Gösta Carlsson

Lagged Structures and Cross—Sectional Methods

Causal structures involving a dynamic relation with time lags present difficulties if approached with conventional multivariate cross-sectional techniques. It is shown that customary tests for causal structure, e. g. partial correlations, break down or yield ambiguous results. Some further implications of lagged structure, and an extension of the idea to variability in space, are discussed in the paper.

Response Inertia and Cycles: A Study in Macro-Dynamics:

Nature and Put-pose of the Study. This paper will deal with the consequences of delayed response, or inertia, on the level of macro-sociological variables. In general the behaviour subjected to analysis can be studied also on the level of individual variability, and the question can be raised why some individuals (or other small units) react one way, and others in another way, or not at all. This will be referred to as micro-analysis, while marcro-analysis, as here understood, treats the average behaviour characteristic of the society, varying from one society to another, or in time. In the case of a response which is &dquo;quantal&dquo; (all-or-none) on the individual level the macrovariable is a proportion and it is this situation many of the subsequent examples relate to.. ~ ~ ~ _

Book Reviews : James S. Coleman: Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990. xvi + 993 pp:

answer will be: a huge treatise on the principles of social theory, conceived in the grand tradition of methodological discourse, and with targets set high: to provide a sound conceptual and axiomatic basis for social theory. The volume is organized in five main parts, to which should be added an introductory chapter on explanation in social science. The first two parts deal with the properties of actors, authority relations, social exchange, collective behavior and norms, the third with corporate action and social choice. In the fourth part, Coleman develops his ideas on the rise of corporate

Universities as Selecting and Socializing Agents: Some Recent Swedish Data

In the following paper certain facts and tendencies in the field of university education in Sweden will be reviewed, and some original findings reported, which all seem to have a bearing on the social role of universities in modern society. In one respect the situation in Sweden is by no means unusual though it raises important questions. Measured by student enrollment, or similar statistics, universities are currently growing at a rate which has no earlier parallels. Another feature is less common, and therefore deserves particular attention. There is relatively little selection between the senior secondary school stage (the &dquo;gymnasium&dquo;) and the university stage; a large proportion (of the order of 80 ~/o) of those who graduate from the former proceed to a university or a professional school of equivalent status. There is selection social and intellectual at an earlier stage; the transition from the junior secondary school, or the new comprehensive school, to the gymnasium. In the earlier part of the paper statistical and other information will be offered

The Role of Hypotheses in Sociological Research

Introductory Remarks. The function of hypotheses in certainly not one of the neglected subjects in the literature on scientific method. There is no lack of discussions of the nature and proper place of hypotheses in the natural sciences, or scientific enquiry in general. For the social sciences, and sociology in particular, the confused and imperfect condition of their theoretical apparatus has made a clear rccognition of the role of hypotheses no less important. It is not my intention here to reconsider the whole question, a formidable and probably rather thankless tasl;. Instead I propose to employ a more limited and direct, and perhaps more practical approach. At least in Sweden a certain policy towards hypotheses and their use is widely accepted by sociologists and phychologists, though it is far from universally followed. This is the policy of introducing at an early stage in their reports, and presumably in their research, one or several specific hypotheses, which are subsequently tested by various statistical means. Let

Population Processes as Measuring Devices

V 1’ HEN statistics which describe a society, a national population or an economy, are analyzed, showing either its state at a given time, or the flow of events and the changes it undergoes during a given period, one may distinguish between two purposes. There is, on the one hand, the relatively circumscribed and specialized interest in the chosen variable in its own right, and as a link in a chain of causes and effects, all typically coming under the purview of a single discipline. Thus changes in fertility call for a study of such factors as the age structure of the population, marriage patterns, mortality and survival through the child-bearing period of life, and divorce, all belonging to the demographer’s domain. Our interests may, on the other hand, lie in the direction of an analysis of fertility as a part of a much broader system of variables, particularly if it is employed as a means of characterizing cultures (e.g. familistic versus nonfamilistic), or as a detector of general socio-economic conditions (traditional versus modern societies). This type of study is more likely to be inter-disciplinary in its orientation. The two approaches overlap, and the distinction is therefore not an absolute

Reflections on Functionalism

an analysis of the functional interpretation of religionl) ; though there are few direct references to this theme it helps to explain the course the enquiry follows, and the ideas selected for a closer scrutiny. If we stick for a short while to religion as an illustrative example, its functional interpretation means that it should be understood, explained or interpreted by looking at its consequences for the survival

Sociological Encounters 1: On Mortality, Inequality and Social Theory

were thrice blessed in that there were two other articles on population as well.) With much of what Rydell has to say, and to a great extent his general approach, I find myself in agreement. However, there are one or two points that seem to deserve some further attention. Their implications will take us far beyond mortality measures. And there is the worrysome question of method, and behind method concepts, which gets us into the deeper watcrs of macro-sociology and historical analysis. Now, there is something to be said for the conclusion that advances in