Despite their longstanding interest in race, American sociologists have conducted little empirical research on sociodemographic patterns or longitudinal trends in "racial conceptualization"--that is, notions of what race is, how races differ, and the origins of race. This article outlines key empirical, methodological and theoretical…

The sociology of religion today faces new and remarkable opportunities to contribute interesting and important knowledge and understanding about the role of religion in social, political, economic and cultural life for scholarly and public audiences. But in order to meet and capitalize successfully upon those opportunities, the field at present…

Although the past decade has witnessed increased usage of ecological data to map the community-level effects of religion, the vast majority of studies in this body of scholarship continue to be plagued by two key shortcomings. First, ecological research on religion is often conducted in an atheoretical manner, one that privileges the structural…

In this article, the authors clarify and provide additional tests of the key elements of their age-period-cohort analysis of non-marital birth rates in this March 2009 issue of "Social Forces." Where Steve Martin, in his commentary, has suggested specific alternative specifications or interpretations of their findings, the authors have…

The authors welcome and appreciate the comments of Eric Grodsky and Sigal Alon on their article "Shadow Education, American Style: Test Preparation, the SAT and College Enrollment." In their comments, Grodsky takes issue with several important theoretical and methodological aspects of their article and Alon highlights key processes…

White racial identity is central to whiteness studies. In order to further explore this key concept, this research uses new national survey data to model determinants of white racial identity. This article analyzes how prejudice, views on diversity and beliefs about America impact the importance of racial identity for whites. The data I use come…

Buchmann, Condron and Roscigno argue in their article, "Shadow Education, American Style: Test Preparation, the SAT and College Enrollment," that the activities in which students engage to prepare for college entrance exams are forms of shadow education, a means by which more advantaged parents seek to pass their privileged status along…

Recent disasters have been of such scale and complexity that both the common assumptions made about learning from them, and the traditional approaches distinguishing natural from technological disasters (and now terrorism) are thus challenged. Beck's risk thesis likewise signals the need for a paradigmatic change. Despite sociological inflections…

This article illustrates two conceptual and methodological problems that interfere with the accurate identification and measurement of religious mobilization in global civil society. First, data used to study the organizational composition of global culture contain a selection bias that favors organizations within an elite stratum of the world…

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 the comparability of various types of income inequality data used in cross-national research. Focuses on more stringent definition and measurement of income. Presents income distribution data (quintile distributions and Gini coefficients) for 61 nations that meet these stricter requirements. Contains 37 references. (SV)

Four traits of voluntary organizations (group size, age composition, sex composition, and educational composition) were measured with three different methods: reports from a probability sample of members, reports from a group official, and direct survey of members at an organizational meeting. In general, the three methods of gathering data…

Discusses two types of research--the "new structuralism" approach and "work and personality" studies--on the occupational attainment aspect of social mobility. Suggests that a life course approach to social mobility processes may provide a basis for integrating the structural and social psychological perspectives. Contains 25…

Cross-national inequality trends have historically been a crucial field of inquiry across the social sciences, and new methodological techniques of statistical inference have recently improved the ability to analyze these trends over time. This paper applies Monte Carlo, bootstrap inference methods to the income surveys of the Luxembourg Income…

Using a 1995 national survey of 2,870 Chinese private entrepreneurs, this article examines collaboration between private business and government in times of economic transition. Much as in the late 18th century situation in France as described by Tocqueville, special moments occur when a newly emerging business class offers monetary payments for…