The Matter of Space: Bodily Performances and the Emergence of Boundary Objects During Multidisciplinary Design Meetings

Prior research has identified the importance of embodied action in establishing representational infrastructure during disruptions in interdisciplinary work. This study expands on such research by examining meetings of interdisciplinary museum design teams—including educators, designers, researchers, and museum professionals. In these meetings, the museum space (exhibition room) emerges as a boundary object as it is presented through diverse material artifacts including floor-plans and mock-ups. The authors’ analyses identify and describe bodily and discursive practices of place-making and place-imagining that the participants perform as they attempt to maintain continuity across these shifting material forms and occasions.     

Managing Stakeholder Involvement in Decision Making: A Comparative Analysis of Six Interactive Processes in the Netherlands

Initiatives to encourage and stimulate the involvement of citizensbut also various societal organizations in decision making canbe seen in a wide variety of European countries. Citizen panels,citizen charters, new types of participation, and other formsare being used to increase the influence of citizens on decisionmaking and to improve the relation between citizens and electedpoliticians. In the Netherlands a lot of local governments haveexperimented with interactive decision making that is enhancingthe influence of citizens and interest groups on public policymaking. The main motives to involve stakeholders in interactivedecision making are to diminish the veto power of various societalactors by involving them in decision making, improve the qualityof decision making by using the information and solutions ofvarious actors, and bridge the perceived growing cleavage betweencitizens and elected politicians. In this article six casesare evaluated. The cases are compared on three dimensions: thenature and organization of participation, the way the processis managed (process management), and the relation with formaldemocratic institutions. These organizational features (in termsof both formal organization and actual performance) are comparedwith the results of the decision-making processes in the sixcases. The article shows that the high expectations of interactivedecision making are not always met. It also shows that managingthe interactions—called process management in networktheory—is very important for achieving satisfactory outcomes.     

Economic Dependency and HIV/AIDS Prevalence in the Developing World: A Comparative,Longitudinal Analysis

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has plagued global society for over three decades. While breakthroughs in antiretroviral treatments (ART) have proven effective in suppressing the virus and HIV/AIDS intervention outreach have widened, epidemic control remains unevenly achieved among countries. At least 95 percent of HIV/AIDS sufferers originate from developing countries. Dependency theory suggests that developing countries' reliance on debt, trade, and foreign investments pose negative effects on their populations' health. Guided by dependency theory's propositions, this cross‐national study assesses whether increasing dependence on trade, debt, and foreign direct investment potentially increases adult HIV prevalence in developing countries from 1989 to 2012. Using a sample of over 80 nations, we perform a two‐way fixed‐effects OLS regression to evaluate the impact of increasing debt, trade, and foreign investment on adult HIV prevalence. Total debt, short‐term debt, external debt, and GDP were found to increase HIV prevalence. The findings for debt support dependency theory's predictions concerning the ramifications of global economic inequality on HIV/AIDS prevalence.     

Political Control and Bureaucratic Autonomy Revisited: A Multi-Institutional Analysis of OSHA Enforcement

The proper role of bureaucracy in democratic governance haslong been a matter of controversy. One part of the debate involvesthe argument that democratic control and bureaucratic autonomyare dichotomous opposites: if there is democratic control, therecannot be bureaucratic autonomy, and vice versa. This articledevelops a spatial model of bureaucratic policy choices thatreveals that conditions of democratic control and bureaucraticautonomy are not incompatible: the interactions among politicalinstitutions not only create the condition in which governmentagencies must respond to the will of the elected officials butalso provide the opportunity for the agencies to reflect theirown preferences in policy outcomes. Empirical analyses of occupationalsafety and health enforcement between 1982 and 2000 providesupport for the general argument that bureaucratic responsivenessand bureaucratic autonomy together constitute the behavioralcharacteristics of bureaucracy under institutional influence.     

Suicide and Religion: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Previous work on the relationship between religion and suicide has focused on the simple bivariate relationship and has failed to address the problem of the possible convergence between Catholicism and Protestantism in the underlying determinant of suicide, the degree of social integration. The present study explores the relationship more systematically through a series of multiple regression analyses. The lack of any significant relationship between the proportion Catholic and measures of the suicide rate supports the convergence hypothesis. In contrast, two control variables taken from other prominent theories of suicide have considerable explanatory power. Tests of Durkheim's theory of marital integration and suicide all confirm a significant relationship but one of a parabolic form. Finally, the paradigm connecting the level of industrialization to suicide is confirmed, but preliminary analysis of social mobility rates and suicide indicate that this relationship is more of a function of cultural heterogeneity produced by the modernization process than of increasing mobility rates.     

世界城市行政体制改革:经验比较与模式选择

纽约、伦敦、东京和巴黎等世界城市在行政管理体制的模式选择各具特色,通过比较发现,体现出不同的政治制度、区域特色、历史文化等差异性,也展现出许多共同的演化规律和改革特征。总结世界城市行政管理体制改革经验,对我国大城市的主要政策启示在于,构建坚持党委领导下的市区两级政府、三级管理的中国模式,将街道、乡镇职能下放社区,加强政府职能整合和社会群众监督,加强社会组织培育,促进公共服务社会化、多元化、均等化供给。     

Economic Development and Strikes: A Comparative Analysis*

Theorists of class conflict have debated the nature of the relationship between economic development and the incidence of strikes. The liberal perspective contends that such developments as the growth in size of corporations and the separation of ownership from control enable modern management to institutionalize industrial conflict in the form of collective bargaining. In contrast, writers in the radical perspective argue that conflict will increase in late industrialization owing to such forces as the bi-polarization of classes and an increase in union strength. The present paper tests these structuralist theories by using data from a sampling of seventy-one nations representing a wide range in economic development. A polynomial regression analysis indicates that strike volume, a chief measure of overall strike activity, follows a parabolic curve—increasing until a GNP per capita of about $4,700 is reached and then declining. No support is found for the radical thesis of an upswing in strike activity at high levels of economic development. The findings on control variables indicate that the inflation rate and mass-media development have significantly positive effects on strike activity. Finally, a democratic political climate tends to lower strike volume.     

International Migration and Gender in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis

We review census data to assess the standing of five Latin American nations on a gender continuum ranging from patriarchal to matrifocal. We show that Mexico and Costa Rica lie close to one another with a highly patriarchal system of gender relations whereas Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic are similar in having a matrifocal system. Puerto Rico occupies a middle position, blending characteristics of both systems. These differences yield different patterns of female relative to male migration. Female householders in the two patriarchal settings displayed low rates of out-migration compared with males, whereas in the two matrifocal countries the ratio of female to male migration was much higher, in some case exceeding their male counterparts. Multivariate analyses showed that in patriarchal societies, a formal or informal union with a male dramatically lowers the odds of female out-migration, whereas in matrifocal societies marriage and cohabitation have no real effect. The most important determinants of female migration from patriarchal settings are the migrant status of the husband or partner, having relatives in the United States, and the possession of legal documents. In matrifocal settings, however, female migration is less related to the possession of documents, partner's migrant status, or having relatives in the United States and more strongly related to the woman's own migratory experience. Whereas the process of cumulative causation appears to be driven largely by men in patriarchal societies, it is women who dominate the process in matrifocal settings.     

Herbert Blumer and the Study of Fashion: A Reminiscence and A Critique

Recounting my late 1940s graduate student contacts with Herbert Blumer on the topic of fashion, 1 go on to assess his important contribution to the sociological study of fashion. Conceptually rich, the corpus of Blumer's writing on fashion is yet surprisingly small. His major opus on fashion, anticipated only in part by several of his earlier, less exhaustive writings on the subject, did not see print until 1969 with the publication of the justly famous Sociological Quarterly piece “Fashion: From Class Differentiation to Collective Selection.” There Blumer pursues two aims: (1) to challenge the then prevalent functionalist view of fashion as a “trickle down” symbolic mechanism for effecting social class differentiation, a view associated with such sociological eminences as Simmel and Veblen, and (2) to offer in its place his own quite original approach to fashion as a massive “collective selection” process wherein choices are guided more by the elusive lure of modernity than by invidious class tinctions as such. Prominent among the strengths of Blumer's position is the demonstrably greater empirical validity of “collective selection” as compared to “class differentiation.” Among its shortcomings are Blumer's slighting of a salient social psychological theme in Simmers dialectical approach to fashion and, more important, his failure to address in any sustained way the role of the fashion industry in the fashion process. The recently emerging, symbolic interactionist concept of social world offers a means for redressing this omission and for advancing further upon the ground opened by Herbert Blumer's still exciting breakthrough in the sociology of fashion.     

Gemeinschaft Revisited: A Critique and Reconstruction of the Community Concept

Community remains a potent symbol and aspiration in political and intellectual life. However, it has largely passed out of sociological analysis. The paper shows why this has occurred, and it develops a new typology that can make the concept useful again in sociology. The new typology is based on identifying structurally distinct subtypes of community using a small number of partitioning variables. The first partition is defined by the ultimate context of interaction; the second by the primary motivation for interaction; the third by rates of interaction and location of members; and the fourth by the amount of face-to-face as opposed to computer-mediated interaction. This small number of partitioning variables yields eight major subtypes of community. The paper shows how and why these major subtypes are related to important variations in the behavioral and organizational outcomes of community. The paper also seeks to resolve some disagreements between classical liberalism and communitarians. It shows that only a few of the major subtypes of community are likely to be as illiberal and intolerant as the selective imagery of classical liberals asserts, while at the same time only a few are prone to generate as much fraternalism and equity as the selective imagery of communitarians suggests. The paper concludes by discussing the forms of community that are best suited to the modern world.     

Strategy and Structure in the Italian Fashion Industry: A Case of Internationalisation

Many SMEs in the Italian fashion industry do not find a fit between strategy and structure able to open them to growth and new opportunities in emerging international markets. Through an in depth analysis of a successful business case, a contribution is made to the study of strategy–structure fit in the Italian fashion industry, with particular reference to the international growth phase. The case confirms the causal link between strategy and structure. However, the development route in the fashion sector does not follow the historical model analysed by Chandler: Uppsala’s model of incremental and cognitive internationalisation appears to be the more appropriate reference for Italian “industrial networks”, characterised by creative dynamics that are constantly evolving, and strong needs for structural flexibility and strategic change.     

Beninese and Ethiopian Informal Insurance Groups: A Comparative Analysis

Informal insurance groups have been created in many poor regions in response to a risky environment typical of developing countries. Drawing on original datasets from Benin and Ethiopia, this article provides empirical evidence describing the various forms these indigenous institutions take. While their principal role has been to provide indemnities for funeral expenses, they also cater for a wide range of shocks. The article finds striking resemblances in group structures and types of coverage offered, suggesting that households for whom the costs of formal insurance contracts are prohibitive tend to deal with risk in a comparable way. Dissimilarities may reflect different local household structures or the extent to which these groups are advertised and known to the public.     

Dimensions of Marital Therapy: A Comparative Analysis*

This paper offers a comparative analysis of the process of conjoint marital therapy within the three major contemporary models of treatment: psychoanalytic, behavioral, and systems theory. The specific dimensions of the treatment process that are examined are: (1) the role of the past and of the unconscious; (2) the nature and meaning of presenting problems and the role of assessment; (3) the relative importance of mediating vs. ultimate treatment goals; and (4) the nature of the therapists roles and functions. On the basis of this comparative analysis, some thoughts toward the future of the marital therapies are offered.     

Crime in Canada and in the United States: A Comparative Analysis*

Au cours des trois dernières décennies, plusieurs chercheurs se sont penchés sur l'étude comparative de la criminalité aux États-Unis et au Canada. En particulier, Lipset (1990) et Hagan (1991) ont montré que la violence était plus fréquente au sud de la frontière Canado-américaine qu'au nord de celle-ci. À partir de l'étude des différences régionales intra-nationales de la criminalité, cet article montre que les deux pays ne se distinguent pas l'un de l'autre de manière univoque. D'abord, la prévalence des cambriolages et des vols de véhicules automobiles est comparable d'un pays à l'autre. Ensuite, les différences en ce qui concerne les vols qualifiés et les homicides s'estompent lorsque l'on procède à des comparaisons régionales contrôlant pour l'impact des métropoles. Les différences des taux agrégés de la criminalité entre les États-Unis et le Canada sont attribuables à la présence de quelques États et villes américaines où la violence et le vol sont particulièrement fréquents. Deux avenues d'explication sont explorées: la ségrégation résidentielle dés pauvres dans les villes et la disponibilité des armes à feu. In the past three decades, a number of researchers have undertaken the comparison of American and Canadian crime rates. Among them, Lipset (1990) and Hagan (1991) have shown that violence was more frequent south of the border than in Canada. Using infra-national disaggregated crime rates, this article shows that differences in the two countries' crime rates are not univocal. First, there is no significant difference in the prevalence in burglaries and in car thefts between both nations. Second, differences in the robbery rate and the homicide rate shrink dramatically when controlling for the region and removing the effect of metropolises. What makes U.S. crime rates appear much higher than Canadian ones can be attributable to a small number of states and cities that have extraordinarily high crime rates. Two factors are proposed to account for this situation: residential segregation of the poor within cities and the availability of firearms.