American Journal of Sociology（AJS）
Volume 115, Number 4, January 2010, pp. 991-1350
Masthead
V Contributors
P991
Six Degrees of “Who Cares?”
University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract: The concept that we live in small world networks connected by short paths has proved fascinating. These networks, however, do not typically emerge as linear responses to individual-level changes; rather, subtle changes in relations produce extraordinarily different macrolevel outcomes. Similarly, nuances in how we conceptualize, define, and measure relations can lead to widely different network characterizations. The author demonstrates this variability using a spectrum of interaction types and argue that the dependence of results on subtleties in definition or measurement makes theoretical interpretation difficult. He offers an index to calculate how much inaccuracy or imprecision relational definitions or data-gathering techniques can tolerate before results yield utterly different interpretations.
P1018
The Social Structure of the World Polity
Jason Beckfield
Harvard University
Abstract: World polity research argues that modern states are shaped by embeddedness in a network of international organizations, and yet the structure of that network is rarely examined. This is surprising, given that world polity theory implies that the world polity should be an increasingly dense, even, flat field of association. This article describes the social structure of the world polity, using network analysis of the complete population of intergovernmental organizations as it has evolved since 1820. Analysis of the world polity's structure reveals growing fragmentation, driven by exclusive rather than universalist intergovernmental organizations. The world polity has thus grown less cohesive, more fragmented, more heterogeneous, and less “small worldly” in its structure. This structure reflects a recent rise in the regionalization of the world polity.
P1069
Global Neighborhoods: New Pathways to Diversity and Separation
John R. LoganV
Charles Zhang
Abstract: Analyses of neighborhood racial composition in 1980–2000 demonstrate that in multiethnic metropolitan regions there is an emerging pathway of change that leads to relatively stable integration These are “global neighborhoods” where Hispanics and Asians are the pioneer integrators of previously all-white zones, later followed by blacks. However, region-wide segregation is maintained at high levels by whites' avoidance of all-minority areas and by their continued exodus (albeit at reduced levels) from mixed settings. Globalization of neighborhoods adds a positive new element of diversity that alters but does not erase the traditional dynamic of minority invasion succession.
P1110
Interneighborhood Migration, Race, and Environmental Hazards: Modeling Microlevel Processes of Environmental Inequality
Kyle CrowderV
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Liam Downey
University of Colorado
Abstract: This study combines longitudinal individual-level data with neighborhood-level industrial hazard data to examine the extent and sources of environmental inequality. Results indicate that profound racial and ethnic differences in proximity to industrial pollution persist when differences in individual education, household income, and other microlevel characteristics are controlled. Examination of underlying migration patterns further reveals that black and Latino householders move into neighborhoods with significantly higher hazard levels than do comparable whites and that racial differences in proximity to neighborhood pollution are maintained more by these disparate mobility destinations than by differential effects of pollution on the decision to move.
P1150
Structural Folds: Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups
Balázs Vedres
Central European University
David Stark
Columbia University
Abstract: Entrepreneurial groups face a twinned challenge: recognizing and implementing new ideas. We argue that entrepreneurship is less about importing ideas than about generating new knowledge by recombining resources. In contrast to the brokerage-plus-closure perspective, we address the overlapping of cohesive group structures. In analyzing the network processes of intercohesion, we identify a distinctive network topology: the structural fold. Actors at the structural fold are multiple insiders, facilitating familiar access to diverse resources. Our data set records personnel ties among the largest 1,696 Hungarian enterprises from 1987 to 2001. First, we test whether structural folding contributes to group performance. Second, because entrepreneurship is a process of generative disruption, we test the contribution of structural folds to group instability. Third, we move from dynamic methods to historical network analysis and demonstrate that coherence is a property of interwoven lineages of cohesion, built up through repeated separation and reunification.
P1191
Leadership, Membership, and Voice: Civic Associations That Work
Kenneth T. Andrews
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Marshall Ganz
Harvard University
Matthew Baggetta
Harvard University
Hahrie Han
Wellesley College
Chaeyoon Lim
University of Wisconsin—Madison
Abstract: Why are some civic associations more effective than others? The authors introduce a multidimensional framework for analyzing the effectiveness of civic associations in terms of public recognition, member engagement, and leader development. Using original surveys of local Sierra Club organizations and leaders, the authors assess prevailing explanations in organization and movement studies alongside a model highlighting leadership and internal organizational practices. Although available resources and favorable contexts matter, the core findings show that associations with more committed activists, that build organizational capacity, that carry out strong programmatic activity, and whose leaders work independently, generate greater effectiveness across outcomes.
Book Reviews
P 1277
Punishment and Culture by Philip Smith
Rosemary Gartner
P 1279
Arguing with Tradition: The Language of Law in Hopi Tribal Court by Justin B. Richland
Kwai Hang Ng
P 1281
Lawyers of the Right: Professionalizing the Conservative Coalition by Ann Southworth
Ursula Castellano
Partisan Publics: Communication and Contention across Brazilian Youth Activist Networks by Ann Mische
Armando Salvatore
P 1286
Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe by Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman
Alexander Hicks
P 1289
The Politics of Free Markets: The Rise of Neoliberal Economic Policies in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States by Monica Prasad
Nitsan Chorev
P 1291
Into the Red: The Birth of the Credit Card Market in Postcommunist Russia by Alya Guseva
Sarah Busse Spencer
P 1293
The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the Present by Jan de Vries
Bruce G. Carruthers
P 1295
Market, Class, and Employment by Patrick McGovern, Stephen Hill, Colin Mills, and Michael White
Colin C. Williams
P 1297
The Good Temp by Vicki Smith and Esther B. Neuwirth
Rachel Sherman
P 1300
Skill Formation: Interdisciplinary and Cross‐National Perspectives, edited by Karl Ulrich Mayer and Heike Solga
David Bills
P 1302
Moral Gray Zones: Side Productions, Identity, and Regulation in an Aeronautic Plant by Michel Anteby
Tim Bartley
P 1304
On the Fireline: Living and Dying with Wildland Firefighters by Matthew Desmond
Phaedra Daipha
P 1306
Blue‐Green Coalitions: Fighting for Safe Workplaces and Healthy Communities by Brian Mayer
Brian K. Obach
P 1308
The New Urban Renewal: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville by Derek Hyra
Japonica Brown‐Saracino
P 1311
Smallville: Institutionalizing Community in Twenty‐First‐Century America by Carl Milofsky
Douglas Baer
P 1313
The Political Influence of Churches by Paul A. Djupe and Christopher P. Gilbert
Steve Bruce
P 1315
Small Towns and Big Business: Challenging Wal‐Mart Superstores by Stephen Halebsky
Todd L. Matthews
P 1317
The Fight Over Food: Producers, Consumers, and Activists Challenge the Global Food System, edited by Wynne Wright and Gerad Middendorf
Patricia Allen
P 1319
The Politics of Food Supply: U.S. Agricultural Policy in the World Economy by Bill Winders
Edward C. Jaenicke
P 1321
Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software by Christopher M. Kelty
Zack Kertcher
P 1324
Debugging the Link between Social Theory and Social Insects by Diane M. Rodgers
Charlotte Sleigh
P 1325
On Scandal: Moral Disturbances in Society, Politics, and Art by Ari Adut
Isaac Reed
P 1328
Wannabes, Goths, and Christians: The Boundaries of Sex, Style, and Status by Amy C. Wilkins
Jennifer Keys
P 1330
Courting Change: Queer Parents, Judges, and the Transformation of American Family Law by Kimberly D. Richman
Kathleen E. Hull
P 1332
Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality by Jessica Fields
Amy L. Best
P 1335
The Biopolitics of Breast Cancer: Changing Cultures of Disease and Activism by Maren Klawiter
Anne Esacove
P 1337
Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine by Jonathan B. Imber
Robert Zussman
P 1339
Out of Reach: Place, Poverty, and the New American Welfare State by Scott W. Allard
Laura R. Peck
P 1341
Mothers without Citizenship: Asian Immigrant Families and the Consequences of Welfare Reform by Lynn Fujiwara
Robin Rogers
P 1342
Metropolitan Migrants: The Migration of Urban Mexicans to the United States by Rubén Hernández‐León
Susan González Baker
P 1345
Human Behavior: An Inventory of Scientific Findings by Bernard Berelson and Gary A. Steiner
Barbara Celarent