Items Vol. 29 No. 3 (1975)

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL

VOLUME 29 . NUMBER 3 . SEPTEMBER 1975 605 THIRD AVENUE¡ NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016

WORK AND PERSONALITY IN THE MIDDLE YEARS

by Orville G. Brim) Jr. and Ronald P. Abeles ,., THE "MIDDLE YEARS" PERIOD is a largely unexplored phase of the human life cycle, receiving relatively little attention from students of human development .who have tended to concentrate on childhood, adolescence, or old age. For example, there are no major research institutes devoted to the middle years in contrast to the other periods in the life cycle. Contrary to the view that this is a stable period of life, the Council's Committee on Work and Personality in the Middle Years 1 believes that it may encompass major life challenges and may be for many a time of sweeping personality changes.

Consequently, taking the midlife period as an entry point into the study of various life-span processes is a strategy for examining continuity in the midst of change and for locating the missing pieces in the study of the individual over a lifetime.

Giv~n the new social patterns and policy issues that have emerged in the 1970s, this seems a highly appropriate time for the social sciences to focus on the middle years. Increasing numbers of people are retiring early,

are changin'g to second careers, and are obtaining education in midlife. Increasing numbers of women are entering or reentering the labor market in the middle years. Social science knowledge is needed to illuminate the policy issues that are accompanying these trends and to provide the basis for constructive social planning in connection with them. While it is clearly much too early to delineate many protocols for social intervention, a better understanding of the middle years may well point to interventions in various occupational groups to facilitate personal and organizational goals. Conceivably; these might take the form of shifts in the distribution of income and security levels in the career trajectory, provisions for occupational sabbaticals, or shifts in occupations for both blue and white collar workers.

Definitions of middle age differ, depending on whether biological, chronological, or self-perceptive criteria are

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE • Orville G. Brim. Jr .. chairman of the Committee on Work and Personality in the Middle Years. is president of the Foundation for Child Development (New York). He is author and coauthor of several books on human development. including Socialization after Childhood, John Wiley & Sons. 1966. Ronald P. Abeles is a social psychologist who serves as staff for the committee. He has published papers in the area of attitudes and political behavior and is coauthor of Human Aggression and Conflict, Prentice-Hall. 1975.

10ther members of the committee presently include Paul Baltes.

Pennsylvania State University; Victor R. Fuchs. National Bureau of Econo~ic Research (Stanford); Janet Z. Giele. Harvard University (appomted June 1975); David A. Hamburg. Stanford University; Robert L. Kahn. University of Michigan; Jack Ladinsky. University of Wisconsin; Robert A. LeVine. University of Chicago; Gardner Lindzey. Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford); Matilda White Riley. Bowdoin College. Harriet Zuckerman.

Columbia University. was a member of the committee from September 1972 to September 1974. David A. Statt served as staff until June 1974.

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Work and Personality in the Middle Years-Orville G. Brim, Jr. and Ronald P. Abeles

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New Perspectives for the Study of Western EuropeSuzanne D. Berger, Gerald D. Feldman, Gudmund Hernes, Joseph LaPalombara, Philippe C. Schmitter and Allan A. Silver '

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X:nv.ironmen~al and Spatial Cognition in African So-

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Cieties-DavId Slea and Edward Soja Committee Briefs

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Council Staff: Appointments Postdoctoral Grants New Publications

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Council Fellowships and Grants: Application Deadlines

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New Chinese Studies Program

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employed. Social definitions of what it means to be "middle aged" are not tied closely to chronological age and they vary by social class. 2 Blue collar workers, for example, typically say that middle age comes earlier than do white collar workers. s This may be explained by different achievement trajectories, including differences in the age of peak income and security attainment. In addition to occupation, variations both in the sense of mastery and control over life and in the degree to which achievement in work shapes one's sense of self may also influence how middle age is defined.

Work and the middle years

The study of transitions between work and non work is particularly appropriate to a research program concerned with the middle years, because an occupational career is best understood as a sequence of work roles that differ from each other and that differ in relationship to the non work aspects of life. In terms of time demands, the work role 4 increases in young adulthood, either gradually or abruptly, and, for men, is generally sustained over the succeeding decades at the culturallydecreed 35 or 40 hours per week. For women, the pattern is more complex and has probably been more affected by social change. Both men and women, however, are likely to hold numerous jobs, and both have life patterns in which work is likely to show a period of dominance, more or less prolonged, among other major life activities. To understand what it means to mature and grow old in our culture, one must study the changing sequence of work prescriptions and opportunities, the choices and compulsions connected with them, and their consequences.

A joint focus on the middle years and on work may provide a fruitful approach to several research topics.

One of these is the "midlife crisis." The statistical. clinical, and anecdotal evidence suggests that the special stresses of the middle years take their toll, as well as produce growth, and that work is significantly involved 2 For all practical purposes, the committee defines the middle years as the chronological age period from 40 to 60. While developmental events do not always parallel these years. the period captures most of the personality and work interactions of significance to the committee.

8 B. L. Neugarten and N. Datan, "The Middle Years," in Silvano Arieti, ed., American Handbook of Psychiatry., vol. I. Basic Books, 1972.

4 Again, one is faced with a definitional problem in the term "work."

Whose definition is to be employed: the economists' (when one is paid for an activity), the sociologists' (when society caUs an activity "work'), or the psychologists' (when the person caUs it "work')? One line of inquiry, which the committee is pursuing, is the attempt to conceptualize the concepts of "work" and "nonwork" in terms of underlying commonalities.

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in this process. There is, however, considerable disagreement about the characteristics of the midlife crisis, about its causes, and about how widespread an occur. rence it is. The crucial theoretical issue is the degree to which midlife changes in personality, stressful or not, lie within the maturational process of aging per se or are stimulated by specific, external environmental experiences. 5 In addition to its potential relationship to "midlife crises," work deserves careful attention as a contributor to personal identity. especially during the midlife period.

Such issues as the role of work in self-esteem; the differential impact of work on identity for different social groups. cultures. and historical time periods; individual preferences for the allocation of time between work and leisure; and the consequences of voluntary career changes in the middle years fall within this research domain.

The picture becomes especially complex when changes in work, personality. and aging are considered over time and in relationship to economic, demographic. and/or technological changes in society. Many or perhaps all of the questions relating personality and work require a disentangling of chronological age effects from generational or cohort effects, since each generation matures in a different demographic, economic, and technological environment. The trend towards prolonging education and ' delaying entry into the labor force, for example, may well be changing traditional career achievement trajectories by compressing the length of the work life.

Such changes in work-non work cycles in the life span may affect the relationships among work, personality, and age.

The committee: its objectives and activities

With these kinds of issues and concepts in mind. the Committee on Work and Personality in the Middle Years was appointed in 1972. 6 Much of the existing 6 For a recent critical review of theories of the "midlife crisis." see Orville G. Brim, Jr., "Theories of the Male Mid-life Crisis," Counseling Psychologist, 1976 (forthcoming).

6 The suggestion for forming the committee was made (by the present chairman) to Ralph W. Tyler. then acting president of the Council, in the summer of 1971. An initial planning conference took place in February 1972. and the committee was established by the Council's Committee on Problems and Policy in September of that year. The committee held two meetings (February and October 1973) to work out basic theoretical positions and modes of procedure, incorporating these in a description of proposed activities that served also as a proposal for funding. Beginning in the summer of 1974. the National Institute of Mental Health provided funds extending over a three-year period for activities of the committee. and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has supported two study groups.

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reporting current research, and exchanging insights into shared intellectual problems. Over the past 18 months, five thematic meetings have been held by the committee, and a sixth is planned for October 1975.

The theme of the February 1974 meeting was the epidemiology of stress symptoms. The committee's guests were David C. Glass, University of Texas; Morton Kramer, National Institute of Mental Health; J.R. Newbrough, George Peabody College; Harvey Picker, Columbia University; and Richard Reddick, National Institute of Mental Health. Messrs. Kramer and Reddick gave a presentation on "Epidemiological Indices in the Middle Years," in which they discussed the psychiatric, medical, and social correlates of midlife casualties, particularly with respect to depression. Data on midlife depression were specifically contrasted with adolescent and senescent depression. Presentations were also made

by Mr. Glass on the "Behavioral Antecedents of Coronary Heart Disease" and by Mr. Newbrough on community change, stress, and the quality of life.

The June 1974 meeting focused on the midlife crisis.

Exchange of information. The committee's intention is Featured was the presentation by Daniel J. Levinson, to serve as a center for the exchange of information Yale University, and his colleagues on their current among the increasing numbers of social scientists work- study of the psychosocial development of American ing in the area. Accordingly, it has been developing both males. Discussions followed by John A. Clausen, UniAmerican and international contacts with scholars pro- versity of California, Berkeley; Charlotte Darrow, Yale fessionally interested in the midlife period. In 1973, in- University; David Gutman, University of Chicago; formation about the committee was sent to an initial list Beatrix Hamburg, Stanford University; Maria Levinson, of 75 social scientists known to have such interests. As New Haven, Connecticut; and David Pearl, National knowledge about the committee has spread and as the Institute of Mental Health. committee has learned more about who is active in the Death and the concept of social time were the topics area, this list has grown to over 200 correspondents. considered at the committee's October 1974 meeting.

Copies of the list as well as the committee's annual Bernice Neugarten, University of Chicago, discussed her reports were distributed to these 200 correspondents in past work on the concepts of being "on time" and "off September 1974. time" in life-span development and her present work In addition to creating a list of scholars, the committee on the middle-aged. She noted the changing demographic is rapidly compiling a bibliography of research memo- composition of American society and outlined some of randa, working papers, and other unpublished as well as the psychological, sociological, and policy implications published manuscripts. The bibliography will be dis- of these changes. John W. Riley, Jr., Equitable Life tributed shortly and updated periodically. It is hoped Assurance Society of the United States, presented new that the present article will elicit letters and manuscripts data on the changing meaning of death to individuals relevant to the committee's activities and goals. 7 and their perceptions of death with special reference to middle-aged persons. Other participants in the meetThematic committee meetings. Each of the committee's ing were John Flanagan, American Institutes for Remeetings has been organized around a specific theme search; Beatrix Hamburg, Stanford University; Lee and has included invited participants with research inA. Lillard and Robert T. Michael, both of the National terests in the topic under consideration. These meetings Bureau of Economic Research (Stanford). serve as an informal forum for presenting new ideas, The committee's February 1975 meeting, which was organized as a small conference on the interaction beT Requests for the list of correspondents, bibliographies, and/or antween work and personality, heard from seven speakers. nual reports should be sent to Ronald P. Abeles at the Council. MaAlex Inkeles, Stanford University, discussed his research terials for inclusion in the committee's bibliography or requests to in six developing countries on changes in adult perbe added to the mailing list should also be sent to Mr. Abeles.

work on the middle years is uncoordinated, with many theoretical and practical questions remaining to be addressed. Efforts at organizing the field according to more general analytic frameworks, concepts, and propositions are clearly needed, as is an inventory of what is known.

The committee recognizes that the development of this field must draw upon many areas of the social sciences, since fundamental questions about work productivity and career trajectories, the use of human resources, personality change through the life span, and changes in age-specific role expectations are involved. Consequently, the committee is emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach in the hope of generating theoretical questions about the midlife period that might provide new leads across disciplinary boundaries.

As a means of encouraging research on the middle years, the committee has developed four lines of attack: information exchange, committee meetings with guest participation, study groups or seminars on selected topics, and liaison with significant institutional programs.

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sonality towards "modernity" as the result of participation in factory work and in farm cooperatives. David W. Plath, University of Illinois, reported on life-course trends during the middle years in modern Japan and on changing patterns of self-awareness in middle age as shaped by changes in one's circle of intimate others.

Melvin Kohn, National Institute of Mental Health, summarized his recent research on the effects of occupational experience on psychological functioning with particular attention to intellectual flexibility.

In addition, Roger Gould, Santa Monica, California, discussed the evolution of male and female personalities during the ages of 30 to 50 from a psychoanalytic perspective and indicated how personality belief system!! interact with the external reality of the world of work.

George H. Pollock, Institute for Psychoanalysis (Chicago), reported on several projects of the Institute and on his own clinical study of the mourning process. He focused in particular on the relationship of the mourning process to creativity and to adaptations in the second half of life. Janet Z. Giele, Radcliffe Institute, discussed the apparent move away from dual, sex-typed occupational and family social structures in industrial societies, as well as the formation of new work and family patterns for men and women. She emphasized that current research has focused mainly on males and such psychological characteristics as sense of personal efficacy and cognition to the neglect of more affective and affiliative behavior. Eugene S. Schneller, Duke University, summarized his research on second careers and career trajectories among "medical lawyers." He suggested that work was needed on a theory of commitment that accounts for both encumbency and change in occupations.

Albert D. Biderman, Bureau of Social Science Research (Washington, D.C.); Raymond L. Hall, Dartmouth College; Robert Higgins, The Burden Foundation; Joyce Lazar, National Institute of Mental Health; Carol Ryff, Foundation for Child Development; and M. Brewster Smith, University of California, Santa Cruz, participated in these discussions along with the speakers and members of the committee.

At the June 1975 meeting, the committee and its guests discussed women in midlife. Michelle Rosaldo, Stanford University, raised several questions centering around cultural, historical, and gender differences in conceptualizing the life cycle and the self through the life cycJe. She also pointed to questions about different historical and cultural conceptualizations of work and careers. Hilda Kahne, Radcliffe Institute, considered current economic trends in American society and how changing occupational roles for women and men will be affected by these trends. She predicted that the

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women's movement will probably have differential impact upon women in terms of their current location in the life cycle. Francine Blau, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, emphasized the need to consider both men and women in studying the midlife period as a means of testing the limits and generalizability of existing theories. In addition, she focused on the need for research on occupational segregation along sex lines.

Myra Strober, Stanford University, discussed questions dealing with occupational choices and opportunities open to women in the middle years who are entering or reentering the job market.

On a different topic, Neil J. Smelser, University of California, Berkeley, outlined his developing interests in researching the middle years simultaneously from sociological and psychoanalytic perspectives. He presented some exploratory ideas about differential social contours of the individual's life cycle and about institutional changes resulting from differences in the size and composition of successive cohorts. In addition to Mr. Smelser, other participants in the meeting were Susan M. Ervin-Tripp, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford); Laurie H. Ganschow, American Institutes for Research; and Beatrix Hamburg, Stanford University.

The theme for the October 1975 meeting will be longitudinal, cross-cultural, and historical studies of the middle years. There will be discussions of methodological problems in age cohort analyses of personality change over the life span, of the current state of social history research on human development, and of a crossnational comparison between middle age in the United States and in an African society.

Study groups and seminars. Opportunities for longer

and more intense discussions of specific topics have been provided in study groups organized by committee members. These groups meet usually for two to three days and are not part of the committee's regular meetings.

Matilda White Riley convened one such group concerned with the differences between middle-aged cohorts and their predecessors and successors with regard to size, historical background, educational level, cognitive performance, and similar characteristics. s The five-day meet8 The study group on "The Middle路Aged: Past, Present, and Future" was held at Bowdoin Col\ege, on July 21-26. 1974. Participating in the conference were Dale Dennefer, Rutgers University; Douglas Ewbank. Bowdoin Col\ege; Mathew Greenwald, Institute of Life Insurance (New York); Beth Hess, County College of Morris. New Jersey; Marilyn Johnson. Rutgers University; David Kertzer, Bowdoin College; Ann Parelius, Rutgers University; John W. Riley, Jr., Equitable Life Assurance Society; Barbara Roth, Rutgers University; Harris Schrank, Equitable Life Assurance Society; Melinda Sma\). Bowdoin College; and Joan Waring, Fairleigh Dickinson University.

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ing attempted to stimulate thinking and research on the impact of these differences on relationships within and between age strata and on disordered cohort flow.

Several articles, papers, and research projects have resulted from this July 1974 meeting.

A small study group consisting of Mathew Greenwald (chairman), Institute of Life Insurance (New York); Rayman Bortner, Pennsylvania State University; and Gertrude Lewis, Rutgers University, reported on the availability of longitudinal panel surveys for secondary analysis in regard to aging. The study group met with program directors and staff at the University of Michi. gan's Institute for Social Research, reported on the content and condition of several data sets, and made recommendations for possible analyses of these data.

A third study group, under the direction of Victor R. Fuchs, Lee A. Lillard, and Robert T. Michael, all of the National Bureau of Economic Research (Stanford), met in June 1975 to discuss issues relevant to life cycle aspects of earnings and labor supply.9 Among the topics covered were (I) theoretical issues in life-cycle analysis, including models of earnings, labor supply, occupational and geographical mobility, and other aspects of male labor force behavior in the United States in the twentieth century, and (2) empirical issues in life-cycle analysis, including various techniques and models used in extracting life-cycle information from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.

The focus of the fourth study group, also chaired by Mrs. Riley, which met in July 1975, was on the meaning of work and retirement among middle-aged women. 10 The conference was designed to stimulate thinking, exchange of ideas, and research on a little-studied and relatively new phenomenon for most women: retirement from the workplace. The objectives of the study group 9 The study group on "Life Cycle Aspects of Earnings and Labor Supply" met at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Stanford. California. on June 20-21. 1975. The participants were Victor R. Fuchs. Stanford University and NBER; William J. Haley. Michigan State University; Robert M. Hauser. University of Wisconsin; James J. Heckman. University of Chicago and NBER; Thomas Johnson.

North Carolina State University; Robert L. Kahn. University of Michigan; John Ladinsky. University of Wisconsin; Lee A. Lillard.

NBER; Robert T. Michael. Stanford University and NBER; Sherwin Rosen. University of Rochester; James P. Smith. RAND Corporation; Frank Stanford. University of Michigan; Yoram Weiss. The Hebrew University and NBER.

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were to discuss some limited data now at hand, to consider redefinitions of "work," "leisure," and "retirement," and to explore the relevance of these issues to future research and to several projected and current large-scale longitudinal studies.

In the year ahead, the committee is initiating new study groups or seminars. Among the topics that will be considered are (I) definitional questions with respect to types of careers, career patterns, and the measurement of career trajectories; (2) individual differences in hormonal changes in midlife males; (3) life roles, life cycle, and the "convoy of social support" during the middle years, where "convoy of social support" refers to those persons on whom an individual relies for support and those who rely upon him for support. These study groups and the preceding ones have been proposed and organized by committee members. Future study groups will be under the leadership of other scholars outside of the committee.

Relationahipa with other inatitutiona. In various ways,

the committee has established liaison with significant institutional projects concerned with the middle years.

These include Columbia University'S midcareer education program; the work at the Bureau of Social Science Research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor on indicators of quality of employment; and the midcareer leadership and creativity training programs of the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina). Currently, the committee is designing a national conference of "consumers" of social science research on the middle years, in recognition of the rapidly growing concern with the midlife period in the fields of applied education and career counseling.

0 10 The study group on "The Meaning of Work. Leisure. and Retirement among Middle-Aged Women" was held at the Russell Sage Foundation. New York City. on July 9-10. 1975. Those participating were Ronald P. Abeles. Social Science Research Council; Paula Barron.

Russell Sage Foundation; Kathleen Bond. Social Security Administration; Elizabeth Douvan. University of Michigan; Kenneth Finnerud.

Teachers' Insurance and Annuity Association; Anne Foner. Rutgers University; Mathew Greenwald. Institute of Life Insurance (New York); Beth Hess. County College of Morris. New Jersey; Michael Inbar. Russell Sage Foundation; Marilyn Johnson. Rutgers University; Gertrude Lewis. Rutgers University; Harris Schrank. Equitable Life Assurance Society; Karen Schwab. Social Security Administration; Stephen Sandell. Ohio State University; Graham Spanier. Pennsylvania State University; and Joan Waring. Russell Sage Foundation.

NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR THE STUDY OF WESTERN EUROPE

by Suzanne D. Berger, Gerald D. Feldman, Gudmund Heroes, Joseph LaPalombara, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Allan A. Silver" THE PRINCIPAL AIM of the new Joint Committee on Western Europe is to stimulate long-term, systematic reflection and research both on the origins and evolution of contemporary European societies and on the theories that illuminate their experiences.

In focusing on Western Europe we are conscious of looking into a mirror that reflects back many of the features of the American national experience and of the contemporary preoccupations of American scholars. We are also aware of the centrality of the European example for much of the developing world. But if a reach toward wider generalizations and comparisons is to be fruitful, it must proceed from a coherent intellectual effort to understand the differences and similarities of experience among European societies. In Western Europe, despite the divergences in social, economic, and political institutions, the constraints of shared histories and common problems have limited and structured the range of variations in ways that make possible the broad conceptual tasks that we are proposing for the new committee.

European intellectual traditions The fact that European intellectual traditions remain essential to the world's understanding of itself is a fundamental rationale for the appointment of a Joint Committee on Western Europe. Until very recently the theories and concepts that social scientists and humanists everywhere used to understand their own societies and cultures were drawn from the historical experience of Europe, largely intended for the use of Europeans, and drafted in the main by Europeans-Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Freud, the giants among them. This common intellectual heritage is the product of Europe's early economic development, its subsequent political and cultural hegemony, and its cultivation of rationalscientific inquiry. As societies outside Europe have tried to apply these concepts to their own experience, they have been modified, elaborated, and sometimes rejected.

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Dissatisfaction with the models provided by European intellectual traditions, moreover, has not been confined to those studying other parts of the world. Many American scholars interested in Western Europe, who in the 1950s and 1960s had predicted that accelerated technological innovation, sustained economic growth, social mobility, and regional cooperation would produce a "postproblematic" social and political order, saw their theories refuted.

However, despite serious difficulties in using .ideas derived from European traditions for understanding contemporary societies, Western or not, the social sciences and humanities remain tied to these ideas by the logic of their own internal development. Even in what is rejected, the shape of the European models is still visible. The systematic pursuit of knowledge about Western European cultures, societies, economies, and politics will continue to be vital for advance in the social sciences and the humanities.

The sense of crisis A second basic rationale for stimulating scholarship on Western Europe at this time is the pervasive sense of crisis felt both by scholars and citizens about their present condition. The mood of urgency dominating the mid-1970s impels us to reexamine the structures and directions of Western industrial society. As one European sociologist put it for his discipline, we need to confront both a crisis in sociology and a sociology of crisis.

The causes of the malaise are clear: the old maps of state, society, and economy no longer work, and Western industrial societies feel themselves embarked without guideposts or compasses on journeys whose way stations and destinations are no longer familiar. The problem is a double one. The terrain has changed; and the maps, which had only a very rough and perhaps spurious fit with the old state of affairs, have not been redrawn to take account of the new landscape of the contemporary industrial world. • The authors are the initial members of an emergent Joint Com¡ mittee on Western Europe of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. The committee is currently in the process of formation. Suzanne D. Berger (chairman) is professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Gerald D. Feldman, professor of history, University of Cali¡ fornia, Berkeley; Gudmund Hernes, professor of sociology, University of Bergen; Joseph LaPalombara, Arnold Wolfers professor of political science, Yale University; Philippe C. Schmitter, associate professor of political science, University of Chicago: Allan A. Silver, associate professor of sociology, Columbia University. Other European and American scholars are being invited to join the full committee. This article is adapted from a working paper proposing a focus for the committee's activities.

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No single event explains the great transformation of the terrain on which European states find themselves in the 1970s. However massive the consequences of the energy crisis, the failure of economic policy and the sense of the increasing impotence of the state for dealing with the major problems of the 1970s cannot be attributed to an energy shortage. Even before the rise in the prices of food and oil, "stag~ation" had already undermined the assumptions linking particular theories of the economy to particular state interventions and policies.

Even earlier, the social explosions of the late 1960s and their perpetuation in latent states of unrest had weakened a body of political theory and social practice that took for granted the end of ideological challenge in affluent societies.

Spectacular changes in the terms on which industrial nations procure raw materials, stagflation, the "MayJunes" and the "hot autumns" would not have had their powerful impact were they not related to deeper, more long-term shifts in the structures of Western industrial societies. Broadly speaking, the critical shifts appear in three areas.

Strain8 in the in8titution8 of governance. A major area

of transformation is in the relationship between society and its institutions of governance. These relations are manifesting evidence of strain and inadaptation in all advanced industrial societies. One sign of institutional crisis is a skepticism about the effectiveness of central governmental institutions expressed in the retreat from central planning observable throughout Europe. In Europe, as well as the United States, we note a growing disillusionment with institutions, such as schools and government-run social services, once considered vital to all schemes for social reform and proposals to replace them with essentially market instruments, such as vouchers for "free" schools and a negative income tax.

Growing recognition of the inadequacy of governmental institutions in Western industrial societies is also evidenced in the mounting attack on centralization.

From both Left and Right there are proposals for decentralization, "deconcentration," regions, and local municipal consolidation. But the reforms that have been implemented in Italy, France, and Britain meet only a small part of the problem.

Political parties and intere8t grOUp8. A second area of

fundamental transformation involves representative institutions like political parties and interest groups. It is perhaps true that parties and a wide variety of voluntary associations never functioned as representative structures in the ways that American pluralist theories suggested.

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been as instruments for channeling and disciplining mass behavior, it is clear that their capabilities have today declined. The vitality of these organizations has been sapped in part by bureaucratization and in part by the failure of leadership, administration, organizations, and voluntary associations to cope with social change.

Increasingly, wildcat movements outside the "normal" channels of union and party are reemerging as one of the dominant forms of social protest. Not only in Italy, with a long tradition of basically conflictual industrial relations, but also in West Germany, with a postwar experience of collaborative relations between workers and industrialists, new and radical wildcat movements at the plant-floor level are in many factories challenging the dominant modes of union operation. The rebellions of small shopkeepers and of small farmers in several European countries also evidence weakened control by the large national interest groups to which they belong.

To some extent, the declining efficacy of representative organizations can be traced to the fact that their clients and their adversaries have changed in ways that put them beyond reach. In the case of European unions, for example, the old incentives, forms of control, and sanctions work less and less well as more of their clients become foreign laborers with temporary links to the society in which they work and as more of their targets become multinational corporations.

Explanation of the weakening of the old representational organizations would also have to focus on the ways in which new institutions have usurped some of their functions. In France, for example, it would be impossible to account for the rising levels of protest by marginal economic groups and backward regions without realizing that the shift from a parliamentary to a presidential regime promoted new forms of collaboration between certain interest groups and the bureaucracy.

These new forms reduced the role of the parties and of other interest groups. It should not be surprising that groups suddenly excluded from the bargaining, negotiation, pressure, and representation system should then become major sources of unrest.

Values and beliefs. The third area in which the assump-

tions and structures of Western industrial societies have been shifting involves values and beliefs. Modern citizens live in two differentiated worlds: one in which efficient, task-oriented performances are expected of them; and one in which they seek the fulfillment of emotional needs. and social gratifications. The disjunction in modern society between the sphere of the personal, the voluntary, and the affective, on one hand, and the impersonal, efficient, and remote, on the other,

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helps set the stage for the seemingly boundless cultural and emotional expectations generated by modern society.

In an earlier period, what the "good life" chiefly required was sufficient income and insurance at crisis points (illness, accident, old age) to avoid the condition of poverty, which could attack anyone. Now, however, the "good life" requires more. It demands the maintenance of a reasonably predictable socioeconomic order in which the "equity" represented by material or psychic investments in personal life, above all in family and children, will not be diluted or threatened. The concept of having a stake in the system now takes on newlyextended forms, both in numerical and qualitative terms.

The forms of culture, psychological organization, political mobilization, and participation that are most likely to develop in such a context are unclear; moreover, the development of these patterns is quite uneven throughout the Western world, inviting and indeed requiring comparative analysis. Although we are still far from understanding all of the consequences of these shifts, one of them may be an erosion of precisely those forms pf compliant behavior on which industrial systems with complex types of administration and regulations increasingly depend.

The diffusion of new values is extremely uneven, and this may explain the intensity of current cultural clashes.

In France, for example, family life has apparently been democratized far more rapidly than have the values that orient the behavior and expectations of teachers, and perhaps for this reason, the lycee has become one of the new arenas of political conflict. In a certain sense, the acceptance of divorce in Italy and of contraception and abortion in many other European societies marks the final triumph of old doctrines of individual rights; but, at the same time, under the combined pressures of environmental and resource problems, many are coming to believe that individual choices have to be more constrained than before for collective survival.

Cutting across these shifts in mass attitudes lie other axes along which values and behavior are being reoriented. The typical values of younger and older generations, of different social classes, of ideological groupings, of ethnic groups are all in a state of flux, the impact of which has been unevenly experienced and absorbed by social and political institutions. This flux is also present among the elites who lead organizations, who manage major enterprises in the public and private sectors, and who are responsible for making the basic economic and political allocations in society.

As a consequence of these changes, the "equilibrium 36

state" of Western European socletles appears to have become one of permanent instability. The contradiction in terms this expresses may testify better to the poverty of the theories with which we have been operating than to the qualitative increase in the conflictual aspects of the real world, for what we once saw as stability undoubtedly contained far more important tensions and contradictions than our theories recognized. Indeed, our theories neglected to account for the high degree of conflict behavior that can occur in industrial society without destroying the "system" itself.

A need for new departures The first response of the social sciences to the problems generated by the transformations described above was research on the formulation and implementation of public policy. This was in part due to the political climate in the university and in the United States as a whole in the late 1960s; in part, it was encouraged by the emphasis placed by both public and private sources of funds on research designed to illuminate specific social problems and to suggest concrete solutions for them.

Perhaps the most positive outcome of this policy-oriented research, with its emphasis on the "common problems of industrial societies," has been a new recognition of the relevance of European experience for the understanding and solution of American domestic problems.

The limitations of the policy-oriented approach have, however, become increasingly apparent. Even policy studies presuppose some framework of analysis for industrial societies and build on some fundamental assumptions about how these societies operate. Narrowing the focus of research can in no way substitute for the development of concepts, theories, and models; and, in the absence of this theoretical effort, the multiplication of policy studies seems to have produced less than the sum of their parts.

To understand the intellectual difficulties in which we find ourselves, one must remember the origins of the theories wi th which American social scientists have been working. Until World War II, most of the Americans working on Western Europe were either historians or political scientists, and the work of both groups consisted largely of configurative studies of individual countries. After the war there was a major revision of the concepts and theories with which social scientists approached Europe. The principal sources of the new notions were the study of American society and politics and the theories of development and modernization worked out in the 1950s and 1960s to explain the evolution of the developing countries.

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Importing models drawn from the study of the United States and of developing societies into research on Western Europe has produced innovative and valuable scholarship, but there have also been heavy costs. One of the major ones has been the neglect of history and of historians in the development of social research. A second major negative consequence has been a tendency to overlook contributions of scholars trained in Europe.

Since the new models and the methodologies associated with them were not drawn from European experience, the scholarship of Europeans was seen as significant only when it started from American premises and utilized American methods. Indeed, in postwar research on in. dustrial societies, Western European experience itself was discounted in the general belief that all modern industrial societies were traveling along a route which the United States had already traversed and that the most important thing to know about a European state was how close or how far it was from the American model. The "Americanization of Europe" has not only been a theme in popular culture; it has been a deeply held assumption of social scientists as well. The crisis of understanding in which we find ourselves today suggests that we may have exhausted the utility of the sources of our postwar scholarship on Europe and need a new beginning.

There are powerful reasons to believe that this is an opportune time for such an endeavor, for we have at hand both the demand for collaborative intellectual effort and the personnel to carry it out. In both Western Europe and the U.S., scholars are already working along

lines of inquiry suggested by the conceptual problems described above. In part this represents the emergence of a new generation of scholars less bound by traditional disciplinary constraints and more open to comparative research. In pan it reflects a shift of interest within the social sciences. In political science, for example, traditional conceptions of the state with impermeable boundaries have become less tenable with the growing importance of multinational corporations and of capital and labor flows. It is now increasingly difficult to make the classic, sharp distinction between a state's internal activities and events in its international environment.

This is reflected in a growing interest in "political economy," which is seen as a perspective that integrates political and economic theories.

Precisely because of the ferment already underway, we need to develop forms of collaboration that will promote joint systematic efforts to reexamine the theories that inform our studies of 'Western Europe and, more broadly, of industrial societies. A focal point is needed for the many small and often isolated new ventures in this direction both in Europe and America. An institutional mechanism needs to be created to stimulate intellectual development by promoting international interaction among scholars, including a confrontation of the concepts, theories, and even styles of research on which they proceed. The point of departure for such a mecha.nism would be a systematic exploration of the state of our understanding of Western European societies to identify areas of weakness and areas of opportu0 nity in which our knowledge should be extended.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SPATIAL COGNITION IN AFRICAN SOCIETIES

by David Stea and Edward Soja THIS IS A REPORT on a small conference on environmental and spatial cognition in African societies w.hich was sponsored by the Joint Committee on African Studies.

Participants in the conference included geographers, anthropologists, and one architect, all of whom had carried out field research in various African societies.1 In their papers, participants were asked to address • The authors are professors of urban planning, Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles.

1 The conference was sponsored by the Joint Committee on African Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. It was held at the Moton Conference Center, Capahosic, Virginia on May 8-11, 1974. The conference was organized by Professor Soja, a member of the joint committee; Pro-

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themselves to the exploration of ways in which individuals and groups in African societies think about physical and symbolic space, and the ways in which such thinking influences behavior in a number of contexts.

The conference was not intended to span the full range of cognition and cognitive analysis; rather, its purpose fessor Stea acted as discussant. Participa nts. in addition to Stea and Soja, were Sara Berry, Indi ana University; B. J . Dudley, University of Ibadan; James Fernandez, Dar tmouth College; J ean HerskoviLS, State University of New York, Purchase; Gregory Knight , Pennsylvania State University; Alice Morton, Rutgers U niversity; J ulius Oguntoyinbo, University of Ibadan; l .abelle Pr ussin , University of Michigan; W illiam Shack, Uni\'ersity of Californ ia, Berkeley; Marilyn Silberfein, Temple University; Joh n Sommer. Dar tmouth College; Mary Tucey, California State College, :Xorth ridge; Rodney Wh ite, McMaster College; Aristide Zolberg, University of Chicago; staff, Rowland L. Mitchell, Jr.

37

sponses invoked by the "exuberantly encroaching and claustrophobic forest." The Zulu, who inhabit a treeless subtropical savannah, locate their residences in circles stressing inwardness and centrality. In their centripetal rituals, they emphasize the ingathering and concentration of mystical and vital forces toward a "vital center."

Fernandez postulates that this trend toward centrality, which is also reflected in Zulu social forms and in Zulu philosophy, might usefully be related to the characteristics of the open physical environment in which they find themselves.

Prussin's concern was more with the ritual decoration of the architectural facades of sacred and mundane structures. In her exposition of these decorative types, she considered three determinants of architectural form in the inland Niger delta of Mali: the architectural expression of universal centrality through the repeated use of a symbolic pillar, tying the present with the past, and the men of today with their ancestors; the role of Islam in reorienting cognitive space so that cardinal points are united with the center; and the way in which the French colonial government expressed its awareness Interrelated research areas of African symbols and attitudes in its architectural The four areas of research were seen as interrelated, programs. each having a bearing on the need to identify and conIn discussing these three determinants, Prussin showed sider African attitudes, values, and goals with respect to many illustrations of vernacular and modern architecrural land-use planning, resources exploitation, resettle- ture from the area, explicating the images of the world ment, and the design of urban centers. This need to that informed their creation. She stressed the point that understand and, to some extent, to predict the reactions it is often women who are responsible for the decoraof rural and urban Africans to environmental changes tion. and sometimes the construction, of buildings, and is becoming increasingly recognized among planners, discussed the tenets of tradition and religion which although it is still too often the case that these kinds they expressed in their designs. thereby constructing of factors are taken into consideration toward the end cognitive space. of the design and implementation process rather than The papers of Gregory Knight and John Sommer dealt primarily with the issues of land use, territoriality, at the beginning.

Papers by James Fernandez and Labelle Prussin most and boundaries, as well as with indigenous conceptions directly addressed the concern with cosmology. Compar- of ecology. Knight's paper, "Ethnoscience: A Cognitive ing the Fang of western Equatorial Africa and the Zulu Approach to African Agriculture," reported the findings of Natal, South Africa, Fernandez proposed a dichotomy of research done among African farmers concerning the between centripetal and centrifugal sacred rituals and categories in terms of which they organize their physical spaces. Tracing the basis for this dichotomy in the and work environments. By using a variety of elicitation rituals and values of the two peoples, as well as in their techniques, Knight was able to establish the categories physical environments, Fernandez suggested that there to which a whole vocabulary of farming belongs, as well is a crucial difference in the directionality expressed in as determine the kinds of cognitive maps of their environment that these farmers share and that enable the ceremonies of the two groups.

The Fang, living in a carpentered world of rectangu- them to exploit it successfully. A major point of the lar buildings within a dense equatorial forest, organize paper was that, while the categories used by these farmers their rituals in terms of a "distributed and controlled to organize their conception of the external world are centrifugality," which expresses the positive value they alien to Westerners, they do in fact enable them to give to "a kind of tranquil evenhandedness," which in exploit that environment successfully as agriculturalists. turn may be related both to the highly egalitarian and And this appears to be the case even though these cogfissionary character of their social structure and to re- nitive categories and maps are characterized by the inter-

was to concentrate on the imagery attached to patterns of spatial organization and on the content of the physical environment to which these patterns relate.

Specifically, the conference was organized around four research topics: (I) the influence of cosmology and worldview on the organization and exploitation of space; (2) African concepts of boundaries, territoriality, and land tenure; (3) perception of the natural environment, including folk traditions about ecology, and attitudes toward natural resources and natural hazards; and (4) urbanization and cognitive imagery in contemporary Africa.

These are four very complex topics, and it is difficult both to obtain relevant data concerning them and to demonstrate cause-and路effect relationships between the natural environment or attitudes on the one hand, and the use of space and the design of buildings on the other. The participants were aware of the tentative nature of their findings; to avoid repetition, however, statements expressing this lack of certainty are not reported here.

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section of religious and "scientific" knowledge.

The same may be said of resettlement projects which John Sommer approached the issues of boundaries are not responses to drastic environment change, but and territoriality in a markedly different way. His pres- which rather seek to prevent such changes before they entation was primarily concerned with the spatial repre- occur. Marilyn Silberfein dealt with the problems of sentation of relations of power across a number of planned resettlement of this kind in her paper about African societies. He argued that, in order to make ana- the Kiwere resettlement scheme in Tanzania. The paper lytically useful statements about cognitive maps and described ways in which traditional attitudes about the other images in terms of which Africans organize social organization of personal, residential, and agricultural behavior at various structural levels, the dimension of space tend to subvert the goals of the planners and power must be taken carefully into account. Put most managers of this multi-ethnic tobacco farming cooperasimply, this would mean, for example, that it is impor- tive. An interesting polarization has developed between tant to know how a group perceives ownership of the the Hehe, local traditional agriculturalists who participhysical environment before making generalizations pate in the scheme, and volunteers from other ethnic about the group's ability to move over the landscape. In groups who chose to live in the scheme's planned villages many instances the issue of actual and mystical owner- as an alternative to urban migration. ship of spaces is closely related to intra- and inter-group Traditional adaptations political relations.

Over time, the Hehe proved more able to adjust to Just as Knight's paper dealt with problems of both ecological perception and boundaries, the papers by the exigencies of living in a modern, planned, and Rodney White and by Julius Oguntoyinbo and Paul apparently rigidly designed cooperative village by sideRichards dealt with perceptions of the natural environ- stepping most of the regulations and pursuing a more ment and of natural hazards and with attitudes toward traditional life style. They continue to interact more with their kin and former neighbors in the surrounding migration and urbanization.

White was primarily interested in the attitudes ex- area than they do with their co-villagers of other ethnic pressed by African migrants to physical and social space groups. They continue to cultivate their own fields outas these condition migration patterns, both spontaneous side the settlement, in addition to their work on cooperaand planned. Crucial to these attitudes is the perception tively-run tobacco fields. They build houses in the traon the part of potential migrants of the opportunities ditional style, scorning the regulations for modern house represented by alternative locations. Such perceptions types and the modern materials provided for building are conditioned by a number of factors, including cos- them. They also manage, eventually, to oust from immology, the flow of accurate and inaccurate information portant positions most of the non-Hehe in the scheme, about resource availability and job possibilities, and the substituting local Hehe volunteers from surrounding conception of the present location which the potential communities. In these and other ways, they are able to migrant has. White stressed the importance of these . create adaptive and novel adjustments to planned change attitudes for urban and rural planning, as well as for which are in some instances in direct abrogation of the coping with large-scale migrations which are not rules and intent of this modern, planned settlement planned, but are rather responses to a variety of social project. Silberfein argues convincingly that this range of and environmental factors, including natural hazards. novel responses is largely conditioned by adherence to Oguntoyinbo and Richards explored the attitudes of traditional cognitive categories and to traditional attiN igeTian farmers to a particular natural hazard, the tudes concerning the proper distribution of buildings, recent Sahelian drought. They hoped to answer such farms, and persons on the land. questions as when do farmers decide that environmental Mary Tucey, describing an urban subarea of central changes are sufficiently drastic to be causes for migra- Accra, Ghana, discussed an even more clearly traditiontion; when are such hazards attributed to natural, and alist adaptation to changing urban circumstances in a when to mystical, causes; what kinds of traditional carefully constructed study of conceptions of neighbormechanisms do communities of farmers have for coping hood shared by Ga residents of Accra. These Ga inwith these hazards, and how might these best be ex- formants were the descendants of individuals who had ploited in the case of the drought. Here again, the first come to live in Accra in the 17th century, when underiying view is that no project designed to cope with the growing town was divided into quarters which were changes brought about by hazards and disasters is likely quite clearly bounded. While these boundaries have to be successful if it is not sensitive to the attitudes vanished over time, Tucey found that contemporary Ga residents still conceptualize their neighborhoods in and values of those it is designed to help.

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terms of this historical perspective. In addition, the dimensions of kinship and social acquaintance are important for conceptions of neighborhood. Informants identify neighborhoods as quite small and as bounded by streets, since the streets have remained the same while buildings and other landmarks have changed over time.

They define these neighborhoods also in terms of kinship ties with other local residents, and in terms of ties with nonkin who are close acquaintances.

Interestingly, the availability of goods and services within the area defined as a neighborhood by informants -a factor regarded as crucial to identification with a locale by urban planners-seems largely irrelevant. Rather, informants stressed the availability of friends and relatives, the presence of landmarks of historical meaning, and the tradition of residence in the area as more salient for their cognitive models of neighborhoods.

It is difficult, in summarizing the contents of papers such as these, to convey the degree of analytical clarity

that was achieved at the conference. The color slides, diagrams, and schematic representations that were central to a number of the presentations made explicit at that time what has only been asserted here.

While these papers, and the discussions which followed their presentation, covered a wide range of peoples and of topics, they were united by the emphasis which was placed on the ways in which Africans in various situations conceptualize social, physical, and symbolic space. This emphasis on the process, categories, and behavioral relevance of cognition is becoming increasingly characteristic of both geography and anthropology, as well as of other social science disciplines. By applying this approach to contemporary African data of various kinds, the participants in this conference were able to modify their own thinking about the approach itself, as well as to share their insights about the thinking of Africans as it influences individual and group behavior.

0

COMMITTEE BRIEFS Social Indicators

*

Research Proposals Are Invited In Phase Two 01 Survey Archives Project

WITH PUBLICATION of its index to repeated survey questions, the project for developing social indicators from archived data has completed its first phase. Coordinated and monitored by the SSRC Center for Social Indicators, with funds from the Russell Sage Foundation, the project is designed to promote social indicators research through dissemination of survey trend data at the Roper Public Opinion Research Center in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The published index covers repeated questions in over 4,000 U. S. national surveys between 1936 and October 1973 that are archived at the Roper Center. Title of the index is Survey Data for Trend Analysis: An Index 10 Repeated Questions in U. S. National SunJeys Held by the Roper Public Opinion Research Center.

In its second phase the survey archives project is sponsoring a small research applications program. In order to test the usefulness of the index, the project will underwri·te data acquisition costs for a number of secondary analyses pro• Otis Dudley Duncan (chairman), Philip E. Converse, James A. Davis, Stephen E. Fienberg. Leo A. Goodman, Mancur Olson, Natalie Rogoff Rams¢y, Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Arthur L. Stinchcombe, Wolfgang Zapf, Harriet Zuckerman; staff, Robert Parke, director, Center for Coordination of Research on Social Indicators; Lawrence R. Carter; Roberta B. Miller; David Seidman; Roxann A. Van Dusen; Nancy L. Carmichael, librarian.

40

posing to make use of time series data for studies of social change. Investigators who are interested in retrieving specific data itemized in the index are invited to submit proposals. The deadline for applications is November 1, 1975, with awards to be announced in January. (Researchers who wish to apply may contact Roxann A. Van Dusen, SSRC Center for Social Indicators, 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20036.)

Three projects have already been selected under the research applications program: Religious Indicators. Jackson W. Carroll and David A. Roozen, both of the Hartford Seminary Foundation, are currently developing religious statistics on the national level for the period 1944 to 1969, as descriptive indicators of the state of religion in society. They are using data from the American Institute of Public Opinion (AIPO), the Gallup research organization, as well as data from the General Social Survey of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) to develop indicators of trends in religious identification, participation, and beliefs, as well as perceptions of the changing influence of religion.

Public Opinion and Taxes. Susan B. Hansen, assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois, is studying changes over time in citizen support for taxes.

Using AIPO data from 1948 to 1973, she will test explanatory models for absolute levels of support for taxes and changes over time in perceived fairness of tax levels.

Environmental Concern. Kathryn U. Finch, a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Mexico, is studying concern and public VOLUME

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support for pro-environmental measures during the period 1969-1974. She is working with data from a survey conducted by the National Wildlife Federation, from a Roper Organization, Inc. (Commercial) survey, and from NORC's General Social Survey.

In the project's third and culminating phase, the Center expects to convene a workshop to review and assess the results of the undertaking. Planned for late 1976, the workshop will include the principal investigators of the research projects selected in phase two as well as resource people experienced in the use of archived survey data.

Japanese Studies * (Joint with the American Council of Leamed Societies) Meeting 01 Soviet and U. S. Scholars JOINT COMMITTEE on Japanese Studies sponsored an all-day meeting at the Council on April 28, bringing together American and Soviet Japanologists to discuss scholarly topics of mutual interest. Two scholars from the Academy of Sciences o( the U.S.S.R. participated. They were V. A. Vlasov, an economist at the Academy's Institute of Oriental Studies, and D. A. Petrov, a political scientist at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Academy. The other Japan specialists who attended included Gerald L. Curtis, political scientist at Columbia University; THE

• Gerald L. Curtis (chairman), Karen W. Brazell, Robert E. . Cole, Scott C. Flanagan, Kinhide Mushakoji, Tetsuo Najita.

Hugh T. Patrick, Yoshiaki Shimizu, Robert J. Smith, Kozo Yamamura; staff, David L. Sills, Susan J. Pharr.

Hugh T. Patrick, economist at Yale University; John W. Hall, historian at Yale; James W. Morley, political scientist at Columbia; Young Kim, political scientist at t George Washington University; and Noda Kazuo, economist at Rikkyo University, Tokyo, who is now on leave at Harvard University. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Morley and Mr. Hall.

Following the disciplinary interests of the Soviet guests, the meeting focused on the Japanese economy and on japan's relations in the postwar period with the Soviet Union, the United States, and the People's Republic of China. The morning session began with a presentation by Mr. Vlasov on the state of Japanese studies in the Soviet Union. He reviewed the literature on Japan produced by Soviet writers, analyzing major themes and interpretations identified as significant. A general discussion of postwar economic change in Japan followed the presentation. In the afternoon, Mr. Petrov described the organization of Japanese studies within the Academy of Sciences in the Soviet Union. Mr. Morley then led a discussion of the policymaking process in Japan and of japan's relations with other major countries. In considering the latter topic, the discussion focused on the specific question of why Japan had made the decision to normalize relations with the People's Republic of China.

Throughout the session, the primary intent was for both the Soviets and the Americans to gain a better understanding of work on Japan currently being conducted in the two countries, and to help scholars identify assumptions that underlie various approaches to the study of Japan in the U.S. and in the U.S.S.R.

COUNCIL STAFF: APPOINTMENTS Alvia Yvonne Branch joined the staff of the Council on September 15, 1975; her primary assignment is to assist in the creation of a new program in developmental psychology.

Ms. Branch received a B.A. in psychology from Lake Forest College in 1969 and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University in 1974. During the 1974-75 academic year, she was an assistant professor of psychology at Wellesley College. With G. A. Fine and J. M. Jones, she is the author of "Laughter, Smiling and Rating Scales: An Analysis of Responses to Tape-Recorded Humor," Proceedings, American Psychological Association, August 1973.

Lawrence R. Carter, an assistant professor of sociology and associate head, Department of Sociology, University of Oregon, joined the staff of the Council on September 15.

His assignment will be at the Council's Center for Coordination of Research on Social Indicators in Washington, D.C. Mr. Carter received a B.S. in chemistry from Howard University in 1958 and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1973. His major research interests are in urbanization and migration.

SEPTEMBER 1975

Roberta B. Miller, an historian, joined the staff of the Council on September 3; she is also assigned to the Center for Coordination of Research on Social Indicators. Ms. Miller received a B.A. in 1964 and a Ph.D. in 1973 from the University of Minnesota. She has taught courses in quantitative methods in history at the University of Minnesota, Oberlin College, and Hiram College; her most recent position was with an urban rebuilding project at the AlA Research Corporation, Washington, D.C. Her major interests are in women's history and in urban history; she is the coauthor of Archival and Manuscript Resources for the Study of Women's History, 1972.

Patricia R. Pessar joined the staff of the Council on September 3; she is assigned as staff to the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies. A 1971 graduate of Barnard College, where she majored in anthropology, Ms. Pessar expects to receive a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1975. Her field work was carried out in Brazil, and her dissertation is on a Northeast Brazil millenarian movement.

41

I路

POSTDOCTORAL GRANTS

GRANTS FOR SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES The Joint Committee on South Asian Studies, cosponsored with the American Council of Learned Societies (which administers its program)-Ainslee T. Embree (chairman), Charles J. Adams, Edwin D. Driver, Rosane Rocher, Susanne H. Rudolph, John W. Thomas, and Helen E. Ullrich-at its meeting on February 22, 1975 awarded grants to the following individuals: Peter J. Bertocci, assistant professor of anthropology, Oakland University, for research .on social organization and rural development in Bangladesh James B. Brow, assistant professor of anthropology, Swarthmore College, for research in Sri Lanka on the economic organization of a Veddah village Stephen F. Dale, assistant professor of history, Ohio State University, for research on the Muslim community of Kerala in the 16th and 17th centuries Dennis 'G. Dalton, associate professor of political science, Barnard College, for research on Gandhi's experience in South Africa, 1905-1914 Joseph W. Elder, professor of sociology and South Asian studies, University of Wisconsin, for research on the changing social structure of rural India Barbara W. Flynn, Ph.D. in South Asian history, Albany, New York, for research on local-level political organization in North India in the 1920s Ruth S. Freed, associate professor of sociology and anthropology, Seton Hall University. for research on the effects of urbanization in a village in North India Robert C. Hunt, associate professor of anthropology, Brandeis University. for research on development and social structure in Sri Lanka, 1850-1960 Eugene F. Irschick, associate professor of history, University of California at Berkeley, for research on the widening political base in Congress and other voluntary organizations of South India, 1930-1940 Clifford R. Jones. assistant professor of South Asian art.

Univer~itv of Pennsylvania, for research on the traditional Newar sculptor-craftsmen of Nepal Rex L. Jones, assistant professor of anthropology. State Universitv of New York at Stony Brook, for research in Nepal on the economic independence of Limbu women .

Robert N. Kearney, protessor of political sCience. Syracuse University, for research on youth and generational cleavages in the politics of Sri Lanka Martin Landau, professor of political science, University of California, Berkeley, for research in Nepal on bureaucratic pOlitics and development strategies Brian J. Murton, associate professor of geography, University of Hawaii, for research in Tamilnadu. India on population growth and agricultural intensification, 1800-1900 Karl H. Potter, pr.ofessor of philosophy and associate director, South Asia Program, University of Washington, for research on an encyclopedia of Indian philosophies Johan G. Reinhard, assistant scientist, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, for research in Nepal on the Raji tribe 42

Leo E. Rose, editor, Asian Survey, and lecturer in political science. University of California, Berkeley, for research in Nepal on bureaucratic politics and development strategies Shane Ryland, associate professor of history, Washington State University, for research in South India on public health care and mortality, 1901-1941 Harold F. Schiffman, associate professor of Asian languages, University of Washington, for research on incipient bilingualism among Sri Lanka's Indian Moors Bam Dev Sharda, assistant professor of sociology, University of Utah, for research on the changing social structure of rural India GRANTS FOR EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES The Joint Committee on Eastern Europe, cosponsored with the American Council of Learned Societies (which administers its program)-Eugene A. Hammel (chairman), Bogdan D. Denitch, Paul L. Horecky, Andrzej Korbonski, Thomas F. Magner, Paul Marer, Peter F. Sugar, and Thomas G. Winner-at its meeting on March 14-15, 1975 awarded grants for research to the following individuals: Thomas B. Birnberg, associate professor of economics. Yale University, for research on income distribution and economic growth in Yugoslavia John E. Bodnar, associate historian, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for research on the second generation Slavic-American Walter D. Connor, assistant professor of sociology. University of Michigan, for research on socialism, work, and equality Mary P. Coote, assistant professor of Slavic languages, University of California, Berkeley, for research on women's narrative songs in the Serbo-Croatian oral tradition Connie M. Friesen, assistant professor of political science, University of Massachusetts, for research on the politics of technology transfer in Eastern Europe Andreas M. Kazamias, professor of comparative education and the history of education, University of ''\Tisconsin, for research on the conflict of traditionalism and modernism in Greek education, 1875-1925, and its relation to nation building Barbara W. Maggs, associate of the Russian and East European Center, University of Illinois, for research on the literature of the Enlightenment in 18th century Serbia and Croatia Svetozar Pejovich, professor of economics, Ohio University, for research on the effects of profit sharing on the productivity of labor, employment, and labor mobility in Yugoslavia, 1960-1974 Michael B. Petrovich, professor of history, University of Wisconsin, for research on a cultural history of the South Slavs Thomas L. Saksmyster, assistant professor of history, University of Cincinnati, for research on a political biography of Miklos Horthy George M. Williams, Jr., assistant professor of linguistics, State University of New York, Buffalo, for research on East German theories of the relation between the social use of language and linguistic structure Irene P. Winner, research fellow at Brown University and visiting lecturer in anthro~logy at Tufts University, for research on Slovene ethmcity in urban United States: villagers in Cleveland VOLUME

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NEW PUBLICATIONS

China's Modern Economy in Historical Perspective, edited

by Dwight H. Perkins. Papers of a conference held by the Subcommittee on Research on the Chinese Economy, Joint Committee on Contemporary China, June 18-21, 1973. Stanford: Stanford University Press, April 1975. 358 pages, $13.85.

Why did it take China more than a century after its defeat in the first Opium War to begin acquiring the fruits of modern technology systematically? To what extent did the rapid economic developments after 1949 depend on features unique to China and to Chinese history as well as on the socialist reorganization of society? These are the major questions examined in this collection of papers which challenges many previously accepted generalizations 'about the nature and extent of advances in China's economy during the twentieth century.

The contributors to the volume are Kang Chao, University of Wisconsin; Robert F. Dernberger, University of Michigan; l'vlark Elvin, St. Antony's College, Oxford University; John C. H. Fei, Yale University; Ramon H. Myers, University of Miami; Dwight H. Perkins, Harvard University; Thomas G. Rawski, University of Toronto; Carl Riskin, Queens College, City University of New York; and Peter Schran, University of Illinois.

French Economic Growth, by J.-J. Carre, P. Dubois, and E. Malinvaud. Translated from the French by John O. Hatfield. Report on a study sponsored by the former Committee on Economic Growth. Stanford: Stanford University Press, June 1975. 640 pages. $22.50.

This is a major attempt to understand and analyze the tremendous growth of the French economy since the Second World War. Part One examines the effect of the physical factors of production-the labor force, productivity, investment, capital, the industrial structure-and evaluates the contribution of each of these factors to the growth rate of production. Part Two examines the nonphysical factors: aggregate demand, investment and savings, the role of finance, inflation and short-term economic regulation, foreign trade, the price system, and economic planning. In conclusion, the authors draw together their analyses of individual factors into an overall picture of France's economic growth since the Second World War.

A Guide to Yugoslav Libraries and A,'chives, edited by Paul L. Horecky. A publication of the Joint Committee on Eastern Europe, Columbus, Ohio: American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, March 1975. 128 pages. Paper, $3.50.

The editor of this first volume to present basic data on the major library and archival collections in Yugoslavia is SEPTEMBER

1975

from committee activities and Council projects

chief of the Slavic and Central European Division, Library of Congress. The volume was compiled by Slobodan Jovanovic, formerly assistant director of the N arodna Library in Belgrade, and Matko Rojnic, director of the National and University Library in Zagreb. The translator and associate editor is Elizabeth Beyerly.

Race Differences in Intelligence, by John C. Loehlin, Gardner Lindzey, and J. N. Spuhler. Prepared under the auspices of the Committee on the Biological Bases of Social Behavior. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman Company, March 1975. 392 pages. Cloth, $12.00; paper, $5.95.

Race Differences in Intelligence is a factual, objective review of the existing evidence bearing on a currently controversial topic: the relative contribution of genes and environment to racial and ethnic differences in intelligencetest performance in the United States. The book also discusses the social and scientific implications of the evidence.

In preparing the book, the authors-Loehlin, a psychologist at the University of Texas, Austin; Lindzey, a psychologist and director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford; and Spuhler, a physical anthropologist at the University of New Mexico-consulted research workers from a broad range of scientific disciplines, representatives of minority groups, and persons familiar with the process of making public-policy decisions based on scientific data.

Women in Chinese Society, edited by Margery Wolf and Roxane Witke. Papers of a conference sponsored by the Joint Committee on Contemporary China, June 11-15, 1973. Stanford: Stanford University Press, June 1975.

325 pages. $12.50.

This multidisciplinary collection represents the first scholarly attempt to provide a baseline for understanding the massive changes in Chinese women's lives in our time.

The topics are: seventeenth-century attitudes toward women Qoanna F. Handlin, University of Rochester), the female revolutionary leader Ch'iu Chin (Mary Backus Rankin), an "anti-marriage" movement in rural Kwangtung (Marjorie Topley, University of Hong Kong), female suicide in Taiwan before 1945 (Margery Wolf), the variety in women's life courses (Arthur P. Wolf, Stanford University), influential women writers of the 1920s and 1930s (Yi-tsi Feuerwerker, University of Michigan), the early years of Mao's present wife, Chiang Ch'ing (Roxane Witke, Harvard University), women and ritual pollution (Emily M. Ahern, The Johns Hopkins University), women and social change in Hong Kong (Elizabeth L. Johnson, University of British Columbia), the effect on rural women of the advent of the People's Republic (Delia Davin, York University, England).

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APPLICATION DEADLINES FOR COUNCIL FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS Applications are now being accepted for fellowships and grants offered by the Council for the academic year 19761977. Awards will be made for both dissertation research and work at the postdoctoral level under several different programs. Those fellowships and grants that are confined to foreign area research are offered under programs sponsored jointly by the Council and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

Final dates for filing applications (listed below) vary by program. Prospective candidates are urged to initiate correspondence well in advance of the deadlines. A brochure describing the fellowships and grants offered is available on request from the Social Science Research Council, Fellowships and Grants, 605 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10016.

Fellowships and grants of the SSRC for training and research in the social sciences include: POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH TRAINING FELLOWSHIPS. Deadline for applications: December 15, 1975 GRANTS TO MINORITY SCHOLARS FOR RESEARCH ON RACISM AND OTHER SOCIAL FACTORS IN MENTAL HEALTH. Deadline for Applications: October 20, 1975 POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE STATISTICS. Deadline for applications: January 31, 1976 International Doctoral Research Fellowships are awards for dissertation research in the social sciences and the humanities to be carried out in AFRICA, ASIA, LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST, or WESTERN EUROPE. Sponsored jointly by the SSRC and the ACLS; administered by the Council. Application deadline: November 3, 1975.

Postdoctoral Grants for Research on Foreign Areas in the social sciences and the humanities are sponsored jointly by the SSRC and the ACLS. 1. Administered by the Council are programs for AFRICA, CONTEMPORARY AND REPUBLICAN CHINA, ECONOMY OF CHINA, JAPAN, KOREA, KOREAN COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH GRANTS, LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, LATIN AMERICAN COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH GRANTS, THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST, SOUTH ASIA, SOUTHEAST ASIA. Application deadline for all programs: December 1, 1975.

2. Application deadlines for grants programs adminis路 teredby the ACLS are as follows: CHINESE STUDIES, De-

cember 1, 1975; RESEARCH ON EAST EUROPE, December 31, 1975; TRAVEL TO EAST EUROPE, February 15, 1976; STUDY OF EAST EUROPEAN LANGUAGES, February 1, 1976; RESEARCH ON THE SOVIET UNION, December 1, 1975.

CHINESE STUDIES PROGRAM A new program of advanced training for scholars specializing in Chinese studies has been inaugurated. The program is under the direction of the Joint Committee on Contemporary China, which is sponsored by the Council and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), and the ACLS Committee' on Studies of Chinese Civilization. The program will provide support for workshops and seminars to be held at major university centers in the United States; postdoctoral internships for advanced training at such centers; and postdoctoral fellowships for language and other training in East Asia. These grants are designed above all to' be training experiences, providing younger scholars currently active in the field with an opportunity to upgrade present teaching and research skills and to acquire new ones.

The workshops and seminars are expected to give scholars who are working on related problems opportunities to derive mutual benefit from their research efforts. Short-term summer workshops, summer-long workshops, and advanced training seminars lasting for a semester or an academic year will be eligible for support.

The program has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and will be administered by the ACLS. Inquiries about the workshops and seminars should be addressed to Miss Charlotte Bowman, Vice President, American Council of Learned Societies, 345 East 46th Street, New York, N.Y. -10017. Information about grants to individual scholars under the new program will be found on page 26 of the SSRC's fellowships and grants brochure, which is available on request. December I, 1975 is the deadline for all applications for 1976-77 awards.

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL 605

THIRD

AVENUE,

NEW

YORK,

N.Y.

10016

Incorpcwated in the State of Illinois, December 27, 1924, for the purpose of advancing research in the social sciences Directcws, 1975:

WILLIAM J. BAUMOL, BRIAN J. L. BERRY, ALLAN G. BOGUE, LAWRENCE A. CREMIN, LEON EISENBERG, LEON D. EpS'rEIN, RICHARD

F. FENNO, JR., EDWARD E. JONES, HAROLD H. KELLEY, LAWRENCE R. KLEIN, WILLIAM H. KRUSKAL, CHARLES E. LINDBLOM, GARDNER LINDZEY, LEON LIPSON, CORA BAGLEY MARRETT, HERBERT MCCLOSKY, SALLY FALK MOORE, MURRAY G. MURPHEY, GUY H. ORCUTT, JOHN W. PRATT, ALICE S. ROSSI, PEGGY R. SANDAY, ELEANOR BERNERT SHELDON, ELLIOTT P. SKINNER, JANET T. SPENCE, KARL E. TAEUBER, JOHN M. THOMPSON, ROBERT E. WARD, CHARLES V. WILI.IE, HARRIET ZUCKERMAN

Officers and Staff: ELEANOR BERNERT SHELDON, President; DAVID JENNESS, DAVID L. SILLS, Executive Associates; RONALD P. ABELES, ALVIA Y. BRANCH, LAWRENCE R. CARTER, JUDITH FIELD, ROBERT A. GATES, LOUIS WOLF GOODMAN, PATRICK G. MADDOX, ROBERTA B. MILLER, ROWLAND L. MITCHELI., JR., ROBERT PARKE, PATRICIA R. PESSAR, SUSAN J. PHARR, DAVID SEIDMAN, DA\' ID L. SZANTON, ROXANN A. VAN DUSEN; MARTHA W. FORMAN, Acting Assistant Treasurer;

44

CATHERINE V. RONNAN,

Financial Secretary;

NANCY L. CARMICHAEL,

Librarian