This book was first published in 1972. The concept of role has been central to the development of knowledge about, and measures of, the normative context which mediates between the individual and society. The whole controversy of the primacy of 'nature' or 'nurture' has been contained within this loose-fitting concept. As in the first three volumes on Social Stratification, Migration and Professions and Professionalisation, the purpose of this volume was to raise a number of questions about the adequacy of theoretical concepts used by sociologists and others to describe social phenomena.