Sociological Stratification: Change and Continuity in the Distribution of Departmental Prestige, 1965–2007

Previous research has found that there is a good deal of stability in departmental prestige, but has not considered its long-term dynamics. This paper investigates a hypothesis implied by some accounts in the sociology of science and organizational theory: that there will be a permanent component of prestige associated with the department or university. The data are the ratings of graduate departments of sociology between 1965 and 2007 using a measure of prestige constructed from hiring patterns. There is no evidence of a permanent component for individual departments, but there is evidence of a permanent difference between departments in “elite” universities and those in other universities. Despite change in rankings within each group, the difference between the groups remained constant over the period. That is, there appear to be enduring barriers that limit the mobility of individual departments.     

Determinants of Suburban Job Change in Retailing,Wholesaling, Service and Manufacturing Industries: 1960–1972

Abstract

The push-pull model of migration (Lee, 1966) is applied to suburban job change for a universe of 574 suburbs for which job data were available in both 1958 and 1972. Change in manufacturing, retailing, wholesaling, and service industries were related in multiple regression analyses to suburban age, density, median income, percent black, unemployment, distance to the central city, and census region. It was found that several suburban characteristics were related to job change, and suburban job concentrations were found to be highly persistent.     

Discourse Dynamics and Cultural Context in the Antiwar Movement in the United States (2002–2004)

This paper addresses the impact of the antiwar movement (2002–2004) in the United States by analysis the three main coalitions at that time: ANSWER, UFPJ and Win Without War. New concepts and tools have been provided within discourse theory that can improve the analysis of framing and impact. Furthermore, the failure in discourse dynamics of the antiwar movement (2002–2004) is analyzed with a qualitative approach. Finally, we study the cultural context of 9/11, demonstrating that the best analysis for culture might not be ideational and static but, rather, contextual and dynamic.     

Critical Theory and Medical Care in America: Changing Doctor–Patient Dynamics

This paper examines the potential for theory to adapt to changing contexts of health in the western world. The commoditization of health and the ideology of biomedicine affects social life in creating dependency, social control, and vast inequalities. At the same time, increased access and diversity of consumer health knowledge as evidenced by the use of the Internet and the sharp rise in alternative medicine point to a different dialectic between doctor and patient and the potential for transforming diagnostic, treatment, and economic components of health care. Recent trends suggest increasing patient autonomy and the possibility of a re-emergence of medical pluralism. New theoretical directions should be considered by social scientists in order to more fully understand these changes.     

Growth with equity: income inequality in Vietnam, 2002–14

We use the 2002 through 2014 Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys to construct comparable measures of household income and estimates of income inequality over this high-growth period. We focus on two questions: How have benefits from growth been distributed; and do changes in the structure of the economy map into changes in inequality? We explore dimensions in which inequality may vary, notably urban versus rural, and by ethnic status. We also decompose inequality by income source to highlight key factors underlying the relatively low levels of inequality during this period. We find that agricultural opportunities played an important role in dampening inequality, but more important has been the steady development of wage-labor markets in both urban and rural areas. An important caveat to the generally rosy picture we paint is the deteriorating position of ethnic minorities. Finally, we draw comparisons with China and document key differences in their growth-inequality experiences.     

Racial Attitudes in the Deep South: Persistence and Change at the University of Alabama, 1963–2013*

Using data from a unique series of surveys collected between 1963 and 2013, this study examines racial attitudes among young white adults in the Deep South over a 50-year period. Repeated surveys of University of Alabama students in 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1983, 1988, and 2013 measured racial stereotypes, support for racial segregation, and in the 2013 study, racial resentment and support for ameliorative racial policies. Analyses show that in the 1960s endorsement of racial stereotypes was a powerful predictor of support for racial segregation. By the early 1970s, racial integration became a reality in the Deep South and, paralleling broad trends in U.S. society, endorsement of racial stereotypes and support for racial segregation declined. Simultaneously, threats to whites' position in the form of ameliorative racial policies (including affirmative action) emerged along with racial resentment. By 2013, racial resentment, rather than racial stereotyping, was the primary determinant of white students' opposition to racial change. Our findings support Herbert Blumer's (1958) argument that racial prejudice exists in a sense of group position, and that it functions to preserve the advantaged position of the dominant group regardless of changes in the form that prejudice takes.     

Kill me a mosquito and I will build a state: political economy and the socio-technicalities of Jewish colonization in Palestine, 1922–1940

Theory and Society - Scholars see Israel as a settler state, comparable with North American, South African and Oceanian cases. But how was Jewish settlement-colonization in pre-Israel Palestine...     

Earnings inequality and skill mismatch in the U.S.: 1973–2002

This paper shows that skill mismatch is a significant source of inequality in real earnings in the U.S. and that a substantial fraction of the increase in wage dispersion during the period 1973–2002 was due to the increase in mismatch rates and mismatch premia. In 2000–2002, surplus and deficit qualifications taken together accounted for 4.3 and 4.6% of the variance of log earnings, or around 15% of the total explained variance. The dramatic increase in over-education rates and premia accounts for around 20 and 48% of the increase in the Gini coefficient during the 30 years under analysis for males and females respectively. The surplus qualification factor is important in understanding why earnings inequality polarized in the last decades.     

Social Movements and Socio-Political Change in Africa: The Ufungamano Initiative and Kenyan Constitutional Reform Struggles (1999–2005)

This article analyses the Ufungamano Initiative, a broad-based movement involved in constitutional reform struggles in Kenya. By analysing the rise, operations, achievements, and challenges of the Initiative, I argue that contemporary constitutional reform struggles in Kenya were societal responses to an avaricious political and economic class. It is further argued that the movement resulted from a fragmented elite consensus that widened political opportunities for contentious politics and therefore forced concessions for popular engagement in re-defining the relationship between the people and the political class. Ultimately, the Ufungamano Initiative’s power eroded as a result of multiple competing parochial interests in the movement.     

Maternal Health Policies in Countries in Transition: Poland and Kyrgyzstan, 1990–2006

ABSTRACT

Starting with the initiation of democratic and market economic transitions, unsupportive policies concerning women's reproductive health were implemented in Kyrgyzstan and Poland in the period 1990–2006. These policies were expressed by (1) political decisions limiting available funding to support medical practices protecting women's reproductive health, (2) diminishing or restricted dissemination of knowledge about family planning, and (3) the implementation of new contraception and abortion policies. Could these changes be perceived as combat between democratic liberalism, cosmopolitanism, and tolerance versus traditionalism, insularism, and fundamentalism? We use analyses of policies concerning women's reproductive and maternal health to manifest rivalry between economic crisis and the push toward modernity and between traditionalism and liberalism. We demonstrate that the return to traditional gender roles and gender policies, and their practical application expressed in maternal health policies, illustrates cultural backlash toward diffusing Western liberalism in countries in political and economic transition.