THE 13TH COGRESS OF THE DUTCH FEDERATION OF ASSOCIATIONS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE STUDENTS (SOCIALE INTERACADEMIALE).

The article gives information about the 13th Congress of the Dutch Federation of Associations of Social Science Students. The theme of the 13th Congress was "The Plural Society--the Applicability of the Concept in Various Countries." The first speaker Dr. A.N.J. den Hollander, professor of sociology and American studies at the University of Amsterdam, discussed "The Social Structure in the Southern States of America" with reference to the concepts "caste" and "class." He made the point that the Negroes and whites have one common cultural pattern and system of values, and that it is therefore impossible to regard the southern states of America as having a plural society. Another speaker felt that the use of the term "plural society" created confusion. J.D. Speckman, research fellow attached to the Institute for Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of the non-Western Peoples of the University of Leyden, spoke on the subject "Plurality in Surinam." He demonstrated that this plurality has developed in stages and pointed out that the standards for measuring plurality are not yet very clear; he thought the social distance scale might be a useful instrument. The last speaker, Dr. W.F. Wertheim, professor of the modern history and sociology of South-East Asia at the University of Amsterdam, treating the subject "Plurality and Unity of Values in South-East Asia and Elsewhere," was also critical of the term "plural society" and preferred to view those societies called plural from the point of view of unity and conflict of values. In the discussions which followed it emerged that the term 'plural society' was generally considered to be inapplicable in the social sciences.