Voices in the Mother Tongue

Qualitative Sociology -     

Theoretical and political perspectives of American sociologists in the 1990s

This study investigated the theoretical allegiances of a national sample of 168 sociologists. Conflict theory and Marxism, symbolic interactionism, functionalism, and eclecticism were the approaches most widely adhered to by our respondents. Nonetheless, the respondents claimed allegiance to a wide range of perspectives, suggesting that contemporary sociology is, as long suspected, highly fragmented theoretically. A special concern of the study was to determine the degree to which sociologists identify biological factors as important determinants of social behavior. The respondents were highly antibiological in outlook, with more than half attributing only 15 percent or less of the variation in 12 dimensions of social behavior to biological causes. We also explored the degree to which four variables—age, gender, institutional affiliation, and political outlook—were correlated with the respondents’ theoretical preferences and the importance they gave to biological causation. Political outlook was the best predictor of the respondents’ theoretical outlooks, followed fairly closely by age. Institutional affiliation was a weak predictor of theoretical outlook, and gender was completely unrelated to theory choice and perception of the importance of biological causation. where he specailizes in social theory and comparative macrosociology. He is the author ofMacrosociology: An Introduction to Human Societies (Harper Collins, 2nd ed., 1991) andSocial Evolutionism: A Critical History (Basil Blackwell, 1990). He is currently working on a sequel to the latter of these. Lee Ellis is professor of sociology at Minot State University. He is the author ofTheories of Rape (Hemisphere, 1989) and of two forthcoming works,Research Methods in the Social Sciences (Wm. C. Brown, 1993) and the two-volume seriesSocial Stratification and Socioeconomic Inequality (Praeger, 1993).     

Which Label? An Investigation into the Effects of Terminology on Public Perceptions of and Attitudes towards People with Learning Difficulties

There is much rhetoric around the damaging effect of certain labels applied to people with learning difficulties. This empirical study investigated the effect of three different labels in current usage on public perceptions of the groups so labelled. The labels contrasted were 'mentally subnormal', 'mentally handicapped' and 'people with learning difficulties'. Three independent groups of subjects were presented with an attitude questionnaire. This included a semantic differential scale to ascertain a stereotype of the labelled group, a social distance scale, and a series of questions to tap attitudes regarding people's abilities and rights. Each group was questioned with reference to one of the three labels only. A total of 111 subjects took part. The main findings supported the view that the term 'learning difficulties' is associated with more positive attitudes than either of the other labels which do not significantly differ from each other. However there was also evidence that people labelled as having 'learning difficulties' were thought to be less deserving of special provision. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to present and future uses of labels.     

Color capital: Examining the racialized nature of beauty via colorism and skin bleaching

Colorism, like whiteness is capital, is rooted in the institution of slavery and has resulted in the preference of light skin. Because colorism is part of the historical construction of whiteness, the consumption of whiteness is commodified through various markets. Current manifestations of racialized beauty, that is, skin bleaching and photo editing apps such as FaceTune and Snap Chat reinforce colorism and impact conceptualizations of beauty. This literature review surveys how colorism and racialized beauty are reproduced to reinforce whiteness as a form of capital.