To explain social change, one must know not only about the aspiration level of individuals or about the resources available in the environment, but the coordination over time, of these two elements in relation to each other. (Author)

Describes research investigating the effects of community structure on the adjustment of Vietnamese refugees in America. Emphasizes how congruence between individual characteristics and characteristics of the receiving community determine successful refugee adaptation to a new environment. (MJL)

Establishing a human resource development (HRD) program for HRD practitioners frequently results in problems of organizational change. The author has applied the theories of three contemporary sociologists--Talcott Parsons, Lewis Coser, and Peter Blau--to a hypothetical case study of an HRD consulting firm faced with developing its own human…

Describes the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) project in a mountain region in Switzerland, which is trying to halt depopulation and preserve the environment. Fourteen research units analyze relationships within and among the ecosystem, the economy, and the socio-cultural system. (KC)

Utilizes Joel Spring's "Educating the Worker Citizen" to examine limitations of the deschooling concept. Argues that deschoolers operate from a weak research base and employ erroneous historical and logical claims to support their position. Suggests ways of conceptualizing schools which will promote ongoing political activity by…

Reviews definitions of the concept of cultural pluralism. Suggests criteria for defining and measuring the concept and develops a typology of cultural pluralism suitable for makinq comparative analyses. Relates types of pluralism thus identified to variations in ethnic political activity, with emphasis on Canada. (Author/MJL)

Defines urban societies as including not only town and cities, but also rural, mining, fishing, and other sectors. Discusses the medieval and capitalist European social orders, arguing that rural laborers are always "socially urbanized" such that locational behaviors appropriate to the interests of the society's dominant classes are induced.…

Presents a multivariate model for explaining cross-cultural variation in sexual stratification as implied in Collins's theory. Tested the model with subsample of societies (N=74) from the standard cross-cultural sample. Results were inconsistent with Collins's theory. Kinship and family variables were better predictors than economic and political…

Considers 10 features of Japanese educational system which have produced egalitarian educational outcomes and the relation between these egalitarian educational outcomes and egalitarian changes in the structure of adult society. Major shift in national directions and emergence of determined and idealistic teachers are key factors. Makes…

Provides a macrohistorical, conflict perspective on students' resistance to schooling in contemporary America. Proposes that adolescence is not a universal stage of life, but a social category produced only in industrial societies; resistance to schooling thus represents the most recent stage in the struggle between age strata over social goods.…