ABSTRACT
Each of the key terms in the title of this book is ambiguous, obscure and subject to a variety of common as well as academic usages. While it is not possible and would not be desirable, to constrain such prodigality in the use of words and although the intention of the following discussion is substantive rather than analytical, it is helpful to establish at the outset what is meant (here if nowhere else), by these central concepts. In an academic book there is nothing surprising in such an opening observation. However, for a sociological account of these matters, this is neither a preliminary nor a pedantic exercise and is worth a brief justification.
