Sociology/Anthropology

abstract

For my Young Scholars Award, I turn to an issue which in recent years has been receiving much needed attention and an issue in which much research is still needed:police stress.Doctor Lawrence Blum said, “The fact that police work stress has killed more officers than any felon’s bullets has apparently escaped the attention of most policy makers in municipal, county, state and federal jurisdictions” (Blum 2000, 130).As a society we do not view police officers as “victims” of their occupations or consider the needs or feelings of officers.Upon graduating from the police academy, police are obviously not immune to human emotion, including their own.Unfortunately due to their occupation officers see the worst of human behavior and nature.Often by four years on the force, friends and family of an officer, may begin to notice how an officer has changed, especially in an increase of negative or cynical behavior (Rogers 1999, 18-20).

For my research I will explore police stress issues by conducting a case study of police stress on the Newark Police and the LickingCounty’s Sheriffs Office.My main research questions objectives were to understand what stressors the officers face, how they cope with their stressors and what services are available to the officers for managing stress.

abstract

The factors involved in women and girls’ lives that drive them to commit crimes were studied during a 10-week internship.One facet of the project is a statistical analysis of 100 female felons in the adult court services department, and another facet is a quantitative study of 10 girls working off their community service hours in a garden.Possible reasons for their involvement in the criminal justice system include obesity, histories of physical/sexual abuse, race, employment status, level of education, presence of juvenile records, and mental health issues.Included in the project are a full literature review and a description of the girls working in the garden, as well as an evaluation of the garden program itself, a methodology section, findings, and a discussion of the findings.The conclusion provides suggestions for future research as well as areas for the community at large to work on to prevent girls and women from entering the criminal justice system.

Abstract:

This investigation evaluates the way in which the international cut-flower industry has served as a means of neo-liberal development for Ecuador by providing a source for local and national integration into international markets.I focus on the region of Cayambe-Pedro Moncayo in northern Ecuador in order to study the affects of the flower plantations on communities.My investigation also shows examples of how local actors and development agencies have in turn acted with post-development strategies, particularly in terms of responses to the impacts of the flower industry.It exemplifies how local actors encountering neo-liberal tactics seek alternative productive methods and to reinforce local cultural values.Finally, this project illustrates the ways in which development strategies that affect the Cayambe-Pedro Moncayo region differ, but also intertwine and involve themselves with each other.

Abstract

As the world continues to experience international globalization, populations are confronted with new socio-economic environments to which they are forced to adapt. Reactions to this process of globalization have thus created opportunities for groups of disadvantaged people to mobilize themselves into social justice movements. Therefore, this paper looks at the social movement of the Zapatistas of the Mexican state of Chiapas and their struggle against the neoliberal economic atmosphere of Mexican society. Analyzing the evolution of the movement’s strategic action, this paper specifically examines the shifts in strategy throughout the movement as it has evolved in its existence beginning in 1994 and continuing to current day. Exploring primary sources, such as Zapatista communiqués and speeches, as well as secondary sources, such as scholastic analysis, this paper finds that the strategies and tactics of the Zapatista movement have in fact shifted throughout its evolution; specifically, three important strategic shifts are found in this analysis as well as three respective cycles of protest. Moreover, this paper suggests several different pathways the movement could possibly take in the future depending on the prospective socio-economic and political environment to which the Zapatistas will find themselves in the upcoming years.

This research focuses on the linguistic concept of voice and how it shapes individual and group identity formation in online communities.Voice is considered through the theoretical frameworks of Mikhail Bakhtin’s heteroglossia and Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralism.These theories are shown to be manifest in actual phenomena through a discussion of the Say Anything Message Board, which is an online community dedicated to discussion about the rock band Say Anything.The authoritative voice of the Say Anything Message Board is shown to be a very important constituent of group identity, and an individual’s standing in the group is dependent on how well he or she can appropriate the authoritative voice of the community. The authoritative voice exhibits the unique ideology of the Say Anything Message Board community against the background of other voices and world-views. This research is useful to those who wish to explore the important concepts of voice and identity that are present in all human lives.

This paper is an introduction to the author’s senior research and an introduction into the Columbus Somali community. The focus of the research is media and how the local community uses media to exchange ideas and information, and how the community uses media to provide social services for Somalis. Media produced by Somalis for Somalis is important to a newly emerging community, and a community in resettlement, in creating identity as part of a larger diasporic population. The author conducted interviews and visited with local Somali community organizations and discovered various forms of media being utilized by the local Columbus Somali community as well as media used by displaced Somalis around the world. The author writes of the significance of media for people both inside and outside of the Somali community in identifying important issues and topics of interest to Somalis. The paper includes an exploration of how media is used by younger generations to connect to the cultures and politics of both Somalia and the United States. The research concludes that Columbus Somalis have established a strong social support network among community organizations, but the media projects of these community organizations provide a greater sense of solidarity and unity among Somalis that cannot be exhibited in word-of-mouth or the mere existence of these organizations alone.