The social ecology of skid row

Using a sociocultural ecological model the social structure and ter‐ritoriality of the skid row in a midwestern city was examined. Results suggest that the various groups inhabiting skid row can be hierarchically ordered according to social status and that uses of the territory varies greatly among component groups. Results also support the use of sociocultural ecology as a model for analyzing skid row and probable effects of changes imposed on skid row by urban renewal and redevelopment.     

The dual network structure of organizational problem solving: A case study on open source software development

We reconstruct the dual network structure generated by the association between 72 contributors and 737 software bugs engaged during a full development cycle of the free/open source software project Epiphany. Estimates of structural parameters of Exponential Random Graph Models for two-mode networks reveal the structural logics shaping activities of collaborative problem solving. After controlling for contributor-specific and software bug-specific characteristics, we find that contributors (“problem solvers”) tend to distribute their activity over multiple software bugs. At the same time, however, we find that software bugs (“problems”) tend not to share multiple contributors. This dual tendency toward de-specialization and exclusivity is sustained by specific local network dependencies revealed by our analysis which also suggests possible organizational mechanisms that may be underlying the puzzling macro-structural regularities frequently observed, but rarely explained, in the production of open source software. By combining these mechanisms with the influence of contributors characterized by different levels of involvement in the project, we provide micro-level evidence of structural interdependence between “core” and “peripheral” members identified exclusively on the basis of their individual level of contribution to the project.     

A note on coherent invariant distributions as non-informative priors for exponential and location-scale families

The problem of finding a non-informative prior distribution for a parameter is approached using the notion of context-invariance. This concept is revisited and discussed with the aim of applying it to finding context-invariant non-informative priors for the one-parameter exponential family (suitably redefined) and the location-scale family. Our approach, carried-out in a finitely-additive framework, generally leads to a class of non-informative priors with respect to any given problem. For most common statistical models such a class does not always contain the corresponding Jeffreys' prior, but does contain the so-called ALI prior by Hartigan.     

How Do We Assess How Agentic We Are? A Literature Review of Existing Instruments to Evaluate and Measure Individuals' Agency

Social Indicators Research - The importance and centrality of the construct of agency is wellknown amongst social scientists. Yet, there is still little agreement on how this construct should be...     

Do women have longer conversations? Telephone evidence of gendered communication strategies

We investigate whether there are systematic gender differences in communication behavior by telephone. First, we report a study of anonymized billing records of 3103 subscribers to a large mobile operator in Italy and Greece over 2 years from 2006 to 2008. Faced with identical tariffs, women make fewer calls than men, and their calls last 16% longer controlling for other factors. Secondly, we report a study of some 92,000 person-days of calls to call-center employees of a large consumer services company operator at four sites in Germany. Calls randomly allocated to women last 15% longer than those of men controlling for other factors. There is no evidence, however, that this results in the women being any less effective employees than the men; indeed, in operations involving sales where it is possible to measure productivity by this criterion, female employees make slightly more sales per shift than men. It appears instead to reflect systematic gender differences in communication strategies, though it may reflect also an element of preference by both men and women for speaking to women. The findings of both studies are highly statistically significant and are found across all age groups. The magnitude of gender differences is sensitive to the costs of communication. The results have implications for possible explanations of gender clustering in the labor market.     

Individual determinants of social behavior

By using unique data from the section on social behavior of the Bank of Italy's 2004 Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), the paper studies the individual determinants of several aspects of social behavior: attitudes to cooperating with anonymous others; interest in politics; participation in groups and associations; and propensity to rely on favoritism both in finding a job and in dealing with government red tape. Our findings suggest that these different aspects of social behavior are only weakly correlated to each other and are explained by different individual determinants. We find that older and more educated individuals display a greater willingness to cooperate, a stronger interest in politics, and more intense association activity. By contrast, the likelihood of relying on favoritism does not depend on age and education. We also find that home-ownership is associated with good social conduct, while urban residence has mostly a negative impact on public behavior. Finally, having left-wing political opinions increases the interest in politics, while it does not affect the other aspects of social behavior.     

Rust in the Wheatbelt: The Social Impacts of Industrial Decline in a Rural Kansas Community

While most sociologists now recognize the importance of urban industrial problems, there is less awareness of the causes and social significance of nonmetropolitan manufacturing decline. By means of structured and informal interviews, nonparticipant observations, and analysis of public documents, a case study was conducted to evaluate the economic and social "community impacts" of industrial restructuring in a nonurban community. Eight negative consequences of manufacturing decline were identified. The study generated information inconsistent with two prevailing explanations for recent rural industrial troubles in the United States: the underskilled production labor theory, and the deficient physical infrastructure thesis. Case evidence suggested that capital flight, economic and political network powerlessness, and managerial competency deficits may be significant causes of rural manufacturing decline. Given the significance of manufacturing for rural areas, more cogent, multidisciplinary explanations for nonurban industrial shifts need to be developed.     

Voluntas: an editorial statement

Helmut Anheier is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA     

Soziale Schichtung Und Delinquenz

The frequently posited relationship between social class and criminal behaviour is dubious in theory and lacking empirical evidence. Based upon the economic theory of crime by Gary S. Becker we present an extended model which integrates the effects of the individuals’ class position on their subjective evaluations of costs, utility, and the probability of being caught. Additionally, we take into account selective incentives (social opportunities) and the internalization of social norms concerning conformity (framing of the social situation) depending on social class. We test the model for two offences: shop-lifting and tax-evasion. The source of data is the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) for the years 1990 and 2000. The empirical results support the theoretical model. There is no general relationship between the individuals’ social status and their incentives for criminal behaviour. However, the types of offences committed are affected by the social status. Subjective expected probability of failure or success is more important than fear of punishment or the expected utility. Internalized norms decrease the probability of committing a crime.