Showing papers in "Sociology in 1983"
TL;DR: In this article, a series of articles has appeared, the aim of which has been to demonstrate an unjustifiable neglect of women in social stratification theory and research and, in turn, to level c...
Abstract: Over recent years a series of articles has appeared, the aim of which has been to demonstrate an unjustifiable neglect of women in social stratification theory and research and, in turn, to level c...
385 citations
TL;DR: The authors suggest that in the course of social interaction much referring activity is spontaneous and that people refer and infer how people infer from the information they receive and how they infer how to infer it.
Abstract: How people refer and how they infer are key empirical questions for the sociology of knowledge. In the present paper, I suggest that in the course of social interaction much referring activity is s...
215 citations
TL;DR: A study of the concepts used by elderly Aberdonians is reported, exploiting two data sources: an intensive study of two social networks, and a random sample survey.
Abstract: There is increasing interest in the concepts through which lay people identify states of health - in their cultural origins and in their connection with preventive or remedial behaviour. A study of the concepts used by elderly Aberdonians is reported, exploiting two data sources: an intensive study of two social networks, and a random sample survey.Concepts of health as the relative absence of disease are distinguished from health as a dimension of strength, weakness and exhaustion, and from health as functional fitness. In this Scottish material, functional fitness is dependent on freedom from disabling disease and not on strength, but strength is an important concept logically distinct from both disease and functional fitness. The `strength' dimension is poorly represented in scientific research on health indicators; but on the other hand lay concepts tend not to acknowledge pain as a dimension in itself.A comparison with a similar French study suggests that while these three lay dimensions of health ar...
118 citations
Abstract: The substantive focus is upon the relation between Rockefeller philanthropy and the development of the social sciences during the period, 1910 to 1940. Two major propositions are examined. First, that philanthropic foundations attempt to maintain the social order rather than alter it. Specifically, that during the period under study philanthropic foundations were key institutions in both the reproduction and production of cultural hegemony. Second, that a “critical-conflict” perspective has most value when one is attempting to understand the nature and sources of change in the systematic production of both knowledge and intellectuals. Attention is focussed upon the process by which Rockefeller policy for the social sciences emerged. The policy is described and analysed. The ideological viewpoint of Rockefeller philanthropy as identified in the policy-making process is located in the wider political economy. Confirmation is provided for the two propositions. Hegemony, ideology and social class are essentia...
107 citations
TL;DR: The origins of the contrast between Britain and Germany are explored by reference to the development of post-school vocational education in the two countries, and this leads to the conclusion that strategic choices about contemporary work organization were in effect made at a societal level a century ago as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: There tends to be more extensive occupational specialization outside the core production area in British manufacturing companies than in German ones. This appears to be associated with the emphasis in Britain on professionalism in industry, a concept which is largely absent in Germany. The British approach is seen to have unfavourable consequences for the status of production and of manufacturing industry in general, with quite likely depressing effects on its performance. The origins of the contrast between Britain and Germany are explored by reference to the development of post-school vocational education in the two countries, and this leads to the conclusion that strategic choices about contemporary work organization were in effect made at a societal level a century ago. The analysis indicates that industrial policy cannot be confined to changes within the industrial sector alone.
80 citations
45 citations
32 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the relevance of data from a recent survey to the thesis that the welfare state is currently running the risk of a crisis of political legitimacy, focusing respectively on the role of ideology and the maximization of individual values in the production of dissenting opinions about state policy.
Abstract: This paper considers the relevance of data from a recent survey to the thesis that the welfare state is currently running the risk of a crisis of political legitimacy. Two traditions in the discussion of legitimation issues are outlined, focusing respectively on the role of ideology and of the maximization of individual values in the production of dissenting opinions about state policy. The analysis of survey data indicates that there is no evidence for the view that attitudes to welfare provision add up to a consistent disaffection with policy. Perceptions of self-interest emerge as the best predictors of preferences, and these appear closely related to location in a typical family life-style.
30 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that actors' accounts are hypothetical and susceptible to evaluation in ways which are at least as good as, even if they are as not radically superior to, those of commonsense.
Abstract: Contemporary sociology embodies a number of different resolutions to the problem of how actors' accounts of their actions are to be treated. Some structuralist and functionalist approaches, such as the Marxist, for example, discount actors' accounts as merely epiphenomenal, generated to make sense of actions people are led to perform on quite different grounds. Some variants of ethnomethodology, on the other hand, construe actors' accounts as all we can ever really know about the social world. We seek to show the weaknesses of these approaches and advance a set of arguments for the centrality of accounts in sociology, and for the validity of their use in our attempts to understand social action.The main thrust of our position is that accounts are hypothetical and susceptible to evaluation in ways which are at least as good as, even if they are as not radically superior to, those of commonsense. The issue of the status of actors' accounts has major ramifications for theory and method in sociology, and in t...
28 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of micro-structural factors such as social networks in relation to differential recruitment and the differential growth of social movements has been examined, and it is shown that such factors are of equal and perhaps greater importance than dispositional susceptibilities in the determination of differential recruitment.
Abstract: WALLIS and Bruce (1982) have recently questioned the adequacy of our analysis of the relationship between social networks and the movement recruitment process (Snow et al. 1980). Our aim in that paper was to further empirical and theoretical understanding of the spread and growth of social movements by examining the role of such micro-structural factors as social networks in relation to differential recruitment (e.g., Why are some people rather than others recruited into a particular social movement organization?) and the differential growth of social movements (e.g., Why do some movement organizations attract a larger following and grow at a more rapid rate than others?). If Wallis and Brace's critique is used to measure the adequacy of that endeavour, then it is clear that we have failed to shed additional light on the movement recruitment process. Wallis and Bruce object mainly to our conclusion that 'both the network attributes of movement organizations and members function as important structural determinants of differential recruitment to and the differential growth of movement organizations' and, as a consequence, that such 'micro-structural variables are of equal, and perhaps greater, importance than dispositional susceptibilities in the determination of differential recruitment' (Snow et al. 1980: 798). That thesis, Wallis and Bruce (1982: 103) contend, is not only too 'mechanistic', but 'cannot be supported by closer examination of the evidence (we) adduce, nor by the concepts (we) employ'. In short, Wallis and Bruce find our analysis flawed on meta-theoretical, empirical, and conceptual grounds. We think they are wrong on the first two accounts, and only partially correct on the third. We thus find it necessary not only to respond to Wallis and Bruce's criticisms, but also to clarify our position so as to reduce the possibility that others might similarly misread or misrepresent our work.
19 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a seven class model was used to categorize the data and a succession of log-linear models fitted to specify changes in the British class structure between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.
Abstract: This paper analyses data on marital endogamy by means of log-linear modelling in an attempt to specify changes in the British class structure between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The evidence on intermarriage was collected in Rochdale and involves five decennial periods over the hundred year span. A seven class model was used to categorize the data and a succession of log-linear models fitted. The hypotheses examined were taken from the sociological literature. Almost all postulated certain forms of structural transformation in class structures like Britain during this hundred year period. However, the model fitted did not require the inclusion of a term which incorporated changes in class structuration over time and these hypotheses were rejected. Nevertheless, the fitted model did indicate the persistence of a class structure over the period. Examination of the odds ratios and scaled residuals associated with the model fitting suggested that the main lines of class cleavage occurred between the bourgeoisie and the unskilled manual working class and the remainder of the class categories. Conventional dichotomies associated with notions of a middle class/working class axis of class cleavage or a nonmanual/manual axis were not relevant to an explanation of the data presented and this was presented as a problem requiring further research.
TL;DR: The colonial status of black students and workers resident in England in the early 1950s has been seen as contributing to their disadvantaged position by reference to field studies of the behaviour of colonial students and black workers as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The colonial status of black students and workers resident in England in the early 1950s has been seen as contributing to their disadvantaged position. This view is challenged by reference to field studies of the behaviour of colonial students and black workers in the early 1950s, and by drawing upon the findings of a government survey of white attitudes conducted in 1951 which has hitherto been confidential. The English regarded all coloured people, not just colonials, as inferior culturally and socially, but they also believed that the possession of colonies benefited their country and that they should therefore be helpful towards colonial visitors; their helpfulness often took the form of conditional philanthropy. In 1951 only 38 per cent opposed free entry for coloured colonial workers and in 1956 71 per cent said they should have preference over European foreigners. Changes in the class composition of the New Commonwealth minority probably increased the negative social significance of a dark complexi...
TL;DR: The authors examine the assumption made by radical economists that internal labour markets formed by large scale corporate employers provide a source of labour market dichotomization between ''core'' and ''peripheral'' employment.
Abstract: This paper sets out to examine the assumption made by radical economists that internal labour markets formed by large scale corporate employers provide a source of labour market dichotomization between `core' and `peripheral' employment. It criticizes the assumption that internal labour markets can be treated as a culturally neutral phenomenon emerging from the demands of technical rationality. Since, by definition, the boundaries of internal labour markets are institutionally defined, their forms and rationales display a cross-national diversity which indicates a difference in employer strategies and employee responses to the historical course of technological innovation. In particular it suggests that the struggle for task control over the mode of production represented in the creation of new occupations has, in the Anglo Saxon culture, been more likely to take place at the point of production, whereas in France it has been expressed in overtly class terms and in modern Germany in the bureaucratic control systems adopted by a corporate pluralistic state.
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of the changing nature of labour and discipline in Scottish and English institutions of confinement from the 16th through the 19th centuries is presented, and the analytical framework is presented.
Abstract: This paper is an analysis of the changing nature of labour and discipline in Scottish and English institutions of confinement from the 16th through the 19th centuries. The analytical framework empl...
TL;DR: In this paper, the contours of current, practical explanatory problems in stratification theory showing the similarity of issues in apparently diverse approaches, both Marxist and non-Marxist, are traced.
Abstract: This paper traces the contours of current, practical explanatory problems in stratification theory showing the similarity of issues in apparently diverse approaches, both Marxist and non-Marxist. T...
TL;DR: In contrast to the importance placed on secondary analysis by researchers in other disciplines, British sociologists have long neglected the rich data available from large scale government surveys, perhaps because of technical obstacles as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In contrast to the importance placed on secondary analysis by researchers in other disciplines, British sociologists have long neglected the rich data available from large scale government surveys, perhaps because of technical obstacles. This report describes work to make the General Household Survey (GHS) data more easily accessible for sociological analysis, summarizes the contents and structure of the GHS and reviews the arrangements which have been made to allow researchers access to it.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed data on aspects of gender relations in the German Democratic Republic and related its findings to the debate on socialism within feminist writing, and pointed to the many aspect...
Abstract: This article analyses data on aspects of gender relations in the German Democratic Republic and relates its findings to the debate on socialism within feminist writing. It points to the many aspect...
TL;DR: This article examined popular sentiments about class and inequality and found that neither nominal class affiliations, nor conceptions of class structure, encompass ideologically homogeneous perspectives, and that these discrepancies within class identifiers are reinforced by differences in political preferences, while conceptions of a dichotomous class structure are not inevitably associated with particular class sentiments any more so than are conceptions of society as a graded hierarchy.
Abstract: While the sociological importance of popular class imagery has gained considerable attention in recent years, much empirical research continues to interpret class identifications and conceptions of class structure as evidence of fundamental class perspectives. This paper challenges the underlying assumptions of this position by directly examining popular sentiments about class and inequality. The results show that neither nominal class affiliations, nor conceptions of class structure, encompass ideologically homogeneous perspectives. Working and, especially, middle class identifications embrace diverse class sentiments, and these discrepancies within class affiliations are reinforced by differences in political preferences. Similarly, conceptions of a dichotomous class structure are not inevitably associated with particular class sentiments any more so than are conceptions of society as a graded hierarchy. In modern societies, where many traditional, ascriptive class barriers, distinctions and privileges ...
TL;DR: For many years demographers have cited their estimates of contraceptive use as an incontrovertible refutation of biological or biosocial theories of the Western fertility declines as mentioned in this paper, but this argument ignores the several procedures demographers built into their contraceptive surveys to increase the proportion of respondents who can be classed as users.
Abstract: For many years demographers have cited their estimates of contraceptive use as an incontrovertible refutation of biological or biosocial theories of the Western fertility declines. Besides ignoring the many biological reasons for family limitation however this argument ignores the several procedures demographers have built into their contraceptive surveys to increase the proportion of respondents who can be classed as users. The biases engendered by these procedures may well be regarded as ad hoc and surreptitious strategems designed to reconcile the social paradigm with the near replacement fertility of most Western countries in the 1930s. (EXCERPT)
TL;DR: In this paper, the transition from oligarchic to broader forms of political representation precedes rather than follows their industrialization in peripheral capitalist societies, and three distinct forms of transition are identified: urban populism from above, peasant populism from below, and political inclusion through a transformation of clientelistic networks.
Abstract: This paper focuses on peripheral capitalist societies which (a) acquired their political independence relatively early and had already in the 19th century adopted parliamentary forms of political representation; (b) experienced a considerable degree of capitalist industrialization during the inter-war and post-war periods.A fundamental dimension for understanding the structure and functioning of political institutions in the above societies has to do, not only with the mode of expansion and structure of industrial capitalism but also with its timing: with the fact that in all these formations the transition from oligarchic to broader forms of political representation precedes rather than follows their industrialization.Three distinct forms of transition are identified: urban populism from above (the Latin American Southern Cone pattern), peasant populism from below (the pattern in interwar Northern Balkan societies) and political inclusion through a transformation of clientelistic networks (the Greek patt...
TL;DR: The authors compared the way two variables are related in different contexts (e.g. the present compared to the past, blacks compared to whites) and found that the comparison between the two variables is central to sociology.
Abstract: Comparisons are central to sociology and prominent among them are comparisons between the way two variables are related in different contexts (e.g. the present compared to the past, blacks compared...
TL;DR: The general principles of sociability as mentioned in this paper were developed by developing Sahlin's theory of "primitive exchange" in the context of social cooperation, and they were applied to the social sciences.
Abstract: The general principles of sociability : Developing Sahlin's theory of "primitive exchange"
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that there is no relevant evidence to substantiate the view that the "Protestant Ethic" and the "Spirit of Capitalism" ever existed in Scotland.
Abstract: Marshall argues that the experience of Scotland vindicates Weber in relation to his claims about the links between Protestantism and the emergence of capitalism. Marshall claims that, once we are clear about what Weber actually said and what constitutes relevant evidence to evaluate his arguments, it can be shown that in Scotland the `Protestant Ethic' fostered the `Spirit of Capitalism'. Marshall's conclusion is disputed in this paper, where it is argued that he presents no relevant evidence to substantiate the view that the `Protestant Ethic' and the `Spirit of Capitalism' ever existed in Scotland.
TL;DR: Waddington's comment on ''Conservatism, Dogmatism, and Authoritarianism in British Police Officers'' by Colman and Gorman is motivated, in part at least, by overtly political considerations.
Abstract: Waddington's comment on `Conservatism, Dogmatism, and Authoritarianism in British Police Officers' by Colman and Gorman is motivated, in part at least, by overtly political considerations. None of his specific criticisms bears close scrutiny. One is based on a selective misquotation which conveys the opposite meaning to that of the original; a second focusses on a supposed `lack of illiberalism' among police officers which is clearly contradicted by the data, and a third arises from an elementary blunder in the interpretation of a statistically non-significant difference.