Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Thomas, Uldall, and Krosnick (2002, AAPOR) examined how the number of response categories was associated both reliability and validity of attitudinal measurement. In two separate large-scale studies, we sought to extend these findings to the influence of end-anchored versus fully-anchored scales. In addition, we examined how scale orientation (vertical versus horizontal) would influence our findings. We found that increasing the number of response categories yielded increased criterion-related validity, though not much was observed beyond 5 categories. We also present results for end- and fully-anchored scales and compare the studies concerning vertical versus horizontal scale orientation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The literature on Chilean democracy since the 1990 transition has been disjointed. Authors have assigned numerous “labels” to characterize Chilean democracy, which, compounded with the diverse features of the regime on which scholars have focused, makes for a very confused literature. Due to a lack of the same vocabulary and a shared analytic framework, the various characterizations in the 1990s of the Chilean regime failed to provide a coherent discussion of how to think about the Chilean transition and its post-transition regime. In this paper I look beyond the many labels for the regime to gain a better understanding of Chile not only in the context of various scholars’ individual frameworks, but also from within the Chilean democracy literature as a whole. Behind the numerous labels lies a fascinating, ongoing discussion of Chilean democracy. Progress toward appropriately conceptualizing the regime requires that we shape our frameworks and analyses in terms of what is already available in the comparative and Chile-focused democratization literatures, and that we abstain from creating more labels. I also propose that scholars limit themselves to characterizing the regime as they see it at the time, rather than either employing the democratic label prematurely or withholding it based on the belief that a label itself can affect a regime’s chances for a higher quality democracy in the future.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The legitimacy of functional syndromes is contested. These syndromes have no objective pathology and no known causes. Patient organizations pursue the scientific legitimization of functional syndromes. Patients and doctors often clash in their understanding of these syndromes and the medical profession is divided into different factions. The ongoing controversies surrounding functional syndromes are of sociological interest. They reveal ongoing changes in modern biomedicine, especially in regard to the conception of disease and the patient-physician relationship. They also touch on a number of phenomena and problems in medicine and contemporary societies. This paper examines physicians’ views regarding functional syndromes. Articles published in leading American medical journals between 1999 and 2005 were reviewed. The comments, editorials and letters reveal conflicting tendencies in modern biomedicine. Economic interests, patient autonomy, and professional authority are at odds. There are tendencies to conceptualize disease beyond the mind-body dualism, which are met with considerable resistance by patients. While idealists among doctors reject medicalization, pragmatists endorse it. The results of this exploratory study can be applied to other diseases, other medical areas, and other situations involving lay and expert interaction.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper seeks to remedy two gaps in sociology of culture: (1) attention to the experience and practical use of the content of music and (2) attention to opera. In order to understand how is music experienced and what kinds of uses it affords, this paper asks how does an audience receive, represent and experience opera years after its historical primacy, when it has lost both its popular and distinguishing character at the same time.
We report the results of a yearlong ethnography conducted at Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon over the last three seasons.
We propose five ideal types to interpret how music is experienced at the opera house: the devotee, the better self, the melancholic, the hero and the addict. Each one of them are a shade of the total operatic experience, which comprises a moral engagement with music that aims for a transcendence of everyday life by attaching values of truth and goodness to it. This engagement involves: a) a superior spiritual understanding of the opera lover; b) a past-oriented understanding of time; c) a set of practices by which the person can abandon herself to music; d) a heroic ethic that serves as the horizon for practice; e) the non-circulatory character of the object of appreciation; f) the medium and material to narrate the self and g) a never ending process of learning how to “properly” enjoy the experience.