Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 2000"
TL;DR: This article found evidence of both massive cultural change and the persistence of distinctive cultural traditions in 65 societies and 75 percent of the world's population using data from the three waves of the World Values Surveys.
Abstract: Modernization theorists from Karl Marx to Daniel Bell have argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural changes. But others, from Max Weber to Samuel Huntington, have claimed that cultural values are an enduring and autonomous influence on society. We test the thesis that economic development is linked with systematic changes in basic values. Using data from the three waves of the World Values Surveys, which include 65 societies and 75 percent of the world's population, we find evidence of both massive cultural change and the persistence of distinctive cultural traditions. Economic development is associated with shifts away from absolute norms and values toward values that are increasingly rational, tolerant, trusting, and participatory. Cultural change, however, is path dependent. The broad cultural heritage of a society - Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Confucian, or Communist - leaves an imprint on values that endures despite modernization. Moreover, the differences between the values held by members of different religions within given societies are much smaller than are cross-national differences. Once established, such cross-cultural differences become part of a national culture transmitted by educational institutions and mass media. We conclude with some proposed revisions of modernization theory
4,551 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship between nonstandard employment (on-call work and day labor, temporary-help agency employment, employment with contract companies, independent contracting, other self-employment, and part-time employment in "conventional" jobs) and exposure to "bad" job characteristics, using data from the 1995 Current Population Survey.
Abstract: The prevalence of nonstandard jobs is a matter of concern if, as many assume, such jobs are bad. We examine the relationship between nonstandard employment (on-call work and day labor, temporary-help agency employment, employment with contract companies, independent contracting, other self-employment, and part-time employment in "conventional" jobs) and exposure to "bad" job characteristics, using data from the 1995 Current Population Survey. Of workers age 18 and over, 31 percent are in some type of nonstandard employment. To assess the link between type of employment and bad jobs, we conceptualize "bad jobs" as those with low pay and without access to health insurance and pension benefits. About one in seven jobs in the United States is bad on these three dimensions. Nonstandard employment strongly increases workers' exposure to bad job characteristics, net of controls for workers' personal characteristics, family status, occupation, and industry. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
1,282 citations
TL;DR: For example, this article found that those aged 27 or older are less likely to report crime and arrest when provided with marginal employment opportunities than when such opportunities are not provided, while young participants, those in their teens and early twenties, reported little effect on crime.
Abstract: crimes? Prior research is inconclusive because work effects have been biased by selectivity and obscured by the interaction of age and employment. This study yields more refined estimates by specifying event history models to analyze assignment to, eligibility for, and current participation in a national work experiment for criminal offenders. Age is found to interact with employment to affect the rate of self-reported recidivism: Those aged 27 or older are less likely to report crime and arrest when provided with marginal employment opportunities than when such opportunities are not provided. Among young participants, those in their teens and early twenties, the experimental job treatment had little effect on crime. Work thus appears to be a turning point for older, but not younger, offenders.
961 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a top-down causal imagery that hinges on a global redefinition of the "nation-state" to include environmental protection as a basic state responsibility is proposed.
Abstract: National activities to protect the natural environment are on the rise. Conventional explanations of the phenomenon emphasize domestic processes, set in motion by environmental degradation and economic affluence. We propose instead a top-down causal imagery that hinges on a global redefinition of the "nation-state" to include environmental protection as a basic state responsibility. We test our view using event-history analyses offive indicators of environmentalization: the proliferation of (]) national parks, (2) chapters of international environmental associations, (3) memberships in intergovernmental environmental organizations, (4) environmental impact assessment laws, and (5) environmental ministries in countries around the world over the twentieth century. For allfive measures, the top-down global explanation proves stronger than the bottom-up domestic alternative: The global institutionalization of the principle that nation-states bear responsibility for environmental protection drives national activities to protect the environment. This is especially true in countries with dense ties to world society and prolific "receptor sites," even when controlling for domestic degradation and affluence. It appears that blueprints of nation-state environmentalization, which themselves become more universalistic over time, are drawn in world society before being diffused to and enacted by individual countries.
665 citations
TL;DR: Using federal court data collected by the U.S. Sentencing Commission for the years 1993-1996, this article examined racial/ethnic differences in sentencing outcomes and criteria under the federal sentencing guidelines.
Abstract: Using federal court data collected by the U.S. Sentencing Commission for the years 1993-1996, this study examines racial/ethnic differences-white versus black versus white-Hispanic versus black-Hispanic-in sentencing outcomes and criteria under the federal sentencing guidelines. Regression analyses of incarceration and term-length decisions reveal considerable judicial consistency in the use of sentencing criteria for all defendants; however, important racial/ethnic disparities in sentencing emerge. Consistent with theoretical hypotheses, the authors find that ethnicity has a small to moderate effect on sentencing outcomes that favors white defendants and penalizes Hispanic defendants, black defendants are in an intermediate position. Hispanic drug offenders are most at risk of receiving the harshest penalties, and their harsher treatment is most pronounced in prosecutor-controlled guidelines departure cases. These findings highlight both a classic organizational tension noted by Weber and a fundamental dilemma in policy efforts to structure sentencing processes (formal rationality) while allowing for judicial and prosecutorial discretion (substantive rationality). The findings also broaden our view of the continuing significance of race in American society-as a matter confronting not only blacks but also Hispanics and perhaps other ethnic groups as well
606 citations
TL;DR: No evidence was found in support of the idea that blacks and whites differ in their ability to transform socioeconomic resources into good health, and it was shown that socioeconomic conditions, not health risk behaviors, are the primary origins of the racial stratification of health.
Abstract: Black Americans live fewer years than whites and live more years with chronic health problems. The origins of this racial gap are ambiguous. This study examines the pervasiveness of this gap across chronic medical and disabling conditions among middle-aged persons. Alternative hypotheses about how fundamental social conditions of disease differentiate the health of blacks and whites are also examined. Results show that the racial gap in health is spread across all domains of health, and that socioeconomic conditions, not health risk behaviors, are the primary origins of the racial stratification of health. No evidence was found in support of the idea that blacks and whites differ in their ability to transform socioeconomic resources into good health. The results point to the importance of continued research on how health and achievement processes are linked across childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Such studies are needed to enrich work on the inequality of health and life cycle achievement.
498 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of neighborhood stability and poverty on the psychological well-being of residents are examined. But, the authors do not consider crime as the ultimate outcome and instead examine the effect of residential stability across different types of neighborhoods, and they make three contributions: they assess residents' psychological distress, measured as depression and anxiety.
Abstract: nities and the individuals who live in them, and may be especially beneficial in poor neighborhoods. In contrast, a social isolation perspective proposes that neighborhood stability has negative effects on residents'psychological well-being in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. This analysis of multilevel data-data in which survey information from a representative sample of Illinois residents is linked to census-tract information about poverty and stability in their neighborhoodsupports a social isolation perspective. In affluent neighborhoods, stability is associated with low levels of distress; under conditions of poverty the opposite is true. In part this occurs because residents of poor, stable neighborhoods face high levels of disorder in their neighborhoods. Stability does not reduce perceived disorder under conditions of poverty, as it does in more affluent neighborhoods, which leaves residents feeling powerless to leave a dangerous place. Finally, the negative effects of poor, stable neighborhoods on residents'psychological well-being do not stem from a lack of social ties among neighbors. N EIGHBORHOOD stability traditionally has been heralded as a boon to quality of life, but stability's influence may not always be positive. We extend the research on neighborhood stability by showing how the benefits of stability for individual psychological well-being depend on the local economic context. We make three contributions. First, we directly assess residents' psychological distress, measured as depression and anxiety. We depart from the tradition of considering crime as the ultimate outcome and instead examine the effects of neighborhood stability and poverty on the psychological well-being of residents. Second, we examine the effects of residential stability across different types of neighborhoods because the effect of neighborhood stability on psychological well-being may depend on economic context. Third, we investigate whether physical and social disorder in the neighborhood mediates the joint effect of neighborhood stability and poverty on distress because disorder influences residents' perceptions that they are powerless to leave a threatening and dangerous environment.
490 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the effects of organizations' employment practices on sex-based ascription in managerial jobs and found that open recruitment methods are associated with women holding a greater share of management jobs, while recruitment through informal networks increases men's share.
Abstract: We examine the effects of organizations' employment practices on sex-based ascription in managerial jobs. Given men's initial preponderance in management, we argue that inertia, sex labels, and power dynamics predispose organizations to use sex-based ascription when staffing managerial jobs, but that personnel practices can invite or curtail ascription. Our results-based on data from a national probability sample of 516 work organizations-show that specific personnel practices affect the sexual division of managerial labor. Net of controls for the composition of the labor supply, open recruitment methods are associated with women holding a greater share of management jobs, while recruitment through informal networks increases men's share. Formalizing personnel practices reduces men's share of management jobs, especially in large establishments, presumably because formalization checks ascription in job assignments, evaluation, and factors that affect attrition. Thus, through their personnel practices, establishments license or limit ascription. B ARON and Bielby (1980) encouraged researchers interested in labor market inequality to "bring the firm back in" because firms "link the 'macro' and 'micro' dimensions of work organization and inequality" (p. 738). Researchers who have taken up the call have demonstrated the importance of organizational structures, such as their nonprofit or government status or their size, for sustaining or eroding sex-based ascription (Baron 1991; Baron and Newman 1990; Nelson and Bridges 1999; TomaskovicDevey 1993). Relatively little is known,
415 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use intergenerational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the years 1968 through 1992 to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status and health over the life course specifically in sorting out causal directionality.
Abstract: Two key questions are addressed regarding the intersection of socioeconomic status biology and low birth weight over the life course. First do the income and other socioeconomic conditions of a mother during her pregnancy affect her chances of having a low-birth-weight infant net of her own birth weight that of the father and other family-related unobserved factors? Second does an individuals birth weight status affect his or her adult life chances net of socioeconomic status? These questions have implications for the way the authors conceive of the relationship between socioeconomic status and health over the life course specifically in sorting out causal directionality. The authors use intergenerational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the years 1968 through 1992. Results of sibling comparisons (family-fixed-effects models) demonstrate that maternal income does not appear to have a significant impact on birth weight. However low birth weight results in lower educational attainment net of other factors. These findings suggest that when considered across generations causality may not be as straightforward as implied by cross-sectional or unigenerational longitudinal studies. (authors)
396 citations
TL;DR: Results show that the structures of individuals' core networks affect the degree to which individuals activate ties from those networks to gain informal support, and this has implications for understanding resource activation in the contexts of social support and job searches.
Abstract: Social resources research has linked activated ties to outcomes-but not to the core networks from which the ties came. This study shifts the focus to the question of how networks allocate resources. The activation of core network ties is analyzed in a nonroutine situation-a hurricane-to determine how core network structure affects the degree to which individuals activate core network ties to gain one type of social resource-informal support. Results show that the structures of individuals' core networks affect the degree to which individuals activate ties from those networks to gain informal support. Individuals embedded in higher-density core networks (i.e., alters are connected to one another), core networks with more gender diversity (i.e., a mix of men and women), and networks that contain higher proportions of men, kin, and younger individuals, activated core network ties for informal support to a greater degree than did individuals embedded in core networks lacking these characteristics. The conclusions consider the study's implications for understanding resource activation in the contexts of social support and job searches.
376 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined how actors in two California urban areas, over approximately 100 years, responded differently to the same exogenous forces and showed how unlike elements conjoin to produce a particular character at any given moment and how this character travels through time to constitute a local tradition.
Abstract: This study shows how places, and by implication other societal units as well, achieve and reproduce distinctiveness. It does this by specifying how actors in two California urban areas, over approximately 100 years, responded differently to the same exogenous forces. Each place is examined to determine how unlike elements conjoin to produce a particular character at any given moment and how this character travels through time to constitute a local tradition. Borrowing from advances in analyses of structure and agency, this study displays character and tradition as accomplished interaction and helps make an elusive process empirically evident and accessible for study
TL;DR: In this article, the authors distinguish between globalization as a contemporary political ideology and what they call structural globalization, the increasing worldwide density of large-scale interaction networks relative to the density of smaller networks.
Abstract: The term globalization as used by social scientists and in popular discourse has many meanings. We contend that it is important to distinguish between globalization as a contemporary political ideology and what we call structural globalization - the increasing worldwide density of large-scale interaction networks relative to the density of smaller networks. We study one type of economic globalization over the past two centuries: the trajectory of international trade as a proportion of global production. Is trade globalization a recent phenomenon, a long-term upward trend, or a cyclical process? Using an improved measure of trade globalization, we find that there have been three waves since 1795. We discuss the possible causes of these pulsations of global integration and their implications for the early decades of the twenty-first century
TL;DR: In this article, a new status value theory of power is proposed, which asserts that exchangeable objects controlled by high-status actors are perceived to be more valuable when relevant to positive status characteristics.
Abstract: A new status value theory of power is proposed that bridges two previously distinct research literatures. The theory asserts that exchangeable objects controlled by high-status actors are perceived to be more valuable when relevant to positive status characteristics. This phenomenon is predicted to confer power to high-status actors who exchange with low-status actors. The theoretical argument represents an important link between exchange theories of power and the research on status hierarchies-two areas that until now have been sharply demarcated. The theory is tested with a series of experiments in which status-differentiated subjects negotiate exchanges using a computerized bargaining system. The results indicate: (1) Positive status characteristics accentuate the perceived value of resources; (2) high-status subjects are most often chosen as the preferred exchange partner; and (3) high-status subjects obtain the greatest share of resources indicating power use. The implications for sociological theories of power and status are discussed
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the causes of the expansion and cross-national variation in the provision of welfare state goods and services and concluded that social democratic governance is by far the most important determinant of the public delivery of services.
Abstract: The causes of the expansion and cross-national variation in the provision of welfare state goods and services are examined. Social democratic governance is by far the most important determinant of the public delivery of services and is one of the most important determinants of the public funding of the provision of welfare state goods and services. Christian democratic governance is an important determinant of public funding services, but is not related to public delivery. State structure is also an important determinant. Women's labor force participation is an important determinant of the expansion of public social welfare services net of other social, political, and historical factors. The analysis also shows an interactive effect of women's labor force participation and social democratic governance on public delivery of welfare state services. We conclude that public delivery of a wide range of welfare state services is the most distinctive feature of the social democratic welfare state and that this feature is a product of the direct and interactive effects of social democracy and women's mobilization.
TL;DR: For example, the authors showed that when African Americans and whites have similar low levels of concentrated disadvantage, the effects of disadvantage and homeownership are relatively comparable and that the crime-generating process itself is conditioned by the social situations of blacks and whites.
Abstract: Previous research demonstrates differences in the processes that generate black and white rates of criminal violence. Analyses of race-specific urban homicide offending rates for 1990 test the hypothesis that racially different effects occur because the crime-generating process itself is conditioned by the social situations of blacks and whites. Results show that when African Americans and whites have similar low levels of concentrated disadvantage, the effects of disadvantage and homeownership are relatively comparable. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 2000. Copyright © 2000 by the American Sociological Association) African American Adult African American Offender African American Violence Black-White Comparison Caucasian Adult Caucasian Offender Caucasian Violence Urban Environment Urban Violence 1990s Homicide Rates Homicide Offender Structural-Cultural 06-04
TL;DR: In this article, a multinomial model of educational careers, that takes previous paths and grade-point averages into account, was used to test whether conclusions about class stratification in educational attainment based on a logit model are borne out.
Abstract: The logit model of educational transitions has become standard in research in educational stratification. One limitation of the model, however is the assumption that individuals progress through the educational system in a unilinear sequential mode. Many school systems contain parallel branches of study that are most fruitfully seen as qualitatively different alternative pathways with different probabilities of school continuation attached to them. This study tests a multinomial model of educational careers, that takes previous paths and grade-point averages into account. Applied to a large Swedish longitudinal data set the model tests whether conclusions about class stratification in educational attainment based on a logit model are borne out. Results show that the pathway a student has taken through the school system influences the probability of making subsequent educational transitions. This result is robust to unmeasured heterogeneity modeled using a latent class approach. Furthermore, the traditional log it model tends to deflate class-origin effects at early transition points while inflating them at the transition to higher education. The results give some support to the hypothesis that origin effects are strongest at more indirect and unusual pathways
TL;DR: In this paper, a detailed examination of religious life in Western Europe before and after the Reformation is presented, concluding that the changes in social structure and religious experience that occurred during this period were considerably more complex than either the old or new paradigms suggest and, indeed, that the two Paradigms are neither so opposed nor so irreconcilable as many of their defenders contend.
Abstract: In recent years, the sociology of religion has been consumed by a debate over secularization that pits advocates of a new, rational-choice paradigm (the so-called religious economies model) against defenders of classical secularization theory. According to the old paradigm, the Western world has become increasingly secular since the Middle Ages; according to the new paradigm, it has become increasingly religious. I put these two images of religious development to the test through a detailed examination of religious life in Western Europe before and after the Reformation. I conclude that the changes in social structure and religious experience that occurred during this period were considerably more complex than either the old or new paradigms suggest and, indeed, that the two paradigms are neither so opposed nor so irreconcilable as many of their defenders contend. It is possible, indeed probable, that Western society has become more secular without becoming less religious. I discuss the limitations of the two competing paradigms and sketch the outlines of a more adequate theory of religious change
TL;DR: Li et al. as mentioned in this paper used life history data from a nationally representative 1996 survey of urban Chinese adults to find even stronger contrasts between career paths and found that professionals rarely become administrators, and vice versa.
Abstract: Recent research on career mobility under communism suggests that party membership and education may have had different effects in administrative and professional careers. Using life history data from a nationally representative 1996 survey of urban Chinese adults, we subject this finding to more stringent tests and find even stronger contrasts between career paths. Only recently has college education improved a high school graduate's odds of becoming an elite administrator, while it has always been a virtual prerequisite for a professional position. On the other hand, party membership, always a prerequisite for top administrative posts, has never improved the odds of becoming an elite professional. We also find that professionals rarely become administrators, and vice versa. Differences between career paths have evolved over the decades, but they remain sharp. Thus, China has a hybrid mobility regime in which the loyalty principles of a political machine are combined with, and segregated from, the meritocratic standards of modern professions. Recent changes may reflect a return to generic state socialist practices rejected in the Mao years rather than the influence of an emerging market economy
TL;DR: A micro-model of within-sex differences among females integrates the biological model current in primatology with the prevailing social science model and demonstrates how hormone experiences can facilitate or dampen the effects of socialization and environment on gendered behavior.
Abstract: A biosocial theory of gender is constructed on both the macro and micro levels. A micro-model of within-sex differences among females integrates the biological model current in primatology with the prevailing social science model. It shows how sex differences in hormone experience from gestation to adulthood shape gendered behavior (that is, behavior that differs by sex). On the macro level, this model also illustrates how socialization and environment shape gendered behavior. It then demonstrates how hormone experiences can facilitate or dampen the effects of socialization and environment on gendered behavior. Data are from a sample of women who were studied from before they were born to the end of their third decade. I speculate about the constraints placed by biology on the social reconstruction of gender
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative analysis of household income dynamics in the United States and Germany shows that variations in welfare state policy produce distinct societal patterns of income mobility, and furthermore, the relative importance of labor market events, family change, and welfare state policies for income dynamics depends on gender.
Abstract: Since the demise of modernization theory, social scientists have sought explanations for persisting differences in the stratification of industrialized societies, primarily by studying how educational and labor market institutions shape the life chances of individuals. This approach undervalues two key features of any stratification system : family dynamics and the welfare state. Employment changes, changes in household composition, and changes in the employment situation of a spouse or partner can all trigger large shifts in income and material well-being. The impact of these events is mediated by public tax and transfer mechanisms and by private actions taken by household members. This comparative analysis of household income dynamics in the United States and Germany shows that variations in welfare state policy produce distinct societal patterns of income mobility, and furthermore, shows that the relative importance of labor market events, family change, and welfare state policies for income dynamics depends on gender. The strong interrelationship between individual incentives and the structure of opportunity produces an asymmetry in the long-term impact of events. The negative effects of events that reduce income generally decay over time, while the effects of positive events generally persist
TL;DR: This paper revisited Simmel's distinction between social forms in premodern and modern society and recast it in current network terms, and sketched out a third social form, a spoke structure, with accompanying tensions and freedoms that Simmel recognized as inevitable.
Abstract: We address current debates about the future of society and the future of sociology. From Simmel's distinction between social forms in premodern and modern society, we resurrect his original geometric analogy and recast it in current network terms. In this light, we consider various substantive and methodological claims of postmodernists and suggest that their contribution lies in capturing the spirit of rapid social change and the ambiguity that characterizes the present era. The basic problem with the postmodern critique, we argue, lies in its embrace of these characteristics as the new social form - mistaking transition for type. In response, we sketch out a third social form, a spoke structure, with accompanying tensions and freedoms that Simmel recognized as inevitable. Finally, we examine how approaches to two social problems - serious mental illnesses and homelessness-reflect and shape the contours of an era s network formation. In particular, we discuss how the emergent spoke structure presents challenges to current methodological approaches
TL;DR: The authors findings show that mothers duration of US residence is positively related to infant mortality among the children of migrants suggesting that a process of negative assimilation is occurring.
Abstract: Using pooled origin/destination data from the Puerto Rican Maternal and Infant Health Study the authors examine the implications for infant mortality of migration from Puerto Rico to the US. An analysis restricted to the US mainland shows that children of migrants have lower risks of infant mortality than do children of mainland-born Puerto Rican women. A critical question is whether this pattern indicates that maternal exposure to US culture undermines infant health or whether it is largely a result of the selective migration of healthier or more advantaged mothers to the US. The authors findings show that mothers duration of US residence is positively related to infant mortality among the children of migrants suggesting that a process of negative assimilation is occurring. However inclusion of Puerto Rico in the analysis demonstrates the importance of selective migration in explaining the US mainland pattern: Infant mortality is substantially lower among recent migrants to the mainland than it is among nonmigrant women in Puerto Rico. The roles of socioeconomic status cultural orientation health habits and health care utilization in accounting for differences in infants survival chances by maternal migration status are assessed. (authors)
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the role of power in selecting between two alternative business models available to railroads from 1897, when antitrust laws banned the cartel-the prevailing model for managing competition.
Abstract: How do new business models emerge? Neoinstitutionalists argue that the process often begins when a policy shift undermines the status quo; groups then vie to define the best alternative. The authors explore the role of power in selecting between two alternative business models available to railroads from 1897, when antitrust laws banned the cartel-the prevailing model for managing competition. Predatory railroads prescribed several methods for destroying rivals. Financiers prescribed amicable mergers instead, and fought predation by threatening to withhold capital from predators. An analysis of the 167 rail acquisitions in Massachusetts between 1825 and 1922 confirms that the financiers succeeded. After antitrust laws were enforced, railroads left cartels to follow the business model of financiers rather than that of predators. This can be seen in the conditional variables that predict buying and selling. Thus public policy and power can shape key market features. It is ironic that this market, built by antitrust, became the prototype for the neoliberal ideal of the unregulated economy
TL;DR: Reference-network data for research areas from several disciplines as discussed by the authors show substantial variation in the structure of scholarship, ranging from the frequent and disproportionate citation of recent work to the frequent, but disproportionate, citation of foundational documents.
Abstract: Networks of citations among the papers on a research topic reflect the structure of scholarship on that topic. Reference-network data for research areas from several disciplines show substantial variation in the structure of scholarship, ranging from the frequent and disproportionate citation of recent work to the frequent and disproportionate citation of foundational documents. The variation is inconsistent with the pattern expected of a simple physical sciences-behavioral sciences-humanities dimension. Citation-context analyses of references in the networks of various fields suggest that variation in network structure is due in part to differences in why authors cite their colleagues' work: Disproportionate citation of foundational documents occurs when authors cite papers as examples of perspectives or general approaches rather than as support for specific points. Differences in use patterns for citations can help us understand other differences among scholarly communities
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present several examples of the sociological practice of bashing myths based on the logic of purposive action and offer a typology of alternative goals, means, and outcomes illustrated by both classic sociological writings and contemporary research.
Abstract: Purposive social action has provided the bedrock for theoretical developments and model building in several social sciences. Since its beginnings, however, sociology has harbored, a “contrarian” vocation based on examining the unrecognized, unintended, and emergent consequences of goal-oriented activity. I present several examples of the sociological practice of bashing myths based on the logic of purposive action and offer a typology of alternative goals, means, and outcomes illustrated by both classic sociological writings and contemporary research. The multiple contingencies documented by sociologists in the past cautions against attempts to build institutions or implement programs grounded on grand blueprints. The cautionary tale supported by sociological analysis of concealed goals, shifts in midcourse, and unexpected effects does not lead, however, to the conclusion that scientific prediction and practical intervention are futile endeavors. It leads instead to an emphasis on the dialectics of social life, and on the need to take into account the definitions of the situation of relevant actors. I offer some illustrations of successful mid-range theories that are based on the analysis of dilemmas in social processes and the importance of sensitivity to the unexpected in the implementation of programmatic interventions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the effects of socialist versus market systems on innovation in two Carl Zeiss companies, Zeiss Jena and Zeiss Oberkochen, by analyzing patent records from 1950 to 1990.
Abstract: Two Carl Zeiss companies provide a natural experiment for analyzing the effects of socialist versus market systems on innovation. By analyzing patent records from 1950 to 1990, we trace the technological contributions of Zeiss Jena in the German Democratic Republic and Zeiss Oberkochen in the Federal Republic of Germany. We show that Zeiss Jena gradually developed considerable technological competence, but a deficiency of innovative potential within the socialist system led to political pressures on key firms to innovate by plan. These findings on Zeiss Jena imply that technologically viable firms can fail during the initial period of transition from socialism to capitalism. The diagnosis of a lack of innovation and faulty managerial incentives as the disease that is cured by market reforms should be balanced by an understanding of the actual capabilities of socialist firms and the difficulties of radical change mandated by brutal shocks to the macroeconomic system
TL;DR: This article used neighborhood-level employment data from 1980 and 1990 to measure changes in the distance to jobs from census tracts in the Detroit and Chicago metropolitan areas and found that a decline in the spatial proximity to employment is associated with an increase in the unemployment rate for blacks.
Abstract: The spatial mismatch hypothesis argues that residential segregation and job decentralization combine to adversely affect the employment opportunities of minorities. While employment is increasingly located outside of central cities, residential segregation prevents minorities from moving closer to suburban jobs. Although this hypothesis has intuitive appeal, there is little consensus regarding its empirical validity. This study (1) constructs detailed geographic measures of changes in employment opportunities, (2) estimates a fixed-effects model of changes in the unemployment rate over time, and (3) accounts for spatial correlation in the error term. Neighborhood-level employment data from 1980 and 1990 are used to measure changes in the distance to jobs from census tracts in the Detroit and Chicago metropolitan areas. In both cities, the decentralization of employment and the loss of manufacturing jobs resulted in substantial changes in the spatial distribution of employment. The empirical results indicate that a decline in the spatial proximity to employment is associated with an increase in the unemployment rate for blacks.
TL;DR: This article examined Baltimore adolescents' paid work from ages 13 to 18 to describe the start of the transition to adulthood, how work interlaces with schooling, and how work is segmented along sociodemographic lines.
Abstract: Using a life course framework, we examine Baltimore adolescents'paid work from ages 13 to 18 to describe (1) the start of the transition to adulthood; (2) how work interlaces with schooling; (3) how work is segmented along sociodemographic lines, and (4) how early work (at ages 13 and 14) affects later high school work (at ages 15 to 18). White youth in Baltimore more often held jobs than did African American youth, even though African Americans applied for jobs more often than did whites. Once white students started school-year work, they were more likely than were African Americans to work in every subsequent school year. At ages 13 and 14, compared to their more advantaged counterparts, more of the economically disadvantaged youngsters and those with relatively poor school records held semiskilled rather than unskilled jobs. Semiskilled (clerical, sales, craft) work at age 13 was a substantial determinant of holding a similar job at later ages (15 and 17). By age 17, however, the reverse was true : students with better school records were more likely to hold semiskilled jobs than were students with poorer records
TL;DR: In this paper, an institutional politics theory of social policy is elaborated that incorporates the influence of both institutional conditions and political actors: institutions mediate influence of political actors, and state actors, left-party regimes, and social movements spur social policy, but only under favorable institutional conditions.
Abstract: The WPA was the most expensive and politically prominent U.S. social program of the 1930s, and the generosity and very nature of U.S. social policy in its formative years was contested through the WPA. In this article, an institutional politics theory of social policy is elaborated that incorporates the influence of both institutional conditions and political actors: Institutions mediate the influence of political actors. Specifically, it is argued that underdemocratized political systems and patronage-oriented party systems dampen the cause of generous social spending and the impact of those struggling for it. State actors, left-party regimes, and social movements spur social policy, but only under favorable institutional conditions. To appraise this theory, key Senate roll-call votes on WPA wage rates are examined, as well as state-level variations in WPA wages at the end of the 1930s. The analyses, which include multiple regression and qualitative comparative analysis, support the theory
TL;DR: This paper investigated the economic recovery of children and their mothers following parental divorce and separation using panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement to make both absolute and relative comparisons of potential economic returns.
Abstract: Are maternal cohabitation and remarriage equivalent routes to the economic recovery of children and their mothers following parental divorce and separation? Unlike previous studies that have been primarily cross-sectional in design, this study uses panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement to make both absolute and relative comparisons of potential economic returns. Also investigated is how income from spouses and partners is combined with income from other sources to support children, and the extent to which economic hardship over time relates to mothers' union experiences. Findings show that while in absolute terms, remarriage is economically more advantageous than cohabitation, cohabitation and remarriage are equivalent in their ability to restore family income to prior levels. Cohabiting mothers start off in a weaker economic position prior to divorce, however, and continue to rely on income from employment and AFDC to a greater extent than do remarried mothers. Over time, cohabitation, even when it results in a stable union, is a comparatively poor mechanism for maintaining economic recovery for the children of divorce. The extent of economic difficulties experienced by children whose mothers unstably remarry is also demonstrated