Frank Clemente

Race and Research Productivity.

Throughout the development of the sociology of science, one of the focal points of empirical investigation has been the study of scholarly productivity. A number of variables have been examined in regard to their impact upon productivity including sex (Austin, 1969), age (Pelz and Andrews, 1966), quality of department of doctoral training (Hagstrom, 1971), institutional affiliation (Crane, 1965), college grades (Folger et al., 1971), and professional orientation (Babchuk and Bates, 1962). One factor, however, which has received little attention is race. As Conyers (1968) has pointed out, students of productivity have generally ignored race as a possible explanatory variable. The present study attempts to shed some light upon the relationship between race and research output by examining the productivity of black and nonblack holders of the Ph.D.

Power plants in rural area communities: Their size, type and perceived impacts

Abstract The construction of large‐scale electric generating facilities has become the focus of considerable controversy in recent years. The controversy is, in part, a consequence of social changes such as disenchantment with the “growth ethic” and increased environmental concern. Opponents to the development of large‐scale electric generating facilities have generally argued that while power plants may temporarily enhance the local economy, their adverse effects far outweigh any potential social or economic benefits for the host community.

Racial Differences in Life Satisfaction

The determination of life statisfaction in the United States has received considerable empirical attention in recent years. In the search for predictive correlates of satisfaction numerous variables have been examined including age (Robinson and Shaver, 1970), sex (Bradburn, 1969), race (Marans and Rodgers, 1972), socioeconomic status (Alston and Dudley, 1973), health (Youmans, 1973), and religiosity (Edwards and Klemmack, 1972). While most of these variables have consistently emerged as being related to life satisfaction (cf. Palmore and Luikart, 1972), the findings related to race have been ambiguous and often contradictory. One the one hand, Davis (1965), Bradburn (1969), and Marans and Rodgers (1972) found blacks to score lower on various indices of satisfaction with life than whites. Bradburn (1969: 49) best sums up the general interpretation of these results:

Support for the Medical Profession among the Aged

National survey data are utilized to delineate areas of confidence among the aged in the medical profession. Four key specifying variables were used in the analysis—race, sex, socioeconomic status, and size of community. Findings indicate that confidence in medical leaders is lowest among that group which in past studies has been found to visit the doctor most often: the elderly of low socioeconomic status. This finding suggests that improvement in the medical care received by the aged could be an important first step in restoring the elderlys confidence in medical leaders.

Comparison of Occupational and Industrial Indices in Measuring the Division of Labor

As has been frequently pointed out (Gibbs and Martin, 1962: 699; Lampard, 1968: 100; Browning and Gibbs, 1971: 233), one of the most neglected areas of study in sociology and economics is the development of the division of labor. Although the process of functional differentiation is central to classical social theory (Smith, 1963: 4-10; Marx, 1964: 97; Durkheim, 1933; Spencer, 1921; Simmel, 1959: 53), as well as the more contemporary perspectives of human ecology (Hawley, 1950) and urban economics (Thompson, 1965), the division of labor has received little systematic attention since Durkheims well known discussion in 1893. As Lampard (1968: 100) has noted: