Search results

This study aims to examine whether the demographics of the US federal judiciary and the type of employment discrimination charge influence federal employment discrimination case outcomes.

The outcomes of 401 randomly selected employment discrimination cases were examined by utilizing chi square analysis to test the interaction effects of race and gender along with four different charges of employment discrimination.

The findings suggest that the outcomes of employment discrimination cases are a function of the interaction of the judges' gender and race along with the type of discrimination charge (e.g. gender, race, age, or disability discrimination) involved in the case.

More research studies with larger cell sample sizes for certain discrimination claims should be conducted to ascertain the validity of the current results.

Potential litigants in employment discrimination cases (both plaintiffs and defendants) may find these results relevant in determining their chances for success in the courtroom.

These findings could help judges become more aware of potential biases and help guard against being influenced by them. These findings may also have implications for the selection and appointment of judges and suggest that judicial bodies that are more diverse may render more unbiased rulings.

Previous research regarding the influence of the sex and race of the judge on court case outcomes has yielded contradictory and confusing findings. However, by controlling for the possible influence of the type of charge involved in the cases, the findings of the current study suggest that judges' rulings are a function of the interaction of the judges' demographic characteristics with the type of discrimination charge.

This volume of Political Power and Social Theory highlights ongoing conversations concerning sociological approaches to the global and historical study of race and racism. In this introduction, we discuss the challenges and promises of studying race across space and time. We emphasize that attending to race on the global scale not only improves our understanding of how race operates in current times, but also helps us better recognize how social relations of power are organized. We underscore how scholars ought to conceive of racism as central to the making of the so-called modern world. The eight papers in this volume advance this intellectual project. We consider them in conversation with one another to highlight four foundations for the global historical study of race and racism. First, the authors emphasize on-the-ground race-making. Second, they explore continuity, change, and overlapping racial orders. Third, the authors document the tensions between local dynamics and global relations, drawing attention to sites where the two meet. Fourth, the authors interrogate the relationship of modernity to the construction of race around the world. The articles in this volume are important examples of work that pushes the study of race and racism forward.

The purpose of this paper is to identify psychosocial benefits that the race participants gained from participating in an adventure race (AR). The sample studied were participants of the Patagonian Expedition Race (PER), a multi-day AR that takes place in Chilean Patagonia.

Data were collected in the 2012 prior to, during, and after the event. Observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven four-member teams. Video material and open-ended questionnaires from 2010 to 2012 editions of the event were analysed for validating the findings from the 2012 race study. Interview and observation data were analysed in four steps, including preparation phase (transcription of interviews), exploration phase (searching for themes), reduction phase, and interpretation. Notes from observations and other sources were added to the data during phase 2.

Six different types of psychosocial benefits of the PER participants emerged from the data analysis: the “flow” experience including immersion into the nature; the play state and changes between telic and para-telic meta-motivational states; exploration and tourist aspects; the creation of “communitas”, friendships, trust, and other social aspects; felt self-change; and the transferability of the benefits acquired to daily life.

The conclusions are limited by the sample size and the case study design. Hence, the study should be repeated in other adventure and expedition race settings and contrasted to studies in shorter ARs as well as in other types of small team sports.

The ARs gives opportunities for unique experiences of coping with nature in extreme conditions, thus developing personal insight and outdoor survival skills. The skills and personal development were applicable to everyday life. Moreover, similar races may be organized in different settings to provide varied options for athletes to participate in such races.

The benefits gained by the participants are considered useful for coping with demands in working life. This applied especially to enhanced self-insights, attitudes towards hindrances and obstacles, and teamwork skills. The race might be used as parts of training for leaders in organizations of all kinds.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research paper applying the concept of psychosocial benefits when exploring the outcomes that athletes gain from their AR participation.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an analysis of court judgments on sexual harassment over the last ten years.

This research has anaylsed a sample of 399 sexual harassment cases.

The analysis provides information on factors that influence the courts’ decision‐making process.

Further investigation could be made by interviewing witnesses, claimants, respondents and tribunal members.

The article provides pertinent learning outcomes for claimants and employers.

The analysis allows us to develop a profile of successful SH claims over the period studied.

This chapter sets out to examine the topic of a spatial analysis of urban crime through an analysis of David Simon’s seminal television series The Wire. By developing an analysis of the issues that are presented in the series, issues such as race, ethnicity and representation will be addressed in order to add to the understanding of these topics in relation to race and media representations. Each section will address a set of themes which are evident in The Wire. The chapter highlights the idea of race in the series and how characters are presented on screen. The research is also concerned with economic issues depicted in the series and the effect of the economy on the characters in Baltimore, the U.S. city in which The Wire was set.

The conclusion of the chapter addresses poverty class and inequality as topics and sets out to document these themes in relation to race. The third chapter also discusses the racism and discrimination that is apparent in The Wire. By contextualising the series, the book is attempting to theorise relevant issues surrounding race, gender and power through an examination of relevant literature and the development of a theoretical framework from which key issues will be addressed.

Small Claims Court Television Shows offer spectators an opportunity to re-envision their relationship to legal and civic judgment. Through presenting racial and regional judges, these shows re-imagine legal judgment as a necessary and inclusive component of everyday citizenship. Reflecting Reality TV, Tabloid TV Talk Shows, and the History of African-American representation on television, shows like Judge Mathis and Judge Judy demonstrate the contradictions inherent in racial representations on television. By showing the ways in which television performance reflects the performative aspect of legal discourse already operating upon us, the judges use stupidity as a way to pedagogically energize a lower class, disenfranchised viewership into newly rehearsing their roles as active citizens.

This article develops an alternative theoretical approach to the Supreme Court’s controversial electoral redistricting decisions in Shaw v. Reno (1993) and its progeny. Instead of relying on the traditional equal protection interpretation, this paper argues that controversies over electoral redistricting are at base disputes among competing visions of democracy. In the Court’s recent redistricting cases, the majority and the dissent adopted fundamentally different visions of democracy – Individualist Democracy and Democracy as Power. In addition to elaborating these rival understandings of democracy, this article develops the concept of Symbolic Democracy to explain a central paradox in the Court majority’s decision: its simultaneous denial and recognition of the relevance of racial groups in representation.

In this chapter, I present examples of my narratives on how I continue to attempt to navigate the obstacles I face as a racialized tenured faculty member in a faculty of education and my lessons learned in navigating my journey into the academy with my students. I present Ladson-Billings and Tate’s (1995) concept of race as a powerful tool for explaining social inequity, and I will use Critical Race Theory to analyze those moments of tensions and conflict where my students will question or even challenge my role as either their seminar course instructor or practicum faculty advisor. I have found that students often wonder about my competency when they first meet me either in the university classroom or in their practicum placement. As a result, I feel that I have to prove myself initially to my students to establish my competence and to continually work to challenge those perceptions. In addition, as a faculty member who is racialized as being Black, my students often are uncomfortable in talking about race and claim that I “speak too much about race in class” and as such also claim that I push my agenda on race in my courses. Over the years, I anticipate students’ initial perceptions and comfort level with race and use those as a way of first engaging in open dialogue about race with my students. I will explore these issues and also offer some strategic ways racialized academics, like myself, can anticipate and use those challenges to our advantage in teaching in higher education and particularly in a teacher education program.