Suchergebnisse

"Familie und Gesellschaft, das ist ein wahrlich umfassendes Thema, das man in einem kurzen Beitrag nicht erschöpfend abhandeln kann. Ich werde daher versuchen, sehr holzschnittartig und fokussiert auf solche Aspekte dieses Verhältnisses aufmerksam zu machen, die mir besonders wichtig und für die heutige Zeit charakteristisch erscheinen und die einer besonderen Aufmerksamkeit bedürfen. Ich kann bruchlos an zentrale Aussagen anknüpfen, welche Rosemarie Nave-Herz in ihren Arbeiten sowohl in theoretischer als auch empirischer Hinsicht immer wieder und sehr überzeugend vorgetragen hat. Danach hat die Familie (und Ehe) zwar eine stark gewandelte, aber unzweifelhaft bleibende, wenn nicht gar wachsende Bedeutung für die Menschen in unserer modernen Gesellschaft. Die These eines Niedergangs der Familie wird als 'Konstruktion der Wissenschaft' verworfen. Zu einfach sind die allzu linear angelegten Thesen des Zerfalls familialer Solidarverhältnisse in sich fortschreitend modernisierenden Gesellschaften. Dennoch kann nicht übersehen werden, dass das Verhältnis zwischen Familie und Gesellschaft in Ländern wie der Bundesrepublik Deutschland prekär und durch systematische, wenn auch nicht unüberwindbare Widersprüche gekennzeichnet ist. Diese schlagen sich im Lebensentwurf der Menschen in schwerwiegenden Entscheidungsdilemmata nieder." (Textauszug)

Scholars who study the relationship between economy & society have tended to regard economy as a fixed entity that impacts differently on various social institutions. However, more recent work (eg, studies of deterrence, race discrimination, marriage rates, & labor & capital movements) have recognized the constant interaction of these two life structures. Attitudes of social scientists on society & economics in a number of areas are synthesized, including modernization, social mobility, industrial sociology, & political relations. A mailed questionnaire survey of sociologists (N = 100 responses) in 1979 reveals four prominent research categories likely to dominate the study of economy & society in the foreseeable future: (1) Marxist; (2) Marxist-Weberian/Marxist-functionalist; (3) world-system & dependency theory; & (4) modernization, social psychological, & related areas. D. Dunseath.

In Introduction: Time in a Sociological and Historical Perspective, Gilles Pronovost (U of Quebec, Trois-Rivieres) describes major lines of research for a sociology of time: types of societies & time structures; multiplicity of time frameworks & changes in the relationships between social times; & the institutionalization of certain forms of time. In Society and Concepts of Time, Blanka Filipcova & Jindrich Filipec (Instit of Philosophy & Sociology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague) pose two questions: Is it possible to master time & fill it with human meaning? What is the relationship between man's experience & knowledge of time & the objective temporal structures within which nature & society evolve? Questions posed by Rudolf Rezsohazy (Catholic U of Leuven, Belgium) in Recent Social Developments and Changes in Attitudes to Time are: How should one organize the transition from one phase in the life cycle to another? Is it possible to combine study & work, to interrupt a career, to choose the moment of retirement, or to move toward it gradually? In Free Time in France: A Historical and Sociological Survey, Nicole Samuel (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris, France) describes the French worker's struggle for free time & analyzes the leisure activities preferred by contemporary Frenchmen. Maria Carmen Belloni (U of Turin, Italy), in Social Time Dimensions as Indicators of Class Distinction in Italy, explores the use of time by different SCs. In Past and Future Changes in Soviet Workers' Time-Budget, V. D. Patrushev (Instit for Sociological Research, Soviet Academy of Sciences, Moscow) describes workers' use of their time & makes recommendations for future improvement. Christian Lalive d'Epinay (U of Geneva, Switzerland), in Time, Space and Socio-Cultural Identity: the Ethos of the Proletariat, Small Owners and Peasantry in an Aged Population, explores the connection between use of time & identity. 17 Tables, 2 Figures, 117 References. S. McAneny

Some seventy years ago, sixty-eight, to be exact, Walter Bagehot published a notable little volume entitled Physics and Politics, described in a subtitle as "Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of 'Natural Selection' and 'Inheritance' to Political Society." Actually the volume sought to sketch in outline a natural history of political society, and to describe the process or processes by which later, more elaborate, and more liberal forms of association have emerged, from the dissolution of earlier, simpler, and more rigid, if not oppressive, forms.Society, or at least political society, as Bagehot conceived it, is a kind of super-organism, having a social structure which is maintained by a social process. This structure is imbedded in and cemented by custom. Man is a custom-making animal. The process in this instance which is not otherwise defined, is what we know elsewhere as "the historical process." Its function is to weave and reweave the web of custom and tradition in which the individuals who are destined to live together and eventually act together as a political unit, are ineluctably bound together.Always there is a more or less inflexible tradition which imposes upon each new generation the pattern of the inherited social order. But always there are the liberating and individuating influences of other social processes—competition, conflict, and discussion—which represent what Bagehot describes as man's "propensity to variation," or, to use a political rather than a biological term, his propensity for non-conformity, "which," he adds, "is the principle of progress."

What a lovely challenge: describe the books that best contribute to our knowledge and understanding of Canadian society. My first reaction was to think of those books that I particularly enjoyed reading and piece them together in a sort of long and personal review of key books. Then I came to the idea of knowledge and understanding of Canadian society and decided that the fundamental theme of this review should be the path, albeit a very slow path, we are on to reinvent the foundation story of Canada. The basic foundation story of Canada—that the country was first discovered by European settlers, that it was built from the top by the British Empire and that its stability and success depends on its institutions being maintained—is being undone. We are slowly recognizing whose histories have been ignored in this foundation story. I decided my review should follow the path of this rewriting of the foundation story of Canada. I will organize the review by the waves of books that analyse, advocate and interpret these different calls—by places, groups, bodies, projects—for voice, recognition and inclusion.