TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY OF OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE — A CRITIQUE.

The article comments on the research paper by Julienne Ford and Steven Box, published in the November 1, 1967 issue of the Sociological Review, which focused on the formation of a sociological theory of occupational theory. The authors of this paper believe that the progress towards a sociological theory of occupational choice has not been greatly advanced. In fact it is felt that there is a lack of a sociological perspective, indicating an excessively individualistic view of society, in which concepts of role and socialization can be used without reference to social structure while references to empirical work contain inaccuracies and misinterpretations that confuse rather than clarify the issue. The main theoretical weakness lies in the attempt to explain social behavior in terms of an oversimplified functionalist theory that rests on a consensus model of society. Perhaps it is the tendency to think in terms of an overall culture which leads sociologist P.W. Musgrave to describe the need to get or earn a living as a "dominant value" when he simply appears to mean that certain social roles derive from the need to get a living.