Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Communication and Culture, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 2002. Adviser: Richard Bauman. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Nov. 27, 2006)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-10, Section: A, page: 4058. Adviser: Charlene Harrington.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Sociology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1554. Adviser: Clem Brooks. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 14, 2007)."

This study develops a missional theology for both process and goals of 'Citywide Transformative Revival.' This has been grounded in the local realities of Auckland as a representative modern/postmodern city. Global discussion among urban missions strategists and theologians have provoked the question: 'What is the relationship of the Spirit of Christ to the transformation of a postmodern city?' This has been examined in a limited manner, using two local indicators: the New Zealand revival (for the work of the Holy Spirit) and Auckland city (for emergent modern/postmodern megacities). This has resulted in an exploration of revival theology and its limitations among Auckland's Pentecostals and Evangelicals and a proposal for a theology of transformative revival that engages the postmodern city. To accomplish this, a research framework is proposed within an evangelical perspective, a postmodern hermeneutic of 'transformational conversations ', an interfacing of faith community conversations and urban conversations. This is used to develop a new theory of 'citywide transformative revival' as an expansion of revival theories, a field within pneumatology. Citywide transformative revival is a concept of synergistic revivals in multiple sectors of a mega-city. This results in long-term change of urban vision and values towards the principles of the Kingdom of God. A theology of transformative process is developed from apostolic and prophetic themes. These are outcomes of gifts released in revival. Transformative revival results in new transformative apostolic and prophetic structures that engage the postmodern city soul. Transformation implies goals. The results of revival, the transformative visions for the city, are developed from themes of the City of God and the Kingdom of God. I expand largely 'spiritual' Western formulations of the Kingdom to a holistic Kingdom vision of the spiritual, communal and material aspects of the postmodern city. These enable conversation spaces with modern urbanism and postmodernism. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This study identifies overt mechanisms by which working class students at a rural community college were aligned with entry level service employment following the AAS degree. It examines socio economic and state constraints upon the college, its vocational faculty and students. These models explain the state structuring process on social institutions: Brint and Karabel's political niche, Carnoy and Levin's dominant class ideology, and O'Connor's value theory of crisis during late capitalism. The literature review looks at critical sociology, including the reproduction school as well as vocational education literature on the community college. The data were structured interviews with 74 students and four faculty. Classrooms were also observed. A critical theory of the state provided the interpretative frame for analysis. Recommendations for greater student choice to provide for increased equity and equality are offered in conclusion.

How do returning college students navigate the rapidly diversifying landscape of higher education options available to them today? Adopting a life course perspective, I argue that the college persistence of non-traditional students must be understood within historical, institutional, and personal context. I use longitudinal survey data from approximately 750 respondents and 130 in-depth life history interviews from over 100 participants in the Resilience in Survivors of Katrina (RISK) Project to document college decision-making leading up to and following 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Using mixed methods, I outline the limitations of traditional measures for capturing the winding college pathways and future college plans of America’s most disadvantaged college students. I also contribute to an emerging literature on mixed-methods data analysis in social science research. I find remarkable levels of persistent college aspiration and enrollment, long past normative time to degree and far into young adulthood. The diverse institutional landscape of non-selective postsecondary education offers many opportunities for a return to college, but also complicates the pathway to earning a credential. I describe how these economically-vulnerable students understand the meaning and value of a college degree, finding that economic necessity and the positive moral valence of college-going combine to support continued aspiration. While the logic of human capital investment dominates policy and academic discussions of college’s value, I find the symbolic meaning of a college degree also shapes aspirations and decision-making into adulthood, particularly for the students who struggle the most. For these students, “valuing” a college degree involves both economic and moral calculations. / Social Policy

This dissertation consists of three essays on the spatial and neighborhood dynamics of incarceration in the United States. In the first essay, I apply theories of social control and urban inequality to study prison admission rates at the census tract level for the state of Massachusetts. Regression analysis yields three findings. First, incarceration is highly spatially concentrated. Census tracts covering 15 percent of the state's population account for half of all prison admissions. Second, across urban and non-urban areas, incarceration is strongly related to poverty, high school dropout, and minority population, even after controlling for crime. Third, an outlier analysis shows admission rates in small cities and suburbs are among the highest in the sample and far exceed model predictions. The main theoretical implication is that mass incarceration emerged not just to manage distinctively urban social problems but was characteristic of a broader mode of governance evident in communities often far-removed from deep inner-city poverty. The second essay examines the pre-prison neighborhood environment of racial and ethnic subgroups within the Massachusetts prison population. From an analysis of over 13,000 prison admissions in Massachusetts, findings indicate that some of the most disadvantaged pre-prison neighborhoods come from places outside of Boston. Whites and Hispanics who enter prison from smaller city centers in Massachusetts lived in significantly more concentrated disadvantage than their counterparts in Boston. However, black men and women coming from Boston lived in the greatest concentrated disadvantage among the black admission population. Taken together, the prison population is drawn from a diverse set of communities, and the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage in the state are composed of small cities and towns. In the third essay, I investigate neighborhood attainment after a period of incarceration. Combining census data and prison records with a longitudinal survey of people leaving prison and returning to the Greater Boston area, this paper examines mechanisms explaining the disparities in neighborhood attainment upon release from prison. In the context of Greater Boston, black and Hispanic men and women leaving prison move into significantly more disadvantaged areas than their white counterparts, even after controlling for levels of pre-prison neighborhood disadvantage. Household dynamics are an important neighborhood sorting mechanism: living in concentrated disadvantage was more likely for those living in non-traditional households or group quarters. While 40 percent of respondents initially moved to only one of two neighborhoods in Boston, nearly 25 percent of respondents left prison and entered formal institutional settings, returned to prison, or lived in extreme social marginality throughout various locations in Greater Boston. Racial and ethnic differences in neighborhood sorting by household type--and the conditions of extreme marginality--are key mechanisms of neighborhood attainment during the precarious of period reentry. / Sociology

In 2013, the Chicago Public Schools shuttered 53 schools, citing budget limitations, building underutilization, and concerns about academic performance. Approximately 12,000 students were re-assigned to new schools; of those affected, 94% are low-income and 88% are African- American, leading many to level allegations of racism—a charge which district officials vehemently contest. In this study, I ask: what can disputes about the role of race in the Chicago school closings teach us about broader societal tensions regarding racism and urban school policy? I explore these questions by constructing a portrait of the South Side community of Bronzeville, an important site of African-American culture and history from the Great Migration to the present. Across four chapters, I draw from varying methods and perspectives to build an understanding of school closures and their impact on the community. I use historical sociology to explore the history of racialized sociopolitical change in Bronzeville, and the relationship of public school policy to the rise and fall of public housing in the community. Using critical discourse analysis of hearings and meetings surrounding school closure, I compare community members’ and district officials’ opinions of race and racism and their role in the policy decision. I then present the narrative case of Dyett High School, which was slated for closure and later set to re-open after a hunger strike and vehement community protest. Finally, I present a theory of institutional mourning, a framework for understanding the emotional aftermath of school closure, developed from interviews with community members, parents, teachers, and students. This study offers insight to Chicago stakeholders facing the post-closure landscape and will provoke a new set of questions for district leaders and community members across the country to consider as they evaluate the effectiveness of school closings as a policy. Further, the study models a framework for critically examining the popular conceptualization and social consequences of racism itself in order to enable more productive conversation about the role race plays in school closures and in debates about district policies more broadly.

Abstract not available.

Objective. To examine changes in neighbourhood income-related differences in 'avoidable', and other cause, mortality in urban Canada from 1971 to 1996. Data source. Canadian Mortality Database and population censuses for 1971, 1986, 1991 and 1996. The deaths were coded to census tract and grouped into neighbourhood income quintiles. Methods. Deaths were classified as amenable to medical or public health interventions according to seven selected classification lists. Age-standardized period expected years of life lost (SEYLL) were calculated. Quintile differentials were determined using rate ratios and rate differences. Results. From 1971 to 1996, the avoidable SEYLL differences between the richest and poorest quintiles diminished 58.5--72.1% for men and 56.4--82.2% for women, depending on the classification list considered. The SEYLL differences relating to other causes increased 8.0% in men and decreased 0.5% in women. Conclusion. Deaths amenable to medical and public health interventions contributed to reducing socioeconomic mortality disparities in urban Canada.