Complexity: Theoretical and methodological applications for sociology

This thesis examines the usefulness of Complexity as a new tool for sociology. Complexity, as its own branch of study, developed from the new science of Chaos. Recent paradigmatic disputes occurring in the scientific community have been the force of a growing sense of change in the way many different disciplines view complex systems. Since it is evident that social systems are typically highly complex, it makes sense that a scientific paradigm, which investigates the nature of complex systems, should also be applicable to social systems. Science now argues that the old Newtonian clockwork mentalities and classical experimental models cannot adequately describe highly complex systems. Instead anti-reductionist and nonlinear theories and methods may be much better suited for the task. The sociological relevance of Complexity---both its conceptual framework and its methodologies---is important and timely as we reach the limits of our current knowledge using standard reductionist thinking and methods

Violent women in film and the sociological relevance of the contemporary action heroine

This research examines mainstream representations and imagery of violent women in American cinema in a broad sense, and looks more specifically at the sociological relevance of the contemporary filmic action heroine. This research is not interpretive in nature but instead draws upon original data gained from an extensive content analysis spanning a 15-year period from 1991 to 2005. In addition, the research includes secondary source data gathered from movie industry statistics and industry reports in order to provide an empirically descriptive analysis of violent female action characters in contemporary American film; While many feminist film theorists argue that female action characters are empowering representations who breakdown traditional gender barriers by exhibiting both masculine and feminine characteristics, this research argues that upon closer inspection these representations and images actually reinforce traditional gender norms, roles, and values by subscribing to dominant social codes in order to be successful at the box office. The data derived from the content analysis and secondary sources point toward shifting business strategies, evolving production processes, and technological advances of the movie industry itself that have played a major part in the formation of contemporary female action characters produced for mass consumption

Debt Matters: The Firms Optimization Problem With Financial Distress

We argue that firms in financial distress face real costs associated with financial restructuring, in addition to the agency costs identified elsewhere in the literature. Distress costs arise from the presence of debt in the firms financial structure. Because firms facing uncertain demand will act to minimize expected distress costs even when not near the point of defaulting on debts, the prospect of facing distress costs has implications for the optimization problem of every firm. Our model shows that distress costs have a nonlinear effect on the value function of the firm. This effect may make the firm risk averse or risk seeking, depending on the magnitude of expected distress costs, with very different implications for its output decisions. Our results bridge a gap between the emphasis of economists on risk aversion induced by financial distress and the view of legal scholars that financial distress induces risk-seeking behavior

Regulation with Direct Benefits of Information Disclosure and Imperfect Monitoring

We model the optimal design of programs requiring heterogeneous firms to disclose harmful emissions when disclosure yields both direct and indirect benefits. The indirect benefit arises from the internalization of social costs and resulting reduction in emissions. The direct benefit results from the disclosure of previously private information which is valuable to potentially harmed parties. Previous theoretical and empirical analyses of such programs restrict attention to the former benefit while the stated motivation for such programs highlights the latter benefit. When disclosure yields both direct and indirect benefits, policymakers face a tradeoff between inducing truthful self-reporting and deterring emissions. Internalizing the social costs of emissions, such as through an emissions tax, will deter emissions, but may also reduce incentives for firms to truthfully report their emissions

Managerial incentives for compliance with environmental information disclosure programs

Publicly reported information on the environmental behavior of firms can increase the efficacy of private markets as a mechanism to control environmental malfeasance through liability for harm, consumer demand response, and shareholder reaction. In the case of mandatory information disclosure programs, firms are required to report information that is potentially damaging to them. We argue that a firm’s internal organizational structure alters the incentives faced by decision-makers and therefore has the potential to affect their compliance decisions. We adapt a theoretical model developed by Gilpatric (2005) to examine these incentives and test the resulting hypotheses using experimental data. Experimental results confirm theoretical predictions of increased non-compliance when audit probabilities increase, but in contrast to theory there is no discernable effect of changing penalties for non-compliance

Social Networks and Non-market Valuations *

Abstract This paper considers the role of social networks in the non-market valuation of public goods. In the model individuals derive utility from both their own direct enjoyment of the public good as well as from the enjoyment of those in their network. We find that network structure almost always matters, both for utility and for valuation. The network increases aggregate valuation when it assigns higher importance, that is, greater total weight, to individuals with higher private values for the public good. The model provides a theoretical foundation for the idea of opinion leaders who have disproportionate influence over their communities. Specifically, opinion leaders are individuals assigned high importance by the network, and projects favored by opinion leaders tend to be favored by the network as a whole. The model can also guide future empirical studies by enabling a more structural approach to non-market valuation in a socially-connected group

Contributions to the Content Analysis of Gender Roles: An Introduction to a Special Issue

This special issue on gender-related content analysis is the second of two parts (see Rudy et al. 2010b). The current special issue is more diverse than was the first in the number of countries that are represented and in the variety of media genres and content types that are included. The primary aim of this paper is to outline some of the contributions of the individual papers in this second special issue. Some of these advancements and innovations include (a) examining underresearched measures, countries, time spans, sexual orientations, and individual media programs; (b) addressing both international and intranational differences in gender-role portrayals; (c) comparing multiple content formats within the same media unit; (d) updating past findings to take into consideration the current media landscape; (e) employing established measures in novel ways and novel contexts; (f) uncovering limitations in established intercultural measures and media-effects theories; (g) suggesting variables that could predict additional differences in gender-role portrayals; (h) adopting virtually identical methods and measures across distinct content categories in order to facilitate comparisons; (i) conducting multiple tests of a given hypothesis; (j) examining, from multiple perspectives, the implications of racial differences in gender portrayals; and (k) examining the implications of underrepresentation of women and the perspectives that women hold. In addition to the original content-analytical research presented in this special issue, two reviews, one methodological and the other analytical, offer recommendations of procedures and perspectives to be implemented in future research