Showing papers on "Social network published in 1973"

Social Networks, Lay Consultation and Help-Seeking Behavior

Abstract: This article considers the question: What is the apparent role of the family, its kin and friendship networks in the use of health and welfare services? Eighty-seven working-class families (consisting of two subsamples of carefully defined "utilizing" and "underutilizing" respondents) were studied in Aberdeen, Scotland over a period of roughly one and a half years. After controlling for socioeconomic status, parity, education level, proximity to services, and length of residence in the city, noteworthy differences were found between the utilizers and underutilizers on various aspects of their social networks. The underutilizers relied on an undifferentiated group of readily available relatives and friends as lay consultants before using the service, while utilizers appeared to both differentiate between relatives and friends, and be independent of both of these sources of social control. An attempt is made to trace some of the implications of these differences for the understanding of help-seeking behavior. Although of considerable potential, the concept of a social network is one of the most underdeveloped and underemployed concepts in present day sociology. In a recent discussion, Mitchell (1969) observed that while prompting a number of useful inquiries, it has seldom been employed as an explanatory tool, and much of the work to date appears to have associated the concept almost exclusively with the notion of conjugal roles.? Its considerable utility and explanatory power, when incorporated in propositions relating to other areas of social behavior has yet to be fully explored. Perhaps it is truistic to point out that the family, its kinship and friendship networks, influence the manner in which individuals define and act (or fail to act) upon symptoms or life ' This article reports some of the results of an intensive exploratory study, supported by the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, of the utilization behavior of a lower working-class subculture in Aberdeen, Scotland. I would like to acknowledge the debt I owe Mr. Gordon Horobin (Aberdeen University), Professor J. Clyde Mitchell (Manchester University), and Sonja McKinlay (Harvard University) for comments on earlier versions of this paper. I Of particular interest in this regard is the classic study by Bott (1957) of conjugal roles in London families. In this study she correlated some of the characteristics of the social networks of the families she was investigating with the pattern of conjugal roles within the family. crises. Suchman (1965) found that three quarters of the respondents in his New York Study reported discussing their symptoms with some other person (most often a relative) before seeking formal medical care. Zola (1964) included the influence of others ("the presence of sanctioning") as a key trigger in a person's decision to seek medical care. Lee (1969) employed network concepts while describing the process of obtaining an abortion. Various models of prepatient health and illness behavior have recently been interpreted in network terms by Bloor (1970). Apart from such studies however, there have been remarkably few direct attempts to specify the nature of social network influences on help-seeking behavior, and many unanswered-and often unformulated-questions await attention. For instance, is it possible to detect intrafamily patterns of utilization behavior? Are there certain conditions or medical states in which the members of the total family play a more important role in defining, consulting, and referring, while others involve noticeably fewer members? Does the geographical proximity of the family, related kin and friends, affect the nature of its influence on utilization behavior? Are kin and friends more important determinants of the use of services than such variables as social class, ethnic group, or even region? Does the total family play a more in-

Toward a Sociology of Social Problems: Social Conditions, Value-Judgments, And Social Problems

Abstract: Two major approaches to the study of social problems are examined: the functionalist statement by Merton, and the value-conflict view of Waller, and Fuller and Myers. The ambiguities of the relationship between the concepts “objective conditions” and “social problem” contained in the statements of these writers are identified and analyzed. Some preliminary suggestions are made to define the subject matter of the sociology of social problems as a specialized area of study.

A Structural Theory of Social Exchange

Abstract: A theory is formulated with which to analyze transactions in social retationships Economic types of exchange characterized by calculation and self-interest on the part of the actors are contrasted with more "social" forms of transaction such as occur in the cases of role relationships with interlocking rights and obligations and persons strongly attached to one another. The social factors and conditions determining the types of transaction likely to occur between actors are examined in the paper. The key idea in this respect is that the structural and temporal context of interaction, including the past and anticipated character of their relationship, affects actors' orientations toward one another, their preferences, decisions and interaction patterns.

Modifying the Effects of Social Structure

Abstract: The problem of racial inequality has been the focus of a large number of investigations in recent years. The imbalance evident at the societal level is reflected at all levels from the institutional to the interpersonal. Numerous studies document inequality in desegregated schools where white children tend to receive better grades, are better &dquo;adjusted to school,&dquo; and typically complete more years of formal schooling than do black children. At the small-group level, behavioral measures of interaction and influence reveal patterns of white dominance in problem-solving groups (Katz et al., 1958; Cohen, 1972). It would be possible to document this imbalance in an almost limitless variety of settings. The applied social psychologist is, however, more interested in modifying social behavior and altering the social structures in

Sociology and Information Science.

Abstract: The growth of the social sciences has necessitated the development of formal systems of information storage, retrieval and dissemination over and above any informal and personal contact between individuals. The contribution of information scientists, in their attempts to structure social science information, raises certain questions about the epistemology of the social sciences. The writers examine these and some of the major problems related to the communication of information in sociology. They postulate a model derived from recent thinking in the sociology of knowledge, i.e., that the construction and validation of knowledge is itself a social process. Some possible implications of this approach are investigated.

Descent, Affinity, and Ritual Relations in Eastern Turkey

Abstract: The available anthropological literature on ritual co-parenthood focuses mainly on the Christian world. This paper discusses and analyzes the structure and functions of kivrelik, a form of ritual co-parenthood established through the Islamic ritual of circumcision and practiced in Eastern Turkey. It explains howw kivrelik can function as either an intra-group or an inter-group integrative mechanism, or as a device to extend one's personal social network. It also discusses the complementary and supplemental uses of ritual kinship, descent, and affinity.

Networks and Exchange: The Role of Social Relationships in a Small Voluntary Association

Abstract: This paper examines the importance of formal and informal social relationships in individual and group behavior processes. It is suggested that the concepts of "social network" and "social tie" will obscure rather than elucidate so long as the problematical nature of the empirical regularities which these concepts reflect is ignored. Particular emphasis is placed on the determinants of social ties, their interdependence in terms of their effects on behavior, and their use and manipulation by actors. The argument is exemplified in an analysis of the patterning manifested in the exchange of child-care services among women in a small voluntary association.

Rules, Social Interaction, and Language Behavior.

Abstract: Social rules are manifested in different social groups in a diversity of ways. Important universals, however, make behavior in such social relationships predictable and interpretable in all societies, that is, social interaction is rule-governed. The rules of "request behavior," and variables constraining those rules, exemplify an analysis of social behavior. A universal grammar of social interaction is postulated, with current work in anthropology, sociology, and ethnography providing the data for the development of such a grammar. This grammar would account for the interactional universals for all societies and interactional rules for individual societies in a fairly precise analog to linguists' rules for languages. If one accepts the proposition that teaching and learning-as types of social behavior-are governed by systems of rules and that these rules differ for different social groups, and that we do not at present know what the systems of rules are, then one must also tentatively accept the hypothesis that one of the reasons for pedagogic failure lies in the fact that we are continually putting children in situations where they are being asked to violate one set of rules in order to fulfill the demands of another.

A Theory of Instrumental Social Networks

Abstract: Network theory, although well advanced as a conceptual and methodological tool for structural analysis, has not yet attained a commensurate level of sophistication in the specification of the functional components of social networks. The present paper is devoted to the formulation of a theory of one functional aspect of ego-centered networks, with special reference to Latin American social systems. It is suggested that, particularly under conditions of substantial economic change, such networks may function as important instrumental elements of individual social mobility. The theory is submitted to a limited empirical test on materials from a small urban community in Latin America and is found to provide a useful explanatory framework. When assessed for its broader sociocultural implications, it is also shown to be a special theory of social change, having utility for the analysis of changing patterns in the distribution of socioeconomic resources and social power in developing societies.

Models for social systems and for their languages

Abstract: I would like to thank Prof B. N. Lewis for retrieving the manuscript from his files; likewise Mr MacDonald Ross; to thank Mr B. C. E. Scott for editing the manuscript and Miss M. Kershner for checking it.

Conjugal-Role Organization and Social Networks in Japan and England

Abstract: Elizabeth Bott's hypothesis that "the degree of segregation in the role-relationship of husband and wife varies directly with the connectedness of the family's social network" has been tested with inconclusive results. C. C. Harris has reinterpreted the English data by suggesting that the degree to which monosex groups exist for each spouse explains the data better than does Bott's thesis. In this paper, Japanese and English data are compared and the relative merits of Harris' thesis over that of Bott discussed. Implications of the findings for further research are discussed as they relate to the contrasting rates of divorce found in the two countries.

Social space and social place

Abstract: (1973). SOCIAL SPACE AND SOCIAL PLACE. The Professional Geographer: Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 221-225.

De krisis in de sociale wetenschap: het probleem der vooronderstellingen

Abstract: The crisis in social science originates in epistemology as well as in SofK, & can be called the problem of presuppositions. The epistemological character of the crisis manifests itself by the fact that scientific thought itself had become problematic. The sociological aspect shows itself by the incompatibility between the social role the sociologist wants to fulfill on one side, & the methodological possibilities of prevailing paradigmata on the other. 3 groups of presuppositions can be distinguished in social science, corresponding to the main directions of the philosophical tradition, namely social metaphysics, theory of knowledge, & theory of value. Social metaphysics offers a diversity of assumptions which are categorical distinctions within social processes. Social epistemology shows that perception can be taken as an empirical foundation of social thought. But social action can also afford a foundation & so can the logical resources of natural & artificial language systems. Values manifest themselves as the aims of social thought. The aims of traditional theory center on the conditions of human communication & reliable information. Critical theory is concerned with ethical problems in relation to social science & especially with emancipatory processes. Interpretative theory is an elaboration of the quest for self-knowledge in respect to social events. The diversity of these presuppositions makes a social theory of knowledge necessary, which can show the interrelations between them & can serve as a foundation of social thought. The possibility of resolving the current crisis of social science depends on the elaboration of such a theory. Modified AA.

A social system analysis of the effectiveness of an economic organization

Abstract: ion that it is not clear whether empirically testable hypotheses cam be derived from them, an essential requirement in scientific theory (Blau and Scott, 1962:40}. However, Zetterberg (1965: 79-82) suggests that in generating general hypotheses researchers move from the theoretical to the ordi­ nary level of conceptualization. Thus, Pazsons' provides a possible starting point, even though he does not purport to develop a theory of formal organizations (Parsons, 1960:96). His Aim is to develop a general theory of society applicable to the study of any social system. Most past writers who have followed Parsons* model have focused on the concepts of goal attainment and adaptation. Less attention has been given to integration and latency. One example of studies focusing on adaptation is found in the writings of Gouldner eind Gouldner (1963:394), Another exaumple is explicit in George 0= Koman's The Human Group, especially the analysis of how production was hit by lower pairticipants in the baink wiring room and patterns of adaptation to the physical, technical, and social environment (Homans, 1950: 88-90). The concern with goal attainment is explicit in the works of those who follow Max Weber's ideal model of bureauc­ racy. Parsons' concept of integration is not clear, A problem arises over the distinction between inter emd intra-integration.

Social group work theory

Abstract: 60 Efforts to construct a theory of social group work have fallen short because, among other things, they have not recognized that the social group-work group is artificial. They have always taken it for granted that the group—almost any group—is a natural phenomenon that "just grows" by itself. They have never stopped to consider whether social group workers might be cre ating a particular type of group, and whether the "product" of social group workers might be different from a natural group. This, in part, is why small-group theory, social psychology, and group dynamics have had so little to contribute to the practice and theory of social group work. It is true that social psychology attempts to ex plain groups in both natural situations and artificially generated ones, but so far it has never come to grips with the empir ical gestalt composed of a social group worker mindful of certan values (those of the agency) and a collection of individuals who are in a special relationship with the worker and with whom the worker is try ing to form a group. This is the totality that would have to be accounted for in

12 Principles of the Marxist Approach to Social Structure and Social Mobility

Abstract: (1973). 12 Principles of the Marxist Approach to Social Structure and Social Mobility. International Journal of Sociology: Vol. 3, No. 1-2, pp. 227-240.

Social Control and Values in Social Work

Abstract: broad measure, conform to the standards necessary to complete these tasks. In such a social system, considerable deviance by individuals or sub-groups may be tolerated within defined limits, Society nevertheless demanding conformity to a central core of behaviour about which there exists a general consensus. To maintain cohesion around such a core, systems of social control upheld by normative values, which seek to support &dquo;Right&dquo; or acceptable behaviour and control &dquo;Wrong&dquo; or deviant actions are developed. These systems of controls and values have the aim of enforcing or building-in compliance with generally approved patterns of behaviour. Social Control usually operates at two main levels, the first being Formal, supported by the society’s Value system. Formal control at this overall, comprehensive level, is usually imposed through the law and the forces of law and order, and deviance is often punished. Such formal controls are backed by the ultimate power of the State to take action that would punish, train or guide deviant behaviour towards compliance with acceptable patterns of behaviour, or seek to deter by fear of consequences. A Probation Order, as such, is a formal method of social control over an individual. Nevertheless, the way an individual Probation Officer uses the order