Showing papers in "Social Forces in 1997"
TL;DR: The Morphogenetic Cycle: the basis of the morphogenetic approach 7. Structural and cultural conditioning 8. The morphogenesis of agency 9. Social elaboration.
Abstract: Building on her seminal contribution to social theory in Culture and Agency, in this 1995 book Margaret Archer develops her morphogenetic approach, applying it to the problem of structure and agency. Since structure and agency constitute different levels of stratified social reality, each possesses distinctive emergent properties which are real and causally efficacious but irreducible to one another. The problem, therefore, is shown to be how to link the two rather than conflate them, as has been common theoretical practice. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world. The morphogenetic approach is the sociological complement of transcendental realism, and together they provide a basis for non-conflationary theorizing which is also of direct utility to the practising social analyst.
2,843 citations
1,233 citations
682 citations
TL;DR: Memory is often embodied in objects, such as memorials, texts, talismans, images as mentioned in this paper, which are often perceived to contain memory within them or indeed to be synonymous with memory.
Abstract: Memory is often embodied in objects--memorials, texts, talismans, images. Though one could argue that such artifacts operate to prompt remembrance, they are often perceived actually to contain memory within them or indeed to be synonymous with memory. No object is more equated with memory than the camera image, in particular the photograph. Memory appears to reside within the photographic image, to tell its story in response to our gaze.
545 citations
TL;DR: Gutmann as mentioned in this paper presents a study of machismo in Mexico City, showing how Mexican men see themselves, parent their children, relate to women, and talk about sex, and how they relate to each other.
Abstract: In this compelling study of machismo in Mexico City, Matthew Gutmann overturns many stereotypes of male culture in Mexico and offers a sensitive and often surprising look at how Mexican men see themselves, parent their children, relate to women, and talk about sex. This tenth anniversary edition features a new preface that updates the stories of the book's key protagonists.
530 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the role of violent crime and socioeconomic disadvantage in triggering population decline in Chicago neighborhoods from 1970 to 1990 and found that high initial levels of homicide and increases over time in the spatial proximity to homicide were associated with large losses in total population across 826 census tracts.
Abstract: Integrating ecological, demographic, and criminological theory, this article examines the role of violent crime and socioeconomic disadvantage in triggering population decline in Chicago neighborhoods from 1970 to 1990. The results show that high initial levels of homicide and increases over time in the spatial proximity to homicide were associated with large losses in total population across 826 census tracts. However, the authors also observe sharp group differences in patterns for black and white. Although both black and white populations declined in response to high initial levels of homicide and socioeconomic disadvantage, increases in neighborhood homicide, spatial proximity to homicide, and socioeconomic disadvantage were associated with black population gain and white population loss. In discussing these findings, they argue that taking violent crime and spatial processes into account resolves the apparent contradiction between W. J. Wilson's depopulation hypothesis and D. S. Massey's segregation hypothesis on the increasing concentration of urban poverty
498 citations
TL;DR: Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSSY), this article examined the processes by which students enter lucrative fields of study, selective colleges and lucrative fields within selective colleges, and found that males are much more likely to enter fields with higher economic returns than are females, while socioeconomic factors do not affect chances of entry into lucrative fields net of other background factors.
Abstract: Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth the authors examine processes by which students enter lucrative fields of study, selective colleges and lucrative fields within selective colleges. They code fields by their graduates' average monthly income and use average incoming student's SAT scores to measure selectivity. They find that : (1) males are much more likely to enter fields of study with higher economic returns than are females; (2) socioeconomic factors do not affect chances of entry into lucrative fields net of other background factors, but SES predicts entry into selective colleges and lucrative fields within selective colleges; (3) measured academic ability is an important predictor for all dependent variables
481 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effects on national homicide rates of political efforts to insulate personal well-being from market forces and found that the degree of decommodification is negatively related to homicide rates, net of controls for other characteristics of nations.
Abstract: This article examines the effects on national homicide rates of political efforts to insulate personal well-being from market forces. Drawing upon recent work by EspingAndersen and the institutional-anomie theory of crime, we hypothesize that levels of homicide will vary inversely with the "decommodification of labor." We develop a measure of decommodification based on levels and patterns of welfare expenditures and include this measure in a multivariate, cross-national analysis of homicide rates. The results support our hypothesis and lend credibility to the institutional-anomie perspective. The degree of decommodification is negatively related to homicide rates, net of controls for other characteristics of nations. Interest in explaining differences among nations in rates of crime and violence is as old as the sociology of crime itself. The quantitative measurement of these differences by the nineteenth-century moral statisticians Quetelet and Guerry marks the beginning of scientific criminological inquiry (Beirne 1993). Marx also refers to national crime data in the course of developing his critique of the inherent flaws of capitalism. "There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system," Marx (1859) writes, "which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery, and increases in crimes even more rapidly
428 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make use of a large sample of data taken from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, to examine the effects of various measures of financial, human and social capital on the likelihood of dropping out of school.
Abstract: We make use of a large sample of data taken from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, to examine the effects of various measures of financial, human and social capital on the likelihood of dropping out of school. We test whether social capital mediates the effect of parental financial and human capital on leaving school. The findings indicate that both more general measures of social capital (attending a Catholic school, family structure) and more specific measures of social capital (parentchild and parent-school interaction) are related to dropping out of high school. The findings also indicate that social capital interacts with the financial and human capital of parents to determine school continuation. In reaction to the influence of economic theory on sociological thought, Coleman (1988) argues that the well-known concepts of financial and human capital (cf., Becker 1964, 1991) should be supplemented by the concept of social capital when attempting to explain human action. Coleman bases his argument on the selfevident fact that persons' actions are shaped by social context and not simply by the financial and human resources available to them. In this article, we test Coleman's argument by making use of a large sample of data taken from the National Educational Longitudinal Study to evaluate the joint impact of financial, human, and social capital on the creation of human capital in the next generation. In addition, we move beyond the simple consideration of the marginal effect of social capital by seeking to determine whether social capital
411 citations
TL;DR: Li et al. as mentioned in this paper found that despite the differences in labor market contexts in China and Singapore, survey data reveal that in both countries jobs are channeled through strong ties more frequently than through weak ties and when job changers and their ultimate helpers are unconnected, they tend to be bridged through intermediaries to whom both are strongly or moderately rather than weakly tied.
Abstract: Despite the differences in labor market contexts in China and Singapore, survey data reveal that in both countries jobs are channeled through strong ties more frequently than through weak ties. Moreover, when job changers and their ultimate helpers are unconnected, they tend to be bridged through intermediaries to whom both are strongly or moderately rather than weakly tied. Finally, helpers' job status has positive impacts on job changers' attained job status. The authors consider guanxi networks of exchange relations common to China and Singapore to account for these findings
TL;DR: The authors argues that sociology's major current problems are intellectual, and traces these problems to the exhaustion of the current variables paradigm and considers the Chicago School's contextualist paradigm as an alternative.
Abstract: This essay argues that sociology's major current problems are intellectual. It traces these problems to the exhaustion of the current variables paradigm and considers the Chicago School's contextualist paradigm as an alternative. Examples of new methodologies founded on contextual thinking are considered
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that a new tactic of protest, the shantytown, spread rapidly among U.S. campuses between 1985 and 1990, and that the tactic spread among colleges and universities with similar size endowments, of roughly the same level of prestige and of the same institutional type.
Abstract: A recent trend in the literature on social movements is the focus on how social movement organizations influence not only their challengers but also other social movement organizations, both in other movements and movements in diffrent countries. This article shows how diffusion theory helps us to better understand this process by specifing ways in which social movement organizations within the same movement may influence one another through indirect network ties. More specifically, I show that a new tactic of protest, the shantytown, spread rapidly among U.S. campuses between 1985 and 1990. Recent advances in the modeling of diffusion in an event historyframework allow me to testfor the diffsion of this innovative strategy of protest among certain groupings of colleges and universities. Specifically, my results indicate that the tactic spread among colleges and universities with similar size endowments, of roughly the same level of prestige, and of the same institutional type. My analysis also indicates that high prestige, liberal arts colleges with smaller numbers of Afican American students had higher rates of shantytown protest.
TL;DR: The Agony of Education as mentioned in this paper is about the life experience of African American students attending a historically white university, and it is based on interviews conducted with black students and parents concerning their experiences with one state university, as well as published and unpublished studies of the black experience at state universities at large.
Abstract: The Agony of Education is about the life experience of African American students attending a historically white university. Based on seventy-seven interviews conducted with black students and parents concerning their experiences with one state university, as well as published and unpublished studies of the black experience at state universities at large, this study captures the painful choices and agonizing dilemmas at the heart of the decisions African Americans must make about higher education.
TL;DR: This paper proposed a broader mortality framework that includes neighborhood characteristics, finding that the concentration of African Americans in the neighborhood of residence in addition to individual socioeconomic status fully account for differential mortality between African American and non-Hispanic white men and women.
Abstract: Ethnic gaps in mortality persist in the United States but the specific causes remain elusive. We propose a broader mortality framework that includes neighborhood characteristics....The concentration of African Americans in the neighborhood of residence in addition to individual socioeconomic status fully account for differential mortality between African American and non-Hispanic white men and women. For Mexican Americans the concentration of Hispanics in the neighborhood slightly enhances their significant mortality advantage. From additional analyses it appears that the pathway between residential segregation and mortality is routed through poorer neighborhood economic conditions for men and high levels of female headship in segregated neighborhoods for women. (EXCERPT)
TL;DR: The authors examined the theoretical links between socioeconomic status and violent delinquency and concluded that violent adolescent behavior is a product of learning definitions favorable to violence, which itself is determined directly and indirectly by association with aggressive peers, socioeconomic status, parenting practices, and prior violent delinquencies.
Abstract: This article examines the theoretical links between socioeconomic status and violent delinquency. The arguments draw on work on social structure and personality and learning theories of crime and delinquency. Hypotheses derived from the resulting explanation are tested using covariance structure models and panel data from a national sample of males. Consistent with these arguments, the results show that violent delinquency is a product of learning definitions favorable to violence, which itself is determined directly and indirectly by association with aggressive peers, socioeconomic status, parenting practices, and prior violent delinquency. The article concludes that explanations of violent adolescent behavior must take into account the joint contributions of social stratification and culture.
TL;DR: This paper examined the socioeconomic and demographic correlates that are associated with whether biracial children with an Asian parent are racially identified with their Asian parent or with their non-Asian parent and found empirical evidence in support of the theoretical proposition that both assimilation and awareness of Asian heritage affect the racial identification of children with a non-Asian parent.
Abstract: This article examines the socioeconomic and demographic correlates that are associated with whether biracial children with an Asian parent are racially identified with their Asian parent or with their non-Asian parent. With data extracted from the 5-percent Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) of the 1990 census, the authors take into account explanatory variables at three levels : the child's characteristics, the parents' characteristics, and the locale's racial composition. The results indicate that the racial identification of biracial children with an Asian parent is to a large extent an arbitrary option within today's prevailing racial classification scheme. The authors find empirical evidence in support of the theoretical proposition that both assimilation and awareness of Asian heritage affect the racial identification of biracial children with an Asian parent
TL;DR: The authors found that higher-status occupations volunteer more than others in each sector, and that public sector workers volunteer the most among all occupation groups in the United States, especially among the better educated, a result of the civic skills provided.
Abstract: The impact of work on social life is a major concern of sociologists. Marx and Durkheim both believed that jobs have consequences for workers' lives outside the workplace, and subsequent research byKohn, Wilensky, and others confirms that complex and self-directedjobs encourage social participation. We use this "spillover" theory to predict volunteering among respondents to the Americans' Changing Lives survey (1986-89). Occupational self-direction increases volunteering, especially among the better educated, a result of the civic skills provided. Net of self-direction, situs and occupational differences in volunteering are alsofound. Public sector workers volunteer the most. Within each sector, higher-status occupations volunteer more. The results suggest that, ifpriority is to be given to maintaining a volunteer laborpool, it would be unwise to ignore social trends limiting occupational self-direction at work or reducing the size of the public sector. Sociologists have long been concerned with the impact of work and work organizations on social life. Marx argued that capitalist relations of production, and the labor process demanded by them, have powerfil consequences for workers'
TL;DR: The Social Justice and Political Change (SJP) survey as mentioned in this paper investigated public opinion in seven newly emerging post-Communist countries and five of the world's most influential capitalist democracies, with special sensitivity to divergencies in the newly united Germany.
Abstract: Analysis and debate about economic and political justice rarely involves research on the views of the common person. Scholars often make assumptions about what common people think is fair, but for the most part they confine their thinking to a single country and argue on rational or moral grounds, with little supporting empirical data. "Social Justice and Political Change", involves the collaboration of thirty social scientists in twelve countries, and represents broad-ranging comparative research.The book grows out of a collaborative study of public opinion about social justice. Though conceived prior to the revolutions that swept Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, the ISJP did not put its survey into the field until the summer of 1991, in a new climate of open international exchange in social research. Employing common methods of data collection and, within the limits of translation, identical survey instruments, the ISJP investigated public opinion in seven newly emerging post-Communist countries and five of the world's most influential capitalist democracies, with special sensitivity to divergencies in the newly united Germany.Among the themes addressed by the volume's distinguished contributors are the views and beliefs of citizens in the post-Communist states on the transition to market economies and parliamentary democracy; the role of ideology in legitimating inequality; the structural determination of beliefs about justice; the processes that shape individual level evaluations; and the major implications of public opinion and mass participation in the democratic process.
TL;DR: This article used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to test the hypothesis that young adults employed in what dual labor market theory describes as "secondary sector jobs" are more likely to engage in crime than those in more stable jobs.
Abstract: This article uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to test the hypothesis that young adults employed in what dual labor market theory describes as "secondary sector jobs" are more likely to engage in crime than those in more stable jobs. The results indicate that time out of the labor force is positively related to criminal involvement, and that when workers expect their current employment to be of longer duration, they are less likely to engage in crime. We also find that the interaction between the amount of time that workers spend out of the labor force and the labor market participation rate of the population in their county of residence is significantly related to criminality.
TL;DR: This article used information from insider documents from Conservative Protestant communities to elaborate the structure of Conservative Protestant antagonism to pornography and demonstrate how Conservative Protestants' distinctive religious commitments direct their dispositions toward sexually explicit materials.
Abstract: Research on social movements has once again come to focus on the cultural foundations of collective action. However, previous works have failed to identify the cognitive structures that compose cultural worldviews believed to motivate collective action. The authors integrate D. A. Snow et al.'s notions of cognitive frameworks with W. H. Sewell's conception of the duality of structure to piece together a flexible approach for the identification of cognitive structures. Drawing on information from insider documents from Conservative Protestant communities, the authors employ this approach to elaborate the structure of Conservative Protestant antagonism to pornography. Using data from the 1988 General Social Survey, they demonstrate how Conservative Protestants' distinctive religious commitments direct their dispositions toward sexually explicit materials. In brief, they show that Conservative Protestant opposition to pornography is rooted in commitments to Biblical inerrancy and solidified by high rates of religious participation. Inerrancy serves as a cognitive resource informing two separate paths to pornography opposition : moral absolutism and beliefs in the threat of social contamination
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that during the 1978-1992 period, U.S. immigration and drug enforcement policies and practices in the United States-Mexico border region became increasingly militarized.
Abstract: This monograph argues that during the 1978-1992 period, U.S. immigration and drug enforcement policies and practices in the U.S.-Mexico border region became increasingly militarized. Tim Dunn examines these policies and practices in detail, and considers them in light of the strategy and tactics of the Pentagon doctrine of \"low-intensity conflict.\" Developed during the 1980s for use in Central America and elsewhere, this doctrine is characterized by broad-ranging provisions for establishing social control over specific civilian populations, and its implementation has often been accompanied by widespread human-rights violations. The study reflects a deep concern for human-rights conditions in the U.S.-Mexico border region - which has a troubled history in that regard - and is informed by the belief that the \"official\" story is usually but one version of events and should never be accepted uncritically.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a theory that shows how the emotional reactions of group members mediate the influence produced by power and the consequences when power and influence are opposed within a single relationship.
Abstract: Frequently social theorists conflate power and influence; often subsuming influence under a broad conception ofpower. Two contemporary theories separate them. Elementary theory has investigatedpower, status characteristics and expectations states theory has investigated interpersonal influence, and neither theory has considered the phenomenon of the other. We use the two theories to explain howpowerproduces influence and how influence produces power. We develop a theory that shows how the emotional reactions ofgroup members mediate the influence produced by power. We examine some new data and hypothesize that influence produces power. We trace the consequences when power and influence are opposed within a single relationship. Implications outside the limitations of the laboratory are discussed along with new hypotheses to be tested. Conceptions of power and influence are fundamental to the understanding of society. Consider the ways in which power and influence can occur in a social situation. A successful executive with a legendary work ethic asks a salaried employee to stay late to complete an important proposal. The employee agrees and cancels her plans for the evening. We would say that the executive used her influence to convince the employee to stay. Or, the exchange could have been more direct. The executive might have told the employee that if she stayed late, the executive would recommend her promotion. The executive has offered a reward in exchange for the employee's compliance (and implied a threat if she failed to comply). We would say that the
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the causes of the adoption of downsizing programs among Fortune 100 firms from 1979 to 1994 and showed that downsizing is affected by variables measuring crises and decisive events associated with the new capitalism.
Abstract: Since a new capitalism dominates economic life in America, we need to explain the development of the new economy's features. Although such work has begun, a core feature of the economy, downsizing has been understudied, even though this phenomenon has eliminated some ten million U.S. jobs and generally has had negative human and organizational effects. In particular little effort has been made to explore why firms downsize in the first place. Therefore, in this article the author examines the causes of the adoption of downsizing programs among Fortune 100 firms from 1979 to 1994. The author shows that downsizings are affected by variables measuring crises and decisive events (associated with the new capitalism) - shareholder values, foreign consolidations, market share, productivity, employee compensation, deregulation, and business peaks; by institutional forces - the adoption effect and industry culture; and by firm traits - ownership status and firm size. The author also distinguishes between economically oriented and socially oriented organizational action in addressing the rationality of downsizers
TL;DR: In this article, data from the 1990 U.S. Census of Population were used to assess the earnings attainment of male African immigrants their Caribbean-born counterparts and native-born African Americans and found that although Africans earn more than both Caribbean immigrants and nativeborn blacks controlling for relevant earnings-related endowments erases the African advantage and elevates Caribbean earnings above those of the other two groups.
Abstract: Data from the 1990 [U.S.] Census of Population are used to assess the earnings attainment of male African immigrants their Caribbean-born counterparts and native-born African Americans. Although Africans earn more than both Caribbean immigrants and native-born blacks controlling for relevant earnings-related endowments erases the African advantage and elevates Caribbean earnings above those of the other two groups. The findings also trace a substantial African (but not Caribbean) disadvantage wherein university degree holders particularly those with degrees earned abroad receive little if any reward for their degrees. Implications of the findings are discussed. (EXCERPT)
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between religious homogeneity and suicide rates using 1980 data on 296 SMSAs and found that the relationship is inversely associated with suicide rates; its estimated effects are greater than those of the other religious variables that are widely used in studies of suicide -percent Catholic and church member rates -and they persist despite controls for established covariates of suicide rates.
Abstract: Numerous studies have examined the relationships between religious factors and aggregate suicide rates with inconsistent findings. We extend research on this topic by focusing on an overlooked variable: religious homogeneity or the extent to which community residents adhere to a single religion or a small number of faiths. After developing a series of arguments linking religious homogeneity with lower suicide rates we investigate this relationship using 1980 data on 296 SMSAs. As hypothesized religious homogeneity is inversely associated with suicide rates; its estimated effects are greater than those of the other religious variables that are widely used in studies of suicide -percent Catholic and church member rates -- and they persist despite controls for established covariates of suicide rates. On closer inspection we find regional differences in the apparent influence of religious homogeneity. Protective effects are strongest in the SMSAs of the Northeast and they also surface in the South while they are weaker in other areas of the US. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings and by outlining a number of fruitful directions for future research on the religion-suicide connection. (authors)
TL;DR: This article found that women perform two to three times as much housework as their husbands or cohabiting partners, but the explanation for this gender inequity in the home is not well understood.
Abstract: Research consistently documents that women do most of the housework and childcare within thefamily, but the explanation for gender inequity within the home is not well understood. One explanation focuses on the distribution of structural resources by gender, which in turn influences the division of household labor. Another concentrates on cultural expectations aboutgendered responsibilities in the home. We argue that an adequate explanation must integrate both structural and culturalfactors. We also assess the effect of husbands'participation in home labor on marital well-beingfor black andfor white wives. The sample is representative offirst marrages of blacks and whites in an urban county. Findings show thatpart of the effect of relative resources on the allocation of home labor is due to their mutual association with couple norms. Further, husbands' participation in home labor is related positively to marital well-being but onlyfor black wives. In the past decade, much research has focused on gender inequity in the home. Recent findings show that women perform two to three times as much housework as their husbands or cohabiting partners (Demo & Acock 1993), but the explanation for this gender inequity in the home is not well understood. In contributing to
TL;DR: This paper examined the consequences of social movement participation for late 1960s and early 1970s activists, most of whom participated in the antiwar, student, and civil rights protests, and found that former protesters hold more liberal political orientations and are more aligned with liberal parties and actions; select occupations in the new class; are more educated; hold less traditional religious orientations; marry later; and are less likely to have children.
Abstract: The authors examine the consequences of social movement participation for late 1960s and early 1970s activists, most of whom participated in the antiwar, student, and civil rights protests. After providing an explanatory framework for understanding how social movement participation might have continuing influence across a number of social realms, they test whether run-of-the-mill participation in the antiwar and student protests of the late 1960s had an impact. Using data from the Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study, they show how demonstrators differed from nonactivists in two time periods : shortly after their movement experiences in 1973; and when they were in their mid-thirties in 1982. Controlling for the factors that predict becoming a protester, they explore the influence of activism on : (1) politics; (2) status attainment; (3) religion; and (4) family. They find that controlling for factors that predict protest participation, these typical activists are significantly different from their nonactivist counterparts. Specifically, former protesters hold more liberal political orientations and are more aligned with liberal parties and actions; select occupations in the new class; are more educated; hold less traditional religious orientations and are less attached to religious organizations; marry later; and are less likely to have children
TL;DR: In this article, a collaborative study offers a look at Alcoholics Anonymous as a social movement, a belief system, a model for small group interactions and an international phenomenon, covering what happens at an AA meeting, how members interact and how it fits into varying cultural traditions.
Abstract: This collaborative study offers a look at Alcoholics Anonymous as a social movement, a belief system, a model for small group interactions and an international phenomenon. It covers what happens at an AA meeting, how members interact and how it fits into varying cultural traditions.