Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 1993"

Poverty, Parenting, and Children's Mental Health.

Abstract: Poor children experience greater psychological distress than do nonpoor children. However, evidence for the relationship between poverty and children's distress is limited by the use of measures of poverty at a single point in time, by a failure to examine race or ethnic differences, and by a lack of concern with explanations for poverty's effects. Using data from the 1986 Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data set, we explored the relationships among current poverty, length of time spent in poverty, maternal parenting behaviors, and children's mental health. Persistent poverty significantly predicts children's internalizing symptoms above and beyond the effect of current poverty, whereas only current poverty predicts externalizing symptoms. Mother's weak emotional responsiveness and frequent use of physical punishment explain the effect of current poverty on mental health, but not the effect of persistent poverty. The relationships among poverty, parenting behaviors, and children's mental health do not vary by race/ethnicity. These findings support theoretical developments calling for greater emphasis on family processes in studies of children's poverty. They also argue for greater attention to trajectories of socioeconomic status in analyses of the effects of status on mental health.

Opposition to race-targeting: Self-interest, stratification ideology, or racial attitudes?

Abstract: Dans cet article les AA. etudient l'opinion americaine concernant la politique raciale. Leur hypothese est que l'interet des individus, les croyances sur l'inegalite et les attitudes raciales different selon l'orientation de la politique mise en oeuvre.

The social organization of conspiracy: illegal networks in the heavy electrical equipment industry*

Abstract: We analyze the social organization of three well-known price-fixing conspiracies in the heavy electrical equipment industry. Although aspects of collusion have been studied by industrial organization economists and organizational criminologists, the organization of conspiracies has remained virtually unexplored. Using archival data, we reconstruct the actual communication networks involved in conspiracies in switchgear transformers, and turbines. We find that the structure of illegal networks is driven primarily by the need to maximize concealment, rather than the need to maximize efficiency. However, network structure is also contingent on information-processing requirements imposed by product and market characteristics. Our individual-level model predicts verdict (guilt or innocence), sentence, and fine as functions of personal centrality in the illegal network, network structure, management level, and company size. "People of the same trade seldom meet together but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some diversion to raise prices."

Family structure and the risk of a premarital birth.

Abstract: The authors examine three hypotheses regarding the impact of a womans family characteristics between birth and age 19 on her chances of having a premarital birth. "We construct dynamic measures of family structure using parent-history data from the [U.S.] National Survey of Families and Households. We use these data to examine the relative importance of family events during childhood changes in family structure during childhood and adolescence and durations spent in the modal family structures experienced by respondents while growing up. Our results suggest that these dynamic measures capture both theoretically and empirically distinct dimensions of family experience and that distinguishing between these dimensions provides sufficient analytical leverage to test the socialization social control and instability and change hypotheses." (EXCERPT)

Collective Action and Network Structure

Abstract: I develop and analyze a mathematical model describing the relationship between individual contributions to a collective good and the network of social relations that makes these contributions interdependent. Starting from the assumption that actors respond to the contributions of others because of efficacy concerns and norms offairness, I derive predictions about the impact of network structure on total contributions. Network density and size influence collective action outcomes in dramatically different ways, depending on the structural position of those who make unconditional contributions. Moreover, these effects are highly nonlinear, suggesting that the impact of social ties on collective action may be quite sensitive to mobilization contexts.

What the polls don't show: A closer look at U.S. church attendance.

Abstract: Aux Etats-Unis, les caracterisations de la vie religieuse font reference aux donnees de sondage sur la frequentation de l'eglise. Les hauts degres de participation rapportes par ces donnees suggerent que la population est exceptionnelement religieuse et tres peu affectee par les tendances a la secularisation. Cette image de vitalite contredit neanmoins d'autres evidences empiriques indiquant le declin de la force de nombreuses institutions religieuses. A partir de donnees issues de sources multiples et de procedure variees les AA. examinent les taux de frequentation de l'eglise chez les protestants et les catholiques, taux qui sont approximativement de moitie moins importants que les niveaux generalement acceptes.

The social context of recycling.

Abstract: Over the last several decades, sociologists have investigated the public's increasing concern about the environment, but they have had little success explaining attitudes toward the environment or the adoption of pro-environment behaviors like recycling. We examine the role of social context in the link between individual attitudes about the environment and recycling behavior by comparing communities that vary in their access to recycling programs. Results show that people with access to a structured recycling program have much higher levels of recycling than do people lacking such access. Furthermore, individual attitudes toward the environment affect recycling behavior only in the community with easy access to a structured recycling program. Individual concern about the environment enhances the effect of the recycling program, but does not overcome the barriers presented by lack of access.

Power and the Emergence of Commitment Behavior in Negotiated Exchange

Abstract: Dans cet article, les AA. examinent l'impact du pouvoir sur le developpement de l'engagement affectif dans les relations entre deux personnes. Lorsque l'engagement se developpe, les acteurs tendent a rester en relation en depit des alternatives et a utiliser les benefices necessaires au maintien de la relation.

Rank Advancement in Academic Careers: Sex Differences and the Effects of Productivity.

Abstract: Advancement in rank is critically important to the career of an academic scientist, and the highly visible nature of the event makes it idealfor studying stratification in science. Concern with universalistic factors in promotion has prompted debates over two issues. First, why do female scientists advance more slowly than male scientists, and why do so few reach the rank offull professor? Second, is promotion driven by the sheer volume of published work as opposed to its quality? Event history analyses clearly indicate that quantity of publications is far more important than various measures of quality of publications in predicting rank advancement; and women are less likely to be promoted than men. About one-half of this sex difference is attributable to differences in levels of variables affecting promotion. Remaining differences are a result of differences in expected timing of promotion to associate professor and to the negative effects of department prestige on promotion to full professor for women.

Citizenship and the Place of the Public Sphere: Law, Community, and Political Culture in the Transition to Democracy

Abstract: A partir du travail socio-historique de T. H. Marshall « Citizenship and Social Class » sur les variations regionales des pratiques de citoyennete parmi les communautes travailleuses anglaises du 18 e siecle, l'A. suggere que la citoyennete doit etre definie comme un processus institue plutot que comme un statut ; que le developpement des droits du citoyen depend du nexus de l'infrastructure legale nationale anglaise et des capacites des communautes diverses a l'association participatoire ; et que les recherches futures sur citoyennete et democratisation s'etendent au-dela des etats et du capitalisme pour inclure une sociologie des relations entre spheres publiques, vie associative de la communaute, et modeles de culture politique.

The dynamics of protest waves: West Germany, 1965 to 1989

Abstract: La dynamique des mouvements sociaux apres leur emergence initiale est encore largement terra incognita. L'A. developpe une theorie de la dynamique des vagues de protestation en comparant des donnees sur les protestations en Allemagne de l'Ouest entre 1965 et 1989 avec des donnees similaires provenant de Hollande, d'Italie et des Etats-Unis. Des fortes similarites sont a noter entre ces differentes vagues de protestation dans le developpement des repertoires d'action, des niveaux de repression et de facilitation et l'implication de differents types d'organisations. L'explication de ces modeles dynamiques associe des facteurs internes et externes : l'interaction entre facilitation, repression et chances de succes definit un ensemble de contraintes externes qui combinent les choix activistes selon trois options strategiques - innovation, augmentation de la participation et augmentation du militantisme.

Dissident Groups, Personal Networks, and Spontaneous Cooperation: The East German Revolution of 1989

Abstract: Les AA. s'interrogent sur le role des groupes et des reseaux personnels dans les manifestations en Allemagne de l'Est entre mai et octobre 1989. Dans un premier temps, ils proposent un micro-modele specifiant une theorie d'incitation individuelle a participer ; puis ils soutiennent que les evenements et les changements politiques dans le contexte social lies a l'existence de mecanismes coordonnes ont produit les manifestations a grande echelle de 1989. Parmi les divers types d'incitations, seul le mecontentement politique, a un impact important sur la participation aux manifestations. L'impact de la repression n'est pas pertinent. Les incitations se concentrent dans les reseaux personnels d'amis. Un « modele spontane de coordination » explique comment les citoyens mecontents se rencontrent en un lieu et a un moment particuliers, et pourquoi quelques incitations sont necessaires pour pousser les individus a participer aux manifestations.

"May God Give Sons to All": Gender and Child Mortality in India

Abstract: Using cross-sectional data from more than 350 districts in India in 1981 I test whether female labor force participation and kinship structures explain gender differences in the mortality of children ages 0 to 5. The relationship of mortality differentials to economic development socioeconomic stratification rice cultivation and region is also examined. Results suggest that kinship structures and female labor force participation are important factors in gender differences in child mortality and these factors reinforce each other to produce especially high sex differentials in mortality....Gender differences in child mortality between the North and South regions of India remain unexplained. (EXCERPT)

Social welfare, cooperators' advantage, and the option of not playing the game.

Abstract: The AA outline a model of how freedom to choose between playing and not playing particular Pisoner's dilemma games can (1) increase social welfare and (2) provide relative gains to intending cooperators When cooperators are relatively more willing to play, they will interact more frequently with each other and their pay off per encounter will be higher - potentially higher than that of intending defectors The AA speculate about the cognitive processes that underlie this result

Conservative protestantism and support for corporal punishment

Abstract: L'A. cherche a determiner en quoi le protestantisme conservateur constitue un support ou un fondement aux châtiments corporels. Il part de la constatation que l'aile droite de cette confession chretienne tolere de facon disproportionnee ce genre de pratiques. Il tente de demontrer que cette attitude est liee a trois composantes de l'ideologie religieuse : une acceptation de la doctrine biblique dans sa litteralite, la conviction que la nature humaine, y compris celle des jeunes enfants, est pecheresse de facon inherente, la croyance que le peche de l'homme reclame punition

THE RATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF SOCIETY* 1992 Presidential Address

Abstract: In the eighteenth century a Great Transformation began - a transformation rooted in even earlier times and still in progress today. This transformation is characterized by the decline of primordial institutions based on the family as the central element of social organization and the replacement of these institutions by purposively constructed organization. Sociology is itself a product of this transformation, and the stages in the Great Transformation are mirrored by changes in the central foci of sociological theory and research. The decline of primordial social organization has been accompanied by a loss of informal social capital on which social control depended before the transformation. The design of purposive organiza- tion is necessary to compensate for this loss; this design is an emerging central focus for sociology. I introduce an example, "bounties on children," to illustrate this point. I recently took a canoe trip with two of my sons down the Wisconsin River and a portion of the Mississippi. We began the trip in a setting much like that experienced by Indians on the same river: Evidence of beavers abounded on the ri- verbanks; great blue herons, snowy egrets, and sandhill cranes flapped away as we approached; an American bald eagle soared overhead. We made our way down the river at three or four miles per hour. When we reached the Mississippi on the third day, nature retreated to the backwaters off the main channel. We saw barges traveling at maybe twice our speed, pushed by Mississippi river tugboats, descendents of the commercial riverboats that have plied that river for more than two centuries. River towns, electric power plants, and industrial cities interrupted the natural envi- ronment. As we progressed, we heard the whistles and clackety-clack of trains along the Iowa bank, moving past us at more than 10 times our speed. Power boats sped up, down, and across the river. Toward the end of our trip, a military jet took off nearby, screaming past us at nearly the speed of sound. In this description, I draw attention to the changes in physical environment and in trans- portation my sons and I observed as we traveled: From the canoe at 3 or 4 miles per hour, to die- sel-powered river traffic at 7 or 8 miles per hour, to a train at 50 miles per hour, to a jet at nearly the speed of sound. Accompanying this change was a change from beavers and great blue herons to the hustle and bustle of modem commercial, industrial, and leisure activity, all taking place with the aid of machines. One way of describing these changes is as a progression from a "natu- ral" or "primordial" physical environment to a "constructed" physical environment. In this paper I first describe a transformation that has occurred in social organization that is at least as profound and far-reaching in its implica- tions as this transformation of the physical envi- ronment.' Second, I suggest that this transforma- tion has proceeded via several changes in the economy and the social structure, and indicate just what these changes have been. Third, I sug- gest that the discipline of sociology came into being as part of the early stages of this transfor- mation, and indicate how the discipline has shifted its central focus as these changes have taken place. Fourth, I describe how the transformed social structure, which characterizes society at the dawn of the twenty-first century, differs from the struc- ture it is replacing and, to a large extent, has already replaced. Finally, I argue that the trans- formation of society, taken in its entirety, is so fundamental that it requires a change in the very stance of the discipline to its subject matter.

Structural bases of interpersonal influence in groups: a longitudinal case study

Abstract: The A. examines the relationship between interpersonal power and influence during the resolution of an issue in an organization. Controlling for elementary bases of power (rewards, coercion, authority, identification, and expertise), he investigates three bases of power that arise from the structure of social networks (cohesion, similarity, and centrality). The analysis of the data on actor's bases of social power, frequency of interpersonal communications, and interpersonal influences indicates that cohesion, similarity, and centrality have significant effects on issue-related influence net of the elementary power bases. The effects of the structural bases are mediated by the frequency of issue-related communication, which primary structural determinant is network cohesion.

Mothers, Children, and Cohabitation: The Intergenerational Effects of Attitudes and Behavior

Abstract: We investigate the reciprocal relationships between parents'attitudes and their children's behavior by focusing on attitudes toward nonmarital cohabitation and experience with cohabitation and marriage. We test hypotheses predicting that parental attitudes influence their children's behavior and that children's behavior alters their parents 'attitudes. We use data from an intergenerational panel study of mothers and their children to specify models testing these predictions. Our findings support the hypotheses that (I) parental attitudes toward cohabitation influence children 's behavior after controlling for children's own attitudes and (2) children's behavior influences their parents' attitudes. The empirical results also shed light on gender differences in the links between attitudes and behavior and possible causal links between aggregate level trends in family formation attitudes and behavior

Collective Action and Group Heterogeneity: Voluntary Provision Versus Selective Incentives

Abstract: Several studies have concluded that heterogeneity within a group facilitates the initiation of collective action. However, a recent analysis found that heterogeneity can either facilitate or impede collective action, depending on factors like the strength of the temptation to free-ride. Reconciling these conclusions is difficult because the earlier studies assumed that public goods are provided voluntarily, whereas the later analysis assumed that selective incentives like norms or laws can mandate cooperation. I examine the link between group heterogeneity and collective action in three regimes: "voluntary" systems, in which actors make unrestricted decisions to participate in collective action; "compliance" systems, in which actors create and enforce norms that compel others to participate in public goods production; and "balanced" systems, in which actors can create and enforce compliance norms or oppose such norms. The analysis reveals a complex link among group heterogeneity, collective action, and the type of regime. By fostering the organization of previously atomized groups and weakening the cohesion of highsolidarity groups, heterogeneity in contribution costs and valuation of the public good can reduce social power differentials.

Changes in American marriage, 1972 to 1987: availability and forces of attraction by age and education

Abstract: Les AA. etudient les changements concernant la propension au mariage selon l'âge et le niveau d'etudes des epouses potentielles. Les donnees relatives a la baisse du taux de mariage mettent en evidence l'importance de l'âge au mariage, en particulier chez les femmes jeunes.

Money in the bank: transaction costs and the economic organization of marriage

Abstract: Bien que la plupart des conjoints mettent en commun leur argent, certains tiennent leur argent a l'ecart du pot commun. Le choix d'une organisation financiere « privee » ou « collective » depend en partie d'un critere d'efficacite - dans le sens d'une recherche de minimisation des couts des transactions internes a la vie conjugale. Les revenus separes semblent ete associes a peu d'attentes de continuite maritale.

Constructing Racial Rhetoric: Media Depictions of Harm in Heavy Metal and Rap Music

Abstract: The literatures on social movements, the media, and the sociology of culture have addressed how ideological frames are imposed on social events and cultural texts. I extend this work on "social framing" by describing the construction and selection processes that explain why media writers appropriate some frames but not others, and why some frames "resonate" with broad cultural beliefs. I analyze the rhetoric in media accounts from 1985 to 1990 of the dangers posed to children and society by heavy metal music and rap music. I also examine the images used to amplify each genre of music. Although both genres have lyrical and performance elements focusing on sex and defiance of authority strong enough to evoke a moral outcry, they evoke quite different reactions. I argue that the racial composition of the music's audiences and producers shape the way the two genres are perceived. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1993. Copyright © 1993 by the American Sociological Association) Media Violence Effects Music Violence Music Effects Rap Music Heavy Metal Music Sociocultural Factors 03-01

Exclusion and power: a test of four theories of power in exchange networks*

Abstract: We evaluate four theories that predict the distribution of power in exchange networks. All four theories-core theory, equidependence theory, exchange-resistance theory, and expected value theory-assume actors rationally pursue self-interests. Three of the theories add social psychological assumptions that place the pursuit of self interest in an interactive context. Predictions of exchange earnings by the four theories are evaluated against data from eight experimental networks, including types of networks not previously studied. These networks vary conditions that affect the chances that a position can be excluded from exchange. We find that when the theories base predictions on a network position's structural potential for exclusion, exchange-resistance theory provides the bestfit, but when predictions are based on actual experiences of exclusion, expected value theory fits best. Our discussion focuses on the distinction between the a priori potential for exclusion versus experienced exclusion as factors in the genesis of power T he problem of power distribution in exchange networks has captured the attention of a variety of theorists. The appeal of the problem derives from the combination of the formal representation of social structure as network (Wellman and Berkowitz 1992) and sociology's perennial concern with power. A growing body of experimental studies now permits researchers to test various theoretical formulations. How does location in a network confer advantages on a person or a corporate body in their dealings with others? Consider the promotion prospects of two senior accountants, Andy and Bob. Because Andy's work involves accounts at various regional offices, his coworkers typically do not know each other. Bob, on the other hand, deals with corporate accounts, so his coworkers typically associate with each other. Thus, Andy and Bob are surrounded by two very different networks and it is not obvious that Andy's network favors him for promotion (Burt 1992). In a second ex

The Educational Benefits of Being Spaced Out: Sibship Density and Educational Progress.

Abstract: Although sociologists have identifiedfactors associated with the timing of births, little is known about the consequences of the spacing of births. Several perspectives imply a negative effect of close spacing of siblings on educational attainment, but these perspectives differ in the mechanisms used to explain this effect. We use data from the High School and Beyond survey to investigate the effect of spacing on high school attrition and post-secondary school attendance. Our analysis confirms that close spacing increases the likelihood of dropping out of high school and decreases the odds of attending post-secondary school. The direct effect of close spacing on post-secondary school attendance persists net of ability and academic performance; the effect of spacing on dropping out of high school is mixed. Close spacing of siblings also constrains the allocation offamily resources, which in turn affects educational attainment. Alternative explanations of the relationship between sibship structure and educational outcomes are reinterpreted in light of these findings.

The Effects of Family Disruption on Social Mobility.

Abstract: L'experience d'une separation familiale durant l'enfance augmente substantiellement la tendance des hommes a se retrouver dans la strate occupationnelle la plus basse. La separation familiale affaiblit la relation d'association entre les dimensions de la strate professionnelle d'origine et de la strate de destination pour les hommes. Le statut socio-economique atteint par les hommes issus de familles eclatees est moins similaire au statut socio-economique d'origine que dans le cas d'hommes issus de familles intactes. Les hommes issus de foyers traditionnels bi-parentaux font preuve d'une plus forte tendance a la transmission occupationnelle intergenerationnelle que les hommes issus de familles eclatees. Ces effets sont identiques entre populations noire et blanche

Age, gender, and suicide: a cross-national analysis

Abstract: Depuis le 19 eme siecle, les chercheurs ont des difficultes a expliquer les differences de sexe et d'âge concernant les risques de suicide. Presque universellement, les hommes se suicident davantage que les femmes. De plus, dans les pays industrialises, le risque tend a etre plus eleve pour les hommes âges et pour les femmes adultes. Les donnees concernant l'âge au suicide dans certains pays en voie de developpement sont totalement differentes. L'A. teste une theorie interdisciplinaire prenant en compte le role identitaire, le developpement economique et les institutions parentales pour comprendre ces differences.

"An Eye for an Eye Leaves Everyone Blind": Cooperation and Accounting Systems

Abstract: Using computer simulations that permit degrees of cooperation and introduce "noise" into the environment, I explore the benefits of strategies in which actors use different accounting systems to track ongoing exchanges. By relaxing some stringent assumptions of past work, I chart the conditions under which cooperation may emerge when actors can show degrees of cooperation and when actors 'moves are misperceived. Results provide evidence that strategies employing a relaxed accounting system have many advantages.

Unorganized Interests and Collective Action in Communist China

Abstract: I explore how the institutional structure of state socialism systematically transforms individual behavior into collective action in China. State monopoly of the public sphere fosters and reproduces large numbers of individual behaviors with similar claims, patterns, and targets. The state bureaucratic apparatus at the workplace also generates similar discontents and links them with national politics. The "large numbers" phenomenon provides the basis for the formation of collective action. The institutional arrangements also induce frequent state policy shifts and alternative modes of mobilization, providing the opportunity for collective action. Finally, individual behaviors based on unorganized interests tend to converge in the same direction and assume a "collective" character - that is, they are often causally defined as "collective action" in this particular institutional structure. The phenomenon of "collective inaction" is discussed in the same vein. T he popular uprisings in China and Eastern Europe in 1989 are recent examples of the "power of the powerless" in state socialist societies. However, the current literature on collective action, which emphasizes organizing capacity, resource mobilization, and interest articulation, is ill-prepared to account for such events under state socialism. In typical socialist states, society consists of unorganized interests that contrast with the organizational apparatus of the state. China, for example, evidenced minimal autonomous organizing efforts prior to the outbreak of the 1989 pro-democracy movement. The lack of strategic maneuvering and the prevalence of conflicts among student leaders illustrate the unorganized nature of the movement. Nonetheless, within a short time, millions of people across the nation poured into the streets. The participants cut across the boundaries of work units, localities, and social groups. And the 1989 pro-democracy movement, although the most spectacular, was by no means an isolated event. Instances abound of mass mobilizations initiated by the Chinese state that eventually went beyond state control and became a challenge to the state. How can we explain collective action based on the unorganized interests in the state socialist context? I examine the link between the institutional structure of state socialism and collective action in China. My central theme is that the formation and outbreak of collective action are rooted in the particular institutional structure of the state-society relationship. I argue that collective action in China is less a process of purposive and rational organizing than an aggregation of large numbers of spontaneous individual behaviors produced by the particular state-society relationship. Although individuals are unorganized, their actions in pursuit of their own self-interests tend to convey similar claims, share similar patterns, and point to the state, i.e., they "converge" into collective action.

The Seeds of Weak Power: An Extension of Network Exchange Theory

Abstract: We extend network exchange theory (Markovsky, Willer, and Patton 1988) to accommodate a new class of power phenomena. Previous theory and research have shown that structural configurations in some networks promote or inhibit exchange opportunities, leading to robust power and resource differentials. The extension identifies a structural basis for subtler forms of differentiation. Using computer simulations and laboratory experiments, we show that the degree to which this "weak power" is manifested in resource accumulations is conditioned by local and global network patterns, and by the experience and strategies of actors in the network. Experimental tests corroborate the predicted weak power effects and the consequences of variations in actors' negotiating experiences.