From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 2 09:17:19 1995 Date: Mon, 2 Oct 1995 12:14:59 -0400 From: James Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: S&TS Postdoctoral Associateship Available 1996-1997 (fwd) FYI ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 27 SEP 1995 09:55:07 +0200=20 From: Lillian Isacks Newgroups: alt.sci.sociology Subject: S&TS Postdoctoral Associateship Available 1996=AD1997=20 Science & Technology Studies Postdoctoral Associateship Available 1996=AD1997 The Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University invites applications for a one-year postdoctoral associateship. The associate will be expected to carry out research on the social implications of changing knowledge in the life sciences, focusing on one or more of the following topics:=20 =80 historical, philosophical, or social studies of scientific change =80 communication and the use of scientific knowledge =80 gender, women, and biology =80 biology and the legal order =80 environmental change In addition, the associate will participate in training graduate students who (along with the associate) are funded by a National Science Foundation training grant. =20 The associateship, for the 1996-1997 academic year, carries a stipend of $30,660 plus health benefits. The associate must have completed the Ph.D. by September 1996. Applications, which should include a curriculum vitae (including list of publications), three letters of recommendation, and brief outline of proposed research, should be sent by 15 February 1996 to: Postdoctoral Search Committee, Department of Science and Technology Studies, 726 University Avenue, Cornell, Ithaca, NY 14850-3995.=20 Telephone: (607) 255-6234. Fax: (607) 255-0616. E-mail:=20 li10@cornell.edu. Homepage: http://www.sts.cornell.edu/Lilly2.html.=20 Cornell is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Oct 4 09:02:35 1995 Date: Wed, 04 Oct 95 10:28:23 EDT From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: Crime and Punishment (fwd) To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY I will start a series of mini-lectures on criminology and the sociology of law this coming Sunday...as a gambit to pique interest among grad students in sociology, I thought I would share some observations on the O.J. Simpson trial and outcomes. TR Young T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Date: Wed, 04 Oct 95 09:49:19 EDT From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: Crime and Punishment The outcome of the O.J. Simpson trial was, for legal purposes, a finding of 'Not Guilty.' For those of us in the sociology of law and criminology, there are a few more outcomes which are of more interest...I would like to suggest a few. 1. Simpson has been found 'guilty' by a very large number of those who follow such things...this finding will follow Simpson in both objective and subjective ways not imaginable...there are many more chapters to follow this, the first and opening chapter in a 21st century version of D's essay on crime and punishment. 2. The Crime in the first chapter was far more complex than the two specifications of murders laid out by the L.A. District Attorney. a. There is and remains the gender politics out of which come such anger and violence...it too was an unlisted co-conspirator in the case. b. There was and remains the endemic racism in the L.A. Police department upon which the Defense, rightly so, focussed. There should be several chapters in the story emerging from that crime. c. There was a very postmodern indictment of modern science and its quest for absolute truth...it was this part of the trial which I followed most closely and with which I was so engrossed. d. There was and is a profound indictment of class and wealth in the question of legal guilt and innocent which Lauren Langman mentioned in his posting...I spoke to 20 or so people about their response to the decision on my rounds yesterday...most thought him 'guilty as hell' and were bitter about the role of money in legal proceedings. e. There is the many crimes of both prosecution and defense which turned the crime, as three young women put it, into a farce. Perhaps it was the media; perhaps it was the camera in the court-room; perhaps it was the notoriety of the case...in any event the prosecution looks criminally negligence and the defense criminally irresponsible...lots more to come on their 'crimes of omission, poor judgment, bad temper and failed presentations.' 3. Punishments: a. O.J. Simpson has been punished in several ways irreparable by any form of distributive justice. Assume he is innocent and was, rightly, found innocent. He has spent some 4 million dollars on defense, he was jailed for over a year, his reput- tation is ruined [even though he may well profit on the commercialization of his name] and his has lost friends he will never again find...from now on, other than family and childhood friends who endure, he will have to suspect every new relationship; he will never invest full trust and faith in any new friend...and, while a lot of women will put them selves in harm's way, most will not. O.J. Simpson will be punished in ways unmeasureable by money...the saddest part is that he may never realize just how much he misses. Assume O.J. Simpson was guilty and found guilty and sent to prison for 14 years [I think Judge Ito would have done]; he would be celebrity in prison beyond any thing manageable by wards and wardens. His 'imprisonment' would have been more an encapsulated fiefdom not much different from the movies in which he served his time. b. Who will punish the L.A. police department and what forms will those take; who will be the next Mark Fuhrman to come to the attention of press and public and what will be his fate. c. How does all this play out in the unholy dramas of gender violence made so visible and so graphic by the trial...maybe part of the justice of the case is to be found in a sea change in our poor crippled society on gender violence...I expect that emancipatory feminist movements will be inspired by the case and by the outcome. 4. In many respects, the trial of O.J. Simpson was a trial of America and, in the eyes of the Irish, Brazilians, Koreans and South Africans who watched it, it was a cautionary tale which just might serve in the cultural wars which rage and in which the USA is such a leading player and, perhaps, too often, a model for development. 5. Personally, I am glad it is over; my sympathies were always with the jurors; there has to be better ways to do justice than to confine the judges. TR Young T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 8 06:51:13 1995 Date: Sun, 08 Oct 95 08:55:29 EDT From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: Crime and Social Justice To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY This mini-lecture, No. 32 in the Series, offers some critical, radical and postmodern understandings of crime and justice in the USA in the late 20th century. All lectures come from a book in draft entitled >From Criminal Justice to Social Justice. Graduate students may have a free pre=publication draft copy on disk upon request and a post- office address. TR Young I. Outline: The first mini-lecture will cover basic definitions; the second will discuss forms and social location of crime in the USA. The third will cover the many social control systems which parallel and supplement the criminal justice system. The fourth will offer a critique and some new ideas on theory while the fifth will review the structural features of low-crime societies and offer some ideas for the USA as we enter the 21st century. II. Definitions: Most of these will depart from the definitions in the usual crim/intro texts so one should take care when using them: make sure you do so in a way which will not confuse your major profs and the more innocent students who have been socialized to the usual suspects and subjects. 1. Crime: The word, crime comes from the sanskrit, Karma. Until the late middle ages, it referred to all those actions, both good and evil for which a person was accountable in the great cycles of death and rebirth...as such it was located in a pre-modern social philosophy which held that there was a soul which continued on after physical death and which was reborn with some new social/physical status appropriate to all the previous lives of the person concerned. 2. Crime, technical definitions of: Most crim texts define a crime as a violation of a legal specification carrying enacted by a competent law making body and carrying a penalty. In most legal codes culpable intent is included as the fourth element. There are problems with this definition. So, I will put forward a substantive definition in a moment. First, draw in your imagination, a large circle. Then draw a zig-zag and very fuzzy line down the middle of that large balloon. Label the left side, All acts harmful to persons and to the human project. Label the Right side, All acts helpful and constructive to the human project. Then, within the Left, draw another balloon which almost but not quite fills up the area on the Left. Label this balloon, all actions forbidden or required by technical law. Note that there are a lot of harmful acts not defined as crime by those who control the law making apparati in the USA. On the Right, draw a very small circle and label it, all actions forbidden by technical law. Note that most pro-social acts are not forbidden but some distinctly pro-social activity are. We will look as forbidden but constructive activity later on but, for purposes of definition, this figure will serve to point out the need for a more 3. Crime, Substantive definitions of: A substantive definition of crime has to be grounded on some set of human rights and human obligations. As any postmodern critic will tell you, this is very difficult/impossible. Not so, as long as we keep in mind that our set of human rights/obligations are constructed by human beings in a given socio-cultural time/space. If we try to shift authorship for the definition off to Divine Law or Natural Law, we then meet the problems noted by so many postmodernists beginning with Foucault and ending with your own understandings. For purposes of this mini-lecture, I will ground a substantive def of crime on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights set forth by the United Nations...there are problems with this set but they are the best we have with which to guide our understanding of the modern concept of crime...so let's define crime as: a. any action which subverts the human project. b. any act which violates the letter and spirit of the UN Declar ation of Universal Human Rights. [You best get a copy, I don't want to take time to type it in]. 4. Crime, Personal: Most crim texts focus on individual crime. Those which do so usually list Part I crimes and Part II crimes; Part I crimes are crimes against the person; they include murder, rape arson, robbery, kidnapping and assualt. Part II crimes are crimes against property...note that the concept of property does not exist in many societies, hence it is a special set of forbidden behaviors designed to protect property rights...they include burglary, theft, embezzlement, and a whole host of other activities which violate the rules of the marketplace about the production and distribution of wealth. 4. Structural Crime: This concept of crime is seldom seen in most crim texts: it refers to the harm done to human beings and the human project by the ordinary workings of the existing social order. Among the structures which subvert the human project, according to marxists, feminists, and other radicals are: Racism, Sexism, Class, national chauvinism and transnational capitalism. Some include age ethnic and religious bigotry as structural crimes. Elitism and bureaucratic organizations are widely viewed as substantive crime. 5. Crimes, female: Women usually restrict their criminal behavior to four kinds of economic crime. They are: shop-lifting, writing bad checks, prostitution and in the past 20 years or so, have become embezzlers replacing men as the chief architect of this kind of crime. 6. Crimes, male: Males commit most of both economic and violent crime. We will look at both more closely later but for now, most of this crime is designed to reproduce patriarchy and male dominance patterns. 7. Crime & Race: Afro-Americans make up about 20% of the general pop- ulation but constitute about 40% of the prison population...you'll get different figures but the ratio of white crime to black crime is about 2 or 3 to 1. You should be very careful here...there are two points to make early on and with as much emphasis as possible: a. The relation between race and crime disappears when one includes all forms of crime; if one sticks to street crime, the data are good enough; however when one includes white collar crime, organized crime political crime, and corporate crime, the relationship is reversed; crime is predominately a white activity. Then too, it is being black in the USA rather than being black per se which produces the crime data we do, in fact, get. When we look at Blacks in Canada, the relationship weakens greatly. Those Afro- Americans who are active in Islam have very low crime rates as do muslims in general...more about Islam and religion in the mini= lecture on structural features of low crime societies. 8. Crimes without victims: This phrase refers to those laws which forbid behavior for which there is no 'unwilling' or complaining party. Examples usually include: drug use, prostitution, alcohol use, pornography, gambling and other 'vices.' Later on, I'll give you a mini-lecture on a theory of corruption which may surprize you but for now, do note that these are the kinds of 'crimes' which are part and parcel of Organized Crime. There is real harm done by most of these behaviors but, in the effort to market and to profit from them, market liberals think they should be decriminalized. 9. Criminal Justice, the idea: The idea of a criminal justice system is rather new; Foucault gives the social history of the system. The marxian view is that law, police, and prisons evolved/emerged along with capitalism in orderprotect property and to force people into wage labor [instead of vagrancy, begging, idleness, and street life]. Whatever the case the criminal justice system is new; for most of human history, the family/clan was the repository of both social and criminal justice; this was/is always paralleled by religious law and social control. 10 Criminal Justice, the system: A state initiated and state supported effort to rationalize social control. In the USA, it involves some 5 millions laws, some 800,000 public police officers, about 300,000 lawyers [there are a lot more lawyers but they are elsewhere employed] Then too, there are judges, bailiffs, prisons, warders, and a multi- billion dollar set of industries which build and serve the many jails and prisons in the USA; all in all it is a huge and growing social institution. There are seven or eight parallel control systems; some almost as large; they too are growing...more about which later. 11 Justice: Latin, ius = right, law. The word justice has a long and interesting history; first it meant doing that which one's god required; In ancient Greece and Rome, it began to be part and parcel of the effort to institute due process and substantive elements. In modern crim, it is reduced to, 12. Justice, technical: A ruling or judgment of an act based upon the rational, logical application of a legal specification. Such forms of justice may both irrational and unreasonable in a larger, more substantive notion of crime. 13. Justify: to show a lawful reason why some behavior should be permitted of forbidden...again this comes out of a world view that social control is possible and that such efforts to control should be rationalized. More about this when we get to postmodern approaches to crim and, interestingly enough, the new sciences of Chaos and Complexity have much to say about the quest for order and the utility of rationality. 14. Law: from Old English, lag = something laid down. Those of you who know German will recognize its roots in that language. There are several meanings of the term, often confused, which should be clari- fied early on in your lectures: 15. Law, positive [technical]: Those enactments made by human beings to forbid or require some behavior. 16. Law, Natural [with a capital N]: Those rules given by God or the gods. When Clarence Thomas was confirmed as Supreme Court Justice a couple years ago, much attention was given by conservatives on his views on Natural law v. Constitutional [positive] law. It as lost in the publicity about Anita Hill and Thomas' relations with her. Thomas satisfied his conservative supporters that he viewed Natural law as prior to positive law...in effect, he said he would set aside any law on abortion, homosexuality, prayer or such which would be incompatible with Christian law. More about which later. 17. Law, natural [lower case 'n': Those eternal, universal and precise statments which describe/explain the regularities in nature and society. Roger Penrose, in the Emperor's New Mind lists three categories of natural laws: Superb--those laws which predict behavior with an accuracy of 10 with 14 zeros after it; Einstein's special theory is a case in point. Useful laws are those which are pretty reliable; he lists several from physics. Then there are Tentative Laws which have considerable potential but lack formal proof. 18. Law, of rational thinking: there are 3 laws of rational thinking: the law of identity, the law of contradiction and the law of the excluded middle. These ground logical applications of formal law. There are more definitions I will give you as time goes by, but these are the core of the New Criminology which I define as marxist, feminist, postmodern contributions to traditional criminology. I do not see them as always in opposition to the old criminology but rather as important improvements which transcend the biases and failings of the criminology I was taught at UMich, UColo and was required to set forth as correct and true in all the many exams I took...I hope you fare better in your grad work. I'll mention people in crim who are, in my opinion, doing good work for the new criminology; Ron Kramer at Western Mich; Hal Pepinsky at Indiana; the Schwendingers at SUNY, New Pfaltz, Ray Michalowski at Northern Arizona and a lot of others around the country. You should get to know the work of Steve Pfohl early on if you want to understand postmodern crim; then too, Peter Manning does good work in pomo crim. There are a few doing work in Chaos and Crime; Dragan Milovanovic is one of the few; I've got a lot of stuff I can share with those grad students interested in nonlinear dynamics and their meaning for crim. All in all, there is a lot to learn and more to do...I wish you well in the years to come and trust these mini-lectures serve you in the task. TR Young T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 8 21:53:17 1995 Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 21:52:49 -0700 To: SOCGRAD@UCSD.EDU From: ffdog@earthlink.net (Jerry Blaz) Subject: Crime and Social Justice T: T.R. Young, To discuss crime without discussion of deviance was somewhat surprising to me. While I do not consider myself to be a criminologist, I have worked for a number of years with Robert M. Emerson who has done much work on the ethnography of the legal system, and one thing that emerges is the routinization of crime within the system, since it is its mainstay. Deviance is defined socially; a recent figure touted in the media stated that 25 percent of Black men in America between the ages of 20 to 30 will have had contact with the criminal justice system. Assuming that the line between those who actually commit illegal actions, i.e., crimes and those who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, which can be almost anytime and anyplace for a young Black man, what in the nature of crime is deviant? Deviance depends on a social norm, and when such numbers of a particular cohort are involved in the "system," justifiably or unjustifiably, what does it mean to a black man to have a record. I recently discussed this problem in some depth with a latino ex-con who first and foremost swore to me, that for all of his misdeeds, he was not a thief. He had been a gangbanger, whatever meaning is given to that. A young man with all the tatoos in the right place, he told me of his dread of being stopped by the police who will immediately assume he is one of the "bad guys" -- and that is how the police eventually divide up the world, between the good guys and the bad guys -- and how he spent three days in jail recently in a case of mistaken identity. This is a man who has spent years at San Quentin, and spent his time there getting an education, and now is trying to be a good citizen. He has a serious record, and it means something. If having a record is not a deviant occurance in a group, how does someone join into the activity of the group where it is viewed as a deviant action, the group where employment and economic improvement is possible for those accepted into it? If one in four Black men between the ages of 20 and 30 encounter the criminal justice system, what can convince them that it should not happen, must not happen, for the sake of having a clean record, a status that was valued in my youthful society. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 9 07:08:01 1995 Mon, 9 Oct 95 9:06:21 GMT+6 From: "Marty Levin" To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 09:06:09 CST6CDT Subject: Position Opening Mississippi State University is recruiting for two tenure track positions in sociology this year, one in crime/deviance and one in social demography. Both positions have been advertised in the ASA Employment Bulletin. We have approximately 200 sociology majors and 60 masters and PhD students. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply. Mississippi State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. For further information or a copy of the advertisements, please e-mail at Levin@Soc.MsState.Edu . See our home page (still under construction) at WWW.MsState.Edu Martin L. Levin Voice Direct:601-325-7890 Professor and Head Voice Reception:601-325-2495 Department of Sociology, Anthropology FAX:601-325-4564 and Social Work Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS 39762 From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 9 19:31:33 1995 Date: Mon, 09 Oct 95 22:29:09 -0400 From: Scott Blake Organization: Homeport Collective To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: The SocioWeb http://www.socioweb.com/~markbl/socioweb/ Those of you on the Web may have found this already, but I never heard of it until I ran across it. I highly recommend perusing it! Scott Blake Brandeis University From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 9 19:44:52 1995 Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 21:42:49 -0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Emily Noelle Ignacio Subject: Fwd: Cookies and justice Hi all! Time to get back at those evil, profit hungry, monsters... Enjoy, Emily >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >>>>>>This message is sent to you with the hope you will forward it to >>>>>>EVERYONE you have ever even seen the e-mail address of. In the spirit >>>>>>of the originator,please feel free to post it anywhere and everywhere. >>>>>>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * >>>>>>* > >>>>>>Okay, everyone....a true story of justice in the good old U.S. of A. >>>>>>Thought y'all might enjoy this; if nothing else, it shows internet >>>>>>justice, if it can be called that. > >>>>>>My daughter & I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in >>>>>>Dallas & decided to have a small dessert. Because our family are such >>>>>>cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie". It was so >>>>>>excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe and they said >>>>>>with a small frown, "I'm afraid not." Well, I said, would you let me >>>>>>buy the recipe? With a cute smile, she said, "Yes." I asked how much, >>>>>>and she responded, "Two fifty." I said with approval, just add it to >>>>>>my tab. > >>>>>>Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus and >>>>>>it was $285.00. I looked again and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 >>>>>>for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the >>>>>>bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250.00." Boy, was >>>>>>I upset!! I called Neiman's Accounting Dept. and told them the >>>>>>waitress said it was "two fifty," and I did not realize she meant >>>>>>$250.00 for a cookie recipe. > >>>>>>I asked them to take back the recipe and reduce my bill and they said >>>>>>they were sorry, but because all the recipes were this expensive so >>>>>>not just everyone could duplicate any of our bakery recipes....the >>>>>>bill would stand. > >>>>>>I waited, thinking of how I could get even or even try and get any of >>>>>>my money back. > >>>>>>I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250.00 and now I'm going to have >>>>>>$250.00 worth of fun." I told her that I was going to see to it that >>>>>>every cookie lover will have a $250.00 cookie recipe from >>>>>>Neiman-Marcus for nothing. She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this." >>>>>>I said, "I'm sorry but this is the only way I feel I could get even," >>>>>>and I will. > >>>>>>So, here it is, and please pass it to someone else or run a few >>>>>>copies....I paid for it; now you can have it for free. > >>>>>>(Recipe may be halved.): > >>>>>>2 cups butter 4 cups flour >>>>>>2 tsp. soda 2 cups sugar >>>>>>5 cups blended oatmeal** 24 oz. chocolate chips 2 cups brown sugar 1 >>>>>>tsp. salt >>>>>>1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated) 4 eggs 2 tsp. baking powder 3 cups >>>>>>chopped nuts (your choice) 2 tsp. vanilla > >>>>>>** measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder. >CCCCCCream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; >mmmmmmix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add >chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into >bbbbbballs and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 >minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies. > >>>>>>Have fun!!! This is not a joke --- this is a true story.. > >>>>>>************************************************************ >That's it. Please, pass it along to everyone you know, single >people, mailing lists, etc..... > >>>>>>Ride free, citizen! > > >_____________________________ > > >--ZRTLM > >http://www.rlabs.com/zoogz/index.htm >mailto: >news:alt.fan.zoogz-rift > > > > > > > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Emily Ignacio Dept. of Sociology 326 Lincoln Hall 702 S. Wright St. Urbana, IL 61801 tel: (217) 244-8985 (217) 244-7343 (217) 333-1950 From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 9 20:22:58 1995 Date: Mon, 09 Oct 95 23:24:18 -0400 From: Scott Blake Organization: Homeport Collective To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: ftp://ftp.cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/urban.legen... For those of you that don't know, the cookie story is an urban legend that has been circulating the Net for almost 10 years. It is on par with the Craig Shergold myth (you know, the kid dying of cancer who wants greeting/business/get-well cards --- he's not a kid any more and doesn't want the cards). For those who are interested, here's the recipe in question. Oh, it was originally about Mrs. Field's cookies -- transmuted to Neiman Marcus sometime in the late 80's. -scott ftp://ftp.cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/urban.legends/food/mrs.fields.cookie. recipe > From: sks@ilunix (Sam Spitzner) > Newsgroups: mod.recipes > Subject: RECIPE: Chewy chocolate-chip cookies > Date: 21 Dec 85 06:46:35 GMT > > Copyright (C) 1985 USENET Community Trust > Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted > provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial > advantage, the USENET copyright notice and the title of the newsgroup and > its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of > the USENET Community Trust or the original contributor. > > .RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE CHOC-CHIP-1 D "10 DEC 85" 1986 > .RZ "CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES" "Chocolate chip cookies like Mrs. Fields > makes" > These cookies are a combination of oatmeal and chocolate chip. They are > very rich, but very tasty. The recipe was obtained from a friend of > a friend, who supposedly paid a large amount of money for it. > However, the cookies do not taste \fBexactly\fR the same as the name brand. > .IH "Yield approximately 60" > .IG "2 cups" "butter" "450 g" > .IG "2 cups" "sugar" "380 g" > (granulated white) > .IG "2 cups" "brown sugar" "400 g" > (dark brown) > .IG "4" "eggs" > (large\(emuse 5 if medium) > .IG "2 tsp" "vanilla extract" "10 ml" > .IG "4 cups" "flour" "400 g" > (sift before measuring) > .IG "5 cups" "rolled oats" "250 g" > (oatmeal), powdered finely. > .IG "1 tsp" "salt" "5 ml" > .IG "2 tsp" "baking soda" "10 ml" > .IG "2 tsp" "baking powder" "10 ml" > .IG "24 oz" "chocolate chips" "700 g" > (being a purist, I prefer Toll House morsels) > .IG "8 oz" "chocolate bar," "225 g" > finely grated. > .IG "3 cups" "chopped nuts" "400 g" > (I prefer walnuts, but you can use your favorite type.) > .PH > .SK 1 > Preheat oven to > .TE 375 190 . > .SK 2 > Cream together the butter and the sugars. > .SK 3 > Sift together flour, oatmeal, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and shredded > chocolate bar. > .SK 4 > Add eggs and vanilla to creamed sugar and butter, then mix all ingredients > together. > .SK 5 > Mix chocolate chips and nuts into mixture. > .SK 6 > Drop by onto ungreased cookie sheet in small drops. > .SK 7 > Bake 6 minutes or until done. > .NX > A blender works very well to powder the oats and the chocolate bar. > The blender chops the oatmeal finer than a food processor. > The powdered chocolate bar should melt at the touch of your fingers. > .PP > I prefer my cookies just barely done, so that they remain chewy. > If you want to send your taste buds into heaven, butter the cookies > as they come out of the oven (still hot), and eat them still warm > with a glass of \fBcold\fR milk. > .PP > Note that cocoa is not the same > thing as a shredded chocolate bar. Note also that oatmeal is not the same > thing as quick-cooking oats or instant oatmeal. Oatmeal means ``rolled > oats,'' such as Quaker oats. > .SH RATING > .I Difficulty: > easy to moderate. > .I Time: > 30 minutes. > .I Precision: > measure the ingredients. > .WR > Sam Spitzner > Illinois Bell, Chicago, Illinois > Email address: ihnp4!ilunix!sks > Snail address: 225 W. Randolph, HQ17B, Chicago, Il. 60606 From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 9 23:26:38 1995 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 01:24:02 -0500 To: Robert C Bulman From: Emily Noelle Ignacio Subject: Re: Fwd: Cookies and justice Hi Robert (and everyone else)! Sorry about the wasted bandwidth...A friend of mine just told me I've been duped. It still looks like a pretty good recipe, though. =) Em At 11:08 PM 10/9/95 -0700, you wrote: > >This urban myth has been around for years. It was even debunked in Ann >Lander's column a few years back! > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Emily Ignacio Dept. of Sociology 326 Lincoln Hall 702 S. Wright St. Urbana, IL 61801 tel: (217) 244-8985 (217) 244-7343 (217) 333-1950 From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 10 06:52:00 1995 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 08:50:39 -0500 (CDT) From: Lisa Michelle James To: Emily Noelle Ignacio soc-grads@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu Subject: Re: Fwd: Cookies and justice That's funny, Emily. 8) Lisa From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 10 08:38:03 1995 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 11:46:10 -0600 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: avigorit@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Anthony) Subject: Urban Folklore While everyone is on the topic, feel free to forward any additional urban legends to my account. Thanks. avigorit@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 10 11:50:07 1995 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 14:44:11 -0400 From: Jim Cassell RM 14 Manning Hall To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Re: Position Announcement FYI -- Jim ----- Begin Included Message ----- >From <@cmsa.Berkeley.EDU:owner-methods@UNMVMA.UNM.EDU> Tue Oct 10 14:37 EDT 1995 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 14:30:54 EST From: George Lord Subject: Re: Position Announcement University of Michigan - Flint. The Department of Sociology invites applications for a tenure track position at the Assistant Professor level to begin Fall 1996. Candidates should be prepared to teach Research Methods (both quantitative and qualitative), Social Statistics (including SPSS or SYSTAT), Formal Organizations, and Introductory Sociology. PhD in Sociology required at time of appointment. Send application including letter outlining teaching philosophy and research agenda, vita, and three letters of reference to George Lord, Chair, Search Committee, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, University of Michigan-Flint, 48502-2186. RReview of applications will begin January 5, 1996. The University of Michigan-Flint is an equal opportunity educator and employer and specifically invites and encourages applications from minorities and women. Electronic Mail inquiries to LORD_G@CROB.FLINT.UMICH.EDU GEORGE LORD ----- End Included Message ----- From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Oct 11 11:19:17 1995 Date: Wed, 11 Oct 95 13:16:38 CDT From: tim Chester To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Call For Papers Annual Meetings of the Southwest Social Science Association--To be held in March of 1996 in Houston Texas. Session Title: Emotions, Rationality, and Decision-making: Developing Trends in Symbolic Interaction and Postmodern Discourses Subject Matter: Recent developments in Postmodern and Symbolic Interaction theories have challenged conventional views which conceptualized the self as a rationally self-interested maximizer of utility. These new trends have largely attempted to incorporate emotions, habitual behaviors, and cognitive patterns into a more holistic view of the human person. This session seeks to explore these new developments (as well as both linear and non-linear models of the self), and discuss how they may fill gaps in the social psychological body of literature. Organizer and Chair: Timothy M. Chester Department of Sociology Texas A&M University College Station, Texas 77845-4351 (409) 862-1548 (Office) (409) 862-4657 (Fax) TMC7049@TAMVM1.TAMU. EDU (Email) Those interested in presenting a paper during this session should submit a two to four page abstract to the organizer by October 15, 1995. Completed papers will not be necessary until March of 1996. ***************************************** *Timothy M. Chester * *Department of Sociology * *Texas A&M University * *College Station Texas 77845-4351 * *(409) 862-1548 (Office) * *(409) 862-4057 (fax) * *tmc7049@tamvm1.tamu.edu (email) * ***************************************** From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Oct 11 14:00:34 1995 Date: Wed, 11 Oct 95 15:57:18 CDT From: TMC7049@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU To: social-theory@mailbase.ac.uk The call for papers which was sent earlier has an incorrect date for submission s. The deadline (technically) is october 31, 1995, but submissions will be acc epted until the week of Thanksgiving. Best, Tim From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 13 06:45:59 1995 Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 09:40:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: theory/methods position (fwd) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 08:43:42 EDT From: shelly@OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU Subject: theory/methods position Ohio University Electronic Communication To: Remote Addressee ( _mx%"methods@unmvma.unm.edu" ) From: Robert Shelly Dept: Sociology & Anthropo logy SHELLY Tel No: 614 593-1369 Subject: theory/methods position To list members. The attached position description was released yesterday. If you have students qualified for either position, or you are qualified, or you have a friend who is qualified, this notice is of interest to you. Bob Shelly OHIO UNIVERSITY - The Department of Sociology and Anthropology invites applications for two positions beginning Fall 1996. The first position is for an Assistant Professor who must be able to teach sections of classical and contemporary social theory, and who should have at least one other strength in a traditional area of sociology that the department needs (e.g., stratification, demography, mass media, work, religion, education, organization, aging, urban, rural, and development). The second position, rank open, is for an individual with strong training and skills in quantitative methods. This person is expected to take an active and important role in the teaching and mentoring of research methods, as well as have teaching and research strength in one of the areas of department need listed above. All faculty must teach at the lower division, upper division, and graduate levels. Teaching load is two courses per term, and all faculty are expected to maintain a strong balance between excellence in teaching and research. We are a financially healthy, selective admission, "best buy" beautiful public ivy with a strong emphasis on advising and quality education at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Located in a traditional college town since 1804, Ohio University is a Carnegie Research II doctoral institution, with a strong library and journal collection. We already have impressive strengths in criminology, social psychology gender studies, and qualitative research, and seek to bolster complementary core areas of sociology. Pay and benefits are very competitive, minimum $35,000, and faculty have the opportunity to teach summers and in our unique Honors Tutorial College major in sociology. Please note which position you are applying form, and enclose a cover letter, c.v., letters of reference and any material available showing excellence in teaching to Sociology Search Committee, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 45701-2979. Review of applications will begin January 3, 1996. Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 13 13:40:54 1995 Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 14:56:24 -0500 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: cbrown@siu.edu (Charles M. Brown) Subject: WWW sight Socgrad: Someone had mentioned a WWW sight that looked interesting for Sociology. I thought I had saved the message, but it looks as if I deleted it. Would the person who sent the original message please post it again to my e-mail address? It would be most appreciated. Thanks. Chuck- ????????????????????????????????????????? ?? Charles M. Brown ?? "In this last of meeting places ?? Department of Sociology ?? We grope together ?? Southern Illinois University ?? And avoid speech ?? Carbondale, IL 62901 ?? Gathered on this beach ?? (618) 453-2494 ?? of the tumid river" ?? e-mail (cbrown@siu.edu) ?? T.S. Eliot/The Hollow Men ????????????????????????????????????????? From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 15 04:25:59 1995 From: JGGSO@jazz.ucc.uno.edu Date: 15 Oct 1995 06:19:46 -0600 (CST) Subject: Qualita VS Quantita To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Can anyone out there clarify the differences between the quantitative Paradigm of social science research and the qualitative paradigm in terms of the nature of social phenomena, the nature of knowledge and the nature of human beings? Thanks jggso From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 15 15:02:52 1995 Date: Sun, 15 Oct 1995 17:54:57 -0400 (EDT) From: thomas conroy Subject: Re: Qualita VS Quantita To: JGGSO@jazz.ucc.uno.edu On 15 Oct 1995 JGGSO@jazz.ucc.uno.edu wrote: > Can anyone out there clarify the differences between the quantitative > Paradigm of social science research and the qualitative paradigm in terms > of the nature of social phenomena, the nature of knowledge and the nature > of human beings? Thanks jggso > At the great risk of oversimplifying, I'll take a stab at this: re: The Nature of Social Phenomena Quant Approach: Social phenomena recur in mechanically patterned ways, and are thus available for quantitative specification. Qual Approach: Social phenomena are contingent, contextually dependant, meaning laden "realities," which are understandable only via some form of ("thick") description ex. social norms = sui generis influences on behavior (quant) or = always a matter of local interpretation (qual) re: The Nature of Knowledge Quant Approach: Positivist/Realist scientific knowledge, stressing either "laws" or "mechanisms," provides the model and criteria for the assessment of all other forms of knowledge Qual Approach: Interpreted knowledge, which is contingent on, among other factors, purpose, context, interpretive standpoint of the knowledge constructor, etc. Positivism = one of many possible interpretive standpoints ex. theory = generic description of systematically organized statments that allows for causal explanation and prediction (quant.) or = description of HOW (social) reality works (based on taxonomic accounts, typologies, procedural respecification) and accounting for the sensibility of a particular interpretation (qual.) re: The "Nature" (sic) of Human Beings Quant Approach: Human Nature is biologically/genetically based though environmentally modifiable; there are "essential" qualities to be uncovered. Qual Approach: Human Nature is socially constructed; Such an assumption holds that patterns of activity are not "essential," but rather, are arrangements which evolve, or are imposed, over time ex. Social Categories = biologically based determiners (i.e., race, gender, of behavior (quant.) or ethnicity, intelligence, etc.) arbitrarily selected, culturally based social sorting instruments (qual.) I recognize that my characterizations are rather extreme and that, in actuality, most approaches are more complex and fall somewhere in between; I am simply trying to highlight some basic conceptual differences so as to answer the question as it has been formulated. Tom conroyt@acs.bu.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 15 17:39:23 1995 Date: Sun, 15 Oct 1995 20:34:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Laura Kirks To: socgrad Subject: rejection letters > Ever feel like doing this? > > > > Dear Mr. Kennelly: > > Thank you for your letter of April 17. After careful > consideration I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept > your refusal to offer me employment with your firm. > > This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving > an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a > varied and promising field of canidates it is impossible for me > to accept all refusals. > > Despite Forgan's outstanding qualifications and previous > experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection > does not meet with my needs at this time. Therefore, I will > initiate employment with your firm immediately following > graduation. I look forward to seeing you then. > > Best of luck in rejecting future canidates. > > Sincerely, > > Anthony T. Tiger > > Kellogg '87 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 05:51:16 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 08:45:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Cassell To: "Charles M. Brown" Subject: Re: WWW sight On Fri, 13 Oct 1995, Charles M. Brown wrote: > Someone had mentioned a WWW sight that looked interesting for Sociology. I > thought I had saved the message, but it looks as if I deleted it. Would the > person who sent the original message please post it again to my e-mail > address? It would be most appreciated. > > Thanks. > > > Chuck- > Don't have the original message, but here's the URL http://www.socioweb.com/~markbl/socioweb Best, Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 06:23:10 1995 by almaak.usc.edu (8.6.12/8.6.7+ucs) Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 06:21:44 -0700 (PDT) From: James Beniger To: JGGSO@jazz.ucc.uno.edu Subject: Re: Qualita VS Quantita The quantitative paradigm assumes that social action can be understood by independent observers; the qualitative paradigm assumes that social action can be understood only by those who participate in that action. By any reasonable definition of "understanding," of course, both paradigms are valuable. Enlightenment comes through the understanding of the ways in which the results of each paradigm are not identical. ******* On 15 Oct 1995 JGGSO@jazz.ucc.uno.edu wrote: > Can anyone out there clarify the differences between the quantitative > Paradigm of social science research and the qualitative paradigm in terms > of the nature of social phenomena, the nature of knowledge and the nature > of human beings? Thanks jggso > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 14:32:11 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 14:33:48 -0800 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: lichter@nicco.sscnet.ucla.edu (Michael I. Lichter) Subject: Re: Qualita VS Quantita >On 15 Oct 1995 JGGSO@jazz.ucc.uno.edu wrote: >> Can anyone out there clarify the differences between the quantitative >> Paradigm of social science research and the qualitative paradigm in terms >> of the nature of social phenomena, the nature of knowledge and the nature >> of human beings? Thanks jggso This sounds like an undergrad exam question to me, one that should have read something like "how do assumptions about [your list of "natures" here] differ between large sample survey research and ethnography or participant observation" (although that is also overly broad). There is no "qualitative paradigm" and no "quantitative paradigm" in social research, and not just because "paradigm" is a little too grand. "Qualitative" and "quantitative" are classes of methods. Methods do embody theoretical positions, but there are many methods which fall in each of these categories, and some which cross-cut them. Experimental social psychology, for instance, is observational in data collection but extensively employs quantitative methods in data analysis. Michael -- Michael Lichter UCLA Department of Sociology From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 14:56:23 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 95 16:52 EST To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: "David L. Brunsma 219-631-3912" Subject: Qual and Quan Thanks Michael! I was gonna speak up, but you hit the nail on the head. This tendency in our discipline to dichotomize these methods into competing approaches is 1) crazy; 2) extremely unconducive to social scientific research as a very important endeavor. Kind of like the "other" dichotomy, that of "Oh, I'm doing a theoretical piece, not an empirical one?" - What's this all about? As if theory is divorced from empirical observation. Nuts. Dave Brunsma University of Notre Dame From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 15:30:13 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 17:26:03 -0500 (CDT) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: qual quan (fwd) To: Sociology Graduate Students Just a quick though... It is, in my opinion, possible to say that a student's thesis is "Theoretical" or "Empirical" if looked at closely. For example, the student might simply take an existing theory and collect data to attempt to support or refute it. Since this student's work would have focused on the collection and analysis of data, some might call it "Empirical" work. On the other side of the coin, a second student might take an existing set of data, and approach it from a theoretical perspective that they have developed themselves. This student's work could be characterized as "theoretical" since they have spent a great deal of effort focusing on the creation and structure of their new model. This is NOT an attempt to say that all social research can be placed into one of these types. Instead, it is an attempt to explain why SOME work can be charaterized in this manner. SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 17:32:14 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 95 19:29 EST To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: "David L. Brunsma 219-631-3912" Subject: Theory/Empirical This discussion brings me back to the time when I was told that the theory/empirical divide was unwarranted and just plain wrong because it is impossible for theory to be divorced from empirical observations. I wonder what people think here. See to be two things here: 1. Is there such a thing as non-theoretical empiricism? 2. Is there such a thing as non-emirical theory? I think we'd do good to be careful and not answer this one feet first, but to think about this first. If empirical means "based on what we observe" and theoretical refers to "an explanation of a relationship between two or more things"... then what do people think about these issues? Dave Brunsma University of Notre Dame From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 18:07:56 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 95 21:06 EDT From: "Jetaway Dave" Subject: Re: Qualita VS Quantita To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU >re: The "Nature" (sic) of Human Beings >Quant Approach: Human Nature is biologically/genetically based > though environmentally modifiable; there are > "essential" qualities to be uncovered. >Qual Approach: Human Nature is socially constructed; Such an > assumption holds that patterns of activity > are not "essential," but rather, are > arrangements which evolve, or are imposed, over time I must disagree with this portion. As a quick example, much of the 'essentialist' feminist theory and research is heavily qualititative. On the other hand, social interactionists quite happily use quantitative approaches. Jetaway Dave From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 18:31:28 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 21:24:46 -0400 (EDT) From: thomas conroy Subject: Re: Theory/Empirical To: "David L. Brunsma 219-631-3912" While it is true that, ideally, and perhaps most frequently, sociological work is both theoretical and empirical(methodological), though perhaps not in equal measures, I am not yet convinced that it must always be so. For example, when theory becomes so pure and grandly abstracted, it ceases to be directly about any possible empirical world and becomes something about itself or about other theories. Conversely, I've seen my share of studies, such as evaluation studies (though certainly, not just those), in which the forms of explanation were so low level (in spite of useful, factual information) so as to be suspiciously offering no real theory at all (other than perhaps a slightly refined common sense account). I guess, David, I would challenge your definition of theory; I'd require theory to be a bit more abstract and systematic. How abstract, though, that's another question. Also, ethnomethodology, and other forms of sociologizing which derive, in part, from either Wittgensteinian analysis or phenomenology, claim a certain "indifference" to theory, while remaining undoubtedly empirical. For the most part, though, theory without empiricism is rather sterile and empiricism without theory risks meaninglessness. On Mon, 16 Oct 1995, David L. Brunsma 219-631-3912 wrote: > This discussion brings me back to the time when I was told that > the theory/empirical divide was unwarranted and just plain wrong > because it is impossible for theory to be divorced from empirical > observations. I wonder what people think here. See to be two > things here: > 1. Is there such a thing as non-theoretical empiricism? > 2. Is there such a thing as non-emirical theory? > I think we'd do good to be careful and not answer this one feet > first, but to think about this first. If empirical means > "based on what we observe" and theoretical refers to "an > explanation of a relationship between two or more things"... > then what do people think about these issues? > Dave Brunsma > University of Notre Dame > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 16 18:35:14 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 21:27:27 -0400 (EDT) From: thomas conroy Subject: Re: Qualita VS Quantita To: Jetaway Dave On Mon, 16 Oct 1995, Jetaway Dave wrote: > >re: The "Nature" (sic) of Human Beings > > >Quant Approach: Human Nature is biologically/genetically based > > though environmentally modifiable; there are > > "essential" qualities to be uncovered. > > >Qual Approach: Human Nature is socially constructed; Such an > > assumption holds that patterns of activity > > are not "essential," but rather, are > > arrangements which evolve, or are imposed, over time > > I must disagree with this portion. As a quick example, much of the > 'essentialist' feminist theory and research is heavily qualititative. On the > other hand, social interactionists quite happily use quantitative approaches. > You are right. Good point. Tom From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 17 00:09:32 1995 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 00:10:37 -0800 To: thomas conroy , "David L. Brunsma 219-631-3912" From: lichter@nicco.sscnet.ucla.edu (Michael I. Lichter) Subject: Re: Theory/Empirical It's impossible to avoid being theoretical, what's more difficult is being consciously and coherently theoretical. A "purely quantitative" paper is still going to have plenty of theory built into it; your measures are generally going to be proxies for things (that is, you have a theory that says that X can stand for Y), and the hypothesis you are testing (and "purely quantitative" papers are almost always testing hypotheses) are surely theoretical. What is usually referred to as an "atheoretical" paper is really one where the author makes no coherent attempt to pull together the theoretical bits scattered through his or her work and make something bigger out of it. It's pretty difficult to avoid being empirical, too. While we do talk about ideas that are not empirically testable (concepts in the sociology of knowledge, epistemology), most of the concepts we work with were derived from observation of empirical reality somewhere down the line, which makes them at least indirectly testable. Further, I don't remember reading any "theoretical" papers or books -- works whose main purpose is to compare, contrast, and critically evaluate sociological theory -- which do not at least make reference to empirical examples for support of their arguments. I do think that this kind of work is best done in the context of a specific empirical research which can be used to test and develop theory; otherwise you risk venturing into areas that are neither empirical nor sociological. I must admit that I do resent people who define their work as "theory", implicitly opposing it to empirical work. This is a kind of caste distinction, between the peasants (empirical sociologists) and the lords (theorists), the lords consuming the humble work of the peasants and producing, in its place, beauty (theoretical order). The attraction of people at this "level" to the methods and perspectives of literary criticism (also appealing to interpretive sociologists for different reasons) should not be surprising. I'm probably off-base here, but what the hell. Michael -- Michael Lichter UCLA Department of Sociology From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 17 05:47:11 1995 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 08:46:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Dale Albers To: Jetaway Dave Subject: Re: Qualita VS Quantita On Mon, 16 Oct 1995, Jetaway Dave wrote: > >re: The "Nature" (sic) of Human Beings > > >Quant Approach: Human Nature is biologically/genetically based > > though environmentally modifiable; there are > > "essential" qualities to be uncovered. > > >Qual Approach: Human Nature is socially constructed; Such an > > assumption holds that patterns of activity > > are not "essential," but rather, are > > arrangements which evolve, or are imposed, over time > > I must disagree with this portion. As a quick example, much of the > 'essentialist' feminist theory and research is heavily qualititative. On the > other hand, social interactionists quite happily use quantitative approaches. > > > Jetaway Dave > Hmmm, I don't think I get your point Dave? I think I could say yes perhaps that is the case, but..........? With thanks. D Albers From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 17 06:02:31 1995 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 07:59 EST To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: "David L. Brunsma 219-631-3912" Subject: theory/empirical I am fully aware of grounded theory, but you're not suggesting that this too is divorced from empirical reality are you? Dave Brunsma University of Notre Dame From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 17 07:34:35 1995 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 10:28:15 EDT From: Marni Hancock Organization: Emory University - Atlanta, Georgia, USA Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE To: SOCGRAD@UCSD.EDU Sorry to bother the whole list with this, but I need to unsubscribe but something changed about the way my address is perceived by the listserv computer and when I try to do it myself I get a bounced message telling me I'm not subscribed. Would one of the listowners please take me off the list? Thank you Marni Hancock socaw059@emuvm1.bitnet or socaw059@emuvm1.cc.emory.edu From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 17 07:47:02 1995 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 10:45 EDT From: "Jetaway Dave" Subject: Re: Qualita VS Quantita To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU >> >re: The "Nature" (sic) of Human Beings >> >> >Quant Approach: Human Nature is biologically/genetically based >> > though environmentally modifiable; there are >> > "essential" qualities to be uncovered. >> >> >Qual Approach: Human Nature is socially constructed; Such an >> > assumption holds that patterns of activity >> > are not "essential," but rather, are >> > arrangements which evolve, or are imposed, over time >> >> I must disagree with this portion. As a quick example, much of the >> 'essentialist' feminist theory and research is heavily qualititative. On >the >> other hand, social interactionists quite happily use quantitative >approaches. >> >> >> Jetaway Dave >> >Hmmm, I don't think I get your point Dave? I think I could say yes >perhaps that is the case, but..........? All I was saying was that quantitative research is not necessarily based on classification and measurement of biological / genetic differences. True, much is, especially in sub-fields such as demography and sadly, some portions of my own specialty, criminology. More generally, choice of theoretical paradigm does not dictate, though may heavily influence, methodological choices. Jetaway Dave From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 17 14:00:29 1995 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 16:28:09 EDT From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: graduate sociological student organizations (fwd) To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY Dear Socgrads: I expect that you can help Ida and the grad students at U/Hawai'i... TR Young T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- 16 Oct 1995 09:46:15 -1000 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 09:46:02 -1000 From: Ida Yoshinaga To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: graduate sociological student organizations Hello PSN networkers, I'm a graduate student in the University of Hawai'i Graduate Sociological Student Association (GSSA). This semester, we're trying to rethink the goals and functions of our student organization and could use some ideas from graduate students and/or faculty in other sociology departments. How are your local sociological student organizations structured; what are their relationships with faculty, students, and departmental administrations? How democratic or representative are your student organizations, and how is this accomplished? What kind of goals or priorities do they set? I'd be happy for any ideas, information, etc. Please e-mail me at ida@hawaii.edu. Thanks, Ida Yoshinaga From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Oct 19 06:03:51 1995 Newsgroups: alt.sci.sociology Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 08:58:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: Extension of Deadline for 1996 SSS Program Submissions (fwd) FYI. The meeting will be held in Richmond, April 11-14, 1996. Individual paper submissions consist of three copies of: a short abstract, and extended abstract for review (<=750 words) and a submission form (available in the spring/summer issue of The Southern Sociologist). Best, Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 07:19:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Don Bogie To: sssann@ripken.oit.unc.edu Subject: Extension of Deadline for 1996 SSS Program Submissions SPECIAL 1996 SSS PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT The deadline for submissions for the 1996 meeting of the Southern Sociological Society has been extended to November 15, 1995. Procedures and forms for submitting individual papers and complete sessions (panels, workshops, roundtables, etc.) can be found in the spring/summer and fall issues of The Southern Sociologist. For additional information, contact: William D. Lawson, Program Co-Chair, College of Arts and Sciences, P.O. Box 271, Alabama State University, Montgomery, Alabama 36107-0271, Telephone 334-229-4316, FAX 334-293-4972, E-Mail wlaw@asu.alasu.edu; or Donald W. Bogie, Program Co-Chair, Center for Demographic and Cultural Research, 800 Library Tower, Auburn University at Montgomery, Alabama 36117-3596, Telephone 334-244-3388, FAX 334-244-3762, E-Mail bogie@tango.aum.edu. We welcome your participation in the 1996 program. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Oct 19 10:25:04 1995 From: Wendy Jorgensen Subject: unsubscribe from list To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 13:23:59 -0400 (EDT) Like Marni Hancock, I'm having problems unsubscribing from your list. I tried once but keep the getting the mail. Could you please take me off the list, at least for the time being? Thank you - Wendy Jorgensen (wjorgens@enc.org) > > Sorry to bother the whole list with this, but I need to unsubscribe > but something changed about the way my address is perceived by the > listserv computer and when I try to do it myself I get a bounced > message telling me I'm not subscribed. Would one of the listowners > please take me off the list? Thank you > Marni Hancock socaw059@emuvm1.bitnet or socaw059@emuvm1.cc.emory.edu > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 22 06:45:37 1995 Date: Sun, 22 Oct 95 08:04:12 EDT From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Organization: Central Michigan University Subject: Mini-Lecture #33: Crime in the USA To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY In this second part of a series of lectures on Crime and Social Justice, I will do two things: first, map out the nature and extend of five forms of crime now besetting our society and, at the same time, locate each form of crime in the larger structure of our society. A. Forms of Crime: As with all efforts to define, delimit and distinguish, forms of crime overlap. What is offered here is a generalized model which can be used for lecture purposes to help those new to criminology get some idea of the difference in law-making, law enforcement and social response to crime. 1. Corporate crime: Corporate crime is that crime committed on behalf of a formal organization. It is not the crimes of particular persons but rather the crimes of officers in a firm or agency. Most crim text conflat corporate crime with white collar crime and, indeed there are commonalities. But as you will see when I treat white collar crime, there are significant differences, ignorance of which cripples the efforts to move toward a just and peaceful society. Ron Kramer at Western Michigan University and Ray Michalowski at Norther Arizona University have taken the lead in creating a separate body of knowledge about corporate crime as such. Eitzen and his co- authors have treated corporate crime but refers to it as 'elite deviance' and combines it with political crime. To his everlasting credit, Sutherland focussed upon corporate crime at a time when everyone else was talking about bank robbery, murder and social banditry. Your generation of criminologists has much to do to repair and redeem the knowledge process to social justice and domestic tranquility. I give you great success in your endeavor. Victims of corporate crime: corporate crime is pointed toward workers, consumers, the environment, the democratic process, the fiscal and monetary regulations of the modern state and, in the case of international trade, against the economic development of 3rd world countries. Forms of corporate crime: Most of the kinds of corporate crime are not listed in the Uniform Crime Reports of the FBI nor are they found in Part I and Part II crime listing which are used to measure the degree of criminality of a society. Yet, as we shall see, together corporate crimes result in more deaths and theft of more money than all other forms of crime. They include violation of worker safety laws, minimum wage laws, job security contracts, robbery of retirement funds, addition of dangerous additives, sale of dangerous products, violations of warranties and guarantees, price fixing, collusion in bidding, pollution of land, water and air, dumping of toxic wastes in poor neighborhoods, evasion of taxes, violation of tariff agreements, violation of currency laws, violations of election laws and purchase of elected officials, illegal searches and seizures by security personnel, illegal invasions of privacy, corporate espionage, and conspiracies to bankrupt small competitors. Corporate crime is engineered by the best and brightest graduates of the biggest and best graduate schools of the major universities in the USA. Control theories, biological theories, labelling theories and theories of child development do not touch the dynamics of corporate crime. I will discuss theories in criminology in another of this series. 2. White Collar Crime: White collar crime involves betrayal of trust by a person in a protected social relationships. Doctors prescribe unnecessary operations; lawyers raid trust funds, managers harass male and female employees for sexual favors, top officials award contracts to firms of which they are secret owner, professors use university facilities for private business [those in engineering, business, and computing science are particularly adept at convert- ing public property to private profit. Differential Association theory, labelling theory, theories of child development, culture of poverty theses, and biological theories do not begin to explain most white collar crime. One should note that much white collar crime is directed against the firm or business in which the theft is employed. The point of white collar crime in not to enrich the corporation or its share-holders as is the case in corporate crime, but rather to enrich private persons at the expense of those who trust and pay them. 3. Street Crime: Most of you know too well the nature of street crime; rape, murder, assualt, theft, robbery, burglary and a thousand and one ways to get money from unknown others with out working for it. This is the form of crime which takes up most space in crim texts...and gets the most attention in criminal justice systems. But, in terms of money stolen and people dead, it is a low-tech and most primitive form of crime. I will discuss theories of street crime later but for now, it would pay you to reflect on the kinds of power used in each kind of crime; the short version is that those who commit street crime have only physical power with which to realize their desires for wealth, status and social esteem. Those in other forms of crime have other kinds of power and seldom resort to street crime; it doesn't pay enough. 4. Organized Crime. Organized crime produces and distributes those goods and services defined as sacred supplies. One has to think cross culturally in order to understand organized crime. Most societies use sex, drugs, violence, gambling and pornography to solve solidarity problems. Organized crime is simply the commodification of such supplies. It is forbidden in order to maintain those dramas of the Holy which depend upon these supplies for the production of ecstacy. Durkheim explained much of this in his work on the Elementary form of Religious Life. Any anthropologist could tell you of the history of the uses of gambling, pornography, sexuality and organized violence as part and parcel of the solidarity activity of a society; in secularized societies, sacred supplies become market commodities. In market societies in fiscal crises, the state takes over the production and distribution of sacred supplies and uses the profits to supplement taxation. Sometime before the academic year is over, I will give you a much more detailed explanation of a theory of corruption and de-sanct ification but for now, it is enough to say that organized crime sell those things which, in pre-modern societies, are used to solve the problem of solidarity. E. Political Crime: Political crime is here defined as those activities which exclude people from collective discourse and moral agency. Victims of Political Crime: the victims of political crime are almost always women, children, poor people, workers, immigrants, people of color, and 3rd world peoples. Agents of political crime are usually employees of the state but often private groups which use economic, social and physical power to prevent people from active participation in the programs and policies which structure their lives. Forms of Political Crime: I list two major forms but such cate- gories are tricky; for now, just think about the crimes of the state against its own people. Jeffrey Ian Ross has edited two volumes of writings on State Crime; the first one discusses state crime around the world; the second one discusses the control of state crime in each country. I have the chapter on Controlling State Crime in the USA. An early version of it is the PSN Archives under my name...matter of fact, there are a lot of my articles archived by PSN...you can access them with gopher. The second form of political crime is that crime committed against the state. Again, there are two forms: crimes done against repres- sive states in the effort to achieve more democratic forms and 2), crimes committed against democratic states, usually by those who were privileged in patriarchal, ethnocentric, feudal, slave or religious social formation. The Bombing of the Federal Building is a case in point: it was informed in part by racism, by sexism and by religious bigotry as well as some elements of protest against the tax system of the USA. Then too, there is Genocide. It is state crime. The most visible form of genocide was, of course, the systematic effort to kill Jewish people before and during WWII. The US Army and state militias practiced genocide against Native American Indians. Genocide is rampant in the former Socialist Yugoslavia; mostly Christians killing and raping Muslims. In Central and South America, genocide continues. The Mayan Indians are systematically murdered in the Yucatan peninsula; landlords pay a bounty for indigenous people in Brazil and elsewhere in order to clear the land for ranching, lumbering and commercial farming. B. Magnitudes and Comparisons: Deaths and Dollars. What follows is a very conservative estimate of the magnitude of the difference in the harmful effects of the various forms of crime listed above. You would be safe in telling your students that corporate crime kills about 10 times as many people as do street thugs; that corporate criminals steal about 20 times as much as do all the burglars, robbers, theives and shoplifters combined. KIND OF CRIME NUMBER DEAD AMOUNT STOLEN Corporate Crime 300,000 $300 Billion White Collar Crime 50,000 100 Billion Organized Crime 5,000 + 200 Billion Street Crime 25,000 + 75 Billion Political crime is hard to measure both in lives lost and wealth stolen or destroyed...when practiced by high tech military, it becomes far greater than all other kinds of crime. It makes all other forms of crime look like unorganized and petty crime. The Gulf War killed tens of thousands and destroyed billions in property...all to protect the oil reserves of some six multinational petroleum companies. The war in the former Yugoslavia exceeds all crimes against persons and property in all of the rest of Europe. C. Conclusion: When one counts up all forms of crime in the USA, one can begin to see that crime is much more serious than most crimin- ologists and most government officials would have us believe. The FBI systematically over-counts street crime during federal hearings on its budget...state officials systematically under count corp- orate and political crime since they are direct beneficiaries. The USA and the effort to retain racist, class and gender inequalities promotes far more crime than is found in most other states; Detroit alone had more murders than all of Canada. Toronto a city about the same size as Detroit, had 10 murders in 1991 while Detroit had over 1500. It is not that Canadians have better genes, better childhood socialization, better physiology or better controls against crime; Canada is a relatively low-crime society because of is structural features...I will conclude the series with a mini-lecture on Structural Features of Low Crime Societies. Next week, I will go to Columbus, Ohio for the American Humanist Sociology meetings and hear six of my grad students from Texas Woman's University present papers...as you may imagine, I am fairly delighted with them...all told 8 of the 10 students in my last grad seminar will have given scholarly papers at meetings; that may have been the best grad seminar I've ever had. The following week, I will return to socgrad network and discuss in some detail, the social location of crime. I will then discuss some eight different social control systems and try to show you which kinds of crimes; which kinds of people and which kinds of justice are found in each one...'tis a complex task...stay tuned. TR Young T.R.YOUNG@CMICH.EDU From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 22 10:35:33 1995 Date: Sun, 22 Oct 95 13:16:57 EDT From: Alan Davidson Subject: info. on requirements/funding To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU This is a request for some national data on two issues which have recently come up here at The University of Connecticut. First, there has been a proposal here to have funded students take six credit hours per semester up to the time that they have successfully defended their dissertation proposals -- i.e., ABD. Of course, this is usually beyond the 24 or 30 credits required by the graduate school for the Ph.D. Are there other Universities which have similar requirements? Second, from 1989 to 1995, the Research Foundation made available a 1 time $2500 fellowship to eligible graduate students (with income limitations, and with some limitations on extent of employment) who had their proposals approved by the Area Review Committee, and had passed their general exams. Part of the beauty of the program (especially from the standpoint of graduate students) was not so much the amount of money, but the fact that this money was distributed by the Research Foundation and not individual departments (your Major Advisor and Department Head had to sign the application form, but allocation decisions were made beyond the departmental level). This Fall, there was an attempt to rein in the program budgetwise, and one of the implications was the awarding of this money to departments as "block grants" and the end of this program's status as an "entitlement." (These were the terms used). After much graduate student and departmental uproar, this money was restored to the level distributed last year for this year, with future discussion over "the future and shape of the program" to be discussed by administrators, faculty, and graduate students to occur this year. Again, I would be interested in information from other departments with respect to institutional funds available for dissertation-level students. Fortunately, some of the trustees who come from businesses where "employee incentives can boost performance" are actually the allies of graduate students in this fight. Thank you for any information, Alan Davidson This Fall, From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 22 18:19:33 1995 From: Melissa R Herman Subject: Funny To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU (socgrad network) Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 18:18:49 -0700 (PDT) > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." > --Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of > science, 1949 > > "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." > --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 > > "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked > with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is > a fad that won't last out the year." > --The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957 > > "But what ... is it good for?" > --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, > 1968, commenting on the microchip. > > "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." > --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital > Equipment Corp., 1977 > > "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously > considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently > of no value to us." > --Western Union internal memo, 1876. > > "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who > would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" > --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for > investment in the radio in the 1920s. > > "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn > better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." > --A Yale University management professor in response to Fred > Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. > (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.) > > "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" > --H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927. > > "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and > not Gary Cooper." > --Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in > "Gone With The Wind." > > "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports > say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like > you make." > --Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' > Cookies. > > "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." > --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962. > > "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." > --Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895. > > "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. > The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." > --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives > for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads. > > "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, > even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about > funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay > our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So > then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't > need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" > --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get > Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal > computer. > > "Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and > reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum > against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge > ladled out daily in high schools." > --1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's > revolutionary rocket work. > > "You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across > all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. > You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an > unalterable condition of weight training." > --Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" > problem by inventing Nautilus. > > "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? > You're crazy." > --Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project > to drill for oil in 1859. > > "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." > --Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University,1929. > > "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." > --Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole > Superieure de Guerre. > > "Everything that can be invented has been invented." > --Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, > 1899. > > "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction". > --Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872 > > "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from > the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon". > --Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon- > Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873. > > "640K ought to be enough for anybody." > -- Bill Gates, 1981 > From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sun Oct 22 18:51:20 1995 Date: Sun, 22 Oct 95 21:47:29 EDT From: Alan Davidson To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Proposal hours in our University are non-credit classes, which we pay $40 (will be $42 next Fall) per semester to stay in the graduate school's computer and to pay for their warning notices, margin checkers, and what not. I may have not been clear beforehand. What I am talking about when I talk about credit hours is the requirement of individual departments to continue taking live flesh and blood courses until one is ABD. I value the input I have received thus far. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 23 04:27:11 1995 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 07:21:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: S&TS Postdoctoral Associateship Available 1996­1997 (fwd) FYI -- Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 20 OCT 1995 08:55:25 +0200=20 From: Lillian Isacks Newgroups: alt.sci.sociology Subject: S&TS Postdoctoral Associateship Available 1996=AD1997=20 Science & Technology Studies Postdoctoral Associateship Available 1996=AD1997 The Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University invites applications for a one-year postdoctoral associateship. The associate will be expected to carry out research on the social implications of changing knowledge in the life sciences, focusing on one or more of the following topics:=20 =80 historical, philosophical, or social studies of scientific change =80 communication and the use of scientific knowledge =80 gender, women, and biology =80 biology and the legal order =80 environmental change In addition, the associate will participate in training graduate students who (along with the associate) are funded by a National Science Foundation training grant. =20 The associateship, for the 1996-1997 academic year, carries a stipend of $30,660 plus health benefits. The associate must have completed the Ph.D. by September 1996. Applications, which should include a curriculum vitae (including list of publications), three letters of recommendation, and brief outline of proposed research, should be sent by 15 February 1996 to: Postdoctoral Search Committee, Department of Science and Technology Studies, 726 University Avenue, Cornell, Ithaca, NY 14850-3995.=20 Telephone: (607) 255-6234. Fax: (607) 255-0616. E-mail:=20 li10@cornell.edu. Homepage: http://www.sts.cornell.edu/Lilly2.html.=20 Cornell is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 23 05:36:37 1995 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 08:30:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: The Qualitative Report (fwd) FYI - Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 14:51:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Jessica Fields To: uncsocgs@ripken.oit.unc.edu Subject: The Qualitative Report (fwd) Hello everyone, Sherryl forwards the post below. Hope to see you all October 26 at 3:00 for Judith Meece and Dwight Rogers's talk. We'll be in 113 Manning. E-mail me for more information if you'd like. Jessica -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Jessica Fields jfields@email.unc.edu Sociology UNC-Chapel Hill >>>The Qualitative Report >>>Nova Southeastern Univ., USA >>> >>>The Qualitative Report is an on-line journal devoted to writing and >>>discussion of and about qualitative research and critical inquiry. >>> >>>http://alpha.acast.nova.edu/nova/cwis/centers/ssss/index.html >>> >>>The Qualitative Report (ISSN 1052-0147) is devoted to writing and >>>discussion of and about qualitative and critical inquiry. The >>>Qualitative Report serves as a forum and sounding board for researchers, >>>scholars, practitioners, and other reflective-minded individuals who are >>>passionate about ideas, methods, and analyses permeating qualitative and >>>critical study. These pages are open to a variety of forms: original, >>>scholarly activity such as qualitative research studies, critical >>>commentaries, editorials, or debates concerning pertinent issues and >>>topics; news of networking and research possibilities; and other sorts >>>of journalistic shapes which may interest and pique readers. >>> >>>The Qualitative Report is published through Nova Southeastern University >>>in both printed and electronic forms. Print copy subscriptions are >>>$10.00 (U.S.) per volume. Electronic copies are free. >>> >>>Hard copy subscription requests and journal contributions should be >>>submitted to: Ron Chenail, Editor, The Qualitative Report, School of >>>Social and Systemic Studies, Nova Southeastern University, 3301 College >>>Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33314. The Qualitative Report can be >>>accessed via WWW. Point your Internet browser to the URL above. >>> >>>Electronic journal contributions can be e-mailed through the Internet to >>>ron@alpha.acast.nova.edu >>> >>> # # # >>> >>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ P A R t a l k - L ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sponsored by ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>>~~~~~~~~ The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies ~~~~~~~~~ >>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Cornell Center for the Environment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Cornell Local Government Program ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cornell University, Ithaca, New York ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 23 09:09:14 1995 From: Melissa R Herman Subject: the future of higher education To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU (socgrad network) Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 09:08:00 -0700 (PDT) Any opinions on this? THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY Columbia University professor Eli Noam sees a reversal in the historic direction of information flow: "In the past, people came to the information, which was stored at the university. In the future, the information will come to the people, wherever they are. What then is the role of the university? Will it be more than a collection of remaining physical functions, such as the science laboratory and football team? Will the impact of electronics on the university be like that of printing on the medieval cathedral, ending its central role in information transfer? Have we reached the end of the line of a model that goes back to Ninevah, more than 2500 years ago? Can we self-reform the university, or must things get much worse first?" (Science 13 Oct 95 p247) -- Melissa Herman manoki@leland.stanford.edu Department of Sociology Stanford University From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 23 10:12:19 1995 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 18:11:13 +0100 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Czerlinski@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de (Jean Czerlinski) Subject: Re: the future of higher education >Any opinions on this? > > >THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY >Columbia University professor Eli Noam sees a reversal in the historic >direction of information flow: "In the past, people came to the >information, which was stored at the university. In the future, the >information will come to the people, wherever they are. What then is the >role of the university? Will it be more than a collection of remaining >physical functions, such as the science laboratory and football team? One of the roles of universities-- their major role at first-- was to dispense information. Perhaps the large, state universities still think of this as their role. The liberal arts colleges, in contrast, always thought they were teaching people how to *think*, i.e. to effectively use the (ever vaster amounts of) information that one has. But the Marxists always said that universities are really there just to provide the illusion of merit-based certification for the sons and daughters of the capitalists. Some Neo-Marxists (among others) have said that in addition to certifying, universities help the elite build network connections with each other (e.g. "good ol' boys). And Rosabeth Moss Kanter has argued that graduating from a certain university is a signal of acceptance of certain values and adherance to certain norms (a signal which employers then use in hiring). Finally, there is no reason to assume that something that exists in society serves a function for society. It is, for example, often observed that once an organization is started, it tends to try to perpetuate itself, regardless of how "functional" it happens to be. In short, I am most unimpressed by Prof. Noam's claim. Sincerely, Jean Czerlinski rjean@ratio.mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 23 11:19:04 1995 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 11:18:05 -0800 To: Czerlinski@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de (Jean Czerlinski), socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: lichter@nicco.sscnet.ucla.edu (Michael I. Lichter) Subject: Re: the future of higher education Jean beat me to the punch (from Germany, no less), but I do want to underline that access to information is not what the university is about. It's not even primarily about knowledge (information processed and rendered useful). If it were, there would be no need for a university to be anything other than a large library. And contra the hype, libraries will continue to be our most important repositories of knowledge for some time to come. See Theodore Roszak's THE CULT OF INFORMATION, a good read. We can imagine alternative "deschooled" (see Ivan Illych, DESCHOOLING SOCIETY) societies where learning is continuous and goes on in all kinds of non-school settings, but these alternatives would have to be radically different than ours not only in this way, but also in the allocation of social rewards. Deschooling is possible, but given that the broad availability of books we have had for decades has not driven this change, I don't think universal Web acess is going to turn the tide (not in itself, anyway). Michael -- Michael Lichter UCLA Department of Sociology From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 23 13:43:26 1995 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 95 16:37:43 EDT From: Alan Davidson Subject: the Science report To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Given my experiences here, I can see the future downsizing of state Universities. One plank in our University's "strategic plan" is to investigate "distance learning" technologies. Actually, not to give away my age but these things might not be as new as we think -- anyone remember "sunrise semester" on your local television station. Or, has anyone seen the IBM commercial where two people are walking in some remote mountain village, dressed shabbily, speaking a foreign language, and talking about how he finally finished a Ph.D. at Indiana University without ever stepping foot on the campus thanks to IBM. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 23 14:47:11 1995 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 16:36:06 -0500 (CDT) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: The functions of Dysfunction To: Sociology Graduate Students Just another quick thought (that is what I seem to have when I read SOCGRAD) . . . Jean argues that simply because something exists within a society does not mean that it plays a function. She continues by saying that certain items, once introduced into society, tend to struggle to continue to exist. My question is this: If something where to be disfunctional is EVERY respect, it WOULD not continue to exist. But, isn't EVERYTHING which does exist in our social structure functional is SOME respect? What aspect of our system is ENTIRELY disfunctional? Gangs and the violence they enbody? There ARE functional reasons for the gangs to exist, otherwise they would not continue to be prevalant in our urban (and not so urban) centers. SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 23 15:07:06 1995 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 15:02:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Eileen Gieskes To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Statement of Purpose I am currently composing my statement of purpose for my grad school applications and would appreciate any input anyone might have in regards to length (1-2 pages, right?) and what it should include. Please send any suggestions directly to me at this address. Thank you ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Freedom is getting up happy and looking forward | Eileen Gieskes to the day ahead. Freedom is knowing that you | gieskese@pe.net can cope with and enjoy this day, and, very | gieskese@watmail.ucr.edu likely, tomorrow and tomorrow. | :) | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 24 11:02:44 1995 Date: Tue, 24 Oct 95 12:53:17 CDT From: "Michael O. Maume" Subject: help on American To: Recipients of list SOCGRAD This is an open request to anyone who might have inside info on the doctoral sociology program at American U. in Wash DC. Another grad student in my cohort is interested in applying there. Any help that any of you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. BTW, his interests are mainly in soc of law and crime. ********************************************* * Michael O. Maume * * Department of Sociology * * Louisiana State University * * Baton Rouge, LA 70803 * * (504) 388-1645 * ********************************************* From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 24 16:57:47 1995 Date: Tue, 24 Oct 95 19:52:07 EDT From: Alan Davidson Subject: Funding for dissertation level students To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU, aera-gsl@asuvm.inre.asu.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu Perhaps I was unclear in my previous posting, I am also interested in what mechanisms exist, if any at all, at various Universities for funding student's dissertations (besides teaching), and perhaps information as well on funds for graduate student travel to professional meetings. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Oct 25 10:25:35 1995 Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 18:24:01 +0100 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Czerlinski@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de (Jean Czerlinski) Subject: Re: The functions of Dysfunction >Jean argues that simply because something exists within a society does not >mean that it plays a function. She continues by saying that certain >items, once introduced into society, tend to struggle to continue to exist. >My question is this: >If something where to be disfunctional is EVERY respect, it WOULD not >continue to exist. But, isn't EVERYTHING which does exist in our social >structure functional is SOME respect? What aspect of our system is >ENTIRELY disfunctional? Gangs and the violence they enbody? There ARE >functional reasons for the gangs to exist, otherwise they would not >continue to be prevalant in our urban (and not so urban) centers. I hope other folks will try to answer this question, but here's my stab at it. Unfortunately I do not have most of my notes with me and so cannot give all the details I'd like to; I'm mostly working from memory. I will first discuss the generalities, and then I'll specifically answer Tricia's question. THE GENERALITIES First, what is functionalism? The standard conception of a functionalist explanation is an explanation that "accounts for the existence of a phenomenon or the carrying out of an action in terms of its consequences-- its contribution to maintaining a stable social whole" (from the _Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology_, which I highly recommend; I'll continue to draw on this dictionary below). This is the brand of functionalism first introduced by Durkheim (and, I think, the sort practiced by Parsons). Since then, many critiques have come along, some of which have tried to salvage functionalism. Robert Merton, for example, distinguished between the *manifest functions*-- the consequences intended by the participants-- and *latent functions*-- the consequences participants did not intend. The latent functions, he argued, are *not* necessarily benefecial to either the participants or society. (He has some classic examples which I can't remember at the moment.) In more modern terms, because of our *bounded rationality*, we can often do things that we think are helpful or in our interest but that end up being harmful. More recently, Arthur Stinchcombe has argued (e.g. in _Constructing Social Theories_) that functional explanations should really show how the results (e.g. benefits) produced by a phenomenon eventually feed back to maintain the phenomenon. The abstract example is a furnace with a thermostat: when the temperature is too high, the furnace is shut off, and when the temperature falls too low, the furnace is turned on, thus maintaining the observed *equilibrium* of temperature (the phenomenon to be explained). As a social example, one could imagine that if there were too few engineers, the pay and benefit of engineers would rise to attract more, and if there were too many, the pay would fall, maintaining the proper *equilibrium* number of engineers. Unlike most other funtionalist explanations, Stinchcombe's kind would describe the *causal processes* involved. (Note that *methodological individualists* would insist that this feedback loop must ultimately pass through individual decisions. Although it is a rare combination to be both a functionalist and an individualist, it is certainly possible.) There is another sort of critique that attacks the assumptions of functionalism so that it is more difficult to salvage. First, it is argued that societies cannot, unlike people, have *needs* as such. (See G.A. Cohen's rebuttal by positing "dispositional facts.") Second, even if they have some sort of need, there is no reason to assume something will spontaneously arise to meet that need. If they are met, a proper historical and causal explanation needs to be provided to explain how and why (see Anthony Giddens on this). For a more personal example, everyone needs food and shelter, but not everyone gets them every day. True, we would die if we didn't have certain minimal amounts, and we become brain-damaged or sick if we don't get slightly more than minimal, and life is still pretty miserable unless we get even somewhat more than that. Who decides, then, what is really "minimal"? Besides, I sure "need" a television set. Furthermore, consider the fact that any need can be met in a variety of ways, some of which are clearly better than others (others of which are harder to compare). I can fill my need for food with a few grains of rice or a McDonald's hamburger or a six-course meal. Just because all of these are "functional" does not mean they are all equally good and desirable. And, as Tricia pointed out, they may be disfunctional in some ways. TRICIA'S QUESTION Perhaps after the general discussion of functionalism, you have your own answer to Tricia's question. But I have some further ideas that don't come just from the general discussion. Tricia suggests her own version of functionalism where anything that exists in society must serve *someone's* needs, somehow. Recall that most brands of functionalism talk about serving society's needs. Tricia's version at least escapes this fault-- she's willing to consider competing interests-- but does not discuss intentionality (as Merton did) or the details of the feedback loop (as Stinchcombe did). Since functionalism began with inspiration from biology, let me also draw inspiration from biology for my critique. Biology already has a built-in, Stinchcombe-style feedback loop through the process of natural selection. But even then, you can be stuck with a historical accident like an appendix, which currently benefits no part of the body as far as medicine can determine. This is the effect of a time lag in getting rid of something when it's outlived it's usefulness-- and here we even have a feedback loop, though society doesn't always have one! A time lag can also work the other way, where something to fulfill a need has not yet developed. For example, humans tend to have a lot of back problems because we have not yet evolved the best sort of spine for our new, upright posture-- and perhaps we never will. Our spine is "good enough" to get us by, most of the time-- we don't immediately drop dead because of the occasional problems. (And so you can infer that I, unlike many other evolutionists, don't consider evolution to be sitting on the optimal fitness peaks.) One could imagine social analogies to these biological time-lags. But remember that social phenomena don't necessarily have a feed-back loop, which is built in to biology through natural selection! However, competing interests can make it so that even over the long-term an inefficiency or disequilibrium is forced to remain. We can end up with a situation in which no one is benefited, in which a phenomenon is completely disfunctional. Of course, this is almost impossible to do for a real-live case, but let me pose some hypothetical examples. One of the most famous ones is the prisoner's dilemma game, in which each person, by acting in their own best interest, creates a situation that is worse for all. The tragedy of the commons is another example. In both cases one could posit a functional "norm" arising to avoid these disasters, but such a norm does not always arise. Would Tricia say that the unhappy outcome was then functional for the individuals? (See Jon Elster for a very game-theoretic account of functionalism and the prisoner's dilemma and so on.) A similar, less well-known situation is in convention problems. (I forgot the exact phraseology.) For example, in the early 20th century, many Chinese families wanted to stop binding their daughter's feet. However, women who did not have their feet bound were essentially unmarriageable, so families still had to bind their daughter's feet. The foot-binding was bad for the women and no longer desired by either the families or even the husband, who needed a footbound wife only for status reasons. If NO women had bound feet, EVERYONE would be better off-- the husbands would then still be on equal status levels, too. But no one family or husband could change his practices without suffering severe consequences and ultimately not changing the fact of footbinding. So, tell me, for whom was footbinding functional?? For those interested, footbinding was finally ended when some Evangelists got their parishioners to sign public contracts that their daughters would not be foot-bound and, more importantly, that their sons would marry women who were not foot-bound. When many people agree to do this together, each one can avoid the potential losses of not following the convention. There are, I think, many other examples of things we must for silly reasons-- e.g. because everyone else is doing them-- and not because anyone in particular is benefitting from them. CONCLUSION So that's my rather long-winded answer. YES, I think it's not only possible but quite common that things (norms, institutions) exist that are functional for no one a) because there are lots of unintended consequences, b) because there's not always a feed-back loop, c) because there are time-lags in fulfilling functions even when there is a feed-back, d) because some games can lock us into situations that are bad for everyone. Finally, even in cases where something can be shown to be "functional", a) there are many other ways of meeting the hypothesized needs, some of which may well be far better, and b) there are many other definitions of what are the "real" needs that must be met. Um, I think that about sums it up. Perhaps I forgot a few things, but I've already said plenty. I look forward to being torn apart by y'all ;-) . Cheers, Jean rjean@ratio.mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Wed Oct 25 10:29:39 1995 Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 18:29:30 +0100 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Czerlinski@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de (Jean Czerlinski) Subject: clarification >However, competing interests can make it so that even over the long-term an >inefficiency or disequilibrium is forced to remain. We can end up with a >situation >in which no one is benefited, in which a phenomenon is completely >disfunctional. >Of course, this is almost impossible to do for a real-live case, but let >me pose ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What I meant was that it's almost impossible to PROVE, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a real-life case is completely disfunctional. Of course, likewise it's almost impossible to PROVE that a real-life case indeed has a certain function. ;-) Jean From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Oct 26 11:18:22 1995 From: "Patricia A. Duffy" Organization: Univ of GA - Sociology Department To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 14:15:55 -500 Subject: listserv @ ucsd.edu subscribe pat duffy socgrad From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Thu Oct 26 16:27:28 1995 Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 16:25:49 -0700 (PDT) From: JAMES BEATON To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: subscription Hello, I would very much like to subscribe to this newsgroup. My e-mail address is jbeaton@uvaix.uvic.ca Thanks very much! James Beaton From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 27 02:05:29 1995 Fri, 27 Oct 95 10:06:38 GMT+1 From: "Christofer R Edling" To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 10:06:16 GMT+1 Subject: Re: The functions of Dysfunction Stop wasting your time on functionalism and get on with something a little more practicable. Listen to this: "[...] functionalist explanation in sociology rests upon an ill-conceived analogy from biology, and [...] a closer analysis of purported functionalist explanations shows that in virtually all cases one or more of the defining features are lacking." Jon Elster, Ulysses and the Sirens, 1984:28 //Christofer _____________________________________ Christofer Edling Department of Sociology Stockholm University S-106 91 Stockholm Sweden Phone +46-8-164365 Fax +46-8-6125580 *Please reply to this e-mail address:* christofer.edling@sociology.su.se From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 27 08:43:32 1995 Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 10:13:57 -0500 (CDT) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: The functions of Dysfunction To: Jean Czerlinski I will make an effort to respond to your mail, though I am more tuned to short messages (due to being a member of the TV generation, and having no attention span). :)_ First, let me clarify who I am: I am Tricia's Husband, SKEE. No big deal, I just don't want people to think that Trish is saying what I am saying, since we tend not to agree about sociological matters. Now to the substance of my response: (these are things that jump out at me when I read Jean's comments) 1. The definition of functionalism that Jean presented ended with "its contribution to maintaining a stable social whle." First, what is the social whole? In other words, what size is the group we are talking about in functionalism? Do we mean americans? Do we mean middle class americans? Do we mean a group of gang members, or a group of prisoners? Second, how stable are we talking about? Functionalism in its classic forms talks about social change being a slow, consistant process. But, how slow, and how consistent? So, if you (as I do) look at a MESSO level of social whole, instead of a macro, or micro, then some of what I say makes more sense. And if you can accept the idea that one function of an aspect of society can be that it creates change, it places my arguement in a different context. 2. Jean presents the arguement that some aspects of society are dysfunctional due to their latent functions. I have to agree with her on this one. BUT, the manifest consequences of ONE group (say gang members achieving status through the use of violence) is dysfunctional for another group, the larger social group. 3. The idea that there is a thermostat which controls certain aspects of the social world is appealing to me as a sociologist. I would love to be able to look at such a thing and predict future events based on the reading. Of course the problem is deciding on what the thermostat is, and how to measure it. 4. Jean mentions the idea of how we, as a social whole, decide on our needs. This is the heart of what I was getting at. There are many groups, and each of them has their own needs, norms, and values. So, for any one group a certain aspect of society can be functional. Basically, an aspect of society can be functional for a sub-group, and dysfunctional for the larger group. MY MAIN POINT. Writing this has finally made me articulate my orginial idea. 5. My final idea was that when Jean talked about the prisoner's example of everyone being out for their own benefit, and everyone being worse off, my reaction was that there is a function to that type of envirnoment. If prison was a place where everyone worked together, and they got alone just fine, there would be no incentive to stay out of prison. By making prison an unhappy place, it fills the funcitnos of encouraging people to stay away. So, I think that I finally clarified what I meant. Although aspects of society can be dysfunctional for the whole, but there is a group which finds even the most dysfunctional thing functional, and so it continues. Actually, this sounds like a pluralist arguement, what do you think? SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 27 08:46:05 1995 Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 10:37:29 -0500 (CDT) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: The functions of Dysfunction To: christofer.edling@sociology.su.se Christofer, I am suprised to hear you say that one of the fundimental paradygms of sociology is not worth SOCGRAD's time. And then you further the discussion by throwing in a quote about how worthless functinoalism? I agree with the quote that basing functionalism on the biological model is problematic. But this does not invalidate the entire idea. SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 27 09:21:43 1995 Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 12:19:18 -0400 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: mshader@mailer.fsu.edu (Stephen Cook ) Subject: Best Intro textbook I have to make a texbook decision in the next couple of days and was wondering what some people on this group thought was the best choice for Introduction to Sociology. Right now I'm considering the "In Conflict and Order" text by Eitzen and Zinn and the "Sociology" book by Hess, Markson and Stein (5th edition). Any comments or suggestions would be apreciated From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 27 10:07:20 1995 Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 10:05:58 -0700 (PDT) From: JAMES BALLARD To: Stephen Cook Subject: Re: Best Intro textbook Hi Stephen, I am using the "In Conflcit and Order" text and have for the last few classes. I am very unhappy with the 7th edition and will change to something more mainstream in the next class I teach (Farley is my current choice). I will add readings and "This book is not required" by Inge Bell to the Farley text (a bit dated itself with 1991 as copywrite date (I think). Why? I do not like the Conflict - Order presentation with regards to interactionist theory (as the title indicates they don't see it fitting in with their text). Additionally, I find the choice of examples to be less than great within the E and Z text. No specific problems just a lack of alternatives in perspectives. One thing they do well is support you as a teacher. Videos, tests banks, etc all are available. While teaching is what many of us want to do (I assume) having resources to teach is not normally thought of until after the fact. Check out others resources first and then decide. I hope this helps and if you have any specific questions please feel free to email and I will reply quickly. Dave Ballard UNLV From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 27 11:17:16 1995 Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 13:04:16 -0500 (CDT) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: List of Lists To: Sociology Graduate Students Could someone provide me with the tech specs for retrieving the List of Lists either via e-mail or FTP? SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 27 14:45:10 1995 Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 17:40:00 -0400 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: dread@acs.bu.edu (//Andrew Miller\\) Subject: Re: The functions of Dysfunction Skee, you wrote: -----------------sssssssssssssnip!----------------------------------------- >5. My final idea was that when Jean talked about the prisoner's example >of everyone being out for their own benefit, and everyone being worse off, >my reaction was that there is a function to that type of envirnoment. If >prison was a place where everyone worked together, and they got alone just >fine, there would be no incentive to stay out of prison. By making prison >an unhappy place, it fills the funcitnos of encouraging people to stay >away. Umm... so you're saying that the reason prisons *work* is the lousy conditions inside? Hmmm... I thought it was the conditions *outside* of the prisons that led persons to act in ways that resulted in their incarceration. > >So, I think that I finally clarified what I meant. Although aspects of >society can be dysfunctional for the whole, but there is a group which >finds even the most dysfunctional thing functional, and so it continues. > >Actually, this sounds like a pluralist arguement, what do you think? Actually, it sounds more like Merton. Try it... you'll like it. -Andrew ================================================== == dread@acs.bu.edu == Andrew P. Miller == ================================================== == Boston University == Department of Sociology == ================================================== == "Wake up and live !" - Robert Nesta Marley == ================================================== From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Fri Oct 27 18:24:09 1995 Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 18:24:20 -0700 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU From: Jerry Blaz Subject: Re: The functions of Dysfunction >1. The definition of functionalism that Jean presented ended with >"its contribution to maintaining a stable social whle." >First, what is the social whole? In other words, what size is the group >we are talking about in functionalism? Do we mean americans? Do we mean >middle class americans? Do we mean a group of gang members, or a group of >prisoners? >Second, how stable are we talking about? Functionalism in its classic >forms talks about social change being a slow, consistant process. But, >how slow, and how consistent? > >So, if you (as I do) look at a MESSO level of social whole, instead of a >macro, or micro, then some of what I say makes more sense. And if you can >accept the idea that one function of an aspect of society can be that it >creates change, it places my arguement in a different context. > >2. Jean presents the arguement that some aspects of society are >dysfunctional due to their latent functions. I have to agree with her on >this one. BUT, the manifest consequences of ONE group (say gang members >achieving status through the use of violence) is dysfunctional for another >group, the larger social group. > >3. The idea that there is a thermostat which controls certain aspects of >the social world is appealing to me as a sociologist. I would love to be >able to look at such a thing and predict future events based on the >reading. Of course the problem is deciding on what the thermostat is, and >how to measure it. > >4. Jean mentions the idea of how we, as a social whole, decide on our >needs. This is the heart of what I was getting at. There are many >groups, and each of them has their own needs, norms, and values. So, for >any one group a certain aspect of society can be functional. Basically, an >aspect of society can be functional for a sub-group, and dysfunctional for >the larger group. MY MAIN POINT. Writing this has finally made me >articulate my orginial idea. > >5. My final idea was that when Jean talked about the prisoner's example >of everyone being out for their own benefit, and everyone being worse off, >my reaction was that there is a function to that type of envirnoment. If >prison was a place where everyone worked together, and they got alone just >fine, there would be no incentive to stay out of prison. By making prison >an unhappy place, it fills the funcitnos of encouraging people to stay >away. > >So, I think that I finally clarified what I meant. Although aspects of >society can be dysfunctional for the whole, but there is a group which >finds even the most dysfunctional thing functional, and so it continues. > >Actually, this sounds like a pluralist arguement, what do you think? > >SKEE > > In my mind, I begin to see society being constructed theoretically as a series of switches, like a computer, and depending on which switches are on, functional, and which switches are off, dysfunctional, that is how the society is going to Function. Thus, the job of the social theorist is to figure which switches are an and which switches are off, if, and only if he has something analogous to a schematic of the society can he accomplish this. Since even the structures (those are the stable aspects) tend to change and evanesce, what can we say for the functions? For me, this is very problematic. Up until about twenty-five years ago, structural-functional theory was de rigour in sociology, and many of the finest sociological talents worked with structural-functional theory, or as some called it, functional-structural theory, but there was another concept lurking in the background that is fundamental to functionalism and structuralism in a rather assumptive way, and that is the concept of progress. Conceptual progress says that functional structures in a society means that Progress is still happening. Some wag might say that with the rather conscientious rejection of conceptual progress that occurred in the 60's, society stopped progressing, but functionalism as an explanation of society has lost ground because conceptual progress as a basic assumption of sociology, a concept that was strong and forceful during the first half of the century has not only been bracketed, it has been archived. Functional theory has gone out of fashion as an explanation of society, and careers are not made by neo-functionalists. One of the most brilliant of the neo-structural-functionalist theorists around, whom I will not mention by name for colleagial reasons, has in the past decade become more interested in comparative history. I am not certain if I have used the proper name for this newer interest in sociology, and, if not, I hope someone will correct me. One of the foremost theorists in this newer social theory is Theda Skocpol, so this should help locate the theory if my terminology is inaccurate. In her book, States and Social Revolutions (1983), she says, "There was, for one thing, my early intellectual confrontation with the case of South Africa. The history of that unhappy land struck me as an obvious refutation of Parsonian structure-functionalist explanations of societal order and change, and as an insuperable challenge to commonplace and comforting predictions that mass discontent would lead to revolution against the blatantly oppressive apartheid regime." p.xii I am sometimes amazed at the ability of social scientists to believe that explanations are so readily available. It is like reading this article in the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). AIR is a self-described "splendidly subversive science humor magazine" produced by the founders and entire former editorial staff of "The Journal of Irreproducible Results." (AIR's editorial board consists of more than 40 distinguished scientists from around the world, including eight Nobel Laureates and a convicted felon. I guess, at this point, you realize that they are not as serious as some of us social scientists are.) A recent article includes "A report from Swiss researchers (Inaudil, de Lega, Di Tullo, Forno, Jacquet, Lehmann, Monti and Vurpillot) who have identified and captured the butterfly whose wingflapping causes rainfalls in Paris." (Tourbus#3) I sometimes believe that we become so convinced of our favorite social theory, that we can accomplish comparable discoveries in society. Jerry Blaz From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Sat Oct 28 12:41:45 1995 Date: Sat, 28 Oct 1995 14:39:05 -0500 (CDT) From: Tricia Robinson Subject: Re: The functions of Dysfunction To: Jerry Blaz I agree with Jerry that some social researchers tend to find what they are looking for, and not what they are looking at. I believe that Andrew also points us in the right direction by highlighting Merton's work on functionalism. SKEE From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 30 07:00:58 1995 Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 09:55:01 -0500 (EST) From: Carla M Eastis To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: calling urban sociologists Hi all-- Does anyone have any references or know of any ongoing work on urban secession campaigns? E-mail me if anything comes to mind. Thanks, Carla +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Communicate with me! e-mail: eastis@minerva.cis.yale.edu on the Web: http://www.cis.yale.edu/~eastis/carla.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 30 08:35:49 1995 Date: Mon, 30 Oct 95 10:34:39 CST From: "Michael O. Maume" Subject: meetings To: Recipients of list SOCGRAD Before this past ASA meeting, I believe someone on this list posted some suggestions on how grad students can better enjoy professional meetings. Does anyone have a version that they can forward to me? Thanks in advance! ********************************************* * Michael O. Maume * * Department of Sociology * * Louisiana State University * * Baton Rouge, LA 70803 * * (504) 388-1645 * ********************************************* From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Mon Oct 30 10:07:41 1995 From: IRWIN@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HX1W8DFZVK8XD0QT@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Mon, 30 Oct 1995 13:06:32 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 13:06:32 -0500 (EST) Subject: geneWATCH editor job To: SOCGRAD@UCSD.EDU From: IN%"HERBERT@HELIX.MGH.HARVARD.EDU" "Martha R. Herbert" 29-OCT-1995 20:53:47.52 To: IN%"irwin@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU" CC: Subj: geneWATCH job opening: please circulate Return-path: (PMDF V4.3-10 #10451) id <01HX0Y9R82Y88X8IWN@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>; Sun, 29 Oct 1995 20:53:44 -0500 (EST) (PMDF V4.3-10 #5571) id <01HX0Y8E2VC08X4R3P@HELIX.MGH.HARVARD.EDU>; Sun, 29 Oct 1995 20:53:36 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 20:53:36 -0500 (EST) From: "Martha R. Herbert" Subject: geneWATCH job opening: please circulate To: irwin@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Please circulate: ___________________________________________ Position: Half-time Managing Editor, geneWATCH (20 hours per week) The Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG) seeks a half-time Managing Editor for our pubication, geneWATCH. geneWATCH is an influential bulletin in the United States devoted to examining the social, economic and environmental impacts of biotechnologies. It is a quarterly publication with an average length of 16 pages. The CRG, formed in 1983, is a Cambridge-based national non- profit organization that monitors and analyzes developments in biotechnology in the United States and abroad. Currently, our work is concentrated in three major areas: 1) countering genetic discrimination, 2) expanding public participation in decisions about the commercialization of genetic research and its environmental impact, and 3) spearheading a campaign to end patenting of life forms. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ** coordinate the publication of geneWATCH ** facilitate the activities of a volunteer editorial commitee and interns ** maintain contact with global correspondents ** coordinate solicitation and editing of articles ** work with development officer on promotion strategies ** write occasional news stories ** oversee copy editing and graphics ** contribute to long term planning for the publication ** develop and maintain geneWATCH visiblity onthe CRG World Wide Web site QUALIFICATIONS: Publication experience, in particular coordination of tasks associated with bringing a publication into print as well as its promotion. Copy editing, editorial, and writing skills also required. Knowledge of social issues in science, and experience with non-profit organizations, are desirable. Desk top publishing skills are desirable. Good leadership and interpersonal skills are important. SALARY: negotiable, commensurate with experience. CRG is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. Submit resume with writing sample to: Search Committee, Council for Responsible Genetics, 5 Upland Road, Suite 3, Cambridge, MA, 02140. Applications due by November 30. 1995. From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 31 05:04:19 1995 From: SOCGA01@cc1.uca.edu Tue, 31 Oct 95 7:02:49 +3600 To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: 31 Oct 95 07:02:13 CST6CDT Subject: second on meetings message from Maume I read Michael Maume's message about a list that was posted in the past offering some suggestions on how graduate students could derive more enjoyment from professional meetings such as the annual ASA meetings, and I to would like to request a version of such a list if it is still available. Thank you, Thomas Kersen Department of Sociology University of Central Arkansas 201 Donaghey Avenue Conway, AR 72035 (501) 450-5584 From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 31 07:46:42 1995 Date: Tue, 31 Oct 95 09:40:42 CST From: "Michael O. Maume" Subject: thanks for meetings To: Recipients of list SOCGRAD My thanks to everyone who sent me the notes on enjoying meetings. I have appended the file in this message for those who, like me, tend to get happy in deleting their mail. Enjoy. ======================================================================== 179 >From danryan@minerva.cis.yale.eduMon Oct 30 12:25:39 1995 Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 20:20:29 +0100 From: Dan Ryan To: socgrad@ucsd.edu Subject: Re: ASA I have some notes somewhere on "how to enjoy a convention" that include the following (completely unedited and unexpurgated): o Never pass up an opportunity to go out with a group to eat, especially in favor of a gathering with "more important people" that may or may not occur. o Don't let yourself get cynical about schmoozing. This IS what the meeting is about and that's not a bad thing. It is quite common for newbies and beginners to feel left out because they don't know too many people. A common response to this feeling is to express disdain for how "it's all just a big reunion of people who don't care whether a nobody like me lives or dies." That's true. The secret, though, is to that that IS all that it is and the only reason you feel that way is because you don't know too many people yet. Give yourself some time. Quickly slipping into the defensive wall- flower frame of mind is a sure recipe for prolonging the period in which you feel like you don't know anybody. o Related to this, don't get too turned off by nametag gazing. It is what people do at these things. Yes, people will check yours out, discover that you are nobody and then move on. Some of the folks doing this are real ass-kissing idiots who are just looking for famous people to kiss up to. Don't sweat it. Don't let the turkeys get you down. Think about this sociologically. You have a gathering of several thousand people from one profession. Most of them work in middle of nowhere places with two colleagues, one of whom they loathe. They spend all year teaching the writings of other people (some of whom are their heroes) to 19 year olds. Some of those heroes are walking around the hotel. Of course they're looking at the name tags. Alternatively, here you have a gathering of several thousand people in the same profession. Profession and job is one of the most common categories for sorting the people in one's world. If everyone around you is in the same profession, you need some other status markers to help you order the crowd. Look at the nametags. o Remember that it's OK to engage people in serious conversations about what they do, what they think about, etc. This may be the only time all year where you don't have to explain what sociology is or that it is NOT the same as social work to the person who says "oh, my brother is a social worker." o Don't worry about money -- that's what plastic is for. In the end, you are going to spend more that you intended; no use wasting emotional energy fretting about it o Stay in the main conference hotel whenever possible. The idea of staying with a friend who lives just twenty minutes outside of town is almost always a bad one. o Recognize and celebrate the fact that the most important and enjoyable part of the annual meeting is the stuff that occurs OUTSIDE of the sessions. o After you've heard your fourth or fifth poorly presented paper on poorly thought-out research, remind yourself that the speaker teaches for a living and wonder how someone who talks in front of groups 4 to 8 times a week can fail to have ever gotten good at it. o Upon checking in, locate the health club or fitness center in your hotel and see what their hours are. Then look around to see if they have a decent breakfast buffet in one of the restaurants. Next, scan through the index of the program to see if there is anyone you absolutely don't want to miss a talk by. Draw a little time chart and note where these talks are and when. If you're not doing anything else, you can try to catch them. After this, make a list of all the people you want to say hello to, have a meal with or meet. This roster is your main task list for the meeting. o Remember that everyone else is feeling like they don't know anyone too. o Always remember the first law of socializing: act like a host. This means taking the initiative and introducing yourself to others. It means keeping in mind the people you know and have met so that when you meet someone new, even if your interests are a million miles apart, you can always say "Have you met so and so? You should. I'll introduce you when I see you together." And then, when you do, they'll possibly be grateful for the intro, but definitely remember the service. All of this is based loosely on good network theory: weak ties are all -- be one whenever you can. o If you have the opportunity to introduce someone big and someone small, do it by asking the big person if they've met the small one, not vice versa. It's a wonderfully pleasant way to go against the standard status inequalities. o Be as socially generous as possible. It almost never "costs" anything to invite someone along, bring them into a conversation, introduce them to a colleague, connect them to someone of common interests, etc. and these things (a) are always remembered, and (b) go around and come around. o Buy some books. o If you're giving a talk, just tell us what you did, why you thought it was interesting and what we should remember about what you found out or showed. The point of the talk is to help me decide whether I might want to read your work or not. o If you are giving a talk, do not read your paper. Do not fight with the organizer over time. Do not be convinced that the audience will be enthralled if only you can get this one last point in. Do not edit out whole sections on the fly as you notice time running out. If you find yourself falling in love with your own prose, exercise caution. All of these things will serve only to make you look inept, unprofessional, immature and uninteresting. o Don't join your nutso colleagues in the mad rush to grab books at a discount as the book exhibits close. The behavior of some folks at this moment is truly embarrassing -- best not to join them. o Remember, you are going to spend a few days with 3 or 4 thousand people who are, perhaps, better at analyzing the social world than participating in it. Be kind. We're all in this together. ********************************************* * Michael O. Maume * * Department of Sociology * * Louisiana State University * * Baton Rouge, LA 70803 * * (504) 388-1645 * ********************************************* From list-relay@UCSD.EDU Tue Oct 31 09:32:06 1995 Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 12:26:13 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Cassell To: Sociology Graduate Student Discussion Subject: CALL FOR PAPERS - NEW DEADLINE (fwd) FYI -- Jim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 11:19:25 -0600 From: Larry G Gerber Subject: CALL FOR PAPERS - NEW DEADLINE Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 10:50:12 CST From: AMY LYNCH CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue of WOMEN AND POLITICS Feminist Standpoint Theories Following the successful APSA panel entitled "The Feminist Standpoint Ten Years Later: Roundtable on Nancy Hartsock's Money, Sex, and Power," WOMEN AND POLITICS calls for papers for a special issue on feminist standpoint theories and feminist epistemology. We seek manuscripts directed at an interdisciplinary feminist theory audience that draw on, respond to, or critique Nancy Hartsock's work. We are particularly interested in manuscripts that explore the multicultural dimensions of such theories and that recommend the direction feminist theory should take. Manuscripts should be no more than 20-25 pages in length. The deadline is April 1, 1996 (please note new deadline). Special issue editor: Sally J. Kenney, Associate Professor, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, (612) 625-3409, email: skenney@hhh.umn.edu. Authors should send manuscripts to: Dr. Janet Clark, Editor WOMEN AND POLITICS Department of Political Science West Georgia College Carrollton, Georgia 30118 Submitted by Amy Lynch, Research Assistant on behalf of Sally J. Kenney, Associate Professor Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs University of Minnesota skenney@hhh.umn.edu