Hidden jobs: Good news for sociologists

Applied sociology, if defined broadly enough, is a ray of light for sociology graduates in an otherwise dismal career landscape. This is particularly true in the Washington, D. C. metropolitan area. Sociologists’ general or liberal arts skills are as valuable, if not more valuable, than research specialization. Finding a job in government requires a different strategy than a job with a government contractor. Unfortunately, in neither case is there a rational path or match-up between a person’s skills and finding the job which utilizes these skills. Local knowledge can help in making the match. Edward Sabin, Ph.D., University of Michigan 1970, taught sociology for five years in the Midwest. Since 1974, he worked for 8 years as a writer/researcher under a number of government contracts in the area of international health. Currently he is a writer/systems analyst for a NASA library automation project.     

Latino,Asian, and black segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas: Are multiethnic metros different*

This study examines 1990 residential segregation levels and 1980–1990 changes in segregation for Latinos, Asians, and blacks in U.S. metropolitan areas. It also evaluates the effect of emerging multiethnic metropolitan area contexts for these segregation patterns. While black segregation levels are still well above those for Latinos and Asians, there is some trend toward convergence over the decade. More than half of the areas increased their Latino segregation levels over the 1980s, and almost three-fourths increased their Asian segregation levels. In contrast, black segregation levels decreased in 88%ofmetropolitan areas. Multiethnic metropolitan area context is shown to be important for internal segregation dynamics. Black segregation levels are lower, and were more likely to decline in multiethnic metropolitan areas and when other minority groups grew faster than blacks. Latino segregation was also more likely to decline in such areas, and declines in both Latino and Asian segregation were greater when other minority groups were growing. These findings point up the potential for greater mixed-race and mixed-ethnicity coresidence in the neighborhoods of multiethnic metropolitan areas.     

Residential segregation in urbanized areas of the United States in 1970: An analysis of social class and racial differences

Sociologists and urban commentators often portray metropolitan areas as highly segregated by social class and race. We measured the extent of socioeconomic residential segregation in urbanized areas of the United States in 1970, determined whether cities were as segregated as suburban rings, and compared levels of socioeconomic and racial residential segregation. We found moderate levels of residential segregation of socioeconomic groups. Levels of social class segregation varied little from one urbanized area to another and were about the same in central cities and suburban rings. Racial residential segregation was much greater than the segregation of social classes within either the black or white communities. The extent of racial residential segregation does not vary by educational attainment, occupation, or income.     

Analysis of the reliability of a new scale for housing quality

This article reports the results of a variance components investigation of the reliability of a new scale of measurement of the quality of a dwelling unit. A balanced incomplete block design was utilized. A method for selecting among competing unbiased estimators of the variance components is presented. These components furnish a measure of the stability of the new dwelling quality scale. The validity of this new scale was investigated by comparison with experienced housing inspectors' reports.     

Occupational preferences and the quality of life

This paper focuses on the theoretical and empirical aspects of occupational choice by examining the structure of individual preferences expressed in terms of abstract characteristics. Both verbal and quantitative models were successfully tested, and a rough upper limit was set on the ability of individuals to specify their quality-of-life technology. The study was too restrictive to permit general inferences concerning the quality of life of particular occupations. However, it may be concluded from the limited empirical findings that the qualitative model captured career-living preferences almost as consistently as did the highly structured quantitative approach. The experiments extracted subjects' cognitive structures for career-living stiuations in all the richness and generality permitted by verbal expression. Although more costly to determine, such qualitative information is of considerable potential benefit to policy makers, ect., and equivalent knowledge cannot be obtained from numerical representations.     

A supportive application of management science to marketing strategy formulation

Traditional applications of management science aiming at solving specific decision-making problems are claimed to be often of an aggressive nature. They represent an intrusion into the life space of the managers who are supposed to use them and in many cases are consequently rejected. In the light of the evolution of marketing and corporate modelling over the last twenty years, the authors propose a new supportive approach for management science applications which is user-oriented rather than task-oriented. The characteristics of the aggressive and supportive approaches are contrasted, and an example of a supportive management science application for marketing strategy formulation is described.     

A design for a census information retrieval system

This article explores the methodology of designing a storage and retrieval system for information on the nature and subjects of censuses published internationally over the past two decades. The essential key is neither data storage nor bibliography but an index which will tell a researcher what censuses provide information on particular population characteristics and how those characteristics are defined, mapped, cross-indexed, compared, and discussed.The index should be based on specific, inclusive, and flexible classifying terms. The authors arrive at 24 variables which are grouped on two levels-category and specific item-by the use of either main tables or indexes. The use of indexes is preferred for its reduction of clerical and computer time.In addition to the index (which should be made available in machine-readable form), the authors suggest the concomitant publication (on the basis of unified classifications) of an analysis of the relative value of different definitions of population characteristics, a merged-item vocabulary, and indexes to various censuses. Once the study has developed beyond an experimental phase limited in geographic extent and in time, the authors envision a continuing service which will provide indexes to all new censuses.