Volume 24, Number 3
November 1998
The 1999 Annual Meeting of the North Carolina Sociological
Association will be held on February 18-19, 1999 at the Radisson Governors
Inn in the Research Triangle Park. The meeting includes plans for the first-ever
Legislative Day, a reception featuring the NCCU Jazz Band, and a full day
of sessions dealing with the theme, "Bringing Our Concepts Home: Sociology
and the Ecological Context."
On Thursday, February 18, Paul Luebke, a member of
the sociology faculty at UNCG and a member of the NC State Legislature,
will introduce members to the legislative process in Raleigh. The Legislative
Day has been organized by Mike Wise (Appalachian State University) and
Angela Lewellyn Jones (NCSU) to allow sociologists and students from across
the state to get a behind-the-scenes look at the legislative process as
well as to enable them to make legislators aware of their interests and
concerns. Please mark this date on your calendars and plan to bring your
classes! Be sure to let either Wise or Jones know if you plan to attend.
Please note that we will NOT be
having Legislative Day this year, but the meetings WILL kick
off with a large get together of sociologists at the
Governor's Inn with music provided by the NCCU Jazz Band.
(Updated December 19, 1998).
The general theme of the 1999 meeting will be "Bringing Our Concepts Home: Sociology and the Ecological Context." "In the past 25 years we have grown almost used to seeing sociology taught in departments devoted to criminology, political science, advertising (teaching demography), business schools and so forth," said program chair George Conklin of NCCU. "But one negative result of having sociology taught in other departments is that our vocabulary has been changed.'
As an example, he suggests we look at what has happened to the term "urbanism." Louis Wirth defined urbanism as leading to brief, transitory and segmented role relationships, with an emphasis on formal means of control. Yet architects have come up with the term "The New Urbanism" to mean the exact opposite, with even Disney World getting in the act constructing an ideal-type "community."
"Have our technical terms become just another marketing tool for Mickey Mouse building houses for perfect people?" Conklin asked. "Can we really accept the idea that to reduce crime we need to increase density, despite the empirical research? What is the cost of unexamined utopianism on social research?"
At 6:30 on Thursday at the Governor's Inn there will
be reception for members, graduate students and guests that will include
entertainment provided by the NCCU Jazz Band. All graduate students, faculty
and other sociologists working in North Carolina are invited for a fine
evening of fun. We are hoping for 100 people to attend. Faculty, bring
your students. Students, bring your faculty! Through a gift from sociologist
who asked not to be identified, the first liquid refreshments will be on
the house.
Sessions now scheduled include a keynote address
discussing the new uses of human ecology and urban sociology. Panels discussions
will include
Professor J. John Palen, author of
the popular textbook "The Urban World" will give the keynote
address this year. The meeting schedule is still being assembled. If
anyone would like to make a presentation, please contact George Conklin
e-mail: henryj@pagesz.net) as soon as possible.
Updated information about the annual meeting, Legislative
Day, and related topics can be found at the NCSA website (www.ncsociology.org.)
Note: As of December 18, 1998, Legislative Day has been canceled.
The North Carolina Sociological Association has announced
plans for its first Legislative Day. Make plans now to attend this event,
incorporate it in your syllabi for the spring semester, and bring your
students! Thursday, February 18, 1998 with be our legislative day, followed
by our regular meeting of NCSA on Friday, February 19, 1998 in the Research
Triangle Park.
Now we need to set up a specific schedule of events. Before we do so,
however, we wanted to confer with those who signed up at the last NCSA
meeting expressing an interest in participating in the legislative day
activities. Specifically we'd like to know:
Please forward this message to anyone in your department
that you feel may be interested in the legislative day, but didn't sign
up on the list or who did sign up but didn't include an e-mail address.
Please let us know of your requests as soon as possible, so that we
can get to work setting up a productive and informative legislative experience
for us all!
Contact Angela Lewellyn Jones, NCSU Dept. of Sociology
& Anthropology, Box 8107, Raleigh, NC 27695 (phone 919-515-3143, ext.
36; FAX 919-515-2610; e-mail: angela@server.sasw.ncsu.edu). You may also
contact Mike Wise, Appalachian State University, Dept. of Sociology, Boone,
NC 28608 (phone 828-262-6393; FAX 828-262-2294; e-mail: wisegm@appstate.edu).
Papers should be submitted in triplicate to Wayne Adams, Sandhills Community College, 2200 Airport Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374 (910-695-3861); Christa Reiser, East Carolina University, Dept. of Sociology, Greenville, NC 27858 (252-328-4895); or Richard Dixon, UNC Wilmington, Dept. of Sociology, Wilmington, NC 28403-3297 (910-962-3428). Deadline for submission is Jan. 15, 1999. Please help us recognize the work of outstanding student sociologists by encouraging them to submit their papers for consideration.
In addition to being recognized as having written
the best undergraduate or graduate paper of the year, recipients of the
Himes Award will receive a complementary one-year membership in the NCSA,
free registration at the annual meeting and a cash award ($150 for undergraduates,
$250 for graduates).
Papers are judged according to standards appropriate
to the best in undergraduate and graduate scholarship. Papers need not
represent original research in the sense of data collection, nor is it
expected that papers conform to expectations for theses in the sense of
contribution of new knowledge to a field. Papers are judged according to
appropriateness and effectiveness of literature review; integration of
ideas from relevant sources, including application of appropriate data;
comprehensiveness and creativity of analysis; clarity and organization
of arguments; overall synthesis of data and theory toward well formulated
conclusions.
Each year the NCSA gives the Joseph S. Himes Award
to the outstanding undergraduate paper of the year. For the first time
this year, the NCSA will also recognize the outstanding graduate student
paper of the year. Now is the time to encourage your talented undergraduates
and graduate students to rework that exceptional term paper, independent
study project, or senior thesis into a research paper and submit it for
consideration.
Papers should be submitted in triplicate to Wayne
Adams, Sandhills Community College, 2200 Airport Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374
(910-695-3861); Christa Reiser, East Carolina University, Dept. of Sociology,
Greenville, NC 27858 (252-328-4895); or Richard Dixon, UNC Wilmington,
Dept. of Sociology, Wilmington, NC 28403-3297 (910-962-3428). Deadline
for submission is Jan. 15, 1999. Please help us recognize the work of outstanding
student sociologists by encouraging them to submit their papers for consideration.
In addition to being recognized as having written
the best undergraduate or graduate paper of the year, recipients of the
Himes Award will receive a complementary one-year membership in the NCSA,
free registration at the annual meeting and a cash award ($150 for undergraduates,
$250 for graduates).
Papers are judged according to standards appropriate to the best in
undergraduate and graduate scholarship. Papers need not represent original
research in the sense of data collection, nor is it expected that papers
conform to expectations for theses in the sense of contribution of new
knowledge to a field. Papers are judged according to appropriateness and
effectiveness of literature review; integration of ideas from relevant
sources, including application of appropriate data; comprehensiveness and
creativity of analysis; clarity and organization of arguments; overall
synthesis of data and theory toward well formulated conclusions.
Nominations are now open for the North Carolina Sociological
Association Award for Contributions to Sociology. This award recognizes
excellence in teaching, service, research, or other activity. It is open
to members of the NCSA in academic, research, or applied positions.
Nominations may be made by an individual other than
the nominee, an academic department, government agency, or employer. The
nomination should include a summary of appropriate evidence, including
information about items such as:
This is a good opportunity to recognize a colleague
who has labored long and hard for the discipline. The deadline for nominations
is 5 PM on Jan 15, 1999. Nominations should be sent to Ken Land (kland@soc.duke.edu),
Dept. of Sociology, Duke. University, Durham, NC 27708-0088 (919-660-5615)
or to Richard Dixon, UNC Wilmington, Dept. of Sociology, Wilmington, NC
28403-3297 (910-962-3428).
It is time once again to pay annual dues to the North Carolina Sociological Association. The NCSA has over 400 institutional and individual members.
NCSA President Suzanne Trask and members of the NCSA Executive Council encourage all sociologists‹whether professionals or students) to join the state association.
"There are many good reasons to join the NCSA and to encourage your colleagues and students to join as well," said Trask. "Our association provides a forum where sociologists from across the state and from different institutional and applied settings can come together to discuss the issues of importance to our discipline and practice. We also maintain a website with links of interest to our members and their students.
For the first time we are sponsoring a Legislative
Day when members can visit the state legislature while it is in sessions,
observe their representatives at work on the floor and in committees, and
lobby these elected officials on behalf of our discipline. To continue
as a successful state organization," she added, "we need your support."
"We would like for current members to pay their dues and to recruit
their colleagues and students for membership in our association as well,"
said Pat Rector, Secretary-Treasurer of the NCSA. "Dues are for the calendar
year beginning Jan. 1. We are now soliciting for the 1999 annual dues."
Dues are now $11 per year for regular members and $3 per year for student members. There is no charge for institutions of higher learning. Payment may be sent to Pat Rector, Sociology Department, Catawba College, Salisbury, NC 28144.
At its September meeting, the NCSA Executive Council passed a resolution to ask members to add an optional $4 to their annual dues as a way of partially defraying the additional costs of presenting both an undergraduate and graduate Himes Award in 1999. Members who select this option would pay $15 in dues and contributions.
How can you know when you last paid your dues? Look in the upper right hand corner of the mailing label on this issue of SOCIATION. The two digits there indicate the last calendar year in which your dues were paid.
Last year, the NCSA published a revised directory
of members. Although there were some errors, most members responded favorably
to the directory which included all the colleges, universities, and community
colleges in the entire state as well as listings for active members in
the NCSA. Publishing a revised and updated directory is currently planned.
Every member should verify the basic information in the current directory
and add any new information (such as e-mail addresses) which should be
included in the future editions of the NCSA directory. They are then asked
to fill out the membership form included in this edition of SOCIATION to
reflect their most current information.
Name: ____________________________________________Institutional Affiliation:________________________
Institutional Address:____________________________
Office telephone:_________________________________
Office FAX: ______________________________________
Office e-mail address:____________________________
Permanent Home Address:___________________________
__________________________________________________
Home phone:_______________________________________
Home FAX: ________________________________________
Home e-mail address: _____________________________
I prefer to have SOCIATION mailed to me
_____at my office/business/school address
_____at my permanent home address
Type of membership:
____student (dues $3 per year)
____professional (dues $11 per year)
Voluntary contribution to fund the Himes Award:
_____(suggested donation $4)Total amount enclosed:__________
Please enclose a check for your 1999 dues in the amount indicated
above. Make all checks payable to the North Carolina Sociological Association.
Mail this form and your check to:
Dr. Pat Wyatt
Secretary-Treasurer, NCSA
Department of Sociology
Catawba College
Salisbury, NC 28144
Questions about membership and dues should be directed to Dr. Wyatt.
If you have any difficulties concerning the receipt of SOCIATION
(incomplete address, misspelled name, new apartment number, etc.), please
contact its editor, Lee Dodson, Rockingham Community College, P.O. Box
38, Wentworth, NC 27375-0038 (336-342-4261, ext. 155; e-mail: dodsonl@rcc.cc.nc.us).
"Every year we have to struggle to identify people who are willing to take part in our election process," said Suzanne Trask, a member of this year's nominating committee. "We need your help in identifying people who are willing to serve and who can make a positive contribution to our association. We are seeking candidates from across the state who represent the rich diversity of our discipline both in terms of regional distribution and institutional affiliation."
Trask pointed out that many more potential candidates must be contacted before the Nominating Committee can present a full slate on the next ballot. If you know of someone‹or if you yourself are willing to serve‹please contact any member of the Nominating Committee with your suggestion. Christa Reiser at ECU (252-328-4895) and Robert Wortham at NCCU (919-560-6420) are also serving on this committee. Suzanne Trask may be contacted at Salem College (336-721-2703).
Church membership rates in the United States as a
whole increased dramatically from colonial times to the present day (Fink
and Stark 1992). In 1776 the church membership rate was only 17%, but by
1800 it had increased to 37%. In 1906 more than half the population of
the United States was a member of a church. By 1980 membership rates rose
even more to 62 percent. In 1990 church membership rates in North Carolina
held at about 62 percent of the population.
Bainbridge (1990) has summarized four theories toexplain variations
in church membership.
Taken together, high income correlates with higher church membership, as do the proportion of the population under five and over 65. Region also predicts church membership, but controlling for the demographic differences above, it is the mountains of the state which have higher church membership rates, the opposite of what was expected. The multiple r of the variables was quite high at .58. The other variables, including race, did not achieve the .05 level of significance.
In conclusion we note that testing theories with
empirical data is not always easy. But the results of the empirical analysis
support most closely the life cycle theory of religions membership for
North Carolina. Race does not change observed rates when the demographic
variables are controlled, nor does urbanization. Income increases church
membership, despite secularization theory which would predict the opposite.
Mountain regions of the state, all things considered, show higher rates
of religious membership than other parts of the state.
It is always possible to think up a theory to justify
any particualr result, but why region of the state would influence religious
membership rates would be hard to predict. It would seem that many theories
of religious life are irrelevant to predicting actual results in North
Carolina. But it is quite clear that controlling for the age structure
of the various counties is essential before any theory of religious membership
can be properly tested, since demographic differences can explain high
levels of observed differences among the counties.
Fink, Roger and Rodney Stark (1992). The Churching of America, 1776-1992: Winners and Losers in Our Relgious Economy. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Powell, William S. (1989). North Carolina Through Four Centuries. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press.
Reviewed by George H. Conklin
Thesis advisor: Robert Wortham