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This paper is based on reflections concerning the initial stages of a research project focusing on women, 'race' and later life. The paper describes some of the aims behind the project and discusses some of the immediate methodological issues which have arisen. It then goes on to reflect upon some more general matters which are beginning to emerge. The paper is rooted in concerns about the gap between social research and social theory. These form the context for the problems selected for consideration here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a sample of general textbooks in sociology, this article proposes a heuristic, four-sided paradigm of the extant literature on ethnicity, gender and race and highlights their empirical referents: (1) order-integrative, which emphasizes the progressive adaptation of ethnic and racial groups to a dominant, Anglo-Saxonic, Eurocentric culture; (2) pluralist-multiculturalist, which emphasizes markers of social differentiation between ethnic and racial groups that are compatible with social diversity; (3) power-conflict-stratification, which frames successive generations of minority ethnics in contentious power relations amongst themselves relative to the perceived or actual mainstream white powerbrokers in society; and (4) gender-feminist, which critically analyses the white, male, heterosexual bias and hegemony built into the structures and practices of social institutions and social discourse. The paper concludes by suggesting further research on cross-national perspectives as developed countries become more diverse and, as a result, more culturally divisive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preventing disease is by definition a valuable objective, and most debates have revolved around improving the effectiveness of prevention. In this discussion, I explore the latent functions - the unintended consequences - of what I call the 'project of prevention'. Although many latent functions are welcome, some have undesirable effects, and it is therefore important to instigate a rich exchange between innovative theory and rigorous research to minimise such effects. I argue that the hazards are particularly acute in the absence of a reflexive and critical awareness of the political environment and the cultural economy within which prevention occurs. In the paper, I sketch the challenges to mobilising that awareness, show some of the limitations of the conventional theoretical approaches to prevention, and point to directions for developing more fruitful perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1999 NSCA Presidential Address looks at current research in sociology and related disciplines to illustrate the ways in which it is spanning geographic and paradigmatic borders and boundaries moving toward and inclusive race/ethnicity-class-gender scholarship. Late 20[SUPth] Century perspectives are contrasted with those that prevailed at mid-century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]