Showing papers in "Sociology in 2000"
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that generalisation is inevitable, desirable and possible in interpretive sociology, and that this implies the adoption of methodological pluralism in order to realize the full potential of the method.
Abstract: This article is concerned with the status of generalisation in interpretive sociology. The case made is that generalisation is inevitable, desirable and possible. It is held that interpretivism must employ a special kind of generalisation, characterised here as moderatum. However, an acknowledgement that such generalisations can be made must bring us to specify the limits of generalisation in interpretive research. These limits are the limits of interpretivism itself and the paper concludes that this implies the adoption of methodological pluralism in order to realise the full potential of the method.
420 citations
TL;DR: The authors identify the importance of progressive understandings of place in overcoming the split between global and local approaches to childhood, and discuss the ways in which children's identities are constituted in and through particular spaces.
Abstract: The past two decades have seen rapid changes in the ways in which sociologists think about children, and a growing cross-fertilisation of ideas between researchers in a variety of social science disciplines. This paper builds upon these developments by exploring what three inter-related ways of thinking about spatiality might contribute to the new social studies of childhood. Specifically, we identify the importance of progressive understandings of place in overcoming the split between global and local approaches to childhood; we discuss the ways in which children's identities are constituted in and through particular spaces; and we examine the ways in which our understandings of childhood can shape the meaning of spaces and places. These ideas are illustrated by reference to our current research on children's use of the internet as well as a range of wider studies.
415 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the development of a new regime in a major bank where total quality management (TQM) has recently been introduced and explore the impact of TQM on the bank's performance.
Abstract: In this paper we explore the development of a new regime in a major bank where total quality management (TQM) has recently been introduced. A number of recent critics have suggested that TQM all bu...
228 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed examination of the nature and pattern of change in the domestic division of labour among couples in Britain based on nationally representative time-use diary data collected in 1975, 1987 and 1997 is presented.
Abstract: This paper addresses two important questions in the area of the division of domestic labour. Firstly, what change is observable in the patterns of men and women's time spent in domestic labour over the past twenty years, when taking into account structural factors such as employment patterns and social class? Secondly, among which groups of the population of couples can change be identified? One of the problems of this area of research has been that relatively few studies have systematically analysed change over time using directly comparable large-scale data. Here I present a detailed examination of the nature and pattern of change in the domestic division of labour among couples in Britain based on nationally representative time-use diary data collected in 1975, 1987 and 1997. The data are drawn from a cross-national data archive held by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. Notwithstanding the fact that in 1997 women still performed the bulk of domestic work, it is ...
219 citations
TL;DR: The analysis of this relatively narrow area of sociology has implications for the study of much broader questions about the capacity and legitimacy of the state in the twenty-first century as discussed by the authors, suggesting the continued explanatory value of theories which focus on the state's need both to contain welfare expenditure and to maximise the political legitimacy derived from it.
Abstract: Medical autonomy in the United Kingdom has declined over the last twenty-five years, whether considered at the micro level (such as control over treatment and work patterns), the meso level (in terms of corporatist relations with the state) or the macro level (in terms of the `biomedical model'). After a period in the early 1990s when the National Health Service displayed a mix of Fordist and post-Fordist controls, the emphasis has swung sharply towards the former, suggesting the continued explanatory value of theories which focus on the state's need both to contain welfare expenditure and to maximise the political legitimacy derived from it. The analysis of this relatively narrow area of sociology has implications for the study of much broader questions about the capacity and legitimacy of the state in the twenty-first century.
206 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the Modernisers' description of the global labour market and its impact on positional class conflict is seriously flawed and also argue that existing theories of social closure are inadequate and need to be developed in terms of what we call Positional Conflict Theory.
Abstract: Positional competition for credentials and jobs has been a major focus of sociological inquiry. However, there has been little attempt to examine the impact of economic globalisation on competition for a livelihood. This is an important question for sociological analysis as centre-left Modernisers, including New Labour in Britain and the Democrats in the United States, assume that globalisation has transformed the nature of positional class conflict. They argue that it is now the absolute standards of educational achievement, rather than the relative standing of credential holders within local or national labour markets, which are of primary importance. Drawing on neo-Weberian theories of social closure, this article will argue that the Modernisers' description of the global labour market and its impact on positional class conflict is seriously flawed. It will also be argued that existing theories of social closure are inadequate and need to be developed in terms of what we call Positional Conflict Theory.
171 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated husbands' and wives' perceptions of fairness of the domestic division of labour using data from a recent national Australian survey, and found that 59 per cent of women report that the division of labor in the home is fair even though they also report responsibility for the bulk of the work.
Abstract: This paper investigates husbands' and wives' perceptions of fairness of the domestic division of labour Using data from a recent national Australian survey, the paper shows that 59 per cent of women report that the division of labour in the home is fair even though they also report responsibility for the bulk of the work. On the other hand, 68 per cent of men report that the division of household labour is fair. Drawing on Thompson's distributive justice framework, the paper analyses the factors underlying these patterns in relation to perceptions of fairness of childcare and housework. The results show that, for both men and women, the key factor determining perceptions of fairness is the division of tasks between men and women. The amount of time spent on domestic labour is also significant, but is less important than who does what around the home. There is little support for other hypotheses relating to gender role attitudes,lime spent in paid work and financial power. The conclusion examines these findings in light of the distributive justice framework and considers their implications for understanding perceptions of fairness in households.
163 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider how interviewees' moral understandings were fundamentally shaped by social constructions of the Child and the Adult, and how the presence of dependent children led to an overall key moral imperative concerning the requirement for responsible adults to put the needs of children first.
Abstract: Family lives are an area where people's moral identities are crucially at stake. Yet the significance of dependent children to the work needed to sustain morally adequate adult identities is largely overlooked. Furthermore, the particular situation of divorce or separation and repartnering where children are involved is fundamentally relevant to current sociological debates about the changing nature of marriage and family life. Notions of the pursuit of self-development and couple intimacy clash and create tensions with notions of duty or responsibility to children's needs. Drawing on a study of parents and step-parents, we consider how interviewees' moral understandings were fundamentally shaped by social constructions of the Child and the Adult. Importantly, the presence of dependent children led to an overall key moral imperative concerning the requirement for responsible adults to put the needs of children first. There were, however, strong gender dimensions in the ways in which this moral imperative was played out, and in some tensions with an alternative, but secondary, moral ethic of care of self. We discuss the significance of the Child/Adult construction in relation to theories about the nature of contemporary family obligations and of contemporary morality more generally.
149 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the social impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) is explored by examining empirically questions of identity, inequality, power and change, and it is argued that current trends suggest increasing convergence (economic and organisational as much as technological), differentiation and deregulation.
Abstract: This article explores the social impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). It argues that they are best understood, not as heralding a substantially new ‘information society’, but as significant technologies emerging in but inherently part of late modernity. This argument is developed by examining themes from post-materialism, globalisation and information society theories. It is suggested there are two types of technology, those changing and extending existing processes and those facilitating wholly new activities, and that recent innovations in information and communication technology are rather better construed as the former. By examining empirically questions of identity, inequality, power and change the recent and future impact of ICT's is explored, and it is argued that current trends suggest increasing convergence (economic and organisational as much as technological), differentiation and deregulation.
118 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical examination of theories of reflexive modernity with respect to the new human genetics draws on a range of empirical studies and conceptual critiques, and concludes with a consideration of the implications of their reflections for sociology and participatory democracy more broadly.
Abstract: This critical examination of theories of reflexive modernity with respect to the new human genetics draws on a range of empirical studies and conceptual critiques. In it we explore the ways in which genetic knowledge and testing technologies offer new choices, construct new risks and generate public and professional ambivalence. We contrast this with the processes of ordering, reduction and control suffusing these developments. We argue that reductionism and determinism continue to infuse genetic theories and methods, that scientific and social progress are collapsed anew, and that certitude and surveillance remain powerful guiding principles. Within this context, the reflexive potential of individual choice, personal responsibility and risk estimation is seriously undermined. Indeed, in the case of the new human genetics, it seems that reflexive modernisation promotes, rather than curtails, a new modern/counter-modern eugenics. This occurs through the privatisation of lay ambivalence and professionals' successful institutional reflexivity. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of our reflections for sociology and participatory democracy more broadly.
115 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a small-scale exploratory study of four black supplementary schools was conducted to uncover their subjugated knowledges and hidden histories in order to illustrate the ways in which they generate Mueller's ''oppositional meanings''.
Abstract: Black supplementary schools, as organic grassroots organisations, are not simply a response to mainstream educational exclusion and poor provision, as they are so often described. They are far more radical and subversive than their quiet conformist exterior, indicating the presence of a covert social movement for educational change. In our small-scale, exploratory study of four black supplementary schools, we attempt to uncover their subjugated knowledges and hidden histories in order to illustrate the ways in which they generate Mueller's `oppositional meanings'. The narratives of the black women educators consistently decentre assumptions of mainstream schooling, as well as providing evidence of thriving black communities, social capital and complex, contradictory pedagogies within which childcentredness remains an important component. Supplementary schools provide a context in which whiteness is displaced as central and blackness is seen as normative. We conclude by arguing that, through their strategi...
TL;DR: The authors argues that the subspecialism of sociology of education has, for a century, been ambivalent about the ''hooligan'' and speculates on the position of hooligans in Britain in 2025.
Abstract: This paper argues that the subspecialism of sociology of education has, for a century, been ambivalent about the `hooligan'. It has both celebrated and excoriated the anti-school working-class boy. Similarly, the mainstream of sociology has been ambivalent about sociologists of education, both relying on them and ignoring them. Thirdly, the paper speculates on the position of hooligans in Britain in 2025 and the relationship between mainstream sociology and the sociology of education in that year.
TL;DR: The United Kingdom is a multi-national and multi-cultural state in which ethnic and national identities sit uneasily alongside citizenship or state identity as mentioned in this paper, and it faces particular challenges to its historically implicit and complex set of political, territorial and ethnic identities.
Abstract: Nationality and citizenship are frequently confused but analytically distinct concepts. In the context of the United Kingdom they are especially problematic, for state identity (British) and national identities (English, Scottish, Welsh, etc.) have evolved in a highly implicit manner since the state was formed in the eighteenth century. The development of multiculturalism in the second half of the twentieth century adds to this complexity and diversity. At the end of the twentieth century, nation, state and society are increasingly differentiated, presenting particular problems for sociology whose orthodoxies usually treat them as synonymous. Today, fewer societies can be described as ‘nation-states’. On the other hand, the United Kingdom is a multi-national and multi-cultural state in which ethnic and national identities sit uneasily alongside citizenship or state identity. Compared with modern republican states such as the United States or France, as well as Germany, the United Kingdom faces particular challenges to its historically implicit and complex set of political, territorial and ethnic identities.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report the outcome of the secondary analysis of a key study in the sociology of prison life, Cohen and Taylor's research on the long-term imprisonment of men in maximum security.
Abstract: Qualitative data offer rich insights into the social world, whether alone or in tandem with statistical analysis. However, qualitative data are costly to collect and analyse. Moreover, it is a commonplace that only a portion of the data so labouriously collected is the subject of final analysis and publication. Secondary analysis is a well-established method in quantitative research and is raising its profile in application to qualitative data. It has a particular part to play when research is on sensitive topics and/or hard-to-reach populations, as in the example considered here. This article contributes to discussion of the potential and constraints of secondary analysis of qualitative data by reporting the outcome of the secondary analysis of a key study in the sociology of prison life, Cohen and Taylor's research on the long-term imprisonment of men in maximum security. The article re-visits Cohen and Taylor's original analysis and demonstrates support for an alternative, if complementary, conceptualisation, using archived data from the original study. Among the methodological issues discussed are the recovery of the context of the original fieldwork and the role of secondary analysis in an incremental approach to knowledge production.
TL;DR: The authors argued that rapprochement rather than transcendence is the way to overcome the existing fragmentation and for bringing closer together structural/structuralist and interpretative paradigms in the social sciences.
Abstract: On the basis of a fourfold typology referring to different definitions of the social-structure concept, and of a critique of Giddens's and Bourdieu's strategies for transcending the divide between objectivist and subjectivist sociologies, this paper argues that rapprochement rather than transcendence is the way to overcome the existing fragmentation and for bringing closer together structural/structuralist and interpretative paradigms in the social sciences.
TL;DR: The public/private distinction has been an important, generative, but relatively unexplicated and unstable background assumption in sociological thinking as discussed by the authors, and the importance of the private, the subjective and the individual has been emphasized.
Abstract: The public/private distinction has been an important, generative but relatively unexplicated and unstable background assumption in sociological thinking. This paper describes some of the significances of this dualism in the context of a contemporary anxiety about the public sphere and a turn to the private, the subjective and the individual, not least for sociology. Popular and materialistic meanings of `the private' are distinguished from possible sociological analytical uses. The increasing sociological interest in various forms of subjectivity is taken to be one characteristic version of the private within the current public/private dualism. A range of well-known formative sociological theorising is described, which provides implicit versions of the relation between the private and the public. These are a resource for rethinking what the private might now refer to in sociology. Three dimensions of the sociological private are proposed - intimate relationships, the self and the unconscious - as marking ...
TL;DR: Key sociological issues, that come to light when `the body' becomes a theoretical site in reproductive genetics, are highlighted, including how a mechanistic view of the body continues to be privileged in this discourse and the effects of this view.
Abstract: This paper's purpose is to highlight key sociological issues, that come to light when 'the body' becomes a theoretical site in reproductive genetics. By positioning the body as a central feature in this analysis, the paper: (1) describes how a mechanistic view of the body continues to be privileged in this discourse and the effects of this view; (2) examines how reproductive limits are practised on the gendered body through a feminised regime of reproductive asceticism and the discourse on shame; and (3) explores the social effects and limitations of reproductive genetics in relation to disability as a cultural representation of impaired bodies. The central assumption concerning reproductive genetics are that it appears within surveillance medicine as a part of a disciplinary process in society's creation of a genetic moral order, that it is mobilised by experts for the management of reproductive bodies and that it constructs a limited view of the body. Thus, the way reproductive genetics operatives tends to hide the fact that what may appear as 'defective genes' is a result of a body's interaction not only with the environment but also gendered social practices valorised by difference as well as rigid definitions of health and illness. The research is from a 1995-96 European study of experts interviewed in four countries.
TL;DR: The authors discusses influential literature on the gendering of domestic food preparation, and argues that findings from research on food preparation and food choice carried out in the late 1970s and early 1980s must be seen in their historical context and outlines major structural changes since then which impact on women's roles.
Abstract: Recognising the importance of food preparation in divisions of domestic labour, this paper discusses influential literature on the gendering of domestic food preparation. It argues that findings from research on food preparation and food choice carried out in the late 1970s and early 1980s must be seen in their historical context, and outlines major structural changes since then which impact on women's roles. It also argues that the tendency of sociology of food research to focus on the cultural norm of the nuclear family with dependent children ignores more common household structures in Britain today. This is particularly inappropriate since there are a number of reasons why we should not expect men and women at this stage in the life course to be typical, in terms of food preparation and choice, of those at other stages in the life course.
TL;DR: The authors argue that associational thinking has also clouded the normative judgements implicit in the critiques of gendered organisations, as a consequence of a reluctance to engage in counterfactual reasoning and abstraction, and a neglect of the extent to which systems - as opposed to the lifeworld - are identity-blind.
Abstract: The paper raises some problems caused by `associational thinking' in social science by reference to examples from the literature on economic organisation and gender. Associational thinking focuses on common associations between social phenomena, such as the gendering of organisations, without asking counterfactual questions about the status of these relationships, for example, whether organisations are unavoidably gendered or only contingently so. It is argued these questions have been inadequately resolved in the literature, as a consequence of a reluctance to engage in counterfactual reasoning and abstraction, and a neglect of the extent to which systems - as opposed to the lifeworld - are `identity-blind'. These questions are pursued through discussions of whether markets and bureaucracies are inherently gendered. It is argued further that associational thinking has also clouded the normative judgements implicit in the critiques of gendered organisations.
TL;DR: In this paper, an alternative conceptual framework is presented underpinned by the recognition that the response of trade unions towards racialised labour is contingent on a wider set of economic, political and ideological circumstances and the type of strategy trade unions employ to protect the economic interests of their members.
Abstract: When it comes to understanding the relationship between organised labour and the racialised worker in England, the conclusions reached by black radical theorists like Sivanandan and Gilroy have gone unchallenged for many years. In this paper, it is contended that these accounts of trade-union racism are constructed on the mistaken assumption that a trade union represents the interests of all the working class. Instead, an alternative conceptual framework is advanced underpinned by the recognition that the response of trade unions towards racialised labour is contingent on a wider set of economic, political and ideological circumstances and the type of strategy trade unions employ to protect the economic interests of their members. Through an assessment of events between 1945 and 1979 (the period black radical theorists use to advance their arguments), this paper challenges the conclusions drawn by black radical theorists regarding the basis of trade-union racism, the significance of ‘black’ self-organisation and the likelihood of ‘inter-racial’ class action developing.
TL;DR: In this paper, a discussion of two books published in the mid-1990s provides a benchmark for later comparisons, and some subsequent ''episodes' in the life of moder...
Abstract: This article starts with a discussion of two books published in the mid-1990s; these are publications that provide a benchmark for later comparisons. Some subsequent `episodes' in the life of moder...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the possible patterns of crime and control in the twenty-first century, drawing on an analysis of current and recent developments, and suggest a dystopian prospect of permanen...
Abstract: This paper explores the possible patterns of crime and control in the twenty-first century, drawing on an analysis of current and recent developments. These suggest a dystopian prospect of permanen...
TL;DR: A study of social mobility in Britain and Ireland, from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, was carried out by as mentioned in this paper, who used a continuous measure of social position, rather than class categories, derived from data on social interaction.
Abstract: This article presents some preliminary results from a historical study of social mobility in Britain and Ireland, from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. The study is marked by a unique combination of features: (1) it follows families for up to five generations, through both maternal and paternal lines; (2) it uses a continuous measure of social position, rather than class categories; (3) this measure is derived from data on social interaction – correspondence analyses of cross-tabulations of the occupations for marriages taking place in the periods 1777–1866 and 1867–1913; (4) each individual's social position is summarised by a work-life trajectory, represented by his social location at ages 20 and 50. The analyses are based on twelve ten-year birth cohorts from 1790–99 to 1900–09. The results indicate a remarkable degree of stability of social processes of reproduction throughout this period, although there is an extremely slow shift towards a weakening of family influence. This process appears to have accelerated for those born in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a period of both educational reform and major change in Britain's industrial organisation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on Bakhtin's concept of dialogical plurality, arguing that in spite of his position against the finalization of speech and his attack on monologistic, authori...
Abstract: In the following analysis I will focus on Bakhtin's concept of dialogical plurality, arguing that in spite of his position against the finalization of speech and his attack on monologistic, authori...
TL;DR: In this paper, the significance of race within young girls' peer-group relations and the ways in which the social dynamics that underlie those relations provide the context for understanding the particular nature and form that racism takes among the girls.
Abstract: This article draws upon data from an in-depth ethnographic study of 5 and 6 year old children in an English multi-ethnic, inner-city primary school. It focuses on the significance of 'race' within young girls' peer-group relations and the ways in which the social dynamics that underlie those relations provide the context for understanding the particular nature and form that racism takes among the girls. This is done through a focus on the experiences of South Asian girls within the group. Within this, the article has two main aims. First, it aims to contribute to the literature within the sociology of education by extending the existing research focus on racism within teacher/pupil interactions to include an understanding of racism as it manifests itself among the children's peer-group relations. Second, in adapting and applying Pierre Boudieu's concepts of capital and field, the article also offers a contribution to the literature within the sociology of 'race' and ethnicity by suggesting one potentially fruitful way in which racism can be understood within specific social contexts.
TL;DR: The authors argued that to understand material culture as determined through the monetary exchange for things -the cash nexus - leads to an inadequate sociological understanding of the social relations with objects, and pointed to a more sociologically adequate approach to material culture that explores objects in a system of models and series, "atmosphere", functionality, biography, interaction and mediation.
Abstract: During the last thirty years, ‘consumption’ has become a major topic in the study of contemporary culture within anthropology, psychology and sociology. For many authors it has become central to understanding the nature of material culture in the modern world but this paper argues that the concept is, in British writing at least, too concerned with its economic origins in the selling and buying of consumer goods or commodities. It is argued that to understand material culture as determined through the monetary exchange for things - the cash nexus - leads to an inadequate sociological understanding of the social relations with objects. The work of Jean Baudrillard is used both to critique the concept of consumption as it leads to a focus on advertising, choice, money and shopping and to point to a more sociologically adequate approach to material culture that explores objects in a system of models and series, ‘atmosphere’, functionality, biography, interaction and mediation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discussed trends in absolute rates of both career and intergenerational mobility in Britain since the 1950s and some of the cultural consequences of the resulting heterogeneity in class composition are briefly considered.
Abstract: Trends in absolute rates of both career and intergenerational mobility in Britain since the 1950s are outlined and some of the cultural consequences of the resulting heterogeneity in class composition are briefly considered. It is argued that while supply-side factors-educational attainment, ability, etc.-may determine who has been mobile or not, aggregate rates and changes in aggregate rates are largely dictated by demand-side factors. But current trends in the composition of the working population are necessarily self-limiting. A forecast of the occupational structure in the first half of the twenty-first century together with the assumption of some continuity in the pattern of class advantages, indicates a `mobility transition' in which trends are likely to reverse within the next thirty years or so. The long-run replacement of recruitment heterogeneity by homogeneity of social experience in the enlarged middle class suggests that, in contrast with present-day pluralism, there will emerge the structura...
TL;DR: The authors argues that Lockwood's piece on social and system integration was quite insightful at the time, but that it failed in correctly solving the issues it raised, and that more recent versions of the piece failed to correctly solve the issues raised.
Abstract: This article argues that Lockwood's piece on social and system integration was quite insightful at the time, but that it failed in correctly solving the issues it raised. More recent versions of th...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that it is not enough to identify landowners' status in law as the root cause of their power, but instead it should be seen as only one facet of it, and that just as important is the way in which landowners have appropriated cultural interpretations of the land to forefront their powers.
Abstract: This article deals with the claim that Scottish landowners' power is directly related to their status in law, by arguing that it is, in fact, much more to do with their (inter)relationship with particular cultural symbols that can be associated with the land. However, this presents a sociological problem, for the dominant sociological purchase on land is one which routinely interprets it as a social construction. The paper presented here differs, as it focuses on particular cultural symbols which have a socio-historical resonance in relation to land, and makes the argument that they maintain this presence because of their (inter)connection with particular social groupings, notably landowners. Therefore, it is simply not enough to identify landowners' status in law as the root cause of their power, but instead it should be seen as only one facet of it. I conclude by suggesting that just as important is the way in which landowners have appropriated cultural interpretations of the land to forefront their powers.