Showing papers in "International Journal of Comparative Sociology in 1994"

Demography, Development and Deforestation in a World-System Perspective

Abstract: A world systems theory is used to conduct an exploratory examination of the determinants of deforestation throughout the world. The analysis opened up the question of the role of foreign capital penetration through multinational corporations and direct foreign investment and the role of domestic capital concentration. World environmental degradation is considered the product of forest depletion in England during the 16th and 17th centuries that spurred the Industrial Revolution with its environmental impact and regional inequalities. The inequalities have encouraged the semi-periphery to deplete resources for short-term gains in achieving a competitive economic advantage. Deforestation amounts to an estimated loss of 11 million hectares of tropical forests annually or a 50% reduction since 1900. World system theory may be the best theory for modeling trends among countries at different levels of development. Olsen recognized different environmental consequences from social dynamics in different structural settings. Semi-peripheral countries according to Wallerstein are situated between peripheral and core countries and include a range in economic strength and political background. Their economic dependence is on the core countries but their position is upwardly mobile in the world system. Generalized least squares regression models for core semi-peripheral peripheral and combined countries indicate that the largest effect of demographic change on deforestation is in the core. The largest direct and indirect effects of education on deforestation are found in the semi-periphery and from rural encroachment. Service and manufacturing growth is associated with deforestation in the periphery and with rural encroachment in the semi-periphery where it has a dramatic effect on deforestation. Forestation has been linked with economic development. Regulation in the core appears to support sustained development while in the semi-periphery with regulation and technology deforestation is occurring at a rapid rate. The periphery is vulnerable to natural resource exploitation from the semi-periphery and core.

Civil Society and Political Change in Africa: The Case of Non-Governmental Organizations in Kenya

Abstract: THE GROWTH AND political activity of civil society(1) in Africa has been associated with important challenges against authoritarian governments and with fundamental political change in African countries. This correlation is an important step in theorizing about the capacity for political influence among associational groups and non-state actors. This paper seeks to advance this theoretical project by transcending the focus on civil society's actions (events) and instead elaborating on factors that have facilitated effective political actions. Focusing on a specific confrontation between Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Kenya and the Kenyan government, I suggest a combination of factors that enabled NGOs to successfully counter state control of their development activities. Along with numerous others, this incident helped shape state-society relations in Kenya and add to the momentum for political liberalization. A brief example from Kenya illustrates how voluntary and associational groups such as churches, organized labor, professional associations, and grass-root movements have in recent times challenged authoritarian regimes in Africa. Before the mid-1980s the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), an association of 1,500 lawyers, was a little-known entity in Kenyan politics. However, as the single-party government became more authoritarian, the LSK emerged as one of the few civil society organizations that fearlessly opposed the regime. For instance, it vehemently opposed the abolition of the secret ballot in 1986 and later the abolition of security of tenure (thus the independence) of the offices of the attorney general, the auditor general, and the high court judges (Weekly Review, March 30, 1990). By 1991, the Law Society was calling for the government to repeal laws under which government critics were jailed without trials and to register an opposition party (Weekly Review, March 15, 1991). Other examples of civil society challenging undemocratic governments in Africa include Zambia where agitation by nascent pressure groups and the trade union movement led to a multi-party electoral system and the electoral defeat of the former single-party in 1991. In Zaire, scathing condemnation of President Mobutu's regime by the Church and a confluence of student and labor unrest in 1990 in part forced the introduction of multi-party politics (Leslie, 1993). In Ghana and Nigeria--long-governed by military regimes--civic associations, especially the lawyers' associations, have consistently opposed illegal state actions. Indeed, following the annulment of the 1993 elections by Nigeria's military leaders, an assemblage of civic organizations were at the forefront of calling for a constituent conference to re-write the Nigerian constitution. Similarly, NGOs engaged in advocacy activities (e.g. in Zimbabwe and Kenya) or working in strife-torn areas (e.g. in Uganda and Sudan) have also been embroiled in conflicts with governments bent on restricting their activities (Bratton, 1989b; Weekly Review, June 19, 1992). Forthright political actions by civil society organizations have therefore dramatically altered state-society relations and influenced broader political changes in African countries. It is useful to examine recent political changes in Africa through the state-civil society relations framework because it highlights a central tension in the post-colonial African state--also described as a "precarious balance" (Rothchild and Chazan, 1988). This description appropriately captures the relationship between the state--representing the imperatives of order--and society with its diverse and narrow interests representing potential anarchy. Historical experience in Africa shows that the post-colonial state and its imperatives of order triumphed over disorganized societal interests and imposed a rigid political order in the form of a supreme single-party. The party-state suppressed organized collectivities that it considered potential challengers to its dominance of governance and to its legitimacy. …

Civil Society, Patronage and Democracy

Abstract: This article explores the relationship of contemporary analyses of civil society to research venues dealing with the transformational capacity of patronage, at work in democracies. It has two aims. The first is to offer an approach to civil society that is based on both the formal characteristics as well as the pragmatic dimensions of contemporary state-society relationships. The second is to show that within this theoretical approach, patronage appears as an integral part of many modern democratic regimes and must be treated as such in order to publicize the private domain and thus avoid the privatization of the public domain.

National Value Differences: Modernization or Institutionalization?

Abstract: 1. Determinants of values STUDIES OF VALUES have been successful in establishing strong explanatory models of the relation between socio-economic data and values at the individual level. At the national level, however, the results have been much less clear. Analyses with countries as the unit often conclude that there are major national differences which cannot be explained. The European Values Surveys Group (EVSG) had conducted surveys in many European countries around 1981 and in almost all European countries in 1990. These data sets offer interesting possibilities for a closer analysis of differences in values on a national level but the general results have been rather confusing. It has not been possible to produce evidence for simple theoretical explanations and there is, for example, no indication that the economic and political ties which bind the EU countries together have resulted in greater similarity among these countries. On the contrary, an analysis of the EVSG data in the EEC countries conclude that "national culture and opinion in Europe remain robustly diverse" (Ashford and Timms, 1992:112). Much of the research in which countries have been compared has been governed by a more or less explicit use of modernization theory. It is supposed that countries can be ranked as more or less modern and that the modernization process results in lesser emphasis on traditional values and value differentiation. Based on a comparison of the 1981 and 1990 EVSG data Estes, Halman and de Moor (1993) have tried to use modernization theory but have concluded that such a theory could not adequately describe the changes. This may be due to large cultural differences, but the same disappointing picture appears when relatively culturally identical countries are studied. Comparisons among the Scandinavian countries for instance show that a high level of life satisfaction and weak religiosity is found in all countries (Listhaug, 1990). It is tempting to explain such common values with a similar economic development and a somewhat identical culture, but a closer investigation of Scandinavian values concludes that "there is no uniform pattern of values in the Scandinavian countries.... As far as values are concerned Scandinavia is heterogeneous" (Halman, 1992:21). This article tackles the problem by a different method. Countries are characterized by different institutional characteristics and these institutional characteristics have impact on the values of the population. Some of the social institutions are relatively similar in several countries (e.g. family or religious structures) and others may be specific to only one nation. This suggests hypotheses that social institutional factors may explain differences in values, i.e., that the value differences can be explained not by nation which is a theoretically weak variable--but by institutions which exist in several nations. Some countries may have several identical institutions while other institutions may be specific to a given country. The research strategy of this article is to analyze the institutional characteristics of the European countries and show the impact of such characteristics on values. Three types of institutional arrangements have been selected: family, the welfare slate and the nation. In all cases there are institutional structures which have existed for many years, but the character of these institutions do not have a one-to-one relationship to the economic development of the European societies. This gives an opportunity to test two kinds of general assumptions: modernization approach and the social institution approach. The tests are conducted on EVSG 1990 data which are the most comprehensive and recent data set. The first part of the article outlines the two general approaches in order to be able to formulate two alternative hypotheses on values. Based on this the relation between values and modernization on the one hand and institutional arrangements on the other is carried out for the three above-mentioned values. …

Domestic Integration and Suicide in 21 Nations, 1950-1985

Abstract: A study of the impact of domestic integration (marriage, birth and divorce rates) on suicide in twenty-one nations indicated that marriage and divorce rates were associated with suicide rates in the majority of nations as predicted by Durkheim. Birth rates, however, were not consistently associated with suicide rates in the sample of nations. The implications of these results were discussed.

Civil Society and Political Change in Africa

Abstract: Civil society organizations have in recent times significantly altered state-society relations in Africa. Current analyses of these changes have focussed on the oppositional actions by civil society against repressive regimes. However, there is no systematic discussion of the process through which organizations in civil society have mounted challenges against the state or of the factors that make such challenges successful. This paper details how Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Kenya repelled controlling legislation introduced by the Kenyan government in 1990. It details the evolution of this challenge against the Kenyan state and suggests specific factors that enabled NGOs to successfully counter legislative control of their activities. This study therefore demonstrates how NGOs have contributed to the wider political reform movement in Kenya and extends present discussions on the role of civil society organizations in political change in Africa.

Economic development and social security in Mexico, 1945-1985: a time-series analysis

Abstract: Introduction AS SEEN THROUGH THE theoretical lens of most development scholars, recent decades in Mexican history present a number of unexpected paradoxes. The paradox begins with the onset of Mexico's debt crisis. In 1982, Mexico claimed bankruptcy and suspended payments on its $62 billion debt to the U.S. (Canak, 1989). The decision triggered a historic shift in the business of international lending as banks turned to the International Monetary Fund to implement a strategy for dealing with delinquent debtors. Guided by monetarist principles, the IMF has routinely recommended a policy of "structural adjustment" which requires debtor countries to liberalize their economies and implement a set of austerity measures that control wages and cut welfare spending. In the Mexican case, the direct intervention of the IMF has largely accomplished its intended purpose as indicated by the increase in debt service from 39% in 1982 to 63% by 1985 (Wilkie, 1990). Despite the burden of debt service, Mexico's Social Security Institute has continued a historic effort to extend health care services to "marginalized" rural populations through the Solidaridad Social program. Initiated in 1975, this program expanded from a small-scale venture to incorporate more than 18 million Mexicans by 1985. By targeting rural groups, this program addresses one of the most enduring problems in Third World countries. The expansion of this program challenges many predictions about the consequences of debt crisis. More broadly, recent events challenge development scholars to refine widely-accepted generalizations about the relationship between economic development, welfare states and quality of life. To clarify this link, this study provides a time-series analysis which carefully compares economic development and social security coverage in Mexico from 1945 to 1985. Time-series offers several advantages over cross-national research designs which have dominated quantitative development research. In this case, time-series regression techniques are used to explore the possibility that the dynamics of economic growth and the politics of social security differ in the context of dependent development and debt crisis.(1) Theoretical Perspectives on Dependency, Economic Growth and the Welfare State For two decades, studies of Third World development have been dominated by dependency theory. Classical dependency theory claims that international economic arrangements systematically impede both economic development and the development of the welfare state. Economic "underdevelopment" is traced to an excessive dependence on foreign capital and export-oriented trade. These forms of dependency drain Third World countries of valuable raw materials and capital, tie economic growth to unpredictable world prices, and inhibit the development of locally-based industries (see Rubinson and Holtzman, 1981). The development of the welfare state is similarly stunted, in part because economic growth is considered a necessary precursor to the expansion of social security, public health care and similar programs (see Moon and Dixon, 1985). In addition, foreign investment directly discourages political elites from implementing redistributive welfare programs. Classical dependency theory invokes an "elite dominant" model of politics to explain this outcome. More specifically, Third World states are considered "weak" instruments of foreign capital that systematically reproduce the interests of multinationals by sacrificing welfare programs to promote capital accumulation (see Carnoy, 1984; Migdal, 1988). While classical dependency persists, many scholars agree that the dependent development perspective more adequately acknowledges the transitions evident in post-war Mexico, Brazil, and other similar countries. According to Evans (1979), the transition from classical dependency to dependent development involves a radical transformation of the economy, the state and the politics of welfare. …

Economic Development and Social Security in Mexico, 1945-1985

Abstract: Debate persists about the relationship between economic development and the development of the welfare state in Third World countries. The expansion of social security in Mexico in the context of debt crisis presents a historical puzzle that challenges many theoretical expectations. In light of this puzzle, this study re-evaluates and compares the determinants of economic development and social security coverage through a time-series analysis of post-revolutionary Mexico. The analysis generates three important findings. First, the determinants of economic development and social security coverage differ considerably. Second, these differences suggest that the dependent development perspective may adequately account for the dynamics of economic development but does not adequately theorize the development of social security. Rather, a political struggle model which emphasizes the role of social protest as an impetus to welfare reform receives support in the Mexican case. Both strikes and opposition party politics have a positive effect on social security coverage, even in the context of economic constraints. Finally, this study indicates that the dynamics of economic development and social security politics vary significantly across time. The need for historically specific studies of development is further suggested by these findings.

National Value Differences

Abstract: All research shows substantial between-country differences in values. How can these be explained? This article argues that a social institution's approach is more effective than the often-used modernization theory to explain value differences among countries. The analysis is based on European data from the European Values Study Group's surveys in 1990. It is shown that familism is best explained by examining particular denominations, that dominate a country. Welfare-state values are explained by the character of the welfare state and nationalistic values by the heterogeneity of the nation. The result is a picture of fragmentation of values among the European countries based on fundamental institutional arrangements in the various countries, the conclusion being that it cannot be expected that it is possible to create common European values.

The Subconscious in Organizational Control: The Case of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry

Abstract: I. Culture and the Study or Organization ALTHOUGH LONG TRADITIONS of theory and research in the social sciences address the orientations of employees to their jobs and places of employment, there has been in recent years a convergence of interest, from highly diverse quarters, in the problem of control within, and commitment to, the work organization. From industrial psychologists to organizational sociologists to Marxist labor process theorists, a focus on the efforts by companies to foster dependence, loyalty and identification in a workforce has superseded older scholarly concerns with industrial attitudes, performance, and conflict. Part of the reason for the renewed attention to the question of commitment and cohesion is a widening theoretical interest in the role it plays in modern organizational control and its connection to culture. Since many centuries ago fundamental work values of Western countries stemmed from the Protestant Work Ethic, with its advocacy of individual achievement, personal responsibility and independence (Weber, 1920). Adam Smith reinforced these values by his moral philosophy in which he claimed that individuals should pursue their self-interest in order to have better consequences for society (Campbell, 1981). However, in recent years, increased attention has been paid to the concept of culture and its interorganizational implications, its relation to interpersonal network in organizations and to its contribution to organizational effectiveness. In a large and growing number of studies scholars have attempted to define, refine, and apply a cultural prospect to the illustration and analysis of organizational phenomenon. The concept of culture has in recent years been used with increasing frequency in the area of organizational studies, obliging experts to define it. In the field of sociology, culture is used as a collective noun for the symbolic and learned aspects of human society. Kluckhohn (1962) states that culture consists of patterns transmitted by symbols and the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values. Geertz (1973) also encounters culture with signs and symbols as instruments for collective communication. Hence, culture refers to a shared system of values, norms, and symbols which have become crystallized in the institutions they have built together. The continuing interest in the concept of culture suggests a change in emphasis in the study of organizations. The focus on culture is associated with a stress on the subjective realm, and a turn to interpretative and qualitative approaches in sociology, and organizational sociology in particular (Hofstede, 1986). The rise of organizational symbolism should involve the introduction into organization theory of formerly remote disciplines, including anthropology and history (Turner, 1990 quoted in Rowlinson & Hassard, 1993). In the field of organizational behavior the concept of culture has been welcomed in the hope that it might make organizational behavior relatively less reliant on the empirical analytical sciences and more dependent on the hermeneutic sciences. When attributed to organizational contexts, culture and its related perceptions present a relatively new approach and precise lexicons combining with a type of original hypothetical variables to the study of organization. According to Dobson (1990) culture in organization is observed as the result of shared organizational values that are stipulated in an unspoken, implicit contract between employer and employee. Berlin & Reimel (1992) who presented the organizational culture as a system of values which are meaningful to and shared by all members of the organization. Therefore in that concern, culture is principally perceived as the communal principles governing subjective and effective aspects of membership in an organization, and the means whereby they are shaped and expressed. Within the broad perception of culture, special emphasis has been attributed to the shared meanings, norms, and values that govern workrelated behavior, in particular the functionalist and structural causes and consequences of cultural forms and their relationship to various measures of organizational effectiveness (Kunda, 1992). …

Gender Inequality in the Japanese Occupational Structure

Abstract: This study examines the degree of sex segregation in the Japanese occupational structure from a comparative perspective with the British and American societies. Contrary to the expectation that Japan is a traditional society as far as the status of women in the labor market is concerned, the overall degree of sex segregation in Japan is smaller than it is in Great Britain and the United States. The low degree of sex segregation may be explained by two factors: (1) relatively smaller shares of managerial and service occupations in which men and women respectively are over-represented, and (2) more equal sex composition in clerical, blue-collar production process, and agricultural occupations. Opportunities for part-time work seem to further reduce the sex segregation index in Japan, unlike in Britain and the United States, because many Japanese female part-time workers are engaged in blue-collar occupations rather than white-collar occupations. However, gender inequality in the Japanese labor market is probably manifested in the form of access to authority in the workplace, employment status, and full-time/part-time distinction within occupations.

Reconciling Conceptual and Measurement Problems in the Comparative Study of Human Rights

Abstract: This study is an attempt to reconcile past divisions in the conceptualization and measurement of human rights. It proposes a multidimensional concept of human rights, which integrates civil and political and social and economic rights. The multidimensionality of human rights is also examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of human rights indicators. The results reveal that there are five dimensions of the concept. These five dimensions comprise two main domains, human rights promise and practice. The dimensions of the promise and practice domains are combined to create two separate multidimensional scales. The analysis is cross-sectional using cross-national data for 82 countries.

Job Satisfaction and Work Redesign: Findings From Australia

Abstract: Job satisfaction is among the most popular and widely debated topics in the areas of organizational behavior and human resource management. The reasons for this interest are quite varied and include the idea that an understanding of the potential antecedents of satisfaction should assist the development of applied models of organizational behavior and work redesign. Based on a large scale study of the Australian telecommunications, this article attempts to illuminate issues pertaining to the Australian public sector in its advocacy for task-orientated strategies of organizational change.

The Reassertion of United Hegemony: Evidence from the United Nations General Assembly

Abstract: THE FOCUS OF the present paper is the American led victories in the cold war and in the North/South struggle, and the consequent reassertion of American hegemony. These are seen here as two conceptually distinguishable struggles, victories, and defeats. But the two--no matter from what angle they are viewed--are intertwined and mutually interacting. This is a logical hypothesis, one that will be tested in this study. The evidence used here to indicate the American led victories is ultimately traceable to roll calls of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The roll calls are the raw material used since 1984 by the United States mission to the United Nations to generate annual indices of concordance with the United States position for each member and also aggregated composite indices for key groups. Two indices have been generated for each member and for key groups. One type index features all roll calls for a session; the other type only the restricted number of roll calls for the session deemed important by the U.S. mission and on which the mission and even the U.S. embassies around the world lobbied. The publication of these two types of indices allows the researcher the rare opportunity to resolve a classical enigma in roll call analysis: how to distinguish between the reaction of the voter to the substance and content of a bill or a draft resolution versus the reaction of the voter to the impact of factions, parties, and other outside pressures impinging on the voter. The literature indicates that the voting on all roll calls should be used to indicate reaction to content and substance, that on roll calls deemed important and lobbied by the U.S. mission, the example in our case, should be used to measure the impact of U.S. pressure and therefore the presence of U.S. hegemony. In the case of the third world in this study, this pressure is visualized as being pitted against the opposing pressure associated with loyalty to the other members of the group. Each type index will be applied to both of the major struggles presented in the paper, and the findings will be duly recorded and interpreted. The U.S. Mission has published annually both types of indices, beginning in 1984, with the last one published in 1992 and applying to 1991. They thus span the cold war and post cold war period. This provides a unique opportunity to test what Tomlin calls the convergent validity of roll calls, the ability of these instruments to reflect "reality", i.e. the situation as it exists outside the halls of the world institution. In this case we know what happened to communism in 1989 and 1990 in the real world, and we shall examine the two types of indices which precede and which follow the death of communism. The fact that the changes for the former Soviet bloc were dramatic is significant for our purposes, since the paper is built upon the assumption of convergent validity. The paper provides other persuasive empirical evidence to support this type of validity before the mission's indices are examined. Both indices for the former Soviet bloc and those for the third world witness dramatic change in the post cold war period, but there is a significant difference in the changes. This will enable us to draw a distinction between the defeat of communism and the defeat of the South: the North/South struggle continues on as a substantive policy, but attenuated by increasing pressure from the United States. The impact which the defeat of communism had upon the third world will also be assessed. The defeat of the Southern states in "the real world" has been less obvious than that of communism, and their defeat will be discussed in the section which follows this introduction. The defeat of communism in the real world will be assumed, this struggle being too broad to fit within the parameters of the paper. The Southern defeat took place in the arena of political economy, and it will be discussed in the context of the oil shocks and the economic policies of the Reagan administration. …

Dissent and Repression in the World-System: A Model of Future Dynamics

Abstract: L'A. estime que pour comprendre les phenomenes de dissidence et de repression il convient d'adopter une approche macrosystemique et dynamique. Il regrette que les etudes sur ce probleme se soit limitees a un niveau national. Les AA. montrent les deficiences de ces perspectives ne tenant pas compte des variables globales et proposent un modele derive de la theorie des sytemes-mondes. Ils examinent les phenomenes de dissidence et de repression dans les zones peripheriques et cherchent a isoler les variables fondamentales pour le systeme

Gender inequality in the Japanese occupational structure : a cross-national comparison with Great Britain and the United States

Abstract: Les AA. etudient la discrimination sexuelle dans la structure occupationnelle du Japon et compare cette situation avec celle de la Grande-Bretagne et des Etats-Unis. Contrairement aux perspectives qui font du Japon une societe traditionnelle, du point de vue de la discrimination sexuelle sur le marche du travail, celle-ci est plus forte en Grande-Bretagne ou aux Etats-Unis qu'au Japon. On compte moins de surrepresentation d'un des deux sexes dans les domaines de la direction ou des services, le secteur industriel et dans la categorie des employes. La discrimination n'apparait qu'au niveau de la sphere du pouvoir et au niveau des statuts d'emploi

The Subconscious in Organizational Control

Abstract: In this paper the author wishes to throw light on the crucial functions of culture as a control mechanism. The author's purpose, hence, is to attain a multi-dimensional (horizontal and vertical) presentation of the Japanese interorganizational control, through an illustrative analysis of the structures and practices which achieve control, not through coercive utilitarian means, but through normative and symbolic inducements, with the emphasis on the consequences of this system for its members. Furthermore, this study investigates the rational explanation behind the enigmatic culture in the Japanese workplace and its function in maintaining control, and determining actions and motivation. The author's approach suggests that the behavior of employees of MHI stemmed not solely from strong group pressures to conform to well-established behavioral cultural norms governing Japanese worklife but from individual alternativeless option. Hence, controlled behavior (subconsciously culturally-oriented behavior) and commitment may simply reflect individual adaptation to superficial structures and thus an absence of choice. Moreover, the author proved that the commitment of MHI's workers is to a significant degree a direct reflection of the values embedded in Japanese culture and internalized through 'reproduction' by individual Japanese and in the organization of the firms. The nature of this study is qualitative. The reader will be exposed to ethnographic research which was carried out in Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, Japan.

Book reviews : Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley, Exploring Revolution: Essays on Latin American Insur gency and Revolutionary Theory. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1991, pp. 256, $ 35.00 (cloth)

Abstract: From the title, one might assume this to be a study of narrow focus, with limited appeal or value to the academic community. On the contrary, it has extensive implications not only for sociology, but also for economics and political science, and for crosscultural understanding as well. Japan and the U.S. differ markedly in outlook and practice relative to individual philanthropy, in the place and operation of non-profit corporations, and in the leadership role of government relative virtually to all public and private projects. Regardless of these differences, there are significant changing patterns and values in Japanese society: there are all too many in the U.S. who fail to realize or to recognize that Japanese corporations have donated more than 220 million dollars since the 1970’s to academic and other institutions, essentially in the U.S.

The Korean-Americans' Role Perception Toward the NorthSouth Reunification Issue

Abstract: This paper investigates the opinions of Korean-Americans living in the United States regarding their attitudes and perceptions toward North-South reunification in the Korean peninsula. According to the analysis, the North-South reunification issue is seen as an issue whose resolution will not happen any time soon. It is also, at the same time, one that Koreans, regardless of background or ideological affiliation, feel strongly about and are willing to contribute considerable effort to.

Book reviews : Ian Roberts, Craft, Class and Conflict: The Sociology of a Shipbuilding Community. Edin burgh : Edinburgh University Press Ltd., 1993, 228 pp., $ 50.00 (cloth)

Abstract: tics, and the Social Relation of Production&dquo; and Anne Showstack Sassoon’s &dquo;Gramsci, the Left and the 1990s: An Agenda for Research&dquo; somehow seem to lead nowhere, at least not toward a renewal of socialism. Finally, Michael E. Brown’s &dquo;The Future of Marxism and the Future of Theory&dquo; leaves the reader with the impression that there is not much justification for hoping that Marxism has a future. Although Brown is convinced of the vitality of Marxist theory, the evidence to which he points are discourses and debates where Marxism once had an impact on social theory. But this evidence is related to the past, while at present Marxist theory appears to be on the defense. Marxist theory will keep its place in the discoursive field, but-as far as can be seen from, the book under review-its vitality seems exhausted. Socialism is not merely going through a period of crisis but has-unnoticed by some Marxistswidely evaporated. The strategy of immunity to blame capitalism for the failure of socialism and to opt for another epoch of true socialism is neither new nor convincing.

Kinship, Marriage and the Family: Eight Time Series, 35000 B.C. to 2000 A.D

Abstract: This paper presents long-range time series for eight concepts of marriage, family and kinship. Each time series is, respectively, a time series of the probability of living in a society where: 1) the ultimate sovereign group is a kinship unit; 2) the ultimate sovereign kinship group is an independent family; 3) the independent family is the predominant family form; 4) neolocal residence predominates; 5) bilateral kinship exists; 6) no consideration (or only bridal gifts) is given when obtaining a wife; 7) individuals have complete freedom to choose a spouse; and 8) where divorce occurs frequently. The method used to construct a time series of a probability that a discrete random variable X=x, x=1,2,... is conditioning on another discrete random variable Y, Y=1,2,3 which is observable both in the archaeological record and in an ethnographic cross-cultural data base. Conditional probabilities P(X=x |Y=y), x=1,2..., y=1,2,3 are obtained from the ethnographic cross-cultural data base. Uses for such time series are outlined.