bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Some Social Aspects of Embourgeoisement in Australia
Authors: Parsler R.
Published: June 2005

This article deals with the preliminary findings on some social aspects of embourgeoisement amongst respondents to a social survey in Melbourne, Australia. The sample is stratified into blue collar, white collar and middle class workers. The findings are that whilst there is little or no difference in the source of general `life-satisfactions' and orientation to work across the groups, there are strong differences in the `leisure companion' network, membership of and leadership in `voluntary associations', and `educational aspirations for children'. The same results were found when income was held constant. These findings, taken into conjunction with previous findings about economic differences, lead to the broad conclusion that whilst Australia is affluent in a similar way to Britain and the U.S.A. the social structure is dissimilar and that there is little evidence of the convergence of the social classes.
Sociology of Knowledge: New Perspectives
Authors: Elias Norbert
Published: June 2005

The core problems of sociological and philosophical theories of knowledge remain insoluble and unrelated as long as both theories start from static models. The problems can be solved, and the respective theories related to each other, without undue difficulties if the acquisition of knowledge is conceptualized as a long-term process which takes place within societies also considered as long-term processes. This approach has the added advantage of being in closer agreement with the evidence. The paper indicates what needs to be unlearned and what to be learned in order to prepare the way for such a unified theoretical framework which can serve as a guide to, and which can be in turn corrected by, empirical sociological studies of all types of knowledge, scientific and practical as well as non-scientific or ideological.
Social Class Influence on the Amount and Type of Positive Evaluation of School Lessons
Authors: Witkin Robert W.
Published: June 2005

This paper seeks to argue that the widely accepted `class-culture conflict model' is not adequate in describing the relationship between children of different social classes to the social structure of the school. It leads to a number of inferences about the psychological dispositions of working-class children which are questionable. In an empirical study of pupil attitudes towards in general, and the English lesson in particular, it was predicted, in contradiction to what might be expected using the `class-culture conflict model', that these social classes would not differ in respect of general orientation to school but that working-class children would evaluate the English lesson more positively than middle-class children. Hypotheses were also entertained in respect of the influence of type of school on positive evaluation. The results largely confirmed the predictions.
Orientations Towards Work among Computer Programmers
Authors: Sheldrake P. F.
Published: June 2005

This paper looks at the orientations towards work found among computer programmers, a group that has received relatively little attention compared to that shown in clerks and others affected by automation. The range of orientations found among programmers in the study of a computer service bureau is presented, examining the nature and implications of this range, and the way it underlies the descriptive categories used in the bureau. At the same time, the advantages of looking at emergent explanatory dimensions are contrasted with the limitations of applying previously utilized theoretical frameworks in the study of technical specialists working in organizations.
Towards a Theoretical Model for the Study of Occupational Choice
Authors: Blaikie Norman W. H.
Published: June 2005

A theoretical model is presented for the study of values and occupational choice, designed to extend existing models in two directions: to cope with the source of values, and to account for changes in occupational choice. Some implications of the theoretical model are hypothesized and tested on a sample of university students in Melbourne. The occupational goal profiles of students choosing three occupational fields are examined, indicating that occupations are chosen in order to realize highly valued goals, and that even when perceived restrictions regarding entry and qualifications are taken into account, choice is not random. Secondary socialization and re-socialization at university is accompanied by changes in occupational choice. Religion was found to be a strong determinant of the priority given to occupational goals, and changes in religious affiliation and commitment to be related to changes in occupational choice.
Sociology of Knowledge: New Perspectives
Authors: Elias Norbert
Published: June 2005

The assumption underlying most philosophical theories of science, that one can apply to any scientific theory the concept of `truth', is, with its implication of absolute finality, a hangover from the period when Newtonian physics was regarded as an absolute end state. The hidden mourning about the passing of this ideal science gives present philosophical approaches to science and scientific method their common stamp. The alternative seems to be the retreat into a sociological relativism. The paper shows that it is possible to work out a science-theoretical paradigm which avoids the pitfalls of both philosophical absolutism and sociological relativism. It suggests that instead of discussing criteria of a fictitious absolute end-state of knowledge, one might try to discover criteria and conditions for the advance of knowledge, non-scientific and scientific. A theory of this kind has the added advantage that it can be tested by, and can serve as a guide for, empirical studies of sciences and of knowledge generally. The paper also suggests that discussions about `value-freedom' should be abandoned in favour of enquiries into the use of scientific and non-scientific values in scientific work.
Organizational Structure, Environment and Performance: The Role of Strategic Choice
Authors: Child John
Published: June 2005

This paper critically examines available theoretical models which have been derived from statistically established patterns of association between contextual and organizational variables. These models offer an interpretation of organizational structure as a product of primarily economic constraints which contextual variables are assumed to impose. It is argued that available models in fact attempt to explain organization at one remove by ignoring the essentially political process, whereby power-holders within organizations decide upon courses of strategic action. This `strategic choice' typically includes not only the establishment of structural forms but also the manipulation of environmental features and the choice of relevant performance standards. A theoretical re-orientation of this kind away from functional imperatives and towards a recognition of political action is developed and illustrated in the main body of the paper.
Stability and Change in a Shanty Town: A Summary of Some Research Findings
Authors: MacEwen Alison M.
Published: June 2005

The existence of large numbers of shanty towns in Latin American cities raises problems as to the nature of urban integration. In this case study of an Argentine shanty town it was found that in spite of a situation of collective marginality vis-à-vis the city, there was an internal system of differentiation created by a process of status mobility and residential movement. This process culminates in the collective upgrading of fringe areas of the shanty town and finally the movement of individual families away from it. As such, the process of internal mobility can be identified as a form of urban integration. Integration into the wider society however is achieved at the expense of the group, which is internally fragmented by status competition and the loss of potential community leaders to other areas of the city.
Retirement and Role-Playing
Authors: Crawford Marion P.
Published: June 2005

According to the theory of disengagement, successful ageing means that the older person voluntarily withdraws from the social system. The emphasis in British social welfare for the elderly, however, is on continued participation in the social system. In this exploratory study, we suggest that retirement is a form of imposed withdrawal from a central life role which affects both husband and wife. Voluntary disengagement, in terms of anticipated social participation after retirement, is observable only in a small minority of subjects. The majority do not envisage disengagement, and increased participation tends to be associated with positive attitudes towards retirement. Rather than viewing ageing people as one homogeneous group, it is suggested that there may be some major patterns in the way in which retirement is anticipated. These patterns are based upon sex, social class and pre-retirement social participation.
Explaining Educational Choice
Authors: Lane Michael
Published: June 2005

Past research on educational choice has revealed good correlations between it and social class. Such research has two weaknesses; it fails to specify a mechanism connecting structural attributes and individual behaviour, and it cannot account for deviants. One attempt to remedy these deficiencies is supplied by explanations cast in terms of class values. This paper criticises such explanations, and suggests that the real determinant is to be found in economic differences which are only properly visible over the whole working career. Such economic differences partly cross-cut traditional occupational divisions. Economic experience is projected to construct models of the world which are used in making decisions.
Can there be a Phenomenological Sociology?
Authors: Pivčević Edo
Published: June 2005

In this article the claim that sociology can be given a phenomenological foundation is examined and rejected. Certain basic problems facing sociological theory are analysed, and it is shown that phenomenology, rather than helping to solve these problems, merely helps to throw them into clearer relief. The concept of typification and the concept of rule are discussed in relation to social action and it is argued that whereas actions qua social actions can be adequately analysed without an appeal to phenomenology, phenomenology might enable us to understand what is involved in the possibility of deviations from rules and types.
Units of Sociological Analysis
Authors: Shanin Teodor
Published: June 2005

Analytical methodologies assume `resolution into simple elements' as a necessary preliminary stage of scholarly investigation. They explicitly, or more often implicitly accept, therefore, that the conclusions reached reflect not only the phenomena analysed, but also the applied system of analytical subdivision. The paper explores and compares the main systems of analysis in current sociology: institutional, class and communal. It suggests a taxonomy of analytical systems and a cross-classification which is introduced to throw light on their conceptual properties at the societal as well as the individual level. It proceeds by discussing the issues of: (A) The societal roots of selection of analytical schemes in sociology; (B) The advantages and blind spots of the specific analytical systems; and (C) Attempts at the integration and reduction of analytical systems in contemporary sociology.
Technology, Size, and Organization Structure
Authors: Child John , Mansfield Roger
Published: June 2005

A study of 82 business organizations provides data on the disputed question of whether organization technology or organization size is more closely associated with the elements of organization structure. Technological variables are found to be associated with structure in certain definable respects, but, on the whole, size enjoys a much higher relationship. Partial correlational analysis serves to clarify these patterns of association. Measures of technology used in previous studies are seen to be problematic for two reasons. They can obscure the differential elements involved in technology. Secondly, they may to an important degree be acting as surrogates for inter-industry differences which include the influence of industrial managerial ideologies and environments.
Ethnicity and Learning Patterns: A Replication and an Explanation
Authors: Marjoribanks Kevin
Published: June 2005

Eleven-year old boys and their parents from five Canadian ethnic groups were used in an examination of the relationships between ethnicity, social class and the levels and patterns of a set of mental ability test scores. It was found that: (a) both social class and ethnicity influenced the level of intellectual performance, but that (b) different patterns of abilities associated with ethnic group membership remained invariant across social class divisions. These results replicated previous research studies. In an attempt to account for the pervasive influence of ethnicity on the pattern of abilities, the interrelationships between ethnicity, social class, a set of environmental forces and the mental abilities were examined. From the results it was proposed that: (a) ethnic groups fostered the development of different patterns of environmental forces which were related to different ethnic group patterns of mental abilities, while (b) social class groups fostered the development of similar patterns of environmental forces which were related to the development of similar social class patterns of mental abilities.
Phenomenalism and Essentialism in the Sociology of Deviancy
Authors: Rock Paul
Published: June 2005

The sociology of deviancy is emerging as a distinctive perspective on problems of rule-breaking and social control. Among its integral features is an antipathy towards the systematisation of its ideas. This antipathy has allowed the developing perspective to maintain contradictory positions on important issues. In particular, there is a contradiction between the sociology's phenomenalism, which stresses the need to faithfully reproduce the social world as it is known by its inhabitants, and its essentialism which searches for the underlying properties of social order. A limited solution to this discrepancy is offered in the form of the suggestion that sociologists of deviancy should focus their attention on the ideas of social structure which are held by the people whose behaviour they describe. Sociological maps of these ideas would permit the perspective to manage some of the issues that currently cause confusion.
Towards an Organizational Study of Trade Unions
Authors: Child John , Loveridge Ray , Warner Malcolm
Published: June 2005

This paper develops modes of analysis for three major issues in the study of trade unions as organizations. These are, first, their distinctiveness as a discrete type of organization; secondly, the nature of their membership attachment; and thirdly, their twin rationales of representation and administration. The integration of these analyses within a new framework is then pursued. This framework serves to suggest propositions requiring empirical investigation and reference is made to some results from a preliminary study.
The Organization Structure of Churches: A Preliminary Model
Authors: Hinings C. Robin , Foster Bruce D.
Published: June 2005

From recent work on formal organization structure, in particular that of the `Aston school', a causal model for the analysis of churches is developed. This postulates the primacy of belief systems in determining the operational goals of churches, their subsequent membership, size and resource position, and consequential upon this, their organization structure. It is pointed out that a model developed from the sociology of organizations, rather than from the sociology of religion, would lay less stress on beliefs and more on resources.
Language and the Conceptualization of Meaning
Authors: Coulter Jeff
Published: June 2005

This paper attempts to examine what is involved when language is treated as a phenomenon of theoretic concern for the sociologist. The approach to `meaning' suggested by Wittgenstein is outlined and counterposed to formalized representations of the `semantics' of natural languages. The critical issue of `rules of correct use' of language symbols is discussed, and some theoretical problems in describing `linguistic competence' are raised. Some of these problems are located also in a sociological domain where cultural grammars are theoretical goals of research. It is suggested that since linguistic knowledge is practical knowledge, codifications of it in rule-like form can only be for practical purposes. An alternative approach to the analysis of members' speech practices is proposed wherein the theorist investigates members' methods for resolving the indexical properties of communicative interaction, and treats `rules' and other order-assembly devices as elements of practical reasoning.
The Role of the Hospital in the Development of Modern Medicine: A Sociological Analysis
Authors: Waddington Ivan
Published: June 2005

Basic and far-reaching innovations in the structure of medical knowledge were made in Paris in the early part of the nineteenth century. In order to explore the social basis of these innovations, attention is focused on the development of hospitals in Paris, and the way in which this development was associated with the emergence of the doctor as the dominant figure in the doctor-patient relationship. This type of relationship is contrasted with the structure of practitioner-client relationships in the eighteenth century, which were characterized by a structure of client control. Some of the ways in which the dominance of the doctor within the hospital situation facilitated innovation in medical knowledge are examined.
Interpretive Processes in Role Conflict Situations
Authors: Gerhardt Uta
Published: June 2005

This paper pleads for hermeneutic processes to be taken into account in the discussion of role conflict. In order to avoid reification of mechanistic assumptions underlying cross-pressure models of social action, it is suggested that theory as well as research should take into consideration that norms and behaviour are mediated by interpretative processes. These constitute a level of `social understanding' which can be operationalized in role-conflict terms as three different types of conflict. Reciprocity of perspectives and evaluation, as the main dimensions of interpretation processes, are shown to be the main features of conflicts in role interaction.
Pareto's Irrationalism
Authors: Carroll John
Published: June 2005

This paper argues that the notoriously disordered and contradictory nature of Pareto's last and greatest work, the Trattato, is largely attributable to the place he was cast in the development of European social thought. Pareto set out to construct a rationalist-positivist model in the tradition of Bentham and Comte. But his acquaintanceship with a rising intellectual tradition, generally associated with the name of Nietzsche, confronted him with psychological and individualist themes which both revealed how little human action is governed by reason, and put in question the hypothetico-deductive model of Western science and its belief in objective truth. Pareto's resulting intellectual uprootedness translated itself into his last work. This work gained the virtue of presenting an original perspective on social behaviour, but suffered at the same time from not finding a methodology appropriate to its new interests. This paper also aims to show the centrality of Nietzsche's influence on Pareto, an influence almost completely neglected in the secondary literature.
The Political Incorporation of the British Working Class: An Interpretation
Authors: Moorhouse H. F.
Published: June 2005

This paper challenges the type of interpretation of the successful political incorporation of the British working class in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which stresses normative factors—'deference', craving for respectability, bourgeoisification, religious feelings etc. It corrects misleading statements in some of these accounts and uses historical evidence to stress the importance of objective, structural constraints on working class ability to mobilize on a class basis in the political system prior to 1918. Following this interpretation some points are made about the British political culture on theoretical grounds stemming from Durkheim.
The Taken-For-Granted Reference: An Empirical Examination
Authors: Thorpe Ellis
Published: June 2005

A common phenomenon in sociology (and in other disciplines presumably) is that of the `taken-for-granted reference'. This is typically an original empirical study, the findings of which become accepted and thereafter acknowledged as valid evidence in support of argument or for the generation of new hypotheses or counter hypotheses without presentation of critical re-evaluation. The extent to which this occurs and how and why it does occur are largely uninvestigated. In this paper, one case of the taken-for-granted reference, which is widely used in studies of social mobility, is subjected to critical re-evaluation in the light of original empirical research.
Decision Making on the School Curriculum; A Conflict Model
Authors: Eggleston John
Published: June 2005

The paper is concerned with curriculum decision making in the school and the attempts to apply a sociological analysis to this important area. Its focus is on the `micro' rather than on the `macro' decision making process, i.e. within the school rather than within the educational system, though the significance of macro decisions is recognized throughout the paper.

Commencing with a discussion of the role that may be played by the study of decision making in curriculum content and method, the paper goes on to suggest some of the orientations that influence such decisions. Six such areas are identified. In the light of these areas four ideological variables are hypothesized. These are finally brought together as components of a model of the autonomy and interrelationship of educational personnel.
Typologies of Middle Class Mobility
Authors: Payne Geoff
Published: June 2005

The social consequences of geographical mobility are usually conceptualized in terms of unidimensional dichotomies, such as those of Merton (`locals' and `cosmopolitans'), Stacey (`traditionalists' and `non-traditionalists'), and Watson (`burgesses' and `spiralists'). Despite their different meanings and limited generality, these typologies are applied and misused by current writers such as Bell, Frankenberg and Pahl. Typologies, even correctly applied, do not adequately cover the complexity of the processes involved in changes of place of residence. An alternative approach is suggested which rejects typologies and reduces both migration and orientation to local social milieux to their component factors.
A Critique of Duncan's Stratification Research
Authors: Crowder N. David
Published: June 2005

Duncan's interpretation of his research on the nature and process of the distribution of rewards in the U.S. stratification system is questioned. Statistical and conceptual flaws are noted in Duncan's work and their implications explored. A re-analysis of primary survey data is presented and, based upon this, a reconceptualization of the reward distribution process is offered. The implications of this reconceptualization for stratification research are noted. It is further suggested that a plausible source of Duncan's research error is that of presuppositional bias, particularly American egalitarian achievement ideology. It is also suggested that this bias did not emerge as an isolated case of analytical error in Duncan's research, but is present in every functionalist theoretical statement about the stratification system.
Bureaucratic and Electoral Control in Occupational Interest Associations
Authors: Donaldson Lex , Warner Malcolm
Published: June 2005

This paper reports an extension of the Aston studies of organizational structure to the field of occupational interest associations. The sample consisted of six trade unions and one professional association. The structural consequences of the democratic institutions of occupational interest associations were examined and a high degree of electoral control over full-time officials was found to be associated with lower levels of the standardization of procedures, and this was related to the theories of Max Weber.
The Culture-Free Context of Organization Structure: A Tri-National Comparison
Authors: Hickson David J. , Hinings C. R. , McMillan C. J. , Schwitter J. P.
Published: June 2005

In data in standard form on seventy manufacturing organizations in three countries, consistent relationships are found between variables of organization context or `task environment' (size, dependence, technology) and measures of structure (Formalization, Specialization, Autonomy). These support the hypothesis that relationships will be stable across societies. Even though culturally shaped variations may occur in some features of organizations, contextual constraints or pressures will persist. Simply stated, if Indian organizations were found to be less formalized than American ones, bigger Indian units would still be more formalized than smaller Indian units.
Simplicity in Path Analysis
Authors: Allan G. J. Boris
Published: June 2005

Path analysis is too concerned with the observable and not concerned enough with the conceptual. Many path analyses are rendered trivial, and overly complicated by this emphasis. A method proposed by Hope (1971) within the framework of path analysis is shown to add its own further confusion, and to be invalid. The same data is analysed by two (differing) approaches which are less concerned with the observed and more concerned with what underlies the observed. Basic deductions from both methods (one is regression-based, the other factor analysis-based) are the same. One, the data armed by Hope contains much redundancy in conceptual terms: two, the underlying process is very simple: `A person's level of education is predicted (caused?) by his mental ability and type of parental home environment, with ability being a more important factor. Most systematic variation in a person's occupational prestige is "caused" by the person's level of education'.
An Aggregate Data Analysis of Turnout and Party Voting in Local Elections
Authors: Davies P. , Newton K.
Published: June 2005

Much has been written about individual voting behaviour in Britain and the United States but relatively little work has been done with aggregate data in the study of total electoral situations. A partial correlation and multiple regression analysis of local elections in a large English city shows that class, housing tenure, age, and coloured immigrants are closely related to voting patterns of total electorates, but geographical mobility and density of hoeing occupation are not. The political variables of marginality, size of majority, and number of candidates are not noticeably related to either turnout or party voting, although the presence of a Liberal candidate does increase turnout in some circumstances. Housing tenure has a particularly strong and complex relationship with voting patterns which suggests that the concept of housing class may be useful in the analysis of voting as well as more general social patterns. There is no persistent pattern of support for the Liberals who gain or lose votes according to the popularity of the two main parties.
Some Explanations for the Persistence of Christian Religion in Soviet Society
Authors: Lane Christel
Published: June 2005

Despite an extremely hostile environment, Christian religion has persisted in the Soviet Union. Three types of explanation are most frequently encountered in the Soviet sociological and philosophical literature: the first explanation is in terms of limited and temporary social inequalities, the second points to psychological factors, the third ascribes the survival of religion to its adaptability to changing social circumstances. Each of these explanations is critically examined in the light of empirical sociological work. The author suggests that religion serves as a vehicle of ideological protest; more specifically, it is hypothesized that religion, especially in its sectarian form, has become an alternative world view for a small, but significant number of people who, during a period of great social upheaval and rapid social change, have found Communist ideology unacceptable or insufficient as an integrating value system.
Social Class Differences in the Speech of Six Year Old Hungarian Children
Authors: Pap Maria , Pléh Csaba
Published: June 2005

This paper reports on a Hungarian study of social class differences in the speech of 65 six year old children from s primary schools in Budapest. Speech samples were collected from stories which were elicited by a series of pictures. Five quantitative indices of context-dependence were constructed; and, on the basis of these indices, context-dependence was related to the child's own social background and to the social composition of the school. It was found that the speech of `advantaged' children was structurally more complex and less context-dependent than the speech of `disadvantaged' children. Overall, the study demonstrates the applicability of the concept of context-dependence in a non-English speaking country, and provides yet another demonstration of the influence of social class differences on speech codes.
The Educational Background of a Selected Group of England's Leaders
Authors: Boyd David P.
Published: June 2005

The paper examines the school background of leaders in eight occupational groups: the civil service, foreign service, judiciary, Royal Navy, army, Royal Air Force, Church of England, and clearing banks. These elite groups were studied at four time intervals: 1939, 1950, 1960, and 1971. With the exception of the civil service, no significant change was discernible in the proportion of men who had attended public school. The paper also examine the university background of leaders in five of the. groups: the civil service, foreign service, judiciary, Church of England, and clearing banks. Except for the Church of England, no significant change was recorded in the proportion of men who had attended Oxbridge.
Chance and Skill: A Study of Roulette
Authors: Oldman David
Published: June 2005

The paper deals with the problem of how people handle random events. Many accounts of the chance element in games and many attempts at general explanations of gambling assume that the actor accepts the events as unpredictable and passively awaits the outcome. A study of people playing roulette in a gaming club suggests that this is far from the case. Playing roulette can be seen as an exercise in `skill' which depends upon the construction and maintenance of predictive theories. One form of theorizing attributes causal efficacy to the croupier and the game becomes a contest between croupier and player. This is reinforced by the croupiers as they attempt to manipulate their working conditions and status. Players may then adopt a non-arithmetic calculus of win and loss which confirms their theorizing. Losses are the `entrance fee' to a public entertainment, whilst wins are evidence of a successful working strategy.
Unrepresentative Bureaucracy
Authors: Sheriff Peta E.
Published: June 2005

Sociological concern with the social and educational origins of higher civil servants is interpreted on the basis of various explicit and implicit theses guiding such studies. The author shows that all such approaches rest on two unexamined assumptions- that pre-occupational socialization is vital for the later attitudes of higher civil servants and that it is possible to modify the social and educational origins of this group. Presenting comparative information and historical data on the British situation to show that such modification is unlikely without a radical transformation of values guiding a public bureaucracy, the author argues that research on organizational structures and on the influence of pre-occupational and post-occupational experience are essential for a sound discussion of the theses outlined, and for any future discussions of the responsiveness of public bureaucracies.
The Nature and Social Location of Everyday Conceptions of Class
Authors: Hiller Peter
Published: June 2005

The study of everyday conceptions of social inequality and social class epitomizes some of the central issues of sociology, especially the relationship between consciousness and action. A broadly social-phenomenological/interactionist framework of analysis is put forward and previous studies reviewed and criticized (primarily on the grounds of superficiality and lack of validity). An intensive study, carried out in Australia on a stratified random sample, is described and some of the results summarized. It was found that few respondents' class schemes corresponded to traditional power/ownership dichotomies or prestige hierarchies and that the concept of a `money model' was too ambiguous to be useful in analysis: a wider variety of Class Scheme Types is proposed. Their social location was such that, while the distributions obtained reflected some of the general trends observed in earlier research, there were also some interesting divergences.
Holding the Middle Ground: The BBC, the Public and the Professional Broadcaster
Authors: Kumar Krishan
Published: June 2005

Unlike most other broadcasting organizations, the BBC has managed to fend off identification both with the state and with commerce. The sources of this unusual degree of autonomy are traced back to the era of Lord Reith. But the balance is a precarious one, entailing various `strategies of survival' on the part of the BBC. One such strategy is seen in the careful selection and promotion of a small group of professional broadcasters-announcers, news-readers, presenters. The functional importance of this group has increased dramatically in the last decade as a result of the break-up of the political consensus and the politicization of issues previously regarded as safe.
Social Class and Psychiatric Disturbance among Women in an Urban Population
Authors: Brown George W. , Bhrolchain Maire Ni , Harris Tirril
Published: June 2005

While an association between social status and prevalence of psychiatric disurbance has often been reported, little has been established about aetiology or its significance for social class differences. In a survey of a random sample of women living in south London a large class difference in the prevalence of psychiatric disturbance was found. This difference is particularly great among women with young children at home. This paper examines why working class women have a greater prevalence of (i) conditions with an onset in the year before interview and (ii) conditions that have lasted longer than one year. Severe life-events and major long term difficulties occurring in the year before onset play an important aetiological role. However although these aetiological agents are more common among working class women, they only explain a small part of the social class differences. The class difference is essentially due not to the greater frequency of events and difficulties but to the much greater likelihood of working class women breaking down once one of these has occurred; this greater vulnerability is shown to relate to certain social factors. The greater likelihood of working class women suffering from chronic psychiatric disturbance is also shown to relate to environmental differences. Results for a series of depressive patients treated by psychiatrists support these interpretations; but it is necessary to take into account `treatment seeking' factors.
The Employment of Sociologists in Research Occupations in Britain in 1973
Authors: Smith Cyril S.
Published: June 2005

The Sociological profession in Britain has changed in fundamental ways over the last decade. This note draws attention to the rapid growth of research occupations and describes the sources and location of this expansion. Most of the recent growth has come from direct financing by central government departments. The note discusses some of the implications of this development for careers, training, and the content of the discipline. It explores some of the implications of the pressures to make the social sciences more useful to government.
Perceptual Accounts and Interpretive Asymmetries
Authors: Coulter Jeff
Published: June 2005

This paper looks at some available members' methods for dealing with perceptual accounts that occasion non-acceptance on the part of account-recipients. Perceptual-account producers and recipients include former mental patients, mental welfare officers, `flying-saucer' witnesses and investigators of such sightings. The paper constitutes an ethnomethodological discussion of the management of communicative and cognitive order.
Reforms as Revolutions
Authors: Wilkinson Philip , Grace Clive
Published: June 2005

The paper is composed of three sections: (1) Addresses the debate between positivism and ethnomethodology; defeats positivism's claims of incorporation or tangentiality; and raises the issue of the revolutionary potential of ethnomethodology itself. (2) Analyzes some of the problems involved in identifying developments and revolutions within bodies of knowledge. (3) Compares conventional and alternative accounts of a particular action setting with which the authors have been specially concerned.
Occupational Structure in Industrialized Societies: Some Notes on the Convergence Thesis in the Light of Soviet Experience
Authors: Garnsey Elizabeth
Published: June 2005

Critics of the convergence thesis have not seriously challenged the notion that occupational structure is technologically determined and a relatively invariable feature of industrialized societies. This paper discusses some of the conceptual problems raised by the account of the transformation of occupational structure to be found in the convergence literature. The issues are examined with reference to some distinctive features of the Soviet occupational structure which have resulted from policies pursued in accordance with ideological considerations and deliberate growth strategies. The evidence shows that the state of technology cannot be viewed as an autonomous variable and that policies which counteract or reinforce the workings of market forces are of crucial importance. Some of the implications of variations in occupational structure for patterns of social stratification are discussed; recent studies of stratification in state socialist countries have tended to by-pass these questions. The sociological causes of diversity in the occupational structure of advanced societies need to be further explored.
Codes, Paradigms and Folk Norms
Authors: Smith Dennis
Published: June 2005

The erosion of the established collection mode in English education is producing a variety of unstable structural outcomes. All of these outcomes are conditioned by the progressive replacement of sponsorship by a covert contest pattern of educational selection. In the wake of experiments with integrated curricula, the most likely emergent pattern of educational transmission is a form of collection characterized by increased democratic representation of staff and students. The analysis draws upon a critical discussion of Basil Bernstein's approach to the classification and framing of educational knowledge; it exploits Thomas Kuhn's discussion of socialization into paradigms and Ralph Turner's treatment of sponsored and contest mobility; and it employs a distinction between processes of primary and secondary elaboration of the underlying principles which characterize a group's communication.
Ownership and Control in a Satellite Economy: A Discussion from Scottish Data
Authors: Scott John , Hughes Michael
Published: June 2005

This paper discusses various concepts and ideas concerned with patterns of owner-ship and control in industry. It is concluded that Maurice Zeitlin's discussion is the most sophisticated and the most useful for empirical research. Some of Zeitlin's ideas are related to the structure of ownership and control in Scotland. It is argued that sociologists, unlike economists and political scientists, have paid insufficient attention to the relative autonomy of Scotland as a region within British society. The 248 Scottish registered public companies are analysed and it is concluded that there is strong evidence in favour of the view that companies can be seen as units in a class-controlled system. Considerable doubt is thrown upon the `managerial' view of the corporation. It is argued that a particularly important role is played by groups of investment trusts in controlling the network of Scottish companies—the ownership of Burmah Oil and other Scottish companies is discussed to illustrate this. Finally it is argued that further research must construct a typology of directors and relate this to the position of Scotland in the international economic system.
Bishop Berkeley and the Adenotonsillectomy Enigma: An Exploration of Variation in the Social Construction of Medical Disposals
Authors: Bloor Michael
Published: June 2005

Observational data gathered in the out-patient clinics of eleven ENT specialists were used to explore the issue of the marked and well-documented variations in the assessment of children for possible adeno-tonsillectomy. The routinized orientation of the various specialists to the assessment process allowed the comparison of specialists in terms of their routine assessment practices. Inter-specialist variation in routines is described in terms of five parameters of difference—variation in the search procedures used in the examination of the child, variation in the decision rules making for differential stress on the examination findings relative to the history, variation on the search procedures used for the history-taking, variation in the decision rules pertaining to the history, and variation in routines according to the age of the child. Such differences in routines are the means whereby systematic variations in patient assessment are constructed.

The very nature of medical knowledge provides for the possibility of these differences in routines, since the theoretical construction of a disease entity is essentially arbitrary and value-laden and since any disease entity is in effect a general name which can refer to a wide variety of different particular conditions.

Extrapolating from the work of Bishop Berkeley, it can be seen that the various specialists' decision rules are specific representative ideas of appropriate surgical indications. Further, these ideas can be seen to vary both in content and in degree of specificity from specialist to specialist, to vary in degree of specificity for any one specialist from one category of patient to the next, to vary for any one specialist from setting to setting. It is the first two types of variance that may largely account for inter-specialist differences in assessment, while the third type of variance, by reducing the visibility of inter-specialist differences, may help to account for their persistence.
A Critique of Steven Lukes' `Power: A Radical View'
Authors: Bradshaw Alan
Published: June 2005

Steven Lukes' monograph Power: A Radical View (Lukes 1974) offers a critical analysis of pluralist and nondecision theories of power, leading on to a suggested `three-dimensional view' of power. This view stresses exercises of power that (a) do not entail observable conflicts, but rather latent conflicts; (b) are a `function of collective forces and social arrangements' (p. 22). In particular, Lukes advances the self-confessedly problematic ideas that such exercises may (1) involve inaction; (2) be unconscious; (3) be wielded by identifiable groups or institutions. However, there are difficulties in Lukes' `real interests' approach with its claims to be both `empirically applicable' and `essentially contested'. Second, Lukes' acceptance of the orientation of the pluralist and nondecision writers as the point of departure in his attempt to supersede them creates a fundamental antimony between his individualist illustrative methodology and his collective inferences. Third, flaws in propositions (1) and (2) above are highlighted. Finally it is suggested that Lukes' position in the structural determinism versus elite voluntarism argument between Poulantzas and Miliband conflicts violently with (3) above, so dividing the essay against itself.
The Disappearance of the Sick-Man from Medical Cosmology, 1770-1870
Authors: Jewson N. D.
Published: June 2005

The sick-man may be said to have disappeared from medical cosmology in two related senses during the period 1770-1870. Firstly, as control over the means of production of medical knowledge shifted away from the sick towards medical investigators the universe of discourse of medical theory changed from that of an integrated conception of the whole person to that of a network of bonds between microscopical particles. Secondly, as control over the occupational group of medical investigators was centralized in the hands of its senior members the plethora of theories and therapies, which had previously afforded the sick-man the opportunity to negotiate his own treatment, were replaced by a monolithic consensus of opinion imposed from within the community of medical investigators.
Moral Indignation and the Media: An Analysis of the NVALA
Authors: Wallis Roy
Published: June 2005

Analyses of moral indignation have seen it as generated by infractions of the conscience collective or by repressed envy or prurience. Such explanations seem of limited relevance to various contemporary moral crusades. Joseph Gusfield's theory of moral reform as a mode of status politics is explored in the context of an analysis of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association. Gusfield argues that assimilative reform which seeks to convert the deviant is replaced by coercive reform which seeks to constrain his behaviour by means of legislation when the supporters of a dominant morality find themselves increasingly abandoned by respectable groups and institutions. The sources of shifts in values away from the protestant ethic' values of an entrepreneurial middle class are located in a range of social and economic changes. The focus of NVALA's `protest against BBC television in particular is seen as developing from the spread of television as a domestic necessity and the shift in its ideological content in the post-Reithian era. The preoccupation of the NVALA with sexual morality is related to the close association between sexual restraint and economic and social position in Late Victorian middle-class society, an association undermined by the spread of an effective contraceptive technology. A major buttress to the link between sexual and social respectability has thereby been removed. A process of differential erosion of commitment to `respectable' middle-class morality is seen as having taken place, to which some groups and strata are seen as less susceptible and therefore more likely to provide the following of a movement such as NVALA. The failure of NVALA to halt the changes in the moral ethos of British society is seen as posing various problems with which the movement leadership seeks to cope, and as responsible therefore for various changes in strategy, the content of its message, and the scope of its aims.
Reading Max Weber: The Limits of Sociology
Authors: Wilson H. T.
Published: June 2005

Max Weber is often cited as an enigmatic figure because of the tension between scholarship and politics which his entire adult life allegedly manifested. Others prefer a psychoanalytic reduction, concerned as they are with discrediting his pessimistic version of the future of western civilization. But few have been interested in bringing to light the clear tension in his scholarly work between sociological theory and social theorizing. In what follows, I offer an interpretation of Weber's work based on just such a distinction. That Weber refused to `leave his post' and speak to the first principles which the western project presumes, when these principles were not his own, had serious consequences for him. In effect, one of Weber's greatest accomplishments is precisely the way he speaks to the limits of sociology while staying true to those limits.