Showing papers in "Review of Sociology in 2005"

Inequality of opportunity in comparative perspective : Recent research on educational attainment and social mobility

Abstract: Studies of how characteristics of the family of origin are associated with educational and labor market outcomes indicate the degree of openness of societies and have a long tradition in sociology. We review research published since 1990 into educational stratification and social (occupational or class) mobility, focusing on the importance of parental socioeconomic circumstances, and with particular emphasis on comparative studies. Large-scale data now available from many countries and several time points have led to more and better descriptions of inequality of opportunity across countries and over time. However, partly owing to problems of comparability of measurement, unambiguous conclusions about trends and ranking of countries have proven elusive. In addition, no strong evidence exists that explains intercountry differences. We conclude that the 1990s witnessed a resurgence of microlevel models, mostly of a rational choice type, that signals an increased interest in moving beyond description in strat...

ASSESSING IMMIGRANT ASSIMILATION: New Empirical and Theoretical Challenges

Abstract: This review examines research on the assimilation of immigrant groups. We review research on four primary benchmarks of assimilation: socioeconomic status, spatial concentration, language assimilation, and intermarriage. The existing literature shows that today's immigrants are largely assimilating into American society along each of these dimensions. This review also considers directions for future research on the assimilation of immigrant groups in new southern and midwestern gateways and how sociologists measure immigrant assimilation. We document the changing geography of immigrant settlement and review the emerging body of research in this area. We argue that examining immigrant assimilation in these new immigrant gateways is crucial for the development of theories about immigrant assimilation. We also argue that we are likely to see a protracted period of immigrant replenishment that may change the nature of assimilation. Studying this change requires sociologists to use both birth cohort and genera...

Emerging Theories of Care Work

Abstract: Care work is done in the home as well as in markets for pay. Five theoretical frameworks have been developed to conceptualize care work; the frameworks sometimes offer competing answers to the same questions, and other times address distinct questions. The “devaluation” perspective argues that care work is badly rewarded because care is associated with women, and often women of color. The “public good” framework points out that care work provides benefits far beyond those to the direct recipient and suggests that the low pay of care work is a special case of the failure of markets to reward public goods. The “prisoner of love” framework argues that the intrinsic caring motives of care workers allow employers to more easily get away with paying care workers less. Instead of seeing the emotional satisfactions of giving care as its own reward, the “commodification of emotion” framework focuses on emotional harm to workers when they have to sell services that use an intimate part of themselves. The “love and ...

White Racial and Ethnic Identity in the United States

Abstract: This review examines research on white racial and ethnic identity, paying special attention to developments in whiteness studies during the past decade. Although sociologists have long focused on white ethnic identity, considerations of white racial identity are more recent. White racial identity is commonly portrayed as a default racial category, an invisible yet privileged identity formed by centuries of oppression of nonwhite groups. Whiteness has become synonymous with privilege in much scholarly writing, although recent empirical work strives to consider white racial identity as a complex, situated identity rather than a monolithic one. The study of white racial identity can greatly benefit from moving away from simply naming whiteness as an overlooked, privileged identity and by paying closer attention to empirical studies of racial and ethnic identity by those studying social movements, ethnic identity, and social psychology.

The Social Psychology of Health Disparities

Abstract: In recent years, scholars from a variety of disciplines have turned to the potential psychosocial determinants of health in pursuit of an explanation for socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities. This review discusses the literature on psychosocial factors and mental and physical health, focusing on the roles of subjective status, self/identity, and perceived discrimination. We argue that current research may have obscured important social psychological considerations and that it is an opportune time to reconsider the social psychology of disparities. A social psychology of disparities could provide a bridge between those who encourage research on health's “upstream” causes and those who encourage research on “downstream” mechanisms precisely because social psychology is concerned with the vast “meso” level of analysis that many allude to but few explicitly traverse. We point to the importance of person-environment interactions, contingencies, reciprocality, and meaning. Although psychosocial factors m...

New Directions in Corporate Governance

Abstract: Corporate governance describes the structures, processes, and institutions within and around organizations that allocate power and resource control among participants. Law and economics scholars have developed a view of the public corporation as a nexus-of-contracts whose structure is driven by the requirements of financial markets, and thus features of the corporation and its surrounding institutions are theorized in terms of their function in directing corporations toward share price as a criterion of value. Working from this base, more recent research has studied historical and cross-national variation in governance institutions, producing highly varied interpretations of their sources and function. Sociological work, particularly within organization theory, has critiqued this functionalist view and provided alternative interpretations based on networks, power, and culture. The most promising contemporary work seeks to analyze governance in terms of the dynamics of institutions—where they originate, ho...

Macrostructural Analyses of Race, Ethnicity, and Violent Crime: Recent Lessons and New Directions for Research

Abstract: In 1995, Sampson & Wilson assessed the state of knowledge on race and violence and set forth an approach for future research. We review macrostructural analyses of race, ethnicity, and violent crime since 1995 to evaluate progress in explaining inequality in criminal violence across racial and ethnic groups. Among the important advances are studies that attempt to gain insights from explicit comparisons of racially distinct but structurally similar communities, expansion of work beyond the black-white divide, and incorporation of macrostructural factors into multilevel models of racial/ethnic differences in violence. Yet, progress is limited in all these directions, and additional questions remain. Thus, we offer a perspective and suggestions for future research that will expand knowledge on this important topic.

Black middle-class neighborhoods

Abstract: The black middle class received little scholarly attention from the 1960s through the 1980s, when the emphasis was on studying the black urban poor. Recently, however, there has been an increase in attention to this group and their residential environs. This review covers the topics of racial and class segregation, the comparative well-being of black middle-class neighborhoods, and residential preferences, with some attention to black suburbanization and black gentrification. Research findings clearly show that middle-class blacks in the United States have more favorable residential outcomes than poor blacks but still live in poorer neighborhoods than the majority of whites on all measures. Ethnographic studies explore this marginal position in more depth. I argue that if racial integration is the remedy to various racial disparities, then the more fruitful endeavor may be to study the ideologies, practices, and cultures of white neighborhoods, rather than black ones.

Emerging Inequalities in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract: Market transitions are thought to inevitably produce spiraling inequality on the road to economic growth. This review provides an overview of research evaluating inequality in income and wages in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. The empirical studies agree that inequality has increased, but disagree about the amount, pace, source, and explanation of change. Patterns of inequality are unrelated to economic performance, to the pace or timing of reform, or to rates of subsequent growth. Inequality increased the most in the least successful countries and the least in those countries with historic cultural connections to the West. Inequalities by age, education, region of the country, and health status increased; differences by gender appear to have declined. Although data are plentiful and promising, it is not yet possible to conclude that patterns of inequality among postcommunist countries are due to the genesis of capitalism, to social and cultural assimilation to the West, to adaptations of redistri...

The Social Consequences of Structural Adjustment: Recent Evidence and Current Debates

Abstract: Thirty years ago, intellectual debates concerning the relationship between wealthy and poor nations could be summed up under the rubric of modernization versus dependency. However, the events of the 1980s and 1990s completely shifted the terms of this debate. Associated with the structural adjustment lending programs of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and neoliberal ideology, a new policy discourse suggested that it was only through liberating market forces that poor countries could grow and catch up to the developed world. With 20 years of structural adjustment behind us, what does the evidence suggest about the social consequences of these policies? This review focuses on three different social transformations: changes in the governance of economies, transformations in class structures, and the rise of transnational networks.

Reading and the Reading Class in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract: Sociological research on reading, which formerly focused on literacy, now conceptualizes reading as a social practice. This review examines the current state of knowledge on (a) who reads, i.e., the demographic characteristics of readers; (b) how they read, i.e., reading as a form of social practice; (c) how reading relates to electronic media, especially television and the Internet; and (d) the future of reading. We conclude that a reading class is emerging, restricted in size but disproportionate in influence, and that the Internet is facilitating this development.

Multiethnic Cities in North America

Abstract: The growing Hispanic and Asian populations in most major North American cities have drastically transformed the urban demographic landscape to become racially and ethnically diversified. We review literature on multiethnic cities by focusing on three important aspects of urban structures and processes: racial and ethnic residential patterns, ethnic businesses, and the performance of racial and ethnic groups in the labor market. Although the literature has identified many factors that shape these urban structures and processes, our discussion specifically focuses on the effects of multigroup contexts on urban structures and processes. We focus and compare four major racial and ethnic groups: whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Specific ethnic subgroups of all four groups are also discussed.

Doing Justice to the Group: Examining the Roles of the Group in Justice Research

Abstract: Although the abstract notion of justice implies attention to fairness not simply for one individual but for many, emphasis on how individuals perceive and react to injustice obscures the role of the group in justice research. Justice, as distinct from individual deserving, holds promise for the well-being of the group. Indeed, the group plays multiple roles in justice research, as a collective standard, a structure in which evaluations occur, a source of identity, and a context of interaction. Analyses of these roles help to explain underlying orientations of group members, delimiting the scope of justice in groups and the implications of justice in conflict situations. This review concludes with directions for future research that more explicitly draw attention to the rightful role of the group in understanding justice in society.

Affirmative Action at School and on the Job

Abstract: Affirmative action (AA) addresses individuals' exclusion from opportunities based on group membership by taking into account race, sex, ethnicity, and other characteristics. This chapter reviews sociological, economic, historical, and legal scholarship on AA. We first consider the emergence of group-based remedies, how protected groups are defined, and proportional representation as a standard for inclusion. We then summarize the research on AA in education (including busing) and in employment. The concluding section reviews societal responses to AA, including attitudes, challenges, and political responses. As public and judicial support for AA has waned, employers and educators have increasingly turned toward diversity as a rationale for including underrepresented groups. Despite this change, many employers and educators continue to take positive steps to include minorities and women.

The sociology of James S. Coleman

Abstract: This chapter surveys the career and scholarship of James S. Coleman. It tracks scholarly usage of his work, with attention to references after 1995 and the subject areas in which its use is concentrated. At base a scholar of problems in social organization, Coleman made influential contributions that range across the sociology of education, policy research, mathematical sociology, network/structural analysis, and sociological theory. Works from several phases of Coleman's career are cited widely by scholars in sociology, education, economics, business/management, and other social science fields; during the past decade his conceptual work on social capital has been most influential. Coleman's widely debated Foundations of Social Theory is receiving increasing attention and has helped to establish a stable if limited niche for rational choice analysis within sociology.

An experimental analysis of network segregation and intergroup conflict

Abstract: Dense in-group and scarce out-group relations (network segregation) often support the emergence of conflicts between groups. A key underlying mechanism is social control that helps to overcome the collective action problem within groups, but contributes to harmful conflicts among them in segregated settings. In this study, a new experimental design is introduced to test whether internalized social control affects contribution decisions in intergroup-related collective action. Subjects played single-shot Intergroup Public Good games in two groups of five each without communication. Subjects were connected via computers and connection patterns were manipulated to detect forms of social control that are activated conditional on expectations and on the composition of the artificially created ego-network. Results confirm the influence of behavioral confirmation and the conditional impact of internalized traitor and selective incentives. As an aggregated consequence of these social control effects, harmful inte...

The Nature and Social Determinants of Roma Poverty

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 tow “neo-patrimonial” systems, but the difference between the Roma and the non-Roma is everywhere significant. The fourth session assesses how various new capitalist countries deal with the challenge of new poverty and under what circumstan...

Poverty in Hungary

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 concepts 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.

Formal and informal cooperation in hungarian condominiums

Abstract: Human interaction breeds conflicts and unresolved problems, which fortunately provide food for social sciences. One particular field of research, however, the theory of collective action, is concerned with the question of how people behave and act in groups when pursuing their common goals, how collective action for a collective good, that is cooperation, can - or cannot - take place. Groups are understood here, not necessarily only as political or interest groups and organizations - originally assumed by the founders of group theories in economic sociology and political science, but any social groups of individuals whose members share a common interest. This kind of broadening the scope of groups allowed the author to apply the analytical devices of the theory of collective action in a particular case, never before examined in this way. Thus the author selected the Hungarian residential condominiums, which could be regarded as communities "governing the commons" on the one hand, and groups of individuals who are part of an organization with common interests and goals on the other. In both aspects, in order to pursue their common goals they have to act collectively and to reach them successfully they have to cooperate - either formally or informally - with each other. Based on theoretical and empirical findings, the author introduced and controlled for various external (e.g. condominium regulation, political entrepreneur) and internal factors (e.g. trust and social capital) which had an influence on condominium communities' cooperative behavior.

From Elites to Nomenklatura : The Evolution and Some Characteristics of Institutionalised Cadre Policy in Hungary (1945-1989)

Abstract: Based on empirical research the paper summarizes the social and institutional characteristics of the birth and reproduction of the Hungarian nomenklatura system. The research included the reconstruction of the decision making system, and the documents of recruitment. Moreover interviews were conducted with several top officials of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party. The paper argues that although there was a chance to form new elite after World War II., it did not happen because of the infiltration of the Communist Party into the repressive organizations. The take-over of power led to the formation of a nomenklatura. The paper overviews the impact of the nomenklatura-system on the working of central institutions, the academic world and civil organizations. It investigates the documents dealing with the composition of the nomenklaktura and the privileges of its members.

The Role of Trust in Local Economic Relations

Abstract: The study presents the characteristics of “trust economy” based on the findings of interviews conducted among countryside small entrepreneurs. There are three aspects of the issue of trust discussed: The use of written records in entrepreneurial contracts, the interdepedency of networks and trust, and the attitude of small entrepreneurs towards banks. Even the written contract does not provide guarantee for the case when the business partner should violate a contract in an economic situation considered as uncertain. They do not trust the administration of justice and/or regard it as low efficiency organizations. The entrepreneurs who know each other very well and belong to the same network are the members of social relations defined by Coleman as closed social structure. Inside that entrepreneurial circle where members are within social sight, giving on credit and money lending is general practice and the agreement on that is often only verbal. The attitude of this group towards banks is negative. The exp...

Relative Resource or Available Time

Abstract: The factors that explain the unequal contributions to housework by husband and wife have been repeatedly analyzed in the field of research into family. A few plausible models have been proposed, among which the relative resource model, available time model, ideology/gender model and necessity model have been mainly discussed. In this paper, taking the difference in contribution between husband and wife in Japan, rather than their individual contribution, as the response variable, those models are validated through the detailed interpretations of the estimated result of several statistical models. As a result, the relative resource model is found to have the most explanatory power regarding the division of labor among Japanese couples.

Problems of Clientelism and Corruption in Poland

Abstract: Corruption is linked with the issue of clientelism. This establishes a wide understanding of that phenomenon. This wide context and understanding of corruption is simplified by the recognition of the patron-client system, accompanying corruption or even identified with it. Clientelism may be of personal or mass character, and consists of mutual provision of services, without the need to lay out funds for achieving common goals. Socio-economic transformation as profound and thorough reform of the system and institutions promotes corruption practices (the process of transfer of resources from public to private sector progressed swiftly). Clientelism is linked with the phenomenon of crony capitalism, which is treated as synonymous to corruption or favoring corruption. Corruption provides a means for maintaining and the development of client networks. Patron-client relations are of secondary nature in some societies; in other societies they substantially influence the shape of the political and economic system, as well as social structure. Such relations may transgress the borders between classes, professional groups, organizations, family relations. Where liberal-democratic parliamentarism coincides with the absence of an educated civil society, the civil service of the state, the domination of political parties and pressure groups is present, which favor clientelistic corruption, influencing the development of private sector and formation of capital. Political parties distribute and decide upon thousands of positions. They organize their own client communities. Still, typical clientelistic societies are rather not common. If they were, in the long run they would cause loss of the competitive edge of the economy on the global market. The dynamics of economy indicates that the factors which paralyze economic development have not dominated the economic system in Poland as yet, and that system maintains its autonomy. This does not imply, however, the activation of long-term growth factors and the elimination of what is called lost opportunity costs in the economy.

Game Theoretic Explanation for Absence of Occurrence of Public Goods

Abstract: We often face the fact nowadays in our environment that certain public institutions and services perform poorly. The daily press is full of complaints about the abysmal quality of public services; we all feel the decay of our environment. Numerous explanations of various scientific approaches were created to resolve these phenomena. In the following, we shall give a rather simple explanation of the above phenomena, an argument based on the principle of rational decisions, with the apparatus of game theory. The undermentioned explanation is very simple but the author considers that it gives an acceptable explanation for the problem. In the article, we shall first review the key concepts of the subject, we shall become conversant with the problems of public goods; then by means of a very simple game theory apparatus we shall realize that if the members of the community are supposed to follow their own interests, the occurrence of public goods by necessity fails and the existing goods start to deteriorate.

Rethinking Public Sphere in the Age of Globalization

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to rethink public sphere in the age of globalization by examining the dialogue between Fraser and Honneth [Fraser, N. & Honneth, A. 2003]. Firstly, this paper examines Fraser's “the political” and Honneth's “moral sensitivity” and “cooperation”, and secondly compare these concepts. In conclusion, this paper inidicate “participation parity” and “solidarity” as key concepts to take part in political dicision-making.

The kabyle paradigm

Abstract: The Algerian experience was very important in the formation of Bourdieu's social theory. The recently published fragments of an autobiography and L. Addi's analysis of Bourdieu's anthropological theory allow a more detailed evaluation of the contribution of Kabyle ethnology to the Bourdieusian conceptualization of the society. The concepts of habitus and social capital both have their origin in the analysis of Kabyle peasant economy while they are central to the examination of the reproduction of modern French society. In this way, Bourdieu reduces the differences of modern and archaic society. This difference was constitutive of classical social theory. Bourdieu's social theory shares the 'timelessness' of much modern social theory, including that of Parsons.

How can ‘Now and So’ be Now and So?

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to consider how ‘Now and So’ can be now and so. The theory of social systems as a second order observer observes the phase ‘Now and So’ in system time of a first order observer because it is always a blind spot for the first order observer.For this purpose, (1) I will formulate the theory of social systems by Niklas Luhmann as “Sociological Phenomenology”: Parallel to consciousnesses, social systems are observed not as things but as subjects in the world. However, (2) contrary to phenomenological sociology, I start not from ‘the problem of meaning is a problem of time’ but from ‘the problem of time is a problem of meaning’. This means that system time is a meaningful construction. Finally, (3) I show that the phase ‘Now and So’ can be now and so through the distinction of past/future. In whole system time, an event as an element of the system can appear and disappear in the present.

The Formation of a Sovereign State from the Perspective of Transnational Migration

Abstract: Many scholars have conventionally posited a notion of sovereignty against transnational migration. This binary assumption has remained untouched until today. Such an understanding, however, produces a problem; migrants cannot be anything but a group of people under the surveillance of a nation-state. This becomes problematic especially today when a sense of crisis in some nation states leads to a nationalism that targets foreign migrants. Thus what is needed is to reconsider the intact dichotomy between sovereignty and transnational migration. For this purpose, this paper attempts to redefine sovereignty from a perspective of transnational migration, revealing how national sovereignty has been in fact transnationally constituted. In order to substantiate the argument, the paper examines the particular case of Chinese migration to the U.S. in the late nineteenth century.

運動イデオロギーとしての〈「習熟度別」批判〉

Abstract: By examining criticism of ability grouping in teaching English in the teachers' movement, this paper investigates issues how participants who are teachers in junior high schools act and how leaders maintain movement organization in a situation in which there is a discrepancy between the problems participants see on a daily basis in their schools and the goals of the movement. We find that criticism of ability grouping as a movement principle was formed in the early 1960's and this movement principle inspired participant support of the movement meaning that “amplification of approval” and “integration resulted.”