SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND GENERATIONS IN ART:

This study examines artistic innovations from the point of view of age structure and age stratification. Drawing on Mannheim's theory of generations, it describes and analyzes the history of the Hebrew theater, from its beginnings in 1917 to 1977, in terms of four theaters that were expressions of generation units. The study suggests that the crucial variable in explaining changes in artistic ideologies, contents, and styles of the Hebrew theater is Mannheim's concept of generation unit. The emergence and evolution of these generational theaters are explained in relation to changes in the demographic, political, and social structures of Israeli society during the historical era under consideration. Special emphasis is placed on the role of youth in originating artistic innovations and on the problems of maintaining and institutionalizing innovations.     

BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

In this article, we focus on the analysis of individual decision‐making for the formation of social networks, using experimentally generated data. We analyze the determinants of the individual demand for links under the assumption of agents' static expectations and identify patterns of behavior that correspond to three specific objectives: players propose links so as to maximize expected profits (myopic best response strategy); players attempt to establish the largest number of direct links (reciprocator strategy); and players maximize expected profits per direct link (opportunistic strategy). These strategies explain approximately 74% of the observed choices. We demonstrate that they are deliberately adopted and, by means of a finite mixture model, well identified and separated in our sample. (JEL C33, C35, C90, D85)     

SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS: What Is Religious Agency?

This article proposes religious agency as a sociological concept providing a lens that sharpens our understanding of the ways that individuals claim and enact a meaningful religious identity. Interview data from the case of woman-conscious Catholic women demonstrate how religious agency is enacted in emotional, intellectual, and behavioral strategies, thereby enabling individuals to negotiate overlapping and valued identities. The strategies emerge from specific social contexts and are categorized as strategies of gaining voice, negotiating place and space, and flexible alignment. The article also suggests that religious agency has merit beyond this initial case of woman-conscious Catholics.     

VERY LOCAL STRUCTURE IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

Triadic configurations are fundamental to many social structural processes and provide the basis for a variety of social network theories and methodologies. This paper addresses the question of how much of the patterning of triads is accounted for by lower-order properties pertaining to nodes and dyads. The empirical base is a collection of 82 social networks representing a number of different species (humans, baboons, macaques, bison, cattle, goats, sparrows, caribou, and more) and an assortment of social relations (friendship, negative sentiments, choice of work partners, advice seeking, reported social interactions, victories in agonistic encounters, dominance, and co-observation). Methodology uses low dimensional representations of triad censuses for these social networks, as compared to censuses expected given four lower-order social network properties. Results show that triadic structure is largely accounted for by properties more local than triads: network density, nodal indegree and outdegree distributions, and the dyad census. These findings reinforce the observation that structural configurations that can be realized in empirical social networks are severely constrained by very local network properties, making some configurations extremely improbable.     

DISLOCATING MORAL ORDER AND SOCIAL IDENTITY IN CINEMATIC SPACE:

A certain type of film, the "genre stretcher," is of special interest to the sociology of deviance because it captures deviantizing discourse as if in a moment of crisis. A crisis in moral representation is at issue and with it the capacity for rendering symbolically coherent social action and cultural differentiation through narrative. This article investigates two instances of a genre stretcher— Tightrope (1983) and Cruising (1980)—and places analytic emphasis on interpreting their distinctive persona, the "inverted detective." This figure encases features of an emergent moral imagination in its condensation of certain conundrums, especially the problem of reinscribing deviance in a poststigma surround. The films thereby animate and trace out the implications of a discourse that was initiated by the 1960s and 1970s "revolt against stigma" they function as allegories of the relations between normality and deviance amid symbolic instability.     

THE GLOBAL VORTEX: SOCIAL WELFARE IN A NETWORKED WORLD

This paper examines the impact of economic globalization on the organization and delivery of social welfare services. Sennett's analysis of the modern networked organization is linked to psychodynamic theory in relation to the loss of ‘containment’ resulting from the demise of the post‐war welfare bureaucracies. This changing environment has generated an anxiety‐ridden and risk‐obsessed society that features surveillance, control and the gradual diminution of civil liberties. The impact of these changes on the ethics of professional social welfare practice has been profound. It is argued that public moral debate in the context of pluralist ethics is required not only for upholding a relational based social welfare practice, but also for preserving an open and compassionate democratic society. The paper concludes with a set of questions that provides a framework whereby practitioners can assess the extent to which different practice organizations support relational practice. This typology can be a tool to enable practitioners to exercise moral agency when making career choices in today's fluid organizational world.     

DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN SOCIAL WORK: CURRENT AND EMERGING TRENDS

This article reports on current and emerging trends in the use of distance education technologies in social work education. Areas studied include the extent of distance education programs, curricular areas covered, technologies used, pedagogical approaches, intentions for degree-program development, sources of pressure to adopt distance education technologies, and policy issues. Results are given for BSW and MSW programs.     

EMOTIONAL FEEDBACK AND AMPLIFICATION IN SOCIAL INTERACTION

This article develops an interactive, theoretical model of emotional feedback and amplification. Whereas the sociology of emotions typically examines how affect arises, this article focuses on the aftermath of an evoked emotion as it evolves in ongoing interaction. I argue that interactions serve as a stimulus to evoke emotional responses, but as interactions continue, these interactions provide an additional stimulus that feeds back into the initial emotion, amplifying it. I articulate two modes of emotional feedback and amplification: spontaneous and managed. Spontaneous amplification is a by-product of unplanned but continuous interactions. In contrast, managed amplification results from purposeful interactions and can be initiated through either surface acting or deep acting. The process of feedback and amplification is more likely under structural and cultural conditions that facilitate ongoing interactions. An empirical elaboration of the model is drawn from an ethnographic study of "TD's Restaurant." Examining how feedback and amplification occur in different settings is an ongoing task for sociologists interested in emotions, work and occupations, mental health, and social movements.     

EXCLUSION AND REINTEGRATION IN A SOCIAL DILEMMA

Using a social dilemma game, we study the cooperative behavior of individuals who reintegrate their group after being excluded by their peers. We manipulate the length of exclusion and whether this length is imposed exogenously or results from a vote. We show that people are willing to exclude the least cooperators and they punish more, and more severely, chronic defections. In return, a longer exclusion has a higher disciplining effect on cooperation after reintegration, but only when the length of exclusion is not chosen by group members. Its relative disciplining effect on cooperation after reintegration is smaller when the length of exclusion results from a vote. In this environment, a quicker reintegration also limits retaliation. The difference in the impact of long versus short exclusion on retaliation is larger when the length of exclusion is chosen by group members than when it is exogenous. Post-reintegration cooperation and forgiveness depend not only on the length of exclusion but also on the perceived intentions of others when they punish. (JEL C92, H41, D23)     

PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR IN AN URBAN SOCIAL STRUCTURAL CONTEXT

Research into environmental concern and behavior has been extensive in the past few decades. The connection between the two, as well as other related variables, has however remained somewhat elusive. This study attempts to refine our understanding of how concern for the environment is related to pro-environmental behavior such as buying ecologically friendly products, driving less, conserving resources at home, recycling, etc., by considering the role played by social structural context and self-efficacy. Furthermore, through principle component analysis a particular dimension of pro-environmental behavior is identified so as to produce more robust and consistent results. Social structural context and self-efficacy are found to be powerful mediators of the relationship between environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior. Lastly, social structural context, as measured by the availability of curbside recycling, is shown to act as a gateway to additional pro-environmental behaviors beyond recycling.     

SOCIAL DENSITY AND PUBLIC RITUAL IN NON-INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITIES

An implication of Durkheimian theory—that different types of rites and the elaborateness of public rituals are determined by social density—is empirically tested, using data available for 183 non-industrial communities derived from Murdock's Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. Support for the hypothesis is sustained even when alternative predicting variables are added. Contrary to social evolutionist theory, an increase in the division of labor does not appear to suppress ritual activity. This reaffirms the interest of some contemporary sociologists in ferreting out the forms and functions of ritual in modern societies.     

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.     

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEMOCRACY IN A NEW DEMOCRACY

Taiwan made the transition from political authoritarianism to democracy in the late 1980s. Data from representative samples of the Taiwan population in 1992 and 1997 show how, in the early phase of democratization, citizens varied in the extent of their democratic political behavior and attitudes. I attempt to explain these variations on the basis of variables drawn from social capital theory (participation in voluntary organizations and trust), controlling for the individual's position in the social structure (sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, socioeconomic status, and social class). The findings of the multivariate analysis support only one of the social capital hypotheses: The more organizations one participates in, the more one engages in various forms of democratic political behavior . However, organizational participation has no effect on democratic political attitudes . There is no positive reciprocal relationship between the two key social capital variables of organizational participation and trust. Trust, instead of having a positive effect, either has no net effect (on some forms of democratic political behavior) or a significant negative effect (on democratic political attitudes and petitioning a government agency). The political context of Taiwan may explain why people who distrusted Taiwan's political system were more democratic and more tolerant in their attitudes than those who had more political trust.     

RESPONDING TO PLAGIARISM IN SCHOOLS OF SOCIAL WORK: CONSIDERATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Recognizing the challenges of addressing plagiarism within schools of social work and diverse faculty opinion on the issue, our school of social work engaged in several efforts to clarify issues and establish consensus among the faculty. Issues that required clarification included: definitions of plagiarism, steps to take when confronted with suspected plagiarism, the role of the administrative disciplinary committee, and the range of consequences. At a minimum, consensus was needed regarding faculty steps in confronting suspected plagiarism to ensure equitable treatment of students and to fulfill the school's role as a gatekeeper to the profession. This article describes the concerns, steps, and outcomes of the work that was conducted. We offer recommendations and invite further professional discussion about this educational issue.