Smaller Units Of Analysis Research Articles

The Relationship Between Hate Groups and Far-Right Ideological Violence

This study examines whether the presence of hate groups increases the likelihood of serious ideologically motivated violence committed by far-rightists. While hate crime research has generally focused on a single state or made comparisons across several states, we seek to examine this relationship within the context of U.S. counties. A smaller unit of analysis allows for the simultaneous consideration of several social processes operating at the community level, which might also influence ideologically motivated offending by far-right extremists. We test the relationship using data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) for the dependent measure, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for the hate groups measure, and various other sources for additional variables. We find that the existence of a hate group in a county is significantly related to the occurrence of far-right ideologically motivated violence.

Pathways to practice: praxiography and international politics

Political scientists have started to focus on ‘practice’ as the smallest unit of analysis. Following a broader turn in the social sciences, the practice focus provides multiple advantages, including better conceptualizations of short-term social change, getting closer to the everyday activities of those speaking, writing and doing politics, appropriate conceptualization of agency-structure dynamics, or forms of analysis resonating with other communities than scholarly ones. This contribution asks what the methodological implications of the practice turn are. It is argued that the practice focus does not only imply a certain ‘theory’ but also a certain methodology. I advance the term praxiography to speak about the forms of analysis produced by practice researchers. I discuss key guidelines of praxiographic research on two levels: first, general research strategies that provide empirical access points, second, guidelines for data collection in the frame of participant observation, expert interviews, and document analysis. I conclude in arguing that although praxiography is context driven, and hence requires to be tailored to the research problem, it is vital to reflect on the methodological repertoire of praxiographic research.

Testing the Stability of Crime Patterns: Implications for Theory and Policy

Recent research in the ‘‘crime at places’’ literature is concerned with smaller units of analysis than conventional spatial criminology. An important issue is whether the spatial patterns observed in conventional spatial criminology focused on neighborhoods remain when the analysis shifts to street segments. In this article, the authors use a new spatial point pattern test that identifies the similarity in spatial point patterns. This test is local in nature such that the output can be mapped showing where differences are present. Using this test, the authors investigate the stability of crime patterns moving from census tracts to dissemination areas to street segments. The authors find that general crime patterns are somewhat similar at all spatial scales, but finer scales of analysis reveal significant variations within larger units. This result demonstrates the importance of analyzing crime patterns at small scales and has important implications for further theoretical development and policy implementation.

Measuring Community (Dis)Organizational Processes through Key Informant Analysis

The role of community (dis)organizational processes is a major issue in contemporary criminology. As a consequence, researchers have been increasingly eager to measure community-level social mechanisms such as social trust and disorder. However, community inhabitants are predominantly used to measure community (dis)organizational processes. This approach requires large numbers of respondents to generate reliable and valid measures of social trust and disorder. In this article, the use of expert key informants is discussed as an alternative method of measuring community processes. Our findings suggest that key informants can provide reliable and valid measures of social cohesion and disorder on two rather small units of analysis.

How can we identify socio-regions in the rangelands of Australia?

The Australian rangelands are divided into regions for statistical reporting, cultural identification or administrative and bioregional management purposes. However, many of these divisions do not reflect the characteristics of inland towns. In this study we used the Urban Centre/Locality (UCL) structure (for settlements with at least 200 people) as the smallest unit of analysis to build preliminary socio-regions based on demographic (e.g. Median Age and percentage of Indigenous people in UCL), socio-economic (dependency ratio and unemployment rate) and a few environmental indicators (e.g. Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Rainfall variability). A key finding of the study is that there are strong differences among UCLs in the rangelands. A threshold of around 5000 people is apparent with some indicators across all UCLs around which variability changes. There is much greater variability in the indicators among UCLs with fewer than 5000 people than there is among UCLs with over 5000 people. This confirms the need to consider statistical units smaller than those commonly used such as Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) as these and other regionalisation techniques mask the detail within areas that contain socio-economically and culturally different settlements. The high variability of indicator values observed for UCLs with smaller populations suggests that they have more diverse research, policy and investment needs than larger urban centres. We used a non-traditional approach and grouped UCLs into socio-regions based on their social characteristics instead of their geographic location. This created clusters of similar UCLs rather than contiguous regions. Some of these socio-regions cross administrative and statistical borders. The regionalisation presented in this study is likely to be valuable when selecting case-study areas for research projects and, in the long-term, when developing policy and investment initiatives.

Commentary: Primary Care and Health Outcomes: A Health Services Research Challenge

Commentary: Primary Care and Health Outcomes: A Health Services Research Challenge

Fading eco‐benign networks

PurposeMost research on greening of industry using a network approach has the firm as smallest unit of analysis. In addition, few have focused on technological regimes. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues through research on the firm‐internal network of two automotive firms, the actors, resources and activities of their networks, and how change initiatives in the firm forge and dissolve external networks of alternative regimes.Design/methodology/approachThe case study is based on an insider/outsider research methodology. The specific issues of contextual and temporal boundaries in case research with a network approach were addressed through a relatively open‐ended process of inquiry during which these boundaries emerge and unfold. In terms of data collection, interviews with project team members in the two focal companies were conducted.FindingsFailure or success is not only a matter of how the alternative regime fits into its cultural ambience in society and how successful that mutual adaptation is, but also equally of how it fits into the firm and the firm‐internal mutual adaptation. Particularly established companies may experience alternative regimes as threats to the established business, even when these regimes are developed inside the firm. In addition, the actors‐resources‐activities model reveals important resource dependencies between established technologies and the alternatives to them. Most likely, such dependencies constitute important complementary causes as to why eco‐ordering endeavors often fail.Originality/valueThe network approach having a mesh that goes into the firm reveals important factors to the outcome of eco‐ordering efforts. The actors‐resources‐activities analyzing tool helped find important non‐human resource dependencies.

Linguistic variation within university classroom talk: A corpus-based perspective

The primary goal of this study is to identify intra-textual linguistic variation in university classroom talk, applying corpus-based techniques to the analysis. First, based on the automatically identified vocabulary patterns in classroom talk a large number of class sessions are segmented into smaller units of analysis. Second, the co-occurring patterns of a range of linguistic features are identified in these units applying multi-dimensional analytical techniques. Relying on these patterns, three dimensions of linguistic variation are identified in university classroom talk: (1) Contextual, directive orientation versus Conceptual, informative focus; (2) Personalized framing versus Lack of personalized framing; (3) Interactive dialogue versus Teacher monologue. Finally, taking these dimensions, session initial differences in the discourse patterns in six disciplines and three instructional levels are discussed.

The Internal Dynamics of Ethnicity: Clan Names, Origins and Castes in Southern Zimbabwe

AbstractSince the late 1960s, researchers have primarily regarded ethnicity as the result of increasing international relations, and thus often as a comparative phenomenon. Although this research has been immensely important for its critique of essentialist notions of ethnicity, analyses of the historically formed specificity of ethnicity have been somewhat neglected. In this article, using an example from Zimbabwe, the author highlights the internal dynamics of ethnicity. The article shows how people in southern Zimbabwe use various clan names, origins, and ‘castes’ in a practice of naming, and how this practice breaks the category Ndebele into parts. The author argues that instead of studying ethnic categories as unbreakable wholes, focusing on smaller units of analysis gives a more complex picture of ethnicity. This view challenges some more or less established truths on ethnicity deduced from comparative studies.

The Internal Dynamics of Ethnicity: Clan Names, Origins and Castes in Southern Zimbabwe

Since the late 1960s, researchers have primarily regarded ethnicity as the result of increasing international relations, and thus often as a comparative phenomenon. Although this research has been immensely important for its critique of essentialist notions of ethnicity, analyses of the historically formed specificity of ethnicity have been somewhat neglected. In this article, using an example from Zimbabwe, the author highlights the internal dynamics of ethnicity. The article shows how people in southern Zimbabwe use various clan names, origins, and ‘castes’ in a practice of naming, and how this practice breaks the category Ndebele into parts. The author argues that instead of studying ethnic categories as unbreakable wholes, focusing on smaller units of analysis gives a more complex picture of ethnicity. This view challenges some more or less established truths on ethnicity deduced from comparative studies.

The Staffing Cycles Framework: Viewing Staffing as a System of Decision Events

We propose an alternative staffing framework that adopts a systems view of staffing and articulates the internal structures and influence mechanisms that determine “how” staffing outcomes occur. The staffing cycles framework (SCF) portrays the interrelationships among the actors, contexts, and activities of staffing as staffing cycles composed of decision events. A staffing cycle is a sequence of seven decision events controlled alternately—not mutually—by individuals and organizational decision makers. Staffing cycles are the smallest unit of analysis that still retains all staffing components and frames how and when staffing outcomes are affected. Decision events capture the primary decision activities of staffing systems. All decision events share a common structure that depicts how actors, contexts, and activities are combined to influence staffing outcomes.

The Staffing Cycles Framework: Viewing Staffing as a System of Decision Events

We propose an alternative staffing framework that adopts a systems view of staffing and articulates the internal structures and influence mechanisms that determine “how” staffing outcomes occur. The staffing cycles framework (SCF) portrays the interrelationships among the actors, contexts, and activities of staffing as staffing cycles composed of decision events. A staffing cycle is a sequence of seven decision events controlled alternately—not mutually—by individuals and organizational decision makers. Staffing cycles are the smallest unit of analysis that still retains all staffing components and frames how and when staffing outcomes are affected. Decision events capture the primary decision activities of staffing systems. All decision events share a common structure that depicts how actors, contexts, and activities are combined to influence staffing outcomes.

FURTHERING THE INTEGRATION OF ROUTINE ACTIVITY AND SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORIES: SMALL UNITS OF ANALYSIS AND THE STUDY OF STREET ROBBERY AS A DIFFUSION PROCESS

Attempts to integrate the two predominant spatial theories of crime, social disorganization and routine activity theories, may benefit from examining empirical relationships at units of analysis smaller than the relatively large units characteristic of most ecological research (cities, SMSAs, census tracts, multiple city blocks). Small units of analysis, specifically, face blocks (both sides of a city block between two intersections) are analyzed in a study of street robbery within a medium‐size southeastern U.S. city. Models of street robbery and street‐robbery “potential” suggest a crime diffusion process. Several interaction effects between variables of social disorganization and routine activity theory are found, which may form the basis in future research for successful theoretical integration.

Recommendations for statistical designs of in vivo mutagenicity tests with regard to subsequent statistical analysis

A workshop was held on September 13 and 14, 1993, at the GSF, Neuherberg, Germany, to start a discussion of experimental design and statistical analysis issues for three in vivo mutagenicity test systems, the micronucleus test in mouse bone marrow/peripheral blood, the chromosomal aberration tests in mouse bone marrow/differentiating spermatogonia, and the mouse dominant lethal test. The discussion has now come to conclusions which we would like to make generally known. Rather than dwell upon specific statistical tests which could be used for data analysis, serious consideration was given to test design. However, the test design, its power of detecting a given increase of adverse effects and the test statistics are interrelated. Detailed analyses of historical negative control data led to important recommendations for each test system. Concerning the statistical sensitivity parameters, a type I error of 0.05 (one tailed), a type II error of 0.20 and a dose related increase of twice the background (negative control) frequencies were generally adopted. It was recommended that sufficient observations (cells, implants) be planned for each analysis unit (animal) so that at least one adverse outcome (micronucleus, aberrant cell, dead implant) would likely be observed. The treated animal was the smallest unit of analysis allowed. On the basis of these general consideration the sample size was determined for each of the three assays. A minimum of 2000 immature erythrocytes/animal should be scored for micronuclei from each of at least 4 animals in each comparison group in the micronucleus assays. A minimum of 200 cells should be scored for chromosomal aberrations from each of at least 5 animals in each comparison group in the aberration assays. In the dominant lethal test, a minimum of 400 implants (40–50 pregnant females) are required per dose group for each mating period. The analysis unit for the dominant lethal test would be the treated male unless the background frequency of dead implants (DI) is so low that multiple males would need to be integrated to meet the minimum observation of one adverse outcome (DI) per analysis unit. A three-step strategy of data analysis was proposed for the cytogenetic assays. Use of negative historical controls was allowed in certain circumstances for interpretation of results from micronucleus tests and chromosomal aberration tests.

Violent Crime and Alcohol Availability: Relationships in an Urban Community

The relationship between violent crime, neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics, and alcohol outlet densities in Newark, New Jersey is reported, thus extending previous research of municipalities at more refined levels of analysis. Alcohol outlet densities were significant predictors in regression models, but rates of violent crime were better predicted in larger units (R2 = .673 for the census tract level vs. .543 at the census block group level). Alcohol outlet densities, however, were more predictive of violent crime at smaller units of analysis (change in R2 with the addition of alcohol outlet densities was .194 at the census tract level vs. .278 at the census block group level). Findings suggest that alcohol outlets represent a form of "undesirable land use" in urban neighborhoods that are a manifestation of increasingly concentrated economic disadvantage in the United States.

Patients, Populations, and Caregivers: Opportunities and Challenges at the Intersection

Indeed our world is changing, and Dr. Eugene Nelson and his colleagues present a marvelous glimpse of the future, the trends likely to have an impact on healthcare, and a model for managing care for individual patients and small populations by focusing on the front lines of patient care. As they describe it, . . where patients, populations, and caregivers meet. The approach builds on the essential quality characteristics of price, choice, service, and outcomes quality, and shifts our focus from the configuration of larger delivery systems to the operational units within the system responsible for the actual provision of services. These are the units that make a difference in the cost and quality of care provided. My commentary will focus on some of the managerial and research opportunities for understanding, learning, and improving that occurs when we focus on a more within the larger delivery system, and some of the challenges that remain as we begin move[ing] care management to frontline microunits .... While a good share of the healthcare world is focused on vertical integration, aligning physicians, developing community partnerships, and other macrolevel activities, the microunit approach presented here and by others (Christianson, Taylor, and Knutson, 1998) moves us to the molecular level of organizations and defines the provision of services in more operational terms. It provides an opportunity for managers to think in terms of units that can, in fact, be managed and continually improved over time. Managerial Opportunities The focus on microunits permits the application of knowledge about groups and their coordination in very operational terms such as diagnosing their stage of development, assessing the prevailing climate and culture, and understanding the process characteristics such as conflict and leadership that affect their performance. For example, considering just the idea of stages of group or unit development le.g., forming, storming, norming, performing, etc.) permits managers involved with a microunit approach to stage the unit as part of a life cycle process and thus anticipate possible problems normally associated with that stage of development; and, depending on the stage, have realistic expectations of what should be happening within the unit. Given this diagnosis-and it is recognized that it is not possible to predict with certainty that all units will proceed through the various stages-the staging provides a guideline to help develop appropriate intervention strategies to improve unit performance Fried and Rundall 1994). By focusing on microunits within healthcare organizations, managers also have the opportunity to become much more dynamic and strategic in their decision making. Such small, relatively homogeneous units can be adapted rapidly to shifts in consumer and purchaser demand, clinical innovation, and market competition. Through the active management of microunits, managers can enhance their organizations' responsiveness to new and evolving information about patients, populations, competitors, and best practices in healthcare. Microunits also offer expanded opportunities for customizing organizational practices to the needs of smaller, more homogeneous groups of consumers (McLaughlin and Kaluzny 1997). Such strategies may allow organizations to ensure higher overall levels of consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Research Opportunities The microunit approach also makes an equally important contribution to the health services research community. By focusing on a smaller unit of analysis, it permits the analysis of fundamental processes both within and between units that would not be possible when the larger organization is defined as the unit of analysis. Using microunits as analytical constructs, researchers can look inside the black box of organizational performance and identify key clinical and administrative leverage points. …

Personality differences in spontaneous personality inferences at encoding.

In this article, a method is described for studying personality differences in the spontaneous encoding of complex information about others, and is illustrated in a study of authoritarianism (F). Two sets of sentences were developed in pretesting. In the first set, events suggested a consensual disposition for each sentence actor to either high F (HF) or low F (LF) subjects. In the second set, events suggested a different consensual disposition to HF and LF subjects. Then 77 HF and LF subjects read both sets of sentences for a memory study. Consensual dispositions and semantic associates to the actors were used to cue recall. For the first set, there was a significant interaction between subject type, sentence type, and cue type. LF dispositions were more effective retrieval cues for LF than for HF subjects. Subjects had very little accurate awareness of having made trait inferences. No significant effects were found for HF cues alone or for the second sentence set. Results indicated that HF and LF subjects differ in their spontaneous social inferences about others and have little awareness of making these inferences. Implications for integrating trait and cognitive approaches to personality are discussed. The interactionist approach to personality emerging from recent debates over personality traits (Magnusson & Endler, 1977) has taken several forms. Most research has been at a macrolevel, and demonstrates that the expression of traits is conditional upon situational variables, producing statistical interactions between traits and situations. Crowne and Marlowe's (1964) work on the need for social approval, and Christie and Geis' (1970) work on Machiavellianism provide numerous examples. More recent macrolevel research indicates that traits predict the individual's active selection and even creation of different situations (dynamic interactions). Snyder's (1979) work on selfmonitoring, Swann's (1983) research on self-esteem and selfverification, and research on self-consciousness (Turner, Scheier, Carver, & Ickes, 1978) describe some of the macrolevel processes involved. At this macrolevel, the smallest unit of analysis is the individual's response or action. More microlevel analyses break the production of behavior itself into multistage processes (e.g.. attention, encoding, storage, retrieval), and examine effects of individual differences at particular stages. These may be measured with personality inventories more typically used to measure traits at the macrolevel, such as anxiety (Sarason, 1980), locus of control (Lef

Lifting the curse of menstruation: toward a feminist perspective on the menstrual cycle.

Lifting the curse of menstruation is examined as a process of freeing the imagination rather than rejecting the importance of biology. The defining features of the feminist and biomedical perspectives are discussed and an overview is offered of unexamined assumptions about women, the cycle, and the conduct of research which operate within modern scientific medicine. The real alternative to these unexamined assumptions is seen as the development of a revolutionary system of classification in which even the smallest unit of analysis is a multidimensional process. Suggestions are offered about the proper role of the feminist perspective in helping to free our imaginations and move us toward such an alternative paradigm.