Showing papers in "American Journal of Sociology in 1990"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated six potential explanations of why different types of ties provide different kinds of supportive resources: tie strength, contact, group processes, kinship, network members' characteristics, and similarities and dissimilarities between network members in such characteristics.
Abstract: Community ties with friends and relatives are a principal means by which people and households get supportive resources. Quantitative and qualitative data from the second East York study are used to evaluate six potential explanations of why different types of ties provide different kinds of supportive resources: tie strength, contact, group processes, kinship,network members' characteristics, and similarities and dissimilarities between network members in such characteristics. Most relatioships provide specialized support. The kinds of support provided are related more to characteristics of the relationship than to characteristics of the network members themselves. Strong ties provide emotional aid, small services, and companionship. Parents and adult children exchange financial aid, emotional aid, large services, and small services. Physically accessible ties provide services. Women provide emotional aid. Friends, neighbors, and siblings make up about half of all supportive relationships. The ensemble o...
1,903Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used market relations between a large population of corporations and investment banks to study the organization-market interforce-the pattern of direct market ties between a firm and its banks.
Abstract: Data on market relations between a large population of corporations and investment banks are used to study the organization-market interforce-the pattern of direct market ties between a firm and its banks. Forms of interfaces range from a long-term, exclusive tie (the relationship interface) to many short-lived, episodic ties (the transaction interface), with hybrid forms between the two poles. Contrary to widespread belief, the article finds that strong relationships still exist. Transactions interfaces are rare. Most firms use hybrid interfaces. A firm's interface is conceptualized as the intentional result of its efforts to reduce dependence and exploit power advantages. Observed interfaces are shown to be related systematically to various power-dependence concepts, including resource intensity (number of transactions and dollar amounts raised), criticality (the availability of resource alternatives), power asymmetry between a firm and its main bank, organization size, standardization of exchange, and ...
1,163Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, a baseline regression model using 11 structural covariates is estimated for cities, metropolitan areas, and states in 1960, 1970, and 1980, and the empirical estimates of this model exhibit instability because of high levels of collinearity among several regressors.
Abstract: This study demonstrate that the empirical literature on the structural convariates of homicide rates contains inconsistent findings across different time periods and different geographical units. This apparent variance of findings may be due to statistical or methodological artifacts of particular studies, such as different time periods covered, units of analysis, samples, model specification, and problems of statistical analysis and inference. A baseline regression model using 11 structural covariates is estimated for cities, metropolitan areas, and states in 1960, 1970, and 1980. The empirical estimates of this model exhibit instability because of high levels of collinearity among several regressors. Principal components analysis is applied to simplify the dimensionally of the structural covariate space. Reestimation of the regression model then indicates that the apparent inconsistencies across time and social space are greatly reduced. The theoretical significance of the findings for substantive theor...
1,161Â citations
TL;DR: The concept of edgework highlights the most sociologically relevant features of voluntary risk taking, while the connections between various aspects of risk-taking behaviour and structural characteristic of modern American society at both the micro and macro levels as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: While there seems to be general agreement among members of contemporary American society about the value of reducing threats to individual well-being, there are may who actively seek experiences that involve a high potential for personal injury or death. High-risk sports such as hang gliding, skydiving, scuba diving, rock climbing, and the like have enjoyed unprecedented growth in the past several decades even as political institutions in Western societies have sought to reduce the risks of injury in the workplace and elsewhere. The contradiction between the public agenda to reduce the risk of injury and death and the private agenda to increase such risks deserves th attention of sociologists. A literature review is presented that points to a number of shortcomings in existing studies, most of which are associated with the psychological reductionism that predominates in this area of study. An effort is made to provide a sociological account of voluntary risk taking by (1) introducing a new classifying concept- edgework-based on numerous themes emerging from primary and secondary data on risk taking and (2) explaining edgework in terms of the newly emerging social psychological perspective produced from the synthesis of the Marxian and Meadian frameworks. The concept of edgework highlights the most sociologically relevant features of voluntary risk taking, while the connections between various aspects of risk-taking behaviour and structural characteristic of modern American society at both the micro and macro levels. This approach ties together such factors as political economic variables, at one end of the continuum, and individual sensations and feelings, at the other end.
1,064Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the effect of legal environments on the expansion of due process in organizational governance and show that the civil rights mandates of the 1960s created a normative environment that threatened the legitimacy of arbitrary organizational governance.
Abstract: This article examines the effect of legal environments on the expansion of due process in organizational governance. Event-history analyses of personnel practices in 52 organizations show that the civil rights mandates of the 1960s created a normative environment that threatened the legitimacy of arbitrary organizational governance. This precipitated a diffusion of formal grievance procedures for nonunion employees. Proximity to the public sphere, number of employees, and structural differentiation of the personnel function rendered organizations more vulnerable to normative pressure. Variation along these dimensions explains variations in the rates of rights expansion across organizations.
743Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present simple game-theoretic models of reputation effects on efficiency in interactions and compare the effects of such embeddedness on the outcomes of interactions, and conclude that efficiency is more easily attained as a result of individually rational behavior in perfectly embedded systems.
Abstract: Reputations emerge if an actor's future partners are informed on his present behavior. Reputations depend on the "embeddedness" of interactions in structures or networks of social relations. They illustrate the effects of such embeddedness on the outcomes of interactions.This article presents simple game-theoretic models of reputation effects on efficiency (in the Pareto sense) in interactions. In a comparative perspective, the authors start with a baseline model of a social system in which reputation effects (of a specific kind) are excluded: actors do not receive information on their partners' behavior in interactions with third parties. Such a system of "atomized interactions" is compared to a system with interactions that are "perfectly embedded": actors are immediately informed on all interactions of their partners with third parties.Efficiency is more easily attained as a result of individually rational behavior in perfectly embedded systems. In a final step, the comparative perspective is broadened...
706Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce a method that measures resemblance between sequences using a simple metric based on the insertions, deletions, and substitutions required to transform one sequence into another.
Abstract: This article introduces a method that measures resemblance between sequences using a simple metric based on the insertions, deletions, and substitutions required to transform one sequence into another. The method, called optimal matching, is widely used in natural science. The article reviews the literature on sequence analysis, then discusses the optimal matching algorithm in some detail. Applying this technique to a data set detailing careers of musicians active in Germany in the 18th century demonstrates the practical steps involved in the application of the technique and develops a set of typical careers that successfully categorize most of the actual careers studied by the authors.
631Â citations
Abstract: This article examines trends in the geographic concentration of poverty among whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in 60 US mentropolitan areas from 1970 to 1980 It describes changes in the distributional structure of income, the extent of income inequality, and the degree of spatial segretation by income These factors are then related to levels and trends in poverty concentration Concentrated urban poverty is confined principally to blacks outside the West and to Hispanics in the Northeast Poverty concentration among these groups does not reflect a tendency for upper-status minority members to live apart from the poor but an interaction between changes in the distributional structure ov income and patterns of racial/ethnic segregation The occurence of rising poverty under conditions of high racial/ethnic segregation explains the growing spatial isolation of poor blacks and hispanic in US urban society
578Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used data from a small-scale ethnographic study of social network mobilization among low-income black women in the event of job loss and found that informal support exchanges in natural settings take the form of "generalized" and "restricted" exchange, and generalized exchange systems are associated with greater degrees of solidarity and social support.
Abstract: Recent developments in the field of social exchange may prove very useful to social support researchers as they begin to analyze the relationships between social structure, interaction, and perceptions of "support" in the event of crisis or need. Particularly promising here is "dual exchange theory," as represented in Ekeh's elaboration of Levi-Strauss's conception of elementary exchange. Using data from a small-scale ethnographic study of social network mobilization among low-income black women in the event of job loss, this paper investigates two tenets of dual exchange theory: (1) informal support exchanges in natural settings take the form of "generalized" and "restricted" exchange, and (2) generalized exchange systems are associated with greater degrees of solidarity and social support. The data support the dual exchange thesis, with some modification of Ekeh's dichotomized conceptualization of exchange. The Study reinforces the utility of network analysis and exchange concepts in the analysis of soc...
338Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between social class and a sense of distress and found that men who are more advantageously located in the class structure of their society are more likely to value self-direction for their children, to be intellectually flexible, and to be self-directed in their orientations than men who were less advantageously positioned.
Abstract: This article conceptualizes and indexes social class for a Western capitalist country (the United States), a non-Western capitalist country (Japan), and a socialist country (Poland). The idea that social classes are to be distinguished in terms of ownership, control of the means of production, and control over the labor power of others is adapted to the historical, cultural, economic, and political circumstances of each country. It is hypothesized that men who are more advantageously located in the class structure of their society are more likely to value self-direction for their children, to be intellectually flexible, and to be self-directed in their orientations than men who are less advantageously located. The hypothesis that occupational self-direction plays a crucial role in explaining the psychological effect of social class in all three countries is also confirmed. There was no firm basis for hypothesizing the relationships between social class and a sense of distress. The pattern is cross-nationa...
336Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the contributions of the Scottish Enlightenment to the study of personal relations in historical and modern times, taking friendship as prototyical to such relations, and propose that commercial society sharply distinguishes self-interested from sympathetic relations and is therefore necessary for the spread of personal relationships based on sympathy and sentiment.
Abstract: Sociological theory prevailingly holds that the normative exclusion of instrumental and contractual orientations from personal relationships is historically prior, and theoretically antipodal, to market society. In contrast, Adam Smith. David Hume, and others of the 18-century Scottish Enlightenment propose that commercial society sharply distinguishes self-interested from sympathetic relations and is therefore necessary for the spread of personal relations based on sympathy and sentiment. If this is correct, commercial society promotes rather than discourages personal relations that are normatively free of instrumental and calculative orientations. Taking friendship as prototyical os such relations, this essay considers the contributions of the Scottish Enlightenment to the study of personal relations in historical and modern times.
TL;DR: The authors examined the pattern of assortative mating among European immigrants and native whites by ethnicity and generation using a national sample drawn from the 1910 census manuscripts and a sample of marriages registered in New York City between 1908 and 1912.
Abstract: The pattern of assortative mating among European immigrants and native whites is examined by ethnicity and generation using a national sample drawn from the 1910 census manuscripts and a sample of marriages registered in New York City between 1908 and 1912. The pattern of assortative mating is virtually identical in the two data sets. Endogamy was strong for all groups examined, but was castelike for the "new" ethnics from eastern and southern Europe. Marriages between "old" and "new" ethnics were especially rare. The pattern of ethnic intermarriage was nearly identical for men and women. Within ethnic groups there was also strong generational endogamy: immigrants tended to marry other immigrants and second-generation ethnics tended to marry others in the second generation. While the existence of ethnic and generational endogamy at the turn of the century is not surprising, its strength has not previously been estimated with appropriate statistical techniques. Further, these techniques reveal more detaile...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that there are two central relational dimensions of microinteraction that are aggregated into social structures: power, entail conduct by which actors compel other actors to do what they do not wish to do, and status, entails conduct that conveys voluntary compliance, deference, and acceptance.
Abstract: This article argues that there are two central relational dimensions of microinteraction that are aggregated into social structures. One dimension, power, entails conduct by which actors compel other actors to do what they do not wish to do. The other dimension, status, entails conduct that conveys voluntary compliance, deference, and acceptance. The article considers a number of findings that seem to argue against the power-status model but contends that the exceptions either are not sociologically pertinent or do not reflect relational conduct. On the basis of an analysis of social and cultural macromodels that appear in the work of Parsons, Weber, Douglas, and Hirschman, it is argued that the power and status dimensions may be generalized "upward" to macroconditions. Two applications of power-status analysis, one from the domain of stratification, the other from the domain of emotions, conclude the article.
TL;DR: The authors examined national labor-market samples from two "dualist" countries (the United States and Canada) and two "corporatist" (Norway and Sweden) and found that labor market location is less powerful in predicting income in Norway and Sweden where they have more inclusive employment policies.
Abstract: This article examines national labor-market samples from two "dualist" countries (the United States and Canada) and two "corporatist" countries (Norway and Sweden). Labor-market location is less powerful in predicting income in Norway and Sweden where they have more inclusive employment policies. In Sweden, though, the labor-market variables are more important in explaining the income gap. Family effects (marital status and number of children) are weak everywhere but especially in Scandinavia. Nevertheless, because it is encouraged by policies designed to integrate employment and family, part-time paid work has a major effect on the gender gap in income in Norway and Sweden. Women, however, pay more of a penalty than men for part-time employment in North America.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the way task proceedings engender emotional reactions, the conditions under which these are expressed in positive and negative socioemotional behavior, and their effect on the status hierarchy in informal task groups.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the way task proceedings engender emotional reactions, the conditions under which these are expressed in positive and negative socioemotional behavior, and their effect on the status hierarchy in informal task groups. In links developments in the sociology of emotions to theories of status and provides a theoretical explanation of the predominance of positive over negative socioemotional behavior in task groups. The analysis indicates that the status herarchy asymmetrically limits the expression of negative socioemotional behaviors arising from disagreements but does not constrain positive socioemotional expressions arising from agreements. Performance expectations determine the causal attributions of disagreement and consequently the emotion felt and the likelihood that negative behavior will result. As a result, the overall level of negative, but not positive, behaviors is reduced, status struggles are contained, and group solidarity is encouraged. Also, low-status members often elic...
TL;DR: In this article, Gramsci's approach to the dynamics of hegemony and counter-hegemony is used to develop guidelines for the historical analysis of conditions under which religion promotes eith...
Abstract: Building on Antonio Gramsci's approach to the dynamics of hegemony and counterhegemony, this article develops guidelines for the historical analysis of conditions under which religion promotes eith...
TL;DR: In this article, an intergenerational interaction effect of parent and son labeling on subsequent delinquent and criminal behavior is explored, net of the acknowledged role of cultural/characterological influences, which are modeled in several ways using data collected in a well-known London panel study.
Abstract: The historical concept of a criminal class includes a sociological reference to the concentration and recurrence of crime within groups and across generations. Two family-linked processes may lead to the social reproduction of a criminal class: a cultural/characterological process involving child-raising conditions and practices, and a structural/imputational process involving official labeling. Mead's concern about the perpetuation of a "permanent class of criminals" is discussed, and special attention is given to an intergenerational interaction effect of parent and son labeling on subsequent delinquent and criminal behavior. This intergenerational interaction effect is explored, net of the acknowledged role of cultural/characterological influences, which are modeled in several ways using data collected in a well-known London panel study. The article addresses implications of the neglect of labeling effects in contemporary longitudinal research initiatives directed to the formation of crime policy.
TL;DR: Using the 14 annual cross sections from the General Social Survey (GSS), the authors describes and explains the year-to-year fluctuations in occupational attainment from 1972 to 1987, concluding that the gradual growth of bureaucratic personnel policies might have equalized opportunities, but direct political interventions by federal agencies appear to have more impressive and consistent effects.
Abstract: Using the 14 annual cross sections from the General Social Survey (GSS), the article describes and explains the year-to-year fluctuations in occupational attainment from 1972 to 1987. Although some commentators have argued that ascriptive processes have reemerged in recent years, only limited evidence of such processes over this period is found. Instead, the year-to-year fluctuations are a more complex function of various macro-level changes, and a multivariate model must be introduced to account for these patterns. The results indicate that the gradual growth of bureaucratic personnel policies might have equalized opportunities, but the direct political interventions by federal agencies appear to have more impressive and consistent effects. The article concludes by nothing that "evolutionary theories" of stratification have overlooked the effects of political interventions on occupational attainment.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the effect of the World War II period on divorce by estimating the effects of three aspects of war mobilization-entry intro the armed forces, timing of this entry, and combat experience.
Abstract: Since the mid-19th century, wars have delayed, accelerated, and undermined American marriages. These patterns have been attributed to "period effects" since they are similar in all population subgroups. Using longitudinal data on a sample of American men, this article investigates the effect of the World War II period on divorce by estimating the effects of three aspects of war mobilization-entry intro the armed forces, timing of this entry, and combat experience. The analysis shows that veterans were more likely to divorce than nonveterans but that marriages begun at other times. For veterans who were wed by time of entry, the risk of divorce was greater among those who entered relatively late in life and those who experienced combat.
TL;DR: In this paper, a new analysis further contextualizes the power control theory by operationalizing, patriarchy in terms of a direct and parsimonious measure of marital power, and provides new findings from a wealthy Canadian community.
Abstract: This article responds to Jensen and Thompson's analysis of power control theory by placing the analysis within the context of Jensen's previous work and offering new findings from a wealthy Canadian community. This new analysis further contextualizes the theory by operationalizing, patriarchy in terms of a direct and parsimonious measure of marital power. Jensen and Thompson's analysis notwithstanding, the core of the power-control model performs well here and in serveral other data sets. Yet further specification of the model is needed in terms of both gender itself and of the family structures and power relationships that establish its scope.
TL;DR: In this article, the academic and personality outcomes of only children in China are similar to those of children in the West, and a study was conducted to determine whether the academic performance of Chinese only children is similar to that of their American counterparts.
Abstract: This study was undertaken to determine whether the academic and personality outcomes of only children in China are similar to those of only children in the West. Several reviews of the extensive We...
TL;DR: In this article, a reanalysis of the experimental data distinguishes between the experimental treatment in the form of the pure negative income tax and the treatment plans that involved an experimental training program.
Abstract: This paper challenges the widely cited finding of Groeneveld, Hannan, and Tuma that the Seattle-Denver Income-Maintenance Experiment provides evidence that guaranteed income plans for poor husband-wife families will increase marital dissolution relative to the existing program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The reanalysis of the experimental data distinguishes between the experimental treatment in the form of the "pure" negative income tax and the treatment plans that involved an experimental training program. All the time periods of the experiment are used, with allowance for the timing of the marital dissolution in the inferences, and with allowance for attrition. The conclusion of this paper is that the plans (specifically, the negative income tax plans in the experiment) had no effect on the rate of marital dissolutions among the "treatment" couples relative to the control couples.
TL;DR: According to the consolation-prize theory of alienation, low-status people feel less distressed by their situation when they reject responsibility for outcomes in their own lives as discussed by the authors. But recent evidence suggests this is false.
Abstract: According to the consolation-prize theory of alienation, low-status people feel less distressed by their situation when they reject responsibility for outcomes in their own lives. Recent evidence suggests this is false. Studies do not find that blaming chance, fate, or powerful others reduces the distress associated with low status. Failure to confirm the central tenet fo the consolation-prize theory of alienation ahs stimulated two new alternatives to it. One, called "illusory control as false consciousness," says the distress produced by low status can be canceled by an illusion of personal control. The other, called the "threshold of dysfunction," says that there are diminishing subjective returns to a greater sense of control, so that people with low status get the greatest subjective gains from an increase in control. Results from a community survey are consistent with a unified model. They indicate that (1) there is no limit to the subjective benefits of a greater sense of control due to greater sta...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, the sources of variant readings of a single novel (The Late Bourgeois World, by Nadine Gordimer) are examined, and the analysis demonstrates the collective character and significance of "novel readings," specially those produced by cultural outsiders.
Abstract: Theories of interpretation must explain not only the accuracy of interpretation but also the divergence between readings that arises from the socially situated nature of any reading. In this article, the sources of variant readings of a single novel ( The Late Bourgeois World, by Nadine Gordimer) are examined. Analysis of published statements (reviews and critical analyses) and comparison of these professional accounts with the author's own "lay" reading highlight the effects of the readers' genders, historical contexts, and purposes for reading on their constructions of the novel's content. The analysis demonstrates the collective character and significance of "novel readings," specially those produced by cultural "outsiders."
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the bureaucratic resources at the disposal of the Pentagon and conclude that high-ranking military officers have operated as "relatively autonomous bureaucrats" in the aeronautics and microelectronics industries.
Abstract: State-centered theories stress the potential for states to be proactive as well as reactive. But the analytic tools developed in this literature have not been employed to examine the most impressive episode of state building in the postwar United States-the rise of the Pentagon. This article examines the bureaucratic resources at the disposal of the Pentagon and concludes that high-ranking military officers have operated as "relatively autonomous bureaucrats." Case studies of the aeronautics and microelectronics industries provide evidence that the Pentagon has implemented a de facto industrial policy in the name of national defense. The substantive conclusion-that the autarkic Pentagon has implemented a massive industrial policy-contradicts the view that the hegemonic U.S. state is strong in the international arena but too weak and fragmented to plan the domestic political economy.
TL;DR: In the 19th-century Europe, the papacy was forced to avoid sociopolitical issues if it was to avoid persistent conflict between the Church and the State as mentioned in this paper, and the popes subordinated sociopolitical concerns to more purely religious and moral issues while constructing an ideological opposition to liberalism.
Abstract: Social actors are drawn to ideological formulations that justify a defense or expansion of their own autonomy and power. Changes in distributions of power can close some avenues of ideological autonomy and open others; thus actors will have varying degrees of control over different issues within a given ideology. In response to the rise of liberal states in 19th-century Europe, the papacy was forced to avoid sociopolitical issues if it was to avoid persistent church-state conflict. Gradually reformulating Catholic ideology within the limited structural autonomy they had, popes subordinated sociopolitical issues to more purely religious and moral issues while constructing a new ideological opposition to liberalism.
TL;DR: Hagan et al. as mentioned in this paper examined the relationship between common deliquency and common forms of delinquency in three U.S. data sets and found no evidence of paterned class-gender variations of the sort reported in their 1985 analysis.
Abstract: In recent issues of this journal, J. Hagan, A. R. Gillis, and J. Simpson elaborate a power- control theory of common deliquency. They propose a positive relationship between neo-Marxist conceptions of class and common forms of delinquency, patterns of variation in gender differences by class, and intervening variables to explain these variations. An examination of class, gender, and delinquency in three U.S. data sets did not reveal the same patterns. A neo- Marxist categorization of the labor force was generally unrelated to common delinquency, and there was no evidence of paterned class-gender variations of the sort reported in their 1985 analysis. Gender differences by race were consistent with their theory, while racial differences were not. Moreover, an attempted reconstruction of data for the full set of household categories reported in the 1987 analysis raises important questions about the nature of class variations and the role of patriarchal imbalance in generating gender differences.