THE PROBLEM OF TEMPORALITY IN THE WORK OF GEORG SIMMEL

While Georg Simmel's work is predominantly recognized as contributing to the formal analysis of social interaction and temporally is an issue not conceived of as a feature of his work, formal analysis is not incompatible with a temporal approach to the study of social life. This article discusses issues of temporality as they appeared in the work of Georg Simmel by first presenting some general comments about his work and its status within the discipline, as well as some problems present in his writings that contribute to confusion regarding his views on temporality as well as formal sociology itself. Next, his views on temporality as they relate to his dualistic perspective are discussed. This is followed by a discussion of his evolutionary epistemology, which is also relevant to the issue of temporality in his work. In conclusion, the ways in which Simmel's view of temporality could enhance current sociological inquiry are discussed.     

The political economy of urban homicide: assessing the relative impact of gender inequality on sex-specific victimization

This research examines the ways in which the changing political economy of urban areas has contributed differently to the homicide victimization rates of females and males across US cities. Recent research, while relatively limited, has presented disparate results regarding the effect of gender inequality on urban sex-specific victimization. Our work further explores this relationship by taking into account relative gender disparities in income, education, labor market opportunities, and politics in an examination of sex-specific homicide victimization in 1990. Key to this current investigation is the evaluation of feminist and lifestyle arguments that suggest that structural gender inequality has a unique effect on female victimization. Overall, our findings reveal gender inequality to be a significant predictor of both male and female urban homicide. While these findings suggest mixed support for theoretical arguments regarding gender inequality, further analyses reveal significant differences in specific types of gender inequality on victimization patterns across genders. These additional results highlight the need for greater attention toward both methodological and theoretical issues when examining the interconnections between gender, political economy, and violence in research.     

The use of antidepressant medications in substance abuse treatment: the public-private distinction, organizational compatibility, and the environment

Many studies of innovation adoption in health care organizations focus either on organizational characteristics or the institutional environment, but not both. Furthermore, these perspectives are rarely employed simultaneously in both public and private health care organizations. This research considers the public-private distinction, organizational compatibility, and interorganizational referral relationships in the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) by substance abuse treatment organizations. Using data from nationally representative samples of 363 publicly funded and 403 privately funded substance abuse treatment centers, a four-category typology of public and private organizations initially predicted variation in SSRI use. However some differences were no longer significant once organizational and environmental characteristics were added to the statistical model. These data support hypotheses about the associations between organizational characteristics and SSRI use as well as hypotheses regarding the external environment. Future research should continue to integrate both internal and external factors in theoretical explanations of innovation adoption.     

Actualizing the "Democratic Family"? Swedish Policy Rhetoric versus Family Practices

In this article, we examine empirically a key element of individualizationtheory—the democratic family. We do so using the "acidtest" of family policy, and family practice, in Sweden. First,we review the progress of family policy in Sweden since the1960s, which has expressly promoted an agenda of gender equalityand democracy in families, with individual autonomy for bothadults and children as one key element. We then turn to familypractice, looking particularly at negotiation and adult equality,lifelong parenting after separation, and children's autonomy.While Swedish policy makers and shapers seem to have developedthe idea of the democratic family long before the sociologistAnthony Giddens, the results in practice have been more ambivalent.While there has been change, there is more adaptation to pre-existinggender and generational norms.     

The Eudaimonic and Hedonic Components of Happiness: Qualitative and Quantitative Findings

This paper illustrates a new project developed by a cross-country team of researchers, with the aim of studying the hedonic and eudaimonic components of happiness through a mixed method approach combining both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Data were collected from 666 participants in Australia, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and South Africa. A major aim of the study was to examine definitions and experiences of happiness using open-ended questions. Among the components of well-being traditionally associated with the eudaimonic approach, meaning in particular was explored in terms of constituents, relevance, and subjective experience. The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was also administered to quantitatively assess the hedonic dimension of happiness. Results showed that happiness was primarily defined as a condition of psychological balance and harmony. Among the different life domains, family and social relations were prominently associated with happiness and meaningfulness. The quantitative analyses highlighted the relationship between happiness, meaningfulness, and satisfaction with life, as well as the different and complementary contributions of each component to well-being. At the theoretical and methodological levels, findings suggest the importance of jointly investigating happiness and its relationship with other dimensions of well-being, in order to detect differences and synergies among them.     

The raise estimator estimation,inference, and properties

Several methods using different approaches have been developed to remedy the consequences of collinearity. To the best of our knowledge, only the raise estimator proposed by García et al. (2010 García, C.B., García, J., Soto, J. (2010). The raise method: An alternative procedure to estimate the parameters in presence of collinearity. Qual. Quantity 45(2):403–423.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) deals with this problem from a geometric perspective. This article fully develops the raise estimator for a model with two standardized explanatory variables. Inference in the raise estimator is examined, showing that it can be obtained from ordinary least squares methodology. In addition, contrary to what happens in ridge regression, the raise estimator maintains the coefficient of determination value constant. The expression of the variance inflation factor for the raise estimator is also presented. Finally, a comparative study of the raise and ridge estimators is carried out using an example.     

Note on incidence chromatic number of subquartic graphs

An incidence in a graph G is a pair (v, e) where v is a vertex of G and e is an edge of G incident to v. Two incidences (v, e) and (u, f) are adjacent if at least one of the following holds: \((a) v = u, (b) e = f\), or \((c) vu \in \{e,f\}\). An incidence coloring of G is a coloring of its incidences assigning distinct colors to adjacent incidences. In this note we prove that every subquartic graph admits an incidence coloring with at most seven colors.     

Impact of T-ACASI on Survey Measurements of Subjective Phenomena

Numerous studies have shown that audio-computer-assisted self-interviewing (audio-CASI) and telephone audio-CASI (T-ACASI) technologies yield increased reporting of sensitive and stigmatized objective phenomena such as sexual and drug use behaviors. Little attention has been given, however, to the impact of these technologies on the measurement of subjective phenomena (attitudes, opinions, feelings, etc.). This article reports results for the seven subjective measurements included in the National STD and Behavior Measurement Experiment (NSBME). NSBME drew probability samples of USA and Baltimore adults (Ns = 1,543 and 744, respectively) and randomized these respondents to be interviewed by T-ACASI or telephone interviewer-administered questioning (T-IAQ). Response distributions for all subjective measurements obtained by T-ACASI diverge from those obtained by human telephone interviewers. For six of our seven ordinal-scaled measurements, this divergence involved shifting responses directionally along the ordinal scale, as opposed to a nondirectional redistribution among response categories. When interviewed by T-ACASI, respondents were more supportive of traditional gender roles and corporal punishment, less supportive of integrated neighborhoods and same-gender sex, and more likely to agree that occasional marijuana use is harmless and to describe themselves as attractive. The majority of these results suggest that telephone survey respondents may provide more "tolerant" and "socially liberal" responses to human interviewers than to a T-ACASI computer. Similarly, although the evidence is not entirely consistent, the impact of T-ACASI appears to increase with the social vulnerability of the population surveyed.