J. P. Roos

Behind the happiness barrier

Happiness can be treated either as ephemeral, unstable. unresearchable or as something inherent of given ways of life, dispositions towards life. Here, the latter position is taken, and happiness is seen in the context of the whole life situation. Also, happiness is taken to be socially determined and ruled by social norms: the concept of happiness barrier is proposed, i.e. a situation where people present themselves as happy and need to develop stategies for this purpose.Three case studies are presented where the various aspects of the conception of happiness are highlighted. In the first case study, a “natural” disposition towards happiness is present, in the two others, various versions of modern socially determined happiness norms are present.

In Search of the Finnish New Middle Class

The way of life and essence of the Finnish new middle class are discussed. Within a theoretical framework that one might call Bourdieuan, the analysis is based on a questionnaire by Pierre Bourdieu in his book La Distinction (1979) and an interview material consisting of life stones of Finnish new middle class people As a preliminary conclusion, it is argued that taste is by no means as important a criterion for the new middle class in Finland as it is in France In the Finnish middle class emphasis is rather on subjectivity, on personal relations and their therapeutic nature, i e. on the way of life in a broader sense. Also, it is argued that the so-called ambivalent type of the new middle class is something specific with regard to both class and modernity.

Repression, Revolution and Ambivalence: The Sexual Life of Three Generations

Attitudes toward unconventional and casual forms of sexuality and toward extramarital relations as well as the appearance of parallel (extra) sexual relationships are studied in three sexual generations. These are constructed on the basis of sexual norms and practices prevailing at the time of the sexual initiation of their members. The following sexual generations are distinguished: the sexual generations of repression born 1917-36, revolution born 1937-56, and ambivalence born 1957-73. The persistence of the sexual morals and behaviour patterns adopted in youth clearly emerges from large national surveys conducted in Finland in 1971 and 1992. The generation of sexual repression appears as the most restrictive in its attitudes toward unconventional and casual forms of sexuality. It has least often engaged in parallel relationships. The generation of sexual revolution is consistently most permissive in its sexual attitudes and behaviour. The youngest cohort, the sexually ambivalent generation, is permissive toward unconventional and casual forms of sexuality but family-oriented in attitudes toward marital fidelity. Nevertheless, it is free in its own sexual behaviour. Compared to young people twenty years ago, its members more often report parallel sexual relations. The findings are interpreted by referring to current sociological discussions on individualization in (post)modern society.

Life’s Turning Points and Generational Consciousness

Changes of the Finnish society during 20th century has often been analysed with the help of the concept of generation. The typology developed by J.P. Roos (1987) based on Finnish autobiographies is in general use in Finland. There are four generations: (1) those born in 1900–25: the Generation of war and depression, (2) those born in 1925–39: the Generation of reconstruction, (3) those born in 1940–50: the Generation of the transformation, and (4) those born during the 50s: the Suburban generation. The typology was based on a collection of autobiographies with the emphasis of such variables as social and economic security, work, education and human relations. In what follows, I shall discuss a three generation scheme where the first two generations are condensed into one and the third extended to the 60’s. In the literature, the middle generation often has another name, that of the Baby boomers. This name will also be used here (for important theoretical discussions of the generations, see Attias-Donfut 1988, Eyerman-Turner 1998, Kohli/Szydlik 1999).

Book Review: Mathieu Deflem (ed.) Sociologists in a Global Age. Biographical Perspectives: Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007, 288 pp

I has become quite popular to approach different occupational or ethnic groups via life stories. Everybody likes to discuss their own biographies, which are often interesting, or at the least informative in different ways. Sociologists are in a problematic category: neither necessarily interesting nor good subjects for biographies, they are eager to write them, although a diligent sociologist who has remained for the most part within the discipline does not normally mean an interesting biography. Even famous sociologists will find it difficult to ‘sell’ their autobiographies after they have retired, when they have time to reflect on their lives. Anthony Giddens might be a good subject, but only if he tells ‘all’ about Blair and/or opens up about his love life, which he probably does not want to do. An alternative to full autobiographies has been collections of shorter biographies. Mathieu Deflem had a good idea when he used the metaphor of globalization and travels in this work on the lives of sociologists. This is certainly an interesting perspective: nowadays, sociologists travel a lot, although those of my generation (born directly after the war) seldom have itineraries similar to sociologists of the previous generation; those who had to flee from Nazi Germany, for example. Our travels are much more benign and mainly voluntary. In Deflem’s collection, the majority of authors were originally European. Some have moved to the United States, others have been there many times and been influenced by American sociology. A few are Americans. Some writers come from Asia: one Japanese, one Chinese, one South Korean. They have all travelled extensively during their lives. The important difference, pointed out by Eiko Ikegami in the book, is that nowadays sociology travellers can maintain contact with their country of origin and have genuinely different identities – in her case a Japanese identity when she is in Kyoto and an American sociological scientific identity in New York. This is a valuable point. Those who have spent their time regularly between two places (e.g. Derrida, Foucault, Beck, and others) are certainly more likely to emphasize that they can have different identities, at will, than those who stay put. The editor has divided the stories into three groups: first, sociologists whose career has been especially marked by travel; second, those whose career has had a theoretical linkage (although they certainly did travel a lot, too); and third, those in whom the connecting link is known as sociological identity. What this third category means is not quite clear to me, although it is different from the travelling identity mentioned above. The title of the book is apt and all of the contributing sociologists discuss globalization from different vantage points. However, it is a bit strange that the book has so little to say about the personal lives of the sociologists. Typical formulations are ‘my then husband’ or ‘my first wife’. No personal conflicts, difficult divorce proceedings or fights over children are reported (very few children are mentioned at all, although Ruut Veenhoven does mention abortion and voluntary childlessness, connecting this with his sociological activity) even though one might think that a difficult divorce or battle for custody (or simply change of spouse) would affect one’s sociological perspective significantly. To mention some of the individual stories, Saskia Sassen writes in a highly abstract way and includes very little personal stuff. She mentions only the interesting fact that when she arrived in the United States she was accepted by the university without formal papers or a degree. This wouldn’t be possible today! Interestingly, she does not mention her famous present partner (Richard Sennett), which would probably be considered politically incorrect had the author been male. There are some minor but irritating recurring errors throughout her text, e.g. poesis vs. poiesis and Hypolitte vs. Hyppolite. Book Reviews

Book Reviews : Sam D. Sieber: Fatal Remedies. The Ironies of Social Intervention. Plenum Press, New York and London 1981

more frequently employed helpers in one social context compared with another. But then the question is, which value this identification has when the answer seems to be rather a play with figures than a description of a complex social reality. To summarize, the book which is not always easy to penetrate contains some questionable results. It can also be asked what interest an empirical study on helping networks in the USA has for Scandinavian readers. As we know, helping networks are influenced by socio-cultural factors. The detailed data from the study