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Although our society has made substantial investments in research and programs based on the idea that communities affect families and children, significant questions have emerged about the validity of the link between communities, children, and families. This book, presented in four sections, focuses on how communities undergird or undermine human development, how neighborhoods enhance or interfere with family functioning, how neighborhoods affect the development of adolescent problem behavior, and policies and approaches to strengthen neighborhoods as contexts for child and adolescent well-being. The chapters are: (1) "How Do Communities Undergird or Undermine Human Development? Relevant Contexts and Social Mechanisms" (Robert J. Sampson); (2) "Taking Neighborhoods Seriously" (Barrett A. Lee); (3) "The Prodigal Paradigm Returns: Ecology Comes Back to Sociology" (Douglas Massey); (4) "Resiliency and Fragility Factors Associated with the Contextual Experiences of Low-Resource Urban African-American Male Youth and Families" (Margaret Beale Spencer); (5) "Context and Meaning in Neighborhood Studies of Children and Families" (Jill E. Korbin); (6) "Issues in the Analysis of Neighborhoods, Families, and Children" (Scott J. South); (7) "Hyperghettos and Hypermasculinity: The Phenomenology of Exclusion" (Mercer L. Sullivan); (8) "Neighborhoods and Adolescent Development: How Can We Determine the Links?" (Greg J. Duncan and Stephen W. Raudenbush) (9) "Better Ways To Do Contextual Analysis: Lessons from Duncan and Raudenbush" (John O. G. Billy); (10) "One Step Forward and Two Steps Back: Neighborhoods, Adolescent Development, and Unmeasured Variables" (Linda M. Burton); (11) "Communities as Systems: Is a Community More Than the Sum of Its Parts?" (Stephen Small and Andrew Supple); (12) "Community Approaches to Improving Outcomes for Urban Children, Youth, and Families: Current Trends and Future Directions" (James P. Connell and Anne C. Kubisch); (13) "On Mount and Fayette: Implications for Comprehensive Youth Development Approaches" (Ralph B. Taylor); (14) "Developmental and Ecological Considerations in Implementing Community Action Strategies for Children and Youth" (Mark Greenberg); (15) "Community Approaches to Improving Outcomes for Urban Children, Youth, and Families" (Dale A. Blyth); and (16) "Neighborhood Effects on Child and Adolescent Development: Assessing Today's Knowledge for Tomorrow's Villages" (Frank Avenilla and Susan Singley). (Each chapter contains references.) (KB)

American schools might improve their performance by emulating certain successful businesses that, while distinctly American, have much in common with Japanese corporations. William Ouchi attributes Japanese business success to worker involvement; the typical Japanese corporation, he asserts, unifies its employees around a corporate philosophy transmitted through a corporate culture. Most American businesses, by contrast, are plagued with instability, as workers seek career growth at the expense of the company. American "Type Z" corporations, however, have attained prosperty and stability because, like Japanese corporations, they are people-centered and purposeful organizations. Meanwhile, despite growing criticism of American education, school effectiveness research has found examples of highly successful schools. The "Type Z" school is a new model that draws on both these analyses. The characteristics of such a school include: (1) a clear philosophy stressing excellence, equity, and enrichment in an optimistic environment; (2) a curriculum reflecting community goals and values; (3) classroom practices congruent with the school philosophy; (4) a sense of community among and between teachers and students; and (5) a strong principal providing symbolic leadership, instructional leadership, and group facilitation. (MCG)

This book, written in a narrative style that combines autobiography, case studies, and fiction, presents a picture of academic life as experienced by gay men and lesbian women. The way in which research has defined gay identity is the way lesbian and gay people are identified in the daily life of the university, and it looks to the university faculty as an intellectual vanguard to advance the understanding of sexual orientation and its relation to societal norms. The book is organized in two parts; the first deals with the relationship between cultural studies and "queer" theory, and expands on the notion of culture, the structural and disciplinary implications for academe, how norms get defined, and the distinction between difference and oppression. Part 2 considers the consequences of queer theory upon academic life. It offers an overview of gay identity in college and university life, quotes from interviews with gay academics, includes a discussion of how language is used to hide and frame gay and lesbian issues, and covers issues such as domestic partner benefits and sexual orientation classes. A final chapter calls for the acceptance of sexual identity and offers strategies for the necessary institutional change. (Contains 100 references.) (CH)

Discusses the concept of reference group and social evaluations in sociology. Theoretical framework of the early history and conceptual developments of reference group; Consequences of normative reference orientations; Selection and acceptance of normative reference groups; Consequences of comparison.

The article focuses on the theory of reference group behavior and the contribution made in this context. The inductive re-examination of cases admits also the linking of these reference group conceptions with other conceptions prevalent in social psychology and sociology which have not ordinarily been connected with the theory of reference group behavior. Author has identified numerous researches in the book "The American Soldier," which bear upon the theory of reference group behavior. Of the various concepts employed by the authors of "The American Soldier," to interpret their multiform materials, there is one which takes a major place. This is the concept of relative deprivation. Although the concept of relative deprivation is periodically utilized for the interpretation of variations in attitudes among different categories of men, varying, for example, with respect to age, education and marital status, it nowhere finds formal definition in the pages of these volumes. In general, then, reference group theory aims to systematize the determinants and consequences of those processes of evaluation and self-appraisal in which the individual takes the values or standards of other individuals and groups as a comparative frame of reference.

Origins According to Karāva spokesmen in recent times, the term ‘Karāva’ is derived from the Sanskrit term ‘Kaurava’ and the Karāva are of the same race of people as the Kauravar and Kurukulams of south India, the Kaorw of Rajputana and the Kurs of Bengal. They are descendants of the Kurus of the Mahabhārata and a warrior people of Kshātriya stock. Their royal lineage is said to be attested in the royal insignia in the flags and other emblems that have been used in their funeral and wedding ceremonies for several centuries, a practice sanctioned by the Sinhalese kings. The prevalence of the term ‘suriya’ in their clan names, other etymological and philological evidence and the honours they received from Sinhalese kings for military service are among the pieces of evidence presented in support of this hypothesis. This folklore is supported by several ‘sacred texts’: the Mukkara Haṭana, Edgar Thurston's volumes, the writings of Hugh Nevill and H. C. P. Bell, etc. The emphasis is on north Indian origins and Rajput warrior ancestry, though these connections are sometimes drawn in a migrant line through south India. Some versions imply that Karāva settlers even arrived with King Vijaya and with the sacred bo-tree; and the village of Moratuwa or Murathiha is said to have been settled in the time of Duttagāmani (second century b.c.) by a group of soldiers from a village of the same name in the present Kurunegala District, who were led by Prince Jayavarunakulasuriya Jayasiri Aditya of Rajputana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter the information on the diversification of occupations that was presented in the previous chapter will be intermeshed with other data to outline the opportunities which residents in the Maritime Provinces had to extend their economic resources. Some of the consequences for social relations that seem to have accompanied these developments will then be traced. Throughout, the focus will largely be on the regions in the Maritime Provinces where Sinhalese-speakers have been in a majority, that is, the Low-Country Sinhalese districts. Commerce and opportunities for economic advancement From well before the advent of the European powers, it is known, Sri Lanka occupied an important place in the inter Asian trade, particularly in commodity exchange along the extended coastline of the Indian sub-continent (see maps 4 and 5). The island provided such commodities as arecanuts, cinnamon, elephants, gems, timber, coconuts, coconut oil, cordage, coir and tobacco. At such ports as Mannar, Kalpitiya and Jaffna in the Tamil areas, at Kottiyar and Batticaloa on the eastern coast and at Puttalam, Chilaw, Kammala, Negombo, Mutwal, Colombo, Panadura, Kalutara, Maggona, Beruwala, Alutgama, Welitara, Gintota, Galle, Weligama and Matara along the southwestern coast, these items were exchanged for rice, spices, dried fish, cloth, opium and other imports. It follows that these products had to circulate within the island and that the export products had to reach the ports. In addition, one has to take note of the internal trade, including that which occurred along the island coastline – for the sea was by far the best medium for bulk transport when the monsoon was not at its height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In employing a series of controlled comparisons in the previous chapter, it was necessary to consider several factors to which, eventually, little weight could be attached as contributory causes for the economic success of the Karāva elite. Without altogether jettisoning the eclectic approach which has been favoured so far, in this chapter I propose to sharpen my lines of discriminatory emphasis and to distinguish the more vital factors, and thereafter to dwell upon some of the implications arising from these factors. Assigning weightages in this fashion is ultimately intuitive. This is all the more so when, as the previous sections should have made clear, some of the reasoning is constructed upon speculative foundations. The assessment must also operate within the constraints of a research design which has focused on channels of upward social mobility. For a fuller understanding of the processes of elite formation it would be useful to have similar information on families that experienced downward mobility. A priori it is possible that the advent of the Western colonial powers or the penetration of capitalism may have had depressive effects on certain sectors of the indigenous economy. The emergence of a new economic elite in a locality may have been rendered possible by the decline of certain local elites who were adversely affected by such processes. It is without the benefits of such finely grained local and regional histories that this concluding survey is attempted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In seeking the factors that contributed towards the economic advances and the socio-political thrusts of the Karāva elite, any analysis must traverse three or four centuries. This demands attention to diachronic variations. Sequential developments might be perceived, turning-points located. The time-scale complicates the evaluation of causal factors. The isolation of a specific factor may raise questions about the conditions which spawned the factor. One gets pushed back in time till the historical records peter out. It is only with a limited regard for these time variations that this chapter proceeds. For the most part, the analysis will rely on controlled comparisons: that is, a method which compares the attributes, the relational features and the performance of two or more entities in order to isolate causal influences. The better-known examples of this strategy involve comparisons across pairs or multiples of contrasting polities so as to illuminate the varying processes of state formation or political modernisation or economic development. In contrast with these global-scale comparisons, in this study the strategy is applied within a single geographical unit and focuses on social groups as well as regional differences. The Karāva will not be viewed in isolation. The comparative performance of other segments of the Sinhalese community will be pinpointed in order to isolate differentiating factors. The categorisation of segments will be on a regional and socio-structural basis: the Sinhalese, the Low-Country Sinhalese, the Karāva– Salāgama–Durāva taken together, the Karāva and the Moratuwa Karāva. In sequence, each of these categories will be compared with the category that follows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The previous chapter confirmed that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a substantial proportion of the Sinhalese rich and the Sinhalese in prestigious positions were drawn from the Karāva caste. While their relative share was comparatively large, it will be evident that the number of Karāva who used the avenues of social mobility to advantage were relatively few. One can, on the evidence presented so far, speak only of ‘the rise of a Karāva elite’ rather than the ‘rise of the Karāva’. This reconstruction has now brought us to a junction where the story takes two directions: one seeks to explain how and why such a successful elite emerged from within the Karāva caste rather than other castes. This is our primary interest. But first we must look at the social and political struggles of the Karāva under the inspiration of their emerging elite families or older headmen families. These families found that their social and ritual status was not congruent with their economic power. Taking advantage of the loosening of caste-regulated restrictions on life-style and the relaxations in caste-regulated administrative practice during British times, they set out to improve their social station and that of the Karāva caste as a whole. This raises questions regarding the degree to which these elite families were responding to the sentiments of the Karāva people, and whether one is justified in considering the Karāva to have possessed a sense of community before the Karāva elite developed into an articulate force. These are questions that have been hotly debated with regard to upwardly mobile castes in India during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The story of the Karāva elite and their social and political operations is hardly an isolated case. In India as well changes in the distribution of economic and political power resulted in the emergence of elites among castes that were traditionally placed low in the ritual hierarchy. These men, too, were confronted by the dilemma of status inconsistency. In many instances they attempted to resolve this problem by championing the cause of their ‘caste’ and by adopting prestigious status symbols and pursuing those strategies which scholars have described as ‘Sanskritisation’ and ‘Westernisation’. In many cases, they created a new organisational form to pursue these interests: a voluntary association which restricted membership to their ‘caste’. These are known in the literature as ‘caste associations’. Among such cases, two which have received much attention are those of the Iravas (or Izhavas) of Travancore and the Nadars of the Madras Presidency and southern Travancore. These case-studies are noticed briefly in this chapter, not only because they provide interesting parallels with the Karāva case but also because they can be used as a point of entry to what is the central concern of this chapter: namely the nature of the links between elite and mass within such mobilised ‘caste formations’, and the nature of caste consciousness and communal solidarity within such formations both in pre-British and British times. Such a concern is directed towards a formulation of an answer to the question whether caste consciousness can be regarded as a primordial yet flexible identity with the ability to reproduce itself and perpetuate its relevance in radically changed contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is one of the arguments in this book that the place of the Karāva caste in the changing system of caste stratification in Sri Lanka was of considerable importance for the social and economic advances secured by some of the Karāva. It follows that consideration should be paid to the system of caste interaction among the Sinhalese and the place of the Karāva within this structure (viewed morphologically) before the Karāva elite began to make its presence felt. Before taking up these insular details, however, readers will be introduced to the general principles of caste interaction in the Indian cultural region. In presenting this generalised description, the opportunity is taken to introduce concepts which will be referred to from time to time in the course of this book. Caste in the Pan-Indian context Caste is a social and cultural category. It is an identity, a label. But it is also more than that. As Edmund Leach has stressed, ‘a caste does not exist by itself. A caste can only be recognised in contrast to other castes with which its members are closely involved’ in a network of relationships. ‘These relationships extend to economic, religious and political spheres; only kinship is excluded.’ Caste is also a quality. ‘The quality resides in the blood. And blood is graded from very pure to extremely defiling.’ In Sinhalese society this is expressed in the concepts of pirisidu (pure) and hoňda (good) as opposed to apirisidu (impure) and naraka (bad). Those bearing the latter quality are, therefore, of low status – hīna or paha⃛ jāṫi. Such concepts embody the notion of a hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book describes and analyses the emergence of an elite of capitalists and Western-educated men and women among the Karāva people in Sri Lanka during the colonial era. It seeks to explain how the Karāva caste produced a significant proportion of the Sinhalese elite and the Sinhalese capitalist class in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many of these Karāva families rose from relative obscurity. In pre-British times only a handful of Karāva mudaliyars, or chief headmen, possessed a significant degree of status and power. The principal indigenous landholders and officials in the Kotte Kingdom as well as the Portuguese and Dutch colonial states had been drawn from the aristocratic ranks of the Goyigama caste – a caste which not only commanded the highest ritual status among the Sinhalese, but also enjoyed a numerical superiority and a monopoly of access to the highly influential Buddhist monastic Order, the Sangha. In common with such castes as the Salāgama and Durāva, the Karāva possessed the mixed disadvantage of being mostly made up of relatively recent Dravidian migrants. Their position contrasted with that of other non-Goyigama castes whose specialist functions involved ritual services to the Goyigama caste people or to the local temple. In further contrast, it would appear that, initially, they did not control much wet paddy land and were not involved in rice cultivation to the same degree as either the Goyigama or the other non-Goyigama castes. Nevertheless, they were slotted into the structure of caste-regulated corvée services known as rājakāriya (king's service) and came to be regarded as Sinhalese castes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article talks about the continuities in the theory of reference groups and social structure. The concept of a reference group originated from the field of social psychology dealing with the responses of individuals to their environment. Though reference group members play an important role in the group, non-members also contribute to its goals. To provide a basis for group classification, a provisional list of group-properties is given. The article concludes by listing the consequences of the different types of reference group behavior.