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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]

Cybernation is defined as the combination of the computer and the automated self-regulating machine. Enthusiasm for cybernation is likewise giving rise to myths, which may harden unless they are given critical attention. The new myths are somewhat reinforced by technocratic thinking which is often ill informed along economic and sociological lines. As myths, some of the newer convictions, which are developing, are also an outcropping of what has come to be called the Triple Revolution. In evaluating the assumptions of cybernation here the author is not declaring either that they are in error or that they are beyond the bounds of possibility. What the author wishes to maintain in this paper is that if these assumptions remain untempered by institutional realities and by some new and necessary conceptual considerations of an economic nature, they will not prove very serviceable for the task of managed social change. Furthermore, if these assumptions remain unguided by an appropriate social philosophy, a cybercultural credo will remain at best programmatic. Unless detailed blueprints for various forms of needed devotees of cybernation can work out social change, the cybercultural revolution will never enter the realm of Realpolitik. The excuse for this paper, then, will be the effort to examine critically the excesses of enthusiasm, which characterize those who are now marching under the banner of cybernation, and to suggest some critical remedies, which are in order.

This article seeks to provide some tentative answers to issues arising from comments on the paper "Current Folklore in the Criticisms of Parsonian Action Theory," which was written because certain features of sociologist Talcott Parsons' work have consistently been misinterpreted by the critics. According to the authors one of the purpose of this paper was to clarify what they perceived to be Parson's position on persistent theoretical issues social theory. The authors argue that critics incorrectly contend that the voluntaristic thesis has been abandoned, primarily because they fail to recognize that the analysis of emergent system levels requires the elaboration of additional concept. Critics have thus assumed that conceptual elaboration and specification represents an abandonment of the voluntaristic thesis, but in point of fact, just the contrary is true. The basic elements of the unit act-the actor, objects, orientations, informational organization, and energic constraint-have served as the general framework for subsequent developments in Parsonian theory.

This article traces briefly the use of the comparative method in sociology. It documents that what is currently called "cross-national research" is an interest that has antecedents running back for at least a century in a great variety of fields. Secondly, the article argues for a closer interplay between sociological theory construction and cross-national data. Because current sociological theory is exceedingly culture-bound, basing its propositions largely on data derived from modern American and Western European societies, the need for testing hypotheses within truly cross-cultural settings is most timely and urgent. Thirdly, the paper article delineates three major methodological problems in cross-national research. These problems include the requirement of equivalence of meaning, the requirement of concept equivalence and the requirement of equivalence of cultural variability. It concludes with a recommendation for furthering interest in cross-national research in rural sociology.

In this paper the conventional treatment of family harmony and conflict, in a consensus-equilibrium framework, is discussed and judged inadequate. Instead a view of the family as a system in conflict is suggested as an alternative and more fruitful theoretical approach. The major premises underlying such a frame of reference are briefly outlined. Its theoretical implications for the study of the family are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to integrate equity theory and specialized theories and data concerning the reactions of bystanders and victims caught up in emergencies. The authors first examine three factors which determine the bystander's response to emergency situations: whether or not bystanders attend to an emergency; how aroused bystanders become by the emergency; how the bystander responds to the emergency-i.e., by helping, by denigrating the victim, or by running away. Finally, they examine factors which affect how the victim will respond to the bystander who either provides or denies him assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

This article discusses the book "Readings in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences," edited by May Brodbeck. The author gives attention to three topics discussed in this anthology. The first is the controversy over whether the account of explanation given by sociologist Hempel is applicable in the human as well as in the natural sciences. The second theme in the anthology obviously relevant to sociologist is that of methodological individualism versus holism. Many of the papers in this anthology characterize at one level the alternatives confronting a scientist whose theorizing confronts either empirical or conceptual difficulties. Just because actions are informed by intentions and purposes, and intentions and purposes presuppose beliefs, so a social role-which specifies and prescribes or permits certain courses of action for certain types of person presupposes certain beliefs. The matter of the philosophy of science may not only be regulative as regards the form of our theories and the lessons to be learnt here may well be one that the sociologist now feels have been conveyed to him almost too often-but suggestive as to their content.

Information about several papers discussed at the 15th annual meeting of Southern Sociological Society held on March 28-29, 1952 in Atlanta, Georgia is presented. The interrelationship of social theory and social service programming for the handicapped was illustrated in the paper "Planning for the Blind in North Carolina," by Howard E. Jensen. Papers presented at the Friday evening session are "Some Applications of Cultural Anthropology in Modern Life" and "On Political Ecology."

The people of the South are making a more intelligent effort to find answers to their social questions than have been possible heretofore. Both federal and state, including some nonagricultural, institutions are making important contributions to an understanding of these questions. Steps to be taken include: 1. Helping the rural people in particular and the public generally to understand their social problems. 2. Southern institutions must lead the way to rural social progress in the region. Research is the most serious business of these institutions. For research to be the most effective instrument for rural progress it must not be made a side line to teaching or other functions. Teachers who undertake research must have sufficient relief from teaching loads to do it aggressively. 3. The research specialist must bring to his task a cultivated, scientific mind, a mastery of scientific method, and a social philosophy. 4. The rural sociologist must maintain something more than a speaking acquaintance, an effective working relationship, with the physical and biological sciences, must help organize the forces of Science, help develop a Science of Man in which man is the master of a favorable ecological balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility exists that during the past decade some important social psychological theory and research and some salient social forces may have interacted to produce a subtle shift in the Zeitgeist from studies concerned with more negative to studies of more prosocial or positive forms of social behavior. The history of the term "prosocial" is first explored. Some different forms of prosocial behavior are indicated, along with the different research strategies and operational definitions involved, and a working definition of prosocial behavior is suggested. Finally, each chapter is overviewed and some indications are made of various intersections of agreement as well as countervailing arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the potential contribution of sociological theory and research to economics. It attempts to demonstrate that to a significant extent, concrete economic conditions are affected by factors that the economist has traditionally considered to be outside his purview, and that policies designed to achieve strictly economic goals must take into consideration non-economic influences. Among the non-economic factors and influences that enter into predictions about economic conditions and into policies to achieve economic goals are those that have traditionally been studied by sociologists. Thus sociologists should be able to make a contribution to economics. Before sociology emerged as an independent discipline confined to the systematic study of a specific subject matter, some of those who were speculating about sociological phenomena were professional economists. Americans like William Graham Sumner and Thomas Nixon Carver retained chairs in economics departments when they shifted most of their academic duties to teaching courses in sociology. Europeans like Max Weber, Vilfredo Pareto and Franz Oppenheimer were equally at home in both fields. The two fields began to separate sharply when students who bad majored exclusively in sociology became the teachers of the emerging discipline, and when a body of research problems that did not interest the economists became the object of the sociologists' attention.

This article presents Sidney R. Waldman's comments to David Easton's article "Some Limits of Exchange Theory in Politics," published in the 1972 issue of "Sociological Inquiry." In rebuttal to Easton's suggestion that the author is not clear as to the nature of the five propositions that form the core of exchange theory, Waldman emphasizes that exchange theory does not imply that men consciously calculate costs or benefits, that they consciously try to satisfice, or that they consciously calculate the probable outcomes of the various actions they see open to them. Also, Easton argues that exchange theory, despite its claims, is only a special theory which attempts to explain variation in support for political institutions and practices. However, in the author's opinion, a reading of the basic propositions should readily convince the reader that the theory is intended to explain all behavior, not merely behavior that involves support for regime, government, political party, or other institutions.

Radical activism in sociology can be explained as reaction against developments in American society, university structure, social theory and the American Sociology Association. Beginning in 1967 with a controversy over a Vietnam resolution, it has grown to include organized opposition through the Sociology Liberation Movement and the separation of the Black Sociologists Association. The assumptions behind sociology as an academic field and an occupation, have been and are being tested and found erroneous by an increasing number of sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the social stratification and social mobility in Scandinavia. Scandinavia is set apart from the rest of Western Europe by common social characteristics and the Scandinavian countries are in all respects closer to each other than they are to the rest of Western Europe. The three attributes which carry prestige in Scandinavia are to pursue a non-manual occupation, to be a public employee and to possess a scholarly degree. A person's occupation is considered an important part of his identity. Common sense and sociological theory includes social power as a major stratification variable. It is quite unevenly distributed in Scandinavia. Education is not the only nor even the most frequently used avenue towards the achievement of higher status, but it does enjoy a position of high and growing importance in the mobility process. Wealth is also an important stratification variable. Research in occupational prestige is a post-war phenomenon in Scandinavia. The nobility has lost all formal prerogatives, but is still in existence in all Scandinavian countries, except Norway. The slaves have long since disappeared.

Roots of the increasingly close collaboration between sociology and medical care are to be found partly in a common interest in certain aspects of disease and therapy and partly in their similarity of approach to research problems. This article reports a study in the sociology of medical care that is characterized not only by the multiplicity of disciplines represented in it, but also by the cross-cultural comparisons which it introduces. It is concerned with the contribution that the study makes to the refinement and development of social theory, and especially to the theory of illness and sick-role behaviour given by sociologist T. Parson. The article presents data from three small-scale populations surveys, in different cultures to examine some of the components of Parsons' analysis of illness and sick-role behaviour. Central issues concern the criteria that define entry into and performance in the sick role, and they are both conceptual and methodological issues. The underlying objective is to examine sociology of illness and illness behaviour.

This article focuses on the theory of sociology given by sociologist Talcott Parsons. The fate of the functional requisites in Parsonian sociology can be regarded as happy or sad according to one's theoretical predilections. It has been shown that in many respects the development and changes that have taken place in and around the concept have reflected the development and changes in Parson's theory of society. The caveat on theory-building expressed in the book "The Structure of Social Action," has held good over the years as of March 1970. This is especially the case with respect to the universal imperatives. They are not subject to change for they are not empirical realities; they are, however, real in their consequences for social systems and for the structure of social organization in terms of all human societies. Parsons has made and elaborated the important distinction between social and personality systems in such a fashion that old notions of the individual versus the society have been seen to be inadequate. This is particularly relevant here as it paves the way to an understanding of individual and social requisites of human society, though Parsons himself has not taken full advantage of the possibilities in this context.

The article provides an overview of the topics discussed in the journal about governmental programs and their relationships to the structure and functions of the family in the U.S. Each article gives serious attention to current government programs and their historical antecedents, philosophies of the programs and issues in their development and direction, impact of changes in family life on the programs, and impact of the programs on family life. Each author selected the topic he considered the most significant legislation in a specific area and the issues which he considered important and relevant.

Complexity is a concept of which the first definition can only be negative, though it is not simple. A simple object is an object which can be conceived as an indivisible elementary unit. A simple concept is one whereby such an object can be conceived clearly and distinctly, as an entity which can be isolated from its surroundings. A simple explanation is one whereby a composite phenomenon can be reduced to its elementary units and the whole can be conceived as the sum of the characteristics of the units. In simple causality cause and effect can be isolated and the effect of the cause can be predicted in a strictly determinist manner. Simplicity precludes what is complicated, uncertain, ambiguous, contradictory and the theory that corresponds to simple phenomena is a simple theory. However, a simple theory may be applied to complicated, ambiguous and uncertain phenomena. In this case a process of simplification takes place. The problem of complexity is that of phenomena which cannot be reduced to the simple thought patterns of the observer. In other words, complexity will first manifest itself, for this observer, in the form of obscurity, doubts, ambiguity, or even paradox or contradiction.

The problem of order and the age-old debate over conflict and consensus continues to animate modern social theory. The article critically appraises sociologist Edward Shils' relatively uncelebrated contribution in the rescue of the classical consensual view of society from its current state of disrepute by fusing it with tenets derived from conflict framework. Shils' theory of society builds upon the premise that 'Every society, seen macro-sociologically, may be interpreted as a centre and a periphery.' These 'zones' have both a structural and a cultural aspect. Defined in terms of structure, the centre consists of those institutions and roles which exercise authority, while the periphery consists of those strata or sectors of society which are recipients of commands and of beliefs which they do not themselves create or cause to be diffused. Alongside the institutional structure of authority relations, Shils suggests that every society also acquires a central cultural system. Unlike 'orthodox' consensus theorists who see consensus deriving from a natural identity of interest served by a common stake in cooperative activity, Shils explicitly rejects the notion that a fundamental harmony of interest undergirds social order.

In April 1972, Professor Frank H. Knight of, the University of Chicago, Illinois, died, and his passing leave something of a void in the economics profession. Professor Knight's influence on contemporary economic thought has been significant and lasting. There is little question that he made many important contributions to formal economic analysis. Probably his most influential work in this area of his thinking was Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit, first published in 1921 and subsequently reprinted several times. Professor Knight's impact also took another form because for years he was the intellectual head of the Chicago School. It is difficult to state Knight's neo-liberalism in a nice, neat summary form that would do justice to its many dimensions and qualifications. Like many important thinkers, he anticipated criticisms and thus tried to meet these points as he developed the main body of his thought. The net result is a large body of writing with many loose ends that is hard to present systematically. Knight's methodological position with respect to neo-liberalism is quite the same as it is with respect to economics, although here he runs into some serious problems, for the real world is distressingly real.

The article discusses the uses of role theory in management and supervisory training. This author suggests that some trainers' basic assumptions about the boundaries of their work prevents them from properly exploiting certain sociological concepts, particularly those of "system" and "role." During training, some circumstances may present themselves where the training focus needs to be on the individual, and others where focus should be on the role set, and that these situations can be distinguished. The article also examines the strategic and methodological implications of viewing "focus" as a critical training variable.

Few of the changes in the family suggested by modernization theory have been empirically documented with historical evidence. Through a reconstitution analysis of the families of Hingham, Massachusetts, from the mid-seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth century, important changes, consistent with theoretical expectations, in the extent of parental control over marriage formation are documented and analyzed. Changes are apparent in measures which reflect the structuring of marriage on both the individual and social level. The shift from the centrality of the family of orientation to the dominance of the family of procreation was not linear but concentrated in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liberal Western tradition of human rights is discussed mainly in relation to the difference between economic and social rights on the one hand, and civil and political rights on the other. It is argued that social and economic rights were not unknown to European philosophical thought of the eighteenth century, but that in fact the concern for civil and political rights in Western liberalism quickly broadened to include a realization of the importance to the individual of certain social and economic guarantees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the teaching of sociological methodology in the U.S. Methodology is the science of procedures used in empirical research. The nature of undergraduate counts in methodology, indeed, their very existence, largely depends on the educational philosophy of the institution. Methodology often vacillates between a watered-down philosophy of science and a set of cookbook rules for conducting research. The social science departments have generally argued that introductory statistics is as much a matter of learning to apply statistical thinking to the peculiar subject matter of each field as of mastering statistical theory and that no unified course can provide this as well as the separate courses. Teaching the abstract and systematic parts of a methodology course poses no special pedagogical problems. The one element in the introductory methodology course that departs from the traditional form and the most important part of the course for the student is training in the organizational conduct of research.

On November 27, 1856, on the initiative of sociologist Pierre Guillaume Frédéric Le Play, that the Société Internationale des Études Pratiques d' Économie Sociale was formally established. Its object was to conduct investigations on the basis of the monographic observation method perfected by the founder and as exemplified by him in his celebrated work "Les ouvriers européens." The society is the oldest existing sociological body and the only one to have celebrated its centenary. From its inception, the Le Play school made it clear that its aim was to act as a scientific research group with a specific view, however, to reaching practical conclusions for social reform. This twofold objective has remained the hallmark of the movement to this day, whereas the school of thought based on the ideas of Auguste Comte, another sociologist, was to confine itself to a far larger extent to abstract and even philosophical speculation.

Although the concept of the community has received increased attention in recent treatments of general theory of social organization, community development as a theoretical concept has continued to be largely ignored except in applied literature. This article provides a conceptualization of community development within the general framework of social field theory and indicates critical areas of needed research as viewed from that perspective. Community is defined as a generalizing, locality-oriented social action field. Community development refers to action which is purposively directed toward altering community field structure in a positive way. The focus of this approach is upon attempts by actors to increase the generalization potential of their interactional relationships. Implications of this definition of community development are shown by discussions of practical issues which confront community development workers: value, capability, responsibility, and commitment. Research problems related to these issues are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article was based on the fact that rural-urban behavioral differences have not been adequately conceptualized in terms of sociological theory. A relatively new approach is followed which defines roles as parts of social positions, which in turn make up situses, which in turn make up stations (the sum total of an actor's status positions within a community setting). Action systems made of roles dedicated to an institutional function are viewed as the key to behavioral differences. These systems are construed as varying in character depending on the structural qualifies of the roles. Seven of these qualities are identified, each providing a range of structural alternatives which account for patterns of social relations. Societies can thus be classified according to the structural alternatives to behavior which characterize their makeup. The role theory approach outlined may provide a more precise set of conceptual tools for delineating and understanding rural-urban differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on workshops and announcements related to rural sociology. The Saskatchewan Centre for Community Studies has been incorporated as Canadien Centre for Community Studies-Centre Canadian d'Etudes Communautaires. It is now an independent, nonprofit, research organization with headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario. The Saskatchewan Centre will continue as the Prairie Region Office. Four distinguished speakers, each an outstanding authority in social theory and social action, will lead a two-day Colloquium as one event marking the 50th anniversary of Western Reserve University School of Applied Social Sciences. The Colioqulum will be held in Cleveland on September 29 and 30, 1966. A grant of $20,000 from the University of Illinois Graduate Research Board has been awarded to study the impact of industrialization on a rural area in Illinois. Herbert F. Lionberger has been awarded a grant by the Agricultural Development Council to study the development and dissemination of scientific farm information in Taiwan, assisted by H. C. Chang, Research Assistant in the Department of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri.

Research was designed primarily to test the usefulness of conceptual variable analysis in a study of rural migration and to explain migration in terms of sociological theory. Cohesion and deprivation were the concepts selected and an inverse relationship was posited. Counties were treated as social systems. Net rural migration, a form of withdrawal behavior, was used as a negative measure of cohesion. Three measures of deprivation were developed and used. Two of these measures were significantly correlated with net migration and the theoretical formulation was supported to the extent indicated by the analysis. Presentation of results is followed by a critique and consideration of other theoretical and practical possibilities for migration research which can be explored by the use of conceptual variable analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt to formulate a strictly sociological concept of security proposes four criteria oriented around the central idea that security is the functional adequacy of a system of relationships. These four are: (1) the congruence of the institutional patterns. (2) the adequacy of culturally given personal roles to the institutional ends, (3) the availability of facilities to the individual for carrying out these roles, (4) the conformity of the modes and rates of change in personal roles and institutional patterns to the need for preserving stability or continuity in the system, To facilitate the comparison of the concept with reality, a fifth is added which is entirely a derivation from the preceding four. (5) the accordance of group structures and inter-relationships with the institutional pattern. This concept is then applied to an interpretation of the diverse consequences of the programs of social security in the field of agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the major conflicting theories of social institutions and analyzes the function of ideational factors in social change. According to one way of thinking, social institutions are the basic structural sub-divisions of society; insofar as their functioning is concerned, they are regarded as instrumental in character. The other way of thinking emphasizes the functional nature of institutions and tends to regard them as irrational and inhibitory. A large group of social scientists, including the cultural relativists, adheres to the former way of thinking. The structural concept of institutions is the basis of an instrumental theory of institutions. In this way of thinking, every operative and controlling activity of a given society takes place through institutions ranging from those which satisfy vital and permanent needs to those relatively superficial and transitory. The basic differences regarding the concept and theory of institutions lead to a sharp cleavage in contemporary cultural analysis. The traditional sociological concept of institutions as structural entities, with technology being ignored or subsumed under the heading of social institutions, renders impossible a distinction between the functionally inhibitory force of institutions and the functionally creative force of technology. Institutions are then analyzed in sociological theory as instrumental devices serving the more general and basic needs or interests of a society.

The article focuses on the misunderstanding regarding the relation between moral ideals and institutions. Recent social theory has favored to a considerable extent the view that morals somehow reflect the values of the underlying institutional order. According to such doctrine, moral ideals are an integral and organic part of the existing order--institutions and morals mutually supporting each other. Several recent analysts, however, have deviated rather sharply from this interpretation. Karl Mannheim, for example, distinguishes between values which support the prevailing social organization and values which oppose it. Mannheim notes, however, that from time to time the other kind of moral values have appeared. These he refers to as "utopian" values. These values are different from the ones embodied in the contemporary institutions. From the point of view of such utopian values, society must appear immoral. These values are visionary, pointing towards some mode of human conduct or of human relations which is not very well provided by the institutions. And if utopian values come to prevail, the existing order is eventually undermined and social change ensues.

The article informs that in any discussion dealing with the ideas of John Dewey, a basic assumption is that the enterprise of philosophy is not outside and above human activities, but that, like science, religion, and the arts, it is an integral part of human culture. A second assumption, neither so elementary nor possibly so acceptable can be added: that philosophy is not only an integral part of a culture but also that it reflects certain conflicts and deformations in that culture. In over-simple language, the cultural conflict between morals and technology is the fundamental setting for a cultural emergent such as philosophy. Conversely, the resolution of that conflict would be indicated as a major orientation of philosophic effort to restore integration between man's beliefs about the world and his beliefs about how to live in that world. Continuity "excludes complete rupture on one side and mere repetition of identities on the other; it precludes reduction of the 'higher' to the 'lower' just as it precludes complete breaks and gaps. The growth and development of any living organism from seed to maturity illustrates the meaning of continuity."

The article focuses on the growth of an indigenous social philosophy in the U.S. From the Mayflower compact to the Atlantic Charter men of a common tongue have spoken and written words of conviction in their day which have piloted their people on a voyage of social and political discovery slowly unfolding a better way of living together. Well into a fourth century historians, biographers and analysts have recorded and interpreted what has been done under the gradual broadening and deepening of the concepts of democracy. That is the wellspring which has now been tapped. Out of this crystal clear reservoir of the very words of the prophets of the U.S., some of their own hour and some of years beyond themselves, Francis W. Coker, Alfred Cowles Professor of Government at Yale University, has drawn the water of a nation's life. Much of it has long since gone over the dam of finite time, although it miraculously retains the freshness of its ripple in the suns of yesterday.

The article discusses about unity of science. Social concepts are at best trial and error guesses lacking any self-corrective indices. The social sciences are notorious for their unscientific concern to emulate physics in an unscientific manner. The social sciences also have an imposing set of abstractions. The attack on the problem of the unification of the sciences begins exclusively from the abstract end of the sciences, it gets off to an unfortunate start on two counts. In the first place, since the abstractions of the social sciences are included in the attempt at unification, untested items are being introduced. In the second place, it is difficult to see what concrete operational procedures the movement envisages as tests of the second degree abstractions which it must make from the abstract materials of the various sciences in order to bring them together. The pressing need for planning has allowed the dictatorships to take charge of science in their development of non-participative planning methods. Participative social planning affords an alternative approach which is both democratic and scientific.

Since the world began, man has contrived a great variety of forms of social organization. There have been hunting and fishing societies, caste and feudal societies, capitalist and socialist societies, communal societies and communistic ones. Some forms of social organization have flowered briefly only to die. Others have survived over extensive periods of time, sometimes in substantially their original form and other times in drastically modified form. No form of social organization of the past has proven immortal and no present form. The origin and evolution of forms of social organization has been given, in one way and another, a lot of attention by sociologists. The question pertaining to social organization are perhaps the major ones being addressed by contemporary social theorists. But despite all of the work which has been done, one seems to be still missing at the conceptual level an agreed upon way to order forms of social organization and at the theoretical level an agreed upon accounting of conditions governing the life cycle.

One way of investigating the functions of theological doctrines is to compare them with scientific theories as ways of interpreting experience. Ian Ramsey has treated a number of themes relevant to this comparison, including the use of models in science and theology and the role of paradox in the latter. Ramsey holds that paradoxes are to be dissolved by tracing them back to distinct models, each revealed in and justified by "disclosure." It is here argued that this interpretation is inadequate when the experience-interpreting function of theology is considered, but can consistently be supplemented with an interpretation which treats paradoxes as based on models which are complementary in the wave-particle sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The syntheses of consensus and conflict theory which were developed during the sixties served as a healthy corrective for traditional functional theory but did not exhaust theoretical debate. The identification of such syntheses with empirico-analytic tradition (and dominant control systems) calls forth a second (critical) synthesis which is not complementary, but competing. Despite the fact that both are parallel in many respects, the two theoretical syntheses are differentiated on a number of levels: value assumptions, emphases, epistemology and the implications each possesses regarding the nature of sociological activity. Conflicting interpretations drawn from the two competing paradigms promise to define the fundamental issues within sociological theory during the seventies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is an apparent lack of consensus about the nature and sources of ‘structural strain’ in society, it is shown that the tradition~ represented by Marx, Durkheim, Merton, Cloward and Ohlin, and several ‘status discrepancy’ theorists are at least partially reconcilable within the framework of reference group theory and structural balance theory. The resultant model, utilizing the ideas of ‘convergence’ and ‘discrepancy’ vis-à-vis a given reference group, is then applied as a basis ]or explaining variations in support ]or a college teachers' union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is present Western sociology helping prepare revolution? Conservative and liberal sociologies clearly help keep the social system as it is without questioning it at its roots. But also the current radical research is not as radical as it may seem, since it implicitly accepts the socio-political ignorance of the masses and does not question the neo-capitalistic principle of separation between theory and praxis. The final objective of a revolutionary sociology should be to make all people become their own revolutionary sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the definition and scope of the sociology of knowledge; brief discussion of the contributions made by sociologist Karl Marx and, finally, indication of the prospects for the sociology of knowledge in relation to social theory and social research. The sociology of knowledge is engaged in the investigation of relationships and correspondences between ideas and the social structure in which they emerge. It is both a theoretical framework and an analytical tool for approaching ideas and social situations. The sociology of knowledge rests upon the following basic premises: that all mental and intellectual products must be examined and understood within the context of socio-cultural situations in which they emerge; that the genesis of much of people's intellectual and mental product can be traced to socio-cultural factors; that epistemological consequences of some truth-claims are inexorably bound with the socio-economic locations of the thinkers; that some criteria for ascertaining the validity of such truthclaims must beset up.

This article presents a memorandum by author George A. Lundberg to social researcher Paul Hanly Furfey on the place of supra-empirical statements in sociology. Lundberg concedes that there is a similarity between the interest area of Furfey and his own. Both have shown their interest in the possibility of a scientific sociology. He has admitted the differences raised by Furfey but contends that these differences do not preclude the use of the methods of natural science in studying social phenomena, however different they may be in all other respects. The author distinguishes between a text, especially an introductory text, and a scientific monograph. The author says that the state of affairs that exists as between Catholics and non-Catholics in the other sciences cannot also exist in sociology. That is to say, certain radical differences in supra-empirical postulates may be allowed because they have to do with questions lying outside of, or in any case not affecting, the procedures through which the conclusions of natural science are reached.

This article presents a memorandum by author Paul Hanly Furfey to George A. Lundberg, a social researcher at the University of Washington, regarding the need for the clarification of basic concepts of empirical science. Within the general area of misunderstanding it seems clear to author that Lundberg confuse positivism with natural science, which is empirical by the definition given. He feels that Lundberg often claims the authority of empirical science for certain philosophic tenets and that this procedure leads to confusion. According to Furfey empirical science is synonymous with what Lundberg calls natural science. Empirical science may be said to proceed by three stages as follows--the collection of protocol statements, the formation of inductive generalizations and the development of deductively formulated theory. An empirical science may accept postulates, at least from other empirical sciences, and may use deduction to reach theorems. It is an essential mark of a statement of empirical science that it must be empirically verifiable.

The article focuses on the relationship between epistemology and sociology, for it is here that the general relationship between philosophy and science appears most obvious and direct. Although there is no necessary or logical connection between an epistemological doctrine and a sociological orientation, sociologists often use epistemology to support their sociological orientation. Using works of sociologists Emile Durkheim, William James, Charles H. Cooley and W.I. Thomas, this article will show how these men employed an epistemology to justify their conceptions of sociology. The author finds that understanding past theories and orientations can be made easier by examining philosophical issues. Being aware of philosophical assumptions should place endeavours in a wider context, perhaps alerting to unthought of implications and thereby helping to understand where the society have been, what the society is doing and where the society is going. Philosophical awareness may help us to see that existing controversies over the nature, scope and subject matter of sociology are fundamentally philosophical controversies that cannot be settled on empirical grounds.

The article begins with a discussion of the influence of a follower upon a leader. It shows how the leader may become entrammelled in the very source of his legitimacy. It also discusses implications of this approach for an understanding of that most exacting and non-ritualistic form of leadership, sometimes known as democratic leadership. Success in leadership does not merely depend on having certain abilities, nor does it depend only on having any very specific personality characteristics, but also on a third requirement, leaders attitude to his own position. This is not unrelated to personality characteristics but differs in that an individual can perform well in a position that he feels he has a right to, and yet badly in one he feels he has no right to. The difference between these last two is brought out by what may well be considered a cautionary tale. The leader must adjudicate amongst his jealous followers, for it is he who must uphold the authority, which is the basis of his legitimacy.

This article analyzes social philosophy in relation to the vocabulary of sociology. While social science describes things as they are social philosophy prescribes or recommends how they ought to be ideally. The main task of social philosophy is the critical evaluation of ideas and beliefs about society. Its job is to ask whether these ideas and beliefs can be rationally justified and if they cannot, whether they can be replaced by others which are rationally justifiable. The author does not recommend any one concept of causation for sociology. Social philosophy is not competent to say what concept of causal explanation is apt for a particular purpose. What social philosophy can do is to point out that there is more than one concept of cause and that an unreflective imitation of a previously established field of science can involve unjustified assumptions.

Novelty may lose its terrors even for the academic mind in periods of rapid social change, and perhaps because of this sociology seems to have had little difficulty in gaining respectability in nineteenth-century Japan. Confucian scholars, especially latter-day Japanese Confucian scholars, had been very much concerned with the study of social institutions as artificial means of keeping men in good order and at a time when the whole legal framework of Japanese society was being reshaped there was a general welcome for evolutionary studies of the way societies should and must progress. The early concern of Japanese sociologists was with applying principles of western social theory and social philosophy to contemporary Japanese society, but this approach became less marked as sociology developed as an academic profession. As the tempo of institutional change diminished sociologists became more exclusively concerned with the exegetical task of translating, interpreting and comparing writings of foreign scholars, though in the liberal 1920s they did once again begin to show a new interest in contemporary society. More departments of sociology were established and a new sociological journal was founded as a monthly in 1924.