Showing papers in "The Sociological Review in 1985"

Power and Identity in Theory and Practice

Abstract: Power is often theorised in a way that equates its meaning with A's control over B. Alternatively, it is regarded as a universal transformative capacity. In which case, power is conceptualised in t...

Jokers Wild: The Importance of Humour in the Maintenance of Organizational Culture:

Abstract: Humour may have a number of different effects within organizations, but it is usually manifested in one of two major ‘joke forms’: standardized/canned or situation/spontaneous. Using examples of ea...

The Body, Sport and Power Relations:

Abstract: It is extraordinarily difficult to think of the body and its functions in any other terms than as a natural phenomenon. The rationalist bias in Western culture entails a radical separation of body and mind that accords primacy to the mind. The latter is the province of 'civilization'. In contrast, the body belongs to nature, the kingdom of desire, the source of threatening, irrational impulses and dangerous appetites; and it must be disciplined if civilization is to survive. Since the beginning of the modern era the image of the body as a machine which only functions properly under the control of the rational faculty has expressed such assumptions with profound effects. Accordingly, until quite recently, the body has been almost entirely evacuated from social and political theory: a built-in resistance prevents its role in the constitution of power relations from being analysed. Sociology, for example, in attempting to map the field of social relations as a domain sui generis, met competition from other disciplines, which would reduce the social to the biological and psychological levels, by shying away from attributing social significance to the body. Similarly, the silence of the marxist tradition on the body, and its tendency to dismiss those who attach significance to it, reflects an aversion to irrationalist ideologies which reduce history and society to a universal, unchanging human nature. Theoretically and practically the body has become the property of the natural sciences pre-eminent among them medical science and technology while the relations between body and mind have been consigned largely to philosophy and reductionist psychologies. Scientific discourse and common sense combine to naturalize the 'truth' about the body so that its historicity and its significance in the constitution of social relations is obscured. Yet control over the appearance, treatment and functioning of

‘Family ideology’: identification and exploration

Abstract: The issue of ‘family ideology’ has been systematically ignored by a majority of ‘family’1 scholars whilst it has been taken for granted by a minority. The following study arises from the author's attempts to explore the issue of alternative theoretical approaches to the analysis of ‘family life’.2 Increasing numbers of contemporary researchers concur in recognising the diversity of ‘family forms’ and the inappropriateness of speaking of ‘The Family’.3 Despite these recognitions many researchers find themselves re-adopting the term ‘The Family’ in their discussions and especially in the titles of their work. For example, Segal clearly recognises that the ‘traditional family model’ no longer reflects the reality of our lives (1983, 11) and yet the title of her book is What is to be done about THE FAMILY)? (emphasis added).One reason for the re-importation of the idea of ‘The Family’ may be found in the rather limited nature of previous conceptualisations of ‘family ideology’. With the exception of Barrett (...

The Rejuvenation of Community Studies? Neighbours, Networks and Policy:

Abstract: Why have community studies in Britain undergone such a decline? Several reasons are suggested for the decrease in popularity of this type of research since the mid-1960s, but several signs of possible resurgence are detected. Sociologists may also have something to learn from applied work in this area. The definition of the field is shifting from the geographical community to the study of primary group relations among neighbours, friends and kin. An effective methodological strategy which avoids hypostatising geographical space is social network analysis. Current theoretical issues are exemplified from Philip Abrams's work. There is revival too in the study of local-level political action.

Research note: Balance of financial power in marriage: an exploratory study of breadwinning wives

Abstract: This research note reports some findings of a small exploratory study of a sample of 18 women and 14 men living in the North-West in families in which the wife was the major (though not necessarily the only) breadwinner. Amongst the aspects explored in interviews were their domestic financial arrangements, which were found to be significantly different from those in studies where the husband was the main breadwinner. It was found that there was a tendency for the wives to cede some of their financial power to their husbands. At the same time they took on a sense of the burden of responsibility and worry associated with the breadwinning role.

The Figurational Sociology of sport and leisure of Elias and Dunning: an exposition and a critique

Abstract: The aim of this article is to outline and appraise the strengths and weaknesses of the Figurational Sociology of Sport of Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning. With its 'distinctive' focus on the 'civilising process' (Elias, 1978b and 1982a) and on the 'sociogenesis' and complex 'structural determination' of shifting 'social (con)figurations' (Elias, 1978a). This approach has been strongly advanced not only as offering the best of all possible bases for a sociology of sport but also as able to make a contribution to the mainstream of sociology, by throwing new light on aspects of cultural and social change previously neglected by the discipline. As well as the seminal work of Elias and Dunning (especially see Dunning, 1971a and Elias and Dunning, 1969), a number of significant monographs have appeared, on rugby (Dunning and Sheard, 1979), soccer (Dunning, 1979; Wagg, 1984) and cricket (Brookes, 1978). Under the influence of Dunning, sociologists based at the University of Leicester have also become a force in research and public debate on 'soccer hooliganism' (see Dunning et aI., 1982; Williams et aI., 1984). A Figurationist 'paradigm' in the sociology of sport and leisure would appear to be well established, and a theoretical text on the sociology of leisure written from the point of view of Figurational Sociology has recently appeared. As its author puts it: 'Figurational Sociology is now a force to be reckoned with in the sociology of leisure' (Rojek, 1985:95). If the objective of a sociology of sport is now widely recognised as the provision of a theoretically adequate and historically grounded analysis of changing patterns of sport, then Figurational Sociology has contributed strongly to this recognition. Its study of

Local Social Networks and Domestic Organisations: A Study of Redundant Steel Workers and Their Wives

Abstract: This paper applies the seminal insight of Elizabeth Bott (1957) to an analysis of the domestic organisation and local social networks of 40 redundant steel workers and their wives.Certain methodolo...

Labour markets and communities: an historical view

Abstract: A recent yet common concern to historians and sociologists has been the relationship between work and community. Attempts by historians to understand how communities functioned in the past have revealed a wealth of evidence with respect to one area of this relationship: the connection between labour markets and the communities in which they operate. This article draws together this growing body of research which suggests the linked operation of labour markets and communities. Personal or group paradigms of appropriate behaviour within the labour market are socially shaped and are not simply an expression of economic rationality. The community is a key area where workers and management develop perceptions of the labour market. The notion of community used here rests on the identification of mutual responsibilities and obligations. These ties may have a critical bearing on the reproduction of social relationships which are produced in the workplace. Community values, and patterns of social organisation originating in the neighbourhood, help determine how workers experience job entry and influence their career expectations. Social historians have emphasized aspects of labour markets which are bound up with community based forms of association. The following are examined here: employer actions, the role of the family and gender relations, and the social bases of worker combinations. Whilst attention is drawn to the continuity between work and community which is implied by labour market concepts, the connection is not seen as invariably unbroken nor always complementary.

Dealing with the Transsituational Demands of Professional Socialization

Abstract: Insofar as studies of professional socialization have been concerned with the subjective experience of students they have concentrated on students' experience within the confines of their training ...

Redundancy, labour markets and informal relations

Abstract: As a result of its 'slimline’plan put into effect in May 1980, the British Steel Corporation made nearly 6,000 workers redundant from its Abbey Works in Port Talbot. The relationship between redundancies at the plant, the labour market experiences of those made redundant and the way in which the two are mediated by informal relational structures is examined. It is argued (a) that the labour market chances of those made redundant were structured by the character of the redundancy process which made certain kinds of worker vulnerable to selection for redundancy; and (b) that the operation of the labour market changed as a result of the redundancies in ways which advantaged those among the redundant who were informally linked to certain kinds of opportunities on the demand side of the labour market. Some wider implications of the patterns found are discussed.

Which ‘ethnic question’? The development of questions identifying: ethnic origin in official statistics

Abstract: The historical development of questions on ethnic origin in the official statistics of the United Kingdom is examined. The focus of the paper is on the relationship between the development of questions on ethnic origin and the increasing sensitivity to such questions as well as the proposal to include a question on ethnic origin in the next census. The author criticizes the form in which such a question might be posed in the next census as recommended by the Home Affairs Committee. The need to address the political issues involved is stressed. (ANNOTATION)

The Good, the Bad and the Unnatural: A Study of Coroners' Decisions in Northern Ireland:

Abstract: This paper is concerned with an examination of the investigatory resources and explanatory principles which surround the dead The central focus is upon the distinctions which are drawn between natural and unnatural death, and the paper has two main aims First, it attempts to measure the direction and flow of investigatory and observatory power which emanates from the coroners' court Second, it attempts to unravel the connotations embodied in the concept of unnatural death It is argued that the characteristics of the natural and the unnatural are not to be found within the anatomy or physiology of the corpse, but rather in the principles of an aetiological framework which seeks to decontextualise death and disease from their social base, and which consequently distorts our vision of the human condition at death The data on which the arguments are based are drawn from studies of those deemed to have died unnaturally in Belfast at various periods during the twentieth century

The critique of politics and political economy: capitalism, communism and the state in Marx's writings of the mid-1840s

Abstract: In The Poverty of Theory E.P. Thompson makes the heretical claim that Marx's ‘mature’ writings, for all their grandeur, in some ways mark a retreat from his pathbreaking works of the 1840s. The Grundrisse in particular, and to a lesser but still significant extent Capital, are trapped within the analytic and conceptual framework of the very political economy Marx was criticising. Two features of this framework particularly concern Thompson. First, the notion that it is possible to isolate ‘the economic’ from political, religious, legal, moral or cultural activities as an independent or first order object of study; second, the static and ahistorical character of political economy's propositions and methodology. These, he charges, are substantially reproduced in Grundrisse and only partially overcome in Capital.1 I do not wholly endorse Thompson's view. But I do think his argument important, if at times overstated. Marx did, in the 1840s – and not just in overtly ‘philosophical’ works like the 1844 Manuscripts, but above all in The German Ideology– initiate an extremely wide-ranging critique of bourgeois civilisation as a whole, which went far beyond the obvious concerns of Grundrisse and Capital. He did not return to these themes again in anything like the same detail. And part of what Marx showed in these works was precisely the impossibility of abstracting ‘the economic’ in the way Thompson objects to – in Marx's writings of the 1840s, the development of capitalism is apprehended as intimately bound up with wider social changes, in politics, law, culture, morality. Moreover, Marx exhibited an eminently historical grasp of these interlinked changes. In sum, his writings of this period provide the basis of a panoramic historical sociology. Commentary has tended to neglect this: the 1840s writings have been extensively discussed, but it has usually been for their philosophical or ethical content (the 1844 MSS) or as methodological tracts (Part I of The German Ideology). Part II of The German Ideology must be one of the most understudied texts in the whole of the Marxist canon, though I t is rich in insights as to Marx's views on, for instance, the economy/polity relation. Part of my reason for writing this paper is to redress that balance: to sketch the outlines of the coherent – if often unelaborated – historical sociology of bourgeois society, as opposed to capitalist economy, to be found in Marx's writings of the mid-1840s. I focus in particular on what Marx has to say about the relation between capitalist economy and the modern nation state. But beyond this, I go along with Thompson to the extent of suggesting – the case cannot be argued in detail here – that the context I establish in this paper is the correct one in which to set the more specialised concerns of Capital. Elsewhere I have as it were approached the same issue from the other side, arguing that many of the characteristic themes of Marx's mid-1840s writings, particularly regarding the roots and nature of the modern state, are taken up and extended in his writings of the 1870s and 1880s.2 If I am right, the relatively neglected analyses I excavate here cannot be marginalised or dismissed as mere juvenilia, but must affect our evaluation of Marx's intellectual legacy – his contribution to historical sociology – as a whole. One final preliminary point. My primary purpose in this article is an expository one. I want merely to establish what I think is a relatively neglected body of analysis in Marx's thought. I am not unaware either that Marx's mid-1840s discourse creates problems, or that some of these problems have been the object of independent reflection by Marxists in recent years. But considerations of space prevent me dealing properly with either. My discussion, therefore, is almost entirely confined to Marx alone, and my emphasis throughout is on establishing rather than evaluating what he had to say on the issues considered. Given the usual neglect of the themes I address and their intrinsic importance to any overall reflection on Marx's sociological and political legacy, I feel this self-denying ordinance fully justifiable in an article of this length.

Turning a blind eye: racial oppression and the unintended consequences of white'non‐racism'

Abstract: The paper is based upon ethnographic research undertaken in a large metropolitan Careers Service in England. A consideration of differences between the intent and the outcome of action leads to an exploration of the ways in which white people come to understandings of their superordinate position relative to black people. By emphasising the concept of the materiality of ideology, the analysis attempts to go beyond a functionalist model which would regard a state apparatus as meeting the ‘requirements’ of capital in an unmediated and direct way. It is argued that racist ideology, as a specific set of linked but contradictory ideas, must inhere unevenly within the structures of everyday life and that struggles against racism have to take into account the discriminatory nature and importance of white ‘non-racism’

End of an Orthodoxy? The Critique of Sociology's View of Marx on Class:

Abstract: In this paper I comment critically on the dominant form of appropriation of Marx's theory of class and the state within what one might call the‘conventional’sociology of class in the post-war period. I argue that the typical mode of interpretation and assimilation has been highly selective and has taken a form that has rendered the proposed theory particularly vulnerable to sociological criticism especially in the light of changes in the structure of capitalist social formations in the twentieth century, although there is no suggestion here that the selectivity has been intentional. I contrast the dominant sociological construction and critique of Marx's theory of classes and the state with an interpretation drawn from recent scholarship, arguing that it is possible to document the contention that most theorems hitherto regarded both as central to Marx's analysis and as particularly susceptible to criticism were actually revised by Marx himself in his maturity as part of a more general process of intellectual formation and theoretical development. Many of these revisions have been widely discussed in debates within the world of Marx scholarship and some have undoubtedly been noticed in sociological interpretations of Marx. However, they have not led to the major overall reinterpretation of Marx's theory of class that is now long overdue.

Natural Justice and the Big Public Inquiry: A Sociological Perspective:

Abstract: The paper argues that discussion about procedural reform of the public inquiry system in academic public administration has taken an overly formal view of procedures and has failed fully to underst...

White‐collar workers in the labour process: the case of the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of new technology on the labour process and labour market position of clerical and administrative workers in The Federal Republic of Germany. Data are drawn from several recent major case studies of such workers by German research teams. The paper's contributions to the ‘Labour Process’ debate are twofold. Firstly, it examines the position of white-collar workers to show that, contrary to Braverman, their work situation differs crucially in several respects from that of manual workers, despite some convergence in recent decades. Secondly, it shows that variations in the organization of the labour process between capitalist societies are much wider than is commonly recognized. The paper argues that historically evolved social structural and cultural features shape the position of German white-collar workers in the labour process and distinguish it in several respects from that of comparable groups in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Budgets and human agency: do the men have to be dragged back in?

Abstract: Adorno has remarked that any theory which needed completely to deny the illusory power of the subject would tend to reinstate that illusion even more than one which overestimated the power of the subject.^ In social theory it is still customary to draw a dichotomy between two camps. One is represented perhaps above all by Weber in which social structures are seen as the results of (or as constituted by) intentional or meaningful human behaviour. The other is represented perhaps more commonly by Durkheim in which 'social facts' are seen as possessing a life of their own external to and coercing human agents. With some bending and stretching, the various schools of social theory, such as phenomenology, existentialism, functionalism, structuralism, etc. can then be seen as instances of one or more of these positions. Berger and his associates have attempted to synthesize and reconcile these two dichotomized positions.^ According to this reconciliation 'social structure is not characterizable as a thing able to stand on its own, apart from the human activity that produced it\\ But equally, once created, i t is encountered by the individual [both] as an alien

The ambiguities of conformism - academic students in FE

Abstract: The paper examines the way in which some students in non-advanced further education (NAFE) make sense of and understand that experience. This is placed in the context of the current significance of NAFE. No general attempt is made to comprehend the total range of student orientations, but the paper‘closes in’on the experience of particular students. It adopts a qualitative approach, informed by the cultural studies tradition which asserts that we should take seriously what people say without losing sight of structural relations. This approach gives insights into both cultural productions and the specific forms that students utilise in making sense of their college experience. The cultural forms point back towards the school, forward to the world outside education, and draw on cultural resources of family, race, class and gender. It is part of the paper's project to discuss these cultural processes and consequently heavy reliance is placed upon material derived from student accounts. Student accounts concern cultural responses to educational experiences of college, forms of curriculum and teacher relations. Whilst within these responses lie moments of creativity there will also be continuities and disjunctures with other cultural forms. The paper focuses on so-called conformist students and illustrates the pre-emptive nature of such a description. Detailed consideration of students accounts reveals a more complex and contradictory picture. The paper stresses the significance of subjectivity in relation to cultural forms and argues that it is through these that we can grasp the connection between processes of‘reproduction’’,‘resistance’and‘accommodation’.

A Study of a Social Work Agency: The Occupational Routines and Working Practices of the Education Social Work Service:

Abstract: In this paper we will be examining the way in which the education social work service goes about its routine, everyday work with truants (which, for the purposes of this paper, will be seen as the service's major occupational task to resolve).1 Such an analysis has, in our view, a twofold importance. Firstly, it adds to the extensive literature2 on disaffection amongst school students; secondly, it contributes to juvenile justice studies3 which have highlighted the importance attached to truancy in the formal decision-making process; this in turn has led to the development of a range of administrative and judicial strategies to remedy the problem4. In addition, it is our view that the truancy problem is likely to increase in the light of the growing certainty of unemployment on leaving school for large sections of the youth population, coupled with fiscal cuts in the education budget: we have been able to show in our Sheffield-based research (which confirms trends indicated in earlier studies undertaken in this same city5 that there has been a statistically significant increase in non-attendance amongst fifth formers between 1976 and 1982 in the local comprehensive schools.6 The truancy issue has been perceived as a serious social problem for a number of years now7 and, on the same basis, we can expect that this will continue – indeed, as something of the moral panic that exists in the related social sphere of youth unemployment.8 Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the reference to the role of the service in the 1983 Conservative party manifesto:9‘we shall switch the emphasis in the education welfare service back to school attendance so as to reduce truancy'.

Introduction: The Sociological Analysis of Sport and Leisure:

Abstract: ed empiricist in method. In Britain it was virtually a ghetto subject, almost wholly taught in colleges of physical education and dependent on the idiosyncratic tastes of a relatively few influential but isolated sociologists such as Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning (see Dunning (ed.), 1971). Only in the last decade or so has the sociology of sport and leisure grown more confident and extended its range and also its critical edge. The later writings of Stanley Parker (especially see Parker, 1976) and Ken Roberts (1978) have played some part in this. But more striking than the valuable but relatively eclectic and only loosely theorised work of these authors has been the rise of new groupings of researchers and theorists in the 1980s. It is a feature of all of the articles contained in this volume that they now challenge or even ignore earlier conceptualisations of the sociology of leisure as formulated by amongst others, Stanley Parker and Ken Roberts. It is remarkable now how little these two primary sociologists of leisure in Britain engaged in any attempt to construct a systematic theoretical orientation for the sociology of leisure. Parker in particular has continued to regard the sociology of leisure as 'in its infancy' and therefore confined largely to 'sociographic' accounts. His recent overview and listing of ten sets of sociological questions about leisure (Parker, 1986) is still not framed in any interpretively consistent or integrated manner. His

Puritan perverts: notes on accusation

Abstract: In the course of a variety of projects concerned with fundamentalism and evangelical Protestantism, a surprising number of claims about sexual misdemeanour have been collected. The fact that most of the individuals and movements accused of perversion were claimed to be, and were widely regarded as, puritanical in moral attitudes and behaviour suggests that the widespread distribution of such accusations calls for some explanation other than that they were made because they were true. This paper offers some preliminary thoughts on the appeal of claims of sexual deviance to those making the claims and to the audiences for such claims. As such it represents some introductory thoughts on what might be termed the sociology of accusation'.