Protest Group Success: The Impact of Group Characteristics,Social Control,and Context

Abstract

In this study we test eight hypotheses about the relative control of protesters, third parties, and elements of the situation (movement context and confrontation) over two types of protest group success: goal achievement and recognition. A path analysis indicates that two sets of protester-controlled factors decisively affect protest group success: organization and beliefs and goals. Of the two, beliefs and goals is the more significant, although bureaucracy is very important for recognition. For the most part, the impact of protester-controlled factors is not due to the reaction of third parties; however, revolutionary activism, one factor in the realm of beliefs and goals, is a notable exception. Revolutionary activism's negative association with success is largely due to suppression by third parties.     

No place called home: the causes and social consequences of the UK housing ‘bubble’

This paper examines the key causes and social consequences of the much debated UK ‘housing bubble’ and its aftermath from a multidimensional sociological approach, as opposed to the economic perspective of many popular discussions. This is a phenomenon that has affected numerous economies in the first decade of the new millennium. The discussion is based on a comprehensive study that includes exhaustive analysis of secondary data, content and debate in the mass media and academia, primary data gathered from the monitoring of weblogs and forums debating housing issues, and case histories of individuals experiencing housing difficulties during this period. This paper is intended to provide a broad overview of the key findings and preliminary analysis of this ongoing study, and is informed by a perspective which considers secure and affordable housing to be an essential foundation of stable and cohesive societies, with its absence contributing to a range of social ills that negatively impact on both individual and collective well being. Overall, it is argued that we must return to viewing decent, affordable housing as an essential social resource, that provides the bedrock of stable individual, family and community life, while recognizing that its increasing treatment as a purely economic asset is a key contributor to our so‐called ‘broken society’.     

Application of extreme value theory to the bec family of distributions

Arnold and Strauss (1988) derived a family of bivariate life distributions having the property that the conditional distributions are exponential. Asymptotic distributions for the marginal and bivariate extremes for this family of distributions are derived employing the asymptotic theory of extreme order statistics.     

Adolescent girls’ race/ethnic status, identities, and drive for thinness

Using data from 7272 adolescent US girls, we explore how girls’ race/ethnic group status affects their bodyweight, perceptions of overweight, and weight control practices. We hypothesize that a girl’s race/ethnic status influences her basic identity which in turn prompts her to adopt or reject a “drive for thinness.” After controlling for family and peer support, school engagement, family SES, maturation, and family structure, we find that girls’ race/ethnic status influences their susceptibility to the thinness ideals of mainstream culture. African American girls weigh more than Asian, Hispanic, or White girls, but at any given weight they perceive themselves as overweight and attempt to control their weight less. Asian American and White girls invest most in thinness dynamics. Some evidence also suggests girls from lower SES families are less driven to be thin. Our results affirm the utility of viewing material bodies as “situations” that are experienced and interpreted in accord with identity group relations and dynamics.     

Participation, Authority, and Distributive Equity in East Timorese Development

The anthropology of development seeks to understand the complex encounter between international and national development regimes and local patterns of livelihood and being. As science and development move objects, at once material and discursive, through the networks of the social to reach “impoverished” others, local groups reach out to development actors to evaluate and appropriate their resources and accept or redirect those efforts. In a political interplay of disciplinary measures and localizing translations, development projects are re-invented, or aspects thereof refused, just as development actors strain to keep projects on track. With input from science and technology studies, this article explores the participatory, authoritative, and distributive dimensions to agricultural development in East Timor. Across four cases studies—a dairy, a greenhouse, a seed development program, and a permanent farming initiative—the politics of projects are compared and discussed within the broader context of colonial and postcolonial development. The article is based on a total of 1 year of fieldwork conducted in 2003, 2008, and 2009.     

Naturing the Nation: Aliens,Apocalypse, and the Postcolonial State

The purpose of this study is to understand how the British Canadian Frank Schofield transformed himself into an established missionary scholar and nobleman in Korea. The study employs its framework from the structure of cultural exchange itself in its survey of Schofield's career. It examines the relevant aspects of Korean and Western cultures, and the characteristics of Schofield who linked them. The case, including themes significant both to Korean and Western cultures, such as the importance of spirituality, an emphasis on education, and the ideals of justice and love, explains reasons for his success as a cultural mediator between Korea and the West. It reveals that the flow of information and ideas between Koreans and Schofield illustrates the ability of intercultural contact to influence the initiating as well as receiving culture. It suggests that such a distinction between sender and receiver may carry little ultimate significance. Finally, it argues that individuals of different cultures can convey information and ideas effectively only if the conveyer learns about the target individuals for the information and ideas, and communicates on the basis of that knowledge, as intercultural communications occur between the individuals of different cultures.     

A further examination of antecedents of correctional staff life satisfaction

Working in corrections is not only a demanding job, but a socially important one. While a growing number of studies have examined how the work environment impacts the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of staff, very few studies have examined how working in corrections impacts the life satisfaction of workers. The current study utilized OLS regression to examine the antecedents of life satisfaction among staff at a Midwestern private prison. Job satisfaction had a positive relationship with life satisfaction, while age, work on family conflict, family on work conflict, and job involvement all had statistically significant negative effects. Finally, perceptions of the level of financial rewards, job stress, organizational commitment, gender, race, educational level, tenure, supervisory status, position, marital status, and having children, all had non-significant associations with overall satisfaction with life.     

Forest Conservation,Value Conflict,and Interest Formation in a Honduran National Park*

Abstract We argue that attempts to superimpose park regulatory regimes on existing land uses in the tropics represent conflicts between alternative cultural models of natural resource management. The results of such conflicts are unique regulatory regimes emerging from distinctive processes that redefine the terms and limits of natural resource use. In creating a scarcity of available resources, parks encourage social differentiation and greater awareness of societal patterns of inequality, establishing a potential for the articulation of demands for social and environmental equity. We evaluate these claims with a case study of the Cerro Azul Meambar National Park in Honduras. We base our analysis on 54 indepth interviews of Park residents in five Park communities.