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The primary purpose of the present study was to examine how prevalent were concerns about restarting Three Mile Island nuclear reactor Unit I among people within a five-mile radius of the plant four years after the accident involving reactor Unit II. Also explored were concerns related to expectations about the restart of Unit I, perception of control, and selected demographic variables. A stratified random sample of residents of 221 households was interviewed. These were chosen from over 4,000 households in Middletown, Pennsylvania. Recent arrivals in Middletown served as a control group. Of the residents surveyed, 60 percent or more expressed some concern about each of the questions and long-time residents were more concerned than those who moved in since the accident. Concern about radioactive emissions is greater now than before the accident and focuses on the possibility of future accidents, radiation exposure during the cleanup, and developing cancer or radiation disease. Those who were residents of Middletown at the time of the accident reflect less sense of personal control over important life events and more loss of faith in experts than do recent arrivals, suggesting the impact of the accident on the sense of personal control. People's position on whether or not to restart Unit I focused more on health hazards than on political ideology about nuclear power. Slightly over half felt that it should not be restarted, a drop from two-thirds reported in 1982. (IS)

Abstract The premise of an urban political economy is that urban patterns are not inevitable but can be altered with change in institutional and power arrangements. Yet actually shifting power from one group to another is easier said than done. Urban political economy is better at theorizing and documenting the structure of political dominance than showing how it can be modified. How may community organizations acquire leverage that permits them to alter political decision making around space and urban development? This paper describes a collaboration between a city-wide faith based coalition and a university public policy research center designed to begin to alter the politics around policy decisions on blight in Philadelphia. Called ?Research for Democracy,? this collaboration represents the coupling of research and organizing sophistication that permitted the structuring of research as part of community organizing and vice versa. Research showing the distribution, causes and influences of abandonment was used to show the pervasiveness of blight and its pernicious effects on all Philadelphia neighborhoods, not solely neighborhoods with concentrated abandonment. As a consequence, Philadelphia?s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative was broadened to include money for neighborhood stabilization, acquisition and improvements, not solely demolition as originally defined. This paper shows how a regularized process of research tied symbiotically to organizing can be a successful tool for shifting power relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of student learning at the college level has been growing within the past decade. Likewise, within the discipline of sociology assessment is being increasingly emphasized. Many sociology programs are beginning to thoroughly assess their majors. However, little research is being conducted on what students are learning in the most basic sociology course, namely Introduction to Sociology. This paper describes an exploratory assessment of the sociological thinking abilities of a class of introduction to sociology students at a small, rural public university in Pennsylvania. Students were asked to explain how society influences the behavior of individuals at the beginning and end of the semester. Analyses of the responses indicate that many students show up for class with no understanding of sociology while others have a strong sociological imagination. Considerable growth occurs over the semester. Finally, incoming sociological awareness is strongly related to classroom performance throughout the whole semester. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural and urban sociologists commonly make assumptions regarding how individuals experience public worlds of cultural consumption in their everyday lives. However, due to certain methodological constraints, collecting reliable empirical knowledge of such experiences can be somewhat difficult. Drawing on ethnographic surveys collected among 135 female undergraduate students enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, I explore a number of ways in which young women consume urban nightlife as a distinctively gendered experience. After providing a description of my method of data collection, I briefly discuss two aspects of this experience: (1) role-playing as a means of constructing a gendered nocturnal self, and (2) the routine public harassment of young women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research about high school sociology courses is extremely limited. Studies have shown, however, that the quality of course content and the academic credentials of teachers vary significantly. The Pennsylvania Department of Education has eliminated certification in Secondary Social Studies, and has replaced it with Citizenship Education and Social Sciences certifications. This change virtually guarantees that sociology courses will be phased out of the social studies curriculum. At the same time, the American Sociological Association has begun a number of initiatives to improve the quality of high school sociology courses, including the High School Affiliate Program, the Task Force on the Advanced Placement (AP) Course in Sociology, and the ASA collaboration with the National Council for the Social Studies. While these initiatives may not be able to positively affect the immediate future of high school sociology in Pennsylvania, information about the power of state departments of education may prove helpful in assisting other sociologists to prevent similar policy disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I develop a sociological model for how the branding of an ethnic neighborhood works by sketching the differences in group bonds, group boundaries, branding roles, audiences, and the particular types of branding identities that result. This historically informed ethnography takes advantage of field observations, interviews, and archival evidence in analyzing how City Neighborhood Tours to a Latino neighborhood in northern Philadelphia accomplish the character of place; and the study synthesizes the sociology of culture with economic sociology in studying the ethnic enclave-- in particular, in studying the mechanisms of branding a collective cultural identity within an ethnic enclave as an economic development strategy. I am asking about the social mechanismsâ?”the established and improvised social processes-- whereby actors create, contest, and/or maintain collective cultural capital. Building on Eliasoph and Lichterman (2003) who have focused on "group style"-- "[the] recurrent patterns of interaction that arise from a group's shared assumptions about what constitutes good or adequate participation in the group setting" (737)-- I emphasize what can be learned from contestations about and enactments of a group style meant to convey durable, specific messages to group and non-group members. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a quick-fix strategy many states have courted the casino industry as a solution to ameliorate revenue shortages. Viewed as a lucrative tax opportunity for states struggling with budget deficits the casino industry has proliferated a great deal in the last two decades. In 2004 Pennsylvania legalized slots gambling and in 2006 the state designated 14 locations throughout the state to house the casino industry. Two such locations have been designated in Philadelphia. This proposal discusses the ongoing battle in Philadelphia between casino advocates and their opponents. Sighting failures in government transparency and closed door negotiations between government and casino representatives, opponents to casinos in Philadelphia have mounted against the powerful actors who have shaped the casino agenda. Drawing on growth machine and spatial production theories of urban sociology and the work of Steven Lukes three dimensional view of power this research will focus on how anti casino activists attempt to reshape the narratives surrounding casino development in order to wrestle power away from actors and institutions who have structured the debate. A main investigative point of this research will be to understand how developmental narratives are structured, framed and ultimately defeated. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's Right to the city thesis I will explore the ways in which anti casino activists are fighting to reclaim decision making power and control over their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues in the Family: Psychological and Sociological Perspectives is a cross-listed (psychology, sociology and women studies) Inside-Out Prison Exchange class held within a Pennsylvania State correction facility. Half of the students (16) are undergraduate University students and the other half are "inside" SCI students. This course is part of a University-wide program to develop academic service- learning and directly relates to the University's commitment to Civic Engagement. Faculty development and support is provided through course release for designing new service-learning courses, extensive shared resources on service learning, faculty seminars and support for participation in relevant conferences. This service learning "culture" crosses the disciplines and offering interdisciplinary courses is encouraged. The Family course is taught by a psychologist and a sociologist and enhances the students' ability to see the complex issues that face families. Students are challenged to integrate these perspectives as they debate topics such as child-rearing, divorce and absentee parenting. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]