Fixed- and random-effects models for longitudinal data are common in sociology. Their primary advantage is that they control for time-invariant omitted variables. However, analysts face several issues when they employ these models. One is the choice of which to apply; another is that FEM and REM models as usually implemented might be…

This study builds on political mediation and movement infrastructure models to highlight contingent and synergistic ways in which social movements may impinge upon the U.S. national policy-making process. Analyses employ a variety of datasets to examine the role of environmental movement organizational capacity, protest and institutional activity…

After 25 years of intense scrutiny, social capital remains an important yet highly debated concept in social science research. This research uses data from youth and mentors in several chapters of Big Brothers/Big Sisters to assess the importance of different mentoring relationship characteristics in creating positive outcomes among youths. The…

According to popular accounts, the nonprofit sector has become increasingly commercialized in recent years. This article reviews the empirical literature on the commercialization trend and discusses why it is regarded as significant by scholars of civil society. It then provides fresh analyses of nonprofit revenue streams and concludes that,…

Extant research shows that individuals who discuss politics and current events with their peers also participate more actively in civil society. However, this correlation is not sufficient evidence of causation due to a number of analytical biases. To address this problem, data were collected through a panel study conducted on students who were…

In spite of the fact that more than 10 percent of Americans claim no religion, academic investigations of the "nones" represent an underdeveloped area in the sociology of religion. We find that people with religiously unaffiliated parents and those who attended religious services less as a child are more likely to claim no religion. In addition,…

Using unique data on employers' pre-hire preferences, this article examines the effect of sex typing on the gender gap in offered wages and training. Previous studies using post-hire data have not been able to focus directly on the effects of employer behavior, distinct from employee preferences. By analyzing gender-designated job requisitions for…

Several studies examine biblical literalism to categorize Christian denominations and predict attitudes and behaviors. Yet, few studies have identified the predictors of literalist orientations. In this study, we use structuration theory and gender theory to develop hypotheses concerning gender differences in literalist ideologies based on the…

Contends that, in the period from 1930 to the present, industrial sociology has shifted focus away from workers and work, transforming its view of the worker from a social to an economic one. Suggests that interdisciplinary influences, a macrostructural methodological orientation, and shifting interests of schools of management are responsible.…

This study advances a conceptual framework for understanding the transformation of places into recovery machines after major hurricanes. This framework contends that in the years following such disasters, pro-growth coalitions take advantage of new sources of material and symbolic capital to promote further demographic growth. It also contends…

Questions the thesis that sociology of work no longer views workers as actors, but sees them as objects acted on by larger forces. Describes recent studies of the labor process, labor markets, and earnings determination which focus on workers' actions and on links between macro and micro levels. (DHP)

Examines effects of male/female labor supply characteristics and female demand factors on women's access to the labor market, using 1950-80 census data. Reports significant effects of percent of women with high school diplomas and family responsibilities, male unemployment, male/female ratio, southern location, and increase in manufacturing…

In the social sciences, sociology is almost unique in its silence on Africa. Political science, economics and anthropology have a much better developed interest in the continent. In this article the authors first try to explain why American sociology has excluded Africa from its vision; second, they discuss what sociology as a discipline could…

Suggests that as the social science knowledge requirements of real situations are met, the theoretical knowledge has been found to be less useful for such purposes than most social scientists believed it would be. (Author/AM)

Reviews the history of self-concept research. Suggests that self-concept research was long neglected due to major hostile scientific paradigms: psychology's behaviorist paradigm, sociology's social factist and social behaviorist paradigms, and the Freudian paradigm in psychoanalysis. Contains 46 references. (SV)