Search Results

British Post-war Sociologists

A. H. Halsey

in A History of Sociology in Britain: Science, Literature, and Society

A dozen sociologists attended LSE in the aftermath of the Second World War. They were the first generation of professional sociologist in Britain. This chapter offers an account of their origins, the ... More

A dozen sociologists attended LSE in the aftermath of the Second World War. They were the first generation of professional sociologist in Britain. This chapter offers an account of their origins, the subject they learnt, the influence of Glass and Shils on them, their anti‐Marxist but left‐wing orientation, their suspicion of functionalism, and their contribution of a sociological description of British society—its demography, class structure, ethnic composition, religion, industry, and crime.Less

Psychology of Unemployment and Social Exclusion: Youth Unemployment and the Risk of Social Exclusion

Duncan Gallie

in Resisting Marginalization: Unemployment Experience and Social Policy in the European Union

This chapter links the psychological consequences of unemployment to processes of social exclusion among the youth. The vulnerability factors contributing to increased risk of social exclusion for ... More

This chapter links the psychological consequences of unemployment to processes of social exclusion among the youth. The vulnerability factors contributing to increased risk of social exclusion for young unemployed people are low qualification, passivity in the labour market, precarious financial situation, low or missing social support, and insufficient or absent institutional support. Social support and social origins are the most important protective factors for unemployed youth. The combination of vulnerability and protective factors determines the risk of poor mental health.Less

Democratic Demographics: Does Democracy Alter Politicians’ Origins?

Roderic Ai Camp

in The Metamorphosis of Leadership in a Democratic Mexico

Demographic variables determine many characteristics in a politician's background and determine critical career choices. Social origin is one of the most influential of such variables, but the major ... More

Demographic variables determine many characteristics in a politician's background and determine critical career choices. Social origin is one of the most influential of such variables, but the major shift in social origins actually took place at the apex of the pre-democratic era during the Echeverría administration (1970–6), rather than as a result of Mexico's democratic transformation. Social origins exercises a tremendous impact on the type of political career a politician may pursue, for example, prominent public figures from humble origins are much more likely to find success in elective office. In opening up the political system to representatives from the PAN and the PRD, electoral democracy has contributed to an larger diversity in religious and social values. Given their particular family origins and place of birth, which affect their location and level of educational achievement, politicians are recruited differently, come in contact with different groups of citizens, and follow different career tracks more easily than others.Less

Why Inflamed Amour‐Propre is So Common

Frederick Neuhouser

in Rousseau's Theodicy of Self-Love: Evil, Rationality, and the Drive for Recognition

This chapter considers Rousseau's two genealogies of amour-propre one at a time, examining each for whatever help it offers in understanding why the fallen state seems to be humankind's default ... More

This chapter considers Rousseau's two genealogies of amour-propre one at a time, examining each for whatever help it offers in understanding why the fallen state seems to be humankind's default condition. Specifically, the chapter discussed the social origins of amour-propre and the psychological origins of inflamed amour-propre.Less

Becoming a Schoolmistress

Christina de Bellaigue

in Educating Women: Schooling and Identity in England and France, 1800-1867

This chapter discusses how women became schoolmistresses in England and France. It shows that not all schoolmistresses fit the stereotypical image of middle-class affluent young women forced by loss ... More

This chapter discusses how women became schoolmistresses in England and France. It shows that not all schoolmistresses fit the stereotypical image of middle-class affluent young women forced by loss of fortune, family failure in business, or death to become teachers if they could not marry. Topics covered include the social origin and itinerary of schoolmistresses, the education of schoolmistresses, training for schoolmistresses, and career patterns.Less

Careers

John Merriman

in Police Stories: Building the French State, 1815-1851

This chapter considers the careers of policemen, how they were hired, and who they were. To be a policeman offered lower-middle-class status by virtue of salary and a modicum of respect. The ... More

This chapter considers the careers of policemen, how they were hired, and who they were. To be a policeman offered lower-middle-class status by virtue of salary and a modicum of respect. The discussion presents the social origins of policemen and the role of patronage and politics in their appointment. The question of pensions, or rather in most cases the lack of them, is discussed, along with existing possibilities of career advancement.Less

Caste

George H. Gadbois, Jr

in Judges of the Supreme Court of India: 1950 - 1989

This chapter examines caste, the most important differentiator in Indian social life. It is a better indicator of social origin and class than parental occupation. The figures used here are census ... More

This chapter examines caste, the most important differentiator in Indian social life. It is a better indicator of social origin and class than parental occupation. The figures used here are census ones from the 1980s. Seventy-seven of the ninety-three judges were Hindus. The most striking thing is that brahmins, one-nineteenth of the nation’s population, held thirty-three of the judgeships. Brahmins, many very emphatically, said that their caste was not only irrelevant in their own appointment but that caste had nothing to do with the selection of any other judge. The usual explanation for the overrepresentation of brahmins is that they were the privileged group before the British arrived, that they were the first to learn English and take advantage of modern education. Still, the discussion notes that the judges of the highest rank in all or nearly all nations are not representative of the social make-up of their country.Less

‘A Friend a Day Keeps the Doctor Away’: Social Support and Health

Ann Oakley

in Social Support and Motherhood: The Natural History of a Research Project

Among the social origins of the Social Support and Pregnancy Outcome study, as described in Chapter 1, was the idea that social support is good for health. This chapter attempts to draw together ... More

Among the social origins of the Social Support and Pregnancy Outcome study, as described in Chapter 1, was the idea that social support is good for health. This chapter attempts to draw together ideas, insights, and problems from disparate areas of sociology, psychology, psychiatry, history, epidemiology, and medicine to address the question: why, in the first place, should anyone suppose that social support can be helpful to childbearing women and their families? The discussions cover the health outcomes influenced by social support; the link between social support and reproduction; how social support works; and the research challenge posed by the certain hostility of modern medicine towards the role of social factors in influencing patterns of health and illness.Less

Plea Bargaining: A Distinctively American Practice

Mary E. Vogel

in Coercion to Compromise: Plea Bargaining, the Courts, and the Making of Political Authority

This chapter traces the beginnings of plea bargaining in antebellum Boston, Massachusetts, the first sustained instance of the practice known, thus far, to exist. It explores the social origins of ... More

This chapter traces the beginnings of plea bargaining in antebellum Boston, Massachusetts, the first sustained instance of the practice known, thus far, to exist. It explores the social origins of plea bargaining and the adaptations of it that took place as the practice rose to prominence, and examines how judges drew on a unique element of common law legal culture called episode leniency as they responded to a perceived crisis of social order. The chapter highlights how plea bargaining profoundly changed the nature of criminal justice, and discusses issues concerning the beginnings of plea bargaining in partisan contest and political stabilization.Less

Exemptions from Criminal Responsibility: Natural, Social and Political

VICTOR TADROS

in Criminal Responsibility

There are different kinds of exemptions from criminal responsibility that are available. Some, such as diplomatic immunity are primarily political in nature. Others are based on the fact that the ... More

There are different kinds of exemptions from criminal responsibility that are available. Some, such as diplomatic immunity are primarily political in nature. Others are based on the fact that the defendant does not have the capacity to be regarded as a responsible agent. This latter kind of exemption is the main focus of the chapter. It is argued that claiming an exemption from responsibility need not be demeaning to the defendant, and that many exemptions have both natural and social origins.Less

Prologue

Vincent L. Wimbush

in White Men's Magic: Scripturalization as Slavery

This prologue establishes the book's author’s social-cultural origins and development and academic-intellectual socialization as well as his reconsideration of and departure from such as a way of ... More

This prologue establishes the book's author’s social-cultural origins and development and academic-intellectual socialization as well as his reconsideration of and departure from such as a way of explaining his positionality for the pursuit of the interrogation and research that the book represents.Less

Social-class Origins and Trajectories

Jesus Ramirez-Valles

in Compañeros: Latino Activists in the Face of AIDS

This chapter examines the social-class origins of the Latino GBT activists, the compañeros. It proposes that social-class origins shaped some of these compañeros' life circumstances. That is, the ... More

This chapter examines the social-class origins of the Latino GBT activists, the compañeros. It proposes that social-class origins shaped some of these compañeros' life circumstances. That is, the social-class location of the families in which the activists were raised was one factor, if not the most significant, among several. For instance, some of the men who grew up in a poor or working-class environment began working early in their childhood or youth, did not go to college, and emigrated to the United States. As adults, some of them also experienced homelessness and unemployment. Only in very few instances are these Latino GBTs able to change the course set by the social class into which they were born. However, the improvement some of them have made in their social-class standing has been due to their own resiliency or to random events.Less

Female Sexuality and the Origin of Society

Claude Lévi-Strauss

in We Are All Cannibals: And Other Essays

female sexuality and the origin of society

Introduction: a social perspective on how language began

Daniel Dor, Chris Knight, and Jerome Lewis (eds)

in The Social Origins of Language

In the first years of its emergence, the modern study of the origins of language focused largely on the formative question of the human genetic endowment for language. Much evidence from different ... More

In the first years of its emergence, the modern study of the origins of language focused largely on the formative question of the human genetic endowment for language. Much evidence from different disciplines, however, has accumulated to show that changes in society and culture must have played a central role in the entire process. This introduction presents the overall socially-based thesis of the volume: pre-linguistic innovations — most probably including shared childcare, the control of fire and cooking, projectile weapons, big game hunting, mimesis, increasingly equal power relations between individuals and the sexes, emotional bonding through music, dance, and other forms of ritual — favoured genetic capacities for vocal control, intersubjective sensitivity and understanding, and thus paved the way to the collective invention and further development of language as a social tool of communication.Less

Corsi e Ricorsi : In Vico’s Wake

Claude Lévi-Strauss

in We Are All Cannibals: And Other Essays

Vico's theory of history as repetition

Nature versus Nurture in the Explanations for Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities: Parsing Disparities in the Era of Genome-Wide Association Studies

Jay S. Kaufman, Dinela Rushani, and Richard S. Cooper

in Reconsidering Race: Social Science Perspectives on Racial Categories in the Age of Genomics

This chapter points out that some researchers explain the higher mortality rates among blacks in the United States as “nature”, blaming such rates primarily on blacks' genetic makeup. Others explain ... More

This chapter points out that some researchers explain the higher mortality rates among blacks in the United States as “nature”, blaming such rates primarily on blacks' genetic makeup. Others explain the phenomenon as “nurture”, blaming social status differences stemming from systemic discrimination. For a genetic difference to be used to explain an observed health disparity, the identified causal variant would have to have a large effect on the disease phenotype risk and would have to have a substantially different prevalence in the two racial populations, and the disease would have to be a significant contributor to mortality in the racial population. Genetic studies were done on cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, homicide, and more. In evaluating results from these studies and previous knowledge, 3% of the entire racial disparity in mortality can be accounted for, which leaves 97% of disparities to social origin.Less