Volume 25, Number 3, November 1999

Make Plans to Attend the 2000 NCSA Meeting in Raleigh

by Ronald C. Wimberley
North Carolina State University
NCSA Program Chair

We have a time.  We have a place.  We have a theme with continuity.  And we shall have a presidential address. The next meeting of the North Carolina Sociological Association will be our first meeting of the next century and new millennium. Many of us believe that it is time to take sociology to the next level beyond its customary teaching and research roles.  We should begin to apply it seriously.

Our meeting is to help us do just that. The theme is "Applied Sociology."   This theme grew from our meeting at Salem College five years ago and from activities the NCSA has been pursuing ever since.

The next meeting will be February 17-18, 2000. Friday's sessions will be at the McKimmon Center for Extension and Continuing Education on the North Carolina State University Campus.  The welcoming reception is on Thursday evening at the Ramada Inn nearby on Blue Ridge Road.  A block of rooms has also been reserved there for those who are coming from across our state.

On Friday, February 18, the morning's sessions will reinstitute the NCSA presidential address with President George Conklin of North Carolina Central University.

Then we plan to feature presentations on two examples of applied sociology in North Carolina.  One is sociological consulting, something sociologists can do for pay.  The other example is conflict resolution, something sociologists may do as volunteers or for pay.

You won't want to miss our Annual Awards Luncheon either.  At this time, we cannot announce who will be honored, but someone special will be recognized and the rest of us will be very pleased. Plan to stay for dinner, in the finest southern sense of the word.

After lunch, plans include sessions on applied topics with updates on the NCSA's progress on state government jobs for sociology graduates, other applied job opportunities, increasing the visibility for sociology through the media, and a hands-on exercise in conflict resolution.

Planning for sessions and the recruitment of presenters and panelists are ongoing; we invite your participation. Please contact

Check the NCSA web site at www.ncsociology.org/index.htm and the next issue of Sociation for forthcoming details of  the meeting, registration, room reservations, directions, the schedule, and events.

The session "Size, Density and the Quality of Life" presented a challenging set of papers which sought to break the stereotypes surrounding the growth of cities and the quality of life in the last part of the 20th century. Organizer George Conklin asked each panelist to use the skills of a sociologist to see if some of the common assumptions found in the popular press and the planning community were true or false.

Miles Simpson (NCCU) led off the session by pointing out that although sociologists had traditionally considered both
size and density as a quality of life issue, somehow the field has forgotten these variables in recent years.

Earlier sociologists such as Simmel, Sorokin and Wirth were aware that mental health was poor in dense urban areas. Modern public policy is pressing to redensify urban areas neglecting the earlier empirical findings and modern research as well.

George Conklin (NCCU) introduced 20 urban myths which are commonly in the newspaper and are held by the planning community.  These included the myth that public transit saves fuel and that commute times have been rising in recent years. Despite the fact that in the United States 69% of those who drive to work get there in half hour or less, we seem to be trying to convince ourselves that we must move to more dense areas to save travel time.  However, increasing density also increases travel time, the correlate being about +.5.

Professor Helen Ladd from the Terry Sanford Institute at Duke University was an invited guest of NCSA.  Professor Ladd gave a detailed report on her study of population density and costs to government.  Despite numerous statistical controls, the real world tax data in the United States shows a curvilinear relationship.  Very low rural  densities and very high urban densities are both expensive to service.

Professor Ladd's paper concluded, "In summary, this regression-based approach to determining the effects of density on public sector costs counters the engineering-based view that higher density development is associated with lower costs of providing public services.  While the engineering view may be valid at very low densities, for moderately populated counties an increase in population density apparently creates a harsher environment for, and thereby raises the costs of, providing public services."

George Conklin concluded the session by reminding sociologists that our research skills should also be turned to the analysis of public policy issues which are now dominated by those with strong utopian views, but that such views can result in the opposite of what is intended. He thanked Sunny Ladd for her presentation and for being a guest of NCSA.

Sunny Ladd (left) and Ken Land attend the session on urban growth at the NCSA annual conference. Ken Land is also president-elect of the Southern Sociological Association and a member of the NCSA Council.

Editor's note: we continue our series on the Sociology of North Carolina. Please send your suggestions to george@nccu.edu.

Review of  Environmental Justice, Swine Production and Farm Loss in North Carolina, by Bob Edwards (ECU) and Anthony E. Ladd (Loyola University New Orleans). Report prepared with the help of a grant from the Faculty Senate, ECU and presented at the 2nd National Black Land Loss Summer Academic Conference, 1998.

Socio-economic patterns of changes in job occupations are macro processes tied to state, national and international politics. The decline in farming as an occupation in the United States has been an on-going process as farms get larger and the number of families needed for farm labor becomes fewer and fewer each year.

Between 1982 and 1997 every county in North Carolina lost farms, the average being 28.5%. In 1982 of the 11,400 farms producing pigs, 60% had fewer than 25 hogs. Between 1989 and 1997 almost 7,000 hog producers went out of business, while in roughly the same period the number of hogs in North Carolina increased from 3.7 million to more than 10 million.

New, large corporate-style hog farms were begun and were placed in the eastern part of the state. Compared to humans, hogs can produce two to five times the amount of waste. 10,000 hogs can require as much waste treatment as a city of 17,000 humans.

Unfortunately most hog waste is held in lagoons and the odor of such lagoons has caused a political storm in many rural areas of North Carolina, a fact amply documented by the authors. When sprayed on farm land, the heavy metals fed to hogs to control disease pollute the environment.

Environmental racism and discrimination predict that when an environmentally undesirable facility is begun, its location will tend to be in areas where the local population is poorly equipped to say no, either because of poverty, lack of education or racism. In addition, the hypothesis would predict that corporate farms would be implicated in driving smaller farms out of business.

Edwards and Ladd examine a number of variables to test the predictions of the environmental justice hypothesis. The results are shown in Table 1.

The results are generally in conformity with the environmental justice perspective, conclude Edwards and Ladd. As shown in Model 3, farm loss increases in the eastern part of the state as the hog population increases. Home ownership tends to decrease farm loss. Farm loss does not seem to change black poverty rates at the .05 level. However, farm loss is associated with declining poverty rates among whites.

In two of the three models, farm loss was associated with the percent of the county black.

The flooding in eastern North Carolina in September 1999 reached the 500-year levels, releasing millions of gallons of hog waste into the rivers of the state. There is no doubt that the political issue of hog farm pollution will continue to be highly important for many years to come. More consolidation has taken place since Edwards and Ladd wrote.

New large-scale hog farms are now on hold while the legislature debates the environmental and social concerns. From a sociological point of view, however, it would seem that as long as farm loss is positively associated with lower poverty levels, small farms will continue to decline in North Carolina.

Small-scale farming is hard work, and not very well paid. Individual farmers can earn more money working in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy. The urban consumer demands the lowest possible price for food, and urbanites now clearly dominate the political world.

Edwards and Ladd conclude by noting the small, non-significant but nevertheless troubling positive correlation between farm loss and black poverty. They suggest more research will be possible in this area as new data become available. One would hope that this correlate does not reflect racism in the job marketplace. With a new data series expected, this is one avenue which does need to be explored.

 
                     Table 1
Multiple Regression (OLS) of Farmloss in North Carolina 
on County Attributes 1982-1997. (Standardized Betas Shown)

County Characteristics                 Farm Loss
                                   Model 1    Model 2   Model 3

Environmental Justice Variables    
 Percent Homeownership               -.49**    -.46**  -.45**
 Median Years of Edudcation          -.16      -.16    -.19
 Percent Registered to Vote           .40**     .35**   .36**
 Percent Black                        .23**     .26*    .22
 Percent Black Poverty                .14       .15     .16
 Percent Change in Black Poverty       --        --     .14
 Percent Change in White Poverty       --        --    -.22**

Control Variables
 Percent Change in Population
  Density, 1980-1990                  .27**     .27**   .23*
 Eastern County (1=yes; 0=No)         .26**     .30**   .32** 

Pork Industry Dynamics
 Percent Change in Hog Population 
  Size (1982-1992)                    .15      -.02    -.07
 Eastern County Percent Change
  Hog Population 1982, 1992            --       .24*    .24*

Adjusted R Square                     .40       .43     .47
F-Score                              9.06      9.06    8.86
DF                                  97        97      97

* Sig.  at the .05 level.
** Sig. at the .01 level.
Note:  Similar results were shown for Farm Household Loss.
1980 county characteristics are used unless otherwise noted.
Data are from Table 3 in the original paper.

Reviewed by George H. Conklin

A new professional association has been created in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Community College Sociology and Psychology Association was created as an outgrowth of the Curriculum Improvement Project administered by Wayne Adams at Sandhills Community College.

The newly formed association elected Johnny Underwood of Carteret Community College as its first president. "These are exciting times for us as community college instructors in North Carolina," said Underwood. "We would like to see our organization become a vital influence of sociologists and psychologists throughout the state."

Both Adams and Underwood have served as members of the NCSA Executive Council.

Underwood also announced the first annual conference of the NCCCSPA which will be held in Southern Pines on Nov. 8-9.  The inaugural conference is titled, "Community College Psychology and Sociology: Moving into the New Millennium." NCSA President George Conklin plans to attend the conference and extend the greetings of the NCSA to those in attendance.

Vicki Newsome of Durham Technical Community College is the program chair for the meeting. Sherwood Williams of Johnston Community College is handling registration and membership dues ($15 for faculty, $6 for students). Williams may be reached at P.O. Box 2350, Smithfield, NC 27577.

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:

• Teaching evaluations by students, peers, and administrators.
• Developing and improving teaching techniques.
• Advising and supervising students and serving as a mentor.
• Developing, administering, evaluating and marketing courses and programs.
• Fostering improved teaching through research, publications, conferences, and workshops.
• Outstanding scholarly contributions through books, articles, or other publications.
• Service to the academic community or one's place of employment.
• Service to the profession of Sociology through work with either state, regional, national or international associations.
• Community service at the local, state, regional or national level. This could include work with both nonprofit and profit organizations where the outcome demonstrated a significant contribution to sociology or to bettering society.
• The application of sociological knowledge to a critical societal problem and its solution.

The winner will be recognized at the annual meeting and receive a plaque and NCSA lifetime membership.

Previous winners of this award include Joseph Himes, Isabelle Powell, Alfred Denton, Odell Uzzell, Ben Judkins, Ella Keller, Lee Dodson, Catherine Harris, George Conklin, Richard and Ida Simpson.
 
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 5, 2000. 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).
 

The year 2000 is also upon us. Whether it will bring the multitude of disasters some have predicted remains to be seen. What it certainly offers is an opportunity for you, your colleagues and your students to join the North Carolina Sociological Association. Continuing your membership and recruiting new members helps keep the NCSA a vital and growing professional association. The NCSA has over 400 institutional and individual members. Won't you continue to be a part of this organization?

NCSA President George Conklin 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 Conklin.

"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 web site with links of interest to our members and their students. We have formed a task force to pursue means of allowing sociology graduates greater access to state jobs. To continue as a successful state organization," he 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.  "We are on the calendar year beginning Jan. 1. We are now soliciting for the 2000 annual dues."

Dues are $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.

Last year, 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. 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.

Every few years, the NCSA has published a  directory of members. Although there are inevitably some errors, most members have responded favorably to the directories which included all the colleges, u universities, and community colleges in the entire state as well as listings for active members in the NCSA.

We are 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.  Members are then asked to fill out the membership form included in this edition of SOCIATION to reflect their most current information.

Each year the NCSA gives the Joseph S. Himes Award to the outstanding undergraduate paper of the year. Beginning in 1999, the NCSA has also recognized 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, graduate or undergraduate,  should be submitted in triplicate to Beth Davison at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC 28608 (828-262-6397, davisonb@appstate.edu).  Deadline for submission is Jan. 7, 2000.  Please help us recognize the work of outstanding student sociologists by encouraging them to submit their papers rs for consideration.

In addition to being recognized as having written the best undergraduate or graduate paper of the year, winners 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.
 

 Jammie Lynn Price has joined the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at UNC Wilmington. A native of Maryland, she received her Ph.D. from NCSU.

The Nominations Committee is seeking suggestions concerning individuals who may be willing to serve on the Executive Council of the NCSA or who may be willing to serve as President-elect of this organization. Council members Kenneth Land, Christa Reiser, and Catherine Zimmer have completed their terms of service and are retiring from the council. Three new members are needed to fill these positions.

"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. The members of the committee are:

• George Conklin at NCCU, 919-530-7327, george@nccu.edu
• Catherine Zimmer at NCSU, 919-515-9028, cathy_zimmer@ncsu.edu
• Suzanne Trask at Salem College, 336-721-2703, trask@salem.edu.

The North Carolina Sociological Association is open to any person engaged in teaching or research in sociology, or in a field of applied sociology, as well as to any student whose major interest is sociology. Members receive SOCIATION, the Bulletin of the NCSA, three times per year and are invited to attend the annual meeting of the association in the spring. Dues are for one calendar year.

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 Please enclose a check for your 2000 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).
 

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