March 2005, Volume 83, Number 3

Intertwined cultural and relational environments of organizations

Francisco J. Granados, Southern Methodist University

I examine fundamental elements of the cultural and relational environments of the organizations that produce electoral forecasts in the Spanish parliamentary elections. The analysis reveals how these elements shape the interests and decisions in a collectivity of organizations that share a common technology. I investigate the reasons for the coincidence of incorrect forecasts across the polling firms by considering neoinstitutional propositions about the social construction of institutions and isomorphism by mimesis. The coincidence of forecasts contributes to preserving the firms' individual and collective social legitimacy despite repeated forecasting failures. To reach coincidence, the firms' decisions about what forecast to present is decoupled from the ineffective technological process that legitimates the forecasts. Cultural conceptions about the production and technology of the forecasting activity generate interdependence among the polling firms. This relational aspect compels firms to conform their forecasts to those of other firms.

The grass widows of Mexico:
Migration and union dissolution in a binational context

Reanne Frank, The Ohio State University
Elizabeth Wildsmith, University of Texas at Austin

This article provides an empirical test of the widely accepted assumption that migration contributes to union instability. The data come from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) data base MMP93. We use multilevel discrete time event history analysis to specify the odds of union dissolution for male household heads by individual- and community-level U.S. migration experience. In the context of the U.S.-Mexico migration flow, we find that U.S. migration significantly increases the odds of union dissolution for individuals with extensive migration experience as well as for residents in communities with medium international migration levels. We conclude that changes in normative values and social control levels, for both individuals and communities, are partial contributors to this relationship.

Ethnic classification in Southeastern Puerto Rico:
The cultural model of "color"

Clarence C. Gravlee, Florida State University

This article presents a systematic ethnographic study of emic ethnic classification in Puerto Rico, including a replication and extension of Marvin Harris's (1970) seminal study in Brazil. I address three questions: (1) what are the core emic categories of color? (2) what dimensions of semantic structure organize this cultural domain? and (3) is the assumption of a shared cultural model justified? Data are from two sets of ethnographic interviews in southeastern Puerto Rico, including 23 free listing interviews and 42 structured interviews using Harris's standardized facial portraits. Results indicate a small core of salient emic categories with well-defined semantic structure and high interinformant agreement, reflecting shared cultural understandings of color. I discuss how systematic ethnographic methods can contribute to comparative research on ethnic classification.

The unintended significance of race:
Environmental racial inequality in Detroit

Liam Downey, University of Colorado

This article addresses shortcomings in the literature on environmental inequality by (a) setting forth and testing four models of environmental inequality and (b) explicitly linking environmental inequality research to spatial mismatch theory and to the debate on the declining significance of race. The explanatory models ask whether the distribution of blacks and whites around environmental hazards is the result of black/white income inequality, racist siting practices, or residential segregation. The models are tested using manufacturing facility and census data from the Detroit metropolitan area. It turns out that the distribution of blacks and whites around this region's polluting manufacturing facilities is largely the product of residential segregation which, paradoxically, has reduced black proximity to manufacturing facility pollution.

Racially biased policing:
Determinants of citizen perceptions

Ronald Weitzer, George Washington University
Steven A. Tuch, George Washington University 

The current controversy surrounding racial profiling in America has focused renewed attention on the larger issue of racial bias by the police. Yet little is known about the extent of police racial bias and even less about public perceptions of the problem. This article analyzes recent national survey data on citizens' views of, and reported personal experiences with, several forms of police bias--including differential treatment of individuals and neighborhoods, police prejudice, and racial profiling. We find that attitudes toward the prevalence and acceptability of these practices are largely shaped by citizens' race, personal experiences with police discrimination, and exposure to news media reporting on incidents of police misconduct. The findings lend support to the group-position theory of race relations.

Residential stability and the social impact of neighborhood disadvantage:
A study of gender- and race-contingent effects

Scott Schieman, University of Toronto

Is neighborhood disadvantage associated with social support? If so, does residential stability modify that association? And are there gender- and race-contingent patterns? Among a sample of adults aged 65 years and older, neighborhood disadvantage is associated positively with received and donated support among black women, but only in neighborhoods with higher levels of residential stability. In contrast, neighborhood disadvantage is associated negatively with donated support among white men and negatively with received support among white women, but only under conditions of low residential stability. I discuss the implications of these findings for theories about stress and community-level effects on social relationships in late life and draw linkages to the broader sociological discourse on social capital and collective efficacy.

 
Danger and the decision to offend

Bill McCarthy, University of California at Davis
John Hagan, Northwestern University

Humiliation; incarceration; stigma; loss of income, freedom, and respect: most research on offending emphasizes these sanctions. Yet classical theorists recognized other costs including physical harm. We revive this abandoned insight, arguing that danger--the possibility of pain--figures largely in people's decisions to offend. Although modern states typically eschew violence, many victims, vigilantes, and others assault offenders. This violence is typically more certain, swift, and severe than other sanctions, and fear of injury likely deters many potential offenders. Yet the possibility of pain may be irrelevant to individuals who boldly believe in their unassailability. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that perceptions about danger are significantly associated with involvement in theft, drug selling, and prostitution among homeless youth, and that these effects are independent of perceptions about a crime's excitement, profit, or other returns. Our results suggest that dangers play a key but typically neglected role in the genesis of these crimes.

Cohabitation and exchanges of support

David J. Eggebeen, Pennsylvania State University

This paper examines the relationship between nonmarital cohabitation and routine exchanges of support between American adults aged 19-30 (N = 3,809) and their aging parents, using data drawn from the first wave of the National Survey of Families and Households. Cohabiting young adults were found to be significantly less likely to be exchanging support with their parents than their married or single, noncohabiting counterparts. Cohabiting young adults were also significantly less likely than married young adults to nominate their parents as persons to turn to in an emergency. Analysis of variability in exchanges of support with parents among cohabiting young adults revealed that the quality of the relationship with the parent to be the most potent predictor of exchanges.

Parental status and differential investment in sons and daughters:
Trivers-Willard revisited

Rosemary L. Hopcroft, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

According to the Trivers-Willard (T-W) hypothesis there is an interaction between individual status and investment in offspring such that high-status individuals invest more in boys, and low-status individuals invest more in girls. Parental investment may be both physiological and affect the sex ratio of offspring, or it may be psychological and affect resource allocation to offspring. I test both components of the hypothesis using cumulative U.S. General Social Survey (GSS) data and find "results that support T-W. Using years of education attained as an indirect measure of parental investment, I find that sons of high-status fathers attain more education than daughters and that the daughters of low-status fathers attain more education than sons. Supporting the sex ratio component of T-W, I find that high-status men have more sons.

Counting on kin:
Social networks, social support, and child health status

Shawn Malia Kana'iaupuni, Kamehameha Schools
Katharine M. Donato, Rice University
Theresa Thompson-Colon, University of Wisconsin--Madison
Melissa Stainback, Rice University

This article presents the results of new data collection in Mexico about the relationship between child well-being and social networks. Two research questions guide the analysis. First, under what conditions do networks generate greater (lesser) support? Second, what kinds of networks are associated with healthier children? We explore the health status effects of several dimensions of social networks, including network size, kinship roles, interaction (proximity, contact, and coresidence), and provision of financial and emotional support. Our key findings suggest that networks containing more extended kin and coresident ties offer greater support resources to mothers with young children, especially among the poorest households. We also find that network structures characterized by more social support and greater interaction with extended, rather than immediate, kin help sustain healthier children. Together these findings indicate the advantages of examining specific role relationships in network research among economically marginalized families and attest to the importance of social networks founded on principles of reciprocity, confianza, and compadrazgo to the well-being of Mexican families.

Age and self-rated health in Korea

Hyunjoon Park, University of Wisconsin-Madison

I examine age variation in the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on self-rated health in Korea by including three alternative indicators of SES--liquid assets, home ownership, and real estate ownership--as well as two standard measures of education and household income. Furthermore, I consider the SES-health relationship and its variation by age for men and women separately. The empirical findings in general do not support the hypothesis that the SES gap in health converges with age. Most SES effects on self-rated health remain constant across age groups or even increase with age. However, there is evidence of the converging effects of household income and liquid assets for women. Differences in self-rated health by household income or liquid assets diverge and then converge as age advances.

Identifying the precipitants of homeless protest across 17 U.S. cities, 1980 to 1990

David A. Snow, University of California at Irvine
Sarah A. Soule, University of Arizona
Daniel M. Cress, Western State College of Colorado

During the 1980s, homeless people formed social movement organizations and mobilized collective action events in cities across the U.S. From the vantage point of social movement theories and scholarship on homelessness, it is surprising that homeless protest was so prevalent in the 1980s. Yet we find evidence of homeless protest events across no fewer than 50 U.S. cities in the 1980-90 period. Drawing on social movement theories about the precipitants of mobilization, we examine the extent to which city-level contextual factors, and their change over time, affect variation in the frequency of homeless mobilization across 17 of these cities. Our findings reveal that a mix of factors congruent with strain and resource mobilization theories helps to account for variation in the frequency of homeless protest across U.S. cities in the 1980s.

Winning woman suffrage one step at a time:
Social movements and the logic of the legislative process

Brayden G. King, The University of Arizona
Marie Cornwall, Brigham Young University
Eric C. Dahlin, University of Minnesota

We describe a theory of legislative logic. This logic is based on the observation that each succeeding stage of the legislative process has increasingly stringent rules and becomes more consequential. This logic unevenly distributes the influence of social movements across the legislative process. Social movements should have less influence at later stages where stringent requirements are more likely to exhaust limited resources and where the consequentiality of action will cause legislators to revoke their support. We apply the theory to a study of state-level woman suffrage legislation. We find that legislators responded to suffragists by bringing the issue of woman suffrage to the legislative forum, but once suffrage bills reached the voting stage, differences in social movement tactics and organization did not have as great an impact.

Finding a job in the Internet age

Christine Fountain, University of Washington

Internet job searching offers an empirical setting in which to explore the trade-off between quality and quantity of information. As both firms and workers turn to the internet for unprecedented amounts of labor market information, it is unclear whether this makes the matching process more efficient. Using longitudinal data on two samples of unemployed job searchers in 1998 and 2000, I establish the rise of the internet as a job-search strategy and assess whether searching online increased the short-term probability of finding a job. Results suggest the internet's contribution to an unemployed searcher's information pool may afford a small advantage only to the extent that other job searchers are not using it, perhaps due to an inverse relationship between search and screening costs in a two-sided market.

After developmentalism and globalization, what?

Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

 
Response to Wallerstein:
The struggle for global society in a world system

Jackie Smith, State University of New York at Stony Brook