The problems of political conflict and social disorder have proved to be endemic in the case of Northern Ireland. This research aims to probe the underlying factors responsible for one part of the conflict; namely the rise and fall of a new Social Movement in the form of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association between 1960 and 1972. Analysis and synthesis of two disparate theories; one a social-psychological theory that stresses relative deprivation in the form of unfair treatment, and the other, a variant of resource mobilization (political process) are appropriate to understand the dynamic interaction between individuals and groups in terms of their potential to protest. In the Northern Irish context the goal of the research is not only to understand how organizations become mobilized but also why individuals are motivated to join such movements in the first place. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-11, Section: A, page: 3722. / Major Professor: Scott C. Flanagan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Thesis advisor: Carlo Rotella / Thesis advisor: Tom F. Mulvoy / Vietnamese immigrants and refugees have made their home in Boston, especially in Dorchester's Fields Corner neighborhood, since the end of the Vietnam War. Still one of the Hub's youngest immigrant groups, the Vietnamese have helped define the "New Boston," a term used to describe a city where white residents are now in the minority. This paper explores the triumphs and challenges, past and present, facing the Vietnamese community as they march steadily toward economic security, political recognition, and acculturation. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English. / Discipline: Communication. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Margaret Lombe / Thesis advisor: John Cawthorne / Social service delivery to refugees in the United States may vary depending on the different cultural and historical backgrounds that people bring with them to the resettlement process. The Kunama ethnic group from Eritrea, who fled their country for refugee camps in Ethiopia, provide a particularly challenging case as they most often have limited English-language skills, no employment experience outside of farming and herding, and a complex political history. This study contributes to the knowledge base of refugee resettlement and adjustment into the U.S. To gain an understanding of challenges faced by refugees as they settle in the U.S., two Kunama refugees from Boston were interviewed to provide their own stories. In addition, a literature review of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Kunama culture, and the refugee situation was conducted. The findings are included. The Kunama in the U.S. are faced with the challenges of finding jobs to become economically self-sufficient, limited access to furthering their education, language barriers in health care, and learning to navigate the American environment and way of life. Culturally sensitive and informed social services are vital sources of support for equipping the Kunama and other refugees with transitional help in each of these areas, particularly in maintaining physical protection, well-being, and guarding against potential mental health problems. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Social Work, Graduate School of. / Discipline: Education, Lynch School of. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

This dissertation examines the correlates of negative attitudes immigrant groups and one native ethnic group (i.e. the Roma/Gypsies) in mid 1990s Spain, a period when the country, previously a mass emigration source, was rapidly growing into a major immigration destination. The main theoretical approach is group threat, according to which natives would be more likely to express negative attitudes to outsiders if those outsiders are threatening or are perceived to threaten the status quo, i.e. the dominant position of the native group. I also examine the effect of aggregate-level variables, such as regional GDP per capita on individual-level attitudes. I dwell on regional level aggregate variables because all 17 regions enjoy a high degree of autonomy within Spain under the constitution put in place in 1978 I use the concept of social distance to examine the correlates of Spaniards' attitudes to five immigrant groups (North Africans, South Americans, Asians, East Europeans and Black Africans) and one ethnic group, the Roma/Gypsies. I find little support for the group threat theory, but do find support for the contact hypothesis and for a cohort effect. Respondents who had a long conversation with the members of the minority group tend to express less negative attitudes toward these groups. Respondents from the cohorts that reached adulthood after 1975 tend to express more positive attitudes to these outgroups than respondents from older cohorts The dissertation goes on to analyze the correlates of negative attitudes to immigrants from developing and developed nations, respectively. OLS regression analysis suggests that personal contact and cohort matter for these attitudes as well, and that changes in an aggregate measure of prosperity (regional-level GDP per capita) also correlate, albeit not strongly, with attitudes in the expected direction (i.e. respondents from regions with smaller increases in aggregate prosperity tend to express more negative attitudes) One surprising finding throughout is that education level does not correlate with attitudes once other variables are controlled for. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the data and analysis and suggested directions for future research / acase@tulane.edu

According to the perception-action perspective of development, human tool use is the result of object-to-surface affordance discovery subsequent to self-guided object and surface explorations (Gibson & Pick; Lockman, 2000; Siegler, 1996; Smitsman, 1997). However, because tools are often made with a specific purpose, learning to use them is also largely influenced by culture, suggesting that social learning is as valuable to meaningful affordance discovery as teaching oneself (Tomasello, 1999). In line with the perception-action view, with the attainment of greater physical and cognitive capability, infants are expected to better approximate and better understand the value of imitating the actions of others. Because meaningful tool use emerges around the start of the second year, the current study investigated how 14- and 18-month-old Chinese and American infants differ in their exploration strategy, whether self- or other-guided, when presented with a simple tool use task. The findings suggest that important developmental gains are made between 14 and 18 months of age, particularly in social-cognition, as older infants are more likely to imitate an adult demonstration compared to younger infants / acase@tulane.edu

This study examined the relationship between group racial composition and group performance by manipulating individual perceptions of group racial composition using single gender, virtual teams communicating via the Internet. This unique methodology separated the actual racial composition of the group from its perceived racial diversity. I also explored the role of conflict as an intervening variable in the relationship between group racial diversity and group performance. Consistent with previous research, results supported a significant relationship between perceived racial diversity and interpersonal conflict. However, other hypothesized relationships failed to reach statistical significance, including the interaction effect of perceived and actual racial diversity on group performance of a decision making task / acase@tulane.edu

This study examines the lived experiences of 51 low-income, former and current public housing residents from New Orleans, LA in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Using a mixed-methodology, I assess women's capacity to evacuate, survive displacement and recover following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Primary findings include that women were able to evacuate, despite their poverty. For those who did not, this was most commonly a choice, based on their assessment of the risk. There was not sufficient evidence to support the claim that their poverty prevented evacuation, since most women were able to pool resources with others in their social network to overcome their individual monetary barriers to evacuation Once evacuated, women's regular poverty survival mechanisms of aid-based, kin-based and work-based assistance were partially dismantled in the disaster context, with kin assistance helping for short durations, and aid-based assistance being the most utilized in the longer term. This pattern occurred, in part, because work-based survival was dismantled by split labor markets and labor discrimination in communities receiving the evacuees in this sample Lastly, the assessment of disaster recovery finds that women were living in more precarious poverty circumstances than before the storm, largely dependent on time-delimited disaster relief programs to pay their bills. In sum, short-term recovery was not available to these women and long-term recovery remained questionable at best / acase@tulane.edu

This ethno-gerontological field study examined family caregiving in an aged colony of Latino immigrants from Cuba residing in the New Orleans Metro Area. Most of these families have been in this community for over three decades The empirical investigation based on five hypotheses compared caregiving burden among caregivers based on the effect of level of care, acculturation, traditional cultural value orientation, social support, and ethno-demographic aspects of the population. The study also examined caregiving impact, mastery, and satisfaction with the caregiving role; however, caregiving burden was the central variable of the study The sample consisted of 60 Cuban-American families caring for their dependent elderly (aged 65 and over) in a home environment. Caregivers were selected on the basis of assisting with at least three of the ten Activities of Daily Living (ADL's) (1989). Levels of caregiving were measured using the ADL's items. Data were obtained from caregivers regarding their level of acculturation utilizing the Behavioral Acculturation Scale (1978). Cultural value orientation related to person-nature, time, and relational orientations was measured utilizing items from the Intercultural Value Inventory (1990) and the original Value Orientation Scale (1961). Subjective burden along with other caregiving subjective experiences were measured using the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Caregiving Appraisal Scale (1989). Caregiver's social support was measured by various items examining enacted support, satisfaction with that support, and extent of the support network. The perception of emotional support was measured by a scale from the Caregiving Stress and Coping Study (1990). An ethno-demographic instrument was developed specifically for this sample based on Hernandez-Peck's (1980) study of elderly Cubans in Miami. The ethno-demographic instrument was used to measured the social history of caregivers and the elderly. Variables were measured utilizing t-tests and simple and stepwise multiple regression procedures The results indicated that the higher the level of caregiving the greater the subjective burden. Subjective burden was also intensified by emotional and/or personality problems of the elderly relative. Social support was a significant buffering factor on caregiving burden. Perceived social support revealed an even stronger positive effect on caregiving burden than the actual tangible support. Some traditional values also predicted a lesser subjective burden and more satisfaction with the caregiver role. Lower levels of behavioral acculturation (speaking more Spanish, expending more time among Hispanics, and preserving more Cuban-Hispanic family traditions) also revealed a lower subjective caregiving burden. Some demographic variables acted as positive mediators in the family caregiving process Additionally, this study conveyed qualitative information about the field experiences relevant to the theories and the empirical findings of the study / acase@tulane.edu

Although French remains the language of ethnic symbolism for many of Louisiana's Acadians, English is the language of day-to-day business. This study is (1) an investigation into whether the English dialect of south Louisiana has taken on significance as an ethnic marker among people who self-identify as Cajuns; and (2) a test in using a combination of methodologies--including oral histories, close phonetic analysis, and quantitative analysis--in a language-centered microethnography constructed to illuminate larger cultural questions This dissertation summarizes this combination of approaches as well as discussions of theory and methodology, Cajun ethnicity, the history of the area, and an analysis of the regional/ethnic English. The first approach was participant observation and data collecting during a year and a half of fieldwork in Terrebonne Parish, and formed the basis of a linguistic analysis of flat speech, the regional dialect The second approach involved analyzing language case studies of people representative of the community based on recorded oral histories. Excerpts from each oral history are included, allowing members of the community to present their lives and views of ethnic identity in their own words. 'Normal' speech was compared to instances of speech about ethnic issues to look for register shifts tied to ethnic identification. In a final approach, a quanititative matched guise study measured group attitudes toward Cajun ethnicity among area seventh-grade students In summary, the results show that for certain people register shifts can be linked to expressions of ethnic identification in certain speech genres. In other cases, consultants either showed no register shifts, whatever the subject matter, or the shifts showed little consistency. Humor, however, is clearly linked with flat speech and, in some cases, with ethnic identity. Student judges rated flat speakers as lower in economic characteristics, but did not note any difference in solidarity characteristics between accented and standard English speakers. A language-centered approach, using a combination of methodologies, is effective for addressing subtle cultural questions when extensive ethnography is already in place, and reveals a greater richness of data than any one methodology used alone / acase@tulane.edu

'Heathenish Combination': The Natives of the North American Southeast During the Era of the Yamasee War examines the significance of the Yamasee Indian war against South Carolina in 1715 from a native American perspective. Chapter one presents a portrait of the Southeast as it appeared just prior to the war. It discusses the various Indian nations engaged in trade with South Carolina, including information on their location and the state of their relations with English traders. Chapter two deals with the origins of the war. The author suggests that market relations with South Carolina destabilized native society in a number of ways, which forced southeastern Indians to take up arms in an effort to control the terms of their involvement in the Atlantic economy. Chapter three provides a narrative account of the war, while chapter four assesses the war's consequences for native political organization. The author argues that the war facilitated the formation of the Creek Confederacy and the Catawba Nation. The issue of Indian slavery is addressed in chapter five. A comprehensive statistical study, utilizing probate records in the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, describes the demographic structures which shaped the experience of slavery for native Americans between 1690 and 1740 / acase@tulane.edu