Nicole Perez
SBS 300/L, 330, 362, HDEV 365 & 371 & Summer 14’/Capstone Annotations
Chapter 1, “Rules of Sociological Method”
Durkheim, E. (2012) Rules of Sociological Method. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.),
Social Theory re-wired (pp. 7-12). New York, NY: Routledge.
Durkheim discusses that everything is social. These things are external experiences that happen
everyday to every person. Social facts are ways of acting, thinking and feeling that are external
to self. Even if you wish or do not wish something, it is external and may happen anyway. These
are external and coercive, social facts. We are embarrassed by something we do even if no one
is around, this is because it is an external impression that society has created for us, we do not
create it.
Social facts are external and coercive. Social facts are beliefs/practices of a group.
“Social Currents” - public waves of enthusiasm or pity leaving the individual awkward feeling.
Education - effort to teach a child the ways to think, feel and act in society.
This short essay discusses social facts, why they are what they are, what is social and why social
facts are external and coercive. Good essay that after the 5th time reading it and 4 weeks into the
semester most it makes sense.
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Section1,Chapter 2, “Division of Labor in Society”
Durkheim, E. (2012). Division of Labor In Society. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.),
Social Theory re-wired (pp.14-37). New York, NY: Routledge.
How society is ordered according to the labor forces of its population.
Function of the division, mechanical solidarity, solidarity from the division, causes, anomic
division.
Friendship - like goes with like, people flock to similar and are attracted to the opposite. People
seek friendships with people having the qualities they lack. Makes them feel less complete. The
division of labor for friendship - “its economic services are insignificant compared with the
moral effect that it produces and it is true function is to make people feel a solidarity.”
Marriage - sexual division, conjugal solidarity. In the past difference was minimal
between the two sexes. evidence through bones show very similar skeletons and capacity for
weight carrying was very similar, in fact less than today. Men and women were equal in tasks,
women went to war and were involved in politics. Marriage did not happen as the sexual
relationship defined everything and could be started or stopped at any time.Relationships were
established between child and mother, marriage eventually came around but with very weak
rules. Marriage continues to evolve to mean more, including extensive obligations it imposes on
the people joining into it.
Social solidarity - law. A close knit community of a society maintains relationships with
one another. These relationships are proportional to the laws that determine the group.
Public law regulates the relationships between the individuals and state; private law is the
individuals and each other. All law is public, and private. The line between state and individual
is unclear.
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“an act offends the common consciousness because it is criminal, it is criminal because it
offends that consciousness. We do not condemn it because it is a crime, but it is a crime because
we condemn it”. An act is bad only because society believes it is bad.
Each person consists of two consciousnesses - one for the individual and one for the
society. Two opposing forces, “centripetal and centrifugal”.
The last pages of this essay were extremely difficult to decipher, let alone put it into your own
words. Re read only if you must because it is lengthy and difficult.
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Chapter 3
Durkheim, E. (2012) Suicide. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.), Social Theory rewired (pp. 38-49). New York, NY: Routledge.
“But to what do theses crisis owe their influence? Is it because they increase poverty by
causing public wealth to fluctuate? Is life more readily renounced as it becomes more difficult?
The explanation is seductively simple; and it agrees with the popular idea of suicide. But it is
contradicted by facts.” (pp. 38-39). “So far is the increase in poverty from casing the increase in
suicide that even fortunate crises, the effect of which is abruptly to enhance a country’s
prosperity, affect suicide like economic disasters.” pp. 39
“ If therefore industrial or financial crises increase suicides, that is not because they cause
poverty, since crises of prosperity have the same result; it is because they are crises, that is,
disturbances of the collective order.” pp. 41. Even though when I initially read this in 300 I did
not understand, and even now a lot of it is over my head, this is written fairly well that someone
like me can read it once or twice and extract the important points from it. Durkheim is stating
that suicide is caused by a couple of different factors, and the illusion that a market crash or low
employment spikes the suicide rates is incorrect. In fact, he states that any disturbance in the
homeostasis of someones life is a cause for them to look to suicide as a solution ( whether this be
a good or bad change in that persons life). He also states that poverty protects from suicide as it
is a restraint on its own. This aspect is included as he discusses anomy. “Egoistic suicide - results
from a man’s no longer finding a basis for existence in life; altruistic suicide, because this basis
for existence appears to man situated beyond life itself. …” pp. 48. Anomic suicide is the result
from a mans suffering due to the lack of regulation on his life activities.
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Very intriguing, love being able to re-read this and pick up more details every time and
becoming familiar with theory.
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Chapter 4, “Elementary forms of religious life”
Durkheim, E. (2012) Elementary forms of religious life. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D.
(Eds.), Social Theory re-wired (pp. 50-65). New York, NY: Routledge.
“Besides, apart from those indirect consequences the study of primitive religions in itself
has immediate interest of the first importance. If it is useful to know what a given religion
consists of; it is far more important to examine what religion is in general.” pp. 50-51 “The
general conclusion of the chapters to follow is that religion is an eminently social thing.
Religious representations are collective representations that express collective realities; rites are
ways of acting that are born only in the midst of assembled groups and whose purpose is to
evoke, maintain, or recreate certain mental states of those groups…” pp. 53
“Furthermore, while i is true that man is a dependent of his gods, this dependence is
mutual. The gods also need man; without offerings and sacrifices, they would die. I will have
occasion to show that this dependence of gods on their faithful is found even in the most
idealistic religions.” pp. 57
This chapter is very dense and 15 pages, so it is rough to get through even the second,
third, fourth time for me. I am not sure if it is because religion has never been a large component
of my life, therefore I am not as interested in it, or if it is just that it is difficult material. I believe
what he is trying to say that religion has been created around society’s requirements and has
covered all aspects for those participating to be involved in all areas of their life, including a god
to pray to, rites, festivals, holidays that will all continue every day and year with or without the
singular person using the religion so long as it attracts a couple of people to become involved.
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Chapter 5, Categories of the Orientation and Organization of Action
Parsons, T., & Shils, E.(2012). Categories of the Orientation and Organization of Action. In
Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.), Social Theory re-wired (pp. 66-81). New York,
NY:Routledge.
Main topic: organization of action and what action entails ( behaviors, actors, actions
themselves, and pattern variables). This essay goes into detail describing how each component
makes up the organization of an action.
Conceptualization of behavior 1.
it is oriented to the attainment of ends/goals
2.
takes place in situations
3.
normatively regulated
4.
involves energy, effort or motivation
Example: a man is driving a car to go fishing. The end/goal would be to ‘go fishing’, the
situation is the road, car and place, the energy expenditures are normative (driving intelligence to
get there), spends energy/ puts out effort while driving (depressing pedals, pays attention).
Behavior that can be analyzed as above is called, “Action”!
“Each action is the action of an actor, and it takes place in a situation consisting of objects”.
These objects can be other actors or physical/cultural objects.
Organization of actions are in a system (constellation), 3 systems, 3 modes of
organization of the elements of action: 1. social systems, 2. personalities, 3. cultural systems.
1.
Social system - organization of motivated action - relations of actors to one another
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Has characteristics - involves the process of interaction, situation toward which
the actors are oriented includes other actors, interdependent and concerted action.
2.
Personalities - motivated action organized about the living organism
Characteristics - system of interconnections of actions of an individual, actions
are structured by a needs-dispositions
3.
Cultural systems - systems of symbolic patterns
Characteristics - organization of values, norms, symbols, elements, patterns of
regularity present, patterns of culture.
The frame of reference of the theory of action (actors, situation of actors, and orientation
of actors to that situation) - multiple points and breakdowns, actors, situation, orientation of actor
to situation, actor being ‘individual-collectivity or subject-object distinction. Situation of action
is broken down into “Social Objects”, which can be divided further to ‘quality’ or ‘performance’
and the distinction between them.
The frame of reference theory of action - set of categories to analyze the relations of one
or more actors in a situation.
Pattern Variables - 5 dichotomies that form choice alternatives. One side of dichotomy is chosen
by actor . Most important as characteristics of value standards.
1.
Affectivity-Affective neutrality
2.
Self-orientation-Collectivity-orientation
3.
Universalism-Particularism
4.
Ascription-Achievement
5.
Specificity-Diffuseness
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Definitions of pattern variables goes into detail with the cultural aspect and personality aspect of
each.
This essay describes pattern variables in detail very well, as well as action and the
organization of it (hence the name of the essay). I found it, as like everything else in the first
chapter of this book difficult to get through even after a few times of reading it.
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Chapter 6 Studies in ethnomethodology”
Garfinkel,H. (2012). Studies in Ethnomethodolgy. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.),
Social Theory re-wired (pp.82-92). New York, NY: Routledge.
Main topic is, The accountability for actions as ongoing accomplishment. Re-discovery of
common sense activities. facts to support points - The things that happen in everyday life can be
extraordinary, and by that the author means those things can be observed and recorded. These are
continuous, EVERYDAY accomplishments that they can be overlooked and taken for granted.
Laws in this way that are around every day activities in the past have been “loose” and therefore
not universal laws. These laws cannot be used for every type of legal case either because of it.
“Natural facts of life” - everyday life and everyday order as it has been established, as it
always has been because it is. They are facts from the real world and a product of activities from
that real world. The “moral order” is the rule/law governed over these everyday activities.
Background features of everyday life going seemingly unnoticed. To become aware of
them you must be a stranger or become estranged from them. Alfred Schultz called these
background expectancies “attitude of everyday life”.
In conversations people read between the lines, or understand more than what is said.
Conversations happen with the expectation that others will understand everything even though
not everything is said out loud. (colloquy - formal conversation or conference).
Experiment: college students were asked to make the other person clarify their “common
place” remarks. example - “im tired.” “how are you tired?” , “you know what i mean”, “are you
tired emotionally, physically, mentally?”, etc.
Experiment: man and woman conversation about picking up kids, doing chores - “kid put
a penny in a meter without being picked up” which really means that the kid wasnt dropped off
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at day care, and was therefore with the parent to run errands and has now successfully learned
how to pay a parking meter without help because they are tall enough, etc.
I thought this essay was very interesting, useful for anyone wanting to know more about the
background information of everyday life and how to adjust it for experimenting with subjects
perceptions of their reality. Worth a re-read.
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Chapter 7, “The social construction of reality” Annotation
Berger, P., & Luckmann, T. (2012). The Social Construction of Reality. In Longhofer, W., &
Winchester, D. (Eds.), Social Theory re-wired (pp.93-105). New York, NY: Routledge.
The social construction of reality’s main topic is in fact, the construction of reality
through the knowledge of everything surrounding those things in reality. The essay goes through
explaining what is ‘reality’ and how it is constructed by those persons in it and those around
them.
“everyday life presents itself as a reality interpreted by men and subjectively meaningful
to them as a coherent world. As sociologists we take this reality as the object of our analysis.”
The method used for this is a descriptive method that is “empirical” but not “scientific”,
“phenomenological analysis”.
They state that consciousness is always directed or intended toward something. The
process of consciousness can be found in observing a skyline, or becoming aware of an inner
anxiety.
Consciousnesses are capable of moving through different spheres of reality, such as
awaking from a dream. The transition between them is a ‘shock’ and is understood as the shift in
attentiveness. Objects present themselves to the consciousness and can be recognized as separate
objects for separate realities.
These objects of reality have been pre-determined (prior to us existing) as objects in our
reality. Objects are tools, language, housing, vast relationships (such as clubs, american, etc).
Reality of life is organized by the “here” as the body and the “now” as your present, ( the
“here and now”), this means everyday life is experienced in degrees both spatially and
temporally.
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Zones - zone of everyday life that is accessible to body manipulation is the closest zone,
however the everyday life has zones that are not accessible or there is no interest in them or the
interest in indirect. (example: working in your garage as a mechanic you may not be thinking
about the testing labs in Detroit for the car company - the testing may eventually affect the
everyday life).
Everyday life is confirmed that is in fact real, because it is shared with others,
(intersubjectivity).
Everyday life is divided into sectors - familiar and foreign.
Habitualization - action that is repeated frequently becomes a pattern, which can be
reproduced and becomes a habit. “Even a solitary man has at least the company of his operating
procedures”. Habitualization provides a psychological gain that choices are narrowed and frees
the individual from the ‘burden of all the decisions”.
Institutionalization - reciprocal typification of habitualized actions by types of actors,
“actions of type X will be performed by actors X”. Institutions- control human conduct by setting
up defined patterns of conduct. Interactions become predictable.
The division of labor leads to more habitualizations. Addition of new people into reality
changes it, where habits of every day for people in it changes to “this is how things are done” for
the new.
Society is humanly produced and is constructed objectively. Society is a human product
and man is a social product.
Institutional world must be legitimized/justified, and mechanisms of social controls
become necessary for society. Compliance can become an issue and the institution must claim
authority.
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If conduct is institutionalized, it can be predictable and controlled.
I found this essay interesting after reading and re-reading it a few times even though
much of it is still hard to follow the path of thoughts.
The later part of the essay that hits on the institutionalization of society was difficult to follow,
even though I get the main points of it. I find these essays hard to follow due to the detailed,
large worded “descriptions” and examples used to clarify their points.
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Marx, K., & Engels, F. (2012). The german ideology. In W. Longhofer & D. Winchester (Eds.),
Social Theory re-wired (pp. 115-119). New York, NY: Routledge.
This chapter is about man separating himself from animals through thoughts, language,
consciousness and their position in relation to the rest of nature.
Consciousness
Producers of their own existence
Division of labor
Human history is the existence of all human beings.
Men (humans) are distinguished from animals because they think, they have a conscious and
language. As humans express their life, they establish life and they are in fact
living. This influences society around humans, and it is constantly changing. Humans produce
their ideas, consciousness is existence, and existence is life process. Camera obscura can occur
when life processes appear upside down.
Human nature - organization of individuals and the relation to nature
labor -natural and social relationships
“productive force”
history of humanity must always be studied and treated in relation to the history of industry and
exchange.
consciousness is the beginning of social products.
relation of men to nature is determined by the form of society.
“division of labor is spontaneous or natural” pg. 117
the ruling class is the class that is ruling material force and at the same time intellectual force.
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Good, short read on human consciousness and living, and how living is creating
products, ideas
and the social world around us.
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Chapter 9, “Communist Manifesto”
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (2012). Manifesto of the communist party. In, Longhofer, W. &
Winchester, D. (Eds.), Social theory re-wired. (pp.120-128). New York, NY: Routledge.
Karl Marx describes the bourgeoisie as the middle class and the proletariat as the working
class. In our capitalist economy, we have surpassed these definitions and the bourgeoisie is the
upper class and the proletariate is the middle class. Our capitalist society has in fact gone beyond
what Marx had predicted and the American dream of becoming rich has allowed a small amount
of the nations population to control majority of the money, leaving a very small amount for the
middle and lower classes. This class owns and controls big businesses and property on which
society functions. The proletariat is the “working class”, the people which work for the
bourgeoisie.
This chapter was utilized as my theory reference for my social issue/theory paper in
combination with Marx’s other chapters about capital and commodities as well as alienation
from products and labor. I used this theory on the structure of society to explain how hunger is a
large national issue due to the capitalist society that has been created and forcing the lower and
middle class to suffer due to low incomes and inability to afford food to live. I find Marx
difficult to read the first time through, however it is all still very relevant and accurate.
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Chapter 10, Capital
Marx, K. (2012). Capital. In W. Longhofer & D. Winchester (Eds.), Social Theory re-wired (pp
129-135). New York, NY: Routledge.
This chapter discusses Karl Marx’s view of commodities, their values (use, exchange and labor)
as well as the fetishism that comes with some commodities.
Commodities (value - use, exchange and labor) - Fetishism of commodities
Commodity - anything that serves a purpose externally from us, “satisfies human wants”.
pg. 129
Use of a commodity (work of history), utility of object gives it “use-value”. The use of the
object is only good with the physicality of the object, can not exist apart from the object.
Amount of labor required to produce object is independent of the use. The use is only there as we
use it or need it.
“Exchange value” - value of one thing to be replaced or exchanged for another equally.
Exchange value is different quantities.
Labor - is embedded into a product. Makes the object useful. “As values, all commodities are
only definite masses of congealed labor-time” pg.131
Use value is present in an object because of the human labor embedded/materialized in it.
Homogenous labor - societies labor counts as one homogenous labor power - no more than is
socially necessary required to produce an object.
Value would remain constant if labor time remained constant. The more time spent on an object,
more labor time into it, less amount of value. The less time spent on object, less labor put into it,
greater value. The value directly related to the productiveness of labor to create it.
Commodity can have use value but no value (air).
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Materials into commodity - fetishism. (example: wood turned into a table). pg.132
Fetishism comes from the social character of labor that produces them.
This is a good chapter discussing commodities, what they are, how they become
commodities, what makes them valuable. Good to re-read if doing any research/paper on
commodity or fetishism of commodities.
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Chapter 11, “Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844”
Marx, K. (2012).Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844. In, Longhofer, W. &
Winchester, D. (Eds.), Social theory re-wired. (pp.136-142). New York, NY: Routledge.
Karl Marx’s description of a commodity, “ an object outside us, a thing that by its
properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another” (Longhofer and Winchester Eds.,
2012). The commodity is given value through the time it takes the employee to make it. The less
time spent on the commodity makes it less valuable, the more time producing the commodity,
the more value it has. The time spent producing the commodity is the efficiency of the laborer.
Many laborers are forced into the industry to survive, and are forced to become a commodity of
the industry, having to sell their labor for a wage. At this point, they become a commodity to the
bourgeoisie and do not own the product they create.
Laborers are forced to create commodities at such low wages that they can not afford the
product they make with the wages they earn. For persons in the agriculture industry, this speaks
true as they work long, strenuous hours picking produce that is sent nation wide, yet they can not
afford the product themselves. This chapter was utilized as my theory reference for my social
issue/theory paper. I used this theory on the structure of society to explain how hunger is a large
national issue due to the capitalist society that has been created and forcing the lower and middle
class to suffer due to low incomes and inability to afford food to live. I find Marx difficult to
read the first time through, however it is all still very relevant and accurate, and even now after
reading it again for the 10th time, it could probably be applied to almost any social issue.
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Chapter 12, “The rise and future demise of the world capitalist system”
Wallerstein,I. (2012).The rise and future demise of the world capitalist system. In, Longhofer,
W. & Winchester, D. (Eds.), Social theory re-wired. (pp.143-152). New York, NY:
Routledge.
I believe this to be about the global economy and capitalism, going through the history of
societies frameworks and what they consisted of (core, periphery, semi-periphery).
“The tendency of the Capitalist mode of production to become worldwide is manifested
not only through the constitution of a group of national economies forming a complex and
hierarchal structure, including an imperialist pole and a dominated one, and not only through the
antagonistic relations that develop between the different ‘national economies’ and the different
states, but also through the constant ‘transcending’ of ‘national limits’ by big capital (the
formation of ‘international big capital’, ‘world firms’, etc.” pp. 147
I am not sure what this is really saying, unfortunately it is one of the chapters I haven't
read enough to really comprehend it and did not have someone to really move it through and
explain it. I can understand small sections of it, but putting it all together is difficult still. Even at
the very beginning it discusses priori and posteriori and after re-reading that paragraph I still do
not understand what a priori is.
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Section 13
Castells, M. (2012). Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society. In W. Longhofer
& D. Winchester (Eds.), Social Theory re-wired (pp. 153-167). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Network Society - overview
Social structure and morphology - networks to info networks
“Network society is a specific form of social structure, identified by empirical research
of the
Information age” pg. 153
Social structure - organization of humans in relation to production, consumption, experience,
power - interactions in culture.
Discusses the ‘conceptualizing of social structure’. Layers of the structure; production
as in
consumption, and experience as in power.
Production - “action of humankind on matter (nature) to appropriate it and transform it,
consuming part of it and accumulating surplus for investment” pg. 154.
Organized into class relationships
Experience - “action of humans on themselves, determined by their biological and cultural
identities, in relation to their social and natural environment” pg. 154
Experience is structured around sexual/gender relationships
Power - “the action of humans on other humans to impose their will on others, by the use,
potential or actual, of symbolic or physical violence.” pg.. 154
Power is founded upon the ability to exercise violence.
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Technology - “the use of scientific knowledge to specify ways of doing things in a reproducible
manner” pg.155
Embodied in technical relationships which are socially conditioned. Action that
ultimately produces and modifies social structure.
“New technological paradigm - microelectronics-based, information/communication tech,
genetic engineering.” pg. 156
“New economy has 3 features; informational - capacity of generating knowledge and processing
info ; global - activites have the capacity to work on a planetary level; networked - economic
organization, network enterprise” pg. 156-157.
Network enterprise is a network of firms, segments (businesses connected together for projects,
etc.). work/employment are transformed by new economy. New economy is capitalist. Gender
changes in economy - flexible woman instead of organization man.
Labor division into self-programmable and generic labor.
Media and politics.
Time, space and flow.
Shift toward NATO/IMF/World Bank, UN agencies, World Trade Organization.
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Chapter 14, “The forms of Capital”
Bourdieu, P. (2012)The forms of capital. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.),
Social Theory re-wired (pp. 168-181). New York, NY: Routledge.
“Capital is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its “incorporated”, embodied form)
which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents or
groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living
labor.” pp.169 Cultural capital exists in 3 forms: embodied state, objectified state,
institutionalized state. “Embodied state- accumulation of cultural capital in the embodied state,
i.e., in the form of what is called culture, cultivation, Building, presupposes a process of
embodiment, incorporation, which, insofar as it implies a labor of inculcation and assimilation,
costs time, time which must be invested personally by the investor.” pp.170 “The objectified
state. Cultural capital in the objectified state, has a number of properties which are defined only
in the relationship with cultural capital in its embodied form.The cultural capital objectified in
material objects and media, such as writings, paintings, monuments, instruments, etc., is
transmissible in its materiality.” pp.172 “The institutionalized State. The objectification of
cultural capital in the form of academic qualifications is one way of neutralizing some of the
properties it derives from the fact that, being embodied, it has the same biological limits as its
bearer.” pp. 173
As with most of this book, although this seems quite obvious and easy to figure out, the
depth goes over my head. I understand that he describes the different types of capital and how
they affect their surroundings. I think much like Marx discusses capital, this delves into the detail
of capital more so the marx discusses.
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Social Theory Rewired, Chp. 16
Weber, M. (2012). The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. In W. Longhofer & D.
Winchester (Eds.), Social Theory re-wired (pp. 209-236). New York, NY: Routledge.
It is true that the greater relative participation of Protestants in the ownership of capital,
in management, and the upper ranks of labour in great modern industrial and commercial
enterprises, may in part be explained in terms of historical circumstances which extend
far back into the past, and in which religious affiliation is not a cause of the economic
conditions, but to a certain extent appears to be a result of them. pp. 209
“The puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so” pg. 223- Max Weber; The
protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism - work ethic based on religious ideas that a good
work ethic would confirm faith in god. The work ethic is thought to have promoted the kick off
of the capitalist society. Although now many people may not follow the work ethic for religious
reasons, the strict work ethic from the past holds true to become a good, professional at your job.
Catholic
Protestant
inherited wealth
education
positioning in society Time is money, credit is money , need money to make money
Money borrowing accumulated credit/interest. Being punctual with repayment is key.
(beget - to give rise to, bring about)
Ben Franklin
Protestants - tendency to develop economic rationalism
inherited wealth and education determined your position in society. education was determined by
your religion and the environment you grew up in for finding future jobs
“they make tallow out of cattle and money out of men” - pg.213 F. Kurnberger
recognized that credit/duty of individual toward increasing his caital (ethos ethic)
ethos - character, describes beliefs/ideals that characterize a community, nation, ideology.
“pusillanimous” - .cowardliness
spirit of capitalism - “working to make as much money as possible is modern capitalism”
Virtues - honesty, punctuality, industry, frugality, assure credit therefore virtues
ultimate purpose is to make money, man is controlled by making money
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forced to live in a capitalistic society you will adapt or be eliminated.
piece rates - attempted to motivate workers to work hard when offerred more money but they
produced labor to equal regular pay, when piece rate lowered, labor went down instead of up motivation to make only what is socially necessary to survive.
pre-capitalist labor - working to earn what will satisfy needs ( by NATURE, man does
not want to earn more, society does this to him). “people only work because and so long as they
are poor” - pg. 216
low wages do not = cheap labor
section on god - Catholicism and christianity that i didnt understand.... (ok to make a ton of
money, be bourgeois if god was ok with it by mans actions).
attitude toward life is spirit of capitalism. as riches increased, religion decreased.
I guess this could be a good section if you’re needing the history of capitalism and how religion
affected it? After re-reading this section and after the prep for the theory exam, I think I finally
begin to understand this. This is about the history and progression of the protestant and the
capitalism and how they came together over time.
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Social Theory rewired, chp. 17
Weber, M. (2012) Basic sociological terms. In W. Longhofer & D. Winchester (Eds.), Social
Theory re-wired (pp. 237-249). New York, NY: Routledge.
Sociology terms
Foundations
Meanings
Social Action
Points: Explains what sociology consists of, the difference between it and real sciences, what
meanings, and other terms are that qualify social action as social action, etc.
“Sociology is interpretive understanding of social action and thereby with a causal explanation of
its course and consequences.” pg. 236 (causal = relating to or acting as a cause).
2 types of meaning: Actual meaning (concrete, pure type) & Theoretical / subjective meaning
(hypothetical)- neither is “objectively correct or true”
Meaningful action and reactive behavior
Basis for certainty - rational (logical and mathematical): Meaning (may) be immediately
clear/obvious. Way we understand what a person is doing by choosing the certain ends by means
of basic facts of a situation that we have been taught to understand ( 2 x 2 = 4 ).
empathetic ( artistically appreciative)
Irrational affects - feelings - anger, love, jealousy, ambition, etc. These are a deviation from
‘conceptually pure type of rational action.
Pure rational action = merit of clear understandability and lack of ambiguity (ambiguous doubtful,uncertain).
2 types of understanding:
Direct observational of subjective meaning - 2 x 2 = 4 because we see and hear it. Facial
expressions show irrational emotional reactions. - physical!
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explanatory understanding - MOTIVE
“understand what makes man do something at the exact time in the situation its occurring” motive
Motive - acts are placed into a sequence of events for motivation, treated as an explanation of
behavior.
Meaning:
1. Historical approach (actual, intended meaning, individual action)
2. Cases of sociology mass phenomena (average or approx.. to meaning).
3. Meaning appropriate to scientific pure type.
* interpretation attempts to collect clarity and certainty
verification of subjective interpretation by comparison with concrete course is indispensable.
Gresham’s Law “ rationally clear interpretation of human action under certain conditions
assuming those actions will follow a purely rational course” - pg. 242
course of action - defined as being verified by statistical evidence.
Motive - complex of subjective meaning
Social action - includes failure to act and passive acquiescence. Past, present of future.
not every kind of action is social; overt action is not social. Not every type of contact has
social character. Social action is not identical (crowd mentality, motions, etc.)
Imitation - reactive. behavior of others can be imputed into actor unconsciously and is
considered “influenced”.
Types of social action:
instrumentally rational - expectations to behave as the objects in environment,
conditions and means for the attainment of actors own ends and means.
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value-rational - conscious belief in the value for its own sake of some ethical
aesthetic religious behavior independent of its prospects of success.
effectual- emotional - determined by actors specific affects and feelings
traditional - ingrained habitualization
(reactive type of imitation).
(uncontrolled reaction to exceptional stimulus).
(persons who act to put into practice their convictions of what seems to them to be required of
duty no matter what it consists of.)
(action is instrumentally rational- when the end, the means and the 2nd results are all rationally
evaluated.)
(finding concrete examples of social action is rare)
I could somewhat follow this section, although it is called basic terms, some of the
chapter was difficult to understand after re-reading over and over. worth trying to decipher again
if using these terms later.
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Social Theory rewired, chp. 21
Marcuse, H. (2012). One dimensional man. In W. Longhofer & D. Winchester (Eds.), Social
Theory re-wired (pp. 283- 291). New York, NY: Routledge.
Suppression of individuals in society, the advanced industrial society
Requirements if individuals wanted to liberate
Rights and liberties for people are losing their original meanings in the new society.
Non-conformity/opposition of the new society is socially useless (threatens the smooth
operation). if individuals werent compelled to prove himself (on market) as free economic
subject, that would disappear. structure of human existence would change! this would allow for
individual to have self autonomy.
Totalitarianism - individual controlled by the state ; strict control over all aspects of life. New
industrial society is totalitarian
Machines - man makes machines, but machines have power that exceed man, however machines
have power from man, therefore machines are a potential freedom for man.
Economic freedom, political freedom and intellectual freedom - can not happen due to needs and
satisfactions of individuals
Needs - depend on if it can be desirable and necessary for prevailing societal institutions
and interests.
False needs - those needs superimposed upon an individual by social interests (relaxation,
having fun, loving and hating what others love and hate).
True - nourishment, clothing, shelter
The judgement of needs involves priority.
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Liberation - depends on consciousness of servitude. The consciousness of this is hampered by
the ‘needs and satisfactions’.
Equalization of class distinction is NOT the disappearance of class ( upper class and lower
classes have similar needs and satisfactions).
Advanced industrial society:
1.
effective suffocation of needs which demand liberation
“transplantation of social into individual needs is so effective that difference between
them seems to be purely theoretical” pg. 286 example: difference between the media being an
instrument for education or entertainment.
2. “Rational character of its irrationality productively and efficiency (capacity to increase and
spread comforts) the extent to which this civilization transforms the object world into an
extension of mans mind and body” pg. 287
people see themselves in their stuff (commodities).
Introjection - suggests variety of spontaneous processes by which a self transpose the outer into
the inner.
Alienation is questionable since individuals identify themselves with the existence that is
imposed on them. the identification is now reality. Absorption of ideology into society.
scientific method - operational = physical science and behavioral = social science
concept is the operation (of something) -> the concept of length is determined by the operation to
determine length. “concept is synonymous with the set of operations” pg. 288
“to adopt the operational point of view involves much more than a mere restriction of the sense
in which we understand ‘concept’, but means a far-reaching change in all our habits of though, in
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that we shall no longer permit ourselves to use as tools in our thinking concepts of which we
cannot give an adequate account in terms of operations’ P.W. Bridgman pg. 288
I believe this section is talking about the fetishism of commodities in the new society that
is causing individuals to not care about liberation because they are identifying with their reality
and society, therefore they are no longer a threat to the industrial society for wanting to be ‘free’
because their wants and needs are clouding their vision.
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Social theory rewired, chp. 22
Habermas, J. (2012). Toward a rational society. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.),
Social Theory re-wired (pp 292-298). New York, NY: Routledge.
Relationship between science and literature
C.P. Snow
Science - strictly empirical sciences
Literature - methods of interpretation and cultural sciences
Aldous Huxley
Literature makes statements about private experiences.
Science about intersubjectively accessible experiences.
Public versus private
Juxtaposes: Social life world & wordless universe of facts
Separate but need each other to comprehend facts
A scientist lives in a world of “inferred fine structures and quantified regularities”. pg. 292
The world of literature is where humans love, live, die, have fun, have despair, share language,
etc” pg. 292
“Knowledge is power” pg. 293
“Literature should assimilate scientific statements as such, so that science can take on ‘flesh and
blood’” pg. 293
“Understand that cosmos as a while yields norms of individual human behavior, and it is through
the actions of the philosophically educated that theory assumes a positive form” pg. 294. - those
who want to understand human behavior must understand science and technology first.
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scientific transformation of medicine (all other areas of social labor “have to assume the form of
technical control of objectified processes” pg. 294).
Direction of the progress of technology is dependent on social interests.
This is a short section, and I still didnt understand it. We reviewed a few quotes in class,
but since I was not allowed to keep the paper I am not sure which ones and what they mean, so
even after the explanation Im still unsure.
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Social theory rewired, chp. 23
Foucault, M. (2012). Discipline and punish. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.). Social
Theory re-wired (pp. 299- 309). New York, NY: Routledge.
Economy of punishment - the change from public punishment to private surveillance
Old style of punishment (1757) -drawn and quartered in public description from pg. 299-300
(1830 ies) Punishment for “House of young prisoners in Paris” described - vigorous, long days
of hard work. pg. 300-301
Disappearance of torture as punishment in public.
Panopticon - building design by Bentham - circular building with a tower in the center for
observation of inner rooms/cells all around the periphery. This can be used for “madman,
patient, condemned man, worker or schoolboy” pg. 302
Those in cells/rooms can be seen by the supervisor in the tower, but can not see the supervisor,
“he is seen, but he does not see; he is the object information, never a subject in communication”
pg. 302 . This design can limit riots, spread of disease, copying/cheating, theft and promote
work.
“Automatizes bad dis-individualizes power” pg. 303
Dyad - two pieces ( see and be seen)
Anyone can control it
Homogenous effects of power
Julius
Since old society was public, new society had turned to a more private way of life. Society was
now about surveillance.
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Main point is that modern society has created the need (?) for constant surveillance,
however we have made it so that we never know who and when we are being watched, if at all.
My thought (maybe it is addressed in this section, not sure because half of it I didnt understand),
the constant surveillance, or the thought of being watched all the time creates a semi-comfort
level with surveillance that we forget its there and therefore dont care if it is, allowing for
constant privacy breaches (NSA).
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Social theory rewired, chp. 24
Giddens, A. (2012). The consequences of modernity. In Longhoefer, W., & Winchester, D.
(Eds.) Social Theory re-wired. pp. 310-322. New York, NY: Routledge.
Capitalism, industrialism, surveillance, control of the means of violence - giddens states
these are all separate (Foucault states they are all due to capitalism).
Pre Modern- humans see themselves as continuous with nature (indigenous peoples)
Modern- shaped by the alliance of science and technology, transforms the world of nature
(become separate from it). use science and technology to control nature.
Must trust systems and people we do not know in order to survive.
Ways to separate traditional society from modern - pace of change, scope of change, nature of
modern institutions.
“capitalism - system of commodity production, centered upon the relation between private
ownership of capital and propertyless wage labor.
industrialism - use of inanimate sources of material power in the production of goods, coupled to
the central role of machinery in the production process.” pg. 311
Capitalistic societies are a sub category of modern society.
Development of surveillance - may direct or indirect
industrialization of war
“capitalism involves the insulation of the economic from the political against the
backdrop competition labor and product markets. surveillance is fundamental to all the types of
organization associated with the rise of modernity, in particular the nation-state. Substantive
connections between the surveillance operations of nation-states and the altered nature of
military power. The successful monopoly of the means of violence on the part of the modern
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state rests upon the secular maintenance of new codes of criminal law, control of deviance.
Relationship between military and industrialism is the industrialization of war. Industrialism and
capitalism are related.” pg. 313
Abstract systems - provide security for day to day life. Surrounding knowledge. (examples:
getting on a plane and flying to another city/country, turning on the lights, getting cash from an
ATM). Trust in abstract systems is not psychologically rewarding. transformation of intimacy.
Acceleration of globalization links things originally thought unrelated as now related (example:
nursing a child and a reactor incident in the Ukraine). pg. 316
Globalization - pg. 316-319
“Low probability, high-consequence risks will not disappear in the modern world” pg. 319
Susan Sontag - “a permanent modern scenario: apocalypse looms- and it doesnt occur. And it
still looms. ... Apocalypse now is a long-running serial: not ‘Apocalypse Now’, but ‘Apocalypse
from now on’.” pg. 320
“local knowledge”
risks can be ignored during daily life - eating healthy when food is laced with poison from
surrounding sources.
“Trust and risk, opportunity and danger” pg. 321
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Social theory rewired, chp. 25
Du Bois, W.E.B. (2012). The souls of black folks. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.)
Social Theory re-wired. pp. 331-336. New York, NY: Routledge.
This section describes the difference between white people and black people in and how
black people still feel as though they do not belong free amongst everyone else, “ Then it
dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap,
in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.” pp. 331 “…born with
a veil, and gifted with second-sight.In this american world, - a world which yields him no true
self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through he revelation of the other world. It is a
peculiar sensation, this double - consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through
the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on unamused
contempt and pity.”pp. 332 “The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has
not yet found in freedom the promised land.” pp. 333
This is a great inside view of how it feels for black people in american (specifically) as
being free however treated as though they are still slaves and do not belong free among the rest
of Americans. Unfortunately this is still very true and real, even in 2014. Even though Americans
made great strides with the civil rights movement, there are still many people who treat black
people differently and although it is slightly better, the same struggle can be said for the LGBT
population. This was difficult at first to understand in 300 until we discussed it and I read
through it again.
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De Beauvoir, S. (2012). The second sex. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.) Social
Theory re-wired. pp. 337-346. New York, NY: Routledge.
“‘But first, what is a woman? Tota mulier inutero: she is a womb’, some say. Yet
speaking of certain women, the experts proclaim, ‘they are not women,’ even though they have a
uterus like the others. Everyone agrees there are females in the human species; today, as in the
past, they make up about half of humanity; and yet we are told that ‘femininity is in jeopardy’;
we are urged, ‘be women, stay women, become women.’ So not every female human being is
necessarily a woman; she must take part in this mysterious and endangered reality known as
femininity.”pp. 337 “Saint Thomas in his turn decreed that woman was an ‘incomplete man,’ an
‘incidental’ being… Humanity is male, and man defines woman, not in herself, but in relation to
himself; she is not considered an autonomous being” pp. 338 “…he is the subject; he is the
Absolute. She is the Other.” pp. 339
As with all the other sections in this book, it took a few times and an actual discussion to
understand the key concepts. After understanding it, being able to pick out the great statements
becomes easy, however this would be difficult as with any section, to do this without a
discussion and explanation by a professor. This section is describing how woman are only seen
as the opposite, or the lesser version of a man. They are not known as their own category, but
rather the Other category in comparison to man. Women are defined by what men are not. The
woman is the other to Man (or ONE). There is always One, and the Other, and man is One,
woman is the Other. In order for the other to be the other, first ‘One’ must dictate themselves as
‘One’, and then dictate ‘Other’, and ‘Other’ must accept the position as ‘Other’.
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Said, E. (2012). Orientalism. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.) Social Theory re-wired.
pp. 372-387. New York, NY: Routledge.
“Yet the Orientalist makes it his work to be always converting the Orient from something
into something else; he does this for himself, for the sake of his culture, in some cases for what
he believes is the sake of the Oriental” pg. 385
Orientalism - refers to the way Western regions thought of themselves in relation to the
perceived idea of the Orient ( in which the Orient is less advanced). The thoughts and preconceived ideas of what the Orient consists of by those who have not traveled are based on art
and stories by those who have been there. False cultural assumptions made by western society
created the facade of “The Orient”. It is important to understand Said’s theory about the
perceptions of the orient because they are based on books, art, manuscripts and not real life
experiences. For the U.S. this means that Arabs and Muslims are perceived as terrorists or oil
suppliers and nothing more. This image of the Orient is ever changing, and the Orientalist
continues to change the image as much as he can so that the correct image emerges to the
western world. There continues to be a false image of the Orient by the western world (US),
assuming all middle eastern people are terrorists and are living in less advanced societies.
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Social theory rewired, chp. 30
Smith, D. (2012). The conceptual practices of power. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.)
Social Theory re-wired. pp. 388-394. New York, NY: Routledge.
“It is not enough to supplement an established sociology by addressing ourselves to what
has been left out or overlooked, or by making women’s issues into sociological terms. That does
not change the standpoint built into existing sociological procedures, but merely makes the
sociology of women an addendum to the body of objectified knowledge.” pp.388 “What I am
suggesting is more in the nature of reorganization of the relationship of sociologists to the object
of our knowledge and of our problematic.” pp. 391 Standpoint Theory - The conceptual practices
of power- No such thing as a purely objective standpoint. No view can be unaffected or
unbiased. Based on a males perspective in the subject, male bias.
The position you are to an object determines your view. A specific sociology for women
would allow for the knowledge of the properties related directly to the lives of women. “The
relation of observer and object of observation, of sociologist to ‘subject,’ is a specialized social
relationship.” pp. 391 This is a section that describes the everyday, obvious facts that we live
with yet need to be written out for us to read to understand.
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Social Theory Re-wired section 31
Collins, P. (2012). Black feminist thought. In Longhofer, W. & Winchester, D. (Eds.), Social
Theory re-wired, pp.395-414. New York, NY: Routledge.
“On the one hand, democratic promises of individual freedom, equality under the law,
and social justice are made to all American citizens. Yet on the other hand, the reality of
differential group treatment based on race, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship status
persists… However, when African americans, poor people, women, and other groups
discriminated against see little hope for group based advancement, this situation constitutes
social injustice.” pp. 395 “The mind of the man and the mind of the woman is the same, but this
business of living makes women use their minds in ways that men don't even have to think
about.” pp. 396 “Matrix of domination -overall social organization within which intersecting
oppressions originate, develop and are contained.”pp. 398
Collins discusses that although many races, sexualities, genders, etc. all experience
discrimination, she focuses on African american women and their struggle and continued
oppression in the U.S.
I agree with many of her statements in this section, such as white women are encouraged
to reproduce yet black women are not, however I do not believe this just black women, but rather
anyone who is not white. Also the statement regarding white men in education dictating what
women could produce, I believe this of course affects black women, but also women in general,
and probably also men of other ethnicities. I believe we lived, and continue to live in the nation
of the white man, regardless of what people say, white men control the U.S.
Social theory rewired, chp. 32
Page 43 of 180
Mead, G.H. (2012). The self. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (Eds.) Social Theory re-wired.
pp. 423-438. New York, NY: Routledge.
“The self is something which has a development; it is not initially there, at birth, it arises
in the process of social experience and activity, that is, develops in the given individual as a
result of his relations to that process as a while and to other individuals within that process.” pp.
423
I believe this section is really pointing out the obvious and attempting to explain it, as is
always the difficult part with theories. Mead states that each person has a ‘self’, which is separate
from a physical thing, such as the body. It defines the person, allows for recognizable traits in
each person. This can also be considered a role, where he explains using children taking on
different roles while growing up and in play with other children. He then discusses the “I” and
the “me” and how that is created and utilized. “The ‘I’ reacts to the self which arises through the
taking of the attitudes of others. Through taking those attitudes we have introduced the ‘me’ and
we react to it as an ‘I’.” pp. 434
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Social theory rewired, chp. 35
Goffman, E. (2012). The presentation of self in everyday life. In Longhofer, W., & Winchester,
D. (Eds.) Social Theory re-wired. pp. 452-463. New York, NY: Routledge.
“When an individual plays a part he implicitly requests his observers to take seriously the
impress that is fostered before them. They are asked to believe that the character they see
actually possesses the attributes he appears to possess, that the task he performs will have the
consequences that are implicitly claimed for it,and that, in general, matters are what they appear
to be.” pp. 452 (The) Front - The ‘equipment’ presented and carried by the performer throughout
the performance. The setting they are in and props with that setting, this does not follow the
performer, the personal front are things that would follow a performer, such as sex,clothing,
speech, gestures, etc. Impression Management - Time spent managing the expected impressions
we are portraying to the audience, how we want to be perceived and the maintenance we must do
to uphold those impressions (which changes between audiences).
Finally, after reading the entire book, and going over sections multiple times, I
understand this one for the most part on the first read. Of course, after a classroom discussion,
studying for the theory test and a few re-reads, I actually enjoy this section and identity with it
the most. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Dr. Shank on my theory exam, I see it as only a
negative effect and not a positive one. Of course, playing a role can be both a positive or
negative thing, but my own mind reverts directly to the negative. If you are playing a role, even
if it is YOUR role, somehow to me that seems wrong. I play a role at work that is much different
from my school persona and both of those are different from what I project to my close friends,
and of course there is a different role I hold with my husband and family. For some reason to me
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that all seems negative in a way, however I understand how playing a role can also be positive,
but you are still playing a role, which is not necessarily for you, but everyone else.
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Nicole Perez
SBS 300
Coleman-Jensen, A.J. (2010). U.S. food insecurity status: Toward a refined definition. Social
Indicators Research, 95 (2), pp. 215-230. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/
40542287
This article is about food insecurity. Specifically, the author discusses the definition of
food insecurity and the marginal food insecure households that the USDA considers food secure.
Because of their consideration at food secure, they do not qualify for aid and therefore have a
lower quality of life.
Discusses how the USDA categorizes food secure & insecure families using CPS and
FSS. Other main components of the paper discuss the adverse affects of food insecurity, or even
food anxiety as the author explains is a precursor to food insecurity. She discusses the health
issues related to food insecurity such as obesity and map nutrition due to poor diets.
Discussion includes types of households more common to experience food insecurity, such as
racial differences (blacks are 53% more likely to be food insecure, p.223), households where
head is not a college graduate are more likely to be food insecure, older households are less
likely, and households with children are more likely to be marginally food insecure.
Conclusion: USDA categories must be evaluated to reach the households that need help since
majority of those who are marginally food insecure fall under the current category of food
secure. Current measurement of food insecure households underestimates the amount of food
insecure households in the United States.
This article was very helpful while writing my theory/social issue paper.
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DeLuca, L. (2009). Transnational migration, the lost girls of sudan and global "care work": A
photo essay. Anthropology of Work Review, XXX(1), 13-15.
“This essay explores the work lives of a group of Sudanese refugees known popularly
as the LostGirls of Sudan.” pp.13 “This essay tracks the work lives of Lost Girls living in the
Rocky Mountain region…” pp.14
This short article reviews the lost girls of Sudan who have successfully reached
America. Although the have ‘escaped’ Sudan, they are forced into work positions that continue
to
subjugate them. These positions are in the “care work”, including food service, nursing workers,
care aids for elderly and disabled persons. These girls aspire to obtain professional careers,
however it is unsure how these low wage and care positions determine their future due to the
limited opportunities available to them.
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Deng, F. M. (2006). Sudan: A nation in turbulent search of itself. Annal of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, 603(Jan), 155-162. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable25097762
This article is a review of the history and present state of Sudan and the issues it carries
due to its history. This article was assigned for reference to be used in an essay on a memoir
written by a few lost boys from Sudan. “The North had implemented Arabization and
Islamization and attempted to put this in effect in the South, however the South had been
influenced by Christianity and western cultures, causing the two regions to have opposite ideas
of what their country should be (Deng, 2006,156 ). The SPLM/A’s goal with the second civil
war was to “restructure the country into a New Sudan that would be free from any discrimination
due to race, ethnicity, religion, culture, or gender” (Deng, 2006,158 ). In 2005 a comprehensive
peace deal was agreed upon to end the war and in 2011 the South was able to become its own
country, South Sudan ("Sudan profile," September). The historical Southern perspectives of
Rolandsen and Deng are similar in that the country as a whole had been seeking refuge from
each invading country, and because of its constant struggle, forced the hand that then caused the
divide between the North and the South, with the South paying the price (2005, and 2006).” - as
used in my essay.
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Edwards, M. E., Weber, B., & Bernell, S. (2007). Identifying factors that influence state-specific
hunger rates in the U.S.: A simple analytic method for understanding a persistent
problem. Social Indicators Research, 81 (3), p579-595. Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20734440
This article is demonstrating the ability to calculate the numbers on sub groups that are
affected by hunger and different conditions that may be the cause in different states. It takes 5
states that different percentages of hunger rates and compares them using their process.
Main points:
Food insecurity causes inequities in quality of life
Methods on how hunger is ‘calculated’ by government
‘Common’ demographics that experience hunger
Comparisons of 5 states (Oregon, California, Texas, Florida, Minnesota)
Food Security Supplement- FSS
Current Population Survey - CPS conducted by the Census Bureau. This survey is done by
interviewing households about past 12 months that cover “conditions and behaviors know to
characterize households having difficulty meeting basic food needs” pg. 580. These answers
place households into one of three categories: food secure, food insecure without hunger and
food insecure with hunger. Interview approximately 50,000 households, surveys are done in
March where households are asked about the past 4 months, then not interviewed for 8 months
then reinterviewed the next same 4 months the following years. pg. 584.
“food secure - all household members had access at all times to enough food for an
active, healthy life”. pg. 580
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“food insecure- households were uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food
to meet basic needs for all household members because they had insufficient money and other
resources for food”. pg. 580
“food insecure with hunger- to the extent that one or more household members were
hungry, at least some time during the year, because they could not afford enough food”. pg. 580
Since 1997, U.S. Department of Agriculture has shown that 3% of households experience
food shortage. pg. 581
Hunger in the United States tends to follow a ‘crescent’ shape from the Northwest (Oregon)
through California to the Southwest and into the “deep south”. pg. 581
Midwest and Northeast states do not have high hunger rates despite their high populations.
Nationally hunger tends to be in racial and ethnic groups, poor families and single mother
families.
The states in the ‘crescent’ are more vulnerable to hunger. HIgh population does not equal high
levels of hunger. Some states show high hunger levels and low percentages of racial/ethnic
minorities.
Possible explanations of hunger; some groups who may normally not be vulnerable to
hunger are in some states. Groups that are less vulnerable to hunger at national level may be
highly vulnerable in their state.
1996-2001 - Oregon has the highest hunger rates in the U.S. 5-6%, during the same time
they had a an economic ‘boom’.
Households with income below 100% the US poverty line are poor, those between 100200% are near poor and those above 200% are not poor. pg. 584
Unemployment, household structure, home ownership can affect hunger.
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Results discussed; charts shown.
Comparisons of Oregon, California, Texas, Florida and Minnesota’s hunger rates.
Good article that proves that the normal ideas of hunger do not necessarily apply, good
data and good facts to use for household, income and home ownership topics.
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Rolandsen, O.H. (2005). Guerilla government: Political changes in the southern Sudan during
the 1990’s. Uppsala: Nordiska-Afrikainstituet.
2. The main focus for this section of the book reviews the history of Sudan’s political issues for
the past 50 years and it’s civil wars.
3. Points of this section are;
a. Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army’s (SPLM/A) influence over the political
development in Southern Sudan.
b. Nation Convention - which would eventually announce “New Sudan”.
c. First and second Civil wars and their effect on Southern Sudan.
4.
Sudan is non-unified, only small parts are feel a belonging due to colonial rule/post
colonial order that left the borders of Sudan unchanged.
Southerns had a sense of alienation, also Northerners would invade and take slaves from the
south. The British conquered Sudan (from egyptian rule) in 1898. To Southerners it did not make
a difference who was in control of the country ( Turks, Mahdist or the British). There was
unequal development in the North and South. The Closed Districts Ordinance of 1922 and the
Trade Ordinance in 1925 were created to protect Southerner from Northern trading and
dominance. Systems of ‘ indirect’ rule were established in North and South (‘indirect’ rule was
maintained to preserve the way of living and cost-effectiveness for Southerners). First Civil War
started about a year before Sudans Independence Day (January 1 1956). A mutiny in 1955 of
southern soldiers in Equatoira Corops at Torit was the start of the war. For the first five years
there was minimal fighting. In 1958 a coup lead by General Abbud ousted the civilian regime in
Khartoum which lead to a full war. Abbud had a program of Islamisation which lead to more
repression in the south. In 1955, education southerners joined others to create the SPLM/A,
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while other groups were named Anyanya. Abbud was ousted in 1964. Joseph Lagu was a leader
of a Anyanya group and established a joint military group with other armed groups and made
himself leader. He would then negotiate with Jafar Nimeri, creating a peace agreement known as
the Addis Ababa Agreement in 1972. With the AAA, political development was supposed to
occur in the South, however it never materialized. Foreign NGO’s took advantage of the south as
a challenge to develop aid. This undermined the government to do their job but also allowed
them to not have to do anything for the south. Second civil war started with mutiny in Bor, 1983.
Anyanya fighters claim the first war never ended when they did not agree with the AAA.
Politics: Sudan experienced a brief parliament democracy in 1954-1958 and the new regime was
dominated by 3 groups struggling over power; Umma (lead by Sadiq al Mahdi) Democratic
Unionist Party and the National Islamic Front. Western support to Sudan were crumbling around
1989. John Garang was asked to mediate between mutineers but eventually joined them and
created the SPLM/A. According to Lam Akol, John made all the decisions with a small group of
aides. The Political Military High Command was the highest decision making body of SPLM/A
but did not decide anything. The SPLM/A did not want to work with foreign NGO’s therefore
even with the high demand for humanitarian aid in the south, only after the New Sudan Council
of Churches was established in 19989 did more aid reach that area. Operation Lifeline Sudan
(OLS) came into southern sudan after 250,000 people died of hunger in 1988. Agreements were
signed between UK, Khartoum and the SPLM/A to not let that happen again. In 1991 the
SPLM/A split.
Continuity and instability - two themes of Southern Sudans history.
5. Review: This section of the book gives a good, overall idea of what was happening in Sudan
and how everything came to be with the wars. It is difficult for my to follow and organize my
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thoughts when sections are not put into chronological order instead of sections on issues. I have
to think back to the previous section and remember dates about what was going on with rebel
groups in certain years during a new section on political issues that is reviewing the same years. I
wish it would all be time period to time period with everything during that time discussed. This
section does review good dates and events that happened, however I wold probably need to do
further research on events to understand completely, or read the rest of the book to get a better
idea of the whole picture. This was meant as a intro to the other required text for this class,
which was helpful to have a background of what was happening in a country since the’ ‘lost
boys’ did not know and did not discuss it in their recounts.
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Gundersen, C., & Oliveira, V. (2001). The food stamp program and food insufficiency. American
Journal of Agricultural Economics, 83 (4), pp. 875-887. Stable URL: http://
www.jstor.org/stable/1244700
Food Stamp Program and food insufficiency
Main Points:
Qualifying households- requirements and variables that lead people to become eligible
Theoretical Models
Food stamp program does not rid of food insufficiency
Food insufficiency is related to food intake. The lack of intake causes households to lack
nutrients. “Mean food intake for children in food insufficient households than those in food
sufficient households.” pg. 875 Decrease in nutrients was between 8-18% ( in 1989-1991 pg.
875).
Food stamp program is meant to be the ‘safety net’ against hunger, however does not
prevent the participant from spending most of their money early in the month causing “lean”
days at the end. “The program does not ensure food sufficiency” pg. 876. Thrift Food Program TFP
Stigma to the program.
“food stamp participation is not associated with an increased probability of food insufficiency”
pg. 879
Sample from data used was 24,158, out of that, 3,452 households were eligible for the food
stamp program. pg.879
“ 4 categories of households in sample:
food sufficient and receive food stamps = 36.1%
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food insufficient and receive food stamps = 3.5%
food insufficient and do NOT receive food stamps = 58.1%
food sufficient and do NOT receive food stamps = 2.3% “ pg. 879
Variables - homeownership status, race/ethnicity, household structure, education status,
employment status.
Food insufficient households, regardless of participation in the program, were insufficient in
nutrients.
Overall, feel that food stamps do not relieve food insufficiency for those who are food
insufficient, however the system can be fixed by minimizing or eliminating the bias associated
with it and the over/under reporting that goes along with it. Also, the study recommends research
into soup kitchens and food banks as an extension of the ‘safety net’.
Good article showing another view about food stamps since many believe that is they key
to stopping hunger. There is a lot of method and formulas to explain much of the data so it is
difficult to understand where they are getting their facts.
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Kabanni, N. S. & Kmeid, M. Y. (2005). The role of food assistance in helping food
insecure households escape hunger. Review of agriculture economics, 27 (3),
439-445. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3700872
This report covers the Food service programs and National school lunch programs and
their roles in helping qualifying families ‘escape’ hunger.
Main points:
Previous research proving the FSP and NSLP help reduce hunger in households with
school age children. Methods of their research (formula);Qualifications for ‘aid’; Data;
Conclusion
Previous research shows that use of assistance programs does reduce hunger. Previous analysis
done through spring and summer months.
One study showed that using “FSP was associated with low rates of exit from food
insufficiency” pg. 440 and another study showed that “leaving the FSP was associated with
higher odds of remaining ofd insecure or becoming food insecure” pg. 440
Methods -formula used to evaluate data from USDA (the food security supplements of
the current population survey- “FSS-CPS”) for 12 month periods and thirty day scales. FAP
(food assistance program) variable = participation in the FSP and NSLP - most data only
available for thirty days prior to interviews conducted by authors. Limited their data to show
only households that were under the income cut offs for each the FSP and NSLP.
The results were limited due to; 1. households recalling only recent events where they were food
insecure 2. the FSS-CPS allows for only information from the past thirty days for the FSP and
NSLP 3. can only identify households that are in or transition out of food insecurity.
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Data is from April 1995,1997,1999 and 2001 from FSS-CPS. CPS is a monthly surgery of
households conducted by the Census Bureau (approximately 50,000 households). The April data
is used due to the seasonality variations through spring and summer.
Classifications of households include; food secure, food insecure without hunger and food
insecure with hunger.
Eligible populations:
FSP: households must have gross income under 130% of FEDERAL poverty guidelines
and assets under $2,000. FSP provides coupons/ benefit cards for qualified members to buy food
at local businesses.
NSLP: Income must be less than 185% of poverty guidelines for reduced meal prices and
incomes less than 130% to qualify for free meals. (the CPS does not distinguish between those
receiving free or reduced meals, therefore the authors did so).
Results:
Sample size: 2,505
81% were food insecure 30 days prior to interview
42% received food stamps (with the average benefit amount $57 per person)
75% with school-aged children received free or reduced meals ( 80% for households
with incomes less than 130% of poverty threshold).
Families with a ‘head of household’ that was employed are less likely to be food insecure than
those who’s ‘head’ was unemployed.
Conclusion: FSP and NSLP are very important in helping with food insecurity.
This is a short, good article with some basic information that was good to start my
research for this topic. Definitely useful but could be expanded.
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Lang, T., & Barling, D. (2012). Food security and food sustainability: reformulating the debate.
The Geographical Journal. 178 (4), pp. 313-326. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4959.2012.00480x.
This article covers the recent history of the food system and government programs meant
to help minimize hunger. It discusses the different systems, what was done in the past, the ideas
of what needs to be done to help to create a food sustainable system.
Old policy and trying to make new policies
Farming vs industry, chain of food travel
Nutrition effects on food system and health
“Food Security - a situation that exists when all people at all times have physical, social
and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life” ( UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, pg. 313).
Overall goal - create more food using less land and water to be sustainable and help
protect the Earth.
Rise of oil prices created a corporate involvement in 2006-2008. Developing countries were
greatly affected due to the rise in fuel and the banking bubble burst which effected the economy.
Nutrition Transition - discussed by the UN, FAO and world health organization; “process by
which, as societies become richer, diets alter towards more complex, sweeter fattier, processed
foods, which in turn generate diet-related ill health patterns associated with affluence” - Popkin
pg. 314.
In 2008 a task force (High Level Task Force) was implemented to create a a
“Comprehensive Framework of Action”- In responding to the food price crisis they developed 4
steps; 1. emergency funding for immediate relief/aid. 2. proposed better management systems on
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food harvest and production. 3. promotion of a productionist agriculture technology. 4. activate
more civil society participation. All these were to help developing countries not get worse.
2009 FAO showed that 1.023 billion people were hungry - pg. 315.
FAO: 1969-1971 26% world population was hungry, 2006-2008 13%. In 2011 they were above 1
billion.
Old policy - combine science and technology, capital investment will enable food
production to increase, distribution would be better, waste would be reduced, and food prices
would come down. - pg. 316
Farm:
Some farming has turned into commodity production. Farm vs food issue with fair trade,
supermarkets and profits as food travels down the chain. Previously policy relied on farming.
Chains between farm and consumer have gotten longer. Power of consumers is minimal
compared to retail/ companies.
Labor efficiency:
Shift of labor from rural farming to urban off-farm. De-ruralization ( more people living in urban
areas).
Big Business:
Sustainable Agricultural Initiative began in 2002, created by Danone, Nestle and Unilever and
also includes Kellogg’s, Kraft, McDonalds,Pepsico and SaraLee - aim to support sustainable
agriculture and communicate issues.
Western Consumption:
Supermarkets (in western cultures) represent a food culture of choice and desire as compared to
the past food culture of need and restricted choices. This is where the Nutrition Transition comes
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in, while there are choices, those choices tend to be the sugary, fatty, processed foods. Higher
meats, dairy and soft drink consumption is leading to health issues AND ecological issues with
land,water grain, etc. -pg. 319.
“Farm animals have been accounted for 31% of Green House Gases (GHG’s) and the fertilizers
for the land at 38% of the Nitrous oxide levels.” pg. 319
Sustainability of diet:
Policy makers are struggling with “what is a good diet and does the food system integrate the
human and ecological health to accomplish it?” - pg. 319. Old idea was to lower food prices.
Global issue is trying to make a sustainable diet a global sustainable diet.
Power relations:
Newer definition of what food security should include: “availability, adequacy,
accessibility, acceptability and agency” Rocha, pg. 320
UK’s Sustainable Development Commission has developed a new definition/goal of food
security to address both the security of food and where that food is coming from, “sustainable
food systems, where the core goal is to feed everyone sustainably, equitably and healthily; which
addresses the need for availability, affordability and access ability, which is diverse,
ecologically-sound and resilient; and which builds the capabilities and skills necessary for future
generations” pg. 321
Complex policies and groups trying to come together for one solution.....
I thought this was going to be a good article to use, however it addresses more of the
industrial, company and policy side of the issue where as my social action is more of the
availably of food to lower income families and the healthy food available to them. I am not sure
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if this article will be of use to my paper but it was interesting to get a different view of the issue
(global and commercial sides).
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Mammen, S., Bauer, J.W. & Richards, L. (2009). Understanding persistent food insecurity: A
paradox of place and circumstance. Social Indicators Research, 92 (1), pp. 151-168.
Stable URL :http://www.jstor.org/stable/27734856
Study that shows families in food insecure states and food secure states are just as likely
to be food insecure. “low income rural families in states usually considered prosperous seem to
experience greater food insecurity than those in less prosperous states.” pg. 152 . The study
reviews that for insecure households can have developmental and health issues due to the lack of
sufficient, healthy food.
Families in rural settings are more often facing employment issues which can lead to
financial issues, which makes it difficult to escape poverty, continuing the cycle into food
insecurity. The study discusses the alternatives used by families and single mothers to help curb
hunger and stretch food. Many choose food that is cheaper and less nutritious, fore go meals, or
if possible, send their kids to extended family households for meals. Many of these households
had to chose between paying mortgages and buying food. The assumption of government
programs is that households in these circumstances will rely on extended family, however they
must utilize these programs just stay afloat.
Conclusion is that policy makers must address these programs and how they help families
that actually qualify for them as well as possibly adjusting the eligibility to reach the households
that need help.
This paper was very helpful in my theory essay regarding Food insecurity in the United
States.
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Nyabera, E. (2002). Man-eating lions, crocodiles,famine... . Refugees. 1(126), 8-9.
Two page ‘article’ in the Refugee magazine by The UN Refugee Agency. Discusses the matter
of lost Sudan girls who were forgotten amidst the lost Boys of Sudan’s publicity. Many of
these experienced the same journey as the boys, starvation, fear of wild animals, severe weather,
etc. When the arrived at the refugee camp, they dealt with issues of being fostered out to
families due to cultural expectations of women. Many were attempted to sold into marriages,
attacked in the middle of the night and raped. Most become servants to their foster families or
husbands and are not allowed access to education.
This article discusses the irony that the lost boys make it to the refugee camp and have
the ability (access) to a new life. They can stay with their friends or brothers in the camp, have
access to the school/education at the camp and can be selected to leave. The lost girls however,
are no better off at the camp than suffering in the desert. They are young servants being used for
free labor and the potential to be sold for cattle (source of wealth for her foster family). They are
forced to cook the food for the men in the camp if they are able to stay at the camp, are often
attacked and raped by men, however if it is known they in fact have been raped, they are now
unable to get married due to their cultural traditions.
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Wallerstein, Immanuel. (2003) .Anthropology, Sociology, and Other Dubious Disciplines.
Current Anthropology, Volume 44, Number 4, 453-465. (13)
1. The main topic in this article is that the social sciences of today are organized for the 19th
century and are out of date. Wallerstein makes a point that the system is organized so
students and faculty can not be successful in their corresponding fields due to the
organization. Wallerstein does mention that the institutional framework is good, however
it could be better and more useful for everyone through reconstruction.
2. The main points in the article are;
a.Disciplines are intellectual categories, institutional structures, cultures and disciplines.
b. Three types of scholars that effect the fields; classic nomothetic vision, idiographic tradition
and persons who do not identify with either of the previously mentioned, acknowledged in the
article as 'other'.
c.Social Sciences have little to show for themselves after 150 years of work, funds can be
difficult for the social sciences at a university, possible restructuring by administrators at the
university to help with the economic status of the program and therefore a local restructuring and
not a universal restructuring of social sciences.
d.“Harvesting” the cultures of social science – getting the useful information out.
4. Disciplines are intellectual categories, a defined field with particular boundaries that
have been agreed upon to an extent. Disciplines are also institutional structures, such
as departments in a university with disciplinary names. Students can obtain a degree
in one of these departments. Books, journals and awards are also named after these
institutional structures. Disciplines are also cultures meaning that the people within
that institutional structure have similar experiences, likes, opinions, etc. Wallerstein
suggested the restructuring of the social sciences into one large group named
“historical social sciences”. However, knowing that a massive group containing all of
the current 'sub-departments' would be too general for most people, new subdepartments ( with new names), would emerge. The three different types of scholars
found within the departments would have a large effect on how it would be reorganized, however Wallerstein admits anything would still probably be better than
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what is currently in place. Classic nomothetic vision – quantitative data, idiographic
tradition- qualitative data and then 'other'- people who do not identify to either of the
previously mentioned groups, use quantitative or qualitative data as it is available.
The framework for the disciplines – constructed in 19th century are now 'organizations' with
members who identify and defend their relative 'turf' in the social sciences. Wallerstein explains
different levels of professors within the fields who may have difficulty going along with a
restructuring of their field due to the possibility of forcing them to start again in a 'new' field.
Wallerstein makes the point that the public has begun to demand proof of the work done in social
science (external pressures), which will create the need to restructure the system. Wallerstein
points out that social sciences already do not rake in the money for universities and as he
recommends possibly using the economic status of the social sciences as a way to restructure the
departments within the budget. Wallerstein does admit that although the restructuring could be
great, it would be local to that university and it's issues and not a universal restructuring.
There are concepts, variables and methods used for explanation in social sciences. Wallerstein
mentions that everyone has concepts learned throughout life (needs, interests), for variables he
recommends that everything be spoken about in the past tense, 'cultural plurals' as well as
multiple temporalities, spatialities, and TimeSpaces. Methods: small m methods and big m
methods, Wallerstein mentions that neither of these are better or worse than the other, but both
important, as well as qualitative and quantitative methods.
Wallerstein's final note is that although restructuring is key, the need for strict and permanent
structures exist as students require a credential from a program with career opportunities.
5. My thoughts on this paper are honestly minimal at this point. Unfortunately, this
paper is one of the first things I have read for my SBS major and as a transfer student
2 days into my first semester I am overwhelmed by this article. I have
summarized/annotated as best I could from reading and re-reading this article. Parts
of the article became somewhat more clear after the 5th read or so, however the vast
majority was difficult for me to understand and translate. The parts that I found
helpful were the areas of explanation of the different types of scholars found within
departments and the idea of organization into these groups to minimize inter
department, 'fruitful' arguments. For only being present at CSUMB for two days I can
already see the inter department struggles with professors. The section where
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Wallerstein explains the concepts, methods, variables and narratives had me confused
as to why it was even in the article. I understand that these things have major roles in
how departments work and how students and professors research, however I was
unsure as to how it went along with the restructuring of social sciences and how it
may affect it.
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Tagg, John. The Learning Paradigm College. Boston, Massachusetts: Anker Publishing
Company, Inc. (11)
1. Tagg's main topics are the overall idea of what college is for in a students mind, and
student self theories and motivation in school.
2. Tagg states that students are unmotivated and have learned habits that at college level
need to be unlearned. He states that high school students dont work on homework for as
long as students in industrialized countries. They do not pay attention during class. He
states that students understand the benefit of obtaining a dipolma or degree, however are
'skeptical' about the benefits of learning and schooling. High school students aim for
good grades in order to get in to college, based on an idea that college will eventually get
them a good job/career. More than 1/3 of students surveyed stated that if college wouldnt
get them a better job, they wouldnt go. Obligatory class work has a negative effect on a
student. Students who are good students have negative feelings about mandatory work,
therefore resulting in average students feeling that even more so. Tagg states that students
who do well in high school have exercised a will to do devote a high level of attention to
matters they find unrewarding. Students who are good in math find math classes boring.
Incoming students to college are in fact, new, and bring their values, attitudes and beliefs
about school with them, and the task for college is to try to change those. Most college
freshman are sick of school, after twelve years of school college is the 'last hurdle'.
Two types of achievement goals: learning goals and performance goals. Learning goals- one's
competency, understanding and appreciation for what is being learned. Performance goals – ego
goals, self enhancing goals, involve out performing others. Learning goals are long term, and
performance goals are short term. LOGO scale (learning orientation/grade orientation by Ohmer
Milton, Howard Pollio and James Ellison) found that student with a high LO and low GO were
self motivating, less stressed, employed the best study habits, and can be expected to impress
professors. Those with a low LO and high GO have high levels of anxiety and frustration, poor
study skills. Goal Orientation Inventory (done by Benjamin Dykman at Washington state
university) divided college students into two groups, validation seeking and growth seeking.
Validation seeking have a strong motivational need to establish or prove basic worth, they see it
as “on the line” when faced with a challenge. Growth seeking have a strong motivational need to
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improve themselves, realize their potential and they confront challenges. There are strong
positive correlations between validation seekers and depression and a strong negative correlation
between growth seekers and depression. “Self efficacy” is the belief in a given context that one
has the capacity to meet challenges. In achievement situations, students with high self efficacy
(even when experiencing difficulty) actively participate, achieve high levels of performance.
Students with low self efficacy show less persistence and sometimes avoid the learning
altogether. A classroom policy can force a student to be grade orientated when it becomes
necessary. A student will adapt their goals to the situation.
Entity and Incremental Theory – people tend to hold one of these two theories about their own
abilities and other peoples abilities in a given domain. Entity- intelligence and ability are
fundamentally fixed and unchanged, not subject to manipulation. They will make global
judgments about their own and others abilities. Incremental theory- believe that intelligence and
ability can be changed, subject to manipulation and malleable. They will make local judgments,
and will try and consider strategies for change. Entering into a 'challenging scholastic setting
with a belief in fixed intelligence seems to set students up for self doubt, anxiety and drops in
achievement'. Failure is much more interesting than success. It is interesting only because
success is most of the time preceded by multiple mistakes whereas the person who gives up
retains their 'unblemished record of mediocrity'. Toddlers are all incremental theorists, they
continue to try and try with a belief that they can do it. As we get older, we 'learn not to learn by
learning to fear and hide from failure'. This continued fear of failure can affect a person in their
personal life and student life. Students are not solely an entity theorist or incremental theorist.
Self theory can change over time. Modification of a self theory – 'self theories are not correlated
with goal choices but cause those choices'. Peoples theories of intelligence are malleable.
Students who are lead to believe that intelligence is fixed will sacrifice a learning opportunity
(tutoring) when there is a threat of exposing their deficiencies. Those students who believe that
intelligence is malleable take advantage of learning opportunities. Entity theorist see information
that comes back to them as evaluation whereas an incremental theorist sees that same
information as feedback. Much like an SAT, it is purely an evaluation. A rough draft essay with
suggestions for revision is feedback. To many students, evaluation is what counts. A student who
is trying to get better at something needs feedback and the student who wants praise needs an
evaluation. Culture has an effect on students and the school system in America has American
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students in comparison to Asian children working less hard. “children who believe their high
ability is sufficient to ensure success find little reason to work hard. Children who perceive
themselves having low ability and doubt that they can master their lessons through continued
effort also have little reason to work hard”. Intelligence is not fixed at birth. People differ in
potential at a young age, but people realize the possibilities they are born with through growing
and learning. “If I believe that my IQ is my destiny, it will be- but only because I believe it”.
Young children are incremental theorists, but then transition to entity around age 13. Children
believe that high effort is indicative of ability. Through life situations (social comparisons,
competition) ability status emerges as the dominant value over effort. Students prefer to be
perceived as 'able'. American youth culture believes that being seen as lazy is better than being
stupid. In a classroom, they prefer to be seen as succeeding through ability and not effort.
Students have over a 12 year school system were immersed into this and Tagg believe it is the
universities goal to change it.
3. I feel these chapters from Tagg were useful for the first and second class. I am a transfer
student coming from 10 years of “higher education” and no degree to show for it. After 2
years at a different CSU and then multiple years at a community college filling in the
spaces and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I am finally at CSUMB. However, to
be completely honest I am purely at the point where I want to be done, I want to hold a
degree (in anything) and my will to learn and not just get through this 'last hurdle' has
been squished. Understandably learning is the main key to becoming successful, but I can
not help to fall back to the ol' grades are the only thing that matter. At the very least, these
chapters have made it clear to me that I can still choose to learn, welcome feedback and it
is ok to try, and be seen trying in order to learn. I mean, school was meant to teach people
and those people were meant to learn, if no one ever learned from their professors, where
would the world be?
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Tran, A. (2013). Labor organizing and protests in foreign-direct investment factories. In Ties that
bind: Cultural identity, class, and law in vietnams’ labor resistance. (pp.181-223).
Ithaca, New York: Southeast Asia Program Publications.
Main Topic:
This chapter discuses the work conditions for migrant factory workers in Vietnam and their
struggles with low wages, difficult living conditions and their attempts to get government laws
passed for better conditions.
Points:
Minimum wages paid to workers in specific zones and the neighboring towns and their inflation
in response to migrant workers living in their cities.
Food, water conditions for workers.
Long work days and over time hours worked to sustain workers lives.
Strikes - different methods taken by workers to illicit change.
FDI companies (Foreign-direct investment enterprises) use workers from other regions
and pay them very low wages, a minimum wage that is less than the cost of living. These wages
meet 60% of the living needs, forcing workers to work long hours and over time to make up for
the other 40% as well as live with multiple people to cut cost of rent and utilities. Many of these
workers are family or village friends who moved to work in the factory together and live
together. They create new family units as their wages are not enough to ever allow them to go
home and visit except for the new year holiday.
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Many of the workers are young girls from ages 18-30. In 2008 they were 85% of factory
workers, since then it has gone down a little, from 75-70 in 2009. Approximately 1.6 million
factory employees, and 40% of the FDI factories are in Vietnam.
Previous education (some high school grads and some did not go to high school) gave
workers more technical jobs or very easy jobs. Education outside of work was near impossible
due to the cost, workers could not afford to educate themselves.
Childcare and schooling was also expensive, workers could not afford private schools
and many ‘good’ public schools did not allow migrant workers children as they were temporary
residents and did not have the “KT3” card which proved they were a permanent resident. Many
workers had to send their children to over populated public schools that were more expensive,
almost an entire months salary.
Electricity was paid for at an inflated rate for migrant workers until a law passed giving them the
low rate residents paid for it. Any extra money was sent home or spent on coffee and cigarettes,
therefore it was difficult to save any money ( “cycle of debt”).
Strikes:- messages written in bathrooms trying to unite people to strike for better wages,
rights.
Sit in strikes for higher “piece rates” when given a difficult textile to use, however many of these
rates were absorbed by multiple supervisors prior to reaching the worker that they didn’t earn
much.
Strikes against bad/rotten food being served in cafeterias where workers were forced to
buy their lunches, and bad water that made people sick. Factories contracted better food sources
and/or allowed workers to buy outside food during lunches.
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“Cicada” style factories that moved all their equipment out of the building causing workers to
stand the fence line to prevent it (companies would announce their stopping of production with
no warning and leave without having to pay workers wages, benefits etc. They would also often
rent equipment so that when they left, the actual owner of the equipment would come and the
government could not sell it to pay for the workers wages).
Very detailed chapter about the conditions of workers in factories and how their culture
has helped them survive through it. If I ever need information regarding the workers in Vietnam
and factory conditions it would be a good source.
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Nicole Perez
SBS 330 - Crime & Violence in Society w/ Dr. Baldwin
Longitudinal links between spanking and children's externalizing behaviors… Annotation
Gershoff, E., Lansford, J., Sexton, H., Davis-Kean, P & Sameroff, A. (2012). Longitudinal links
between spanking and children's externalizing behaviors in a national sample of white,
black, hispanic and asia american families. Child Development, 83 (3), pp.883-843.
Study about spanking in different ethnic families showing which families spank their
children more and which families believe it is ok.
The context of the spanking determines the outcome. If spanking is more common, it can
be less detrimental, less common the more detrimental.
Black parents spank mrs than white parents, tend to think it is more appropriate.
“Normative beliefs are more positive with black families than white and hispanics families”.
pg.438
Study: 21,260 kids enrolled in kindergarten and 3rd grade. Restrictions dwindled sample size to
11,044.
64% white (non hispanic)
49% female
12% Black (non hispanic)
5% Asian
81% of children in 2 parent families
Key Constructs to study: Spanking and child externalizing behavior
Control Variables: Family income to needs, parents education, parents marital status, parents
employment status.
Data (after sample was separated into “waves”):
80% reported spanking their kids
89% blacks ; 79% whites ; 80% hispanics ; 73% asians
In the previous week, data showed that the following percentages reported spanking their kids:
Kindergarten wave: 27% mothers ; 40% blacks ; 24% whites ; 28% hispanics ; 23%asians
3rd grade wave: 15% mothers ; 23% blacks ; 14% whites ; 13% hispanics ; 21% asians
Externalizing behavior- parent is angry/upset and spank their kids
Both blacks and hispanics spank more than whites and asians.
“Spanking children is not associated with better behavior over time”. pg 843
Page 75 of 180
Agnew, R. (1989). A longitudinal test of the revised strain theory. Journal of Quantitative
Criminology, 5 (4), pp.373-387. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23365547
Updated study on strain theory determining if delinquent behavior is related to environment.
Strain theory is used to evaluate how people react to their environments.
“delinquency is a result from inability to escape legally from painful situations” pg. 373
Environment adversity & delinquency
Agnew - revised version now focuses on “blockage of pain- avoidance behavior”. (example:
abusive parents).
Two reasons:
1. “delinquency is a means of escape from aversive environment or remove the source of
adversity” - example; adolescent runs away or assaults parent
2. “If not able to escape or remove source of adversity; strikeout at others in anger”. pg..
374
Many adolescents find school or home/family as an aversive environment. pg. 374
Data from longitudinal, nationally represented sample of adolescent boys. These aversive
situations/environments increase adolescent aggression.
Fight or flight - when flight is not possible, resort to fight.
Hard to know if environment causes delinquency or delinquency influences aversive
environment. pg. 375
Survey - Youth in Transition
Delinquency could reduce adversity by adolescent escaping source, intimidating source, venting
anger however adolescents dont have power so that doesnt work too well.
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3 different ‘measures’ used for study to determine adversity in the adolescents. ( 8 scale,
“negative school attitudes” ; 3 item scale “mean teacher”; 10 item scale “parental punitiveness” pg. 378).
“measure of adversity should be at the same level of generality as the measure of delinquency.
strain is best viewed as the overall level of adversity”. pg. 379
“revised strain theory can describe a wide range of delinquent acts since any delinquent act can
be an escape or expression of anger” pg. 383
Conclusion:
“the location of aversive environment from which one cannot legally escape increases the
likelihood of delinquency” pg. 384
why? inability to escape is frustrating and motivates/causes delinquent behavior pg. 384
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Aseltine, R.H J.r, Gore, S., & Gordon, J. (2000). Life stress, anger, anxiety, and delinquency: An
empirical test of general strain theory. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 41 (3), pp
256-275. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2676320
This article discusses General Strain theory based on Agnew’s initial explanation of it. It briefly
reviews the history of strain theory and that Agnew related it the individual and the “occurrence
of strain”. The authors discus Agnew’s strain theory and their study on students anger and
hostility.
The authors use a 3 wave sampling of students in the Boston area to evaluate their
hostility, anger and anxiety. They had 4 different hypothesis for their study, overall they state
their findings ofer “limited support for general strain theory”. However, they do also state,
“these results suggest that it is perhaps illusory to expect a single unifying theory to account for
various forms of deviance and criminality.” pg 271.
This article was extremely helpful for me when writing my MLO 1 paper in Crime and
Violence (SBS 330). It gives a good description of the history of the theory until Agnew came
around and applied his thought to it. Worth a read again if general strain theory is necessary for
another paper/class.
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Criminal Victimization & Perceptions of Community Safety in 12 Cities, 1998
Smith, S.K., Steadman, G.W, and Minton, T.D. (1998). U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of
Justice Statistics. Criminal Victimization & Perceptions of Community Safety in 12
Cities, 1998. Washington, D.C: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. (pp. iiv , 1-41).
“This publication is a report on criminal victimization and citizen perceptions in 12 cities
across the United States. The findings reported are the result of a joint effort between the Office
of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to
supplement the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) with questions related to
community policing.” pp. iii
Cities included: Chicago, IL, Kansas City, MO, Knoxville, TN, Los Angeles, CA,
Madison, WI, New York, NY, San Diego, CA, Savannah, GA, Spokane, WA, Springfield, MA,
Tucson, AZ, Washington, DC.
Among the 12 cities the victimization rates ranged from 60-85 per 1,000 residents age
12+. Black residents experienced higher rates of violent crimes than whites. Less than half the
violent crimes involved a weapon, and less than half were reported to the police.
This report was extremely helpful in completing the city crime profile for Crime &
Violence, SBS 330.
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U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (2005). Family violence statistics:
Including statistics on strangers and acquaintances. Washington, D.C: Bureau of Justice
Statistics. (pp. 1-76)
Family violence rates fell between 1993-2002 from 5.4 to 2.1 per 1,000 persons 12 and older.
Family violence was 11% of reported/unreported violence between 98-02. 3.5 million violent
crimes against family members occurred. 49% was vs. spouses ; 11% vs. daughters/sons ; 41%
against other family members.
Frequent type of violence is simple assalult. Murder is less than 1/2 of 1% of all family violence
from 98-02. 3/4 incidents occrred near or in the victims homes. 40% victims were injured during
attacks. 3/4 of the victims were female, 3/4 of persons who committed family violence were
male.
Victims: 77% were white ; 65.7% aged 25-54
Offenders: 79% were white ; 62% age 30 +
22% of murders in 2002 were family murders. 9% murders by spouse, 6% son/daughter by
parent, 7% by other family member.
58% family murder victims were female, out of all female murders in 2002.
23% of victims killed by family members were 13 or under, the average age of victim was 7. 4
out of 5 killed were under 13.
8/10 murderers who killed family members were male.
83% male spouse killers
75% murders killed significant others were male
2002 - family murders more likely to involve firearms
19% incidents of parents killing children killed multiple victims
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Approximately 60% of family violence was REPORTED. reasons for not reporting
include protecting the offender, keeping it a private/personal matter.
36% of 2.1 million incidents reported to police in 98-02. firearm involvement was 2% family,
6% non-family. 49% violent crimes recorded resulted in arrest.
77% males offenders arrested in 2000 ; 84% defendants had at least 1 prior
83% sentenced persons convicted of assault
68% family assault : to jail
62% non-family assault: to prison
45% sent to prison for family assault
Domestic violence suspects were 4% of federal suspects from 2000-2002.
15% of 500,000 people in prison in 1997 were in for crime against a family member.
90% of offenders in prison for family violence injured their victim.
50% victims were sexually assaulted
28% victims were killed
50% offenders were in for spousal abuse killed their victims.
Convicted family violence offenders 22% of 86,500. Convicted violent offenders in local jails in
2002. Local jail inmates convicted family violence.
79% female; 30% under age 18
55% convicted injured their victim
88% convicted crime against family member did not use a weapon.
Lauritsen, J.L. & Rezey, M.L. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2013).
Measuring the prevalence of crime with the national crime victimization survey.
Washington, D.C: Office of Justice Programs. (pp. 1-26)
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Comparison of rates for various crime types from 1993-2010.
Rates for the NCVS are calculated by dividing the number of victimizations that occur during a
specified time period by the population at risk for those victimizations and multiplying the rate
by 1,000. pg 1
Victimization rates are larger than incident rates because there can be more than one victim for a
crime.
93-10: decline in violent victimization rates (down 76%) was greater than the decline in
prevalence rates (down 63%). Serious violent crimes, victimization rate decreased 77% and
prevalence rate to 66%. 93’ - 77% violent crime victims reported that they were victimized 1x
during the year. In 2010 it was 83%. Violent crime victims 2 x a year declined from 93 (27%) to
2010 (17%). 17% was 1/2 full of all violent crimes.
“Victims of partner crime violence more likely to experience repeats in the year than those in
stranger violent crimes. 21% to 9% . Household property crime rates (64%) greater than
prevalence rates (48%). Both of these rates declined from 1993 to 2010.
Household property repeat victims 2+x a year decreased, 1993-25% and 2010- 18% (41% of all
household property victimization’s)
2010- 12% burglary victims reported 2 + crimes. This was 34% of all burglary victimizations. “
pg. 1 Incident Rates: used when comparing crime data from official law enforcement..
Prevalence rates: based on the number of persons/households in a population that experienced at
least 1 victimization. Difference is the number of victims or the number of victimizations.
% of victims experiencing repeat violence in 2010 was 17%. The 17% accounted for 54% of all
violent victimizations in 2010. pg 5
Serious violent victimizations are sexual assault, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
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Repeat victims = 40% of all serious crime in 2010 and 63% in 1993.
Female victims 1 x report: 74% in 1993 and 85% in 2010.
Robbery victimization declined from 8.3 per 1,000 in 1993 (73%) to 2.2 per 1,000 in 2010.
People reported 1x victim in robbery was 91% in 1993 and 97% in 2010.
Aggravated assault: 16.5 per 1,000 in 1993 and 3.4 per 1,000 in 2010.
1x report 86% in 1993 and 94% in 2010.
Simple assault - 50.7 per 1,000 in 1993 and 12.7 per 1,000 in 2010.
1x report 77% in 1993 and 82% in 2010.
Violent victimization rates among males and females were similar for 2010.
Male: 20.1 per 1,000 & Female: 18.5 per 1,000 (victimization rate)
Male: 11.4 & Female: 10.1 (prevalence rate). pg. 8
People 35 yr + were at less risk for becoming a victim - 12.5 per 1,000
Ages 25-34 - 13.8
Ages 18-24 - 19.9
Burglary: 1993 - 63.9 per 1,000 and in 2010- 25.8 ; 12% victims were repeat victims. 12% was
34% of all burglary in 2010.
Motor vehicle theft- least likely victims to experience a repeat offense! Theft: 268.6 per 1,000 in
1993 and 94.6 in 2010 (victimization rate) ; 2.0 in 1993 and 1.3 in 2010 (prevalence rate).
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Patchin, J., & Hinduja, S. (2011). Traditional and nontraditional bullying among youth: A test of
general strain theory. Youth & Society, 43 (2), pp. 727-751. doi:
10.1177/0044118X10366951
Article about school bullying including coyer bullying. The authors use general strain theory to
discuss the affects of bullying on students and the reasons why it occurs and how it can avoided
if the particular signs are discovered and those adolescents helped. Their study involved students
at 30 middle schools A large portion of the article reviews their study, the variables and student
types interviewed. The results report that a majority of middle school students are involved in
bullying or cyber bullying.
This article was very helpful while writing my MLO 1 paper for Crime & Violence (SBS
330).This article directly discusses the topic I was writing about in my paper, bullying and the
general strain theory.
Page 84 of 180
Sampson, R. & Raudenbush, S. (2011). Disorder in urban neighborhoods- does it lead to crime?
Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Justice. (pp.1-6)
Discusses the link between disorder and crime using the “broken window theory”.
Collective efficacy - cohesion amoung neighborhood residents, shared expectations of social
control. Disorder measurement.
“Physical and social disorder in public spaces is fundamental to understanding urban
neighborhoods” - pg 1. the extent to which a neighborhood is in disorder reflects the residents
attitudes of that neighborhood and whether they are willing to improve their neighborhood and
sustain their neighborhood.
Disorder can be more useful than crime when attempting to understand processes.
Disorder can be observed, crime is unobserved.
The study: Project on human development in Chicago neighborhoods. The forces that
produce minor crimes are the same as those forces that produce serious crimes. Proposals of
article: crime and disorder come from structural characteristics. Structural constraints - not soley
economic (can promote crime and disorder). Residential stability- ownership and transience
(absence of ownership).Community residents are assumed to want to live in a safe place (non
coercive means) - informal social control mechanisms). If the broken window theory is correct,
disorder directly causes crime. If disorder is a manifestation of forces, that produce crime,
structural characteristics and collective efficacy should account for the relationship.
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Disorder measured by observations of neighborhoods, “systematic social observation” (SSOobservation method).
Video taped 23,000 streets in 196 neighborhoods, physical disorder included garbage,
litter, graffiti, needles, and activities such as loitering, public drinking, intoxication.
Interviewed 3,800 residents to eval collective efficacy. 3 types of crime: homicide, robbery and
burglary. More people in small space make it hard to point to the people in the wrong.
The structural characteristics of the neighborhood matter in affecting disorder.
The findings in the study did not support the original idea that disorder causes crime.
Survey reported that violence was high and levels of SSO were high. Level of disorder varied
strongly with neighborhood structural characteristics.
The forces that generate disorder also generate crime. where collective efficacy was strong, rates
of violence were low.
Neighborhoods with immigrants had higher rates of crime victimization. Direct association with
disorder was for robberies. The crime can cause residents to move out of neighborhoods,
perpetuating the problem.
A police led crack down will not work, residents must do it on their own.
“Social environment of a neighborhood shapes and determines behavior and identifies the
development pathways that lead individuals toward or away from a variety of antisocial
behaviors”.
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Tittle, C. R. (2000). Theoretical developments in criminology. In US Department of Justice
(Ed.),
The Nature of Crime: Continuity and Change (Vol. 1, pp. 51-101). Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice.
Main discussions are the developments in theory as related to crime and criminal activity.Tittle
notes there have been a lot of additions to the original ideas and theories, however there is still a
lot of development needed in this specific area of theory.
Main phenomena the theories are trying to explain;
1.Individual differences;
2.variation in offending through the lifecycle;
3. diversity of crime rates among
social entities
4. differences among social situations in criminal outcomes.
6 major themes of individual-level theories:
1. Personal Defects
2. Learning
3. Strain Deprivation
4. Identity
5. Rational choice
6. Control/integration (each promotes a fundamental idea).
Personal Defects: earliest theme that was dominant until the 1930’s. “Deficiencies have
been traced to genetic inheritance, to such damaging influences as premature birth or
environmental poisoning, and to life experiences that distort psychic or social development.”
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Learning: Early 20th century (most continuity in the learning theory than any other) - explains
crime as a product of learning, criminal behavior as an expression of internalized
criminogenic values, attitudes, skills, standards. Learning results from conditioning or
reinforcement.
Ideas of learned influences; observation of criminal behavior, cultural standards that
predispose people to act criminally, linguistic or other mechanisms that help produce
criminal outcomes and personal traits that predispose one to crime. Also sub-cultural
contexts and large-scale milieux (milieux- environment, setting).
Most theories focus on how learning occurs. Most people strive to maximize benefits
and rewards while minimizing costs/problems. When action produces more reward
than cost, this is reinforcement and can then be repeated. Patterns of behavior develop
through reinforcement.
To understand criminal behavior, some believe you must understand the reward/cost
for that person. A reinforcer may be powerful or weak. Conditioning/reinforcement
discusses how learning occurs, links to external conditions (structural and situational),
internal outcomes that all are reflected in behavioral responses.
Strain/Deprivation: Old theme (1916) but was prominent in 1940-1950. has been reformulated
and expanded (1992,1997,1999). Applied to individuals - effects of troublesome,
depriving, straining events/circumstances. When problems fall on individuals they seek
relief or resort to rage. Criminal behavior is one way to relieve stress from a situation.
Identity: (1960‘s/70‘s, came about through “labeling”) - formation, maintenance and change in
personal identities. 2 part theory: ruling enforcement and other concerning reactions to
social control efforts. labeling is best known for suggesting that deviance is
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problematic/negotiable, those lacking power and resources are more likely to be
stigmatized. Criminal behavior is a search for self-concepts. Can be to overcome a
negative self attitude. “Self is dependent on reactions and appraisals from others”
developing and maintaining self concepts are key motivators of behavior including
crime.
Self theory can explain any kind of crime, delinquency or deviance.
Rational Choice (1960’s/70’s) : individual differences - people weigh benefits versus costs and
decide rationally. Utilitarian/deterrence theory, Cost-benefit assessment.
3 propositions referred to as “deterrence doctrine”: people strive to maximize benefits, minimize
pain, the probability of criminal behavior varies with the extent to which its benefits of various
potential actions. 1. cost/reward 2. severity 3. celerity (speed, rapidity)
Modern thought: 4 categories for basic rational choice process and response to negative
consequences: 1. characteristics of potential outcomes (mainly affected by subjective
rather than objective), 2. variations in psychic organization of individuals (rewarding
reactions that are intended to be punishing and perceive the likelihood of various
consequences), 3. individual attributes (differences in moral feelings that make some
things more costly and less rewarding; those with more social responsibility anticipate
more potential cost from criminal behavior)), 4. situational variations ( types of crime,
shared perceptions, influence of role models, social bonding; group decisions).
Control/integration: (1893,1885,1933, 1951) individual criminal conduct inhibiting effect of
social and psychological integration with others. why are some individuals prone to criminal
activity.
Theories for Lifecycle changes
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*Two-path theory , Age-graded theory, and Others( parenting ; gaining or losing social or
cultural capital)
Theories to explain variations in rates of crime
3 categories:
macrolevel phenomena and processes
macro level - individual- level analogs
individual-level principles for application to aggregates
* whatever applies to individuals can be aggregated to explain rates of crime from one social
entity to another. Almost all of casual processes of the individual level theories can be
aggregated to explain variations in crime rates.
* no single, individual level process alone can provide adequate explanation at the marco level.
4 principles governing situational influences:
*crime relevant decisions are determined by situational contingencies
*decision making involves evaluation by potential offenders
*influence of situational factors varies by crime type
*level of attention that potential offenders pay to situational factors varies by both
offender characteristics and crime type
5 trends for continuing the theories as criminologists are ‘demanding more from theories”, need
for the ability to measure such things as reintegrative shaming, self control, general
strain, human, social and cultural capital and control ratios.
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Summary: criminological theory has grown and progressed. There is still a need for
additional improvements and research for theories. It is a lot of material to try to take
notes on. This section gives great detail about criminological theory and could be
useful in researching and describing theories.
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Truman,J., U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (2011). Criminal
victimization, 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. (pp. 1-19).
Victimization reports in 2010 in comparison to previous 10 years of rates (national crime
victimization survey data). Overall decline in crime as compared from 2001-2010.
UCR- uniform crime report: Rate of violent crime victimizations in 2010 had declined by
13%. Violent and serious crimes decreased 34%. Property crimes decreased also.
Repeat victimizations determined by:
1. occur 6+ times in past 6 months
2. are they similar to each other
3. respondent unable to recall details of each one to distinguish between them.
(repeats are included in the NCVS but capped at 10).
National rates increased when included in the count, and when excluded the rates decreased. The
NCVS and UCR have overlapping data as the NCVS are crimes reported and not reported to
police/agencies. The UCR excludes simple assaults.
Victims of violence who were injured:
2008- 24%
2009- 28%
2010- 29%
Crimes with weapons:
22% all violent victimizations
61% serious victimizations
2010- 12% rape
2010- 20% sexual assaults
firearms were most commonly used weapon
Stranger Crime: 2001-2010 approximatley 50% of victims knew their offender.
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Intimate partner violence:
women victims 22% ; men victims 5%
partners - spouses (current and former) /significant others
Males have higher rates of violent victimization than women. In 1994, males 59.6%/1,000;
women 42.5%/1000. No difference for simple victimization.
25 years + had lower rates than those 18-20 years old
low income households more likely to experience property crime.
Decline in simple assault 82% total, decrease in rate of violent victimization in 2010.
Rate review: 2001-2010
Property Crime - declined 6%
Weapon violence - 26 to 22%
Stranger perpetrator crime - 44 to 39%
Firearms used in crimes - 6 to 9% (stable since 2004)
Victims in crimes who suffered injuries - 24 to 29%
in 2010- 50% of all violent victimizations and 40% of property crimes were reported to police
(stable over 10 years)
2010- males and females had similar rates violent victimizations, 15.7 and 14.2 (out of 1,000).
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Tavris, C. (2003). Uncivil rites- The cultural rules of anger. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence and
society (pp.3-14). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Part 1: The Social Construction of Anger
“The readings in this section explore the role that anger plays in defending social
institutions against threats to their integrity. Anger is a socially constructed emotion to the extent
that the feelings associated with this emotion derive from the relationships that give them
meaning.” “…Tavris helps us to understand how everyday expressions of anger operate to
defend the established moral order against attacks from within or without. Tavris shows us how
anger can be understood as the ‘judicial emotion’. As such, anger often occurs in response to
violations of cultural rules or perceived injustice.” pp.1
This section reviews different cultural reactions to anger and situations that cause anger.
After reading this section, it all seems very obvious, of course. Some cultures deal with anger
better than others ( such as the eskimo ‘duel song’). “One who is not legitimately insane cannot
control himself, but one who is merely angry can & must.” pp. 8
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Zisowitz Stearn, C. & Stearns, P. (2003). A new approach to anger control: 1860-1940, The
American Ambivalence. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society (pp.15-29). Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Part 1: A new approach to anger control: 1860-1940, The American Ambivalence.
“The readings in this section explore the role that anger plays in defending social
institutions against threats to their integrity. Anger is a socially constructed emotion to the extent
that the feelings associated with this emotion derive from the relationships that give them
meaning.” “… Stearns and Stearns describe how the cultural rules of anger changed during the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America.” pp. 1
Two components of anger at the turn of the century: Anger is a personality trait and it can
be used for good (justified anger). Differences in children, boys and girls vein taught how to
deal with anger. Child rearing and parenting styles varied with new information, anger was
encouraged in boys. The depression and job loss created anger in parents leading to physical
outburst against children by fathers, physical sports such as boxing and football became popular
as they allowed for channeled anger to be expressed.
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Scheff, T. & Retzinger, S. (2003). Hitler’s appeal:Aleination, shame-rage, and revenge. In M.
Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society (pp.30-45). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Part 1: Hitler’s Appeal:Alienation, Shame-Rage, and Revenge.
“The readings in this section explore the role that anger plays in defending social
institutions against threats to their integrity. Anger is a socially constructed emotion to the extent
that the feelings associated with this emotion derive from the relationships that give them
meaning.”pp.1 “…we see how some individuals may come to internalize anger as a part of their
socially constructed identity. Unable to acknowledge the source of his shame, the angry person
directs his rage at the perceived symbols of his humiliation.” pp.2
Hitler created a viscous cycle with his public of humiliation, rage and vengeful
aggression. This section reviews what made Hitler ‘successful’ in creating the cycle, discussing
the history and present culture and state of society at the time, Hitlers personality and an over
view of shame, pride and aggression.
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Lane, R. (2003). Murder in America: 1865-1917. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society
(pp.49-57). Upper River Saddle, New Jersey:Prentice Hall.
“The chapters in Part II explain how and why this variation occurs; i.e., they describe the social
structure of violence… Each explore the direct effect of particular social institutions on the
production of violence.” pp.47
SMR & Urbanization
19-20th century classic period in american history.
North, East, Midwest had rapid industrialization.
South - slavery was replaced by domination. wanted black people to work as closely to slavery
as possible. Intimidation through assault and murder.
1865: White/Black homicides - “black mans life was worth no more than a stray dog.” pp.50
Tenn: 33 Arkansas: 29 Louisiana: 70
KKK- at first were patrollers specialized night watch that roamed country sides looking for
runaways and blacks.
1877: south remained most murderous part of the country.
“Jurisprudence law” american bar association - outline of laws in which someone could get away
with murder (ok to kill a wives lover but not a husbands).
1878: Lynchings, South used murder as social policy.
85% of southern victims were black
By early 20th century, use of murder as an example wasn't needed, blacks were in their place,
dependent economically and politically powerless.
SMR (suicide/murder rate) - Homicide high,, suicide low: suicide udder ratio divided by suicide
rate by sum of both rates.
Homicide and suicide are extremes of aggression, once in and one out.
“…homicide is a characteristic of people of ‘honor’, suicide of people of ‘dignity’.” pp.55
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Currie, E. (2003). Understanding crime: Inequality and community. In M Silberman (Ed.),
Violence and society (pp.58-65). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:Prentice Hall.
“The chapters in Part II explain how and why this variation occurs; i.e., they describe the
social structure of violence… Each explore the direct effect of particular social institutions on
the production of violence.” pp.47
1983 Homicide Rates: (normally off per 100,000)
East St. Louis, Illinois - 100**
Oaklawn, Chicago - 0
** population of 50,000
Compton, Ca- 50
Thousand Oaks, Ca - 0
*** population of 80,000
1983:
Murders
Rape
Robberies
Highland Park, Illinois
0
1
7
Highland Park, Michigan
27
55
796+
SES -division of population into 2 classes: high and low. Non-whites, not matter their SES,
committed more crimes
Relationship between crime and SES is linear.
Statistical evidence subject to bias. Requires us to believe criminal justice system discriminates
against poor and minority offenders.
Majority of homicides are intra-racial, not inter-racial. Race is the most important determinant of
the risks of death by violence.
Victimization studies - can be biased. victims misconceptions or falsified statements.
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Caputti, J. (1989). The sexual politics of murder. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society
(pp. 66-78). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
“The chapters in Part II explain how and why this variation occurs; i.e., they describe the
social structure of violence… Each explore the direct effect of particular social institutions on
the production of violence.” pp.47
Sexual murder is the expression of sexuality as a form of power. The FBI calls sex
murder, “recreational murder”.
Gynocide - “systemic crippling, raping, and/or killing of women by men…the relentless
violence perpetrated by the gender class men on the gender class women.” pp.67
Sexual murder is the expression of sexuality as a form of power.
under patriarchy, a woman not under the protection of a man is at risk / a legitimate target
of male sexual aggression. (a legitimate target is learned by males at a young age. Women
without a guy, or without friends).
Ted Bundy - in 1984 there were at least 35 and as many as 100 serial killers like Bundy in the
US
About 1% or less of the population will be killed by a serial killer.
20th century brought the mutilation serial sex murderer- Jack the ripper: idealized by
patriarchal culture, reaffirms the terrorizing of women and empowering men.
Serial Killers: are not all white, not all motivated by sex, have a definite geographical
range that spirals outwards from the center, can stop (completely or take breaks), are not
considered mentally ill by the law, do not want to be caught. Have Patterns of victims.
Pornography affects criminal behavior.
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Diane Russell proposed a theoretical model of the role of pornography and violence
toward women in 1988.
“Erotica - sexual representations premised on equality…Russell argues that porn
predisposes or intensifies a predisposition in some men to rape women and that it can undermine
some men’s internal or social inhibitions against acting out sexually violent behavior.” pp. 73
Sexual murder is a property crime (woman as property). Police are not as motivated when
victim is lower class. Investigation is dependent on public support, cooperation and interest.
Each year approximately 1,500 (30%) women are killed by husbands / lovers.
Mass murder = 4+ victims at same location
Serial Murderer - 3+ victims by same person
Serial Killer - unlawful killing of 2+ people at different times and different locations
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Part 3-7: Righteous Slaughter
Katz, J. (1988). Righteous slaughter. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society (pp. 81-95).
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
This chapter discusses violence resulting in death usually, and the reasons as to why
violence takes place. Killing as a reaction to humiliation and rage in defense of “the good”.
Criminal homicide - impassioned attempt to perform a sacrifice to embody one or another
version of the good.
Moralistic rage - often from foolish or incomprehensible perspective.
“When parents beat their children (kill them), they are at best, an indirect/cumbersome way of
ridding themselves of the problems the children are causing.” pp. 81
Parents beating their children honors parental authority. “extensions of ordinary means of
enforcing discipline.” pp.81
Killers have a self-righteous attitude (example: husbands beating killing their wives
lovers and women killing their husbands after being beaten).
“Flangrante delicto” - in blazing offense
A lack of pre-meditation can lead to bad or no escape of a crime. These are often
‘impassioned’ acts of crime, done so without regard to the penalties,
Righteous slaughter comes from conventionally humiliating or victims self conscious
efforts to ridicule, degrade, defiant, disrespectful.
Humiliation -“humus”, makes you feel down, small. root word means from ground, soil,
nature, downs one’s being.
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Rage - up; starts in the stomach, moves to the head, “blow your top”, “keep your lid on”.
Family violence is the hidden dark figure, every year unreported family violence occurs: 1out of
6 couples commits at least 1 violent act against a partner. 1 out of every 200 couples use a knife
or gun. 2+ million h ave be beaten by a spouse.
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Part 3 - 8: Homicide as custom and crime
Lundsgaarde, H.P. (1977). Homicide as a custom and crime. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence
and
society (pp. 96-109). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
“Nullem crimen sine lege - no crime without law” pp. 96
Homicide is a crime if the act is determined unlawful.
Distinctions between murder: With or without malice ; homicide by negligence;
justifiable; excusable.
“To protect and vindicate the interests of the public as a whole, by punishing the offender
or eliminating him from society, by reforming him or teaching him not to repeat it, and by
deterring others from imitating him” pp. 96 . “The victim in a homicide is always a silent and
fictitious witness for the state” pp. 96. “Mens rae” -guilty mind (evil meaning). An “ordinary”
person is the baseline used to measure mental capacity.
Eskimo - only punish a killer if act threatened the collective whole.Westerners - focus on
intent and motive instead of effect on community.
Justifiable Homicide: Texas penal code- 2 sub categories- #1-6 killings that resort from official
law enforcement. 7-11 killings that resort from private citizens.
1. killing a public enemy 2. executing a convict 3. acting in response to a lawful
order/directive by a police officer 4. aiding a police officer 5. preventing the escape of a person
legally apprehended or captured 6. preventing successful completion of a criminal or felonious
act 8. responding by a husband to provocation by an act of adultery 9. defending a person or
property 10. defending oneself against unlawful act 11. defending or upholding property rights.
A deviant/ antisocial fails to understand social rules and sanctions.
Part 3- 9: Crime as a social control.
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Black, D. (1983). Crime as a social control. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society (pp.
110-120). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:Prentice Hall.
Crime and violence used in societies as a way of controlling others acts of crime and
violence (mainly in cultures without law, but versions are found in modern societies as well).
Crime used a control mechanism for/in response to a crime/criminal act. Used as conflict
management, punishment (even capital punishment). “Self help - defines or responds to the
conduct of someone else as deviant, crime is social control” pp.110
Tribal and traditional cultures that do not have formal laws use crime as the social control
(homicide, feuds, fights, beatings as well as property destruction/confiscation). “Homicide is a
reaction to crime, not a crime itself” pp.110. Most violence is inflicted on men by other men.
Property destruction - crops, animals, gardens.
Modern society- “state defines someone with a grievance as a criminal…the offense lies
in how the grievance was pursued, the crime is self-help.” pp. 115
Absence of law/authority has been used to explain high rates of violence.
“Law and self help are unevenly distributed across social space; each is relevant to the
behavior of the other.” pp.118
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Part 3 - 10: Honor and violence in the old south.
Wyatt-Brown, B. (1986). Honor and violence in the old south. In m Silberman (Ed.), Violence
and society (pp.121-122). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Honor - contradiction - “those who have power to demand, and to hold, esteem and authority are
able to do so because the entire social order has sanctioned their rule and called it moral.” pp.
121
Christian and humanistic ethical systems drawn between moral and physical power.
Pre civil war: honor was related to individual and community; courtesies, rituals, deeds.
Words could cause a challenge to duel. Language of politics was not devoted to rational
explanation; meant to remind listeners of common principles rather than challenge existing
beliefs.
Whites in the south would not let Northerners take over without fighting, if they were
overtaken at least they would “saved our honor and lost nothing…fear was not death, for dying
with honor would bring glory” pp.121
Fear was public humiliation = forced the person to admit to shame. People are expected
to have a sense of shame. “shamelessness signified a disregard for both honor and disgrace;
when shame is imposed, honor is stripped away” pp. 121
Free and unfree culture (slave) prompts awareness of moral, as political and social
stratification. Humiliation and subjugation of black people.
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Part 4 - 11: Marriage license as a hitting license
Straus,M., Gelles,R., & Steinmetz,S. (1980). The marriage license as a hitting license. In M.
Silberman (Ed.), Violence and Society. New Jersey: Upper Saddle River. (pp.125-135)
Violence in marriage and the equal rates of violence between men and women. Study separates
specific acts, rates of who commits the acts more.
Physical violence between family members happens more often than between anyone else.
Study: 2,143 husband and wives
8 violent acts studied : 1 out of every 6 couples commits at least 1 violent act
Throwing items:
7/100 in year previous to survey
1/6 at some point in relationship
Slapping:
7% in year previous to survey
18% at some point in relationship
Push/Shove/Grab:
13 in year previous to survey
1/4 at some point in relationship
“Beating up”:
1 or 2/100 in year previous to survey
1/20 at some point in relationship
Knife/Gun:
1/200 in year previous to survey
1/27 at some point in relationship
** study did not include divorced persons who were not remarried, only current relationships
were evaluated.
1975: “1.7 million had faced significant other with knife/gun over 2 million had been beaten up
by significant other”. pg 127
Underreporting happens for a couple of reasons; violence is ‘normal’ for the family and doesn't
warrant reporting or shame in the event happening.
Wives have higher rates for throwing, kicking, hitting. Husbands were higher for shoving,
slapping, beating, pushing and using a weapon.
1960’s /70’s feminist movement deemed “wife beating” a political term.
“Normal violence” is where the line is drawn in individual families.
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wife beating index & husband beating index
1/26 wives are beaten each year and the same or more amount of husbands are beaten as well!
1/3 victims are isolated incidents; 1/5 husbands & 1/8 wives attack twice; 47% of husbands &
53% wives beating spouses did so 3x + a week.
Single Beatings, reasons:1.debases human life 2. physical danger involved 3. struggle of power
in the family
physical force- learned as a child, is the “if all else fails” : 1/8 couples experienced at least 1
beating during marriage. Beatings by husbands are more dangerous and repeat more often than
wives. “women are in the weaker, more vulnerable position in respect to violence in the family”
- pg 132. Social Norms - couples slapping is considered normal, necessary or good by 1/3 of
husbands and 1/4 of wives in study. Large population of husbands and wives consider violence
in a marriage normal.. Most common act is slapping & pushing. Large portion of violence that
occurs are acts that cause serious injury or death.
This study shows that the traditional idea of men hitting more than women is incorrect, in
fact wives hit just as much (or more) than husbands. Men do have the physical qualities to cause
more harm to their spouse.
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Part 4: 12- Spare the Rod?
Straus,M., Gelles, R., & Steinmetz, S. (1980). Spare the rod? In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence
and Society. New Jersey: Upper Saddle River. (pp.136-147)
Review and discussion regarding their study in 1975 interviewing couples/parents about abuse to
children.
Rates and types of violence of child abuse.
“Stubborn child laws” - in colonial times these laws allowed parents to kill kids who
were beyond control.
1960’s legislation to define illegal, physical violence toward children.
Hitting is assumed as a part of parenting. Goal is hit hard enough so that the “hurt” over powers
the desire to continue the action warranting the hit.
Study chose a 12 year old to use as the “control” age for the study.
70% slapping/spanking was/is necessary
77% slapping/spanking was/is normal
71% slapping/spanking was/is good
Childless people view slapping/spanking as necessary,normal and good more than parents.
Age of parents depends on their choice to spank/slap their children.
Reasons: 1. parents get older and grow out of hitting their kids. 2. younger respondents dont have
kids. 3. older respondents with older kids. 80% + of respondents under 30 found that
slapping/spanking as necessary, normal and/or good.
Older respondents were witness to violence on tv and grew up with WWI, depression, WWII,
etc.
Study:
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1,146 homes of couples with children
63% with kids from 3-17 had at least one episode of violence
58% mentioned it for previous year, 71% mentioned that it has happened (overall)
46% push/shove at some point
41% push/shove in previous year
13% hit with an object in the previous year
20% hit with an object at some point
* throwing an object was less common
1975:
3/100 kicked, bit, punched their kid
8/100 kicked, bit, punched in year previous to surgery
4% kicked, bit, punched at some point
1/1000 child were threatened with gun/knife
3.1 to 4 million children have been kicked, bitten, punched by a parent at some point. (1 to 1.9
million in 1975). 1.4 to 2.3 million have been beaten up while growing up; 275,000 to 750,000
were beaten up in 1975.
Figures underestimate level of abuse:
1. self reporting, under reporting
2. only 7 forms of violence looked at
3. violence toward children refer to violent acts of only 1 parent
4. children age 3-17
5. only ‘intact’ families used
68% mothers and 58% of fathers were violent to a child within the year previous to the survey.
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76% mothers and 71% of fathers were at some point. Women were more likely to use severe
violence on kids rather than fathers. Problems and the actions of a child reflect on the mother,
that can cause the mother to be more violent. Women must quit jobs, stay home with sick kids,
etc. Mothers kick, beat, bite kids 7.2x per year.
Boys are at risk 61% more than girls to experience abuse.
7/10 people believe that boys should be in fights and that violence is a way to build character.
Most dangerous age for a child is from 3 months to 3 years.
pre school and teenagers are vulnerable to violence because they are too young to be reasoned
with or they dont listen anymore.
Fathers are more likely to push, shove, grab, slap,spank daughters.
Mothers are more likely to throw things at daughters.
Sons aged 15-17 are 2x more likely than daughters to be pushed, grabbed, shoved.
“Nearly all parents slap or spank their children at least once in their lifetimes”. pg 145
Societal norms approve and legitimize using violence as a frequent form of training and
punishing children” - pg 145
violent childhoods can cause abusive parents, murders/killers
100% of violent inmates at san quentin had abusive childhoods aged 1-10yr.
“time bombs” of violence which can explode anytime - pg 146
Spanking rates are the same now as when this was published.
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Part 4: 13- Reasonableness and he battered woman
Gillespie, C. (1989). Reasonableness and the battered woman. In, M. Silberman (Ed.),
Violence and society. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:Prentice Hall. (pp.148-159)
Review of how the chain of events that occur when a woman is in a relationship with an abusive
husband. Discussion on the methods of how and why it happens as well as why law enforcement
does not help.
Fear based living. “constant anticipatory terror.” pp. 153.
Study of 542 women in shelters in Dallas and Fort Worth Texas - many of these women were
tortured, beaten with :acid, cigarettes, bleach, lighters, drain cleaner, knives, hot irons, forced
beastiality, gunpoint sex,rape, etc.
1983: 42 killed their spouses, 205 had not.
women who killed were beaten more often (weekly) and were beaten more significantly than
others. Suffered more sexual violence, were raped often to inflict pain, meant to be violent.
Women are separated and isolated from family and friends. Once the pattern is
established, it will continue and increase in severity every time.
Pattern- 3 stage cycle: 1. Tension building stage. Minor incidents & assaults that include;
slapping, hitting, throwing things and verbal abuse. 2. Explosion of serious violence. Goes until
victim is unconscious or he is exhausted. NO way of knowing when this phase will begin or end,
can be set off by little events. Women can not escape, attempting to fight back not fight, yell, not
yell may increase violence. Best mode of survival is to curl into a ball and wait until its over. 3.
“Honeymoon” phase- apologetic but re-affirms that abuse was necessary due to her actions.
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Almost all battered women believe he would/could kill them. “Displaced homicide acts”
- shooting into walls near woman, making coffins, digging graves, etc. pg. 154
Difficult to get protection from law enforcement. domestic disputes are a low priority,
many officers never report to a call. Difficult to prosecute domestic violence cases, many case do
not make it to the court room. Many rules state woman must file for divorce if pressing charges.
“society does not protect battered women from their abusers.” pp. 158
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Part 4: 14 - Criminal approaches to family violence 1640-1980
Peck, E. (1989). Criminal approaches to family violence 1640-1980. In M. Silberman
(Ed.), Violence and society. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 161-173
1640-1680: puritans of colonial mass. first laws against wife beating and children. Held each
other accountable for NOT verbally or physically assaulting others. “wicked carriage”.
1830-1840: no laws until 1850. Rule of Thumb in 1783- Judge Butler. If no permanent
injury than case was considered “trifling”. Cruelty considered endangering life, limbs, health,
disfigurement, permanent injury (bruises did not count).
1874-1890: societies for the prevention of cruelty to children. (SPCCs). Family became a
serious issue because the public feared crime. middle class fears of ethnic groups, children began
to be looked at as individuals.
1900-1920: domestic retreat from serious crime to privacy. child neglect higher than abuse.
progressive era - environmentalism and eugenicism.
1955-80: rediscovery of child cruelty. Battered child syndrome by C. Henry Kempe &
associates came out, result of abuse not the cause. Physicians became involved in abuse detection
through radiographs. 1962: report done by 5 physicians on battered children when family
violence is considered a crime and threatens social order, it gets more support. Original thoughts
were that parents were allowed to discipline their kids physically and husbands could discipline
their wives. Family murder and infanticide are crimes, whereas sibling violence and marital rape
aren’t. State laws passed requiring health care professionals to report child abuse.
Part 4: Formal & informal deterrents to domestic violence
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Part 4: 15 - formal and informal deterrents to domestic violence
Pate, A. and Hamilton, E. (1992). Formal and informal deterrents to domestic violence:
The dade county spouse assault experiment. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society.
Upper Saddle River ,New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 174-181
Effectiveness of responses to crimes- spouse assault. 3 standard methods: arrest, counsel both
parties, sending suspect away for a few hours to cool off
Arrests have lower rates of recidivism. Employed and married persons would be more
likely to be deterred by an arrest (hypothesis is that if they have something (ie job), are socially
bonded they are more deterrable.). Deterrence - human behavior is to some degree rational.
Most people do not like the social aspect of what it is to be punished. formal sanctions
can only be effective if reinforced by informal sanctions. 1. effect is greater among suspects who
are married. 2. greater with suspects who are employed 3. greater with suspects with a higher
level of commitment.
Study: 907 cases with 397 officers. Results - suggest that there is no statistical
significance that an arrest prevents continued event. Deterrence effect of arrest is influenced by
informal sanctions in employment status. Unemployed persons arrested had higher rates of
recidivism. Increased rates in those who were unemployed. Arrests deter only those who have
something to lose.
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U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics.(2005).
Violence by Gang Members, 1993-2003. Harrell, E. A report by E.Harrell. Washington,
D.C. (NJC 208875). 2 pages
This is a short article that reviews the statistics for the years 1993-2003 from the National
Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) specific to gang members. Gang members committed
373,000 of the million violent victimizations. The rate of gang member violence did decrease
from 1993 to 2003. Males, hispanics and younger persons were more likely to be victims of gang
members.
This short article has a lot of good information if you need statistics on gang member
violence for a 10 year period. Contains a good 10 year comparison graph as well as a couple of
other charts that corral the information contained in the previous page.
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Part 5: 17- Motives for sexual coercion
Felson, R.B. (1993). Motives for sexual coercion. In M. Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society
(pp.194-206). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:Prentice Hall.
“The readings in this section demonstrate how the eroticizing of aggressive sexual
conduct as an expression of patriarchal values must be understood asa a separate cultural source
of sexual aggression against women.” “...Felson maintains that the primary motive for rape is
sexual gratification. Rapists are typically sexually active individuals who use sexual coercion to
obtain their objective when other approaches fail.” pp.191
Social learning theory and control theory (social-interactionist approach) to evaluate rape and
aggression. Sexual coercion - must have a goal that would be satisfied by behavior and lack
inhibitions that would prevent one from doing those behaviors (threats or bodily force).
3 outcomes of sexual coercion: 1. Sexual behavior
2. harm to the target
3. domination of the target
“Coercion is a means to an end, not an end itself.” pp.195
Lab research has showed that on sexual arousal of rapists suggests they are not generally
stimulated more by violent sex than non-violent.
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Part 5: 18- Date Rapists: Differential sexual socialization and relative deprivation
Kanin, E.J. (1985). Date rapists: Differential sexual socialization and relative deprivation. In M.
Silberman (Ed.), Violence and society (pp. 207-214). Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey:Prentice Hall.
“The readings in this section demonstrate how the eroticizing of aggressive sexual conduct as an
expression of patriarchal values must be understood asa a separate cultural source of sexual
aggression against women.” pp.191
Rape is a result of the normal sex drive being under-satisfied, causing frustration. Rapists
are more sexually active and successful. Peer groups who condone activities allow for rapists to
continue. “deviant” females allow for men to continue the rapist activities, allowable targets.
Relationship with father influences men. Rapists believe act is justified.
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Part 5: 19- Fraternities and Rape on Campus
Martin, P.Y. & Hummer, R.A. (1989). Fraternities and rape on campus. In M. Silberman (Ed.),
Violence and society (pp.215-225). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:Prentice Hall.
“The readings in this section demonstrate how the eroticizing of aggressive sexual
conduct as an expression of patriarchal values must be understood asa a separate cultural source
of sexual aggression against women.” pp.191
Components of gang rape on campus include intoxication, isolation (fraternities with no
outside surveillance), women as prey, pron, approval of violence, competition atmosphere.
Socio-culture context where sexual coercion is ‘normative’.
“Militant hetero-sexuality is frequently used by men as a strategy to keep each other in line.”
pp.217. Brotherhood and ‘little sister’ moto - florida rape in a fraternity of 150 men, no one
cooperated with police officers in the investigation due to the ‘brotherhood’.
“Fraternity men plan and execute strategies aimed at obtaining sexual gratification, this occurs at
both individual and collective levels.” pp. 222
Alcohol induced compliance is normative and “a woman who drinks too much is causing her
own rape.” pp.223
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Part 6: 30- Criminal Violence- Domestic Terrorism
Vetter, H.J. & Perlstein, G. R. (1991). Domestic Terrorism, USA. In M. Silberman (Ed.),
Violence and society (pp.335-346). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
“In this section, we continue to explore the structural and cultural correlates of social violence.”
pp. 279 “Harold Vetter and Gary Perlstein describe the origins of domestic terrorism in the
United States in terms of its history of racial injustice in a context of rapid social change.” pp.
281
In the 1960’s and 70’s there was social and cultural change in the US, including
movement from non-violent protest (such as sit ins, bus boycott) to more violent actions such as
the Watt riots.
The section reviews groups in the US including: Ideological Left (white leftists, black
leftists), Ideological Right (KKK, Aryan Nation), Nationalistic Groups (Puerto Ricans, Emigre
Nationalists, Armenian Nationalists, Croatian Nationalists). At the time of the article there was a
decline of bombings, arson and shootings in the US.
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Baumeister, R.F., Catanese, K.R., & Wallace, H.M. (2002). Conquest by Force: A Narcissistic
Reactance Theory of Rape and Sexual Coercion. Review of General Psychology 6(1), pp.
92-135
“The goals of the present article are to offer a theory of rape based on recent work in
personality and social psychology and to evaluate that theory against the available evidence from
empirical studies. In brief, we analyze rape in terms of reactance theory (J.W. Brehm, 1996) and
in terms of recent evidence about narcissistic behavior. Our goal is to offer a broad theory of rape
that incorporates established theoretical concepts as well as recent empirical findings.” pp.93
This a very interesting article/piece on rape and the inner workings of it. It does start off
by saying that their theory will not be possible to apply to every situation, “…it is unlikely that a
single explanation will fit all cases and definitions of rape. Because rape and forced sex
constitute too broad a phenomenon to fit simply into any single formula, we do not wish to assert
that our theory explains all cases.” pp.93 They also focus on the act as something men do to
women although they do acknowledge this is not the only type of rape that happens (men and
men, women and women and women to men). The definition of narcissism is discussed, and they
do acknowledge that the theory does not necessarily assume all people who commit rape are
narcissistic. They discuss the 9 criteria that would qualify someone as a narcissist. The theory
they utilize is the ‘Narcissistic reactance theory of rape’ which is based on a the basic model of
rape ( refusal by a woman where the man determines sex is an option and uses force to obtain it).
“To summarize our theory simply: When a man desires sex with a woman and she refuses his
advances, either explicitly or implicitly, he encounters a choice point. He may press forward and
for sex despite her disinterest, or he may accept her refusal and seas all efforts. Reatance gives
rise to impulses to force the issue and press more for sex. Narcissistic tendencies increase
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likelihood that the man wukk experience reactance in the first place (upon the woman’s refusal)
and increase his tendency to resort to coercive force instead of accepting her refusal.”pp. 101.
Reactance theory is discussed as that is the basis for their theory. They apply this theory to
sexual coercion and find that it alone is not a complete theory. The include Narcissism theory to
round out the reactance theory application.
They discuss entitlement, feminism, power, envy and the quest for admiration then lead
into the preferred victims in these cases. The article references Brownmiller and her prediction of
all women as targets for rape, regardless of their age and appearance. However, as they discuss
in the following paragraph, the statistics and facts have shown that in fact “most rape victims are
in their teens or 20s, the age at which women typically reach heir highest level of sexual allure.
Elderly women are vulnerable to many violent acts and are in fact victims of broad spectrum of
crimes, but they are less often raped than victimized in other ways.” pp.115-116 The authors also
make a point to discuss the sexual history of victims as that can be an indicator as well, stating
that many rapists have stated they prefer their woman to be ‘loose’ versus a virgin.
In their closing remarks they again state that this theory is not an all encompassing
theory, but hopefully with further research can be one of the theories used to research and
understand rape, and possibly help society reduce and prevent it in the future.
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Nicole Perez
SBS 362 - Qualitative Research Methods - Dr Gutirrez
Atkinson, R. (1998). The Life Story Interview: Vol. 44. Qualitative research Methods. Thousand
Oaks, CA. SAGE Publications, Inc.
This book discusses Life Story Interviews and is in a series of books on Qualitative
Research Methods. This book “provides an altogether practical and broad introduction to the
sensitive collection of first person narratives” (pg. v).
The introduction (Chapter 1, contexts and uses) “establishes the context, definition and
application of the life story” (pg. 1.). Chapter 2 ( planning the interview) reviews the basics of
interviewing and preparing for the interview. Chapter 3 (doing the interview) discusses “general
guidelines” (pg. 39). Chapter 4 (interpreting the interview) reviews the “two important steps” in
the interpretation phase, transcribing and interpreting the ‘data’ (pg. 54).
I do not plan on interviewing someone for a life story, however it seems that any
interview is in a sense at least a portion of a life story. People will tell you information based on
their life experiences, beliefs and cultural views, even though you may not be specifically asking
about their life, it plays a role in the answer they give you. The example questions in Chapter 3
are very useful and even though are written toward an actual Life Story interview, I can see
myself using them during my interviews with people regarding Physician Assisted Suicide.
Atkinson recommends transcribing just the interviewees words and skipping things such as ‘uh’
or ‘um’ to make it flow easier as it is supposed to be a life story narrative, however with my
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interview if I need to ask questions I may need to transcribe these for it to make sense when
reading later, it may not be as free flowing as just asking someone about their life.
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Bandyopadhay, M. (2011). Tackling complexities in understanding the social determinants of
health: the contribution of ethnographic research. BMC Public Health, 11 (5), 1-9.
This article describes how ethnographic research is applied to a study to provide for more
detailed and thorough data. “This paper demonstrates that ethnographic research design is a
difficult but rigorous approach to researching questions that require understanding the complex
social and cultural contexts of people’s lives”. (pp 1).
Once again, an article that I can read and understand. is a healthcare related one. I
enjoyed this article as it was very clear and straight forward in the authors explanation of the
research techniques. Healthcare related research (I believe) is always difficult and therefore the
ethnographic approach can allow for detailed information that would otherwise be lost through a
questionnaire, archival research and even basic interviews.
The amount of time spent doing ethnographic research makes for extremely detailed data.
I appreciate the authors candidness in regards to the difficulty of doing ethnographic research
and that it is a specific tool that a researcher develops. The researcher is required to immerse
themselves into a specific culture, build rapport with the community, interview them about
personal aspects of their lives and is also able to maintain separation. Ethnographic research is a
very time consuming method, in the field and after while analyzing data, therefore the researcher
needs to be committed to their project and be willing to work alone for most of it.
The only part she does not explain when discussing how an inexperienced researcher can
not do ethnographic research is how that inexperienced research becomes the skilled and
empathic researcher they need to be in order to be successful at ethnographic research. If having
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research assistants can be a distraction or source of anxiety for interviewees, how do these
assistants become the skilled researchers required for proper ethnographic research?
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Gephart, R.P. (1988). Ethnostatistics: Qualitative foundations for quantitative research Vol 12.
Qualitative research methods. Newbury Park:Sage Publications.
This book is in a volume on Qualitative Research Methods. This volume “is concerned
with how to do social research on the use of statistics in quantitative social research; it outlines a
program of research on ethnostatistics.” (pp. 9).
“Ethnostatistics is the study of the construction, interpretation, and display of statistics in
quantitative social research… Statistics has several meanings. First, it is a professional field of
inquiry concerned with ‘the theories and techniques (both descriptive and inferential) that have
been developed to manipulate data’…Second, statistics is a label for certain techniques or rulegoverned procedures for doing certain calculations, such as the procedures involved in
calculating an analysis of variance. Third, statistics refers to almost any numerical summary that
is the outcome of the application of rule-governed calculations.” (pp. 8-9).
I understand the main aspect that this ‘volume’ was trying to state, although statistics is a
quantitative method, it can be utilized in a qualitative manner. I think in general statistics are just
numbers, without an evaluation of the data and the method in which the numbers (data) were
acquired. The remaining part of the reading was confusing to me as it went into detail about
examples on how statistics were acquired and methods observed, I felt it overwhelming and
probably could have been a little more concise and to the point. At some point it also mentions
that ethnostatistics is a way to link to “real” sciences, and I understand that feeling as science is
repeatable, test-able and is not really open to opinion in which statistics is as well. Solid numbers
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from a study presented as data can appear to repeatable test-able and not open to opinion,
although this volume points out that is not always the case.
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Groleau, D., Pluye, P., & Nadeau, L. (2007). A mix-method approach to the cultural
understanding of distress and the non-use of mental health services. Journal of Mental
Health, 16(6) 731-741. doi: 10.1080/09638230701496386
“This paper illustrates … the usefulness of using a mixed-method design to study mental
health problems and related behaviors in a culturally diverse community.” (pp.731). The project
design was a ‘Sequential Transformative Design’. “This paper illustrates how this type of design
is characterized by two distinct phases of data collection/analysis: quantitative (QT) followed by
qualitative (QL), the latter typically used to study surprising QT findings in more detail (or vice
versa).”
This paper is interesting in that they are doing research on people with PTSD however
seek culturally traditional treatment to treat their symptoms rather than mental health treatment. I
never thought about the issues someone would face with a mental health issue and treating it by
trying to fix their chi as that, of course is responsible for their overall energy, and if not
imbalance can present as mental health issues, therefore treating the chi would fix the problem.
Of course, once you read this it is obvious. People of course will seek the ‘healthcare’ they have
become accustomed to within their culture.
As for the actual studies, that part was slightly confusing to keep track of. The
quantitative study in fact at the time of writing was not complete. The main result determined by
the research was that improved services and accessibility for health care are required.
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Hopwood, N. (2004). Research design and methods of data collection and analysis: Researching
student’s conceptions in a multiple method case study. Journal of Geography in Higher
Education, 23(2) pp. 347-353.
This article is about a multiple method case study on students and their perceptions of
geography. They use different methods in order to attempt to triangulate the data. They use
multiple theories frameworks throughout this study. Three different techniques were used, asking
the students to make a poster, filling out a questionnaire and having a semi structured interview
all about their geography.
This article states that their data was successful and their approaches beneficial to what they had
hoped to achieve at the beginning.
This article was difficult for me to understand because they discuss a lot of different
theoretical frameworks that they based their research on. It is hard for me to know all of those
terms, understand what they mean and also be able to interpret them while reading the rest of the
article and how those frameworks related to their topic. From what I could understand at the
beginning made it seem like they were more interested in how people learn by doing, so it is
difficult for me to understand how interviewing people about their ideas of geography is related
to that framework.
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Gubrium, J. & Holstein, J. (1997). Ethnomethodology. In The New Language of Qualitative
Method. pp. 38-56. New York, NY. Oxford University Press.
This chapter discusses how ethnomethodolgy differs from naturalism. Ethnomethodology
is the separation from what is going on, to observe how things are occurring, not what is or why
everyday things are occurring. This requires the ethnomethodologist to “suspend” their beliefs in
the existence of things and their perceptions of things so that they can focus on the “how”.
Unfortunately, methods and resources used to do this are from the ‘world’ that is being observed,
therefore you cannot be completely separate from it.
This chapter uses Lawrence Wieder’s “Language and Social Reality” in which he studied
the environment of a halfway house for convicted narcotics offenders and their ‘language’
between each other offenders and the faculty. This section of the chapter reviews parts of his
research and the differences between ethnomethodology and naturalism.
I understood most of what this chapter was discussing, however specific details about the
research done by Wieder was a little confusing to keep straight I understand that
ethnomethodology is the how whereas naturalism is the what and why, but much of the last few
pages was a jumble of information for me. I could see how this chapter could be useful in the
future should I need thorough information about ethnomethodology.
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Mason, J. (1996). Sampling and selecting, In Qualitative Researching. (pp.83-106). Thousand
Oaks, Ca: Sage Publications.
“One of the central aims of this chapter is to dispel any notion that somehow rigorous or
systematic sampling strategies are not really important in qualitative research simply because it
is often small scale or not amenable to the logic of mathematical probability.” (pp. 83).
Each of these annotations continues to state the obvious, which Im finding almost more
frustrating than helpful, especially since I heard from someone that their son who graduated with
a sociology degree told her he got a degree in common sense… And what solidifies that is
Mason actually writes it a few times in this chapter. Specifically, when Mason mentions that
when you begin thinking about your sample, you of course already know what your sample is, or
at least isnt. I know that my sample is feelings of people in Monterey and Santa Cruz, more
specific feelings of general public and healthcare providers.
Snowball interviewing - I understand that this is a good way to get around creating your
own sample framework, however the more I think about it, I don't see how using the snowball
interview technique gives you a proper sample. People tend to be friends with people who are
like minded, therefore anyone they refer to you for additional interviewing will most likely tell
you the same kind of information, which seems like it would lead to one sided data.
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Potter, W.J. (1996). Nature of qualitative evidence. In, An Analysis of Thinking and Research
About Qualitative Methods. Mahwah, New Jersey. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
Publishers. (pp. 84-92)
Potter, W.J. (1996). Issues of evidence gathering. In, An Analysis of Thinking and Research
About Qualitative Methods. Mahwah, New Jersey. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
Publishers. (pp. 93-114)
Chapter 6 reviews the breakdown of the nature of evidence. “In determining the nature of
evidence, researchers need to be concerned with at least three issues: type of evidence, level of
evidence and the use numerical evidence.”. (pp. 83) The chapter discusses the three differences
in the interpretation of evidence (researcher construction, subjective valuing, and contingent
accuracy), and the levels of evidence (micro, mid and macro level).
Chapter 7 reviews the topic of the six different ways of gathering evidence, “Evidencegathering methods, researcher identification, researcher activity, selection of samples,
collaboration in data gathering and length of data gathering”. (pp. 93).
I felt that chapter 6 was short, but very dense and difficult to follow when he was
discussing the etic versus emic relating to the objective- subjective. From what I could
understand of that section, if the researcher interjects their own views and presents data in their
own perspective rather than the subjects, then the data becomes etic (researchers view) versus
emic (subjects view). What made this chapter difficult for me was the television show examples
of interviewing, data analysis, etc. for some reason I couldn't follow the example meant to define
the term/topic it related to.
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Chapter 7 was slightly more interesting for me, and this may be only due to the fact that
we have been reading about these different methods already. I felt like the quote by another
researcher used in the section on ‘observation’ really summarized the section well, “to be
everywhere present and nowhere visible”. (pp.104) as well as the phrase “going native” in the
‘length of data gathering’. I feel that if you only read those quotes you would still be able to
understand each section and its main point.
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Roth, W.M. (2006). Textbooks on qualitative research and method/methodology: Toward a
praxis of method. Forum: Qualitative Social Research /Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung, 7
(1). Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-06/06-1-11-e.htm
(2014).
Roth describes the unfortunate reality of students difficulty with textbooks for
(specifically) research methods. Roth discusses that many textbooks are written in an attempt to
teach students about the methods for research, however most students never find them helpful
until they know the information. Roth uses research done by himself and a graduate student as
examples of how he believes students should be taught research methods.
As with most articles I have read so far for this major, it is difficult to understand most of
what the author is discussing. I understand his general idea as it is evident to me, not only in
research but in most subjects that you really do not understand what a textbook or teacher is
discussing until you know it. At this point, I know absolutely nothing about qualitative research,
let alone any research methods, so reading this article was confusing even when the author was
attempting to explain what qualitative research is and how he would teach it. I feel that at the end
of this semester (hopefully in the middle or earlier if Im smart enough!) I will be able to re-read
this article, understand it and be able to elaborate on the authors proposed teaching “methods”
for research methods.
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Ivey, J. (2012). The value of qualitative research methods. Pediatric Nursing, 38 (6), 319.
This very short “article” discusses the research methods used for a study on patients
(teens) that are living with HIV. This article reviews the different methods used such as an
interview guide, anonymous focus groups, field notes based on the focus groups and evaluation
of the interviews utilizing the process of organizing and coding. The author summarizes that
these methods allowed the authors of the project to access information that may not have
revealed to them through other methods.
As with the other articles, many of the content I do not understand yet and therefore can
not process much of this past the basic information of types of research used in the project. I
appreciate information like this as it is regarding a health issues and not what someone initially
thinks of when they think research and sociology. As a health care worker who plans on
continuing their education and career in the health care field, it is somewhat reassuring that I am
not wasting my time finishing my degree in sociology as these research methods can be applied
to a nursing career.
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Rubin, H.J. & Rubin, I.S. (2012). Listening, hearing, and sharing social experiences. In
Qualitative Interviewing; The Art of Hearing Data. pp. 1-17. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage
Publications.
Rubin, H.J. & Rubin, I.S. (2012). Foundations of qualitative interviewing. In Qualitative
Interviewing; The Art of Hearing Data. pp. 17-41. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage
Publications.
This is the first two chapters out of a book on Qualitative Interviewing. The book
“describes the philosophy of qualitative research to provide the underpinning for the more
technical skills of interviewing”. pg 2. The first chapter is an intro to what qualitative
interviewing is (and is not). Chapter 2 discusses the theories of qualitative interviewing
I found these chapters easy to read and very informative. I utilized this assigned reading
for the Method draft assignment and believe it will be very useful when I do in fact need to
interview someone. This reading was so helpful and easy to read, I almost want to find the book
to read the remaining chapters to help my interviewing skills. Interestingly enough, I find that the
way they described the interviewing process in the first chapter as how I have conversations with
my mature/educated friends, so I am hoping I will already be a good listener and interviewer
when it comes to my project interviews.
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Zheng, C. (2012). Understanding the learning process of peer feedback activity: An ethnographic
study of Exploratory Practice. Language Teaching Research, 16 (1). pp 109-126. doi:
10.1177/1362168811426248
This article is about “understanding the learning possibilities, from the social learning
perspective, in the process of peer feedback activity in a College English classroom for nonEnglish majors in China.” pg. 9. The author studies his students in peer review groups and their
interactions and classifies the type of interactions into 5 groups- collaborative, expert-novice,
dominant-dominant, dominant-passive, passive-passive.
I found this article hard to follow. I understand classifying the differences in approaches
to learning in a peer review setting, but it was difficult to understand as you are reading
conversations people learning English are having in regards to writing a story and they are
learning English in a very technical way ( using and referring to rules that I do not
remember/know).
I am going to assume that this reading was assigned because we are doing peer review
this week and this is supposed to show us that it is in fact helpful. I personally have never
received any really great advice from a peer during any of these assignments.
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Perakyla, A. (1997). Part VI Validity: Reliability and validity in research based on tapes and
transcripts. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative Research; Theory, Method and Practice.
(pp. 201-220). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications Ltd.
“This chapter will deal with the issues of reliability and validity in research based on
tapes and transcripts, and, in particular, in conversation analysis (CA). I will focus this
discussion on one specific type of qualitative research only mainly because, as it was pointed
out, the questions of reliability and validity take a different form in different qualitative
methods… Although the discussion in this chapter focuses on a specific type of qualitative
research (conversation analysis), the basic issues raised here are relevant in the context of any
qualitative method.” pp. 201-202.
This section of reading seems repetitive now that we have lectured on reliability and
validity (a few times). Pieces of this reading seem common sense now, such as making sure your
transcripts of interviews are thorough and complete, that your recording equipment is functional
in good condition and will give you a quality recording.
One of the sections mentioned something that I had not thought of was that field notes
have limited access to the public, therefore the reliability comes into question. The section
regarding the validity and the phone call conversations were slightly confusing to me. I am not
sure how the “apparent validity” was applied to the examples, or “exhibits” used in the section.
After reading this section, I have to agree with a statement in the conclusion, “it seems
that the specific constraints facing CA are closer to those of observational research than those of
text analysis.” (pp. 216). The entire time I was reading this, I related it to detailed observation,
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and I believe that it really is just that, thinking through what you doing, and documenting
everything and doing it all really well.
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Weinberg, D. (2002). Part III Observational fieldwork (Introduction). In Qualitative Research
Methods (pp.135-138). Malden, Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers Inc.
This is a short introduction to the chapter on observational fieldwork, which “involves
quite basically, placing oneself in direct personal contact with the social group one is intent to
study as they go about their affairs.”. The chapter includes essays from multiple authors in
regards to field work. I am unsure as to why Weinberg details the essays so thoroughly in the
introduction when they exist in the chapter in their entirety. (see below for a more complete
annotation on Hughes).
Hughes, E.C. (1960). The place of field work in social science. In D. Weinberg (Ed.), Qualitative
Research Methods (pp. 139-147). Malden, Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers Inc.
This essay is about fieldwork “in situ; finding them where they are, staying with them in
some role, which, while acceptable to them, will allow both intimate observation of certain parts
of their behavior, and rerouting it in ways useful to social science but not harmful to those
observed.” (pp. 139)
I have difficulty understanding the overall difference people are claiming that field work
and ethnography have. Based on the descriptions, they seem very similar, however from what I
am understanding field work to be is, as a sociologist, observing a particular group that they
themselves are a part of, and they are observing as an insider but with an objective eye. The
confusing part to me, is that you really can not in fact have an objective eye (unbiased) because
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we all have prior assumptions and socialized rules for how things work, which makes it
impossible to do anything with or without ANY judgement. Even with the conscious thought of
NOT assuming anything, we are placing ourselves into an environment and ultimately changing
it, even if slightly, so our unbiased observations are still incorrect because our presence may
have altered how the group/people interact. Weinberg discusses this when he mentions that
“when we interview people we must always contemplate what is being included and what is
being left out, how it is being included and how it is being left out and, of course, why” (pp.135).
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Griffith, R. (2014). Should assisted dying be lawful? British Journal of Community Nursing
19(2) 94-98.
“This article considers the legal position of euthanasia and assisted dying in the UK and
discusses recent attempts at reforming the law.”
This article details the definitions a little more thoroughly than any other article does (
Active euthanasia, Passive euthanasia and assisted dying). The article discusses and clarifies
these definitions as it seems majority of the confusion on the legalization of physician assisted
suicide and/or euthanasia is the fact that many people assume they are one in the same. Main
points: “Euthanasia is a process whereby life is ended by another to avoid the distressing effects
of an illness- it is unlawful in the UK. Assisted dying is a process where a person is given the
means to end their own life. Currently, assisting or encouraging a suicide is unlawful, but those
with emotional ties to a person will not face prosecution if they acted out of compassion. The
latest attempt at changing the law, the Assisted Dying Bill, is o be debated in Parliament later
this year.” pp. 98. Although this article is the most current one I have, it is not regarding law in
the US, therefore is limiting as to how I can use it. The definitions will be helpful, however the
specifics of the article to the Assisted Dying Bill are useless for my project.
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Nicole Perez
HDEV 365 -Adolescence & 371 -Adulthood & Aging
Annotated Articles
Harden, K.P. (2014). A sex-positive framework for research on adolescent sexuality.
Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9, 455-469.
“In this article, I propose a sex-positive framework for research on adolescent sexuality in
which I consider consensual sexual activities in adolescent as developmentally normative and
potentially healthy…” (abstract pp. 455). “ Moreover, I discuss how sexual well-being can be
operationalized within quantitative social science, and I describe how considering the potentially
positive dimensions of adolescent sexuality opens exciting avenues for empirical research.” (pp.
455-456).
This is a long article that discusses the lack of research available to analyze on same sex
relationships and overall sexual relationships of adolescents and the outcomes and any
antecedents present that account for the positive or negative feelings toward sex.
I feel that most of this article repeats itself which makes it slightly confusing as to what
data is actually available as it incorporates what is missing. There is an obvious need for
additional research in this area as the two articles assigned for review both discuss the gap of
knowledge, although I did find this article a little easier to read and follow versus the 2011 article
by Tolman and McClelland. This is a topic that I am unfamiliar with and find it difficult to write
a paper on while including interventions for adolescents.
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Tolman, D.L., & Clelland, S.I. (2011). Normative sexuality development in adolescence:A
decade in review, 2000-2009. Journal of Research On Adolescence, 21, 242-255.
“This review details a key innovation across the field of adolescent sexuality research
over the last decade-conceptualizing sexuality as a normative aspect of adolescent
development…We conclude by suggesting that the next step in the field of adolescent sexuality
development is the explicit integration of “positive” dimensions of sexuality with risk
management dimensions.” pp. 242
Push for sexuality in adolescents to be researched and discussed as a normative behavior,
however even though it is normal, it needs to be considered positive and/or negative, in which
case further research is necessary for each side.
Found 3 different domains: perspectives; sexual behaviors, sexual selfhood, sexual
socialization. Sexual behaviors - behavioral aspects of sexuality. Sexual selfhood - internal
development of the individual. Sexual socialization - social contexts in which adolescents
develop sexual knowledge and experiences. pp.243-244.
Most research is geared toward heterosexual relationships and the sexual encounters
within those relationships, calling for more research on homosexual relationships. The types of
sex are reviewed, as most often sexual relations are not penile-vagina sex, rather oral sex/fellatio,
etc.
“…Brown (2002) developed the concept of the sexual media diet as part of a media
“identity toolkit” that adolescents utilized to explore the self; she suggests that media can serve
as a kind of sexual ‘super peer’.”pp. 249
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I found this interesting, but only read it as a requirement for my HDEV class on
adolescents. As I stated in this course ( a forum posting for week 8), it is difficult for me to think
of interventions and programs that may benefit adolescents and children because I don't plan on
having children and therefore never think about them unless it is a family members child having
issues. Otherwise, quite frankly I could care less what happens to the youth of America because
most are already ruined by their parents, I just hope there are enough smart ones to outweigh the
idiots.
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Zimmer-Gembeck, M.J., & Skinner, E.A. (November 200*). Adolescents coping with
stress: Development and diversity. The prevention researcher, 15, 3-7.
“In this article, we summarize some of what is know about stress, stress reactions,
and coping among adolescents. Throughout, we focus on typical developmental patterns
by highlighting the emerging experiences of adolescents and how they differ from
children and adults. We also briefly draw attention to differences between individuals,
boys and girls, and racial/ethnic or other diverse groups. Finally, because social partners
are sources of stress as well as coping resources, we weave information about the social
context and social development throughout this article.” pp.3
This article acknowledges the possible positive or negative outcome from a
stressful situation, and also mentions that very few articles have actually researched the
positive outcomes of adolescents. The article states that “25 % of adolescents will
experience at least one significant stressor, including the death of a loved one or
witnessing a traumatic event.” pp.3, however I find this number to be a lot lower than I
would have anticipated. This low number leads me to believe that the significant stressor
described has a very specific definition, such as the stressor directly effecting the
adolescent and not including significant stressors that their friends, family members,
acquaintances, etc. may experience. This number seems inappropriate if it does in fact
reflect only the direct significant stressors to the defined individual, as many adolescents
experience stressors with others, or share in the stress of another much like they would if
it was happening to them.
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Problem solving abilities have yet to develop due to the brain development. These
abilities come in around late adolescence and early adulthood. Due to the limited amount
of problem solving abilities, it becomes difficult for adolescents to appropriately
problem-solve.
I find the part interesting about girls reporting more stressors (overall) than boys,
however boys have more stress about being successful in sports than girls and that both
girls and boys report to have an equal amount of anger.
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Halpern-Felsher, B. (2009). Adolescent decision making: An overview. The
prevention researcher, 16, 3-6.
“This article will provide an overview of adolescent decision making, including
definitions of competent decision making, descriptions of decision-making models, and
the physical, cognitive, social and emotional influences on adolescent decision making.
This article will also discuss implications of adolescent decision making that are relevant
health educators, healthcare providers, policy makers and adolescent researchers.” pp. 3
Normative behaviors and perceptions are large influences on adolescents for
decision making situations. This is also an issue as adolescents are in an ever changing
environment that is less structured than children, therefore their decisions are based on
what they perceive their peers normative behaviors to be, which can and often change
day to day. Autonomy is also an issue as adolescents attempt to create their own identity,
however this becomes difficult (as previously stated) as they base their decisions on their
peers and the perceived normative behaviors.
This article does mention that cultural differences play a role in decision making
as some cultures make decisions for an individual as a group. The motivators for this are
how the outcome will affect the group. For this topic, I believe additional information on
the culture is necessary to make these assumptions, as many American adolescents are
taught to seek autonomy, therefore molding their decision making process, whereas
someone who grew up in a culture where the goal is always to survive and thrive as a
group, their decision making skills will be much different.
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Stillon, J. M., & Papadatou, D. (2002). Suffer the children. An examination of psychosocial
issues in children and adolescents with terminal illness. American Behavioral Scientist,
46, 299-315. doi: 10.1177/000276402236679
“This article points out specific problems in caring for dying children, including the
amount of concerns that must be given to age and develop mental levels as well as to family and
school issues.” pp. 299
Cognitive ability of children and adolescents are reviewed as they are growing through
particular stages (piagetian and ericksonian). Children aged 6 to 12 develop the understanding of
death as the have moved into concrete operational thought processes. Age 12 begins formal
thought which allows for the cognitive processes that allow for the “why” questions to be asked.
12 year olds + can visualize the future and have similarities to adults with cancer in this regard.
According to Erikson, children ages 6-12 are beginning to depend on their peers for normal and
healthy development. This can become difficult when the patient is ill from treatment, such as
lack of energy, hair loss, etc. These issues may cause the inability to participate in regular
activities with peers and friends, which only excludes them even more. 12 year olds + are dealing
with the intimacy phase, causing reluctance toward (intimate) relationships.
Development phases, quality of life, daily routines and activities are encouraged to help
maintain control and their prospective future. Stages of understanding diagnosis: 1. Realization
of the seriousness of the illness and the lack of health they now have, 2. acquiring information on
the drugs and medical treatment for their illness, have the feeling that their illness is temporary,
3. after relapse of illness, begin to understand it will always be there, become well informed and
knowledgeable of their treatments, 4. Begin to understand the illness and treatment cycle of their
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disease, begin to understand the will not get better, 5. treatments will fail and their illness,
treatment cycle will ultimately end in death.
Acceptance and understanding of death is helpful with the treatment of cancer.
Appropriate age language should be used to discuss illness, treatment and death with children as
even young children understand the seriousness of illnesses. Although adolescents do not have
the right to be involved in treatment decisions, inclusion during the process of discussion allows
for better parental and child relationships, trust and a feeling of autonomy for the patient (Stillon
& Papadatou, 2002).
This is a good article used for my research and deliverable for HDEV 365 (adolescence).
The focus of this project is adolescent cancer aimed toward an informative, pamphlet style
project.
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Barr, R.D. (2001). The adolescent with cancer. European Journal of Cancer, 37, 1523-1530.
“This article will explore the issues of incidence and mortality, the spectrum of disease,
elements of cancer control, the impact on the adolescent patient, and challenges for the health
care system” pp. 1523
This is a good short article on adolescents and cancer. This article actually provided a
definition for cancer patients and their ages, defining which ages indicate a child and which are
considered adolescents (childhood 0-14, adolescence 15-19).
Research for this article included age groups and diseases throughout multiple years for
incidence rates and mortality rates. This article also does a quick discussion and review of the
prevention of disease (which indicates more research is necessary for appropriate data),
screening processes, treatment, palliative care and long term care and follow up. The main goal
when pulling this article was to gather data on how the adolescent is affected by cancer, however
the portion of the article discussing that topic is very minimal.
This article was not approved as a suitable reference for my HDEV 365 pamphlet project
due to the age of it (professor requested articles within 7 years).
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Compas, B.E., Desjardins, L., Rodriguez, E.M., Dunn, M., Bemis, H., Vanatta, K., YoungSaleme, T., Snyder, S., & Gerhardt, C.A. (2014). Children and adolescents coping with
cancer: Self- and parents reports of coping and anxiety/depression. Health Psychology,
33, 853-861. doi: 10.1002/jts
“The diagnosis and treatment of cancer present children and adolescents with significant
stress. However, research on the ways that children and adolescents cope with cancer-related
stress has not yielded clear findings on the efficacy of different coping strategies, and has been
limited by reliance primarily on self-reports of both coping and distress. To address this gap, the
current study used a control-based model of coping to examine self- and parent reports of
child/adolescent coping and symptoms of anxiety and depression in a sample of children with
cancer.” pp.853
Methods of this article included the recruitment of children early in their diagnosis or in
their relapse of their illness. This included self reports (n=153), mothers reporting (n=297) and
fathers reporting (n=161). Utilized SPSS program for data collection and analysis.
They found that diagnosis type, age and relapse status were not related to the level of
stress/depression. “…current findings suggest that the use of strategies including acceptance,
cognitive reappraisal, and positive methods of cognitive and behavioral distraction are adaptive
ways for children and adolescents to cope with stress associated with the diagnosis and treatment
of cancer. In other words, secondary control coping allows children to accommodate or adapt to
the stress associated with having cancer.” pp. 859
This article is a good study with a good starting point for additional research on
secondary coping skills for adolescents and cancer treatment.
Abrams, A.N., Hazen, E.P., & Penson, R.T. (2007). Psychosocial issues in adolescents with
cancer. Cancer Treatment Reviews, 33, 622-630. doi: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2006.12.006
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“In this review we will look at the psychosocial issues facing adolescents with cancer.
We will address adolescent development, issues related to informed consent and assent, initial
responses to the diagnosis of cancer, psychological adjustment, support systems, body image
issues, sexuality, education, hope, and treatment compliance.” pp. 622
“…for the adolescent with cancer, the problem is often not survival in the future, but
survival in the present” (Whyte & Smith, 1997 as cited in Abrams et al., 2007). “…it is difficult
to develop a sense of autonomy when medical decision-making involves both the teenager and
their parents” (Abrams, Hazen, & Penson, 2007, 623).
Parental coping has been an important predictor for adolescents coping. Family is
important for coping , especially mothers. Peers and ‘social shields’ when re-entering into
normal social activities. pp. 625 Suggestions for increased social interactions are internet access
in hospital rooms, visits from friends & family often, social networking, attendance at social
events when energy allows. pp. 626 “Positive social relationships are associated with improved
reports of quality of life and as a result, an increased ability to manage stresses such as cancer”
(Abrams et al., 2007, 626). This article also discusses the sexuality issue and the possible fertility
issues for these patients in the future.
This article proved to be very helpful in my pamphlet project research for HDEV 365.
This article covers a lot of the aspects I wanted to discuss in my project, I just wish it was a little
more current.
Summer 14’ Annotations
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Borre, K. (1991). Seal blood, inuit blood, and diet: A bicultural model of physiology and cultural
identity. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, 5(1), pp.48-62.
“In this article, I suggest a way that a cultural or folk model can be operationalized for
studying dietary behavior and its effects on nutritional status.” pp. 48
I found this article very interesting. This article was presented to me in an intro to cultural
anthropology as an option for a group project. Each group was assigned an article and had to
dissect and present it to the class. This article was presented by another group and I found it
interesting and decided to keep it to read on my own later.
After learning what I have so far at CSUMB and re-reading this article, I understand that
a lot of field work and research went into to determining this food model for the Inuit. This
author lived with a family, endured difficult interviews with Inuit elders who did not want notes
or recordings of their conversations which required extensive interpreter involvement. I actually
believe that the more interesting and important points of this article are not necessarily the
creation of a dietary model ,but the impact that the cultural identity of the Inuit has on their
health. I think if this article cold have focused on that and submitted it to the state government,
there could be programs and laws set in place to protect their cultural identity and their lives.
Chagnon, N. (1992). Doing fieldwork among the yanomamo. Annual Editions, Anthropology
06/07, 28, pp. 2-13.
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“Hence, what I say about some of my experiences is probably equally true of the
experiences many other fieldworkers. I describe some of them here for the benefit of future
anthropologists- because I think I could have profited by reading about the pitfalls of my own
teachers. At the very least I might have been able to avoid some of my more stupid errors . In
this regard there is a browning body of excellent descriptive work on field research. Students
who plan to make a career in anthropology should consult these works, which cover a wide range
of field situations in the ethnographic present.” pp. 3
I have read this excerpt of information before out of Chagnon’s Yanomomo book for a
cultural anthropology class. I really enjoyed Chagnon’s retelling of his emergence into the
Yanomomo life. The difficulties he faced getting situated in the camp, building his mud hut,
attempting to make his oatmeal and instead resorting to living off cafe con leche and telling the
Yanomomo his peanut butter was cow feces all make fieldwork seem extremely difficult but in
the end rewarding. I personally do not think I would be able to do it, but if you could stick with
it, and suffer through people lying to you and giving false data, eventually it could be amazing
what you accomplish.
Connell, R. (2006). Northern theory: The political geography of general social theory. Theory
and Society, 35, pp.237-264. (28)
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“ …General theory is important in enabling social science to be a cultural force. But the way
theory is done may also be severely limiting. In this article I raise the question of what in the
genre of theory (rather than what propositions in particular theories) we need to re-think, to
allow social science to play a larger role in the world.” pp. 238 “In this article, to get the analysis
going, I have operated with the simplest possible metropole/periphery model. Yet both terms in
this dichotomy are complex.” pp. 263
This article reviews three theorists, Coleman, Bourdieu and Giddens for majority of the
pages to demonstrate the northern style of theory in which the world has taken as the theories
due to the minimal amount of theorists in other regions, however the author Connell states that
we can in fact incorporate the other theories into our world, as solely using northern theory is not
all encompassing as we once thought it was .This is a very dense article in regards to theory, and
since I have not read nor understand the 3 reviewed theorists theories, “Foundations of Social
Theory”, “Logic of Practice” and “Constitution of Society” it is difficult to follow and
understand. This article is not at all helpful to me in anyway, nor do I ever see referencing it in
the future, even though Connell mentions Parsons while reviewing Coleman ( my theorist for my
capstone.).
Counts, D.(1990). Too many bananas, not enough pineapples, and no watermelon at all: Three
object lessons in living with reciprocity. Annual Editions 06/07, 28, pp. 74-77
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“Lesson 1: In a society where food is shared or gifted as part of social life, you may not
buy it with money… Lesson 2: Never refuse a gift, and never fail to return a gift. If you cannot
use it, you can always give it away to someone else- there is no such thing as too much- there are
never too many bananas…Lesson 3: Where reciprocity is the rule and gifts are the idiom, you
cannot demand a gift, just as you cannot refuse a request.” pp.74,76,77.
This is an interesting article about giving and taking. Similar to the article included in this
section of the journal about Hopi gift giving and how the US didn't understand their gift as the
Hopi meant it. You must take gifts even if you have no use for them, don't pay for food if your a
guest, it’s ok to trade but in certain circumstances and with equal value items. Also, do not ask
for someone to trade with you, as it will only prompt them to steal someone else’s food to give to
you. You will not teach indigenous lessons on trading and food sharing as that is how their
culture functions. This article just reminded me of how much I do NOT want drop into an
unknown culture for an extended period of time, not know the language, not know any culture
rules, be an outcast and secluded, attempt to gain trust and (almost in a sense) popularity. I don't
want to move to angrier city let alone become an ethnographer in another country with an
indigenous society.
Gadsby, P.(August 2002). The inuit paradox. How people who gorge on fat and rarely see a
vegetable be healthier than we are? Annual Editions 06/07, 28, pp. 66-69
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“Today, when diet books top the best seller list and nobody seems sure of what to eat to
stay healthy, its surprising to learn how well the Eskimo did on a high-protein, high fat diet.
Shaped by glacial temperatures, stark landscapes, and protracted winters, the traditional Eskimo
diet had little in the way of plant food, no agriculture or dairy products, and was unusually low in
carbohydrates. Mostly people subsisted on what they hunted and fished. Inland dwellers took
advantage of caribou feeding on tundra mosses, lichens, and plants too tough for humans to
stomach (though predigested vegetation in animals paunches became dinner as well)…How
could such a diet possibly be adequate? How did people get along on little else but fat and animal
protein?” pp. 66
I found this article very interesting because I am a vegetarian trying to limit my animal
product intake. This protein and fat ratio was interesting but it does make sense. As much as your
body needs protein, it also needs some fat, so having a diet of lean meat would not be adequate. I
know that your body can only utilize so much protein, but I have never heard the term ‘protein
ceiling’. The interesting thing about this is that the article states there is evidence that suggests
hunters would discard animals when they had too much protein. This is interesting to me because
even in todays society I still do not know just how much protein I can eat and have it be utilized
and not go to waste.
Gmelch, G. (1999). Lessons from the field. Annual Editions 06/07, 28, pp. 14-19.
“…it wasn't until serving on a committee that was evaluating my college’s international
study programs, that I ever thought much about what my students learned about their own culture
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by living in another… My curiosity aroused, I decided to examine the experiences of our
students in Barbados. Through a questionnaire, interviews, and analysis of their field notes and
journals, I looked at their adjustment to Bajan village life and what they learned about
themselves and their culture by living on a Caribbean island.” pp.14-15
I found this article interesting in comparison to the article by Napoleon Chagnon and his
experiences with the Yanomomo. This is the professor discussing the students experiences based
on their journals during the fieldwork. The interesting parts I guess are that the professor
describes these particular instances that the students wrote down or talked about such as “cat
calls” from men while the female students walked down the street, the small village lack of
anonymity and culture shock that happens when you visit another culture. I felt this growing up
in Davenport, a small town of about 200 people, most my family. Before cell phones were
readily available, even the internet, I grew up in a small community where everyone knew
everyone’s business and you couldn't escape your family (my family and extended family lived
on the same street, each house next to the other). I grew up thinking everyone was like us,
everyone has 13 first cousins to play with, ask advice, be mad at, get in trouble with. It was until
I had to move to the junior high school in Santa Cruz that I had a future shock of how things
really were, even though I had gone in and out of Santa Cruz my entire life for all errands my
family needed to run, moving from a school of 60 people to a school of a few hundred was nerve
wracking, however it almost helped me because I am more aware of my own culture, my family,
and how things work in the community and how this affect one another. Even more so, I believe
my little davenport family would have been a very interesting longitudinal study.
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Golafshani, N. ( December 2003). Understanding Reliability and Validity in Qualitative
Research. The Qualitive Report, 8(4), pp.597-607.
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“This article discusses the use of reliability and validity in the qualitative research
paradigm. First, the meanings of qualitative research are discussed. Secondly, reliability and
validity as used in quantitative research are discussed as a way of providing a springboard to
examining what these two terms mean and how they can be tested in the qualitative research
paradigm. This paper concludes by drawing upon the use of triangulation in the two paradigms
(quantitative and qualitative) to show how the changes have influenced our understanding of
reliability, validity and triangulation in qualitative studies.” pp.597.
This is a great article if you are in the need for the definitions for reference on what
qualitative research is as well as reliability and validity as it details them and explains them well.
The article does states that “in qualitative paradigms the terms Credibility, Neutrality or
Confirmability, Consistency or Dependability and Applicability or Transferability are to be the
essential criteria for quality.” pp. 601 Golafshani concludes that these terms must be redefined
for future concepts.
Lee, R. B. (1969, December). Eating christmas in the kalahari. Annual Editions 06/07, 28, pp.
20-23.
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“As a social anthropologist working with !Kung Bushmen, I found that the Christmas ox
custom suited my purposes. I had come to the Kalahari to study the hunting and gathering
subsistence economy of the !Kung, and to accomplish this it was essential not to provide them
with food, share my own food, or interfere in any way with their food gathering activities.” pp.
20
I thought this short article was interesting because this social anthropologist seems to be
experienced, yet he allows the entire village to make him believe that the ox he has bought for
christmas feast is not enough for the village and everyone else. I do not understand how he went
to study the hunting and gathering economy of this village and he doesn't know the most basic
function of the culture of hunting. I would like to think that he would have noticed this part of
the hunt within the first few days, everyone always complaining about the kill not being big
enough, meaty enough, tasting poorly, etc. This seems to be a common thing people, such as
with friends putting each other down for clothes or men with athletic capabilities, it is present in
every culture.
Lewis, P., & Black, I. (2013). Adherence to the request criterion in jurisdictions where assisted
dying is lawful? A review of the criteria and evidence in the Netherlands, Belgium,
Oregon, and Switzerland. Journal of Law, Medicine, Ethics; Human Rights and
Disability, Winter 2013. pp.885-898.
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“In this article, we review the criteria and evidence in respect of requests for assisted
dying in the Netherlands, Belgium, Oregon, and Switzerland. Our aim is to establish whether
individuals who receive assisted dying do so on the basis of valid responses.” pp. 885
This article goes through each country/state and each section of the criterion and the
results of their research specific to the topic and region. I wish they would have written this
separated into the country/state and what they found versus the sections they were concerned
with and how each region fell into that place, it is difficult to follow the region you are interested
in as the data is strewn throughout the entire article. The results for the regions were that all
respect the laws and requests of patients who have asked for assisted suicide.
Unfortunately, at this point in my research, I don't believe that this article is relevant or
helpful toward my capstone, however it was an interesting perspective of the topic.
MacNeil, R. (2005, January). Do you speak American? USA Today Magazine,133(2716), pp.
18-22
“We address the controversies, issues, anxieties, and assumptions swirling around
language today- some highly emotional and political. Why are black and white Americans
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speaking less and less like each other? We explain. Does Hispanic immigration threaten the
English language? we do not think so. Is our exposure to national media wiping out regional
differences and causing us all to speak the same? We think not. Is the language really in serious
decline? Well, we have quite a debate about that.” pp. 36
This is an interesting article I first read in a cultural anthropology class. The only thing I
remembered from the article was the comment on ‘hopefulness’. “To say, ‘Hopefully it wont
daub tomorrow’-who, or what, is filled with hope? Nothing. So you have to say, ‘I hope it wont
rain tomorrow.’ But you have to say, ‘I hope it wont rain tomorrow.’ But you can say, ‘I enter a
room hopefully,’ because you are the vessel for that hopefulness.” pp. 37 There is also a section
that I thought was interesting was about the “African-American Language”, which I have
honestly never heard of.
Nelson, R.(September/October 1993). Understanding eskimo science. Annual Editions 06/07, 28,
pp. 63-65.
“I believe its essential that we learn from traditional societies, especially those whose
livelihood depends on the harvest of a wild environment-hunters, fishers, trappers, and gatherers.
These people have accumulated bodies of knowledge much like our own sciences. And they can
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give us vital insights about responsible membership in the community of life, insights founded
on a wisdom we’d long forgotten and now are beginning to rediscover” pp. 63
I found this article very interesting as it discusses the science behind how the Inuit have
functioned and lived in their conditions. They’re ability to learn, adjust and anticipate nature and
the animals has allowed them to survive. Many scientists could not anticipate or survive without
the learned cultural knowledge of the Inuit, “A Koyukon elder, who took it upon himself to be
my teacher, was fond of telling me: ‘each animal knows way more than you do.’ He spoke as if it
summarized all that he understood and believed.” pp. 65
Rhoads, R. (1995). Whales Tales, Dog Piles, and Beer Goggles: An Ethnographic Case Study of
Fraternity Life. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 26 (3), pp. 306-323. http://
www.jstor.org/stable/3195675
“In this article, I rely on critical views of culture and power to highlight aspects of
fraternity life that contribute to the ongoing marginalization and, in some cases the victimization,
of women. By critical views, I refer to theories deriving from postmodernism, critical theory, and
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feminist theory. The article is based on an ethnographic case study of a fraternity referred to
throughout this article as Alpha Beta, a pseudonym.” pp. 307
I found it interesting that the fraternity reviewed the paper and forced it into discussion
for review. I guess the more interesting part of that, is that they actually debated it for a year
even when the project had been previously reviewed and approved. The three categories of
findings in regards to women are the same that I have heard previously in other studies as well (
“1. the promotion of hostile representations of women, 2. the positing of women as passive
participants, and 3. issues related to gender perceptions.” pp. 314) . Unfortunately, part of the
issue is that the women go along with, or are involved with the acts that these fraternity members
organize. I am not sure if it is more of the age group more so than anything else, as this tends to
be an age where people are still attempting to figure out who they are and their group of friends,
and sometimes this means trying to hard to be a part of a specific group or getting attention from
specific men. This can in turn, put them in dangerous and susceptible situations, which of course
only fuels the male’s view in that they can treat women however they like, and even if there is
one to complain and revolt against, there are 10 more waiting for the chance.
Roberts, D., & Tattersall, I. (1974, March). Skull form and the mechanics of mandibular
elevation in mammals. American Museum Novitates, Number 2536. pp.1-9.
“Numerous theories are current, most of which represent variations on the concept of the
mandible as a bent lever system rotating around the condyle. In the present paper we express a
rather different view of the masticatory system and attempt to show the manner in which the
components of the mammalian masticatory apparatus are related.” pp.1
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Im not sure how I came to have this article, but its interesting even for being from the
70’s. This is an interesting article about the angles within the jaw that create the use of each
muscle in order to masticate. Even with my anatomical and dental it was difficult to read and
completely understand, but the points I did get were interesting.
Schildkrout, E. (Winter 2001). Body art as visual language. Annual Editions 06/07, 28, pp.
56-59.
“Body art is not just the latest fashion. In fact, if the implies to create art is one of the defining
signs of humanity, the body may well have been the first canvas…People have always marked
their bodies with signs of individuality, social status and cultural identity… Theres is no culture
in which people do not, or did not paint, piece, tattoo, reshape, or simply adorn their bodies.” pp.
56
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I found this (unfortunately) short article interesting. I have always been intrigued by
tattoos and their significance to the persons culture and identity. My brother has always been
interested in aztec designs and has drawn many anticipated tattoos and I have always wondered
what has ‘drawn’ him to those designs as we are not aztec, but Mexican. In fact, Mexican
however were not immersed into the culture as much as others.
As much as I believe people do conscious changes to their appearance for reasons
explained in the article, I also believe that people do them unconsciously, or they have grown up
around such customs they do not realize they are doing them, they just do them.
Shermer, M. (2006). The facts of evolution. In M. Shermer (Ed.), Why Darwin Matters: The case
against intelligent design (pp. 1-22). New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
(Reprinted and used in Annual Editions, however there is no indication on the copies of the
article as to which edition it was in.The above citation is based on the original publication
information included on the final page of the article).
“…Data without generalizations are useless; facts without explanatory principles are
meaningless. A “theory” is not just someone’s opinion or a wild guess made by some scientist. A
theory is a well-supported and well-tested generalization that explains a set of observations.
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Science without theory is useless. The process of science is fueled by what I call Darwin’s
Dictum, defined by Darwin himself in his letter to Fawcett: ‘ all observation mud be for or
against some view if it is to be of any service’.” pp.2
I have read this article before for a cultural anthropology class, at that time we were
broken into groups and had a section of the text to dissect. My group had to discuss the section
that introduced the ‘intelligent designer”, or “God”. The example was walking through a forest
and seeing a rock and assuming it had always been there, no one put it there, but then you find a
watch on a rock, and you wonder how it got there, and surely someone made it, then put it there.
This is the argument for intelligent design versus evolution. The remaining pages of the article
discuss the science and proof with fossils (and lack there of), design of the human eye over time
and its evolution into the current state and how it is anything but intelligent design, as well as
characteristics of the human body still present that do not serve a purpose in todays environment
( such as wisdom teeth, ability to wiggle ears, third eyelid, goose bumps, etc.).
Sterk, C. E. (2000). Tricking and tripping: Fieldwork on prostitution in the era of AIDS. Annual
Editions 06/07, 28, pp.24-29
“This book is about the women who work in the lower echelons of the prostitution world.
They worked in the streets and other public settings as well as crack houses. Some of these
women viewed themselves primarily as prostitutes, and a number of them used drugs to cope
with the pressures of the life…A small group of women interviewed for this book had left
prostitution, and most of them were still struggling to integrate their past experiences as
prostitutes in their current lives… In this book, I present prostitution from the point of view of
the women themselves… Although my goal was to present the women’s thoughts, feelings, and
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actions in their own words, the final text is a sociological monograph compiled by me as the
researcher.” pp. 25
I found this interesting because this anthropologist emerged herself into this culture to the
point where she was followed home and beaten per the orders of a pimp to “teach her a lesson”,
and was involved in the details so much as knowing when HIV positive prostitutes did not use a
condom and she did not intervene. I also noted that the use of a condom was dictated by the use
of prostitution, such as needing drugs, cash or the type of person involved in the transaction. I
would have liked to think that most prostitutes would like to protect themselves as much as
possible, as well as the patrons of their services. I also found that this section discussed the
(qualitative) research methods more than I believed it would.
Strichter, J., Clarke, S., & Dunlap, G. (2004, May). An analysis of trends regarding proactive and
ecologically valid interventions in applied research. Education and treatment of children,
27(2), pp. 86-104.
“The study was designed to ascertain to what degree the research literature is reflecting
the increased interest in assessment and antecedent-based interventions, and to what extent it is
achieving ecological validity by including the participation of typical intervention agents and
settings.The results confirm anticipated increases in assessment and antecedent based
interventions, but fail to show evidence of overall increases in ecological validity.” pp. 86.
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Im not too sure exactly what this article is about, even with the clear definition as stated
above, about what the article is about. The whole ‘antecedent based interventions gets me. I am
not sure what that means or what that has to do with ecological validity. This article gives me a
headache.
Tannen, D. (1997). Fighting for our lives. Annual Editions 06/07, 28, pp.32-41.
“This book is about a pervasive warlike atmosphere that makes us approach public
dialogue, and just about anything we need to accomplish, as if it were a fight. It is a tendency of
Western culture in general, and in the United States in particular, that has a long history and a
deep thick, and far-ranging root system. It has served us well in many ways but in recent years
has become so exaggerated that it is getting in the way of solving our problems. Our spirits are
corroded by living in an atmosphere of unrelenting contention-an argument culture.” pp.32
As with most things I have noticed in sociology, it is the common sense type of stuff that
people write down and now all of a sudden they are the genius that came up with it. Although
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this article (or rather the section of the book used in this journal) is very interesting, it reminds
me of how many students and ‘normal’ people see sociology, common sense, normal facts that
have been written down and therefore constitute a theory.
“Nearly everything is framed as a battle or game in which winning or losing is the main
concern” pp. 32. Our culture is obviously that of a competitive personality issue. People are in
competition with each other over having bigger and better things, battles and wars on issues and
with diseases, etc. “Community is a blend of connections and authority, and we are losing both.
As Robert Bly shows in his book by the title, we now have a Sibling Society: Citizens are like
squabbling siblings with no authority figures who can command enough respect to contain and
channel their aggressive impulses. It is as if every day is a day with a substitute teacher who
cannot control the class and maintain order.” pp. 39
The section where the author discusses the use of metaphors is interesting, and I have caught
myself multiple times wondering where a phrase came from when I myself or someone else uses
one, such as “a can of corn” for an easy fly ball in baseball.
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Tannen, D. (2001). “I cant even open my mouth”. Separating messages from metamessages in
family talk. Annual Editions 06/07, 28, pp. 42-50
“In all conversations that follow, both in this chapter and throughout the book, a key to
improving relationships within the family is distinguishing the message from the metamessage,
and being clear about which one you are reacting to. One way you can do this is
metacommunicating - talking about communication.”pp.43-44
This article (or chapter) of this book gives examples of everyday conversations where
people read between the lines so to say within their conversations. This happens all the time,
questions such as “are you going to wear that?” which instigate an argument about the true
meaning of the statement. These types of occurrences happen all the time, probably more often
than we would like or even notice at that this point.
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I exeperience this all the time in my relationships with friends, my husband and
especially my family members including cousins. My family and extended family on both sides
all grew up together in the same small town of 200 people, so conversations always seemed to
have subliminal messages. Now that I am older I attempt to not do it so much, however it still
happens. Also, I feel as a woman you can do this to other women and they will pick up on the
subliminal message, however if a woman is speaking to a man you can not expect him to pick up
on the “metamessage”, such as an item not being recyclable, and meaning that it was placed in
the recycling and you need to put it in the trash. This happens a lot at my house and I still haven't
learned my lesson in just saying or asking to move the item.
Whiteley, P.M.(November 2004).Ties that Bind. Hopi gift culture and its first encounter with the
united states. Annual Editions 06/07, 28, pp. 70-73
“… Recently I turned my attention to certain important events, such as the Millard Fillmore
episode, that might shed light on how Hopi gift giving and the ways it functions as a pillar of
Hopi social organization have been central to my studies. One lesson of my work shines
through:When nations exchange gifts, all the parties would do best to keep in mind the old
adage, ‘It’s the thought that counts’.” pp. 70
I believe that this really discuss the main issue with people in general, communication. In
fact, clear and direct communication could solve a lot of issues that people deal with on an
everyday basis. Gift giving is always an issue, as even when someone gives something with ‘no
intention’ of receiving something back, is always thinking down the road that they will be
getting something in return for the gift. Also, the meaning of a gift is difficult to determine.
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Every person does not consider a gift to have the same meaning, nor on a given day does a gift
mean the same as it would on the next day, or even a month later.
Wilson, K. (2014). Not Trying: Infertility, Childlessness, and Ambivalence. Nashville, TN:
Vanderbilt University. (pages 1-201)
“For this book I interviewed twenty-five women who belong to socially marginalized
groups, who are not seeking treatment, and who see themselves as “off course” in terms of the
social expectations that they should become or should have become mothers. Their diverse
experiences differ from that of fertility strugglers and their attitudes offer a perhaps more
liberating way of thinking about infertility and childlessness.” pp. 7
Wilson begins this book with her personal experiences with infertility and eventual
adoption which lead to her research on other women who are infertile or choosing to not be
mothers. She focuses on marginalized social groups and describes the background of what is
thought socially of those who seek infertility treatment (white middle class women).
In her second chapter Wilson begins by reviewing different cultures and Americas history
with infertility and childless women. Wilson also discusses the difference between cultures in
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america with early motherhood, such as gaining motherhood status through the birth of a child (
in Latin and African American communities) whereas teen pregnancy for others is
“pathologized” (p. 23). With birth control this helped change the idea of childlessness and the
infertile began to blend into the crowd of women ‘choosing’ to not have children. Wilson
mentions through quotes from other authors, that women choosing to not have children are in
fact not voluntary as they claim they are, they are intact choosing to post pone their fertility for a
period of time based on certain life facts (p. 25).“The fertility of poor women and women of
color is constructed as a social problem but their infertility is not”, (Davis, 1981 and Lewin 1993,
as cited in Wilson 2014).
In chapter 3 Wilson begins to incorporate her interview responses specific to the meaning
of what it is to be a woman and the child factor that goes with it, and those who do not have
children and the societal questions placed on them because of their situation. In this chapter,
Wilson also discusses (based on interview responses) the fact of ‘selfishness’. This is brought up
by one of her sources as a response they have received from non-mothers as to why they are
childless. Wilson goes on to point out that being selfish is also pointed to mothers who do not
watch their children and others who are envious of the child free women who are choosing to not
use their perfectly good eggs to reproduce. I found the statements and inferences in this section
of the chapter personally annoying. I have chosen to not have children, and I have never
considered myself selfish, but I have heard this from other people in response to my decision. I
would actually call people who want children for no other reason than ‘want’ to be selfish.
Toward the end of the book Wilson discusses the process with her interviewees on
adoption and infertility services. This section makes me frustrated and annoyed with our society.
For someone who really wants a child and are going through treatments or the adoption process,
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they are subjected to classes, information sessions, tests, etc. to determine if they are qualified.
However, any woman or couple can get pregnant without any health tests or parenting classes, in
fact some of these people may not want the child at all however the double standard has been set.
If you happen to have the physical capacity to carry and create a child, you can do so without any
regard from healthcare professionals, however if you do not have the capacity to do so, you are
subjected to a lot of testing to prove you are capable of caring for another human. If we only
forced everyone who was pregnant or wanting to become parents to go to classes, it may solve a
lot of abortion and surrounding issues.
Woskick-Correa, K.R., & Joesph, L.J. (2008). Sexy ladies sexing ladies: Women as consumers
in strip clubs. Journal of Sex Research, 45(3), pp. 201-216.
“Given that most studies involve male customers by default, our research attempts to
align itself with a diversifying sex industry that has a growing female consumer base. This study
examines the negotiation of female customers in a space designed for the make sexual
subjectivity and consumption.” pp. 202
This article uses Goffmans dramaturgy theory which I identify and understand (more so
than others). They mention break in character, which shows the true self during the performances
by the erotic dancers in strip clubs. The performance is utilized in a way for the dancers to get as
much money as possible out of their mark. I have always thought of Goffman’s theory in a
negative way, and this can be thought of negatively, but I actually think this is more of a positive
way of using the theory. The benefit is to the dancer and the monetary value of the performance.
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You could argue that the performance is tricking the patron out of their money, however in a
strip club setting this patron knows what they are going into and is still willing to go in and give
their money to someone who is pretending to be someone else for a few minutes. I find their
method of research interesting and necessary so as to not let on that they were researching
dancers, but I find it odd that in the report they disclose the clubs they went to. In their research
they also find that female patrons are often ignored, which I find ironic as the dancers are there
to have a large payout at the end of the night, so if they are unsuccessful with the men, why
would they ignore the women, they are still costumers, “…a woman’s perceived profitability is
also a factor in a dancer’s decision to approach a female patron…a female customer’s
profitability is indicated by the presence of male companionship.” pp. 207
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Yosso, T.J. (March 2005) Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of
community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8, pp. 69-91. (23)
“Below, I discuss the ways CRT centers Outsider, mestiza, transgressive knowl- edges.
After outlining the theoretical framework of CRT, I critique the assumption that Students of
Color come to the classroom with cultural deficiencies. Utilizing a CRT lens, I challenge
traditional interpretations of Bourdieuean cultural capital theory (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977)
and introduce an alternative concept called community cultural wealth. Then, I outline at least
six forms of capital that comprise community cultural wealth and most often go unacknowledged
or unrecognized.” pp. 70
This article is interesting in the fact that majority of it is referencing other theorists and
minimally explaining her theory in her own detail. I wish this article included more of the author
describing her theory in her own words instead of describing it through other work. “CRT is a
framework that can be used to theorize, examine and challenge the ways race and racism
implicitly and explicitly impact on social structures, practices and discourses.” pp. 70 The main
discussion is the different types of capital ‘available’ and how people of color obtain them.
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Much like many of the articles I read in 300, this was difficult to really comprehend without rereading multiple times.
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