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    Modes of thought and social control : theories of knowledge in the context of social action: a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1979) McDowell, Gill A
    In studying man Rousseau was concerned with two complementary tasks. 1 On the one hand, he was engaged in a journey to the centre of the species in order to understand the "natural" pre- civilized man as a human possibility. He situated that possibility in pre-history and viewed certain realities in modern civilization as a threat to its own perpetuation. On the other hand, he was engaged in a journey to the centre of his own civilized being. The first task was historical, the second personal. In The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology Gouldner argues that future sociological studies should in part focus on field­-workers-cum-theorists, in order to be more aware of themselves as a part of society instead of pretending to objectivity. The social world is to be known not only by looking outward, but also by opening oneself inwardly.2 Anthropological activity is not just scientific: it is also expressive or symptomatic of a pre­ supposed world view of which it is itself an integral part. The anthropologist in field work is involved in "double translation".3 While his impulse to understand the largely unexperienced, but imagined, possibilities of himself as a civilized person proceeds, he is caught, so to speak, in the web of an alien understanding; and their resulting attitude towards him shapes the object of his experience. In short, the anthropologist embodies an attitude that changes and conditions human beings, and this in turn generates a response modifying his own behaviour. Not only are they objects who become subjects to the field-worker's view but these subjects view him as an object, to which they either give positive assent, or avoid supporting his endeavour. Responses are recorded according to personal circumstances and are incorporated in the construction of models. He can assume a logical and historical complementarity between himself, as a prototypical modern man, and the subjects with whom he is concerned. [FROM INTRODUCTION]
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    Work patterns in research organisations : a case study of some social aspects of scientific knowledge development : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1980) Hes, Richard Lubomir
    This thesis involved an investigation of some social aspects of scientific knowledge development. In particular, it focused on the "work patterns" of problem solvers and the "effects" research organisations have on them. The proposed theories were tested in one government research organisation. The "work patterns" of problem solvers were defined in terms of three stages of work (the Work Programme Development, the Idea Generation of specific projects, and the Problem Solving of these specific projects). It was hypothesised and substantiated, using the log-linear modelling technique, that each stage of work is associated with a distinctive pattern of communication, conceptualised in terms of six dimensions (sources of information, types of information, circumstances and modes of information transfer, and the effects of the information). It was shown that the Work Programme Development occurs in response to information, passively received, from external sources during formal circumstances. Ideas for specific projects are generated on the basis of scientific information acquired from journals. In solving specific projects, problem solvers actively consult internal sources, in informal circumstances. The "effects" of organisations on the work patterns of problem solvers were considered by investigating the effects of (a) three organisational properties (analytic, structural, and global) on internal flows of communication, and (b) those environmental properties on external patterns of communication which could have been investigated in a case study situation. Hypotheses were derived from the resource dependence theory of organisations which was proposed by Pfeffer and Salancik (1978). The investigation of the effects of the research organisation on the internal flows of communication used locally optimal tests and showed that all three properties of organisations influence the formation of these communications. Internal communications occurred mainly within structural and global constraints, and among people who had similar attributes (analytic properties). Some evidence was found that close physical proximity, which had a strong influence on internal communication, could be overcome by colleague networks, which formed among people with similar analytic properties (autonomy, work related orientations and socially recognised work competence). Informal networks also played an important role in the formation of colleague networks. The investigations of the effects of the research organisation on the patterns of external communication indicated that the vast majority of information which was received from external sources came from other research organisations, and the amount declined with increasing distance from the focal organisation. The very limited communication with the client communities was not geographically constrained. Implications for research administrators were discussed. Consistent with attitudes of the respondents toward the roles of research administrators, the findings of this study suggest that the most important role of research administrators should be in facilitating communication, contacts, and the provision of resources.
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    The influence of context : social movements, knowledge, and social change : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1999) Denton, J. A. Margaret
    Sociological approaches to social movements are discussed. I argue that the unintended consequences of social movement activity tend to be ignored. Social movement activity often exacerbates existing social divisions, and how this happens is not explained. I argue that this exacerbation is a consequence of divergent understandings, where it is not simply the case that one side of the conflict is 'right' and another 'wrong'. I examine debates in quantum physics, feminist epistemology, the sociology of scientific knowledge and ecocentric sociology for insights into how such differences in understandings arise. I find four different ways in which knowledge is shaped: through our ongoing socialisation, through the particular experiences that we draw on (observe) to form that knowledge, through physiological processes, and through being shaped for an end use. To take the influence of these contexts into account we need to maintain a distinction between reality and preterreality, and between noumena and phenomena. I argue for an evolutionary approach to understanding the ongoing mutual influence between our experiences and our understandings. I draw on Durkheim's theorisation of the emergence of understandings from social categories and recent work in the sociology of emotions to develop an understanding of the ongoing processes of mutual inherence that constitutes our identity in relationship to our social experience. I argue that the social does not exist as noumena; yet our understandings usually assume that it does. The social exists in the phenomena we experience, and is increasingly stabilised by socialised noumena as our shared understandings diverge. Social movements enable understandings to emerge from the social experience of the movement; but people outside the movement do not share that experience. Any understanding is not readily grasped by people who have not had congruent social experiences. Being exposed to social movement understandings will then mean that the ideas and experiences that were not congruent will be revisited and so reinforced. When social movement insights are enforced through regulative fiat the social situation can diverge further by introducing new forms of closure. I examine some ways in which this has occurred in public sector reforms in New Zealand. I suggest a way in which social movements can act to avoid this, by developing social movement sacraments that align processes of mutual inherence with social movement objectives.