Abstracts of
Articles for the Fall/Winter 2015 Issue
of
Sociation Today
Special Focus: The Issue of
Community
from the 2015 Annual Meeting of
The North Carolina Sociological
Association
organized by NCSA President-Elect
William Smith,
North Carolina State University
- Toward a
Universal Operationalization of
Gentrification
by Kristin N. Williams
Gentrification
literature is rife with
inconsistencies in the way the concept
is defined and specified both
theoretically and empirically.
The primary goal of this paper is to
develop a theoretically-grounded
operationalization of gentrification
that considers the most pervasive
methodological concerns left largely
unaddressed, including the types of
measures employed, the number of
indicators best suited to capture the
process, and the precise indicators
that serve as markers for
gentrification, as well as those that
may not. A sample gentrification
index is provided as a potential
avenue for future research and the
benefits of a continuous measure of
reinvestment are discussed.
- The
Desegregation and Resegregation of
the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools,
1970-2015: Insights for the Future
of Public Education in North
Carolina and the Nation
by Amy Hawn Nelson, Roslyn
Arlin Mickelson, and Stephen Samuel Smith
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools (CMS) served as a national
bellwether of successful school
desegregation from the 1970s through
the early years of this century when
federal courts vacated the 1971
Swann decision and declared CMS
unitary. The school system then
implemented a neighborhood
school-based pupil assignment plan
and because of race and
socioeconomic segregation in
neighborhoods, the schools soon
became resegregated as well.
CMS is not alone in this regard.
Segregation is increasing across the
nation. CMS’ experiences with
desegregation and resegregation
serve as illustrations of three
broad themes relevant to urban
school reform and public policy more
generally: the interplay of
structure and agency in policy
decisions; how blacks’ interest in
racial justice is generally
accommodated only when that interest
converges with that of whites in
policy-making positions; and looking
to the future, the imperative of
political mobilization for social
purpose politics to advance a policy
agenda that embraces racial and
socioeconomic justice and equality
of educational opportunities.
- The Impact
of Size of Place on
Perceptions of Healthcare
Services and Satisfaction with
Healthcare Services among
Rural Texans
by Miranda
Reiter, Jin Young Choi, Abby Reiter, and
Gene Theodori
Using
survey data, this study shows how
rural residents in the U.S. face
unique healthcare challenges which
affect their urban counterparts
far less often and to a far lesser
extent. In fact, because of
factors associated with rural
living, rural residents face
obstacles vastly different than
those faced by urban residents.
Cultural, Social, and economic
differences, educational
shortcomings, lack of
acknowledgement by policymakers
and the isolation of living in
remote rural areas all work to
hinder rural Americans in their
efforts to lead healthy lives.
- Community in a
Virtual Environment: Can YouTube
Build Community for LGBT Youth?
by David Kleitsch, Ed
Rosenberg and Bradley Nash, Jr.
Can modern media help
build a sense of community?
Content analysis was conducted on a
sample of over 1100 comments
obtained from YouTube channels and
videos. These comments were
categorized as pro-community
building, neutral, or non-community
building. Consistent with the
results of a pilot test (84% of
comments were pro-community
building), 87% of comments in the
larger analysis were pro-community
building. The data suggest
that the social structure and
interaction necessary to create a Gemeinschaft-style
community exist on YouTube for the
younger LGBT demographic. The
traditional conception of community,
which included geographic proximity,
should be reconsidered. Further
research should attempt to replicate
these findings and consider ways to
use social media’s
community-building potential to
promote social integration and
reduce the undesirable consequences
of social alienation, perhaps
through adapting suicide-prevention
tools to the social media platform.
- Building
Community in Hard Times: Food
Insecurity, Food Sovereignty and the
Development of a Local Food Movement
in Southeastern North Carolina
by Leslie Hossfeld and Julia
Waity
North
Carolina has been hard hit by the
changing economy in the United States.
This impact has led to the creation
and perpetuation of several regions of
persistent poverty in the state. The
focus of this analysis is on the
Southeastern North Carolina region.
This region has been devastated with
job loss over the years. In addition
to high rates of poverty, the region
has high rates of food insecurity. A
grass roots community movement has
addressed some of these conditions.
After a comprehensive needs assessment
of the region, it was determined that
creating a food sovereignty movement
would alleviate some of the poverty in
the region. This community movement
connected limited resource farmers to
outlets for their produce as well as
provided access to this produce for
low-income community members. The
benefits of this program go beyond
poverty alleviation to beneficial
health impacts and increased community
food security as well as building
community in hard times.
- State of
Emergency: Young Men of Color at the
Cross Roads
by Jonathan Livingston,
Janelle Billingsley, Nathaniel Crosby and
Tyler Evans
An
investigation of data in all areas of
life domains for black males suggests
that little has changed since the
1980’s. Disproportionate rate of
school failure, unemployment and high
incarceration all suggest that there
is a need for a new approach to
addressing problems among this
population. The current article
seeks to assess the ecological and
structural challenges that impact
African American or black males in the
United States. A better
understanding of these factors may
lead to a development of interventions
and policies that will adequately
address problems facing young men of
color in the United States.
Contributed
Article
- Who Stole My
Lunch? Gender Differences in
Workplace Discrimination and Theft
by Employees
by John Casten
The purpose of this study
was to investigate the relationship
between gender discrimination in the
workplace and theft by
employees. A sample of college
students were surveyed using three
different vignettes describing the
most common forms of workplace
gender discrimination. Vignettes
were used to assess attitudes of
both males and females toward
discrimination and theft by
employees. The outcomes were
regressed on gender discrimination
scales, controlling for demographic,
social and psychosocial traits, and
emotion. Analyses were produced
separately for males and
females. The strain of gender
discrimination was not significantly
associated with theft by employees.
But there were significant
differences in the ways males and
females perceived discrimination.
Significant differences also existed
between control factors, gender, and
type of discrimination. The
results of the study furthers
theoretical understanding of how
gender discrimination is perceived
and which psychosocial factors
significantly contribute to theft by
employees. It also provides evidence
of the ways in which different
psychosocial factors affect males
and females. The results also
suggest employers should use
pre-screening inventories as part of
the overall hiring process,
particularly those that screen for
high impulsivity (low self-control)
and commitment to the workplace.
Conference
Papers Reprinted from Spring/Summer
2015 Issue
- Modern
Patterns of Racial Transition:
Comparing Northeast and
Southern Metropolitan Areas
by Richard
G. Moye, Jr
This study
uses census data to examine the
prevalence of neighborhoods which
rapidly transition from majority
white to majority black in three
metropolitan areas from 1990 to
2010. The Philadelphia MSA
is compared to the Charlotte, NC
MSA and the Raleigh, NC MSA.
Findings: transition areas are
more prevalent in Philadelphia,
and much less prevalent in
Raleigh. In all three
metropolitan areas transition
areas have below average home
value appreciation.
Implications are discussed,
including the relevance to the
black-white wealth
gap.
- Helping
Displaced Workers: A Case
Study of Human Capital and
Community Factors
by Samuel
J. Grubbs, Sabrina L. Speights and Beth
A. Rubin
In 2003,
about 4,800 employees were laid
off when Pillowtex/Cannon Mills
ceased operations in Kannapolis,
NC. About 1/3 of the former
workers took advantage of
government support through the
Trade Adjustment Assistance
program and attended
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
to retrain for new employment
opportunities. Traditional human
capital theory proposes that
additional education would lead to
higher salaries. Our research is a
case study to assess the
applicability of human capital
theory when examining
post-displacement educational
opportunities. The researchers
interviewed 42 former employees 10
years after the plant closed to
consider the role of education
post-displacement in their
employment. The results indicate
that although education does
support post-displacement work,
the effect varies based on other
factors including the person’s
age, background, and connections
with the community. An implication
of our research is that policy
efforts that do not account
sufficiently for community
characteristics are less likely to
be effective in addressing the
re-employment efforts of displaced
workers.
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2016 by Sociation Today
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Editorial Board:
Editor:
George H. Conklin,
North Carolina
Central University
Emeritus
Robert Wortham,
Associate Editor,
North Carolina
Central University
Board:
Rebecca Adams,
UNC-Greensboro
Bob Davis,
North Carolina
Agricultural and
Technical State
University
Catherine Harris,
Wake Forest
University
Ella Keller,
Fayetteville
State University
Ken Land,
Duke University
Steve McNamee,
UNC-Wilmington
Miles Simpson,
North Carolina
Central University
William Smith,
N.C. State University
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