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The article presents a news brief related to research at the University of Warwick SSRC Industrial Relations Research Unit in England, as of July 1, 1972. Topics of ongoing research projects include industrial relations in factories, organizational behavior in labor unions, economic aspects of labor markets, and labor law and legislation in Great Britain.

This paper presents an historical and statistical analysis of the pre-professional education of officers of various sectors and levels of the British Army between 1800 and 1971. 'Four eras' in the evolution of educational selectivity in the army commissioning system are identified: 1800-1849---educational criteria irrelevant; 1849-I 870-partial educational selectivity; 1870-1939-examination-dominated selection; 1941 onwards- `scientific' selection. In the light of this historical pattern, it was anticipated that the officer corps would show a heavy dependence on the elite sector of education, although also, over time, a reduction in this dependence. Examination of figures for membership of Woolwich (1855-1939), of Sandhurst (1890-1967), of the army elite (1870-1971), and of the officer corps as a whole (1969) verified these predictions. Officership proves to have been a virtual monopoly of the public schools-amongst whom the major boarding schools were predominant at least up to the Second World War, and even since then public school boys have predominated at every level of the army until quite recently. However, it is also clear that an irreversible decline in the role of the public schools has now set in, and that state sector schools are now taking over the major role in the supply of new officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by examining the typology of educational systems outlined by Earl Hopper m Sociology (vol. 2, no. I, 1968) and argues against the attempt to reduce the comparative study of education to varieties of occupational selection. On the other hand, accepting that a central part of the sociology of education must be with ideology and the generation and transmission of learning, it outlines a framework for examining this in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the sociological movement at the turn of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, founding and early history of "The Sociological Society" and with the beginnings of sociology as an academic subject. Certainly the sociological movement had something very close to a common working doctrine. Put in its simplest form, this doctrine held sociological investigation to require a prior or parallel examination of man's biological evolution. Emphases were differently placed, but very few sociologists could avoid a concern with the historical evolution of human nature, with man's adaptation to the conditions of existence and with the role of natural laws and biological mechanisms in social activities. The Sociological Society, at least for some of its founding members, was an institution to emancipate sociological science from the over-sight of academic economists and British anthropologists. In the language of the day, both eugenics and civics had become conflicting and dispersive specialisms. It had simply not been possible to create a unified sociology to be taught at University. Most courses in sociology founded at this time were intended to train people for social work.

The article presents information on the working life of young people. The literature on the adjustment of young people to working life is large, but lacks coherence. Although the subject has become a popular research topic, there have been no thorough surveys of the field. The literature on adjustment to work is even less helpful. One of the major features of any adjustment to a worker's role or position, however defined, must be the preparation received in school. This article, in the light of an extensive survey of the literature, develops a method of approach that differs from those adopted by the small number of previous writers who have found any theoretical interest in the topic. The provision of full-time education for the whole of the population of Great Britain is less than a hundred years old. Proportions going into unskilled work decline steeply as the age of leaving increases, but even among seventeen-year-old leavers, about one of four goes into unskilled work. It is hoped that the present approach will serve students of the field both by establishing a framework for the interpretation of previous work, and by generating problems for solution. The complexity of the interrelationships involved is apparent, but a recognition of their existence as opposed to the accumulation of more or less ad hoc correlations must contribute to more fruitful research.

This article gives an instructive account of the stewardship of the state government as foster-parent in the Great Britain. A brief retrospect describes the evolution of the present system in regard to maintenance and education. Until about 45 years ago, these child-waifs were practically confined to the Workhouses, wherein they got such schooling as was deemed necessary; since then, the policy pursued has been to withdraw them in special institutions or homes to which schools are attached; the public elementary schools provide for about half the total at the educational age.