Suchergebnisse

The Janus Face(s) of Sociology

There exists in sociology a continuous tension between a positivitic and herme¬neutic approach. Sociologists perform many activities in a similar manner as natural scientists do. They try to gather data about observable events in a syste¬matic and painstaking manner, and they try to discover regularities and invariant forms in social action and society. On the other hand sociologists are future¬-oriented and many of their theories and concepts are built on images of a world, that has never yet existed. Concepts such as democracy, the welfare state and eco¬nomic equilibrium are ideal images, ne¬ver fully attained. It is important in socio¬logy to work and generalise on observa¬ble data, but it is also important to reali¬se that there are no simple social facts. In societies and social life unpredictable events and situations will always occur. People have begun to see the world and also act in an entirely new way. This due to the open nature of social reality. It does not make social sciences obsolete, but it contains a warning against confident predictions of social tendencies.
The polarity and tension between an atomistic, individualist pole and a com¬munitarian, cultural pole is one of the deepest and most pervasive themes in modern thought. In the social sciences this polarity is represented in a dividing line between a structural and a cultural approach. There are good grounds for maintaining that most social phenome¬na can not be explained and understood properly unless both these two approa¬ches are used. The dichotomy between a structural and a cultural approach or a distinction between Gesellschaft and Ge¬meinschaft has been part of sociology for most of its life as a scientific discipline. The present global and social develop¬ments - globalization - have intensified this conflict between instrumental ra¬tionality and the need for communal and cultural identity. Consequently, it has al¬so led to growing efforts in combining the two approaches mentioned above either within sociology in the attempts of combining positivistic and hermeneu¬tic research traditions in addressing the social problems or in the efforts of socio¬logists forming creative and efficient net¬works between sociology and scholars from other disciplines. Both efforts are presently the fertile path in the social sciences but it makes it necessary to be very open to what is happening within other social and human sciences.

Paradigms and vicissitudes in the perspectives of 20th century Nordic sociology

Both as regards its own development and its cultural impact 20th century was an era of sociology. There was, however, in the central focuses considerable vicissitudes, clearly observable in the sociology of the Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The de-velopmental patterns can be divided into three periods: (1) an emphasis on evolution and evolutionary explanations of social behavior up to the First World War, (2) a during most of the century prevailing dominance of a sociology emphasizing socialization and societies as wholes with their social structure, normative rules and social func-tions, and (3) at the end of the century an emerging rise of a new view of social life with an accentuation of uncer-tainty, agency, and semiotic interpretation. The institu-tionalization of Nordic academic sociology occurred in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's.
Towards the end of this period reorientations and protests against the prevailing sociology began to emerge. The dominant research interests today may be summed up in the following four orientations:cultural sociology with an emphasis on semiotic constructions of reality, feminist studies with a special interest in gendered experiences of women, studies of the conditions of the Nordic welfare state, and historically oriented macro social science with a focus on large-scale both European and global trans-formations.

After World War II a rapid development of sociology occurred in the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. By combining national intellectual traditions with different specialities in American sociology some clearly distinctive features developed within the sociology in the four countries. The student revolt at the end of the 1960s and its aftermath had substantial effects on the development of Scandinavian sociology. The dependence on American sociology weakened considerably although it did not totally disappear. Another effect was that the differences among the sociologies of the Scandinavian countries began to disappear. Rather than national sociologies there are now various orientations and code systems more or less shared by different groups in all Scandinavian countries. Sociology has become much more pluralistic, but in the process there is also an increased fragmentation and a loss of unity among the sociologists. In the Scandinavian countries there are studies of good quality in many fields of sociology. By using international reputation, and the impact on other domains of sociology as the two main criteria, four fields are singled out as particularly interesting. These fields are studies of welfare and the welfare state, comparative studies of social stratification and political sociology, women's studies, and cultural sociology.

ABSTRACTScenarios and projections into the future are strongly influenced by our conceptions of the past. Misconceptions about historical development are never entirely harmless. Industrialization is often conceived of as an irreversible process while traditional peasant society is pictured as stable and monolithic. Yet recent research clearly shows that processes of industrialization existed in the countryside long before large scale production began to concentrate in urban areas. It also indicates that in many rural regions there was a massive proletarianization prior to the great movements to urban areas in the 19th century. These misconceptions tend to blur and hamper our thinking about the future. First, if industrialization is thought of as an irreversible process, alternatives to present development become difficult to carry out in practice. In fact, many alternatives are known already but there is no political will to implement them. Secondly, misconceptions tend to lead to an over‐romanticized conception of rural life. There are already some signs of a rural revival such as population movements from town to country. Some forms of migration may end disastrously if the migrating individuals are without any form of organizational and collective resources.RÉSUMÉLes scénarios et les projections prospectives sont fortement conditionés par les conceptions que nous avons du passé. Les idées fausses à propos du passé ne sont jamais sans conséquences. l'industrialisation est souvent perçue comme une évolution irréversible par rapport à laquelle la société paysanne traditionnelle est décrite comme stable et monolithique. En fait, des récherches recentes montrent clairement que l'industrialisation s'est produite dans les campagnes bien avant que la production à grande échelle ne commence à se concentrer dans les zones urbaines. II apparaît également que, dans beaucoup de régions rurales, il y avait une prolétarisation importantc avant les grands mouvements de populations vers les villes du 19o sieFcle. La vision erronnée du passé risque d'empécher une vision daire de l'avcnir. d'abord, si Industrialisation est vue comme un processus irréversible, il est difficile de proposer des alternatives au développement actuel. En fait beaucoup d'alternatives sont connues mais il n'y pas de volonté politique pour les développer. Ensuite, ces idées fausses du passé charrient une conception très romantique de la vie rurale. On peur en fait observer des signes de renouvcau rural, tel que certains mouvements de populations urbaines vers la campagne: certaincs de ces migrations peuvent finir mal, si les individus sont dépourvus de routes ressources collectives ou organisationnelles.KURZFASSUNGSzenarien und Projcktionen über die Zukunft sind stark beeinflußt von unseren Vorstellungen über die Vergangenhcit. Falsche Konzeptionen der historischen Entwicklung sind nie ganz ungefährlich. Industrialisierung wird oft als ein irreversibler Prozess angesehen.während die traditionelle bäucrliche Gesellschaft als stabil und als ein einheirlichcs Ganzes begriffen wird. Neuere Forschungen haben jedoch klar ergeben, daß es Prozesse der Industrialisierung im ländlichcn Raum schon gab, lange bcvor Produktion im großen Maßstab sich in urbanen Gebieten zu konzentrieren begann. Sie zeigen auch, daß schon vor den großcn Bevölkerungsbewegungen im 19. Jahrhunderr in vielen ländlichen Gebieten eine massive Proletarisierung vonstatten ging. Solche falschen Vorstellungen trüben und behindern unser Denken über die Zukunft. Wenn zum einen Industrialisierung als irreversibler Prozess angesehen wird, haben Alternativen zur gegenwärtigcn Entwicklung es schwierig, sich durchzusetzen. Tatsächlich sind eine ganze Reihe solcher Alternativen schon bekannt, aber es fehlt der politische Wille, sie auch auszuführcn. Zum zweiten führen falsche Vorstellungen von der Vergangenheit leicht zu einem übcrromanrisierten Bild vom Leben auf dem Landc. Es gibt schon einige Anzeichen für eine Wiederenrdeckung des Ländlichen, wie sich z.B. in den Bevölkerungsbewegungen aus den Städten aufs Lands zeigt. Einige Formen der Wanderung können verhängnisvoll enden, wenn die wandernden In‐dividuen nicht über organisatorischen Rückhalt und gemeinschaftlichc Ressourcen verfügen

Among the leading scholars studying nation‐building and national development Stein Rokkan (1921–1979) has had an unique position because of his ability to combine different approaches, to focus on both the general and the unique, and to use both quantitative measurement and qualitative data. Among his most enduring and original contributions is his conceptual map of Europe. It is an elaborate but in principle open typology or system of classification accounting for the main principles of geopolitical differentiation in Western Europe. Despite its theoretical character it clearly shows the spatial order and structure in the development of national states in Europe. This paper analyses both the content of the main dimensions in Rokkan's conceptual map and its nature as a heuristic frame of reference and large‐scale research program. References are made to the recent ethnic revival which seems to be hard to explain and understand without considering many distinctions and concepts presented in Rokkan's conceptual map.

IntroduzioneLa mobilitazione politica e l'agitazione di vari gruppi etnici hanno costituito una caratteristica preminente della situazione interna delle società industriali avanzate sin dalla fine degli anni '60 e per tutti gli anni '70.