Social Structure And Self–direction: Comparative Analysis of the United States and Poland - Hardcover

KOHN

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1557860181 ISBN 13: 9781557860187

Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell, 1990

Synopsis

This book presents the results of a major research project on the relationship between social structures and personal values in both capitalist and socialist societies. Based on an array of original empirical work, and using new and sophisticated cross-national methodologies, it gives a comparative interpretation of the links between social class and social stratification, working conditions, and personality in the US and Poland. The author's earlier work "Class and Conformity" is regarded by some as a classic in the field, providing an exploration of the casual connection between social stratification and values in terms of the close relationship between social stratification and the conditions of work that facilitate occupational self-direction. This new work goes far beyond this, integrating an entire corpus of research and interpretation into a generalized model of the social structure and personality relationship in industrialized societies, demonstrating the key role of social class, and developing an innovative method for cross-rational comparative inquiry. The work is intended for students and teachers of sociology, social psychology, political science, social structure, social stratification, class, work, personality, sociological methodology and theory.

About this title

Review

"Fascinating and important book." Social Forces

"An important addition to the literature ... must reading for students of stratification and cross–national comparative research." Choice

"It is not often that one scientific discipline makes an original contribution to another. In this volume, representing the culmination of more than two decades of creative thinking and painstaking research, Melvin Kohn – together with his Polish colleagues, Kazimierz Slomczynski – have accomplished nothing less." Urie Bronfenbrenner, Contemporary Psychology

"As a sociologist, read [this book] (and give it to your graduate students) as one that exemplifies the best in asking a core sociological question, formulating theory, devising appropriately sophisticated methodology and data analysis, working longitudinally and cross–culturally, learning much on different conceptual levels and being self–critical." Aaron Antonovsky, Social Forces

About the Author

Melvin L. Kohn is Professor of Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University.

Kazimierz M. Slomczynski is Professor of Sociology at the Ohio State University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557860181
• ISBN 13: 9781557860187
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256