Vern Baxter

Residential mortgage foreclosure and neighborhood change

Abstract We use New Orleans as a case study to explore residential mortgage foreclosure as one mechanism linking prior black population and changes in employment levels with changes in aggregate income, housing tenure, vacancy rates, and black population size. Mortgage foreclosure data are merged with 1980 and 1990 census data aggregated at the block group level. Structural equation modeling results indicate that both economic change and prior racial composition are associated with reductions in median block group incomes. Racial transition and loss of employment and income also increased foreclosure rates. Economic change and prior racial composition together impact neighborhoods through their effects on income and foreclosure rates, which in turn differentially affect vacancy rates, the change in black population, and the housing tenure status of residents. The differential effects of these variables point to the persistence of a dual housing market for blacks and whites in New Orleans.

RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE AND RACIAL TRANSITION IN NEW ORLEANS

In this article, the authors explore residential mortgage foreclosure as a mechanism that links economic shocks and the process of racial transition (Lauria 1998). Their analysis indicates that housing foreclosures added momentum to an ongoing process of racial transition, net of the effects of exogenous economic shocks and such other variables as median income of residents, change in the value of owner-occupied housing, and the existing racial distribution of population. Foreclosure appears to have the strongest effect on racial transition in block groups where resident incomes are above the lowest levels and there is a preexisting and increasing black population.

Cultural Meaning and Hip-Hop Fashion in the African-American Male Youth Subculture of New Orleans.

This paper reports results from an ethnographic study of African-American youth subculture in a New Orleans high school. The paper contends that youth subculture remains an important construct to situate stylistic resistance among subaltern groups like urban black youth that confront demands for conformity from representatives of institutional authority with alternative cultural solutions. The core argument is that resistance to demands for conformity among members of this subculture stands as a challenge to institutional power enforced by agents of media, school, police, and the prison that label as deviant stylistic expressions such as wearing sagging black pants and braided hairstyles. However, care must be taken not to reify youth subculture affiliation as overly inclusive and resistant, and instead focus on the variable commitment of participants to dominant culture or subculture. Subcultural styles like wearing sagging black pants manifest an ambiguous cocktail of resistance and acceptance of hegemonic ideals and reveal the contradictory fashion and behavioral codes of contending status orders that validate identities.

Honor, Status, And Aggression In Economic Exchange

The concept of honor links reputation and self-esteem with interaction in social groups and provides a promising way to approach questions about the release of aggression in economic exchange. While the internalization of conventional honor codes offers the hope of peaceful, if not just, exchange, competing codes of honor coexist within various aspects of the self and among members of various status groups. When a persons sense of individual or group honor is repeatedly violated in economic interaction, the reaction may include the release of aggression to repair damaged honor and establish self-respect. The narrative proceeds with an exploration of the concept of honor followed by a brief review of the association of honor with rational action in pursuit of economic success. The problematic inscription on the self of conventional codes of honor is then discussed. A brief discussion of staged role performance and the display of alternative codes of honor in workplace interaction and in extralegal market exchange illustrates the argument. A final section considers alternative approaches to the problem of self-control as social control.

Labor and politics in the U.S. Postal Service

This book is about the production and delivery of mail service by the United States Postal Service. The Postal Service employs more civilians than any other organization in the United States, and provides a regular communication service that is available for everyone in the country. Over 725,000 career postal employees handled 166 billion pieces of mail and generated revenues in excess of

An investigation of the time between mortgage default and foreclosure

40 billion in 1992 (USPS, 1993a). The post office is one of the core institutions in American society with roots that go back to colonial times, an emblematic example of the provision of public service in a capitalist democracy. The official functions of the post office are stated in Title 39 of the U.S. Code: The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities. The costs of establishing and maintaining the Postal Service shall not be apportioned to impair the overall value of such service to the people [USPS, 1973, p. 4].

The Effects of Industry Governance on Offshore Oil Development in the Gulf of Mexico

This paper evaluates the speed at which lenders enter the mortgage foreclosure process, interpreting slower rates as evidence of forbearance. A telephone survey was conducted to evaluate the presence of lender discrimination in defaults that lead to foreclosure in New Orleans, Louisiana between 1985 and 1990. These data are used to estimate the independent effects of race and neighbourhood characteristics on the extent of lender assistance during the foreclosure process. The analysis does not reveal discrimination based on race of borrower or racial composition of the neighbourhood. Instead, greater time in default is granted loans with lower interest rates and loans with outstanding balances below the mean value of housing in the surrounding neighbourhood.

The differential effects of technology, individual attributes, and perceived job rewards on job satisfaction

This article presents an historical analysis of the way governance arrangements in the petroleum industry have affected development of offshore oil resources in the Gulf of Mexico. Global competition over differential rents and natural value available from petroleum extraction were instrumental in the construction of oil prices high enough to support profitable investment offshore. Attention to the social construction of oil prices illustrates how political discourse on national security and conservation helps translate economic logic into strategic political coalitions and state action. The article shows how the unequal flow of resources in a global extractive industry, as organized by transnational corporations and states, interacts with marginal costs and differential rents to influence economic development. Development of Louisiana offshore oil after the second world war was protected by a private international price cartel, federally enforced import quotas and tax laws. Competition in the industry and the OPEC price increases of the 1970s undermined US domination of world oil, but higher oil prices further stimulated investment offshore. The subsequent breakdown of stable governance in the 1980s drove down oil prices, hastened restructuring of the petroleum industry and caused a rapid decline in Louisiana offshore investment. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997.

COMPETING RATIONALITIES AND THE POLITICS OF INTERORGANIZATIONAL REGULATION

Researchers disagree on the effects of mechanization technology on job rewards and job satisfaction, and on the importance of a good fit between skills, education, and job satisfaction in the computerized workplace. Data from a national survey of manual clerks, machine operators, and maintenance employees in the U.S. Postal Service were used to examine the relationship between perceived job rewards, individual attributes, and job satisfaction for occupants of jobs that were differently affected by computer mechanization. Perceived job rewards were the most powerful predictors of job satisfaction, although important differences were found in job satisfaction of occupants of different mail processing jobs. The way technology was implemented in the workplace affected job rewards and job satisfaction, but the fit of people to jobs also influenced job satisfaction for incumbents of jobs that were differentially affected by mechanization technology.

The Elusive Pursuit of Dignity

This article reports results of an analysis of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) regulatory activity from 1952 to 1986. Support is found for a synthesis of resource dependence and institutional theories of interorganizational regulation. Regulation maintains stable competitive relationships by tying competing orientations to resource exchange and the institutional norms that bind member organizations and legitimate their activities. A balance of tangible and symbolic resources, material interest, and belief, binds member organizations in a regulatory network. In the case of the NCAA, successful athletic schools are more likely to pursue instrumentally-rational athletic activity oriented toward winning and maximum profit, while academically selective schools pursue more value-rational athletic activity oriented toward the educational benefits of amateur athletic competition.