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The objectives of this paper are threefold. First, it traces briefly the use of the comparative method La sociology. It documents that what is currently called 'cross-national research' is an interest that has antecedents running back for at least a century in a great variety of field. Secondly, the paper argues for a closer interplay between sociological theory construction and cross-national data. Because current sociological theory is exceedingly culture-bound, basing its propositions largely on data derived from modern American and Western European societies, the need for testing hypotheses within truly cross-cultural settings is most timely and urgent. Thirdly, the paper delineates three major methodological problems in cross-national research. These problems include (I) the requirement of equivalence of meaning, (2) the requirement of concept equivalence, and (3) the requirement of equivalence of cultural variability. It concludes with a recommendation for furthering interest in cross-national research in rural sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results on the effect of light, temperature and substrate during spore formation on the germinability of conidia in Colletotrichum falcatum, Light seems to have no effect on the germination of conidia unless the cultures were exposed to a high intensity of light during sporulation, in which case the spores showed a reduced germination and an increased appressoria formation. Conidia produced at temperatures higher than the optimum showed better germination and less appressoria formation than the spores produced at the temperature optimum for the growth and sporulation of the fungus. A similar increase in germination was also observed in conidia obtained from inoculated sugarcane leaves as compared to those produced on culture media. The light type virulent isolates of C. falcatum showed greater sensitivity to all these treatments than the dark type weakly pathogenic isolates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the development of spatial distributions of towns in Sweden. The city or town is now the home of the majority of the population of the more developed countries, but the rise of a modem urban culture has been rapid and rather recent. This paper attempts a rather general approach to the development of the spatial distribution of towns. The approach recognizes that urbanization involves more than the location of central place activities. Much urban support derives from activities that do not depend on a local hinterland.

This paper examines the role situation of managers in book-publishing houses, and in particular the conflicts that different definitions of culture tend to generate. It sees the pattern of authority as tending to exacerbate conflicts by eliminating common strategies of conflict management and reduction. It further considers the general problem created by attempts to impose norms of moral commitment where the ideal is defined by others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central, element of modem professions is that they are organized around specialized bodies of knowledge over which they claim exclusive jurisdiction and control (Barber, 1963). Such specialized expertise is basic to the performance of the professional role, and the application of this specialized knowledge to client problems is the essence of professionalism for occupations such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, law, or engineering (Hughes, 1963; Gross, 1958:78-82). As Greenwood (1957) suggests, two other attributes of the professions— authority and autonomy—are based upon this expertise. The authority to advise, prescribe, direct, or limit client activity is grounded in professional access to superior knowledge of "causes" and "solutions" to the clients' problems. Likewise, freedom from lay control and evaluation of professional performance derives from the discrepancy between the expertise of the professional and the ignorance of the client. Only other qualified (i.e., knowledgeable in the same specialized area) personnel can evaluate the professional practitioner (Hall, 1969). In addition, professions also exhibit other characteristics which are not so intimately linked to expertise. These are such elements as codes of ethics, professional cultures or communities, and commitment (see Hall, 1969; Goode, 1957). The focus of this paper is, however, on the relevance of professional expertise. Expertise is inextricably involved with both the performance of the professional role, and the maintenance of professional status and legitimacy. Any increase in client access to the professional sphere of competence is therefore likely to result in skepticism, criticism, and may even threaten to reduce the professional to commercial status (Wilensky, 1964:150). The "mystification" of professional knowledge in the form of esoteric jargon, limitations on popularization of knowledge, and prohibitions against advertising may be seen as attempts to maintain the knowledge gap between professional and client. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper began with an attempt to formalize the Davis-Moore functional theory of social stratification. It was found that the theory could be represented by a static model consisting of two algebraic equations with appropriate constraints on the functions. Then the tools of path analysis were used to evaluate the empirical adequacy of the Davis-Moore and Parsonian functional theories of social stratification as representations of cultural beliefs about stratification. Because of the likely presence of measurement and sampling errors, it was impossible to reject definitely either of the models. However, the estimated path coefficients were more consistent with the Parsonian theory than the Davis-Moore theory. This led to an inquiry into the conditions under which one model would be a better representation than the other. It was argued that the Davis-Moore scheme would provide a more accurate representation of cultural beliefs under conditions of high organizational interdependence whereas the Parsonian framework would give a better representation under conditions of low interdependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similar in scope and significance to the industrial and agrarian revolutions, the modem scientific revolution has been slowly developing for the past century bringing changes which are both obvious and obscure. In general, scholars have analyzed this revolution in terms of two major conceptions which have emphasized either the effect of science technology or the effect of science on the social institutions and social organization of society. More recently interest has focused upon the growth of power of science and its alienating effects. But one aspect of this revolution, perhaps the most important aspect, has been almost totally ignored. This paper is devoted to an examination of this aspect the effect of science on culture. From its early beginnings, when it was at war with theology, to the postindustrial period of widespread acceptance, science has made its mark upon culture first in the production of new information and thus a "new world view" and later in the rise of "scientism" where the uncritical adoration of science has produced a new value in society-that of science itself. Because of their historical development and confinement to certain types of analytical models, sociology and the sociology of science have been unsuccessful in dealing with this type of social change. In addition to sociology's neglect of the effect of science on culture, sociologists are producing fragmented information about science and the revolution which leads to the belief that science, because of its internal value structure and utilitarian relationship to other social institutions, can not develop unchecked to a position of overwhelming power. Without any manifest intentions, sociologists have produced a conservative evaluation of science and the revolution.ceptions of the revolution; (2) the reasons for the neglect of sociological analysis of the effect of science on culture; (3) a brief overview of the replacement, destruction, and accommodation theories of the effect of science on culture; and (4) the change from atomistic accommodation during the preindustrial period, when science was at war with theology, to the holistic accommodation of science in the rise of scientism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general theory of symbolic interaction, specifically self theory, is focused upon the importance of language as an instrument of definition and communication. People are seen as responding not directly to a resistant outer reality but to meanings of objects which are defined within a cultural system and social organization. G. H. Mead, in his discussion of the way persons develop self concepts and the accompanying ability to take roles effectively, speaks of the degree to which persons develop a "general other." This general other is an organized structure of attitudes believed to be common to all and is defined in terms of a universe of discourse growing out of the symbolic interaction of a community of individuals. Replies to the Twenty Statements Test, described by Kuhn and McPartland, display this quality. Self-identifying statements which people make fall along a rough spectrum of reference which can be broken up in various ways. The distinction which Kuhn and McPartland have reported is between what they call consensual and nonconsensual statements. Consensual statements are defined as those statements which would be generally understood by persons in the larger society without explanation. Nonconsensual statements are defined as those requiring interpretation before their social relevance can be assessed. The consensual statement is language behavior directed to the general other, while the nonconsensual statement is language directed to a more limited audience. H. S. Sullivan's contribution in developing the notion of the "significant other" consists in accounting for the fact that persons often do not seem to internalize standards and norms from the whole society but from segments of it on some selective basis. In this paper, the number of consensual statements made in response to the Twenty Statements Test will be called the locus score. Respondents are assigned to "high" and "low" locus categories as they make more or less than the median number of consensual statements. Expanding upon this frame of reference, it seems reasonable to propose that the locus quality found in self-conceptions of a given person is also characteristic of his conceptions of other objects. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that the self is the core of a set of interrelated attitudes, and that the level of reference employed by the respondent in his attitudes toward the self would therefore be applicable to other attitudes as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A genuinely sociological theory of social change is lacking, but the literature of the social sciences abounds with the elements of such a theory. The present paper deals with one of these elements, namely the change from tribalism to urbanism as a major instance of social change. For this purpose the concepts of culture and civilization are examined, and a plea is made to restore the concept of civilization to its rightful place in the vocabulary of sociologists and anthropologists. In doing this, the intention is not to reduce social change to the process of urbanization, but rather to isolate the sociological element which makes for social change within the supersession of a familial by a territorial society, wherever it occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part I of this paper is a review of the literature concerning the effects of culture on cognition. The relevance of these studies to interpersonal relations in international organizations is explored. A number of broad hypotheses are suggested. At a more specific level three hypotheses are presented. In the case of high-status visitors working in a low-status culture: (1), the visitor's stereotype of the hosts will be negative; (2) the visitor's stereotype of the host culture will be more negative than the stereotype of members of the visitor's culture who have not come into face-to-face relationships with the host culture; and (3) the stereotype of the hosts toward the visitors will be negative, but will also reflect the presumed higher competence of the visitors. Part II reports a study which supports these hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a recent investigation by J. Allison and D. Hunt who studied the relationship between aggression and the Edwards social desirability (SD) variable. Positing that verbal aggression is generally seen as undesirable in our culture, they tested the proposition that high SD people as measured by the Edwards Scale would be likely to express less aggression than low SD people. Utilizing a specially devised paper and pencil "Situational Frustration Test", these investigators obtained a significant inverse association between amount of aggression elicited on this test and independent SD ratings. They concluded that their results could be taken to indicate construct validity of the Edwards SD concept.

The article presents information on the possibilities and limitations of cross-national and cross-regional research. In approaching cross-national and cross-regional research, the author has taken for granted the fundamental rationale of comparative study as such, and disregarded general problems of its validity. This is so, as the last Congress considered this issue, and the main points of these deliberations are on record. Instead, the author has tried to focus on more specific topics of conceptualization, methodology and organization, as they bear directly upon rural social study. Accordingly, the papers included have two major foci and fall into two groups; in each of which the author has tried to secure a discussion of both theoretical as well as applied and practical aspects. The first group, focuses on problems of the proper meaning or nature of comparative research and on the essential qualities it must have to be effective. The second group is related to problems attending the execution of comparative projects. The first of the two deals mainly with major questions of methodology: firstly, with problems of interpersonal relations, including those of political clearance, of tackling cultural variations and of stereotyping; and secondly, with technical ones, chiefly the comparability of secondary data, the utilization of and relationship to theoretical models and the standardization of field procedures.