Matching Items (11)
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- All Subjects: Social Research
- Creators: Adelman, Madelaine
- Creators: Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958-
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
In spite of numerous legal interventions and a fairly strong legal capacity compared to other neighboring countries, Zimbabwean law enforcement and judiciary have failed to overcome Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). This research examines the role of customary law in the continued prevalence of IPV among Zimbabwean women, particularly, the subtle ways in which customary law legitimates the ideals of patriarchal domination in the communal and legal handling of IPV cases. The study utilized qualitative methodology in the form of structured interviews as well as pre-interview questionnaires. Eighteen women who identified as IPV survivors or victims were recruited using snowball sampling method whereby each person interviewed was asked to suggest additional people who were either present victims or survivors of IPV. Five lawyers from Chinhoyi, ten lawyers from Harare, ten police officers from Chinhoyi and ten police officers from Harare were identified using judgement or purposive sampling where subjects are chosen due to availability. The research established that IPV is a way in which abusers exercise their assumed patriarchal rights over women. Likewise, police officers are also influenced by attitudes and mentalities acquired from customary law in the way they handle IPV cases which resultantly leads to secondary victimization of IPV victims. The research concluded that much work still needs to be done by the judiciary, law enforcement and the community to combat the prevalence of IPV in Zimbabwe.
ContributorsMarekera, Shantel (Author) / Durfee, Alesha (Thesis advisor) / Adelman, Madelaine (Committee member) / Kittilson, Miki (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Relevant literature was analyzed alongside interview data from participants concerning issues of anti-Semitism, Israel affiliation, and Jewish identity. Qualitative coding and theme identification were used to determine possible relationships among the variables, with special attention to the role anti-Semitism plays in influencing Israel affiliation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 young American Jews (18-24) currently enrolled as undergraduate students in universities. The results revealed that continuity of the Jewish people is a core value for many American Jews. Anti-Semitism is often under reported by young American Jews, but for some anti-Israel sentiments are conflated with anti-Semitism. It was also observed that knowledge of anti-Semitism plays an integral role in shaping Jewish identity. Finally, it was found that Israel affiliation polarizes the Jewish community, often resulting in the exclusion of left-leaning Jews from the mainstream Jewish community. These results were analyzed within racial, social, and political frameworks.
ContributorsHobbs, Emma Caroline (Author) / Adelman, Madelaine (Thesis advisor) / Shabazz, Rashad (Committee member) / Cohen, Adam (Committee member) / Langille, Timothy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Sexual harassment has emerged as a widespread problem facing women in public space in Egypt. Activism to combat sexual harassment began in 2005. However, just prior to and in the years following the January 25, 2011 Egyptian Revolution, which witnessed an increase in the collective sexual harassment, assault and rape of women, this activism has increased. Subsequently, scholarly attention to sexual harassment and public sexual violence has also expanded. Much of the attention in scholarly analyses has been directed toward politically motivated sexual violence, focused on understanding the state commissioning of sexual violence against female protestors to drive them from protest participation. There is an emerging critique of activist approaches that seems to ignore the politicalized nature of sexual harassment to focus instead on “cultural” targets. The early work of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) and current work of HarassMap have been criticized for depoliticizing sexual harassment by failing to include an analysis of state-commissioned sexual violence in their work. Similarly, both have been accused of expanding the scope of the security state by calling for increased policing of public space to protect women from “culturally-bad” men.
With data collected through one year of participant observation with HarassMap, interviews with activists from eleven anti-sexual harassment initiatives and advocacy NGOs, and community-level surveys with non-activist individuals, this dissertation argues that “cultural” work undertaken through the community-based approaches by entities like ECWR and HarassMap is, in fact, an inherently political process, in which political engagement represents both an attempt to change political culture and state practice and a negotiative process involving changing patriarchal gender norms that underpin sexual harassment at a society-wide level. New conceptualizations of sexual harassment promoted by anti-sexual harassment initiatives and NGOs in Egypt frame it as a form of violence against women, and attempt to make sexual harassment an offense that may be criminalized. Yet, this dissertation contends there is a tension between activist and widespread public understandings of sexual harassment, predicated on the incomplete framing of sexual harassment as a form of violence.
With data collected through one year of participant observation with HarassMap, interviews with activists from eleven anti-sexual harassment initiatives and advocacy NGOs, and community-level surveys with non-activist individuals, this dissertation argues that “cultural” work undertaken through the community-based approaches by entities like ECWR and HarassMap is, in fact, an inherently political process, in which political engagement represents both an attempt to change political culture and state practice and a negotiative process involving changing patriarchal gender norms that underpin sexual harassment at a society-wide level. New conceptualizations of sexual harassment promoted by anti-sexual harassment initiatives and NGOs in Egypt frame it as a form of violence against women, and attempt to make sexual harassment an offense that may be criminalized. Yet, this dissertation contends there is a tension between activist and widespread public understandings of sexual harassment, predicated on the incomplete framing of sexual harassment as a form of violence.
ContributorsAbdelmonem, Angie (Author) / Eder, James (Thesis advisor) / Adelman, Madelaine (Thesis advisor) / Hjorleifur Jonsson (Committee member) / Rizzo, Helen (Committee member) / El-Meehy, Asya (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Information concerning sexual minorities is conspicuously absent from secondary education curriculums. Student attitudes toward sexual diversity are impacted, and those entering higher educational environments are at a disadvantage when faced with diverse university populations. This study attempted to close the information gap among first year college students and to improve attitudes by teaching about sexual minorities, especially gays and lesbians. In addition to their standard coursework, 41 student participants (31 in the intervention group, and 10 in the control group) who were enrolled in required introductory college courses received six short lessons on sexual diversity. Mixed methods data collection and analysis included a pre and post intervention survey, the Riddle Homophobia Scale (1985), and qualitative electronic discussion boards throughout the intervention. Surveys revealed a significant decrease in negative attitudes but no increase in more affirming attitudes. Qualitative data showed somewhat inconsistent results with quantitative surveys, but allowed deeper analysis of the familial, social, religious and societal influences on student attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning (LGBQ) people. Discussion includes possible explanations for the findings, suggestions for future research, and suggests refinements of the Riddle Homophobia Scale.
ContributorsSpalding, Mark Donald (Author) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Thesis advisor) / Adelman, Madelaine (Committee member) / Artiles, Alfredo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This research project analyzes women’s dynamic pathways to pregnancy prevention and termination in Arizona. Two levels of analysis guide the study: The first is a cultural analysis of the socio-legal conditions that shape the channels to birth control and abortion. During this historical moment, I analyze the fight over increasing (and calls for more) legal constraints against contraception and abortion, coupled with decreasing individual access to reproductive health care information and services. This dissertation includes an examination of the struggle over reproductive health on the ground and in the legal arena, and real pushbacks against these constraints as well. The second is an analysis of how women seek out contraception or abortion within the US socio-legal landscape. The study qualitatively examines narratives from 33 women in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area, a region emblematic of the political contest over the legal regulation of women’s reproductive health currently unfolding nationally. Ultimately, the state is implicated in the various resources and barriers—people, places, processes and policies—that inform women’s pregnancy prevention. These experiences can illuminate the ways that reproductive health care is shaped by intersecting and sometimes competing ideologies, and how women encounter them in their daily lives. The study theorizes the embodiment of women’s local encounters with the state within a cultural context of contested law and policy reform.
ContributorsMartinez, Melissa Janel (Author) / Adelman, Madelaine (Thesis advisor) / Provine, Doris Marie (Committee member) / Hibner Koblitz, Ann (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Wage theft is a national epidemic that only recently became the focus of increasing research, critical public questioning, and activism. Given the socio- political climate in Maricopa County, Arizona and the heightened national attention on the state, this study answers important questions about the work experiences of immigrant workers in the region. Through an analysis of interviews with 14 low-wage Mexican workers from a local worker rights center, I explore workers' access to traditional recourse, the effects of wage theft on workers and families, and the survival strategies they utilize to mitigate the effects of sudden income loss. By providing an historical overview of immigration and employment law, I show how a dehumanized and racialized labor force has been structurally maintained and exploited. Furthermore, I describe the implications of two simultaneous cultures on the state of labor: the culture of fear among immigrants to assert their rights and utilize recourse, and the culture of criminality and impunity among employers who face virtually no sanctions when they are non-compliant with labor law. The results indicate that unless the rights of immigrant workers are equally enforced and recourse is made equally accessible, not only will the standards for pay and working conditions continue to collapse, but the health of Latino communities will also deteriorate. I assert that in addition to structural change, a shift in national public discourse and ideology is critical to substantive socio-political transformation.
ContributorsSanidad, Cristina (Author) / Téllez, Michelle (Thesis advisor) / Adelman, Madelaine (Committee member) / Gomez, Alan E (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT
This study focused on the experiences of biracial Asian/white young people in Arizona – specifically, their racial identity; the formation of that identity over time; their sense of belonging in their state and nation; their views on the common societal conceptions of what it means to be an American; and their own conceptions of Americanism. Prior research indicates that racial identity formation for biracial people is usually a process over time as they work through prevalent racism, mono-racism, and mono-centricity. Anti-Asian sentiment and legislation, miscegenation laws, and rules of hypodescent (one-drop rules) also have deep historical roots in the U.S.
This history has left a wake in which all Americans still live and operate today. However, there is also literature that suggests that current society may be headed in new directions. Multiracial people have been the fastest growing demographic in the last two Census polls, and research suggests (and my study corroborates) that the biracial experience often comes with not only challenges but also myriad benefits, to both self and others.
My research is qualitative in nature, and each of the eleven respondents in the study participated in a first interview, a second interview (two weeks later) and a focus group. Abductive coding of the resulting transcripts was around five main themes and twenty sub-themes. The findings both reflected some of this nation’s fraught history (reflected in “American = White” and “Whiteness as Default” subthemes) and provided a hope for the future (especially in the subthemes of “Protean as Strength,” “Dual Perspective,” “Dual Empathy,” and “Self as Quintessential American”). My conclusions indicate that as multiracial people become increasingly common in the U.S. population (as is predicted on a grand scale) and given some of their strengths and unique perspectives on race, their very existence might aid in eradicating racism in society as a whole. Multiracial people may indeed be the quintessential Americans of the future and that may bode well for race relations more generally.
ContributorsChoi, Suzanne Carroll (Author) / Swadener, Elizabeth B (Thesis advisor) / Adelman, Madelaine (Committee member) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The dissertation explores how participants view the relationships between democratic principles such as freedom, liberty, justice, and equality in work and home environments and their impact on the health and productivity of people living within these environments. This information can be used to determine the gap between legal democratic instruments established the published laws and rights and the participants understanding and awareness of these rights. The first step in effectively capturing information from the participants involved developing a virtual ethnographic research system architecture prototype that allowed participants to voice their opinions related to democracy and how the application of democratic principles in various lived environments such as the workplace and home can affect their health and productivity. The dissertation starts by first delving into what democracy is within the context of general social research and social contracts as related to everyday interactions between individuals within organizational environments. Second, it determines how democracy affects individual human rights and their well-being within lived environments such as their workplace and home. Third, it identifies how technological advances can be used to educate and improve democratic processes within various lived environments such that individuals are given an equal voice in decisions that affect their health and well-being, ensuring that they able to secure justice and fairness within their lives. The virtual ethnographic research system architecture prototype tested the ability of a web application and database technology to provide a more dynamic and longitudinal methodology allowing participants to voice their opinions related to the relationship of democracy in work and home environments to the health and productivity of the people who live within these environments. The technology enables continuous feedback as participants are educated about democracy and their lived environments, unlike other research methods that take a one-time view of situations and apply them to continuously changing environments. The analysis of the participant's answers to the various qualitative and quantitative questions indicated that the majority of participants agree that a positive relationship exists between democracy in work and home environments and the health and productivity of the individuals who live within these environments.
ContributorsBooze, Randall Ray (Author) / Romero, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Goul, Michael (Committee member) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of neoliberalism on the occurrence and intervention of genocide, particularly the ability to create othered groups through a process of dehumanization that desensitizes those in power to the human condition. I propose Social Externalization Theory as paradigm that explains how neoliberalism can be used as a means social control to create subjects vulnerable to political and collective violence that is justified as the externalized cost of economic growth, development, and national security. Finally, the conflict in Darfur (2003 - 2010) serves as a case study to analyze the influence of neoliberal policies on the resistance of the International community to recognize the violence as genocide. Analysis of the case study found that some tenets of neoliberalism produce results that fit within the ideologies of genocide and that some aspects of neoliberalism assume a genocidal mentality. In this case, those in positions power engage in daily activities that justify some suffering as acceptable, thus desensitizing them to the harm that their decisions generate.
ContributorsCalleja, Robert J (Author) / Romero, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Swadener, Beth Blue (Committee member) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The pace of segregation of races continues to increase as the gap between wealthy people, and the rest of the human race, increases. Technological advances in human communication ironically decrease human communication as people choose news and social media sites that feed their ideological frames. Bridging the sociopolitical gap is increasingly difficult. Further, privileged hegemonic forces exert pressure to maintain the status quo at the expense of greater humanity. Despite this grave account, some members of the privileged hegemony have moved away from their previous adherence to it and emerged as activists for marginalized populations.
Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Pedagogy for the Privileged, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Transformative Learning Theory and Critical White Studies, this study asks the question: what factors lead to an ideological shift?
Fifteen participants agreed to an in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interview. There were four main themes that emerged. Most participants experienced significant childhood challenges as well as segregated environments. Additionally, they possessed personality traits of curiosity and critical thinking which left them at odds with their family members; and finally, each experienced exposure to new environments and new people. Most notably, in an attempt to satisfy their curiosity and to remedy the disconnect between the imposed family values and their own internal inclinations, most actively sought out disorienting dilemmas that would facilitate an ideological shift. This journey typically included copious reading, critically analyzing information and, mostly importantly, immersion in new environments.
The goal of this study was to understand which factors precipitate an ideological shift in the hope of using the data to create effective interventions that bridge ideological gaps. It was revealed that some of the initiative for this shift is innate, and therefore unreachable. However, exposure to disorienting dilemmas successfully caused an ideological shift. Critically, this research revealed that it is important to identify those individuals who possess this innate characteristic of curiosity and dissatisfaction with the status quo and create opportunities for them to be exposed to new people, information and environments. This will likely lead to a shift from White hegemonic adherent to an emerging advocate for social justice.
Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Pedagogy for the Privileged, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Transformative Learning Theory and Critical White Studies, this study asks the question: what factors lead to an ideological shift?
Fifteen participants agreed to an in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interview. There were four main themes that emerged. Most participants experienced significant childhood challenges as well as segregated environments. Additionally, they possessed personality traits of curiosity and critical thinking which left them at odds with their family members; and finally, each experienced exposure to new environments and new people. Most notably, in an attempt to satisfy their curiosity and to remedy the disconnect between the imposed family values and their own internal inclinations, most actively sought out disorienting dilemmas that would facilitate an ideological shift. This journey typically included copious reading, critically analyzing information and, mostly importantly, immersion in new environments.
The goal of this study was to understand which factors precipitate an ideological shift in the hope of using the data to create effective interventions that bridge ideological gaps. It was revealed that some of the initiative for this shift is innate, and therefore unreachable. However, exposure to disorienting dilemmas successfully caused an ideological shift. Critically, this research revealed that it is important to identify those individuals who possess this innate characteristic of curiosity and dissatisfaction with the status quo and create opportunities for them to be exposed to new people, information and environments. This will likely lead to a shift from White hegemonic adherent to an emerging advocate for social justice.
ContributorsKolomyjec, Wanda (Author) / Sandlin, Jennifer (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Charles (Committee member) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Committee member) / Rohd, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020