Recently Published Books

Fall 2009 , Volume 31, Number 1

Talking Together: Public Deliberation and Political Participation in America
By Lawrence Jacobs, Fay Lomax Cook,
and Michael Delli Carpini
University of Chicago Press, 2009, 224 pages

Challenging the conventional wisdom that Americans are less engaged than ever in national life and the democratic process, Talking Together paints a comprehensive portrait of public deliberation in the United States, revealing how, when, and why citizens talk to each other about the issues of the day. In settings ranging from one-on-one conversations to e-mail exchanges to larger and more formal gatherings, a surprising two-thirds of Americans regularly participate in public discussions about such pressing issues as the Iraq War, economic development, and race relations. With original and extensive research, IPR director Fay Lomax Cook and her co-authors pinpoint the real benefits of this public discourse while considering arguments that question its importance—ultimately offering concrete recommendations for increasing the power of talk to foster political action.

New Welfare Bureaucrats: Entanglements of Race, Class, and Policy Reform
By Celeste Watkins-Hayes
University of Chicago Press, 2009, 328 pages

As the recession worsens, more and more Americans must turn to welfare to make ends meet. Once inside the agency, the newly jobless will face a bureaucracy that has undergone massive change since the advent of welfare reform in 1996. IPR sociologist and African American studies assistant professor Celeste Watkins-Hayes offers a behind-the-scenes look at bureaucracy’s human face in a compelling study of welfare officers and how they navigate the increasingly tangled political and emotional terrain of their jobs. Based on extensive fieldwork in two distinct communities in the Northeast, her analysis shows how the shift from simply providing monetary aid to helping recipients find jobs has made caseworkers more involved in their clients lives—and increased the importance of their own racial, class, and professional identities in the process.

Sex, Power, and Taboo: Gender and HIV in the Caribbean and Beyond
Edited by Dorothy Roberts, Rhoda Reddock, Dianne Douglas, and
Sandra Reid
Ian Randle Publishers, 2008, 356 pages

Co-edited by IPR law professor Dorothy Roberts, this edited volume provides an interdisciplinary exploration of how gender affects HIV risk and prevention. Together the essays shift the paradigm of HIV/AIDS research from traditional public health approaches by illuminating the influence of gender ideologies, norms, and power relationships on sexuality and the impact of gender on HIV risk and prevention within and outside of the Caribbean. From the diverse Caribbean and international perspectives, the contributors—including IPR sociologist Celeste Watkins-Hayes—investigate the relationship between gender and sexuality for academics, policymakers, advocates, and public health workers.

The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis (2nd edition)
Edited by Harris Cooper, Larry Hedges, and Jeffrey Valentine
Russell Sage Foundation, 2009, 615 pages

When the first edition of The Handbook of Research Synthesis was published in 1994, it quickly became the definitive reference for researchers in both the social and biological sciences. In the second edition, IPR education researcher and statistician Larry Hedges and his co-editors update the original text and add new chapters on such topics as computations from clustered data and the increasing use of research synthesis in the formation of public policy. The volume also includes updated techniques for locating hard-to-find “fugitive” literature, ways of systematically assessing the quality of a study, and progress in statistical methods for detecting and estimating the effects of publication bias.

The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective
Edited by Isaac Martin, Ajay Mehrotra, and Monica Prasad
Cambridge University Press, 2009, 328 pages

This volume, co-edited by IPR sociologist Monica Prasad, demonstrates that the study of taxation can illuminate fundamental dynamics of modern societies. The chapters offer a state-of-the-art survey of the new fiscal sociology that is emerging at the intersection of sociology, history, political science, and law.  The contributors, who include some of the foremost comparative historical scholars in these disciplines and others, approach the institution of taxation as a window into a changing social contract.  Their research addresses the social and historical sources of tax policy, the problem of how taxes persist, and the social and cultural consequences of taxation. They also trace fundamental connections between tax institutions and macrohistorical phenomena, such as wars, shifting racial boundaries, religious traditions, gender regimes, and labor systems.

The Quality of Democracy in Eastern Europe: Public Preferences and Policy Reforms
By Andrew Roberts
Cambridge University Press, 2009, 256 pages

How does democracy work in the new democracies of Eastern Europe? Do the people actually rule as one would expect in a democracy, or have the legacies of communism and the constraints of the transition weakened popular control? This book presents a new framework for conceptualizing and measuring “democratic quality” and applies the framework to multiple countries and policy areas. Defining democratic quality as the degree to which citizens are able to hold leaders accountable for their performance and keep policy close to their preferences, IPR political scientist Andrew Roberts comes to the surprising conclusion that citizens in Eastern European democracies exercise considerable control over their rulers, despite facing difficult economic circumstances and an unfavorable inheritance from communism.

Introduction to Meta-Analysis
By Michael Borenstein, Larry Hedges, Julian Higgins, and Hannah Rothstein
Wiley, 2009, 450 pages

This book provides a clear and thorough introduction to meta-analysis, or the process of synthesizing data from a series of separate studies. As meta-analysis has become a critically important tool in diverse fields, from medicine, pharmacology, and epidemiology to education, psychology, business, and ecology, IPR education researcher and statistician Larry Hedges and his co-authors outline the role of meta-analysis in the research process. They cover various practical and theoretical issues, from how to compute and compare effect sizes to the fixed-effect and random-effects models, clarifying concepts with formulas and examples.  The authors also explain how to avoid common mistakes and discuss the controversies associated with meta-analysis. They also provide an overview of computer software that can be used to conduct a meta-analysis.

Research Confidential: Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never Have
Edited by Eszter Hargittai
University of Michigan Press, 2009, 312 pages

This collection of essays aims to fill a notable gap in the existing literature on research methods in the social sciences. While the methods literature is extensive, rarely do authors discuss the practical issues and challenges they routinely face in the course of their research projects. As a result, communication studies researcher and IPR Faculty Associate Eszter Hargittai argues, each new cohort makes the same mistakes that previous generations have already confronted and resolved. Research Confidential seeks to address this failing by supplying new researchers with the kind of detailed practical information that can make or break a project.  The book, designed for graduate students and educators, is written in an accessible and engaging manner by a group of prominent young scholars—including IPR Faculty Fellows Emma Adam and Jeremy Freese.

The Nature of Cities: Ecological Visions and the American Urban Professions, 1920–1960
By Jennifer Light
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009, 312 pages

In the early 20th century, America was transformed from a predominantly agricultural nation to one whose population resided mostly in cities. Yet rural areas continued to hold favored status in the country’s political life.  Anxious about the future of cities, prominent figures in the social sciences, city planning, and real estate promoted the idea that America’s urban landscapes were ecological communities requiring scientific management on par with forests and farms. In this book, communication studies researcher and IPR Faculty Associate Jennifer Light brings together environmental and urban history to reveal how their ecological vision shaped the development of U.S. cities.

For more information about IPR faculty publications, see www.northwestern.edu/ipr/publications.