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As sociologists, we engage in history whether or not we see ourselves, professionally, as historical sociologists. These remarks discuss the varieties of ways sociologists use and approach historical scholarship, including history-as-context, analytic comparative/historical sociology, and interpretive approaches. I also reflect on the first fifty years of Midwest Sociological Society to show that, at different moments, the MSS mirrored, propelled, or lagged behind societal change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the "integrative hypothesis" as an aid to understanding the current emergence of new religious movements appealing mainly to young persons. Four ways in which these movements reintegrate young persons into the social system are identified: adjustive socialization, combination, compensation, and redirection. The limitations of each of these as an explanation for the integrative consequences of youth culture religious movements are discussed. A distinction is made between adaptive movements which actually appear to reassimilate social "dropouts" into conventional instrumental routines, and marginal movements which appear to take converts out of conventional roles and routines, but which also perform latent tension management functions for the social system. The correlated properties of adaptive ami marginal movements and the tendency for marginal movements to evolve into adaptive movements are discussed. Finally, the problem of "reductionism" in analyzing religious movements in terms of their latent integrative "functions" is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on basic difficulty in historical sociology. The newly reawakened interest in the sociological study of historical events makes it worthwhile to raise again the question whether such a study is scientifically feasible at all. Obviously, all data anybody can deal with are historical data, events of the past. Science is a form of ratiocination dealing with past events and so all science is historical. Those who are interested in historical sociology are generally not interested in this kind of work, which falls into the province of general sociology. The historical sociologist tends to look at history not in the sense of the totality of all past events, but in the sense of recorded history. In other words, he tends to look exclusively, or at least primarily, to the works of the historians as his source of information about unique sequences of past events, which he tries to use as raw materials for the development of generalizations about interhuman behavior. It is the intention of this paper to show that the writings of the historians can be used for sociological purposes only with the greatest caution.

This study draws on the theories of Durkheim, Henry and Short, and Ginsberg to assess the impact of short-term and long-term socio-economic change on suicide rates of different categories of age and gender. We employ a pooled cross-sectional time-series data set comprised of 17 Western European nations covering a period of over 50 years (1956-2012). Results from fixed-effect variable-parameter time-series regression models reveal that indicators of socio-economic change yield the strongest impact on suicide rates among males, primarily of working age. Nevertheless, crucial differences emerge across the three alternative theoretical models, which we address. We conclude by highlighting the utility of these models for predicting suicide rates across different categories of age and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the authors' comments on the validity of an index of legitimate violence prepared by sociologists Larry Baron and Murray A. Straus to study the relation between culture and violent crimes. According to Baron and Straus, both cultural and economic variables are needed in the studies of homicide. But their study is confounded with population density and dependent on region. The authors concluded that the index is of no value for research on the inception of violent crime.

Wolfgang and Ferracuti's Subculture of Violence thesis and Matza's theory of "drift" may be regarded as competing subcultural explanations of violence. Comments are offered on studies examining propositions derived from both subcultural theses, and another body of evidence is analyzed. Ball-Rokeach's recent rejection of Wolfgang and Ferracuti's thesis is contradicted by a reinterpretation of her data and by the new data; for as both theses contend, violence is more likely among adolescent members of deviant subcultures and among adolescents with machismo or adult values than among other adolescents. Contrary to both theories, adolescent violence may result more from amorality than from a contracultural morality (Wolfgang and Ferracuti) or neutralization of conventional beliefs (Matza). Still violence is more likely among boys holding unconventional beliefs than among other boys. Also, poor relationships with parents or teachers are more important than class in insulating against conventional values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]