Urban anthropology and sociology

This research forms part of the project titled: ‘Aesthetic quality research of three Valencian schools’, that analyses the effects in detail that images displayed in schools have, as a variable in evaluating educational quality. Through applying Arts Based Educational Research, images displayed on 29 classroom walls in three schools were photographed and analysed based upon their function; they were subsequently classified as educational images, academic images, and comfort-generating images. The results of this research show quantitative, qualitative, and aesthetic values of this visual heritage by using photographic series that are laid out in a chart-like manner, creating a visual message for each classroom. Upon observing these typologies, one perceives: the predominate utilisation of the image and its aesthetics; the differences in visible occurrences between subject matters displayed on the walls; the teacher’s intentions when displaying the images. In the conclusions, alternatives are proposed for improving the schools’ aesthetical qualities.     

Towards a sociology of social anthropology

Theory and Society - The framework that I have used, I suggest, provides insights into how the paradigms in our discipline, or any discipline for that matter, are generated, become dominant and,...     

Structure and meaning in medical sociology.

The point of all this, one made by others as well (e.g., Cook and Reichhardt 1979), is to emphasize the potential for a synergistic exchange between structuralists who do surveys and meaning-oriented workers who do qualitative work. The ways in which survey researchers come to understand the social worlds of people can and should be influenced by the ways in which people understand and interpret their own worlds. Correspondingly, our efforts to capture the social life of people through their eyes can be advanced by an understanding of the structures in which their lives are embedded and the effects of these structures. Each orientation benefits from drawing on the other. In this way, sociology is the ultimate beneficiary. I see nothing to be gained from intellectual antagonism and the distancing of one side from the other. I do not claim that there is more similarity and less difference between the two than meets the eye. The substance of interests and the styles of inquiry are really quite different. That's as it should be. Indeed, their differences permit each to give something to the other. Both should be nurtured and developed. However, in the training of new medical sociologists and in the research of old ones, we should have enough appreciation and knowledge of both orientations so that even if we are planted firmly in one, we are at least prepared to dip into the other. Those searching for structural effects and those searching for meaning are potentially natural partners, a relationship much superior to being unnatural antagonists.     

Nationalism, activism, and the canadian sociology and anthropology community, 1967–1985

Debates have again resurfaced in Canada over the hiring of foreign academics to work in Canadian universities. Many are predicting a shortage of qualified Canadian graduates able to cope with the expected influx of echo generation students. In the face of such a crisis, some are calling for the elimination of the Canadians First policy now in place to limit the number of foreign academics taking jobs in Canada. This situation is not new. This article looks past traditional discussions of the Canadianization movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which tend to focus on epistemological issues, and examines it as a social movement. From this perspective, Canadian sociologists and anthropologists contributed significantly to the movement to Canadianization sociology and anthropology in Canada, as well as other disciplines. The hope here is that a proper historical understanding of the Canadianization movement, and its successes, will help us in evaluating possible solutions to the coming crisis.     

Democrats and republicans in anthropology and sociology: How do they differ on public policy issues?

The American Sociologist - Within the fields of anthropology and sociology, how do Democrats and Republicans compare in their opinions on issues of economic regulation, personal choice, and the...     

Fortunes and misfortunes of culture: sociology and anthropology of culture in francophone Quebec, 1965–1985

À travers la pensée de deux auteurs-clés et de leurs contradicteurs, sont examinées trois périodes de l'évolution de la sociologie et de l'anthropologie au Québec: gloire, éclipse puis regain de la culture. Dans le cadre d'une conjoncture socio-politique turbulente (non seulement liée au néo-nationalisme québécois mais à tous les mouvements sociaux qui ont déferlé sur l'Occident depuis 1965), ces ‘fortunes’ et ‘misfortunes’ de la culture ont été marquées par des polémiques internes au champ québécois, elles-mêmes liées aux principaux courants théoriques qui ont traversé les sciences humaines, en provenance surtout de la France et des États-Unis: apres une periode ou regnent la culture-cohésion/cohérence et la culture-identité, les courants issus du marxisme imposent une éclipse dans le recours à cette problématique de la culture de même qu'un souci de totalité, et surtout une articulation aux rapports sociaux; puis cette macro-approche sera suivie d'une résurgence de la culture, un retour vers le sujet, une affirmation du sens, une critique de l'economisme ainsi qu'une conception de la culture plus éclatée et plus matérialisée. En conclusion sont soulignés certains liens entre ces discours sur la culture et le néo-nationalisme québécois du dernier quart de siécle. Through the thought of two key authors and their critics, three periods of the evolution of sociology and anthropology in Quebec are examined: glory, eclipse and cultural renewal. In a period characterized by social and political turbulence (linked not only to a Quebecois neo-nationalism, but to all social movements to have appeared in the West since 1965), these fortunes and misfortunes of culture have been marked, in Quebec, by internal polemics and debates which are linked to the principal theoretical currents occuring in the human sciences emerging particularly from France and the United States. Following a period dominated by a conception of culture as coherence, cohesion and identity, key issues in Marxism overshadowed the approach of culture-cohesion problematic and its concern for the totality, expressed above all in its articulation of social relations. Following upon the macro approach of this period is a cultural resurgence marked by a return to the subject, an affirmation of meaning and sense, a critique of economism coupled with a conception of culture which is both more vigorous and concrete. At the conclusion, key links between the developing cultural discourse and Quebecois neo-nationalism of the last 25 years are emphasized.     

Self-referent constructs and medical sociology: in search of an integrative framework

A theoretical framework centering on four classes of self-referent constructs is offered as a device for integrating the diverse areas constituting medical sociology. Guidance by this framework sensitizes the researcher to the occurrence of parallel processes in adjacent disciplines, facilitates recognition of the etiological significance of findings from other disciplines for explaining medical sociological phenomena, and encourages transactions between sociology and medical sociology whereby each informs and is informed by the other.     

Metatheorizing in sociology

This paper describes and makes the case for sociological metatheorizing, or the systematic study of sociological theory. Three types of metatheorizing are delineated on the basis of their end products: the attainment of a deeper understanding of theory, the creation of new theory, and the creation of an overarching theoretical perspective (a metatheory). The basic problems in metatheorizing are reviewed and it is concluded that the most basic difficulty has been the lack of a clear definition of the subfield. Some thoughts on the future of metatheorizing in sociology are offered.     

Sustainability and sociology

Sociologists have been slow to address directly the questions raised by the issue of sustainability, despite the prominence of the idea in other disciplines and policy fields. This article argues that sociologists are “missing the boat” by ignoring the questions that sustainability raises. In addition, it is suggested that sociology is uniquely equipped with the theoretical and methodological background to contribute scientifically accurate understandings of this phenomenon to a world much in need of such guidance. The article concludes that addressing questions of sustainability may nudge sociology into new and fruitful directions of inquiry. This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant number CMS-9312647, which is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks, also, to Gary Marx, Alice Fothergill and Sharon Erickson Nepstad.