Showing papers in "European Sociological Review in 1996"

Rational Choice, Empirical Research, and the Sociological Tradition

Abstract: In this article we argue that rational choice theory can play a progressive role in unifying theoretical and empirical work in sociology. The basis of rational choice theorizing is outlined, and it is argued that important ideas of Karl Popper, Max Weber, and Robert K. Merton properly belong in this tradition. Three elements in rational choice theorizing are deemed particularly essential for explanatory sociological theory: the principle of methodological individualism, the analytical mode of theorizing, and the notion of intentional explanation. The article also contains a critique of variable-centred research for paying insufficient attention to the role of actions and intentions in generating the data being observed. Acceptable explanations should, in principle, always specify the mechanism(s) involved, and this usually requires direct references to the actions and interactions of individuals.

The changing meaning of cohabitation and marriage.

Abstract: "In the Netherlands, the social meaning of both marriage and cohabitation has changed. Cohabitation started as an alternative way of living, developed into a temporary phase before marriage, and finally became a strategy for moving into a union gradually.... This article addresses the question whether or not individual past and current life-course experiences become increasingly important in explaining the differentiation of entry into marriage across female birth cohorts, and yet become decreasingly important in explaining the differentiation of entry into cohabitation across female birth cohorts. This question is examined using a non-proportional hazard model. Empirical evidence supports this hypothesis strongly, in that both past determinants such as family size or religion and current life-course determinants such as work or education change in their impact on cohabitation and marriage across birth cohorts."

The Quantitative Analysis of Large-Scale Data-sets and Rational Action Theory: For a Sociological Alliance

Abstract: L'A. s'efforce de comprendre de quelle maniere la theorie de l'action rationnelle peut etre utilisee pour analyser des donnees quantitatives agregees. Il souligne l'importance de ce type de donnees en ce qui concerne la comprehension des actions individuelles. Il estime, dans le meme temps, que la theorie de l'action rationnelle permet de donner sens aux donnees collectees sur une grande echelle

'Losing my religion' : a dynamic analysis of leaving the church in the Netherlands

Abstract: In this article, we examine the influence of individual attributes (education, parental education, religious homogamy of parents, religious homogamy of respondent and spouse, frequency of attending religious services, and denomination) and contextual characteristics (cohort and period effects of secularization) on the risk of leaving a faith, using life-event data from the Dutch Family Survey 1992-1993. This approach allows a stronger test of the direction of causality, and enables us to disentangle life-cycle, period, and cohort effects. The results show that education, parental education, and marrying a non-religious spouse significantly increase the risk of becoming unchurched. With regard to the influence of both one's own and one's parents' education, it appears that up to the level of higher secondary education (HAVO) each higher level of education linearly increases the risk of becoming unchurched. Also, the results show a non-linear life-cycle effect: people are more likely to leave their faith when they are in their late teens. Furthermore, our results suggest a period effect: the current level of secularization increases the risk of becoming unchurched.

The Salience of the Part-time Divide in the European Union

Abstract: This paper assesses the salience of the distinction between full-time and part-time work for the crossnational analysis of divisions within the female labour force. Occupational, household, and attitudinal data from the European Union labour-force survey are used to consider the similarity and difference between member states in the extent and form of part-time work and in the supply of labour for parttime work. Part-timers are found to be more segregated than full-timers in every country, even though there are important country differences in the character of these jobs and workers across European labour markets. The conclusion is that the part-time-full-time divide is an important variable which captures a polarisation in the experience of employment between different groups of women. However, the nature of the "part-time divide' within the female labour force and the incidence of part-time work varies across countries and over time. Therefore, comparative research cannot simply focus upon full-timers if it is to develop an adequate interpretation of trends in segregation and the labour-market outcomes for women. Instead comparisons must separate full-timers from part-timers, but analyse them together.

Macro-sociology, rational choice theory, and time : A theoretical perspective on the empirical analysis of social processes

Abstract: L'A. montre que la theorie des choix rationnels tend a prendre une place de plus en plus importante dans le cadre de l'analyse sociologique. Il s'efforce de comprendre pourquoi celle-ci a peu ete utilisee en ce qui concerne l'analyse de donnees agregees. Il montre de quelle maniere il est possible d'allier perspective microsociologique et macrosociologique. Il souligne la contribution de Weber en ce domaine

Collective Bargaining and Industrial Change: A Case of Disorganization? A Comparative Analysis of Eighteen OECD Countries

Abstract: According to the 'disorganization thesis', industrial change - namely economic internationalization and the expansion of the service sector - is expected to cause a shift from non-market governance institutions to the market. On the basis of a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis, this paper examines this assumption with regard to labour relations systems, using collective bargaining coverage as an indicator of a system's degree of organization. Disorganization would mean a negative association between industrial change and coverage, as well as a unidirectional decline in coverage over time. No evidence of this can be found. Instead, diversity and divergence prevail among countries. This is because the specific pattern of how bargaining is embedded in labour relations mediates the effects of industrial change. There is a divide between two distinct bargaining patterns : that is, an inclusive one with largely stable coverage, and an exclusive one which indeed recorded a decline in coverage. The paper concludes by discussing the future prospects for bargaining and the theoretical implications of these empirical findings

What is Wrong with ‘Variable Sociology’?

Abstract: The basic method of quantitative social research is the analysis of relations between so-called variables. This article indicates by using some examples the explanatory deficiency of this method, and deals with the question of why an action-theoretical background explanation is necessary. Above all it is shown that statistical models of variable relations are themselves to be explained and cannot play the role of an explanans. Finally, attention is drawn to some socio-structural conditions of Variable Sociology, which have recently taught us that an action-theoretical foundation for Variable Sociology needs to be recognized. Quantitative social research with large data-sets is normally conducted as 'Variable Sociology': the explanandum is the dependent variable; the explanans consists of a series of independent variables, for which particular effects on the dependent variable are suggested and then tested empirically. The explanandum is 'explained' to the extent to which it is possible to 'explain' the variance of the dependent variables. For the most part, no further assumptions about the importance of the contributions of particular independent variables are made. Nevertheless, it is also possible to find more elaborate and 'deductive' models: for instance, hypotheses that particular effects should disappear when other variables are controlled. If these prognoses are confirmed and if the statistical model 'fits' the data, then almost everything that is achievable, within the structure of Variable Sociology (VS), is achieved.

Post-war patterns of intermarriage in Australia : the Mediterranean experience

Abstract: Les AA. montrent que le nombre des mariages interethniques refletent le degre d'assimilation des differents groupes. Ils presentent une analyse par cohortes des donnees de rencensement collectees en 1986 en Australie. Ils tentent de suivre l'evolution des mariages interethniques. Ils examinent un certain nombre de facteurs : le statut economique, le niveau d'instruction, la langue maternelle, l'appartenance religieuse. Ils comparent la situation des ressortissants issus de l'Europe du nord-ouest, de ceux originaires de l'Europe centrale ou des regions mediterraneennes, des individus venus du Proche-Orient ou de l'Extreme-Orient et de ceux originaires des pays anglophones

Labour mobility and employment stability: rhetoric and reality on the sex ferential in labour-market behaviour

Abstract: Using national data for Britain and other industrial societies, we assess claims that sex differentials in labour mobility and employment stability have disappeared with rising female labour-force participation rates. Results for Britain show a continuing sex differential of 50 per cent in the standard measures of labour turnover and job tenure. These sex differentials are typical of the European Community and other industrial societies. Further, sex differentials in labour mobility and employment continuity are dramatically increased when the focus changes to movement in and out of the labour force instead of attachment to a particular employer. Women are two to four times more likely than men to enter and exit the workforce in a given period. Work histories display even more fundamental sex differences, and show that discontinuous employment has been replacing continuous employment and the homemaker career among women. The methodological implications for the analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal data, and the substantive and theoretical implications for understanding women's employment are addressed. Qualitative divisions within the female workforce can no longer be ignored, as they impact on occupational grade, earnings and life chances, and can distort crossnational comparisons.

Legitimacy, Democracy, and Comparative Economic Growth Reconsidered

Abstract: Recently, Bornschier (1989) suggested that legitimacy might be a determinant of comparative economic success and that it should be operationalized by relative absence of mass political protest. From a rational choice perspective, there are theoretical reasons to accept Bornschier's claim as well as some reasons to doubt it. In spite of his careful investigation of the robustness of the empirical linkage between absence of mass political protest and economic growth rates, Bornschier did not consider the possibility that distributional coalitions and the damage they do to efficient resource allocation may affect the link between legitimacy and economic performance. In order to investigate this possibility, the impact of distributional coalitions is indexed by 'age of democracy! Reanalysing the post-war economic performance of industrialized democracies demonstrates that neither are Bornschier's (1989) earlier findings as robust as he seems to believe, nor indeed are the effects of 'age of democracy'as robust as I claimed on the basis of previous studies (Weede, 1984,1986,1991).

Marginalization, deprivation, and fatalism in the Republic of Ireland: class and underclass perspectives

Abstract: L'A. affirme que le chomage de longue duree est tres important en Republique d'Irlande. Il s'interroge sur la formation d'une « sous-classe ». Il etudie le lien entre marginalite sur le plan professionnel, pauvrete et fatalisme. Il estime que le concept de « sous-classe » ne convient pas en cette affaire. Il montre que les changements sociaux ont frappe plus durement les cohortes les plus jeunes issues de la classe ouvriere. Il convient donc d'analyser leur situation sociale en terme de classe et non de sous-classe

The Material Possessions of Israeli Ethnic Groups

Abstract: The present research focuses on ethnic disparities in standard of living, as reflected in ownership of household goods. The study examines the extent to which inequality in the possession of household goods is due to ethnic differences in earnings, wealth, and social and demographic characteristics -that is, family resources- versus ethnic styles and preferences. Using the 1986-7 Family Expenditure Survey (conducted by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics), three major ethnic groups (i.e. European-American Jews, Asian-African Jews, and Arabs) are compared. Eleven household items were selected to construct two scales : labour-saving appliances and leisure-oriented devices. The data reveal that ethnic inequality, which has been repeatedly observed in the labour market, is also evident with regard to standard of living. The data further demonstrate that the effects of ethnicity differ considerably for the two types of household goods. What is of particular interest is the fact that the disparity in ownership of goods (either labour-saving or leisure-oriented) cannot be fully explained by differences in earnings and wealth, together with social and demographic attributes of the household units. The findings suggest that theoretical models that are invoked to explain individual performance and outcomes in the labour market, are less useful for understanding family well-being, living standards, and family decisions. Other alternative explanations, including ethnic styles, preferences, and extra-market family resources, are considered

Sibling Resemblance in Educational Attainment, Occupational Prestige, and Wealth in Hungary during the Communist Regime

Abstract: In order to test the suggested decline of the family we compare sibling resemblance in the life-chances of five Hungarian cohorts born during the twentieth century. Similar studies in Germany and the Netherlands show less sibling resemblance in younger cohorts. However, one might argue that this trend towards the decline of sibling resemblance cannot be found in societies with a communist regime. A consequence of the communist regime is an increase in the importance of the family as the most important means of improving one's life-chances, because the other non-political institutions have been destroyed or are dominated by the party. The most important conclusion in this analysis of sibling resemblance in educational attainment, occupational prestige, and wealth in Hungary during the communist regime is that this resemblance did not decrease in younger birth cohorts, contrary to results from analyses on changes occurring over time in sibling resemblance in Western European societies. The slowly declining effect of father's educational attainment and wealth is less than might be predicted on the basis of theories on modernization or state socialism

Choice-centred versus subject-centred theories in the social sciences. The influence of simplification on explananda

Abstract: The idea, originating in economics and forcefully brought back by Goldthorpe, that rational choice theory and large-scale data analysis are symbiotic, is very attractive. Rational choice is in dire need of explananda which can be provided by large-scale data analysis, while large-scale data analysis is in dire need of an explanatory device; at the moment, rational choice can provide this better than any alternative approach. However, this idea is limited. It can only be applied to situations in which the specific simplifications made in rational choice model-building do not seriously affect the explananda. Ignoring this complication has created a very unsatisfactory use of rational choice theories in economics and sociology alike: a choice-centred approach in which the main task is to show that choice theory can be applied to the phenomena at hand, rather than to advancing knowledge in the field that specializes in the study of the phenomenon. What is needed is a subject-centred approach in which the quality criteria are related to advancement in the field, with rational choice theory taking a back seat. For a subject-centred approach, we need to have so-called 'feeder theories' which inform us about the impact of model specifications on explananda. If the simplication disregards important tendencies of human behaviour (such as short-sightedness), it cannot even acknowledge explananda of the ways people try to deal with these tendencies (say, by norms that shorten the time-horizon). There can thus be a direct relationship between the kind of simplification and the reality under consideration. Feeder theories thus open up the possibility of studying the interactive relationship between rational choice theory and explananda (be they from large-scale data analysis, from experiments, or from historical descriptions) and avoiding a choice-centred approach in favour of a subject-centred approach.

Do rational choice approaches have problems

Abstract: By analysing examples, this paper makes three points about rational choice approaches within sociology. First, it is maintained that statistical techniques such as path diagrams and log-linear models are more suited to rational choice approaches than is apparent from rational choice criticisms of empirical social research. Secondly, it is held that the conditions under which the postulate that people act rationally is applied are more important than this postulate itself, and that there should be a shift from 'single decision, one good and two actors' to 'multiple decision, three actors and two goods' auxiliary assumptions. Thirdly, it is argued that rational choice approaches pay insufficient attention to the questions they should address and that the sociological tradition might furnish questions leading to exemplars which turn rational choice approaches into a progressive sociological paradigm.

Talcott Parsons and the Transformation of German Society at the End of World War II

Abstract: Various critics, mainly at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s, charged Parsons with the inability to understand social change and with normative determinism. This criticism has been aptly contradicted in the 1980s. However, such recent rehabilitation of Parsons's ability to analyse conflict in society, epitomized by his views on National Socialism, still misses out on some important issues. One is that, visible even in the guise of the abstract formulations of «The Social System», he not only used National Socialism as a subject of historical reference, but also developed a sociology of National Socialism in the 1940s. In it, systems theory addressed the practical problems of the day and attempted to contribute to their solutions by means of social-science analysis. An article published in 1945 was an obvious occasion where he made visible how his sociology of Nazism could contribute to a policy programme for the post-war democratization of Germany. That this involved economic integration of Europe as a most desirable strategy he explained in a number of memoranda written in 1945 for a government agency. These have not been analysed hitherto. In this context of economic planning for peace he devised some cogent suggestions that are strikingly similar to the ideas which subsequently inspired the Marshall Plan