Showing papers in "British Journal of Sociology in 1988"

Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method

Abstract: This is a collection of articles dealing with the point of view of symbolic interactionism and with the topic of methodology in the discipline of sociology. It is written by the leading figure in the school of symbolic interactionism, and presents what might be regarded as the most authoritative statement of its point of view, outlining its fundamental premises and sketching their implications for sociological study. Blumer states that symbolic interactionism rests on three premises: that human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings of things have for them; that the meaning of such things derives from the social interaction one has with one's fellows; and that these meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretive process.

The Ethnic Origins of Nations

Abstract: Preface. Note to Maps. Maps. Introduction. 1. Are Nations Modern?. a Modernistsa and a Primordialistsa . Ethnie, Myths and Symbols. The Durability of Ethnic Communities. Part I: Ethnic Communities in Pre--Modern Eras:. 2. Foundations of Ethnic Community. The Dimensions of Ethnie. Some Bases of Ethnic Formation. Structure and persistence of Ethnie. 3. Ethnie and Ethnicism in History. Uniqueness and Exclusion. Ethnic Resistance and Renewal. External Threat and Ethnic Response. Two Types of Ethnic Mythomoteur. 4. Class and Ethnie in Agrarian Societies. Military Mobilization and Ethnic Consciousness. Two Types of Ethnie. Ethnic Polities. 5. Ethnic Survival and Dissolution. Location and Sovereignty. Demographic and Cultural Continuity. Dissolution of Ethnie. Ethnic Survival. Ethnic Socialization and Religious Renewal. Part II: Ethnie and Nations in the Modern Era. 6. The Formation of Nations. Western Revolutions. Territorial and Ethnic Nations. Nation--Formation. The Ethnic Model. Ethnic Solidarity or Political Citizenship?. 7. From Ethnie to Nation. Politicization of Ethnie. The New Priesthood. Autarchy and Territorialization. Mobilization and Inclusion. The New Imagination. 8. Legends and Landscapes. Nostalgia and Posterity. The Sense of a The Pasta . Romantic Nationalism as an a Historical Dramaa . Poetic Spaces: The Uses of Landscape. Golden Ages: The Uses of History. Myths and Nation--Building. 9. The Genealogy of Nations. Parmenideans and Heraclitans. The a Antiquitya of Nations. Transcending Ethnicity?. A World of Small Nations. Ethnic Mobilization and Global Security. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Abortion and Woman's Choice: The State, Sexuality and Reproductive Freedom

Abstract: The abortion issue is examined from a combined feminist and Marxist perspective. The Marxists position that the right to choose an abortion is a necessity under present social conditions and that society must be transformed so that the sexual division of labor disappears and society collectively shares the responsibility of child rearing is accepted. However the feminists position that even after the transformation of society women must retain control over their own bodies rather than surrendering their rights to the collectively is also accepted. The history of abortion is examined in the contexts of primitive societies and early European societies and in reference to the rise of Malthusianism theory. Differing attitudes toward abortion express the social conditions existing at various times and places. The focus is then shifted to the US and the rise of the birth control movement and its gradual subjugation by the medical elite is described. Public pressure lead to an accomodation between the state and populists agendas and in 1973 abortion was legalized. The 1973 decision supporting abortion was not a victory for women but a victory for the medical profession; it gave physicians not women the right to make abortion decisions. The subsquent rise in the number of white teenage abortions is examined. The increased rate of abortion among teenagers should not be viewed as an evil but rather as evidence that teenagers now have the choice of either marrying or not marrying. An unwanted pregnancy no longer prevents them from pursuing their educational and career goals. Abortion becomes more common becomes a choice and alternative only when women have educational and career opportunities. Abortion is not a necessary evil; it is a necessary good. The rise in the abortion rate is an indirect indication that women have gained power. The rise of the profile movement is then described. This movement although aimed at abortion is in reality a reaction to the increased power of women and of the poor in US society. The concluding chapter is devoted to a discussion of the concept of reproductive freedom in reference to Marxist and feminist positions.

The architecture of the hospital: a study of spatial organization and medical knowledge.

Abstract: The paper opens with a review of recent developments in the sociology of spatial organization and after an examination of the ontological and epistemological assumptions which are embedded within current theorizations of space a number of arguments are advanced concerning the inter-relationships which hold between forms of knowledge, social practice and physical design. Using architectural plans, these arguments are then developed with reference to the study of the spatial organization of hospital wards in three contexts; the care and treatment of children, the containment of madness in the pre-1845 period and the management of psychiatric patients 1973-1982. The paper concludes that schemes of spatial organization are best understood in relation to the discursive practices -of which they form a part rather than as decontextualised and reified social facts which exhibit their own 'logic'. I SOCIOLOGIES OF SPACE The study of the social organization of space has figured prominently in much twentieth century social science literature, and the sociological account opened by Durkheim and Mauss in 1903 has been meticulously augmented throughout the twentieth century by a wide range of work from both European and North American scholars. In fact, and in marsy ways, it is an account which has given rise to an entire sub-discipline within the wider compass of sociology itself; namely that of urban sociology. The emphasis upon urbanism has, however, meant that the overwhelming bulk of the work has been written within the framework of modern geography, rather than of, say, Durkheimian sociology. Consequently, the primary focus of attention has been on the spatial relationships which exist between b.uildings, settlements, land holdings and the like upon landscapes The British Journal of Sociology Volume XXXIX Number I This content downloaded from 207.46.13.147 on Fri, 20 May 2016 07:26:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The architecture of the hospital 87 in the widest sense of that term. Indeed, even within the most recent writings on spatial structures, such as those of Gregory and Urry (1985), (which claim to radically reconstitute the sociology of space), and Smith (1984), geography remains indelibly imprinted upon sociology's manifesto. Yet there is a case to be made for a sociology of space rather than a sociological geography and that case has also been recently represented; especially in the work of such writers as King (1980), Hillier and Hanson (1984) and, to a lesser extent, Giddens (1984, 1985). In this newly conceived sociology of space it is the internal structure of buildings as much as the settlement of landscape which provide the foci of attention, and it is inter-mural rather than extra-mural surfaces which constitute the planes on which sociology inscribes its analysis. It is just such a sociology of space which I wish to follow through in this paper, and I wish to do so by concentrating upon the architecture of the hospital. Hospital architecture is, of course, capable of many and varied forms of expression, and so in order to underline the several arguments which are contained in this paper I intend to concentrate on a few specific examples of architectural design as it appears in the hospital ward. My first examples will be drawn from paediatric wards and my later examples from what might be called 'asylum' architecture. The latter examples are especially interesting because, unlike the children's wards, they are drawn from a range of hospitals which in different ages have been known by a variety of names, and the revisions of nomenclature are undoubtedly correlated with revisions of design. Indeed, it could be argued that their changing architectural forms help in many ways to define the objects of therapy which were, or are, to be found within their walls and it is a point which I hope to elaborate upon in my discussion of two specific stages of such architecture viz the Asylum during the 1807-1845 period and the Psychiatric Unit 1973-1982. But before I actually turn to an examination of such architecture I would like to outline some sociological principles which can be applied to the study of spatial structures. Without doubt, some of the most fascinating developments in the sociology of space emanated from work carried out by the Durkheimians during the first few decades of the present century, and it is that work which offers the most fruitful starting point for any sociological consideration of spatial relationships. Durkheim and Mauss (1963), for example, in a sociologized version of Kantianism argued that space and time were ultimately forms of social categorization and, more importantly, that such categorizations expressed, 'under different aspects the very societies within which they were elaborated' (1963:66). Classificatory schemes were therefore modelled upon forms of social organization and human cognitive processes were assumed to have a social base (Durkheim 1915). The genius ofthe Durkheimians, This content downloaded from 207.46.13.147 on Fri, 20 May 2016 07:26:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Key Variables in Social Investigation

Abstract: Key variables in social investigation , Key variables in social investigation , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی

The Missing Link? The Relationship between Spatial Mobility and Social Mobility

Abstract: Sociological writing on social mobility has neglected to consider whether upward social mobility is linked to an individual's geographical mobility. This paper argues that there is no necessary link, but that in post-war Britain, where much intra-generational social mobility has been linked to workers' being promoted through internal labour markets of bureaucratic organisations this frequently means that these workers have to be re-located to different sites of that organisation. In these circumstances there is a significantthough under-researchedlink between social and spatial mobility. I argue that this type of upward social mobility is however becoming less important as public and private sector organisations have retrenched in recent years. thence the link between social and spatial mobility has declined. I speculate on the implications of this for patterns of class formation and political alignment. In this paper I will examine the hypothesis that social mobility is linked to geographical mobility, so that those individuals who are best able to move geographically are also most likely to achieve intragenerational social mobility (i.e. within the course of their working life). In itself this seems a perfectly reasonable idea: after all there are many studies which state that promotion depends on workers being prepared to move location (e.g. Crompton andJones 1984, Prandy et al. 1982). It is however rather disarming to realise that these studies nearly always note this in passing and rarely give the issue any sustained analytical attention. This partly reflects the fact that despite the considerable sophistication of social mobility studies they nearly all remain uninterested in spatial issues. Thus the Nuflield Mobility Study reported by Goldthorpe et al. (1980) does not consider whether there are any regional or local differences in the pattern of social mobility but simply assumes that a national survey should be the appropriate spatial unit of analysis. The Scottish Mobility Study The British Journal of Sociology Volume =vUiXIX Number 4 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.186 on Tue, 12 Apr 2016 09:43:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The missing link? 555 reported by Payne (1987a, 1987b) claims to consider the specificity of the Scottish case, but then blithely concludes that the patterns found in Scotland are probably typical of other Western industrial countries. This neglect of the sub-national dimension is more surprising in the light of Payne's arguments that social mobility is closely related to patterns of occupational change. Since we know that occupational change is spatially differentiated within the UK (see e.g. Massey 1984) it seems probable that different patterns of social mobility must be found in different areas, but this issue is not raised, let alone resolved. In part the neglect of spatial issues by sociologists reflects the fact that geographical literature on spatial mobility has been rather poor. It is well known that spatial mobility is highly socially specific (e.g. Johnston et al. 1974) with higher social groups being more mobile, but there has been little sustained attention to the causes and consequences of this. In a similar vein the recent quite dramatic decline in long distance migration has hardly been noted, let alone explained. Most of the possible explanations remain untested hypotheses. Consider, for instance the argument focusing on the growth of female economic activity rates, so increasing the number of dual earner households (e.g. Abercrombie and Urry 1983: 138). In these circumstances, it is argued, it is more difficult for one earner to move in order to take on a job elsewhere since the other earner in the household will lose their job. Now while this may appeal as a commonsense explanation, there are no studies which make any attempt to demonstrate it. In fact two theoretical considerations can instantly be advanced against it: firstly that many of jobs usually done by women are in demand throughout the country (and hence they may be relatively mobile) and secondly that given inequality within the household a man's decision to move for a better job may be given preference over any loss of job or career the woman may suffer. The reason for the neglect of issues of geographical mobility owes much to the dominance of a perspective whereby mobile capital is contrasted with a largely static workforce (e.g. Urry 1981, Massey 1984, Harvey 1985) . Whereas radical geographers have become rather expert in analysing the mobility of capital, the mobility of people is at best seen as theoretically un-interesting, and at worst politically diversionary. Yet in order to subtantiate many of the arguments made about the social implications of the restructuring of contemporary capitalism it is in fact vital to consider the issue of migration. Consider, for instance, Urry's well known argument (1981) that the hyper-mobility of capital tends to lead to 'local social movements' as different social groups within localities ally to bid for footloose investment, so helping to undermine class based politics in the process. This argument would only hold if it were true that all social groups within a locality were equally fixed to it, so that they all needed to ally to encourage investment. In fact, if some social groups This content downloaded from 157.55.39.186 on Tue, 12 Apr 2016 09:43:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Feminist scholarship, relational and instrumental control, and a power-control theory of gender and delinquency.

Abstract: This paper incorporates an emphasis placed on relational processes in contemporary feminist scholarship, and in so doing extends the development of a power-control theory of gender and delinquency. Feminist scholarship emphasizes that relational processes involving shared intimacy, mutual understanding, caring and other kinds of interpersonal atTect are more characteristic of women than men. However, there is debate among feminist scholars, such as Gilligan and MacKinnon, as to the sources of this difference. An elaboration and test of power-control theory suggests that mothers in patriarchal families are assigned roles in controlling daughters, relationally and consequently instrumentally, more than sons, and that this leads daughters to prefer risk taking less than do sons. Therefore daughters in such families engage in less delinquency than do sons. In other words, these data indicate that there is a sexual stratification in the social control of adolescents that is connected to patriarchal family structure, and that this is important to the explanation of gender differences in delinquency. The analysis indicates that these gender differences are social structural in origin rather than biologically inherent. Nearly a decade ago thisJournal published the first of a series of papers that develop a power-control theory of gender and delinquency.} A central premise of this theory is that there is a family based sexual stratification of the social control of children in industrial societies. The theory asserts that this stratification is imposed through an instrument-object relationship in which mothers more than fathers participate in the control of daughters more than sons. In turn, it is postulated that this instrument-object relationship makes daughters less inclined than sons to take risks, and therefore also makes them less inclined to engage in related forms of delinquent behaviour. The theory further postulates that these relationships are a product of the The British Jounzal of Sociology Volume.TIf.&X/X Number.'S This content downloaded from 157.55.39.35 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:37:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms John Hagan, John Simpson, and A. R. Gillis

Sociology after the Holocaust

Abstract: Sociologists have so far failed to explore in full the consequences of the Holocaust for the extant model of modern civilization and the logic of the civilizing process. While some attention has been paid to illuminating selected aspects of the Holocaust by the application of available sociological concepts, the possibility that the Holocaust experience demands a substantive re-thinking of the concepts themselves has not been seriously considered. Such an omission is as regrettable as it is dangerous, in as far as the historical study of the Holocaust has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the Naziperpetrated genocide was a legitimate outcome of rational bureaucratic culture. This fact suggests the need of important corrections to our understanding of the historical tendency of modern society, as it reveals certain potentialities of modern rationality which are not visible, or not salient enough, under normal conditions. The one posthumous service the Holocaust can render is to serve as the laboratory in which those potentialities can be observed and investigated. Among the processes which the Holocaust brought into relief and allowed to explore, the rarely discussed function of the civilizing process as that of the social production of moral indifference, and the social production of moral invisibility, deserves particularly close attention. Civilization now includes death camps and Muselmanner among its material and spiritual products. (Richard Rubenstein andJohn Roth, Approaches to Auschwitz, SCM Press 1987, p. 324. There are two ways to belittle, misjudge, or shrug off the significance of the Holocaust for the theory of civilization, of modernity, of modern

The assimilation of Irish immigrants in Englande

Abstract: Remarkably little is known about the processes and extent of educational and occupational assimilation, convergence of social mobility experiences and patterns of intermarriage of England's largest immigrant community, the Irish. In this paper assimilation is regarded as a process in which both cultural and structural differences between the immigrant group and the indigenous population are progressively reduced over an extended period of time. Using nationally representative data from the General Household Surveys of 1979 and 1980, first and second generation immigrants from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were compared with a tontrol sample of'English', with all analyses run separately for men and women. It is concluded that, while there is generally a substantial measure of assimilation of the Irish in England by the second generation, there are important differences between immigrants from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland - the former showing much higher levels of educational and occupational

Public Welfare Expenditure in OECD Countries: Towards a Reconciliation of Inconsistent Findings

Abstract: In this paper some of the reasons for inconsistent findings on the determinants of welfare expenditure and outcome in the advanced capitalist countries are examined. Particular attention is paid to the work of Harold Wilensky and John Stephens on the grounds that their research illustrates some key methodological and theoretical differences in this field. Several problems of conceptualization and measurement in their work are identified. Hypotheses are derived from their work and tested against data on seventeen OECD countries at five time points from 1960 to 1980. The conclusion is drawn that inconsistent findings in the field derive from different conceptualizations and operationalizations of key terms and, more fundamentally, from different conceptions of the welfare state.

Lost in music : culture, style and the musical event

Abstract: A selection of essays which give a sociological treatment of many musical forms with special emphasis on the legal structuring governing musical production; the working lives of musicians and the social character of musical style.

The Reproduction of Privilege in Australian Education

Abstract: This paper examines changes in the dimensions and sources of educational inequality in Australia. Data from a sample of the urban population is used, and divided into three education (rather than birth or age) cohorts in order to assess the effects of educational expansion over time. The results show that there has been some decline in the effect of social background on years of basic schooling and total years of education, and some increase in the effects of ability. However, the impact of social background remains important, while gender differences in qualifications and tertiary attainments are mostly undiminished. This suggests that while basic schooling has become more meritocratic with the expansion of educational opportunities, higher attainments still reflect and perpetuate systematic inequalities within the broader society. For some years now, the dimensions of educational inequality in advanced societies have been well documented, and there has been much discussion and debate about their sources. In part, inequalities have been attributed to variations within education systems which stratify the process of schooling and favour particular sections of the population in their quest for training and credentials. ' Further, access to education has been pinpointed as an important factor which, in the past, was constrained by limited educational provisions. This meant that in many countries participation in higher education, even in higher levels of secondary education, remained very much the prerogative of privilege and wealth well into the twentieth century. In part, too, a number of other factors have contributed to differences in attainments. Gender and race, and home and school environments, have all been identified as important sources of educational inequality, and all have helped to perpetuate systematic inequalities in attainments independently of individual ability or merit.2 The British Journal of Sociology Volume XXXIX Number 3 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.212 on Thu, 09 Jun 2016 06:25:19 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Privilege in Australian education 359 In more recent years, concerted policy efforts have been directed towards redressing imbalances in education systems and to dissolving entrenched privileges and constraints. In the post-war years in particular, various policies have been enacted with a view to lengthening the period of compulsory education, and expanding opportunities for participation in tertiary study. The latter has been achieved by increasing educational provisions, encouraging adult reeducation, and by providing financial assistance to students.3 In short, the aim has been to make education a right rather than a privilege, and to divorce educational outcomes from the constraints of social background. As a result of these efforts, there has been a substantial upgrading of educational attainments over recent decades. Between 1950 and 1965, for example, participation rates in college education more than doubled in countries such as Britain, Canada, the USA and Australia, while participation in tertiary education increased at an even higher rate.4 Such gains lent some credence to meritocratic explanations for educational outcomes. These suggest that the provision of educational opportunities resolves problems of inequality by allowing people to find their own level within the education process, and by enabling them to succeed to the best of their abilities. If true, ability and aspiration should now be the exclusive determinants of educational outcomes. Despite increases in attainments and the optimism of the meritocratic view, most research suggests that efforts to eradicate inequalities in educational opportunity, that is, to detach attainments from the influence of social origins, have not been entirely successful. Class, family wealth and other dimensions of social background are still important determinants of educational outcomes, and account for about half its explained variance.5 Although it is clear that educational inequalities persist, it is not so clear whether their sources have changed in response to the growth of more equitable participation in the education process. In particular, it is unclear to what extent the constraints of social background and class differences may have declined. In the USA, Bowles and Gintis6 suggest that while legislative changes have narrowed the gap in educational attainments, individual achievements still depend as much on social background as they did in the past. In contrast, Hauser and Featherman7 find some evidence of a decline in the influence of social background on the educational attainments of men, but less so for those with poorly educated fathers and those from large families. In Britain, Halsey et al.8 observe that prolonging the period of compulsory education by legislation has indeed enhanced the level of attainments throughout society, but at the expense of creating further inequalities at later stages of the education process. In France, Garnier and RaflalovichS conclude that educational expansion has This content downloaded from 157.55.39.212 on Thu, 09 Jun 2016 06:25:19 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

The Bureaucratization of the State and the Rise of Japan

Abstract: The rise of Japan is explained in terms of the development of an exceptionally bureaucratic state. This resulted from the sixteenthcentury emergence of a ruling salariat separated from the land, the eventual overthrow of the pre-modern state by a revolutionary section of this salariat, and its subsequent building of a modern state. The early military expansion of Japan was directed in a highly rational manner by these bureaucrats. In the 1 930s, however, military expansion became irrational, in the sense that it became heedless of costs and consequences, and self-destructive, but this was not because of the resurgence of non-rational forces but rather because of the disintegration latent in the bureaucratic state. Defeat cleared the way for a resumption of economic expansion in a changed international situation. Economic growth did not happen automatically, however, but was directed by the economic bureaucracy, which used the institutions created by bureaucrats in the pre-war period. Economic expansion too has, arguably, become irrational and self-undermining but the parallel with military expansion should not be taken too far, for economic expansion has been much harder for the West to combat than military expansion. This analysis of the origins, development and expansion of the Japanese state is set in the context of the debate between Marxist and Weberian theory. Explanations of the rise of Japan have made little reference to the development of theJapanese state. Apart from the work of Bendix and Barrington Moore, the sociological discussion of the development of the state has made little reference to Japan. The aim of this article is to bring these two fields of inquiry into a mutually profitable dialogue. The theme of the article is that the modernJapanese state has been exceptionally bureaucratic in character. The explanation of this is sought in the development of Japan's pre-modern bureaucracy, The British Journal of Sociology Volumc XXXIX Number 2 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.30 on Wed, 20 Jul 2016 05:39:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 229 The bureaucratization of the state and the rise ofJapan which, in contrast with that of China, has received little attention in sociology. The bureaucratic state is then linked to Japan's military and industrial expansion. All too often Japan's expansion has been explained in terms of non-rational impulses stemming from Japanese national character or culture. It is argued here that both military and industrial expansion were consequences of the development of a bureaucratic state. Both were initially highly rational, though both, especially military expansion, became irrational later, not because non-rational forces in some way came to the surface but because of the dysfunctions of the bureaucratic state. So far as theoretical issues are concerned, the article has a bearing on the debate between the Marxist and Weberian approaches to the development of the state. The approach taken here is Weberian, building on the insights of specialist writers on Japan, such as Huber and Silberman, who have explicitly used the ideas of Weber. It is argued that the expansion ofJapan can be better understood in terms of the development of a bureaucratic state and its relations with other states than in terms of the development of capitalism and the dynamics of class conflict, as argued in the broadly Marxist accounts provided by Moore and Halliday. 1. JAPAN AS A BUREAUCRATIC STATE It is first necessary to justify the assertion that Japan developed an exceptionally bureaucratic modern state. The first ground for making this statement is the character of Meiji, Japan's ruling group. During the Meiji period (18681912), when Japan established itself as a powerful modern state, it was controlled not by a ruling class, at least not a ruling class in the classic Marxian sense, but by bureaucrats. Japan was a bureaucracy in the true sense of the word, rule by state officials. The background to this was that the Meiji Restoration, Japan's nineteenth-century revolution, was carried out not by a bourgeoisie but by samurai, who took control of the state and modernized it. The samurai were administrators not landowners and should not be confused with aristocracies of the European kind. Moore's comparisons with Germany and references toJapan's 'landed aristocracy' are here misleading. This is not to say that a politically influential landowning class did not exist or that there were no samurai landowners but that, as Smith and Bendix have argued, Japan was not ruled by a landed aristocracy. Neither bourgeoisie nor landowners controlled the state. It was ruled by an oligarchy of ex-samurai, from the feudal domains of Satsuma and Choshu, the domains that brought about the Meiji Restoration (Moore 1969:253; Bendix 1969:221-8; Smith 1961:370-83). The second ground is the subsequent weakness of political parties This content downloaded from 157.55.39.30 on Wed, 20 Jul 2016 05:39:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Is Equality of Opportunity a False Ideal for Society

Abstract: This paper argues that the idea of equality of opportunity should be rescued from general opprobrium. It defines a theory of competitive equality of opportunity as open competition for scarce resources. It suggests that this is an idea which demands objective tests of competence incumbent similarly and equally upon all competitors for scarce resources. Resources should be allocated to those most competent to manage them on the grounds of efficiency. This system is just if that allocation is managed to the benefit of and in the best interests of all. It is also argued that under a social system which does not impose equality of resources between citizens it is still possible to sustain equality of opportunity between individuals if public educational resources are allocated according to testable individual abilities and needs. Acknowledging that under present conditions schools make very little difference to individual lifechances it is proposed that they might do more to equalise opportunities if they were organised under principles of strict selection and separation under educational charters.

Part II: Weber's Exploration of Calvinism: The Undiscovered Provenance of Capitalism

Abstract: The trademark that Weber imprints on Calvinism specifically a crisis of proof in the creed and the pastoral peculiarity of thisworldly now corrected, I here examined his fruitless attempts to sustain them. His dilapidated efforts in this direction are marked by the misunderstanding of theological terminology; the unenlightened use of this terminology to subvert his own cause; inconsistency and contradiction in the argument arising from these defects; and, less excusably, the use of legerdemain when countervailing evidence is encountered. Calculated evasion is unmistakable in Weber's defence of the seventeenth-century hegemony of Calvin's solahde. Scattered across several footnotes, Weber admits that Baxter is non-predestinarian and at one point even correctly records him as an 'opponent' of sheer grace. Yet in the text Weber adroitly conveys the impression that Baxter is a disciple of the double decree, thereby cloaking information whose greater visibility would challenge the foundation of his thesis. No less convincing are Weber's attempts to maintain his workaday conception of works which he does so against all considerations of their dubious fallout. Notwithstanding their avowed deference to Aristotelian rigour, Weber none the less imputes to Calvinist and Catholic theologians contradictions so blatant and glaring that a precipitous leap of faith is demanded from the reader. Scarcely credible under these circumstances, are Reformed and Catholic scholars of the period so readily succumbing to the myopia that Weber directs their way. Irrespective of this improbability, and unlike his equivocation on sola Jide, Weber remains convinced to the end that works are temporally framed. By contrast I show that the temporal calling and thus earthly toil like Catholic and Lutheran accounts-are cast as religiously indifferent and incapable of reaping God's reward. Only the effectual calling or the spiritual calling leads down the path of righteousness. Finally I review the writings of Troeltsch, Tawney and Marshall as they take up the Weber thesis. Th/ British Journal of Sociology Volum/ XXX1X Numb/r 2 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.148 on Fri, 16 Dec 2016 07:41:44 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Part II: Weber's exploration of Calvinism 179 Marshall alone retains the Calvinist crisis of proof and with it the causal weight of Weberian ideas in history. Still, all subscribe to sanctified labour in a mundane calling and thereby succeed in preserving the Weber thesis in this way. However my reading of the Calvinist literature demonstrates that such a conclusion must now be rejected.