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A moderate but consistent positive correlation was found between the number of citations in a paper and the number of times it is cited. This result refers to a collection of papers published in the American Sociological Review and the American Journal of Sociology in 1972 and 1973. The following variables were controlled: journal, year of publications, subject category of paper, number of authors, and seniority of author. Several explanations of this finding are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological society. This is not a new experience, but some of the changes that are taking place in rural sociology programs and in society indicate that the need for discussion is not yet satisfied. This is also one way of reaching the many members, subscribers, and readers who axe unable to attend the Society meetings, and of including them in the circle of discourse. Accordingly, few persons from various sections of the country and one to represent a view of rural sociology as it exists outside the U. S. to offer some of their views on important issues in the future of rural sociology were invited. They were asked to respond briefly and quickly enough for the papers to be presented in the June issue before the 1969 meeting.

This article presents the research papers published in this issue of the journal "Rural Sociology." The first paper by James H. Copp represents a stage in the maturation of research on farm practice acceptance. It is one of the first attempts to compare the results of studies conducted in different agricultural regions. Using data from Wilkening's study in Wisconsin and from his own study in Kansas, he developed comparable measures of certain personal, social, and economic variables. Another paper by Copp and colleagues deals with the informational aspect of the acceptance of new farm practices. They attempt essentially to specify the function of information sources in the adoption process. By asking a series of questions about the sources of information at various times, from the awareness of a new practice until its adoption, they find that institutionalized sources tend to perform a function separate from that of noninstitutionalized sources. The study by Charles R. Hoffer and Dale Stangland is a worthy attempt to take into account the farmer's value orientations as they affect his adoption of practices.

In this article, the author comments on methodologies in social psychological work proposed by participants of the roundtable discussion conducted by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issue in the U.S. The techniques of surveying, has had exceptional use in solving the practical problems encountered in administrative work. With regards to the dynamics of face-to-face human groups, the clinical approach to social psychological problems was appropriate in that the former isolation between social psychologists and clinicians has been breaking down. The author suggested that there are no really unique methods in the field.

The debate over the "community question" has generated several perspectives on the sources of ties to the territorial community in modern society. This paper attempts to empirically assess the utility of each model for predicting the number of ties to the local community and extra-local area, using data on voluntary association memberships in Seattle. Results indicate that the "community of limited liability" perspective is most accurate in predicting the importance of social, economic, and temporal investments for local memberships, and social position for extra-local memberships.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noting that sociology, like other disciplines, usually discusses itself as if its content-its body of knowledge-were created by a wholly intellectual process, I am adopting in this paper the approach of the sociology of knowledge by emphasizing the "existential factors" that influence knowledge. I employ the poorly developed concept of occupation, and argue that in the United States academic disciplines like sociology are best analyzed as professions, which are organized occupations. American professions sustain their present position by the functional differentiation of members into separate administrative, research or scholarship, and practice roles. Practice roles serving lay clients or patrons provide the basic economic support of the profession as a whole. The characteristic practice role of most academic arts and science disciplines is teaching. Using sociology and its special position in the under-graduate curriculum as an example, I suggest that the contingencies of teaching influence what knowledge is used, underlie at least part of the public image of the discipline, and determine some of what becomes part of the published corpus of the discipline's knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal history may determine the individual's style of expressing political beliefs as much as or more than it influences the beliefs themselves. Connections between private life history and public political style have most often been studied in U.S. presidents. However, studies of prominent foreign-policy advisers can be just as useful for an understanding of how individual life history shapes the expression of political beliefs. This paper examines areas of apparent linkage between private life and public style in four of the most prominent Amen can foreign policy advisers of the 20th century: I-louse, Dulles, Kissinger, and Haig. Three styles of dealing with foreign policy issues-Machiavellianism, ego-idealism, and authoritarianism-are considered in relation to the public and private behavior of each man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about various developments related to sociology. Plans for the 1968 meeting of the Rural Sociological Society at the Somerset Hotel in Boston during August 23-26, 1968 are well under way. This year the Program Committee has divided the contributed papers section into six major areas. These are: Social Structure, which includes Small Groups, Community Structure and Development, Power Structure, Rural Organizations, and Stratification. The Social Processes area includes: Innovation and Social Change, Cooperation and Conflict, and Communication. The Population and Ecology are includes: Fertility, Mortality, Demographic Characteristics, and Locality. Authors of papers for possible inclusion in the Medical Care Section Program of the next annual meeting of the American Public Health Association to be held during November 10-15, 1968 at Detroit, Michigan, may obtain standard abstract forms from Donald C. Riedel, Associate Professor of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.

Between 1900 and 1950, the population of the United States doubled, but during this same period the proportion of persons over 64 years of age quadrupled. In all states, aging has created problems which are becoming increasingly pressing. The Social Security program is designed to cope with certain income, health, and welfare issues; but the problem of personal adjustment in retirement is largely an individual matter. Agricultural census data indicate that many older people have retired on the land. Currently, more than 400,000 persons reach retirement age annually. Presumably many of these people plan for rural retirement. This paper examines the question of whether adjustment of retired persons is achieved in agriculture, especially under conditions as found in Florida. It is concluded that agriculture provides economic and cultural advantages for retirees, but that factors associated with constant aging tend to weaken these values, at least as related to open-country retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the paper on the research on sociological aspects of health. The report will describe these experiments and, in addition, will present in some detail the major steps of the study that are important to an understanding of the methodological aspects. The methodology of the current statewide health survey is actually a part of an extensive and varied research effort which is now being made in the sociology of health and health care throughout the U.S. The major purpose of the survey was to ascertain the extent of unmet need for medical attention by use of the symptoms approach among a representative sample of the population in Michigan. Other purposes were to obtain information about the availability and use of medical services, methods of paying for health care, attitudes regarding physicians and medical care, and the attributes and characteristics of people which might be related to all three of these areas.

Professional sociology in the U.S. began as a field area within economics, but gradually emerged as a separate discipline. Using new data on joint meetings and the separation of departments, I track interdisciplinary relations through three phases: sponsorship (1890–1905), collaboration (1905–1940), and disengagement (post-1940). In the early years, sociology was mostly a branch of economics departments. With the formation of the American Sociological Society, relations with economics began to be more characterized by professionally autonomous collaboration. The 1920s saw a large wave of sociology departments separating from economics. Still, joint annual meetings (including joint presidential addresses) remained the norm until 1940. Paradigmatic conflict between institutional and neoclassical economists was the major force that sustained the economics–sociology collaboration. As institutionalism faded from the scene in the late 1930s, so went interdisciplinary contact. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I reflect on the ways elements of Robin M. Williams Jr.’s research agenda might be carried forth in a meaningful way to sociological studies of twenty-first-century phenomena—in particular identifying the ways in which the facts of human interaction, of human expectation, and of human influence shapes outcomes of significance for our present, our future, and, therefore, our past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sociology, work in formal theory is more extensive and intensive today than at any time in the past, but remains invisible to some, including S. Zhao [(1996) "The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning: The Theory Construction Movement Revisited," Sociological Forum, Vol 11, No. 2, pp. 305-318]. I trace the growth of formal theory in sociology focusing on theoretical research programs and show that, whereas formal theory came after the books on theory construction, it was not based on them. Elementary Theory's research program provides an example of that discontinuity. Some misunderstandings concerning formal theory can be traced to the Maryland Theory Conference of 1990 and a critique of selected ideas of that Conference is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The background and history of the three major studies that have been made of Middletown (Muncie, Indiana) are traced. The findings of these studies are summarized, their contributions evaluated, and their receptions described. The problems inherent in trying to replicate results over a lengthy span of years in community research are analyzed, concluding with some thoughts on the future of community studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the sexual equality in the U.S. It is stated that liberal theorists generally accepted that women should be viewed as free and equal beings who is capable of self-determination and a sense of justice and free to enter the public domain of economy and government. Moreover, liberal democracies have increasingly adopted antidiscrimination statutes destined to ensure that women have equal access to education, employment and political office. However, sex equality has been ineffective in the U.S. in which full-working women earn only 71 percent of what working men earn. Furthermore, the paper also discusses Susan Moller's argument of dominant conception of sexual equality on her excellent book "Justice, Gender and the Family."

The article announces that "The Journal of Social Sciences" will discontinue publishing the Supplement Series of the Lewin Memorial Award Addresses. In the past, presidential address has been distributed to Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) members through a direct mailing of stencilled or multilithed copy. However, these copies tend to get lost in the mess of papers and reprints in personal files. Therefore, the journal will request of each president that his annual address be published in the journal. Events in the field of television in the United States are moving ahead rapidly due to the ferment created by government agencies through its regulatory groups and educational programs. The present collection by Lotte Bailyn will contribute to the discussion of social uses of television.

Presents news notes involving the Rural Sociological Society in the U.S. Announcements by sociological institutions; Programs and projects involving universities and colleges; Meetings and workshops.

The article comments on the twentieth year of the "Sociological Forum" periodical in the U.S. in 2005. Since the first issues under its founding editor Robin M. Williams Jr. in 1986, the periodical has tried to encourage critical analytical exchanges among sociologists. In its pages, implicit and explicit 'conversations' between scholars debate the ideas that rule our intellectual lives. Contested facts, alternative methodologies, opposing theories, competing perspectives and distinctive world views punctuate those conversations. The March 2005 issue of the "Sociological Forum" offers a group of articles that effectively represent a range of these conversations, each in its own way issuing a challenge to other scholars.

The article presents information on the content of the papers published in the 1943 issue of the "American Journal of Economics & Sociology." The authors represented in the volume turned out studies many of which added bricks or courses to the temple of learning, and some of which realized, however imperfectly. The journal's goal of co-operation among the various social sciences and related disciplines in the interest of a rational social and economic organization. The journal is more than a 576 pages of progress reports on scientific studies. These reports are made by men and women whose labors, out of personal interest and social responsibility, produced them in spite of the war's added teaching and administrative burdens or despite their contributions toward democratic victory in other roles. The news reports which give indications that some few of these studies already have had influence on informed opinion and public policy in the U.S. are an augury of the possibilities open to the scholar who grapples intelligently with the problems.

In his popular introductory sociology text, Stark identifies W. E. B. Du Bois and Albion Small as important cornerstones of the U.S. sociological tradition. While the work of the “Chicago School” is well known in sociological circles, Du Bois’ sociological legacy is not. The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996) is a classic empirical sociological study that is rarely included in discussions of the development of scientific sociology. Likewise, The Negro Church ([1903b] 2003) represents one of the first empirically based sociological studies of a religious institution. Sociologists of religion routinely discuss the contributions of Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel while virtually ignoring Du Bois. This is ironic because Du Bois’ work on religion was based on ethnographic data, field interviews, surveys, and census data. This article provides an overview of Du Bois’ sociological study of the Black Church in the United States by identifying some of the main themes developed in The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996), The Souls of Black Folk ([1903a] 1994), and The Negro Church ([1903b] 2003). These studies reveal that Du Bois was a pioneer in the areas of evaluation research, public sociology, service learning, and congregational studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article points out that Michael Burawoy's call for a renewal of commitment to a public sociology has had a massive impact. Writing in the tradition of C. Wright Mills's clarion call, Burawoy seeks to defend the critical and reflexive role of the sociologist through his or her autonomous engagement in the public sphere of political decision. His argument has had a mixed reception in the United States. For the most part his views have been welcomed as re-emphasizing an important dimension of sociological activity that has, perhaps, been lost or submerged in the current political and financial climate of conservatism and retrenchment. Within the universities, many have found it easier to keep their heads down and get on with purely academic work, lest political involvement bring unwanted attention. Burawoy has been seen as re-asserting the political legitimacy of public participation. In some quarters, however, his views have met with a more negative reaction and have been seen as a scarcely concealed attempt to abandon impartiality and to advocate a leftist radicalism. This mixed reception was, perhaps, inevitable, given the political context in which Burawoy has intervened. He is, necessarily, critical of sociologists, other social scientists, the universities and the other institutions for which sociologists work, and also the wider structures of power in which these are enmeshed.

In-depth interview data reveal that workplace context and the social characteristics of clients and coworkers play an important role in shaping how upwardly mobile individuals experience class at work. While respondents did discuss their working-class backgrounds as a liability, as might be expected, they also described ways in which they experience their backgrounds as an occupational asset. These findings challenge the notion of a linear relationship between class and culture, suggesting instead a complex, fluid relationship between class, culture, and occupation, where the “class” of a job does not necessarily determine the class culture needed for that job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at three measuring instruments—the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale, the Social Dominance Orientation Scale, and the Attitudes About Reality Scale—used to examine covert ideology and its relationship to social and political beliefs and behaviors. These scales share similar ideological components involving abdication of moral responsibility to an outside agent, belief that one’s own ideology represents the only form of truth, and negative beliefs about individuals who are not members of one’s own group. Evidence is provided to suggest that radical fundamentalists and some groups within U.S. society share ideological beliefs that differ in degree rather than kind. These beliefs make it easy for them to divide the world into “us” and “them” and exacerbate the present conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is necessary to reevaluate the role of the Department of Sociology at Columbia University in the years 1929–1950. The impact of Robert M. MacIver, who played a significant role in the exchange between European and American thinkers, is examined, as well as his marginalization. It is argued that in the 1930s it was characteristic that the sociologists in the centers in Chicago and Columbia exchanged their disciplinary functions. It was MacIver's Columbia that took on the role of advocate of humanistic sociology and Mead's and Cooley's heritage. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on several issues concerning sociology and social sciences in the U.S. Key issues of interest; Analysis of pertinent topics and relevant issues; Implications on the social sciences.

"American Journal of Economics and Sociology," has now completed 40 years of service to the social science sector of the country's scientific community and to the American people whose work that community benefits. It is hard to believe that 40 years ago, in the midst of a war that was soon to engulf the world and at the close of a catastrophic depression that was ended only by production for war, this scholarly enterprise was launched. This Journal is a product of the Georgist movement; the 21 directors of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, who sponsor and finance it, the editor in-chief, the business manager, their close associates, a majority of the editorial council and many of the members of the editorial board are followers of Henry George, the 19th century American economist and social philosopher. As per the author, during the 40 years, they have always afforded their authors the widest freedom of expression. The builders of this enterprise had been influenced by the work of Henry George, they never exalted George above other ethical writers and democratic thinkers.

This article highlights the minutes of the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological Society from August 23 to 26, 1968 in Boston Massachusetts.

This article attempts to measure the effects of the Farmers Home Administration (FHA), a nation-wide federal government agency which has a program designed to extend and preserve the family-farm type of agriculture in the U.S. The FHA is the 1946 successor to the Farm Security Administration established by Congress in 1937. Its function is to help selected tenants purchase family-size farms or livestock and supplies by lending them the necessary money which is difficult to get elsewhere. Low interest rates and a long repayment period are provided, along with some guidance in farm and home management. In the study, FHA families and non-FHA families are compared based on these variables: participation in community organizations; level of living; informal participation; and income. It is then observed that the supervised loan program did help the FHA families to increase their social and economic standing in their communities. A survey of the attitudes of FHA and non-FHA families also showed that both groups were, in general, highly favorable toward the program. In conclusion, it can be said that all of the analyses seemed to demonstrate that the FHA is accomplishing its general goal.

Presents news notes and announcements related to rural sociology in the U.S. Career developments of professionals in universities and colleges; Appointment of William B. Jones, Jr., at the Save the Children Federation; Tribute the late Louis Wirth by the Rural Sociological Society.

The article presents information on the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological Society, held in Detroit, Michigan, December 28-30, 1938. The first serious consideration of Rural Sociology by the American Sociological Society was in 1916 at the annual meeting in Columbus under the presidency of Dr. Geo. E. Vincent, who chose the theme "The Sociology of Rural Life." The first meeting of the new section was held before the regular sessions at Chicago in 1922. Since then the section on Rural Sociology has had a regular place on the program. In 1928 under the presidency of Dr. John M. Gillette, the theme of the annual meeting of the American Sociological Society was "The Rural Community." The last few years have been ones of notable progress. There has been a steady increase in the number of state agricultural experiment stations conducting research in rural sociology, an increase in their staffs, and a larger recognition of the importance of the subject by experiment station directors and agricultural college executives. Most of the membership is in the states in which agriculture is the major industry. The northeastern section of the U.S., east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio rivers, contains about half of the population and 70 per cent of the nation's income, but it contains a minority of the rural sociologists.

Extension work in rural sociology, carried on under the Smith-Lever Law enacted in 1914. is relatively new; the earliest efforts predated the enactment of the Law, however. Efforts under the law began earliest, probably, in New York Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Administrators are now lacing problems in human and group relationships as they never have before; the more specific and concrete the help offered by the rural sociologists, the more their assistance will be sought and used. Problems faced by extension rural sociologists (1) relate to the development of a program which will ñt into the terms of the Smith-Lever Law, (2) include efforts to reinterpret and make of practical use subject matter from the held of sociology which calls for judgment as to what subject matter to use, and (3) pertain to relating the work in rural sociology to other fields of extension work. The interests of the extension rural sociologist differ in degree only from those of the research worker or teacher; there is need for placing values upon findings so that they may be applied to practical situations in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on certain events related to sociology which are to be held. The American Documentation Institute has been incorporated on behalf of leading national scholarly, scientific and informational societies to develop and operate facilities that are expected to promote research and knowledge in various intellectual fields. First objective of the new organization will be to develop and apply the new technique of microphotography to library, scholarly, scientific and other material. It will be able to direct scholarly publication by various methods as required by co-operating organizations. The Japanese Sociological Society is now compiling a book in English on the development of sociology in Japan, which is to be presented to the members of the International Congress of Educationists who meet in Tokyo, Japan this Summer. It will contain a section on rural sociology prepared by professor Eitaro Suzuki. Professor Read Bain of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio will be the lecturer during 1937-38 in the department of sociology.

The article informs about the articles in the "Journal of Sociology." One conclusion which becomes absolutely inescapable as one reads the series of articles comprising this issue of the Journal , largely written by sociologists teaching in universities in the South, is that the theoretical aim of having a "different" South, a region which performs essentially agricultural functions for the rest of a more highly industrialized nation, has now finally disappeared. The social sciences, and particularly sociology at this time in its history, find themselves confronted with the need for theories of social change adequate to the task of explaining the varied and often bewildering panorama of the "third world" countries as well as the upheavals in race relations in the United States. Another theoretical orientation of a more historical bent has been in and out of favor and, under the pressure of recent events, is again becoming current. There are some who have a demurrer even here, especially those concerned with the possibility of the emergence of anomic and mass society in the late stages of industrialization and urbanization.

The article discusses the course of development of American sociology. The period since the end of World War II has clearly witnessed basic changes in American sociology. The recent history of the discipline of sociology in the U.S. has displayed some of these general characteristics. From its beginnings to the present day, sociology has evolved steadily from its policy-oriented roots towards a more strictly scientific emphasis. This evolution, however, has left and is leaving in its trail a number of controversies and disputes which reflect the tensions inherent in growth. Sociology's earliest concern with ways to handle social problems no doubt infused it with an energy that brought it rapidly to the fore as a major subject of research and study in the U.S. towards a more strictly scientific emphasis. This policy-oriented side of the field accounts in part for its relatively faster development in the U.S. than in Europe.

It is being observed that social scientists have devoted relatively little attention to developing systematic techniques for assessing the presence or absence of the process of social mobility in the U.S. Most of the studies of mobility which have been reported have compared the occupations of adult males with that of their fathers, without paying attention to other factors that might be utilized in determining whether a person or family has been vertically mobile. This article will present a scheme for evaluating the existence of mobility patterns on the basis of three factors: occupation; education; and religious affiliation. Occupations are considered to be more important factor in determining social prestige than education or religion. Therefore, occupational mobility is arbitrarily assigned a greater weight in the index scheme than educational and religious mobility. A family's score of plus or minus two is considered as being socially mobile upward or downward. The index made possible the systematic determination of differences on the variable of social mobility among the cases studied. However, several inadequacies of the index are also presented.

Lawrence Milton Hepple, professor of sociology of religion at Methodist National Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri, and formerly associate professor of rural sociology at the University of Missouri, died of a heart attack on Tuesday, November 22, 1960, at his home in Overland Park, Kansas. He was born and raised in Missouri and attended high school at Moberly. He received an A.B. degree from Central College in 1932, and an M.A. in 1940 and a Doctorate in Philosophy in 1946 from the University of Missouri. He was a member of the Missouri Conference of the Methodist Church and served as technical consultant for the Department of Research and Survey of the Board of National Missions of the Methodist Church. Hepple's teaching career began in 1942, when he served as instructor in sociology at the University of Missouri. Then he became assistant professor of sociology in 1945, assistant professor of rural sociology in 1947, and associate professor of rural sociology in 1950, at the University of Missouri. In July, 1960, he accepted the position of professor of sociology of religion at the new Methodist National Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. He was a member of many committees and associations of local and statewide significance.