The Culture of Sports

In conversation with Orlando Patterson, the editors of this special issue reflected and speculated on the nature of the historical sociologist's task and challenge. We agreed that any historical sociology concentrated upon particular events or single sports, but overlooking comparative cultural and social contexts, was narrow and over-focused. Recalling early contributions, Patterson notes how in cricket in the Caribbean there could be found an “intense distillation of every kind of problem and emotional baggage” carried by a society at a particular socio-historical moment. Patterson advocates the dual focus upon time/place and socio-cultural historical influence that is at the heart of the historical sociologist's enterprise; and that shows how cricket, for instance, is both constituted by the legacies of a specific historical past, and constituting of a potentially different future.     

INTERVIEWER GENDER AND GENDER ATTITUDES

This research addresses the effects of interviewer gender onresponses to a broad array of gender-related survey questions,using data from a probability sample of adults in the UnitedStates. We focus on whether gender-of-interviewer effects areevident, whether they vary by respondent gender, and whetherthey vary across several attitudinal domains relevant to genderinequality. While many items do not show statistically significantgender-of-interviewer effects, we document significant effectsacross a variety of items. When such effects are evident, theytend to involve both male and female respondents expressingmore egalitarian gender-related attitudes or greater criticismof existing gender inequalities to female interviewers. Malerespondents offer significantly different responses to maleand female interviewers on questions dealing with gender inequalityin employment. For female respondents, interviewer-gender effectsare evident for items addressing gender-related collective action,policy, and group interests. Using multivariate models thatallow us to represent both respondent-level and interviewer-levelvariables, we find that interviewer-gender effects are statisticallysignificant in most attitudinal domains but that the interactionbetween interviewer gender and respondent gender does not tendto be statistically significant. We consider the implicationsof these findings both for understanding the survey processand for understanding gender relations more generally.     

TRANSFERS TO THE POOR AND LONG RUN SAVINGS

This paper examines the sensitivity of long run capital accumulation to income redistribution to the poor. I address this question using a simulation model composed of two classes of life cycle consumers, rich and poor, whose economic lives have fifty-five periods. The poor hue a higher marginal propensity to consume than the rich because they possess a higher rate of time preference and for because they are liquidity constrained. Considering a wide range of parameter values, I find that lump sum, intergenerational redistribution from rich to poor causes minimal reduction in long run life cycle savings.