Trends in the History of Vocational Guidance

In this article, the relationships between vocational guidance and vocational education, employment counseling, career guidance, and career counseling are explored. Also examined are the wide‐ranging federal and state policies that have stimulated and shaped the professional history of vocational guidance, vocational policy, and contemporary terms.     

Culture,the 'sick role' and the consumption of health

This paper revisits Parsons's conception of the 'sick role' and examines the relevance of his writings on the cultural understanding of sickness to the consumption of health in the contemporary era. In terms of current developments, I focus on the development of pro-active approaches towards the healthy body, and the growth of 'information rich' consumers of health care. These have become prominent themes in sociology, and while Parsons's writings are usually viewed as anachronistic I argue they remain highly pertinent to understanding the emergence of informed, body conscious lay people. If Parsons's analysis of health is more relevant to current circumstances than many critics assume, however, it is not unproblematic. The residual categories associated with the sick role obscure the continued utility of his work on the general cultural values informing health care. It is Parsons's analysis of these values, I suggest, that needs rescuing from restricted understandings of the sick role and highlighting as an important resource for contemporary theorists.     

Talcott Parsons and national socialism: The case of the “ten mysterious missing letters”

This essay is a response to questions raised by my review of a book by Uta Gerhardt called Talcott Parsons on National Socialism.In short, I found many issues unresolved in the Cold War years from 1946 to 1954 at Harvard University, especially the role of Talcott Parons and Clyde Kluckhohn in allegedly bringing Nazi collaborators to the United States. I have tried to address these controversial issues in this response.     

结构功能主义视野下的民族院校和谐校园建设

和谐校园建设是和谐社会建设的重要组成部分,民族院校因其特殊的地位和作用,在促进民族地区经济社会发展的进程中,肩负着重要的历史责任和使命,如何构建一个和谐的校园是一个值得深入思考的问题.本文运用结构功能理论对这一问题进行探讨,提出了和谐校园建设的基本原则.     

Scholarship,not scandal

This short article pleads for research rather than rumor regarding Parsons' alleged role regarding the admittance to United States of an ex-Soviet citizen in 1948 or 1949. Some evidence on background issues that could be found among the Parsons papers at Harvard University Archives is being presented verbatim. I argue that the point is to refrain from fabrications.     

Truth,misinterpretation, or left-wing McCarthyism?

It is “left-wing McCarthyism” to suggest that there was anything morally questionable or idiosyncratic about Talcott Parsons's 1948 effort to recruit displaced Soviet citizens for the Harvard Russian Research Center. There is no definite evidence that any of the people Parsons interviewed were “war criminals” by Nuremberg standards. The suggestion that Parsons aided possible Nazi collaborators stems from an ideologically motivated unwillingness to recognize the totalitarian and expansionist nature of the Soviet Union under Stalin which is unworthy of serious consideration.     

世纪末忧郁与美国精神气质——帕森斯与古典社会理论的现代转变

帕森斯的《社会行动的结构》体现了一种独特的探究，历史的、经验的和理论的研究在其中融为一体。在学科史的意义上，《结构》标志着“古典”社会理论的“现代”转变。不过，帕森斯是以一种典型的“美国式”方式完成这种转变的。囿于20世纪20、30年代、尤其是“新政”时期的语境，他给予处于世纪之交的一些重要的社会理论一种全新的阐述，把它们从其生身处境的“世纪末”中剥离出来，并暗中赋予其一种积极、乐观的“美国精神气质”，在很大程度上消解了这些理论和经验探讨中原本具有的同“世纪末”的社会、文化背景及其时代问题的复杂关联。悖谬的是，这种“美国化”的阐述在某种意义上恰恰体现了帕森斯试图建构社会（科）学一般理论的宏图，蕴含着某种普遍历史的取向。     

行动的逻辑：意义及限度 ——对帕森斯《社会行动的结构》的评析

帕森斯的《社会行动的结构》一书对于功利主义、实证主义和理想主义三大行动理论的综合被看作是现代社会学理论的第一次综合,无论从历史还是现今来讲都具有重要意义和启发功能。然而,国内学者对此则研究很少。因此,本文通过对《社会行动的结构》一书的考察,来对其唯意志行动理论的形构、意义与限度进行评价,并提出个人的见解,以此来分析对我国社会学的意义和启发功能。     

The theorization of social co-ordinations in differentiated societies: the theory of generalized symbolic media in Parsons,Luhmann and Habermas

The problem of the differentiation of societies is at the core of the sociological imagination about the rise of modernity. In postwar sociology, T. Parsons developed the theory of generalized symbolic media in the mid-1960s to tackle, theoretically and historically, the issue of differentiation. According to him, the interchange media are defined as resources oriented to exchange processes between the subsystems of the social system. Starting with money, Parsons argues that the remaining media (power, influence, and value-commitments) have a set of characteristics defined as common properties for all media. After this first formulation, contemporary theorists such as Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas have developed and modified the Parsonian theory: Luhmann rejects the idea of interchange and proposes the use of communication; Habermas distinguishes between steering and communication media. In all three cases, the focus of the theory is on the characterization of the strongest dynamics of social co-ordination present in differentiated societies. A major result of these developments is the inclusion of new dimensions on which to conceive the properties of media, not only those of money but also language. Beyond differences, then, it is proposed that there is only one theory of generalized symbolic media which can be understood as a progressive research programme, in Lakatos' terms. Finally, the hand-in-hand evolution between the theory of media and Habermas' and Luhmann's re-conceptualizations on societal differentiation in contemporary societies will also be revealed.     

社会学的想象与想象的社会学:帕森斯、米尔斯社会学研究进路比较论要

帕森斯的社会理论和米尔斯的社会研究是“二战”后美国社会学的两条重要且独特的研究路径。帕森斯倡导社会科学中的一般理论研究,核心在于理论和经验的互惠发展的动力学,意在促进社会科学的积累性发展,但确立统一的社会科学无异于建立一种不可能实现的“学术巴别塔”。米尔斯强调的基于社会学想象的社会研究纲领,实质上是一种政治导向的社会研究,最终难免落入学术和政治的双重“想象”困境。研究范式的差异,导致他们对其身处的美国社会作出了判然有别的研究论断。进而言之,这种差异的背后隐含着研究者对现代性问题的不同态度以及政治立场上的深刻分歧。