On the Social Structure of the Ship

Bibliographic Data

ID2301534
AuthorsVilhelm Aubert (Institute for Social Research, Oslo), Oddvar Arner (Institute for Social Research, Oslo)
Year1958
Volume3
Issue1
Pages200-219
Publication date1958-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Sociologica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-6993 • E-ISSN: 1502-3869
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/000169935800300118
OpenAlexW2025893464
LanguageEN
Citations received17

In order to make meaningful sociological statements about the structure of ships, it is useful to compare the ship with other working organizations. We shall compare it with industrial factories as they are known from sociological investigations focusing upon informal group structure and collectivity formation. Our analysis is based upon seamen's statistics, laws and documents, conversations with key informants, a couple of brief trips at sea, interviews with 150 ,,forstereisgutter (novices), and interviews with the officers and crew of five Norwegian oil-tankers. Previous sociological literature on the problem is very scant, and our data are still too limited to permit more than very tentative conclusions.1) This paper is primarily concerned with the community of the oil tanker, not because it is representative of all ships, but because it presents an extreme situation which highlights the differences between the ship and other places of work. 1. The most obvious difference between the ship and the industrial plant is that the seaman lives at his place of work, among his colleagues and superiors, and spends most of his leisure at the same place. The ship is a total institution, comparable in significant respects to the hospital, the army camp, the prison, the cloister, and the boarding school.2

Economic geography · Economics · Sociology · Maritime Security and History · Philippine History and Culture · Sex work and related issues

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