Frederick L. Bates

The structure of social systems

This text critically examines and clarifies existing concepts employed by sociologists to describe various aspects of social organization or structure. It redefines them to develop a conceptual framework for building structural models of social systems, from small groups to societies.

Aftermath of natural disasters: coping through residential mobility

Most studies of population movement have concentrated on the more developed nations and on trends that have not been influenced by man-made or natural disasters. The experience of developing countries in the Caribbean basin, as studied after the Guatemalan earthquake of 1976 and the impact of Hurricane David in the Dominican Republic of 1979, highlights the importance of socio-economic factors in the decision to make permanent migrations after a disaster, regardless of whether the migrant had personally suffered losses. In many cases the opportunities for personal betterment created by the disaster acted as a catalyst and accelerated a previously-existing trend of migration.

Living conditions, disasters, and development : an approach to cross-cultural comparisons

Because most environmental problems result from human intervention in the ecosystem, ecological research in the social sciences is now joining research in the biological and physical sciences as a means of addressing long-range problems. Within this type of social science research, this book claims, no problem is more important than the investigation of disaster. To assess the impact of sudden cataclysms on the living conditions of families or communities, scientists need a set of pretested, standardised measures that can be used cross-culturally. Once a disaster strikes, investigators are often faced with insufficient tools for assessing its impact and for evaluating whether aid programmes have enabled households to recover or improve their conditions. In this book, the authors introduce and describe a measure - the Domestic Assets Scale - that they have developed to deal with these research problems. They first present theoretical arguments that relate conditions to the concepts of disaster and development; they then show how the measure was constructed with the use of data collected in sample communities in Italy, Mexico, Peru, Turkey, the United States and Yugoslavia. Throughout these discussions, they emphasise the practical application of their theoretical arguments and address the research problems and constraints faced by investigators using the procedure. Finally, they assess the validity and reliability of the Domestic Assets Scale and show how it can be used to measure long-term change, especially in the wake of catastrophic events.

Sociopolitical Ecology: Human Systems and Ecological Fields

The Design of a Cognitive System for Generating Structural Models of Social Behavior Systems and Ecological Fields. Behavior as a Phenomenon. Structure and Structural Analysis: As a Cognitive Strategy. Systems and Systems Theory. Self-Referential Behavior Systems. Self-Referential Social Systems. Ecological Fields. Social Systems in the Context of Ecological Fields. A Language for Constructing Structural Models of Social Networks within and among Self-Referential Systems. Individual Actors and Social Systems. An Overview of Sociopolitical Ecology. Epilogue. Index.

Occupational Prestige Hierarchy: Methodological Artifact or Cultural Category System

Occupational prestige findings are among the most stable, replicable findings in all of sociology. Yet, the “cognitive reality” underlying these findings has never been clearly established. Based on the responses provided by students to three questionnaires and comparative data from the more recent NORC study of occupational prestige, the research described in this paper investigates two hypotheses: 1) the occupational rankings resulting from the five‐point scale used in the NORC studies reflect highly differentiated evaluations in the minds of respondents; and 2) occupational prestige rankings form a unidimensional scale. Both of these hypotheses were supported. Not only is the occupational prestige hierarchy highly differentiated in the minds of individuals, it is predominantly a single dimension about which there is substantial agreement. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

Changes in housing in Guatemala following the 1976 earthquake: With special reference to earthen structures and how they are perceived by disaster victims*

This paper reports on what has happened to earthen structures in 26 Guatemalan communities studied over a 4-year period since the 1976 earthquake. The data were obtained from three waves of personal interviews with 1472 randomly sampled household heads. The results show that adobe, which was the primary housing material before the earthquake was heavily damaged in that event. As a consequence the number of adobe structures and of other earthen structures has been drastically reduced. The people of Guatemala individually and because of agency housing programs have abandoned adobe as a building material and turned to concrete block and wood. Surviving earthen structures have not been improved substantially and remain with largely the same structural features as before the earthquake. The greatest improvement is in the use of comer posts or columns in the walls but most of these are made of untreated crude logs or lumber, subject to rot and termite damage. Little information on aseismic housing seems to have spread either within the earthquake area or in the unaffected areas surrounding it. A program to spread information on how to use adobe in aseismic designs needs to be conducted along with one to assist citizens to aquire the resources necessary to improve the earthquake vulnerability of houses.

A Study of Leadership Roles in an Alabama Prison for Women

The authors undertake the task of developing a theoretical model derived from new concepts in individual psychoanalytic theory and technique. These ideas emphasize the unconscious organization of behavior and peoples planful way of working with the therapist in the treatment setting. The model is applied to the basic assumptions of Bion, reanalyzing them in particular ways to bring out the treatment goals which they are seen to rep- resent for the group members. The model is also exemplified by clinical material.

An Overview of Sociopolitical Ecology

This book was written to present a theoretical and conceptual apparatus that supplies a basis for integrating selected aspects of the biological and social sciences. In particular, its objective is to develop a theoretical approach through which the relationships among human systems and between them and their nonhuman environments may be interpreted and understood using a known and well-defined viewpoint. In a broader sense, it was written with the hope of founding a new school of thought concerning the relevance of the various social sciences to general ecology and of biological ecology to the social sciences.

The Design of a Cognitive System for Generating Structural Models of Social Behavior Systems and Ecological Fields

This book is concerned with relationships between human systems and their environments. It is also concerned with relationships among the human systems themselves as they interact in an environmental context. Its objective is to present a theoretical orientation and a conceptual scheme for use by those interested in creating structural models of social systems and of their relationships to each other in the context of the ecological fields they inhabit. It will not offer a description of any particular society nor will it present models of particular social systems or particular environmental problems. Instead it will develop a cognitive apparatus that can be used for such purposes.

A Language for Constructing Structural Models of Social Networks within and among Self-Referential Systems

Thinking of modern industrial societies as ecological networks comprised of separate systems, rather than as systems in and of themselves, demands clarification of what is meant by a social network. It also calls for a specification of the conceptual apparatus to be used in dealing with network structure, and this in turn requires specification of how the networks that are found within, as opposed to among self-referential systems are constructed. These latter tasks are particularly difficult, because there is little of value in the literature of sociology to guide us. In dealing with these issues, we must also face the question of how deeply we must probe beneath the surface characteristics of social networks to define the structure embedded in them.