Review–Feature

Book Reviews are in this Articles.
Psychoanalysis and Feminism. By Juliet Mitchell.     

Review—Feature

Book Reviews are in this Articles.
Class, Codes and Control, Volume I: Theoretical Studies Towards a Sociology of Language. By Basil Bernstein.
Class, Codes and Control, Volume II: Applied Studies Towards a Sociology of Language, edited by Basil Bernstein.     

Review—Feature

Book Reviews are in this Articles.
Studies in Agrarian Social Structure. By André Béteille     

Feature Review

Books reviewed in this article:
Implicit Meanings: Essays in Anthropology. By Mary Douglas.     

Feature Review

Books reviewed in this article:
Inside the Company. By Philip Agee.
The Lawless State: The Crimes of the U. S. Intelligence Agencies, By Morton H. Halperin, Jerry J. Berman, Robert L. Borosage, and Christine M. Marwick.
The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945. By J. C. Masterman.
The Torment of Secrecy: The Background and Consequences of American Security Policies. By Edward A. Shils.
Ferdinand Tönnies. A New Evaluation. Essays and Documents. Edited by Werner J. Cahnman.     

Review Feature Symposium

Books reviewed in this article: The Sanctity of Social Life: Physicians' Treatment of Critically Ill Patients. By Diana Crane. Catastrophic Diseases: Who Decides What?By Jay Katz and Alexander Morgan Capron.     

Review Feature: Symposium Review of

Book reviews in this article:
G eorge A. H uaco , University of New Mexico
L awrence J ohn R edlinger , University of Texas, Dallas     

One Dimension:A Typical Feature of Western Culture Industry

The term culture industry was coined by the critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. They proposed that popular culture is akin tao a factory producing standardized cultural goods-radio programs, films, magazines, etc. by which mass society are manipulated into passivity. It is the inherent danger of the culture industry that the products of capitalism is the only satisfactory way of the cultivation of the false psychological needs; thus Adorno and Horkheimer especially perceived mass-produced culture as dangerous to the more technically and intellectually difficult high arts. One dimension is a typical feature of Western culture industry, which is caused by dominant power.     

The South African Feature Film Industry: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Although the South African film industry has the required competency to become a significant player in the international film market, few South African films enjoy commercial success. This paper examines why South African films are not more successful and assesses what government and other stakeholders can do to promote a sustainable and successful film industry. The paper draws on the experiences of the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries to argue that the South African government should not focus solely on the cultural aspects of the film product but should attach more importance to distribution, promotion and audience development.     

新时代青年劳动教育的逻辑、特征与发展进路

新时代青年劳动教育是有着鲜明的内在逻辑的,它体现在以世界各国青年劳动教育经验为历史之镜,以马克思主义劳动观为理论指导,以几千年来形成的我国优秀劳动文化为深厚底蕴,以新时代青年劳动教育的现实问题和历史重任为实践源头.新时代青年劳动教育是把劳动价值观教育作为核心内容,其价值旨归是促进人的全面发展,而全社会的协同共育是坚实的机制保障.在开展新时代青年劳动教育的过程中,应当进一步推动劳动教育的本土化发展、专业化发展以及制度化发展,充分发挥劳动教育在立德树人方面的重要作用.     

Généalogie et évolution de la catégorie de « cadre » en Italie

Conceptions of the social world in industrialized countries use categories worked out in the course of a nation's history. In this respect, the notion of cadre for referring to both a concrete social group and a statistical, cognitive category turns out to be a French invention. From a societal perspective, why are there no cadres in Italy? Why is this sort of catchall category for referring to persons in the middle range of employees missing there? Although the notion crystallized through the French experience does not fit the Italian situation, we can inquire into it by examining the history of two close but distinct socioeconomic categories: quadri and dirigenti. A constructivist approach is taken to examining several aspects of the emergence of these categories in Italian society: the place of the institutions that defend and objectify them as a socioeconomic category; the expectations and aspirations that motivate them; the impact of historical and symbolical events in making these categories; and the role of sociologists who persist in analyzing Italian cadres by using quite different theoretical and ideological presuppositions.     

Comment confronter mobilité « subjective » et mobilité « objective » ?

The methods for analyzing objective social mobility and subjective mobility as perceived by individuals are reviewed in the case of two surveys: Trois générations by the French Old-Age Fund (CNAV, Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Vieillesse) and Formation qualification professionnelle by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). These two surveys have formulated subjective mobility in quite different ways, but this observation also holds for objective mobility, which, for the purpose of comparison with respondents' subjective evaluations, is defined using specific procedures. A method is proposed for contrasting these two sorts of mobility based on classical mobility tables. When the latter are designed so as to cross three variables (social origins, destinations and average scores of subjective mobility), the spontaneous sociology that can be collectively detected in the assessments made by respondents turns out to be not very different from the scholarly sociology of social categories produced by sociologists. After showing that subjective and objective mobility vary coherently in relation to each other, an additional hypothesis is advanced to account for some discrepancies.     

Contenir le marché : la transition de la criée à la cotation électronique à la Bourse de Paris

Open outcry was fully replaced at the Paris Bourse by an automated trade execution system (CAC) in the late 1980s. In this article, we focus on the circumstances that made this transition possible. We analyze the diverse compromises (both social and technical) that the officials and engineers in charge of the innovation process constructed in order to stabilize the new market device. They had to carefully inscribe into the new system the interests of the actors at stake: bankers and stockbrokers. This case study contributes to economic sociology by drawing a relation between a technical device and the interests set around the “modernization” of a market.     

La précarité de l'emploi au service de la prospérité du fast-food

The fast food industry offers an exception to the traditional rule that steady employment and employee qualifications are necessary for business to thrive. Since this industry sprang up in the United States during the 1950s, its major firms have offered unskilled jobs to a young, devoted labor force in transit between fast-food establishments. As a consequence, the itineraries of incoming new hires and outgoing employees crisscross. Though causing a few operational problems, this high turnover rate among wage-earners is good for business. The major (just-in-time) principle of sales and production requires an exceptionally high commitment. Only new, young team-members correspond to the profile defined in these eateries.     

Le modèle de « l'État-stratège » : genèse d'une forme organisationnelle dans l'administration française

Since the 1990s, a new organisational form of the administrative system in France has been steadily redefining relations between central administrations and local state units. Labelled “the steering state” or the “managerial state”, this new paradigm hinges on separating the strategic functions of steering and controlling the state from the operational functions of execution and policy implementation. The making of this new form of state organization involves two parallel processes: political and cognitive. For one thing, the adoption of concrete measures for “government at distance” results from power struggles between three major ministries (Home Office, Budget and Civil Service). For another, a new legitimate “categorization of the state” is being formed in the major committees involved in the reform process of the 1990s; it is borne by top civil servants and inspired by the ideas of New Public Management. — Special issue: New patterns of institutions.     

Les « intermittents » de l'Église. Modalités d'emploi des personnels laïcs dans le catholicisme français

Given the shortage of priests, bishops have assigned permanent religious duties to several thousand laypersons, a majority of them women. Many of these persons have employment contracts. The employment conditions of this new type of permanent personnel tend to be unfavorable: assignments for a few years despite contracts of unlimited duration, part-time work and a nearly minimum wage. Various factors account for this fragility: the dire financial straits of French dioceses; ecclesiastical authorities, determination to present the clergy as the only fully legitimate, permanent personnel in the Church; and the attitude of laypersons who seem to be satisfied with their lot. The efforts to institutionalize this work have encountered difficulties with respect to both the labor code and the unexpected effects produced internally by the advocacy of a “culture of limited duration commitment”.     

La carrière des artistes et les transformations de la production musicale. Relations de travail et relation au travail dans le monde des musiques rap et électroniques

The interaction between the artistic and managerial poles of the world formed by the persons specialized in rap and electronic music in France is described as well as musicians' occupational culture. The aesthetic and organizational characteristics of these musical genres are shown to influence the division of labour in recording and production. Owing to the combination of artistic and managerial activities typical of these musicians, occupational networks are fluid. This blurring of roles is especially visible in the recording labels used from home studios. Technical changes in the “tools” for this work have led these artists to become professionally involved in management and advertising. Cultural motivations also explain this involvement: the critical stance adopted by the “cultures” of rap, electro, techno, etc., tends to make obsolete the image of the artist as a creator who avoids the engineering aspects of the commercial distribution of his recordings. In contrast, rap and electronic musicians' careers develop through participation in many and various projects, which nurtures their artistic production, improves the quality of their groups and enhances their reputations. Accepting more short-term professional engagements supposedly increases their control over their career profiles. However these musicians voice concerns, in particular, about bonds between the individual and the groups whom they cross (and who cross them) — concerns that can be extended to other types de workers caught up in an occupational world organized “by project”.     

La restructuration des PMI à Saint-Étienne après la crise : traces du passé et limites de l'intégration horizontale

On the basis of a survey conducted in Saint-Étienne, France, as part of a comparative European project on “modes of governance” in local economies (which, thus, takes into account the level of small and medium-sized industry and the middle level of the territory), questions are raised about the goods and services that enable these industries to be competitive with big firms or holdings. For these industries, solutions developed two decades ago for the machine tool industry, mechanics and metal-working are still significant resources. The momentum detected in a small number of fields can lead to an increasing specialization and horizontal integration that favor a more competitive growth. How to know whether this momentum results from still (temporarily) active remnants of the past or whether it is evidence of a collective impetus that can stimulate new economic growth?