Granite and green: thinking beyond surface in place studies

Through their dense range of empirical sortings, Kaufman and Kaliner, in this issue of Theory and Society, are effective in showing mechanisms through which places replicate themselves over time, but also in how their cultural and economic profiles can shift. Their work points to the utility of matched comparisons of historical interaction, both symbolic and material, as tool for understanding trajectories of stability and change.     

The rest room and equal opportunity

Encouragement and assistance was provided by Howard Becker, Gayle Binion, and Beth Schneider.     

Media and agenda setting: effects on the public, interest group leaders, policy makers, and policy

Using an experimental design built around a single media event, the authors explored the impact of the media upon the general public, policy makers, interest group leaders, and public policy. The results suggested that the media influenced views about issue importance among the general public and government policy makers. The study suggests, however, that it was not this change in public opinion which led to subsequent policy changes. Instead, policy change resulted from collaboration between journalists and government staff members.     

Goodness‐of‐Fit Tests for Bivariate and Multivariate Skew‐Normal Distributions

Abstract. Goodness‐of‐fit tests are proposed for the skew‐normal law in arbitrary dimension. In the bivariate case the proposed tests utilize the fact that the moment‐generating function of the skew‐normal variable is quite simple and satisfies a partial differential equation of the first order. This differential equation is estimated from the sample and the test statistic is constructed as an L ₂ ‐type distance measure incorporating this estimate. Extension of the procedure to dimension greater than two is suggested whereas an effective bootstrap procedure is used to study the behaviour of the new method with real and simulated data.     

Oil in Santa Barbara and Power in America*

The eruption of oil in Santa Barbara Channel has led to important revelations regarding the nature of power in America: who has it–and more importantly, how it is exercised such that existing societal institutions function to undermine dissent and minimize the opportunities for authentic change. The response of local aggrieved citizens to the system thus operating provides additional evidence that the development of radical left perspectives is induced by objective conditions of the American social system. The implications of “accidents” and different forms of “events” for the study of power are discussed.