Strategic Action Fields in US Higher Education: The 1939 Mercer University Heresy Trial

This paper uses Fligstein and McAdam's (2012, 2011) theory of the strategic action field, or “SAF,” to highlight the ways in which individuals can act within cultural and material constraints to shape social processes. It applies these concepts to the Mercer University heresy trial of 1939, in which a group of students backed by fundamentalists from the conservative Protestant movement accused members of the University's faculty of unbelief. By understanding the organization, the social movement, and the higher education industry as “SAFs,” the theory explains how the trial reached its unusual outcome, and suggests implications for broader understandings of organizational change.     

“Off balance sheet law”: Globalisation,accounting and democracy

Abstract

National governments commonly facilitate neo‐liberal globalisation by permitting private bodies to apply global commercial rules locally. The recent legislating of international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) in New Zealand is an important example of privatised lawmaking. IFRSs can be described as “off balance sheet law” because they do not appear on the statute books, yet have legal effects. This article draws on a broad conception of discursive democracy to demonstrate the fundamentally antidemocratic nature of privatised lawmaking that the legislating of IFRSs exemplifies. First, an outline is given of the organisations and processes involved in the legislation of IFRSs in New Zealand to demonstrate how privatised lawmaking works. Second, the importance of IFRSs is considered in the light of basic principles of discursive democracy. Finally, alternatives to standardisation are considered.     

Ecosystem services from converted land: the importance of tree cover in Amazonian pastures

Deforestation is responsible for a substantial fraction of global carbon emissions and changes in surface energy budgets that affect climate. Deforestation losses include wildlife and human habitat, and myriad forest products on which rural and urban societies depend for food, fiber, fuel, fresh water, medicine, and recreation. Ecosystem services gained in the transition from forests to pasture and croplands, however, are often ignored in assessments of the impact of land cover change. The role of converted lands in tropical areas in terms of carbon uptake and storage is largely unknown. Pastures represent the fastest-growing form of converted land use in the tropics, even in some areas of rapid urban expansion. Tree biomass stored in these areas spans a broad range, depending on tree cover. Trees in pasture increase carbon storage, provide shade for cattle, and increase productivity of forage material. As a result, increasing fractional tree cover can provide benefits land managers as well as important ecosystem services such as reducing conversion pressure on forests adjacent to pastures. This study presents an estimation of fractional tree cover in pasture in a dynamic region on the verge of large-scale land use change. An appropriate sampling interval is established for similar studies, one that balances the need for independent samples of sufficient number to characterize a pasture in terms of fractional tree cover. This information represents a useful policy tool for government organizations and NGOs interested in encouraging ecosystem services on converted lands. Using high spatial resolution remotely sensed imagery, fractional tree cover in pasture is quantified for the municipality of Rio Branco, Brazil. A semivariogram and devolving spatial resolution are employed to determine the coarsest sampling interval that may be used, minimizing effects of spatial autocorrelation. The coarsest sampling interval that minimizes spatial dependence was about 22 m. The area-weighted fractional tree cover for the study area was 1.85 %, corrected for a slight bias associated with the coarser sampling resolution. The pastures sampled for fractional tree cover were divided between ‘high’ and ‘low’ tree cover, which may be the result of intentional incorporation of arboreal species in pasture. Further research involving those ranchers that have a higher fractional tree cover may indicate ways to promote the practice on a broader scale in the region.     

The Impact of Ireland’s Recession on the Labour Market Outcomes of its Immigrants

In the mid-2000s, Ireland experienced a large inflow of immigrants, partly in response to strong economic growth but also in response to its decision to allow full access to its labour market when EU expansion occurred in May 2004. Between 2004 and 2007, the proportion of non-nationals living in Ireland almost doubled, increasing from 7.7 to 13.1%. Between 2008 and 2009, Ireland experienced one of the most acute downturns in economic activity in the industrialised world, with a cumulative fall in Gross National Product of close to 14%. In this article, we assess how this downturn has impacted upon the employment outcomes of non-nationals relative to natives. We find huge job losses among immigrants, with an annual rate of job loss of close to 20% in 2009, compared to 7% for natives. A higher rate of job loss for immigrants is found to remain when we control for factors such as age and education. We also show how an outflow of non-nationals is occurring. The findings have many implications. In particular, the results point to economic vulnerability for immigrants. However, they also point to a potential macroeconomic benefit to Ireland in terms of a flexible labour supply adjustment.     

A computational framework for variable selection in multivariate regression

Stepwise variable selection procedures are computationally inexpensive methods for constructing useful regression models for a single dependent variable. At each step a variable is entered into or deleted from the current model, based on the criterion of minimizing the error sum of squares (SSE). When there is more than one dependent variable, the situation is more complex. In this article we propose variable selection criteria for multivariate regression which generalize the univariate SSE criterion. Specifically, we suggest minimizing some function of the estimated error covariance matrix: the trace, the determinant, or the largest eigenvalue. The computations associated with these criteria may be burdensome. We develop a computational framework based on the use of the SWEEP operator which greatly reduces these calculations for stepwise variable selection in multivariate regression.     

The Organizational Construction of Hegemonic Masculinity: The Case of the US Navy

This article examines the construction of hegemonic masculinity within the US Navy. Based on life history interviews with 27 male officers, this study explores alternative discourses and identities of officers from three different communities in the Navy: aviation, surface warfare, and the supply corps. Definitions of masculinity are relationally constructed through associations of difference: aviators tend to draw upon themes of autonomy and risk taking; surface warfare officers draw upon themes of perseverance and endurance; and supply officers draw upon themes of technical rationality. Further, these masculinities depend upon various contrasting definitions of femininity. Finally, this article explores a series of contradictions that threaten the secure construction of masculinity within this military culture.     

How urbanites define their neighborhoods

This paper explores the ways that residents of the Seattle metropolitan region define "neighborhood" in the abstract and their own neighborhoods in particular. On the whole, the neighborhood is regarded as a relatively limited unit, both in terms of areal size and functional relevance. Two major dimensions of neighborhood definition are evident. Individuals tend to define neighborhood primarily in terms of either human interaction or pure space, and they also differ in their views on its geographic size and institutional development. The two dimensions of definition are shown to vary with patterns of local activity, social-demographic characteristics, and the physical environment. While only a small proportion of the variation in responses is explained, the results suggest that neighborhood definitions are rational responses to the social and physical position of the respondent within urban society.     

Is neighborhood racial succession place-specific?

This paper evaluates the geographic generality of the succession model of neighborhood racial change for the period 1970 to 1980. Using census data on racially mixed tracts, we determine whether white-to-black compositional shifts were equally common across the four regions and 58 central cities in our sample. Substantial variation occurred by region in the incidence and magnitude of racial succession; tracts in western cities departed most markedly from expectations. Even in other regions, some cities experienced more numerous instances of stability and displacement than of succession. These region and city effects persist when neighborhood characteristics believed to influence racial transition are controlled.