bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Political Blackness and British Asians
Authors: Modood Tariq
Published: September 2003

In the 1980s a political concept of blackness was hegemonic, but is increasingly having to be defended, even within the sociology of race. This is to be welcomed and seven reasons are given why the concept harms British Asians. The use of `black' encourages a `doublespeak'. It falsely equates racial discrimination with colour-discrimination and thereby obscures the cultural antipathy to Asians and therefore of the character of the discrimination they suffer. `Black' suggests also a false essentialism: that all non-white groups have something in common other than how others treat them. The fourth reason is that `black', being evocative of people of African origins, understates the size, needs and distinctive concerns of Asian communities. Fifthly, while the former can use the concept for purposes of ethnic pride, for Asians it can be no more than `a political colour', leading to a too politicised identity. Indeed, it cannot but smother Asian ethnic pride-the pride which is a precondition of group mobilisation and assertiveness. Finally, advocates of `black' have tried to impose it on Asians rather than seek slower methods of persuasion, with the result that the majority of Asians continue to reject it. The new emphasis on multi-textured identities is therefore encouraging, as long as we are not simply exchanging a political for a cultural vanguardism.
Exploring Mid-Life Women's Employment
Authors: Ginn Jay , Arber Sara
Published: September 2003

Women's labour force participation rate declines steeply in the 15 years preceding their state pensionable age, in spite of their generally lacking childcare responsibilities during this stage of the life course. Employment of women in the years following childrearing is important in enabling women to obtain a significant improvement in their pension entitlements. There has been little research on the factors influencing mid-life women's employment participation and especially on why fewer women in their fifties than in their forties are in paid work. This paper uses data from the 1988-90 General Household Survey to explore the employment participation of women in their forties and fifties. We examine the supply side factors likely to influence older married and cohabiting women's employment participation, comparing the importance of their own `human capital' (in terms of age, health, occupational class and qualifications) and the characteristics of their household (husbands' employment, class and earnings, the presence of children and tenure). For women in their forties, household circumstances had a greater effect than human capital, but in their fifties women's own attributes were the major influence on employment participation. Financial necessity was a major reason why mid-life women remained in employment. For women in their fifties, increasing age had a residual effect in reducing employment participation after all other factors considered had been controlled.
After Postmodernism - Back to Sociological Theory?
Authors: McLennan Gregor
Published: September 2003

I outline and examine the reassertion by Nicos Mouzelis of some `traditionalist' elements in the idea of sociological theory, following what he sees as an excess of philosophising in the discipline. I argue that Mouzelis's recent work constitutes a weighty response to the prevailing climate of ambivalence about the purpose and type of social theory that is required today, and in so doing it also interestingly reflects a loose but noticeable neo-traditionalist revival, `after postmodernism'. At the same time, there are some conservative elements in the `back to sociological theory' movement which are decidedly questionable, and in any case Mouzelis's conceptual apparatus is more entangled in contemporary dilemmas and complexities than his more headline statements about the nature of sociology indicate.
Body Techniques, Agency and Intercorporeality: On Goffman's Relations in Public
Authors: Crossley Nick
Published: September 2003

The work of Erving Goffman is of great relevance and importance to the contemporary sociological interest in the body and embodiment. Very little has been written on his contribution to this area, however. This paper examines Goffman's relevance and importance. Specifically it considers how his Relations In Public might be used to develop the concepts `body techniques' (as developed by Mauss) and `intercorporeality' (as developed by Merleau-Ponty). Moreover, it considers how the concept, `intercorporeality' could be used to effect a new reading of his work. This reading identifies Goffman as a radical, corporeal sociologist, who has broken with the Cartesian moorings of traditional sociology.
Towards a Sociology of Nature
Authors: Macnaghten Phil , Urry John
Published: September 2003

This paper is concerned with the relationship between sociology and nature or the environment. We briefly summarise the various ways in which historically `nature' has been conceptualised, including the connections between the `natural' and the `market'. We suggest that there are many `natures' and then proceed to develop an agenda for a sociology of such natures. This comprises four elements: a sociology of environmental knowledges; social variation in the reading of natures; a sociology of the diverse forms of environmental damage; and a more general examination of environmentalism and society. We conclude with an examination of the relations between culture and nature suggesting that changes in this relationship now demonstrates what has always been the case, namely, that nature is elaborately entangled and fundamentally bound up with the social and the cultural. As the social and the cultural are both rapidly changing provides deciphering that relationship immensely fruitful but complex areas for future sociological work.
Domestic Production and the Market: Where Status and Contract Meet
Authors: Nicholson Beryl
Published: September 2003

When domestic production enters the market it is assumed payment will be individuated and correspond to the division of labour. However, the sparse and often ambiguous evidence about payment for women's domestic production shows that payment is not necessarily made to the producer. Payees for farm butter supplied to a dairy in North Norway were in some cases the women who made the butter, and in others men, but there were no clear differences between households which explained why. The act of payment is more than simply a material transaction, it also has symbolic significance as a ritual marking status. Variations in practice reflect different interpretations of its meaning. When a woman is payee, either butter production is seen as a sideline, or the payment is given a different ritual significance. Market transactions do not inevitably displace previous status relations, but add new means of constructing public statuses and maintaining inequalities.
Commonality, Difference and the Dynamics of Disclosure in In-Depth Interviewing
Authors: Song Miri , Parker David
Published: September 2003

The last few decades have witnessed a notable growth in literature addressing the politics and ethics of social research. Much of this literature has stressed difference between the researcher and the interviewee, and has addressed the importance of sensitising researchers to the difficulties and dilemmas encountered in in-depth interviewing crossing sex, class, and race boundaries. We argue that an examination of the cultural identities of the researcher and the interviewee, and how they may impact upon the interview process, needs further exploration. As two independent researchers of Chinese young people in Britain, we found that our interview experiences as mixed-descent Chinese-English and Korean-American researchers `positioned' us in terms of both commonality and difference vis-à-vis our interviewees. More attention needs to be given to how assumptions made by interviewees regarding the cultural identity of the researcher shapes interviewees' accounts. Interviewees could claim either commonality or difference with us, on the basis of gender, language, physical appearance and personal relationships.
Responsibility and Irresponsibility: Young Women and Family Planning
Authors: Hawkes Gail
Published: September 2003

The covert regulatory content of medical practice has been well documented. This paper presents the tensions inherent in family planning practice through a deconstruction of the views of practitioners in the field. It argues that behind the untroubled clinical appearance of contemporary family planning clinics, and despite its acceptance by the medical profession, there persist many of the `old' concerns about the state-sanctioned provision of contraception. Examination of the views of family planning professionals reveals a persistent and striking regulatory content to their practice, which is directed, in particular, towards young women whose life-styles are deemed `irresponsible', and who are, therefore, considered illegitimate `family planners'.
Social Reproduction and Change in the Transition from Youth to Adulthood
Authors: Irwin Sarah
Published: September 2003

Over the past decade research into youth and the transition to adult status has focused on the relationship between labour force and domestic life course trajectories, in the context of employment restructuring and declining demand for youth labour. Some writers have addressed a hypothesis of deferral amongst recent cohorts of young people in the timing of transitions from the partial dependence of youth to forms of adult independence. This hypothesis has been explored through consideration of significant life course events, particularly the attainment of independence from the parental home, cohabitation, marriage and birth of the first child. Critics have argued that research has not fully succeeded in locating youth and transition in relation to general social arrangements. It is argued that this problem arises as a consequence of a conceptual framework which foregrounds the issue of transitions from dependence to independence but undertheorises the relationship between them. The approach argues that employment and household resourcing arrangements together shape `dependence' and `independence'. Change in patterns of transition is integral to change in these general arrangements. The argument is developed through an analysis of change in the structure of rewards to employment and patterns of delay in family formation.
Young People and their Contribution to Household Work
Authors: Brannen Julia
Published: September 2003

This article considers the theoretical and empirical neglect of children's contribution to household work. It draws upon a two-stage study of the transfer of responsibility from parents to their sixteen year-olds: a questionnaire survey of 843 young people and an interview study of parents and young people in 64 households. It considers the frequency and nature of young people's contribution to housework and changes taking place between the questionnaire and the interview studies, and makes the distinction between family-care and self-care. Drawing on the interview accounts, it examines parents' general expectations of young people in respect of housework and, more specifically, the ways these negotiations work out in practice with respect to a number of criteria - gender, cultural values, age and birth order, mothers' employment and young people's employment and education. These factors were also found to structure the survey data.
Privacy and the Family: Conceptual and Empirical Reflections
Authors: Fahey Tony
Published: September 2003

This paper offers a critical assessment of the distinction between the public and the private spheres as often used in family studies. In place of the focus on a single public/private dichotomy which is common in sociological usage, it points to the multiple, cross-cutting, context-specific zones of privacy found in social life. It provides an empirical illustration of the nature and effects of such zones of privacy by examining some instances of social policy development in Ireland in the present century where questions of family privacy were very much at issue. It concludes by suggesting that the public/private dichotomy should be understood not as an objective division of the world into two spheres, but as a flexible cultural image which is put to use in wide variety of situations so as to serve a great diversity of interests and purposes.
The Conservative Parliamentary Elite 1964-1994: The End of Social Convergence?
Authors: Baker David , Fountain Imogen , Gamble Andrew , Ludlam Steve
Published: September 2003

The convergence of a widening social base in the Parliamentary Conservative Party with an increasingly middle class Parliamentary Labour Party has been a persistent observation of postwar élite studies. Claims are frequently made that the Thatcher and Major years have produced a more `classless' Conservative élite. On the basis of new research, it is demonstrated that members of the socio-educational élite continue to enjoy vastly disproportionate access to Conservative parliamentary seats; that they enjoy even more disproportionate access to safe seats; and that they continue to enjoy still more disproportionate access to office in Conservative governments. Furthermore, in the last decade long-term trends to social convergence have gone into reverse.
Forms of Collectivity in a Non-Monetary Society
Authors: Ashwin Sarah
Published: September 2003

This article examines the paradoxical co-existence of collectivity and passivity among Russian workers, which is linked to the non-monetary character of Soviet society. The article, based on fieldwork carried out in a mining village in Western Siberia, examines three distinct forms of collectivity: the symbolic collectivism of the enterprise as a whole; the collective identification of ordinary workers; and the collectivity of the immediate work group. In each case it is argued that the collective is defined negatively in relation to the outside and is not expressed in any form of collective self-organisation. This can be explained by reference to the structure of the enterprise within a non-monetary society, which fosters both dependence and division among workers.
On the Concept of Motive in Sociology
Authors: Campbell Colin
Published: September 2003

It is noted that Weber's original programme for understanding the conduct of individuals cannot be realised because the concept of motive is no longer employed by sociologists. The principal reasons for this loss are shown to lie in C. Wright Mills's reformulation of the concept in conjunction with the influence of certain post-Wittgensteinian philosophers. Taken together these influences led to a progressive process of displacement as first, the original `dynamic' connotations were discarded such that `motive' was equated with `the reason' or `the reasons' for acting, and then second, identified with `justifications' and `excuses'. The arguments advanced to support these changes of usage are then considered and shown to be in part dependent on selective interpretations, or to rest on contestable claims concerning the contexts in which actors might discuss motives and the role of actor-accounts in action. It is concluded that there is no good reason for the abandonment of the concept of motive.1
Fear of Crime, Urban Fortunes and Suburban Social Movements: Some Reflections from Manchester
Authors: Taylor Ian
Published: September 2003

Seen as a corrective to the continuing preoccupations of the sociology of social movements with progressive organisations and movements, this paper offers an analysis of the defensive crime prevention initiatives emerging in the suburbs of South Manchester (and, undoubtedly, elsewhere) as a vital contemporary social movement, taking a very specific organisational form. The paper also attempts to show how the movements taking place around crime ought to be linked, analytically, to other local suburban initiatives on Quality of Life issues and, in particular, following Molotch and Logan's pioneering work on the political economy of post-industrial cities, to interest-governed campaigns around the positioning of the larger city in national and international competition. The angry commitment informing all such connected social movements in the suburbs is ignored by progressive social movement analysis at its own peril.
Investing in Class Analysis Futures
Authors: Payne Geoff
Published: September 2003

Contrary to Pahl's criticism, Goldthorpe and Marshall's class analysis programme is a theoretical one. A re-formulation of their position shows how it sets key elements in structured relationships with each other. However this also shows several limitations in their model, which fails fully to account for changes in class positions, or social mobility. Their model says very little about education, cultural values, or events (like the Second World War) that are not entirely class-determined, but impact on life chances. An exploration of previous uses of the Goldthorpe and Marshall approach in defining classes and in measuring class mobility, reveals several inconsistencies of practice, which may suggest, as Pahl argues, too much emphasis on empiricism. Caution is advised before investment in the Goldthorpe and Marshall class analysis programme.
Paid Employment and the Changing System of Gender Relations: A Cross-National Comparison
Authors: Crompton Rosemary , Le Feuvre Nicky
Published: September 2003

Equality with men in the world of paid work has been a major feminist objective. Given that work in the `public' sphere has historically been shaped on the assumption that the `worker' will be male, then national employment systems which facilitate masculine employment patterns (i.e. full-time work and unbroken employment careers) might be expected to be more likely to generate gender equality. This paper compares women's employment in France (where `masculine' careers for women are common) and Britain (where part-time work and broken employment careers are more likely) at the macro, meso (occupational), and micro (individual) levels. The two occupations studied are finance and pharmacy. The evidence presented suggests that there are considerable similarities between women in the two countries at the occupational and individual level, despite national variations. In the light of this evidence, structural and individual explanations of women's employment behaviour are examined, and the continuing significance of structural constraint on the patterning of gender relations is emphasised.
Left-Wing Political Activism in a Changing Political Culture
Authors: Jones Bryn
Published: September 2003

Active participation in political parties is an important condition for the functioning of political democracy. On the political Left, however, the role of the party activist is under pressure from both internal and external changes in the political culture. Catching up with continental European socialist parties, the leadership of the British Labour Party has progressively changed policy priorities and now its socialist ideology. Externally, `new social movements' are said to be promoting new political aims and new forms of activism. A case-study of the influence of these factors on the commitment and participation of members, and ex-members, of a typical southern constituency Labour Party suggests that `new social movements' do not constitute a rival attraction to these members, ex-members, and activists. Their commitment is, however, being reduced by personal economic and social pressures and their dissonant adherence to traditional values of British socialism. To the extent that political involvement depends on motivation by values or ideological principles this study suggests a decline in party political activism, and a possible obstacle to a `grass roots' recovery by Labour in Southern England.
The `Project of Modernity' and the Parameters for a Critical Sociology: An Argument with Illustrations from Medical Sociology
Authors: Scambler Graham
Published: September 2003

This paper is premised on the view that it is premature to write about the end of modernity. Moreover it is argued that, for all the flaws of early Enlightenment philosophy, what Jurgen Habermas has termed the `project of modernity' should be seen as incomplete, rather than abandoned. Drawing more generally on Habermas' theories, five metatheoretical theses are outlined and elaborated. These, it is suggested, might set the parameters for a fin-de-siècle sociology, geared above all to the rationalisation of the lifeworld, which is both credible and critical in orientation.
Social Integration and System Integration: Developing the Distinction
Authors: Archer Margaret
Published: September 2003

This paper underlines the importance of the distinction between `social' and `system' integration (agency and structure) introduced by David Lockwood in 1964. Its four sections (i) examine the original difficulty of maintaining any distinction between the `parts' of society and its `people' against the social ontology of Individualism whose proponents argued that the former must always be reduced to the latter as individuals were the ultimate constituents of society, (ii) shows how collectivist opposition held `systemic factors' to be indispensable in sociological explanations, but could not substantiate their ontological status against the charge of reification whilst empiricism held sway, (iii) explores how once the individualist/collectivist debate was superseded, Lockwood's distinction was redefined in structuration theory, where insistence on treating structure and agency as mutually constitutive effectively denied their independent variation and thus reduced the `social' and the `systemic' to differences in the scale of social practices; (iv) argues that social realism's ontology, in which `structures' and `agents' belong to different emergent strata of social reality, avoids reducing one to the other or eliding the two. Instead it supplies the ontological grounding for Lockwood's distinction and enables it to be developed into an explanatory programme - analytical dualism - whose central tenet is the need to explore the interplay between these two irreducible constituents of social reality in order to account for why things are `so and not otherwise' and in a manner which is of direct utility to practical analysts of society.
Comparing the Informal Sphere: Public and Private Relations of Welfare in East and West Germany
Authors: King Annette , Chamberlayne Prue
Published: September 2003

With the broader purpose of extending comparative social policy to the informal sphere, the article compares the situations and strategies of home-based carers in East and West Germany. Drawing on case study material, it shows that the `subsidiarity culture' of West Germany exerts multiple pressures which tend to pull carers into the home in a `traditional mode' of caring, whereas system effects in the GDR propelled carers outwards in a more `modern mode'. This contrast is discussed in the light of Balbo's work on the modernisation of domestic roles in welfare societies. The article demonstrates the effectiveness of biographical-interpretative methods in exploring interrelationships between the personal and the social in social policy and opens a new front in comparative social policy.
The Sociology of Corruption - Some Themes and Issues
Authors: Hodgkinson Peter
Published: September 2003

The subject of corruption in British public life has been neglected as an area of sociological research. The object of this paper is to begin to develop a theorisation of corruption by examining some basic conceptual and methodological issues. It will be argued that Britain is not necessarily experiencing a rise in corruption, but a change in its actual nature. This is characterised in terms of a move from `primary' to `secondary' corruption. By continuing to employ a primary conceptualisation, there is a danger of developing a radically misinformed, even corrupt, perspective on the recent `rise' in corruption. An attempt is therefore made in this analysis to examine some structural and cultural features of this new wave of corruption and argue that secondary corruption is endemic with the `marketisation' of public services and the introduction of the New Public Management.
Professional Crime: Change, Continuity and the Enduring Myth of the Underworld
Authors: Hobbs Dick
Published: September 2003

Based on a recent ethnographic study of professional crime (Hobbs 1995), this paper is concerned with juxtaposing the contemporary enacted environment of serious crime with the most potent device that is utilised to explain and contain its practices and ideological frameworks: the underworld.
The Impotence of the Powerful: Recent British Police Weapons Policy
Authors: Waddington P. A.J. , Hamilton Malcolm
Published: September 2003

Established social order is often maintained through the inertia of inaction rather than the overt exercise of power by those in dominant positions. However, theorists continue to assume that if actors feel compelled to abstain from action this must arise from the power wielded by others however subtly. This is an unnecessary assumption, since in some circumstances inaction may reflect the impotence of the actor rather than any externally imposed power. Such impotence may be felt not only by those in subordinate positions, but also by those in positions of apparent domination. This is illustrated by an analysis of the caution of police policy-makers with regard to weapons policy generally, and the deployment of armed response vehicles in particular.
Time Waits for no (Wo)Man: An Investigation of the Gendered Experience of Domestic Time
Authors: Sullivan Oriel
Published: September 2003

Quite a lot is already known from the existing sociological literature about the overall time spent by women and men in different domestic tasks, but there is much less information available on more complex sociologically-relevant facets of the experience of time, such as the social context of activities, and the common combinations of different activities. In this paper I use time-use diary data to focus upon three important aspects of the gendered experience of time. These are the social context of domestic tasks in relation to their (gendered) patterns of management, the intensity or density of time-use involving combinations of different activities, and the fragmentation of leisure time according to which activities are responsible for interrupting it. Overall these analyses support the conclusion that women's time is not only more pressured in terms of the intensity of domestic tasks, but that the more enjoyable aspects of their time, such as leisure time, tend to be more fragmented than that of men.
Social Mobility in Britain: An Empirical Evaluation of Two Competing Explanations
Authors: Saunders Peter
Published: September 2003

Existing data on social mobility in Britain demonstrate a disparity of up to 4:1 in the relative chances of children from different social class backgrounds ending up at the top or bottom of the occupational class system. In an earlier paper, it was argued that such disparities should not necessarily be seen as the result of social advantages or disadvantages associated with different class origins, for they are also consistent with a model of meritocracy in which class differentials in average levels of ability are reflected in the class destinations achieved by people from different social backgrounds. That paper has been criticised, both analytically and empirically, and this paper addresses some of these criticisms through an analysis of data from the National Child Development Study. The analysis shows that ability is an important factor influencing social mobility chances, and through a series of logistic regression and multiple regression models, it demonstrates that meritocratic factors (individual effort and ability) outweigh social advantage/disadvantage factors in predicting the occupational class achieved by over 6,000 men and women by age 33. The paper ends by answering the analytical criticisms made against the earlier paper.
The Lads: Masculinity and the New Consumption of Football
Authors: King Anthony
Published: September 2003

The 1990s have seen the rapid transformation in the consumption of football with the development, in particular, of all-seater stadiums. This article analyses the responses of a particular type of masculine fan to these transformations, thereby contributing to an emergent theoretical framework in the literature on consumption and fans, which supersedes the theories of resistance and hegemony that have typically informed cultural studies since the 1970s.
Engaging with Promotional Culture: Organised Consumerism and the Personal Financial Services Industry
Authors: Aldridge Alan
Published: September 2003

The UK's expanding personal financial services sector has been the site of allegations of widespread professional malpractice. In response, the Consumers' Association has begun to scrutinise financial products and services more closely. The personal financial sector is a promotional culture, in which information and persuasion are inextricably linked. It appears, therefore, to be a prime target for the Consumers' Association, whose mission is to supply consumers with objective information uncontaminated by commercial self-interest. The argument in this article is that key features of the Consumers' Association - its gesellschaftlich character, mass-market orientation, reverence for the ideal of professionalism, faith in regulation, and Fordist research methodology - limit its capacity both to mount an effective evaluation of personal financial products and services and to create an informed public.
Manufacturing Control: Supervisory Systems on the `New' Shopfloor
Authors: Delbridge Rick , Lowe James
Published: September 2003

Primary ethnographic research is drawn on in this paper so as to examine the nature of supervisory systems in two manufacturing organisations which have both, to varying degrees, implemented `new' manufacturing techniques such as just-in-time and total quality management and have organised around `teams'. Debates in industrial sociology and the labour process have understandably concentrated on the implications of such developments for workers; the important and problematic role of supervisors in realising managerial objectives has been largely neglected. This paper analyses the nature of supervision and the role of supervisors/first-line managers within contemporary manufacturing. In contrast to previous studies, which have sought to explain supervisory roles in terms of their link with structural factors such as technology, organisational size and formalisation (Perrow 1970; Woodward 1965), this paper highlights the importance of supervisors as social actors. The analysis demonstrates the dynamic and complex role of supervisors in implementing and adhering to managerial rules while needing to ensure a degree of operational flexibility that relies on informality, particularly in reaching accommodation with labour. These types of contradictory pressures have long been recognised in supervisory work (Roethlisberger 1945) but recent research into developments on the `new' shopfloor has failed adequately to report and conceptualise the increasingly complex position of supervisors and front-line managers.
The Reproduction of Social Inequality
Authors: Blackburn Robert M. , Prandy Kenneth
Published: September 2003

Ideological assumptions of equality and economic individualism have permeated the traditional analysis of social mobility. This is shown most clearly in the use of perfect mobility as the theoretical model that underlies most of the empirical analyses. A major consequence is that these analyses have offered a poor conceptualisation of the nature of the structure within which movement occurs, and have tended to ignore the question of relative distances between the objects, typically conceived as social classes, making up that structure. A further consequence is that they have concentrated on the issue of how much mobility, rather than on why it does, or does not, occur. It is argued that a more adequate conceptualisation would involve a move away from rigidly defined class categories towards a recognition of the hierarchical structure of occupational groups.
Definitely, maybe not? The Normalisation of Recreational Drug use amongst Young People
Authors: Shiner Michael , Newburn Tim
Published: September 2003

Increasing numbers of social scientists, policy makers and other social commentators suggest that drug use has become a relatively common form of behaviour among young people who accept it as a `normal' part of their lives. Although there is quite strong empirical evidence that the proportion of young people using drugs at some point in their lives is growing, there is little evidence to support the contention that it is so widely accepted as to be normal. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, we develop a critique of what we term the `normalisation thesis'. In doing so we argue that this thesis exaggerates the extent of drug use by young people, simplifies the choices that young people make, and pays inadequate attention to the meaning that drug use has for them. Crucially, we argue that in their reliance on large-scale survey data the main proponents of the normalisation thesis pay insufficient attention to the normative context within which drug use occurs.
From Leonard Hobhouse to Tony Blair: A Sociological Connection?
Authors: Studholme Maggie
Published: September 2003

Aspects of the work of Britain's central contemporary sociological theorist, Anthony Giddens, are compared with that of L. T. Hobhouse, whose 1907 appointment as Martin White Professor at LSE marked the beginning of academic sociology in this country. The paper argues that in spite of much diversity during ninety years of academic sociology there is evidence for the existence of institutional, theoretical and political continuity in the mainstream. Institutional continuity results from the sluggish development of sociology during the first half of the century, when the only sociology degrees on offer were those validated by the LSE as part of the University of London. Theoretical continuity is evident in marked similarities between Giddens and Hobhouse, particularly in respect of their concepts of agency and reflexivity, as well as in their optimistic assessment of contemporary social trends. Hobhouse made a major contribution to the construction of New Liberal theory in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Giddens's political involvement with New Labour does not mark a substantial shift of alignment between sociology and party politics, but is essentially a continuation of the relationship fostered by Hobhouse between sociological theory and New Liberal politics.
Max Weber on the Ethical Irrationality of Political Leadership
Authors: Gane Nicholas
Published: September 2003

This paper analyses the ethical basis of Max Weber's theory of political leadership. It (i) expounds the connection between the ethics of conviction and responsibility Weber outlines in Politics as a Vocation and the ideal-types of value and instrumental rationality he defines in Economy and Society, (ii) examines Weber's commitment to a practical reconciliation of these political ethics/action types, (iii) argues that, for Weber, this reconciliation ultimately is to proceed through the subordination of conviction to an ethic of responsibility.
Social Movement Theory, Women and the Question of Interests
Authors: Somerville Jennifer
Published: September 2003

British research on social movements, with a few exceptions, has been criticised for making little reference to social movement theory, such that the term, social movement is often used as an unproblematic descriptor. This failure leaves intact assumptions about the relationship between the aims, organisation and activity of social movements and the `interests' that underlie them. This paper attempts to integrate theoretical and substantive analyses of social movements in the context of the `two women's movements' in the United States and Britain which have had the family as a key focus for mobilisation: one conventionally associated with feminism, the other a mass movement of women mobilised to challenge feminism's claim to speak on their behalf. The analysis reveals the limitations of both mainstream and radical/Marxist explanations of social movements on account of their shared reductionist orientation. It suggests that a more fruitful account is provided by resource mobilisation and post-Marxist theorists who, despite drawing on different traditions and questions, recognise the autonomy of politicised culture. The article concludes by questioning whether any foundationalist notion of `interests' and the associated concept of `identity' can provide the basis for grounding political behaviour.
The Undersocialised Conception of the Embodied Agent in Modern Sociology
Authors: Shilling Chris
Published: September 2003

Sociological reconceptualisations of the structure/agency divide have motivated important theoretical advances in the discipline, and the development of `structuration theories' and `analytical dualism' has promoted fresh thought about dominant views of the human agent. These approaches have sought to release sociology from any residual reliance on the oversocialised conception of the individual that formed part of the legacy of Parsonian sociology. It is the argument of this paper, however, that while structuration theory and analytical dualism focus on the creative powers of human reflexivity, as part of their rejection of the `oversocialised agent', the theoretical weight they place on consciousness neglects the socially shaped somatic bases of action and structure, and results in an undersocialised view of the embodied agent.

If the relationship between socialisation and agency needs analysing in terms of embodiment as much as in terms of the cognitive internalisation of norms and values, however, there are good reasons for structuration theory and analytical dualism rejecting attempts to ground subsequent notions of the embodied agent they may develop in dominant, static notions of the habitus. These minimise creativity and make it difficult to analyse social change. An important challenge for future reconceptualisations of the structure/agency divide, then, is to construct a sociology which recognises the significance for human agency of a socially shaped form of embodiment, yet which refuses to make the embodied actor a mere product of society.
Being Objective about Objectivity: The Ironies of Standpoint Epistemological Critiques of Science
Authors: Ward Steven
Published: September 2003

This paper is an examination of the development of standpoint epistemologies and their impact on the objective status of scientific knowledge. I explore both the origins of these epistemologies and their ironical maintenance of a textual or social realism while dispensing with the natural realism of science. I argue that both scientific realism and standpoint epistemologies are in need of a new, reconfigured understanding of realism. Borrowing from the work of Steve Shapin, Niklas Luhmann and Stephan Fuchs, I contend that realism can best be viewed as an associational code which links people together into a scientific community and differentiates science from other forms of life. Without these codes, science becomes something entirely different.
Is the National State the Appropriate Geographical Unit for Class Analysis?
Authors: Breen Richard , Rottman David B.
Published: September 2003

Contemporary class analysis takes the national state as its unit of analysis. This convention could be challenged on at least two grounds. On the one hand, the national state might be seen as too gross an aggregation that leads to the neglect of important internal variation; on the other, the national state might be considered an irrelevant distinction for the study of processes that are best viewed on a larger canvas. In this paper we concern ourselves with this latter possibility and we assess the extent to which globalisation threatens to displace the national state's role in shaping class structure and patterns of social fluidity. In our formulation, the competing claims of national state and global system effects on class structures and mobility regimes involve matters of degree, and thus are open to empirical investigation. The existing evidence supports the continued resilience of the national state but not so emphatically as to preclude the need to take account of world-system influences. This leads us to propose an analytical strategy for integrating world-system effects into class analysis. We conclude by suggesting that a more robust challenge to the role of the national state in class analysis might yet come from the growth of the `new regionalism' in Europe and elsewhere.
Gender and Power: A Comparative Analysis of Sex Segregation in Polish and American Higher Education, 1965-1985
Authors: Cole Maria
Published: September 2003

This article discusses Mann's model of power and its application to the sociology of gender. The model is used in a cross-national study of gender power in Poland and in the United States. It is demonstrated that the collective power of American men and their distributive power over women have been higher than the power of Polish men. Moreover, the power of American men has been diffused and extensive, while that of Polish men has been authoritative and intensive throughout most of the period since World War II. The nature of gender power is shown to influence the levels of sex segregation in higher education. Sex segregation in the Polish system of higher education was lower than in the American system in 1965 and in the 1970s, but it was slightly higher in the 1980s. These results are interpreted as reflecting historical changes in both countries: the increase in the collective power of American women and shifts in the reach of political and ideological power in Poland.
Evaluating `Diaspora': Beyond Ethnicity?
Authors: Anthias Floya
Published: September 2003

This paper evaluates the use of the concept of `diaspora' as an alternative way of thinking about transnational migration and ethnic relations to those ways that rely on `race' and `ethnicity'. It examines the heuristic potential of the concept, as a descriptive typological tool and as a social condition and societal process. Both approaches are described and key elements within each are assessed. It is argued that although very different in emphasis, and though containing different strengths and weaknesses, both approaches are problematised by their reliance on a notion of deterritorialised ethnicity which references the primordial bonds of `homeland'. It is also argued that both approaches are unable to attend fully to `intersectionality', that is to issues of class, gender and trans-ethnic alliances. It is concluded that although potentially enabling a broader sweep of questions that can relate to the transnational aspects of population movements and settlement, the concept of `diaspora', as it has been articulated so far, does not overcome fully some of the problems identified with the `ethnicity' problematic.
Sociological Imaginings and Imagining Sociology: Bodies, Auto/Biographies and other Mysteries
Authors: Morgan David
Published: September 2003

This paper seeks to explore sociology as an imaginative pursuit. After a brief reconsideration of Mills's notion of `the sociological imagination' I examine three areas illustrating the various imaginations within the discipline: the work of Robert K. Merton; ethnomethodology; and the diversities of feminist scholarship. Two particular case studies are explored: the sociology of the body and the use of auto/biographical studies in sociology. I conclude with some suggestions for the encouragement of imaginative thought within the discipline.
Swings and Roundabouts: Risk Anxiety and the Everyday Worlds of Children
Authors: Scott Sue , Jackson Stevi , Backett-Milburn Kathryn
Published: September 2003

In this paper we explore some key antionomies which have emerged in relation to children and childhood in late modernity: tensions between autonomy and protection and between perceptions of children as `at risk' and as potentially threatening. A particular focus here is on the sexualisation of risk, the degree of public concern expressed whenever the sexual `innocence' of children is thought to be endangered. We argue that the concept of risk anxiety provides a useful means of analysing contemporary fears about children and childhood and may thus be understood as contributing to the ongoing social construction of childhood. Here risk anxiety must be located within the context of gendered and generational power relations, in which children's lives are bounded by adult surveillance. Furthermore, risk anxiety may have material consequences for children's daily lives and for everyday adult-child negotiations around safety and danger, protection and autonomy.
Marketing the Self, Buying an other: Dating in a Post Modern, Consumer Society
Authors: Jagger Elizabeth
Published: September 2003

This paper provides a content analysis of 1094 dating advertisements. It seeks, in part, to test results of previous research emanating mainly from the disciplines of psychology and sociobiology, which shows that men offer financial and occupational attributes and seek physical attractiveness in partners whereas women offer physical attractiveness and seek resource and status attributes, consistent with traditional `sex-role' stereotypes and mating selection strategies. Locating analyses in the context of a postmodern, consumer society, it shows that lifestyle choices have superseded resources as primary identity markers for men, that women market their `masculine' attributes and seek `feminine' men; and that the body is central to identity for both men and women. It concludes therefore that traditional gendered stereotypes may now be changing as men and women deal with a context of a novel set of social conditions.
Hegemony and Political Discourse: The Lasting Impact of Thatcherism
Authors: Phillips Louse
Published: September 2003

In his account of Thatcherism as a hegemonic project, Stuart Hall points out that discourse theory provides insight both into the ways in which Thatcherism was constructed as a discourse from a combination of disparate ideological strands and into the ways in which this discourse was engaged in a hegemonic project. However, discourse analysis has rarely been applied in empirical study of the spread of the ideas and values of Thatcherism. The findings of attitude surveys indicate the failure of Thatcherism to produce radical social and cultural change. This paper presents textually oriented discourse analysis as an alternative way of understanding the spread of Thatcherism to that of attitude surveys. Research applying the approach demonstrates the continuing use of elements of Thatcherite discourse across the Conservative party and Labour party and hence the lasting impact of Thatcherism in spite of its failure to become hegemonic.
G. A. Cohen's Functional Explanation
Authors: Agar Joly
Published: September 2003

The author examines (and refutes) the functional explanation that G. A. Cohen employs in his book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense in light of its recent republication. In recent years, Roy Bhaskar has provided a convincing critique of the empiricist philosophy of social science that Cohen employs, and this article tries to provide an assessment of his method from a Bhaskarian perspective. It begins with an exposition of functional explanation, followed by the Bhaskarian critique by demonstrating that functionalism is unworkable because it is dependent on an empiricist account of causation.