摘要:

As statistical time series, social indicators are used to monitor the social system, helping to identify changes and to guide intervention to alter the course of social change. Extending time series into the future, while an imperfectly developed art, enables more realistic planning. The geographic allocation of resources by governments through ecological indicators redistributes funds more equitably. By combining with programmatic activities to alter the rate and direction of change, social indicators may play a role in social transformations. The social indicator “movement” has led to improvements in social measurement, social reporting, and social accounting and has stimulated measurement of the quality of life. By employing social indicators, sociological research should include the time dimension, ecological variables, and should attempt forecasts of the future.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.601

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Convergence theory has been charged with a Western, middle-class capitalistic bias. As a theory of industrial growth, it holds that industrial workers everywhere adjust rapidly to factory discipline, evolve similar patterns of social participation inside and outside the workplace, increase their involvement in urban-industrial society as they increase their contact with modern technology, and develop similar working-class mentalities. Since most studies that confirm these generalizations have been conducted in the West, Korea provides a tough non-Western case for convergence theory. When Korean automobile workers were compared to auto workers in four Western-oriented countries, the Koreans adapted just as quickly to industrial and related social systems. Their rural background and Confucian heritage did not interfere with their adaptation. Like workers elsewhere, Koreans who were most exposed to modern technology participated most in social systems inside and outside of the factory. Despite their socialization to support hierarchy, Koreans quickly developed a working-class mentality. We conclude that some tenets of convergence theory are robust.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.618

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The widely varied meanings of the term “social structure” rob it of usefulness. Following Durkheim, social structure should refer to extra-individual, positively ascertainable social facts that exert constraint on individuals. We examine the impact of inequality on association, specifically on marriage within and among social strata. The constraint that inequality exerts on intermarriage is less obvious than the notion that inequality increases the motive for status homogamy. A mathematical model, derived in the Appendix, indicates, however, that inequality constrains people to marry unequals. Data for 125 SMSAs for intermarriage with respect to education, socioeconomic index, and income show that the model works well for education and socioeconomic index. The paradox of structure and constraint is that greater structural inequality is imported into the pair relations among population members in the face of empirically evident aversion to relations bridging status distance. Inequality is antagonistic to homogamy.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.645

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

In the explanation of earnings differences, age has been seen commonly as a proxy for human capital characteristics of experience and physical stamina. However, like sex and race, age has meanings other than those attributed to it by human capital theorists. Age-specific rewards reflect the power of workers, not only as individuals, but as members of work organizations, especially in core industries. It is the argument of this paper that changes within the U.S. economy since 1960 are weakening the power of core workers to attain high rates of return to their characteristics. One characteristic likely to be affected is age. Data from 1960 and 1980 are examined to see if there has been a change in the relation of age to earnings within the dual economy. The analysis shows a decrease in the earnings advantage of core sector employment for older workers. The change in the age—earnings relation within and between economic sectors is taken as a sign of other changes in the social organization of workers and employers.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.676

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

A central and recurring concern in the sociology of criminal law is racial disparity in imprisonment—blacks are much more likely than whites to be imprisoned for crimes. Sociological theories disagree over the sources of imprisonment disparity. Prior research has ignored the social, economic, and legal characteristics of states and regions of the country that may contribute to disparity. The present study finds differences in the social standing of blacks relative to whites that explain substantial and statistically significant variation in racial disparity in imprisonment across states after racial differences in involvement in crime are controlled. Blacks are more likely than whites to be imprisoned in states where the black population is a small percentage of the total population and predominantly urban. The implications of these findings for a structural theory of punishment are discussed.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.699

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This paper criticizes the deskilling hypothesis for temporal change in occupations. Case studies of occupations alleged to support the deskilling hypothesis have typically been insensitive to the internal heterogeneity found within occupations, and to the fact that the boundary between adjacent occupations located on the same functional hierarchy can shift over time. When these factors are explicitly taken into account, it is found that apparently compelling evidence for the thesis of clerical downgrading better supports an alternative explanation, which might be called the process of status redefinition, an aspect of the process of professionalization. The case of clerical workers in the federal government is examined in some detail. Available evidence supports the argument that status redefinition occurred. Status redefinition and deskilling are not mutually exclusive explanations for change, though they do conflict in important respects. This paper suggests that case studies of occupations should focus on functional hierarchies, rather than specific occupations, in order to avoid the comparability problems which arise when occupational boundaries change.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.725

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

In this paper, we investigate the determinants of domestic well-being in less-developed countries. In particular, we examine the impact of both penetration of foreign investment and levels of domestic political protest on economic growth and the provision of basic needs. Our work is an attempt to explore the effects of both international economic processes and intranational political processes on development.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.747

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

In view of (1) escalating national attention, and political and judicial activity centering on capital punishment during the past decade and a half, and (2) concomitant changes in homicides, this paper investigates the impact of the death penalty on state homicide rates for the post-Furmanperiod, 1973–84:. The research also addresses the debate over the relative merits of the contiguous state matching strategy versus multiple regression as a means of controlling for the influence of possible confounding factors in examining the capital punishment/homicide relationship. The two approaches yield quite similar results. Consistent with a long line of deterrence research, the analysis produces no indication that our national return to capital punishment sinceFurmanhas had a systematic downward impact on homicide.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.774

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

What is the relation of organizational norms and personal values to community involvement and career choices? Results from a national survey of middle-level production managers indicate that most managers perceive their companies as having a policy encouraging community involvement. However, less than a third of the managers perceive norms concerning transfers. A strong relation exists between organizational norms encouraging involvement and managers' participation in community affairs. Values, though less important than norms, nonetheless help in understanding attitudes toward community involvement and actual involvement. While norms prescribing participation and transfers are in themselves independent, their influence through attitudes towards participation indicate that managers who follow norms and get involved in community organizations are less likely than their counterparts to opt for a community transfer.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.808

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

To some extent fear of crime is thought to be a social problem because it is assumed to constrain social interaction. However, empirical support for the effects of fear on social behavior is mixed. This may reflect two problems. Extant research does not control for the negative effect of social behavior on fear while estimating the effect of fear on social behavior; and research assumes that the effect of fear on social behavior is the same for all people. Using the NCS dataset and simultaneous equation techniques, we address this issue. The analysis suggests that fear and constrained social behavior are part of a positive escalating loop (fear constrains social behavior which increases fear) and that the strength of the loop is contingent on age.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/66.3.827

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP