Won't You Be My Neighbor? Norms of Cooperation,Public Broadcasting,and the Collective Action Problem*

Objectives. The logic of collective action suggests that public broadcasting stations should not receive the empirically observed level of member support they do. Why do people contribute to public television when they can view it without contributing? Methods. The hypothesis tested is that “norms of cooperation” govern the behavior of individuals in collective action situations. This article tests the hypothesis with an original survey of public television viewers in three large communities. Results. The survey data provide support for the “norms of cooperation” hypothesis. The higher the level of characteristics of an individual that measure cooperation, the more likely the individual is to give to public broadcasting, all other factors being equal. Conclusions. Norms of cooperation—an important part of social capital—help overcome the logic of collective action where it concerns public television contributions.     

Race, Gender, and Educational Advantage in the Inner City

Objective . In this study we examine race differences in the effect of childhood in an urban inner–city community on educational attainment in adulthood. Methods . We examine a cohort of African American and white individuals born in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the same hospital. Our analysis examines a set of individual, family, and community characteristics for the respondents at three time points in their life course, birth, childhood, and adulthood. Results . We find that black men and women are substantially more likely than their white counterparts to graduate from high school, and that black women are more likely than white men, black men, and white women to graduate from high school and college. Conclusions . We conclude that social policy to eradicate urban disadvantage must not shift its focus to the plight of poor whites to the neglect of African Americans. Rather, we urge that inner–city white children be "drawn out of the shadows" of social research and that the uniqueness of race, class, and gender intersections realized in the inner city be brought to bear.     

A Race, Class, and Gender Analysis of Thriving

Thriving research has been dominated by a psychological perspective. Individuals are typically the unit of analysis and thriving is generally operationalized using psychological measures. This article discusses a race, class, and gender perspective that derives from feminist sociology, as well as its implications for thriving research. This perspective, which focuses on the role of race, class, and gender inequality in organizing social relations, draws attention to the need to recognize that both the likelihood that someone will face a challenge and their ability to thrive in the face of that challenge are determined largely by their location in the social hierarchy. It also demonstrates that distinctions must be made between thriving in the face of the routine challenges of daily life and thriving in the face of challenges that are an extraordinary part of life. Finally, the race, class, and gender perspective has implications for the development of interventions to promote thriving. Each of these issues is elaborated further with illustrations drawn from life history and focus group interviews with and field work conducted among drug-addicted women.     

The Intersection of Race and Gender: An Examination of Black Feminist Consciousness,Race Consciousness,and Policy Attitudes*

Objective. In this article, we investigate black feminist consciousness, its relationship to race consciousness, and its impact on policy attitudes. Unlike scholars and activists who argue that black feminist consciousness detracts from race consciousness, we argue that the two go hand in hand. Methods. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we examine public opinion survey data from the 1993 National Black Politics Study. Results. We find that both black women and men have fairly high levels of support for black feminist ideals. Also, we provide evidence that black feminist consciousness is positively related to the components of race consciousness and demonstrate the influence of black feminist consciousness on support for abortion rights. Conclusions. Our research is important because it uses a measure of black feminist consciousness true to its theoretical origins.     

Mental Health and Social Justice: Gender, Race and Psychological Consequences of Unfairness

Correspondence to: Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK. Summary It is not immediately obvious how social justice might relateto mental health. Mental health or ill health is, by some, thoughtto be inherent within the individual, whereas social justice,as its name indicates, resides within the realm of the social.However, where we understand social justice as, on the one hand,an issue involving equality and fairness, and on the other ashaving both material and symbolic dimensions it becomes clearthat there is an important link. In particular groups whichsuffer disadvantage and discrimination may be expected to sufferhigher rates of mental ill health. However, the key to understandingthis is by identifying the mechanisms by which this can happen.In order to do this it is necessary that we do not look at mentalhealth (or illness) in an undifferentiated way, since thereare different processes involved for different forms of mentalill health. We shall, therefore, look at this by focusing onthe issue of social justice through two significant relationships:gender and depression, and race and schizophrenia. We shallexamine the mechanisms which link these together, and show howthey are significant psychological consequences of social injusticearising in both material and symbolic form.     

You Don't Always Have to Pick Up Your Mess Right Away: How Being Messy Can Be Really Neat!

SUMMARY

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a first year student's field placement experience at a group home for mentally ill adolescent boys. Upon discovering she has to “un-learn” past “learned” group work skills, she eagerly anticipates future opportunities to utilize “re-learned” theory acquired from major method course readings and lectures. Once in the field, she confronts the difficulties that this presents. The following is an account of the fears and frustrations as well as the joys and rewards one student encountered while attempting to apply and practice group work methodology in the field.     

Race, Class, and Gender Differences in High School Seniors' Values: Applying Intersection Theory in Empirical Analysis

Objective . This article demonstrates how intersection theory can be applied in empirical studies by testing whether an individual's race, class, and gender have interactive effects. Methods . Data on high school students' ratings of the importance of equality, money, career, and family from the Monitoring the Future study are used. A stepwise regression model is employed to determine first whether additive effects exist in the data, and then whether interactions exist among race, class, and gender characteristics. Results . Previous findings of additive effects were generally confirmed in the first stage of the regressions, with some exceptions. For the money and family values, significant interactions exist between some pairs of characteristics, but three-way interactions were not significant. For equality and career values, no significant interactions were found. Conclusions . Although there are times when additive models are sufficient to describe differences among groups, the omission of interaction terms can sometimes lead to misleading conclusions about the effects of race, class, and gender. Using intersection theory in empirical models will guard against this oversight and may lead to a broad theory of when significant race, class, and gender interactions should be expected.     

当代日本的民族保守主义:生成、概念和释疑

冷战后国际政治格局的重组和日本国内政治生态的变化,是日本“民族保守主义”生成的主要背景。这一概念的提出,源于当今日本政治自身变化的客观存在和对其理论研究的现实需要。作为一种“主义”,它已成为今天日本主流派政治家的政治理念和保守政党的政策实践,引领着日本走向其心目中既定的“政治大国”目标。就国内有些学者对这一概念比较关心的几个学术上的问题,本文进行了阐释和说明。