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The social changes tied to late modernity and an increasingly precarious labor market have facilitated the emergence of fortune as a potentially significant element for understanding contemporary society. This article approaches this contingent, individualized, secularized, and uncertain panorama from the perspective of the young adults tasked with navigating these societal transformations and the effects of a prolonged economic crisis. Based on a discourse analysis of 20 in-depth interviews and three focus groups with young adults in Spain, it examines how chance/luck is employed by these individuals. A typology is presented and discussed, consisting of four different relationships with fortune. In the participants' narratives this paper finds a meritocratic approach, which involves an understanding that good luck is attained through individual initiative, but also relationships less concerned with human agentic power where it can be conceived as an explanatory or meaning making device, as a threat or as an element tied to hope. Consequently, the article seeks to address a gap in sociological research, which has tended to overlook the analytical relevance of fortune, arguing that it constitutes a central element to the symbolic frameworks of these vulnerable young adults as they make their way through a changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective behavior has been a long standing focal point of sociological interest. From its earliest use by Robert E. Park, the concept has been an expression of the sociologist's concern with various dramatic processes of social control, especially those manifesting rapid social change. While the work of specialists in collective behavior has emphasized the study of very specific and delimited events such as crowds, fashions, and fads, the subject matter of collective behavior has come to include the most crucial society-wide movements and upheavals. Moreover, empirical work in this field has reflected a sophisticated understanding of the difficulties of observing and recording complex aspects of social reality which envelop the observer and resist simplified coding and data-reduction techniques. By contrast, the theoretical relevance of the collective behavior framework has been problematic until recently and open to extensive debate. In fact, there was a period of time, after the initial contributions by Robert E. Park, in which the theoretical disputations about the nature of collective behavior appeared to divert creative energies. As a specialized orientation collective behavior became encapsulated and immune to the theoretical developments in other aspects of sociological thinking. In recent years, say the last five years, there has been a renewed interest in the collective behavior approach. The following papers by Neil Smelser and Ralph Turner, which provided the basis for an American Sociological Association panel, give expression to the search for a new balance between theory and empirical enterprise. These papers and the immediate discussion they provoked indicate that some sociologists are using the rubric to focus on crucial substantive issues of contemporary social change. In part, the dramatic events of the civil rights movement in the United States and the equally dramatic transformation of social structure in the new nations have contributed to this renaissance. In part, the response is defensive against the persistent criticism from outside disciplines concerning the excessive expenditure of intellectual energies on trivial processes of social control. What is important in any case is that collective behavior, although strictly sociological in its approach, supplies a link to the interests of political scientists and historians who have long been concerned with revolutions and mass movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to describe the model for a poverty intervention program that purports to work largely inside the system as an organization funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity, yet intends to bring together presently disparate intrasystem and extrasystem components of the community into a single program for social change. This social action approach, conceptualized here as the Overlap model, will be outlined and then for further clarification compared with Saul Alinsky's approach as summarized by Riessman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A genuinely sociological theory of social change is lacking, but the literature of the social sciences abounds with the elements of such a theory. The present paper deals with one of these elements, namely the change from tribalism to urbanism as a major instance of social change. For this purpose the concepts of culture and civilization are examined, and a plea is made to restore the concept of civilization to its rightful place in the vocabulary of sociologists and anthropologists. In doing this, the intention is not to reduce social change to the process of urbanization, but rather to isolate the sociological element which makes for social change within the supersession of a familial by a territorial society, wherever it occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper integrates the political opportunity and framing paradigms to analyze the discursive processes that were involved in the demobilization of a peasant land struggle in El Salvador. The framing paradigm provides a basis for analyzing how activist rhetoric shapes interpretations of opportunities and grievances among social movement participants to alter the goals and intensity of grassroots protest. As the land struggle demonstrates, leaders communicating with grassroots participants in a process of struggle may, over time, underemphasize shifts occurring in some dimensions of political opportunities, while framing more stable dimensions as having changed. They may also alter their framing of grievances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social movement scholars generally study movement organizations, a great deal of significant collective action occurs in diffuse, noninstitutional contexts. This article uses the straight edge movement to explore the less structured aspects of movement activity and discuss the roles collective identity plays in diffuse movements. The straight edge collective identity promotes individual action within the context of a commitment to a strong identity. This paper shows how a strong collective identity is the foundation of diffuse movements, providing "structure," a basis for commitment, and guidelines for individualized participation. Finally, the article demonstrates that organizational conceptualizations of social movements fail to capture important avenues of cultural protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article points the weaknesses of Richard Bland and Roy Wallis' commentary about the essay on status inconsistency and participation in social movements. The comment began with observations concerning the status inconsistency method represented in the essay and moved to a broader criticism of the notion of status defense. However, Bland and Wallis missed the point of the essay. For instance, they defined status more narrowly than Zurcher and Kirkpatrick in "Citizens for Decency". Moreover, they accused the authors of obsessively seeking some ulterior motive among anti-pornography crusaders which could explain their participation. Finally, they offered no evidence to demonstrate that overrewarded inconsistents would be expected to engage in resistance to changes in their social environment which might threaten their over-rewarded situation.

Most of existing literature assumes that social movement organizations will inevitably become more ideologically and tactically conservative over time. This paper presents a couterargument to this position, suggesting that many movement organizations can be shown to have grown more radical as they have developed. A definition of movement radicalization is constructed, and eight propositions concerning factors which seem to increase the likelihood that a movement organization will radicalize are presented. These factors include repressive action by the agents of social control, changes in the ideological and tactical orientations of the movement organization's constituency, codification of a radicalizing movement's ideology, a reduced likelihood of co-optation, certain aspects of the structural character of the larger society, weak internal controls over the group's members, and the presence of individual radical leaders. Each proposition is illustrated by reference to the career of a North Irish group known as the People's Democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural history, observational, and interview data from a study of two anti-pornography crusades and the social movement organizations which created and directed them are used to assess nine propositions formulated by Zald and Ash (1966) concerning the structure and dynamics of social movement organizations. The Zald-Ash propositions were formulated from the literature on national, established social movement organizations. This paper explores the applicability of the propositions to those organizations which are small and emerging. The propositions are generally supported. Discrepancies are accounted for by the significant influence of leadership orientation, goal specificity, and incentive structure in determining other structural and dynamic characteristics of small or emerging social movement organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in the diffusion of innovations has, in the last twenty years, produced a plethora of research findings, which have been summarized by a number of writers (e.g., Lionberger, 1960; Rogers, 1962, 1967 and 1968; Katz et al., 1963; Jones, 1967; Bohlen, 1064). However, these summaries are basically taxonomic and programmatic rather than theoretic in nature. As the paucity of theoretical work in diffusion studies has been well recognized (cf. Bogers, 1962:300; Robinson and Bailey, 1965:332), there exists a real need for us to search for a general theory pertinent to this field. The aim of the present paper is to discuss a recurrent theme running through many diffusion studies, namely the old concept of adopter-innovation compatibility, and to show how this concept looms as highly suggestive of its utility as a theoretical approach to the studies in the diffusion of innovations and social change. The notion of adopter-innovation compatibility has been utilized in recent diffusion research in two general ways: explicitly and implicitly. We shall therefore discuss first these two different modes in which it has been used and then its implications as a general theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its first systematic treatment by Max Weber in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in the early twenties, the concept of charisma has been of only limited use to the social sciences. This is so because of fundamental disagreement concerning its meaning and application. In response to this, the present paper offers (1) a brief examination of Weber's contribution, (2) a critical analysis of this position based in part on the recent literature, and (3) a final formulation of the concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is required for understanding models of development is a combination of linguistic analysis and sociological analysis. It might well be that what is needed is nothing short of a combination of the logical skills of Wittgenstein and the sociological capacities of Weber. It would be presumptuous of me to claim to have effected such a synthesis. On the other hand, it would be ludicrous of all of us not to at least make an attempt to scale the heights. The word model is as slippery a concept as is currently in use by the social sciences. Even if we can settle on a formal definition of the word, namely, that a model is an isomorphic representation of objects that leads to an unmistakable identification of the expression of the object with the physical object, we are left with a host of substantive issues. There are at least three different fundamental meanings which attach to the term model—meanings which almost put the word in a different universe of discourse each time. First, model is used as a surrogate for levels, or an epistemological statement of how the world is carved up. Second, model is used as a surrogate for strategies. This entails the pragmatics of social change, or how one goes about carving a world up. Third, model is often used as a surrogate for theory, or how the explanation of changes in the world can best be made. What I should like to do here is provide at the outset a framework showing what is entailed in each of these types of models of development and then showing the implications of model-construction for social change. In this paper, I do not take my chore to be other than an accounting of the meaning of development at the macroscopic scale (rather than its microscopic details). Nor do I interpret my chore as a presentation of my own model, since this has been attempted elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a great amount of criticism of structural-functional theory, particularly with respect to its supposed inability to deal with social change. Should structural-functional theory be unable to account for the sources of social change, then it is indeed guilty of an implicit ideological commitment to the status quo. If it can be shown that this theory is capable of dealing with social change, then we can accept Merton's statement: … it is the evaluations which permit the pouring of ideological content into the bottles of functionalism. The bottles themselves are neutral to their contents, and may serve equally well as containers for ideological poison or for ideological nectar. The position taken here is that Merton's statement is correct, provided that an important accommodation is made. This accommodation consists in the explicit incorporation of the dialectical process into structural-functional theory. The dialectical process implies a conflict model of society; it is in the tradition of Marx, who argued that without conflict there can be no progress. It adopts the proposition that conflict is empirically both a normal and an essential element in the social structure. In the simplest terms, the dialectic tells us something about the sources of a particular kind of social change. We are not content, as is Dahrendorf, with advocating a conflict model of society as an alternative to functionalism. The goal is nothing less than to reconcile the two approaches. Dahrendorf has himself recognized that the conflict model cannot provide all the answers since society is "Janusheaded." It is extremely difficult to talk about the prediction of empirical outcomes when one is required to look first at an integration model and then turn to the conflict model. It is necessary to construct one model which will qualify the integration model of society so as to give weight (the exact amount is an empirical question) to the disruptive elements in society. A considerable portion of this paper will be devoted to disengaging the dialectic from its ideological moorings and making it trim for sociological analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I shall set down a few ideas that I consider central in the study of collective behavior and conflict, and indicate a few similarities and differences between my views on these subjects and the views of others. I shall organize my remarks around the following questions. (1) What are the defining characteristics of collective behavior? In addressing this question I shall simultaneously be talking about what I consider to be the scope of the field. (2) What are the central problems in this field? (3) What are the ways in which these problems can be most adequately handled? Here I shall outline the "value-added" approach to explaining collective outbursts and movements. (4) To conclude, I shall focus on social movements with political aims, and ask two questions: When is a movement likely to become revolutionary? When is a revolutionary movement likely to become violent? In discussing these final questions, I shall apply some of the variables of the value-added scheme, and introduce the subject of conflict explicitly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title of this study is that given to the review of a book in a recent issue of Commentary. It also refers to an important contemporary social movement, namely, mental illness. This is a movement that accords to irrationalism a constantly increasing respectability. An enormous increase in the kinds of conduct classified as irrational has resulted in the past few decades from the work of some of the most highly educated and intellectual students of human behavior. One corollary is a decrease in the kinds of behavior classified as rational. This has been accompanied by a violent attack upon the concepts of reason and individual responsibility, and by attempts to substitute the concepts of irresponsibility and exculpation. These attempts have been successful to a great degree. This paper will concern itself with two problems that mark this social movement. The first problem is that of definition and counting. The second is that of resolving the paradox of irrationalism. It would be tedious to summarize the studies of the past twentyfive years that show that the interest in mental illness is a social movement rather than a scientific development. One of the first, by Kingsley Davis, showed that it possesses a characteristic essential to any social movement. Its proponents conceive it to be a panacea. As a social movement it is in many respects the functional equivalent of religion in the system of traditional middle-class values. The movement is today continuing to propagate middle-class values and ethics under the guise of science. It presents the prototype of the middle-class or upper-class person as being in all important respects equivalent to that of the mentally healthy person. Thus it is not to be wondered at that when psychiatrists and other clinicians (who are professional and upper class ) interview and otherwise "examine" lower-class children, especially delinquent boys, they find that the boys are "emotionally disturbed" or "mentally ill" in some form and to some degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is in two parts. The first section describes the relationship of a number of variables to political status and their relationship to each other. The second section deals with the kind of predictions that might have been made with these data and the relative efficiency of one type of prediction compared to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movements and academic research debate about how to address climate change. One such debate asks whether climate change should be addressed by new policies and technological innovation within the existing economic system or if it requires a more fundamental change to the system. How much do mainstream climate change protestors support a radical shift away from capitalism to address climate change? Using original survey data collected during major U.S. climate change movement events, I examine the individual-level predictors of protestors' support for a radical shift away from capitalism and the demographics of mainstream climate change protestors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Program evaluation attempts to assess the consequence of deliberate efforts to intervene in ongoing social processes. Efforts to understand and explain social processes and social change constitute social theory. The evaluation of social programs provides an opportunity both to test existing theories of social change and to discover new theory. Current notions about theory in the evaluation literature are reviewed and cues from that literature provide the basis for suggested directions in the relationship between the design of programs, their evaluation, and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this case study of Germany, we use repeated cross-sectional surveys to analyze the temporal structure, gender gap, and educational gradient of the unaffiliated in the post-war period in the West. The continuing institutional role for religion in the West and the rapid de-institutionalization and subsequent re-institutionalization of religion in the East informs the comparison of the unaffiliated in East and West since unification. Stronger age effects in the East, persistent period effects in the West, and cohort effects combine with a stronger educational gradient and larger gender gap in the West to define the contrasting features of the changes in religious affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We cast fresh light on how and why Americans’ views on marijuana legalization shifted between 1973 and 2014. Results from age-period-cohort models show a strong negative effect of age and relatively high levels of support for legalization among baby boom cohorts. Despite the baby boom effect, the large increase in support for marijuana legalization is predominantly a broad, period-based change in the population. Additional analyses demonstrate that differences in support for legalization by education, region, and religion decline, that differences by political party increase, and that differences between whites and African Americans reverse direction. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings and by identifying promising directions for future research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the causes and social mechanisms of anti-American attitudes and behavior and illustrates the fruitfulness of this theoretical approach using the example of Germany. We argue that anti-American attitudes are rooted mainly in two sociopsychological functions: the rationalization of social change and the projection of self-parts that have been suppressed. Other determinants are social norms, lack of personal social contact with Americans, and a strong national identity. Further, we also investigate the correlation between anti-American attitudes and behavioral intentions. Using a national sample (n= 1,201) and a comprehensive measure of anti-Americanism, we document the distribution of perceptions about America and Americans among the German population and explore the explanatory power of the theoretical concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles, Web site matter, and newsprint advertisements, the authors analyze the nuances of Know Your Power ( KYP), a corporate Astroturf campaign created in 2007 to challenge the permitting of the Red Rock coal-fired facility in northern Oklahoma. Employing a risk society framework, the study contributes to literatures on Astroturf campaigns, the social construction and definition of risk, discourse on the contentious politics of energy, and corporate use of false grassroots coalitions in an environmental conflict. Findings indicate that KYP utilized an educational framework, neighborhood expert knowledge, themes central in the risk society, and the impression of a grassroots coalition to convince lay publics and regulatory actors that ' Red Rock is wrong.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ hierarchical age-period-cohort models and the 1974-2010 General Social Survey data to examine changes in the political tolerance of gays and lesbians, communists, racists, and anti-religionists. Results show period-based growth in political tolerance, cohort-based growth in tolerance of anti-religionists, baby boomers are particularly tolerant, and political tolerance is associated with changes in college education. The findings suggest that liberalizing trends in political tolerance are largely motivated by changes among Americans as a whole, not cohort replacement, that baby boomers are unique in their social and political perspectives, and that aggregate changes in higher education are correlated with changes in political tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this adaptation of my Presidential Address I celebrate the sociology inspired by the tradition of progressive social reform. The focus on civic engagement that instigated inquiry into the causes and reasons for social problems remains an important resource for learning. I describe how my own journey from social investigator, witness, and activist not only shaped how and what I studied, but how and what I taught. Three student tales illustrate how service learning combines insight and action to foster social understanding that inspires practical reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public consciousness of sexual harassment, or sekuhara, emerged much later in Japan than in the United States. This article, the first comparative study of sexual harassment in the two nations, explores how consciousness of a new legal category diffuses across nations and begins to take root in younger cohorts. Analyses of the U.S. General Social Survey and the Japanese Survey on Working Women's Consciousness show how age cohorts entering the labor force following major equal opportunity legislation report more sexual harassment than do older cohorts. We first conduct a separate nation-specific analysis and then pool the data sets to test for national differences with cross-product interaction terms. The effects of age, income, and job satisfaction all differ significantly between the United States and Japan. Family and life course factors are also important predictors, particularly in Japan. We interpret these results based on the extant literature on sexual harassment, legal consciousness over the life course, and comparative research on workplace behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movement researchers acknowledge that frames promoted by state managers compete in intense framing contests with collective action frames promoted by social movement entrepeneurs. But they have not analyzed the construction and promotion of these "official frames." The FBI framing of the communist threat in Hollywood during the 1940s is examined and the limits of the countersubversive anticommunist master frame are explored. State agencies are established as signifying agents, and the construction and promotion of official frames is compared to similar processes for collective action frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of how the socialization of people into a social movement occurs under repressive dictatorships. It takes as a case the socialization of shantytown women into the anti-Pinochet pro-democracy movement in Chile. Using ethnographic data gathered in Chile and Europe, the article concludes that socialization in repressive regimes can occur when organizers gather recruits into groups that do not have political change as their stated goal. Within these groups socialization occurs as a result of intentionally educational activities by the social movement organizers. These can take the form of the giving of talks, the introduction of informative publications, the use of the group as a model for how society should work, the organizing of testimonial get-togethers, and the inviting of other victims of the dictatorship to the groups to relate their experiences. Socialization also occurs as a result of processes that are not intentionally educational, including the directing of artwork production, the sharing of grievances by group members, and the involvement of group members with other social movement organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines an emotional achievement perspective for the study of emotions in social movements. Following Denzin's work on emotions, I consider emotions as self-feelings that are situated, interactional, and temporal in nature. The concept of emotions as achievement complements Hochschild's emotion management perspective. While management focuses on control, achievement emphasizes articulation and creativity. I argue that, although individuals may be compelled to suppress feelings in the organizational context, different social contexts and practices make it possible for individuals to pursue emotional fulfillment and self-realization. In social movements, the process of emotional achievement among participants unfolds as a process of mobilization. An analysis of the emotional dynamics of the 1989 Chinese student movement shows that emotions were inextricably intertwined with identities and action and that the emotional dynamics generated in this process significantly contributed to movement mobilization. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical contributions of the emotional achievement perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we contend that social movement theory has predominantly analyzed social movement organizations (SMOs) from a reform perspective, emphasizing movement participants' demands to be recognized by, and incorporated into, the dominant culture. While for many SMOs this has certainly been the case, we argue that it is an inadequate model for the study of radical social movement organizations (RSMOs). When we look at RSMO participants' self-defined goals and objectives, we find that they tend to focus on a radical restructuring of the system rather than incorporation into that system. We therefore propose an alternative theoretical model for understanding RSMOs, utilizing ideal type characteristics for the internal structure, ideology, tactics, methods of communication, and measures of success that differentiate such organizations from their more moderate, reformist counterparts. Through the use of primary sources, we provide evidence that RSMOs, such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and various radical second-wave feminist organizations, would be better understood through such an alternative theoretical model. Other RSMOs could be similarly redefined through this model, thereby acknowledging their intentional differences from moderate SMOs and allowing them to be evaluated on their own terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents some findings of a five year study of the neighborhood stabilization movement since 1956 in 15 urban communities across the U.S. This movement, an outgrowth of the civil rights movement, is the organized effort to maintain racial diversity in U.S. urban neighborhoods. Based on field research, historical review, and census data, the study offers three analytical models representing success, failure, and conditional efforts in this movement. Internal and external factors of success and failure are discussed and nine inductive hypotheses serve as speculative conclusions about the probability of success in maintaining neighborhood diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociology as an academic discipline has always undergone change and modification in theory, method and substance. This article addresses some of the changes in many substantive area of sociology. Some special aspects that have characterized American sociology was discussed. The diversity in styles of sociological work was recognized. In order to provide a broader context for sociological work, it is necessary to go back to the turn of the century,a period of marked social change in America. There are two major influence on how academic sociology would respond to change the development of pragmatism in American philosophy and sociologists' belief in empiricism.There are some similarities between the concerns of European sociologists of the last century and the American sociologists of the early decades of the century.

The nonproportional model of change as applied by Kasarda (1974) to explain the administrative intensity of societies is examined. In applying this theory to nations, we argue that the relationship between system size and administrative intensity should be much stronger in developed nations than in developing nations. Results from samples of both types of nations support this prediction. In addition, we consider Kasarda's operationalization of the nonproportional model of change and propose a modification, suggesting that growth should be incorporated into the analysis. Comparing cross-sectional estimates against longitudinal evidence, we find among developed nations a strong systematic relationship between system growth and changes in administrative intensity and little evidence of the hypothesized relationship between system size and changes in administrative intensity. We interpret these findings as providing mixed support for the nonproportional model of growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four mobility and attainment propositions are extracted from a theoretical discussion relating class mobility and attainment processes to the development of capitalism. These propositions are evaluated empirically using United States Labor Statistics, General Social Survey data, and primary data collected from a SMSA. The first proposition maintains that paralleling the development of capitalism will be a structural decrease in the relative size of the capital-owning classes resulting in mobility. In the second proposition, it is asserted that with the development of capitalism, the likelihood of downward mobility will be significantly greater than the probability of upward mobility. The third proposition stated that in advanced capitalist societies, circulation class mobility will be substantially constrained by structural change. Lastly, it is proposed that in advanced capitalist societies, attained class positions will depend significantly on an unmediated (by educational attainment) origin class effect. Empirical support is uncovered for all propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bulk of sociological theory is based on a notion of "state": mechanical-organic solidarity, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, folk-urban, and so forth. We propose a theory that social systems consist of actors and groups in constant motion. Further, we propose that the duality of actor and society generate a system that can be understood by using the concepts of complementarity, indeterminacy and the principle of relativity. Such a system is defined and the issue of social change is addressed. Basically, change is defined as an alteration in the motion of actors relative to the motion of groups. As the number of groups increases relative to the number of actors, the velocity of actors increases and the velocity of groups decreases. The increasing disparity of these velocities indicates greater social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many behavioral science studies of religious fundamentalism are seriously hampered by conceptual confusion. The major source of much of this confusion is the lack of a coherent sociological definition and theoretical context for the term fundamentalism. We propose a Parsonian definition of Fundamentalism, which is interpreted in the context of a theory of evolutionary social change. The methodological implications of this approach are identified and then applied in a survey research study of the lay leaders of two historically related denominations, the Disciples of Christ and the Church of Christ. Our factor analysis of 25 questionnaire items suggests there are three types of Fundamentalism. Socio-economic variables explain some of the variation in the Fundamentalism scores, but denominational affiliation explains more. Our findings suggest that future research should use denomination-specific indices of Fundamentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upper-class directors of major industrial companies are directors of more corporations than arc the non-upper-class directors, but they arc less likely to serve on executive committees of corporate boards. This may indicate that there is a class-based division of labor in which the upper-class directors are more concerned with inter-organizational relationships and with the functioning of the economy as a whole, and that non-upper-class directors are concerned with day-to-day operations of individual companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merton has made an important distinction between the "history" any "systematics" of sociological theory, and outlined the valuable functions of the former. Most histories of sociology, however, have been "presentist" or "Whiggish" in perspective; we propose an "historicist" alternative. Within this perspective, Durkheim's response to Spencer is analyzed in three areas: (1) the relation between "individual" and "society;" (2) evolution and social change; and (3) the scope and method of sociology. In these areas, Durkheim's critical style reveals a repetitive theme which is termed "inversion." The essay concludes by re-affirming Merton's distinction and urging that the "historicist" perspective is the most valid and useful approach to the history of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A source of social movement transformation which has been relatively neglected by researchers involves the effect of factors in the pre-movement environment which reemerge sporadically throughout the careers of social movements. Their reemergence may account for the direction of the transformation process and, specifically, for the differential transformations which characterize some movements at various points in their careers. A case study illustrating this effect is presented, followed by a more general consideration of when this phenomenon may be expected to occur and what movement-related factors facilitate its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manifold factors have been identified as causal mechanisms in social change, but an important one—temporality—has been neglected. Temporality is the social time that characterizes any society, and that social time is consequential for the rate and direction of change. The three dimensions of temporality are temporal pattern, temporal orientation, and temporal perspective. The differences between the Japanese and Chinese along these three dimensions help explain their differential responses to the 19th century Western challenge. Specifically, two propositions are examined in the light of the historical data: a society's temporality limits the range of adaptive responses to new circumstances, and the symbols of social time act as a mechanism of social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forms of social change are myriad: a revolutionary movement overthrows a ruling elite, an empire falls to barbarians, the rise of a business class transforms a traditional society, a criminal organization gains control over the life of a community, patterns of romantic love replace arranged marriage, intergroup hostility rises and falls. In such ways do the basic patterns of social life change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Conceptual model employed in the investigation is a "partial social system model."¹ It is partial in the sense that it focuses only upon the community subsystem level of analysis and, on this level, deals only with the economic, political, and formal control subsystems. This mode of conceptualization, developed by Parsons and his associates and by others, Homans and Loomis, and applied to the community by Warren and by Sanders, treats the community as composed of several interdependent subsystems. The structure and functioning of the community system is treated as being dependent upon the interaction among its subsystems and ultimately, of course, upon the interaction among persons occupying positions in the subsystems. In addition to the interaction among its component subsystems, the structure and functioning of the community is also dependent upon more macroscopic systems, e.g., the county, state, and nation, in which the community is itself merely a component subsystem. This dual perspective is taken into account by the task-performance, system-maintenance distinction recognized in the functioning of a social system. Task-performance activities deal with the relationship among community subsystems and extracommtmity systems along a vertical dimension. System-maintenance activities deal with the relationships of the different community subsystems to each other on the local level along a horizontal dimension. The major emphasis of the model is on the horizontal systemmaintenance activities of the economic, political, and formal control subsystems. The goal of such activities, by definition, is the maintenance of equilibrium. Equilibrium, defined in the Parsonian sense, is a relational state in which the units of a community system are related to one another in such a way that relative to its environment the system maintains certain constancies of pattern, whether this constancy be static or moving. Moving equilibrium is further defined as an orderly process of change in the community system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Sociological Imagination, C. Wright Mills attempted to point the way toward a more nearly viable sociology by identifying and defining the horns of the dilemma upon which the discipline was, in his estimation, caught. These horns were those of grand theory and abstracted empiricism. On the one hand, Mills believed, are those sociologists whose writings are on such a generalized level that they are unrelated to the sociological and social problems of the empirical world. On the other hand, are those sociologists whose work is so tied to picayune fact-grubbing that the results of their research have no theoretical orientation, are not cumulative, and, therefore, also are not relevant nor of value to the student of public affairs. The Millsian solution to the sociological dilemma was characteristic. He not only demolished its horns but also suggested that sociology could find a greater relevance in the world of affairs if it would follow an imaginative course through their remains. The sociological imagination, derived as it is from American pragmatism, became at once a method for research into empirical reality and for theoretical ordering of the data from that research. The models thus created from historical and contemporary data became open-ended ones of process, dynamic assessment, and strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before talcing up in more detail this customary indifference to social activism, we will try to sketch some key elements in this mystique of anthropology as it shapes the anthropologist's conceptions of himself and his discipline. These observations do not fit all anthropologists or all points of view within anthropology equally well. They are most apt if applied to American cultural anthropology and characterize less accurately the ethos of British and Continental anthropology. In addition, they bear most appropriately on the posture frequently assumed by anthropologists that Jules Henry calls the existential: "There have always been two trends in cultural anthropology; the formalistic and the existential; the preoccupation with parts versus the concern with wholeness; an interest in structure versus a search for meaning; the insistence on plotlessness versus the perception of plot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One approach to the study of social and organizational change is the study of life histories of strategic cohorts. This approach is particularly appropriate for military elites because of the marked age grading in education, selection, and career development. Thus, the officer who is slow in his movement through the ranks is clearly recognized as "over-age in grade." Cohort analysis must be seen in the light of external events affecting the cohort. The demands placed upon the American military establishment during this century have altered the nature of relations between the civilian and military sectors of society. American involvement in two world wars and in postwar world politics has required a vast expansion of the armed forces which was achieved through widespread enlistment and conscription of "civilian soldiers." The increasingly complex technology of warfare and of military organization, moreover, required professional skills other than those traditionally taught within the service academies. Thus, there has been a tendency toward "reciprocal interpenetration" of the civilian and military spheres. The defining characteristics of this interpenetration are (1) a convergence of the skills required in the civilian and military spheres as the technological bases of both systems become more complex; (2) a broadening of the base of military recruitment generally and of officer recruitment specifically, so that nonacademy graduates are admitted to the officer corps; (3) the presence of civilian personnel employed within the military system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current definitions of social structure, one particular difference in emphasis appears outstanding. Stogdill, for example, emphasizes differentiation and interdependence of parts when he says: "By structure is meant that the system is so differentiated or ordered that member A is not identical with member B, and the reaction of A to B is not identical with the reaction of B to A." In a somewhat broader frame of reference, Johnson, on the other hand, places primary emphasis on the element of continuity or relative permanence when he says, "The 'structure' of anything consists of the relatively stable interrelationships among its parts; moreover, the term 'part' itself implies a certain degree of stability." This latter characteristic-stability-Stogdill refers to as identity because it is this characteristic which "permits the system to be recognized as the same group during successive periods of observation."The central tendencies of these and similar definitions can be expressed in a definition of structure as a stable pattern of relationships among differentiated parts. Differences in emphasis suggest, however, that such a definition contains two key elements: differentiation of function on the one hand, and consistency in the allocation of these functions on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An area of research in which sociologists and historians would seem to share a rather obvious concern is that of social change. In his presidential address before the joint meeting of the Canadian Historical and Canadian Political Science Association, S. D. Clark emphasized this. "We cannot become students of change," he said, "without becoming historians. It is only by looking at what has happened to societies of the past, and over time, that the sociologist can derive the data on which to build his principles of social change." That is to say that the study of social change requires recognition of processes in time and must deal, insofar as time past is involved, with evidence that is historical. The student of social change must become a historian and the historian, insofar as he is interested in understanding and interpreting general processes, must become a social scientist. When, however, one searches the literature for particular studies of historical social change, one's findings are meager indeed, especially if one's standards, theoretically and methodologically, are reflective of those of contemporary social science, and one's historiographical standards, of contemporary history. If, in addition, one is searching for social change studies of a particular national history, then the material is even more limited. For this reason I have expanded this review, which was originally concerned with the American nineteenth century only, to include two studies of English history, because these two studies include important theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of history and social change in America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses sociologist Howard Becker's approach to the study of social change. Howard Becker made social dominant and central problem of sociological inquiry. In view of the apparent reappearance of a concern with the general problem of social dynamics in American sociology, an examination of the main features of Becker's approach to the study of social change would seem to be appropriate. A first characteristic of that approach is the relatively abstract, comprehensive and general level at which the problem of social change was initially and subsequently conceived. A second feature of Becker's approach to the study of change is his persistent adherence to a nomothetic view of science, which is methodologically implemented by a constant resort to culture case study, constructed types and the comparative method. A third characteristic of Becker's scheme for studying change is the conceptualization of sacred and secular as evaluations of change and their use as constructs for classifying value-systems. A fourth characteristic of Becker's approach to change is his sacred-secular evaluation continuum, which became an important part of his analytical scheme late in his career.

This article reports on some interrelationships between urbanization and social change in Japan since 1600. Japan is proposed for investigation of some possible interrelationships between urbanization and social change for several reasons. In the first place, Japan is the most highly industrialized and urbanized of the major nations of Asia. In Asia lives the bulk of the world's population, a population that is now in the midst of major social, economic and political transformations of enormous consequence to the rest of the world. In the second place, Japan lends itself to the testing of hypotheses regarding social and cultural change, which have been primarily documented with data on European, and European-dominated peoples. Third, Japan is an appropriate concern of American scholars because of close past and present relationships between the two countries. It is the central argument of this article that Japanese history since 1600 may profitably be regarded in terms of three remarkable experiments in planned social change undertaken by powerful, centralized governments which were relatively free to exercise unlimited authority. In each of these three instances the regime consciously set out to fashion Japan's national life after a preconceived pattern and in each case the planned change was in substantial degree realized.