Contenu du sommaire

Hans Zeisel : The Vienna School of motivation research. During the years between the world wars, a group of young scholars and students, under the unique intellectual ferment of these Vienna years (Bühler, Freud and Adler ; the socialist concern with new modes of life ; the Vienna Circle of philosophers ; the example of American research), founded the first European institute for social-psychological research. Out of it grew Marienthal, the first study of un-employment, and a number of methodological advances in motivation research.

Klaus Liepelt : Draft for a typology of German and Austrian electors. Constructing a typology of German and Austrian electors taking into account 32 socio-economical and cultural variables. For Germany the analysis is based on 12676 answers obtained during several surveys conducted by the Institut fur angewandte Sozialwissenschaft. For Austria, the sample is of 4704 persons. The results are given in the form of profiles and illustrated by two significant graphs.

Vladimir Choubkine : Choosing a profession. The choice of a profession by secondary or superior school graduates gives rise to a series of social and economic problems. The correct resolution of these problems, at the proper time, reduces the possibility of errors and the disappointments which may compromise young people's start in life. Thanks to a correct choice, antisocial phenomenons are avoided, professional instability and migration are reduced and the selection and training of « cadres » is improved. To find these solutions, the author studies the results of inquiries carried out between 1962 and 1966, under his direction by the sociological work group of the economico-mathematic research laboratory of the Novosibirsk State University. These inquiries and subsequent studies bear on the attraction of the different professions, on professional and geographical mobility, on the efficiency of professional training and its conformity with the need for « cadres » in the national economy, persistance of professional projects, social regrouping, as well as on a series of methodological problems arising from the treatment of a great mass of information.

Guy Michelat, Jean-Pierre Thomas : Contribution to the study of recruitment for naval officers schools. An examination of empirical data collected from student officers of the French Navy has led the authors to define the concept of « traditional family » on the basis of the following indicators : father's profession, size of the family of origin, status (public or private) of the schools attended. The combination of these three variables gives a typology of eight types. The type corresponding to the « traditional family » is constituted by student officers whose father is either a military career man, or of a high socio-economic status, belonging to a family of at least four children, and who has attended private schools. This type would furnish the main recruitment for the Ecole Navale which forms deck-officers. At the other extreme, the type constituting a sort of « negative » of the traditional family seems to provide an important proportion of the recruits for the school of mechanical engineers. Traditional recruitment appears to have increased between 1945 and 1960, officer and engineer graduates seem to have rather « military » motivations, whereas the opposite type of students would rather have technical motivations.

Haroun Jamous : Elements for a sociological theory of political decisions. In this article, the author tries to set the basis of an analytical framework to guide practical research and lead the way to a sociological theory of political decisions. The essential propositions would make possible to forteli the starting point of a decision, its form and its content, on the basis of the values taken by four main variables or « socio-historical conditions » : the state of a social system, the alternative, the type of exigency on which it is founded, the state of political power. The major part of the article analyses the relations linking these four variables and the type of decision these relations may provoke.