bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Eastern Europe's Silent Revolution: Gender
Authors: Watson Peggy
Published: September 2003

The present paper argues that the transformation of the relationship between public and private spheres lies at the heart of the process of change in Eastern Europe, and that the exclusion of women and the de-grading of feminine identity currently in train are not contingent to, but rather a fundamentally constitutive feature of, the democratisation of Eastern Europe. This contrasts with existing accounts of social transition which have focused exclusively on the reconstruction of the public sphere. The paper characterises the changing nature of patriarchy in Eastern Europe, and explains why such changes have as yet not met with serious feminist challenge. It does so by highlighting the way in which the formal structures of state socialism acted to foster neo-traditionalism and traditional gender identity, and by showing how traditional gender identity has acted as a vital vehicle for change. Drawing on historical comparisons, it is argued that Eastern Europe's silent revolution may in fact be seen as a dramatic illustration of the masculinism at the heart of Western democracy.
Outline of a Theory of Human Rights
Authors: Turner Bryan S.
Published: September 2003

Although the study of citizenship has been an important development in contemporary sociology, the nature of rights has been largely ignored. The analysis of human rights presents a problem for sociology, in which cultural relativism and the fact-value distinction have largely destroyed the classical tradition of the natural-law basis for rights discourse. This critique of the idea of universal rights was prominent in the work of Marx, Durkheim and Weber. However, recent developments in the organisation of nation states, the globalisation of political issues, the transformation of family life, and changes in medical technology in relation to human reproduction have brought the question of human rights to the forefront of social and political debate. The paper argues that a sociology of rights is important, because there are obvious limitations to the idea of citizenship, which is based on membership of a nation state. Existing conceptualisations of citizenship require the supplement of rights theory. It is argued that sociology can ground the analysis of human rights in a concept of human frailty, especially the vulnerability of the body, in the idea of the precariousness of social institutions, and in a theory of moral sympathy. These three analytical supports - ontological frailty, social precariousness, and moral sympathy - are partly derived from the philosophical anthropology of Arnold Gehlen, from Ulrich Beck's concept of the risk society, and Max Scheler's phenomenology of sympathy. Emodied frailty is a human universal condition, which is compounded by the risky and precarious nature of social institutions. Human vulnerability can be contained or ameliorated by the institution of rights which protect human beings from this ontological uncertainty. From a sociological perspective, rights are social claims for institutionalised protection. However, it is because of collective sympathy for the plight of others that moral communities are created which support the institution of rights. This thesis not only offers a sociological version of traditional notions of natural or inalienable rights, but also attempts to provide a sociological alternative to enlightenment theories of social contract and individual rights.
Diversity and Agreement in Feminist Ethnography
Authors: Williams Anne
Published: September 2003

This article was prompted by Martyn Hammersley's (1992) paper `On Feminist Methodology'. I suggest that Hammersley's assessment of feminist writings on method is flawed, mainly because his conceptualisation of these writings is too narrow. He portrays a uniform feminist methodology, ignoring obvious differences as well those which are more subtle. In criticism of Hammersley's assessment, I take the case of feminist ethnographic writings and indicate the range of writing even in this particular area of feminist methodology. Discussion centres on issues raised by Hammersley both explicitly and implicitly in his paper, namely personal reflexivity, power and knowledge. In contrast to Hammersley, I indicate both diversity of topic and method as well as what is shared by feminist ethnographers.
Relative Merits: Family Culture and Kinship in Small Firms
Authors: Ram Monder , Holliday Ruth
Published: September 2003

Small firms are saturated with the ideology of the family. For some, the notion of the `family firm' conjures up an image of harmony at the workplace; moreover, it is seen to serve as an important source of flexibility. Others, however, view it as little more than a cover-up of exploitative practices which are believed to be dominant in small firms. Using an ethnographic approach, this article explores in detail how the notion of the family is actually operationalised at the level of the workplace. Participant and direct observation methods were used to examine the role of the family in management organisation, recruitment and workplace control. We argue that the family is crucial to the understanding of the pattern of social relations within small firms, but it is more complex and contested than commonly portrayed. The `family' was found to be both a resource and constraint; management benefited from the `flexibility' afforded by familial ties, but the family also imposed obligations which contradicted economic rationality. The diffuse nature of such arrangements meant that `negotiated paternalism', rather than autocracy or harmony, more accurately depicted the family at work.
`Black and Ethnic Minority' or `Asian, Black and Other Minority Ethnic': A Further Note on Nomenclature
Authors: Cole Mike
Published: September 2003

While accepting that there is no `accurate' or permanent all-embracing nomenclature to describe minority ethnic groups in Britain, I argue in this paper that both the term `black' (a relatively long-standing radical formulation) and `black and ethnic minority' (the emerging sociological orthodoxy?) are problematic concep- tually, sociologically and politically. In making an alternative suggestion, I invite comments for improvement. Implicit in my argument is the suggestion that whatever phrase or term is used, sociologists have a responsibility to explain the assumptions on which any particular categorisation rests. Since I believe in the desirability of ethnic self-definition, I particularly welcome comments from members of groups oppressed on racial grounds.
The Poverty of Sociological Theory
Authors: Mouzelis Nicos
Published: September 2003

This paper discusses critically some major developments of post-Parsonian sociological/social theory, focusing particularly on the micro-macro and agency-structure issues. The failure to deal in a satisfactory manner with these issues has led to a theoretical impasse that present theorising does not seem able to overcome.
Just-in-Time, `Regimes' and Reductionism
Authors: Jenkins Alan
Published: September 2003

This article gives critical consideration of a number of points about just-in-time (JIT) production organisation raised by Sewell and Wilkinson in their recent paper in Sociology (May 1992). Their analysis of JIT as a system, and of its `embedding' in organisations, is shown to be reductionist and the roots of certain aspects of this weakness are related to deficiencies in fashionable neo-Foucauldian notions of production `régimes'. In its final section the article suggests that the analytical basis of a better approach to JIT already exists in socio-technical theory.
Flexibility and Individualisation: A Comparison of Transitions into Employment in England and Germany
Authors: Roberts K. , Clark S. C. , Wallace Claire
Published: September 2003

In virtually all advanced capitalist industrial societies, transitions from compulsory education into employment have been prolonged since the 1970s. The basic reasons are the same everywhere, but there have been contrasting interpretations of youth's new social condition by different countries' social scientists. Here a particularly sharp contrast is between Britain and Germany. In the former country most researchers have taken a negative view of the trends, whereas German scholars have stressed the spread of flexibility, individualisation, and opportunities for self-directed growth. This paper discusses the similarities and differences between transitions into employment in Britain and Germany using evidence from matched samples of 16-22 year olds. It is argued that there are fundamental, systemic differences between the organisation of entering the labour forces in Britain and Germany. In Germany transitions take longer, are more structured, and are rooted in a training culture. However, each country's young people are made to feel that they themselves make significant choices, and their transitions have become individualised. Simultaneously, individuals' opportunities in each country continue to be governed by the familiar predictors - family background, sex, place of residence, and attainments in secondary education. It is argued that in each country young people are prototypical cases of broader trends towards structured individualisation and the fragmentation of formerly more homogeneous social groups.
Waged Domestic Labour and the Renegotiation of the Domestic Division of Labour within Dual Career Households
Authors: Gregson Nicky , Lowe Michelle
Published: September 2003

This paper examines the ways in which `between partners' forms of the domestic division of labour within dual career households are influenced by the employment of waged domestic labour. The paper is divided into three main sections. In the first a typology of domestic divisions of labour relating to the employment of waged domestic labour is developed. In the second we consider the forms of domestic division of labour within dual career households in Northeast and Southeast Britain, focusing on how particular forms of the `between partners' domestic division are transformed, modified and replicated with the employment of certain categories of waged domestic labour. In a final section we offer some explanations for the observed patterns, and stress the importance of the categories of waged domestic labour employed, the `between partners' form of the domestic division of labour and specific `trigger situations' to understanding the resultant form of the domestic division of labour. We conclude by offering some more general observations on debate over the contemporary renegotiation of the domestic division of labour and the place of waged domestic labour within this.
The Three Faces of Privatisation
Authors: Samson Colin
Published: September 2003

Starting from the premise that social policies represent solutions to socially constructed problems (Edelman 1987), this article presents an adaptation of Lukes's (1974) theory of power to consider three interpretations of privatisation as illustrated in Britain and the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s. Privatisation is most frequently presented in political and academic discourse as essentially a matter of contracting out public services or functions and selling off state assets. This `first face' of privatisation coincides with a naive pluralist approach to power and a liberal capitalist vision of society. While this view has some justification within a very narrow frame of reference, a `second face' of privatisation is necessary to bring attention to crucially related aspects of exercises of power, such as corruption, homelessness and social inequality, which may be products of contracting out and sell-offs. Additionally, a second face view of privatisation highlights the privatising effects of certain policies which are ignored, obscured or hidden by the first face view. An analysis of public sector expenditure cuts as a process of privatisation is crucial in this regard. Finally, a `third face' of privatisation, as a hegemonic project, is raised. Here, privatisation is viewed as having a cultural and political mission, aiming to alter consciousness and effect changes in power relationships. The hegemonic capacity of privatisation is considered through an examination of ideological constructions such as the binary divide between private and public spheres and a sociobiological rationale for policy.
University-Corporate Ties and the Construction of Research Agendas
Authors: Webster Andrew
Published: September 2003

The growing commercialisation of university science has often led to claims that research is being distorted by corporate influence. This paper develops a methodology for exploring the construction of research agendas associated with university-corporate ties. It examines in detail a form of collaboration that is increasingly common, the long-term research alliance funded by single companies. The study relates agenda construction to the organisational setting in which it occurs and argues that the latter needs to be given more attention in the sociological analysis of contemporary science.
Conceptualising Racisms: Social Theory, Politics and Research
Authors: Solomos John , Back Les
Published: September 2003

This paper explores the changing terms of debate about race and racism in contemporary social and political theory. It focuses attention on criticisms of what is often called the `race relations problematic', and looks at some of the critical approaches that have emerged in the past decade. By looking at the questions addressed in the debates of the 1980s and the 1990s, it outlines some of the issues which researches have to address in developing new research agendas. It suggests that we need to rethink key theoretical concepts in order to analyse the complex forms of racism that have emerged in contemporary societies.
Ethnic Origin and Practice Nursing: The Effect of a Possibly Controversial Question on a Postal Survey
Authors: Atkin Karl , Lunt Neil , Parker Gillian , Hirst Michael
Published: September 2003

Much literature assesses the impact of various factors on response rates to postal questionnaires. Little work, however, evaluates the effect of `controversial' questions on rates of return. Recent debates suggest that one such question concerns ethnic origin and some writers argue that asking this question could affect response rates. This research note explores this issue in more detail, first by examining the effect of an ethnicity question on the response rate of a postal questionnaire to practice nurses in England and Wales and, secondly, considering the arguments for and against including the question.
Keeping Tabs on an Uncivil Society: Positive Parental Control
Authors: Wyness Michael G.
Published: September 2003

Interview data from a sample of parents with adolescent children are used to assess arguments that centre on the fears parents have about their child rearing practices. The focus in some recent accounts of parenting has been on how these fears indicate the moral and psychological state of parenthood rather than the problems parents think their children have negotiating an increasingly insecure outside world. By focusing on the latter, this paper relocates these fears externally as parents try to control their children's whereabouts. Control, rather than being defined negatively as a way of compensating for a lack of moral influence, is taken as an important means by which parents supervise their children's moral and physical wellbeing.
State Power and Patterns of Late Development: Resolving the Crisis of the Sociology of Development
Authors: Zhao Ding-xin , Hall John A.
Published: September 2003

The argument of this paper is that successful economic development within the `Third World' depends on the ability of a state to lead its national society to controlled participation in the world market. The first part of the paper produces a model of the requisite state capacity. What matters is `bounded autonomy': states need to be, at one and the same time, autonomous from and yet constrained by their societies. The second part of the paper examines the recent economic performance of five major regions - East Asia, India, China, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa - in the light of the model, thereby lending empirical support to its basic contours. The conclusion notes that the factors used to create the model must be placed in historical context.
The Ethnographic Critique of Ethnography: Sectarianism in the RUC
Authors: Brewer John D.
Published: September 2003

Ethnography has always been subject to criticism from quantitative sociologists, who accord it a minimal role, but it has recently come under attack from sociologists sympathetic to the method, who themselves have considerable experience in its use. I call this the ethnographic critique of ethnography. This critique questions the reliability of ethnographic descriptions, and shows ethnographic texts to be artefacts, skilfully manufactured in order to construct their persuasive force. This paper offers a defence of ethnography. It identifies the strengths and weaknesses of ethnographic data, and explores some of the procedures an ethnographer must adopt in order to give authority to the data. Some of these procedures are applied to the highly controversial question of sectarianism in the RUC. However, this substantive topic is also useful for illustrating the limits of rules of method to adjudicate those differences between ethnographers and readers of their texts which extend beyond technical matters.
The Phenomenon of the `Radical Lawyer'
Authors: Travers Max
Published: September 2003

This paper adopts an ethnomethodological approach towards the study of radicalism in legal professional practice, focusing on the ways in which radicalism was produced, displayed and exhibited in the talk and actions of a small firm of solicitors situated in one of the inner city areas of a large city in northern England. Three aspects of radicalism are examined: radicalism as a public phenomenon; radicalism as a contestable phenomenon; and radicalism as a moral framework. It is suggested that this analytic approach has implications for the way we might study other forms of contemporary radicalism, and for the way in which radicals in the academy theorise and understand the world of the radical lawyer.
The Female Malady? Men, Women and Madness in Nineteenth Century Britain
Authors: Busfield Joan
Published: September 2003

This paper takes issue with Elaine Showalter's claim in The Female Malady, that in nineteenth-century Britain madness was first and foremost a female condition. This claim appears to have become part of feminist orthodoxy, yet has little empirical support. In Showalter's study, the claim is presented as having dual grounding. First, it is based on a cursory discussion of statistics on the confinement of lunatics in nineteenth-century asylums. Second, it is based on an analysis of cultural representations of female insanity. I shall argue, however, that whether we look at the statistics on insanity or at cultural representations, neither provide evidence of any marked affinity between women and madness. Regrettably Showalter's claim, which is occasioned by her focus on women rather than on gender relations, is in danger of distorting rather than clarifying our understanding of women's madness.
Farm Women's Groups: Feminist or Farming or Community Groups, or New Social Movements?
Authors: Shortall Sally
Published: September 2003

The feminist movement is one of social change. The Canadian Farm Women's Network (CFWN) is in many respects a feminist movement and a movement of social change. It has a stated dual mandate of promoting rural community life and sustaining the farm family, while also increasing the recognition of female farm labour, and increasing representation of women on farming boards and in official farming statistics. The CFWN is active at the community and provincial level in most provinces. Promoting rural community life and the farm family calls, on the one hand, for the continued exploitation of women through undervalued voluntary community services and the provision of an invisible unrecognised farm labour force. On the other hand the very existence of a successful, visible farm women's group dispels the traditional silent role of farm women on farming issues and that part of its mandate which calls for increased female representation in farming activities and organisations calls for radical social change in farming circles. The many different aspects of these groups has led to difficulties of correct `categorisation' for sociologists, rural policy makers, funding agencies and feminists. These apparent `contradictions' are not incompatible for farm women however, and it is argued here that greater sensitivity to this is necessary on the part of academics and policy makers so that they assist rather than impede the activities of farm women.
Is Citizenship Gendered?
Authors: Walby Sylvia
Published: September 2003

The absence of gender from writings on citizenship, such as those of Marshall, Mann and Turner, causes problems for the understanding of citizenship. Debates as to how gender can be integrated into citizenship highlight major divergences in feminist theory over the relationship between the public and the private. The paper argues that citizenship cannot be understood without a dynamic theory of gender relations, and that political citizenship for women destabilises private patriarchy and the family. Citizenship is about a transition from private to public patriarchy, not only the civilising of capitalism.
Inheritance, Death and the Concept of the Home
Authors: Finch Janet , Hayes Lynn
Published: September 2003

This paper draws upon the concept of the home at the personal creation of its occupant, as developed in recent literature, to examine what happens to a home after the death of that occupant. Our central question is: given contemporary meanings attached to home, what happens to a home when the person who created it dies? Does the home die with its creator? Can it survive to become someone else's home? If not, what are the processes through which the death of the home is effected? We examine these questions using empirical data from a recent study of inheritance.
Aspects of the Changing Political Economy of Europe: Welfare State, Class Segmentation and Planning in the Postmodern Era
Authors: Petmesidou Maria , Tsoulovis Lefteris
Published: September 2003

This paper examines convergences and divergences in the transition paths across Europe. The emphasis is on the changing relationship between politics and the economy in the regions of Europe and, more specifically, on the increasing penetration of politics in civil society and the consequences for patterns of social conflict, modes of competition between social and economic actors, work relations, planning policies and modes of social and political integration. The socio-institutional structures through which convergence has taken place, as well as the character of the present crisis differ significantly between regions. The differences are sought in historical trends of socio-cultural structures, and in patterns of conflicts and contradictions related to variations of welfare capitalism in North-Western Europe, the statist/paternalistic structures in Southern Europe, and the statist/bureaucratic structures in Central-Eastern Europe.
Something Old, Something New...: Sociology and the Organisation of Psychiatry
Authors: Pilgrim David , Rogers Anne
Published: September 2003

Whilst sociology has taken a consistent interest in psychiatry, theoretical and methodological approaches have varied. This paper summarises three versions of the sociology of psychiatry (social causationism, interpretive micro-sociology and structuralism). These are then contrasted with the more recent post-structuralist emphasis on deconstruction. The latter has emphasised a discursive shift in psychiatry since Victorian times, from brain to mind, from coercion to voluntarism, and from hospital to community. The advantages and disadvantages of such an analysis are examined. It is concluded that this analysis has been illuminating but that the older approaches it challenges still have merits. The implications of attempting to reconcile these approaches to the analysis of contemporary psychiatry are discussed.
State Power and Patterns of Late Development: A Comment on Zhao and Hall
Authors: Cooper Andrew
Published: September 2003

Responding to claims that there is a crisis in the sociology of development rooted in inadequate explanations of the connections between economic change and political institutions, Zhao and Hall propose a state-centred approach in understanding successful late development in the Third World. Here it is argued that there are some difficulties associated with their use of the concept of `bounded autonomy'. Further, some alternative insights are suggested about conceptualising the `politics' of economic transformation in the Third World.
Race-of-Interviewer Effects: A Brief Comment
Authors: Rhodes P. J.
Published: September 2003

Although `racial matching' of interviewer and subject may often be appropriate, as a political strategy it risks marginalisation of black researchers and, as a methodological approach, its assumption of a single `truth' is open to challenge. These issues are explored through an examination of public and private accounts and their relationship to race-of-interviewer effects and a discussion of the author's experience of conducting interviews with prospective black foster parents. The final section explores the role of the white researcher.
Towards a Strategic Approach to Housing Behaviour: A Study of Young People's Housing Strategies in South-East England
Authors: Pickvance Chris , Pickvance Katy
Published: September 2003

A model is advanced of young people's housing behaviour as resulting from strategies regarding household type, child-bearing, work, expenditure and family help, which in turn are partly a response to housing constraints. The model is applied to a sample of 724 young people in South-East England and it is shown that between 3 per cent and 34 per cent of young people had adopted particular strategies in the previous year in response to housing constraints. Strategic behaviour was not limited to any single social category, but the first four types of strategy were more likely among households with manual or part-time workers; younger, unmarried people were more likely to put up with awkward household arrangements; and older, married people and owner-occupiers were more likely to adopt expenditure-related strategies and to defer having children.

This approach rejects the view that housing decisions are made by pre-existing households with given characteristics. Rather, household structure and resource levels result from strategies, and housing decisions involve trade-offs between aspirations and the acceptance of sacrifice and dependency - features which are ignored by measures of `ability to pay' such as affordability.
Processes of Housing Access: A Dynamic Approach to Housing Consumption
Authors: Sullivan Oriel
Published: September 2003

This paper outlines an analytic framework for the comparative study of housing access, based upon the concept of the `processes of housing access'. The aim is to devise a framework which is generalised enough to permit systematic cross-national comparison, but sufficiently grounded to take on board the wealth of empirical detail on a country by country basis. Defining the processes of housing access in any specific context involves the identification of: a) the sets of social relations that consumers enter into in gaining access to particular forms of housing; and b) the formal and informal conditions of negotiation surrounding access, defined in terms of the characteristics of both consumers and housing.

The identification of the dynamic constituents of the negotiation of housing access (during which the underlying relations of power are concretised and reproduced in housing outcomes) involves an explicit focus on the interface of macro- and micro-level analyses. It is hoped that a more widely applicable model for the analysis of access may be developed from the attempt to model housing access in this way.
Science and Family in the Great Embryo Debate
Authors: Mulkay Michael
Published: September 2003

The public debate following the Warnock Report has furnished the interpretative context in which embryo research and the technology of assisted reproduction have begun to be institutionalised in Britain. Social scientists have been quick to examine this debate and to assess how far it has fostered changes in the established patterns of, and ideals of, kinship and family relationships. In the present study documentary evidence is used to argue that the central theme of the public debate was not so much the new forms of social parenthood made possible by assisted reproduction, on which analysts have tended to concentrate, as the supposed threat to the continuation of ordinary family life posed by what many people saw as the creation of real, living persons outside the kinship system. Widespread controversy over this issue was generated by the existence of long-standing and contrasting definitions of family membership. Nevertheless, all the major groupings involved in the controversy justified their views and their practical proposals by linking them to the maintenance of the conventional, small scale, heterosexual family unit. Thus the overall effect of the public debate has not been to promote widespread consideration of new kinship patterns, but to ensure that the research and technology of assisted reproduction have been accepted and bureaucratically organised as social practices consonant with a conservative ideal of normal family life.
Bias in Science and Medical Knowledge: The Opren Controversy
Authors: Abraham John
Published: September 2003

Analysis of the scientific evaluation of medicine safety has been neglected in sociology. This article examines the influence of interests and values on scientists' safety evaluation of the medical drug Opren in industrial and government contexts. By systematically identifying inconsistencies in the technical justifications of industrial and government scientists it is argued that the concept of interest-based bias is crucial for explaining the development of medical knowledge. Specifically, evidence is adduced to suggest that industrial interests biased scientists' production and interpretation of medical knowledge about Opren with potentially adverse consequences for patients' interests in safe medication. The Mertonian `ethos' of science is seen to have very little application to the work of scientists in the context of drug regulation, giving way to institutional instrumentalism. The paper concludes by proposing an alternative system for the clinical testing and regulation of drugs which could discourage such industrial bias and provide greater patient protection.
Are the Unemployed an Underclass? Some Evidence from the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative
Authors: Gallie Duncan
Published: September 2003

This paper examines the relevance of the concept of an `underclass' for understanding the situation and experiences of the unemployed, focusing in particular on the long-term unemployed. It draws on survey data from six British local labour markets, collected as part of the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative. It distinguishes two versions of the underclass thesis, a `conservative' and a `radical' version. It argues that past work history experiences and the current attitudes to work of the unemployed fail to fit the assumptions of the conservative thesis, while the socio-political attitudes of the unemployed differ from those that would be expected in terms of the radical thesis. It concludes that the concept of underclass veils the close interconnection between unemployment and the employment structure.
Gender Inequality and Social Structure in Urban China
Authors: Stockman Norman
Published: September 2003

This article proposes an interpretation of changes in patterns of gender inequality in urban China in terms of the specific interrelationships of production and reproduction in Chinese work-units ( danwei). The historical background of the structural conditions for gender inequality in pre-revolutionary Chinese society is sketched out, emphasising the lack of institutional separation of household and enterprise. The communist danwei is a multi-functional organisation which combines productive and reproductive functions. This structure has been conducive to the relatively greater gender equality which has been achieved in communist China. The reforms of recent years introduce pressures to separate productive and reproductive functions, which are likely to erode the trends towards greater gender equality.
A Matter of Dependency: Gender in British Income Maintenance Provision
Authors: Daly Mary
Published: September 2003

The welfare state has fostered a large volume of academic investigation but the core of its scholarship has been on the relationship between class forces and different systems of welfare. The possibility of a gender effect does not appear to have seriously troubled the minds of mainstream scholars in this domain. As a result, gender as a structuring principle of welfare systems remains under-explored. This paper undertakes a gender-focused analysis of a key aspect of welfare provision - income maintenance policies. The British welfare state is a useful site of analysis - at one stage an exemplary model of welfare provision, now a `laggard' among its European neighbours. To identify the gender dimension of British income maintenance policies, we go back as far as the 1830s for the new Poor Law. From then we trace female and male access to welfare income, in the process considering how women and men have been constructed by public income-support policies.
On the Dangers of Disconnecting Race and Racism
Authors: Mason David
Published: September 2003

The paper critically reviews some recent contributions to the debate about the nature of race and racism. It questions the analytic and empirical divorce between race and racism for which Floya Anthias and others have argued. It suggests that disconnecting race and racism while insisting on the retention of a concept of race could well give rise to a view that race is, after all, a valid scientific concept denoting a real biological division of the human species. This paper argues, instead, for a focus on race as a social relationship rather than a category of human being. It suggests that race and racism are inextricably linked and that, moreover, recently discovered new racisms depend for their power on the continued influence of biologically determinist modes of conceptualising human difference.
Consumption, Identity-Formation and Uncertainty
Authors: Warde Alan
Published: September 2003

This paper addresses some general issues concerning consumption that arise from the work of Bauman, Beck and Giddens. All maintain that biography is a reflexive project and that life-styles and consumption are critical to identity-formation and re-formation. Bauman, especially, maintains that this is a source of anxiety, the freedom implied by consumer choice entailing a commensurate degree of personal responsibility. He observes, for instance, that a function of advertising is to assuage the self-doubt that accompanies choice.

I seek to argue that these accounts of the impact of reflexive modernisation on self-identity are misjudged. Consumption would be a much less pleasurable practice if it was both subject to ever-expanding free choice and the decisions made were fundamental components of a reflexive process of identity-formation. Indeed, the consequence might well be high and visible levels of distress among those individuals most deeply involved. That this is not apparent suggests that the relationships specified between the process of identity-formation and consumption is tendentious. Consumption may be anxiety-provoking for some groups; there is a real element of risk involved in choosing inappropriately. But there are many mechanisms that serve to compensate. I explore those mechanisms, suggesting that anxiety is avoided through certain processes of group identification and social regulation which the reflexive modernisation thesis claims have atrophied. I conclude that such considerations require that these theories about the relationship between consumption and self-identity be modified.
The Construction of Rational Consumption in Which? Magazine: The More Blobs the Better?
Authors: Aldridge Alan
Published: September 2003

Published by the Consumers' Association and launched in 1957, Which? magazine aims to offer impartial, independent and scientifically-grounded factual information in order to promote rational choice in consumption. In this article, Which? is analysed as a lifestyle guide in which rational consumption and the rational consumer are socially constructed. Which? repudiates the irrationalist anti-Enlightenment thrust of postmodernism: it concentrates on use-value; brackets ethical and aesthetic considerations; treats consumption as a serious matter to be approached with self-discipline; searches for the reality underlying appearances; and promotes confidence in independent, rationally organised expert systems.
Global Environmental Values and Local Contexts of Action
Authors: Burningham Kate , O'Brien Martin
Published: September 2003

The effects of environmental change on individuals and societies are receiving increasing attention. Local, national and international organisations are all undertaking research and developing policy on environmental management and regulation. This level of concern appears, initially, to indicate a positive and growing awareness of human-environment interactions. However, it is not clear that in developing agenda for action the different parties are in fact referring to the same `environment', nor that the meanings of environmental concepts are understood in the same ways by `experts' and `non-experts'.

The paper examines this issue in two ways. First, the authors consider the diversity of referents which accompany the concept of the environment in academic, policy, business and lay discourses. Second, they discuss some of the ways in which individuals who encounter environmental change at the local level employ the concept of `the environment' differently in order to achieve political ends. The discussion and the data upon which it is based are used to indicate the ways that `global' environmental concepts are localised in specific contexts of action. Finally, the authors argue that the complexity of the discursive frameworks, together with the absence of enduring, coherent environmental value systems within which to situate perspectives on environmental change, implies that frameworks for environmental understanding and action cannot be imposed from outside of the contexts in which goals, values and motives are embedded.
Class Analysis: Back to the Future
Authors: Scott John
Published: September 2003

Debates over the Weberian programme for class analysis have involved a number of unresolved theoretical problems. It is argued that these problems can be resolved only if the theoretical foundations of the programme are clarified. In particular, the Weberian distinction between `class situation' and `social class', along with the distinction between `class' and `status', must be used to resolve the questions of the demographic formation of social classes, the individual and the family household as units of analysis, and the relationship between gender and class.
`Timing is Everything'; Graduate Accountants, Time and Organizational Commitment
Authors: Coffey Amanda J.
Published: September 2003

Studies have revealed that organizational commitment is often managed through symbolism. This paper focuses upon how time is used in an organizational context, symbolically and pragmatically, to demonstrate and demand commitment by new members. The paper draws upon data collected as part of a qualitative project on the occupational and organizational socialization of graduate accountants. Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in a regional office of an international firm of chartered accountants in the United Kingdom. One aspect of the data analysis revealed that the management and utilization of time is central to understanding the socializing function of the accountancy firm, and to the ultimate organizational success of the graduate accountants.
The Sociological Construction of Science without Nature
Authors: Murphy Raymond
Published: September 2003

This paper critically examines the constructivist, relativist trend in the sociology of science and exposes its internal contradictions. It concludes that such a sociology has fabricated a science without nature. This has obscured the importance of nature in science, has glossed over the manipulation of nature, and has, therefore, muddled one of the most significant features of the contemporary world. The paper argues in favour of transcending such pre-ecological sociology by incorporating into the analysis the unique learning curve of science, which results in both its utility and its danger, and by explicitly examining the embeddedness of social action in the processes of nature.
Managing for Ford
Authors: Starkey Ken , McKinlay Alan
Published: September 2003

In explaining the rationale for his classic account of working for Ford, Beynon (1973, 1984) argues that he was filling a gap in our knowledge of the experience of work. While the founders of corporate dynasties such as Henry Ford are public figures, at the time of Beynon's book we knew little of the people who do the work that makes corporations such as Ford public names. Beynon set out to remedy this deficiency. This paper sets out to fill a gap that still exists in our knowledge - the managerial experience of work. It starts where Beynon finishes, at the beginning of the 1980s, and proposes that the 1980s constituted a watershed for Ford managers with the introduction of a new notion of management - Participative Management - which challenged many of Ford's previous management assumptions.
Gender and Class Mobility: Evidence from the Republic of Ireland
Authors: Breen Richard , Whelan Christopher T.
Published: September 2003

Gender has frequently been identified as the most controversial issue confronting class analysis. In this paper we make use of data from the Republic of Ireland to assess the extent to which the incorporation of women in class mobility analysis alters our understanding of the central processes of social mobility. We find that for married women their husband's class is a more powerful predictor of household poverty and life-style than their own `class' as indicated by current or previous occupation. With regard to employment mobility we find that the sole source of gender variation in mobility chances relates to differences in the objective opportunity structures faced by men and women. Applying a measured variable model to `men only' and `complete' mobility tables reveals only modest differences in the patterns of social fluidity. The inclusion of women in class mobility tables requires little in the way of substantial modification of our understanding of the pattern of class relationships underlying the observed pattern of mobility.
Might Britain be a Meritocracy?
Authors: Saunders Peter
Published: September 2003

Most research on social mobility in Britain has found high absolute rates of upward and downward mobility but has emphasised the apparently low relative rates as measured by disparity and odds ratios. The assumption has been made that disparity ratios as high as 4:1 and odds ratios as high as 36:1 cannot be reconciled with the existence of equality of opportunity and that the meritocratic hypothesis has, therefore, been disproved. However, this research has never collected data on differences of ability and effort which may exist between members of different social classes, so the meritocracy hypothesis has never been properly tested. When a model of `perfect mobility' is fitted to John Goldthorpe's data on class origins and destinations, an extraordinarily close fit is obtained. It is clear that the meritocracy thesis is entirely consistent with the data reported in recent mobility studies and that it has not been disproved after all.
Intergenerational Class Processes and the Asymmetry Hypothesis
Authors: Roberts Stephen , Marshall Gordon
Published: September 2003

The asymmetry hypothesis is central to current controversy about the unit of class composition. It is argued by those who support a conventional approach to class analysis that marital partners themselves recognise that it is the occupational position of the husband that confers status on the household in modern industrial societies. This paper confirms that the conventional approach better explains observed patterns of socio-political class formation among partnered females in Britain than does an alternative individualist strategy. The recent suggestion that this household composition effect can be attributed mainly to intergenerational class processes is shown, irrespective of the degree of labour-market participation among women, to be unwarranted. These findings are based on three recent large-scale social surveys.
Do Teachers Discriminate? Reactions to Pupil Behaviour in Four Comprehensive Schools
Authors: Hurrell Philippa
Published: September 2003

The popular consensus in the field of education is that teachers consciously or unconsciously discriminate against pupils on the basis of social class, ethnicity and sex. However, in exploring the extent of bias in teachers' perceptions and treatment of pupils from different social groups, few studies have satisfactorily taken into account variation in pupils' conduct. More specifically, the research in this area has frequently failed to demonstrate whether teachers respond to some pupils more than others because of their social attributes or because of their behaviour. In this paper multivariate techniques were used to address this problem. The results of the analysis showed little evidence of social class or racial discrimination by teachers. It was, however, apparent that girls were significantly less likely to be punished than boys after differences in behaviour had been taken into account.
Deindustrialisation and Dispossession: An Examination of Social Division in the Industrial City
Authors: Byrne David
Published: September 2003

This article reviews the arguments about the possible existence of a spatially segregated underclass in urban industrial contexts in Britain, with reference to the propositions about the nature of the `ghetto poor' advanced in the United States by W. J. Wilson. Data from censuses of population and employment, and from the annual Cleveland Social Survey, are used to explore the nature of changes in the socio-spatial structure and the character of households in a Northern English industrial conurbation. The pattern of socio-spatial division identified for the 1990s is distinguished from that existing in an earlier era of full employment and related to data about school examination success for young people resident in different areas. The study concludes that there has been a major increase in socio-spatial differentiation in this locality which is the product of interaction between deindustrialisation and urban development policies over the postwar period. The product is not an `underclass', but a social formation which looks much more like the sort of industrial reserve army which is particularly suited to the needs of a `post-fordist' system of production.