Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We examine contentious public action such as protest and strike by associations representing four occupational groups at various socio-economic levels in Varanasi, India. Over one hundred interviews and a systematic examination of news reports covering the last ten years reveal that middle- to upper-class associations (traders and lawyers) tend to use agitation and strikes far more often than the lower-class associations (boatmen and weavers), despite having better access to administration officials and influential politicians. These findings are upon first glance somewhat counter-intuitive, and indeed challenge the arguments of some prominent scholars of Indian politics and social movements. Why in a functioning democracy do groups with easier access to the state resort to costly agitations, strikes, and other forms of public protest? We engage with resource mobilization theory and the political opportunities literature to provide one explanation: Where administrative representative institutions are slow to respond to demands made according to prescribed procedures, but quick to respond to pressure created by strikes, sit-ins, processions, etc., public protest is an attractive option for those who can afford it.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Utilizing an offense-based definition of white-collar crime, this study examines juvenile involvement in traditional white-collar offenses. Data was gathered from juvenile delinquency referrals made to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice between January 2004 and January 2008 and consists of a sample of 190 juveniles charged with financial fraud and computer crimes and a randomly matched sample of 190 juveniles charged with more conventional crimes. The data is analyzed to determine whether or not there are any differences between theoretical expectations and the demographics of the juveniles in the two distinct crime categories.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will utilize data from the 2005 National Public Survey on White Collar Crime (a revisiting of the 2000 National Public Survey on White Collar Crime conducted by NW3C), a randomized sample of over 1,600 U.S. adults. Information collected spans victimization instances, risk behaviors, perceptions of crime seriousness, and general demographic information. Using regression analyses, the current paper will focus upon victim demographics, particularly, exploring the nexus between these characteristics and victimization by specific crime types (e.g., credit card fraud, Internet money loss, unnecessary home repairs). Trends will be compared aggregately and across victimization types.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This report describes the ascension of a small group of working men at a large grain elevator. They gained immense organizational power as the result of a careless restructuring during the “farm crisis” of the 1980s, a process that typically spelled disaster for workmen. I refer to classical contingency theory and to the concept of induction to explain what happened and detail the language among the men involved.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper draw on research conducted for a recently completed PhD dissertation that explores the realm of cultural production associated with graphic design, understood in this context as a ubiquitous, yet largely invisible, communicative practice that nevertheless contributes substantially to the make-up of our visual culture. In doing so it invokes the conceptual apparatus of Pierre Bourdieu, particularly the notions of 'habitus,' and the (middle) class fraction he labels the 'cultural intermediaries' (or "no collar" - as opposed to white collar). In this paper I focus on defining, elaborating and ultimately complicating the notion of habitus as it applies to the professional milieu of graphic design in North America. The alternative perspective thereby developed - and informed most tellingly by strands of feminist thought - allows for the comparative evaluation of various high profile graphic design interventions versus less celebrated, but rather more numerous, instances of graphic dissent.