bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Cluster of Contradictions: The Politics of Migration in the European Union
Authors: Morris Lydia
Published: September 2003

The increasing scale of transnational migration is sociologically one of the most interesting features of contemporary life, not least because of the analytical challenges posed by the complexity of this phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to explore the contradictions inherent in policy approaches to migration in the EU - the logic of the market is weighed against welfare protectionism; welfare and labour market regulation against demands for cheap labour; national resource concerns against transnational rights. The outcome is presented in terms of an increasingly complex system of civic stratification, which raises a further set of contradictions; discriminatory exclusion alongside assertions of equal treatment. The implications of these cross-cutting pressures for a sociological understanding of migration are considered throughout, and doubt is cast on the validity of any single overarching perspective.
Gay Male Christian Couples and Sexual Exclusivity
Authors: Yip Andrew K. T.
Published: September 2003

This paper argues that, in the case of gay male couples, the issue of sexual exclusivity should be examined in terms of expectation and behaviour. Using this approach, a typology of three categories of gay male Christian couples is presented. Couples who were expectationally and behaviourally exclusive considered sexual exclusivity a symbol of total commitment, complete mutual satisfaction and adherence to the conventional Christian ethic of sexual monogamy. Couples who were expectationally exclusive but behaviourally non-exclusive developed various regulatory mechanisms to manage the disjunction between expectation and behaviour. The majority of couples were expectationally and behaviourally non-exclusive. They justified this lifestyle on the ground of sexual variety, prevention of possessiveness and the promotion of freedom and egalitarianism. They embraced the theology of friendship which emphasises inclusiveness rather than monogamy. Couples in all the three categories did not demonstrate significant differences in terms of their level of relationship satisfaction and commitment.
Not just a Social Construct: Theorising Race and Ethnicity
Authors: Smaje Chris
Published: September 2003

Sociological theories of race and ethnicity have been dominated by the metaphor of the social construct, which suggests that they are ideological categories concealing `real' principles of social structure. This idea is problematic because it elides the sense in which race and ethnicity operate both as functional principles of material exclusion and sources of social meaning. The paper examines critically the metaphor of social construction in leading contemporary theories of race and ethnicity, arguing that too often the context and the content of these processes of construction are not clarified and that, paradoxically, this can lead to the implicit incorporation of a racial essentialism into the explanatory enterprise. An alternative, symbolic approach to theorising race and ethnicity is suggested which avoids these pitfalls. Drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice and anthropological ideas of symbolic kinship, it argues that race and ethnicity can be theorised as both categories of material exclusion and of social meaning. The implications of this approach for understanding the historical construction of racial and ethnic categories are discussed, along with the implications for the relationship between sociological analysis and political activism in the arena of race.
Subjectivity and the Labour Process: Conceptualising `Good Work'
Authors: Ezzy Douglas
Published: September 2003

Two central unresolved problems in labour process theory are the disjuncture between structure and agency and the problem of what constitutes `good' work. This paper argues that a hermeneutic conception of the self as constructed through narrative provides a resolution to these two issues. Hermeneutics conceptualises the self as neither a solitary entity impervious to the influence of others, nor as a mere reflection of objective structures or `discourses of power'. Rather, in the process of self-interpretation a person uses socially learnt cultural discourses to construct and reconstruct a coherent sense of narrative-identity. Substantive illustrations are drawn from labour process theory, recent developments in management theory, and some more general studies of the meaning of working.
Sociology and the Reproductive Self: Demographic Transitions and Modernity
Authors: van Krieken Robert
Published: September 2003

This paper argues for the integration of a greater awareness of reproductive conduct into sociological theory and research. Instead of conceiving the relationship between demography and sociology as one where sociological concepts are used to illuminate demographic concerns, the paper works towards the development of a demographic perspective in sociological understandings of modern society and its historical development. The argument will be for the notion of the `reproductive self', with a greater emphasis on understanding human identity as stretching over time and generations, rather than as self-contained, timeless and autonomous. The paper will show that such a conception of human identity enables us to improve our understanding of a range of theoretical issues, including the relation between social structure and action and the rationality of human action, as well as revealing the historical roots of a number of long-term trends which are usually treated as changes typical of the second half of the twentieth century.
Risk, Recommodification and Stratification
Authors: Breen Richard
Published: September 2003

In this paper I use three concepts - the hedging of risk, the transfer of risk and recommodification - to examine recent changes in the distribution of market risk. Mechanisms that formerly hedged risk - such as the welfare state and the nuclear family - have declined in effectiveness and popularity and the result has been the recommodification of individuals and their life chances. These themes are illustrated by an examination of change in the nature of employment relationships and its likely impact on the service class. The future of the service class remains linked to the informational asymmetry problem that underlies the service relationship, and this limits the degree to which employers can claim an option over the labour supply of service class workers. The paper ends by discussing some more general issues in the relationship between risk, stratification and recommodification.
Employment Changes over Childbirth: A Retrospective View
Authors: Jacobs Sheila C.
Published: September 2003

This paper uses longitudinal, retrospective data from the SCELI surveys to examine changes in employment behaviour and occupation over childbirth for British women over the period 1956-86. It demonstrates that for most women on first re-entry to the labour market increased qualifications and earlier return do not lead to improvement in their occupational status, as Hope-Goldthorpe value, or hourly pay rates. Main findings are that women are returning to the labour market earlier; return between first and second births is increasing; decline in status is frequent, but most mothers do not show a decline; those of previous service-class occupation but without higher qualifications are most at risk; higher qualifications, full-time employment and short breaks are associated with maintenance of status; part-time employment is even more damaging to pay rates than to status; part-time returners may be becoming less likely ever to change to full-time employment.
A Note on Computer Searches of Newspapers
Authors: Soothill Keith , Grover Chris
Published: September 2003

Online technology now provides the press-focused social science researcher with an accessible and fast means of selecting newspaper articles for analysis. Taking examples from their experiences of using both hard copy newspapers and online output, the authors argue that whilst computer searches of newspapers are often appropriate, there are problems with the current technology. In particular, the relationships between graphics, the spatial location of stories and the accompanying text are not discernible from online output. This is problematic for research using newspapers as a data source where such relationships may be central.
The Place of Inter-Rater Reliability in Qualitative Research: An Empirical Study
Authors: Armstrong David , Gosling Ann , Weinman John , Marteau Theresa
Published: September 2003

Assessing inter-rater reliability, whereby data are independently coded and the codings compared for agreements, is a recognised process in quantitative research. However, its applicability to qualitative research is less clear: should researchers be expected to identify the same codes or themes in a transcript or should they be expected to produce different accounts? Some qualitative researchers argue that assessing inter-rater reliability is an important method for ensuring rigour, others that it is unimportant; and yet it has never been formally examined in an empirical qualitative study. Accordingly, to explore the degree of inter-rater reliability that might be expected, six researchers were asked to identify themes in the same focus group transcript. The results showed close agreement on the basic themes but each analyst `packaged' the themes differently.
Watch Your Tongue: Issues in Translation and Cross-Cultural Research
Authors: Temple Bogusia
Published: September 2003

Considering the large amount of research being undertaken in Eastern Europe and elsewhere involving the use of more than one language, there has been a remarkable silence in sociological debate about the status of this research. In this article I argue that such issues should be of concern to social scientists generally as well as to linguists. Using my own research with British-Polish communities, I raise some concerns surrounding the translation of concepts. I suggest one way of beginning to address these problematics: an opening of discussion on an analytical level with those who are often seen as mere technicians, translators and interpreters.
Social Mobility, Individual Ability and the Inheritance of Class Inequality
Authors: Savage Mike , Egerton Muriel
Published: September 2003

This paper examines the intergenerational social mobility of young adults in Britain, from a secondary analysis of the National Child Development Study. We show that by examining the relationship between social class background and the tested `ability' of boys and girls, it is possible to advance our understanding of some of the key processes that help facilitate the reproduction of class inequality. In particular, we emphasise that the advantages of the service class over other class rests not just upon their ability to impart appropriate cultural capital to their children, but also on other `secondary' factors, notably material resources. We show how boys born in advantaged social positions have more resources than girls in maintaining their class advantages, and we indicate some patterns of closure within the `service class'.
Towards a New Social Politics: Citizenship and Reflexivity in Late Modernity
Authors: Ellison Nick
Published: September 2003

There is little agreement about the meaning of citizenship in the rapidly changing social, economic and political conditions of late modernity. This article examines three accounts of citizenship - state-centred, pluralist and post-structuralist - and argues that none offers an entirely convincing understanding of the idea suited to the fragmented conditions of contemporary social politics. Instead, it is important to move away from these accounts and consider citizenship as a reflexive condition of `defensive engagement'. Citizenship becomes a variegated social form concerned with the differential negotiation of social change as social and political actors struggle to create new identities and solidarities across a range of possible settings in an increasingly fractured public sphere. This interpretation has implications for our understanding of social inclusion and exclusion, as the conclusion to this article suggests.
The Technological Regulation of Death: With Reference to the Technological Regulation of Birth
Authors: Harvey Janet
Published: September 2003

The technological management and regulation of birth is well documented (see, for example, Arms 1975; Oakley 1980; Arney 1982; Arney and Neil 1982; Rothman 1982; DeVries 1985). Following DeVries (1981) in juxtaposing the analysis of birth alongside death, this article draws a parallel between the technological management and regulation of birth and the technological regulation of death in Intensive Care. The analysis builds on the literature concerning the social organisation of death (Sudnow 1967; Glaser and Strauss 1965, 1968). It considers the strategic practice of withdrawing technological support from the dying patient in stages, in order to `mimic' the more gradual decline of `natural' death. This is associated with two ends: it allows time for the emotional adaptation of the patient's relatives and health care professionals to the patient's imminent death; and it also allows death to be presented as a less dramatic disjuncture. If death appeared too abrupt or professionally induced this might become the subject of disputation or litigation. Stress is laid on the role of technology as a means of facilitating a greater surveillance and scheduling of death and allowing greater control over the process of dying. It illustrates the use of high-technology medicine as part of a (technological) rite of passage.
Social Solidarity and Social Exchange
Authors: Widegren Örjan
Published: September 2003

Hechter's (1987) theory of group solidarity points to the need for clarification of the meaning of social solidarity and the related concept of social exchange. In order to clarify these conceptual issues, a distinction between social exchange and instrumental exchange is developed. Social exchange is motivated by a desire to promote or maintain a positive attitude from other group members, while instrumental exchange is a means of obtaining behaviour from others which promotes the self-interest of the actor. Social solidarity, in contrast, is characterised by the motive of promoting group goals in their own right, provided the actor perceives positive attitudes from others towards himself. A related distinction is then made between instrumental exchange and co-ordination. This yields a fourfold typology which shows an interesting correspondence with Parsons's AGIL scheme and sheds light on Habermas's distinction between social integration and system integration.
Class Analysis and the Stability of Class Relations
Authors: Devine Fiona
Published: September 2003

This paper examines Goldthorpe's attempt to develop a theory which explains the stability of class relations and the generative processes by which class inequalities are sustained in general and the application of rational action theory to the explanation of persistent class differentials in educational attainment in particular. It is argued that Goldthorpe has restricted the remit of his theory to the mobilisation of economic resources and that the importance of cultural and social resources in the reproduction of advantage has been dropped from view. This development derives from his minimalist definition of class in terms of employment relations rather than collectivities of people who share identities and practices. Furthermore, Goldthorpe's reliance on rational action theory has led to an overly materialistic view of how individuals and families mobilise their resources across generations. He ignores the role of norms and values in shaping action and the level of indeterminacy or precariousness by which advancement may or may not be achieved. The implications of these criticisms for the future of class analysis are explored.
Professionalism as Enterprise: Service Class Politics and the Redefinition of Professionalism
Authors: Hanlon Gerard
Published: September 2003

This paper suggests that the struggle to redefine professionalism, which is currently being waged in a host of institutions from the National Health Service to accountancy practices, is actually a struggle to legitimise different types of cultural capital and that, as such, it will potentially split the service class. This cleavage reflects the decreasing levels of trust placed in social service professionalism and its adherents by powerful actors such as the state and capital. In the light of this, certain groups within elite occupations have sought to redefine professionalism and to prioritise commercial issues in a bid to gain the trust of these actors and to exploit opportunities which the attack on the social service ethos has presented to them. This cleavage extends across the public sector-private sector divide and it is also taking place within previously relatively homogeneous professions. If this cleavage persists, it may fragment the identity of the service class and lead elements of it to change their political identification. As such, it would challenge the thesis which is most closely identified with Goldthorpe, that the service class is homogeneous and conservative.
`Cindy's a Slut': Moral Identities and Moral Responsibility in the `Soap Talk' of British Asian Girls
Authors: Barker Chris
Published: September 2003

This paper is concerned with forms of moral discourse produced by British Asian girls as they talk about soap opera in groups without an adult presence. It is argued that moral identities are discursive constructs which help constitute the self as a centreless weave. The paper explores the contradictory nature of the girls' moral discourses as they apportion responsibility and blame between individuals and social circumstances. It is suggested that while being both Asian and girls is of significance, the latter is a more prominent consideration in the participants' soap talk.
Sexuality and Citizenship
Authors: Richardson Diane
Published: September 2003

The tradition of thinking behind the idea of citizenship, which has become a key concept of modern social theory, has given insufficient attention to either gender or sexuality. In this paper it is argued that claims to citizenship status, at least in the West, are closely associated with the institutionalisation of hetero-sexual, as well as male, privilege. This is demonstrated when the association of certain forms of citizenship status with heterosexuality, national identity for example, is threatened or challenged. In discussing the relationship between sexuality and citizenship, attention is focused on the implications for the social inclusion and exclusion of lesbians and gay men. The analysis shows how sexualised notions of citizenship are connected to the public/private divide at both institutional and personal levels. Finally, the paper raises wider questions about the implications of the discussion for theorising citizenship.
Satisfaction with Housework: Examining the Paradox
Authors: Baxter Janeen , Western Mark
Published: September 2003

This paper examines men's and women's levels of satisfaction with the domestic division of labour. In most households women continue to undertake the bulk of childcare and housework duties and consequently spend significantly greater amounts of time on domestic labour than men. Men report high levels of satisfaction with these arrangements, but surprisingly we find that almost half of our sample of women also report satisfaction with these arrangements. This finding has been reported in studies from several countries. Our paper attempts to explain this apparent paradox. Using data from a recent national survey in Australia we explore gender differences in levels of satisfaction with the domestic division of labour and examine women's levels of satisfaction with household work arrangements in relation to a number of factors such as labour force attachment, attitudes to gender roles and husbands' participation in domestic labour. Our findings raise implications for the meaning of equity within the household.
`Capitalising' on Emotions? Rethinking the Inequalities in Health Debate
Authors: Williams Simon J.
Published: September 2003

How does society affect health deep within the recesses of the human body? What role do emotions play in these processes, and what light does this shed on the relationship between biology and the social patterning of disease? Taking as its point of departure the `epidemiological transition' and the shift from direct material to indirect psychosocial pathways to disease, this paper explores the centrality of emotions to the relationship between social structure and health. In doing so, it aims to bring the health inequalities and the life-events literature into a new theoretical alignment through a sociological focus on `emotional capital' and the micro-macro links this provides between the private realm of `personal troubles' and broader `public issues' of power and status, domination and control. A key analytical distinction is drawn here between `psycho-neuro-immunological adaptation', psycho-social coping', and `socio-political praxis' in theorising these links between `distressful' feelings, the emotionally reflexive body', and health. Finally, the paper concludes with a broader set of reflections on emotions and distributive justice, together with the role of the `biological' in social explanation (i.e. the need for a non-reductionist, socially `pliable' biology).
International Comparative Analysis and Explanation in Medical Sociology: Demystifying the Halcion Anomaly
Authors: Abraham John , Sheppard Julie
Published: September 2003

The US drug regulatory authority, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is often thought to demand higher standards of consumer protection from drug manufacturers than its British counterparts, the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) and the Committee on the Safety of Medicines (CSM). Yet since 1991 the MCA has banned one of the most prescribed tranquillisers, Halcion, while it remains approved by the FDA and on the market in the United States. This article attempts to explain the Halcion anomaly and questions explanations proposed by previous sociological research in the field. Broad societal influences, such as the role of the mass media, the increasing threat of litigation regarding drug injury and deregulatory politics are considered to be unlikely explanations. Rather, microsociological processes concerning the internal organisation of the drug regulatory authorities and the interaction between that organisation and technical analyses of safety data are found to be the key explanatory factors.
The Selectionist Paradigm and its Implications for Sociology
Authors: Runciman W. G.
Published: September 2003

After a brief review of some aspects of current evolutionary theory which bear on the explanation of human social behaviour, the question is raised whether a recognizably neo-Darwinian research programme could be designed for sociology on the basis that social change is seen as a process analogous but not reducible to natural selection. Some implications of such a programme are outlined and the strength of the objections likely to be raised against it assessed. In conclusion, the potential value of the paradigm is illustrated by reference to current debates about the incidence of lethal violence in human societies.
`What a Difference a Day Makes': A Theoretical and Historical Exploration of Temporality and Gender
Authors: Glucksmann Miriam A.
Published: September 2003

This paper explores the potentialities and distinctiveness of a temporal perspective for analysing differences between and within genders. After a brief overview of sociological approaches to time, it suggests the value of `an economy of time' framework for analysing work, especially those forms which involve no monetary exchange. Exchanges of time can be seen to establish their own reciprocities, inequalities and hierarchies, thus forming a wider basis for the analysis of social and gender division than one resting on a more narrow, say monetary, economic premise. The central sections attempt to demonstrate these points using oral history research on married women who began work in Lancashire during the inter-war years. Weavers and casual women workers are contrasted with respect to three dimensions of temporality: (1) the temporal structure of work/time in waged work, domestic labour and leisure, and exchanges of time between themselves and their husbands, employers and each other; (2) the temporality of life-course events and the structure of memory; and (3) the division between public and private. I argue that the findings (that the two groups differed systematically on all dimensions both in their use and subjective experience of time) have contemporary and conceptual implications extending beyond the particular case study, including a reconceptualisation of `standard' working time and what constitutes `economy'.
Rethinking Social Class: Qualitative Perspectives on Class and Gender
Authors: Reay Diane
Published: September 2003

This paper draws on data from a qualitative study of mothers' involvement in children's education in order to present a different perspective on gender and class from those embedded in contemporary dominant discourses on social class. It argues that class is a complicated mixture of the material, the discursive, psychological predispositions and sociological dispositions. As such, the ways in which class as a complex set of interrelated issues contributes to social inequalities are best understood by combining quantitative approaches to social class with more qualitative studies which attempt to explore how class, and the inequalities it generates, are lived in gendered and raced ways.
`Emotion Work' as a Participant Resource: A Feminist Analysis of Young Women's Talk-in-Interaction
Authors: Frith Hannah , Kitzinger Celia
Published: September 2003

This paper explores and develops the concept of `emotion work' as used by young women talking about sexual negotiation. It suggests that `emotion work' should be viewed not simply as an analyst resource of use to social scientists, but also as a participant resource used by ordinary social members. Existing research on emotion work generally treats self-report data as offering a `transparent' window through which the behaviour `behind the talk' can be (more or less adequately) assessed. This paper proposes instead that self-report data should be considered as talk-in-interaction. Using data from our own research on young women's experiences of refusing sex, we show how young women's talk about (what analysts call) `emotion work' can be analysed as a participant resource through which young women construct consensual versions of men as emotional weaklings, and portray themselves as active agents who are knowledgeable about heterosexual relationships. The implications of this analytic shift are explored in relation to feminist approaches to sexual coercion, and with reference to qualitative data analysis more generally.
Elite Networks in Germany and Britain
Authors: Windolf Paul
Published: September 2003

This study considers the social organisation of the economic elite in Germany and Britain. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the internal structure of this social group, which is termed an `elite network'. The resources on which the dominance of the economic elite is based are bureaucratic power, ownership and social capital. In institutional capitalism the power of managers is based not only on their hierarchical position within large corporations, but also on the fact that they `represent' ownership within the network of associated firms. Additional topics considered in the course of the analysis include the forms of social control to which the economic elite is subject, the degree of internal competition and co-operation, and the stability of networks over time (circulation of the elite). The analysis shows how bureaucratic control over a company is linked with ownership of a company in the context of specific network configurations. These network configurations vary between countries and lead to differing forms of managerial control within institutional capitalism.
How Conflict Escalates: The Inter-Group Dynamics of Collective Football Crowd `Violence'
Authors: Stott Clifford , Reicher Steve
Published: September 2003

In recent years, the debate on football crowd violence has concentrated on the violent dispositions of participants - and particularly on the nature and origins of conflictual norms held by `hooligan' fans. In this paper, we challenge this tendency. We argue that the `hooligan' perspective is limited in its ability to explain how conflict generalises during crowd events, the precise conditions under which it originates, and the form that it takes. In order to account for these phenomena it is necessary to broaden the scope of enquiry so as to include the police as well as fans. Using events involving England fans at the 1990 world cup (Italia 90), we propose a model in which the nature of group norms and group conflict are a consequence of the developing interactions between England supporters and the Italian Caribineri. The assumption, on the part of the police, that all fans were potentially dangerous and their treatment of fans as such led, over time, to a situation where fans who initially eschewed violence, came into conflict with the police. The example both illustrates the value of an analysis of collective football violence in terms of developmental inter-group dynamics and suggests how the assumption that fans are inherently dangerous may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Fighting the Legacy: British Bikers in the 1990s
Authors: McDonald-Walker Suzanne
Published: September 2003

This working paper focuses on police actions involving meetings of motorcyclists at a public house in Warwickshire, where police mobilisation resulted in a national outcry among motorcyclists against what was perceived as unnecessary police harassment. Through the detailing of the confrontation it shall be shown how the reactions by motorcyclists were centred not only around actual events but also around perceptions of negative myths about `bikers' prevalent in society. In order to examine the basis of riders' claims, an exploration will be made of the available socio-economic statistics for the industry to highlight the disjuncture between popular images of `bikers' and the actuality of the motorcycling profile. It is argued that the complex social identities portrayed by the motorcyclists are based on a social composition at odds with popular perception. Further, it is indicated how events may function on both political and cultural levels, carrying implications for future sociological analyses of social movement.
Chocs Away: Weight Watching in the Contemporary Airline Industry
Authors: Tyler Melissa , Abbott Pamela
Published: September 2003

This paper draws on empirical research into the recruitment, training, and management of female flight attendants, working primarily in the transatlantic business travel sector of the contemporary airline industry. We argue that whilst the `skills' which flight attendants are required to deploy are denied, being treated as somehow inherent abilities and thus neither trained nor remunerated, they are nevertheless managed in a directive way. This management involves, in particular, a focus on a flight attendant's figure, and `dieting' - what Naomi Wolf has referred to as `the essence of contemporary femininity' (Wolf 1990:200) - as a recruitment, training and managerial strategy. The work of a female flight attendant involves adhering to culturally prescribed norms on femininity as well as organisational regulations governing her figure - its presentation and performance - whilst undertaking work which involves, at least in part, serving food to others. We conclude that this aspect of the work of flight attendants is thus `a symbolic representation of the subordination of women... a concrete expression of their position as servers and carers of men' (Charles and Kerr 1988:84).
Beyond Patriarchy? Theorising Gender and Class
Authors: Gottfried Heidi
Published: September 2003

This paper questions recent attempts by feminists to move theory beyond patriarchy, addressing the charge by Pollert that the concept of patriarchy impoverishes analysis of gender and class. In place of patriarchy, the author advocates an alternative feminist historical materialist analysis of hegemonic practices as the means for excavating gender and class from lived experience. This mode of historical materialist theorising rejects the concept of patriarchy as unnecessarily abstract and unable to advance knowledge about the construction of gender in practice. A theory of practice can make sense of the mess of everyday life, and focus research on gendered bodies, spaces and experiences.
Clinging to the Wreckage? Gender and the Legacy of Class
Authors: Bottero Wendy
Published: September 2003

The paper argues that the class legacy has had profoundly negative consequences for accounts of material gender inequality, and that even where gender theorists have attempted to move beyond class, they have been hampered by the fragments of class theory. It will be argued that whilst gender has posed a fundamental challenge to class analysis, the reconstructions which have been attempted have not escaped the central assumptions of class theory. The weakness of such reconstructions - hindered by flaws inherited from both the Marxian and neo-Weberian traditions of class analysis - has led some post-modern writers to question the very idea of a determinate, structural account of gender. At the time of writing, deconstruction - rather than reconstruction - is in the ascendent. However, whilst a structural account of gender can and should be defended, past attempts show that this cannot be achieved by clinging to the assumptions of class analysis, or by developing additive `class-plus-gender' explanations. Only those approaches which reject the economistic assumptions of class, by placing emphasis on the social space as a differentiated and determinate social whole, can overcome the limitations of current accounts of gender.
Social Integration and System Integration: Reconsidering the Classical Distinction
Authors: Perkmann Markus
Published: September 2003

In a recent article in Sociology, Mouzelis argues that Lockwood's distinction between system integration and social integration is, with some modifications, still to be retained because of its logical coherence and its methodological virtues. While its basic value is recognised, this article reconsiders the distinction in the light of some recent achievements in social theory. It is argued that the distinction does not merely offer two different perspectives on society but that, in the actual social world, both dimensions are intertwined in a number of ways. In particular, reflexive actors can draw the distinction themselves which raises questions about the objective status of `incompatibilities'. The implications are developed through some reflections on the nature of social processes as well as the role of institutions, strategic action and conflicts. On the one hand, it is shown that system integration is an important objective for social agency, since many actions are aimed at controlling the performance of processes. On the other, social integration has a decisive impact on those processes because conflict and cooperation transform the institutional preconditions those processes are based upon. The social-system integration distinction offers therefore interesting insights into how social actors themselves attempt to cope with their worlds. Apart from being a methodological tool, the distinction expresses a substantial characteristic of society.
Conceptualising Constraint: Mouzelis, Archer and the Concept of Social Structure
Authors: Healy Kieran
Published: September 2003

This paper outlines and evaluates recent contributions by Nicos Mouzelis and Margaret Archer to the structure-agency debate. Mouzelis offers an internal reconstruction of Giddens's structuration theory; Archer an external alternative. I show that, although representing an advance on Giddens's position, Mouzelis's account fails because he relies on the former's definition of structure as comprising rules and resources. I then examine Archer's solution to the problem. I argue that her definition of activity-dependence makes her account of the relationship between agents and structures unclear. I outline an alternative account in terms of supervenience, and argue that it contains the minimum ontological claim necessary for a realist understanding of the structure-agent relationship.
Minotaurs and other Monsters: `Everyday Life' in Recent Social Theory
Authors: Crook Stephen
Published: September 2003

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the everyday among social theorists from Habermas and Giddens to de Certeau and Maffesoli. Taking Habermas as a benchmark, it is argued that recent accounts of the everyday in divergent traditions of analysis converge on two suspect theses: that of the everyday as `taken-for-granted' and that of the everyday as `living history'. These two theses are related to Minotaur-like concepts of the everyday that are hybrids of `form' and `substance'. It is suggested that three myths - of unity, life and resistance - give life to the Minotaur of the everyday. The Minotaur of the everyday thus carries a great weight of theoretical baggage and its monstrosity serves, paradoxically, to preserve the homogeneity and purity of the social domain. It is argued that the mythologies of the everyday can be dissolved if a more far-reaching and monstrous heterogeneity is allowed to the social (or socio-technical) world.
A `Revenge' on Modern Times: Notes on Traumatic Brain Injury
Authors: Webb David
Published: September 2003

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) results from cerebral damage caused by a blow to the head, for example in a road traffic accident. The frequency of TBI means that it has been characterised as the silent epidemic of modern times. The majority of those who are head-injured are young men. This paper argues that the social reaction to head injury is testament to the latent eugenicist and mentalist suppositions within modernity. The brain-damaged person cannot readily overcome disability with the assistance of the technological aids available to those whose handicapping condition is physical. The consequences that head injury has for the mind and for the `self' entail the special sequestration of those who are head-injured from modernity's concerns with reflexivity and with the paramount cultural and material importance of the mind, whatever is said about the sociological significance of `body matters'. Because TBI brings in its wake the liminality of being `neither here nor there', of young men who become once again `children', the implications for family dynamics are both distinctive and profound. The `future', around which much of modernity revolves, is denied to those whose catastrophe arose from these same modern times.
`You Lucky Punters!' A Study of Gambling in Betting Shops
Authors: Neal Mark
Published: September 2003

This paper draws upon an ongoing study into gambling in the United Kingdom to examine off-course betting as a form of social life. Through such an approach it identifies several features of betting shop life that complement and refine the research literature to date: the different sub-groups within the off-course betting population; how they manage their activities in terms of their finances and their domestic and work responsibilities; the often subtle social dynamics of the betting shop. Through an analysis of these features of the punter's world, the paper investigates the rationality of the activities of loss-making punters, and shows how this differs markedly from the rationalities employed by those who win at the game - bookmakers and professional gamblers. One common concern for many punters is the dream of the `big win' for a little stake - a concern not shared by the other two groups - a dream that undermines their ability to win, and thus compounds their losses. The paper then identifies the different sub-groups involved in off-course betting, and discusses the different times at which they bet and the different strategies they use. In such a way the paper contributes to the debate through identifying groups and social processes not addressed in the literature, and shows how they refine the categories and concepts used to date.
`Risks', `Hazards' and Life Choices: Reflections on Health at Work
Authors: Fox Nick
Published: September 2003

The workplace has been extensively and variously evaluated as an environment which - like others - contains risks to health. This paper unpacks such risk assessment by problematising the relation between hazards and risks. Three positions are set out. In the first (materialist or realist), risks map directly onto underlying real hazards. In the second (constructionist or culturalist), hazards are natural, while risks are social constructions. In the final (postmodern) position, both risks and hazards are seen as constructions. The paper goes on to consider the implications of the latter position for assessment of risks in the workplace, arguing that risks are often discounted in the on-going choices made by people who do some things called `work' and evaluate their continuity of sense-of-self as their `health'.
Gender, Methodology and People's Ways of Knowing: Some Problems with Feminism and the Paradigm Debate in Social Science
Authors: Oakley Ann
Published: September 2003

This paper examines the character of the debate about `quantitative' and `qualitative' methods in feminist social science. The `paradigm argument' has been central to feminist social science methodology; the feminist case against `malestream' methods and in favour of qualitative methods has paralleled other methodological arguments within social science against the unthinking adoption by social science of a natural science model of inquiry. The paper argues in favour of rehabilitating quantitative methods and integrating a range of methods in the task of creating an emancipatory social science. It draws on the history of social and natural science, suggesting that a social and historical understanding of ways of knowing gives us the problem not of gender and methodology, but of the gendering of methodology as itself a social construction.
The Data are Out there, or are They? Implications for Archiving and Revisiting Qualitative Data
Authors: Mauthner Natasha S. , Parry Odette , Backett-Milburn Kathryn
Published: September 2003

The usefulness of archived qualitative data has been questioned where contextual information surrounding the conditions of its production is not provided. It has been assumed that, without this background information, the data remain incomplete. By the same token, it has been argued that the provision of such information will repair and complete the dataset for the purpose of generating new findings or theories. We suggest that these arguments stress practical solutions to what is in fact a more fundamental epistemological issue relating to the reflexive and interpretive nature of the research paradigm within which we, as qualitative researchers, reside. Our experiences of revisiting our own data, discussed in this paper, have highlighted the central part played by the researcher not only in the interpretation and theorising of data, but also in their construction. Because of this, we contend that the conditions under which data are produced are inescapable, thus rendering their re-interpretation at some later date problematic. Thus, we argue that, while `reflexivity' is now recognised as a key feature of qualitative research across social science disciplines, the implications of this for the archiving and re-use of qualitative data have yet to be adequately addressed. Failure to acknowledge this epistemological issue leads researchers unwittingly to adopt a `naively realist' position.
Modernity and the Emotions: Corporeal Reflections on the (IR)Rational
Authors: Williams Simon J.
Published: September 2003

Taking as its starting point the `irrational passion for dispassionate rationality', so prevalent in Western thought and practice, this paper traces, through the emotions, current debates surrounding the ambivalent nature of modernity as both order and chaos, conformity and transgression. Reason and emotions are not, it is argued, antithetical to one another, rather there is a need to fundamentally rethink existing epistemological models and ontological ways of being and knowing. These issues are traced, on the one hand, through the increasing rationalisation of Western society, the latest expression of which, it is claimed, is a new form of `postemotionalism', and, on the other hand, through the resurgence of more Dionysian values and collective forms of effervescence. The paper concludes with a critical assessment of these contradictory features and the corporeal dilemmas which underpin them, speculating on the `fate' of emotions at the turn of the century in the light of current postmodern theorising.
Therapeutic Discourse, Power and Change: Emotion and Negotiation in Marital Conversations
Authors: Benjamin Orly
Published: September 2003

Cultural trends shape the experience of marriage by forming expectations, entitlements and obligations. The self-development discourse generated by the therapeutic culture has been suggested as playing a part in such shaping. This paper examines how this particular discourse affects the way women experience their marital conversations and, more specifically, the extent to which they feel able to initiate change-directed negotiation within them. Twenty-eight professional women in England, selected to reflect different occupational exposures to the self-development discourse, were interviewed in order to examine their experiences of the marital conversation and possible changes within it. The analysis shows that specific feeling rules limit the possibility of women's concerns entering the marital conversation, and that the self-development discourse can introduce alternative feeling rules with the potential to overcome such limitations. It is shown that women who are influenced by the ideological messages equating change with relationship improvement contained within this discourse are able to adopt its proposed feeling rules and to use them to introduce negotiation into their marital conversations. These women are able to use this increased negotiability within the marital conversation to become more powerful in shaping their marital experiences.
Changing Attitudes to Sexual Morality: A Cross-National Comparison
Authors: Scott Jacqueline
Published: September 2003

In this paper I examine changes in men and women's attitudes to sexual morality across nations and time. First, I use time-series data from British Social Attitudes and the General Social Survey of the United States to examine to what extent there has been a revolution in sexual attitudes and whether the change in attitudes has continued through to the 1990s. In particular, I investigate whether changes in permissiveness are mainly due to period effects or to cohort replacement. I also compare the trajectory and pace of change in the two countries. Second, I use data from the International Social Survey Programme to compare British and American attitudes with those of four other nations with very different sociopolitical and religious traditions - Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Poland. With the exception of attitudes to pre-marital sex, attitudes have not changed very dramatically over the past few decades. Attitudes towards homosexuality are becoming slowly more tolerant, especially among women, but condemnation of extra-marital sex has remained high. Religion plays an important role in explaining both within and cross-national variations in attitudes and provides a powerful counterbalance to permissive trends. I conclude that change has not been as revolutionary as is often claimed and the demise of traditional values is over-stated.