Showing papers in "American Journal of Sociology in 1976"

Social Structure from Multiple Networks. I. Blockmodels of Roles and Positions

Abstract: Networks of several distinct types of social tie are aggregated by a dual model that partitions a population while simultaneously identifying patterns of relations. Concepts and algorithms are demonstrated in five case studies involving up to 100 persons and up to eight types of tie, over as many as 15 time periods. In each case the model identifies a concrete social structure. Role and position concepts are then identified and interpreted in terms of these new models of concrete social structure. Part II, to be published in the May issue of this Journal (Boorman and White 1976), will show how the operational meaning of role structures in small populations can be generated from the sociometric blockmodels of Part I.

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

Abstract: A city and, more generally, any locality, is conceived as the areal expression of the interests of some land-based elite. Such an elite is seen to profit through the increasing intensification of the land use of the area in which its members hold a common interest. An elite competes with other land-based elites in an effort to have growth-inducing resources invested within its own area as opposed to that of another. Governmental authority, at the local and nonlocal levels, is utilized to assist in achieving this growth at the expense of competing localities. Conditions of community life are largely a consequence of the social, econimic, and political forces embodied in this growth machine. The relevance of growth to the interests of various social groups is examined in this context, particularly with reference to the issue of unemployment. Recent social trends in opposition to growth are described and their potential consequences evaluated.

On the Concept of Face

Abstract: The concept of face is clarified and distinguihed from other closely related constructs: authority, standards of behavior, personality, status, dignity, honor, and prestige. The claim to face may rest on the basis of status, whether ascribed or achieved, and on personal or nonpersonal factors; it may also vary according to the group with which a person is interacting. Basic differences are found between the processes involved in gaining versus losing face. While it is not a necessity for one to strive to gain face, losing face is a serious matter which will, in varying degrees, affect one's ability to function effectively in society. Face is lost when the individual, either through his action or that of people closely related to him, fails to meet essential requirements placed upon him by virtue of the social position he occupies. In contrast to the ideology of individualism, the question of face frequently arises beyond the realm of individual responsibility and subjective volition. Reciprocity is inhere...

Social Structure from Multiple Networks. II. Role Structures

Abstract: Role structures in small populations are given operational meaning as algebras generated from the sociometric blockmodels of Part I by Boolean multiplication (matrix multiplication employing binary arithmetic). Many different sociometric structures can yield the same algebraic multiplication table, which captures a different level of social structure. Elements of the algebras are interpreted concretely as compound roles, and interlock among these roles is studied through investigation of their algebraic properties (equations and inclusions). Similarities and differences among algebras from six case studies are explored by means of homomorphisms as well as by multidimensional scaling on a derivative numerical distance measure. Results for particular populations, including reliability and stability tests, are summarized through simple target tables reporting aggregations of more complicated role structures.

The real self: from institution to impulse.

Abstract: It is proposed that people variously recognize their real selves either in feelings and actions of an institutional and volitional nature, such as ambition, morality, and altruism, or in the experience of impulse, such as undisciplined desire and the wish to make intimake revelations to other people. A shift toward the impulse pole seems to be under way and might be plausibly explained by chaning cultural definitions of reality modified terms of social integration, shifting patterns of deprivation, or new opportunities and consequences. Many standard sociological assumptions about social control are incopatible with the new pattern of self-identification.

Network Sampling: Some First Steps

Abstract: Social network research has been confined to small groups because large networks are intractable, and no systematic theory of network sampling exists. This paper describes a practical method for sampling average acquaintance volume (the average number of people known by each person) from large populations and derives confidence limits on the resulting estimates. It is shown that this average figure also yields an estimate of what has been called "network density." Applications of the procedure to community studies, hierarchical structures, and interorganizational networks are proposed. Problems in developing a general theory of network sampling are discussed.

Sex Differences and Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract: Since the turn of the century, over 80 studies designed to count both untreated and treated cases of psychiatric disorder have been carried out in different parts of the world; in the majority of these, data were reported for males and females separately. The procedures and results of these epidemiological studies of "true" prevalence are analyzed with respect to several questions: Are total rates over all types of functional disorder higher among males or among females? Which types of disorder are more prevalent among males and which among females? How do sex differences in overall rates and in different types of disorder vary over time? What are the implications of the findings for theory about sex roles and psychiatric disorder?

The Representation of Social Processes by Markov Models

Abstract: In this paper we consider a class of issues which are central to modeling social phenomena by continuous-time Markov structures. In particular, we discuss (a) embeddability, or how to determine whether observations on an empirical process could have arisen via the evolution of a continuous-time Markov structure; and (b) identification, or what to do if the observations are consisten with more than one continuous-time Markov structure. With respect to the latter topic, we discuss how to select the specific structure from the list of alternatives which should be associated with the empirical process. We point out that the issues of embeddability and identification are especially pertinent to modeling empirical processes when one has available only fragmentary data and when the observations contain "noise" or other sources of error. These characteristics, of course, describe the typical work situation of sociologists. Finally, we note the type of situation in which a continuous-time model is the proper struc...

Size and the Density of Interaction in Human Aggregates

Abstract: A baseline model is developed to show the conduciveness of population size to the density of interaction in human aggregates. This model permits deduction and, therefore, explanation of a wide variety of social phenomena. It explains the positive relation between rates of crimes of violence and city size indicated by Webb's (1972) data. And it provides a formal rationale for Kasarda's (1974) hypothesis relating size and communication in macrostructures, as well as an alternative to some aspects of the theory formulated by Hamblin, Jacobsen, and Miller (1973). Our model accounts for the "transitory" and "superficial" nature of urban social relations commented upon by Simmel (1903), Wirth (1938), and Milgram (1970) and explains why inhabitants of large cities are unlikely to intervene in crises. In conjunction with considerations noted by Mayhew et al. (1972), the model explains why role strain may be expected to increase with organizational size, as illustrated in Snoek's (1966) national study. The wide va...

Economic strains and the coping functions of alcohol.

Abstract: Some of the social and psychological antecedents of the use of alcohol to control emotional distress are examined. Interconnections are shown to exist among economic hardship, anxiety, and drinking for the relief of distress. These relationships are especially close among intensely anxious people having little sense of mastery and possessing low self-esteem. The results indicate that some functions of drinking stem from experiences and feelings rooted in basic features of social and economic organization.

Occupational Structure and Alienation

Abstract: This paper appraises two related hypotheses suggested by Marx's analysis of the occupational sources of alienation-one emphasizing control over the product of one's labor, the other emphasizing control over the work process. Using data from a sample survey of U.S. males employed in civilian occupations, it concludes that, in this large-scale, capitalist system, control over the product of one's labor (ownership and hierarchical position) has only indirect effect on alienation, whereas control over work process (closeness of supervision, routinization, and substantive complexity) has an appreciable direct effect on powerlessness, self-strangement, and normlessness.

Structural Change in Social Processes

Abstract: Models of structural change should be able to explain constancy as well as change, must combine micro- and macrolevel analysis, and must encompass endogenous sources of change. It is necessary to distinguish among three levels of structure of a system: output structure, parameter structure, and process structure. With these concepts four basic types of change processes can be indentified: simple reproduction, extended reproduction, transition, and transformation. These are discussed and illustrated, as well as some important special cases such as dialectical change, overintegration, and catastrophe.

On the Sociology of National Development: Theories and Issues'

Abstract: This paper reviews the different perspectives from which the problem of national development has been approached by sociology. General characteristics of the problem of development and definitions of the term are discussed in the introductory sections. The perspectives reviewed are labeled "development as social differentiation," "development as enactment of values," and "development as liberation from dependency." The main trend noted is movement from earlier extrapolations of theories based on the unique European experience to more historically grounded analyses. Recent approaches to development are not without limitations, and these are reviewed, as are those of earlier evolutionary and psychosocial perspectives. The study of national development occupies a paradoxical position within sociology. From classical times to the present, it has had a central place in the minds of theorists concerned with the transition toward more advanced social stages. At the same time, familiarity with the concrete historical experiences of countries in the "underdeveloped" world has remained a tangential preoccupation. This is especially true with regard to the actual dilemmas faced by nations attempting to break away from their past and move toward different models of the future. A major gap appears to exist between theoretical perspectives chosen by modern sociology and recurrent dilemmas and concrete restrictions faced by the nonindustrialized world. In part, the paradox which makes of "development" both a central and an esoteric concern within sociology stems from the confluence of two different major themes. One is the century-and-a-half-old recapitulation of major processes of change which occurred in Europe beginning in the 16th century. The other is the more recent comparison between countries that are "developed"-wealthy, industrialized, technologically advanced, militarily powerful, politically stable, etc.-and those that are at different stages of "underdevelopment." The first theme has generated a vast literature around the question, What were the forces which impelled Europe to evolve such drastically

A General Framework for Building Dynamic Macro Social Indicator Models: Including an Analysis of Changes in Crime Rates and Police Expenditures'

Abstract: It is generally agreed that social indicators are measures of social conditions. Accordinlgy, recent interest in measuring social conditions and in building models of how various social forces determine changes in social conditions was predated by work of William F. Ogburn and his collaborators over 50 years ago. In this paper, we argue for a revival of analyses of social change based upon time series of indices of social conditions. To provide a general paradigm for this type of analysis, we describe (1) an opportunity-structures theoretical framework for generating specifications of equations of dynamic macro social indicator models, (2) a demographic accounting framework for grounding such equations in population stocks and flows, and (3) a structural equation strategy for estimating and evaluating the resulting models. To illustrate this paradigm, we present analyses of three equation determining changes in the national reported property crime rate, the reported violent crime rate, and the rate of pub...

Changes in the Socioeconomic Stratification of the Races, 1962-73.

Abstract: The occupational socioeconomic status of men in the experienced civilian labor force (ECLF) rose between 1962 and 1973, and black men gained more than whites. Although the racial gap narrowed over the decade, black men in 1973 had not matched the occupational standing of white men in 1962. Intercohort changes in schooling and, to a lesser degree, changes in family background account for some of the shifts. Changes in the effects of schooling and of social background have occurred, and these differ between the races. Among white men in the ECLF, family factors are less important in occupational allocation than they were a decade ago; schooling has increased in importance relative to family background; both the effect of schooling on occupational standing and educational level of occupational incumbents have increased. In contrast, among black men in the ECLF, family factors were more tightly linked with occupational achievement in 1973 than in 1962, and black men with the same socioeconomic background and ...

Simmel's Influence on American Sociology. I

Abstract: This article constitutes the second part of a discussion of the diffusion of Simmel's thought within the American sociological community initiated in the January issue of this Journal. His influence is traced with respect to the metropolitan mentality, small groups, interpersonal knowledge, conflict, and exchange. Different levels and historical functions of the appropriation of Simmel's work are identified in conclusion.

Classical Social Theory and the Origins of Modern Sociology

Abstract: My aims in this essay are both iconoclastic and constructive. An iconoclast, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a ‘breaker of images’, ‘one who assails cherished beliefs’. I begin by taking to task a series of widely held views, relating above all to Durkheim’s writings, of the past development of social theory. These views, as I have tried to show elsewhere,1 are myths; here I try not so much to shatter their images of the intellectual origins of sociology as to show that they are like reflections in a hall of distorting mirrors. I do not, however, propose to analyse the development of classical nineteenth- and early twentieth-century social theory for its own sake alone, but wish to draw out some implications for problems of sociology today.

Continuities in the Study of Ecological Succession: Changes in the Race Composition of Neighborhoods and Their Businesses

Abstract: This paper concerns the problem of how residential succession affects the character of one set of local organizations: small businesses in racially changing neighborhoods. A key issue examined is t...

Industrialization and the Stratification of Cities in Suburban Regions

Abstract: It is proposed that the process of suburban growth since 1950 has been strongly influenced by the suburbanization of industrial and commercial employment. Suburban communities have responded to the new conditions of growth in ways that create a new pattern of suburban differentiation, one in which there is stratification by both social class and fiscal wealth to the disadvangate of poorer residents. A theoretical model of this growth process is presented and illustrated by the case of cities in a recently growing, industrializin suburban SMSA.

Development Towns in Israel: The Role of Community in Creating Ethnic Disparities in Labor Force Characteristics'

Abstract: This paper investigates the contribution of community to ethnic stratification in Israel. We show that "development towns," a category of new settlements established to achieve population dispersal and immigrant absorption, have influenced (a) the areal distributions of different ethnic (country-of-origin) (b) the tendency for each group to be concentrated in certain industries, and (c) the occupational opportunities available to the members of an ethnic population. We also review the relevance of this analysis for understanding ethnic stratification in America.

Crime Rates of American Cities in an Ecological Context

Abstract: Given a city that contains only a small proportion of the residents in the larger ecological community, the conventional crime rate for that city could be high merely because the denominator of the rate underestimates the potential number of victims or offenders. Accordingly, there is a basis for anticipating a direct relationship among cities between (1) community/city population size rations and (2) rates for particular types of crimes. The relationship does hold for many American cities when Urbanized Areas (UAs) or Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) are taken as approximations of communities; but it holds only for singular cities, each of which is the only central city in a SMSA. The argument of this paper is that singular cities are much more homogeneous as regards dominance within the community than are other types of cities, and that dominance determines the extent to which a city will attract nonresident participants in crimes. In any case, the findings cast doubts on the use of conventional crime rates for cities in testing theories.

Subjective Social Distance, Occupational Stratification, and Forms of Status and Class Consciousness: A Cross-national Replication and Extension

Abstract: After briefly reviewing some general theoretical issues in analyzing systems of social inequality and stratification, we propose a typology of forms of class and status consciousness. A specific procedure employing subjective social distance scales is proposed as an empirical strategy for assessing different forms of status consciousness and exploring their implications for class consciousness and other political and social attitudes. To evaluate the empirical and theoretical utility of this strategy, we report a West German replication of an American study in which substantial evidence is found for a remarkable degree of cross-national similarity in the subjective social distance responses accorded occupations varying in prestige and socioeconomic status, regardless of the class position of the respondent. Some working- and middle-class persons did, indeed, prefer to interact with members of their own class rather than with persons in higher- (or lower-) status occupations; and this manifestation of corp...

Industrial Violence in Italy, 1878-1903

Abstract: We use a unique source of data on each of over 6,000 strikes (many of them violent) occurring in Italy from 1878 to 1903 to address two major issues in the study of collective violence: the determinants of violence (the conditions under which conflicts become violent) and its consequences (whether violence promotes successful collective action). We also suggest strategic advantages of individual event data over the aggregate analyses which dominate empirical studies of these issues. Our results indicate that work stoppages are more likely to become violent when they are large in size and long in duration and occur over multiple issues; some of our negative findings on other issue dimensions challenge long-standing assumptions in conflict theory. We then analyze the relationship between violence and strike outcomes and find that, net of other determinants, violent strikes are less likely to end in success for workers.

Social Integration and the Status-Attainment Process

Abstract: Spady's hypothesis that level of participation in high school extracurricular activities has a lagged effect on educational attainment is tested on a sample of 17-year-old Lenawee County, Michigan, males studied in 1957 and again in 1972 (N=340). The hypothesis is extended to estimate a model of the effects of adolescent social integration on occupation, income, and adult social integration. The major finding with respect to occupation and income is that incorporating adolescent social integration enhances the predictive power of the models only marginally, but such integration functions as an important mediator in the process whereby background socioeconomic status is transmitted to sons. Adolescent social integration is a strong predictor of adult social integration, and an estimate is made of the stability of the social integration constuct over a 15-year interval. Analysis is by multiple regression based on correlations corrected for unreliability, a strategy relating measured variables to their laten...

The Anomie of Affluence: A Post-Mertonian Conception

Abstract: Merton's conceptualization of anomie theory is examined in terms of the influence of the economic and social conditions surrounding its initial formulation: circumstance of chronic depression. The anomie potentially generated by unanticipated affluence, a more central concern for Durkheim, is discussed by way of contrast. A tentative typology of deviant adaptation is constructed utilizing questions of (a) commitment to approved cultural goals and (b) the degree to wich achievement of substantial progress toward such goals is realized. It is suggested that this typology might be particularly effective in the understanding of deviance at higher socioeconomic levels. The essay also consider implication of Durkheim's underlying model of the human.

Serfdom's Legacy: An Ethnic Continuum

Abstract: The effects of ethnicity appear to occur along a historically determined continuum which reflects the social, legal, economic, and occupational conditions of the European countries from which American ethnic groups emigrated. Ethnic groups with a recent history of serfdom show the intellectual inflexibility, authoritarianism, and pragmatic legalistic morality previously found characteristic of American men working under occupational conditions limiting the individual's opportunity for self-direction. Although it is impossible to confirm each link in the causal chain, a model emphasizing the effects on ethnic groups' culture of historial conditions restricting the individual's autonomy seems a probable and parsimonious explanation of contemporary ethnic differences.

On Class Theory of the Large Corporation: Response to Allen

Abstract: U.S. Congress, House. Subcommittee on Domestic Finance of the Committee on Banking and Currency. 1967. Control of Commercial Banks and Interlocks among Financial Institutions. 90th Cong., 1st sess. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1968. Commercial Banks and Their Trust Activities: Emerging Influence on the American Economy. 90th Cong., 2d sess. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. U.S. Congress, Senate. Subcommittees on Intergovernmental Relations, and on Budgeting, Management, and Expenditures of the Committee on Government Operations. 1973. Disclosure of Corporate Ownership. 93d Cong., 1st sess. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. Vernon, Jack R. 1970. \"Ownership and Control among Large Member Banks.\" Journal of Finance 25 (3): 651-57.

Race, Achievement, and Delinquency: A Further Look at Delinquency in a Birth Cohort'

Abstract: This paper outlines the consequences of an inadequate and cursory use of tabular analysis in Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin's Delinquency in a Birth Cohort. Through a reconstruction and reanalysis of some of the data presented I found that the verbal model proposed in that work concerning the interrelationships and relative importance of several variables was in error. An alternative model fits the data much better and supports conclusions in marked contrast to those stated. Contrary to the model suggested in Delinquency in a Birth Cohort, the relation between achievement level and delinquency status is not a spurious one due to a common association with race. Moreover, achievement appears to be at least as strongly related to delinquency status as are race and social class.

On Boudon's Model of Social Mobility

Abstract: In the 30 years since World War II, participation in higher education has grown dramatically in Europe and in North America. What does this growth imply about inequality of access to education among socioeconomic classes? Are rates of occupational or social mobility across generations altered by increasing education and changing patterns of access to postsecondary schools? How do changing opportunities affect he educational goals of youth? These are the major questions posed by Raymond Boudon in Education, Opportunity, and Social Inequality. Not since the publication of Jencks's Inequality has a book so clearly captured the interest and attention of students of social stratification. At the Eighth World Congress of Sociology in Toronto, the hallways fairly buzzed with favorable anticipation. And in S. M. Lipset's laudatory foreword, we read, \"In this volume, sociological theory comes of age\" (p. vi). For these reasons, I read Education, Opportunity, and Social Inequality with high expectations. Boudon states the book is an \"attempt to synthesize the main findings accumulated by empirical research\" (p. xi) about inequality of educational opportunity (IEO) and inequality of social opportunity (ISO), which the author defines as differentials by social background in educational attainment and in social achievement, respectively. The distribution of schooling

History and Social Change

Abstract: In Social Change and History, Robert Nisbet challenged the new evolutionary theory on epistemological, methodological, and substantive grounds. This paper examines each of Nisbet's charges and concludes that his oft-praised volume provides a misleading view of the new evolutionism and a less than satisfactory guide to the study of social change. Above all, Nisbet's charge that the new evolutionism is based on metaphor and analogy ignores entirely the increasingly substantial empirical grounding to theory in archaeological, historical, and socilogical research. Also, his effort to force scholars to choose between the nomothetic concerns of evolutionists and the idiographic concerns of historians and some historical sociologist invites conflict where cooperation is needed.