applied sociology: opportunities and problems.by alvin w. gouldner; s. m. miller

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Applied Sociology: Opportunities and Problems. by Alvin W. Gouldner; S. M. Miller Review by: Herbert L. Costner Social Forces, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Mar., 1966), pp. 453-454 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2575885 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 01:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:34:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Applied Sociology: Opportunities and Problems.by Alvin W. Gouldner; S. M. Miller

Applied Sociology: Opportunities and Problems. by Alvin W. Gouldner; S. M. MillerReview by: Herbert L. CostnerSocial Forces, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Mar., 1966), pp. 453-454Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2575885 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 01:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:34:40 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Applied Sociology: Opportunities and Problems.by Alvin W. Gouldner; S. M. Miller

BOOK REVIEWVS 453

Finally, while we who have undergone the com- bat of job negotiation and departmental promo- tion can feel some identification with our col- leagues, it would seem that it is in fact the stu- dent who takes the major losses. Clearly neither the professor nor the administration seems to take student quality and need into consideration when filling education positions. The professor looks to geographical locations, colleagues, salary, and some- thing called "institutional prestige." The admin- istration-including its middle-men-are willing (as noted empirically and precisely by Brown) to sacrifice quality for cut-rate performance.

DAVID GOTTLIEB

Office of Economic Opportitunity, Washington, D. C.

HUMAN INTERACTION: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCI-

OLOGY. By Glenn M. Vernon. New York: Ronald Press, 1965. 416 pp. Illustrated. $7.50.

This book represents an addition to the trend of making introductory sociology texts unified rather than eclectic in their approach to the field. While other texts have used ecology and social systems as their unifying schemes, Professor Vernon has chosen symbolic interaction as his framework. To quote him, "An effort has been made to use symbolic interactionalist theory as an orienting framework into which a body of socio- logical knowledge is integrated" (p. v). The ma- j or goal of the text is to teach the student how to ask sociological questions, plus "providing the student with enough of the substantive content of sociology to make the structure of sociological knowledge 'conme alive'" (p. v). This task is ap- proached through seven major divisions in the text: an ilntroductory chapter; a section entitled The Sociological Approach, where norms of sci- ence are outlined and an introduction to symbolic interaction is given; a section on Cultural Defini- tions, which includes chapters on the definition of values, norms, roles, self, and situation; a section on The Interaction Process, which includes among others, chapters on stratification, racial and ethnic interaction, and social systems; a one-chapter sec- tion called The Demographic and Ecological Foun- dations of Interaction; a section on social systems with chapters on peers, family, bureaucracy, and religion; and finally a one-chapter section on social change which emphasizes the role of creativity in change. A glossary, a welcome addition to any introductory text, is also included.

Each chapter opens with a question which orients the student toward the dominant theme of the chapter. The chapters themselves are punctuated by boxed quotations and effective pic- tures and are concluded with questions for dis- cussion, a suggestion for a project, and a list of supplementary readings. A sample of selections from the text yielded a Flesch Readability score of 62 which falls in the "standard" range (Rudolph Flesch, The Art of Readable Writing. New York: Collier Books, 1962, pp. 225-29).

A comnaitment to a symbolic interactionalist approach requires an emphasis on the personal aspects of role playing and role taking in be- havior. The majority of the chapters are devoted to the specification and explanation of the variables in symbolic interaction and analysis of the inter- action process per se. The first chapter treating structures larger than the small group is Chapter 16: "Stratificationi." Even here, the emphasis is on self-definition, socialization, role playing and role taking, although a list of variables which vary with social class is included. The same sort of emphasis is found in other chapters related to other larger social structures: racial and ethnic groups, bureaucracy, and religion. The commit- ment to symbolic interaction does not carry over Lo the chapter on population and ecology; other- wise, the goal of using symbolic interaction to tie the topics together is accomplished in a style which would capture and hold the interest of students. It is evident that a great deal of thought and care went into this book, and the result is unique among current texts.

The danger of this and other texts integrated around a central conceptual framework is that they convey a false impression of theoretical unity to the student. While some aspects of sociology may be handled admirably by one approach, other aspects are either defined out of sociology or handled in a less than adequate manller. In the present case, the emphasis on interaction is at the expense of treatment of larger social structures. Perhaps in our theoretical maturity a single con- ceptual framevork will be possible, but in our theoretical infancy it is not.

JEIRRY L. L. MILLER

Untiversity of Ari2ona

APPLIED SOCIOLOGY: OPPORTUNITIES AND PROBLEMS. Edited by Alvin W. Gouldner and S. M. Miller. New York and London: The Free Press, Collier- Macmillan, Limited, 1965. 456 pp. $7.95.

There appears to be a growing conviction that sociology can be useful in the short run as well as in the long run. This book illustrates some of the ways that sociologists have attempted to make their craft useful and relevant to problems of more or less immediate concern. An official publication of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) the book is composed of 35 papers, most of which were given at the 1961 meetings of the SSSP, at which time the editors served the So- ciety as president and program chairman respec- tively. Only nine of the papers have appeared in print prior to the publication of this volume.

In Gouldner's lead paper (originally published in 1956), applied social science is identified as being primarily concerned with the "prediction and pro- duction of social and cultural change," an enter- prise that Gouldner believes likely to "derive little aid from the models and concepts of pure social science." His outline of the "engineering" and the "clinical" models for applied social science strati-

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Page 3: Applied Sociology: Opportunities and Problems.by Alvin W. Gouldner; S. M. Miller

454 SOCIAL FORCES

fies applied social scientists by their degree of au- tonomy. Those who supply informationi supposed to be relevant in some way to problems formulated by the client or policy maker are said to be en- gaging in "engineering" social science, while those who make their own diagnosis and then propose or institute a strategy for effecting change based on that diagnosis are said to be engaged in "cliinical" social science. Needless to say, it would be an unusual sociologist who would prefer the former to the latter. But the distinction was apparently not designed to clarify an issue about which there is disagreement concerning preferences. Rather the distinction was apparently intended to redefine and make respectable the role of the applied social scientist.

Opportunities for applied social science of the "clinical" variety may not prove to be an ulnmixed blessing. Almost half of the papers in this volume focus, in one way or another, on the headaches of the applied researcher rather than on the results of applied sociology. For example, on the basis of his experience as a researcher in Synanon, an organization of former narcotic addicts, Lewis Yablonsky was led to "review the general profes- sional attitude toward criminological research and treatmient." His conclusion: "Many [criminolo- gists] are intrigued voyers of the criminal world" and "may do much harm with their research."

Among the best of the papers detailing the head- aches of applied research is one by Hyman Rodman and Ralph Kolodny which presents a diag- nosis of "Organizational Strains in the Researcher- Practitioner Relationship." Their diagnosis is too subtle to be well summarized here, but they em- phasize the threat that the researcher may pose for the practitioner, the tangential character of their respective primary concerns, and the practice of promising the practitioner anonymity wheni he would prefer some credit for his efforts. Other papers explore applied research headaches in spe- cific areas-the military, business, labor, etc.- and some familiar issues pertaining to values, theo- ries and moral obligations as they impinge oIn ap- plied social science.

Fourteen of the 35 papers in this volume h1ave been placed under the heading: "Case Studies in Applied Social Science." In their preface, the editors identify these papers as those which "eval- uate the performance of our institutioins," but they have stretched the meaning of both "evaluate" and "institutions" in doing so. Some of the papers would be as appropriate as illustrative studies in "inonlapplied" as in "applied" social science. But if applied sociology consists of producing social and cultural change, surely applied sociological re- search should provide some feedback concerning the relative effectiveness of alternative strategies of producing change. Only one paper in this book represents such evaluative research. Richard Rob- bins' interesting but heavily handicapped research describing the effectiveness of official local civil rights commissions as compared to voluntary as- sociations (local civil rights councils) in Illinois communities suggests that community type deter-

mines which form is more effective. It is pre- cisely such complications as this that make the "prediction and production of social and cultural change"-and the evaluation of alternative strate- gies for doing so-such a sociological challenge.

This book is marred by the inclusioin of too many papers that have too little to say. For ex- ample, a progress report oIn a "consultancy" with the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau, and an ex- ploration of the shortcomings of the Uniform Crime Reports have added little but bulk to this book. A description of the sex, class, anld occupa- tional composition of the boards of directors of the Community Chest and of the Council of Social Agencies in a middle-sized city may be "hard" data, but the presentation of such data in this book fails to make a clear and relevant poinlt. In his own contribution to this volume, one co-editor confesses that "In more pessimistic moments, I believe that not to publish much of what is cur- rently published would be a great contribution !" He missed a great opportunity in not cutting this book to approximately two-thirds of its present size.

HERBERT L. COSTNER

U-nive,rsity of Washihgto-n

SOCIAL PROBLEMS: PERSISTENT CHALLENGES. Edited by Edward C. McDonagh and Jon E. Simpson. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winstoin, 1965. 604 pp. $5.75. Paper.

This voluLme of 61 readings assembled into 12 chapters under the major rubrics of (1) contem- porary societal orientations, (2) fundameintal in- stitutional problems, (3) selected critical prob- lemis, and (4) social action, is not "just another reader." It has essential balance. Paradoxically, this balanlce is aclhieved by a series of breaks througlh the traditional and frequently trite assembly of articles penned by the fathers-geniuses, wlhich, thoughI deathless in their consequences for mod- ern sociology, have become so frequently used- if not abuLsed-that even the beginning student in his assumption of a precocious wisdom begins to wonder if there is anythiing "new" going on in sociology or in society today.

Two-thirds of the articles in this book of read- ings were published in the 1960's, but fewer than one-half were originally published in period- icals or as portions of books familiar to most teaching sociologists, for whom, after all, this volume is a classroom tool. Althouglh without ex- ception all articles are solidly sociological, one finds the original sources were such vehicles as The Yale Reviezcw, Thle Amneican College, Harvard Bu-siiess Reviezcw, Anstioch Revi7ewc, Daedalits, Corn1-

w7entary, and the like. Books which yielded chap- ters complete in themselves for publication in this volume range from the familiar contributions of Myrdal, Allport, Merton, Riesman, Huxley, and others, staple in the sociological reading diet, to those younger scholars whose greater futures are already assured.

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