LEAGUE‐LEVEL ATTENDANCE AND OUTCOME UNCERTAINTY IN U.S. PRO SPORTS LEAGUES

We extend the breakpoint literature regarding annual league‐level attendance and the impact of outcome uncertainty to the National Basketball Association, National Football League, and National Hockey League. As our measures are different than past work on baseball, we also apply our model to the American and National Leagues. Attendance series for each league under consideration are not stationary overall, but are stationary with break points. No form of outcome uncertainty (game, play‐off, or across seasons) matters for attendance in hockey or baseball regardless of which game uncertainty variable is used. Under the measure of game uncertainty that recommends itself for football, only play‐off uncertainty matters for attendance. Whether outcome uncertainty matters for basketball depends on the measure of game uncertainty. Situational similarities in the break points across leagues suggest general areas for future research. (JEL L83, C22)     

Men and women together: the impact of birth control technology on male-female relationships

The authors argue that "birth control technologies have fundamentally altered the nature of male-female relationships.... New sequences of love, intimacy, sex, and marriage in male-female relationships emerged. The expanded number of choices for individuals has simultaneously created new freedom and opportunity, as well as uncertainty and confusion in male-female relationships. New norms for cross-sex interactions and the new post-birth control morality are still evolving." The geographic focus is on developed countries.     

Perceived Freedom and its Sociological Effects: An Inquiry into the Relationship Between Liberalism and Inequality

Abstract:  Individual freedom has been regarded as one of the most important criteria for a desirable society and life. Recently, the theories of liberalism and distributive justice have received increasing attention as a theoretical basis for tackling problems pertaining to socioeconomic inequality and poverty. However, few quantitative analyses focus on the meaning of freedom in the context of socioeconomic inequality and political order in an existing liberal-democratic society. In this paper, I construct a self-rated measure of freedom—the overall perceived freedom scale—and examine (1) whether socioeconomic inequality is related to inequality of freedom, (2) whether freedom is related to subjective well-being, and (3) whether freedom affects people's political attitude toward inequalities. Analyses using data from a 2005 Japanese national survey ( N  = 1320) reveal the following results: (1) people with higher personal income (not household income), higher education, and better health tend to perceive greater freedom, (2) people with higher perceived freedom are more likely to be satisfied with their life, and (3) individuals with higher perceived freedom are more likely to oppose the government's egalitarian policy, and their opposition is based on the liberal principle of freedom and self-responsibility. On the basis of these findings, the double-edged possibility of individual freedom and liberalism as an "enhancer" and "moderator" of socioeconomic inequalities and political conflicts is suggested.     

“By Whose Definition?”: The University of Saskatchewan's Firing of a Dean and the Textual Battle to Define Academic Freedom in Canada

The article focuses on the firing of a dean at Canada's University of Saskatchewan in 2014 to consider both the decidedly weak response to this event as an infringement of academic freedom protections, and the corporate instrument that was cited as the excuse for the firing, an employment contract's confidentiality clause. The central concerns are with the relationship of academic freedom to freedom of expression more generally, and the textual battle in Canada for the definition of academic freedom in which (in the face of the silence of academics at all levels) administrative imperatives shaped by a neoliberal agenda are currently dominating.     

A Theory of Integration and Freedom*

The relation betwee freedom and social integration is examined using the theories of Landecker and of Kolb. Data are from a purposive sample of 25 communal and formal organizations. Information was gathered through questionnaires and participant observation. Two dimensions of integration are used, normative and consensual; three types of freedom are employed, ego, conditional, and disciplined. The basic hypothesis is that the dimensions of integration vary with the types of freedom. Normative and consensual integration will be positively associated with disciplined freedom, these dimensions will vary inversely with ego freedom, and conditional freedom will occupy an intermediate position. The hypotheses are confirmed through multiple regression analysis. Durkheim's mechanical solidarity is seen to be associated with disciplined freedom. Because we consider freedom and integration inseparable, this association is labeled consensual integration. Again following Durkheim, we hypothesize a new form of integration—contractual—based on ego freedom. They type accompanied by conditional freedom is called provisional integration. Observations are offered on the relation of these forms of integration to social change.     

Trust in the face of uncertainty: a qualitative study of intersubjective trust and risk

Contemporary trust research regards trust as a way of dealing with uncertainty and risk. Predominantly, it suggests that trust reduces uncertainty by means of risk assessment and rational calculation. However, phenomenological research proposes that trust is an alternative way of relating to uncertainty rather than a way to reduced uncertainty. This paper investigates these propositions in an interview study on intersubjective trust. The study focuses on the modes of uncertainty management employed in trust and risk, and particularly on how knowledge, experience, familiarity, and decision-making are combined in the act of trusting. The main finding is that trust and risk are better characterised as different ways of perceiving the social and managing uncertainty, than as different elements of the same decision process. The concept of ‘risk compartmentalisation’ is developed to describe the different ways people work to contain risk and maintain trust by combining adaptation and familiarity.     

What does economic freedom buy?

The debate regarding “positive” versus “negative” freedom is discussed in terms of past theoretical and empirical studies. This is followed by an analysis of the impact of “negative” freedom, using a recently developed index of economic freedom for each of the 50 U.S. states allowing for an analysis of otherwise quite homogenous political entities, an advantage not realizable in previous international comparisons. Using several indicators of social well-being, the analysis suggests that the minimalist government aspects of negative freedom are often perversely related to other conditions of well-being, across states, and by implication among nations. Further, it is argued that such an adverse relationship may well flow from the behavior patterns embodied in and encouraged by a single-minded focus on negative freedom.     

INSTITUTIONS, INVESTMENT, AND GROWTH: NEW CROSS-COUNTRY AND PANEL DATA EVIDENCE

This paper outlines the alternative channels through which institutions affect growth, and studies the empirical relationship between institutions, investment, and growth. The empirical results indicate that (i) free-market institutions have a positive effect on growth; (ii) economic freedom affects growth through both a direct effect on total factor productivity and an indirect effect on investment; (iii) political and civil liberties may stimulate investment; (iv) an important interaction exists between freedom and human capital investment; (v) Milton Friedman's conjectures on the relation between political and economic freedom are correct; (vi) promoting economic freedom is an effective policy toward facilitating growth and other types of freedom. ( JEL O17, O40, P51)     

The relationship between infringements on the freedom to research and teach and poor sociological practice

Infringements upon the freedom to research and teach may be experienced as pressures to attend to particular topics of research to the exclusion of others, to conduct research using false parameters and inappropriate methodologies, to reach conclusions acceptable to funders, to apply “sexy” theoretical explanations while ignoring other perspectives, and to respond favorably to consumeristic university student admission and retention policies. Although there is no empirical evidence to support a causal relationship between infringements and poor research and teaching, I am suggesting that the presence of infringements can detract from effective teaching and unbiased research. The literature suggests that at least a portion of scholars are aware of infringements and their negative consequences, yet formal complaints about infringements are rare. Sociologists may permit these infringements out of confusion over the possible outcomes of infringements (in other words, uncertainty about the standards of good and poor practice), out of fear of being punished for noncompliance with the infringements, or because they do not recognize the infringements for what they are. Sociologists may be able to reconstruct the infringements as pressures of the job and the outcomes as acceptable sociological practice.     

THE NEW FRONTIER: WEB-BASED EDUCATION IN US CULTURE

The USA has always prided itself on the defence of freedom for all its peoples, democracy as well as being on the leading edge of innovations. The USA, therefore, is a particularly unique setting for an examination of the rhetoric associated with the politics of adopting online learning technologies. This paper examines the context of the US on-line learning system with a particular focus on those aspects of the movement which appeal so keenly to Americans. Certain values are expressed in this movement which are almost uniquely American such as democracy, freedom, efficiency, independence, the vocational nature of education, and meritocratic schemes for education as a sorting mechanism for the society.     

Forms of uncertainty reduction: decision,valuation, and contest

Uncertainty is an intriguing aspect of social life. Uncertainty is epistemic, future-oriented, and implies that we can neither predict nor foresee what will happen when acting. In cases in which no institutionalized certainty about future states exists, or can be generated, judgment is needed. This article presents the forms by which uncertainty is reduced as a result of judgments made about different alternatives in a process involving several actors. This type of uncertainty may exist, for example, about which artist is the best, which offer in the market is more valuable, which football team is better than all the rest, or which research proposal will get a grant. The result of different forms of uncertainty reduction is increased certainty concerning alternatives in relation to one another, such as good and bad, rank lists, scores, quality assessment, and “winner and losers.” Based on the result, uncertainty is reduced and action is facilitated. The forms are structural and comprise roles; may be legitimate in a smaller or larger domain; and may exist in all spheres of life, as exemplified in sports competitions, in labor markets, and in the ranking of universities. Three forms of uncertainty reduction based on judgment are identified in this article: (1) decision, made by an authority; (2) valuation, by means of which order arises as a result of actors ascribing values; and (3) contest, by which an order is the result of direct struggle.     

“It's Just a Likelihood”: Uncertainty as Topic and Resource in Conveying “Positive” Results in an Antenatal Screening Clinic

The recognition of uncertainty as a pivotal issue for the sociology of medicine is longstanding. More recently, the widespread integration of new medical technologies into healthcare has led to a renewed analytic focus on uncertainty. However, there remains little work on the interactional manifestations of uncertainty. This article uses conversation analysis to examine how uncertainty is introduced and used in one specific setting: an antenatal screening clinic in Hong Kong. We focus on women who have received “screen positive” or higher risk results, and reflect on the ways in which uncertainty is an “essential tension” (Mazeland and ten Have 1996) in the activity of conveying these results to them. We conclude that as well as posing potential difficulties for interaction, the uncertainty of test results is also used here as an interactional resource in managing the institutionally defined category of “high risk.”     

Precautionary saving in Spain during the great recession: evidence from a panel of uncertainty indicators

The aim of this paper is to empirically study the effect of uncertainty on private consumption using a sample of Spanish households, and therefore, to test the existence of a precautionary motive for saving. Using data provided by the Spanish Survey of Household Finances and the Labour Force Survey we construct several uncertainty measures that are commonly used in the literature and an additional indicator based on job insecurity data, and we consequently estimate different econometric models under the life-cycle/permanent income hypothesis, including these measures of uncertainty. Our results are twofold: first, we find evidence in favour of the precautionary saving hypothesis. Secondly, we find that, unlike other variables related to the performance of the labour market (such as the unemployment rate) the job insecurity indicator is an appropriate variable to approximate income uncertainty in any macroeconomic context.     

Organizational Uncertainty and Labor Contracts in China's Economic Transition

Lifetime employment was a cornerstone of the Chinese socialist system constructed under Mao. In this system, organizations served the function of social security, and as a result, many organizations were overburdened with bloated work forces and retirees that drew from organizational coffers well into old age. Labor contracts fundamentally alter this system, as they allow firms to end the socialist institution of lifetime employment. Yet there is significant variation on the institutionalization of labor contracts in organizations. Based on a sample of 81 firms in industrial Shanghai, I show that organizations that are experiencing uncertainty in the economic transition are more likely to institutionalize labor contracts on an organizationwide basis. There are two types of organizational uncertainty in the economic transition: economic uncertainty and administrative uncertainty. In cases of economic uncertainty, firms that lost money in 1990 and firms that are burdened by large forces of retired workers are more likely to place their workers on labor contracts. In the case of administrative uncertainty, firms that are at the highest levels of the industrial hierarchy are also significantly more likely to place their workers on labor contracts. Although these upper level firms were the most protected under the command economy, they are being forced to handle the greatest among the responsibilities in the economic transition, and as a result, they experience the greatest sense of being set adrift by the state.     

Reactance to taxation: Employers’ attitudes towards taxes

Taxes limit an individual’s freedom to make autonomous decisions about his or her income. A person is likely to respond to restrictions on his or her own freedom or perceived restrictions by reactance if opposition is a promising means for reestablishing the initial situation. Reactance as a consequence of perceived limitation of freedom is likely to manifest itself through change of attitudes, tax morale, and tax behavior. It is hypothesized that employers who have been running their business only a short time perceive taxes as a drastic cut in their profit and possibilities for investments and tend to feel limited their freedom and consequently display reactance more than employers who have had more extensive experience with their firms and the tax system. A sample of 117 employers with one or more dependent workers completed a questionnaire on (a) perceived limitation of one’s freedom through tax obligations, (b) attitudes towards tax evasion, (c) moral standards with regard to paying taxes, (d) actions to reduce or avoid taxes, and (e) demographic characteristics. As predicted, perceived restriction of freedom was correlated with positive attitudes toward tax evasion, lower tax morale, and reported tendencies to act against paying taxes. Employers who had run their firm only a short time felt greater loss of freedom and displayed greater reactance than employers with more extensive experience.     

Measures of freedom

According to the capability approach and more orthodox theories of individual well-being, freedom is an important ingredient of individual welfare. In operationalising these theories, therefore, it is crucial to have a practical measure of freedom. This paper analyses the measures of freedom proposed by Pattanaik and Xu, Steiner and Carter, Kramer, and Rosenbaum. We provide two interpretations of the first three measures. It is shown that one of these interpretations can be useful in empirical applications, while the other, together with additional arguments, considerably weakens Kramer's measure of freedom. Finally, it is shown that Rosenbaum's measure is not satisfactory as well because it yields counterintuitive results.     

Medical Uncertainty in Students Entering Medical School

Abstract

Uncertainty is a fundamental characteristic of medical practice. Renee Fox described three types of uncertainty: limitations in the body of medical knowledge, incomplete mastery of existing knowledge, and distinguishing between limitations and mastery of knowledge. This investigation administered ten Likert-format questions about uncertainty to 171 incoming medical students at one state medical school Items were reliable over a six week test-retest, and validity was supported by correlations with an Intolerance of Ambiguity scale. Entering students recognized that uncertainty exists in medical knowledge and mastery of medical knowledge. Factor analysis of the ten item uncertainty scale revealed three dimensions: uncertainty of the profession, practice certainty, and growth in uncertainty. No significant differences in the uncertainty items, scale, or factors existed by demographic characteristics or medical specialty preferences. These findings suggest that students are aware of issues surrounding uncertainty in medicine as they begin medical school, but medical uncertainty at this early stage in medical socialization is not sufficiently powerful to be associated with medical specialty preference.     

Racist in the woodpile? Prejudice and education

Even in totalitarian regimes, freedom of thought presumably cannot be outlawed, provided that such thought remains unspoken and unwritten. In Australia, freedom of expression is taken-for-granted. This paper sets out to theorise my teaching practice/s, as I enact some of my theories. It emerges from my recent attempts to encourage in my students a greater sense of empathy towards others, and adoption of a multiplicity of perspectives. The contexts in which the study is embedded include immigration (to Australia) and attitudes to Indigenous Australians, but the teaching approaches described here can be applied to other similar contexts internationally. The paper outlines and evaluates related teaching strategies. Questions posed by the paper include: what are the internal mechanisms that limit our thought with regard to social issues such as equality? What are the teaching/learning approaches that we might employ to help our students transcend these limitations? Can freedom of thought only function in the context of self-regulation? In other words, where, if anywhere, are the ‘natural limits’ of freedom of thought, and are there times when freedom of thought is not desirable or acceptable? If so, who decides and how? What are the implications for the power differential between teacher and student?     

The Cultural Meaning of Disaster: Remarks on Gregory Button's Work

After the two major nuclear disasters I have witnessed in my life, Chernobyl and Fukushima, I experienced uncertainty that seemed stronger than fear, anger or panic. In George Button's excellent work I found my personal experience of uncertainty explained as a cultural phenomenon that indeed prevails after all natural and manmade disasters. He has been studying disasters for over 30 years as an academic and a reporter. He covered and reported on, for example, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, the Exxon Valdes oil spill, and Hurricane Katrina. His book tells a powerful story about US disasters and their cultural aspects. However, I think that Button's research methodology and his findings can be applied to the Japanese situation as well. On the one hand, his book can serve as a warning on how not to act in the face of calamity if we want our culture to survive the suffering, and, on the other, it can serve as inspiration for domestic research on the most recent Japanese calamity. Button is interested in the way a disaster becomes a cultural, social and political phenomenon where uncertainty prevails and his focus on uncertainty as a main category seems to be a pioneering attempt that his book extends from previous studies. He focuses on uncertainty as an experience of affected people as well as the politics of uncertainty inflected in a time of calamity and finds that the two aspects are correlative.     

Freedom of choice in a social context: comparing game forms

In this paper, the set of outcomes of game forms is introduced as the relevant attribute for evaluating freedom of choice. These sets are defined as the cartesian product of every individual’s set of available options. It is argued that doing so is one way of taking into account social interactions when evaluating individual freedom. A set of axioms is introduced, each of which conveys some intuitions about how interactions affect freedom of choice, axioms by the mean of which two criteria, the Max and the MaxMin, are characterised for comparing game forms in terms of the freedom of choice they offer. These criteria are based, respectively, on the comparison of the best and the worst outcome the individual can reach in the game form.