Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.2015981
Matilde Massó, A. Shevchenko, Nazaret Abalde-Bastero
ABSTRACT Despite the increase in literature on financial innovation as a force of change in the financial system, most contributions fail to analyze the relationship between the socio-institutional and technological design of cryptocurrencies. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing a case study of Bitcoin, the most representative of the virtual and cryptocurrencies. We begin by addressing the concept of financial innovation as a social phenomenon embedded in networks of users, technologists, regulations, institutions, culture and history. Secondly, we examine the disruptive and evolutionary nature of the Bitcoin, comparing it with the characteristics of legal tender money. The main conclusions indicate that although Bitcoin represents a disruptive technology in the process of monetary creation through a peer-to-peer network, it is not a new conception of money in its institutional dimension.
{"title":"Technological and socio- institutional dimensions of cryptocurrencies. An incremental or disruptive innovation?","authors":"Matilde Massó, A. Shevchenko, Nazaret Abalde-Bastero","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.2015981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.2015981","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Despite the increase in literature on financial innovation as a force of change in the financial system, most contributions fail to analyze the relationship between the socio-institutional and technological design of cryptocurrencies. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing a case study of Bitcoin, the most representative of the virtual and cryptocurrencies. We begin by addressing the concept of financial innovation as a social phenomenon embedded in networks of users, technologists, regulations, institutions, culture and history. Secondly, we examine the disruptive and evolutionary nature of the Bitcoin, comparing it with the characteristics of legal tender money. The main conclusions indicate that although Bitcoin represents a disruptive technology in the process of monetary creation through a peer-to-peer network, it is not a new conception of money in its institutional dimension.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89830950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.2015978
Julián Cárdenas
ABSTRACT Research on networks and innovation has experienced a rapid growth in social sciences since the beginning of the century. The large production of papers on networks and innovation impedes making single statements, and a simple state-of-the-art would probably overlook a great number of publications. The present study conducts a meta-analysis of the scientific production on networks and innovation published in social science journals indexed by Web of Science. We identity hot topics, influential authors and theories, main disciplines, contributing institutions, and through bibliographic coupling (papers using similar references) and network analysis, we present insights from the intellectual structure of this field of research. Findings reveal (1) while management studies keep this field alive, it is in sociology that the bases of knowledge arise; and (2) a structural perspective dominates the field where network properties and relational resources influence innovative behaviors.
自本世纪初以来，网络与创新的研究在社会科学领域得到了快速发展。关于网络和创新的大量论文阻碍了单一的陈述，而一个简单的最新技术可能会忽略大量的出版物。本文对Web of science收录的社会科学期刊发表的关于网络与创新的科学产出进行了meta分析。我们识别热门话题、有影响力的作者和理论、主要学科、有贡献的机构，并通过书目耦合(使用类似参考文献的论文)和网络分析，我们从该研究领域的知识结构中提出见解。研究结果表明:(1)虽然管理研究使这一领域保持活力，但知识的基础是在社会学中产生的;(2)在网络属性和关系资源影响创新行为的研究中，结构视角占主导地位。
{"title":"Networking for innovation: an analysis of research on social networks, social capital, and innovation","authors":"Julián Cárdenas","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.2015978","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.2015978","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Research on networks and innovation has experienced a rapid growth in social sciences since the beginning of the century. The large production of papers on networks and innovation impedes making single statements, and a simple state-of-the-art would probably overlook a great number of publications. The present study conducts a meta-analysis of the scientific production on networks and innovation published in social science journals indexed by Web of Science. We identity hot topics, influential authors and theories, main disciplines, contributing institutions, and through bibliographic coupling (papers using similar references) and network analysis, we present insights from the intellectual structure of this field of research. Findings reveal (1) while management studies keep this field alive, it is in sociology that the bases of knowledge arise; and (2) a structural perspective dominates the field where network properties and relational resources influence innovative behaviors.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83590523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.2006530
Robert Rizza, S. Lucciarini
ABSTRACT In this paper we seek to overcome the knowledge gap in street-level bureaucracy (SLB) literature on labour market policies, focusing on a specific public employment service (PES). In the context of active labour market policies (ALMP), PES are seen as strategic because they have a direct effect on reducing unemployment in both the short and long run and an indirect effect on reinforcing long-term training programmes. However, recent reforms of public employment services in many European countries have generated divergent trajectories in SLBs' practices. In this heterogeneous and unclear picture, to better grasp the different mechanisms influencing policy outcomes at a micro level it seems promising to merge street-level bureaucracy with the policy entrepreneur (PE) approach focused on the way caseworkers (conceived as policy entrepreneurs) influence policy design far beyond the resources they hold. In this article we consider if there are certain organizational configurations that favour the emergence of policy entrepreneurship among street-level bureaucrats. To test this hypothesis, the paper investigates an Italian public employment service. The Italian context is particularly interesting in that it underwent a process of decentralization followed by a more recent push towards re-centralization.
{"title":"Organization matters. Policy entrepreneurship among Street-Level Bureaucrats in public employment services. Insights from an Italian case-study","authors":"Robert Rizza, S. Lucciarini","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.2006530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.2006530","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this paper we seek to overcome the knowledge gap in street-level bureaucracy (SLB) literature on labour market policies, focusing on a specific public employment service (PES). In the context of active labour market policies (ALMP), PES are seen as strategic because they have a direct effect on reducing unemployment in both the short and long run and an indirect effect on reinforcing long-term training programmes. However, recent reforms of public employment services in many European countries have generated divergent trajectories in SLBs' practices. In this heterogeneous and unclear picture, to better grasp the different mechanisms influencing policy outcomes at a micro level it seems promising to merge street-level bureaucracy with the policy entrepreneur (PE) approach focused on the way caseworkers (conceived as policy entrepreneurs) influence policy design far beyond the resources they hold. In this article we consider if there are certain organizational configurations that favour the emergence of policy entrepreneurship among street-level bureaucrats. To test this hypothesis, the paper investigates an Italian public employment service. The Italian context is particularly interesting in that it underwent a process of decentralization followed by a more recent push towards re-centralization.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77168725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.2015983
A. Portes
ABSTRACT Based on Robert Merton’s typology of social deviance and his distinction between manifest and latent functions, this article explores the nature and consequences of deliberately-engineered innovation in the modern world. The substitution of spontaneous scientific and technological innovations by engineered ones through institutions created for that purpose represents itself a major innovation of the XX century. However, celebratory accounts of this innovation neglect the process of reverse causality created by it, impacting deeper levels of the culture and social structure of affected societies throughout the world. This process can have both positive and negative consequences, including the substitution of real innovations for apparent ones and the mass displacement of communities and workers linked to earlier technologies and practices. These often unintended consequences of deliberately-engineered innovation are discussed and their implications for individuals and for the social order identified.
{"title":"Innovation as social change: an institutional analysis","authors":"A. Portes","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.2015983","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.2015983","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Based on Robert Merton’s typology of social deviance and his distinction between manifest and latent functions, this article explores the nature and consequences of deliberately-engineered innovation in the modern world. The substitution of spontaneous scientific and technological innovations by engineered ones through institutions created for that purpose represents itself a major innovation of the XX century. However, celebratory accounts of this innovation neglect the process of reverse causality created by it, impacting deeper levels of the culture and social structure of affected societies throughout the world. This process can have both positive and negative consequences, including the substitution of real innovations for apparent ones and the mass displacement of communities and workers linked to earlier technologies and practices. These often unintended consequences of deliberately-engineered innovation are discussed and their implications for individuals and for the social order identified.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74092634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.2000067
Ladina Rageth, K. Caves, Ursula Renold
ABSTRACT Social institutions are relatively stable patterns of behaviour or joint action that help overcome fundamental problems and perform a function in society. Despite the importance of social institutions, scholars find it difficult to identify and assess their robustness empirically. Building on institutionalism theories, we develop a theoretical framework of institutional robustness, where robustness describes ideal, long-lasting, or otherwise strong institutions. This framework combines three dimensions drawn from the literature on institutional variation: degree of institutionalization, breadth of scope, and properties of quality. Using literature and theory, we propose definitions of robustness in each dimension and suggest that robust social institutions are robust in all dimensions. Moreover, we propose that robust meta-institutions are composed of individual robust institutions. For future application of the framework, we develop a methodological approach that follows a transparent procedure. We also include an example outlining how scholars can apply the framework in empirical work. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
{"title":"Operationalizing institutions: a theoretical framework and methodological approach for assessing the robustness of social institutions","authors":"Ladina Rageth, K. Caves, Ursula Renold","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.2000067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.2000067","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Social institutions are relatively stable patterns of behaviour or joint action that help overcome fundamental problems and perform a function in society. Despite the importance of social institutions, scholars find it difficult to identify and assess their robustness empirically. Building on institutionalism theories, we develop a theoretical framework of institutional robustness, where robustness describes ideal, long-lasting, or otherwise strong institutions. This framework combines three dimensions drawn from the literature on institutional variation: degree of institutionalization, breadth of scope, and properties of quality. Using literature and theory, we propose definitions of robustness in each dimension and suggest that robust social institutions are robust in all dimensions. Moreover, we propose that robust meta-institutions are composed of individual robust institutions. For future application of the framework, we develop a methodological approach that follows a transparent procedure. We also include an example outlining how scholars can apply the framework in empirical work. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82231273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.2015980
Ana Ferreira, A. L. Teixeira, A. Dantas
ABSTRACT Currently, countries, organizations and individual actors are increasingly pushed towards an ‘innovation imperative’ that presents innovation as an unequivocal promoter of multi-level success. However, it remains to be addressed whether innovation actors have homogenously incorporated this narrative, or rather, attribute divergent meanings to previous innovative social action. Inspired by critical innovation studies and sensemaking research, this paper addresses whether specific contextual aspects translate into heterogeneous sensemaking processes, and shape actors’ expectations for the future. For this purpose, focusing on the Information and Communication Technology sector and having the organizational unit as the level of analysis, it addresses top managers’ discourses through their perceptions on past innovation. Cluster analysis identified two profiles, mostly discriminated by actors’ perceptions of their firms’ role in previous innovation. These profiles were associated with innovation performance with firms with more outputs presenting themselves as the ‘builders of their success’, while the ones with less successful trajectories expressing their powerlessness. Logistic regression analysis revealed that such discourses mediate the impact of firms’ empowerment culture and assets on confidence in the future. This study adds to previous literature a first comparative analysis of heterogeneous sensemaking discourses through which actors contextualize previous innovative social action and co-construct futures’ expectations.
{"title":"Making sense of heterogeneous innovative social action: co-constructing the past and imagining the future","authors":"Ana Ferreira, A. L. Teixeira, A. Dantas","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.2015980","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.2015980","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Currently, countries, organizations and individual actors are increasingly pushed towards an ‘innovation imperative’ that presents innovation as an unequivocal promoter of multi-level success. However, it remains to be addressed whether innovation actors have homogenously incorporated this narrative, or rather, attribute divergent meanings to previous innovative social action. Inspired by critical innovation studies and sensemaking research, this paper addresses whether specific contextual aspects translate into heterogeneous sensemaking processes, and shape actors’ expectations for the future. For this purpose, focusing on the Information and Communication Technology sector and having the organizational unit as the level of analysis, it addresses top managers’ discourses through their perceptions on past innovation. Cluster analysis identified two profiles, mostly discriminated by actors’ perceptions of their firms’ role in previous innovation. These profiles were associated with innovation performance with firms with more outputs presenting themselves as the ‘builders of their success’, while the ones with less successful trajectories expressing their powerlessness. Logistic regression analysis revealed that such discourses mediate the impact of firms’ empowerment culture and assets on confidence in the future. This study adds to previous literature a first comparative analysis of heterogeneous sensemaking discourses through which actors contextualize previous innovative social action and co-construct futures’ expectations.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90274202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.1996761
Tarmo Strenze
ABSTRACT Numerous studies have investigated the changing values in the Western countries. Some studies have found people’s values to be changing towards materialism, others have found that post-materialism is on the rise. The present study demonstrates that different types of values have been changing in different directions in Western Europe and the USA since the 1970s. Political values have become more post-materialistic and work values have become more materialistic. The paper then discusses the possible reasons for such conflicting value trends and makes some predictions about the future direction of these trends.
{"title":"Value change in the Western world: the rise of materialism, post-materialism or both?","authors":"Tarmo Strenze","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.1996761","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.1996761","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Numerous studies have investigated the changing values in the Western countries. Some studies have found people’s values to be changing towards materialism, others have found that post-materialism is on the rise. The present study demonstrates that different types of values have been changing in different directions in Western Europe and the USA since the 1970s. Political values have become more post-materialistic and work values have become more materialistic. The paper then discusses the possible reasons for such conflicting value trends and makes some predictions about the future direction of these trends.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83749180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.2015979
Manuel Fernández Esquinas
Abstract This editorial discusses the sociological perspective of innovation, starting with a critical overview of the situation of sociology in current innovation studies. An outline of several key challenges to understanding innovation in society is followed by an interpretation of the characteristics of a sociology of innovation based on the core assumptions of the discipline. The editorial concludes with a summary of the papers of the special issue.
{"title":"Sociological perspectives on innovation: key research issues and interdisciplinary prospects","authors":"Manuel Fernández Esquinas","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.2015979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.2015979","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 This editorial discusses the sociological perspective of innovation, starting with a critical overview of the situation of sociology in current innovation studies. An outline of several key challenges to understanding innovation in society is followed by an interpretation of the characteristics of a sociology of innovation based on the core assumptions of the discipline. The editorial concludes with a summary of the papers of the special issue.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89884349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Résumé Cet article traite du processus constructif et social de l’habitat rural ancestral du nord-est Algérien. La région abordée par l’étude se situe au nord-ouest de la wilaya de Skikda et comprend les communes de Collo, Zitouna, Cheraïa et Kanouâa. L’article, s’appuie sur une enquête sociologique par entretiens et questionnaires avec la population locale. Il donne au premier lieu une explication de ce processus ancestral, et cherche en second lieu à préciser les raisons pour lesquelles cette démarche ne fait plus l’objet d’intérêt de la communauté actuelle.
{"title":"Origine et interprétation de la perte des pratiques sociales et du savoir -faire constructif de l’habitat vernaculaire. Cas de l’est algérien, la région de Collo, Skikda, Algérie","authors":"Zouiten Kawtar, Aichour Boudjemaa, Messaoudi Karima","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.1961818","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.1961818","url":null,"abstract":"Résumé Cet article traite du processus constructif et social de l’habitat rural ancestral du nord-est Algérien. La région abordée par l’étude se situe au nord-ouest de la wilaya de Skikda et comprend les communes de Collo, Zitouna, Cheraïa et Kanouâa. L’article, s’appuie sur une enquête sociologique par entretiens et questionnaires avec la population locale. Il donne au premier lieu une explication de ce processus ancestral, et cherche en second lieu à préciser les raisons pour lesquelles cette démarche ne fait plus l’objet d’intérêt de la communauté actuelle.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88928142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-12DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2021.1947457
Guglielmo Rinzivillo
ABSTRACT Robert King Merton's early sociology of science is significant for the understating of modern sociology. The relationship between unplanned consequences and developments in science and technology is fundamental for a definition of the contemporary picture of social action developments. Theoretical interests link to the working-in-progress formulations. Empirical development emerges from these perspectives. The significance of the theoretical progression encapsulated in the American sociologist's doctoral dissertation is astounding (1938). The theory-research connection is equally significant when placed in relation to the scholarly output of the 1950s. In addition, the questions posed by Merton apply in the 1970s and 1990s sociology. They are fertile with interesting answers even today, which is a dramatically disturbed time due to the technological progress. This progress raises new ethical, political, and social questions about the future of humanity. Other sources of disorder derive from the ecological crisis that leads to a rethinking of the man-environment relationship. Merton does not address this topic. The twentieth-century totalitarianisms that have survived into the twenty-first century embed dangerously within the scientific technological development (e.g. the China case). The development of new medical-biological theories and practices impose new questions about the value attributed to life. This is of particular relevance today due to the global and devastating Covid 19 pandemic crisis.
{"title":"Some turning points in the early sociology of Robert King Merton","authors":"Guglielmo Rinzivillo","doi":"10.1080/03906701.2021.1947457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.1947457","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Robert King Merton's early sociology of science is significant for the understating of modern sociology. The relationship between unplanned consequences and developments in science and technology is fundamental for a definition of the contemporary picture of social action developments. Theoretical interests link to the working-in-progress formulations. Empirical development emerges from these perspectives. The significance of the theoretical progression encapsulated in the American sociologist's doctoral dissertation is astounding (1938). The theory-research connection is equally significant when placed in relation to the scholarly output of the 1950s. In addition, the questions posed by Merton apply in the 1970s and 1990s sociology. They are fertile with interesting answers even today, which is a dramatically disturbed time due to the technological progress. This progress raises new ethical, political, and social questions about the future of humanity. Other sources of disorder derive from the ecological crisis that leads to a rethinking of the man-environment relationship. Merton does not address this topic. The twentieth-century totalitarianisms that have survived into the twenty-first century embed dangerously within the scientific technological development (e.g. the China case). The development of new medical-biological theories and practices impose new questions about the value attributed to life. This is of particular relevance today due to the global and devastating Covid 19 pandemic crisis.","PeriodicalId":46079,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Sociology-Revue Internationale de Sociologie","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2021-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77894534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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