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African-American and Latino students are failing to make the grade in higher education. The numbers of black and Hispanic college graduates lag significantly behind white and Asian-American students, and the numbers are even lower at the master's and doctorate level (Ryu, 2010). And while Latino/as are the largest and fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, they remain the least well educated at all levels of degree attainment. As educators, we are left challenged as to how to break the cycle. In many instances, colleges and universities succeed at the recruitment of students of color, yet retention and attrition are more daunting tasks. We include as part of this reflection piece – and a way to inform this chapter – reference to research (Peña, Hernandez, Viernes-Turner & Dirks, 2007) we conducted with several colleagues that studied African-Americans and Latinos/as in higher education, as well as our personal observations as mentors in minority mentoring programs. We also offer our insights as two academics who were once thought of as high-risk students but are now enjoying careers in the field of sociology. We have discovered that minority students value seeing their own as not only professors but in the first author's case, an associate dean.

Mary V. Alfred, Ph.D. is an associate dean for Research and Faculty Affairs and professor of Adult Education and Human Resource Development in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University. Her research interests include learning and development among women of the African Diaspora, socio-cultural contexts of immigration, welfare reform and women's economic development, and issues of equity and social justice in higher education and in the workplace. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Administration with a focus in Adult Education and Human Resource Development Leadership from the University of Texas at Austin.

Research to improve access and equity for women of color in higher education offers insights on the nuanced challenges and opportunities that exist today. In the past, women of color confronted overt discrimination in their pursuit of educational and career attainment. Today, they are likely to face more subtle practices couched in what Miller (2010) coins, the “deservingness” status suggesting that although women of color have gained entry in the academy, they come under scrutiny in their faculty and administrative roles. Despite such scrutiny, their presence in the academy has brought them a measure of social independence, ushered in multiple perspectives to enrich students' learning experiences, and have challenged traditional approach to research knowledge, and leadership theories and practices (Glazer Raymo, 2008; Jean-Marie, Williams & Sherman, 2009; Lloyd-Jones, 2009).

We report on an ethnographic study of four established music scenes in which Latino music is produced, performed, experienced, and celebrated in Houston, Texas: conjunto, mariachi, salsa, and Latin jazz. This paper builds upon previous work that has examined emergent music scenes in Houston by incorporating three distinctly interactionist concepts – the scene, idioculture, and place – to illustrate established scenes. Our examination demonstrates that authenticity is a distinctly sociological concept, one that provides valuable insight into understanding the meanings that music has for the everyday actor.

Purpose – This chapter examines the expectation that because the developmental trajectories of cultural frontiers are often seen as being tied to that of their more complexly developed neighbors, increases in interregional interaction provide frontier communities with previously unavailable political-economic opportunities that promote social change.

Design/methodology/approach – This expectation is examined using data from archaeological excavations at the site of El Dornajo in southwestern Ecuador. Models based on external conditions like interregional interaction are considered alongside those based on internal conditions like environmental perturbations.

Findings – The results suggest that increased interregional interaction promoted the emergence of a regional prestige economy that symbolically legitimated (and perhaps made possible) the co-option of traditional risk buffering strategies during a time when the availability of subsistence resources had changed due to local conditions.

Practical implications – This chapter supports the notion that the emergence of institutionalized inequality requires control over both internal and external relationships. Furthermore, it suggests that examining models based on both internal and external conditions of change may help to explain the timing and pace of that change.

Originality/value – Much of the archaeological literature is dichotomized between models based on internal conditions and those based on external conditions. Few archaeologists would take exception to the notion that both conditions matter, but equally few archaeologists are looking at both kinds of conditions in the same case study.

The contribution of the present case lies in the critical view that every business actor should exercise – be it general manager, middle management, supervisor or executive – when building a strong organizational culture in corrupt political environments.

The purpose of this case study is to explore the dilemma in which Marcelo Odebrecht, once CEO of Odebrecht, found/determined whether to continue with the business model established by the founders of Odebrecht or take a new path for the organization. After exploring the corrupt acts of Odebrecht and the scope of Operation Lava Jato, the reader can reflect on the importance of organizational culture (according to the three levels proposed by Schein) in the face of the emergence of corruption. By generating discussions about organizational culture, business ethics, political culture and corruption, the organizational culture of Odebrecht is problematized in relation to its real behavior.

Students of administration, business and international business undergraduates and graduates, as well as members of senior management in companies in the infrastructure sector. Also, given the plurality of possible readings, it is recommended that the case also be used in courses or specializations in organizational psychology, organizational sociology or organizational anthropology.

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CSS 5: International Business.