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This paper draws attention to the health‐related work that disabled people do when engaging with rehabilitation services. Medical sociology has a rich history of looking at the 'illness work' that patients do, while disability studies scholars have explored the cultural value placed upon paid work and the effects on social status of being unable to work. Yet, a longstanding froideur between these two disciplines, which have fundamentally opposed ontologies of illness and disability, means that neither discipline has attended closely to the rehabilitation‐related work that disabled people do. The concept of 'adjusting' to illness highlights seemingly irreconcilable disciplinary differences. Yet this article argues that the notion of 'adjustment work' can elucidate the socio‐political character of the work disabled people do in their rehabilitation, which could create a more substantial and sustainable dialogue on this subject between disability studies and medical sociology. To make this case, we discuss interview data from the Rights‐based Rehabilitation project, which sought to explore disabled people's lived experiences of rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical race theory is growing in popularity in Britain. However, critics and advocates of critical race theory (CRT) in Britain have neglected the racialized social system approach. Through ignoring this approach, critics have thus "missed the target" in their rebuttals of CRT, while advocates of CRT have downplayed the strength of critical race analysis. By contrast, in this paper, I argue that that through the racialized social system approach, critical race theory has the conceptual flexibility to study British society. As a practical social theory, critical race theory provides us with the tools to study the realities and reproduction of racial inequality. To demonstrate this strength of CRT, and to demonstrate its theoretical nature, I discuss the conceptual framework of the racialized social system approach, paying specific attention to the notions of social space, the racial structure and racial interests; the racialized interaction order, racialized emotions, and structure and agency; and racial ideology, racial grammar, and racialized cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses a survey of British academic human geographers enquiring about change and diversification within personal research activities, their nature, motivations and impacts. It argues that this is widespread and a significant aspect of the production of contemporary geographical knowledge. The findings highlight the range of motivations underpinning research change, its impacts and mediation through the institutional context of British human geography. It concludes that despite a more prescriptive institutional context geographers have a degree of autonomy, albeit somewhat fettered, to shape their own research trajectories to some extent. This provides some important capacity with which to engage with imminent challenges facing the discipline in the UK). The paper complements recent critical histories of geography and sociological accounts of the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a multi-layered exploration of the diversity management field in the UK. In doing so, it aims to address two problematic tendencies in the current diversity research: the focus on single-level explorations, and the polarization between critical and mainstream approaches. Using Bourdieu's concept of field, I develop a theoretical framework that conceptualizes the field of diversity management in three constituents: diversity discourse, diversity practice and diversity practitioners. The framework is used to analyse empirical evidence generated through semi-structured interviews with 19 diversity managers of large private-sector companies. This study reveals the presence of a gap between the diversity discourse and practice, and the absence of any standard set of qualifications and skills requirement for practitioners. The findings demonstrate the twofold role of discourse in drawing the boundaries of the diversity management field. First, it is instrumental in constructing diversity management as distinct from equal opportunities. Second, the use discourse functions as a mechanism to control the entry of practitioners into this field, which otherwise has low entry barriers. The paper offers a contribution to management research in general and equality and diversity research in particular through its original use of Bourdieuan sociology in an empirical study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context This paper sets out to analyse and interpret the complex events of the last 20 years in order to understand how the teaching and learning of clinical communication has emerged as a core part of the modern undergraduate medical curriculum in most medical schools in the UK. Methods The paper analyses the effects of key political, sociological, historical and policy influences on clinical communication development. Results Political influences include: the effects of neo-liberalism on society and on the professions in general; the challenging of traditional notions of professionalism in medicine; the creation of an internal market within the National Health Service, and the disempowerment of the medical lobby. Sociological influences include: the effects of a ‘marketised’ society on medicine and subtle shifts in the doctor−patient relationship because of this; the emergence of globalised information through the Internet, and the influence of increased litigation against doctors. Historical influences include: the effects of a change in emphasis for medical education away from an inflated factual curriculum towards a curriculum that recognises the importance of student attitudes and the teaching and learning of clinical communication skills. Policy influences include the important effects of Tomorrow's Doctors and the Dearing Report on the modern medical curriculum. Conclusions The paper concludes with a developmental map that charts the complex influences on clinical communication teaching and learning and a brief commentary on the growing body of teachers who deliver and develop the subject today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to provide an overview of ethical issues related to social research with children. It sets the discussion in the context of current debates about researching children in the UK, and explores the extent to which children should be regarded as similar to, or different from, adults in social research, focusing on how children are positioned as vulnerable, incompetent and relatively powerless in society in general, and how this conceptualisation of children needs to be taken into account in social research. The paper concludes with some practical and methodological suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that the speciality of obstetrics is considered to be a high risk area, indeed it is estimated that in the UK, maternity services account for massive 60% of all the NHS litigation claims burden; scholarly activity in childbirth performance as part of the risk society is relatively underdeveloped when compared to other areas of health. It is the extent of the influence of risk upon the maternity services that makes this underdevelopment especially striking. In an effort to present childbirth as a worthwhile site for empirical investigation and theoretical discussion, this paper attempts to review the sociology of childbirth and to consolidate some of the multidisciplinary contributions made to date on childbirth within the risk society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was concerned with the changing nature of adoptive kinship. The analysis was located in the context of current sociological and anthropological theory and parallels were drawn with other alternative family forms i.e. gay and lesbian families, and families formed by new reproductive technologies. Adoption as a family form has largely been neglected in sociological and anthropological literature, yet the changing nature of adoption, particularly in relation to open adoption and gay and lesbian adoption, means that it has an important contribution to make to new discourses of kinship. Adoption is far more likely to feature in psychological and child welfare literature than that on the family and kinship, yet it is a unique addition to the heterogeneous family landscape with a profound impact on cultural definitions of family and kinship. By considering contemporary adoption practice through a social construction and kinship theory lens, the paper argues that new kinship studies are helpful in conceptualizing adoptive kinship. Adoption also has a valuable and significant contribution to make to contemporary kinship theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central concern of this paper is that there has been a move within British sociology to subsume (or sometimes, even replace) the concept of 'family' within ideas about personal life, intimacy and kinship. It calls attention to what will be lost sight of by this conceptual move: an understanding of the collective whole beyond the aggregation of individuals; the creation of lacunae that will be (partially) filled by other disciplines; and engagement with policy developments and professional practices that focus on 'family' as a core, institutionalized, idea. While repudiating the necessity (and indeed, pointing out the dangers) of providing any definitive answer to definitions of 'family', the paper calls for critical reflection on the implications of these conceptual moves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative measures of aspects of government in different countries are a rapidly growing industry. This paper offers a broad-ranging critique of the state of the art. The two central questions are (a) How do currently available international measures of governance gain attention from non-expert audiences, and (b), How understandable are they likely to be to these audiences?' Findings from a range of relevant literature are brought to bear on three prominent sets of international measures, and conclusions are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: While screening uptake is variable, many individuals feel they 'ought' to participate in screening programmes to aid the detection of conditions amenable to early treatment. Those not taking part in screening are often presented as either hindered by practical or social barriers or personally at fault. Why some people choose not to participate receives less consideration. Methods: We explored screening nonparticipation by examining the accounts of participants who chose not to participate in screening offered by a national research trial of atrial fibrillation (AF) screening in England (SAFER: Screening for Atrial Fibrillation with ECG to Reduce stroke). AF is a heart arrhythmia that increases in prevalence with age and increases the risk of stroke. Systematic screening for AF is not a nationally adopted programme within the United Kingdom; it provides a unique opportunity to explore screening nonparticipation outside of the norms and values attached to existing population‐based screening programmes. We interviewed people aged over 65 (n = 50) who declined an invitation from SAFER and analysed their accounts thematically. Results: Beyond practical reasons for nonparticipation, interviewees challenged the utility of identifying and managing AF earlier. Many questioned the benefits of screening at their age. The trial's presentation of the screening as research made it feel voluntary—something they could legitimately decline. Conclusion: Nonparticipants were not resistant to engaging in health‐promoting behaviours, uninformed about screening or unsupportive of its potential benefits. Instead, their consideration of the perceived necessity, legitimacy and utility of this screening shaped their decision not to take part. Patient or Public Contribution: The SAFER programme is guided by four patient and carer representatives. The representatives are embedded within the team (e.g., one is a co‐applicant, another sits on the programme steering committee) and by participating in regular meetings advise on all aspects of the design, management and delivery of the programme, including engaging with interpreting and disseminating the findings. For the qualitative workstream, we established a supplementary patient and public involvement group with whom we regularly consult about research design questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the innovative ways to address gaps in research concerning young people and disabled children, impact of disability studies on disabled children research, and policy concerning the rights of young people and disabled children.

This paper is about tendencies to the subversion of sociology as a discipline. It connects external factors of the wider socio-political environment of higher education in the UK, especially those associated with the audit culture and new systems of governance, with the internal organization of the discipline. While the environment is similar for all social science subjects, the paper argues that there are specific consequences for sociology because of characteristics peculiar to the discipline. The paper discusses these consequences in terms of the changing relationship between sociology and the growing interdisciplinary area of applied social studies as a form of 'mode 2 knowledge'. It argues that while sociology 'exports' concepts, methodologies and personnel it lacks the internal disciplinary integrity of other 'exporter' disciplines, such as economics, political science and anthropology. The consequence is an increasingly blurred distinction between sociology as a discipline and the interdisciplinary area of applied social studies with a potential loss of disciplinary identity. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this loss of identity is associated with a reduced ability to reproduce a critical sensibility within sociology and absorption to the constraints of audit culture with its preferred form of mode 2 knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we look at the history of social survey development in Japanese sociology. First, the history of social research in Japan before World War II is explored. Second, the introduction of survey research to Japan during the American occupation after World War II is examined, and third, the present state and roles of social survey research in Japanese sociology is discussed. Social research was introduced as an administrative tool for the government. Sociology and social research were developed under British empiricism and American pragmatism, but Japanese academia has been based on a metaphysical approach. Social research introduced as a practical tool long had difficulty in being accepted by Japanese academia. For this reason, most sociologists in universities did not use social survey research for practical purposes, but pursued qualitative methodologies for analyzing data to gain academic prestige even after Social Stratification and Mobility (SSM) and Sabro Yasuda's research projects spread social survey methods in the field of Japanese sociology. Such academics did not think that findings acquired through qualitative case studies had to be confirmed through quantitative data to serve a practical purpose, nor did they believe that quantitative data could be better understood when examined along side qualitative data. Social survey methods have been opposed by those who have favored case-study analysis methods in Japanese sociology. Needless to say, this opposition is fruitless. I propose that professional sociologists in Japanese universities should use social survey research for practical problems more frequently. This is the best way to establish sociology and social research as a science in Japanese society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although globalization has highlighted the danger of conflating state, society and nation, sociologists remain insufficiently alert to such banal nationalism. Newspapers offer a strong test case of the extent of diversity in the construction of state, national and social boundaries, since Billig and Anderson have argued they comprise a special case where their orientation to an audience simultaneously located in a state, society and nation allows them to reproduce a sense of national identity. However, despite the commonsense obviousness of the term, it proves remarkably difficult to define what the ‘British national press’ might comprise. Circulation density of titles varies substantially across different parts of the UK and editorial copy is altered to address diverse ‘national’ readerships. ‘British’ newspapers also circulate in other states, especially the Republic of Ireland. After reviewing how newspapers might be defined as ‘national’ and/or ‘British’, we conclude that both Anderson and Billig over-estimate the congruence, relevance and obviousness of state, society and national boundaries. If the conceptualization of such boundaries is problematic in the case of the press, it follows that it must be still more so for most other objects of sociological analysis, including that of ‘society’ itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management academics have tended to rely on ethics codes developed by social researchers in related fields to inform their research practice. The point of this paper is to question whether this remains a viable approach in the current climate that is characterized by a significant increase in ethical regulation across the social sciences. We suggest that management researchers face ethical issues of a different nature to those most frequently confronted by other social science researchers, and argue for more explicit acknowledgement of contextual factors involved in management research. An exploratory analysis of the content of ethics codes formulated by nine social scientific associations is undertaken to identify the main ethical principles they cover and to analyse their underlying ethical tone. Drawing attention to the principle of reciprocity, which is found in very few codes, we suggest that an ethics code could be used to formulate new ways of thinking about management research relationships. Despite the risk that ethics codes may encourage instrumental compliance with minimal ethical obligations, we suggest they also have the potential to reflect a more aspirational agenda. The development of an ethics code for management research should therefore be seen as a potentially worthwhile project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines lay accounts of illness and health gathered - by means of eight focus groups - from people living in two Cantonese-speaking communities in England. The authors concentrate on the manner in which Cantonese speakers recruit and mobilise various agents - such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), spirits, demons, food and the weather - to describe and explain aspects of their bodily and mental wellbeing. As well as providing information on what Cantonese speakers say about such matters, the data are also used to indicate how a concentration on 'accounts', rather than on 'beliefs', enables sociology to side-step a concern with the subjective and psychological and to focus, instead, on what is publicly available and verifiable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a plethora of codes of practice emerging to help business manage and communicate social and environmental performance, particularly the relationship with suppliers in developing countries. These codes lie at the heart of ethical trading or ethical sourcing, and often tackle issues central to sustainable business. However, there are often separate codes addressing social and environmental criteria, andno real coherence in either their development or implementation. Consequently, the contribution of ethical sourcing to the sustainable business agenda is open to question. This paper, drawing on the work indeveloping countries of the Natural Resources and Ethical Trade program as well as others in the field, examines the reasons behind the divergence in social and environmental codes of practice (see note). It explores the contribution ethical sourcing has made to increasing business responsibility, but argues that greater cohesion between social and environmental standards is necessary if this approach to valuechain management is to help achieve sustainable business goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the authors' comments on the report by John Westergaard and Ray Pahl to the University Grants Committee (UGC) on the institutional state of sociology in British universities. The paper has its limitations. Both authors were members of the working group of the UGC for the subject review, and so among the signatories of the report. At the time of writing this, the report is still only in the pipeline for publication so there are no reactions yet from sociologists to either argue or agree with the report. Nor can we make we make up for possible bias from inside commitment by offering startling benefit of inside view. Not because our lips are sealed; but because we do not think there is much unexpected to expose. We have no breathtaking revelations to make, for example, about mechanisms or pressures which might have been at work to induce the subject review panel to give the report a shape or direction at odds with some of its members' views. Circumstantial pressures there certainly were; but of a kind needing no special insight to anticipate or detect. The working group's recommendations bear no doubt a clear imprint from awareness of the acute, and politically determined, shortage of funds for higher education.

This article provides a detailed account of how surgeons perceived and used a device‐procedure that caused widespread patient harm: transvaginal mesh for the treatment of pelvic floor disorders in women. Drawing from interviews with 27 surgeons in Canada, the UK, the United States and France and observations of major international medical conferences in North America and Europe between 2015 and 2018, we describe the commercially driven array of operative variations in the use of transvaginal mesh and show that surgeons' understanding of their hands‐on, sensory experience with these variations is central to explaining patient harm. Surgeons often developed preferences for how to manage actual and anticipated dangers of transvaginal mesh procedures through embodied operative adjustments, but collectively the meaning of these preferences was fragmented, contested and deferred. We critically reflect on surgeons' understandings of their operative experience, including the view that such experience is not evidence. The harm in this case poses a challenge to some ways of thinking about uncertainty and errors in medical sociology, and calls for attention to a specific feature of surgical work: the extent and persistence of operative practices that elude classification as right or wrong but are still most certainly better and worse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, U.K. universities have increasingly sought to involve publics in research as active participants in the construction of academic knowledge. Sociologists of health have largely welcomed this enthusiasm for engaged and participatory ways of working, including methodologies long in use in the field such as patient‐led research and co‐creation. Despite the strong interest in engaged research, however, we argue that funding patterns, bureaucratic structures and an overreliance on people employed on casual contracts make it extremely difficult, often impossible, to do engaged research in British universities. Drawing on our own experiences, we show how our attempts to practise and deepen accountability to variously situated publics were constrained by the way our institution imagined and materially supported engagement. We argue that it falls to individual researchers to mitigate or work around structural barriers to engagement, and that this process creates dilemmas of complicity. If engaged research is to fulfil its remit for inclusion and its radical potential, researchers need to think carefully about how the U.K. engagement agenda entwines with processes of casualisation, acceleration and projectification, and how institutional recuperations of engagement can undermine its political and epistemic objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to recent calls to further incorporate the study of animal health care into the sociology of health and illness. It focuses on a theme with a long tradition in medical sociology, namely clinical communication, but explores matters distinctive to veterinary practice. Drawing on video recordings of 60 consultations across three small animal veterinary clinics in the United Kingdom, we explore how clients and veterinarians (or "vets") fashion fleeting "coalitions of touch," that aptly position the animal to enable the performance of medical work, often in the face of physical resistance. Building on recent developments in the study of haptic sociality, we analyse how care and emotional concern for animal patients is communicated through various forms of embodied action; thus, how the problematics of forced care and restraint are mitigated through distinctive ways of touching and holding animal patients. Moreover, while prior studies of small animal veterinary work have highlighted the significance of talk within the clinician–animal–client triad, we reveal the fundamentally embodied and collaborative work of managing and controlling patients during sometimes intense and fast‐moving episodes of veterinary care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British sociology was established as an academic discipline between 1945 and 1965, just as the British Empire was gearing up for a new phase of developmental colonialism backed by the social and other sciences. Many parts of the emerging sociological discipline became entangled with colonialism. Key themes and methods in sociology and the staff of sociology departments emerged from this colonial context. Historians have tended to place postwar British sociology in the context of expanding higher education and the welfare state, and have overlooked this colonial constellation. The article reconstructs this forgotten moment of disciplinary founding and explores three of the factors that promoted colonial sociology: the Colonial Social Science Research Council, the so-called Asquith universities, and the social research institutes in the colonies; and the involvement of sociologists from the London School of Economics in training colonial officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a examination into the history and trajectory of sociology as scholastic discipline in Great Britain, debating the flaws, challenges and possible future of the field. The author heavily cites and responds to a paper by John Holmwood included within the issue discussing the same topic. The author confirms and expands Holmwood's analysis, discussing the divergences which occurred in the discipline between the 1960s and the 1990s. Attention is particularly given to the role of sociology as an interdisciplinary art and the internal fragmentation of the discipline as a result.

The article focuses on the paper "British sociology and public intellectuals: consumer society and imperial decline," by Bryan Turner. Philippe Fontaine reviews the fact that sociologist have failed to document the gradual fall Great Britain from world power status, and discusses R. W. Cornell's views on the connection between empire and sociology. The anti-intellectual sentiment seen by Turner in Great Britain is critiqued, as well as Turner's insistence that social scientists chose certain topics to structure their investigations.

Debates regarding the status of age in social analysis are foundational to the sociology of aging, with scholars continually questioning the role of age as a social force. The contemporary politicization of age in British politics sheds useful light on this debate. During the past decade, age has emerged as a potent predictor of political preference in the United Kingdom, encompassing numerous intertwined political economic developments. At face value, the emergence of age as a key political variable substantiates the status of age in social analysis. However, I argue that it is articulations of age‐stratified politics, as much as the associations themselves, that should be of principle concern for the sociology of aging, because such articulations are reformulating age, aging and intergenerational relations. The sociology of aging should, therefore, engage with the contemporary politicization of age as a new answer to foundational debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous paper published in "British Journal of Sociology," the author made the claim that despite decades of intensive investigation, not a single researcher had ever shown that class difference in education was indeed unfair and unjust. It was a charge that was underwritten by a simple, if technical, argument, which drew attention to what, in logic, would have to be shown if such a difference was to be regarded as an inequality, rather than as just another difference in a differentiated society. In this case, it was suggested that, other things being equal, the researcher would have to meet one of two conditions. He would have to show that the different classes were similarly disposed to education or, alternatively, if there were evidence, as in Great Britain, of considerable working-class indifference to education, he would need to demonstrate that such indifference was itself the result of structural or cultural inequality. Only then, it was argued, could the researcher be said to have reasonably shown that class difference in education was unfair; for only then could the researcher be reasonably sure that such a difference was not, after all, just another difference.

Mannheim's 1923 essay 'The Problem of Generations' has often been described as the seminal theoretical treatment of generations as a sociological phenomenon. Yet in practice scant attention has been paid to the sociology of generations by British sociologists. This is despite the notion of generation being widespread in everyday language as a way of understanding differences between age groups and as a means of locating individuals and groups within historical time. This paper aims to raise the profile of the sociology of generations within British sociology. It is shown that Mannheim's essay can be read as a text which contributes to our understanding of key sociological issues, in addition to 'the problem of generations'. These issues include the nature of time, the relationship between biology and the social, and socio-psychological connections of language and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper poses the issue of distributive justice in terms of the relationship between social class, social mobility and educational attainment, in contemporary Britain. Having discussed various conceptions of justice which might vindicate class inequality, the authors investigate empirically the specifically meritocratic defence, and report survey data suggesting that the effect of class origins on class destinations is only partially mediated by educational achievement. Class privilege can compensate for educational failure. Gender is also significant since women tend to fare worse than men with similar class origins and credentials. This evidence undermines the claim that Britain is a meritocratic society and supports the suggestion that only by political intervention can equality of opportunity be rendered compatible with significant and structured inequality of outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the recent introduction and popularity of professional soccer in United States and Canada, this paper looks at whether the crowd violence which tends to accompany the game in Britain will be a problem in North America. Analysis includes a comparison of the historical development and present day conditions of the game in Britain and in North America. It is concluded that due to differences in the historical development and present day physical and social conditions within which the game is played, soccer in Britain lends itself to crowd violence whereas soccer in North America does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the role of economic history on the growth of social history in Great Britain. Discussion of both the rewards and the costs of treating social history; Confirmation that British social history is anchored in labor history; Relation of the theory and history of the proletariat.

The article reports on the list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the books are "The Church in Derbyshire," edited by M.R. Austin; "The Levellers in the English Revolution," edited by G.E. Aylmer; "Early Yorkshire Families," edited by C. Clay; "Sidney Iron Works Accounts," edited by D.W. Crossley; "The Registers of Roger Martival: Bishop of Salisbury," edited by K. Edwards; "Luffield Priary Charters," edited by G.R. Elvey; and others.

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In this article we address activist, patient advocate and medic perspectives on framing intersex, variations of sex characteristics and disorders/differences in sex development medical treatment as human rights abuses. Problematic aspects of intersex medical treatment have increasingly been highlighted in national debates and international human rights bodies. Some intersex activists have framed aspects of intersex medical treatment as human rights abuses since the 1990s. Other stakeholders in shaping medical treatment, such as patient advocates and medical professionals, are not always content with human rights framing, or even the term intersex. In order to address the different perspectives in this arena we provide background on the primary rights claims that have arisen followed by key human rights framing of these claims. We provide a short discussion of activism styles, looking at pan‐intersex social movements and variation‐specific patient associations as different styles of health social movements. The analysis of stakeholder perspectives on the use of human rights strategy in health areas provides a useful case study for medical sociology and policy in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the use of sampling techniques as a means of monitoring nationwide patterns of poverty in Great Britain in the early twentieth century. Friction between established statisticians and investigators within the Board of Trade and professional advisers such as A.L. Bowley, G. Udny Yule and G.H. Wood, inhibited the adoption of new techniques. Evidence suggests that career statisticians resented the employment of technical innovators on the Board's enquiries as undermining their own specialist status and as devaluing by implication the existing investigative skills of the department. Recent studies in the sociology of knowledge have identified a range of conditions conducive to the diffusion and adoption of new scientific techniques; in particular, the existence of effective channels of communication, of value consonance which ensures that potential adopters perceive new techniques as legitimate and useful, and of a supportive social structure which not only secures for innovators a recognized professional status but also provides established practitioners with the incentive to alter their methodology. During the period 1880-1914, British empirical social research lacked the unified professional identity, institutional setting and theoretical consensus necessary for the sustained diffusion of ideas and techniques, such as systematic statistical sampling.

Fifth Decennial Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth, University of Manchester, 14-18 July 2003 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-profile claims about the problem of the 'Baby Boomer' generation, made in media and policy circles in recent years, have contributed to an awakened interest in the sociology of generations. While many claims focus on resource issues arising from the existence of a relatively large cohort (for example, pensions and healthcare), they contain an implicit moral critique of the generation associated with the postwar 'boom' of the Sixties. This article examines the development of the cultural script of the Baby Boomer problem in British newspapers over a 26-year period, to examine how shifts in the discourse about the Boomer generation relate to wider social, economic, cultural and political trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood studies have argued for the social construction of childhood, respecting children and childhood in the present, and recognising children's agency and rights. Such perspectives have parallels to, and challenges for, disability studies. This article considers such parallels and challenges, leading to a (re)consideration of research claims to represent children's 'voices' and the current promotion of children's participation as researchers. It concludes how research with disabled children encourages due account of multiple communication methods to access, analyse and present research, and being more reflexive about assumptions of competency, expertise and agency in the roles of researcher and research participant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on some ideas from the sociology of knowledge to examine the UK Coalition government's approach to the 14-19 curriculum. Following a brief outline of a theoretical model, the article contrasts the ideas about the curriculum of the new Secretary of State, Michael Gove, with those they seek to replace. Following a brief discussion of Gove's ideas about vocational education, the article concludes by proposing a more coherent approach to the 14-19 curriculum and discusses its implications for the question of educational equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. This study investigated clinical psychologists' experiences of gifts offered by clients in therapeutic relationships. Since limited prior research of gifts has been undertaken, the study was informed by an inter-disciplinary approach, drawing on theories of 'the gift' from anthropology, sociology, and psychoanalysis. Design and method. A postal survey was undertaken on a 10% random sample of clinical psychologists living in the UK on the Register for Chartered Psychologists (Clinical Section) ( N= 441). Responses to three open-ended questions were analysed qualitatively, using thematic analysis. Results. The response rate to the questionnaire was 50.57% ( N= 223). Three main themes were identified: (1) acceptance as the 'correct' response to a gift, (2) potency of the gift, and (3) the impact of policy on professional autonomy. Conclusions. The findings suggested that many participants viewed the gift as a way of the client reciprocating something that was given in the therapy. Within a Maussian account, this notion of reciprocity positions the therapeutic contact as the 'first gift'. Few gifts were refused and frequently occasioned pleasure in the participants. Although some givers were understood as needing to give because of ascribed intra-individual characteristics or 'psychopathology', normative gifting practices were commonly held to apply in therapeutic relationships. Further research should explore clients' perspectives on gifting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to concerns about the ''diaspora' diaspora' effect on sociology of national identity and migration, and the related thought by about a national community as something more tangible and close-knit than just 'imagined' by . I refer to the ideas of the occupational 'platoon'- derived from and - and platoon friendship as representing the occupation-friendship-nationalism conflation. Having conducted narrative-biographic interviews with twenty-five Russian academics now residing in the United Kingdom and the United States, I look at how they understand their new, diasporic spaces as impacted by their Soviet platoon friendship - a feature that could be used as a criterion for recognising a putative diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between work—life balance (WLB) (i.e. the perceived sufficiency of the time available for work and social life) and well-being is well-documented. However, previous research failed to sufficiently explain why this relationship exists. In this research, the hypothesis was tested that a sufficient amount of the time available increases well-being because it facilitates satisfaction of personal needs. Using two separate samples (students and employees), the mediating role of need fulfilment in the relationship between WLB and well-being was supported. The results suggest that perceived sufficiency of the time available for work and social life predicts the level of well-being only if the individual's needs are fulfilled within that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociotropy and autonomy are conceptualized as two personality dimensions that relate to an individual's vulnerability to depression. Sociotropy is characterized as an excessive investment in interpersonal relationships and autonomy is characterized as an excessive concern with personal achievement and control over the environment. The present research project consisted of two studies examining the relationships between sociotropy-autonomy and interpersonal patterns in close relationships. Data collected via self-report and behavioural observations suggested that highly sociotropic individuals have a tendency to be high in control and low in affiliation towards individuals who are close to them. In contrast, the data suggested that highly autonomous individuals may be low in both control and affiliation towards people who are close to them. These findings are discussed in the context of the literature regarding the interpersonal characteristics of sociotropic and autonomous individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anti-‘death tax’ movement is the starting point for contemporary discussions of inheritance taxation. The political rhetoric surrounding calls for its repeal typically is met with analyses of the extent to which inheritance tax avoidance benefits the wealthy, and arguments that inheritance taxation is fair and ‘targeted’. This article suggests that engagement by tax lawyers with sociological theories of economic inheritance has the potential to revive this discourse. A renewed approach to inheritance taxation is of immediate concern to supporters of inheritance taxation in the United Kingdom, who face considerable obstacles posed by the increasing use of United States anti-inheritance tax movement political rhetoric by politicians. Durkheim's consideration of the conjugal family and, more recently, Beckert's sociology of inheritance are submitted as analyses that, amongst others, have particular potential. Such engagement also has the potential to revive the interest of sociologists in inheritance taxation, memorably described by MacNamee and Miller as a ‘sociological lacuna.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To examine the genetic and environmental contributions to the initiation of use and progression to more serious use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana during adolescence, and to examine the relationship between initiation and progression of substance use. Design The study used a twin-based design and a new theoretical model, the causal–common–contingent (CCC) model. This allows modelling of the relationship between initiation of use and progression to heavier use as a two-stage model and the examination of genetic and environmental influences on both stages, while taking into account their relationship. Participants The participants consisted of 1214 twin pairs (69% response rate) aged 11–19 years sampled from the UK population-based Cardiff Study of All Wales and North-west of England Twins (CaStANET). Measurements Data on adolescent initiation and progression to more serious use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana were obtained using self-report questionnaires. Findings Initiation of alcohol and progression to heavier alcohol use had separate but related underlying aetiologies. For cigarette and marijuana use the relation between initiation and progression to heavier use was stronger, suggesting greater overlap in aetiologies. For all three substances, environmental influences that make twins more similar (common environment) tended to be greater for initiation, while genetic influences were stronger for heavier use. Conclusions These findings have implications for policy decisions aimed at an adolescent and early adult age group. Specifically, these findings suggest that it may be more efficacious to focus alcohol interventions on risk factors for the development of heavier use rather than initiation of use. In contrast, interventions aimed at reducing the initiation of cigarettes and marijuana use may be more appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty years ago sociological research began to discover what workplace romance might mean for the participants. Since then management research has tended to adopt a functionalist approach, using survey methods, or third-party approaches to ask about company policy and negative consequences of workplace romance, warning of the dangers and consequences of romance and offering solutions for managers on how to deal with this potential problem. Drawing on the sexuality of organization and critical literature, and adopting a position of constructivist structuralism with a qualitative research method, this research looks at how the concept of workplace romance is defined and negotiated within a public-house setting. It examines the ‘rules of engagement’, the personal experiences and views of both managers and workers, as well as first-hand stories of workplace romance. Romance was conceptualized as ‘natural’ and something that could not be legislated for, where unwritten rules were defined but often ignored. However, the ‘rules of engagement’ emerged as favouring particular groups depending on gender, position in the hierarchy and sexual identity. Subjective value judgements are made, often resting on gendered assumptions of male and female behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how the marginalized young men, who are disproportionately black, are treated in Great Britain. The author remarks that while the experience of exclusion do help to produce alternative, compensatory value systems, and ideological diversity, their content is wholely negative and gives criminal lifestyles.

The career experience of men and women in British university sociology since 1950 is compared, using published data for the whole group and fresh data from a sample of departments. It is shown that, when like is compared with like, the outcomes for men and for women have not been as different as is often suggested; family reasons were more salient in women's careers, but in the end have not made much difference to their destinations. But the proportions of women recruited have varied over time, and the experience of both sexes has been strongly influenced by historical factors affecting different periods. Within the constraints which those have imposed, individuals have not all made the same choices, and that too has affected the outcomes.

Positivism has been declared dead in sociological theory circles, yet questions remain as to its viabilily among researchers. The authors present diagnostic evidence ahout positivism in sociological practice through a content analysis of journal articles published in the late 1960s and the late 1980s in the sociological journals of the USA and Britain. Using an index based on seven elements of positivism that were characteristic of the 'theory construction' movement of the late 1960s, the authors find evidence of the effects of time and nation on the use of positivism. Disaggregation of the index reveals that most of the observed change is associated with the elements of 'instrumental' positivism, parlicularly statistics. The results raise questions about the relationship between theory and research and about sociologists' philosophies of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing oppressed social groups with rights of representation is one suggestion for counteracting bias towards privileged groups in society. In order to counteract a bias towards their white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied membership, a number of trade unions have provided social groups with resources to self-organize and represent their group interests to mainstream decision-makers. However, enabling group representation at the same time as individual representation is problematic in trade unions that are organized along liberal democratic lines. This case study of UNISON shows that while the union supported the self-organization of oppressed social groups, these groups were excluded from matters affecting pay and working conditions. The article argues that this outcome reflects the difficulty of reconciling the representation of social groups with the representation of individuals in a liberal democratic organization. The implications of this organizational framework are illustrated by contrasting the organizing strategies of two women's self-organized groups. While one strategy (the organization of women shop stewards) fits the prevailing organizational structure, the other (the organization of all women) attempts to be different and may have more potential for counteracting the bias towards privileged groups in the future. The article argues that a radical organizational framework is required if oppressed social groups are to gain real power within trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]