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Due to their massive parallelism and high performance per Watt, GPUs have gained high popularity in high-performance computing and are a strong candidate for future exascale systems. But communication and data transfer in GPU-accelerated systems remain a challenging problem. Since the GPU normally is not able to control a network device, a hybrid-programming model is preferred whereby the GPU is used for calculation and the CPU handles the communication. As a result, communication between distributed GPUs suffers from unnecessary overhead, introduced by switching control flow from GPUs to CPUs and vice versa. Furthermore, often a designated CPU thread is required to control GPU-related communication. In this work, we modify user space libraries and device drivers of GPUs and the InfiniBand network device in a way to enable the GPU to control an InfiniBand network device to independently source and sink communication requests without any involvement of the CPU. Our results show that complex networking protocols such as InfiniBand Verbs are better handled by CPUs, since overhead of work request generation cannot be parallelized and is not suitable for the highly parallel programming model of GPUs. The massive number of instructions and accesses to host memory that is required to source and sink a communication request on the GPU slows down the performance. Only through a massive reduction in the complexity of the InfiniBand protocol can some performance improvements be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how the inhabitants of Llico, a small fishing town in Chile, organized to move from the coastline to avoid a tsunami that devastated their homes and livelihoods and then to manage immediate responses. It then describes how long it took for state support to arrive and how the inhabitants were marginalized from planning and implementing the reconstruction processes. As a result, this poorly served their needs and priorities and failed to utilize their knowledge and organizational capacities. Here and elsewhere in Chile, post-catastrophe reconstruction processes miss the opportunity to improve living conditions for the affected communities and to develop policies for disaster management that incorporate and use their social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The classification of novel disease events is central to public health action surrounding them. Drawing upon the sociology of scientific classification, this article examines the role and contestation of the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Alert Phases, as applied to the spread of 2009/10 H1N1 Influenza. The analysis of World Health Organization texts, including policy documents, public statements and epidemiological documents, has been utilized to examine the Organization’s actions and public narratives around the event of H1N1. Analytically, the functional role of such classificatory schemes and the social construction of scientific classifications are examined. It is argued that in understanding the World Health Organization’s 2009/10 application of the Pandemic Alert Phases, the critical limitation of the functions served by the classificatory scheme led to the breakdown of its construction. This case study highlights the importance of classification for the successful production of scientific ‘facts’, the constructed nature of classificatory systems and the potential for contestation that arises when such classifications do not adequately fulfil their functional roles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article I argue against the widespread opinion that social mechanisms and grand theories of Modernity are conflicting approaches to social theory. My main thesis is that even though they clearly differ, they exhibit complementary strengths and weaknesses. Hence, I argue for a cooperative solution to the question of their coexistence within sociology. I present what I call a Weberian solution to this query. More precisely, I claim that a grand theory of Modernity should be conceived of as a constellation of social mechanisms. As a result, grand theories of Modernity may be both more properly articulated and tested empirically, whereas social mechanisms may be reconnected to the classical project of sociology, namely to construct a comprehensive theory of modernity. I illustrate the fruitfulness of my Weberian solution with a particular case, the sociology of freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the social distribution of involvement in highbrow culture in light of three issues being discussed in cultural sociology. One is that highbrow cultural orientation is an indicator of cultural capital or of social status. A second, the ‘meltdown scenario’, suggests that not only the popularity of highbrow activities, but also their distinctiveness, has decreased among younger cohorts in comparison to older cohorts. A third deals with the ‘feminization’ of highbrow culture. These issues are empirically addressed in contemporary Finland using nationally representative survey data. Highbrow culture is measured in three dimensions of cultural practices – knowledge, taste and participation – covering four different fields: music, literature, cinema and the visual arts. The results support all three arguments: First, education and occupational class are important social determinants of involvement in highbrow culture in Finland. Second, younger age cohorts show less interest in highbrow culture than do older Finns. Third, women tend to be more involved in highbrow culture than men. The results indicate considerable stability across the measures of highbrow culture and cultural fields. Social determinants of knowledge and cinema, however, are different from those in other dimensions and fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents and discusses the sociology of philosophy as a theorybased empirically practised sociological subdivision that came to the fore in the 1980s. In the first part, the type of empirical material and the forms of data presentation that are available to the sociology of philosophy are discussed. In the second part, the focus is on two important attempts, those of Randall Collins and Pierre Bourdieu, to develop general sociological theories about the relationship between social being and thought. The main lesson to be drawn from them is that in normal circumstances philosophical thought cannot be reduced to socio-political conditions outside the attention space (Collins) or the philosophical field (Bourdieu). In the concluding part, we tentatively sketch a programme for a future sociology of philosophy. All in all, the sociology of philosophy is seen as an emerging new subdivision within sociology, the potential of which is far from exhausted with respect to theoretical development as well as empirical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this theoretical article is to analyse the social construction of order in two connected markets in the production flow of the global garment industry. The consumer market is identified as a status market, while the production market is defined as a 'standard' market. In a 'status' market, order is maintained because the identities of actors on both sides of the market are ranked according to status, which is a more entrenched social construction than the commodity traded in the market. In a market characterized by 'standard', the situation is the reverse: the commodity is a more entrenched social construction than the identity rankings of actors in the market. The study ties together consumption and production of garments through several markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this analysis of formal and informal social participation in the Netherlands between 1975 and 2000, period, life-cycle and cohort effects are disentangled and the factors that could have driven these changes are examined. Use of diary data enables an assessment of four types of social participation: formal involvement in associations, maintenance of informal contacts within the home and outside the home, and distant social contacts. Our results indicate that several changes have been taking place. A large decrease (of approximately 3 hours per week between 1980 and 2000) is found in the time people spend on social activities within the home (consisting mainly of paying visits and receiving visitors). This trend is connected with increases in work and television watching. Other changes manifest themselves as cohort differences. While younger cohorts reflect considerably less activity in formal participation, they spend more time on informal social activities outside the home. Decreasing levels of religiosity play a role with respect to both trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the concept of rhetorical capital, which is defined as the aggregate persuasive resources inherent in entities. It then proceeds to apply the concept to the study of theories and identifies the structural duality of accessibility and incomprehensibility overlaid with the prestige of objectivity as the theories' resources of rhetorical capital that render them vulnerable to political and rhetorical abuses. The article focuses on the democratic peace thesis and its mobilization by the Israeli right, mainly by Benjamin Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky, in helping to bring about the Roadmap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers interested in the structure of scientific fields have documented increases in specialization and collaboration. How, if at all, are these two trends related? Is specialization so severe that scholars cannot collaborate unless they share specific research interests? Or, have specializing tendencies promoted research that joins specialty areas and broaches new topics? We answer these important questions for a single discipline, sociology, using both qualitative interviews and latent profile analysis. We empirically identify three collaborative styles that depend on both the areas and extent of specialization in coauthors' research programs. The prominence of the reinforcing generalist profile suggests that specialization in science mainly serves to encourage scholars to work with others in their specialty area. However, the existence of two other styles - a more complementary one and one that is characterized by migration into new intellectual terrain - suggests that subfields within sociology are permeable enough to permit boundary-spanning, original research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science is being published increasingly on the web. In this article, we explore how Nordic sociology is represented on Google Scholar (GS), what its output and impact is, and what factors explain it. Our data consist of faculty in 16 Nordic sociology departments in March 2005. The distribution of their publications and citations is skewed. Thirteen per cent of scholars do not appear on GS, whereas only 15 per cent have more than 5 publications. Of scholars with at least 1 publication (n = 240), 75 per cent have at most 10 citations. Both the number of web hits (web visibility) and citations are influenced by the gender of the faculty member, type and age of publication. Web visibility, citations and position are mutually reinforcing. Departmental effect is greater in web visibility than citations. International publications have started to dominate the social sciences, international monographs being particularly frequently cited. The remaining salience of books shows that sociology is still a distinct form of knowledge. The exclusive use of refereed articles and direct comparisons with the natural sciences ignore important aspects of the social sciences. In all, while GS produces findings similar to those in citation databases such as the SSCI, some systematic differences exist. No individual method for measuring scientific output is objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divisions between variable oriented and person-oriented approaches in social and behavioral research are newly drawn. Yet few person oriented approaches have been fully articulated; those that have are predominantly quantitative This work presents an argument for a qualitative, person oriented study of careers; an approach identified as careers in context Based on a national study of scientists, this contextualist approach is grounded by three interacting, but analytically distinct, emphases to suggest how careers can be studied in and beyond science: (1) an emphasis on time and place as under-utilized dimensions on which to direct further study of careers; (2) an emphasis on the subjective career as a concept that qualitatively encapsulates temporal and spatial dimensions; and (3) an emphasis on career study in life course perspective. Subjectively (and objectively), careers are, of course, not static. By situating subjective careers in the times and places in which they occur, we are drawn to how those careers ‘play out’ over the course of the lives of the people leading them. This paper concludes by stressing ways in which contextual studies of careers in and beyond science will advance our understanding in five larger domains of social process: identity construction; institution building; social psychological differentiation; job satisfaction; and mystification of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communication between distinct social worlds or forms of life is a central topic in the sociology of knowledge. How do different communities interact with each other? Based on a sociological analysis of the work of Japanese-Portuguese interpreters in the Brazilian steel industry, I argue that the ‘language barrier’, which is normally thought as a problem, can aid communication by preventing people who hold potentially clashing concepts, beliefs and customs from directly confronting each other. The importance for such people of not understanding each other is revealed in the work of interpreters, who facilitate the interaction between representatives of different steel companies and support the transfer of technology from Japan to Brazil. They maintain cordial relationships by acting as ‘buffers’ between the Japanese and Brazilian forms of life. Three ‘models of mediation’ are discussed in a comparison of the Japanese-Portuguese interpreters with other cases of interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The priority dispute between Raymond Damadian and Paul Lauterbur over the ‘invention’ of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has attracted the attention of social and natural scientists for more than 30 years. In this paper, I have used this priority dispute to analyze the complex socio-epistemic processes through which a claim for an invention is made and strengthened. I argue that a tension exists because techno-scientific practices are embedded within a particular disciplinary regime of authorship: even though techno-scientific practices occur through distributed cognition and are contingent upon particular socio-epistemic contexts, a claim for an invention requires assigning authorship to a particular person, company, or institution in order to clearly define the origin and the novelty of that particular techno-scientific event. Nevertheless, the outcomes of socio-epistemic practices for making and strengthening priority claims are shifting, open-ended, and contingent upon particular socio-epistemic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, drawing on an extensive collection of peace agreements dating from 1990 until the present day, analyzes peace agreement provisions for civil society involvement and considers the extent to which peace agreements proffer new models of participatory democracy. We begin with some background and a short overview of political theory on participatory democracy, identifying key dilemmas. The body of the article sets out a comprehensive analysis of peace agreement provisions for civil society, indicating how peace agreements negotiate the dilemmas identified in theory. We then evaluate this negotiation in the context of post-agreement implementation difficulties. In conclusion, we discuss the implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a characterization of distributed cognition (d-cog) and explores ways that the framework might be applied in studies of science. I argue that a system can only be given a d-cog description if it is thought of as performing a task. Turning our attention to science, we can try to give a global d-cog account of science or local d-cog accounts of particular scientific projects. Several accounts of science can be seen as global d-cog accounts: Robert Merton's sociology of scientific norms, Philip Kitcher's 20th-century account of cognitive labor, and Kitcher's 21st-century notion of well-ordered science. Problems that arise for them arise just because of the way that they attribute a function to science. The paper concludes by considering local d-cog accounts. Here, too, the task is the crux of the matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about the erosion of the Norwegian democratic infrastructure, with particular emphasis on the causes and effects of the transformation of the voluntary sector and the decline of social movements. We are seeing a turning away from large-scale ideological mass movements and an increase in smaller and nimbler associations that are better at catering for individual needs and wishes, but poorer in plugging members into the central decision-making institutions. This is putting increasing pressure on the Norwegian social contract, which has been characterized by high levels of institutional centralization balanced by high levels of citizen control. We relate these important changes in the democratic infrastructure to the impact of globalization, highlighting structural similarities between globalization and the new organizational forms of political or civic participation. Our argument is that globalization is a process that has particular structural characteristics, and that these characteristics are giving shape to the new forms of civic participation that are now emerging in Norway (and probably also in the rest of Scandinavia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers comments of the author on Hurricane Katrina and focuses on what one might expect from the U.S. public inquiries and official investigations in the aftermath of disaster. The huge disaster and the many actors involved, can prolong the series of investigations. Moreover, the massive redressive measures are likely to continue producing second-order overflows. The wave of scrutiny and blame that Katrina unleashed will prove impossible to contain quickly or neatly.

We focus, in this paper, using in-depth auto/biographical research, on a Sure Start project in a marginalized community, seeking to understand its impact and meaning through the stories of families. Programmes like Sure Start represent contested space: they may be seen as an exercise in social control in relation to the marginal other. But diverse objectives, values and people shape such programmes and the resources they offer can be experienced in different ways. We provide three narratives from parents who were initially deeply suspicious – in a community where public interventions tend to be treated with caution – and yet found meaningful support with difficult problems. The narratives also reveal the potential of Sure Start to create transactional space for popular involvement in planning and running public services. We interviewed diverse professionals about these processes and suggest that an auto/biological imagination lies at the heart of effective professional practice as well as research. We are reminded, in the process, of a shared and fundamental human need to be loved and cared for, particularly at times of distress. There is much to learn from such a project, but progress remains fragile and the lessons, for public policy, are easily lost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typical of Erik Allardt's quality as a scholar and an intellectual is a willingness and a capacity to take into consideration opposite positions in the same analysis and to act at the interface of the national and international levels. This quality appears most clearly in his theory of the preconditions of solidarity, in which both ‘rational’ and ‘irrational’ reactions to the adversities of modernization are explained by the same set of variables. His best scholarly and other intellectual contributions make a fruitful connection between domestic Finnish concerns and elements of the non-Finnish sociological discussion. This Janus-faced position differentiates Allardt from Stein Rokkan, who in many other respects is comparable to him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sorts the various aspects of social capital (networks, trust, civism) theoretically and constructs an instrument for measuring its multifacetedness. The instrument is validated using data from the 1999/2000 wave of the European Values Study survey. Using the same data, the article describes how social capital, by its various aspects, is distributed geographically among European countries and regions (North, West, South, East), and socially among social categories of European citizens. As far as the geographical distribution of social capital is concerned, there are some particular differences, but, on the whole, European countries and regions, with the possible exception of Northern Europe, appear not to be substantially different in aggregate levels of social capital. In Scandinavia, social capital levels tend to be slightly higher, with the exception of family bonding. Some remarkable European patterns are found in regard to the social distribution of social capital. There is evidence of accumulation of human, economic and social capital; social capital is strongly gendered and is related to religious beliefs and behaviour, and to a political left-right stance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the social composition of homicide offenders and victims in Finland between 1960 and 2000. While many prior analyses have been based on victim-based cause-of-death statistics or aggregated rates of geographical units, the present data allowed the analysis of offender and victim populations at individual level. Both the rates and patterns of homicidal behaviour were analysed from the point of view of participants' social characteristics. It was discovered that the social anchoring of homicide remained stable in the relative sense that the typical victims and offenders were males from the lowest stratum. However, the absolute societal position of the lowest stratum male transformed as he was made economically redundant, a change that was reflected in homicide populations. The article concludes with a discussion of the paradox between the rise of the welfare state and the expected but unrealized pacification of the lowest stratum male. Four suppressing mechanisms are suggested: alcohol availability, social selection effects, cultural factors and the unintended consequences of social policy measures. The last category refers to changes in social patterns of homicide, which made the reduction of homicide rates more difficult, meaning that the present homicide situation is particularly resistant to efforts of situational crime prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The questions addressed in this study are: first, what factors determine the economic situation among the young, and, second, what aspects in youth have a long-term impact on their economic situation as adults? The empirical analysis builds on a three-wave panel covering a period of 16 years. Growth curve modelling is used to estimate changes over time. The main results are: Young people's incomes say little about their current standard of living or future earnings ability. Economic deprivation during youth is unrelated to the development of deprivation over time. Hence, the finding that young people in general face economic difficulties does not mean a problem with lasting implications. Labour market situation and household characteristics during youth are relativelyl unrelated to development later in life. However, long-term unemployment hampers young people's economy in the long run. Most importantly, the results of this analysis emphasize the importance of the reproduction of class and gender relations. It is these two fundamental aspects, more than anything else, that affect young people on their way into adulthood and in their future life as adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theodor Geiger is one of the sociological discipline's unappreciated classics. This article focuses on a particular and often neglected part of his work, the study of revolutionary crowds. The article has two main objectives. First, it presents and discusses Geiger's subtle and thoroughly sociological account of crowds and their revolutionary character. This includes an outlook to his theory of differentiation and to his critique of communitarian pathos in modem society. Second, the article demonstrates that Geiger's theory has much to offer contemporary debates on revolution. This is shown more specifically by contrasting Geiger's theory with Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's recent work. According to Hardt and Negri, the present imperial world order may be radically transformed by a new revolutionary subject, the multitude. The article contends that in many respects Geiger's theory provides a more complex picture of the possibility of revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short biography sketches the professional itinerary of Professor Dag Østerberg (1938-), a colleague very well known, respected and much quoted in his native Norway, as well as on the Nordic scene and beyond, as a sociologist, philosopher and musicologist. Østerberg's academic career spans the years as a student from 1957, magister 1961, doctorate 1973, and employment as assistant, associate and professor (in 1981). During several decades of not being employed he devoted his time to free study and writing. In practising a ‘frugal freedom’, he maintained his independence as an intellectual, upholding his original programme as a ‘critic of society’ and of sociology as a whole. The biography is written along Bourdieuvian lines, in seeking to understand his career through the various fields he has passed through. Unlike many others, he has had the boldness of spirit to withdraw, time and again, from situations and fields that did not fit with his programme. A critical spirit, he was one of the initiators of the local Norwegian Positivismusstreit, and, although in changing form, has maintained like stands ever since a critical, interpretive sociology, 'post-positivism'. The best known of his English books is Metasociology (1987). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

abstract: Johan Asplund holds an exceptional position in Swedish sociology. Although widely read, his books do not fit the normal scientific pattern, which makes him into something of a riddle to many sociologists. In this essay, I consider Asplund's work as a whole, sketch the progression of central ideas and portray his way of working. I also attempt to characterize Johan Asplund's position in Swedish sociology, and to delineate some of its consequences for the reception of his work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the position of, and debates within, French elite sociology today. The analysis stresses the reasons for the field's weak development, and discusses current debates about politicians (politics as profession versus political savoir-faire) and about the relationship between elites and the state (their role as custodians of the state). The author underlines the dilemmas stemming from these debates, points out the three directions (the comparative approach, the historical approach, and the policy-making approach) that French neo-elitism has taken, and suggests the need for a cognitive framework permitting the study of elite action within the decision-making process in order to improve empirical observation of how new power elites are formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the possibility of a social science that aims at self–referential knowledge–acquisition. This form of social research explores and questions deep–seated presuppositions prevalent in contemporary culture and strives to become aware of other forms of life. This view of social sciences, therefore, is perfectly in line with the pragmatist perspective that language and knowledge, rather than acts of representation, allow people to increase the scope of human possibilities. Various forms of social research, in a wide range of disciplines, have already explored this self–referential knowledge: for instance, genealogical history and sociology, post–processual archaeology and the critical turn in anthropology. The article locates this self–referential knowledge within the context of contemporary American pragmatism (e.g. Rorty, Bernstein). It is argued that this type of knowledge ties in with the radical tradition in neo–pragmatism, in particular its anti–foundationalist notion of critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Niklas Luhmann's theory of power is based on two fundamental pillars. First, he analyzes power functionally as a symbolically generalized medium of communication, which endows his conception of power with a strong evolutionary foundation. Second, he claims that power is constitutively tied to negative sanctions. Drawing upon Michel Foucault's analytics of power, the article is a critical examination of Luhmann's theory of power. In particular, Foucault's critique of the so-called discourse of sovereignty is transformed into an immanent critique of the second pillar in Luhmann's theory of power. The argument is that this pillar is converse to Luhmann's evolutionary theoretical objectives, as it reinstalls an Old-European semantics of power. The article contends that systems theory would better redeem its historical goals if it focused primarily upon the functional dimension of power. It is argued that this conceptual revision endows systems theory with a more flexible perspective on power that is both attentive to historical transformations of how power is exercised, and which still carries a strong link to a general theory of society and its evolution. In the article, this openness is demonstrated through a systemic reconstruction of Foucault's notion of subjectification which, in its Luhmannian version, is coined semantic intrusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the social capital theory, popularized by Putnam, expects that associational life and social trust promote civic participation in political processes, some studies have demonstrated weak associations between social capital and political engagement. By applying these arguments of the limited impact of social capital, this study examines the relationship between social capital and political trust in South Korea. Survey data were analysed and it was found that both associational involvement and social trust were negatively related to trust in political institutions and commitment to voting. Furthermore, these negative relationships were mediated by citizen perceptions of poor institutional performance such as political corruption, suggesting that institutional performance is a crucial determinant of political engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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 Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

This article presents list of books by Robert K. Merton. Many of the books are written and assisted by other authors. Some of them are: "Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England," "The Family Encounters," "Social Theory and Social Structure," "Continuities in Social Structure," "Patters of Social Life: Exploration in Sociology of Housing," "Contemporary Social Problems," "The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations," and "The Sociology of Science in Europe."

This paper is reminiscence and a critique of Robert K. Merton's work in the sociology of science. The author got to know Merton very well as he served as his student assistant, and colleague for 15 years from 1960. Merton's works which are most discussed are his doctoral dissertation on Puritanism and science, his paper on scientific norms, and his paper 'The Matthew Effect'. He is criticized for not generalizing far enough from his work on the Puritan thesis and for not paying close enough attention to the empirical data, which cast doubt on the validity of his theory of the Matthew Effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a response of the author, to Martin Kusch's article "Rule-Scepticism and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge." Philosopher Martin Kusch re-opens the controversy between David Bloor and Michael Lynch over the application of Ludwig Wingenstein's philosophy to the problem of rule-scepticism. Kusch comes down on Bloor's side against Lynch's deflationist argument, but opposes floor's claim to have answered the sceptic. Bloor and Kusch agree that the sceptic can be answered and they also agree upon the form that an adequate answer needs to take. Kusch denies that Bloor's argument satisfies the requirements: namely, for a non-circular reductive explanation in which "intentionality" is derived from "non intentional" causes. According to the author, arguments about whether they should "explain practices" sociologically or otherwise are apt to be complicated by the fact that scarcely anyone takes the trouble to make clear what it is about practices, that can be explained.

This article focuses on rule-scepticism. In the article, the author presents a reply to Martin Kusch for his article on rule-skepticism. According to the author, in the original exchange with Michael Lynch two things were at stake: first, they disagreed on the best way to analyze science as a social activity, and second, they disagreed on how to exploit the legacy of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's work in the course of such an analysis. Lynch opts for an ethnomethodological approach, which is descriptive but not explanatory in any causal way; the author opted for a form of the sociology of knowledge in which the aspiration to provide causal explanations plays a central role. Lynch sees Wittgenstein's work as constituting a challenge to the sociologist, while the author sees it as a resource that can be used to deepen and further the sociological enterprise. Although they have a running disagreement about the interpretation of particular arguments in the Philosophical Investigations they agree, in general terms, that Wittgenstein's work is capable of being read in either way. Predictably, they define fruitfulness differently. The result is that Lynch sees Wittgenstein as an embryonic ethnomethodologist; the author sees him as a proto-sociologist.

This article presents reply of the author to his critics. In this article, he expresses gratitude to David Bloor and Wes Sharrock for their lengthy responses to his article "Rule-Scepticism and the Sociology of Knowledge." According to the author, he has said a little about philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his paper. In his reply, Bloor speaks of "Wittgenstein's reductive approach to meaning" and aligns Wittgenstein with his own reductionist ambitions. Whether Bloor's move is defensible depends on what the author means by "reductionism" or "reductive approach." Bloor is surprised that the author finds his position vis-a-vis reductionism ambiguous. In order to make sense of his assessment, he assumes that he must, have ignored "half of the theory" that he puts forward in his article, "Wittgenstein: Rules and Institutions." The author agrees with Bloor that Barry Barnes' work on designation devices is of great interest. Bloor's discussion of Barnes' theory displays precisely the ambiguity that the author was worried about in his paper. According to Bloor, Barnes' paper shows that a structure of non-intentional processes can provide the underpinning and matrix for sustaining intentional processes and which derive their intentionality from it.

Sources of state revenue have a major impact on patterns of state formation. This proposition from fiscal sociology is valid and convincing in the context of western European history and comparisons among contemporary state in the South. This article investigates the extent to which we can conclude that the quality of governance in contemporary developing countries might improve if state were more dependent for their financial resources on domestic taxpayers. The radically different context of contemporary third-world states cautions against too firm conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the sociology of Zygmunt Bauman, contemporary society, labelled consumer society by Bauman, is viewed as liquid modernity, which underlines mobility as indicative of our time. Globalization encapsulates the increasing mobility of capital and social elites; Bauman stresses that the present consumer society is stratified, and for the poor mobility is not an easy option. Spatial differentiation goes hand in hand with social differentiation. Increasingly, the affluent segments isolate themselves in voluntary ghettos such as gated communities, while the poor are relegated to the enforced ghetto, where they are labelled an underclass and viewed as useless and unwanted. Bauman demonstrates the development in North America as indicative of the situation elsewhere, but suggests an alternative to neo-liberal welfare state dismantling: namely the introduction of a basic income and substitution of the work ethic by an ethic of craftsmanship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about the book "Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama," by Stephen Hilgartner. Hilgartner's book is great, not just because it is about an interesting subject, but because it reveals and celebrates the development of the field, the maturity of the field, it is Latourian, but it is not actor networks. It links up with classical sociology, the man himself, Erving Goffman. The book combines organizational analysis with discourse analysis impeccably, and throws in new literary forms for good measure. Most important are the questions that it raises a litany of some of the most significant issues for science studies. Everyone knows that knowledge, claims generated from research studies are important, these are High Science. Media science is important, press releases, science writing and so forth, this is Low Science. The subject of the study is the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Now it is considered to be part of the National Academies. This NAS is indeed a national resource, unbelievably understudied.

By way of a review of the reissue of Durkheim's Suicide this article offers an evaluation of Durkheim's monograph in the light of current thinking about suicide and the recent and growing work in Durkheimian studies. The question of moral order is also addressed and is related to social capital theory and the development of communitarianism. The matter of increased and unpredicted suicide rates among young men (especially in prison) in the UK is discussed and linked to educational provision for disaffected pupils and to the development of sustainable individual identity. It is posited that a conceptualization of this problem through Durkheimian sociology can provide a better understanding of the phenomenon than many existing approaches to the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although concerns for inequality are at the heart of the sociological tradition, few sociologists have taken a serious interest in the normative and methodological issues involved in the choice between different measures of inequality. It is argued in this article that the widely used but also widely criticized Gini index can be seen to incorporate a particularly sociological conception of inequality. The Gini index has features that are alien to mainstream welfare economics, but perfectly sensible if inequality is understood more sociologically as arising from a state of relative deprivation. However, the commitment to a relativistic conception of inequality leads to serious theoretical and practical complications. The implicit rationale of the Gird index assumes that it is applied to a `reference population' - where everybody compares themselves with everybody else. It is not obvious that the residents of a nation-state always constitute a reference population in this sense, and arguments can be found both for widening and narrowing the scope of the relevant population. Both aggregation and disaggregation from whatever is considered to be the `appropriate' scope of the reference population is problematic and requires different methodological solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can sociological variables significantly predict researchers' positions on a scientific issue? Carcinogenesis offers a good test case because it is not definitively established how important man-made substances are as contributors to human cancer. American cancer researchers divide on this issue, some broadly emphasizing the importance of man-made carcinogens, others consistently minimizing their importance relative to natural carcinogens. We find that cancer researchers who are male, are affiliated with a medical school, and have more publications, are more likely than their colleagues to minimize the importance of man-made carcinogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much debate has taken place in science and technology studies (S&TS) regarding how to speak about the capacities of technology. Alternative approaches are bound up with questions over the merits of realist and relativist accounts of technology and their potential for analytical insight and practical engagement. This paper advances a basis for examining the link between politics and artefacts, one that draws on but reconfigures the work of post-essentialist authors. This is done by moving away from attempts to detail the social basis of technology to consider instead where the ambiguities associated with technology are resolved. These issues are examined through the case of a (re-)emerging class of devices called 'non-lethal' weapons and, in particular, the chemical incapacitant spray used by British police forces. In doing so, this paper reframes debates in technology studies over how far it is possible and desirable to pursue relativist lines of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent report from the UK House of Lords on Science and Society proposes that the public's understanding of science should not be construed on the 'deficit' model, but approached through improved 'dialogue'. This Comment suggests that this approach is insufficient in itself: what is required is the effective 'empowerment' of the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When abstract quantitative and generalizing sociologies are juxtaposed to qualitative sociologies, the relationship is often seen as complementary or competitive. Our purpose is to articulate a different type of relationship between abstract social scientific knowledge (as exemplified in Survey Research [SR]) and the form of concrete and particularized knowledge represented in ethnomethodological conversation analysis. SR, historically, represents what we (following Jean Converse) refer to as the `ascendance of the objectivized subjective realm'. Like other kinds of (in Ted Porter's phrase) `mechanical objectivity', this ascendance is everywhere made possible because it is accompanied by practitioners' (researchers' and interviewers') tacit practical forms of knowledge that enable them to work through the situated problems endemic to SR. As endeavours that locate orderliness and social organization in the details of actual social activity, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis find that SR Centres have intrinsic interest as sites of locally-produced structures. Investigating the situated tacit practices of investigators actually conducting SR and survey interviews, ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approaches to SR are also akin to the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK), which has largely investigated practices in natural science laboratories. This may suggest that there is `symmetry' between natural and social science, but we also argue that `asymmetry' is a serviceable notion for science studies. Indeed, understanding the asymmetry between survey-based and ethnomethodological social sciences offers potential for communication (rather than a `state of non-intercourse') between sociologists and the scientists they study. As an illustration of the Sociology of Social Scientific Knowledge (SSSK), we examine a successful attempt at `refusal conversion' in an SR Centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this paper we investigate the intricacies of an admirable water pumping device - the Zimbabwe Bush Pump 'B' type - so as to find out what makes it an 'appropriate technology'. This turns out to be what we call the 'fluidity' of the pump (of its boundaries, or of its working order, and of its maker). We find that in travelling to intractable places, an object that isn't too rigorously bounded, that doesn't impose itself but tries to serve, that is adaptable, flexible and responsive - in short, a fluid object - may well prove to be stronger than one which is firm. By analyzing the success and failure of this device, its agency and the way in which it shapes new configurations in the Zimbabwean socio-technical landscape, we partake in the current move in science and technology studies to transform what it means to be an actor. And by mobilizing the term love for articulating our relation to the Bush Pump, we try to contribute to shaping novel ways of 'doing' normativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In recent decades, large-scale product liability litigation, so-called 'mass torts', have become increasingly visible on the US legal and political landscape. Invariably, mass tort litigation incorporates a range of specialist scientific knowledges. Drawing upon fairly conventional images of law and science, most judges and legal commentators attribute the apparent difficulties encountered in addressing the refractory issues involved with scientific evidence in mass torts to uncertainties, jury incomprehension, partisan scientists and the distortion of evidence caused by the adversarial legal system ('sociologies of error'). Adopting a more symmetrical social constructivist approach to scientific evidence, this paper endeavours to account for some of the complexities in the litigation surrounding the anti-nausea drug Bendectin. Rather than interpret the Bendectin litigation as an instance of the judges eventually valuing the scientific evidence properly, and thus resolving the controversy (the truth winning out), this paper explores the manner in which lawyers, scientists and judges together 'negotiated' a series of cases and judgments which privileged epidemiology as a means of 'resolving' a recurrent socio-legal 'problem'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]