March 2007, Volume 85, Number 3

What Would Satre Say?  And, Arendt’s Reply?

Judith Blau, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Gender Differences in the Effects of Divorce, Widowhood and remarriage on Intergenerational Support:  Does Marriage Protect Fathers?

Matthijs Kalmijn, Tilburg University, Netherlands

There are well-known gender differences in the form and content of extended family relationships. This paper examines how fathers and mothers differ in the support they receive from children and how this depends on whether the parents divorce, become widow(er)s, enter a new relationship, and have new children. The guiding hypothesis is that because women are "kinkeepers," the position of fathers vis-à-vis mothers deteriorates outside of marriage. Analyses are based on 8,040 parent-child dyads obtained from a Dutch survey. Positive evidence is obtained for the hypothesis. Although fathers already receive less support from children than mothers while married, this difference is larger when fathers are not married. This is not only true for a divorce that occurred early in the life of the child, but also for late divorces. Moreover, during the stage of widowhood, gender differences are increased as well. Remarriage and new children have further negative effects, and these effects are also stronger for fathers than for mothers.

Parents’ Discord and Divorce, Parent-Child Relationships and Subjective Well-Being in Early Adulthood: Is Feeling Close to Two Parents Always Better than Feeling Close to One?

Juliana M. Sobolewski, University of Notre Dame
Paul R. Amato, Pennsylvania State University

We assessed the associations between parents' marital discord and divorce, patterns of parent-child relationships, and adult children's subjective well-being. Parental divorce and marital conflict appeared to increase the odds that children were close to neither parent in adulthood. Parental divorce (but not marital conflict) appeared to increase the odds that children were close to one parent only. Drawing on parental resources and balance perspectives, we tested competing hypotheses about parent-child relationships and offspring subjective well-being. Offspring had the highest level of well-being when they grew up in a low-conflict married family and were close to both parents. In cases of divorce and high levels of marital conflict, however, children were no better off if they were close to both parents than to one parent only.

Children’s Role in Generating Social Capital

Shira Offer, University of Chicago
Barbara Schneider, University of Chicago

Using data from the 500 Family Study, this study examines how adolescents contribute to their families' social capital. An instrumental variable model reveals that adolescents' social involvement has a positive effect on social support from sources outside the family, suggesting that parents connect to other parents in the community through their children. This finding provides an interesting revision to Coleman's model of social closure. It indicates that rather than being solely the outcome of parents' investments, the creation of social capital is a process also mediated by the children themselves, who can act as motivators of network building for their parents.

Evidence of Parallel Pathways:
Gender Similarity in the Impact of Social Support on Adolescent Depression and Delinquency

Sarah O. Meadows, Princeton University

Despite an apparent connection, depression and delinquency have rarely been examined simultaneously. Instead, research has examined each topic separately and emphasized gender differences – rather than similarities – in outcomes. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this paper examines possible parallel pathways between social support (from parents, peers and schools) and depression in females and delinquency in males. Results show that support from these sources operates in a similar direction for both boys and girls, regardless of outcome. However, some significant differences in the magnitude of these associations exist. The paper concludes with a discussion of the merits of framing research as an examination of similarity, rather than difference.

Educational and Work Strategies from Adolescence to Early Adulthood:
Consequences for Educational Attainment

Jeremy Staff, Pennsylvania State University
Jeylan T. Mortimer, University of Minnesota

Whereas sociologists have long recognized that adolescence marks the start of the socioeconomic career, the importance of this period has been attributed to school performance, aspirations and significant others' influence that support educational attainment to a greater or lesser degree. The underlying premise of this study is that adolescent work is an expression of instrumental action with consequences for socioeconomic attainment. Using data from the Youth Development Study, we find that part-time work during high school is linked with patterns of schooling and working that persist during the succeeding years and are more or less conducive to the receipt of a BA/BS degree. Moderate work coupled with school appears to especially facilitate the educational attainment of low promise youth.

Upward Wealth Mobility:
Exploring the Roman Catholic Advantage

Lisa A. Keister, Duke University

Wealth inequality is among the most extreme forms of stratification in the United States, and upward wealth mobility is not common. Yet mobility is possible, and this paper takes advantage of trends among a unique group to explore the processes that generate mobility. I show that non-Hispanic whites raised in Roman Catholic families have been upwardly mobile in the wealth distribution in recent decades, and I find that unique fertility, marriage and education patterns contributed to this change. I also show that Catholic values related to work and money contributed to relatively high saving and portfolio behavior that facilitated mobility. The results provide important insight into the process by which childhood experiences shape adult well-being, particularly adult wealth ownership. The findings also contribute to understanding of social inequality by identifying important behaviors and processes that facilitate mobility.

Mapping Educational Inequality:
Concentrations of Poverty among Poor and Minority Students in Public Schools

Salvatore Saporito, College of William & Mary
Deenesh Sohoni, College of William & Mary

We examine high concentrations of poverty in public schools by comparing economic segregation in schools and in their corresponding attendance boundaries. To do this, we assign poverty rates from the 2000 census to maps of school attendance boundaries for 21 of the largest school districts and link this with data enumerating the number of poor children enrolled in each school. Results show that percentages of poor children in neighborhood schools is greater than in their corresponding catchment areas and this difference is greater when the majority of children living in a neighborhood are racial minorities. These patterns reflect the withdrawal of wealthier children from public schools and into private, charter and magnet schools. The result is that poor and minority children are much more concentrated in high-poverty public schools than they would be if all children attended their local schools.

Group Threat and Social Control:
Race, Perceptions of Minorities and the Desire to Punish

Ryan D. King, State University of New York at Albany
Darren Wheelock, Marquette University

This research examines the individual-level and contextual correlates of punitive attitudes in the United States. Prior research suggests that the demographic composition and economic conditions of geographic areas influence public support for punitive policies. Yet, these findings rest on assumptions about individual perceptions of minority groups as threatening. This work builds on the threat framework by measuring the concept of "perceived threat" and examining the association between aggregate social conditions, perceived threat and punitive sentiments. Analysis of newly collected data suggests that individual perceptions of African Americans as threatening to economic resources is a strong predictor of punitive attitudes. In addition, respondents residing in areas with higher unemployment rates and places that experienced a recent increase in the size of the African American population are more punitive. The latter effect is largely mediated by perceptions of African Americans as threatening to material resources for white respondents. The results agree with racial threat perspectives on social control, but we go beyond extant research by unpacking the micro-level processes that are central to the threat hypothesis.

The Racial Divide in Support for the Death Penalty
Does White Racism Matter?

James D. Unnever, Radford University
Francis T. Cullen, University of Cincinnati

Using data from the 2000 National Election Study, this research investigates the sources of the racial divide in support for capital punishment with a specific focus on white racism. After delineating a measure of white racism, we explore whether it can account for why a majority of African Americans oppose the death penalty while most whites support it. The results indicate that one-third of the racial divide in support for the death penalty can be attributed to the influence of our measure of white racism. The analyses also revealed that when other factors are controlled, support for capital punishment among nonracist whites is similar to that of African Americans. We examine the implications of these findings for using public opinion to justify the death penalty.

Urbanization and Spatial Organization:
Hospital and Orphanage Location in Chicago, 1848-1916

Marcus Britton, Rice University
William Ocasio, Northwestern University

What factors affect where organizations locate facilities in local communities? This paper examines how urban development influenced the neighborhood location of two very different types of facilities, general hospitals and orphanages, over the 70-year period during which Chicago emerged as an urban metropolis. Our results suggest that the human ecology and growth machine perspectives explain aspects of facility location not accounted for by the spatial density dependence model.

Negotiating Neoliberal Multiculturalism:
Mapuche Workers in the Chilean State

Yun-Joo Park, Cleveland State University
Patricia Richards, University of Georgia

A central component of neoliberal multiculturalism in contemporary Latin America is an increase in indigenous individuals who work for the state, implementing indigenous policy at the municipal, regional and national levels. We explore the consequences of the inclusion of these individuals by analyzing the experiences of Mapuche state workers in Chile. We find that Mapuche workers possess a hybrid subjectivity that leads them to engage in both resistance and consent in their daily work lives. They use state resources strategically for what they feel is movement gain, and are often reflexive about the possibilities of cooptation. Nevertheless, they are often party to actions that are detrimental to the movement. The contradictions in Mapuche workers' actions indicate that the results of neoliberal multiculturalism may be more mixed than many scholars acknowledge. Our findings serve as a corrective on perspectives that attempt to understand neoliberal and multicultural policies without analyzing the roles of the individuals who occupy the state.

The Dynamics of Collective Violence:  Dissecting Food Riots in Contemporary Argentina

Javier Auyero, State University of New York-Stony Brook
Timothy Patrick Moran, State University of New York-Stony Brook

This article combines a statistical analysis with qualitative research to investigate the dynamics of collective violence in one of its most recurrent forms – the food riot. Using an original dataset collected by the authors on 289 food riot episodes occurring in Argentina in December 2001, the article argues for the need to dissect the local, contextualized inner-dynamics of the episodes. We find significant interrelationships between three important factors: the presence or absence of police, the presence or absence of political party brokers, and the type of market looted (big/chain or small/local). We then conduct a qualitative and ethnographic analysis to illustrate how these interactions might play out in two ideal type looting scenes – one illustrating the role of public authorities at big, chain supermarkets, the other showing the importance of party brokers at small, local food markets. We conclude by calling for more such research to better understand the mechanisms and processes, especially the relationship between state power and party politics, involved with all forms of collective violence.

Ecological Unequal Exchange: International Trade and Uneven Utilization of Environmental Space in the World-System

James Rice, New Mexico State University

We evaluate the argument that international trade influences disproportionate cross-national utilization of global renewable natural resources. Such uneven dynamics are relevant to the consideration of inequitable appropriation of environmental space in particular and processes of ecological unequal exchange more generally. Using OLS regression with slope dummy interaction terms, we analyze the effects of trade upon environmental consumption, as measured by per capita ecological footprint demand for 2002, delineated by country income level. Based on data for 137 countries, analyses reveal low- and lower middle-income countries characterized by a greater proportion of exports to the core industrialized countries exhibit lower environmental consumption. The results contradict neoclassical economic thought. We find trade shapes uneven utilization of global environmental space by constraining consumption in low and lower middle-income countries.

From Wage Slaves to Wage Workers: Cultural Opportunity Structures and the Evolution of the Wage Demands of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, 1880-1900

Helga Kristin Hallgrimsdottir, University of Victoria
Cecilia Benoit, University of Victoria

This paper examines the reasons behind a historic shift in the language couching the wage demands of two North American labor movements during the last twenty years of the 19th century – the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. We trace how the once dominant imagery of "wage slavery" lost its connection to producerist labor ideology and eventually was replaced by the more pragmatic symbolism of "wage work." This linguistic shift is of particular scholarly importance because it occurred during a time when producerist labor politics, with its emphasis on a radical reorganization of work and private property, lost significant ground to a more consumerist/economistic version of labor politics. We show that this pivotal rhetorical shift was linked to changes in the cultural opportunity structure. These were, in turn, shaped through movement sector dynamics and through changes in the empirical referents which add meaning and resonance to social movement claims.

Organizational Structure, Authority and Protest:
The Case of Union Organizing in the United States, 1990-2001

Andrew W. Martin, Ohio State University

Robert Michels' famous "iron law of oligarchy" has come under criticism from scholars that question assumptions regarding the concentration of power within social movement organizations (SMOs). Despite such concerns, Michels' broader interests in organizational structure and power continue to be relevant for analyzing the goals and strategies of SMOs. The recent revitalization of the American labor movement presents a unique opportunity to explore these topics within the context of union organizing efforts. Findings based on the organizing activities of 70 local unions measured from 1990-2001 indicate that the distribution of authority has clear effects on the allocation of resources for organizing, the type of repertoire selected to recruit new members, and, to a lesser extent, the outcome of the organizing drive. Although the analysis provides insight into unions today, the conceptualization of authority and outcomes explored have wider implications for research on formal organizations.