ENVIRONMENTAL INEQUALITY IN METROPOLITAN AMERICA IN 2000

ABSTRACT

This article compares black and Hispanic environmental inequality levels across 14 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States and asks how conclusions regarding the existence of environmental inequality differ when different definitions of environmental inequality are employed. Using census tracts as the unit of analysis, industrial pollution data from the Toxic Release Inventory, and demographic data from the U.S. census, tobit regression analysis is used to determine whether two types of environmental racial inequality—disparate social impacts inequality and relative distribution inequality—existed in each metropolitan area in 2000. Results show that black and Hispanic environmental inequality were fairly widespread throughout the 14 metropolitan areas, that Hispanic environmental inequality was more widespread than black environmental inequality, and that conclusions vary depending upon which definition of environmental inequality is employed. This latter findings suggests that the conclusions researchers draw are likely to be inaccurate if they do not properly specify the definitions of environmental inequality they are using and the types of environmental inequality they are studying.     

ON DISTANCE METRICS IN LOCATION PROBLEMS

Product space metrics reflect the complementarity of product attributes and lead to different geometries in multidimensional spaces. This matters for optimal product positioning. I consider how a planner should design two substitute public goods with multiple attributes to best serve different needs. Attribute complementarity affects whether a given menu dominates another (using an extension of the Pareto criterion). Distancing the goods proportionately in every attribute guarantees improvement when tastes are maximally diverse. The intuition is that the planner must minimize overlap in the populations the goods serve, since benefits are wasted in appealing to the same individual with two offerings. (JEL C65, D78, H41)     

SOCIOECONOMIC CHANGE AND HOMICIDE IN A TRANSITIONAL SOCIETY

Durkheim argued that rapid social change would produce anomic conditions which, in turn, would lead to increases in criminal and deviant behavior. Russia provides a unique opportunity to test this theory given the large-scale fundamental socioeconomic changes occurring in the nation. Russian homicide rates more than doubled in the years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and are now among the highest in the world. The pace and effects of the socioeconomic transition vary widely throughout Russia, however, as do rates of and changes in violent crime. In this study, we took advantage of the unique natural experiment of the collapse of the Soviet Union to examine the association between socioeconomic change and homicide. We measured the negative effects of socioeconomic change by creating an index of changes in population size, unemployment, privatization, and foreign investment. Using data from Russian regions (n = 78) and controlling for other structural covariates, regression results indicated that regions that more strongly experienced the negative effects of socioeconomic change were regions where homicide rates increased the most between 1991 and 2000. Further analysis of the individual components of this index revealed that regions with greater increases in (1) unemployment experienced greater increases in homicide rates and (2) privatization experienced smaller increases in homicide rates.     

ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY IN AN EVOLVING SOCIETY*

A debate that has raged for centuries is unlikely to be resolved by me in one lecture. However, I shall do my best to set forth the issues and indicate what ought to be the crucial factors that a jury should consider in rendering its verdict on the matter. The issue is one between forestry experts and the general public on the one side and professional economists and profit-conscious businessmen on the other. At first blush this would seem to suggest that economists are on the side of the interests and are not themselves members of the human race. But, as I hope to show, sound economic analysis is needed to do justice to the cases put forward by either of the adversary parties.     

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND COMMUNITY DISSENSION IN RURAL OKLAHOMA

Contemporary research on immigrant settlement and adaptation emphasizes the interactions of ethnic-immigrant resources and local economic contexts. Yet, understandably, most research in this field continues to focus on major urban centers, truncating our view of the range of these interactions and the extent to which theories and concepts emerging from immigrant "magnets" generalize to more peripheral regions of the country. To address this shortcoming, we use census data from the postwar period to examine immigrant settlement trends in the Deep South Triad of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Findings indicate that this peripheral region of an otherwise booming South is extremely diverse in terms of its foreign-born population and that the largest groups (British, Vietnamese, Indians, and Hondurans) exhibit strong yet distinct patterns of concentration in the regional economy. These findings suggest that many of the same immigrant-adjustment processes documented in core immigrant cities generalize reasonably well to very different regional contexts withsubstantially lower rates of immigration and employment growth.     

COMMODORE PERRY AND THE JAPANESE: A STUDY IN THE DRAMATURGY OF POWER

A study of face-to-face interactions between Commodore Perry and his subordinates on the one hand, and Japanese on the other, reveals that Perry consistently displayed power in a well-calculated manner in order to make the Japanese open the country. The Japanese were completely manipulated by him, and they yielded to his demand and opened the country. The American and Japanese documents of the time are analyzed in terms of Goffman's dramaturgical approach. Symbolic interactionism can be a useful approach in understanding international relations or social change.     

THE JAPANESE TANSHIN FUNIN

This paper examines the tanshin funin, the Japanese commuter family. As a topic that has received little coverage in academia, this paper defines and explains the unique tanshin funin family structure that is found in Japan. Data were gathered from numerous sources, including interviews that were conducted in the Kansai region in 2000 and 2002, as well as secondary interviews and research that has been published by Japanese scholars and the media during the last two decades. First the absence of the tanshin funin from past family research is discussed, followed by the historical development of this family structure and the factors that enable and maintain its existence. The purpose of this paper is to recognize and explore the tanshin funin in Japan, as it is yet to be identified in Western academia.     

A STUDY OF INTER-ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS: THE GROWING ETHNIC COMPLEXITY IN THE JAPANESE CITY

Abstract  In examining the growing inter-ethnic complexity as an issue of social change in major Japanese cities since the mid-1980s, it is essential that in addition to learning from the experience of Western society.

• 1) 

  this discussion be carried out in the context of research on Korean residents in Japan, and
• 2) 

  the analysis include an examination of the inter-ethnic relationships.

These two essential points have largely been ignored in previous research on the internationalization of the Japanese city. This paper is based on field research from the Ikaino district of Osaka city, which is the largest non-Japanese "ethnic" community in Japan. The research reveals hitherto neglected aspects of contemporary urban internationalization by examining the Korean community from the point of view of the relationship between the Korean and Japanese communities. We find that:

• 1) 

  A Japanese community exists within Ikaino (widely known as "Korea town").
• 2) 

  The Korean and Japanese communities live side by side but emphasize their separate identities.
• 3) 

  The only condition which offers hope for cooperation between the two groups is a common feeling of loss and deprivation.

Arguments for and against the employment of unskilled foreign laborers continue to be heard. It is the task of the sociologist to provide an objective, unbiased analysis and to accumulate relevant data, rather than to attempt a quick resolution by supporting one side or the other.     

CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL PROBLEMS IN THE VERTICAL MOSAIC*

L'ouvrage de Porter, The Vertical Mosaic, est ré-étudié et on y trouve des problèmes conceptuels et théoriques reliés aux notions de ? classe ? et ? pouvoir ?. L'auteur prétend que l'importante distinction de Porter entre ? la vraie classe moyenne ? et ? la majorité moyenne ? viole ses positions théoriques originales sur la notion de classe et est de peu d'utilité pour les fins poursuivies. De plus il n'explique pas les fondements théoriques du concept de classe sociale. En ne distinguant pas pouvoir et autorité il soulève des problèmes logiques et utilitaires. Par voie de conséquence les fondements théoriques de la structure de pouvoir sont inadéquats. En apportant des solutions à ces problèmes l'auteur aurait pu élargir l'univers de ses résultats. The Vertical Mosaic is re-examined, and conceptual and theoretical problems are found to surround “class” and “power.” It is argued that Porter's important distinction between “real middle class” and “middle majority” violates his original position on class, and is inadequate for his stated purpose. Furthermore, the theoretical foundations underlying the structure of class are unexplicated. His failure to distinguish between power and authority raises logical and practical problems. Thus, the theoretical foundations underlying the structure of power are inadequate. The resolution of these problems could have led to further findings.