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In his book "Collected Papers," sociologist Alfred Schutz offers a thorough going critique of the discipline of sociology as it is usually conceived, and attempts to re-found sociology on the basis of a theory of consciousness. Schutz begins his reasoning with a brief examination of what sociology is and does. Sociology, in contrast to philosophy, is ordinarily conceived to have as its subject how men act. Sociology, then, must examine the empirical rather than the logical, possibilities open to men. Instead of asking how well a certain sociological theory relates to other theories in the field and instead of trying to gauge how well statements of theory relate to the data, Schutz focuses on the relation of both theory and data to the phenomenon itself, the phenomenon of man in a social world. In this way, Schutz challenges both the theory of sociology and its supportive data. But, there is an ironic turn in Schutz's argument. The problem of sociology is not that its empirical methods are incorrect, but rather that its theorizing is faulty. In other words, sociological data are inadequate not because sociologists are unable to "get at" the data of everyday life with scientific methods, but because they do not think properly.

The article comments on papers presented in a symposium on the nature and scope of sociology. Like other theoretical sciences, sociology is concerned with knowledge, not action, and thus sociology consists solely in scientific method and techniques, and in the organized body of theory and knowledge developed through the application of these. In this view, social engineering, which is the application of this knowledge to practical problems as through social work, social reform, or Christian social reconstruction, is definitely not sociology, although many sociologists participate in such engineering. When a sociologist participates in social engineering, he should realize that he is stepping over the boundaries of his role as a scientist. Like moral philosophy, sociology studies what can be observed of men's interactions through the use of the senses, but unlike philosophy it proceeds to testing the truth by a purely inductive criterion. In science, the ultimate test of all theories and hypotheses must be an inductive examination of whether they conform to the facts of sensible phenomena. It is this which distinguishes the knowledge of science from that of mathematics, philosophy or theology. It is for this reason that metaphysical principles may not be invoked to prove scientific questions.

Tins paper is intended as an effort at taking-stock of the reference group concept after nearly three decades of use, the latter two of which have been marked by its more than ample employment. Its popularity indeed has so frequently led to its serving as an all-purpose post hoc explanation of behavior that it has led to the wry definition, "Your reference group is a group that you behave like and you behave like them because they're your reference group" (Cohen, 1962: 104). The inconsistencies, lack of clarity, but also areas of agreement which have marked the varied formulations of the concept, will be apparent from the following review and commentary. The Final discussion indicates some of the matters still to be considered in the use of thin important but perhaps overworked concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study of mental deficiency as a branch of mental medicine. Many regard the field to be of minor importance but it is actually a difficult one. It implies a wide understanding of psychology, neuropathology, sociology and genetics. The training, understanding and care of the high grade cases is a part of the major problem of constructing a sound democratic civilized community, in which every healthy citizen can play a useful part.

The article comments on the paper related to social development in the Philippines. The author of the paper had neglected the vast body of European and American study of and in both Western and non-Western societies. Even though it is justifiable that conceptualization and methodology must be developed in relation to the particular "time-space characteristics" of the research situation, it not justifiable to adopt some as yet undeveloped and essentially unknown "new" theory. The author of the paper had discarded too lightly the enormous experience of "Western" social scientists in observation and interpretive analysis of socio-cultural patterns ranging from the most "scared" to the most nearly "secular." The use of scientific experience remains the most powerful intellectual guide which man has yet devised. The de-emphasis of "quantitativism" in favor of field and problem-oriented study is vitally necessary. The author of the paper easy slip into the concretistic error of assuming that the historical peculiarities of Philippine societal development require unique interpretive tools.

The article discusses about the sociological papers for the people. In response to a challenge of this order from the Editors of the "Beacon," a series of popular sociological expositions, or, as they might be called, "Papers for the People" has been designed by the senior Editor of the "Sociological Review." Some idea of their scope and aims may be gathered from the following titles adopted for representative specimens of the projected papers. The series begins with a paper entitled "Rival Economies and Their Life Values." The first of these papers on current social evolution will appear in the January issue of the "Beacon." For the information of those not acquainted with this journal, written largely by and for men tried in the furnace of the war and found resistant to the temptation of disillusionment, it may be stated the "Beacon" is a monthly magazine devoted to the fashioning of a finer vision of life for the coming times. Now in its second year, it is edited by E. R. Appleton, assisted by Captain W. Wadsworth and Captain Ivor McClure.

The role of archival journals in the communication system of science has been recognized as important by many writers.' The nature of the scientific reward system and the ideology of pure science ensures that public communication is central to the social system of science. The two journals considered here were in a sample of thirty-two British social science journals whose editors and referee organizations were discussed in an earlier paper. Their submission and rejection rates were similar to the median rates for the journals, but their age was less than that of the majority. They were both founded within five years of the year whose submissions were studied; such young journals constituted about a third of the journals in the sample. The differences in research area and autonomy affected the nature of the journals' referee systems. The pure discipline journal sent most of its submissions to a regular panel of editorial referees for evaluation and the editor usually accepted their recommendations.

The article comments on film-making process. The film-making process requires that a person reduce an abstract idea to a visual form. One must be able to visualize people doing something and then capture that on film. In one sense, film-making is a test of the hypothesis that sociology is a behavioral science. Students should learn how to make theoretically based films for these and the additional reason that thus they can better learn their discipline. By writing a paper, the good student learns his subject. He learns the ideas and that he can control them. But, in writing, he often learns to become a manipulator of words and loses any concern about the behavioral reference they may or may not have. In making a film, however, the student does come face to face with connecting his ideas to human behavior. In film-making, one can delineate a set of roles which, taken together, result in the finished product. There is the producer, the person who has the ultimate responsibility for the film, the one who, nominally at least, has the concept of the entire production.

This section presents a bibliography of books on sociology.

This article responds to author's commentaries on the article "The Study of Organizational Effectiveness," by J. L. Price. The basis of simplistic approach rests with three assumptions supposedly made by the paper. First, the paper, according to the authors, assumes uniformity in the meanings that respondents attach to words designating core organizational activities. The paper assumes that respondents possess knowledge and competency with respect to the evaluation of nursing care within their limited spheres of involvement in the hospitals. Although, it may be desirable to have a general measure of organizational effectiveness for the reason suggested in the paper, this may not be possible. Some scholars believe that organizational effectiveness is so specific that a general measure cannot be developed.

This article presents a list of books related to sociology, political and economics. Some of the books are "An Introduction to Anthropology," 3rd ed., by Ralph L. Beals and Harry Hoijer; "Social Foundations of Human Behavior: Introduction to the Study of Sociology," by Earl H. Bell and John Sirjamaki; "The Role of Trade Associations and Professional Business Societies in America," by Joseph F. Bradley; "Public Opinion: Nature, Formation, and Role," by Harwood L. Childs; "The Prehistory of East Africa," by Sonia Cole; "Men of Ideas: A Sociologist's View," by Lewis A. Coser; "Problems in Social and Political Thought: A Philosophical Introduction," by Whitaker T. Deininger; "The White House Years: Mandate for Change, 1953-1956," by Dwight D. Eisenhower; "Hostages of Fortune: Child Labor Problems in New York State," by Jeremy P. Felt; "Psychology in Scientific Thinking," by Ernst Friedlander; "A Comparative Study of the White and the Negro High School Students' Use of Alcohol in Two Mississippi Communities," by Gerald Globetti and Margaret McReynolds; "Magna Carta: Text and Commentary," by A. E. Dick Howard; "Farewell to Eden," by Matthew Huxley and Cornell Capa and "Steaming: An Education System in Miniature," by Brian Jackson.

The article presents a list of various books related to sociology received by the editorial department of the journal. Various books included in this list are "The Mind of Africa," by W.E. Abraham, "Piritim A. Sorokin in Review," edited by Philip J. Allen, "Economic Development: Objectives and Methods," by Paul Alpert, "Proceedings of the Social Statistics Section, 1962," "Eichmann in Jerusalem," by Hannah Arendt, "On Revolution," by Hannah Arendt, "I Giovani Nella Societa Industriale," Guido Baglioni, "Expanding Population in a Shrinking World," by Marston Bates, "Leadership and Dynamic Group Action," by George M. Beal, Joe M. Bohlen and J. Neil Raudabaugh, "The Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups," by Eric Berne, "Learning Your Way Through College," by Elton S. Carter and Iline Fife, "Homes, School and Work: A Study of the Education and Employment of Young People in Britain," by M.P. Carter, "Conflict and Conformity: A Probability Model and Its Application," by Bernard P. Cohen, "The Cutteslowe Walls: A Study in Social Class," by Peter Collison, etc.

This article comments on the position papers in the June 1967 issue of Rural Sociology. The author asserts that the papers are a mark of growing maturity of the rural sociology profession. It took years before the state universities and colleges assumed the dominant role of that they have achieved in the development of rural sociology. Contributions of the early sociologists to the applied field are presented to emphasize their historical value.

The article presents information on various developments in the field of sociology. For the 1970 national meetings of the American Sociological Association, special efforts are being made to expand and enlarge the seminar sessions. These sessions are an experiment in seeking to make available a new format at the convention in order to overcome fragmented sessions and to permit discussion in depth. The luncheon roundtables at the Annual Meeting continue to be highly successful and more than 100 are being scheduled for the 1970 meeting. Herbert L. Costner of the University of Washington will replace Edgar F. Borgatta as editor of Sociological Methodology as of January 1, 1970. Papers will be accepted for review for Sociological Methodology: 1971 from January, 1970, through September 1970. They will be accepted or rejected as soon as sufficient editorial review is available, usually in 6 to 12 weeks. Papers accepted early in the year will be available for any necessary revision before the publisher's deadline, and hence early submission is encouraged.

The process of evaluating papers for journal publication is a measurement process, similar to the other measurement processes of qualitative material in the social sciences. A good qualitative measurement technique rarely has a reliability coefficient of more than about 0.50 i.e., a correlation of 0.50 of one measurement with another measurement by the same technique. The square root of the reliability of a measure is the upper limit of its validity. If it is assumed that journal editing as a measurement process is as good as good qualitative measurement can possibly be, given this experience in the social sciences it would estimate the validity of a judgment of article quality to be about 0.70. The two major journals in Sociology accept about 16 per cent of the papers submitted to them. If the quality of papers judged is approximately normal, then one can say that papers judged to be 1 standard deviation or more above the mean of papers submitted will be accepted. Assuming a correlation of 0.70 between the true quality of the paper and the judged quality, one can estimate the proportion of acceptances of papers of different quality.

This article presents abstracts of several studies related to sociology. Irving Crespi presented an analysis concerning the relations between anomie, alienation, and privatization. Joel Fuerst discussed the business of satisfying the unsatisfied demands of Europe. Daniel Lerner examined a shift from the earlier revolution of rising expectations, via a long sequence of unachieved ambitions and disappointed hopes, in the direction of what may be becoming a revolution of rising frustrations. Marjorie Fiske Lowenthal summarized several studies dealing with normal and abnormal adjustment in the aging process, based on panel studies of 1,200 mentally well and mentally impaired persons sixty years and older interviewed at three points in time. John T. Lanzetta reported data from a number of studies that explore direct and indirect procedures for measuring subjective uncertainty. Clark Leavitt presented the relation between a measure of information transmission called meaningfulness and day-after recall scores from field tests. Wallace H. Wallace presented methods to evaluate consumer behavior in the laboratory. Stanley Peterfreund examined a study in 1961 about the barriers to achieving a superior level of customer service.

This section presents bibliography of books on education, sociology and law.

The 1946 Committee on Contributed Papers of the American Sociological Society, has several suggestions to offer: If sufficient interest is shown in the Section of the contributed papers published in a section of the periodical "American Sociological Review," the section should be continued, since it gives opportunity for younger men and women to appear on the program and become known to the Society. More- over, it stimulates the interest of the younger sociologists in the meetings. This year 20 papers were submitted; last year there were only 8. An opportunity to appear on the program of the Society, together with the possibility of publication in the periodical apparently is desired, as evidenced not only by the number of papers submitted but by the fact that both years every participant, upon the acceptance of his manuscript, has immediately signified his intention of being present to read his paper. It would be well for the Committee to be appointed early enough for it to get well underway in the spring. During the last two years, the Committee has been handicapped by not getting underway until the summer or fall.

This article presents a list of books, related to sociology. Some of the books included in the article are "Trade Unionism," by J.A. Banks, "Caught in the Act: Children, Society and the Law," by M. Berlins and G. Wansell, "The International Urban Crisis," by T.L. Blair, "The Mafia of a Sicilian Village: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs," by A. Blok, "Abandonment of Children in Jamaica," by E. Brodber, "On Community, Family and Delinquency," by E.W. Burgess, "Renewing Urban Teaching," by L.F. Claydon, "Greedy Institutions: Patterns of Undivided Commitment," by L.A. Coser, etc.

This article presents a list of books, related to sociology. Some of the books mentioned in the article are "The Idea of a Spiritual Power: Comte Memorial Lecture," by H.B. Acton, "Gypsy Politics and Social Change," by T. Action, "Women in America," by E.H. Altbach, "Human Behavior in the Social Environment," by R.E. Anderson and I.E. Carter, "The Essential Comte," edited by S. Anderski, "The Social Control of Drugs," by P. Bean, "Computers and the Social Sciences," by A. Brier and I. Robinson and "Knowledge, Education and Cultural Change," edited by R. Brown.

Presents a letter to the editor about sociology.

The article reports some trends in the relative emphasis devoted to different specialties within the field of sociology in the U.S. since World War II. According to the author, sociology has grown since World War II in the number of courses taught, the number of people who make their living as sociologist and the amount of research done. The field has expanded so rapidly that virtually all special areas of interest within the field have shared in the general growth. As proportions of the total, however, some areas of specialization have gained at the expense of others. In the article sources of information used to asses trends in sociology include fields of interest listed by members for American Sociological Association directory, papers read at annual meetings of the Association, papers published in the journal "American Sociological Review" and course listings in college catalogs. The author states that in analyzing and interpreting the data, he had to make certain assumptions, which may be debatable. The author makes no ambitious claims for the absolute validity of interpretations.

The article presents new plans for papers for the 1949 meetings of the American Sociological Society. It states that by action of the Executive Committee, approved by the Society, a "Committee on Papers for the 1949 Meeting" has been appointed. The chairman of the committee is Paul W. Tappan and its other members are Robert Fans, William L. Kolb and Arnold Rose. Members of the society are requested to submit to this Committee a prospectus or full paper, which they would like to present at the 1949 sessions. This Committee is empowered to receive and examine these papers and submit those approved to the Program Committee and the respective section chairman. From these papers, the Program Committee and section chairmen will make up their programs so far as this is feasible. However, the Program Committee and Section Chairmen are free to request any additional papers they may feel necessary to fill out their plans for the program of the 1949 annual meeting. The Program Committee will attempt to have its plans sufficiently advanced to publish a notice about the general character of the program in the April issue of the journal "American Sociological Review."

The article focuses on the November 1967 edition of the Sociological Review, in which there appeared two papers on occupational choice. One was a criticism of this article's author, and the other by sociologists J. Ford and S. Box contained the formulation of a specific theory backed by empirical work. The aim of this article is to answer the main arguments of the critique and thus make possible the synthesis of Ford and Box's work. Their approach to the problem of the choice of occupation is through exchange theory, concentrating on the actual choice situation. They specifically believe that the individual is seen as attempting to realize occupational values in his choice of employment location. For a general theory of occupational choice in their view it is sufficient to take occupational values as given. In one sense this is true, but for many reasons an explanation may be wanted of how these values were learnt. For example, a sociologist of education or a schoolteacher may be concerned with the links between the family or educational institutions and the economy.

The article presents a sociological view of the press coverage of a sociological convention. The coverage is based on observations carried out by five newsmen-observers who attended the August 1965 American Sociological Association (ASA) meetings in Chicago, Illinois. The general conclusion of this study of the convention was that the confrontation of the sociologist with the representative of the news media was overwhelmingly inadvertent, disconcerting and only partially successful to either party. In terms of efficiency in social communication, it leaves much to be desired and strongly entices one to prescribe therapy. Few suggestions are made in advance of Florida sessions in order to get sociologist into communication with the Miami Press. It is suggested to issue a handbook in advance of the convention to all members of the ASA and once the convention has started, to maintain a special message board near the newsroom which offers a chance for newsmen to indicate their wish to contact writers of papers. It is also suggested the president of the ASA assemble a small, informal committee which would hold daily news briefings alerting them to persons or topics originating outside or inside the formal program of the convention.

This article presents a list of books on sociology. Some of the books included in the list are, "Outreach: Extending Community Service in Urban Areas," by J.J. Banon; "The Coming of Post-Industrial Society," by D. Bell; "Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society," edited by R.N. Bellah; "Man and His Kind: An Introduction to Social Anthropology," by T. Crump; "The Resolution of Conflict and Destructive Processes," by M. Deutch; "Sociology: The Study of Man in Adaptation," by J.T. Doby; "The Economics of Residential Location," by A.W. Evans; "Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution: Early Industrial Capitalism in Three English Towns," by J. Foster; "Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality," by J.H. Gagnon and W. Simon; "Applied Volunteerism in Community Development," by R.E. Hardy and J.G. Cull; "Urbanisation and the Government of Migration: The Inter-Relation of Urban and Rural Life in Zambia," by H. Heisler; and "African Women in Towns: An Aspect of Africa's Social Revolution," by K. Little;

Information about several papers discussed at the conference "Economic Development of European Socialist Countries," which was held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on November 30 to December 6, 1964 is presented. The various reports presented focused on the comprehension of the economic trends and problems in Eastern Europe. Such features and issues considered including balance of payments, labor skills, and technological innovations.

The article focuses on a symposium which is apparently the first collection of papers focused primarily on research in the social psychology and sociology of housing as this relates to problems encountered by practitioners in housing and community development. The short history of social and psychological research on problems of housing exhibits marked shifts in the foci of interest, shifts which seem partly to result from institutional changes in housing. Because this reform context of research led to a focus on the social consequences of defective housing, little attention was devoted to the connections between architectural design and patterns of social life in housing environments not ordinarily considered substandard. This growing interest in social research may result from changes in institutional patterns of housing that have highlighted the sociological and psychological assumptions involved in housing practices. Large-scale housing, in contrast to the construction of a custom-built house or of a few houses, involves a relatively centralized body of decisions, with compact and highly visible results.

This article presents a list of papers related to rural sociology. The list includes "A Typology of Singhalese Villages," by G.H.F. Welikala, "Social Structure and Local Initiative in Rural Thailand," by G. Kalshoven, "Legitimization of Directed Change in Pre-industrial Societies," by Ashghar Fathi, "Rural-Urban Migration and Town-Country Relationship in Israel," by A. Berler and Y. Ginsburg, "A Theoretical Model of Cumulative Disagiarization," by Vogislav Duric, "The Changing Patterns of Settlement and Population Distribution in Latin America," by Olen E. Leonard, "Mexican-American Migrant Farm Laborers and Their Employers in Ohio," by B. Perry Joseph and Eldon E. Snyder, "The Rural-Urban Transition in Brazil," by John V.D. Saunders, "The Impact of Industrialization on Geographic Mobility and Economic Decision-Making of a Rural Society in South Asia: A Case Study From Rourkela/Orissa, India," by K.H. Junghans and "A Research Design for the Understanding of Social Change From a Human Ecosystem Perspective."

The article presents information on the 63rd Annual Meeting of the ASA, which will be held in Boston, Massachusetts between August 26-29, 1968. The Program Committee, consisting of Philip M. Hauser, William J. Goode, Robin M. Williams, O.D. Duncan, and Gerhard E. Lenski, is planning sessions on the central theme of "On The Gap Between Sociology and Social Policy." The total program will include four subdivisions, Thematic Sessions, Regular Sessions, Seminar Sessions and Luncheon Roundtable Discussions. ASA policy on participation in the program will apply to the three types of sessions but not to the Luncheon Roundtables: each author is limited to a single paper on the program unless he is a joint author of two papers: a sole author or a co-author of one paper may also serve as chairman, discussant or panel member of the same or one other session on the program: a person not listed as author or co-author of a paper may serve as a chairman, a discussant or a panel member of two sessions.