Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review: Reshaping The Work-Family Debate: Why Men And Class Matter By Joan C. Williams, Kurt Osborne

Great Plains Sociologist

Williams, Joan C. Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter. Harvard University Press, 2012, 304 pp., $18.95 paperback.

A Day At The Morgue: Student Interpretations Of Death And Reality, Jason L. Karsky, Pamela M. Everett, Donald E. Arwood

Great Plains Sociologist

This study involved the reflections of 15 college students six months after a visit to a morgue. After witnessing the various aspects of death at the morgue (e.g. morgue intake of bodies, significant time spent in a very large storage cooler for corpses, as well as an autopsy) a qualitative inquiry was conducted to determine whether or not the participants’ experiences were “real” or “surreal.” Analysis revealed that most determined their experience to be surreal. The students’ lack of experience with death, to the extent they experienced it at the morgue, no doubt resulted in more subjects determining the experience …

The Ritual Of Riots: An Examination Of University And College Riots, 1990 – 2009, Sandra Marker

Great Plains Sociologist

Between 1990 and 2009 a wave of student riots washed across 52 college campuses and communities in the United States. Over 100 riots erupted from student festivities and sporting events. On a cursory level, today’s student riots in contrast to past Vietnam War Era campus riots that had a specific goal (i.e., ending the war), seem to have no particular aim nor objective other than the consumption of alcohol. This has led researchers to presume that excessive student drinking is a significant causal factor to these events; however, findings from initial student riot studies indicate that alcohol is neither a …

An Examination Of Geographic And Socio- Demographic Impacts On Private Industry Job Change In The Dakotas, 2002 – 2008, W. Trevor Brooks, Jake Cummings, Joshua J. Turner

Great Plains Sociologist

This study examines geographic and socio-demographic factors associated with private industry job change in North and South Dakota from 2002 to 2008. We conceptualize private industries as enterprises or businesses that are individually or corporately owned and operated outside the public sector. County-level occupational data were captured using the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). Results indicate that percentage of workers commuting to another county for work, median household income, the percentage of residents identifying as American Indian and Alaska Native, and population change were significant predictors of county-level private industry job change.

Book Review: Debating Sex And Gender By Georgia Wamke, Laura Colmenero-Chilberg

Great Plains Sociologist

Warnke, Georgia. Debating Sex and Gender. Oxford University Press, 2011, 144 pp., $19.95 paperback.

Book Review: Fat Matters: From Sociology To Science Edited By Gina Tsichlia And Alexandra M. Johnstone, Brittney Hansen

Great Plains Sociologist

Tsichlia, Gina and Alexandra M. Johnstone (Eds.). Fat Matters: From Sociology to Science. M & K Update Ltd., 2010, 144 pp., $45.00 paperback.

Voters Reframe The Abortion Policy Debate: A Theoretical Analysis Of Abortion Attitudes In South Dakota, Pamela Carriveau, Linda Colmenero-Chilberg

Great Plains Sociologist

Since the Supreme Court’s announced its decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), individuals and groups opposed to legalized abortion in the United States have battled to reverse the ruling. Using established political processes, incremental steps such as parental consent requirements and/or twenty-four hour waiting periods have been strategically advanced as they charted the path to their real goal – an all-out abortion ban. Contemporary South Dakota Pro-Life activists abandoned this incremental approach in 2006, in the belief that the time was ripe for a voter-supported broadbased abortion ban that could be used to challenge the Supreme Court decision. They failed, …

Understanding Workday Housework Participation: Testing Three Theories, Krista Lynn Minnotte, Matti Grotte

Great Plains Sociologist

In this study we examine the usefulness of three theories (time availability theory, gender ideology theory, and relative resources) in predicting workday housework performance among partnered and married mothers and fathers. In doing so, we incorporate an extended version of time availability theory that considers the use of flexible scheduling and the presence of nonstandard work hours in addition to number of hours worked. Our hypotheses are addressed with data from a nationally representative sample of employed adults. Our results show that none of the theories are useful in predicting fathers’ workday housework performance; however, two theories are beneficial for …

Structural Conditions And Migration In The Dakotas, Joshua J. Turner, W. Trevor Brooks, Donald E. Arwood

Great Plains Sociologist

This study examines the influence of selected structural conditions on the county-level net-migration trends of North Dakota and South Dakota. Key principles from Lee’s Theory of Migration (1966) and Wallerstein’s World Systems model (1974) were integrated to explain how geographic context, economic dependency, and pace of economic development combine to serve as the main catalysts behind the migration patterns in these two states. Results indicate that commuting patterns, the percentage of workers employed in extractive industries, the percentage of workers employed in manufacturing, and job change rates were significant predictors of county migration patterns.

Book Review: School Of Dreams: Making The Grade At A Top American High School By Edward Humes, Jake Thomas

Great Plains Sociologist

Humes, Edward. School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003. 400 pp. $14.00 paperback.

An Exploratory Study Of Job Satisfaction Among Mail Handlers And Sorters In A Package-Delivery Organization, A. Olu Oyinlade, Carla Garay

Great Plains Sociologist

This is an exploratory study of the correlates and predictors of job satisfaction among mail handlers and sorters, in a package-delivery organization, used as case study. Job satisfaction has been widely studied, but most studies have largely neglected manual laborers. This study is a shift from traditional research participants (health care providers, the military, scientists) of job satisfaction studies to manual workers. A research framework consisting of a theoretical and a demographic model was used to establish correlates and predictors of job satisfaction. Findings of correlation analyses and three regression models (used for triangulation) showed that ten variables were correlated …

A Test Of Social Disorganization On Juvenile Property And Violent Crime Rates By Zip Codes Within Two Nonmetropolitan Counties, Mario T. Hesse, Susan M. Hilal

Great Plains Sociologist

This study tests the effects of social disorganization on juvenile crimes rates by zip code within two nonmetropolitan counties. It does so by examining the relationships between the selected social disorganization indicators of nontraditional family, residential mobility, and socioeconomic status (poverty) and violent and property crime among juveniles through the use of ANOVA testing. Secondary data obtained from the South Dakota Department of Corrections on adjudicated juveniles and their associated crime and residential location, as well as data from the United States Census Bureau is used and analyzed to test three main hypotheses. Findings indicate that areas characterized by poverty …

Historical Perspectives On Affirmative Action, Diversity And Multiculturalism In United States Higher Education, Kebba Darboe

Great Plains Sociologist

This paper examines the historical perspectives on affirmative action, diversity and multiculturalism in United States Higher Education. Affirmative action is a legal program that ensures that qualified and historically underrepresented groups, especially African Americans and women, are given preference in the hiring, promotion, and admission in colleges and universities. By contrast, diversity and multiculturalism are social constructions of reality. Diversity is an inclusion process designed to foster an environment where talents, uniqueness and differences of all people are respected and valued in schools or workplace situations. Multiculturalism is a movement that insists that American society has never been white, but …

Book Review: Men On A Mission: Valuing Youth Work In Our Communities By William Marsiglio, Kristi D. Treviño

Great Plains Sociologist

Book Review: Men on a Mission: Valuing Youth Work in Our Communities by William Marsiglio

Future Population Shifts In The Great Plains And Their Implications, Richard Rathge

Great Plains Sociologist

The dynamics of population change in the Great Plains are complex and largely hidden. From a regional or even state perspective, one is left with the impression that the area has enjoyed sustained population growth. All 12 states in the region (i.e., Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) increased their population from 1990 to 2000, and the region as a whole expanded by 6.7 million people or 17 percent (Rathge, 2005). In fact, the region’s population has doubled since 1950. However, these aggregate statistics mask a very different reality. Population …

Revisiting The Overurbanization Theses: A Test Of A Theoretically Inclusive Model Using Path Modeling With Lisrel, Luis Posas

Great Plains Sociologist

This study tests the structural linkages of well-known theoretical determinants of overurbanization in low-income nations. It represents a general call to advance theoretically inclusive analysis using standard methodological tools in the current literature. The proposed theoretically inclusive model tests the effects of international and intra-national forces on overurbanization. Using data from low income countries for the period late-1960s-to-mid-1980s, the study presents the results of path models estimated by Generalized Least Square (GLS) with LISREL. The results show that foreign investment exacerbates overurbanization through its short-term positive effect on economic development, confirming assumptions of World Systems and Modernization theories. In addition, …

Accessing Food In Rural Food Deserts In Iowa And Minnesota, Lois Wright Morton, Chery Smith

Great Plains Sociologist

The purpose of this research is to examine the food infrastructure (grocery stores and food safety net services) available to meet the food needs of people living in high poverty rural places. Random mail surveys (n=1,516), purposeful in-person surveys (n=665), and market basket food price surveys of 130 USDA Thrifty Food Plan items in 16 grocery stores in six rural counties in Iowa and Minnesota provide data for this analysis. We find that Iowa rural users of food safety net services are more likely to depend on others to get to the grocery store (5.6-6.2%) compared to similar population in …

Church Satisfaction Among Rural Minnesota Protestant Lay Leaders, Terry E. Huffman

Great Plains Sociologist

This paper reports on general church satisfaction among a sample of rural Minnesota Protestant lay leaders. The author examined the relationship between the dependent variable general church satisfaction with eight independent variables divided into three dimensions of church life. Prominent findings indicate that the vitality of churches is associated with higher levels of church satisfaction among the lay leaders. Additionally, older lay leaders reported greater general satisfaction with their church than did younger lay leaders. However, church contentment is not significantly connected to the mere size of the congregation, type of denomination, gender of the lay leader, or status of …

Gender In Pop Fiction: “Reading” Gender Power In Popular Fiction, Linda Colmenero-Chilberg

Great Plains Sociologist

This article investigates changes in the levels of women’s power in the American publishing industry in the period between 1985 and 2004. Four areas are analyzed including the representation of women at the executive levels of publishing divisions and international media conglomerates, the gender of the most powerful mass market authors of popular fiction, the gender focus of those genres that are most popular with the buying public and the representation of male and female characters in that mass-market genre fiction.

Briefly Noted

Great Plains Sociologist

Short summaries of new books. A book's appearance here does not preclude its being reviewed in a subsequent volume.

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Reviewer: Karen Glumm
A Sociology of Mental Illness
Mark Tausig, Janet Michello, and Sree Subedi

Reviewer: Susan L. Schrader
Intersections: Readings in Sociology
Ralph B. McNeal, Jr., and Kathleen A. Tiemann, Eds.

Reviewer: Tracy B. Citeroni
White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender, and Body in North India
Sarah Lamb

Reviewer: Michele Lee Chesser
Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, & Future Reparations
Joe R. Feagin

Reviewer: Annette Prosterman
Environmentalism Unbound: Exploring New Pathways for Change
Robert Gottlieb

Reviewer: Jack Niemonen
Tripping on the Color Line: Black-White Multiracial Families in a Racially Divided World
Heather M. Dalmage

Reviewer: Scott London
Colonizing …

Democratization Of Large Bureaucratic Organizations Having A Vertical Power Structure And An Authoritarian Leadership, Jorgen Bro

Great Plains Sociologist

This paper discusses how grass-root workers in large bureaucratic organizations can organize and thereby force democratic changes in the workplace when it has a vertical power structure and an authoritarian leadership. The kinds of organizations we are considering are large factories and similar organizations where a majority of the members are manual or low skilled workers. When we discuss leaders, we are primarily considering the management leadership, but under some circumstances also top-leaders when it is relevant. The paper will first define and discuss the relationship between democracy, bureaucracy, power, leadership, vertical power, and authoritarian leadership. Second, we will discuss …

Sioux Falls' Indian Population: Demographic Profile, Strengths And Challenges, Susan L. Schrader

Great Plains Sociologist

Representatives of the urban Indian community in Sioux Falls, South Dakota conducted a door-to-door survey of urban Indian households in the winter of1997. Data from 526 urban Indian households is presented, paying particular attention to service utilization, helping behaviors within the urban Indian community, and potential challenges to the city as it experiences rapid influxes of Indians to the urban environment. Implication from the study are investigated, and recommendations for future research are made.

Tenure Of Girl Scout Volunteer Leaders: An Issue Of Self-Role Merger, Donald E. Arwood, Linda Brandt, Jason Karsky, Forrest Sanner

Great Plains Sociologist

Past and present Girl Scout Volunteer Leaders (GSVLs) in a regional Girl Scout council were sampled to determine the factors that theoretically lead to self-role merger as a GSVL. Self-role merger as a GSVL exists when interacting with others, as a GSVL, is important in sustaining one's sense of worth as a person. The relationship between self-role merger and tenure as a GSVL was also examined. A test of hypotheses shows that the following variables are strongly related with self-role merger: a sense of achievement gained through role performances, the friendships developed through volunteering, and the extent of activities performed …

Poor Children And Vacation Homes: The Relationship Between Seasonal Homes And Child Poverty In Wisconsin Counties, Carol D. Miller

Great Plains Sociologist

Seasonal residents escape to their vacation homes in Northern Wisconsin to enjoy the natural resources and recreation. However, their presence affects the economies of Northern counties. U.S.Census data are analyzed and results show that high percentages of seasonal homes are correlated with higher child poverty rates. A higher percentage of seasonal homes in a county is associated with higher unemployment rates, high housing costs, more jobs in services and fewer jobs in manufacturing and extractive industries. Vacation homes distort local economies around retail and services that provide low-wage jobs for families, so children living in counties with a high percentage …

Front Matter

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter
Editorial Policy Statement
Contents

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Reviewer: Diane Kayongo-Male
Reinventing Identities: The Gendered Self in Discourse
Mary Bucholtz, A.C. Liang, and Laurel A. Sutton

Reviewer: Janet Kelly Moen
The Web of Politics: The Internet's Impact on the American Political System
Richard Davis

Reviewer: James H. Larson
Reinventing the Wheel: Marx, Durkheim and Comparative Criminology
Ni He. Lanham

Reviewer: Robert Thompson
New Historical Atlas of Religion in America
Edwin S. Gaustad and Philip L. Barlow

Reviewer: Carol J. Cumber
One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy
Thomas Frank

Reviewer: Elizabeth Gill
Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives
Anthony …

Briefly Noted

Great Plains Sociologist

Culture, Conflict and Children: Transmission of Violence to Children

Danger in the Field: Risk and Ethics in Social Research

Travels Through Crime and Place: Community Building as Crime Control

Robbing Drug Dealers: Violence Beyond the Law

Social Conflicts and Collective Identities

The Paradox of Social Order: Linking Psychology and Sociology

Self, Identity, and Social Movements

Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue: New Social Movements in America

Flag Burning: Moral Panic and the Criminalization of Protest

Means Without End: Notes on Politics

Old Order Mennonites: Rituals, Beliefs, and Community

The Kibbutz: Awakening From Utopia

The Deathly Embrace: Orientalism and Asian …

Stepmothers' Preparation For Remarriage: Influence On Spouse And Stepchildren Relations, Cindi Penor Ceglian, Donald Arwood, Renee Oscarson, Jason Karsky

Great Plains Sociologist

Role theory suggests that preparation for one's role contributes to clearer guidelines and less ambiguity about role performance, which in turn contribute to unity and stability of family life (Cherlin, 1978). The purpose of this study was to examine if stepmothers preparation for remarriage (observation, reading, educational programs, or talking to their spouses) influenced their relationships with stepchildren and spouses. The results indicate that stepmothers who prepare for remarriage are more involved with their stepchildren, have higher levels of communication with the children's fathers regarding child rearing issues, and have positive relationships with their stepchildren.

The Devils Lake, North Dakota -- Manitoba Water Trouble Case: A Transitional Environmental Problem, Lisa Brandt

Great Plains Sociologist

The Devils Lake—Manitoba water trouble case clearly shows the characteristics of a transnational environmental problem. This class of problem is difficult to negotiate because little innovative organizational structure has been created to manage contemporary multi-definitional problems. Furthermore, two major social forces, global interdependence and ethnolocal independence, act as mechanisms within an ecosystem management context to complicate attempts by parties to influence each others' behavior. Unilateral action rules the day but is under increasing pressure by social and cultural forces to give way to negotiated changes in transboundary cost-sharing and resource control situations.