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Several behavioral scientists have contributed to special issues of the "Decision Science" journal. K. MacCrimmon and J. Siu tackled the significant problem of modeling and measuring and individual decision maker's inevitable trade-offs. The authors find that the choice mode consistently exceeds the equivalence mode in its predictive accuracy. R. Duncan's paper examined possible determinants of the structure of decision units within organization. A. Delbecq studied contextual variables affecting decision making in program planning. Lastly, V. Vroom and A. Jago wrote a paper about decision making as a social process.

This article comments on the position papers in the June 1967 issue of Rural Sociology. The author asserts that the papers are a mark of growing maturity of the rural sociology profession. It took years before the state universities and colleges assumed the dominant role of that they have achieved in the development of rural sociology. Contributions of the early sociologists to the applied field are presented to emphasize their historical value.

Rural sociologists are concerned about the present status, the crucial issues, and the future of their group. In 1963, the Committee on the Development of Rural Sociology developed a preliminary list of major issues facing rural sociologists. With the approval of the Council, the members of the committee decided to prepare a set of working papers on some of these major issue areas. These papers would attempt to define more clearly the assumptions, dimensions, and issues, to present different points of view, and to suggest alternative definitions or positions and their probable consequences. Thus, it was hoped that the working papers would provide a structure from which more effective discussion would develop.

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The article presents information on several papers related to sociology. In the paper by Odulf Schaeffer, "The Mons Pietatis and the Raiffeisen Credit Union," he an interesting account of the history and structure of the co-operative credit union founded by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen early in the nineteenth I century and of a precursor, the Mons Pietatis, the charitable loan agency promoted by Franciscans in Italian Communes beginning on the eve of the Reformation. The essay concludes with a useful bibliographical note. He emphasizes correctly that the rapacious Italian usurers of the fifteenth century were both Christians — actually, Catholics — and Jews, but by an inadvertence loses sight of this and reproduces uncritically remarks of men of the time who had sought to blame "Jewish financial magnates." In the paper "Sociology in the Contemporary World of Today and Tomorrow," by Howard W. Odum, he indicates the ways in which science can contribute toward the understanding, the direction and the planning of modern society.

This article focuses on the contributions of professor A. R. Radcliffe-Brown to the study of social organization. What Radcliffe-Brown did was to distinguish between the search for historical and evolutionary origins, the preoccupation of ethnology, and the study of the laws of custom and social organization, the province of social anthropology. Those social scientists other than anthropologists who know Radcliffe-Brown's work, tend to pay attention only to his methodological articles. But the vital theoretical contribution lies in his ethnographically centered papers. It is in them that Radcliffe-Brown's adherence to the view that there are laws of social life which can be established by systematic and empirical investigation, is brilliantly justified. These papers are mainly concerned with problems of social organization, or as Radcliffe-Brown now prefers to call it, social structure. Radcliffe-Brown shows that the merging or identification of alternate generations fits in with the widespread concept of the completion of the cycle of the generations in three successive steps, and with the contrasting roles of grandparent and parent in family systems. It is ethnography based on a theoretical discipline, the discipline of structural analysis as first given shape by Radcliffe-Brown.

This article evaluates studies on accounting theory, conducted by a committee of the American Accounting Association in 1973. The most striking feature of the papers is their similarity. They are essentially two versions of the same work. Both preliminary papers consist of two principal sections: the nature of theories in the physical and social sciences; and the classes of accounting theories, as the authors are able to distinguish them. All of the papers survey pertinent works by mathematicians, philosophers and scientists, and conclude that accounting qualifies as an empirical discipline.

The article introduces the topics covered by the Spring 1970, volume 26, number 2 issue of "The Journal of Social Issues". The purpose of the issue is to gain fresh insight into the current state of some aspects of social science, rather than simply to further an understanding of the poor. Social science and psychology have, in some respects, been relevant to an understanding of the poor. Work with poor populations in both laboratory and field has brought new perspectives to the social sciences. It has exposed some of the weaknesses, inconsistencies, and lacunae in both theory and practice. The recurrent themes of the papers in this issue offer some generic lessons about the study of any multi-faceted and value-laden social problem. Each paper in the issue presents the modifications in research strategies and the new theoretical formulations which have evolved from work with poor populations. The papers cover both theoretical content, e.g., in social learning and in sociolinguistics, and questions which are basic to the logic of all scientific inquiry, e.g., generalizations beyond a specific context and the conditions under which causal inferences are feasible.

The article presents information related to upcoming events on rural sociology. The Program Committee for the Rural Sociological Society announces a call for papers for the annual meeting to be held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from August 25-27, 1972. Submission of papers is required by April 1, 1972. Abstract and text should be sent to Rabel J. Burdge, Program Chairman, Department of Sociology. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506. A series of workshops is planned on topics of current interests to encourage more active participation in the program. This years program will reduce the number of formal presentations. Papers will be made available for distribution prior to the meeting. Graduate students are asked to submit papers to any session. Sessions organized by graduate students will review papers from all sources. The other information is that J.L. Charlton has directed a study now published by the University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. The co-author, Joseph F. Singer, also used the data for a Ph.D. disseration in economics, Charlton is currently directing a study of factors affecting the use of medical services in three subregions of Arkansas.

The article presents information about several journals. The International Journal of Psychology, which started publication in 1966, is devoted to cross-cultural comparative and co-operative research in general, genetic and social psychology throughout the world. It reports on comparative field or laboratory studies, inquiries, experimental replications, critical reviews, theoretical or methodological papers in relationship with cross-cultural research, projects or cross-cultural studies are also published. Sociological Studies will be international in scope and will offer a professional, coordinated and disciplined review and appraisal of research trends in different areas of sociology. Each issue will consist of a collection of papers integrated around a particular theme. In particular it is hoped to provide an avenue for the publication of longer working papers which are at present too extensive for most journals. Sociological Studies will be published annually in English by the Cambridge University Press. The first issue will appear in 1968.

The article examines the flow of messages between the accounting system and other knowledge systems, in particular the information flow between the academic and applied accounting networks. The accounting knowledge system falls within the social science knowledge system and is made up of three subsystems: an academic, a management accounting, and a professional system. This paper is based on the analysis of citations in seventeen accounting journals for the period January 1968 to December 1969. Accounting lies within the social science knowledge system. In this study, the number of messages passed to accounting from the other social sciences and the number of messages passed to accounting from nonsocial science knowledge systems is recorded with a column tabulating the proportion of messages transmitted to accounting from other knowledge systems. The proportion of messages passed to accounting from the other social sciences is similar to the proportion passed to sociology and politics and is greater than the proportion of messages passed to psychology and economics.

The article focuses on the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological society. This is not a new experience, but some of the changes that are taking place in rural sociology programs and in society indicate that the need for discussion is not yet satisfied. This is also one way of reaching the many members, subscribers, and readers who axe unable to attend the Society meetings, and of including them in the circle of discourse. Accordingly, few persons from various sections of the country and one to represent a view of rural sociology as it exists outside the U. S. to offer some of their views on important issues in the future of rural sociology were invited. They were asked to respond briefly and quickly enough for the papers to be presented in the June issue before the 1969 meeting.

This article provides an overview of the topics discussed in the November 1946 issue of “Journal of Social Issues.” These papers represent addresses and roundtable discussions held in connection with the tenth annual meeting of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in the U.S. The first four papers initiate a relationship between research and social action. The second group presents the technical discussion of methods in social science. Finally, a proposal is presented for coordinating the efforts of action groups and research workers.

Presents news notes and announcements involving the Rural Sociological Society. Highlights of the 1971 annual meeting of the Rural Sociology Section of Association of Southern Agricultural Workers; Call for papers for the 1971 annual meeting of the society to be held in Denver, Colorado on August 27 to 29, 1971; Programs and projects of the society.

Presents news notes and announcements involving the Rural Sociological Society. Call for papers for the 1969 annual meeting of the society; Tentative session topics; Best dissertations in rural sociology for the years 1967 and 1968.

The paper reviews research findings from various European countries (including the author's own studies in Vienna) on intergenerational relations between parents and their grown-up children. Numerous data disprove certain important features of the classical theory of the isolated nuclear family in industrialized and urbanized society. Although, according to newer data, joint living is a minority pattern, effective interaction (economic support, help in both ways and mutual visiting) is frequent and emotionally important particularly to the elderly. ‘Intimacy—but at a distance—corresponds to wishes of both generations. A special section of the paper is dedicated to propositions for theoretical innovation in the problem area studied including, e.g., a criticism of role theory, a criticism of statements on family cohesion based on findings of help patterns only. The paper postulates an amalgamation of major aspects of social gerontology with a sociology of the family cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the January 1963 issue of the "Journal of Social Issues."

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the definition of a complex Problem the problem faced by a consultant and a client when they first try to enter into a working relationship. It would be presumptuous to propose a solution to such a knotty problem. It seems more appropriate and realistic to limit this paper to defining the problem. The paper is based upon the assumption that the entry of the consultant is a special case of a more general problem: the attachment of a new person to an existing social system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a response by George Geiger to several commentaries about his paper on values and social sciences. Geiger, particularly, presented his objections to Herbert Feigl's discussion of valuation. According to Geiger, the quotations from Feigl's article seem to institutionalize a kind of word-magic in which certain counters have an implicit mystery, counters like "ought," "imperative," "prescription," and the like. Meanwhile, there is an unquestionable justification for Feigl's distinction between "studying" and "making" evaluations. It is the obvious justification of division of labor and of handling first things first. And there is vital heuristic and preparatory work in any kind of analysis, necessary if not sufficient.

Research on communities often fails to meet two important criteria which permit valid generalizations from the findings. First, studies generally fail to apply the scientific comparative approach and the techniques of multivariate analysis in their design and execution. Second, theory fails to distinguish between properties of communities and properties which are properly classified in other systems. Sociologists who study communities do not share a precise definition of community, nor do they agree how observations about community phenomena are to be incorporated into sociological theory. The discussion that follows will be facilitated, however, if one can make reasonably clear the sense in which this paper deals with the sociological study of community. Community is viewed in this paper as a territorial system. The more comprehensive territorial definitions of community view it as a form of social or ecological organization arising from the fact that people share a common area for their daily activities.

This article presents the research papers published in this issue of the journal "Rural Sociology." The first paper by James H. Copp represents a stage in the maturation of research on farm practice acceptance. It is one of the first attempts to compare the results of studies conducted in different agricultural regions. Using data from Wilkening's study in Wisconsin and from his own study in Kansas, he developed comparable measures of certain personal, social, and economic variables. Another paper by Copp and colleagues deals with the informational aspect of the acceptance of new farm practices. They attempt essentially to specify the function of information sources in the adoption process. By asking a series of questions about the sources of information at various times, from the awareness of a new practice until its adoption, they find that institutionalized sources tend to perform a function separate from that of noninstitutionalized sources. The study by Charles R. Hoffer and Dale Stangland is a worthy attempt to take into account the farmer's value orientations as they affect his adoption of practices.

The tendency for neighborhood patterns of association to localize the exchange of farm information on a person-to-person basis is demonstrated in this paper by the analysis of two types of interpersonal relationships. Conditions which help to explain this relationship are examined and evaluated, and the relationship of neighborhood residence to the evaluation of sources of farm information is considered. Although consideration of the relative influence of neighborhood and clique patterns of association is beyond the scope of this study, the data show that clique members are more likely to live outside neighborhoods than inside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between formal and informal participation of individuals in three Pennsylvania rural communities. Data concerning the range and intensity of informal activities were used to test the hypothesis that a positive relationship exists between formal and informal participation of individuals in rural society. In general, this hypothesis was substantiated by the evidence on eighteen selected types of informal activities. However, more research is needed, not only on the roles played within various informal groups but also on participation in other areas of informal activities than those reported in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the First World Congress for Rural Sociology, which took place in August 1964 at Dijon. The number of papers, submitted to this Congress, was far greater than that received for the Third Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology in 1962 at St. Wolfgang. Therefore it is impossible to publish, the complete written material. Full texts are included of main papers and papers of prepared discussants only. Of the regional papers the summaries are given. The discussions are reported in the languages used by the participants during the meetings. Some of the regional papers will appear in full text in later issues of this Journal, others will be submitted to other journals in the field. Of the regional papers the summaries are given. The discussions are reported in the languages used by the participants during the meetings.

This article traces briefly the use of the comparative method in sociology. It documents that what is currently called "cross-national research" is an interest that has antecedents running back for at least a century in a great variety of fields. Secondly, the article argues for a closer interplay between sociological theory construction and cross-national data. Because current sociological theory is exceedingly culture-bound, basing its propositions largely on data derived from modern American and Western European societies, the need for testing hypotheses within truly cross-cultural settings is most timely and urgent. Thirdly, the paper article delineates three major methodological problems in cross-national research. These problems include the requirement of equivalence of meaning, the requirement of concept equivalence and the requirement of equivalence of cultural variability. It concludes with a recommendation for furthering interest in cross-national research in rural sociology.

The article expounds on the intent of the issue, and the symposium from which it developed, which is to give consideration to the relevance of some research approaches to the problem of war and peace. Men from several social science disciplines, specializing in different dimensions of the general problem of social behavior, were asked to present papers from their own viewpoints on "What research approaches can be brought to the problem of war and peace?" No single paper provides an exhaustive discussion of this topic. The papers provide the perspective necessary for taking the first steps toward the theoretical formulation of problems in this area. Each author comes to the problem with his own personal predispositions and a heritage of ideas and folkways from his particular branch of the social sciences. This leads each to deal with a different aspect of the problem, and to proceed from a different set of basic assumptions.

This paper examines the intraorganizational mobility interests of production workers in manufacturing organizations. Substantial numbers of workers report not only being interested in mobility within their organizations, but many also claim to be actively pursuing that objective. The immediate supervisor is found to be a central figure in their goal achievement plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a normative model of social processes for decision making was presented. This model represented a slightly elaborated and refined version of a model presented in Vroom and Yetton. We share the previous authors' view that such models are far from perfect but can serve a useful function in stimulating research which, in time, will be reflected in better models. The latter half of this paper was devoted to questions related to how managers do select decision processes—to the factors which influence the degree to which they share their decision-making power with their subordinates. In pursuing these questions, we also relied heavily on the previous work of Vroom and Yetton by using a set of standardized cases selected in accordance with an experimental design. Each case depicted a leader faced with a problem to solve, and subjects were asked to assume his role and to select from a specified list of decision processes the one they would employ. The major difference from Vroom and Yetton was in the nature of the experimental design used in the construction of the "problem set." Whereas Vroom and Yetton's design utilized 30 "group problems" and five decision processes, the design used here provided for seven decision processes and 24 group and 24 individual problems. This design permitted the additional exploration of relationships between behavior on each kind of problem, and of the consistency of the behavior on the latter with the normative model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an index of various literature on rural sociology.

Presents minutes of the Council Meeting on August 26, 1973. Attendees; Speakers; Balance sheet for the 1973-1974 proposed budget.

This article presents Peter M. Hall's response to Rosabeth Moss Kanter's comments toward his article "A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis of Politics," published in the 1972 issue of "Sociological Inquiry." The author concludes that Kanter misunderstands his perspective by subsuming it under American liberalism. If there is anything that he is not, it is an American liberal, and if there is anything he is criticizing in American sociology, political sociology, and symbolic interaction, it is consensual, pluralistic, and liberal bias. Hall also does not deny the need to see the totality of the society, its interdependencies, feedbacks, and impacts, in short, society as a system. To settle misconceptions, Hall emphasized that his paper had a special focus and set limits as to its goals and coverage. It was not intended to be a complete analysis of politics nor a complete analysis of American politics.

This paper constitutes an attempt to extend a style of theoretical activity in sociology which is quite new to their domain. It is theory which rests upon the central postulate of economic theory that of rational man attempting to pursue his selfish interests. Perhaps the central problem in sociological theory is that posed most succinctly by Thomas Hobbes. Why is there not a war of all against all? Hobbes took as problematic what most contemporary sociologists take as given: That a society can exist at all, despite the fact that individuals are born into it wholly self-concerned, and in fact remain largely self-concerned throughout their existence. Conflict within a communal group, which can occur in the process of collective decision-making, illustrates well the dilemma in which sociologists find themselves. Seeing conflict as a massive element in the functioning of society, but unable to say anything about it as social theorists, they split themselves as individuals off from themselves as sociologists: they form "Journals of Conflict Resolution," join disarmament and peace committees, yet continue to purvey sociological theory which has nothing to say about conflict.

This paper has suggested the need to reexamine die value-stance of sociology. In adopting the ideology of science, it eschewed experimentation as a basic methodological device. Yet, this paper has also suggested that there is a tendency to confuse the extra-scientific values and norms of science with the scientific method. Thus, the greatest danger to scientific objectivity may not lie so much in sociological experimentation as the inability of the sociologist to separate scientific from value decision-making. Value decisions, undiscriminated and rooted in the ideology of pure science, can be as inhibiting to the effective use of the scientific method in expanding the boundaries of knowledge as any other institutionalized norms. The paper also sugegsted that experimentation had much to oiler sociology. But in failing to imitate the physical sciences in this regard, it may have sacrificed a tool important to its development. A possible means of reconciling ideological and methodological differences over this issue might lie in the development of systematic methods by which to examine the values as well as the methodology which underlie any research effort. The investigator could review the values implicit in his research in much the same way as he now reviews the steps involved in his application of the scientific method. Much could be learned. Human intellectual experience suggests that we proceed more efficiently when the grounds for our behavior are set down, cares fully reviewed, and criticized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociological analysis of factions has been developing rapidly in sociological research. According to the definition, a faction is stipulated to be an ephemeral group which emerges in order to operate in the interest of a specific aim or conflict. The criteria of recruitment of members to the different factions in the community are based on upon personal aspirations which are involved in the acute cause of rivalry or conflict and not upon any pre-existing connection among its members such as kinship ties, religious affiliations, common caste membership etc. By this definition, it follows that when a faction develops into a more stable group based on some permanent criteria of membership, it is no longer a faction. The paper discusses the phenomenon of factions in communities of immigrants. It presents findings of a research project in Israel which tried to reconstruct and analyze the history and conditions under which factions first emerged and then disappeared in some newly created communities of immigrants in the course of ten years. It attempts to develop further analysis about the conditions under which factions may arise, some possible variations they may display in their composition and structure and most importantly, the function that they possibly perform in the process of adjustment of immigrants to the new social, political and economic conditions.

The sociological analysis of factions has been developing rapidly in sociological research. According to the definition, a faction is stipulated to be an ephemeral group which emerges in order to operate in the interest of a specific aim or conflict. The criteria of recruitment of members to the different factions in the community are based on upon personal aspirations which are involved in the acute cause of rivalry or conflict and not upon any pre-existing connection among its members such as kinship ties, religious affiliations, common caste membership etc. By this definition, it follows that when a faction develops into a more stable group based on some permanent criteria of membership, it is no longer a faction. The paper discusses the phenomenon of factions in communities of immigrants. It presents findings of a research project in Israel which tried to reconstruct and analyze the history and conditions under which factions first emerged and then disappeared in some newly created communities of immigrants in the course of ten years. It attempts to develop further analysis about the conditions under which factions may arise, some possible variations they may display in their composition and structure and most importantly, the function that they possibly perform in the process of adjustment of immigrants to the new social, political and economic conditions.

The article presents comments of the author on his article "Profiting from a Comprehensive School," published in the "British Journal of Sociology," to draw attention to the sociological study of comprehensive schools. Author defends his article on two grounds presentation and analysis, and conclusions. Any inadequacies on presentation are probably determined by the limitations of the article-intended as a research note and not a fully developed paper. The criticism in conclusions seems largely directed at presentation. The conclusions are in fact valid on the basis of the findings of the research itself. The same applies to statistical techniques employed. In short it would seem that no valid critique of the conclusions themselves is presented. However, here is a point-by-point reply. The tables present the most outstanding deviations in keeping with the summary nature of the article. They are condensations of tables in the thesis. Thus class categories are included or omitted in accordance with the importance of variations.

Framing this paper is the question: what research problem and hypotheses suggested by symbolic interaction theory give promise, if pursued, of significantly advancing the sociology of the family? The problem delineated revolves around the concepts of identity and commitment. After explication of a set of premises and needed refinements in concepts basic to symbolic interaction theory, a number of hypotheses are offered. These purport to account for the position of identities in a salience hierarchy and tie identity salience to role performance. Finally, it is noted that these hypotheses could profitably be studied in the research setting of responses to first pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social problems have multiple causes, and their solutions accordingly require a multidiscipline approach, which is facilitated by the fact that technology, the natural sciences, and the social sciences are closely interrelated (a point of view that is making itself increasingly felt in educational theory). The deterioration of the inner city is an example of a typical complex social problem that will yield only before such a unified attack. Solutions to social problems have been suggested by findings from such varied fields as astrophysics, sensory psychophysics, and population studies, as well as the more theoretical social sciences, whose influence can be seen in their application to problems of urban development. Although information specialists have hardly yet developed a full-fledged body of knowledge, they can contribute much towards the solving of social problems by: (1) organizing and disseminating information to those broad-gauged individuals and groups that are working on problems that defy solution by a fragmented approach; (2) controlling the rapidly mushrooming body of pertinent technical literature; (3) developing periodical indexes for the field of social welfare; and (4) assisting in the compilation of state-of-the-art papers on social problems, basing their work on a value-oriented extracting technique derived from a model created by the National Association of Social Workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the significance of belief-expectation-test (BET) in human cultural change in the U.S. It was argued that any change in human behavior normally is dependent on a change in beliefs. There are several publications that supports the existence of the BET process and its significance. Further evidence in support of the hypothesis is presented in this paper. It was concluded that the BET hypothesis is of value in interpreting and explaining the verbal behavior of the group in discussing the course outline and content and in selecting some beliefs over others. On the basis of the evidence presented in this paper, it was found that thoughts were related in the minds of individuals in a manner that was reflected by the hypothetical syllogism of tradition logic.

Since the end of the Second World War, there has been considerable scholarly activity directed towards making the study of international relations more rigorous, systematic, and interdisciplinary. This paper describes the research activities of the Studies in International Conflict and Integration at Stanford University. This work has been characterized by: (a) studies in depth-of-crisis situations; (b) a focus on individual decision-makers—rather than the nation-State—as the primary unit of analysis; and (c) heavy reliance on techniques of content analysis. Some findings from situations such as the 1914 European crisis and the 1962 Cuban crisis are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on research on poverty and social issues in the U.S. in 1965. Key issues of interest; Analysis of pertinent topics and relevant issues; Implications on the social sciences.

In trying to bridge the gap between the social sciences and the arts, an attempt was made to dwell on the aesthetic probings of contemporary man through the New Cinema and the Theatre of the Absurd. After writing to a large number of potential contributors to the topic, with intriguing responses and no-responses, we finally achieved an issue devoted to the Arts and Social Science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship of psychology and history has been scanty for such a long time that the title line of this paper alone demands an explanation. Professor Willcox's essay showed how the historian deals with social change. This is certainly a subject historians and psychologists have in common, although it is obvious, too, that they share in it neither equally nor equitably. Psychologists will argue that the difference between history and psychology is in the method even if the two disciplines should overlap in subject matter. Psychology is an experimental and quantitative science while history is merely descriptive. It will be tie aim of this paper to examine in greater detail what psychology and history have in common, especially when the study of social change is concerned; why the two disciplines have so little relationship at present; and what the impact of method might be upon this state of alienation.

The author discusses variations in styles of response to social change among psychologists: "...To return to Wyatt's comment that psychologists are unfamiliar with the history of their field, I think it could be argued that the work of most psychologists is done in short, readily publishable spurts, which may represent a long agenda, but one that is broken up into small and manageable bits. In that sense, psychologists (and sociologists, too) are like the residents of Berger's lower-middle class suburb who live on the installment plan: their temptation is to publish now, and think later. In contrast, historians would seem to live on a longer tether of impulse, publishing more books and comparatively fewer papers, and tending (as in "Willcox's illustration of the study of the American War of Independence) to exhaust a territory before taking a purchase on it. They can afford this orientation in part because they can establish at least partial monopolies of time and place..."

This article provides an overview of the Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement, introducing some papers which are progress reports of a longitudinal project in the area of aging and retirement. The Project, which was initiated in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Cornell University, began in 1951 with pilot studies, a review of literature and other research reconnaissance. During 1952 and 1953 the original phase of data gathering was completed at the site of participating organizations throughout the country. The social aspects of aging have become the focus of increasing interest from the standpoints of basic research and social action programs. This growth of research activities and social concern with the process of aging is closely related to three fundamental demographic and social changes which have occurred over a fifty year period: (1) the life span of persons has been extended appreciably; (2) the absolute numbers and the relative proportion of the aged in the general population has been steadily increasing; (3) there has been a marked increase in the number of older persons who retire. Overall, the notions of personal and social adjustment, when carefully used, are useful research tools, and it is in this sense that the concepts are employed in the project's analyses and, presumably, in other analyses which seek clearer understandings of social, psychological and biological processes associated with aging and retirement.

In this article, the author describes how Leo Pfeffer, the author of the paper entitled, "Issues That Divide," has contributed among other things a unique, highly useful, and systematic cataloguing of the principal issues around which Catholic-non-Catholic tensions and conflicts have developed and exist in America today. This brief postscript to his paper is intended to highlight some of the sociological and social psychological implications of what he has to say on this subject. As it is implied, the essential nature of Catholic-non-Catholic conflict makes it unlikely that such conflict will disappear in the natural course of events in the foreseeable future. Its control requires a more adequate understanding of its process than the social sciences can supply at present.

The paper provides a conclusion to a series of articles about the approaches to the problems of war and peace. One paper distinguishes between those who do research in terms of governments and those who do research in terms of peoples. It is possible to make another distinction which overlaps to some degree the first two. This is a distinction between those who approach the problem in terms of macroscopic units, such as the nation, and those who essentially use the individual as their unit of analysis. Of the papers presented, one came close to the first type of emphasis. Operational research and regulatory research, would also fall in this category. Along with this difference in terms of the units of analysis used in the two approaches, there appears also to be a difference in the assumption about the nature of the phenomenon of war. Those who deal with the individual tend to conceive of war as a deviation that essentially occurs because of some failure in the mechanisms of maintaining peace. The extreme of this position is represented by the psychoanalytic approach suggesting that war is an aspect of irrational behavior, related to irrelevant, personal motivations, usually traceable to childhood experiences.

The article presents several books on social sciences. The book "Cyprus and the War of Greek Independence, 1821-29," is written by John T. A. Koumoulides. The book "Danubian Papers," is written by Ronald Syme. The book "The Jewish Bund in Russia From its Origins to 1905," is written by Henry Tobias.

The article reports on the second conference of the International Peace Research Association convened in Tällberg, Sweden from June 17-19, 1967. 15 scholars from around the world participated in the conference. In three days, approximately 45 papers were read and discussed, covering subjects ranging from simulation to games theory, from statistics of international relations to studies of nationalism, from legal aspects of intervention to the Kashmir conflict. The central theme of the conference, however, was poverty and peace. It is now recognized that scientific research into the causes of war and the conditions of peace has a contribution to make to the furthering of peaceful relations. Though there was no unanimity on the subject, there was fairly wide support for the position that peace research should not steer clear of those issues which have become too hot to handle but should endeavor to make a contribution to the solving of the problem within a strictly scientific framework. Professor Gunnar Myrdal of Sweden, said that connection between poverty and peace is no more than a popular theory, a complex of stereotypes unrelated in any way to reality.

This article deals with the participation of members in the affairs of the Rural Sociological Society. The data analyzed by the author was drawn from the membership records of the Society and questionnaires sent to individual members. The three classes of membership used in the analysis of this study are associates, students and professionals. In the measurement of the members' participation, the author arrived with a conclusion that participation in the annual meeting was the most frequent form of involvement and in here little regional variation occurred. It was also concluded that professional members with agriculture experiment station appointments had greater proportions active than those without such appointments and, despite the relatively small number of appointees, they were the major participants in the Society.