Postmodernism and Popularisation: The Cultural Life of Chaos Theory

Popular accounts of science have helped to stimulate greater public interest in the role of science in contemporary society. For example, chaos theory and complexity theory have proven to be highly marketable science "products". These concepts have increasingly travelled into wider culture and, notably, the study of organization. Through an interpretation that promotes a leaning towards uncertainty, unpredictability and ambiguity, these accounts of science have been seen to provoke a (postmodern) re-conceptualisation of our view of the world. Indeed the overtly philosophical style of many of these stories has provided a rich source of material for social scientists seeking to explain and legitimise developments in organization and cultural studies. Concentrating upon the treatment of chaos theory as a "postmodern science", this paper examines and questions the historical and cultural influences that have encouraged the appropriation of theories from the natural science.     

Research,publication productivity,and applied social science

The recent growth of applied research creates a new context for studying the correlates of publication productivity among academic social scientists. This paper reports a study of the individual and structural characteristics related to publication productivity among academics in one applied field: social work. In a national sample of social work educators, the primary predictors of publication are tenured status (vs. untenured), attainment of a doctoral degree (vs. masters), and primary interest in research (vs. teaching). The article emphasizes the similarities between social work academics and other academic social scientists, and highlights the links between research interest and training, applied research, and publication productivity.     

Race‐gender variations in the demographic characteristics of doctoral scientists

Most of the research literature has given little or no attention to the social backgrounds and traits of black scientists and female scientists. The present study, based on survey findings on a national sample of American scientists, helps to fill this gap. Female scientists are compared with their male colleagues, and black scientists with their white colleagues. Race is a better predictor than gender of certain demographic characteristics. However, a clearer picture of variations in social background and current family patterns is derived from an analysis which controls for both race and gender. This analysis includes data on social status of parents, marital status of scientist, number of siblings and number of offspring, religious identity, and region of origin. The implications of these survey findings for the future development of scientific talent are explored, including some implications for researchers, sociologists of science, and social planners.     

Paradigm wars: Some thoughts on a personal and public trajectory

It is often said that research methods are a matter of rational choice: it is the research question, or problem, which ought to dictate the method to be used. This may be true to some extent, but there are other more powerful reasons why social scientists choose the research methods they do. Underlying philosophies of social science and long-held and much cherished tenets about epistemology are prime among these. Moreover, such an interplay between epistemological position and methodological decision is enormously affected by social context. We pay attention to what other social scientists are doing, to fashions in both methodology and topic - the things it is considered proper for social scientists to study; we are affected by research funding and publishing opportunities, by the material resources available to support our work, by intraprofessional rivalries and difference, and by politics - both in its commonly understood sense and as applied to power relations between academics and those who take part in research. Apart from what we do, there is the whole issue of how others construct our work. And this is only some of what goes on. In short, it is a very complicated business.     

Bringing Sociology into the Public Policy Process: a Relational Network Approach

How does evidence-based sociological research influence public policymaking either directly or indirectly? Based on an analysis of a 2014 NSF-funded public policy research workshop and written case studies by workshop participants, this article provides a conceptual roadmap and varied examples of the pathways through which social science research and social scientists can inform public policy decision-making. Pathways include networks and relationships among academics, social scientists employed in government, special interest groups and non-profits, and members of the media. Many sociologists are committed to using their evidence-based findings to inform solutions to societal problems, yet are often too narrowly trained to write only for scholarly communities and are often unaware of the relations, connections, and networks that can increase the use of sociological and other social science research in public discourse and in the public policy arena. The paper highlights lessons learned about effective networks, communication channels and dissemination strategies from the workshop and case studies in order to better equip those social scientists interested to bring their research into a public policy realm with the tools to do so. Given the current political climate, this resolve seems all the more important.     

Producing information: communication and collaboration in the South African scientific community

Prior research has investigated the relationships between communication, collaboration and production of information/knowledge. Most of this research has been conducted either in developed countries where the internet facility is highly advanced or in developing countries with little internet access. Investigations in countries that fall in between these two extremes are rare. This study of respondents from higher education institutions and research institutes examines the relationship between collaboration and internet use, as well as productivity and internet use in the South African scientific system which has become a strong contributor to science in Africa.     

The Role of Human Agency in the Creation of Normative Influences Within Individuals and Groups

Abstract

This article suggests that human agency affects the formation of social norms far more significantly than previously recognized. The article traces the history of normative influence and provides an historical overview of the theoretical foundations and research literature on the study of norms. Traditionally, social scientists viewed norms in linear and deterministic ways. Current researchers generally believe that norms are derived from micro and macro sources and that norms emerge on localized levels through culturally determined, informal hierarchical status relations between and among individuals within groups. This article contends that current theories of normative influence do not adequately account for the role of human agency in the creation of norms. Social scientists have long recognized the effects that norms have on individual and group behavior. Nonetheless, with a new or revised theoretical structure, they might also better understand the role of human agency in the development of norms. Then, social workers, theorists, managers, and group leaders will have the means to support and facilitate the creation of new, more effective, productive, and democratic norms.     

Reconceptualizing Community Organization in India

SUMMARY

This article traces the history of community organization (CO) in the disciplinary and practice arena in India. Although CO within the academia grew with social work, the trajectory of CO practice reveals an increasing tension with the discipline of social work, especially the way it is structured and taught in India. The interface with the community development (CD) programme of the government, as also the growth of the voluntary sector and the influence of new social movements, compelled a review of the orientation of CD and CO. A sectoral thrust on livelihoods, health, education, housing, wages, land alienation, access to entitlements along with the pluralization of debates on caste, ethnicity, tribal and gender identities enriched CO in India. The article offers a perspective on CO based on practice and the critical engagements of faculty members in one of the premier institutes of India which offers social work programmes. Concerted efforts to respond to the changing social and political context with consistent pro-poor stances provided unique insights which are reshaping, refining and re-conceptualizing the perspective of CO in India. This is reflected in course work, the conscious recasting of fieldwork, the criteria of selecting sites of practice and agencies, and the policy work undertaken by faculty members. Could the new curriculum be termed as transdisciplinary or is CO emerging as a distinct discipline? This is a question posed for further debate.     

Conservative Apostles of Objectivity and the Myth of a “Liberal Bias” in Science

An article recently published in The American Sociologist argued that social scientists are biased because of their liberal views, and that this social activism might in turn explain the growing distrust of conservatives in the scientific community observed in the General Social Survey. Although I do agree that social scientists in the United States are mostly liberal, which is hard to contest given the accumulated evidence, this does not necessarily mean that liberal scientists are biased. It is one thing to adopt liberal views, but it is quite another to let these views distort scientific productions to the point that they are not scientific anymore. Since no systematic evidence currently exists to support this claim, the “liberal bias” remains a myth. Moreover, the authors do not report any statistical correlation between the purported increase in social scientists’ activism and conservatives’ growing distrust in science, let alone a causal relationship. I hypothesize that the authors, as conservatives, are more concerned with liberalism than with the politicization of science per se, and that their critics are aimed at challenging liberals’ domination within academia by depicting liberal scholars as pseudo-scientists.     

Assessing Social Work's Contribution to Controlled Studies of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

ABSTRACT

Findings from a review of social work's contribution to the adolescent substance abuse treatment outcome literature between 1990 and 2001 are presented. Social work involvement in adolescent substance abuse treatment was evaluated through a computerized bibliographic search of medical and social science databases and by a manual search of 13 core social work journals. Results indicate that social work has contributed little to knowledge development in adolescent chemical dependency treatment. Investigators affiliated with a department or school of social work accounted for three of 15 controlled treatment outcome studies. Only one report was published in a core social work journal. Efforts to develop clinical guidelines in this important practice domain will founder until a sufficiently directive body of practice-relevant research accumulates to guide evidence-based substance abuse treatment for adolescents.     

Social Problems,by Amitai Etzioni. Foundations of Modern Sociology Series. Prentice Hall,Englewood Cliffs,New Jersey, 1976. $3.95, Paper. 182 Pp.

Abstract

Publication productivity has received increasing attention in the social work literature. A major shortcoming of the social work literature on productivity is the paucity of attention given specifically to the publication efforts of ethnic minority social work educators. This article presents findings from the first national survey to specifically focus on publication productivity among African-American social work faculty. The data generated from the survey reveal that productivity is associated more with individual-level factors than structural factors, a minority of African-American faculty are producing most of the publications, and African-American social work faculty are producing slightly fewer publications than the broader population of social work faculty.     

Social desire paths: a new theoretical concept to increase the usability of social science research in society

Social scientists are well-trained to observe and chart social trends, but less experienced at presenting scientific findings in formats that can inform social change work. In this article, I propose a new theoretical concept that provides a mechanism by which social science research can be more effectively applied for proactive policy, organizational, and program development. The approach is to use the metaphor of “desire paths” from landscape architecture to show how social scientists can identify and analyze social desire paths that appear on the social structural landscape. Social desire paths usually emerge because existing formal structures do not meet individual or group needs. Such paths are generally started at the individual level, followed by others through individual actions, and ultimately leave an (usually informal) imprint on the social structure, even though the motivations behind those actions are not usually social change. Using what we know about the sociology of interests and what we have learned from trying to apply social science findings to policy, I propose seven criteria for phenomena to be defined as social desire paths. I then apply the criteria to two case studies related to housing, and discuss social desire paths usefulness to social scientists involved in any research that captures interests, deviance, or innovation; and that also has the potential to inform formal structures such as policy, organizations, program development, and participatory democracy.     

Manipulating surface and producing ‘effortless’ elegance – analysing the social organization of glamour

ABSTRACT

This article explores the social organization of glamour in a specific affective economy. Glamour, a phenomenon often viewed as frivolous and feminine, has been relatively under-explored within organization studies, and, although there have been some relative theoretical engagements, there are few empirical studies on how glamour is produced ‘in the field’. Here, I draw upon ethnographic material to analyse three ways in which glamour is produced within the particular setting of a fashion show – through the clothing collection, throughout the frontstage and backstage spaces stimulating glamour, and finally, through individuals embodying glamour. This article develops glamour as an organizational phenomenon. Specifically, the social organization of glamour, always in flux, is contingent on situated improvisation, manipulative acts and interactions among multiple agents. Finally, the overlooked subject of glamour is of interest in regards to the sociology of organizations more generally, since much of contemporary capitalism relies on its production.     

Class,Conflict, and Criminalization

Abstract

Considerable attention has been given by social scientists to the relationship between social inequality and criminality. However, the dominant paradigms over the past several decades have each focussed attention upon one basic aspect of the relationship to the neglect of the other. Anomie theory emphasizes the connection between structural inequalities and deviant behavior, but neglects the definitional processes by which deviance is made a social reality. Labeling theory emphasizes definitional processes, but neglects their structural and behavioral bases and, surprisingly, consequences. Most recently, various “new criminologists” have been attempting to develop a theory that explaines how structured inequalities generate both the behavioral and the definitional realities of deviance. Two major variants are emerging: the Marxian and the Weberian. Points of agreement and disagreement are indicated, and a prognosis regarding the future development of theory is offered. Despite their basic agreement on the paramount explanatory significance of social conflict and power, Marxian and Weberian criminologists disagree on (a) the nature of scientific inquiry, and (b) the nature of social organization, and diverge on the meanings of class, conflict, and criminality. Neither theory as such is likely to become the approved paradigm for conventional research and officially sponsored studies or action programs, although Weberian theory is more likely to be tolerated, because it is more amenable to selective interpretation and modification.     

The value of event history techniques for understanding social processes: Modelling women's employment behaviour after motherhood

Over the last two decades there has been an increase in the longitudinal data available to social scientists, and this has been accompanied by the development of concepts and tools which allow for a rigorous approach to empirical research. However, there is still an appreciable gap between the methodological innovations within the field of applied statistics and the everyday practice of the majority of social scientists. The aim of this paper is therefore to demonstrate some of the advantages of using event history data to underpin our understanding of social processes. In particular, the paper explores the benefits of using SABRE (Software for the analysis of binary recurrent events, developed at the University of Lancaster) as a tool for carrying out event history analysis. The specific advantage of this software is that it allows the researcher to focus on duration effects or temporal dependencies in the social process under investigation. The substantive focus of the paper is the way in which women manage to combine paid employment with motherhood. Analyses are based on data from women's life histories, collected as part of the fifth sweep of the National Child Development Survey carried out in 1991. Within this paper, the primary focus is on the conceptual issues raised by modelling event history data; statistical terminology and notation has been kept to a minimum.     

Ecological metaphors as scientific boundary work: innovation and authority in interwar sociology and biology

The development of human ecology during the interwar period was a significant scientific innovation enabled by the sociological use of biological concepts as tropes for social organization. This examination of the connections between biology and sociology illuminates a process whereby new scientific knowledge is generated, new scientific communities are formed, and individuals become scientists. These relationships were arranged around the negotiable boundaries between the social and the natural in 20th-century science. This process is examined through an analysis of scientific texts, metaphor transaction in science, and mentoring practices that reveal the transmission and bounding of knowledge and authority.     

Howard Becker's summer workshop in visual sociology: A personal view

We social scientists fumble with the forms of social life—from mating pair to extended family; from friendship clique to community; from work team to corporation. We think of a group—say the Daughters of the American Revolution or the Mothers of Invention—and nothing much comes to mind, only a dull uncomprehending blankness. What IS a group exactly? We find even our most vital areas of social science hobbled for want of clear conceptions to fix understandings of key terms such as group, family, organization, and culture. This article reports my halting progress with the question of how to study human groups. My answer comes in images such as those of Plate 1. Here we have, first, children dancing arm in arm in a graveyard. Their joined circle is a living form—bounded in space and time, full of tension, rhythm, harmony, growth and possibility. Counter‐posed to the dancing children is the graveyard, which is likewise a form bound in space and time and animated by rhythms and growth. It is a remarkable fact that even in death, when there is no reason for it, we remain together with others, united in groups. Such images as these, I argue, are key to a scientific study of groups. In them we find the group.     

e-Tools and Organization Transformation Techniques for Collaborative Case Management

SUMMARY

Welfare and workforce development reforms propel individual agencies into formal partnerships with one another. Collaborative Case Management is the cooperative delivery of social services to common clients. This paper describes technological tools and organization transformation issues for collaborative case management. A road map for a successful transition includes a shared vision, business/technology requirements, an information management strategy, redesigned jobs and processes, and a change management strategy.