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Industrial Sociology in Africa: Foundations and Prospects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Willie Smith
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Extract

How sensibly can one talk of industrial sociology in a non-industrial continent? Industrial sociology has been called the ‘special’ sociology whose task should be to carry through scientifically the analyses of the social relationships and interactions present within the industrial organisation in all its theoretical depth and breadth.1 Raif Dahrendorf, for instance, in Industrie und Betriebssoziologie (Berlin, 1962), whilst accepting industrial sociology as one of the ‘special’ sociologies, makes the reservation that it is concerned with the industrial society. But since the whole process of industrialisation was a historical one, the limitation of industrial sociology to any specific period must be an open question, especially since every kind of society requires the production of goods and services through industrial organisation. Elsewhere I have questioned the premises and validity of Dahrendorf's assertion;2 but it must be admitted that in its present form this special sociology has little or no meaning for the pre-industrial societies largely because they have not yet been exposed to it as a scientific tool. Nevertheless, sociological researches in pre-industrial societies can demonstrate the operational use of industrial sociological categories, such as performance efficiency and incentives, managerial techniques, industrial commitment, and the effect of industrial work on personality, as will be shown below by surveying the work of C. H. Northcott, W. Elkan, and Y. Glass in pre-industrial societies of Africa.

Type
Review Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , May 1968 , pp. 81 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

Page 81 note 1 See Scheisky, Helmut, Auf der Suche nach Wirklichkeit: Gesainmelte Aufsätatze (Köln-Düsseldosf, 1965), p. 61.Google Scholar

Page 81 note 2 See Smith, Willie, Industrie und BetrIebssoziologische Kategorien in tier afrikanischen Soziologie (Münster, 1966, dissertation), pp. 3–9.Google Scholar

Page 82 note 1 See Roethlisberger, F. J. and Dickson, W. J., Management and the Worker (Cambridge, Mass., 1939).Google Scholar

Page 82 note 2 This is, however, a moot point if one takes into consideration the early empirical study Weber, Max, ‘Zur Psychophysik der industriellen Arbeit’, in Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Soziologie wulsozialpolitik (Tubingen, 1924),Google Scholar which was followed by the theoretical analysis of industrial organisation by G. Briefs in 1931; see his ‘Betriebssoziologie’, in A. Vierkandt (ed.), HandwJrterbuch dir Soziotogie (Stuttgart, 1959).Google Scholar

Page 84 note 1 Friedmann, Georges, ‘The Social Consequences of Technical Progress’, in International Social Science Bulletin (Paris), IV, 2, 1952, pp. 255–6.Google Scholar

Page 84 note 2 S. Herbert Frankel, ‘Some Conceptual Aspects of Technical Change’, ibid. p. 263.

Page 85 note 1 See also Lewin, Kurt, Field Theory in Social Science (New York, 1964).Google Scholar

Page 88 note 1 Lammers, C. J., ‘Midshipmen and Candidate Reserve Officers at the Royal Netherlands Navy College,’ in Sociologia Neerlandica (Assen), 11, 2, 1966.Google Scholar For reference group theory, see Merton, R. K., Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe, 1964).Google Scholar

Page 89 note 1 Betriebsklima, Eine inustrie-soziologische Untersuchung im Mannesmanu-Bereich (Institut für Sozialforschung, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1955).Google Scholar

Page 92 note 1 An example is Mitchell, J. Clyde, ‘The Cause of Labour Migration,’ in International Labour Institute Bulletin (London), VI, 1959.Google Scholar

Page 92 note 2 See Viteles, op. cit. and Lewin, op. cit.

Page 93 note 1 See Elkan, op. cit.; Balandier, Georges, ‘The Problems of the African Worker in Gabon and the Congo,’ in The International Social Science Bulletin VI, 3, 1954;Google Scholar and Gussman, Boris, ‘Industrial Efficiency and the Urban African,’ in Afrisz (London), XXIII, 1953.Google Scholar

Page 94 note 1 See his ‘Contribution a l'étude sociométrique des travailleurs africains’, in Cahiers economiques et sociaux (Kinshasa), IV, 1, 03 1966.Google Scholar

Page 95 note 1 The Social Research Centre of the University of Munster, for instance, was initially set up for the investigation of industrial sociological problems in the post-war Ruhrgebiet. Its later history shows a diversification of its original aims to permit the various departments within it to specialise on research in the other special sociologies. Researches have often been initiated by heads of departments within the Centre, but the study of particular problems has quite often been started at the request of non-academic bodies from the various sectors of the economy.