1811 research outputs found
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“Consuming Identity: The Intersection of Consumer Culture and Student Identity in Elite Academia”
No full textWhile sociological research exists on the role of consumption in shaping identity formation of college students, there is limited work that examines the intersectional factors of the consumer culture at elite institutions. Over the course of my study, I seek to fill these gaps. In my study, I ask, why do students consume in patterned ways at an elite institution? Entering college is a transitional moment for students in which one\u27s sense of self is often reconstructed due to the influential environment around them (Kaufman and Feldman, 2004). Examining college students allows for a variety of variables to come into play such as the formation of subcultural identities as well as peer and social influence (Folomeeva, 2019). Furthermore, the class-based variation that exists on college campuses allows for a look at the impact that one’s financial status has on their decisions as a consumer. Ultimately, the examination of the consumer culture at an elite level will allow for a deeper understanding of the factors that influence students\u27 spending habits.
In my paper, I explore how the consumer culture acts as a catalyst of behaviors for students at The College. I examine the ways in which purchasing habits affect individual identity construction as well as the formation of social networks. For this study, the setting of The College is crucial in understanding how students use the consumer culture to navigate their collegiate experience. This includes the people students interact with as well as their presentation of self. Through this research, it becomes apparent that the consumer culture is more than just an individual choice, but rather something influenced by the context of a student\u27s surroundings
“We’re All Just Kids!”: A Sociological Exploration of The Meaning of Play for Individual Actors
No full textThis study explores how individuals place meaning on play and use play to navigate the development of relationships not only with others, but with themselves. Using analyses of outside actors, symbolic interactionism, and accounts, this study explores young adults’ relationships with play through interviews on a college campus. The findings of this study suggest that multiple factors, such as the influences of outside actors and environments, influence how individuals develop a relationship with play
The Key to William Morgan’s Jail Cell in Canandaigua, New York
No full textThe openness and congeniality of twenty-first century Masons cannot be a new thing, as Freemasonry has been a key part of the American social network since the eighteenth century. What then, can we make of the allegations surrounding the abduction and murder of William Morgan, who, as Bruce Van Orden has shown in his article, was bent on revealing the deepest held secrets of Freemasonry? Of course, I can supply no answer to this great historical question. I can, however, offer a new piece of evidence: the key to the jail cell where Morgan was held in Canandaigua, New York
The Gender of Parenting: Parent-Child Relationships in Post-Divorce Families
No full textThis is a study about how parent-child relationships evolve post-divorce, focusing on the question of what factors influence how parent-child relationships change after divorce. A lot of research explores how parenting has historically been shaped by gender. However, current research finds that fathers are taking on greater roles in their children’s lives than they ever have before (Perry-Jenkins and Gerstel 2020). Through 10 in-depth interviews with college students at a small liberal arts college in the Northeast, I examined how parent-child relationships through a divorce are shaped by gendered parenting norms. I found that parents who take on the role of being the primary caretaker of their child (usually the mother) both emotionally and physically in their child’s youth, both before the divorce, and directly after the divorce, establish deep bonds with their children that the secondary caretaker (overwhelmingly the father) never establishes. Although mothers get the benefit of a deeper connection with their child, this socialization also has drawbacks as mothers face discrimination in the workplace, creating a smaller income which is further exacerbated when they go through divorce, as well as facing detrimental effects on their health due to this workplace/homemaker tension (Brüggmann and Kreyenfeld 2023; Collins 2020)
Cover
No full textFront cover illustration: The original copyright title page for the Book of Mormon filed June 11, 1829. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Front Matter
No full textInformation relating to the publisher, publication frequency, editorial staff, purchase options, submission requirements, and contact information for the American Communal Societies Quarterly
“The Picturesque Shakers” and “Hands to Work: Picturing the Shakers as Handicraft Workers in 19th Century Photographs”
No full textMy research focuses on how visual images are interpreted as historical evidence, and in 2022 and 2023 I presented papers at the Enfield Shaker Museum Spring Forum on the ways in which the Shakers were pictured in nineteenth-century photographs. In “The Picturesque Shakers,” I explored how the Shakers became willing participants with early commercial photographers in creating picturesque tableaus of Shaker life. In “Hands to Work,” I addressed the transformation in imagery in the 1870s and 1880s, from scenes made by sketchbook illustrators picturing Shakers “dancing before the Lord” to images made by commercial photographers of Shakers as craft workers. The following essay is adapted from those two papers
Underground Sound
No full textThis study investigates the social world of buskers in Manhattan through data from eleven interviews and participant observation. It describes the ways in which buskers, audience members, and law enforcement work together and undermine one another in the creation of street music. Finally, it draws connections between buskers’ performed and underlying selves through the lens of sociological conceptions of authenticity
