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This paper questions the assumption that religion, or its functional alternatives, inevitably provides the basis for the cultural integration of all societies. In modern societies the process of differentiation has reached the point at which a normative order based on religious beliefs and values is no longer possible. This development, however, coincides with increases in productive capacity which tend to make less difficult the tasks of motivating enough individuals to work and of providing legitimacy for the social order. As a religious basis to the normative order becomes less necessary, religion will continue to have functions for certain strata and for private individuals, but these functions will be more likely to be expressive than utilitarian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines social process in integrating colored people in Great Britain. The colored population which in Great Britain settle in a number of her ports is affected by two main social processes. On the one hand are forces separating colored from white and integrating them into large discrete groupings. On the other, is the process integrating them with whites and dissolving the bonds which hold them together as a distinct unit. Accommodation and assimilation are used in reference to the process of integration, but sociologists do not always agree on the precise definition of these terms. Accommodation as used in this paper will mean social relationships, consciously organized for the purpose of resolving conflict and establishing a working agreement to enable divergent personalities, groups and cultures to engage in activities while contriving to retain their own characteristic traits. The two groupings here concerned will be called, for convenience, Moslem and Negro. Each grouping, although composed of different national and linguistic sub-groups, is bound together by a number of social and cultural ties. But the sub-groups retain their distinctiveness by their continual admission of new immigrants.

George P. Murdock's conception of the universal aspects of the family is examined by reference to the ethnographic literature. The results indicate that the nuclear family is not universal and that only the nurturant socialization function is universal. A revised conception of the family is offered which views the family institution as a small kinship structured group with the key function of nurturant socialization of the newborn. Nuturant socialization of the new-born is conceptualized as a functional prerequisite of human society, and some type of small kinship structured group is viewed as a structural prerequisite of human society for the fulfillment of this function. Three types of evidence are brought to bear on the universality of this definition: (1) cross-cultural evidence, (2) studies of nonhuman primates, and (3) studies of mother separation in human societies. The evidence tends to support the universality of the family definition proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the factor analytic structure of small group interaction, parent-child interaction, and personality traits is reviewed and interpreted within the framework of a circumflex model. This model uses power and support as reference axes around which other patterns of interaction or of personaltiy can be meaningfully arrayed. The circumflex model provides a theoretical map which can be used to order existing data and to generate hypotheses. Examples of such ordering and of hypotheses are given. Location of socializing agents or groups in the two-dimensional property space formed by the variables of power and support is a minimal essential specification of the social interactional context within which socialization takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbolic realism simply holds that religious symbols are not primarily social or psychological projection systems but ways in which persons and societies express their sense of the basic nature of reality. In one sense symbolic realism implies less a regressive fusion of science and religion than a more adequate differentiation between them, but precisely because this differentiation is nonantagonistic in principle it allows the possibility of a new integration. For symbolic realism can also be accepted by the theologian, not as a substitute for religion, but as a conceptual scheme for the interpretation of it. It is the author's conviction that studies undertaken from the perspective of symbolic realism are more likely to be accurate and useful than psychologistic and sociologistic studies. The historical particularity of religious symbols is more apt to be respected by symbolic realism which takes each such system as meaningful in its own terms than by any form of reductionism. Symbolic realism considers that religious symbol systems are the heart of the matter.

Findings are reported concerning differential perception of help patterns and use of kin, non kin, and institutional resources by men during a time of recuperation from illness crisis. The study population consisted of previously well males who experienced a first myocardial infarction. Members of the kin group as well as friends and neighbors ranked similarly in degree of assistance reported. Minimal use was made of institutional and professional services, aside from contact with the physician. Type of aid given varied according to source, with nonkin such as neighbors providing services in higher proportion than kin, while parents and siblings were more prominent as sources of financial aid. Among the possible correlates of aid examined, only age of the patient was associated with types of help from various sources. Data on configurations of aid and on visiting patterns, it is suggested, may be interpreted through reference to level of social integration of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility of a relationship in modern society between family disorganization and recreational patterns is explored. Changes in modern recreation patterns from an individual to a dyadic participation unit, from homogeneous to heterogeneous participation by sexes, and from a goal of excellence to one of ecstasy may have implications which operate against family integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researcher D. Lockwood's distinction between social and system integration' seems to the author one of the most important contributions in the field of sociological metatheory. However, he thinks that there are certain ambiguities and shortcomings in Lockwood's distinction which restrict considerably its wide applicability. In this article the author tries to identify and discuss some of these difficulties with the aim, not of dismissing it but, hopefully, of increasing its utility both as a guide to research and as an instrument for assessing critically conflicting approaches to the study of social change. More specifically, a more systematic discussion of the meaning and implications of such a distinction, as one shall see, leads to a fresh appraisal of the kind of difference existing between functionalist and Marxist theories of change. Lockwood seems to distinguish two types of system integration--according to the type of parts that they refer to. The one type is to be found in the writings of normative functionalists. In this case the parts of the system are institutions and therefore system contradictions arise out of institutional incompatibilities: i.e. certain institutional patterns clash with other institutional patterns.

The literature suggests a distinction between the instrumental adjustment and the social integration components of adaptation by rural migrants to new environments. Using an index measuring both formal and informal social contacts with natives, the integration process was plotted over time through a cross-sectional analysis of 688 residences for a sample of rural migrants from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Results suggest that the integration of contemporary rural migrants in new settings is a relatively rapid process. However, our data show that integration is inhibited when: 1) the destination community is large; 2) the migrants have low initial socioeconomic status; and, 3) kin are present in the receiving area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disagreements over definitions and consequent difficulties in precise measurement have obscured the study of the relationships among pluralism, religion, and secularism. But the importance of those relationships requires that we attempt to explore them. An emphasis on pluralism, it is suggested, supports religious freedom and tolerance, but it may also support rigidity in religious traditions. Defense of separate religious communities may transfer questions of social integration to secular institutions that are at least potentially anti-religious; or it may promote anomie. Substantial amounts of secularism, so often defined as antithetical to religion, may actually be essential if religiously pluralistic societies are to escape high levels of conflict. Thus religiously heterogeneous societies are confronted with serious dilemmas. The numerous and subtle relationships among pluralism, religion, and secularism call for careful analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on social integration of a society and deviance. Remarkably little interest has attached to whether high levels of social integration beget deviance. The idea of reciprocity in role-playing provides a useful way of giving greater meaning to the concept of social integration. The view here is that the more do roles in given types of situation mutually facilitate the playing of each other, that is, the more is reciprocity built into role relationships, the greater will be social integration. A group may be well integrated internally and little integrated with the larger society of which it is a part. Again, a whole society may be characterized by overall social integration of any degree. Tension in a social structure depends on the degree of reciprocity in role relationships. The less is reciprocity, the greater is tension. Thus if role reciprocity in a social structure is very low, tension in that structure is very great.

Research in race relations in Great Britain has been dominated by a 'social problems' approach and a policy orientation. The social problems framework is based on a number of unstated assumptions. One is that the coloured person in the country will be incorporated into the social structure and value system by a process of mutual adjustments between blacks and whites. The problem is thus one of integration and policy research is directed towards the discovery of the administrative actions and piecemeal reforms necessary to facilitate the adjustments. In this is embedded a second assumption, namely there are men of good will in administration who are willing and able to take the necessary action. The official sponsorship and institutionalisation of race relations research is rooted in these assumptions. It is not altogether clear what alternatives could be the basis for such sponsorship. The social scientist who engages in research and who publishes on such a basis is not merely a participant in attempted social engineering, he is the propagator of a particular view of society. Integrationist research assumes and propagates notions of social homogeneity, value-consensus and conflict freedom. The first task of a sociology of race relations is to unmask what has hitherto passed for the sociology of race relations.

New Zealand churches are surrounded in an integrationist-segregationist controversy, as of June 1, 1965. The central issue of the debate revolves around the question as to whether ecclesiastical policies should aim at separate Maori or integrated Pakeha and Maori organizations and services. An unusual feature of the controversy is that all parties are aligned in the reverse order as compared with South Africa or the U.S. Maori religious workers generally favor segregation, those who favor integration are nearly all Pakehas, usually somewhat removed from the scene of racial interaction. One can detect the controversy in nearly all the major denominations, more so in the Protestant churches, less so in Catholicism. The only major denominations where the controversy is absent are the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, which is entirely integrated with a predominant Maori membership, and the almost exclusively Maori sects, such as Ratana and Ringatu.

The significance of social status and social mobility as variables in the analysis of social action is by now taken for granted. This is true even though there is considerable unevenness in how these variables arc defined and measured, and in the ways and degrees to which the effects of these variables are evidenced. These variables take on added importance when their implications for social integration and anomie are considered. Status refers to position in a social order, and mobility to changes in such positions. Differential positions tend frequently to receive differential evaluation. Therefore, one of the most important effects to be expected is the degree to which persons with different status and mobility-profiles feel differently valued by their social other, and act as if they were differently integrated into its norms. These effects probably are most noticeable when insecurity, anxiety, and a general sensitivity to questions of status are widespread, as is so often the case in an open class system. Social changes which threaten status arrangements ought therefore to be viewed with different degrees of alarm, and resistance to such changes should emerge in proportion to the degree of threat which is experienced. Desegregation, as it refers to the promised amelioration of the positions of Negroes in our society, is one such major change.

This study focuses on a population of young male entrants to the urban labor force from a low-income, traditionally familistic, relatively isolated rural area of the Southern Appalachian region. The research is designed to explore the proposition that close identification with family of origin, as measured by frequency of interaction with parents, tends to ‘hold back’ the young rural migrant from becoming a functional member of the urban industrial community. Indicators of functional integration include involvement with familial and nonfamilial groups, feelings of residential stability and anomia, and occupational achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a study on sex differences in various adjustment measures between boys and girls. Effect of the level of social and psychological integration on the adjustment test scores of the students; Use of differences in patterns of upbringing in explaining the relationship of sex to adjustment level; Mean differences in adjustment by sex.

Since investigators have tended to confuse suburban with fringe social life, and since it is possible that contemporary descriptions of the fringe area have been influenced by pro-rural biases, a study was undertaken to determine the identification and integration patterns of residents in an area which is clearly a rural-urban fringe. It was found that long-time, relatively stable residents, who have rural, non-central city backgrounds and who are committed to the area, participate in their locale to a greater extent than residents who possess converse characteristics. This means that farmers, who have been largely neglected in other fringe studies, tend to be the area participants. In addition, very few sample members may be classified as negatively identified with their area of residence. This finding is not in agreement with the conclusions other investigators have presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on several programs for the economic development of the Negro communities in the U.S. Earlier patterns of action to move the Negro into the institutional structure of American society have achieved limited objectives. Recent programs legislated by governments and those undertaken by civil rights organizations have progressed slowly in achieving social, political and economic equality for the Negro. Economic integration through jobs and skills training is no longer receiving priority in the Negro actions for economic and social equality. The primary and current orientation in the quest for economic participation is the drive for Black ownership and control of economic resources, or Black capitalism. Within this context militant leaders of national organizations have bypassed the historical emphasis of civil rights organizations on attempting to achieve economic integration through jobs and skills training. They argue that economic development for the Negro can only come through Black ownership and Black control of productive resources. The tactical dilemma facing the Negro is whether to attempt to build viable Black economic institutions within the existing and largely White economic structure, or to establish these institutions within a separate, all-Black environment.