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Showing papers in "British Journal of Sociology in 1987"



Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: Hair is perhaps our most powerful symbol of individual and group identity powerful first because it is physical and therefore extremely personal, and second because, although personal, it is also public rather than private as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Doth not nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. So wrote St. Paul to the people of Corinth (1 Cor. 11: 14- 15); the shame of one sex is the glory of the opposite sex. Indeed the debate over hair symbolism is both ancient and complex, and applies not only to gender but also to politics, as Hippies, Skins and Punks, among others, have recently demonstrated. Hair is perhaps our most powerful symbol of individual and group identity powerful first because it is physical and therefore extremely personal, and second because, although personal, it is also public rather than private. Furthermore, hair symbolism is usually voluntary rather than imposed or 'given'. Finally, hair is malleable, in various ways, and therefore singularly apt to symbolize both differentiations between, and changes in, individual and group identities. The immense social significance of hair is indicated by economics: the hair industry is worth $2.5 billion in the USA (New York Times, 7.1.85).

200 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This paper examines the possible linkage between a widespread heroin epidemic and a parallel and unprecedented rise in acquisitive crime in a community in north-west England between 1981 and 1986.
Abstract: This paper examines the possible linkage between a widespread heroin epidemic and a parallel and unprecedented rise in acquisitive crime in a community in north-west England between 1981 and 1986. A very close relationship between the 'extra' crime being generated and the presence of a large number of young, unemployed heroin users was established. It was found that 50 per cent of a sample of young adults convicted of domestic burglaries during 1985 were also known heroin users. Amongst those who were both offenders and heroin users two distinct groups emerged: first, the larger group who had a criminal record prior to heroin use but had * * * . * . * a een commstt1ng muc n more acqussstsve crsme ssnce zecom1ng users; second, a group who had no criminal record prior to heroin use but who are now deeply involved in crime.

85 citations



Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: Le contexte culturel de la crise as discussed by the authors : T. Parsons et J. Habermas, et al. Pour une sociologie de l'art de lune :
Abstract: Le contexte culturel de la crise. Pour une sociologie de la crise : T. Parsons et J. Habermas

69 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The authors discusses the problems of explanation, evaluation, method and understanding that arise in the study of social history and examines them in relation to the nature of social historical research and writing, and considers the aims and relationship with other disciplines, and asks whether it can be a science.
Abstract: \"Explanation in Social History\" isolates the problems of explanation, evaluation, method and understanding that have arisen in the study of social history and examines them in relation to the nature of social historical research and writing. It then considers the aims of social history, its relationship with other disciplines, and asks whether it can be a science.

63 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The first of two volumes of Lipsit's major papers deals with social and political conflict and, to a lesser extent, the way in which value systems and political institutions maintain order and consensus as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The first of two volumes of Seymour Martin Lipsit's major papers deals with social and political conflict and, to a lesser extent, the way in which value systems and political institutions maintain order and consensus. Together these papers expound Lipset's thesis that, although all complex societies are characterized by a high degree of internal tension and conflict, consensual institutions and values are necessary conditions for their persistence.

60 citations


Journal Article•DOI•

58 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This paper argued that the ideology of racism can be used to define and define race and race-nation, taking the particular example of England, and they argued that racism can also be used as a way of defining and defining race.
Abstract: This paper comments critically on certain assertions about the relationship between racism and nationalism made by recent Marxist contributions to the debate about the nature and origins of nationalism. The ideas of'race' and 'nation', and the ideologies of racism and nationalism, are shown to have certain common features which create the potential for their articulation rather than opposition. Thereafter, taking the particular example of England, it is argued that the ideology of racism can be used to define and

51 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The underground economy appears less a phenomenon of crisis than a political creation in so far as it is rooted in features of social structure which has been shaped and sustained by the state as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Recent developments within western capitalism have stimulated considerable interest in the collective, organized aspects of clandestine production, which form the core of the contemporary underground economy. Although systematic analysis has barely begun, two claims predominate in the international literature: that 'off-thebooks' employment is extensive and rising throughout the advanced capitalist world; and that this is related either to a crisis of capitalism (response to economic uncertainty) or to a crisis of the state (resistance to political regulation). This paper challenges both assumptions, using as its central case the vast and flourishing underground economy of Italy. Two principal arguments are elaborated. First, the development of a significant clandestine sector depends on the combined availability of three structural resources: a dispersed economy, labour market segmentation, and a dense system of social networks. Second, the availability of these resources is largely influenced by the historically developed structure and activities of the state, specifically its forms of legal and organizational closure. From this analysis, the underground economy appears less a phenomenon of crisis than a political creation in so far as it is rooted in features of social structure which has been shaped and sustained by the state.

47 citations




Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The authors reviewed changes in marriage patterns in the United Kingdom over time and found that young people are marrying less and marrying at later ages, the issue of whether this is due to a change in timing or rejection of marriage is addressed the contribution of cohabitation to this change is assessed and structural and ideological changes are discussed.
Abstract: Changes in marriage patterns in the United Kingdom over time are reviewed "Each successive cohort of women born between 1920 and 1940 married sooner than the preceding cohort This trend culminated with the cohorts born in the 1940s all of whom had remarkably similar age at marriage patterns which were the youngest ever recorded since civil registration began" In analysis of the 1946 cohort three factors were found to affect age at marriage directly: educational status occupation at marriage and mothers age at marriage "Subsequently there has been a dramatic reversal in marriage behaviour; young people are marrying less and marrying at later ages The issue of whether this is due to a change in timing or rejection of marriage is addressed the contribution of cohabitation to this change is assessed and structural and ideological changes are discussed" (EXCERPT)

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive framework for the operationalisation of class in British sociology is proposed based on three interrelated choices, i.e., whether to employ conventional occupational class or neo-Marxist social class categories.
Abstract: This research note is a contribution to an important on-going debate in British sociology on the operationalisation of class. A comprehensive framework is proposed based on three interrelated choices. All three choices have both theoretical and empirical elements. First, researchers must choose which conceptual scheme to employ conventional occupational class or neo-Marxist social class categories. Second, what is to be the unit of analysis the respondent or the household? Third, what is to be the degree of coverage? whether or not to include the economically inactive. Consideration of all three choices is followed by a discussion of their interrelations and consequences. We suggest an extended version of Erikson's solution which incorporates not only the unit of analysis decision but also the degree of coverage decision. Thus a respondent based measure covering the economically active only is appropriate for studies of production behaviour and attitudes (work position). Alternatively, a household based measure inclusive of the economically inactive is appropriate for studies of consumption behaviour and attitudes (market or class position). Acceptance of the extended Erikson solution leaves only the choice of conceptual scheme. Our indicated preference is for social class on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Finally, we recommend several ways of improving the quality of datasets with regard to the problem of operationalising class. During recent years a lively and important debate has developed in British sociology concerning the operationalisation of class, arguably the most central concept in the discipline. So far the debate has fragmented theoretical considerations and the empirical appraisal of them. Thus neo-Marxists have revived the issue of social versus occupational class and feminists have stimulated discussion of the Thc British Journal of Sociology Volumc XXXVIII Number 4 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.128 on Tue, 06 Sep 2016 06:14:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 446 Vic Duke and Stephen Edgell unit of class analysis. In addition, contributions to both these and related issues have tended to ignore each other at the empirical level. As part of a wider research project concerned with changes in the social and political effects of the public expenditure cuts in Britain (Edgell and Duke 1981 and 1985), we have considered the relative advantages and disadvantages of various ways of operationalising class. Qur investigations to date suggest that in order to operationalise class, researchers need to make three interrelated fundamental choices. At the theoretical level each choice involves both conceptual and technical considerations (see Figure I). The first choice is which conceptual scheme (and, by implication, theoretical framework) to employ, i.e. conventional occupational class or neo-Marxist social class. The second and third choices concern to whom the class categories should be applied. This entails two linked but distinct decisions: (a) should the unit of class anaysis be the respondent/individual or the household/family?; and (b) what is to be the degree of coverage of the population? In other words, should the classification be based solely upon the economically active respondents/household members or on all adult respondents/ household members? Each of these three key choices will be considered separately and in terms of their interrelationships. The purpose of this research note is to provide a comprehensive and integrated account of all the issues that are relevant to both theoretical and empirical levels of analysis. Inevitably the choices prove to be not as simply dichotomous as they have appeared in the ongoing debate of the operationalisation of class in British sociology. I THE CONCEPTUAL SCHEME: OCCUPATIONAL CLASS VERSUS SOCIAL

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that cultural nationalism has been a significant ideological force that, promoting a distinctive communitarian vision of the nation, has regularly been adopted by a rising intelligentsia as a political option against the state.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to show that, although generally ignored by scholars, cultural nationalism has been a significant ideological force that, promoting a distinctive communitarian vision of the nation, has regularly been adopted by a rising intelligentsia as a political option against the state. Taking Ireland as my case study, I first examine the three major cultural nationalist 'revivals' in order to delineate the distinctive character of cultural nationalism, the leadership role of the intelligentsia, and its recurring emergence in alternation with political nationalism. I go on to argue that the attraction of the intelligentsia to nationalism can be explained in terms of the patterns of recruitment practised by the British state in Ireland. I then identify an alternating cycle in which the communitarian goals of cultural nationalism periodically challenge the state-oriented objectives of political nationalism to provide a matrix of national development in opposition to the British state.


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on labels which arise in development policy areas as an aspect of the donative political discourse associated with the development agendas of poor countries and reveal how labelling is perceived as natural and objective by sheltering behind an ideology of rationality.
Abstract: Labelling in Development Policy reveals how labelling is perceived as natural and objective by sheltering behind an ideology of rationality. In reality labelling is an instrument of power through which the relationships between class interests and institutional processes are constructed and sustained. The book focuses on labels which arise in development policy areas as an aspect of the donative political discourse associated with the development agendas of poor countries. It refers to the process by which people, conceived of as objects of policy, are defined in convenient images.



Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the symbiotic relation between the dynamics of urban working-class youth culture and the ethnic boundary maintenance practices of adult life in NI and argue that the cultural practices of Protestant youth their bands, parades, kerb and wall markings, bonfires are an attempt to address, at the level of the symbolic, the focal concerns of a Loyalist parental political culture.
Abstract: In Northern Ireland (hereafter called NI), as we all know, the sphere of cultural and political identities is a fiercely contested one. Young people in NI develop a sense of ethnic awareness in an ongoing situation of political mobilization and sectarian confrontation. Historically conditioned cultural divisions are reproduced in and through the education system. Increasing levels of segregation combined with the isolating effect of mass unemployment have led to further ghettoization of young people within their confessional communities. This paper examines the symbiotic relation between the dynamics of urban working-class youth culture and the ethnic boundary maintenance practices of adult life in NI. For working-class youth, as for their parents, the defence of the territorial and symbolic boundaries of their confessional communities are central concerns. We suggest that young people in NI are more than passive initiates into the Loyalist and Republican political and cultural traditions. In their youth-cultural practices they play an active part in the reproduction of'sectarian' ideology. In the research reported here we explore the specific relationship of Protestant youth to a parental culture of Loyalism a culture subject to acute tensions in the current situation of mass unemployment and felt political insecurity in NI. We argue that the cultural practices of Protestant youth their bands, parades, kerb and wall markings, bonfires are an attempt to address, at the level of the symbolic, the focal concerns of a Loyalist parental political culture and the material and ideological contradictions which beset this. But young people themselves are experiencing a specific material situation. This is the generation whose birth coincided with the onset of the 'troubles'. The ghettoization of-residential life since then has affected them perhaps more than any other age group. Their physical mobility is restricted as are their opportunities for recreation and even employment. Their adolescence is occurring in a period within capitalist society of general marginalization of young workers from


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: Menachem Rosner and Arnold S. Tannenbaum as discussed by the authors explored hypotheses regarding the conflict between the striving for organizational efiiciency and the values of equality and direct democracy in the kibbutz.
Abstract: Kibbutzim differ from one another in democratic and egalitarian practice and in equality itself. We explore hypotheses in 49 kibbutzim that attempt to explain these differences by the opposing effects of a technological imperative that implies a rational striving for economic efiiciency and an ideological imperative that implies a commitment by members to traditional kibbutz values. Cross sectional data were obtained from economic records of the kibbutz federations and from four survey research studies in kibbutzim. They suggest, with some significant exceptions, opposing effects of the two imperatives on democratic and egalitarian practices although not necessarily of one imperative on the other. Implications are discussed for theories about the inconsistency between technological progress and communality. This research explores hypotheses regarding the conflict between the striving for organizational efiiciency and the values of equality and direct democracy in the kibbutz. The kibbutz was conceived as an egalitarian society based on the principle, from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. Ultimate decision making power in the governance of the kibbutz resides formally with an assembly that meets weekly and all members can participate in the decisions of this assembly. Thus, the kibbutz, in principle, is an unusually egalitarian and democratic society, although whether it is as egalitarian and democratic as its ideology and formal procedures of governance imply has been a subject of controversy. Change in the kibbutz since its early years from a simple agrarian settlement to a modern, industrialized society implies increased emphasis on a 'technological rationality' that a number of authors argue is inconsistent with the traditional, egalitarian ideology of the kibbutz. Kibbutzim, in fact, differ from one another in the extent to which they meet their traditional ideals. We explore hypotheses that attempt The British Journal of Sociology Volume XXXVIII Number 4 522 Menachem Rosner and Arnold S. Tannenbaum to explain these differences by the opposing effects of a technological imperative on the one hand that implies a rational striving for economic efficiency, and an ideological imperative on the other hand that implies a commitment by members to traditional kibbutz values.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: Jarvie and Agassi as discussed by the authors discuss positivism against Hegelianism and the scientific status of the social sciences, and what is structuralism, and no haute cuisine in Africa.
Abstract: Editorial preface I. C. Jarvie and J. Agassi Introduction 1. Positivism against Hegelianism 2. The gaffe-avoiding animal or a bundle of hypotheses 3. Relativism and universals 4. The scientific status of the social sciences (und leider auch Sociologie) 5. What is structuralism? 6. No haute cuisine in Africa 7. Concepts and community Sources Bibliography Name index Subject index.






Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the career of the concept scientific community through three discernible stages: the formative stage is represented by Ludwik Fleck's Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact ( 1935), one of the early expositions of the theme that scientific knowledge is socially conditioned.
Abstract: Until recently it was a presupposition of sociology and philosophy of science that scientific knowledge is produced within organic communities. This paper traces the career of the concept scientific community through three discernible stages. The formative stage is represented by Ludwik Fleck's Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact ( 1935). One of the early expositions of the theme that scientific knowledge is socially conditioned, Fleck's work revolves around the correlative concepts of'thought collective' and 'thought style'. Discussion then addresses Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientic Revolutions, among this century's cardinal studies in the theory of knowledge. Kuhn's debt to Fleck is substantial as resemblances between his categories of'normal scientific community' and cultural 'paradigm', and the foregoing concepts of Fleck attest. Stage three in the career of the concept scientific community is marked by criticism and the development of alternative models. Karen Knorr-Cetina has argued, for example, that scientific research occurs in 'transepistemic arenas' and the final section of this paper explores her view.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: Park's students as discussed by the authors pointed out that there were features of the emergent black community that contributed to social fragmentation and disorganisation rather than to social solidarity and concerted political action, and they also challenged Park's belief that the progress of black Americans would depend upon their efforts alone rather than the co-operation of white Americans as well.
Abstract: Robert E. Park noted with approval the emergence of separate black institutions in cities. He also celebrated the creation of an urban, black culture believing that group identity and solidarity were advantageous to the collective mobility and political mobilization of Afro-Americans as well as immigrants. He thought that Afro-American culture was rooted in the experience of slavery and its racial aftermath rather than in Africa. The migration of large numbers of blacks from the rural south to the urban north presented an opportunity for creating a cosmopolitan black culture and the emergence of Afro-Americans as a national minority. In their own research, Park's students developed his ideas about race relations in new ways. However, these same students also challenged his belief that the progress of black Americans would depend upon their efforts alone rather than the co-operation of white Americans as well. They also pointed out that there were features of the emergent black community that contributed to social fragmentation and disorganisation rather than to social solidarity and concerted political action.