Promoting social equality values to improve judgement of a woman reporting sexism / El fomento de valores relacionados con la igualdad social para mejorar la opinión sobre las mujeres que denuncian discriminación por sexismo

Previous research has shown that discriminated women blame themselves more than they blame discrimination when meritocracy values are salient. In two studies, we examined whether meritocracy values also influence female observers when they judge a female victim of sexism. Such values were expected to lead them to judge more positively a victim incriminating herself than a victim claiming discrimination. Conversely, social equality values should lead them to judge more positively a victim claiming discrimination. Women who were either feminists or non-feminists (Study 1) or who were exposed to either social equality values or personal merit values (Study 2) had to judge a female victim of sexism who ascribed what happened to discrimination or to her ability. Feminist women and women exposed to social equality judged the female victim more positively when she reported discrimination than when she incriminated herself. The reverse pattern of judgement was observed for non-feminist women and women exposed to meritocracy values. The importance of values is discussed to improve the image of women claiming sexism.     

An empirical analysis of valence in electoral competition

Spatial models of voting have dominated mathematical political theory since the seminal work of Downs. The Downsian model assumes that each elector votes on the basis of his utility function which depends only on the distance between his preferred policy platform and the ones proposed by candidates. A succession of papers introduces valence issues into the model, i.e., candidates’ characteristics which are independent of the platforms they propose. So far, little is known about which of the existing utility functions used in valence models is the most empirically founded. Using a large survey run prior to the 2007 French presidential election, we evaluate and compare several spatial voting models with valence. Existing models perform poorly in fitting the data. However, strong empirical regularities emerge. This leads us to a new model of valence that we call the intensity valence model. This new model makes sense theoretically and is grounded empirically.     

Toward integrating research on parent–child emotion talk and linguistic theory: A spotlight on parents’ (in)direct communication

Parent–child discussions about emotion are a key socialization influence on children’s socio‐emotional development. Extant research on parent–child discussions about emotion largely focuses on three main types of discourse content: parental elaboration, parental use of emotion labels and explanations, and parental emotion coaching. A new direction involves distinguishing between parents’ direct and indirect communication of discourse content. This distinction may be vital when considering the role of children’s communicative competence in their developing socio‐emotional competence. We integrate literature on (in)direct communication, a concept prominent in linguistics, and emotion socialization. We argue that parental indirect communication can teach children communicative competence in the context of emotion talk. We discuss literature from the developmental and linguistic fields on parents’ teaching of communicative skills, as well as potential cognitive, relational, and emotional functions of indirectness, with communication and its socialization embedded within cultural context. Finally, we suggest new research directions examining the role of parental indirect communication in children’s socio‐emotional development. By integrating developmental and linguistic literatures, we provide a novel approach to the study of parental emotion socialization through parent–child discourse.     

Developing a mestiza consciousness theoretical framework

Abstract

This article offers Gloria Anzaldúa’s mestiza consciousness as an appropriate theorizing frame when analyzing lived experiences and perceptions of contradiction. First, I discuss the main theoretical frameworks used in sociology when examining the experiences of U.S. women of color: Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. Next, I introduce mestiza consciousness as an additional sociologically appropriate framework and discuss how it fits into the tradition of Black Feminist Thought and intersectionality. Finally, I conduct a brief case study in the subdiscipline of the sociology of religion to illustrate mestiza consciousness’ appropriateness as a theoretical frame.     

Memoirs of Gay Militancy: A Methodological Challenge

Biographical and autobiographical material has long been used by sociologists. What are the specific epistemological and methodological challenges of using memoirs of militancy for social movement sociology? This article analyses four memoirs by militants of the gay movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. To understand the validity of memoirs of militancy as sociological sources, it highlights their constructedness as narrative artefacts: as retrospective discourses on an individual's past, memoirs allow for the self-reflexive deployment of their authors' subjectivity. Their narrativeness is a key to understanding how their narrative voice reflects the very agency that animates mobilizations. Memoirs of militancy are thus an invitation for sociologists to turn to literary and rhetorical scholarship for adequate methodological tools.     

Competing for Shelf Space

In recent years, the competition for shelf space has intensified, as more products now compete for a retail space that has remained roughly constant. In this paper, we analyze the dynamics of this competition in a multi‐supplier retail point. Assuming that sales are shelf space dependent, we consider a retailer that optimizes its shelf space allocation among different products based on their sales level and profit margins. In this context, product manufacturers set their wholesale prices so as to obtain larger shelf space allocations but at the same time keep margins as high as possible. We analyze the equilibrium situation in the supply chain, and find that generally the retailer's and the suppliers' incentives are misaligned, resulting in suboptimal retail prices and shelf space allocations. We however find that the inefficiencies induced by suboptimal shelf space allocation decisions are small relative to those induced by suboptimal pricing decisions.     

The Premise and Promise of Citizenship and Civil Society for Renewing Democracies and Empowering Sustainable Communities

State regimes have launched policies to "reinvent" government and "regenerate" communities in peripheral impoverished rural and urban areas to build sustainable communities and reduce poverty. We investigate the impact of policy concepts–the empowerment paradigm, citizenship as citizen participation and inclusion, and associations between the state and civil society–on local areas' success in leveraging dollars to foster sustainable economic and community development in persistently poor rural areas of the U.S. The thirty-three rural sites of the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Communities Initiative of the Clinton-Gore Administration comprise our database. We find that empowering area-based, low-income residents through the election mechanism to choose their representatives on the local sites' governing board is strongly and significantly related to both inclusion and citizen participation. Also, the presence of elected citizens with connections to civil society on the governing body contributes strongly to later success in leveraging dollars.