Naturally occurring play patterns in groups of latency aged children

This study examines the influence of the socialization of aggression among different gender and social class groupings and the influence of psychosocial stage on cognitive developmental play preferences among groups of school aged children. Observations of 143 play groups were coded for play preference (symbolic play, practice play, games with rules) and play performance (cooperative or competitive). Findings of the log-linear data analysis suggest a middle class and masculine bias in Piaget's cognitive model (i.e., that as age increases children prefer more games with rules). This model held only for middle class and affluent boys. Girls (both latency and prepubertal) and lower socioeconomic groups tended to prefer practice play. Girls were more likely to play cooperatively; boys more likely to play competitively. Implications for theory development and clinical practice are explored.     

Small Town in Mass Society Revisited1

Abstract The case study of a small New York town that dramatized the thesis that the secular expansion of macro forces—urbanization, industrialization, bureaucratization—has permanently reduced the autonomy of all small communities is an example of a special type of discovery/persuasion strategy in the social sciences: the “opposition case study.” In contrast to the more rigorous “competitive test” or the atheoretical “negative case,” opposition case studies confront the dominant perspective with a qualitative illustration of a new theory in the context of a zero-sum game. When they are successful, opposition cases meet four criteria: the dominant view is immediately rendered obsolete; the origin of the new idea supports its plausibility; the new perspective is shown to be testable; and the new perspective quickly generates new lines of research. Small Town in Mass Society meets the first criterion, and may have been heuristic, but its probable origin in populist ideology undermines its testability.     

ONE LUMP OR TWO: UNITARY VERSUS BIFURCATED MEASURES OF INJURY AT THE USITC

The most popular methodology used by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) commissioners to determine whether dumped and/or subsidized imports injure competing domestic industries has been rejected by reviewing bodies because it does not distinguish injury caused by unfairly traded imports from other demand or supply changes. We estimate injury to the domestic industry due to changes in unfairly traded import price and to other causes for 44 USITC dumping and/or subsidy investigations. Change in unfairly traded import price was typically not the most important cause of injury to the domestic industry. (JEL F13 )     

Creating offshore-ready it professionals: A global perspective and strong collaborative skills are needed

Outsourcing of IT functions has become a widespread corporate practice, which has naturally led to concerns among IT works about how this affects their jobs. The issue is complex, and many companies are bringing their IT functions back inhouse. In light of this complexity, what skills do IT workers need to be com-petitive? We address this question first by reviewing the literature and then by examining two corporate case studies that have dealt with outsourcing issues. Based on this view of outsourcing, we discuss the skills that can provide a com-petitive advantage in the current environment.     

Modernisierungstheorie und Wandel der Weltgesellschaft

The modernization and industrialization of the developing countries, especially in Asia and Latin America in the last 30 years, are facts that seem to contradict to the basic assumptions of the ruling sociological theories of development. The rise of the developing countries is a main part of the process called “globalization”. The different parts of the world are getting closer to each other by trade, industrial investments, tourism, political influences and co-operations on different levels. Theories of dependence and similar approaches don’t fit these social developments and seem to have gotten a status of falsified, refused, neglected or simply forgotten theories. “Sociological Theory” is till this day not ready to answer the open questions and to fill the scientific gap. The article shows that the classical theory of modernization is capable to describe and explain the process of modernization not only in Europe but also in the developing countries. Modernization theory is the central and encompassing theory of development, no matter whether Europe in the last 200 years, the present-day developing countries or processes of globalization is the chosen and focused subject of research activities.     

2½‐Year‐Old Children Use Animacy and Syntax to Learn a New Noun

We examine how attention to animacy information may contribute to children's developing knowledge of language. This research extends beyond prior research in that children were shown dynamic events with novel entities, and were asked not only to comprehend sentences but to use sentence structure to infer the meaning of a new word. In a 4 × 3 design, animacy status (e.g., animate agent, inanimate patient) and labeling syntax (agent, patient, nonlabel control) were varied. Across most events, 2 1/2‐year‐old participants responded as if they expected animate entities to be named. However, in a prototypical (animate agent‐inanimate patient) event condition, children responded differentially across different syntactic structures. Thus, the clearest evidence for attention to syntactic cues was found in the prototypical event condition. These results suggest that young children attend to the animacy status of unfamiliar entities, that they have expectations about animacy relations in events, and that these expectations support emerging syntactic knowledge.