Social Problems 57(3)

Legitimacy, Strategy, and Resources in the Survival of Community-Based Organizations
Edward T. Walker, John D. McCarthy

Organizations active in mobilizing low- and moderate-income communities make considerable efforts to combat inequalities and build voice for citizens, despite inherent challenges of obtaining resources, maintaining member interest, and retaining staff. How, then, do such groups remain viable—even thriving—organizations? Building upon research on organizational theory and social movements, we examine patterns of survival among a sample of community-based organizations (CBOs) between 1990 and 2004, thus providing the first systematic study of their long-term mortality processes. More specifically, we test how organizations' sociopolitical legitimacy and resources (and strategies for cultivating both) influence survival, finding that the legitimacy of organizations in low-income areas is a double-edged sword, as embeddedness in resource-deprived local environments confers both benefits and disadvantages. In particular, we find the strongest support for the notion that, beyond the considerable effects of externally obtained resources, CBOs also benefit considerably by engaging in even a small amount of grassroots fundraising. Further, although we find significant effects of extra-local legitimacy in the baseline models—through organizations' affiliation with national or regional organizing networks—we find evidence in additional analyses that the survival benefits of network affiliation are largely mediated by resources. We also find sizable but marginally significant effects of local legitimacy, and significant positive effects of organizational age and urban location. Overall, our findings suggest that although cultivating resources is the surest path to survival, organizations that build their legitimacy will be in a better position to compensate for structural resource deficits.

Structural Identity Theory and the Post-Recruitment Activism of Irish Republicans: Persistence, Disengagement, Splits, and Dissidents in Social Movement Organizations
Robert W. White

This research adopts a structural identity theory framework to examine post-recruitment activism in the Irish Republican Movement. The data are from members of Provisional Sinn Féin who were first interviewed in the mid-1980s and subsequently reinterviewed in the mid-1990s and the late 2000s. Ten and 20 years after their initial interviews, some respondents were still involved in Provisional Sinn Féin while others had: helped create a rival organization, Republican Sinn Féin, in 1986; helped create another rival organization, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, in 1997; withdrawn from activism; and withdrawn from and then reentered activism. The interviews show that the decision to exit from activism was primarily motivated by changes in the respondents' personal lives and not for political reasons. For some respondents, life changes brought with them new relationships and new identities that limited their availability for activism and also forced respondents to choose between competing identities. The decision to remain an activist but to create a rival organization was influenced by interaction among subgroups of activists in Provisional Sinn Féin and by the respondents' perception of what is important for Irish Republicanism.

Perceiving Glass Ceilings? Meritocratic versus Structural Explanations of Gender Inequality among Women in Science and Technology
Erin A. Cech, Mary Blair-Loy

Americans often rely on meritocratic ideologies rather than structural factors to explain unequal labor market outcomes, but we know little about how such beliefs are contingent upon individuals' social locations. Taking advantage of unique survey data, this article examines how gender inequality in professional advancement is explained among successful women professionals in science, technology, and allied fields—an employment arena potentially characterized simultaneously by potent meritocratic ideologies and persistent gendered barriers. Using multinomial logistic regressions comparing structural and meritocratic frames for explaining the paucity of women at high levels, we show how respondents in different career and family circumstances use these conflicting perceptual lenses. We find that married women, those with business education, and those in the top levels of their organizations are more likely to account for gender inequality by invoking deficiencies in women's human capital or motivation, whereas mothers, primary breadwinners, sellers of professional services, and those working in unsupportive organizations are more likely to invoke structural explanations. This research has implications for social action. Successful women's beliefs about gender inequality may influence whether they help remove structural obstacles for other women, or whether, through adherence to the meritocratic ideology, they help reconstruct the glass ceilings they have cracked.

Schools Against AIDS: Secondary School Enrollment and Cross-National Disparities in AIDS Death Rates
Rebekah Burroway

Although AIDS is a leading cause of death worldwide, the consequences of the pandemic are remarkably unequally distributed cross-nationally. This unequal global distribution of AIDS deaths should be of interest to sociologists because of the potential role of structural forces in accounting for these disparities. Yet, there has been relatively little sociological research on this topic. Using underutilized cross-national data on AIDS deaths, this study examines the macro-level sources of variation in AIDS death rates across 115 countries. The analysis focuses on secondary school enrollment as a key structural factor in reducing AIDS deaths. After controlling for the prevalence of HIV infection, secondary school enrollment has the second largest and most robust effect on AIDS death rates. Economic development also reduces AIDS death rates, but this effect is mediated by secondary school enrollment. Schooling matters partly because it reduces HIV prevalence, but education still continues to have a significant negative effect on AIDS deaths even after controlling for prevalence. The education effect is robust in a variety of sensitivity analyses. Ultimately, this study underscores the role of structural factors, particularly education, for understanding the AIDS crisis.

Neo-Taylorism at Work: Occupational Change in the Post-Fordist Era
Martha Crowley, Daniel Tope, Lindsey Joyce Chamberlain, Randy Hodson

The last quarter of the twentieth century saw an erosion of job security in both manual and professional occupations. In this article, we investigate how the proliferation of employee involvement schemes in manual production and the growth of layoffs, temporary outsourcing, and project-based teams in the professions have influenced working conditions in both manual and professional settings. We argue that these practices represent not a departure from scientific management as is often presumed, but rather adoption of Taylorist principles not fully manifested in Fordist-era mass production. Flexible practices have thus expanded the influence of scientific management in manual work, and extended the scope of its application into the professions in an era perhaps more aptly termed neo-Taylorist than post-Fordist. Using data derived from the population of workplace ethnographies, we evaluate historical shifts in the organization of manual and professional work and outcomes for employees. Our findings support accounts critical of the nature and degree of change in manual jobs and suggest that post-Fordist shifts in the professions have successfully ushered in intensification analogous to what Fordist strategies accomplished in manual work—with unintended negative consequences for workers. Our conclusions point to a general deterioration of conditions in both manual and professional occupations due at least in part to an increasingly rigorous application of the principles of scientific management to both types of work.

The Impact of Incarceration on Employment during the Transition to Adulthood
Robert Apel, Gary Sweeten

The research findings with respect to the relationship between incarceration and employment are consistent enough that it is tempting to conclude that incarceration causes deterioration in ex-inmates' employment prospects. Yet, causality remains tenuous for several reasons. For one, studies frequently rely on samples of nonincarcerated subjects that are not truly "at risk" of incarceration, which undermines their use as comparison samples and potentially biases estimates of the impact of incarceration on life outcomes. Additionally, even with confidence about causal identification, the field remains ignorant about the precise mechanism by which incarceration erodes employment and earnings. To address these gaps, this study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to estimate the impact of incarceration during late adolescence and early adulthood on short- and long-term employment outcomes. The subjects of interest are all individuals who are convicted of a crime for the first time, some of whom receive a sentence of incarceration following their conviction. Broad measures of legal and illegal employment are used to explore possible avenues by which incarceration affects individual work histories.

Immigration and Intimate Partner Violence: Exploring the Immigrant Paradox
Emily M. Wright, Michael L. Benson

Recent evidence indicates that contrary to some criminological theories, immigrants are less violent than native-born Americans. The relationship between immigrant status and reduced violence appears to hold at both the individual and neighborhood levels of analysis. This phenomenon has been referred to as the immigrant or Latino paradox. It has been suggested, although rarely examined, that cultural differences and strong social networks among immigrants account for their lower violence rates. These factors even appear strong enough to counterbalance the crime-promoting effects of economic disadvantage. This study investigates whether such patterns extend to intimate partner violence. Consistent with research on other forms of violence, we find that neighborhoods with greater concentrations of immigrants have lower levels of intimate partner violence. This relationship appears to be partially mediated by cultural norms and social ties.

Social Problems, August 2010: Volume 57, Number 3