A neglected classic: Leonard Marsh's Canadians In and Out of Work*

Depuis sa parution en 1965, La mosaïque verticale de John Porter est considéré, presque à l'unanimité, comme la première étude vraiment complète de la structure des classes dans la société canadienne. Les auteurs de cette communication contestent cette idée et soutiennent que cette distinction revient de droit — à quelques nuances près — au livre peu connu de Leonard Marsh paru en 1940 sous le titre Canadians In and Out of Work: A Survey of Economic Classes and their Relation to the Labour Market. Les auteurs présentent également une brève explication de type «sociologie de la connaissance» de l'accueil différent qu'on a réservé aux deux études. John Porter's The Vertical Mosaic, published in 1965, is generally regarded as the first comprehensive study of Canada's national class structure. This paper makes the (qualified) argument that it is Leonard Marsh's little-known volume, Canadians In and Out of Work: A Survey of Economic Classes and their Relation to the Labour Market, published in 1940, that deserves this mark of distinction. The paper also provides a brief ‘sociology of sociology’ type of explanation for the difference in the receptions accorded the two volumes.     

The Best Seller as an Indicator of Societal Narcissism: Is There a Trend?

A content analysis of the subject matter of nonfiction bestsellers was performed to assess changes in societal narcissism.A number of content categories were identified, a priori, asindicative of narcissism, conceptually defined in terms of self-absorption:e.g., concern for psychic self-improvement, mysticism, and aninterest in health, physical fitness, diet, and sexuality. Anunobtrusive measure, the Dewey Decimal Classification number,was used to sort best-selling titles into narcissistic and non-narcissisticgroups for the years 1950 through 1979. As hypothesized, societalnarcissism, as reflected in popular reading preferences, increasedover the three-decade period.     

FIRM AND INDUSTRY RESPONSE TO CHANGED MARKET CONDITIONS: AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

This paper describes an evolutionary theory of the response of firms in a competitive industry to changed market conditions. Search and selection replace the more orthodox assumptions of profit maximizing and zero profit long run equilibrium. The particular assumptions needed to assure that the direction of response of such an evolutionary system is the same as that predicted by more orthodox theory are explored. While an evolutionary theory and a more orthodox one yield many of the same positive qualitative predictions, they differ sharply in a number of other respects, and these are considered in detail.     

'The State': A Comment on Abrams, Denis and Sayer

Abstract This paper answers the question,‘what is the state?’as posed in Abrams (1988) and Denis (1989), by examining Sayer's (1987) realist reconception of ‘relations of production’ and their ‘ideal superstructures’. It suggests that Sayer's alternative to ‘traditional’ marxism warrants a reappraisal of the relationship between Marx and Foucault. It concludes that ‘civil society’ and ‘the state’ are Janus-faces of production relations, generated by Foucault's ‘disciplinary practices’.     

EDUCATED GUESSES: THE PROCESS OF ANSWERING FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS IN SURVEYS

Responses to autobiographical questions are known to representmore than simply retrieval of information from memory; inference,cuing, and "availability" all play a role. Using responses toitems in four different surveys, we find that respondent motivationand ability, together with contextual cues, help determine howsurvey respondents answer knowledge questions about the worldaround us. Thus, we extend the domain of factual items for whichthe role of inferential processes is recognized, and we specifymore precisely the kinds of factors that respondents use inanswering such questions. We also find suggestive evidence thatattitudes influence answers to information questions, thus extendingas well the kinds of factors seen as likely to affect reportsabout facts.     

Heterogeneous dispatching rules in job and flow shops

This paper reports the results of a study of the use of heterogeneous dispatching rules for the scheduling of work in a job shop. The methodology employed included discrete event simulation, using rule combinations determined by prior genetic algorithm searches and generalization using neural networks. Eight dispatching rules were considered, including first in first out (FIFO), earliest due date ( EDD), shortest processing time (SPT), slack/ number of operations (SLK), critical ratio (CR), modified due date (MDD), modified operation due date (MOD), and apparent tardiness cost (ATC). A three-machine job shop was studied, in which three work organizations were employed, pure flow (fixed sequence), pure job shop ( random sequence), and a hybrid shop where flow is random but with unequal probabilities. Three levels of machine loading were used and average tardiness was used as the performance measure. In most cases, modified due date and apparent tardiness cost were the best rules. The application of the best rules effected the results primarily when applied to bottleneck machines or the first machine in a pure flow shop. Nearly any other rule was acceptable on non-botdeneck machines except FIFO and CR, which consistently perform poorly. No major advantage of mixing rules was found.     

Language and Practice: Minority Language Provision within the Guardian ad litem Service

Correspondence to Richard Pugh, North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, Plas Coch, Mold, Road, Wrexham, LL11 2AW, Wales. Summary This article contends that language should be seen as an importantelement of social difference and not simply subsumed under ‘race’.While it acknowledges the complex role of language as perhapsthe most significant means by which power is exercised, theprimary focus is upon understanding language as an importantaspect of differentiation that social service agencies needto consider. The results of a survey into Welsh language provisionwithin the guardian ad litem service in Wales are describedand used to develop a discussion on language policies, linguisticawareness, and anti-discriminatory practice more generally.The article contextualizes the Welsh results within the UK andoffers suggestions as to how services might be improved. Finally,it restates the broader relevance of the study of language asa necessary element in the analysis of discrimination.