Showing papers in "The Sociological Review in 1989"

Emotional labour: skill and work in the social regulation of feelings

Abstract: I define emotional labour as the labour involved in dealing with other peoples' feelings, a core component of which is the regulation of emotions. The aims of the paper are firstly to suggest that ...

Restructuring structuration theory

Abstract: The article looks critically at Giddens's duality of structure notion which is at the centre of his structuration theory. It argues that the concept of subject/object dualism, which is not seriously considered by structuration theory, is as essential as the concept of duality for an understanding of how actors orient themselves to rules and resources as a virtual order, as well as to sets of interactions in time and space.

Solidary labour: its nature and marginalisation

Abstract: This paper represents an attempt to analyse the labour involved in producing and reproducing caring relationships as a form of work. The term ‘solidary’or ‘love labour’is coined to differentiate this kind of work from other forms of human service work, domestic work and/or economic labour. We suggest that solidary labour cannot be understood as a structural necessity emanating from the political and economic requirements of the wider system. Yet, the latter approach has been the modal one in both structural functionalist and Marxist analyses of caring. Caring and being cared for involve the construction of symbolic bonds regardless of the economic context in which they are embedded. The sociological understanding of these, demands that we take account of the situated meaning of solidary relations and not merely reduce them to by products of structural forces. In the latter part of the paper we use time-budget studies and other surveys to show how solidary labour is being marginalised in our society. In particular, we argue that both domestic labour and productive material labour are in open competition with solidary labour for the use of time. Research to date would suggest that solidary labour is the loser in this competition.

Violence, Self-Discipline and Modernity: Beyond the ‘Civilizing Process’

Abstract: Norbert Elias's writings on the development of self-constraint and its relationship to state formation are examined in the light of anthropological and historical critiques of his arguments and data. It is argued that state formation should not be seen as essential to self-discipline; that Elias's view of the development of self-constraint rests on a limited reading of the historical evidence on medieval personality and behaviour; and that many other aspects of the history of European society apart from ‘lengthening chains of interdependency’, such as bureaucracy and individuality, should be examined in order to explain modern self-discipline.

Feminist Social Theory Needs Time. Reflections on the Relation between Feminist Thought, Social Theory and Time as an Important Parameter in Social Analysis

Abstract: This paper explores the relation between feminist concerns, social theory and the multiple time aspects of social life. It is suggested that while feminist approaches have been located in classical political philosophy, the same imposed classification has not occurred with respect to social theory perspectives. Rather than seeing this as an academic gap that needs filling, it was taken as an opportunity to take note of the wide variety of feminist approaches to methodological and theoretical issues and to relate these to concerns arising from a focus on the time, temporality, and timing of social life. It is argued that a feminist social theory, as an understanding of the social world through the eyes of women, is not only complemented by such a focus on time but dependent on it for an opportunity to transcend the pervasive vision of the ‘founding fathers’.

Life and work history analyses

Abstract: Life and work history analyses have been an area of social science where substantial and exciting developments have taken place, particularly over the past two decades. The subject matter of this area has been marked out by two things; a focus on a particular type of data, and integral to that, issues of method which these types of data raise. Life and work histories have in this context usually meant the collection and use of accounts of the lives of men and women, in the form of autohiographies, diaries, oral histories, or structured or unstructured questionnaires. Their essential quality, of course, is that histories span a period of time. The issues of method which such data raise include issues of data collection, data manipulation, theoretical perspectives, interpretation and conceptual, computational and quantitative problems.

Reflexivity, recursion and social life: elements for a postmodern sociology

Abstract: The paper examines, and seeks to develop, the sociological concept of reflexivity. It identifies two senses of reflexivity, one associated with ethnomethodological accounts of members' practical reasoning, the other with a more philosophical sense of conscious self-referencing, and analyses their relationship. The paper argues that the development of this form of analysis leads to a form of propositional undecidability which makes it typically ‘postmodern’. The development is linked to ideas of recursion, as these are expounded in computer science and mathematics, and to Derrida's interpretation of ‘textual fold’ – this also being used to ground the association of reflexivity with postmodernism. The analysis ‘returns to the social’ by considering aspects of Niklas Luhmann's explication of social reflexivity. It concludes by examining the understanding that a postmodern sociology might have of a postmodern society in which the grounds for social order have become undecidable.

Ageing and life history: the meaning of reminiscence in late life

Abstract: In this paper I would like to consider whether there are, in later life, special psychological influences acting upon individuals' constructions of their life histories. The questions raised by such enquiry are close to the heart of a developmental psychology of ageing and also have important sociological implications, not least for the collection of life history data from individuals. Is the tendency to reminisce itself a characteristic of old age? Whether it is or not, are there particular characteristics that distinguish the content of an older person's story? Which external circumstances shape the nature of reminiscence in later life? Are there individual differences among older people that we should be attentive to if we are to gauge the psychological relevance, and thus also see more clearly the social relevance, of a person's story? This paper is divided into four main sections. The first section considers a variety of influences acting on the construction of an individual's life history, including personality, culture, major turning points in life, individuals' search for meaning as well as their need to explain and defend their actions; this material indicates that the psychological study of memory has only just begun to tackle issues concerning life histories. The following section focuses on old age and the different theoretical viewpoints that have been expressed about the functions of reminiscence in late life. On this basis, the third section develops a differential approach to individuals' involvement with their life histories and describes the characteristics and consequences of the different types that have been identified. It is stressed how important it is for the researcher of life histories to be aware of the different needs and dilemmas that people can express in attempting to tell the story of their lives. The final section illustrates the interaction between individual development and the depiction of social history.

Labour Markets and Industrial Structures in Women's Working Lives:

Abstract: The analysis of women's position in society is often considered to be particularly affected by their stage in the life cycle. This paper will examine that hypothesis in relation to one aspect of women's position in the labour market. Is the life history method the best way of gaining an understanding and explanation of patterns of women's participation in paid work? On the one hand it can be argued that women are particularly affected by their stage in the life cycle because of the importance of child birth and child care in their lives. On the other, it can be argued that this overstates the significance of biological events at the expense of the significance of other factors structuring women's lives. In particular, that there is a problematic tendency to use a 'job model' to explain men's work patterns and a different one, 'a gender model', in order to explain women's work patterns (Feldberg and Glenn, 1979). That is, labour market and industrial structures are used to explain patterns in men's work and domestic events used to explain patterns in women's work. The greater tendency to use the life history method in the analysis of women's as opposed to men's labour force experience, thus may push our understanding of women's employment in a different direction from that of men to a greater extent than is warranted.

Gender Differences and Anti-School Boys:

Abstract: This paper explores and contrasts the gender value systems of two groups of anti-school boys. It suggests that cultural differences in specifically gender values can lead to (i) polarisation between anti-school boys and (ii) confrontation with school authorities in ways not explained by the traditional theory of culture clash between the working class pupil and the middle class school. It is also noted that the label ‘counter-school’used by Willis to convey the culture of some working class boys (‘the lads’) may need to be refined if the culture is reassessed in a way which acknowledges the commonality between the gender value systems of ‘the lads’and those of the school. In fact, the research reported in this paper found that another group of anti-school boys (not working class) was much more counter the gender value system of the school than ‘the lads’and did not uphold traditional masculine values.

On Social Aspects of the Usage of Guide-Dogs and Long-Canes:

Abstract: The paper argues that discredit pertains not only to individuals, but also to the implements of aid that discredited persons use to overcome their situation Focusing on the mobility aids of blind

Histories of sickness: making use of multiple accounts of the same process.

Abstract: Life histories have several uses in sociological investigation. None of these can include description of individual cases for their own sake. Cases must be treated as samples of the social: if not probability samples of a defined population drawn to test propositions, then what Glaser and Strauss (1967) call 'theoretical samples', selected to explore the various dimensions of social structure, and to enable theory to be built on evidence (Rose, 1982). The subjectivity of life histories is both a weakness and a strength: a weakness often in creating unreliable records of external facts (Runyan, 1982: chapter 1); a strength in illuminating the encounter between self, life course and society (Pascal, 1960; Plummer, 1983). The longitudinal form of the external facts which life histories provide allows us to answer questions about continuity and change in social structure (Thompson, Wailey and Lummis, 1983), about regularities in experiences of class (Sennett and Cobb, 1977; Vincent, 1981), about how, why and with what consequences people are socially mobile (Dex, 1987), or about the implications of social change for the typical course of lives (Cohen, 1987). However, histories or documents of life are not there waiting to be taken. They have to be composed. Like snapshots, they are not panorama but partial views. Consider the typically varied perspectives of such life histories as 'private diaries', 'political memoirs', the 'curriculum vitae', 'medical histories' and a 'staff

The Business Cycle and Industrial Injuries in British Manufacturing over a Quarter of a Century: Continuities in Industrial Injury Research:

Abstract: Constructs a time-series for fatalities in British manufacturing for 1960–85. Examines the relation between the business cycle and industrial injury rate and finds this to be pro-cyclical whether t...

Factory women, redundancy and the search for work: toward a reconceptualisation of employment and unemployment

Abstract: A number of social scientists (see for example, Allen et al., 1986; Brown, 1984; Purcell, 1985; Purcell et al., 1986; Roberts et al., 1985) have drawn attention to the way in which patterns of working have changed radically in recent years suggesting that we need to rethink and reconceptualise with regard to work, employment and unemployment.This paper examines these issues in Sweden where recession in the early eighties and economic restructuring, similar to the experience in other Western countries, have affected individuals' relation to the labour market. It is our view that the effects of these developments (have) affect(ed) women and immigrants differently. It is furthermore our contention that welfare state policies related to the functioning of the labour market (inadvertently) play a role in the maintenance of inequality.

Social Order, Cultural Capital and Citizenship: An Essay concerning Educational Status and Educational Power versus Comprehensiveness of Elementary Schools

Abstract: The question of whether education should be seen as an instrument of social order is an old topic in the social sciences. There exist several theories concerning this question. Two of these rival theories are dealt with in this paper. On the basis of each, historical data have been looked at anew and empirical research has been carried out into the prevailing conditions in the Netherlands. On the basis of the first theory, which was inspired by Bourdieu and which concerns economic, cultural (including educational) and social capital, data on the Dutch history between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries have been reanalysed with respect to the attitude of the diverse sections of the dominant class towards culture in general and the university in particular. Dutch history can be regarded as a national variant of the universal tensions between ‘culture’and ‘knowledge’and between ‘culture’and ‘economics’in human societies. On the basis of Bourdieu's theory it is assumed that under the prevailing social conditions elementary schools will differ in ‘educational status’in the schools market. Empirical investigation confirms this hypothesis. The ‘educational status’of elementary schools mediates (reproduces) almost all of the influence of the childrens’social background on their school career, and reinforces this influence. On the basis of the second theory, which is based on the work of Meyer, Boli and Ramirez, data on the Dutch history in the Enlightenment period have been reanalysed with respect to the rise of mass education. These historical data give substantial evidence to the theory that the construction of the nation-state is of decisive importance for the rise of mass education. Our empirical investigation, however, does not confirm the hypothesis that in the actual situation elementary schools differ in ‘comprehensiveness’. Neither schools nor parents are oriented towards integration. Rather, the contrasts seem to be getting sharper in the 1980s and the schools as well as the social classes seem to be distancing themselves further from each other. Various sections of the dominant class are busy strengthening their position of power in education. In short, the use of schools to constitute citizens does not lessen the pressure towards differentiation. Thus, the theory of Boli and Ramirez explains the rise of mass education, but cannot explain its social class bound form, a fact that can be explained very well by Bourdieu's theory. Therefore the theories of both Bourdieu and Boli and Ramirez should be regarded not as rivalizing, but as complementary.

Men, Women, and Clergymen: Opinion and Authority in a Sacred Organization

Abstract: The Church of England faces a potential crisis over the ordination of women to the priesthood. This article presents survey and interview evidence of patterns of clerical opinion on the problem, showing that the trend of clerical opinion is in favour. However, the organizational context of clerical life means that whereas a clergyman's opinion is fateful for women it may have little consequence for the man himself. Clergymen have an assured status conferred by their priest's orders; they are integrated into professional structures and social networks; they exercise an authority which is seldom openly challenged, and they enjoy a high degree of autonomy and freedom from accountability. Since they are able, if they wish, to insulate themselves from women's ministry, they are often indifferent to its future course. It is not, therefore, a matter of material concern in the working lives of most parish clergymen. Yet women's admission to the priesthood is symbolically momentous. Clerical ambivalence about wome...

Youth unemployment and work histories

Abstract: This study teaches life history techniques as a way of understanding empirical research The text brings together a collection of papers which examine the life, work and unemployment histories of both men and women Particular areas focused on include analyses of reminiscence in the elderly, severe head injury recovery, absenteeism, redundancy and social mobility, as well as a study of two recent new British work history data sets The contributors aim to evaluate critically the past two decades of developments in data collection as well as contributing to the topics under discussion in an analytical fashion

Marriage and the Housing Careers of Naval Wives

Abstract: The analysis of female biography is problematic, straddling as it does the public world of work and the private domain of home. In recent years the development of life course analysis has encourage...

Moral theory based on the ‘heart’versus the ‘mind’: Schopenhauer's and Durkheim's critiques of Kantian ethics

Abstract: Schopenhauer criticized Kant's moral theory on the grounds that it was non-empirical and inadequate, because it attempted to establish morality on the basis of reason and duty. Contrary to Kant, Schopenhauer argued that genuine morality is irrational, based on compassion, and a human product, hence that it could be studied empirically. Schopenhauer established the ‘science of morality’ which occupied the attention of a host of turn of the century precursors of the social sciences, especially Durkheim. Durkheim's version of the science of moral facts is compared and contrasted with Schopenhauer's critique of Kant, and it is demonstrated that Durkheim tends (o follow Schopenhauer's lead. Problems with Durkheim's and Schopenhauer's critiques of Kantian ethics are also discussed.

Preaching to the Converted: Conversion Language and the Constitution of the TV Evangelical Community:

Abstract: A paradox is noted in the presentation of conversion in TV evangelism; this is that although the necessity of being converted is a common theme it is clear that the evangelists are aware that their audience is already converted. An attempt is made to resolve the paradox by showing how TV evangelists use conversion language as rhetoric to legitimate their role and the rationality of the organisation which they represent. It is further shown how this legitimation is itself made possible through another use of conversion language which creates a sense of moral community embracing evangelists, organisation and audience as copartners in the shared project of conversion. Finally, it is shown how the presentation of TV evangelism as the central ritual of a moral community generates a further conversion rhetoric which depicts the community as both exclusive of and yet open to non-members; a contradiction which is resolved through the establishment of distinctive roles within the community related to the activity ...

From methodological monopoly to pluralism in the sociology of social mobility

Abstract: The sociology of social mobility has until now been constructed entirely around a quantitative paradigm. The paper recalls some of the inherent limits in this approach and emphasises the need to develop other quantitative and qualitative approaches. In particular, it outlines the potentialities of life histories and family histories. The issues at stake are not only methodological; the adoption of new methods will bring about a transformation of sociological thought the question it asks about 'social mobility', the processes it tries to elucidate and concepts devised to delineate these processes. The choice of a technique of sociological investigation can have implications reaching far beyond the technical considerations involved. Nowhere is this more strikingly illustrated than in research into social mobility. From the beginning this has almost invariably been conducted by means of sample surveys. Perfected in the United States during the 1940s, these became the chief means of empirical sociological enquiry, proving their worth in the study of elections and in market research. Their most notable advantage was that, on the basis of responses by two thousand people, it was possible to reach conclusions about the lives, attitudes and behaviour of millions of individuals. It is readily understandable why first American, and later European, sociologists were fascinated by this approach. Apart, perhaps, from electoral sociology, nowhere was the technique more widely used than in the sociology of social mobility where its contribution to statistical knowledge was considerable, mainly in illuminating the correlation between social origins and adult status. In France these investigations were carried out by statisticians of the National Institute of Statistics, the INSEE. As

Middle mass and the pitt: a critical review of Peter Saunders's sociology of consumption

Abstract: This review provides critical commentary on the sociology of consumption recently developed by Peter Saunders in the new edition of his Social Theory and the Urban Question and elsewhere. Comment is made on the politics of socialized consumption, the sociology of consumption sector cleavages and the concept of a privatized mode of consumption. Note is also made of the methodological critique of realism and the assertion of a Weberian alternative which underpins the contribution. It is argued that although the approach provides some insights it tends to get locked into a series of unproducive conceptual and methodological polarities in its attempt to undermine the supposed hegemonic position of Marxism within contemporary urban studies.

Handling work history data in standard statistical packages

Abstract: In this chapter we make a pitch for the retention of the Renaissance model of the social scientist one who not only dares to ask big questions about the nature of the world, but who also tries to answer these same questions using his or her own craft skills. Data analysis is too important to be left to statisticians and computer programmers; dogs should wag their own tails. The standard statistical package is a major part of the Renaissance social scientist's fight against creeping loss of perspective. This is well illustrated even in the life event field, where the literature appears to require the researchers to come to grips with specialist software. There are several problems with this specialist software: 1) it is usually badly documented 2) it tends to offer a particular rather than a general environment and 3) industry standards have not been set, and everyone has their own different pet program (usually the one they wrote themselves). It is important not to take these arguments too far and decry new software developments in general. It is also important to recognise that new packages take a long time to master, and may often not represent a good human capital investment for the generalist researcher. In this chapter we intend to illustrate the different ways in which we have found it productive and illuminating to manipulate work and life history events data using a combination of SPSSX, the most popular statistical package in use by social scientists, and SIR, a widely used database management package for handling hierarchical datasets. Using these packages in an exploratory fashion has enabled us to go a long way towards an understanding of work event data even without specialist packages. Nevertheless, the models derived should often be tested in some of the more sophisticated specialised software packages.

Research Note: Citation and Social Mobility Research: Self Defeating Behaviour?

Abstract: The citation patterns of schools of researchers studying social mobility in Britain are examined, and systematic neglect by each school of the work of the others demonstrated

Colonial science and dependent development: the case of the Irish experience

Abstract: This paper draws on recent studies of colonial science and of the social function of science in the underdeveloped world to analyse the social development of science in Ireland and, subsequently, the Irish Republic. It is suggested that after the Act of Union scientific activity in Ireland became prized as a cultural practice, largely isolated from its local context and potential local applications. Because of governmenta priorities in the new state and because of the Anglo-Irish character of much of the scientific culture, this isolation persisted after Partition. The recent history of science in the Irish Republic is interpreted in terms of this isolation or marginality.

Bosanquet's social theory of the state

Abstract: Bosanquet's political philosophy was a social theory of the function of the State as ‘hinderer of hindrances to the best life’, where individual development was supported by relationships within a community. This was worked out in the context of considerable knowledge of conditions among the London poor at the turn of the century, and reinforced by his wife's practical work and research. He sympathized with Durkheim's pioneering sociology, and was in contact with him through the Sociological Society. His ‘New Liberal’ approach, seeing problems of poverty as to be met by informed charitable activity, was restricted by insufficient recognition of the structural aspects of social problems and conflicts. The bearing of his Idealist Metaphysics is critically considered, and it is claimed that, although a good deal of this may not be acceptable, it gave a background to a kind of social thinking which is of interest to those looking for a communitarian type of political philosophy.

Age Relations in An English Church

Abstract: Age identities are a product of negotiation between acquaintances and intimates. The negotiation takes place against a background of assumptions about appropriate ways of moving through the life span. This study of ageing in the context of an English church shows how organisational needs must be taken into account in understanding the ageing strategies of participants. The paper is based on fieldwork conducted in the south of England in 1985-6. The analysis draws on the literature of social gerontology which is mainly American. It is part of a larger ESRC-funded study of the social construction of old age in Britain.

Sentiment and Social Change

Abstract: The books upon which this essay is based do not at first sight sit well together. They span very different subjects and have no obvious common theme. What brings them together in this review is the contribution they can be shown to make to the broader enterprise of understanding the course of social change in Britain during the period since the end of the Second World War. Only one of the books under review has that as its distinctive aim. What the others offer, in very different ways, are analytical resources which broaden out the range of questions that can be asked about social change. It is for this reason that it is fitting to discuss these books together. What stands out is a theme that is

Some responses to economic change in Scottish farming and crofting family life, 1900–25

Abstract: Our investigation of some of the processes involved in the emergence of ‘the modern family’is based on evidence from oral histories conducted with people who grew up in Scottish farming and crofting families in the early decades of the century. After showing how peasant and capitalist modes of production shaped both family structures and strategies for getting a living, we examine some of the ways in which the encroachments of the cash economy helped create new forms of gendered inequalities. Our discussion concludes with an analysis of recent papers concerned with the ways in which families are embedded in community life and the implications for long term change in authority structures.

The sexuality of men and the sociology of gender

Abstract: In recent years writers in the field of the sociology of gender have turned to psychoanalysis for insights into the psychological dimensions of female sexuality. The same insights are now being applied to the analysis of masculinity. This paper argues that the full advantages of this are undermined by the adoption of an object-relations perspective which restores the social determinism from which many such writers seek to escape. This argument is pursued through a detailed analysis of one recent text in the field —The Sexuality of Men (eds) A. Metcalf and M. Humphries (1985) — but is applied more widely to the treatment of sexuality in the sociology of gender.