。這體現了一種新自由主義主體，往往只看到都市生活的光明面，以及各種實踐自我激發及管理的技術。這種想像的自我是深植於不均衡的國家空間，內裡包括兩個真實－想像世界：「內陸或家鄉」是一個聲望及前途決定於既有的政治權力及財富，而「大城市」的世界則是個人市場競逐決定一切聲望及前途的地方。

This paper is an audience research on the TV drama series of Woju (蝸居), with focus on the making of neoliberal subject of Chinese college graduates. This drama series, which began airing in July 2009, made the term “woju” a public idiom, which now refers to the cramped living environment of middle-lower class in Chinese cities. The huge gap between educated young adult’s aspirations and their living and working conditions is routinely discussed and dramatized in media. However, despite the association frequently made by the media between Woju and the social and cultural problems of Chinese crony capitalism, such …

Smartphones And Face-To-Face Interactions: Extending Goffman To 21st Century Conversation, Omar Bradley Ictech Ii

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Smartphone is a technological innovation that has transformed for the better how billions of people live by enabling them to transcend time and space to remain socially connected to potentially millions of others despite being thousands of miles apart. Although smartphones help people connect from a distance, there has been much concern about how they affect face-to-face interactions. This study explored, drawing on Goffmanian concepts, how and why smartphones affect face-to-face encounters. The findings show there are three types of smartphone cross-talk: exclusive, semi-exclusive, and collaborative. With the addition of smartphone play and solo smartphone activity, interactants can engage …

Improv To Improve Interprofessional Communication, Team Building, Patient Safety, And Patient Satisfaction, Candace A. Campbell

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

The purpose of this process improvement project was to implement a test of change within a healthcare team utilizing applied improvisational exercises (AIEs), and to lay the groundwork for more effective inter- and intra-professional communication.

Literature review: AIEs have been shown to facilitate individual participant communication strengths through a process of un-learning certain common behavioral habits, and learning new habits that assist in creating and expanding closed-loop communication. Such un-learning and learning enriches the participant’s awareness of the environment and encourages participant adaptability through positive group interactions.

Method: An all-day AIE seminar/workshop was conducted with members of two healthcare teams …

Traditional Masculinity & Advertising Image Approval, Danielle W. Kailing, Peggy Cantrell Phd

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project investigates the relationship between adherence to traditional masculinity and approval of selected advertising images. Because traditional masculinity includes characteristics supportive of aggression and dominance; I hypothesize that an increase in adherence to traditional masculinity will correlate with approval of the violence found in some print advertisements. Participants include 259 men who completed an anonymous, online, survey. Adherence to masculinity is measured using the Male Role Norm Inventory-Revised (MRNI-R) (Levant, et. al, 2007). Each picture is scored on a 5-point Likert Scale. As hypothesized, an increase in total MRNI-R score, is significantly correlated with an increase in the approval …

All That Sprawl, Y’All: An Analysis Of Development On Steinwehr Avenue And York Street In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, From 1971 To 2014, Elizabeth K. Emmons, Kalley S. Hansel, Daly Simpson

Student Publications

The advent of the automobile transformed the American landscape in the 20th century. In conjunction with the increasing importance of the automobile, numerous post-WW II government programs such as the Interstate Highway System encouraged suburban sprawl. Towns and cities adjacent to tourist attractions, known as gateway communities, face unique problems caused by sprawl. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is an example of a gateway community as it includes the Gettysburg National Military Park. Two study sites, portions of Steinwehr Avenue and York Street, were studied to analyze the effects of sprawl in Gettysburg. The sites were analyzed using ArcGIS, data compiled from historic …

Faith-Based And Graduate Adult Educator's Negotiation Of Similarities And Differences Among People As An Indicator Of Their Multicultural Effectiveness, Elizabeth Conerly Smith

Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between adult educators‘ multicultural effectiveness scores and their negotiation of similarities and differences scores. The participants were in faith-based institutions, specifically Christian churches and in graduate adult education programs of universities and colleges in the United States. Multicultural effectiveness was measured by the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) that the authors reported measured multicultural effectiveness as the primary, encompassing variable. The MPQ is a five-point Likert scale with 91 items. The MPQ reliability was a Cronbach‘s alpha of .82 (Van der Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000). The Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale (M-GUDS) measured the negotiation of similarities …

Fat People Exist, Julie E. Davin

SURGE

A couple weeks ago, I closed the stall door behind me in a Patrick Hall bathroom and was greeted by this sign. I quickly scanned the text, smiled at the picture, and had one of those warm, fuzzy, faith-in-humanity-has-been-restored kinds of moments.