Hello All! I have recently been posted in the /authors /matvey.joseph 
section of the /progressive sociology gopher and I wanted to take a few 
moments of your time here to briefly describe the five papers I have posted.
   First, "Impoverishment, Underdevelopment and the Emergence of the Black 
Female Headed Family" looks at various empirical indicators of household 
and income status for various ethnic groups with attention being given to 
the black female headed family.  In a later section the problem of low 
wage work and the minimum wage is discussed in some detail and 
impoverishment is viewed in several tables.  Finally some conclusions are 
reached regarding the skyrocketing rates of female headed households in 
the black community.
   A second paper "Societal and Global Computerization" examines several 
drives on the part of less developed countries to computerize and access 
the larger global computer infrastructure.  I try to point out that 
themes like societal and global computerization can be applied across the 
entire system of societies in the modern era, not just to post industrial 
social systems.  
   A third work, "Globalization and the Globe as System" centers on the 
issue of globalization primarily with reference to five distinct 
processes of globalization: 1) the build up of global moral density; 2) 
heightened global interconnectivity; 3) global federationalism; 4) global 
cultural development; and 5) the systematization of the globe.  In 
examining these processes emphasis is placed upon empirical factors such 
as the development of global organizations, the global moral denisty of 
post secondary education, and the cultural bonds evident at various global 
rituals. 
  A central idea here is that the globe exhibits "systems" properties, not 
in the vulgar Parsonian sense of the word, but that there are systemic 
properties in the modern global condition which go beyond the most 
obvious economic realm.  I move toward mapping out several ways in which the 
world has become a tighter more compressed landscape in the modern era, and 
conclude by attempting to apply Parson's A-G-I-L scheme on the global level.
The point on 
applying the A-G-I-L scheme at this point is not to suggest Parson's has 
an edge on other sociologists in discussing "systems" properties, but 
rather to encourage the move toward a dialogue of the notion of "system" at 
the global level.
  A fourth paper, "Subsistence in Central Appalachia" is actually 
a chapter from my dissertation "Central Appalachia: Distortions in 
Development, 1750-1987."  This chapter primarily deals with ongoing 
patterns of subsistence and domestic production in central Applachia in 
the face of an economoically underdeveloped landscape.  What I attempt to 
present are several structural an cultural currents operating in the 
region favoring the continution of subsistence practices.  In a final 
section, a case study examines the role of subsistence in two regional 
festivals one outside central Appalachia and one within the region.
   Finally, a fifth paper, "Theoretical Currents in the Sociology of 
Applachia" examines two central theoretical paradigms at work in various 
academic research and writing on central Appalachia: Internalism and 
Relationalism.  Each paradigm exhibits a structural and cutltural wing or 
domain and these are explored in some detail.     
  Please enjoy reading these materials at your leisure.  Any comments or 
criticisms would be most appreciated and can be sent to me at 
skeets@telerama.lm.com.
                               Sincerely,
                               Joseph J. Matvey