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The voluntary sector acts as the last line of defense for some of the most marginalized people in societies around the world, yet its capacities are significantly reduced by chronic resource shortages and dynamic political obstacles. Existing research has scarcely examined what it is like for voluntary sector practitioners working amidst these conditions. In this paper, we explore how penal voluntary sector practitioners across England and Scotland marshaled their personal and professional resources to "keep going" amidst significant challenges. Our analysis combines symbolic interactionism with the concept of story‐lines. We illuminate the narratives that practitioners mobilized to understand and motivate their efforts amidst the significant barriers, chronic limitations, and difficult emotions brought forth by their work. We position practitioners' story‐lines as a form of emotion work that mitigated their experiences of anger, frustration, overwhelm, sadness, and disappointment, enabling them to move forward and continue to support criminalized individuals. Our analysis details three story‐lines—resignation, strategy, and refuge—and examines their consequences for practitioners and their capacities to intervene in wicked social problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information about the journal and presents submission guidelines for articles for review. The journal aims to cater a medium for the publication of original papers covering the entire complete duration of sociological thought and research. The author stressed that the journal will give preference to publish the original papers whose works are focused on current developments in research and analysis. Contributions, correspondence and books for review must be directed to "The British Journal of Sociology," London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, England.

There has been much recent discussion concerning the conceptual and empirical viability and value of the distinction between social class and social status, and in particular as implemented in the work of Chan and Goldthorpe. The present paper addresses certain of the issues that arise on the basis of a historical case, that of class and status in interwar England, with reference to housing, sports club membership, and dress. It seeks to show that, contrary to what has been claimed by various authors, the distinction can be effectively made and is indeed necessary to an understanding of these features of the social history of the period; that it is differential association that has to be seen as constitutive of status stratification, rather than differences in lifestyle; and that increased status striving, anxieties, and segregation, with adverse psychological consequences, can result from a narrowing as well as from a widening of class inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two significant moments in sexual minority citizenship in England and Wales in relation to one of the Marshallian sets of rights, namely, civil or legal rights, focusing specifically on the Sex Offences legislation and policing practices. The first moment that will be examined here is the process whereby homosexual acts were decriminalized in the 1950s and 1960s: here special attention will be paid to the recommendations made by the Wolfenden Committee. The second moment is one we are currently experiencing, which is associated with the inclusive policing of sexual minority communities (especially lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities) under the provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and in the review of Sex Offences, especially in the consultation paper (Home Office 2000) and White Paper (Home Office 2002) associated with this review. Privacy and toleration dominate the first moment, at the same time it shall be demonstrated that privacy is also central to the British Sexual Citizenship literatures that have emerged in sociology in the post Wolfenden context. However, as the title suggests, the second moment under examination points to the emergence of a rather more extensive sexual minority citizenship beyond the boundaries of ‘homosexual privacy’ (which British Sexual Citizenship Studies is not currently engaging with) and perhaps even beyond the boundaries of toleration through ever more ‘inclusive’ policing strategies and through the review of sex offences in which many discriminatory laws are being ‘de-homosexualized’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the wider social impacts of hosting the London 2012 Olympic Games and its 'legacy' ambitions in East London, emphasizing securitization as an inbuilt feature of the urban regeneration project. Drawing on extensive original empirical research, the paper analyses the modalities of Olympic safety and security practices within the Olympic Park itself and their wider impact, while also connecting this research to theorization and debates in urban sociology and criminology. In this complex setting, a raft of formal and informal, often subtle, regulatory mechanisms have emerged, especially as visions of social ordering focused on 'cleansing' and 'purifying' have 'leaked out' from the hyper-securitized 'sterilized' environment of the Olympic Park and become embedded within the Olympic neighbourhood. In such complex circumstances, applying Douglas' (1966) work on purity and danger to the spatial realm provides a key conceptual framework to understand the form and impact of such processes. The imposition of order can be seen to not only perform 'cleansing' functions, but also articulate multiple symbolic, expressive and instrumental roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the experience of researching British South Asian women's lives in London as a female British Asian researcher to explore how cultural commonality and difference is shaped by agency and interaction in the research process. It examines these issues through a discussion of how the shared cultural identity of the researcher and the interviewees emerged as both a point of commonality and difference in the research process; with the researcher being `positioned' in terms of both as a result of the interviewees' agency in interpreting their cultural commonality. In particular, issues of ‘Indianness’ and religion emerged as points on which interviewees exercised agency and interpreted the researcher's cultural identity. This was the basis on which they claimed commonality or difference and this assessment consequently impacted on their interaction with the researcher. The article suggests that more attention needs to be given to how assumptions made by interviewees regarding the cultural identity of the researcher through their agency and interaction in the research process shapes interview dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the widespread deployment of CCTV through most major cities and towns in great Britain, and the importance of surveillance to contemporary debates within the social sciences, there remains relatively little detailed research concerned with the practical use of these technologies in the workplace. In this paper, we examine how personnel in the operation rooms in London Underground use CCTV and related equipment to identify problems and events and to develop a co-ordinated response. In particular, we consider how personnel configure scenes to make sense of and interpret the conduct of the travelling public in organizationally relevant ways, and how they shape the ways in which both passengers and staff see and respond to each others' actions. In addressing how personnel constitute the sense and significance of CCTV images, we reflect on the development of information processing systems which are designed to automatically detect conduct and events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that 'uncertain identities' are a distinct contributing factor to the residual and intractable level of smoking among young people. Further, it argues that the significance of this factor is increased by the specific social/historical context of late modernity. Findings from research with 15 to 16 year olds in the East Midlands of England are used to explore the role that smoking is perceived to play in constructing a self identity. A voluntaristic perspective is adopted on the use of tobacco, reflecting both the focus on young people's motivation to smoke and the tendency for many young people to perceive smoking as a matter of personal choice. Smoking was found to have a symbolic significance not only in terms of the presentation of self to others but also in terms of the reflexive construction of the self by those involved. The paper analyses the role of smoking in relation to self-image, self-empowerment and self-affirmation and it is concluded that for many young people smoking has certain benefits in terms of coping with uncertain identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a study on social status and clique formation among grammar school boys in London, England. This paper reports on another aspect of the inquiry into the effects of social class at adolescence, which has been carried out at the London School of Economics and Political Science in England under the direction of Doctor H. T. Himmelweit. Within the broad framework of the research project, an important place was allotted to problems of peer group selection. Moreover, the paper is based on information from three sources: a choice of friend questionnaire, a sociometric questionnaire and an open-ended question on the attributes of a good friend. The most interesting conclusion which has emerged from these data points to an important difference between this country and the U.S. In both countries, the adolescent's value system largely determines his friendship choices. In England, it has been shown that similar class stereotypes may be found and it is quite possibly true that such friendship criteria as are embodied in the choice of a friend questionnaire reflect parental values. It could also be argued, that the working class boys in the grammar school are exceptional, in that they come from homes where middle class values are prevalent. In England, it may be said in general that by having secondary grammar and secondary modern schools, the working class pupils are divided into those who will be given an opportunity for social ascent and those who will not. England deliberately segregates the new recruits to the higher social levels and gives them more advanced training in separate schools. Under these conditions, several factors combine to give the working class boy those attitudes, interests and motives which are concomitant with his future social position.

This article provides information on the biennial conference of the British Sociological Association at Queen Elizabeth College in London, England on March 22 to 24, 1957. The theme Sociology in Retrospect and Prospect was an appropriate one in view of the increasingly felt need to undertake a systematic re-assessment and clarification of the main issues involved in sociological theory and practice. A large theme of this nature could not be pursued in exhaustive detail, but the papers in both the plenary and the group sessions were such as to stimulate much thought, and the degree of interest shown in the conference was such as to suggest that this theme was one of central concern to all. The attendance was greater than had been anticipated. Although not central to the theme of the conference, perhaps one of the most significant facts about it was that it became the basis for a consciously contrived effort to begin and foster co-operative relations between the British Association and the American Sociological Society. Another encouraging feature was that 39 students were sufficiently interested to become student members of the association. The executive officers were very helpful throughout, and finally it proved possible to send over a small delegation.

This paper examines the wider social impacts of hosting the London 2012 Olympic Games and its 'legacy' ambitions in East London, emphasizing securitization as an inbuilt feature of the urban regeneration project. Drawing on extensive original empirical research, the paper analyses the modalities of Olympic safety and security practices within the Olympic Park itself and their wider impact, while also connecting this research to theorization and debates in urban sociology and criminology. In this complex setting, a raft of formal and informal, often subtle, regulatory mechanisms have emerged, especially as visions of social ordering focused on 'cleansing' and 'purifying' have 'leaked out' from the hyper-securitized 'sterilized' environment of the Olympic Park and become embedded within the Olympic neighbourhood. In such complex circumstances, applying Douglas' (1966) work on purity and danger to the spatial realm provides a key conceptual framework to understand the form and impact of such processes. The imposition of order can be seen to not only perform 'cleansing' functions, but also articulate multiple symbolic, expressive and instrumental roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on social capital has explored trends in membership in voluntary organizations. However, there is currently little robust evidence on such trends in the UK since the 1970s, nor is there any analysis of whether participation bridges social divisions or accentuates them. This paper explores trends in participation in England and Wales since 1972 using data from the Social Mobility Inquiry of 1972 and the British Household Panel Survey of 1992 and 1999. We are concerned with social exclusion mechanisms in social capital generation in Britain over the three decades. Using binomial and multinomial models to 'unpack' the effects of socio-cultural factors on civic participation and on different types of associational membership, we test the thesis of across-the-board decline in social capital by Putnam (2000) and that of rising levels of middle-class social capital versus consistent low levels of working-class social capital by Hall (1999). The results show significant socio-cultural-gender differences, a relative stability of middle-class participation, and a rapid decline in the working-class access to social capital. We challenge the established accounts of both theses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction to this paper provides a brief review of the literature on religious belief and practice suggesting that much of this remains to be fully assimilated within the sociology of religion. The paper examines the contention that contemporary British religious practice can be characterized as 'believing without belonging'. Drawing on a survey of rural residents in five areas of England, the paper suggests that a majority of people express high levels of religious belief and a sense of belonging to a particular denomination. Formal religious observance is, however, low. Through a detailed examination of attitudes to the Church of England, a picture emerges of a populace with a well developed sense of the role of the Church and its clergy which is, in the main, affirmative and positive. An important question remains as to why such sentiment is so unevenly transmitted into formal religious observance such as regular attendance at church services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prison system of England and Wales relies on a number of measures, said to be 'merely administrative' in character, to maintain order in its establishments. In this paper the official discourse on order and control in prisons is examined and the characteristic methods of identifying 'control problem' prisoners are criticised. The processes by which 'control problems' are socially constructed and then entered into the official discourse are explored through an analysis of 'disciplinary transfers' -- especially the use of the Circular Instruction 10 of 1974 procedure whereby prisoners can be transferred to special cells in local prisons for a 28 day 'cooling off' period. The analysis is based on observations carried out in five prisons and interviews with both prisoners and security staff as well as documentary records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the possible linkage between a widespread heroin epidemic and a parallel and unprecedented rise in acquisitive crime in a community in north-west England between 1981 and 1986. A very close relationship between the 'extra' crime being generated and the presence of a large number of young, unemployed heroin users was established. It was found that 50 per cent of a sample of young adults convicted of domestic burglaries during 1985 were also known heroin users. Amongst those who were both offenders and heroin users two distinct groups emerged: first, the larger group who had a criminal record prior to heroin use but had been committing much more acquisitive crime since becoming users; second, a group who had no criminal record prior to heroin use but who are now deeply involved in crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comments critically on certain assertions about the relationship between racism and nationalism made by recent Marxist contributions to the debate about the nature and origins of nationalism. The ideas of 'race' and 'nation', and the ideologies of racism and nationalism, are shown to have certain common features which create the potential for their articulation rather than opposition. Thereafter, taking the particular example of England, it is argued that the ideology of racism can be used to define and sustain nationalism. 'These racial elements impose their modes of existence on nations circumscribing them within limits from which, like blind slaves, they do not even wish to escape, although they would not even have the strength to do so. They dictate their laws, inspire their wishes, control their sympathies and stir up their hatreds and contempts.'(n2) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the question: can the variation that have been observed in class mobility rates in England, France and Sweden be in fact attributed entirely to differences in the evolution of the class structures of these societies - or in other factors affecting the demand and supply conditions attending mobility; or is it rather the case that there are, in addition to such structural sources of variation, differences also among the three societies in the pattern of what we would term their social fluidity or, in other words, in mobility considered independently of structural influences? To use the conceptual language that has been conventional in mobility research- but from which we would wish to depart -- the issue could then be alternatively posed as that of whether the cross-national variation that we have demonstrated is confined simply to structural mobility, or whether it extends to exchange mobility as well. The source of mobility data in England, France and Sweden have been fully described in previous paper of these authors. Here it will be sufficient to say that the data derive from nationally-based sample survey inquiries undertaken in the three countries during the early 1970s.

This paper analyzes trends of social mobility in England and Wales. Speculations about trends of social mobility have been prominent in contemporary commentaries on the condition of England, and on the changing structures of highly industrialized societies. Empirical research has given little support to expectations that definite changes would be observable when rates of social mobility were compared over time. The theory that in the U.S. the closing of the frontier and the consolidation of corporate capitalism must have reduced movement up and down the social scale has been questioned by recent research. And the contrasting notion, common in Western Europe, that economic, political and educational changes must have increased chances of social ascent and descent has also been empirically challenged. These studies have made little impact on the general debate about contemporary social stratification. But such evidence has also been only partly relevant to some major issues of the debate. For while the data relate to patterns of social mobility prevailing yesterday, the debate has often in effect centered on those patterns which may prevail tomorrow. It is possible that the occupational experience of those who are still only children or adolescents today will follow new lines–in consequence particularly, it has been suggested, of recent changes in educational policy.

This article discusses a study on social grading by manual workers. This paper reports a small research project in East London in England wherein the sample consisted mainly of manual workers. Personal interviews were used rather than written questionnaires. After they had graded occupations, people were asked the reasons for their decisions. The small research project described here was an attempt to find out whether manual workers chosen at random from electoral registers. This East London inquiry finds a considerable measure of dissensus amongst the manual workers in its sample. The respondents are divided into two groups. The deviants grade occupations according to their social contribution. Manual workers are on the whole ranked above non-manual. The deviants are influenced by their political attitudes. In conclusion, it was on a very small scale, and a much larger sample is plainly required. It was made in East London, and the residents in it may not be at all representative of manual workers in general. The validity of the findings can only be tested by a full-scale inquiry. A full-scale inquiry into the views of a cross-section of the population using verbal interviews could reveal the measure of dissensus consensus on the status of occupations, and beyond that, lay the foundations for a study of an important aspect of political ideology in contemporary Britain.

This article highlights the first conference of the British Sociological Association held in London, England on March 27-29, 1953. The conference was attended by 233 persons of whom 125 were members of the Association. The theme was Social Policy and the Social Sciences. The conference opened with a plenary session which was addressed by Myrdal on the Relation Between Social Theory and Social Policy. For the second day the conference divided into three groups, each of which devoted its attention to a topic chosen to illustrate the general theme. The three topics chosen for group discussion were: health; design and planning of buildings, towns and countryside; needs and standards in the social services.

A puzzle has emerged amidst rising inequality: why do people profess high levels of belief in meritocracy even as income gains are increasingly concentrated at the top? In light of contradictory theories and evidence, we undertake the first assessment of the relationship between local income inequality and meritocratic beliefs outside the United States, using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. We find that the positive relationship between country‐level income inequality and meritocratic beliefs identified in the recent literature does not translate straightforwardly below country level: there is no robust relationship between local income inequality and meritocratic beliefs in England. However, there is a robust—and somewhat paradoxical—positive association between high local income inequality and meritocratic beliefs among those with the lowest incomes. On average, respondents with annual household incomes of £10,000 are five points more likely (on a 100‐point scale) to believe their hard work will pay off if they live in the most rather than the least unequal places in England. We also show that this applies beyond the specific case of meritocratic beliefs: low‐income respondents in unequal places are also notably more satisfied with their own (low) income than similar respondents in more equal localities. In line with system justification theory, we argue that belief in meritocracy serves as an important tool of psychological resilience for low‐income individuals who regularly come into contact with others more economically fortunate than themselves: though it legitimates their current position at the bottom of the status hierarchy, this belief also offers the promise of future advancement. While this reduces concern about the psychological effects of growing local income inequality on the most economically vulnerable, it also suggests that there is little prospect of demand for systemic economic change emerging from what might have been considered the most likely places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study unpacks how class processes shape understandings and practices of "good feeding" in families with young children. It brings a Bourdieusian class consumption focus together with food parenting studies and approaches feeding as encompassing a wide range of processes including cooking, shopping, and planning. To capture the lived experience of feeding work, the study draws on a longitudinal and ethnographic study conducted in the south‐east of England over the course of two years. The analysis suggests that, regardless of their resources, parents tend to internalize the dominant discourse on "healthy" and "varied" feeding. However, closer inspection of day‐to‐day practices reveals a nuanced class‐cultural patterning in how these terms are defined and achieved. Moreover, it reveals how different interpretations of key notions such as homemade, nutritious, and balanced generate practices that contribute to the cultivation of distinctively classed culinary agencies in children. This study also questions what potential role these understandings can play in reproducing taste hierarchies and maintaining symbolic boundaries from very early ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies of social mobility have documented that not only who your parents are, but also where you grow up, substantially influences subsequent life chances. We bring these two concepts together to study social mobility in England and Wales, in three post‐war generations, using linked Decennial Census data. Our findings show considerable spatial variation in rates of absolute and relative mobility, as well as how these have changed over time. While upward mobility increased in every region between the mid‐1950s and the early 1980s, this shift varied across different regions and tailed off for more recent cohorts. We also explore how domestic migration is related to social mobility, finding that those who moved out of their region of origin had higher rates of upward mobility compared to those who stayed, although this difference narrowed over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many sociologists have observed the close connection between coordination and rhythm. In order to accomplish a communal task, participants need to develop a common rhythm if they are to coordinate their actions. Indeed, the harder the collective task, the more critical - but difficult - it is for participants to develop a common rhythm in order to synchronize their actions. Rhythm is thus an important and recurrent feature of social performance. This article explores the ways in which participants try to generate common rhythm in order to execute collective performances. To this end, the paper takes a single sporting example. It examines a decisive period in the 153rd Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in 2007 to examine how a small social group, the Cambridge crew, struggled to create and maintain a rhythm in order to maximize their rowing performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many sociologists have observed the close connection between coordination and rhythm. In order to accomplish a communal task, participants need to develop a common rhythm if they are to coordinate their actions. Indeed, the harder the collective task, the more critical - but difficult - it is for participants to develop a common rhythm in order to synchronize their actions. Rhythm is thus an important and recurrent feature of social performance. This article explores the ways in which participants try to generate common rhythm in order to execute collective performances. To this end, the paper takes a single sporting example. It examines a decisive period in the 153rd Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in 2007 to examine how a small social group, the Cambridge crew, struggled to create and maintain a rhythm in order to maximize their rowing performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motivation for this article was the main finding of an earlier study, which concludes that choice‐driven education systems—in the study represented by England and Sweden—are particularly beneficial for immigrants in that they provide them with many opportunities to pursue their generally high educational ambitions. We extend this analysis by including two countries with performance‐driven education systems: Germany and the Netherlands. Our study specifically aims to explore whether it is true that choice‐driven systems are more beneficial for immigrants or whether immigrants can also succeed in more stratified and selective education systems. Using longitudinal data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), we show that there are no differences in (gross) transition rates between immigrants and natives in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, but immigrants' optimistic choices are more pronounced in England. However, these differences diminish once we account for achievement and students' socioeconomic background in the analyses. Regarding the underlying mechanisms, we find that educational aspirations have an (equally) strong, universal impact, while anticipated discrimination plays a minor role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the influence of between‐school ability placement at lower secondary education on earnings across the life course in England and Denmark. We go beyond the mid‐career snapshot provided by previous studies by exploiting the availability of four decades worth of earnings data for individuals born in the mid‐1950s. Members of this cohort who were judged to be among the most academically able attended grammar schools in England (19%) and advanced secondary schools (Realskole) in Denmark (51%) prior to the start of comprehensivization. This key difference makes England and Denmark interesting cases for comparison, not least since pro‐selection policies have re‐emerged in England based on the claim that grammar schools lead to better educational and labor market outcomes. Our analysis of the influence of selective school placement on earnings finds little support for this contention. We find that those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds were strikingly under‐represented in schools ear‐marked for higher ability pupils in both countries, even after taking into account social class differences in measured ability. Our analysis for England finds only modest earnings returns to attending a grammar school, totalling just £39,000 across the life course, while in Denmark the lifetime earnings returns to attending Realskole are somewhat larger (£194,000). Because those from advantaged backgrounds were substantially over‐represented at grammar schools and Realskoles, these returns accrue disproportionately to pupils from more advantaged backgrounds. Lower secondary school placement in Denmark accounts for 40% of the intergenerational reproduction of socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage, more than half of which is due to selection into school types based on socioeconomic background rather than measured ability. Our findings question the wisdom of expanding grammar schools when they appear to do little to improve individuals' earnings or increase social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to bring together two current strands of research into inequalities in individuals' educational attainment that are associated with their social origins: that concerned with the "primary" and "secondary" effects of social origins in creating inequalities, and that concerned with the relation between these inequalities and different components of social origins, taken to represent different forms of parental resources. Our main findings are the following. The secondary effects of social origins—their effects via the educational choices that young people make given their prior academic performance—are clearly operative across five key educational transitions within the English educational system. More specifically, we estimate that 35% of the total effect of social origins is secondary in the earliest transition that we consider, and from 15% to 20% in the subsequent four. Furthermore, mediation analyses reveal that secondary effects are most strongly associated with parental education and then, to a lesser degree with parental status, while little association exists with parental class and none at all with parental income. Primary effects are also at all transitions most strongly associated with parental education and status but in this case both parental class and parental income do retain some importance. We suggest an explanation for our empirical findings as resulting largely from the concern of highly educated, professional parents, and their children to avoid the occurrence of downward intergenerational mobility, especially in terms of education and status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a report of the main findings of a reliability study carried out in association with the 1972 Oxford Social Mobility inquiry. The original sample consisted of some 10,000 men interviewed in England and Wales. The reliability study involved re-interviewing a representative 10 per cent of the sample after a lapse of two years. After initially exploring the reliability of occupation (position on the Hope-Goldthorpe scale) and distinguishing this from its stability over a period of two years, the analysis proceeds to examine the basic set of stratification variables. The raw correlations tot the full 1972 sample are adjusted in the light of the reliability findings, and the adjusted values are employed in path analyses. The main substantive conclusion of the paper is that education is more a disrupter than a transmitter of the influence of paternal social standing on respondent's occupation. The main conclusion of the reliability analysis, apart from the estimates of the reliability coefficients, is that measurement errors are not entirely independent of one another. Finally, some comparisons with a comparable American inquiry are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares vertical mobility in Dublin and England and Wales as displayed in mobility tables using the seven class categories developed by Goldthorpe (1980). A model is developed which demonstrates the pattern of vertical mobility in each country and also allows us to measure the extent of class inheritance as distinct from class self-recruitment. The data are used to test the FJH thesis, and some differences between Dublin and England and Wales — in their degree of ‘openness’ and in the relative standings of the different classes — are examined. Patterns of relative mobility are found to differ quite strongly between the two with Dublin being considerably less open than England and Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1980s Conservative governments instituted programs that were intended to use religion to achieve Conservative goals. An example is the reform of religious education in the English state schools undertaken by the Thatcher government. This paper reports on the expectations regarding religious education by several influential groups: Thatcherites, religious education specialists, and religious leaders. The conclusion is that the reform of religious education is not likely to advance Conservative policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Inebriate Act passed in 1898 enabled local authorities to set up State and Certified Reformatories to treat habitual drunkards over a two to three year period as an alternative to a short prison sentence. A large proportion of offenders sentenced under this Act were women. This development has been a somewhat neglected area of social policy, perhaps because it was a short-lived experiment and few local authorities chose to take up the option; although institutional treatment was enthusiastically supported by members of the Society for the Study of Inebriety who campaigned tirelessly to extend the powers of the Act. This legislation is an interesting subject both because of the regimes that were developed to treat inebriety and also because it was one of the few attempts that were actually put into practice to impose an institutional solution on the problem of the 'undeserving' poor. This paper looks at the methods of treatment to be found in the reformatories and the way in which the campaign was proselytised in the Society's journal. We examine the records of one female reformatory run by the London County Council in an attempt to illustrate the characteristics and social backgrounds of women found in the reformatories. Finally, we make some tentative suggestions which might account for the fact that, although more men than women were prosecuted under the Act, the institutional solution was used predominantly for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comparative study of the development and influence of large urban populations on social structure and politics in Birmingham, England and Lyons, France. Birmingham and Lyons were two of the most important towns in Europe in the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Revolutions of 1848. Before discussing the obvious differences, it is important to stress three points which the towns had in common: Neither town was distinguished by big enterprises. The second point that the towns had in common has been less frequently-stressed. The workers in Birmingham and Lyons were relatively well off--when in employments-compared with workers in other parts of England and France. The voice of the Birmingham and Lyons working classes was more than the voice of hunger. It was frequently, however, the voice of unemployment. The important difference between the social structure of Birmingham and Lyons should be stressed. While the social structure of Birmingham made for middle-class cooperation with the working clashes, the social structure of Lyons made for social antagonism and conflict. While the tendency in Birmingham was to try to build up political organizations based on cooperation between the classes, the tendency in Lyons was for fabricants, chefs d'ateliers and compagnons to meet and organize separately.

This section presents updates on the British Sociological Association in 1955. It was decided at the Annual General Meeting in March 1955 that the office of the president should be created so that it might be possible to invite an eminent sociologist to become associated in this way with the association. The president would hold office for one year and would be eligible for re-election. This decision was endorsed by the majority of the members voting by postal ballot and the constitution has been amended accordingly. Professor Morris Ginsberg has been invited to be the first holder of the office for the remainder of the current year and has been pleased to accept. On October 14, 1955 the association will hold a meeting on problems of social change and causation at the University of London in England. Meanwhile, the Urban Sociology Study Group and the Industrial Sociology Study Group will resume their monthly meetings in October 1955. The possibility is being investigated of forming a third study group for examining the territory on which the interests of psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists meet. Furthermore, the association welcomes applications for membership from younger sociologists and others whose disciplines are related to sociology. It offers student membership for those occupied in full-time study at an institution of higher learning. Student members have all the advantages of full membership except the power to vote and make nominations. Subscriptions for 1955 will be waived for all members whose applications are accepted between now and the end of the year. Particulars will be sent on application to all those interested.

During fieldwork conducted with workers and customers in betting shops in London research participants consistently conceptualized betting shops as masculine spaces in contrast to the femininity of other places including home and the bingo hall. According to this argument, betting on horses and dogs was 'men's business' and betting shops were 'men's worlds'. Two explanations were offered to account for this situation. The first suggested that betting was traditionally a pastime enjoyed by men rather than women. The second was that betting is intrinsically more appealing to men because it is based on calculation and measurement, and women prefer more intuitive, simpler challenges. I use interviews with older people to describe how the legalisation of betting in cash in 1961 changed the geography of betting. I then draw upon interviews with regular customers in order to show how knowledge about betting is shared within rather than between genders. Finally, I use my experience of training and working as a cashier to describe how the particular hegemonic masculinity found in betting shops in London is maintained through myriad everyday practices which reward certain kinds of gendered performances while at the same time suppressing alternatives. The article shows how particular spaces may become gendered as an unanticipated consequence of legislation and how contingent gendered associations are both naturalized and, at the same time, subjected to intense attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the emergence of progressive attitudes toward homosexuality among working-class boys in a sixth form in the south of England to develop an intersectional analysis of class, youth masculinities and decreasing homophobia. Drawing on three months of ethnographic data collection, I find that working-class male youth intellectualize pro-gay attitudes and that homophobic language is almost entirely absent from the setting. I document the presence of homosocial tactility, as well as the valuing of friendship and emotional closeness. However, these behaviours are less pronounced than documented among middle-class boys, and I use these findings to advance understanding of how class influences the development of inclusive attitudes and behaviours. Inclusive masculinity theory is used to understand these findings, refining the theory and extending it to a new demographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade the issue of identity has been prevalent in discussions about British Muslims, with the events of 9/11 serving as a touchstone for media debates about religious, national and cultural affiliations. The 7/7 terrorist attacks in the UK led to young British Pakistanis being subjected to intense public and institutional scrutiny and wider political concerns being expressed about the failure of multiculturalism. Young British Pakistanis have thus had to negotiate and maintain their identities in an environment in which they have been defined as a threat to national security whilst simultaneously being pressurized to align with 'core British values'. Within this context, we convey the findings of a qualitative study involving British Pakistanis living in the North-west of England. In presenting the experiences and perspectives of participants, three interconnected processes salient to the maintenance of identity are delineated: solidity, elasticity and resilience. Having unpacked these processes, we draw upon Bhabha's third space thesis to explore the political potentiality of and the limits to hybridic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing Bourdieu's concept of the habitus, Keith Macdonald has recently examined the elite social origins of the British officer corps. His analysis is valid as far at it goes but it ignores the professional practices of British officers. This article examines Britain's Joint Services Command and Staff College to assess the unification of the three services around common forms of military practice. It argues that while the new staff college has been effective in disseminating new forms of professional expertise among British officers, various practices have been institutionalized which actively undermine the unity of the officer corps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research over the past two decades has focused on the topic of race as important for understanding order and compliance in men's prisons. However, relatively little research considers how subjective understandings of imprisonment are influenced by race, particularly in the case of women prisoners. The current study analyses 139 interviews conducted with women prisoners in California and England in order to determine how race and ethnicity shape prisoners' experiences and abilities to cope with institutional confinement. Findings suggest that women's understandings of their racial identities differ substantially in these two contexts. In California, where the conditions of confinement are more extreme and white women assume a minority status, racial identity emerges as a salient factor in coping with the adversities of prison life. By contrast, in England, it is the women of colour, and particularly foreign nationals, who have a greater appreciation of the role of race and ethnicity in their daily lives. These findings have implications for our understanding of how prisoners draw on their lived experiences to make sense of their carceral worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationally representative data sets are used to of social class inequality in educational attainment in England and Sweden during the twentieth century. Logit models are estimated to test hypotheses about change in class inequalities at crucial branching points in the educational system. Our analyses show that equalizations are apparent in both nations at the first branching point, where traditionally inequalities were most severe. Working class children increased their odds of clearing the first educational hurdle relative to offspring of the service class. In Sweden, children of farmers reduced their great initial disadvantage. Surprisingly, the trends involving the working classes are remarkably similar in England and Sweden. We find little evidence that any general causal mechanism was behind the equalization, and it cannot be interpreted unambiguously as the result of specific educational reforms or expansion programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the moral economy of detective work in the East-End of London, England. The practice of policing takes many forms, yet all correspond to a perceived demand for a specific style of social control. However, not all police specialisms emerge as the result of rational organizational processes. In the case of detective work, a combination of historical precedent and the demands made upon officers by the enacted environment has resulted in the policed providing the occupational style for the police. The genesis of British Policing has been well established as having its origins in pre-industrial settings. However, the growth of industrialization and its concomitant urbanization, established both the philosophical and economic framework upon which modern state policing was grounded. London's working class emerged as an undisciplined group reliant upon the casual labor market. As the eighteenth century progressed, the economy of London became increasingly reliant upon non-industrial capital such as banking and commerce. Few East Enders were employed in either of these spheres, yet they became progressively vulnerable to the whims of the market place that were often orchestrated in the City of London.

The first two professors of sociology in England thought their major research task to be to examine the writings of historians, anthropologists and others in order to write comparative and evolutionary histories of mankind. The first wave of expansion of sociology after the war changed this emphasis. Small scale studies, using detailed primary, sources, traced short-term developments in a selected area of interest. Studies of' the here and now dominated sociology for some time. Twenty years later a second wave changed the emphasis again towards theoretical speculation, although the concept of time now held primary place, just as it had before the war. Historical sociology nevertheless languished until the impact of second-wave feminism, with its emphasis on women having been hidden from history, gave it an impetus which promises much in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study done in England to understand the political parties images and partisanship among young English students. It further clarifies the process of early partisanship by examining a sample of 1,570 respondents drawn from fifteen schools in England: five secondary modern, three comprehensive, four grammar and three preparatory-independent. In order to assess the direct influence of the parents, the author constructed a paired father-child sample approximating 10 percent of the children's sample. It was concluded that awareness on the part of the young concerning the relationship between social class and party does not translate itself to the same extent into a subjective feeling as to which party represents class interests. Whereas there is a recognition that trade unions support the Labour Party and business the Conservatives, the author detect no corresponding explicit class image of the adolescent's preferred party. This is in contrast to the parents who have exhibited a salient class image of political parties.

The article reports upon a study which examined the social and educational backgrounds of English diocesan bishops over the period 1860-1960 and attempts to examine some of the problems relating to elite studies. Data were collected relating to occupations of fathers and fathers-in-law, places of birth and schools, universities and theological colleges attended. These data were grouped according to those bishops occupying dioceses in the twenty year periods, 1860-79, 1880-99, 1900-19, 1920-39 and 1940-59. The sources were varied but consisted for the most part of standard reference works together with biographies and autobiographies about or by Anglican bishops. This second group of sources also provided some insights into the character of the educational and social backgrounds. Certain continuities and changes in the social and educational backgrounds of Anglican bishops have been noted. It has been argued that it might prove to be fruitful to examine these patterns and trends in terms of the source of episcopal authority and the changing definition of the episcopal role.

The article focuses on consequences of the pattern of recruitment adopted by most hospitals recognized as training schools by the General Nursing Council for England and Wales. The facts presented in this article comes from a longitudinal study of recruitment to and withdrawal from five school of nursing in the Oxford area, England, carried out for the Oxford Area Nurse Training Committee with financial assistance from the General Nursing Council. In 1960 some 300 girls were accepted for three year training leading to state registration. These students were interviewed at various stages in their training and information on their progress and subsequent success or failure in the qualifying examination was made available by the administrative nursing staff. The initial focus of the research was on the relationship between the characteristics and of individual entrants and their subsequent success or failure. As the survey progressed the importance of the recruitment procedure and the structure and organization of the individual schools began to emerge.

The article focuses on the discrepancies in the functioning of health centres in England and Wales. Although the so called failure of health centres arose from a variety of factors operating at national and local level, it was caused in the main by the limitations on capital expenditure required by the central government. The attitude of the British Medical association (BMA) also demands consideration, for its views and actions have influenced family doctors whose cooperation determines the success of every health centre scheme. That general practitioners can refuse to work in centres derives from their status as independent entrepreneurs. It is in fact, crucial that, whatever the profession's approval of the concept at a high level of generalization, BMA resolutely opposed the widespread provision of centres by local authorities during the planning stage of the Service. Poor communications have also affected health centre schemes. Lack of early consultation with the doctors is reported from some of the centres that came into existence.

The article focuses on the betting shop located in London, England's East End street market. A market in which the large number of stalls offer a rich variety of commodities, chiefly foodstuffs and apparel. The accent is on price, on repeatable bargains, clearance lines, bankrupt or fire stocks, with occasional innuendoes to bargains owing their value to stuff being nicked. The market is patronized largely by the local population, a heterogeneous mixture of White and Black, Gentile, Jew and Moslem, of firmly rooted and transient, locally born and bred and recently immigrated. They all seem to be able to count on their stable, regular clientele. Although punters, apart from other considerations affecting preferences, will after a prolonged unsuccessful run be inclined to switch custom. Naturally some punters will change under impact of external forces, new job, new home, a new set of mates, and many others, the floaters, will lay their bets at whichever betting shop happens to be most convenient at the time.

The 1851 Religious Census was unique in so far as no body of the state up to that time or subsequently had dared to use tools of counting to encroach on what was, and still is, held to be the private domain of attendance at public worship. Nor has the government of any country in recent times found it desirable or expedient to probe into such a matter. Certain countries today make it obligatory for citizens to declare their religious allegiance at the time of taking a census, as was the case in Ireland in 1834. In Germany at the present time a question on religious affiliation is needed for the distribution of church taxes, and in Canada a question has been included since 1871 for no clearly defined end as of December 1967. The rise of religious sociology since the end of Second World War has precipitated a renewed interest in the size and social composition of church congregations, but such surveys as have been carried out on the Continent and in England have all been executed by voluntary agencies, usually by the denominations concerned and then on a very limited scale. No attempt has been made to engage in so mammoth a task as to cover every church and chapel on a given Sunday in one country. That the 1851 Religious Census has never been repeated is sufficient evidence in itself to show that the experiment had limited success. Both with respect to the immediate reception that the census received from certain quarters, and from results after it was taken on March 30, 1851, it became apparent that it did not yield the kind of information that it was intended to produce.

This article is concerned with the methodological problems which arose in a survey of a local repertory theatre audience in Sheffield, England in 1965. The audience at a production of a play presents an interesting problem for the social surveyor. Within a very limited physical space there is assembled a number of people about whom the investigator wishes to find out certain facts. The article deals with a practical case, which it is believed is unique in British research. Early in 1965, Sheffield Playhouse, the local repertory theatre of the city, received a grant from the organization Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to enable it to put on a special production for young people. The Playhouse has a high reputation for its Christmas productions for young people, and this grant was to finance an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's adventure story "Rodney Stone" to be produced in the, then, three-weekly repertory system about Easter time.

The article attempts to estimate the expectancy chances of an individual being hospitalized for a mental disease at least once in England and Wales. The estimation can be done by using two types of empirical information and one general assumption. The empirical information is age specific hospitalization rates during a particular year. The chances of an individual, of 0 age reaching the ages of 10, 11 and 12. Both pieces of empirical information are available from official sources. The Registrar General publishes an abridged life table, which gives existing death rates, and estimates the numbers of children aged under 1 year likely to survive to various ages up to 75 plus. Rates of first hospitalization are calculated in the reports not for particular years, but for different age groups. Survival rates will be calculated on numbers reaching the upper limit of the age group, and hospitalization rates will be assessed by the rates for the age group multiplied by the number of years in the age group. The results suggest that 6.79 percent of males born in 1959 and 10.33 per cent of females will spend some time in a mental hospital during their lives.