Detectives Stories and City Life

Detective stories take place mainly in two settings, constantly changing, many faceted big cities filled with strangers, and stable, fairly homogeneous, innocent small towns whose members know one another. The differences in each clarify the qualities of the other. In solving the mystery of the small town, the detective provides moral instruction and restores the town’s innocence. In solving the mystery in the big city the detective reveals the city as part of the mystery and provides the reader with temporary orientation to the city. Mysteries have grown with the growth of the cities and now appear in every country of the world. Harold J. Bershady is an emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book, edited with Renée Fox and Victor Lidz, is After Parson: A Theory of Action for the 21st Century, published by Russell Sage Press, 2005.     

“熟人”与“陌生人”的人际关系比较

从农业社会向工业社会的过渡,伴随着从熟人社会向陌生人社会的转变。熟人社会的人际关系是一种建立在亲缘、地缘基础上的自由的稀薄的人际关系,以习俗型信任为特征。工业社会的人际关系是建立在契约的基础上以及受到契约、物和物化了的社会设置所中介了的间断式人际关系,它以契约型信任为特征。后工业社会也是一个陌生人社会,但是,由于社会网络结构的生成,人际关系将是一种自由稠密的人际关系,在这种人际关系中,所包含的是合作型信任。对于中国社会来说,当前的主要任务是要跨越工业社会的人际关系模式,自觉地促进后工业社会人际关系的生成。