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Both within and outside of sociology, there are conversations about methods to reduce error and improve research quality—one such method is preregistration and its counterpart, registered reports. Preregistration is the process of detailing research questions, variables, analysis plans, etc. before conducting research. Registered reports take this one step further, with a paper being reviewed on the merit of these plans, not its findings. In this manuscript, I detail preregistration's and registered reports' strengths and weaknesses for improving the quality of sociological research. I conclude by considering the implications of a structural-level adoption of preregistration and registered reports. Importantly, I do not recommend that all sociologists use preregistration and registered reports for all studies. Rather, I discuss the potential benefits and genuine limitations of preregistration and registered reports for the individual sociologist and the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable interest in the ranking of journals, given the intense pressure to place articles in the 'top' journals. In this article, a new index, h, and a new source of data-Google Scholar - are introduced, and a number of advantages of this methodology to assessing journals are noted. This approach is attractive because it provides a more robust account of the scholarly enterprise than do the standard Journal Citation Reports. Readily available software enables do-it-yourself assessments of journals, including those not otherwise covered, and enable the journal selection process to become a research endeavor that identifies particular articles of interest. While some critics are skeptical about the visibility and impact of sociological research, the evidence presented here indicates that most sociology journals produce a steady stream of papers that garner considerable attention. While the position of individual journals varies across measures, there is a high degree commonality across these measurement approaches. A clear hierarchy of journals remains no matter what assessment metric is used. Moreover, data over time indicate that the hierarchy of journals is highly stable and self-perpetuating. Yet highly visible articles do appear in journals outside the set of elite journals. In short, the h index provides a more comprehensive picture of the output and noteworthy consequences of sociology journals than do than standard impact scores, even though the overall ranking of journals does not markedly change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to uncover the modes of justification by which sociological theorists legitimize the "canon" of sociological theory in practice, through the stories they tell to students in sociological theory textbooks. Specifically, we ask: how do textbook authors rationalize their decisions to include and exclude some theorists? Further, what are the modes or "rules of the conceptual game" underlying these justifications? To address these questions, we undertake a rhetorical examination of a corpus of 250 English-language editions of sociological theory textbooks. Focusing on their Introductions and Conclusions, we highlight texts that presume the canon is a social fact and investigate the justifications they provide for assenting to this fact. We articulate and illustrate three forms of legitimation: functionalist, historicist, and humanist. Functionalist justifications legitimate the canon by appealing to its capacity to generate disciplinary unity and integrity. Historicist justifications legitimate the canon by appealing to its members' foundational and influential role in defining the direction of the field. Humanist justifications legitimate the canon through appealing to the intrinsic qualities of its texts and authors. Identifying these pathways is the primary empirical contribution of this paper, which in turn contributes to the collective project of disciplinary self-reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pacific Sociological Association annual meeting recently added a new session type called the Research-in-Progress (RIP) session. The purpose of adding these sessions was to provide an opportunity for attendees to present research still in formative stages of completion in order to get useful feedback. Presentations ranged from doctoral dissertation proposals to nearly completed research. Early experience from RIP session organizers and discussants is that these sessions were lively and engaging, sparking a great deal of audience participation. Feedback from presenters indicated that they received useful feedback. Based on our initial experience with the RIP sessions, we believe they are a beneficial addition to the meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a biographical sketch of the late Hans L. Zetterberg and a historical background to a translation of an essay based on a lecture given by Zetterberg in Stockholm in 1995. In it, he recounts his time at the Department of Sociology at Columbia University in the years 1953–1964. This essay is full of insights into an inspiring and formative period for Zetterberg in the United States, particularly in the stimulating milieu that was Columbia, at this time the center of American sociology led by Robert K. Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld. In the introduction to this translated essay, I give a brief overview of the establishment of sociology as a discipline in Sweden, and the transfer of knowledge between the United States and Sweden (and Europe, more broadly), embodied in Hans Zetterberg. In the post-WWII years, American sociology, which had a strong positivistic imprint, played an important role in shaping the beginnings of Swedish sociology. However, the transfer of knowledge went both ways, with Zetterberg, a semi-central and often neglected figure, being both a significant contributor to sociology at Columbia in its period of greatest prominence, and in his native Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assimilation of the theoretical and methodological constructions of Western sociology into the investigation of primarily reform oriented social research problems of twentieth century China, is the background to the work done by most of the pioneering Chinese sociologists such as Fei Xiaotong. The aim of this paper is to analyse the movement of ideas and research methods in the global circulation of knowledge and the formulation of distinct traditions of academic enquiry, in this case, Chinese sociology. This article uses the chronology of Fei's life to present the interactions between American (Robert Parks and the Chicago School), British (Malinowski and social anthropology of 1930s), Russian (Shirokogoroff) and Chinese (Wu Wenzao and Yenching school) sociological traditions and their influences in Fei's works, primarily his most famous work, From the Soil. Fei's indigenous concept of Chaxugeju, presents a clear distinction between Chinese and Western societies. In this article, we apply Chaxugeju in some of the fairly common social research questions on family structure, gender and state- society relations to bring out the nuanced distinctions in the American and Chinese theoretical traditions. We also look into the problems in Fei's theorising in the use of community studies, in tackling the colonialism aspect and with respect to the cultural context in Chinese sociology and its similarities in its challenges with Chicago school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the tensions between ideals about sociology (and what it ought to be) transmitted during university socialization and the everyday working activities among Argentinean sociologists. It focuses on an extreme case: that of the graduates who, lacking the opportunity or the desire to join the professoriate, became market researchers. The case is extreme because while university training provided these individuals with a set of methodological and analytical skills that proved to be useful (and profitable) when studying consumers and markets, it also encouraged a critical, world-rejecting, view of the discipline which was at odds with their professional activities. Not surprisingly, they encountered a distressing moral puzzle: were they betraying sociology's progressive values, values to which they were seriously committed? Building on E. Hughes' concept of "dirty work", this paper examines how these individuals navigated an occupation that was, at least initially, seen as morally objectionable, and the ways by which they came to imbue it with new and edifying "sociological" value. This article is based on interviews with sociologists working in market research and a socio-historical account of the School of Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires, the nation's most important program, where all our interviewees were trained. This study has implications for understanding situations in which actual professional practices are in sharp contrast with the ideals presented during university socialization, and the identity repair processes that university-trained workers undertake when dealing with deviant careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to discuss the conditions of production and circulation of the book to understand the success and impact of Dependency and development in Latin America. Firstly, we highlight in which sense this book belongs to a broader intellectual tradition, i.e., the interpretative essays on Brazilian reality. Secondly, we investigate the transnational institutional trajectories of its authors that enable them to develop the comparative analytical perspective of the book. Finally, we reconstruct the publishing history of the book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the Brazilian essayism of the first decades of the twentieth Century by identifying the key topics, and issues around which an authentically sociological imaginative horizon gradually has been built in Brazil. We argue that the issue of colonization, slavery, and the large-scale rural ownership constituted the ways which Sociology systematicity in Brazil by defining a common repertoire of concepts, categories and, methods. The arguments are developed in the following sequence: a) the analytic place of essayism in Brazilian social thought; b) the analysis of the theoretical proposals and, interpretative results achieved by three emblematic authors of the period – Gilberto Freyre (1900–1987), SergioBuarque de Holanda (1902–1982) and, Caio Prado Júnior (1907–1990). More than that, we draw the historicity of their ideas and, highlight some theoretical convergences and, divergences among them; c) the reach and, limits of these interpretations on Brazil considering their present-day relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an account of the conditions and consequences of a university-level teaching experience in the sociology of fame centered on the case of Lady Gaga. When the course 'Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame' at the University of South Carolina was announced in the autumn of 2010, it became the number-one Lady Gaga news story, reported and discussed in a wide variety of internet sources and media outlets across the world. The unprecedented attention devoted to the course placed its instructor in an unexpected and unique position to experience various dimensions of contemporary celebrity culture while teaching on that very subject matter. This paper offers a sociological autobiography to discuss this experience as a manifestation of the reflexivity of social knowledge and the interplay between sociology and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There were substantial changes to be observed in the sociological field in the 1960s. Grand theories were being left behind and the notion of agency and an active shaping of structure became more popular in the turn towards micro-sociology. Harvey Sacks' conversation analysis (CA) is one good example of the evolution of such a renewing way of doing sociology. Only relatively late in the evolution of CA, though, we can observe instances of institutionalization like the publication of compendia, the formation of sections within scientific associations, and a society dedicated to CA research. Applying a neo-institutional framework in this paper, we take into account the mutual influences between the established forces of the sociological field and the upcoming micro-sociological approaches in the 1960s with conversation analysis being one example. This procedure should help us to come closer to an understanding of the complex processes taking place in the course of the evolution of ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to establish whether sociology departments should provide training in evaluation methodologies. First, the authors look at the current status of evaluation methodology courses within the offerings of sociology departments by examining course offerings from a sampling of sociology departments in doctoral and master's level programs across the United States. The authors then discuss whether evaluation courses should be offered in sociology departments at the undergraduate, masters, or doctoral levels and whether there are career opportunities for sociologists trained in evaluation research. The authors conclude with reasons why evaluation courses should be offered within sociology departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the question of the positionality of constructionists. I begin by considering some of the pressures on constructionists to compromise, if not abandon, their neutral stance as disengaged observers of definitional processes. After reaffirming the value of studying definitional processes, without regard for the veracity of claims or even the existence of the putative conditions referenced, I discuss how some ontological and epistemological stances facilitate a focusing of attention on these processes while others are diversionary. I end by making the case for thinking through carefully where we stand, mindful of the consequences as well as our goals as analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although his work has been largely overlooked by symbolic interactionists and other students of deviance, Aristotle (c384-322BCE) addresses community life, activity, agency, and persuasive interchange in ways that not only are remarkably consistent with contemporary symbolic interactionist approaches to deviance, but that also conceptually inform present day theories of deviance and provide valuable transhistorical comparison points for subsequent analysis. Following (1) a brief overview of an interactionist approach to the study of deviance, attention is given to (2) classical Greek conceptions of good and evil (especially as these are articulated by Plato) before turning more directly to (3) Aristotle's notions of wrongdoing as this is reflected in his considerations of community, morality, agency, and culpability. While informed by Aristotle's considerations of causality (as addressed in Physics and Metaphysics), this statement builds most centrally on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Rhetoric. Striving for a broader understanding of deviance as a humanly engaged feature of community life, the paper briefly compares Aristotle's 'theory of deviance' with Prus and Grills () interactionist analysis of deviance. The paper (4) concludes with an assessment of the relative contributions of contemporary interactionist scholarship and Aristotle's materials for the study of deviance as a community-engaged process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the creation of an intellectual biography of the U.S. sociologist Talcott Parsons. The researcher discusses Parsons' doctoral dissertation dealing with capitalism that was analyzed by sociologist Max Weber, and how Parsons' work delivered sociology from social Darwinism at the turn of the twentieth century. The author supports Parsons' work on the basis that he was a thinker and academician who did not use inconsistent analysis. The author utilized Parsons' archives at Harvard University, such as Parsons' paper "The Problem of Controlled Institutional Change."

With Mozart-like versatility, Charles Tilly's brilliant investigations covered a remarkable range of topics and methodologies. This paper highlights two of Tilly's lesser-known contributions: as cultural analyst and as feminist scholar. It also introduces his concern with the place of normative arguments in social research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits and reconsiders the prevailing assumption or conventional wisdom about the association or affinity between Puritanism and liberty in historically Puritan societies, especially America and to a lesser extent Great Britain. It argues and elaborates on that the “Puritanism and liberty” equation or link is a naïve assumption, speculative explanation or cherished liberal-democratic mythology analogous and related to, as well as even more enduring and prevalent than, what contemporary sociologists call the “beloved myth” of an elective affinity or connection between Calvinism and modern capitalism. The paper aims to fill in a void in the current sociological literature in which attempts to question and reveal the Puritanism and liberty equivalence as a myth are relatively infrequent. Overall, the paper aims to contribute to the existing literature on the relationships between Puritanism, Calvinism and other ascetic Protestantism on the one hand and modern democratic society on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the place and contributions of women at the Institute for Research in Social Science from 1925 to 1945. Founded by Howard Odum at the Unviersity of North Carolina in 1924, the Institute provided an environment in which women could pursue social scientific work free from the gender discrimination found at most universities during the period. Research and publications by the women made important contributions to sociology and related fields while fulfilling the Institute's primary mission of promoting regional understanding and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online marketplace designed for crowdsourcing tasks to other people for compensation, is growing in popularity as a platform for gathering research data within the social sciences. Sociology, compared to some other social sciences, has not been as quick to adopt this form of data collection. Therefore, in this paper I overview the basics of Mechanical Turk research and suggest its pros and cons, both in general and in relation to different sociological data-collection methods and research needs. While Mechanical Turk is currently the most popular crowdsourcing website for research, I present general concepts, patterns, and suggestions that can be applied beyond Mechanical Turk to other crowdsourcing and online research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses topics featured within the issue including the link between essayism and sociological research in Brazil, the analysis of social knowledge through Brazilian historical essays, and the construction of modernist essays.

The American Dream is among the United States' most recognizable and revered symbols of our national heritage. Celebrated in popular culture, this statement of national purpose has been analyzed by commentators across the broad range of humanistic and scholarly disciplines, including American sociology. While sociology has developed a lengthy history of studies dedicated to 'the American way of life' and - to a lesser degree - the role of the American Dream in society, the work of sociologists from earlier eras arguably over-shadows many of the efforts undertaken since the millennium. The present paper argues that sociology is especially well suited to investigations and analyses of the role and impact of the American Dream and urges a re-dedication of sociological efforts to chart its meaning and influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to further advance public sociology and its relationship with technology, this paper looks at a democratic model of collaboration within the technological sciences. We draw on the concept of user- led research to demonstrate how sociologists, scientists and various stakeholders within the public sphere can achieve reciprocal, meaningful and sustained knowledge translation. Furthermore, we argue that by acknowledging participants' technological needs and reducing unnecessary complexity, the user -led method advances Burawoy's 'dialogue as mutual education' within public sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the close resemblances evident in their major works, their critical stance and their politics, C. Wright Mills and Alvin Gouldner have received strikingly different responses from their sociological peers, and they now occupy very different places in the collective memory of the discipline. This intriguing discrepancy provides the basis here for a comparative case study that examines both ongoing commemorative practices and historical evidence. This paper shows how the sociological community has frequently and approvingly commemorated Mills through introductory textbooks, as well as reading lists for doctoral comprehensive examinations, awards in Mills' honor and biographies of Mills, while doing much less to preserve and promote the memory of Gouldner and his contributions to the field. In an effort to attain a better understanding of such differences, I compare the prescriptions that each advocated for the discipline, especially as these are expressed in Mills' Sociological Imagination and Gouldner's Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. The analysis emphasizes how Mills explicitly sought to move beyond sociology, in a narrow academic sense, and called for well-honed empirical endeavors with relevance for a variety of publics, whereas Gouldner proceeded largely as an academic theorist who demanded sociological-theoretical reform. Unlike Mills, he did not breach the gap between academia and the general public. These findings illustrate an apparent paradox, namely, that American sociology in the twenty-first century may reserve its most esteemed positions for internal critics who advocate movement beyond its contemporary confines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of the development of studies of social solidarity in Russia from the mid 19th century to the present day. Basing on the analysis of major works of leading social thinkers of pre-revolutionary Russia which address issues of social solidarity, cooperation and altruism we show that the study of these problems revealed the paradigmatic dichotomy of Russian social thought, reflected, in particular, in the discussions between the Westerners and the Slavophiles. Studies of social solidarity in modern Russia, a review of which is presented in the final part of the present paper, rest upon this rich heritage, but also reflect the current processes in contemporary sociology. Along with this, research on social solidarity is now a necessary component of the study of post-communist social transformations in Russia. In a situation of crisis or social trauma (P. Sztompka) the regulatory function of solidarity relations becomes especially pronounced. At the same time such conditions reveal a fundamental contradiction associated with the widespread prevalence of narrow group solidarities over broader solidarities. These issues are enhancing interest in issues of social solidarity among Russian sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to his 1922 emigration to Europe and thence to the United States, Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin had an exceptional intellectual and political career in Russia and the Soviet Union (Sorokin , ; Johnston ; Krotov ). Indeed, he was among the early founders of the science of sociology in his native land, where, according to a relatively recent bibliography (Sorokin ), he produced 162 Russian-language publications between the ages of 21 and 33. This listing includes not only book reviews and journal articles, but also substantial monographs and a two-volume theoretical treatise. While still a relatively young man, Sorokin had thus gained widespread recognition as a scholar of the first rank. He was also the initial chairperson (from 1919 to 1922) of a fledgling department of sociology at the University of Petrograd (St. Petersburg), an elected member of the national Constituent Assembly and an appointed staff member of the 1917 Provisional Government, the first democratic regime in Russia. This much would have sufficed for an entry in a sociological encyclopedia, and Sorokin's political career has few parallels in the history of the field, other than the involvement of Emile Durkheim in French educational policy and the participation of Max Weber in creating the Weimar Republic in Germany. Nevertheless sociologists in the United States and most western historians of the field have not yet appreciated the full influence of the formative period, especially from 1905 to 1922. Lacking familiarity with Russian culture of that era and knowing little about the larger Russian socio-historical milieu, its intellectual discourse and collective memory, they have not been able to comprehend Sorokin's outlook, behavior and professional output in the United States in relation to these earlier contextual factors. This is arguably a fundamental reason why many U.S. sociologists have tended to see Sorokin, especially since 1937, as a marginal figure and to regard his works largely as deviations from accepted social scientific practice. This paper will argue that a more adequate appreciation of Sorokin's background and early adult life illumines both stylistic features of his works in America and also places into proper perspective several of his substantive foci that did not accord with contemporary 'normal science' (Kuhn ). In short, despite his overall assimilation into American society and higher education, including his appointment at Harvard University and his election as president of the American Sociological Association, Sorokin should be understood in large measure as a life-long Russian intellectual. His was a Russian-born sensibility and consciousness-indeed a 'Russian soul'-so deeply ingrained that it stamped his entire professional career in the United States, including his published researches, his popular sociology and his university teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studies ranging from oracular practices and court proceedings to alternative philosophies, reality disjunctures, and a family's work in maintaining the normality of a severely retarded child, Mel Pollner put together something like a cabinet of curiosities exhibiting the social character of reasoning's worldly enterprises. At the same time, he felt that ethnomethodology-and, in particular, ethnomethodological studies of work-had taken a wrong direction, turning away from disciplinary sociology's sociological project. This paper, by examining the play of bridge, soccer, checkers, and chess, reconsiders this position and illustrates some of the peculiarities of a sociology of the witnessable social order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits research procedures used to collect and analyze data for Fifty Years of the Southern Sociological Society: Change and Continuity in a Professional Society (1988) to comment on methodological issues. The fifty years of change were conceptualized as having shifted the Southern Sociological Society from a disciplinary to a professional mode of organization. The shift occurred both from evolutionary processes and from deliberate revolutionary actions of officials and members. Data for the study came mainly from the Society’s Archives. It included personal accounts by presidents, secretary-treasurers’ and committee reports, annual programs and newsletters. Evolutionary processes of adapting the association to the growth of membership, to differentiation of fields of sociological study, along with the rationalization and formalization of the Society’s governance and operation, were extracted mainly from annual programs, the most continuous and objective body of archival information. Revolutionary changes, including adaptation to societal challenges including racial segregation, from the Society’s founding onward were inferred from personal accounts, committee reports, and newsletters, and were confirmed from interviews with long-standing members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meso history is that branch of the history of sociology that focuses on social relations, that is, patterns of connection among groups, group members, and group meanings, as explanatory factors in the shaping of sociology. The methodology of meso history consists of strategies for discovering, documenting and patterning connections. This paper explores those strategies in terms of three moments generic to the research process in social science– moments of movement from intellectual curiosity to conceptualization, from research question to data collection and from data to presentation of findings–focusing on the distinctive permutations on this research process that occur in the practice of meso history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We can only welcome the discourse that has been initiated in our professional community with the concept of public sociology in the focus. Undoubtedly, Michael Burawoy has indisputable merits in fuelling this international dialogue. I find, however, that his position and conceptual framework is debatable at several points, therefore my review is on the side of those who criticize his ideas. My paper is divided into three parts: in keeping with the idea that the drop mirrors the ocean, I will start with the detailed critique of a single paragraph—the one which makes comments on his table entitled Types of sociological knowledge. It will be argued that by switching his viewpoints and using vaguely defined notions without empirical evidences he often tackles his subject inconsistently. Secondly, I intend to offer an alternative, three-dimensional conceptual model in which the social scientist’s prestige, influence and position on the action chain is taken into account as the main analytical aspects of the relationship between her/him and the public. Finally, based on this model, I propose to identify some strategies in order to find a better balance between the public and professional activity of social scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since academic sociology's birth in this country, sociologists have not been shy about publicly praising and ridiculing the discipline. Though sociologists have been the primary participants in the seemingly endless debates about sociology's proper subject matter, methods, and purpose, there is another group that has also struggled over the past 95 years to formulate a conception of the discipline—high school sociology teachers. At this point, we know virtually nothing about what the thousands of high school teachers who offer sociology each year, actually think about the discipline. This paper uses questionnaire and interview data collected from high school sociology teachers to examine their thoughts on four topics: (1) sociology's strengths, (2) its weaknesses, (3) whether high school students are capable of understanding the discipline, and (4) appropriate course objectives. The results indicate that high school teachers view sociology quite differently from academic sociologists, and that their conceptions are based primarily on ‘textbook sociology.’ I conclude by discussing the far-reaching implications of teachers' current thinking about the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article places an episode in the history of sociological theory into intellectual history in the twentieth century. The perspective is chronological as well as contextual. The themes are two theoretical approaches, both embedded in both American and German history, Parsonian Systems Theory and "Frankfurt School" Critical Theory. The chronology shown spanned mainly from the 1940s to the 1960s. The context of the two theories is a period that is crucial in twentieth century history. The protagonists of the two approaches were, in the 1940s, Americans and Germans exiled in the United States. In the 1950s, both approaches were affected by McCarthyism in different ways. The 1960s, however, were the culmination. The dynamics of the two approaches led into a schism which came into the open on the occasion of the 1964 German Sociology Conference in Heidelberg celebrating Max Weber. The article shows the stages in the evolution of the schism, emulating three acts in a drama. The final split was over whether Weber or Marx should be the classic whose oeuvre was to influence sociological thinking today. My aim is to exemplify how these two authoritative approaches in sociological theory, far from escaping the vagaries and vicissitudes of their times, were embedded in twentieth-century history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that applied research still retains a second class status within the sociological community that is at least unexamined and probably unjustified. Applied research is not the corruption that some would claim, while basic research is hardly the ideal to which all sociologists should aspire. The paper begins with a discussion of the nature of applied research, moves to a demystification of basic research, and concludes with some suggestions about how a reconciliation of sorts might be accomplished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The section presents comments on articles featured in the August 1978 issue of The American Sociologist. Gerald D. Berreman claims that the ethics and responsibility in social science research are frustrating to discuss in print or in person: the issues are complex and highly contextual so that clear-cut rules-of-thumb are impossible to formulate; they are value-laden and controversial so that discussion often degenerates into preachment, accusation and defense. James D. Carroll noted that each of the articles is a useful contribution to the understanding of law, politics and administration of knowledge. From an analytical perspective, these papers fit well into conceptual frameworks suggested by such terms as "post-industrial society," "knowledge society," and the like. From a professional perspective, each of the papers addresses issues that researchers should be more familiar with, and that professional societies should have greater capacity to address on a systematic basis than is presently the case. From a legal perspective, the paper by Kathleen Bond addresses a constitutional question under the U.S. first amendment, which involves something of a paradox. Carl B. Klockars suggests a model of sociological research that begs the softening of a series of trained incapacities, which the sociological community has worked long and hard against substantial resistance to develop.

The article presents a case study of the Association of Black Sociologists. This article is shaped also by the author's direct and active participation in Caucus of Black Sociologists as well as studies by him of black sociologists on two different occasions, 1968 and 1981. In the late 1960s black sociologists, as well as many other black professionals within larger professional bodies, perceived the necessity of organizing to achieve recognition and enhance opportunities. Tilman C. Cothran provided the initial leadership within the American Sociological Association (ASA). Dismayed at the absence of black participation in the annual programs of ASA, Cothran, then chairman of the department of sociology at Atlanta University and editor of Phylon, called together meetings of black sociologists at the annual meetings of ASA in 1968 in Boston and 1969 in San Francisco, to discuss their common problems and strategies for dealing with same. He also communicated in writing and in person with foundations about the lack of blacks in leadership roles within them as well as the paucity of monies directed to black sociologists for research.

Graduate students learn to be sociologists in part by doing research. Many undergraduate institutions whose roles have been primarily defined by teaching have inadequately addressed the need of their students to obtain research experience. When such opportunities are available, and when they are properly structured and coordinated with the undergraduate curriculum, advantages accrue to both students and the profession. This paper examines curricular and extracurricular ways to strengthen undergraduate research opportunities as preparation for graduate school. It is suggested that such preparation is also beneficial to many students who do not go on to graduate school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic employment depends on student enrollment. The bull market in higher education in the U.S. that ran from the mid-thirties to the present has passed its crest. In fact, it appears from a recent release by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that, while college enrollments did not drop absolutely until just this year, they began to recede relatively four years ago. The proportion of white high school graduates who entered college reached 57 percent in 1968, then began to fall, until by September of 1972 it had dropped to 49 percent. This paper was specifically commissioned to suggest some changes in the training of sociologists designed to increase sociological opportunities. Another way of stating the article's purpose is to answer the question on the difference between the training for non-academic positions and training for academic positions. Far from presenting temptations to dilute academic training for sociological research, preparation for the role of non-academic sociologist would take for granted all usable benefits that conventional research training has to offer, then add to it in a number of important respects. The activities in which sociologists have hitherto been employed within non-academic institutions have been primarily in research and research will figure heavily in their activity in the future-with certain qualifications. The article, therefore, focuses on just those types and methods of research which are relevant and important to these institutions, in preparation for which current academic training needs to be substantially supplemented.

An editorial is presented on sociology of intellectual property. Topics include presenting an historical and sociological analysis of the concept and practice of intellectual property rights; and especially capitalism, militarism, racism, poverty and homelessness, and also to engage in “unusual forms of activism.”.

Though sociology has explored many facets of mental illness, discussions of psychotherapy have been largely underdeveloped. By examining published and "grey" literature in the sociology of mental health, I identify three significant eras of research. The first period of sociology of mental health (1880s–1960s) focused on etiologies of mental illness. The second era (1960s–1990s) critiqued many issues related to the diagnosis of illness. The current era explores the treatment of mental illnesses. Despite almost thirty years of research, the sociological discussions of psychotherapy have been dismal at best. I explore the primary reasons for this neglect, identifying major trends across several eras, and outline research limitations in this literature. I conclude by proposing a research agenda for a sociology of therapy that focuses on theoretical integration, methodological application, and a focus on therapeutic work. Four primary benefits to sociology are proposed, focusing on accuracy, triangulation, richer theorizing, and better applied sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul Siu's dissertation on the experience of Chinese laundry workers in the United States is a hallmark study in the Chicago sociology of migration. Siu joined the Chicago sociology program in 1932, defended his dissertation in 1953, and had it published as a book in 1987. This article identifies Siu's key contributions and discusses the relationship between Siu's work and the Chicago sociology of migration. An immigrant himself, Siu offered an approach to migration that was closer to the migrants: an immediate and often intimate window into the subjective dimension of migration. While Siu's closeness to the migrants allowed him to collect the kind of firsthand data associated with Chicago sociology, it also revealed elements of the migrant experience that stretched the boundaries of Chicago's analytical framework. Siu's understanding of migration as temporary, in particular, departed from Chicago sociology's emphasis on immigrant assimilation. This article seeks to reexamine Siu's contribution and underline its value for current and future research on migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops an integrative perspective on the nexus between power and sociological research methods. By reflecting upon two of the most widely used methodological approaches in sociology – standardized survey research and qualitative interview research – we develop a comprehensive heuristic framework for examining the ways in which the use of sociological methods affects and intersects any social scientific practice: (1) the power effects that societies and institutional settings exert on methods and the use of methods, (2) power in the use and implementation of methods, and (3) the power effects that methods and the use of methods exert on societies and institutional settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the sociological approach and political engagements of the early twentieth century sociologist, Herbert Adolphus Miller (1875–1951). He is now largely forgotten, but he had deep connections within the Chicago milieu of pragmatist sociology and social reform activities through both the Settlement movement and the Survey movement. In 1914 he wrote a volume in the Cleveland Survey on Immigrant children in the school system and in 1918 was appointed to head the division on Immigrant Contributions in the Carnegie Corporation's project on 'Methods of Americanization', in which Robert E. Park was head of the division on Immigrant Press and Theater (Park in The Immigrant Press, 1922). If Miller's name is recognized at all it is as author with Park of Old World Traits Transplanted (1921), a work subsequently attributed to W. I. Thomas. We examine the nature of Miller's research on immigrant populations from subject nationalities in Europe, undertaken in Cleveland and as part of the Carnegie project. He left the latter project mid-way through to become part of a small group that drafted the Czechoslovakian Declaration of Independence in November 1918. We show how Miller developed a distinctive approach to 'Americanization' through his idea of 'proportional patriotism' that challenged the dominant discourse of assimilation that became entrenched in the years after the end of the first world war and which was largely accepted by Park and by Thomas. He was dismissed in 1932 from Ohio State University because of his views on race mixing and his criticisms of the British and Japanese empires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section introduces a series of articles on financing sociological research. The late Alvin Gouldner presented us with a fundamental paradox that those who supply the greatest resources for the institutional development of sociology are precisely those who most distort its quest for knowledge. The problem of financing sociological research is not the burden of individual researchers, it is the challenge to a discipline and a profession that must take account of a shifting cultural-political climate and be accountable to a restive public. The paper by Martin Bulmer examines the unique role of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, under the directorship of Breadsley Ruml, in distributing relatively large amounts of money for social research during the 1920s. Highlighting the entry of more direct federal government support for basic social science research, Roberta Balstand Miller's paper, The Social Sciences and the Politics of Science: the 1940s, examines the debate about the inclusion of the social sciences in the legislation that established the National Science Foundation.

To what extent do sociologists collaborate? Has this changed over time? What factors contribute to research collaboration among sociologists? To answer these questions, we examine trends in collaboration over a 70 year period and empirically test a variety of explanations for the increase in collaboration that we find. We analyze data collected from a stratified random sample of articles in two leading sociology journals between 1935 and 2005 ( n = 1274). Most of our analyses are descriptive and display trends over time. However, we pool the data across all years and estimate logistic regression models to assess the relative contribution of various factors. We find that the importance of geographical location has been waning since the 1950s, although the growth in cross-place collaborations stagnated between 1980 and 2005. We find that quantitative research is more likely to be collaborative, as are projects requiring data collection, though this may change because the collaboration rate among secondary data users is increasing at a faster rate. We find no significant gender differences in rates of collaboration, although male sole-authorship remains the most common form of publication. We also find the institutional prestige of coauthors is typically higher than that of sole-authors. Our results elucidate the extent of collaboration in sociology and reveal how several factors have contributed to this major shift in work organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being foundational for the origins of modern sociology, religion as a topic of inquiry and the sociology of religion as a subdiscipline have long remained relatively marginalized in the sociological field. Losing sight of sociology's profound initial engagement with religion, or a one-sided understanding of it as indifferent or unsympathetic towards the subject, may have contributed to this phenomenon. This article revisits early sociologists' and the larger family of social philosophers' involvement with religion to offer a more nuanced history. It argues that the religious question was crucial for the development of sociological thinking in three interrelated dimensions: epistemological, normative, and empirical. Epistemologically, social theorists questioned whether the scientific study of society was reconcilable with the premises of faith. Normatively, they were directly or indirectly involved with the question of whether religion should continue to exist and in what forms. Empirically, the main interest was how religion was changing via modernization, or whether it would survive it, which prompted methodological innovations and became the core of the secularization debate. Focusing on key social thinkers from the Enlightenment to the classics of the long nineteenth century, the article discusses the significance of the engagement with religion and secularity for the consolidation of sociology in these three dimensions, as well as its ongoing relevance for the discipline's future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the sociological research opportunities that can be found in Canada. The Canadian case offers a veritable cornucopia of research opportunities for the American sociologist. Although Canada is similar in many ways to the U.S., it also differs in significant respects. Given that many important variables can be held more or less constant, opportunities for theoretically meaningful research abound. Likewise, implications for policy are plentiful. The rapidly evolving nature of race relations in Canada might well inform discussions in the U.S. Until as late as 1975, Canada's racial minorities were a minuscule proportion of the overall population. After a change in immigration policy, the percentage reached 6.3 percent in 1986; and 11.2 percent in 1996. In the Canadian census, as well as in standard academic discussions, aboriginals are not included with visible minorities. While there is variation in the situation of visible minorities--some are quite prosperous--the situation vis-a-vis aboriginals is otherwise. The figures on poverty, unemployment, life expectancy, incarceration, murder, and so forth are extreme and show only modest signs of improvement. Canada has always been bilingual. Canada is also a bi-religious country. It used to be that Protestants outnumbered Catholics in a pattern somewhat similar to that in the U.S.

The Detroit Area Study (DAS) has served for 25 years as one model of how a sociology faculty can combine productive research and graduate training within a single small unit. This paper outlines the current structure and costs of DAS, describes its math advantages and limitations, and suggests several ways in which other universities might develop units that are similar but not identical to DAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis of this paper is that sociological social psychology is theoretically dissipated, that is, the social psychological work of sociologists is tied to various theoretical problems of different "sociology of" subfields, rather than being directed toward a unified and defining set of theoretical problems. This state of affairs is reflected in the citation patterns of sociologists doing social psychological work, the recent content analyses of leading sociological journals, the contents of social psychological textbooks authored by sociologists, and the lark of concern of psychologists for the social psychological work of sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the intersection of the modern-stare and fieldwork practices within the social sciences. Our contention is that during the past decade or so there has been an expansion in forbidden or restricted research terrain that threatens the present and future conduct of social research. We argue that this restriction has been engendered by two related developments: privatization and human subjects regulations. The social and political implications of these trends are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the role of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, a foundation set up by John D. Rockefeller Sr. in memory of his wife, which between 1923 and 1928, under its director Beardsley Ruml, distributed twenty million dollars for social science research The Memorial supported major programs of sociological research at the University of Chicago and the University of North Carolina, as well as providing important assistance to individual sociologists (such as Elton Mayo) and to institutions at which sociology was taught (such as the London School of Economics) The Memorial during the 1920s laid the foundations of the pattern of large-scale sociological research in the contemporary American university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that foundation support of black social scientists between the world wars was a status quo oriented response to changes in the social, economic, and geopolitical status of blacks in a society presumed to be permanently biracial in law and thought Through documentation largely drawn from foundation archives and the biographies of philanthropists, foundation administrators, and social scientists, the race leader role that foundations expected black social scientists to fulfill in a rigid racial caste order is discussed Mention is also made of how the accommodative race leadership role foundations created for black social scientists restricted their range and control of research activities and influenced the careers of Charles S Johnson, E Franklin Frazier, and other black social scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]