Showing papers in "British Journal of Sociology in 1991"

The Dilemma of Qualitative Method: Herbert Blumer and the Chicago Tradition

Abstract: 1. Philosophy and the human sciences in the nineteenth century 2. Pragmatism 3. Chicago sociology 4. Case study versus statistics: the rise of sociological positivism 5. Against the trend: Blumer's critique of quantitative method 6. Blumer's concept of science 7. Blumer's alternative: naturalistic research 8. An assessment of naturalistic research.

Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender and the Social Order

Abstract: In this important book a leading feminist scholar surveys and critiques gender research in a range of disciplines, showing how distinctions between the sexes are maintained by ideology and social controls.

The Uses of History in Sociology : Reflections on some Recent Tendencies

Abstract: This paper questions the now widely held view that no meaningful distinctions are to be drawn between the disciplines of history and sociology. It is argued that one―highly consequential―difference concerns the nature of the evidence on which historians and sociologists typically rely or, more precisely, the way in which this evidence comes into being. This argument is developed and illustrated with reference to various examples of sociologists resorting to historical research and the difficulties they have encountered; and further in the context of a critique of « grand historical sociology » whose practitioners have so far failed to provide their work with any adequate methodological basis

Ideas about Illness: An Intellectual and Political History of Medical Sociology

Abstract: In fact, the extraordinary productivity of Dr. Brodie's laboratory and its disciples was the subject of a recent book, Apprentice to Genius by Robert Kanigel. The current volume is divided into four sections entitled: \"Transmitters,\" \"Transmitter Function,\" \"Receptor Modulation,\" and \"Signal Transduction.\" The following articles are particularly noteworthy: Arvid Carlsson presents a challenging overview of the role played by brain dopamine systems in motor and mental functions. Tomas Hokfelt and others offer a comprehensive and helpful review of the localization of peptide neurotransmitters in monoaminergic and cholinergic neurons. Of note in the second section are reviews of the role of monoaminergic systems in satiety (by S. Garattini and others) and stress (by Roger Maickel). An article by S. Roy and others in the third section describes attempts partially to purify opiate receptors and prepare monoclonal antibodies to the receptor. K. Fuxe and colleagues describe \"receptor/ receptor interactions,\" the critical idea that neurotransmitter systems interact with one another, making it likely that psychotropic drugs influence brain function through effects on multiple types of neurotransmitter and receptor systems. Goran Sedvall and others describe their experience in the use of positron emission tomography to image neurotransmitter receptors in living human subjects. In the fourth section. Fridolin Sulser and Elaine Sanders-Bush offer a very thoughtful and up-to-date analysis of the probable mechanisms involved in the clinical actions of antidepressant treatments and experimental approaches. Erminio Costa presents some of the data obtained over the years, much from his own laboratory, underscoring the importance of the role played by the regulation of gene expression in adaptive changes in brain function. As would be expected, the quality and focus of the articles in this book are variable. Despite the considerable delay in publication of this volume, most of the articles remain up to date. The book would be useful to individuals in the field for its reviews and to individuals only peripherally associated with the field as a more general overview of current research in neuropharmacology.

Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900

Abstract: Preface List of maps Note on transliteration Abbreviations Glossary Introduction 1. South Indian religion and society 2. The development of Muslim society in Tamilnad 3. The Muslim religious tradition in south India 4. The south Indian state and the creation of Muslim community 5. Warrior martyr pirs in the eighteenth century 6. The final period of nawabi rule in the Carnatic 7. South Indian Christians in the pre-colonial period 8. The collapse of Syrian Christian 'integration' 9. The Christian Paravas of southern Tamilnad 10. Christian saints and gurus in the poligar country 11. Christianity and colonial rule in the Tamil hinterland 12. Conclusion Bibliography.

Obligations of kinship in contemporary Britain: is there normative agreement?

Abstract: This article explores the extent to which there is normative agreement in contemporary Britain about the 'proper thing to do' for relatives. Using quantitative survey data generated using the 'vignette technique', the authors assess how far certain policy and sociological assumptions about appropriate kinship obligations hold up to empirical scrutiny. They argue that there is not a straightforward consensus about a set of normative principles but that it is possible to identify patterns of normative agreement. These vary more in line with the circumstances specified in the vignettes than with the social characteristics of the respondents. There is more evidence of a consensus over procedures - that is what factors people should take into account in working out the proper thing to do for relatives - than over the substance of what should be done. The authors conclude that people do not carry around with them stable sets of values and meanings about obligations to kin, but construct them when they have to out of various materials available.

Spotting the invisible man: The influence of male gender on fieldwork relations.

Abstract: Although there is now an extensive literature from female researchers reporting the influence of their gender on fieldwork relations there is a dearth of comparable accounts from male sociologists. In this research note we describe our perceptions of how our male gender has influenced our fieldwork in a number of participant observational studies conducted by ourselves in the last few years. We focus our observations in terms of the impact of research subjects' expectations and researchers' expectations on within-gender and cross-gender relations. Finally, we look at the way in which issues of gender and sexuality may be conflated in the process of fieldwork

Whiter than white collar crime: tax, fraud insurance and the management of stigma

Abstract: Base sur une etude empirique de la fraude et l'evasion fiscale, cet article explore les frontieres existant entre activites legales et illegales et montre comment ces memes frontieres sont manipulees pour assurer aux personnes imposables qu'elles peuvent essayer d'eviter de payer tout en restant dans le domaine de la legalite. L'A. decrit des techniques de « declarations qui ne declarent rien » et de « fraude en toute securite », pour montrer comment le procede de l'etiquetage peut etre gere. Il conclut que la theorie de l'etiquetage devrait prendre en compte les possibilites qui existent pour se proteger et lever tout indice compromettant ce qui suggere de repenser le debat classique sur la definition du crime des cols blancs

The politics of welfare policy in Sweden: structural determinants and attitudinal cleavages.

Abstract: The article analyzes attitudes to Swedish welfare policies, using data from a survey conducted in 1986. In the first section, a number of indices tapping various aspects of attitudes to welfare policy are constructed. In the second section these indices are used to give an empirical assessment of competing theories about the impact of different structural determinants on attitudes. It is concluded (a) that there is general support for Swedish welfare policies, which, however, is mixed with criticisms of bureaucracy and suspicion about abuse of welfare programs, and (b) that class position and 'class-related' determinants such as income are more important than factors such as gender, private or public sector location or consumption groups in structuring attitudes. In the concluding section, these findings are discussed in relation to recent theorizing about newly emerging lines of division in the population. It is argued that either Sweden must be seen as a deviant case, which for specific historical and institutional reasons is characterized by class conflicts rather than other sectional splits, or the theories about new lines of division are simply mistaken.

Disability and social stratification.

Abstract: This paper suggests that, for a variety of reasons, the sociology of social stratification--and, as a consequence, mainstream sociology more generally--has neglected the topic of disability. Using material drawn from a range of sources, it is argued that disability is related in definite ways to social class. Further, it is also argued that disability must be considered as a factor contributing to the production and reproduction of stratification in its own right, independently of class relations. These arguments are further advanced in the course of a more detailed consideration of research evidence concerned with mental handicap. The paper ends with a consideration of the role of non-class factors--specifically social status and citizenship--in the stratification systems of modern industrial societies.

Gender, class and income inequalities in later life

Abstract: Debate about elderly people has been dominated by stereotypical images, while profound inequalities in the circumstances of elderly people have been neglected. This paper examines one aspect of inequality, that of personal income, showing that elderly people span the gulf between affluence and poverty, and that ageist representations of pensioners mask structured inequalities which have arisen during the working life. The paper focuses on gender inequality of occupational and private pension income and assesses the effects of the sexual division in the labour market ('the price of being female') and of women's role in the domestic economy ('the cost of caring'). Gender and marital status as well as class are found to be crucial factors in understanding income inequality among elderly people. Occupational and personal pensions are the chief means of perpetuating these divisions into later life. The paper uses data from the 1985 and 1986 General Household Survey, which provides a representative sample of over 7000 people over age 65. Reprint of article first published in The British Journal of Sociology, 1991, 42(3), 369-396. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/591186

The Politics of field research : sociology beyond enlightenment

Abstract: Introduction - David Silverman and Jaber F Gubrium PART ONE: POLITICS OF THE FIELD Deconstructing the Field - Roy Turner The Impossible Dreams of Reformism and Romanticism - David Silverman Romantics and Stoics - Philip M Strong and Robert Dingwall The Construction of a Sociological Consumer - Peter R Grahame PART TWO: POLITICS IN THE FIELD Local Cultures and Service Policy - Jaber F Gubrium Corridors of Power - Don Slater Evaluation Research and Quality Assurance - Lindsay Prior Reconstituting the Sociology of Law - Susan Silbey and Austin Sarat PART THREE: POLITICS FROM THE FIELD Social Research and the Rationalization of Care - Mary Simms Ethnography Addressing the Practitioner - Michael Bloor and Neil McKeganey Studying Policies in the Field - Peter Manning Interventions in New Social Movements - Elim Papadakis

The Cambridge Companion to Freud

Abstract: Introduction Jerome Neu 1. Freud: the psychoarcheology of civilizations Carl E. Schorske 2. Seduced and abandoned: the rise and fall of Freud's seduction theory Gerald N. Izenberg 3. Freud's androids Clark Glymour 4. The interpretation of dreams James Hopkins 5. The unconscious Sebastian Gardner 6. The development of vicissitudes of Freud's ideas on the Oedipus complex Bennett Simon and Rachel B. Blass 7. Freud and perversion Jerome Neu 8. Morality and the internalized other Jennifer Church 9. Freud on women Nancy J. Chodorow 10. Freud and the understanding of art Richard Wollheim 11. Freud's anthropology: a reading of the 'cultural books' Robert A. Paul 12. Freud's later theory of civilization: changes and implications John Deigh 13. In fairness to Freud: a critical notice of The Foundations of Psychoanalysis, by Adolf Grunbaum David Sachs.

Social Movements during Cycles of Issue Attention: The Decline of the Anti-Nuclear Energy Movements in West Germany and the USA

Abstract: This article analyses the impact of cultural processes of agenda setting on the rise and fall of social movements. Based on a comparison of the anti-nuclear energy movements in West Germany and the USA, I argue that shifts in public issue-attention can trigger the decline of movements and fuel the rise of other movements. When disarmament concerns became paramount in the early 1980s, the anti-nuclear energy movement collapsed in the USA and went through a mobilization crisis in West Germany. At the same time, broad peace or disarmament movements took the lead in the social movement sectors in both countries, surpassing the anti-nuclear energy movements on a similar cultural and political terrain. As movements that addressed collective risks inherent in industrial modernization, the anti-nuclear energy movements lacked a stable communal basis, rendering them especially vulnerable to external processes of agenda setting.

Education and Social Class: Revisiting the 1944 Education Act with Fixed Marginals

Abstract: Trends in class inequality in attendance at selective schools are hard to interpret, since the number of places at these schools and the distribution of children by class also change over time. Reanalysing data from the Nuffield Mobility Study, it is shown that interpretation of the trends depends on which measure of association is used. By viewing stratification as a continuous hierarchy which is then sliced up into « classes » of differing sizes, some interpretative problems can be overcome; greatest clarity is achieved by defining a top class equal in size to the number of selective school places. Reanalysing the data using this « fixed marginals » approach, a clear pattern emerges : growing inequality before 1944, movement towards equality in the first decade after, but sharply increased inequality thereafter. An explanation is proposed to explain this pattern

Childhood influences on adult male earnings in a longitudinal study

Abstract: ABStI'ltAGI' Evidence for the influence of the parental home and the school on adult male earnings is provided by a national longitudinal study. Earnings when cohort members were 36 years old were found to be related to aspects of their family of origin (fathers' social class, family size, parental education and interest in their offspring's education), with their early educational attainment and attitude to school work, with the type and quality of primary and secondary schooling and with their final level of educational qualifications. Statistical modelling to predict the men in the top third of earnings found that those from the most disadvantaged home backgrounds and from primary schools with poor academic records were significantly less likely to be high earners even after educational qualifications and achieved social class were taken into account. High scores on attainment tests taken at eight years mainly influenced earnings by improving an individual's chance of attending a selective secondary school which in turn led to better educational qualifications and hence a greater choice of well paid occupations. But for men with no qualifications high scores on these tests were also important predictors of the small minority who would become high earners. The ways in which early life factors may have influenced adult earnings are discussed.

The Indigenous voice : visions and realities

Abstract: Inevitably, reading is one of the requirements to be undergone. To improve the performance and quality, someone needs to have something new every day. It will suggest you to have more inspirations, then. However, the needs of inspirations will make you searching for some sources. Even from the other people experience, internet, and many books. Books and internet are the recommended media to help you improving your quality and performance.