bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Growing Conservatism in the United States?
Authors: Chafetz Janet Saltzman , Ebaugh Helen Rose Fuchs
Published: September 2012

In order to determine the extent to which the widespread perception of growing American conservativism is accurate, 36 NORC opinion items were examined in each survey year they appear from 1972 to 1980. Twenty-nine of these items factored on three dimensions: The Civil Liberties, Abortion, and Economic scales. A conservative trend was found only in the case of the Economic scale, and it peaked in 1977, subsequently remaining unchanged. Multiple regression analyses controlling for sex, religion, age, education, occupational prestige, and three residence measures were used to determine whether patterns of attitude change or stasis over time were general in the population or specific to certain categories of people. While ambiguous, findings generally fail to identify population segments uniquely characterized by growing conservatism, with the likely exception of Jews and possibly youth. However, conservative trends were noted in items that concerned problems that were most serious in the later years of the 1970s: Inflation, crime, and international “weakness.”
Sociologists Working in Applied Settings
Authors: DeMartini Joseph R.
Published: September 2012

The Pacific Sociological Association's New Fields of Employment Committee has compiled a directory of sociologists working in nonacademic settings. The survey data on which this directory is based are used here to explore the varieties of work experienced by applied sociologists in the PSA region. These data raise a number of issues yet to be explored, which have immediate importance for an understanding of the relationship between sociology and nonacademic career paths.
Poverty and Culture
Authors: Carmon Naomi
Published: September 2012

Oscar Lewis's theory of the “culture of poverty” was investigated by interviewing a population of poor young Israelis and their parents. Both the model—that is, the claim that poverty traits and norms in the four spheres of life (individual, familial, communal, and societal) appear simultaneously—and the cultural explanation of the continuity of poverty were rejected. Instead, the situational explanation is supported, according to which the poor are part of the general culture, but adaptation to their situation makes them adopt some other norms that they tend to relinquish when their situation improves. Some implications for social policy are discussed, especially the rejection of the argument that governmental assistance to the poor is dangerous because it leads to dependence, or—because of rising expectations—leads them to rebel.
Spatial Distribution of Opportunities and Magnitude of Migration
Authors: Freymeyer Robert H. , Ritchey P. Neal
Published: September 2012

This research investigates Stouffer's theory of intervening opportunities applied to disaggregated migration flows. Flows and opportunities are classified into functional categories composed of industrial types. Analysis of 1970 Public Use Sample data indicates that the theory of intervening opportunities does not represent all migration flows. The spatial distribution of opportunities influences more those migrant populations in the later stage of the production sequence, drawn to dense distributions of opportunities. The model's ineffectiveness for migrants engaged in functions more immediately dependent upon resource extraction possibly reflects the failure to consider nonfunctional opportunities and suggests the need for a more meaningful method of operationalizing the opportunities concepts.
Attitudes toward the Equal Rights Amendment
Authors: Gill Sandra K.
Published: September 2012

This research applies functionalist, Marxist, and feminist conceptualizations of class and status to an explanation of support of the Equal Rights Amendment. Multivariate analysis of a 1977 national sample indicates that for men, not socioeconomic standing but marriage to a housewife contributes to ERA opposition. Among women, those of lower socioeconomic standing are more opposed to the ERA, regardless of how class or status is measured. The findings suggest that for women, lower socioeconomic standing is as important as religious beliefs and political conservatism in shaping opposition to the ERA. Findings also suggest that a woman's position in the stratification system is based both on the class of her usual occupation, regardless of whether she currently works, and on the status of her husband or father.
Funeral Co-Op Members' Characteristics and Motives
Authors: Sommer Robert , Hess Katherine , Nelson Sandra
Published: September 2012

Memorial societies are movement organizations of the consumer cooperative movement concerned with funeral and death issues. A member survey in four California memorial societies disclosed that the typical member was a retired individual in his or her sixties, with a spouse in the same age range, Anglo, and college educated. The main reasons for joining the society were a desire to obtain a simple inexpensive funeral and reduce responsibilities for survivors. The contributions of memorial societies in consumer education, protection, and reform of the funeral industry are discussed.
Status Inconsistency and Marginality in Malaysia
Authors: Starr Paul D. , Straits Bruce C.
Published: September 2012

Drawing upon the theory of status inconsistency and the theory of the marginal man, several hypotheses regarding the consequences of occupying an unusual combination of statuses were formulated and tested with data from a large sample survey of Malaysian secondary school students. Hierarchical modeling of incomplete contingency tables revealed that between-group differences on nine dependent variables for 26 status-combinations of race, religion, and origin language were adequately explained by the independent effects of one or more of the statuses. No support was evident for nonadditive representations of inconsistency or marginality as consequences of stressful interaction.
Education and Changing Reproductive Behavior in Ghana
Authors: Dodoo F. Nii-Amoo
Published: September 2012

This study employs recent data from the 1988 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey to assess earlier speculation of fertility change in Ghana. The findings are cautiously optimistic. Although there is little evidence to support any hypothesis of a fertility turnaround in Ghana, there is some indication that continued increases in the proportion of women with some secondary education may yet induce a fertility transition in Ghana.
Theoretical Perspectives on Goffman: Critique and Commentary
Authors: Psathas George
Published: September 2012

This paper presents a critical examination of the papers by Colomy and Brown, West, and Ostrow. Each is considered in terms of how the author's work connects with topics addressed by Goffman and with his own theoretical and methodological approaches.
The Significance of Method
Authors: Szmatka Jacek , Lovaglia Michael J.
Published: September 2012

While the importance of metatheory for theory growth has received some attention from sociologists, the importance of methodological preferences has been overlooked. We examine an influential model of theory growth in social science. This model focuses on theory. We show how recent work in the sociology of science suggests an equally important place for methodological preference in guiding social research. Bringing in method allows us to recognize that what often passes for fundamental metatheoretical differences among subfields in sociology actually consists of minor squabbles over resource allocation. We show that not only does social theory grow strategically through theoretical research programs, but that the different forms of theoretical work in sociology serve to integrate the work of diverse researchers in a less efficient but still effective manner.
Collective Consciousness, Morphology, and Collective Representations: Durkheim's Sociology of Knowledge, 1894–1900
Authors: Némedi Dénes
Published: September 2012

This paper gives an overview of Durkheim's ideas concerning knowledge in the broad sense in the period indicated It shows that the notion of collective consciousness was abandoned, and the principle of morphological determinism was retained, largely for rhetorical purposes. Durkheim's contradictory statements attest to a slow drift away from the conception which divides society into two parts, one determining the other. It is shown that the notion of collective representation replaces earlier conceptualizations. Durkheim considered collective representations as constituting a realm of social facts—indeed, the social sphere par excellence. The notion of collective representations played a crucial role in Durkheim's attempts to demonstrate the independence of sociology.
Explanation and Essence in The Rules of Sociological Method and The Division of Labor in Society
Authors: Schmaus Warren
Published: September 2012

In The Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim tried to remove the ambiguity of The Division of Labor in Society that arose from his essentialist model of explanation, in which causes and effects are both necessary and sufficient conditions of each other. The resulting confusion of effects with causes made possible the materialist interpretation of the latter work, in which increasing population density was mistaken for the cause rather than the sign of changes in the social environment associated with an increase in specialization. The Rules tried to defeat this misinterpretation through clarifying such key concepts as cause, function, and social environment Durkheim's readers had failed to see that he had provided only a functional and not a causal explanation of the division of labor, which he took to be an adaptation to, not a result of, factors in the social rather than the physical environment.
Sounds of Power and Deference: Acoustic Analysis of Macro Social Constraints on Micro Interaction
Authors: Gregory Stanford W.
Published: September 2012

In Goffman's introduction to Interaction Ritual, he implores sociologists “to identify the countless patterns and natural sequences of behavior occurring whenever persons come into one another's immediate presence.” This article, in addressing Goffman's entreaty, amalgamates a number of sociological theories on interaction ritual from Durkheim and Goffman with others in contemporary literatures in the sociology of emotions and social psychology to describe a set of “patterns and natural sequences of behavior” imbedded in voices of interaction partners. These patterns are shown to establish an element of social structure, and this research describes an objective method of identifying and measuring this element that previously was known on a qualitative basis alone. A social status ordering pattern founded upon interpersonal deference and power relations is identified through analysis of acoustic energy levels in voices of interview partners. Nonverbal measures are performed using a dual-channel Fast Fourier Transform analyzer and results are explained using a carrier spectrum model. This report sets forth an interesting new way of objectively measuring the macro social constraints on micro interaction.
Social Exchange and Social System: A Parsonian Approach
Authors: La Valle Davide
Published: September 2012

Three problems have restricted the use by sociologists of social exchange theory. The first is the risk of utilitarianism, present in the perspective followed by Homans. The second problem is the inability of social exchange theory fully to achieve its goals: in particular, its failure to resolve the issue of money in social exchange. The third problem is social exchange theory's inability to pass from explanation of elementary behavior to that of social structures and institutions. This essay shows how these difficulties can be overcome by incorporating social exchange theory into a Parsonian framework. Development is given to Parsons's notion of influence as a generalized medium of exchange which circulates in the social system and which, for sociology, performs the same functions as money in economics. The analogies between the conceptual systems of economics and sociology go beyond the simple notion of exchange, which, in fact, constitutes a key concept with which to study the workings of the social system.
Status and Action: How Stratification Affects the Protest Participation of Young Adults
Authors: Paulsen Ronnelle
Published: September 2012

General patterns of stratification in protest participation are examined in this article using longitudinal data from a national sample of young adults. Weber's macrolevel conception of status is tied to a microlevel social psychological explanation of participation that includes Goffman's work on framing. The result of the macro-micro link is a comprehensive explanation of protest participation. Logistic regression analyses demonstrate the utility of the comprehensive model as a general explanation of status and action. Overall, the findings show higher socioeconomic levels, being black, being Jewish, or having a family member who is in a union increased the propensity for protest participation among young adults in the early 1970s. Gender differences in protest participation are not statistically significant. Discussion of how a general model must be altered to explain participation in specific movements is included.
Transactions in Symbolic Resources: A Resource Dependence Model of Congressional Deliberation
Authors: Johnson Diane Elizabeth
Published: September 2012

A modification of Stephen Toulmin's (1984) “field-specific reasoning” is applied to the text of deliberations in the United States Congress surrounding the foreign corrupt practices case 1975–1977. Findings suggest that Congress has developed an institutionalized mode of deliberation focused on developing argumentation capable of bringing limited sets of highly general and cathected goals (warrants) into equilibrium. The coalition-building capacity of symbolic resources is traced to their “embeddedness” in overlapping networks of issues, existing legislation, governmental organs, congressional committees, legislative careers, and mobilized (or mobilizable) constituencies. The analysis is used to formulate a resource dependence model of exchange in symbolic resources.
The Impact of Psychosocial Resources on Caregiver Burden and Depression: Sociological Variations on a Gerontological Theme
Authors: Clair Jeffrey Michael , Fitzpatrick Kevin M. , La Gory Mark E.
Published: September 2012

This article uses a psychosocial resources model to examine the distress process for a sample of 110 primary caregivers of geriatric outpatients. Two versions of the psychosocial resources model are tested—the mediation/deterioration and buffering model. For both models, we assess the role of social support and internal locus of control (mastery) in reducing the negative impact that life stressors have on caregiver burden and depressive symptomatology. Fifty-one percent of the sample are at the threshold for possible depression, indicative of the challenging circumstances of caregiving. One important finding is that caregiver burden and depression have significantly different correlates. Specifically, burden is primarily a function of chronic stressors (ADL) while depression is basically the result of acute stressors (caregiver life events). In addition, this psychosocial resources approach finds no support for the buffering model of caregiver depression.
A Study of Coalitions among HIV/AIDS Service Organizations
Authors: Penner Susan
Published: September 2012

This is a study of 89 community-based nonprofit organizations in northern California that provide prevention and care services to persons at risk of or infected by HIV. Executive directors responded to a telephone and mail survey concerning community HIV consortia mandated by the Title II provisions of the Ryan White CARE Act Mandated coalitions are hypothesized to increase the power of the mandating agency over the member organizations; increase interorganizational awareness, interdependence, domain consensus, and cooperation; provide benefits for consortium members; address gaps in community services; influence the division of labor; encourage interorganizational standardization; and stabilize resource exchanges. Although the hypotheses regarding power and stability are not supported, HIV consortia appear to increase organizational interdependence and service-system efficiency. Implications of these findings for theory, research, and policy development are discussed.
Inscribing Bodies, Inscribing the Future: Gender, Sex, and Reproduction in Outer Space
Authors: Casper Monica J. , Moore Lisa Jean
Published: September 2012

This paper examines the ways in which gender, sex, and reproduction in the U.S. space program are represented as social, cultural, and scientific problems. In 1992, a married couple served on the crew of a U.S. space shuttle, prompting a flurry of public curiosity and controversy over the possibility of “celestial intimacy” between these astronauts. Ironically, countless missions prior to this historic flight had not raised similar issues of human desire and fecundity, attesting to the “legitimacy” of the heterosexual paradigm. Drawing on a range of data sources and theoretical perspectives, we analyze discourses and practices through which female bodies in particular are constructed as problematic, a gendered process which, in turn, renders sexuality and reproduction in space as controversial. We argue that contemporary institutional, cultural, and scientific accounts of gender, sex, and reproduction in space inscribe both contemporary and future scenarios, with potentially negative implications.
Crime and Unemployment: Effects across Age and Race Categories
Authors: Smith M. Dwayne , Devine Joel A. , Sheley Joseph F.
Published: September 2012

Despite numerous studies, the nature of the unemployment-crime relationship remains controversial. The relationship should be clearer for some segments of the population than for others, but is obscured by the use of general population data. Exploring this possibility through the use of a model developed by Cantor and Land (1985), a time-series analysis is conducted to determine relationships among age- and race-specific rates of unemployment and corresponding rates of arrests for homicide, robbery, and burglary for the United States during the period 1959–1987. Negative criminal opportunity-related and positive criminal motivation-related effects are found at the aggregate level, but these vary among age groups and are more evident for white than for African American arrest rates. Further, these effects hold even when controlling for the potential influence of other variables identified in recent research as having an impact on the unemployment-crime relationship.
Social Structure and Emotion
Authors: Thamm Robert
Published: September 2012

This paper explores the possibility of developing a general and formal social-action theory of labeling emotions. The theory is based upon the assumption that there is an underlying formal structural social-action system of expectations and sanctions that significantly influence how actors label their emotions. Some permutations of the four basic expectation-sanction states are elaborated, hypothetically labeled, and tested over a 14-year period. The “constructionist” view of the necessity of a cultural context in labeling emotions is challenged by removing the “moral” content from the survey instrument. The findings indicate that the formal model, devoid of content, is effective in differentiating emotion labels. The tests yielded promising results for developing a comprehensive and formal mapping of emotions. Taxonomical extrapolations of the theory are suggested and some further applications and needed research are discussed.
The Contours of Asian Professional, Technical and Kindred Work Immigration, 1965–1988
Authors: Liu John M.
Published: September 2012

This paper examines the nature of Asian professional, technical, and kindred (PTK) immigration to the United States since 1965. While many recent studies have noted the significant increase of Asian PTK immigration since 1965, analyses of who these PTKs are have been lacking. To address this omission, this paper focuses on three aspects of Asian PTK immigration: (1) the conditions underlying emigration from Asia; (2) the occupational composition of Asian PTKs; and (3) the impact of this immigration on understanding Asian American communities. The paper examines the patterns of PTK immigration from the Philippines, three Chinese-speaking regions, India, and Korea. The published reports and public-use data of the United States Naturalization and Immigration Service (1972–1986) are the primary source for this examination. Analysis of specific immigration patterns show the similarities and contrasts embedded in the Asian American experience.
Public Opinion toward Equal Opportunity Issues: The Role of Attitudinal and Demographic Forces among African Americans
Authors: Fine Terri Susan
Published: September 2012

This paper explores African American opinion toward equal opportunity issues using a demographic-attitudinal focus. Previous explorations have focused on black-white opinion comparisons. In this analysis, attitudinal forces, particularly core values, are identified as playing an influential role in policy support. Further, these patterns of values tend to reflect those expressed by whites on similar questions: the more individualistic and conservative one is, the less likely one is to support government intervention on African Americans behalf. In responding to questions concerning governmental responsibility, higher SES African Americans express stronger support than do their lower SES counterparts. This finding suggests that those who are experiencing “glass ceilings” are concerned about government guarantees of equal opportunity, despite their individualistic beliefs. This is inconsistent with previous explorations that analyze these beliefs among disadvantaged populations. The implications of social changes in the African American community and the impact of these changes on opinion dynamics are discussed.
Teetering at the Top of the Ladder: The Experience of Citizen Group Participants in Alternative Dispute Resolution Processes
Authors: Wondolleck Julia M. , Manring Nancy J. , Crowfoot James E.
Published: September 2012

Citizen groups that participate in alternative dispute resolution processes have overcome many of the barriers described in Sherry Arnstein's classic article, “A Ladder of Citizen Participation.” A well-structured collaborative process can remedy some of the imbalances and other stumbling blocks inherent in traditional forums, broadening the issues considered as well as the potential solutions. At the top of the ladder, there exists a three-runged extension of choices. First citizens must make the strategic choice whether or not to participate in the dispute resolution process. Second, if they choose to participate, citizens must then determine how to do so effectively. Citizen representatives can significantly influence the outcome of a negotiation if they pay attention to the critical components comprising the dispute settlement process and ensure that these are satisfactory at the outset. They must also maintain effective communication with their constituencies. At the third rung, citizen groups confront the need for continued involvement, both to ensure implementation of any agreements reached, as well as to capitalize on the productive working relationships and opportunities for further influence provided by their participation in this process.
Getting Ahead: Social Mobility among the Urban Poor
Authors: Venkatesh Sudhir Alladi
Published: September 2012

One of the most dramatic findings of the contemporary scholarship on the urban poor has been the extent to which this population has been affected by the departure of manufacturing, and industrial, employment from inner city areas. The effects of this have included the sharp rise in unemployment and the increase in the number of individuals on welfare rolls. Although writers such as Charles Murray and Lawrence Mead have argued that with the growth, and entrenchment, of welfare an attitude of “dependency” has arisen, more recent empirical research does not substantiate these claims of dependency and “shiftlessness” among the urban poor; these latter studies have raised more general questions concerning individual employment histories including attempts to reenter positions of stable and meaningful employment. The article addresses such questions by examining the responses of 27 black males, the majority of whom were out of work and/or receiving public assistance, to open-ended questions concerning their experiences in the labor force and their assesments of the contemporary structure of social mobility. In brief, the conclusions reached in the examination of these interviews point to the numerous forces—racial, spatial, and political as well as strictly economic—which have come into play in shaping their past and present.
Earnings Differences among the Mexican-Origin Population in the United States: Nativity and Citizenship Explanations
Authors: Dodoo F. Nii-Amoo , Pinon Gonzalo
Published: September 2012

We use data from the June 1986 Current Population Survey to investigate nativity and citizenship differences in earnings within the Mexican-origin population in the United States. There is no evidence of any “costs” of nativity or citizenship status. Rather, the existing variation appears to be more than explained by the distribution of earnings-related endowments. In fact, there is evidence that immigrants are better rewarded for their lower endowments. A possible explanation is that the Mexican-origin population is seen as homogeneous by employers, who therefore compensate individuals similarly, regardless of their respective endowments.
Employment Status of Married Women in Hong Kong
Authors: Ngo Hang-Yue
Published: September 2012

This paper examines the choices married women in Hong Kong make concerning their employment status. We attempt to relate such choices to wives' role constraints in the family. It is hypothesized that, given their primary responsibilities for child care and domestic labor, married women are likely to choose an employment status that best accomodates their familial obligations. The analysis of recent census data supports this expectation. Waged employment and self-employment are found to be in conflict with women's domestic responsibilities, whereas outworking and unpaid work in family enterprises are not. The last two employment statuses are characterized by a higher degree of work flexibility and, thus, working wives are in a better position to balance the demands of family and paid work.
Gender, Work, and Culture: Why the Industrial Revolution Came Early to England but Late to China
Authors: Goldstone Jack A.
Published: September 2012

Neither technical inability nor population/resource imbalances prevented China from developing mechanized cotton-spinning. However, restrictions on the deployment of female labor outside the home, promulgated by Confucian ethics and enforced by the state as part of social control, prevented widespread adoption of machinery requiring extra-household use of female labor. Under such conditions—which did not obtain in Europe, where female wage labor had long been used for service outside of natal households—factory production could not compete with household production.
Gender and Supervision: The Legitimation of Authority in Relationship to Task
Authors: Miller Joanne
Published: September 2012

Most theories of bureaucratic organization legitimize hierarchical authority in terms of the economic and administrative imperatives of the production process. Rationales for specific levels of supervision emphasize the inherent nature of task activity (especially job complexity) and its related human-capital and organizational requirements. Personal attributes and the social differentiation of labor in the workplace are explicitly outside the legal-rational framework legitimizing the system of governance and job configuration. This study examines the relationship between job complexity and supervision for male and female workers and the economic and social factors that underlie the configuration of task and authority relations. The analysis suggests dramatic differences in the rationalization of work arrangements by gender—especially in the extent to which social status influences supervisory practices. Further, there appear to be over-time differences in the labor-market processes structuring progressions of jobs and thus normative work arrangements. The findings challenge common assumptions about bureaucratic authority and highlight the role of supervision in labor segmentation within the workplace.
Connective Leadership: Female Leadership Styles in the 21st-Century Workplace
Authors: Lipman-Blumen Jean
Published: September 2012

This paper describes an integrative leadership model, “connective leadership,” which combines the traditional masculine American ego-ideal with additional female role behaviors more appropriate for an interdependent world. Based on the L-BL Achieving Styles Model, connective leadership emphasizes connecting individuals to their own, as well as others‘, tasks and ego drives. Achieving styles are defined as the characteristic behaviors individuals use to achieve their goals. The Achieving Styles Model includes three sets of achieving styles (direct, instrumental, and relational), each subsuming three individual styles, resulting in a full complement of nine distinct achieving styles. Gender differences in achieving styles are reported and related to the connective leadership paradigm.
Reincorporation and the American State in South Korea: The Textile Industry in the 1950s
Authors: McNamara Dennis
Published: September 2012

The development of South Korea's cotton manufacturing industry during the First Republic (1948–1960) is examined as a way to better understand the process of “reincorporation” of a peripheral state into the postwar capitalist world system. An examination of the character of cotton manufacturing in South Korea, and the role played by the United States in reincorporating the former Japanese colony into an American-dominated world system, suggests the process was largely one of “constrained bureaucratic expansion.” The study illustrates how the earlier process of incorporation under Japanese hegemony shaped subsequent reincorporation under American suzerainty. Additionally, the analysis underscores the importance of geopolitical factors, and the interaction of the local situation with the world system in shaping the process of reincorporation.
Geopolitics of the Chinese Communist Party in the Twentieth Century
Authors: Li Jieli
Published: September 2012

Geopolitical theory is employed to address the question of why the Chinese Communist Party-state persists, despite Western pressures stemming from the suppression of student demonstrators in “Tienanmen Square” in 1989. As the theory postulates, macro dynamic forces revolving around the geopolitical processes are crucial to the resource mobilization and legitimacy of the state. The entire history of the Chinese Communist Party is reviewed in order to document the conclusion that changes in the geopolitical position of the Party are associated with periods of internal strength and weakness. Since 1979, the Chinese Communist Party-state has been increasingly favored by geopolitical circumstances, thereby facilitating its internal strength even in the face of Western pressures, potential for internal dissent, and collapse of the Soviet empire. As long as this favorable geopolitical trend continues, the Chinese Communist Party will likely exist as a ruling political force in China.
A Cross-Species Application of Bott's Hypothesis on Role Segregation and Social Networks
Authors: Maryanski Alexandra , Ishii-Kuntz Masako
Published: September 2012

Elizabeth Bott's hypothesis that the degree of role-segregation between husbands and wives is a function of the density in family networks is applied to a review of social relations among representative species from seven genera of Old World primates. On the whole, the hypothesis is supported. In seeking to apply Bott's ideas to primate research, her theory is formalized and stated more abstractly, with the result that its structural dynamics are highlighted. These structural processes revolve around three phenomena: (a) the negative causal effect of network overlap on density of each actor's networks; (b) the positive causal effect of network density on the degree of social support provided by, and a normative elaboration of, each actor's networks; and (c) the causal effect of social support and normative elaboration on the segregation of each actor's activities.
Inequality in the Earnings of Self-Employed African and Asian Americans
Authors: Boyd Robert L.
Published: September 2012

Self-employed African Americans in the United States earn much less than do their Asian counterparts. This study examines the sources of this earnings inequality. Explanatory variables include the human capital and family relations of individuals and the demographic, ecological, and labor-market characteristics of the communities (SMSAs) in which individuals reside. Results indicate that self-employed African Americans have lower earnings because they tend to have lower levels of human capital than do self-employed Asians. The results also show that, at the community level, increases in the relative size of the African American population have a positive effect on the earnings of self-employed African Americans, whereas increases in the relative size of the Asian population have a negative effect on the earnings of self-employed Asians. This finding suggests that increases in relative group size enlarge the entrepreneurial niches of African Americans but inhibit the ability of Asians to exploit their entrepreneurial niches.
Foundations of Human Ecology
Authors: Catton William R.
Published: September 2012

As with other sciences, ecology's conceptual foundations emerged long after its origin. Clarification of these foundations should enable human ecology to provide understanding of the fact that industrial civilization causes ecosystem breakdowns. Arthur Tansley's reasons for superseding the community concept and coining the term “ecosystem” need to be known. Sociologists have widely misunderstood the term. Their “ecological complex” is not synonymous with it. Tinkering with ensuing lists of variables can be highly misleading. Human ecology should be the study of whatever ecosystems involve humans. Until we put behind us the unnerving impact of inappropriate criticism, rejoin bioecology enough to get over thinking of succession as invader-driven, and recognize seral stages for what they are, sociologists will fail to comprehend the ineluctable difference between industrialism and ecological climax. Available literature can facilitate sociologists' necessary retooling.
Training in the Workplace: Continuity and Change
Authors: Hodson Randy , Hooks Gregory , Rieble Sabine
Published: September 2012

Rapid changes are occurring in the organization of production in advanced industrial societies. These changes result from new technologies, increased competition, and new production techniques. Increased training for workers has been identified as essential for remaining competitive in this rapidly changing environment. Research on the organization of work suggests that training is most likely to occur where workers are organized into internal labor markets that cultivate and retain their skills and is less likely to occur in organizations which rely on secondary labor markets. Our study of 20 manufacturing plants supports the hypothesis that approaches to training are strongly differentiated by the division between enterprises with and without internal labor markets. Training for advanced technologies and contemporary production techniques appears to grow out of existing institutionalized internal labor markets. Where such labor markets do not exist, training is less likely to occur or is superficial in nature. The effects of increased training thus do not appear to have “trickled down” into production systems employing less-skilled labor. Institutional strategies associated with a reliance on a low-wage labor force create barriers to the extension of training into new sectors of production. The effects of increased training thus may be quite localized and may serve to increase rather than diminish existing divisions in the labor force.
Gender Inequality: Sorting Out the Effects of Race/Ethnicity and Gender in the Anglo Male-Latino Female Earnings Gap
Authors: Avalos Manuel
Published: September 2012

One of the most significant features of the U.S. economy in the 20th Century is the persistent earnings gap between men and women. The gap in earnings between Anglo men and women of color has also been an enduring featue of the U.S. labor market. Since 1949, the earnings gap between Latino women and Anglo men has remained virtually the same (53%–55%), even though Latinos have steadily increased their labor force participation at a faster rate than any other female group. While this form of gender inequality has received considerable attention, only a few studies have focused on the earnings of Latino women.

This exploratory study tests the ability of a human capital model to explain earnings inequalities between Latino women (Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban) and Anglo men. Using regression decomposition analyses, we also examine how the factors of race/ethnicity and gender affect the earnings differences between men and women. Our findings indicate that the human capital model accounts for less than 25% of the earnings difference between our male and female groups. When we control for the net effect of ethnicity holding gender constant, we find that the human capital model accounts for 83% of the earnings difference between Anglo women and racial/ethnic women, suggesting that gender is an important predictor in explaining the earnings gap.

Given these results, we offer other possible explanations (e.g., economic restructuring) for the persistence of the inequality of earnings between Latino women and Anglo men. We conclude with some policy suggestions for alleviating this labor market problem.
Truth and Goodness: Does the Sociology of Inequality Promote Social Betterment?
Authors: Cancian Francesca M.
Published: September 2012

The historical development of sociology is outlined, from (1) close ties with social reform in the early 20th century, to (2) the divorce of sociology from social reform in the 1930s through the 1960s, when the “pure science” model dominated, to (3) the domination of the “unmasking inequality” model since the 1970s. I argue for a “reducing inequality” model. A content analysis of articles on inequality in three leading journals shows a shift in the 1970s to a structuralist perspective linked to unmasking inequality. But research that unmasks inequality still ignores social reform because career advancement depends on following the pure science model. Case studies of 12 sociologists illustrate strategies for combining research with social betterment.
Introduction: Immigration and Incorporation
Authors: Rumbaut Rubén G.
Published: September 2012

In at least one sense the “American century” is ending much as it had begun: the United States has again become a nation of immigrants, and it is again being transformed in the process. But the diversity of the “new immigration” to the United States over the past three decades differs in many respects from that of the last period of mass immigration in the first three decades of the century. The immigrants themselves differ greatly in their social class and national origins, and so does the American society, polity, and economy that receives them—raising questions about their modes of incorporation, and challenging conventional accounts of assimilation processes that were framed during that previous epoch. The dynamics and future course of their adaptation are open empirical questions—as well as major questions for public policy, since the outcome will shape the future contours of American society. Indeed, as the United States undergoes its most profound demographic transformation in a century; as inexorable processes of globalization, especially international migrations from Asia, Africa, and the Americas, diversify still further the polyethnic composition of its population; and as issues of immigration, race and ethnicity become the subject of heated public debate, the question of incorporation, and its serious study, becomes all the more exigent. The essays in this special issue of Sociological Perspectives tackle that subject from a variety of analytical vantages and innovative approaches, covering a wide range of groups in major areas of immigrant settlement. Several of the papers focus specifically on Los Angeles and New York City, where, remarkably, fully a quarter of the total U.S. immigrant population resides.
Geopolitics, Economic Niches, and Gendered Social Capital among Recent Caribbean Immigrants in New York City
Authors: Grasmuck Sherri , Grosfoguel Ramón
Published: September 2012

This article examines the different socio-economic consequences of migration for Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, Jamaicans and Haitians in the context of New York City. Migration outcomes are structured by a range of influences, including geopolitics, class selectivity, de-industrialization, ethnic niches and the timing of settlement. Emphasis is placed on the importance of variations in the household structures and gender strategies of these groups for understanding their different socioeconomic situations in the 1990s. Differences in the labor force participation patterns of the women in these communities and the employment traditions upon which they draw have significant consequences for the well-being of the five groups. These cases also question the common assumption that high rates of female headed-households inevitably lead to high rates of poverty, a pattern found among Dominicans and Puerto Ricans but not among Jamaicans and Haitians.
Transnationalism and Vocabularies of Motive in International Migration: The Case of Israelis in the United States
Authors: Gold Steven J.
Published: September 2012

The great body of recent work on international migration has generally considered immigration as a permanent movement and explored the phenomenon from either a micro or macro perspective. Transnationalism offers a new model that integrates these dichotomized views. This paper uses the perspective of transnationalism to explore the motives of Israeli immigrants in the U.S. Integrating insights from both micro and world systems perspectives, findings emphasize the importance of personal and macro-level networks as well as Israelis' international culture and experience as both facilitating and giving meaning to their presence in the United States.
In Search of the New Second Generation: Alternative Strategies for Identifying Second Generation Children and Understanding Their Acquisition of English
Authors: Oropesa R.S. , Landale Nancy S.
Published: September 2012

Social scientists are devoting increasing attention to second-generation children for insights into the long-term consequences of immigration for American society. However, there is considerable disagreement over the operational criteria that should be used to determine membership in the second generation. Using the Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1990 U.S. Census, this study examines several issues. First, the implications of different operational criteria for descriptive analyses that focus on the size and composition of the second-generation child population are considered. We then assess whether different operational strategies have implications for multivariate analyses, especially those that focus on language skills. The results indicate that a key decision for most studies, except those that focus on socioeconomic composition, is how foreign-born children are classified. Foreign-born children should not be combined with native-born children on the grounds that they comprise the “de facto” second generation. Instead, researchers should make distinctions between the “decimal” generations to avoid obscuring diversity within the child population.
Spatial Processes and the Duality of Church and Faith: A Simmelian Perspective on U.S. Denominational Growth, 1900–1930
Authors: Blau Judith R. , Redding Kent , Davis Walter R. , Land Kenneth C.
Published: September 2012

With information on all U.S. denominations of nontrivial sizes, this paper examines various spatial and temporal prcesses underlying religious expansion between 1900 and 1930. Simmel's provocative and complex essay, “Soziologie des Raumes” (1903) poses the central paradox that religion is both faith—cultural constellations of beliefs—and church—social associations that are spatially situated. This distinction helps to clarify differences among denominations with regard to the extent to which they exert strong demands on their members, and leads to predictions about variation in denominational growth rates, in spatial dynamics, and in the extent to which denominations accommodate to contextual heterodoxy (diversity) or not. In these terms, we re-examine the debate about whether adherence rates increase in competitive markets (under conditions of diversity) or under monopoly conditions (under conditions of little diversity). We finally suggest that Simmel's theoretical emphasis on spatial and temporal dynamics has relevance for understanding the nature of mobilization efforts of various kinds, not only by religious groups, but also by those that organize social and political movements
The Social Context of Men's and Women's Job Search Ties: Membership in Voluntary Organizations, Social Resources, and Job Search Outcomes
Authors: Beggs John J. , Hurlbert Jeanne S.
Published: September 2012

We address a neglected issue in the literature on social resources by asking how one aspect of the context of searcher-contact ties, shared membership in voluntary organizations, affects social resources and, through them, job search outcomes. We also ask whether these effects differ by gender. Our results show that using a contact with whom a job searcher shared membership in a fraternal/service organization decreased the probability that the searcher-contact tie was weak, but membership in these organizations and in church and recreational organizations increased the probability that the tie was gender homophilous. Both church and business voluntary organizational contexts had a positive effect on the use of a contact who was significantly older. Finally, for women, we find a negative effect of shared membership in school organizations on the probability that the searcher-contact tie was weak and, for men, a positive effect of business organizational context on the probability that the tie was gender homophilous. We also find that voluntary organizational contexts exert indirect effects on search outcomes through these tie and contact characteristics, but these effects depend not only upon the type of voluntary organizational context and the gender of the searcher, but also upon the type of social resources through which the effects are exerted. We suggest that the structure of voluntary organizations may underlie these effects. In our conclusions, we examine the implications of these analyses for studying this and other tie contexts, for understanding resource-building, and for studying the role of social networks in individual action.