bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Discrimination
Authors: Law Ian
Published: September 2017

Discrimination refers to the differential, and often unequal, treatment of people who have been either formally or informally grouped into a particular class of persons. There are many forms of discrimination that are specified according to the ways in which particular groups are identified, including race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, class, age, disability, nationality, religion, or language. The United Nations Charter (1954) declared in article 55 that the UN will promote human rights and freedoms for all, “without distinction as to race, sex, language, and religion.” Later in 1958, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights added eight further grounds for possible discrimination, which were color, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status.
Diversity
Authors: Stevens Gillian , Downs Heather
Published: September 2017

In ecology, where the concept is most highly developed, the simplest description of “diversity” is the number of species living in a specific environment: the greater the number of species, the higher the level of diversity. When describing social phenomena, “diversity” generally refers to the distribution of units of analysis (e.g., people, students, families) in a specific social environment (e.g., workplace, classroom, state) along a dimension (e.g., race, social status, political orientation). When measured empirically through one or more of a variety of indexes (such as the index of diversity), the highest levels of diversity occur when the units of analysis (e.g., people) are distributed evenly across the social dimension (e.g., racial categories). However, it is also common for a political ideal to serve as the benchmark for the assessment of levels of diversity. An American work setting may be considered to be appropriately diverse, for example, if the proportions of workers who are African American or Asian are comparable to the proportions of people in the general (or local) population who are African American or Asian. More loosely, some observers consider a setting to be diverse when the proportions of people with a selected characteristic (e.g., membership in a minority group) are relatively high.
Divisions of Household Labor
Authors: Adams Michele
Published: September 2017

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, economic production was organized around the home, and households were relatively self‐sufficient. Households were multifunctional, acting, among other things, as eating establishment, educational institution, factory, and infirmary. Everyone belonging to the household, including family members, servants, and apprentices, did their part in the household's productive labor. The word “housework,” first used in 1841 in England and in 1871 in the US, would have made little sense prior to that time, sinceallwork was focused in and around the home.
Documentary Analysis
Authors: Prior Lindsay
Published: September 2017

Attention to documents and to documentation has a long and sturdy pedigree in sociology and other social sciences. Personal letters, diaries, written confessions, biographies, and newspaper stories constituted an essential store of materials for many early twentieth‐century social scientists (Plummer, 2001). As that century unfolded, social investigators also developed an interest in such things as laboratory notebooks, anthropological field notes, maps, medical, psychiatric, educational, and criminal justice records (for examples see Prior, 2011). In most cases, however, the primary focus of interest was the content of such documents – what was “in” the document – and the favored mode of analysis was directed toward describing and understanding such content. Yet, it was and is quite clear that the diary, the letter, the life history, not to mention the clinical file, the medical x‐ray, and the laboratory notebook not only have content, but also fulfil certain kinds of function in the settings in which they are found. In short, it can be seen, on reflection, that documents “do” things as well as contain things. Unfortunately, studies that focus on the active and dynamic (doing) role of documentation in social affairs are relatively rare, and so it is not surprising that using documents in social research is very often associated with the adoption of “unobtrusive” methods (see Babbie, 2013). Such a dominance of content over function has important implications for questions of research design as well as for matters of data collection and data analysis – not to mention our understanding of how the everyday world actually works.
Drag Queens and Drag Kings
Authors: Rupp Leila J. , Taylor Verta
Published: September 2017

Drag queens and drag kings are men, women, and transgender people who perform femininity, masculinity, or something in between. Different styles of drag, across the United States and around the world, call attention to the performativity of gender and play a part in community building for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Drag queens have a long history, while drag kings are a more recent phenomenon. In black and Latino communities, what is known as “ballroom” features competitions in a variety of categories where individuals aim for “realness.” Much of the scholarship on drag has focused on the question of how such performances reify or challenge gender and sexual binaries.
Drug Use
Authors: Gaines Larry
Published: September 2017

Drug addiction and abuse constitute a major social problem that is interlaced throughout our society. Each year it costs billions of dollars in terms of interdiction, prevention, enforcement, treatment, and lost productivity. Moreover, the drug problem exacerbates a number of other social problems including poverty, homelessness, crime, and family discord. Historically, society addressed the drug problem, as well as other social problems, using a generalized, simplistic response. However, if the drug problem is better understood in terms of who is using drugs and what types of drugs are being used, tailored responses can be developed that in the end may be more effective and beneficial.
Drugs, Drug Abuse, and Drug Policy
Authors: Wincup Emma
Published: September 2017

The term “drug” has been used to define substances which are prohibited under criminal law. In addition to outlawed substances, the term can also refer to alcohol and tobacco, solvents and prescribed medication. Drug policy is likely to be confined to illegal drugs. Drug use can be defined as a law and order, social, medical, and public health problem.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1868–1963)
Authors: Dennis Rutledge M.
Published: September 2017

W. E. B. Du Bois was a sociologist and historian, born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Though he wanted to attend Harvard after high school, the lack of funds and the advice of a few of his teachers dissuaded him, so, instead, he attended Fisk, where he received his BA in 1888. He received a second BA from Harvard University in 1890, from where he also awarded an MA (1891) and a PhD (1895) with the dissertation “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638–1870.” Between 1892 and 1894 Du Bois was a graduate student at the University of Berlin, made possible by a combination gift/loan from the Slater Fund. This experience would have enduring consequences on both his personality and his scholarship, though as he stated in his classic
Souls of Black Folk
(1903), his experiences at both Fisk and Harvard had already shaped some of his views on race, class, and philosophy.
Dual‐Earner Couples
Authors: Aronson Pamela , Gold Sara
Published: September 2017

Dual‐earner couples are romantically involved (either married or unmarried) and each contribute to the financial support of their household through their work outside the home. The presence of dual‐earner couples has increased over the last 40 years, as there has been a shift away from the traditional male breadwinner and female homemaker family type. The breadwinner‐homemaker model waned in prevalence as women entered the workforce in large numbers, especially after the 1950s. For example, in 1976, 31 percent of women with infants under 1 year old worked outside the home; by 2002, 54.6 percent did so (US Census Bureau 2002). These figures are significantly higher for women with school‐aged children and women who are not parents. The influx of women into the workplace occurred for a number of reasons, including more equal access to education and occupations, greater demand for workers in the service sector of the economy, and social changes brought on by the women's movement. As a result, an increasing number of women provide significant financial support to their families (Gornick & Meyers 2003).
Durkheim, Émile and Social Change
Authors: Tiryakian Edward A.
Published: September 2017

One may look in vain in Durkheim's oeuvre for an explicit discussion of social change, to be found neither in his major texts nor as a rubric in the 12
Année Sociologique
volumes published in his lifetime.
Social change
does not figure in Durkheim's major divisions of sociology. Yet, like the Scarlet Pimpernel, it is here, it is there, it is everywhere. No consideration of Durkheim can be considered complete without taking into account his immanent social realism: societal systems structurally change from within, ultimately from qualitative and quantitative changes in social interaction (a presupposition widely shared with Marx and Weber, albeit for different primary factors). This seeming paradox can be best understood if one takes into account that the nineteenth century which provided the context for Durkheim was the modern period's crucible of enormous economic, political, cultural, and technological transformations of the social order, with Durkheim's predecessors and contemporaries all seeking to ascertain the major features, causes, and outcomes of the transformation. If Durkheim did not write explicitly about social change, he and his immediate followers (the “Durkheimians,” who will be briefly mentioned here) were indeed very cognizant and attentive to addressing social change. This was at least partially recognized long ago by Robert Bellah in a seminal article (1960) pointing to the significance of history in Durkheim's epistemological and substantive thought.
Dyad/Triad
Authors: Miller Dan E.
Published: September 2017

The smallest and most elementary social unit, a dyad is a social group composed of two members while a triad is a social group composed of three members. The study of dyads and triads is significant in two respects. First, dyads and triads form the most basic elements of sociological analysis. That is, most structural conditions and social processes can be found in dyadic and triadic interaction. Second, the analysis of dyads and triads clearly demonstrates the poverty of strict psychological reductionism, and calls into question the validity of methodological individualism. These issues and others were first addressed by Georg Simmel (1950) in his pioneering work on pure social forms.
Divorce
Authors: Bahr Stephen J. , Lu Chao‐Chin , Westover Jonathan H.
Published: September 2017

Sociologists who study divorce have focused on three major questions. First, some have taken a macro perspective and examined how and why divorce rates have changed over time. In this research, scholars have looked at broad social trends and how they are related to divorce rates. Second, there have been many studies of why individual couples decide to get a divorce. In this research, sociologists have examined the characteristics of individual couples and how they are associated with the risk of divorce. The third major thrust of research has been to explore the consequences of divorce. Major focuses of this research have been on how divorce affects economic well‐being, psychological well‐being, and physical health.
Earner–Carer Model
Authors: Misra Joya
Published: September 2017

The earner–carer model is a fundamentally gender egalitarian welfare state approach, which assumes that men and women equally engage in both caregiving and paid employment (Gornick & Meyers 2003). Welfare state structures always rest on gendered assumptions about men's and women's roles in the family and workplace. Through social policies, such gender ideologies reflect but also reinforce supposed roles of men and women as citizens, workers, and carers.
Earner–Carer Model
Authors: Misra Joya
Published: September 2017

The earner–carer model is a fundamentally gender‐egalitarian welfare state approach, which assumes that men and women engage in both caregiving and paid employment (Gornick and Meyers, 2003, 2009). Welfare states rest on gendered assumptions about men's and women's roles in the family and in the workplace. The dominant vision of the western welfare state during the twentieth century was the male breadwinner–female caregiver or family wage model (Sainsbury, 1999). According to this model, families were presumed to be composed of a man working outside the home, a woman providing care within the home, and children. The welfare state would intervene to replace the male breadwinner's wage only in cases of unemployment, disability, sickness, or old age, or occasionally to support women's caretaking within the home (Fraser, 1994). By the late twentieth century, the male breadwinner model, which had never been accurate for most working‐class and poor families or for same‐sex couples, was no longer tenable for even middle‐class different‐sex couples. Too few jobs pay enough to support an entire family, while relatively few adults specialize in caregiving (Crompton, 1999). Scholars and activists suggest three main models to replace the family wage model: the universal breadwinner model, the caregiver parity model, and the earner–carer model (Fraser, 1994).
Economic Sociology: Classical Political Economic Perspectives
Authors: Zafirovski Milan
Published: September 2017

Classical political economy broadly understood is the stage and branch of economics during the period from the late eighteenth century to the second half of the nineteenth century. In a narrower specification (by Schumpeter) it encompasses the “publications of the leading English authors from 1776 to 1848,” specifically from Adam Smith's
Wealth of Nations
to J. S. Mill's
Principles of Political Economy
. In addition to Smith – usually considered the “father” of (classical) political economy – and Mill as its codifier, its other prominent representatives include David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, Jean‐Baptiste Say, and William Senior, as well as Karl Marx (described as a “dissident”) and John Cairnes (deemed the “last” classical economist). Following Smith's implied definition, its representatives typically define classical political economy as the study of the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of wealth.
Economy, Networks and
Authors: Walker Gordon
Published: September 2017

The intersection of economic and social behavior has long been an interest of sociologists. Since Simmel's (1955) seminal work on affiliation, it has become clear that the extent, kind, and structure of relations in a society have a potentially crucial impact on how well it functions, and by implication, how much wealth it creates. Two current research programs are outlined here, small worlds and interfirm networks, which are related broadly to market creation and robustness. Both of these research programs capture core aspects of Granovetter's (1985) concept of embeddedness and suggest new directions for examining the sociological roots of economic behavior.
Economy (Sociological Approach)
Authors: Fararo Thomas J.
Published: September 2017

The general problem of how to conceptualize and explain the relations of the economy to wider contexts of human behavior has been one of the main themes of major theorists in the sociological tradition. In the classical phase of the tradition, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim each treated the problem. In the writings of Marx, what has been called the basis–superstructure model rests upon the concept of a mode of production that includes social relations of production and forces of production, corresponding approximately to economy and technology, respectively. Social classes consist of persons who occupy the same position in the social relations of production, such as lord and serf in the feudal mode of production and capitalist and wage laborer in the capitalist mode of production. The dominant class employs its power advantage to shape a superstructure consisting of non‐economic institutions along with a dominant ideology reflecting the interests of the ruling class. This model is associated with a theory of social change, as in
The Communist Manifesto
, in which Marx and Engels analyze the historical dynamics of the rise and fall of capitalism in terms of revolutionary change involving conflicts among aristocrats, who represent the declining feudal mode of production, and the bourgeoisie, who in ushering in the capitalist mode of production are also giving birth to their own “gravediggers,” the class of wage laborers.
Educational Inequality
Authors: Shavit Yossi
Published: September 2017

In their classic study of stratification in the US, Blau and Duncan (1967) found that the effect of education on occupational attainment increased over time. They interpreted this to mean that America was becoming increasingly meritocratic. A meritocratic social system is one in which the attainment of desirable social rewards, such as good jobs, is determined by effort and ability rather than by inherited privilege. It is often assumed that the attainment of educational credentials requires both effort and ability and that education represents merit. However, educational attainment is also determined by social origin. An equally valid interpretation of Blau and Duncan's finding is that the intergenerational transmission of social privilege is increasingly mediated by education. The extent to which this is so is determined by the relative magnitude of two factors: the effects of social origin on educational attainment and the effect of education on occupational and economic attainments. Searching for a social system that is both meritocratic and egalitarian, researchers try to understand why there is a strong association between social origin and educational attainment and how to weaken it. This entry reviews the main determinants of educational attainment and of educational inequality between social strata and between men and women. Sociologists attribute educational inequalities between strata to processes at work in families and the educational system.
Elder Care
Authors: Keating Norah
Published: September 2017

Elder care is assistance provided to a senior because of that senior's chronic health problem or disability. Tasks include household work, indoor and outdoor home maintenance, banking and financial management, personal care, and care management (Keating et al. 1999). The term has been part of the gerontology lexicon for many years. Its origins lie in the description of the tasks provided by formal or paid caregivers (i.e., nurses or home support workers) to seniors with chronic illnesses such as dementia. More recently, the term has also been used to describe family members and friends who care for frail older adults. In contrast to formal caregivers, their care is called informal. Tasks done by these formal and informal caregivers are not unique and may be provided to younger adults as well. While adults over age 65 are considered seniors, in contemporary discussion elder care denotes assistance to those who are very old. In developed countries, onset of age‐related chronic illnesses is prevalent after age 75 and most people in residential (nursing home) settings are over age 80.
Elite Culture
Authors: Franklin Adrian
Published: September 2017

Elite culture can be defined as those “high” cultural forms and institutions that were exclusive to, and a distinguishing characteristic of, modern social elites. It is a term that particularly references the cultural tastes of the established aristocracy, the commercial bourgeoisie, educated bureaucrats and political power brokers, and the professions in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Over most of this period such groups dominated those who consumed and supported such cultural styles as opera, symphony orchestras, ballet and dance companies, the decorative arts, fine art, museums and galleries, and the literary end of live theater. While these forms all thrive in contemporary times, it is no longer clear that elite culture can be distinguished from popular culture in the way it was before the mid‐twentieth century (Blau 1986, 1989). While sociologists still identify the power and significance of social elites and their relatively closed cultural domains, their exclusive grip on elite culture has relaxed while at the same time they have become more
omnivorous
in their taste and now consume widely and freely from all styles, from the lowbrow to the highbrow. At the same time, new styles that blur elite and popular cultural forms emerged from around the 1960s: the Beatles, for example, combined African American rhythm and blues with British working‐class “brass band” with western elite orchestral and strings
and
, in places, traditional Indian music. In turn, their audience base spanned the entire social spectrum. Artists such as Andy Warhol and Damian Hurst produced other such blurring or fusions and are credited with popularizing modern art.
Elites
Authors: Dronkers Jaap , Schijf Huibert
Published: September 2017

“History is a graveyard of aristocracies.” With this phrase the Italian Vilfredo Pareto, who introduced the word elite in social sciences, formulated his idea of the decline and fall of elites, especially the political elite. For both him and Gaetono Mosca, the second founding father, the key concept was the circulation of elites (Bottomore 1993: 35). Many of these early writings on elites have a moral trademark. This can be seen in Machiavelli'sThe Prince(1513), where he gives a somewhat cynical but insightful analysis of the behavior of a ruler, but also provided instructions on how to act. Theoreticians like Pareto and Mosca, but also the German Robert Michels (who formulated the famous “iron law of oligarchy” based on the inevitability of minority rule within the German Social Democratic Party), hold strong opinions on how elites should act and how their positions can be justified. The rightful behavior of elites is still, of course, fiercely debated in the public arena, but less so in modern social research on elites.
Emergent Norm Theory
Authors: Mariel Lemonik Arthur Mikaila
Published: September 2017

Emergent norm theory hypothesizes that non‐traditional behavior (such as that associated with collective action) develops in crowds as a result of the emergence of new behavioral norms in response to a precipitating crisis. For proponents of emergent norm theory, collective action includes all types of social behavior in which the conventional norms stop functioning as guides to social action, and instead people collectively overturn or go beyond the normal institutional practices and frameworks of society (Turner & Killian 1987) and therefore new conventions must form as part of the collective action. The basic suppositions of emergent norm theory are that collective action is rational, that collective action is a response to a precipitating event, and that new norms of behavior appropriate to the collective action situation emerge through group processes without prior coordination and planning. First proposed by Turner and Killian in 1972, emergent norm theory has grown out of two main traditions. The LeBonian tradition of thinking of crowds as normless entities and collective action as irrational behavior led Turner and Killian to think about how norms are instituted in crowds. Second, symbolic interactionism and small group analysis contributed a model of norms as developing through interaction.
Emotion: Social Psychological Aspects
Authors: Wasson Leslie
Published: September 2017

People may perceive emotion as residing in the individual and composing some portion of personal subjective experience. However, certain common patterns of emotional experience exist. We have shared social definitions of emotions, which are generally recognized and which can be evoked or referenced in socially appropriate situations. These emotion norms then become incorporated into the definition of the situation. While psychology and psychiatry have investigated emotions as internal to the individual, sociology has only recently contributed a social, interactionist analysis of emotion, or affect, to scholarly discourse.
Emotion: Social Psychological Aspects
Authors: Wasson Leslie
Published: September 2017

People may perceive emotion as residing in the individual and composed of some portion of personal subjective experience. However, certain common patterns of emotional experience exist. Shared social definitions of emotions are generally recognized, and these can be evoked or referenced in socially appropriate situations. These emotion norms then become incorporated into the definition of the situation. While psychology and psychiatry have investigated emotions as internal to the individual, sociology has contributed a social, interactionist analysis of emotion, or affect, to scholarly discourse. This entry delineates some of the theoretical and empirical work, both classic and contemporary, occurring in the sociology of emotion.
Empiricism
Authors: McCormick Charles
Published: September 2017

The term empiricism refers to both a philosophical approach toward understanding the world and the principles and methods that ground modern scientific practices. The philosophy of empiricism, which was first stated by Aristotle and other classical philosophers, came to fruition in the writings of Enlightenment‐era scholars including David Hume and John Locke. A key philosophical question at the time was whether knowledge should be generated based on experience, as the empiricists argued, or on a combination of intellect and intuition, as proposed by rationalists such as René Descartes. An increased acceptance of the empirical approach to understanding the world fostered the growth both of modern science and the Industrial Revolution.
Endogamy
Authors: Kibria Nazli
Published: September 2017

“Endogamy” refers to in‐group marriage, or a pattern of marriage in which the partners have a shared group affiliation. Its conceptual counterpoint is exogamy, or a pattern of marriage in which the partners are different in their group affiliation. For scholars of race and ethnic relations, the significance of endogamy stems from its relationship to group boundaries and the processes by which they are maintained, transgressed, and negotiated. Indeed, endogamy is generally understood to be among the most important social mechanisms in the formation and re‐formation of racial and ethnic groups.
Enterprise
Authors: Martinelli Alberto
Published: September 2017

The sociological analysis of the enterprise focuses on the relationships between enterprises and their social environment (Martinelli and Smelser, 1990), with specific regard to two major topics: the study of organizational models and social systems of production and the study of the context of entrepreneurship.
Environment, Sociology of the
Authors: Dunlap Riley E.
Published: September 2017

Environmental problems attract sociological attention because they are fundamentally social problems: they result from human social behavior, they are viewed as problematic because of their impact on humans (as well as other species), and their solution requires societal effort. It is therefore not surprising that sociologists have shown growing interest in environmental issues in recent decades and that environmental sociology has become a recognized field. Yet, sustained sociological investigation of environmental problems did not come easily.
Environment, Sociology of the
Authors: Dunlap Riley E.
Published: September 2017

Sociological work on environmental issues is traced through the development and evolution of the field of environmental sociology. After overcoming the larger discipline's reluctance to incorporate the physical environment into sociological analyses, sociologists have conducted a diverse and ever‐expanding range of work on environmental issues. The social construction of environmental problems was an early emphasis, leading to important insights concerning the processes by which various conditions come to be recognized and accepted as societal problems. In the 1990s, influenced by postmodernism, some sociologists adopted a strong constructivist orientation aimed at deconstructing issues such as global warming, prompting a critical reaction from scholars working from a realist perspective. The resulting debates led to a détente, but their legacy can be discerned in two current orientations toward the use of scientific indicators of ecological conditions. “Agnostics” tend to analyze environmental controversies, discourses, and science (especially climate science), while “pragmatists” employ measures such as ecological footprints, greenhouse gas emissions, and toxic waste inventories to analyze the causes and impacts of ecological deterioration. Analyzing solutions to environmental problems has become a major focus of the field, resulting in debates between optimistic proponents of ecological modernization and their more pessimistic critics from political economy and human ecology perspectives.
Epistemology
Authors: Schwandt Thomas A.
Published: September 2017

The Greek words for knowledge and explanation are
episteme
and
logos
, respectively. Epistemology is the study of the nature (theory) of knowledge and justification. Epistemology is the kind of philosophy (or the primary role assigned to philosophy) valued in the scientific view of the world. In such a world, significant emphasis is placed on providing evidence for our claims to know, and philosophy has the task of examining the logic and methods involved in questions of
how
we know and what gives knowledge the property of being valid. The phrase “after epistemology” or “overcoming epistemology” often heard in philosophical circles is, in part, a reaction to restricting philosophy to epistemological concerns, to matters of “knowing about knowing.” The tradition of Continental philosophy (hermeneutics, existentialism, critical theory, phenomenology, etc.) that inspires much thinking in the social sciences today, expands the concern with knowing to “knowing about being and doing.” In other words its concerns are not strictly epistemological, but also metaphysical and aesthetic.
Ethic of Care
Authors: Malhotra Ragini Saira , Misra Joya
Published: September 2017

Feminist scholars have developed the concept of an ethic of care, positing an approach to morality focused around caring and drawing on earlier arguments about morality based on nurturing/mothering, co‐operation, and sustained relationships. Sara Ruddick (1989) espoused an ethics focused around “maternal thinking” (attentive love and trust), used to transform private relations of love and caring into public discussions of peace. Nel Noddings (1984) similarly suggested that an ethic of caring could help create moral people, criticizing dominant ethical approaches as problematically placing principles above persons.
Ethics, Business
Authors: Kornberger Martin , Rhodes Carl
Published: September 2017

The concept of ethics has a long history in western philosophy. Usually, ethics is understood as reflecting on and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. Following this definition, business ethics is the reflection on the ethical behavior of business organizations.
Ethics, Research
Authors: Bakker Hans
Published: September 2017

It has always been important to recognize the rights of research subjects as individuals and as members of various kinds of groups or collectivities. Ethnic minorities and racial groups, for example, should not be treated any differently. They should be given the same respect as any other subgroup. That has not always been the case in the past. That was brought home particularly as a result of atrocities during World War II. “Ethics review … emerged from the aftermath of the horrors of the Second World War, when Nazi‐sponsored medical experiments furthered macabre social aims” (Hoonaard 2002: 3). The Nuremberg Code was an important step. The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights is another. However, beyond the more obvious concern with extreme violations, the precise philosophical articulation of ethics can vary according to whether the ethicist holds to some kind of theologically based or secular perspective.
Ethnic/Informal Economy
Authors: Sanders Jimy M.
Published: September 2017

Ethnic/informal economies are inconsistently defined by scholars. This slows progress in explicating the social underpinnings of ethnic/informal economies and in understanding how these economic systems affect the socioeconomic well$@#*^%#@#hyphen;being of members of various ethnic groups. Fortunately, there is a common theme to the definitions one finds in the literature. All variants convey a sense of economic action embedded in solidaristic, co$@#*^%#@#hyphen;ethnic social relations. Economic behavior is influenced by informal rules and practices that govern the normative behavior of group members. Beyond this common theme, however, widely differing definitions involving self$@#*^%#@#hyphen;employment, employment niches among those who are not self$@#*^%#@#hyphen;employed, and geographical clustering have been applied. Light and Gold (2000) suggest three definitions as a way to reduce this chaotic state of affairs. The first is the combination of business owners, unpaid family labor, and paid co$@#*^%#@#hyphen;ethnic employees (ethnic ownership economy). The second includes the first, but adds the requirement of spatial clustering (enclave economy). The third points to occupational and industrial employment niches (not business ownership) where the overrepresentation of an ethnic group enables its members to benefit from the advantages of informal control (ethnic$@#*^%#@#hyphen;controlled economy).
Ethnocentrism
Authors: Brown Stephen E.
Published: September 2017

Ethnocentrism is a belief that the norms, values, ideology, customs, and traditions of ones own culture or subculture are superior to those characterizing other cultural settings. The term was coined by William Graham Sumner in his
Folkways
(1906) and has long served as a cornerstone in the social analysis of culture. While ethnocentrism arguably is a universal phenomenon that facilitates cohesion and continuity at all levels of social organization, it provides the rationalization for attack on other cultures or subcultures in its more extreme forms. It may, for example, motivate criminalization of practices within subcultures or be used to justify going to war with other nation‐states. Ethnocentrism is intricately tied to definitions of deviance wherein the deviant is seen as not only different, but also as morally inferior or even evil. Members of the in‐group stereotype those in the out‐group as ignorant, bad, or even subhuman and these characterizations provide the basis for culture conflict.
Ethnography
Authors: Hammersley Martyn
Published: September 2017

In etymological terms, “ethnography” means “writing about people,” or “writing an account of the way of life of a particular people.” In early anthropology, the aim was a descriptive account of distinctive social or cultural features of a particular society. In this, ethnography was sometimes contrasted with ethnology, which was concerned with the comparative analysis of cultures, often in terms of some evolutionary scheme. Ethnology was originally based on the accounts produced by travelers or missionaries, but later anthropologists began to generate ethnographic data for themselves. Over time, the term “ethnology” largely fell out of favor, and “ethnography” came to refer to a
combination
of firsthand investigation and description of cultures, carried out by social scientists themselves, and the theoretical interpretation of the data this produced. Moreover, the term has a double meaning, referring both to a form of research and to the product of that research: ethnography as a practice generates ethnographies as products. In addition, a distinction has sometimes been drawn between
doing ethnography
and
using ethnographic methods
. This distinction has been employed by some anthropologists in an attempt to mark off their own practice from what passes for ethnographic work within sociology and other areas (see, e.g., Wolcott, 1999).
Euthanasia
Authors: Bryant Clifton D.
Published: September 2017

The dictionary defines euthanasia as an $@#*^%#@#ldquo;act or method of causing death painlessly so as to end suffering: advocated by some as a way to deal with victims of incurable diseases.$@#*^%#@#rdquor; This is something of an over$@#*^%#@#hyphen;simplification, however. The practice of euthanasia has long been a contentious issue and a matter of disputatious debate. Some have termed euthanasia $@#*^%#@#ldquo;mercy killing$@#*^%#@#rdquor; (Vernon 1970: 310), but others have reported that some critics have labeled it as murder (Sanders 1969; Charmaz 1980: 112).
Exchange‐Value
Authors: Beamish Rob
Published: September 2017

Exchange‐value – the most misunderstood concept in Marx's analysis of the commodity – is best grasped by moving from the immediate to the complex. Useful things found in nature or procured without exchange and used for private consumption (directly or in the creation of something else for private use) have a qualitatively distinct, concrete, natural form. Their utility is what matters; they have no relevant social substance even if they are produced through labor. They are not exchanged; they do not contain value.
Existential Sociology
Authors: Kotarba Joseph A.
Published: September 2017

Existential sociology emerged in the late 1970s as the most recent version of everyday life sociology. Writers in this perspective have attempted to integrate symbolic interactionism's powerful concepts of the self and the situation, phenomenological sociology's emphasis on the social construction of reality, and ethnomethodology's telling critique of conventional sociological theory and methods, with an innovative argument for the centrality of embodiment and feelings to human agency. Thus,
existential sociology can be defined descriptively as the study of human experience‐in‐the‐world (or existence) in all its forms
. A key feature of experience‐in‐the‐(contemporary) world is change. Existential sociologists expect, if not assume, change to be a constant feature of people's lives, their sense of self, their experience of the social world, the other people that populate the social world, and the culture that provides meaning for life. Everyday life is more than merely situational and problematic, a point on which all the varieties of everyday life sociology generally agree. Everyday life is
dramatic
– in an aesthetic sense – and experienced as such. In contrast to Erving Goffman's dramaturgical model of social life, the drama that existential sociologists see in everyday life does not follow anyone else's script. The actor is simultaneously writer, producer, and actor on a stage not necessarily of his or her choosing, but one that cannot simply be exited without confrontation with the producer/director (e.g., agents of social control).
Expectation States Theory
Authors: Berger Joseph , Wagner David G.
Published: September 2017

Expectation states theory is a set of closely related theories concerned with various processes by which social interactants or
actors
draw information from their social and cultural environment and organize that information into expectation states that determine their interaction with others. Together with research testing these theories and other research applying them to problems in everyday interaction (such as interracial interaction in schools), expectation states theory constitutes a
theoretical research program
.
Experimental Design
Authors: Kirk Roger E.
Published: September 2017

Sir Ronald A. Fisher, the father of modern experimental design, observed that experiments are “only experience carefully planned in advance, and designed to form a secure basis of new knowledge” (1935: 8). Experiments involve the manipulation of one or more independent variables followed by the systematic observation of the effects of the manipulation on one or more dependent variables. The emphasis on experimentation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a way of establishing causal relationships marked the emergence of modern science from its roots in natural philosophy (Hacking, 1983). According to the nineteenth‐century philosopher John Stuart Mill, a causal relationship exists if (1) the cause preceded the effect, (2) the cause was related to the effect, and (3) no other plausible alternative explanation can be found for the effect. Carefully designed and executed experiments continue to be one of science's most powerful methods for establishing causal relationships. An experimental design is a plan for assigning experimental units to treatment levels and the statistical analysis associated with the plan (Kirk, 2013). The design of an experiment involves five interrelated activities:
Experimental Methods
Authors: Walker Henry A. , Willer David
Published: September 2017

An experiment is a research method for which the investigator plans, builds, or otherwise controls the conditions under which phenomena are observed and measured. Experiments are the investigative method of choice in the physical sciences and increasingly in economics, but they are used infrequently in sociology. Sociology experiments are conducted disproportionately in the research subfields of (small‐)group processes and social psychology.
Expertise, “Scientification,” and the Authority of Science
Authors: Turner Stephen , McCreery Gregory
Published: September 2017

Sociologists and social thinkers have long been concerned with the problem of the role of knowledge in society. In the 1940s and 1950s the sociology of science concerned itself with the related problem of the authority of science and with conflicts between science and democracy. In a world of complexities that are only understood by experts, the conflict between expert knowledge and democracy is still relevant today.
Exploitation
Authors: Kliman Andrew
Published: September 2017

Exploitation occurs when someone or something (e.g., a material resource, an opportunity) is used or taken advantage of. Social scientists are chiefly concerned with the exploitation of people and classes, who are generally considered exploited if they are required, by force or by circumstances, to contribute more to some process than they receive in return. Crucially important to Marxian thought, the concept of exploitation is also employed in neoclassical economics and related sociological work. Yet the concept is controversial among sociologists; many eschew it entirely.
Exurbia
Authors: Crump Jeff
Published: September 2017

Exurbia is residential development on the fringe of metropolitan regions. According to recent estimates, low‐density exurban development covers 25 percent of the land in the United States. Exurban migration is driven by a desire to live in close proximity to nature. Exurban movers report that natural landscapes and more rural environments are important in choosing to live in exurbia. However, low‐density residential development results in “green sprawl” and disrupts the natural environment. During the housing boom of 2004–2007, many people, especially minority ethnic groups, purchased housing in exurban locations. Unfortunately, their search for a higher quality of life was based on predatory and subprime loans, and many fell victim to foreclosure during the Great Recession.
Electronic Markets
Authors: Lehdonvirta Vili
Published: September 2017

The term electronic markets originally referred to intraorganizational procurement systems and exchanges, but today also includes consumer online marketplaces and smartphone apps. A popular view is that new information technologies have reduced transaction costs, making it increasingly economical to use markets instead of hierarchies to coordinate transactions. Sociologists have highlighted the social construction of electronic markets: how different interests, norms, conflicts and knowledges come to be reflected in electronic markets' institutional and material architectures, shaping market outcomes. In the sociology of work, electronic markets are noted for their role in value chain restructuring and the associated transformations of work and employment, such as vertical disintegration, portfolio work and the “gig economy.” In the sociology of consumption, critical accounts discuss electronic markets' ability to exploit psychological weaknesses and further the commodification of childhood, while celebratory accounts highlight the medium's ability to empower consumers by eliminating gatekeepers and enabling collaboration and information sharing; other issues include the experiential and cultural aspects of online marketplaces and the rise of virtual goods as a new category of consumption. Some electronic markets are blurring the boundaries between producers and consumers, provoking debates about “prosumerism,” “crowdsourcing,” and the “sharing economy,” where work remains nascent.
Electronic Banking
Authors: Boni Katia , Tsekeris Charalambos
Published: September 2017

The term electronic banking (e‐banking, virtual banking, or online banking) usually refers to all forms of banking services and transactions performed through electronic means. These innovative forms suddenly emerged in the early 1980s as an effective delivery channel for traditional banking products when Nottingham Building Society and four New York banks (Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical, and Manufacturers Hanover) provided home banking services. Unfortunately, these early efforts were difficult to use and relatively unpopular (Cronin 1997).
Fact, Theory, and Hypothesis: Including the History of the Scientific Fact
Authors: Turner Stephen
Published: September 2017

The terms theory, fact, and hypothesis are sometimes treated as though they had clear meanings and clear relations with one another, but their histories and uses are more complex and diverse than might be expected. The usual sense of these words places them in a relationship of increasing uncertainty. A fact is usually thought of as a described state of affairs in which the descriptions are true or highly supported. A highly corroborated or supported hypothesis is also a fact; a less well corroborated one is still a hypothesis. A hypothesis which is not supported by or corroborated by other evidence would not be a fact, but could become a fact if it came to be corroborated to a high degree of certainty by other evidence. Similarly, a theory, which is a logically connected set of hypotheses, could come to be a fact if the hypotheses in the theory were to be highly corroborated by the evidence.
Fact, Theory, and Hypothesis: Including the History of the Scientific Fact
Authors: Turner Stephen , McCreery Gregory
Published: September 2017

Although the terms theory, fact, and hypothesis are sometimes treated as though they had clear meanings and clear relations with one another, their histories and uses are more complex and diverse than might be expected. A fact is usually thought of as a described state of affairs in which the descriptions are true, but how something becomes a fact has been a major concern of sociologists of scientific knowledge. Hypotheses and theories can also be defined as rooted in what is or can be established as fact, which raises difficult questions.
Fajnzylber, Fernando (1940–1991)
Authors: Rondero López Norma
Published: September 2017

The vastness of Fernando Fajnzylber's work clearly places him among the most important Latin American thinkers. Rather than highlighting the many documents he wrote or the many projects he participated in, it is indispensable to note that what is outstanding in Fajnzylber's work is not only its importance as a critical vision of the development conditions in Latin America, but also the influence his ideas had on the development of policy strategies for the region.