Acta Sociologica

After a study by G. Therborn, the Swedish social structure has often been considered rather stable during recent decades. The aim of the present study is to shake this assertion by examining the main changes that took place between 1960 and 1975. As a preparatory step, the developmental trends of the three comprehensive sectors of the economy are followed from 1870 to 1977. Thereafter the economically active population is clas sified into five main occupational categories, and the development of these categories is examined from 1960 to 1975 on the basis of detailed figures from four consecutive population censuses. The ostensible stability of the manual category between 1930 and about 1960 turns out to be caused by a superposition of the contrasting developmental trends of two main sub categories, namely the industrial workers proper and the employed ag rarian labourers. On the theoretical level an assertion is made according to which both the industrial sector of the economy and the manual occupa tional category, and also their common main constituting component- the group of industrial workers proper- are all determined in their relative size by the main mobility processes during the extensive and intensive periods of industrialization. Their seeming 'stability' can be but a temporary dynamic balance, and the general trend of change can always be described by some kind of convex diagram. In present-day Sweden the relative size of the manual occupational category is on the second, descending slope of its diagram of change, in accordance with the advanced industrial stage of socio-economic development. Finally, some predictions are made about the long-term future prospects regarding the relative proportions of the three comprehensive sectors of the economy.

This article considers the problem of the formation of young people's value orientations towards the main spheres of life activities. Every sphere of life has objectively, independently of a person's intentions, some im portance in an individual's life in any society. Work is evaluated among other spheres of activity by members of society on the ground of its objective significance in the way of life peculiar to the society concerned. To measure the orientation towards work most broadly is to investigate the evaluation of work in correlation with other spheres of life activities. This concept has been applied in this article presenting the results of an empirical research carried out among young people in the Estonian SSR. The author used data from nine empirical surveys covering more than 14 000 respondents. The analysis shows that getting familiar with work in the practical process of production is most important in moulding an orientation towards work. The factoral analysis reveals the role work plays in a broader orientation towards social activity in all the main stages of a young person's self-determination. This orientation towards social activity, however, can be regarded as a synthetic framework in which an even broader sphere of social values participates.

The following are discussed: (1) The promissory status of the concept of interest in Marxist social science. (2) We argue that the problematic status of interest arises in part from an attempt to combine theory and practice, which are considered two domains of discourses with distinct justificatory programs pertaining to each. (3) We discuss two contemporary Marxist attempts to overcome some difficulties inherent in the promissory aims of such a social science, and show the shortcomings of each to mediate the actual with the potential, theory and practice.