RACE,GENDER, AND STATUS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS IN FOUR POPULAR MAGAZINES

In this article, we consider the continuation of race gender stereotypes in advertising images by way of the product's suggestive messages, specifically, connotations of higher or lower social status and promises of intangible social rewards (e.g., friendship, appearance, romance). We examined 1, 709 advertisements in magazines whose primary reading audiences differ by race and/or gender: Life, Cosmopolitan, Ebony, and Essence (1988-1990). For the analysis, we created and then compared three dimensions of status (affluent, trendy, and everyday) and five product promises (celebrity identification, sex romance, appearance, marriage family, and good times) as they are modeled by and presented to male, female, Black, and White readers in the magazines examined. We hypothesized that these status-image portrayals differ by race and gender. We found that most ads make use of positive (i.e., high-status) images of Blacks and Whites and women and men and that differences between magazines are more pronounced than differences between models. Some patterns in the use of status and product promises may be suggestive of continued, though subtle, stereotyping.     

MUSIC THAT MOVES: POPULAR MUSIC,DISTRIBUTION AND NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES

This essay examines the consequences of technology for how music reaches people and for how people reach music. It is argued that new media technologies, particularly the Internet, create new territorializations of space and of affect. The spatial distribution of music wrought by new technologies provides an opportunity for cultural studies to bring distribution to the centre of the study of media. By so doing we can better understand cultural processes as not only industrial ones but ones of geography, audience and fan, and thereby de-centre production and consumption as the sites of cultural critique.     

SEX-STATUS HOMOPHILY, SPONSORSHIP, AND PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION: DOCTORAL STUDENTS

Les études récentes sur la socialisation des étudiants dans les écoles d'études supérieurs vérifient statistiquement I'influence du sexe de I'étudiant, mais non celle des professeurs qui les dirigent. On constate que la relation d'homophilie met en évidence qu'une situation oú le conseiller et l'étudiant sont de sexe opposé correspond davantage à d'engagement académique, qu'une situation où le conseiller et I'étudiant sont de même sexe. Cependant, le sexe du conseiller n'affecte aucunement I'engagement intellectuel. Dans le cas des étudiantes, deux explications sont suggérées. Selon la première, les étudiantes moins motivées pourraient choisir d'être conseillées par des professeurs féminines, dans I'espoir que la relation homophilique leur soit bénéfique. Alternativement, l'association avec des professeurs féminines pourrait rendre les étudiantes conscientes du traitement discriminatoire existant au sein des départements universitaires, et par conséquent contribuerait à diminuer leur motivation de terminer leurs études.
Recent studies of graduate school socialization have controlled for sex of student but not that of faculty sponsors. The concept of sex-status homophily is introduced and analysis shows cross-sex sponsorship to be more conducive to commitment to doctoral studies than same-sex sponsorship. However, sex of sponsor has no effect on intellectual commitment. Two explanations are suggested. Less committed woman may seek out female sponsors hoping the homophilic relation will be beneficial. Alternatively, association with women faculty may make women aware of discriminatory treatment in university departments, thus lowering their commitment to obtain certification in the profession.     

INDIVIDUALISM, FAMILY VALUES, AND THE PROFESSIONAL MIDDLE CLASS:

This study examines in-depth interview data on how advanced law and MBA students defined long-term meaning in life in the context of their life plans for work, family, leisure, and community. Findings reveal that while many hope to derive meaning from all of these life domains, most place special emphasis upon the family. These findings have special importance for theoretical debates about the new individualism, family values, and civil society for the advancing generation of post-baby-boomers in the middle class. Analysis of interview data elaborates on why family is meaningful for these respondents, while raising key issues surrounding the relationship between individualism and family life. Findings also point to limited visions of community and public life among young professionals, suggesting a focus on privatism.     

MOTIVATIONS,VALUES, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION: STUDENTS' INTEGRATION OF PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIES

Edicts within the Council on Social Work Education's 2008 Educational Policyand Accreditation Standards address the importance of understanding theintersection of personal and professional values. Twenty MSW students, chosenon the basis of diverse cultural and personal characteristics, were interviewedabout their motivations for pursuing a MSW degree and their personal and professionalvalues. Thematic analysis yielded an emergent model relating theintersection of multiple forms of motivation, encountering and resolving valueconflicts, and integrating personal and professional identities. Implications foreducation and practice are (1) the intersection of personal and professionalidentities should be explicit components of curriculum; (2) strategies for managingvalue conflicts should be an integral part of the curriculum; and (3) therelationship between identity integration and practice needs to be delineated.     

RATIONALITY, EVOLUTION, AND ACQUISITIVENESS

The first part of this paper discusses Alchian's classic 1950 article "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory" and argues against the notion that it is easy to eliminate rationality from economic behavior by appealing to evolution as a substitute. The second section discusses rationality and develops a specc meaning for this term that distinguishes it from the axioms of choice found in economic theory. In the final section, I use this definition and link rationality to a behavioral propensity almost unique to the human species—acquisitiveness, concluding from this linkage that acquisitiveness can speed up the evolution of intelligence.     

TOURIST WORLDS: TOURIST ADVERTISING, RITUAL, AND AMERICAN CULTURE

Previous work on tourist advertising typically explains promotional imagery in terms of the economic interests of advertising or the social psychology of consumption. The symbolism and meaning of such material can also be interpreted through a cultural analysis of tourism as a secular ritual. If tourism is conceptualized as a social ritual that renews meaning and person through a structured, periodic break from everyday life, then tourist advertising becomes the cultural text that symbolically transforms ordinary places and times into extraordinary tourist worlds. In contemporary American culture, tourist advertising accomplishes this task by presenting tourist worlds as places of plentitude, nature, leisure, history, and paradise, thus transcending the earnest reality of urban, everyday life. This symbolic presentation is documented through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of verbal and visual imagery in the promotional literature of the 50 states.     

AMERICAN MEDICINE AND DIVIDED MOTHERHOOD:

On the basis of interview data, this article examines the mothering practices of three women, one Jew and two African-Americans, who raised their children in the 1930s and 1940s, a period in which medicine became the dominant discourse of motherhood. Each mother referred to medicalized motherhood with a discourse of scientific universals (e.g. "it was scientific"). Yet their approach to medicalized motherhood reflects their racial, ethnic and social class positions. Medicalization gained meaning for women not as an abstract body of scientific knowledge but as a signifier of social position, enabling mothers to measure their own practices in relation to others. If women were injured by medical discourse, as a long line of scholars suggest they have been, it is not because medicine rendered them the objects of a standardized construction of "the good mother.' Rather, it is because medicalization invited mothers to participate in creating and measuring separation among women themselves.     

INFORMATION, CHANCE, AND EVOLUTION: ALCHIAN AND THE ECONOMICS OF SELF-ORGANIZATION

The strong invisible hand theorem says there is emergent order in human affairs. Smith and Hayek described it; Alchian gave the evolutionary proof. He showed that profit maximization is an emergent property of evolution when survival depends on positive profits. I extend Alchian's argument to consider how evolution discovers and adopts successful organizational forms. Evolving organizations "lock in" on inefficient equilibria. Noise and imitation—the evolutionary operators Alchian stressed—promote learning and adaptation to move the evolutionary dynamic off inefficient paths. Evolution is orders of magnitude faster than optimization; the relative time scales make the processes observationally distinguishable.     

RUNNING OFF-TACKLE THROUGH THE LAST BASTION: WOMEN,RESISTANCE, AND PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

This article discusses the mechanisms that must be in place in order for women to successfully resist institutionalized gender norms. This research draws on over 200 hours of observations of and 20 in-depth interviews with women playing full contact football, a sport traditionally dominated by men and firmly planted in the culture of the U.S. as synonymous with masculinity. Following the work of recent calls by gender scholars to treat gender as a social institution, this research shows that at least four components must be in place for sustained, successful resistance to a social institution. First, resistance must be a conscious activity. Second, any resistance must involve engaging in an abnormal activity. Third, any deviant or abnormal activity must take place in an otherwise legitimate social context. Finally, as the creation and maintenance of a social institution is an inherently social enterprise, so, too, is institutional resistance. This research contributes to scholarship on gender and social institutions by showing some strategies for increasing possibilities for personal expression.     

THE SECOND GENERATION IN "BIG D": KOREAN AMERICAN AND INDIAN AMERICAN ORGANIZATIONS IN DALLAS,TEXAS

Asian American professionals who have grown up in the United States and attained upper-middle class status frequently join ethnic organizations. Yet, what motivates these professionals to join and how their organizations frame their communities deserve greater attention, for racial and ethnic solidarity supposedly decline with greater class status. This research analyzes what kinds of organizations that second generation Korean and Indian Americans create in Dallas, Texas and why. Ultimately, the organizations and their members demonstrate that race and ethnic culture do not lose relevance for individuals with greater economic standing, but instead their class position shapes how they interpret their ethnic minority status. Despite their economic status, individuals felt labeled as racially different and as "foreigners" from White peers while growing up, and seek greater comfort with co-ethnics in organizations. The organizations promote another racial stereotype, as the economically-successful model minority, in order to fight the image of the perpetual foreigner. The Dallas culture, population size, and economy encourage organizational endorsement of the model minority stereotype. Members also join associations to maintain those parts of their ethnic heritage that fitwith American norms. The organizations, however, downplay the significance of culture as they focus on the model minority image. The model minority stereotype excludes some individuals from joining the organizations and eventually can hurt the communities, even as the organizations promote it in part to alleviateproblems.     

THE NEW ECONOMY AND THE AMERICAN DREAM:

Recent decades have seen major changes in economic conditions in the United States, including large-scale layoffs and downsizing, erosion of job quality for some workers, and increased reliance on nonstandard workers. Researchers have investigated the objective contours of this new economy, but few have investigated the consequences of these changes for popular attitudes about economic opportunity. Using data from the 1998 Indiana Survey of Workers in a Polarized Economy (N = 853), I investigate this new economic landscape and its effects on people's views about economic opportunity. I find that job deterioration and experiences with layoffs and job threats are creating pessimism about the American Dream among Indiana workers.     

WAGES, EARNINGS AND HOURS OF FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD GENERATION AMERICAN MALES

Analysis of 1970 census data for eight ethnic groups indicates that, other things equal, recent immigrants generally receive lower wages and earnings than second generation workers, but second generation workers receive higher wages and earnings than do third. Recent immigrants and third generation men work significantly fewer hours per year than do earlier immigrants and second generation men. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that increases in U. S. specific human capital over generations are offset by decreases in motivation. The higher motivation of immigrants appears to reflect greater preference for money over family ties, leisure, and easy work as compared with non-immigrants. immigrants.     

MYTHS, ADMONITIONS AND RATIONALITY: THE AMERICAN INDIAN AS A RESOURCE MANAGER

As concern over natural resource management has increased, modern societies have been warned that a new, less materialistic ethic will be required for man's survival. The American Indian cultures have been prominent among the ideals mentioned. This paper puts forth and cites evidence to support the economic arguments that incentives matter most. Ethical considerations are important to the extent that they influence institutions, which are crucial in determining incentives. Indian use of private property rights, and the problems caused when that solution was impractical, are featured.     

DEEP RECESSIONS,FAST RECOVERIES,AND FINANCIAL CRISES: EVIDENCE FROM THE AMERICAN RECORD

Do steep recoveries follow deep recessions? Does it matter if a credit crunch or banking panic accompanies the recession? We look at the American historical experience in an attempt to answer these questions. The answers depend on the definition of a financial crisis and on how much of the recovery is considered. But in general recessions associated with financial crises are followed by rapid recoveries. We find three exceptions to this pattern: the recovery from the Great Contraction in the 1930s, the recovery after the recession of the early 1990s, and the present recovery. The present recovery is strikingly more tepid than the 1990s. Possible factors to explain the slowness of this recovery include residential investment and policy uncertainty. (JEL E32, N10, G01)     

EVOLUTION AND SPONTANEOUS UNIFORMITY: EVIDENCE FROM THE EVOLUTION OF THE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY

We examine whether the unguided state-by-state evolution of limited liability company statutes has led to efficient interstate uniformity. Our evidence suggests significant uniformity has been produced in cases where the net benefits of uniformity are positive, and that such uniformity has not been produced by herd behavior. Our results are consistent with Alchian's intuition about the role of market processes, and suggests that the survival of efficient rules, fostered by the rational behavior of decentralized economic actors, are produced by forces beyond the control or foresight of individual lawmakers or legislatures.     

EMOTIONAL RETREAT AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION: TOWARDS BIOGRAPHICAL METHODS IN PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

This article argues the relevance of biographical case study methods as a tool for professional practice. The case of Laura, manager of a small hostel for homeless people, shows hidden reserves of emotional understanding which Laura finds too risky to bring into play. Analysis of the structure of the interview shows the enactment and lowering of Laura's defences in interaction with the interviewer. The article argues for support and supervision to allow professionals to recognise and use their capacities for emotional thinking, and that this kind of ‘experiential truth’ is key both for users and professionals in tackling social exclusion. Methodological parallels between biographical methods and effective training are also drawn through discussion of responses to a training video based on a fictionalised version of a critical incident from this interview.     

'SALSA NO TIENE FRONTERA': ORQUESTA DE LA LUZ AND THE GLOBALIZATION OF POPULAR MUSIC

This article discusses key dynamics in the globalization of popular music, more specifically the interplay between technology, social and commercial structure, and meaningful sound forms. It analyses Orquesta de la Luz, an all-Japanese salsa band, as an example of the transgression of ethnic, geographical, linguistic and national boundaries of Latin American music. The band demonstrated the intertwined nature of the global and the local, in addition to the historical formation of modern Japanese culture. Their worldwide fame derived from their musicianship, their synchronicity with the world music boom, and finally the diffusion of digital technology in popular music production and consumption. This article argues that economic and technological conditions are as much constitutive of the band's unique practices as are aesthetic ones. It then goes on to question the dichotomies, ‘universalism vs. particularism’ and ‘creativity vs. copy’. This discussion builds towards an examination of the relationship between purist aesthetics (hyperrealism) and the Japanese concept/method of learning; it also explores the notion of cultural authenticity that located the activities of the band. Paradoxically, Orquesta de la Luz demonstrated that Japanization does not necessarily imply synthesis with vernacular elements for purist musicians. Theoretically, this ‘becoming Other’ reveals a parallel capacity for self-exoticization and self-orientalization with respect to Japanese identities. Orquesta de la Luz's musical search for the roots of otherness is closely tied with the feeling among many Japanese youth for the loss of Japan's ‘genuine’ cultural identity. Another focus of this study, then, is to shed light on the relevance of exoticism in the band's foreign reception and to assess their Latino image in the Japanese context.