1811 research outputs found
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Excelsior Beneath the Water: Spiritualism, Socialism, Flood and Tragedy in Utopia, Ohio 1847
No full textJohn Otis Wattles was one of the most prolific participants in American communitarian socialist and reform movements of the antebellum era. The trajectory of his activist career is an example of the intersection between communitarian socialism and spiritualism.
Following the 1846 collapse of communities he guided in New York and Ohio, John followed his brother Augustus Wattles to Cincinnati and founded a spiritualist-socialist movement there called the Universal Brotherhood (UB). He quickly found converts among the radical Hicksite Quaker community in Cincinnati and by early 1847 was planning to start a spiritualist “community of property” with a core group of twelve individuals. Wattles bought the domain of the Clermont Phalanx, a failed community based on French socialist Charles Fourier’s teachings, in Clermont County, Ohio, to start Excelsior, a spiritualist community named for the Latin word meaning “higher.” In December 1847, under Wattles’s leadership, Excelsior tragically flooded and seventeen of its members died, some of them while dancing, in the main communal building. One contemporary historian described the event as “the most tragic event that has ever occurred in the county.
All you need is trust: How middle manager leadership practices impact the work environment of their employees
No full textPositive work environments result in higher levels of success while poor work environments lead to major organizational problems (Oldham, Hackman, and Pearce 1976). No matter the industry, managers play a major role in the workplace environment and therefore play a major role in the success of an organization (Piccolo and Colquitt 2006). This study dissects the elements of a good work environment by examining the relationship between middle managers and their direct reports. The study draws upon 13 in-depth interviews conducted with two different departments within the same higher education institution. The results focus on trust, autonomy, stability, and leader self-awareness, and other core elements identified in previous work as hallmarks of a good work environment. While the participants involved in the study appreciate stability, this is not a core determinant of a good work environment. However, the results indicate that trust is the foundation of a good work environment and that autonomy and leader self-awareness have reciprocal relationships with trust. When a leader is aware of their power and gives autonomy to their employee, trust is built between them. When trust is built between the pair, the leader is more comfortable giving autonomy to their employee. Overall, this study finds that when middle managers foster the relationship between trust, autonomy, and self awareness, they build a good work environment for their employees
“The Town That Loves Refugees?”: Media Framing of Refugees in Utica, NY
No full textThis paper examines the media frames used to cover local refugees in the city of Utica’s most widely read newspaper, the Utica Observer-Dispatch. On the whole, refugees represent a vulnerable population that have been politicized over the past decade, particularly by politicians who seek to enact tougher border control policies and limit migration to the United States. The city of Utica is notable because despite its small size, it hosts a significant refugee population and has been recognized for its welcoming community, earning it the nickname of “the town that loves refugees.” We examine the perception of Utica as a welcoming city for refugees by asking the following questions: how have refugees been portrayed by the local press; has this varied by group; has this varied by time of arrival; and, how has the local media portrayed refugees during times of economic growth/decline? Using Atlas.ti, a qualitative analysis software, we analyze the media frames employed in 86 articles that focus on refugees in the local community published in the Observer-Dispatch between 2002 and 2023. The most commonly used frames regarding refugees that appeared in the sample were about the traumatic histories they had experienced prior to arriving in the United States, the various programs and types of aid provided by the Center, and generally positive portrayals highlighting the achievements and contributions of refugees in the city. Our largest sample of articles came from 2015 and the groups with the most coverage were Burmese and Bosnian refugees
“Did You Eat?”: A Cross-Cultural and Comparative Ethnography of Chinese and Korean Food in Flushing, New York
Full text linkCulinary offerings in New York represent a diverse spectrum of cultures. In the city, Flushing is known specifically for its Chinese and Korean restaurants and cafes. When faced with so many choices of what to eat in the neighborhood, we are curious as to why one may be preferred over the other. We suspect that individuals frequently make selections driven by their predispositions and preconceived ideas about the broader cultural associations linked to the cuisine. To better understand this, we conducted a cross-cultural and comparative ethnography of the Chinese and Korean food establishments, utilizing a combination of observations and open-ended interviews. Despite both being East Asian cuisines, the degree of acceptance they receive in the United States differs. Throughout our research, we unravel the nuanced dynamics of consumer perceptions surrounding Chinese and Korean cuisine, exploring historical trajectories, cultural narratives, and societal attitudes. The core of our paper covers three central themes: what food is meant for, how food has changed, and how food is now perceived. We aim to reveal the complicated conceptual and experiential milieu of the contemporary U.S. for producing particular attitudes towards Asian Americans. We highlight food’s role in preserving cultural identity, gentrification, authenticity as an imagined standard, and the way cuisines interact with the standards imposed upon them
Archaeology as Advocacy: Celebrating Cultural Heritage and Promoting Sustainability in Transylvanian Mining Communities
No full textCommunities can establish links to their past, cultural identities and heritage, and future through their environment and the artifacts that remain. For the mining communities in rural Southern Transylvania, their cultural heritage and identities are rooted in the development of traditional lifeways, which can be observed in prehistoric burials. In an effort to preserve their cultural heritage, the local mining community plans to create an on-site museum in Râmeţ. In this paper, I examine the display and preservation of cultural heritage in different types of museums worldwide and how different museums interact and collaborate with local communities differently. As human remains can be part of a community\u27s cultural heritage, I also explore the ethics of displaying human remains in museums and practices for creating exhibits containing human remains and associated artifacts. The display of the burial mounds and the human remains in the on-site museum can be helpful in the promotion of the cultural heritage of the region and the preservation of the landscape. However, the museum must be by and for the community as the communities should serve as protectors of their own cultural heritage; thus, they should be the ones to decide how they wish to preserve and display the history of their region. The museum in Râmeţ will preserve the cultural heritage of the region and the traditional lifeways through the display of the landscape and human remains and also provide a way for the local communities to advocate for themselves and preserve their knowledge for future generations
“The Neighborhood Speaks”: A Narrative Study of New York City’s Bodegas
No full textAnthropologist Ashanté M. Reese writes in her ethnography Black Food Geographies that “the grocer is where the neighborhood speaks.” In her work which focuses on low income black neighborhoods in DC, corner stores are often the only source of food in a given area. Indeed ‘corner stores’ have, in much food justice literature, become associated with ‘food deserts’ or the now-preferred term ‘food apartheid,’ the social phenomenon where supermarket redlining has left entire neighborhoods without access to fresh and healthy food. The corner store serves not only as the sole source of food for neighborhood residents (oftentimes selling only processed foods and liquor) but also becomes a sort of community center, an important part of peoples’ sense of place and belonging.
In my paper, I seek to investigate the role that corner stores, more often known as bodegas, play in New York City neighborhoods of varying racial and economic backgrounds. Does the role or meaning of the bodega change from neighborhood to neighborhood? What do these differences tell us about racial dynamics and social inequalities within the city? Throughout my research, I position the bodega as a site of change – a vital place of support for lower class communities of New York City that are key to addressing food poverty
Schools: The Gender Playground An Analytic Approach to How Elementary School Children Learn About Gender
No full textSociologists emphasize that gender is a social construct so pervasive in our everyday lives that it often goes unnoticed (West and Zimmerman 1967). The two-category system ultimately perpetuates inequalities that don’t regard men and women as equals. In order to further understand how children learn about gender, ethnographic fieldwork was conducted at Hillside Elementary School in a first-grade and a fifth-grade class for three weeks. Results indicate that the formal class curriculum, behavioral sanctions, and the activities that students participate in all perpetuated the gender regime and made the rigid categorical differences of “boys” and “girls” salient in the classroom. My findings mirror previous research while also providing insight into gendered dynamics in a homogenous school district. Both teachers and peers work to upkeep gender norms, and my findings demonstrate how gender remains a taken-for-granted aspect of the social world
Cover
No full textFront cover illustration: Only known photograph of the museum in situ in the Brethren’s South Shop (ca. 1877–1917). (Communal Societies Collection, Hamilton College