Separate worlds: gender and domestic labour in an isolated fishing region

Dans cette communication, les auteurs présentent les données de leur étude des rapports entre le sexe et la division du travail chez les hommes et les femmes mariés de la péninsule Great Northern, une région isolée de Terre-Neuve où l'on vit de la pêche à la périphérie du capitalisme avancé. L'étude visait à déterminer dans quelle mesure la reproduction des ménages est structurée en fonction du sexe en analysant de manière détaillée les travaux domestiques non rémunérés des hommes et des femmes mariés. Les auteurs démontrent que les hommes et les femmes mariés ne participent pas du tout de la même façon à la construction des maisons et à d'autres activités de subsistence des ménages. La responsibilité qu'assument les hommes pour les travaux domestiques demeure à peu près la même, qu'il y ait ou non des enfants à la maison ou que leur femme ait ou non un emploi à l'extérieur du foyer. Contrairement à certaines autres analyses effectuées en milieu rural à Terre-Neuve, cette étude semble indiquer que les changements culturels et économiques plus globaux qui s'opèrent dans la péninsule n'ont pas fondamentalement modifié la division sexuelle du travail typique de l'organisation traditionnelle des ménages. This paper reports our findings on the interconnection of gender and work among married men and women on the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, an isolated, fishing region dependent on primary production on the periphery of advanced capitalism. We explore the extent to which household reproduction is structured by gender through detailed analysis of the unpaid domestic labour activities of married men and women. We demonstrate that married men and women participate in dramatically different ways in house construction and other household subsistence tasks. We also show that neither the presence of children in the home nor the employment of wives outside the home leads to significant changes in men's responsibility for domestic tasks. In contrast with some other analyses of rural Newfoundland, our research suggests that more macro cultural and economic changes underway in the region have not fundamentally altered the sexual division of labour associated with traditional household organization.     

THE SUPPLY OF INDIVIDUAL HOURS AND LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION UNDER UNCERTAINTY

In the absence of labor supply constraints, this paper shows that an increase in wage-rate uncertainty alters the optimal supply of individual hours but leaves the decision to participate unchanged. In the presence of these constraints, it is shown that if researchers are concerned with obtaining consistent parameter estimates of the labor supply function, then it is important to correctly specify the type of uncertainty faced by workers. Specifically, a mean preserving increase- in wage-rate uncertainty lowers the participation rate, while an increase in non-wage income uncertainty raises participation.     

ELECTORAL CONSEQUENCES OF "WINNING" TELEVISED CAMPAIGN DEBATES

This study explores the long-neglected impact of a candidatebeing perceived as the "winner" of political debates on individualvoting behaviour in West Germany. While there has been muchresearch on the effects of debates on perceptions of candidatepolicy stands and personality atttributes, there has been littlework that attempts to guage how much "winning" the debate helpsa candidate at the polls. I investigate this process with straightforwardprobit models of the vote choice, including party identificationand candiate evaluation as well as whether the individual judgeda particular candidate as the "winner", or "fared best" in thedebate. These models are run for the 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1983elections in West Germany. The results show that there is aconsistent impact of "winning" the debate on individual votingchoices in West Germany; controlling for party and other factors,there is a significantly higher probability of voting for theparty of the politician the respondent feels won the contest.Debates, then, do ultimately make a substabtial electoral difference.     

Changing Patterns in American Voting Behavior, 1914-1980

This paper analyzes voting behavior for President, Senate, andHouse at the state level for the period 1914–80. The majorfinding of this study is that since World War II, there hasbeen a pronounced trend toward "particularization" in votingfor federal offices. This trend consists of more than the erosionof party attachments among the electorate; it also includesthe dissolution of other traditional electoral ties such aspresidential coattails, the midterm congressional swing, andincumbency. As a result of this trend, the vote in federal electionsis largely determined by factors which are unique to the specificsetting in which each election occurs and by the ability ofcandidates to convert these factors to their political advantagethrough mass media campaigns.     

What Do We Do Wednesday? On Beginning the Class as University‐Specific Work: A Preliminary Study*

Je pose la question: «Qu'en est‐il au juste des activités des universités qui en font précisément des universités?» Et je l'aborde ethnométhodologiquement d'une manière préliminaire, en examinant la réalisation interactionnelle de ce qu'est, pour les parties présentes, d'une manière observable et rapportable, le début d'un cours à l'université. Rechercher une réponse à la question, étant donné les renseignements sur cassette audio disponibles, provoque l'utilisation réfléchie par les membres des ressources contextuelles catégorielles, séquentielles et autres rendues disponibles par l'encadrement. Les questions de la signification analytique de la méthode documentaire d'interprétation et de l'abstraction des catégories d'adhésion sont brièvement reprises. I pose the question—just what is university‐specific about the activities of universities?—and address it ethnomethodologically in a preliminary way by examining the interactional accomplishment of what is, for the parties present, observably and reportably the beginning of a class at a university. Pursuing an answer to the question, given the audiotaped data to hand, turns on members' reflexive use of the categorical, sequential, and otherwise contextual resources made available by the setting. The questions of the analytic significance of the documentary method of interpretation and of the abstractness of membership categories are briefly taken up.     

Leveraging symbolic capital: the use of blat networks across transnational spaces

In this article, we contribute to debates on how social networks sustain migrants' entrepreneurial activities. By reporting on 31 interviews with Eastern European migrants in the UK, we provide a critical lens on the tendency to assume that migrants have ready‐made social networks in the host country embedded in co‐ethnic communities. We extend this limited perspective by demonstrating how Eastern European migrants working in the UK transform blat social networks, formulated in the cultural and political contours of Soviet society, in their everyday lived experiences. Our findings highlight not only the monetarization of such networks but also the continuing embedded nature of trust existing within these networks, which cut across transnational spaces. We show how forms of social capital based on Russian language use and legacies of a shared Soviet past, are just as important as the role of ‘co‐ethnics’ and ‘co‐migrants’ in facilitating business development. In doing so, we present a more nuanced understanding of the role that symbolic capital plays in migrant entrepreneurial journeys and its multifaceted nature.