Pub Date : 2022-03-24DOI: 10.1177/00016993221088741
C. Backman, Anna Hedenus
Even though recruiters’ practise of searching for information online during recruitment and selection has been a contested practise, owing to the risk of discrimination and privacy intrusions as well as poor evidence for its ability to predict work performance, it is used in recruitment. In this article, our aim is to understand how ‘professional talk’ is used as a discursive resource to legitimize contested practises such as the practise of cybervetting by recruiters. The study is based on interviews with 37 recruiters in Sweden, all of whom had experience of cybervetting jobseekers. We found that professional talk was linked to objectivity and being unemotional, having knowledge about recruitment methods and the ability to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. In relation to the theory on professional talk, our study contributes with empirical evidence for the normative function of professional talk. Using cybervetting, as a case of legitimizing controversial practises, we provide a theoretical contribution to the theory on professional talk by illustrating how professional talk not only fills a disciplinary function by restraining a practise but also by enabling, legitimizing and providing discursive frames for how it can be performed.
{"title":"Professional talk on cybervetting: Accounting for a contested practise","authors":"C. Backman, Anna Hedenus","doi":"10.1177/00016993221088741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993221088741","url":null,"abstract":"Even though recruiters’ practise of searching for information online during recruitment and selection has been a contested practise, owing to the risk of discrimination and privacy intrusions as well as poor evidence for its ability to predict work performance, it is used in recruitment. In this article, our aim is to understand how ‘professional talk’ is used as a discursive resource to legitimize contested practises such as the practise of cybervetting by recruiters. The study is based on interviews with 37 recruiters in Sweden, all of whom had experience of cybervetting jobseekers. We found that professional talk was linked to objectivity and being unemotional, having knowledge about recruitment methods and the ability to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. In relation to the theory on professional talk, our study contributes with empirical evidence for the normative function of professional talk. Using cybervetting, as a case of legitimizing controversial practises, we provide a theoretical contribution to the theory on professional talk by illustrating how professional talk not only fills a disciplinary function by restraining a practise but also by enabling, legitimizing and providing discursive frames for how it can be performed.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44654340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-31DOI: 10.1177/00016993211066261
A. Baranowska-Rataj
This study examines the association between the parental division of paid labour and depressive symptoms in a comparative perspective. It investigates how this relationship varies across couples in countries with different social policies using data from European Social Survey, and multilevel models with cross-level interactions between the parental division of paid labour and macro-level indicators of social policies. The results indicate that dual-earner couples report fewer depressive symptoms than parents in other types of families. This relative advantage of dual-earner couples varies across policy contexts. The benefits of a dual-earner model over a male breadwinner model are larger in countries where childcare services are easily available and do not disappear in countries with generous financial support from the state. Additional analyses reveal how these relationships differ across gender.
{"title":"The impact of the parental division of paid labour on depressive symptoms: The moderating role of social policies","authors":"A. Baranowska-Rataj","doi":"10.1177/00016993211066261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993211066261","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the association between the parental division of paid labour and depressive symptoms in a comparative perspective. It investigates how this relationship varies across couples in countries with different social policies using data from European Social Survey, and multilevel models with cross-level interactions between the parental division of paid labour and macro-level indicators of social policies. The results indicate that dual-earner couples report fewer depressive symptoms than parents in other types of families. This relative advantage of dual-earner couples varies across policy contexts. The benefits of a dual-earner model over a male breadwinner model are larger in countries where childcare services are easily available and do not disappear in countries with generous financial support from the state. Additional analyses reveal how these relationships differ across gender.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48310821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-31DOI: 10.1177/00016993221074826
Anne Lise Ellingsæter
Historically, wedding traditions have reflected unequal power dynamics between women and men. Anglo-American studies suggest that despite growing gender equality in society and preferences for egalitarian marriages among young adults, wedding traditions perpetuate patriarchal ideas. This article explores this puzzle in the Nordic context. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with Norwegian millennials, 27 women and men, who were soon to be married or had been recently. How this new generation navigates three wedding traditions rooted in gender inequality — the male marriage proposal, the gendered division of wedding planning and women's change of surname — was investigated by identifying gender dynamics at the institutional, interactional and individual level. The study makes two main contributions to the literature. First, it brings new insights into whether and how wedding traditions are maintained or resisted in a Nordic context, extending existing Anglo-American research. Second, representing a novel empirical lens to the Nordic context, the study also advances knowledge about the progress in gender equality in a hitherto little studied domain.
{"title":"Resisting or maintaining gender inequality? Wedding traditions among Norwegian millennials","authors":"Anne Lise Ellingsæter","doi":"10.1177/00016993221074826","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993221074826","url":null,"abstract":"Historically, wedding traditions have reflected unequal power dynamics between women and men. Anglo-American studies suggest that despite growing gender equality in society and preferences for egalitarian marriages among young adults, wedding traditions perpetuate patriarchal ideas. This article explores this puzzle in the Nordic context. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with Norwegian millennials, 27 women and men, who were soon to be married or had been recently. How this new generation navigates three wedding traditions rooted in gender inequality — the male marriage proposal, the gendered division of wedding planning and women's change of surname — was investigated by identifying gender dynamics at the institutional, interactional and individual level. The study makes two main contributions to the literature. First, it brings new insights into whether and how wedding traditions are maintained or resisted in a Nordic context, extending existing Anglo-American research. Second, representing a novel empirical lens to the Nordic context, the study also advances knowledge about the progress in gender equality in a hitherto little studied domain.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41827057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-31DOI: 10.1177/00016993211070192
M. Teigen, Arnfinn H. Midtbøen, Rune Karlsen
Access to resources, wealth, and power positions varies systematically with membership in social categories. This article asks what role the elites themselves – as holders of power and regulators of access to influential positions – can play in maintaining, but also changing, the demographic composition of elites. Drawing on a unique survey among the entire Norwegian elite, we investigate what holders of elite positions believe are the main causes of gender imbalance and lack of ethnic diversity, and whether their beliefs influence their willingness to implement measures to promote gender equality and ethnic diversity. In line with expectations drawn from the literatures on policy representation and critical frame analysis, we find a strong, positive relationship between the belief in the importance of institutionalized causes of inequality and the willingness to introduce ameliorative measures to increase diversity. Conversely, we find a negative relationship between the belief in individualized explanations, such as the lack of qualifications, and the willingness to introduce measures. As elites are key holders of power, the findings imply that how elites view the causes of categorical inequality has strong bearings on the room for structural change.
{"title":"Elites on Equality: Room for Gender Balance and Ethnic Diversity in Leadership Positions?","authors":"M. Teigen, Arnfinn H. Midtbøen, Rune Karlsen","doi":"10.1177/00016993211070192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993211070192","url":null,"abstract":"Access to resources, wealth, and power positions varies systematically with membership in social categories. This article asks what role the elites themselves – as holders of power and regulators of access to influential positions – can play in maintaining, but also changing, the demographic composition of elites. Drawing on a unique survey among the entire Norwegian elite, we investigate what holders of elite positions believe are the main causes of gender imbalance and lack of ethnic diversity, and whether their beliefs influence their willingness to implement measures to promote gender equality and ethnic diversity. In line with expectations drawn from the literatures on policy representation and critical frame analysis, we find a strong, positive relationship between the belief in the importance of institutionalized causes of inequality and the willingness to introduce ameliorative measures to increase diversity. Conversely, we find a negative relationship between the belief in individualized explanations, such as the lack of qualifications, and the willingness to introduce measures. As elites are key holders of power, the findings imply that how elites view the causes of categorical inequality has strong bearings on the room for structural change.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49476831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-31DOI: 10.1177/00016993211070980
Jarmo Kallunki
Cultural reproduction has attracted the attention of cultural sociologists over the last few decades. While a body of research has shown that the orientation to highbrow culture is transmitted from parents to their children, research on the transmission of other cultural orientations has been scarce. In this paper, I study the intergenerational transmission of three cultural orientations—highbrow, popular, and crafts—in Finland. The data were derived from a nationally representative sample (N = 1425) surveyed in Finland in 2018, and it was analysed with regression techniques. For the respondent, I target current cultural participation, and for the parents I rely on retrospective data targeting joint cultural participation with the respondent during their childhood. I show that there is symmetric transmission of cultural orientation, namely that the respondent's current orientation is most tightly associated with the same orientation that they practiced with their parents, suggesting symmetric cultural reproduction in Finland. Additionally, parents’ overall cultural participation is associated with their children's overall cultural participation. I reflect on the findings in the light of past and current research on cultural practices and suggest directions for future research.
{"title":"Cultural reproduction in Finland: Symmetric intergenerational transmission of cultural orientations","authors":"Jarmo Kallunki","doi":"10.1177/00016993211070980","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993211070980","url":null,"abstract":"Cultural reproduction has attracted the attention of cultural sociologists over the last few decades. While a body of research has shown that the orientation to highbrow culture is transmitted from parents to their children, research on the transmission of other cultural orientations has been scarce. In this paper, I study the intergenerational transmission of three cultural orientations—highbrow, popular, and crafts—in Finland. The data were derived from a nationally representative sample (N = 1425) surveyed in Finland in 2018, and it was analysed with regression techniques. For the respondent, I target current cultural participation, and for the parents I rely on retrospective data targeting joint cultural participation with the respondent during their childhood. I show that there is symmetric transmission of cultural orientation, namely that the respondent's current orientation is most tightly associated with the same orientation that they practiced with their parents, suggesting symmetric cultural reproduction in Finland. Additionally, parents’ overall cultural participation is associated with their children's overall cultural participation. I reflect on the findings in the light of past and current research on cultural practices and suggest directions for future research.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41347551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-20DOI: 10.1177/00016993211065327
Emma Jones
=3502984 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3502984. Goffman E (1956) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin Books. Maroney T (2011) The persistent cultural script of judicial dispassion. California Law Review 99(2): 629–681. Roach Anleu S, Bergman Blix S and Mack K (2015) Researching emotion in courts and the judiciary: A tale of Two projects. Emotion Review 7(2): 145–150. Book Reviews 463
{"title":"Book Review: Interactional Justice: The Role of Emotions in the Performance of Loyalty","authors":"Emma Jones","doi":"10.1177/00016993211065327","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993211065327","url":null,"abstract":"=3502984 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3502984. Goffman E (1956) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin Books. Maroney T (2011) The persistent cultural script of judicial dispassion. California Law Review 99(2): 629–681. Roach Anleu S, Bergman Blix S and Mack K (2015) Researching emotion in courts and the judiciary: A tale of Two projects. Emotion Review 7(2): 145–150. Book Reviews 463","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41281267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-21DOI: 10.1177/00016993211068318
M. Brandén, Magnus Bygren
It is a matter of debate whether free school choice should lead to higher or lower levels of school segregation. We investigate how school choice opportunities affect school segregation utilizing geocoded Swedish population register data with information on 13 cohorts of ninth graders. We find that local school choice opportunities strongly affect the sorting of students across schools based on the parents’ country of birth and level of education. An increase in the number of local schools leads to higher levels of local segregation net of stable area characteristics, and time-varying controls for population structure and local residential segregation. In particular, the local presence of private voucher schools pushes school segregation upwards. The segregating impact of school choice opportunities is notably stronger in ‘native’ areas with high portions of highly educated parents, and in areas with low residential segregation. Our results point to the importance of embedding individual actors in relevant opportunity structures for understanding segregation processes.
{"title":"The opportunity structure of segregation: School choice and school segregation in Sweden","authors":"M. Brandén, Magnus Bygren","doi":"10.1177/00016993211068318","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993211068318","url":null,"abstract":"It is a matter of debate whether free school choice should lead to higher or lower levels of school segregation. We investigate how school choice opportunities affect school segregation utilizing geocoded Swedish population register data with information on 13 cohorts of ninth graders. We find that local school choice opportunities strongly affect the sorting of students across schools based on the parents’ country of birth and level of education. An increase in the number of local schools leads to higher levels of local segregation net of stable area characteristics, and time-varying controls for population structure and local residential segregation. In particular, the local presence of private voucher schools pushes school segregation upwards. The segregating impact of school choice opportunities is notably stronger in ‘native’ areas with high portions of highly educated parents, and in areas with low residential segregation. Our results point to the importance of embedding individual actors in relevant opportunity structures for understanding segregation processes.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42911094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-13DOI: 10.1177/00016993211066263
J. Gerhards, Holger Lengfeld, C. Dilger
European citizenship consisting of equal economic, social and political rights for all EU citizens has come under pressure in recent years due to the different crises the EU had to face. Based on a survey conducted in 13 EU member states we examined to what extent EU citizens support the notion that citizens from other European countries should enjoy the same rights as nationals. Overall, 56% of EU citizens support the idea that citizens from other EU member states (EU migrants) and national citizens shall be treated equally. In addition, we find remarkable variation between the countries. Multivariate analyses indicate that cultural factors on the individual and the country level have a strong impact on attitudes towards Europeanized equality, whereas structural factors that are related to individuals’ and a countries’ socioeconomic position are only of minor importance.
{"title":"Contested European citizenship: Results from a 13 country survey","authors":"J. Gerhards, Holger Lengfeld, C. Dilger","doi":"10.1177/00016993211066263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993211066263","url":null,"abstract":"European citizenship consisting of equal economic, social and political rights for all EU citizens has come under pressure in recent years due to the different crises the EU had to face. Based on a survey conducted in 13 EU member states we examined to what extent EU citizens support the notion that citizens from other European countries should enjoy the same rights as nationals. Overall, 56% of EU citizens support the idea that citizens from other EU member states (EU migrants) and national citizens shall be treated equally. In addition, we find remarkable variation between the countries. Multivariate analyses indicate that cultural factors on the individual and the country level have a strong impact on attitudes towards Europeanized equality, whereas structural factors that are related to individuals’ and a countries’ socioeconomic position are only of minor importance.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44551546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-07DOI: 10.1177/00016993211055678
Alexander Patzina
Labour market, health, and wellbeing research provide evidence of increasing educational inequality as individuals age, representing a pattern consistent with the mechanism of cumulative (dis)advantage. However, individual life courses are embedded in cohort contexts that might alter life course differentiation processes. Thus, this study analyses cohort variations in education-specific life course patterns of subjective wellbeing (i.e. life, health and income satisfaction). Drawing upon prior work and theoretical considerations from life course theories, this study expects to find increasing educational life course inequality in younger cohorts. The empirical analysis relies on German Socio-Economic Panel data (1984–2016, v33). The results obtained from cohort-averaged random effects growth curve models confirm the cumulative (dis)advantage mechanism for educational life course inequality in subjective wellbeing. Furthermore, the results reveal substantial cohort variation in life course inequality patterns: regarding life and income satisfaction, the results indicate that the cumulative (dis)advantage mechanism does not apply to the youngest cohorts (individuals born between 1970 and 1985) under study. In contrast, the health satisfaction results suggest that educational life course inequality follows the predictions of the cumulative (dis)advantage mechanism only for individuals born after 1959. While the life course trajectories of highly educated individuals change only slightly across cohorts, the subjective wellbeing trajectories of low-educated individuals start to decline at earlier life course stages in younger cohorts, leading to increasing life course inequality over time. Thus, the overall findings of this study contribute to our understanding of whether predictions derived from sociological middle range theories are universal across societal contexts.
{"title":"The increasing educational divide in the life course development of subjective wellbeing across cohorts","authors":"Alexander Patzina","doi":"10.1177/00016993211055678","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993211055678","url":null,"abstract":"Labour market, health, and wellbeing research provide evidence of increasing educational inequality as individuals age, representing a pattern consistent with the mechanism of cumulative (dis)advantage. However, individual life courses are embedded in cohort contexts that might alter life course differentiation processes. Thus, this study analyses cohort variations in education-specific life course patterns of subjective wellbeing (i.e. life, health and income satisfaction). Drawing upon prior work and theoretical considerations from life course theories, this study expects to find increasing educational life course inequality in younger cohorts. The empirical analysis relies on German Socio-Economic Panel data (1984–2016, v33). The results obtained from cohort-averaged random effects growth curve models confirm the cumulative (dis)advantage mechanism for educational life course inequality in subjective wellbeing. Furthermore, the results reveal substantial cohort variation in life course inequality patterns: regarding life and income satisfaction, the results indicate that the cumulative (dis)advantage mechanism does not apply to the youngest cohorts (individuals born between 1970 and 1985) under study. In contrast, the health satisfaction results suggest that educational life course inequality follows the predictions of the cumulative (dis)advantage mechanism only for individuals born after 1959. While the life course trajectories of highly educated individuals change only slightly across cohorts, the subjective wellbeing trajectories of low-educated individuals start to decline at earlier life course stages in younger cohorts, leading to increasing life course inequality over time. Thus, the overall findings of this study contribute to our understanding of whether predictions derived from sociological middle range theories are universal across societal contexts.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46406934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-07DOI: 10.1177/00016993211030407
Liv Egholm
unemployment, and health inequalities. The book also includes chapters on Max Weber, Robert Merton, James Coleman and Raymond Boudon, who are usually thought of as more theoretically oriented sociologists. Moreover, Goldthorpe includes chapters on William Ogburn, Samuel Stouffer and Paul Lazarsfeld, American sociologists who contributed to defining sociology as a science. And, of course, a chapter on Otis D. Duncan, who defined sociology as a population science. Where are the women? Goldthorpe acknowledges their existence, which is good, since they often go unnoticed, yet they are few, and they often show up as assistants and/or wives. He mentions Emily Perrin, who worked with Pearson, Margareth Hogg, who worked with Bowley, Marianne Weber, Alice Kitt, who worked with Merton, and Beverley Duncan, who worked with her husband. Defining sociology as a science implies a narrower definition than usual. Goldthorpe (2016) discusses this, and I find his argument strengthened by this book on the roots of sociological science. He explicitly recognizes that his selection of pioneers is based on his present-day view of sociology as a population science. As several of these pioneers are left out of textbooks on sociology or social theory, one might suggest that the power of defining a discipline’s history deserves more attention. I am very sympathetic to Goldthorpe’s intentions, and I include parts of his 2016 book in a theory course at the University of Oslo. I will also recommend this book to everyone interested in sociology. Particularly, this book will give students interested in quantitative sociology intellectual grounding and self-confidence as sociologists. However, I have two reservations. First, defining sociology as a population science leaves little room for qualitative sociological research. Explaining population regularities is complicated, and when developing middle range theories of social processes, sociologists should be open to insights from qualitative research, which can provide more in-depth knowledge, albeit with limited range. Second, Goldthorpe is concerned with sociology, yet many of the pioneers included in this book were trailblazers for all social sciences, including political science, economics, and even social psychology. Establishing an explanandum requires the same tools in our sister disciplines, albeit with slightly different substantive content. I therefore sympathize with attempts, such as by James Coleman and Gary Becker, to find common threads between our disciplines, and I believe more could be found, when defined as social sciences. These reservations are, however, related more to the definition of sociological science than to this book on the pioneers of sociological science. In the last chapter, Goldthorpe discusses some differences between analytical sociology and sociology defined as a population science related to the theory of action, and what he sees as excessive use of simulation models in analytical sociology.
{"title":"Book Review: Civic Engagement in Scandinavia: Volunteering, Informal Help and Giving in Denmark, Norway and Sweden","authors":"Liv Egholm","doi":"10.1177/00016993211030407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993211030407","url":null,"abstract":"unemployment, and health inequalities. The book also includes chapters on Max Weber, Robert Merton, James Coleman and Raymond Boudon, who are usually thought of as more theoretically oriented sociologists. Moreover, Goldthorpe includes chapters on William Ogburn, Samuel Stouffer and Paul Lazarsfeld, American sociologists who contributed to defining sociology as a science. And, of course, a chapter on Otis D. Duncan, who defined sociology as a population science. Where are the women? Goldthorpe acknowledges their existence, which is good, since they often go unnoticed, yet they are few, and they often show up as assistants and/or wives. He mentions Emily Perrin, who worked with Pearson, Margareth Hogg, who worked with Bowley, Marianne Weber, Alice Kitt, who worked with Merton, and Beverley Duncan, who worked with her husband. Defining sociology as a science implies a narrower definition than usual. Goldthorpe (2016) discusses this, and I find his argument strengthened by this book on the roots of sociological science. He explicitly recognizes that his selection of pioneers is based on his present-day view of sociology as a population science. As several of these pioneers are left out of textbooks on sociology or social theory, one might suggest that the power of defining a discipline’s history deserves more attention. I am very sympathetic to Goldthorpe’s intentions, and I include parts of his 2016 book in a theory course at the University of Oslo. I will also recommend this book to everyone interested in sociology. Particularly, this book will give students interested in quantitative sociology intellectual grounding and self-confidence as sociologists. However, I have two reservations. First, defining sociology as a population science leaves little room for qualitative sociological research. Explaining population regularities is complicated, and when developing middle range theories of social processes, sociologists should be open to insights from qualitative research, which can provide more in-depth knowledge, albeit with limited range. Second, Goldthorpe is concerned with sociology, yet many of the pioneers included in this book were trailblazers for all social sciences, including political science, economics, and even social psychology. Establishing an explanandum requires the same tools in our sister disciplines, albeit with slightly different substantive content. I therefore sympathize with attempts, such as by James Coleman and Gary Becker, to find common threads between our disciplines, and I believe more could be found, when defined as social sciences. These reservations are, however, related more to the definition of sociological science than to this book on the pioneers of sociological science. In the last chapter, Goldthorpe discusses some differences between analytical sociology and sociology defined as a population science related to the theory of action, and what he sees as excessive use of simulation models in analytical sociology.","PeriodicalId":47591,"journal":{"name":"Acta Sociologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47090334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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