Search

This article focuses on the contributions of professor A. R. Radcliffe-Brown to the study of social organization. What Radcliffe-Brown did was to distinguish between the search for historical and evolutionary origins, the preoccupation of ethnology, and the study of the laws of custom and social organization, the province of social anthropology. Those social scientists other than anthropologists who know Radcliffe-Brown's work, tend to pay attention only to his methodological articles. But the vital theoretical contribution lies in his ethnographically centered papers. It is in them that Radcliffe-Brown's adherence to the view that there are laws of social life which can be established by systematic and empirical investigation, is brilliantly justified. These papers are mainly concerned with problems of social organization, or as Radcliffe-Brown now prefers to call it, social structure. Radcliffe-Brown shows that the merging or identification of alternate generations fits in with the widespread concept of the completion of the cycle of the generations in three successive steps, and with the contrasting roles of grandparent and parent in family systems. It is ethnography based on a theoretical discipline, the discipline of structural analysis as first given shape by Radcliffe-Brown.

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.

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.)

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.)

The article presents abstracts of various papers published in the October 1, 1967 issue of the "Journal of Social Issues." In the paper "Fertility, Family Planning, and the Social Organization of the Family: Some Methodological Issues," based upon recent field research on fertility and family planning in Argentina, problems of entering and sustaining the interview and coding the material are discussed critically. In the paper "Organization and Management Needs of a National Family Planning Program: The Case of India," shows a persistent gap between plans and the instrumental capacity to carry them out. Analytic concepts employed in the paper include overloading the elite, organization as blueprint, organization as action. In the paper "The Research Challenge to Social Scientists in the Developing Family Planning Programs: The Case of Taiwan," shows that Taiwan is a favorable setting for population control studies because there have been a series of developments favorable to the development of linkages between the individual and larger social and economic units.

The sociological conference in Moscow, Russia chose for discussion three subjects which seemed to have intrinsic importance and also to be relevant to the wider question of international understanding and peaceful cooperation, as of May 1, 1960. The first was the variety of attitudes and public policies relating to educational selection and income distribution in different modern societies. The second concerned the divergent conceptions of sociology itself, as influenced by national traditions, social doctrines, and forms of social structure, and manifested in the content and organization of teaching and research. The third subject was a proposal for international comparative research on the content of films, which had in view not only the value of factual investigations of an important medium for the transmission of social values, but also the interest of trying out in practice new forms of international scientific co-operation. A number of working papers were prepared in advance as a basis for the discussions.

A systematic theory of the nature of suburban social structure within an organizational frame of reference is subjected to an empirical test. Major hypotheses derived from the general theory were supported by the analysis. A methodological contribution was achieved by combining analysis of census data with analysis of sample survey data. A chain of relationships between social structure and politics has been demonstrated through interposition of organizational theory between the regularities of mass data at the census tract level and of individual data at the sample survey level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on communities often fails to meet two important criteria which permit valid generalizations from the findings. First, studies generally fail to apply the scientific comparative approach and the techniques of multivariate analysis in their design and execution. Second, theory fails to distinguish between properties of communities and properties which are properly classified in other systems. Sociologists who study communities do not share a precise definition of community, nor do they agree how observations about community phenomena are to be incorporated into sociological theory. The discussion that follows will be facilitated, however, if one can make reasonably clear the sense in which this paper deals with the sociological study of community. Community is viewed in this paper as a territorial system. The more comprehensive territorial definitions of community view it as a form of social or ecological organization arising from the fact that people share a common area for their daily activities.

The article presents a commentary on the paper "LIFO and the Diffusion of Innovation," by Ronald M. Copeland and John K. Shank. The author notes that the models used in the analysis lack the sociological variables of channels of communication and social structure. He explains that the failure to include these variables in the design and interpretation of the study weakens the utility of the research makes its bearing on the proposition about the relative weight of cost-benefit incentives less than cogent.

This paper offers a typology of organized religion that grows out of the conceptions of the Ultimate espoused by Christian religious bodies and relates to these conceptions the patterns of social organization of these bodies. The attempt is to discover a typology that adequately accommodates the theological and confessional character of religious bodies, on one hand, and their social structures and behavioral patterns, on the other. The paper offers three major types: Familial, Democratic, and Dominical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.)

The article discusses the paper presented by Dr. Pahl zu on social conditions in the Netherlands. With admirable clarity, displaying an extensive knowledge of the relevant literature, he has demonstrated that the traditional concept of the rural-urban continuum is more an obstacle than a help in the work. Of course, this conclusion as such is not new, as Dr. Pahl himself has shown in his review of recent literature. Any sociologist who has used the concept in his work, has come sooner or later to the finding that one or more elements did not fit in the construct. Whatever the criteria chosen for characterization may be, there is always the case to be found of an urban group behaving 'rural' and of a rural group being 'urban', or, worst of all, one finds rural and urban characteristics within one group or individual. With the description of the situation in 'urban villages' and with the examples taken from studies made in the developing countries, in which all sorts of discontinuities between the urban and the rural come into the view, Dr. Pahl has found strong support for his statements. It is clear that a typology of settlements, from the small to the large, can never form the basis for a continuum which classifies social structures.

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.)

Contemporary work on the development of status and power structures is reviewed. It is shown that theorists have conceptualized the relationship between these structures in opposite ways. Some have held that the structures tend toward alignment. Specifically, they have held that persons tend to be equally high or low in both structures. Others have held that the structures tend toward non-alignment. Specifically, they have held that the range of persons statuses tends to be greater than the range of their power. An attempt is made to reconcile the different theories underlying these two conceptions by postulating that one conception is correct under certain conditions and that the other is correct under other conditions. The conditions specified involve an important but somewhat neglected aspect of the overall stratification structure, what is called the secondary stratification structure, and the importance persons assign to this structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts both to ‘bring up to date’ the author's conception of social stratification as set forth in two previous general papers written in 1940 and 1953, and to broaden the field of consideration by giving special attention to the forces pressing toward equality in various respects, as well as the bases of inequality, The position taken is that the erosion of the legitimacy of the traditional bases of inequality has brought to a new level of prominence value-commitment to an essential equality of status of all members of modern societal communities. Inequalities, among units of societal structure which are essential in such fields as economic productivity, authority and power, and culturally based competence, must be justified in terms of their contribution to societal functioning. The balancing of the respects in which all members of the societal community and many of its collective subunits must be held to be equal with the imperatives of inequality constitutes one of the primary foci of the problem of integration in modern society. A few suggestions about the mechanisms by which this integrative process can operate are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict referred to in the title of this paper arose when different answers were given to the question 'who should be dismissed?', following a recession in trade at the Consett Iron Company in 1961. We attempt to demonstrate that by a social-structural analysis one can obtain a clearer understanding of the nature of such conflict. While any particular case will have idiosyncratic features that make it unique, the mode of analysis may be applied to other situations which have a family resemblance. The paper is divided into two main sections: I. A discussion of the extent to which a generalized belief system exists concerning the principles which should govern dismissals arising from redundancy. An indication of some potential sources of conflict arising from the application of any such principles. II. A presentation of the Consett case in the light of the above discussion. Essentially we ask how the various interest groups defined the situation confronting them. Towards what goal or goals was their action directed? What criteria did they appeal to, what means did they advocate and what resources did they mobilize in the pursuit of their goals? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that one of the two most important and influential environments for the child is the classroom in which he lives during a part of each day. His relations with his teacher and with his peers are two major aspects of his school environment. This paper reports a research exploration of the development and maintenance of the classroom socio-emotional structure in a sample of 39 elementary classrooms. The paper also explores some of the mental health correlates of the child's position in this socio-emotional structure, which in turn suggest focal points for diagnosis of socio-emotional problems in the classroom situation and formulation of therapeutic strategy in working toward the improvement of classroom mental health. This brief discussion of teachers' behavior should not be construed to mean that the teachers involved in the study were "playing favorites." Rather, it is thought that teachers, faced with the task of teaching youngsters in classroom groups and necessarily having to maintain order to do so, must respond critically to disruptive behavior, and respond quite naturally with affection to little girls who seem to be asking for it and apparently getting little from their peers.

This article presents information related to socio-economic correlates of Consumer behavior. Market Research Analysts have studied consumer buying motives and habits with respect to innumerable product lines. Very few researchers have made use of social organization variables as correlates of specific buying motives and habits. The purpose of the present paper is to examine social organization determinants of consumer-buying motives in food purchasing. Following the procedure of other market researchers, an attempt was made to ascertain consumers' patronage motives in buying groceries. The results given in the table indicates that consumers patronize particular stores for specific reasons. In order to compare buying motives with buying habits, categories of a more genotypic nature were sought. The dichotomy of emotional and rational, suggested by some marketing economists, was deemed unsatisfactory for the present data. An examination of the patronage motives given by respondents have suggested that many were indicative of forms of product differentiation as defined.

The research reported in this paper studied 240 rural youths in four central New York high schools. It investigated (1) the relationship between value orientations and the education and occupation choice-making process, and (2) the structural antecedents of those value orientations. Choice making was classified in two levels: aspirations and plans. An instrument was constructed which aimed at ranking individuals on a latent continuum for each of twelve values. The findings support the general hypothesis that in the education and occupation decision process there is a relationship between an individual's value orientations and the choice that an individual makes from among the alternatives available. The findings further suggest that the influence of values on choices decreases as freedom of opportunity is restricted by the bonds of social structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with sociological and social-psychological differentiating factors associated with high and low degrees of participation in formal organizations. The study shows that high and low participants are selected from different positions in the social structure; in addition, both groups have sell-images which are similar to actual participation patterns. An exploratory phase of the study gave evidence that community attitudes concerning formal participation role-expectations of various positions are in accordance with actual participant behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a structural perspective towards a sociological theory of development. Perhaps no single word has been more widely and frequently used by such a large number of people in so many countries of the world today than the term "development." The term frequently refers to economic development as it has been a central concern to the majority of nations and citizens living there. The author also describes the reasons why sociology has been a latecomer in this endeavor may be found in the insistence on a value-free or ideologically neutral science of society. The author further says that his paper builds its argument on the following basic premises: 1) development is a value concept; 2) development is a social structural change; 3) the aspect of social structure that is most salient to development is that of resource allocation or the distributive system of society; and 4) the pivotal factor that can either promote or cripple the development process is political leadership. This article also presents a comprehensive study of human values which was previously not existing.

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]

This article reports that communication is viewed as an interpersonal matter between a communicator and a communicatee whether in the face to face situation or through the medium of picture, print or radio. The interpersonal dyad is seen as the most elemental social relationship and with an added degree of stability as the most elemental unit of social structure. Viewed as an interpositional dyadic construct it provides a suitable unit for the analysis of complex social structures relevant to the communication of farm information. The central purpose of the paper is to distinguish and meaningfully to interrelate, aspects of the dyadic construct relevant to interpersonal communication and influence. These include the purpose, continuity and interactional qualities of the relationship, their external associations and lines of communication, the manner in which the dyadic pairs combine into complex aggregates and the special qualities of the aggregates themselves which are likely to influence the communication of information and the exercise of influence. This model is presented as only one way or approach to studying communication conditions and processes, not as an appropriate model for assessing implemented change in human behaviour.

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.)

The social composition of government bureaucracies has important implications for social and political systems. In this paper comparisons are made between national samples of federal civilian employees and nonfederal employees on key social and occupational characteristics. Federal employees differ modestly from the general employed public in several respects, one of the most important being the bureaucracy's openness to minorities. Nevertheless, the similarities between the two work forces are perhaps more striking. Furthermore, federal workers have had extensive experience in a representative variety of nonfederal pursuits. There is little persuasive evidence that federal workers are not broadly reflective of the American social Structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influential members of the urban planning profession have developed certain ideas about new town design, including notions such as self-containment, social balance, and the neighborhood unit. These parallel, to some extent, concepts that have emerged from the field of community sociology. Efforts to put these ideas into practice have fallen Jar short of the mark. Without more sophisticated implementation mechanisms, better theories of social interaction at the neighborhood level, and new approaches to citizen participation, efforts to build new towns are likely to remain severely crippled. The aim of this paper is to summarize past efforts to translate implicit theories of social organization into actual new town designs. The possibilities of closing the gap between theory and practice through the use of more explicit forms of social experimentation are discussed in the context of the fledgling new towns program in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge about the effects of industrialization upon systems of social stratification. Taking societies as the unit of observation, we consider the relationships between level of industrialization and (I) the distribution of status characteristics in the population (the structure of stratification) ; (2) the pattern of interrelations among status characteristics (the process of stratification); and (3) the form of linkages between status characteristics and other aspects of social behavior (the consequences of stratification). A set of propositions is specified, a few of which are empirically well established but most of which yet require empirical testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to clarify some of the perspectives of the discipline of sociology, to identify radical viewpoints and how they have evolved and converged, and to indicate some of the consequences of a radical sociology and its prospects. A radical sociology calls for a radical perspective, namely, a structural perspective. Such a perspective requires uncovering economic and political realities in the attempt to understand social structure. Intellectual relevance should not merely be cloaked in terms of efficacy demands which derive from state welfarism and militarism, but should be the extension of a radical and structuralist perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents some directions for research in sociolinguistics. The term sociolinguistics is frequently confused with the activity of anthropologists engaged in traditional ethnographic work; with the new linguistics of transformational grammars; or with work in psycholinguistics. However, sociolinguistic study attends to those reflections of social structure which are revealed in language, particularly in speech usages and is concerned neither with motivation nor with conscious behavior. Sociolinguistic can help in solving sociological problems, but there are obvious problems in adapting linguistic techniques to sociological problems. Sociologists have much to gain and nothing to lose by attempting resolution of these problems. Thus far sociologists simply have not exploited the great potential of a substantively rich, methodologically rigorous, and theoretically suggestive body of work. At the very least, the trained linguist can facilitate research by giving new dimensions to those of more traditional variety. There are many ways in which the technical apparatuses of linguistics can be brought to bear on sociological problems, just as there are areas of research design and data handling in which sociologists may have something to offer linguists.

Over recent years, sociologists have devoted considerable attention to the comparative analysis of industrialized societies. Perhaps the major impetus for such interest has been the discussion the so-called "thesis of convergence" has generated. Although this thesis tends to focus upon "structural" features of societies, there have been other arguments which have suggested that such developments are related to changes of a more "cultural" kind. Researcher A. Inkeles has put forward the view that industrial modes of production particularly of the large-scale bureaucratic kind, generate structural environments and institutional features which lead to relatively consistent patterns of attitudinal responses. This paper is an attempt to re-examine Inkeles' thesis in the light of empirical data for two industrial societies, namely England and Sweden. More particularly, the emphasis is upon the perceptions of various aspects of social stratification. In order to test Inkeles' thesis, the findings of a number of empirical studies have been synthesized. But it is important to stress the problems of comparability. The studies have been conducted at various points of time; different research designs have been utilized; and the objectives of the studies have often been quite different.

The article focuses on the limitations of holding to a strict fact-value dichotomy, given some of structural difficulties students of social problems encounter. Authors also attempted to extend and clarify the above analysis via a critical discussion of two papers concerned with the value problem in the sociology of deviance-by the well-known American sociologists, Howard S. Becker and Alvin Gouldner. In this article, authors are involved not only with theoretical implications and omissions of this debate but also more generally with its implications for social theory at large. Authors have argued throughout that the social structure will determine that what is truth for one group will not be truth for another. Authors further suggest that there is a clear rationale for close examination of the extent to which deviant values are inextricably linked with social structure, and that, with this as a major concern, one can elucidate one's conception of the way in which men define the world and the way the world actually is.

A study of social bases of different modern mass movements suggests that each major social stratum has both democratic and extremist political expression. Extremist movements of the left, right, and centre are primarily on the working, upper and middle classes, respectively. As often noted, isolated individuals do contribute disproportionately to the backing of extremist mass movements, it is the author's contention that this fact does not contradict the class interpretation of modern politics, whether extremist or democratic. This paper attempts to show that it is an error that extremist ideologies and groups can be classified and analysed in same terms as democratic groups, i.e. right, left and centre. These three positions resemble their democratic parallels both in compositions of their social bases and in contents of their appeals. While comparisons of all three positions on the democratic and extremist continuum are of intrinsic interest, the author concentrates here on the politics of the centre, the most neglected type of political extremism, and that form of "left" extremism sometimes called "fascism," or "Peronism" as manifested in Argentina and Brazil. The author also presents data for different countries which indicate the sharp difference between social roots of classic fascism and populism, and those of right-wing movements.

This article presents a case study on the social structure of the town of Brockville, Ontario. Briefly, it was a study of social administration, dealing with the social services of a small Canadian town. The aims and achievements of each service were described. A study was made of the resources available to each, the regulations determining and limiting its work and the decisions made about the service at various levels within the community. Finally some general conclusions drawn about the character and development of social services in such a town. Field work for the study was done by three people who lived in the town for three months. They examined the records and case papers of social services, interviewed board members and workers in these services, read such local historical material, interviewed a representative sample of 200 households in the town and participated as far as possible in the life of the community. An attempt was made to trace responsibility for the planning and administration of the social services of the town. Three types of leader came to light, each drawing power from different sources. The three types of leader that characterize different stages of the town's history did not succeed each other at clearly defined intervals. Further analyses of social structure were according to familiar measures of socio-economic status. An attempt was made to identify classes of people with common interests and values, common patterns of association, consumption and leisure-time occupation.

The article discusses social status and electoral choice in two constituencies in Great Britain in 1952. The statement that social class membership is of outstanding importance as a determining factor in political behavior would probably be regarded by most contemporary social scientists as little more than a truism. And it is perhaps for the very reason that the gross outlines of the relationship are so clearly perceptible that so few systematic attempts have yet been made to analyze its structure in any detail. The material presented in this paper forms part of the results of an inquiry into certain subjective aspects of English social stratification, carried out in September-October 1950. To study social class differences in voting behavior was only one of its aims: the inquiry was designed also to study, inter alia, varying conceptions of the nature of social classes and of the criteria of class membership, the social class placement of various occupations and attitudes to social mobility. An account of the design of the survey and of some of its findings will appear elsewhere; it may be useful, however, to include here some brief notes on the sample, and on the method employed of classifying respondents.

This article discusses the concepts of social status and social structure. It is the specific purpose of this essay to examine the interrelation between value-judgment and empirical research with regard to the analysis of social stratification. Discussions of different theories of class are often academic substitutes for a real conflict over political orientations. This ideological involvement of the social scientists who deal with social class may be responsible for the methodological confusion which prevails in this field. As yet there is little discussion of class as an abstraction and of the different theories of class as different abstractions depending on the purpose for which the research is undertaken. In analysing the implications of studies of class structure, this paper shall take examples from the analysis of social class which Professor W. Lloyd Warner and his associates. But the objective in this discussion of the Warner researches is not to add another critical appraisal. This paper is concerned with evaluating his findings for a broader understanding of social class in American society. The basic concern here is to re-analyse the data which he and others have made available. This article presents an analysis of social class and gives a comparison between the economic and subjective aspects of class, defines class as an abstraction, presents a distinction between scientific analysis and popular opinions, an index of social class and status reputation in metropolitan areas.

This article analyzes the patterns of social life of youth in the social structure of Israel. A large part of adolescents in Israel participate in patterns of behaviour and social organizations specific to them. The predominance of groups of age-mates in immigration countries has been for long noticed and analysed by some American sociologists and this tendency can be even more strongly discerned in Israel. Moreover, this paper will discuss a proposition that the emergence of youth culture is closely related to the prevalence of the second type of social division of labour. The traditional oriental family may be seen as an example of the first type of division of labour. Almost the whole social organization has been organized on the basis of patriarchal families. The families were the units of occupational specialization. The cooperative-settlement and the moshava are less pure and extreme examples of a division of labour based on the family. In fact there is some degree of discrepancy between some important social roles and the familial roles. The second type of social division of labour is most clearly discernible in the urban sector, in which the family does not function either as a full economic or cultural and political unit. In the communal settlements (Kibbutzim) the clearest correlation between the unfamilial division of labour and a very intensive and formalized youth culture is discernible.

Elizabeth Bott's hypothesis that "the degree of segregation in the role-relationship of husband and wife varies directly with the connectedness of the family's social network" has been tested with inconclusive results. C. C Harris has reinterpreted the English data by suggesting that the degree to which monosex groups exist for each spouse explains the data better than does Bott's thesis. In this paper, Japanese and English data are compared and the relative merits of Harris' thesis over that of Bott discussed. Implications of the findings for further research are discussed as they relate to the contrasting rates of divorce found in the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andrew Billingsley in Black Families in White America has criticized much of the previous research on the black family, saying that social scientists have ignored the structural variation among families and have focused on a very limited number of family functions. To correct what he believes to be a distorted picture of the black family, he has suggested a typology of family structures and a large number of family functions which should be taken into consideration. This paper, based upon data collected from 321 black households, uses Billingsley's typology to examine the association between family structures and functions. It is concluded that a few modifications of the typology would expand its utility, that more detailed information about family structure does reduce the chances of distortion and contribute to greater understanding, and that Billingsley may have overemphasized the capacity of many black families to deal with their functional problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proceeding from the premise that governmental policy inevitably reflects a position with respect to the family as a social institution, this paper attempts to describe some of the current explicit and implicit components of this policy as well as factors which have contributed to its development. A position is developed that government policy with respect to the family should be made more visible and clearly articulated. A final section suggests some guide lines for the formulation of this policy as well as strategies for its realization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The implications of how American families choose to utilize their time must be recognized by family-life workers. This paper raises the critical issue of the time factor in family life by highlighting some of the time pressures felt by family members. Presence of such pressure in society behooves all in the family-life field to be better prepared to teach and to counsel more constructively in this important area. A special plea to help responsible families to understand the importance of using some of their free time to work for the kind of tomorrow they want adds a program dimension to this exploration of an underdeveloped area of social concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology 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.)

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]

One of the factors which affects an individual's motivation to perform on a group task, as well as his feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction, is the clarity of the social structure within which the individual functions psychologists B.R. Raven and J. Rietsema in a recent experiment were concerned with some effects upon a group member of the clarity of the group's goal and the path to that goal. With a very ingenious method, utilizing a tape recording, they were able to induce two degrees of goal clarity the subject (S) was given the task of cutting out geometrical figures presumably to be used by the other members of his group in constructing some three-dimensional objects. While S was involved in his paper cutting, he was permitted to hear, over a loud speaker, what the others were doing with the pieces he had provided. One half of the Ss were given, through the recorded discussion, a clear picture of the goal the others were working toward and what they were doing to achieve it. The recording heard by the other Ss presented the group task as quite vague and ambiguous.

This article deals with the rural-urban dialogue and its implications for focus and identity of rural sociology. It may not be an overstatement to contend that one's appraisal of rural sociology as a field as well as his optimism or pessimism as to its future depends to no small degree on his stance in this dialogue. The major purpose of this paper is to sketch three essential steps in the conceptual refinement of the rural-urban notion. These include making the concept universally applicable; declaring the population dimension as prior but relating it explicitly to culture and social structure; and stating the normative and ideological context in which the concept is used. Appropriately, several presidential addresses at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society have focused on the accomplishments and future of the field. In addition, especially within the last two decades, a considerable volume of other papers have dealt critically with and subject matter and practice of rural sociology.

This article presents information about various developments related to sociology. Plans for the 1968 meeting of the Rural Sociological Society at the Somerset Hotel in Boston during August 23-26, 1968 are well under way. This year the Program Committee has divided the contributed papers section into six major areas. These are: Social Structure, which includes Small Groups, Community Structure and Development, Power Structure, Rural Organizations, and Stratification. The Social Processes area includes: Innovation and Social Change, Cooperation and Conflict, and Communication. The Population and Ecology are includes: Fertility, Mortality, Demographic Characteristics, and Locality. Authors of papers for possible inclusion in the Medical Care Section Program of the next annual meeting of the American Public Health Association to be held during November 10-15, 1968 at Detroit, Michigan, may obtain standard abstract forms from Donald C. Riedel, Associate Professor of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.

This paper presents a general view and evaluation of rural research in Brazil. The beginnings of rural research and the main orientations during its early development are reviewed. Three fields are then analyzed more thoroughly: community studies, regional investigations, and problem oriented research. Although relatively few in number, the community studies have nevertheless served to illustrate the most varied types of social structure in Brazil. General regional surveys are numerous and are concerned principally with cultural and ecological aspects of society; most of Brazil's varied regions have been studied in this fashion. Problem-oriented research, on the other hand, is fairly recent and as yet unsystematic. The main problem areas that have been emphasized are: immigration and assimilation, internal migrations, messianic movements, and more recently, class relations and land tenure problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A change in technology, economic conditions, social organization, or human attitudes may serve to instigate a chain reaction throughout a whole socio-economic structure. On the other hand, it can rejuvenate certain aspects of that structure which might otherwise have outlived their usefulness. The possibility of such contrasting consequences of change in any particular sphere gives rise to a need for the most comprehensive type of investigation wherever the status quo is to be altered by deliberately planned action. This, in turn, calls for the close collaboration of many professions and academic disciplines. The author was intimately connected with the case here presented in this paper in support of this contention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on sociocultural problems in introducing new technology on Navaho irrigation project. The development of the Navajo Project under the Upper Colorado River Project will give the Navaho Indian Tribe an opportunity to rehabilitate 1,900 families on 122,000 acres of irrigated land. However, a wide gap exists between the Navaho's current level of agricultural technology and understanding of modem economic practices and that which he will need when the large irrigation development is completed,some years hence. This article describes a case study of a 60-acre farm which the Indian Bureau planned as one method of teaching the Navaho to bridge this gap. It did not succeed, largely because of the lack of coordination between the agency branches concerned, arid because the planners failed to take into consideration the culture and social organization of the community. The demonstration farm is located on a newly subjugated part of an existing irrigation project in the northeastern part of the Navaho Indian Reservation in New Mexico.