Intergenerational solidarity: An attachment perspective

The concept of intergenerational solidarity between parents and children has been addressed within sociology using an increasing number of dimensions, some overlapping with phenomena studied in attachment theoretical research within psychology. Attachment theory is an important candidate for cross-disciplinary research into intergenerational solidarity, because it identifies causal processes within individuals as well as relationships. Due to its developmental nature the attachment theory is also highly relevant to life-cycle issues surrounding intergenerational solidarity. In this theoretical review, the basic dimensions which attachment theory uses to describe relationships are articulated with reference to pertinent issues under the rubric of intergenerational solidarity. Examples are provided to illustrate how at the cross-section of psychology and sociology these dimensions (direction, quality, and penetration) can be used for answering questions (patterns of exchange, tensions, ambivalence) about relationships between adult children and aging parents.     

Understanding Sexual Minority Health Disparities in Rural Areas

This article reviews research from several disciplines including sociology, psychology, and public health to examine recent inconsistencies in findings of rural/urban health disparities among sexual minority populations. Previous work has found that sexual minorities (lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals) report worse health than their heterosexual counterparts on many physical and mental health measures. To understand this occurrence, scholars have situated these findings most often within either minority stress or fundamental cause frameworks. These theories attribute health differences to unique stressors and stigmatization experienced by sexual minorities within a heteronormative social climate. This review provides an overview of specific health disparities by gender and sexual orientation, critically examines research on rural/urban health differences among sexual minorities, and offers three avenues for future research to help remedy the inconsistent results of previous rural/urban sexual minority health disparities research. Discussions of the ‘rural effect,’ rural social support resources, and the importance of geographic region for health are included as opportunities to further social scientific research on sexual minority health disparities.     

Race and Ethnic Relations: The Conflict Continues—A Review Essay*

This essay review examines a number of recent publications in the sociology and psychology of race and ethnic relations. Emphasis is placed on the limits of research in the area during the past twenty years and on the significance of the authors' personal and professional orientations in the selection and treatment of the subject Research is hampered as well by the highly visible absence of a coherent general body of theory in sociology and by the growing fragmentation of the field as well as the increasing influence of ideological divisions in the discipline and within the organizational structures through which it functions. Qualitative differences among the several volumes are indicated and discussed.     

Seeing the Invisible Children and Young People Affected by Disability

This paper presents a brief review of literature relating to children in families with a disabled member, including the 'young carers' and disability studies literature, and relevant works from the social psychology and sociology of childhood. Key themes identified in the literature are then illustrated by findings from two exploratory research studies that sought to explore the experiences and service needs of children in families with a disabled member, within two Scottish areas. The authors suggest that, although young people affected by disability in the family, including young carers, face significant problems, particularly in socially disadvantaged areas, there are other issues that need to be addressed. Alternative conceptual frameworks are proposed, which challenge the dominance of the young carers research paradigm.     

Hard men, shop boys and others: embodying competence in a masculinist occupation

Emerging studies on private security work in Britain's night‐time economy explore important sociological themes such as masculinities and violence. Contributing rich ethnography to this literature, and in furthering an embodied sociology, this paper describes the gendered construction of competency among ‘bouncers’ or door supervisors within the context of their potentially violent work. Centrally, it explores the door supervisors’ variable bodily capital (comprising body build and acquired techniques of the body) alongside normative limits to their violence. Here physicality is central to the practicalities of doorwork, risk management and the embodiment of dominant and subordinate masculinities. Within doorwork culture, embodied typifications such as ‘hard men’, ‘shop boys’ and others (eg,‘bullies’ and ‘nutters’) are related to assessments of possible violence against doorstaff, the delineation of (flexible) boundaries for their own (in)appropriate violence against ‘problematic’ customers and the construction of competent identity. Besides contributing empirical data to the literature this paper underscores the integrative potential of embodiment for social scientists and urges policy makers to appreciate the degree to which (potential) violence is embodied in the night‐time economy.     

Ulstermen and Loyalist Ladies on Parade: Gendering Unionism in Northern Ireland

This article explores parades as central institutions in the construction and maintenance of unionist ethno-gender identities and a crucial part of politics in Northern Ireland. It presents a brief historical review of the origins of Protestant marches and the organizations which are key to sustaining this tradition. It then analyses the contemporary marches, including the highly contested Portadown parade and the tranquil all-Ireland demonstration,held in Rossnowlagh in the Republic. These overwhelmingly male events are important to the maintenance of the gender order of unionism. The parades reveal the subordinated feminity within unionism: women participate in small numbers by invitation only. At the same time, they reveal competing masculinities: traditional, 'respectable' unionist masculinity is challenged by the more virile loyalism of 'Billy boy' and 'kick the pope' bands and marchers. This analysis explains why these competing masculinities are central, not only to the maintenance of male hegemony, but also to the ethno-national politics of parading, helping to set the boundaries of accommodation with nationalists and the state.     

Veganism as a lifestyle movement

In the last few years, the popularity of veganism has surged. Current literature on the cultural practice, which situates it within a social movements framework, cannot adequately explain this meteoric rise. A better approach is to view veganism as an emerging lifestyle movement based on individual consumption rather than political protest. After situating veganism within the literature on animal rights, this review then explains why a lifestyle movement perspective yields a more compelling account of its growing mainstream appeal. Drawing on both cultural and organizational sociology, this review provides insights into the cultural origins of veganism, its evolving relationship to other food movements, and highlights the key role played by cultural entrepreneurs, the key changemakers who are bringing veganism from the margins to the mainstream.     

A mexican American woman encounters sociology: An autobiographical perspective

I attempt to show how my ideas about bureaucracy and Mexican American culture are a product of my life history and how I worked out key features of these ideas in teaching sociology at a small university. This was made possible because strategic sponsors helped me as an “outsider” to become a kind of “insider” within that social milieu. Her fields of interest are bureaucracy, family, social psychology and race and ethnic relations. She is currently writing a monograph on Mexican American family life.     

Social networks of knowledge production in Brazilian psychology: comparing sub-areas

The social processes underlying the production of scientific knowledge make it an inherently social endeavor. The interaction between systems of thought and affiliation has been subject of the sociology of science, with remarkable developments in studies on the structure of scientific fields based on social networks analysis. Although psychology is one of the pioneer fields investigated in this literature, there is scarcity of research on psychology. The objective of this paper is to describe the social networks’ dynamics of knowledge production in psychology in Brazil, comparing association patterns among its sub-areas. For this purpose, 395 researchers responded an electronic questionnaire about their relationships. Networks of nine psychology sub-areas were analyzed for structural properties (i.e. density, centrality) and relational exchanges (the connecting roles of boundary spanners and central connectors). Findings showed different structures and connectivity patterns between networks, but most of these areas configure as small worlds. Discussion explores implications of these findings for the production of knowledge within areas, and for the national production of psychological knowledge as a whole, with effects on the international projection of knowledge produced in Brazil.     

The Interplay of Psychology and Societal Transformation

This special issue of the International Journal of Group Tensions examines the contribution of psychology to societal transformation worldwide and the impact of societal transformation on psychology. In this introduction, I review the aims and scope of the journal and the focus of the special issue. Second, I identify several key consequences of societal transformation that are not bounded by culture, nationality, or politics, underscoring the psychosocial outcomes. Third, I articulate the role of psychology in societal transformation, highlighting the conceptual, methodological, and practical tools available to describe, study, and effect change. I also address psychosocial explanations of resistance to societal transformation. Fourth, I discuss the impact of societal transformation on psychology as a discipline and profession, noting how such transformation has influenced academic training and professional practice in psychology. I also note how societal transformation has altered public opinion about psychology. I conclude by providing an overview of the articles that comprise the special issue, underscoring their shared themes.     

Family Research and Theory in Denmark

A social revolution has occured in Denmark over the last quarter century. Danish family research during this period has been conducted in three settings: the Danish National Institute of Social Research; University departments of developmental and clinical psychology and sociology; and University based feminist research. Research within these contexts is reviewed with attention given to the impact of political and social change on research agendas. major theoretical and methodological influences are presented for each research context.     

The Sociology of Death

The understanding of death, dying and bereavement in relation to society is indebted to a number of disciplines – anthropology, history, psychology and sociology are surveyed. Theories and methods used by sociologists of death, dying and bereavement are briefly outlined, followed by a number of key debates and challenges: denial, taboo and sequestration; death and the media; how to integrate scholarship in collective memory and Holocaust studies; theorising contemporary rites of passage; the lack of comparative research; and the need to focus on the meaning and organisation of death for those who encounter it most directly; namely, the poor, displaced and elderly. A brief discussion of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching is followed by the conclusion that any promise of a general sociology conducted in the light of mortality has been eclipsed by yet another specialism, the sociology of death.     

Great Expectations? A Systematic Review of the Relationship Between the School-to-Higher Education Transition and Social Mobility

Abstract

Education has always been considered as a means for social mobility, leveling off inequalities among individuals and enabling them to realize their potential. Against a backdrop dominated by political discourses on employability, flexibility and performance, there are growing concerns that students’ career decisions may be affected by individual and structural factors undermining the fairness of the transition from school to higher education (HE). To address this issue, this article seeks to unpack the enablers and barriers affecting the school-to-HE transition. To do so, we undertook a systematic review of papers published in psychology, sociology, education and public policy from 1985 to date, a period where major employment and education reforms in advanced and emerging economies were implemented. The findings show that socio-economic, cultural and institutional factors affect students’ access to HE. By taking stock of research on the school-to-HE transition, this article contributes to broaden the debate on the topic and reflects upon the relation between education and social mobility.     

Gender differences in patterns of publication in leading sociology journals, 1960–1985

This paper examines the impact of the recent feminization of the sociological profession on gender differences in patterns of publication in leading sociology journals. Our findings show that women are better represented in the leading journals in an absolute sense, but continue to be underrepresented relative to men. Moreover, while women are better represented in the leading journals than in the past, they more often occupy marginal locations within the structure of the discipline. Finally, we discuss the likely implications of the feminization of sociology on the production of knowledge within the discipline as a whole. His interests include social theory, stratification, organizations, and the sociology of science. His interests include criminology, criminal justice, and the sociology of science. Ann M. Rotchford is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her interests include organizations and sex stratification. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1988 Southern Sociological Society meetings.     

Cockpits,Hangars, Boys and Galleys: Corporate Masculinities and the Development of British Airways

This article sets out to examine the role of masculinity in the development of a gendered organizational culture over time. The development of images of masculinity within one company — British Airways — is examined through content analysis of company newsletters, advertising copy, annual reports, internal memoranda, and written rules and regulations. Exploring the notion of ‘multiple masculinities’, the article traces the prominent forms of masculinity that emerged in British Airways and assesses their impact on the ways that organizational practices were developed, maintained and understood. Four key corporate images of masculinity are examined — the pilot, the steward, the engineer and the ‘native boy’— and it is argued that those images contributed to the exclusion of women and people of colour from those occupations by laying down cultural rules about the ideal typical characteristics of the job holder. The article concludes by raising questions about the value of a multiple masculinities focus in explaining changing and contradictory practices of discrimination; the primacy of extra-organizational over organizational practices; and the relationship between multiple masculinities and hegemonic masculinity. Further research is suggested into the extent to which hegemonic masculinity is undermined, over time, by changing and contradictory forms of masculinity within definite sites of gender construction.     

Problematizing contemporary Men/Masculinities theorizing: the contribution of Raewyn Connell and conceptual‐terminological tensions today

Critical studies of men and masculinities (CSMM) have burgeoned in recent times. For this reason, it seems to me a useful moment to reflect on what I see as some tensions, even contradictions, in these studies. In keeping with Chantal Mouffe's espousal of the advantages of agonism rather than consensus, I suggest that heterogeneous theoretical directions in scholarship attending to men/masculinities are by no means to be discouraged. However, the various theoretical tools employed in this scholarship may be incommensurable and thus produce a certain inconsistency or even incoherence. In this context, I suggest that in order to more clearly articulate current theoretical/terminological debates it is important to undertake analysis of key conceptual distinctions and widely used terms, such as notions of structure and patriarchy, gender identities/masculinities/men, hegemony and hegemonic masculinity, and relations between gender and sexuality, amongst others. The aim here is not to produce or require homogeneity in studies of men/masculinities but rather to provide an opportunity to consider the epistemological frameworks which inform the political intentions and goals of this sphere of scholarship.     

Emotion and Leadership: What Scholarship on Status and Identity Can Tell Us

While leadership and emotion have been described as interrelated by many scholars in disciplines outside of sociology, there is a dearth of sociological literature on the subject. Indeed, within the last thirty years there has been an immense upsurge in the organizational literature on this very topic. While sociologists have not focused as much on leadership and emotions, there are many ways that sociologists can contribute, both empirically and theoretically. In this review our aim is to highlight the existing literatures within sociology that we feel are most valuable in exploring leadership and emotion, specifically, status and identity processes, while also engaging with the more developed literatures in organizations, focusing on the area of emotional regulation and labor.     

Perceptions of and Responses to Stigma

In the last 10 years, interest in the concept of stigma has grown remarkably throughout the social sciences. Today, stigma is an important topic that bridges many disciplines, including sociology, psychology, social psychology, and public health. This literature review primarily addresses perceptions of and responses to stigma from the insider's or target's perspective. The topics examined in this review include the following: defining stigma, public opinion and attitudes toward the stigmatized, measurement of perceptions of stigma and discrimination, the coping strategies employed by stigmatized persons to deal with stigma, the impact of stigma in terms of psychological and behavioral outcomes, explanations of coping strategies and outcomes, and strategies and interventions to reduce stigma. As many of the concerns faced by stigmatized persons are universal, what has been learned in research about one stigmatized group can provide insight into another. Promising directions for future stigma-related research are identified and discussed.     

Bringing Identity Theory into Environmental Sociology

In an effort to explain pro‐environmental behavior, environmental sociologists often study environmental attitudes. While much of this work is atheoretical, the focus on attitudes suggests that researchers are implicitly drawing upon attitude theory in psychology. The present research brings sociological theory to environmental sociology by drawing on identity theory to understand environmentally responsive behavior. We develop an environment identity model of environmental behavior that includes not only the meanings of the environment identity, but also the prominence and salience of the environment identity and commitment to the environment identity. We examine the identity process as it relates to behavior, though not to the exclusion of examining the effects of environmental attitudes. The findings reveal that individual agency is important in influencing environmentally responsive behavior, but this agency is largely through identity processes, rather than attitude processes. This provides an important theoretical and empirical advance over earlier work in environmental sociology.