Eric O Silva
Biographic Data
| ID | 246400 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eric O Silva |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eric |
| FAMILY NAME | O Silva |
| SIGNATURE | SILVA E O |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgia Southern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7308-1073 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Covid-19 Vaccine Boundary Work: The Case of Facebook Comments in Southeast Georgia
Although much research has considered the worldview of the vaccine hesitant, little attention has been given to the cultural conflict over what it means to be a person who takes vaccines. Through a qualitative content analysis of comments made on the Facebook pages of media outlets serving southeast Georgia, this analysis identifies both motives for rejecting the vaccine and outlines the symbolic boundaries that the vaccine hesitant have erected …
Lyn H. Lofland: Exemplary Symbolic Interactionist
Lyn H. Lofland is an exemplary symbolic interactionist. I support this claim by considering her research contributions and their continuing significance for interactionists. This discussion is organized around a comparison of Lofland's scholarship in her many articles and books ( A World of Strangers , The Craft of Dying , and The Public Realm ) against the ideals presented in her own evaluation of the work of Spencer E. Cahill. I further contend…
Editors' Introduction to Lyn Lofland's Intellectual Legacy
In this editors' introduction to the special issue honoring the work of Lyn Lofland, we familiarize the reader with Lofland's scholarship and outline the themes taken up by this project. We argue that because Lofland's scholarship exemplifies a particular tradition within late 20th-century American symbolic interaction, it serves as a model for those of us working in the same vein, while also offering a steelman case against which we can consider…
Liminal Stigma and the Interference With the Positive Construction of Face Masks: The Case of Online Reactions to an Anti-Mask Rally
Masks emerged as one of the few means of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant minority of Americans, however, resisted the emergent mask wearing norm. This study seeks to examine the ways that constructions of mask use as an appropriate alleviation of the threat posed by COVID-19 was disrupted in public discourse. It does so by employing a qualitative content analysis of comments made on Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube in response to a…
The evil corporation master frame: The cases of vaccines and genetic modification
Employing a qualitative content analysis of online comments made on YouTube and letters to the editor published in US newspapers, we examine the deployment and neutralization of the evil corporation master frame in debates on two distinct biotechnologies, vaccines and genetically modified organisms. This study builds on previous research by outlining three diagnostic components of the evil corporation master frame: dishonesty, greed, and the cont…
Framing access to medicines during Covid-19: A qualitative content analysis of Gilead’s Remdesivir
The COVID-19 pandemic calls into question the institutional structure underlying the pharmaceutical industry. While some have called for medical technologies to be global public goods and patent waivers on pharmaceuticals, much of the industry has pushed back against any attempts that might threaten their monopoly power to set prices. Public acceptance of the role of private companies to control life-saving drugs, as well as of the intellectual p…
The Ideational Stigmatization of Immigration Detainees, Their Advocates, Captors, and Their Apologists in the Commentary Section of U.S. Newspapers
Although the United States has long been criticized for its treatment of migrants, the family separations that resulted from the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy drew particularly intense approbation and much media coverage in June 2018. One way to understand the conflict over this policy is to view it as a stigma contest where the status of a number of identities (migrant, immigration advocate, captor, policy apologist) are subject…
Liminal Stigma and Disaligning Activity: Online Comments about Trump's Family Separation Policy
In 2018, the Trump administration initiated a “zero‐tolerance” border policy wherein they criminally prosecuted all individuals who were apprehended crossing the border without proper authorization. The policy change resulted in numerous migrant children being separated from their parents. Through a qualitative content analysis of 1500 YouTube comments made in response to CNN and ProPublica news coverage, we examine each side's aligning activity.…
Beyond the Struggle for Lesbian and Gay Acceptance: Religion and the Construction of Cisgender, Monosexual, and Religious Normativities
Donald Trump's discursive field: A juncture of stigma contests over race, gender, religion, and democracy
Donald Trump's election to the U.S. Presidency in 2016 qualifies as one of the more shocking events in American political history. This article reviews the literature on the social construction of Donald Trump's political career. It finds prominent ideological laminations over racism, Islamophobia, nativism, sexism, Christianity, and right‐wing populism in Trump's discursive field. This article argues that Trump's discursive field comprises a jun…
Confronting Institutional Discrimination in a Color-Blind World
This article builds on the scholarship on color-blind ideology by examining discourse challenging two cases of institutional discrimination (the criminalization of unauthorized immigrants and sports teams’ use of Native American symbolism). Our research questions are first, what general options do anti-racists have for navigating norms of color-blindness in the public sphere? Second, how does context influence how people confront institutional di…
Stigmatization and Validation of Atheism, Literalism, and Non-Literalism in the Discourse over Evolutionary Theory
This article explores how atheism, literalism, and non-literalism are validated and stigmatized in public discourse over evolutionary theory. Through an ethnographic content analysis of 1,028 letters to the editor, I examine how authors frame the relationship between acceptance of evolutionary theory and religious faith. I find there are four ways of doing so: 1) implicit polarization, obliquely denies any compatibility between religion and evolu…
Evolutionary theory in letters to the editor
This research note presents the results of a content analysis of 234 letters to the editors that discuss evolutionary theory and were published in American newspapers. We find that letters to the editor both support and hinder the cause of teaching evolutionary theory in American secondary schools. On the one hand, anti-evolutionary theory messages are marginalized in the letters section. This marginalization signals a low level of legitimacy for…
Neutralizing Problematic Frames in the Culture Wars: Anti-Evolutionists Grapple with Religion
This article contributes to the literature on culture wars work by examining how anti-evolutionists neutralize the framing of their position as religious. Their efforts are uncovered by analyzing 570 letters to the editor published in American newspapers in the months surrounding a nationally covered 2005 federal judicial decision on the legality of the Dover PA, school board's decision to undermine evolutionary theory in the classroom. These fin…
Levels of Disagreement Over Contested Practices
This article unravels the tangled threads of argumentation that can be found in public debate over institutional practices. An analysis of letters to the editor (n=1551) written about two contested practices (American Indian mascots and the exclusive teaching of evolutionary theory) uncovers three analytically distinct levels of disagreement in the discourse. In the first level, partisans debate the effects of keeping or eliminating the contested…
Public Accounts: Defending Contested Practices
Little attention has been paid to how actors account for controversial institutional conduct or contested practices. Relying on a content analysis of letters to the editor, I explore how actors operating in the Habermasian 'public sphere' justify the contested practice of linking Native American symbols with sports teams, and suggest that in their rejection of challengers to their definitions of the situation, authors create public accounts. Cons…
Public Accounts: Defending Contested Practices
Little attention has been paid to how actors account for controversial institutional conduct or contested practices. Relying on a content analysis of letters to the editor, I explore how actors operating in the Habermasian 'public sphere' justify the contested practice of linking Native American symbols with sports teams, and suggest that in their rejection of challengers to their definitions of the situation, authors create public accounts. Cons…
Donald Trump's discursive field: A juncture of stigma contests over race, gender, religion, and democracy
Donald Trump's election to the U.S. Presidency in 2016 qualifies as one of the more shocking events in American political history. This article reviews the literature on the social construction of Donald Trump's political career. It finds prominent ideological laminations over racism, Islamophobia, nativism, sexism, Christianity, and right‐wing populism in Trump's discursive field. This article argues that Trump's discursive field comprises a jun…
Stigmatization and Validation of Atheism, Literalism, and Non-Literalism in the Discourse over Evolutionary Theory
This article explores how atheism, literalism, and non-literalism are validated and stigmatized in public discourse over evolutionary theory. Through an ethnographic content analysis of 1,028 letters to the editor, I examine how authors frame the relationship between acceptance of evolutionary theory and religious faith. I find there are four ways of doing so: 1) implicit polarization, obliquely denies any compatibility between religion and evolu…
Levels of Disagreement Over Contested Practices
This article unravels the tangled threads of argumentation that can be found in public debate over institutional practices. An analysis of letters to the editor (n=1551) written about two contested practices (American Indian mascots and the exclusive teaching of evolutionary theory) uncovers three analytically distinct levels of disagreement in the discourse. In the first level, partisans debate the effects of keeping or eliminating the contested…
Liminal Stigma and Disaligning Activity: Online Comments about Trump's Family Separation Policy
In 2018, the Trump administration initiated a “zero‐tolerance” border policy wherein they criminally prosecuted all individuals who were apprehended crossing the border without proper authorization. The policy change resulted in numerous migrant children being separated from their parents. Through a qualitative content analysis of 1500 YouTube comments made in response to CNN and ProPublica news coverage, we examine each side's aligning activity.…
Neutralizing Problematic Frames in the Culture Wars: Anti-Evolutionists Grapple with Religion
This article contributes to the literature on culture wars work by examining how anti-evolutionists neutralize the framing of their position as religious. Their efforts are uncovered by analyzing 570 letters to the editor published in American newspapers in the months surrounding a nationally covered 2005 federal judicial decision on the legality of the Dover PA, school board's decision to undermine evolutionary theory in the classroom. These fin…
Confronting Institutional Discrimination in a Color-Blind World
This article builds on the scholarship on color-blind ideology by examining discourse challenging two cases of institutional discrimination (the criminalization of unauthorized immigrants and sports teams’ use of Native American symbolism). Our research questions are first, what general options do anti-racists have for navigating norms of color-blindness in the public sphere? Second, how does context influence how people confront institutional di…
Public Accounts: Defending Contested Practices
Little attention has been paid to how actors account for controversial institutional conduct or contested practices. Relying on a content analysis of letters to the editor, I explore how actors operating in the Habermasian 'public sphere' justify the contested practice of linking Native American symbols with sports teams, and suggest that in their rejection of challengers to their definitions of the situation, authors create public accounts. Cons…
Levels of Disagreement Over Contested Practices
This article unravels the tangled threads of argumentation that can be found in public debate over institutional practices. An analysis of letters to the editor (n=1551) written about two contested practices (American Indian mascots and the exclusive teaching of evolutionary theory) uncovers three analytically distinct levels of disagreement in the discourse. In the first level, partisans debate the effects of keeping or eliminating the contested…
Neutralizing Problematic Frames in the Culture Wars: Anti-Evolutionists Grapple with Religion
This article contributes to the literature on culture wars work by examining how anti-evolutionists neutralize the framing of their position as religious. Their efforts are uncovered by analyzing 570 letters to the editor published in American newspapers in the months surrounding a nationally covered 2005 federal judicial decision on the legality of the Dover PA, school board's decision to undermine evolutionary theory in the classroom. These fin…
Evolutionary theory in letters to the editor
This research note presents the results of a content analysis of 234 letters to the editors that discuss evolutionary theory and were published in American newspapers. We find that letters to the editor both support and hinder the cause of teaching evolutionary theory in American secondary schools. On the one hand, anti-evolutionary theory messages are marginalized in the letters section. This marginalization signals a low level of legitimacy for…
Confronting Institutional Discrimination in a Color-Blind World
This article builds on the scholarship on color-blind ideology by examining discourse challenging two cases of institutional discrimination (the criminalization of unauthorized immigrants and sports teams’ use of Native American symbolism). Our research questions are first, what general options do anti-racists have for navigating norms of color-blindness in the public sphere? Second, how does context influence how people confront institutional di…
Stigmatization and Validation of Atheism, Literalism, and Non-Literalism in the Discourse over Evolutionary Theory
This article explores how atheism, literalism, and non-literalism are validated and stigmatized in public discourse over evolutionary theory. Through an ethnographic content analysis of 1,028 letters to the editor, I examine how authors frame the relationship between acceptance of evolutionary theory and religious faith. I find there are four ways of doing so: 1) implicit polarization, obliquely denies any compatibility between religion and evolu…
Donald Trump's discursive field: A juncture of stigma contests over race, gender, religion, and democracy
Donald Trump's election to the U.S. Presidency in 2016 qualifies as one of the more shocking events in American political history. This article reviews the literature on the social construction of Donald Trump's political career. It finds prominent ideological laminations over racism, Islamophobia, nativism, sexism, Christianity, and right‐wing populism in Trump's discursive field. This article argues that Trump's discursive field comprises a jun…
The Ideational Stigmatization of Immigration Detainees, Their Advocates, Captors, and Their Apologists in the Commentary Section of U.S. Newspapers
Although the United States has long been criticized for its treatment of migrants, the family separations that resulted from the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy drew particularly intense approbation and much media coverage in June 2018. One way to understand the conflict over this policy is to view it as a stigma contest where the status of a number of identities (migrant, immigration advocate, captor, policy apologist) are subject…
Liminal Stigma and Disaligning Activity: Online Comments about Trump's Family Separation Policy
In 2018, the Trump administration initiated a “zero‐tolerance” border policy wherein they criminally prosecuted all individuals who were apprehended crossing the border without proper authorization. The policy change resulted in numerous migrant children being separated from their parents. Through a qualitative content analysis of 1500 YouTube comments made in response to CNN and ProPublica news coverage, we examine each side's aligning activity.…
Beyond the Struggle for Lesbian and Gay Acceptance: Religion and the Construction of Cisgender, Monosexual, and Religious Normativities
Framing access to medicines during Covid-19: A qualitative content analysis of Gilead’s Remdesivir
The COVID-19 pandemic calls into question the institutional structure underlying the pharmaceutical industry. While some have called for medical technologies to be global public goods and patent waivers on pharmaceuticals, much of the industry has pushed back against any attempts that might threaten their monopoly power to set prices. Public acceptance of the role of private companies to control life-saving drugs, as well as of the intellectual p…
The evil corporation master frame: The cases of vaccines and genetic modification
Employing a qualitative content analysis of online comments made on YouTube and letters to the editor published in US newspapers, we examine the deployment and neutralization of the evil corporation master frame in debates on two distinct biotechnologies, vaccines and genetically modified organisms. This study builds on previous research by outlining three diagnostic components of the evil corporation master frame: dishonesty, greed, and the cont…
Liminal Stigma and the Interference With the Positive Construction of Face Masks: The Case of Online Reactions to an Anti-Mask Rally
Masks emerged as one of the few means of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant minority of Americans, however, resisted the emergent mask wearing norm. This study seeks to examine the ways that constructions of mask use as an appropriate alleviation of the threat posed by COVID-19 was disrupted in public discourse. It does so by employing a qualitative content analysis of comments made on Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube in response to a…
Covid-19 Vaccine Boundary Work: The Case of Facebook Comments in Southeast Georgia
Although much research has considered the worldview of the vaccine hesitant, little attention has been given to the cultural conflict over what it means to be a person who takes vaccines. Through a qualitative content analysis of comments made on the Facebook pages of media outlets serving southeast Georgia, this analysis identifies both motives for rejecting the vaccine and outlines the symbolic boundaries that the vaccine hesitant have erected …
Lyn H. Lofland: Exemplary Symbolic Interactionist
Lyn H. Lofland is an exemplary symbolic interactionist. I support this claim by considering her research contributions and their continuing significance for interactionists. This discussion is organized around a comparison of Lofland's scholarship in her many articles and books ( A World of Strangers , The Craft of Dying , and The Public Realm ) against the ideals presented in her own evaluation of the work of Spencer E. Cahill. I further contend…
Editors' Introduction to Lyn Lofland's Intellectual Legacy
In this editors' introduction to the special issue honoring the work of Lyn Lofland, we familiarize the reader with Lofland's scholarship and outline the themes taken up by this project. We argue that because Lofland's scholarship exemplifies a particular tradition within late 20th-century American symbolic interaction, it serves as a model for those of us working in the same vein, while also offering a steelman case against which we can consider…
Sociology (13 works) · Law (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Social and Cultural Dynamics (5 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (5 works) · Gender Studies (4 works)