Showing papers in "Sociological Quarterly in 2001"
TL;DR: This paper showed that immigration generally does not increase levels of homicide among Latinos and African Americans in the United States, even when controlling for other influences such as race, ethnicity, and gender.
Abstract: Understanding the complex relationship between immigration and crime was once a core concern of American sociology. Yet the extensive post-1965 wave of immigration to the United States has done little to rekindle scholarly interest in this topic, even as politicians and other public figures advocate public policies to restrict immigration as a means of preventing crime. Although both popular accounts and sociological theory predict that immigration should increase crime in areas where immigrants settle, this study of Miami, El Paso, and San Diego neighborhoods shows that, controlling for other influences, immigration generally does not increase levels of homicide among Latinos and African Americans. Our results not only challenge stereotypes of the “criminal immigrant” but also the core criminological notion that immigration, as a social process, disorganizes communities and increases crime.
372 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the emergence and growth of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from the 1930s through the 1950s, outlining and empirically evaluating possible explanations for the group's rise and decline.
Abstract: This article examines the emergence and growth of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from the 1930s through the 1950s. It begins by outlining and empirically evaluating possible explanations for the o...
186 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined racial and ethnic inequality in homeownership and housing equity among the pre-retirement population and found that whites and Hispanics still lag behind blacks in housing wealth, even after accounting for numerous life cycle, resource, and social-psychological considerations.
Abstract: Wealth inequality, particularly in housing, has received increased attention in recent years for its importance to racial and ethnic stratification. Yet, while we know a fair amount about black-white wealth inequality, many questions remain regarding sources of Hispanic asset inequality. This article addresses this gap by examining racial and ethnic inequality in homeownership and housing equity among the pre-retirement population. Results support a stratification perspective of inequality for both blacks and Hispanics; even after accounting for numerous life-cycle, resource, and social-psychological considerations, blacks and Hispanics continue to lag significantly behind whites in housing wealth. While Hispanics initially appear better off than blacks with respect to housing, this is largely a function of their more favorable family structure. Important differences between blacks and Hispanics in the main contributors to housing inequality highlight the need to take a more multiethnic perspective on wealth stratification.
120 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the role of the U.S. state in the political process and found that the state's policy-making authority has weakened as corporations became both policy makers and the new targets of challengers, and the environmental movement has devised organizing strategies to respond to and influence this new political process.
Abstract: I explore two questions in this article : (1) How has the role of the U.S. state in the political process changed vis-a-vis corporations ? (2) What tactical repertoires have movements devised to confront this changing political process ? Through the lens of the U.S. environmental movement, I find that (1) the state's policy-making authority has weakened as corporations have become both policy makers and the new targets of challengers, (2) the environmental movement has devised organizing strategies-such as corporate-community compacts or good neighbor agreements-to respond to and influence this new political process, and (3) those segments of the movement that ignore the political economic process are likely to meet with failure. These changes in the political economy constitute a challenge for the political process model. I therefore propose a political economic process perspective to extend the political process model and more accurately capture these dynamics. The political economic process perspective evaluates four state-centric assumptions of the political process model (the state as the primary movement target or vehicle of reform, the state policy-making monopoly, capital as just another interest group, and the primacy of the nation-state level of analysis) and demonstrates that the political economic process has changed in dramatic ways
88 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the knowledge frame in which financial investing became a popular, socially legitimate, and desirable activity in England and France in the nineteenth century and examines the empirical evidence for its popularity.
Abstract: This article examines the knowledge frame in which financial investing became a popular, socially legitimate, and desirable activity in England and France in the nineteenth century. The empirical b...
82 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the adoption of behaviors of the teen drug and delinquent subcultures among Asian Pacific youth within the framework of the theory of segmented assimilation, and examines the behavior of Asian Pacific adolescents.
Abstract: This article examines the adoption of behaviors of the teen drug and delinquent subcultures among Asian Pacific youth within the framework of the theory of segmented assimilation. Alejandro Portes ...
81 citations
TL;DR: The sociological study of intellectual innovation has long been polarized between romantic notions of the creative marginal intellectual and competing accounts stressing the benefits of national, or even international, innovation.
Abstract: The sociological study of intellectual innovation has long been polarized between romantic notions of the creative marginal intellectual and competing accounts stressing the benefits of national, o...
75 citations
TL;DR: A longitudinal case study of Korean white-collar labor movements, which newly thrived in the democratizing atmosphere after the 1987 June Democratic Struggle, confirms that political opportunity is....
Abstract: A longitudinal case study of Korean white-collar labor movements, which newly thrived in the democratizing atmosphere after the 1987 June Democratic Struggle, confirms that political opportunity is...
71 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focused on the macro-level crime patterns in urban communities and investigated links between socio-economic conditions and crime patterns, and found that the bulk of this research has focused on urban communities.
Abstract: Previous research explaining macrolevel crime patterns has generally been limited in focus to urban communities. Further, the bulk of this research has narrowly investigated links between socioecon...
65 citations
TL;DR: Conceptual modeling as mentioned in this paper is proposed as a set of analytic procedures that further the grounded theory approach to theory-discovery and development, and the compatibility between grounded theory and conceptual modeling is discussed, and data from a short ethnographic study of a hair salon are used to illustrate the roles of conceptual modeling in the early stages of theory discovery.
Abstract: Conceptual modeling is proposed as a set of analytic procedures that further the grounded theory approach to theory-discovery and development. The compatibility between grounded theory and conceptual modeling is discussed, and data from a short ethnographic study of a hair salon are used to illustrate the roles of conceptual modeling in the early stages of theory discovery. The major focus of conceptual modeling is on three simultaneous, explicit, continuing respecification dialogues: the nature and dimensionalization of concepts, the relative importance of concepts, and the nature of relationships among concepts. We argue that this focus facilitates the discovery and development of conceptually dense theories.
53 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employed a Weberian lifestyle approach to examine differences in quality of life among the homeless, using a systematic random sample of 161 homeless people in a mid-sized, Southern metropolitan area.
Abstract: A Weberian lifestyles approach is employed to examine differences in quality of life among the homeless. Using a systematic random sample of 161 homeless people in a mid-sized, Southern metropolitan area, the study focuses on the impact of life chances and social choices on aspects of quality of life in this severely challenged population. Regression results show that a number of life chance and social choice variables affect general and domain-specific well-being. While chances and choices both contribute to these aspects of quality of life, there is only modest evidence of a mediating effect. With the exception of depressive symptoms, life chances appear to play a more important role in quality of life differences than life choices. The specific life chance and choice factors influencing aspects of quality of life vary with each separate well-being outcome. The implications of these findings for general sociology and homeless social policy are explored.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight sociology's role in shaping employment law and show how apparently technical legal arguments about allocating burdens of proof affect labor market resource allocation among the classes, races, and genders.
Abstract: Bringing sociological theory and research to bear on the quota debates dogging discussion of federal civil rights legislation in the early 1990s, this article highlights sociology's role in shaping employment law and shows how apparently technical legal arguments about allocating burdens of proof affect labor market resource allocation among the classes, races, and genders. Contrasting institutional-sociological with liberal-legal concepts of discrimination, the article shows why disparate impact theory has been the most sociological approach to Title VII enforcement. It also shows how disparate impact-a theory and method for establishing legally cognizable employment discrimination injurious to women and minorities-is, and is not, related to affirmative action-a policy encompassing a broad range of procedures intended to provide positive consideration to members of groups discriminated against in the past. Finally, a competing incentive framework is used to show that, although disparate impact creates some incentives for employers to adopt quota hiring, such incentives are counter-balanced by major incentives working against race- and gender-based quotas. Major counterincentives stem from disparate impact itself, from other aspects of equal employment law, and from organizational goals shaping business response to the legal environment
TL;DR: The authors compare the neighborhood characteristics of native and foreign-born blacks, whites, Hispanics, and Asians in 1970 and 1980, focusing on the locational attainment literature by emphasizing three factors.
Abstract: We compare the neighborhood characteristics of native- and foreign-born blacks, whites, Hispanics, and Asians in 1970 and 1980. We broaden the locational attainment literature by emphasizing three ...
TL;DR: Although significant social progress characterized the twentieth century, sociologists usually avoid acknowledging progress for fear of encouraging complacency about social problems as discussed by the authors, which encourages pessimism and paranoia.
Abstract: Although significant social progress characterized the twentieth century, sociologists usually avoid acknowledging progress for fear of encouraging complacency about social problems. In four paradoxical ways, progress raises concern about social problems. The paradox of perfectionism is that optimistic beliefs in social perfectability highlight failures to achieve perfection and thereby foster pessimism. The paradox of proportion is that reducing large problems makes smaller problems seem relatively larger. The paradox of proliferation is that social progress encourages recognition of a larger number of problems. Finally, the paradox of paranoia is that progress fosters fears of social collapse. Sociologists need to consider the consequences of downplaying progress.
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative analysis of the literature that has been directed at parents of children with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is presented, which explores the manner in which texts embodying etiological and treatment discourses surrounding ADHD and its diagnostic precursors (hyperactivity, hyperkinesis, minimal brain dysfunction, ADD) provide frameworks for an administration of discipline in domestic life.
Abstract: This article is a qualitative analysis of the literature that has been directed at parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The analysis explores the manner in which texts embodying etiological and treatment discourses surrounding ADHD and its diagnostic precursors (hyperactivity, hyperkinesis, minimal brain dysfunction, ADD, etc.) provide frameworks for an administration of discipline in domestic life. Through the examination of a cross-section of six popular ADHD parenting guides and supplemental textual data sources, this study analyzes how such texts gain credibility with their audience, “frame” the experience of ADHD, and prescribe methods in which the domestic sphere may regulate ADHD-related behaviors. The textual data for the present study should be understood as “ideological representations”(Smith 1990), the analysis of which resonates with much of the disciplinary critique in contemporary social theory, especially the work of Michel Foucault (1977).
TL;DR: This paper conducted telephone interviews with twenty-five professors and students, or former students, who have been involved in consensual sexual relationships, and examined the extent to which respondents' experiences are consistent with "lecherous professor" stereotypes.
Abstract: We conducted telephone interviews with twenty-five professors and students, or former students, who have been involved in consensual sexual relationships. We examined the extent to which respondents' experiences are consistent with “lecherous professor” stereotypes. We also assessed differences in the perceptions and experiences of professors and students, and how these may be influenced by gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and undergraduate or graduate student status. Finally, we evaluated whether the experiences and perceptions of respondents suggest that these relationships should be controlled by institutional policies. We found little support for the “lecherous professor” stereotype based on our respondents' experiences. Two-thirds of the relationships were initiated by a student or were mutually initiated by student and professor. All students said they entered freely into these relationships. For many of our respondents, issues related to race/ethnicity, sexuality, and age brought greater...
TL;DR: Research has shown that alcohol abuse is a significant problem among American Indians as discussed by the authors, however, it has been suggested that American Indians and whites interpret the behavioral pattern differently, which may explain the difference in perceptions.
Abstract: Research has shown that alcohol abuse is a significant problem among American Indians. It has been suggested, however, that American Indians and whites interpret the behavioral pattern differently,...
TL;DR: Analyzing international newspaper articles on female genital cutting from 1978 to 1998, it is found that a close correspondence to international activism is found.
Abstract: Because the media plays a critical role in cross-cultural communication, bias in the portrayal of particular cultures is an important issue. In this article, we use the form of newspaper articles over time to arbitrate between two competing theories of media coverage: Is the media primarily driven by self-interest, that is, the need to sell newspapers, or is it driven primarily by the same principled ideas that fuel international activism? Analyzing international newspaper articles on female genital cutting from 1978 to 1998, we find a close correspondence to international activism. Tracing the strategies of “transnational advocacy networks,’ most articles are primarily devoted to leverage and accountability themes. Further, the ultimate decrease in articles on female genital cutting was not preceded by a decrease in articles designed to shock readers but rather by a peak in stories that emphasized the accountability of governments to eradicate female genital cutting. Over time, perhaps as the appropriateness of action became more taken for granted, there were fewer news stories on proposed solutions but relatively more news stories on success and implementation.
TL;DR: Using Cox regression with time-varying covariates, this article examined the dynamic period of leveraged buyouts followed by stock swap mergers in U.S. business history.
Abstract: The 1980s leveraged buyouts followed by the 1990s stock swap mergers represent the most dynamic period in U.S. business history. Using Cox regression with time-varying covariates, we examine the re...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: For instance, this article argued that the meanings evoked by religious symbols, stories, and practices are not universally shared and that they vary by social context, and that the sociologists of religion interested in the problem of shared meaning have not employed methods that bring together diverse religious meanings and social settings in the same research design.
Abstract: Over the past three decades, there has been a growing interest in religion's special meaning-making function. At the same time, scholars have become increasingly sensitive to the fact that the meanings evoked by religious symbols, stories, and practices are not universally shared and that they vary by social context. To date, sociologists of religion interested in the problem of shared meaning have not employed methods that can bring together diverse religious meanings and social settings in the same research design. As a result, their work has produced few empirical generalizations upon which a long-term research agenda might be built. In other subdisciplines, such as cultural sociology, researchers have employed new quantitative methods that can empirically connect variations in cultural meanings to variations in social context. This article calls for importing these methodological advances into the sociological study of religious meaning.
There is an enormous irony in the fact that God is in his heaven in the social sciences—or at least a very important section of the social sciences [sociology]—even as he seems to be vanishing from the altars. Michael Harrington, The Politics at God's Funeral
TL;DR: In this article, the Foucauldian governmentality principles of managing troublesome populations with the actual everyday institutional discourse at parole hearings are combined with a family attachment perspective whereby an offender's stake in conformity is promoted.
Abstract: This article combines the Foucauldian governmentality principles of managing troublesome populations with the actual everyday institutional discourse at parole hearings. The article illuminates how parole board members, inmates, and inmates' family members participate collaboratively in the construction of inmate identities as either parolees who should be released to the community or as prisoners who should remain in prison. The Foucauldian governmentality principles are complemented by a family attachment perspective whereby an offender's stake in conformity is promoted. Board members use a typology of caring and uncaring families to organize the parole hearings. This typology includes caring inmate mothers, caring inmate fathers, caring female partners uncaring inmate fathers, uncaring male partners, and uncaring female partners.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how perceptions of social support availability are formed among gay men coping with HIV and find that experiences of receiving support increased perceived availability for specific types of support from specific individuals, but receiving support also gave these men a general sense that someone would be available for assistance.
Abstract: Analyzing face-to-face, semistructured interviews, we discuss how perceptions of social support availability are formed among gay men coping with HIV. Experiences of receiving support increased perceived availability for specific types of support from specific individuals, but receiving support also gave these men a general sense that someone would be available for assistance. Other aspects of social relationships, such as closeness and role expectations, contributed to gay men's perceptions of support availability. The results suggest that when people with common problems cope together, collective knowledge of support availability may emerge from observations of others' support exchanges as well as from discussions of support experiences. Individuals or groups of individuals may actively create and modify their perceptions of support availability when they cope with anticipated problems. Thus, the study provided an opportunity to integrate concepts of coping and social support into the collective action and social constructionist frameworks.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors clarify how Blumer understood "empirical reality" and so-called "definitive" concepts and make the point that efforts to develop "generalizable concepts" are useless unless these concepts are understood as emerging from within the processes of interpretation that make them socially relevant.
Abstract: Our aim in this response to Ulmer's commentary is threefold. First, we clarify how Blumer understood "empirical reality" and so-called "definitive" concepts. We believe that his understanding of these two considerations is inconsistent with how Ulmer understands these ideas. Second, we make the point that, according to Blumer, efforts to develop "generalizable concepts" are useless unless these concepts are understood as emerging from within the processes of interpretation that make them socially relevant. In other words, the relevance of these concepts exists purely among people, and thus they must be understood as intersubjectively constituted. Implied by this condition is that generalizations are possible only if they reflect the myriad modes of interpretations that shape social life. Third, we conclude that although "repackaging" Blumer's ideas in an attempt to make them amenable to quantitative social science may represent a useful objective to many sociologists, the cost of this aim may be the conversion of Blumer's
TL;DR: This paper examined a special case, that of juvenile sex offenders in a Washington State county, for whom a 1990 law reintroduced treatment as a central goal and argued that, largely as a result of this law, juvenile sex offending has been "medicalized" and that, in this process, distinctions based on offense characteristics have noticeably diminished.
Abstract: While juvenile courts were originally designed to respond to troubled youth by providing treatment appropriate to the needs of individual offenders, advocates of a system that "gets tough" on young criminals by meting out punishments based on offense characteristics (both present offense and past offense history) have become increasingly influential in recent years. In this article. I examine a special case, that of juvenile sex offenders in a Washington State county. for whom a 1990 law reintroduced treatment as a central goal. While Washington has been a forerunner in the shift toward a juvenile justice system in which offending behavior is the central factor in decision making, I argue that, largely as a result of this law, juvenile sex offending has been "medicalized" and that, in this process, distinctions based on offense characteristics have noticeably diminished. This case study provides both empirical support for established theoretical arguments regarding medicalization and a detailed explication of the differences between medical and legal assumptions about social problems. Since its inception, the juvenile justice system has served as an arena for cultural battles over the nature of youth and the causes of delinquency. The very idea that there should be a separate court for juvenile offenders was based on late nineteenth-century beliefs that juvenile offenders were less responsible for their actions than adults, that environment played an important role in causing delinquency, and that juvenile delinquents were malleable and could therefore be helped through various treatment programs
TL;DR: Esposito and Murphy as discussed by the authors argue that surveys and other quantitative data are directly antithetical to Blumer's perspective and symbolic interaction in general, which instead supposedly espouse nongeneralizing, idiographic, interpretive methods, such as "sympathetic introspection".
Abstract: Luigi Esposito and John Murphy (1999) have argued that research using Blumer's group position theory of race relations using statistical analysis of survey data research actually undermines Blumer's theory of race relations by ignoring its definitional and dynamic emphases, as well as its emphasis on human agency. Furthermore, they argue that surveys and other quantitative data are directly antithetical to Blumer's perspective and symbolic interaction in general, which instead supposedly espouse nongeneralizing, idiographic, interpretive methods, such as “sympathetic introspection.’ This commentary focuses on these latter points of their argument. I think Esposito and Murphy present questionable interpretations of Blumer's view of scientific concepts, of his methodological position, and symbolic interactionism. I first discuss Esposito and Murphy's depiction of Blumer's perspective as being “non-generalizing’ with a focus on the sensitizing-definitive continuum of concepts. Second, I address the question of whether Blumer, and symbolic interactionism in general, is antiquantitative. I conclude by noting the importance of this debate for understanding race relations as well as the present and future place of symbolic interactionism in sociology.
TL;DR: Performance art, the quintessential avant-garde art form, flourished and gained national renown in Los Angeles during the last three decades of the twentieth century as discussed by the authors, however, pivotal chan...
Abstract: Performance art, the quintessential avant-garde art form, flourished and gained national renown in Los Angeles during the last three decades of the twentieth century. In 1989, however, pivotal chan...
TL;DR: The connection between age and attitudes toward social change has been a longstanding research interest in the United States as mentioned in this paper, and Hypotheses derived from this tradition are tested in the Czech Republic.
Abstract: The connection between age and attitudes toward social change has been a longstanding research interest in the United States. Hypotheses derived from this tradition are tested in the Czech Republic...
TL;DR: The authors argue that Levine misjudges the character and depth of past and present rifts, and that he overestimates the likelihood of future disciplinary unity in sociologists. But they do not consider the place of the French tradition in Levine's reading of the sociological tradition.
Abstract: seeks to answer these questions in his intriguing recent study of the sociological tradition. He contends that sociology has been divided from the start along national lines, yet continues to progress towards harmony thanks to the "dialogical" commitments of the various national traditions. I argue that Levine misjudges the character and depth of past and present rifts, and that he overestimates the likelihood of future disciplinary unity. Dialogue is singularly appropriate for the consideration of Donald N. Levine's Visions of the Sociological Tradition (1995) since Levine focuses, with an insistence that is almost unique in the tradition, on the healing powers of dialogue. Levine's premise is that international sociology, which a generation ago bordered on disciplinary unity, is now deeply fractured. His goal is to find an "antidote" for this fragmentation-to forge a new moral and intellectual solidarity among sociologists. He hopes to achieve this by means of a new form of dialogue. To demonstrate the potential of a properly dialogical method, Levine offers a new account of the sociological heritage in which the history of the many contending schools of thought is portrayed as a long and fruitful (albeit hitherto unacknowledged) dialogue. Levine urges us to recognize the dialogical quality of the sociological past and to selfconsciously embrace a dialogical ethic for the future. In this essay, my assignment is to consider the place of "the French tradition" in Levine's reading of the sociological tradition. This too is singularly apropos, not only because Levine is keenly interested in French thinkers (Durkheim above all), but also because he frames his argument in distinctly Durkheimian terms: