摘要:

This article reconsiders one of the most well-known and longstanding arguments in comparative social analysis: S.M. Upset's thesis on the value differences between Canadians and Americans. Beginning with a substantive assessment of Upset's argument, we outline some apparent inconsistencies and related problems in his formulation. We then draw on a range of comparable measures from recent national surveys in both countries and find virtually no empirical support for Lipset's thesis. Most results indicate either no significant national differences or else differences that are opposite to those indicated by Upset's argument. The application of a multiple indicators model, with or without controls on other background variables, fails to alter these results. The article concludes with some speculations on reasons for the lack of support for Upset's thesis in the contemporary period and with some suggestions about the inherent difficulties that are associated with origins explanations.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.693

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

It is argued that the neoclassical theory of wages has better predictive power than is customarily argued. Wages should closely approximate productivity in analyses involving large samples of workers, and in longitudinal analyses involving extended periods of time. Time and aggregation eliminate many of the market imperfections that make wages unequal to productivity in cross-sectional analyses of individuals. The article also develops a pseudo-market model derived from the work of Nelson and Winters that would allow wages to equal productivity without invoking the marginalist assumptions of continuous perfectly rational wage optimization on the part of firms. Empirical support for the wage productivity link comes from an analysis of the wages of French coal miners from 1900 to 1935.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.714

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The conventional explanation of the rise of the industrial metropolis in the nineteenth century focuses on large-scale urban-industrial growth processes, including specialization, technological change, interregional transportation and communication improvements, and agglomeration economies, but this explanation is improperly specified. An alternative explanation is proposed based on the pivotal role of metropolises as controllers and coordinators of exchange. Manufacturing concentrated increasingly in metropolises because they dominated regional markets. Metropolises specialized in some national market industries, but their industrial growth based on these industries simply kept pace with national growth. New empirical evidence supporting the alternative explanation is presented for metropolises (n=28) for the 1860–1920 period, with a focus on the 1860–1880 period; manufactures were given two-digit SIC codes. The findings imply that explanations of the urban-industrial growth process need to focus on the early stages of the process.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.731

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Survey data are used to explore differences between black and white participation in Euro-American and Afro-American art. Most black/white differences in Euro-American high-culture participation reflect educational inequality; but even with controls, black Americans participate at somewhat lower rates than whites. Differences are greatest for public consumption, smaller for private consumption and arts production. Blacks participate substantially more than whites in historically Afro-American art forms. Two competing explanations, a convergence theory positing acculturation and black/white convergence, and a resistance model predicting greater differences with increased economic competition, are assessed. The evidence suggests middle-class convergence with regard to Euro-American, and undiminished distinctiveness with regard to Afro-American art forms, reflecting the need of upwardly mobile minorities to maintain credible membership claims in both dominant and minority cultures.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.753

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This analysis uses data from the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey to investigate the impact of occupational sex segregation on a select set of working conditions. In particular, the contention that sex segregation arises from women's preferences for jobs that mesh easily with family caregiving is addressed. Controlling for the gender of the respondent, results show that occupational segregation does account for observed gender differences in unsupervised break time, fairness of promotion policies, and job flexibility, and reduces the sex differential in benefits and chances for promotion. However, it does not explain gender differences in social rewards, interpersonal stress, or job challenge and interest. Finally, evidence here suggests that predominantly female jobs are not necessarily jobs with characteristics that accommodate family responsibilities. On the contrary, workers in predominantly female jobs were less likely to report that their jobs were flexible or easy to perform. Results are discussed with respect to human capital and segmented market theories of gender differentiation in the labor force.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.779

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This research, using data from a nationally representative sample of black and white American mothers who are single or currently married in 1984, investigates issues relating to kin networks, childcare, and financial support to families. The analysis confirms that black mothers have better access to and are more likely than white mothers to reside with kin; their childcare more often is provided by kinfolk and is free; and more often they receive at least one-half of their income from individuals other than their husbands. The persistent advantage blacks have in support networks, taking into account their marriage and fertility histories, is due to the greater likelihood that young mothers reside with adult kin and use free childcare rather than to advantages in financial support. Almost one-third of single black mothers were not involved in support networks, however, and the network support provided insufficient access to childcare for many mothers who were involved.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.797

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

A number of scholars contend that recent increases in economic dependency and poverty have been stimulated by “overly generous” public assistance. Cash and noncash transfers and the eligibility guidelines that govern their distribution purportedly discourage employment and encourage the rise of female-headed families. These “culture-of-poverty” arguments and alternative hypotheses are examined through time series analyses. The results are mixed. On the one hand, the combined package of cash and noncash transfers is modestly related to the rise of female headship and economic dependency and more strongly related to declines in the labor force participation of young nonwhite males. On the other hand, cash transfers reduce poverty. Though the current welfare system is fraught with a number of shortcomings, we find that culture-of-poverty explanations of post-1970 increases in economic dependency and poverty are not very powerful. A more comprehensive theory is called for. Such a theory needs to explain how structural changes in our economy are affecting economic opportunity.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.813

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Lawyers play unique roles in creating new structures of stratification in the larger economy and in stratifying their own profession. Gender stratification within this profession produces income differences many times those observed in the larger labor force. Our analysis focuses on the changing structural settings, sectoral movements, and levels of class power that form gender specific mobility ladders for individuals in the profession. Each of these factors plays an independent role in the determination of earnings, usually to the advantage of men over women. More than a quarter of the difference in earnings of men and women lawyers can conservatively be attributed to gender discrimination. These findings provoke two questions for future consideration: How do women lawyers react to moving closer to the top of the class structure through the practice of law but to still being left behind men in their earnings? And what does it mean that gender discrimination is practiced in a profession that is linked so closely to the value placed in democratic societies on equal treatment? That these questions are infrequently asked, much less answered, adds a new dimension to Sorokin's warning that sociologists ignore the law, and therefore lawyers, at their peril.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.835

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The assumption that relationships between variables are unaffected by formal features of the measurement indicators has been shown to hold for most associations between attitudes and other variables, where the other variables are either background characteristics or other attitudes. This article tests the assumption of “form-resistant correlations” in the context of studying social change, where the other variable is time. It examines whether alternate forms of the same attitude item behave in similar fashion across time.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.856

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This study examines the framing process on network television news as it applies to visual art and artists. Data are presented on fifteen types of art stories, the number of stories, the amount of time devoted to each, and their placement within newscasts. Comparisons are made across networks and across time. One particular type of story, the art controversy, is examined in-depth in an attempt to discover the more subtle aspects of the framing process. Throughout, comparisons are made with the art world's own media. Conclusions are drawn regarding the amount and type of visual art coverage on the network news, the various frames employed, techniques used to develop those frames, the utility of those frames for the networks, and possible effects on the art world.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/68.3.869

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1990

数据来源: OUP