Rethinking Families and Community: The Color,Class, and Centrality of Extended Kin Ties1

Although a focus on marriage and the nuclear family characterizes much sociological research and social commentary, this article suggests that this focus ignores the familial experiences of many Americans, particularly those on the lower end of the economic spectrum for whom extended kin are central. African Americans and Latinos/as are more involved with kin than whites, but class trumps race in this regard: African Americans, Latinos/as, and whites with fewer economic resources rely more on extended kin than do those more affluent. The emphasis on marriage and the nuclear family may actually promulgate a vision of family life that dismisses the very social resources and community ties that are critical to the survival strategies of those in need. In contrast to those who have argued that marriage is the foundation of the community or even, in that overused phrase, the “basic unit of society,” this article suggests that marriage actually detracts from social ties to broader communities just as an emphasis on marriage and the nuclear family, to the exclusion of the extended family, distorts and reduces the power and reach of social policy.     

Community Context,Women's Natal Kin Ties,and Demand for Children: Macro-Micro Linkages in Social Demography1

Abstract Recent research in many areas of social demography has begun to address the implications of cultural, social, and economic context for individual–level preferences and behavior. We expand on this theme by arguing that multiple levels of context may simultaneously direct individual–level strategies. We focus on the relationship between women's natal kin ties and their demand for children, a substantive area in which context is thought to be particularly important. We use a combination of ethnographic and survey data to measure contextual characteristics, women's ties to their natal families, and couples' fertility preferences and behavior. Our results demonstrate that particularly supportive relationships with natal kin have more influence on fertility preferences and behavior than contact with natal kin, although both dimensions are important. The results also show that even within the same cultural context, radically different community environments can produce opposite consequences of ties to natal kin.     

The Best of Ties,the Worst of Ties: Close,Problematic, and Ambivalent Social Relationships

This study builds on research addressing intergenerational ambivalence by considering emotional ambivalence toward the wider social network. Men and women ages 13 to 99 (N = 187) completed diagrams of their close and problematic social relationships. Social ties were classified as solely close, solely problematic, or ambivalent, based on network placement (n = 3,392 social contacts). Multilevel models revealed that individuals viewed certain close familial ties (e.g., spouse, son or daughter, parent, sibling) with greater ambivalence than they viewed more distal family ties, friendships, or acquaintances. Participants classified more acquaintances than other relationships as solely problematic. Feeling closer to a social partner was associated with increased ambivalence. Older adults were more likely to classify their relationships as solely close than as ambivalent, in comparison with younger adults. Discussion focuses on tension and closeness in familial and nonfamilial relationships.     

Strong Ties,Weak Ties,and Human Capital: Latino Immigrant Employment Outside the Enclave*

Abstract This study focuses on the role of social ties and human capital in the integration of Latino immigrants into the local economy. This analysis extends earlier research by focusing on more rural contexts with limited labor‐market opportunities and less access to social resources provided by coethnics. We reconsider conclusions of previous studies by focusing on areas with limited labor‐market opportunities and less access to resources provided by coethnics. Using data from in‐depth interviews, focus‐group discussions, and surveys of former farmworkers in five rural communities in New York, we consider how individuals move from agricultural to other types of employment. Multinomial logit and ordinary least squares regression analyses confirm indications from our qualitative data that strong social ties, weak ties, and human capital all play distinctive parts in the economic integration of immigrants outside the ethnic enclave. These resources have the most positive impact on incomes when they contribute to the immigrants' self‐reliance in finding employment. This finding is consistent with observations from the social‐network literature that those who are less reliant on strong social ties are better able to take advantage of a broader range of labor‐market opportunities.     

Postmodern Research,Postmodern Practice: Studying the Barriers to Cyberliteracy Among Mentally Disabled Women

The conversation about the postmodern challenge to sociological practice is just beginning. Harding advocates a positive tension between the postmodern vision of an antiessentialist, antiepistemological future and the postmodern vision of successor science projects grounded in the epistemologies of marginalized communities. In this paper, I describe my study of barriers to cyberliteracy among mentally disabled women and how it has been informed by these two contrasting postmodern visions represented, respectively, by the work of Newman and Holzman (The End of Knowing: A New Developmental Way of Learning, Routledge, London, 1997) and Smith (Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Zed Books, London, 1999).     

Bike Messengers and the Really Real: Effervescence,Reflexivity, and Postmodern Identity

Out of more than two thousand bike messengers in New York City, a few hundred participate in alleycats—illegal races held in open traffic. Surrounding this racing scene is a vibrant messenger community. Messengers who race in or attend alleycats carry their messenger identity into all aspects of their lives. Through direct participant observation, this article proposes that alleycats function as Durkheimian rituals for these messengers. Alleycats express the central values of the social world. Lost in collective effervescence, the individual confronts these values as objectified truths, which allow messengers to form stable identities. Further, bicycles, messenger bags, and other objects become sacred symbols within this ritualization process. The ability of messengers to construct such nonreflexive identities is juxtaposed with theories about the self in postmodernity.     

Fundraising in the Digital Era: Legitimacy,Social Network,and Political Ties Matter in China

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Development in information technology enables nonprofit organizations to reach more potential donors in a fast and...     

Musical Ties That Bind: Nostalgia,Affect, and Heritage in Festival Narratives

Affective heritage embracement, a collective narrative of nostalgia, is identified at two popular music festivals. “MusicFest” embraces a tradition of “Red Dirt” country music through performance (music festival), whereas the “Walnut Valley Festival” embraces a bluegrass/folk musical heritage through performance and participation (musicians' festival). The symbolic importance of musical interaction is explored to highlight the experienced emotionality that leads to the affective ties that bind these otherwise temporary communities. This collective narrative reveals the various functions of nostalgia wherein collective sentiment both reflects and creates the perceived authentic experiences of festival attendees.     

社群隔离、身份认同与流动青年城市定居意愿

流动青年初入城市,在现实社会中存在的社群隔离现象会严重阻碍群体融入城市。利用2017年流动人口动态监测数据,尝试对当前流动青年面临的社群隔离及身份认同进行深入分析,探究湖北省流动青年定居意愿的影响效应。运用结构方程模型进行剖析发现,流动青年的城镇定居意愿和城镇落户意愿不一致,虽然事实性定居意愿强烈,但是制度性定居意愿却偏低;青年群体流入城市后产生社群隔离(社会距离和心理距离),会对其身份认同和城市定居产生显著负向影响,社会距离对定居意愿影响显著,心理距离对身份认同影响显著;当流动青年产生社群隔离时,其身份认同对于定居意愿的影响将会变得不显著。由此,当前新型城镇化的政策设计应注重完善流动青年户籍制度的保障,并积极鼓舞青年流动人口在城市的社会交往和心理融入,减轻社群隔离现象,从而形成流动青年的城镇定居意愿。     

从睡城到观里:青年程序员职业 共同体的社区认同

通过深度访谈北京市回龙观社区的青年程序员,探究程序员职业共同体及其认同。研究发现:青年程序员由于职业气质、职业认知和知识结构等各方面的接近性,构建了以职业认同为基础的想象共同体;第二,青年程序员群体出于对本体性安全感的追求,自发形成相似职业的生活聚居;第三,程序员通过ICTs(信息传播技术)进行线上信息和资源共享等活动,从而形成了日常生活例行化基础上的社区认同。     

Psychotherapy,Architecture and the Postmodern Attitude. An Essay

For all its faddishness, postmodernism as a set of ideas and as an attitude has much to offer contemporary psychotherapy. These ideas and attitudes are briefly outlined and their application to psychotherapy practice elaborated and illustrated with reference to postmodern design.     

Exploring Ambivalence in Family Ties: Progress and Prospects

The 2002 exchange on ambivalence in the Journal of Marriage and Family (Vol. 64, No. 3), published under the editorship of Alexis Walker, prompted an impressive array of research on family ties, in particular intergenerational relationships. Following a discussion of the concept's theoretical underpinnings, the author argues that advancing the concept of ambivalence rests on realizing its multilevel potential by addressing the interplay of shifting contradictions experienced by individuals and in relationships and embedded in social institutions and in macro‐level arrangements and processes. She considers progress and limitations in a critical review of predominant applications of ambivalence and then investigates research that advances ambivalence as a bridging concept across multiple levels of analysis. Work on atypical family ties, dependency, contradictory cultural expectations due to migration and social change, families and the welfare state, and on climate change and disability promotes the multilevel potential of ambivalence and points to ways to advance its promise in theory and practice.     

Uncomfortably Numb: Countercultural Impulses in the Postmodern Era

Informed by 1960s research suggesting that early signs of emerging social psychological trends are visible in countercultural groups, the article uses in-depth interviews and participant observation to explore the attitudes of the “Freaks”—a group of countercultural students. Finding that they express pessimism and cynicism, rejection of metanarratives and fragmented identities, the article suggests some comparisons between the Freaks' attitudes and those held by their 1960s predecessors and elaborates on the meaning of these attitudes in light of contemporary theoretical debates about a postmodern self.     

Household Disorder,Network Ties,and Social Support in Later Life

Family relationships, social interactions, and exchanges of support often revolve around the household context, but scholars rarely consider the social relevance of this physical space. In this article the author considers social causes and consequences of household disorder in the dwellings of older adults. Drawing from research on neighborhood disorder and social connectedness in later life, she describes how network characteristics may contribute to household disorder and how household disorder may weaken relationships and reduce access to support. This is explored empirically by estimating cross‐lagged panel models with data from 2 waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. The results reveal that household disorder reflects a lack of social support, and it leads to more kin‐centered networks and more strain within family relationships. The author concludes by urging greater attention to how the household context shapes—and is shaped by—the social interactions and processes that occur within it.