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Tins paper represents a first step in exploring a theory of intraorganizational stratification. In pursuing this objective we will take the rather pronounced status hierarchy in a psychiatric hospital as our point of departure. The main focus is upon the social distance patterns that exist between the occupants of formal positions in the hospital, and the manner in which the manipulation of social distance as reward and punishment and as a status protection mechanism is a significant aspect of interstatus relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over a decade, debate over the nature of mental illness has continued. Titles of articles and books have been suggestive of the various points of view: the myth of mental illness, personality disorder is disease, disease and the patterns of behavior, the social limits of eccentricity. And the debate continues. In this paper, it will be shown that at least four themes or positions can be culled from the literature and that no single position resolves all the related empirical or theoretical issues. The first approach asserts that mental illness is a type of deviant behavior. A second position takes the basic premise that mental disorders are pathology or disease in the psychological or psychiatric sense and not pertinent to conformity-deviance theory, which is concerned with interactions in a social system. A third approach looks on some types of mental disorder as deviant behavior while other behavioral constellations are defined as illness or medical phenomena. Still a fourth standpoint calls for specifications of the definers of behavior according to their social status and degree of professional training. These four approaches represent some current attempts to answer the question, What is mental illness? In particular, those writings are referred to which tackle some aspect of the conceptual relationship between mental disorder and deviant behavior. It is our purpose in this paper, to describe the several prevalent arguments in terms of their major themes. By doing so, we hope to underline the assumptions basic to each approach, to show how the discrepant views articulate with each other, and to specify some unresolved problems in the ongoing debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a purely exploratory attempt to locate the role-specific-significant others (Sullivan's significant others) and the orientational others of a small sample of college students enrolled in a large midwestern university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of science it has often happened that a scholar's ideas are denied full recognition because of that scholar's real or assumed connection to some controversial ideology. The position accorded to Vilfredo Pareto is one illustration of such practice in present-day sociology. This scholar is often said to have been a "Newton of the Moral World," or altogether a fascist ideologist. So Faris informs us that "The book [The Mind and Society] formulates the implicit philosophy of Italian Fascism, advocating the right of the strong to take what they want without apology or appeal to moral principles." In tracing the development of social thought, Bogardus devotes an entire chapter to "Pareto and Fascist Thought," and authoritatively argues that "While fascism has some of its roots in Nietzsche's concepts and other roots in Machiavellianism, yet Pareto's ideas come even closer to giving an adequate basis." Zanden, in turn, interprets Pareto's sociology to be "a philosophy of society, a social creed, determined mainly by violent and ever purely personal passions. The logical fulfillment of this political manifesto is fascism." We need not continue further; analogous affirmations are bountiful in the literature. To be sure, not all sociologists accept this view, but to date little or no systematic effort has been made to resolve the controversy, with the result that many students of sociology are unwitting victims of one of the most cruel intellectual hoaxes perpetrated against their discipline and one of their kind. The present paper proposes to offer a clarification with respect to the alleged connection between Pareto's sociology and fascist ideology. Our approach takes us in two major directions: first, an examination of Pareto's Treatise, his chief sociological work, and second, an examination of a series of letters written to his great friend Pantaleoni during the period when fascism was a political reality in Italy. Before proceeding to present our argument, it may be useful to inquire briefly about the meaning of "fascism," as his critics tend to use that word. A rapid glance at the literature reveals that the following are generally believed to be among the chief characteristics of fascist ideology: distrust of reason, a code of behavior based on "race" and violence, belligerent nationalism, government by an elite, and totalitarianism. Characteristically, these then provide the basis for accusing Pareto of "antirationalism," "anti-intellectualism," "contempt for democracy," and approval of the use of force at all costs. The major portion of this paper will be concerned, therefore, with explicating Pareto's position on these four issues. We shall begin by considering Pareto's alleged antirationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A striking feature of the social participation literature is the tendency to concentrate on one type of activity. For example, studies dealing with formal organizations have described the character of such groups and their participants. Studies of friendship participation have traced the patterns of friendships and the type of people who are attracted to each other as friends. Consequently, few sociologists have focused their attention upon a question like: Are there any patterns or relationships between the different types of social participation? Participation in formal voluntary associations and informal voluntary interactions may be related to each other, influence each other, or at least be similarly influenced by other variables. This paper analyzes different types of social participation to determine if participation in one area of social activity is related to participation in other areas of social life. Specifically, we will try to determine (1) whether people who have many friends or who have a number of intimate friends are more apt to belong to formal voluntary organizations than those who have few friends or intimate friends; (2) whether participation in the family is related to participation in formal voluntary associations and informal voluntary interaction; and (3) whether ethnic generation status and sex alter the patterns between the different types of social participation. Generational status will be used as an independent variable since changes in ethnic status may modify the direction or the degree of relationship between the types of social activity. Sex will be used as a control variable since the roles which men and women play in society often differ considerably-especially among ethnics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research and theory relative to the lower class adolescent male peer group has focused largely on the culture and behavior of group members. Further, the focus has been on the different types of behavior characteristic of different groups. While this analysis has been quite fruitful, it has led us away from attempting to place all such groups on any single continuum which might involve structure as well as culture. Specifically, the concept of "gang" has either been used loosely to include all groups of lower class male adolescents or has been omitted altogether. This paper maintains that the concept of gang still has considerable utility as a category for research. This paper will be presented in five parts: (1) an analysis of the concept as used in the past into a set of empirical variables; (2) a description of a method used to get data on these variables; (3) a presentation of data relative to these variables; (4) an analysis of the correlation of these variables; and (5) an attempt to place gangs on continue representing variables found in small groups in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is an attempt to apply modern sociological thinking to the analysis of the descriptive materials that have been accumulated on the subject of romantic love. In this sense then it is offered as a partial contribution to the understanding of the general phenomenon of love. More specifically, however, it is offered as an analysis of the place of love in modern American society. Following the lead of the family sociologists and marriage counselors, love will be treated not in the philosopher's or poet's sense of a "sweeping experience," not in the psychologist's sense of a universal physical power, and not in the sociologist's sense of a universal attribute of man. Instead, love shall be looked upon as a part of society, as a distinctive pattern of social behavior—as a specific culture trait. Thus we shall take the word to mean a given behavioral complex that exists in a specifiable social context. In this sense, our approach is ethnographic and synchronic. In this paper, therefore, the term love will be used to refer to a specific culture trait that has been described in modern American society. Whether or not it exists in other societies—or in all human societies—in the same or a modified form is a matter to be demonstrated ethnographically and not assumed a priori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We want to do three things in this paper: (1) to propose a more general probability model than the one considered by Toby or Davies for dealing with the number of buses a student would see, on the average, going in the wrong direction; (2) to show that, with this general model, one would not see more wrong-direction buses, or the same number of wrong-direction buses, as suggested by Toby and Davies, but fewer wrong-direction buses; (8) to question the advisability of using a student's experiences with wrong-direction buses as the way to shake his faith in the validity of personal experience. As Davies has said, clarification is especially necessary now that Toby's paper has appeared in books of readings designed for the course in introductory sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has examined effects on mobility of education level, social class background, and strength of achievement motive. The attainment of some college education is shown to enhance greatly the likelihood of upward mobility and reduce the likelihood of downward mobility. However, much mobility is not attributable to the factor of education. Strength of achievement motive is shown to exert noticeable influence, on upward mobility especially, among persons who lack any college training. An analysis of the interaction of factors associated with social class background, strength of achievement motive, and level of education in the determination of mobility is offered; the analysis rationalizes both the absence of expected relationships between strength of achievement motive and mobility among persons from upper middle-class backgrounds, and the presence of such relationships among persons from the other social class groups. The correctness of this latter analysis will, of course, turn upon the results of future research in which more refined measures of social class variables are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the uses and abuses of rhetorical devices in sociological analysis and inquire into their function in applied research. Implicit in this inquiry are the following assumptions: (1) that sociological analyses and explications are based upon rhetorical devices; (2) that sociologists would be better sociologists if they understood rhetoric; (3) that a study of the rhetoric of sociology would prove immensely useful to the discipline. This paper is meant to be suggestive of the directions which could be undertaken in a more extended study. Rhetoric is defined here to mean on the one hand the principles which guide the effective use of language and on the other hand the forms and sequence of forms which structure a language. It is to the latter area, the study of rhetorical forms, that this paper is directed. Some rhetorical devices which have been a basic part of literature are metaphor, simile, analogy, allegory, irony, satire, caricature, metonymy, synecdoche, understatement, overstatement, paradox, allusion, personification, parable, epigram, epithet, oxymoron, catachresis, kenning, periphrasis. This paper can explore briefly only two devices: the metaphor and irony and forms closely associated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbolic interaction theory as derived mainly from the work of George Herbert Mead views the self-concept as a structure of attitudes which arises in social experience and organizes the individual's perception of his social milieu. Recently, tests based upon this symbolic interaction orientation have been developed for the elicitation of self attitudes. One such test frequently used is the Twenty Statements Test (TST) constructed by Manford Kuhn and Thomas McPartland. The TST attempts to ascertain the specific statements respondents use to identify themselves to themselves. The applicability of the TST to problems of self theory is indicated by the rather wide use which has been made of the instrument. Investigations using the TST have focused upon the following: self-concept and social position; a self-concept and behavior; and the self-concept and attitudes toward other social objects. While TST results have been of substantive interest, little attention has been given to the methodological issues involved in the instrument and its use. For example, little is known concerning the validity and reliability of the test and its scoring procedures. If substantive assertions based upon TST results are to be considered as sound, judicious concern should be directed toward basic methodological issues. It is the purpose of this paper to consider empirically one methodological aspect of the TST. The focus is upon the test format itself. The question is posed: Do variations in the TST format produce variations in individuals' response patterns? Specifically, does the length of the test influence the number and the nature of statements made by respondents? This paper is directed toward answering this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary data for this paper, the self-descriptions of respondents from a delinquent gang of Negro boys, were obtained in a Chicago Park District field house. The boys lived in an adjacent public housing project and hung on the corner near the field house and in the playground. The data were collected by a Youth Studies Program staff member who had spent a number of days as an observer of the gang. He was assisted by the gang's detached worker. Following administration of the questionnaire to the gang boys, these men joined efforts and located 23 non-gang boys of similar ages, who also lived in the same project, to serve as control subjects. Administration required about an hour and a half; the paired comparison instrument in which we are primarily interested, about 20 minutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minority groups differ from one another, among other things, in the extent to which they are integrated into or apart from the societies to which they belong. The extent of this integration or apartness is reflected in the various ways in which the minorities differ from the rest of the population, such as in the effect of economic class upon voting. No minority group is ever completely integrated into its society, for complete integration is tantamount to the extinction of group identity. No minority group is ever completely apart, for the term "minority" implies the existence of a majority with which the minority forms a common society. The dimension of integration-apartness is related to but not identical with the dimension of assimilation. Assimilation refers to the replacement or modification of group characteristics as a consequence of out-group contacts. Integration refers to the extent a minority actually forms a part of the body politic of its society. Thus, German "non-Aryan" Christians were fully assimilated but, in the Third Reich, certainly not integrated into the German society. In general, the term "integration" is applicable at various levels of analysis. We talk of the integration of individuals into groupings, the integration of these groupings into further units, and the integration of these into larger units in turn. In the case of our study, individuals are more or less integrated into their respective minority groups, and these in turn are more or less integrated into their respective societies. We are concerned in this paper with developing a measure for the degree of integration of minority groups into their societies. The basic proposition of this paper is: The more apart a minority group is from its society, the more will it differ from that society as a whole in the effect of economic class upon voting. An analysis of the voting of two minorities in Central Europe illustrates the above proposition. This is followed by comments on minority group voting in the United States and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A genuinely sociological theory of social change is lacking, but the literature of the social sciences abounds with the elements of such a theory. The present paper deals with one of these elements, namely the change from tribalism to urbanism as a major instance of social change. For this purpose the concepts of culture and civilization are examined, and a plea is made to restore the concept of civilization to its rightful place in the vocabulary of sociologists and anthropologists. In doing this, the intention is not to reduce social change to the process of urbanization, but rather to isolate the sociological element which makes for social change within the supersession of a familial by a territorial society, wherever it occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this paper are to propose a new concept for use in attitude studies; to explain one way in which this concept has been operationalized; to suggest an hypothesis for use in further studies of this concept; and to present some preliminary research findings concerning this hypothesis. Social scientists have long been interested in differences and similarities between people holding "liberal" and "conservative" attitudes toward various issues and problems of the day. Countless numbers of research studies have been conducted in this area. Perhaps most interesting among these studies have been several attempts to determine whether people tend to have a general liberal-conservative orientation, or whether we must expect their attitudes to vary in different situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the possibility that a relationship exists between authoritarianism as measured by the F-scale and alienation as measured by sociologist Leo Srole's anomie scale. It is the contention of this paper that there is a sound theoretical basis for expecting that authoritarianism would vary directly with alienation. If one accepts the statement that authoritarianism predicts potential recruitment to a totalitarian social movement, then one may look for other conditions, which surround such recruitment. A number of theorists note that mass movements of this nature tend to develop during periods of societal disorganization. The position of this article is that alienation may be a sufficient but not a necessary condition for the occurrence of authoritarianism. Side-stepping the issue of causal sequence, one must show at least that the two vary directly with each other and that this variation is greater than chance. Some F-scale items, particularly those falling in the conventionalism and the sex-projectivity clusters, state that the social order is breaking down. Three components of the Srole scale involve similar attitudes, namely, that the social order is fickle and unpredictable, that there is loss of faith in progress and that life itself is futile.

The article discusses the book "Sociology Today, Problems and Prospects," edited by Robert K. Merton, Leonard Broom, Leonard S. Cottrell. Twenty-six different authors wrote the book. Each contributor's chapter is assessed independently. These twenty-six papers discussed in the book will serve many generations of graduate students as sources of topics for theses and dissertations. No matter from what vantage point a problem has been sighted first and no matter what philosophy has suggested the hypotheses first that tentatively answer them, if they are going to be investigated along the lines of an empirical methodology, they will necessarily contribute to the store of scientific knowledge. One can, however, hardly help wondering whether the structural-functional theory, which many of the authors try to embrace, does really lead them to a deeper penetration of the various fields. The reading of the book leaves one with a feeling of the woeful inadequacy of our factual information. That the papers were intended to clarify problems rather than to summarize factual knowledge can only in part account for this impression. The book is a must in the sociologist's library.

The article presents a regional interpretation of manufacturing as an urban function in the United States. But this interpretation is supplemented by the notion of a national systems of cities, which believes that urban and metropolitan functions are inter-regionally organized. This paper examines the occurrence of manufacturing activity in the larger urban and metropolitan centers of the West North Central geographic division, as defined by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Using manufacturing activity as the dependent variable (Y) and an indication of accessibility as the independent variable (X), the regression of Y on X was computed for each groups as well as the correlation coefficient. Deviations of the actual percentage engaged in manufacture from the predicted percentage were computed for each city. On the basis of study three groups were identified: diversified manufacturing centers with metropolitan functions, diversified manufacturing centers with few metropolitan functions and specialized manufacturing centers. The second major grouping includes the regional metropolises and the regional capitals.

While previous scholarship highlights the importance of cross-class alliances between intellectuals and workers in past social-democratic and labor movements, the growth of right-wing populism may signal the breakdown of this political alignment today. We investigate the extent to which intellectuals and workers remain politically aligned through a case study of political developments in the state of Wisconsin, which pioneered social-democratic reforms in the US in the early twentieth century and then turned toward right-wing populism in the twenty-first century. We draw on Alvin Gouldner and Pierre Bourdieu to theorize intellectual-worker alliances. We then present historical evidence that an intellectual-worker alliance played an important role in the earlier period. Logistic regression analysis with survey data shows continued political antagonism between the state's wealthiest and most highly educated citizens in the later period, as well as an enduring political alignment of highly educated and working-class Wisconsinites. Our results demonstrate that right-wing populism prevailed in Wisconsin despite an intellectual-worker alliance, not because the alliance broke down. We conclude with a discussion of what these findings imply about contemporary right-wing populism beyond Wisconsin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. young adults in the 2000s and 2010s entered a national labor market that was highly stratified by education. While the socioeconomic consequences of a four-year bachelor's degree are well documented during this period, less is known about the consequences of seeking a sub-baccalaureate credential. I analyze the employment, earnings, and student debt outcomes associated with several sub-baccalaureate experiences differentiated by enrollment, credential level, and for-profit attendance using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1997 Cohort. Using fixed-effects regression models, I find that certificates and associate degrees are associated with employment advantages relative to a high school diploma. However, young adults with some two-year college and no credential or a certificate have no higher earnings than those with a high school diploma. Sub-baccalaureate credentials can also be costly, as those who attend a for-profit college have more student debt than those who do not. Results shed light on labor market inequality among a large but understudied segment of higher education and underscore the importance of considering debt alongside labor market outcomes in analyses of the socioeconomic consequences of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013 a group of science fiction authors launched a campaign to reform the Hugos, one of science fiction's most prestigious awards. Dubbing themselves "Sad Puppies," these activists sought to correct what they viewed as a political imbalance. Science fiction, they argued, had moved away from entertaining story telling in favor of heavy-handed message fiction meant to spread pernicious liberal values. This article draws on an analysis of internet posts by actors involved in the movement to examine the Puppies' efforts to reform the science fiction field, reclaiming it as a space for conservative authors and fans. I argue that the leaders of the movement were able to build small fan communities into a larger social movement by framing the movement in such a way as to link their efforts to exogenous political and cultural debates occurring in proximate social fields. This analysis demonstrates the processes by which tournament rituals in popular culture can come to serve as contests of values, arenas within which larger political and cultural conflicts are waged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to a comment by T. R. Young, who sought to intervene in the exchange between the author and Marc Wardell on the role of conceptual frameworks or paradigms in the development of theory in sociology and the social sciences. Young suggested that some of the less well known assumptions of Karl Marx could serve as uniting points between the two correspondents. The dualism of the historicist conceptualization of the transition from capitalism to socialism which appears in Young's comments underestimates the empirical complexity of the political and economic problems of the period of transition. This paper disagrees with Young's final assertion that too much Marxist theory has stood in the way of radical revolution and socialist transformation.

This article replies to David L. Hull's article entitled "Systemic Dynamic Social Theory". It was observed that Hull deplores the assertion that underlying processes cannot be inferred from single overt performances. Overt performance is a small part of total behavior, thus, process-performance relations are not invariant. Contentiously, Hull transfers complexity-intensity relations, posited for psychological phenomena, to societal phenomena. Wave length is related to color - for light waves, but not for radio waves. Similarly, complexity applies to societal and psychological, intensity only to psychological phenomena. Constancy of societal complexity, given invariance of biological base, is a theoretical conclusion.

The article examines the place of values in at least certain critical areas of demographic research. The interest in a topic such as this can flow from a commitment to, if not an involvement in, objective scientific research. The regional convention of the Midwest Sociological Society probably represent the publishing segment of the discipline. Clearly, however, a number of those actively engaged in research and publication are not involved. Those who defend the place of values in research do not fare much better. The competitive nature of peers takes ideas into the market place where other notions more or less attractively packaged are for sale. Probably nothing reinforces the objective character of science as much as does the public character of its results. If science could be private, shared only between the professor and his students, no real test of generality could be developed. Neither could research be freed from the peculiar values of a particular individual. Publication exposes them.

Although we often believe that nature stands apart from social life, our experience of nature is profoundly social. This paper unpacks this paradox in order to (1) explain sociology's neglect of the environment and (2) introduce the articles in this special issue on 'the sociology of nature.' I argue that sociology's disinterest in the biophysical world is a legacy of its classical concern with tracing society's 'Great Transformation' from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft: while early anthropologists studied 'primitive' societies that allegedly had not yet completed 'the passage from nature to culture' (Lévi-Strauss : 99), pioneering sociologists presumed that industrialization and urbanization liberated 'modern' society from nature and therefore focused their attention on 'urbanism as a way of life' (Wirth 1938). As exemplified by the articles in this symposium, environmental sociology critiques the nature-culture and town-country dualisms. One of environmental sociology's core contributions has been demonstrating that nature is just as much a social construction as race or gender; however, its more profound challenge to the discipline lies in its refutation of the sociological axiom that social facts can be explained purely through reference to other social facts. 'Environmental facts' are a constitutive feature of social life, not merely an effect of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closure for crime victims' families has become an important cultural narrative in the past two decades. This paper furthers our understanding of motivational framing and emotional resonance by illustrating how death penalty advocates use emotion-domain expansion to tap into the popular concept of “closure.” By arguing that the death penalty can bring closure and healing to crime victims' families, advocates expand their emotional appeal. Abolitionists have also embraced closure and argue that other options are preferable for victims' families. Implications of this process include shifts in death penalty rhetoric, new feeling rules, emotive dissonance, and the institutionalization of closure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marshall's (2008 ) critique of Black's (1995, 2000a, 2000b ) pure sociology paradigm reveals his preference for studying the psychological properties of individuals, rather than developing a genuinely sociological framework for studying “social life.” The current rejoinder concentrates on four main issues, starting with a discussion of the ontological status of social life as a reality sui generis. The second section deals with the scientific status of pure sociology and clarifies the underlying logic of the explanatory approach. The third part considers the scientific adequacy or validity of pure sociology. Where the intellectual stakes are highest—the theoretical validity of “pure sociology”—Marshall's critique falls flattest: the available evidence overwhelmingly supports the theoretical claims of pure sociologists. By the same token, Marshall fails to demonstrate the utility of psychologizing social life, or how the imputation of psychological variables enhances the explanatory power of purely sociological models. The paper then reveals the hypocrisy of particular aspects of Marshall's critique, as the evidence indicates that he has used some similar elements of theory construction for which he has criticized Black and the pure sociology framework. The conclusion reminds readers of the excitement of pure sociology's mission beyond the futility of irresolvable philosophical quibbles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper integrates the political opportunity and framing paradigms to analyze the discursive processes that were involved in the demobilization of a peasant land struggle in El Salvador. The framing paradigm provides a basis for analyzing how activist rhetoric shapes interpretations of opportunities and grievances among social movement participants to alter the goals and intensity of grassroots protest. As the land struggle demonstrates, leaders communicating with grassroots participants in a process of struggle may, over time, underemphasize shifts occurring in some dimensions of political opportunities, while framing more stable dimensions as having changed. They may also alter their framing of grievances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents ethnographic data on the social world of a group of four college- student crack-cocaine users. A comparative theory of modes of crack using is developed, grounded in strategic comparisons among these data and previously published accounts of the lives of impoverished "street" users. Two social-organizational conditions shielded the campus users from the kinds of crack-related trouble observed in other settings: the security of their social, economic, and physical environment and the boundedness of the spheres of their social lives. Additionally, two related ways of understanding crack served to limit trouble: orienting to crack as a social object to be used only in leisure rituals and the understanding that crack should not impinge on spheres of life outside the using group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social movement scholars generally study movement organizations, a great deal of significant collective action occurs in diffuse, noninstitutional contexts. This article uses the straight edge movement to explore the less structured aspects of movement activity and discuss the roles collective identity plays in diffuse movements. The straight edge collective identity promotes individual action within the context of a commitment to a strong identity. This paper shows how a strong collective identity is the foundation of diffuse movements, providing "structure," a basis for commitment, and guidelines for individualized participation. Finally, the article demonstrates that organizational conceptualizations of social movements fail to capture important avenues of cultural protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The winnowing hypothesis posits that transitions from dating to cohabiting to marital unions are marked by increasing selectivity in the mate selection or matching process. En this paper, we provide comparative estimates of educational, racial, and religious homogamy and heterogamy along a continuum of commitment: sexually intimate dating couples, cohabiting couples, and married couples. Log-linear models, fitted to cross-classified data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, provide only partial support for the winnowing hypothesis. On the one hand, homogamy with respect to race and religion increases slightly as relationships progress from dating to cohabitation to marriage. On the other hand, each relationship-dating, cohabiting, and married-is marked by substantial homogamy, at least for the traits considered here. And, in the absence of homogamy, each couple type reveals quite similar patterns of educational heterogamy or intermarriage, although upward mobility through partnering is less evident among cohabitors. Overall, however, the rather stringent sorting criteria that men and women use in selecting a marital partner, which manifests itself in marital homogamy, is also used in dating and cohabiting relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was intended to help employees meet short-term family demands, such as caring for children and elderly parents, without losing their jobs. However, recent evidence suggests that few women and even fewer men employees avail themselves of family leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. This paper examines the organizational, worker status, and salience, need factors associated with knowledge of family leave benefits. We study employees covered by the FMLA using the 1996 panel of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to ascertain what work and family factors influence knowledge of leave benefits Overall, 91 percent of employed FMLA-eligible women report they have access to unpaid family leave, compared to 72 percent of men. Logistic regression analyses demonstrate that work situations more than family situations affect knowledge of family leave benefits and that gender shapes the impact of some work and family factors on awareness. Furthermore, work and family situations do not explain away the considerable gender difference in knowledge of family leave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine and critique Donald Levine's treatment of the "French Tradition" in sociological thought. After summarizing Levine's account of the development of the French tradition, I discuss the identification of the French tradition with the work of Durkheim, and discuss the reasons for the predominance of Durkheim's work over and above other plausible candidates for exemplars of the French tradition of sociology. I then use this discussion to problematize the identification of sociological theories with national traditions, and the idealist framework that Levine uses to discuss the development of sociological thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Visions of the Sociological Tradition Donald N. Levine presents a view of the German sociological tradition that emphasizes its origins in philosophical idealism. This paper discusses the implications of this view for understanding the formation of sociology in Germany. The author suggests that Levine's account can be supplemented and strengthened by reconstructing the German tradition both as an effort to proceed without foundational philosophical systems and as an outgrowth of social economics and the historical school of political economy. Most importantly, Levine shares the call for sociology as the site of dialogue with that reconstructed German tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecologically unequal exchange theory explains that unequal trade arrangements between higher- and lower-income countries result in greater environmental degradation in lower-income countries. Farm animals are sometimes neglected by sociology because of their unique place between nature and society. Here, we extend ecologically unequal exchange theory to analyze trade relationships between higher- and lower-income countries and farm animal cruelty, using data from 2014. Results from regression analyses show that contrary to what we would expect based on ecologically unequal exchange theory, higher levels of exports to high-income countries from low- and middle-income countries is associated with lower overall farm animal cruelty and production of farm animal cruelty. We suggest that this may be the result of spillover effects, where the types of legislation meant to improve farm animal welfare passed in high-income countries are affecting lower-income countries, and call for more research into animal welfare, including research that examines changes over time as data become available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the idea that performance expectations in problem-solving groups (e.g., juries, planning groups) are partially outside of group members' awareness. We first identify a divergence between indirect and direct teammate performance assessments among participants who are working with a teammate with schizophrenia in a two-person task group. The indirect indicator is the participant's resistance to the teammate's problem-solving suggestions, and the direct indicator is the participant's subsequent and private responses to a series of questions about the teammate's task performance. We explore the divergence further by assessing the extent to which participants' political beliefs differentially affect the two measures. Liberals are likely to hold less explicitly prejudicial views of individuals with a mental illness than do conservatives. But, if performance expectations are driven by fairly uniform status beliefs, liberals' resistance to influence from individuals with a mental illness should be similar to conservatives'. Consistent with that expectation, liberals' direct assessment of the task performance of teammates with schizophrenia is more positive than conservatives', but their indirect assessment (i.e., their resistance to their influence) is the same as conservatives'. All the findings hold with controls for stigmatized behavior toward the teammate (social and physical distance), stigmatized perceptions of the teammate (teammate evaluation and teammate likability), and social desirability bias. The findings are generally consistent with the idea that deference behaviors are sometimes rooted in performance expectations that are subconsciously held. They also illuminate status processes related to mental health and suggest a new way to infer the extent to which explicit performance assessments differ from performance expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly a third of students whose parents do not have bachelor's degrees become first-generation college graduates and over a third of students with at least one parent with a bachelor's degree do not become continuing-generation college graduates. We apply insights from social reproduction theory to study educational mobility, examining which factors are associated with becoming a first-generation college graduate and not becoming a continuing-generation college graduate. Drawing on data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we find that students with low educational origins who become first-generation college graduates have parents who possess and pass down high levels of some resources for their educational level and are well equipped to use the resources they receive. Likewise, students with high educational origins who do not become continuing-generation graduates tend to have parents who possess few resources for their education level, pass down few of some resources, and are less well equipped to use the resources they receive. We discuss the implications of our findings for the openness of the American educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One explanation of increasing gender earnings inequality during China's marketization is the increasing representation of women in industries and occupations in which, on average, earnings are declining. I argue that focusing on the average relationship between feminization and earnings is insufficient to understand complex changes in gender inequality during this period. I hypothesize that the feminization-earnings relationship may vary by industry because of differences in devaluation, social closure, and earnings-setting mechanisms. The hypotheses are tested using data from the China Household Income Project (1988– 2013) in industry-province level fixed-effects models. Results support the hypotheses that focus on industry-specific contexts. Specifically, feminization is not negatively associated with earnings in state-monopolized industries, where earnings are protected, and finance-insurance industries, where high-skilled female-typed skills have been increasingly in demand. I discuss implications for understanding segregation amongst the highly educated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perspectives in human ecology and political economy present local growth as a syndrome of interdependent changes happening over time within municipalities. This quantitative study examines the reciprocal relationship between three core concepts of growth: employment, land development, and migration. To assess these associations across the United States, covering the years 2001–2011, we merge county-level data (n = 3,108) from three sources: USA Counties' Employment Data; satellite imagery from the National Land Cover Database; and the Internal Revenue Service's County-to-County Migration Data. In structural equation models (SEMs) with cross-lagged associations, we estimate the reciprocal relationship between first-difference change scores for three variables: the unemployment rate, the area of human constructed impervious surfaces (i.e. land development), and the ratio of in/out migration. While land development and migration are in an asymmetric, positive feedback loop, the reciprocal association between unemployment and migration is positive in one direction and negative in the other. With SEM, the analysis contributes to the literature by highlighting the social forces of local growth as an interdependent system of reciprocal change, although not fully recursive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and why do advocates choose frames, and what are the effects of these choices? This study draws on two decades of data about the Center for the Child Care Workforce (CCW), an advocacy organization founded by feminist early childhood educators in 1977 to raise child care wages. It traces how contextual factors shape framing choices, and how framing choices shape advocacy goals and claims. Archival research and interview data reveal that discursive barriers led CCW to lobby for ensuring "quality" child care, a strategic choice that inadvertently prioritized professional educators' interests over those of other caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitudes toward gay men and lesbians in the United States have liberalized dramatically over time yet vary substantially between states. Trends in college attainment mirror this uneven progress. This study draws on theories of the university as a cultural institution to examine the relationship between college-educated populations and attitudes toward gay men and lesbians over time and across American states. Employing 1984–2016 American National Election Studies data, this study demonstrates that larger shares of college graduates in a state are associated with more favorable attitudes on average toward gay men and lesbians, including among those who do not have a college degree. These results are robust to competing state-level religious, political, and economic explanations. Results also show that individuals in states with more college graduates are more likely to identify as LGB. This increases the likelihood of knowing someone who is LGB, which in turn leads to more accepting views. Cultural values of tolerance and acceptance espoused by university graduates may create social contexts in which sexual minorities feel safe to come out, thus increasing the visibility of sexual minority communities and enhancing favorable attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to Professor Berry's points about the appropriate test of significance of gamma. His remarks do not alter the findings or conclusions of the author's paper. The crucial question involves those relationships which the author reported as nonsignificant and which therefore led the author to explore alternatives. Professor Berry suggests that an appropriate test of significance may have revealed a significant relationship between occupational and religious mobility. But clearly the chi-square is the appropriate test in the case, for the categories are mobility and nonmobility. The former category can be broken down further into upward and downward mobility. No relationship was found between occupational and religious mobility per se.

The article discusses the relationships between gender role attitudes and marriage among women in early adulthood. The paper focuses on early adulthood, the point at which gender role attitudes and choices among role alternatives are most likely to conflict. The links between gender role attitudes and marriage are the clearest. The paper proposes that the impact of gender role attitudes on marriage, particularly in young adulthood, cannot be evaluated without considering individuals' expectations for schooling. The paper therefore proposes an interactive model where the impact of gender role attitudes on marriage timing depends on individuals' educational expectations. Of course, a high fraction of the first co-residential intimate relationships young people experience are actually non-marital cohabitations, and many cohabitors eventually marry. Although gender role attitudes are likely to have important consequences for early marriage behavior, early marriage may also alter young women's gender role attitudes.

The article examines the effects of race, class, and neighborhood on social isolation of the urban poor in the U.S. Members of the urban underclass are socially isolated in that they lack social ties to individuals who participate in mainstream society in the country. Assessing the social isolation thesis requires consideration of the existence of social ties and the social resources inherent in them. Using survey data from households in Atlanta, Georgia, the paper compares poor and non-poor African Americans to non-Hispanic whites on two key dimensions of social integration — the type of social relationship and extent of contact. In examining the type of social relationships, the paper looks for basic connections to other adults through shared housing and close connections to persons who are in the economic mainstream. For the latter group, the paper focuses on individuals outside the household with whom the respondent discusses important matters, so-called discussion partners. The paper measures extent of contact by the presence and number of discussion partners.

This paper explores two submerged networks in the Pittsburgh area alternative health movement through the use of thirty two intensive interviews and ethnographic research. Utilizing Jurgen Habermas's colonization theory as well as Alberto Melucci's emphasis on the process of collective identity formation, the paper describes a "conservative Christian" and a culturally progressive network demonstrating how these networks differ and what they have in common. The paper examines how new oppositional identities and meanings emerge from face to face interactions between alternative practitioners, patients and activists in a variety of settings. Overall, the paper argues that resistance to the "medical industrial complex," one leading instrument of "colonization," is coming from the Christian right as well as elements of the cultural left. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic illness frequently comes to men suddenly with immediate intensity, severity. and uncertainty. Because men contract more serious and life-threatening chronic illnesses than women, experiencing illness causes men different identity dilemmas. This paper explores men's identity dilemmas by studying how men experience chronic illnesses and by looking at how assumptions about masculinity affected their identity. The paper explores four major processes: (1) awakening to death after a life-threatening crisis. (2) accommodating to uncertainty as men realize that the crisis has lasting consequences for their lives, (3) defining illness and disability and (4) preserving self to maintain a sense of coherence while experiencing loss and change. The data are derived from forty in-depth formal interviews of twenty men, informal interviews with these men, and an extensive collection of published and unpublished personal accounts. The data were analyzed through the strategies of grounded theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper of authors, Harold Kerbo and L. Richard Della Fave on correlation between corporate linkage and control of the corporate economy is critiqued. Inspite of the paper's attempts to provide a clear correlation, the authors use of the study on voting rights to support a thesis of intercorporate control is unconvincing. The evidence which the authors evaluated is not new, therefore not relevant to the realities of corporate environments in the 1980s. Based on their analysis of the data, the authors made flawed conclusions. Studies that rely on multiple indicators of corporate control and multiple data sources usually come to the opposite conclusion of the paper, which stated that the most striking impression gained from a review of the data is how few families and individuals show up at all as having at least 0.2 percent of the stock votes in a corporation.

We will briefly outline some of Marx's central ideas and concepts. Our purpose here is to show non-Marxists the excitement and potential that drive the enterprise. This review can also be of use to those who seized upon part of the Marxian enterprise and either misunderstood it or used it in a way that did violence to the integrity of Marx's methods and theories. While we do not make a claim for the correct reading, we argue that some readings are more plausible than others. We wish to underscore the fact that Marx is not just another sociologist or conflict theorist. Though sociologists have taken over part of the methods and some of the terms in question, sociology is not Marxist, nor is Marxism just another variant of sociology. I believe that many sociologists have no idea of what interested Marx, or why, and that many who parade under Marx's banner have forgotten the complexity of the intellectual enterprise which he identified. There has been a degeneration of the Marxian project, as well as a rebirth. These dual themes are explored in the course of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "action theory" of Alain Touraine and Manuel Castells' theory of urban movements together constitute a social movement paradigm which differs significantly from both the traditional collective behavior explanation and the newer resource mobilization model. In this paper, the Touraine-Castells perspective is contrasted to the existing approaches with relation to social movement causes, characteristics, and outcomes. It is argued that the work of this "French School" represents a partial realization of Traugott's (1978) attempt to reconceptualize social movements as distinct phenomena integrally linked to the analysis of social change outside institutional channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]