THOMAS J. DURANT, JR. is Professor of Sociology and Director of African and African American Studies at Louisiana State University. His research and teaching interests include Southern culture, international development, and ethnic minorities. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters.

J. DAVID KNOTTNERUS is Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. His interests include theory, social structure and inequality, social psychology, and group processes. He has published extensively in journals and is the coeditor of Recent Developments in the Theory of Social Structure (with Christopher Prendergast, 1994).