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This paper explores the ethnographic technique of the focused revisit -- rare in sociology but common in anthropology -- when an ethnographer returns to the site of a previous study. Discrepancies between earlier and later accounts can be attributed to differences in: (1) the relation of observer to participant, (2) theory brought to the field by the ethnographer, (3) internal processes within the field site itself, or (4) forces external to the field site. Focused revisits tend to settle on one or another of these four explanations, giving rise to four types of focused revisits. Using examples, the limits of each type of focused revisit are explored with a view to developing a reflexive ethnography that combines all four approaches. The principles of the focused revisit are then extended to rolling, punctuated, heuristic, archeological, and valedictory revisits. In centering attention on ethnography-as-revisit sociologists directly confront the dilemmas of participating in the world they study -- a world that undergoes (real) historical change that can only be grasped using a (constructed) theoretical lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I attempt to advance the concept of embeddedness beyond the level of a programmatic statement by developing a formulation that specifies how embeddedness and network structure affect economic action. On the basis of existing theory and original ethnographies of 23 apparel firms, I develop a systematic scheme that more fully demarcates the unique features, functions, and sources of embeddedness. From this scheme, I derive a set of refutable implications and test their plausibility, using another data set on the network ties of all better dress apparel firms in the New York apparel economy. Results reveal that embeddedness is an exchange system with unique opportunities relative to markets and that firms organized in networks have higher survival chances than do firms which maintain arm's-length market relationships. The positive effect of embeddedness reaches a threshold, however, after which point the positive effect reverses itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an application of a method recently developed by Heckman and MaCurdy (/984) to estimate a simultaneous-equations model with dichotomous endogenous variables. The substantive issue is the determinants of native-language maintenance among the Canadian Indian population. A simultaneous-equations model in which retention of an indian mother tongue and various aspects of labor-force activity have reciprocal effects is contrasted with a model in which both language retention and economic activity are determined jointly by background characteristics such as education. Results support the latter model. This suggests that attempts to improve the economic conditions of native Indians (for example, by increasing education levels) may have a cost in terms of cultural maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a review and partial reformulation of the sociological literature on the persistence of ethnicity in American society. In contrast to the traditional emphasis on the transplanted cultural heritage as the principal antecedent and defining characteristic of ethnic groups, we suggest that the development and persistence of ethnicity is dependent upon structural conditions characterizing American cities and position of groups in American social structure. Attention is focused on the question: under what conditions does ethnic culture emerge? Specifically, what social forces promoted the crystallization and development of ethnic solidarity and identification? As an emergent phenomenon, ethnicity continues to develop with the changing positions of groups and individuals within society. As society changes, old forms of ethnic culture may die out but new forms may be generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]