June 2008, Volume 86, Number 4

Objectivity and its Discontents:
Knowledge Advocacy in the Sally Hemings Controversy
Owen Whooley, New York University

The sociology of knowledge, derived from research on the hard sciences, overlooks the potential for outsiders to determine the content of knowledge within professional disciplines. Using the case of the Sally Hemings affair, I introduce the concept of “knowledge advocacy” to analyze how outside groups shape historical knowledge. The Hemings controversy involved not only historical evidence, but also the understanding of objectivity in historical research. Unfolding against the backdrop of the professionalization of history, outside advocates successfully challenged the discipline’s understanding of “objectivity as neutrality” eventually embracing “objectivity as the scientific method” in their appeal to DNA testing. This study illuminates the strategic interplay between professional historians and outsiders engaged in knowledge advocacy, the role of objectivity in this struggle, and the potential vulnerability a discipline faces when the ideal of objectivity is compromised.

The Civil Rights Movement and the Right to Vote:
Black Protest, Segregationist Violence and the Audience
Wayne A. Santoro, University of New Mexico

  This study investigates the effect of segregationist murders, in conjunction with black protest, on federal passage of black voting-rights policies. Using time-series regression techniques, I find that white violence diminished federal responsiveness to black protest from the ‘30s through the end of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration. But by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration and the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, violence stimulated government response to black protest. I argue that the historically contingent nature of the violence effect is attributable to the changing nature of the audience. Segregationist violence seems to have helped the movement win Southern suffrage only when the audience was attentive, sympathetic and involved in the policy conflict.

Places as Recovery Machines:
Vulnerability and Neighborhood Change After Major Hurricanes
Jeremy F. Pais, State University of New York at Albany
James R. Elliott, University of Oregon

This study advances a conceptual framework for understanding the transformation of places into recovery machines after major hurricanes. This framework contends that in the years following such disasters, pro-growth coalitions take advantage of new sources of material and symbolic capital to promote further demographic growth. It also contends that the spatial nature of this growth varies significantly as a result of social inequalities among residential subpopulations, contributing to uneven transformation of local neighborhoods across affected regions. To test hypotheses derived from this framework, we combine innovative Geographic Information Systems data from “billion dollar” storms of the early 1990s with demographic data from local census tracts. Results support the recovery machine framework and imply that post-disaster resilience may contribute to the creation of larger, more segregated versions of affected regions that await exposure with the next major disaster.

 
Immigrants, English Ability and the Digital Divide
Hiroshi Ono, Texas A&M University
Madeline Zavodny, Agnes Scott College

This study examines the extent and causes of inequalities in information technology ownership and use between natives and immigrants in the United States, with particular focus on the role of English ability. The results indicate that, during the period 1997-2003, immigrants were significantly less likely to have access to or use a computer and the Internet. Moreover, the gap in IT usage widened during that period. Immigrants and natives who live in Spanish-speaking households are less likely than individuals living in English-speaking households to have access to or use IT. Estimates using a measure of predicted English ability show that English ability is positively associated with IT access and use. The results suggest that much of the immigrant-native gap in IT usage is attributable to differences in English ability.

 
For Better or Worse? The Consequences of Marriage and Cohabitation for Single Mothers
Kristi Williams, Ohio State University     
Sharon Sassler, Cornell University
Lisa M. Nicholson, Ohio State University

This study examines whether the mental and physical health of single mothers benefit from marriage or cohabitation compared to childless women who marry. Results indicate that marrying is associated with similar declines in psychological distress for single mothers and childless women, but only when that marriage endures. Single mothers do not receive the same physical health benefits from entering an enduring marriage, in part because single mothers have lower levels of marital quality. Entering and exiting marriage is worse for the mental and physical health of single mothers than for other women and in some cases, worse than remaining unpartnered. Enduring cohabiting unions offer few psychological or physical health benefits to either group but short-lived cohabiting unions are associated with increased distress.

 
Family Structure and Voter Turnout
Nicholas H. Wolfinger, University of Utah
Raymond E. Wolfinger, University of California, Berkeley

We use data from the Voting and Registration Supplement of the Current Population Survey to explore the effects of family structure on turnout in the 2000 presidential election. Our results indicate that family structure, defined as marital status and the presence of children, has substantial consequences for turnout. Married adults are more likely to vote than are those who have never been married; in turn, previously married people are the lightest voters. Children have a smaller but still noteworthy effect on turnout. These results are only partially explained by social and demographic differences.

Gender-Based Employment and Income Differences in Urban China: Considering the Contributions of Marriage and Parenthood
Yuping Zhang, Lehigh University
Emily Hannum, Oxford University
Meiyan Wang, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Previous research on China's labor market gender gaps has emphasized the human and political capital disadvantages of women and new discrimination in the reform era. Analyzing the China Urban Labor Survey/China Adult Literacy Survey, this paper shows that while women are significantly disadvantaged by various measures of human and political capital, these disadvantages explain little of the observed gender gaps in employment status and earnings. Instead, gender gaps in employment and earnings are strongly related to family status. It is only married women and mothers who face significant disadvantages. This finding is likely tied to the fact that wives and mothers spend much more time than husbands and fathers doing household chores, even net of controls for potential earnings. These results suggest that research on gender disparities in urban China would be complemented by additional attention to family-work conflict, a topic which looms large in research on gender and labor in most other countries.

Future Directions in the Sociology of Religion
Christian Smith, University of Notre Dame

 
Faith, Morality and Mortality:
The Ecological Impact of Religion on Population Health
Troy C. Blanchard, Louisiana State University
John P. Bartkowski, University of Texas-San Antonio
Todd L. Matthews, University of West Georgia
Kent R. Kerley, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Although the past decade has witnessed increased usage of ecological data to map the community-level effects of religion, the vast majority of studies in this body of scholarship continue to be plagued by two key shortcomings. First, ecological research on religion is often conducted in an atheoretical manner, one that privileges the structural character of religion while failing to demonstrate sensitivity to the substance of collectively held religious beliefs and values. Second, ecological scholarship often employs crude methodological techniques that overlook noteworthy distinctions within large religious collectivities (e.g., variants of conservative Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism). This study charts new theoretical and methodological directions in the use of ecological data by exploring the complex linkages between religious ecology and mortality in the United States. We hypothesize that the other-worldly theology and individualistic orientation found in conservative Protestantism dampens this faith tradition’s commitment to population health, thereby leading to demonstrably different outcomes in mortality by denominational families. Also, drawing on previous work that criticizes the “monolithic bloc” depiction of conservative Protestantism, we hypothesize that important distinctions in mortality will be found when sub-groups of conservative Protestants (evangelicals, Pentecostals and fundamentalists) are compared because each of these factions exhibits distinct degrees of other-worldliness. Using restricted county-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics and 2000 Churches and Church Congregations data, we observe noteworthy religious differences in mortality, thereby underscoring a need for the development of more sophisticated theoretical and methodological approaches to the ecological study of religion. Ecological researchers are encouraged to take seriously the content of collectively held religious beliefs and exhibit sensitivity toward the distinctive worldviews that hold sway within particular faith traditions.

Social and Genetic Influences on Adolescent Religious Attitudes and Practices
Lindon J. Eaves, Virginia Commonwealth University
Peter K. Hatemi, Virginia Commonwealth University
Elizabeth C. Prom-Womley, Virginia Commonwealth University
Lenn Murrelle, Virginia Commonwealth University

The authors explore the contributions of social and genetic influences to religious attitudes and practices in a population-based sample of 11-18 year olds and their mothers who responded to a Religious Attitudes and Practices Inventory and Religious Rearing Practices Inventory respectively. Contrary to genetic studies examining adult religious behavior, genetic influences were small, accounting for only 10 percent of the variance. Rather, the effects of the social environment were much larger, greater than 50 percent, and a majority of offspring similarity was explained by familial rearing. In light of the divergent finding between adults and adolescents, one supporting a socialization model and the other a genetic model, the importance of integrating genetic and social science methodology for complex social behaviors is discussed.

Scripture, Sin and Salvation:
Theological Conservatism Reconsidered
Lynn M. Hempel, Colorado State University
John P. Bartkowski, University of Texas at San Antonio

Using insights from ethnographic studies of conservative Protestant congregations, the authors propose and test a refined conceptual model of theological conservatism that accounts for three key components of a theologically conservative worldview: (1. epistemology, a belief in the Bible as the inspired word of God, (2. ontology, assumptions about the pervasiveness of human sinfulness, and (3. soteriology, the conviction that salvation is made possible through a commitment to Jesus Christ. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the reliability and validity of this model across data sets and relativity to current approaches used in the study of religion. The proposed measure exhibits a substantial improvement for defining and interpreting the influence of religious conservatism across and within sociodemographic groups in contemporary American society.

Religious Fundamentalism among Young Muslims in Egypt and Saudi Arabia
Mansoor Moaddel, Eastern Michigan University
Stuart A. Karabenick, University of Michigan

Religious fundamentalism is conceived as a distinctive set of beliefs and attitudes toward one’s religion, including obedience to religious norms, belief in the universality and immutability of its principles, the validity of its claims, and its indispensability for human happiness. Surveys of Egyptian and Saudi youth, ages 18-25, reveal that respondents with higher levels of fundamentalism are more likely to rely on religious authorities as the source of knowledge about the sociopolitical role of Islam, support religious law, be fatalistic, and feel insecure. They are also less likely to watch TV. Saudi females are more fundamentalist than males, but in Egypt, the opposite held true. Country-specific effects are present, and there are implications for future research.

Islamic Fatalism and the Clash of Civilizations:
An Appraisal of a Contentious and Dubious Theory
Gabriel A. Acevedo, University of Texas at San Antonio

This paper will address the question of Islamic fatalism. Survey data will be used to assess Samuel P. Huntington’s controversial “Clash of Civilizations” thesis and its emphasis on fatalism as an inherent characteristic of Islamic religion. The concept of fatalism is expanded and theorized as a function of both structural and theological dimensions. Findings here suggest that fatalism in the Islamic world remains a largely misunderstood phenomenon. Christians living in predominantly Muslim countries are no more fatalistic than their Muslim neighbors; and in Indonesia, Christians report higher levels of fatalism than Indonesian Muslims. However, Muslims do indicate a higher level of belief that cosmological forces control life’s outcomes than do Christians living in those same Islamic societies. Findings also suggest that the effect of Western influence on fatalism is not as straightforward as that predicted by Huntington’s theory. Fatalism in the Muslim world is best understood in light of complex historical, cultural, economic and socio-political processes and not as a direct outcome of Western influence and/or religious denomination alone.

Embodying the Faith:
Religious Practice and the Making of a Muslim Moral Habitus
Daniel Winchester, University of Minnesota

Despite a number of contemporary theoretical works in sociology and moral philosophy arguing that the project of modern selfhood is necessarily a deeply moral endeavor, there are few empirical studies examining the specific ways in which social actors construct moral selves and lives. Utilizing ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews, this article examines how a group of adult Muslim converts in Missouri produced new moral selves in and through the use of embodied religious practices. Drawing on the theoretical insights of Bourdieu, I demonstrate how the embodied religious practices of ritual prayer, fasting and covering formed within converts the moral dispositions, or habitus, associated with becoming a “good Muslim.”

Envisioning the Nation:
Women Activists, Religion and the Public Sphere in Indonesia
Rachel Rinaldo, National University of Singapore

Indonesia’s Islamic revival has coincided with the growing involvement of women in civil society. Muslim women’s organizations are playing an important role in how the Indonesian nation-state is being re-imagined for the 21^st century. Muslim women’s groups are incubators for women’s diverse political activism. The increasing role of Islam in the public sphere provides religious women with an important platform, facilitating their involvement in national debates over issues such as Shariah law, abortion and pornography. Such public sphere debates enfold significant struggles over the relationship between religion and the state. Through their involvement in these debates, Muslim women activists should be seen as participants in the renegotiation of the Indonesian nation-state.

Secularization and Religious Change among Elite Scientists
Elaine Howard Ecklund, University at Buffalo, SUNY and Rice University
Jerry Z. Park, Baylor University
Phil Todd Veliz, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Sociologists of religion have often connected secularization to science, but have rarely examined the role of religion in the lives of scientists or how the sciences have changed religiously over time. Here we address this shortcoming by comparing religiosity between two samples of elite academic natural and social scientists, one in 1969 and one in 2005. Findings show an overall decline in religiosity among university scientists as well as a change in their religious composition. Attendance rates were lower for social scientists in 1969 compared to natural scientists, but in 2005 growing parity in attendance occurred between the two fields. Findings also show a decline in the proportion of Protestant scientists and a growth in Catholic scientists. Demographic factors associated with religiosity in the general population, with the exception of age and having children, had no impact among elite academic scientists. Overall, findings challenge and revise older studies on the role of religion in the lives of scientists. Specific results are connected to theories that pose science as a master identity, which may be mitigated by some institutionalized aspects of religion. They also lead to new directions in the sociology of religion that take seriously the role of religion in the lives of elites and connect societal religious changes to differences between institutional spheres, particularly those, such as the academy, that play a leadership role in society.