Examining identity development among gay men of color

Within the past few decades, there has been an explosion of articles examining “gay identity.” Yet, much of this work continues to center on the experiences of gay White men or fail to adequately examine the process of identity development, even when “identity” is central to the discussion. This review outlines 4 theoretical perspectives used to explore gay men of color and identity development. Taken together, these 4 perspectives can offer a rich opportunity to explore the ways that gay men of color come to develop an identity that simultaneously addresses their racial and sexual identities. I argue that examining identity development among gay men of color can help sociology better understand the identity process and provide new insights into examining intersectionality by demonstrating that identities are not only intersectional but also contextual.     

Child and spouse replacement mechanisms: a life cycle perspective on family composition in Peru

The author assesses the patterns of family extension in Peru by examining variations in family composition over the family life cycle. The amount and type of extension among Peruvian families at successive stages of family development are examined. The relative importance of general overlap and of child and spouse replacement mechanisms as processes that help to ensure the viability of residential family units is studied. The empirical analysis is based on a 1970-1971 survey of a national sample of Peruvian households     

Political,institutional, and bureaucratic fuel for the arms race

Revolutionary changes in Eastern Europe are fundamentally intertwined with the thawing of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Paradoxically, the arms race between the superpowers continues. This paper examines the paradox by first considering the conventional explanations for improved relations and demonstrating their inadequacies, then turning to the structural factors that appear to help explain the changed relations, and finally examining some of the social forces that cause the arms race to continue despite the thawing of the Cold War. Structural factors cited here as having contributed to the improved relations include: changes in the global economy, the development of a civil society in the Eastern bloc, domestic and international peace initiatives, and cultural changes. Despite these changes, the arms race continues due to the stability of strategic policy and the way it is made, military-industrial institutional operations, political and economic interests, and government operations. In each of these areas, much sociological research is needed to help guide the policy-making process away from continuing the arms race.     

The Role of Beliefs in Sexual Behavior of Adolescents: Development and Validation of an Adolescent Sexual Expectancies Scale

This article reports on the development and psychometric properties of the Adolescent Sexual Expectancies Scale (ASEXS). Data were obtained from three annual longitudinal surveys of youth aged 10–17 at the first administration (N=932 at Wave 3). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that 4 correlated factors corresponding to Social Risk, Social Benefit, Health Risk, and Pleasure adequately represented the expectancy items. High alpha coefficients and stability across survey waves indicated good internal and test–retest reliability for these factors. Latent variable autoregressive analyses indicated that Social Risk expectancies predicted changes in sexual behavior over the course of the study. Multigroup analyses established that the measurement and predictive models were equivalent for males and females and across age groups. The ASEXS provides researchers with a useful measure for examining adolescents' expectancy beliefs about the consequences of sexual behavior.     

Exploring Women's Retirement: Continuity,Context and Career Transition

This paper reports on an exploratory study examining women's views about and experiences of retirement. It has long been recognized that women's careers often follow a different path than men's due to the differential impact of family and domestic responsibilities and their relative underrepresentation at higher levels of organizations. However, many studies of retirement have implicitly assumed a conventional male career as the norm, where retirement is seen as marking a neat ending to continuous employment. This paper aims to present a richer understanding of women's retirement, utilizing contextual national data and qualitative analysis. The paper begins with a brief summary of literature looking at women's career development. We then explore the concept of retirement and consider current literature with regard to women's retirement. Following a brief discussion of our research approach, we provide some national context using quantitative data. We then discuss the qualitative findings, examining the areas of continuity and change that women experienced in retirement and exploring the factors that they felt enabled and constrained them.     

‘External’vs. 'Social Constructionist’Models in the Sociology of Knowledge: Alternative or Complementary Approaches?*

This paper assesses the relative utilities of two models for examining the relationship between the sociohistorical context and thought–a traditional external approach as exemplified by Coser and a social constructionist approach offered by Scimecca –using Parsons’functionalist theory of social inequality as a test case. Both models are externalist in that they focus on existential influences on thought, and, for this reason, the models are compared as complementary explanations. The results suggest that each model, due to its unique focus within the larger externalist domain, offers important insights for understanding the links between existential conditions and the process of theorizing.     

Regulating rural change: Property rights,economy and environment — a case study from Cumbria,U.K.

A new set of priorities increasingly determines the development of the British countryside. It is encouraging a more economically and socially differentiated countryside in which spatial patterns of development will be less predictable and environmental concerns more evident. New means of examining these complex processes of change are urgently required. In particular, they must engage with and adequately reflect the significance of local circumstances. Drawing upon Clark's notion of ‘real’ regulation, with its focus upon administrative processes, a framework is presented which re-directs our understanding of regulation as a focus for examining the relations between the market, the state and civil society. The framework is operationalized through an examination of the redefinition and redistribution of real property rights. Changes to property rights provide a means of establishing altered priorities. These priorities are reflected in the nature and outcomes of the rural land development process which, it is argued, continues to afford a particularly powerful ‘window’ on the nature of rural change. The field enquiries are based upon a detailed, case study approach using an ‘actor-in-context’ methodology. A case study drawn from Allerdale in Cumbria, England, which examines the debates and outcomes surrounding the Lostrigg open-cast coal site, is used to illustrate the methodology, to indicate the growing political substance of environmental as opposed to employment concerns in the countryside, and to demonstrate the effectiveness of local resistance to established norms of land development.     

The process of friendship formation

This paper poses two questions about the process of friendship formation: what is the relative stability of asymmetric and mutual friendship dyads and what is the nature of change in asymmetric dyads over time? These questions are examined in longitudinal sociometric data from five elementary classes. Change in friendship choices is shown to be at least partially embeddable as a continuous time, stationary Markov process and the unique Q matrices governing the process are determined. The findings show that unreciprocated friendship choices of the children in the sample are less stable than reciprocated choices and that their unreciprocated choices tend to be withdrawn rather than reciprocated over time.     

Me,myself and money: having a financially focused self-concept and its consequences for disordered gambling

The article describes a test of the hypothesis that some people’s self-concept is overly focused on financial success and that this focus contributes to disordered gambling. Study 1 reported on the development and validation of the Financially Focused Scale (FFS) with a sample of community gamblers (N = 197). As predicted, participants whose self-concept was financially focused attached greater importance to the money they possess as a domain of self-worth. They also indicated that the money they possess is a more important domain of self-worth relative to other life domains. Importantly, greater financial focus was a positive predictor of disordered gambling severity and did so over and above other known predictors of disordered gambling severity (i.e. personal income, Big-Five personality domains, global self-esteem, personal relative deprivation and materialism). Study 2 (N = 220) replicated and extended the findings of Study 1 by examining the motivational mechanisms that may link being financially focused with disordered gambling severity. As hypothesized, monetary gambling motives mediated the relationship between participants’ FFS scores and disordered gambling severity. Having a financially focused self-concept may play a critical role in the development and maintenance of disordered gambling. Addressing this self-concept in treatment may help alleviate gambling disorder.     

The Strategic Management of Government Affairs in China: How Multinational Corporations in China Interact With the Chinese Government

This study addresses how multinational corporations (MNCs) interact with government by examining the strategic management of government affairs in 25 MNCs in China from the perspectives of public relations and corporate political activity. Twenty-seven qualitative interviews were conducted. Results show that 16 of the 25 MNC include their government affairs managers in strategic management. Government affairs contributes to the process by aligning their business goals with the development of policies and regulations. Government affairs managers play 4 roles in the process according to the level of regulation and the frequency of external environmental changes of the MNCs: the business developer, expert prescriber, senior advisor, and internal consultant. Government affairs specialists use direct and indirect sources to gather information relevant to environmental scanning. Results also suggest a positive relationship between the participation of government affairs in strategic management and excellence in government affairs. However, in addition to excellence in government affairs, organizational mechanisms of management, organizational expectation and culture, and the nature of the MNC's industry also affect the integration of government affairs with the overall strategic management.     

The philosophical foundations of Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a city that has long challenged social norms of the rest of the United States and built a highly successful economic base on gambling and other hedonistic pursuits. Now that many other states and communities are pursuing or actively considering following the route of legal casinos for economic development purposes, the ethical considerations that have confronted Las Vegas about the question of gambling and its broader social impacts take on greater import.This paper examines the ethics of gambling relative to Las Vegas at two levels: first, as a pragmatic trade-off of accepting an activity with some bad consequences because of the economic benefits that can be derived; and second, more fundamentally, by examining the validity of the major ethical arguments against gambling.     

From Adolescent to Adult Gambling: An Analysis of Longitudinal Gambling Patterns in South Australia

Although there are many cross-sectional studies of adolescent gambling, very few longitudinal investigations have been undertaken. As a result, little is known about the individual stability of gambling behaviour and the extent to which behaviour measured during adolescence is related to adult behaviour. In this paper, we report the results of a 4-wave longitudinal investigation of gambling behaviour in a probability sample of 256 young people (50 % male, 50 % female) who were interviewed in 2005 at the age of 16–18 years and then followed through to the age of 20–21 years. The results indicated that young people showed little stability in their gambling. Relatively few reported gambling on the same individual activities consistently over time. Gambling participation rates increased rapidly as young people made the transition from adolescence to adulthood and then were generally more stable. Gambling at 15–16 years was generally not associated with gambling at age 20–21 years. These results highlight the importance of individual-level analyses when examining gambling patterns over time.     

Wait until your father gets home? Mother's and fathers’ spanking and development of child aggression

This study examined whether fathers’ and mothers’ spanking contributed to development of child aggression in the first 5 years of life. We selected parents (N = 1,298) who were married or cohabiting across all waves of data collection. Cross-lagged path models examined fathers’, mothers’, and both parents’ within-time and longitudinal associations between spanking and child aggression when the child was 1, 3, and 5 years of age. Results indicated that mothers spanked more than fathers. When examining fathers only, fathers’ spanking was not associated with subsequent child aggression. When examining both parents concurrently, only mothers’ spanking was predictive of subsequent child aggression. We found no evidence of multiplicative effects when testing interactions examining whether frequent spanking by either fathers or mothers was predictive of increases in children’s aggression. This study suggests that the processes linking spanking to child aggression differ for mothers and fathers.     

Indigenous land rights and dynamics of the land market in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This paper raises a number of important issues relating to legal and economic development concepts. It concentrates on the supply constraints affecting land development decisions of both private and public landowners in releasing land for development purposes. With reference to the indigenous land rights in Kuala Lumpur, this paper focuses on the restrictions in interest, which may limit the land from being transferred in the open market. With a limited market, the indigenous land achieves a lower value in the market place because transactions are limited within a particular group of people only. As a result, the market forces are restricted and the land development process for urban regeneration often comes to a halt. In examining the role of the indigenous land market in the redevelopment process of Kuala Lumpur, the study uses an institutional analysis to show the way in which these restrictions in interest affect landowners’ decisions and, thus, restrict the supply of land to real estate redevelopment. In conclusion, the paper shows various causes for land supply constraints and ways to improve these with the aim to undertake urban redevelopment initiatives considering pressure for more land in the market.     

What is a global field? Theorizing fields beyond the nation-state

While scholarship on global and transnational fields has been emerging, hitherto contributions have rarely or not explicitly discussed how Bourdieu's field theory has to be altered when its use expands from a national to a global scale. Starting from the premise that a global field is not a national field writ large, this paper discusses strategies and elements for revising field theory for use beyond national borders. Specifically, the article first proposes analogical theorizing as a systematic approach for extending and modifying the tools of field theory at a global level. Analogical theorizing offers a method for constructing the object in a global context in a way that goes beyond rescaling and minimizes the risk of deductive reification. Against this background and drawing from research on the global visual art field, the article offers criteria for delineating a global field and distinguishes relative functional and vertical autonomy. Finally, it discusses how the concept of ‘relative vertical autonomy’ contributes in three ways to the development of global field analysis: for theorizing emergence; examining global-national interdependencies; and denationalizing Bourdieu's concept of ‘national capital’.     

Immigration,Ethnicity, and Conflict: The California Chinese, 1849–1882*

Drawing on Bonacich's split market theory, the work of Hechter and Blalock on ethnic conflict, and the literature on social movements, the authors develop a model of factors producing conflict between native and immigrant workers. The model identifies the relative size of the immigrant group, the growth of the immigrant population, the desirability of jobs held by immigrant workers, economic conditions, the development of racist ideology among native workers, and the organization of native workers as factors possibly explaining the frequency of incidents of overt ethnic conflict and efforts to institutionalize discrimination through government action. The model is assessed by examining the situation of Chinese immigrants in California between 1849 and 1882. The data suggest that poor economic conditions, a well-developed racist ideology, and well-organized native workers best explain incidents of ethnic conflict and successful efforts to obtain discriminatory government action.     

“Left Behind?” Financialization and Income Inequality Between the Affluent,Middle Class,and The Poor

There is increasing scholarly evidence that financialization has contributed to rising income inequality, especially by concentrating income among the affluent and rich. There is less empirical research examining who is losing out to the affluent. This paper fills this gap by examining how three measures of financialization (finance, insurance, and real estate or FIRE employment; credit expansion; and financial crises) affect upper-tail (measured as the ratio between the 90th and 50th income percentiles) and lower-tail (measured as the ratio between the 50th and 10th income percentiles) income inequality. Using concepts from economic sociology and the social stratification literature, I develop a perspective that links financialization to income inequality by creating more unequal market incomes while simultaneously reducing redistribution and social transfers. I analyze disposable household income data (after taxes and transfers) from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) and other public sources like the OECD from 16 affluent nations between the years 1981 and 2011, and I use an unbalanced panel design due to LIS data coverage. I find that the relative incomes of both the middle class and the poor are hurt by financialization (strongest evidence tied to FIRE employment); however, relative incomes of the poor are especially sensitive to financialization.     

Exploring the intention-behavior relationship in the prediction of sexual risk behaviors: can it be strengthened?

Many theoretical models examining health risk behaviors, such as sexual risk taking, assume intentions directly predict behavior, and intentions are sometimes measured as a proxy for behavior. Given that there is often a discrepancy between intentions and behaviors (e.g., Sheeran, 2002 ), this study addressed factors that predict intention-behavior congruence. Specifically, utilizing a prospective design, the goal of the study was to determine if characteristics of university students' last sexual encounter predicted whether those students who intended to use condoms, contraception, or dual methods did so in their last sexual encounter with both relationship and casual partners. The seven tested variables were condom planning and preparatory behaviors, mood, sexual arousal, substance use, perceived partner attractiveness, intention certainty, and intention stability. Data were collected from 520 American undergraduate students at a medium-sized university. The six discriminant function analyses examining the intention-behavior relationship were able to correctly classify between 74% and 92% of the participants concerning whether intenders engaged in safe sex behaviors. The variables that best discriminated between behavior engagement over the six analyses were intention stability, intention certainty, and engagement in condom preparatory behaviors. The implications of these results for sexual risk prevention and intervention research are discussed.