Culture Clash? Predictors of Views on Amenity‐Led Development and Community Involvement in Rural Recreation Counties

Development is contentious in high‐amenity rural areas experiencing migration‐driven population growth. While some residents welcome the associated economic, demographic, and social changes, others resist these changes. Using survey data, we examine the predictors of views on amenity‐led development in rural recreation counties across the United States, including to what extent there is evidence of a “culture clash,” that is, whether values and attitudes of new and long‐term residents differ about local development issues as is often assumed. In addition, we examine whether attitudes toward development impact an important community outcome—residents’ involvement in their community. We find that development broadly speaking is a divisive issue in rural recreation areas and that there is evidence for a culture clash over development. Newer residents are less likely to see development as a problem in their community than long‐term residents, yet more likely to think existing rules to restrict development are good, providing mixed support for the “gangplank” hypothesis. We find that those who see development as a problem are more likely to be involved in local organizations. This research provides a better understanding of views of development in rural recreation counties and evidence of how these attitudes matter in broader community outcomes.     

Attitudes of New Immigrant and Veteran-Resident Israeli Divorced Mothers Toward Single Motherhood

The aim of the study is to compare the attitudes of immigrant and veteran-resident divorced mothers toward single motherhood. The comparison focuses on two dimensions: personal attitudes and perceived social attitudes. Respondents included 100 divorced mothers who emigrated from the former Soviet Union after 1989 and 100 long-term Israeli divorced mothers. The immigrant divorced mothers, often having divorced following disagreement over the decision to emigrate, are forced to undergo parallel adjustment processes to a new society and to the new lifestyle inherent in single-parent households. Additionally, they are caught between attitudes toward single parenthood in their culture of origin, where divorce is common, and in Israeli culture, where the family plays a much more stable and central role. Results show that veteran-resident divorcees express significantly more favourable personal attitudes toward single motherhood, while immigrant divorcees perceive social attitudes as being more favourable. Immigration was found to affect personal and perceived social attitudes significantly, above and beyond demographic attributes.     

Rural Residence as a Determinant of Attitudes Toward US Immigration Policy

Between 1990 and 2000, the foreign-born population in the United States increased by 57 per cent, compared to a 13 per cent increase in the native-born population. This growth has fueled considerable media attention and has fomented some anti-immigrant sentiments. Although a number of authors have charted changes in support for restrictionist immigration policies, few have examined their determinants. In this paper, we focus on region of residence and use data from a 2004 telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 1888 adults to test the hypothesis that rural Americans are more likely to support restrictive immigration policies than individuals in urban and suburban communities. In a series of regression analyses, this hypothesis is confirmed; rural residents hold the most restrictionist views. Additional analyses indicate that this effect of rural residence on policy attitudes is mediated by attitudes toward multiculturalism, the perceived traits of immigrants, and perceptions about the costs of immigration. Ultimately, the analyses indicate that the perceived cost of immigration is the single strongest predictor of support for restrictive immigration policies, and that it best accounts for rural residents'more restrictionist views.     

Public Concern with Animal Well‐Being: Place,Social Structural Location,and Individual Experience*

Abstract While sociologists and the public at large are increasingly interested in the life conditions of animals, conceptual and empirical development of the topic is limited. This paper seeks to further develop the sociological research on attitudes toward animal well‐being. We build on insights from contemporary stratification theory to explain the nature of animal attitudes and their determinants. We also extend past work by examining a broader range of factors related to attitudes about animal well‐being, focusing on place, other social structural factors, and individuals' unique animal‐related experiences. Data are from a survey of over 4,000 Ohio residents conducted in 2002. We find that childhood experience has the greatest place‐based effect on attitudes. Other findings highlight the importance of social structural factors, suggesting support for the “underdog hypothesis.” Women, people experiencing economic hardship, those with less education, younger and middle aged people, and blacks tend to be more concerned with animal well‐being. Individualized, experiential variables are also important. Our results reflect the complexity of attitudes about animals and point to the need for greater sociological attention to factors left largely unexplored in previous studies, including childhood place‐based factors, economic hardship, and individuals' unique animal‐related experiences     

Interculturalism as a New Framework to reduce Prejudice in Times of Crisis in European Countries

With the socio‐economic crisis that is affecting Europe particularly negatively, immigrants have been often reported as additional threats in the job market for established residents. Theories of prejudice, such as the Theory of Self‐interest or that of the Perceived Group Threats, have suggested economic factors to explain these kinds of attitudes towards immigrants. More recently, some scholars have advanced theories of intercultural values to account for individuals’ dispositions towards those perceived as newcomers. The aim of this work is to understand whether or not intercultural values are able to modify the effects that economic factors exert on prejudice in times of crisis. The main objective is to identify whether the kinds of values instilled within societies play a stronger role than other variables, particularly economic factors. The findings show that Interculturalism plays a much greater role than economic factors in influencing attitudes towards outsiders.     

Local Dependency,Land Use Attitudes,and Economic Development: Comparisons between Seasonal and Permanent Residents1

Abstract For many rural communities in the United States, tourists and retirees make a major contribution to the local economy. The role of recreational home ownership in these communities is not well understood. We examine the attitudes toward land use controls and local economic development among seasonal and permanent residents. We compare growth machine and local dependency theory explanations for support of land use controls and growth activities. Based on focus groups and survey data collected from seasonal and permanent residents of a northern Wisconsin county, we find that full-time (permanent) residents are much more supportive of local economic development activities and less likely to favor land use planning than are seasonal residents. Socioeconomic differences between seasonal and permanent residents do not explain away the variation between the two groups in these attitudes. Among seasonal residents, support for land use controls declines as they spend more time at their lake homes. The results tend to support Cox and Mair's local dependency thesis.     

Support for industrial development: the role of anticipated benefits to the local area

Research has shown that the relationship between background characteristics of rural residents and their attitudes toward proposed industrial developments is to some degree mediated by anticipated benefits. In this study, based on a telephone survey of 368 residents of a county in West Virginia, attitudes toward four proposed energy developments were combined into an additive index of industrial support. The correlations between industrial support and environmentalism, education, and unemployment were mediated by anticipated benefits, but the correlations between industrial support and sex and occupation in the energy industry were not mediated by anticipated benefits. Income and age were not related to industrial support. The findings suggest that anticipated benefits of development and attitudes toward development itself may be more complex than previously conceptualized.     

Support for aging policy: Self-interest, social justice, and political symbols

This article explores and evaluates theoretical assumptions implied by the familiar hypothesis that anti-elderly scapegoating rhetoric is producing attitude change with respect to citizen support for aging policy. An explanation—the self-interest model—that is consistent with both this hypothesis and existing attitude theory is presented. It is contrasted with a second hypothesis emphasizing the role played by symbolic political attitudes in the formation of citizen policy positions. Survey data from the state of Kansas indicate no support for either the self-interest explanation of aging policy attitudes or for the hypothesized impact of anti-elderly rhetoric.     

The solid waste crisis and support for recycling: A research note

The American waste stream is quickly reaching crisis proportions. According to Environmental Protection Agency estimates, municipal solid waste has increased 80% since 1960 and will increase another 20% in the next 10 years. Despite the sociopolitical and ecological importance of the solid waste crisis, little research exists examining public opinion and behavior toward this issue. Using survey data from a study of 290 residents in St. Tammany parish, Louisiana, this article examines attitudes regarding the parish's own impending solid waste crisis and its level of support for various recycling and source reduction programs. As suggested by recent national polls, residents show an increasing concern about waste‐disposal issues and a willingness to support initiatives that reduce the waste stream. Some political and ecological implications of these data for future research are suggested.     

Attitudes toward Unauthorized Immigration in the Post-9/11 Era

ABSTRACT

This research investigates the relationship between concern over terrorism and negative attitudes toward unauthorized immigration before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis was conducted using nationally representative cross-sectional data to take into account macro-level influences on individual attitudes. Results suggest that concern over terrorism is positively related to negative attitudes toward immigration. Further, the relationship between concern over terrorism and negative attitudes toward unauthorized immigration became stronger in the decade following the 9/11 attacks. However, the findings do not support the hypothesis that 9/11 directly increased negative attitudes toward immigration.     

The Development and Validation of the Couple and Relationship Education Attitudes Index: Results from Two Studies

As relationship educators work to reach more participants for their programs, they often face challenges with recruitment and retention. The theory of planned behavior, along with research, posits that attitudes are often predictive of behavior, and that attitudes toward education and help-seeking can be varied by unique contexts. This paper reports on the development and validation of an index that measures attitudes toward couple relationship education (CRE). The two scales within this index (benefits of CRE & CRE is not a good fit) assess how comfortable individuals are with CRE. The results from two studies support the validation of the index and show how CRE attitudes are linked to relational factors and a measure of intentions to attend CRE, using the scales within the index. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

RIGHT‐WING EXTREMISM IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE: A “Silent Counterrevolution”?

Postmaterialist theory (PMT) challenges Lipset and Rokkan's freezing hypothesis by arguing that conflict over noneconomic values is transforming the political sociology of advanced industrial societies. Hardly studied is PMT's claim that support for the contemporary far Right stems from a reaction against the social and moral libertarianism of postwar generations. An analysis of cross-time data on the class, generational, and ideological profiles of voting for a French far Right party (the Front national) provides weak support for PMT. The discussion focuses on class and religious cleavages in postwar France and the discrepancy between voter attitudes and party platforms.     

Digital baroque: New media art and cinematic folds

The decision to use participatory visual methods with young people in education, health or public policy research is linked to a desire to allow them to have some greater voice in the research and the professional activities that impact on their lives. But how that ‘voice’ is produced, whose voice it represents, and how the product of that research is used and interpreted are all contentious issues for researchers. This article analyses some of these conceptual, methodological, political and pragmatic issues from the perspective of a current Australian Research Council-funded project working with young people across education and health domains. It is argued that allowing or not allowing visual accounts to speak for themselves is not simply a political decision but one related to epistemological understandings about meaning, and also to different purposes of different visual projects, in particular their relative emphasis on voice as a window to the world of the young people, compared with voice as a window to ‘who I am’. The project discussed is one which aims to give greater authority and centrality to the visual accounts and voices of young people, but also one where researchers understand both the visual and voice as constructed rather than given. Case studies from the project are used to illustrate the way in which these commitments frame decisions about technology and methodology, and also to show and argue for an approach which treats the meaning of the visual evidence as something to be constructed ethnographically and reflexively over time.     

Public attitudes toward restoration of impaired river ecosystems: Does residents�� attachment to place matter?

Current knowledge about the nature and the degree of support for ecosystem restoration among residents is limited because of a lack of understanding of public attitudes and perceptions toward natural resources. Public perceptions are critical in designing and implementing any ecosystem restoration program. This study explores the relationship between public attitudes and ecosystem restoration, with a specific focus on identifying the role of place attachment in public attitudes. Using the Buriganga River of Dhaka City as a case study, the relationship between residents?? attitude towards river ecosystem restoration and the effects of various domains of place attachment on their willingness to engage in its protection and restoration are examined. This study has found that residents?? attitudes toward ecosystem restoration do vary with regard to particular measures of proximity to resources, their length of residence in the area and their depth of experience with the place. The findings of this study are useful for targeting education and awareness programs, setting priorities and in shaping policies for restoring degraded waterways.     

Attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual college students: the contribution of pluralistic ignorance, dynamic social impact, and contact theories

Social psychology theories may be useful in developing new interventions to reduce prejudice against lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) college students. For this preliminary study, the authors surveyed 109 college dormitory residents to determine their personal comfort with LGB students and their perceptions of other students' comfort with these individuals. They found widespread evidence of pluralistic ignorance--the students rated themselves as significantly less anti-gay than either their friends or the typical student. Students' attitudes showed geographic clustering, with the building of residence a significant predictor of students' attitudes. Finally, consistent with the contact hypothesis, the perception that 1 or 2 LGB students lived on the same floor or in the same building was associated with more positive attitudes.     

Is ethnic prejudice declining in Britain? Change in social distance attitudes among ethnic majority and minority Britons

Most literature on racial prejudice deals with the racial attitudes of the ethnic majority and ethnic minorities separately. This paper breaks this tradition. We examine the social distance attitudes of white and non‐white British residents to test if these attitudes follow the same trends over time, whether they are driven by the same social processes and whether they are inter‐related. We have three main findings. Firstly, social distance from other ethnic groups has declined over time for both white and ethnic minority Britons. For the white majority there are both period and cohort elements to this decline. Secondly, we see some evidence that social distance between the majority and minority groups is reciprocal. Specifically, minorities who experience rejection by the white British feel a greater sense of distance from them. Thirdly, we find that all groups share the perception of the same ethnic hierarchy. We see evidence of particularly widespread hostility towards Muslim Britons from all ethnic groups suggesting that Muslims are singled out for negative attention from many British residents of all other backgrounds, including a large number who do not express hostility to other groups.     

In sight,in mind: Spatial proximity to protest sites and changes in peoples' political attitudes

Occupying public spaces can be an effective tactic for conveying a semantic message of protest and gaining wider support; however, it may also severely disrupt the everyday lives of non-participants and causes a backfire. Therefore, it remains unclear whether and how the occupy movements have shifted political attitudes among the general public. Bringing a social-spatial perspective to the case of the Occupy Central Movement (OCM) in Hong Kong, this study investigates how the attitudinal impact of occupation has varied according to people's spatial proximity to the protest sites. Using two waves of individual-level panel data collected right before and after the OCM and detailed geo-information on the respondents' home addresses and the occupied areas, we apply a difference-in-differences (DIDs) design to identify the causal link between space and attitudes. In addition, propensity score matching (PSM) methods are used to ensure the comparability of nearby and faraway residents. The results show that after the OCM, residents living near the occupied areas not only maintained their support for the pro-democracy camp but also became more liberal as compared to faraway residents. This phenomenon can be explained by the “on-site” effect, which suggests that the direct exposure to protestors' solidarity and the repressive actions of authorities arouse bystanders' sympathy for the protestors and support for their political cause. Such influence appears to be long-lasting and can be evidenced by the local election results after the protest.     

Measuring changes in consumer confidence

Consumer confidence indicators are surveyed monthly and each month concern different individuals. This complicates a straightforward interpretation of shifts in confidence. First, it is not clear how many respondents switch from and to negative, neutral and positive opinions in consecutive months. Second, reported net changes in confidence may be largely driven by the different respondent samples used over time. The proposed methodology addresses both issues. It involves estimating unobserved switching between negative, neutral and positive opinions for what can be thought of as being the same set of individuals. Next, a new change-in-confidence measure is developed from these switching proportions and the associated confidence bounds are computed for testing purposes. Applications to US and Dutch confidence data show that US respondents tend to switch attitudes more often than their Dutch counterparts do. Furthermore, the illustrations show that monthly changes in consumer confidence are not often significantly different from zero. Hence, claims about increased or decreased confidence should be made with care.     

The contemporary US digital divide: from initial access to technology maintenance

As US Internet penetration rates have climbed, digital divide researchers have largely shifted attention to differences in Internet skills. Interviews with 72 low-income US residents from both a large metropolitan city and a medium-sized Midwestern town, however, reveal that many people still struggle to maintain physical access, supporting technology maintenance theory. Technology maintenance theory argues that although most of the US poor now use digital technology, access is unstable and characterized by frequent periods of disconnection. As a result, low-income users must work to maintain access, often experiencing cycles of dependable instability. In these interviews, nearly all used the Internet, but technology maintenance practices were widespread, including negotiation of temporarily disconnected service, broken hardware, and logistic limitations on public access. As a result, participants had limited access to health information and employment, and biased attitudes toward technology. That is, in some cases, negative attitudes toward Internet adoption reflected a rational response to disconnection rather than cultural norms or fears of the Internet, as suggested by previous research. Findings support and extend the theory of technology maintenance by emphasizing a shift in the US digital divide from issues of ownership to issues of sustainability; they also provide insight into the interrelated nature of access and attitudes toward technology. This new theoretical approach complements other theoretical approaches to the digital divide that foreground a contextualized understanding of digital disparities as embedded within a history of broad social disparities.