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Networks of citations among the papers on a research topic reflect the structure of scholarship on that topic. Reference-network data for research areas from several disciplines show substantial variation in the structure of scholarship, ranging from the frequent and disproportionate citation of recent work to the frequent and disproportionate citation of foundational documents. The variation is inconsistent with the pattern expected of a simple physical sciences-behavioral sciences-humanities dimension. Citation-context analyses of references in the networks of various fields suggest that variation in network structure is due in part to differences in why authors cite their colleagues' work: Disproportionate citation of foundational documents occurs when authors cite papers as examples of perspectives or general approaches rather than as support for specific points. Differences in use patterns for citations can help us understand other differences among scholarly communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern of this paper is to locate certain troubles and contradictions within Lucien Goldinann's avowedly sociological programme for the investigation of culture. It will be seen that these turn, generally, upon Goldmann's insistence on maintaining a central methodological position for the category of the subject and, more particularly, upon his conception of the subject as individual (rather than collective) subject. Part of these methodological troubles is seen to be connected with Goldmann's use of a metaphor connecting Piaget's individual/environment distinction with the distinction between social groups and history. To this degree, the paper is generally concerned with the severance of sociological studies of culture from psychologistic and belletrist preoccupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a small set of interlocking definitions, this paper presents a generally applicable conceptualization of social structure developed from recollections of Merton's late-1950s formulation. A brief review of the literature supports the view that the proposed conceptualization provides sociological researchers with a relatively simple and logically consistent overall framework, generally continuous with past theorizing, in which to place their own findings. The paper pays particular attention to how social structures are related causally and epistemologically to more micro-level psychological and more macrolevel sociocultural phenomena. Theoretical considerations and empirical evidence suggest a decrease in the likelihood and speed of change as we move from psychological- to social structural- to sociocultural-level phenomena. Although they require proof in each instance, these postulated differences in the relative speed with which psychological-, social structural-, and sociocultural-level phenomena tend to affect each other provide a new and potentially useful tool for unraveling the knotted causal connections among these different-level phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new “epistemological” theory of culture that explains how individuals enhance their sense of security in the world by creating and maintaining culture as knowledge of the world. Using cognitive and affective processes previously ignored by culture theorists, the theory posits three dimensions of cultural production: we articulate, typify, and orient our experiences to make them meaningful. The theory asserts that we produce culture because it allows us to feel as if we understand our world, and to perceive it as ordered; this in turn triggers an aesthetic response of knowledge-based affect. The theory explains how cultural production is motivated by the pursuit of meaningfulness as well as material interests. The theory describes how an oppressive culture can be reproduced unintentionally, even by the groups it oppresses. The theory also identifies connections between social structure and culture where conditions of ambiguity or control have implications for how meaning can be created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last thirty years 'consumption' has become a major topic in the study of contemporary culture within anthropology, psychology and sociology. For many authors it has become central to understanding the nature of material culture in the modern world, but this paper argues that the concept is, in British writing at least, too concerned with its economic origins in the selling and buying of consumer goods or commodities. It is argued that to understand material culture as determined through the monetary exchange for things--the cash nexus--leads to an inadequate sociological understanding of the social relations with objects. The work of Jean Baudrillard is used both to critique the concept of consumption as it leads to a focus on advertising, choice, money and shopping and to point to a more sociologically adequate approach to material culture that explores objects in a system of models and series, 'atmosphere', functionality, biography, interaction and mediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to Ian Craib's critique of the present authors' paper in the May 1993 issue of Sociology which suggested the concept of gender stereotyped emotional behavior. The present authors relate that they would agree with Craib that much of cultural studies is merely a form of description which offers no clue as to the relationship between particular discourses and how people live their lives: some form of connection or identity between discourse and experience is usually implied but scarcely ever demonstrated. They note that in attempting to rubbish their suggestion of gender stereotyped emotional behavior, a number of sociologists including Craib have abandoned conventional sociological criteria and argued that because they personally know or know of individuals who are able to discuss their emotions the phenomenon cannot be widespread. They explain that their point is not essentialist, that all men cannot express intimate emotion but that--under the prevailing societal conditions of persistent gender inequalities of power and gender divisions of labor and emotion work--most men find themselves unable or unwilling or do not choose to do so in the context of close heterosexual relationships.

This paper is concerned with the relationship between sociology and nature or the environment. We briefly summarise the various ways in which historically 'nature' has been conceptualised, including the connections between the 'natural' and the 'market'. We suggest that there are many 'natures' and then proceed to develop an agenda for a sociology of such natures. This comprises four elements: a sociology of environmental knowledges; social variation in the reading of natures; a sociology of the diverse forms of environmental damage; and a more general examination of environmentalism and society. We conclude with an examination of the relations between culture and nature suggesting that changes in this relationship now demonstrates what has always been the case, namely, that nature is elaborately entangled and fundamentally bound up with the social and the cultural. As the social and the cultural are both rapidly changing provides deciphering that relationship immensely fruitful but complex areas for future sociological work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the lack of theoretical work on young children in sociology by presenting an interpretive approach to childhood socialization. This approach emends traditional psychological views of human development by demonstrating that socialization is a collective process which occurs in a social rather than a private realm. The interpretive approach argues that children, through their participation in cultural routines, creatively appropriate information from the adult world to produce their own unique peer cultures. This process of interpretive reproduction enables children to become a part of adult culture--that is, to contribute to its reproduction and extension--through their negotiations with adults and their creative production of a series of peer cultures with other children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an account of the cultural background to, and the social forms of theory production that shape the characteristic quality of American and the three most influential European social theory traditions: British, French, and German. After an analysis of Americanization after World War II, the prospects for the revitalization of European social theory and its improved position in world sociology are discussed. In this process, the unique contributions to sociology of British, French, and German social theory are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elaborates three approaches to the issue of the state autonomy, and uses two empirical cases (British and American treasury policy during the 1930s) to illustrate them. The three approaches are the group affiliations approach, which considers the social characteristics of the individuals who work in an organization; the structural dependence approach, which considers the structural position of the organization within a network of resource flows; and a cultural approach. The application of these three approaches to the two cases gives some support to all three, but the cultural approach proves especially useful in conjunction with the other two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]