Unemployment and Political Partisanship: Support for the Null Hypothesis

Abstract

Analysis of survey data from faculty at fifteen colleges and universities in a large Midwestern metropolitan area supports earlier speculations that certain attributes unique to academia are predictive of differential participation in several aspects of socio-political life. Scholarly commitments and working in a field that studies socio-political issues per se are associated with liberal attitudes, casting votes for liberal candidates, and overt involvement in radical political activities. Tendencies for these associations were observed in both secular and church-related schools. Contrary to critics of the recent Ladd and Lipset studies, there is a clear tendency for faculty with liberal covert attitudes to translate them into overt participation in liberal and radical political activities.     

Sociology research at liberal arts colleges

tis article examines the research activity in sociology by faculty at liberal arts col-leges. We used Sociological Abstracts to compile a list of journal articles published from 1960 to 1999 for which the first author's affiliation was among the 161 schools classified as liberal arts colleges by the Carnegie Foundation. We rank the colleges by the number of journal publications over the whole time period as well as a subset of the last ten years, and provide information on which journals are the most frequent outlets for liberal arts faculty. Finally, we provide some evidence that this research output is linked to teaching effectiveness. During the past fifty years there has been an amazing development of the colleges and universities of this country. They have grown in numbers, in size of faculties, in enrollments of students, in scope of work....It has seemed worth while to attempt to secure a rating of the graduate schools in the different lines of study based on the opinions of a considerable group of college professors....Such a rating also seems proper and desirable in printed form, so that any one interested can turn to it readily for a rough estimate of the work in a given field. (Hughes 1925)     

The mouse that roared? Article publishing in undergraduate sociology programs

This paper explores article production by the entire population of US undergraduate sociology departments. The available literature suggests that undergraduate programs publish little, that this is concentrated among relatively few—mainly liberal arts—departments, and that publication rates are increasing. We argue There are reasons to expect that social/economic presence, reward policies, student quality, and faculty quality, size, and workload will affect productivity. Tracing publication of articles across the 1990s, few undergraduate departments are represented in 30 journals deemed important on the bases of reputation and citation rates. Liberal arts schools do not predominate. Ceteris paribus, public schools outpublished private schools. Publication rates have not increased. Social/economic presence, and student and faculty quality affect publishing, but salary, tenure structure, and workload do not. Finally, faculty size suppresses per capita publication.     

Value Accentuation or Convergence: Analysis of the Pattern and Process of College Student Change

Abstract

College student value change was analyzed for individual and group value accentuation or convergence among a longitudinal panel study of students in a traditional, large liberal arts college and a small, innovative living-learning subenvironment. Initially students in the innovative environment were more liberal, socally conscious, culturally sophisticated and intellectually oriented than their counterparts in the traditional setting, and, after two years, accentuation of these group differences had occurred. However, these group differences were not the result of accentuation of individual differences. Instead, increases in the student values were linked to interaction with peers and faculty on related topics and these patterns of interaction were more likely to occur in the living-learning subenvironment. Finally, those students who initially were lowest on a value and who frequently interacted with faculty or peers on related topics tended to experience the greatest value change.     

Gender differences in faculty attrition in the USA

In this study, we examined possible gender differences in reasons for faculty attrition during the last 20 years at a small women's liberal arts college. The attrition rate was calculated from archival data collected through old college directories. As in earlier studies, the attrition rate was higher for women (31%) than for men (18.5%). Reasons for leaving the college were assessed in an online survey completed by 45 out of 66 tenure-track or tenured professors who left (excluding retirees). Work–family conflict was the most frequently cited reason for leaving, with disproportionately more women than men giving this reason. Open-ended responses revealed that work–family conflict typically referred to the difficulty of coordinating two careers. Female faculty who left were also significantly more dissatisfied than males with the support for balancing work and family life at the college. The need for colleges to create spousal policies to help faculty coordinate dual careers was discussed.     

Making Black Lives Matter in academia: A Black feminist call for collective action against anti‐blackness in the academy

In this article, as have many Black women scholars in the past, we again call for collective action against anti‐blackness and White supremacy in the academy. Drawing from black feminist theory, we discuss the long history of Black women academics' activism against anti‐black racism and introduce the current movement: Black Lives Matter (BLM). Although BLM is often construed as resisting anti‐black violence outside the academy, it is also relevant for within the academy wherein anti‐blackness is likely to be manifested as disdain, disregard, and disgust for Black faculty and students. We discuss some of the ways in which anti‐blackness and liberal White supremacy are manifested in the lives of Black faculty and students, and propose that non‐Black allies have key roles to play in resisting them. Like second‐hand cigarette smoke that harms everyone in proximity, anti‐blackness and White supremacy harm us all, and a shared movement is needed to dismantle them.     

The Relationship Between College Women’s Sexual Attitudes and Sexual Activity: The Mediating Role of Body Image

ABSTRACT. This study examined the relationship between sexual attitudes and engagement in sexual activity among a sample of 401 college women. In addition, we investigated the potential role of body image as a mediator of this relationship. Online surveys included self-report measures of sexual attitudes ranging from liberal to conservative, body image satisfaction, and frequency of sexual activity. Results indicated that more liberal sexual attitudes were directly linked with more frequent sexual activity. Whereas mediation was not evident, indirect effects existed such that more liberal sexual attitudes were associated with higher body image satisfaction, which, in turn, was associated with increased sexual activity. Clearly, sexual attitudes and body image are important cognitive factors that affect women's sexual activity, yet each influence alone is not enough to explain the complex process that leads to sexual behavior. Although cross-sectional in nature, our findings suggest that body image and sexual attitudes may work together as a process to affect women's sexual activity.     

Union Professors: Framing Processes,Mobilizing Structures,and Participation in Faculty Unions*

This study traces the development of union loyalties among community college professors. Assuming that activism is motivated by contextual and ideological factors, the paper analyzes the ways that social networks, collegiate workplaces, and framing practices transform political bystanders into committed union members. Using data from a study of junior college professors in Kentucky (N = 329), the study finds that union participation is strongly linked to a distrust of campus administrators and having pro‐union friends and colleagues. Likewise, perceptions of union efficacy, a liberal identity as well the professor’s education level predicted the actual joining of their campus’ faculty union.     

Are universities left-wing bastions? The political orientation of professors,professionals, and managers in Europe

Universities are accused of being left-wing bastions, unwelcoming to conservative and right-wing professors. However, we know little about the political orientation of professors in comparison to other professionals, which would be the right comparison group if we want to know whether universities are potentially hostile environments to conservatives. Examining culturally and economically oriented political orientations in Europe, it is demonstrated that professors are more liberal and left-leaning than other professionals. However, there is no greater homogeneity of political orientations among the professoriate relative to other specific professions, suggesting that there is a diversity of opinions which is similar to what professionals would find in other occupations. One exception concerns attitudes towards immigration, on which professors have more liberal orientations and comparatively low residual variance around that more liberal mean. Importantly, the difference between professors and other professionals is not so clear within graduates from the social sciences, but emerges more clearly among graduates with a medical, STEM, economics or law degree. An important political cleavage exists between professionals and managers, a group of similar social standing.     

The retreat of multiculturalism in the liberal state: theory and policy

This article discusses a recent retreat of multiculturalism in the liberal state. This retreat has occurred both at the level of theory and policy. With the help of some recent liberal critiques of multiculturalism, the first part maps out some shortcomings of the notion of minority integration through cultural recognition, particularly with respect to immigrants. The second part discusses a retreat from multiculturalism policies in three states that had been prominently committed to them: Australia, the Netherlands, and Britain. This practical retreat of multiculturalism is due to a variety of factors, their importance differing across cases: the chronic lack of public support for multiculturalism policies; inherent deficits and failures of multiculturalism policies, especially in socio-economic respect; and a new assertiveness of the liberal state to impose liberal principles.     

The Educational Orientations of Graduate Social Work Faculty

For this exploratory study of the educational orientations of graduate social work faculty, the author surveyed faculty in 38 randomly selected graduate social work departments in the United States in Spring 1991. All were sent a revised Hadley Educational Orientation Questionnaire, which measured their agreement with 12 items each on Mentoring Orientation and Master Teaching Orientation scales. The survey also asked about the source of their educational philosophies. Analysis of 346 responses suggests that faculty tend toward a master teaching approach in attempting to impart essential knowledge and to empower students, but they also incorporate elements from the mentoring approach. Faculty indicated that their educational philosophies were derived principally from work experiences, personal experiences, and professional socialization.     

Conservative Apostles of Objectivity and the Myth of a “Liberal Bias” in Science

An article recently published in The American Sociologist argued that social scientists are biased because of their liberal views, and that this social activism might in turn explain the growing distrust of conservatives in the scientific community observed in the General Social Survey. Although I do agree that social scientists in the United States are mostly liberal, which is hard to contest given the accumulated evidence, this does not necessarily mean that liberal scientists are biased. It is one thing to adopt liberal views, but it is quite another to let these views distort scientific productions to the point that they are not scientific anymore. Since no systematic evidence currently exists to support this claim, the “liberal bias” remains a myth. Moreover, the authors do not report any statistical correlation between the purported increase in social scientists’ activism and conservatives’ growing distrust in science, let alone a causal relationship. I hypothesize that the authors, as conservatives, are more concerned with liberalism than with the politicization of science per se, and that their critics are aimed at challenging liberals’ domination within academia by depicting liberal scholars as pseudo-scientists.     

The crisis of representation: the limits of liberal democracy in the global era

In liberal thought, democracy is guaranteed by the unity of community and government. The community of citizens elects its government according to political preferences. The government rules over the community with powers which are limited by unalienable human, civil, and political rights. These assumptions have characterized Classical Liberalism, Revisionist Liberalism and contemporary Neo-liberal theories. However, the assumed unity of community and government becomes problematic in Global Post-Fordism. Recent research on the globalization of the economy and society has underscored the increasing inability of nation-states to exercise power over their communities which, in turn, limits the ability of communities to express their will at the nation-state level. The current phase of capitalism is characterized by socio-economic relations which transcend the jurisdictions of nation-states and local spaces. This paper addresses the issue of the fracture of the unity of community and government by introducing feature characteristics of Classical Liberalism, Revisionist Liberalism and Neo-liberalism. Moreover, it analyzes the contribution of the theory of Reflexive Modernization which represents a novel attempt to rethink democracy within the liberal tradition. The paper concludes that the inability of governments to control economic and non-economic environments creates a crisis of representation which implies serious limits to liberal democracy. This situation is particularly important for rural regions as their socio-economic development, and programs for its democratization have been historically based on the intervention of agencies of and control by the nation-state.     

If and When Sociology Becomes a Female Preserve

This article investigates recent data on the prevalence of women in the field of sociology in order to understand whether or not the discipline has become a female preserve. Data on the top sociology departments in the USA were collected in 2007. For each university, we document the number of full time, tenured and tenure-track faculty members and present the gendered makeup of the department. Our data present mixed findings with regard to the question of whether the field is tipping toward female. Women, overall, are underrepresented in the sociology programs sampled, but a larger percentage of women occupy tenured positions within the top liberal arts programs than at the top graduate programs. And, women occupy a slim majority of assistant professor positions but have lower numbers at higher academic ranks. We can say with reasonable certainty that, while the proportion of women doctorates and assistant professors indicate a feminization of sociology, the entire discipline has not yet tipped toward female.     

Student-Centered Teaching: The Analog to Client-Centered Practice

A team of faculty explain the use of a developmental curriculum design to teach a direct practice methods course. The design is based on the principles of andragogy, which highlights self-motivated adult learning. Students and faculty collaborate in setting and implementing course objectives. The authors differentiate between the developmental design and the more traditional structured curriculum. These two approaches are compared according to their course objectives, specific content, role of faculty, and learning process. Illustrations from the course are used for clarification purposes.     

The Goals of History Teaching

Abstract

The following article is an excerpt of a speech given by Larry Diamond to those participating in the 1996 Civitas Panamericano Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In his speech, Dr. Diamond included a comprehensive survey of the state of stable, liberal democratic government in the Americas. He outlined the multiple levels of development required to achieve stable, liberal democratic institutions, but he focused the major portion of his address on that one level “indispensable for a stable, liberal, and effective democracy”—the individual citizen. At that level, civic education, both formal and informal, is required. The editors of The Social Studies offer readers Dr. Diamond's concept of educating for democracy, hoping that the excerpts will result in our readers' critical reflection on the revival of civic education in the United States and in other parts of the Americas.     

The global subject of precarity

ABSTRACT

This article explores the universalizing logic of precarity and precariousness in global studies discourse. Originally articulated in the work of Guy Standing and Judith Butler, this logic presupposes a possibility for a global politics of equality between precarious subjects in the North and South based on an emergent shared horizon of suffering. In a close reading of Standing and Butler, I challenge claims about equivalence by calling attention to the liberal analytics that inform their work. Drawing on a postcolonial attunement to historically constituted exclusions, I argue that precarity is better understood as a dis-ordering experience of sovereign subjectivity whose principal referent is the liberal not global subject of precarity. Globalizing the liberal subject of precarity entails the recuperation of its constitutive outside, namely the Third World, as the original site of abjection. The de-politicizing implications of attempts to universalize the subject of precarity are briefly outlined in conclusion.