Browsing by Subject "Sociology, General"

Among the most significant changes to the agricultural sector in the twentieth century include a sharp decline in employment and the numbers of farms, a decline in the proportion of total value that accrues to agricultural producers, and an increase in farm level and regional specialization. Within the U.S., substantial differences in the characteristics of agricultural producers and the spatial distribution of production persist amid industry change. These changes coincided with changes in global markets, domestic consumption, consolidation and concentration within the processing and retailing sectors, and government policy. The causality that lies behind these developments is the key puzzle that this study addresses.

This study advances an institutional explanation of industry formation across locations within the U.S. Differences in industry constitution at the local level produce different impacts of and responses to global markets, reflected by economic changes and policy developments, as actors work to secure stability and advantage in markets (Fligstein 2001). This study uses the global value chains' definition of the industry, which incorporates the network of actors arrayed along a process of production, to capture the set of actors with the capacity to affect industry operation (Gereffi 1994). An assessment of the relative importance of local economic characteristics, global markets, organization and coordination within industries, and government policies to where production locates in the primary objective of the study.

The pork and non-cigar tobacco industries across several states within the United States from 1959 through 2005 allow for a contrast along the key changes identified above. Within case comparison is used to construct causal narratives of industry change at the state level. Panel and pooled time series analysis assess the relative importance the factors to agricultural change.

Local economic characteristics largely fade from significance with the inclusion of the theoretical perspectives. Total and net trade in agricultural and manufactured products is generally significant across industries for production, although this is not the case for specific tobacco types. The proportion of farms composed of small farms is significant for production and for farm structure in both industries. The presence of manufacture is significant for hog production and could not be assessed for tobacco. While federal policies are broadly significant for the tobacco industry, identified state policies exhibit few consistent effects for hog production. Importantly, farm structure measures were only available for Census years, which reduces sample size. Second, many of the measures are industry-specific, which reduces comparability.

Few studies have historically assessed the surges and troughs of public perception regarding juvenile offenders across over a century of legislative and social change. Furthermore, a minority of juvenile crime investigations have holistically examined the interplay between changing demographic conditions (notably, economic stability, racial composition and crime rates) with its accompanying ideological shifts. Through a theoretical emphasis on social constructionism and moral panic theory, this dissertation illuminates the cyclical nature of juvenile justice reform and illustrates that panics regarding juvenile offenders are more closely related to fears regarding the maintenance of power and the insecurity that comes with historical change than with an authentic threat of juvenile crime. Over 9,000 records in The New York Times, Congressional record, and Supreme Court decisions were coded and analyzed to reveal three chronological partitions of the social construction of youthful offenders: (1) the 1890s-1930s during which the most destabilizing force to those in positions of power revolved squarely around urbanization, industrialization, and the waves of immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe; (2) the 1930s-1970s during which faith in juvenile offender rehabilitation was replaced with punitive policies stressing deterrence and an increased focus on the "problem" of racial minorities; (3) the 1970s-present which demonstrates the declining discussion of race in print media and legislative debates even as its effects in sentencing and prosecution grow in strength. This dissertation illuminates the ways in which insecurity and panic breed violence and expounds upon that notion to specify that how the violence manifests itself, whether through punitive policies or interpersonal crime, depends on the resources available and the historically-situated social norms. Over time, however, the explicit racial hostility in rhetoric and policy has been replaced with an evasion the recognition that race undoubtedly affects both juvenile justice policies as well as their implementation. In order to combat the inevitable instability that accompanies historical change, a resurgence of dialogue acknowledging the connection between race and juvenile justice is urged.

As an aggregate, American households have shown rising debt levels over the past few decades, yet we do not understand how debt varies within households over time and what factors influence this variation in a meaningful way. To date, household debt appears predominantly as a component of measures of net worth, obscuring heterogeneity in the meaning of debt within a household. Moreover, most studies focusing specifically on indebtedness rely on cross-sectional data. In addition, no cohesive theoretical model exists to account for changing patterns of debt. This dissertation seeks to fill these gaps. Utilizing a variety of methodological approaches and drawing on longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, it adds sociological explanation to a social process that has been previously ignored and under-theorized.

First, drawing from literature in economics and sociology, I propose a dynamic, life course model of indebtedness that specifies three mechanisms driving differentiation in household indebtedness: institutional context (period), social heterogeneity, and patterned disadvantage, or structural risk. Second, I use multilevel logistic regressions to explore the association between the hypothesized mechanisms and the likelihood of holding non-collateralized debt. While experiencing negative life course risks increases the likelihood of holding debt, I find that occupying positions of structural disadvantage--being black, being in poverty--decreases the likelihood of holding debt, while having advantages--higher education, being married, holding assets--increases the likelihood of holding debt, pointing to distinct differences in who can access debt to buffer life course shocks and who cannot. Examining the interrelationships between debts and assets further underscores the tenuous economic well-being of the disadvantaged. I find that those most likely to experience negative life events are both less likely to have financial assets with which to buffer these events and more likely to experience constrained access to non-collateralized debt.

Third, I employ multilevel linear regressions to examine the association between the proposed mechanisms and three unique indicators of debt burden. I find that many of the standard coefficients included in models of net worth are not significant predictors of the level of non-collateralized, non-revolving debt, suggesting that we know much more about the correlates of income and wealth than we do household debt. Variation in debt burden may be better understood by heterogeneity in non-economic variables frequently not captured in survey research. To better explore this unobserved heterogeneity, I utilize latent class regression models to estimate the early life course trajectories of debt burden for the NLSY79 cohort. I find four distinct trajectories of indebtedness with varying consequences for later life financial outcomes. Overall, I conclude that household debt is nuanced and contextually contingent. More importantly, debt adds to our understanding of long-term stratification processes when studied as a unique indicator of inequality.

This dissertation explores the simultaneous trends towards increasing and decreasing medical intervention in childbirth. Using the medicalization literature as a theoretical framework, I use a mixed-methods approach to explore how both the medical community and laypeople think about and plan for childbirth.

First, the midwifery and obstetrics literatures from the past 35 years are reviewed to provide a medical and scientific context for the trends seen in childbirth over this time period. Second, descriptive and logistic regression analyses of the Center for Disease Control's Natality dataset, a census of U.S. birth certificate data, provide a picture childbirth trends and an understanding of the relationship between maternal characteristics and medicalized and natural births. Third, 35 qualitative interviews were conducted with pregnant women, focusing on their plans for their children's birth. The interviews also address the factors that influence women's plans and choices for childbirth, thus providing a better understanding of the social factors that affect birth plans.

The key finding of this research is that most women would prefer to be able to have the "best of both worlds" - the ability to experience childbirth as a natural process for as long as is safe and comfortable, combined with immediate access to the medical skills and technology that can assist them and their babies in an emergency.

The quantitative analyses demonstrate that alternatives to a mainstream model of childbirth are on the rise, even while these alternatives continue to represent only a small fraction of births. The increase in midwifery use while rates of hospital births remain relatively consistent suggests that many midwife-attended births are taking place in hospitals. These data support the finding that women like the idea of a natural birth, but also want to have ready access to trained doctors, surgeons, and the best medical care available in case something goes wrong.

There can be no doubt that childbirth, on the whole, had become a highly medicalized process. However, despite the fact that women want childbirth to be recognized as a natural process, there is no true movement for the demedicalization of childbirth. That is, women are not suggesting that medical intervention be removed entirely from childbirth. Instead, there need to be more options available to women, thus enabling them to give birth in a way that is comfortable and respectful of their preferences and goals, while simultaneously maintaining ready access to additional intervention, should it be necessary.

Implications for future research in childbirth and other fields of study are discussed.

The United States experienced a tremendous expansion of higher education after the Second World War. However, this expansion has not led to a substantial reduction to class inequalities at elite universities, where the admissions process is growing even more selective. In his classic studies of French education and society, Pierre Bourdieu explains how schools can contribute to the maintenance and reproduction of class inequalities. Bourdieu's concepts have stimulated much research in American sociology. However, quantitative applications have underappreciated important concepts and aspects of Bourdieu's theory and have generally ignored college life and achievement. With detailed survey and institutional data of students at elite, private universities, this dissertation addresses a gap in the literature with an underexplored theoretical approach.

First, I examine the class structure of elite universities. I argue that latent clustering analysis improves on Bourdieu's statistical approach, as well as locates class fractions that conventional schemas fail to appreciate. Nearly half of students have dominant class origins, including three fractions - professionals, executives and precarious professionals - that are distinguishable by the volume and composition of cultural and economic capital. Working class students remain severely underrepresented at elite, private universities. Second, I explore two types of social capital on an elite university campus. In its practical or immediate state, social capital exists as the resources embedded in networks. I explore the effects of extensive campus networks, and find that investments in social capital facilitate college achievement and pathways to professional careers. As an example of institutionalized social capital, legacies benefit from an admissions preference for applicants with family alumni ties. Legacies show a distinct profile of high levels of economic and cultural capital, but lower than expected achievement. Legacies activate their social capital across the college years, from college admissions to the prevalent use of personal contacts for plans after graduation.

Third, I examine how social class affects achievement and campus life across the college years, and the extent to which cultural capital mediates the link between class and academic outcomes. From first semester grades to graduation honors, professional and middle class students have higher levels of achievement in comparison to executive or subordinate class students. The enduring executive-professional gap suggests contrasting academic orientations for two dominant class fractions, while the underperformance of subordinate class students is due to differences in financial support, a human capital deficit early in college, and unequal access to "collegiate" cultural capital. Collegiate capital includes the implicit knowledge that facilitates academic success and encourages a satisfying college experience. Subordinate class students are less likely to participate in many popular aspects of elite campus life, including fraternity or sorority membership, study abroad, and drinking alcohol. Additionally, two common activities among postsecondary students - participating in social and recreational activities and changing a major field early in college - are uniquely troublesome for subordinate class students. Overall, I conclude that Bourdieu provides a unique and useful perspective for understanding educational inequalities at elite universities in the United States.

This study uses social integration theory within a life course framework to examine the relationships among social engagement, physical limitations, cognitive limitations, and mortality. Data for this study come from the Americans' Changing Lives survey, a nationally representative panel study conducted in 1986, 1989, 1994, and 2002, with mortality information spanning from 1986 to 2005. First, structural equation modeling is used in cross-lagged panel models to examine gender differences in these relationships. Findings suggest that social engagement may have protective effects on health limitations for women but that physical and cognitive limitations can present barriers for social engagement among men. Second, growth mixture models were used to examine patterns of social engagement over time. This study then examined how these patterns of social engagement related to physical and cognitive limitations (using latent growth curve models) and mortality (using Cox proportional hazards models). Findings suggest the importance of maintaining high levels of social engagement and increasing social engagement over time for better physical and cognitive health and lower risk of mortality for older adults.

Older women in the U.S. face greater risks of economic insecurity in comparison with other age groups and with men their own age. Although these risks have been documented in prior research, few studies investigate the life course mechanisms underlying women's retirement insecurity. This dissertation seeks to fill this gap by using a life course perspective and the theory of cumulative disadvantage to examine how women's earlier work and family experiences shape subsequent economic resources in retirement. The three major types of retirement resources in the U.S. - Social Security benefits, occupational pensions, and private retirement wealth - are considered. Analyses use a variety of modeling techniques and panel data from the Health and Retirement Study linked to restricted access Social Security Administration files. In addition, this dissertation specifically investigates retirement insecurity across birth cohorts of older women.

The first substantive chapter examines how Social Security benefit eligibility type is influenced by four major life course predictors: marital continuity, family timing, employment commitment, and cohort change. Social Security benefit type is an important indicator of retirement security for women because, despite nearly universal program coverage, benefit type is associated with differential economic security in retirement for women. Multinomial logit models demonstrate the importance of women's own paid employment histories for later benefit type. Receiving own worker Social Security benefits or being dually eligible for Social Security are more likely outcomes with increased employment experience. The second empirical chapter uses discrete-time even history models to examine the timing of women's access to occupation pension income. The timing of pension income receipt is relevant for women's retirement security because delayed access indicates a missing source of economic resources. Results reveal significant cohort differences in the timing of first pension receipt as well as the important roles of marital continuity and family timing for older women's access to occupational pension income. The final empirical chapter employs age-based growth models to examine differential trajectories of private retirement savings in early retirement (ages 51-65) across U.S. birth cohorts of women. This analysis examines both initial retirement wealth and wealth accumulation over time to understand how life course processes advantage some older women, but contribute to ongoing disadvantage for others as part of this third, major source of retirement security. Results from growth models reveal variation across birth cohorts as well as the negative effects of divorce for initial wealth holdings and growth in retirement wealth. Overall, this dissertation illustrates the importance of women's work and family experiences across the life course for the cumulative disadvantages they face in retirement. Moreover, each type of major retirement resource interacts with different aspects of women's prior work and family roles to produce economic outcomes in retirement.

Does social capital, resources embedded in social networks, influence health? My dissertation examines whether social capital directly impacts depression, and how it interplays with other established structural risk factors linked to depression. I analyze unique data from the thematic research project "Social Capital: Its Origins and Consequences," collected in 2004-5 in the United States. I measure social capital through one recently developed network instrument, the position generator. I use structural equation modeling to test the direct, mediating, and moderating effects of social capital on depressive symptoms. I also use the instrumental variable method to verify the causal order in the relationship between social capital and depression. Results show that social capital is associated with the level of depression in four ways. Social capital is associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms net of other variables. Part of the effect of social capital on depressive symptoms is indirect through subjective social status. Social capital mediates the associations of age, gender, being black (versus being white), marital status, education, occupation, annual family income, and social integration with depression. Social capital also interacts with gender, being black (versus being white), education, annual family income, and social integration. This research indicates that social capital is an important social antecedent of disease and illness.