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This commentary reflects on the strengths of the paper by Warde et al. entitled "Situated drinking: the association between eating and alcohol consumption in Great Britain". It suggests that practice-theoretical approaches towards studying contemporary connections between foods, food events and alcoholic drinks provides an excellent basis for overcoming the analytical limits of fields such as food studies, drinks studies, alcohol studies and related areas. This is especially so if Warde et al.'s quantitative methodology were to be yoked to two further sources of inspiration, namely Mary Douglas's structuralist analysis of food combinations within food events and Stephen Mennell's utilisation of the concepts and concerns of Norbert Elias to produce a systematic historical sociology of food. An extended inter-paradigmatic approach to the study of how alcoholic drinks relate to foods and eating practices emerges as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 contact tracing app was announced to the British public on 12th April 2020. The UK government endorsed the app as a public health intervention that would improve public health, protect the NHS and 'save lives'. On 5th May 2020 the technology was released for trial on the Isle of Wight. However, the trial was halted in June 2020, reportedly due to technological issues. The app was later remodelled and launched to the public in September 2020. The rapid development, trial and discontinuation of the app over a short period of a few months meant that the mobilisation and effect of the discourses associated with the app could be traced relatively easily. In this paper we aimed to explore how these discourses were constructed in the media, and their effect on actors – in particular, those who developed and those who trialled the app. Promissory discourses were prevalent, the trajectory of which aligned with theories developed in the sociology of expectations. We describe this trajectory, and then interpret its implications in terms of infectious disease public health practices and responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the appointment of its first full-time professor in L.T. Hobhouse in 1907, British sociology lost an environmental approach that might have substantially altered the shape of the discipline. The environmental approach was that of Patrick Geddes, who made the relationship between people and their environments central for individual and social well-being. In spite of the fact that urban Britain was undergoing environmental crisis due to the negative effects of unrestrained industrialization, a range of other circumstances, personal as well as political and both inside and outside the academy, conspired to coalesce in the more or less deliberate exclusion of Geddes' ideas. The paper suggests that sociologists need to take a radically reflexive approach to the history of their own discipline that recognizes its embeddedness in the wider social world, since both individual and social action, as well as structural forces, may be as influential as quality or coherence in determining the fate of the ideas and theories that they create. In Geddes' case, this leads to a re-examination of both the historical context and the debate surrounding the establishment of sociology at the London School of Economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses figurational sociology to explain why Secondary Physical Education teachers’ engagement with Health Related Exercise (HRE) is often limited. Historically-rooted concerns surround the teaching of HRE, and these have recently been linked to teachers’ limited continuing professional development (CPD) in HRE (HRE-CPD). A two-phase, mixed-method study involving a survey questionnaire (n=124) and semi-structured interviews (n=12) was conducted in the UK to explore Physical Education teachers’ engagement with HRE and HRE-CPD over time. The findings confirm that teachers’ engagement with HRE-CPD is often limited. Indeed, nearly three quarters of the teachers (73%) also felt that their tertiary education had failed to adequately prepare them to teach HRE. This paper argues that a range of interdependent processes are contributing towards teachers’ limited engagement with HRE, and that most of these processes – such as the marginalisation of HRE – are rooted in the privileging of sporting, individualised and performative ideologies within Physical Education. In conclusion, it is argued that informed and strategic action which addresses the above issues and which transcends all levels of the education figuration is needed if the concerns surrounding HRE are to be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although sociologists in Britain have debated the nature of their field's relationship with biology since the late nineteenth century, interest in the full range of responses has only grown in recent years. This paper contributes to the spirit of historical revisionism by turning to the work of the biologist and first director of UNESCO, Julian Huxley (1887–1975). Paying particular attention to the doctrine he called ‘scientific humanism’ and his ideas about a biosocial agenda separate from the priorities of biology itself, the paper uses historical tools to address a concern that has frequently cast a shadow over debates about biosocial science: does it interfere with the progressive agenda sociologists have traditionally seen themselves as contributing to? The paper argues that Huxley's work is evidence that biosocial science is compatible with progressive goals and that recent developments in biology mean it may be the ideal time to reconsider long-standing attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. 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.)

An introduction is presented which discusses the essays within the issue on topics, including British sociological research, urban studies and town planning from the 1960s through early 1980s.

In the United States, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is seeking to encourage researchers to move away from diagnostic tools like the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM). A key mechanism for this is the "Research Domain Criteria" (RDoC) initiative, closely associated with former NIMH Director Thomas Insel. This article examines how key figures in US (and UK) psychiatry construct the purpose, nature, and implications of the ambiguous RDoC project; that is, how its novelty is constituted through discourse. In this paper, I explore and analyze these actors' accounts of what is new, important, or (un)desirable about RDoC, demonstrating how they are constituted through institutional context and personal affects. In my interviews with mental health opinion leaders, RDoC is presented as overly reliant on neurobiological epistemologies, distant from clinical imaginaries and imperatives, and introduced in a top-down manner inconsistent with the professional norms of scientific research. Ultimately, the article aims to add empirical depth to current understandings about the epistemological and ontological politics of contemporary (US) psychiatry and to contribute to science and technology studies (STS) debates about "the new" in technoscience. Accordingly, I use discussions about RDoC as a case study in the sociology of novelty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper about what happens when a form of knowledge moves to another part of the university. The author, identifying himself as an 'ex-sociologist', investigates the relationship between the sociology of work, employment and organization and various 'critical' traditions within the business school. I argue that the contemporary divide between sociologies of work and employment, and Critical Management Studies ( CMS) within the business school rests in part on developments in UK sociology in the 1960s and 70s. This means that divergent understandings of the role of sociology and its relevant theoretical resources provided the deep structure for the current tension between CMS on the one hand and research on work and employment on the other. The movement of sociologists and industrial relations academics to the business school provided the preconditions for two very different critical traditions. The paper concludes with thoughts on what it means to be an outsider inside an institution, and on the future prospects for Burawoy's 'critical' or 'public' sociologies in UK business schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news updates from the field of sociology. Raymond E. Bassett, professor and chairman of the Department of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, died on December 5, 1956. Charles Spurgeon Johnson was born in Bristol, Virginia, on July 24, 1893 and died in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 27, 1956. After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1918, he pursued graduate studies in sociology under Robert E. Park, Albion W. Small, W.I. Thomas, and later Ellsworth Fans. M.W. Hodges, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Great Britain, has been appointed for two years to Great Britain's Scientific Mission in Washington for liaison duties in the field of industrial management and social science research. The Fourth Interamerican Congress of Psychology by the Interarnerican Society of Psychology was held at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, from December 26-30, 1956. Luigi Sturzo Institute is holding a contest and offering a prize for a paper on sociology which the judges consider an effective contribution to this field of study both from the point of view of serious research and maturity of thought.

This paper focuses on private equity in the UK and is set in the context of debates about transformations in the City of London. The article focuses on a particular concept of trust as expressed by senior members of the private equity sector. The argument developed is based on interviews with five senior founding partners of private equity firms who talked to us about their background and education, their understanding of how private equity worked and the basis for successful money making and their relationships with those inside and outside the organization. All interviewees strongly asserted the need for absolute trust between senior partners as an essential condition for the successful operation of their business. At the same time, their description of trust in this context was that while it is deep, it is also easily broken, and that once broken, the breach cannot be forgiven. We call this 'brittle trust': asserted to be simultaneously strong while extremely fragile. The paper argues, drawing on Diego Gambetta's work on the Sicilian Mafia, that this concept of 'trust' reflects a particular understanding of the practice of private equity as a high risk, tough and unforgiving business that nevertheless requires high standards of personal integrity. The study allows us to understand something more about the social ideals that were built into this financial sector by its founders, which we argue formed a crucial part of the transformation of the financial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore some of the negative aspects of friendship. In so doing we do not seek to join the debate about whether or not friendships are more or less important than other relationships but rather to explore precisely how significant friendships can be. Based on written accounts submitted to the British Mass Observation Project, we analyse how friendship, when it goes wrong, can challenge one's sense of self and even produce ontological insecurity. Friendship, it is argued, is tied into the process of self-identification and so staying true to friends, even when the relationships becomes uneven or tiresome, can be a sign of ethical standing. Meeting 'old' friends can also become very challenging, especially if one does not wish to be reminded of the self one once was. The paper contributes to the growing interest in relationships beyond kin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of problem solving as a component of neighbourhood policing is an important and potentially highly problematic one. The UK government claims in its 2008 Green Paper, From the Neighbourhood to the National, to be ‘absolutely committed to neighbourhood policing as the bedrock for local policing in the 21st Century’. Yet experience tells us that implementation of problem solving is likely to be far from straightforward. This article draws attention to the many obstacles identified over 25 years of experimentation with the principles of problem solving. The article examines what is known about implementation of problem solving in the police service and the factors which influence its delivery. It draws attention to lessons learnt and the implications for the delivery of neighbourhood policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subscribers to the British Sociological Association will be aware that its newsletter, Network, has recently been carrying correspondence on the ethics of covert observation, provoked by Roger Homan's paper, in a previous Sociological Review, 'Interpersonal Communication in Pentecostal Meetings'. Homan, himself, has contributed to this correspondence and defended his stance at more length in a paper, published with a rejoinder by Martin Bulmer, in the British Journal of Sociology.[1] I am not, however, convinced that we have yet reached some of the core issues in this area, because the ethical discussion has become so far removed from an adequate understanding of the nature of fieldwork. In this paper, I want to reunite these two topics, partly because I believe ethical debate to be a rather futile activity if it is not grounded in everyday practice and partly to show that there are so many grey moral areas in ethnography that an over-academic analysis may ultimately be inimical to our continued use of this approach to social life. Although I shall concentrate on field practice, this should not be taken to imply a disregard for planning and writing-up research. Plainly the ethical questions are at least as important, but their better documentation makes an extended consideration a less urgent matter for this present paper. By ethnography I intend to include all research based upon naturalistic modes of inquiry within a predominantly inductivist theoretical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociology of knowledge suffers from a discrepancy between profound theoretical significance and inadequate empirical exploration. An understanding of the development of British management thought demands reference to the theoretical perspective of the sociology of knowledge. At the same time, despite the problems of handling historical data, the progress of this system of thought provides a useful empirical case-study in the light of which certain theoretical questions might be reviewed. These considerations determine the broad purpose and framework of this paper. Its first main section briefly reviews the overall developmental cycle of British management thought. The second analyzed the social functions of the content of management thought, and examines factors influencing that content at different points in time. The final section considers the acceptance enjoyed by management thought among those it was intended to assist and represent. Throughout the paper, emphasis is on the social context of British management thought rather than on its epistemological status, although these two facets are not entirely separable.

The sociology of professions literature would predict that the contemporary state would not allow groups to continue unregulated or unreformed. However, this is indeed the case with the UK veterinary profession, with legislation dating back to 1966. Using an interdisciplinary analysis of published literature and reports, this paper assesses whether wider social, political and ethical dynamics can better explain this intriguing anomaly. We conclude with critical implications for the sociology of the professions. Furthermore, we argue that continuing to ignore the veterinary profession, and animals more generally, in sociological research will result in an impoverished and partial understanding of contemporary healthcare and occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores practices that produce and reproduce domination in and through organizational hierarchies and shows how high levels of employee turnover were managed within a UK-based call centre through the use of culturally bound employment practices. Using ethnographic methods the paper explores the experience of managerial retention strategies from the perspective of employees and draws upon some of the theoretical resources employed by Pierre Bourdieu, specifically in relation to his concern with structures of subordination, and with the ways that processes of symbolic violence appear legitimate. The paper therefore makes three contributions to our understanding of the sociology of work generally and the management of labour turnover in service industries specifically; first, it extends understanding of the cultural basis of retention strategies. Second, it explores the 'lived experience' of these strategies. Finally, it considers the relevance of Bourdieu's analysis for making sense of these practices in action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is complex; yet suicide research is dominated by 'psy' disciplines which can falter when seeking to explain social patterning of suicide rates, and how this relates to individual actions. This article discusses a multidisciplinary report which aimed to advance understandings of socioeconomic inequalities in suicide rates in the UK. Contrasts are drawn between health psychology and sociology. Important intersections are highlighted, including a lack of attention to socioeconomic inequalities, and an emphasis on adverse life experiences and emotions to understand inequalities and suicide. There are also curious disconnects, both within and between relevant psychological and sociological perspectives. The article argues that there are significant gaps in existing theorization regarding suicide, which can only be addressed through meaningful inter-disciplinary collaborations between sociologists, psychologists and others. Current theorization in mainstream suicide research is limited by its failure to engage with enduring, yet vitally important sociological debates regarding structure and agency, nature and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an increasing sociological interest in the middle classes and their educational practices, research has largely concentrated on the white middle classes. This paper considers the case of the minority ethnic (ME) middle classes through empirical data from a small, exploratory study conducted in England with 36 minority ethnic, 'middle-class' individuals (parents, pupils and young professionals) from a range of ME backgrounds. It is argued that participants experienced ME middle-class identity as a profoundly conflictual and precarious space, negotiated through a matrix of relational classed and racialized positionings. 'Authentic' middle-classness remains the preserve of white society due to racial inequalities and the dominance of whiteness as the popularly legitimated marker of middle classness. Moreover, attempts to define an acceptable, legitimate and principled ME middle-class identity are compromised by the discursive threats of 'inauthenticity', 'pretension' and 'misrecognition'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and why people's environmental values change is a topical research issue, with major implications for sustainability policy. However, approaches based on individualistic models have had limited success in explaining the emergence of values, or developing interventions to change them. Work drawing on social practice theory takes an alternative approach, seeing values and practice as co-constructive. This paper examines how personal environmental values evolve through performance of practice, experience within specific contexts and social interaction. Drawing on a narrative-based study of UK climate change campaigners, it aims to contribute to a much-needed dialogue between sociological and psychological approaches to environmental values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I present two simple checks on the geographical validity of the UK 2001 Census and on the revisions of population estimates which have been made after its release. The huge difficulties inherent in estimating simply the population's human geography, let alone its characteristics, are discussed, and I conclude that current estimates may now be as close as they will ever be to a true estimate of the population—but are in places very unreliable. The slightly haphazard way in which the United Kingdom finally arrived at its 2001 population estimates, by the latter half of 2004, is commented upon. The UK population was reported to have passed the 60 million mark twice: once in 2001 and then again in 2004. With such national uncertainty, confidence in local population estimates is obviously low. This uncertainty also raises issues over the practicality of recent attempts to estimate the size of the supposed illegal population living in the United Kingdom, even before any moral objections are raised over attempts to count those whose existence here is deemed to be illegal. An uncertainty principle is introduced whereby, as the population becomes more mobile, observation becomes ever more unreliable. I end the paper by discussing the implications of changing human geography for its enumeration with a suggestion for a revision to the census form in 2011 to allow us to count better in the future. I conclude that comparisons with administrative records are not a panacea for estimating the population of the United Kingdom. Instead, further checks within the census process are suggested for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a preface to the issue, highlighting the focal issue of British sociology.

The paper begins with a brief account of the theoretical traditions that have framed the discussion of class in British sociology. It goes on to discuss the changes in class structure in the last 50 years and summarizes the most recent work on how social class affects people's lives. Finally it makes some suggestions about the relevance of this for clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented to the issue, which draws heavily from papers read at a 1979 conference held in Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Hull University in England.

To provoke debate, the paper, after fifteen years, repeats and expands on an analysis of the use of empirical data and the role of quantification in articles published in some major British journals of sociology. The earlier paper argued that the training of undergraduates, and the influence and example of their teachers, tends to orient them, well before graduate education begins, towards particular kinds of research topic and, where empirical data are used, approaches employing no quantification or very simple techniques. It suggested this would be a self-reinforcing process unless there were far-reaching changes in undergraduate curricula which were unlikely to come about. It predicted that the divide between these aspects of British sociology and that practised in North America and many parts of Europe would widen further. British sociology has become somewhat more empirical over the past fifteen years, with the bulk of this expansion in the qualitative area. The more sophisticated quantitative approaches are not much more in evidence than before. This raises a number of questions which should be a matter of debate. It is worrying that the debate does not seem to be taking place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a research in British Departments of sociology. The aims of this paper are twofold. First, a set of quantitative indicators of research outputs and research inputs is constructed for all sixty-seven British sociology departments that were assessed in the 1992 Research Assessment Exercise so that individual departments can see how their own research profile compared with that of other departments during the assessment period. Secondly, this paper examines the statistical relationship between the research ratings awarded to departments of sociology and the various indicators of research inputs and research outputs that can be constructed from the 1992 Research Assessment Exercise database. Specifically, the aim is to discover the extent to which variations in the research rating between departments of sociology can be explained by these research input and research output indicators. This paper has shown that some interesting and potentially useful research indicators can be constructed at department level from the 1992 Research Assessment Exercise. In particular, it is possible for individual departments of sociology in Great Britain to compare their own research activity across a range of research output and research input indicators with the research activity of other departments.

Earlier work (Hope, 1974, 1975a) demonstrated 'no change' in social mobility between the Glass inquiry of 1949 and the Oxford inquiry of 1972. However the mobility investigated was that known as exchange mobility (other synonyms being pure, perfect, fluidity and circulation mobility), which is defined as departure of observed mobility from perfect mobility. When the man in the street speaks of mobility he usually means something much more specific, namely mobility up or down a vertical hierarchy. The present paper investigates the meaning of perfect mobility by disaggregating the model for it into discrete, additive components, and it shows how the vertical dimension may be represented in a mobility analysis by just one of the many degrees of freedom which are associated with exchange mobility. Implications for comparative analysis, and also for investigation of the relations between vertical and class mobility, are discussed. The theoretical developments of this paper stem from the apparently novel observation that the `additive model' of status inconsistency analysis is formally identical with the `perfect mobility' model of social mobility analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on fieldwork conducted in a British circus between 1975 and 1979.[1] It focuses on the dynamics of the frequent disappearance and reappearance characteristic of travelling circus shows in Britain. It shows that these dynamics are to be understood in terms of circus economics, social and semiotic constraints. It argues that, understood in these terms, the appearance and disappearance of circuses should not be taken as unequivocally confirming the notion of circus decline or, on the contrary, as supporting the notions of circus continuity (see White, 1977; Bouissac, 1976: 4; George and Mulford, 1977). Rather, they are structural characteristics of circus marginality epitomizing both circus precariousness and its endurance within the general socio-historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper notes an increased interest in issues of skill and class structure evident amongst both Marxist and non-Marxist sociologists. It examines three questions in this area. Firstly, what theories are available to sociologists? How adequate are they, particularly for an understanding of trends in manual work in Britain? Finally, what improvements can be suggested?
Two dominant grand-theoretical approaches, post-industrialism and Marxism, are analysed. Post-industrialist theories of 'skilling' are rejected as empirically implausible and Marxist versions of 'deskilling' rejected on theoretical and empirical grounds. None the less, a secular decline in levels of training as measured by length of apprenticeships is noted, but the question of deskilling requires further research. A model of the relationships of skilled trades unions and capitalist employers under different local labour market conditions is suggested which, despite its simplicity, incorporates marked improvements upon the Marxist models that have been popular recently. In particular, it is strongly argued that an image of an asymmetric balance of forces adds considerably to an understanding of the variable relations between capital and skilled labour in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There was a dramatic turning point in the sociological career of Leonard Hobhouse. It occurred about the close of the first decade of his tenure of the Martin White Chair. But before speaking of that, something must be said as to how Hobhouse came into the sociological movement. His passage from the Oxford tradition of political philosophy, and the somewhat arid field of Teutonic epistemology, marked by the publication in 1901 of the book "Mind in Evolution," was no doubt deflected in a more sociological direction during the following years, when preparations were being made for the public launching of the Sociological Society in 1903. A public meeting was held in June, 1903, for considering ways and means to launch the projected Society, Hobhouse warmly seconded a resolution, moved by sociologist Oscar Browning, for the appointment of a committee to formulate the scope and aims of the Society and to draft its constitution. Hobhouse became an active member of the formative committee whose Report, having been accepted without amendment at the first general meeting of members, may be taken as the substantive basis of the sociological movement in Great Britain.

Reprints part of a study conducted by Vivien M. Palmer which was published in the "American Journal of Sociology," as of October 1927. In the series of papers and discussions presented at the first meetings of the Sociological Society, which were held in London, England in 1904, founders vividly summarized the state of sociology in Great Britain and outlined the role which the new Society hoped to play in future developments. It is illuminating to compare the status and aims as reflected at that time with the present attainments of British sociology. A consensus seems to run through the 1904 reports that, while a great deal of practical reform was being carried on in Great Britain, the scientific study of social life lagged behind. In the introductory address, James Bryce, first president of the Society, surveys the situation and suggests a programme which the new Society may follow in bringing this where of British thought into its own. His description of existing conditions and his proposed plans for the Sociological Society has been summarized in the article.

The article provides information on various journals related to economics and sociology. The "Economic Journal" contains papers by economist R.L. Wedgwood that discusses the statistics of railway costs. He analyses the recent returns of traffic and receipts, and contends that a more scientific statistical system should be introduced. Economist H.W. Macrosty submits proposals for an economic survey of Great Britain and physician Jacques Dumas discusses the present state of the land system in France. The "International Journal of Ethics" shares the views of economists. Professor J.S. Mackensie gives his opinion that late Edward Cuird has built up a solid treasure-house of wisdom that will outlast many erections in breadth of knowledge, balance and judgment, maturity of insight and power of luminous expression. Professor F. Tidily figures out the late Friedrich Paulsen, as child of a hardy, frugal, clear-headed and warm-hearted seafaring race who gave philosophical expression to the ideals of a stock from which so many intellectual leaders of the old fatherland had sprung, and upon the integrity of which the future glory of Germany depends.

The performative co-construction of academic life through myriad metrics is now a global phenomenon as indicated by the plethora of university research or journal ranking systems and the publication of 'league' tables based on them. If these metrics are seen as actively constituting the social world, can an analysis of this 'naturally occurring' data reveal how these new technologies of value and measure are recursively defining the practices and subjects of university life? In the UK higher education sector, the otherwise mundane realities of academic life have come to be recursively lived through a succession of research assessment exercises (RAEs). Lived through not only in the RAEs themselves, but also through the managed incremental changes to the academic and organizational practices linked to the institutional imaginings of planning for, and anticipating the consequences of, the actual exercises. In the 'planning for' mode an increasing proportion of formerly sociology submissions have shifted into 'social policy'. This is one instance of how institutional 'gameplaying' in relation to the RAE enacts the social in quite fundamental ways. Planning an RAE 2008 submission in Sociology required anticipation of how a panel of 16 peers would evaluate 39 institutions by weighted, relative worth of: aggregated data from 1,267 individuals who, between them cited a total of 3,729 'outputs'; the detailed narrative and statistical data on the research environment; and a narrative account of academic 'esteem'. This data provided such institutional variables as postgraduate student numbers, sources of student funding, and research income from various sources. To evaluate the 'quality' of outputs various measures of the 'impact' and/or 'influence' of journals, as developed from the Thomson-Reuters Journal Citation Reports, was linked to the data. An exploratory modelling exercise using these variables to predict RAE 2008 revealed that despite what we might like to think about the subtle nuances involved in peer review judgements, it turns out that a fairly astonishing 83 per cent of the variance in outcomes can be predicted by some fairly simple 'shadow metrics': quality of journals in the submission, research income per capita and scale of research activity. We conclude that measuring the value of sociology involves multiple mutual constructions of reality within which ever more nuanced data assemblages are increasingly implicated and that analysis of this data can make explicit some of the parameters of enactment within which we operate in the contemporary academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on sociology. It is emphasized that sociology as a discipline is obsessed with its history. The British Sociological Association is pioneering the studies for future trends in sociology. John Scott noted that the answers to sociology's fragmentation lies in reassertion of a strong teaching curriculum around its classic issues and defense of the continuing viability of the social as a subject of analysis.

This paper addresses interagent interactions, an issue that has received limited attention in travel behavior research. Drawing upon the theory of externalities and the sociological notion of social networks, we develop a discrete choice model that incorporates elements of social influence in addition to more conventional factors such as the attributes of alternatives and the characteristics of decisionmakers. Using simulation, we apply the model to the case of telecommuting—that is, the decision to telecommute or not—over two waves. The experiment suggests that some marginal adopters of telecommuting are influenced heavily in the second wave by the decisions of others in the first wave. Furthermore, the example illustrates the importance of social influence on new adopters of telecommuting in the second wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we seek to explore a tendency in current sociological thought to highlight notions of choice and autonomy in writings about contemporary Western societies. We wish to draw attention to some of the consequences of leaving out discussions of the structural aspects of societies and people's lives, for individuals as well as for the development and application of sociological theory and its ability to understand the connection between history and individual biography. Our discussion is based on qualitative research that we have conducted in recent years, and draws on focus groups with young people in Norway and Britain. From this critique we seek to demonstrate how concepts that take account of context and structure as well individual subjectivities can create a better ‘fit’ with complex and diverse realties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to Sara Delamont's paper in the February 2000 edition of Sociology which provides an account of the relationship between the sub-discipline, sociology of education, and parent discipline, sociology. Delamont argues that the hooligan is an anomalous beast for sociologists of education, who paradoxically revere him: while the sociology of education is an anomalous beast for the parent discipline, whose practitioners reject and fear it. Essentially, according to the author, the latter part of Delamont's argument amounts to the claim that the wider discipline of sociology has neglected sociology of education. The author notes that in this article, his response is concerned with Delamont's unsatisfactory characterization of British sociology of education. According to Delamont, sociology in Great Britain has two grand narratives, both male--one derived from the political arithmetic tradition is quantitative, empirical and focused on social mobility, and the other discursive and focused on anti-heroes: the portrayal of the rebellion or resistance of the hooligan. Delamont has attempted to characterize British ethnographic studies, which include some reference to anti-school/delinquent boys, and which have been conducted by male sociologists, as falling into the same category.

This paper reports on a postal survey of first year Sociology degree courses in the United Kingdom. The main feature of the results is their uniformity and traditionalism. Both polytechnics and universities work within considerable resource constraints in the first year, frequently teaching large numbers. Teaching relies heavily upon lectures and a highly planned course, with limited class/tutorial support. Although courses are constantly revised and few teachers appear satisfied, there is considerable consensus upon the contents of courses with a limited number of elements usually combined into one or more of a few recognizable types. The source of this constant revision yet limited range lies in the tension between the empirical aspiration to describe the social world and the complex issues raised by attempts to do so, the difficulty of which is often seen as frustrating to students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this paper is to develop a framework for the study of the "urbanization" of British society under capitalist industrialism. By a framework author means a relatively simple set of concepts which focus on urbanization in sociological terms. The study of British urbanization is faced with a seeming paradox. In contrast to the development of theory in the study of urbanization in areas of peripheral or dependent capitalism, the theoretical analysis of British urbanization, as an aspect of the growth of advanced capitalism, is poorly developed. Yet there has in recent times been a flowering of historical studies of urban life in the nineteenth century. This calls for explanation and comment. Very few authors have tried to formulate systematic theoretical accounts of British urbanization. There are three main points to be made in relation to historical accounts of British towns and cities. First, in aspect after aspect the differentiation of urban life is emphasized. Thus, whether one looks at housing, class conflict, middle-class politics, or studies of old and new cities, one is struck by the variety of social institutions, groupings and movements. But, second, this feature of British urbanization often degenerates into historical particularism, the emphasis upon the unique and the individual.

In a series of papers starting in 1954 Frank Harary, a mathematician, laid the groundwork for the study of signed graphs. Many of the ideas, especially the balance models, were immediately recognized as having applications in the social sciences. One theorem in particular drew a lot of attention. This structure theorem can be stated in a different way. The obvious interpretation in political science is to identify the sets as political parties. A positive line would link two individuals who agree politically, a negative line two individuals who disagree. At very first glance, the theorem would seem to explain a number of political phenomena. It could explain the general failure of third parties in the U.S. Perhaps it is also the reason for the precipitous decline of the Liberal party in Great Britain, coinciding with the rise of Labour Party. And it might shed light on the turbulence in the French government throughout the 1950's and even the current difficulties of the Italian government, since both countries suffered from a multiplicity of parties in those periods.

The article discusses the role that comprehending symbolism and images in cities and towns played in the development of British urban sociology from the 1950s through the early 1980s. An overview of the concept of social and cultural organization within British urban sociology, including in regard to social classes in Great Britain and the influence of capitalism on social structure, is provided.

This article presents response of the author on the comments made by Trevor W. Jones on occupational transition. The author opines that comments made by Jones raises two basic types of objection: first, that theories about occupational transition cannot in principle be represented or applied in the way that the author has proposed in and second, that even if that were not true, the way in which the author has carried out the exercise with the census data is not acceptable. It is opined that if the theories of occupational transition are meant to describe some kind of historical reality, then they must yield propositions. The author informs that his article on occupational transition was not about its outcome but was explicitly about the form it has taken in Great Britain, and the failure of a certain type of theory to account for it. The author opines that Jones is fully justified in asking for more technical information on the census data but his doubts about the validity of the time-series are exaggerated.

Present a list of book received by the editorial staff of the British journal “The Sociological Review,” as of publication of the July 1968 issue. “Studies in Sociology,” edited by M. C. Albrecht; “Magazines Teenagers Read,” by C. Alderson.

This article responds to dual calls for researching and theorising everyday social phenomena in postcolonial studies on the one hand, and serious engagement with the postcolonial within the discipline of sociology on the other. It focuses on the everyday lives of asylum seekers living on asylum seeker welfare support in the UK. Asylum seekers offer a good case study for exploring the postcolonial everyday because they live in poverty and consequently experience daily harms at the hands of the state, despite the UK fulfilling its obligations to them under human rights law. The article proposes a conceptual framework drawing together sociologies of the everyday, necropolitics and slow violence in tracing how hierarchical conceptions of human worth impact on the everyday. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical symptoms of dementia include difficulty with speech, poor short-term memory, and changes in behavior. These symptoms can affect how the person with dementia understands and performs in social interactions. This qualitative review investigated how people with mild to moderate dementia managed social connections. A systematic search of social science databases retrieved 13 articles; data were synthesized using thematic analysis. Results established the work undertaken by people with dementia to maintain and present a social persona seen as socially acceptable. Interpretations are contextualized within Goffman and Sabat's theories on "self." People with dementia were agentic in impression management: undertaking work to maintain recognized social roles, while being aware of when their illness led to others discrediting them. Wider recognition of strategies used to maintain a social self could inform interventions designed to increase capability and confidence in co-managing social connections following dementia diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents some salient aspects of contemporary British political science. Over the last quarter of a century, during its maximum development, the study of politics in Great Britain has lived under the shadow of its American counterpart, to the extent that in some subdisciplines it is difficult to separate them intellectually from each other. The composite character of political science, as it emerged historically from its sources in the humanities and social sciences, raises the problem of the varying relationships of its constituent subdisciplines with philosophy, history, law, economics, sociology and anthropology.

“Health psychology” is a newer sub-discipline whose research methodologies, theories, and practices were borrowed from diverse areas of psychology. It appeared later in France than in the United States or United Kingdom. In 1966, I adopted a perspective between anthropology and psycho-sociology of medicine. I never have self-identified as a “Health Psychologist”, continuing to work outside of disciplinary boundary constraints, but studied health questions moving first from psychology (and anthropology), through social psychology to sociology. By the 1980s, I adopted an even broader multi-disciplinary approach to health, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic urgently challenged health researchers/practitioners, in France and worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article lists papers on sociology which have been published in British journals. The article "Investigations of the Heredity of Psychosis and Mental Deficiency in Two North Swedish Parishes," by Torsten Sjögren has been published in the vol. 4, part 3, December 1935 edition of the journal "Annals of Eugenics." The paper "An Early Motive of Roman Imperialism," by E.T. Griffiths and "Nationalism in the Middle Ages," by G.G. Coulton have been published in the vol. 5, April 1935 edition of "The Cambridge Historical Journal." The paper "Laws on Health and Marriage," by C.P. Blacker, "The Berlin Population Congress and Recent Population Movements in Germany," by D.V. Glass, and "The Co-ordination of the Records of Births, Marriages and Deaths," by D. Caradog Jones have been published in the journal "The Eugenics Review."

In this article, we examine the theoretically constructed case of private equity in the UK anno 2007. The theory at play is the theoretical edifice Luc Boltanski has been developing for more than two decades and which concerns the underlying architectonics of how social reality is constituted, challenged and stabilized. We thus interweave the story of private equity with the evolution of Boltanski’s work: from the six-world model to the widening of the critical notion of ‘test’ and the outline of a new ‘connexionist’ capitalist logic, and finally to his most recent attempts at reconnecting his sociology of critical practices with a more traditional critical sociology. Now that Boltanski’s work from the 1990s is being increasingly used and critiqued in our field, we believe it is important to engage with his more recent writings which, while less easy to ‘apply’, have acquired more depth, complexity and a change in focus in response to some of the more pertinent critique. The case of private equity is of particular interest in that for a brief moment it became the ‘face’ of 21st century capitalism, something which is significant in the broadening of our discussion into the possibilities and the limits of critique under a financialized capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of relationality has recently found widespread favour in British sociology, particularly in the emergent sub-field of the sociology of personal life, which is characterized by its attachment to the concept. However, this ‘relational turn’ is under-theorized and pays little attention to the substantial history of relational thinking across the human sciences. This article argues that the notion of relationality in the sociology of personal life might be strengthened by an exploration of the conceptualization of the relational person and relational processes offered by three bodies of literature: the process-oriented thinking of American pragmatism, specifically of Mead and Emirbayer; the figurational sociology of Elias; and psychoanalysis, particularly the object relations tradition, contemporary relational psychoanalysis, and Ettinger’s notion of transubjectivity. The article attends particularly to the processes involved in the individuality, agentic reflexivity and affective dimensions of the relational person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]