Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Following the 2003 heatwave in France which caused 15,000 extra deaths - a toll largely exacerbated due to inadequate government response - the French state proposed the abolishment of a May bank holiday in 2005 as a way of demonstrating solidarity towards the elderly, in order to raise money for a special fund to better equip residential homes and provide more effective risk management for those at risk.French citizens would work an extra day. The political burden of the state became a moral dilemma for the individual, in short, a test of solidarity (fraternity) towards the elderly generation. Government’s politically coercive policy response did little to engender sympathy by the working population, caught up with its own immediate plight—to work or not to work? This article examines the notions of liberty (individual freedom within the workforce) and fraternity (solidarity). With a focus on creative public policy, it examines the notions of gift/reciprocity, decoy/disclosure and moral/economic burden. It seeks to use Mauss' theory of the gift and reciprocity in order to suggest the tensions in a 'leisure society' where government, having secured a 35-hour working week, and having put in place generous social welfare benefits over time, could be seen to have expected reciprocation from citizens.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Religion can generate or catalyze violence. But religion can also diminish or defuse violence. In this paper, I look at the structure of a violent situation-the one lived by Venezuelans of Caracas's poor barrios-and reveal how some of those who live this situation address it through Pentecostal Christianity. First I will look at the logic of vendetta and show how Pentecostalism undermines it by creating "worthless enemies." Then I will look at the way Pentecostals confront the everyday violence of street crime by becoming "exasperating victims." These findings lead me to emphasize the weberian view that while religion may have clear social structural propensities, none can be absolute because ideas are relatively autonomous and always have the potential to produce an alternate causal path.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines how first generation Latino immigrants are being assimilated to the American mainstream through their practice of Word of Faith Pentecostalism, or sometimes better known as Prosperity Gospel. This form of Charismatic Christianity is spreading rapidly in the Latino population and it is a key resource that enables first generation immigrants to make meaning of their lives in their new land. I examine how Latino Pentecostals use the cultural resources found in their religious communities to construct boundaries between their “home country” and their “new country.” Through ethnographical research and structured interviews I articulate the logic they employ to navigate through their dual and often conflicting worlds. Word of Faith Pentecostal Christianity offers an effective filtering system by which moral boundaries are created and ideas of rights and wrongs are grouped in religiously and morally acceptable categories. I find that these Christians must constantly employ a highly sophisticated rationalization process in order justify their acceptance and/or rejection of certain aspects of their native as well as their new culture. This paper concludes that the dual emphasis on the this-worldly and the other-worldly found in Pentecostal Christianity is especially suited to aid in the meaning making system of those who live bi-cultural lives.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The object of my research paper is to examine the function of Pentecostalism in diasporic communities coming from the Caribbean. The phenomena of Caribbean diaspora cannot be subjected a priori as an African or Indian diaspora; rather, it must be perceived as cultures of hybridity migrating to new dwellings (Cohen, 1997). Pentecostalism, popularly known as a western religious movement, transcends its borders of singular ownership elucidating itself as identity markers in underdeveloped countries. Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, is no stranger to the evangelical projects coming from the United States.
My study concentrates on Haitian diasporic communities who appropriate Pentecostalism as a meaningful social structure. The Haitian migrants in Guadeloupe will facilitate as a case study for this paper (Brodwin, 2003). I take a neofunctionalist perspective arguing that diasporic communities with strong Pentecostal beliefs are able to sustain cultural stability in the face of marginality and conflict from the host country. My paper reports on secondary sources before I begin fieldwork in the Miami, Florida area. The history of Pentecostalism in Haiti is included to substantiate its influence prior to migration.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Criminologists and social researchers still formulate theoretical forecasts that are unclear as well as generally do not make falsifiable, scientific predictions in their theories, and, when they do so, they have been lacking their ability to effectively and efficiently test them. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to formulate a collective and future repetitive sociological approach to criminality and deviance by developing falsifiable propositions and making small, yet important contributions within critical criminology. Specifically, this paper will critique and evaluate the offenses committed by the senior Pentecostal pastorate from the Radical (Marxist) criminological theory since they also carry on the violations of the human rights and social actions of wrongdoing. However, I will take a holistic sociological approach which includes Durkheimian and Weberian principles so as to take into account of these two perspectives sensitive to men’s objective and subjective worlds. Any holistic sociological approach that wishes to explain criminality and deviance must include the thoughts of these grandfathers of sociology. Also, there is a possibility of building links between symbolic interactionism (from Erving Goffman) and the theories of social structure implicit in Marxist, Durkheimian, and Weberian thought. This paper closes by discussing the advantages and weaknesses connected with this holistic sociological approach to crimes committed within Pentecostalism by critiquing and evaluating this perspective based on Bernard’s (2001) standards.