Search

The paper presents the address given by the author during the general session of the Midwest Sociological Society's 25th anniversary meeting on April 13, 1962, in Des Moines, Iowa. It discusses the author's experience with the society and his participation in its previous annual conferences. During his term as secretary of the society he has observed the changes in the structure and the functions of the society since its reorganization in 1937. The most important phenomenon having implications for a regional society is the decline in regionalism of American sociology. Regionalism, in the sense that it existed in 1937 has disappeared. The birth of the society have a significant impact on the origins of modern American sociology. The educational institutions established by notable members of the society have contributed to the production of doctor of philosophy degree in sociology.

The article presents comments of William Bunge, a geographer on an article by geographer David Grigg regarding regionalism, and the reply provided by Grigg to these comments. According to Bunge, locational variance is not only reduced by reducing the region's size and increasing its compactness as mentioned above, but also by increasing the region's contiguity. In his reply, David says that, he is sorry if Bunge feels that his reference to Bunge misrepresents Bunge's views on the uniqueness, or otherwise, of locations.

One of the possible outcomes of the Third Law of the Sea Conference may be a recognition of the right of countries within a geographic region to establish special juridical arrangements for their offshore areas. Regions may be of two types: common policy groupings, such as the Latin American or Soviet Union/East European Socialist states blocs; or complementary-use regions, as the Caribbean, Mediterranean, or other semi-enclosed seas. It is postulated that serious attention should be given at LOS III both to the definition of regions as geographic entities, and to the delineation of the types of special rules and regulations which may be adopted within these regions. A summary of the geographic and legal/political characteristics of twenty-five ‘semi-enclosed seas’ are presented as illustrative of a clearly defined type of complementary-use region for which specific jurisdictional arrangements might be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the varying usage as to the meaning of manufacture in the U.S. Meaning of manufacture in 1621; Regional pattern of manufacturing industry in the nation; Elements of manufacturing homogeneity.

The article presents a discussion on the psychiatric and bureaucratic aspects of war. It purposes to summarize the prophylactic efforts of some of the leading psychologists and psychiatrists of the world for the last 15 years to prevent international wars. The authors cite two great examples: one, a letter written in 1935 by European psychiatrists in the main; the other, the consensus of American psychologists in 1945. To what degree have they been able to overcome the biologic, individual-pathologic, and mass-psychologic provincialism? Have they been able to achieve a realistic psychologic view of the factors which became more and more decisive in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, for example, the governmental factors and the bureaucratic forces? The authors attempt to answer these questions. Of the present writers one is a psychiatrist and social psychologist, a member of the American Psychiatric and Psychological Associations, and the other is a psychiatrist and member of the American Psychiatric Association.

The article presents an experiment that was set up in order to ascertain whether the effect of a single motion picture on the social attitudes of school children could be measured by an attitude scale in the statement form. The plan was, in brief, to let the school children of one town see a film favorable to Chinese culture and in a second town the school children were shown a film that has been criticized as unfriendly to the Chinese. The results show that the attitudes of the children were changed in opposite directions in the two towns, thus demonstrating the effect of the films as well as verifying the methods used. The two towns selected for the experiments were Geneva, Illinois, and West Chicago, Illinois. The film "Son of the Gods" had been considered rather friendly in its interpretation of Chinese culture. One week before and the day after seeing this picture, the children filled in a statement scale about the Chinese. This attitude scale was constructed by the method of equal appearing intervals. The scale value of each statement is recorded for each opinion in the list.

The article provides views on regionalism concerning the ordering of human affairs. In a managed economy, the activities of the country are supervised by central government departments, or statutory bodies responsible to them. Meanwhile, a series of compromises towards the regional view are made on an ad hoc basis, such as in the government regional organisation, in the formation in certain cases of Joint Boards and Joint Advisory Committees for planning purposes in the declaration of Development Areas. Moreover, the pattern of local government divisions has been constructed, and various provisions for adjustment of status and extent of power have been made.