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Are public officials more responsive to requests from affluent or poor constituents? A growing body of evidence suggests that lawmakers are more responsive to the rich when they craft policy. However, some scholars theorize that officials also exhibit a corresponding bias in favor of the poor when they handle casework, essentially giving policy to the rich and services to the poor. In this paper, we test this casework prediction using four experiments in which confederates sent simple requests to state or local officials. In each, our confederates’ reported social classes were randomly assigned and signaled with a brief introductory statement mentioning the sender’s occupation or economic situation. Across our samples, we find precisely-estimated null effects of social class biases: the officials we studied were equally likely to respond regardless of the constituent’s class. These findings raise doubts about whether casework is really a class-biased process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How will sociology fare in the twenty-first century? We love what we do. The problem seems to be in communicating the value of what we do to lay people outside the discipline. Sociology's future in part will be dependent upon its practitioners demonstrating its utility in the marketplace of everyday life, assessment and decision making. This paper offers a twenty-year perspective of one sociology department's work in a rural Appalachian region. While providing a brief overview of a series of initiatives, it explains in depth our involvement and contributions to a community-based health project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of desired family size is widely accepted, and numerous studies have been undertaken to measure its level in certain population groups. The determination of desired family size has generally followed the direct question procedure through which the respondent states some whole number as representing her family size wishes at some specified period in her life. Limitations of this method have been recognized, and some research has been conducted toward the development of other techniques of measuring desired family size. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a method of estimating desired family size based on the concept of paired comparison, where the response is restricted in order to reduce respondent bias. Emphasis is on estimation of parameters and test statistics appropriate for evaluating the applicability of the underlying model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the temporal structure of projected futures. The sociology of time is an established line of inquiry, but the existing literature lacks empirically grounded description of the cultural and cognitive dimensions of projected futures. When individuals imagine their futures, what is the qualitative nature and temporal structure of their projected futures? In order to address these questions, we used a mixed-methods strategy of interviews and surveys with 126 persons from a small college in North Carolina. We asked the participants to tell us about their futures. The resulting descriptions form a strongly chronological pattern. When asked about the immediate future (i.e., tomorrow or next week), they tersely describe the tasks that must be completed. In their descriptions of the near future (i.e., next month or next year), they begin to anticipate enjoyable experiences. When they describe the intermediate future (i.e., five to ten years from now), their responses are characterized by detailed and optimistic enthusiasm for the possibilities they envision. They pay little or no attention to the distant future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the importance of childhood oral health, little progress has been made in preventing early childhood caries. Limited information exists regarding specific daily-life and community-related factors that impede optimal oral hygiene, diet, care, and ultimately oral health for children. We sought to understand what parents of young children consider important and potentially modifiable factors and resources influencing their children’s oral health, within the contexts of the family and the community. Methods: This qualitative study employed Photovoice among 10 English-speaking parents of infants and toddlers who were clients of an urban WIC clinic in North Carolina. The primary research question was: “What do you consider as important behaviors, as well as family and community resources to prevent cavities among young children?” Five group sessions were conducted and they were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative research methodology. Inductive analyses were based on analytical summaries, double-coding, and summary matrices and were done using Atlas.ti.7.5.9 software. Findings: Good oral health was associated with avoidance of problems or restorations for the participants. Financial constraints affected healthy food and beverage choices, as well as access to oral health care. Time constraints and occasional frustration related to children’s oral hygiene emerged as additional barriers. Establishment of rules/routines and commitment to them was a successful strategy to promote their children’s oral health, as well as modeling of older siblings, cooperation among caregivers and peer support. Community programs and organizations, social hubs including playgrounds, grocery stores and social media emerged as promising avenues for gaining support and sharing resources. Conclusions: Low-income parents of young children are faced with daily life struggles that interfere with oral health and care. Financial constraints are pervasive, but parents identified several strategies involving home care and community agents that can be helpful. Future interventions aimed to improve children’s oral health must take into consideration the role of families and the communities in which they live. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of conversational narrative to create community and display identity and the way that two grammatical variables, a-prefixing and nonstandard past tense, contribute to the construction of identity. It also discusses the choices made between tradition and adaptation as they pertain to the conversational storytelling of individual speakers in Jefferson in Ashe County, North Carolina, and how those choices are represented through the use of traditional grammatical variables. The author argues that speaking is an active construction of identity; it is the building of personality, and the telling of stories creates and maintain a sense of community among speakers.

Many sociology departments have faced difficult times in the past decade. This article examines how this crisis confronted two universities in North Carolina and the strategies which they used to strengthen their departments. Major emphasis is given to how state associations can assist departments in developing applied curriculum, publicizing their successful endeavors, and recruiting students. The article also provides insights about dealing with outcomes assessment as well as administering internship programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the value orientations of potential migrants and nonmigrants to infer possible push-pull forces for population redistribution and sources of value conflicts between potential movers and destination populations. It is hypothesized that different value orientations will be associated with metro-nonmetro migration preferences (after adjusting for social, economic, and life cycle characteristics). Data come from a statewide survey in North Carolina. The findings indicate that value-based push-pull forces seem to operate primarily on potential nonmetro-to-metro movers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on trends in graduate training in sociology at Durham, North Carolina based-Duke University. Graduate training in sociology in the past and current decade on the basis of expertise have been assessed. That expertise comes from academic journalism, meetings, professional networks, and experience in administering programs. The first three yield common knowledge that can degenerate easily into trite truisms, the last is unique but parochial material that can become autobiographical trivia. Nonetheless, it may help in assessing, revising, and giving more precision to common knowledge. Institutionally Duke's relatively small program has granted more than 150 doctoral degrees in its 60 years. Though a university only since 1927, Duke affords a fine scholarly environment, has an excellent reputation, and attracts good students and national support. Graduate sociology at Duke has experienced considerable expansion. The Duke and Princeton graduate programs are the smallest to have been among the top 25 in every evaluation since 1960. Other small programs that rated as well or better either have dropped or terminated. Simply to maintain rank has required an extraordinary commitment of effort and resources.

Scattered throughout the South, there are over a hundred groups of people who are classified by the U.S. Census Bureau as Indians. Some of these groups, like the Catawba and the Eastern Cherokee of North Carolina, the Seminoles of Florida, and the Choctaws of Mississippi, are of relatively pure Indian stock and are recognized as such by the government, but the majority are Indians by courtesy. They represent varying mixtures of white, African Americans, and Indian blood, but as a rule the white strain predominates, and Indian culture is either very weak or extinct. This article is based upon field work among the largest and most significant of these groups, the so-called Croatan Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina. These mixed, despised, and nameless people were classed as colored by the white people, but they cherished an intense desire to escape this stigma and be recognized as white. When the state constitution was revised in 1835, they were deprived of the suffrage, along with the free African Americans, and they were told that they could not attend the public schools for whites. Resentful, some of them built little one-room schools of their own, or kept their children out of school, rather than send them to school with African Americans.

This article analyze a teaching situation which involves the Departments of Rural Sociology and of Agricultural Education at North Carolina State College. During the past four decades, vocational agriculture (vo-ag) has become one of major rural life programs in several states as well as in the nation as a whole. Vocational agriculture is now one of the major rural life educational programs in the United States. The rural texts devote very little attention to the vo-ag program--the variation is from failure to mention the program at all to giving only a paragraph or two; and, as an aside, it might be pointed up that some of the statements made reveal only a superficial understanding of the program. The vo-ag program is almost entirely community-oriented while the Extension Service is not so orientated or at least not nearly to the same degree. The supervising teachers may have unfavorable attitudes toward adding research tools to the teacher role--they have not considered this as a part of their role.

Factors inducing a sample of farmers in North Carolina to build houses for themselves fell into four major categories, relating respectively to housing conditions, normative orientations, family structure, and economic status. Specific questioning relative to the effect of old house conditions indicated that physical deterioration and small size were most decisive. The growth of children (among past changes) and the birth of children (among expected changes) were the most influential factors relating to family structure. In general, greater association was found between inducing factors and variations in the life cycle of the family than between these factors and the quality of housing. These findings have practical implications for the placement of educational emphases in housing, and for housing design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a preface by the editor. As, this would be the last issue that the editor would be responsible for; he acknowledges the support of various individuals and reviewers. He appreciated the educational institutions that provided financial support -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He notes that it was through their contribution that the "state of inquiry" has become what it is today. He relates that, ultimately, what does and does not appear in a professional journal is the editor's decision. He implies that he has striven for objectivity, although no one denies that editor's biases are reflected in the choice of subjects. Specially in the selection of subjects for the four special issues -- 53/2-3, 1983, "Sociology of the Environment"; 54/2, 1984, "Issues of Interest to the Profession"; 56/1, 1986, "Gender Roles and Women's Issues"; and 57/2, 1987, "Comparative/Historical Sociology of Science." He construes that journal editors act as gatekeepers by exercising control over the flow of scientific and/or scholarly knowledge. They also play a significant role in people's career. The editor says that he wrote letters to deans and/or chairpersons on behalf of sociologists being considered for promotion and/or tenure to the effect that their manuscripts were scheduled for publication.