Can sociology be a science?: The issue of gender and sex-dimorphic characteristics

In spite of the fact that much of the work done by sociologists is of high quality, there appears to be a pervasive sense among sociologists that as a field sociology is not developing an accumulating base of knowledge that involves a combination of theory and empirical “facts.” Social constructs are a basic component of most human behavior, and such behaviors cannot be understood without attention to the nature of those social constructs. However, humans are also biological beings, their biological attributes are relatively stable, and variations in these attributes often have a strong effect on behavior. It is also the case that what persons experience and how they behave has an effect on their biological attributes. We suggest that if sociologists were attentive to the interactions of biological attributes and social constructs, sociologists would be in a position to develop a constantly expanding base of scientific social knowledge. As an illustrative example, we have focused on the issue of how gender and sex-dimorphic characteristics are intrinsically interrelated.     

Carrières et contradictions en sciences de la vie : réponses du corps académique aux transformations de la connaissance et de ses utilisations

Drawing on interviews with more than 80 scientists on two university campuses, we create a typology that offers insights into how transformations in the nature and locus of life science innovation influence academic careers and work practices. Our analyses suggest that a strong outcome of increased academic concern with research commercialization is the appearance of new fault lines among faculty, between faculty and students, and even between scientists' interests and those of their institutions. We argue that life science commercialization is driven by a mix of new funding opportunities, changing institutional mandates for universities, and novel research technologies that bring basic research and product development into much closer contact. The rise of patenting and commercially motivated technology transfer on U.S. campuses is altering faculty work practices and relationships, while transforming the criteria by which success is determined and rewards are allocated. Through close analysis of interviews with four researchers who typify a range of academic responses to commercialism, we demonstrate emerging patterns of conflict and agreement in faculty responses to commercial opportunities in the life sciences.     

Mirroring and autonomy: The dual tasks of mothers

Theexperience of being a mother, of being the developmental partner for the pre-oedipal child, is complex and demanding. A woman must learn to balance her own needs and identity as a person with the child's need for appropriate merging and distancing. The child's own developmental push requires a constant shifting in the mother's balance between herself and the child. This article explores some of the factors involved in the mother's experience of her dual task, and some of the ways in which the mother's development as a person is reciprocally related to her child's developmental demands.She is in private practice and also a research consultant. Ms. Walter is in private practice and a consultant, Family Service of Montgomery County.     

Social Area Analysis in Comparative Perspective: Moscow in 1897 as a Preindustrial City

Shevky-Bell social area analysis was a postwar attempt to isolate the essential dimensions delineating intraurban subareas in modern communities. The premise of the present paper is that the Shevky-Bell model has not been given adequate study through comparative research. The purpose of the study is to test the usefulness of the Shevky-Bell model in an analysis of prerevolutionary Moscow, a major city with a preindustrial urban structure. The basic finding reported in this paper is that the rotated factors that emerge in an analysis of prerevolutionary Moscow resemble the Shevky-Bell model. However, the rotated factor matrix more specifically fits a deviant case found earlier by Van Arsdol et al. of Kansas City and of Schwirian and Matre of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, in which fertility appears more clearly as a dimension of social rank than of familism. The factors also tend to be complex, suggesting a less differentiated community system. These results suggest that an advanced stage of community development is a pre-condition of the Shevky-Bell model as it was originally formulated.