摘要:

This paper conceives of residential segregation as a multidimensional phenomenon varying along five distinct axes of measurement: evenness, exposure, concentration, centralization, and clustering. Twenty indices of segregation are surveyed and related conceptually to one of the five dimensions. Using data from a large set of U.S. metropolitan areas, the indices are intercorrelated and factor analyzed. Orthogonal and oblique rotations produce pattern matrices consistent with the postulated dimensional structure. Based on the factor analyses and other information, one index was chosen to represent each of the five dimensions, and these selections were confirmed with a principal components analysis. The paper recommends adopting these indices as standard indicators in future studies of segregation.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.281

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Both in the popular mind and in the social sciences, images of the modern world and the forces that brought it into existence frequently incorporate some notion of secularization as an essential process. Challenging the secularization thesis is the focal concern of this essay; claims of diminishing religious significance are reinterpreted as evidence of religious transformation. The argument unfolds initially by outlining the secularization thesis and identifying its principal weaknesses. Next, the contributions of key sociological theorists (Durkheim and Marx, in particular) serve as a basis for extracting some useful elements of the transformation thesis. Finally, the hypothesis of religious transformation is presented with special reference to the relation between the evolution of sacred symbols and the market and polity dimensions of sovereign organization in the modern world.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.316

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This paper joins central concerns in the sociology of work and the sociology of aging. Age differences in work commitment and work values are examined, as well as their work and nonwork determinants, using data from 4,567 American and 3,735 Japanese employees. Our results show that older men are more committed to work than younger men in both Japan and the United States. This pattern also holds for American women, but there are no age differences in work commitment among Japanese women. Moreover, there are greater age differences among the Japanese in the importance placed on good pay. This is consistent with the view that there has been greater cultural change in recent years in Japan than in the United States.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.337

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Many models have been developed to explain public attitudes toward nuclear energy. Data from France, Sweden, and the United States are used to evaluate these models, and most are either falsified or shown to apply only to limited periods. Public support for the technology is traced across the life cycle of the nuclear controversies, and different dynamics are found to influence opinion in different periods. Political context is the master variable explaining these differences: confidence in experts dominates prepolitical periods; media attention leads to politicization; basic values are key to attitudes in fully politicized periods; issue attention cycles explain depoliticization. Once conflict is over and a clear policy path has been taken, public opinion tends to support that path rather than simply returning to its prepolitical patterns. Sustained, visible controversy over technologies may reflect serious debate over political and social goals rather than irrational fears stirred by the mass media.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.357

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The socialization and micromobilization approaches to participation in social movements lead to contrasting expectations about predictors of participation. The former position leads one to expect that attitudes, community memberships, and previous community memberships will predict participation. The latter leads one to expect effects of present community memberships, but calls into question the role of values and previous community memberships. In this paper, I study physician participation in a local anti-abortion campaign to trace the bases of such activity. While present community memberships appear to play a role, premedical college community plays no role. Further, while attitude variables appear to play some role, anti-abortion participants in the survey actually reject the Right-to-Life movement leadership's position on most of a series of movement-relevant issues. I interpret this finding in terms of Noelle-Neumann's concept of “the spiral of silence,” which holds that the desire to avoid isolation leads to attitude incongruent activity, when such activity appears to have community sponsorship.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.378

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Computer simulation is used to investigate the success of an “outside agitator,” specifically the likelihood of a persistent extremist leading into “radical” action a gathering of moderates not otherwise disposed to militancy. The theoretical framework and computer simulation translation on which this work is based (Johnson&Feinberg forthcoming) assumes an ambiguous situation confronting a gathering in which each member can be located on a 10-point scale of action-choices. In the ensuing milling process, cues for action are offered and crowd members respond by shifting their choices and/or physical locations; thus, consensus for action is achieved and crowd structure emerges. In this test we generated a gathering of moderates and a persistently radical influence source, and varied whether gatherings initially maintained physical distance between themselves and the agitators. Results generally suggest that outside agitators usually cannot influence a crowd of moderates to take radical action. The variables most related to agitator success are crowd suggestibility, the action-choice advocated by the agitator, and the probability of movement within the physical space. Thus, the agitator is likely to be successful only in the specific and infrequent circumstances of a small gathering in a highly ambiguous situation in which the crowd members are not suspicious of the outsider. Outcomes showing the effects of microstructural conditions for emergent structure are also presented and discussed.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.398

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This paper employs a large representative sample of Baltimore first graders to examine the effects of various household configurations on children's cognitive performance. Separate analyses are presented for blacks and whites. Using a school process model that is similar to those employed at the secondary level, the analyses show that household composition has an important influence on teachers' marks, particularly reading. These effects are pronounced and most consistent for blacks. The presence of a second adult, not just the father, has beneficial effects on reading marks. Households exert their effects on end-of-first grade achievement primarily by way of parent expectations for reading marks. There is also evidence that household configurations exercise some influence on spring achievement test scores for blacks in both the verbal and the quantitative domains, but stronger in the verbal domain. These effects, in general, are smaller than those for teachers marks.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.424

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This paper gives a cross-national comparison, involving West German, Dutch, and United States data, on the use of social ties in the job-search process. Data for West Germany and the Netherlands are compared with the Lin et al. research on Albany-Schenectady and Troy. The findings show that (1) there is more use of informal sources in the U.S. than in West Germany and the Netherlands; (2) informal sources do not generally lead to higher occupational prestige and income; (3) for the Dutch data (no West German data are available for this question) greater social resources, that is, a contact person with relatively high prestige, do lead to a job with a higher prestige, though effects are less pronounced than found by Lin et al.; and (4) an extension of the Lin et al. analysis shows that these social resources do not have a significant impact on income. This last finding is consistent with the recent results of Marsden and Hurlbert's analysis of Detroit Area Study data. Institutional differences that might be relevant to the explanation of cross-national differences are discussed.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.452

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Childhood socialization and stressful life conditions are among the more prominent explanations for family violence. Little is known, however, about the relative importance of these factors for predicting violent behavior. This paper proposes a general scheme for studying family violence, taking into account early childhood as well as adult family socialization and stressful life events. Using data from a nationally representative sample of married adults, we investigate the relative importance of early socialization and chronic and acute life strain for predicting spouse abuse. We find that childhood experiences of family violence have a greater impact than either chronic economic strain or acutely stressful circumstances on whether individuals perpetrate spouse abuse. The paper considers the implications of these findings for understanding family violence.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.473

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Data for the 130 largest metropolitan areas in the United States indicate that service sector employment increases inequality. The structure of inequality differs for men and women. For men, services increase inequality through disparities created by high earners whereas for women services increase inequality through disparities between median and law earners. These disparities in turn reflect the sectors in the service economy where men and women work and the kinds of jobs they hold. High inequality among the men is found in metropolitan areas specializing in producer and business related services with high proportions ofprofessional and managerial personnel. For women, inequality is related to retail trade and social services which require high proportions of unskilled, service related occupations. The data consequently suggest how the heterogeneous service sector provides a setting in which traditional linkages between gender and occupation influence inequality in earnings. No support is found for the position advanced by various vostindustrial theorists that services decrease inequality.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/67.2.492

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1988

数据来源: OUP