The spatial structure of epidemic emergence: geographical aspects of poliomyelitis in north-eastern USA, July-October 1916

Summary.  The great epidemic of poliomyelitis which swept New York City and surrounding territory in the summer of 1916 eclipsed all previous global experience of the disease. We draw on epidemiological information that is included in the seminal US Public Health Bulletin 91, 'Epidemiologic studies of poliomyelitis in New York City and the northeastern United States during the year 1916' (Washington DC, 1918), to re-examine the spatial structure of the epidemic. For the main phase of transmission of the epidemic, July–October 1916, it is shown that the maximum concentration of activity of poliomyelitis occurred within a 128-km radius of New York City. Although the integrity of the poliomyelitis cluster was maintained up to approximately 500 km from the metropolitan focus, the level and rate of propagation of disease declined with distance from the origin of the epidemic. Finally, it is shown that the geographical transmission of the epidemic in north-eastern USA probably followed a process of mixed contagious–hierarchical diffusion.     

Immigrants' Language Skills: The Australian Experience in a Longitudinal Survey

This article is concerned with the determinants of English language proficiency (speaking, reading and writing) among immigrants. It presents a model of immigrant destination language proficiency based on economic incentives, exposure to the destination language, and efficiency in second language acquisition. A unique data set, the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia, is used to test the model. This survey had three waves, at about six months, eighteen months and three‐and‐a‐half years after immigration. The analyses are performed by wave, type of language skill and gender using probit analysis. Bivariate probit analysis is used across waves. The hypotheses are supported by the data. The bivariate probit analysis indicates a positive correlation in the unexplained component that declines with time between waves, suggesting a “regression to the mean” in the unobserved components of English language proficiency.     

Monsters in cyberspace cyberphobia and cultural panic in the information age

This paper explores popular attitudes toward the Internet (and computer-mediated communication more generally) by mapping some of the more threatening, transgressive and 'monstrous' images associated with cyberspace. An account of risk consciousness is developed in three parts: (1) comparisons with earlier information technologies reveals similarities and differences with regard to public attitudes toward cyberspace and its risks; (2) the development of a model of contemporary teratological space derived from images of boundary-dissolving threats, intrusive alterities and existential ambivalences created by the erosion of binary distinctions and hierarchies; and (3) possible historical and sociological explanations of cyberpanic drawing on recent theorizations of globalization (capitalism/information society theory, risk society theory, reflexive modernization theory, and alterity theory).     

COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND HISTORY:

Abraham Lincoln's changing relation to the African American community of memory is a means of addressing unresolved problems in the work of Maurice Halbwachs. Many sociologists, beginning with Halbwachs, have recognized that commemorative symbolism creates new images of the past, but the process by which this occurs has never been closely studied. I draw on a variety of sources, including Lincoln Day observances, press commentary, oratory, cartoons, and prints, in my effort to understand how commemorative symbolism works. During the past century, no new information about Lincoln's racial attitudes has appeared; yet commemorative pairing and coupling mechanisms and their resulting commemorative networks have transformed him from a conservative symbol of the status quo during the Jim Crow era into the personification of racial justice and equality during the New Deal and the civil rights movement. Since the symbolic devices employed to depict Lincoln are shaped by the very historical record they transcend, however, Halbwachs's distinction between fact-based history and symbol-based commemoration must be modified.     

Altruism and social solidarity: Envisioning a field of specialization

Conclusion This article has presented a vision of what a field of altruism and social solidarity could potentially involve. An additional perspective on the nature of this field and how it could contribute to the discipline and to society is provided by the science of psychology. In the last decade a fundamental new orientation has developed in this discipline, growing from the pioneering work of Martin E.P. Seligman. Generally identified as “positive psychology” it represents a shift from a focus on trying to understand and find solutions to mental illness and various pathologies of thought and behavior in a “disease model” to a focus on human strengths, virtues, and other positive characteristics. This shift in focus is regarded as making a direct contribution to understanding what is best in human emotions and traits and how society can support the psychological flourishing of individuals. This new perspective in turn provides increased awareness of how the problems studied in the disease model can more effectively be prevented (Seligman, 2003, 2005). The importance of this focus on the positive for sociology and a call to action is stated by Seligman (2003): The third pillar of positive psychology is the study of positive institutions and positive communities.     

Fathering in intact and divorced families: Ethnic differences in retrospective reports

The present study was designed to investigate whether ethnicity moderates the effects of divorce on young adults’ retrospective reports of fathering. An ethnically diverse sample of 1,989 university students completed measures of nurturant fathering, reported father involvement, and desired father involvement. Compared with participants from intact families, those from divorced families indicated lower levels of nurturant fathering and reported father involvement. These differences varied considerably by ethnicity. Reported fathering differences between participants from intact and divorced families were greatest in African Americans, Caribbean Islanders, and foreign‐born Cubans. These differences were smallest in non‐Hispanic Whites and Asians. Participants from divorced families reported greater levels of desired father involvement than did participants from intact families. These differences were not moderated by ethnicity.