The Endowment Effect on Academic Chores Trade-Off (ACTO)

The present study aimed to investigate three questions concerning Kahneman’s Endowment Effect. (a) Does the Endowment Effect apply to negotiations on intangible items such as intellectual resources and time invested in academic chores? (b) Does the sequence in which proposals are presented to the negotiators influence the Endowment Effect and, if so, how? (c) Does the Endowment Effect have the same impact in on-going negotiations as in one-shot negotiations? The investigation focused on the trade-off made by students between advanced courses and seminars, which we term as Academic Chores Trade-Off (ACTO). The results indicated the existence of the Endowment Effect in negotiations on the above intangible items (ACTO) but could also be partially interpreted as reflecting the negotiators attempts to improve their positions. The results also supported the existence of a Sequence Effect combined with an intensification of the Endowment Effect. The Endowment Effect in on-going negotiations was not found to be significantly different from that in the one-shot format.     

Self‐Knowledge,Gender Roles,and the Making of the Secret Gospels: A Chapter in the Sociology of Nonknowledge

In addition to the four canonical gospels of the Bible's New Testament, some so‐called apocryphal gospels have also been discovered to exist. Although the process by which the four gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were determined to be the core gospels was completed by the late second century AD, it is generally held that the exclusion of other gospels was an incremental process that was finalized more than a century later. This article explores the inclusion and exclusion of texts in the New Testament canon by reference to the sociological notion of ignorance, or “nonknowledge.” It is argued that the strategic use of nonknowledge can be shown to have achieved an “unknowing” of things that had previously been known among the early Christian community. Underpinning this argument is the suggestion that at least part of the success of Christianity during the first 100 to 200 years AD was due to many Christian women not only occupying a special position in their communities but also being seen as having been favored with knowledge about God. Such women were subsequently marginalized and knowledge about their role suppressed. The article concludes by noting that the formal exercise of control over what ought (not) to be known is part of the normal process of establishing stability and order in a bounded institution. This in turn promises to deliver insights for the sociological analysis of historical cases in many other areas.     

The rôle of density as a factor in metropolitan growth in the United States of America

U.S. Census data are used to show that, as the density of a metropolis increases there is a concomitant increase in the movement of population to the suburbs. This relationship is closest for small metropolitan areas. As size of the area increases, the closeness of the relationship decreases until it reverses—the largest areas actually show a slight decline in metropolitanization when density goes up. It is concluded that metropolitan expansion has definite bounds set by technological factors which place a limit on the distance that the commuter can reasonably travel daily.

For cities with populations of less than 500,000 there is a correlation of near zero between size of population and density. Such cities therefore maintain a constant density. But for cities with larger populations, size of population and density rise together.

It is concluded that small cities undergo metropolitan expansion with ease. Distances are within technological limits and any increase in population is reflected in an increase in area. But when a certain area is reached, further expansion is curtailed with a resultant increase in internal density. The net result is a stopping or slowing down of the metropolitan process.     

Federalism Policy,Economic Policy and Implementation of the Bailey Report

The Bailey Task Force (BTF) report is reviewed from the perspective of a would-be implementer. The BTF report is partially implementable if its writers were able to resolve three critical issues. First, they might emphasize how its four Program (Block) Grant proposals would influence the economy through opening up employment opportunities. Next, they should spell out how pilot developments of certain Program Grants could proceed with model legislation, and should indicate the contents of that legislation. Finally, they should be more specific about consultative mechanisms involving non-government agencies and local government.     

Pregnancy, work and women's well-being: A review

Pregnancy is potentially a stressful period for working women for ergonomic, psychological and organizational reasons, yet the well-being of women is seldom the focus of research on working during pregnancy. This paper reviews the literature on women's experience of being pregnant at work. It concludes that, while working conditions are usually not well suited to pregnant women, the majority of women encounter only minor difficulties and regard working in a positive way. However, for a minority of women working during pregnancy adversely affects their well-being. These are likely to be women working during pregnancy adversely affects their well-being. These are likely to be women who are most at risk from work-related stress at other times. The literature suggests that working during pregnancy has still to be accepted and accommodated by employers and colleagues.     

“I Try Not to Depend on Anyone but Me”: Welfare‐Reliant Women's Perspectives on Self‐Sufficiency,Work, and Marriage*

Welfare reformers sought to reduce “dependency,” or reliance on state‐supported cash benefits and deployed a discourse of “self‐sufficiency” to promote the legitimacy of efforts to remove welfare recipients from publicly funded cash assistance through either wage labor or marriage. We use longitudinal, qualitative interview data collected from 38 initially welfare‐reliant women to examine what self‐sufficiency means to them and their perspectives on how work and marriage affect their ability to be self‐sufficient. Grounded theory analysis revealed that for these women, self‐sufficiency means formal independence from both the state (i.e., Temporary Assistance to Needy Families [TANF]) and men (i.e., marriage). Although they value marriage as an institution and would ideally marry, they do not consider marriage to be a likely route to self‐sufficiency given the pool of men available to them. Rather, they embrace their own market‐based wage labor as the means by which they can attain some measure of independence. Taking our lead from the women in this study, we challenge the emphasis on marriage in current welfare policy. We argue that employment training that results in better jobs for women and men and work supports that make low‐wage work pay are clearly the appropriate direction for policy aimed at the welfare‐reliant and working poor.     

ALVIN GOULDNER AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF IDEAS: Lessons from Enter Plato

Alvin Gouldner's 1965 book Enter Plato is one of the most important contributions ever made to the sociology of ideas. Overshadowed soon after its publication, however, by Gouldner's more controversial work, The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology , the earlier book has suffered neglect. In an effort to correct this situation, we situate Enter Plato against the backdrop of other mid-twentieth-century works in the sociology of knowledge and related areas, arguing that Gouldner's study was one of the first sustained responses to Robert K. Merton's call for a sociology of knowledge that would steer a middle course between the abstract, speculative tendencies of the field's European founders and the relatively atheoretical contributions of their American counterparts. We build on this interpretation to offer a contemporary sociological appraisal of Enter Plato , considering its positive and negative lessons for sociologists of knowledge and ideas at the present time.