bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sympathetic Nervous System Modulation of Inflammation and Remodeling in the Hypertensive Heart
Authors: Levick Scott P. , Murray David B. , Janicki Joseph S. , Brower Gregory L.
Published: January 2010

Chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system is a key component of cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. However, previous studies have provided evidence that also implicate inflammatory cells, including mast cells (MCs), in the development of cardiac fibrosis. The current study investigated the potential interaction of cardiac MCs with the sympathetic nervous system. Eight-week–old male spontaneously hypertensive rats were sympathectomized to establish the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on cardiac MC density, myocardial remodeling, and cytokine production in the hypertensive heart. Age-matched Wistar Kyoto rats served as controls. Cardiac fibrosis and hypertension were significantly attenuated and left ventricular mass normalized, whereas cardiac MC density was markedly increased in sympathectomized spontaneously hypertensive rats. Sympathectomy normalized myocardial levels of interferon-γ, interleukin 6, and interleukin 10, but had no effect on interleukin 4. The effects of norepinephrine and substance P on isolated cardiac MC activation were investigated as potential mechanisms of interaction between the two. Only substance P elicited MC degranulation. Substance P was also shown to induce the production of angiotensin II by a mixed population of isolated cardiac inflammatory cells, including MCs, lymphocytes, and macrophages. These results demonstrate the ability of neuropeptides to regulate inflammatory cell function, providing a potential mechanism by which the sympathetic nervous system and afferent nerves may interact with inflammatory cells in the hypertensive heart.
Vascular Endothelial Function Is Related to White Blood Cell Count and Myeloperoxidase Among Healthy Middle-Aged and Older Adults
Authors: Walker Ashley E. , Seibert Sara Marian , Donato Anthony J. , Pierce Gary L. , Seals Douglas R.
Published: January 2010

Endothelium-dependent dilation (EDD) is impaired with aging, but there is significant variability among healthy middle-aged and older adults. We tested the hypothesis that EDD is related to white blood cell (WBC) count in healthy men and women aged 55 to 75 years (n=48) who have a WBC count within the clinically normal range. The peak forearm blood flow response to intrabrachial artery infusion of acetylcholine was inversely related to WBC count (
r
=−0.38;
P
=0.004) and was 34% smaller in subjects with higher versus lower WBC count (more versus less than the median of 5.0×10
9
cells per liter;
P
=0.001). Vascular smooth muscle responsiveness to NO (peak forearm blood flow response to sodium nitroprusside) was inversely related to WBC count (
r
=−0.30;
P
=0.02) but did not fully explain the associations with EDD. Inhibition of NO with N
G
-monomethyl-
l
-arginine reduced EDD in subjects with lower (−56%;
P
=0.01) but not higher WBC count. Tetrahydrobiopterin selectively improved EDD in subjects with higher WBC count (+35%;
P
=0.01) by increasing NO bioavailability. EDD was related (
P
<0.05) to neutrophil, eosinophil, and monocyte but not lymphocyte or basophil counts. Myeloperoxidase, which is secreted by neutrophils and monocytes, consumes NO and produces molecules that oxidize tetrahydrobiopterin, was inversely related to EDD (
r
=−0.35;
P
=0.02), and was 42% higher in subjects with a higher WBC count (
P
=0.02). No other factors contributed to the relation between EDD and WBC count. Among healthy middle-aged and older adults, impaired EDD is related to higher neutrophil, eosinophil, and monocyte-based WBC count mediated by reduced responsiveness to NO and increased myeloperoxidase-associated reductions in tetrahydrobiopterin and NO bioavailability.
The Political Economy of Imprisonment in Affluent Western Democracies, 1960–1990
Authors: Sutton John R.
Published: January 2010

Research showing an association between business cycles and imprisonment is suspect on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Most research on this topic uses an impoverished notion of business cycles and pays no attention to differences in the institutional contexts of economic policymaking. This article reexamines this issue using data from 15 affluent capitalist democracies observed over 30 years, from 1960 to 1990. Pooled regression techniques are used to test hypotheses regarding the effects of business cycles, political power, and the structure of labor market institutions. Results from simple models show the expected associations between business cycles and imprisonment rates, but these associations disappear in models that include measures of politics and institutional structure. This suggests that the business cycle-imprisonment relationship is not causal but is instead an artifact of antecedent differences between neoliberal and corporatist societies.
Does Government Funding Suppress Nonprofits' Political Activity?
Authors: Chavesc Mark , Stephens Laura , Galaskiewicz Joseph
Published: January 2010

Autonomy from the state has been considered a core feature of American civil society, and understanding the consequences of perceived threats to that autonomy has been a central theme in social and political theory. We engage this theme by examining a specific question: What is the effect of government funding on nonprofit organizations' political activity? Extant theory and research identify some mechanisms by which government funding might reduce nonprofit political activity and other mechanisms by which government funding might enhance such activity. We investigate this relationship with two data sets: a national sample of religious congregations and a longitudinal sample of nonprofit organizations in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Results across these data sets are consistent and compelling: The relationship between government funding and nonprofit political activity is either positive or null; government funding does not suppress nonprofit political activity.
Does Firm Size Matter Anymore? The New Economy and Firm Size Wage Effects
Authors: Hollister Matissa N.
Published: January 2010

Researchers have long known that large firms pay higher wages than small firms for workers with similar measured characteristics; however, an agreed-upon explanation for this firm size wage effect (FSWE) has not been reached. Recent changes in the economy provide new leverage for testing competing theories for the effect, while questions about the existence and nature of the “New Economy” provide new motivation for exploring this topic. This study uses the 1988-2003 Current Population Survey and finds that the FSWE has declined by about one third over the study period. Examining the competing explanations for the FSWE, this study finds that while the sorting of workers by traits, unions, and industry factors all contribute to some portion of the effect in cross-section, they fail to explain why it has declined over time. Market power explanations also fail to find support. Shifts in organizational structures, particularly a decline of internal labor markets, appear to best fit the results. These findings provide supporting evidence for the “New Economy” and the idea that recent decades have brought about significant changes within organizations and in employment opportunities.
Diffusion, Development, and Democracy, 1800-1999
Authors: Wejnert Barbara
Published: January 2010

While a trend of growth in democratization over the past two centuries has been generally observed, it is the remarkable growth in the democratization of the world over the past 30 years that has truly captured the imagination of social scientists, policymakers, and the general public alike. Two major sets of factors have dominated studies attempting to predict democratization. One set characterizes endogenous or internal features of countries, and may be referred to as socioeconomic development. The other set, less often tested, characterizes exogenous variables that influence democratization via forces at work globally and within the region in which a country resides; this set may be referred to as diffusion processes. This study provides the first systematic comparison of these two sets of variables. When assessed alone, development indicators are robust predictors of democracy, but their predictive power fades with the inclusion of diffusion variables. In particular, diffusion predictors of spatial proximity and networks are robust predictors of democratic growth in both the world and across all regions. The results demonstrate that regional patterns in democratization are evident, and hence world analyses are only the first approximation to understanding democratic growth. Finally, this study introduces an application of Multilevel Regression Models to studies on democratization. Such models fit observed data on world democratization better than the simple regression models used in most previous studies.
Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket
Authors: Kaufman Jason , Patterson Orlando
Published: January 2010

This article explores the dynamics of cross-national cultural diffusion through the study of a case in which a symbolically powerful cultural practice, the traditionally English sport of cricket, successfully diffused to most but not all countries with close cultural ties to England. Neither network ties, nor national values, nor climatic conditions account for this disparity. Our explanation hinges instead on two key factors: first, the degree to which elites chose either to appropriate the game and deter others from participating or actively to promote it throughout the population for hegemonic purposes; and second, the degree to which the game was “popularized” by cultural entrepreneurs looking to get and keep spectators and athletes interested in the sport. Both outcomes relate to the nature of status hierarchies in these different societies, as well as the agency of elites and entrepreneurs in shaping the cultural valence of the game. The theoretical significance of this project is thus the observation that the diffusion of cultural practices can be promoted or discouraged by intermediaries with the power to shape the cultural meaning and institutional accessibility of such practices.
Civic Associations and Authoritarian Regimes in Interwar Europe: Italy and Spain in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Riley Dylan
Published: January 2010

What is the relationship between civic associations and authoritarian regimes? While Tocquevillian theories have concentrated mostly on the connection between civic associationism and democracy, this article develops a Gramscian approach, suggesting that a strong associational sphere can facilitate the development of authoritarian parties and hegemonic authoritarian regimes. Two countries are used for comparison, Italy from 1870 to 1926 and Spain from 1876 to 1926. The argument here is that the strength of the associational sphere in north-central Italy provided organizational resources to the fascist movement and then party. In turn, the formation of the party was a key reason why the Italian regime developed as a hegemonic authoritarian regime. The absence of a strong associational sphere in Spain explains why that regime developed as an economic corporate dictatorship, despite many similarities between the two cases.
A Clash of Capitalisms: Foreign Shareholders and Corporate Restructuring in 1990s Japan
Authors: Ahmadjian Christina L. , Robbins Gregory E.
Published: January 2010

This article examines the clash between stakeholder- and shareholder-based business systems resulting from an increase in foreign portfolio investment in the Japanese economy during the 1990s. An analysis of 1,108 firms between 1991 and 2000 shows that as foreign institutional investors, who were more interested in investment returns than in long-term relationships, replaced domestic shareholders, one fundamental pillar of Japan's stakeholder capitalism began to crack. Japanese firms began to adopt downsizing and asset divestiture, practices more characteristic of Anglo-American shareholder economies. The influence of foreigners, however, was weaker in firms more deeply embedded in the local system through close ties to domestic financial institutions and corporate groups. Thus, foreign investors were influential primarily in firms less embedded in the existing stakeholder system. This research contributes to debates on globalization and convergence of business systems, institutional change, and corporate governance systems.
Vigilantism, Current Racial Threat, and Death Sentences
Authors: Jacobs David , Carmichael Jason T. , Kent Stephanie L.
Published: January 2010

Capital punishment is the most severe punishment, yet little is known about the social conditions that lead to death sentences. Racial threat explanations imply that this sanction will be imposed more often in jurisdictions with larger minority populations, but some scholars suggest that a tradition of vigilante violence leads to increased death sentences. This study tests the combined explanatory power of both accounts by assessing statistical interactions between past lynchings and the recent percentage of African Americans after political conditions and other plausible effects are held constant. Findings from count models based on different samples, data, and estimators suggest that racial threat and lynchings combine to produce increased death sentences, but the presence of liberal political values explains the absence of death sentences. These findings both confirm and refine the political version of conflict theory because they suggest that the effects of current racial threat and past vigilantism largely directed against newly freed slaves jointly contribute to current lethal but legal reactions to racial threat.
Family Policies, Wage Structures, and Gender Gaps: Sources of Earnings Inequality in 20 Countries
Authors: Mandel Hadas , Semyonov Moshe
Published: January 2010

This study uncovers an unexpected effect of family-friendly policies on women's economic attainments. Using hierarchical linear models, the analysis combines individual-level data (obtained from the Luxembourg Income Study) with country-level data (obtained from secondary sources) to evaluate the effects of family policies on gender earnings inequality across 20 advanced societies. The analysis shows that gender earnings disparities are less pronounced in countries with developed family policies. However, the findings also show that if cross-country differences in the wage structure are controlled, the underlying effect of family policy on the gender gap is exposed. Although “mother-friendly” policies enable more women to become economically active, they exacerbate gender occupational inequality. The authors therefore conclude that the lower earnings differentials between men and women in developed welfare states should be attributed to their more egalitarian wage structures rather than to their family policies. The paradoxical implications of policies intended to reconcile paid and unpaid work as well as the mechanisms that cause these policies to widen the gender earnings gap are discussed and evaluated in light of sociological theories on the role of family policy and wage determination institutions in contemporary societies.
Border Crossing: Bricolage and the Erosion of Categorical Boundaries in French Gastronomy
Authors: Rao Hayagreeva , Monin Philippe , Durand Rodolphe
Published: January 2010

Sociological researchers have studied the consequences of strong categorical boundaries, but have devoted little attention to the causes and consequences of boundary erosion. This study analyzes the erosion of categorical boundaries in the case of opposing category pairs. The authors propose that categorical boundaries weaken when the borrowing of elements from a rival category by high-status actors triggers emulation such that the mean number of elements borrowed by others increases and the variance in the number of elements borrowed declines. It is suggested that penalties to borrowing in the form of downgraded evaluations by critics exist, but decline as the number of peers who borrow increases. The research setting is French gastronomy during the period from 1970 to 1997, when classical and nouvelle cuisines were rival categories competing for the allegiance of chefs. The results broadly support the authors' hypotheses, indicating that chefs redrew the boundaries of culinary categories, which critics eventually recognized. Implications for research on blending and segregating processes are outlined.
Widowhood and Race
Authors: Elwert Felix , Christakis Nicholas A.
Published: January 2010

The health effects of marital status are frequently cited in the current debate on marriage promotion, but little is known about how marital health effects vary across groups. This article assembles the largest properly longitudinal and nationally representative dataset of elderly married couples in the United States (N = 410,272 couples) and provides strong evidence that the “widowhood effect”—how the death of a spouse increases the mortality of the survivor-varies substantially by race. The authors find that whites married to whites suffer a large and enduring widowhood effect. By contrast, blacks married to blacks do not suffer a detectable widowhood effect, possibly because they manage to extend the survival advantage of marriage into widowhood. For racially intermarried men, wife's race appears to dominate the size and presence of the widowhood effect entirely, regardless of husband's own race. These results likely arise from differences in the marital cultures and marital contexts of black and white couples. More generally, these results demonstrate that the health effects of social ties depend on the individual attributes of the actors they connect.
Atheists As “Other”: Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society
Authors: Edgell Penny , Gerteis Joseph , Hartmann Douglas
Published: January 2010

Despite the declining salience of divisions among religious groups, the boundary between believers and nonbelievers in America remains strong. This article examines the limits of Americans' acceptance of atheists. Using new national survey data, it shows atheists are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious, and other minority groups. This distrust of atheists is driven by religious predictors, social location, and broader value orientations. It is rooted in moral and symbolic, rather than ethnic or material, grounds. We demonstrate that increasing acceptance of religious diversity does not extend to the nonreligious, and present a theoretical framework for understanding the role of religious belief in providing a moral basis for cultural membership and solidarity in an otherwise highly diverse society.
Kinship in the Shadow of the Corporation: The Interbuilder Network in Clyde River Shipbuilding, 1711–1990
Authors: Ingram Paul , Lifschitz Arik
Published: January 2010

The authors identify a system of intercompetitor affiliation that helped Clyde River shipbuilding companies to thrive, but was ultimately undermined by the rise of corporate capitalism. They find that connections between companies through their leaders' family ties or friendships were common, and beneficial, as every such tie maintained by a company reduced its annual risk of failure by 10 percent. This average effect, however, masks an important contingency. The direct benefits of interbuilder ties accrued only to family firms, which enjoyed a reduced risk of failure of 34 percent with each tie, and not at all to corporations. The authors maintain that the shift to the corporate form inhibited the operation of the interbuilder network by reducing the autonomy of leaders to work through personal relations with their competitors. The results encourage heightened attention both to the idea that horizontal ties within an industry may be a key determinant of organizational success, and to the idea that some modes of relational governance may be incompatible with corporate governance.
Pursuing Preferences: The Creation and Resolution of Work Hour Mismatches
Authors: Reynolds Jeremy , Aletraris Lydia
Published: January 2010

Mismatches between the number of hours people actually work and the hours they prefer to work are common, but few studies have examined such hour mismatches from a longitudinal perspective. Using two waves of panel data from Australia, the authors offer a new, dynamic picture of hour mismatches. Their analysis shows a fluid labor market in which many mismatches are created and resolved. Nevertheless, their findings also highlight market imperfections. Many mismatches (especially the desire for fewer hours) appear to persist for more than a year, and although a change of employers can resolve mismatches, it can also create them. Moreover, as seen in the findings, processes that create and resolve mismatches are more closely tied to changes in preferred hours than to changes in actual hours.
Care in Context: Men's Unpaid Work in 20 Countries, 1965–2003
Authors: Hook Jennifer L.
Published: January 2010

By situating men within the country and time period in which they live, social scientists are better able to understand men's housework and child care behaviors. The author proposes that national context, conceptualized here as women's employment practices and policies, influences men's unpaid work behaviors by shaping the benefits of specialization, the terms of bargaining, and the ease of adhering to gender ideologies and norms. Using 44 time-use surveys from 20 countries (spanning 1965 to 2003) combined with original national-level data, the author utilizes multilevel models to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between national context and men's unpaid work behaviors. She finds that men's unpaid work time increases with national levels of women's employment. Furthermore, the effect of children on men's unpaid work time depends on women's national employment hours, the length of available parental leave, and men's eligibility to take parental leave, which indicates that particular public policies affect men in specific household situations. The analyses document the importance of national context for the unpaid work behaviors of all men, especially fathers, and shift the research focus from the attributes of individual men to the structures that hinder and facilitate men's unpaid work.
How Cultural Tastes Shape Personal Networks
Authors: Lizardo Omar
Published: January 2010

This article examines the relationship between different forms of cultural taste and the density of social contacts across alternative types of network relations classified by average tie strength. The author builds on Bourdieu's ([1986] 2001) classic statement on the “forms of capital” (economic, social, and cultural) and the conversion dynamics among them, and on DiMaggio's (1987) connection between cultural tastes and sociability. He hypothesizes that (1) in addition to cultural tastes being determined by network relations, cultural tastes are used to form and sustain those networks. Furthermore he expects that (2) highbrow culture taste will be less likely to be converted into social capital beyond immediate strong-tie circles due to its more restricted, “assetspecific” nature. Because of its generalized appeal, taste for popular culture will be more likely to be associated with weak-tie network density. The results broadly support these hypotheses: a model that specifies an effect of culture on network density provides a better fit to the data than the traditional conception of networks as determining taste. In addition using log-linear models and instrumental-variable methods, I show that popular culture consumption has a positive impact on weak-tie network density but not strong-tie network density, while highbrow culture consumption selectively increases strong-tie density but has no appreciable effect on weak ties, net of standard socioeconomic variables. These findings help to shed light on the mechanisms that translate mastery of different types of cultural knowledge into integration across distant social positions or closure around strong group boundaries. The author also discusses the implications of the results for current models describing the transformation of cultural into social resources.
Politics and Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean
Authors: Huber Evelyne , Nielsen François , Pribble Jenny , Stephens John D.
Published: January 2010

This article presents the first pooled time series analysis of the impact that politics and policy have on inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors build on models consisting of sociological and economic variables, adding the strength of the democratic tradition, long-term legislative partisan political power distribution, and social spending to explain variation in inequality. They analyze an unbalanced pooled time series data set for income distribution in 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries from 1970 to 2000. They show that the political variables add explanatory power. A strong record of democracy and a left-leaning legislative partisan balance are associated with lower levels of inequality, as are social security and welfare spending under democratic regimes. Thus, they replicate some and modify other well-established findings from studies of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the very different context of Latin America and the Caribbean. They confirm that the partisan composition of government matters, and show that, in contrast to OECD countries, where social security and welfare spending consistently reduce inequality, such spending reduces inequality only in a democratic context in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Great Divides: The Cultural, Cognitive, and Social Bases of the Global Subordination of Women
Authors: Epstein Cynthia Fuchs
Published: January 2010

Categorization based on sex is the most basic social divide. It is the organizational basis of most major institutions, including the division of labor in the home, the workforce, politics, and religion. Globally, women's gendered roles are regarded as subordinate to men's. The gender divide enforces women's roles in reproduction and support activities and limits their autonomy, it limits their participation in decision making and highly-rewarded roles, and it puts women at risk. Social, cultural, and psychological mechanisms support the process. Differentiation varies with the stability of groups and the success of social movements. Gender analyses tend to be ghettoized; so it is recommended that all sociologists consider gender issues in their studies to better understand the major institutions and social relationships in society.
When Does the Watchdog Bark? Conditions of Aggressive Questioning in Presidential News Conferences
Authors: Clayman Steven E. , Heritage John , Elliott Marc N. , McDonald Laurie L.
Published: January 2010

In theories of the journalism-state relationship, the watchdog model of journalism competes with other models emphasizing either subservient or oppositional relations. Since actual journalistic practice is circumstantially variable, this study isolates the social conditions associated with aggressive journalism. Data are drawn from presidential news conferences from 1953 to 2000, and the focus is on the aggressiveness of the questions asked therein. Through multivariate models, four sets of explanatory conditions are explored: (1) the administration life cycle, (2) presidential popularity, (3) the state of the economy, and (4) foreign affairs. Results show (1) no evidence of a firstterm honeymoon period, but significantly more aggressive questions during second terms, (2) the president's Gallup job approval rating is not a significant independent predictor of aggressiveness, (3) both the unemployment rate and the prime interest rate are positively associated with aggressiveness, and (4) questions about foreign affairs are significantly less aggressive than questions about domestic affairs, and this differential has been stable for at least a half-century. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of these findings, which show that journalists modulate their conduct in complex ways that do not readily map onto any single model.
Political Action and Party Formation in the United States Constitutional Convention
Authors: Slez Adam , Martin John Levi
Published: January 2010

Using data on state voting patterns, we examine the positions taken by state delegations on questions that arose over the course of the United States Constitutional Convention of 1787. Whereas existing accounts tend to assume that this type of collective decision making can be understood by linking fixed interests—either material or ideological—to specific, decontextualized propositions, we argue that the meaning of any one issue was dependent upon its position relative to other issues in the overall sequence of questions. Consequently, each decision changed the meaning of future issues, and hence how actors understood where their commonalities of interest lay. Devoted to the task of rebuilding the institutions that constituted the national state, delegates explicitly reshaped the board on which the political game would be played such that patterns of action within the Convention had implications for patterns of action outside of the Convention. As each subsequent decision within the Convention fixed a previous point of contention, it also indirectly determined which issues would become viable points of conflict in the future. By the end of the Convention, even before the first presidential election, state delegations began to arrange themselves in a manner consonant with the outlines of the first party system. This previously unrecognized finding only makes sense, however, in terms of a temporally contextualized model of political action.
The Winds of Change: The Progressive Movement and the Bureaucratization of Thrift
Authors: Haveman Heather A. , Rao Hayagreeva , Paruchuri Srikanth
Published: January 2010

This article examines how the values espoused by social movements become entrenched in political culture and spawn many new kinds of institutions, which in turn shape organizations far from movements' original targets. We demonstrate the diffuse and indirect effects of social movements, and also show that the diffusion of social-movement values is often selective—some are retained, while others are discarded. Our empirical site is the Progressive movement and the early thrift industry in California. We draw on social-movement research and organizational theory to argue that a new ideal of thrift, bureaucratized cooperation among strangers, replaced the original idea of thrift, friendly cooperation among neighbors. This shift was possible only after the modernizing temper of Progressivism gave rise to two institutions, the news media and role-model organizations, that made bureaucracy culturally appropriate. The bureaucratization of thrift occurred even though it resulted in a centralization of power, which clashed with the Progressive ideal of equitably distributing power. Our study provides a compelling example of the fundamental revolution in American social organization in the twentieth century: the replacement of community-based groups by bureaucracies.
Who Pays the Price of Brokerage? Transferring Constraint through Price Setting in the Staffing Sector
Authors: Fernandez-Mateo Isabel
Published: January 2010

This article analyzes how a broker's ability to affect prices and extract superior value from its position has economic consequences for the actors tied to it. I argue that intermediaries may exercise partial control in price setting by transferring the price constraints imposed on them by the actors on one side of the market to those on the other side. In so doing, they generate unequal returns for the brokered parties, who then receive different prices due to the nature of the tie between the broker and its other exchange partners. I investigate this argument using a novel mix of quantitative and qualitative data gathered from an intermediary in the staffing sector. The results show that the broker is able to transfer discounts offered to valued buyers (clients) on to the sellers (workers) matched with them, instead of reducing its own margins. As a result, actors with the same resource endowments receive different prices depending on the relationships among other exchange partners in a given triadic network of ties. Using qualitative fieldwork, I elaborate on the mechanisms that make the quantitative results feasible, and I discuss the implications for our understanding of the processes, dynamics, and market stratification consequences of brokerage.
Selling Genes, Selling Gender: Egg Agencies, Sperm Banks, and the Medical Market in Genetic Material
Authors: Almeling Rene
Published: January 2010

Eggs and sperm are parallel bodily goods in that each contributes half of the reproductive material needed to create life. Yet these cells are produced by differently sexed bodies, allowing for a comparative analysis of how the social process of bodily commodification varies based on sex and gender. Drawing on interview and observational data from two egg agencies and two sperm banks in the United States, this article compares how staff recruit, screen, market, and compensate women and men donors. Results show how gendered norms inspire more altruistic rhetoric in egg donation than in sperm donation, producing different regimes of bodily commodification for women and men. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for debates in sociology of gender about biological differences among women and men and the cultural norms attributed to these differences; debates in economic sociology about how social factors shape the expansion of the market; and debates in medical sociology about the intersection of the market and medical practice.
Conservative Protestant Congregations and Racial Residential Segregation: Evaluating the Closed Community Thesis in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Counties
Authors: Blanchard Troy C.
Published: January 2010

Structural explanations of residential segregation usually focus on the role of discrimination in the real estate and mortgage lending industries in generating blackwhite residential segregation in metropolitan areas. However, these explanations overlook the role of social institutions in integrating or isolating groups in a community. To address this issue, I develop the closed community thesis and argue that the theological and value orientation of white Conservative Protestant congregations undermines the creation of bridging group ties. Drawing on county-level data from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing and the 2000 Churches and Church Congregations data, I test the hypothesis that the number of Conservative Protestant congregations per 1,000 non-Hispanic whites is directly associated with levels of residential segregation between non-Hispanic blacks and whites. I find that counties with a large number of Conservative Protestant congregations exhibit higher levels of residential segregation along multiple dimensions. Separate models estimated by metropolitan status and region indicate that the effect of Conservative Protestant congregations is consistent across a variety of localities. I conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of the role of religion in explanations of residential segregation and the analysis of segregation outside of metropolitan areas.
Diversity, Opportunity, and the Shifting Meritocracy in Higher Education
Authors: Alon Sigal , Tienda Marta
Published: January 2010

This article uses four data sets to assess changes in the relative weights of test- and performance-based merit criteria on college enrollment during the 1980s and 1990s and considers their significance for affirmative action. Our results support the “shifting meritocracy” hypothesis, revealed by selective postsecondary institutions' increased reliance on test scores to screen students. This shift has made it difficult for institutions to achieve diversity without giving minorities a “boost” through race-sensitive preferences. Statistical simulations that equalize, hold constant, or exclude test scores or class rank from the admission decision illustrate that reliance on performance-based criteria is highly compatible with achieving institutional diversity and does not lower graduation rates. Evidence from a natural experiment in Texas after the implementation of the “top 10 percent” law supports this conclusion. The apparent tension between merit and diversity exists only when merit is narrowly defined by test scores.
Who Survives on Death Row? An Individual and Contextual Analysis
Authors: Jacobs David , Qian Zhenchao , Carmichael Jason T. , Kent Stephanie L.
Published: January 2010

What are the relationships between death row offender attributes, social arrangements, and executions? Partly because public officials control executions, theorists view this sanction as intrinsically political. Although the literature has focused on offender attributes that lead to death sentences, the post-sentencing stage is at least as important. States differ sharply in their willingness to execute and less than 10 percent of those given a death sentence are executed. To correct the resulting problems with censored data, this study uses a discrete-time event history analysis to detect the individual and state-level contextual factors that shape execution probabilities. The findings show that minority death row inmates convicted of killing whites face higher execution probabilities than other capital offenders. Theoretically relevant contextual factors with explanatory power include minority presence in nonlinear form, political ideology, and votes for Republican presidential candidates. Inasmuch as there is little or no systematic research on the individual and contextual factors that influence execution probabilities, these findings fill important gaps in the literature.
The Decline of Intergenerational Coresidence in the United States, 1850 to 2000
Authors: Ruggles Steven
Published: January 2010

In the mid-nineteenth century, almost 70 percent of persons age 65 or older resided with their adult children; by the end of the twentieth century, fewer than 15 percent did so. Many scholars have argued that the simplification of the living arrangements of the aged resulted primarily from an increase in their resources, which enabled increasing numbers of elders to afford independent living. This article supports a different interpretation: the evidence suggests that the decline of coresidence between generations had less to do with the growing affluence of the aged than with the increasing opportunities of the younger generation. Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), I examine long-run trends in the characteristics of both the older and the younger generations to gain insight into changing motivations for coresidence. In particular, I investigate headship patterns, occupational status, income, and spatial coresidence patterns. I also reassess the potential impact of the Social Security program. I conclude that the decline of intergenerational coresidence resulted mainly from increasing opportunities for the young and declining parental control over their children.
Corporate Law and the Sovereignty of States
Authors: Kaufman Jason
Published: January 2010

This article explores the origins of a social form with lasting and profound sociological implications: the corporation. Though corporations date back as far as the Roman Republic, the early United States fostered a significant transformation in corporate law. Shortly after the American Revolution, several states pioneered a system whereby corporate charters became available to almost anyone (at a price), leading (eventually) to a proliferation of corporate charters unlike anything ever seen before in world history. This proliferation of corporate charters first occurred in colonies that were originally chartered as corporations: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, all of which used the corporate organizational form for a wide array of social pursuits. These colonies also experienced repeated conflict with the Crown over the rights and privileges of corporations. As American “states,” they built on these experiences to liberalize access to the means of incorporation and to elucidate the rights and freedoms of corporations. Other studies aptly document the diffusion of the corporate organizational form after 1800; this article takes up the antecedents to the use and popularity of the modern corporate organizational form. These observations do not supersede scholarly work regarding the economic origins of the American business corporation, but they do shed valuable light on the interdependence of states and markets, as well as the nature of institutional-legal transformation more generally.
Social Movements and Organizational Form: Cooperative Alternatives to Corporations in the American Insurance, Dairy, and Grain Industries
Authors: Schneiberg Marc , King Marissa , Smith Thomas
Published: January 2010

How do social movements promote diversity and alternative organizational forms? We address this question by analyzing how cooperative enterprise was affected by the Grange—a leading anticorporate movement in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. State-level analyses across three industries yield three findings. First, the Grange had positive effects on cooperatives and mutuals during the nineteenth-century populist struggles over corporate capitalism. Second, these effects were stronger where corporations counter-mobilized to block challengers' political efforts. Grangers pursued economic organization as an alternative to politics and in response to blocked political access. Third, the Grange continued to foster cooperatives even as populist revolts waned. It did so, however, by buffering cooperatives from problems of group heterogeneity and population change, rendering them less dependent on supportive communities and specific economic conditions. These findings advance research at the movements/organizations interface by documenting movement effects and by isolating different causal pathways through which mobilization, countermobilization, and political opportunity shape economic organization. The results also provide economic sociology with new evidence on how social structure moderates economic forces, and help revise institutional analyses of American capitalism by showing how cooperatives emerged as significant, rather than aberrant, elements of the U.S. economy.
Inequality among American Families with Children, 1975 to 2005
Authors: Western Bruce , Bloome Deirdre , Percheski Christine
Published: January 2010

From 1975 to 2005, the variance in incomes of American families with children increased by two-thirds. In attempting to explain this trend, labor market studies emphasize the rising pay of college graduates, while demographers typically highlight the implications of family structural changes across time. In this article, we join these lines of research by conceiving of income inequality as the joint product of the distribution of earnings in the labor market and the pooling of incomes in families. We develop this framework with a decomposition of family income inequality using annual data from the March Current Population Survey. Our analysis shows that disparities in education and single parenthood contributed to income inequality, but rising educational attainment and women's employment offset these effects. Most of the increase in family income inequality was due to increasing within-group inequality, which was widely shared across family types and levels of schooling.
Contemporary Hate Crimes, Law Enforcement, and the Legacy of Racial Violence
Authors: King Ryan D. , Messner Steven F. , Baller Robert D.
Published: January 2010

This article investigates the association between past lynchings (1882 to 1930) and contemporary law enforcement responses to hate crimes in the United States. While prior research indicates a positive correlation between past levels of lynching and current social control practices against minority groups, we posit an inverse relationship for facets of social control that are protective of minorities. Specifically, we hypothesize that contemporary hate crime policing and prosecution will be less vigorous where lynching was more prevalent prior to 1930. Analyses show that levels of past lynching are associated with three outcome variables germane to hate crime policing and prosecution, but the effect of lynching is partly contingent on the presence of a minority group threat. That is, past lynching combined with a sizeable black population largely suppresses (1) police compliance with federal hate crime law, (2) police reports of hate crimes that target blacks, and in some analyses (3) the likelihood of prosecuting a hate crime case. Our findings have implications for research on law and intergroup conflict, historical continuity in the exercise of state social control, and theories that emphasize minority group threat.
Deciding to Discipline: Race, Choice, and Punishment at the Frontlines of Welfare Reform
Authors: Schram Sanford F. , Soss Joe , Fording Richard C. , Houser Linda
Published: January 2010

Welfare sanctions are financial penalties applied to individuals who fail to comply with welfare program rules. Their widespread use reflects a turn toward disciplinary approaches to poverty management. In this article, we investigate how implicit racial biases and discrediting social markers interact to shape officials' decisions to impose sanctions. We present experimental evidence based on hypothetical vignettes that case managers are more likely to recommend sanctions for Latina and black clients—but not white clients—when discrediting markers are present. We triangulate these findings with analyses of state administrative data. Our results for Latinas are mixed, but we find consistent evidence that the probability of a sanction rises significantly when a discrediting marker (i.e., a prior sanction for noncompliance) is attached to a black rather than a white welfare client. Overall, our study clarifies how racial minorities, especially African Americans, are more likely to be punished for deviant behavior in the new world of disciplinary welfare provision.
The Strategy of Paired Comparison: Toward a Theory of Practice
Authors: Tarrow Sidney
Published: January 2010

Paired comparison is a strategy of political analysis that has been widely used but seldom theorized. This is because it is often assimilated to single-case studies or regarded as a degenerate form of multicase analysis. This article argues that paired comparison is a distinct strategy of comparative analysis with advantages that both single-case and multicase comparisons lack. After reviewing how paired comparison has been dealt with in comparative politics, the article details a number of its advantages and pitfalls, illustrates them through the work of four major pairing comparativists, and proposes what is distinct about the strategy. It closes with a number of suggestions for using paired comparison more effectively.
What Values Do Parents Want to Socialize in Their Children? The Role of Perceived Normative Values
Authors: Tam Kim-Pong , Lee Sau-Lai
Published: January 2010

This study concerns what values parents prefer in their children. Documenting similarity between the value profiles of parents and children, past studies implicitly assumed that parents want their children to acquire a direct, full copy of their personal values. Incorporating social psychology research on social norms, the authors obtained initial evidence from a study of 80 Singaporean mothers that, apart from referencing what they personally value, parents have ideas about what is normatively important in the society (perceived normative values), and they also want their children to acquire these values.This study highlights the need to consider the concept of norms in understanding familial socialization. Implications for cultural psychology research are also discussed.