bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Industry Training and Education at a Distance: The IBM Approach
Authors: BRUCE CHARLES L. , KATZ ELIZABETH J. , TOMSIC JAMES A.
Published: March 2007

Distance learning via satellite offers industry an opportunity to provide high-quality, cost-effective education to employees and customers. IBM's U.S. Satellite Education Network broadcasts 12 concurrent courses to 47 locations, comprising 238 individual classrooms across the continent. Our satellite network uses interactive digital multimedia technology and was designed for interactivity, making it easy for students to ask questions and for instructors to exploit the use of multimedia. We have found that all successful satellite courses incorporate critical factors in the development process. These include visuals that convey concepts effectively with varied, frequent interactions that hold the student's attention and reinforce key learning points. Training of instructors and administrators is another focus of a successful satellite instructional system. We are constantly learning from our satellite efforts and have both short-term and long-term enhancements under way, taking us closer to our vision of the future for distance learning.
Foreign Investment in the U.S. Economy before 1914
Authors: WILKINS MIRA
Published: March 2007

The United States was the world's largest debtor nation in 1914. From independence to the mid-1870s, American federal, state, and local government securities had represented the greatest single attraction for foreign investors, yet by 1914 foreign investment in sovereign debt was small. By the mid-1870s, the private sector had become the major recipient of foreign investment, with huge sums going into financing the vast national railroad system. Then, large American industrial, public utility, and retail corporations looked to foreign as well as domestic sources of finance. Because Americans could obtain funds from abroad, American growth was never retarded by the absence of capital. Especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, foreign direct investment—carrying with it technology, know-how, and management—went into U.S. agriculture, manufacturing, and services. Foreign capital played a substantial and beneficial role in U.S. economic development from independence to 1914.
The Impact of U.S. Laws on Foreign Direct Investment
Authors: LANEY LEROY O.
Published: March 2007

The U.S. economy has been and continues to be more open to foreign direct investment than any economy in the world. National policy is one of complete neutrality, but when state and local incentives are considered, the overall stance may be one of encouragement. At the national level, potential foreign investments are scrutinized only vis-à-vis their threat to national security, and very few are subjected to even this examination. Monitoring foreign direct investment is now done but is not done well. Improvements in data gathering are possible and recently have been considered more seriously. More prominent recent issues in the control of foreign direct investment seem to concern infiltration of the political system, specific nationalities, and the purchases of landmark properties. In spite of discussion and legislative proposals, there is little enlightened opinion that restrictions on foreign direct investment in the United States should increase. As long as the nation-state continues to be the predominant form of world political organization, however, there will always be at least some potential—if only nominal—barriers on national security grounds.
Classifying Conflicts: Asymmetry and Resolution
Authors: MITCHELL C. R.
Published: March 2007

It is suggested that one reason for the resistance of protracted, intranational conflicts to efforts at resolution arises from their asymmetric structure. The concept of asymmetry is examined and illustrated. The argument is made that asymmetry is a more complex conception than a simple matter of power imbalance. Various dimensions of asymmetry are outlined and some examination made of the implications of legal and structural asymmetries for conflict resolution. Finally, some suggestions are offered concerning the possible impact of asymmetric structure on feasible procedures for conflict resolution and the content of lasting solutions to protracted, intranational conflicts.
Ensuring Success in Interventions with Drug-Using Offenders
Authors: ANGLIN M. DOUGLAS , MAUGH THOMAS H.
Published: March 2007

A significant proportion of crime in the United States is directly related to the use of illicit drugs. Substantial reductions in crime at all levels could be obtained by enlarging or targeting appropriate interventions for drug-using offenders. Accumulated research findings have demonstrated conclusively that treatment for drug use does work, and a growing body of evidence suggests that treatment is equally effective when imposed on drug-using criminal offenders by the criminal justice system. In this article, we suggest appropriate strategies for implementing treatment programs within criminal justice settings and for maximizing their chances of success.
How to Maximize Utilization of Evaluation Research by Policymakers
Authors: LIPTON DOUGLAS S.
Published: March 2007

To conduct evaluation research and prepare reports that are most likely to be utilized by policymakers, one must understand the policymakers' perception of research and researchers. Policymakers believe it is their job to carry out their constituents' demands regardless of the results of evaluation research—only one contending judgment among many desiderata. The quality of the research is extraneous to making decisions. The more complex the evaluation, the more jargon, the more equivocal the conclusions, the more caveats in the preamble, the more sensitive the issue, the more complex the writing, the more obscure the evaluator, the more apt that the report will be discarded by policymakers and legislators. Their attitude mandates reporting that focuses on findings critical to policy issues, presents jargon-free findings concisely and clearly, avoids making recommendations, and relegates discussions of methodology to the appendix.
Political Islam in Asia: A Case Study
Authors: MARSOT ALAIN-GÉRARD
Published: March 2007

The phenomenon of Islamic resurgence, the so-called fundamentalism, has had important political effects, but it is often viewed as a Middle Eastern issue, just as Islam is essentially perceived as a Middle Eastern religion. In point of fact, the major Muslim nations are found in Asia, where most of the world's Muslims live. Islamic resurgence is also found, in various degrees, in all the countries of Asia where there are Muslims. The intensity and character of this phenomenon, however, depends on several factors, such as geography, historical background, and the relative size of the Muslim communities. While it is both a religious and a political phenomenon, as Islam itself, this Islamic resurgence should also be considered a response to the global issue of modernization and development, in all its complex and unsettling dimensions.
Economic Relationships and the Early Debate over Free Trade
Authors: MARTZ JOHN D.
Published: March 2007

The history of free trade in the Western Hemisphere can be traced back more than a century. Indeed, the Spanish colonial legacy set patterns that were followed during much of the nineteenth century. Early trade patterns were marked increasingly by the intrusive demands of the industrial nations. U.S. efforts to secure its interests in this regard were highlighted by the 1889-90 Washington Conference and by the ardent efforts of James G. Blaine. Even before the dawning of the twentieth century, Latin American suspicions of North American motives were profound, and this was manifested in the basic hostility toward free trade proposals.
Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure: A Necessary Ingredient
Authors: FLORA CORNELIA BUTLER , FLORA JAN L.
Published: March 2007

Local communities are faced with increasing responsibilities to provide for their own well-being and development. With fewer resources, communities need more successful ways of uniting people and resources. Entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) is a necessary ingredient for successfully linking physical resources and leadership for community development. ESI includes three elements: symbolic diversity, resource mobilization, and quality of networks. Instead of fostering perverse conflict or superficial harmony, symbolic diversity inspires communities to engage in constructive controversy to arrive at workable community decisions by focusing on community processes, depersonalization of politics, and broadening of community boundaries. Resource mobilization involves generating some surplus within the community beyond basic subsistence with relative equity in resource and risk distribution, investment by residents of their own private capital locally, and collective investment in the community (willingness of residents to tax themselves). Quality networks include establishing linkages with others in similar circumstances and developing vertical networks to provide diverse sources—both within and outside the community—of experience and knowledge.
Agriculture's Role in a New Rural Coalition
Authors: FISHER DENNIS U.
Published: March 2007

Many rural areas in the United States are in serious trouble as they experience decline over an extended period of time. Rural communities are increasingly being affected by changes in the national and world economies with little capacity to react. Selective out-migration has seriously reduced the size of the leadership pool. The remaining community and business leaders find themselves in a policy environment that is hostile or, at best, not helpful as they attempt to adjust to or take advantage of changing conditions. A key reason for this policy environment is the lack of any voice, other than production agriculture, speaking for rural communities. Although it is waning, the strength of the agricultural voice has repressed formation of any broad-based coalition that could speak to the wide variety of issues facing rural areas. To develop a supportive policy, however, a broad-based coalition must be formed. The very groups that have unwittingly preempted the voice of rural communities—agribusiness firms and farm organizations—may be in the strongest position to develop this coalition. This endeavor could be in the best interest of the agricultural establishment. Not all rural communities will survive, but they all should have a policy environment that will help them try.
Multiculturalism: Battleground or Meeting Ground?
Authors: TAKAKI RONALD
Published: March 2007

Is multiculturalism a battleground or a meeting ground? To answer this question, Ronald Takaki identifies two emerging perspectives—particularism and pluralism. The culture war over the content of the curriculum is presented as a debate, a clash of ideas: Allan Bloom, Diane Ravitch, and Arthur Schlesinger versus Gerald Graff, Henry Louis Gates, and Takaki himself. The university should be a stimulating contested terrain where scholars of different viewpoints engage each other over the meaning and content of culture, but whether it can become such a place of intellectual encounters may be in doubt.
Ethics and Public Service
Authors: SKIDMORE MAX J.
Published: March 2007

There is widespread concern for ethics in government, and news reports justify that concern. The public's emphasis, fueled by both accurate and inaccurate reporting, appears to center upon the conduct of elected officials. Some of that reporting is significant, and some is trivial. Professional literature tends to concentrate upon the bureaucracy. This article traces the history in general of ethical thought regarding public service in America and sketches attempts to require adherence to ethical standards. It concludes that—with notable exceptions and despite considerable insightful work from ethicists—the strongest reactions have often come in response to relatively trivial infractions and that prescriptions tend to be entirely negative. Such negative approaches are unlikely to result in significant improvement of ethics in public service, whether judged by standards of personal conduct or the even more important standard of institutional performance and integrity.
The Local Political Elite in the Democratic Transformation of Belarus
Authors: GRICHTCHENKO JANE M. , GRITSANOV A. A.
Published: March 2007

Comparative analysis of data from the Democracy and Local Governance research program shows that political power in the Slavic states of the former USSR is based on similar social and political values: social equality; dominant rights of the majority; and inequality of political participation of various social strata and groups. Local political leaders acknowledge social conflict as undesirable, although it is an inevitable component of a modern social system. These leaders are adapting very slowly to democratic principles of governing. The values of a totalitarian mentality remain strong in the face of a society in the process of transformation. Years will be needed for basic democratic principles of governing to become internalized values of political leaders.
Situational Levers of Position Change: Further Explorations
Authors: DRUCKMAN DANIEL
Published: March 2007

Negotiated agreements often depend on the willingness of bargainers to change their positions. This willingness is shown to depend in large part on certain aspects of the negotiating situation. This article reports the results of simulation experiments that demonstrate increased flexibility when the negotiations are held in private at remote locations. Talks under such conditions have a stronger impact on bargaining behavior than do suggestions made by a mediator. Bargainers were also responsive to the timing of their opponent's moves: more agreements occurred when their opponent demonstrated early firmness followed by later flexibility. The variables explored in the experiments were also used to diagnose outcomes of historical and contemporary cases. Correspondences found between the diagnosed and actual outcomes provide support for the relevance of these variables as influences on the flexibility of international negotiators.
Federal Court Supervision of State Criminal Justice Administration
Authors: HOFFMANN JOSEPH L. , ROBEL LAUREN K.
Published: March 2007

Federal courts supervise state criminal justice administration through decisions under two federal statutes, the Habeas Corpus Act and section 1983, a Civil Rights Act provision. These statutes provide overlapping review of constitutional errors. Habeas law has become too technical, limited by procedural barriers that often result in prisoners' losing their constitutional claims; moreover, the overlap between the two statutes adds further confusion. The theoretical basis for this complicated system of duplicative litigation no longer exists. Because the most important law of criminal procedure is now completely federal, state courts have no institutional reason to resist its application in favor of their own. Habeas law should be reformed and simplified to protect the goals of criminal procedure: innocence and deterrence of unreasonable state-court constitutional interpretations. Section 1983 litigation revisiting issues that the plaintiff had a meaningful opportunity to raise in state court or on habeas should be curtailed, unless the plaintiff demonstrates that one of those courts has ruled in his favor.
What Voters Learn from Media
Authors: WEAVER DAVID H.
Published: March 2007

Numerous studies of learning about politics from the media suggest that in spite of criticism of election news coverage for being superficial and preoccupied with campaign strategy, voters do learn, especially from television news, newspapers, and televised debates. Most likely to be learned are awareness and concern over certain issues, candidates, and traits of candidates. Specific positions of candidates and parties on issues are somewhat less likely to be taught by media. Contrary to popular belief, media exposure seems to have little relationship to voters' images of candidates; prior political attitudes and educational levels are much stronger predictors of these perceived images. Exposure to media coverage of elections, especially television coverage, is likely to reinforce interest in politics and voting turnout, although heavy media emphasis on campaign strategy and maneuvering can make some voters more cynical and less likely to vote. Newer forms of media, such as radio and television talk shows, seem to have notably weaker and less consistent links to voter learning of any kind.
The Past is another Country: Hong Kong Women in Transition
Authors: PEARSON VERONICA
Published: March 2007

Women in both Hong Kong and China have inherited the legacy of traditional values that severely discriminated against women compared to men. In terms of legal protections, women in mainland China enjoy an advantage. In real terms, Hong Kong women do better, as is shown in relation to education and work. Relocation of factories to Guangdong has created unemployment among older, less educated women in Hong Kong and has created opportunities for younger women in China—at some risk to their safety, as overseas Chinese businessmen ignore industrial safety regulations. There has been little renegotiation in family responsibilities, although many Hong Kong women work. Increasingly, families are employing a Filipina domestic helper, but this has only reinforced the concept of the traditional female domestic role. Relocation of Hong Kong businesses over the border has placed additional strains on marriage, as Hong Kong men establish second families in China.
Lessons Learned from Gentle Heroism: Women's Holocaust Narratives
Authors: GOLDENBERG MYRNA
Published: March 2007

Memoirs written by women survivors of the Holocaust share certain characteristics with those written by men, such as a narrative structure that begins with belonging and then moves to humiliation, isolation, deprivation, and finally annihilation. Men and women survivors both describe gratuitous and deliberate violence by Kapos and SS. However, women's memoirs also share strikingly similar characteristics with each other that differ from men's memoirs and that stem from their experiences as women and as Jews— thus as double victims—in a misogynistic, racist totalitarian society. Women's memoirs yield anecdotes that demonstrate women's resourcefulness in the hells of the ghettos and camps. Thus women's narratives are rich sources of the characteristics of an alternative social structure based on traditional feminine values. The experience of women during the Holocaust shows that traditionally feminist values of cooperating and caring are important conditions for the perpetuation of civilization, irrespective of religious, ethnic, or nationalist identification.
Teaching the Unteachable: A Canadian Perspective
Authors: FRIEDRICHS CHRISTOPHER R.
Published: March 2007

Much attention has been devoted to the development of college or university courses dealing entirely with the Holocaust. For many students, however, a general survey course provides the only context in which they will study the Holocaust as part of their higher education. This article, based on the author's experience in teaching at a Canadian university, suggests how the Holocaust can be treated in a survey course on twentieth-century history. While the Holocaust certainly reflected trends that are typical of our century as whole, in many ways it must also be seen as unique. Among other things, it is the greatest episode of modern history whose very occurrence has been widely denied. A direct engagement with the Holocaust-denial movement has thus become a regrettable necessity in teaching twentieth-century history.
Country Clutter: Visual Pollution and the Rural Roadscape
Authors: FLAD HARVEY K.
Published: March 2007

The landscape of rural America has been profoundly influenced by social, cultural, and economic changes. The rural roadscape is a visible text of these changes, and the transportation palimpsest a cultural text of the American ideal of mobility. This article briefly examines the growth of the presence of the automobile and the automobile's role in changing the face of rural America, with an emphasis on the aesthetics of the roadscape. In the late twentieth century, a concern for the visual environment has become an important part of environmental assessment, and selected aspects of roadside visual pollution, particularly signs, are examined, especially as they relate to federal and state legislation concerning billboards. Lastly, public and private sector efforts to preserve and enhance cultural and historical rural landscapes, through such measures as the designation of scenic roads, is presented as an example of more holistic transportation planning.
Nongovernmental Organizations, Micro-Credit, and Empowerment of Women
Authors: FERNANDO JUDE L.
Published: March 2007

Empowerment of women by means of micro-credit-based income generation programs is a new orthodoxy in the development discourse. The first part of the article appraises this phenomenon in a broader historical context. It shows how women's interests are being subsumed by and subordinated to the priorities of mainstream development in ways detrimental to the radical aspirations of the NGOs' empowerment project. The second part is a critical evaluation of the current approaches used in studies on micro-credit and empowerment. These studies have mostly focused on the final outcomes of micro-enterprises rather than the process through which they are achieved. The third part, based on field research in Bangladesh, demonstrates that the widely documented successes of micro-enterprises are a result of the activities of the very institutions that are considered to be oppressive to women. In this process, NGOs contribute to further legitimization of the same institutions that their micro-enterprises desire to transform.
What is Quality Children's Television?
Authors: ALEXANDER ALISON , HOERRNER KEISHA , DUKE LISA
Published: March 2007

The project described in this article takes the first step toward defining the construct of quality children's television by empirically analyzing how the industry defines quality. Our goal was to explore the characteristics of the best of children's programming to determine the characteristics of a quality product. Our data were drawn from the archives of the George Foster Peabody Awards to study all the award-winning programs in the children's category in order to answer the following research questions: (1) what are the characteristics of a quality program; and (2) what claims does the industry make about a quality program? There are a number of characteristics of winning shows. The preponderance of awards went to programs that were educational or dramatic. Nearly one-third of awards were given to specials; local shows garnered a hefty 11 percent of awards. In many ways, award-winning programs were divergent from the norm in children's programming. Beyond the observable characteristics of shows were the qualities claimed for them in the nomination process. Our 67 winning shows generated 332 separate claims, which can be categorized broadly into claims about excellence in production, superiority, instruction, influence, age appropriateness, and prestigious participants.
Social Benefits of Education
Authors: STACEY NEVZER
Published: March 2007

The majority of research on the outcomes of education has focused on the effect of educational attainment on individuals' wages and on the level of skill in the economy as a whole. In this article, however, Nevzer Stacey argues that examining the social benefits of education beyond its economic impact would provide a more comprehensive informational basis for developing national educational policies. She reviews the literature that examines the impact of educational attainment on four areas of potential intervention: health; family structure, fertility, and child care; the environment; and crime. Although these studies report some statistics on education, virtually none uses measures of learning or inputs related to the learning process to estimate the effect of education. Stacey concludes that a more systematic analysis is needed to improve our under-standing of the full effect of education on society in order to determine appropriate public policy.
Military Downsizing and the Career Prospects of Youths
Authors: BARLEY STEPHEN R.
Published: March 2007

In this article, Stephen Barley examines the extent to which the U.S. military serves as a provider of skills in the civilian economy. His investigation centers around the following questions: Do training and education in the military transfer into the civilian workforce? If the military does prepare individuals for civilian jobs, will reductions in accessions constrict the availability of trained personnel, just as firms are realizing that they require a workforce more highly skilled than in the recent past? Barley presents a review of studies focusing on the economic returns to military service, which fall into one of three categories: the effect of military service on earnings potential; the effects of military training and occupational speciality; and the effects of military service on employment. Barley concludes by offering a series of recommendations for policy, highlighting the fact that returns to service are primarily due to access to further education.
Environmental Inequality Formation
Authors: PELLOW DAVID N.
Published: March 2007

There are a number of conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues in the literature on environmental justice and environmental inequalities in need of refinement. Using data from the recycling industry, the author proposes an environmental inequality formation (EIF) perspective to address these issues. The EIF perspective synthesizes three major points that are largely neglected in research on environmental inequalities: (a) the importance of process and history, (b) the role of multiple stakeholder relationships, and (c) a life-cycle approach to the study of hazards. The EIF model captures sociological dynamics in ways that suggest that environmental racism and inequalities originate and emerge in a much more complex process than previously considered. Theory building in this area of research will aid scholars in understanding the mechanisms that produce environmental inequalities as well as their socioenvironmental consequences.
Evolution and Adaption in the Understanding of Behavior, Culture, and Mind
Authors: ROZIN PAUL
Published: March 2007

This article lays out a middle ground between strong evolutionary-adaptationist and strong environmental-determinist positions. It acknowledges the importance of human evolution in understanding current human functions and activities while also acknowledging the powerful role of culture in shaping humans. The biological, environmental, and cultural forces that lead to generality or distinctive specificity in different groups of humans are summarized, with some consideration to principles of evolution and development from biology that apply in the psychological and cultural realm. In particular, processes such as canalization and preadaptation are applied to the cultural evolution and the transmission of culture. Many of these points are illustrated in a consideration of biological, psychological, and cultural factors that shape human food choice.
13. Keysort as a Tool for Political Research
Authors: Tanenhaus Joseph , Somit Albert , Hovet Thomas
Published: March 2007

Manual punched-card systems are explained. Low expense, flexibility, and systematic handling of data masses typify the technique.
Sources Of Responsibility In Democracy
Authors: Knight Frank H.
Published: March 2007

The problem of organizing discussion and forwarding values, particularly in the economic sphere, is a vital task of democratic machinery. Rational procedures are few and feeble, and neither politicians nor philosophers help very much. An attitude of "sportsmanship" is preferable to "victory as the summum bonum." This paper forms part of a larger one on "Responsibility" delivered before the American Society of Political and Legal Philosophy at Chicago last December.
Indices of the Intensity of Trade Between Two Countries
Authors: Mortara Giorgio
Published: March 2007

An Italian economist details the methodology of obtaining various indices of trade between sets of countries, taking into account population, national income, and the general extent of international trade. In addition to finding the results intrinsically interesting, political researchers might also consider using the methods for other purposes. They might be adapted for the measure ment of some of the indices of international relations suggested by Karl Deutsch, et al., for example.
Unexplored Realms of Underground Strife
Authors: Zawodny J.K.
Published: March 2007

Subversion and revolution litter the course of history. They appear to be brought about by organized societies within societies. Yet we have surprisingly little systematic knowledge about their nature, their leaders, and their members. J. K. Zawodny of Stanford University has both academic and practical knowledge of his subject. He has made an initial study of underground movements, sponsored by the Project for Inter national Studies in Conflict and Integration at Stanford, and during World War II he led a platoon of the Polish underground.
Grouping Political Systems: Q-Factor Analysis of A Cross-Polity Survey
Authors: Banks Arthur S. , Gregg Phillip M.
Published: March 2007

The authors report a Q-factor analysis of 115 nations and 68 variables for the grouping of nations on the basis of their political characteristics. Five factors emerge to distinguish major political groupings of the con temporary world: polarchy, elitism, centrism, personalism, and tradi tionalism. Professor Banks is coauthor with R. B. Textor of A Cross-Polity Survey. Phillip M. Gregg is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at Indiana University.
Influences on Learning in Simulation Games
Authors: McKenney James L. , Dill William R.
Published: March 2007

In a business management game, variation of administrative techniques can affect students' attitudes toward the simulation and their performance in the game. Dr. McKenney is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Harvard. His specialty is the field of production. Dr. Dill, formerly Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, is one of the inventors of the Carnegie Tech Management Game and has written extensively on the game. He is currently Director of the program for executives at IBM in White Plains, New York.
Selective Dissemination of Information
Authors: Janda Kenneth , Rader Gary
Published: March 2007

A computerized system for automatically notifying social scientists of new journal articles that appear to fit their personal interests is now in operation at Northwestern University. Kenneth Janda is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern, and Gary Rader, is a former undergraduate major in the Political Science Department.
Future Policy Directions
Authors: Ingram Helen
Published: March 2007

"Who is to decide?" is the quintessential question in politics. For energy and environmental policies, the issue will be partially determined by which level of government, federal or state, serves as the central decision-making arena. This article suggests that, if brought together, the insights of two separate literatures might usefully be applied to this question. An overview of natural resources and environmental policy literature will suggest that the locus of decision-making authority in states and regions may result in more rational, less environmentally damaging decisions. An examination of the literature on federalism points toward a trend of growing state influence over and capability for decision making. The article therefore concludes with a list of some of the challenges involved in effectuating state influence over energy and environmental policy.
Reconstituting the Inner Circle
Authors: AULETTA GALE S. , JONES TERRY
Published: March 2007

This world is white no longer, and it will never be white again.

—James Baldwin (1963, p. 158)
Public Speaking in the Presidential Primaries Through Media Eyes
Authors: KENDALL KATHLEEN E.
Published: March 2007

Speech making by candidates in the 1992 presidential primaries was mediated by television journalists more than ever before. The result of this virtual replacement of campaign oratory with the very different rhetoric of the electronic press is a thorough devaluation of oratory for television viewers, for whom these speeches perform none of their classical functions. The candidate's verbal expression becomes irrelevant, despite the fact that it conveys many important things, from detailed proposals to facets of personality that later prove their value to indications of speech context. This study examines these manifestations in evening news campaign coverage by ABC, CBS, and NBC, with brief comparisons to C-SPAN, during the 1992 primary season.
Designing and Implementing the National Organizations Study
Authors: SPAETH JOE L. , O'ROURKE DIANE P.
Published: March 2007

This article reports sampling and data collection procedures for a national sample of work organizations. The sampling unit was establishments, which were drawn with probability proportionate to size. About half of the establishments were parts of larger organizations. Data were collected from 52% of the establishments that fell into the sample and from 64.5% of eligible establishments for which adequate identifying information exisited. The current sample is based on the 1991 NORC General Society Survey. In connection with a 15-minute module on experiences with employers, respondents were asked to give the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of their employers and the employers of their spouses. The information was transmitted to the Survey Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, from which telephone interviews were conducted with informants on the sampled establishments. This article discusses results of the data collection process, including success of requests for nominations and the disposition of interview attempts with establishments. It concludes with suggestions for improvements in data collection procedures.
Measuring Organizational Structures and Environments
Authors: MARSDEN PETER V. , COOK CYNTHIA R. , KNOKE DAVID
Published: March 2007

This article provides a descriptive overview of the work establishments in the National Organizations Study (NOS). It begins by reviewing their auspices, industry settings, and composition. Next, it introduces the survey items and scales used to measure coordination and control structures including structural differentiation, formalization, decentralization, and the presence of internal labor markets. Other items and scales refer to aspects of the technical and institutional environments. The NOS includes a quite diverse set of establishments, most of which provide services rather than produce goods. The public, nonprofit, and private, for-profit sectors are well represented. A sizable fraction of the workplaces are parts of larger organizations. Differences between descriptive statistics for the unweighted and weighted NOS samples highlight differences in the structures and environments of larger and smaller establishments.
The Manipulative Nature of Health Communication Research
Authors: WITTE KIM
Published: March 2007

Researchers and academics have accumulated a great deal of knowledge on how to manipulate individuals' behaviors. Although health communication researchers and practitioners prefer to call their work public health campaigns or health education interventions, the truth is that their ultimate goal is to manipulate people into practicing healthy behaviors. A health communication research and practice moves into the 21st century, this issue must be faced squarely and directly, and strategies must be developed for the ethical use of manipulation techniques to promote health and to prevent disease.

The one fact I would cry from every housetop is this: the Good Life is waiting for us—here and now! At this very moment we have the necessary techniques, both material and psychological, to create a full and satisfying life for everyone.

—B. F. Skinner

Walden II
The Political Correctness Controversy Revisited
Authors: HOOVER JUDITH D. , HOWARD LEIGH ANNE
Published: March 2007

It is the task of every generation to reassess the tradition in which it lives, to discard what it cannot use, and to bring into context with the distant and intermediate past the most recent contributions to the Great Conversation.

Robert M. Hutchins (1951)
Large-Scale Environmental Risk Factors for Substance Use
Authors: WILLS THOMAS A. , PIERCE JOHN P. , EVANS RICHARD I.
Published: March 2007

This article discusses evidence on the importance of large-scale environmental risk factors for onset of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use. It is suggested that smoking onset occurs through a process in which some individuals change from nonsmoking to susceptibility, experimentation, and adoption of regular use. A distinction is made between distal and proximal risk factors, and a model is outlined that encompasses both levels. We consider evidence on large-scale variables including socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and media advertising as factors in onset and discuss how the effects of these large-scale variables are mediated. Recommendations for research and program development are made.
Only in Social Action!
Authors: KARNØE PETER
Published: March 2007

This article compares the neoinstitutional perspective to the business systems perspective and addresses the way in which they can be used for accounting for social action. Despite their important insights against methodological individualism and functionalism, they still have some weaknesses. This article integrates four conceptual elements—sense making and enactment, social context, ongoing social relations, and a temporality view on time—to develop a more adequate conceptualization of the role of institutional rules in shaping social action.
Habitus Revisited
Authors: SCHMIDT MORTEN
Published: March 2007

The author suggests that if researchers in the field of new institutional analysis of organizations wish to address man in real life as an actor, then a focus on the methodology of the approach is necessary. Being historically bounded, the methodology faces two major obstacles when attempting to address man: how it operates within the concept of time and, closely related thereto, how it only addresses man's practice post hoc. This article suggests a methodology based on the poststructural conceptualization of practice.
Exploring the Institutional Tool Kit
Authors: LOUNSBURY MICHAEL
Published: March 2007

A typology of four institutional research perspectives in organizational sociology is offered with the intention of broadening what our subfield considers “institutional”: (a) social organization, (b) work and organization, (c) interactionism, and (d) cultural system. The case of the emergence of recycling in the U.S. solid waste field is drawn on to illustrate differences among these perspectives. The article advocates the view that organizational sociologists should draw from these diverse approaches as if they were theoretical resources in an institutional tool kit. This would make possible more eclectic multilevel approaches that should be attentive to the contingent nature of social action.
Social Capital and Democracy
Authors: NEWTON KENNETH
Published: March 2007

Social capital is in danger of going the way of political culture—a potentially powerful concept that is given many different meanings by many different people for many different purposes. This article starts by picking out three different aspects or dimensions of the concept—norms (especially trust), networks, and consequences. It then considers three models of social capital and the forms of trust and democracy associated with them. Finally it discusses the role of voluntary associations as a foundation for social capital, arguing that their importance may be overstated in the classical Tocquevillean model of the 19th century, and that, in any case, modern democracy may be increasingly based on different forms of trust and association.
Community Building and Political Power
Authors: WARREN MARK R.
Published: March 2007

Rebuilding poor communities requires effective political power. This article examines the political strategy of the nation's most prominent, faith-based community organizing network, the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). It discusses the relational-organizing strategy through which the IAF engaged members of religious congregations in the development of an innovative job-training program, Project QUEST, in San Antonio, Texas. And it explores the independent, nonpartisan strategy that recruited allies and won public resources for Project QUEST. By linking community building to political action, the IAF strategy contributes a participatory foundation to American politics. At the same time, the IAF strategy overcomes the limitations of community building efforts that fail to appreciate the role of conflict in creating new forms of cooperation. To achieve a broader impact, however, the IAF will have to expand its efforts to reform political institutions and to impact economic restructuring at the national level.
How Comparative Is Comparative Research?
Authors: JOWELL ROGER
Published: March 2007

Social scientists tend to accept lower standards of rigor in cross-national surveys than in national surveys, leading to heroic conclusions about differences between nations on the basis of obviously faulty data. Arising perhaps from a commendable wish to respect different cultural norms, even some of the most conscientious cross-national studies make the mistake of permitting considerable variations by country in the type and quality of the methods they deploy. Meanwhile, analysts of cross-national data frequently abandon offering explanations and interpretations in favor of league tables of distributions showing merely “gee whiz” national differences. This article acknowledges the formidable obstacles in the way of achieving rigor in large-scale comparative studies and offers 10 possible rules to mitigate the difficulties. It suggests that bigger is usually worse and recommends routine cross-national collaboration in analysis and interpretation—not just in design, development, and execution—among scholars in each of the nations under the microscope.
Permanent Development of Futures Research Methodology
Authors: NOVÁKY ERZSÉBET
Published: March 2007

This article shows how the author teaches futures research at the university level, her theoretical and philosophical orientation when undertaking futures research, and the methods she relies on (both by adopting and further developing them) in the course of her work. The presentation of the author's methodological work is highlighted through 30 years in the department of futures research, which she heads.
Future-Oriented Complexity and Adaptive Studies (FOCAS)
Authors: YAMAGUCHI KAORU
Published: March 2007

This article describes the development and research agenda of a specific variant of futures studies known as FOCAS: future-oriented complex and adaptive studies.
Giving Images a Chance
Authors: RUBIN ANITA
Published: March 2007

Social sciences inevitably both trigger and enforce social change. However, current sociology has become more analysis oriented than action oriented. Futures studies can improve sociological thinking by its general cross-disciplinary approach, methods that emphasize alternatives and encourage participation in public discussions and decision making. The author discusses the idea of evolutionary transition as progressive differentiation toward increasing complexity that explains social change. This theory is then used to explore images of the future that arise from different interpretations of the present (Western) transition from modernity through late modernity to postmodernity and, similarly, from industrialism through late industrialism to a new epoch. The images consist of items that reflect the simultaneous existence of different and partly contradictory interpretations of reality that reflect socioeconomic and cultural change.
Gender Roles and Settlement Activities Among Children and Their Immigrant Families
Authors: VALENZUELA ABEL
Published: March 2007

This article explores how girls and boys facilitate the establishment of permenent settlement in Mexican immigrant households. Through analysis of 68 interviews, three primary roles are identified: (a) tutors, when children serve as translators and teachers for their parents and younger siblings; (b) advocates, when children intervene or mediate on behalf of their households during difficult transactions or situations; and (c) surrogate parents, when children undertake nanny or parentlike activities. In addition, it was found that girls participate more than boys in tasks that require detailed explanations or greater responsibility. Boys, despite their involvement in household activities, did not have the same responsibility roles as girls did. Finally, the eldest child, regardless of gender, often took the lead role in assisting and caring for younger siblings. These findings advance the understanding of the interaction of immigration, children, and gender in household settlement.
The Long-Term Care Puzzle and Mental Health Policy
Authors: HASTINGS MARGARET M.
Published: March 2007

The rapid growth in the elderly population has increased attention to long-term care and policies that guide and develop long-term care programs. Demands for long-term care are evident across the life span, and long-term care is a critical component of mental health policy. This article provides an overview of longterm care: its populations, services, and private and public financing resources. The state is identified as the centerpiece of long-term care and mental health policymaking. Emerging areas and new forces in long-term care policy are examined.
Responsible Care: An Assessment
Authors: Prakash Aseem
Published: March 2007

Responsible Care is a voluntary code of conduct developed, enforced, and monitored by the Chemical Manufacturers Association. Voluntary codes could be designed and enforced by regulators, nonprofit groups, industry associations, and individual firms. They could vary in their scope, focusing on firms around the globe, in a given region, within a country, or in a given industry. This article focuses on Responsible Care’s self-regulatory services that pertain to establishing, monitoring, and enforcing industry-wide environmental, health, and safety standards. Employing insights from the club theory, stakeholder theory, institutionalist theory, and the corporate social performance perspective, it examines the demand and supply sides of voluntary codes. Finally, it discusses theoretical implications and the key challenges faced by Responsible Care in the future.
Simplifying the Principles of Stakeholder Management: The Three Most Important Principles
Authors: Szwajkowski Eugene
Published: March 2007

This article draws on Principles of Stakeholder Managementrecently published by the Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics. The article discusses the most important principles and the reasoning behind them. First, though, it lays a foundation for the application of these principles by interpreting a massive empirical study that demonstrates strong parallels between stakeholder valuation of firms (measured as overall reputation) and shareholder valuation (stock market returns). This evidence is coupled with conceptual analysis that shows that the most famous pronouncements of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman actually argue for, not against, the stakeholder approach.