This article suggests three orientations within sociology toward issues of morality and character development. The first stems from Durkheim, one where sociological tools diagnose the operation of any society and its constituent parts, including typifications of the individual. This tradition holds that sociologists can help diagnose…

This study presents an analysis of hidden elitism in music education through the free choice argument -- that individuals are fundamentally free to choose to study music -- as a meritocratic power structure. Qualitative Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is applied to understand music education as a social system with a special structure in which its…

In recent years, many studies have clearly documented that mixed-race people are currently engaged in the process of self validation (DaCosta. 2007; Dalmage, 2003; McQueen, 2002; Root, 1996 & 2001; Spencer, J, M., 1997; Spencer, R., 2006a; Thorton, 1992). There is not a lot of empirical research that examines how schools influence the racial…

Traditional society, viewed as static with little differentiation or specialization as well as low levels of urbanization and literacy, and modern society, characterized as having thorough differentiation, urbanization, literacy, and exposure to mass media, are examined in situations of change as different models of social and political order…

Describes power structure of corporations functioning under Theory W in which single leaders, in partnership with trusted followers, achieve corporate success. Basis of this industrial structure is attributed to social and developmental structures of prehistoric man and city states. Dimensions of W, X, Y, and Z theories are discussed. (MBR)

Drawing on examples and evidence from social science research on the diffusion of ideas, social movements, and several other related fields, nine propositions dealing with the interrelationships between social structure and social change are explored. (Author/MB)

A study was made to identify factors which contribute to community interest in, and adoption of, beautification projects and to identify personal and social characteristics of participants, related to a broad interpretation of beautification. A social system analysis approach was used as the framework of the study. Two Wisconsin cities' social…

Maintains that most students learn how sociologists study social stratification in introductory sociology courses. Presents a content analysis of 15 introductory college textbooks to determine whether they use distributional or relational approaches as the basis for their treatment of social class. Finds that depictions of class are…

In an attempt to gain a better perspective on the relationship between education and the modern state, this paper reopens the theoretical debate on the key role of formal rationality in Max Weber's interpretation of the capitalist economy and the modern bureaucratic state. Against the background of an extensive review of the development and the…

Radical educational change cannot take place in isolation from societal change. American schools see themselves as agents of the society, charged with transmitting the values and behaviors considered central to the maintenance of society. Critics of this functional view of socialization suggest schools should be instruments of radical change.…