Showing papers by "Craig Calhoun published in 1987"

History and sociology in Britain: a review article

Abstract: Historical sociology flourishes in both Britain and the United States. In Britain, however, nearly all the practitioners call themselves historians. No historical research tradition has been established within sociology. There are no established exemplars like Barrington Moore, Reinhardt Bendix, Immanuel Wallerstein, or Charles Tilly. Norbert Elias stands almost alone among senior figures, and he was very much of an outsider for most of his active careeremployed away from the major Ph.D. programs, his masterwork untranslated for more than forty years.l Some comparative, development-oriented sociologists have written historical works of substance, but these remain largely compartmentalized away from the rest of the discipline.2 A few younger figures are taking up the trade, but the professional establishment shows few marks. The British Sociological Association is far from resembling the American Sociological Association with its new Section on Comparative Historical Sociology ranking as one of the largest.3

Computerised Information Management in a System-Poor Environment: Lessons From the Design and Implementation of Computer System for the Sudanese Planning Ministry

Abstract: Information management is a critical problem for development planning. It is an especially difficult issue for those Third World planning ministries which must adapt to the escalating demands for information posed by a proliferation of donors and multilateral agencies. Yet, effective information management is crucial if domestic policy makers are to be able either to plan for or to monitor the performance of externally-funded development projects. Microcomputer-based management information systems are now being implemented in a wide variety of settings to deal with these problems. The present paper reports on the development of such a system in the Sudan. From this case study, lessons are drawn for future management information system implementations in ‘system-poor' technical environments and organisational contexts highly dependent on external funding sources.

History and Heritage: The Social Origins of the British Industrial Relations System.Alan Fox

Abstract: the education system, and in her view have conditioned the behavior of the union in respect both to the employer and to its members. Her pessimism about the possibility of radical change in women's role and status within the union derives from this argum-nent. I is one she sustains convincingly from pre-Meiji to 1980. As Soldon promised, the book contains a useful, if far from exhaustive or quite up-to-date, bibliography. Footnotes containing other references, mainly in the language of the country under discussion, are plentiful and helpful. In nearly every instance the authors make some astonishing omissions. Although each author is careful to make some reference to the history of equal pay legislation and practice, no chapter deals more than in passing with the influence of the ILO or the Common Market or the international trade union organizations on trade union behavior or social policy. As a textbook this volume calls for considerable supplementation, both for bIroader coverage--where are Australia, Israel, Spain? Where, the Communist couintries?-and for more up-to-date inform-nation on the countries covered. All the internal evidence is that the deadline for authors was sometime in 1980, although the book appeared only in 1985. As a source of readings on the pre-World War I, or even pre-World War 11, history of women in trade unions in Great Britain, Italy, France, Germany, and Sweden, it is useful. (On the United States, find other sources-they are plentiful: Kessler-Harris, Wertheimer, and Milkman, for example.) Be grateful that the chapter on Argentina exists. And as for the chapter on Japafl, all hail!