The (Coming) Social Media Revolution in the Academy

A revolution in academia is coming. New social media and other web technologies are transforming the way we, as academics, do our job. These technologies offer communication that is interactive, instantaneous, global, low-cost, and fully searchable, as well as platforms for connecting with other scholars everywhere

Two-Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage

Racial events that reveal the larger forces of racism in society are common and obvious in the sociospatial realm we term the backstage, especially in situations where whites interact with white friends and relatives. Backstage settings, where interactions typically take place among whites only, involve an array of complex interactions and performances. There we observe all dimensions of racial events-- indications of who is allowed and not allowed in the backstage, what racialized performances are tolerated or expected there, the sociospatial character of contexts, the impact of conventional racial framing, and the pervasive influence of the larger society. Here we go beyond the content of what happened to numerous other dimensions. Although we deem it important to provide descriptions of events, our goal is also to access how and where these interactions transpire, as well as various underlying features

Heeding Black Voices: The Court, Brown, and Challenges in Building a Multiracial Democracy

In 1967, thirteen years after the first Brown v. Board of Education decision, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. voiced great frustration with the lack of progress in societal desegregation: “[e]very civil rights law is still substantially more dishonored than honored. School desegregation is still 90 percent unimplemented across the land. . . . Legislation that is evaded, substantially nullified and unenforced is a mockery of the law.” Dr. King articulated the views of most African-Americans, views stemming from centuries of painful experiences with systemic racism in U.S. society. Thus, for more than a decade after Brown, white officials in southern districts defied the mandates and implications of Supreme Court and lower federal court rulings and, therefore, the black perspective on U.S. racism and racial change. Indeed, by 1960-1961 only a miniscule 0.16 percent of black children were in school with white children in the South.</jats:p

The Culture of Poverty Debate: Some Additional Data

In this paper we briefly review relevant research on the culture of poverty and set our findings within the general context of culture of poverty arguments. Data from a community survey in a Southwestern city are analyzed using Oscar Lewis’ four major culture of poverty dimensions: 1) the individual, 2) the family, 3) the slum community, and 4) the community’s relation to society. In our study a sample of 271 black respondents was divided into two groups, here termed the “poor” and the “non-poor.” In noting all the broad traits studied in all dimensions taken together, some support for Lewis’ culture of poverty was found in less than half of the cases; and in several cases our findings were in direct opposition to culture of poverty predictions. In addition, we have suggested that the majority of those traits that did lend support to Lewis’ argument might be better classified as situational conditions of poverty rather than as a part of a bona fide “culture” of poverty. The findings of this paper may call into question the use of the “culture of poverty” perspective as a basis for policy decisions

Cumulative effects of bullying and racial discrimination on adolescent health in Australia

This study examined how cumulative exposure to racial discrimination and bullying victimization influences the health of Australian adolescents (n=2802) aged 10-11 years (19.3% visible ethnic minorities (non-White, non-Indigenous); 2.6% Indigenous) using data from 3 waves (2010-2014) of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Cumulative exposure to racial discrimination and bullying victimization had incremental negative effects on socioemotional difficulties. Higher accumulated exposure to both stressors across time was associated with increased BMI z-scores, and risk of overweight/obesity. Studies that examine exposure to single risk factors such as bullying victimization or racial discrimination at 1 time point only are likely to miss key determinants of health for adolescents from stigmatized racial/ethnic backgrounds and under-estimate their stressor burden

Prisoners’ Families’ Research: Developments, Debates and Directions

After many years of relative obscurity, research on prisoners’ families has gained significant momentum. It has expanded from case-oriented descriptive analyses of family experiences to longitudinal studies of child and family development and even macro analyses of the effects on communities in societies of mass incarceration. Now the field engages multi-disciplinary and international interest although it arguably still remains on the periphery of mainstream criminological, psychological and sociological research agendas. This chapter discusses developments in prisoners’ families’ research and its positioning in academia and practice. It does not aim to provide an all-encompassing review of the literature rather it will offer some reflections on how and why the field has developed as it has and on its future directions. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first discusses reasons for the historically small body of research on prisoners’ families and for the growth in research interest over the past two decades. The second analyses patterns and shifts in the focus of research studies and considers how the field has been shaped by intersecting disciplinary interests of psychology, sociology, criminology and socio-legal studies. The final part reflects on substantive and ethical issues that are likely to shape the direction of prisoners’ families’ research in the future

Racial and ethnic relations

xiv, 379 p.; 20 cm