Showing papers on "Social network published in 1970"

Requirements, problems, and strategies: A theory of persuasion for social movements

Abstract: (1970). Requirements, problems, and strategies: A theory of persuasion for social movements. Quarterly Journal of Speech: Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 1-11.

The X-Club a social network of science in late-Victorian England.

Abstract: AMONG the more significant features of nineteenth-century British science was the emergence of social and professional networks which helped to shape or influence the course of scientific activity. By and large, the most conspicuous arbiters of scientific values were the learned societies, the British Association and the universities. These formal bodies, however, almost always reflected the attitudes and assumptions of small, informal, often obscure and sometimes anonymous, clusters or networks of individuals. Until recently, most of these groups have been overlooked or neglected (i), but growing interest in the social history of science has stimulated fresh research into the history of scientific societies generally, and into scientific elites in particular. The ‘X-Club’, recalled by the contemporary American historian, John Fiske, as ‘the most powerful and influential scientific coterie in England’ (2), was one of the most important and instructive of these groups. The following pages will inquire into the origins, the development, and the probable significance of this ‘coterie’ in the social climate of late-Victorian science.

Co-operation and Self-Organization

Abstract: Co-operation has its specific meanings in physical (dissipative), biological (autopoietic) and social (re-creative) systems. On upper hierarchical systemic levels there are additional, emergent properties of co-operation, co-operation evolves dialectically. The focus of this paper is human cooperation. Social systems permanently reproduce themselves in a loop that mutually connects social structures and actors. Social structures enable and constrain actions, they are medium and outcome of social actions. This reflexive process is termed re-creation and describes the process of social selforganization. Co-operation in a very weak sense means coaction and takes place permanently in re-creative systems: two or more actors act together in a co-ordinated manner so that a new emergent property emerges. Co-action involves the formation of forces, environment and sense (dispositions, decisions, definitions). Mechanistic approaches conceive coaction in terms of rational planning, consciousness, intention, predictability, and necessity. Holistic approaches conceive coaction in terms of spontaneity, unconscious and unintended actions, non-predictability, chance. Dialectic approaches conceive co-action in terms of a unity of rational planning and spontaneous emergence, a unity of conscious and unconscious aspects and consequences, and a unity of necessity and chance. Co-operation in a strong sense that is employed in this paper means that actors work together, create a new emergent reality, have shared goals, all benefit from co-operating, can reach their goals in joint effort more quickly and more efficiently than on an individual basis, make concerted use of existing structures in order to produce new structures, learn from each other mutually, are interconnected in a social network, and are mutually dependent and responsible. There is a lack of cooperation, self-determination, inclusion and direct democracy in modern society due to its antagonistic structures. This today culminates in global problems such as the ecological crisis, high risk technologies, poverty, unemployment, wars, armed conflicts, terrorism, etc. In order to solve these problems our social systems need re-design in terms of ecological sustainability, alliance technology, participatory economy, participatory democracy, and participatory culture. Participation is an integrated notion that is based on co-operation, selfdetermination, and inclusion in multiple dimensions. A system can be considered as participatory if power in the system is distributed in such a way that all members and concerned individuals can own the system co-operatively and can produce, decide and live in the system co-operatively. Participation is frequently understood in the very narrow sense of concerned people taking somehow part in decision processes. Such an understanding is limited to the political dimension and says nothing about the scope and dimension of participation. There are several dimensions of participation in a social system or in society: producing, owning, consuming (economic dimension), deciding, goal-setting, evaluating (political dimension), forming knowledge/norms/values/images/visions, communicating, networking, self-realizing (cultural dimension). Participation in each of these ten dimensions can be low, medium or high/full. The participation matrix describes the degree of participation in an organization/society with the help of the three dimensions of economy, politics and culture and an analysis of the scope of participation (economic, political, cultural).

Perspectives and Problems

Abstract: This chapter describes the problems and perspectives associated with sociology and social work. The relationship between sociology and social work is one of the closest that can exist between a social science and a professional practice. The chapter highlights a variety of sociological frameworks that the social worker may be able to utilize in a variety of situations, ranging from the confrontation between the social worker, the client, and the family, to the position of the social worker in the organization, the profession, and in society as such. The close relationship that exists in theory between sociology and social work is not matched by an equally close relationship in practice. For example, by comparison with their interests in other fields of professional practice, the interest of sociologists in social work appears to be very marginal. The currently underdeveloped state of the sociology of social work can be discussed by looking at factors in the nature of both social work and sociology, which have prevented a closer relationship from developing.

Comunidades Virtuais em Redes Sociais na Internet: uma proposta de estudo

Abstract: This paper deals with a model for the study of virtual communities as Internet social networks. It proposes a method of study for these phenomena. It starts from a conceptual definition of virtual communities and the interdisciplinary construction of the concepct of social network. Finally, based on this debate, the proposal is presented.

Social Indicators, Reports, and Accounts: Toward the Management of Society

Abstract: To many scholars and public officials, proposals for systems of social indicators and accounts, and for annual presidential social reports, point toward what can be viewed as an ultimate instrument of societal management. This instrument would eventually provide a macroscopic assessment of the current and future state and performance of the social order, along with an indication of control mechanisms and guidelines for the production of social knowledge. Rooted in a "social science of managerial rationality," it would draw upon the techniques of social-trend analysis, the analysis of national goals, futurism, systems theory, and "the new political economy." In this regard, the two most fully developed discussions of social accounting differ primarily in their notion of what would be a rationally managed social order. It is argued that this instrument should be developed with models of democracy, as well as rational management, and based on a social science developed to serve the needs of the poor and unor...

Information, intelligence, enlightened public policy: Functions and organization of societal feedback

Abstract: Normative properties which make social statistics useful as social indicators are illuminated by considering the functions systematic social knowledge has at various levels of social organization and the involvements of actors at these various levels in roles which result in such knowledge. Modes and degrees of generalization which make knowledge useful for action at the lowest levels of social organization (“information”) or for administration at intermediate bureaucratic levels (“intelligence”) are not necessarily applicable to the formation of broad social policy (“policy knowledge”) or for affecting the general conceptions of the social world held by broad public (“enlightenment”). The latter two functions are not always well served by data which have been collected and ordered by systems primarily responsive to the former two functions.

1. Development studies and social planning

Abstract: Summary This forms an introductory consideration of social planning, especially in conjunction with Chapter Two. Some current themes in development studies are identified, critically in view of the extent to which they are dominated by the professional interests of one university social science discipline, namely economics. Then some ideas of social planning are reviewed in a limited historical context, and ‘the economic’ is contrasted with ‘the social’. It is not the purpose of this chapter, nor of this book, however, to use social planning as a stick with which to beat the dog of economic planning. Even less is it the intention to make a special plea for sociology. In sociology as in other social sciences there is an undue preoccupation with social typology. A critique of this is proposed from the point of view that however appropriate it may be for evolutionary studies, it labours under the gravest disabilities for development studies which are concerned with change or the possibility of it in the shor...

Sociology and Social Work—An Introduction

Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of sociology and social work. Sociology is increasingly seen as helping to provide a basis of knowledge on which the social worker can draw to work with clients in the context of the complex organizational settings of a modern society. Sociology is not the only social science that makes up this knowledge base. The whole range of the social sciences are at the disposal of the social worker or anybody who wishes to understand human society in a more systematic and scientific manner. Sociology had an important influence on social work in its formative years and played a part in the first courses of training for social workers. The early sociological influence on social work was based mainly on the evolutionary theories of Spencer that served to reinforce beliefs in the concept of personal inadequacy as the cause of social problems.

Adolescents and the high school system.

Abstract: This paper studies the social organization of high schools and questions whether the structures of the social systems that have been created meet the developmental needs of adolescents. The need of the schools to change to meet these needs is enhanced because the breakdown of the social networks of society have made schools the only stable psychosocial developmental area for many pupils. Adolescents are considered in their two early stages, early and middle, and the specific needs of these age groups are related to the social organization of the school. In particular, the size of the school, the change in ages of children from school to school, the structure of groups are considered. Necessary changes, if there is to be improvement in teacher-pupil relationships, are discussed.

Overview of Law and Social Change.

Abstract: In recent years there has been a great increase in legal research in which law is viewed as the response of lawmakers to prior stimuli and also as stimuli to subsequent responses of law appliers and law recipients. Two excellent collections of recent materials presenting various aspects of this dual perspective include the readers by Friedman and Macaulay (1969) and the one by Schwartz and Skolnick (1970).~ Viewing law as both effects and causes is contrasted with viewing law merely as a set of rules and decisions to be read by students, applied by lawyers, and reacted to

Social science metapolicy. some concepts and applications

Abstract: : The paper is based on theoretic work on the improvement of policymaking, on the integration of social science into policymaking, and on relations between social science and analytical decision approaches. Empirically and experimentally, it is based on some surveys of applied social science endeavors and on participant observations in policy research, putting social science into policy analysis. (Author)