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This article describes some adaptations made by the small town newspaper in Washington to the social and cultural changes occurring in the rural environment. Among these adjustments are: a stability in numbers has been reached, although at the expense of some loss of per capita circulation strength; a reduction in the number of two-newspaper towns; an increase in the size of the newspaper page; a shift from Saturday to Thursday as the second most important day of publication; a decreased interest in political parties and policies; a concentration on local news, particularly of persons and organizations. These trends suggest certain observations on the process of change and adaptation in social institutions, which by nature are slow to change: (1) adjustment to change is forced upon an institution by the inroads of competing agencies; (2) the stimulus to change comes from without, not from within the institution; and (3) changes in any one of the four elements of any institution, (a) rank and file membership, (b) leadership, (c) physical structure and equipment, and (d) pattern of attitudes lending sanction to the operation of the institution, will evoke changes and adpatations in the structure and functions of the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several papers on rural sociology. The paper "Technology and Social Change: The Case of Miracle Rice," by Gelia T. Castillo, presents the many changes directly or indirectly associated with the introduction in the Philippines of IR8-28S-3, more popularly known as miracle rice. No other single piece of agricultural technology seems to have generated as many ramifications in the country as this particular rice seed. The paper "A General Systems Approach to the Analysis of Social Structure and Change," by J.D. Flynn. Techniques were derived from general systems theory to indicate a measure of the variety of sub-systems, and several measures of unity derived from a matrix of subsystem interactions. Changes in the measures over time reveal some causes of structural change and are used to predict implications of planned change. The techniques were used to analyze data from a village in the Canadian Arctic. The data were not very reliable, but the development of variety and changes in unity were both noted.

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Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

If sociologists want to construct a true, general theory with high explanatory power, they can resort to two strategies. First they could propose such a theory, test it and--depending on the results of the tests--leave it unchanged, modify it or, if the theory proves altogether wrong, eliminate it and formulate a new general theory. This procedure may be called a direct strategy. Most sociologists, however, prefer an indirect strategy. This strategy consists of building theories of a lower theoretical level before going to the construction of a general theory. In this paper author discusses the fruitfulness of one such indirect strategy that seems to be accepted by almost all sociologists. What precisely does "theories of the middle range" mean Robert K. Merton defines "theories of the middle range" as "theories that lie between the minor but necessary working hypotheses that evolve in abundance during day-to-day research and the all-inclusive systematic efforts to develop a unified theory that will explain all the observed uniformities of social behavior, social organization and social change."

To further understanding of migration determinants, I examine the experiences of three groupings in the U.S.: Negro movement from the South during 1860 to 1920; Japanese-American migration from internment camps during World War II; and exodus from Southern Appalachia between 1930 and 1960. Each of these three cases illustrates both the importance of noneconomic variables in determining migration and the worth to noting nonmigration to understand the migration process. I suggest using a framework which examines motivation for and constraints upon migration for individuals as a starting point in developing migration theory. When migration is viewed within a social structure, dependence upon the local community and potential for assimilation elsewhere appear as critical determinants of whether motivation for migration becomes actual movement. Based upon the three cases studied in this paper, as well as many other studies, I encourage future migration research to avoid an overemphasis upon economic factors and to reject the argument that no generalization is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of India over the past decade have shared a sense of crisis and concern over the nation's future, which reflect a widespread doubt that any people can confront the inhibitions of tradition, the trauma of change, and the complexities of modern industrial society at one and the same time with any assurance of success. If it were merely a question of destroying the ancient regime and substituting for it a pre-fabricated and pre-tested modern nation state the task would be simple. The problems of social change are the problems of restructuring a people's activities into new patterns to meet new stresses and to pursue new goals, and the problems are intensified in an underdeveloped country such as India by a general mistrust of change, the parochial nature of its social institutions, and the highly diffuse power structure. At a number of points this paper stresses the need for considering the political system as an autonomous variable in social modernization. A corollary of this assumption, which has often been ignored, is that for the political system to operate in this fashion it must be possible for fundamental changes to take place in the power structure or the purposes of the power elite which, if not unrelated, are at least independent of social and economic revolutions.

This article analyzes briefly, two types of socio-political regimes which develop at second phase of modernization, the phase of so-called "mass modernization". This analysis will be based on the several assumptions about modernization developed in other papers--assumptions which see modernization as a process of continuous socio-demographic and structural differentiation of a growing tendency to a "mass-consensual" society--all of which create continuously new, changing problems and which pose therefore the general problem of sustained growth, of the ability to absorb such continuous changes as the major problem of modernization. It is within this broad conceptual framework that the distinction between the two phases of modernization may best be understood. These phases can be distinguished according to the two major aspects of modernization--the continuous structural differentiation, the impingement of broader groups on the center and the problems arising out of these processes on the one hand, and the ability of the centers to deal with these problems-to develop adequate institutional and symbolic arrangements on the other hand.

The historical, and indeed evolutionary, dimension is a fundamental element in alt of Durkheim's sociological work. The resent paper argues that this fact should be neither ignored nor explained away as a mere survival of outmoded nineteenth century thought. Rather, Durkheim's practice in this respect, as in others, provides an important pointer for current sociology. The historical dimension had a prominent place in Durkheim's discussion of method in sociology, especially in his insistence on comparison and on structural taxonomy. In Durkheim's analysis of social causes, both morphological and representational, the historical and evolutionary dimension provided a fundamental axis. Various aspects of his work-for example, his sociology of the family, of individuation, and of religion-are cited to illustrate the significance of history in Durkheim's thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists are displaying increasing interest in social stratification. Since the concept is very broad, much progress cannot be made in analyzing it unless the different factors upon which it is based are singled out and their interrelations then noted. Although this has been theoretically recognized,further studies in specific areas of stratification are needed to refine stratification theory. This paper describes the status or prestige structure of a planned community and proposes an empirical method of finding the factors upon which status is built. These have been purported objects of several studies. Most of them focus, however, on small, old, stable, and integrated localities or groups. Also, they confuse general stratification with other types of stratification, or they concentrate on general "social" stratification without regarding the elements that make it up. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that many similarities are found not only in the outlines of status structures but also in the factors underlying them, such as wealth, ancestry, length of residence, occupation, ethnic factors, style of living, and so forth.

This paper examines recent changes in rural locality-group patterns, factors responsible for these changes, and implications of them, as revealed or suggested in recent literature on the subject. The change factors are classified in four groups: technology, population shifts, prosperity, and legislative programs. The neighborhood, as traditionally defined, seems now to be more of an ideal than a reality, and the community apparently is superseding the neighborhood as the basic locality group in many rural areas. There is increasing centralization of institutions in the larger centers and a growing multiplicity of special-interest groups in which rural people participate. Many researchers are suggesting that old classifications and conceptual schemes relating to locality groups need reexamination. Researchers, teachers, and extension workers in rural sociology are presented with a serious challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on major research areas and needs in the field of social stratification, with special reference to rural society. Problem areas treated are (1) criteria of stratification and their interrelationships, (2) procedures employed in an operational definition of social strata, (3) the social unit in which a given system of stratification is operative, (4) cultural and group expressions of stratification, (5) vertical social mobility, and (6) stratification and social change. Major methodological problems concern (1) discovering rationales for selecting and relating criteria of stratification, (2) perfecting socio-economic scales and prestige rating procedures, and (3) bridging the gap between the community and mass society approaches. Considerable interest has been shown in describing the cultural aspects of stratification as seen in patterns or styles of life, but much more attention is needed on group expressions of class interests, the channels and personality correlates of vertical social mobility, and social forces which produce change in systems of stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a series of rural sociological research problems which appear feasible, show promise of fruitful results, and comprise major social adjustments needed and for under way in the "Wheat Belt." The suggested research is in "large blocks" which will require scaling and sizing to conform to situations immediately at hand. A superficial description of the "Wheat Belt" is given for purposes of orientation. The regional emphasis is likely to give an erroneous impression unless it is rigidly defined in actual research because the "Wheat Belt" is neither a region nor a belt in any strict sense. As conceived here, rural sociological research may be designed within several related comprehensive areas: Rural Social Organization, Population, Levels of Living, Social Interaction, and Cultural Change, each of which is capable of almost infinite subdivision and extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Several alternative strategies have been used in studies of the structure and development of national societies. In descriptions of single national societies there is often a tendency to search for unique features and patterns. While unique patterns of development certainly can be found, it is nevertheless reasonable to claim that in comparative studies categorical concepts should be transformed to variables the values of which are identifiable in different societies. With the rise of new states and the intensification of interest in the "third world" the arguments for the search of unique features have appeared in a somewhat new form. It is often stated that solutions and arrangements used in the economically developed part of the world cannot be used in developing states, and vice versa. In principle there is nothing new in this argument. In all social science analyses the problem of how much to oversimplify reality is a crucial one. Whatever arguments can be forwarded they reflect most of all the preferences and predilections of the researcher. Whether one wants to deal with unique features or not depends on the level of generality of the models and frames of reference preferred. This paper is written under the assumption that it is worthwhile to strive for models and frames of reference which are generally applicable. Four important strategic considerations are here stressed as particularly important in developing models for the comparative study of the structure and development of national societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is threefold. First, to take account of the published material to establish what significance should be attached to the status hierarchies of territory and kinship in various regions of northern India. Second, to discuss the nature of the relationship between the hierarchies of caste, kinship and territory in terms of what will be defined as diverse positional viewpoints, and the relevance of such an approach for our understanding of social structure and social change. Finally, to analyze some features of the social organization of a particular north Indian city in terms of multiple status hierarchies and diverse positional viewpoints. This paper suggests that the social organization of much of northern India can be best understood in terms of a complex network of status hierarchies rather than in terms of a single, caste hierarchy. Further, it suggests that there is no single morphology, or structure, which describes the relationship between these hierarchies, but rather that the categories of caste, kinship and territory are the basic building blocks which are molded into structural configurations in relation to diverse positional viewpoints; or to which significance is attached on the basis of a certain limited body of knowledge about one's social universe.

For many years now, social scientists have observed and studied certain aspects of youth in tropical Africa and indeed in much of the developing world. Several ideas have been put forward concerning the relationship between education and social change, the inadequacies of imported educational systems, the overproduction of unemployable school-leavers and the alienation of youth from their roots because of the development of new institutions. These views have been echoed by politicians who constantly reiterate the need for programmes to keep youth on the land through agricultural education and national service, point to allegedly frustrated and alienated school- leavers and see them as a source of political and social turmoil. Briefly, the purpose of the Uganda Youth Survey was to assess how far these popularly held views of youth in developing Africa fitted the situation in Uganda, and to consider among other things whether an identifiable youth culture existed in that country by examining some of the norms, values, expectations and behaviour of youth. The survey involved interviewing a total sample of 700 youths in three village areas in the eastern, northern and central regions of Uganda. We interviewed every youth twice, once in 1970 and again a year later. Our sample included both those who lived in the village and those whose family lived there but who had themselves left. A sample of 300 adults from the same villages was interviewed for comparative purposes.

Social gerontology is an emergent field of research and teaching which is not directly concerned with the biological aspects of ageing but concentrates rather upon its economics, social psychological, sociological, and political aspects. Its objects of research is not individual organisms but people as population aggregates, as members of society and its components groups, and as the creators and the carriers of culture. Specifically, social gerontology studies the status and roles of older persons, their cultural patterns, social organization, and collective behavior as they affected by and as they affect social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on some of the obstacles within social group work that interfere with the development of effective methodology for social change. While there is little doubt that a precise and predictive approach to change in the social arena is not within immediate grasp, this does not mean that it should remain on the intuitive level. Practice guidelines are needed that can be transferred from worker to worker, from supervisor to student. If the social aspects of group work are to be nurtured, its values must be made operational. The variety of assumptions held by group workers regarding social change appear to fall into three clusters. The first set of attitudes holds that nothing short of a major overhaul of the existing social structure can produce even minor improvements in social conditions. A second cluster of views asserts that social action on the job should be left to those who are in a better position to have an impact. A third group asserts, "all group work is social change." From this point of view every step forward in interpersonal relations is simultaneously an improvement in society.

The concepts of social status or social position and social role are among the most widely used ideas in social science. Although the classical definitions of these concepts and the uses to which they have been put imply a theory of social structure, that theory has never been adequately stated in all of its ramifications. Perhaps the most highly developed use of these terms has been in the description of a social structure in terms of a spatial analogy. Certainly the least developed use of them has been in the analysis of structural change and dynamics. In either case certain limitations apply to the concepts under discussion. The concept of social position or social status as usually defined does not allow adequate description and analysis of the internal structure of a position. The present concept of social position is ill suited to the description and analysis of internal changes which take place in a position. The concept of social position depends on an imperfect spatial analogy since it allows a given individual to occupy two positions in the same social space at the same time.

The average birth interval may be analysed into several additive time components: gestation, postpartum amenorrhoea, anovulatory cycles, time required for conception after ovulation is established (ovulatory exposure), and time added by pregnancy wastage. Dissecting the birth interval in this fashion helps to clarify several points regarding fertility in the absence of family limitation. Spontaneous pregnancy wastage may add three months or a little less to the average birth interval of Western women in their twenties. The average birth interval increases with advancing age and it is possible, though not certain, that an increased frequency of foetal loss is the primary factor and declining fecundability a more secondary factor. Among societies practising little or no birth control for which there are statistics, mean birth intervals vary from two years to somewhat less than three years. The principal source of this variation appears to be differential length of postpartum amenorrhoea. Length of ovulatory exposure may vary within a narrower range, perhaps 4-7 months among mothers in their twenties, although confident generalization is impossible until more data are available from non-Western groups. The `ovulatory ratio', or ratio of ovulatory exposure to total birth interval, is basic to an under- standing of the relationships of contraception and induced abortion to pregnancy rates. The higher this ratio, the more nearly equivalent an induced abortion is to averting a live birth since the spans of childbearing time absorbed by the two events become more nearly equal. While ovulatory ratios increase moderately with more pregnancy wastage or lactation, they may be greatly increased by effective contraception. For that reason induced abortion has much greater impact when used as a supplement to contraception than when relied upon alone. Contraception, because it lengthens only the period of ovulatory exposure and not the other segments of the birth interval, must be disproportionately effective in order to register any specified percentage increase in the total birth interval. The lower the ovulatory ratio, the greater is this disproportion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the sociology of literature. The neglect in the sociology literature has been asserted to be sociology's fault: sociology is accused of being too arid, secular and unimaginative to deal adequately with the articulate monuments of that culture, which it claims to study. It is not as if works of literature are ineffable: they have been analyzed and theorized over for centuries. Indeed many would claim there are too many words and theories about literature. This is a constant complaint by those who would like what could be termed a sociological approach to literature-from Madame de Stael's famous comments in her introduction, to the less well-known but equally pertinent remarks of another earliest writer to attempt a comparative study of "poetry as a social institution." What is involved is a fundamental critique of society-a query whether present social and economic relationships are the right and abiding ones. The clear answer is given that they are not but the point here is the question. For Marxists, the structure of society at some point at least includes intellectual institutions, and so these too become open to query-a breach is made in the accustomed unquestioning deference for literary institutions. This comes out in various ways as it affects the sociology of literature. Perhaps the most striking is the Marxist rejection of the assumption that-to put it at its crudest-intellectual and artistic creativity is in itself autonomous and the most potent fact involved in social change.

The article focuses on some problems in social structural role analysis. Role analysis is said to obscure and neglect the importance of individuality. Role conformity and stability have been over-emphasized and, conversely, that deviation, malintegration and social change have been minimized or neglected. Psychological variables role analysis more actively, as additional independent variables, increases the explanatory power of the model to account for observed social behavior. Many sociologists have recognized that role strain may be a source of social change. However, the overriding interest of writers on role conflict has been in mechanisms that hold conflict in check. There is no escaping the familiar lament that the problem of social change has been neglected. This article singled out two issues of contemporary polemics, which, having originated in the general field of sociology. Stated in the form of criticisms of existing orientations, the first referred to the alleged neglect of individuality in role analysis and, the second, to a similar neglect of malintegration and social change.

The article focuses on the position and points out the future directions in Southwestern archaeological research in the U.S. One of the more interesting of the new directions in Southwestern archaeology has been the appearance over the past decade of a series of studies that can be described as examples of the new archaeology. There have been several studies that have focused upon aspects of prehistoric social organization in the Southwest. Some of it was summarized in a recent book specifically designed to explore the nature of social organization.

The article discusses the National Economic Development Office (N.E.D.O.). The authors feel that N.E.D.O. is paving the way for future forms of organizational adaptation, as it is an organization with several constituencies operating with powerful social organizations. The article offers a speculative, behavioral interpretation of N.E.D.O.'s creation and adaptation. The causal factors leading to the development of new social organizations, many of which are believed to have influenced N.E.D.O.'s development, are discussed.

Over the past thirty years, social theorists have explored consequences of structural change in society for status passage from childhood to adult roles. To a considerable extent, this analysis has focused on the origin and consequences of group formations among youth, their problematic function, position and relative influence in the socialization network. Certain conditions were discussed, which determine the degree and type of peer influence, and its relation to adult influence. Answers to such questions have been sought in both structural factors and social interaction, in structural conduciveness and strain, on the one hand, and in social processes which promote or weaken social attachments, on the other. A structural perspective directs attention to the position of youth in the social order, and to conditions which give rise to youth groups and subcultures, whether pro-cultural or oppositional. These social phenomena are generally viewed as a collective response to shared deprivation or interests occasioned by structural differentiation, functional specialization, status barriers, and lack of incorporation in achievement-oriented societies. Collective adaptations are facilitated by the common situation of youth, and prolonged concentration in relatively segregated settings.

The article discusses motivational patterns and planned social change. Social scientists have attempted to explain social change in several ways. The conceptual model used in the article is nearer the Marxist position. A societal system determines motivation and values, which in turn cause or determine the behavior of individuals in the society. According to this paradigm, a societal system, that is the system and the structure of the society mainly characterized by the level and kind of technology utilized and the pattern of interrelationships among main classes in the society, and its reinforcing mechanisms. Social change or change in behavior in a society is a result of the motivational pattern and the pattern of expectancy, which themselves are products of a societal system and its reinforcing mechanisms. The paradigm assumes that each societal system generates a particular pattern of motivation, which sustains and maintains that system by causing appropriate behavior among individual members in the society. Motivation occupies an important place in the strategy of planned change. Since a motivational pattern not only causes behavior but also influences the societal system, it deserves careful attention if a strategy of planned social change is to be effective. An effective strategy for inducing social change would consist of bringing about change in the societal system, its reinforcing mechanisms, the development of appropriate patterns of motivation and expectancy through suitable program. For any social change, the primary condition is a change in a societal system without which appropriate changes cannot be introduced or cannot be sustained.

To understand the social implications of rural African development one must first understand the relation between traditional social organization and economic structure in primitive and peasant communities. Case studies show that unsuccessful development occurs where an increase in production for sale is unaccompanied by technological and cultural innovations: traditional economy and society are forced to change without new modes of integration being formed, and without sustained growth in income forthcoming. Successful development requires mutually reinforcing innovations in economy, technology, and culture which induce sustained growth in income over successive generations, and integrate the local community with the region, the nation and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems of transitional societies are distinguished from those of traditional or modern ones. They include cultural heterogeneity and power dissociation resulting from a differential rate of change in various social roles, and an imperfect evaluative mechanism all along the social continuum. Slow response to rapid economic development introduces lags which are difficult to correct: the case of Venezuela is a good illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Second World War there has been a considerable increase and expansion in the teaching of sociology almost everywhere in the world. This process takes different lines, sometimes, new or additional chairs are established and an increasingly wide range of subject matter is included in the teaching, thus giving the student greater latitude in his choice and combination of studies. In other cases, sociological courses are introduced at teaching institutions or departments not originally offering such studies, for example, departments of engineering, medicine, architecture, city and regional planning. This development can be explained only by a number of factors, some of which may operate jointly, the need for a rational understanding of social change taking place in many countries today, the collection of factual information on the social process in order to be able to control and influence changes in social structure, the need for sociologically trained personnel for the teaching and other professions, especially those mainly concerned with, or influenced, by social changes.

The article refers predominantly, due to the background of the author, to the situation in the highly industrialized countries of Western Europe and Germany in particular. It is, however, very likely that similar tendencies will emerge in other regions undergoing rapid industrialization. Doubtless circumstances differ very much and the European development is not more then an example, especially because developing countries enter world society at a much later stage. Nevertheless, the basic pattern of this process seems to be universal. For a long time it has been widely accepted, by sociologists in particular, that there is provoking contact between city and country. The flow of urban influence favors and induces socio-cultural change much more then irreversible migration movements. Urbanism is no longer a matter of geographical location, something confined to urban places. It is characterized by a certain mentality and way of behaving. It is not difficult today to find urban behavior in rural areas, but also rural characteristics can be found among individuals and groups in urban settlements. It is possible, however, that in the so-called fringe area where city and country meet new kinds of social organization tend to emerge, which are neither rural nor urban in the original meaning of these terms.

Studies of the effect of social organization on the behavior of individual members appear to have gained increasing attention in recent years. Part of the reason is quite clearly the extraordinary examples that have received so much publicity such as concentration camps and brainwashing. While this interest is not new, it seems to have gained added impetus from the type of analysis, which has been employed focusing on the organizational characteristics, the analysis of role and authority, the rites of induction, and the form of expectations. In studies of social change it is generally the extreme or starting case, which becomes the object of attention. The present study is concerned with a case of quite subtle difference. Nevertheless it is the author's conviction that only through the study of subtle as well as more startling instances that the adequacy of ideas. While making a study of Hawaiian acculturation in one of the more remote areas of Hawaii in 1957, the author came across a situation, which demonstrates a case of quite subtle differentiation. In brief, the topic of the article may be stated in this fashion. Given two communities, 25 miles apart, similar in economic opportunities, size, degree of isolation, population composition, and whose members are acquainted and intermarried, how can people account for differences in orientation to economic activity and several related values.

The article presents information on the social change and social structure in transitional societies. Relatively little is known about social change although it is a subject on which a great deal has been written. Social scientists stress the study of the dynamic in social systems, but few accept the risks involved in gaining the knowledge and skills needed to initiate and measure changes in functioning social systems. One is only at the initial stage of the systematic codification of the working knowledge and skills necessary for the researcher to get into and maintain himself within the social science laboratories of functioning social systems. This is a preliminary attempt to establish such a beachhead. While social scientists are not spending any sizable proportion of their time in learning how to initiate and maintain change in functioning social systems, a wide variety of practitioners are. These include at one extreme the consultants and administrators of programs of technical assistance and at the other extreme, the "grass roots" technician. Most of these men know a great deal intuitively about the problems of working with people in situations of change. Their works however, is continuously subverted by their lack of theoretical comprehension of processes of social change.

There has been no dearth of criticism of the theory of social stratification since its publication over a decade ago as of August 1958. Particularly disturbing is the fact that what this theory views as virtues are the very factors that others overwhelmingly see as vices. The former characterize it in terms of competitive achievement of position, a close correlation between superior capacities, importance of position, and high rewards and its functional necessity to maintenance of the social system. The critics associate the theory with role-ascription and restriction of opportunity absence of correlation between superior capacities, rewards, and positional importance and disruption or discontinuity of the society. This gross difference of views has led several sociologists to seek out and find deficiencies in the functional theory. The present article is concerned, not to review or revive earlier criticisms, but to point out what we believe to be a heretofore neglected basic conceptual flaw in the current functional theory of stratification and a problem focus that has still to be faced by an adequate theory.

One of the distinguishing features of modern industrial society is a high degree of structural differentiation, that is, the tendency for roles in a given social sub-system to be highly specialized. In describing the social changes accompanying the urbanization-industrialization process, it has become a commonplace to emphasize the segregation of work, protective, recreational, family, and other roles, and to point to the loss of functions of the contemporary urban family. In modern society the activities associated with the lost functions are indeed carried on in a wide assortment of extra-familial social contexts and their separation from the family is in many respects of undeniable significance. Nevertheless, it is also apparent that activities, statuses, and interpersonal relationships in extra-familial situations are not independent, especially on the informal level, of those features of social structure more narrowly associated with family life. In the literature on the American family there are two broad groups of studies which have been at least partly concerned with this aspect of family life. They are the investigations showing how various external factors are related to indices of marital stability or marital adjustment and the family crisis studies, in which family crises or problems have been examined for their effect on a number of aspects of family social structure.

In the ascendant phases, when social forces press for reconstruction and changes are still in the offing, the concern of leaders and members of social movements alike is with those things that must be done to translate discontent into effective and concerted action. An evident condition of this orientation is discontent itself. In turn, this discontent must be supplied or renewed by social forces which, it must be believed, can be ameliorated by banding together. These provide the dynamic of value-oriented social movements, as well as the characteristic missions with which their organized arms become identified. When the movements themselves lose impetus through a shift in the constellation of social forces, their organized arms are deprived of conditions necessary to sustain them in their original form. But organizations are not necessarily dissolved by the abatement of the forces initially conjoining to produce them. They may gain a certain degree of autonomy from their bases and continue to exist.

Social stratification and its related concepts, such as social mobility, present a densely interwoven mass of major and minor distinctions, particularly when application to the analysis of a specific society at a given time is concerned. The untangling of these distinctions could be in the highest degree useful, for advances in general sociological theory depend on just such painstaking work, but the purpose of the present article does not permit sustained attention to this task. Consequently, only rough working distinctions will be made, and virtually all of these will be made implicitly rather than explicitly. The purpose is preliminary description and fragmentary analysis of a set of phenomena that in its complexity, speed of change, and sheer dimensions confronts with a range of specific problems of literally unprecedented scope. The shifts in social stratification, intended and unintended, utterly dwarf, considering the time interval during which they have occurred and are occurring, anything previously known in human history.

Implications of atomic energy in the field of international relations were from the very beginning widely studied and discussed because of its negative, destructive force. There is, however, also a constructive and creative aspect to it, a discovery of a tremendous source of new energy which will affect the society and its future development not only in the realm of international relations but in the widest sense in the whole area of social change, social structure, economics, government, leisure, education and others. This large range of problems connected with discovery of atomic energy and its social consequences calls for the research, ideas and vision of social and political scientists. In fact, mankind, flabbergasted by the lack of social safeguards against such destructive power and the possibilities of new atomic discovery, looks to them for guidance, advice and proper solution. The large area of problems connected with the discovery of atomic energy perhaps would justify the creation of an integrated social science sub-discipline with a subject matter of social and political adjustment to the atomic discovery and the discovery of new energies.

There is a widespread tendency to accept neurosis as a somehow interesting and thrilling experience, and more than that, as a behavior pattern which makes one conspicuous and is likely to gain the applause of the community. Neurosis has become almost a cultural system in itself, and people "fall for" it as others "fall for" art, religion and politics. Our life as adults is to be lived, to a large extent, in institutional interrelations, and these are largely rational and objectively meaningful. This is a specific type of relationship, the transition and the adjustment to which is not simply taken care of by the processes of transferring and projecting into society the behavior patterns which we acquired in the personalistic families, but which requires specific effort. There is widespread inability and unwillingness to discriminate between various forms of social relationship. The lack or weakness of structural elements in our social organization, the tremendous number of people we meet, the hastiness and superficiality of such acquaintances, the rapid change of the constituency of our so-called community-these factors interfere severely with the cultivation of selective relationships and contribute toward their devaluation. Love and friendship, leadership and loyalty, and other delicate personal relations, so necessary for wholesome personality integration, have been devaluated, minimized, disparaged in the course of social evolution.

Bali is one of the dwindling number of islands of Indonesia that largely retains its basic social structure and rural organization. The persistence of tradition and the Balinese ability to adapt the new to the ways of the old are exemplified by the village society and the pattern of rural organization. Bilinese culture today exhibits great variety and contains elements of Javanese, Hindu, Muslim, and other origin, as well as the indigenous. But it has its own unique character. The Balinese world view betrays many elements of this uniqueness and is fundamental to the rural social order. Basic principles are those of an ordered cosmos and of dualism. The four wind directions are the basis of a fourfold division of many aspects of life. The Balinese village is primarily a religious community. Rural society may be divided into the following structural categories: the regional community, the desa or village, the bandjar or tèmpèk (a ward and ward association), the task associations, the genealogical societies, and the private associations. The process of social change is going forward rapidly in Bali, but the basic structure of rural society apparently will continue to exist for a long time to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Various explanations have been offered for the conservatism of the Bulgarian villagers who live in close proximity to and under the apparent influence of Sofia, the country's chief city. A study of the contacts which these villagers have with the "outside world" shows that even when they visit Sofia they still move in a peasant world and fail to break through the psychological barrier separating them from the urban dweller. The "outside world" in visiting the village usually comes in holiday mood, either as returned relatives for a week end, as hikers climbing the mountain in extreme sport styles, or as summer guests enjoying the fine climate. Such visitors take little pains to interpret city ways to the solemn peasant. A few salesmen, officials, artisans, and entertainers make their appearance during the year but leave little impact upon the social structure of the village. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The postwar period has been an epoch of far-reaching structural changes in rural society. Agrarian reforms carried out in many states of Central and Eastern Europe have abolished the landowner class. In these countries, the peasant class has become dominant in rural areas. On the other hand, as a result of the world depression, in several countries, the productive activity of villages has been subjected to compulsory organization. The rise of Totalitarian States, which was simultaneously the revival of the Corporative State of Middle Ages, transformed free rural producers in Italy and Germany into members of Rural Guilds. Structural changes came into rural Soviet Union due to the impact of communism. The peasant class was abolished and replaced by a hybrid class which united the half-free hired workers of small land tenants and of shareholders in large agricultural enterprises. But this change did not happen all of a sudden. It was the result of years of agitation in the history of Soviet Union.

Writers on peasant societies usually assume that such societies are post-tribal. Peasants are often further characterized as living in transitional social structures. Accepting the relative veracity of the view that peasants belong to post tribal societies in transition, one has to remember that this is rather a process which stretches over many centuries, and more specifically that peasant societies are deeply rooted in the tribal past. They exist within this past in various embryonic states, only later to emerge as a different type of society. While acquiring their own specific traits, which are different from both tribal and urban-industrial societies, peasant cultures and peasant societies usually contain many elements inherited from tribalism. Regardless of the society under consideration, one cannot draw a dear line as to where tribal societies end and peasant societies begin. This article discusses some aspects of societal change in modernizing rural Africa. The African people have been dependent on the environment and natural conditions, but never in their past were African peasants placed in a position of subservient dependency upon landlords.

The article discusses several issues related to social conflict and social change as an aspect of social development. Programs of development cannot end existing social conflicts if the general socio-economic system remains unchanged. In such a situation, programs of development can stimulate rapid general change because they sharpen social conflicts and not because they stifle them. But it means that such development programs may lead to unanticipated results. Programs of development could be more effective if they are applied by a new political power, which emerged during the process of change in the general socio-economic system. In such a situation, the new power would be temporarily free of basic social conflicts, and programs of development could be more flexible in creating a new socio-economic system and new social structure. The knowledge about society does not allow us to predict the social consequences of development in a given country. The reasons for this have more to do with the lack of an adequate theory of social change than with the lack of empirical data.

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

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

This article examines the major conflicting theories of social institutions and analyzes the function of ideational factors in social change. According to one way of thinking, social institutions are the basic structural sub-divisions of society; insofar as their functioning is concerned, they are regarded as instrumental in character. The other way of thinking emphasizes the functional nature of institutions and tends to regard them as irrational and inhibitory. A large group of social scientists, including the cultural relativists, adheres to the former way of thinking. The structural concept of institutions is the basis of an instrumental theory of institutions. In this way of thinking, every operative and controlling activity of a given society takes place through institutions ranging from those which satisfy vital and permanent needs to those relatively superficial and transitory. The basic differences regarding the concept and theory of institutions lead to a sharp cleavage in contemporary cultural analysis. The traditional sociological concept of institutions as structural entities, with technology being ignored or subsumed under the heading of social institutions, renders impossible a distinction between the functionally inhibitory force of institutions and the functionally creative force of technology. Institutions are then analyzed in sociological theory as instrumental devices serving the more general and basic needs or interests of a society.

Utopian communities—an alternative community form—vary flora large, comprehensive settlements in which most aspects of life are collectively organized to small informal households low on comprehensiveness and collectivization, like many contemporary communes. The initial stages, organizational problems, politics, and economic organization of both highly-structured large communes and minimally-structured small communes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of urban politics is vast and rapidly increasing. Students of a number of disciplines with a plethora of specific interests work within its hazy boundaries. The purpose of this essay is to attempt a contemporary synthesis of the field by linking a set of social structural changes to a variety of patterned political outcomes. Concretely a number of trends affecting urban social organization are summarized with three dimensions. Next the political consequences of change along each of these dimensions are discussed in some detail. Finally, the variable effects produced by the interplay among dimensions are dealt with in a way that gives rise to some data-based speculation about the future of urban politics. In addition to advancing a number of researchable hypotheses, it is hoped that the essay will sensitize the reader to some of the more fundamental issues that loom ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]