Macro-level Structures Research Articles

The Stratification of Emotions: Some Preliminary Generalizations

Like all valued resources, positive and negative emotions are unequally distributed in a society and constitute an important basis of social stratification. In this article, a general conceptual scheme and a more specific theory of emotions are employed to offer a preliminary explanation of the dynamics of emotional stratification. This theory attempts to explain which specific positive and negative emotions will be aroused and distributed across the social class system as well as among members of differentially evaluated social categories. The theory emphasizes the importance of repression and subsequent attribution processes as central to understanding the nature, intensity, and distribution of negative emotions among individuals in lower social classes and devalued social categories. By viewing emotions as not just reactions to the unequal distribution of other resources but, rather, as a valued or punishing resource in their own right, it becomes possible to better understand how micro-level dynamics occurring in face-to-face encounters are affected by, and have effects on, meso-level and macro-level social structures and their respective cultures. In particular, the distribution of emotions can help account for both the processes of legitimatization of macrostructures and, at the same time, de-legitimization of, and collective action against, macrostructures. This analysis of emotions questions much recent theorizing and commentary, often within postmodern analysis, about the authenticity of people’s emotions in contemporary society. The stratification of emotions is as real as inequality in money and power, and it has significant effects on the dynamics of human societies.

Using Institutional Theory with Sensemaking Theory: A Case Study of Information System Implementation in Healthcare

Institutional theory has proven to be a central analytical perspective for investigating the role of social and historical structures of information systems (IS) implementation. However, it does not explicitly account for how organisational actors make sense of and enact technologies in their local context. We address this limitation by exploring the potential of using institutional theory with sensemaking theory to study IS implementation in organisations. We argue that each theoretical perspective has its own explanatory power and that a combination of the two facilitates a much richer interpretation of IS implementation by linking macro- and micro-levels of analysis. To illustrate this, we report from an empirical study of the implementation of an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system in a clinical setting. Using key constructs from the two theories, our findings address the phenomenon of implementing EPRs at three levels: the organisational field, the organisational/group, and the individual/socio-cognitive level. The study shows how a rationalised myth of an efficient EPR system has travelled from the organisational field to the hospital ward and on to individual doctors. The findings also provide evidence of a strong human agency by showing how doctors enact their work practices and shape the use of the EPR system. The study contributes to IS research by showing the need to address macro-level structures, as well as individual interpretations and practical use situations, in order to identify how and why information systems are adopted by users.

Text segmentation of spoken meeting transcripts

Text segmentation has played an important role in information retrieval as well as natural language processing. Current segmentation methods are well suited for written and structured texts making use of their distinctive macro-level structures; however text segmentation of transcribed multi-party conversation presents a different challenge given its ill-formed sentences and the lack of macro-level text units. This paper describes an algorithm suitable for segmenting spoken meeting transcripts combining semantically complex lexical relations with speech cue phrases to build lexical chains in determining topic boundaries.

Beyond groups: seven pillars of peopled ethnography in organizations and communities

We extend Fine's (2003) model of `peopled ethnography' for studying small groups to the study of larger social units, including organizations and communities. While studies of small groups often recognize the presence of macro-level social structures, they typically treat these as backdrops to the interaction scene which constrain and enable group life, not as units of analysis in their own right. Yet small groups are embedded in and help constitute larger units of analysis, such as organizations and communities. We argue that studies of these larger social structures can be extended beyond ethnographic observation of the interactions that help comprise them, making peopled ethnography applicable to units of analysis larger than the small group. We offer illustrative examples of organizational and community ethnographies.

The Social Organization of Desire: The Sexual Fields Approach

Modern urban life is increasingly characterized by specialized erotic worlds designed for sexual partnership and sexual sociality. In this article, I build on sociological theory developed in areas other than the sociology of sexuality to formulate a frame-work uniquely suited to the analysis of such modern erotic worlds—the sexual fields framework. Coupling Goffman's social psychological focus on situational negotiation with a Bourdieusian model of routine practice, the sexual fields framework highlights the relationship of interactional work to fields of objective relations wherein historically specific erotic schemas acquire a structural manifestation that erotic players must navigate. In so doing, the sexual fields approach advances a set of sensitizing concepts for identifying the structures of collective sexual life, and raises a set of new lines of sociological inquiry, including the relationship of sexual fields to both psychoanalytic and macro-level structures and processes.

A qualitative study of the duty to care in communicable disease outbreaks

Health care providers’ (HCPs’) duty to care during communicable disease outbreaks has resurfaced as an important and contentious topic. This renewed interest follows the re-emergence of communicable diseases, largely thought to have disappeared and therefore irrelevant to modern day practitioners. The 2003 SARS outbreak particularly presented propitious circumstances for reconsidering this issue. This study seeks to characterize the views of individuals on the nature and limits of this duty. The authors employed qualitative methods to gather lay and expert perspectives. Individual interviews were conducted with 67 participants consisting of HCPs, spiritual leaders, regulators, and members of the public from the greater Toronto area. Participants’ views were analyzed and organized according to three main themes, constituting a framework that combines micro-, meso-, and macro-level structures and processes: the scope of obligations of HCPs, the roles of health care institutions, and the broader social context, respectively. Our data suggest that the duty to care must be placed in a wider context to include considerations that transcend individual provider obligations. It thus follows, based on our data, that the duty to care cannot be left to personal choice or an appeal to morality based on an ethic derived entirely from individual obligations. The micro-meso-macro analytical framework that we have developed can guide the articulation of accepted norms of duty to care during epidemics and the development of policy for public health crises. It can also enhance the focus of our current expectations of HCPs’ duty during epidemics. This can be achieved by informing regulatory bodies, collaborating with policy makers and engaging the public.

Linking Micro and Macro Social Structure Through Genre Analysis

A genre analysis approach is used to compare how participants in Japanese and American cooking classes construct this rhetorical situation in ways that are similar yet different. A microlevel analysis of contextual variables and language use reveals how the participants constructed the situation and their social identities in different ways in each culture and that these differences reflected not only the participants' personal intentions but also the structures of the institutions that offered the classes. It is argued that close examination of the actions of individual actors is a necessary step in furthering the understanding of more macrolevel structures such as cooking schools, other types of institutions, and even theoretical concepts such as culture and social structure.

Negotiating Gender/Race/Class Constraints in the New South Africa

This study contributes to the emerging international literature on women’s soccer by exploring how South African women are negotiating material and ideological constraints to participate in the historically masculine sport of football. Special attention is given to situating athletes’ micro-level experiences within macro-level social structures, including the material legacies of colonialism and apartheid. This analysis is based on a multi-methods approach that includes interview, survey, documentary, and observational data collected during 1999 and 2000. Theoretically, this analysis draws upon various frameworks characteristic of feminist sport literatures as well as theoretical insights of Black feminists writing within and beyond Southern Africa. The findings show that a strong ethic of care within the women’s soccer community and strategies of creative resistance in the everyday lives of South African women soccer athletes are central to challenging exclusionary practices in soccer. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

20602 ナノインデンテーションによるオステオンの弾性率分布計測と骨のマイクロリモデリング(OS9 バイオエンジニアリング)

A nano-indentation was performed for the cross section of a bovine femur. The inner lamella and outer lamella of four bone structural units, so called osteons, were tested at a rate of 1N/m. Modulus was obtained from the measurement with a depth of 1000nm. Results revealed that the modulus of lamella was higher in the outer lamella than in the inner lamella for immature osteons while the reverse was true for mature osteons. Meanwhile, a FEM analysis was performed for a micro bone model representing an osteon surrounded by interstitial bone. A bone remodeling algorithm was applied to the analysis in which the modulus of the bone model changed in response to compressive stress. Obtained results were coincident with the above-described experimental results. These results suggest that the bone remodeling due to mechanical stress occurs not only in macro level structures but also in micro level structures such as the osteon of cortical bone.

The Sexual Debut of Girls in Early Adolescence: The Intersection of Race, Pubertal Timing, and Friendship Group Characteristics

Scholars who have studied the effects of early pubertal timing on girls' sexual debut contend that this association may result from the company they keep. Although this basic biosocial model of adolescent behavior has been applied to various outcomes with diverse samples of adolescent girls, less work has contextualized this microlevel developmental phenomenon within the larger macrolevel structures of race and ethnicity. Using a sample of White, African American, and Latina girls (N=1,299) drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study conducted within‐group multivariate analyses and found important differences in the linkages that make up this biosocial model by race and ethnicity, with the linkages strongest for Whites, followed by Latina, and African American girls. These differences in association may reflect differences in the social construction of girlhood across race and ethnicity.

Policy, Structural, and School Board Influences on Superintendent Supply and Demand

This article provides an overview of the macrolevel structures, policies, and institutionalized practices that influence mismatches between educational administrator supply and demand. It also explores the micropolitics of local school board search and selection practices that can affect the access of women and people of color to the superintendency. Consideration of both these macro- and microlevel dynamics provides an alternative perspective on what have been reported as shortages of qualified candidates for current and anticipated superintendent vacancies.

Predictors of Leaving Home in Young Adults Raised in Germany: A Replication of a 1991 Study

This study replicates and expands a previous study conducted by Silbereisen, Meschke, and Schwarz (1996) that examined the timing and correlates of leaving home in former East and West Germany using data gathered in 1991. With data collected in 1996, we show that East Germans were more likely to leave home earlier than West Germans. Furthermore, predictors of home leaving (e.g., parental divorce) differed somewhat, depending on the region. East and West Germans were more similar in the pattern of predictors in 1996 than in 1991. This offers support for the hypothesis that under reunification, these two regions were moving toward greater similarity in this transition to adulthood. The results underscore the importance of macrolevel forces on individual decisions, such as when the young adult leaves the parental home. Previous research demonstrates that the age of leaving home is determined by multiple factors. (For a review, see White, 1994.) The factors that contribute to the timing of leaving the parental home can be framed within Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory of development. He proposes that an individual is embedded in multiple contexts, ranging from the most intimate (the microsystem) to the most distal (the macrosystem and chronosystem). This study utilizes direct measures of microsystem influences on the timing of home leaving. However, aspects of the macrosystem and chronosystem are kept in mind and are measured indirectly. For example, we compare and contrast two regions of Germany (two different macrosystems) that contextualize the investigation of variations in and predictors of the timing of leaving home. Furthermore, touching on chronosystem-level influences, we compare findings from this study with findings from an earlier study conducted in 1991, one year after German reunification. The significance of microsystem and macrosystem influences was evident in a 1991 study on home leaving in former East and West Germany. Silbereisen, Meschke, and Schwarz (1996) reported that East and West German young adults did not differ in the timing of leaving home. However, they differed in predictors of leaving home. Microsystem influences (e.g., individual and family experiences) strongly predicted the timing of home leaving for West Germans but not for East Germans. Perhaps in the East, these factors were overshadowed by macrosystem influences such as regulations. For example, the lack of housing probably dictated to some degree the timing of being able to start a household of one's own. Subsequently, the influence of individual factors was weakened under the authority of these macrolevel structures. Other reports also have emphasized the relevance of the macrosystem for the process of leaving home. Killeen (1992) and Furlong and Cooney (1990) describe youth from London and Scotland whose decisions about when to move out are increasingly defined by policies dealing with housing or security. White (1994) proposes that macrolevel factors such as economic change, political structures, and demographic factors contribute to the timing of leaving the parental home. In sum, broader contextual influences on the macrolevel are intertwined with this personal decision of leaving home. Inspired by the findings of the Silbereisen et al. (1996) study on home leaving in the two former Germanys and by literature reporting that context does matter in clarifying this move toward adulthood, our study investigates the home-leaving process in 1996 in the context of a changed Germany. We defined home leaving as moving out of the parental home and living in a separate residence for the first time. FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LEAVING HOME Demographic Variables Children of divorce and children who come from larger families tend to leave home earlier (Mitchell, 1994; Mitchell, Wister, & Burch, 1989). Mitchell proposes that the influence of these family variables can be explained by the concept of social capital, described by Coleman (1988). …

Development of systems for support of collaboration in health care: the design arenas

To explore the design of computer-supported collaborative work in health care, a case study is described addressing the social contexts and conditions influencing the development process. The data set covers 13 consequtive meetings held in a systems design group over a 2-year period, in total approximately 24 h of video recordings. Subjectivist methods are used for the data analyses. The results suggest that the development of computer-supported collaborative work in health care is situated at three social arenas: the societal arena, the organizational arena and the workplace arena. These are visited by the design group in patterns which correspond to the micro-, meso- and macro-level social structures involved in the design. The study displays that longitudinal analyses of design meeting dialogues provide the opportunity of improving the understanding of external influences on design processes in health care.

Rethinking Genre in School and Society

The relation between writing in formal schooling and writing in other social practices is a central problem in writing research (e.g., critical pedagogy, writing in nonacademic settings, cognition in variable social contexts). How do macro-level social and political structures (forces) affect micro-level literate actions in classrooms and vice versa? To address these questions, the author synthesizes Yrjö Engeström's systems version of Vygotskian cultural-historical activity theory with Charles Bazerman's theory of genre systems. The author suggests that this synthesis extends Bakhtinian dialogic theory by providing a broader unit of analysis than text-as-discourse, wider levels of analysis than the dyad, and an expanded theory of dialectic. By tracing the intertextual relations among disciplinary and educational genre systems, through the boundary of classroom genre systems, one can construct a model of ways classroom writing is linked to writing in wider social practices and rethink such issues as agency, task representation, and assessment.

A system of IAC neural networks as the basis for self-organization in a sociological dynamical system simulation.

This sociological simulation uses the ideas of semiotics and symbolic interactionism to demonstrate how an appropriately developed associative memory in the minds of individuals on the microlevel can self-organize into macrolevel dissipative structures of societies such as racial cultural/economic classes, status symbols and fads. The associative memory used is based on an extension of the IAC neural network (the Interactive Activation and Competition network). Several IAC networks act together to form a society by virtue of their human-like properties of intuition and creativity. These properties give them the ability to create and understand signs, which lead to the macrolevel structures of society. This system is implemented in hierarchical object oriented container classes which facilitate change in deep structure. Graphs of general trends and an historical account of a simulation run of this dynamical system are presented.

Menstrual pain, health and behaviour in girls

Prevalence of menstrual pain, use of medication and school absenteeism due to the pain were studied by means of a mailed questionnaire in a sample representing 12–18-year-old girls in Finland ( n = 3370, response rate 87%). Prevalence of menstrual pain was 48% among 12-year-old post-menarcheal girls and 79% among 18-year-olds. Thirty percent of the 16-year-old girls had used medication and 21% had stayed at home due to menstrual pain in the last 6 months; 3% had both been absent and used medication several times. Three types of factors were associated with menstrual pain: (1) physiological (gynaecological age, duration of menstrual flow); (2) indicators of poor self-rated health (not feeling active in the morning, bad physical condition, number of common colds); (3) unhealthy practices (consumption of alcohol, low physical activity, smoking). The prevalence of menstrual pain did not correlate with the variables describing the place of residence or the socio-economic status of the family. The determinants of menstrual pain are supposed to lie more in the biological construct and micro-environment of the girls than in macro-level structures of the society. The experience of pain seems to be related to self-rated health as a whole and to lifestyle rather than to specific disorders and health practices.

Adult Education and Social Science: A Theoretical Framework

The article assesses the state of theory in the field of adult education and calls for more systematic efforts in developing related theories. Borrowing concepts and theories from established social sciences, mainly sociology and economics, is recommended as a strategy for development. An integrated theoretical framework is presented and discussed. In addition to being a means for organizing knowledge and research into main areas, the framework may be used as a basis to outline theoretical and empirical interrelations between different parts of the research field. Its basic elements are macro-level structures, supply and demand, recruitment and participation, individual outcomes, and collective outcomes. Relevant research questions generating from the framework are presented, and possible approaches to studies of each of the elements and their interrelations are suggested.

Medicine, superstructure and micropolitics.

Abstract How are macro-level structures of domination and oppression reproduced in the everyday micro-level interaction of individuals? This paper examines this theoretical problem through observations of doctor-patient encounters. A review of recent theoretical advances leads to the proposition that face-to-face interaction between health professionals and clients helps maintain broad patterns of ideology and social control. A theory is proposed that links professional-client interaction with ideology and consciousness, social institutions, social relationships of daily life, and the material conditions and class relationships of the workplace and economic system. Quantitative data from an empirical study of doctor-patient interaction are analyzed with reference to this theory. Qualitative analysis from the same study reveals themes of ideologic reproduction and social control concerning relations of production, class relations, the role of science under capitalism, and medical control of everyday life. Counterhegemonic strategy suggested by this work includes challenging the assumed objectivity of medical science, clarifying the partly political nature of messages that clients receive from professionals, and working against domination based on expert knowledge.