Alfred Schutz's reconstruction of Max Weber's methodology is examined from two points of view: Schutz's decade-long affiliation with the Austrian school of economics and his project for the unification of the social sciences. Biographical and textual evidence shows that Schutz's methodological goals for his first book, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (published in 1932), wereshaped by the epistemological debates within the Austrian school of economics, rather than some abstract and unmotivated attempt to "synthesize" Weber and Hussl. Schutz modified Weber's concepts of Verstehen and the ideal type to meet Austrian objections, and revised them further to comply with canons of reliability adopted from the logical empiricist theory of science, with which he was familiar through his friend Felix Kaufmann. The essay concludes with a depiction of Schutz's little-known program for the unification of the social sciences, whose origin can be traced to the same intelectual context.

One of the most basic characteristics of a community's social structure is the proportion of its residents who are acquainted with one another-in the terminology of this paper, the community's "density of acquaintanceship." Although versions of this variable have been discussed for at least three-quarters of a century, quantitative studies have found little evidence that it has any significant consequences for psychosocial adjustment. Using a different focus, however, may lead to different conclusions. Drawing from a study of rapid community growth, this paper reports that a marked decline in the density of acquaintanceship did in fact lead to significant consequences-but that the effects were strongest in areas other than psychological functioning. Changes were particularly evident in control of deviance, socialization of the young, and care for the community's weaker members. psychosocial impacts, by contrast, were lessened by the continuing vitality of intimate social supports. The paper concludes that the density of acquaintanceship variable warrants systematic but refocused investigation in the future.

This article proposes and argues for the importance of a distinction between "low-" and "high-risk/cost activism" and outlines a model or recruitment to the latter. The model emphasizes the importance of both structural and individual motivational factors in high-risk/cost activism; contending that an intense ideological identification with the values of the movement disposes the individual toward participation, while a prior history of activism and integration into supportive networks acts as the structural "pull" encouraging the individual to make good on his or her strongly held beliefs. The utility of the model is then analyzed in relation to a single instance of high-risk/cost activism: the 1964 Freedom Summer project. Data from project applications for 720 persons who actually went to Mississippi, as well as from 241 "no shows," are used to explain the applicants' chances of participation in terms of various factors. The results of this analysis generally confirm the importance of microstructural factors in recruitment to the campaign. Participants were distinguished from withdrawals primarily on the basis of their (a) greater number of organizational affiliations, (b) higher levels of prior civil rights activity, and (c) stronger and more extensive ties to other participants.

Among the many transitions young people make as they enter adult-hood, marriage is perhaps the most important. This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to examine the transition to marriage and how it differs by sex, testing the extent of variation in the desirability of marriage for men and women, and the effects of marriage market factors and marital and nonmarital roles. The design of the analysis allows the effects of these factors to vary over the young adult years. The pattern of findings suggests that recent declines in the marriage rate have not resulted from increased barriers to marriage but from declines in relative preferences for marriage.

Recent work in conversation analysis suggests that audience responses to political speeches are strongly influenced by the rhetorical construction of political messages. This paper shows that seven basic rhetorical formats were associated with nearly 70% of the applause produced in response to 476 political speeches to British party political conferences in 1981. The relationship between rhetoric and response is broadly independent of political party, the political status of th speaker, and the popularity of the message. Performance factors are found to influence the likelihood of audience response strongly.