Martin Albrow
Local Ills and Global Remedies: Presentiments for European Sociology in the British Experience
Abstract
Sociology had a double role in Britain during its post-World War II expansion. It reflected the problems of class society and it imported foreign, especially European, ideas, each as a function of the other. The outcome of their interchange over time was a theoretical development paralleling the emergence of a society of cross-cutting cleavages and a culture disconnected from structure. The porosity of British society and the absorptiveness of its sociology prefigure the new European condition where the deracinated state and the birth of histories have to be theorized and where postmodernism threatens sociology with dissolution. Sociology is now obliged to develop, if at all, as a way of reading contemporary history in which the fate of the individual is encoded in the global condition.
Angel Infestas and Marta Lambea
The Main Themes of Sociology in Europe
Abstract
Social conditions influence sociological research much more than they do other sciences. Consequently, beyond the common interests of the whole sociological community one can observe interests that are specific to social and cultural areas. It is to the interaction of general and specificic sociological interests, and their relation to the possibility of a "European" sociology, that this paper is addressed. Its starting point of view is the analysis of the contributions at the XIIth World Congress of Sociology (Madrid, 1990). The relation of the proposed theme to the geographical area and gender was studied via the application of content analysis and the use of residual analysis. A profile of thematic preference was established for each variable category. The analysis shows that in Europe there is an evident preference for some questions, but despite this common trait, significant differences can be observed in terms of both the geographical area and gender variables.
Polymnia Zagefka
The Sociology of Education in Seven European Countries: Theoretical Trends and Social Contexts
Abstract
The present paper aims to describe the main trends in sociological studies of education in the last two decades in six European countries, namely, France, Germany, Great-Britain, Greece, Italy and Spain. Topics addressed include (1) the main thematic trends in the area of educational studies and especially the sociology of education; (2) the interrelations between the social context - and, especially, the educational context - and social theories; (3) the interrelations between the various professional communities involved in educational research and (4) the interaction between international and national approaches in the study of education-related themes.
Sjaak Koenis
The Cultural Specificity of Sociological Practicies; the case of Max Horkheimer's Institut für Sozialforschung in Weimar-Germany and the United States
Abstract
In this article it is argued that the cultural identity of sociology cannot be fully explained in terms of national identity or of certain characteristics inherent in the nature of social sciences (e.g. its methods or methodology), but in terms of how sociological insights are related to various social practices. To illustrate this point, the case of the "classical' Frankfurt School of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno is discussed: in order to understand the contradicting ways in which Horkheimer and Adorno appreciate the role of science and liberal democracy in their philosophical and scientific work of the 1940s, one should take into account that these activities are located in different political and scientific contexts. These contexts are characterized by different "linkages' of social theory with social practice. Exploring these linkages makes it possible to understand the "broken' identity of the Frankfurt School, exemplified in an intellectual double-life in which professionalism and marginality co-existed. This identity, it is argued, is more characteristic of classical critical theory than the anti-positivism and post-modernism-avant-la-lettre they are usually remembered by.
Ronald J. Pohoryles
Between Society, Politics and the Market: the Structure and Future of Social Scientific Research Against the Background of the Process of Internationalization
Abstract
The present articles looks at the challenge posed by the process of internationalization for the social sciences and examines the structural constraints to the development of adequate comparative social-scientific research. The comparative advantages and disadvantages of universities, consultants and the professionalized research sector respectively are, in this connection, discussed. A model of networking is proposed as one that entails the larger potential for development in this direction.
George Muskens and Ralph Kinnear
Political and Multicultural Constraints of the Social Sciences in Europe: Cultural Contact, Schismogenesis and Institutional Change
Abstract
The proposed paper attempts to analyse cross-cultural research and international research cooperation as a special form of cultural contact. The Batesonian model of cultural contact and schismogenesis is used as a starting point for discussing the usefulness of international research programmes.
Elizabeth Garnsey
Exploring a Critical Systems Perspective
Abstract
This paper explores the possibilities for a synthesis of recent developments in social theory and systems thinking within a critical systems framework. This approach is neither behavioural nor interpretive but an alternative synthesis from a critical stance. The paper is a defence of systems thinking against charges of scientism and an attempt to extend the approach to encompass interpretive perspectives. The focus is on constitutive processes or ways in which participants contribute through their expectations and interactions to maintaining and changing the social systems of which they form part. Systems thinking applied to social life can be a methodology without positivist preconceptions and can be used to explore the interlocking of objective and subjective dimensions of the social world. It is argued that traditions of systems dynamics have been neglected in social theory and provide a potentially fruitful approach to the analysis of conflict and change. A critical systems approach can be used to provide a topical assessment of rational individualism and Marxism as alternative integrative perspectives.
Colin Sparks
The Press, the Market and Democracy
Abstract
The newspaper press in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe is currently being re-organised on market lines. This will produce a much greater reliance upon advertising revenues. The evidence from developed market economies demonstrates that such a press is sharply stratified with regard to the provision of public information. The resulting imbalance produce sever problems for theories of democracy. In order to lessen the impact of these problems, some countries in Europe, for example Sweden, have managed to adopt a policy subsidy without endangering the freedom of the press.
