INFORMATION BROKERAGE AND ORGANISATIONAL DEPENDENCE

The discovery of “The State” has been one of the more visible characteristics of recent sociology, a cosmopolitan development which has transcended both national boundaries and the frameworks of particular specialties and sub‐specialties within the discipline. The present article incorporates an account of the structure and content of state action as it impinged upon a handful of Scottish firms. It is nonetheless intended primarily as a contribution to the sociology of organisations, incidentally to the sociology of Scotland and only peripherally to the sociology of the State. This is undertaken by way of reinterpretation of the work of Burns and Stalker.