bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CULTURAL ACTION AND HEROIN ADDICTION
Authors: Gerstein Dean R.
Published: January 2007

This paper analyzes the contemporary culture of heroin addiction in the United States, using a revised portion of the general theory of action. The concept of a cultural action system is introduced and somewhat reformulated. The micro evolution of heroin culture from its generating conditions in inner‐city street youth culture is reviewed. An LIGA analysis of the system of heroin culture is presented. There is a summary with concluding remarks.
Sanction Situations and Sanction Interaction Concepts for Action Theory*
Authors: COOKE Geoffrey
Published: January 2007

This paper proposes two analytical concepts that can be derived from and added to the theory of action. Using these concepts, a systematic exploration of the relationship between the pattern variables and the generalised media is given. A matrix of sanction situations generates four ideal‐types of sanction interaction in which actors' orientations are aligned and twelve with misaligned orientations. A link with the joint action of symbolic interactionism is suggested and the use of a more developed concept of interaction recommended.
Cognitive Mapping: Gender Differences in the Perception of Community
Authors: STONEALL Linda
Published: January 2007

The concept of cognitive mapping as drawn from sociological phenomenology is used to clarify the complexity of the concept of community. Fifty residents of a Midwestern rural area were asked to drawn maps of their community. The maps reveal individual differences in the perception of a community and a tendency for the perception of community to vary by gender. Where the activities within a community tend to be segregated, there will also tend to be different viewpoints or cognitive maps of the community.
The Interaction Between Role Structures and Self‐Conceptions in Fostering Different Types of Self‐Esteem in Innovative and Traditional Elementary Schools*
Authors: Marolla Joseph A. , Franks David D.
Published: January 2007

A two‐dimensional model of inner and outer self‐esteem is discussed wherein inner self‐esteem is hypothesized to be an outcome of self‐evaluations of performance in prominent role identities. Outer self‐esteem is hypothesized to be related to self‐evaluations of both prominent and nonprominent role identities. The research context is a comparison of the different processes facilitating self‐esteem in innovative schools (emphasis on student‐initiated activities and control) and traditional (emphasis on pre‐determined curriculum and teacher‐administrator control).

Data across school type demonstrate a modest correlation between positive self‐evaluations of performance in prominent role identities and both types of self‐esteem. The data suggest that high evaluation of performance in nonprominent role identities is related to outer self‐esteem but not to inner self‐esteem. Further empirical clarification of the concepts was established by viewing the relationships within school type. In the innovative schools both types of self‐esteem were predominantly related to positive evaluations of prominent role identities, whereas in the traditional schools both types of self‐esteem were related to both performance in prominent and nonprominent role identities. Thus the theoretical distinction gained partial support while the process of gaining self‐esteem was shown to be essentially different between alternate school structures. Controls for social desirability, race, sex, and father's occupation did not change these findings.
Marital Power, Roles, and Solidarity and Husbands' and Wives' Appraisals of Self and Other*
Authors: Lundgren David C. , Jergens Virginia H. , Gibson Jay L.
Published: January 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate conditions underlying the social self process within marital relationships. Two hypotheses were tested in a mail questionnaire survey of 165 couples: 1) Mead and Cooley's hypothesis that self‐appraisal is positively associated with other's view of self, and 2) an extension of this hypothesis suggesting that the association between self‐appraisal and spouse's appraisal is greater, and the appraisals are more favorable, when marital power is shared, household role responsibilities are shared, and marital solidarity is high. The first hypothesis was supported: self‐appraisal was significantly correlated with other's view of self. The second hypothesis was strongly supported for solidarity: the greater the couple's solidarity, the more favorable and the more similar were self‐appraisal and other's appraisal of self. Only partial support was found for a positive association of shared marital power and roles with appraisals of self and other.
Voluntary Organizations and Attitudes Toward the Community*
Authors: Hougland James G.
Published: January 2007

Voluntary organizations have long been believed to have important effects on the attitudes of their members, but the relatively few attempts to investigate such effects have produced inconsistent results. This paper uses a statewide proportional sample to investigate relationships between (a) membership and participation in ten types of voluntary organizations and (b) two types of attitudes about the community. After individual and community characteristics were controlled, experience with voluntary organizations was found to explain about five percent of the variance in respondents' perceptions of their ability to influence community affairs, but relationships with willingness to leave the community were considerably weaker. Somewhat stronger relationships were found when the analysis was confined to respondents for whom voluntary organizations or community participation was particularly salient. Overall, this paper indicates that the impact of voluntary organizations on community attitudes is weaker than earlier theoretical statements have suggested. However, it also shows that the relationship varies according to type of organization, salience of participation for the respondent, respondents' sociodemographic characteristics, and the specific community attitude being investigated.
Correlates of Mental Hospital Admission Status
Authors: Jan Lee‐jan , Miller Kent S.
Published: January 2007

The legal admission status (voluntary v. involuntary) of patients admitted to a state mental hospital was compared with the patients' willingness to enter the hospital, social resources, dangerousness, and management within the hospital. The legal admission status was found to be strongly associated with a willingness to enter, but there is much continued resistance and coercion associated with hospital admission. Indices of social power were not related to legal admission status with the exception that blacks were disproportionately admitted involuntarily.

The only significant finding about legal status and judgments of dangerousness was that people judged to be dangerous to self were more frequently admitted as voluntary. Legal status was not significantly related to time prior to gaining ground privileges or discharge from the hospital.
Durkheim's Concept of Anomie: Some Observations*
Authors: Willis Cecil L.
Published: January 2007

Most interpretations of anornie emphasize the normative aspect. However, Durkheim viewed anomie as involving more than a lack of norms or a conflict of norms. Discussions in The Division of Labor in Society and Suicide show that according to Durkheim the primary threats to social solidarity in modern societies are weak or ineffective structural constraints on individualistic needs and desires. In modern industrialized societies the primary mode of social control is not a set of rules or norms, although they do have a cohesive function, but the development of solidary, interdependent social relationships among diverse individuals. Crucial in the development of solidary social relationships is the rate and nature of social change. For modern or modernizing societies the most important form of social change is industrialization. If industrialization is too rapid then the likelihood of social inequality, economic crises, and family disruption is greater. New and solidary forms of social relationships are not allowed to develop properly. This results in weak constraints on individualistic needs and desires that have been “excited” by the industrialization.
Notes on Prostitution in Israel
Authors: Cnaan Ram A.
Published: January 2007

The State of Israel is witnessing a significant growth in the scope and variety of pfostitution. This change began more than thirty years ago but became a recognized social problem only in the late sixties. Adopting the idea that prostitution is an unavoidable aspect of any comprehensive society, this article summarizes the trends in Israeli prostitution. The viewpoint is supported historically and empirically that Israel, like other comprehensive societies, had to pay some social cost for political and economic independence. This cost is, in part, the existence of certain deviances such as prostitution.
A Split Labor Market: Mexican Farm Workers in the Southwest*
Authors: Howell Frances Baseden
Published: January 2007

Edna Bonacich's split‐labor‐market theory is used to explore the dynamics of agriculture in the southwest. This theory helps to explain the following developments: (1) importation of foreign contract workers; (2) passage of farm labor legislation; (3) development and implementation of mechanized equipment; (4) expansion of the “runaway shop”; and (5) a decrease in the number of independent farmers concurrent with an increase in large‐scale corporate farms. One additional factor having a major impact on the industry is (6) the farm worker movement, the United Farm Workers (UFW) and the Arizona Farm Workers (AFW) being two of the most familiar examples.
Black Women Achievers: An Isolated Elite
Authors: Benjamin Lois
Published: January 2007

This report deals with the marginality of upwardly mobile black women and the sociological consequences of their marginal status in contributing to their social isolation and their mate selection chances. I examined two ideal types of women achievers, Type A and Type B, and the way in which they respond to their alienation.
Labor Market Structure and Career Occupational Status Mobility: A Theoretical Model*
Authors: Miller Robert K.
Published: January 2007

Sociological explanations of career or intragenerational occupational status mobility generally have not taken into explicit account the effects of labor market structure. Rooted in structural‐functionalist sociological theory or neoclassical economic theories of the labor market, models typically misrepresent the process of individual occupational status mobility, primarily by including only individual characteristics. Dual labor market theory is introduced, direct as well as indirect effects of labor market structure on career occupational status mobility are outlined, and a theoretical model is presented. It is hypothesized that labor market structure will have direct effects on opportunities for career occupational status mobility that are independent of the effects of individual characteristics. Additional indirect effects are suggested: through their effects on social network structures, labor markets operate as job opportunity information filters.
The Positivism‐Humanism Debate in Sociology: A Reconsideration*
Authors: Tibbetts Paul
Published: January 2007

This paper examines the claim that positivism and humanism are mutually exclusive alternatives to the study and amelioration of human society. In the first part of the paper, eight theses normally associated with twentieth‐century positivism are documented and explicated at length, ranging from the verification doctrine and the unified‐language thesis to an emphasis on the nomological‐deductive model of explanation and the fact‐value distinction. In the second part the claims associated with a humanistic sociology are then examined, particularly those concerning scientism, the value‐laden character of all scientific inquiry, and the relation between science and human emancipation. In the third part of the paper a distinction is between those claims which were definitive of positivism and those which were either peripheral or later amended by the leading positivists. It is then argued that a number of the criticisms leveled against positivism such as the latter's supposed affirmation of strict determinism, of scientism, and that normative considerations, being nondescriptive in character, are of little consequence, are entirely unfounded criticisms. Such claims were never an explicit part of the positivist program. On the contrary, it is argued that both contemporary positivism and humanism are motivated by parallel ideals of enlightenment‐through‐science, by a concern with reliable social knowledge as the basis for rational public policies, and—to quote Hempel—with “the broadening of our (moral) horizons.”
Criterion Indexing: The Use of Criteria in the Construction of Motive
Authors: DeGregory Jerry L.
Published: January 2007

Recent developments in the literature employing the alignment metaphor have either left critical features of motive presentation unattended or have called attention to their neglect. The following four problems are emergent: (1) a relative lack of attention to presentations of motive as complex, multi‐party performances, (2) a need to specify alignment strategies vis a'vis critical standards of judgment, (3) a neglect of the case‐specific statements elaborated by actors in the course of situated presentations, and (4) a need to reconceptualize cultural elements in terms of their operation at the level of verbal interaction. The concept criterion indexing/counter indexing addresses each of these problems.
A Change in Academic Environmental Thought: From Paradigms to Ideology*
Authors: Satterfield Douglas R.
Published: January 2007

In the past several centuries, our culture has been permeated by the idea that growth and progress are the hallmarks by which to judge the world. Today this ideology appears to be declining in proximate proportion to the rise of an environmental ideology (environmental paradigms in academic literature). It is shown that in the process of becoming ideological, these paradigms (the antithesis of the progress ideology) have become more convincing to those both inside and outside academia by adding an understanding to our past, present, and future. It is proposed that major ideologies are, unlike the progress ideology, structurally similar, and that academic environmental paradigms duplicate this dominant ideological pattern. This dominant pattern theme is demonstrated by first contrasting the concepts paradigm and ideology, illustrating how they merge conceptually, and verifying the similarity of two historically major ideologies, Marxism and Christianity, with environmental paradigms.
Redistributive Goals versus Distributive Politics: Social Equity Limits in Environmental and Appropriate Technology Movements*
Authors: Schnaiberg Allan
Published: January 2007

Contrary to conventional social problems models that depict environmental problems as arising from either “sin” or “error,” such problems are rooted in the modern treadmill of production.

Following the classification of Theodore Lowi, recent environmental movement organizations appear to have emphasized a social redistributive rhetoric (sin), but have engaged in practices of distributive politics (error). As a result, even with the advent of the “radical” appropriate technology movement in the mid 1970s, the central issues relate to the forces of production, with far less attention given to the social relations of modern production.

The explanation for this disparity lies partly in the substantial decline of a participatory base for social movement organizations in the 1970s. Hence the advent of appriate technology movement organizations has raised competition for limited membership pools, inducing older organizations to become more diffuse in their ideologies in order to maintain and/or attract constituents. Second, the social context makes successful redistributive policies less likely, encouraging movement organizations to find successes in more decentralized distributive negotiations.
Soft Tech/Hard Tech, Hi Tech/Lo Tech: A Social Movement Analysis of Appropriate Technology*
Authors: Morrison Denton E.
Published: January 2007

Much of the contemporary debate over technology is explicitly and implicitly focused on the question of whether certain technological styles are appropriate or inappropriate. The framing of the debate in this way is due to an active social movement that advocates appropriate technology (AT). The movement is growing from urgent concerns with the undesirable “hard” equity, environmental/resource, and quality of life impacts of modern industrial technologies, both in developing and developed countries. The major features of the AT movement and its social sources are examined. Then the emerging hi techs are characterized and analyzed in terms of the major impacts of concern in the AT movement.
Solid Waste Sites and the Black Houston Community*
Authors: Bullard Robert D.
Published: January 2007

This paper presents data on the siting of solid waste facilities in one of the nation's fastest growing cities, Houston, Texas. The findings reveal that solid waste sites were not randomly scattered over the Houston landscape but were likely to be found in predominantly black neighborhoods and near black schools. Institutionalized discrimination in the housing market, lack of zoning, and decisions by public officials over the past fifty years are major factors that have contributed to Houston's black neighborhoods becoming the “dumping ground” for the area's solid waste.
Profiles of Achievement: Women's Entry into the Professions, the Arts, and Social Reform*
Authors: MDonagh Eileen L.
Published: January 2007

This paper examines the structural determinants of the achievement behavior of over 1,300 American women whose lives collectively span three centuries of American history, 1607–1950. Of particular importance is the investigation of the relative effects of historical birth cohort, religion, sibling placement, social class background, and region of birth upon the career patterns of women involved in the professions, the arts, and social reform.

A major conclusion of this study is that denomination and importance of religion are major factors accounting for social reform careers, while the absence of religion combined with being the first child is related most importantly to career choices in the professions and the arts. Historical birth cohort was found to be of some importance along with social class. However, region of birth proved to be the least important influence affecting achievement patterns.

The data for this study are a quantitative archive established by the author on the basis of a detailed coding of all the biographies included in the three‐volume reference set, Notable American Women (James, James, and Boyer, 1971). Information concerning 302 variables relevant to a study of achievement behavior was coded on a standardized form, keypunched, and transferred to magnetic tape suitable for computer and statistical analysis. The techniques used in this research are discriminant analysis and cross tabular analysis.
The Promise and Perils of Applied Sociology: A Survey of Nonacademic Employers
Authors: Lyson Thomas A. , Squires Gregory D.
Published: January 2007

Using data collected from sixty‐five nonacademic employers, who either advertised in the ASA Employment Bulletin between January 1979 and January 1981 or who registered with the employment service at the ASA annual meetings in 1979 or 1980, we examine what nonacademic employers are looking for when they recruit sociologists, how they recruit such employees, what tasks employers assign sociologists, and what they perceive to be the major shortcomings of sociologists they have hired. Guiding the inquiry is our belief that programs and policies for expanding nonacademic job opportunities and the arguments for increasing the emphasis placed on applied sociology in graduate training have been more concerned with molding individuals to fit certain perceived occupational roles outside of academia than with training sociologists. We suggest that an uncritical acceptance of the nature of demand in the current labor market may ultimately lead to a deskilling of the sociological profession and the homogenization of the nonacademic labor markets open to social scientists.
From Contract to Status: Perspectives on Employment Seniority*
Authors: Gersuny Carl
Published: January 2007

Length of service as a criterion governing personnel decisions is a widely applied normative principle. Contractual agreements that provide that employees' status with respect to promotion and layoff be based on seniority serve to limit discrimination and favoritism, remove an element of competition among workers, and provide a form of social insurance against the contingencies of aging. This status variable is sometimes erroneously perceived as “job ownership.” Decline of labor turnover, the aging of the labor force, and growth of pension programs reinforce concern about seniority. Expectations based on seniority have been challenged under the Civil Rights Act by former discriminatees who question the fairness of the rank ordering. In times of declining opportunity seniority as an allocative device assumes greater importance, while in a utopia, where all jobs are equally satisfying and there is full employment, seniority would be irrelevant.
American Conservatism and Government Funding of the Social Sciences and the Arts*
Authors: Himmelstein Jerome L. , Zald Mayer
Published: January 2007

The efforts of the Reagan Administration to cut government funding for the arts and the social sciences reflects not only a general desire to curtail government spending but also a specific conservative effort to “defund the Left” by eliminating especially those programs regarded by conservatives as the basic source of liberal and radical social change in the United States. This paper examines the conservative animus against government support for the arts and the social sciences. The discussion has four parts: The first traces the history of contemporary American conservatism and identifies its central ideological themes. The second argues that the belief that government and intellectuals are the two main sources of liberal social change has led conservatives to target government programs allegedly guilty of social activism and to develop their own relatively autonomous counterintellectual network. The third examines how this political agenda and institutional structure have influenced conservative opposition to government funding of the social sciences and the arts. The final part suggests some implications our analysis has for defending the social sciences and the arts.
The Organization and Funding of Social Science in the NSF*
Authors: Zuiches James J.
Published: January 2007

The legitimation of federal funding of social, economic, and behavioral science research faced a major challenge with the budget reductions of the Reagan Administration in 1981–1982. This article reviews the history of support and opposition to the social sciences in NSF and the collective response of the social science research community to the budget cutbacks. The consequences for research directions as a result of retrenchment and for the future of social science support in NSF are elaborated.
Is a Critical Sociology Possible: Alvin Gouldner and the “Dark Side of the Dialectic”*
Authors: Sewart John J.
Published: January 2007

Alvin Gouldner's oeuvre is examined in terms of its confrontation with and critical appropriation of both empirical social research and Marxism. Traversing an enormous range of diverse topics‐the sociology of knowledge; industrial sociology; problems of bureaucracy and democracy; studies in leadership; the role of intellectuals and ideologies; sociolinguistics; functionalism, Marxism, Stalinism, and anarchism; and studies of Plato, Saint‐Simon, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Parsons‐Gouldner's work retains a basic thematic focus. This work is neither a harmonious synthesis of these various topics nor does it remain totally consistent with any topic taken individually. Nonetheless there is a thematic continuity underlying the creative tensions and contradictions in his work. This continuity is identified as the classical political and historical mission of social theory; namely, the Enlightenment quest for rational discourse and the establishment of the social conditions for a truly humane society.
The Social Construction of the Midlife Crisis: A Case Study in the Temporalities of Identity
Authors: Kearl Michael C. , Hoag Lisbeth J.
Published: January 2007

This paper examines the emergence, reification, and dissemination of the “midlife crisis” from a sociology of knowledge perspective. Two decades of articles on the subject from both professional and mass media sources (n = 233) are content analyzed. Upon elaborating the various biological, psychological, and social psychological theories of this biographical phenomenon, we address such questions as how different disciplines portray the event, what patterns of interdisciplinary citations there are, and how these professional depictions lead into the mass media. The results suggest longitudinal declines in the frequency of reductionist explanations from the biological and psychiatric paradigms and increasing attention given to the interplay between social dynamics and personality structures. From this, a new sociocultural theory is posited, one portraying this subjective experience deriving not simply from age, but from external social temporalities. Specifically, we consider the particular cohort that most midlife research is based upon as well as the particular historical period when it reached middle age.
Desegregation in Higher Education: An Examination of Traditionally Black and White Institutions*
Authors: Jacques Jeffrey M. , Hall Robert L.
Published: January 2007

Using the data collection techniques of historical analysis, secondary analysis of EEO‐6 records, mailed questionnaires, and personal interviews, race relations among trustees, administrators, and faculty in the southeastern United States were examined during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The conclusion that blacks at traditionally white institutions (TWI) (1) had more tenuous job status, (2) experienced less job satisfaction, (3) experienced greater degrees of institutional alienation, and (4) more often stated a need for affirmative action programs than did their white colleagues at the same institution will surprise no one. Similar patterns and perceptions were found for whites at traditionally black institutions (TBI) where whites were in the “minority.” Although whites at TBIs remained members of the societal majority group as traditionally defined in the sociology of intergroup relations, their position and perceptions within specific TBIs were remarkably similar to the experience of black professionals at TWIs. Some implications for policy are drawn.
Student Unrest in the Nineteenth Century: A Sociological Case Study
Authors: DeMartini Joseph R.
Published: January 2007

This paper examines student unrest at a single university in the late nineteenth century as a case study of the general student rebellion common in land‐grant schools during that period. A conceptual framework exploring the relationship between an emerging student culture, traditional educational philosophy, and contemporary trends of economic and demographic change is used to interpret these historical data. Students actively sought university experiences that would facilitate movement into occupational roles expanding as a result of these trends. The unwillingness of the university to facilitate this movement resulted in two student rebellions, which in turn forced the university into accepting a previously rejected student culture. These case study data suggest that rural populations during the late nineteenth century used land‐grant colleges and universities as avenues for upward mobility, often against the wishes of campus administrators. Comparisons are made between student unrest during this period and the 1960s.
The Question of Hegelian Influence upon Durkheim's Sociology
Authors: Knapp Peter
Published: January 2007

Durkheim is commonly viewed as the founder of sociology as an empirical or even a positivist, empiricist discipline. The connection between empirical sociological theory and Marxist, Weberian, symbolic interactionist, phenomenological, hermeneutic, and other tendencies is illuminated by viewing the parallels between Durkheim and Hegel. These parallels should not obscure important contrasts, but they include a large number of the most distinctive doctrines of the two theorists. The comparison illuminates relationships within sociology as well as relationships between sociology and such other disciplines as philosophy, history, literary criticism, jurisprudence, theology, or ethics. The importance within Durkheim's milieu of figures who were deeply influenced by Hegel shows that Hegel's influence on Durkheim should not be obscured by current views of Durkheim as a positivist in the tradition of Comte.
Extralegal Factors in Felony Sentencing: Classes of Behavior or Classes of People?
Authors: Walsh Anthony
Published: January 2007

The radical‐conflict perspective of criminology stresses that legal sanctions are applied more against classes of people than classes of behavior. To test this proposition we took a class of behaviors–sex offenses–and a class of people–designated “normal primitives”–in an attempt to determine which of the groups accounted for more of the variance in sentence severity. We found that although sex offenders enjoyed considerably higher social status than did normal primitives, sex offender status accounted for more than eight times the amount of variance in sentence severity than did normal primitive status after controlling for legally relevant variables. These findings cast doubt on class‐based models of sentencing.
Ethnic Bias in California Courts: A Case Study of Chicano and Anglo Felony Defendants
Authors: Tinker John N. , Quiring John , Pimentel Yvonne
Published: January 2007

This paper reports the results of a study designed to examine the possibility that Mexican‐Americans charged with felonies receive biased treatment in California courts. Using data from superior courts in Fresno, California, it is shown that, when charged with similar crimes, Chicanos and Anglos in this district are given quite similar treatment–there is no observable judicial bias. In addition, this study shows a much stronger relationship between seriousness of charge and length of sentence (if guilty) than other earlier studies have. This is attributed to California's determinate sentencing law, which, it appears, forces the courts to give heavy and relatively uniform weight to legally relevant variables in sentencing.
Scandals in the White House: An Organizational Explanation*
Authors: Biggart Nicole Woolsey
Published: January 2007

The Watergate scandal involving the president's personal staff brought forth numerous analyses and explanations. Most analyses located the cause of the scandal in the psychology of Richard Nixon, the breakdown of institutional arrangements, or a societal tolerance for corruption. The author, however, argues that Watergate was but one of many staff incidents that undermined presidential power and that the persistence of such phenomena requires a sociological explanation. The author argues that deviant staff behaviors are a direct consequence of the organizational structure of personal staffs, and that such behaviors derive paradoxically from the characteristics that make staffs useful to chief executives. The argument is elaborated through an analysis of publicized scandals and disruptive staff practices of presidential staffs since Franklin Roosevelt's administration.
Community Organization and Social Activism: Black Boston and the Antislavery Movement*
Authors: Horton Lois E.
Published: January 2007

This paper uses data from an intensive study of Boston's antebellum black community to demonstrate how sustained social activism is embedded in the formal and informal institutions of the community. The social networks of cooperative institutions were primary factors in this community's ability to mobilize and sustain protest actions and to call attention to social injustice. This examination of antebellum black Boston indicates that the issue of slavery was crucial to social activism. This suggests that the presence of a salient issue which links the everyday lives of participants with a public issue may be an important factor in building a social movement based in a poor, relatively powerless community.
Entropy Measures of Inequality*
Authors: Bailey Kenneth D.
Published: January 2007

Although sociologists have long been interested in the analysis of inequality, there have been relatively few systematic attempts to measure it. Most measurement has utilized popular existing measures such as the Gini coefficient, which unfortunately is relatively difficult to compute and interpret. This article presents a new measure of inequality (B) that is based upon the concept of entropy. The B measure is used for categorical data and complements Theil's (T) entropy measure for continuous data. The B measure is illustrated for both income and wealth data and successfully meets several criteria for evaluating measures of inequality. These include the criteria of scale invariance, sensitivity to transfers, and adequate upper bounds. A further advantage of sociological entropy measures of inequality is that they facilitate interdisciplinary comparison of work on inequality between sociology and other disciplines (such as economics) which use entropy measures of inequality.
The Class‐Delinquency Hypothesis and Juvenile Justice System Bias
Authors: Brown Stephen E.
Published: January 2007

This paper addresses the issue of the relationship between social class and delinquency to determine if the discrepancy between findings with official versus selfreport data can he resolved. Methodological suggestions which numerous researchers have suggested might explicate the discrepancy were incorporated. These include the use of a disproportionatc stratified sample to facilitate focus on relativcly serious self‐reported delinquent behavior, separate analyses of subscales representing different domains of delinquency, and operationalization of social class by multiple indicators, including some consistent with the concept of an underclass. It was found that only offenses against persons consistently correlate negatively with measures of social class. However, analysis of self‐reported contacts with police and courts suggests the presence of social class biases in the juvenile justice process and raises questions concerning the appropriateness of using disproportionate stratified samples in this context.
“Free‐ Will Talk” and Sociology
Authors: Dawson Lorne L.
Published: January 2007

Hardcore positivistic or humanistic sociologies are rare. In the history of sociology the two extremes have tended to converge, producing an awkward hybrid. A watered‐down positivism is brought to the rescue of a stalled Verstehen sociology, or vice versa, and a difficulty like the free nature of human action is covered over with a veneer of pragmatism. Here it will be argued that Paul Tibbetts’recent recasting of the positivism‐humanism debate in sociology into an arbitrary choice between linguistic grids perpetuates this unsatisfactory practice. Five propositions will be advanced in opposition to Tibbetts’perspective. First, it will be argued that Tibbetts’discussion clouds the real issues at stake through his failure to really transcend the positivist framework of analysis. Second, it will be shown that the humanistic pre‐supposition of voluntarism involves an ontological commitment to a model of rational agency which provides a methodological base for the “scientific” treatment of human freedom. Third, this commitment constitutes a necessary presupposition of all sciences of human action. Fourth, this fact means there are good epistemological reasons why a sociologist's choice of a linguistic grid is not arbitrary. Finally, it will be proposed that the most promising pattern of convergence between humanistic sociology and positivism stems from the formulation of a rough spectrum of principles of rationality to undergird a differentiation of “degrees” and not “kind” between what Tibbetts calls “free‐will talk” and “causal‐deterministic talk.”
Latent Content and Ideology in a Subjective Measure of Alienation
Authors: Warner Lyle G. , Harvey David L. , Harvey Ann Stafford , Smith Lawrence
Published: January 2007

This study examines aspects of a major research tradition in sociology which developed from Seeman's classic work on the meanings of alienation. It argues that the Powerlessness Scale contains an unintended, latent ideological content (one that was excluded in Seeman's delineation of alienation's meanings through his translation of alienation theory into the language of Rotter's social learning theory). However, the Powerlessness Scale that was developed from Seeman's conceptual analysis drew on the person's perception of the nation‐state, its functions and legitimacy, thus reintroducing both polemical and political content into the empirical assessment of alienation. Using a panel of expert judges we tested the hypothesis that high‐powerlessness statements on this scale are associated with critical perceptions of the nation‐state and its functioning while low‐powerlessness statements tend to reflect a more conformist perspective (the former being similar to the theoretical assertions of “power elite” theory and the latter to the “pluralist” form of political theory). The data provided by the expert judges are in general agreement with the hypothesis. A critical interpretation of the Powerlessness Scale is suggested in terms of O'Connor's model of the state and its modern functions.
The Conflict between and within Genders: An Appraisal of Contemporary American Femininity and Masculinity*
Authors: Rosenblum Karen E.
Published: January 2007

This discussion examines the conflicts inherent in contemporary American formulations of gender and concludes that conflict exists not so much between gender formulations as within each of them. Extending Carol Gilligan's (1982) analysis of sex‐differentiated moral development, gender is treated as the distinction between an orientation of care, and one of autonomy. The care/autonomy distinction does not necessarily entail inter‐gender conflict. Rather, that is attributable to cultural expectations of reciprocity. However, intra‐gender conflict, i.e., the conllict within the formulations of gender, is shown to be extensive. Specifically, masculinity presumes equality and autonomy, yet functions to produce hierarchy and dependence, involves a contradiction between a principle of blanket autonomy and the preservation of self‐interest, and requires an asocial stance. Femininity endorses powerlessness but produces power, requires a commitment to care which cannot be realized, and masks the fact that sacrifice is a matter of choice.
Nurses and the New Class: A Comparative Study of Values and Attitudes among Professionals and Semi‐Professional Occupations
Authors: Wuthnow Sara
Published: January 2007

Social critics have identified the emergence of a “new class” of professional‐technical workers in American society who not only share structural similarities but ideological orientations (egalitarianism, liberalism, and intellectualism) as well. This study was designed to establish (1) whether or not nurses, given their uncertain structural position in the new class, participate ideologically in the new class and (2) the conditions related to nurses’ values. The data set used was NORC's General Social Survey from 1972–1980. Nurses were compared with classic professionals (such as physicians, lawyers, college teachers), teachers, secretaries, and clerks (total of 1,890 respondents). It was found that 64 percent of the classic professionals held new class values compared with 50 percent of the teachers, 48 percent of the nurses, 42 percent of the secretaries, and 37 percent of the clerks. The data showed that the most important variable related to respondents’ new dass orientation was a college education, not their occupational affiliation. A summary of the various variables involved indicated that individuals in the sample most likely to hold new class values were college educated young males living in urban areas outside the South. This description helps to explain why a female‐dominated, less educated semi‐professional group such as nurses is less likely to participate ideologically in the new class than is a highly educated male‐dominated group such as physicians.
The 1960s Black Riots Revisited: City Level Explanations of Their Severity
Authors: Carter Gregg Lee
Published: January 2007

This paper involves a city‐level investigation of the 1964–1971 black rioting. It attempts to explain inter‐city variations in the severity of the rioting with inter‐city variations in black population size, political structure, black‐white income inequality, and regional location. The research charts two new areas of inquiry: (1) It is the first study to use data on the entire rioting period (1964–71). (2) Most previous investigators have concentrated on linear hypotheses, e.g., most have posited and tested for a linear relationship between riot activity and black‐white economic inequality. However, a review of theoretic commentary on rebellion reveals that some potential relationships should be hypothesized as curvilinear; more specifically, plausible hypotheses can be developed that rebellious activity is highest where economic inequality and political responsiveness are moderate. Such hypotheses are developed and tested. The overall pattern of results supported the posited curvilinear relationships.
Everybody But Me: Self‐Other Referents in Social Research*
Authors: Hedley R. Alan
Published: January 2007

An examination of major survey findings reveals wide discrepancies in results depending upon whether “self” or “other” is the referent. The self is portrayed in an idealized form, while other is perceived in a more realistic fashion. Because of the direction and magnitude of the discrepancies produced using self and other referents, it is concluded that self referents should be avoided wherever possible.
Knowing How To Quit: On the Finitudes of Everyday Life
Authors: Kearl Michael C.
Published: January 2007

This paper elaborates upon the emergent social psychology of social endings and explicates how culminating behaviors associated with role conclusions in general and with retirement in particular can contribute to both social and personal order. Now that role careers are typically concluded by design rather than by death, invidious comparisons are being drawn and ending strategies rank‐ordered in terms of their desirability. It is hypothesized that some retirements are recognized as being better than others and that our social system is coming to recognize and celebrate those who excel in their role performances until the very end. As illustration, we consider American professional team sports as the cultural totem dramatizing modern work relations and examine how the quality of athlete's career conclusions affect how they are remembered.
The Scientific Training of Introductory Sociology Students: Seventeen Years Later*
Authors: Muir Donal E.
Published: January 2007

To measure the level of effectiveness with which the scientific basis of sociology is presented to introductory students, questionnaires were administered to two hundred students enrolled in three comparable sections of introductory sociology at a large state university. These indicated that students in general began the course almost totally ignorant of science and, when subjected to conventional introductory sociology materials, ended the course at the same level–a finding consistent with that of a similar study conducted seventeen years before.
The Role of Corporations in the 1980 U.S. Congressional Elections*
Authors: Ashford Kathryn L.
Published: January 2007

The issues of whether and how corporate campaign donations affect the operation of American elections have recently become the focus of public and scholarly debate. Using Federal Election Commission campaign finance data, this analysis identifies a link betwren contributions from business PACs and candidate success in the 1980 U.S. congressional elections. Findings also confirm an association between corporate support and legislative voting for candidates re‐elected in 1980. Candidates heavily supported by business PACs during the campaign did better at the polls and were more likely to vote conservatively if elected than those not so strongly endorsed by economic interests. Results are discussed in terms of various theories of the state as well as their relevance to potential election finance reforms.
The Transformation of Sexual Harassment from a Private Trouble into a Public Issue
Authors: Weeks Elaine Lunsford , Boles Jacqueline M. , Garbin Albeno P. , Blount John
Published: January 2007

Sexual harassment, i.e., unwanted sexual attention, is not a new phenomenon for working women. Yet only in recent years have the behaviors constituting it been challenged and recognized as detrimental to society. This paper documents the process by which sexual harassment emerged on the public agenda. It identifies the major elements–media attention, activities of interest groups, court actions, and legislation–involved in the process of redefinition and examines how and why each promoted the issue. The data, gathered from analyses of publication and language trends, records of congressional hearings, and interviews with several participants in the process, are used to further understanding of how these elements converged during a period of social concern for women's rights and enabled a public reconceptualization of sexually harassing behaviors.
The American Educational Structure and the Reproduction of Social Class*
Authors: Colclough Glenna , Beck E. M.
Published: January 2007

While considerable attention has been drawn to “reproduction” theories of education, little empirical research has been conducted within this framework. This paper uses the reproduction perspective to examine how various mechanisms of the American educational structure contribute to the maintenance of the mental‐manual division of labor within class structure. Using a national, longitudinal sample of high school seniors, we look at the reproduction effects of public versus private schooling, the composition of school communities and curriculum tracking. We find that reproduction results from the schooling experiences of a majority of students and that tracking is the most important mechanism in this process. However, nonreproduction is apparent as well which points to some issues that reproduction theories must address to provide viable explanations of the role of education in society.