Showing papers in "Sociology in 1998"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the use of the concept of "diaspora" as an alternative way of thinking about transnational migration and ethnic relations to those ways that rely on race and ethnicity.
Abstract: This paper evaluates the use of the concept of `diaspora' as an alternative way of thinking about transnational migration and ethnic relations to those ways that rely on `race' and `ethnicity'. It examines the heuristic potential of the concept, as a descriptive typological tool and as a social condition and societal process. Both approaches are described and key elements within each are assessed. It is argued that although very different in emphasis, and though containing different strengths and weaknesses, both approaches are problematised by their reliance on a notion of deterritorialised ethnicity which references the primordial bonds of `homeland'. It is also argued that both approaches are unable to attend fully to `intersectionality', that is to issues of class, gender and trans-ethnic alliances. It is concluded that although potentially enabling a broader sweep of questions that can relate to the transnational aspects of population movements and settlement, the concept of `diaspora', as it has bee...
595 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the character of the debate about ''quantitative'' and ''qualitative'' methods in feminist social science and argues in favour of rehabilitating quantitative methods and integrating a range of methods in the task of creating an emancipatory social science.
Abstract: This paper examines the character of the debate about `quantitative' and `qualitative' methods in feminist social science. The `paradigm argument' has been central to feminist social science methodology; the feminist case against `malestream' methods and in favour of qualitative methods has paralleled other methodological arguments within social science against the unthinking adoption by social science of a natural science model of inquiry. The paper argues in favour of rehabilitating quantitative methods and integrating a range of methods in the task of creating an emancipatory social science. It draws on the history of social and natural science, suggesting that a social and historical understanding of ways of knowing gives us the problem not of gender and methodology, but of the gendering of methodology as itself a social construction.
357 citations
TL;DR: It has been well documented that the traditional working class, which was the bulwark of the labour movement both industrially and politically, has declined and been replaced by the service class in most of the advanced economies as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Chapter 1 suggested that there was a shift to the right in the 1970s. This chapter will suggest that such a transition has changed the nature of the class system. It has been well documented that the traditional working class, which was the bulwark of the labour movement both industrially and politically, has declined and been replaced by the service class in most of the advanced economies (see Lash and Urry 1987: 3–10, Fox Piven 1991). Supposedly, this alteration has changed the nature of politics, because the service class is inherently conservative (Goldthorpe 1982). This proposition is given force when one examines the decline of labour politics in the UK. The percentage of the electorate supporting the Labour Party in the UK fell from 36.4 per cent in 1945 to 23.2 per cent in 1987 (Crewe 1991: table 2.1). Such a marked decline led Crewe to comment:
Labour’s electoral decline is internationally unique; it is long term; and it extends deeper than the vote. It may well not be fully reversible in the short term. The three election defeats of the past decade have left Labour so far behind the Conservatives in the popular vote that the electoral turnaround needed to restore Labour to office at the next election would have to be extraordinary by historical standards. (Crewe 1991: 23)
313 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a different perspective on gender and class from those embedded in contemporary dominant discourses on social class, arguing that class is a complicated mixture of the material, the discursive, psychological predispositions and sociological dispositions.
Abstract: This paper draws on data from a qualitative study of mothers' involvement in children's education in order to present a different perspective on gender and class from those embedded in contemporary dominant discourses on social class. It argues that class is a complicated mixture of the material, the discursive, psychological predispositions and sociological dispositions. As such, the ways in which class as a complex set of interrelated issues contributes to social inequalities are best understood by combining quantitative approaches to social class with more qualitative studies which attempt to explore how class, and the inequalities it generates, are lived in gendered and raced ways.
304 citations
TL;DR: The usefulness of archived qualitative data has been questioned where contextual information surrounding the conditions of its production is not provided as mentioned in this paper, and it has been assumed that, without this contextual information, it would be assumed that without this bac...
Abstract: The usefulness of archived qualitative data has been questioned where contextual information surrounding the conditions of its production is not provided. It has been assumed that, without this bac...
266 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore some key antionomies which have emerged in relation to children and childhood in late modernity: tensions between autonomy and protection and between perceptions of children as ''at risk'' and as potentially threatening.
Abstract: In this paper we explore some key antionomies which have emerged in relation to children and childhood in late modernity: tensions between autonomy and protection and between perceptions of children as `at risk' and as potentially threatening. A particular focus here is on the sexualisation of risk, the degree of public concern expressed whenever the sexual `innocence' of children is thought to be endangered. We argue that the concept of risk anxiety provides a useful means of analysing contemporary fears about children and childhood and may thus be understood as contributing to the ongoing social construction of childhood. Here risk anxiety must be located within the context of gendered and generational power relations, in which children's lives are bounded by adult surveillance. Furthermore, risk anxiety may have material consequences for children's daily lives and for everyday adult-child negotiations around safety and danger, protection and autonomy.
221 citations
TL;DR: In recent years, the debate on football crowd violence has concentrated on the violent dispositions of participants - and particularly on the nature and origins of conflictual norms held by ''hoolig...
Abstract: In recent years, the debate on football crowd violence has concentrated on the violent dispositions of participants - and particularly on the nature and origins of conflictual norms held by `hoolig...
203 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined changes in men and women's attitudes to sexual morality across nations and time using time-series data from British Social Attitudes and the General Social Survey of the United States to examine to what extent there has been a revolution in sexual attitudes and whether the change in attitudes has continued through to the 1990s.
Abstract: In this paper I examine changes in men and women's attitudes to sexual morality across nations and time. First, I use time-series data from British Social Attitudes and the General Social Survey of the United States to examine to what extent there has been a revolution in sexual attitudes and whether the change in attitudes has continued through to the 1990s. In particular, I investigate whether changes in permissiveness are mainly due to period effects or to cohort replacement. I also compare the trajectory and pace of change in the two countries. Second, I use data from the International Social Survey Programme to compare British and American attitudes with those of four other nations with very different sociopolitical and religious traditions - Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Poland. With the exception of attitudes to pre-marital sex, attitudes have not changed very dramatically over the past few decades. Attitudes towards homosexuality are becoming slowly more tolerant, especially among women, but condem...
151 citations
TL;DR: This article explored and developed the concept of ''emotion work'' as used by young women talking about sexual negotiation and suggested that emotion work should be viewed not simply as an analyst res...
Abstract: This paper explores and develops the concept of `emotion work' as used by young women talking about sexual negotiation. It suggests that `emotion work' should be viewed not simply as an analyst res...
148 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw on empirical research into the recruitment, training, and management of female flight attendants, working primarily in the transatlantic business travel sector of the contemporary airline industry.
Abstract: This paper draws on empirical research into the recruitment, training, and management of female flight attendants, working primarily in the transatlantic business travel sector of the contemporary airline industry. We argue that whilst the `skills' which flight attendants are required to deploy are denied, being treated as somehow inherent abilities and thus neither trained nor remunerated, they are nevertheless managed in a directive way. This management involves, in particular, a focus on a flight attendant's figure, and `dieting' - what Naomi Wolf has referred to as `the essence of contemporary femininity' (Wolf 1990:200) - as a recruitment, training and managerial strategy. The work of a female flight attendant involves adhering to culturally prescribed norms on femininity as well as organisational regulations governing her figure - its presentation and performance - whilst undertaking work which involves, at least in part, serving food to others. We conclude that this aspect of the work of flight att...
135 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined men's and women's levels of satisfaction with the domestic division of labour and found that almost half of women also reported satisfaction with these arrangements, but surprisingly, men report high satisfaction with domestic labour arrangements, while women spend significantly more time on domestic labour than men.
Abstract: This paper examines men's and women's levels of satisfaction with the domestic division of labour. In most households women continue to undertake the bulk of childcare and housework duties and consequently spend significantly greater amounts of time on domestic labour than men. Men report high levels of satisfaction with these arrangements, but surprisingly we find that almost half of our sample of women also report satisfaction with these arrangements. This finding has been reported in studies from several countries. Our paper attempts to explain this apparent paradox. Using data from a recent national survey in Australia we explore gender differences in levels of satisfaction with the domestic division of labour and examine women's levels of satisfaction with household work arrangements in relation to a number of factors such as labour force attachment, attitudes to gender roles and husbands' participation in domestic labour. Our findings raise implications for the meaning of equity within the household.
TL;DR: This paper examined Goldthorpe's attempt to develop a theory which explains the stability of class relations and the generative processes by which class inequalities are sustained in general and the application of rational action theory to the explanation of persistent class differentials in educational attainment in particular.
Abstract: This paper examines Goldthorpe's attempt to develop a theory which explains the stability of class relations and the generative processes by which class inequalities are sustained in general and the application of rational action theory to the explanation of persistent class differentials in educational attainment in particular. It is argued that Goldthorpe has restricted the remit of his theory to the mobilisation of economic resources and that the importance of cultural and social resources in the reproduction of advantage has been dropped from view. This development derives from his minimalist definition of class in terms of employment relations rather than collectivities of people who share identities and practices. Furthermore, Goldthorpe's reliance on rational action theory has led to an overly materialistic view of how individuals and families mobilise their resources across generations. He ignores the role of norms and values in shaping action and the level of indeterminacy or precariousness by wh...
TL;DR: In this article, the author advocates an alternative feminist historical materialist analysis of hegemonic practices as the means for excavating gender and class from lived experience, rejecting the concept of patriarchy as unnecessarily abstract and unable to advance knowledge about the construction of gender.
Abstract: This paper questions recent attempts by feminists to move theory beyond patriarchy, addressing the charge by Pollert that the concept of patriarchy impoverishes analysis of gender and class. In place of patriarchy, the author advocates an alternative feminist historical materialist analysis of hegemonic practices as the means for excavating gender and class from lived experience. This mode of historical materialist theorising rejects the concept of patriarchy as unnecessarily abstract and unable to advance knowledge about the construction of gender in practice. A theory of practice can make sense of the mess of everyday life, and focus research on gendered bodies, spaces and experiences.
TL;DR: In this article, the question is raised whether a recognizably neo-Darwinian research program could be designed for sociology on the basis that social change is seen as a process analogous but not reducible to natural selection.
Abstract: After a brief review of some aspects of current evolutionary theory which bear on the explanation of human social behaviour, the question is raised whether a recognizably neo-Darwinian research programme could be designed for sociology on the basis that social change is seen as a process analogous but not reducible to natural selection. Some implications of such a programme are outlined and the strength of the objections likely to be raised against it assessed. In conclusion, the potential value of the paradigm is illustrated by reference to current debates about the incidence of lethal violence in human societies.
TL;DR: The authors present textually oriented discourse analysis as an alternative way of understanding the spread of Thatcherism to that of attitude surveys, and demonstrate the continuing use of elements of Thatcherite discourse across the Conservative party and Labour party.
Abstract: In his account of Thatcherism as a hegemonic project, Stuart Hall points out that discourse theory provides insight both into the ways in which Thatcherism was constructed as a discourse from a combination of disparate ideological strands and into the ways in which this discourse was engaged in a hegemonic project. However, discourse analysis has rarely been applied in empirical study of the spread of the ideas and values of Thatcherism. The findings of attitude surveys indicate the failure of Thatcherism to produce radical social and cultural change. This paper presents textually oriented discourse analysis as an alternative way of understanding the spread of Thatcherism to that of attitude surveys. Research applying the approach demonstrates the continuing use of elements of Thatcherite discourse across the Conservative party and Labour party and hence the lasting impact of Thatcherism in spite of its failure to become hegemonic.
TL;DR: The authors argue that Mouzelis's and Archer's approach fails because it relies on the former's definition of structure as comprising rules and resources, and argue that the latter's definition makes the relationship between agents and structures unclear.
Abstract: This paper outlines and evaluates recent contributions by Nicos Mouzelis and Margaret Archer to the structure-agency debate. Mouzelis offers an internal reconstruction of Giddens's structuration theory; Archer an external alternative. I show that, although representing an advance on Giddens's position, Mouzelis's account fails because he relies on the former's definition of structure as comprising rules and resources. I then examine Archer's solution to the problem. I argue that her definition of activity-dependence makes her account of the relationship between agents and structures unclear. I outline an alternative account in terms of super- venience, and argue that it contains the minimum ontological claim necessary for a realist understanding of the structure-agent relationship. This paper evaluates two recent attempts to prune the hardy perennial of structure and agency. In their recent writing, both Nicos Mouzelis and Margaret Archer offer alternatives to Anthony Giddens's structuration theory (Mouzelis 1995, 1996; Archer 1995, 1996b). The renewed attention paid to older writing in this field, and particularly to the work of David Lockwood, has caused McLennan (1995:117) to note 'a loose but noticeable neo- traditionalist revival' in sociological theory. The two authors exemplify this trend in different ways. Mouzelis says we should go 'back to sociological theory,' whereas Archer sees Lockwood as a forebear but explicitly tries to formulate a new research paradigm. I begin by outlining the problem as inherited from Giddens. I then discuss Mouzelis's and Archer's solutions in detail. Mouzelis's work is a careful internal critique and reconstruction of Giddens's theory. Archer's is a distinct, external alternative to it. Both authors try to make a clear distinction between agents and structures in order to make these concepts (and particularly the latter) coherent and useful. In their efforts to give the concept of social structure back its bite, both Archer and Mouzelis draw on Lockwood's (1956, 1964) distinction between social and system integration. Mouzelis attempts to build the distinction into Giddens's account. In doing so, he points to a number of important aspects of structure and agency that Giddens cannot grasp. However, Giddens's key idea that structure should be thought of as rules and resources is left largely untouched. I show that Mouzelis's refinements run into difficulty because of this.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the centrality of emotions to the relationship between social structure and health and bring the health inequalities and the life-events literature into a new theoretical alignment through a sociological focus on emotional capital and the micro-macro links this provides between the private realm of personal troubles and broader issues of power and status, domination and control.
Abstract: How does society affect health deep within the recesses of the human body? What role do emotions play in these processes, and what light does this shed on the relationship between biology and the social patterning of disease? Taking as its point of departure the `epidemiological transition' and the shift from direct material to indirect psychosocial pathways to disease, this paper explores the centrality of emotions to the relationship between social structure and health In doing so, it aims to bring the health inequalities and the life-events literature into a new theoretical alignment through a sociological focus on `emotional capital' and the micro-macro links this provides between the private realm of `personal troubles' and broader `public issues' of power and status, domination and control A key analytical distinction is drawn here between `psycho-neuro-immunological adaptation', psycho-social coping', and `socio-political praxis' in theorising these links between `distressful' feelings, the emoti
TL;DR: The authors argued that the Minotaur of the everyday carries a great weight of theoretical baggage and its monstrosity serves, paradoxically, to preserve the homogeneity and purity of the social domain.
Abstract: There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the everyday among social theorists from Habermas and Giddens to de Certeau and Maffesoli. Taking Habermas as a benchmark, it is argued that recent accounts of the everyday in divergent traditions of analysis converge on two suspect theses: that of the everyday as `taken-for-granted' and that of the everyday as `living history'. These two theses are related to Minotaur-like concepts of the everyday that are hybrids of `form' and `substance'. It is suggested that three myths - of unity, life and resistance - give life to the Minotaur of the everyday. The Minotaur of the everyday thus carries a great weight of theoretical baggage and its monstrosity serves, paradoxically, to preserve the homogeneity and purity of the social domain. It is argued that the mythologies of the everyday can be dissolved if a more far-reaching and monstrous heterogeneity is allowed to the social (or socio-technical) world.
TL;DR: In this article, the potentialities and distinctiveness of a temporal perspective for analysing differences between and within genders are explored, and a brief overview of sociological approaches to time is provided.
Abstract: This paper explores the potentialities and distinctiveness of a temporal perspective for analysing differences between and within genders. After a brief overview of sociological approaches to time,...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the ambivalent nature of modernity as both order and chaos, conformity and transgression, and conclude with a critical assessment of these contradictory features and the corporeal dilemmas which underpin them, speculating on the 'fate' of emotions at the turn of the century in the light of current postmodern theorising.
Abstract: Taking as its starting point the `irrational passion for dispassionate rationality', so prevalent in Western thought and practice, this paper traces, through the emotions, current debates surrounding the ambivalent nature of modernity as both order and chaos, conformity and transgression. Reason and emotions are not, it is argued, antithetical to one another, rather there is a need to fundamentally rethink existing epistemological models and ontological ways of being and knowing. These issues are traced, on the one hand, through the increasing rationalisation of Western society, the latest expression of which, it is claimed, is a new form of `postemotionalism', and, on the other hand, through the resurgence of more Dionysian values and collective forms of effervescence. The paper concludes with a critical assessment of these contradictory features and the corporeal dilemmas which underpin them, speculating on the `fate' of emotions at the turn of the century in the light of current postmodern theorising.
TL;DR: This article provided a content analysis of 1094 dating advertisements and found that lifestyle choices have superseded resources as primary identity markers for men, women market their ''masculine' attributes and seek ''feminine' men; and that the body is central to identity for both men and women.
Abstract: This paper provides a content analysis of 1094 dating advertisements. It seeks, in part, to test results of previous research emanating mainly from the disciplines of psychology and sociobiology, which shows that men offer financial and occupational attributes and seek physical attractiveness in partners whereas women offer physical attractiveness and seek resource and status attributes, consistent with traditional `sex-role' stereotypes and mating selection strategies. Locating analyses in the context of a postmodern, consumer society, it shows that lifestyle choices have superseded resources as primary identity markers for men, that women market their `masculine' attributes and seek `feminine' men; and that the body is central to identity for both men and women. It concludes therefore that traditional gendered stereotypes may now be changing as men and women deal with a context of a novel set of social conditions.
TL;DR: This article assess the extent to which globalisation threatens to displace the national state's role in shaping class structure and patterns of social fluidity and assess the effect of globalisation on class structures and mobility regimes.
Abstract: Contemporary class analysis takes the national state as its unit of analysis. This convention could be challenged on at least two grounds. On the one hand, the national state might be seen as too gross an aggregation that leads to the neglect of important internal variation; on the other, the national state might be considered an irrelevant distinction for the study of processes that are best viewed on a larger canvas. In this paper we concern ourselves with this latter possibility and we assess the extent to which globalisation threatens to displace the national state's role in shaping class structure and patterns of social fluidity. In our formulation, the competing claims of national state and global system effects on class structures and mobility regimes involve matters of degree, and thus are open to empirical investigation. The existing evidence supports the continued resilience of the national state but not so emphatically as to preclude the need to take account of world-system influences. This lea...
TL;DR: This article examined the rationality of the activities of loss-making punters, and showed how this differs markedly from the rationalities employed by those who win at the game -bookmakers and professional gamblers.
Abstract: This paper draws upon an ongoing study into gambling in the United Kingdom to examine off-course betting as a form of social life. Through such an approach it identifies several features of betting shop life that complement and refine the research literature to date: the different sub-groups within the off-course betting population; how they manage their activities in terms of their finances and their domestic and work responsibilities; the often subtle social dynamics of the betting shop. Through an analysis of these features of the punter’s world, the paper investigates the rationality of the activities of loss-making punters, and shows how this differs markedly from the rationalities employed by those who win at the game – bookmakers and professional gamblers. One common concern for many punters is the dream of the ‘big win’ for a little stake – a concern not shared by the other two groups – a dream that undermines their ability to win, and thus compounds their losses. The paper then identifies the different sub-groups involved in off-course betting, and discusses the different times at which they bet and the different strategies they use. In such a way the paper contributes to the debate through identifying groups and social processes not addressed in the literature, and shows how they refine the categories and concepts used to date.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how self-development discourse affects the way women experience their marital conversations and, more specifically, the extent to which they feel able to initiate change-directed negotiation within them.
Abstract: Cultural trends shape the experience of marriage by forming expectations, entitlements and obligations. The self-development discourse generated by the therapeutic culture has been suggested as playing a part in such shaping. This paper examines how this particular discourse affects the way women experience their marital conversations and, more specifically, the extent to which they feel able to initiate change-directed negotiation within them. Twenty-eight professional women in England, selected to reflect different occupational exposures to the self-development discourse, were interviewed in order to examine their experiences of the marital conversation and possible changes within it. The analysis shows that specific feeling rules limit the possibility of women's concerns entering the marital conversation, and that the self-development discourse can introduce alternative feeling rules with the potential to overcome such limitations. It is shown that women who are influenced by the ideological messages e...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore sociology as an imaginative pursuit and explore three areas illustrating the various imaginations within the discipline: the work of Robert K. Merton; ethnomethodology; and the diversities of feminist scholarship.
Abstract: This paper seeks to explore sociology as an imaginative pursuit. After a brief reconsideration of Mills's notion of 'the sociological imagination' I examine three areas illustrating the various imaginations within the discipline: the work of Robert K. Merton; ethnomethodology; and the diversities of feminist scholarship. Two particular case studies are explored: the sociology of the body and the use of autobiographical studies in sociology. I conclude with some suggestions for the encouragement of imaginative thought within the discipline.
TL;DR: In this paper, the relation between hazards and risks in the workplace has been investigated and three positions are set out: materialist or realist, risks map directly onto underlying real hazards, while hazards are natural, while risks are social constructions.
Abstract: The workplace has been extensively and variously evaluated as an environment which - like others - contains risks to health. This paper unpacks such risk assessment by problematising the relation between hazards and risks. Three positions are set out. In the first (materialist or realist), risks map directly onto underlying real hazards. In the second (constructionist or culturalist), hazards are natural, while risks are social constructions. In the final (postmodern) position, both risks and hazards are seen as constructions. The paper goes on to consider the implications of the latter position for assessment of risks in the workplace, arguing that risks are often discounted in the on-going choices made by people who do some things called `work' and evaluate their continuity of sense-of-self as their `health'.
TL;DR: This article explored the contradictory nature of the girls' moral discourses as they apportion responsibility and blame between individuals and social circumstances, and suggested that while being both Asian and girls is of significance, the latter is a more prominent consideration in the participants' soap talk.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with forms of moral discourse produced by British Asian girls as they talk about soap opera in groups without an adult presence. It is argued that moral identities are discursive constructs which help constitute the self as a centreless weave. The paper explores the contradictory nature of the girls' moral discourses as they apportion responsibility and blame between individuals and social circumstances. It is suggested that while being both Asian and girls is of significance, the latter is a more prominent consideration in the participants' soap talk.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the class legacy has had profoundly negative consequences for accounts of material gender inequality, and that even where gender theorists have attempted to move beyond class, they have been criticised for not moving beyond class.
Abstract: The paper argues that the class legacy has had profoundly negative consequences for accounts of material gender inequality, and that even where gender theorists have attempted to move beyond class,...
TL;DR: In this paper, the social organisation of the economic elite in Germany and Britain was analyzed and the analysis focused on the internal structure of this social group, which is termed an ''eli...
Abstract: This study considers the social organisation of the economic elite in Germany and Britain. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the internal structure of this social group, which is termed an `eli...
TL;DR: This paper argues that the social reaction to head injury is testament to the latent eugenicist and mentalist suppositions within modernity.
Abstract: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) results from cerebral damage caused by a blow to the head, for example in a road traffic accident. The frequency of TBI means that it has been characterized as the silent epidemic of modern times. The majority of those who are head-injured are young men. This paper argues that the social reaction to head injury is testament to the latent eugenicist and mentalist suppositions within modernity. The brain-damaged person cannot readily overcome disability with the assistance of the technological aids available to those whose handicapping condition is physical. The consequences that head injury has for the mind and for the 'self' entail the special sequestration of those who are head-injured from modernity's concerns with reflexivity and with the paramount cultural and material importance of the mind, whatever is said about the sociological significance of 'body matters'. Because TBI brings in its wake the liminality of being 'neither here nor there', of young men who become once again 'children', the implications for family dynamics are both distinctive and profound. The 'future', around which much of modernity revolves, is denied to those whose catastrophe arose from these same modern times