Showing papers in "The Sociological Review in 1986"
TL;DR: This article explored the conceptual confusions characteristic of the practice of equal opportunities policies in the workplace and suggested that these confusions are not merely the product of intellectual error but arise from misunderstandings and deceptions generated in the struggle for power between participants in the work process.
Abstract: This paper explores the conceptual confusions characteristic of the practice of equal opportunities policies the workplace. The differences between ‘liberal’ and ‘radical’ approaches to policy making are identified and described. It is argued that, while these are conceptually distiner from one another, in practice they are routinely confused and conflated. In particular the preferred procedures of the liberal approach are widely assumed to result in the preferred outcomes of the radical approach. It is suggested that these confusions are not merely the product of intellectual error but arise from misunderstandings and deceptions generated in the struggle for power between participants in the work process.
245 citations
TL;DR: The relevance of the sociology of science for the study of power is discussed in this article, where the authors consider the way in which a set of pharmacological experiments was undertaken in order to generate results and control aspects of the scientific and social environment.
Abstract: This paper considers the relevance of the sociology of science for the study of power. Though there is by no means complete agreement between sociologists of science, recent work in this area has suggested that (a) scientists negotiate not only about scientific but also social reality, and (b) the distinction between macro- and micro-sociology is an impediment rather than an aid to analysis. Thus, though there are indeed differences in scale, il is argued that these should be seen as the outcome of differentially effective attempts by scientists to impose versions of scientific and social reality.The present paper extends this argument by considering the way in which a set of pharmacological experiments was undertaken in order to generate results and control aspects of the scientific and social environment. It is suggested that the experimentalist acted like an entrepreneur, combining a variety of potentially unruly resources with the aim of simplifying these and reducing them to docile figures on a sheet...
126 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is shown that the hazardous situations in which the accidents occurred were themselves largely the products of two aspects of the formal organization of work, the speed-up and the practice of sub-contracting.
Abstract: This paper is a study in the relatively neglected field of the Sociology of Accidents and is concerned with fatalities in the UK Offshore Oil Industry. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the social and organizational causes of these accidents. Common sense and expert opinion both present industrial accidents as products of extra organizational abnormality but evidence from this research locates the causes of accidents in work organization and dependence on bureaucratic rationality. In particular it is shown that the hazardous situations in which the accidents occurred were themselves largely the products of two aspects of the formal organization of work, the ‘speed-up’ and the practice of ‘sub-contracting’. It is demonstrated that the common sense equation of the ‘normal’ and the ‘routine’ inhibited recognition of the organization causes of these accidents. Finally it is argued that, since there is little support for the view that the accident were produced by unique working conditions in the offs...
114 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the nature of decision-making surrounding food provision within families and the patterns of food distribution established, drawing upon detailed interview material and dairy records gathered from 200 women currently bringing up young children.
Abstract: We examine the nature of decision-making surrounding food provision within families and the patterns of food distribution established. The analysis draws upon detailed interview material and dairy records gather from 200 women currently bringing up young children. The sexual divisions and power relations which characterize families are found to have an impact on the choice of food for family consumption and on women's theories concerning the food needs of family members. The manner in which these theories are given concrete expression in the differential distribution of meat both between the sexes and intergenerationally is revealed. Variations in the extent of such inequalities are assessed with reference to the nature of the work undertaken by the marital partners and their relative control over money.
90 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, women are expected to deny themselves food in order to remain sexually attractive and, at the same time, they have to be satisfied with their sexual health, which is contradictory and problematic.
Abstract: Women's relationship with food on a daily basis is contradictory and problematic. Women are expected to deny themselves food in order to remain sexually attractive and, at the same time, they have ...
80 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss why songs have words and why they have words in the first place, and why music has words in its lyrics, and propose a method to find out why.
Abstract: (1989). Why do songs have words? Contemporary Music Review: Vol. 5, Music and Text, pp. 77-96.
66 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the meanings attached to prescribed drug use, and relate these meanings to the ways in which the users of these drugs manage their everyday lives as members of particular collectivities.
Abstract: Social scientific studies of prescribed drug use have played an important part in heightening awareness that their use can best be understood when considered within a social context. From a sociological point of view, however, these studies often suffer from limitations which restrict their descriptive and explanatory power. This paper discusses these limitations before attempting to develop an alternative approach which focuses on the meanings attached to prescribed drug use, and relates these meanings to the ways in whch the users of these drugs manage their everyday lives as members of particular collectivities. In order to bridge the gap between structure and experience prescribed drugs are conceptualised as resources which, along with other material and socio-cultural resources, are both differentially available and variously experienced. Taking minor tranquillisers/hypnotics (e.g. Valium, Mogadon) as a test case attention is focused first on these drugs' availability to samples of black and white wo...
64 citations
TL;DR: This paper replicated Bechhofer and Elliott's (1978) study of Edinburgh shopkeepers to answer two important questions: 1) have political attitudes and behaviour changed since 1969-1970 when they were studying shopkeepers in Edinburgh?
Abstract: We replicated Bechhofer and Elliott's (1978) study of Edinburgh shopkeepers to answer two important questions. First, have political attitudes and behaviour changed since 1969–1970 when Bechhofer a...
54 citations
TL;DR: The meaning of the symphony concert has changed profoundly over the past fifty years or so, even if its outward form remains apparently unchanged as mentioned in this paper, and it is not inconceivable that a symphony by Beethoven has a different significance for us, to whom it is thoroughly familiar, even over-familiar, from that which it had for its first audiences.
Abstract: This essay will consider the symphony concert as a phenomenon within our society. I shall try to show that a symphony concert partakes of the nature of a ritual, a celebration, undertaken not fully awares, of the shared mythology and values of a certain group within our deeply fragmented society. The meaning of the ritual has changed profoundly over the past fifty years or so, even if its outward form remains apparently unchanged. This is of course not unusual for symbolic behaviour; Raymond Williams has pointed out how the word 'art', like other key words in our society such as 'class', 'culture', 'industry' and 'democracy', has changed its meaning and emotional resonance in the last hundred and fifty years, l and it is certain that many of those objects (including sound-objects) that we call artistic masterpieces have similarly changed their meaning even while retaining their outward forms. It is not just that a symphony by Beethoven, for example, has a different significance for us, to whom it is thoroughly familiar, even over-familiar, from that which it had for its first audiences, to whom it was fresh, surprising, even grotesque and frightening (we recall that Weber, who was a great musician and no fool, declared on hearing the Seventh Symphony that Beethoven was 'now ripe for the madhouse',2 an expression of contemporary sensibility and experience and a metaphor for the cracking-open of social forms. The audience for the music, too, has changed its character in a way not always recognized; the nineteenth-century aristocratic and middle-class audience was full of confidence and fertile with ideas and invention, while today's audience feels itself beleaguered, its values and its position under attack. It is not inconceivable that a
49 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors defined casual labour as labour lacking security of income and employment, and argued that such labour has remained an integral type of labour organization in modern capitalist economies, and has even been expanding both in advanced and declining sectors.
Abstract: Casual labour is defined in this article as labour lacking security of income and employment. It is argued that such labour has remained an integral type of labour organization in modern capitalist economies, and has even been expanding both in advanced and declining sectors. The article studies in detail one specific process of casualisation-the transition to subcontracting in the case of cleaning work, as it took place in Israel. The major considerations leading to such a transition are specified – the desire to cut costs and to find new sources of labour. The basic differences between subcontracted labour and direct wage labour are discussed, focusing on the intensification of labour, the deterioration of wages and benefits and the obstacles to workers organization. The relation is then examined between subcontracted labour and the composition of the labour force, primarily the displacement of Jewish by Arab women workers and the differentiation which has developed between groups of subcontracted worke...
39 citations
TL;DR: Simmel was born in 1858 and studied history and philosophy, becoming a Privatdozent in 1885 as mentioned in this paper, but was excluded from influential university positions as a result of the pervasive anti-Semitism of the period.
Abstract: Simmel was born in 1858. Raised in the centre of the Jewish business culture of Berlin. Simmel studied history and philosophy, becoming a Privatdozent in 1885. Although he published numerous books and artickes, simmel was excluded from influential university positions as a result of the pervasive anti-Semitism of the period and it was bot until 1914 that Simmel was finally promoted to a full professorship at the University of Strasbourg. Like Durkheim. Simmel was both the object of anti-Semitic prejudice and a fervent supporter of the nationalist cause in the First World War. Simmel died in 1918 if cancer of the liver.1 This basic and naive factual biography of Simmel in many respects provides many of the themes in Simmel's sociology. First, his sociology is held to be the brilliant reflection of the glittering, cospospolitan world of pre-war Berlin and that his commentary on that world took the form of impressionism his sociological essays are snapshots sub specie aeternitatis”? simmel's perspective has ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the sociological use of the concept of the family should be restricted to indicate only the occurrence of everyday usage, and the notion of the "family life-course" should be replaced by individual life-courses coinciding upon developmental pathways.
Abstract: This analysis takes Elder's work on the life-course as a starting point. Two proposals are made: (1) That the sociological use of the concept of ‘the family’ should be restricted to indicate only the occurrence of everyday usage; (2) That the notion of the ‘family life-course’ be replaced by the notion of individual life-courses coinciding upon developmental pathways. In this way the idea of a central type of ‘the family’ is made redundant and we are required, instead, to discover when and why participants refer to a particular developmental pathway as being ‘a family’. This approach not only facilitates the conceptualisation ‘family diversity’ but also compels researchers to engage the rich complexity of everyday life.
TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which functionalism and survey method were in reality meaningfully associated, and argues against the position that theory and method are in general invariably connected in the way suggested.
Abstract: Many writers hold that research method is necessarily determined by theory, and it is common to suggest the relationship between functionalism and survey method in post-war US sociology as an example of this. This paper questions the extent to which that method and that theory were in reality meaningfully associated, and argues against the position that theory and method are in general invariably connected in the way suggested.
TL;DR: The authors argue against the tendency in sociological fieldwork to limit observation and explanation to one medium of communication, speech, and argue for a reincorporation of a sense of place and space in fieldwork, and for attention to the multiple ways in which messages are communicated.
Abstract: This brief note argues against the tendency in sociological fieldwork to limit observation and explanation to one medium of communication – speech. Against such ethnographic reductionism, it pleads for a reincorporation of a sense of place and space in fieldwork, and for attention to the multiple ways in which messages are communicated.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Wright's article on "Routine Deaths" is therefore welcome, as is the opportunity I have been given to write a commentary on the official accident statistics in the hope of stimulating the interest of other social scientists as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: 'By and large . . . it remains the case that sociologists have done remarkably little work on industrial injury.' I wrote these words a full decade ago.' Since that time some interesting contributions have appeared. For instance, Bowles, Gordon and Weis.skopf have used the industrial accident rate as a proxy measure of changes in the intensity of work in the post war period,^ The comparative dimension of the possible relation between industrial accidents and productivity has also been explored by Grunberg with special reference to the British and French operations of a multinational car firm.-* Both these initiatives have come from America, however, and substantive British contributions have been few and far between.** Wright's article on \"Routine Deaths' is therefore welcome, as is the opportunity I have been given to write a commentary on the official accident statistics in the hope of stimulating the interest of other social scientists. The underlying theoretical assumption which informs some of the most interesting recent work on the incidence of industrial injuries is simple enough: namely that members of strong wellorganised labour forces are, all things bein^ equal, less likely to experience industrial injury than those of pjoorly organised or weak labour forces. It would be foolish to overlook that some work processes are inherently more dangerous than others; or thai even well-organised workforces may be exposed to greater risk if payment systems are used which successfully speed-up their pace of work. Nonetheless, the underlying hypothesis is. as stated, simple enough. Equally clearly, it demands investigation in the context of recent British manufacturing history. The present decade has had governments in office committed to the reduction of trade union power and it has been marked by a
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the interaction between power and gender by examining prostitution and the efforts of prostitutes to organize collectively in PROS to decriminalize prostitution, concluding that women deviants can become more powerful by organizing collectively, though their organisation ultimately fails to challenge existing social relationships and the distribution of power between men and women.
Abstract: Deviancy has been explored in terms of its potential to challenge the existing power structure. However, the implications of gender for power relationships, even in discussions of women deviants have been largely ingnored by crimonologists. Using Liazos’ paradigm of power as its starting point, the interaction between power and gender is explored by examining prostitution and the efforts of prostitutes to organise collectively in PROS to decriminalize prostitution. The significance of the gender base of power for social work intervention with ‘deviant’ groups is also considered. It concludes that women deviants can become more powerful by organising collectively, though their organisation ultimately fails to challenge existing social relationships and the distribution of power between men and women Female subordination is reinforced despite their protest.
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that the problem of "structure and agency" should be reconsidered as a problem of 'fate and agency' for event causation and agency causation.
Abstract: It is argued that the problem of ‘structure and agency’ should be reconsidered as the problem of ‘fate and agency’ for event causation and agency causation). The problem of fate and agency is addressed by outlining a model of the conditions of action derived from work by Giddens and Wright Mills. The model uses the concepts of different forms of knowledge and of the unintended consequence to set up a framework by which it should, in principle, be possible to decide of fate or events.This framework is then used to discuss the problems raised by defining power in terms of interests. It is argued that this definition is inadequate and suggested that a definition of power based on access to resources and causal responsibility for outcomes may be more useful.
TL;DR: This article reviewed previous estimates of the frequency of "normal families" in the UK and USA, using evidence from the 1981 UK Census and found that normal families account for a very small percentage of all families in England and Wales.
Abstract: This article reviews previous estimates of the frequency of ‘normal families’1 in the UK and USA. Using evidence from the 1981 UK Census it is found that ‘normal families’ account for a very small percentage of all ‘families’ in England and Wales. No single central type of ‘family’ exists and there is therefore an urgent need to develop theoretical approaches which address this issue.
TL;DR: The idea that different groups and societies create and appreciate their own stylistically distinguishable kinds of music is not one that would be likely to invite dissension from musicians or sociologists as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The idea that different groups and societies create and appreciate their own stylistically distinguishable kinds of music is not one that would be likely to invite dissension from musicians or sociologists. Neither, on the face of it, is the assumption that the stylistic characteristics of these different kinds of music might have some connection with what may be loosely termed the 'cultural background' of their creation. As Levi-Strauss has argued with respect to language:
TL;DR: The Modern Movement in architecture is dead: on this there is consensus from Right to Left as discussed by the authors, and there are two main strands to this "post-Modern" thinking: the populist and the patrician.
Abstract: The Modern Movement in architecture is dead: on this there is consensus from Right to Left. Anti-modernism, a cultural offshoot of anti-socialism, has become decidedly modish. There are, for us, two main strands to this ‘Post-Modern’ thinking – the populist and the patrician. Each, we argue, is a formalism, an elitist practice; above all, each is an avowed refusal of the emancipatory potential of modernism. Our critique of this resignation, this cultural despair, turns on an affirmation of early modernist practice; it turns on the proposition that the social content of design practice is the issue underpinning matters of aesthetic form.
TL;DR: The design of the technology used to duplicate sound recordings for eventual'reproduction', the familiar disc, was not the result of chance decisions, or of technical imperatives.
Abstract: The design of the technology used to duplicate sound recordings for eventual 'reproduction', the familiar disc, was not the result of chance decisions, or of technical imperatives. Gramophone discs of recorded sound and pre-recorded tapes satisfy a number of criteria for a commoditised entertainment industry; they can be manufactured and sold relatively cheaply, and in large quantities this can be made very profitable by economies of scale; they are semi-durable, and therefore the consumer purchases a long-lasting good, but may be persuaded to seek replacements; they are portable, and cheaply and easily transported and stored. Lastly, and most importantly, discs of recorded sound can only be made by a process of manufacture that is difficult and costly to set up. This usefully hinders the entry into the market for discs of competitors who might engage in price competition, but more particularly, and what is sociologically important, distinguishes a social division of labour between producer and consumer, allowing producers to maintain control over recorded material, and hence over consumers. This control of producers has recently been challenged by consumers using the newer technology of the blank magnetic recording cassette tape. The efforts of producers to combat this challenge by technical and legal means is testimony to its financial importance to them. l The chosen manufacturing process also gives producers control over the type of sounds that are available. The sound recording as a cultural artifact bears witness to its origins as an entertainment commodity. To paraphrase John Berger, the term 'sound recording' refers to more than a technique, it defines a cultural form that was developed only when there was a need for a particular way of listening.
TL;DR: In this article, evidence from a survey of the parochial clergy of one English diocese is presented, showing that the great majority of respondents approve of the Alternative Service Book and use it frequently for the conduct of worship.
Abstract: Many writers have argued that the Church of England, in common with other Christian denomination, is undergoing a profound crisis of identity. One crucial aspect of this is the clergy's rapid abandonment of the traditional services of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer in favour of the radically different, modern language services of the Alternative Service Book, published in 1980. Liturgical change on this scale is said to be both cause and effect of a gradual transformation of the Church of England into a sect. In this article, evidence from a survey of the parochial clergy of one English diocese is presented, showing that the great majority of respondents approve of the Alternative Service Book and use it frequently for the conduct of worship. However, then outlook on the role of the Church of England in national life does not display any of the essential characteristics of sectarianism, the fact that the Church of England is the established Church is an important obstacle to sectarian tendencies, and the ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore sociologically the conventions and constraints that influence the activities of semi-professional jazz musicians in Britain and present three case studies in which the formation of bands and their subsequent history are discussed in terms of convention and constraint.
Abstract: This article is intended to explore sociologically the conventions and constraints that influence the activities of semi-professional jazz musicians in Britain. It presents ethnographic material on an area of musical activity which is at present unrepresented in the literature and the data are organised in such a way as to make them theoretically relevant to Howard Becker's discussion of Art as a Collective Action. 1 It is based on a study by participant observation and informal interviewing of British part-time traditional and mainstream jazz musicians in a provincial area of England during the period 1982-7. It draws on my own experience of playing either regularly or occasionally with a total of nineteen bands during that period. Through this experience I was also able to compile a list of more than 100 contacts and interview musicians performing in an area which includes the West Midlands conurbation, Staffordshire, Shropshire, South Cheshire and nearby parts of Wales. The article is arranged into four sections. The first section outlines the historical background to the recent and current activities of these British semi-pro jazz musicians; the second sets out data obtained in the study about the social characteristics and attitudes of these musicians; the third uses the same data sources to analyse this type of musical activity; and finally the fourth section presents three case studies in which the formation of bands and their subsequent history are discussed in terms of the general concepts of convention and constraint.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the final reports of contract research firms are best understood as documents embedded in a political economy rather than as objective depictions of reality, and that political economy gives rise to distortions of the research process in such reports, which they conceptualize as "reconstructive legitimacy".
Abstract: It is argued that final reports of contract research firms are best understood as documents embedded in a political economy rather than as objective depictions of reality. That political economy gives rise to distortions of the research process in such reports we conceptualize as ‘reconstructive legitimacy’. That concept points to a set of structural conditions which induce contractors to gloss over problems and misrepresent research events. Reconstructive legitimacy functions to convey the image of these for-profit organizations as capable of delivering a viable and useful product to their sponsors. Implications of this manifestly political and economic process for policy research and formulation are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the recent vein of discussions on the class implications of occupational and technological transformation from a neo-Marxian perspective, and apply these arguments to interpret the characteristics of a new occupation in Hong Kong -the technicians working in the electronics and related industries.
Abstract: The ‘New Working Class’ theory, popularised in French sociology during the 1960s and 1970s, envisages the advent of a politically inspired class movement that rekindles the vision of a new social order as the technicians rise to become its vanguard. According to writers like Mallet and Touraine, these technical ‘white-collars’ tend to take over from the traditional manual groups in posing as the ‘standard-bearers’ of class-based industrial radicalism and solidarity. This paper proposes to trace the recent vein of discussions on the class implications of occupational and technological transformation from such a neo-Marxian perspective. It also attempts to apply these arguments to interpret the characteristics of a new occupation in Hong Kong – the technicians working in the electronics and related industries, with reference to an empirical study carried out in the early 1980s.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the basis of social order in a situaltion where common orientation to a culturally-derived normative framework appears to be absent, and suggest that the orderly appearances of training centre life depend centrally upon the creation of a social environment in which a minority of participants accept a disproportionate share of the interactional work required to keep group behaviour within acceptable limits.
Abstract: Although settings for the mentally retarded accommodate persons of markedly differing social and congnitive competence, everyday activities nevertheless proceed with a considerable degree of order and regulatiry. This paper uses the example of training centres for mentally retarded adults to examine the example the basis of social order in a situaltion where common orientation to a culturally-derived normative framework appears to be absent. it suggests that the orderly appearances of training centre life depend centrally upon the creation of a social environment in which a minority of participants accept a disproportionate share of the interactional work required to keep group behaviour within acceptable limits. The structuring of training centre activities so that‘feedback'on directions for appropriate behabiour is constantly available for less-able group members and the continual remedial work of staff and fellow trainings, function to provide a partiallremedy for individual incompetence.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the kind of thinking which lies behind life skills training, and the skills which are thought necessary to enhance the personal effectiveness of young people in technical and vocational education.
Abstract: In recent years social and life skills curriculum has emerged to occupy an important place in new training initiatives, particularly those associated with YTS and pre-vocational courses such as TVEI, CPVE and City and Guids 365.* one level the attraction of‘life skills’training is that it is relevant and address, in ways that traditional Liberal and General Studies could not, the practical problems likely to affect young people as adults, as parents and as employees. another, ambiguity surrounds the criteria upon which such skills for living are constructed and appraised, not least because of their close behavioural connection with altering young peoples’attitudes toward authority, industry and society. Despite recent concern about the dangers of bias and indoctrination elsewhere in mainstream education, this controversial aspect of government intervention in vocational training (DEP 1981; MSC 1981; DEP 1984) has escaped the critical attention of those who currently express concern about standards in education (Scrution et al 1985). For this reason the paper seeks to examine the kind of‘official’thinking which lies behind life skills training, and the skills which are thought necessary to enhance the‘personal effectiveness’of young people. This would seem all the more important in view of the government's contention that technical and vocational education (14-18) now constitutes a viable alternative for those who fail to succeed in mainstream education. (DEP 1981, 1984; MSC 1981, 1982a).