http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/community Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Sat, 04 Jul 2026 09:38:55 -0400 Sat, 04 Jul 2026 09:38:55 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1753/the-criminal-justice-systems-mistreatment-of-transgender-individuals-a-call-for-policy-reform-to-assist-a-marginalized-prisoner-community By Stephenie King - While media coverage and politicians constantly acknowledge the inadequacies of the criminal justice system in managing victims and offenders of color and low socioeconomic status, the discussion about the failure of the criminal justice system towards transgender individuals, victims or offenders, is an issue that is rarely discussed. Transgender individuals have experienced a history of mistreatment and prejudice by traditional society, including judicially, but with contemporary acceptance movements and a rise in openly trans figureheads and celebrities, some may think the history of mistreatment... Thu, 31 Jan 2019 09:45 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1753/the-criminal-justice-systems-mistreatment-of-transgender-individuals-a-call-for-policy-reform-to-assist-a-marginalized-prisoner-community http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1549/harry-potter-is-gay-an-investigation-of-queer-fan-culture By Tianna K. Mignogna - Not long after J.K. Rowling published the first Harry Potter book on June 26, 1997, The Boy Who Lived exploded into an international phenomenon. Teachers read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to wide-eyed students and parents read it aloud to put their children to sleep, continuing to turn the pages into the night. So many people wanted to escape to Harry’s magical world where nearly anything was possible – and these people began to respond to this universe in very real, critical ways. For some fans, like those at MuggleNet.com, that meant creating websites and publishing... Thu, 02 Mar 2017 12:02 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1549/harry-potter-is-gay-an-investigation-of-queer-fan-culture http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1556/applying-the-centrifugal-organizational-model-for-pastoralists-and-other-competing-communities-on-the-ethiopian-landscape-and-the-shift-to-agriculture-after-1975 By EliSabeth Noe - For the past four decades, pastoralist activities have been pushed to marginal areas in several regions of Ethiopia. This change was initiated by the Agrarian Land Reform Proclamation of 1974. Pastoralist activities prior to the agrarian reforms were strongly connected to the Earth and developed symbiotically. A connection to the Earth through symbiotic relationships has been shown to foster sustainability. This paper applies the centrifugal organizational model, originally synthesized in the field of plant community ecology, to the changing environment and pastoralism in Ethiopia, demonstrates... Sun, 30 Oct 2016 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1556/applying-the-centrifugal-organizational-model-for-pastoralists-and-other-competing-communities-on-the-ethiopian-landscape-and-the-shift-to-agriculture-after-1975 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1425/a-community-approach-to-education-in-the-luang-prabang-region-of-laos By Jennifer C. Langill - Laos ranks quite poorly by most development indicators. Laos is one of 48 countries on the United Nations’ list of Least Developed Countries and ranked 141st out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index (United Nations 2016; United Nations Development Programme 2015). Economic growth has been unevenly distributed, leaving over 20 percent of the country below the international poverty line (CIA World Factbook 2014; Estudillo et al. 2013; Howe and Sims 2011; The World Bank 2016). This percentage has been declining, however improvements have been quite slow. While there are over 100... Thu, 23 Jun 2016 07:10 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1425/a-community-approach-to-education-in-the-luang-prabang-region-of-laos http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1571/revitalizing-young-adult-citizenship-an-analysis-of-high-school-predictors-on-civic-engagement By Kari Lorentson - Civic engagement and political participation among the US population are waning, and this is particularly apparent in the young adult citizenry. This research paper seeks to assess which variables in civic education and the high school experience have the strongest impact on young adults' levels of civic engagement. By using a nationally representative sample of 4,483 young adults aged 18-24, this study employs multiple regression analyses to investigate the influence on civic education, classroom climate, extracurricular activities, and community service on respondents' civic engagement levels... Tue, 31 May 2016 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1571/revitalizing-young-adult-citizenship-an-analysis-of-high-school-predictors-on-civic-engagement http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1312/what-was-the-influence-of-cosmopolitan-law-on-the-permanent-court-of-international-justice By Melissa S. McHugh - At the heart of many contemporary international organizations, such as the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), the theory underpinning cosmopolitan law represents the ideal they strive to achieve in a world plagued with war, conflict, and genocide. Before the UN, the ICJ and the ICC, the League of Nations established the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ)—not as a utopian realization of Immanuel Kant’s perpetual peace, but as a tool for European nations to seek rational resolutions to disputes arising from... Fri, 20 Nov 2015 10:43 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1312/what-was-the-influence-of-cosmopolitan-law-on-the-permanent-court-of-international-justice http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/952/edmonton-hiphop-kulture-techniques-of-self-and-cultural-sustainability By Diana Pearson - The word culture is rich with complex meanings and despite its use in common speech little is known about it and even less about the practices that contribute to ‘its’ continued existence, what might be called cultural sustainability. Edmonton Hiphop Kulture:Techniques of Self and Cultural Sustainability1 documents the role of techniques of self, defined as the daily practices an individual uses to transform his or her body, soul, thought and conduct of being (Foucault, 1988, p. 18), in the development and maintenance of Hiphop Kulture in Edmonton, Alberta. Using a Critical Constructivist... Tue, 30 Sep 2014 04:37 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/952/edmonton-hiphop-kulture-techniques-of-self-and-cultural-sustainability http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/888/ethnic-diversity-and-social-capital-at-the-community-level-effects-and-implications-for-policymakers By Vilius Semenas - Research on the impact of ethnic diversity on ‘social capital’ is relatively new in the field of political science (Stolle et al., 2008: 57). Reinvigorating a prominent and interesting debate among scholars, Robert Putnam awakened the subject in a 2007 paper entitled “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century.” His main hypothesis was that ethnic diversity at the neighbourhood level, in the short term, leads to people ‘hunkering down,’ or being less social, trusting, and altruistic. This paper, however, challenges Putnam’s &lsquo... Mon, 14 Apr 2014 10:31 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/888/ethnic-diversity-and-social-capital-at-the-community-level-effects-and-implications-for-policymakers http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/856/roots-tendrils-sprouts-and-shoots-a-case-study-of-parkallens-community-garden-a-permaculture-project By Marlene Wurfel - The first growing season of Edmonton’s Parkallen Community Garden began in Spring 2012. We transformed an unused strip of lawn bordering our hockey rink into a loamy, thriving “edible food forest” of corn, beans, squash, kale, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, apple trees, and mammoth sunflowers. It is unlike most community gardens in that individual plots are not tended by individual gardeners; rather, the PCG is tended communally, by the community. The garden is open and accessible to the community, always, and all are welcome there, from the toddler whose only contribution is to... Mon, 13 Jan 2014 11:04 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/856/roots-tendrils-sprouts-and-shoots-a-case-study-of-parkallens-community-garden-a-permaculture-project http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/662/finitude-existence-and-community-letting-the-individual-die By Nicole Billitz - Addressing finitude as it relates to existence and community, Jean Luc Nancy and Martin Heidegger recognize finitude to be both the impossibility of being at one with oneself and the radical fragmentation of Being, in terms of mortality. Nancy contends that there is a fundamental relationship between the community and death, which necessitates an ethical imperative to the other, and by association negates violence to the other. For Nancy, existence or “being-with” is necessarily ethical because we are constituted by other beings. For Heidegger, ethics is dwelling in closeness to Being... Mon, 16 Jul 2012 04:58 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/662/finitude-existence-and-community-letting-the-individual-die http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1620/a-new-missionary-method-latin-america-as-a-mission-field By Angela Budzinski - Missionary work has been an integral part of community development in Latin America. However, does missionary work actually impact community development in Latin America today? While missionary methods, particularly holistic missiology, were significant to community development in the past, new, modern methods of development have evolved that do not include religion; consequently, this has largely discontinued the use of missionary work in development. This research is important because it examines whether holistic missiology is still relevant as a method of community development and whether it... Thu, 31 May 2012 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1620/a-new-missionary-method-latin-america-as-a-mission-field http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1623/worlds-of-potential-funding-for-community-based-organizations-in-nairobi-kenya By Emily Hoerner - Despite a proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) in Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Kenya, conditions for residents remain bleak. CBOs are uniquely positioned to catalyze change by creating local initiatives for common problems. However, most Kibera CBOs routinely lack access to the kind of funding that could make their programs successful on a larger scale (i.e., in more than just one localized neighborhood of Kibera). This study examines how CBOs in Kibera gain access to funding, either through grants or individual donations... Thu, 31 May 2012 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1623/worlds-of-potential-funding-for-community-based-organizations-in-nairobi-kenya http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1078/on-why-the-eu-should-die-and-be-resurrected By Petr Manousek - To explain this rather harsh statement, one must first look at the current state of EU integration studies. Scholars have become too interested in every little “mystery” surrounding the organisation and then have entrenched themselves in their rigid explanations. What they have failed to acknowledge in the meantime is the overarching principle of the “return of the state” and the resulting simple yet tremendously important realisation: EU business is still done when there are 27 (ideally, but often much fewer) people sitting around a table, discussing the issue at hand.... Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1078/on-why-the-eu-should-die-and-be-resurrected http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/323/online-dating-study-user-experiences-of-an-online-dating-community By Andrea Quesnel - Having heard about this particular site, POF, from various friends and coworkers, I considered it to be a good community to select as a context for user’s experiences. Although it is an international website, users are grouped according to their local area, unless they wish to search users in a different, specific area. Membership in this community is free, which differentiates it form other major dating communities like eHarmony, LavaLife or Match.com. The users of a free community may be less serious, or less involved with utilizing the service compared to users who pay to be members of... Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:32 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/323/online-dating-study-user-experiences-of-an-online-dating-community http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/261/japans-multilateral-gambit-leading-the-charge-toward-an-east-asian-community By Michael J. Norris - If Japan was a person, it would be an exceptionally wealthy yet rapidly aging individual, who, for two decades, had been struck by illness. One might therefore find it unexpected for this person to be busily working on constructing the new face of Asian regional economic cooperation. This, nevertheless, is exactly what Japan is doing. Since the Democratic Party of Japan crushed the dominant Liberal Democratic Party in the August 2009 elections, the new Japanese administration, led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, has been articulating its vision for a new, integrative regional economic body in... Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/261/japans-multilateral-gambit-leading-the-charge-toward-an-east-asian-community http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/173/online-social-support-an-effective-means-of-mediating-stress By Cindy Dietrich - It is estimated that in North America, alone, there are currently 251 million people who use the internet (Miniwats Marketing Group, 2009).  Individuals utilize the internet for many reasons, including information, social connections, and entertainment (Shaw & Gant, 2002).  Although presently, there is a host of research on social support and the internet, the theme of online support groups as a method to social support and positive health outcomes is fairly innovative.  Kraut et al. (1998) published seminal research on the impact of the internet on social involvement and psychological... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:16 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/173/online-social-support-an-effective-means-of-mediating-stress http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/149/with-real-id-privacy-concerns-for-the-transgender-community By Tonei Glavinic - The level of data collection mandated by the REAL ID Act of 2007 should raise concern for all American citizens who enjoy their privacy, because it mandates unprecedented levels of data collection and an equally unprecedented level of nationwide access to that data (EPIC, 2007, 14). There are a some sectors of the population, however, that are particularly at risk from the expanded collection and accessibility of personal information. EPIC provides one example: survivors of family violence, who could be easily tracked if an abuser gained access to any DMV or law enforcement database (2007, 15... Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:06 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/149/with-real-id-privacy-concerns-for-the-transgender-community http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1148/britain-and-the-european-union By - As of the moment Great Britain joined the European Union, the two main European Law systems combined (common and continental Law), which could have lead to new problems on harmonising Private Law, because both systems are substantially different on that part.  Although many of the problems were removed by the ruling that Member States accept European Laws and Regulations, they still could have brought along new perspectives.  However, Great Britain Joining the Union couldn’t change the nature and the main characteristics of European Law.  Of course, European Law has... Fri, 01 Jan 1999 12:00 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1148/britain-and-the-european-union