James R. Beniger

Quantitative Graphics in Statistics: A Brief History

Abstract Quantitative graphics have been central to the development of science, and statistical graphics date from the earliest attempts to analyze data. Many familiar forms, including bivariate plots, statistical maps, bar charts, and coordinate paper, were used in the 18th century. Statistical graphics developed through attention to four problems: spatial organization (17th and 18th centuries), discrete comparison (18th and early 19th centuries), continuous distribution (19th century), and multivariate distribution and correlation (late 19th and early 20th centuries). Today, statistical graphics appear to be reemerging as an important analytic tool, with recent innovations exploiting computer graphics and related technologies.

Control theory and social change: toward a synthesis of the system and action approaches

Social theories are of two basic types, involving either autonomous systems or purposive action; each type has its own distinct notion of ‘control’. In purposive action theories, individual actors are said to control certain events in attempting to further their personal self-interests. The early action theory of Parsons, symbolic interactionism, theories of psychological and economic motivation, the exchange theories of Homans and Blau — all are examples of the purposive action approach to control. In theories involving systems, by contrast, causal or power relations are maintained in equilibrium, either stable or dynamic, by some form of autonomous control relationships. System approaches include demographic and ecological theories, the later work of Parsons on social systems, Mertonian structural-functionalism, the conflict theory of Simmel and Coser, and Levi-Strauss’ functional theory of social exchange.