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This paper analyzes how authority can be maintained by structuring reality through continuous violent conflict. Using Lewis Coser's reformulation of Simmers propositions on fostering continuous conflict as a raison d'ètre in sect-like struggle groups as a general frame of analysis, the Stalinist case is then examined in order to evaluate systematically these propositions in a societal context and to specify the morphology of violence as a method of conflict. By examining a societal context, it is noted that instability in the social structure not only can be a condition for the legitimacy of a problematic political leadership and system, but also simultaneously be a consequence of a form of preventive punitive sanctioning, whereby potential threats, both persons and alternative courses of action, are eliminated before they become present dangers. In turn, an official definition of reality, justifying leadership and system, is constructed through the public documentation of a conspiracy, which employs invented categories to demonstrate ideological continuity and fabricates pseudo events to demonstrate indispensability in fulfilling necessary functions. This public documentation of a conspiracy is then used as a facade for a larger plan of social prophylaxis that implicates the public as well as the police in ferreting out tangible and visible enemies to fill the invented categories in the pseudo events. As public complicity conjoins with the official definition of reality, commitment to the leadership and system is acquired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyze the social, economic, and political sources for the emergence of modern Soviet sociology in the 1950s. While it does not address extensively the characteristics of current Soviet sociology, it is suggested that those characteristics of a methodologically sophisticated and economically oriented sociology are largely the result of a compact between Soviet leaders and sociologists which allowed and required its post-Stalin emergence. Four sets of factors are evaluated in terms of their effect on the emergence of Soviet sociology. These are 1) the Marxist-Leninist vision (that is, the utopian elements of ideology), 2) the Soviet ideology (that is, the elements of ideology oriented toward system maintenance), 3) the diffusion of ideas, and 4) the mandate of Soviet economic development A brief evaluation of these sets of factors as they affect the emergence of Chinese sociology in the early 1980s is also provided It is concluded that the future shape of sociology in the USSR and China is dependent upon the evolution of ideology in the two countries, an evolution that is intimately tied to the succession of political leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author arranges some of the major treatments of alienation within a coherent framework. He introduces a distinction between disassociation (certain specified objective conditions) and alienation (a specified experience) and articulates the relationship between these two by presenting a series of intervening psychological issues. A typology of human association is presented, and it is argued that especially two types of disassociation (i.e., marginality and subordination) and, to some extent, another (i.e., privilege) may be productive of alienation These conditions are considered at the cultural, social, and psychological levels of analysis. Variables connecting these conditions and alienation include the perception of the condition, evaluation, integration, blame, and response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I try to substantiate, by examining studies that compare, homosexuals and heterosexuals, that the father image is more pivotal to sexual preference in both sexes than is the mother image. Beyond this I develop an argument about why becoming heterosexual for both sexes would involve establishing a solidary (but not seductive) relationship with the lather or a father figure. Translating psychoanalytic theory into more social-structural terms, I argue that the Oedipal period may be understood as the time at which the power of the father representing the system of male dominance is substituted for the power of the mother in the mother-infant dyad. For the girl, becoming heterosexual then involves adding on a love for her lather to her initial love for the mother in a relationship in which the lather is dominant by virtue of] both his sex and his generation. For the boy, becoming heterosexual involves reclaiming the heterosexuality he learned in infancy in a context in which he himself is dominant. In both cases, it is the lather image, not that of] the mother, that figures most prominently in the transition, This analysis in essence makes explicit what the psychoanalytic descriptions I drew upon assumed, namely: the nuclear family, female responsibility for infants, male dominance and homophobia. Finally, I suggest that there is likely no inherent connection between male dominance and heterosexuality and that heterosexual relations to the extent that they serve to break up the male peer group may actually mitigate this dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to describe the shared orientations that are relied on in producing talk that is designed to elicit just that information that the speaker might want to know. If an interactant wants to find out something from a co-interactant, one of the ways of doing so is to directly ask about it. Information-eliciting tellings operate with respect to the participants' orienting to two types of knowables, designated in this paper as type 1 and type 2. Type 1 knowables are those that subject actors as subject actors have rights and obligations to know. For example, ones name, what one is doing, and so on are assumed to be available to a competent subject-actor. Type 2 knowables are those that subject actors are assumed to have access to by virtue of the knowings being occasioned. The recipient's work, as subject-actor, involves finding an event that will fit with and account for that which was reportedly experienced by the prior speaker.

This essay explores the relations between adolescents and adults. Although the generalizations of the paper are most apposite to middle-class American adolescents and adults, because the conflicts they refer to are pervasive they may be applied with qualification to other classes as well. Human learning is distinguished from that of other species by its cross-generational character. This cross-generational pattern of learning is apparently most effective for transmitting and acquiring the skills required of a human adult. At the same time, it requires the construction of social relationships which confront members of generations who, by their definition, have different knowledge of the world and different interests in it. In analyzing alternative methods for resolving these conflicts, the essay focuses on the functions of the permissive school in relieving the inter-generational conflicts and containing larger social conflicts.

This paper outlines a program of needed research on principled nonviolence as a conflict and conflict resolution strategy in international relations. A multi-pronged program of research is proposed, including, conceptual analyses and model generation, hypothesis and variable development; psychological analyses, laboratory simulation, and analyses of current ongoing, international conflict situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a commentary regarding the depiction of Professor J. H. Turner of the symbolic interactionist position of Talcot Parsons. In his paper, Turner advances two simple and straight forward contentions, Parsons is a symbolic interactionist in the way in which he sees human society but for reasons of methodological strategy Parsons proposes to study human society differently than is done by symbolic interactionists. Turner endeavors to support the first contention by arguing that there are basic similarities between Parsons' view and the symbolic interactionist analysis suffers from several forms of theoretical weakness. This article, discusses these two contentions in the light of the symbolic intearactionist position of George Herbert Mead.

This paper employs a cybernetic model of a religious symbol system to explain the competition among Rabbinists, Hasidim, and Messianists in the Jewish communities of eighteenth-century Poland. Hasidism's ability to attract adherents is explained by the great flexibility of its constitutive belief, ‘communion with God’ when compared with Rabbinic Torah or the Messianic belief in the ‘lifting of sparks.’ This flexibility is traced through all levels of the cybernetic hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the articles published in January 3, 1980 issue of the journal "Sociological Inquiry."

Influential members of the urban planning profession have developed certain ideas about new town design, including notions such as self-containment, social balance, and the neighborhood unit. These parallel, to some extent, concepts that have emerged from the field of community sociology. Efforts to put these ideas into practice have fallen Jar short of the mark. Without more sophisticated implementation mechanisms, better theories of social interaction at the neighborhood level, and new approaches to citizen participation, efforts to build new towns are likely to remain severely crippled. The aim of this paper is to summarize past efforts to translate implicit theories of social organization into actual new town designs. The possibilities of closing the gap between theory and practice through the use of more explicit forms of social experimentation are discussed in the context of the fledgling new towns program in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years numerous discussion of urban communities have given great weight to themes of disorganization and disorder. This paper critically examines several important conceptual, procedural, and substantive issues inherent in most treatments of community disorganization. To illustrate such fundamental problems as ‘overgeneralization’ and dominant group bias five specific topics—migration, disasters, slums, ghettos, and collective violence—were selected for intensive analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the literature on formal voluntary organizations in the urban community. The theoretical approaches that guided much of the research in this area are identified as social structural, social psychological, and organizational. Basic findings suggest that formal participation, including church membership, is a characteristic of urban life. Population characteristics, attitudes, informal interaction, and community involvement are all related to formal membership. Moreover, formal organizations attempt to integrate individuals with the larger community, and such groups, in urbanizing areas, facilitate modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the student and teacher relationship. When instructors find their classes failing to respond to lectures with the vitality and interest with which they were presented, failing to participate in discussions with measured scholarly interest, and treating assignments as unwanted tasks, they accuse their students of being unappreciative, lazy, and apathetic. The central success of any course is the coming together of interests among students and between students and faculty. This paper analyzes the problems in the normal teacher-centered class, the changes introduced in transforming it into a student-centered-structure; student reactions to the changes; and its difficulties. One case of an immanent problem grew out of an attempt to come to grips with grading procedures. Students tried to reform the course away from competitive relationships and a mystification of authority in the instructor.

This paper attempts to clarify the concept of rationality in Max Weber's sociology of religion. Three new terms: rationalism, rationalization, and rationality, are used to distinguish the different meanings Weber gives to rationality. Efficient orientation of means to ends (rationalism) is distinguished from the systematizations (rationalization). Rationality, finally, is the control of action by ideas. Rational social action is produced only by powerful irrational motives, and it holds a distinct place in Weber's sociology of ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the Marxist paradigm. In order to develop a coherent perspective, it is necessary for the author to go back to the work of Marx himself, to isolate its basic features and the tensions and ambiguities they involve, and then to assess the work of contemporary Marxists in the light of this heritage. While the central task of this paper is a critical review of the Marxist contribution to political analysis, such a focus must be located within the scope of Marx's theory as a whole, rather than separated out and isolated as one dimension of the theory. Therefore, the author begins with a general review of Marx's social theory and then explore his analysis of the political realm in the light of the societal problems defined by the theory as a whole.

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

Presents an introduction to the March 1970 issue of the journal "Sociological Inquiry."

The objective of this paper is to clarify some of the perspectives of the discipline of sociology, to identify radical viewpoints and how they have evolved and converged, and to indicate some of the consequences of a radical sociology and its prospects. A radical sociology calls for a radical perspective, namely, a structural perspective. Such a perspective requires uncovering economic and political realities in the attempt to understand social structure. Intellectual relevance should not merely be cloaked in terms of efficacy demands which derive from state welfarism and militarism, but should be the extension of a radical and structuralist perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents answer to sociologist Victor Lidz on his criticism over the research paper "Toward a Radical sociology" by Albert Szymanski. Lidz seems to Szymanski to focus on two major points: Lidz argues that corporate sociology is approaching value-freeness while radical sociology, because of its "idol-worship" is unable to be objective; and he, as a Parsonian, argues that the institutionalization of certain kinds of ethical and professional values produces objective science. Rather than picking at various minor points and insinuations made by Lidz, Szymanski attempts in this reply to answer his critique by refuting these two positions. Lidz, in arguing for a value free sociology fails to comprehend that values and beliefs have a fundamental resonance with one another. That is, that there is a strong psychological tendency for values and beliefs to fall into consistent patterns. Lidz argues extensively that the development of science hinges on the institutionalization of the value of objectivity. His argument is either trite or simply mistaken.

The article presents criticism on sociologist Albert Szymanski's research paper "Toward a Radical Sociology." Szymanski is quite direct in setting aside as an ideal the establishment of conceptual frameworks that might ensure the objectivity of sociological knowledge. Central to his position is a rejection of sociologist Max Weber's methodology based on the sharp distinction between empirical judgments and evaluational judgments, a distinction that Szymanski recognizes to be "impeccable" in logic, yet holds to be a "philosophical sophism," and on the assertion that all intellectual disciplines must give strong primacy among their commitments to the ideal of objectivity. Citing the sociology of knowledge truth that all knowledge within the social sciences is in certain respects conditioned by the historical environment within which it is developed, hence not "objective" in the sense of being free of all social partisanship, Szymanski argues that a radical sociology would not be any the less objective were it to accept the constraints of adopting certain "humanistic" commitments among its fundamental values.

This paper analyzes the nature of value-commitments, conceived as a generalized symbolic medium of interchange in the processes of social interaction, in this respect paralleling money, power, and influence. Commitments constitute moral obligations of units of a system of social interaction to maintain the integrity of a value-pattern and to strive toward its implementation in action through combination with non-value factors. Stability of commitments is a basic condition of the compatibility of wide moral freedom with the exigencies of social functioning. Like the other three media, commitments are not bound by a zero-sum condition, but can be expanded, especially through charismatic movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents some directions for research in sociolinguistics. The term sociolinguistics is frequently confused with the activity of anthropologists engaged in traditional ethnographic work; with the new linguistics of transformational grammars; or with work in psycholinguistics. However, sociolinguistic study attends to those reflections of social structure which are revealed in language, particularly in speech usages and is concerned neither with motivation nor with conscious behavior. Sociolinguistic can help in solving sociological problems, but there are obvious problems in adapting linguistic techniques to sociological problems. Sociologists have much to gain and nothing to lose by attempting resolution of these problems. Thus far sociologists simply have not exploited the great potential of a substantively rich, methodologically rigorous, and theoretically suggestive body of work. At the very least, the trained linguist can facilitate research by giving new dimensions to those of more traditional variety. There are many ways in which the technical apparatuses of linguistics can be brought to bear on sociological problems, just as there are areas of research design and data handling in which sociologists may have something to offer linguists.

This article focuses on the concept of linguistic relativity and also discusses relations between language, social stratification and cognitive orientation. The author notes that literature is still meager in the subfield dealing with linguistic correlates of social stratification. On the level of linguistic structure or language, there still has no thorough phonological, grammatical and semantic comparison of even a single pair of class dialects. The relations between language, social stratification and cognitive orientation have been studied most deeply in a series of publications by Basil Bernstein. In these papers, a distinction is made between a restricted code, speech which uses relatively limited linguistic resources and is consequently predictable to a high degree, as against an elaborated code, which allows a larger number of structural options and shows a correspondingly low level of predictability. Differences between these two codes are matters of language behavior rather than of language structure.

This paper discusses sociological issues concerning linguistically homogeneous and linguistically heterogeneous polities. The author notes that linguistically homogenous polities are usually economically mode developed, educationally more advanced, politically more modernized and ideologically-politically more tranquil and stable. Linguistically homogeneous polities tend to be smaller in area (i.e., below 75,000 square miles), to have a higher population density (i.e., above 100/square mile), to have a lower proportion of agricultural population (i.e., less than 66 per cent), and to be more highly urbanized. Highly urbanized polities are defined as those polities in which 20% or more of the population resides in cities of 20,000 or more and in which 12.5% resides in cities of 100,000 or more. Linguistically heterogeneous states tend in the opposite direction in connection with all of these variables, i.e., they tend to be large, of lower population density, of a higher proportion of agricultural population, and to be of a low degree of urbanization. According to some studies, linguistically homogeneous polities tend to have at least a medium per capita gross national product of at least 300 U.S. dollars per year, and they tend to have developed or intermediate economic status.

The fact is that the lower classes are not more likely than the middle class to have a disease or condition but they do react more violently to it and are more concerned about it. Nonetheless, neither sociologists nor public health researchers have for the most part taken proper note of the split between getting sick and reacting to it. For example in a recent general review of chronic illness the author does not even mentions his own study which shows no relationship between class and the prevalence of illness. Rather, he shows that some few chronic illnesses diagnosed in hospitals are related to living in lower class neighborhoods. Yet, he avoids making an overall statement about chronic illness and social class. There are obviously sonic problems here in the sociology of Sociology. First, there is a serious problem in the interpretation of tables which is caused by a lack of satisfactory non-parametric measures of association and analyses of variance. Second, there is a fallacy of forgetting why it is thought that social class was related to illness in the first place. The present paper concludes that social factors are important in the experience of ill health, although not in the gross fashion that had been imagined.

Processes of perception and thought are such that anyone who reads a book is necessarily selective in absorbing the author's meaning. What one reader thinks the author was saying may not coincide with what the author intended to say nor with another reader's perception of what the author meant. The first time the author read Robert M. Maclver's book "Social Causation" the parts which most caught his attention made the book seem at best a weak defense of the Verstehende approach in sociology or at worst a thoroughly animistic and anti-scientific treatise. This article, demonstrates the MacIver's book, like some of the works of other sociologists, explains a need of innovation in the basic concepts of sociology. Although Maclver will be cited more often than any other author. This paper is not intended as mere exegesis of one man's thoughts. Maclver is taken as a specimen, more or less representative of others. The interpretations offered in this article are intended to apply to sociology rather than to just this particular sociologist.

Focusing on disenchantment, sociology undertheorizes wonder. Our analysis of 30 interviews is the first sociological study of Americans' wonder experiences. Contrary to Weber's theorization of disenchantment, this study shows people experience wonder that is transformative and try to cultivate states of mind open to wonder experiences. Our study shows wonder follows from particularity, difference, and encounters with the mysterious; wonder connects people to expansive concerns; people experience acute self‐awareness during wonder encounters; and people seek wonder experiences. Wonder communities influence wonder experiences, but stages of wonder experiences are similar outside communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to articles published in the March 1984, issue of "Sociological Inquiry."

The article is a response to writer Michael Hill's comment on the author's essay regarding criterial crisis in academe. Hill alleges that "small journals" are being denigrated, a point which simply is not true since small journals have neither criticized nor mentioned. To the contrary, many of the problems delineated are connected with major journals, the kind described by Arnold Relman, editor of "The New England Journal of Medicine, as having "very exacting standards." The author has not argued against publications in "obscure" journals. In fact, a different method of assessment was called for, a means which could create a balance in favor of "small" and "obscure" journals, the kind in which ideas are more important than peer review or disciplinary status. The author has argued for greater intellectual risk-taking and originality and against the kind of centripetal academic culture which facilitates journals that publish massive amounts of trivial, fact-laden but largely irrelevant reports. The new media technologies that make possible the dissemination of scholarly knowledge and ideas were not criticized, nor has the author argued against the use of personal computers, information retrieval through compact discs, or any of the other communication technologies.

Sociology subdisciplines are notorious for being siloed in their respective fields of study. This is sometimes more noticeable in those arenas that surprisingly (to some) do not make sense, as there are bound to be greater sociological insights gleamed from an intra‐subdisciplinary approach that allow for better synthesis of theory(ies) or even epistemology(ies). In this piece, we issue a challenge to the need for more sociological engagement that weaves together the cultural, those structured stories that render our lives and the order of those lives meaningful, and the racial, those storied structures of white supremacy that give rise to that order of our lives and undergird our identities and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented which discusses various reports within the issue on topics including Hurricane Katrina of 2005, the sociological study of disasters, and displacement.

Understanding police violence is important in part because police violence, if generally tolerated, could transform a society based on law into one governed by political and personal whim. This research asks whether the conflict perspective can explain which groups are more likely to approve of police use of force, and whether several dimensions of power are at issue or just a few. Previous studies have found that race is the most important factor in determining approval of police use of force. Gender, age, class, and other variables have shown mixed results. Using a national sample (1998 General Social Survey), this paper contributes a more comprehensive examination of this issue to the small body of literature in this area. We look at approval of police use of force in five scenarios. Our findings show that minorities and women are more likely to disapprove of police use of force. Supporting a narrow application of conflict theory, other dimensions of power appear not to affect attitudes toward police hitting citizens. Context of violence matters too. When situations are not actively threatening for officers, by near consensus, violence is unacceptable. Disagreement comes from less clear-cut circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media, in the sociology of natural disasters, are mainly viewed as management tools used to influence people's preparedness and response to natural disasters. As a consequence, research in this area has been limited to the warning, preparedness, and recovery phases. Through interviews with residents of eight communities in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, impacted by Hurricane Georges in 1998, this paper shows that through integrating mass communication research to disaster theory we can obtain a more accurate picture of the media–audience relationship during natural disasters. In addition to the manifest functions of providing information, the media also have latent functions in disasters, which consist of emotional support and companionship. The media also help isolated individuals to feel connected with the “outside world.” These functions are most salient in the impact phase of disasters. These functions are also particularly crucial as they have been shown to reduce the negative effects of stressful life events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model of the role acquisition process is proposed based on data from 310 first-person written narratives of a single role entrance. Content analysis of data set II (N = 110) of narratives, which included forty-seven different roles, provides support for the model. The model conceptualizes role acquisition as involving a sequence of four stages. characterized as (1) ambivalence. (2) absorption, (3) commitment, and (4) confidence, in which each stage involves a qualitatively different interaction between the person and the role: a different affective orientation on the part of the person toward the role, and a qualitatively different relationship between the person and role partners. Common features and heterogeneous effects of role type, social context, cognitive processes, and other factors at each stage are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author argues that United States academic sociology threatens to slip into the limited relevance of scholasticism. Applied sociology and academic sociology are both quite heterogeneous sets of activities. The core of academic sociology consists of teaching, scholarship, and research. There are many different ways to fulfill each function, however: some teach primarily lower-division courses whereas others spend most of their teaching time with graduate students. Indeed, a case can be made that one specialty within sociology is what might be called "LD sociology," i.e., lower-division sociology. Similarly, scholarship and research are also quite heterogeneous. On average, if one counts all sorts of publications, faculty members publish one item every other year, but the median is close to zero, indicating that the average is strongly influenced by a minority who publish very heavily. Cutting across academic activities are the various intellectual styles within so ciology and subject matter specialization.

In this article the author introduces a series of articles that present highly divergent views on the present and future of sociology. The sciences command serious consideration for their rule-driven inquiries. Sociology, having failed to establish powerful rules, compels no such attention. Respect for science is respect for an enterprise transcending its participants. Unless they are themselves giants, individual physicists, chemists, or biologists, for example, must subordinate their analytic individuality to the collectively held paradigms that dominate their disciplines. Individual imagination is certainly useful, but it is not a necessary precondition to successful participation. Knowing the rules and being willing to work within them do, however, constitute such preconditions. In a literal sense, science constitutes an establishment and, like all establishments, it views the exercise of originality with discomforting suspicion. Sociology is in need of saving, but not from its perceived inadequacies. These can be tolerated so long as sociologists able to produce compelling alternatives do so. No, sociology needs to be saved from the silence of those most qualified to speak.

This article presents a paper which examines Erving Goffman's contributions to the field of sociology, and his work on etiquette and front, and his theory of ceremony. Goffman's disinclination to situate himself within a theoretical heritage or tradition frustrates current efforts to establish his intellectual genealogy. He rebuked those who would attempt to lie him down to one tradition or approach, and he rejected the term symbolic interactionism, the intellectual movement with which he is often associated. Some researchers have sought to compensate for these difficulties by examining Goffman's citations, believing that this practice would yield answers to questions of influential figures. Others who were able to ask Goffman himself, have published their revealing interviews. Still others have offered creative reconstructions of the stages of Goffman's intellectual development. Yet, however rich and varied the influences on Goffman may have been, the literature continues to point to the intellectual centrality of Goffman's Chicago years. Etiquette provides one clue to understanding the social adjustments in personal relations reached in any one historical era. In a world of social and personal differences, of mutual and antipathies, etiquette operates as both a principle of social order and an index of the stability of the society in which it exists.

This paper addresses the standards of scientific behavior and research within the context of academic scholarship. Factors which lead some researchers to transgress the ethical boundaries associated with the publication process are presented and discussed. Included is an examination of the central issues related to the ‘publish or perish’ syndrome. It is argued that the intense pressure to get one's work into print often distorts the serious pursuit of knowledge. Linking tenure and promotion primarily to publications has led to emphasizing the length of the scholarly record rather than its quality. To avoid such outcomes, the academic/scientific communities are urged to develop policies which on the one hand protect the integrity of the scientific enterprise, and on the other strike a reasonable balance of expectations and performance regarding teaching, research, and service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human beings have a dualistic relationship with the environment, being subject to physical and biological limits and yet being unique in the capacity for culture and symbolic communication. Sociology reflects this context and adds another dualism, drawing heavily from the concepts and perspectives of biological ecology, but reacting almost violently against ‘reductionism’ of any sort, specifically including social Darwinism and environmental determinism. During much of the twentieth century, the predominant trend within sociology was for scholars to downplay or even ignore the importance of the environment, particularly in the United States. This trend was ultimately counterbalanced by sociological responses to the environmental movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and by the efforts of selected sociologists—particularly Riley Dunlap and William Cation—who helped bring together the field of ‘environmental sociology’ Given the finite nature of many natural resources and the ways in which human activities depend upon and affect the environment, the field of environmental sociology is likely to be an increasingly important one in the years to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on appendix for the conventions used in transcripts. The transcription of sequential features is done with special care, using the following conventions: The double oblique indicates the point at which a current speaker's talk is overlapped by the talk of another. An alternate system is to place a single bracket at the point of overlap, and place the overlapping talk directly beneath the talk it overlaps. A single right-hand bracket indicates the point at which two overlapping or simultaneously-started utterances end, if they end simultaneously, or the point at which one of them ends in the course of another. In general, the equals sign indicates "latching" that is, no interval between the end of a prior and start of a next piece of talks. A right hand bracket plus equal sign indicates that two utterances have ended simultaneously and will be "latched" onto by a next.

Being victimized can lead one to discover heretofore neglected elements of the social life-world. Discovery in vivid form of one's vulnerability to death reveals the pervasive importance of hopefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the research techniques in fields with weak links between theory and method by briefly examining two sets of techniques, causal models and methods of network analysis, which have been used extensively in the sociology of science during recent years. The author emphasizes the ways the said techniques have interacted with substantive concerns rather than their formal methodological characteristics. The continuous appearance of essays criticizing the foundations of commonly used research techniques is symptomatic of the disjunction between theory and method in sociology and it also characterizes controversy in the sociology of science. New approaches to network analysis are still being developed, and the kind of interplay between technical innovation and substantive concern outlined above will probably also characterize future developments. Thus far, sociologists of science have used network techniques primarily for structural description rather than for detecting underlying principles that may govern network configurations. This is not a result of technical backwardness; it stems from the fact that substantive theory in the sociology of science does not yet embrace the latter issue. Like other methodological approaches in sociology, techniques for network analysis are only loosely related to substantive issues in the research areas that employ them.

This article addresses the sociological issues of research problem retention and research problem change in science. A scientist rarely makes a career decision more consequential than the selection of a problem for research. Areas of ignorance in Science are variously defined as fundamental or peripheral for the advancement of knowledge. To recognize, to choose for investigation and to solve a fundamental problem provides greater satisfaction, derivative prestige and more diverse resources for research than solution of a peripheral problem. Patterns of problem choice have not been accorded much attention in the sociology of science. The handful of systematic analyses are largely found within studies of more encompassing sociological questions. This study of social structural conditions making for problem retention and problem change is only another step in the still barely explored subject of problem choice in science. It does not consider the sources and consequences of differing durations of research in a problem area; it does not consider the consequences of an expansion of the number of problem areas pursued at the same time by scientists; and it only hints at the biographical characteristics that may be related to incidence of one or another of these patterns of problem choices.

This article focuses on the sociological issues of race and universalism in the scientific community. Sociological studies dealing with universalism in science focus on the social backgrounds of scientists-for instance, their social class origins and the colleges or universities where they took their undergraduate and graduate degrees. Racial discrimination has been pervasive in the U.S. society. It is questionable whether science as a social institution can be generally free of that racism. Although many black scientists are trained in prestigious departments, their place merit still may be affected by discrimination. Black Americans have suffered racial discrimination over a long period of American history, and that many social institutions practice institutional racism, is beyond doubt. Recent studies show that highly educated blacks are beginning to attain some parity with their white peers, although the economic conditions of blacks in general continue to be low. If Black scientists are not treated in a universalistic fashion, then the mechanisms of particularism and the outcomes of particularistic evaluations of role performance, may be identified. If discriminatory mechanisms are present and can be identified, countervailing forces may be instituted in science to remedy such particularistic treatment of blacks in the future.

This article focuses on sociology of science. Research in the sociology of science cannot easily ignore related perspectives in the philosophy of science,just as research in that field has grudgingly begun to include sociological perspectives. In this article the aim of the author is to review current sociological and philosophical work bearing upon cognitive change so as to identify their potential convergences while recognizing their inevitable differences. Practically all sociological work on cognitive change in science focuses on one or more of three sets of questions: (1) theory choice and evaluation (2) problem choice and (3) resulting cognitive groups. In dealing with questions of theory choice, contemporary philosophers of science, at times it seems unwillingly, tend to oscillate between normative and descriptive accounts: how scientists should choose among competing theories and how they actually do choose. The foci of attention in the sciences are of course no more than the aggregated problem choices of individuals working in those sciences.

This article focuses on ways in which specific features of the scientific enterprise interact with social patterns of sex differentiation and stratification to introduce sex differentiation into the scientific community. The study of sex differences in science has become a quasi-specialty. Instead, it has depended primarily on more general theories developed to explain sex differences among academics or other professionals. Some scientific roles for instance, teacher and apprentice, project director and research associate-involve partners of unequal status. In contrast, the collegial role implies an egalitarian, symmetrical relationship between scientific researchers. Other aspects of the collegial role have developed in response to the structure and needs of the scientific enterprise. The size and the complexity of modern science make it impossible for scientists to monitor all developments in their field, so they rely on colleagues to call to their attention references or results that they may have missed. Similarly, the high degree of specialization encourages scientists to draw upon colleagues for technical assistance, occasional instruction, and collaboration.

This article examines the hypothesis that the father plays a more crucial and direct role than the mother in reinforcing sex typed behavior. Many research findings have continued to support the conclusion that the father is important in encouraging feminity in females and as well as masculinity in males. These data, clearly challenge the view that the degree of feminity in women is related to sustaining and intensifying the mother-daughter relationship and suggest instead that the father relationship is of great importance for both sexes. On the other hand other findings indicate that mothers can by no means be discounted all together in the sex typing process. The essential features of the basic model to be discussed and revised are as follows: The earliest mother relationship is primarily significant not as a focus of sex typing but rather as the basis for the establishment of "socialized" behavior in general. It is by virtue of the mother attachment that infants become "hooked into" the special system in the first place and are motivated to respond to attitudinal sanctions.

This article focuses on the social construction of documentary reality. A documentary reality is fundamental to the practices of governing, managing and administration of this form of society. The primary mode of action and decision in the superstructures of business, government, the professions, and other like agencies, is in symbols, whether words, mathematical symbols or some other. It is a mode of action which depends upon a reality constituted in documentary form. The social scientist's ordinary knowledge of her society originates in and depends upon these documentary forms. This is more, much more, than merely her use of statistical and other information produced by census bureau, departments of health welfare agencies, internal revenue departments and the like. The organization which actuality acquires in the accomplishment of a fact is not simply an explication of an order which is already perceived, though it may sometimes be just that. But it is important to recognize that facts are constructed in a context of telling. The organization that is created aims at this telling and aims therefore at the purposes for which it will be told. The selection of categories and conceptual procedures expresses that structure of relevance.

This article presents Sidney R. Waldman's comments to David Easton's article "Some Limits of Exchange Theory in Politics," published in the 1972 issue of "Sociological Inquiry." In rebuttal to Easton's suggestion that the author is not clear as to the nature of the five propositions that form the core of exchange theory, Waldman emphasizes that exchange theory does not imply that men consciously calculate costs or benefits, that they consciously try to satisfice, or that they consciously calculate the probable outcomes of the various actions they see open to them. Also, Easton argues that exchange theory, despite its claims, is only a special theory which attempts to explain variation in support for political institutions and practices. However, in the author's opinion, a reading of the basic propositions should readily convince the reader that the theory is intended to explain all behavior, not merely behavior that involves support for regime, government, political party, or other institutions.