Een socialistische stem over N.O. Brabant

Samenvatting

Critical remarks concerning a research report, Welvaart en welzijn (Prosperity and Wellbeing) of the Wiardi Beckmanstichting (The Wiardi Beckman Foundation, a scientific research institute of the Dutch Labor Party) which studied the Northeastern part of the province of North-Brabant and the Northern part of the province of Limburg, both in Holland. Though the report in general is favorably reviewed, the criticism is raised against some unproved postulates which are used to interpret the data and formulate recommendations. Thus, industrialization is held responsible for crime and 'massification'. The morale of the rural population is idealized, and J. Haveman's theory of the unskilled worker (the unskilled workers form a separate group in society with its own values and norms, and its own cultural pattern deviating from the general society) is upheld. For instance, in the report it is suggested that the increase in votes for the Labor Party (in an originally predominantly Cath area) is caused by industrialization. Why is unemployment not mentioned in this respect? Not only various sociological theories are accepted too uncritically, but also the local structure of society is taken for granted. Esp an institute related to a political party should be critical towards the existing situation and should point to possibilities of social change. T.J. IJzerman.