The Sociology of Death

The understanding of death, dying and bereavement in relation to society is indebted to a number of disciplines – anthropology, history, psychology and sociology are surveyed. Theories and methods used by sociologists of death, dying and bereavement are briefly outlined, followed by a number of key debates and challenges: denial, taboo and sequestration; death and the media; how to integrate scholarship in collective memory and Holocaust studies; theorising contemporary rites of passage; the lack of comparative research; and the need to focus on the meaning and organisation of death for those who encounter it most directly; namely, the poor, displaced and elderly. A brief discussion of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching is followed by the conclusion that any promise of a general sociology conducted in the light of mortality has been eclipsed by yet another specialism, the sociology of death.     

Toward a capabilities perspective of the small firm

This paper attempts to explain the competitive advantages of the small firm in the capabilities perspective. It begins by identifying the kinds of strategic assets possessed by small firms. It argues that entrepreneurship and a simple capital structure are the sources of dynamism for small firms. The relationship between the small firm's resources and its capabilities are then critically examined. In particular, the analysis focuses on the influences of strategic assets on the organizational flexibility – a significant source of competitive advantage enjoyed by small firms. The competitive attributes of small firms are further discussed in terms of firm's internal and external capabilities. Finally, the relationship between the small firm's capabilities and the choice of technology strategies is examined.     

Trust and Risk Communication in High-Risk Organizations: A Test of Principles from Social Risk Research

This study explored the effects of open communication about occupational risks on workers' trust beliefs and trust intentions toward risk management, and the resilience of these beliefs and intentions to further risk information. An experimental survey of 393 student nurses showed the importance of open communication in the development of worker trust in risk management. Consistent with the trust asymmetry principle, we found that the increase in trust beliefs following open communication was weaker than the reduction in trust following a lack of communication. Further, the level of trust developed through communication (or lack of) influenced the way that subsequent risk information was processed. Negative risk information reduced trust beliefs in nurses with already low levels of trust while positive risk information increased trust beliefs only in those with already high levels. A similar pattern of results emerged for nurses' trust intentions, although the magnitude of these effects was weaker. The implications of these findings for occupational risk management are discussed.     

A review of generalization methods used in empirical social work literature

This article reviews methods currently used for generalization of findings, based on a review of a representative sample of empirical research studies drawn from three major social work research journals: Social Work Research , Journal of Social Service Research , and Research on Social Work Practice , over a 10-year period (1996–2005). Findings revealed a greater discussion of generalizability limitations in comparison with the past, and other types of generalization methods such as conceptual generalizations and qualitative comparisons of study results with those of other studies. Relatively low usage of quantitative comparisons of sample to population and replication procedures was detected. Implications of these trends are discussed and approaches for improvements are explored.     

Preliminary Goodness-of-Fit Tests for Normality do not Validate the One-Sample Student t

One of the most basic topics in many introductory statistical methods texts is inference for a population mean, μ. The primary tool for confidence intervals and tests is the Student t sampling distribution. Although the derivation requires independent identically distributed normal random variables with constant variance, σ², most authors reassure the readers about some robustness to the normality and constant variance assumptions. Some point out that if one is concerned about assumptions, one may statistically test these prior to reliance on the Student t. Most software packages provide optional test results for both (a) the Gaussian assumption and (b) homogeneity of variance. Many textbooks advise only informal graphical assessments, such as certain scatterplots for independence, others for constant variance, and normal quantile–quantile plots for the adequacy of the Gaussian model. We concur with this recommendation. As convincing evidence against formal tests of (a), such as the Shapiro–Wilk, we offer a simulation study of the tails of the resulting conditional sampling distributions of the Studentized mean. We analyze the results of systematically screening all samples from normal, uniform, exponential, and Cauchy populations. This pretest does not correct the erroneous significance levels and makes matters worse for the exponential. In practice, we conclude that graphical diagnostics are better than a formal pretest. Furthermore, rank or permutation methods are recommended for exact validity in the symmetric case.     

Comparative modeling approaches for understanding urban violence

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of three different modeling approaches for exploring structural theories of violence. Specifically, ordinary least squares regression, geographically weighted regression and data envelopment analysis will be utilized to evaluate violent crime. This type of analysis expands upon traditional theory testing by deepening our understanding of differences in crime generation and its underlying demographic and socio-economic stimuli via different methodological lenses. A case study for the city of Cincinnati, Ohio is presented and the results suggest that a combination of approaches is likely the best strategy for evaluating violence in urban areas.     

Peakedness for weighted sums of symmetric random variables

In this paper, we provide sufficient conditions on weighted coefficients under which the peakedness comparison between weighted sums of independent random variables can be carried out. These results extend and enrich the existing peakedness results in the literature including those presented by Proschan (1965) and Ma (1998).     

Positive youth development initiatives in Chicago

Chicago has put in place a number of interwoven structures supporting young people during out-of-school hours, emphasizing alignment between community-based organizations and public entities.     

Unequal at the starting line: Creating participatory inequalities across generations and among groups

We investigate how inequalities in political participation are shaped across generations by considering the influence of family background-in particular, parents' education and political involvement-on political participation. We pursue this issue, first, for individuals, investigating the effects of parental characteristics on the participatory profile of their offspring. Then, we use what we have learned to understand how group differences in political participation-between women and men and among Latinos, African Americans, and Anglo Whites-are rooted in the legacy of class and political background and in experiences throughout the life cycle. They are co-authors of The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001) which was the co-writer of the Victoria Schuck Award of the American Political Science Association for the best book on gender and politics of its year.