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- Volume 11, 1985
Annual Review of Sociology - Volume 11, 1985
Volume 11, 1985
- Preface
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- Review Articles
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White Collar Crime
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 1–25More LessOnly banal generalizations are possible in answer to questions of who engages in white collar crime and why. Doubt is cast on the common assertion that firms in financial difficulty are more likely to offend than profitable ones. Qualitative studies of how white collar offenses are perpetrated and how regulatory agencies seek to control offenses constitute the most illuminating part of the literature. This literature depicts consistent pressure for blame for white collar crime to be passed downwards in the class structure, widespread use of international law evasion strategies, and a preference of control agencies for informal, “direct action” modes of social control over litigious regulation. The thesis that the latter reflects “capture” by ruling class interests is critically examined. It is contended that community attitudes toward white collar crime have become increasingly punitive. The review concludes that theoretical progress is most likely via organization theory paradigms, but that partition of white collar crime into “corporate (or organizational) crime” and “occupational crime” is necessary to facilitate such progress.
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Effects of Sibling Number on Child Outcome
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 27–47More LessThis article reviews studies concerning the impact of sibling number on a selected series of outcomes including IQ, educational attainment, status of current job, and current earnings, Sibling number is a variable over time and cannot be properly measured unless data are available on the number and timing of all births and the age at which each child in the family ceases to be dependent. Unfortunately, existing research is too much based on secondary analysis of data sets for which all of the requisite information is not available. Controversies surround the question whether there is a causal impact of sibling number on IQ and, if so, how it can be explained; these are reviewed in detail. Research on the impact of sibling number on the other three dependent variables is reviewed, particularly where it contributes to our knowledge of the impact on educational attainment net of IQ, on job status net of education attainment, and on current earnings net of job status. It is concluded that decisions on the number and spacing of children are among the most important decisions parents can make. Therefore the large amounts of funds needed for data collection will be funds well spent.
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The Organizational Structure of the School
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 49–73More LessThe sociology of school organization is today fragmented by a bewildering variety of theoretical perspectives—interactionist, neo-Durkheimian, phenomenological, to name a few. Central to the development in this field over the past decade has been the rejection of the ideal-type of bureaucratic organization as formulated by Weber and the attempt to locate formal structures of the school within the strategies and motives of teachers, pupils, and administrators. The result has often been, however, a certain loss of theoretical focus and a failure to think through the contradictions of particular perspectives and to formulate their partial insights into more rigorous and embracing conclusions. The ascendant model of school structure is now that of the loosely coupled system, in which technologies are uncertain, goals unclear, and the formal structures of which tend towards anarchy. This model contrasts markedly with other dominant perspectives, notably those in the structuralist tradition (e.g. Bernstein, Foucault) that describe school organization in terms of a close theoretical relationship between pedagogy, ideology, and the apparatus of control and surveillance. This review explicates these tensions and contradictions in contemporary accounts of school structure and suggests ways in which they may be reconciled.
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The Impact of School Desegregation: A Situational Analysis
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 75–91More LessThe effects of school desegregation will become clearer as we develop a more comprehensive awareness of variability in the desegregation “situation.” In this paper, we distinguish three dimensions of a situational analysis: macro/micro, objective/subjective, and proximal/distal. We use these dimensions to evaluate the research on students' academic achievement, self-esteem, and intergroup relations, identifying points along each dimension where research seems well advanced and points where more research is needed.
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Sociology of Mass Communication
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 93–111More LessMass communication has always been an object of interdisciplinary study, but it is currently gaining a greater degree of autonomy. The paradigm that is emerging has probably been more influenced by sociology than by any other discipline. This review deals with literature, mainly published during the last five years, chosen according to the significance or representativeness of the main themes. Among thesc is media theory, where the field has proved very sensitive to wider debates within the social sciences, especially those provoked by the advocacy of more critical theory and research and by attacks on positivism. The cultural studies approach has gained ground, and there has been more interchange between humanistic and scientific approaches. The question of media power has remained very much at the center of debate. The critical-cultural developments mentioned have made some contribution to a reconceptualization of the problem and to the adoption of new research strategies that pay more attention to long-term, institutional effects of media. The range of social issues associated with the study of mass communication has widened, with special attention given to questions of women in society, international communication, and the social consequences of new information technology.
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Ethnicity
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 151–180More LessThe near universality of multiethnicity in contemporary states, the persistence—culturally and structurally—of the ethnic factor, contradicting modernization and Marxist theories, and the strong public interest in ethnic phenomena have stimulated a great deal of research in sociology and other social sciences. This review examines the wide diversity of definitions and interpretations in that research. The demography of ethnic groups, the sources of ethnic survival and revival (primordial attachments, political and economic interests, and estrangement from the larger society), and the major themes in the literature on ethnicity are examined. Three themes are emphasized: 1) the relationship of ethnicity to social stratification and discrimination-in particular with reference to internal colonialism, split labor markets, and resource mobilization; 2) ethnicity as culture, illustrated by reference to studies of family and religion; and 3) the connections between ethnicity and politics in developing states, in developed states, and in the armed forces and police of many societies.
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The Petite Bourgeoisie in Late Capitalism
F. Bechhofer, and B. ElliottVol. 11 (1985), pp. 181–207More LessOver the past decade or so social scientists and policy makers have grown increasingly interested in the role of the petite bourgeoisie in capitalist societies. The paper begins by sketching the major sociological approaches to the study of this stratum and the diverse characteristics of and propositions put forth about the fortunes of the petite bourgeoisie.
The second section draws together evidence from several western societies in an attempt to appraise arguments about the alleged archaism, the long run decline, or the possible regeneration of the small business sector of western economies.
The economic significance of the petite bourgeoisie is assessed with respect to information about the capacity of the stratum to provide employment, to generate new jobs, and to stimulate innovation. The small business sector also has considerable political significance. Though its role in the political life of particular societies shows considerable variation it is everywhere an important repository of ideas and sentiments supportive of capitalism and the institutions of liberal democracy. This is a fact which contemporary right wing governments have been quick to recognize. The petite bourgeoisie is a socially distinctive and persistent element in capitalist societies. Factors that do much to account for its reproduction include the effects of recession, processes of technical change, and government policies that support and encourage smallseale entrepreneurial activity. The paper concludes by arguing that even in economies dominated by large corporations, petits bourgeois businesses continue to provide jobs for a substantial proportion of the population and the most personal and direct experience of capitalism for many citizens.
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Social Problems Theory: The Constructionist View
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 209–229More LessThis paper reviews and critiques the origin and development of a new specialty in sociology, the sociology of social problems. While social problems long has been a topic of sociological attention, it is only since the work of Blumer and, most especially, Spector & Kitsuse in the early 1970s, that a theoretically integrated and empirically viable tradition of writing and research has developed. The central proposition of this tradition is that social problems are the definitional activities of people around conditions and conduct they find troublesome, including others' definitional activities. In short, social problems are socially constructed, both in terms of the particular acts and interactions problem participants pursue, and in terms of the process of such activities through time. The founding theoretical statements are reviewed and the research is discussed in terms of the following categories: containing trouble and avoiding problems; the creation, ownership, and processing of problems; public regulatory bureaucracies and legal institutions; medicalizing problems and troubles; and social problems and the media. The paper closes with an overview of problems and insights of the perspective. There is a bibliography of 105 items.
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Urban Poverty
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 231–258More LessThis chapter is a state of the art review of the research and theoretical writing on urban poverty. We reveal that there has been an ebb and flow in the study of urban poverty in America. The social reform movement of early twentieth century, responding to the dislocation that accompanied rapid industrialization, prompted a number of descriptive and muckraking studies of poverty in urban areas. At roughly the same time, sociologists at the University of Chicago conducted a prodigious volume of research on urban life, including a number of ethnographic studies on poverty that were far more analytical and systematic than those of the social reformers. However, by the late 1930s scholarly research on urban poverty was on the wane, only to be revived again in the 1960s following the rediscovery of poverty and the emergence of the Great Society program.
We point out that the subject of urban poverty and the structure of the family has drawn considerable attention from researchers since the mid-1960s and has helped to raise the level of national interest in the problems of the inner city and the crystallization of a sizable ghetto underclass. It is emphasized, however, that with the emergence of longitudinal data sets many assumptions about the intergenerational transmission of poverty and persistent poverty in the inner city have been challenged. We furthermore maintain that research on urban poverty and migration has raised questions and generated new insights on the contribution of the urban migrant to the current problems of innercity poverty and social dislocations; and that several recent studies, possibly representing a trend in urban poverty research, have provided significant insights on the relationship between poverty and welfare dependency. However, we point out that since the results of the public policy research are so mixed, it would be risky to draw policy recommendations from them. On the other hand, the most recent studies of the effects of the Reagan budget cuts (the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981) on the working poor are clear and consistent: they reveal the nature of the federal government's dramatic retreat from the Great Society programs of the 1960s.
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The Nonmetropolitan Population Turnaround
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 259–280More LessOver the 1970-1980 period, US nonmetropolitan areas grew more rapidly than previously, achieving overall a faster growth rate than metropolitan areas, with more migrants going from metropolitan to nonmetropolitan areas than in the opposite direction. This paper reviews the literature that has emerged in seeking to understand this new trend, which was contrary to expectations and became known as the nonmetropolitan turnaround. Work includes macroanalyses of changes in nonmetropolitan settlement structure, changes in the distribution of employment, migration streams and differentials, as well as research on residential preferences and migration decision making. This is a new trend in terms of population distribution processes, although evidence that it reflects a greater importance of noneconomic factors in migration is mixed. Nonmetropolitan growth slowed in the latter part of the 1970s and overall the turnaround reversed in the early 1980s, but a return to a generally concentrating settlement pattern appears unlikely. The amount of research accomplished over a short span of time as a consequence of the turnaround is noteworthy, and the findings have contributed to increased understanding of US population change.
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New Black-White Patterns: How Best to Conceptualize Them?
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 329–346More LessBlack-white relations have changed sharply in recent years. But no overarching sociological perspective has emerged to explain these changes. Many ideas with contrasting conceptualizations have been advanced, however. This chapter uncovers empirical agreements across these rival theoretical positions. At the structural level, race and class studies appear to converge on an interactional position—one that emphasizes the importance of both race and class factors as well as their interactions. A parallel convergence is emerging at the social psychological level. Though increasingly ambivalent and indirect, racist attitudes remain important; but racism must now be placed in a wider context of subjective self-interest, stratification beliefs, and cognitive bias. Hence, the causal complexity and indirectness of modern race relations are repeatedly shown in current research at both the macro- and microlevels. Closer attention to this emerging empirical convergence would further the needed theoretical convergence. The chapter closes with calls for more attention to black American responses and to the links between the macro- and microlevels of analysis.
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Family Violence
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 347–367More LessThis chapter reviews research on family violence. Once viewed as rare and confined to a few mentally ill offenders, family violence has rapidly captured public and social scientific attention. The review examines the “discovery” of family violence as a social and sociological problem. Among the major problems that confront students of family violence are defining, both nominally and operationally, child abuse, wife abuse, and violence. Access to cases, sampling, and measurement of violence are additional issues that are reviewed. Research on family violence is described with a specific focus on the extent of the various forms of family violence and the factors associated with violence in the home. Seven theoretical models that have been developed to analyze the specific issue of family violence are briefly reviewed. The chapter concludes by covering new issues in the field of family violence, including research on the responses of victims of wife abuse, studies of the consequences of child abuse, and evaluation studies of prevention and treatment programs.
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The Political Attitudes of Professionals
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 389–414More LessIn the 1960s and 1970s, political events and polling data indicated a significant rise in liberal and dissenting political attitudes among American professionals. These data seem to run counter to the historically typical connection between social privilege and conservative politics. The major purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive portrait of the politics of professionals since 1960, through a review of American survey research. Business executives and nonprofessional workers are used as the principal comparison categories. Professionals are conservative on most economic policy issues and on commitments to American “core values.” Like business executives, they are comparatively liberal on civil rights and civil liberties issues. Like nonprofessional workers, they are comparatively liberal on welfare state and business support issues. They are more liberal than either business executives or nonprofessional workers on personal morality and military force issues. Within the professional stratum, important lines of political cleavage exist by occupational category, cohort, and type of employing organization. The anomaly of relatively high levels of liberalism in this high status group is explained with reference to two factors: (1) The rise and fall of issue-based political coalitions; and (2) cumulative changes in the occupational and class structure.
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Social Control of Occupations and Work
Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 415–436More LessThree largely separate literatures—on organizations, on professions, and on manual and clerical work settings—have treated the social control of work. From these writings we identify five modes of control over work: simple, technical, bureaucratic, occupational, and worker self-control. We discuss findings on conditions that underlie the occurrence of different controls. Contingency and resource dependence organization theories help explain the degree of bureaucratic control and the power of work groups within organizations. Literature on occupations and work groups suggests four categories of variables related to modes of control. These pertain to (a) the nature of tasks, particularly their degree of uncertainty, (b) relations between segments of occupation, (c) how an occupation fits into a division of labor, and (d) relations of an occupation to elements of its environment such as clients, markets, or government. Findings on professionals and those on lower-status workers are often similar although stated differently. Some findings of the sociology of work are subsumable under theories about organizations.
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Previous Volumes
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Volume 49 (2023)
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Volume 48 (2022)
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Volume 47 (2021)
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Volume 46 (2020)
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Volume 45 (2019)
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Volume 44 (2018)
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Volume 43 (2017)
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Volume 42 (2016)
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Volume 41 (2015)
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Volume 40 (2014)
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Volume 39 (2013)
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Volume 38 (2012)
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Volume 37 (2011)
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Volume 36 (2010)
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Volume 35 (2009)
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Volume 34 (2008)
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Volume 33 (2007)
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Volume 32 (2006)
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Volume 31 (2005)
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Volume 30 (2004)
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Volume 29 (2003)
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Volume 28 (2002)
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Volume 27 (2001)
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Volume 26 (2000)
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Volume 25 (1999)
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Volume 24 (1998)
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Volume 23 (1997)
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Volume 22 (1996)
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Volume 21 (1995)
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Volume 20 (1994)
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Volume 19 (1993)
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Volume 18 (1992)
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Volume 17 (1991)
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Volume 16 (1990)
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Volume 15 (1989)
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Volume 14 (1988)
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Volume 13 (1987)
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Volume 12 (1986)
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Volume 11 (1985)
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Volume 10 (1984)
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Volume 9 (1983)
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Volume 8 (1982)
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Volume 7 (1981)
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Volume 6 (1980)
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Volume 5 (1979)
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Volume 4 (1978)
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Volume 3 (1977)
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Volume 2 (1976)
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Volume 1 (1975)
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Volume 0 (1932)