Sociological Perspectives

Motives and demographic characteristics of members of democratically controlled businesses in northern California and Oregon are described. Participants are young, well-educated, and low to middle income. Compared to private firms offering similar goods or services, members perceive co-ops and collectives as superior in social atmosphere, price, learning opportunities, quality of goods and services, and honest merchandising; as less satisfactory in amount of time devoted to membership obligations. The collectives are more committed to social objectives than are the consumer cooperatives. There is little overlap among the motives or the membership in the two organizational formats. Implications of the diverse motives and membership for the spread of the cooperative movement are discussed.

A multivariate analysis of survey data collected by Claude Fischer (1982) in northern California is used to test whether or not homeownership is associated with attitudes and behaviors that seem supportive of the prevailing social order. Homeownership has a zero-order relationship with each of three indicators of “social attachment”: Attitudes indicative of traditionalism; participation in voluntary organizations; and informal interaction with neighbors. While the bivariate relationships between homeownership and each of the three social binds are reduced when socioeconomic status variables, life cycle variables, ecological variables, and length of residence are controlled, the partial coefficients for homeownership remain statistically significant.

Using longitudinal data collected from a subsample (N = 92) of subjects surveyed five years earlier by Shoemaker et al. (1977), the present study assesses the relative utility of two distinctly different approaches to the study of occupational and organizational commitment. The first is the structural investments or side-bet approach made famous by Becker (1960); the second, the attitudinal or social psychological perspective used by Ritzer and Trice (1969), among others. Based on regression analyses of data, for the two time periods studied and for changes across time, structural variables appear to be slightly better predictors of commitment than do attitudinal variables. Of particular note, however, are the changes in predictive power of each approach, relative to both occupational and organizational commitment, when comparing two distinct stages in the worker career of employees represented by the five-year span of the study.

The 1976 Survey of Income and Education Public Use tapes have been used to elaborate and extend previous studies on the elderly Asians in the United States and to suggest implications for public policy regarding this group. An analysis of specific demographic, socioeconomic, and housing characteristics of the elderly Asian population (separately for the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos) in 1976 is reported. A sample of elderly Anglos has been used as a comparison group. More detailed and in depth analyses are reported on the sources, benefits, and amount of income or earnings received by the elderly Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino population in the United States in 1976. It is concluded that although the elderly of all ethnic groups are socially and economically disadvantaged compared to the general population, the Asian elderly, particularly the elderly Chinese and Filipinos, suffer greater disadvantages than the elderly Anglos. Policy recommendations are suggested.

A number of theorists argue that delinquency stems from the adolescent's need for autonomy. In particular, the systematic blockage of this need in the United States is said to lead to delinquency by reducing social control and increasing the adolescent's level of frustration and anger. This theory is tested by examining the effect of the need for autonomy on delinquency among a national sample of adolescent boys. Data support the theory, indicating that (1) the need for autonomy is able to explain individual and group variations in delinquency, and (2) the effect of the need for autonomy is explained largely by level of social control and frustration/anger.

Case studies of “boom towns” in the western United States and the theory of social disorganization predict positive effects of recent growth and energy development on the violent crime rate in small towns and rural areas. Regression results, with controls for local characteristics prior to the energy boom of the 1970s, give little evidence of additive effects of recent growth and energy development on the violent crime rate in nonmetropolitan counties of the major energy-producing states. Long-standing structural problems are better predictors of the violent crime rate than are recent changes associated with energy development.