Sociological Perspectives

African Americans continue to represent one of the most disadvantaged groups in the United States, lagging behind whites on most measures of well-being. Most explanations for the black-white disparity focus on the continued effects of racial discrimination. Other explanations attribute disadvantage to differences in social class origins or family structures. This study provides a critical test of the “racial discrimination,” “social class,” and “family structure” perspectives in regard to family income using data from the 1968 and 1988 Current Population Surveys. Major findings include: 1) race continued to have a negative effect on family income after controls in both 1968 and 1988; 2) race declined in importance by a very modest amount from 1968 to 1988; 3) in both 1968 and 1988, the negative effect of race was stronger for higher-status African Americans than for lower-status African Americans; and 4) the negative effect of race was greater for married-couple families than for female-headed families. Explanations for the findings are offered.

According to the theory of status characteristics, both status characteristics and performance information are combined to arrive at a single evaluation of the group member (combining). In this paper, an alternative formulation is proposed which maintains that status characteristics are used as a means of forming evaluations of group members only when members do not have access to performance information. When such information is available, it is used in arriving at an evaluation for the person (balancing). Empirical assessment of these positions indicates that combining occurs when status characteristics and performance information are consistent and that balancing occurs when status characteristics and performance information are inconsistent. Implications for the empirical scope of the theory of status characteristics are considered.

This paper examines the choices married women in Hong Kong make concerning their employment status. We attempt to relate such choices to wives' role constraints in the family. It is hypothesized that, given their primary responsibilities for child care and domestic labor, married women are likely to choose an employment status that best accomodates their familial obligations. The analysis of recent census data supports this expectation. Waged employment and self-employment are found to be in conflict with women's domestic responsibilities, whereas outworking and unpaid work in family enterprises are not. The last two employment statuses are characterized by a higher degree of work flexibility and, thus, working wives are in a better position to balance the demands of family and paid work.

This article uses a sociology of knowledge approach to discuss the reproduction of inequality within the sociocultural world of clerical workers. A model of a semiotic square is used to analyze the experiences of bored and busy work. Through this analysis of bored and busy work, the author discovered clerical workers' perceptions and activities which were both subordinating and empowering. Clerical workers participate in the process of subordination through bored/busy work. However, they also participate in empowering strategies through not-bored/not-busy work. This sociology of knowledge approach shows that people are not automatons and strengthens our understanding of the social reproduction of inequality as a multi-faceted phenomenon.

Using both quantitative and qualitative data collected in Portland, Oregon during 1989, this study tests two contradictory models of ethnic identity: primordialism and circumstantialism. Two questions are addressed: 1) does the third generation of Japanese Americans retain ethnic identity or has the group achieved complete identificational assimilation?; and 2) what factors impacted the group's identificational assimilation? The study suggests that there is attenuation of ethnic identity between successive generations. However, multivariate analyses indicate that the seemingly different ethnic identity of the second and third generations does not necessarily evidence the significance of generation in the identificational assimilation. Childhood and adult social networks are found to have the greatest effect on ethnic identity. This study also found that generational shift does not lead to identificational assimilation if and when successive generations are placed in the same circumstances.