bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Nonviolent Action on Social Attitudes*
Authors: Perloe Sidney I. , Olton David S. , Yaffe David L.
Published: January 2007

Nonviolent action will produce attitude change to the exlent that it satisfies either or both of two prerequisites. It must either interfere with the functions served by the attitudes or it must produce some inconsistency between the attitudes and other orientations of the persons affected by the action. The three major functions served by attitudes are object orientation, ego‐support, and ego‐defense. For many social attitudes the ego‐support provided by attitudes which help define a person's relation to a reference group is especially powerful, Functions may be blocked by a particular set of conditions, which may have little in common with one another. Inconsistencies may occur among different attitudes or among the components of a single attitude. One class of inconsistencies that is of particular importance occurs when people are persuaded or mildly pressured into action contrary to their attitudes. Each of the sources of attitude change pressure carries its own requirements for producing change and its own mechanisms for protecting attitudes against change pressures. Nonviolent action does not necessarily meet these requirements or overcome the defenses. However, with knowledge of the functional bases and conceptual contexts of the attitudes being challenged it may be possible to utilize the resources present in nonviolent action to increase the likelihood of a desirable impact.
Nonviolence is Two
Authors: Stiehm Judith
Published: January 2007

The term “nonviolent resistance” is frequently assumed to refer to a single and coherent theory about the proper way to manage conflict. There are, however, two quite different theories subsumed by this general term. One assumes a basic human harmony and denies the morality of or necessity for either coercion or violence. The second regards conflict as normal, even healthy; nonviolence is perceived as an economic way of testing strength and the only limit set upon means is that of threatening or using physical force. Because activists, advocates, and observers often fail to distinguish these views, the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance is frequently impaired. This is because resisters of differing views fail to find a common basis for cooperation and because the spectator is confused by apparently contradictory professions and actions.
A Note on “Nonviolence is Two”
Authors: Lidz Victor
Published: January 2007

The conscientious and pragmatic forms of nonviolence are discussed as sanctioning strategies adapted to different phases in the development of a social movement. Some general factors affecting the evolution of a movement's relations with its institutional environment are also considered.
Accounting for a Nonviolent Mass Demonstration*
Authors: Blumberg Herbert H.
Published: January 2007

A 1963 nonviolent mass demonstration for civil rights at Durham, N.C., is here described on the basis of interviews with participants, businessmen, and political figures. A utility model to help account for the personnel, form, and site of such a protest includes the processes of evolution, contagion, and reinforcement.
Nonviolence and Differentiation in the Equal Rights Movement
Authors: Wehr Paul E.
Published: January 2007

The larger movement for racial equality in the United States has experienced considerable structural and ideological differentiation in the past decade, largely as a consequence of disagreement over tactics to be employed. Two direct‐action sub‐movements, the southern sit‐ins and the urban riots, best illustrate the divergence with the former committed to tactical nonviolence and the latter to violent means of effecting social change.

To regain the momentum lost through this differentiation, certain leaders must reorganize a major part of the black population around a tactical approach that acknowledges both the peculiar needs and temper of the potential protestors, and the nature and tolerance level of the system it seeks to change. Responding to these criteria, the approach may develop in the form of an extremely militant but basically nonviolent tactic of social disruption, combining all but the most violent techniques used to date by equal rights activists.
Ascription in Modern Societies
Authors: Mayhew Leon
Published: January 2007

While “ascription” occupies a central place in Parsons' scheme, some of its positive functions in a highly differentiated system have been underemphasized. Because of its economical use of established social arrangements, ascription contributes to the performance of all of the system functions—pattern maintenance, integration, goal‐attainment and adaptation. This helps to explain the prevalence of residual ascriptive elements in modern societies. The institutionalization of mass education and civil rights breaks down some ascription, but, at the same time, increases for the larger society the useability of the internal organization of its ascriptively defined groupings. Hence, ascriptive ties permeate the organization of the differentiated institutional sectors of modern society.
Systemic Senses of Self*
Authors: Gordon Chad
Published: January 2007

An effort is made to extend the scope of the general theory of action to encompass some of the major dimensions of the individual's structure of self‐conceptions. This is attempted through formulation of four subjective “senses of self,” one corresponding to each of the functional problems held in action theory to be essential features of all systems. The senses of competence, self‐determination, unity, and moral worth are offered as the individual's subjective interpretations of his standing in relation to his objective problems of adaptation, goal‐attainment, integration, and pattern‐maintenance. It is argued that these four senses subsume and organize many important but scattered themes in the literature of self theory and general symbolic interactionism. Operational, procedures are offered with which these senses may be assessed in empirical research, and some illustrative outcomes are presented from the author's longitudinal study of self‐conception changes over the course of retirement. The discussion also touches upon some of the methodological problems encountered in attempting to establish the empirical validation for this kind of theoretical extension.
Values and Democracy in Imperial Germany
Authors: Baum Rainer C.
Published: January 2007

The relationship between societal values and political, particularly democratic development has been of interest to many students of politics. This paper reports data on the values of German society before WW I. An instrument to measure value orientations on the basis of Action Theory is described and its underlying assumptions as well as those pertaining to the use of fiction as a source on values in historical periods are discussed. Findings are reported concerning Prussians and Southerners, two major groups in German society. The data show that Germany was characterized by high value heterogeneity of its population, a factor which contributed to the lack of national democratic development before WW I.
A Parsonian Scheme for the Study of Man and Environment, or What Human Ecology Left Behind in the Dust
Authors: Michelson William
Published: January 2007

Although one might have expected human ecologists to have analyzed the interrelations of the physical environment with social phenomena, their efforts, while valuable in many ways, were largely inconsequential toward that end. This paradox may be explained by 1) their conceptualization of the environment, 2) their fixation on aggregates, 3) their erection of disciplinary boundaries, and 4) the acceptance of intervention with its concomitant pressures for basic knowledge only recently.

To get at this information, an orientation very different from that of traditional human ecology is required, and the Parsonian systems approach suggests the use of an intersystem congruence model, which is outlined.
The Value Profile: A Factor Analytic Study of Value Statements*
Authors: Bales Robert F. , Couch Arthur S.
Published: January 2007

The Value Profile is a general purpose inventory of values developed for use in research on interpersonal relations. Eight hundred and seventy‐two value statements were collected from tests of values, personality tests, theoretical treatments of values, and statements made by subjects in group discussions. A factor analysis of 143 items representing all value positions yielded four orthogonal factors: I, Acceptance of Authority; II, Need‐determined Expression vs. Value‐determined Restraint; III, Equalitarianism; and IV, Individualism. The underlying factor space seems to be congruent with that obtained by Morris, and others, and provides a means of relating existing theoretical classifications of value positions to each other.
An Empirical Study in the Sociology of Knowledge*
Authors: Wanderer Jules J.
Published: January 2007

Investigations in the sociology of knowledge usually take as their point of departure some substantive property of a mode of thought. They then seek to delineate and understand the social origins of that mode of thought. This paper suggests the possibility of supplementing the substantive approach with structural materials. Portions of two different intellectual systems are treated empirically to ascertain the manner in which their demonstrations of proof are structured. These structures are uncovered through the use of Guttman scale analysis. While any set of branching deductions may be considered a partly ordered set, the findings reported here show that the portions of the intellectual system chosen for analysis converge to an almost perfectly ordered set (a Guttman scale). Finally, known properties of Guttman scales are assigned to the structural dimension, and implications for the sociology of knowledge are drawn.
Organizational and Leadership Status*
Authors: Edwards John N.
Published: January 2007

Sociological research on voluntary associations seldom has dealt with the characteristics of these organizations as emergent properties. Generally associational elements are conceived of as mere configurations of aggregate member qualities. Thus, the status accorded voluntary groups at any given time is thought to be the sum total of member and leader prestige. Although a high correlation exists between organizational rank and leader‐member status, the relationship remains unexplained. Focusing on three organizational properties as determinants of associational rank, a tentative explanation is offered. It is maintained that as organizations mature their emergent properties become crucial considerations in the selection of their leaders, one consideration being who will best symbolize the organizations' rank in the community.
Factors Mediating the Effects of Others' Responses on the Self*
Authors: Weinstein Eugene A. , Black Charlene R.
Published: January 2007

Either positive or negative feedback was given to seventy‐two college students about performance on an ability test. As is usually found, feedback was highly related to students' subsequent self‐assessments. Positive and negative feedback were of roughly equal importance when the source of feedback is ignored. However, considering source, negative feedback had greater impact when coming from peers; positive feedback was stronger when coming from a person of higher status.
The Militarized Society and the Weapons‐Maker
Authors: Schevitz Jeffrey M.
Published: January 2007

This is a preliminary report of a larger project concerning the dependence upon and control of engineers and scientists by the military‐corporate structure. Here there is (1) a brief description of the American military economy; (2) an analysis of various explanations of why previous social science research about professionals doing military work in “civilian” corporations has not focused upon the meaning attached to the end product of work–weapons; (3) a typology of role‐orientations of engineers and scientists in the war‐defense industries, i.e., patterns of perceptions, evaluations, and actions. The article concludes with advocacy of partisan sociology—a sociology of liberation.
Relevance and Responsibility in Sociological Research*
Authors: Colfax J. David
Published: January 2007

Radical sociology is discussed in terms of the sociologist's relevance and responsibility to neglected and oppressed segments of the society. To illustrate these themes, the fate of a five‐city community‐survey and power‐structure research project which was intended to have an impact upon patterns of school segregation is described. Examples of the use and disuse of data by those in positions of authority are provided as evidence of the need for closer articulation of research design and application. The need for a “participatory sociology” is asserted and its character briefly sketched.
The Radical Perspective in Sociology
Authors: Deutsch Steven E.
Published: January 2007

The objective of this paper is to clarify some of the perspectives of the discipline of sociology, to identify radical viewpoints and how they have evolved and converged, and to indicate some of the consequences of a radical sociology and its prospects. A radical sociology calls for a radical perspective, namely, a structural perspective. Such a perspective requires uncovering economic and political realities in the attempt to understand social structure. Intellectual relevance should not merely be cloaked in terms of efficacy demands which derive from state welfarism and militarism, but should be the extension of a radical and structuralist perspective.
Social Change Through Issue Advertising
Authors: Zeigler John A.
Published: January 2007

Mr. Zeigler, a Director of the Center for Issue Advertising in New York, a television and feature film producer, advertising art director and copywriter, teaches a workshop at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan called “Social Change Through Issue Advertising.” The class functions as a miniature advertising agency for interest groups whose objectives coincide with the workshop's: the defense of an individual's right to his life, health and properly through legislative changes. Recognizing the power of advertising to educate and persuade, Mr. Zeigler believes the shortest distance to meaningful social change may be along Madison Avenue. The following is from an interview with him.
Varieties of Sensitivity Training*
Authors: Back Kurt W.
Published: January 2007

Types of sensitivity training groups are distinguished according to their general orientations, practice and aims. Observations are made on the Esalen, Tavistock, and NTL approaches as well as on some sources of the different approaches and suggestions as to their advantages and disadvantages.
Love Poverty in Modern Culture and Sensitivity Training*
Authors: Foa Uriel G. , Donnenwerth Gregory V.
Published: January 2007

The social institutions of modern technological culture often fail to provide adequate opportunity for the exchange of emotions and personal feelings of affect and esteem. The widespread development of alternative institutions such as sensitivity training can be seen as an attempt to compensate for the scarcity of this type of interpersonal communication. Reasons for this scarcity are examined in terms of a structural model of individual and societal resource differentiation.
Proceed with Caution: On Teaching and Therapy*
Authors: Brown George I.
Published: January 2007

The importance of awareness as to the motivation of the leader or teacher who is involved in affective group process is elaborated in this article. Differentiations are made between manipulation and teaching and therapy and education. The importance of “allowing” as a ground rule for groups is described along with a rationale for this which includes factors such as readiness and motivation. The integration of the affective and cognitive domains in the curriculum (confluent education) is touched on in relationship to the conscious use of affective process in the classroom. Finally, the existential condition of the “Now” is described as a significant factor for guiding the behavior of the leader or teacher.
Developing Sensitivity Behind Bars*
Authors: Baumgold John
Published: January 2007

A psychologist's experiences in exploring the uses of sensitivity training in two prisons are recounted. Several encounters and marathon sessions are reported and suggestions are made concerning some of the distinctive problems and useful techniques in employing sensitivity training in prisons.
On Causality in Social Science
Authors: Rhoads John K.
Published: January 2007

The challenge to the principle of causality in other disciplines has been taken over by some sociologists, who have criticized its utility for sociological inquiry and who suggest in some instances that the term should be dropped from the sociological lexicon. The critiques are grounded in four somewhat overlapping perspectives: the positivist, the statistical, the inter‐actionist, and the conceptualist. A formulation of what constitutes causality is presented, which takes account of these critiques and which also attempts to preserve continuity with past definitions. The basic elements are ontological status, productivity, conditionality, uniformity, and asymmetry. The importance of this subject, why the notion should be retained by sociologists, and the difference that this formulation makes are discussed.
Social Identities in Black and White*
Authors: Wellman Barry
Published: January 2007

The theoretical usefulness of a convergence of symbolic interactionism and urban sociology is discussed. A method is proposed for the analysis of large numbers of social identities. Black racial identity, in particular, is considered. Racial identity is found to be far more salient for blacks than for whites, but even for blacks, a number of other identities are seen to be more frequently employed. The notion of a “standard package of identities” is developed, and the utility of such a model for understanding group differentiation and inter‐group linkages is explored.
An Analysis of Suicide Rates among Occupational Categories
Authors: Labovitz Sanford , Hagedorn Robert
Published: January 2007

The correlation between the NORC prestige scale of 1947 with 1950 suicide rates is extremely low for thirty‐six specific occupations. The low correlation calls into question the findings of previous studies which employed gross occupational categories and impressionistic prestige rankings. The results indicate that client dependency and two multivariate models, status inconsistency and distributive justice, deserve further exploration in predicting suicide rates for occupations.
Love, Marriage and the Division of Labor*
Authors: Baum Martha
Published: January 2007

In this questionnaire study young engaged men and women were asked about the importance of love in marriage and the meaning of the concept “love.” Marital goals and criteria for mate choice were also explored. A highly consistent image of marriage as an institution in which to realize a comprehensive companionship with a partner of compatible temperament and life goals emerged. These findings have demonstrable implications for existing theoretical formulations concerning the dysfunctional aspects of the love marriage in contemporary American society in which it is contended that “romantic idealization” during courtship leads to a high incidence of dissatisfaction and disruption. Findings from numerous studies are assimilated to present an alternative explanation for marital conflict in the context of the modern division of labor in which the spheres of work and the family are poorly integrated, particularly in view of sharp role segregation by sex.
A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis of Politics
Authors: HALL PETER M.
Published: January 2007

The purpose of this article will be to outline a symbolic interactionist approach to the study of politics in the United States. In the course of this presentation, the basic assumptions and concepts of the interactionist perspective will be presented, culminating in a model of society as a negotiated order. This model in conjunction with definitions of power and politics will provide the basis for analyzing the processes of power. The article will focus on and emphasize two mechanisms of power, information flow control and symbolic mobilization of support, which have previously been unrecognized and unan‐alyzed. In the conclusion, the strengths and weaknesses of the approach will be discussed.
The Legacy of Max Weber: A Non‐Metaphysical Politics
Authors: ROSSIDES DANIEL W.
Published: January 2007

Science, said Weber, cannot provide truth (only knowledge) and it cannot validate values (only help to achieve them) since reason, fact, and value are separate and unconnectable realms. In taking this position, Weber sought to remove social science from the metaphysical tradition of the West (in which it is still mired). For Weber, man creates his own meanings in a meaningless universe, a possibly moral creature with neither natural nor supernatural absolutes to guide him. This perspective gave Weber a unique detachment against all views of society, whether Traditional, Marxian, or his own preference, liberal, a detachment which contains unparalleled benefits for the student of contemporary society and its politics.
Teachers' Goals and Role Behavior*
Authors: RABOW JEROME , ROBISCHON THOMAS
Published: January 2007

A survey in junior and senior high schools assessed the goal orientations of 316 teachers. These goals are factor analyzed and produce a two‐factor structure, each composed of four items. Teachers are rated as low, medium or high on each factor, called socialization and academic. Teachers' goals are related to the grading practices and sanctions used in the classroom. A stress on academic goals is positively related with the use of performance criteria in grading students and to the infrequent use of sanctions. A socialization emphasis is positively related to the use of non‐performance criteria in grading and the frequent use of sanctions.
Urban Residential Differentiation: An Overview of Patterns, Trends, and Problems*
Authors: POPENOE DAVID
Published: January 2007

The main causes, conditions, and social consequences of residential differentiation in urbanized communities are reviewed. A comparison is made among the forms of residential differentiation in preindustrial, industrial, and postindustrial cities and in planned and unplanned industrial cites. Major emphasis is given to the social problems and issues connected with postindustrial residential differentiation.
Community Disorganization: Some Critical Notes*
Authors: FEAGIN JOE R.
Published: January 2007

In recent years numerous discussions of urban communities have given great weight to themes of disorganization and disorder. This paper critically examines several impoitant conceptual, procedural, and substantive issues inherent in most treatments of community disorganization. To illustrate such fundamental problems as “overgeneralization” and dominant group bias five specific topics‐migration, disasters, slums, ghettos, and collective violence‐were selected for intensive analysis.
The Structural Bases of Political Change in Urban Communities*
Authors: WALTON JOHN
Published: January 2007

The field of urban politics is vast and rapidly increasing. Students of a number of disciplines with a plethora of specific interests work within its hazy boundaries. The purpose of this essay is to attempt a contemporary synthesis of the field by linking a set of social structural changes to a variety of patterned political outcomes. Concretely a number of trends affecting urban social organization are summarized with three dimensions. Next the political consequences of change along each of these dimensions are discussed in some detail. Finally, the variable effects produced by the interplay among dimensions are dealt with in a way that gives rise to some data‐based speculation about the future of urban politics. In addition to advancing a number of researchable hypotheses, it is hoped that the essay will sensitize the reader to some of the more fundamental issues that loom ahead.
Planning for New Towns: The Gap Between Theory and Practice*
Authors: SUSSKIND LAWRENCE
Published: January 2007

Influential members of the urban planning profession have developed certain ideas about new town design, including notions such as self‐containment, social balance, and the neighborhood unit. These parallel, to some extent, concepts that have emerged from the field of community sociology. Efforts to put these ideas into practice have fallen far short of the mark. Without more sophisticated implementation mechanisms, better theories of social interaction at the neighborhood level, and new approaches to citizen participation, efforts to build new towns are likely to remain severely crippled. The aim of this paper is to summarize past efforts to translate implicit theories of social organization into actual new town designs. The possibilities of closing the gap between theory and practice through the use of more explicit forms of social experimentation are discussed in the context of the fledgling new towns program in the United States.
Bureaucracies and Community Planning
Authors: MOTT PAUL E.
Published: January 2007

Since much of what is said below is based on the writer's personal observations of bureaucracies in the United States, a few comments on that experience are necessary. For the last eight years he has studied or worked in several Washington agencies. The first six years were devoted to studies of the Executive Office of the President, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. For the next two years (1971–73) he worked for the Administrator of the Social and Rehabilitation Service (SRS) which is located in DHEW. SRS had the third largest agency budget in the federal government ($15 billion) and contained at that time programs for the aged, youth, handicapped, and for the provision of medical and subsistence payments to dependent children and their families. This sojourn into the bureaucracy provided an unusual opportunity to compare some sociological concepts and theories about bureaucracies with the realities of bureaucratic life.
Critical Theory and Critical Sociology: The Second Synthesis*
Authors: SALLACH DAVID L.
Published: January 2007

The syntheses of consensus and conflict theory which were developed during the sixties served as a healthy corrective for traditional functional theory but did not exhaust theoretical debate. The identification of such syntheses with empirico‐analytic tradition (and dominant control systems) calls forth a second (critical) synthesis which is not complementary, but competing. Despite the fact that both are parallel in many respects, the two theoretical syntheses are differentiated on a number of levels: value assumptions, emphases, epistemology and the implications each possesses regarding the nature of sociological activity. Conflicting interpretations drawn from the two competing paradigms promise to define the fundamental issues within sociological theory during the seventies.
The Replication Problem in Sociology: A Report and a Suggestion*
Authors: WILSON FRANKLIN D. , SMOKE GALE L. , MARTIN J. DAVID
Published: January 2007

The deleterious effects of joint bias in favor of statistical inference and against replication are becoming well known. The acceptance of numerous Type I errors into the literature is by far the most serious of these. Data on the contents of three major journals support the contention that a joint bias for statistical significance tests, for rejections, and against replication exists in modern sociology. This finding replicates that of Sterling (1959) for psychology.

A speculative analysis of the dynamics of publication decisions suggests that a compact format for reporting replications might make their publication more attractive to editors, and thus increase their frequency in the literature. A possible format for briefly reporting replication studies is suggested.
The Impression Management Techniques of the Burlesque Comedian
Authors: SALUTIN MARILYN
Published: January 2007

This discussion is an in‐depth study of burlesque comics. The basic argument is that burlesque comics, like other marginal members of society, manipulate their behaviour so as to present a more favourable self‐image than the one in play in negative stereotypes. They have a detailed knowledge of the social sexual norms of the more conventional members of society and use this knowledge alternately to pass as respectable citizens and to play the role of comic in the burlesque performance.
A “Scientific Revolution”: Sociological Theory in the United States, 1930–1945
Authors: Kuklick Henrika
Published: January 2007

Between 1930 and 1945 the sociological profession suffered an identity crisis. Its origin and resolution were compounded of both academic realpolitik and theoretical dilemmas: generational conflicts and university power blocs on the one hand, and persisting intellectual obsessions on the other. Contemporary sociologists may find our current situation to be both derivative and parallel.
The Concept of Rationality in the Work of Max Weber
Authors: Swidler Ann
Published: January 2007

This paper attempts to clarify the concept of rationality in Max Weber's sociology of religion. Three new terms: rationalism, rationalization, and rationality, are used to distinguish the different meanings Weber gives to rationality. Efficient orientation of means to ends (rationalism) is distinguished from the systematization of ideas (rationalization). Rationality, finally, is the control of action by ideas. Rational social action is produced only by powerful irrational motives, and it holds a distinct place in Weber's sociology of ideas.
Notes on Leader Disclosure in Self Analytic Groups1
Authors: Cottle Thomas J.
Published: January 2007

A discussion of personal disclosures on the part of leaders of educationally oriented self analytic groups is presented in the context of group social structure and group members’relationships with authority. The discussion includes an examination of the significance of asymmetric relationships between leaders and members in the early phases of group development, the implications for the group of disclosures, and differential meanings of personal disclosure for men and women. The notion of sexual and aggressive components of disclosures is also considered along with a brief statement about the nature of group leadership and its relation to individual temperament and adopted life style.
Secularization, Differentiation, and the Function of Religious Value Orientations
Authors: Porter Judith R.
Published: January 2007

The term “secularization,” when its referent is social institutions and value‐norm complexes, is viewed as an instance of differentiation. However, the process of differentiation has both structural and functional components. Confusion in the debate over the nature and extent of secularization in American society arises from the fact that there is disagreement over the functions of religion in a differentiated social setting. A typology of meanings of “secularization” is developed by focusing on this functional component of the differentiation process. This typology, combined with a specification of the various meanings of “religion,” is utilized to pinpoint specific areas of disagreement in the debate over secularization. Suggestions are made on ways to empirically resolve the controversy.
Group Decision by Consensus: Reaching Unity in the Society of Friends1
Authors: Hare A. Paul
Published: January 2007

For over 300 years the members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) have been making group decisions without voting. Their method is to find a ”sense of the meeting’which represents a consensus of those involved. Ideally this consensus is not simply “unanimity,” or an opinion on which all members happen to agree, but a “unity”: a higher truth which grows from the consideration of divergent opinions and unites them all. Friends can “unite” in support of action which shows due consideration to the individuality of each member and to their corporate concerns.

As an illustration of this method, we will analyze in some detail the group process of a Quaker committee as it worked with a difficult social problem over a period of one year. Before beginning the analysis, we will summarize some of the main points in the process of reaching the “sense of the meeting” as it has been described by Friends and others. Also we will review the functional theory of social interaction which will provide the basis for theoretical analysis.
From Conflict Theory to Conflict Methodology: An Emerging Paradigm for Sociology*
Authors: LEHMANN TIMOTHY , YOUNG T. R.
Published: January 2007

A brief paradigmatic history of American sociology is presented. Conflict methodology is defined and exemplified. It is held to be an essential adjunct to a complete conflict paradigm. A conflict paradigm is relevant to sociological analyses in Eastern and Western Countries in view of the proliferation and power and of the large scale organization.
Sociological Theory and the Relativistic Paradigm*
Authors: LEMERT CHARLES C.
Published: January 2007

Sociological theory is compared to the relativist paradigm which is found in a variety of contemporary intellectual movements: microphysics, drama, theology, art, music and psychology. The principal elements in the relativist paradigm are: (1) complementarity; (2) indeterminacy: (3) relativity. In contrast to this thought pattern, the apparent pluralism represented in the strict, hermeneutical, and critical schools of sociological theory is shown to be questionable. Extant sociological theory is relatively unified at the epistemic level.
Collective Behavior as Group‐Induced Shift*
Authors: JOHNSON NORRIS R.
Published: January 2007

Data from the risky shift literature are brought to bear on collective behavior. The author suggests that the extreme behavior common in collective behavior is parallel to the shift to risk in small groups decision making, and that both phenomena can be conceptualized as group‐induced shifts to an extreme.
System Stress and the Persistence* of Emergent Organizations
Authors: PERRY RONALD W. , GILLESPIE DAVID F. , MILETI DENNIS S.
Published: January 2007

A model facilitating the prediction of organizational persistence or dissolution is presented through a series of propositions. Environmental change, community demands for service, organizational capacity, formalization, and task orientations are identified as important dimensions in determining the probability of organizational emergence, maintenance, or demise. The emergence and development of Neighbors in Need (NIN); a Seattle, Washington based welfare organization, is described to illustrate the viability of the model. NIN's career pattern shows a persistence beyond the period of environmental disruption because of the long‐term progressive nature of the system's stress, NIN's formalization, and its task specificity. But a reduction in system stress, the adoption of a more diffuse goal, and the organization's failure to promote interorganizational relations with the local agencies indicates the probable demise of the NIN.
Professional Wrestling as Moral Order
Authors: HENRICKS THOMAS
Published: January 2007

This paper treats structuralist and interactionist perspectives as complementary in an approach to the dynamics of professional wrestling as a social scene. Both directive or formulating aspects of culture as it is specified for social life and the creativity of human agents in negotiating such constraints from the viewpoint of their particularistic interests are emphasized in an examination of the confirmation and negotiation of identities, the clash and resolution of moral meanings, the calculated transgression of legal tradition, the location of the charismatic hero, and the ritual importance of disorder and crisis in wrestling. As such, the paper is offered as a contribution to an understanding of the sources and movement of meanings in ritual and dramatic forms.
A Note on the Continuity of Parsonian Action Theory
Authors: Gerstein Dean Robert
Published: January 2007

The four structural elements of action identified in Talcott Parsons' The Structure of Social Action—means, ends, conditions, norms—can be directly assimilated to the four variables which generate the AGIL schema: instrumental, consummatory, external, internal. The former set primarily define the unit act; the latter are generalized to the action system level.
Women in Religion: A Sociological Perspective*
Authors: Augusta Neal Sister Marie
Published: January 2007

Religious ministry, theology, and even the study of religion in history and sociology have been done for so long from a male point of view that the burgeoning activity and reflection of women scholars and activists are not yet researched or deliberated when male scholars define the parameters for interpretation and name the problems as they perceive them. Current scholarship is sadly lacking in its address of modern problems in religious perspective, especially as attempts are made to understand the new pressures on population and institutions.
Resisting Designations: An Extension of Attribution Theory into a Negotiated Context*
Authors: Prus Robert C.
Published: January 2007

While attribution theory has generated a great deal of interesting research, it tends to be overly deterministic, failing to recognize the social context in which attributions occur. In response to this an attempt is made to place attribution theory in an interactionist framework, with particular emphasis on the conditions under which a target andlor others interested in the target's situation may resist undesired attributions.
Type Methodology and Type Myth: Some Antecedents of Max Weber's Approach*
Authors: Goodman Mark Joseph
Published: January 2007

The methodological proposals of Windelband, Knies, Schmoller, Menger, Simmel, Dilthey and Rickert are surveyed and compared. Two difficulties in the writings are identified: the strict division which is urged (or accepted) between science and history, and the tendency to treat societies as “social wholes,” which have an autonomous existence and are self‐developing.
Some Theoretical Foundations for Conflict Methodology
Authors: YOUNG T. R.
Published: January 2007

Propositions from information theory, social psychological theory and modern systems theory are used as the theoretical foundations for grounding principles of conflict methodology. Fifteen principles of conflict methodology are generated. The role of conflict research in entering back into the construction of social reality is also discussed.
Conditions Facilitating Participatory‐Democratic Organizations*
Authors: ROTHSCHILD‐WHITT Joyce
Published: January 2007

This paper examines “alternative institutions” in a variety of institutional domains as participatory‐democratic modes of organizution. Grounded in comparative data, it posits structural conditions, both internal to an organization and in its environment, which support or undermine the achievement of its collectivist‐democratic ideals. While the literature on social movement organizations well demonstrates the fragility of democratic systems and their tendency toward oligarchization, goal displacement, and organizational maintenance, this work suggests, in propositional form, conditions which militate against these all‐too‐common transformation patterns.
Organizational Adaptations to Changing Cultural Contingencies*
Authors: GILLESPIE David F. , MILETI Dennis S.
Published: January 2007

An integrated conceptual framework acceptable across different disciplines and theoretical perspectives is presented. The scheme promotes one aspect of organizational environments, the cultural context, as crucial to explaining organizational structure or behavior. By crosstabulating member consensus and community consensus consistent predictions regarding survival, “character,” and goal behavior are achieved for a diverse range of case studies. It is suggested, therefore, that community consensus be treated as a common denominator in future attempts to ferret out the necessary and sufficient conditions associated with particular organizational structures and behaviors.
The Hobbesian Microcosm: On the Dialectics of the Self in Social Theory*
Authors: CARVETH Donald L.
Published: January 2007

If Parsons is not guilty of holding an over‐socialized conception of man, Wrong's critique does apply to the work of the “reality‐constructionists” and “symbolic interactionists.” In underemphasizing Mead's “biologic individual” or “I,” contemporary sociological social psychology manages to evade the Hobbesian problem and, hence, amounts to a largely disembodied dialectic. By way of contrast, the compatibility of the Meadian and Freudian perspectives is stressed and the need for further development of a psychoanalytic sociology reaffirmed.
The Frequency of Warfare: an Evolutionary Perspective*
Authors: LEAVITT Gregory C.
Published: January 2007

This research stresses the utility of evolutionary theory and comparative methodology for explaining warfare frequency. It is hypothesized that warfare frequency (external war, civil war, rioting, and feuding) is related to sociocultural development as indicated by cross‐cultural measures of technology and social differentiation. The hypotheses were supported utilizing data drawn from the Human Relations Area microfilm Files on 132 contemporary and historical societies.
Employment and Social Integration Among the Skid Row Population
Authors: ROONEY James F.
Published: January 2007

Employment among skid row residents had no significant independent association with measures of social integration: number of friends, frequency of visiting, basic conceptions of friendship, helping friends, or to any reference group measure, but retained significance with the percentage of friends in skid row, and intimacy to close friends. The lack of association with reference group measures indicates that working patterns and group identification have become independent phenomena, constituting a partial shift from the former economic functions of skid row.

The theory of the disaffiliating effects of skid row living was upheld only for loss of friends outside the area, and acceptance of skid row as one's place of permanent residence. There was no association of residence in skid row and change in the qualitative components of friendship.
Precipitants of Crowd Violence*
Authors: SMITH Michael D.
Published: January 2007

Tentative verification was obtained for the hypothesis that violence precipitates collective violence. Sixty‐eight reports of sport‐related “hostile outburts” were taken from the Toronto Globe And Mail, for the years 1963–1973. In three quarters of these incidents there were accounts of extraordinary violence‐usually player assaults on opposing players‐prior to the collective episodes. This finding is understandable social psychologically when the “precipitating” properties of violence are seen in the context of “hostile belief” and emotional arousal often present in spectator‐oriented sports.
Sumner Versus Keller and the Social Evolutionism of Early American Sociology*
Authors: Smith Norman E. , Hinkle Roscoe C.
Published: January 2007

Along with Ward, Giddings, and Keller, William Graham Sumner has been considered a social evolutionist. The Science of Society, supposedly written by Sumner with Keller, has been traditionally utilized to document his evolutionary orientation. However, two recently discovered unpublished Sumner manuscripts show that the mature Sumner rejected almost all the basic premises of social evolutionism. This paper concludes that Sumner rejected social evolutionism during the last decade of his career and that the evolutionary orientation found within The Science of Society, which was published 17 years after his death, was the result of Keller's thought.
Categories for Exchange Analysis in Small Groups: With an Illustration from Group Psychotherapy*
Authors: Hare A. Paul , Mueller John
Published: January 2007

Longabaugh's category system for coding interpersonal behavior in mother‐child dyads as social exchange is revised for use in small group analysis by using a more comprehensive set of content categories based on Parsonian functional (AGIL) theory. The notation for exchange analysis is illustrated with an extract from a group psychotherapy session.
Actor Interests in a Social Topology: Foundation for a Structural Theory of Action*
Authors: Burt Ronald S.
Published: January 2007

Actors use their resources to realize their “interests.” How are actor interests patterned by the social structure in which actors find themselves? The purpose of this discussion is to propose a structural law of perception that provides a general basis for applying network concepts in empirical studies of human action so as to bridge two heretofore irreconcilable perspectives in social action theory. In terms of postulates of purposive action and marginal evaluation, “atomistic” versus “normative” perspectives on action differ in their interpretation of how actors make perceptions within a social context. Stevens' law provides a rigorous function form describing subjective evaluations. Network analysis provides rigorous description of the social context in which subjective evaluations are made. Modifying Stevens' law so as to take into account a social context of evaluation (that context being a structure of distances between actors in a system ensured by an inevitable division of labor), a structural law of perception is proposed. The proposed perceptual model states that actor interests are patterned by actors' positions in social structure. Using the proposed model, conditions sufficient for the occurrence of social norms in a group and a specific functional form for relative deprivation effects are derived. The derivations are in accord with, and generalize, classic empirical studies of social norms and relative deprivation. Implications for structural action theory are discussed.
Stone's Hypothesis of “Personalizing” Shopping as Compensation for Urban Depersonalization: A Reconsideration*
Authors: Guest Avery M. , Brooks Anna M.
Published: January 2007

Critics of Wirth's theory of urban life suggest that he underemphasized the extent of urban social networks that counteract trends toward depersonalization. One argument, by Stone. claims that persons who lack social ties at the neighborhood level compensate by establishing personal relationships in shopping, an activity normally considered highly pecuniary in orientation. A replication of Stone's theory for grocery shoppers shows just the opposite. If anything, persons who lack social ties at the neighborhood level also minimize “personalizing” in their grocery shopping.
“THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY”: COLLABORATION WITH TALCOTT PARSONS1
Authors: Platt Gerald M.
Published: January 2007

Parsons and I were friends and colleagues from 1963 until his death in 1979. I recall, herein, a small part of our personal and intellectual relationship, especially that portion having to do with the creation of The American University.
A REMINISCENCE OF TALCOTT PARSONS, SEPTEMBER 1970 TO APRIL 1979
Authors: Gerstein Dean
Published: January 2007

On Shakespeare's stage. the rattle of thunder framed the comings and goings of princes. Other heralds bracket the years of this story: the rattle o f choppers crossing the Parrot's Beak, and stirring the sand at Desert One. But in Cambridge, such distant cues are masked by the nearer cacophony of commuters and scholarly discourse; here a shy little man stood astride the world of theory for half a century. He responded to everything, near and distant, in the same manner: in his own time, in his own roundabout way, with the inborn assurance of a compass needle centering on true north.