Skinfolds as prognosticators of nutritional status among adult undernourished males of India
November 2012
The objective of this work is to utilize skinfold thicknesses taken at various sites as indicators to infer the nutritional status of undernourished tribal males of India and to find the best prognosticator skin fold for assessing under nutrition. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1435 adult males of India categorized on the basis of nutritional status (undernourished and normal), and age groups. Anthropometric...
Employers' strategies for workers' motivation in selected fast food companies in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
November 2012
The study examined employers' strategies for workers' motivation in selected fast food companies in Port Harcourt. Specifically, the study identified the motivational techniques adopted by the fast food companies, examined the workers' perception on the motivational techniques used and ascertained the extent to which the motivational techniques enhance workers' performance. A sample of three...
Empowering rural women in Kerala: A study on the role of Self Help Groups (SHGs)
November 2012
Self help groups (SHGs) can act as an empowerment resource centers for the women members, percolating the benefits to the society in general. Social evils like alcoholism, domestic violence against women and children, abuse and exploitation, gender bias and social exclusion are some of the areas against which the members can effectively organize and combat. Ultimately, it can come to a point where it becomes...
Use of mobile phone: Communication barriers in maternal and neonatal emergencies in rural Bangladesh
October 2012
Toll free mobile phone intervention was tested in one sub district of Bangladesh. Prior to implementation, we conducted a formative research to explore perceived advantages and disadvantages of mobile phone communication for maternal and neonatal complication management. We conducted in-depth interviews among twelve community skilled birth attendants and fourteen mothers along with their husbands. All...
Higher education of women: Does gender stereotyping matter?
October 2012
Gender inequality in higher education is not one homogeneous phenomenon, but a collection of disparate and interlinked problems in our society. It exist because of discrimination in the family and societal institutions and social, cultural, and religious norms that perpetuate stereotypes, practices and beliefs that are detrimental to women. Based on the responses to four semi-structured interview schedules...
Inclusion of Sugali community in the development process: A case study from South India
September 2012
Social exclusion is something that can happen to anyone, more so in the case of hierarchical societies of South Asian countries. But some people are significantly more at risk than others, due to its persistent nature of locational and environmental per se. Research has found that people with certain backgrounds and experiences are disproportionately likely to suffer social exclusion. The key risk...
Linguistic landscape and language attitude: A case study on Jimma town’s linguistic landscape inscribers’ attitude for Afan Oromo
September 2012
The purpose of this paper was to investigate Jimma town’s linguistic landscape inscribers’ attitude for Afan Oromo (Oromo Language) and its effects on Afan Oromo writings in Linguistic landscape of the town. The study was based on structured interviews and discussions made with linguistic landscape inscribers of Jimma town. To this end, it sought to find answers for two questions, that is,...
Influence, insecurities and evil: The political and economic context of witchcraft-related crime in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
June 2012
This article explores the political and economic context of witchcraft-related crime in South Africa, with specific reference to the Eastern Cape Province. The article examines how political and economic influence, and the factors that determine who has access to such influence, can impact on perceptions of ‘spiritual insecurity’ in African communities. Often such perceptions and insecurities are...
Peri-urban poverty: Can micro-finance be a panacea?
June 2012
Micro-finance has been identified as a major means for poverty reduction. Micro-finance covers products like micro-credit, micro-insurance and micro-savings. The study which was conducted in ten selected communities in the Ashaiman Municipality in the greater Accra region of Ghana was aimed at exploring the impact of microcredit on household level poverty and welfare. The population was all beneficiaries of...
The extent of basic school teachers involvement in the national basic education reform in Ilorin Emirate, Nigeria
June 2012
While acknowledging the epochal nature of the educational reforms introduced by the Obasanjo administration, especially at the basic educational level, it is important to note that teachers who are the major stake-holder, had not been properly carried along in the formulation and implementation of the reform. This study therefore, examined the extent of basic school teachers’ involvement in the reforms...
Issues of migrant workers in the context of origin and destination - Evidence from a survey in Coimbatore City, India
May 2012
The present study attempts to examine the various reasons of migration in the context of migrant’s origin and destination. Survey method using snow ball sampling technique, to identify the sample migrant workers in Coimbatore district, India has been adopted. A total of 450 samples, classifying home based workers, regular wage paid workers and casual workers, was chosen for the study. The results of the...
Road wanderers in Brazil: A study on modern psychosocial human mobility
May 2012
Human mobility patterns are quite diverse nowadays and a very singular, extreme pattern is seen in the Brazilian scene: road wandering. Road wanderers are individuals who leave their home, family, work and other territories of a settled life and throw themselves into a life of solitary wandering along Brazilian highways. This study aimed to describe the lifestyle of road wanderers, investigate the reasons that led them...
Migrant remittances: A driving force in rural development
May 2012
The main push factor for migration from rural communities is lack of employment opportunities for inhabitants who had high level of educational. When they migrate, they remit back to their families at communities they migrated from. Remittances play important role in rural development, and the study using Tutu in Ghana as a case study found out that as a result of money remitted to residents in the community,...
Definitional ceremonies in Igbo Religion: A test of Robin Horton’s Theory
April 2012
This study was initiated against the background of a challenge posed by Horton (1995), in which he concluded that despite the enormous output in terms of research and writings in the area of African Indigenous Religion, previous scholars have not been able to respond adequately to three chief questions focusing on the basic tenets of the religion whose answers are important for a proper understanding of the...
Attitudes to sexuality in individuals with mental retardation from perspectives of their parents and teachers
April 2012
Sexuality is an integral part of adults’ life. In the past, ignorance and fear by others have prevented persons with mental retardation (MR) from fully participation as members of society. Attitudes of parents, caregivers and teachers to the sexual expression of individuals with mental retardation are important factors in designing comprehensive programs. The aim of this investigation is to study the...
Pattern of growth in height and weight among Gadaba boys and girls of Bastar District, Chhattisgarh (India)
April 2012
The present study was conducted among the Gadaba boys and girls of Bastar District in order to evaluate the pattern of growth in height and weight among them. The data comprises 581 children (297 boys and 284 girls) ranging in age from 6 to 16 years, measured cross-sectionally. The present study reveals that the girls attain peak height velocity (PHV) and peak weight velocity (PWV) somewhat earlier than boys...
The relational analyses of Pakhtun social organization (Pakhtunwali) and women’s Islamic rights relegation in Malakand division, KPK Pakistan
March 2012
A hefty relation has been observed between Islam and Pakhtunwali (Pakhtun social organization) for as long as Pakhtuns are among those who wholeheartedly accept Islam as a religion. Both (Islam and Pakhtunwali) serve as the basic pillars and tend to bring social harmony and integrity through the socio-cultural, economic, religious and political aspects...
Immigration, generation or what? Some exploratory research on value diversity, social cohesion and political support in Canada
March 2012
Do shifting immigration patterns and increased ethnic diversity pose negative consequences for social solidarity and democratic governance in Canadian society? Studies on this subject often implicate the influx of different value systems as potentially upsetting the efficiencies of social and political integration. But very few studies have actually attempted to investigate the value differences between...
Professional homogeneity: Global versus local effects
March 2012
Theoretical approaches in studies on professionals are implicitly based on an assumption of homogeneity of attitudes among professionals. However, this assumption has never been validated. This paper examines whether professionals worldwide have relatively homogenous attitudes towards work as compared to non-professionals, and compares two competing theoretical arguments regarding the role of the...
The context of decentralised policing or local squads? The case of the Italian “Rondeâ€
February 2012
In summer 2009, the Italian government led by Silvio Berlusconi passed a bill which legalised the local squads or, ronde as auxiliary police forces, under the inspiration of the government partner Lega Nord. The Parliament was later to approve this bill, thus causing the indignation of that part of Italian society which saw in the ronde the proof of a populist turn of Italian...
Does public space create social capital?
February 2012
During recent years, the concept of social capital has become one of the most popular exports from sociological theory into everyday languages. Social capital has evolved into something of a cure-all for the maladies affecting society in all the countries around the world. The idea of social capital is particularly concerned with the cultivation of good well, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among...
Factors affecting early marriage and early conception of women: A case of slum areas in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh
February 2012
Early marriage and early conception is a nascent matter across the world and remains widespread problem particularly in developing countries including Bangladesh. In this study, an attempt was made to analyze comprehensively early marriage and conception of women based on findings of interviews conducted with 609 ever-married women from five slum areas under Rajshahi city, Bangladesh. The present study has...
Traditional perspectives and control mechanisms of adolescent sexual behavior in Kenya
January 2012
The discourse of this paper is on theoretical perspectives on mechanisms applied by selected traditional Kenyan ethnic groups to induct, control and check sexual behavior of adolescents. The sexual behavior of the adolescents has been an area of concern for a long time to societies throughout the globe. In Kenya, traditional societies had premised this concern on the understanding that if not checked; sexual...
Intimate partners’ violence in Southern Ethiopia: Examining the prevalence and risk factors in the Sidama zone
January 2012
The high level of intimate partner violence against women in many population groups in Ethiopia and the risk factors associated with the practice is not well understood among scholars and decision makers. This study examined the prevalence and risk factors associated with intimate partner violence in Sidama, a populous zone in Southern Ethiopia. A combination of simple random and multistage sampling...
Resource utilization and internal efficiency in Nigerian secondary schools: Implications for socio problems of education
January 2012
This study investigated the relationship between resource utilization and internal efficiency indicators in Nigeria public secondary schools with a view to appraise whether the public secondary schools in the country make the best use of resources allotted in turning out graduates with minimal wastage. A correlational study; stratified random sampling technique (SRST), based on the six geo-political...
Understanding India’s sociological diversity, unity in diversity and caste system in contextualizing a global conservation model
December 2011
This essay relates to the issues of sociological and cultural diversity in India vis-à-vis the global emerging issues of sociological and cultural diversity conservation. The Caste system upon which India’s tradition of diversity or unity in diversity is essentially rooted requires a fresh attention in the emerging perspective of sociological and cultural diversity conservation. The argument...
Decision making styles East and West: Is it time to move beyond cross-cultural research?
December 2011
Cultural differences in decision making styles were explored using the conflict model of decision making (Janis and Mann, 1977). Six hundred and seventy three university students in Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore (Mean age of 20.2 years; SD=5.4) were tested on the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (Mann, Burnett, Radford, and Ford, 1997) to explore cultural, gender, and age differences between these...
Music multilingualism and hip hop consumption among youths in Nigeria
December 2011
Through the use of qualitative and quantitative methods which included In-depth Interview (34IDI), focus group discussions (4FGD), content analysis (of extracts from the songs of three award winning hip hop artists in Nigeria) and a 300 sample survey; the study examined the structure of multilingualism in the Nigerian hip hop as a catalyst for: the increasing consumption of the music among youths, the...
Kuhn and the actual practice of science: Examining the extent to which Kuhn’s analysis is scientific
November 2011
In the structure of scientific revolutions hereunder referred to as SSR (1962), Kuhn claimed to have captured correctly how science is practiced. However, his critics such as Shapere (1984) argued that Kuhn’s account is far from being a true account of how science is practiced. Consequently, this led to a philosophical dispute on whether or not Kuhn’s work was a correct interpretation of how...
A re-reading of the Egyptian Zaynab al-Ghazzali, the muslim brotherhood and the islamic feminist movement in contemporary society
November 2011
This paper focuses on the activism and feminism of the Egyptian Islamist, Zaynab al-GhazzÄlÄ« al-JubaylÄ« (1918 to 2009) in order to examine how she has thought about Muslim women’s roles in both the political and Islamist struggles of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The existing literature while attesting to Zaynab al-GhazzÄlÄ«’s eminent position in both contemporary Islamic circles and...
Human trafficking in Nigeria: Implication for human immune deficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic
November 2011
Human trafficking is largely a form of slavery. The international awareness of the crime has over the years increased. Nigeria is a country of origin, transit and destination for human trafficking. This paper attempts to articulate the potential vulnerability of the victims, appraise the link between trafficking and human immune deficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic, assess...
Social organization and cultural institutions of the Afar of Northern Ethiopia
November 2011
An anthropological study was conducted on the social organizations and traditional cultural institutions of the Afar pastoral society in northern Ethiopia. This paper describes the clan-based institutions that are central to Afar culture and cosmology. Gerontocracy (the rule of elders), well established economic and political support networks and a patriarchal authority at all levels...
Beyond disability and ethnicity challenges: Narrative of a Paralympian
November 2011
This study reports a narrative which highlights the cultural influences over sporting experiences and focuses on the challenges in overcoming the barriers. The narrative provides a synopsis of the dynamics of ethnicity, culture and athleticism of an Islamic woman from the Islamic state of Malaysia. With an unstructured interview, the narrative was acquired and analyzed using Foucauldian discourse analysis in...
Social attitude and socio economic status of physical education students of Jammu Kashmir and Punjab states
November 2011
The purpose of the present study was to determine the social attitude and socio economic status between physical education students of Punjab and Jammu Kashmir states. To obtain data for this study, the investigator had selected two hundred (N = 200) subjects, out of which one hundred (N = 100) from Punjab state and one hundred (n = 100) from Jammu Kashmir state who were studying in SKR college of Physical...
The struggling Tharu youths: A study of the Tharu tribe of India
October 2011
The Tharu tribe is a famous tribal community of India. Though playing very dominant roles in their community, its youths are not connected with the main stream of development. Hence, this study aims at enlightening the government and international community on the challenges facing this community. Exploratory and descriptive research design has been employed in this primary data based study. Primary data on...
Socio-cultural life of fisherwomen in India- continuity and change (with special reference to Orissa State)
October 2011
The purpose of this research is to study the various problems of the fisherwomen in detail such as sex ration age groups, professions, employment, marketing, income, indebtedness, education, residence, water supplies, health care etc. The analysis is based on a field visit, case study and at the same time to collect information through open-end questionnaire survey amongst 360 fisherwomen from three villages...
Contemporary aspects of a bureaucratic hold-up of city governance in Cameroon
October 2011
This paper is designed to establish a set of empirical arguments derived from the 22 July 2004 decentralization guidelines in Cameroon, especially as these affect city governance in the country. The paper draws mainly on interviews of major administrative and political officials of the city of Kumba in the Southwest Region to argue that the decentralization guidelines designed to devolve powers to city...
Lexicographic implementation in Ethiopia: The case of three dictionaries published since 1995
October 2011
This study analyses dictionary-making practice in Ethiopia through an examination of three dictionaries compiled in Ethiopia since 1995. The year 1995 was taken as a reference point because the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic Constitutional ratifications dated (1995) granted the nations, nationalities, and peoples in Ethiopia the right to use their mother tongues as a medium of instructions and for...
Reframing studies of female marriage migrants’ educational involvement: A study of Chinese and Southeast Asian female marriage migrants in Taiwan
October 2011
This study looks at female marriage migrants’ involvement in their children’s education in Taiwan. This phenomenon must however be seen within the context of international hypergamy which has become an increasingly notable trend in many countries especially those of East Asia. Female marriage migrants coming to Taiwan chiefly from Southeast Asian countries and from China, often are depicted by the...
Vocabularies of denial: A Brazilian case study in discursive psychology
October 2011
This article attempts to analyze contemporary forms of racism and xenophobia in the case of Bolivian immigrants in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The study examines the prominent role of denial of racism and xenophobia in contemporary discourse. The article is based on a qualitative empirical study conducted in Sao Paulo with Bolivian immigrants and with Brazilian university students. The research is eager to...
Igbo cultural and religious worldview: An insider’s perspective
September 2011
Although it can easily be contended that there is no dearth of ethnographic reports and writings on the Igbo people of Nigeria, yet it can equally be argued that most of such reports, particularly those arising from the works of Christian missionaries and British colonial ethnographers had largely been concerned with giving a general picture of the mores, customs and traditions of the Igbo. The core of such...
Conservative Hindu reactions to non-heterosexual rights in India
September 2011
India, often celebrated as the largest democracy in the world and, despite observable ‘modernist’ trends and secularizing trajectories, remains a deeply religious culture displaying entrenched attitudes towards traditional family life and sexual conduct. In 2009, homosexuality was legalised by the High Court of the nation’s capital, Delhi. Although the repeal of the law prohibiting...
Social support as a panacea for mental illness: A study of Nigerian immigrants in Braamfontein, Johannesburg
September 2011
This paper synthesizes some literatures in the field of Public Health and Migration as well as fieldworks on Nigerian immigrants in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Some of the existing literatures support the view that social contacts tend to reduce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in refugees, and identified unemployment, lack of access to health care, lack of basic amenities and...
Globalisation and social transformation in India: Theorising the transition
August 2011
Globalisation came to India through the economic reforms and is gradually transforming our culture and self image. This paper proposes to theorise the transition of the Indian economy and situate the process of economic liberalisation in India in its wider context. The distinction between globalisation as a process and globalisation as a project is made. While the economic reforms of the 1990s stimulated...
Dynamics of religious conversion in Himachal Pradesh (HP) paradox of manufactured uncertainties
August 2011
The meaning of the term conversion cannot be derived in static framework rather is based mainly on the contextualisation of social realities determined in terms of religious beliefs or affiliations. The complexities in defining the process are in fact inflicted by the various ‘Methodist missionaries’ who kept on experimenting with the popular belief system in one way or the other. The fundamental...
Unmediated socialization: The experience of observing big brother aspiring participants
August 2011
The article presents some reflections on the practices and forms of spontaneous and unmediated interaction implemented by competitors of the Italian Big Brother 10th edition, while waiting for the auditions. While waiting, the participants put in place various forms of sharing, negotiation and conflict about attitudes, lifestyles and opinions. The method adopted is that of auto-ethnography. The aim of the...
Factors prompting pupils’ academic performance in privately owned Junior High Schools in Accra, Ghana
August 2011
The increasing poor performance of most public schools in Ghana has made the task of Government in meeting Basic Education needs a daunting one. This study, therefore, examined, from the perspectives of pupils and teachers/heads of schools in three selected privately owned Junior High Schools in Accra, the influencing factors on their higher academic performance as compared to public schools. Findings from this study...
Education for maintenance culture in Nigeria: Implications for community development
August 2011
Infrastructural development is the bedrock of any development in the modern world. However, without a strong maintenance culture, efforts at infrastructural development will amount to nothing. This study looked into the issue of maintenance as practiced by Nigerians. Two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The survey design used for the study are sample of 120 men and...
Africa in the age of globalisation
August 2011
The paper examine the ways in which globalization of Africa`s social and political economy is impacting on African development project. It explores the local-national-global nexus as an element of the changing face of the international political economy. The study first deals with the conceptual issues, and settles the question of how globalisation is affecting African development as well as Africa`s response...
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