sociology: a biographical approach.by peter l. berger; brigitte berger

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Sociology: A Biographical Approach. by Peter L. Berger; Brigitte Berger Review by: Joseph E. Faulkner Social Forces, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Mar., 1973), pp. 394-395 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2577173 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 10:40 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.129 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 10:40:01 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Sociology: A Biographical Approach.by Peter L. Berger; Brigitte Berger

Sociology: A Biographical Approach. by Peter L. Berger; Brigitte BergerReview by: Joseph E. FaulknerSocial Forces, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Mar., 1973), pp. 394-395Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2577173 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 10:40

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.129 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 10:40:01 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Sociology: A Biographical Approach.by Peter L. Berger; Brigitte Berger

394 / SOCIAL FORCES / vol. 51, march 1973

lack of knowledge about organizational variables and how they might be measured results in few discernible hypotheses.

The book has, however, some interesting in- sights about the problems of working in the ghettos and therefore might be of great value in courses on racial minorities. Naturally those who work in rehabilitation will find the book of value since its greatest strength is its concrete discussion of how each of the demonstration projects oper- ated.

THE SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY PROGRAM: AN

EVALUATION STUDY. By Richard T. Smith and Abraham M. Lilienfield. Research Report No. 39. Washington: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Social Security Ad- ministration, 1971. 204 pp. $1.25.

Reviewer: FRANK A. SANTOPOLO, University of Kentucky

This book reports on a pilot evaluation of as- pects of the Social Security Administration's dis- ability insurance program undertaken by epide- miologists at Johns Hopkins. The primary purpose was to evaluate the Bureau of Disability Insurance disability evaluation as a set of medical stan- dards and non-medical evaluation guides. One could say this was an evaluation of an evaluation.

The researchers compared the post-disability ex- periences of 735 Baltimore residents who were denied disability payments with 829 who received them. Variables treated in the study were socio- economic and occupational status, survival rate, life expectancy, and physical health status. Data were obtained from SSA records, interviews, and physical examinations.

The basic conclusion was that, from the stand- point of the program objective, the disability evaluation process is effective in differentiating the severely disabled from the less-severely dis- abled in the applicant population. It was found that the payment recipients had a shorter life ex- pectancy, were in poorer health, and more re- stricted in movement. Those denied payments were more likely to return to work, but tended to de- cline in socioeconomic status. Their disability also tended to become more severe over time-23 per- cent of them becoming severe enough to qualify for allowances.

In this short review one cannot do justice to this excellent report. If one agrees with Suchman that evaluation research is the "use of the scien- tific method for collecting data concerning the degree to which some specified activity achieves some desired effect" and also with Hyman and Wright that evaluation is based on "methods that yield evidence that is objective, systematic, and comprehensive," this study is, indeed, an evalua- tion study and one of very high quality. It is an

excellent example of how the experimental design can be adapted for evaluation studies. The fact that the study is also meticulously reported would permit its research design to be replicated in future studies of similar nature. For example, out of a total of 297 pages, only 93 are allotted to the text. The remaining 204 pages include the basic data tables, the survey instruments, the identification of the study team. Thus, this book is highly recommended for those interested in the general areas of social and medical rehabilitation and/or the specific areas of applied or evaluation research.

The Discipline

SOCIOLOGY: A BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH. By Peter L. Berger and Brigitte Berger. New York: Basic Books, 1972. 372 pp. $7.95.

Reviewer: JOSEPH E. FAULKNER, Pennsylvania State University

The frustration felt upon reading an introduc- tory sociology text can be expressed in several forms. One, quite common, is: "Ho-hum, we've heard all this before-and, in a much better and more erudite fashion." Another less common re- sponse is: "Hum, while we've heard this before the present arrangement and treatment of stan- dard fare comes close (though not close enough) to justifying the publication of yet another intro- ductory text. Seldom, however, does one put down an introductory text with the feeling that the author has unduly, and unfortunately, constricted his presentation of material to the point where the reader actually wishes that more had been presented in a similar fashion. This may well be the reader's reaction to the Bergers' book.

The Bergers introduce the student to sociology by arranging material so "far as possible, in a sequence that corresponds to the stages of social experience in the biography of individuals." Thus, beginning with the individual's introduction to society (birth and consequent socialization) the material proceeds through the family, the strati- fied community, youth, the world of work, and finally old age, illness, and dying. Such an ar- rangement, as the authors note, cannot hold throughout a text, of course, which also presents material dealing with deviance, power, or a post- script on "Why Sociology?" Nevertheless, they have tried to "consistently relate the analysis of large institutional structures to the concrete, every- day experiences of individuals as they live their lives in society." And, basically, they succeed. (Although, as in Chapter 6 on The Community, it is somewhat difficult to use the research of the ecologists of the Chicago School as an illustra-

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Page 3: Sociology: A Biographical Approach.by Peter L. Berger; Brigitte Berger

Book Reviews / 395

tion of the "humanistic" point of view in the discipline.)

It is not so much what they have done as what they could have done that leaves one with a sense of frustration and some disappointment. There is some standard fare here: chapters on socializa- tion, the meaning of institutions (a unique ap- proach), the family, the community, the stratifica- tion system, etc. But all this material is presented from a freely acknowledged "humanistic" point of view, under the strong influence of phenomenologi- cal sociology as seen especially in the work of Alfred Schutz. Herein lies the strength of the book. One may not agree with this perspective. But one should not ignore what the Bergers are setting forth in very lucid fashion.

Indeed, one wishes that even more analytical treatment had been given to many of the topics introduced in this book and not often found in other introductory texts. There is, for example, a good but abortive (3?14 pages) discussion of Goffman and Becker's "labeling theory" of de- viance. Three pages are devoted to Marx, Pareto, and Sorokin on the relationships of norms and interests. (The book is set in what appears to be about 12-point type on a 16-point base-and thus a "page" is something like 300 words.) Some more traditional topics such as "Life-Style: Differences Between Classes" receive less than one page of discussion. The authors make very clear, at the end of each chapter, that they hope students (with prodding from the instructor) will pursue in more depth the problems and issues raised in the preceding pages. They themselves, however, note that thinking is a "terrible form of activity," which "most people only have recourse to... when they have to." And since the book stresses the experiences of the individual as he goes through his life-cycle in society surely the Bergers know that undergraduate students will read a textbook-if they are to be tested on it. But it is not a part of their experience to "choose... further readings that will help clarify . . ." (italics added). The student who will follow up the foot- notes appearing in this text will find new vistas opened to him: Luckmann, Zijderveld, Gehlen, Schelsky, Habermas, or Caillois. But realism forces itself into the picture here. Those who have taught the introductory course know that few students read footnotes, much less follow up such references. Thus, an integration in the body of the text of more of the footnote material would introduce the student to a more comprehensive coverage of the sociological emphasis so carefully researched by the Bergers. Certainly, many teach- ing in the introductory area would welcome an expanded, perhaps paperback, version of the ma- terial presented here to accompany whatever per- spective they present in the classroom.

MEDICAL MEN AND THEIR WORK: A SOCIOLOGICAL

READER. Edited by Eliot Friedson and Judith

Lorber. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1972. 482 pp. Cloth, $15.00; paper, $5.95.

Reviewer: LUTHER CHRISTMAN, Vanderbilt Uni- versity

Another useful volume has been added to the rapidly growing literature of medical sociology. This book of readings is organized around five relevant subsections. Each general area is pre- ceded by a brief but clear and precise introduc- tion giving the reader an insight into the editors' reasons for choosing the selections that make up each subsection.

The section on Defining and Diagnosing Illness is of superior quality. The articles that comprise this section should enable students to envision the many possibilities of further sociological research in the areas opened up by this group of readings. The section on Medical Men in Practice is almost equally excellent. These two sections contain read- ings that contribute immensely to a basic text in medical sociology. The sections on Medical Men as Professionals and Managing Patients, in con- trast, do not arouse the same sociological in- terests. In a social climate of increasing concern for patient and client welfare, it is unfortunate that this latter section is weak and unstimulating.

The section on Producing Medical Knowledge has several important papers. These represent an unusually deft way of treating these matters from the standpoint of sociological thought and analysis.

The volume suffers the usual fate of most books of readings-that of uneveness of quality and gen- eral worth. Despite this hazard that must be faced by all who attempt to compile such a Reader, the volume merits consideration by behavioral scien- tists interested in this subspeciality.

DEVIANCE, REALITY, AND CHANGE. By H. Taylor Buckner. New York: Random House, 1971. 430 pp. $9.00.

Reviewer: ROBERT SHERWIN, Miami University

This text-reader not only promises to provide a new approach for dealing with deviance but actually keeps it. A basic perspective for viewing deviance, developed in the first few chapters, is maintained throughout the rest of the book, and is again presented in summary form in the last of fourteen chapters.

As interpreted by Professor Buckner, deviance involves departure from normative expectations, regardless of whether these norms have been transformed into laws. With such a viewpoint be- ing employed, the reader learns more about such things as flying saucerians, stutterers, "hip" be- havior, and married female virgins than he does about murderers, rapists, robbers, and the like.

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