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Sage Publications, Inc. and American Sociological Association Are Collaborating With JSTOR To Digitize, Preserve and Extend Contemporary Sociology
Sage Publications, Inc. and American Sociological Association Are Collaborating With JSTOR To Digitize, Preserve and Extend Contemporary Sociology
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REVIEWS 401
detachmentand human care. Whethermedi- ical efforts.The empirical areas covered are
cal school teachers can counterthe retreatto as diverse as the scholarly specialties: India
indifferencewith an effectivereminderof the and South Korea, eighteenth-century Naples,
pastoral obligationsof being a physicianmay the Islamic world, the Soviet Union, the
finallybe more importantfor the profession Mafia in southernItaly, Ghana, and French
thanany workingout of the dismal science of engineeringfirmsin the Lyons area.
resource allocation. The editor, who is described on the jacket
as having an interestin "the theoryand the
empirical analysis of individual decision
mechanisms," tells us that he organized the
seminar and chose its members to help him
understand his present interest, the persis-
Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative tence of the Mafia in southernItaly and the
Relations, edited by Diego Gambetta. Ox- resultinglack of the kind of cooperation and
ford: Basil Blackwell, 1988. 246 pp. $38.95 trustnecessaryforsuccessfuleconomic devel-
cloth. $17.95 paper. ISBN: 0-631-17587-3. opment. Both his past and present interests
seem to have determined the kinds of
colleagues Gambetta asked to help him.
BERNARD BARBER Despite a sociological analysis by Luhmann,
Columbia University theessays show a predominanceof economic,
individualistic, logical, and psychological
"Trust" is one of those social phenomenathat theory.As a result,thereis a heavy emphasis
we all have some commonsenseapprehension on such concepts, terms,and notionsas game
of but thatare stillbadly in need of theoretical theory,decision theory,probabilisticexpecta-
specificationand systematicempirical study tions, uncertainty, risk, rationality,and inter-
guided by such theory. Although trust is ests. The preferencefor economic analysis is
discussed in social science at least as farback further revealed in the assertionthattrustis to
as Hobbes, though only briefly,it has not be thoughtof as a scarce resource and in the
been a main focus of any kind of systematic attentionpaid primarilyto cooperation and
sociological work. Strikingly,none of the trust in business and economic contexts.
modem "classical" theorists-Marx, Weber, There is no mentionof the familyor much of
Simmel, Durkheim, Parsons-has given it political and social institutions. Although
any direct or intensive treatment.Recently, several authorsmodestlystatetheirawareness
however, there has been a stirringof such of the limitsof theiranalyses and express the
sociological attention,primarilytheoreticalin feeling that something is missing, they are
the case of Niklas Luhmann (1979) and still bound by their theoretical preconcep-
theoretical and empirical in the cases of tions. ApartfromLuhmann's good effort,the
Garfinkel(1963) and Barber (1983). sociological approach is not much in evi-
Now comes another volume directly and dence. (And pace Luhmann [p. 95], I too am
systematicallyconcernedwithtrust.Edited by a functionaliston trust. How could I be
Diego Gambetta, of King's College, Cam- anythingelse?)
bridge, it consists of essays by an exception- A sociologist would have told Gambetta
ally able interdisciplinaryset of authors that he needs to pay more attention to
chosen by the editor to participate in a institutionsthan to individuals in his concern
continuingseminar at King's College and to for retarded economic development. The
preparepapers. The editorchose mainlyfrom sociologist would have said somethingabout
among his immediate colleagues: nine are established and crescive moral rules. He
fromCambridgeUniversity,but two are from would have pointed to the necessary interac-
theUnited States and Niklas Luhmannis from tion between trustand other control mecha-
Germany. The authors come from such nisms such as law, auditing,and monitoring.
differentfieldsas philosophy,ethology,social He would not have disdained the significance
psychology,economics, political theory,soci- of individual interests,but he would have
ology, history,and social anthropology.Their shown how theyare structuredto a consider-
essays are oftenmixed theoreticaland empir- able extent by the environing institutional
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402 REVIEWS
norms. He mighthave spoken of what I have address) which, in a historicaltour de force,
called "rationaldistrust"and suggestedthatit tracesthe impactof ecological conditionsand
is importantto know not just about expecta- subsistencetechnologieson gender stratifica-
tions in general but about expectations for tion in preindustrialsocieties, and the impact
technicallycompetentperformanceand fidu- of such macro forces as mass education,
ciary responsibility. In general, he would economic growth,and artificialfeedingtech-
have said, "Too much rationalchoice theory, niques on gender stratificationin industrial
not enough social systemtheory." societies. Alan Kerckhoff'sessay argues that
Sociologists who want to be stimulatedand schools definitelyincrease prior inequalities
challenged by this able but limited set of in academic performance,and perhaps in-
essays on trust will find this book worth crease social class inequalities, when prior
reading. We have not said the last word academic inequalities are controlled for.
ourselves and confrontingthe limitationsof Barbara Reskin (drawingon researchwithPat
othersmay help us to do better. Roos) documentsthe fourteenformerlymale
occupations into which women in the 1970s
made dramatic inroads and sketches an
Macro-Micro Linkages in Sociology, edited explanation for why inroads were made into
by Joan Huber. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, these rather than other occupations. Sara
1991. 298 pp. $49.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-8039- McLanahan stresses the relation between
4103-X. $24.00 paper. ISBN: 0-8039- women's increased personal income and their
4104-8. decreased willingness to remain marriedand
thendiscusses how children's interestscan be
DAVID HALLE protected in this new situation. Timothy
SUNY, StonyBrook and Universityof Califor- Smeeding argues that many of the feared
nia, Los Angeles economic and demographic consequences of
aging societies will not materialize,since the
This book consists of seventeenessays, each elderly in the twenty-firstcentury United
by a differentauthor, plus commentariesby States are likely to be healthierand wealthier
two more authors.All the pieces are based on than today's elderly (however, Smeeding
papers given at plenary or thematicsessions foresees problems if the education system is
of the 1989 ASA meetings. All are interest- not improved). William Wilson gives a
ing, and many are outstanding. Since the synopsis of his argument in The Truly
topic of "macro-micro" linkages is of such Disadvantaged. Marta Tienda provides an
centralinterestto the discipline, it is hard to excellent discussion of the kind of evidence
imagine any sociologist who will not find requiredto validate Wilson's thesis about the
rewardingmaterialhere. existence of neighborhoodeffectson poverty
I have grouped these papers by how much outcomes.
they prefer (or at least use) collective and The next group of papers is concerned to
large-scale forces in theirexplanationsrather show how links can be made between macro
than individuals or small groups. (This is and micro levels. William Mason discusses
differentfrom Huber's grouping.) At one the ability of the multilevel perspective to
extreme is Randall Collins, who argues that answer many of the criticisms aimed by
changes in gender stratificationare almost people such as Charles Tilly and David
always driven by macrolevel forces such as Freedman against aspects of quantitative
the level of political mobilization, because research. Craig Calhoun contributesto our
"empirical micro research overwhelmingly understandingof social movementsby argu-
documents the conservatism of face-to-face ing that many of the studentsin Tiananmen
interaction"(p. 111). Square took the riskstheydid neitherbecause
Next comes a group of papers that of instrumentalnor because of irrational
document the effects of macro forces on motives (at least as these terms are usually
micro situations(withoutnecessarilygoing so understood)but because not to do so would
far as to insist that the main direction of have imperiled their sense of self. Paul
causation is always macro to micro). In this DiMaggio argues very interestinglythat a
group is Huber's paper (her presidential particularkind of role theory (that stresses
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