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The paper presents an integrative analysis of voluntary associational leadership and reputational influence. It is noted that the degree to which leadership in voluntary organizations contributes to reputational influence patterns in the general community is not an easily predictable phenomenon. It becomes clear that no "a priori" assumptions can be made about the role of voluntary groups in the general leadership of any given community. There is a need, however, to distinguish the "organizational community" from the community in which formal voluntary groups are of considerably less significance. The study results of the overlap of reputational influentials and formal leaders in four towns are given in tabular form. The factors are number of reputational individuals, number of formal leaders, maximum possible overlap, actual overlap and percentage overlap. From the point of view of influence structures, it was discovered that the larger the town the greater the number of persons who receive a given proportion of nominations as an influential. The results of the study presented in this paper justify the trend toward the use of a combination of the positional and reputational methods of identifying leaders.

The paper reports on a study dealing with emergent regionalization among veteran settlements in Israel. Regional organization is approached in a functional way, as a social system in a process of change and is considered in its micro and macro aspects. The focus of the analysis is threefold: the function of the region as a mechanism of developmental change in terms of social integration, increased participation and redistribution, and improved mobilization; the factors which influence the process of regionalization, in its initial emergence, and in its sustained functioning; and the relationship between different regional organization and social structure and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the often repeated assertion that Parsons abandoned the notion of ‘voluntarism’ in favor of ‘macrofunctionalism’ or ‘behavioristic naturalism’ and that the Parsonian scheme therefore reveals marked discontinuity. When Parsons' strategy for theory building is appreciated, this prevalent assumption proves to be incorrect. In fact, the Parsonian action scheme evidences a considerable degree of continuity from 1937 to the present. While a prevalent piece of sociological folklore is refuted by a careful examination of the Parsonian theory building strategy, a number of significant problems in following this strategy are felt to remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unidimensional conceptions of socioeconomic status require that alternative indicators of one's position in the stratification system have similar elects upon the consequences of socioeconomic level. We show herein that different indicators of social participation and psychological well-being are in fact associated with different indicators of socioeconomic status. Thus, any attempt to combine these indicators—educational attainment, occupational pursuit, family income, or occupational origins—into a single index of socio- economic status will prove unsatisfactory because its component parts have different consequences for the same variable. We also show in this paper precisely how certain formulations of the effects of inconsistency and mobility are wholly redundant and only represent a logically possible way of interpreting the linearly additive effects of the variables used to define inconsistency and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the research reported in this paper is to assess the usefulness of the instrumental-expressive typology in the study of voluntary associations using data provided by university students. The hypotheses center around two basic considerations. The first one extents to which members of the two types of associations differ according to a number of significant sociological variables (e.g., the degree of involvement in friendship networks outside the association). The second consideration is the possible differences in the ways new members are incorporated into instrumental and expressive associations. The three criteria determining the differentiation between the instrumental and expressive association are given. It also discusses personal influence and associational membership. Instrumental and expressive scores of nine associations are presented in tabular form. In conclusion, the instrumental and expressive dimensions represent a sociologically significant way of classifying associations. This distinction may be more useful in some sociological research than the more common systems of classification that are not directly related to sociological theory.

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.

The article presents an account of the book "Person Perception and Interpersonal Behavior," by R. Tagiuri and L. Petrullo. The book is a collection of papers originally presented at the Harvard-Office of Naval Research Symposium on Person Perception held at Harvard University, Harvard, Massachusetts, in March 1957.