March 2004, Volume 82: Number 3

Anne E. Lincoln, Washington State University

This research examines the effects of contemporaneous critical, professional and popular recognition, as well as the effects of the extent of subsequent critical discourse about films and their directors, on the retrospective cultural consecration of American films. Specifically, it examines a sample of 1,281 films released between 1929 and 1991 that received three or more major Academy Award nominations or were selected among the ten best films of the year by either The New York Times or the National Board of Review or were among the top ten films in terms of box-office revenues in a given year. The analysis focuses on the characteristics of those films that were retrospectively consecrated either by inclusion among the 100 greatest films by American Film Institute or by inclusion in the National Film Registry. Contemporaneous professional and recognition of the director of a film is especially important in determining the likelihood of retrospective consecration. In addition, the extent of critical discourse both about a film and its director is important in determining the likelihood of retrospective consecration. Overall, the findings confirm that the retrospective consecration of films is affected by the discourse produced by film critics and scholars who function, in effect, as reputational entrepreneurs. However, this discourse is influenced by the availability of certain cultural schemas. Specifically, the ascendancy of "auteur theory" as a discourse of value within film studies serves to privilege the director as the primary creative agent in film production. It also serves to privilege certain directors over others.


Structured Ignorance and Organized Racism in the United States

Rory McVeigh, University of Notre Dame

A theory of structured ignorance is developed and applied in an analysis of variation in the number of racist organizations in United States counties in 1997 and 2000. The theory identifies forms of structural differentiation that would make the worldview that is constructed within racist organizations seem plausible to a critical mass of individuals. It is argued that ethnic heterogeneity, industrial heterogeneity, income inequality, and changes in the economic structure within local communities provide "evidence" that may appear to be consistent with white supremacists' claims if individuals lack an alternative interpretation. Educational inequality, on the other hand, inhibits racist organizing by facilitating the exchange of information that could be used to reject the white supremacists' claims and by promoting passive acceptance of the existing order.


Sources of Mexico's Migration Stream: Rural, Urban, and Border Migrants to the United States

Elizabeth Fussell, Tulane University

There are three distinct sources that contribute to the Mexico-U.S. migration flow: the oldest stream from rural communities in central western Mexico, an incipient stream from interior urban areas, and a small but steady stream from Tijuana, a northern border city. Using the Mexican Migration Project data with expanded geographic coverage, I identify these streams and examine how differences in the origin community in terms of family-based migration-related social capital, internal migration experience, and labor force participation shapes the likelihood that men in the community initiate and continue migratory trips. I find four patterns of Mexican migration that make up the flow from central Mexico to northern Mexico and the U.S.: (1) the well-established flow of mostly undocumented low-skill agricultural labor migrants originating in the rural areas of central western Mexico and moving directly to the U.S.; (2) a newer stream of mostly undocumented U.S.-bound migrants from urban interior communities with a greater range of human capital; (3) internal migrants who move to Tijuana as a final destination and (4) career migrants who make Tijuana a home-base for making repeated mostly undocumented trips to the U.S.


Sources of Durability and Change in Market Classifications: A Study of the Reconstitution of Product Categories in the American Mutual Fund Industry, 1944-1985

Michael Lounsbury, Cornell University
Hayagreeva Rao, Northwestern University

Categories are key elements of classification systems that segregate things into groups and impose coherence. Sociologists have studied how categories shape action in a wide variety of contexts but have spent much less time investigating the sources of category durability and change. We address this gap by investigating how existing product categories are reconstituted by field-level industry media. While standard accounts of industry media suggest that existing product categories will be edited based on changes in the technical features of categories, we emphasize the political nature of markets and argue that powerful producers can preserve the existing structure of categories. We test these arguments in a study of the American mutual fund industry during the period 1945 until 1985 and outline implications for research on institutional change and the political dynamics of market classification.


Love Thy Neighbor? Moral Communities, Civic Engagement, and Juvenile Homicide in Rural Areas

Matthew R. Lee, Mississippi State University
John P. Bartowski, Mississippi State University

While juvenile homicide garnered a tremendous amount of attention from the general public, the media, and policy makers around 1990, macro-level research examining inter-community variations in juvenile homicide is generally sparse. Additionally, most extant studies addressing this topic focus on urban areas, neglecting the equally important issue of juvenile homicide in rural communities. This analysis extends prior research by investigating the structural sources of variation in rural juvenile homicide rates, and by examining the influence of religion on this phenomenon. Informing our analyses with theoretical insights drawn from the moral communities and civil society literatures, we investigate the protective effects of civically engaged religious denominations on juvenile family, acquaintance, and stranger homicides in rural counties. For comparative purposes, we also perform parallel analyses on a sample of urban areas. The empirical analyses of county-level data using negative binomial regression estimation techniques indicate that the presence of civically engaged religious adherents is inversely associated with juvenile homicide in rural areas (net of the effects of a range of control variables), but that this protective effect is primarily confined to juvenile family homicides. In contrast, the measure of civically engaged denominations has no effect on juvenile homicide in urban areas. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical importance of these findings and directions for future research.


Collective Benefits, Exchange Interests, and Norm Enforcement

Christine Horne, Brigham Young University

Under what conditions are norms likely to be enforced? What processes lead to the punishment of deviant behavior? While social relations are thought to be a key part of the answer their role is not well understood. In this paper I develop one approach to explaining how exchange interests contribute to norm production. I argue that when the benefits resulting from enforcement enhance the ability of individuals to engage in profitable exchange, metanorms and norms are more likely to be enforced. Predictions are tested using experimental methods and are confirmed.


Symbolic Gender Politics, Religious Group Identity, and the Decline in Female Genital Cutting in Minya, Egypt

Kathryn M. Yount, Emory University

The introduction of female genital cutting to Egypt predates the arrival of Christianity and Islam. Elsewhere, a belief that the practice is religiously significant has justified its continuation, and a belief that it contradicts religious tenets has instigated its abandonment. Findings from Minya, Egypt show more rapid declines in the prevalence of female genital cutting and more negative effects of maternal education on the odds of circumcising daughters among Christian compared to Muslim families. Such differences have emerged as Islamists have engaged the State in public debates over women's authentic roles and as Christian voluntary organizations have adopted alternative "gender symbols" as indicators of group identity in public discourses on development.


What Happened to the "Long Civic Generation?" Explaining Cohort Differences in Volunteerism

Thomas Rotolo, Washington State University
John Wilson, Duke University

In Bowling Alone Robert Putnam argues that the passing of the "long civic generation," whose values were molded by the Depression and the Second World War, has resulted in a decline in civic engagement. In this analysis, we test the generation hypothesis by comparing the volunteer behavior of two successive generations of women at the same age. No support for Putnam's thesis is found. Once appropriate controls for socio-demographic trends are imposed, generation differences disappear. However, there are cohort differences in the type of volunteer work performed.


Volunteerism during the Transition to Adulthood: A Life-course Perspective

Sabrina Oesterle, University of Washington
Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson, Washington State University
Jeylan T. Mortimer, University of Minnesota

This panel study examines whether educational, work, and family roles promote volunteerism during late adolescence and early adulthood, as they do later in adulthood. The findings reveal substantial continuity in volunteerism from adolescence through the transition to adulthood and highlight the importance of values expressed in adolescence for volunteerism in the years following. Controlling these processes, attending school during this life stage promotes volunteerism. In contrast, full-time work investments in the early life course are found to hinder volunteer participation, as does the presence of young children in the family, especially at earlier parental ages. The results support a life-course perspective for understanding civic participation.


Gender and Marital Decision-Making: Negotiating Religious Ideology and Practice

Melinda Lundquist Denton, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This paper uses quantitative data from the 1996 Religious Identity and Influence Survey to examine the relationship between religious identity, gender ideology, and marital decision-making. The focus is on variation across religious groups in beliefs about the husband as the head of the family and reported patterns of marital decision-making. While conservative Protestants espouse a traditional gender-role ideology, their marital decision-making practices are not significantly different than other religious groups. On the other hand, theologically liberal Protestants have more egalitarian ideology while reporting decision-making practices that are not significantly more egalitarian than those of conservative Protestants. The findings suggest that ideology should not be equated with practice without taking into consideration the broader context and subcultural meanings of the beliefs in question.


Temporary as Compared to Permanent Dropout

Doris R. Entwisle, Johns Hopkins University
Karl L. Alexander, Johns Hopkins University
Linda Steffel Olson, Johns Hopkins University

More and more high school dropouts are obtaining GEDs or returning to school to earn diplomas, and several studies point to SES, academic standing, parenthood status, and students' expectations as predictors of dropouts' later high school certification. Absent from these studies, however, are measures of students' motivational characteristics and employment patterns prior to dropping out. This paper, which takes a life course perspective, draws upon a longitudinal study of first-time dropouts in Baltimore, where dropout is common (over 40%), to compare those who dropped out temporarily with those who permanently stayed dropped out. We found that Baltimore students who later achieved high school degrees resembled those in national studies in terms of demographics and school performance. We also found that before dropping out, the temporary dropouts had more positive motivational qualities and were more often employed than the permanent dropouts. Policy implications of the findings are discussed, including the pivotal role of work and alternative routes to high school certification in lives of disadvantaged adolescents.