Showing papers in "Sociology in 1989"
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical exploration of the treatment of subjectivity and power in sociology through an examination of recent developments in labour process theory is presented, where Foucault's work is used to suggest a more adequate appreciation of processes of subjugation in which subjectivity is fetishised in identity.
Abstract: The paper presents a critical exploration of the treatment of subjectivity and power in sociology through an examination of recent developments in labour process theory. This is introduced through a discussion of dualism and the study of power. It is then argued that the exposure of the neglect of subjectivity in the response to Labour and Monopoly Capital has not been matched by effort to remedy this deficiency. Originating in Marx, the intellectual history of this neglect is explored through a review of key contributions to the post-Braverman literature. Our argument draws upon the work of Foucault to suggest a more adequate appreciation of processes of subjugation in which subjectivity is fetishised in identity. This thesis is articulated and illustrated through a critique of the influential empirical studies of Burawoy and Cockburn.
650 citations
TL;DR: A notable feature of recent sociological writing is the growing frequency with which actions are interpreted as forming part of a strategy, and sociologists' usage of the concept of ''strategy'' is now sufficiently common to warrant its investigation, especially since important and difficult issues are raised when it is adopted as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: One notable feature of recent sociological writing is the growing frequency with which actions are interpreted as forming part of a strategy. All sorts of social actors, from lowly individuals, through households, family businesses, social movements and classes, to mighty multi-national corporations and nation-states, have been represented as employing strategies, and sociologists' usage of the concept of `strategy' is now sufficiently common to warrant its investigation, especially since important and difficult issues are raised when it is adopted. Academic fashion may play a part in explaining the current prominence within the sociological vocabulary of the concept of `strategy', but greater significance should be attached to underlying trends in sociological theorising, even if these are not appreciated in every case where `strategy' is found being employed. Analysis of actions and their outcomes in terms of strategies carries with it the promise of avoiding some of the pitfalls of the classic agency/s...
191 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that men make a larger contribution to caring than is often recognised.
Abstract: The extent to which men are the primary carers of infirm elderly people and the amount of support men carers receive from the statutory and voluntary services relative to women carers is examined using data from the 1980 General Household Survey. It is shown that men make a larger contribution to caring than is often recognised.
101 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors test the hypothesis of a discouraged worker effect, whereby local unemployment discourages 16 year-olds from leaving school, among a recent sample of young people in Scotland.
Abstract: This paper tests the hypothesis of a `discouraged worker' effect, whereby local unemployment discourages 16 year-olds from leaving school, among a recent sample of young people in Scotland. The analysis supports the hypothesis: ceteris paribus young people were more likely to stay on at school, the higher the local unemployment rate. Local unemployment was also associated with lower school attainment: its positive direct effect on staying on may have been partly offset by a negative indirect effect mediated by attainment, although the direct effect was stronger and the evidence for the indirect effect was more tentative. The discouraged worker effect applied to staying on at school but not to college, whose courses (in Scotland) tend to be vocationally specific. The discouraged worker effect was similar for girls and boys; it was strongest for 16 year-olds with attainments slightly above the average, who were typically on the margins of the decision to stay on or leave. Staying on tended also to be encour...
90 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the implications of taking a feminist standpoint are explored by considering some methodological problems of improving on a 1960s study of shift-working women, and they also consider the problem of making both sociological and feminist knowledge convincing.
Abstract: The case for feminist knowledge as an improvement on male-centred sociology is a strong one. Taking a feminist standpoint produces knowledge of gendered meanings and relationships of which we may not be aware and which sociology has generally ignored. This resolves some of the problems posed by male-centred versions of sociology. Taking a feminist standpoint, though, also raises serious problems of how to make both sociological and feminist knowledge convincing. It enables us to improve on existing sociological knowledge, but exposes many further problems which still need attention. The implications of taking a feminist standpoint are explored by considering some methodological problems of improving on a 1960s study of shiftworking women.
80 citations
TL;DR: The use of the term "patriarchy" in both feminist and sociological analysis, faces problems because of the etymological roots of the word, the form of its connection to political struggles, and the ahistorical fashion in which it is typically employed as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The use of the term `patriarchy', in both feminist and sociological analysis, faces problems because of the etymological roots of the term, the form of its connection to political struggles, and the ahistorical fashion in which it is typically employed. There are four principle traditions within which the terms is used: as a kinship based system of government; as generalized masculine oppression; as a mechanism in the social reproduction of capitalism; and as a sex-class system. Elements of these traditions are recombined into a quadrapartite scheme for the analysis of masculine gender-systems which distinguishes between `patriarchy' (rule by male heads of extended families) and `viriarchy' (rule by adult males); and between directly oppressive systems and systems which operate by means of social reproduction.
62 citations
58 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it is shown that clothing can circulate in six different modes within the family, five being variations on the gift relationship, and different ages and genders are characterised by different combinations of modes.
Abstract: Distribution patterns within the family have received some recent emphasis, particular attention being paid to money and food. This paper contributes to this discussion through looking at the intra-familial flows of one particular good into which money can be converted: clothing. It is shown that clothing can circulate in six different modes within the family, five being variations on the gift relationship. Different ages and genders are characterised by different combinations of modes. Special attention is paid to those mediating between mothers and teenage daughters, and the impact of the attainment of independent daughterly sartorial theoreticity on mothers is discussed. The literature is then reconsidered in the light of our findings.
39 citations
TL;DR: Orientalism has been defined as a discourse which produces the orient as an object of power and knowledge as discussed by the authors, and it has been criticised as a legitimation of western supremacy and colonial power.
Abstract: Although in sociology and anthropology the debate over `understanding alien belief systems' is well known, in the last decade the problem of orientalism has become particularly prominent, partly as a consequence of global political changes. This article outlines the main features of the debate and suggests various lines of analytical development which may help to resolve a number of remaining conceptual issues. Orientalism has been defined as a discourse which produces the orient as an object of power and knowledge. The discourse has a number of major themes: it provides an explanation of oriental stagnation, offering covertly a legitimation of western supremacy and colonial power; by categorizing oriental politics as despotic, because the orient excludes individualism, it offered a critique of mass democracy; and it contrasted the rationality of the occident with the sensual irrationalism of the orient. While the critique of orientalism in the 1970s was intellectually and morally important, there are som...
39 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors adopt a systematic historical and cross-national perspective to examine changes in employment policy and practice from a period of welfare capitalism to the current period of market ca...
Abstract: The article adopts a systematic historical and cross-national perspective to examine changes in employment policy and practice from a period of welfare capitalism to the current period of market ca...
TL;DR: In this article, a simple model of informal practices which introduces the idea of a ''private labour market'' is proposed, and the importance of various stimuli to change in informal practices is considered in the light of the GHS and South Wales evidence.
Abstract: Interest in informal recruitment methods, and workers' informal job search and acquisition methods, has increased since the recession began. Although evidence (for example, the General Household Survey) does not suggest that the recession has led to a general increase in employers' use of informal methods, significant advances have been made in the theory of informal practices. These ideas are tested against some new evidence from South Wales, and the results are incorporated into a simple model of informal practices which introduces the idea of a `private labour market'. The model suggests that some `recruitment' methods are best seen as contingent and sometimes as the absence of recruitment methods. Finally, the importance of the various stimuli to change in informal practices is considered in the light of the GHS and South Wales evidence.
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of gender in psychiatry has been examined, and the authors argue that there is little evidence of the increasing marginalisation of the dimension of gender within psychiatry.
Abstract: Two main approaches concerning the relation between sexism and psychiatry have been developed in the feminist literature. One, now less fashionable, follows Phyllis Chesler's influential Women and Madness (1972) in emphasising the centrality of sexism within psychiatry and its constructs of mental illness. The other, emphasising the sexism within Society as a whole and the way it generates mental suffering and disturbance, suggests the potential of psychiatry and the mental health professions to ameliorate that suffering. This paper looks once more at the second approach to see whether it should now be abandoned. It analyses the role gender plays within psychiatry, distinguishing three levels of definition and identification - official definition, the delineation of `normal cases', and the identification of individual cases. It points to the way in which issues of gender impinge on all three levels and argues that there is little evidence of the increasing marginalisation of the dimension of gender within...
TL;DR: This paper analyzed changes in class voting in Britain by applying models for the analysis of ordered categories to data from the British General Election Surveys and found that there has been no general class dealignment.
Abstract: This paper analyzes changes in class voting in Britain by applying models for the analysis of ordered categories to data from the British General Election Surveys. The findings support Heath, Jowell and Curtice's (1985) claim that there has been no general class dealignment. In addition, changes in class voting are unrelated to changes in the overall performance of Labour relative to Conservatives, although the Liberals do appear to benefit when class voting declines. The analysis also reveals distinctive behaviour in one class (`foremen and technicians') which had not been previously noticed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an investigation of the research methods curriculum in public sector sociology courses, based on an analysis of CNAA course documents for degrees in sociology and the social sciences, and undertaken with the aim of contributing to the current debate on the content of the undergraduate curriculum in sociology.
Abstract: This paper presents an investigation of the research methods curriculum in public sector sociology courses. It is based on an analysis of CNAA course documents for degrees in sociology and the social sciences, and undertaken with the aim of contributing to the current debate on the content of the undergraduate curriculum in sociology. The survey results suggest several trends in curricular policy: in particular an increasing emphasis on practical competence and familiarity with procedures and techniques, and a greater recognition of `methodological pluralism', although qualitative methods are still given only a marginal place in many courses. There was little evidence of progress in the teaching of quantitative skills, nor was computing yet seen to be a core element of the curriculum. The documents also revealed a continuing problem over the place of methods teaching as a whole in relation to other parts of the curriculum as reflected both in time allocation and in assessment weighting. It is argued that ...
TL;DR: Weber's Protestant Ethic essays are remarkably short of hard evidence for the existence of ''The Spirit of Capitalism'' as discussed by the authors, relying mainly on selected extracts from the writings of Benjami.
Abstract: Weber's Protestant Ethic essays are remarkably short of hard evidence for the existence of `The Spirit of Capitalism'. Instead, Weber relies mainly on selected extracts from the writings of Benjami...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe some of the methods of reducing noncontact attrition used in the Scottish Young People's Surveys, and suggest that the type of attrition reduction method used can affect the quality of the survey sample.
Abstract: This research note describes some of the methods of reducing non-contact attrition used in the Scottish Young People's Surveys, and suggests that the type of attrition reduction method used can affect the quality of the survey sample.
TL;DR: The authors explores the connection between language and our thought and beliefs about computers and explores how certain features of language -such as verbal habits, or the traces in language due to social interests and power - help to shape particular reports and interpretations of the behaviour of computer programs and thereby sustain or reinforce beliefs about the organisational role of computers and even their status vis-a-vis human beings.
Abstract: This paper explores the connection between language and our thought and beliefs about computers. In particular it considers how certain features of language - such as verbal habits, or the traces in language due to social interests and power - help to shape particular reports and interpretations of the behaviour of computer programs and thereby sustain or reinforce beliefs about the organisational role of computers and even their status vis-a-vis human beings. It is contended that when computers and computer-related practices are introduced into an organisation users become members of computer cultures where new or reshaped ways of thinking and speaking are acquired in order subsequently to discuss or operate the technology. It is suggested that these cultures and their language be made the focus of sociological scrutiny.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the privatisation strategy is the culmination of, rather than a digression from, post-war policies in the public sector concerning wage determination, and that privatisation represents the most categorical statement and extension of successive policy developments promoting the salience of so-called ''market' principles in the determination of wages.
Abstract: Privatisation policies, pursued by a government informed by neoclassical economic theory and intent on `rolling back the frontiers of the welfare state', have been widely criticised as turning the tide against both the `welfare state' and `welfare' more broadly. The policy to privatise public industries and services is, in effect, both an employment and wage policy: the intention is to govern, not simply the general type of service provision but also, the method of wage determination itself. The argument in this paper is that the privatisation strategy is the culmination of, rather than a digression from, post-war policies in the public sector concerning wage determination. In arguing that privatisation represents the culmination of public sector wage policies in the post-war period, it is being suggested that privatisation denotes the most categorical statement and extension of successive policy developments promoting the salience of so-called `market' principles in the determination of wages. It is cont...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the results of a partial re-study of an investigation of the religious functionary reported in Clergy, Ministers and Priests by Ranson, Bryman and Hinings (1977).
Abstract: This article presents the results of a partial re-study of an investigation of the religious functionary reported in Clergy, Ministers and Priests by Ranson, Bryman and Hinings (1977). The re-study...
TL;DR: A close reading of Robinson's interpretation of Elias's theory of the civilizing process suggests that he has misinterpreted Elias in significant ways and that a more accurate reading of Elias' texts will be necessary before his theory can be properly evaluated as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: R.J. Robinson (1987) argues that the crux of Elias's theory of the `civilizing process' lies in its status as historiography and claims to have shown that `all Elias's main claims about social history are demonstrably false.' Accordingly, he argues, `the theory of the civilizing process seems very largely destroyed.' Close reading of Robinson, however, suggests that he has misinterpreted Elias in significant ways and that a more accurate reading of Elias's texts will be necessary before his theory can be properly evaluated.
TL;DR: The relationship between domestic life and employment, clearly of great importance for women, has received little attention from sociologists as far as men are concerned as mentioned in this paper, and this is true even if the husband is in his teens when he marries.
Abstract: The relationship between domestic life and employment, clearly of great importance for women, has received little attention from sociologists as far as men are concerned. The paper investigates one aspect of this, namely the relationship between family formation and unemployment among young men. Using longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study, it provides evidence for the existence of direct causal links between family formation events and unemployment. After controlling for a variety of factors, marriage appears to reduce the probability of unemployment, and this is true even if the husband is in his teens when he marries. In contrast, marital breakdown and fathering one child raises the chances of unemployment. However fathers of two or more children have a higher probability of unemployment than childless men even before their first child is born, and this is even more marked for men with three or more children. This implies that by no means all of the correlation between family size ...
TL;DR: This article used a case study of the coal mining industry to argue that a connection between safety legislation and the capital/labour relation can be found by starting, not from the question of failure, but from an exploration of the effects of the apparatus of safety.
Abstract: Most analyses of the connection of safety legislation to the capital/labour relation are organised around the question of the failure of safety legislation to prevent injury and death at work. However, these accounts are problematic in that they rely on a necessary relationship between the imperatives of capital and the actions of owners and managers. This paper uses a case study of the Queensland (Australia) coal mining industry to argue that a connection between safety legislation and the capital/labour relation can be found by starting, not from the question of failure, but from an exploration of the effects of the apparatus of safety. By approaching the question from this direction it allows a significant change within the mining labour process to be traced. The apparatus of safety operated both to differentiate the manager from the miners as labourers and to constitute the manager as the (partial) site of co-ordination and discipline. Thus the new category was aligned with capital and a prior condition for the real subsumption of labour was set in place. In this form of analysis the failure of safety legislation and the reforms which it engenders appear in a new light. They are no longer organising principles of analysis but parts of a strategy which was continually aiming at a shift towards a more capitalist labour process.
TL;DR: The disintegration of urban sociology as a recognisable domain of study in the early 1980s and its development as urban studies is discussed in this article, where it is argued that sociology will have to be alert to the issues of urbanisation, in particular the everyday appreciation that monopoly of locations, symbolically or otherwise, confers power.
Abstract: The paper reviews the disintegration of urban sociology as a recognisable domain of study in the early 1980s and its development as urban studies - an interdisciplinary research field with global reference and infinite scope. At the same time there was a re-entry of the `local' and more specifically the `urban' into the sociological mainstream as there was greater awareness of uneven development, the particularity of local experience and the possibilities of mobilisation around local issues. In particular there was awareness that `race' politics was also an `urban' politics. The problematic of the slumghetto sharpened in focus and there was increasing recourse to American research and policy initiatives in regenerating the cities. Increasingly, it is argued, sociology will have to be alert to the issues of urbanisation, in particular the everyday appreciation that monopoly of locations, symbolically or otherwise, confers power.
TL;DR: Friedman has responded to my article ''The Means of Management Control'' by criticising its treatment of the labour process literature as mentioned in this paper, and also contends that my alternative formulation is simultaneously functionalist and empiricist and is allegedly dismissive of the concept of ''managerial strategy''.
Abstract: Andrew Friedman has responded to my article `The Means of Management Control' by criticising its treatment of the labour process literature. He also contends that my alternative formulation is flawed in three regards: it is simultaneously functionalist and empiricist and is allegedly dismissive of the concept of `managerial strategy'. But Friedman's critique is built on an assemblage of misinterpretation and distortion. He repeatedly reconstitutes the elements in the article until they resemble for him more familiar targets. These are then subjected to a series of routine objections.