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Organizational culture manifests in core beliefs, values and cultural artefacts. This study examines the organizational artefacts, for example, management practices, stance with the outside world, and content choices of European student radio stations, based on survey data gathered from radio managers in 19 countries. Student radio stations are non-commercial media outlets connected to higher education institutes, at least partly managed and operated by students. Previous research on organizational culture and media systems are heuristics for this study in examining whether European student radio stations cluster regionally based on the observed cultural artefacts or whether they show convergence. In contrast to these studies, findings suggest that the region of the station does not determine its cultural artefacts. The studied stations give freedom of choice to individual station members and lean towards alternative content but are also systematic in their management. If any, mainstream media and podcasts are seen as competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a wide and rich literature about how neoliberalism is promoting the budgetary cuts to science and universities, especially to the critical sectors, such as the social sciences. There is scarce literature on the analysis of the role of sociology in the internal processes and debates on the elaboration of the scientific programs of research. Focusing on the European programs of research, this article analyzes how sociology is leading the new requirements of social impact and co-creation. The result of this analysis shows the great opportunity for sociology to get an unprecedented acknowledgment and valorization from society and all sciences, including those which had not been previously interested in sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an introduction to the 20th Anniversary Special Issue of the Journal of Classical Sociology. It begins with some brief observations on the key developments that have shaped the disciplinary core of sociology over the past decades. It goes on to reflect on the role of classical sociology in Europe and beyond, drawing attention to its continuing presence in British and Anglo-American intellectual circles. Far from existing in a bubble of academic ivory towers, the paradigms emerging from disputes in the social sciences in general and in sociology in particular are profoundly shaped by wider historical trends – notably those influenced by different forms of collective action, as illustrated in the impact of social movements on the university sector in the late 1960s. In light of recent calls for 'the decolonization of academia', we ask to what extent sociology can, and should, strive to go beyond the hegemony of the 'Western' canon. Having given a succinct overview of the 20-year history of JCS, we elucidate the different formats of the material published in the journal, stressing the importance of editorial flexibility. On a more substantive note, we point out that the thematic scope of the work published in JCS has been wide-ranging and inclusive – not only because of its editors' broad conception of 'classics' and 'classicality', but also because of the interdisciplinary spirit permeating the journal. This commitment, as we explain, manifests itself in the wide range of thinkers and topics discussed – from a multiplicity of perspectives – in the journal. We also grapple with noteworthy challenges posed by the academic publishing industry in the early 21st century, including the difficulties arising from peer-review processes. Finally, we express our gratitude to those who have contributed to this 20th Anniversary Special Issue and emphasize the journal's commitment to defending the legacy of classical sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociology of sport has become a burgeoning subdiscipline in the 21st century. To assess knowledge domains and the status quo of the field in Europe and North America, this study uses CiteSpace (a bibliometric visualization software) to analyse 870 academic articles published in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Journal of Sport & Social Issues and Sociology of Sport Journal from 2008 to 2018. By mapping/examining core contributors, keywords, high citations/cited authors, major clusters and citation bursts, the findings echo John W. Loy's 'risk of critical mass' calling for various citation analysis approaches. The study expands Jon Dart and Ørnulf Seippel's recent topic model studies on subdisciplinary development in recent decades, contributing to informed discussions of geographical politics and research directions in the field. The scale and scope of this analysis is highly generalizable to assess pre-existing state-of-the-art research on the sociology of sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article re-examines the problem of EU subsidiarity in the light of the political economy of federalism and centre–right thinking. It argues that if Christian Democratic, conservative and liberal parties are serious about strengthening subsidiarity, they should urge the EU to take steps in the direction of scenario four of the European Commission's White Paper on the Future of Europe. Misleadingly titled 'Doing less more efficiently', this scenario is in fact about 'delivering more and faster in selected policy areas, while doing less elsewhere', as the subtitle correctly states. A new compact combining the targeted strengthening of key federal policies at the EU level with the EU's gradual disengagement from other policy areas seems the most promising way to take the Union out of the doldrums and strike a compromise between Eurosceptics and Europhiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been increased interest in couples Living Apart Together (LAT) within the sociology of the family in Europe. One of the main questions concerns understanding their evolution over time. Given the lack of longitudinal data, the present study focuses as a proxy to study the perception LATs hold of their future and the influencing factors. Based on data from the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), a sample of 5253 people in LAT relationships was taken from seven European countries. The results show that the future intentions of these couples are conditioned by the understanding of the family in different European countries, the age of its members and, above all, the social pressure exerted by family and friends to live together and/or marry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we question (1) whether the relationship between unemployment and mental healthcare use, controlling for mental health status, varies across European countries and (2) whether these differences are patterned by a combination of unemployment and healthcare generosity. We hypothesize that medicalization of unemployment is stronger in countries where a low level of unemployment generosity is combined with a high level of healthcare generosity. A subsample of 36,306 working-age respondents from rounds 64.4 (2005-2006) and 73.2 (2010) of the cross-national survey Eurobarometer was used. Country-specific logistic regression and multilevel analyses, controlling for public disability spending, changes in government spending, economic capacity, and unemployment rate, were performed. We find that unemployment is medicalized, at least to some degree, in the majority of the 24 nations surveyed. Moreover, the medicalization of unemployment varies substantially across countries, corresponding to the combination of the level of unemployment and of healthcare generosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how midcentury European sociologists, planners, and architects mapped the existing city to build future communities. The neighborhood unit concept spread globally in the first half of the twentieth century. In Europe, its deployment was supported not just by modernist planning principles but by sociological abstractions of community life. Current scholarship emphasizes how these modernist principles were contested by sociologists. The present article demonstrates instead that sociological mapping was instrumental in making the concept of community legible and operable in the postwar European city. During the 1940s, mapping social relationships in urban space was increasingly thought to reveal “authentic” community life in working-class urban neighborhoods, which previously were dismissed as chaotic and promiscuous. Such new sociological mapping shaped, if often only implicitly, the planning and design of modern housing estates and New Towns across Europe and thus connected representations of bottom–up, grassroots communities to an essentially top–down planning apparatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A subject index for the 2015 December supplement issue of the periodical "Sociological Review" is presented.

The purpose of this article is to convey an invitation to engage in a search for a sociology of social problems for social work. The article explores the theoretical potential for and obstacles to a sociology of social problems for social work within a European context. This is done through a critical discussion of sociologies of social problems developed in the USA, as well as the sociologies of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. Through this discussion both potentials and obstacles are identified. The latter is related to problems in understanding the complex relation between the context of society and the identifications of and solutions to social problems, and how collective action might influence this relation. It is argued that exploring this theoretical problem is important for a sociology of social problems adequate for social work embedded in different societal contexts. Therefore it is suggested that we engage in a development of sociologies of social problems more adequate for social work, and that this can be done through qualitative research exploring practical knowledge about social problems. In this respect, the article proposes an approach to qualitative research focusing on the complexity of the relationships between the context of society and the identification of and solution to social problems including the conditions for collective action. This approach involves a conceptual scheme – problem identification and problem solution – as well as a set of analytical questions which both utilize potentials and seek to transcend obstacles within current theory development. By engaging in qualitative research of this kind it might be possible to discover a new practical sociological language about social problems that can inform theory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between European sociology and European anti-Semitism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is investigated through a case study of one sociologist, Émile Durkheim, in a single country, France. Reactionary and radical forms of anti-Semitism are distinguished and contrasted to Durkheim's sociological perspective. Durkheim's remarks about the Jews directly addressed anti-Semitic claims about them, their role in French society, and their relationship to modernity. At the same time, Durkheim was engaged in a reinterpretation of the French Revolution and its legacies that indirectly challenged other tenets of French anti-Semitism. In sum, Durkheim's work contains direct and indirect responses to reactionary and radical forms of anti-Semitism, and together these responses form a coherent alternative vision of the relationship between modernity and the Jews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who see themselves as and feel citizens of the world are often regarded as cosmopolitans. Sociology further distinguishes cosmopolitans by a set of particular orientations to the greater world. According to major normative claims of cosmopolitan theory, cosmopolitans hold attitudes and beliefs recognizing diversity. They are also expected to be more open-minded, self-critical and future-oriented. Using data from the European Values Study (EVS), the article discusses the possibilities to operationalize two measurement approaches to cosmopolitanism. The first one, termed the 'identity approach', is based on self-views as a world citizen and feelings of belonging. The second, labelled 'cosmopolitan orientation', relates to particular attitudes towards difference. Analyses show that EVS data on the 'identity approach' are problematic. In a comparative cross-national study covering 31 European countries, it is found that individual-level characteristics (gender, age, social class, citizenship, etc.) and structural conditions (GDP, sociopolitical regime) impact on the objective measurement of 'cosmopolitan orientation'. The results of a multilevel regression on this measure support the usefulness of approaching cosmopolitanism from a more 'objective' point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If it is to become a more widely used resource at the present time, when the demand is growing for explanations of the predicament of modern western society in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001 and various similar subsequent events around the globe, classical sociology might pay more attention than it usually does to a particular set of early modern developments. These developments, it is argued here, actually created the form of the social that became large-scale modern western society. This new form of the social was and remains distinct from those older forms that were seen to flow from the natural sociality of human beings. Between the middle of the 16th century and the end of the 17th the new form of the social emerged in different parts of Europe, contingently but not entirely accidentally, as a separate domain of relatively safe and free human interaction. It was a consequence - in part intended, in part unintended - of different bids to secure civil peace in times of extreme inter-communal, inter-confessional violence. These bids included, to name just three measures: the development of new forms of public law, especially in Germany; the development of the absolutist state, especially in France; and the separation of private religious conscience from public legal conscience, especially in England. As they were all, in one way or another, steps towards stemming, stopping, and/or preventing the flow of blood caused by religious hatreds, they are here called early modern limiting measures, and the social at the centre of the article is sometimes called the limited social or limited society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'European social model' is a phrase often heard in European discourse. This article describes the remarkable shift in meaning that the term has experienced in the last two decades. While it was first invented to symbolise Delors's vision of a social-democratic Europe, it was then increasingly used to legitimise a predominately neoliberal integration process, before becoming a justification for the cutting back of existing welfare systems. The popularity of the European social model, however, still stems from the fact that it articulates an alternative to US-style free-market capitalism. The concept is therefore also used by left forces in order to formulate their vision of an alternative Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses European migrants to Spain's coastal areas. These 'residential tourists' make creative use of modern communication technologies and accessible air travel to construct fluid migration trajectories and employ transnational affective and instrumental networks. Research on British migrants to Spain has shown a high incidence of social, cultural, economic, and political exclusion. While these migrants dream of integration, an ambiguous status in Spanish society constrains assimilation and leads to marginalisation.

Most of the empirical and theoretical research on the rising inequality trend in American labor markets has occurred within labor economics despite long-standing sociological interest in the structure of inequality and despite strong evidence that the trend was produced by institutional as well as technological forces. Several reasons for this imbalance are discussed. The fact of differing inequality trends in the United States and Europe offers an additional perspective on the potential explanations for the American trends. This comparative perspective highlights the role of institutions in producing inequality trends and suggests strategies for potentially productive sociological research on these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has attained a prominent place on the sociological agenda, and stratification scholars have implicated globalization in the increased income inequality observed in many advanced capitalist countries. But sociologists have given much less attention to a different yet increasingly prevalent form of internationalization: regional integration. Regional integration, or the construction of international economy and polity within negotiated regions, should matter for income inequality. Regional economic integration should raise income inequality, as workers are exposed to international competition and labor unions are weakened. Regional political integration should also raise income inequality, but through a different mechanism: political integration should drive welfare state retrenchment in market-oriented regional polities as states adopt liberal policies in a context of fiscal austerity. Evidence from random-effects and fixed-effects models of income inequality in Western Europe supports these arguments. The results show that regional integration explains nearly half of the increase in income inequality in the Western European countries analyzed in this article. The effects of regional integration on income inequality are net of several controls, including two established measures of globalization, suggesting that a sociological approach to regional integration adds to our understanding of rising income inequality in Western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context of de-standardized transitions to work, young people are required to take more individual decisions, a process in which their subjectivities become increasingly important for social integration. While it can be assumed that this is a general trend, this article seeks to analyse the impact of different ‘transition regimes’ upon young people's biographical experiences. Based on three comparative studies related to young people's transitions to work, firstly, different ‘transition regimes’ are outlined, and secondly, the extent to which regime characteristics are reflected in young people's accounts of their experiences is analysed; simultaneously, the underlying question of the extent to which young people perceive the possibilities of making subjectively meaningful choices is addressed, along with how this decision-making process is facilitated by flexibility and secured against the risk of failure and exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whiteness studies are trans-disciplinary, but here the focus is principally on sociology and social history. Firstly, I identify elucidate and synthesize the major ways in which whiteness in this literature has hitherto been problematized, to provide a sociological view of the multidisciplinary work so far. Five interpretations are identified; whiteness as absence, as content, as a set of norms, as resources and as a contingent hierarchy. Secondly, I make some proposals regarding the whiteness problematic's degree of pertinence to European settings, with a brief discussion of the Irish case. Finally, I argue that whiteness is useful if conceptualized in a way that sets it within the parameters of studies of racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. environmental sociology has gone through a very different development path compared with its European counterpart. U.S. environmental sociology was dominant in establishing the field and setting the terms for the development and identity of this subdiscipline. Whereas U.S. environmental sociology still sets the tone in terms of internal organization, structure, and interaction, arguably Northwest European environmental sociology has been more innovative in the last decade of the former millennium with respect to theoretical and conceptual contributions. Although we can still witness significant differences between the environmental sociologies of the two continents, these differences are diminishing. During the past decade, a remarkable degree of interaction, exchange, and social learning has taken place between the two academic communities, facilitated by various aspects of globalization. The question of whether we are moving to one environmental sociology should, however, also take other—and especially the emerging Asian—environmental sociologies into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological colonization is defined as the standardization of ideas previously less relevant to native populations and includes exportation of race constructs to native subjects among whom race was previously all but insignificant. Since the existence of Europe's colonization, colonial powers have dealt with non-European subjects in one of three ways eradication, exclusion or assimilation. Ironically, it is the assimilation experience that has impacted and, by colonial influence, denigrated, any challenges to the race status quo. There are two methods used to circumvent psychological colonization and to correct this methodological flaw. The first is utilization of the democratic process, incorporate a variety of demographic tools and settle upon the most popular. This approach would prove fitting in a democratic sovereignty but would not necessarily be effective. Demographic tools that rely upon popularity run the risk of collapsing into an intellectual solipsism that is unproductive and no less hegemonic. The second alternative suggests a more encompassing approach, which must accommodate a meaningful effort and sensitivity to a diverse population. Although non-Europeans have distinct heritages, they also have in common various stresses of Eurocentrism. The boundary of their frustration exceeds group demarcation. Consequently, the minimization of Eurocentrism and the incorporation of greater intellectual diversity will reduce western hegemony at a time when the racial significance of populations worldwide could all but completely diminish. Hence, discarding the issue of race will, no doubt, precipitate confusion and complexity in the initial call for modifications in thinking and perception of non-European populations.

This paper explores the logical and historical determinants of European integration and reflects on the potential and dangers this presents for labour movement renewal. Through the principle of ‘subsidiarity’ a regulatory gap has been established between political mobilisation at the national level and neo-liberal regulation at the European level. The historical determination of this form is traced through an exploration of the social struggles against neo-liberalism that have developed within member states and transnational mobilizations that bridge this regulatory gap by linking resistance across national boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the political upheaval of 1989, a political concept has regained its significance, an idea, it was thought, that belonged to the past: the idea of the nation as the basis of international order and the foundation of political self-determination. The re-emergence of the nation as a model of political order contradicts the vision that post-war European integration would culminate in complete transnational unification of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social sciences are Western products and aspects of the socio-cultural dependency of the Third World. They are ethnocentric in terms of research areas and membership of research groups. Within those groups there are sharp national boundaries reflected in publications such as the American dominated International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Both Marxism and Popperian naturalism regard this as unproblematical. The Third World can choose from the range of expert knowledge (not science) which the Western social sciences provide and develop their own social science groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major objective of this report is to analyze developments in political sociology over the last half century. Political Science is the science that deals with the political. The political and its degree of conceptual differentiation from other spheres of social activity, as well as its institutional autonomy, is of course a historical and culturally constructed term that changes its meaning from time to time and from culture to culture. Politics is a continuous struggle over the perception of the social world. On the objective level, it is taking actions to show up and to show off certain realities, such as organizing a demonstration to exhibit one group's power, size, cohesion, mobilization capacity, visibility, etc. On the subjective level, symbolic power is used to fix or to change the very categories of perception and evaluation of the social. An important issue was that of the European unification process, at the heart of which was the debate over the role of economic factors which were supposed to spill-over into the political and cultural realms, and then to create new identities and loyalties. The first visionaries of a post-war United States of Europe were a bunch of sociologists and political scientists, who were sometimes active politicians such as Altiero Spinelli and Raif Dahrendorf. Persons like Karl W. Deutsch, Ernest Fins, Nils Lungren, Leon.

Offers a look at the origins and recent history of ethnology in modern society as it will give us a better grasp of th e close relationship between the monograph as a genre and as a field of study. The beginnings of the ethnological study of the so-called `exotic' societies and of modern societies; Problems which remain; The ethnology of France; Fieldwork and how it becomes a pretext for exploring the self.

This chapter and the next two must be considered as complementing each other. Together, they present a picture of the social sciences communications structure of the world, give an indication of out disciplines in the Third World, and identify present trends and suggest future prospects. The current chapter describes--"constructs" is a more meaningful term--the communications system of the First World. Emphasis within this construction has been put upon the United States. The latter emerges at the apex of First World social science, as the centre even for Europe, and as the world's social science superpower. The interaction patterns of the Second and Third World have been reserved for the following chapters, and the latter features the revolt of social science against what is perceived there as being First World domination. The overwhelming American dominance in the early post-war period will be seen to have already deteriorated in several First World countries. For these reasons, the future of social science promises to be both less American and less consensual. The post-war extension of the Soviet brand of the disciplines is a subject of the following chapter, as well as the Sino-Soviet break, and the renewed Chinese interest in our subjects starting in 1977.

The standard of the intellectual antecedents of Hungarian sport sociology and their importance seem to correspond to those of other nations. However, for political reasons the period in which sport sociology developed into an autonomous discipline in the Western world did not favour the rising of sociology in the socialist states of Eastern Europe. This paper attempts to show when and in what way sport sociology evolved in Hungary, as well as what social and theoretical factors influenced, promoted or impeded its development. Furthermore, the present situation of sport sociology in Hungary is outlined: its main fields of research, its major publications as well as its institutions, organizations, and international connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on early American sociology and the Polish peasant. "The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-20)," by W.I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, is something of a forgotten classic in sociology. The book has been kept alive in recent decades primarily by social historians (Handlin. 1951: Cravens. 1978; Persons. 1958; Zarelsky, 1984; Eider, 1981) American sociologists did not fully appreciate its theoretical importance when it appeared nor have they since. The main importance of the book was in founding the discipline of sociology, in the epistemological sense of clarifying the unique intellectual space into which this discipline alone could see and explore (Foucault, 1973: 344-348; Husserl. 1970a). The attitude-value scheme is at a level of secondary importance. This scheme was mortgaged to the very scientism from which the authors were trying to escape. The inconclusiveness of their epistemological break, however, is not a fatal flaw for the scheme, and its similarity to contemporary European theory suggests its continued usefulness. By laying claim to the epistemological turf that defines sociology.

Advertising dominates the cultural field in the West and the aesthetic universe of our time. But, contrary to the mainstream manipulation thesis, what characterises the dynamic of advertising activity is essentially the recognition of advertisements as cultural goods and the development of the advertising industry as a specific function in the system of cultural industries. Thus, an analysis of the modern advertising field should be drawn from a genuine sociology of differentiation processes and cultural classification. The main hypothesis, borrowed from Luhmann's theory of self-referential differentiation is one of an internal disjunction within the cultural system, the latter being taken as the environment of advertising activity. Three levels of analysis for a European comparative study are proposed: the organisational level (what is functionally linked to cultural industries in the mode of production of advertisements), the textual level (what is culturally significant in the place advertising discourse occupies in the public space) and the level of the principles of cultural classification (what kind of cultural logic is involved in the construction of advertising as a genre). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important challenge for macrosociology in the 1990s is to account for the cluster of social movements in different post-World War II settings, most recently those that intend structural changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. To account for these extraordinary phenomena of historical significance calls for a new global synchronic and diachronic analysis. After discussing three major waves of these movements that have in common a challenge to the authority of the modern state, this paper proposes that 'neomodernisation analysis' may be the most appropriate macro-paradigm to relate sociology to the comparative study of cycles of modernisation and of centres of modernity. It is highly relevant since many regions of the world are undergoing ah important new phase of modernisation and since there may be taking place ah important shift in the epicentre of modernity. State socialism is bankrupt in Eastern Europe. Governments, ruling parties, of the opposition, experts, and expert committees are desperately searching . . . for a new paradigm, a new social and economic model with which to launch these countries onto a new course of dynamic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the aspects of daily life in a Bolshevik-type party states from the version of the information society in Europe. The things concerning the role of knowledge and information in the type of party states are mentioned. It also focuses on the impact of information on the social systems of the region. Furthermore, the organization of Bolshevik-type parties were tailor-made after the model that was established in the Soviet Union for the administration of all countries belong to the region. Moreover, a research was conducted to study the concept of totalitarianism.

Evaluates the societal differences in organizing manufacturing units in Europe. Cross-national comparison of matched factories; Findings on the societal differences of the units; Importance of a multidimensional concept of professionality.

The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the features of the history of sociology and to indicate the lines upon which enquiries may be pursued, to see to what extent the development of sociology is itself a historical phenomenon of a unique kind and to locate its origins. The history of sociology may well be perceived to fall into two parts,an early period of mainly speculative activity and a later period of empirical, albeit limited studies. Throughout its history we can detect periods particularly favourable to the development of the subject, but whilst the conflicts of a process of industrialisation in Europe, especially in recent times, may account for much of this development and, whilst these vicissitudes in Europe and elsewhere may have increased the swell of a new intellectual wave, sociology sailed on a tide which began to flow much earlier, and which is to be seen in the currents of eighteenth century philosophical thought, rather than in the plash of nineteenth and twentieth century economic and social turbulence.

This article focuses on the migration of British citizens between Great Britain and Europe, from 1924 to 1934. In each year of the span, more British nationals arrived in Great Britain from Europe than embarked for Europe. When British nationals arrive from Europe it is impossible to distinguish between those who were initially in Europe and those who merely traveled via Europe from, say, India, Australia, or New Zealand. Similarly the passengers from Great Britain to Europe include a number who do not finish their journey in Europe, but go forward to countries outside Europe. In order to determine the true migration of nationals between Europe and Great Britain, it is therefore first necessary to find out how many nationals passed through Europe each year when traveling between Great Britain and countries outside Europe. In 1921 the number of British passengers embarking from Great Britain direct to non-European countries was 268,300. Of these, 199,500 were classed as migrants and so changed their permanent residence. The other 68,800 nationals were therefore not changing their permanent residence, but had simply been visitors. Thus, of the 77,900 nationals visiting Great Britain from non-European countries in 1921, only 68,000 sailed direct to non European countries.

The article focuses on the sociological aspects of the frontiers. In the beginning the article gives a brief description of natural history of the frontiers. Western civilization can show some unexpected evidence of the way cultural frontiers, once set, tend to resist change. The great distinctions of religion are eloquent in this respect. Take the case of Islam and Christianity, between which the frontiers have only undergone modification in such parts of Europe as were socially and politically backward, viz, the East. Again, the relative immobility of the line of cleavage set at the end of the Wars of Religion. The most obvious mark of cultural frontiers is the change from one language to another, which tends with the average man to count for more than it really should. At bottom the whole of western Europe rests on, and has never got away from, the single culture pattern of Latin Christianity as it stood throughout the Middle Ages. Throughout the article an area in question is treated as if it were a "colony," the question whether the strings of its economic, cultural, and political existence being held outside the area does not preclude the possibility of normal processes of social and cultural development altogether.

As the modern world gradually lost touch with the organized Christianity which had been the governing spirit of European civilization in the past, it began to find a new inspiration for itself in the ideal of progress. From the second quarter of the eighteenth century onwards through the nineteenth, faith in human progress became more and more the effective working religion of the civilization. It is true that, alongside of this religious current and inter- mingling confusedly with it, there has been a genuine attempt to study the laws of social change, and the positive development of civilizations, but this scientific theory of progress has naturally been slower in developing and less fertile in results than its more emotional companion. The latter, which one may call the Gospel of Progress to distinguish it from the scientific theory of social development, had the advantage of finding for its apostles a series of great men of letters. The dominant characteristic of the culture of the eighteenth century, and one that it had received as a direct heritage from the earlier Renaissance, was a conception of civilization as something absolute and unique.

This article discusses the history of Ireland from the sociological standpoint. It is in the light of this simplification that the history of Ireland must be viewed; and so viewed, it will like all extreme cases, like all crucial instances, be found peculiarly rich in sociological material. It is, in its earlier history, a nation from its geographical position less affected by the movements of its neighbors or the general course of development than any other. It thus retained to an unusual extent the characteristics of the ancient Aryan civilization, once common to all Europe, and was peculiarly homogeneous in itself, and markedly separate from its neighbors. This distinction was maintained, in spite of one serious breach, the introduction of Christianity-till the first invasion from the island larger, richer, and closer to the centres of Western civilization, which lay between it and the continent of Europe. And if the earlier history of Ireland is of interest as the case of a Western people growing up in comparative isolation, the later history has an even stronger interest. It is that of a people peculiarly homogeneous and distinctive in their civilization exposed to a continuous pressure from a country possessing far greater resources and in some respects much further developed, an era of isolation followed by an era of domination, a civilization of peculiar strength subjected to an external pressure of peculiar intensity and continuance.

This article focuses on the political sociology in Eastern Europe. The term sociology is a newcomer in the official nomenclature of social sciences in most East European countries. Sociology had been left out from the program of social studies, it was not because of any real scientific reasons, but because its name was objected, the present renaissance of sociology in these countries is related to the political changes which have taken place during the last decade; in fact, it is evidence of new political tendencies. Hence the importance of following the changing approach to political phenomena in the theoretical sociological publications in socialist countries. The period between 1957 and 1963, covered by the appended bibliography and referred to in the present paper, provides ample material on the subject. In this sense, the place of political sociology among sociological disciplines is essentially different from that of other branches of detailed sociology. The latter are concerned with some isolated fields of social life, while political sociology investigates social phenomena from the angle of their political aspect, the aspect of power. Hence, if there is any justification for regarding political sociology as a separate discipline, it is on the grounds of the difference in theoretical approach rather than the difference in the subject of study.

The article presents information of Niklas Luhmann, Professor Emeritus at the University of Bielefeld, Germany and his contribution towards the field of sociology. Luhmann died at the age of 70, due to Cancer. Luhmann was trained as a lawyer but came to sociology relatively late. As compared to Europe, Luhmann's recognisation lagged behind his status in the U.S. No one has developed a more ambitious and general theory of society than Luhmann. At the core is a theory of social systems, understood as recursive networks of communication and observation. Social systems include interactions, organizations, and society itself. Interactions are based on co-presence; organizations on membership; and society includes all communication. Outside of society, there is no communication. Communication latches on to previous communication, not to the world "as it is." At the same time, communication is an empirical event that happens in the world, so that there is no view from nowhere. Action gives way to communication as sociology's central category. Events come and go; they can never be repeated. Therefore, a central problem is communicative coupling, or how communication is possible at all, given that minds are closed to other minds and have no way of directly experiencing what others experience.

The article presents views on the issues included in the periodical A Journal of Reviews: Contemporary Sociology. Identity and Control, by Harrison White is a demanding book. We commissioned three reviews from scholars in very different areas of our discipline. And yet I was not quite satisfied that three reviews covered the range of White's ideas, or fully unlocked the provocative novelty of White's project. Having read the book four times, I had a sense that I knew what White was up to. Board member Viviana Zelizer send me a set of lecture notes that Charles Tilly had prepared for his students as a kind of skeleton key to Identity and Control. A great number of books dealing with the violence that pervades modern life have crossed our desk lately, and we thought these diverse lines of work would have more impact if we cobbled the various reviews together into a topical symposium. The cumulative impression is powerful, sobering, and depressing. The sociology and politics of the environment is an area of obvious topical concern, but also one of growing scholarly interest. We believe we do a good job covering social and political developments in Europe and the former USSR. And with some extra effort on our part, we have developed sufficient contacts to review books dealing with the Middle East and Northeast Asia.

The article focuses on the book "Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives," by Talcott Parsons. Readers who may hope that this will provide them with a simplified approach to the work of Parsons will be disappointed; his style is as turgid as ever, making this a doubtful member of a series of books for beginners. Nevertheless it is a shorter route to Parsonian ideas than most, and is much more rooted in empirical data than his other books. The societies under examination do not include those of modern Europe, which will be dealt with in a later volume.