Suchergebnisse

This article presents an epistemological view of levels of analysis. According to this view, four types of relationships need to be differentiated: macro-macro, macro-micro, micro-micro, and micro-macro. The two within-level relationships are linked by the two cross-level relationships that, in turn, are explicated by various theories of organizational, institutional, and social processes. Mass communication is thus conceived of as a process from production to consumption that occurs at both micro-individual and macro-social levels. The contributions of this multilevel view of mass communications to theoretical development in the field is illustrated by analyzing three prominent theories in our field: the knowledge gap, cultivation, and the spiral of silence. Finally, the article discusses the available research techniques and strategies for dealing with multilevel research questions.

Criminal sentencing is, along with arresting and prosecuting, among the most important of formal social control decisions. In this study we use hierarchical modeling to test hypotheses about contextual level influences and cross level interaction effects on local court decisions. Most of the explanatory "action," our analysis shows, is at the individual case level in criminal sentencing. We also find evidence that local contextual features–such as court organizational culture, court caseload pressure, and racial and ethnic composition–affect sentencing outcomes, either directly or in interaction with individual factors. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications of our findings, and how our study points out some dilemmas among civil rights, local autonomy and organizational realities of criminal courts.

Résumé Courgeau (Daniel), Baccaini (Brigitte). -Analyse multi-niveaux en sciences sociales L'approche multi-niveaux permet d'aborder les comportements humains, en tenant compte non seulement des caractéristiques individuelles, mais également du fait que ces individus font partie d'unités géographiques plus larges telles que les communes ou les régions. Une présentation détaillée et critique est faite ici des objectifs et des diverses formulations de ces modèles. Cet article va des modèles les plus simples, qui font intervenir la multiplicité des niveaux sous la forme de caractéristiques individuelles et agrégées, à des modèles plus complexes mettant en oeuvre des aléas propres à chaque niveau, pour aboutir à des modèles biographiques multi-niveaux. Il ouvre à une réflexion épistémologique plus générale sur l'apport de ces modèles.

This research focuses on the investigation of the location determinants of multinational corporations' investments in EU countries. Investment projects are addressed by making a distinction between greenfield investments and M&A projects. Besides traditional factors (such as market characteristics) the effect of innovation capabilities and the institutional environment are incorporated in the analysis. The use of a multilevel model makes it possible to empirically assess the effect of national and regional characteristics on the location decision of multinationals. The results suggest that greenfield investments and M&A are similar in their location determinants, although the former have a stronger correlation with highly educated populations. Urbanisation, associated with land cost, as well as national (rather than regional) markets are insignificant. Finally, we find no evidence for the importance of political stability within Europe.

In this book, top specialists address theoretical, methodological, and empirical multilevel models as they relate to the analysis of individual and cultural data. Divided into four parts, the book opens with the basic conceptual and theoretical issues in multilevel research, including the fallacies of such research. Part II describes the methodological aspects of multilevel research, including data-analytic and structural equation modeling techniques. Applications and models from various research areas including control, values, organizational behavior, social beliefs, well-being, personality, response styles, school performance, family, and acculturation, are explored in Part III. This section also deals with validity issues in aggregation models. The book concludes with an overview of the kinds of questions addressed in multilevel models and highlights the theoretical and methodological issues yet to be explored. This book is intended for researchers and advanced students in psychology, sociology, social work, marriage and family therapy, public health, anthropology, education, economics, political science, and cultural and ethnic studies who study the relationship between behavior and culture

Household/individual & area-level data from the 1980-1985 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 3,895 male heads-of-household, ages 55+) were used to estimate 4 models in which the contextual variables of climate, crime, & cost of living & health services interacted with the individual variables of age, income, home ownership, & health to predict elderly migration. While the individual-level variables were stronger than either the contextual variables or the micro-macro interaction, these latter did improve the model's explanatory power. Elderly migrant flows from a wide range of origin areas into a smaller number of areas with lower cost of living & lower crime were noted. In Multilevel Determinants of Elderly Migration: Methodological Reservations, Gary M. Fournier (Florida State U, Tallahassee) notes some shortcomings of this analysis: the lack of (1) a logical structure of the econometric model, & (2) a cross-sectional logit analysis to demonstrate the relative effects of time variation vs individual characteristics. 1 Table, 19 References. Adapted from the source document.