bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hypotheses
Authors: Sun Ivan Y. , Li Luye
Published: September 2017

Hypotheses are predictions that specify the relationships between variables. The role of hypotheses in scientific research is to provide explanations for certain phenomena and to guide the investigation of other related phenomena. The development of scientific knowledge hinges ultimately on the results from hypothesis testing. Formalized hypotheses consist of two types of variables: independent and dependent variables. The former is the cause and the latter is the outcome. A good and well‐worded hypothesis should: (1) indicate the specific relationship between the dependent and independent variables to be examined; (2) suggest the nature of the relationship; and (3) imply the nature of the research design (Cone and Foster, 2006).
Husserl, Edmund (1859–1938)
Authors: Langsdorf Lenore
Published: September 2017

Edmund Husserl was born in Moravia (present‐day Czech Republic). His early schooling there focused on mathematics and physics as well as philosophy. After continuing those studies in Berlin and completing doctoral work in mathematics in Vienna, he accepted an assistantship with Carl Weierstrass in Berlin in 1883, and then returned to Vienna to study philosophy with Franz Brentano. He completed his formal education with a thesis (the habilitation) submitted to Carl Stumpf in Halle. Stumpf was also Brentano's student; for all of these scholars, the divisions among mathematics, philosophy, and psychology that contemporary academia takes for granted were absent. Husserl's first published book,Philosophy of Arithmetic(1891; English translation, 2003), incorporated work from the habilitation thesis. Although there are mathematical and philosophical as well as psychological elements in that work, Gottlob Frege published a critical review that focused on its psychological elements. Husserl's repudiation of the psychologism that Frege saw in the book was a major theme in his next and perhaps best‐known work,Logical Investigations(two volumes, 1900/1901; second edition, 1913; English translation, 1970).
Humor
Authors: Reay Michael
Published: September 2017

Humor receives little attention in the social sciences relative to how often it appears in human interactions. It involves a wide range of phenomena at various levels of institutionalization, from accidental occurrences, through deliberate actions such as teasing and witty banter, to formal comedic performances, images and texts. Work in a number of disciplines suggests that it is typically caused by incongruous or contradictory experiences, that it involves implicit assumptions and messages, and that it can have consequences for social identities and power. These features make humor potentially relevant to sociology as an indicator of social contradiction, and as an element in strategies of domination, resistance, and coping.
Hume, David (1711–1776)
Authors: Tweyman Stanley
Published: September 2017

David Hume (April 26, 1711–August 25, 1776) was born in Edinburgh. For three years, beginning in 1734, Hume lived in France (after that returning to London), during which time he wrote the
Treatise of Human Nature
. This work is divided into three books, the first dealing with the understanding, the second with the passions, and the third with morals. Hume thought of himself as the Newton of the moral sciences, and, therefore, he utilized the Newtonian scientific (or, as he refers to it, the “Experimental”) method. It is the second and third books of this work that pertain most directly to sociology. In the second book, Hume attempts to understand how our passions and feelings arise in connection with the actions and behavior of others; in the third, he attempts to understand how, in the interactions between and among people, moral distinctions (good and evil) and values (such as justice) arise. At the time, there were two main schools of thought – one that argued that morality and value formation arise through reason, and one that argued that these concepts arise through passion and sentiment. Hume sides with the latter group, arguing that, once the role of reason is understood, it becomes clear that values are not rational, and reason can never be a motive for any action. Reason can, at most, assist passion and sentiment in calculating the feasibility of the goals that passions set, and the means of achieving these goals.
Hume, David (1711–1776)
Authors: Tweyman Stanley
Published: September 2017

David Hume (April 26, 1711‐August 25, 1776) was born in Edinburgh. For three years, beginning in 1734, Hume lived in France (after that returning to London), during which time he wrote the
Treatise of Human Nature
. This work is divided into three books, the first dealing with the understanding, the second with the passions, and the third with morals. Hume thought of himself as the Newton of the moral sciences, and, therefore, he utilized the Newtonian scientific (or, as he refers to it, the “Experimental”) method. It is the second and third books of this work which pertain most directly to sociology. In the second book, he attempts to understand how our passions and feelings arise in connection with the actions and behavior of others, and, in the third, he attempts to understand how, in the interactions between and among people, moral distinctions (good and evil) and values (such as justice) arise. At the time, there were two main schools of thought – those who argued that morality and value formation arise through reason, and those who argued that these concepts arise through passion and sentiment. Hume sides with the latter group, arguing that, once the role of reason is understood, it becomes clear that values are not rational, and reason can never be a motive to any action. Reason can, at most, assist passion and sentiment in calculating the feasibility of the goals that passions set, and the means of achieving these goals.
Ideal Type
Authors: Clegg Stewart
Published: September 2017

The notion of an ideal type is best known to sociologists through the work of Max Weber, although it was a term in common usage in nineteenth‐century German historical social sciences. It was designed to solve the problem of comparison. A historical event cannot be described without reference to the persons involved and to the place and date of its occurrence. Thus, all historical events were unique and one could only tell specific local stories. Forcing these into some overall framework would usually prove, at worst, ideological and, at best, would do violence to the integrity of local detail.
Identity: The Management of Meaning
Authors: Coupland Christine
Published: September 2017

This description of identity encapsulates an attempt to provide an informed understanding of classical and contemporary approaches to the subject. Studies of identity aim to understand the ways we socially constitute ourselves while they also consider the link between society and self‐identity. The term “identity” was relatively unheard of in sociology and social psychology prior to 1940. Since then it has become the focus of vast amounts of research. Its theoretical, cultural, and empirical development has continued as academics apply, dispute, and discuss the concept. Precursors to the concept of identity developed in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Importance was given within these early developments to self, character, and personality.
Ideological Hegemony
Authors: Mahutga Matthew C. , Stepan‐Norris Judith
Published: September 2017

Ideological hegemony theorizes the way in which relationships of domination and exploitation are embedded in the dominant ideas of society. To the extent that dominant ideas are internalized, they induce consent to these relationships on the part of the dominated and exploited. Consistent with the interconnected world in which we live, there are as many levels of ideological hegemony as there are levels of society.
Idioculture
Authors: Hallett Tim
Published: September 2017

Idioculture is defined as “a system of knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, and customs shared by members of an interacting group to which members can refer and employ as the basis of further interaction” (Fine, 1979: 734). Coined by Gary Alan Fine, the term “idioculture” respecifies the content of culture by focusing on the level of small groups and the social interactions therein. Developed before the sociology of culture gained popularity in the discipline and at a time in which macro, structural, political, and economic approaches were dominant and culture was seen as a vague, amorphous, fractured, “indescribable mist” (Fine, 1979: 733), idioculture makes the culture concept useful by focusing on empirically observable group interactions as the locus of cultural creation. To reground culture in group interactions, Fine draws from the symbolic interactionist tradition and research on group dynamics.
Illness Narrative
Authors: Hydén Lars‐Christer
Published: September 2017

Illness narratives are mostly thought of as sick people's narratives about their illnesses and the effect on their lives. Illness narratives can also include the narratives of relatives about the effects the illnesses have had on their relationships with the sick people and on their own lives. They often occur as oral narratives in everyday conversations with family, friends, and colleagues. They can also appear as written and published biographical or autobiographical accounts of illnesses or pathographies (Hawkins 1993). Both oral and written illness narratives help to configure and articulate experiences and events that change one's life and its prerequisites as a result of illness.
Imperialism
Authors: Toscano Alberto
Published: September 2017

Imperialism designates the historical phenomenon whereby certain political entities have sought to exert control over and extract resources from others, whether through formal conquest, informal coercion, or a host of intermediate solutions (e.g., protectorates, alliances, occupations, and so on). It also denotes the multiple concepts or theories of imperialism, which continue to be the object of controversies that easily exceed the realm of academic debate, especially since “imperialist” still largely remains a term of reprobation. Initially coined to designate the existence and expansion of empires (from Ancient Rome to Napoleonic France), the notion of imperialism gained prominence in the late nineteenth century, when it came to identify the reality of European colonialism (from the British Raj to the “scramble for Africa”). The ensuing history of the concept registers a distinction between, on the one hand, purely political definitions of imperialism, which reduce it to an instance of power politics and foreground the issue of territorial gain, and, on the other, socioeconomic analyses, which, while not discounting the significance of physical expansion, emphasize the underlying and often invisible causes of imperialist policies, thereby accounting for the influence of material factors on geopolitical decisions. The penchant for a given concept or theory of imperialism invariably determines which processes and events count as cases of imperialism, so that analytical definitions are here inseparable from historical judgments.
Implosion
Authors: Bettez Halnon Karen
Published: September 2017

French postmodernist critic Jean Baudrillard's theory of implosion is one of social entropy, wherein he asserts that a consumer age of information, media, and mass media has ushered in an accelerated and coercive hyperproduction of meaning and information to the “irrational” and “terroristic” extent that all meaning, knowledge, and subjectivity, and the “social” itself, are neutralized and ultimately collapse. All that is left, he says, is an imploding “mass,” described dramatically as “an in vacuo aggregation of individual particles, refuse of the social and of media impulses; an opaque nebula whose growing density absorbs all the surrounding energy and light rays, to collapse finally under its own weight” (Baudrillard 1983: 3–4). In other words, amid ubiquitous and proliferating media‐generated information in a consumer society of simulacra and simulation, information ceases to be productive, in the sense of transformation of it by human subjects. It is destructive energy, producing even more implosive density, more mass. Best and Kellner (1991: 121) further summarize Baudrillard's theory of implosion, a basic point of reference for postmodern theory: “The social thus disappears and with it distinctions implode between classes, political ideologies, cultural forms, and between media semiurgy and the real itself … Baudrillard is not only describing a series of implosions (that is, between politics and entertainment, capital and labour, or high and low culture) but is claiming that the society in its entirety is implosive.”
Income Inequality, Global
Authors: Firebaugh Glenn
Published: September 2017

Income inequality refers to the unequal distribution of income across units (usually individuals).
Global
income inequality refers to the unequal distribution of income across the world's citizens.
Income Inequality and Income Mobility
Authors: Ultee Wout
Published: September 2017

Research on income inequality within the social sciences took off as a byproduct of income taxation. Lists were published showing how many tax‐paying units during a tax year had an income of a certain size. The distribution did not look like a bell‐shaped curve, but was skewed at the upper end. The description of the distribution by one parameter started with Vilfredo Pareto, and his results led to the hypothesis that this statistic was more or less the same for all times and places. Later results, using better measures like the Gini‐coefficient, found differences between countries, leading to a hunt for explanations. Due to the efforts of the World Bank and the Luxemburg Income Study, quite comparable income inequality data for various countries are now available, so that hypotheses‐testing is possible.
Indigenous Peoples
Authors: Hall Thomas D. , Nagel Joane
Published: September 2017

Throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, scholars and policymakers predicted the disappearance of Native Americans and indigenous peoples in general (see Dippie 1982 for many examples). Global patterns of urbanization, industrialization, and resource extraction indeed have led to a reduction in the number of indigenous people living traditional lifestyles on ancestral lands. However, those who predicted the demise of indigenousness did not anticipate the global resurgence of indigenous consciousness, political mobilization, and cultural renewal of the past several decades (Wilmer 1993; Nagel 1996; Bodley 1994, 2003; Hall & Fenelon 2004). Indigenous groups in North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, Central Europe and Central Asia, Asia and Africa are making land claims, petitioning for political rights, and demanding control of resources; many are doing so with remarkable success given their limited votes, money, or military capacity. To illustrate the resurgence in indigenous identities, communities, and cultures, after a brief discussion of terminology and the sociological significance of studying indigenous peoples, we focus here on contemporary demographic, economic, and political trends among Native Americans.
Inequalities in Marriage
Authors: Shehan Constance , Cody Susan
Published: September 2017

Women and men typically experience different rights and responsibilities in marriage, in spite of widespread beliefs in marital equality. These differences led sociologist Jesse Bernard (1972) to coin the phrase “his and her marriages.” Gender‐based patterns of marital inequality have existed historically in the US and other western nations, though they have declined somewhat in recent decades, and they persist in other parts of the globe, as well. For various reasons, which will be outlined below, there are systematic gender differences in the amount and type of domestic labor and family care performed by spouses, in power and authority in marital‐decision making, in access to and control over household resources, and likelihood of experiencing severe injury as a result of spousal violence. Gender‐based inequalities continue after divorce, characterizing property settlements and custody arrangements as well as the relative economic circumstances of former spouses.
Inequality/Stratification, Gender
Authors: Adams Michele
Published: September 2017

Gender stratification refers to the level of inequality in society based on gender, the social characteristics associated with sex. Specifically, gender stratification refers to the differential ability of men and women to access society's resources and to receive its privileges. As gender stratification increases, so does the level of gender inequality, reflecting greater differences between men's and women's access to power. Because historically men have garnered greater social power, gender inequality has systematically disadvantaged women. Gender inequality is complicated, moreover, by the intersection of gender with race/ethnicity, social class, age, and sexuality. That is, every individual, categorized as either male or female, also falls somewhere within a matrix of domination that includes these other dimensions (Collins 1991).
Infant, Child, and Maternal Health and Mortality
Authors: Hindin Michelle J. , Mullany Britta
Published: September 2017

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is a state of “complete physical, mental, and social well‐being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The health status of a population, including that of infants, children, and mothers, has traditionally been summarized via mortality. An infant death is defined as a death under the age of 1; the standard indicator used to measure infant death is the “infant mortality rate,” equal to the number of infant deaths under the age of 1 per 1,000 live births in a given year. A child death is a death of a child under the age of 5; the “under‐5 mortality rate” refers to the number of deaths of children under age 5 per 1,000 live births in a given year. Given the multiple periods of risk related to a pregnancy, the definition of maternal mortality is more complex. A maternal death is one which occurs while “pregnant or within 42 days of the termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes” (WHO 1948). The “maternal mortality ratio” is the most frequently used indicator to measure maternal deaths and is defined as the number of women who die as a result of complications of pregnancy or childbearing in a given year per 100,000 live births in that year.
Infertility
Authors: Greil Arthur L.
Published: September 2017

Infertility is a term used by medical professionals to refer to the physical inability to conceive a child or to successfully carry a child to term. Demographers typically employ the word “subfecundity” to describe this inability to have desired children. Some demographers use “infertility” to mean childlessness, regardless of childbearing intentions or contraception practices, but others utilize the term more narrowly and in conformity with popular and general sociological usage to refer to a woman's inability to give birth in the absence of contraception.
Information and Resource Processing Paradigm
Authors: Hasegawa Koichi
Published: September 2017

Tamito Yoshida's notion of the information and resource processing paradigm was influenced by information theory, particularly Norbert Wiener's
Cybernetics
(1948). At first, Wiener was reluctant to relate his idea of cybernetic control to the social sciences, but he later came to apply the negative feedback process – the most basic principle of the cybernetic control mechanism – to organic bodies, human beings, and human society. The basic idea of Yoshida's (1990) general systems theory evolved from Wiener's work through the generalizing of his logic. His central hypothesis comprises the following.
In‐Groups and Out‐Groups
Authors: McCallion Michael J.
Published: September 2017

An in‐group is a social unit an individual belongs to, interacts with, and shares a sense of “we‐ness” with. An out‐group, on the other hand, is a social unit or group of people that an individual neither belongs to nor identifies with. The construction and maintenance of boundaries (physical or symbolic) are the primary ways by which groups establish what it means to be “in” and, by contrast, what it means to be “out.” The basis of in‐group identity, then, is socially constructed through symbolic markers (boundaries) such as narratives, creeds, rituals, and social practices. Moreover, sociologists view such boundaries along a continuum of permeability (open) and impermeability (closed), which influences group member entrance and exit processes. In‐group identity, in other words, is always an ongoing achievement in which group boundaries are collectively generated, affirmed, maintained, and employed to mark differences between insiders and outsiders (Hadden & Lester 1978).
Insecurity and Fear of Crime
Authors: Robert Philippe
Published: September 2017

Research on insecurity and fear of crime takes two main directions: the first one attempts to explain why the level of apprehension apparently exceeds actual risk (pointing to the mass media, to incivilities, or taking into account differential exposure or vulnerability). The second one breaks up the notion of fear of crime so as to reach more consistent categories (e.g., abstract concern and concrete fears).
Interaction
Authors: Lehn Dirk Vom
Published: September 2017

Interaction is one of the foundational sociological concepts. It is often discussed together with organization and society and thereby defined as the “microlevel” of sociological analysis. Unfortunately it sometimes is seen as less important for sociological research than the study of the “meso‐” (organization) and “macrolevel” (society) of analysis. Those developing grand sociological theories like Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann, maybe not unsurprisingly, therefore devoted more space and time to the development of theories of society while neglecting the development of theories and concepts of interaction. However, beginning with Georg Simmel's studies in Germany in the late nineteenth century sociology has produced a substantial and diverse body of theories and research with interaction at its center, including studies conducted by the Chicago School of Sociology, and symbolic interactionism and the Iowa School, the analyses of social occasions by Erving Goffman, studies in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis and more recently research subjecting social situations to multimodal analyses. These studies demonstrate that interaction is key to all forms of social relationship. They elaborate on the importance of our understanding of interaction for policy development as well as for the design and deployment of novel technologies in complex work settings.
Interaction Order
Authors: Jacobs Mark D.
Published: September 2017

The interaction order, as conceived by Erving Goffman, is constructed around systems of enabling conventions that – without recourse to social contract or social consensus, as often assumed – provide a basis of social order. The interaction order, Goffman insists, is a substantive domain in its own right, engendered by social situations, interactions in which at least two actors are co‐bodily present. That is, against the claims of either micro‐ or macrosociological reductionism, Goffman insists on the analytical distinctness of the interaction order from both the underlying language games and conversational protocols of ethnomethodologists and the various overarching systems of macrostructuralists. For his part, Goffman dismisses the claim that macrostructural properties are epiphenomenal to the interaction order. The influence of Goffman's formulation extends even to theorists who reject the primacy of his analytic focus, as well as to those who embrace different characterizations of interactional dynamics.
International Gender Division of Labor
Authors: Bose Christine E.
Published: September 2017

World systems theorists were among the first to use the concept of an international division of labor by illustrating how the production of goods and services for “core” or more developed countries relied on the material resources of “peripheral” or developing nations (Wallerstein 1974). Their work describes the changing political and economic relationships among nations over the last six centuries, beginning with the period of colonization when Western European nations took possession of other countries in order to gain access to their raw materials such as sugar, coffee, gold, silver, or labor sold into slavery. By the middle of the twentieth century most of those colonies had gained their political freedom and titular control over their own resources, but were never able to break away from their economic dependence on highly industrialized countries.
Internet
Authors: Slevin James
Published: September 2017

The Internet is a global network of interconnected intelligent hardware and software systems that makes possible the digitized storage, retrieval, circulation, and processing of information and communication across time and space. From a sociological perspective, the Internet is not synonymous with a global information machine, as portrayed in some popular accounts. A sociological account of the Internet encompasses the constituent Internet technologies and attends to these as social phenomena. It also includes information and other content that is produced, transmitted, and received by individuals, organizations, and smart devices using the Internet. Finally, a sociological account includes the socially and historically structured contexts and processes in which the production, transmission, and reception of information and communication are embedded.
Intersubjectivity
Authors: Munroe Paul T.
Published: September 2017

Intersubjectivity refers to a shared perception of reality between or among two or more individuals. The term has been important in many aspects of sociology, from positivist and postpositivist research methods to studies of the lived experiences of individuals by ethnomethodologists and feminist scholars.
Intervention Studies
Authors: Boruch Robert F.
Published: September 2017

Intervention studies address one or more of the following five kinds of questions:
Islamic Sexual Culture
Authors: Shahidian Hammed
Published: September 2017

Delineating criteria for “Islamic sexuality” appears impossible because there exist no uniform codes for sexual behavior or relations. There are in fact many Islamic
sexualities
. Even so, one may deduce certain (relative) constants in sexual ideology. Islam considers sexual desire a natural aspect of human relationship and dissociates sexuality from guilt. In the Qur'an, just as plants and animals are created “in pairs, two and two” (13:3), humans are created with a mate. Several Qur'ânic verses (2:183–7; 4:1; 53:45) refer to mating as a divine design for making a harmonious family, a microcosm of the society wherein people can lead a peaceful life. Thus, sexuality in Islam is in nature heterosexual, with women being men's “tilth”; men are instructed to enter their “fields” as they please (2:223). Islamic sexuality reflects gender power hierarchy. Men are active and on top; women, boys, slaves, servants, and maids passive and at the bottom.
Individualization (Beck)
Authors: Lair Craig D.
Published: September 2017

The German sociologist Ulrich Beck has raised anew a topic that has been central to social theory since its very beginnings: What role does the individual play in the social world? Beck (1992) has done this by putting forth what has come to be known as the “individualization thesis,” or the theory that the individual is becoming the central unit of social life. As Layte and Whelan (2002: 213) describe it, Beck “hypothesized that individual behavior was becoming less bound by traditional norms and values and sources of collective identity such as social class.” He argues instead that one's life is increasingly a reflexive or self‐steered phenomenon, something the one must oneself accomplish. Thus, unlike in traditional times, when social norms and regulations emanated from the collectivity, “the decisive feature of … modern regulations or guidelines is that, far more than earlier, individuals must, in part, supply them for themselves, import them into their biographies through their own actions” (Beck and Beck‐Gernsheim, 2002: 2).
Identity Theory
Authors: Carter Michael J. , Mireles Danielle C.
Published: September 2017

Identity theory is a social psychological theory that emerged from structural symbolic interactionism (Burke and Stets, 2009; Stryker, 1980). The theory examines the self and how individuals attach meanings to the multiple roles they play, how identities are embedded in social structures, and how social structures influence what it means to be an individual. Identity theory examines how microlevel processes create and maintain the meanings individuals have for themselves and others, and how these meanings perpetuate themselves to maintain the social order. This perspective sees the self as emergent from social interaction and portrayed to others through identities that are appropriate in specific situations.
Jevons, William (1835–1882)
Authors: Zafirovski Milan
Published: September 2017

William Stanley Jevons is best known as an early influential British neoclassical and utilitarian economist mostly influenced by and developing Benthamite utilitarianism (Schumpeter, 1991). More precisely, he is renowned among economists as one of the founders (alongside Carl Menger and Leon Walras) of marginalism or marginal utility theory (during the 1870s) as what economist‐sociologist Schumpeter (1954) describes as a Copernican Revolution in economics (for more on Jevons as an economist, see Mosselmans and White, 2000). Overall, his sociologically minded disciple Philip Wicksteed (1905) describes Jevons as “one of the most powerful, bold, and original thinkers” in economics. While virtually unknown or neglected among sociologists, curiously enough, Jevons can probably be credited (Swedberg, 2003) with inventing the term economic sociology (in the second 1879 edition of his main work,
The Theory of Political Economy
), though not the idea or concept. The idea of economic sociology is already contained or germane in Comte, especially his notion of social economy, as a branch of sociology distinguished from orthodox economics, and of the “economy of real society” subject to “sociological research.”
Jömin
Authors: Kuwayama Takami
Published: September 2017

Jömin
is a central concept in Kunio Yanagita's research into Japanese folklore. Yanagita (1875–1962), founder of Japanese folklore studies or folkloristics, invented this term by combining two characters –
jö
(also pronounced
tsune
), used either as a noun or a modifier, meaning “usual,” “ordinary,” “average,” or “conventional,” and
min
, a noun meaning “people.”
Jömin
thus means “common people” as distinguished from both elites in the ruling class and people placed at the bottom of society, including outcastes. No proper equivalent is found in European languages, but its meaning is close to that of the German
Volk
or the English “folk.”
Juries
Authors: McCammon Holly J.
Published: September 2017

Juries, those deliberative bodies in trial courts that determine the innocence or guilt of the defendant, are a fundamental democratic institution. Juries are composed of citizens, in principle randomly drawn from the adult population, and as a body of citizens, juries determine community justice. Juries, then, are deliberative democracy in action, where the power to define justice resides squarely in the hands of the people. Juries not only provide citizens with a direct political voice in shaping justice, but juries also offset the power of the state by situating decision making with citizens rather than rulers. For defendants, the right to trial by jury is specified in the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to the US Constitution.
Key Informant
Authors: Rieger Jon H.
Published: September 2017

The term key informant is generally associated, though not exclusively, with qualitative research in which a researcher employs interviewing of knowledgeable participants as an important part of the method of investigation. During the often extended period of fieldwork that such research requires, a particular subject may become an especially useful source of information, be repeatedly interviewed, and thus earn designation as a key informant. It is not unusual in field research that at any particular time an investigator might have several informants who could be identified as performing in that role. Key informants can extend the investigator's reach in situations where he or she has not, or cannot, be a direct observer, and they can illuminate the meanings of behavior that the researcher does not understand. They can also serve as a check on the information obtained from other informants.
Kindergarten
Authors: Lee Valerie E. , Burkam David T.
Published: September 2017

The idea of a kindergarten originated in 1840, after the German educationalist Friedrich Froebel opened a Play and Activity Institute for children between the ages of 3 and 7 to develop their mental, social, and emotional faculties. The term is now used in many parts of the world for the initial stages of a child's classroom schooling. In some countries kindergarten is part of the formal school system, but in others it usually refers to preschool or daycare programs. In France and Germany such programs are separate from the schools and are often run by churches and local community groups. In India, Mexico, and the US kindergarten programs are available through both public and private schools.
Kinship
Authors: Allan Graham
Published: September 2017

The study of kinship tends to be associated more closely with social anthropology than with sociology. In large part, this is a consequence of anthropologists frequently studying societies in which social and economic organization was premised to a great extent on the obligations and responsibilities that kin had towards one another. Consequently, understanding the kinship system operating in such a society provided the anthropologist with a means of revealing the society's dominant structural characteristics. In contrast, sociologists focused more on industrial societies in which family and kinship solidarities, while of consequence, were far less central to the overall organization of social and economic life. Indeed, often, family relationships were understood to be of declining significance within western societies. Like the collapse of community, the decline of kinship solidarities was understood as a necessary consequence of the economic specialization and bureaucratic rationalization associated with modernity and industrial development.
Kitsuse, John I. (1923–2003)
Authors: Groenemeyer Axel
Published: September 2017

John I. Kitsuse was one of the premier and most influential contributors to the social constructionist movement from the 1960s, which changed the way sociologists approached the study of social problems, normality, deviance, and control. Born a second‐generation Japanese American in California, Kitsuse was imprisoned in an internment camp for one year during World War II. He earned his bachelor's degree from Boston University and his master's and PhD from UCLA before he became professor of sociology at Northwestern University in 1958. From 1974 until 1991 he was professor of sociology at University of California San Diego. He served as president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems from 1978 to 1979. He died in California.
Knowledge Societies
Authors: Stehr Nico
Published: September 2017

The foundations for the transformation of modern societies into knowledge societies continues to be based, as was the case forindustrial society, on changes in the structure of the economies of advanced societies. Economic capital – or, more precisely, the source of economic growth and value‐adding activities – increasingly relies on knowledge. The transformation of the structures of the modern economy by knowledge as a productive force constitutes the “material” basis and justification for designating advanced modern society as aknowledge society. The significance of knowledge and knowledge about knowledge grows in all spheres of life and in all social institutions of modern society. The historical emergence of knowledge societies represents not a revolutionary development, but rather a gradual process during which the defining characteristics of society change and new traits emerge. Until recently, modern society was conceived primarily in terms of property and labor. While the traditional attributes of labor and property certainly have not disappeared entirely, a new principle, “knowledge,” has been added which, to an extent, challenges as well as transforms property and labor as the constitutive mechanisms of society.
Knowledge, Sociology of
Authors: McCarthy E. Doyle
Published: September 2017

The sociology of knowledge examines the social and group origin of ideas, arguing that the entire “ideational realm” (“knowledges,” ideas, ideologies, mentalities) develops within the context of a society's groups and institutions. Its ideas address broad sociological questions about the extent and limits of social and group influence through an examination of the social and cultural foundations of cognition and perception. Despite significant changes over time, classical and contemporary studies in the sociology of knowledge share a common theme: the social foundations of thought. Ideas, concepts, and belief systems share an intrinsic sociality explained by the contexts in which they emerge.
Komarovsky, Mirra (1905–1999)
Authors: MacLean Vicky M.
Published: September 2017

Mirra Komarovsky's research, teaching, and advocacy on behalf of women mark her as a pioneer in the sociology of gender and feminist scholarship. She was the second woman to serve as president of the American Sociological Association, thus furthering opportunities for women in the profession of sociology. Major contributions to sociology include her critique of the Parsonian functionalist perspective on gender roles, research on women's education and changing feminine identities, and the study of men and masculinity. Komarovsky's research focused on the nature of conflict and strains in gender roles during periods of uneven social change. Her 1953 book
Women in the Modern World: Their Education and Their Dilemma
anticipated Betty Freidan's
The Feminine Mystique
by more than a decade. Methodological contributions include refining the use of the qualitative case study method using in‐depth interviewing and synthesizing sociological schedules and surveys with psychological tests of personality and gender.
Knowledge Politics
Authors: Tsekeris Charalambos
Published: September 2017

Casting aside all classical dualisms and calls for transcendental justification or transcontextual rationalistic foundations, the idea of “knowledge politics,” or “truth power,” originally anticipated by Carl Schmitt's “polemical precision” of political and social scientific concepts, exemplifies the “natural proximity of facts and values” and the intrinsic impurity of any epistemological project (Pels 2003).
Kuhn, Manford (1911‐1963)
Authors: Youngreen Reef
Published: September 2017

Manford H. Kuhn founded the branch of sociological social psychology referred to as the Iowa School. This branch was labeled as such because Kuhn spent his career at the University of Iowa (called the State University of Iowa upon his appointment). Though Kuhn was trained alongside Herbert Blumer and by George Herbert Mead, Kuhn's epistemological stance differed in fundamental ways from that of his mentors and noteworthy contemporaries.
Labor markets
Authors: Fearfull Anne
Published: September 2017

In principle a labor market is the primary method of allocating people to paid work, of whatever nature, within capitalist economies/societies. Within capitalism, the separation of the producer of a good or service from the means of its production has rendered a situation where labor power, that is, the capacity of a person to work, has become a commodity to be bought and sold. In theory both buyers and sellers of labor power are free to choose from or to whom they would like to buy and sell. Thus, the “market” can be represented as an efficient, voluntary mechanism of exchange wherein the economic rules of efficiency, perfect competition, and supply and demand apply, and equilibrium can be achieved. From such a perspective market imperfections, or disequilibria, when they occur, do so because interest groups within a market are, for example, able to strengthen their position, restrict entry to their group, or force pay changes. Actions or events such as these are regarded essentially as “glitches” and, over time, theory suggests, equilibrium will be reachieved.
Labor Process
Authors: Vincent Steve
Published: September 2017

Modern approaches to the labor process owe much to the work of Karl Marx. For Marx (1990 [1867]), the capitalist production process involves a labor process, or a specific mode of work organization, andvalorization, in which surplus value is appropriated by capital. Valorization is possible because capital owns the products and/or services created by labor as a result of their acquisition oflabor power, or the capacity for work which the worker sells for wages. The products and services that result from the application of labor power are sold for profit by capital within the marketplace. Productive labor thus creates value, which is associated with theuse valueof the products they make or services they provide, while capital is parasitic on the value labor creates through its control of the means of production. Labor is “free” only in the sense that it can choose to sell its capacity to work to anyone, and this may be preferable to alternatives such as slavery, serfdom, or starvation. However, laborers cannot then work as they choose. Labor is commoditized within the capitalist mode of production and organized by capitalists to ensure that value is extracted. Indeed, the continued existence of capital, in any form, depends on this ongoing exploitation: the alternative is the flight of capital.
Language
Authors: (Hans) Bakker J. I.
Published: September 2017

Language is a very important topic in its own right (Crystal 1987) and in terms of philosophical debates in the social sciences (Rorty 1967; Calhoone 2003), yet, surprisingly, many sociologists pay scant attention to language and find communication entirely unproblematic. For some, for example, it is mainly a question of tracing the history and etymology of specific words (Stevenson 1983). Many classical sociologists did not pay specific attention to language as a phenomenon, but recently there has been a reexamination of the work of outstanding linguists and logicians. The important debates between those who identify with Enlightenment modernism (Chomsky 1998) and those who adhere to postmodernism (Jameson 1991) have forced many social scientists to reexamine long‐held assumptions.
Late‐Life Sexuality
Authors: Levy Judith A.
Published: September 2017

Considerable ambiguity surrounds both scientific and popular attempts to define the term “late‐life sexuality.” Agreement as to when “late life” begins increasingly has moved upward over the last century with the lengthening of the average life course in most industrial societies. Meanwhile, the term “sexuality” has come to connote a wide variety of human sociobiological responses that range from varying levels of social attraction or physiological arousal to intimate body contact that may or may not include physical penetration. The failure of research scientists to define what they mean by “sexuality,” “sexual behavior,” or “late life” when designing studies or publishing their results complicates attempts to compare research findings within older age groups and across societies and sociocultural environments. Still, at least five themes emerge as constant premises in the literature concerning sexual desire and activity in later life as defined by some form of mental and/or physical sexual response at age 50 or older.
Later‐Life Marriage
Authors: Kulik Liat
Published: September 2017

With the aging of the population and increased life expectancy in western societies, there has been growing research interest in the period of late adulthood, which can span several decades. That life stage is characterized by three major events that can affect the individual as well as the marital unit: decline in health, retirement from work, and entry into the role of grandparent or sometimes even great‐grandparent. The following main aspects of the dyadic unit are emphasized here in light of their relevance to late adulthood: caregiving, satisfaction with marriage and quality of marital life, power relations, and the division of household tasks.
Law, Civil
Authors: Brown Stephen E.
Published: September 2017

Civil law entails two distinct categories of meaning. It is used to reference Romano‐Germanic law, one of four broad forms of legal systems that presently are most practiced throughout the world. In this context, civil law is best understood in juxtaposition to common (Anglo‐Saxon), religious (e.g., Islamic), and socialist law. Civil law systems are most widespread in the world. Their most central feature is the codification of law, an approach historically linked to the Justinian Code of ancient Rome, and that became characteristic of continental Europe.
Law, Sociology of
Authors: Dingwall Robert
Published: September 2017

The sociology of law is one of the oldest specialty fields in the discipline, reflecting the influence of nineteenth‐century jurists like Sir Henry Maine (1861) on writers of the founding generation like Tönnies, Weber, and Durkheim. Although it has been a less significant area over the last half century, it is currently undergoing a revival, mainly through its contribution to interdisciplinary studies in law and society alongside law, history, political science, anthropology, and social psychology.
Leadership
Authors: Pitsis Tyrone S.
Published: September 2017

There are several definitions of leadership available; however, it can be broadly defined as the process of inspiring, directing, coordinating, motivating, and mentoring individuals, groups of individuals, organizations, societies, and/or nations. While the origins of leadership can be traced back to ancient times in Africa, Asia, and Europe, it is only relatively recently that systematic attempts have been made to understand, operationalize, and conceptualize leadership. In sociology, Weber (1947) conceptualized leadership as legitimated by virtue of subordinates’ understanding of bureaucratic authority, rules, and legitimacy. Weber identified three general typologies of leadership in bureaucracy: charismatic, traditional, and legal. Charismatic leaders were attributed powerful qualities by those who follow them; traditional leaders were powerful by virtue of hereditary wealth or peerage; legal leadership draws its power from professional knowledge and technical expertise, and formal authority was legitimized through roles or position in the bureaucratic hierarchy. As such, formal authority is legitimated by subordinates’ understanding and respecting rules and authority (Clegg et al. 2005). In contrast to Weber's approach, more recent sociological approaches to leadership have been more concerned with notions of power rather than leadership per se. As such, the study of leadership is less about the individual and more about how power structures allow domination and control over others.