Showing papers in "Review of Sociology in 2002"

ASSESSING "NEIGHBORHOOD EFFECTS": Social Processes and New Directions in Research

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This paper assesses and synthesizes the cumulative results of a new “neighborhood-effects” literature that examines social processes related to problem behaviors and health-related outcomes. Our review identified over 40 relevant studies published in peer-reviewed journals from the mid-1990s to 2001, the take-off point for an increasing level of interest in neighborhood effects. Moving beyond traditional characteristics such as concentrated poverty, we evaluate the salience of social-interactional and institutional mechanisms hypothesized to account for neighborhood-level variations in a variety of phenomena (e.g., delinquency, violence, depression, high-risk behavior), especially among adolescents. We highlight neighborhood ties, social control, mutual trust, institutional resources, disorder, and routine activity patterns. We also discuss a set of thorny methodological problems that plague the study of neighborhood effects, with special attention to selection bias. We conclude with promising ...

The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences

Abstract: ▪ Abstract In recent years, the concept of boundaries has been at the center of influential research agendas in anthropology, history, political science, social psychology, and sociology. This article surveys some of these developments while describing the value added provided by the concept, particularly concerning the study of relational processes. It discusses literatures on (a) social and collective identity; (b) class, ethnic/racial, and gender/sex inequality; (c) professions, knowledge, and science; and (d) communities, national identities, and spatial boundaries. It points to similar processes at work across a range of institutions and social locations. It also suggests paths for further developments, focusing on the relationship between social and symbolic boundaries, cultural mechanisms for the production of boundaries, difference and hybridity, and cultural membership and group classifications.

FROM FACTORS TO ACTORS: Computational Sociology and Agent-Based Modeling

Abstract: ■ Abstract Sociologists often model social processes as interactions among variables. We review an alternative approach that models social life as interactions among adaptive agents who influence one another in response to the influence they receive. These agent-based models (ABMs) show how simple and predictable local interactions can generate familiar but enigmatic global patterns, such as the diffusion of information, emergence of norms, coordination of conventions, or participation in collective action. Emergent social patterns can also appear unexpectedly and then just as dramatically transform or disappear, as happens in revolutions, market crashes, fads, and feeding frenzies. ABMs provide theoretical leverage where the global patterns of interest are more than the aggregation of individual attributes, but at the same time, the emergent pattern cannot be understood without a bottom up dynamical model of the microfoundations at the relational level. We begin with a brief historical sketch of the shift from “factors” to “actors” in computational sociology that shows how agent-based modeling differs fundamentally from earlier sociological uses of computer simulation. We then review recent contributions focused on the emergence of social structure and social order out of local interaction. Although sociology has lagged behind other social sciences in appreciating this new methodology, a distinctive sociological contribution is evident in the papers we review. First, theoretical interest focuses on dynamic social networks that shape and are shaped by agent interaction. Second, ABMs are used to perform virtual experiments that test macrosociological theories by manipulating structural factors like network topology, social stratification, or spatial mobility. We conclude our review with a series of recommendations for realizing the rich sociological potential of this approach.

Integrating models of diffusion of innovations: a Conceptual Framework.

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This chapter provides a conceptual framework for integrating the array of variables defined in diffusion research to explicate their influence on an actor's decision to adopt an innovation. The framework groups the variables into three major components. The first component includes characteristics of the innovation itself, within which two sets of variables are defined concerning public versus private consequences and benefits versus costs of adoption. A second component involves the characteristics of innovators (actors) that influence the probability of adoption of an innovation. Within this component six sets of variables concern societal entity of innovators (either people, organizations, states, etc.), familiarity with the innovation, status characteristics, socioeconomic characteristics, position in social networks, and personal qualities. The third component involves characteristics of the environmental context that modulate diffusion via structural characteristics of the modern world. T...

Ideas, Politics, and Public Policy

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Scholars have become acutely interested in how behavior driven by ideas rather than self-interest determines policy-making outcomes. This review examines the literature on this subject. It differentiates among the types of ideas that may affect policy making (i.e., cognitive paradigms, world views, norms, frames, and policy programs) and identifies some of the persistent difficulties associated with studying how ideas shape policy. In particular, studies often do a poor job pinpointing the causal mechanisms that link ideas to policy-making outcomes. More attention needs to be paid to articulating the causal processes through which ideas exert effects. Suggestions for future scholarship that might improve this situation are offered. These include identifying the actors who seek to influence policy making with their ideas, ascertaining the institutional conditions under which these actors have more or less influence, and understanding how political discourse affects the degree to which policy ide...

Chinese social stratification and social mobility

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This essay reviews post-1980 research on class stratification, socio-economic inequalities, and social mobility in the People's Republic of China. Chinese class stratification has transformed from a rigid status hierarchy under Mao to an open, evolving class system in the post-Mao period. Socioeconomic inequalities have also been altered. State redistributive inequalities are giving way to patterns increasingly generated by how individuals and groups succeed in a growing market-oriented economy; rigorous empirical studies have been conducted on occupational prestige, income distribution, housing and consumption, and gender inequality. Finally, occupational mobility, a rare opportunity under Mao, is becoming a living experience for many Chinese in light of emerging labor markets. Scholarly works on status attainment, career mobility, and employment processes show both stability and change in the once politicized social mobility regime. There is relatively richer research output on urban than on ...

Reconsidering the effects of sibling configuration: Recent advances and challenges

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Until recently, social scientists were headed to consensus over the impact of the structural parameters of the sibling group, especially size and birth order, on educational and other status outcomes. New developments challenge this conventional wisdom, thus offering an opening for dialogue on this topic. We identify the utility and implications of studying the consequences of sibling configuration within sociology, across disciplines, and for public policy. Revisiting the association between sibship size and educational advancement, we evaluate challenges to long-held beliefs regarding this relationship. We then discuss the effects of birth order, highlighting recent declarations that these effects are more profound than previously believed. We next summarize scholarship on two less-explored components of the sibling matrix: spacing and sex composition. Finally, we consider generalizability of research done mostly in the United States to other countries. We hope examining and critiquing this r...

Race, Gender, and Authority in the Workplace: Theory and Research

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This chapter surveys sociological approaches to the study of job authority, including theoretical foundations, measurement, and emergence as an important dimension of social inequality. The focus here is mainly on studies of race and gender differences in the determinants of authority and the consequences of race and gender differences in authority for income. Despite significant advancements in the overall socioeconomic status of minorities and working women, race and gender remain important impediments to their attainment of authority. This pattern, which is consistent and robust in state-level, national, cross-national, and cross-temporal studies, is sustained net of an incumbent's human capital investments and structural location within and between several economic units. Following a review of the predominant explanations for gender and racial disparities in job authority is the conclusion that the most promising explanations for persistent racial and gender disparities in authority concern...

Ethnic Boundaries and Identity in Plural Societies

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This paper reviews studies of ethnicity in plural societies. The literature concentrates on the social networks of ethnic groups, the use of social capital derived from these networks, and ethnic identity. I give particular attention to studies that consider how interpersonal networks within ethnic communities influence the degree of closure in social boundaries and the degree to which ethnic identity is retained. Most of the studies considered here have been published during the past two decades. However, a few earlier studies are considered so as to frame recent work in an appropriate context. Two main research foci characterize contemporary studies—forms of economic action undertaken by the immigrant generation and the socialization experiences of their offspring. Related areas of study also addressed in this review include how participation in ethnic churches, metropolitan and regional concentrations of ethnic populations, and transnationalism influence ethnic groups' experiences. I conclud...

The changing face of methodological individualism

Abstract: ▪ Abstract It is common to categorize social scientific theories as either individualistic or holistic, and to assume that they are opposites. This neat picture is not so much wrong as too simple. There are different versions of both doctrines, and some versions combine elements from both. In this article I distinguish a number of versions of methodological individualism that differ significantly in strength. The main divide is between strong versions of methodological individualism, which suggest that all social phenomena should be explained only in terms of individuals and their interaction, and weak versions of methodological individualism, which also assign an important role to social institutions and/or social structure in social science explanations.

New economics of sociological criminology

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This paper begins with a summary of the rational choice approach and its implications for the study of criminal behavior. I then review research on offending that uses the rational choice approach in conjunction with more sociological orientations. I also summarize research on game theory and demonstrate how it can be effectively used to understand and predict criminal decision-making. I argue that, contrary to the assessment of many criminologists, rational choice approach and game theory insights can be combined profitably with sociological perspectives to advance the understanding and prediction of criminal behavior.

Comparative Research on Women's Employment

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Women's employment has been widely studied in both Western countries and Eastern Europe. In this article, the most frequently used measurements and descriptions of women's paid work are ...

Welfare Reform: How Do We Measure Success?

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This paper evaluates a burgeoning literature on the effects of the 1996 welfare reform bill. Our goal is to shift the debate from the current preoccupation with declining caseloads to one focused on the social and economic well-being of fragile families, single mothers, and children. The welfare reform literature reveals many positive changes: reduced poverty rates, lower out-of-wedlock childbearing, greater family stability, and little indication of more spouse abuse or child neglect. But it is too early to claim success and many questions remain unanswered. Poverty remains high among single mothers and their children; welfare recipients experience serious barriers to stable employment; and poor women and children face an uncertain economic and social future as welfare eligibility is exhausted and the economy wanes. With the welfare debate shifting to family and child well-being, sociology has an important policy role to play as the next phase of welfare reform begins after the 2002 reauthoriz...

The Sociology of Intellectuals

Abstract: The sociology of intellectuals has adopted three fundamentally distinct approaches to its subject. The Dreyfusards, Julien Benda, “new class” theorists, and Pierre Bourdieu treated intellectuals as potentially a class-in-themselves, that is, as having interests that distinguish them from other groups in society. Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, and theorists of “authenticity” treated intellectuals as primarily class-bound, that is, representatives of their group of origin. Karl Mannheim, Edward Shils, and Randall Collins treated intellectuals as relatively class-less, that is, able to transcend their group of origin to pursue their own ideals. These approaches divided the field at its founding in the 1920s, during its mid-century peak, and in its late-century revival.

Barking up the Wrong Branch: Scientific Alternatives to the Current Model of Sociological Science

Abstract: A fortiori it is unlikely that a mere repetition of the tricks which served us so well in physics will do for the social phenomena too. (John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern 1944, p. 6) I do not think the relationship between theory and measurement in the social sciences is much like what Kuhn describes for physics. Talcott Parsons was right about the lack of interaction between the two in sociology. If Kuhn is right about the preconditions for such interaction in physics, and if physics is the model for sociology, then it will be a long time before measurement makes an important contribution to sociology as a basic science …. But sociology is not like physics. Nothing but physics is like physics …. (Otis Dudley Duncan 1984, p. 169) ▪ Abstract The standard for what passes as scientific sociology is derived from classical physics, a model of natural science that is totally inappropriate for sociology. As a consequence, we pursue goals and use criteria for success that are harmful and counterproductive. E...

Violence in Social Life

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Two features have marked the sociological analysis of violence: (a) disparate clusters of research on various forms of violence that have been the object of urgent social concern, and relatedly, (b) an overwhelming focus on forms of violence that are socially deviant and motivated by willful malice. The resulting literature is balkanized and disjointed, and yet narrowly focused. The systematic understanding of violence as a broad genus of social behavior has suffered accordingly. I examine the issues that have clouded the analysis of violence: the importance of physical injuries vs. psychological, social, and material injuries; the weight placed on physical vs. verbal and written actions; the role of force vs. victim complicity in the infliction of injuries; and the emphasis on interpersonal vs. corporate agents and victims. That discussion highlights the widely varying forms of violence in social life, including many instances that are neither driven by malicious intent nor socially repudiated...

The Study of Islamic Culture and Politics: An Overview and Assessment

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Among the four major world cultural traditions—Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity—Islam appears to have the most pervasive role in contemporary politics. The vast and varied spectrum of the scholarly works that have addressed this distinctive phenomenon started with a tradition that presumed a conflict between Islam and political modernity, while noting the centrality and universality of the faith for Muslims. This conception runs contrary to the admission of the reality of secular politics in historical Islam. If there is, on the contrary, a congruity between Islam and modernity, one still needs to provide an account of the speecificity of Muslim politics. Addressing this issue, another tradition stressed that because of its very survival into the modern era, the great Islamic tradition can play a significant role in political modernization and nation building. While this argument may be true in the cases of the historical experiences of a number of Islamic countries in the early ...

Financial Markets, Money, and Banking

Abstract: ▪ Abstract The study of financial markets, money, and banking is largely considered the purview of economics. Yet sociologists have contributed greatly to understanding financial relations since the early history of the discipline. This review begins with an overview of classical sociological approaches to financial markets, money, and banking and then describes how research in these areas exploded in recent decades. I describe the current state of research on money, relations among firms and banks, and interlocking directorates. I consider the ways financial relations shape firm behaviors and processes, and I describe the growing body of work that treats financial markets as outcomes. I discuss research on the transformation of financial systems during transition from state socialism, and I conclude with a discussion of a growing literature that combines studies of financial markets and social stratification.

Mathematics in Sociology

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Since mathematical sociology was firmly established in the 1960s, it has grown tremendously. Today it has an impressive scope and deals with topical problems of social structure and social change. A distinctive feature of today's use of mathematics in sociology is the movement toward a synthesis between process, structure, and action. In combination with an increased attention to social mechanisms and the problems of causality and temporality, this synthesis can add to its relevance for sociology in general. The article presents recent advances and major sociological research streams in contemporary sociology that involve the application of mathematics, logic, and computer modeling.

Impact of Choice of Equivalence Scale on Income Inequality and on Poverty Measures

Abstract: The authors present the theoretical bases and the results of an equivalence scale developed recently in the HSO. The paper shows how the income distribution and various measures of income inequality are affected by the choice of the equivalence scale. The authors investigate the impact of this choice on the phenomenon of poverty. According to the authors' opinion no global, generally applicable equivalence scale can be constructed because an appropriate scale is largely determined by the country's special circumstances. In order to change the present Hungarian practice they suggest not only professional, but also political consensus, because the choice of the equivalence scale can be advantageous for certain social groups, while disadvantageous for others.

Social structure and inequalities in old socialism and new capitalism in hungary

Abstract: The structure of state socialism was stifled by totalitarian power yet inequalities persisted. The stratification by the 'character of the work done', a combination of power/authority, knowledge, working conditions etc. was veiled by the official ideology about the near-equality of two 'classes' and about the abolition of poverty. Social inequalities were studied in the 1960s and 1980s in these terms, showing a structure that was shifting upwards in two decades, where social distances decreased in some respects, but where the reproduction of inequalities already started, and the lack of freedom was increasingly keenly felt. The structure of new capitalism seems to be based on capital ownership and the position on the labor market, though the old professional categories still have some validity. The new structure produces much larger inequalities and new forms of poverty. The threat of lasting poverty and exclusion looms large.

SOCIAL OUTCASTS IN 21 st CENTURY HUNGARY

Abstract: Part One of this study summarizes the general view of poverty since the political regime changed, and the practical consequences. The previous regime's denial and hiding of the poverty issue has had several effects. One is that poverty is considered foreign to the system, simply the fallout of economic crisis, and therefore transitional. The belief in its transitional nature has covered up the difference between mass impoverishment and lasting poverty, which always existed, is becoming increasingly serious, and can easily escalate into permanent exclusion. The need to dismantle an overcentralized state is a major reason why the poverty problem has not been understood. Public expenditure can be reduced with little resistance if only those 'who really need it' are assisted. This policy suggests that poverty is 'accidental' and individualized, and that the victims can be blamed. Another, more practical consequence has been the segregating effect of separate institutional poverty management. Institutional ref...

The nature and social determinants of roma poverty - a cross-national comparison

Abstract: This paper is based on data from the survey "Poverty, ethnicity and gender in transitional societies" carried on in 2000 in six Central and East European countries. The paper focuses on three of them (Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania) with a significant Roma minority. The first part presents the recollection of Roma and non-Roma about their poverty experience before 1989, and the second part reviews evidence about the impact of the changes. The situation of the majority of both groups seems to have deteriorated but decrease is much stronger in case of the Roma. The third section offers an overview of cross-national and inter-ethnic differences in living standards in the year 2000. In a cross-national perspective both groups seem to fare better in Hungary than in the other two "neo-patrimonial" systems, but the difference between the Roma and the non-Roma is everywhere significant. The fourth section assesses how various new capitalist countries deal with the challenge of new poverty and under what circumstances - if ever - can one meaningfully apply the concept of the "underclass".

Poverty and exclusion in contemporary hungary

Abstract: The paper analyses multi-dimensional poverty also called exclusion with the help of a large national sample. The paper shows the long-term trends covering three decades of increasing income inequalities, the decade-long decrease and slow upturn of personal incomes, and the changes in various poverty measures. The second part offers an approach to multiple deprivation or exclusion as the simultaneous presence of various aspects of objective and subjective poverty, and gives an account of the situation of the families that may be considered excluded. The third part analyzes the dynamics of poverty as a lifetime and as a shorter-term experience, and also the future expectations of the poor. The conclusion is that there is a small and not very visible group split off the 'first society' that, without public help is condemned to lasting exclusion.

POVERTY IN HUNGARY Using the Concept of the Proportional Deprivation Index

Abstract: The author summarizes the results of employing a new method, the proportional deprivation index (PDI). The novelty of the approach is the weighting of deficits in specific dimensions. The PDI takes two things into account: the lack of living condition components owing to scarcity of resources and the importance people attach to the lack of these items. According to the author's opinion the central components of this new concept may play a part in the empirical analysis of the problem of exclusion vs. integration. On the basis of the comparison of deprivation and income poverty and the analysis of these according to various socio-economic factors the author concludes that the investigations based on disparate concepts have led to very similar results. However, certain dissimilarities are also observable, thus the simultaneous application of the concepts may/will provide a more differentiated and nuanced understanding of poverty and disadvantage.

The Influence of Class Origins and Gender on Life Chances: The Case of Hungary and Top Managerial Positions

Abstract: Since the 1980s there has been an ongoing theoretical debate in the Western literature on the significance of class and gender. The author's aim is to contribute to this debate by testing an empirical aspect previously neglected by researchers: the relative importance of gender compared with that of class. She looked at this aspect in a country in which research on gender is especially scarce: Hungary. The author investigated only one small and specific “slice” of this problem: the relevance of gender and class (measuring the class dimension with class origins) for a person's chances of becoming a top manager in 1993. Her goal was to document and draw attention to the fact that gender proved to be much greater importance from the point of view of live chances than class origins in Hungary. She offesr an explanation for this phenomenon and investigate the intersections of the effects of class origin and gender.

The Poverty of Children

Abstract: The authors investigated the poverty of children by means of a sample covering only the poorest third of the population. Their starting point was that children have special needs that differ from those of adults, and that the degree of satisfaction of those needs determines to a large extent the quality of their life and their future life chances. The results show that within the poor population the children in the most disadvantaged situation are those who live in Budapest, who live in families without an active earner, and the children on of the Roma. The difference between the poverty of children living in the capital and in villages is significant despite the fact that on the national level the income level of the capital is higher than in the villages. Two factors that were expected to be significantly influencing need satisfaction, namely the age of the children and the number of children in the household do not seem to differentiate significantly the poor population. The majority of poor households...

Changes in the Real Estate Market Position of Housing Projects in Budapest after the Political Transformation in 1989

Abstract: The study presents research finding on changes in the property market position of the large housing estates of Budapest. During the last ten years the relative position of large housing estates has been decreasing, even faster, than it had before 1990. This trend was still not big enough to make these flats assailable. The result is, that the status of these housing estates has remained a somewhat middle-class one. The reason is, that the number of newly built flats continues to be very low in Budapest. That is why housing estates remain for certain groups of the middle class to be suitable places for living. When the speed of construction of new housing will higher, some estates will face the danger of falling into slum-situation.