Showing papers on "Contemporary society published in 1973"

The Role of Social Groups

Abstract: One of the most powerful theories in political science in recent years has been that of totalitarianism and this model of society has been taken to represent the reality of the USSR and States patterned on her. ‘Totalitarianism’ may be defined as a social system which ‘seeks to politicise all human behaviour and plan all human relationships’, its chief features include the obliteration of the distinction between State and society and the destruction of associations and groups which are interposed between the individual and the State.1 From the mid-1960s, however, thinking among specialists in the West has moved away from this model, which has been recognised as providing ‘a set of blinders to the perception of change’,2 to emphasise more the autonomous nature of various groups and their role in influencing the political authorities. As Ionescu has pointed out: No society, and especially no contemporary society, is so politically under-developed as not to continue, and reproduce within itself, the perennial conflict of power. No contemporary society can run all the complex activities of the state, political, cultural, social and economic, exclusively, by its own ubiquitous and omniscient servants, without collaboration, and bargains with, or checks by, other interest groups.3

Modern man and his instinct of workmanship.

Abstract: The author examines the place and meaning of work in contemporary American society, its relationship to the amount and quality of leisure time that is available, and its relationship to the worker's physical and mental health.

Family Size and College Aspirations: A Note on Catholic-Protestant Differences

Abstract: Data from a study of college aspirations among 40,000 Minnesota adolescents indicate that the relationship of family size to aspirations is somewhat higher among Protestants than Catholics. Overall aspirational differences between religious groups are minor. Further analysis suggests that these differences are probably not a function of financial capacities but rather of more basic socialization practices. The data are used to illustrate an alternative approach in analyzing the relevance of religion to contemporary society: examining processual differences between religious groups rather than concentrating only on outcomes–such as net differences in aspirations. The paper concludes by speculating that social process may be critical in distinguishing Protestants from Catholics but has generally been neglected in contemporary research on religion.

Aging and the aged in contemporary society.

Abstract: Lecture given in the \"Distinguished Lecturer Series” under the joint auspices of the Society for Advanced Study and of the institute for Advanced Study of Indiana University on July 19, 1990.

Reorientation of the University

Abstract: HE university has a vastly more important role in the contemporary society than it did in earlier times. And its significance likely will become even greater in the future. The university as we know it began to emerge in the eleventh and twelfth centuries when the faculties of medicine and law at Salerno and Bologna started their research [1, p. 70]. In the monastic and episcopal schools of the thirteenth century, the faculties of law, medicine, and theology were joined by faculties teaching the arts. The university developed as an institution to record and preserve the culture while at the same time cultivating an attitude that fostered inquiry and critical examination of ideas. It has contin-

Some Micro—Economic Reflections on Income and Wealth Inequalities

Abstract: Concern about inequality involves naive anthro pomorphism and the Judaic-Christian tradition. Both lead to anachronistic images of modern society and to concern with sharing its presumably effortlessly-acquired surplus. Ob served inequality in contemporary society is largely the by product of the success of that society in providing opportuni ties for self-fulfillment. As examples, consumption needs and income-earning capacity are poorly synchronized over time, implying cross-sectional inequalities between people at differ ent ages; people's consumption preferences also differ early and late in life. People differ in their preferences for either risky or safe occupations. The policy problem of inequality reform is to correct inequalities of opportunity without taxing socially useful exercises of choice and subsidizing socially undesirable ones. One of the major sources of difficulty is the role of the family in the transmission of material property, genetic char acteristics—good or bad—and attitudes towar...

Youth in Contemporary Society

Abstract: Among the critical subjects dealt with (and the authors) are: The Family (Ned Gaylin), Rural Youth (William P. Kuvlesky), Coming of Age in a Racist Society (Doris Y. Wilkinson), Bright Achievers (Donivan J. Watley), Black Brainpower (Donivan J. Watley), Adult Control in Family and the School (Glen Elder), Sex and Marriage (John Gagnon), The Future of Black Youth (Nathan Hare), What do Young Women Want? (Elizabeth Braly Sanders), The Draft, Military Service, and National Unity (Jerald Bachman), Working Class Youth (William Simmons), Youth Discontent and the Nature of Work (Harold Shepard), Youth and the Drug Crisis (Joel Fort), The Real Generation Gap (Luiz Simmons), Youth and Technology (Lauren Langman), Implications for the Future (David Gottliebl.