The Status Attainment Paradigm: An Application of a Kuhnian Perspective*

A Kuhnian approach to the structure of scientific research is used to examine the historical development of the status attainment paradigm in sociology. A content analysis of applications, critiques, and alternatives to the status attainment model over the last decade illustrates the “life-cycle” phases of a scientific research area that are suggested by Kuhn. The analysis reveals an extension or elaboration of the paradigmatic research effort throughout early years of the decade. However, the perception of “anomalies” by critics of the research tradition, coupled with the increasing exploration of alternative approaches, suggests the onset of a crisis stage for status attainment research.     

Lorenz non-consistent welfare and inequality measurement

Typical welfare and inequality measures are required to be Lorenz consistent which guarantees that inequality decreases and welfare increases as a result of a progressive transfer. We explore the implications for welfare and inequality measurement of substituting the weaker absolute differentials and deprivation quasi-orderings for the Lorenz quasi-ordering. Restricting attention to distributions of equal means, we show that the utilitarian model - the so-called expected utility model in the theory of risk - does not permit one to make a distinction between the views embedded in the differentials, deprivation and Lorenz quasi-orderings. In contrast it is possible within the dual model of M. Yaari (Econometrica 55 (1987), 99–115) to derive the restrictions to be placed on the weighting function which guarantee that the corresponding welfare orderings are consistent with the differentials and deprivation quasi-orderings respectively. Finally we drop the equal mean condition and indicate the implications of our approach for the absolute ethical inequality indices.     

Anthropological versus sociological approaches to the study of soccer hooliganism: some critical notes

It is argued that the anthropological approach, as used by Armstrong and Harris, has not generated any breakthrough in the study of soccer hooliganism. In particular, it is suggested that their use of a commonsense rather than a sociological concept of violence vitiates their analysis in several ways, contributing above all to substantial inconsistencies between some of their own empirical data and their general conclusions concerning levels of soccer-related violence. It is also contended that their critique of the ‘figurational’ or ‘process-sociological’ approach followed by the Leicester researchers is based on a confused misrepresentation of that approach. Specifically it is argued (i) that Armstrong and Harris fail to recognize the wide range of methods, including extensive participant observation, used by the Leicester group, (ii) that their attempt to cast doubt on the Leicester group's contention that the core football hooligans come predominantly from the ‘rougher’ sections of the working class is based on nothing more than a priori speculation. In this connection, Armstrong and Harris themselves provide no reliable data on the social class of soccer hooligans in Sheffield, and they seem unaware of the fact that several different sources of data appear to confirm the finding of the Leicester group, (iii) they have misunderstood both the terminology and the reasoning of the Leicester group concerning the ‘rougher’ sections of the working class and their relationship to football hooliganism.     

Size, book-to-market, and momentum during the business cycle

The Fama–French-Methodology (1993–1998) offers cross-sectional explanations of returns by taking the specially designed portfolios SMB and HML as additional factors. It is acknowledged that these factors are related to some forms of risk (they bear premia) which, by researchers is often proposed to be related to the uncertainty with respect to macroeconomic production and aggregate consumption. In more recent research a momentum factor is included in order to improve the explanatory power of the Fama–French-Model. We use data from business cycles 1926–2007 to show that SMB represents the risks related to the very early phase of an upswing while HML may be related to the uncertainty whether a business cycle will continue to gain depth and strength (or shifts back into recession). In contrast to SMB and HML, we do not find momentum to be related to risks associated with particular phases of the business cycle.     

New Public Management Is Dead--Long Live Digital-Era Governance

The "new public management" (NPM) wave in public sector organizationalchange was founded on themes of disaggregation, competition,and incentivization. Although its effects are still workingthrough in countries new to NPM, this wave has now largely stalledor been reversed in some key "leading-edge" countries. Thisebbing chiefly reflects the cumulation of adverse indirect effectson citizens' capacities for solving social problems becauseNPM has radically increased institutional and policy complexity.The character of the post-NPM regime is currently being formed.We set out the case that a range of connected and informationtechnology–centered changes will be critical for the currentand next wave of change, and we focus on themes of reintegration,needs-based holism, and digitization changes. The overall movementincorporating these new shifts is toward "digital-era governance"(DEG), which involves reintegrating functions into the governmentalsphere, adopting holistic and needs-oriented structures, andprogressing digitalization of administrative processes. DEGoffers a perhaps unique opportunity to create self-sustainingchange, in a broad range of closely connected technological,organizational, cultural, and social effects. But there arealternative scenarios as to how far DEG will be recognized asa coherent phenomenon and implemented successfully.     

Conditional Information in Projections of Gaussian Vectors

Conditional information measures the information in a sample for an interest parameter in the presence of nuisance parameter. In the context of Gaussian likelihoods this paper first derives conditions under which a projection of the data may reduce conditional information to zero. These are then applied in the context of time series regressions, and inference on a covariance parameter, such as with either autoregressive or moving average errors. It is shown that regressing out very common regressors, such as a linear trend or dummy variable, can imply that conditional information is zero in the case of non-stationary autoregressions or non-invertible moving averages, respectively.     

On extending bock's model of logistic regression in the analysis of categorical data

A general class of multiple logistic regression models is reviewed and an extension is proposed which leads to restricted maximum likelihood estimates of model parameters. Examples of thegeneral model are given, with an emphasis placed on the interpretation of the parameters in each case.