Showing papers in "British Journal of Sociology in 1972"

Value Theory: Towards Conceptual Clarification

Abstract: It is the contention of this paper that there has been a pronounced tendency in sociology to under-emphasize the study of values and moral issues, and that the cause of this is twofold: the cultural and organizational climate within which sociologists operate and the lack of consensus among them on a conceptual framework within which accumulative research on values could occur. The broad outlines of such a model will be offered in an effort to initiate a revival of constructive debate on value theory, and a few possible implications for future research on values will be suggested. Why should sociology be concerned with the study of values? The obvious reason is that they may well provide the key to a more adequate understanding of man in society. But accompanying this is a certain moral imperative which impinges on the sociologist as a member of humanity at this particular moment in time. A lack of progress in the application of organized intelligence to the choice of goals for humanity is everywhere apparent. It could be argued that the kind of disciplined assault on the problem that the scientific approach to knowing can provide is long overdue. Furthermore, the possibility that sociology itself may bear some responsibility for mankind's current moral crisis cannot be summarily dismissed. The myth of the possibility of 'objectively' documenting reality, so unquestioningly accepted by sociologists anxious to achieve 'scientific' status, seems now to have spread to a majority of those involved in the humanities and the arts. The fetish of realism-too often manifested as a detailed portrayal of pathology in the name of the whole truth-is widely indulged in by the very 'creative' intellectuals who scorn the social scientists for their conformist scientism. Ironically, both groups may be operating from identical outmoded assumptions about the possibility of a detached type of objectivity, and about the individual's lack of responsibility for his personal contribution to the shaping of the values which in turn shape humanity.1 The reaction of a large segment of the youth subculture to this 'disinterested' pursuit of truth-and its accompanying fascination with

Social Control in Organizations

Abstract: The problem of social control has aroused much discussion among sociologists as it raises fundamental questions about the nature and organization of human societies. One important tradition of sociological thought, influenced by Durkheim and Parsons, has examined the problem of 'how do societies hold together?' and tried to answer the question of why social control seems to be so effective despite the numerous inherent conflicts and tensions in society.1 Even in the more narrow field of organization theory, the processes of social control have received little serious study and the conceptual approach still relies heavily on the work of Weber and Etzioni.2 This article seeks to extend their ideas and springs from our comparative studies of a wide variety of organizations.3 Many of these have been residential institutions offering educational and vocational skills, such as boarding schools, hostels, special schools, outward bound centres and approved, now community, schools. In addition, a number of other relevant organizations have been studied over the years such as religious groups, institutions training for the armed forces, certain mental hospitals and university colleges. We are, of course, very limited in our experience of certain types of organization such as factories or prisons, and the following discussion no doubt reveals these limitations. However, our studies do provide a useful base for attempting a theory of control in organizations which stems from empirical research rather than a priori assumptions. Initially, our approach borrowed concepts and an analytic framework from the works of Parsons and Etzioni, and

Islam, Society and Political Behaviour: Some Comparative Implications of the Malay Case

Abstract: requisites of an ennobling vision of the human situation and the facts of human social experience, and its impact is felt in the steeringmechanism of individual behaviour. Earthy, sinning and self-seeking humanity is urged into spirituality, purity and altruism, and, caught up in these antinomies and their attendant tensions, each believer must decide for himself how best the good life may be lived in this world (and salvation assured in the next). Resolutions of the dilemma, within and between religions, are various, and have their consequences for conceptions of the relation of the spiritual to the mundane: for example, the life of this world may be entirely discounted, or it may be spiritualized by the conviction that each soul at the threshold of the afterlife is hostage of its worldly deeds.1

Toward a Reconstruction of Voluntary Association Theory

Abstract: C. Wright Mills would have enjoyed writing an essay about the contemporary research on voluntary associations. He would have found two of his favourite enemies: abstracted empericism, and a species of value bias similar to that of the 'social pathologists' whom he despisedonly in this case the bias is not rural romanticism but suburbanitis. The only missing polemic would be the one on grand theory. The reason is quite obvious: there is not much theory on voluntary associations, grand or otherwise. By ignoring the contributions of anthropologists, philosophers, political scientists, economists, and religious scholars we have lost touch with the contextual issues which might have helped to control bias and particularism.' The matter has been made worse within sociology by treating voluntary associations as a separate topic or simply as a dependent variable in community participation studies, while not placing the topic in the context of general organizational research.2 As a consequence of this specious parochialism one frequently encounters romantic notions about participatory democracy, such as: community members unite in the pursuit of common interests of their own free will, gain satisfaction with democracy, and satisfy the need to belong. The impression that a new theoretical start was needed grew out of the experience of trying to explain some findings regarding the voluntary associations of Negroes in a southern U.S. city.3 Available research provided no theory to explain the observation that co-racial social relations at work were a basic source of community participation, or that voluntary associations apparently took action contrary to their stated purposes. The object of this paper is to develop a theoretical approach which more adequately accounts for the social environment in which voluntary associations exist. To this end, two kinds of relationships with the organization are examined. The first concerns those aspects of opposition and support which the organization, and its members in member