Objective. We present trimodality as a distributional pattern that is relevant to conceptual issues of attitudinal polarization but fits nowhere along the modalitybimodality continuum. Methods. We use simulated univariate distributions and distributions taken from the 1994 General Social Survey to investigate how commonly used measures track (or fail to track) noteworthy shifts in the distributions. Results. The kurtosis and variance are largely insensitive to important distributional differences, most importantly that between bimodality and trimodality. Conclusions. We argue that the lack of attention to trimodality and the insensitivity of commonly used measures of polarization (kurtosis in particular) to that distributional pattern create a blind spot in our thinking about polarization and can lead to basic misinterpretations of extant patterns in public opinion data.Social polarization occupies an important place in theories of democracy because of its inverse relation to social consensus. Recently, it has become the focal point of debates surrounding contemporary social conflicts known collectively as the "culture wars." The use of attitudinal research to assess claims underlying the culture wars thesis has sparked methodological developments and debates concerning the measurement of attitudinal polarization and has made it an important topic for public opinion research. In that research, polarization is conceptualized as the extent to which attitudes either cluster around a central mode or are divided between two disparate positions. Polarization, then, is assumed to exist along a continuum from modality to bimodality.
Multiculturalism has been a central concept in conflicts over race/ethnic relations for more than a decade, yet the debates that it ignited offer little systematic understanding of its origins and meaning. This research seeks to clarify those issues through an analysis of multiculturalism, and cultural diversity more broadly, from a symbolic and historical perspective. Symbolic analysis of multiculturalism focuses on its multivalence-an essential property of political symbols thatfacilitates the synchronization of diverse interests. Historical analysis focuses on the shifting balance of interests, and political struggles over cultural diversity through the course of the century, which provides the layers of meanings from which multiculturalism draws. Of particular importance is the interplay between movements seeking greater equity in race/ethnic relations and market-based interests that find elective affinities with specific symbolic expressions of those relations-particularly the affinity between cultural diversity and economic competitiveness that developed in the context of economic globalization.
This research presents survey data from a sample of 103 belly dancers in Salt Lake City, Utah, addressing issues of body image and gender identity. While research on various forms of dance has emphasized unhealthy body image influences, belly dance offers a counter-example, indicating broad and inclusive body image norms, lack of pressure for body image conformity, and high levels of body satisfaction among dancers. Data also indicate that those norms are linked to more generalized challenges to gender roles and structures. Explanations for the maintenance of alternative collective norms focus on two institutional influences: processes of socialization to collective values, and the free space provided by a gender segregated activity.
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