Desiring the standard light skin: black multiracial boys,masculinity and exotification

Although studies of the multiracial population have long identified the connection between multiraciality and exotification, much of the focus has been on the exotification of multiracial women that are part-white. Consequently, most understandings of exotification in this literature are insufficient to account for how a broader multiracial demographic is exotified and the mechanisms of exotification that are specific to mixed-race bodies. This article analyses black multiracial boys’ experiences of exotification in Northern California. Interviews with the boys revealed how interactions around their multiraciality intimately linked perceptions of their attractiveness to their mixedness. Their physical features, behaviours and dispositions were dissected according to their multiple racial backgrounds in ways that rendered them desirably hybridised. The interaction of black masculinity with their other racialised masculinities is essential to understanding the construction of the black multiracial male as desirable, pointing to the critically important yet understudied intersection of mixedness and masculinity.     

Nationalism in America: The case of the Populist movement

As a marker of national identity, the term American is culturally meaningful but also difficult and contradictory. In the first part of this article, we develop the claim that analyzing nationalism as discourse provides a meaningful lens for the study of this boundary-making process. In particular, the distinctions between civic/ethnic and inclusive/exclusive forms of nationalism have proved nettlesome for a consideration of American nationalism. In the second half of the article, we use data from the Southern Populist movement of the late nineteenth century to provide both relational and cultural analyses of the use of the term American. Although its use was primarily civic, it had important but complex racial implications.     

Husband-wife agreement about reproductive goals

Data from Malaysia on the reproductive goals of husbands and wives are analyzed to determine level of agreement, using new scale measures on preferences for number and sex of children as well as the conventional measure of desired number of children. The level of agreement between husband and wife varies considerably depending on the focus of analysis and the measure of agreement used. Overall aggregate agreement of men and women is high but lower for subgroups of the population, particularly among various ethnic groups. For marital partners, the agreement is much lower, especially on sex preferences. The level observed depends on whether the measure is identity of responses or an index of homogeneity which allows for couple concordance based on chance or common socialization factors. The views about the reproductive goals of one marital partner cannot with confidence be assumed to represent the views of the other.     

Comparing apology to equivalent crisis response strategies: Clarifying apology's role and value in crisis communication

Crisis communication has begun to systematically examine how people perceive the crisis response strategies using experimental designs. This is an important step in the evolution of crisis communication research. One problem with this research has been the over promotion of apology as “the” response. Too often the value of an apology is established by comparing how people react to an apology and to other less victim-centered/accommodative responses. This “unfair” comparison results in apology appearing to be “the” best alternative. This study compares apology to more equivalent crisis response strategies to more fairly determine if apology is “the” best strategy. The results show that people react similarly to any victim-centered/accommodative strategy meaning apology is not “the” best strategy. The implications of the results for crisis managers are discussed.     

The Decline in American Trade Union Membership and the “Government Substitution” Hypothesis:A Review of the Econometric Literature

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the “Government Substitution” hypothesis. We focus our attention on the sample periods used, model specification, and econometric technique. The seminal piece on this topic is Neumann and Rissman (J Labor Econ 2:175–192, 1984) and to date there have been less than a handful of extensions beyond this initial investigation. By tracking the limited development of this hypothesis over time we are able to conclude that there is still an opportunity for additional empirical exploration in this area.

A Case Study of Aston Villa Football Club

This article conceptualizes a Homo Narrans paradigm for public relations by combining symbolic convergence theory (SCT) and situational theory. SCT results in theory-based data for designing message content but not the relevant publics to target messages. Situational theory identifies relevant publics and when messages should be directed to the publics but not the message content. Combined, SCT and situational theory develop a Homo Narrans paradigm that views the exchange of messages between an organization and public as forms of stories. A Homo Narrans paradigm allows researchers and practitioners to advance public relations as an applied social science.     

Deterring domestic violence: Do criminal sanctions reduce repeat offenses?

This study presents an empirical analysis of domestic violence case resolution in North Carolina for the years 2004 to 2010. The key hypothesis is that penalties at the level set for domestic violence crimes reduce recidivism (re-arrest on domestic violence charges or conviction in 2 years following an index arrest). We use state court data for all domestic violence-related arrests. Decisions to commit an act of domestic violence are based on a Bayesian process of updating subjective beliefs. Individuals have prior beliefs about penalties for domestic violence based on actual practice in their areas. An individual’s experience with an index arrest leads to belief updating. To address endogeneity of case outcomes, we use an instrumental variables strategy based on decisions of prosecutors and judges assigned to each index arrest in our sample. Contrary to our hypothesis, we find that penalities, at least as set at the current levels, do not deter future arrests and convictions.