bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Inner City School Reform: Toward Useful Theory
Authors: Anyon Jean
Published: March 2007

In traditional scholarly analyses of why educational reforms fail, attributes of district organization, schools, personnel, or of the reform projects themselves are assessed for characteristics that can be altered. This research has produced a substantial body of knowledge. I argue in this article that such assessments do not provide sufficient understanding of the failure of educational reform in inner city situations.
A Place at the Table: The Changing Role of Urban Public Education Funds
Authors: Useem Elizabeth L , Neild Ruth Curran
Published: March 2007

Public education funds have emerged as durable players in urban school reform efforts. These nonprofit public/private partnerships, linked by the Public Education Fund Network in Washington, D.C., are active in more than 60 U.S. cities. They have moved beyond their initial support programs of minigrants to teachers, adopt-a-school efforts, and public relations work to whole-school change initiatives and direct involvement in critical policy questions. Funds that succeed in this new role tend to have strong private-sector representation on their boards, a local superintendent who welcomes the participation of "inside/outside" reform groups, and staff members who are skilled at negotiation and communication.
Growing Smaller
Authors: Christman Jolley , Cohen Jody , Macpherson Pat
Published: March 2007

Demoralized by high failure rates, unwieldy bureaucracies, and entrenched adversarial relationships, urban school populations struggle in harsh conditions. In this article, the authors offer a framework derived from S years of ethnographic research in Philadelphia high schools, to illuminate the vision and labor necessary to make urban school reform both systemic and doable. They identify and describe three tasks-building community, generating knowledge about change, and reinventing curriculum-as essential for engaging participants with the substance of education. These tasks encompass the work of changing the culture of teaching and learning.
Schools as Nested Communities
Authors: Enomoto Ernestine K.
Published: March 2007

This article discusses Sergiovanni 's metaphor, school as community. By proposing this metaphor as an alternative to school as organization, Sergiovanni encourages educators to think in new and different ways about how schools work. However, he discards the notion of organization too quickly and depicts the phenomenon primarily as a unified, cohesive school culture. His metaphor fails to conceptualize the multifaceted nature of schools and to account for the social complexity and inevitable conflicts present within them. An extended metaphot; the concept of schools as nested communities, is proposed and illustrated with a case study conducted in a multiethnic urban high school.
School-Based Management
Authors: Brown Frank , Hunter Richard C.
Published: March 2007

In the past decade, systemic school reform has taken hold in America in the form of "school-based management" (SBM) or shared decision making as a mechanism for improving schooling. Despite the lack of positive findings from research on the ability of this innovation to improve schooling, the reform innovation continues to grow. This article reviews the research on SBM for urban minority students and posits ways in which minority students may use SBM as a tool to improve education for their children and how their involvement may be enhanced with the assistance of properly prepared school principals. Given the ability of schools to sort students into social-economic classes, effective advocacy by parents of minority children at the school level may serve to counter the sorting function of schools based on one 's race or ethnicity.
Hiv Risk Behavior of Runaway Youth in San Francisco
Authors: MOON MARTHA W. , McFARLAND WILLIAM , KELLOGG TIMOTHY , BAXTER MICHAEL , KATZ MITCHELL H. , MacKELLAR DUNCAN , VALLEROY LINDA A.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this study was to describe HIV risk behavior among runaway youth in San Francisco by age at onset and sexual orientation. Participants were a cross-sectional sample (N = 334) of male and female youth aged 12 to 21 years seeking health care at two clinics serving runaway youth. Gay/lesbian/bisexual youth reported higher levels and earlier onset of sexual and drug-using behavior compared with their heterosexual counterparts. Gay/lesbian/bisexual youth in this sample are at exceptionally high risk for HIV infection.
Effects of National, School, and Gender Cultures on Friendships among Adolescents in Australia and the United States
Authors: BANK BARBARA J.
Published: March 2007

Research conducted in Australia and the United States tested the proposition that national, school, and gender contexts shape friendship norms and experiences. American (vs. Australian) adolescents were found to prescribe both more closeness and more assertiveness in their same-sex friendships, adolescents in private (vs. Catholic and public) schools advocated more assertiveness but not more closeness, and girls (vs. boys) prescribed more closeness and less assertiveness. Across contexts, friendship norms had significant, positive effects on reported friendship experiences.
Paternal Involvement and the Development of Gender Expectations in Sons and Daughters
Authors: HARDESTY CONSTANCE , WENK DEEANN , MORGAN CAROLYN STOUT
Published: March 2007

Examining the role of fathers in the development of children's gender role orientations, we argue that the development of egalitarian views regarding work and parenthood depends less on the extent of father participation in family and more on the nature of that involvement. A longitudinal survey of 2,000 children is used to examine the experience of paternal involvement during childhood as well as the ongoing father/child relationship and the subsequent effects on sons' and daughters' gender role orientations and attitudes in young adulthood. Ordinary least squares regression analyses indicate that the ongoing father/child relationship is more important than paternal involvement in childhood and the effects are greater for sons than daughters.
Sexual Behavior, Drug Use, and Aids Knowledge among Midwestern Runaways
Authors: ZIMET GREGORY D. , SOBO ELISA J. , ZIMMERMAN TEENA , JACKSON JOANN , MORTIMER JOAN , YANDA CARLYN P. , LAZEBNIK RINA
Published: March 2007

The authors evaluated sexual behaviors, drug use, and AIDS knowledge among Cleveland runaways (N = 108). Results indicated variable rates of risky sexual behaviors, minimal illicit drug use, and high levels of knowledge about true behavioral risks for HIV infection. These runaways demonstrated less frequent health-compromising sexual behavior and drug use compared to runaways described in other studies. Assumptions should not be made that all runaway youths engage in an unusually high rate of risky behaviors.
Where the Boys are
Authors: BARKER GARY , LOEWENSTEIN IRENE
Published: March 2007

Qualitative research with 127 low-income young men and women (ages 14 to 30) in Rio de Janeiro found rigid gender roles with males displaying widespread machista values. Males viewed violence toward women as acceptable in many circumstances, with more widespread violence against women reported among youth who live in favelas—low-income, marginal areas of the city. Nonetheless, the research identified a small but important minority of progressive males who questioned traditional machista attitudes. In focus group discussions, more progressive males were frequently criticized by machista males. Individual in-depth interviews found that being able to question predominant machista values was related to having a meaningful relationship with a role model who promoted nontraditional gender roles. The research highlights important ways of working with adolescent males to encourage more flexible gender roles.
Understanding Youth's Health-Compromising Behaviors in Germany
Authors: HAZARD BARBARA P. , LEE CHE-FU
Published: March 2007

In this article, we analyze German youth's health-compromising behaviors from the perspective of risk-taking behaviors. As with American youth, peer influence is found to be important not only on smoking and drinking behavior, but also on the perception of these behaviors as socially appealing (an opposite measure of risks) among German youth. Moreover, association with friends who smoke leads to less concern about one's own health and an over-assessment of one's own control over health behaviors, both of which contribute to other health-compromising behaviors—alcohol consumption, unhealthy nutrition, and lack of physical exercise. Concern about one's own health, though directly preventing unhealthy nutrition and low level of physical activity, does not have significant effects on smoking and drinking behavior. It reflects the fact that smoking and drinking are not considered by German youth as healththreatening behaviors; rather, these behaviors are seen as socially appealing and desirable. Implications for health education are discussed in the conclusion.
Goffman's Revisions
Authors: Manning Phil
Published: March 2007

Erving Goffman's reputation as a cynic stems from his text, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, which portrays the self as a manipulative confidence trickster. However, matters are more complicated than they first appear. There are two versions of the text, one published in 1956, the other in 1959, and Goffman's revisions to the latter quietly challenge the cynicism of the former. Focussing on these revisions makes the text look rather different. Goffman has two voices in The Presentation of Self and the aim of this paper is to allow each to be heard.
A Comparative Study of the Representational Paradigms Between Liberalism and Socialism
Authors: Gang Ke
Published: March 2007

Traditionally, debates over the issue of representation in liberalism and in socialism focused on such questions as who or whose interests should be represented in order to attest to the legitimacy of representation. In this article, a different and more fundamental approach is achieved by asking how the representation is accomplished. At this methodological point, liberalism and socialism diverge in their understanding of representative government: Each follows its own philosophical paradigm(s) that underly and justify its position. Differences between liberal and socialist understandings of representation are analytically compared in three pairs of categories: (a) micro versus macro, (b) individual versus class, and (c) the formalistic versus the substantive. The most crucial differences between the social systems are found in the last pair of categories-the formalistic versus the substantive approach to representation—because different understandings of central concepts such as democracy, freedom, and equality stem from these two frameworks.
The Critique of Equalitarian Society in Malthus's Essay*
Authors: Gilbert Geoffrey
Published: March 2007

The attack on perfectibilism in T. R. Malthus's Essay on Population (1798) is methodologically hollow. Malthus presents himself as a Newtonian empiricist, yet his analysis of equalitarian society is entirely abstract. Godwinian equality is debunked by means of a thought experiment. Malthus fails to take note of a variety of historical instances of equalitarian social practice (Sparta, the Moravians, and so on), thus undermining his empiricist posture. This deficiency in the critique of equality is remedied, to some degree, in the fifth edition of the Essay (1817), where Malthus finally cites some of the historical evidence relevant to an assessment of equalitarianism.
A Realist Theory of Empirical Testing Resolving the Theory-Ladenness/ Objectivity Debate
Authors: Hunt Shelby D.
Published: March 2007

This article explores whether theory-ladenness makes empirical testing an inse cure foundation for objectivity. Specifically, this article uses path diagrams as visual heuristics to assist in (1) developing a parsimonious representation of the traditional empiricist view of empirical testing, (2) showing how the "New Image" view ostensibly threatens the objectivity of science, (3) proposing a unified, realist theory of empirical testing, (4) developing a representation of the unified theory, (5) exploring several potential threats to objectivity, (6) discussing the proposed theory's implications for social science, and (7) adumbrating three foundational premises for scientific realism.
E. O. Wilson After Twenty Years
Authors: Flew Antony
Published: March 2007

The second word in the subtitle of this article is crucial. For there can be no doubt but that the possibility of sociobiology below the human level has already been abundantly realized in, for instance, the main body of E. O. Wilson's enormous and encyclopedic treatise Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. What may more reasonably be doubted, and what is in fact questioned here, is whether, as Wilson and others hope and believe, there is much room, or indeed any, for a sociobiology of our own notoriously wayward and idiosyncratic species. In proposing this particular project Wilson and his colleagues have seen themselves as promoting a climactic conquest for evolutionary biology. For surely, they seem to have thought, now, more than a century after Darwin, it is high time and past time to launch the final assault upon the last citadel. But, as we shall proceed to argue, there are reasons—reasons which were available at least in outline even to Darwin himself—why the ideas which have been so triumphantly successful in explaining The Origin of Species cannot properly be applied to what is in truth a fundamentally different task. They cannot, that is to say, properly be transferred to explain developments either within or out of the particular problem species of which the author of that book, along with both all the authors and all the readers of all other books, have been themselves members.
Critical Comments on Pearce, African Philosophy, and the Sociological Thesis
Authors: Bewaji John A.I.
Published: March 2007

Pearce's "African Philosophy and the Sociological Thesis" makes very interesting reading. Why it is interesting is not because it advances the frontiers of philosophical discourse in Africa or globally but because it shows that certain unwarranted dispositions die hard and that deliberate ignorance, if that is what is displayed, is hard to cure. In this article the author comments on the following contentions made by Pearce: (1) philosophy has no social relevance and/or responsibility; (2) philosophy is purely a linguistic activity concerned with analysis of concepts and examination; (3) philosophy derives from religion; (4) because African philosophy cannot supplant world philosophy, it lacks locus and legitimacy; (5) African philosophy pursues intellectual apartheid through an ethnophilosophical agenda; and (6) African philosophy is vulnerable to the Sociological Thesis and is voided by it. The author's rebuttal consists of a critical and analytic examination of Pearce's views, counterfactual illustrations, and elicitation of enthymemic presuppositions.
Winch and Instrumental Pluralism
Authors: Dov Lerner Berel
Published: March 2007

Peter Winch and Ludwig Wittgenstein have opposed the idea that traditional religion and magic are practiced in order to gain practical, instrumental ends. Their argument rests on interpretive charity: other cultures would have to be unbelievably irrational to believe in magic's practical effectiveness. In this paper, I show that Winch's own philosopical doctrine makes room for the possibility of instrumental pluralism, the notion that different societies may possess different criteria of instrumental rationality. Judged in terms of a native criterion, the instrumental use of magic and religion may be rationaL
Mechanism and Explanation
Authors: Bunge Mario
Published: March 2007

The aim of this article is to elucidate the notions of explanation and mechanism, in particular of the social kind. A mechanism is defined as what makes a concrete system tick, and it is argued that to propose an explanation proper is to exhibit a lawful mechanism. The so-called covering law model is shown to exhibit only the logical aspect of explanation: it just subsumes particulars under universals. A full or mechanismic explanation involves mechanismic law statements, not purely descriptive ones such as functional relations and rate equations. Many examples from the natural, biosocial, and social sciences are examined. In particular, macro-micro-micro-macro social relations are shown to explain other wise puzzling macro-macro links. The last part of the article relates the author's progress, over half a century, toward understanding mechanism and explanation.
Strategies for Modeling a Categorical Variable Allowing Multiple Category Choices
Authors: AGRESTI ALAN , LIU IVY
Published: March 2007

This article discusses strategies for modeling a categorical variable when subjects can select any subset of the categories. With c outcome categories, the models relate to a c- dimensional binary response, with each component indicating whether a particular category is chosen. The strategies are the following: (1) Using logit models directly for the marginal distribution of each component; this accounts for dependence among the component responses but does not treat the dependence as an integral part of the model. (2) Using logit models containing subject random effects to generate the dependence among the components; this approach is limited by implying nonnegative associations having a certain exchangeability. (3) Using loglinear modeling; quasi-symmetric ones are useful but are limited to estimation of within-subject effects. Marginal logit models less fully describe the dependence patterns for the data but require fewer assumptions and focus more directly on the effects of greatest substantive interest.
Covariance Structure Models for Fixed and Random Effects
Authors: TEACHMAN JAY , DUNCAN GREG J. , YEUNG W. JEAN , LEVY DAN
Published: March 2007

Fixed- and random-effects models are often used to control for unmeasured personspecific effects when examining the influence of measured covariates on an outcome. To date, different estimators are used for fixed- and random-effects models, making it difficult to choose between these two alternatives. In this article, the authors outline a covariance-structure model that captures both fixed and random effects and provides a simple test for comparing them.
Statistical Inference for the Relative Density
Authors: HANDCOCK MARK S. , JANSSEN PAUL L.
Published: March 2007

Social scientists are increasingly interested in techniques for comparing changes in distributional shape in addition to mean levels. One such technique is based on the relative distribution, a nonparametric summary of the information required for scale-invariant comparisons between two distributions. The relative distribution is being used by social scientists to represent and analyze distributional differences, enabling researchers to move well beyond comparisons of means and variances in a simple intuitive way. The authors develop a nonparametric estimator for the relative density function. They study its asymptotic properties, derive computable expressions for the asymptotic variance, and consider local bandwidth selection. They also illustrate how the relative density can be decomposed into a component due to location differences and a component due to shape differences. This decomposition identifies that component of interdistributional dissimilarity due to interdistributional inequality. The methods are illustrated by comparing the earnings distributions of working women to that of working men based on the 1990 census and to women from 1967 to 1996.
Confirmatory Factor-Analytic Structures and the Theory Construction Process
Authors: Burt Ronald S.
Published: March 2007

The confirmatory factor-analytic model of analysis is discussed in terms of the general process of constructing social theory-the generation of parameter estimates for a proposed structure, the assessment of a proposed structure, the interpretation of a proposed structure, and example applications. First-order, second-order, and structural equation confirmatory factor models are discussed in relation to Joreskog's model for the estimation of parameters in general theoretical structures, LISREL.
Specification, Residuals and Contextual Effects
Authors: Farkas George
Published: March 2007

The controversy over contextual effects is reviewed from the standpoint of specification analysis. The uselessness of ad hoc calculations of "variance due to" is demonstrated, and more careful examinations of goodness of fit are advocated. In this regard, it is demonstrated that techniques involving the analysis of residuals can be powerful aids both to assessing the quality of parameter estimation and to allowing the data to reveal the unexpected. It is concluded that contextual effects are weak, but cannot be dismissed, and a new line of theorizing is advocated.
The Effects of Violating the Normality Assumption Underlying r
Authors: Zeller Richard A. , Levine Zachary H.
Published: March 2007

Using randomly generated samples from populations having varying rhos, different shapes of distributions, and varying sample sizes, the effects of violating the population normality assumption underlying r were examined. Results indicate that the normality assumption underlying r is robust (i. e., that violation of the population normality assumption does not seriously alter the interpretation of r). Violation of the population normality assumption appears, therefore, to be insufficient reason to deny r a place as a major tool for sociological analysis.
Assessment of Multicollinearity
Authors: Rockwell Richard C.
Published: March 2007

Interdependence among explanatory variables is a common condition for sociological analyses. It may markedly affect the stability of estimates of parameters obtained from least-squares regression. Multicollinearity is viewed as a problem which poses two questions for the analyst: how severe is the multicollinearity and what is its effect on the analysis? The determinant of the correlation matrix of explanatory variables is a measure of the severity of multicollinearity. Haitovsky's chi-square statistic permits the assessment of the null hypothesis that the correlation matrix is singular. This paper demonstrates the need for this test through an examination of published correlation matrices. It is suggested that use of the Haitovsky test be routine in any analysis which attempts the estimation of parameters through regression analysis.
The Joint Role Structure of Two Communities' Elites
Authors: Breiger Ronald L. , Pattison Philippa E.
Published: March 2007

Blockmodel analysis offers a perspective for developing operational theories of role interlock across multiple networks. We identify precisely those features of role interlock that are shared by the elites of two small cities. This joint role structure is then interpreted with the aid of an algebraic model that we formulate on the basis of Granovetter's (1973) "strength of weak ties" argument. Our discussion illustrates the operationalization of substantive and theoretical concepts in the form of idealized role structures, and their application via blockmodel analysis to observed network data.
On Not Interpreting Coefficients
Authors: Wilson Thomas P.
Published: March 2007

A recent recommendation by Holt that coefficients resulting from estimating log-linear and similar models should not be interpreted is argued to be based on lack of clarity about the substantive and theoretical importance of the choice between dummy and effect coding for categorical variables. As a consequence, his recommendation applies only when the main concern is for a balance between parsimony and goodness of fit to the data and is inappropriate when interest lies in correct specification of a model representing the substantive process generating the data.
Evaluating Race-of-Interviewer Effects In a National Survey
Authors: Schaeffer Nora Cate
Published: March 2007

The present article attempts to overcome some of the problems involved in estimating race-of-interviewer effects in a nonexperimental national survey. Individual items as well as scales were examined, using General Social Survey (GSS) data. Race-of-interviewer effects large enough to justify the practice of matching interviewer and respondent race for interviews on racial topics were found for both black and white respondents. A few such effects were found for nonracial items among blacks, but the range of items involved is smaller than what has been reported in previous studies. The impact of race-of-interviewer effects on mean estimates in the GSS appears to be small for white respondents, due to the small proportion of cross-race interviews. The proportion of cross-race interviews among blacks is larger and more variable over the years, and the impact of race-of-interviewer effects should be considered when analyzing items which show these effects.
Children's Reports of Parental Socioeconomic Status
Authors: Mare Robert D. , Mason William M.
Published: March 2007

An important class of applications of measurement error or constrained factor analytic models consists of comparing models for several populations. In such cases it is appropriate to make explicit statistical tests of model similarity across groups and to constrain some model parameters to be equal across groups using a priori substantive information. This article discusses a statistical model devel oped by Jöreskog for these purposes. The model is applied to children's and parents' reports of parental socioeconomic statuses for several grade levels.
A Reply to McConaghy
Authors: Pattison Philippa E.
Published: March 2007

Contrasting accounts of the common structure in the blockmodels for two community elites (Breiger and Pattison, 1978; McConaghy, 1980) are shown to follow from two distinct means of interpreting the semigroup representation of role structure in a single population. The two candidate sets of interpretative features for the semigroup are the homomorphisms which it admits and the equations by which it is defined. These alternative descriptions lead naturally to the respective constructions of thejoint homomorphic image (Boorman and White, 1976)and the common role structure semigroup (Bonacich, 1980; McConaghy, 1980) as representatives of common structure in two populations. It is argued that the use of descriptive features in the form of homomorphic images, in general, and the joint homomorphic image, in particular, defines the potentially more useful approach, primarily because homomorphic images of the semigroup may be given relational referents in the generating blockmodel.
An Application of James-Stein Estimation to Survey Data
Authors: RODGERS WILLARD
Published: March 2007

A procedure is examined for adjusting observed values of a sample of entities toward the overall sample mean. This procedure provides estimators with lower expected mean square errors than the ordinary least-squares estimators, at the cost of accepting a slight bias. The procedure was applied to a variety of analysis problems, using data from two sample surveys, and the performance of the adjusted estimators was compared to that of maximum likelihood estimators. While generally the adjusted estimator was somewhat superior to the ordinary estimator, the improvement was too slight to warrant recommending widespread use of the technique.
Quantitative Studies of Interaction Structure and Strategy
Authors: DUNCAN STARKEY
Published: March 2007

Processes of face-to-face interaction can be investigated in a quantitative way with careful attention to methods of data collection and analysis. This article describes an approach to quantitative research on interaction, viewed as a rule-governed phenomenon. The regularities observable as a result of the operation of rules are of a sort not frequently analyzed by investigators of interaction.
Standardized Solutions Using LISREL on Multiple Populations
Authors: ACOCK ALAN C. , FULLER THEODORE D.
Published: March 2007

This article argues that the procedure used to calculate standardized coefficients in LISREL 6.1 is inappropriate. An alternative approach is proposed. The two approaches are compared empirically.
Assessing Bias and Fit of Global and Local Hazard Models
Authors: WU LAWRENCE L. , TUMA NANCY BRANDON
Published: March 2007

This article assesses the bias and fit of a hazard rate model by comparing predicted and nonparametric estimates of survivor probabilities. These comparisons also generate several diagnostic displays for event history data. We illustrate these diagnostic methods for several global and local hazard models using data on age at first marriage for women from the June 1980 Current Population Survey. Our results suggest that a nonproportional local Gompertz model performs better than other models we examined.
Acquiescence and Recency Response-Order Effects in Interview Surveys
Authors: McCLENDON McKEE J.
Published: March 2007

Split-ballot experiments for three sets of items measuring attitudes towards lawyers, anomia, and self-esteem were included in a telephone survey to test for both acquiescence and response-order effects. The experimental design also investigated whether these response effects would be reduced by giving respondents an explicit opportunity to say “don't know” (a filtered question form). Extensive evidence for both acquiescence and recency response-order effects was found. These response effects also often occurred for the same item. Thus the use of a forced-choice form to avoid acquiescence to agree-disagree items may often substitute one type of response effect (recency order effects) for another (agreeing-response bias). Furthermore, there was very little evidence that the use of a filtered-question form would reduce these response effects. In addition to these practical conclusions, the patterns of these response effects across the three different types of attitudes, as well as their relationships to education and income, have important theoretical implications. Lack of item-specific expertise, for example, may be a more important cause of acquiescence and recency effects than low cognitive sophistication.
Decomposing Longitudinal from Cross-Unit Effects in Panel and Pooled Cross-Sectional Designs
Authors: KAUFMAN ROBERT L.
Published: March 2007

This article proposes a method for analyzing data from panels and pooled cross-sections that can separate the effects of exogenous variables on the endogenous variable into cross-unit and longitudinal components. Monte Carlo results suggest that estimation using estimated generalized least squares is close to theoretical expectations for unbiasedness and reasonably reproduces the expected distribution of confidence intervals for a variety of combinations of number of units and time points. To illustrate the substantive utility of the decomposition, an analysis is presented of the effects of unionization and economic conditions on race-gender group industrial earnings inequality that yields dramatically different longitudinal and cross-unit effects.
Epidemiology and Social Networks:
Authors: MORRIS MARTINA
Published: March 2007

The spread of a disease through human populations can be significantly altered by patterned networks of social contact. Largely in response to AIDS, the way in which social networks channel disease has recently become the focus of a sustained modeling effort in epidemiology. The challenge has been to develop a general framework capable of representing both simple and arbitrarily complicated mixing structures, and of solving the matching problem in a non-equilibrium multi-group population. This work is reviewed here. A recent contribution from network analysis links log-linear models of contact structure to diffusion equations for transmission. This framework is described in detail, and some applications to the spread of AIDS are described. The results show that careful analysis of structured mixing can reveal significant features of an epidemic that would otherwise be missed.
Where to Begin
Authors: AMENTA EDWIN , POULSEN JANE D.
Published: March 2007

The problem of selecting independent variables for qualitiative comparative analysis (QCA) is addressed. This is a different problem for QCA than for inferential statistical methods, for both technical and epistemological reasons. Technically, QCA can manipulate only a few variables at one time. Epistemologically, QCA expects causation to work in a combinatorial fashion. The authors isolate and reject four ways of choosing independent variables for QCA and advocate a fifth method, the conjunctural theories approach, which is more compatible with the characteristics of QCA. Their decision is supported by way of discussion and an empirical analysis based on theories of the welfare state and U.S. social spending in the Great Depression.
Some New Log-Bilinear Models for the Analysis of Asymmetry in a Square Contingency Table
Authors: van der HEIJDEN PETER G. M. , MOOIJAART AB
Published: March 2007

The authors propose some new log-bilinear models for the analysis of asymmetry in square contingency tables. In these models the logarithm of the expected frequency is split up into two parts: (a) a symmetric or a quasi-symmetric part, and (b) a skew-symmetric part. The skew-symmetric part is decomposed using the so-called Gower decomposition of skew-symmetric matrices. It is shown how graphical representations of this decomposition can simplify the interpretation.
Barriers and Bridges to Class Mobility and Formation
Authors: HOROWITZ RUTH
Published: March 2007

Although ethnographic studies of stratification have focused largely on issues of class, many also have dealt with the distinctive barriers and bridges for racial and gender groups. Despite differences in perspectives, many have focused on barriers and bridges to changing places in the hierarchy (class mobility) and others to bringing people together in a similar situation (class formation). Few see the barriers as totally confining, and few see a world without major barriers. Some of the ethnographies develop new ideas from the analysis of the data, others demonstrate inadequacies in existing theories, but all reveal the complexities of the social worlds. Long-term, in-depth involvement in the field often reveals events that are key to understanding barriers and bridges: relationships with others that challenge market models, situations that appear similar but are not, situations that appear different but are not, and myths that are strongly held but are not valid.
Using a Multinomial Logit Specification to Model Two Interdependent Processes with an Empirical Application
Authors: HAO LINGXIN
Published: March 2007

Theories in sociology and other social sciences often postulate reciprocal causal relationships. Yamaguchi advanced a model for the interdependence of two discrete-time, discrete-state endogenous processes. The Yamaguchi model is introduced with a discussion of its advantages over conventional methods and a comparison with recently developed relevant models. To overcome the obstacle that existing statistical software cannot directly estimate the Yamaguchi model, the author has developed a method that converts estimated parameters from standard multinomial logit estimation into parameters of the Yamaguchi model. This method makes it possible and easier for researchers to estimate the Yamaguchi model using standard statistical software and a simple programming of linear transformation. The method is simple and straightforward and thus merits application to an analysis of interdependence with panel data. This article also provides a detailed empirical example to illustrate an application of the method.
Comparing Logit and Probit Coefficients Across Groups
Authors: ALLISON PAUL D.
Published: March 2007

In logit and probit regression analysis, a common practice is to estimate separate models for two or more groups and then compare coefficients across groups. An equivalent method is to test for interactions between particular predictors and dummy (indicator) variables representing the groups. Both methods may lead to invalid conclusions if residual variation differs across groups. New tests are proposed that adjust for unequal residual variation.
Caste and the colonial state: Mallahs in the census
Authors: Jassal Smita Tewari
Published: March 2007

The central problematic of this essay, the process of caste identity formation, is explored here with a focus on the fishing and riverfaring group of castes, the Mallah or Nishad, of the Bhojpuri-speaking region in eastern UP and Bihar. The process is analysed with reference to different sources of information, both colonial and post-colonial, which include the census, the system of scheduling whereby the Mallah/Nishad was labelled as both a criminal tribe and a backward caste, and finally, through voices from within the community. The essay is concerned with both the emergence of the Nishad identity as a result of and in reaction to the interventions of the colonial state and with the effects of the latter on identity-formation in the post-colonial era.
A post-colonial end to history? A reflection on the relation between democracy and communitarianism
Authors: Nag Dulali
Published: March 2007

Can democratic rights be claimed for cultural communities without subverting the first principle of democracy? What theoretical assumptions have to be made—implicitly ifnot explicitly—to posit the sociological existence of a cultural collective as the first step towards mounting a political movement critical of a liberal system of governance founded upon the idea of citizenship? This article tries to address these questions through a textual analysis of two essays arguing for the political rights of 'cultural communities'as a means towards enhancing a democratic political culture. It concludes with the argument that the theoretical process which goes into the construction of a communitarian collective inexorably leads to a position where 'identity' and 'history' are conflated to disable democratic movements.
Aging, gender and widowhood: Perspectives from rural West Bengal
Authors: Lamb Sarah
Published: March 2007

This paper explores widowhood in rural West Bengal from the perspective of age. Although widowhood in India has grabbed the attention of scholars and social reformers for a good century now,1 the focus of this attention has been (usually without explicitly acknowledg ing it) on women widowed at a relatively young age. Debates over widow remarriage, the perceived dangers of a widow's sexuality, a young widow's anomalous childlessness etc., all—it turns out—have to do largely with the social and economic concerns surround ing young widows. For the many women widowed in late life, the social expectations and dilemmas faced are significantly different. Scrutinising such differences not only helps us understand widowhood in India better, but sheds valuable light on local constructions of gender, sexuality and age.
Liberty and Theatrical Space in Montesquieu's Political Theory
Authors: HUNDERT E. J. , NELLES PAUL
Published: March 2007

“The crowns and scepters of stage emperors,” remarked Sancho, “were never known to be of pure gold; they are always of tinsel or tinplate.”

“That is the truth,” said Don Quixote, “for it is only right that the accessories of a drama should be fictitious and not real, like the play itself. Speaking of that, Sancho, I would have you look kindly upon the art of the theater and, as a consequence, upon those who write the pieces and perform in them, for they render a great service to the state by holding up a mirror for us at each step we take, wherein we may observe, vividly depicted, all the varied aspects of human life; and I may add that there is nothing that shows us more clearly, by similitude, what we are and what we ought to be than do plays and players.”

Miguel de Cervantes,

Don Quixote, II, iii, 12
Tactics of Appropriation and the Politics of Recognition in Late Modern Democracies
Authors: COOMBE ROSEMARY J.
Published: March 2007

Walking down the street in Toronto one day in 1987, pedestrians were surprised to see a message flashing across an electronic billboard. “Lesbians fly Air Canada” it repeatedly signaled. The next day the message was gone. A gay rights group broadcast the phrase, but their communication terminated abruptly when Air Canada threatened to apply for an injunction to stop the group from using its name.
The Political Logic of Economics and the Economic Logic of Modernity in Max Weber
Authors: BREINER PETER
Published: March 2007

The explanation of everything by economic causes alone is never exhaustive in any sense whatsoever, in any sphere of cultural phenomena, not even in the economic sphere itself.

Max Weber, “Objectivity”

in Social Science and Social Policy (1904)
Metaphysics in the Dark
Authors: CRITCHLEY SIMON
Published: March 2007

A metaphysician in the dark, twanging

An instrument, twanging a wiry string that gives

Sounds passing through sudden rightnesses, wholly

Containing the mind, below which it cannot descend,

Beyond which it has no will to rise.

Wallace Stevens, Of Modern Poetry
Mass Media, Ideation, and Behavior
Authors: KINCAID D. LAWRENCE
Published: March 2007

To estimate the impact of a mass media campaign to promote contraceptive use, a national longitudinal sample survey was conducted in September 1995 and March 1996. Recall of at least one television spot was 82.3%. Modern contraceptive use increased 2.1 percentage points. The conditional change regression analysis revealed that prior contraceptive intention and behavior, current ideation, and prior ideation were the best predictors of contraceptive behavior. The best predictor of ideation was prior level of ideation and recall of campaign messages. Thus, the campaign had a significant indirect effect on intention and behavior through its effect on ideation. Ideation was operationalized by combining cognitive, emotional, and social factors from a predictive model of strategic communication and behavior change. No endogeneity (reciprocity) with contraceptive intention and use was found in the statistical models for either campaign recall or ideation, an indication that the ordinary regression was an appropriate method to estimate the path coefficients.
The Spiral of Silence in the 1948 Presidential Election
Authors: McDONALD DANIEL G. , GLYNN CARROLL J. , KIM SEI-HILL , OSTMAN RONALD E.
Published: March 2007

Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence is tested with data from the 1948 Elmira election study. Results indicate that support for the theory and trends in the data are consistent with expectations for the spiral of silence as an additional explanation for the famous election misprediction. Statistical tests affirm Noelle-Neumann's suggestion that social isolation is associated with fear of isolation and provide partial support for the idea that social isolation interacts with fear of isolation in the spiral of silence effect.
Racial Cues and Political Ideology
Authors: DOMKE DAVID
Published: March 2007

This research theorizes that the presence or absence in political conversation of racial cues—that is, references by elites and news media to images commonly understood as tied to particular racial or ethnic groups—may substantially influence wether citizens' racial cognitions contribute to their political judgments. In particular, such symbolic cues in discourse may activate an important linkage between an individual's racial perceptions and political ideology, which some scholars suggest have become closely intertwined in the U.S. political environment. With this in mind, an experiment was conducted in which the news discourse about crime was systematically altered—as including racial cues or not—within controlled political information environments to examine how individuals process, interpret, and use issue information in forming political judgments. The findings suggest that racial cues not only trigger the association between racial perceptions and political ideology but in turn may prompt individuals to become more ideologically distinct in their political evaluations.
The Mass Media and Ethnic Assimilation and Pluralism
Authors: Subervi-Velez Federico A.
Published: March 2007

This article provides an integrated assessment of literature about communication research on Hispanics and other ethnic groups within the context of assimilation and pluralism. It also presents a series of conceptual and methodological proposals for improving research on this subject. The communication researcher interested in this topic should find significant guidance for his or her works. Yet much pioneering work must still be done, particularly for understanding some of the specifications of the role of communication for ethnics' adaptation.
ISSUE VERSUS IMAGE ORIENTATION AND EFFECTS OF POLITICAL ADVERTISING
Authors: GARRAMONE GINA M.
Published: March 2007

Melding uses and gratifications and information-processing perspectives, an experiment was constructed to investigate how media channel and audience motivation for attending to a political advertisement govern the processing and effect of the ad. A 2×2 factorial design (N=153) was used. Subjects were instructed to attend to a political ad “to learn where the candidate stands on issues” (issue motivational set) or “to form an impression of the candidate's personality” (image motivational set). In addition, subjects either viewed a two-channel political television ad (audio-video condition) or listened only to the audio portion (audio-only condition). Subjects attending to learn issue information were most likely to become informed and were more confident in their learning than were subjects attending to form a personality impression. Those attending to form a personality impression paid greater attention to the video portion of the ad and had greater confidence in their recall of video information. They were also more likely than were issue attenders to base their inferences of the candidate's traits on information contained in the ad rather than on assumptions about how traits are interrelated. No differences by channel condition were found.
THE KNOWLEDGE GAP
Authors: GAZIANO CECILIE
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to examine research evidence on knowledge gaps and to ask how strong this evidence is, particularly when amount of mass media publicity is taken into account. Many varying characteristics of 58 studies with relevant data are analyzed. Theoretical and methodological differences among the studies are pointed out, and some conclusions drawn about media effects on knowledge disparities and conditions under which knowledge gaps may or may not occur. Some reasons for conflicting results in the literature are explained, and suggestions are made for future research on knowledge differentials.
THE CONTEXT OF COMMUNICATION
Authors: FREDIN ERIC S.
Published: March 2007

This study explores the effects of an interactive cable television system upon the dynamic of interpersonal communication and the diversity of new ideas within work groups. A group-level property of interpersonal communication termed `intermediation” is developed. The diversity of new ideas is also conceptualized as a group-level property. Intermediation is operationalized using sociometric data. Evidence is found that intermediation can actively enhance or suppress the diversity of new ideas. The increase in the diversity of new ideas brought about by the interactive communication system was regulated by intermediation. It is argued that the introduction of new communication systems into work groups will have complex effects because the systems interact with interpersonal communication. Conditions under which types of new communication systems can suppress or optimize the development of new ideas are discussed.