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Americans now live in a diversity of living arrangements--more so than ever before. Whether or not these living arrangements are counted as family can have direct consequences for people's lives. Families enjoy many rights and privileges--both formal and informal--that are not provided to others. Understanding the boundaries that Americans make between "families" and "nonfamilies" tells us who is seen as deserving of these rights and privileges. In this article, Brian Powell discusses results of a U.S.-based study in which more than 2000 adults were interviewed about their stances regarding same-sex couples, cohabiting couples, samesex marriage, and, most importantly, what counts as family. In examining how Americans are making sense of, and in some cases struggling with, changes in living arrangements in the United States, Powell makes predictions regarding the likely changes in Americans' definitions over the next decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thomas Leonard's 2016 book Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era argues that exclusionary views on eugenics, race, immigration, and gender taint the intellectual legacy of progressive economics and economists. This review essay reconsiders that legacy and places it in the context within which it developed. While the early generations of scholars who founded the economics profession in the United States and trained in its departments did indeed hold and express retrograde views on those subjects, those views were common to a broad swath of the intellectual elite of that era, including the progressives' staunchest opponents inside and outside academia. Moreover, Leonard anachronistically intermingles a contemporary critique of early-twentieth-century progressive economics and the progressive movement writ large, serving to decontextualize those disputes-a flaw that is amplified by the book's unsystematic approach to reconstructing the views and writing it attacks. Notwithstanding the history Leonard presents, economists working now nonetheless owe their progressive forebears for contributions that have become newly relevant: the 'credibility revolution,' the influence of economic research on policy and program design, the prestige of economists working in and providing advice to government agencies and policy makers, and the academic freedom economists enjoy in modern research-oriented universities are all a part of that legacy. (JEL A11, B15, D82, J15, N31, N32) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the progress of the development and large-scale application of effective harm reduction practices and programs in the U.S. in 2017. The topics discussed includes history behind the emergence of diseases like AIDS and HIV virus in the U.S., measures adopted by the governments to tackle drug prohibition and violence, and description of harm reduction as a sensible approach to tackle intractable problems for which there is no immediate solutions.

As a new paradigm and frame for US geopolitical imperatives, the war on terror poses particular challenges of representation. Like other media today, American cinema screens the war on terror - that is to say, it functions both to show and to conceal the conditions and effects of perpetual war. It dramatizes the hauntology of this war and it also mystifies and demystifies its violence. This essay focusses on the example of the film Zero Dark Thirty to consider how the film re-presents the aporia of representation that structures the production of the war on terror as a field of perceptible reality and reflects the geopolitical priorities of an American worldview. Central to this aporia is the mystification of the "elusive enemy" and the naturalization of a "long war." The hunt for Osama bin Laden has been a symbolic narrativization of this aporia and the essay comments on how Zero Dark Thirty re-presents this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To investigate the validity of the apparent downward trend in the national case-fatality rate for gunshot wounds from assault. Methods. We reanalyzed the estimated annual number of nonfatal firearm injuries the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System reported from 2003 to 2012. We adjusted the estimates for discontinuities created by the substitution of 1 hospital for another in the sample and for a downward trend in the percentage of gunshot injuries classified as "unknown circumstance." Firearm homicide data are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System. Results. The unadjusted National Electronic Injury Surveillance System estimate increased by 49%, yielding a decline in the case-fatality rate from 25% to 18%. Our adjustments eliminated these trends; the case-fatality rate was 22% in both 2003 and 2012. Conclusions. With reasonable adjustments, the trend in nonfatal injuries from interpersonal firearms assault tracks the flat trend in firearms homicides, suggesting that there was no increase in firearms violence during this period. The case-fatality rate did not change, and trauma care improvements did not influence the firearms homicide trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on global research of life expectancy in various countries including U.S., France, and Korea; as a measure of country's health. Topics discussed include reduction in premature deaths of adults and public health facilities, economic prosperity, and disability due to depressive disorders.

The intensifying speed-up of contemporary economic, social and political life troubles democratic theorists because they assume that democracy depends on patience. This article turns to Martin Luther King, Jr. to challenge democratic theory's temporal bias. I argue that King demonstrates that impatience, too, is a democratic virtue. Building on impatient knowledge, democratic impatience aides in overcoming undemocratic legacies, fosters democratic subjectivity and agency, ensures political accountability, and creates a more inclusive practice of democratic belonging. I furthermore show that King reveals the temporal sophistication of democratic impatience, thereby contradicting the prevailing interpretation of self-defeating instantaneousness. In particular, democratic impatience's temporal origins of centuries of injustice, human mortality, and the context of social acceleration provide a mature impetus for democratic action. Moreover, democratic impatience persists over time. On the one hand, it does so because injustice persists. On the other hand, democratic impatience contains within itself a subordinate operational patience. In other words, democratic impatience is always already somewhat 'patient.' King's democratic impatience therefore not only redresses democratic theory's shortcomings, but it also generates a renewed sense of democratic possibility in our age, as democratic impatience is well suited to help us in redressing the crises and injustices deepened or generated by social acceleration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined toddler temperament across Chilean, South Korean, Polish, and U.S. samples, providing an opportunity to examine both collectivist-individualist and East–West contrasts. The effect of culture on the three factor and 18 dimension scores provided by the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire were investigated. Results provide evidence of cross-cultural differences between the four samples. Chilean toddlers scored significantly higher than U.S., Polish, and South Korean children on the overall factor of Negative Affectivity, as well as higher than the Polish and South Korean samples on the Surgency factor. South Korean toddlers scored significantly higher on the factor of Effortful Control, and two related dimensions, than U.S., Polish, or Chilean samples. Results are discussed in terms of the apparent roles of individualism/collectivism and East–West distinctions in shaping temperament development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To examine whether the theory of planned behavior can be used to understand intentions for child-rearing practices. Background Parenting intentions are formed before becoming a parent, but it is less clear what nonparents' intentions are and how subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived control predict their intentions. Method Nonparent emerging adults ( N = 353, Mage = 19.6 years, 72% female) were asked about their intentions to (a) breastfeed or support a partner in breastfeeding, (b) circumcise a male infant, (c) co-sleep, and (4) put their infant in nonparental daytime care. They were also asked what proportion of American parents they thought engaged in each and why they would or would not engage in each practice. Results Most intended to breastfeed and to circumcise their male infants, but not to co-sleep or to put their infant in nonparental daytime care. Participants' inaccurate knowledge about actual parents' behavior (i.e., subjective norms) and the factors that they thought might affect their own future behavior (i.e., attitudes toward and perceived control) were associated with their intentions for the child-rearing practices. Conclusion This study replicated prior research on breastfeeding intentions and extended the viability of the theory of planned behavior to understand prospective parents' intentions for other child-rearing practices. Implications Practitioners should consider discussing the norms surrounding child-rearing behaviors during health- and development-focused courses in secondary or postsecondary school and with expecting couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to assert that gun ownership in the United States is partially explained by the transmission of a "gun culture" from one generation to the next. Using longitudinal data from the highly-regarded National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we also make a contribution to the dated nature of the literature on the predictors of adult firearms ownership. This paper examines a model of adult gun ownership that includes measures of adolescent firearms access, the presence of adult males in the household, rural residency, age, race, and gender. Generally, adolescents who are African American, male, and living in rural areas were more likely to live in homes with firearms at Waves One and Two. Adolescents living in rural areas also demonstrated the likelihood of owning firearms as adults at Wave Three. As expected, access to firearms at Wave One increased the likelihood of access at Wave Two. Living with an adult male at Wave One had no effect on adolescent access to guns at Wave Two or Wave Three adult ownership. Adolescent access to guns at Waves One and Two increased the likelihood that they would own firearms as adults. Adolescent access to guns at Waves One and Two increased the likelihood that they would own firearms as adults at Wave Three. Findings suggest that cultural experiences surrounding gun ownership as adolescents increases the likelihood that firearms are owned as adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harm reduction policies and attitudes in the United States have advanced substantially in recent years but still lag behind more advanced jurisdictions in Europe and elsewhere. The Obama administration, particularly in its last years, embraced some harm reduction policies that had been rejected by previous administrations but shied away from more cutting edge interventions like supervised consumption sites and heroin-assisted treatment. The Trump administration will undermine some of the progress made to date but significant state and local control over drug policies in the US, as well as growing Republican support for pragmatic drug policies, motivated in part by the opioid crisis, ensures continuing progress for harm reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising inequality and pro-affluent housing policy have led affluent Americans to become increasingly isolated into neighborhoods that only they are able to afford. I use an under-utilized and unusually large dataset to measure the effects of this isolation on affluent Americans' perception of social conditions, including crime, healthcare accessibility, joblessness, and public school quality. I find that the affluent form perceptions of such social conditions by extrapolating from the conditions that exist in their own neighborhoods. When these neighborhoods are predominately affluent, offering little hint of the problems faced by the lower classes, the affluent take on perceptions of social conditions that are significantly more positive than the perceptions of everyone else in society. By leading politically and economically powerful affluent Americans to develop the false sense that others' lives are as problem-free as their own, class isolation may imperil the prospects for improving social conditions in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northeastern, post-industrial cities have some of the highest rates of incarceration, parole and foster care management in the United States. In this essay, I focus on one woman, who I call Kira, to explore ethnographically the lived experience of institutional surveillance in the post-industrial, northeastern city. Written as an analysis of fieldwork completed in a major post-industrial center, this essay traces the emergence of an anxious affect that tethers Kira’s intimate and structural relationships. I show how this affective subjectivity has serious structural implications for the duration and intensity of state surveillance, as well as the possibilities for freedom and continuity in Kira’s world. Through engagement with affect and object relations theory, this paper works through the subjective experience of political-economic marginalization and surveillance in the inner-city. I conclude with reflections on the ethical implications of ethnography and the broader stakes for an anthropology embedded in these types of affective relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Hollywood movies related to history of the U.S. Topics discussed include assignment given to students in U.S. History classes to examine movies that address political, social, and economic issues from the 1950, discussion of what film tells about civic engagement and broken system and activists, and film directed by Warren Beatty on a Democratic senator.

We examined associations between state-level measures of structural racism and infant mortality among black and white populations across the US. Overall and race-specific infant mortality rates in each state were calculated from national linked birth and infant death records from 2010 to 2013. Structural racism in each state was characterized by racial inequity (ratio of black to white population estimates) in educational attainment, median household income, employment, imprisonment, and juvenile custody. Poisson regression with robust standard errors estimated infant mortality rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) associated with an IQR increase in indicators of structural racism overall and separately within black and white populations. Across all states, increasing racial inequity in unemployment was associated with a 5% increase in black infant mortality (RR=1.05, 95% CI=1.01, 1.10). Decreasing racial inequity in education was associated with an almost 10% reduction in the black infant mortality rate (RR=0.92, 95% CI=0.85, 0.99). None of the structural racism measures were significantly associated with infant mortality among whites. Structural racism may contribute to the persisting racial inequity in infant mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States and across the globe, World War I intensified anxieties about the relationship between cultural diversity and national identity. In that context, the Americanisation programmes of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) bridged the organisation's international experiences with its domestic agenda of service work. This article recovers the YWCA's woman-centric methods for facilitating communication and civic engagement among diverse groups of immigrants in the USA; it draws attention to the YWCA's insights into the relationship between gender, culture and democratic life; and it highlights the practical utility, theoretical insight and ethical implications of the YWCA's techniques for contemporary peace building and international work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the relationship between economic freedom and happiness inequality for a large sample of countries. We find that economic freedom is negatively associated with happiness inequality and robust to several alternative measures of happiness inequality, including the standard deviation, mean absolute difference, coefficient of variation, and Gini coefficient. Among the economic freedom areas, legal system and sound money are negatively correlated with happiness inequality. Drawing on the Engerman-Sokoloff hypothesis, we use a measure of factor endowments as an instrument for economic freedom to provide a further robustness test, finding a negative association between economic freedom and happiness inequality. ( JEL D63, I31, P16) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploiting complete census manuscript files, we derive a new segregation measure using the racial similarity of next-door neighbors. The fineness of our measure reveals new facts not captured by traditional segregation indices. First, segregation doubled nationally from 1880 to 1940. Second, contrary to prior estimates, Southern urban areas were the most segregated in the country and remained so over time. Third, increasing segregation in the twentieth century was not strictly driven by urbanization, black migration, or white flight: it resulted from increasing racial sorting at the household level. In all areas—North and South, urban and rural—segregation increased dramatically. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates interfaith groups from across the United States to understand how these religious settings may serve as mediating structures to facilitate individual political action. Based on a multilevel modeling analysis with 169 individuals from 25 interfaith groups, we found that core activities of the group, such as group members sharing community information (e.g., announcing upcoming events, political meetings, community issues) or sharing religious information (e.g., educating members about their religion) positively and negatively predicted individual political action as a result of group participation, respectively. Moreover, a sense that the interfaith group served as a community to work for local change, but not trust within the group, predicted political action as a result of group participation. However, this effect for a sense the group served as a community to work for local change was stronger and more positive as the degree of community information sharing in the group increased. These results show that a core activity of sharing community information may enhance the ability of a group to mediate political action. Overall, these findings demonstrate the potential role of interfaith groups to mediate political action, and show the importance of considering both individual and group characteristics when understanding these religious settings. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Undocumented Student Movement (USM) consists of members of a historically misrepresented and excluded population in the United States. Taking matters into their own hands, they have gained a voice in mainstream media and society today. In this article, I seek to document the communicative acts of resistance employed by undocumented students in the United States. Specifically, I argue that the communicative acts currently employed by the USM answer the call for a more critical and engaged theory of public relations. The USM offers alternative ways to communicate with publics through the use of undocumented identity storytelling. By employing the culture-centred approach to communication, I examine undocumented identity storytelling through participant observation and in-depth interviews with members of the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the significance of the connection between U.S. Zionists and the concept of Irish nationalism, focusing on the period between 1897 to 1922. It examines interest among U.S. Zionists in Irish history and nationalist sentiment, the success of Irish nationalism in the U.S., and Irish nationalists as a model for U.S. Zionists in establishing themselves in the U.S. and becoming Americanized.

The arrival of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States is frightening to U.S. intellectuals on many grounds, not the least of which is his narrow conception of who and what is an “American.” This essay explores this broad worry but also reflects more personally on those dangers. It contrasts visions of ‘America’ and argues that the U.S. is indeed a house divided unto itself, but not in terms of geography or citizenship. And, contrary to much wishful thinking over the years, that right-wing of the U.S. population is not a fringe element of U.S. society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, the author reflects upon social services and human rights in the U.S. Particular focus is given to how this relates to the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. Additional topics discussed include President Donald Trump and his opponent, Hillary Clinton, the notion of "positive rights," including healthcare, education and employment, and income inequality.

In his startling run for president, Donald Trump dared to question the official orthodoxy that all races and ethic groups are the same. He is correct in that most seriously poor, many immigrants, and the radicals we face overeas all come from outside the West. Thus, according to world cultures research, they are much less individualist and more conformist than most Americans. This cultural difference goes far to explain the major challenges the United States faces both at home and abroad. But Trump's bold challenge offers no easy solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If C. L. R. James could later reflect in Beyond a Boundary that before arriving in Britain, “about Britain, I was a strange compound of knowledge and ignorance,” then the same was fundamentally true about his relation to American society before his arrival there in 1938. This article will begin with discussion of the attraction of America for black West Indians, including George Padmore, in the era of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as the young James's own love of jazz and American literature. The complexities of the young James's “anti-Americanism” will be also explored, before we explore how James's turn to both Marxism and pan-Africanism after 1934 led to a new appreciation of both the power of the American working class and a new understanding of how a revolutionary solution might be found to the “Negro Question,” the question of the systematic racism towards black people in America. The article will conclude with discussion of James's 1938 work A History of Negro Revolt, in particular its Marxist analysis of the history of American slavery and its abolition during the American Civil War, as well as the strengths and limitations of Garveyism as a social movement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author argues that the United States has an exceptional welfare safety net when compared to peer countries as of the early 21st century via services such as government-provided health care insurance, Social Security, and public education expenditures, though could be even more exceptional in renewing the economic prospects for poorer citizens by restructuring the finances of the U.S. government and better harnessing the capabilities of access to health care.

The article presents several critical triggers for the significant and sustaining ergonomic and safety breakthroughs for businesses in the U.S. It states the need to energize the workforce to become interested about safety. It notes the need to engage everyone to the highest extent. It mentions the importance of developing higher-level expertise.

The article discusses what the author refers to as the parallels and distinctions between the African-American and LGBT civil rights movements (CRMs) in the U.S., and it mentions the American Supreme Court's rulings in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia interracial marriage law case and the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges matter which deals with marriage equality for LGBT people. The impact of legislation on CRMs is examined, along with social integration involving minorities in America.

I use data from the 2011 Pew Survey (N = 1,033) to examine the prevalence and correlates of perceived discrimination across Muslim American racial/ethnic groups. Asian Muslims report the lowest frequency of perceived discrimination than other Muslim racial/ethnic groups. Nearly, all Muslim racial/ethnic groups have a few times higher odds of reporting one or more types of perceived discrimination than white Muslims. After controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, the observed relationships persist for Hispanic Muslims but disappear for black and other/mixed race Muslims. Women are less likely than men to report several forms of discrimination. Older Muslims report lower rates of perceived discrimination than younger Muslims. White Muslim men are more likely to report experiencing discrimination than white, black and Asian Muslim women. The findings highlight varying degrees of perceived discrimination among Muslim American racial/ethnic groups and suggest examining negative implications for Muslims who are at the greatest risk of mistreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article provides information on impact of micro-aggressions and violence on low income Latinos of U.S. including physical attacks and dismemberments. Topics discussed include emotional regulation and daily functioning, mental wellbeing and monitoring of happiness, and approach of Latino immigrant families.