Showing papers in "American Journal of Sociology in 1984"

The Social Structure of a National Securities Market

Abstract: In this article, a national securities market-the stock options market-is characterized as a social structure represented by the networks of actors who traded options on the floor of a major securities exchange. Trading among actors exhibited distinct social structural patterns that dramatically affected the direction and magnitude of option price volatility. The argument that this market is socially structured is constructed in four parts: behavioral assumptions about the nature of economic actors, models of micronetworks, models of macronetworks, and price consequences. In the ideal-typical model of the market, actors are assumed to be hyperrational and never to act opportunistically. With these behavioral assumptions, the micronetworks of actors should be expansive, a condition which would result in undifferentiated and homogeneous macronetworks. Such macronetworks would tend to reduce the volatility of option prices. But in the empirical market studied here, actors are subject to bounded rationality a...

Sexual PoliticsThe Politics of Reproductive Ritual.Karen Ericksen Paige , Jeffery M. Paige , Linda Fuller , Elizabeth Magnus

Abstract: The Politics of Reproductive Ritual is a book that could have been much better than it is. The basic idea, that reproductive rituals are a form of politics used in stateless societies that lack more explicit political tactics, is excellent. By \"reproductive rituals\" the authors mean male circumcision, female menarcheal ceremonies and genital mutilation, menstrual pollution and other sex segregation practices, the couvade and maternal childbirth restrictions. Karen Paige and Jeffery Paige argue that, in the tribal and band societies with which they are concerned, the allegiance of children is the key to adults' (or more specifically, adult males') power, wealth, and status. In the absence of a police force or other independent control agencies, male rights over the reproductive powers of women must be settled by direct bargains among the parties themselves. Reproductive rituals are political tactics for gauging the future intentions of other people in one's society and for manipulating and monitoring public opinion. The tribal ritual of sex is an extension of politics by other means. The theory has a great deal of intuitive appeal, and it is certainly much more straightforward than the involuted Freudian explanations that have held the field in this area, and which the Paiges have little difficulty disproving. For example, menstruation gives obvious evidence of a woman's fertility, hence rituals which make it highly visible have a clear significance for those societies in which politics revolves almost entirely around negotiating kinship connections. One of the most striking applications of this approach is the Paiges' treatment of circumcision rituals. These rituals are especially important in pastoral societies, and the authors' case study of ancient Hebrew society gives convincing explanation for this. These wandering herdsmen had enough economic resources to build sizable political coalitions, resources with enough value to necessitate military protection. A patriarch's greatest political weapon was his capacity to have many sons, who might, by further reproduction, add still more men to the coalition. But such family-based coalitions were always in danger of splitting into warring factions, especially since the herding environment imposed no constraints (such as are found in more sedentary pursuits) on wandering off to found one's own lineage.' How was the kinship coalition to be kept together? The Paiges argue that the

Processes of Hispanic and Black Spatial Assimilation

Abstract: Processes of Hispanic and black spatial assimilation were examined in selected SMSAs in the southwestern United States using 1960 and 1970 census data. Residential succession was much less prevalent in Hispanic areas than in black areas, and established Hispanic areas were quite rare. However, for both groups average SES fell as areas underwent transition from Anglo to established minority areas. The main difference between Hispanic and black areas was that invasion was followed by succession in less than 50% of cases. Whether tracts lost or gained Anglos following invasion by Hispanics dependend on the objective characteristics of the invaders and the location of the tract relative to established minority areas. Overall, blacks were much less able to translate status attainments into mobility out of the ghetto and into contact with Anglos. Path models of Hispanic and black spatial assimilation revealed structural differences in processes between the two groups. Given the same socioeconomic inputs,the ult...

Modes of Extraction, Unequal Exchange, and the Progressive Underdevelopment of an Extreme Periphery: The Brazilian Amazon, 1600-1980

Abstract: The demographic, ecological, and infrastructural effects of extractive economies differ significantly from those of productive economies. Analysis of underdevelopment in extractive export economies requires time-lagged models of the cumulative effects of the sequence of local modes of extraction organized in response to world-system demands. Such a model, organized aroud the predominance of specific commodities at different times, is derived from a critical synthesis of various theories of development and underdevelopment. The propositions in this model are examined through a case study of the sequence of extractive export economies in the Amazon Basin from the time of colonial conquest to the present.

Social Structure and Crime Control Among Macrosocial Units

Abstract: Recent research, drawing on the conflict perspective, has examined the effect of the racial/economic composition of macrosocial units on the capacity for crime control (arrest rates). The results show that there is considerable variation in arrest rates between cities and that racial/economic composition substantially affects them, independently of reported crime rates. The effects are specified by type of arrest (property and personal) and race of offender (white and non-white).

Rule Enforcement without Visible Means: Christmas Gift Giving in Middletown'

Abstract: As part of a much larger study of social change in Middletown (Muncie, Ind.), a random sample of adult residents was interviewed early in 1979 about celebrations of the previous Christmas. This paper describes the unwirtten and largely unrecognized rules that regulate Christmas gift giving and associated rituals in this community and the effective enforcement of those rules without visible means. A theoretical explanation is proposed.

Status, Autonomy, and Training in Occupational Mobility

Abstract: The effect of socioeconomic background on occupational attainment is well established. But the effect of status does not account for all of the association between occupational origins and destinations. The amount of autonomy accorded to workers and the degree of specialization in the training required of them are also important for mobility. Men whose fathers were entrepreneurs or were employed in other positions that require little supervision are more likely than men whose fathers were closely supervised to enter occupations that offer at least some degree of on-the-job autonomy. Autonomy and training are especially important for immobility. Men whose fathers were autonomous or specially trained are more likely than other men to be immobile. A model incorporating the effects of socioeconomic status, on-the-job autonomy, and specialized training is fitted to the 1962 and 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation data. The models fits the data well with few parameters. Subpopulations defined by race, age...

On "The Measurement of Spatial Segregation"

Abstract: there are difficulties of interpretation. There always are. But Light and I agree that intraprofessional and extraprofessional status arise out of superficially different sources. In the end Light agrees that the mechanism I named \"professional regression\" is one of the essential dynamics of professional life today. (We agree, as well, that I misnamed it-Light because he thinks the metaphor does not work, I because the phrase has not caught on; perhaps I should have used an eponym.) The response I had hoped to see to this article was the detailed empirical investigation that it points to, and that Light wishes it had been. I am not doing that investigation. Both Light and I hope that someone else is.

"New-Class" and Cumulative Trend Explanations of the Liberal Political Attitudes of Professionals

Abstract: Recent discussions of political divisions in American society have sometimes highlighted the rise of a "new class" of salaried professionals and technically trained managers. New-class theorists have depicted these "knowledge workers" as engaged in a contest for power and status with traditionally powerful business elites. However, the liberal attitudes of knowledge workers may also be interpreted as the result of a conjunction of several general trends in American society that have had little to do with class antagonisms. According to this paper, even though left-of-center attitudes are not uncommon in the salaried professional categories, these attitudes tend to be more ferormist than antibusiness in character. Such dissent as exists is concentrated in particular occupational, cohort, and sectoral categories and has varied considerably over time. Only the younger specialists in social science and arts-related occupations beging to fit the image of an "oppositional intelligentsia" used by the theorists t...

Toward a Phenomenology of Domestic, Family Violence

Abstract: A phenomenological analysis of domestic, family violence, espacially husbands' violence toward wives and children, is offered. Drawing on the relatively large qualitative literature on wife battering, the paper examines the inner side of the violent experience in the home. Emotionality and the self are posited as being at the core of domestic violence. The analysis takes up in order the following topics: (1) emotionality and violent conduct; (2) schismogenesis and negative symbolic interaction; (3) the structure of violent emotion; (4) violent emotional action; (5) inflicted emotion; (6) spurious playful, paradoxical, and real violence; and (7) the interiority of family violence and bad faith. New critical theory in this area is needed.

Socioeconomic Gains of Asian Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics: 1960-1976

Abstract: Based on the Census of the Population for 1960 and 1970 and the Survey of Income and Education in 1976, this study analyzes socioeconomic inequality between five minority populations (blacks, Hispanics, Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos) and the majority population (white non-Hispanics) and the decomposes ethnic "gaps" into shares that are "explained" by age, nativity, residence, education, and other social background attributes. In general, Asian Americans approach socioeconomic parity with whites because of their overachievement in educational attainment. Over the past decade, there has been a marked decline in the direct negative effect of ethnicity on earnings (except among Chinese Americans). This suggests that the old-fashioned "open" discrimination by employers may be on the wane, but the remaining ethnic inequality, rooted in differential access to institutional settings, may be more persistent.

Military Rank Attainment of a West Point Class: Effects of Cadets' Physical Features'

Abstract: Prior research has shown that males are perceived, on the basis of their physical characteristics, as either dominant or submissive individuals, that is, as assertive leaders or as uninfluential followers. In particular, certain facial features, tallness, and an athletic physique are perceived as dominant characteristics. Do such physical features affect social mobility? Do dominant-looking men advance to higher ranks in the military hierarchy than submissive-looking men? The yearbook of the West Point Class of 1950 provides facial portraits of the graduating cadets, allows close approximations of their height and athletic prowess, and gives their military ranks while at the academy; their ultimate ranks appear in West Point's Register of Graduates. This paper finds a substantial correlation between facial appearance and military rank while at West Point, as well as several weaker relationships.

Racial Segregation and Racial Change in American Suburbs, 1970-1980

Abstract: Black migration to American suburbs accelerated in the 1970-80 period, increasing the proportion black in the suburban ring in all four major geographic regions of the country. The evidence presented here demonstrates that this process followed well-established patterns of segregation: in most SMSAs, the black population in 1980 was about as unequally distributed among suburbs as it had been in 1970. In the North, blacks moved disproportionately into communities with high initial black concentrations, while the majority of white suburbs gained very few black residents. In the South, in contrast, there were many cases of displacement, that is, black suburbs experienced declining black concentration. Finally, multivariate analysis of predictors of racial change in the North shows that an increase in the proportion of blacks has been significantly associated with high population density, proximity to the central city, residential instability, weak property tax base, and high tax rates.

Women, Outside Employment, and Marital Instability

Abstract: Interview data from a national sample of 2,034 married persons are used to examine the effect of wives'outside employment on marital instability. In this study, marital instability is defined as including the gamut of activities from thinking about and discussing divorce to actually filing for either separation or divorce. A recursive structural equation model is used to test the extent to which the observed positive relationship between wife's employment and marital instability is mediated by wife's employment and marital instability of the marriage is eroded entails the wife's income level and some combination of spousal disagreement and low marital satisfaction.

The Cumulative Texture of Local Urban Culture

Abstract: Walter Firey's work remains the touchstone of cultural ecology However, his conception of culture consigned it to a totally subjective realm, rendering its explanatory power retrospective, hypothetical, and largely circular This article take slocal culture to be part of the objective world, directly visible in such artifacts as statues, street names, or bumper stickers Experts can and do claim to understand these artifacts, and their claims, rather than mass sentiments, are what count in establishing their meaning If we take this view, we can begin to build a plausible account of the durability of local American urban cultures, of the strong images that seem to be attributed to our "shock cities," and of the resistance some places show to land conversion and redevelopment Such a conception of local culture makes it, not a residual left over after economic analysis has its say, but an integral element in an ecological approach which increasingly draws implicitly or explicitly on social as well as econ

The Dynamics of Self-Esteem and Delinquency.

Abstract: Sociologists have posited a relationship between self-esteem and delinquent behavior, though there is some disagreement about its direction and form. This review of recent panel analyses assessing the various theoretical viewpoints shows consistent support for only one of the posited relationships-that delinquent activity reduces subsequent self-esteem-and the support is rather weak. The paper evaluates the dynamics of the self-esteem-delinquent activity reduces subsequent self-esteem-and the support is rather weak. The paper evaluates the dynamics of the self-esteem-delinquency relationship, employing a three-wave panel study of adolescents which contains multiple measures of self-esteem and substantively interpretable subscales of self-reported delinquent behavior. The results show that the effect of self-esteem on subsequent self-esteem. These findings are robust across various subgroups of age, gender, family type, race, and mother's education. They are also consistent across the various measures of self-esteem and delinquent behavior. The weakness of the results suggests that researchers look elsewhere than self-esteem for a fuller understanding of delinquency.

Trends in Parental Socialization Values: Detroit, 1958-1983

Abstract: Using data from sample surveys of the Detroit metropolitan area carried out in 1958, 1971, and 1983, this paper examines patterns of change in parental socialization values over time. There is a clear and consistent increase during this period in the valuation of autonomy for children and a decrease in preferences for obedience. Important differences in the extent of change are observed among Catholics. The sources of these changing characteristics of Detroit families, particularly changing levels of education. Only about 25%-30% of the differential change among religio-ethnic categories can be attributed to such factors. Apart from these considerations, the changing alues of Detroit Catholics are nonetheless significant, and these trends are interpreted as the major source of aggregate social change observed in the Detroit surveys. These results are consistent with other evidence regarding the recent historical movement of Catholics away from what are often considered traditional definitions of family re...

Continuity and Change in Work Values among Young Adults: A Longitudinal Study.

Abstract: Stability and Change in intrinsic and extrinsic work values are modeled using data for 1972 and 1979 from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, a nationwide sample of high school seniors (N= 9,208). Previous findings, from a more limited sample, of the stability of work values, their effects of occupation are all reconfirmed. Educational attainment is affected by initial work values; it also has socializing effects on work values and affects occupational selection. Inclusion of data on gender, family socioeconomic status, and race adds considerably to the explanation, because these attributes affect initial values, educational attainment, and occupational selection.

Black-White Differences in Self-Esteem: Are They Affected by Response Styles?

Abstract: Blacks are more likely than whites to use the extreme response categories in Likert-type questionnaire items. This general tendency has important implications for black-white comparisons along selfesteem dimensions. Analyses of several large-scale nationally representative surveys of high school students reveal that (1) blacks score significantly higher than whites when the full-scale range is used in computing self-esteem scores, but (2) the black-white discrepancy disappears when a truncated scoring method is employed to control differences in the use of extreme response categories. The analysis of racial differences has been popular with social scientists perhaps because it is-or seems to be-easy to do and because it often yields interesting differences. Certainly this has been the case with selfesteem. However, this paper raises the possibility that the frequent findings of higher self-esteem scores among blacks compared with whites may be attributable, at least in part, to black-white differences in response styles. It is not without trepidation that we enter areas that have generated so much controversy: black-white differences, the concept and measurement of self-esteem, and the problems introduced by response styles. There is a very extensive literature on the self-concept which has been reviewed and evaluated by Wylie (1974,1979). Black-white differences in self-esteem have also been researched and summarized extensively, as we note below. And the issue of whether and how response styles affect psychological measures has prompted numerous articles and chapters with titles that include "The Great Response-Style Myth" (Rorer 1965) and "The Acquiescence Quagmire" (Schuman and Presser 1981). Although the present paper involves each of these areas to some extent, it will not resolve any of the controversies; in fact, it may add to them. Never

Work for the Household: Its Nature and Consequences for Husbands and Wives

Abstract: This paper examines the conditions under which work for the household is performed, comparing these conditions and their effects with those of paid employment. Although there are some significant differences, the working conditions of housework do not differ greatly from those of paid employment. There are, however, as expected, marked sex differences in spheres of responsibility and activity. Wives are responsible for and actually do a vastly wider range of household tasks than husbands. In terms of its effects, housework has decided psychological consequences for women whether or not they are employed outside the home. Men are less affected by housework than women and in different ways. Employed women react similarly to similar housework and paidwork conditions; this is not the case for men. The pattern of findings is congruent with the hypothesis that responses to household labor, as to paid employment, are conditional on the imperativeness of work conditions. The fact that wives have greater housework...

The transition from youth to adult: understanding the age pattern of employment.

Abstract: This article examines the growth in probabilities of employment for American men between the ages of 16 and 29. A young man's probability of employment is strongly affected by his other roles, statuses, and activities, and a cohort's employment growth depends on its age distribution of these traits. This article considers two important activities in the lives of young men-school enrollment and enlistment in the armed forces-and examines mechanisms through which these affect employment. The mechanisms include the constraining effect of each activity on the others, the disruptive effects of leaving school or the armend forces-and examines mechanisms through which these affect employment. The mechanisms include the constraining effect of each activity on the others, the disruptive effects of leaving school or the armed forces on finding employment, and the selective retention of men with varying employment prospects by schools and the armed forces. A decomposition of changes in employment between ages 16 and...

The Resurgence of Sharecropping: Historical Anomaly or Political Strategy?

Abstract: Although traditional economic theories regard sharecropping as inefficient and likely to dwindle in systems of capitalist commodity production, sharecropping has exhibited remarkable persistence under a range of historical conditions. This article explores the reasons for the unexpected tenacity of share farming and considers its implications for the analysis of rural class structure and agrarian change. Using the example of the resurgence of sharecropping in the California strawberry industry, the paper demonstrates that political constraints on agricultural production are key determinants of the contemporary adoption of sharecropping, establishing a context in which sharecropping not only facilitates but is recreated by capitalist accumulation.

A Structuralist Critique of the IQ- Delinquency Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence'

Abstract: The hypothesis that IQ is an important variable in explaining delinquent behavior among juveniles is examined theoretically and empirically. From a structuralist perspective, delinquent behavior is a consequence of social institutional practices, rather than of individual characteristics. The correlation of IQ with delinquency is not because IQ exerts any casual influence on delinquent behavior but because, in certain institutional settings (the schools), it may be selected by the institution as a criterion for differential treatment. Changes in institutional practices produce a change in the relationship between IQ and delinquency. Empirically, the variables in the structuralist model developed by the Office of Youth Development explain over 20% of the variance in serious and non-serious delinquency. The variables used in the IQ-delinquency hypothesis, a model based on individual characteristics instead of on institutional practices, explain less than 5% of the variation in serious and non-serious delinquent behavior. The conclusion is that the IQ-delinquency hypothesis contributes nothing to existing delinquency theory.

Karl Marx and the Satanic Mills: Factory Politics Under Early Capitalism in England, the United States, and Russia

Abstract: This paper sets out from a theoretical paradox in Marx's analysis of capitalism: that the working class is the victim of the logic of capitalism: that the working class is the victim of the logic of capitalism and at the same time os supposed to rise up against that logic. Traditional resolutions of this paradox are inadequate; the resolution proposed here involves the distinction within the sphere of production between the labor process and the factory regime. By a series of comparisons of textile industries in 19th-century England, United States, and Russia, the article highlights four factors that shape factory regimes: the labor process, market forces, the reproduction of labor power, and the state. It shows how an examination of factory regimes can account for the absorption of working-class radicalism in England after 1850 and the deepening of working-class radicalism in Russia after 1905, culminating in the revolution-ary movements of 1917. Finally, it presents the implications for Marxism of this ...

The Impact of Fictional Television Suicide Stories on U.S. Fatalities: A Replication

Abstract: In a recent issue of this Journal, Phillips reported evidence from a time-series analysis of U.S. fatalities in 1977 that fictional suicide stories on daytime television serials, "soap operas," trigger subsequent real-life suicides and single-vehicle motor vehicle fatalities. This paper calls attention to a serious mistake in Phillips's data which invalidates his results. In addition, the paper describes a more precise approach which produces no evidence linking soap opera suicide stories to subsequent real-life fatalities. The error in Phillips's paper stems from the fact that he used newspaper summaries as sources for the soap opera suicide stories and, in eight out of 13 cases, misspecified the date of the event. This mistake invalidates his before-after analysis strategy. Analyses presented here correct this error and disaggregate the time series to daily information. Several stories that Phillips overlooked are included.

The Conventionalization of Collective Behavior in Cuba

Abstract: This paper uses information from a content analysis of Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist party, and from interviews with Cuban refugees to study how the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions, and other mass organizations structure collective behavior are conventionalized. There is also a description of the main forms taken by collective behavior in Cuba: the joyful crowd, the celebration of death and martyrs, the mass political gathering, the testimonial of solidarity, and the ceremonial of reception.

Some Characteristics of Children's Second Families

Abstract: The structure of second families is conditioned by characteristics of children and parents at the time or remarriage and by subsequent fertility. For U. S. children whose mothers have recently remarried this report documents the ages and number of siblings at the time of remarriage, the previous marital status of the new stepfather, the duration of single-parent experience before remarriage, and the age and education of the mother. Estimates are also made of the acquisition of a half sibling through second-family fertility. Finally, the consequences of these patterns for the parental and sibling composition of the families of all U. S. children in 1980 are examined.

Military Keynesianism in the United States, 1949-1976: Disaggregating Military Expenditures and Their Determination

Abstract: This paper examines "... Military Expenditures in the United States, 1949-1976" at a less aggregate level than was done by Griffin, Devine, and Wallace. Assuming that distinctive and independent causal processes generate each of four subcategories that include nearly all military spending, Griffin, Devine, and Wallace's model can be transposed with little modification to the two most generously financed subcategories, equipment and personnel. However, their model casts little light on the determination of spending for operations and maintenance and research and development. Still, the level of industrial concentration emerges as an important source of spending on military research development, and this fact is consistent with suggestions in Galbraith's discussion of the "planning sector." Preelection increases in military spending appear to be (efficiently) earmarked for increases in the pay of military personnel.

Urbanization and Inflation: Lessons from the English Price Revolution of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.

Abstract: The English price revolution (the 500% rise in prices from 1500 to 1650) has been attributed by some to an excess of money, due to bullion imports from the New World, and by others to an excess of people, due to population growth. This essay shows both accounts to be severely flawed. A simple model of the impact of urban networks on monetary circulation is developed; it argues that taking account of the effects of urganization and occupational specialization on the velocity of money provides a fuller understanding of the price revolution than explanations based simply on aggregate population growth or changes in the money supply due to an influx of American metals. Implications are drawn for accounts of inflation in both early modern Europe and the contemporary developing world.