Showing papers in "The Sociological Review in 1971"

The problem of multiple causation in population analysis, with particular reference to the polygamy‐fertility hypothesis

Abstract: The hypothesis that polygyny is associated with higher fertility than monogamy was evaluated. An assessment of previous studies and of the results of a 1966-1967 study comparing the fertility levels of polygynously and monogamously married women in a rural and an urban population in Nigeria lead to the conclusion that the hypothesis was useless. The hypothesis was judged to be useless because 1) fertility rates are the product of multiple influences; 2) it is too difficult to separate out these multiple influences given the variability involved in polygynous practices and the inadequates of the data; and 3) the influence of polygyny on fertility is too slight to take into account. In the Nigerian study the fertility of 2742 monogamously married women was compared with the fertility of 1261 polygynously married women. Preliminary analysis revealed that the fertility rate was higher for polygynously married women; however when marriage duration was controlled there was no significant differences between the fertility rates observed for the polygynously and monogamously married women living in rural areas nor those living in urban area.

The facts don't fit: on the relationship between social class and criminal behaviour

Abstract: Sociologists who have turned their minds to the subject of crime have, like any other students of criminal deviance from Holmes to Crowley, been in the business of invention. They have aimed to invent plausible explanations of the known faas. A nineteenth century criminologist would have been considered very stubborn or very stupid if his theory did not succeed in explaining the known co-variation of criminogenic tendencies with physical characteristics. Similarly, the greater proportion of our current sociological knowledge about criminal deviance was invented to explain certain known facts about the epidemiology of crime. The best known of these facts—the one which has probably been uppermost in the minds of theorists, and hence the one which has been most influential in the development of their theories—is that law-violating behaviour is negatively related to social class. From time to time we have recognised the problematic status of this empirical assertion; but, on the whole, we sociologists (whichever side we are on!) join with the man-in-the-street, the various law enforcement agents, and those unfortunates who have been socialised in prison, in assuming that it is generally the working class who break the law. We further compound our collaboration in this mjrthopoeic exercise by evoking working class affinities, such as poverty, relative deprivation, poor education, broken homes, etc., as the basic causative agents. The possibility of a double illusion is thus created: a set of 'facts' becomes the facts, and an explanation—affinity^—becomes the favoured, almost reified, aetiological account. Merton provides perhaps the best example of this logical legerdemain. In his article, 'Social Structure and Anomie', he notes Sutherland's data on white-collar crime, Porterfield's data on middle class juvenile delinquents, and the work of Wallenstein and Wyle on unrecorded adult criminal behaviour. Indeed, he even quotes the last authors' modest conclusion that 'unlawful behaviour . . . . is in truth

Problems in the analysis of life histories

Abstract: I INTRODUCfION This paper is not concerned to describe substantive findings, our aim is to demonstrate that there are problems in the analysis of life-history data. Qearly, solutions might be of more interest, and at various points we suggest devices of possible utility. But this is very much a preliminary report on 'work in progress', since we feel that adequate tools (conceptual and computational) for the handling of sociological life-histories are unavailable. This apparent absence of apt analytic techniques has not received the attention it deserves. Though in this article we have not attempted a systematic overview of work in the areas considered, l we have tried to bear the literature in mind. Despite technical sophistication it has yet to be demonstrated that such work as it contains is sociologically relevant. Sociologists have been concerned with life-histories-The Polish Peasant yields supportive statements. Thomas and Znaniecki's concern is not shared by the recent journal literature. Such statements, having been formulated within a particular time specific framework, are no longer directly apposite;3 even those modern theorists who concentrate upon individualistic explanations of macrosocial phenom-

Structural and unconscious implications of the dyad and triad: an essay in theoretical integration; durkheim, simmel, freud

Abstract: It is well established in sociological literature^ that the classical sociologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were addressing a common general problem of urbanisation and industrialisation. In the theories of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, traditional and rational legal authority, feudalism and capitalism, mechanical and organic solidarity, Tonnies, Weber, Marx and Durkheim offered theories of pre-modern and modern types of social order, and, perhaps less convincingly, causal explanations of the transition from the one to the other. These pairs of polar concepts have been received in sociology as basic classifications, embodying well-established uniformities in the phenomena. It is characteristic of the discipline that they should all have continued to survive to be learnt by students as alternative models of similar phenomena, rather than suffering the fate of the pioneer works of the mature natural sciences—of being unified into a single 'authorized' textbook model. Simmel's work has many of the same preoccupations as that of his contemporaries. Differentiation, the emergence of role-segmentation and individuality are central themes in Simmel's work whidi echo the accounts of 'modernity' of the above authors. But interest in Simmel has been less than in the other founding writers in this subject, especially Weber and Durkheim, and has been somewhat partial. In the argument between 'conflict' and 'consensus' theorists, the modem version of the Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft debate, Simmel has been incorporated into 'confiia' theory,^ while his contribution to understanding the total institutional architecture of simple and complex societies has been overlooked. The primary interest of Simmel's 'formal sociology' was in the relationship between social structure and social interaction. \"̂ This work constituted a successful attempt, at the microsociological level of social atoms and molecules, to discover funda-

Decontextualised meanings: current approaches to verstehende investigations

Abstract: a manner, attempting to warrant one specific interpretation. Giving reasons, descriptions, accounts, etc. not only depends upon but contributes to the maintenance of stable routines of condua. Members' methods of producing 'correct' (i.e. sanctionable) decisions about matters of normal practice in ordinary settings are based upon continuing studies of those same settings. Garfinkel clinches this point in his analysis of an inter-sexed person managing (as a 'practical methodologist') to 'prove' her gender in ordinary settings.**̂ It is precisely a practical sociological reasoning (that gains its objectivity for members according to socially organised contexts of its deployment) which enables us all to build up from fragments, passing remarks, vague categories of experience and other assorted bits and pieces of talk and appearance, a working model of social structure(s) as appropriate grounds for inference and action. The attention of the sociologist is drawn to the analysis of how very diverse accounting schemata (members' 'knowledge') are translated into settings where matters of vital concern about fact, 'what happened', etc. are issues; for example, in the ethnomethodologically researched exemplars of suidde prevention centres investigating mode of death post facto, of jurors deciding upon a verdict, coders dealing with organisational records, police officers deciding upon the application of the label 'delinquent' and so on. Members' methods of solving the methodological problems of practical sociological reasoning are now topics rather than purely resources. Remarks on Description Given that one cannot import into practically organised arenas any strict rules of procedure for interpreting their features (unless one is prepared to multiply the communicative troubles from the outset), assuming the 'face validity of the manifest lexical content of a message\"*'̂ has often been proposed as sufficient for survey and coding work in the social sciences (although, whilst this has been taken to mean that such a practice obviates the necessity of any kind of hermeneutic work, it nonetheless implicates the researcher in a tacit hermeneutic of his own). On the other hand, formality about what one might previously have taken for granted in reading or hearing a communication (in the sense of laying out elements of presumptive understanding) tends to multiply the features of the task—the enterprise branches out and extends the interpretable issues. Sacks asks:

British sociology 1950–1970: a journal analysis

Abstract: This article presents an analysis of contributors and contributions to three British sociological journals together with some information on the membership of the British Sociological Association (B.S.A.) and of the Association's Committee. The material gives, among other things, a picture of the pattern of research activity and serves to reveal something of the institutional complex in which sociology in Britain is rooted. It may be considered as a contribution to the sociology of sociology.̂ The three journals are the Sociological Review (Soc. Rev.), the British Journal of Sociology (B.J.S.), and Sociology, Official Journal of the British Sociological Association (Sociology). From 1908 to 1953 the Sociological Review was published first by the Sociological Society and then by the Institute of Sociology. The Institute ran into difficulties in the early fifties and the Review was taken over by Keele University^ which commenced publication of a 'New Series' in 1953 with an editorial board composed of seven professors from Keele University. The B.J.S. was founded in 1950 by the London School of Economics in conjunction with Routledge the publishing house; the editors were three professors from the School. Sociology was founded jointly by the B.S.A. and the Clarendon Press, a division of the Oxford University Press. It first appeared in 1967 with a professor from Bristol University as editor, and an editorial board consisting of a leaurer from Cambridge University, a professor from Newcastle University and a non-academic from Political and Economic Planning, a private research institute. Subsequent changes in editorial arrangements have been made in each case and a feature of Sociology is the frequent rotation both of the editorship and of membership of the editorial board. The Sociological Review had two\"̂ issues per annum, the B.J.S. four, and Sociology three. We have included in our analysis all issues of the B.J.S. and Sociology and all issues of the New Series of the Review, i.e. from 1953.

Some factors affecting the career choice and career perceptions of sixth form school leavers

Abstract: M uch discussion at present surrounds the relationship between those seaions of society concerned with the supply and demand elements of manpower—the educational system and the world of work. The concern has been with the wider needs of society and the more specific needs of organisations on the one hand, and the freedom of individual choice on the other. The importance of this relationship and its inherent difficulties has been commented on by Crichton in discussing the implications of the changing social context for the personal policies of organisations. She states that 'education of individuals in a democratic society must necessarily be more than a vocational preparation for work. Yet work is so dominant in importance that the relationship between education and emplojmient is a vital one.'' The need to improve the link between the educational system and the world of work has been referred to by Ginzberg as one of our most intractable manpower problems.It is not only the relationship between the educational and employment systems that it is causing concern, but, as the Robbins Report pointed out, there exists a need for much closer co-operation between the institutions of higher education and the schools.' It has been noted that the educational and occupational systems are very closely related in industrial societies, and that the fit between them is very close.'* Certainly the systems do relate, but the relationship is not a simple one, as Blau has pointed out.\" Most theoretical discussions of occupational choice refer to the entry into employment as part of a process, though opinions are divided as to the extent and complexity of this process. Blau refers to occupational choice as 'a process involving a series of decisions';'' Ginzberg regards it as 'a developmental process'.^ Super, whilst adopting the developmental approach of Ginzberg, draws attention to the 'compromise process' involved.'' British writers, too, in arguing for an adequate theoretical framework, have emphasised that occupational dhioice is a

One sociology or many: some issues in radical sociology*

Abstract: ARTICLE proposes to raise for discussion several fundamental issues in sociological study and to suggest a point of view. The issues raised are much beyond my present capacity to resolve successfully. I hope, rather, to make explicit certain of the difficulties that appear to me to be major, and to trust that along with others who may be engaged in similar inquiries, we may mutually aid each other in seeing our way through. It is my view that at least some radicals in sociology have gone astray, on certain antisociological and methodological matters. There has been in the past decade an intellectually defensive effort on the part of radicals to justify one or several radical sociologies by adopting the counter-positions to those verbally espoused by orthodox or establishment sociologists in matters relative to the philosophy of social science or methodology. Several themes can be identified: objectivity, value-commitments, criticism, relevance, paradigms, and purposes. On almost all such issues, radicals have tended to argue against the stated positions of the orthodox. At least since World War II, the institutionalization of orthodoxy has involved defining sociological research as the search for objective knowledge; as a concern with understanding and scholarship rather than activism or politics; as value-neutral rather than value-informed study; as a search for explanation rather than criticism; and as the assimilation of sociology into the natural science paradigm. Radicals have generally taken the opposite position: arguing that objectivity is not possible in the social sciences (some claiming to distinguish the social from the natural sciences in this respect, others

Social structure, awareness contexts and processes of choice*

Abstract: The purpose in contributing a further conceptual approach to the multiplicity already existing in the area of first job choice is to suggest an alternative to 'variable analysis\" and thus one which is more firmly rooted in current sodological theory. Whereas Keil/ and Musgrave\"' utilized a role theory approach to occupational choice and thus emphasised the importance of examining the way in which status attributes influence the channels through the social structure which particular groups follow, they gave little attention to the way in which these factors influence the actual process of choice. It is therefore proposed in the following paper that the concept of 'awareness contexts'* provides not only a practically useful but also a theoretically fruitful means of representing the definitions of situations carried out by acting individuals, because they can be related to different processes of choice. It is generally acc^pted^ that the choice process occurs over a considerable period of time and that it is largely irreversible because previous involvement in social organisation differentially channels individuals through the social structure so that they arrive at various 'jumping off points into the occupational hierarchy. However, confusion and disagreement arises because, although many authors define the term 'occupational choice', they fail to clarify the nature of the phenomena they consider suitable for inclusion. Thus the concept of 'choice' is applied to situations in which: (a) subjects objectively have a choice between alternative courses of action and are aware that these different alternatives exist and that they can choose between them; (b) subjects objectively have a choice between alternative courses of action but are not aware that these different alternatives exist;

Relative Deprivation and Attachment to Farming

Abstract: This paper is concerned with relative deprivation and job-satisfaction for a group of small fanners in eastern England. Jobsatisfaction is used here in the sense of attachment to farming as an occupation.^ The title 'farmer' covers a broad category of occupations, ranging from the man who keeps a few chickens in his back yard or the tenant of a County Council smallholding, to the director of an agricultural business organised on industrial lines, covering thousands of acres and employing dozens of men. This study focuses on operators of small, full-time farms, defined as farm businesses which would normally require at least one but less than two men working full-time throughout the year. Such farms account for twenty per cent, of all agricultural holdings, occupy about twenty per cent, of farm land and produce a corresponding proportion of output. The small, full-time farm is typically between fifty and a hundred acres and run by the farmer with help from his wife, children or father part-time. While operators of very small holdings can usually manage to work the farm in their spare time and rely on another job for most of their income, and larger farmers with greater turnover have benefited more from modern technology, small, full-time farmers have tended to fall between two stools. Farm incomes as a whole have been falling behind incomes in other occupations since the early 1950s and over the past five years the farmers' position has worsened. In East Anglia, for example, average farm income per acre decreased by five per cent, between 1964 and 1969, but in the same period the retail price index rose by twenty-five per cent. Within the agricultural seaor the gap between earnings of small and large farms is growing wider. The small farm today is likely to yield less than an industrial wage, despite the very long hours worked by the farmer and his family. Farmers with livestock are occupied seven days a week and may be unable to take

Stochastic models for social processes: a review and bibliography

Abstract: The following bibliography is designed to up-date and extend the one given in my book Stochastic Models for Social Processes (SMSP). It contains publications which have appeared or come to my notice since 1967 on the topics covered in that book together with short sections on new areas of application. The boundaries of the field are difficult to draw and no claim is made that the list is exhaustive in any sense. Not all the references are concerned directly with stochastic models. Some contain data or discuss problems of measurement or analysis but they have been included because of their general relevance. A few of the publications are volumes of papers presented at conferences (e.g. Smith (1971)); in such cases the individual contributions do not appear separately. The bibliography is divided into fourteen sections according to field of application. The brief commentary which precedes the bibliography is designed to draw attention to the main lines of development within each area.

An easter pentecostal convention: the successful management of a‘time of blessing'*

Abstract: W hilst engaged in research into Pentecostalism in the North of England, and later in London, we became convinced of the need for detailed ethnographic studies of particular Pentecostal seas and their organised events. This need arose from our observation that the complexity and diversity of action within what Wilson has called 'conversionist' sects is greater than has hitherto been noted.̂ We see such studies as being useful therefore not only in 'setting the scene', but also as essential in getting to grips with the Pentecostal world(s) (as the actors understand them) and in preventing the convenient Procrustean method of tailoring observation to fit predetermined theories.^ Thus we decided early in our research to engage in a detailed study of an organised event; moreover, one which Pentecostals hold to be important. We chose an Easter Convention held in a large 'Tabernacle' in a Northern city.̂ Conventions are an established part of the Pentecostal tradition. They are organised special meetings or series of meetings held in one locality, largely involving members of Pentecostal assemblies, but with the expectation that non-Pentecostals and nonChristians will attend.^ These meetings are 'Dionysian' highlights in the Pentecostal calendar; 'star' speakers are invited to preach and numerous out-of-the-ordinary events are organised. This must be seen against the traditionally puritanical social life of the Pentecostal: the enjoyment of 'worldly things'—smoking, drinking alcohol, dancing, attending theatres and cinemas, and flirting—is oflBcially eschewed.*̂ It is expected that, except for work relationships and while engaged in evangelism, all social activities will be with fellow-believers. Thus, although it is a matter to be empirically determined whether their lives are so ideologically circumscribed,® officially at least conventions

Political and non‐political ideals of english primary and secondary school children*

Abstract: Our intentions in this paper are two-fold: first, to analyse the ideals of English children between the ages of eight and eighteen years, taking into account such factors as age, sex, social class, educational background and political party identification; and secondly, to test for the relationship between political efl&cacy and the types of ideals chosen. The ideals which concern us in this paper are those which relate closely to the child's picture of himself. In particular, we are interested in children's exemplars—those adult figures who serve as models for children's values and conduct. The literature on the formation of idealized self-images has tended to concentrate on the significance of selecting figures from the child's immediate environment as models. Much less attention has been paid to the significance of selecting exemplars from the wider environment and yet, as Novey has pointed out, the self-image of the mature individual is dependent upon both early primitive identification and later significant persons.' As students of politics we are interested in the implications of children choosing exemplars from the political world. The adoption of such figures may have consequences both at the level of the political system and also at the level of individual political behaviour. Many political groupings, such as a political system or a nation, are both complex and abstract and it may be that by identifying with figures who 'represent' these abstract groups, children are able to relate themselves to such groups. In any political system there will be public figures who act as personal political symbols mediating between the individual, particularly the child, and the system. They function as focal points to whom loyalty can be directed.A strong emotional

Extended Reviews: Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, StructuralismMadness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason by FoucaultMichel. Pp. xiv + 299, Tavistock, London, 1967. Paper 1971, £1.00;Structuralism by PiagetJean. Translated from the French by MaschlerChaninah. Pp. 153, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971, £2.00.

Abstract: The critical reactions to structuralism have come to resemble a finite game of permutations in which everyone is allowed to redefine his own orthodoxy in opposition to this latest reincarnation of an archetypal protagonist. Thus, for example, it is now customary for Marxists to dismiss it as a form of ahistorical hyper-idealism, and/or a form of scientistic ideology; functionalists see little more than an abstract psychologism, a game of noughts-and-crosses with transcendental rules; for phenomenologists it is the same old positivism— without a human subject, without 'meaning', and without action. These and other oppositions, however, ultimately cancel one another out: if structuralism is diametrically opposed by one school, it is equally diametrically opposed by the latter's opponents. The solution so far has been simple enough: structuralism cannot exist, Q.E.D. Even more unfortunate has been the tendency of positivism to try to absorb it, a task one would have thought difficult in view of the implicit challenge to the contemporary notion of 'science' offered by several structuralists. In this latter respect, the most interesting reaction is that of Jean Piaget, the famous child psychologist, whose classic survey (Structuralism, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971; first published in France in 1968) ranges from the most detailed technical issues to far-reaching epistemological considerations, and covers the impact of structuralism (in his own conception of it) on several disciplines—from mathematics and logic, through physics and biology, to psychology, linguistics, sociology, and philosophy. It will, nevertheless, present precious little clarity for the reader unfamiliar with the mathematical developments which Piaget deploys so impressively as part of his argument. In particular, the sociologist will find the mere twenty-two pages devoted to 'Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences' saying nothing to disconfirm his original intuition of having heard it all before: for Piaget includes Kurt Lewin, Marion J. Levy, Talcott Parsons, etc. as 'structuralists', which refers us to Piaget's own conception of the latter. For Piaget, structuralism is synonymous with the theory of systems. With this as his central concept he is doubtless

The Study of Sequence in the Interaction Process

Abstract: A number of different experimental methods have been evoked for following the pattern of verbal interaction towards consensus in small groups. Naturally enough all of these have their shortcomings, but Bales' (1950) Interaction Process Analysis remains the most popular. Briefly this consists of a series of logically exhaustive classifications, twelve in number, into one of which each contribution may be placed. Bales has claimed (1955) that none of the categories are of residual nature and in support of this he quotes correlations between recording observers ranging from .75 to .95. While work on this particular paper suggested a clouding of the boundaries between categories 5 and 4 and between 4 and 3, there is little doubt that the reliability is quite high. The classification system is shown below together with the summary areas.

The Development of Local-Cosmopolitan Attitudes Amongst Undergraduates and Sixth Formers:

Abstract: S tudies of professional workers' attitudes to their work have revealed a broad distinction which recurs amongst a number of different professions; two types, the 'local' or 'organisational' and the 'cosmopolitan' or 'professional', have been identified.̂ The 'local' has a distinctive attitude towards the organisation he works for: he is more loyal towards it, takes his reference group from inside it, and puts more stress on producing results useful to it and upon achieving its goals. The 'cosmopolitan' is more likely to have a professional reference group outside the organisation, he adopts more universalistic standards of performance, is concerned with making contributions to his professional or academic discipline and places more emphasis upon intellectual self-gratification. Whereas the local is likely to prefer management or administration, the cosmopolitan is more likely to prefer research. Some differences of this kind are apparent amongst university students. Davis^ has shown differences in reference group affiliation along local-cosmopolitan lines amongst U.S. postgraduates. Box and Cotgrove'* found amongst British chemistry undergraduates differences between the 'public scientist' and the 'instrumental scientist' which correspond to the local-cosmopolitan distinction, though they also identified a third type, the 'private scientist', who is committed personally to science but not interested in publishing. These differences are clearly relevant to the avowed aims of university education, more especially to contrasts between the emphasis upon vocational utility and industrial need in technological universities, and the more traditional emphasis upon the pursuit of know-