Danielle Taana Smith

The we and the us Mentoring African American Women

This study investigates the importance of mentoring in African American women’s selection of higher education as a career choice and in their development as professionals in that career. The research provides recommendations on how African American female administrators in higher education can further advance their career choices and career development. Mentoring has been identified as a factor leading to upward mobility in employment, success in education, and personal development. However, research to date has not addressed the following questions: • How are mentors relevant to the career choices and development of African American women administrators in higher education? • How do race and gender affect the career decision-making process of African American women in higher education? This research clarifies how mentoring affects the career choices of African American women who become administrators in higher education and how their sociocultural and gender experiences define their career choices and development.

Developing Self-Employment Among African Americans: The Impact of Household Social Resources on African American Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship has historically been a vital contributor to the dynamism of American economic activity and has functioned as an important institution for marginalized races and communities. Logistic regression models based on data from the 1993 through 2000 Current Population Surveys from the U.S. Bureau of the Census are used to investigate differences in the probability of self-employment for African Americans and Whites. The investigation of racial differences in entrepreneurship offers both a fundamental view of economic development and of the salience of race in contemporary American economic activity. The results of this study show that household resources have both expected and unexpected effects on entrepreneurship. For example, as expected, being married and having other sources of household income positively affect the likelihood of entrepreneurship for both African Americans and Whites. Unexpectedly, having other working-age adults in the household reduces the likelihood of entrepreneurship for both groups.

African Americans and Network Disadvantage: Enhancing Social Capital through Participation on Social Networking Sites

This study examines the participation of African Americans on social networking sites (SNS), and evaluates the degree to which African Americans engage in activities in the online environment to mitigate social capital deficits. Prior literature suggests that compared with whites, African Americans have less social capital that can enhance their socio-economic mobility. As such, my research question is: do African Americans enhance their social capital through their participation on SNS? I use nationally representative data collected from the Pew Internet and American Life Project to explore the research question. The results suggest that the online environment is potentially a space in which African Americans can lessen social capital deficits.

DIVIDING LINES: An empirical examination of technology use and Internet activity among African-Americans

Using 2007 data from the Pew Research Centers Internet and American Life Project, this study poses the question: ‘What are distinct groups within the African-American population with respect to technology ownership and Internet activity?’ Several findings are reported. Factor analysis reveals a structure of technology preferences for African-Americans. For the consumption of technology, two broad preferences present themselves: mainly consuming portable, ‘mobile technologies’ or mainly consuming ‘home technologies’. For Internet activity, the authors identify three preferences: a preference for youth-oriented Internet activity, information-oriented activity, or a preference for adult-oriented activity. Using classification and regression tree analysis, six distinct groups within the population present themselves, with education being the most important variable in creating these groups. The six groups vary widely on their technology and Internet preferences, suggesting that future research focusing on differences within the African-American population is needed.

Living and Working in the City: The Effect of Central City Residence on African American Self-Employment

The economic and social decline of American central cities has been well documented, especially as these cities become increasingly socially and economically isolated entities. The flight of industrial jobs from inner cities to suburban areas resulted in increasing poverty and increasing unemployment for inner-city residents. This decline has profoundly affected African Americans who are disproportionately represented among the urban poor. While central cities have been declining, American entrepreneurship has generally been increasing, with a 20% increase between 1992 and 1997. This article examines whether central city residence contributes to or detracts from self-employment. The research question is: What is the effect of central city residence on the likelihood of self-employment for African Americans and Whites?

Global governmentality: Biosecurity in the era of infectious diseases

This paper uses Foucault’s concept of governmentality to examine relationships between globalisation, the threat of infectious diseases and biosecurity. It draws attention to forms of calculated practices which Foucault notes as technologies of power that aim to foster positive demographic and economic trends in societies through the apparatus of security. These practices are employed at the global level with similar ambitions; hence, we adopt the term global governmentality. We discuss the applications of global governmentality by actors in the global core through the apparatus of security and (neo)liberal economic practices. We then provide examples of resistance/contestation from actors mainly in the global periphery through discussions of viral sovereignty; access to essential medicines, including HIV drugs; and health for all as a human right. We conclude that despite the core-periphery power asymmetry and competing paradigms, these developments tend to complement and/or regulate the phenomenon termed global governmentality, which is made evident by the tremendous successes in global health.