Ph.D. - Sociology

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/2159

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Are there patterns of despair among Generation-X young adults?
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2025) Bird, Omar Tariq; Mossakowski, Krysia; Sociology
This dissertation examines patterns of despair that are marked by psychological distress, suicidal ideation, heavy drinking, and diagnosed depression during the transition to adulthood. Guided by social stress theory, the life course perspective, and intersectional theory, and using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (1994-2009), this study explores socioeconomic, racial, and gender differences in how risk factors and protective factors influence different types of despair among Generation X Americans. This includes a focus on social class, both as family background (e.g., parental education, economic hardship, and household income) and as personal attainment (e.g., college completion).There are three main findings. First, psychological distress emerges as the despair outcome most influenced by both family socioeconomic background and personal socioeconomic attainment. Drawing on the linked lives principle of the life course perspective, results highlight how Baby Boomer parents’ socioeconomic status continues to shape the mental health of their Gen X children, underscoring the intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage. Second, racial patterns in despair vary by mental health outcome. Black respondents report consistently higher distress across life stages, while White respondents report higher levels of heavy drinking, suicidal ideation, and diagnosed depression. Third, coping resources in adolescence—such as self-esteem, school connectedness, and emotional support — protect against despair in young adulthood in ways that are patterned by race, gender, and mental health. In contrast, avoidance coping strategies seem to be unhealthy. These findings support the vulnerability component of social stress theory, suggesting that coping can buffer—but not necessarily eliminate—the mental health consequences of stress exposure. This dissertation argues that sociological research on mental health will benefit from intersectional life course approaches. Future scholarship should emphasize within-group analyses to better identify the social determinants of mental health for different racial groups. While some findings align with unexpected patterns documented in previous research, this work calls for abandoning the "Black-White mental health paradox" framework and urges more theoretically grounded and methodologically precise interpretations of racial differences in despair.
Precarious work on psychological distress and life satisfaction among young adults in Japan
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2025) Tsukada, Yusuke; Mossakowski, Krysia; Sociology
Drawing on social stress theory and the life course perspective, this dissertation examines how precarious work affects mental health among Japanese young adults. Using data from a nationally representative longitudinal survey, the Japanese Life Course Panel Survey (2007-2011), my dissertation investigates both immediate and long-term effects of two dimensions of precarious work: non-standard employment (NSE) and perceived job insecurity. Cross-sectional findings highlight distinct relationships with two mental health outcomes. Perceived job insecurity is associated with higher levels of psychological distress and lower life satisfaction, whereas NSE is associated with lower life satisfaction only among women. My life course analysis suggests that NSE for the first job and longer durations of NSE (Wave 1 – 4) have enduring negative effects on subsequent mental health outcomes among females and not males. Job insecurity (Wave 1) also predicts subsequent distress (Wave 5) for females. Past duration (Wave 1 – 4) of job insecurity among men and women is not as distressing as current job insecurity. Contrary to the stress-buffering hypothesis, coping resources (a sense of coherence and social support) do not show any stress-buffering effects, suggesting the need for alternative support mechanisms in the Japanese context. Young women's vulnerability to both immediate and long-term mental health effects of precarious work challenges conventional assumptions about gender roles in Japanese society, where men are traditionally considered primary breadwinners. These findings advance our understanding of how employment precarity shapes well-being during critical life transitions, while highlighting the need for gender-sensitive policy interventions and workplace strategies to support young workers in an increasingly unstable labor market.
Raising the Multicultural Generation: Multicultural Society, Citizenship, and Discourses on the Nation in Korea's Multicultural Education
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2024) Scott, Keith; Yang, Myungji; Sociology
Rapid and dramatic increases in migration over the past three decades have reshaped nations across the globe, and in this Korea is no exception. Since the early 1990s, Korea has transitioned from being a net exporter of people to an importer of migrants, from countries such as China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, and many others. This influx of migrants has led the Korean government to frequently declare that Korea is now a “multicultural society.” In particular, the rise of the so-called “multicultural families” has led to increased ethnic and racial diversity in Korea’s classrooms, which has spurred the government to craft multicultural education policies and curricula. However, what exactly is meant by the term “multicultural society,” and how does the state envision this new “multicultural Korea”? Does the “multiculturalizing” of Korea mean a reimagining of the nation? And how does the Korean experience fit within broader global trends toward multiculturalism? This study looks at the middle school Ethics and Social Studies textbooks as a way of analyzing the state-endorsed discourses on “multiculturalism” and the nation. It utilizes qualitative content analysis of the multicultural education policies and the middle school textbooks and lesson materials in order to identify and analyze the ways a “multicultural society” is defined and presented. Moreover, it looks at how multiculturalism is connected to conceptions of citizenship, in order to understand what type of “multicultural citizens” the textbooks are encouraging students to become. It finds that, rather than representing a cosmopolitan “reimagining” of the nation, the multicultural education content more often represents a retrenching of past developmentalist and neoliberal discourses on the nation. Despite declaring that “multicultural Korea” has “transcended nation and people,” the textbooks often reproduce barriers between the “normal Korean” and the “multicultural” Other. Moreover, the content tends to emphasize the acquisition of “global” cultural capital, over a recognition of the multiethnic reality in Korea or a critical approach to fighting racism and inequality. Multiculturalism is more often presented through examples of societies abroad, and thus is presented as something that exists outside of the Korean nation. When multicultural diversity in Korea is discussed, it is often devoid of actual immigrants’ voices and lived experiences. The textbook lessons have a tendency to present “multicultural citizenship” in terms of personal “attitudes,” like “tolerance,” instead of in terms of rights and the role of the state in ensuring them. There are, however, portions of the material where differing, more critical, discourses on multiculturalism and the nation can be discerned, particularly within the supplemental lessons. These lessons suggest the “progressive potential” of multicultural education in Korea.
Are There Racial Disparities in The Influence of Special Education on Mental Health During the Transition to Adulthood?
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2024) Johnston, Laura E.; Mossakowski, Krysia; Sociology
It is estimated that about 7.3 million (or about 15%) public school students are currently enrolled in Special Education in the United States, and their enrollment has increased steadily over the past decade (U.S. Department of Education 2023). Students in Special Education can be labeled as ‘different’ and/or ‘disabled’. These labels may be internalized by students, leading to lower self-esteem and experiencing symptoms of depression. My dissertation aims to uncover the possible link between enrollment in Special Education and mental health in adolescence into emerging adulthood, and the differences for Black students and white students. I take into consideration school contextual variables (school satisfaction, student prejudice, teacher unfairness, and expulsion), which may impact the mental health of students and help to further explain the experiences of labeling that students may encounter in the school environment. Additionally, I include resiliency factors (social support and educational expectations), which may help to alleviate the stress that students experience from being labeled a ‘Sped kid’ in school. Using national longitudinal data, my regression results suggest that enrollment in Special Education or having a learning disability is associated with lower self-esteem and higher levels of depressive symptoms in adolescence. My subsample analyses discover differences in school context and resilience between Blacks and whites and between those enrolled in Special Education and not. These findings expand our knowledge of racial disparities and the social determinants of mental health. Depression is one of the most frequently occurring mental health problems among adolescents, therefore it is urgent to alleviate the distress experienced by students and to explore the implications of stigmatizing labels, which harm mental health.
Exploring Factors Relating to Preventive Cancer Screenings for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Adults
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2024) Willingham Jr., Mark Lee; Zhang, Wei; Sociology
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations experience adverse health consequences due to unequal access to health promoting resources such as money, power, prestige, and knowledge/education. These communities are further hindered by sociocultural, geographic, and environmental factors that contribute to cancer health disparities. Thesepopulations face increased cancer incidence and mortality rates. However, further insight into influences on preventive health such as cancer screenings is needed. This dissertation examines sociological, psychological, and public health theoretical and conceptual frameworks explaining preventive health service utilization within these groups. This study utilizes a mixed methods approach to examine influences to cancer screenings through the use of a secondary data analysis of a 2017-2018 Hawaiʻi Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) and 16 semi-structured interviews conducted in the State of Hawaiʻi. Interviewees were recruited from two of the public housing site locations of the original survey consisting of Native Hawaiian, Chuukese, and Marshallese adults. An aim of this study is to triangulate findings from both a regression analysis and a thematic analysis of the interview findings to determine social factors that influence cancer screening behaviors. Another aim is to highlight the social drivers of health behaviors that one methodological approach might not have captured. Health comprehension, acculturation, and perceived racism/mistrust in healthcare were social factors of interest as demonstrated by influential causes from in the literature. These social factors are measured within a regression analysis fitted through the use of an expanded Andersen Model, Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations, to highlight cultural influences that might not be measured in more limited models. These social factors are also integrated within the interview guide used for discussion points. Results show that health comprehension barriers include language barriers and misunderstandings due to a cultural norm of being uncomfortable asking doctors questions or a fear of being seen as unintelligent or not informed about healthcare options. Individuals who hold a neutral acculturation to both their ethnic culture and Western culture are less likely to be screened for cancer. Within public housing, inter-group views are held, as many Native Hawaiian interviewees felt that other Pacific Islander groups engage in unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles. A sense of fighting for resources between groups within public housing surfaced from these findings. Those who have not experienced racism are more likely to be screened for two of the cancers. The interviewees mainly discuss mutual respect with their doctors and positive interactions with their providers. Chuukese women speak of stories of others within their community who felt they were treated differently in healthcare. From the interviews, major themes emerged in that NHPIs fear cancer and other concerns such as being treated differently if they were to be diagnosed and anxieties surrounding a fear of the unintended costs of screenings. All of the interviewees highlight a belief in a higher power and that God is in control of their life and health. This demonstrates the role of God and faith in decision making for NHPI communities. Small, close circles where informational exchanges take place mainly consist of family and cohabitants. There is a lack of strong social ties and networks to other NHPI communities and organizations that could facilitate the use of health-based resources. Additionally, family members are not discussing health or family histories of disease. All of which is instrumental in early detection of illnesses and screening behaviors. NHPI populations feel a need to prioritize their family above their own needs, and are not engaging in self-care such as cancer screenings. This dissertation contributes to the understanding of the health of NHPIs and adds to the fields of medical sociology and public health by highlighting social processes found to be influential to NHPI cancer screening behaviors in Hawaiʻi.
The Mental Health and Social Costs of Police Encounters Among Young Adults in the United States
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Kohl, Noreen; Mossakowski, Krysia; Sociology
In recent years, American law enforcement has been brought into public focus by global outrage over police killings of Black people. While high profile cases of police violence are more widely discussed in media, activists and scholars are also raising questions about less intensive interactions with police. Specifically, there is growing concern about over-policing and everyday encounters via “mass arrests” in the United States. Less severe interactions with police can adversely affect individuals beyond the time-limited interaction, potentially limiting future life chances and psychological wellbeing. Being stopped or arrested by police may have long-lasting ramifications for the life course and mental health of young adults. Therefore, this dissertation examines the implications of police encounters for mental health and life chances associated with SES among young adults, within the context of racial inequality in the United States. Data are from the U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The main findings reveal the harmful impact of police encounters on educational opportunities (i.e., attainment of a college degree), unmet aspirations, and mental health among young adults. My study assesses outcomes including diagnosed mental health disorders (i.e., PTSD, anxiety or panic disorder, and depression) as well as unmet educational aspirations among a national sample of young adults. Policy implications involve the replacement of zero-tolerance school policies with non-punitive approaches to “misbehaviors;” expanded access to higher education institutions; the redirection of funds from law enforcement towards social services and programs; improvements to mental health services; and reframing around the role and scope of police in the United States.
Adapting To Eat, Eating To Adapt: Food, Class, And Identity Of Nikkei Brazilians In Japan
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Hillyer, Rumika Suzuki; Steinhoff, Patricia G.; Sociology
This study uses food as a medium through which to explore the nuanced lives and experiences of ethnically Japanese Brazilian nationals who currently live in Japan. Japan and Brazil have been intimately linked since the late-nineteenth century, when manual labor shortages in Brazil coincided with Japan’s rapid industrialization, prompting some 248,000 Japanese to emigrate to Brazil between the 1880s and the 1970s. Roughly a century later after this migration began, in the early 1990s, Japan’s own manual labor shortage prompted the provision of preferential employment visas to Japanese descendants living abroad. Thereafter, Japan’s number of Brazilian nationals of Japanese ancestry [known as Nikkei Brazilians] drastically increased, with most working in factories located in Japan’s industrial centers. Today, there are about 207,000 Brazilian nationals residing in Japan, comprising the fifth-largest non-Japanese resident population in Japan. This dissertation examines social, cultural, and economic aspects of life for Nikkei Brazilians in Japan, who have been mostly characterized in academic literature as dekasegi, or temporary factory workers. Qualitative, in-depth interviews with over 70 Nikkei Brazilians of widely varying social and cultural backgrounds reveal that they come to Japan not only to work in manual labor, but for education, career opportunities, professional development, and family ties. By focusing on food choices and taste, the dissertation explores the sociological concepts of habitus, capital, social class, and taste, and challenges how they apply to a transnational population such as Japan’s Nikkei Brazilians. Food and foodways are particularly useful avenues for exploring values, upbringing, culture, family, work, and identity within Nikkei Brazilians’ everyday lives, which have not been discussed in existing scholarship. Food-focused interviews centered on notions of taste reveal that Nikkei-Brazilian food preferences are shaped by their social class, geographic location, and social and cultural environment. Specifically, the relation between class and taste is more nuanced among Nikkei Brazilians who have experienced class shifts and occupational changes in moving between Japan and Brazil. The interview data also show that eating evokes personal and shared memories and feelings of nostalgia that facilitate sociocultural ties and a sense of belonging when in unfamiliar spaces. Moreover, “Brazilian food,” as it relates to “food from home” cited by Nikkei Brazilian interviewees, is drastically different from the mainstream Japanese imagination of Brazilian food that is appropriated and capitalized by Japan’s restaurant industry. Lastly, the study shows that contemporary Nikkei Brazilians navigate an “in-betweenness,” as being both Japanese and Brazilian, which ultimately helps them cope with their treatment as “foreigners” in Japan and “Japanese” in Brazil.
No Trespass Zones: Governing the Mobility of Citizens and Migrants in the Post-Civil Rights Era
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Rita, Nathalie; Sharma, Nandita; Sociology
The social scientific study of migration is dedicated to understanding the experiences of peoplewho migrate, their post-migration integration, and the regulation of these processes. Despite playing a foundational role in the growth of sociology in the United States, the study of migration has recently come under critique for solely focusing on the movement of people across international boundaries, as it reproduces a state-centric definition of migration that overlooks other forms of human mobility. In response, scholars have called for the methodological de- nationalism of migration studies, recognizing that immigration is one of multiple ways in which movement is guided and constrained at different socio-political scales. This dissertation expands on recent trends in migration-related theory to understandcontemporary trends in social control. In particular, it presents three in-depth case studies of subnational governments that have enacted trespass ordinances in response to seemingly disparate social problems, including immigration, homelessness, and juvenile delinquency. By studying trespass law as a type of political border, this dissertation theoretically challenges the reproduction of state-centric definitions of migration, as it explores how mechanisms of mobility control can “illegalize” people located across the migrant/citizen divide. In turn, this work offers newfound insights into theories of citizenship, migration, and social control. However, the broader implication of this research is that it provides a framework for understanding punitive policies, which may be useful to researchers, policymakers, and community organizers who seek to unite disparate movements for social justice.
The Effect Of Migration Status On Children’s Academic Performance In China
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Liu, Lin; Zhang, Wei; Sociology
Under China’s rapid economic development, China’s rural-to-urban migration has affected the lives of many children. 18.97 million school-aged migrant children migrate to urban areas with their parents (Ministry of Education 2017). Among the migrant population, many choose to migrate to coastal cities and metropolitan cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. Drawing upon the data of the 2013 academic year China Education Panel Study (CEPS), In this dissertation, I first compare the exam scores of rural-to-urban migrant children with non-migrant urban children and non-migrant rural children using the national sample. The findings indicate that both migrant children and rural children belong to the disadvantaged population under the current rural-urban dual structure. Under each comparison, this study examines the major factors that lead to the score differences between different groups of children. Further decomposition analyses explain that the major causes leading to the disparity in children’s academic performance consist of differences in family socioeconomic backgrounds and institutional restrictions. As the first city in China to provide free education for all its migrant children, the Shanghai case is representative and worth a closer look. Next, using the Shanghai subsample from the 2013 China Education Panel Study (CEPS), I compared the exam score between local urban Shanghai children and migrant children. Selecting the city Shanghai with a large number of migrant students allows for revealing the status of migrant children’s education and studying the impact of recent education reform and policies in Shanghai. The findings indicate that migrant children in Shanghai are the disadvantaged population compared with the local Shanghai children. Migrant children are disadvantaged in education overall, but the disadvantages vary according to localities. Though migrant children in Shanghai score significantly worse than local urban Shanghai children, their educational outcomes are better than migrant children in other non-metropolitan areas. Migrant children in Shanghai even score better in math than their urban peers in non-metropolitan cities. This dissertation also discussed the interpretation of these results, possible implications, and future policy directions.
Childhood and Adulthood Conditions in Relation to Mild Cognitive Impairment among U.S. and Chinese Older Adults: A Life Course Perspective
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Zhang, Keqing; Zhang, Wei; Sociology
Using two nationally representative datasets, Chinese Health and Retirement Study (CHARLS) and Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this dissertation mainly examined the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), adulthood educational attainment and various domains of late-life cognitive functioning among older adults in China and United States under the life course framework. Results from cox proportional hazard models revealed that for both samples, various ACEs, for instance family SES and interpersonal relations were significantly associated with higher risk of mild cognitive impairment in later life, reconfirming the life course perspective and accumulative disadvantage theory. For the Chinese sample, childhood hunger was a strong risk factor for the mental status domain of cognitive functioning in later life, while the U.S. sample was especially susceptible to early paternal death. Following that, using adulthood educational attainment as a moderator, the detrimental effects of ACEs were buffered effectively: for both samples, having an education of middle school/high school or above could greatly reduce the risk of episodic memory impairment in later life. Moreover, dividing both samples into male and female groups, gender differences have been detected. Among the Chinese older adults, results revealed that males were more susceptible to mother-related ACEs, while females were influenced by ACEs of all aspects: childhood SES, early paternal death, hunger, and interpersonal relations. The protective effects of education were more significant for females. While for the U.S. sample, both groups suffered from the detrimental effects of various ACEs on late-life cognitive functioning, but the moderation of education only worked for females, greatly reducing the risk of mild cognitive impairment in later life. Findings of this study suggest that for older adults in both China and U.S., adverse childhood experiences could have long-lasting impacts on cognitive functioning throughout the life course, and adulthood educational attainment as an important resource is especially necessary and effective for females to buffer the effects of childhood trauma. This paper could provide reference for future research in an array of fields that can have implications for optimizing cognitive aging.
The Lifestyles And Worldviews Of Moms Who Choose Home Birth In Hawaiʻi
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2021) Kisitu, Alexandra Anne; Mossakowski, Krysia; Sociology
This study focuses on the worldviews and lifestyles of moms who chose homebirth in Hawaiʻi. I conducted one-on-one interviews with 59 moms who birthed outside the hospital in Hawaiʻi. Interviews were conducted between May 2018 and May 2019. The findings of this study reveal that the choice of homebirth shapes and is shaped by worldviews, health lifestyle, identity, spirituality, collectivities, and place. The findings also suggest that participants navigated social constraints as well as asserted agency in their homebirth choices. These findings contribute to health lifestyle theory in medical sociology in that spirituality and place/ʻāina with a family-centered worldview play a large role in the adoption of and influence on health lifestyles (as well as the choice of homebirth). Reclamation of birth choices and cultural practices and “taking back” of feminine power and agency reveal that participants, particularly Kānaka Maoli mothers in this study, continue to feel the effects of colonization, patriarchy, medical authority, and the occupation of Hawaiʻi. These findings also advance intersectional scholarship on racialization, Indigenous experience, and gender in terms of homebirth. Finally, this research contributes to feminist theory in terms of forging concepts of birth, identity, and the microbiome in shaping our social relationships.
Patterns of violence in Honolulu: a study on culture, social structure, and social situations in reference to the subculture of violence hypothesis
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1986) Heaukulani, David; Sociology
The general hypotheses of this study state that: (1) violence is not random in distribution and that it covaries with the socioeconomic characteristics of social areas; (2) nonviolent and violent offenders are associated with low violent rate and high vio
Making It: Success, Mediocrity, and Failure in the Kitchen
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2021) Meiser, Ellen Tienwhey; Johnson, David T.; Sociology
Restaurants, diners, and cafes dot every metropolis and whistle-stop in America, employing roughly 2.5 million chefs and cooks. Using in-depth interviews (n=50) and surveys (n=258) of kitchen workers and 120 hours of participant-observation of a restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska, this dissertation explores the culinary world and investigates social psychological perceptions of success, mediocrity, and failure. I ask two primary questions: what does it take to “make it” in the commercial kitchen? And how do individuals, in their attempt at “making it,” form and revise their subjective notions of success, mediocrity, and failure? This study shows that “making it” in a creative blue-collar industry hinges on the accumulation of kitchen capital, an occupation-specific form of cultural capital that displays one’s grasp of workplace culture, cooking, and an individual’s identity within the kitchen hierarchy. It is accrued through education, embodied skill, emotion management, and the domination of others’ space and person—the primary topics of the substantive chapters of this dissertation. And it is done so in hopes of success and occupational mobility within the formal “brigade system,” the common organizational structure of Western kitchens. Consequently, the process and actual accumulation of occupation-specific capital influences one’s perceptions of and ability to achieve success. As chefs and cooks try to “make it,” they actively reframe personal history to fit narratives of “success,” despite objective evidence of the contrary. Subjects from this study preferred to deny personal mediocrity and failure, an inclination scholar Daniel Gilbert (2005) has found in other populations. Thus, I conclude this dissertation with an exploration into the cognitive biases, sociological reasonings, and subjective manipulations behind such optimistic evaluations of the self. The implications of establishing kitchen capital as a concept is to expand sociological understandings of how cultural capital functions within work, and to encourage future researchers to continue examining occupation-specific capital in other industries. Exploring these forms of capital not only highlight what a profession values, but also the hierarchical structures that mediate the values and principles that guide workplace behaviors. We can use these notions of cultural capital to understand how and where workers draw their lines of distinction and cultural boundaries. This dissertation closes with an epilogue describing the impacts of COVID-19 on the culinary industry and kitchen workers. Using data from follow-up interviews, I argue that kitchen capital—a key factor of occupational success prior to the pandemic—has remained essential during these uncertain times, and will continue to long after. Data also show that stress and worry over health have depleted many individuals’ cognitive and emotional resources, and have blinded people from a long-term perspective that includes notions of success, ordinariness, and failure. Additionally, the pandemic has given privileged individuals a glimpse into the reality of the everyday trials of the disadvantaged—a state that many kitchen workers existed in prior to and during the pandemic.
A Case Study of Student and Employee Perspectives of Title IX
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2020) Liebreich, Hannah Virginia; Chesney-Lind, Meda; Sociology
This case study explores how students and employees within one campus community make sense of policy that is currently being used by the campus community to combat gender-based violence and sexual assault on college campuses. From April 2018 to January 2020, I collected 49 in-depth interviews with students and employees at a geographically isolated, minority-serving institution. I also conducted public, participant observations of three trainings facilitated by the office that oversees the implementation of the previously mentioned gender-based violence related policy–commonly known in educational settings as Title IX. My overall goal is to strengthen future interpretations, implementation, and training related to gender-based violence, campus sexual assault, and Title IX as a way to better the lives of students and employees on college campuses. Using an intersectional lens, I examine the everyday lives of students and employees to understand better how they make sense of gender-based violence and sexual assault as well as related topics. What I find in my dissertation is that there are many unintended consequences related to current Title IX interpretations and implementations, and these issues must be dealt with by campus administrators to eradicate gender-based violence and campus sexual assault. In terms of unintended consequences, I focus on the following topics in my dissertation: placed-based exceptionalism, race and ethnicity, the #metoo movement, and student engagement. I suggest that students and employees justify unsafe events and experiences on their campus by providing reasons why they believe their school is safer than other schools. Further, I propose that researchers and administrators must better understand the connections campus community members make between gender-related issues and race and ethnicity. Next, I write about the way members of the campus community talk about the #metoo movement to place their experiences into the national discourse. I conclude by elaborating on how students are currently engaged and how they should be engaged in the future, focusing on student engagement concerning Title IX training.
The Institutional Maze: Youth, Schools, and Jails in Hawaiʻi
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2020) King, Sanna; Johnson, David T.; Sociology
ABSTRACT This study focuses on the connections between public schools and the juvenile justice system in Hawaiʻi. It argues that there is a dynamic relationship between public schools and youth punishment in Hawaiʻi that is evident in a multi-institutional process that I call an institutional maze. The findings of this study also illustrate the resiliency and the agency of teens in Hawaiʻi as they respond to the structural violence of contemporary institutions of control. In addition, the findings demonstrate that teens’ ability to escape or avoid institutional control was not only related to support and resiliency, but also to luck – the chance of not getting caught by social control and institutional agents (parents, teachers, counselors, or law enforcement). To explore the complexity of the relationship between education and youth punishment in Hawaiʻi, I conducted a five-year ethnography between January 2012 and October 2017 on the island of Oʻahu in Hawai’i. I examined the experiences of youth at a high school group-counseling program, teens in a juvenile justice program, adults who had experiences in the juvenile justice system, and community stakeholders who worked with or advocated for youth in Hawaiʻi. My study explores the multiple processes and consequences of youth punishment, especially for those who move between schools and institutions of social control in the institutional maze. The research analyzes the role of racialization and patriarchy in the process of punishment in the institutional maze for marginalized groups in Hawaiʻi. Furthermore, the study shows that colonialism and the ideals of the modern patriarchal nation-state in Hawaiʻi continue to shape the lives of youth through coercion and control and through the interactions of educational, punishment, and legal institutions. My findings contribute to intersectional scholarship on racialization, gender, class, and criminality in the experiences of youth who are navigating the institutional maze. This research also shows the complexity of youth punishment and discipline processes, and it demonstrates the importance of support services (such as creative writing and counseling programs) in assisting youth in their identity formation and in building agency and resiliency in the context of personal hardship and institutions of social control.
Linked Lives: The Effects Of Incarceration On Prisoner Families In Hawaiʻi
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2020) Erum, Alexis Joy; Chesney-Lind, Meda; Sociology
This exploratory study examines how carceral experiences extend beyond the boundaries of prison and impact the families of prisoners. For the purposes of this study, I interviewed twenty family members of prisoners who have extensive and in many cases ongoing familial experiences with the criminal justice system. The sample ranges from the spouses and children of prisoners and also includes unconventional immediate and extended family members. Respondents discuss key coping strategies for navigating the various conflicts that arise and female family members are unequally burdened with expectations for prisoner care and support compared to their male counterparts. However, these women and their families demonstrate remarkable resiliency in the face of oftentimes intersecting hardships. Experiences with addiction, poverty, and violence permeate the lives of this small sample of respondents, illuminating core challenges faced by people in marginalized communities, and highlighting the negative coping strategies of family members embroiled in the criminal justice system. Counter-intuitively, findings show that family members are often relieved when their relative becomes incarcerated, despite the temporary loss of the family member and the overwhelming evidence that incarceration is a highly stigmatizing punishment that severely restricts future opportunities. This exploratory study contributes to the field of counter-colonial criminology by including the experiences of indigenous family members of the incarcerated, offering valuable insights into an oft-neglected study population. The criminalization of indigeneity, poverty, and addiction act as forms of social control that contribute to the further marginalization of some of Hawai‘i’s most vulnerable communities.
Articulating Aliens: Discursive Crossover and the Figure of the Migrant
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Sevier, Holly; Sharma, Nandita; Sociology
This dissertation explores representations of the ‘alien migrant’ in popular historical and contemporary discourses and argues that analyzing discourses on different types of ‘alien’ is a productive way to understand and counteract animosity against people constructed as ‘migrant’. Using a method of discourse analysis, I analyze a broad range of cultural artifacts that construct the figurative subject of the migrant. Showing how ideas about ‘race’ and ‘nation’ articulate to produce this problematized subject-figure in the 1790 Naturalization Act, I argue that such problematizations lend support to practices and policies of immigration restriction and exclusion. I then show how the ostensibly unrelated discourses concerning alien species and space aliens modify the discourse on the alien migrant in a process that I term discursive crossover. This is an original theoretical contribution that adds new nuance to Kristeva’s (1986) notion of intertextuality, extends the concept of metaphorical linkage as discussed by Fine and Christoforides (1991), and draws from Deleuze’s idea of the attendant character (1981). I posit that one of the consequences of discursive crossover is to produce the commonsense understanding that migrants are symptomatic of a ‘crisis’. Leaning on Cohen’s (1972) concept of moral panics, I argue that the hegemony of immigration-as-crisis lends legitimacy to calls to ‘build the wall’ on our contemporary southern border. Materials for analysis include popular media such as newspaper articles, books, satirical cartoons, and more contemporary cultural artifacts such as films and tweets. The central period under analysis is from the 1790 Naturalization Act and up to the present day.
Insecure Millennials: Coming of Age in Seoul and Tokyo
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Asahina, Yuki; Steinhoff, Patricia G.; Sociology
This dissertation examines how young adults in East Asia’s two global cities perceive and respond to growing economic insecurity and inequality. In particular, it looks at the three competitive markets of education, labor, and marriage that shape young adults’ lives. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic research in Seoul and Tokyo and interviews with 98 young adults from different socio-economic backgrounds, it incorporates two levels of analysis. First, by focusing on individual and collective level dispositions, it describes gender and class specific forms of anxiety about education, work, and marriage that young adults confront in East Asia. Those who graduated from the most selective universities and hold relatively secure employment are often more anxiety-ridden about their future than those who hold irregular employment. College-educated women were afraid that their career opportunities would be foreclosed if they marry. At the same time, they also fear spending their entire life alone if they choose a career over private life. Young men in Seoul were expected to buy a house as a prerequisite to marriage, yet it is a difficult thing to afford even for those with secure employment. Second, by looking at ways structural, institutional, and cultural contexts affect their experiences, it explores why people experience inequality and insecurity in the ways they do in different places. In spite of many commonalities, such as trajectories of economic development, the failure of the state to provide security to citizens, and levels of income inequality, young adults in Seoul are much more anxiety-ridden and sensitive to economic inequality than their peers in Tokyo. I found that young adults in Seoul have a stronger desire to enter the small world of top firms, schools, and neighborhoods among young people than their peers in Tokyo and are stressed out from their commitment to competition. This in turn creates the perceived sense of relative deprivation, the source of perceived injustice. The relational approach to economic insecurity proposed in this dissertation complements the theories of risks, precarity, and neoliberal subjects that are not fully equipped to explain variations in perception of insecurity and inequality. By applying Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts relationally, this dissertation demonstrated how differences in the organizations of the fields of work, education, and marriage can help account for differences in the ways young people feel, perceive, and respond to growing insecurity. The combination of these structural, institutional, and cultural contexts constitutes a conditional mechanism of subjective economic insecurity that might have the potential to explain cases other than Korea and Japan, although its applicability remains to be examined.
Well-being Of Rural Migrant Workers In China: A Longitudinal Analysis
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Liu, Sizhe; Zhang, Wei; Sociology
Based on China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data, my dissertation mainly examined psychological distress and life satisfaction of rural migrant workers in China and their associations with conflictual experiences as well as explored the associations over time and across regions. Results based on Latent Difference Scores (LDS) models show that having conflictual experiences was positively associated with psychological distress and negatively associated with life satisfaction among rural migrant workers. A significant decrease in conflictual experiences, a significant increase in psychological distress, and a significant increase in life satisfaction were identified. In addition, change in conflictual experiences was significantly associated with change in psychological distress and change in life satisfaction from 2010 to 2014. Moreover, conflictual experiences assessed at baseline explained the subsequent change of psychological distress and vice versa. Conflictual experiences showed a leading role in predicting the subsequent change of psychological distress. However, conflictual experiences measured at baseline was not significantly associated with a subsequent change in life satisfaction and life satisfaction measured at baseline was also not significantly associated with a subsequent change in conflictual experiences. To explain this finding, I argued that economic gain might confound the effects between these two factors. Based on the follow-up Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analyses, I confirmed that economic gain could alleviate the detrimental effect of conflictual experiences on life satisfaction. But this stress-buffering effect was only salient among male migrant workers but not among female migrant workers. Finally, I linked CFPS baseline wave data with regional level data to examine the variation of well-being indicators (psychological distress and life satisfaction) across regions as well as the direct effect of regional level characteristics on individual well-being indicators. I also examined whether the associations between conflictual experiences and well-being indicators vary across regions and how regional level indicators modify these associations. Results show that, although there were significant variations of psychological distress and life satisfaction across regions, regional differences only contribute to small proportions of overall variance of well-being. Moreover, the strength of the positive association between conflictual experiences and psychological distress as well as the strength of the negative association between conflictual experiences and life satisfaction do vary across regions. Specifically, regions with higher Expenditure on People’s Livelihood (EPL) and Disposable Personal Income (DPI) tend to show a weaker association between conflictual experiences and psychological distress compared to regions with lower EPL and DPI. Regions with higher GDP per capital (GDPPC) tend to show a stronger positive association between conflictual experiences and psychological distress as well as a stronger negative association between conflictual experiences and life satisfaction than regions with lower GDPPC. Interpretation of these results and possible implications as well as future research directions were also discussed in this dissertation.
Eating In An Uncertain World: An Essay On The Exclusions And Erasures Of Local Food
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Pahk, Sang-hyoun; Steger, Manfred B.; Sociology
The common sense about local food is that it is essentially a virtuous project. Unlike the global food system which is designed to maximize corporate profits above all else, local food systems are said to be responsive to human and ecological needs. Both academic advocates and popular writers highlight the potential for food system localization to generate attachments to place and community that change how people “relate to food.” Critics, however, identify consistent patterns of exclusion in empirical studies of local food, and note troubling “blind spots” in local food politics with respect to labor issues. The most influential positions in the field argue for a critical localism that preserves the features that make local food promising while addressing injustices and exclusions. What they miss, however, is how “local” works as a category of desire -- something that popular advocates of local food seem to appreciate better than academics do. This means that localness is not simply a guide to organizing markets and supply chains, or evaluating the virtues of foodstuffs. In order for it to become that guide, it must first be realized as a meaningful idea -- one that is worth the material and emotional investment necessary to become an organizing principle in social life. The problem, I argue, is that what makes local food compelling is also what makes it exclusionary. Based on a critical reading of the literature, a discourse analysis of popular media, and participant observation in several local food markets in San Francisco, CA in 2014, this dissertation examines the realization of “local” as compelling and lively, and then draws out some of the consequences of that realization. In popular discourse, I identify a characteristic style of reasoning and desiring -- including an articulation of specific ways of knowing and relating to place that are valorized as natural -- that I describe as the fantasy of “real food.” In empirical chapters, I examine how this fantasy shapes local food markets, and demonstrate its influence in both ordinary market interactions and in market management. In particular, I describe how farmers markets have become constituted as vital sites for enacting local desires and local knowledge. I illustrate how problems in farmers markets come to be identified and articulated as problems of contamination, thus prompting an understanding of appropriate social action in food systems as a pursuit of purity. The result is a seemingly comprehensive view of food and place that heightens the resonance of specific issues, including taste, community, and connection to the land. However, this also has the effect of rendering other concerns less intelligible -- including issues relating to domestic foodwork, migrant farmworkers, and other concerns operating at nonlocal scales which cannot be known or addressed in the characteristic style prescribed by the fantasy of real food. Thus, unlike other scholars in the field who would preserve localism while address its worst tendencies, I argue that the exclusions and erasures are built into the very practices that realize localness in the world.

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