Social Participation and a Sense of Powerlessness among Blacks: a Neighborhood Analysis*

This paper examines the neighborhood context and the relationship between four types of social participation and the sense of powerlessness variant of alienation. Findings suggest a refinement and reanalysis of the relationship implied by much of the literature. The strong inverse correlations between participation and alienation found among white populations are not obtained for this population of blacks. Given relative neighborhood stability, some evidence indicates that the expected association may emerge among blacks, depending on individual status characteristics such as income and residency tenure. In retrospect, the study identifies three considerations which might shape future research on the topic.     

Correlates of Social Participation: a Comparison of the Ethnic Community and Compensatory Theories*

The ethnic community and compensatory theories of Black social participation are compared by analyzing affective correlates (political efficacy and self-esteem) of participation for 712 residents of Nashville, Tennessee in 1969. The instrumental-expressive typology of participation is utilized in addition to total participation. Participation and the affective variables are significantly correlated for Blacks, but only weakly correlated for Anglos, lending support to both theories. The relationship between participation, the affective variables, and the controlled background factors is briefly discussed, and problems and directions for future research are outlined.     

On Rubbing Raw the Sores of Discontent: Competing Theories and Data on the Effects of Participation in a Black Protest Group

Abstract

Predictions concerning the effects of participation in protest activity stimulated by conflict and resentment are derived from two theories of attitude change, sociotherapy and dissonance reduction theory. These predictions are comparted with the measured attitudes of participants in protest activity in terms of two sets—those who are satisfied with the results and those who aren't. The findings sustain neither the sociotherapists nor their critics. Dissonance reduction theory gains some support in the finding that frustrated participants tend to view the protest group itself less favorably than they view the political system. Though not a direct test of attitude change, the study is a test of the predicted outcomes of conflict stimulation as a community organizing technique and suggests that attitudinal effects are neither cause for concern nor promising for reduction of disaffection in the ghetto.     

Defining the Universe of Social Enterprise: Competing Metaphors

After more than a decade of research the debate over social enterprise definitions and classifications continues. EMES network in Europe argues that there is an ideal type of social enterprise to which all ventures should aspire. The spectrum approach emphasizes the trade-off between pure profit-making and social impact, locating organizations on this continuum. The Schumpeterians take innovation as its central focus, arguing that the disruption of the status quo is an important differentiator. We argue that each falls short of providing an adequate framework for future research, policy, and practice. Instead we offer an alternative metaphor, that of a social enterprise zoo; many different “animals” combine social and market goals in substantially different ways and each species has distinct environments and needs. Using the metaphor we consider the important components of a meaningful research agenda and examine the place of social entrepreneurs within the social enterprise zoo.     

Legacy Volunteering: A Test of Two Theories of Intergenerational Transmission

Sociological theory suggests two reasons that volunteering runs in families. The first is that parents act as role models. The second is that parents who volunteer pass on the socioeconomic resources needed to do volunteer work. Panel data from two generations of women (N = 1,848) are analyzed to see how much influence family socioeconomic status and mother's volunteering have on daughter's volunteer careers. More highly educated women and women whose mothers volunteered donate more hours initially, but only family socioeconomic status increases volunteering over the life course.     

Community-Based Participatory Study Abroad: A Proposed Model for Social Work Education

Study abroad experiences offer important benefits for social work students and faculty, including global awareness, practice skill development, and enhanced multicultural competence. Short-term study abroad programs are most feasible but typically lack depth of engagement with host communities and may perpetuate existing systems of power and privilege. We propose a model of community-based participatory study abroad with 6 components: (1) shared power, (2) co-learning, (3) reciprocal benefits, (4) empowerment, (5) community-grounded processes, and (6) sustainability. This model is community-driven and social change oriented, addresses power and privilege, and emphasizes fundamental social work values. We use a study abroad course initiative in Kenya to illustrate each principle, and we conclude with a discussion of implications for teaching and student learning.     

Community Context and Theories of Deviant Behavior: An Examination of Social Learning and Social Bonding Theories

The social learning and social bonding theories of deviant behavior were investigated in four community contexts: farm, rural-nonfarm, suburban, and urban. The mean differences across these contexts on pertinant variables did not form a continuum from rural to urban. Rather, the farm and suburban areas were similar, and the rural-nonfarm and urban areas were more alike than either of the other two contexts. A number of the social bonding variables interacted with community context, but no systematic pattern was observed. Social learning variables did not interact with context. Rather, the different level of these variables appeared to account for the variance in deviant behavior.     

Freshman English For Graduate Students: A Memoir and Two Theories

Sociologists typically have trouble writing. Experience in a seminar devoted to writing suggests that these troubles and the obscurity of much sociological prose arise from the social organization of colleges, graduate schools, and the discipline. The seminar experimented with ways of dealing with these problems.     

Making Sense of Voluntary Participation: A Theoretical Synthesis*

Abstract This paper examines the influence of community attachment on voluntary citizen participation in rural community improvement projects. We do so by modifying the original systemic model of community attachment (Kasarda and Janowitz 1974) and combining it with tenets of rational choice and social embeddedness theories. The modified model is then extended to consider voluntary participation in community projects by accounting for the influence of community attachment through both a solidarity of interests and a solidarity of sentiments (Bell 1998). Based on survey results of almost 9,000 citizens across 99 small (500–10,000) Iowa communities, findings provide overall support for the expected positive influence of local social ties (weak informal, strong informal, and formal) on the two forms of community attachment which, in turn, positively affect voluntary participation. Attachment in the form of community interests shows a strong direct and indirect effect on voluntary participation, while sentiment's influence is largely indirect. We conclude by considering the relevance of our findings to ongoing discussions of social capital.     

Review Essay: Unifying Social Movement Theories

Qualitative Sociology -     

乡村社会治理中的有效参与:青年参与的动力系统研究

青年一代应当在乡村社会治理中发挥更大作用,有关青年如何参与乡村社会治理并实现有效参与成为研究热点。对青年参与乡村社会治理的实证研究发现,年龄问题束缚了青年参与乡村社会治理的行为动力;青年对社会保障水平、公民间信任水平、社会公平公正水平的评价会对青年参与乡村社会治理的行为动力产生赋能效应;接受过高等教育是当代青年的优势之一,对其参与乡村社会治理的行为动力具有一定的促进意义,但若受到生活方面问题的干扰,参与动力则会大幅减弱。要建构青年有效参与乡村社会治理的动力系统,各类社会组织应形成扎根乡村的宣传合力、创新线上+线下融合化参与方式、完善青年人才引进及配套机制、确保青年社保及公共服务的人性化与持续化供给。     

Children's Participation,Childhood Publics and Social Change: A Review

Progress in the implementation of children's participation rights in England is reviewed and situated within a broader agenda of social change. The article argues that much of the energy for ‘change for children’ has resided within a governance pathway across policy, practice and research. An alternative perspective is offered by re‐connecting children's rights debates to those of social movements and asking whether childhood publics are possible, what they might look like and where they might be found. It is concluded that a cross‐national and longitudinal perspective grounded in everyday life is likely to provide a more nuanced understanding of the change for children.     

Social Mobility and Participation: The Dissociative and Socialization Hypotheses*

Information on participation with kin, with friends, and in voluntary associations was used to test two competing hypothescs of the effects of social mobility on social relations. The dissociative hypothesis maintains that mobility leads to social isolation, while the socialization hypothesis predicts an adptive outcome to mobility. The relationship is more complex than either position would suggest. Social mobility is associated with isolation from kin and friends, but only for the upwardly mobile. The findings obtained with voluntary associations support the socialization hypothesis in that the level of membership of the socially mobile is intermediate between the two stable groups. Social mobility has maladaptive consequences for more intimate and personal social relations, but it is integrative as far as participation in voluntary associations is concerned.     

The Implications of Social Neuroscience for Expectation States Theories

We review recent findings from the social neuroscience literature that links status differentiation between individuals to neurological processes, and draw out the implications of those findings for expectation states theories, including its dominant theory of status‐organizing processes – Status Characteristics Theory. Our underlying assumption and implicit argument is that social neuroscience research is useful for both bolstering and corroborating some core sociological claims. In addition, it sheds light on some of the ongoing theoretical debates within sociology. We highlight and discuss the following four social neuroscience findings: 1) Neural activity varies depending on whether an individual is interacting with someone of a lower, equal, or higher status; 2) There is an interplay between status and affect such that status processes may promote the control of emotional reactions; 3) Both men and women are neurologically attuned to high status opposite sex conspecifics; and, 4) Status differences are processed in the same region of the brain as numerical or size differences, and this region is responsible for the coding of information along continuous dimensions. The implications of these points are discussed with respect to sociological theories.     

Urbanism and Social Psychological Well-Being: A Cross-Cultural Test of Three Theories*

Three competing theories of how urbanism affects social-psychological well-being are tested using data from London, England; Los Angeles, California; and Sydney, Australia. Path analyses are conducted using visiting friends, visiting kin, and marriage companionship in the different paths. It is found that determinist theory can be rejected because most-urban people do not have fewer social relations than less-urban people; in fact, they may have more. Subcultural theory received some weak but mixed support, and compositionalist theory generally is not supported. The three metropolitan areas do not differ markedly from each other in the paths they show. The best predictor of well-being is the quality of people's social relationships.     

Family Influences on the Social Participation of Youth: The Effects of Parental Social Involvement and Farming

Abstract Parents shape children's social choices through their social and economic actions. Parental social participation connects children to a civic culture and encourages involvement in civic groups. Parents' ties to farming in farm‐dependent communities further enhance children's civic orientations by providing added opportunities and incentives for social participation. Data from the Iowa Youth and Families Project confirm these hypotheses, showing that the children of farmers and of rural leaders are more likely to participate in civic groups. These results establish parental social involvement as a source of social capital and demonstrate the importance of farm influences for understanding the social involvement of youth in rural society.     

The Two Meanings of Social Capital

The popularity of the concept of social capital has been accompanied by increasing controversy about its actual meaning and effects. I consider here the alternative applications of the concept as an attribute of individuals vs. collectivities and discuss the extent to which causal propositions formulated at each level are logically sound. I present some empirical evidence illustrating the possibility that, despite the current popularity of the concept, much of its alleged benefits may be spurious after controlling for other factors. Implications of this analysis and results for theory and policy are discussed.     

Reproducing Social Conditions of Poverty: A Critical Feminist Analysis of Social Assistance Participation in Ontario,Canada

This study uses repeated Cox Proportional Hazards models to explore the characteristics significant in predicting social assistance (SA) exit rates in Ontario, Canada. The results indicate that gender, age, immigration status, family structure, and presence of children significantly affect the likelihood of SA exit. Interpreting these findings through a critical feminist lens, I highlight the structural barriers that potentially influence people’s trajectories. Social policies that might better address the lives of women and other groups are explored, and a human rights framework is discussed as one avenue to advance poverty reduction efforts.