Keywords: height discrimination

Submitted: Jan 03, 2005

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Abstract

The author expresses his thesis that anti-height discrimination laws should be included with other anti-discrimination laws.

Keywords: abbas

Submitted: Dec 29, 2004

Type: Tier Two - Popular

Abstract

I am interest for sociology article.

Keywords: Jack Kevorkian, Armenian holocaust, self Identity

Submitted: Dec 27, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Abstract

The idea for this article first came to me while I was watching a TV profile of Dr. Jack Kevorkian (Dr. Death) on BIOGRAPHY . The TV program revealed that Dr. Kevorkian’s extended family had been wiped out in the Armenian holocaust, and that he identifies himself as a holocaust survivor. Reportedly, this aspect of his self-identity has had a profound influence in shaping his secular humanist life values (a fierce embracement of every individual’s right to freedom of choice, including the right to die) and in influencing his career pattern (physician assisted suicide/ euthanasia advocate).

Keywords: Education, Quality of Life, Individual Labor Supply Survey

Submitted: Dec 27, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Abstract

This paper analyses Individual Labor Supply (ILS) survey data gathered on various russian labor markets. Institutional parameters of the ILS schedule, their influences on ILS elasticities as well as the shapes of the ILS curves have been the special points of interest of the researches. Besides the canonical C-shaped and the S-shaped curves their mirrored reflections and also L-shaped and J-shaped forms were observed. The “backward bend” concept for poor households and the S-shaped LS curve concept for the household with primary, secondary and tertiary workers helped to find explanations for the cases. The dummies for regions and professions as well as “institutional numbers” were successfully used in order to improve the regression quality. It was revealed that threshold effects noted as changes in the market strategies – shifts to a different ILS curve type – take place because workers behavioral patterns are framed by certain types of conventions. So behavioral patterns change when a convention, that a worker positions him(her)self in, is changing. The degree of such effects probability increase when households are forced by external factors to review their economic strategies. Thus assuming that the shape of an ILS function as well as current wage value (roubles per hour) characterizes the economic agent strategy a hypothesis has been worked out: The strategy choice made by a worker in standard labor market situations may be predicted with a certain degree of accuracy if the combination of the individual institutional norms values distribution is known. Hence following D.North’s proposition that institutions are not only carries of history but also accumulators and means of education the author suggests that the combination of institutional norms might be regarded as a signal of Individual Educational Quality.

Keywords: privacy, culture, asian

Submitted: Dec 14, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Abstract

This paper examines privacy issues in Asian cultures by explaining the theoretical Perspective of Culture and Privacy. The purpose of this article is to critically review pertinent literature to provide a foundation or framework for a future study on South Korean culture and its privacy perceptions and issues. Specifically, the purpose is two-fold: to first examine culture and privacy theories - together with research supporting these views - to provide the groundwork for a later investigative study; and second, to review the available research on privacy perceptions and issues in other Asian cultures. Conclusions and recommendations from the review follow.

Keywords: Norms, Educational Quality, Economic Behavior Types, Labor Supply

Submitted: Dec 14, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Abstract

This paper analyses Individual Labor Supply (ILS) survey data gathered on various russian labor markets. Institutional parameters of the ILS schedule, their influences on ILS elasticities as well as the shapes of the ILS curves have been the special points of interest of the researches. Besides the canonical C-shaped and the S-shaped curves their mirrored reflections and also L-shaped and J-shaped forms were observed. The “backward bend” concept for poor households and the S-shaped LS curve concept for the household with primary, secondary and tertiary workers helped to find explanations for the cases. The dummies for regions and professions as well as “institutional numbers” were successfully used in order to improve the regression quality. It was revealed that threshold effects noted as changes in the market strategies – shifts to a different ILS curve type – take place because workers behavioral patterns are framed by certain types of conventions. So behavioral patterns change when a convention, that a worker positions him(her)self in, is changing. The degree of such effects probability increase when households are forced by external factors to review their economic strategies. Thus assuming that the shape of an ILS function as well as current wage value (roubles per hour) characterizes the economic agent strategy a hypothesis has been worked out: The strategy choice made by a worker in standard labor market situations may be predicted with a certain degree of accuracy if the combination of the individual institutional norms values distribution is known. Hence following D.North’s proposition that institutions are not only carries of history but also accumulators and means of education the author suggests that the combination of institutional norms might be regarded as a signal of Individual Educational Quality.

Keywords: desertification

Submitted: Dec 08, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Abstract

Although it is widely recognized that social and economic factors, phenomena and policies play a central role in the production and reproduction of desertification, most studies give emphasis on the biophysical aspects and dimensions of the problem. This paper aims at a brief discussion of some crucial social dimensions of desertification in order to stress the necessity to view and understand it as a deeply social issue. Such a view and understanding reveals the limitations of ‘technocratic’ policy approaches to combat environmental problems, whose causes derive from broader societal structure and organization.

Keywords: integration, immigration, germany, citizenship policies

Submitted: Nov 16, 2004

Type: Tier Two - Popular

Abstract

Traditionally, Germany has not seen itself as a country of immigration and in previous years controls over the influx of foreign workers and their subsequent residency and naturalization have been tight. These tight controls and conservative attitudes in the Federal Republic are a legacy of the type of thinking that considered Germany a Kulturnation, a cultural nation, and of the longevity of laws passed early in the twentieth century. However, Germany’s continuing integration into the EU and increasing prominence on the world stage, not to mention a change of government in 1998 and the expansion of the EU, have led to considerable changes in immigration and citizenship policies.

Keywords: trust, cross-national research, economic growth

Submitted: Nov 11, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Abstract

So far, comparative cross-national research on the consequences of trust has focused mostly on aggregate data and the link between trust and innovation has been limited greatly on the proneness to technological change. After a brief acknowledgment of the theoretical arguments and a short review of the literature on cross-national effects of trust on economic growth and technological change, we therefore explore whether trust is also a valid predictor of a more general disposition to change. Using a sample of 15 societies, which include more than 18,000 individuals, we are able to disentangle individual and context effects, and find evidence that the \"culture of trust\" is more conductive to the individual disposition to change than is individual trust.

Keywords: Socioeconomic impacts (SI), highway project, and public perception

Submitted: Sept 25, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Abstract

Socioeconomic benefits are the driving force for highway development process. Assessment of socioeconomic impacts due to a highway project is an integral part of planning process. A methodology is presented in this paper for the quantification of impact on socioeconomic attributes based on the perception of people in the influence area of the project. The variation of impact with distance from highway is also modeled for each socioeconomic attribute. The spatial distribution of the impact is considered along with the intensity of impact in estimating impact values for different socioeconomic attributes. Aggregation of impacts on socioeconomic attributes is demonstrated with reference to a case study by considering the relative weights of different socioeconomic attributes.

Keywords:

Submitted: Jan 13, 2005

Type: Tier Two - Popular

Reviewers Assigned: Jan 13, 2005

Abstract

In this paper we use qualitative methodologies to investigate the way that ad placers represent themselves in online personal ads. Specific attention is paid to the comparison between self-expression in print (newspaper) media as well as the comparison between male and female ad placers. A variety of sites were investigated in a preliminary overview, and the data from (48 = 34 = 82) personals advertisements were examined in greater detail for an analysis of their content. Results suggest that the size and format differences between Internet and print personals is meaningful and that they allow for a broader range of self-representation, as well as imposing more specific requirements. As a result, although the use of cultural markers of desirability continues, the traditionally noted differences between genders (specifically gendered trade of women’s looks for men’s money) appears to be lessened. We believe that this not only has significance insofar as the method of partner seeking is likely to become more common in the future, but also because it appears to offer the possibility of altering the traditional gender inequalities present in initial processes of heterosexual courtship.

Keywords:

Submitted: Jan 13, 2005

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Reviewers Assigned: Jan 13, 2005

Abstract

Thomas J. Fararo’s (2000) review of theoretical sociology reveals extraordinary complications in theoretical sociology in the twentieth century – complications largely concerned with differences in mathematical approaches and mathematical units of analysis. Why should this be? In the two scientific fields that have progressed the most in mathematical approaches in the last 100 or so years, physics and economics, and also in the field of mathematics itself and its branches, a notable difference from mathematical sociology and mathematical psychology is the openness of the former fields to non-data-based exploratory analysis in the preliminary phases of investigation as a general rule. Mathematical sociology and mathematical psychology take great pains to insure that nothing gets into the exploratory stage which is not thoroughly sifted and filtered as belonging to some “proper” existing theoretical school and even theoretical unit of analysis like a group or an individual respectively....

Keywords: Self-Help, Twelve-Step Groups, Identity

Submitted: Dec 31, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Reviewers Assigned: Dec 31, 2004

Abstract

This study focuses on a particular expression of self-help: Twelve Step groups for chemical dependence. Originating with Alcoholics Anonymous, various self-help interest groups practice the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. These groups, in the United States and elsewhere around the world, do not focus on a single issue. Rather, they organize around issues ranging from chemical dependence to eating disorders to bereavement. Although the variety of groups are not part of a monolithic social movement, there are all-encompassing characteristics that indicate a broad-based movement, community, culture, and identity. As a social movement for the self, self-help embodies a paradoxical juxtaposition of individualism and community in U.S. culture. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, I analyze the perceptual logic of Twelve Step experience, demonstrating the thematic relationship between participants\' perceptions and prevailing characterizations of contemporary U.S. culture.

Keywords: masculinity, wrestling, content analysis

Submitted: Dec 13, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Reviewers Assigned: Dec 15, 2004

Abstract

Boasting a television audience of millions each week, mostly comprised of young males, what professional wrestling says about men and masculinity is particularly revealing and significant. Analyses of WWE television programs and pay-per-view events were undertaken to uncover the way in which masculinity is presented and constructed. The findings reveal that the culturally dominant masculinity, hegemonic masculinity, is emphasized with themes of aggression and violence, emotional restraint, dominance, achievement and success, competition, toughness, risk-taking, courage, and heterosexuality most prominently presented. Masculinity was constructed for the television audience by the performers and the announcers, in concert with the live audience, within the context of the heel-face dynamic. The dominant masculinity was also constructed in opposition to femininity and alternative masculinities. It is suggested that the lessons learned about manhood from televised professional wrestling may be costly to men and have larger social implications that need to be addressed.

Keywords: Markets, poverty, underemployment, uneven development

Submitted: Nov 11, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Reviewers Assigned: Nov 16, 2004

Abstract

Nearly 34 million Americans were classified as poor in the 2000 census. This number is equal to the entire population of California, the largest state in the nation. Furthermore, the federal government\'s definition of poverty uses the same measuring rod everywhere regardless of an area\'s cost of living (i.e., in 2000 the sliding scale ranged from $18,104 for a family of four to $9,039 for individuals). In reality, the number of poverty-stricken Americans is much larger than these statistics indicate, and those afflicted by under-employment, for example, who are always on the verge of economic slippage, represent a significant percentage of working Americans. In addition to poverty statistics, the 2000 census also revealed that the Southern and Western \"Sunbelt\" states now display a higher poverty rate than states in other regions of the country. It is apparent that the strong economy of the 1990s did very little to help reduce poverty, and with the further expansion of service industry jobs, the chances of upward economic mobility remain slim for many Americans. With the continued existence of a political, social and economic environment that produces uneven development, there is little chance that, on its own, the phenomenon of poverty will soon be abated.

Keywords: Euthansia, Religiosity, Israeli Social Science Students

Submitted: Oct 16, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Reviewers Assigned: Nov 01, 2004

Abstract

The paper deals with the attitudes of Israeli social sciences students towards physician-assisted death, in view of the marked increase in approval rates of voluntary termination of life practices for the terminally ill. Basically, it set out to assess the relationship between the students’ self-identified religiosity and their attitudes towards euthanasia. It analyzes the findings of an exploratory study carried out on a purposive sample of one hundred twenty seven social sciences students in an Israeli public college. The administered questionnaire was meant to trace three components of the students’ attitudes to PAD: affective, cognitive and conative. It embraced two parts, one dealing with feelings and opinions, the other – with ideological-behavioural attitudes. All in all, the study revealed that religiosity plays a major role in shaping attitudes towards assisted end-of-life, both in as much as the affective, cognitive and conative components of the students’ attitudes are concerned. However, the study also revealed that lukewarm support for euthanasia transcends religiosity. It turned out that even the secular students’ support for PAD was very reserved. One conclusion of the paper is that the institutional character or climate of the studied college was a possible major contributor to that uncharacteristic conservative attitude.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Global Epidemiology, Socio-Economic Implications of AIDS

Submitted: Sept 12, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Reviewers Assigned: Dec 27, 2004

Abstract

Humankind has been besieged throughout its evolution by micro-organisms that pose a continual challenge to the survival of the species. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome [AIDS] is epidemic and the whole globe is on the edge of the abyss. It is spreading like wildfire in almost all the countries. The spread of HIV/AIDS threatens to reverse a generation of accomplishments in human development and is rapidly becoming a socio-economic crisis on global scale. AIDS has a profound impact on workers and their families, enterprises and national economies. HIV/AIDS has diversified but integrated socio-economic effects. AIDS is an epidemic that has killed more than the international terrorism. AIDS is threading to reduce, halt and even reverse economic growth of the Asian countries. Especially Thailand, India, Nepal, and even Singapore are loosing economic sustainability because of uncontrolled epidemic disease, “AIDS”. It terrorizes to kill the people of Asia at the prime of their productive years. It is a qualitative research-oriented study to examine the increasing dangers of HIV/AIDS throughout the world and especially in the continent of Asia and Africa. The socio-economic implications of HIV/AIDS are deeply discussed and sincere efforts are made to unearth the obvious and hidden dangers. The beneficiaries of this study may include, experts of public health, executives of NGOs, medical students, central policy makers, common man, and above the all masters of national treasuries to combat with the alarming situation of HIV/AIDS.

Keywords: terrorism, criminal justice students, perceptions, crime and punishment

Submitted: Dec 15, 2004

Type: Tier Three - Experimental

Reviewers Assigned: Dec 16, 2004

Abstract

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, brought to the forefront the problem of terrorism and has raised the question of how terrorists should be treated and punished for their crimes. This paper reports the results of a survey of college students at two Midwestern universities concerning terrorism and terrorists and examines whether criminal justice majors differ from other majors in their views on terrorism and the punishment of terrorists. While criminal justice students may differ on their attitudes on a variety of social issues, terrorism is not one of them. The results suggests that for the most part, criminal justice majors and students majoring in other disciplines share common attitudes toward the handling and punishment of terrorists, particularly those linked with the September 11, 2001, attacks. It appears that as the seriousness of the offense increases, so to does the level of punitiveness

Keywords: human capital theory, educational assessments

Submitted: Mar 08, 2004

Type: Tier One - Scholarly

Reviewers Assigned: Mar 10, 2004

Abstract

In this paper the concept of High Stakes Testing is evaluated against human capital theory and cognitive psychology’s concept of aptitudes for the purposes of determining whether or not the use of assessment in high stakes testing policies is consistent or inconsistent with cornerstone beliefs in American public education. In the process, an important criterion is established for evaluating, more generally, the use of educational assessments.