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CHAPTER

5 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND

INTERACTION

CHAPTER OUTLINE

SOCIAL INTERACTION Bureaucracy and Organizational

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE Culture
Statuses SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN GLOBAL
Social Roles PERSPECTIVE
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Groups
Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
Social Networks
Technology and Society
Virtual Worlds
Postmodern Life
Social Institutions
BUREAUCRACY
Characteristics of a Bureaucracy
Bureaucratization as a Way of Life

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 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Identify the various elements of social structure.

2. Learn how the individual and social structure reciprocally shape one another.

3. Distinguish between ascribed and achieved statues.

4. Develop an understanding of the effects of bureaucratic organization.

5. Learn how modern and traditional societies differ historically and globally.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Social interaction refers to the ways in which people respond to one another. How we interact
with people is shaped by our perception of their position relative to our own. Our response to
someone’s behaviour is based on the meaning we attach to his or her actions.Reality is shaped by
our perceptions, evaluations, and definitions. The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s
power within a society.

All social interaction takes place within a social structure—a series of predictable relationships
composed of various positions that people occupy. Occupying those positions shapes how we
think and what resources we have access to. For our purposes, any social structure can be broken
into six elements: statuses, social roles, groups, social networks, virtual worlds, and social
institutions.

Sociologists use the term status to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions
within a large group or society. A person can hold a number of statuses at the same time. An
ascribed status is assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents
or characteristics, generally at birth. An achieved status is attained by a person largely through
his or her own efforts. A master status dominates other statuses and thereby determines a
person’s general position within society.

A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status.
Role conflict occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions
held by the same person. Role strain is a term used to describe the difficulty that arises when the
same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations. The process of
disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order to establishment a new
role and identity is referred to as role exit.

A group is any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who regularly and
consciously interact. Groups play a vital part in a society’s social structure. Much of our social
interaction takes place within groups and is influenced by their norms and sanctions. Sociologists
have made distinctions between the various types of groups. A primary group is a small group
characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation. Primary groups play a
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pivotal role both in the socialization process and the development of roles and statuses.
Secondary groups are formal, impersonal groups in which there is little social intimacy or
mutual understanding. In-groups are groups to which people feel they belong, whereas out-
groups are groups to which people feel they do not belong. A reference group is used as the
standard by which individuals evaluate themselves or their own behaviour. A coalition is a
temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal. Some coalitions are
intentionally short-lived.

Members of different groups make connections through a series of social relationships known as
a social network. With advances in technology, we can now maintain social networks
electronically; we don’t need face-to-face contact. In some of these virtual worlds, participants
create avatars, their online representation as a character.

Social institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behaviour centred on basic social needs.
One way to view social institutions is seeing how they fulfill basic functions. This view
emphasizes the importance of social order. Sociologists who focus on power, the consequences
of difference, and resource distribution suggest that our construction of social institutions
reinforces inequality, acting to maintain the privileges of the most powerful individuals and
groups within a society. Others focus on our everyday interactions within the contexts of these
institutions to understand why we think and act the way we do.

A bureaucracy is a component of a formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking
to achieve efficiency. Max Weber developed an ideal type of bureaucracy to serve as a standard
for evaluation, which consisted of five basic characteristics: (1) division of labour; (2) hierarchy
of authority; (3) written rules and regulations; (4) impersonality; and (5) employment based on
technical qualifications. Sociologists have used the term bureaucratization to refer to the process
by which a group, organization, or social movement increasingly relies on technical-rational
decision making in the pursuit of efficiency. The iron law of oligarchy describes how even a
democratic organization will eventually develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a few (oligarchy).
According to the scientific management approach, workers in an organization are motivated
almost entirely by economic rewards. By contrast, the human relations approach emphasizes
the role of people, communication, and participation within a bureaucracy.

Ferdinand Tönnies used the term Gemeinschaft to refer to a small, close-knit community, typical
of rural life, where people have similar backgrounds and life experiences. Conversely, the
Gesellschaft is an ideal type characteristic of modern urban life. Here, most people are strangers
who feel little in common with one another. Émile Durkheim developed the concepts of
mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity to describe the kind of consciousness that develops
in societies where there is a simple or complex division of labour, respectively. In Gerhard
Lenski’s view, a society’s level of technology is critical to the way it is organized. The hunting-
and-gathering society, the horticultural society, and the agrarian society are three types of pre-
industrial societies. An industrial society depends on mechanization to produce its goods and
services. The economic system of a post-industrial society is engaged primarily in the processing
and control of information. A postmodern society is a technologically sophisticated, pluralistic,
interconnected, globalized society.

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 LECTURE OUTLINE

I. Social Interaction (LO 1)

• Social interaction refers to the ways people respond to one another.
• How we interact with people is shaped by our perception of their position relative to our
own. Example: Herbert Blumer’s view of the situation.
• The meanings we ascribe to others’ actions typically reflect the norms and values of the
dominant culture and our socialization experiences within that culture.
• Our understanding of social reality is literally constructed from our social interactions.
• The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power within society. Example:
William I. Thomas’s definition of the situation.

II. Elements of Social Structure (LO 1, LO 2, LO3)

• All social interaction takes place within a social structure—the way in which a society
is organized into predictable relationships, which are composed of the various positions
people occupy.
• Occupying those positions shapes how we think, what resources we have access to, and
how we interact with others.
• For our purposes, any social structure can be broken into six elements: statuses, social
roles, groups, social networks, virtual worlds, and social institutions.

A. Statuses
• Status refers to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large
group or society. A number of statuses can be held at the same time. Examples:
mother, business partner, neighbour, daughter.

1. Ascribed and Achieved Status

• Ascribed status is generally assigned at birth without regard to a
person’s unique talents or characteristics. Examples: race, ethnicity,
gender, age.
• Achieved status is a social position that is within our power to change.
Examples: lawyer, pianist, convict, social worker.

2. Master Status
• Dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general
position within society. Example: Actor Michael J. Fox being diagnosed
with Parkinson’s.

B. Social Roles
• A set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status.
• Actual performance varies from individual to individual.
• Roles are a significant component of social structure.

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 1. Role Conflict
• Occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social
positions held by the same person. Example: newly promoted worker who
carries on a relationship with his or her former workgroup.
• Occurs among individuals moving into occupations that are not common
among people with their ascribed status. Examples: female police officers
and male preschool teachers.

2. Role Strain
• Difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting
demands and expectations. Example: alternative forms of justice among
Navajo police officers.

3. Role Exit
• The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-
identity in order to establish a new role and identity.
• Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh’s four-stage model: (1) doubt, (2) search for
alternatives, (3) action stage or departure, and (4) creation of a new
identity. Examples: graduating from high school, retirement, divorce.

C. Groups
• Any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact
with one another on a regular basis. Examples: sports team, college or university
sorority, hospital business office, symphony orchestra.
• Groups play a vital part in a society’s social structure.

1. Primary and Secondary Groups

• Charles Horton Cooley coined the term primary group to refer to a small
group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation.
• Primary groups play a pivotal role in both the socialization process and
the development of roles and statuses. Examples: family members,
sorority sisters, members of a gang.
• A secondary group is a formal, impersonal group in which there is little
social intimacy or mutual understanding.

2. In-Groups and Out-Groups

• An in-group is any group to which people feel they belong; comprises
everyone who is regarded as “we” or “us.”
• An out-group is any group to which people feel they do not belong.
• Conflict between in-groups and out-groups can be violent. Example:
School shooting in Taber, Alberta.

3. Reference Groups
• Any group that an individual uses as a standard for evaluating his or
herself and his or her own behaviour.

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 • Two basic purposes: (1) serve a normative function by setting and
enforcing standards of conduct and belief, and (2) perform a comparison
function by serving as a standard against which people can measure
themselves and others.

4. Coalitions
• A temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal. Can
be both broad based or narrow and take on many different objectives.
• Coalitions can be short-lived. Examples: popular TV shows (Survivor),
political parties working together to bring down Parliament.

D. Social Networks
• A series of social relationships that links people directly to others, and through
them indirectly to still more people. Can centre on virtually any
activity.Examples: networking for employment; exchanging news and gossip.

E. Virtual Worlds
• Today people can maintain their social networks electronically.
• In 2014, social media users exceeded 2 billion worldwide. Teens are especially
active in social media.
• Social networks are extensive, yet researchers have found that people are quite
closely linked through mutual connections.
• Sociologists are now working to understand these environments and their social
processes. Some suggest we are seeing only the beginnings of the collective
action made possible through the social networking potential of the Internet.
•Social networking sites are bring used for political activity, and those who are
civically engaged online are more likely than the average citizen to be politically
engaged offline as well.
• Virtual networks can help preserve real-world networks interrupted by war and
other dislocations. Example: increasing reliance on social media by deployed
Canadian Forces personnel.

F. Social Institutions
• Organized patterns of beliefs and behaviour centred on meeting basic social
needs. Examples: family, government, religion.
• One way to view social institutions is seeing how they fulfill basic functions.
This functionalist view emphasizes the importance of social order.
• This view identifies five major tasks or functional prerequisites: (1) reproducing
membership (primarily through biological reproduction, which takes place in
families), (2) reproducing the culture by teaching it to new members (through
families and education), (3) producing and distributing goods and services
(through the economy), (4) preserving order (through government), and (5)
providing and maintaining a sense of purpose (historically filled by religion, but
patriotism also plays a critical role).
• This view implies that the way things are is the way things should be.

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 • Sociologists who focus on power, the consequences of difference, and resource
distribution (such as conflict and feminist perspectives) suggest that our
construction of social institutions reinforces inequality, acting to maintain the
privileges of the most powerful individuals and groups within a society. Example:
Schools in Aboriginal communities being poorly equipped, as families often
unable to engage in fundraising activities characteristic of schools located in more
affluent areas.
• Interactionists focus on our everyday interactions within the contexts of these
institutions to understand why we think and act the way we do.

III. Bureaucracy (LO 4)

• A component of a formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to
achieve efficiency.

A. Characteristics of a Bureaucracy
• Max Weber emphasized the basic similarity of structure and process found in
the otherwise dissimilar enterprises of religion, government, education, and
business.
• He developed an ideal type of bureaucracy to serve as a standard for evaluation,
which consisted of five basic characteristics.

1. Division of Labour
• Specialized experts perform specific tasks.
• Has led to significant advances and innovation.
• Fragmenting work into smaller tasks isolates workers from one another
and weakens connections they might have. Marx and Engels said this
produces extreme alienation—loss of control over our creative human
capacity to produce, separation from the products we make, and isolation
from our fellow producers.
• Can also lead to trained incapacity—a situation in which workers
become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice
potential problems. Example: Failure to deal with warning signs of water
contamination in Walkerton, Ontario.

2. Hierarchy of Authority
• Each position is under the supervision of a higher authority.

3. Written Rules and Regulations

• Offer employees clear standards for performance and procedure.
• Provide a sense of continuity for organizations.
• Can become too important, leading to goal displacement, Merton’s term
for overzealous conformity to official regulations.

4. Impersonality

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 • Officials perform their duties without giving personal consideration to
people as individuals. Example: Weber’s phrase sine ira et studio—
“without hatred or passion.”
• Intended to guarantee equal treatment, but it also contributes to the cold,
uncaring feeling often associated with modern organizations.

5. Employment Based on Technical Qualifications

• As opposed to favouritism; performance is measured against specific
standards.
• People can appeal if they believe particular rules have been violated.
• Personnel decisions do not always follow the ideal pattern. Example: the
Peter principle – every employee within a hierarchy tends to rise to his or
her level of incompetence.

B. Bureaucratization as a Way of Life

• The process by which a group, organization, or social movement increasingly
relies on technical-rational decision making in the pursuit of efficiency.

1. The Spread of Bureaucratization

• McDonaldization—the process by which the principles of efficiency,
calculability, predictability, and control shape organization and decision
making in North America and around the world—is an example of the
expansion of bureaucratization. George Ritzer argues these principles have
been emulated by many organizations from medical care to wedding
planning.
• Weber predicted that even the private sphere would become rationalized.
He thought the only way to beat bureaucratization was to be more
bureaucratic.
• When workers’ performance is measured only in numbers, emotional
needs and family responsibilities are dismissed as irrelevant.

2. From Bureaucracy to Oligarchy

• Robert Michels originated the idea of the iron law of oligarchy, which
describes how even a democratic organization will eventually develop into
a bureaucracy ruled by a few (an oligarchy). Example: labour union
leaders becoming unresponsive to members.
• Actions that violate the core principles of bureaucracy can seep in.
• Ascribed statuses can influence how people are treated in formal
organizations.

C. Bureaucracy and Organizational Culture

• Various schools of management arose in an attempt to establish meaningful
relationships within the context of the workplace in order to enhance productivity.
• Classical theory of formal organizations (also known as the scientific
management approach) suggests workers are motivated almost entirely by
economic rewards. Only physical constraints limit worker productivity; therefore,
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 workers may be treated as a resource, much like the machines that began to
replace them in the 20th century.
• Management attempts to achieve maximum work efficiency through scientific
planning, established performance standards, and careful supervision.
• Planning involves efficiency studies, not studies of worker attitudes or
satisfaction.
• This approach wasn’t revised until workers formed unions and forced
management to recognize that they were not objects.
• Human relations approach emphasizes the role of people, communication, and
participation within a bureaucracy.
• Planning focuses on workers’ feelings, frustrations, and emotional need for job
satisfaction. If managers are convinced that helping workers meet their needs
increases productivity, care and concern are instituted as a result of rational
calculation.

IV. Social Structure in Global Perspective (LO 5)

A. Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

• Ferdinand Tönnies was appalled by the rise of industrial cities during the late
1800s.
• Gemeinschaft community is typical of rural life. People have similar
backgrounds and life experiences. Social interactions are intimate and familiar.
Social control is maintained through informal means such as moral persuasion
and gossip. Social change is relatively limited.
• The Gesellschaft is characteristic of modern urban life. Most people are
strangers and feel little in common with one another. Relationships are governed
by social roles that grow out of immediate tasks. There is little consensus
concerning values of commitment to the group. Social control rests on more
formal techniques, such as laws and legally defined sanctions. Social change is a
normal part of life.

B. Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

• Émile Durkheim wanted to use sociology as a science to better understand the
transition to modern society.
• For him, the extent of the division of labour that exists in a society shapes the
degree to which people feel connected with each other.
• Mechanical solidarity exists in societies with a minimal division of labour. A
collective consciousness develops that emphasizes group solidarity. Social
interaction and negotiation are based on close, intimate, face-to-face social
contacts, and there are few social roles.
• Organic solidarity exists in societies with a complex division of labour. A
collective consciousness rests on the need a society’s members have for one
another. People relate to each other based on their social positions. Role
specialization forces individuals to become interdependent. Statuses and social
roles are always changing.

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C. Technology and Society
• In Gerhard Lenski’s view, a society’s level of technology is critical to the way it
is organized. New social forms arise as technology changes.

1. Pre-industrial Societies
• Hunting-and-gathering societies rely on available foods; technology is
minimal. There is little division of labour.
• Horticultural societies plant seeds and grow crops rather than subsist
only on available foods. Technology remains limited.
• Agrarian societies use technological innovations (e.g., the plough) to
increase crop yields. The division of labour increases, and social
institutions become more established.

2. Industrial Societies
• Industrial Revolution transformed social life.
• An industrial society depends on mechanization to produce its goods and
services.
• Reliance on new inventions that facilitate agricultural and industrial
production, and on new sources of energy.
• Individuals, villages, and regions became interdependent.
• Education emerged as a social institution distinct from the family due to
need for specialized knowledge.

3. Post-industrial Societies
• Mechanized production continues to play a substantial role in shaping
social order, but the economic system of a post-industrial society is
primarily engaged in the processing and control of information.
• Main output is services rather than manufactured goods.
• Differential access to resources has hidden consequences.

D. Postmodern Life
• A postmodern society is a technologically sophisticated, pluralistic,
interconnected, globalized society.
• Four elements provide a sense of the key characteristics of such societies.

1. Stories
• People hold many different, often competing, sets of norms and values.
Fewer people assume that a single, all-inclusive story (particular religious
tradition, all-encompassing scientific theory) can unite everyone.
• Multiplicity of stories undercuts the authority that singular accounts of
reality have had in the past.

2. Images
• Importance of images is emphasized by the explosion of mass media.
• Our knowledge of what is real is always constrained by the images we
construct.
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 3. Choices
• We pick and choose our reality from the images and experiences
presented to us. Examples: food, clothes, partners, jobs, identities.

4. Networks
• Increasingly, all corners of the globe are linked into a vast, interrelated
social, cultural, political, and economic system.

KEY TERMS

Achieved status A social position that is within our power to change.

Agrarian society The most technologically advanced form of pre-industrial society. Members are
engaged primarily in the production of food, but they increase their crop yields through
technological innovations such as the plough.
Alienation Loss of control over our creative human capacity to produce, separation from the
products we make, and isolation from our fellow producers.
Ascribed status A social position assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s
unique talents or characteristics.
Bureaucracy A component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to
achieve efficiency.
Bureaucratization The process by which a group, organization, or social movement increasingly
relies on technical-rational decision making in the pursuit of efficiency.
Classical theory An approach to the study of formal organizations that views workers as being
motivated almost entirely by economic rewards.
Coalition A temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal.
Gemeinschaft A close-knit community, often found in rural areas, in which strong personal bonds
unite members.
Gesellschaft A community, often urban, that is large and impersonal, with little commitment to
the group or consensus on values.
Goal displacement Overzealous conformity to official regulations of a bureaucracy.
Group Any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with one
another on a regular basis.
Horticultural society Apre-industrial society in which people plant seeds and crops rather than
merely subsist on available foods.
Human relations approach An approach to the study of formal organizations that emphasizes
the role of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy and tends to focus on
the informal structure of the organization.
Hunting-and-gathering society A pre-industrial society in which people rely on whatever foods
and fibers are readily available in order to survive.
Ideal type A construct or model for evaluating specific cases.
Industrial society A society that depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services.
In-group Any group or category to which people feel they belong.
Iron law of oligarchy A principle of organizational life under which even a democratic
organization will eventually develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a few individuals.
Master status A status that dominates others and thereby determines a person’s general position
in society.
McDonaldization The process by which the principles of efficiency, calculability, predictability,
and control shape organization and decision making in North America and around the world.

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Mechanical solidarity Social cohesion based on shared experiences, knowledge, and skills in
which things function more or less the way they always have, with minimal change.
Organic solidarity A collective consciousness that rests on mutual interdependence,
characteristic of societies with a complex division of labour.
Out-group A group or category to which people feel they do not belong.
Peter principle A principle of organizational life according to which every employee within a
hierarchy tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence.
Post-industrial society A society whose economic system is engaged primarily in the processing
and control of information.
Postmodern society A technologically sophisticated, pluralistic, interconnected, globalized
society.
Primary group A small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and
cooperation.
Reference group Any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their
own behaviour.
Role conflict The situation that occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more
social positions held by the same person.
Role exit The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order
to establish a new role and identity.
Role strain The difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands
and expectations.
Scientific management approach Another name for the classical theory of formal organizations.
Secondary group A formal, impersonal group in which there is little social intimacy or mutual
understanding.
Social institution Anorganized pattern of beliefs and behavior centred on basic social needs.
Social interaction The ways in which people respond to one another.
Social network A series of social relationships that links individuals directly to others, and
through them indirectly to still more people.
Social role A set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status.
Social structure The way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships.
Status A term used by sociologists to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions
within a large group or society.
Trained incapacity The tendency of workers in a bureaucracy to become so specialized that they
develop blind spots and fail to notice potential problems.

ADDITIONAL LECTURE IDEAS

5-1: Pathology of Imprisonment (LO 1, LO 2)

An experiment at Stanford University provided a significant critique of the impact of a
total institution. Philip Zimbardo and a team of social psychologists carefully screened more than
70 volunteers for participation in a simulated prison. It is important to stress that the two dozen
males selected were mature, intelligent, emotionally stable college students from middle-class
homes.
Subjects were paid $15 a day to live in a mock prison created in a classroom building. By
a flip of a coin, half were arbitrarily designated as prisoners and the others as guards. The guards
were allowed to make up their own rules for maintaining law, order, and respect. The students
designated as “prisoners” were unexpectedly picked up at their homes by a city police officer in
a squad car, searched, handcuffed, fingerprinted, booked at the station house, and taken
blindfolded to the mock jail.

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 The results of this experiment startled prisoners, guards, and researchers alike. After only
six days (rather than the intended two weeks) Zimbardo and his colleagues, aware of the ethical
implications of using human subjects, had to terminate the simulation because of the frightening
behaviour that had taken place. The student guards had begun to take pleasure in cruel treatment
of prisoners. Physical punishment was prohibited, but the guards created their own forms of
abuse, including solitary confinement, hourly roll calls throughout the night, and removal of
blankets from uncooperative inmates. About a third of the guards were tyrannical and arbitrary in
their use of power; and the remaining guards did not interfere with this tough approach. At the
same time, the prisoners meekly accepted not only their confinement but also their mistreatment.
When their requests for parole were denied, these subjects merely returned quietly to their cells,
where they cried hysterically.
This experiment serves as a sobering commentary on the possibility of improving prison
life. Although Zimbardo argues for better training programs for prison guards, it appears that the
guards themselves are “prisoners” of their social position as defined within the prison
community and by society at large. Zimbardo’s participants were not subjected to the racism,
sexual aggression, and lethal violence that can be found in contemporary prisons. Therefore, it is
even more discouraging that four inmates were discharged prematurely because of “severe
emotional responses.” Zimbardo’s research suggests that some of the problems found in prisons
are inevitable, and casts a disturbing shadow on hopes for reform of correctional institutions. See
Philip Zimbardo, “Pathology of Imprisonment,” Society 9 (April 1972): 4, 6, 8; Zimbardo, “On
the Ethics of Intervention in Human Psychological Research: With Special Reference to the
Stanford Prison Experiment,” Cognition 2 (August 1, 1974): 243–256; Craig Haney, Curtis
Banks, and Philip Zimbardo, “Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison,” International
Journal of Criminology and Penology 1 (February 1973): 69–97.

5-2: Social Roles amidst Disasters (LO 2)

Lewis Killian studied the reaction of four Oklahoma and Texas communities to physical
disasters such as explosions and tornadoes. He and his researchers found that individuals
experienced unusual role conflicts because of the abnormal and stressful social conditions.
In one case, the heroic role of rescue worker conflicted with a person’s occupational
duties. As a result, a minister gave up an opportunity to act as a hero. This minister, hearing an
explosion on the shipping docks, headed in that direction to join the rescue effort. On his way, he
realized that he had to make a choice between serving as a rescue worker and serving as a
minister. He chose his counseling role rather than the physical rescue work.
In a second situation, Killian found a conflict between the roles of community member
and member of a group with ties outside the community, specifically, a labour union. At the time
of the disaster studied by Killian, telephone workers were on strike. Because of the emergency,
union leaders allowed the strikers to return to their jobs. However, a few days later the union
determined that the emergency was over—a judgment that was not shared within the
community—and ordered the workers to walk out again. Rather than forsaking their role as
community members, the telephone workers resigned from the union. Killian reports: “it was
almost a year before union officials were able to reorganize the local in this town, and some
workers never rejoined” (Killian 1952: 313).
The choices faced by the minister and the union members could not have been anticipated
before disaster struck in their communities. Therefore, role conflicts can arise not only out of
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everyday familial and occupational situations, but also out of extraordinary circumstances such
as a natural disaster.
See Lewis M. Killian, “The Significance of Multiple-Group Membership in Disaster,”
American Journal of Sociology 57 (January 1952): 309–314.

5-3: China and People with Disabilities (LO 3)

Having a disability is a master status found throughout the world. Sometimes its power
surfaces in unusual ways. In 1994, Fang Zheng was hailed as China’s discus champion among
athletes with a disability. In his case, the disability that he had overcome was the loss of both
legs. But the Chinese government barred him from international competition when Communist
party officials learned that his disability occurred during the Tiananmen Square uprising of June
4, 1989, when students and workers were demonstrating for democratic reforms. A Chinese
Army tank ran him down, crushing his legs and dragging him 30 feet as the tank plunged into the
crowd to suppress dissenters. His legs were later amputated. Prior to the publicity associated with
this event, sociologist C. Edward Vaughan evaluated public policy and the existing laws
regarding people with disabilities in the People’s Republic of China. In 1988, China published its
first five-year plan for the rehabilitation and education of people with disabilities. The
Handicapped People’s Association, an organization sponsored by the Chinese government,
participated in the preparatory work and discussions that led to the final document. The plan
focuses on improving educational opportunities for people with disabilities and on strengthening
special education programs. While the plan encourages all levels of government to enhance the
employment, health, education, and general welfare of people with disabilities, these policies are
outlined in broad terms and lack specific goals.
In 1990, China’s national government issued the “Law of the People’s Republic of China
on the Protection of Disabled Persons.” This law was shaped, in part, through the advocacy
efforts of the Disabled People’s Association. The law suggests that employers offer work
opportunities to people with disabilities who pass entrance examinations. All levels of society are
encouraged to offer access to people with disabilities, including access to cultural materials and
transportation. To bring greater recognition to the contribution of people with disabilities, the
third Sunday of every May was established as National Disabled Persons’ Day.
The new legislation prohibits public officials from violating the interests or rights of
people with disabilities. It outlaws violent and insulting behaviour aimed at the disabled, as well
as mistreatment of people with disabilities by family members or caregivers. Unfortunately, as
Vaughan observes, it will be difficult for many people with disabilities to obtain justice. Few
attorneys are available to represent disabled people in cases arising from the 1990 law. Most
people with disabilities have limited economic resources and few connections to powerful public
officials.
See Patrick E. Tyler, “China Discus Champ: Alone, Disabled, and Barred,” New York
Times (September 8, 1994): A3; C. Edwin Vaughan, “The Development of Public Policy and
New Laws Concerning the Rights of People with Disabilities in the People’s Republic of China,”
Journal of Disability Policy Studies 4 (Summer 1993): 131–140.

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5-4: Role Transitions (LO 1, LO 2)
Sociologists and other social scientists have examined the transitions that people make
from one social role to another. Usually, researchers look at major turning points in the life
course, such as rites of passage when people move between different sets of social networks.
Sociologist Ira Silver notes that these studies fail to acknowledge the importance of
material objects and the physical space in which role transitions take place. He explores one
particular role transition, moving away to college, to illustrate that objects play a central role in
how students contract their social identities. The term social identity refers to the meaning
individuals perceive that others may attach to their particular social roles. Following the work of
Erving Goffman and the dramaturgical approach, Silver pays specific attention to the objects that
are used as props, used to manage the impressions that others form about the roles a given
individual occupies. Students make what amounts to strategic choices about which objects to
leave at home, objects that Silver refers to as anchors, or prior identities, and which ones to bring
to school as masters of new identities.
The researcher conducted interviews with freshmen and sophomore students at a
residential university. Students indicated the strong ties they had to their anchors, those objects
that they associated exclusively with prior stages in their lives, such as childhood or early
adolescence. Students commented that leaving behind the objects representing the ties they felt
to their parents seemed to assume that most of their prized possessions were left behind. The
anchors that the students chose to bring with them often reflected a conscious assemblage of
their different past activities or accomplishments.
By contrast, markers (for example, record and CD collections and mementos from trips
to exotic places) are objects symbolic of where the students saw themselves presently and of the
type of impression they wanted to generate. For example, one female student made it clear that
she never considered bringing her stuffed animals. Another made a similar statement about dolls.
While this may seem obvious, such decisions are conscious efforts to move into another social
role. Conscious efforts also go into deciding what to display on the walls of one’s room. One
male student, for example, purposely put up an unusual Beatles poster to signal to others that he
was a real fan and had not just bought one that could be conveniently obtained anywhere.
The research confirms the enduring accuracy of the famed interactionist Herbert
Blumer’s three fundamental principles: (1) human beings act toward things on the basis of the
meaning that the things have for them; (2) the meaning of such things is derived from, or arises
out of, the social interaction that one has with one’s peer group; and (3) these meanings are
handled in, and modified through, an interpretive process used by people in dealing with the
things they encounter (1996:2).
Sources: Herbert Blumer. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969; Blumer, “Role Transitions, Objects, and Identity,” Symbolic
Interaction 19 (Winter 1996): 1–20.

5-5: Bowling Alone (LO 1, LO 2)

What are our relationships with others? Do we even have relationships with others?
These questions have been raised because of a provocative book by Robert D. Putnam, Professor
of International Affairs at Harvard University. Putnam states in Bowling Alone: The Collapse
and Revival of American Community that civic life in the United States is collapsing; people are
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not joining, as they once did, the groups and clubs that promote trust and cooperation. This lack
of connectedness in turn undermines democracy. Putnam takes his title (and central emblem of
decline) from the fact that bowling league membership has dropped 40 percent since 1980;
hence, we are “bowling alone.”
Putnam’s premise has led to much discussion; even U.S. President Bill Clinton made
references to it during his first term. Is there empirical support for his thesis? Putnam contends
that there is. Drawing on U.S. General Social Survey data, he finds a 25 percent drop in all group
membership since 1974, once the data are adjusted for rising educational levels. Putnam adjusts
for schooling because better-educated people typically have belonged to more organizations.
Once we adjust for more people being educated, Putnam argues that Americans are less a nation
of joiners than many believe. Looking at the same data, economist Robert J. Samuelson does not
feel that there has been such a change. Most of the decline has been in church groups, and if one
factors that out, the change has been mixed, but certainly not a trend of major decline.
Furthermore, while membership in some traditional groups is declining, many new groups are
developing and flourishing. Little League participation is giving way to soccer leagues, YMCA
to health clubs, and church organizations to fellowships such as Promise Keepers.
Sources: Robert D. Putnam. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American
Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Robert J. Samuelson, “Join the Club,”
Washington Post National Weekly Edition 13 (April 18, 1996): 8; Richard Stengel, “Bowling
Together,” Time 146 (July 22, 1996): 35–36.

5-6: Daily Life in a Hunting-and-Gathering Society (LO 5)

Looking at daily life in a hunting-and-gathering society can give some perspective on the
range of variation in social structure in human societies. A close examination of life in the most
famous of contemporary hunting-and-gathering societies—the Kalahari San—also suggests some
interesting comparisons to life in an industrialized society, particularly when it comes to gender
inequality.
The Kalahari San are clustered in the country of Botswana, but can also be found
throughout Southern Africa. Unfortunately, in recent decades they have been forced to give up
their nomadic lifestyle, as other African populations began to encroach upon traditional San
living areas. But the nomadic San lifestyle prior to the 1970s has been well documented in a
number of studies.
Prior to becoming stationary, the San typically lived together in bands of 10–85, who
traveled seasonally within a specific geographical territory. For much of the year, the band
moved camp every few weeks, once the food sources in a given area had been depleted. During
the dry season—when it was difficult to extract water from plant sources—the band might camp
for several months near a large water resource.
Despite the common assumption that these bands were analogous to households, there
were actually distinct nuclear families within each band. To some extent, each nuclear family
within a band was economically independent from the others. On another level, the sharing of
resources across bands was far more common than it is in industrial societies. The social
processes through which meat was distributed illustrates the extent of interdependence across
families. Technically, the spoils of a large-animal hunt belonged to just two or three people: the
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man who shot the animal, if applicable, the man who lent him the arrow, and the man who
accompanied him on the hunt. In practice, though, meat was shared much more widely. Once a
portion for his nuclear family was secured, the owner of a carcass would often give some of the
meat to married children or to in-laws, who would then distribute the meat further. Ultimately,
nearly everyone in the band could expect to eat part of the carcass.
As in industrial societies, gender was often the basis for assigning work among members
of the band. Although both genders engaged in a variety of activities, a primary activity for
women was to gather plant foods for their families, and a primary activity for men was to hunt
large animals with a bow and arrow. Does this imply that women were considered inferior to
men, or that women’s work was considered less important than men’s work? This is definitely
not the case. It is clear that plant food gathered by women was far more central to the diet of the
San than meat. Depending on the season, band members might go for long periods without
meat—as long as two months—and total annual meat consumption was not high. Ethnographic
evidence also suggests that San society was fairly gender equitable, in the sense that women had
substantial autonomy and political power. They were often influential in the band as a whole,
and had a strong voice in important family decisions.
Sources used for this essay and additional reading ideas include: Marjorie Shostak. Nisa:
The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. New York: Vintage Books, 1983; George B.
Silberbauer. Hunter and Habitat in the Central Kalahari Desert. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1981; Jiro Tanaka. The San Hunter-Gatherers of the Kalahari. Tokyo:
University of Tokyo Press, 1980; Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. The Harmless People. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1959.

5-7: Organizational Variables (LO 4)

How do sociologists study the wide range of formal organizations found in North
American society? Sociologist Dean Champion has arranged the variables that have been studied
under four headings:
1. Organizational structure
a. Size: payroll or clientele
b. Complexity: differentiation of duties
c. Formalization: written rules or codes
2. Organizational control
a. Size of administrative component
b. Bureaucratization: degree of specialization and dependence on written rules
c. Centralization: power retained by the central organizational hierarchy
d. Level of authority: numbers of layers of different positions
3. Organizational behaviour
a. Climate: feelings of workers toward the organization
b. Effectiveness: ability of an organization to achieve its goals
c. Goals: intentions and activities
4. Organizational change
a. Labour turnover: percentage of people who leave in the course of a year
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 b. Conflict: tension, interference, and disagreements
c. Flexibility: degree to which an organization is adaptable to external and internal
changes
d. Growth: change in number of employees, assets, departments, new product
markets, and so forth
e. Administrative succession: turnover among administrative heads in an
organization
f. Technology: mechanisms or processes, including automation
This model of variables for study is only one of many ways of examining organizations.
Owing to the complexity and importance of this subject, there are many interpretations of
organizational structure, control, behaviour, and change. See Dean Champion. The Sociology of
Organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975.

CLASSROOM DISCUSSION TOPICS

5-1. Alternative Social Structure: As a starting point for emphasizing the importance of
structure, outline the island social structure and subsequent breakdown of social control
presented in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (London: Faber and Faber, 1954). Note
that sociologists make a distinction between a slum (a deteriorated urban community) and
a ghetto (an urban community that is home to a particular ethnic group). A ghetto, as
originally discussed by Herbert Gans and later by Elliot Liebow and others, may be a
highly organized community, although it may not appear that way to outsiders. See
Herbert Gans. The Urban Villagers. New York: Free Press, 1962. See also Elliot Liebow.
Tally’s Corner. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967. (LO 1, LO 2)

5-2. Social Statuses and Social Roles: Most students in the class have probably never
thought much about their social statuses or social roles. For this exercise, they will need
to do so. Have them use Figure 5-1 as a guide, and diagram their social statuses.
Underneath their diagrams, have them list their social roles. Divide the class into small
groups and have them share their findings about their social statuses and social roles with
other group members. This exercise can also help demonstrate the concept of role
conflict. (LO 2, LO 3)

5-3. Physical Attractiveness as a Social Status: See Murray Webster, Jr., and James E.
Driskell, Jr., “Beauty as Status,” American Journal of Sociology 89 (July 1983): 140–
165. (LO 1, LO 3)

5-4. Stimulating Classroom Discussions about McDonaldization: Determine whether any

students have worked in fast-food restaurants and have them give examples of the routine
nature of their work. How are they expected to greet customers? How are they expected
to respond to customers who keep changing their order? Determine whether students

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 working in non–fast food settings have experienced McDonaldization of their work. How
has the McDonaldization of work affected their work experience? Is their work easier or
harder? More or less satisfying? What is the purpose of McDonaldization? What types of
jobs are or are not McDonaldized? Why? Has the advent of the computer led to the
McDonaldization of many other jobs? (LO 4)

5-5. Using the Holocaust to Teach about Groups and Organizations: The author describes
ways to use discussions of the Holocaust to illuminate sociological ideas about group
dynamics and bureaucracies. Deborah A. Abowitz, “Bringing the Sociological into the
Discussion: Teaching the Sociology of Genocide and the Holocaust.” Teaching Sociology
30 (January 2002): 26–38. (LO 1, LO 2, LO 4)

5-6. Collective Behaviour and Social Status: Have students consider what fads or fashions
they have followed (see “Collective Behaviour” box in chapter). Why did they originally
join? What made these behaviours “cool?” At what point does following such things
negatively affect one’s status? (LO2, LO3)

5-7. Using Humour: Joseph E. Faulkner has produced a monograph that includes funny
examples that could be incorporated into lectures associated with Chapter 5. See Chapter
4 in Faulkner.Sociology Through Humor. New York: West, 1987. This book is out of
print, but used copies are readily available. (LO 1, LO 2)

TOPICS FOR STUDENT RESEARCH AND CLASSROOM DISCUSSION

1. Following Garfinkel’s research, ask students to spend a few days testing social reality by
facing toward the rear wall in an elevator, or continually talking with others while in the
elevator. Have them record the general reaction of their observers. Discuss how social
reality is shaped by perceptions, evaluations, and definitions. (LO 1)

2. Ask students to view the movie Kindergarten Cop, and discuss the implications of role
conflict. (LO 2)

3. Ask students to find various evidentiary indicators used by society to encourage older
workers to retire, and discuss the four stages of role exit as developed by Helen Rose
Fuchs Ebaugh. (LO 2)

4. Ask students to find examples of how written rules and regulations concerning their
behaviour at university or college may stifle their initiative or imagination, and discuss
the various vices associated with bureaucracies. (LO 4)

5. Ask students to search for examples of North American culture influencing foreign
nations, and discuss George Ritzer’s concept of McDonaldization. (LO 4)

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6. Ask students to research the various advantages and disadvantages of postsecondary
learning via the Internet, and discuss the social implications of virtual classrooms. (LO 1,
LO 2, LO 5)

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the work of Herbert Blumer and William I. Thomas with respect to social
interaction and reality. (LO 1)
2. How do ascribed and achieved statuses serve to identify who a person is in a culture?
(LO 3)
3. How does a master status differ from an ascribed status? An achieved status? (LO 3)
4. Explain the kinds of dilemmas a person may face in carrying out a social role. (LO 2)
5. Define and present an example of role conflict. (LO 2)
6. Distinguish between role conflict, role strain, and role exit and provide an example of
each. (LO 2)
7. What is meant by role exit and how does it relate to the socialization process? (LO 1, LO
2)
8. What part do groups play in a society’s social structure? (LO 1, LO 2)
9. Distinguish between primary and secondary groups. (LO 1, LO2)
10. What does Robert Merton mean by “in-group virtues” and “out-group vices”? (LO 1, LO
2)
11. What are the similarities and differences among reference groups, primary groups, and
secondary groups? (LO 1, LO 2)
12. Explain how coalitions develop as a group grows larger. (LO 1, LO 2)
13. What impact, if any, has computer technology had on group formation? (LO 1, LO 2, LO
5)
14. What is meant by social networks? (LO 1, LO 2)
15. What role do social networks play for women in the business world? (LO 1, LO 2)
16. Distinguish among the various views of social institutions. (LO 1, LO 2)
17. What are the five functional prerequisites that a society must satisfy if it is to survive?
(LO 1, LO 2)
18. Discuss social institutions from the viewpoint of the feminist perspective. (LO 1, LO 2)
19. Describe the differences between organic solidarity and mechanical solidarity. (LO 5)
20. Distinguish between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. (LO 5)
21. Outline Gerhard Lenski’s discussion of sociocultural evolution. (LO 5)
22. Compare and contrast the approaches to social structure introduced by Émile Durkheim,
Ferdinand Tönnies, and Gerhard Lenski. (LO 5)
23. What role does technology play in the sociocultural evolution approach to understanding
societies? (LO 5)

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24. What are the differences among industrial, post-industrial, and postmodern societies?
(LO 5)
25. How does ascribed status have an impact within formal organizations? (LO 1, LO2, LO
3)
26. Briefly summarize Max Weber’s five characteristics of bureaucracy. (LO 4)
27. Discuss the positive consequences of a bureaucracy. (LO 4)
28. Discuss the negative consequences of a bureaucracy for the individual and the
organization. (LO 4)
29. Why does Max Weber’s characterization of a bureaucracy constitute an ideal type? (LO
4)
30. Explain what Robert Michels meant by the iron law of oligarchy. (LO 4)
31. Distinguish between the classical theory of formal organizations and the human relations
approach. (LO 4)

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. Would you have more respect for a person who is born wealthy or a person who becomes
wealthy through hard work? Address the differences associated with ascribed and
achieved statuses in your answer. (LO 3)

2. Discuss the various ways a person may experience role strain. Give examples to support
your answer. (LO 2)

3. Distinguish the differences between primary and secondary groups, and describe how
social relationships in groups evolve as society becomes more populated and formal in its
functions. Give examples to support your answer. (LO 1, LO 2)

4. Describe the various ways that certain reference groups can affect a person’s behaviour
patterns, and how we may be influenced by a variety of reference groups during our
lifetime. Give some examples to help illustrate your answer. (LO 1, LO 2)

5. Analyze the importance of social institutions from the various views discussed in the text.
How are the views similar and different? (LO 1, LO 2)

6. Discuss how social life and interaction would be affected if the Internet permanently
disappeared today. (LO 1, LO 5)

7. Describe the negative consequences of bureaucracy as viewed from both the individual
and organizational perspectives. Be sure to include examples to support your answer.
(LO 4)

8. Discuss what personally motivates you to perform work. Would you be more likely to
respond to scientific management approaches or human relations approaches in reaching
your goals? Give some examples to support your ideas. (LO 4)
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 TOPICS AND SOURCES FOR STUDENT RESEARCH AND
ASSIGNMENTS

1. Social Structure and Emotion: Have students explore how social structure impacts our
emotional life. Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer. Happiness and Economics: How the
Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 2001.
2. Changing Social Roles in the Catholic Church: This book argues that, because of a
lack of men willing to serve as celibate priests, the types of social roles available through
Catholicism are undergoing major changes. Richard A. Schoenherr. Goodbye Father:
The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2002.
3. Prison Interaction: See Geoffrey Hunt et al., “Changes in Prison Culture: Prison Gangs
and the Case of the ‘Pepsi Generation,’” Social Problems 40 (August 1993): 398–409.
4. Primary Groups Among Subcultures: Analysis of primary group life in ethnic and
urban communities can be found in Whyte’s coverage of an Italian American gang:
William Foote Whyte. Street Corner Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1955. See also Liebow’s work on Black street corner men in Washington, DC: Elliot
Liebow. Tally’s Corner. Boston: Little Brown, 1967; Thomas on Puerto Rican gangs: Piri
Thomas. Down These Mean Streets. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967.
5. Reference Group Theory: See John K. Cochran and Leonard Beeghley, “The Influence
of Religion on Attitudes toward Nonmarital Sexuality: A Preliminary Assessment of
Reference Group Theory,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30 (March 1991):
45–62.
6. Street Gangs: See SudhirVenkatesh. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes
to the Street. New York: Penguin Books, 2008.
7. Networking Among Men and Women: See Gwen Moore, “Structural Determinants of
Men’s and Women’s Personal Networks,” American Sociological Review 55 (October
1990): 726–735.
8. Gerhard Lenski: See Gerhard Lenski and Patrick D. Nolan, “Trajectories of
Development: A Test of Ecological-Evolutionary Theory,” Social Forces 63 (September
1984): 1–23; and “Trajectories of Development: A Further Test,” Social Forces 64
(March 1984): 744–795.
9. Organizational Effectiveness: See Renee R. Anspach, “Everyday Methods for
Assessing Organizational Effectiveness,” Social Problems (February 1991): 1–19.
10. Sexual Harassment in High Schools: See Valerie E. Lee, Robert G. Croninger, Eleanor
Linn, and Xianglei Chen, “The Culture of Sexual Harassment in Secondary Schools,”
American Educational Research Journal 33 (Summer 1996): 383–417.

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 FEATURED 5: MOVIES ON SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND INTERACTION

Office Space
Comedy about the social structure and culture of office work.

The Truman Show

In this postmodern tale, a man unknowingly lives his life on television.

Born into Brothels

True-life stories of children growing up in the red-light district of Calcutta.

The Lives of Others

Communist bureaucracy turns on its citizens in East Berlin.

The Social Network

The story of the founding of Facebook and the betrayals it involved.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

Alfino, Mark, John S. Caputo, and Robin Wynyard. 1998. McDonaldization Revisited: Critical
Essays on Consumer Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger. A multidisciplinary look at George
Ritzer’s approach to Max Weber’s theory of rationalization and how it has been applied first to
McDonald’s restaurants and now to institutions worldwide.

Albom, Mitch. 1997. Tuesdays with Morrie. New York: Doubleday. Social interaction can take
place under unusual circumstances, such as that chronicled in the relationship between a young
man and his ailing former sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz.

Bell, Daniel. 1999. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting.
New York: Basic Books. Updated with a new foreword, this book describes the current
economic trend away from growing food or making products for a living and toward the
provision of services and information as a livelihood.

Ebaugh, Helen Rose Fuchs. 1988. Becoming an Ex: The Process of Role Exit. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. Sociologist Ebaugh examines the phenomenon of becoming an
“ex”—for example, an ex-convict, an ex-nun, a divorced person, or a mother who lost custody of
her children.

Epstein, Steven. 1996. Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. A sociologist examines AIDS research from the
perspective of how it has been influenced by social and political forces.

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Fagenson, Ellen A. 1993. Women in Management: Trends, Issues, and Challenges in Managerial
Diversity. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. This anthology focuses on the continued
underrepresentation of women in managerial positions within formal organizations.

Kendall, Diana. 2002. The Power of Good Deeds: Privileged Women and the Social
Reproduction of the Upper Class. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. This excellent book gives
an analysis of charity work among wealthy women. It demonstrates how the incorporation of
women into philanthropic groups solidifies their position within elite social groups.

Kennedy, Dan. 2003. Little People: Learning to See the World Through My Daughter’s Eyes.
New York: Rodale Press. A “normal” man learns about the master status of dwarfism through his
daughter’s experience with the condition.

Kephart, William M., and William M. Zellner. 2001. Extraordinary Groups: An Examination of
Unconventional Lifestyles, 7thed. New York: Worth. Among the groups described in this very
readable book are the Amish, the Oneida community, the Mormons, Hasidic Jews, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, and the Romani (commonly known as Gypsies).

Kincheloe, Joe L. 2002. The Sign of the Burger: McDonald’s and the Culture of Power.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Kincheloe explores the various ways McDonald’s
affects us, serving as a shorthand for the power of U.S. culture, a symbol of consumerism, and an
indicator of the condition of labor in a globalized economy.

Nishiguchi, Toshihiro. 1994. Strategic Industrial Sourcing: The Japanese Advantage. New York:
Oxford University Press. Drawing on eight years of research and more than 1,000 interviews,
Nishiguchi offers insight into how very large industrial corporations have developed in Japan
and have come to dominate that nation’s economy.

Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.
New York: Simon and Schuster. A public policy scholar considers whether what he calls “social
capital”—community activity and group participation—has declined in the last few decades.

Ritzer, George. 2008. The McDonaldization of Society. Revised edition of the 2004 New Century
Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. The most recent, complete elaboration of the
McDonaldization thesis since Ritzer first advanced it in 1993.

Sherman, Rachel. 2007. Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels. Berkeley and Los
Angeles, CA: University of California Press. Ethnographic research and in-depth interviews with
hotel workers reveal ways in which hotel workers negotiate systems of inequality within a class-
based hotel industry.

Shilts, Randy. 1987. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. New
York: St. Martin’s Press. Shilts, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, offers this
devastating critique of the nation’s medical, political, and media establishments for allowing the
AIDS epidemic to reach grave proportions before taking it seriously.

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Skolnick, Jerome H., and Elliot Currie, eds. 2003.Crisis in American Institutions, 12th ed.
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. A collection of readings focused on the problems
facing social institutions in the United States.

Tannock, Stuart. 2001. Youth at Work: The Unionized Fast-Food and Grocery Workplace.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Tannock writes from experience about the low-wage
world of youth employment. He finds that unionization doesn’t do much for young workers in
the U.S. supermarkets, but the unionized fast-food industry in Canada pays attention to the
concerns of young part-timers.

Weber, Max. [1921] 1964.The Theory of Social and Economic Organizations. Translated by A.
M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons. Still a very readable account of organization theory,
including the characteristics of a bureaucracy.

Wuthnow, Robert, and John H. Evans, eds. 2002.The Quiet Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism
and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism. Berkeley: University of California Press. This
book, edited by a leading researcher of religion, addresses the important but little-known social
and political involvements of mainline religious groups.

JOURNALS
Among the journals that focus on issues of social interaction and social structure are Journal of
Contemporary Ethnography (formerly Urban Life, founded 1971), and Symbolic Interaction
(1977).

Among the journals that focus on the study of groups and organizations are Academy of
Management Journal (founded in 1958), Administration and Society (1969), Administrative
Science Quarterly (1956), Clinical Sociology Review (1981), Organization: Interdisciplinary
Journal of Organization Theory and Society(1994), Organizational Studies (1980), Small Group
Research (formerly Small Group Behavior, 1970), Social Psychology Review (1948), and Work
and Occupations (1974).

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