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This article examines Erik Jörgen Hansen's paper concerning Danish educational equalization. He starts by discussing a certain specified goal, social equality in the field of education. He then deals with a number of obstacles which according to him prevent the realization of the desired goal in existing school systems. Finally he proposes certain measures to clear away the obstacles or minimize their importance. The goals discussed by Hansen is social equality in the field of education. What this means to him he discusses at some length and comes out with a number of definitions. One of these, consistent equality, he then tries to operationalize. This means in its general version that equality is reached when the educational system is so constructed, that it for all leads to a result that does not make it possible to find any useful criterion according to which individuals can be singled out in relation to the education obtained. In a more limited way this goal can be said to have been reached if the individuals in various categories, examples are social groups, geographical area, sex and others, on the average, regardless of category, reach a completely identical educational result.

Presents information on the contents of the March 1965 issue of the journal "Acta Sociologica."

This paper starts with a short survey of the literature dealing with the problem of evaluating the performance of a given news medium or news channel as to the transmission of foreign news. Then it goes on to discuss various possibilities of testing hypotheses about the flow and structure of foreign news. A distinction between intra and extra media data is introduced, and finally, the outline of an empirical investigation is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about the riots, which broke out after the first performance of the American motion picture "Rock Around the Clock" in Copenhagen, Denmark. During the first performance in the afternoon no incidents occurred, neither at the Bristol nor at the other cinema, the Platan, were the film was also shown. The riots did not begin until after the second evening performance. Another three policemen were ailed in before the end of the performance. As the filmgoers came out of the cinema, some youths made for the Town Hall Square. Some of them walked on toward the main entrance of the Tivoli where they tried to get in without paying. The Tivoli staff at the main entrance called for the police who arrested nine persons. The next day on August 6th, a crowd numbering about three hundred young people gathered outside the Bristol after the first evening performance. After about half an hour the general sentiment of the group began to grow increasingly aggressive. The young people encumbered the street-users, and gradually traffic came to a stop. The crowd was dispersed by the police, and was dosed to through-going traffic. Then the youths set out for the Town Hall Square through the cross streets. The police cleared the square several times during that night. Sixteen persons were apprehended.

This article discusses the problems which arise in the planning and organizing of educational indicator systems. If a person wants to assess the effect of a certain measure, program evaluation can not be substituted by social indicators as usually conceived. Social indicators can not either give much guidance in the day-to-day planning in intermediate levels of the administration. What social indicators can do is to give a kind of gross evaluation of a number of measures usually taken under a period and of unforeseen and unplanned changes as well, to indicate if the development is taking desired directions. A danger of an indicator system of the type closely affiliated to administration is the sectorization and institutional bias likely to manifest itself in concentration on means available to the bureaucracy in question. This is an advantage as to manipulability of means but as disadvantage as to seeing the whole range of alternatives. In a social-indicators-project the ideal would be indicators of knowledge and skills in the whole population, instead of educational indicators aimed primarily at evaluating the institutionalized school system and its effects on the minority of the population affected by it.

The present paper summarizes papers given at the 8th International Family Research Seminar in Oslo, Norway, 1963, which describe and explain differential frequencies of those decisions to marry which result in teenage marriage. Sociological analysis of marriage usually points out that age at marriage varies with the type of society and, therefore, reflects the stage of industrialization and urbanization. The lowest ages at marriage are generally found in peasant agricultural countries, such as India and China. During the rapid growth phase of urban industrial nations, age at marriage apparently rises, but later the age at marriage once again turns downward, though not rapidly. One way of viewing trends of teenage marriage is in terms of the percentage of males and females under 20 years of age involved in marriages contracted. During 1961, in 6% of all marriages contracted in Yugoslavia one or both spouses were under the age of 18. However, in such marriages the wife was under 18 years of age in 91 % of the cases, the husband in only 9 %. From 1953-1961 there was a gradual decrease in the percentage married under 18 years from 6.6 % to 6.0 %.

Introduces various articles and research papers related to sociology that appeared in the 1962 issue of the journal "Acta Sociologica."

This paper is concerned with methods of partitioning observed rates of occupational status change into the circulation and structural-effects components. Two older methods are reviewed and their inadequacies are described briefly. Then a new method based on simultaneous proportional adjustments of matrix cell frequencies is presented. Three analytic models of status change are constructed by this proportional-adjustment method; the utility of one model - a model of constant occupational structure - is illustrated extensively through applications to hypothetical data and to data from Italy and the USA. The paper concludes with some tentative formulations concerning the location of indirect structural repercussions in a partitioned transition matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the economic, social and political forces determining the concrete amount of education needed by all people. In his paper Torsten Husén states that in estimating the degree to which people can be educated, people are primarily dealing with a socio-politico-economic problem rather than a pedagogic one. Perhaps the main problem raised by Husén's paper is not whether the existing empirical information support a reactionary or progressive educational pattern, but the significance of empirical findings as such. The large research work done by Husén shows, by large, that the arguments put forward against the educability of people and in favor of selective or restrictive pattern of education are not, pedagogically, valid. On the other hand, it is certain that once a progressive educational policy is formed at the political level, the implementation of it need research directed to these specific ends. There are some principal tendencies in a class society to repeat the existing division of work and modes of manpower utilization by limiting of education of some demographic groups and differentiating mechanically the knowledge transmitted to people.

Recent publication of a seminal paper analyzing variation in upward and downward mobility rates should alert social scientists to the possibilities for quantitative research in this intricate field. Like most trail-blazing papers, the analysis is subject to evaluation and a critical analysis at this point may stimulate further profitable research. The comments on the cover five problems. Although it is said that the upward and downward mobility rates used in the paper now under discussion classify farmers as manual workers, this rule is not easily followed. The top panel groups those nations in which the original data, reported farm sons and fathers separately from urban workers. Four studies did not separate farm from urban workers, but placed farmers in a low prestige category. It was decided to use all available nations by including farmers and grouping them with non farm workers. However it is difficult to use the same data and compute mobility rates identical to those obtained especially broken out in the original data. The efforts to reconstruct the identical data resulted in six different upward and six different downward rates.

The article presents information related to the characteristics of the behavior of agents of law both administrative and judicial who in their work interact directly with members of the community. It is a basic assumption in this paper that agents of sanction exist in all relatively permanent social systems. These agents may either act as privates or a formal organization or not; some may act individually as interacting directly with ordinary members of the social system, either this is an entire community, an association, an industrial organization or a small, informal group. One shall be dealing with the behavior of these agents, bringing into focus the official behavior, which is part of the face-to face interaction between the agents and the other members of the social system concerned. Another basic assumption of the paper is that face-to face disapproving behavior of agents in all social systems have interesting common traits, which with profit may be analyzed comparatively by means of a fairly general theory of sanction behavior. Initially it is an open question whether such a theory can be considered identical to or deduced from a general theory of action.

This is a preliminary report from a study of occupational mobility in the United States. Objectives of the study are to describe patterns of social mobility in some detail, to estimate the influence of various factors on occupational life chances and to ascertain a few consequences of socio-economic status and mobility, such as their implications for fertility. The present paper reports selected findings pertaining to factors affecting occupational achievement and chances to move away from one's social origins. In particular, researchers examine the significance for occupational attainment of education, ethnic background, community size, migration and parental family. In addition to presenting preliminary substantive findings from this research, this paper also provides an opportunity for illustrating the analytical procedures that have been used. The analysis relies to a large extent on the regression approach. Two major advantages of this approach which prompted this decision to adopt it are that it is a very efficient method of large scale data reduction and that it permits, consequently, the simultaneous examination of interrelations of fairly large numbers of variables, especially if computers are used. Contingency tables containing half a dozen or more variables and many hundreds of cells are too complex to be analyzed by inspection, whereas the regression method permits the analysis of these interrelations.

This article discusses changing patterns of rural organization. There are many different approaches possible for a summary of a congress. The first design which will be used is to study a general hypothesis based on the sociologist R.K. Merton's comparison between European and American research technique in the sociology of knowledge. It seems as if one of the most important tasks in science is to study repeatedly the reliability and the validity of the empirical findings, in order to construct a coherent theoretical building. This means that the same hypothesis has to be tested several times at different places and at different points of time. It might be a very stimulating task for the European Society for Rural Sociology to further such a cumulative work. There has not either been very much discussion of how to study the consequences of a change. Especially the nonintended consequences are of great interest for a rural sociologist and have great practical importance. A final aspect in connection with change is the study of social processes. The necessity of analyzing the socio-cultural linkage has already been emphasized.

Nco evolutionary theories of functional thinking presume a naturalistic conception of history while this paper takes as its domain assumption an activistic humanistic point of view. If the functionalistic evolutionary theories of social growth, of social differentiation and integration and of developmental viability are given futuristic interpretations for advanced societies, there seems to be lacking evidence for their validity and they seem to be partly detrimental to the realization of welfare goals on a global level. Other functionalistic theories are implicitly based on evaluative criteria in an ambiguous way e.g. in terms of freedom, democracy, equality or rationality. Developmental analyses of advanced countries would profit from an integration with welfare theory and policy science where developmental direction is more clearly related to welfare goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory is formulated with which to analyze transactions in social relationships. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal structures involving a dynamic relation with time lags present difficulties if approached with conventional multivariate cross-sectional techniques. It is shown that customary tests for causal structure, e. g. partial correlations, break down or yield ambiguous results. Some further implications of lagged structure, and an extension of the idea to variability in space, are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies a pattern of thought, sometimes called "the practical syllogism". The first premise of this pattern is a statement about an agent's intention to achieve a certain result. The second premise is a statement about what he considers necessary for him to do in order to achieve this aim. The conclusion is a statement to the effect, roughly speaking, that the agent proceeds to do the necessary things. What is the logical status of this type of argument or inference? The paper purports to show that the argument, when it is logically conclusive, is a schema of understanding behaviour in the light of assumed intentions and cognitive attitudes of an agent The argument also has uses for explanatory and predictive purposes. The author contends that, as a schema of explanation, the practical inference pattern holds a position in the human and social sciences similar to that of the deductive-nomological inference pattern ("the covering law model") in the natural sciences. Since the patterns are of different logical type, there is thus also a difference in kind between explanation in the natural sciences and in the sciences of man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments were designed and performed to test an explanatory conjecture stated in an earlier paper. The conjecture says that dissonance (or cognitive imbalance) will occur among overrewarded participants in groups if, and only if, the overrewarded person is receiving or expects to receive indications of disapproval concerning how rewards are distributed in the group from an authority figure or an equitably rewarded group member. The experiments reported here used a modified Berger situation. The results tend to disconfinn the conjecture as stated. Various explanations of the negative results are discussed. Some further theoretical arguments concerning the nature and consequences of inequity are presented. In spite of much experimental and other research, we do not possess much more trustworthy (replicable) information about equity processes than Homans did when he wrote Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. Some reasons for the empirical impasse are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a broad attempt at a multi-level conceptualization of social change. It proceeds by taking a concrete research problem (the relationship between industrialization and the response of labor) and following it through successive stages of conceptualization, model-building, and the construction of an integrated structure for operationalization. The purpose of the paper is thus twofold; specifically, it presents a theory, model and data-gathering approach for the concrete problem at hand and, generally, it outlines possible theoretical and causal links among three distinct levels of social phenomena. It begins by depicting selected concepts from five different theorists in a conglomerate model which shows posited conceptual links within a causal range. It then proceeds to build up a multi-level framework around the three levels of ecological aggregate, organizational structure, and the individual actor. The theoretical nature of human ecology is presented as especially appropriate for analysis of change variables and the relationship of organizational structure to the ecological base is defined. The communal unit is defended as a contextual base and the individual is related theoretically to both this base and the level of emergent structure. A more complete categorization of contextual and backround variables is then added to that of the existing literature, and the nature of these variables is made more precise in terms of the multi-level structure. Finally an attempt is made to integrate, in a determinate fashion, the three "incommensurate" levels. This is done by relying on principles from ecological psychology whereby the concepts organism-environment, inside-outside, and thing-medium are used to postulate possibilities for cross-level causality. The end product is a multi-level, ecologically-based data structure for the analysis of dynamic social variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper outlines some rough suggestions for a possible Nordic computer-based information system for storing, processing and delivering the output of theoretical and empirical research on human communication that is being carried out within scientific and applied contexts first and foremost in the Nordic region. Such a system may contribute towards an integrated body of knowledge of human communication systems. The suggested areas covered and some gross dimensions of a possible reference frame for the organization of information are indicated, and user relations and requests are commented upon. It is advocated that both processed empirical data and theoretical propositions be handled by the proposed information system (called CRISS for short), and reasons for the need of it being partly computerized are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a hypothetico-deductive model regarding the "self". The model consists of 12 circular propositions, involving the variates of (1) phenomenal field, (2) situational symbol, (3) balance, and (4) conformity. The self organizes a "phenomenal field" under a "situational symbol", and his "balance ' depends on the extent he experiences a disturbance in the phenomenal field. The performance of the situational symbol is "con"fruity'. The propositions are then examined in the light of available empirical data. By and large, there are good supporting data, and this model may be useful for further empirical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on a social research dealing with the changing institutional setting and social problems of the Israeli education. This paper has two aspects. One, its major one, will be an analysis of the development of educational system in the Jewish community in Palestine and later in the State of Israel, of changes in its organizations, social functions and problems. These changes will be related to broader social changes and development which have taken place in the social structure of this country. While these developments and problems have of necessity been specific to this country yet in some ways the general trends of their development can be compared to some parallel ones in other countries. Researchers shall attempt, at the end of the paper, briefly to draw some broader comparative indication. The focus of the concrete analysis will be the way in which the three major social spheres which constitute the "social arena" of education, family and youth culture and their interrelationships developed in the different periods of the development of the Yishuv.

In the following paper certain fads and tendencies in the field of university education in Sweden will be reviewed and some original findings reported, which all seem to have a bearing on the social role of universities in modern society. In one respect the situation in Sweden is by no means unusual though it raises important questions. Measured by student enrollment or similar statistics, universities are currently growing at a rate which has no earlier parallels. Another feature is less common and therefore deserves particular attention. There is relatively little selection between the senior secondary school stage and the university stage, a large proportion of those who graduate from the former proceed to a university or a professional school of equivalent status. There is selection social and intellectual at an earlier stage; the transition from the junior secondary school, or the new comprehensive school, to the gymnasium. In the earlier part of the paper statistical and other information will be offered which is national and overall in coverage, that is to say, describes the system as a whole or major branches of it. The later part will be based on a more intensive study of a panel of students in Lund, Canada who have been interviewed or approached by a questionnaire and followed through their first university years.

This article focuses on one of the most pressing problems in present-day society, legal deviation, a term which is used here to include both delinquency and criminality. A considerable amount of research has been devoted to the causes of legal deviation, and several conclusions have been rather firmly established. Yet there is much to be done. By pointing to one possible approach in this paper, the author hopes to contribute to the solution of two problems in the study of delinquency and crime: first, the assessment of the relative effects of different causal factors, and second, the use of research findings for predictive purposes, e.g. to predict the effect on legal deviation of a specific welfare program. It is not claimed that this approach is in any sense the best one or even that it is a good one, but it is claimed that it is a feasible approach and that it may serve as a starting point for further efforts to achieve better explanations of legal deviation. The discussion in this paper is limited to first-time deviants. The inclusion of repeaters would only complicate the expressions, which seems unnecessary in a first exposition of a model. But the model could easily be amended to take repeaters into account.

This article focuses on exploring connections between some concepts in the theory of action. The initial distinction between orientation primacy and situational problem is abandoned--at least as far as the content of the classification is concerned. Instead, the distinction between variables particularly relevant for need-dispositions and for role-expectation analysis is picked up-but the basis for that distinction, or the classificatory principle, is changed. Now, the classification is based on indeterminacies of objects vs. indeterminacies in attitudes. It seems that the first classification principle is kept, but that the resulting grouping is the one originally produced by the second principle. So, this conclusion is reached--before a situation can have determinate meaning for the actor, its objects must be defined either in performance- or in quality-terms and in terms of either universalism or particularism; and he must so to say select either affectivity or affective neutrality and either specificity or diffuseness as relevant principles for his attitude formation.

This paper is an attempt to describe in general terms the pattern of development of women's movements. One of the main problems concerns the mobilization of women to participate in such a movement. In solving this problem I find it zwcessary to define women first as members of a society and then as participants in a movement. I shall discuss women as a social category, as a collectivity, and as a group. Moreover I shall identify the women's movement as a collective actor and discuss two aspects of its mobilization potential: the mobilization of women in relation to each other, i.e. by their membership of a group, and in relation to the women's movement as a reference individual. The empirical data cited in the discussion should be regarded as illustrations and not, of course, as proofs. The model presented is the result of a theoretical exercise, and should be assessed on the basis of its potential value for a future empirical study of women's movements in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare is defined in connection with the Swedish level-of-living survey as "the individual's command over under given determinants mobilizable resources, with whose help he/she can control and conciously direct Ms/her living conditions". The welfare concept is divided into three sectors: individual-bound resources, social determinants and physical determinants, which in their turn are divided into components. To set up goals for physical planning in terms of welfare seems to be easiest and could be done for the most part, with various "evil conditions" as starting points, by formulating restrictions in respect of the physical factors so that these undesirable states are reduced, eliminated or prevented from arising. In conclusion, the paper dicusses how goals such as full employment, growth, equality and democracy can be crystallized for purposes of physical planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a situation is examined where standard operating procedures in governmental organizations were challenged. On such occasions an organization is not simply a vehicle for solving well-defined problems as efficiently as possible. We see competing definitions of the problems, the best solutions, expertise and the rules of procedure. Outcomes are not limited to the immediate substantive outcomes. As important is the establishing of future social relationships and definitions of the situation. While classical administrative and democratic theory suggest that changes in standard operating procedures may be instantaneous, we believe this type of change to be the exception rather than the rule. In this article, it is suggested that the garbage can model at least under some conditions be an adequate description of the decision making in a polity experiencing challenges of established routines. This is illustrated by the decision making processes concerning the location of Norway's third medical school. In this case, new definitions of the problems involved were raised, new participants activated, and the outcome so clearly suggested by existing standard operating procedures not selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intuitively it seems reasonable to assume that education may have some "treatment effect" on the individual. This paper reports some findings from a study exploring how education influences 1) information seeking, 2) number of alternatives evaluated, 3) decision time, and 4) venturesomeness in a buying situation. The following results were found - as expected - that, the higher the education the more active the use of information, the more alternatives evaluated, the longer the decision time, and the more venturesome in a complex buying situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal-level problems often result from many individuals acting in their own self-interest rather than in the interest of the group. This paper describes an experimental game based on continued degradation of the central resource which determines each player's winnings; players elect to allow, to not allow, or to reverse the degradation by spending from their respective scores. The game was begun with either a "pure" or half-degraded central resource and was Played with subjects winning amounts based on their personal scores or on the groups combined score. Results under all conditions are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this paper discussed the ideas of a theoretical domain and a causal locus in that domain as a philosophical basis for measurement theory. This part discusses the difficulties created for measurement theory by the fact that time plays a different role in different functional forms of equations for stating causal relations in a theoretical domain. We then turn to a redefinition and critique of traditional measurement concepts in terms of our philosophical position and of our analysis of the role of time in causal theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with examining closely Kuhn's notion of paradigm, as expressed in the first edition of his book and in more recent writings. The implications of the paradigm notion for two different forms of falsification are considered, and it is argued that both Popper's and Lakatos' versions of falsification are subject to similar criticisms. Paradigms and falsification are then briefly considered in terms of their relevance for sociology. Finally, it is argued that sociologists must turn their attention to a serious consideration of the importance of language in the practice of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an attempt to describe one kind of social institutions, here called receptors, which handle the problem of creating functioning relations between groups of newcomers in a society and various subgroups within this society during a confrontation between such groups. Such a social institution might be called a regulator, when there exists ah agreement between the interest groups involved, that their goal should be a mutually acceptable situation for both groups. The paper also contains an attempt to describe those ideologies with regard to the reception of newcomers, which are most likely to develop within different kinds of receptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to give an answer to the question why the Neopositivist "Logic of Science" has not been able to cope with the peculiar interests and problems of the Humanities (i.e. Philologies, History and critical humanistic Social Science), - to speak more precisely: why Neopositivists conceive of "understanding" only as an heuristic auxiliary function in the service of "covering law explanation" and thus cannot account of Hermeneutics, that is the methodology of interpreting the meaning of symbols (texts, works, actions, institutions etc.). The answer given starts from the thesis that Methodological Solipsism-that is the assumption that, in principle, one person alone can practice science by objectifying the whole world without presupposing a complementary hermeneutic knowledge by communication with human Co-subjects - belongs to the secret metaphysical presuppositions of Logical Positivism. As an alternative a transcendental foundation of Hermeneutics (and of Critique of Ideology) is proposed which presupposes the Apriori of Communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the central concerns of sociology is the study of ideology. In this paper I shall analyze the ways in which this notion is used by contemporary sociologists. This analysis will disclose a dual usage. I shall argue that this usage is restrictive and fails to do justice to all the aspects of ideology. Ideological phenomena include a minimum of three separate and distinct elements or factors. It follows that any two-factor conception of ideology is necessarily inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the limits set by structural arrangements and by institutions, individuals choose their course of action. Anthropologists have always been interested in the outcome of these choices either because they reflect ongoing change or because they elucidate interrelations between institutions. In order for decision-making analysis to be more than anecdotal, however, it needs to be guided by a set of assumptions concerning reasoning and cognitive processes, and the conditions germane to them. Economists, sociologists, psychologists, philosophers and mathematicians have already outlined many useful assumptions. Part of our task in this paper is to contribute to a systematization of those assumptions that are most relevant to anthropological interests. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of decision analysis for social anthropology, examine the theoretical and methodological implications of "rationality," and present a sequence of hypothetical steps that we regard as requisites for an adequate decision-making analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contains in its first part an attempt at showing that certain important results of Alfred C. Kinsey's investigations can throw new light upon the problem of equality for woman and upon the relations of woman to war. The second part tries to demonstrate that the suppression of woman is not an expression of a striving for power in the man, but is his attempt at solving a difficult special sexual problem, the problem that he in the lasting sexual relation in the last half of life, is the sexually weaker. The third part points to the fact that woman is involved in the mechanism leading to war and that she therefore has responsibility in connection with war. It is explained why it is so important that woman learn to see the difference between the men's society and the secret male society.[SUP1] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new aspect of intergenerational occupational mobility is investigated in this paper: the occupations of all sons in a sample of families, rather than the occupation of only one son per family. Taking all sons whose fathers' occupations are the same, do these sons disperse individually over a range of occupations, or do they tend to cluster in family groups, so that one group of brothers is concentrated around one occupational level while other groups are at other levels? The same investigation was made of daughters' husbands. The data were obtained from interviews with a probability sample of Helsinki residents. A familial influence on occupations, which is independent of father's occupation,, is called "sibling group differentiation". The presence of this factor was investigated by means of analysis of variance, applied separately at each level of father's occupation. Sibling group differentiation was found to be present in the occupations of groups of brothers at all levels of father's occupation except the lowest and to be present, although less consistently, in the occupations of sisters' husbands. These findings were unaffected when type of origin of the family, whether or not the father was a farmer, age, and size of the family were investigated. Of the total variance in occupations of children whose fathers' occupations were alike, about one quarter was explained by sibling group differentiation. The causal interpretation offered is that the variable is due to the effect of the home environment on aspirations, and that a necessary condition for its occurrence is a certain minimum level of mobility opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is concerned with isolating certain ecological conditions requisite for the development of capitalism defied as an activity pattern characterized by the acquisition of profit through exchange transactions. In particular it is hypothesized that the emergence of capitalist activity will vary directly with the extent of competition for sustenance. Verification of this hypothesis is attempted by demonstrating that the rise of capitalist activity in western Europe was associated with such competition, whereas in China-- where capitalism did not develop--agricultural conditions did not call forth such competition. It is further hypothesized that a difference between western Europe and China in type of agricultural system accounts, in part, for variation between these two areas in the development of capitalist activity. The argument is developed that the practice of large scale irrigation agriculture is an inhibiting factor in the development of capitalist activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the participation of formal leaders in the diffusion of innovation in a rural community in Tanzania. Weber's definition of the basis of traditional leadership indicates a diffuseness of authority, which may become enhanced by directed change, giving the formal leaders a potentiality for influencing processes of social change in general. The results show that the authority of the formal leaders extend to agricultural matters. Through a central position in the communication structure, they have exercised strong influence in favour of adoption and thus contributed to a high rate of diffusion of the innovation in the community. Variations in rates of diffusion between categories of formal leaders and opinion leaders indicate that connectedness to communication networks affect rates of diffusion, but also that additional factors related to formal leadership itself are important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seymour Lipset summarized some evidence suggesting that upwardly mobile individuals in some Northern European countries, including Sweden, retained the working class loyalties characteristic of their stations of origin to much greater extent than upwardly mobile individuals in some other countries. This paper presents findings from a study designed to test some of the assumptions of Lipset's interpretation of this evidence, and also offers a number of alternative interpretations taking account of macro conditions of Swedish political history and social structure as well as micro processes of ideological conviction through "cognitive vigilance". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tradition from Malthus, Marx, and Ogburn points to differential rates of change as an important predictor variable. Although normal industrial societies include components changing at highly unequal rates without necessarily revealing maladaptive behavior, it still seems a good strategy to pay attention to differential rates of change in trying to explain maladaptivity arising in connection with technological innovations or diffusions. Taking annual rate of change in the number of road deaths per capita as dependent variable, and annual rate of change in the number of cars per capita, and annual rate of change in expenditure per capita devoted to road work as independent variables, it was shown for Britain and Denmark that a considerable increase in such expenditure would be needed to achieve zero growth rate in the dependent variable. Since data on road expenditures proved hard to provide for most countries the main problem discussed in the paper is the relationship between the other two variables mentioned above. This relationship is studied in 13 European and North American nations over approximately 20 years, mostly 1947 to 1966. Deadly accidents on roads were shown to grow more slowly than the number of automobiles, but at a rate rather close to 1/3 of that for automobiles for Europe in general. Data for United States suggest that this dependence between cars and accidents may well be characteristic of nations in their automotive youth and early maturity only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several alternative strategies have been used in studies of the structure and development of national societies. In descriptions of single national societies there is often a tendency to search for unique features and patterns. While unique patterns of development certainly can be found, it is nevertheless reasonable to claim that in comparative studies categorical concepts should be transformed to variables the values of which are identifiable in different societies. With the rise of new states and the intensification of interest in the "third world" the arguments for the search of unique features have appeared in a somewhat new form. It is often stated that solutions and arrangements used in the economically developed part of the world cannot be used in developing states, and vice versa. In principle there is nothing new in this argument. In all social science analyses the problem of how much to oversimplify reality is a crucial one. Whatever arguments can be forwarded they reflect most of all the preferences and predilections of the researcher. Whether one wants to deal with unique features or not depends on the level of generality of the models and frames of reference preferred. This paper is written under the assumption that it is worthwhile to strive for models and frames of reference which are generally applicable. Four important strategic considerations are here stressed as particularly important in developing models for the comparative study of the structure and development of national societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraordinary growth in the number of legally independent units of government during the 1950s and '60s has prompted a wide variety of scholarly efforts toward description, analysis and theorizing. The literature generated through these efforts is voluminous and dispersed and has so far never been subject to systematic codification. In this brief paper there can be no question of doing justice to the entire range of approaches to the comparative study of state formation and national development. Only a few lines of attack will be singled out for discussion and even these will not be evaluated in any great detail: the purpose is not to review the past literature but to define priority tasks for future cooperative data processing and interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a text of a research paper about the elite and the social system presented at the Fifth Nordic Sociological Meeting in Stockholm in 1967. A social system will be defined as a set of interacting social units, where the units in general may be either organisms or set of organisms, or sets of sets of organisms, etc. The state variables used in the research to describe the social system are as follows: size, or number of members; energy, or the amount expended or controlled; differentiation, or the division of labor; and permeability, or the relative openness of a system or subsystem. At least eight major specific elites may be identified in industrial social systems. A ninth category called general elite may be added to refer to the top categories that result from formal or informal multidimensional status measurements. The following list of elites is suggested: charismatic elite, or the popular heroes, the saints, the gods; power elite, or those that excel in power or influence; wealth elite, or the very rich, the millionaires; ascriptive elite, or the old families, the aristocracy of birth; artistic elite, or the most recognized art producers; physical elite, or the top people in sport and beauty contests; prestige elite, or the holders of top positions; scholastic elite, or the holders of academic certificates or persons of similar standing; and the general elite, or the multidimensional top people, the who is who group.

Our point of departure in this paper has been that an organization can fruit- fully be described as a system of organizational units rather than of individual roles. Whether or not two units in such a system can be described as connected can be determined, for example, by the frequency of communication between them. An account of the units in the system and the relations between them provides one aspect of a description of the organization's structure. Over and above this, the organization's way of functioning as a system can also be described; one of the relevant variables here is intraorganizational strain. Some writers have shown that there is a connection between intraorganizational strain and the organization's degree of goal satisfaction. In this paper we suggest some hypotheses on the origins of intraorganizational strain and have assumed that behavior in a system of organizational units can be explained by an analogy to theories concerning interindividual systems. In conclusion our argument is illustrated by some examples from an empirical study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show how selective perception operates in organizational settings to make members perceive the behavior of other members differently. The data come from a study directed by researchers P.F. Lazarsfeld and Wagner Thielens of how college teachers in the United States reacted to threats posed to academic freedom during the McCarthy investigations in the early 1950's. More than 2,400 social science teachers from 165 colleges were interviewed. They were asked questions dealing with attitudes toward academic freedom for teachers and students, awareness of specific incidents involving threats to academic freedom, apprehension and fear resulting from such incidents, beliefs about reactions of other teachers to the same events. There exists a considerable literature on experiments designed to test the validity of ideas in the functional approach to perception. Some attempts have been made to state systematic theoretical formulations which try to account for the empirical findings. Expectations, needs and emotional states sometimes make perception selective. People who live in the same milieu or are otherwise exposed to identical stimuli, but who differ with respect to their expectations, needs and emotions will perceive attributes of people or other objects present in the milieu differently. One way in which these factors make perception selective is by increasing people's sensitivity to cues indicating the presence of objects or behaviors relevant to the state of motivation or the attitude.