Race,Roll‐Off,and Racial Transition: The Influence of Political Change on Racial Group Voter Roll‐Off in Urban Elections*

Objectives. Many cities in the United States have undergone or are undergoing racial transition from a majority white to a majority black population. Accompanying this is a change in the racial makeup of elections and officeholders. This article seeks to explain racial patterns in voter roll‐off as a city undergoes racial transition. Methods. Using a fixed‐effects regression model, we analyze the level of voter roll‐off (from the top‐of‐the‐ballot mayoral contest) among black and white voters across Memphis City Council elections, from 1967 through 2003. Results. The level of voter roll‐off among racial groups is sensitive to the racial aspect of political change. Black voters are most likely to continue to vote in council contests when there is a racial choice among candidates, when blacks have previously been elected, and when blacks occupy the mayoralty and a majority of council seats. Whites are most likely to vote in racially competitive council contests, as well as when there are a large number of white candidates, and when whites hold a majority of the council seats. Conclusions. In settings such as Memphis, where race has played a pronounced historic role, the racial context of political empowerment has a strong influence on electoral participation. Elections below the top‐of‐the‐ballot become more salient, and political efficacy grows among racial group members when that cohort occupies institutional positions, particularly the majority of positions in a governing institution.     

Enhancing the Career Planning Self-Determination of Young Adults with Mental Health Challenges

The impact of an intervention on the self-determination and career planning engagement of young adults with mental health challenges was studied. Sixty-seven young adults, 20 to 30 years of age, with mental health diagnoses (e.g., depression, bipolar disorder) were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Statistically significant greater increases were made by the intervention group versus the control group for self-determination and career planning engagement, and self-determination at least partially mediated increases in career planning engagement. With career planning self-determination interventions, young adults with mental health challenges might be able to achieve better career and life outcomes than is typical for this population.     

The role of standards in the policy debate on the EU-US trade agreement

In the context of the public policy debate, we explore firm-level characteristics that influence firms’ preferences related to alternatives to harmonize standards within the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The options are the implementation of common standards, developed internationally or bilaterally, and mutual recognition. The empirical analysis is based on data from the German Standardization Panel. We identify three dimensions that determine firms’ preferences regarding the various harmonization solutions: (1) company-specific factors, such as size, industry and motives to apply standards, (2) the competitive environment, i.e. the position vis-à-vis other market participants, and (3) the technological environment, i.e. the dynamics of the market the company operates in.     

Psychometric and Rationalization Accounts of the Religion-Forgiveness Discrepancy

World events and psychological research often fail to support a relationship between religion and forgiveness. We suggest that the gap between general religious support of forgiveness and actual forgiveness by religious individuals (the religion-forgiveness discrepancy) described by McCullough and Worthington (1999) may be partly due to methodological shortcomings. We present three studies with 452 undergraduate participants to illustrate how psychometric weaknesses can obscure the relationship between religiousness and transgression-specific forgiveness. We also propose a rationalization explanation that describes how religion might justify unforgiveness. We present a pilot study of 38 undergraduate participants that demonstrates correlations between retributive and compassionate religious beliefs, and transgression-specific forgiveness. We discuss future research directions addressing the religion-forgiveness discrepancy on psychometric and theoretical levels.     

Hostile Worlds or Connected Lives? Research on the Interplay Between Intimacy and Economy

Economic sociologists have devoted most of their attention to the activities of individuals and firms in markets. However, recent attempts have pushed for a better understanding of the relationship between intimacy and economy. Such efforts have been inspired, in large part, by Viviana Zelizer (2000, 2005). In her inquiry on the purchase of intimacy, Zelizer proposed seminal differentiations between the “hostile worlds,” “nothing but,” and “connected lives” perspectives, and advanced a cultural relational analysis of the economy. In this essay, we review research that applies Zelizer's framework, and suggest substantive and analytical avenues for future research on economy/intimacy nexus.     

Logistics labor: Insights from the sociologies of globalization,the economy,and work

This article identifies the origins of the rise of the logistics industry to highlight the powerful structural position that this endows on the industry and its workers. I begin by analyzing an often‐neglected aspect of globalization by describing the logistics, or goods movement industry, and identifying the role that the “logistics revolution” plays within the contemporary capitalist system. Then, synthesizing insights from global, economic, and labor sociology, I argue that the structural “brokerage” position of logistics workers in the global economy offers them key advantages on which labor and political movements might capitalize in struggles for economic justice and worker rights. I examine empirical research regarding labor organizing within logistics to determine if workers leverage this powerful position into concrete gains. Finally, I argue that more attention needs to be paid to how logistics workers recognize, articulate, and utilize their potentially powerful position in globalization flows. Future research should endeavor to understand how this can be achieved among wide groups of logistics workers to achieve the most success in labor and political movements.     

The Topology of Central Counterparty Clearing Networks and Network Stability

□ This paper derives a measure of central counterparty (CCP) clearing-network risk that is based on the probability that the maximum exposure (the N-th order statistic) of a CCP to an individual general clearing member is large. Our analytical derivation of this probability uses the theory of Laplace asymptotics, which is related to the large deviations theory of rare events. The theory of Laplace asymptotics is an area of applied probability that studies the exponential decay rate of certain probabilities and is often used in the analysis of the tails of probability distributions. We show that the maximum-exposure probability depends on the topology, or structure, of the clearing network. We also derive a CCP's Maximum-Exposure-at-Risk, which provides a metric for evaluating the adequacy of the CCP's and general clearing members’ loss-absorbing financial resources during rare but plausible market conditions. Based on our analysis, we provide insight into how clearing-network structure can affect the maximum-exposure risk of a CCP and, thereby, network stability. We show that the rate function (the exponential decay rate) of the maximum-exposure probability is informative and can be used to compare the relative maximum-exposure risks across different network configurations.