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Our research on integration and regulation in organizations is based upon concerns we share about the way organizations adapt or, rather, fail to adapt in our society. We have observed situations in many kinds of organizations where most people are aware that values are not being served, concerns are not being met and issues are not being resolved, but where either no action is taken or, if it is, it fails to achieve desired results. We call these situations social deadlocks and our long-term normative interest is to see whether they can be broken.[1] Although this paper is addressed to methodological aspects of our work, we hope to demonstrate how the design of our research project and the concepts and methods we use are guided by these concerns. Starting with a very brief outline of three of the cases, we then identify a number of common themes and concepts as the key research interests. Some of the problems of pursuing these interests are raised in terms of problems of definition, the collection of evidence and of inference. We argue that attempts to deal with these problems lead us to adopt a particular focus, design and approach for research. The paper then moves to a description of our methods and to some of the problems of analysis and explanation associated with the contextualist style of research we have adopted. Finally, we go back to the cases to demonstrate how our concepts and theories are refined by the research process, which is essentially a dialectic between emergent and imposed frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to bring together data concerning the social attributes and backgrounds of a cohort of general practitioners, to relate this to certain features of the organizations within which the doctors work, and to make certain suggestions about the implications of the results for the sociology of the professions. Sociological studies of the professions appear to originate from two main theoretical orientations. One approach views a profession as a relatively monolithic and homogeneous social grouping, and examines the features which distinguish a profession from other occupations. Examples of this approach are the work of Parsons,[1] Cogan,[2] Goode[3] and Greenwood.[4] This approach, which may be called the 'attributes' approach, unquestionably has its uses. For example, it is possible to assess the degree to which various occupations can be said to conform to the model of a 'profession'. Both Akens and Quinney,[5] and Hickson and Thomas,[6] for example, have developed sets of items upon which occupations may be assessed to discover how far they resemble an 'ideal' profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to present, by means of a case study, a method for the study of cultural phenomena--in particular the drama, It is not concerned with the purposes or functions of the drama in general or of particular dramas, nor is it an enquiry into the ultimate status of the arts in society. The paper is simply concerned to demonstrate how it was that one form of drama was eclipsed and superseded by an entirely new one.
should be recognised that there exist presently close limits to what a sociologist is able to say concerning such phenomena as the drama, dependent upon his particular theoretical posture. A neo-Durkheimian such as J. S. R. Goodlad[1] is, fairly predictably, concerned to demonstrate that the popular drama is a device for the explication of the social structure, the inculcation of morality, the expression of emotion at repressed items in culture (catharsis), and the reproduction and consideration of conflicts inherent in society. The Marxist, Lucien Goldmann[2], however, stresses the determinacy of the class-moment and the status of a valid work as the expression of a world view. 'Simationalisms' of considerably less subtlety than the Lukacs-Goldmann tradition exist, which usually tend toward nominalism.[3]
But whether we take the drama to be pulled into being by the weight of need the social organism has of it, or to be thrust up from the bowels of the substructure, it seems possible to discuss the drama, its form, and the relation of its form to the agencies producing it, in such a way as to be its mechanic rather than its philosopher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epigenetics has considerable potential to transform social science by embedding mutually regulative reciprocal connections between biological and social processes within the human activities it studies. This paper highlights common epigenetic methods and outlines practical considerations in the design of ‘social epigenetics' research addressing the identification of biomolecular pathways, statistical inference of causality, conceptualization of the environment as a biochemical event, heritability of epigenetic alterations and intergenerational accountability, and concept of time implied by attempts to capture complex, non-linear gene-environment interactions. Finally, we reflect on the social epigenome as a conceptual space and try to identify barriers to translation, and practical and ethical issues raised by epigenetics research. In order for social epigenetics and social science to contribute to the emergence of this putative ‘science of social science’’ and to capture meaningful human experience they will both need to change significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological and physical anthropologists have tended to see the study of human variation and the material body as the defining elements of their subdiscipline(s). Generally, sociologists and social anthropologists, in contrast, have shown little interest in such issues. For them, the body has often been taken for granted, absent-present, as a relatively stable and commanding platform on which a variety of cultural inscriptions can be established and performed. Recent theoretical developments, however, in anthropology, sociology and related fields – informed by the notions of biosociality and nature cultures – contribute to the understanding of an unstable, relational and variable body. Since the material and the social body are fundamentally conflated through continuous processes of relationality and embodiment, this paper argues, the issue of human variation needs to be revised and expanded. Such rethinking has important biopolitical implications, particularly in the context of divisions marked by race, ethnicity, class and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific knowledge-making is not just a matter of experiments, modelling and fieldwork. It also involves affective, embodied and material practices (Wetherell, 2012) which can be understood together as 'matters of care' (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2011). In this paper we explore how affect spans and connects material, subjective and organizational practices, focusing in particular on the patterns of care we encountered in an observational study of two bioscience laboratories. We explore the preferred emotional subjectivities of each lab and their relation to material practice. We go on to consider flows and clots in the circulation of affect and their relation to care through an exploration of belonging and humour in the labs. We show how being a successful scientist or group of researchers involves a careful choreography of affect in relation to materials, colleagues and others to produce scientific results, subjects and workplaces. We end by considering how thinking with care troubles dominant constructions of scientific practice, successful scientific selves and collectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociology of professions literature would predict that the contemporary state would not allow groups to continue unregulated or unreformed. However, this is indeed the case with the UK veterinary profession, with legislation dating back to 1966. Using an interdisciplinary analysis of published literature and reports, this paper assesses whether wider social, political and ethical dynamics can better explain this intriguing anomaly. We conclude with critical implications for the sociology of the professions. Furthermore, we argue that continuing to ignore the veterinary profession, and animals more generally, in sociological research will result in an impoverished and partial understanding of contemporary healthcare and occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Gayatri Spivak's journey of subalternity, demonstrating the empirical and sociological salience of this category beyond its theoretical and epistemic features, by highlighting its potential for increasing our understanding of society and bringing about social change. This argument contests assumptions in the literature about an epistemic/empirical fracture in Spivak's work, recasting her theoretical frameworks as sociologically relevant. Moreover, it demonstrates that this sociological reading, although it goes 'against the grain' of Spivak's own reticence about understanding subalternity sociologically, is well-founded: the theoretical-epistemic aspects of Spivak's subalternity contribute to analyses about the situation of subaltern groups under colonialism and neoliberal globalisation and the means by which that subordination can be challenged. This illustrates that her conceptions of subalternity maintain sociological specificity vis-a-vis vague characterisations of subordination (e.g. oppression). Spivak's later reflections on subalternity then grapple with the sociological deadlocks of her early approach: the disentanglement between subalternity and class exploitation. Her work thus delineates an explanatory matrix, interweaving sociological, philosophical and literary tools to explore entangled aspects of the subaltern condition. This systematic reading of Spivak's approach expands and contests current scholarship, highlighting its sociologically compelling aspects and indicating the analytical and transformative potential of her matrix for future sociological debates on subalternity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Savage and Burrows (2007) have argued that one way to invigorate sociology's 'empirical crisis' is to take advantage of live, web-based digital transactional data. This paper argues that whilst sociologists do indeed need to engage with this growing digital data deluge, there are longer-term risks involved that need to be considered. More precisely, C. Wright Mills' 'sociological imagination' is used as the basis for the kind of sociological research that one might aim for, even within the digital era. In so doing, it is suggested that current forms of engaging with transactional social data are problematic to the sociological imagination because they tend to be ahistorical and focus mainly on 'now casting'. The ahistorical nature of this genre of digital research, it is argued, necessarily restricts the possibility of developing a serious sociological imagination. In turn, it is concluded, there is a need to think beyond the digitized surfaces of the plastic present and to consider the impact that time and temporality, particularly within the digital arena, have on shaping our sociological imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of live sociology in situations of pain and suffering is the focus of this article. An outline of the challenges of understanding pain is followed by a discussion of Bourdieu's 'social suffering' (1999) and the palliative care philosophy of 'total pain'. Using examples from qualitative research on disadvantaged dying migrants in the UK, attention is given to the methods that are improvised by dying people and care practitioners in attempts to bridge intersubjective divides, where the causes and routes of pain can be ontologically and temporally indeterminate and/or withdrawn. The paper contends that these latter phenomena are the incitement for the inventive bridging and performative work of care and live sociological methods, both of which are concerned with opposing suffering. Drawing from the philosophy of total pain, I highlight the importance of (1) an engagement with a range of materials out of which attempts at intersubjective bridging can be produced, and which exceed the social, the material, and the temporally linear; and (2) an empirical sensibility that is hospitable to the inaccessible and non-relational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an increasing sociological interest in the middle classes and their educational practices, research has largely concentrated on the white middle classes. This paper considers the case of the minority ethnic (ME) middle classes through empirical data from a small, exploratory study conducted in England with 36 minority ethnic, 'middle-class' individuals (parents, pupils and young professionals) from a range of ME backgrounds. It is argued that participants experienced ME middle-class identity as a profoundly conflictual and precarious space, negotiated through a matrix of relational classed and racialized positionings. 'Authentic' middle-classness remains the preserve of white society due to racial inequalities and the dominance of whiteness as the popularly legitimated marker of middle classness. Moreover, attempts to define an acceptable, legitimate and principled ME middle-class identity are compromised by the discursive threats of 'inauthenticity', 'pretension' and 'misrecognition'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the November 2007 issue of "The Sociological Review and cites a paper presented in this edition by Steve Fuller which examines questions arising from the history of British sociology.

The history of social research can be read as a critical endeavour inasmuch as it unbuttons the normalcy of collective action by multiplying relevant actors and the imaginaries of social reality. I show how paying close sociological attention to what I call cosmopolitical events, offers one approach to such a conception of critical social science. In the paper, I explore the effects of the Japanese events at the Fukushima nuclear plant to unfold its significance as consequences that disrupt, question and alter common and taken for granted modes of ordering social life. Specifically, through approaching Fukushima as a cosmopolitical event we gain insight into the complex processes of normalizing social relations. Moreover, the Fukushima event and its effects demand to extend the history of the sociological imagination to the social and political relevance of the non-human. What emerges is a practice that enriches the process of unfolding research agendas and conceptual space to include those that have been excluded, marginalized, forgotten, unconsidered, or disfigured in the process of normalizing social and political action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norbert Elias was unusual amongst sociologists of his generation in placing international relations at the centre of sociological analysis - and he was ahead of various theorists of the state who argued in the 1970s and 1980s for enlarging the boundaries of sociology to include relations between states. In Elias's process sociology, international competition for power and security, and 'elimination struggles', have led to larger territorial monopolies of power. In the case of 'civilized' societies, inner pacification has developed alongside preparation for, and repeated involvement in, interstate war. Elias argued that there is no parallel to the 'civilizing process' in international relations, but he observed that higher levels of human interconnectedness have created pressures on people to become better attuned to each other's interests over greater distances. However, many groups react against perceived threats to power, autonomy and prestige and, in general, everyday orientations have lagged behind advances in international interdependence. For Elias, the sociological challenge was to understand how the species can acquire greater control over the processes of global integration. This paper discusses the place of international relations in Elias's account of the civilizing process; it maintains that the approach should be linked more closely with the 'English School of international relations' and its analysis of 'civility' and 'standards of civilization' in world affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that what is missing from many ethnographic accounts is a recognition that dilemmas inevitably emerge for the researcherbeforethey make contact with the research setting,duringthe process of ethnographic research, and subsequently in the lengthy time taken to unravel the theoretical importance of the researchafterthe fieldwork has ended. Using a comparison of two ethnographies as case studies, and by recourse to a realist methodology, such dilemmas are, we argue, overdetermined by many non-observable social structures that influence the everyday research process. We argue that specificmechanismsdetermine both the process and the outcome of the ethnographic journey in thebefore,duringandafterstages of research. For example we demonstrate how biography and the wider process of institutional knowledge production are two key resources that influence research practice. We use the termpragmatic realismas a means to reflect upon some of the connections between the dilemmas of research and real structures in these three stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is presently much theoretical discourse claiming that nature is being socially constructed or even abolished. Some authors celebrate this development and others lament it. Still others bracket nature's dynamics out of the analysis. The present paper critically assesses these theories and methodologies concerning relations between social practices and processes of nature. It then develops an alternative argument. The expansion of society into wilderness areas has brought new disturbances of nature into society. Pristine nature has been replaced by socially encompassed primal nature, which retains its capacity for independent dynamics that affect social constructions. Moreover, nature remains embedded in technology and so does its potential to escape control. These hybrids constructed by humans and nonhumans recombine processes and materials of nature. Now that this recombinant nature has been integrated into society and new primal dynamics of nature have been internalised, there is increasing reason to incorporate the forces of nature into sociological analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author presents a response to the article "The body in Sociology," by Alexandra Howson and David Inglis, published in this issue of the journal "The Sociological Review." According to the author, Howson and Inglis' paper is both timely and thought provoking. However, the author's contention is that their argument, made through five claims, is fundamentally flawed. The first two concern the emergence of sociological interest in "the body," which, according to the author, are sound. The third is that the work of M. Merleau-Ponty, which has been central to many forms of "corporeal sociology," lacks an account of social structure and is insufficiently sociological in focus to be of use to sociology. The fourth suggests that the work of Pierre Bourdieu, which might be deemed a corrective to Merleau-Ponty, cannot serve this purpose without generating a form of social structural determinism which would undermine the benefits of Merleau-Ponty's contribution. The fifth speculates on whether cultural studies might not provide a more fruitful avenue for those who wish either to avoid determinism or to rejoin Merleau-Ponty. The author's contention is with the third and fourth of these claims, though his view also necessarily has implications for the fifth.

Du Bois's work, especially his early work, was explicitly concerned with morality, including dedicated studies into the moral lives of black Americans and their perceived moral standing in American society. His wider oeuvre was also regularly concerned with the role of stratified moral status and power-laden judgement as instruments of oppression. Yet, the long-overdue revival of Du Bois's contribution to sociology has given little credence to his work on morality. Likewise, the resurgent sociology of morality has scarcely engaged with Du Bois's work at all. The primary intention of this article is thus to introduce and explore Du Bois's work on morality. In so doing, the article sets out the aims of Du Bois's work on morality, explores his empirical investigations into the topic, and argues that recognition of Du Bois's ongoing concern for the relationship between racialisation and moral status allows the moral content of his more familiar writings and concepts to come to the fore. Throughout, it is argued that Du Bois's work on morality anticipates many of the features of contemporary sociologies of morality in its emphasis on moral contestation and power, in its focus on practices and care, and in its intention to use the study of morality for the purpose of social reform. But his work also goes beyond current approaches in its recognition of the significance of moral judgement to processes of racialisation. How Du Bois's work contributes to the future of current sociologies of morality is the focus of the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the collaborative process of making a watercolour animation drawn from research with women who swim wild in rivers, lakes and seas. Discussing graphic storytelling in sociology, anthropology and related disciplines, we share our experiences of creative collaboration, describing in detail the practical process of making a research-led animation to share with the wider swimming community and situating the project within a larger discussion of graphic and public ethnography, live methods and the possibilities of representation. The article contributes to the ways we can make methods lively and shows how we can both literally and metaphorically animate sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we tentatively plot the coordinates of a sensory sociology approach for empirically investigating how the popular culture genre of climate fiction operates affectively within environmental activism. We begin by theorising the genre of climate fiction as an affective potentiality capable of stimulating the imagination of hopeful climate futures and energising imaginactivism, that is the activist quest for the attainment of better climate alternatives. In this theorisation we draw on McKenzie Wark's account of ecological speculative fiction, Elizabeth Grosz's bioaesthetics and Bernard Stiegler's 'neganthropology'. We outline a range of speculative, inventive, utopian, atmospheric, enactive and sensory methodologies for the sociological study of climate fiction as an affective potentiality. By employing these methodologies, we argue, researchers will be better attuned to the affective intensities and atmosphere of anticipation, speculation and collective enactment of dreams of better climate futures that climate fiction is poised to catalyse in social settings of environmental activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented to the issue, which draws heavily from papers read at a 1979 conference held in Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Hull University in England.

Age identities are a product of negotiation between acquaintances and intimates. The negotiation takes place against a background of assumptions about appropriate ways of moving through the life span. This study of ageing in the context of an English church shows how organisational needs must be taken into account in understanding the ageing strategies of participants. The paper is based on fieldwork conducted in the south of England in 1985-6. The analysis draws on the literature of social gerontology which is mainly American. It is part of a larger ESRC-funded study of the social construction of old age in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years writers in the field of the sociology of gender have turned to psychoanalysis for insights into the psychological dimensions of female sexuality. The same insights are now being applied to the analysis of masculinity. This paper argues that the full advantages of this are undermined by the adoption of an object-relations perspective which restores the social determinism from which many such writers seek to escape. This argument is pursued through a detailed analysis of one recent text in the field -- The Sexuality of Men (eds) A. Metcalf and M. Humphries (1985) -- but is applied more widely to the treatment of sexuality in the sociology of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During its eighty-year history, the sociology of youth has provided a succession of partial explanations of the circumstances and responses of the young. The paper critically reviews this history and defines the challenge currently faced by sociologists: to develop a conceptual framework for understanding both the transitions young people pass through as they become adult, and the differential experiences of young people from different social groups. It is argued that such a framework requires the integration of the concepts of process and structure Secondary analysis of existing large data sets is suggested as an available means of meeting the challenge, since such data sets can provide both large representative samples which allow inter-group comparisons, and wide-ranging longitudinal data which allows the study of processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on fieldwork conducted in a British circus between 1975 and 1979.[1] It focuses on the dynamics of the frequent disappearance and reappearance characteristic of travelling circus shows in Britain. It shows that these dynamics are to be understood in terms of circus economics, social and semiotic constraints. It argues that, understood in these terms, the appearance and disappearance of circuses should not be taken as unequivocally confirming the notion of circus decline or, on the contrary, as supporting the notions of circus continuity (see White, 1977; Bouissac, 1976: 4; George and Mulford, 1977). Rather, they are structural characteristics of circus marginality epitomizing both circus precariousness and its endurance within the general socio-historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'New Working Class' theory, popularised in French sociology during the 1960s and 1970s, envisages the advent of a politically inspired class movement that rekindles the vision of a new social order as the technicians rise to become its vanguard. According to writers like Mallet and Touraine, these technical 'white-collars' tend to take over from the traditional manual groups in posing as the 'standard-bearers' of class-based industrial radicalism and solidarity. This paper proposes to trace the recent vein of discussions on the class implications of occupational and technological transformation from such a neo-Marxian perspective. It also attempts to apply these arguments to interpret the characteristics of a new occupation in Hong Kong -- the technicians working m the electronics and related industries, with reference to an empirical study carried out in the early 1980s.[1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many writers hold that research method is necessarily determined by theory, and it is common to suggest the relationship between functionalism and survey method in post-war US sociology as an example of this. This paper questions the extent to which that method and that theory were in reality meaningfully associated, and argues against the position that theory and method are in general invariably connected in the way suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a critique of the tradition of sociological writing which has emphasized the ability of occupations organized on the professional principle to gain for their members an occupational monopoly and a position in the division of labour which provides them with autonomy to determine occupational tasks and functions. It is argued that theories which seek to account for the conditions which provide the framework for successful resistance to rationalization and codification in professional work have not adequately articulated the concept of power. The theoretical discourse on professional and managerial power has therefore tended, with few exceptions, to locate the determination and exercise of power as though it were a zero sum commodity deriving from social relations or organizations. Theories predicting the emergence of professional rather than mangerial forms of control therefore have little explanatory ability other than for a particular mode of rationality within a limiting theoretical framework. This analysis represents an attempt to propose a mediation between structuralist theories of power and organization and those theoretical reflections on the professions which locate the determination of occupational authority in a broader matrix of social processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most curious omissions in the sociology of work and occupations is what would seem to be one of the most basic questions: When is an occupation an occupation? While there have been recent attempt to explore the issue by examining the history of census categories,[1] these represent the end-point of the process at which new occupations receive official recognition and legitimation. My purpose in this paper is to discuss how occupations form and come to be recognized as such. The creation of health visiting between 1850 and 1919 will be taken as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper notes an increased interest in issues of skill and class structure evident amongst both Marxist and non-Marxist sociologists. It examines three questions in this area. Firstly, what theories are available to sociologists? How adequate are they, particularly for an understanding of trends in manual work in Britain? Finally, what improvements can be suggested?
Two dominant grand-theoretical approaches, post-industrialism and Marxism, are analysed. Post-industrialist theories of 'skilling' are rejected as empirically implausible and Marxist versions of 'deskilling' rejected on theoretical and empirical grounds. None the less, a secular decline in levels of training as measured by length of apprenticeships is noted, but the question of deskilling requires further research. A model of the relationships of skilled trades unions and capitalist employers under different local labour market conditions is suggested which, despite its simplicity, incorporates marked improvements upon the Marxist models that have been popular recently. In particular, it is strongly argued that an image of an asymmetric balance of forces adds considerably to an understanding of the variable relations between capital and skilled labour in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social inequality has been overwhelmingly studied from the perspective of those who are deprived and disadvantaged. The emphasis, accordingly, has been on lack of wealth, status and power. However, social inequality equally implies privilege and this has received little serious attention. Indeed, in the literature of sociology there are relatively few extended references to it.[1] With few exceptions those that exist tend to treat it unproblematically and often pejoratively. Thus the possessors of privilege are frequently cast as the villains of the piece and, even where the underdog has privileges in the sense of legal rights, these are commonly exposed as illusory or detrimental to his interests.[2] In order to contribute to the understanding of privilege in general, and thereby social inequality, this paper will consider the privileges of the professions.[3] This is because professions are examples of privilege not only in the sense of being privileged occupations, but also in the sense that the elites of professions are an integral part of the dominant elites of society.[4]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses upon the issue of methodological competence as discussed in Brown and Harris's work, arguing that theirs is a commonly held view of methodology which deserves a much. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical argument about the relationships between people and architectural space. Customarily, arguments of this type focus on the functional, the instrumental character of these relations. In so doing, they posit causal links between space and behaviour; they treat the former as active and the latter as passive facets of a determinate relationship. We suggest an alternative perspective---one that emphasizes human agency. We contend that people actively endow aspects of their physical environments with meanings; meanings on which they and others may, indeed do act. That is, we stress the symbolic as well as the functional utility of architectural space.
The explanatory potential of this approach is illustrated in two contexts. First, we examine data about the spatial distribution of residents in Homes for old people. These data are analysed with respect to the status--gender and mental designation--of residents and their customary locations in the sitting spaces and the sleeping and dining areas of the Homes. Second, we consider the allocation of space to personnel in office settings. These data are analysed with respect to the hierarchical status distinctions found in the settings and the correspondingly different meanings that status groups attribute to their spatial environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on sociology. The opposition between qualitative and quantitative is used to mark many different contrasts. Some of these that occurred in discussion at the SSRC Workshop are presented below. But immediately a problem arises. Sociology is a pluralistic discipline, characterized by numerous alternative conceptions of theory, explanation and data, that is, by different sociological approaches. Each different approach has its own conception of what is qualitative about social data and what are the problems and possibilities for the analysis of qualitative data. Listing approaches to sociology is hazardous, since approaches can be endlessly differentiated and any particular definition or categorization of approaches is inevitably challenged for omitting or mis-identifying crucial boundaries and for associating authors with others considered to be their opponents. Furthermore, any definitional activity is fraught with philosophical difficulties concerning the ontological status of the definiendum and methodological difficulties concerning the means through which the categories are derived. No attempt is made to engage with these difficulties here for it is not the intention to provide an account of approaches that does anything other than locate the discussion of qualitative data analysis.

Though necessarily selective, I want to present a biography of the research which principally focusses on 24 families with an epileptic child, to illustrate changing perspectives, emergent problems and some of the solutions, or attempted solutions, to overcome them, indicating my position then as it was; and how, in the light of an examination o[ the data, revisions in procedures and interpretations were required. In particular, the paper focusses on the problems of making sense of extensive data, much of which is biographical, collected on one of these families. Analysis of these accounts suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on issues and prospects related to the sociology of Wales. In Britain, the political successes of nationalist parties in the nineteen-seventies, and the ensuing debate about devolution, have given new confidence to those working in the periphery that their contribution to social science need not be automatically relegated to the category of the quaint and parochial collection of more tassels from the Celtic fringe. It is a propitious time to consider the condition of sociology with regard to peripheral areas of Britain, and the publication of a new collection of research papers affords the opportunity to do so for Wales in particular.

This paper argues that two models of illness can be identified within Parsons's paradigm--a structural model focusing on illness as incapacity for rle performance and a psychodynamic model focusing on illness as motivated deviance. Medical sociology, it will be said, has overlooked the psychodynamic or deviance model while recognizing and criticizing the structural or incapacity model under the misplaced label of deviance. It will further be ventured that while some elements of these two models can easily be fitted into a conservative view of medical practice, other elements are more difficult to reconcile with conservatism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I shall pursue a rather different line of argument in an attempt to establish the theoretical and substantive interest of a sociological analysis of the detective thriller. More particularly, I want to suggest that the work of at least one writer who exerted an important influence on the development of the genre, Dashiell Hammett, can be read as supplying a salutary corrective to current sociological discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines certain aspects of the relationship between class structure and clientelistic politics by focusing on a specific case: that of modern Greece. In particular, by looking at the way in which functionalist sociology and anthropology, on the one hand, and certain brands of Marxism, on the other, deal with the problem of political clientelism (mainly in the Greek context but also more generally), an attempt will be made (a) to formulate some general metatheoretical[1] guidelines on the manner in which such a relationship should be conceptualised; and (b) to give a brief sketch of the way in which the class-clientelism relationship has changed with the historical development of Greek capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article raised some issues concerning the interpretation of Wittgenstein's work and the relevance his ideas might have for the social sciences, especially for sociology and anthropology. Clammer argues that Wittgensteinianism produces paradoxical conclusions by, on the one hand, rendering sociology impossible while, on the other, logically requiring it but yet providing no clue as to what sociological course we might chart. In reaching this, as he himself admits, preliminary conclusion, Clammer addresses problems raised by Wittgenstein's notions of 'language game' and 'forms of life' and their possible implications for the autonomy of belief systems, the relativity of rationalities and the consequences of both of these for understanding alien cultures. His paper raises important issues about the interpretation of Wittgenstein's position which I would like to consider. Also I want briefly to suggest that there are sociological practices consistent with the ideas contained within Wittgenstein's later work. I do not particularly want to argue that Wittgenstein should be henceforth treated as one of the Founding Fathers of sociology, simply that his work can be taken as an important source of inspiration for certain kinds of sociological work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the content and methodological function of Durkheim's theory of human nature. Such attention as this topic has already received in the secondary literature has usually been a by-product of a concern with other, more salient aspects of Durkheim's sociology, such as his theories of suicide and anomie. As a result, his conception of man has not received the detailed examination that has been accorded to these other dimensions of his thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the journal's monographs on issues related to sociology which are published twice a year and lists its latest monographs as of December 2016.

A bibliography of several books on the topic of sociology is presented including "Culture in a Liquid Modern World" by Zygmunt Bauman, "The Strange Non-Death of Neoliberalism" by Colin Crouch, and "A Sociology of Religious Emotion" by Ole Riis and Linda Woodhead.

A list of books received for review by the journal as of May 2009 is presented, including "New Guests of the Irish Nation," by Bryan Fanning, "Public or Private Economies of Knowledge? Turbulence in the Biological Sciences," by Mark Harvey and Andrew McMeekin, and "Religious America, Secular Europe?" by Peter Berger, Grace Davie and Effie Fokas.

This article investigates the specificity of sociological materials and methods in relation to other disciplines and practices (art, literature, science and journalism) and questions the opportunities for sociological attentiveness, experimentation and failure in the context of contemporary UK professional, institutional and academic/ intellectual constraints. It asks whether materials and methods are 'sociological' to the extent that they tell about the problems of society, or whether it is the unique relation of sociology to its materials and methods that defines sociological practice. Exploring these questions in relation to a project that was researched and written during an extended period of unpaid leave (ie outside the profession and the institution), the article also examines some of the consequences of a changed relation between sociology and experience. What would be the implications if the aim of sociology was not only to theorize and explain experience but also, sometimes, to be an 'informed provocation' of experience? The second part of the article considers what the concept of 'make-believe' might offer sociology - not in terms of what sociology is, but rather in terms of what it does with its materials and methods. Finally, the article returns to the most common material that sociologists work with - words - and asks how it is possible to stay receptive to the vitality of words as forces in the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of sociological work exploring the importance and meaning of kinship. Much of this work has criticized the 'individualization' thesis according to which changes in family structures over time have been interpreted as reflecting a fundamental decline in family values. Highlighting continuities as well as change in family life, this work has also suggested ways to move beyond the individualization debate and to develop alternative frameworks for the study of contemporary families and personal life, notably through the analysis of related practices. For various reasons, this recent work has focused primarily on the experience and practices of adults in 'ordinary' rather than more difficult family circumstances. This article aims to complement this work by focusing on the difficult family experiences of young people affected by parental substance use. It is argued that it is important not to lose sight of such experiences in order that sociological thinking reflect the diversity of family practices and the resources available to support them, including at younger ages. In addition, the importance of developing concepts or a language facilitating the exploration and communication of the emotional and symbolic significance of these practices is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performative co-construction of academic life through myriad metrics is now a global phenomenon as indicated by the plethora of university research or journal ranking systems and the publication of 'league' tables based on them. If these metrics are seen as actively constituting the social world, can an analysis of this 'naturally occurring' data reveal how these new technologies of value and measure are recursively defining the practices and subjects of university life? In the UK higher education sector, the otherwise mundane realities of academic life have come to be recursively lived through a succession of research assessment exercises (RAEs). Lived through not only in the RAEs themselves, but also through the managed incremental changes to the academic and organizational practices linked to the institutional imaginings of planning for, and anticipating the consequences of, the actual exercises. In the 'planning for' mode an increasing proportion of formerly sociology submissions have shifted into 'social policy'. This is one instance of how institutional 'gameplaying' in relation to the RAE enacts the social in quite fundamental ways. Planning an RAE 2008 submission in Sociology required anticipation of how a panel of 16 peers would evaluate 39 institutions by weighted, relative worth of: aggregated data from 1,267 individuals who, between them cited a total of 3,729 'outputs'; the detailed narrative and statistical data on the research environment; and a narrative account of academic 'esteem'. This data provided such institutional variables as postgraduate student numbers, sources of student funding, and research income from various sources. To evaluate the 'quality' of outputs various measures of the 'impact' and/or 'influence' of journals, as developed from the Thomson-Reuters Journal Citation Reports, was linked to the data. An exploratory modelling exercise using these variables to predict RAE 2008 revealed that despite what we might like to think about the subtle nuances involved in peer review judgements, it turns out that a fairly astonishing 83 per cent of the variance in outcomes can be predicted by some fairly simple 'shadow metrics': quality of journals in the submission, research income per capita and scale of research activity. We conclude that measuring the value of sociology involves multiple mutual constructions of reality within which ever more nuanced data assemblages are increasingly implicated and that analysis of this data can make explicit some of the parameters of enactment within which we operate in the contemporary academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the affect and effects of different imaginaries, heterotopia and the non-relation between visual apparatus, power and discourse, and the importance of multiplying perspectives and social actors in sociology.

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including figurational sociology attempts to provide a unifying framework for the analysis of humanity, intergenerational transmission of Norbert Elias and monopolization of violence.