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Explanatory Practice In Family Studies, Jetse Sprey

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

The article makes a case for a more flexible and realistic explanatory practice in the family field. The conventional linkage between the worth of an explanatory statement and its predictive power, for, example, reflects cultural assumptions as much as it does rational thought. In one's culture, knowledge implies power so that prediction allows for control of the present and the foreseeable future. The sense making of, any specific descriptive piece of work depends on its focus. For example, how well does it allow noise to be separated from relevant information? How, far do its data reach into the future? To …

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System, Society And Dominance Effects In Cross-National Organizational Analysis, Chris Smith, Peter F. Meiksins

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

Current cross-national organisational theory remains tied to stark polarisation between convergence and divergence, universal and relative, frames of analysis. Attempts at synthesis between these forces allow for, but do not always explain, why the organisation of work should be constantly pressured to conform to one particular `best practice'. Our approach examines three sources of external influence on work organisation practices: (i) the economic mode of production; (ii) national legacies and institutional patterns; and (iii) `best practice' or universal modernisation strategies generated and diffused by the `society-in-dominance' within the global economy at a particular period of time. In other words, the …

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