“Revenge” and “Rescue”: Workplace Deviance in the Taxicab Industry*

This study explores taxicab drivers’ acts of “revenge” and “rescue,” some of which are expressive acts, while others are more instrumental. This article builds on earlier theories of workplace deviance, demonstrating how deviance can serve different purposes and expanding the concept of “deviance admiration” ( Heckert and Heckert 2004 ). It examines deviance in a circumstance—the taxicab industry—which introduces a tension between mandated conformity and necessary deviance: employees must conform to the employers’ rules and yet, to accomplish their jobs well, they need to abandon those rules occasionally. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this work has important practical applications for managers.     

Non-Sexist “Marital” Therapy*

Certain factors limit marital therapists in dealing with individuals conflicted over and disenchanted about “traditional” marriage: 1) the therapist's gender, 2) the presence of sex-role stereotyped behaviors and expectations, and 3) the therapists own marital experience. Specific helpful experiences (working with a co-therapist of the opposite sex, examining attitudes and biases toward divorce) and therapeutic techniques (working out a schedule for sharing household tasks and childcare, restructuring the marital contract, and dealing with open companionship) are discussed. The general therapeutic goal is working toward an equal sharing of overt power, with social, economic, and political considerations and intrapsychic forces given comparable consideration.     

“FOI POR ACASO”*:

Everyone knows that most of the things that happen to them happen “by accident,” and this is particularly true of the things that are most important to us, like our choice of a career or a mate. Yet social science theory looks for determinate causal relationships, which do not give an adequate account of this thing that “everyone knows.” If we take the idea of “it happened by chance” seriously, we need a quite different kind of research and theory than we are accustomed to.     

The Inseparability of “Career” and “Personal” Counseling

In this article it is argued that “career” and “personal” counseling should not be viewed as different types of counseling because: (a) the holistic philosophy of counseling emphasizes helping “whole” persons whose lives contain many important and meaningful roles; (b) recent research on the implications of gender and race for career development further demonstrates the inseparability of our career and “personal” lives; and (c) there are numerous commonalities in the “career” and “personal” counseling process.     

Community Policing and “John Schools”*

De nos jours, la police a déjà subi et continue de subir des changements dans sa philosophie et sa pratique fondamentales. Des zones de contrôle social auparavant laissées dans L'ombre par la police sont maintenant regroupées sous L'expression « police communautaire «. Le contrôle de la prostitution, bien qu'il soit traditionnellement axé sur les travailleuses du sexe, a récemment été ramené sous le parapluie de la police communautaire par le biais de méthodes parti‐culières. Cet article examine la police de quartier et son rôle élargi en prenant pour exemple les « John schools » ou programmes de traitement pour les clients de prostituées. Ces programmes, en tant que police communautaire en pratique, mettent en relief les difficultés de cette approche en général et, plus particulièrement, celles de la prostitution. Policing today has gone through and continues to undergo changes in its basic philosophy and practice. Areas of social control previously ignored by police are now included under the rhetoric of “community policing.” Control of prostitution activity, although an historical mainstay of policing directed primarily at female sex workers, has recently been subsumed under the umbrella of community policing through particular methods aimed at its control. This paper examines community policing and the expanded police role through the example of “John schools” or prostitution offender programs. As community policing in practice, such prostitution offender programs highlight the difficulties of the community policing approach generally, and the policing perspective on prostitution more specifically.     

Jewish* Self-interest in “Black Pluralism”

From time immemorial Jewish tribal exclusiveness among dominant societal groups has resulted in various forms of conflict determined by the social situation. The critical force involved has been the group's peculiar resistance to social assimilation. Different social systems react differently to the persistence of this trait. The caste system of India, for example, would hardly notice it. But capitalist culture, which originated in the European medieval city, has constantly resisted it; that culture is basically assimilationist. American Negroes, in their opposition to racism, have relied mainly on the ideology of assimilation. These two divergent tendencies have come into collision recently.     

Rejoinder to “Who Owns Democracy?”*

Dans cette réplique, nous discutons brièvement quelques malentendus et oublis apparents dans un commentaire, publié dans le numéro 42.3 de la RCSA , pp. 267–82, concernant notre comparaison entre le Canada et les États-Unis, et tentons de les résoudre.
In this rejoinder, we briefly discuss and seek to resolve some apparent misunderstandings and oversights in a commentary published in the CRSA (42.3: 267–82) about our research comparing Canada and the United States.     

Shifting Worlds of Strangers: Medium Theory and Changes in “Them” Versus “Us”*

Macrolevel analyses of the influence of different communication technologies are more difficult to test and apply than the results of focused studies of particular media messages. Nevertheless, “medium theory” is of potentially great significance because it outlines how media, rather than functioning simply as channels for conveying information between two or more social environments, are themselves social contexts that foster certain forms of interaction and social identities. This article uses a medium-theory perspective to address one variable related to “technological communities”—the changing boundaries between “them” and “us.” The ways in which oral, print, and electronic modes of communication each foster a different balance between strangers and “familiars” are outlined.     

Globalization and Technology Divides: Bifurcation of Policy between the “Digital Divide” and the “Innovation Divide”*

The global diffusion of digital technology, which occurred more rapidly than the global diffusion of any technology previously, has been mired by its uneven distribution across, and unequal effects on, societies worldwide. In addition, policy initiatives to close this global digital divide, which peaked with the two World Summit on Information Society conferences, still did not change the course of this differentiated globalization process. In this article, I attribute the cause of such stalling of policy on the issue of the global digital divide to the bifurcation of current international policy: attention is split between concern for the impeded access of the poor to this revolutionary technology, on the one hand, and the race to lead the world in creating the next “hot” technology, on the other. These two concerns, which have been given the pithy titles of the “global digital divide” and the “global innovation divide,” are leading to two separate policy tracks, targeting the world’s laggards and leaders as separate entities and operating under separate logics. This separation is problematic because the issues of access to technology and ownership of rights to technology are intertwined. This article describes the two global technology divides and analyzes the policies that are currently charted to address them.     

Representations of “the West,”“Japan,” and “the Periphery” in the Discourse of Lafcadio Hearn Studies

The purpose of this article is to analyze representations of “the West,”“Japan,” and “the Periphery” in the discourse of research on Lafcadio Hearn (“Hearn studies”) from pre‐war Japan. The nature and construction of nationality will be analyzed by examining where the representations of “the West,”“Japan,” and “the Periphery” intersected. During the 1900s, researchers in the field of Hearn studies recognized that “Japan” lacked—and thus sought—a universality similar to what existed in “the West.” The tone of the discourse shifted during the 1910s through 1920s however, and what came to be emphasized was “Japan's” peculiarity. By the 1930s through 1940s, “Japan” aimed to show to “the West” a new universality that was different from what existed in Europe and America. Yet simultaneously, in order to legitimize its representation of its self, “Japan” portrayed “the Periphery” as an object that was both excluded and absorbed or appropriated into that image. On the one hand, “Japan” received and internalized the Orientalist viewpoint of “the West.” In fact, “Japan” was always conscious of its self‐image as something to display to “the West.” On the other hand, in order to create that self‐portrayal, both a representation of “the Periphery” and a reflection from that same “Periphery” were essential. While representations of “Japan” were produced, reproduced, and reinforced through interactions with “the West” and “the Periphery,” the intersecting behavior of these three entities also points to a residual ambiguity in “Japan's” nationality. By analyzing the discourse in Hearn studies, this paper reveals how the interaction between “Japan” and the two others of “the West” and “the Periphery” helped construct and destabilize its nationality.     

“It's Only Sport”—The Symbolic Neutralization of “Violence”

Within the commodified world of professional ice hockey, athletes sell their bodily performances in return for a salary. A central feature of this transaction is the very real risk of physical injury—a risk inherent within most contact sports, but particularly so within those that feature seemingly “violent” confrontations between competitors, as ice hockey is widely reputed to do. Yet, within the spectacle of sport, where physicality can be constructed as playful and unserious, it is possible for the consequences of such action to be concealed behind a symbolic, ludic veneer. Within this article, we explore this process with a particular focus on ice hockey spectators, for whom notions of sport violence as in some important way “mimetic” of the “real” enabled their propensity to both enjoy, and find moral validation through, potentially deleterious behaviors among athletes.     

Fear and Loathing on Reality Television: An Analysis of “America's Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries”*

From early newspapers to contemporary television drama, the media demonstrate a continuing fascination with crime. Two recent television programs, “America's Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries,” claim to offer a different treatment of crime in that these programs dramatize “real” crimes and encourage the television audience to assist in locating fugitives. Content analysis of the programs reveals that depictions of crime are consistent with television crime drama, and that these dramatizations resemble urban legends in which crime symbolizes the uncertainties of modern life. The programs convey an unpredictable world filled with unsafe people and places. This sense of modern danger justifies the programs' solicitation of audience participation through surveillance.     

“His” and “her” marriage expectations: Determinants and consequences

This article uses couple‐level data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N= 2,263) to investigate factors associated with unmarried parents’ expectations about marriage and the association between their expectations and subsequent union transitions. In most couples, both partners expect to marry, and their shared expectations are the strongest predictor of marriage and separation following their child's birth. Although men's expectations are somewhat more consequential for union transitions, marriage and relationship stability are more likely when at least one parent expects to marry. Factors such as children from previous relationships, distrust, conflict, and shared activities are also associated with union transitions. Findings about how expectations and other factors relate to marriage and separation may inform new marriage promotion initiatives.     

A Further Examination of the “Occupational Linkage Hypothesis”*

In response to Lueptow, McClendon, and McKeon's (1979) recent criticisms of the “occupational linkage hypothesis,” we estimate a modified linkage model, using data obtained from a panel of male college graduates over a ten-year period. The findings indicate differences in the processes of socialization and occupational attainment depending on the character (business vs. professional) of the father's occupation. Specifically, paternal support was more strongly related to sons' extrinsic values in the business sector and to sons' intrinsic and people–oriented value orientations in the professional origin group. The distinctive patterns of value socialization persisted when socioeconomic status and grade point average were controlled. Extension of the linkage model to include sons' adult attainments indicates that the work values transmitted in the family have important implications for sons' occupational outcomes. Consideration of the discrepancy between these findings and those of other studies suggests that future investigators of the “occupational linkage hypothesis” should more closely attend to the socialization process, as it impinges on the child, and to the character of the linkages between parental work characteristics and children's psychological attributes.     

“Road Warriors” on “Hair-Tragger Highways”: Cultural Resources and the Media's Construction of the 1987 Freeway Shootings Problem*

Media constructions of social problems usually rework the claims of activists and other primary claimsmakers. However, the news media acted as primary claims-makers in discovering and reporting the 1987 Los Angeles freeway violence problem. The press drew upon cultural resources in constructing this problem, applying a conventional template for social problems stories and using familiar imagery to depict freeway shootings. The social organization of claimsmaking, as well as contingencies in the histories of individual campaigns, affect the choice of cultural resources used to construct social problems.