Showing papers in "Canadian Journal of Sociology in 1999"

Multiple Modernities in an Age of Globalization

Abstract: Recent events and developments — especially the continual processes of globalization and the downfall of the Soviet regime — have indeed sharpened the problem of the nature of the modern, contemporary world. Indeed, as we are approaching the end of the twentieth century, new visions or understandings of modernity, of modern civilization are emerging throughout the world, be it in the West — Europe, the United States — where the first cultural program of modernity developed, or among Asian, Latin American and African societies. All these developments call out to a far-reaching reappraisal of the classical visions of modernity and modernization.

Media Strategies and Political Projects: A Comparative Study of Social Movements*

Abstract: This paper analyses the relationship between social movements and the media strategies that they invoke to pursue their respective goals. Three social movement organizations (SMOs) active in Vancouver, British Columbia, are taken to exemplify three distinguishable types of social movement politics: "recognition" (Gay-Lesbian Centre), "redistribution" (End Legislated Poverty), and "salvation" (Greenpeace). We employ a qualitative comparative case analysis, based on interviews with activists and on archival documents from each SMO. In tracing the media strategies of these groups, we recount their histories, focusing on the way in which each has framed its project and on the organizational and strategic dimensions of its practice. The varying attempts of these SMOs to cope with the asymmetrical and dependent power relations between movements and mainstream mass media are interpreted with reference to Antonio Gramsci's theoretical perspective on counter-hegemony and Nancy Fraser's conceptual distinction between "affirmative" and "transformative" politics. In exploring how SMOs respond to potential media blockage, distortion, or facilitation of their ideas and actions, we clarify some of the dilemmas that confront critical social movements in a mediatized age.

Origin myths in the social sciences : Fromm, the Frankfurt School and the emergence of critical theory

Abstract: 1. Thanks to Robert Alford, Scott Davies, Stephen Steinberg, John Rodden, Alan Wolfe, Catherine Silver, Jennifer Platt, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Rolf Meyersohn, Sonia Gojman Millan, Salvador Millan, Deborah Cook, Petra Rethmann, Carrie Ashton, Anita Hanbali, and Mauricio Cortina for feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. A version was presented at a sociology of knowledge session of the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association in Toronto, August 1997 organized by Alan Wolfe where Jeff Weintraub and Mark Shields served as insightful discussants. An Arts Research Board grant from McMaster University made possible a research trip to Germany that allowed me to respond to the useful review and editorial comments from The Canadian Journal of Sociology. Rainer Funk's hospitality at the Erich Fromm Archives in Tubingen Germany was an enormous help in helping me reconstruct the early history of critical theory. Abstract: The Frankfurt School provides rich material for the sociology of knowledge since it is an example of how a once marginal school of thought gained widespread influence and crossed the boundaries between disciplines, social movements, psychoanalysis, Marxism and national traditions. Originally a Marxist think-tank funded by the wealthy son of a German millionaire, the Frankfurt School helped create an innovative brand of philosophically oriented radical social science known as critical theory. Critical theory has had an enormous influence on post-1960s intellectual life, and today is most commonly associated with Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin and Jurgen Habermas. Erich Fromm's central role in the early development of the Frankfurt School has largely been ignored in the literature. This article is a sociologically informed history of the Frankfurt School with a focus on the bitter and contentious break between Erich Fromm and its other members in the late 1930s, particularly Adorno, Horkheimer and in the 1950s with Marcuse. The break between Fromm and the Frankfurt School is explained with reference to both ideational (different interpretations of Freudian theory and the nature of left ideology) as well as institutional factors (competition over resources within the Frankfurt School and the professionalization of psychoanalysis). Unpacking the history of how Fromm was once seen as a major figure in the Frankfurt School and then gradually written out of the history of critical theory is a case study in the sociology of knowledge that looks at how origin myths are constructed within schools of thought and intellectual movements. Resume: L'Ecole de Francfort nous donne un materiel riche d'information pour la sociologie de la connaissance puisque c'est un exemple d'une ecole de pensee qui est passee de la marinalitee a une qui a gagnee une influance repandus et passee au travers des limites entres les disciplines, mouvements sociaux, psychanalyse, Marxisme et traditions nationales. Prenant naissance comme une "boite a pensee" et financee par le fils opulent d'un millionaire Allemand, L'ecole de Francfort aida a creer une variete innovatrice d'une science sociale qui etait philosophiquement radicale en orientation, connue sous le nom de theorie critique. La theorie critique a eu une influance enorme sur la vie intellectuelle des annees soixantes et de l'epoque qui suivit, et aujourd'hui est associee a des noms comme Theodor Adorno, Max Horkeimer, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin et Jurgen Habermas. Le role central d'Erich Fromm dans les premiers developments de l'ecole de Francfort a ete ignore dans la litterature. Cet article est une historie, informee par la sociologie, de l'ecole de Francfort avec un accent sur la rupture amere et contentieuse entre Erich Fromm et les authre members vers la fin des annees trentes, et en particulier, Adorno, Horkheimer, et dans les annees cinquentes, Marcuse. La rupture entre Fromm et l'ecole de Francfort est expliquee en reference aux facteurs idealistes (Interpretations differentes de la theorie freudienne et de la nature de l'ideologie de la guache) ainsi qu'aux facteurs institutionels (competition pour les ressources de l'ecole et la professionalisation de la psychanalyse). …

The political attitudes of Canadian professors

Abstract: In this paper we analyze the social determinants of political attitudes among Canadian university professors as expressed in a nationwide 1987 survey. We examine four questionnaire items. They measure attitudes towards faculty unionization, faculty militancy, and faculty salary egalitarianism; and position on a left-right political scale. The results support a class-based theory of intellectual attitudes, more with respect to unionism and leftism than militancy and egalitarianism. Furthermore, a distinct rank-ordering of Canadian professors' political attitudes by field emerges. Academics in the humanities, social sciences, arts (fine, performing, and applied), and education score consistently to the left of those in the natural sciences, business, and engineering. Field differentiation is consistent across all four measures and persists even after control variables are introduced. We also discover ethno-religious effects (with non-members of dominant ethno-religious groups tending to be more left-wing than others) and gender effects (with women tending to fall to the left of men). Finally, we outline some social mechanisms that result in attitudinal differentiation and discuss the implications of our research for theories of intellectuals and politics in postindustrial societies. Resume: Dans cet article nous analysons les facteurs sociaux determinants les attitudes politiques, extraits d'un echantillon important de professeurs canadiens, exprimes dans un sondage national de 1987. Nous examinons quatre questions. Celles-ci mesurent les attitudes envers la syndicalisation des professeurs, leur militantisme, leur attitude envers l'egalisation des salaires; et leur position politique sur une echelle qui va de la gauche h la droite. Les resultats demontrent que leurs attitudes intellectuelles sont basees davantage sur la theorie des classes en ce qui concerne leur attitude envers la syndicalisation et le gauchisme qu'envers le militantisme et l'egalisation des salaires. De plus, il y a une hierarchie distincte dans leurs attitudes politiques selon la discipline. Les professeurs dans les humanites, les sciences sociales, les arts (les beauxarts, le theatre et la musique ainsi que les arts appliques) et l'education se trouvent regulierement a gauche des professeurs dans les sciences naturelles, la gestion et le genie. La differentiation selon les disciplines est uniforme pour les quatre questions et persiste meme apres que les variables de controle ont ete introduits. Il y a aussi des differences ethno-religieuses (les professeurs qui n'appartiennent pas aux groupes ethno-religieux dominants ont tendance a etre plus a gauche que les autres) ainsi que des differences selon le sexe (les femmes sont plus gauche que les hommes). Finalement, nous dressons une liste des mecanismes sociaux qui auraient pu produire la differentiation attitudinale et nous discutons les implications de notre recherche pour les theories des intellectuels et leurs attitudes politiques dans les societes postmodernes. The Class Location of IntellectualsparThere are more than 37,000 faculty members regularly engaged in teaching and research in Canadian universities but not a single survey-based sociological analysis of their political attitudes. This imbalance is especially striking given the recent shift in government policy on higher education and the resulting financial constraints imposed on the university system. Since the 1980s, the proportion of GNP spent on Canada's universities has declined, enrollment has increased, and real expenditure has dropped (Johnson, 1985). One may reasonably expect attitudinal and behavioural ramifications among Canadian professors. Recent events lend credibility to this expectation. Faculty strikes in several universities (Manitoba, York, Trent, and Dalhousie) suggest a possible radicalization of the professoriate in some institutions. Continued resistance to unionization in other universities (Waterloo, Toronto) suggests an entrenchment of historical attitudes elsewhere. …

The Origins of American Individualism: Reconsidering the Historical Evidence*

Abstract: This paper reconsiders S. M. Lipset's well-known thesis that the origins of America's dominant value system can be directly traced to the formative events of the American Revolution. Our specific concern is with one core value, individualism, and the suggestion that individualist ideas and beliefs were widely held in the American population in the Revolutionary era. A central claim of the present paper is that the crux of Lipset's depiction of the American value system, or "American Creed", is a particular version of individualism, which we call "liberal individualism". We assess research by leading recent historians, all of which casts serious doubt on the assumption that individualist values were prevalent among Americans in the late 1700s and early 1800s. We suggest three key weaknesses in Lipset's historical account: the failure to distinguish between different forms of individualism when characterizing American values; the conflation of elite beliefs and mass beliefs; and the lack of attention to evidence suggesting that Americans were more communalist than individualist in the Revolutionary era and beyond. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible reasons behind misunderstandings concerning the origins of American individualism. Resume: La these de S. M. Lipset considere que l'origine des valeurs dominantes Americaines se rapporte a l'epique de la Revolution Americaine. Cette etude prend comme sujet principal l'aspet "d'individualisme" et que c'etait accepte par la majorite de la population Americaine lors des annees de la revolution. En premier lieu, nous suggerons que l'idee centrale du systeme des valuers Americaines ce represente mieux par la definition du terme "individualisme liberal". Deuxiemement, nous allons evaluer la recherche de nos experts contemporains puisque leurs donnees soutiennent qu'il y a de l'incredulite envers le lieu de naissance et d'existance des valeurs individualistiques Americaines telles que le demontre Lipset. Neanoins, trois points faibles des faits historiques de Lipset sont suggeres: la faillite de distinguer entre les differents types d'individualisme; la manque de differencier entre les croyances du publics et ceux des elites; et le manque de preuve pour soutenir que les Americains etaient plus communales qu'individualistes l'epoque revolutionaire. Ce papier se termine avec une discussion expliquant certaines raisons du le mal-entendu de la these d'origine de Lipset sur l'indifidualisme Americain. Virtually all analysts would agree that the American Revolution represents one of the most significant episodes in the history of the United States. Any differences of opinion regarding this observation tend only to be about whether the War of Independence was the first in a series of other equally salient occurrences (such as the Civil War, for example) or whether, instead, the Revolution stands as the single most important formative event in America's past (for some discussion and debate, see, e.g., Foote, 1989; Granatstein and Hillmer, 1991; Nelles, 1997; Reed, 1982, 1983; Wood, 1992). Among prominent sociologists and political scientists who have addressed this question, S. M. Lipset probably is the leading proponent of the latter perspective. Lipset's research is well-known for promoting the thesis that, from the outset, the United States has been a unique society, and that it was the unprecedented events of the Revolution that established its special place among nations. According to Lipset, the United States emerged as "the first new nation" of the modern world, because it was "the first major colony successfully to revolt against colonial rule" (Lipset, 1963b: 2; see also Lipset, 1968). Perhaps the most telling evidence of the importance Lipset attaches to the Revolution is that he sees its "indelible marks" on American society even today (Lipset, 1990: 1-3). Thus, despite acknowledging that there are now many similarities between the United States and other western democracies, most notably Canada, Lipset maintains that, largely because of its revolutionary origins, the contemporary United States is still "exceptional" in the world, "qualitatively different from all other countries" (Lipset, 1996: 18). …

The importance of power relations for the division of household labour

Abstract: * Address all correspondence to Lorraine Davies, Department of Sociology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2, e-mail: ldavies@julian.uwo.ca. We are grateful to Chloe Bird, Donna D. McAlpine, Julie A. McMullin and Clint Wilson for their comments on this paper Abstract: This article examines the division of housework in dual-earner households. We hypothesize that power relations affect the amount of household work that is performed by women and men. We find that paid work hours, sex composition of one's occupation, and decision-making power predict one's contribution to housework. Results differ depending upon whether wives or husbands, male- or female-tasks are examined. Findings are interpreted within a framework that recognizes that power relations are implicated in the gendered nature of social life, at both the structural and individual levels of society. Resume: Cet article etudie la division des travaux domestiques dans les foyers de couples bi-actifs. Nous formulons l'hypothese suivante: les relations de puissance influencent la quantite de travaux domestiques entreprise soit par la femme ou par l'homme. Nous concluons que les heures de travail remunerees, la composition sexuelle du metier et le pouvoir decisionnel d'un ou l'autre partenaire predisent leur contribution aux travaux domestiques. Les resultats different dependant si nous analysons le mari ou la femme, et les taches traditionnellement accomplies soit par l'homme, soit par la femme. Les resultats sont interpretes dans un cadre qui reconnait l'implication des relations de puissance touchant l'ensemble societal homme-femme autant au niveau de la composition qu'au niveau individuel de la societe. Decisions about who does what within the privacy of one's home are not simply logical manifestations of particular household needs, but rather reflect, and reinforce, the much broader organization of society around assumptions of gender. Doing housework and childcare is more an indication of beliefs about what women and men "should do" than it is about their actual capabilities (Oakley, 1974; Berk, 1985; West and Zimmerman, 1987). Yet, the gendered nature of domestic work is generally rationalized as "natural" and therefore "inevitable". This serves to deflect attention away from broader institutional inequities and the connections that exist between the disadvantaged status of women within and outside of the home. Such inattention to the connections between micro and macro levels of social life limits our understanding of the division of household labour, particularly as it manifests itself as a system of gender relations that silently disadvantages women in their access to power relative to men (1). The challenge remains for researchers concerned with understanding the division of housework at the individual level to more fully explore the intersections among structured inequities and their consequences for women's and men's lives. Although the increase in labour force participation of women in past decades points to a lessening of constraints on women's lives, their continued responsibility for domestic tasks defies the notion that gender inequality itself is being eliminated. Wives, regardless of employment status, consistently perform twice as much housework as their spouses (Lennon and Rosenfield, 1994), a finding that has changed only a little over time (Brines, 1994; Shelton, 1992). Most investigations into this finding attempt to explain the amount or the proportion of work performed by each spouse, but none adequately account for the difference between wives' and husbands' contributions. In this paper, we argue that theoretical frameworks would benefit from more attention to the issue of power at both the structural and individual levels, and that it is as important to examine variations in housework among wives and among husbands, as it is to examine gender differences alone. Power, Structure and the Division of Household Labour The ways in which gender relations reflect and create power imbalances within marriage are complex. …

Work, Gender and the Life Course: Social Construction and Individual Experience

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of family and labour market on male and female life course patterns. For women in particular, aggregate survey data have often suggested orderly, phased transitions between family and work. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods reveals not only a much greater discontinuity in women's life courses, but sheds light on the hidden "normality assumptions" that affect women's self-perceptions and shape their work histories. Data come from two German research projects. One followed the life sequences of women -- now in their 60s -- between the years 1949 and 1991. The other examined the life course data of their husbands. Resume: Cet article examine l'impact que la famille et le marche du travail ont sur les modalites de la vie des femmes et celles des hommes. Les donnees cumulees d'etudes precedentes avaient souvent suggere que ces modalites etaient organisees selon des transitions periodiques et ordonnees, en particulier dans le cas des femmes. Notre etude qui combine methodes quantitatives et qualitatives, revele deux elements contredisant cette affirmation. Scion nos resultats, les modalites de la vie des femmes connaissent une plus grande discontinuite que celles des hommes. Cette etude met aussi en lumiere l'existence de suppositions cachees de normalite; ces suppositions affectent la perception qu'ont les femmes d'elles-memes et modelent l'historique de leur vie professionelle. Nos donnees proviennent de deux projets de recherche allemands. L'un de ces projets a suivi de la vie des femmes sur une periode qui debute en 1949 et se termine en 1991. Ces femmes sont maintenant dans leur soixantaine. L'autre projet se concentrait sur les donnees de la vie de leur mari. IntroductionparAlthough a relative newcomer to sociology, life course research with its ability to follow a variety of social and personal dynamics through a person's life span has created a number of theoretical and methodological challenges for sociology (Elder, 1992; George, 1993; Kohli, 1986; Hagestad, 1991; Rosenfeld and Birkelund, 1995; Hakim, 1993). One of its most productive areas has been the intersection of personal life courses with social institutions such as education, family, labour market, or the welfare system (Heinz, 1991; Kohli, Meyer, 1986; Mayer, 1986; Mayer, Muller, 1986; Levy, 1977, 1991). These institutions order the life course by creating formal entry and exit points, but also through informal norms which influence people's ambitions, stock-taking, and self-image at various times during their lives. This perspective is of theoretical relevance for the structure-agency debate in sociology because tracking multiple dimensions of life course development over an extended period of time makes it very clear that structure and personal action determine the life course. But life course research has also revealed new policy challenges stemming from discontinuities between schooling and labour market entry (Blossfeld, 1987; Heinz, 1991; Heinz et al., 1985; Krahn, Lowe, 1993; Lowe, Krahn, 1992), labour market changes and loss of employment, or gender- or age-dependent labour market exits and resources for retirement. Such discontinuities disrupt individual life plans and may require profound changes in personal as well as institutional strategies designed to cope with the resulting stress and insecurity (Esping-Anderson, 1990; Leibfried and Pierson, 1995; Beck, 1986; Weymann, 1989). This study looks at the structural and normative impact of the family and the labour market on male and female life courses. We examine how their institutional characteristics translate into gender-specific differences in female and male life course patterns and their personal interpretation. Data and MethodsparAn examination of the interaction between organizational contexts and subjective meanings requires both quantitative and qualitative data analyses. Such a combined methodology has never before been used in life course research. …

Hyperpanoptics as Commodity: The Case of the Parapolice

Abstract: Developments in computerisation and neo-liberal state logics have promoted the growth of private police services This paper theorises the evolution of the "hyperpanotics" of "parapolice" surveillance by examining the practices of The Law Enforcement Company in Toronto, Ontario Neo-liberal risk markets are anomic and fear-inducing, and propel developments in the commodification of surveillance The new parapolice of late modernity are charged with making "dangerous" populations "known" This is accomplished through a process of perpetual examination, and the erection of digital, virtual, hyperpanoptic systems geared to making both security employees and the populations they monitor transparent and accountable This parapolice machine, and the actuarial practices it supports, can then be resold to a consumerised citizenry This paper maps these processes along with the multiple modes of resistance employed by actors under its purview Resume: Les progres de l'informatisation et une certaine logique d'Etat neo-liberale ont favorise la multiplication des services de police prives Le present article pose des hypotheses sur l'evolution et l'aspect hyperpanoptique de la telesurveillance parapoliciere en examinant les pratiques de The Law Enforcement Company (Toronto, Ontario) Les marches a risque neo-liberaux, anomiques et alarmistes, accelerent la creation de produits de surveillance Cette parapolice est chargee de faire connaitre les populations dites dangereuses -- mission accomplie grace a un examen perpetuel et a l'implantation de dispositifs numeriques hyperpanoptiques destines a rendre le personnel de securite, et les populations surveillees, transparents et responsables Cette machine du complexe parapolicier, et les pratiques actuarielles qu'elle soutient, peut ensuite etre revendue aux citoyens de la societe de consommation L'article decrit ces processus et les modes de resistance multiples qu'utilisent les acteurs videosurveilles "Police" has historically been linked to the idea of the city-state itself in the context of Ancient Greece (from [pi] -- polis meaning city) and later with the notion of safety and security (Shearing 1992) But "policing" has now come to include a broad collection of social controls that may encompass both private and public techniques of governance (Shearing and Stenning 1987a) As the size of the private security sector vacillates in comparison to the public police, it becomes increasingly important to understand the role of neo-liberal logics relative to these changes In 1994, there were over 100,000 persons employed as "watchmen" or guards in Canada, and over 19,000 of them were licensed security guards in Ontario (Leclair and Long 1996:15)(1) Additionally, there were 1,641 dual security guard/private investigator license holders operating in Ontario Although the 1991 census reports that there were 61,500 police officers and 104,800 security guards in Canada, current interpolations place the public police down to 54,311 and the number of security guards at over 200,000 This means that the private police now outnumber their public counterparts by an almost four to one ratio in Canada (Palango, 1998:10) As the number of persons employed in private security increases, so does academic interest with this social phenomenon (eg Kakalik and Wildhorn, 1971; Shearing et al, 1980; Shearing and Stenning, 1982a) Previous analyses of the private police have correctly focussed on the inherent political relations of securing populations In most instances, the existence and function of private policing, its relative growth in comparison to public policing, and its changing role in providing security, has been tethered to the changing structures and ideologies of state intervention Marxian applications identify the private police as instruments of bourgeoisie control over labour (Couch, 1981; Klare, 1975; Weiss, 1978) As such, the private police operate as either "private armies" for strike suppression or provide a "buffer" function to legitimise a commercial compromise of the state with the interests of capital (e …

Immigrant/Ethnic/Racial Segregation: Canadian Big Three and Prairie Metropolitan Comparison*

Abstract: This article uses factor analysis to examine the three largest Canadian metropolitan centres, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, finding that the three represent distinct ecological segregation types. Montreal represents the dominant French charter type, Vancouver is a western multicultural type, and Toronto has changed from a dominant British charter type to a more recent visible minority type. Having found the Big Three residential segregation types, the study turns to regions, to examine metropolitan centres on the prairies, finding that Winnipeg is similar to Vancouver, but has its own aboriginal low socio-economic aboriginal factor which makes it a unique prairie hybrid type. Residential patterns in Edmonton and Regina are quite similar to those in Winnipeg. Calgary however, tends to follow the Toronto visible minority pattern, but also has some prairie aboriginal features which make it unique as well. Future studies need to explore

Images of Work: Women's Work, Men's Work, Housework

Abstract: Resume: Ce papier examine l'image des adolescents par rapport aux travaux des hommes, aux travaux des femmes et le travail menager. Les donnees du papier proviennent d'interviews de 1200 adolescents ages de 17 ans de la region de Hamilton, Halifax et la Nouvelle - Ecosse rurale. Les jeunes expriment leurs attitudes concernant a) les emplois domines par les hommes et les femmes, b) l'emploi de leur mere, l'emploi de leur pere et le fait d'etre une menagere a temps plein, et c) des descriptions de leur propres attentes d'emploi futur, les emplois de leur pere et leur mere et le travail menager. Les travaux des femmes est rapporter moins desirable que les travaux des hommes, le travail menager es vu comme le travail des femmes et moins desirable (a tous sauf les femmes de la classe ouvriere) que le travail renumere. Les emplois des peres de la classe moyenne sont a la fois desirables et decrit en manieres similaires aux emplois attendus par leurs fils et leurs filles de la classe moyenne. Les femmes de la classe ouvriere sont vraisemblablement a decrire le travail de leur mere en termes positifs et a definir le travail menager comme un option viable. Abstract: This paper examines youth images of men's work, women's work and housework, based on interview data from 1200 seventeen year olds in Hamilton, Halifax and rural Nova Scotia. Youth respondents report their attitudes to (a) male and female dominated jobs, (b) their mother's job, their father's job and being a full-time homemaker, and (c) their descriptions of their own expected job, their father's and mother's job and housework. Women's work is reported as less desirable than men's work, housework is seen as women's work and as less desireable (to all but working class females) than paid work. Jobs of middle class fathers are both desireable to and described in ways similar to the jobs expected by their sons and middle class daughters. Working class females tend to describe their mother's work in positive terms and define housework as a viable option. Introduction This paper looks at the images that youth have of work. In Canada, as in other industrialized nations, the realm of work dominates the lives of young people and shapes their images of themselves (Krahn, 1995; Spenner and Rosenfeld, 1990). Given its salience, we expect that adolescents will have developed relatively detailed images of the world of work.(1) Many of these images are developed within a family context and are anchored in youths' perceptions of their parents' work. A guiding principle in our paper is that work images are socially constructed and socially distributed. That is, the images we have of work reflect our own social location and the social locations that are associated with that type of work. "Men's work," for example, is seen differently than "women's work" (cf. Beechy and Perkins, 1987), and images males and females construct of the world of work will reflect the gender constraints they have themselves experienced (Glick et al., 1995: 565-566). We conceptualise work as activity that entails obligation and responsibility. In this way our concept includes both "paid work" (i.e. participation in the labour force) and unpaid work, particularly the work associated with running a household and caring for children.(2) We argue that youth develop conceptions of what their own work will be like in relation to their images of the work of others they see around them, particularly their parents. That is, they are likely to use their parents' work as a reference point for their own work, both in terms of the specific type of work to which they aspire and more generally what they see as important characteristics of desireable and undesireable jobs. We see images of work as containing two important dimensions: evaluation and linkage. Certain attributes are judged as desirable and others not. For example, creative work may be seen as desirable, dirty work not. …

Science, Nature, and "The Nature of Things": An Instance of Canadian Environmental Discourse, 1960-1994

Abstract: Sur la base de l'interpretation que nos idees de la nature sont formees par des procedes culturels, l'analyse d'une etude thematique de 140 episodes ou segments de «The Nature of Things» presentes entre 1960 et 1994 par le CBC a ete executee dans le but d'examiner certaines des methodes changeantes selon lesquelles il etait possible, probable ou acceptable de concevoir la nature, en visant les consequences qu'elles pourraient avoir sur les interpretations populaires des questions environnementales. Des changements tres prononces ont ete decouverts dans cette etude entourant la science et la nature pendant la duree de l'emission, la nature devenant moins quelque chose que les humains doivent s'efforcer de connaitre et de controler par la science, et plus une innocente victime et une deesse temporelle. On pretend, cependant, que d'une certaine facon, la derniere etude offre une methode permettant d'organiser l'interpretation qui est semblable a la premiere etude en ce qui a trait a ses consequences sur les interpretations environnementales et les resultats eventuels.

Insecurity in the Labour Market: The Case of Canada since the Second World War

Abstract: There is a significant number of reasons available to explain an increase in employment insecurity - that apply to Canada and other rich countries: technology, the internationalization of capital, demographic shocks, and government policy. There is evidence that employment insecurity has increased. But the evidence is not easily reconciled with any of the alternative ac- counts. First, different theories imply different patterns of insecurity over time. Inadequate atten- tion has been paid to the different time paths implied by different theories. Second, the meaning of employment insecurity is less straightforward than much of the writing assumes. Third, conclusions with respect to trends in employment insecurity are highly sensitive to decisions with

Social Structural Model of Women's Reproductive Rights: A Cross-National Study of Developing Countries*

Abstract: Using data from 101 developing countries, this study tests a theoretical model of women's reproductive rights in developing countries. The effects of modernization processes and family planning programs on women's reproductive rights are examined. It is found that family planning programs have no statistically significant effect on women's reproductive rights, although they contribute to the decline in population growth. The effect of women's education on reproductive rights is found to be negative. Gender equality is the most important factor that affects the achievement of women's reproductive rights in developing nations. Social and eco- nomic development does not directly influence women's reproductive rights, but functions through the attainment of women's education and gender equality. Policy implications are discussed. Resume: A l'aide de donnees provenant de 101 pays en voie de d6veloppement, cette etude met

The Polls and the 1995 Quebec Referendum

Abstract: We perform a meta-analysis of 23 voter polls reported in the news media during the two-month period preceding the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum. Contrary to common interpretations of the course of the referendum campaign, we find that there was a smooth and general increase in support for the sovereignty option during this period, and that Lucien Bouchard's dramatic intervention on behalf of the "yes" campaign on October 9 apparently had little effect on voters' stated intentions. The same was true of other putatively consequential events that transpired during the referendum campaign. We conclude that the pre-referendum polls slightly, but systematically, exaggerated the level of support for sovereignty. Resume: Nous executons une analyse "meta" de vingt-trois sondages qui sont annonce dans les journaux devant une periode de deux mois avant la 1995 referendum sur la souverainte du Quebec. En contraste des interpretations conventionelle pendant le cours de la referendum, on trouve un tendance positive pour la souverainte dans tout la periode et que l'intervention de Lucien Bouchard au commencement de 9 d'octobre sera pas de consequence. Ni les interventions des autres evenements touche la direction. On conclus que les sondages avant le referendum, exagere, un peut, le support pour la souverainte du Quebec. The October 30, 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum is surely the most dramatic electoral event in recent Canadian political history. Substantial attention has been paid to the referendum in the popular press and, to a lesser extent, in the scholarly literature, both during and after the event. Nevertheless, while there is substantial commentary on pre-referendum polls, we are aware of no careful statistical analysis of the dynamics of the campaign as revealed in the polls -- a task that we carry out in this paper. The period leading up to the 1995 Quebec referendum was notable for the intensity of political polling -- 23 general polls of voters were reported in the news media in the two-month period preceding the referendum, and by all accounts many more private polls were commissioned by interested parties.(1) Characterisations of the Referendum Campaign In an analysis of the 1992 Canadian constitutional referendum, LeDuc and Pammett (1995: 5) argue that while referenda in parliamentary democracies can be understood in much the same terms as elections, "their outcome is even more dependent on the short-term elements of the campaign." At the start of the 1995 Quebec referendum campaign, the "yes" forces were under the formal leadership of the then-premier of Quebec, Jacques Parizeau. The "no" forces were captained by the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Daniel Johnson. Parizeau's leadership was widely regarded as ineffective. On October 9, in a dramatic gesture, Parizeau ceded direction of the "yes" campaign to Lucien Bouchard, then the leader of the Bloc Quebecois. Just as Parizeau's leadership was considered ineffective, Lucien Bouchard's takeover of the campaign was widely interpreted as giving the "yes" forces an important boost -- an interpretation that persists to this day. For example, on the day after the referendum, the Toronto Globe and Mail ran an article with the headline, "Bloc Quebecois Leader Lucien Bouchard brought big gains when he took over the reigns of the Yes committee" (Picard, 1995).(2) It would not be difficult to produce literally dozens of similar statements. While the dominant interpretation, the efficacy of Bouchard's intervention on the referendum campaign is not universally accepted. Writing in the Montreal newspaper La Presse, Quebec sociologist Pierre Drouilly (1995b) pointed to a generally rising trend of support for the "yes" option in polls conducted during the pre-referendum period. Likewise, in a paper published shortly after the referendum, Universite de Montreal political scientist Edouard Cloutier identified four potential "turning points" in the referendum campaign (Cloutier, 1995: 37): On September 24, Claude Garcia, Chief Executive Officer of the Standard Life Insurance Co. …

Canada's Seraglio Cities: Political Barriers to Regional Governance*

Abstract: The standing argument against governmental consolidation of metropolitan munici- palities is that political boundaries reflect social and economic differentiation. One or another role of the socially differentiated suburb has become a well documented North American phenomenon. The sustaining argument of suburban councillors in any governmentally fragmented metropolitan system is that there exists great divergence in the social composition of their metropolis which, when codified by the artifact of local boundary, justifies differentiated lifestyle claims. These beliefs lend legitimacy to urban myths about better service levels, and a feeling that genuine communities, distinct from the city as a whole, and somehow superior, persists. If there are found to be no distinctions at either of these levels of community or service, the continuing case for the governmentally fragmented city ought not remain so passionate. The case study contrasts the evidence of Calgary, with its unitary municipal government, with the polycentropolis of Edmonton and finds, on both points, a substantial disproof of the traditional public choice case. What is uncovered is that the coalition in the fight for local identity masks a struggle for con- trol of the commercial tax base for some communities, psychological distancing by the exclusion of 'undesirable' tenants in others, and personal status considerations for the councillors everywhere.

The Study of Regional Inequality in Quebec and English Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Perspectives'

Abstract: The question of regional inequality has been a central concern of both Anglo-Canadian sociology and Franco-Quebecois sociology since the 1960's. Starting in the 1980s, the study of regional inequality became less popular in Anglo-Canadian sociology. In Quebec, however, the interest in regional phenomena has continued to grow. This article attempts to explain the seeming diverging sense of importance given to the region in the two main discourses of Canadian sociology. We can discern two main hypotheses that try to explain these differences. The first relates to the differing importance each group places on agency and structure. The second hypothesis concerns the definition of region. In this article we discuss the relative explanatory value of each of these hypotheses. We show that both of these explanation are useful.

Where east meets west : Police, immigration and public order crime in the settlement of Canada from 1896 to 1940

Abstract: * This research was made possible by a grant from SSHRCC for an historical study of the prairie provincial police institutions (#410-91-1395). We thank A. R. Gillis, Tullio Caputo, Leslie Miller, as well as an anonymous reviewer for the journal for helpful comments on an earlier draft. Abstract: In the late 19th century the police in North America and Britain prosecuted public order offenses as a way of regulating the moral and criminal conduct of the lower classes. Between 1896 and 1940, public order law was similarly employed to assimilate the `dangerous foreigners' from southern and eastern Europe. Time series evidence from Canada suggests there was a significant long term relationship between public order offenses (drunkenness and vagrancy) and non-British immigration. There was no long run relationship between immigration and serious crimes. The analysis supports a cultural conflict perspective regarding the policing of foreign immigrants. Resume: A la fin du 19e siecle, la police en Amerique du Nord et en Grande-Bretagne poursuivait en justice les delits de desordre public comme moyen decontrole de la conduite morale et criminelle des classes defavorisees. Entre 1896 et 1940, la loi sur l'ordre public etait employee de facon semblable pour assimiler les "etrangers dangereux" de l'Europe du Sud et de l'Est. Les donness recueillies du Canada suggerent qu'il y a un lien a long terme significatif entre les delits de desordre public (etat d'ebriete et vagabondage) et les immigrants qui ne sont pas d'origine Britannique. Il n'y avait pas de lien a long terme entre l'immigration et les crimes plus serieux. L'analyse demontre un conflit de perspective culturelle a l'egard du maintien de l'ordre parmi les immigrants. Introduction During the latter part of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, moral reformers associated with the social gospel movement, temperance, and the women's movement argued that immigrants, particularly from central and eastern European countries, contributed disproportionably to trends in crime. In the US this concern was reflected in William Dillingham's report to the Immigration Commission, Immigration and Crime (1911) which noted that "juvenile delinquency is more common among immigrants than it is among Americans" (1911: 1). Dillingham attributed such differences to the congestion of cities. By contrast, there was some opinion among Canadian experts that criminal propensities varied by race. In his 1931 census monograph, economist W. Burton Hurd stated that "the propensity to crime is in some measure at least a product of racial background" (1942: 167). As the police records indicate, there were also grave concerns among the police about the suitability of certain European immigrants for citizenship, and their capacity to live as "intelligent" and law-abiding people. The police, as harbingers of the state, found that the task of "educating" the immigrants meant extracting compliance with laws by policing them, and by forcing them before the courts for infractions of the law. In 1917, the Inspector of the Edmonton Division of the Alberta Provincial Police suggested that "[i]n this district there is a large community of extremely ignorant people. Administer the law as it is administered among our Canadian people, and these people may be spoken of one day as intelligent. Cease to administer it and these people will never be good citizens or have any respect for the laws of the country" (Alberta, 1917). The annual reports of the Alberta Provincial Police suggest that this view was shared by other senior policemen. APP Inspector J.S. Piper of Division A (Edmonton) reported to the Commissioner in 1928 that "the increase in the number of both murder and stealing can be attributed to the foreign population mostly, who often think they have the right to take the law into their own hands, and settle any dispute that may happen to arise." In 1938 Thorsten Sellin advanced a cultural conflict theory of crime which suggested that immigrants often ran afoul of criminal law because their cultural norms were contrary to those dominant in North America. …

Toward a civilization of work

Abstract: The debate on "the end of work," which has developed during recent years and which has produced a series of excellent books and papers, is not entirely scientific because it deals, to a large extent, with our representation of the future. The diminishing size of the work week, maybe the impossibility of full employment, the individualization of life projects as much as protracted education years and longer post-retirement period are indicators of a basic cultural and social change; nevertheless, none of them is by itself sufficient to characterize it. What they suggest is that a societal type is born, in which work occupies a smaller and smaller part of individual life as a consequence of a rapidly growing labour productivity and in which central values are no longer defined by participation to collective goals but by self-realization or even by consumption in all its forms. Some people go as far as considering our work-oriented civilization as a short intermediary period between societies, in which the main task was to work out their own reproduction, and future societies, in which mass consumption and shows play a central role and are considered as central values by people who consider their "job" only as a way of getting money to buy leisure-time activities. This type of representation, which is mentioned here in a very rapid and superficial way, is supported by observable facts but is based on interpretations which are far from being demonstrated. It is then necessary to act in a similar way and to introduce different facts and interpretations to defend a different view of social evolution. This is the reason why I decided to give my paper a title which is not provocative but which challenges directly the idea that we are leaving a civilization of work. This paper's title is: Toward a civilization of work. Resume: Le debat sur "la fin du travail," qui s'est developpe au cours des dernieres annees et a donne lieu a une serie d'excellents livres et articles, n'est pas completement scientifique car il a voir, dans une large mesure, avec notre representation de l'avenir. La semaine de travail, qui va en s'amenuisant, l'impossibilite peut-etre du plein emploi, l'individualisation des projets de vie tout comme l'allongement des annees de formation et du temps de retraite sont autant d'indicateurs d'un changement culturel et social de base, mais aucun de ces indicateurs ne peut a lui seul caracteriser ce changement. Ce qu'ils suggerent est qu'un type societal est ne, dans lequel le travail occupe une part de plus en plus faible dans la vie de l'individu, consequence de la croissance toujours plus grande de la productivite dans le travail et dans laquelle les valeurs centrales ne sont plus definies par la participation a des buts collectifs mais par la realisation de soi ou meme par la consommation sous toutes ses formes. Certains vont meme jusqu'a considerer notre civilisation tournee vets le travail comme une courte periode intermediaire entre des societes dont la tache principale etait de se reproduire elles-memes et des societes dans lesquelles la consommation de masse et les spectacles joueront un role central et seront meme consideres comme des valeurs centrales par ceux qui ne voient dans leur emploi qu'une facon de gagner de l'argent afin d'acheter des activites de loisir. Ce type de representation, decrit ici tres rapidement et superficiellement, s'appuie sur des faits observables mais donne lieu a des interpretations qui sont loin d'Etre demontrees. Il faut donc introduire, de facon parallele, d'autres interpretations qui defendent une vision differente de l'evolution sociale. C'est la raison pour laquelle j'ai decide de donner a ce texte un titre, qui n'est pas provocateur mais qui combat directement l'idee que nous sortons d'une civilisation du travail. Je l'ai intitule: Vers une civilisation du travail. Work on the Increase The main reason for my objection to the idea of the "end of work" is that it opposes a society of work to a society which could be called a society of leisure, whereas our experience for the last twenty five years has been quite different i. …

In Memoriam: Remembering Gerd Schroeter

Abstract: To learn that someone has died unexpectedly or prematurely is always shocking, especially when the dead is so undeserving of a hasty departure. Gerd Schroeter's sudden disappearance from the intellectual scene reminds me of how good he was at what he did, and how he overcame with laconic humor and honesty what Adorno called the "damaged life" -- that bitter fruit of the Second World War. He was once characterized by a mutual friend of ours in Kansas as possessed of "an ear for the queer," which I took to be a compliment as much as an analysis. He knew first-hand the peculiarities of history and odd quirks of fate, which visited him one last time long before they should have. I last saw Gerd at the recent ASA meeting in Toronto after a lapse of a decade or so, and he seemed as agelessly congenial and sincerely engaging as ever. He was that slightly built kind of enduring creature who, with a twinkle in the eyes, one imagines will last forever, chattering on into his late 80s about earlier days long after most of his generation have disappeared. To have him slip away in the night, and without having had the chance for another talk or letter, is truly an unsettling event. Recently the American Sociological Association agreed to help set up a national archive of sociological materials in the library at Penn State. Among the most interesting materials that will eventually be deposited there, I suspect, will be private letters sociologists have thought to preserve -- which prompts the following archivally anchored tale, of the sort I think Gerd would have liked. During the mid-80s, Gerd and I shared the editing duties of a fledgling journal called History of Sociology, while I served as its amateur publisher. Its immediate predecessor was the Journal of the History of Sociology, begun in 1978. In its second year I was asked to become its book review editor, mainly because I had submitted a manuscript which argued that Weber and Pareto knew of each other and chose not to cite each other's work -- a contention which at the time was heretical and, I thought, somewhat provocative given their respective attitudes toward "the irrational" in social action. Looking into my letter files, I have found in "Folder 1" my first two letters from Gerd, one dated November 20, 1978 to Glenn Jacobs, then editor of the JHS, and another from December 12, 1978 directed to me, in response to my "answer" to his critique of the paper I had submitted. In all the years since, through hundreds of manuscript reviews I have read -- as editor of Sociological Theory, associate editor of both AJS and ASR, and so on -- I cannot remember having seen any more intelligently informed, precise, and genuinely useful criticisms than those Gerd provided me in my first attempt at publication in a refereed journal. To illustrate his character, allow me to quote from his remarks, wishing I could give them entirely: This is a most interesting manuscript, well-organized, generally well-written, focused on a specific question and obviously germane to fostering a more accurate "history of sociology". (My one qualification is that I find footnote 1 excessively long -- it turns out, indeed, to be rather a "red herring.") I have no doubts that the essay should be published, but to make it even better, would like to raise the following points: 1. The "omphalos" of Sica's article is clearly the discovery that Weber's habilitation was published in Vol. II of Biblioteca di Storia Economica. This has, however, been previously pointed out (without details or even a reference) by Piet Tommissin, "Vilfredo Pareto," in KLASSIKER DES SOZIOLOGISCHEN DENKENS. Ed. Dirk Kasler. Vol. I (1976), p. 476, fn. 4. [In his review in AJS, LXXXIV (Sept. 1978), pp. 486-488, Guy Oakes calls this essay "the most ambitious piece of scholarship" in a collection which "surpasses any comparable volumes in the Anglo-American literature".] Tommissin also refers to Julien Freund, VILFREDO PARETO. …