bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Upward Mobility of Low-Paid Workers
Authors: Pomer Marshall I.
Published: September 2012

This study investigates the upward mobility of low-paid workers. It uses an approach that generates clear and simple statistics which help describe inequality by race and sex. Merging the three one-in-a-hundred samples from the 1970 Census, it first defines a “low-paid stratum” and a “mainstream” stratum. These categories are then used to determine rates of advancement for groups defined by sex, race, and industrial sector. A model of the probability of upward mobility is fitted to the data, and it is used to adjust the rates of advancement for differences in age, education, and particular low-paid occupations. Both the actual and the adjusted rates of advancement show that sex is highly consequential and that race is also important. In addition, a low-paid worker's likelihood of moving up is dependent on his or her specific occupation. The core/periphery industrial distinction is found to be an important determinant of the mobility chances of black men.
Religiosity, Social Class, and Alcohol Use: An Application of Reference Group Theory
Authors: Clarke Leslie , Beeghley Leonard , Cochran John K.
Published: September 2012

This paper illustrates how religiosity influences behavior in everyday life by investigating the linkages among religiosity, social class, and alcohol consumption. Reference group theory provides a theoretical basis for understanding these linkages.
A Specification Issue in Job Satisfaction Research
Authors: Caston Richard J. , Braito Rita
Published: September 2012

Prevailing theories of job satisfaction assume that the pursuit of job satisfaction is an important employment goal to workers. The central questions asked here are as follows: (1) Is this assumption tenable? (2) What effects do the violation of this assumption have on the testing of popular models in job satisfaction research? Using data representative of registered nurses in a large metropolitan area, it was found that only about half of the workers rank the pursuit of job satisfaction highly among the employment goals relevant to their work places. Furthermore, it was found that much more variance can be explained in job satisfaction among workers who value increased job satisfaction highly than can be explained among workers who do not value it as highly. When workers' value for increased job satisfaction is used as a moderator variable, it is found to have methodological and substantive significance for the sort of evidence that can be obtained using standard models of job satisfaction.
A Theory of Corporate Civic Giving
Authors: Kamens David H.
Published: September 2012

This article analyzes one corporate boundary at which legitimation problems may arise: The relation between the corporation and the local community. I indicate how ideology and a form of symbolic behavior, corporate giving, may work as a strategy of social control for corporations. This analysis leads to a theory of corporate giving as one form of corporate civic involvement. In the theory I specify the characteristics of firms and features of their environments that make corporate giving a rational strategy for increasing corporate legitimacy. The theory is presented in the form of 10 multivariate propositions. Where it exists, the research evidence on corporate giving is used to indicate the empirical plausibility of the hypotheses.
Overeducation and the Earnings of Black, Hispanic, and White Male Workers
Authors: Verdugo Richard R. , Verdugo Naomi Turner
Published: September 2012

This study addresses two issues: (1) the impact of overeducation on the earnings of male workers in the United States, and (2) white-minority earnings differences among males. Given that educational attainment levels are increasing among workers, there is some suspicion that earnings returns to education are not as great as might be expected. This topic is examined by including an overeducation variable in an earnings function. Regarding the second issue addressed in this article, little is actually known about white-minority differences because the bulk of such research compares whites and blacks. By including selected Hispanic groups in this analysis (Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Other Hispanics) we are able to assess white-minority earnings differences to a greater degree. Using data from a 5% sample of the 1980 census to estimate an earnings function, we find that overeducated workers earn less than either undereducated or adequately educated workers. Second, we find that there are substantial earnings differences between whites and minorities, and, also, between the five minority groups examined.
Sentiment and Evaluation as Ecological Variables
Authors: Guest Avery M. , Lee Barrett A.
Published: September 2012

This article focuses on the different correlates of residents' evaluative and sentimental feelings toward local areas in the Seattle, Washington metropolitan area. Evaluation is measured by satisfaction with the residential environment, while sentiment is indicated by the degree to which respondents would miss an area after moving away from it. The two types of feelings about the local community are correlated positively, partly because they have similar major predictors. However, certain aspects of neighborhood life and certain individual characteristics relate' differently to the two variables, and it appears that the types of feelings have different conceptual bases. Both evaluation and sentiment are found to affect, although sometimes in dissimilar ways, the probability of individuals' moving and taking political action to defend their community.
Application of Dual Brain Theory to Cross-Cultural Studies of Cognitive Development and Education
Authors: TenHouten Warren D.
Published: September 2012

The cognitive structures of children from minority group, poor, rural, aboriginal, or otherwise socially disadvantaged backgrounds are hypothesized to be gestalt-synthetic in mode of thought and field-dependent in cognitive style; cognitive structures of children from dominant, majority, urban, nonaboriginal, or otherwise advantaged backgrounds, to be relatively logical-analytic and field-independent. These cognitive structures are shown by cerebral lateralization theory to have neurophysiological substrates. Individual hemisphericity, the tendency to rely on the resources of the right or left cerebral hemisphere, is interpreted on four distinct levels: performance hemisphericity, hemispheric activation, hemispheric preference (as personality structure), and cognitive style (lateral flexibility). An illustrative comparison of thinking processes of Australian Aborigines and Australian-born whites is developed using primary and secondary data.
Racial Differences in Childlessness: A Centennial Review
Authors: Boyd Robert L.
Published: September 2012

This article reviews black-white childlessness differences over the past century. These differences have been attributed to inequalities in social and health conditions. The historically greater rate of black childlessness has been treated as the result of pathological sterility or pregnancy loss due to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), malnutrition, and inadequate medical care. Conversely, white childlessness has been viewed as the product of decisions to be child-free, facilitated or encouraged by such things as prolonged schooling, the sex-role revolution, and effective contraception. Yet it is suggested that childlessness in both races has been shaped by the same basic factors, including social mobility, birth control, and changing family norms. Moreover, as a result of socioeconomic gains by blacks, patterns of marital childlessness by race are becoming alike, and voluntary childlessness may be growing among blacks as well as whites.
Six Problems in the Sociology of the Ethnic Economy
Authors: Cobas José A.
Published: September 2012

This article discusses six problems in the area of the sociology of the ethnic economy. The problems are: (1) a skewed view of the import and robustness of ethnic businesses, (2) an inaccurate view of harmony and exclusive dependence on co-ethnics among ethnic business owners, (3) a contradiction between the stranger hypothesis and the protected market hypothesis, (4) difficulties with the special endowments hypothesis, (5) uncertainties in propositions that attempt to explain business concentration among ethnics, and (6) use of the term middleman minority in a generic sense. The works of five leading U.S. scholars are examined in terms of what they contribute to the solution of these problems.
How is Social Order Possible?
Authors: Empey Lamar T.
Published: September 2012

The escalating crime rates of the 1960s and 1970s have led despairing neoclassical philosophers to argue that sociological theories of crime are irrelevant for the conduct of social policy. A review of those theories lends some support to that argument. Failing to develop an adequately complex dialectical conception either of human nature or of social order, sociologists have come perilously close to arguing that young street criminals are oversocialized individuals who would not commit crimes were it not for blocked opportunities and oppressive rules. Research evidence, by contrast, not only questions this point of view but argues strongly for a reconsideration of the two basic questions first raised by Hobbes: “What is it that makes people tractable to social discipline?” and “How is social order possible?” Efforts to answer these questions are complicated not merely by age-old forms of discrimination but by social movements designed to further extend the individual freedoms encouraged by Enlightenment Philosophy.
Black Control of Adolescent Dating
Authors: Dornbusch Sanford M. , Carlsmith J. Merrill , Leiderman Herbert , Hastorf Albert H. , Gross Ruth T. , Ritter Philip L.
Published: September 2012

This study uses data from a representative national sample to examine racial differences in the control of dating behavior. Controlling for social class and area of residence, the impact of age norms on dating is found to be stronger for Black adolescents, especially Black female adolescents. Strong parental control over adolescent decisions is related to later entry into the dating pattern. For our total sample, and within both Black and White subgroups, the control of dating is shown to be related to the control of various forms of deviance. This finding of greater Black control of adolescent dating, particularly among females, suggests the importance of looking at subcultural differences in the emphasis placed upon various aspects of socialization and social control. A possible interpretation is that Black parents are using the control of dating as one device for dealing with an environment that is perceived as threatening to their adolescent children.
Toward a Structural Perspective on Gender Bias in the Juvenile Court
Authors: Staples William G.
Published: September 2012

A number of hypotheses about the effect of gender on the likelihood of incarceration in the juvenile court are tested. A purposive sample of 3911 delinquent (nonstatus) offending youths from 19 juristictions throughout the United States is analyzed employing the log-linear technique to control for the legal variables of severity of offense and prior record. The results indicate that females were less likely to be incarcerated than were males throughout the jurisdictions sampled. These and other findings lend support for a structural theory of gender bias in the juvenile court.
Korean Businesses in Black and Hispanic Neighborhoods: A Study of Intergroup Relations
Authors: Cheng Lucie , Espiritu Yen
Published: September 2012

This article explores why Korean merchants in Los Angeles County have not encountered the same hostility from Hispanic communities as they have from black neighborhoods. We reviewed the racial, social-psychological, and materialist explanations for intergroup antagonism. While these theories do help to predict Korean-black tension, they do not explain why such hostility has not occurred in similarly deprived but Hispanic-dominated communities. To explain this anomaly, we propose the “immigrant hypothesis” which calls attention to the high percentage of foreign-born among Korean and Hispanic populations. We argue that racial antagonism is strongest between Korean merchants and black merchants and customers, and mildest between Korean merchants and Hispanic groups.
An Abused Spouse's Self-Saving Process: A Theory of Identity Transformation
Authors: Chang Deanna B. K.
Published: September 2012

Lofland and Stark (1965) put forward an empirically grounded theory of identity conversion to a millennium cult that has primarily been applied to religious contexts. Using largely retrospective observational data, this article examines the applicability of their model to account for the decision of some spouse abuse victims to leave or to return to their violent mates after a shelter stay. Tentative analysis suggests certain weaknesses in their seven stage, value-added process model of conversion. More rigorous empirical and theoretical reformulation and testing of their model appear warranted.
Do “New Immigrants” Become “New Minorities”?: The Meaning of Ethnic Minority for Indochinese Refugees in the United States
Authors: Hein Jeremy
Published: September 2012

The term “new immigrants” describes the Asians, Latin Americans, and Caribbeans who have arrived in the United States since the liberalization of immigration laws in 1965. Sociologists have begun using terms like “new foreign minority” in their research on these migrants' adaptation to American society. This article questions this extension of a difference in international migration to a difference in race and ethnic relations by analyzing the emergence of a large Indochinese American population in less than fifteen years. There are three perspectives on the validity of distinguishing “new” and “old” minorities and they emphasize economics, race relations, or politics. Each perspective is supported when Indochinese refugees' relations with other ethnic minorities, whites, and the state are analyzed separately. But the fragmentary meaning of “ethnic minority” that emerges from the Indochinese case suggests that contemporary race and ethnic relations take place in three distinct arenas.
Shays' Rebellion: An Episode in American State-Making
Authors: Parker Rachel R.
Published: September 2012

American state-making is considered anomalous compared with that of Western Europe. Scholarly work underscores the unique features of the American case, emphasizing the role of groups or classes in drafting the Constitution. In contrast, Tilly's (1975, 1990) analysis of the rise of Western-European states explores war, taxation, and popular resistance—and their relationship to a state's ability to construct a centralized apparatus that can deliver resources. This paper considers some connections between this theory of European state-making and the establishment of a central authority in the United States. It examines connections between the cause of Shays' Rebellion, newspaper statements about the revolt and potential solutions which became part of public discourse, and the collective action's effect on the debates at the Constitutional Convention and specific Articles of the Constitution. The analysis shows that American state-making displayed some of the same processes as European state-making.
Fertility Expectations and Ethnic Identity among Mexican-American Adolescents
Authors: Sorenson Ann Marie
Published: September 2012

Survey data from Arizona secondary schools were used to test the applicability of structural and minority status hypotheses to the differential fertility expectations of Mexican-American and Anglo adolescents. Analyses of the number of children expected by these respondents and their implied parity progression ratios indicate that indices of acculturation are more important in explaining expected fertility than are measures of parental socioeconomic status or respondent's expected status. Among Mexican-American respondents, language spoken at home, nativity of the respondent and his or her father, and residence are associated with expected fertility. These indices of acculturation retain their importance even when father's education, father's occupation, and number of siblings are introduced.
Mobility and Political Orientation
Authors: Blee Kathleen M.
Published: September 2012

Public attention recently has been drawn to the existence of a “gender gap” in public opinion and electoral politics in the United States. Yet the reasons for this sex difference in politics are unclear. Do men and women have differences of political orientation that are independent of social class differences or do sex differences in politics reflect different class experiences for men and women? This research uses national survey data to compare the political effects of social mobility for three groups of respondents: Males, women employed for wages outside the home, and housewives. I predict that women who are mobile by virtue of their own occupational status will have political orientations close to those of their class-of-destination, while women who are mobile by virtue of a spouse's occupation will retain political orientations similar to those of their class-of-origin. Further, I predict that the difference between the relationship of social mobility and political orientation for employed men and women will decline as women's overall labor force participation increases. In a log-linear analysis of presidential candidate selection from 1948 to 1980, I find that marital and occupational mobility do have different effects on women's political orientation, but the direction of political change across mobility statuses was not consistent. There is no convergence over time in the pattern whereby mobility status is related to political choice for men and women.
The Hawthorne Experiments
Authors: Bloombaum Milton
Published: September 2012

The Hawthorne experiments performed fifty years ago concluded that variations in factor workers' productivity were to be accounted for in terms of human factors. Franke and Kaul (1978) retrieved the original data of these remarkable experiments and showed through application of stepwise multiple regression analysis that over 90% of the observed variance in worker output could be accounted for in terms of the measured variables of the First Relay Experiment, rather than human factors. The present effort reinterprets several of the coefficients reported by Franke and Kaul and suggests that their conclusions rest on a strong algebraic component of the analysis as well as on violated assumptions, confounded variables, index correlations, the meaning of measurement, and so forth. Reanalysis is here performed with SSA-1, an ordinal technique, leading to conclusions in support of those of the original researchers.
Temporary Strangers
Authors: Greenblat Cathy Stein , Gagnon John H.
Published: September 2012

International travel and travelers have infrequently been topics of research by sociologists, perhaps because they have been viewed as nonserious and potentially corrupting. However, travel and travelers share many similarities with other forms of human movement, such as migration and social mobility, particularly those relating to identity management in unfamiliar environments. Travelers must deal with stressful complexities at the personal, social, and cultural levels, the solutions to which reflect on the travelers' sense of mastery and competence. The environments into which the traveler as a voluntary stranger ventures differ in their dimensions of unfamiliarity, providing occasions for both personal triumph and failure. Travelers with varying levels of travel experience and social background characteristics use different “environmental bubbles” in which to travel, bubbles that aid in managing unfamiliarity.
Gender Differentials in Poverty-Mortality Well-Being
Authors: Sakamoto Arthur
Published: September 2012

This paper explores the application of a life table approach to the analysis of poverty. After reviewing trends in gender differentials in poverty and mortality, we investigate an indicator of poverty-mortality well-being. The rationale for this approach is that to some extent poverty and mortality are causally interrelated phenomena which are both fundamental to well-being. The empirical results indicate that females are expected to live more years in poverty than are males, but females are expected to live more years in nonpoverty as well. Although the gender differential in poverty rates has increased to the disadvantage of females, and although most of the greater poverty of females cannot be attributed to their greater longevity, the gender differential in poverty-mortality well-being has nonetheless not deteriorated to the disadvantage of women in recent decades.
Temporal Dimensions of the Fertility Transition: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis of Frontier Fertility
Authors: Hsueh Yung-Chang , Anderton Douglas L.
Published: September 2012

This paper evaluates age, period, and cohort effects on marital fertility during onset of the Utah fertility transition (1880–1909). Computerized genealogies are used to derive age–period–cohort fertility rates for 49,842 once-married couples. Age, period and cohort effects on marital fertility are then estimated using Johnson's (1985) relational model.

Declining marital fertility in Utah is shown to be explained by both lower fertility levels across periods and increasing age-specific limitation across cohorts. Direct cohort effects on fertility are insignificant. These results are consistent with prior research, and the view that fertility levels were adaptive (in part through birth spacing across ages) to immediate contexts of childbearing while age-specific fertility truncation increased across cohorts (in part through the more general diffusion of contraceptive innovations).
Labeling, Mild Mental Retardation, and Long-Range Social Adjustment
Authors: Schuster Tonya L. , Butler Edgar W.
Published: September 2012

Previous studies of long-range detrimental labeling effects related to mild mental retardation have failed to control for conditions that impact both the labeling process and social adjustment. In contrast, this research explicity tests the labeling perspective by comparing labeled with not labeled former students “eligible” for the mentally retarded label. The not labeled were comparable to the labeled in terms of IQ scores, as well as gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other background characteristics. Results indicate that formal labeling—placement in special education—had no impact on any measure of long-range social adjustment, including self-concept, anxiety level, patterns of social interaction, and socioeconomic status. These findings are considered in terms of both the labeling perspective and special education.
Understanding Farm Structure and Demographic Change
Authors: Albrecht Don E. , Murdock Steve H.
Published: September 2012

During this century, rapid changes in the structure of agriculture have had a profound effect on agricultural production and rural areas dependent on agriculture. Unfortunately, however, holistic theoretical models to explain and understand the causes and consequences of these changes have yet to be adequately developed. In this article, a model derived from sociological human ecology is used to longitudinally examine the consequences of environmental and technological changes on farm structure and rural demographic trends in agriculturally dependent areas. This is done by exploring the consequences of irrigation development in the Great Plains. Human ecology theory maintains that environmental and/or technological change will result in changes in the organizational structure of agriculture and subsequently in population trends in affected areas. An analysis of data for a 40-year period (1940–1980) found support for these contentions.
The Ties That Bind?
Authors: Glasberg Davita Silfen
Published: September 2012

A great deal of rich statistical evidence attests to the strong and central presence of financial institutions in corporate board interlocks. There is no consensus, however, concerning the interpretation of the significance of those statistics. Here, case studies of corporations in crisis trace those financial interlocks prior to, during, and after the firms' crises. The evidence suggests that nonfinancial firms do not consistently exhibit the predicted pattern of centrality as it relates to corporate crisis. Furthermore, those interlocks do not appear to reflect dyadic functional relationships between firms; nor do they in and of themselves indicate power relationships between banks and nonfinancials. Here, the source of financial institutions' power was structurally unified control of capital flows. Corporate interlocks appear to be “traces of power,” reflective of bank-nonbank relationships forged in capital flow arrangements and functioning as informational “business scan” mechanisms that inform capital flow strategies.
Game Theory and Labor Conflict
Authors: Friedman Samuel R.
Published: September 2012

Game theory is a type of rational decisionmaking model. As such, it assumes well-defined actors who know they are in conflict, know their strategic options, and have stable evaluations of possible outcomes. Furthermore, it is ahistorical. These assumptions severely limit the theory, particularly in its application to labor conflict. Evidence is presented that labor conflict is an historically-shaped process in which sides are not always clearly defined, actors are often unaware that they are in a conflict, and in which many strategic options emerge and evaluations change in the course of struggle. Game theory assumptions are more likely to be met during periods of stable prosperity in which neither rank and file workers nor “outside” employers intervene in negotiations. When the assumptions are not met, resulting conflict types can be categorized by whether strategies and payoffs are known or emergent, and by the number of sides that are organized.
Collective Behavior without Guile
Authors: Turner Ralph H.
Published: September 2012

The formal program in collective behavior at the University of Chicago was at a low point in the late 1940s, but interest in collective behavior remained prominent in race relations and several other vital programs. The early Chicago writings on collective behavior are often misinterpreted as expressions of the more recent clinical perspective and rationality debates. Robert Park viewed social unrest as a healthy rather than pathological manifestation, saw crowds as purposeful, and held that our hopes and dreams, rather than hardship and distress, are the inspiration for revolutionary activity.
The Human Element
Authors: Farber Bernard
Published: September 2012

A distinction is made between the core faculty and the peripheral faculty in the Chicago School. The School's uniqueness lay in the adherence of its core faculty to an approach to sociology rooted in pragmatism, particularly in the writings of Dewey, James, and Mead. In contrast to the diversity of intellectual commitments in other major departments, the Chicago core was unified in its utilization of concepts pertaining to experience as a guide to developing theory and research methodology. A tension existed between the core and the peripheral faculty, whose theoretical commitments lay outside pragmatism. Throughout the half-century of its existence, the department maintained the core by hiring its own graduates. However, changes in the discipline that occurred in the 1930s and 1940s seem to have made that strategy ineffective. Despite the fact that the department continued to recruit its own Ph.D.s after World War II, the boundary between core and periphery faded.
Spencer's Theory of Kinship Evolution and the Status of Women
Authors: Beeghley Leonard
Published: September 2012

This article reconsiders Spencer's sociology in order to show how his social theory is applied to specific topics and to suggest his importance in the emergence and continuing development of the social sciences. The first task is accomplished by applying Spencer's conceptual scheme to the study of kinship evolution and changing women's status. The second task is achieved by critically appraising his social theory, showing how current writers duplicate his mistakes, and extrapolating a number of useful theoretical principles.
Advertising Campaigns as Arms Races
Authors: Brody Charles J.
Published: September 2012

This study tests a mathematical model of through-time conflicts, which was first developed and tested using data from arms races of modern nation states. The behavior of competing firms advertising their respective products is viewed as similar to the behavior of the parties engaged in an arms race. The data consist of the annual advertising expenditures of corporations in four industries. The findings support the hypothesized model.
Concern about Toxic Wastes
Authors: Hamilton Lawrence C.
Published: September 2012

Campaigns against toxic waste problems are emerging as a grass-roots social movement in hundreds of American communities. This article examines survey data from two such communities (Acton, Massachusetts, and Williamstown, Vermont), which have recently experienced problems with toxic waste contamination. Multivariate log-linear analyses indicate that concern about contamination problems is highest among younger respondents, among women, and among those who have children under 18. These basic conclusions are found to be robust across different model specifications, different estimation strategies, and across a wide variety of specific issues and measures for toxic-waste concern in three different communities. The findings provide insight into the intensity of opposition to toxic wastes, differences between toxic wastes and many other environmental issues, and the difference in perspective between local citizens' groups and the corporate and government officals with whom they must deal.
Religiosity and Criminality
Authors: Ellis Lee
Published: September 2012

Assertions about the relationship (or, sometimes, the lack of a relationship) between religiosity and criminality are examined in light of over 50 research studies, paying special attention to how criminality and particularly religiosity were operationalized in each study. These studies reveal that three religiosity-criminality relationships have been established. The best documented relationship is between church attendance and crime rates. At least among church members, the evidence consistently indicates that frequent church attenders have lower crime rates than infrequent attenders, especially regarding victimless offenses. Second, among the main Western religions, membership in the Jewish religion is associated with lower crime rates, compared to Christian religious membership as a whole; and, among Christians, Protestants as a whole have lower crime rates than Catholics. Third, belief in an afterlife with divine punishment possible, at least among persons who consider themselves members of an organized religion, is associated with lower crime rates. Four conventional explanations of these associations are assessed.
Social Class, Occupational Conditions, and Efficacy-Based Self-Esteem
Authors: Staples Clifford L. , Schwalbe Michael L. , Gecas Viktor
Published: September 2012

This study examines the relationship between social stratification and self-esteem by focusing on aspects of stratification and self-esteem formation processes ignored in previous research. An analysis of theoretical developments and empirical research reveals that the exclusive focus on occupational status and self-esteem derived from interpersonal comparison processes ignores an entire dimension of the relationship between social stratification and self-esteem—that between social class (in the Marxian sense) and self-esteem derived from the experience of self-efficacy. We provide evidence here that supports a hypothesized relationship between social class and occupational conditions that constrain or enable the experience of self-efficacy and self-esteem. Our findings suggest that carefully distinguishing between class and status, and recognizing the multiple processes of self-esteem formation, can improve our explanation of variation in self-esteem with reference to social stratification.
Toward an Interparadigmatic Dialogue on Goffman
Authors: Chriss James J.
Published: September 2012

Many observers have lamented the fact that sociology continues to fragment into a number of allegedly incompatible theoretical camps. To countervail such sectarian tendencies, I suggest that we return to the writings of key thinkers in our field—here specifically Erving Goffman—and search for those findings, observations, concepts, or analyses which have found purchase across the discipline and which seemingly defy the forces of theoretical balkanization. This interparadigmatic dialogue on Goffman can be realized only if a concerted effort is made to bring together representatives of sociology's major theory groups to discuss their possibly varying interpretations of Goffman. Problems associated with launching such a unification project are discussed.
Developing an Exchange Network Simulator
Authors: Markovsky Barry
Published: September 2012

“X-Net” is a computer simulation that I developed in conjunction with Network Exchange Theory. Users of X-Net can explore the effects of different network structures, rules of exchange, and negotiators' strategies on the dynamics and outcomes of resource exchanges in social networks. This article recounts the process of X-Net's development, in addition to key substantive, theoretical, and design issues that motivated its form and content. It concludes with a discussion of the relationship between theory, simulation, and empirical tests.
Communication Technologies and their Effect on Cultural Homogeneity, Consensus, and the Diffusion of New Ideas
Authors: Carley Kathleen M.
Published: September 2012

A view of communication technologies as creating artificial agents and affecting the information-processing capabilities of agents is forwarded The constructural theory is adapted to account for agents varying in their information-processing capabilities and, hence, to account for technology. Given this theoretical modification, the constructural model is used to examine the impact of different communication technologies and sociocultural landscapes on the rate at which information diffuses and the time it takes for the society to reach cultural homogeneity and consensus. The findings suggest that as the available communication technologies change, the role of the sociocultural landscape in effecting social change varies. Paradoxically, this research suggests that mass-communication technologies that enable greater competition among messages and greater message complexity will enable faster information diffusion than will those technologies that inhibit competition and message complexity.
Family Structure and Leaving the Nest: A Social Resource Perspective
Authors: Mitchell Barbara A.
Published: September 2012

This article focuses on the role of family structure as a form of social capital (Coleman 1988) in the timing of and pathways for home-leaving behavior among youths. Using data from the 1987 Canadian Youth Foundation Survey, bivariate analyses of reasons for staying and leaving the nest and proportional hazards modeling of age at home-leaving support and extend previous research demonstrating the importance of family structure. Financial, human, and cultural capital, as well as sex and region, are also examined. The most striking finding is that youths exposed to biological and single-parent family environments are between five and six times as likely to remain at home than those exposed to stepfamily structures for the ages 15 to 24, net of the other variables. Interestingly, young adults living in both stepparent and single-parent families are more likely to report leaving home due to conflictual parent-child relations, and to leave the nest to achieve independence rather than to marry or pursue additional schooling. The findings are discussed in terms of their long-term consequences for youths.
Socialization, Life Situations, and Gender-Role Attitudes regarding the Family among White American Women
Authors: Liao Tim Futing , Cai Yang
Published: September 2012

There are two major theoretical perspectives explaining differences in gender-role attitudes: the socialization or social-learning theory, and situational theory in the form of macrosituational and microsituational (microstructural) hypotheses. In this article, we synthesize the two theories. We use data from the 1985 General Social Survey to evaluate this synthetic theory for white women in the United States. The findings show that socialization, represented by women's educational attainment being influenced by their mothers' educational attainment, has no direct impact on gender-role attitudes. Socialization does indirectly influence attitudes via women's life situations, as represented by women's life course stages and the kin composition of their social networks. Life situations are more contemporaneous than socialization and, thus, have direct effects on family-related gender-role attitudes.
The Link between Student Identity, Attributions, and Self-Esteem among Adult, Returning Students
Authors: Shields Nancy
Published: September 2012

This study investigates the relationships between causal attributions, student identity, and self-esteem among a sample of adult students who were returning to college to complete a degree after a break of at least three semesters. Leaving college was conceptualized as a “failure” in the sense that the student had failed to complete a degree when previously enrolled, and returning to school was conceptualized as an achievement event or “success” A “hedonistic bias” was found in the way students explained leaving school, that is, they denied responsibility for leaving, explaining their departures with primarily external causes. Although external causes for returning were also more numerous, there was a tendency for internal reasons to increase from the time of leaving to the time the student returned to school. The student identity was related to many aspects of self-esteem, but internal attributions were not related to self-esteem. Internal causal attributions were not related to the student identity, but “activity-oriented” attributions were related to occupational status, suggesting a connection between the occupational identity and attribution processes. The findings are discussed in the context of attribution theory and self-presentation theory.
Science in Environmental Conflicts
Authors: Ozawa Connie P.
Published: September 2012

Science plays a major part in environmental conflict. How that role is defined is determined by the human actors engaged in the conflict and the legal and institutional constructs that structure discourse. This article begins by tracing the authority invested in science to ideological assumptions about scientific methodology. Then, four common roles for science in environmental conflict (discoverer, mechanism of accountability, shield, and tool of persuasion), are described. These roles are increasingly unproductive in resolving environmental conflict, partly due to the misfit between the actual conduct of science and its ideal. This article proposes that a new role, one that is more consistent with a social constructionist view of science, has been crafted as a byproduct of decision-making innovations that prescribe explicit negotiations among representatives of groups engaged in an environmental dispute. As a tool of facilitation, science may be used more constructively to resolve environmental disputes.
The Impact of Race on Environmental Quality: An Empirical and Theoretical Discussion
Authors: Pinderhughes Raquel
Published: September 2012

The toxic pollution problem is composed of several interrelated parts which are involved in the process of production, use, and disposal of chemicals and products considered necessary for society. Each day, millions of pounds of toxic chemicals are used, stored, disposed of, and transported in and out of communities throughout the United States. Most Americans assume that pollution and other environmental hazards are problems faced equally by everyone in our society. But a growing body of research shows that the most common victims of environmental hazards and pollution are minorities and the poor. Disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards is part of the complex cycle of discrimination and deprivation faced by minorities in the United States. This article examines social science empirical research on the relationship between race, class, and the distribution of environmental hazards and the theoretical perspectives which have emerged to explain environmental inequities. The article also discusses the link between the environmental justice movement, which seeks to confront the causes and consequences of environmental inequities, and social science research on environmental inequity.
The Demise of Community and Ecology in the Pacific Northwest: Historical Roots of the Ancient Forest Conflict
Authors: Dumont Clayton W.
Published: September 2012

The Pacific Northwest has become the site of a bitterly fought struggle over the future of the remaining 10% of the region's ancient, or “old growth,” forests. The remaining stands of these forests are important components of the local economy and of the region's ecology. The article begins with a brief description of the economic and ecological crises which are now coming to fruition as a result of the loss of 90% of these forests. It then provides a description of the cultural heritage and sense of community which is being lost in the small, timber-dependent communities of the region—a social crisis resulting from the economic and ecological crises. In conclusion, the article argues that all of these crises should be understood as resulting from the political, economic, and historical circumstances which facilitated the emergence of the largest and wealthiest timber ownership.
Mediation of Environmental Conflicts in Hawaii: Win-Win or Co-optation?
Authors: Modavi Neghin
Published: September 2012

This analysis examines the rise and political promotion of mediation in the settlement of land-use-related environmental conflicts in the state of Hawaii and counters much of the enthusiastic praise of mediation. The study adopts a political economy approach informed by the structural class-centric state perspective in order to illustrate the economic roots of political facilitation of environmental mediation. It is argued that environmental mediation has emerged as a political tool to demobilize and depoliticize conflicts on behalf of the state and industry interests. Environmental mediation is studied as an important mechanism for the state to cope with its dual and contradictory role—a role that involves both the minimization of political legitimation crisis and the promotion of capital accumulation and expansion.
The People of the Forest against International Capitalism: Systemic and Anti-Systemic Forces in the Battle for the Preservation of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest
Authors: Barbosa Luiz C.
Published: September 2012

The paper links the rapid deforestation taking place in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest to the alliance of the Brazilian government with world-systemic or global institutions in developing Amazonia. This alliance accelerated the pace of destruction by extending the capitalist frontier into the region, with devastating consequences for the people of the forest, (i.e*** Indians, rubber tappers, etc.) The paper argues that changes in the ecopolitics of the world-system beginning in the mid-1980's strengthened the cause of the people of the forest against the systemic agents of destruction. They won important allies abroad, while the Brazilian government lost allies. The political leverage gained by the people of the forest allowed them to win a few important victories in attempting to preserve their lands and livelihoods. Pressured by international demand, the Brazilian government agreed to create extractive reserves and to demarcate Indian lands. The paper concludes that a country-by-country approach to the problem of deforestation is insufficient. The world-system must be taken into account for a more comprehensive picture of the problem. I also argue, however, that internal or national processes are also critical for our understanding of environmental problems in the Third World. The world-system and national processes interact.
Transitions into Idleness among White, Black, and Hispanic Youth: Some Determinants and Policy Implications of Weak Labor Force Attachment
Authors: Powers Daniel A.
Published: September 2012

Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used to assess the determinants of entering inactivity for 1,731 initially active young men. The results indicate that social context variables play a key role in explaining weak labor force attachment among young nonwhite men, but are relatively less important for white youth. Local opportunity structure and individual human capital characteristics are the most important determinants of inactivity for youth as a whole. These findings encourage a social policy solution centered around job creation and training programs which smooth the transition between school and work.
The Hidden Organization of Labor: Gender, Race/Ethnicity and Child-Care Work in the Formal and Informal Economy
Authors: Tuominen Mary
Published: September 2012

While extensive studies document the need for child care in the United States, little has been done to explore the organization of child-care work or its political economic context. The article explores, both empirically and theoretically, the organization of child-care work in the United States. While formal child-care centers emerged as the fastest-growing source of child care for employed parents in the last 25 years, informal arrangements continue to serve as the source of over 75% of child care for employed parents in the United States. Given the vast provision of child care in settings outside of formal markets, informal-sector economic theory appeared a potentially viable framework for elucidating the organization of child-care work. Informal-sector theory clearly assists in identifying many forms of production existing outside of the formal market economy. Even so, informal-sector theorists show a proclivity to define and analyze labor according to the norms of formal market production. Also, theories rooted in the norms of the formal market economy fail to fully analyze care-giving work, work historically performed by women outside of formal markets. In order to accurately analyze and theorize the organization of care-giving work, political economic theories must explicitly incorporate women's household and domestic labor. By so doing theories will more fully demonstrate the ways in which gender and race/ethnicity serve as the fundamental structures organizing the work of care-giving.
The Good Worker: Race and Gender in a 1970s Southern City
Authors: Harkess Shirley , Warren Carol
Published: September 2012

By the end of the 1970s, the effort to end employment discrimination in the South by means of affirmative action was directed toward women as well as blacks. This study, based on interviews with owners or personnel managers in 29 local or national manufacturing firms in a medium-sized city, reveals that those selecting entry-level operatives do so in terms of an elaborated mental image of the “good worker.” Essentially, the ideal worker is acquiescent as well as ever-present. The race and gender components and implications of the image tended to undermine the intent and effect of affirmative action in jobs that had few qualifications but many applicants. Almost all of those actually hired were previously known to the employer. In this context, some degree of racial integration occurred, while a high degree of gender segregation continued. Of interest from the vantage point of today, at no time was age discrimination a consideration. We conclude by noting the difficulty of altering the employer's need for control as expressed by insuring a compliant workforce.