SOCIAL REPRODUCTION AND THE CORPORATE OTHER:

This article identifies and describes a phenomenon that has arisen over the course of the last generation: an institutionalized "afterschool" period marked by children's involvement in adult-organized and -supervised activities. We trace the historical development of this period and examine its socializing influences on children. Children experience passage through an "extracurricular career" that begins with a recreational ambiance but progresses into competitive and finally elite activities as they grow older and become more skilled. Along this route, their leisure activities become less spontaneous and more rationalized, focused, and professionalized. Adults' incursion into children's play thus represents a means for them to reproduce the existing social structure and to socialize young people to the corporate work values of American culture.     

Saving the Suburbs for Schoolchildren

Some suburban single-family neighborhoods may become serendipitous or de facto retirement communities. Typical candidates are neighborhoods built after World War II and occupied over a short period of time by people of approximately the same age. The original occupants for the most part have aged in place, resulting in large and growing percentages of older residents. The neighborhoods have relatively large homes as opposed to "starter" homes which many people moved out of as their incomes and families grew. Some serious implications are discussed regarding serendipitous retirement communities and some innovative solutions are offered.     

A review of private residential care in Hong Kong: implications for policy and practice

Hong Kong government policy encourages and facilitates families to care for their older members as long as possible by providing families and their older relatives with community support services. Residential care for the elderly is viewed as a last resort. Due to the inadequate supply of community support services, the long period of care required, and the gradual breakdown of values of filial support, families may increasingly give up their caring roles and seek residential care for their dependent elderly relatives. A shortfall in subsidized residential care may lead to needy elderly persons' being cared for in private residential facilities. The demand for private residential care is projected to increase, despite criticism about the standard of care provided. Although an Ordinance, a Regulation, and a Code of Practice for residential care homes are in place to control, monitor, and upgrade private residential care in Hong Kong, problems remain that put the elderly at risk of receiving substandard services. These include the existence of substandard private aged care homes operating either with or without a license; the provision of substandard "places" to the elderly under the government's "bought place" scheme and "enhanced bought place" scheme; ineffective inspection; a lack of grading to indicate the quality of private aged care homes; and a general neglect of the quality of care. We provide recommendations to address these concerns. This requires paying attention to both the quality of care, as well as to the physical environment of homes.     

AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF OIL PRICE SHOCKS IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

This paper presents results that indicate that oil price shocks were economically important in explaining movements in industrial production, and, to a lesser degree, movements in wholesale prices in the period between World Wars I and II. The framework for analysis is a vector autoregressive model estimated using monthly data over 1924:2–38:6 that employs a financial intermediation variable, a measure of relative oil prices, and other variables typically found in small macroeconomic models. The impact of oil price shocks is evaluated through computation of variance decompositions and an historical decomposition over the 1929:9–38:6 period.     

MODERNIZATION IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: THE POLITICIZATION OF THE ELDERLY

The rapid modernization in the People's Republic of China (PRC) allows us to identify some of the principles that underlie the changes in State-managed economies and their affects on the elderly. Modernization theory predicts that traditionally high status of the elderly declines with industrialization. This theory's difficulties can be overcome by using the variables of the "state" and the political economy by developing a model of "bureaucratic politics" and the "state" which explains "how" the status of the elderly changes through the interplay of competing interests within the society and thus may "increase" or "decrease" as the society modernizes. This research is based on data collected in the PRC between 1981–1986. Since 1978 there have been three major reform efforts; each has consequences for the elderly: (1) economic, (2) bureaucratic, and (3) population. In order to achieve them, programming for elderly is occurring: (1) retirement pensions and medical care, (2) homes for the aged, and (3) special activities to use the "left over energy" of the elderly. The future importance of the elderly in China will depend on their consequences for (1) the developing economy, (2) the bureaucratic politics of the Party and the State, and (3) other agendas of the State the implicate the elderly.     

Consultancy to a Care Home: The Influences of Family and Gender Roles,and of Race and Colonialism

This paper is an account and critical analysis of the psychodynamic and systemic consultancy that the author provided to a care home (and the voluntary organisation running it) over a period of about 16 months. In addition two emergent, linked themes are identified and discussed: family and gender roles in care homes, and racism and colonialism. Care homes are of course part of the society in which they exist and of which they are a product. This means that all the overt and covert psychological and social pressures, defences and trends that occur in the wider society, for individuals, families, groups and communities are also to be found in care homes and in the organisations that run them. They are not isolated from these forces, indeed, it is argued in this paper, the forces are intensified in the ‘hot house’ environment of a care home and, if ignored, avoided and denied, result in the exploitation, abuse and neglect of both staff and residents.     

”Attachment to Home” and Other Factors Related to Widows' Relocation Decisions

Widowhood has been identified as a stage of life when older persons are more apt to voluntarily relocate. Theoretically there is an "environmental press" to move brought about by circumstances and the inappropriateness fo single-family dwellings after the death of spouse. A number of indentified factors were hypothesized to influence recent widows' relocation. Following initial interviews with 221 older respondents, those who actually moved during a 2-year period were re-interviewed. Results indicated that "attachment-to-home" factors and family proximity were the best indicators of widows' staying in or moving from their homes. Movers and stayers are contrasted, and movers' situations before and after relocation are analyzed.     

THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE

This article examines the construction of ‘People’ in current and historical interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. It argues that ‘People’ is a powerful rhetorical figure constructed to sustain a narrative that transcends the realities of hard-won social change gained by living groups of people in US history. Opposing the common professional and popular conception of the US Constitution as the oldest continually functioning constitutional document, this paper posits that there have been many US Constitutions. With particular focus on the constitutional sanction of slavery and subsequent abolition amendments, as well as looking at Supreme Court cases concerning segregation and civil rights, it is argued that the Constitution does not represent a continuity, but a series of radically new documents. The Constitution(s) of the United States must, like any other text, be read and interpreted to have meaning; that is, the Constitution(s) do not have inherent, obvious meaning equally and readily available over generations. The contrary is made to seem the case by those interpreters who perpetuate an historical narrative of liberty and ‘People’ regardless of the contradictions, exclusions and hypocrisies of reality. The fights for inclusion are obscured by the sustained appearance of a history of gradual but inevitable absorption into an ahistorical ideal. Further hidden is the possibility that the perceived ideal might itself be culturally and historically contingent. The maintenance of the view that constitutional language can have consistent, available meaning over centuries is not a neutral endeavour. It is used to justify the actions of existing American power as inseparable from an irreproachable, historically legitimated ownership of democratic social values and aims. This takes on a broader significance when considered in the light of current, aggressive exportation of ideas of ‘People,’ ‘democracy,’ ‘liberty’ and so on, as if they had self-evident and transferable meanings.     

THE PROBLEM WITH PREDICTION: CONTINGENCY, EMERGENCE, AND THE REIFICATION OF PROJECTIONS

Here we assess the limitations of "social physics" methods for making predictions of future social conditions in order to contribute to the development of an alternative model of scientific sociology. First, we discuss the complexities inherent in causal analyses of social phenomena, where social organizing principles change historically and causal forces interact to generate outcomes. Second, we analyze the assumptions that underlie prediction in the social sciences by using the population projections of demographers as an illustrative example. Demographers typically make projections assuming the future will be the same as the (recent) past. This approach neglects the possibility of abrupt historical change, contingent events, and emergent social structures. Third, we argue that historical contingency is an essential and necessary consideration in any analysis of the world. A historical materialist approach provides the basis for better formulating nomothetic and idiographic modes of explanation and appreciates the important connections between the two. Sociological inquiry should be an attempt to distinguish between truly nomothetic processes and emergent historical background conditions that only appear nomothetic in a specific historical era. We close with an argument for the importance of developing a sociological science that runs parallel to nonmechanistic approaches in the biological sciences.     

"MY WIFE KNOWS BEST" A COMPARISON OF EVENT DATING ACCURACY BETWEEN THE WIFE, THE HUSBAND, THE COUPLE, AND THE BELGIUM POPULATION REGISTER

The problem of memory bias in retrospective data has been studiedfor short-term retrospective recall and for frequently occurringevents, but little has been written on how questionnaire designcan improve memory of personal events over a very long retrospectivetime period. This study offers a new approach to the problemby using a sample survey conducted in Belgium that allows thecomparison of recall accuracy not only between the husband andthe wife but also the couple together through the use of NationalPopulation Register data. The sample data support findings fromcertain psychological experiments that respondents' errors inevent dating are generally in years, and not in months, andfurthermore that this pattern is not general and is relatedto the event itself. Subsequently, the year of the birth ofa child, which has an annual significance, is generally recalledaccurately; the year of a change of residence, however, is oftenerroneous. Results of the log-linear models show that the oddsof recalling an incorrect year of a move are significantly decreasedif an event with annual significance occurred around the sametime period. Design of retrospective questionnaires should takeinto account the fact that time units are not recalled equallyfor differing autobiographical events, and that dating accuracycould be improved through use of parallel event questioning.Correlations between dating errors and omissions, and the possibilityof a "chain of errors" in responses, are also examined.     

"THE NEWS MEDIA, THE PROBLEM FRAME, AND THE PRODUCTION OF FEAR"

The role of the news media in promoting a public discourse of fear is examined. A conceptual model is offered that is based on recent developments in communication formats and frames. The emphasis is on the impact of media forms and frames for guiding the selection and presentation of reports emphasizing fear (e.g., crime, drugs, violence). A "problem frame' compatible with format and entertainment needs is used by the news media as a secular version of a morality play. This promotes messages that resonate fear. The role of the problem frame is described as part of the process for promoting widespread messages stressing fear and danger. Materials from a qualitative content analysis approach, "tracking discourse,' of selected news media illustrate how the focus and content of "fear' shifts over a period of time. Conceptual and methodological implications of this approach are discussed.
The sociological imagination…consists of the capacity to shift from one perspective to another, and in the process to build up an adequate view of a total society and its components.
C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination .     

THE SOCIAL MANAGEMENT OF AMBITION

This study of "the social management of ambition' (Hopper 1968) analyzes the changes in occupational expectations that occur among a group of ambitious high school seniors during the seven years after graduation. The predictions of a socialization and of a social reproduction model of the process of expectations change are compared using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Loglinear analysis is used to estimate a model, with a focus on the roles played by race, gender, social origins, and marriage. Less than one-fifth of the original sample remained "on track' toward achieving their original goals, most often members of already advantaged groups (whites and those from upper-middle-class homes). Married women were among the "cumulatively disadvantaged,' unlike their single peers. Marriage in particular had very different consequences for members of different social groups.     

THE GROWTH OF THE FEDERAL DEFICIT AND THE ROLE OF PUBLIC ATTITUDES

How can the recent explosion in the fiscal deficit of the UnitedStates be reconciled with the well-known support of the Americanpublic for fiscal conservatism? It is first shown that the reputationfor fiscal conservatism is fully supported by public opinionpolls dating back over a period of four decades. Solid majoritieshave consistently opposed tax reductions that might producean unbalanced budget. Recently, however, the public has alsoshown strong opposition to increases in taxes to close the fiscalgap, which might appear to imply a new acquiescence to the deficit.But this opposition, too, is shown to have persisted for a longtime and to be not logically inconsistent with rejecting taxcuts resulting in deficit. Another fashionable explanation forthe deficit holds that the budget process in a democratic societyis biased toward deficit because the cost of higher taxes isimmediate while the cost of deficit is delayed. But it is inconsistentwith the fiscal history of the United States over the last 100years, which reveals no systematic bias toward deficits, atleast until recent years. The major explanation that emergesis that the administration succeeded in misleading the public(and perhaps even itself) into believing that the tax cut wouldnot result in deficit thanks to "supply" and "Laffer curve"effects.     

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE IRISH QUESTION:

This article builds on theoretical work in the social movements literature that uses "master frames" (Snow and Benford 1992) to account for the cyclical clustering of social movement activity within certain historical periods. I identify "master frame alignment" as the dynamic process by which social movement actors rhetorically transform the master frames within a cycle of protest to make them resonate more clearly with a movement's unique social and historical situation. Just as frame alignment processes serve to link a movement organization's activities, goals, and ideology with those of a potential group of adherents, master frame alignment processes link the activities, goals, and ideology of a movement organization with those espoused within the broader symbolic atmosphere of the social movement. I present historical data from Irish newspapers and political documents to show how the Irish Sinn Féin movement, seeking self-determination during the early twentieth century, rhetorically reconstructed the master frames generated by the League of Nations in order to better exploit this particular window of political opportunity.     

POLITICAL IDEOLOGY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM THE FRENCH DEMOCRACY

We provide a test of the impact of voters' political ideology on economic growth and of the role of preferences for government size as a transmission channel. We focus on France from the beginning of its stable democratic experience in 1871. A move of voters' ideology to the right increases economic growth over the total observation period. However, the growth effect of ideology is mediated by voters' preferences for government size only during the post‐World War II period. For reverse causality concerns, we use the political ideology of other historical democracies as an instrument variable for France's ideology. (JEL E6, O43, H11)     

History and trends in U.S. bound migration from a Mexican town

The authors examine "historical trends in U.S. bound migration from a rural Mexican town. The data consist of detailed migration histories collected for all town residents in 1978. From these histories, successive migrant cohorts were constructed for the period 1940-1978." Changes in the age and sex composition of migrants over time are analyzed     

Household wealth and the measurement of economic well-being in the United States

We analyze the level and distribution of economic well-being in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s based on the standard measure of money income and a measure in which income from wealth is calculated as the sum of lifetime annuity from nonhome wealth and imputed rental-equivalent for owner-occupied homes. Over the 1982–2000 period, median well-being increases faster when these adjustments are made than when standard money income is used. This adjustment also widens the income gap between African-Americans and whites but increases the relative well-being of the elderly. Adding imputed rent and annuities from household wealth to household income considerably increases measured inequality and the share of income from wealth in inequality. However, both measures show about the same rise in inequality over the period. We also find an increasing share of wage and salary income in our expanded definition of income among the richest 1% over the period but do not find that the “working rich” have largely replaced rentiers at the top of the economic ladder.      

Transfer of learning: concept and process

This article will present findings from a doctoral study exploring the impact of 'SVQ Care: Promoting Independence (level III)' within children's homes. The study focuses on the extent to which SVQs enhance practice and their function within a 'learning society'. A total of 30 staff were selected from seven children's homes in two different local authority social work departments in Scotland. Each member of staff was interviewed on four separate occasions over a period of 9 months. Interviews were structured using a combination of repertory grids and questions. Particular focus was given to the assessment process, the extent to which SVQs enhance practice and the learning experiences of staff. The findings suggest that there are considerable deficiencies both in terms of the SVQ format and the way in which children's homes are structured for the assessment of competence. Rather than address the history of failure within residential care, it appears that SVQs have enabled the status quo to be maintained whilst creating an 'illusion' of change within a learning society.     

EXCHANGE PROCESSES IN HISTORY: INTEGRATING THE MICRO AND MACRO LEVELS OF ANALYSIS

The existing form of social exchange theory has serious flaws. Yet, this article argues that exchange theory should and can be a powerful tool for analysis at both the micro and macro levels. A model of exchange is developed that: (1) includes temporality; (2) includes both positive and negative sanctions; (3) defines rationality and voluntariness in such a way as to account for long-term, stable systems of unequal exchange; and (4) links the micro and macro levels of analysis. Selective historical materials are introduced to analyze the problem of routine, peaceful, unequal exchange between Romans and barbarians inside the Roman Empire. In interpersonal exchange, it shows, all the terms of exchange are not negotiated by the partners to exchange. Governing rules have been established by collective actors at the macro level for social exchange at the micro level. Traditional exchange theory has failed to identify the historically distant conflict of macro level actors over governing rules.     

PAYOFFS TO POWER AMONG MALES IN THE MIDDLE CLASS:

This article specifies the parameters of William Wilson's "declining significance of race' thesis and within the context of the debate about it uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine racial differences among a cohort of males in the earnings returns to two separate dimensions of job authority in middle-class jobs between 1976 and 1985. Findings do not support the Wilson thesis. Specifically, the gap in returns has increased for both authority dimensions over the approximately ten-year period. In addition, the racial gap is greater at higher than at lower hierarchical levels across both authority dimensions. Specific employment practices that explain the increase in the earnings gap over the work-career are identified and the overall implications of the findings for the Wilson thesis are discussed.