The racial foundations of whites’ support for child saving

Scholars emphasize that attitudes toward rehabilitation and views about punitive polices are distinct phenomena with seemingly unique etiologies. However, few existing studies examine the sources of public views about juvenile rehabilitation, or “child saving,” and none engage a measure of racial attitudes. At the same time, recent theoretical work implicates racial concerns as a central foundation of public opinion about youth justice. This paper thus provides the first assessment of whether whites’ perceptions of the racial makeup of delinquents and animosities toward blacks are associated with their views about juvenile rehabilitation. Findings show that whites who more strongly associate delinquency with blacks and those who are racially resentful both tend to be less supportive—in absolute and relative terms—of rehabilitation. The results also suggest that contextual threat moderates the effect of racial typification of delinquency, but not that of racial resentment, on whites’ views about rehabilitation.     

Measuring multiple discrimination through a survey-based methodology

This paper focuses on the concept of multiple discrimination and its measurement through survey methods. The study was designed as a quasi-experimental comparison of survey mode effects on the quality of discrimination measurement: the traditional ‘face-to-face’ survey, the conventional self-completed mode and CAWI (finally deleted due to its non-comparability). Consistent with our hypothesis, some support was obtained for the social desirability bias and survey mode effects: 1) self-administration of questionnaires favours the declaration of discriminatory attitudes and personal experiences of discrimination; 2) the effect of privacy is greater in direct indicators of discriminatory attitudes; 3) perceptions and experiences of discrimination are more frequently reported by highly educated respondents. Nevertheless, contrary to our expectations, less educated respondents are also affected by survey mode and continue to be underrepresented in self-completed methods. The current research aims to serve as a basis for further research in this area.     

Three experimental approaches to measure the social context dependence of prejudice communication and discriminatory behavior

Empirical research on discrimination is faced with crucial problems stemming from the specific character of its object of study. In democratic societies the communication of prejudices and other forms of discriminatory behavior is considered socially undesirable and depends on situational factors such as whether a situation is considered private or whether a discriminatory consensus can be assumed. Regular surveys thus can only offer a blurred picture of the phenomenon. But also survey experiments intended to decrease the social desirability bias (SDB) so far failed in systematically implementing situational variables. This paper introduces three experimental approaches to improve the study of discrimination and other topics of social (un-)desirability. First, we argue in favor of cognitive context framing in surveys in order to operationalize the salience of situational norms. Second, factorial surveys offer a way to take situational contexts and substitute behavior into account. And third, choice experiments – a rather new method in sociology – offer a more valid method of measuring behavioral characteristics compared to simple items in surveys. All three approaches – which may be combined – are easy to implement in large-scale surveys. Results of empirical studies demonstrate the fruitfulness of each of these approaches.     

民意调查中真实性“公共民意”获取的方法论路径

通过民意调查,真实地反映民众对公共事务的社会态度和公共民意;使前者成为社会变迁预警系统的构建基础,后者成为引导与确证公共政策问题形成的起点。既往的民意调查方法,由于简单地移植了一般社会调查方法的技术工具,无法克服伪装型社会态度和虚假型公共民意的出现。通过定期统计网络特定多数议题的修辞框架,把握真实性民意的社会态度;通过行政吸纳政治的制度培育路径,发掘和引领公共民意的价值生成;是完善和创新当代中国民意调查方法的重要路径。     

上海交通大学国际传播学会2014国际新媒体高峰论坛综述

介绍了上海交通大学国际传播学会2014国际新媒体高峰论坛的盛况、主题、重点、内容等基本情况,阐述了“大数据与技术创新”、“新媒体与社会发展”、“传播理论与媒介融合”、“社会转型与网络舆情”、“影视传播与创意产业”五大分论坛专家学者的基本观点。     

Using small data to interpret big data: 311 reports as individual contributions to informal social control in urban neighborhoods

Informal social control is considered a vital component of the well-being of urban communities. Though some argue that the actions that constitute this social process are often said to reflect territoriality, little else is known about how individuals contribute to it. The current study leverages a database of over 600,000 requests for government services received by the city of Boston, MA's 311 system as a way to answer such questions, focusing particularly on reports of issues in the public space arising from incivilities. In order to establish construct validity for the “big data” of the 311 system, they are combined with the “small data” of a survey of 311 users, permitting the simultaneous analysis of objective reporting behaviors with self-report attitudes. The analysis occurs in two parts. First, reporting of incivilities is distinguished behaviorally from reporting public issues arising from natural deterioration, and people are found to specialize in one or the other. Second, the survey is used to test whether the reports are a reflection of territoriality. Reports of incivilities were unique in their association with a desire to enforce local social norms. They were also associated with a second territorial motivation to benefit the community. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Does social insurance enrollment improve citizen assessment of local government performance? Evidence from China

Although many studies claim that social policies are “carrots” that authoritarian leaders use to garner public support, the assumption that social benefits can boost public support of government has been rarely tested empirically, especially at the local levels. This article investigates the effects of social insurance enrollment on citizens' assessment of local government performance using data from the 2010 China Family Panel Study. We use propensity score matching to reduce selection bias and ordered probit regressions with fixed effects to examine these possible effects. We find that social insurance enrollment had a significant positive effect on rural citizens' assessment of government performance, but this effect did not exist for their urban and migrant peers. This discrepancy could be largely due to the groups' different expectations for government redistribution and their distinct experiences of China's social welfare reform. We conclude that the Chinese authoritarian government has achieved partial success in its attempt to use social policies to maintain popular support.     

试析当前我国公共权力腐败社会治理的运行机制

社会治理腐败是发挥政府和市场之外的社会组织和力量,对公共权力进行自下而上的制约和监督,以期实现"善治"的权力腐败治理的重要模式,在制约监督公共权力方面有着传统监督模式不可替代的作用。社会治理腐败存在社会组织受政府制约、参与机制不完善以及舆论监督作用难以有效发挥等现实障碍。有效实现社会治理腐败的关键在于建立健全社会治理腐败的法律保障机制,完善社会治理腐败的行政公开听证参与机制,强化社会治理腐败的公众监督制约机制。     

Are white evangelical Protestants lower class? A partial test of church-sect theory

Testing hypotheses derived from church-sect theory and contemporary research about changes in evangelical Protestants’ social status, I use repeated cross-sectional survey data spanning almost four decades to examine changes in the social-class hierarchy of American religious traditions. While there is little change in the social-class position of white evangelical Protestants from the early 1970s to 2010, there is considerable change across birth cohorts. Results from hierarchical age–period–cohort models show: (1) robust, across-cohort declines in social-class differences between white evangelical Protestants and liberal Protestants, affiliates of “other” religions, and the unaffiliated, (2) stability in social-class differences between white evangelical Protestants and moderate, Pentecostal, and nondenominational Protestants, (3) moderate across-cohort growth in social-class differences between white evangelical Protestants and Catholics, and (4) these patterns vary across indicators of social class. The findings in this article provide partial support for church-sect theory as well as other theories of social change that emphasize the pivotal role of generations.     

Racial identity and the quality of life among blacks and whites in the U.S.

Social identity theory and research on mental health among racial minority groups suggest that a stronger, more positive racial identity will be related to a higher subjective quality of life. We investigate how ingroup closeness, ingroup evaluation, and ingroup bias are associated with happiness, positive affect about life, and generalized trust for blacks and whites, using partial proportional odds models. Data came from the 1996–2014 General Social Surveys (N = 6553). Ingroup closeness and more favorable ingroup evaluation had mostly positive associations with the quality of life dimensions. Contrary to what social identity theory would predict, ingroup bias was either unrelated or negatively related to them. Racial identity functions somewhat differently for blacks and whites. Ingroup evaluation and ingroup bias were related to greater positive affect about life for blacks but lower positive affect about life for whites.     

互联网对社会运动的影响机制阐释

互联网业已成为群体行动的舆论平台和发生渠道,通过资源动员、政治机会结构的供给与共识解读及建构,促使网络社会运动的专业化与草根化并行的发展趋势。围绕国家——社会关系的核心逻辑,以资源动员、政治过程和框架建构等理论范式为研究框架,分析在我国社会转型的背景下,政治机会结构与群体行动的互动与平衡,剖析网络社会运动的发生机理,并探索促使其有效发生的制度性资源配置的合理化路径。     

论民法上的公共政策——兼论民法规范配置的政策导向

公共政策是为了实现某一特定时期的政治或社会目标而采取紧急措施的准则,是一个开放的不确定性概念。公共政策与公序良俗的核心内容是基本一致的,但公共政策的外延要比公序良俗广。为了限制法官的自由裁量权,对公共政策类型化研究极为必要。为了贯彻和体现民法中不同类型的公共政策,民法设置了不同的规范类型。公共政策的关键要点在于,绝大多数的公共政策都是"有旨向的"。     

The role of social and cognitive factors in individual gambling: An empirical study on college students

Most of the studies on the determinants of individual gambling behaviour rely on cognitive theories. In our study, we argue that, besides cognitive factors, several social factors might play an important role as well. We analyse data from an ad hoc webmail survey conducted on about 2000 undergraduate students enrolled in a large public university in the Northern Italy in the academic year 2012–13. Using a variety of statistical techniques (standard regression models, boosted regression trees and structural equations models), we show that social variables affect both participation in gambling in the past year and latent gambling propensity. In particular, controlling for several proxies for individual cognitive ability and understanding of probability, gambling propensity is positively affected by the degree of gambling in the social surrounding (parents, peers, neighbourhood) and the acceptability of gambling activities to the individual. Moreover, in our sample of college students the role of social factors appears to be larger than that of cognitive factors, and this is consistent across different types of models and specifications.     

End of an era? Managerial losses of African American and Latinos in the public sector

In this article, we examine whether “new governance” reforms in public sector work over the last two decades have generated managerial wage losses for African Americans and Latinos. Findings from Integrated Public Use Micro-Series data across three time points indicate that the new “business logic” encompassing, most notably, increased employer discretion has progressively disadvantaged African American and Latino men and women relative to their White and gender counterparts. Indeed, for both African Americans and Latinos in the managerial ranks, relative parity in wages that were witnessed in the public sector progressively eroded between 2000 and 2010. Qualifications to these findings indicate that levels of inequality become pronounced for African Americans, and more so among men than women. We discuss the historical niche status of public sector work for racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. and the importance of conducting further analyses of the public sector because of its fluid nature as a locus of racial stratification.     

微博时代网络意见领袖对大学生的影响及引导策略

当前,网络意见领袖呈快速发展之势,活跃于高校的"网络意见领袖"对大学生的网络精神与文化生活具有重要影响。探讨微博时代高校网络意见领袖的基本特征,分析了网络意见领袖对大学生网络舆情的影响,提出了引导策略。     

Multiracial identities,single race history: Contemporary consequences of historical race and marriage laws for racial classification

This work interrogates the role of the law as an “actor” in the spatial patterning of racial classification. Laws governing racial intermarriage represent key ways that rigid distinctions between groups were codified. Critically, there is a great deal of state variation in these laws. We draw on a unique data set that combines samples from the 1990 and 2000 Census (5 percent IPUMS) and the 2009–2011 estimates from the American Community Survey with information on state-specific legal bans against intermarriage. Results from multilevel logistic and multinomial analyses indicate that a past of legal regulation is associated with a lower likelihood of a “mixed” classification for the offspring of black-white interracial unions, particularly in the 2009–11 period. Our results provide evidence that place-specific institutional legacies are imprinted on the classification choices made even in the midst of expanding options.     

Economic performance and public concerns about social class in twentieth-century books

What is the association between macroeconomic conditions and public perceptions of social class? Applying a novel approach based on the Google Books N-gram corpus, this study addresses the relationship between public concerns about social class and economic conditions throughout the twentieth century. The usage of class-related words/phrases, or “literary references to class,” in American English-language books is related to US economic performance and income inequality. The findings of this study demonstrate that economic conditions play a significant role in literary references to class throughout the century, whereas income inequality does not. Similar results are obtained from further analyses using alternative measures of class concerns as well as different corpora of English Fiction and the New York Times. We add to the social class literature by showing that the long-term temporal dynamics of an economy can be exhibited by aggregate class concerns. The application of massive culture-wide content analysis using data of unprecedented size also represents a contribution to the literature.     

Do information,price, or morals influence ethical consumption? A natural field experiment and customer survey on the purchase of Fair Trade coffee

We address ethical consumption using a natural field experiment on the actual purchase of Fair Trade (FT) coffee in three supermarkets in Germany. Based on a quasi-experimental before-and-after design the effects of three different treatments – information, 20% price reduction, and a moral appeal – are analyzed. Sales data cover actual ethical purchase behavior and avoid problems of social desirability. But they offer only limited insights into the motivations of individual consumers. We therefore complemented the field experiment with a customer survey that allows us to contrast observed (ethical) buying behavior with self-reported FT consumption. Results from the experiment suggest that only the price reduction had the expected positive and statistically significant effect on FT consumption.