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The development of educational computing in the last two decades has been largely uncritical and the field is dominated by technocentric approaches. With few notable exceptions, sociologists of education have not directly addressed educational computing. As a result, the social, political and cultural origins and implications of educational computing have remained to date underexplored. Viewing education as a predominantly social and political phenomenon, this paper suggests that information technology in education should be situated within its neglected social context. It draws on research which appropriates ideas from the sociology of education, sociology of technology, social theory and cultural studies, and looks into the development and evolution of Logo programming language in education in United States and British primary and secondary schools as a case study in the politics of educational change. The predominant lesson drawn from this analysis is that when Logo was introduced, preexisting social relations were largely able to utilize the new technology as an avenue for reasserting themselves, thus reinforcing the status quo. In both United States and United Kingdom primary schools, Logo ended up being seen most often as an elementary geometrical program, or simply as an exercise in enjoyable computer interaction. In secondary schools, if Logo was used at all, it was used in the context of "teaching programming" rather than as a means of expressing mathematical ideas. The dominant and powerfully established school structures changed the meaning of Logo and assimilated it into the existing system, to the disappointment of its original developers. (Contains 42 references.) (Author/AEF)

Four papers discuss research exchanges between the United States and the USSR and East Europe. The first paper considers the evolution of perceptions of social scientists in these countries during the Cold War and Detente. The dominant view of American researchers during the Cold War was that the United States, as the most modern society, was the yardstick for measuring other societies. The United States experienced rapid growth of training and research related to the Soviet orbit. However, Soviet scholars were constrained by Marxist-Leninist doctrine and by educational and research policies. In the 1960s, American social scientists gained a greater appreciation for the complexities of modern societies and East European social scientists began innovative studies. The second paper discusses evaluations of research exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union. The conclusion is that these exchanges are scientifically valuable to both countries. The most serious problem is Soviet political repression of its scientific community. The third paper discusses problems and accomplishments of East European studies in the United States. Although progress seems to be steady, American social scientists have come to pursue topics that are politically safe, and thus often of secondary importance. The final paper suggests that in exchanges between the Soviet Union and the United States, both academic and government communities profit. The point that Soviet exchanges are generally in sciences and engineering and American exchanges are in history and literature illustrates that each side sends whom it wishes. Thus, the author concludes that this type of exchange is neither unbalanced nor unfair. (Author/KC)

The author conducted a cross national analysis of sociological research reported in leading journals at two points in time over a ten year period to determine if sociologists' ability to produce valid social generalizations had improved significantly over the recent past. The official journals of the United States (American Sociological Review), Canada (Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology), and Great Britain (Sociology) were selected for examination. Also included in the analysis were two other highly reputed journals--the American Journal of Sociology and the British Journal of Sociology. Only articles reporting the results of empirical research were included in the comparative analysis. All of the research reports contained in the five journals were examined to determine the research design employed, the type of sample or population investigated, and the method used to collect the data. Results include the following. Particularly in the American journals, but also in the Canadian Review, the analysis revealed changes over the past ten years in the methodological characteristics of published studies such that sociologists' ability to make valid social generalizations may be improved substantially. By taking readings at several points in time, selecting a broadly based sample, and not relying exclusively upon one or two methods of data collection, it is extremely likely that the generalizations produced are less affected by measurement artifacts and instead reflect effects of relevant factors as they impinge upon the variables sociologists seek to explain. (Author/RM)

Fronteras 1976 is a bicentennial project, coordinated by two cities that share a common geographic region--San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. The project, developed from the need for structured binational cooperation in this region, focuses on the quality of life for the next century, especially the mutual opportunities and mutual problems of the two cities. The proceedings of the May 1976 plenary session are contained in this document. "A View of the Border from Mexico was the theme. The key address discussed the close ties and resulting impact of one country's actions on the other. The former Mexican Under Secretary of Commerce for Border Development then reviewed the economic growth in the border regions of the United States. The economic progress of the border was discussed along with border problems. A sociological paper was presented which challenged the existing definition of the illegal alien situation as a potential self-fulfilling prophecy with adverse consequences. An architect stressed the need for future binational planning efforts in the context of physical problems facing the people of the region. A senior mexican diplomat who is a specialist on international education concluded the conference by speaking about defining the role of educational exchange in international relations. (Author/ND)

Social theorists inspired by Foucault suggest that an enterprising self, or "neoliberal" subjectivity, not only legitimates economic inequality, but also enlarges it. It is theorized that those who internalize and actout the economic theory of individual as 'an entrepreneur of himself' will be more productive, or at least make stronger claims as to their productivity, at work and receive correspondingly greater economic rewards. I provide a first quantitative test of this theory. I operationalize an entrepreneurial selfidentity using 12 questions indicating an orientation to selfmastery and selfflexibility asked of a recent, nationallyrepresentative panel of US workingage adults, MidLife Development in the United States (MIDUS). Initial models find that variation in this selfidentity helps account for disparities in earnings observed between and within occupations in the contemporary United States. Developing relational and feminist theories of earnings inequality, I argue that intrapersonal emotional work on the self is a part of claiming, if not generating, economic value at work. In doing so, I contribute to a nascent ''new' sociology of wages', that emphasizes the reciprocal, social construction of identity and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "illegality" of some family members influences opportunities, limitations, and resources for everyone in a household. While most scholarship on immigrant families has been concerned with intergenerational dynamics, sibling relationships have the potential to reveal so much more about the effect of legal status precisely because they are peers in the same household: there are no generational differences, and the environment in which they are raised in the same. This paper draws on the experiences of 100 mixed-status families, based on five years of ethnographic study in a US-Mexico border county where an estimated 11.7 percent of the general population is undocumented. The study relied on a unique approach: rather than interviewing one person from each family, it sought greater depth by focusing on multiple members of the same family in order to produce novel empirical and theoretical insights. Findings illustrate that jealousy and resentment is frequently experienced between siblings with different statuses. On the flip side, U.S. citizen siblings may feel guilty for having more opportunities and resources than others in the family. Stratification by legal status also often leads to a stratification of social and everyday responsibilities, such as driving, sharing college financial aid, or expectations to provide more internal remittances than others. Undocumented siblings must watch as their citizen brothers and sisters get better health care than they do. While many gladly assist others, sharing is not always a benign or altruistic activity, and strongly impacts power dynamics in the family. This paper, grounded in the tradition of a scholar-activist sociology, concludes that political efforts toward reform must take into account the experiences of mixed-status families, now a primary and enduring feature of the contemporary immigrant experience in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) is the most commonly used obstetrical intervention in the United States. Despite the widespread use of these devices, there is little to no evidence that they improve maternal or fetal health outcomes. Instead, the monitors may lead to an increase in unnecessary and potentially dangerous interventions. This paper, based on interviews with ninety-four birth providers in five cities across the United States, seeks to understand how both physicians and midwives interact with these devices. More generally, how do relationships between experts and technology develop and stabilize? Under which circumstances do technologies reinforce expertise or threaten to replace experts? This paper also challenges a common thread in the sociology of birth that explains current power structures by focusing on the professional struggles of midwives and obstetricians. While these studies of maternity care are helpful, they are often marked by an overreliance on professional and gender rivalries as explanatory variables. I argue that analytical approaches focused on professional jurisdiction should be replaced by studying expertise networks, a broader concept encompassing actors, devices, and institutional and spatial arrangements (Eyal 2013). I show the utility of this approach by demonstrating how devices like electronic fetal monitors are key players in understanding contemporary power structures in American birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that more often projects implemented to eradicate poverty are not sustainable in the long run because "best practices" or reforms are imposed on the communities and thus undermining their incentive to develop their own capacity. It further argues that by involving the community it means bringing in the planning process new ideas that are very useful for the project but may not necessarily be known to the staff of the implementing agency that live outside the community area. Yet other researchers argue that as much as "participation" or collectivist is advocated for, it has its own disadvantages - "there are times when autonomy and individual responsibility are more important than participation and team responsibility" [Rosabeth Kanter - the changemasters, 1983; p140]. The paper discusses at length the "American ethic of individualism" - declining social capital that poses a challenge to social entrepreneurs in their effort to involve communities in the project participation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with sociological theorizing on political talk and deliberation. Is it indeed organizations that impact customs of political talk in groups (Lichterman; Eliasoph), or is it that, in the absence of deliberation as a social field, people will model their talk in public in relation to established practices and familiar conversation styles (Ryfe; Polletta)? Observing an activist group assembled via the internet and, hence, not constrained by organizational pressures, I analyze how the group participants make sense of political talk. I find that the group does involve in discussions but define them as residual to action. Featured discussions are modeled on talk typical of a classroom, and open-ended, argumentative and elevated talk is seen as less significant than fact-laden lectures. I also notice the group's perceptions of its blog: it remains silent even though defined as a proper space for discussion. Thus even in the absence of direct organizational constraints, the group strives to make talk meaningful and does it by modeling it on established talk practices. I conclude by suggesting the importance of comparative analysis of group conversation models and their potential for opening up space for informal political talk, formation of collective identity and bonding. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper challenges the collective memory research tradition to reconfigure its first principles by adopting a neo-Gramscian approach to historical memory that more fully elucidates the complex relationships between conflict and consensus, hegemonies and counterhegemonies, historical blocs and transformative social action, the dialectical relationship of past and present, and the politics of remembering, forgetting, and silencing. Of particular interest is the role of social movements and redress politics in compelling actors and nations to come to terms with a sordid past often relegated to the dustbins of history. Rather than assuming that collective memory necessarily reproduces social order, it is best to critically interrogate how those memories might engender social consensus and/or conflict, order and/or change. Quite conceivably, memories could perpetuate conflict and allow the burning embers of past experiences to smolder until awakened. They could reinforce and perpetuate social antagonisms and reproduce a great deal of resentment about both the past and present. The case of the U.S.-Mexico Bracero Program, the largest temporary worker program to date, is critically examined in light of a successful redress campaign in Mexico and an unrealized equivalent in the United States. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists of science habitually observe the processes of creating knowledge in the natural and exact sciences, via ethnography and observation in laboratory contexts. While scholars in the sociology of knowledge have emphasized the institutionalization of disciplines and the development of ideas in the humanities and social sciences, these scholars have only recently adapted methods to observe the production of humanistic and interpretive knowledge "on the ground." In this paper, I articulate a framework for the observation and analysis of "knowledge practices" in the humanities and social sciences. I define knowledge practices as the coordinated activities that "end" as scholarly products (in the form of texts, curricula, and faculties). In my view, knowledge practices flow from scholars' practical, and to some extent ideological, positions in relation to norms of scholarly conduct, and encompass curricular development, evaluation and definitions of good scholarship, and norms regarding cross-disciplinary interaction. To support this analytic and methodological framework, I draw on insights from my own case study of feminist scholarship and women's and gender studies in the United States. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presidential addresses have sometimes been treated as appropriate data to represent the sociology of the constituencies of the associations addressed. The representative status of ISA presidential addresses is considered, relating them to the ideological background, historical develpment and organisational structures of the ISA, and discussing the extent to which they can be seen as social rather than individual intellectual products. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional frameworks that determine what and how we know in contemporary societies have regained a central role in institutional analyses. Emphasizing the central role professional knowledge plays in today's society, these analyses offer rich insights into the processes through which organizational rules, norms and practices shape the construction of 'facts' within expert groups. How novel fields of professional knowledge are formed and become institutionalized deserves further investigation however. By examining efforts by institution builders in molecular biology in Britain, Germany and the United States during the post war decades, this study links the construction of new expert groups to local ideological frames about human advancement and the role of the state. Scientific expert groups play an important role in the technological development of the West and form an intellectual core around which contemporary knowledge societies are organized. This study outlines how local ideological frames determine 1) outcomes of struggles for legitimacy between these groups and 2) the institutionalization of the fields of expertise around which these groups are organized. The final sections reflect on how conceptual insights gained through this study offer avenues for further research in the sociology of organization literature and the literature on the history of modern thought. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individualism in Japan is somewhat conceptually different from its counterpart in the United States. When I was studying sociology at the master's level in Missouri, some people asked me if individualism existed in Japan. Some of them were quite sure that Japan did not have a concept of the individual and that the Japanese were orientated only toward conformity or collectivism. My answer was "yes" and "no." Individualism exists in Japan, but it has a unique way of being interpreted by the Japanese people as it is tightly coupled with conformity. While working on my thesis in Missouri, I conducted interviews with Japanese students in the US to collect data about compensated dating ("Enjo Kosai") in Japan. Their responses to my interviews indicated that they are orientated toward both individualism and conformity in complicated ways. Rationally these two theses may appear in conflict with each other; however, how people sublate them is explained through my research results. This process helps explain how modernity penetrated Japanese society and transformed traditionalism in Japan. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder (AD/HD) affects an estimated 4.4% of adults in the United States. Once thought only to affect children, AD/HD is increasingly diagnosed in adults who went undiagnosed in childhood. While explanations for this phenomenon range from poor diagnosis tools to increased medicalization, application of other sociological approaches can expand current understandings of adult AD/HD. This paper focuses on two possible avenues of inquiry associated with sociology, life course perspectives and illness experiences, highlighting possible contribution from each. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an institution, sport holds an integral position as a component of our culture that is connected to the economy, educational institutions, and many other spheres of social life in America. Much of the research in this area implies that although participation in collegiate athletics is often considered a golden opportunity for African-Americans, there is actually compelling evidence to the contrary. In fact, serious involvement in athletics has been associated with the hindrance of other areas of development amongst African-Americans, including educational and occupational achievement. This study examines the post-collegiate experiences of African-American male athletes, emphasizing the societal processes and pressures affecting the transition out of the role of athlete and into the occupational sector. Twenty in-depth ethnographic interviews with former collegiate athletes who are African-American yielded several interesting findings. The athletes were not prepared for a career while in college and suffered accordingly as they attempted to transition into post athletic careers. Additionally most of the respondents suffered from depressive symptoms as they made this transition. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing data from interviews from 18 Indian American couples, I found that multiculturalism in the U.S. involves the willingness to answer constant questions from non-Indians about India and Indian culture. Surprisingly, despite being asked primarily about the same set of cultural markers and experiences, I found that participants in my study did not find this constant questioning offensive. Moreover, participants reported that they enjoyed educating non-Indians about Indian culture. Thus, "cultural ambassador" is merely a component of friendly U.S. multiculturalism. This paper critiques multiculturalism as cultural hegemony that places Indian Americans as the inherent subject with the expectation that they can speak for all of India and Indian culture. Consequently, the "cultural ambassador" contributes to a homogenous view of the Indian American community. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many historians of sociology in the U.S. have examined the career of Pitirim A. Sorokin, most (with the conspicuous exception of Lewis Coser) have not recognized fundamental linkages between his American publications and his formative years in Russia and the early Soviet Union. The absence of such contextual understanding is arguably a fundamental reason behind the widespread perception of Sorokin as a marginal, even "deviant" figure in social science. The present paper attempts to show how Sorokin's Russian background shaped both stylistic and substantive features of his work. If successful, this may provide a basis for increased dialogue on this topic among sociologists in the U.S., as well as in Russia, where there has in recent years been a "rediscovery" and celebration of Sorokin. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cultural analysis has seen a recent surge of interest in the "social imaginary," social scientists have dealt only peripherally, when at all, with the impact of the imagined future on social events. In this paper I discuss some of the reasons why the analysis of the future has been so neglected in sociological theory and research, then sketch a possible framework for reincorporating it, and finally describe one attempt to apply this perspective to empirical research on social movement activism. The study of future projections allows us to make a bridge from cognition to action, since projections constitute cognitive simulations of imagined choices, experiences, relations, and future states. Moreover, by unpacking the cognitive dimensions of projections, we gain analytical leverage for understanding the kinds of actions that individuals and collectivities undertake. This discussion points toward a "sociology of the future," by examining how future projections - often tenuous and uncertain - shape and are shaped by social processes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether the most prominent macro-social theories of movements help explain broad historical patterns of national newspaper coverage of U.S. SMOs and movements, a measure of discursive influence. In examining new data from the New York Times for all covered U.S. SMOs for every year in the twentieth century, we provide the first extensive mapping of coverage of SMOs and find that patterns in it are partly consistent with the resource mobilization, political process/protest cycle, and new social movement theories. However, coverage has not co-varied with disposable income or assumed a regular cyclical pattern, and recent SMOs based on post-material values have not displaced previous SMOs in newspaper attention. A revised version of political contextual influences that focuses on movements that have already emerged and the impact of policy changes provides the best explanation of the patterns of coverage. In the conclusion, we draw out implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by examining recent debates in the sociology of religion over the extent and irreversibility of secularization in American culture. Within that context, it explores ways in which contemporary natural and social scientific disciplines continue to be imbued with religious concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks whether the relationship between neighborhood and household income levels and neighborhood hazard levels varies according to neighborhood and household racial composition. Using a national, census tract-level dataset, we find that black, white, and Hispanic households with similar incomes live in neighborhoods of dissimilar environmental quality, that the association between neighborhood and household income levels and neighborhood hazard levels varies according to neighborhood and household racial composition, and that increases in neighborhood and household income levels are more strongly associated with declining hazard levels in black neighborhoods and households than in white neighborhoods and households. These findings contradict Wilson's claim that the significance of race has declined in the modern industrial period and demonstrate that environmental racial inequality is not the product of racial income inequality. In addition, these findings suggest that the impact of higher incomes on black/white proximity to environmental hazards has less to do with increases in white geographic mobility (relative to black geographic mobility) than with the ability of higher income blacks to escape the highly polluted, disorganized, and deteriorated neighborhoods to which so many low income blacks are confined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, research on the multiracial population has been largely theoretically driven without substantial empirical investigation into how mixed-race people form a multiracial identity. This project articulates the historical, political, and cultural contexts that multiracial people experience living in the United States in order to build a foundation for exploring the particular social and cultural factors that influence multiracial identity development in mixed-race persons. In addition, this project bridges the psychological and sociological literatures on the multiracial population through its discussion of social/ecological influences on identity and identity theory. The author will conduct in-depth interviews (starting this spring) with 30-50 mixed-race respondents to better understand not only the multiracial identity formation process, but also to grasp the ways in which Hispanic/Latino identities complicate the formation of a multiracial identity, as well as exploring how context influences the expression of this identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, 355,312 American Community Survey respondents claimed one or more Hispanic ancestries when asked "What is your ancestry or ethnic origin?" 22,542 of these Hispanic descendants answered in the negative when asked "Are you Spanish/Hispanic/Latino?" Six percent of Americans with Hispanic ancestry did not identify as Hispanic when asked directly. They are the Hispanic non-Hispanics. This paper seeks to explain their prevalence as a function of identificational assimilation, non-Hispanic proximal hosts, and Hispanic/class stigmatization. By putting these concepts to empirical test, it becomes clear that nativity, ancestry, race, and economic standing are all highly predictive of Hispanic identity. Most importantly, it is found that Americans of Hispanic ancestry who are of high economic standing are less likely to identify as Hispanic than those of lower economic standing. It is shown here that wholesale exclusion of Hispanic non-Hispanics which is standard practice in social scientific studies of Hispanic advancement downwardly bias our assessments of their collective socioeconomic achievements. I argue in favor of a more inclusive definition of the Hispanic population—one that includes all those who acknowledge there Hispanic ancestry and/or those who identify as Hispanic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on G.H. Mead and Merleau-Ponty, this paper aims to correct the existing bias in sociological thought that views self-reflexivity as a discursive, abstract, and symbolic process. It offers a framework for embodied self-reflexivity, which anchors the self in the indexical power of bodily sensations. The data consist of two years of ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews of Vipassana meditation practitioners in Israel and the United States. The findings illustrate how bodily sensations are used as icons or indexes to psychological states, emotions, and past experiences, while embodied responses can be used as a tool for self-monitoring. I suggest that Vipassana meditation is a cultivated version of an everyday use of the body in the process of self-reflexivity, a use that has so far been neglected in sociological thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What makes political life in the United States so different from political life in France, Hungary or Argentina? This paper considers why societies "do politics" differently. However, in contrast to much previous work, we employ a resolutely inductive analytical logic. We draw on Bourdieu's criticism of substantialist thinking in sociology and on his conceptualization of the social space to argue for a new theoretical and methodological agenda for carrying out comparative research. We do this by exploring and constructing a "space of polities" based on data from the 2004 World Values Survey, using a variety of relational statistical techniques (e.g., geometric data analysis). The main insight, which we develop at length, is that any single form of political action (e.g., joining a voluntary association, or a demonstration, or a boycott) only takes its meaning in the context of its objective relationship to other political forms that are legitimate within a particular society. We explore the diversity of polity types that actually exist and discuss how they emerge from countries' similar configurations of practices. We suggest that the reason for such clustering lies in similar political-historical trajectories. We conclude by arguing for a comparative approach that is sensitive to differences in overall systems of relationships. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. policy formation occurs within a context reliant on scientific evidence. Interestingly, insights from the sociology of science about the socially-constructed nature of scientific fact and credibility have not been appropriately incorporated when considering the politics of policy formation process. Using the occasion of a highway siting controversy, we argue that incorporating these insights to current understandings of policy framing lead to a focus on claimsmaker credibility. Using in-depth interviews with political actors in the controversy, the data suggest political actors are concerned about their status as credible claimsmakers. The nature of scientific truth suggests that it (and its associated policy recommendations) will be the product, and not the cause, of closure. We offer a framework that also builds upon the sociology of science for understanding the actual means of closure that make themselves apparent in the other-than-scientific discursive tactics political actors use in the period before the end of debate. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from the social movement theory of framing to identify the multiple-frame strategy which Robbie Gill Comer used as Imperial Commander of the Women's Ku Klux Klan. According to framing theory, social movement leaders must align their audiences' belief systems with the movement's ideology and guide potential constituents to collective action. Because neither Sociology nor History has sufficiently addressed the question of framing as a process using historical cases, this paper addresses the following questions: 1) How do leaders articulate and amplify frames? and 2) How much do leaders use a multiple-frame strategy which bridges and innovates frames, including those implying contradictory ideologies? Using the computer software program Atlas, I content coded the speeches and articles written by Robbie Gill Comer and then analyzed the text for thematic structure. Atlas was developed for the systematic analysis of qualitative data and provides the opportunity to identify the strategic framing processes, including frame bridging, that emerge within movements. I found that Comer used the maternalist, feminist, patriotic, women are different, and Protestant frames in various combinations with each other. Study of the historical case of the Women's Ku Klux Klan will provide a richer understanding of early 20th century social movement organizations which were integral to the development of women's organizations in American society. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how Americans think about and evaluate issues of diversity and difference. This paper uses new, nationally representative data to ask how deep this acceptance goes, and how Americans understand both the possibilities and the problems that come along with it. We find that while very few people see diversity only in a negative light, there is substantial ambivalence about it. Relying upon an interpretive analysis of open-ended questions, we show that the benefits of diversity are understood in a number of ways, including the promise of expanded cultural horizons and as a fulfillment of the national ideal of a "melting pot." At the same time, Americans see costs associated with diversity, but above all the possibility of disunity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the emergent role that social-identity based organizations are taking on in the governance of the workplace and as a vehicle of worker voice in the United States. The organizations include such groups as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) an organization that represents the interests of gay men and lesbians, among others; these are organizations headquartered in or near Washington, DC that represent the interests of a particular social niche in American society. For many years, these organizations and others like them have played central roles Washington-based policy-making circles. But within the last five to ten years, a significant number of these organizations have created offices or "initiatives" that are directly identifying and addressing workplace issues and concerns associated with their constituencies. This involvement represents a shift in approach, toward engaging directly with employers in order influence specific terms and conditions of employment in the workplace. The present paper examines the expanding role that National Membership Organizations are taking on with respect to providing an outlet for workers to voice their interests both inside and outside the workplace. The first part of the paper explores how organizations are going about pursuing their goals in the workplace. It reports on a series of preliminary interviews conducted with several of the most prominent organizations operating in this arena. The second part of the paper discusses these organizations' activities in light of several theoretical debates in political economy and economic sociology. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine focus groups as a qualitative research method. We describe and evaluate the use of focus groups based on three separate research projects: a study of teachers, parents, and children at two urban daycare centers, a study of the responses of second-generation Muslim Americans to the events of September 11, and a collaborative project on the experiences of children and youth following Hurricane Katrina. By examining three diverse projects, we are able to illustrate some of the strengths and challenges of the focus group as a sociological research method. In addition, in this article we provide practical advice regarding the design and implementation of focus groups, including information on participant recruitment, the most effective group size, group composition and issues of segmentation, how to carry out focus groups, and the ideal number of groups to conduct. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The percentage of women who marry close to the time of sexual debut (e.g., who marry either as virgins or who marry within a year of first sex) has increased in recent years. From an absolute low of 15% among the birth cohort of 1969, the percentage of women marrying within a year of sexual debut increased to 25% among the birth cohort of 1977. What changed? Against a backdrop of increasing ages at first marriage, decreasing ages at first sex, and amplified emphasis on abstinence-only education, we explore the possibility that early marriage (in close association with sexual debut) has become a route to improved social status for a particular subset of socioeconomically disadvantaged women. More broadly, we use the National Survey of Family Growth to analyze the changing roles of religion, race, and ethnicity in relationship to patterns in first sex and marriage over the past forty years. We find that over time, the same factors have predicted whether a woman will experience sexual debut near the time of marriage. However, we also find that over time, the pool of women who marry as (near) virgins has become more and more select. These findings have important implications for the sociological study of the life course, as well as for determining the most effective means to protect individuals from sexually transmitted infections and undesired pregnancies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonprofit sector of the cultural industries is caught between pressures to earn more of its income while still fulfilling a tax exempt purpose. To respond to this squeeze, many organizations are seeking to shed enough of their elitist roots to alter who and how people experience the arts. Unfortunately, until recently the most prevalent strategies have been essentially short-term activities designed to provide an "elite experience for all" (Zolberg 1994). But just like sailing into the wind, even the most sincere arts organizations found themselves tacking toward shorter and shorter interim goals as they encounter forces of external resistance; at other times, the weight of institutional constraint slowed progress as if they were dragging an anchor. This paper identifies two distinct models of organizational effort underway in cultural institutions in the U.S. - a consumerist transactional model and a humanist relational model - both challenging institutional norms while seeking to democratize the arts. Both new participation models place the organization in a new roles serving as a cultural intermediary between diverse cultures and cultural products rather than as the arbiter of taste. The works of four organizations provide exemplars of these efforts: The Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. (est. 1846), the Old Town School of Music in Chicago (est. 1957), Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis (est. 1973), and the San Francisco Symphony (est. 1911). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of Americans will marry in their lifetime, and for many, marriage symbolizes the transition into long-term commitment. However, not all Americans can legally marry. In this article, we use in-depth interviews with gays and lesbians in long-term partnerships to examine union formation and commitment-making histories. Using a life course analysis, we examine how couples conceptualize and form committed relationships despite being denied the right to marry. Although previous studies suggest commitment ceremonies are a way to form gay and lesbian unions, we find that long-term couples do not follow normative commitment-making trajectories. We argue that relationships can transition, more ambiguously, to committed formations without marriage, public ceremony, clear-cut act, or decision. For long-term gay and lesbian couples, conceptualization of commitment is structured differently due to their unique social, cultural, and historical relationship to marriage and ceremonies. Such an understanding of commitment-making outside of marriage has implications for theorizing alternative forms of union making. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature and anecdotal information within discusses employment discrimination experience by African Americans in general and job discrimination experienced by African American men in particular. Emphasis is given to discussing the emergent practice on the part of corporate employers to hire Black women over Black men. Factors influencing this practice are discussed and some recommendations for ameliorating it is tendered. Suggestions for further examination of topic are presented. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental movement industry has experienced significant structural changes over the past decades in the United States. I investigate the dynamics in the formation of the partnership ties for joint litigation between the environmental movement organizations (EMOs) operating at the national level for the period, 1970-2001. I aim to explicate (a) the structural conditions under which (a) the EMOs have formed partnership ties for environmental litigation and (b) the generative-structural processes and the differentiating processes in the partnership network structure. Analytic foci are based on the investigation of the degree distributions and the statistical network models (conditional logit). The findings suggest that the traditional EMOs have come together for environmental litigation as a contemporary movement strategy and the overall structures have become structurally hierarchical and functionally differentiated for the given period. The findings help further study structural dynamics of inter-organizational relations in both non-profit and for-profit sectors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Science Foundation is sponsoring the establishment of a research ethics program for doctoral students studying at land grant universities in the United States. In this research ethics program, doctoral students enroll in a general research ethics course and participate in subject-specific research ethics modules. In this paper, we outline a module to educate students about research ethics in the field of sociology. First, we overview differences between the social sciences and the natural sciences. Then we discuss ways to engage in sociological research. After this, we introduce ethical standards, issues, and sanctions in sociology. Finally, we emphasize the inherent ambiguity of research ethics in sociology by presenting a case study, critiquing the case study, and then posing questions for further discussion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s saw a rapid expansion of coffee shops in the United States, with Starbucks leading the upswing. Through interviews with patrons in independently- and corporately-owned coffee shops in the District of Columbia, this research explores consumers’ perceptions of how coffee shops fit into their lives. Our particular interest is a group of coffee shop patrons we call Campers, who spend long periods of time in the coffee shop and are involved in a variety of solitary activities. This paper identifies the conventions that attract such patrons to the coffee shop and how these have come to shape its culture: the Coffee Shop World. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segmented assimilation theory argues that immigrants follow different paths of assimilation into different segments of American society. Portes and Zhou identify three pre-existing segments into which immigrants assimilate: the middle class, the underclass, and a pseudo-segment identified by economic advancement and immigrant solidarity. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we attempt to identify these and other possible segments as well as factors such as immigrant generation, race, ethnicity, that are associated with these segments. Cluster analysis of the young adult men and women of Add Health do not yield segments consistent with segmented assimilation theory, nor are the resulting segments satisfactorily robust. We then turn to a reexamination of the theory with the hope that the inclusion of concepts from class analytic and status attainment literatures can inform and enrich segmented assimilation theory. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, researchers have connected the current criminal justice regime in the United States to neoliberal economics. While I accept this contention, few researchers have commented on the orientation toward democracy that both regimes share. While many have noted the complimentary functions of the neoliberal state and the penal state, we may have overlooked the ideological similarities and their similar orientation toward democracy.I argue that both regimes rest on underlying and currently uncontested (in the public realm) ideologies which shield these regimes from democratic contestation. These regimes are supported by ideologies that deny their positive and creative functions. They set up an epistemic regime that is resistant to change because both the economic functions of each system and the ideological assumptions underlying public support are backgrounded. Public debate takes place within a limited framework that leaves underlying assumptions uncontested.This paper is very much a work in progress but I believe the orientation toward democracy that the ideologies, which support these regimes, have is an essential for sociologists to explore. Especially because, as I show, these ideologies are hostile to the very nature of sociology as they deny the role of structure in our society. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Findings reported in 2006 indicate that US breast cancer incidence rates in 2003 (the most current data) had suddenly declined 7% since 2002, despite being generally unchanged for the past several years. Strong evidence exists to support the hypothesis that this decline is primarily attributable to reductions in the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). While HRT is not typically viewed as a social condition, we contend that these findings provide an excellent case study for illuminating mechanisms of the fundamental causes theory of health disparities. We use these findings and prior evidence on breast cancer and HRT use in discussing two commonly taken-for-granted, but crucial foundations of the fundamental causes explanation: (1) the production, validity, and shifting conclusions of scientific knowledge and (2) that SES-based health disparities are both socially produced and dynamic. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable mortality world wide. Using the 2003 Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health dataset, we find that, net of controls, differences between Canada and the United States in smoking behavior do exist or do not exist depending on how smoking is measured. The most sensitive measure of smoking, pack-years, shows no significant differences between Canada and the United States while the measures of current smoker and smoker type suggest that Canadians are far more likely to smoke compared to Americans, net of controls. We use cultural diffusion theory to suggest that there are no real differences in smoking between the U.S. and Canada and thus, the estimates for pack-years are the most reliable. This paper contributes to literature concerning smoking differences between countries in two focal ways: we compare and contrast smoking behavior between the U.S. and Canada and explore methodological concerns of comparing smoking behaviors across countries by the sensitivity of the measure used to access smoking behavior. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although references to exploitation are commonplace in sociology, the empirical investigation of exploitation has been neglected. Adopting a Weberian approach that defines exploitation as underpayment in the market, we investigate data for U.S. manufacturing industries from 1971 to 1996. The results indicate high levels of exploitation among employees who are female, Hispanic, professionals, blue-collar workers, and service or sales workers. By contrast, workers who are significantly overpaid relative to their productivities include older workers, married workers, those with a college degree, and technicians. These latter groups obtain a substantial profit in their employment due to their unusually high salaries, net of their other measured characteristics. While we caution that our results pertain only to the manufacturing sector during this time period, our analysis nonetheless demonstrates that the empirical investigation of exploitation is feasible, and that it provides informative insights into economic sociology and social stratification. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes up a path not taken in sociology, marked by John Dewey, C. Wright Mills and Jürgen Habermas: the structural transformation of the public sphere as a major dimension of social change and therefore as a core topic of sociology. Since then, neither the dominant ahistorical sociology nor the growing historical sociology have thematized the field of public communication as a social realm, object of study and reference point of social theory. This paper provides a synthetic empirical discussion of the structural transformation of this societal field in Western Europe and the U.S. Because their notion of the field of public communication was ultimately confined to deliberative communication, the classical works perceived the structural transformation of the public sphere as one single process within a framework of decline. This paper argues that the classical works on «The structural transformation of the public sphere», the influential book by Jürgen Habermas and the American thematization of this framework by John Dewey and C. Wright Mills, were largely right on the first structural transformation. However, they did not thematize the distinct second structural transformation, that is, the differentiation of the media from the polity and the de-differentiation from the economy.The paper provides a tentative periodization of the enlightenment public sphere, the first transformation, the era of the party press and particularly the second transformation and the era of the media economy. The uncovering of two historical large-scale structures of the public sphere, the era of the party press and the era of the media economy, results in the discussion of a third model of the structure of the public sphere which is characterized by the equidistance of the media field from both the political field and the economic field. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]