Scott T. Fitzgerald
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Featured researches published by Scott T. Fitzgerald.
Social Forces | 2005
Scott T. Fitzgerald; Ryan E. Spohn
This article further specifies the relationship between church-based resources, group identification and political activism among black Americans. Previous research indicates that political communication within churches and activism within the church serve to motivate political participation. Our research suggests that, net of relevant controls, activism within the church does not significantly increase protest politics. A key determinant of protest participation is attending a church that exhibits a politicized church culture, and this effect is contingent upon educational attainment and membership in secular organizations. Hence, the church serves as a crucial context for the dissemination of political messages and exposure to opportunities for protest only for those black Americans with relatively low educational achievement and organizational involvement. Group identification has no effect on protest participation.
Sociological Spectrum | 2008
Scott T. Fitzgerald; Jennifer L. Glass
Using nationally representative data, this article assesses whether the timing of life course transitions (i.e., marriage and childbirth) can explain the lower educational attainment of individuals raised in conservative Protestant (CP) households. A key finding is that early family formation affects educational attainment for both white and black women raised in CP households. For white women, the timing of family formation, net of controls, reduces the negative effect of childhood CP to insignificance. For black women, the timing of family formation reduces but does not eliminate the negative effect. For black men and white men, the negative effect of childhood CP on adult educational attainment is explained away by control variables.
Sociological Spectrum | 2010
Scott T. Fitzgerald; Beth A. Rubin
Risk society theory posits that the transformation of industrial to postindustrial society corresponded with a transformation of societal power structured by capital, to one structured by the ability to define risk. Perceptions of risk are, in part, socially constructed and created through the framing efforts of various institutional actors. The resulting struggle over meaning is particularly acute when the issues contain many unknown elements—as is the case with emerging technologies. Applying insights from media studies, frame analysis, and organizational theory, we analyze coverage of nanotechnology (NT) in popular press, trade, and general science publications. The findings document the extent to which the risks of this emerging technology are presented or ignored across, between, and within organizational subfields. The analysis empirically assesses a key proposition of risk society theory and reveals how institutional processes reflect and reproduce power differentials. We discuss the implications of the empirical findings for sociological theories of risk and society, power, and collective action.
American Behavioral Scientist | 2001
Scott T. Fitzgerald; Mack C. Shelley; Paula W. Dail
The difficulties surrounding research on homelessness are numerous and substantial. Using a statewide census of homelessness, this article analyzes and critiques common methodological techniques employed in that study. In addition, using cross-tabulation and loglinear modeling, the relationship between key demographic variables and the cited primary cause of homelessness, as well as the types of housing needed, are assessed. Through a multiphased process, which isolates the effects of the operationalized definition of homelessness, significant changes emerge. The operational definition of homelessness is found to affect the demographic composition of the sample, the estimation of annual incidents of homelessness, and the estimation of the statewide number of homeless individuals. The impact of the uncertainty surrounding research on homelessness on policy formation is addressed.
Social currents | 2015
Jennifer L. Glass; April Sutton; Scott T. Fitzgerald
Research revealing associations between Conservative Protestantism and lower socioeconomic status is bedeviled by questions of causal inference. Religious switching offers another way to understand the causal ordering of religious participation and demographic markers of class position. In this article, we look at adolescents who change their religious affiliation across four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and then observe their transition to adulthood using four crucial markers—completed educational attainment, age at first marriage, age at first birth, and income at the final wave. Results show that switching out of a Conservative Protestant denomination in adolescence can alter some, but not all, of the negative consequences associated with growing up in a Conservative Protestant household. Specifically, family formation is delayed among switchers, but early cessation of education is not.
Contemporary Sociology | 2016
Scott T. Fitzgerald
During recent years, a growing body of research has emerged documenting the economic struggles faced by many Americans and the shifting, often elusive, quest for security. Since the 1970s, average workers’ wages have been largely stagnant and long-term employment relationships have become less common, while the costs of maintaining the ‘‘American Dream’’ (e.g., home ownership, higher education, healthcare, childcare, retirement) have risen. The economic and political forces leading to these changes have received considerable attention; however, what is less known is how families respond to these challenges. In Cut Adrift: Families in Insecure Times, Marianne Cooper provides a well-researched and engaging account of the emotional, psychological, and physical work involved in managing economic insecurity. The study is based on interviews and ethnographic study of families in California’s Silicon Valley conducted over a two-year period. Cooper combines interview data from 50 families, representing a range of viewpoints and incomes, with in-depth ethnographic fieldwork with a few families to uncover the dynamics and realities of dayto-day life. Silicon Valley differs from the rest of the country in multiple ways and, in fact, represents an ‘‘extreme case’’ (p. 55). It is an extremely expensive place to live and raise a family. During the period of data collection, median home prices were around
Journal of Consumer Behaviour | 2012
Cara Peters; Charles D. Bodkin; Scott T. Fitzgerald
600,000; median rent for a three-bedroom unit was about
Sociological Quarterly | 2014
Scott T. Fitzgerald
2,000; and it was estimated to cost nearly
Archive | 2012
Scott T. Fitzgerald; Jennifer L. Glass
80,000 a year for a two-income household to cover housing, food, childcare and other base-line ‘‘middle class’’ costs (p. 5). The median incomes for the families in the study are also much higher than national figures: they ranged from
Policy Studies Journal | 2000
Paula W. Bail; Mack C. Shelley; Scott T. Fitzgerald
45,000 (single mothers), to