Civic Literacy and Social Work Education: Results From a Multi-Site Study

Given the decline in civic literacy among Americans, social work educators can no longer assume that students come prepared with the civic knowledge necessary for competent advocacy or policy practice. This article examines rates of civic knowledge among social work students at four social work education programs across the United States (U.S.). Findings indicate that although social work students score higher than the general U.S. adult population, their civic knowledge scores are still low, with nearly a third of these students falling in the failing range. Results suggest that social work students need additional content on civic knowledge.     

Corporate Linkage and Control of the Corporate Economy: New Evidence and a Reinterpretation*

This paper begins with a brief critical review of the major perspectives in the debate concerning ownership and control of major corporations. After examination of a new source of data compiled by a Senate committee (pertaining especially to the expansion of stock control by institutional investors and, most importantly, by major commercial banks), we argue that none of these perspectives is strongly supported. In concluding we tentatively outline a perspective wliicli seems to provide a better “fit” to the data. We argue that the dominant force in the overall capitalist economy is now an “intercorporate complex” of major corporations, with banks in a central coordinating position (though short of “control”) and an inner group of the “corporate class” providing the human linkage. This form of control is what we call “intercorporate control,” based upon the impersonal interests of major, interrelated corporate bureaucracies.     

Animal Rights Talk: Moral Debate over the Internet

Messages sent over Animal Rights-Talk, an electronic mail network devoted to the discussion of issues related to the animal rights movement, were analyzed. Messages typically fell into the following categories: questions and information, discussions of philosophical issues, ethical problems associated with the treatment of particular species, the politics of the animal rights movement, problems of moral consistency, the ethics of particular uses of non-human species (e.g., meat consumption, biomedical research with animal subjects), and matters pertaining to the internal life of the network (e.g., efforts at control of perceived norm violations). Debates between animal activists and animal researchers over the network often reflected the conflicting cosmologies of scientists and animal protectionists. We argue that computer bulletin boards offer a potentially important avenue for qualitative research.     

Effective directed tests for models with ordered categorical data

This paper offers a new method for testing one‐sided hypotheses in discrete multivariate data models. One‐sided alternatives mean that there are restrictions on the multidimensional parameter space. The focus is on models dealing with ordered categorical data. In particular, applications are concerned with R×C contingency tables. The method has advantages over other general approaches. All tests are exact in the sense that no large sample theory or large sample distribution theory is required. Testing is unconditional although its execution is done conditionally, section by section, where a section is determined by marginal totals. This eliminates any potential nuisance parameter issues. The power of the tests is more robust than the power of the typical linear tests often recommended. Furthermore, computer programs are available to carry out the tests efficiently regardless of the sample sizes or the order of the contingency tables. Both censored data and uncensored data models are discussed.     

Development and Utilization of Global/World Models in International Affairs

The development and utilization of global/world models in the context of political implications of world economic trends is overviewed in terms of three streams of research, that of the multidisciplinary social scientists, of the econometricians, and of the system engineers. Socio-political processes impinge on world economic trends, just as such trends in turn impact on politics, both national and international. The use of simulations rich in system dynamics for the study of international affairs is found to have much potential, as documented in findings obtained by researchers throughout the world.