Book Review: How Emotions Work. By Katz,Jack, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 407 pages,hardcover, ISBN: 0226425991

Qualitative Sociology -     

Book Review: Calvinism Incorporated: Welsh Immigrants on Ohio's Industrial Frontier. By Knowles,Anne Kelly. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (University of Chicago Geography Research Paper,No. 240), 1997. Paper,ISBN: 0-226-44853-3

Qualitative Sociology -     

Book Review: Restless Nation: Starting Over in America. By James M. Jasper. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 296 pages,hardcover, ISBN: 0-226-39478-6

Qualitative Sociology -     

Theories of Social Casework,Robert W. Roberts and Robert H. Nee,Eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. 440 Pages, $9.75 Hardbound

Empathy and social work education behaviors comprising empathy, an important social work skill, were delineated. The impact of professional social work education upon empathy was found, contrary to hypothesis, to be significantly positive. Students identified personal maturation, human behavior classes, and experiential parts of the curriculum as being most beneficial in enhancing empathy. The best students were found to have the highest levels of empathy on the videotape criterion measure. Moreover, female students had slightly higher empathy scores than males. There was no evidence of higher levels of empathy in students specializing in microsystem intervention.     

Robert E. Park and the Chicago School of Sociology: A Centennial Tribute*

Bien qu'il semble plus près de nous qu'eux, Robert Park, né en 1864, etait contemporain de Durkheim, Simmel et Weber. Nonobstant le mythe si répandu au sujet de l'école de Chicago en sociologie, Park ne fit pas qu'accumuler des données empiriques sur les problèmes sociaux à Chicago; il fut un théoricien d'une valeur exceptionnelle, bien au fait de la science sociale europeienne et profondément intéressé au côte humaniste en sociologie. Avec certains collègues, dont feu Robert Redfield, il partagea ou leur communiqua une perspective qui, d'une part, s'est avérée d'une importance théorique vitale et qui, d'autre part, a été des plus fructueuses dans la recherche. La lecture de son ôeuvre est toujours profitable et agréable.     

Charles S. Johnson’s the Negro in Chicago

Charles S. Johnson’s classic study of the Chicago race riot of 1919,The Negro in Chicago, can provide contemporary social scientists with valuable historical insight into urban race relations and a model of methodological comprehensiveness. This review of Johnson’s study suggests the influence of the Chicago School of Sociology and especially of Robert Park on its methodological and conceptual framework. In contrast to the tendency of many recent studies of black urban communities to maintain a narrow theoretical and empirical focus,The Negro in Chicago draws on a wide array of types of data and uses an organic metaphor to suggest the complex interrelatedness of urban residents in the many contexts of their daily lives.     

Determinants of entrepreneurial intentions: Mexican immigrants in Chicago

This paper focuses on Mexican immigrants who are considering to start a business but do not so for various reasons (latent entrepreneurs). The research design is unusual in that it queries the individuals at the very preliminary stages of the process when they are contemplating the alternatives, so it is well suited to learn about the determinants of business ownership. First, the findings demonstrate the potential value of personality measures (e.g., risk disposition) for predicting who will want to start a business. Second, the results underscore that having close family members in business exposes individuals to role models and sources of financial and nonfinancial help that might put business ownership within reach of people with modest resources. Third, economic resources in the household, in the form of financial investments, also affect the wish to start a business because they furnish available capital for the start-up.     

Anchors of the community: community schools in Chicago

In partnership with Chicago's public and private sectors, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has successfully implemented a citywide education reform effort, designed to transform Chicago's neighborhood schools into vibrant centers of the community. Mayor Richard M. Daley and Arne Duncan, CEO of CPS, launched the Community Schools Initiative in January 2002. What started as an idea that was developed by a local foundation has now grown into the largest-scale community school effort in the nation, with sixty-seven schools in operation and a plan to move to one hundred community schools by 2007. This initiative currently involves seventeen private funders, ten technical assistance providers, thirty-four community-based organizations that offer on-site services to children and families, and over three hundred additional community partnerships that provide one-day events such as health fairs and violence prevention workshops.