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Fiscal Year 1995 Grants List Research Awards:
Environments, Organizations, and Jobs: The Causes and Consequences of
Workplace Gender Segregation This study examines the causes and consequences of gender segregation in the workplace. It draws on theories in cognitive social psychology, institutional organizational theory, and labor economics to construct hypotheses about the conditions affecting individuals, jobs, organizations, and their environments. Multiple data sources will be examined, including a unique data set made up of class action suits relating to gender discrimination. Statistical models are used to assess the following questions: 1) why the gender composition of jobs varies within and across organizations, 2) the mechanisms through which the gender composition of jobs influence earnings and career advancement, and 3) the relationship among gender, job segregation, and work effort. This research explores the ways organizational structures and processes shape labor market outcomes for men and women. It will search new empirical sources for evidence to contribute to the continuing debate on gender segregation in the workplace. It will also clarify the impact of Equal Opportunity legislation on labor market dynamics.
Collusion in Exchange Networks: An Experimental Study This is a study of collusion in exchange networks. A series of laboratory experiments, using a variety of networks of exchange and communication, will test hypotheses about the positions in social networks most likely to develop coalitions with each other, and the shapes of networks most conducive to coalition formation. This research springs from the theoretical work of Richard Emerson, who proposed that power in exchange networks tends to equalize. Those initially with less power have strategies available to increase their power, among which is the possibility of forming countervailing coalitions. Individuals with less initial power can increase their power by forming a single bargaining unit. The designs of previous experiments have precluded this possibility by preventing non-bargaining subjects from communicating with each other. The present research project suggests a model predicting which positions will form coalitions in exchange networks, and a series of experiments will test the model. The model is an advance over Emerson's in two respects. First, it implies that coalitions may form between weak positions that do not share a common trading partner, and it predicts that coalitions may form between classes of positions that are quite remotely connected in the network. Emerson's model was limited to weak positions that shared a common trading partner. Second, it describes a new incentive for forming coalitions: the reduction of uncertainty in unstable networks. Unlike coalitions of the weak, these are coalitions between exchange partners. This project is fundamental research on the ways that coalitions may affect the power of individuals in social networks of various shapes, and thus it addresses crucial questions in theories of social capital. The work is connected to emerging new theories of latent classes that can be tested in the laboratory and then extended to help explain degrees of inequality in actual communities. The structure of social networks may turn out to be a major factor shaping the rewards individuals receive in social exchanges, quite apart from the effect of their skills or other previously recognized attributes of human capital.
Data Collection for the International Social Survey Program This research is the American part of an ongoing project in 22 countries to collect comparable survey data on key social issues and processes. In the present study, a national sample of adult respondents will be asked their feelings about issues related to natiolal identity and their views of the role of government. Data on national identity will identify some of the subnational and supranational pressures that threaten the viability of states and test hypotheses about factors leading to order and stability. Data on the role of government will provide continuity with earlier studies and will allow the tracking of changes in the attitudes of citizens toward government. Participation in the International Social Survey Program represents an important part of the leadership role that the United States plays in international social science. This research ensures the continuing availability of high quality cross-national data otherwise inaccessible to individual researchers. The data also make an important contribution to teaching by providing graduate students with materials for theses and undergraduates with experience in analyzing data.
Wage Trajectories in Occupations Segregated by Gender and Race This is a study of wage trajectories in sex-segregated and race-segregated jobs, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, with survey waves each year between 1979 and 1994, and information on when workers changed employers. This research assesses whether favorable industrial placement affects wage levels and returns to seniority to the same degree for jobs with all race and sex compositions. The alternative hypothesis is that industrial premiums, in higher wages or steeper wage trajectories, apply primarily to jobs filled largely by white males. If this is true, then the effects of sex and race composition on wages are greater in industries with higher wages. Theories of "new structuralists" posit that high-wage industries and firms also have steeper returns to seniority, because of union-negotiated seniority-based raises or internal labor markets. Yet the claim has never been tested on data with measures of seniority, nor has the possible interaction of such effects with sex and race composition been explored. The present research fills this crucial gap. Scientific contributions of this Human Capital project include assessment of whether: 1) the sex and race composition of jobs affects wage levels, with composition measured for more detailed job categories than in previous research; 2) the sex and race composition of jobs affects wage growth with seniority; 3) higher paying firms also offer steeper wage growth as seniority within an organization accumulates; 4) the sex and race composition of jobs interacts with industry and firm characteristics such that premiums in industries and organizations with higher starting wages and higher returns to seniority accrue primarily to jobs filled by white males; and 5) effects of industry or sex and race composition have diminished or increased in recent years as the economy has restructured. Learning the truth concerning these hypotheses will clarify the extent to which both individuals and the nation suffer from the under-utilization of the skills and abilities of many Americans.
Expected Value Model of Social Exchange This is a theoretical analysis and laboratory study of social exchange, based on an expected value model of social power. In this model a power structure indicates opportunities for exchange relations and a sample space of exchange networks. The approach incorporates a micro-model of bargaining that predicts exchange outcomes in each of these possible exchange networks. When drawing on observed relative frequencies of exchange networks (such as arise during repetitive trials of an experiment), the expected value model currently provides the most accurate account of the distribution of benefits among actors in exchange networks. However, the model does not predict the relative frequency of exchange networks that may arise during the exchange process and, in one instance, it fails to account for the observed distribution of exchange payoffs. The model now has been elaborated to include an account of the incidence of exchange networks, and it addresses the anomalous finding reported in the literature. The present project will assess the elaborated model both analytically and empirically, in comparison with a competing graph-theoretic model, employing a set of networks that have not been previously examined in the literature, for which the two approaches make markedly contrasting predictions. This is fundamental research on exchange, bargaining and power in social networks, an area of research that is rapidly coming to a clear consensus about the mathematical laws that describe a range of important phenomena. Rigorous understanding of the dynamic and structural factors that influence the concentration of social capital in real-world networks of exchange depends upon working out the abstract relationships in theory and laboratory experiments such as conducted in this project.
Family Social Capital and Academic Achievement of Immigrant
Children This is a study of family social capital and academic achievement of immigrant children. Four kinds of family social capital are identified as relevant to child educational outcomes: 1) Networks with members of the extended family, such as grandparents; 2) parent involvement in school, for example attending parent-teacher meetings; 3) immigrant and ethnic culture; 4) parent-child interaction, such as supervising homework and discussing materials learned in class. Theories on how these factors operate to enhance education will be tested using data from NELS:88, a longitudinal survey that collected data on eighth graders in 1988 with two follow-up waves at two-year intervals, including oversamples of Asian and Hispanic students. The analysis will involve three phases. First, cross-sectional analysis of data on eight and twelfth graders will examine the creation and maintenance of family social capital and identify its level effects. Second, longitudinal analysis of academic achievement growth among Asian and Hispanic immigrant students from eighth to twelfth grade will identify the effect of changes in family social capital on achievement growth. Third, the analyses in the first two phases will be extended to compare immigrant results with those for the native-born children. This study will contribute to the advancement of our knowledge about the role of the family in children's academic achievement, by testing the effect of family social capital on the reproduction of human capital in children and comparing the results across immigrant and native-born ethnic groups. It will also provide evidence for designing policies to strengthen the family and school-family connections and help in the allocation of public resources to improve parents' human capital and family social capital.
The Structure of Social and Economic Isolation in Underclass
Populations This is a study of the structure of social and economic isolation in low-income populations. The project investigates three problems; the first two relate to social capital theory, whereas the third is methodological. First, the investigators will examine the micro-level behaviors and social structures relevant to spatial mismatch theory, which concerns the lack of low-skill employment opportunities in the immediate vicinity. Second, the investigators will test the hypothesis that inner-city residents paradoxically rely primarily on strong ties (e.g., close friends, relatives) for day-to-day assistance, but lack the weak ties (friends of friends, acquaintances) which would aid them in such instrumental action as job-finding. Third, the work will explore the efficacy of standard survey data collection methods in an inner-city neighborhood. This will be done through interviews with 600 residents of a poor neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This project will improve our understanding of the social roots of the increasing problems of low-income neighborhoods, including high rates of poverty, unemployment, teenage pregnancy drug use, serious crime, and other indicators of social disorganization. It will examine the linkage of economic isolation (poverty and welfare dependence, loss of economic capital, lack of access to jobs) with social isolation (the isolation of low-income persons from mainstream individuals and institutions, and their inability to gain access to the information, influence, and other job-finding assistance that would allow them to escape poverty). The study will be a major step forward in testing theories about the roots of poverty.
Interorganizational Networks and the Changing Employment Contract This is a study of how work establishments form ties with other organizations in order to recruit and train workers. Using a national sample of work establishments, stratified by size, in a two-wave panel, questions will be asked about how those firms rely on outside organizations for labor contracting and job training. Hypotheses tested deal with the effects of stable organizational environments, tight labor markets, the role of labor unions, and the institutionalization of common practices in labor contracting and job training. By relying on a network perspective to determine how links with recruiting and contracting organizations shape individual firm decisions, this research makes a theoretical contribution that sets it apart from two prevailing views. In one, there is the assumption that labor costs are entirely external to the firm, and thus dependent on market relations. In the other, there is the contrary assumption that labor costs are entirely internal and therefore subject only to hierarchical relations. Instead, these researchers look at interorganizational networks as the basis of change within firms. This research addresses fundamental questions about how changes in the formation of human capital may be taking place when employers establish ties with outside orgaanizations for the recruitmen and training of workers. It will demonstrate how the characteristics of network relations between employers and their sources of labor recruitment and training affect the the employing firms and the opportunities available to their workers. Research findings will have major implications for understanding how cost and quality are affected by these recruitment and training practices.
Structural Determinants of Race-Sex Labor Market Segregation and
Earnings This is a study of structural determinants of race-sex labor market segregation and earnings. It will analyze differences between race and gender groups in their distribution across industrial and occupational segments and in the rewards they received from these positions, using census data from 1980 and 1990. The work has three chief goals. First, it will describe the linkage of rewards and allocation differentials, using an earnings decomposition analysis which explicitly models the impact of the differential distribution of race-sex groups across labor market positions. This structural decomposition measures the extent to which earnings gaps among race-sex groups can be attributed to: (1) group mean differences in characteristics; (2) group differences in returns to characteristics, and (3) group differences in their distributions across work positions that have varying rewards. The second goal is to assess the linkage of allocation and rewards differentials using a causal model of their determinants and their inter-relationship. A two-stage model will be used to test hypotheses drawn from an integration of segmented market theory and race-sex queue theory. Predictors include structural contexts and conditions of work, aspects of sex and race-stereotyped work situations, and the population redistribution of the work force across positions. The third objective is to update and disseminate improved measures of contemporary industrial structure. This project will lead to an improved understanding of how race and gender affect the utilization and financial reward of human capital in the United States. For example, it will help us understand the extent to which the concentration of blacks and women in low-paying jobs affects the average incomes of these groups, in contrast with the underpayment of these groups in the same jobs held by whites and males. In addition, the research will clarify the extent to which both individuals and the nation suffer from the under-utilization of the skills and abilities of many Americans.
Residential Patterns of Minorities in the Metropolis This is a study of residential patterns of minorities in the metropolis. It will examine two important aspects of residential patterns that are only indirectly captured by the traditional use of segregation indices. The first is the geographic configuration of areas of minority group concentration as "ethnic" or "minority" neighborhoods. The second is the determinants of individual locational choices and outcomes. The study will include New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and examine white, blacks, Hispanics and Asians in each region. A more detailed analysis will focus on the major white ethnic groups (such as Italians, Irish, Germans) and on national-origin subgroups among Hispanics (e.g., Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Dominicans), Asians (e.g., Chinese, Koreans), and blacks (treating separately blacks from the larger non-US origin groups such as the English-speaking Caribbeans and Haitians). The project will begin by calculating descriptive measures of the extent of segregation in each area, and then test a variety of hypotheses concerning ethnic concentration, drawn from the more recent sociological theories, including the underclass and the ethnic enclave models. This research will increase our knowledge about the degree to which several ethnic and racial groups are becoming concentrated in certain urban neighborhoods, and it will provide a scientific understanding of the factors that cause such concentration. This is vital information on which to base policy decisions concerning housing, city services, and schooling. In addition, it will contribute to our understanding of the persistent disadvantage suffered by some ethnic groups and neighborhoods.
The Evaluation of Cooperation in Social Dilemmas This study is designed to systematically map the evolution of cooperation in a game where actors can avoid those they do not trust. It departs from a long tradition in game theory, in which studies of the Prisoners' Dilemma rested on the assumption that actors were not free to walk away from undesirable partners. Computer simulations are used to systematically explore the conditions under which actors learn when and with whom to interact, to be later tested in laboratory experiments with human subjects. The computer simulation uses artificial neural networks to model a self-organizing system of interdependent, co-adaptive actors. The results are expected to produce a learning theory model of adaptation to changing conditions, relevant to the individual participant, in contrast to current theories based on the Prisoners' Dilemma, which assume that adaptation occurs through changes at the population level. The proposed research will make fundamental contributions to social theory by offering new insights into the ways individuals learn to handle social dilemmas . It makes comparably innovative methodological contributions through the use of artificial neural networks. These are also used to provide a more realistic construction of social dilemmas that promises to be applicable outside the laboratory.
Social Processes in Exchange Networks This is a study of social processes in exchange networks. It extends a program of theory-based investigations on power and social exchange into other fundamental sociological and social psychological processes: status, distributive justice, and legitimacy. The foundation for this research, Network Exchange Theory has been tested chiefly within a specialized type of experimental exchange setting in which agents linked in networks negotiate over pools of resources under various conditions that govern transactions. This new research will broaden the scope of Network Exchange Theory by developing and testing exchange settings more akin to those found in society. To this end, the researchers will adapt their experimental paradigm to permit valued resources to enter the exchange system at different network locations, and to move through the network as exchanges transpire. Agents in the network thus engage in true exchanges of one type of resource for another, rather than the simpler single-resource pool-divisions of previous experiments. After calibrating the new setting and running tests with different network structures, the researchers will integrate the social processes. Status, distributive justice, and legitimacy are all predicted to have specific, independent effects on resource distribution in exchange networks. These occur through their influence on negotiation tactics and evaluations of exchange outcomes, and are modeled by the theory. This set of experiments is fundamental scientific research on social capital, the capacity to gain resources that an individual may have on the basis of position in a social network and of socially-ascribed status. Thus it is a contribution to the fundamental knowledge base concerning human capital, testing and developing formal models of how factors beyond individual skill and motivation may affect the incomes and careers of individuals.
Selection and Description Bias in Newspaper Coverage of Protest Amidst a
Democratic Transition: The Case of Minsk, Belarus This is an award under the Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER). It is a study of newspaper coverage of public protest during a democratic transition in Belarus. Belarus has begun to allow public demonstrations of protest and the government now issues permits for peaceful demonstrations. The study has the quality of a natural experiment, in which the researchers will be able to obtain data both before and after the permitting system. The study will contribute to theories about the relation among protest, media coverage, and state activity and about the process of democratization. Analysis is based on a systematic review of police records and major newspapers from 1988 to 1995. This research will contribute to a sociological understanding of the efforts to control violent conflict through government permits allowing peaceful demonstrations and of newspaper bias in how such demonstations are reported. An examination of these events in Belarus will demonstrate the conditions that contribute to the development of democratic institutions. In addition to the scientific gains from this research, it will develop scientific ties with researchers in Belarus.
Perceptions of Success and Failure in the Fall of the German
Democratic Republic (GDR) This is a women's research planning grant to prepare a study of perceptions of success and failure in the fall of the German Democratic Republic, that will advance the scientific understanding of processes of democratization. It will support travel by the investigator to the former German Democratic Republic and consultation with German social movement scholars and activists in Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden, three cities central to the civic movement mobilization. Consultations will concern appropriate questions and format for an interview schedule and for a sampling strategy that will address the complexities of the changing composition of the opposition groups in the three cities over the course of 1989-1990, social movement careers of activists selected from these groups before and since that period, and differences in the composition, goals and success perceptions of activists in the three cities. This grant will provide the information necessary for writing an NSF grant proposal to support interviewing in each of the three cities on differences in the opposition movement and the careers of activists. This work is supported under the Research Planning Grant program for women scientists and engineers, and thus among its chief aims are to assist a promising woman social scientist to prepare for a major research project, and to expand the scientific personnel of the United States. The results of this study will be valuable for policy-makers attempting to understand the social process of democratization in formerly totalitarian societies.
Comparative Research on Selection Bias in Media Coverage of Protests and
Demonstrations This study is designed to complete a three-city comparison of selection bias in the coverage of protests and demonstrations. It compares a state capitol in the United States with one in Germany and with the national capitol. The research is tied to theories of social movements and collective action that emphasize the interaction among institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of politics. Those theories give a central place to the role of the mass media in spreading the message of protesting groups and shaping evaluations of their importance. The research systematically examines the ways in which the mass media report demonstrations and protests compared to information about those events from official sources. The proposed research will contribute to theories of democracy that focus on the role of protest in enabling large numbers of people to demonstrate their concerns and to persuade others of the importance of their cause. It will also enlarge theories about the role of the mass media in spreading news about protest and in both encouraging others to take up the cause and to suppress it. There is also an important methodological contribution that will result from its findings about the nature and extent of bias in coverage. These findings will aid researchers who now rely on newspaper reports as their primary source of information on protests and demonstrations without knowing the directions of bias.
Prototype Internet Services for the General Social Survey This is a prototype Internet service for the General Social Survey employing NCSA Mosaic. The project will develop a system to provide enhanced access to survey data, using the General Social Survey for implementation of these integrated services, which will subsequently be extended to a variety of other survey data sets. These services will provide facilities for hypertext viewing and searching of complete survey documentation, customized and documented extracts from data sets, statistical analysis, and File Transfer Protocol delivery of full or extracted data sets. The General Social Survey is an ideal source of survey material to develop the system, because it is a highly diverse large dataset of complex structure, extensively documented in terms of publications based on each item, and has already been the basis of more than three thousand scientific publications and dissertations. The system developed on the General Social Survey will then become the standard not only for providing survey data over Internet, but also for research design and data collection in new surveys. This project is part of the Digital Library Initiative, adding questionnaire survey data to the kinds of information that can be managed effectively over Internet and contributing to the national information infrastructure. Not only is the General Social Survey widely used in scientific research, but it has proven to be an excellent teaching tool at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Survey data are used extensively in government and commerce, so an advanced system for managing and distributing information of this kind will contribute to effective government and economic growth.
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Accomplishment-Based
Renewal This is a project to create unified documentation for individual-level samples of the United States census, covering the years: 1850, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1940, 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990. These microdata have proven to be a valuable resource, since they allow researchers to make tabulations tailored to their specific research questions and to overcome incompatibilities in the published census tabulations. In addition, the public use microdata samples have made it possible for researchers to move beyond simple tabular analysis and apply increasingly sophisticated multivariate techniques. This project will enhance the compatibility of variables over time and incorporate the 1850 and 1920 census years into the data series. The public use microdata samples from United States population censuses are of great value in several fields of social science, permitting a variety of researchers to carry out scientific tests of general theories concerning socio-economic trends, migration patterns, social change, and several other aspects of American life. Proper documentation and comparability of variables and coding across samples will increase the value of the data sets for researchers and educators. Already some of these data and codebooks are available over Internet or the World Wide Web, and they will be an important part of the national information infrastructure
The Gender Division of Family Work Over the Life Course This proposal for a Research Planning Grant is intended to carry out research on how time is defined and used. Results will be used to plan a follow-up study about perceptions of fairness in work allocations and how these may affect life course transitions. It adds to theories about family stability and to generalizations about the demography of the life course by its focus on the importance of the time it takes to fulfill work and family obligations. Existing data sources at both the national and state level are analyzed to expand definitions of time use and the scope of how time use may affect important life course events. Focus group interviews with both men and women will be conducted to explore the meanings that subjects attribute to how they use time, particularly with respect to fairness in the allocation of household responsibilities by gender. The results of the quantitative analysis and the focus group interviews will form the basis for the design of a new study, directly concerned with how beliefs about gender roles are associated with conflict between household partners and how beliefs affect transitions to marriage, cohabitation, or divorce. The prevalence of households where two adults work outside the home, along with the customary demands in running a household, are important for the formation of the family's social capital. Although the division of labor within the household begins with tasks, this research promises new insights into how the family functions by focusing on how much time those tasks take. With time the critical variable, the investigator will be able to move to a consideration of beliefs about fairness in the allocation of tasks, and their relation to interfamilial conflict and familial stability.
Testing and Extending a Dynamic Model for Interaction in Discussion
Groups This is a study of how decisions are made in small groups. It tests and extends a new model of interaction previously developed by one of the investigators and already considered an important advance. The model takes into account the effects of status differences among group members and how their interaction develops to predict patterns of interaction and the emergence of structures of inequality. The model has the added advantage of taking into account the effects of non-participants on outcomes. Data are collected from 80 four-person groups that vary in status characteristics. The research will contribute to a fundamental understanding of how groups reach decisions by taking into account the status characteristics that individuals bring to the group, their expectations about distributions of power, and the nature of the task performed. Carefully collected data will be prepared to form a data bank for other small group researchers.
Escaping Distressed Neighborhoods This research is designed to study patterns and determinants of residential mobility out of distressed neighborhoods in U.S. metropolitan areas. It is concerned with understanding racial differences in mobility, in particular, the characteristics of individuals, families, and social contexts that allow some minority group members to leave poor neighborhoods for more desirable ones. Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics' Geocode-Match Files and Census Extract Datasets will be used to select a nationally representative sample of families and individuals and to test three theoretical models of residential mobility. The human capital/life stage model argues that residential mobility is a concomitant of social and occupational mobility and of life cycle changes. The place model focuses on barriers to mobility, especially those caused by racial discrimination. The housing availability model relates moving to availability and to the constraints of renting or ownership. This research should contribute to new models of intra-metropolitan mobility by taking into account the full range of relevant variables that can affect moving by individuals and families located in distressed neighborhoods. By explicitly modeling the effects of racial discrimination on housing search and location choice it will provide a comprehensive examination of barriers against and opportunities for residential mobility. The research should result in attaching probabilities to the links between human capital and neighborhoods, family, poverty, and disadvantage. Findings should be useful to policy makers concerned with these issues as well as to social scientists looking for more comprehensive theories.
Social Stratification in China in a Period of Transition This is a study of social stratification in China. It will administer and analyze a survey of a large scale national probability sample in the People's Republic of China, consisting of both urban and rural adults, village leaders, intelligentsia, entrepreneurs, and administrators of organizations. The aim of this research is (a) to better understand the system, of social stratification and mobility in China, particularly during the recent period of market transition, but also earlier periods in the Communist Era, particularly the Cultural Revolution; (b) to test specific theories about the effect of the market transition on the relative importance of political and economic assets; and (c) to compare China to Eastern Europe, where the investigators are also conducting research, to test various theories about the role of institutional arrangements in social mobility. An important feature of this project will be the creation of a sizable research team of Chinese and U.S.-based researchers that will work together for several years on the analysis of data and writing of research reports, a research team that will overlap with and coordinate their work with a similarly-constituted research group from six countries in eastern Europe. Thus the project goes a long way toward creation of a world-wide network of scientists conducting research on democratization and market transition. The findings of the research will guide American policy makers in understanding the vast social and economic changes currently in progress in China, the most populous nation on earth and a vast market for American industry.
Gender Inequalities Across Metropolitan Labor Markets This is a study of gender inequalities across metropolitan labor markets. Existing theory suggests that a principal cause promoting gender equality is the growth of women's labor force participation. Participation rates are themselves consequences of the demand for female labor, especially of the degree to which a labor market has high concentrations of female-dominated occupations. A high demand for female labor reduces other aspects of gender inequality through market, normative, and political mechanisms. This research will test the normative linkages by using survey data aggregated to the area level. The political linkages will be tested with data from Equal Employment Opportunity complaints and from other more general indicators of women's political mobilization. Testing these ideas requires combining area and individual data into three contextual analyses. First, area measures of labor demand, norms, mobilization, and occupation will be related to the size of the gender coefficient in a standard earnings function predicting hourly wages. Second, the demand, normative, and political contexts will be related to the gender composition of a worker's occupation. Third, a standard labor supply analysis will be extended to include a measure of the occupational composition of the area's labor force. A final analysis will summarize all the contextual relationships within a single framework with areas rather than individuals as the unit of analysis. This research differs from earlier work on gender differences in the rewards to human capital by emphasizing the role played by the economic, social, and political environment in which women find themselves. Only some of the progress towards gender equality that we have witnessed in recent years can be understood as the result of the changing characteristics of individual women. This project will systematically examine how differences in labor markets, normative climate, and political mobilization might explain more of the variation in gender equality than do studies based on individuals alone. Thus it will strengthen our understanding of socio-political factors that shape the rewards men and women receive for the human capital they possess.
The Impact of Democratization on Russian Families This is a study of sex equality, gender attitudes and quality of relationship in Russian marriages, interviewing a random sample of 1400 households in Moscow and its rural environs. Russia today presents a curious mix of ideology and attitudes making it a important setting for research on changing power relationships between the sexes. The contradictory factors include: the heritage of the Communist regime which supposed gender equality; the presence of an entrenched patriarchy and general lack of awareness of socially constructed elements of gender difference; and the recent return to subjugating women in the family. The theory to be tested predicts that when spouses have traditional gender attitudes and wife's occupational prestige, educational achievement or income are equal or superior to husband's, partners will experience lower marital quality and the wife will be more at risk for abuse. If the spouses have liberal gender attitudes, the theory predicts, equal or superior wife status will not diminish their marital quality. In addition to testing this and related theories, the project will provide baseline information about the quality of Russian marriages that will be valuable for future studies. The large-scale processes of democratization and market transition occurring in Russia and many other nations have serious consequences on the small scale of family units. It may be the case that greater democracy at the level of the society produces, at least for the duration of a transition period, less democracy within families. Or, it may be that the short-term consequences for families of democratization may depend in large part upon the attitudes that family members bring to their relationships with each other. Thus, this study will test general scientific theories about the effect of great social stress on families, as well as providing a much clearer picture of Russian marriages in this time of great challenge for their society.
Securing Social Rights: Subordinate Group Challenges to Educational
Policy and the Transformation of Public Education 1880 to 1920 This study looks at Progressive-era conflict over education and educational policy in four states to answer questions about when, and how effectively, disadvantaged groups mobilize to influence the state. It draws on existing theories on social movements, the state, group conflict, and educational reform to develop new theories for explain the processes by which subordinate groups acquire concerns about education and the means to pressure the state to adopt their policy objectives. Critical attention is paid to formal organizations that mobilize individuals and present group demands and to the local and state structures that provide opportunities for influencing policy. The study is based on an historical analysis of four states, selected to vary on key attributes of race, ethnicity, and nativity as well as in organizational and state resources. The research will advance our knowledge of how individuals, although disadvantaged because of their position in the community, may be able to have political influence when they become part of organizations. It moves beyond the usual perspective of educational sociology with an expanded theory on the role of organizations in providing resources, shaping demands, and expressing group interests. Through attention to historical detail, it will spell out the processes of change and illuminate the ways in which institutions are built.
The Impact of Unions on Wages and Unemployment This is a study of the labor market impact resulting from declining levels of unionization in 18 OECD countries between 1973-1990. Although trade union decline in membership has been carefully recorded, the effects of that decline have not been analyzed previously in the ways proposed here. The research argues that labor market trends are the result of political struggles among workers, employers, and their representatives. It tests hypotheses about the effects of centralized bargaining, the electoral failure of social democratic parties, increased inequality in the work force, and rival economic theories about the oil price shock and the growth of world trade. The mutual dependence of union membership and unemployment is examined using statistical techniques developed by the researcher. Because of the possibility of strong sectoral trends in earnings and employment , the research is supplemented with comparative case studies of Britain, Germany, and the United States, where there are existing data to examine export and sheltered sectors of the national economies. The research will offer new sociological and institutional explanations of important processes of social capital formation that will supplement, if not challenge, existing economic explanations. Through its focus on the struggles by workers and employers to affect economic outcomes, it links stratification research with political sociology and presents the possibility of an enlarged conception of economic sociology.
Power-at-a-Distance and Power Reversals: Testing New Predictions for
Exchange Networks This is a study of power in social exchange networks that will test two extensions of Network Exchange Theory (NET) through laboratory experimentation. In the first extension, NET offers predictions for power-at-a-distance, where unlike previous studies power exercise is not limited to immediately adjacent positions, but reaches outward two or three network steps. In the second extension, NET predicts that coalitions which eliminate power under some network conditions will bring power reversals under other conditions. In the research, a system of linked microcomputers called ExNet connects human subjects in experimental networks allowing communications and facilitating resource transactions. The existing versions of ExNet would not permit the intended experiments, so software will be written to add these and other capabilities to ExNet, and the system will be made available to the community of laboratory exchange researchers to facilitate experiments of many kinds. This work is an important step in linking laboratory experimentation on social exchange with phenomena in the real world, most notably because it increases the size and complexity of social network processes that can be studied. These experiments are fundamental research on social-capital aspects of human capital theory, exploring the ways that structural location in a social network can be a vital resource conferring power and thus resources, quite independently of the individual characteristics of the person occupying that location. An extension of one of the most promising lines of work in social-psychological research on group processes, this project will contribute fundamental insights on how the structural properties of social exchange networks influence the fates of human beings. Doctoral Dissertation Awards:In addition to the scientific gains to be achieved by the research, each award will materially assist a highly promising student in completing research for the Ph.D. dissertation. Thus it contributes to the thorough training of the next generation of social scientists.
Career and Family Patterns among Female Executives in Finance-Related
Occupations This research will study career and family patterns of female executives in finance-related fields. Existing theories explaining why women make up a small proportion of higher management are reconsidered through an approach that takes into account the combination of events that make up turning points in women's lives. These turning points either sustain women in a career trajectory or redirect them in other directions. Detailed interviews from 58 senior female executives and 23 women who began promising careers in the same field but did not continue at the same pace or left entirely will be analyzed using optimal matching techniques, a form of sequence analysis. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of the interrelations among work, family, and gender equality. Innovative methods of analysis will be refined so that they can be of use to social scientists studying career mobility. Findings will also be helpful to policy-makers concerned with ways to increase equality in the work place and to strengthen family relations.
Higher Education and Work Histories: Educational Attachment and the Labor
Force Attachment of Married Japanese Women This study compares the factors that determine whether Japanese women will stay in or leave the labor force after marriage, with particular attention to the role of education. It tests the applicability of human capital theory in the Japanese context and provides new comparisons with the United States. The study will be based on a newly-collected survey of 2,000 women in central Japan, with respondents selected to reflect different educational experiences. This study will contribute to the sociological understanding of the relation between women's human capital and the continuity of social stratification. It will also add to our understanding of Japanese society generally and the ways it compares with the United States. Policy makers should find useful information about the conflicts between work and family
Careers in Science This study will examine self-conceptions of work and achievement among academic physicists. Subjects are selected to vary by stage of career and by the type of university in which they are employed. Theoretical issues include how work setting shapes personal identity. Data come from 60 subjects, each of whom will supply information by participating in a lengthy interview, completing a questionnaire, and supplying a curriculum vitae. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of careers, academic professions, and academic and scientific institutions.
Chinese Scientific Elite -- A Chinese Test of the Universalism of
Scientific Elite Formation The research examines the factors that contribute to the formation of the Chinese scientific elite. The study uses a comparative perspective for assessing applicability to the Chinese context of theories about Western scientific knowledge. A variety of data are used, including biographies, mail surveys, interviews with scientists, and documentary and archival sources. This research will contribute to the sociological understanding of science, Chinese society, and comparative science policies.
Competing Definitions of Artistic, Literary and Social Value The research examines how artistic and literary excellence are defined and how the subsequent criteria are applied. The research settings are two art museums and two university literature departments, selected to contrast cultural organizations where multiculturalism is the focus from those with more traditional orientations. Theoretical concerns relate to the formation of cognitive systems and their relation to social action. Data come from careful observations and from 90 interviews with museum curators and literature professors. This research will contribute to the sociological understanding of cultural systems by examining the relation between aesthetic standards and standards used in other social situations.
The Impact of the Equal Opportunity Movement on the Labor-force
Experiences of Women and Blacks, 1960-1990 The study will link theories of employment discrimination based on economic outcomes with those based on institutional processes to present a more comprehensive picture of the direct and indirect effects of laws on changing patterns of employment discrimination. Analysis is based on civil cases of employment discrimination by states using existing and recoded data, newly assembled data from histories of state employment discrimination policies, and measures of employment inequality using census data. The time covered is from 1960 to 1990. This study will contribute to sociological understanding of the variable affects of anti-discrimination laws on the work experiences of women and blacks and add to theory and research in the sociology of law, social movements, and social stratification. The findings will be of use to policy-makers concerned with the use of legal means to remedy discriminatory practices.
Co-management and Conservation in the Philippines: Community-State
Differentiation, Conflict and Cooperation This study will undertake a critical examination of co-management processes as they are unfolding in three indigenous forest communities in the Philippines. It seeks to understand the conditions under which co-management arrangements lead to outcomes characterized by biological sustainability, social equity, and self-determination for communities. Theoretical issues include how stratification and power affect resource management practices. The principal research methods are resource appraisal, censuses, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and secondary data analysis. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of community differentiation, resource partitioning, common property management, state-locality interactions and the conditions for cooperation or conflict. It will also improve the knowledge base for policy decisions concerning resource management and the environment.
Ethnic Organization and Political Cultures: Italians and Jews in
Argentina and Venezuela This study compares the formation and changes in roles and activities of ethnic organizations serving Jews and Italians in Argentina and Venezuela. It draws on theories of immigrant and ethnic integration and tests their applicability to Latin America. Data are based on existing records from 1940 to the 1990s obtained from newspapers, ethnic organizations, and ethnic schools. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of how immigrant ethnic groups form communities that foster (or impede) their integration into host societies. It will also add generally to understanding Latin American societies and how they compare to the United States.
The Impact of the Welfare State on Patterns of Occupational Sex
Segregation in Four Countries This study examines the intersection among state policies, type of economy, and the family in affecting occupational sex segregation. Theoretical issues relate to gender stratification and the effects of institutional arrangments. Data are from national censuses between 1960 and 1990 in the United States, Sweden, Japan, and Hungary. The four countries have been selected because they are expected to display four distinct patterns of sex segregation. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of how state policies affect the segregation of occupations according to the sex of workers as well as the ways in which women deal with competing obligations from work and family. The results should be useful to policy makers concerned with equal opportunity for women and support for the family.
Pathways to Mobility within Internal Labor Markets This study will examine the pathways to promotion within a single, large multi-level firm with data from job histories of employees hired between 1975 and 1985. It seeks to answer the question of why individuals who begin with what look like the same career chances often end up in different positions. This question is both of practical significance and is rooted in the theoretical literature on organizations. Analysis of career data will test statistical models of multiple career trajectories as these apply within firms. This research contributes to sociological understanding of career mobility and the barriers to equality of advancement that may develop within firms.
Social Networks and Economic Activity in Two Low Income
Communities This study will examine how two low income Mexican-American communities use social networks to deal with day to day economic issues. Theoretical issues focus on how social capital that is manifested through social networks facilitate or constrain economic participation. Fieldwork has been completed in the first community, made up of Mexican migrants living in San Jose. Funding is requested for establishing residence from which to conduct participant observation of a second community, made up of Chicanos in Los Angeles. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of poverty and urban life, immigrant communities, and the economy and it will provide policy makers with information about the ways to promote economic resources in poor communities.
Welfare Recipients and the Job Matching Process This study will examine the conditions under which welfare recipients are able to make the transition into the job market. Theories examined include those relating to human capital, network links, and individual attitudes about the self. A carefully selected sample of 50 AFDC recipients will be interviewed to learn which characteristics are most likely to lead to successful job transitions. Additional information will be obtained from interviews with potential employers. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of urban poverty, welfare policies, and the pathways to employment. The focus of this research on welfare and the transition to work makes it valuable for policy makers concerned with encouraging employment.
Legitimacy and Compliance in Bargaining Negotiations This study will test the effect of legitimacy in encouraging compliance based on three possible ways legitimacy may be acquired by those wielding power. Theoretical issues relate to legitimacy, power, and decision making. Data come from a series of laboratory experiments. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of power, authority, and influence processes.
The Social Organization of the Rural Homeless The research examines the social organization of homeless people who camp on publicly-owned lands. It tests prior theories about the homeless, comparing older theories about social disaffiliation with newer ones on the culture of resistance. The study builds on the co-investigator's four years of previous research and observations on this population by using ethnographic methods of data collection. New data will come from 120 days of observations and 60 intensive interviews. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of the lives of homeless rural residents. It adds to a tradition that looks for insights into how social organizations are formed and operate by examining those who live unconventional lifestyles. Findings may also be of help to policy-makers, concerned with programs for reducing homelessness.
The Social Composition of Occupations This study uses a model based on an ecological theory of competition. Niche overlap--shared sociodemographic characteristics among occupations--is expected to create competitive pressures that lead to changes in an occupation's basic niche. The model is tested using data from the Current Population Survey Annual Demographic Files. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of why occupations vary in composition according to age, gender, race, and similar characteristics and why occupations change their compositon over time. This information should be of help to policy makers concerned with efforts to encourage occupational diversity.
Social Exchange and Attributions The study will examine the relations between attributions about exchange partners and behavior in exchange relations. It ties together attribution theory with social exchange theory in new and previously unexamined ways. The research uses existing experimental data to test the effects of structure and behavior on attributions and designs a fresh experiment to test the effects of attributions on exchange behavior. This research contributes to the sociological understanding of social psychology by linking the subfields of cognition, concerned with how people develop beliefs about behavior, with social exchange, concerned with how people use resources to obtain the behavioral outcomes they desire.
A Cross-National Comparison of Recent Primary Health Care Utilization
Trends in Latin America Unlike Europe, where the demographic transition went along with rapid industrialization, demographic shifts in Latin America appear as the result of public health care programs. Yet there is considerable variation among population groups in their use of primary health care programs and this study will examine the factors affecting these differences. The study tests demographic theories and social epidemiological theories of health and disease. Three Latin American countries will be compared using existing data sources, primarily from demographic and health surveys. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of population changes and the social factors affecting the adoption of public health measures at the household level. Findings will be of use to policy-makers concerned with improving public health among households at high risk for disease and early mortality.
Continuity and Change in the Environmental Movement This study is concerned with the environmental movement's bases of action, composition, and organizational character. It appraises competing theories of social movements--grievance-based, resource mobilization, and identity-based. The research is based on face to face interviews and a mailed survey, and survey results will be compared to a similar study conducted in 1979. The research will contribute to sociological understanding of social movements and to the factors leading to continuity and change in the environmental movement. It will be useful to formulating policies designed to encourage citizen participation in efforts to protect the environment..
A Comparative Study Of Old-Age Pensions This is a study of the factors contributing to the incidence and prominence of private pensions as well as the relation between private and public pensions. Theoretical issues deal with the role of old age pensions in the growth and transformation of the welfare state. Countries compared are Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the United States, and New Zealand. Analysis is based on systematic qualitiative comparisons, case studies, and quantitative cross-sectional data from 1960 to 1990. This research will contribute to the sociological understanding of the origins and effects of pension policies and the changing nature of the welfare state. By examining alternative policies adopted by different states and the implications that follow from these, the findings should be useful to policy makers concerned about the growth of pension entitlements.
Determinants and Consequences of Contingent Work The research deals with the growing phenomenon of contingent work of four kinds: part-time, temporary, out-sourced, and independent contract. It relates to theories of employment and labor force inequality. A number of existing data sources will be used to compile a comprehensive data set for analyzing the determinants of contingent work and its effects on inequality. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of social stratification, work, and economic sociology. It will be of help to policy makers concerned with labor force inequality and employment policies.
Planning for Retirement This is a study of saving and retirement planning among working and middle class couples, particularly through the influence of gender and inequality. Theoretical issues concern the influence of education, gender, and social class on decision-making in the family. Data include interviews with 20 retired couples, interviewed together and separately, and survey data from the National Longitudinal Survey (concentrating on the "older men" cohort and their "mature" spouses) and from the Health and Retirement Study. This research will contribute to sociological understanding of family relations, financial planning, and social class differences. It will be of help to policy makers concerned with family stability and the economic well-being of the elderly.
Assets, Family andAchievement among Blacks and Whites This study will look at a previously unstudied aspect of black-white differences by examining the contributions of total family wealth or assets to children's educational attainment and the subsequent contributions of children's wealth on the likelihood of forming stable families. It builds on theories of social stratification and uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to statistically model the effects of wealth. This study will contribute to sociological understanding of differences between blacks and whites in family formation and stability and in educational attainment. Its focus on the effects of family assets will also be of use to policy makers concerned with stabilizing the family and equalizing opportunity for children.
The Politics of Inclusion: Patterns of Contention in the American South,
1954-65 This is a study of how economic development and competition for resources affected the reactions to civil rights protests in the American South. The study draws together theories of economic development and competition into a comprehensive explanatory model. It combines county-level event data from 1954 to 1965 with data from government sources and selected case studies based on local-level sources. This study will add to our sociological understanding of how economic factors affect community reactions to collective protest. More generally, it will contribute to understanding the dynamics of protest and of resistance to change.
The Marketplace for Achievement for Young Women This is a study of the work aspirations of young women as they are affected by their local area of residence. The research ties together theories about gender and work aspirations with broader issues dealing with the effects from opportunity structures and from cultural and political milieus. National data about aspirations are available from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and information about place will come from a variety of existing sources. More focused data will follow from intensive interviews with 26 adolescents, gathered over three years, from two high schools in Connecticut. Information on place to supplement those interviews will be provided by a survey of the high schools along with additional data about the communities. This research will contribute to the sociological understanding of gender roles, work aspirations, and local labor markets. By taking into account how the local labor market is simultaneously an opportunity structure and a cultural and political setting in which aspirations are shaped and constrained, it will be of use to policy makers concerned with broadening opportunities for women in the work world. Research Training Site:
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site in Sociology
This award provides funds for a Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site
in Sociology through SUNY, Stony Brook. The award provides the opportunity
for ten undergraduate students to be immersed into an active research
environment spanning the areas of social organizations across species,
stratification, demography, gender studies, homelessness, the sociology of
warfare, and intensive qualitative analysis. The students will work as
apprentices under the close supervision of faculty mentors and experienced
graduate students. The goal is to introduce students to research utilizing
the most current theoretical models and the latest, state-of-the-art
equipment and methodological techniques. In addition to the research
experience, participants will receive academic counseling and have access to
a variety of support services. This award contributes to the Foundation's
continuing efforts to attract talented students into careers in science
through active undergraduate research experiences.
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