Showing papers in "American Journal of Sociology in 1981"
TL;DR: The transaction cost approach to the study of economic organization regards the transaction as the basic unit of analysis and holds that an understanding of transaction cost economizing is central to the analysis of organizations as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The transaction cost approach to the study of economic organization regards the transaction as the basic unit of analysis and holds that an understanding of transaction cost economizing is central to the study of organizations. Applications of this approach require that transactions be dimensionalized and that alternative governance structures be described. Economizing is accomplished by assigning transactions to governance structures in a discriminating way. The approach applies both to the determination of efficient boundaries, as between firms and markets, and to the organization of internal transactions, including the design of employment relations. The approach is compared and contrasted with selected parts of the organization theory literature.
5,819 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a theory of the social organization of friendship ties is presented based on Homans's concepts of activities, interactions, and sentiments and upon the concept of extra-network foci organizing social activities and interaction.
Abstract: Sociologists since Simmel have been interested in social circles as essential features of friendship networks. Although network analysis has been increasingly used to uncover patterns among social relationships, theoretical explanations of these patterns have been inadequate. This paper presents a theory of the social organization of friendship ties. The approach is based upon Homans's concepts of activities, interactions, and sentiments and upon the concept of extra-network foci organizing social activities and interaction. The theory is contrasted with Heider's balance theory. Implications for transitivity, network bridges, and density of personal networks are discussed and presented as propositions. The focus theory is shown to help explain patterns of friendships in the 1965-66 Detroit Area Study. This paper is intended as a step toward the development of integrated theory to explain interrelationships between networks and other aspects of social structure. Implications for data analysis are discussed. Sociologists have long recognized the importance of patterns in networks of relations that connect individuals with each other. Simmel (1955) described modern society as consisting of loosely connected social circles of relationships. Granovetter (1973) has indicated the general significance of these social circles for communication, community organization, and social conflict. Various studies have supported this picture of the essential patterns in social networks, including Moreno's sociometry (1953), Milgram's "small world" experiments (1967), and Kadushin's observations (1966). Unfortunately, the study of social networks has often been carried out without concern for the origins in the larger social context. Most network analysis ends with description and labeling of patterns; and when explanations of patterns are offered, they frequently rely upon inherent tendencies within networks to become consistent, balanced, or transitive. As a consequence of such atheoretical and/or self-contained network theoretical approaches, data are collected and data analysis techniques are devised for
1,643 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider a production market with two sides: producers are a fully connected clique transacting with buyers as a separate but aggregated clique, each producer is a distinctive firm with a distinctive product, and each side continually monitors reactions of the other through a joint social construction, the schedule of terms of trade.
Abstract: Production markets have two sides: producers are a fully connected clique transacting with buyers as a separate but aggregated clique. Each producer is a distinctive firm with a distinctive product. Each side continually monitors reactions of the other through the medium of a joint social construction, the schedule of terms of trade. Each producer is guided in choice of volume by the tangible outcomes of other producers—not by speculation on hypothetical reactions of buyers to its actions. Each producer acts purely on self-interest based on observed actions of all others, summarized through a feedback process. The summary is the terms-of-trade schedule, which reduces to constant price only in limiting cases. The market emerges as a structure of roles with a differentiated niche for each firm. Explicit formulae—both for firms and for market aggregates—are obtained by comparative-statics methods for one family of assumptions about cost structures and about buyers' evaluations of differentiated products. Not just any set of firms can sustain terms of trade with any set of buyers. There prove to be three main kinds of markets, and three sorts of market failure, within a parameter space that is specified in detail. One sort of market (PARADOX) has a Madison Avenue flavor, another is more conventional (GRIND), and a third (CROWDED) is a new form not included in any existing theory of markets. Current American industrial markets are drawn on for 20 illustrations, of which three are presented in some detail. Inequality in firms' market shares (measured by Gini coefficients) is discussed.
1,190 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make the challenge of making macrosociological concepts fully empirical by traslating them into aggregates of micro-events and show that individuals continuously negotiate such coalitions in chains of interaction rituals in which conversations create symbols of group membership.
Abstract: Detailed microsociological studies of everyday life activity raise the challenge of making macrosociological concepts fully empirical by traslating them into aggregates of micro-events. Micro-evidence and theoretical critiques indicate that human cognitive capacity is limited. Hence actor facing complex contingencies rely largely upon tacit assumptions and routine. The routines of physical property and organizational authority are upheld by actors' tacit monitoring of social coalitions. Individuals continuously negotiate such coalitions in chains of interaction rituals in which conversations create symbols of group membership. Every encounter is a marketpace in which individuals tacitly match conversational and emotional resources acquire from previous encounters. Individuals are motivated to move toward those ritual encounters in which their microresources pay the greatest emotional returns until they reach personal equilibrium points at which their emotional returns stabilize or decline. Large-scale cha...
1,015 citations
TL;DR: In the pursuit of intraprofessional status, professions and professionals tend to withdraw from precisely those problems for which the public gives them status as mentioned in this paper, which partly accounts for many otherwise incomprehensible aspects of professional life, such as the prominence of inappropriate training, the rapid dispersal of esoteric professional knowledge to the public, and the lack of systematic approaches to such important problems as death.
Abstract: Professionals and nonprofessionals assign different status to the subspecialities of the various professions. This follows from their different bases for prestige assignment. Intraprofessional status rests on the exclusion of nonprofessional issues or of professional issues irrelevant in a particular case. Public status for professionals rests on effective contact with disorder or nonorder. In the pursuit of intraprofessional status, professions and professionals thus tend to withdraw from precisely those problems for which the public gives them status. This phenomenon of professional regression partly accounts for many otherwise incomprehensible aspects of professional life, such as the prominence of inappropriate training, the rapid dispersal of esoteric professional knowledge to the public, and the lack of systematic approaches to such important problems as death.
352 citations
TL;DR: The results raise the posibility that socially integrated relationships which provide not only direct social rewards through reinforcement and increased meaning in life but also regulation of behavior through mechanisms of social constraint, obligation, and responsibility, may entail not only rewards but also costs.
Abstract: This study is an examination of the effects of living alone on mental health, mental well-being, and maladaptive behaviors. The findings may be summarized in three basic points. First, there is no ...
331 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it is shown that perceptual measures of significant others' attributes reflect not only attributes of the person being perceived but also attributes of a perceiver, and the importance of interpersonal factors for aspirations is underscored.
Abstract: of peer influence is also estimated. Most previous estimates of interpersonal influences are based on the adolescent's perceptions of the significant other's attitudes or behaviors rather than on the significant other's self-reports of these attributes. Estimates of interpersonal influences based upon self-reported attributes are presented. It is shown that perceptual measures inflate estimates of interpersonal influence. Independent data from parents document that perceptual measures of significant others' attributes reflect not only attributes of the person being perceived but also attributes of the perceiver. Parental influence on the adolescent's aspirations is stronger than peer influence, and this influence does not decline over the adolescent years. Peers are involved in a process of reciprocal influence, and peer influences are stronger among girls than among boys. Interpersonal influences are crucial intervening links in causal models of educational and occupational attainment. The influential model developed by Duncan and Sewell and their associates (Duncan, Featherman, and Duncan 1972; Sewell, Haller, and Ohlendorf 1970; Sewell, Haller, and Portes 1969; Sewell and Hauser 1975), and further tested and replicated by other investigators, describes a four-step social-psychological process. In the model, interpersonal factors in adolescence mediate the effects of socioeconomic background and ability on levels of aspirations and on subsequent educational and occupational attainment in early adulthood. The importance of interpersonal factors for aspirations is underscored in a recent review by Spenner and Featherman: "The encouragement of one's parents and the plans of one's peers appear to shape ambitions more directly and with greater impact than any other source. Their effects are stronger than the direct influence of one's scholastic aptitude or previous
269 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate several issues involved in the links among economic segmentation, worker power, and income inequality, and argue that the structure of economic segmentations is multidimensional and reflects such distinct concepts as concentration, economic scale, state intervention in the market, capital intensity, and organization size.
Abstract: How economic segmentation generates income inequality constitutes a central question for theories of economic and social organization and of socioeconomic achievement. Previous research emphasizes two sources of the structural variation in income: (1) employers with large amounts of resources, for a variety of reasons, may find it in their interests to pay workers higher wages; and (2) some workers are able to acquire power against their employers as well as against other workers and can therefore extract higher earnings. In this paper, we investigate several issues involved in the links among economic segmentation, worker power, and income inequality. We argue that the structure of economic segmentation is multidimensional and reflects such distinct concepts as concentration, economic scale, state intervention in the market, capital intensity, and organization size. Worker power also is derived from diverse sources, such as union membership, occupational skill and licensing, class position, and tenure wi...
266 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the size of municipal crime-control bureaucracies-police departments and find that the legal order reflects the interests of the powerful and that the number of crime control bureaucracies is a response to perceived threats to such interests.
Abstract: This research focuses on the size of municipal crime-control bureaucracies-police departments. The consensus perspectives assumes that the legal order reflects social consensus and that the size of crime control bureaucracies is a response to reported infractions of that order (reported crime rates). The conflict perspectives assumes that the legal order reflects the interests of the powerful and that the size of crime-control bureaucracies is a response to perceived threats to such interests. Work by Turk and Blauner suggests that the size of crime-control bureaucracies reflects the relative size of groups dissimilar to authorities and the extent to which such groups are segregated. The above perspectives are tested for 109 U.S. municipal police departments from 1950 to 1972. Empirical support for the conflict perspective is strongest (1) in the South and (2) after the civil disorders of the 1960s.
240 citations
TL;DR: Social constructionist and positivist approaches to the sociology of emotions differ in three respects: as mentioned in this paper generally reject the importance of the biological and physiological substrate in the determination of specific emotions, while positivists affirm the opposite view.
Abstract: Social constructionist and positivist approaches to the sociology of emotions differ in three respects: (1) social constructionists generally reject the importance of the biological and physiological substrate in the determination of specific emotions, while positivists affirm the opposite view; (2) social constructionists suppose that emotions are largely determined by social norms for emotion, or "feeling rules," while positivists assert that social structure, particularly the outcomes of actors' power and status relations, determines emotions; and (3) social constructionists, following a symbolic interactionist model, propose that actors must define situations before emotions will be experienced-but they do not explain how this is done, or what categories actors use to help them define situations; positivists on the other hand ofter a specific social structural category scheme for defining situations and determining the emotions those definitions produce. These issues are discussed and suggestions for ...
237 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors modify and extend the model of collective decision-making processes proposed by Coleman in The Mathematics of Collective Action by introducing a process in which the interests expressed by actors may be influenced by those of other actors.
Abstract: This paper modifies and extends the model of collective decisionmaking processes proposed by Coleman in The Mathematics of Collective Action by introducing a process in which the interests expressed by actors may be influenced by those of other actors. After incorporation of this individual-level process within the framework of Coleman's model, its effects at the system level are explored by comparing results generated by the modified model with those produced by the original model. Analyses of artificial data indicate that the nature and magnitude of system-level effects are contingent on (1) the pattern of interest differentiation in the influence network; and (2) the degree of centralization of the influence network. Depending on these features, the effects of the influence process on collective decision making may be (1) a decline in the system level of resource mobilization; (2) an increase in the level of apparent consensus on collective decisions; and/or (3) a bias in collective decisions toward th...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide an analytical framework within which hypotheses of class structure are brought to bear directly in the formulation of models for the occupational mobility table, rather than as an exogenous "given" to be decided upon prior to the construction of explicit models.
Abstract: This paper provides an analytical framework within which hypotheses of class structure are brought to bear directly in the formulation of models for the occupational mobility table. The proper aggregation of rows and columns is portrayed as the fundamental theoretical issue in mobility table analysis, rather than as an exogenous "given" to be decided upon prior to the construction of explicit models. Homogeneity of mobility within and between classes, class hierarchy, and tangible boundedness are the central themes. These themes are implemented in loglinear models and applied in the analysis of large 17-category), intergenerational mobility tables. Four such tables from the studies of Blau and Duncan and of Featherman and Hauser are fitted acceptably. Seven falsifiable hypotheses about the social class structure of occupational mobility are identified and assessed comparatively within the new framework.
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TL;DR: In a variety of social control settings, the use of extreme sanctions is held to be appropriate only as a last resort as discussed by the authors, a claim advanced against the backdrop of the "normal remedies" customarily used in a particular setting.
Abstract: In a variety of social control settings, the use of extreme sanctions is held to be appropriate only as a last resort. This paper examines the nature, occasions, and accomplishment of such last-resort responses. Last resorts characteristically claim that there is no alternative but to invoke some dubiously valued sanction, a claim advanced against the backdrop of the "normal remedies" customarily used in a particular setting. Requested last resorts are justified by showing either that all such normal remedies are specifically inappropriate or that they have failed to contain the trouble. The conditions governing the latter procedure for justifying the turn to last-resort sanctions are analyzed in detail.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a synthesis of theoretical statements on the determinants of socio-econimic achievement with bureaucratic (internal) labor markets and an empirical examination of the reultant predictions.
Abstract: This paper present a synthesis of theoretical statements on the determinants of socioeconimic achievement with bureaucratic (internal) labor markets and an empirical examination of the reultant predictions. The study focuses on careers in the U.S. civil service from 1963 to 1977, using official personnel records on a 1% sample of whitecollar federal employees, along with secondary survey data. The career is viewed as an outcome not only of individual attributes but also of both organizational and historical contexts. The empirical strategy used to disentangle the individual, organizational, and historical effects is cohort analysis. Five successive entering cohorts are differentiated, and for each a model of socioeconomic achievement is estimated which corporates key characteristics of bureaucratic labor markets not heretofore considered in such models. The considerable power of the model to account for variations in occupational prestige and salary supports a Weberian view of bureaucratic labor markets a...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify major methodological and conceptual problems inherent in sentencing disparity research and present and empirical analysis of the racial disparity argument for the years 1969, 1973, and 1977, concluding that evidence indicates that sentencing patterns fluctuate with contextual variation, racial discrimination at the sentencing stage exists, and the detection of sentencing discrimination can easily be obscurred by a number of pitfalls.
Abstract: Research has yet to establish convincingly either the existence or the absence of sentencing discrimination. This paper identifies major methodological and conceptual problems inherent in sentencing disparity research and presents and empirical analysis of the racial disparity argument for the years 1969, 1973, and 1977. Evidence is presented that indicates (1) sentencing patterns fluctuate with contextual variation, (2) racial discrimination at the sentencing stage exists, and (3) the detection of sentencing discrimination can easily be obscurred by a number of pitfalls
TL;DR: In this paper, a cross-national study of the effects of dependency and state efficacy on development supports the "structural blockage" argument of dependency theory, according to which international economic dependency impedes development in the more advanced countries of the periphery of the world capitalist system.
Abstract: This cross-national study of the effects of dependency and state efficacy on development supports the "structural blockage" argument of dependency theory. According to this argument, international economic dependency impedes development in the more advanced countries of the periphery of the world capitalist system. In support of this argument, we show that two forms of participation in the world economy, the export of a small number of commodities and the export of primary products, obstruct development in advanced peripheral countries. The argument that these forms of participation in trade pose internal, structural obstacles to development is supported by evidence showing that state-sponsored institutional transformations outweigh the development-stunting influence of these forms of participation. On the basis of these findings, we argue against the divergent-development thesis implied in some dependency arguments.
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical review of the empirical work on the riot-welfare relationship suggests several deficiencies and questions which are attempted to redress and address, respectively, in a cross-level empirical analysis of changes in welfare expenditures from 1960 to 1970 in a panel of U.S. cities.
Abstract: This paper addresses systematically the possible nexus between insurgent political action and the state apparatus, concentrating specifically on the relationship between urban riots and welfare or reliefgiving activity in the postwar United States. The theoretical warrant for the analysis has its genesis in Piven and Cloward's influential thesis relating insurgency and relief giving in capitalist society. This perspective is juxtaposed with the orthodox developmental perspective of welfare institutions, and the causal processes and underlying images of the state are compared. A critical review of the empirical work on the riot-welfare relationship suggests several deficiencies and questions which we attempt to redress and address, respectively, in a cross-level empirical analysis of (a) changes in welfare expenditures from 1960 to 1970 in a panel of U.S. cities and (b) annual changes in national aggretate relief-program categories for the postwar United States (1947-76). The results of the city-level anal...
TL;DR: In this article, a random sample of 130 novels published in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries were compared with those by foreign authors over four time periods.
Abstract: Attempting to specify how literature "reflects" society, this study describes the analysis of a random sample of 130 novels published in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Novels by Americans are compared with those by foreign authors over four time periods. The sample novels reflect the different market positions occupied by the two groups of authors owing to the presence or absence of international copyright protection, the formal demands of the genre, the sex of the author, and several distinctive national characteristics, including treatment of race, middle-class protagonists, and domestic settings.
TL;DR: In this article, the relative utility of a power theory versus a functional theory of organizational stratification as they pertain to managerial compensation in the large corporation was investigated, and the results confirmed the hypothesis that the remuneration received by a chief executive officer is directly related to his power within the corporation.
Abstract: The research presented here investigates the relative utility of a power theory versus a functional theory of organizational stratification as they pertain to managerial compensation in the large corporation. Concretely, it examines the effects of different types and levels of corporate control, adjusted for the effects of corporate size and performance, on three dimensions of compensation among 218 industrial corporations during 1975 and 1976. In order to assess the power of the chief executive officer in relation to other directors, the analysis employs a hierarchy of control configurations based on the distribution of stock ownerwhip among the members of the board of directors. In general, the results confirm the hypothesis that the remuneration received by a chief executive officer is directly related to his power within the corporation. A major exception to this pattern involves chief executive officers who are also principal stockholders in their corporations and receive dividend income from their s...
TL;DR: The authors proposed several latent structure models for the analysis of mobility tables and examined the relationship of these to some earlier mobility models (e.g., the "perfect" and the "quasi-perfect" mobility models).
Abstract: This paper proposes several latent structure models for the analysis of mobility tables and examines the relationship of these to some earlier mobility models (e.g., the "perfect" and the "quasi-perfect" mobility models). Data from the classic Danish (5 X 5) and British (5 X 5 and 8 X 8) mobility tables are used to illustrate the utility of these methods in comparative analysis. A model designated as a quasi-latent structure is suggested as a plausible rendering of the structure of mobility for each set of data, and this model is used to derive various kinds of substantive inferences.
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed content analysis of depth interview transcripts reveals substantial variation in the way citizens relate the condition of their own lives to those of their fellow citizens and to political authorities.
Abstract: Conceptual differentiation refers to the number of discrete elements of political information individuals utilize in their evaluation of political issues. In contrast with the more commonly used textbookish political knowledge indices, this measure corresponds more closely to knowledge-in-use. Conceptual integration is defined as the spontaneous and explicit organization of ideas and information in terms of abstract or ideological constructs and represents an expansion of Philip Converse's research on levels of ideological thinking in mass publics. These two related dimensions of political information processing emerge from a detailed content analysis of depth interview transcripts. The analysis reveals substantial variation in the way citizens relate the condition of their own lives to those of their fellow citizens and to political authorities. As expected, education plays a central role in explaning these patterns, but there are some surprising interactive linkages between education and patterns of pol...
TL;DR: This article derived five major theorems from the latest version of the status characteristics theory developed by Berger, Fisek, and Norman, including the relation between status inconsistency and power and prestige equality.
Abstract: In this paper we derive five major theorems from the latest version of the status characteristics theory developed by Berger, Fisek, and Norman The first set of three theorems is concerned with the effect of status characteristics on the degree of equality and inequality that obtains among the members of a task group Included here is a result that establishes a direct relation between status inconsistency and power and prestige equality The second set is concerned with the relations between different types of status and task structures The first of these theorems deals with the relations between task assignments and status expectancies, while the second describes relations between status expectancies and status-task associations While variants of these theorems have been formulated previously as theoretical assumptions, now for the fist time they are shown to be derivable from more basic status organizing principles
TL;DR: In this article, two kinds of criteria for determining whether certain rows in a two-way cross-classification table should be combined and/or whether certain columns in the table can be combined were proposed.
Abstract: This article considers two kinds of criteria for determining whether certain rows in a two-way cross-classification table should be combined and/or whether certain columns in the table should be combined. These criteria pertain to homogeneity and structure. When these criteria are applied to the classic cross-classification on British occupational mobility recently studied by Duncan, Goodman, Hauser, and Clogg, new insights into these data are obtained. The application of these criteria in the present article also helps to clarify the meaning of the criteria considered here and related terms recently discussed by Breiger.
TL;DR: In this article, a stochastic process model of federal budgetary decision making within the executive branch is developed and tested using HUD program allocation data from the Johnson administration, emphasizing that budgets emerge from the interaction of three levels of organizational decision making, each of which is embedded in a distinct cultural context.
Abstract: A central issue for fiscal sociology is the articulation between state and society. Operationally, what is required is the embedding of bureaucratic decision making in history. This article proposes the concepts of hierarcy and ecological control as one possible bridge between organization theorists and macro sociologists. A stochastic process model of federal budgetary decision making within the executive branch is developed and tested using HUD program allocation data from the Johnson administration. The model emphasizes that budgets emerge from the interaction of three levels of organizational decision making, each of which is embedded in a distinct cultural context. Historical application focuses on the impact of the Vietnam War on domestic antipoverty and housing programs.
TL;DR: Qualitative analysis of historical data on the development of children's insurance in the United States between 1875 and the early decades of the 20th century explores the complex relationship between the human and the market values of children, specifically the emergence of the economically "worthless but emotionally "priceless" child.
Abstract: Qualitative analysis of historical data on the development of children's insurance in the United States between 1875 and the early decades of the 20th century explores the complex relationship between the human and the market values of children, specifically the emergence of the economically "worthless" but emotionally "priceless" child. This paper focuses on the legislative struggle between child insurers and child savers who opposed the insuring of children. I show that although monetary compensation for the death of a child was initially justified by the pecuniary loss for the parents, the final success of the insurance industry was based on more than economic rationality. It made its appeal primarily as burial insurance for poor children. This is a measure of the emerging "sacralization" of children's lives.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that various positions within organizations put different limits on the relationship between individual performance and organizational success, and some of the consequences of these curvilinear relationships will be illustrated by describing three common types.
Abstract: In this paper I will show that various positions within organizations put different limits on the relationship between individual performance and organizational success. Some of the consequences of these curvilinear relationships will be illustrated by describing three common types. After specifying the major determinants of these three types, I will use them to help explain four outcomes. The relationships provide an explanation for important aspects of mobility systems within organizations. Additional consequences include the probability that workers will be sympathetic to collective bargaining and horizontal movements between organizations. The hree relationships between individual and organizational performance also act as a primary determinant of control process within organizations and the individual adaptations that result.
TL;DR: This replication suggests that Phillips's most striking result the third day peak in MVF is not limited to a particular geographical region, time period, or technique of analysis.
Abstract: Recent research by Phillips suggested that publicized suicide stories triggered a rise in suicides, some of which were disguised as motor vehicle fatalities (MVF). The most striking finding of his research was a 31% jump in California MVF on the third day after publicized suicide stories. Yet, until they are replicated, we do not know whether these results are limited to: (1) California, (2) the time period studied (1966-73), or (3) the method of analysis used. In this research note we replicate Phillip's California analysis with Detroit metropolitan data for 1973-76. We use two different statistical techniques to insure that Phillips's findings are not an artifat of his method of analysis. We find a 35%-40% increase in Detroit MVF on the third day after a publicized suicide story. Our replication suggests that Phillips's most striking result the third day peak in MVF is not limited to a particular geographical region, time period, or technique of analysis.
TL;DR: The notion of interpenetration of distinct subsystems of action is a derivative of Kanti's critical philosophy as discussed by the authors, and it is the core of action theory is the notion that concrete action is to be explained as a result of the inner laws and the characteristic interrelations of analytically distinct subsystem of action.
Abstract: This essay presents the thesis that a correct understanding of Talcott Parson's writings must begin form the assumption of a fundamental congruence of basic structure and method between the theory of action and Kant's critical philosophy. It is already generally understood that this congruence holds true on the metalevel of epistemological assumptions. It is less understood that the Kantian form of argument penetrates down to the level of the object theory of the general theory of action. The core of action theory is the notion that concrete action is to be explained as a result of the inner laws and the characteristic interrelations of analytically distinct subsystems of action. Thus the Parsonian solution to the central problem of social order is not "utilitarian"; nor, however, is it in any simple sense "normative", as it is often taken to be. Parson's solution lies instead in the notion of the "interpenetration" of distinct subsystems of action. This notion of interpenetration is a derivative of Kanti...