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The Dockworker Subculture and Some Problems in Cross-Cultural and Cross-Time Generalizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Raymond Charles Miller
Affiliation:
San Francisco State College

Extract

Following a few introductory comments on the concept ‘subculture’ and the likelihood of universally similar responses to the industrialization experience, some generalizations are offered here about a dockworker subculture and the conditions that create it. The generalizations are in the form of propositions, not operational hypotheses—certainly not verified generalizations. They are based primarily on written sources, though the author has conducted interviews in San Francisco and Karachi. In conclusion the problems involved in making this type of cross-culture, cross-time proposition into a verifiable hypothesis are briefly suggested.

Type
Societies and Cultures
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1969

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References

page 302 note 1 My thanks to the ILWU for their cooperation and to my colleague, Stanley Bailis, for his helpful comments.

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page 306 note 6 Op. cit., p. 54.

page 307 note 1 Farid Ahmed, Manager, Muhammadi Steamship Company, Karachi, interview, February 26, 1962.

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