04.30.08
Posted in Consumer Culture, Jacob Canon, Psychology, Social Psychology, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, happiness, sociology at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In last week’s show we examined the research of we examined the works of Tobias Lear, secretary to George Washington and envoy to North Africa for President Thomas Jefferson.
Material World [6:21m]:
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In today’s show, adapted from an article recently published on the Oscar Web site written by Melissa Maki, research communications coordinator for the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, we look at the research of Allison Pugh, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, and her study of how families deal with the increasing demands of a consumer culture.
Parents in the U.S. have become all too familiar with the latest fashion trends, toys and electronic gadgets as children regularly plead for the next best thing. But how do parents — especially those with limited incomes — comply with their children’s demands?
Allison Pugh, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, began looking at parents’ buying habits as a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley. Based on her findings, and with the help of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant, Pugh is currently completing a book, Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children and Consumer Culture, scheduled to be published by the University of California Press in the spring of 2009.
Pugh said, “I wanted to look at consumption and how the standards for an adequate childhood are ratcheting up, and how affluent and low-income parents are handling that.” She spent three years conducting ethnographic research: interviewing parents, volunteering and observing in three different California schools, including a private school and two public schools, one low-income and one affluent.
During this time, Pugh found common themes among the study’s economically and racially diverse participants. She said, “In all these schools, children feel the need to have certain things or experience certain things — like going to popular movies or local attractions — to be visible or to belong in their social groups.”
The need to belong transcends class boundaries, as does the parental tendency to comply with children’s desires. Pugh found that even those parents struggling to put food on the table and pay bills at the end of the month find ways to provide their kids with expensive, popular items so that their children achieve a sort of “dignity” among their peers.
Yet, Pugh did find differences in the specific buying habits of poor and wealthy families. She said, “Low-income and affluent families are all buying, and they are all buying in response to this need to belong on the part of their children. And in some cases they are even buying the exact same thing, like Game Boys, but the way they buy is different and the way they talk about buying is different.”
Affluent families engage in what Pugh terms “symbolic deprivation,” deemphasizing their spending, not wanting to appear materialistic, and focusing on specific items they don’t buy for their child, whether it be electronics or Barbie dolls. In contrast, she said, low-income families engage in “symbolic indulgence.” Since poor families can’t provide their child’s every desire, they focus on key items with the highest social value, like Sony PlayStations.
Much of the current literature in this area explains the growing culture of spending around kids in the past few decades as parents acting in a rational way in an increasingly materialistic society. The argument is that people are simply trying to get ahead and have more. Pugh’s research is unique in that it brings the significance of emotions into this equation.
Pugh explained, “The proliferation of commodities in childhood has changed what possessions mean. Now they mean belonging to children and they mean care to parents and to children.” She argues that buying for children has created a new dynamic in parent-child relationships. “It’s about recognition of desire, it’s about empathy, and about the parent realizing how difficult it is to be different in American culture.”
Pugh notes that parents today are confronted with two choices, neither of which is good. They can give in to the consumer culture, even if they can’t really afford to, or they can deprive their children of goods, putting kids at risk of being ostracized by their social groups.
Regulating how companies are allowed to market goods to children may be part of the solution to this dilemma, but Pugh asserts that items achieve social value not immediately after children are exposed to advertisements, but when kids get together in small groups and talk about them.
With this in mind, Pugh concludes her book with suggestions of how parents and schools can collectively organize around consumption issues in order to drain commodities of some of their social power. Some promising examples include a Michigan group that is fighting the escalation of party bags and other birthday phenomena, informal groups of parents agreeing to limit their children’s exposure to popular culture, and schools banning cell phones and iPods on their campuses.
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be the research of Richard Handler, UVa professor of anthropology, and how the popularized story of colonial Williamsburg, upon reexamination reveals different side of tale.
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04.23.08
Posted in The Oscar Show at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In last week’s show we examined the research of John C. Herr, director of U.Va.’s Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health, and his development of the FDA approved “SpermCheck Vasectomy”, a home test that confirms men’s post-vasectomy sterility.
In today’s show, adapted from an article recently published on the Oscar Web site written by Matt Kelly, a writer for UVa’s Media relations, we examine the works of Tobias Lear, secretary to George Washington and envoy to North Africa for President Thomas Jefferson.
In 2007, the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, received a firsthand glimpse of George Washington’s last days through the writings of Tobias Lear, secretary to President Washington and envoy to North Africa for President Thomas Jefferson.
The newly acquired, 106-page diary covers four months from June 24 to Oct. 23, 1803. It begins with Lear’s marriage to his third wife, followed by his departure with $40,000 in gold for a diplomatic mission aimed at ending the growing conflicts with Barbary pirates in the North Atlantic.
U.Va. history professor John Stagg, editor-in-chief of the Papers of James Madison project based at the U.Va. Library said, “Anything from Tobias Lear is valuable because of his connection with George Washington. Lear is also of value because of his role in the foreign affairs of the early republic”
Lear’s diary includes accounts of dining with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison; his diplomatic mission to Algiers to negotiate a treaty with Tripoli, which had declared war on the United States; the capture of a United States ship; and assistance given to a British vessel.
Known to keep records of the lives and events around him, Lear’s diary also mentions his efforts to defend himself from what he claimed were baseless, defamatory statements.
Michael Plunkett, a fellow at UVa’s Mary and David Harrison Institute of American History, Literature and Culture said, “There were rumors and accusations that Lear removed some of Washington’s papers and documents from the study after Washington died on Dec. 14, 1799, and these rumors persisted, in this volume, Lear mentions the rumors, and while he is in Boston, waiting ship’s passage to North Africa, he apparently convened some kind of legal hearing on board the ship to counteract the charges and prove his innocence.”
Shelah Scott, one of a quartet of sisters who donated the diary said, “One of his goals was to have his name cleared. He was concerned people would think ill of him once he left the country.”
The diary contains details of Lear’s wedding to Frances Dandridge Henley. It was through this union that the diary was preserved. The volume surfaced in 2005 when Scott, of Charlottesville, and her three sisters — all descendants of Henley’s brother — were cleaning out a family house in Wickford, R.I.
The diary was found among family papers in a woven-straw box that resembled a suitcase. When Scott read an entry, written in “a neat hand,” about the writer marrying Henley, she knew what it was, in part because her father had uncovered another Lear diary in the early 1950s. She said that volume, which recounts Washington’s last days, was donated to Mount Vernon.
Scott said, “It was very exciting, my sisters and I had a lot of fun reading it and talking about it.”
While the diary, 8 1/4 inches tall by 4 1/2 inches wide, quarter-bound in calf leather with a marbled paper cover, was fun to read, the sisters were concerned about its safety. That it had survived as long as it had was miraculous.
“We believe it had been in that attic since 1948 and survived three hurricanes,” Scott said, adding that the diary probably also rode out the Hurricane of 1938 in the attic of another house in Massachusetts.
Scott, a former president of the University of Virginia Library Associates, brought the diary to the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library for safekeeping while they pondered what to do with the book. In 2007, they donated it to the library.
Scott said, “We want it to be available and studied. For scholars of that period, this is really interesting.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be the research of Allison Pugh, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, and her study of how families deal with the increasing demands of a consumer culture.
Diary of Tobias Lear [5:44m]:
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04.16.08
Posted in The Oscar Show at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In last week’s show we examined the research of Rob Cross, associate professor in the McIntire School of Commerce, and his work helping businesses discover potential bottlenecks or disconnects in their network — providing information that is critical for businesses to improve.
SpermCheck Vasectomy [6:08m]:
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In today’s show, adapted from an article recently published on the Oscar Web site written by Morgan Ellen Estabrook, outreach and communications manager for the U.Va. Patent Foundation, we look at the research of John C. Herr, director of U.Va.’s Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health, and his development of the FDA approved “SpermCheck Vasectomy”, a home test that confirms men’s post-vasectomy sterility.
Technology developed at the University of Virginia could soon have a dramatic impact on male contraception practices throughout the U.S. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved SpermCheck Vasectomy, a home test that confirms men’s post-vasectomy sterility and is based on discoveries made at U.Va.
SpermCheck Vasectomy, patented and licensed by the U.Va. Patent Foundation, is one of several products founded on technology developed by John C. Herr, a professor in UVa’s Department of Cell Biology and director of UVa’s Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health. Similar to a home pregnancy test for women, it is the first immunodiagnostic test with the sensitivity and specificity required to detect low numbers of sperm, and it is the first immunodiagnostic test to receive FDA approval for monitoring sperm count after a vasectomy.”
Citing interdisciplinary clinical collaborations with Drs. Stuart S. Howards, professor of urology, and Charles J. Flickinger, professor emeritus of cell biology, Dr. Herr said, “The SpermCheck Vasectomy test is the result of many years of basic science research coupled with clinical chemistry know-how.
For over 17 years, Herr’s lab worked to identify a gene (ACRV1) that encoded a protein that could serve as a sperm-specific biomarker. This protein — SP-10 — is very soluble and highly expressed, making it an ideal target for diagnostic testing, as in the SpermCheck home-use test. The device uses monoclonal antibodies that bind specifically to the SP-10 protein to measure the amount in nanograms of SP-10 protein present, which directly correlates to the number of sperm present.
The device gives men an opportunity to test their post vasectomy fertility status at home rather than return to the physician’s office or a laboratory with semen samples, as has traditionally been required to confirm sub-fertile sperm levels.
Speaking about UVa start-up ContraVac Inc, Robert S. MacWright, executive director of the U.Va. Patent Foundation said, “We are very excited that one of our faculty start-ups is about to introduce its first product to the market. Through an enlightened and balanced integration of basic science and practical application in his research, Dr. Herr is delivering important scientific knowledge that is truly serving the public good.”
Approximately 500,000 men undergo vasectomies in the U.S. each year, making vasectomy the third-most-popular contraceptive option among married couples in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Also according to the NIH, one in six men over age 35 have had a vasectomy.
It is widely reported that vasectomies are not 100 percent effective, and men can experience recanalization, or the spontaneous healing or restoration of the vas deferens resulting in fertility. The SpermCheck Vasectomy home-use test, to be made available as soon as spring 2008 by U.Va. start-up ContraVac Inc., can be used to monitor and confirm sterility following the vasectomy procedure, alerting couples should fertility become restored. In addition, Herr said, “the device could be used to monitor male infertility over time in the event that male contraceptive pills are successfully developed.”
Dr. Howard said, “Translational research is essential to bringing the exciting new developments in basic-science biomedical research to patients. The outcome of an intense collaboration between basic science and clinical urology, SpermCheck Vasectomy is an example of translational research 20 years in the making.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be U.Va. history professor John Stagg, editor-in-chief of the Papers of James Madison project based at the U.Va. Library, and his studies of the newly acquired diary of Tobias Lear, secretary to George Washington and envoy to North Africa for President Thomas Jefferson.
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04.09.08
Posted in Business, Jacob Canon, Relationships, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, sociology at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In last week’s show we examined the research of University of Virginia politics professor Paul Freedman that suggests that the ever-growing barrage of political ads actually contributes to citizen education and engagement, and only rarely have negative impacts.
In today’s show, adapted from an article recently published on the Oscar Web site written by Melissa Maki, research communications coordinator for the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, we look at the research of Rob Cross, associate professor in the McIntire School of Commerce, and his work helping businesses discover potential bottlenecks or disconnects in their network — providing information that is critical for businesses to improve.
One of the secrets to running a business, and getting the highest productivity is understanding how a company is structured to maximize efficiency. In the past, companies have used formal organizational charts that delineate chains of command, oversight and work flow.
But Rob Cross, associate professor in the McIntire School of Commerce, doesn’t put much stock in these formal organizational charts. His research has proven them largely irrelevant in understanding how businesses actually operate on a day-to-day basis.
Cross, an expert in social network analysis, works with companies to determine the intricate, but largely invisible connections that people form in order to get their work done.
In order to illustrate and understand these relationships, Cross interviews and surveys employees about topics such as whom they rely on for information and who helps them to accomplish tasks. “It’s like taking an X-ray to see who’s important in an organization,” he says. “A lot of the times, it’s not who leaders think it is.”
Rather than a hierarchy, the results of Cross’ mapping more closely resemble a web, graphically demonstrating countless interconnections. The diagrams Cross constructs help him to understand who is central to getting things done as well as to visualize bottlenecks or disconnects in the network — providing information that is critical for businesses to improve.
For instance, at the edges of these maps, Cross often finds people with important expertise who are underutilized by their organization. Finding ways to connect these outliers and their resources back to the organization can dramatically improve business performance.
In his analysis, Cross also looks closely at the notion of enthusiasm or what he terms “energy” and its role in an organization. He has found that people who have the ability to create enthusiasm around them establish more connections and ultimately perform better than others. Cross can pinpoint areas of a company with high and low levels of energy and give managers suggestions for fostering energy, and thus new ideas.
Cross said, “Energy is hugely predictive of where innovation starts to occur deep within an organization.”
In 2004, Cross published The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations. This book incorporated his research into a practical tool for executives.
He plans to release another book in 2009 that will feature more business ideas and diagnostics. It will be geared towards not only executives but also business students. Partnering with the Batten Institute, at the Darden School of Business, Cross is developing stories about company experiences, using social network analysis, into multimedia case examples that will accompany the book.
Cross founded and directs the “Network Roundtable”, a consortium of 80 member organizations who work with McIntire faculty to apply network techniques to critical business issues. The Roundtable tests new business ideas and measures their impact. Findings are available to members, as is faculty expertise.
Cross said, “The intent of the Roundtable is to be a conversation between McIntire and the broader commercial world. The real focus for me is how we, as a business school, can show impact.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be the research of John C. Herr, director of U.Va.’s Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health, and his development of the FDA approved “SpermCheck Vasectomy”, a home test that confirms men’s post-vasectomy sterility.
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04.02.08
Posted in The Oscar Show at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
Welcome to the Oscar Show, a weekly program focusing on scholarship, creativity and research, produced by WTJU and the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, I’m Jacob Canon.
In last week’s show we examined the research of UVa graduate student Karsten Nohl who demonstrated that the encryption used by the now ubiquitous smart card is much easier to break than previously thought.
Negative Political Ads with Promo [6:24m]:
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In today’s show, adapted from an article recently published on the Oscar Web site written by Brevy Cannon, we look at the research of University of Virginia politics professor Paul Freedman which suggests that the ever-growing barrage of political ads actually contributes to citizen education and engagement, and only rarely have negative impacts.
Television viewers may instinctively reach for the remote control when yet another political ad airs during a commercial break, but those who stay tuned may reap some surprising benefits.
Campaign Advertising and American Democracy, suggests that the ever-growing barrage of political ads actually contributes to citizen education and engagement, and only rarely has negative impacts. And according to reviewer Darrell West of Brown University, is “the most comprehensive examination of political advertising that has been attempted to date.”
Written by University of Virginia politics professor Paul Freedman, Michael M. Franz, assistant professor at Bowdoin College; Kenneth M. Goldstein, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Travis N. Ridout, assistant professor at Washington State University in Pullman, the book examines the political advertising of the 2004 election season.
It has been estimated that more than 3 million political ads were televised leading up to the 2004 elections, and in the race for the White House more than $800 million dollars were spent alone. Presidential candidates, along with their parties and interest-group allies, broadcast over a million ads — more than twice the number aired before the 2000 elections.
But according to the authors’ research, being barraged by political ads turns out to be a good thing. Freedman said, he sees political TV ads as “frequently informative, often funny, usually clever, and just a whole lot of fun… Only in the rarest of circumstances do they have negative impacts.”
Political ads, especially negative ads, have a bad reputation. But Freedman and his co-authors found that negative ads, in particular those that draw contrasts between a candidate and his or her opponent’s positions on issues or past record, turn out to have the most measurable positive effects.
Freedman, an election analyst for ABC News in New York since 2000, said, “candidates realize the importance of responding to opponents’ ads that raise questions about their records, character or issue stances, so negative ads help hold candidates accountable.” He went on to say, “we found that the more ads that people are exposed to, the more likely they are to vote.”
Freedman said, “this does not show a direct cause-and-effect relationship, such as X dollars spent on TV advertising buys Y number of votes, but this is a stark example of how polling numbers track and mirror the strategic decisions by campaigns.” He went on to say, “Just as citizens and the polls respond to advertising, candidates respond to the polls. They make strategic decisions based on what the contest looks like at any point in time.
The average American has an “impoverished diet of political information, and TV ads can be thought of as informational multi-vitamin, wrapped up in emotional coding, positive or negative, that makes it easier to swallow the substantive information, which is usually accurate and often backed up with footnotes or references to newspaper passages.”
While some pundits consider most political TV ads “nasty, brutish and short” — an annoyance at best, and at worst, corrosive to democratic citizenship and debasing to political discourse, according to their research, just the “sorts of ads most disliked by pundits, are the ones most likely to educate, engage and mobilize voters.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be the research of Rob Cross, associate professor in the McIntire School of Commerce, and his work helping businesses discover potential bottlenecks or disconnects in the network — providing information that is critical for businesses to improve.
Stay Tuned for a very important announcement…
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