George Herbert Mead on Intelligent Social Reconstruction*

Many thinkers have discussed the possibility of intelligent social reconstruction; but few have examined the nature of such reconstruction as closely as did George Herbert Mead. This paper explores Mead's analysis through his understanding of human nature and intelligence, his discussion of value conflicts and the possibility of their resolution by means of the community, and his recognition of the need for popular commitment as a necessary condition for any wide-spread success. While pointing to certain problems with his position, this paper concludes that there is a basic soundness to Mead's approach.     

Measuring Social “Informatization”: A Factor Analytic Approach*

Some scholars have argued that we are witnessing a new social revolution—social “informatization”—that is comparable in scope and impact to that of the Industrial Revolu‐tion of the eighteenth century. Others have argued that it is a much more modest phase in the ongoing development of communication and information‐processing technology. While there are a number of reasons for disagreement about what exactly “informatization” is, and what its impact will be, two are paramount: (1) conceptual imprecision, and (2) issues of measurement. Using factor analysis, this study aims to clarify its conceptualization, and, then, rather than focusing on a single dimension (e.g., technological or economic), it will develop a comprehensive multiple‐indicator measure that captures the economic, technological, and size (stock) dimensions of social informatization. We find that this measure of social informatization strongly correlates with the general level of socioeconomic development. This result implies that social informatization may be a more continuous and cumulative process than a disjunctive or discontinuous “revolution.”     

“Revenge” and “Rescue”: Workplace Deviance in the Taxicab Industry*

This study explores taxicab drivers’ acts of “revenge” and “rescue,” some of which are expressive acts, while others are more instrumental. This article builds on earlier theories of workplace deviance, demonstrating how deviance can serve different purposes and expanding the concept of “deviance admiration” ( Heckert and Heckert 2004 ). It examines deviance in a circumstance—the taxicab industry—which introduces a tension between mandated conformity and necessary deviance: employees must conform to the employers’ rules and yet, to accomplish their jobs well, they need to abandon those rules occasionally. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this work has important practical applications for managers.     

“FOI POR ACASO”*:

Everyone knows that most of the things that happen to them happen “by accident,” and this is particularly true of the things that are most important to us, like our choice of a career or a mate. Yet social science theory looks for determinate causal relationships, which do not give an adequate account of this thing that “everyone knows.” If we take the idea of “it happened by chance” seriously, we need a quite different kind of research and theory than we are accustomed to.     

George Herbert Mead and Karl Marx: Exploring Consciousness and Community*

Current discussions within symbolic interaction point to a concern with (a) returning to Mead's original insights, (b) extending Meadian thought beyond the micro realm, and (c) linking Mead's ideas to constructive social action. These concerns complement an effort within contemporary Marxist literature to provide a systematic social psychology for understanding new forms of domination in capitalist society. In exploring the philosophical foundations of Mead and Marx, the authors identify fundamental similarities in their approaches to the relation between consciousness and community. The authors criticize the current attempts to synthesize Marx and Freud and call for a more thoroughly sociological approach. A Meadian reading of Marx, unlike the Marx-Freud synthesis, is consistent with sociological assumptions and points to the practical possibility of transformative social change through the interpersonal act.     

Spouses as Co-Therapists: “Style” Variables and Implications for Patient-Therapist Matching*

The self-report responses of 24 spouse (M) and 24 non-spouse (NM) professional co-therapist pairs were compared on a variety of in-therapy behaviors. The therapist groups were also divided into experienced (E) and inexperienced (IE) co-therapist pairs. Results indicated that, in general, M co-therapists, and particularly E-M co-therapists, were significantly more alike in self-described in-therapy behaviors than NM co-therapists. M therapists reported significantly more congruence in activity levels and quality of “feeling responsiveness” than NM therapists. These results are discussed in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of the co-therapist “united front” likely to be perceived by patients of spouse co-therapists. General implications for matching patients and co-therapists are considered     

Non-Sexist “Marital” Therapy*

Certain factors limit marital therapists in dealing with individuals conflicted over and disenchanted about “traditional” marriage: 1) the therapist's gender, 2) the presence of sex-role stereotyped behaviors and expectations, and 3) the therapists own marital experience. Specific helpful experiences (working with a co-therapist of the opposite sex, examining attitudes and biases toward divorce) and therapeutic techniques (working out a schedule for sharing household tasks and childcare, restructuring the marital contract, and dealing with open companionship) are discussed. The general therapeutic goal is working toward an equal sharing of overt power, with social, economic, and political considerations and intrapsychic forces given comparable consideration.     

“Our Own Little Language”: Naming and the Social Construction Of Alzheimer's Disease

Social meanings and cultural definitions attached to illness, disability, and aging have a powerful influence on the development and operations of medical care as well as the social, behavioral, and therapeutic processes occurring within these settings. Specialized care environments designed to meet the needs of what some would argue is a dramatically increasing population worldwide, those with Alzheimer's disease, have been dominated by a medical model of care where treatment of disease has primacy over person. In contrast to the medical model, the Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) at Starrmount (pseudonym) Alzheimer's Unit have socially constructed an alternative to the medical model of care through what I argue is the use of language and a process of “naming and reframing.” In this “different world,” as the CNAs call the world of the Unit, the resident is depicted as a socially responsive actor with a surviving self that is to be treated with respect. Using a symbolic interactionist framework, this paper examines the CNAs' construction and use of a “language of openings”—that is, the language arising out of the lifeworld of the residents—as the counterpoint to the “language of limits” of the medical model. Spoken everywhere but nowhere inscribed as “official” knowledge, this “little language,” as the CNAs speak of it, is the fundamental medium for social interaction in the Alzheimer's Unit.     

Community Policing and “John Schools”*

De nos jours, la police a déjà subi et continue de subir des changements dans sa philosophie et sa pratique fondamentales. Des zones de contrôle social auparavant laissées dans L'ombre par la police sont maintenant regroupées sous L'expression « police communautaire «. Le contrôle de la prostitution, bien qu'il soit traditionnellement axé sur les travailleuses du sexe, a récemment été ramené sous le parapluie de la police communautaire par le biais de méthodes parti‐culières. Cet article examine la police de quartier et son rôle élargi en prenant pour exemple les « John schools » ou programmes de traitement pour les clients de prostituées. Ces programmes, en tant que police communautaire en pratique, mettent en relief les difficultés de cette approche en général et, plus particulièrement, celles de la prostitution. Policing today has gone through and continues to undergo changes in its basic philosophy and practice. Areas of social control previously ignored by police are now included under the rhetoric of “community policing.” Control of prostitution activity, although an historical mainstay of policing directed primarily at female sex workers, has recently been subsumed under the umbrella of community policing through particular methods aimed at its control. This paper examines community policing and the expanded police role through the example of “John schools” or prostitution offender programs. As community policing in practice, such prostitution offender programs highlight the difficulties of the community policing approach generally, and the policing perspective on prostitution more specifically.     

Shifting Worlds of Strangers: Medium Theory and Changes in “Them” Versus “Us”*

Macrolevel analyses of the influence of different communication technologies are more difficult to test and apply than the results of focused studies of particular media messages. Nevertheless, “medium theory” is of potentially great significance because it outlines how media, rather than functioning simply as channels for conveying information between two or more social environments, are themselves social contexts that foster certain forms of interaction and social identities. This article uses a medium-theory perspective to address one variable related to “technological communities”—the changing boundaries between “them” and “us.” The ways in which oral, print, and electronic modes of communication each foster a different balance between strangers and “familiars” are outlined.     

Globalization and Technology Divides: Bifurcation of Policy between the “Digital Divide” and the “Innovation Divide”*

The global diffusion of digital technology, which occurred more rapidly than the global diffusion of any technology previously, has been mired by its uneven distribution across, and unequal effects on, societies worldwide. In addition, policy initiatives to close this global digital divide, which peaked with the two World Summit on Information Society conferences, still did not change the course of this differentiated globalization process. In this article, I attribute the cause of such stalling of policy on the issue of the global digital divide to the bifurcation of current international policy: attention is split between concern for the impeded access of the poor to this revolutionary technology, on the one hand, and the race to lead the world in creating the next “hot” technology, on the other. These two concerns, which have been given the pithy titles of the “global digital divide” and the “global innovation divide,” are leading to two separate policy tracks, targeting the world’s laggards and leaders as separate entities and operating under separate logics. This separation is problematic because the issues of access to technology and ownership of rights to technology are intertwined. This article describes the two global technology divides and analyzes the policies that are currently charted to address them.     

Jewish* Self-interest in “Black Pluralism”

From time immemorial Jewish tribal exclusiveness among dominant societal groups has resulted in various forms of conflict determined by the social situation. The critical force involved has been the group's peculiar resistance to social assimilation. Different social systems react differently to the persistence of this trait. The caste system of India, for example, would hardly notice it. But capitalist culture, which originated in the European medieval city, has constantly resisted it; that culture is basically assimilationist. American Negroes, in their opposition to racism, have relied mainly on the ideology of assimilation. These two divergent tendencies have come into collision recently.     

Interactional Considerations In Studying American “Indians” The Case Of Adolescent Self-Esteem*

This paper argues that symbolic interactionists must recognize the necessity to not overgeneralize their data and to accurately reflect the natural environment of “Indianness” when investigating the empirical reality of the American “Indian's” social world. Data pertaining to the self-esteem of Arapahoe and Shoshone adolescents living on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation are discussed as a case in point. Arapahoe and Shoshone youth attending integrated high schools, as a racial and numerical minority, were found to have relatively high levels of self-esteem. The implications of this finding are reviewed.     

The “Homeless Problem” and the Double Consciousness*

The purpose of this article was to identify manifestations of a social discourse that construct those who are homeless as an existential problem. Based on 4 years of ethnographic data and grounded theory analysis, we illustrate the nature of exclusionary social practices that emerge from discourse on the “homeless problem” as well as the conflicting identities experienced by those who are homeless. Herein we frame the data using DuBois concept of “double consciousness.” Our findings indicate that those who are homeless mix together discourses of value and legitimacy with self‐applied stigmas and self‐denigrating political perspectives in ways that directly mirror DuBois’ notion of the conflicting nature of African and American identities around the end of the nineteenth century. We illustrate identity problems that manifest in the contemporary conflict between being both “homeless” and “American.”     

Rejoinder to “Who Owns Democracy?”*

Dans cette réplique, nous discutons brièvement quelques malentendus et oublis apparents dans un commentaire, publié dans le numéro 42.3 de la RCSA , pp. 267–82, concernant notre comparaison entre le Canada et les États-Unis, et tentons de les résoudre.
In this rejoinder, we briefly discuss and seek to resolve some apparent misunderstandings and oversights in a commentary published in the CRSA (42.3: 267–82) about our research comparing Canada and the United States.     

“His” and “her” marriage expectations: Determinants and consequences

This article uses couple‐level data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N= 2,263) to investigate factors associated with unmarried parents’ expectations about marriage and the association between their expectations and subsequent union transitions. In most couples, both partners expect to marry, and their shared expectations are the strongest predictor of marriage and separation following their child's birth. Although men's expectations are somewhat more consequential for union transitions, marriage and relationship stability are more likely when at least one parent expects to marry. Factors such as children from previous relationships, distrust, conflict, and shared activities are also associated with union transitions. Findings about how expectations and other factors relate to marriage and separation may inform new marriage promotion initiatives.