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The four articles that appeared in the 1990 issue of the journal "International Sociology," by William Rogers Brubaker; Dongno Kim, Solomon Mombeshora and Nao Oyama, have won the first Worldwide Competition for Young Sociologists that the International Sociological Association (ISA) launched in 1988. The fifth winning paper, by Lu Jianhua, will be published in the March 1991 issue of the journal "International Sociology." All authors are under 35 years of age. Being the top winners of an international competition for young intellectuals, these papers could be read as indicators of the topics and ways of thinking characteristic of the rising generation. However, that they deserve first to be read for what they are: to put it simply, first-grade articles. Started three years ago in very hazardous conditions, this first Worldwide Competition ended up landing in its net a rich catch of 335 papers written in ten different languages and coming from all parts of the world. As such it was not only a competition; it was also an experiment, yielding unexpected and at times very surprising results. This is why it may be of interest to retrace, however briefly, its short history and salient features. The idea of such a competition was first put forward in March 1987 by Margaret Archer, who had in summer 1986 been elected President of the International Sociological Association for four years. Chairing the first meeting of the new Executive Committee, making people understand that ISA finances were quite low, she nevertheless expressed her wish to reach out towards the immense regions of the so-called Third Worlds where the ISA was little known.

This article offers views on launching the journal International Sociology. Instead of publishing exclusively authors interested in the analysis of socio-cultural diversity across the world, the journal prefers to publish papers by people motivated by their own national and cultural traditions, the summing-up of which will offer to the reader a more global and comprehensive view of contemporary sociology. A new science that since the eighteenth century was proposed as an effort to take into account the other's viewpoint. In launching a new journal, the International Sociological Association wants just to create a new possibility for sociologists across the world to be a better acquainted with each other's works. For that, a balanced editorial policy will be pursued to publish authors from diverse regions, age and sex groups, as well as theoretical orientations. The time has come to recognize that the Third World and the socialist world are part of the intellectual production system on which, undoubtedly, Western culture will continue to make a strong impression. The endeavor of the journal is to increase knowledge about contemporary societies and sociologies, by showing pluralistic paths of concern in sociology rooted in different historical and cultural traditions.

The article presents an update on the "International Sociology" journal as of December 1998. The scholarly criteria of the journal are very high, as befits an official organ of the most significant international association of sociologists. "International Sociology" has, furthermore, become the membership journal for all subscribed members of the International Sociological Association. With this return to its roots, "International Sociology" has become perhaps the widely diffused sociological journal. It is now read in nearly 100 countries. The journal has now reached a level of maturity that is chosen by some of the most significant sociologists as a forum for discussion. The proposal that each issue should have a cover article has gained an interest which is attested to, by the high level of the cover articles submitted for publication. The portraits of sociologists have also elicited a positive response. The journal has approached a wide range of sociological topics, that is, clinical sociology, sociology of religion, globalization, the sociology of consumers and the emotions. Articles covering sociology from Eastern Europe, Russia, Greece, the Middle East, East Asia, among others have also been published. There has been a welcome increase in the number of subscribers to the journal in the last two years as well as a steady increase in the number of papers submitted for publication to the journal.

Critique and Humanism is a quarterly journal specializing in critical theory and the humanities. Almost all members of its Editorial Board were participants in the Seminar on Critical Theory at Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria in the early 1980's. Critique and Humanism focuses on the chances of critical theory being brought to trial by late capitalism and real socialism, the trial of a historical practice that has invalidated sociologist Karl Marx's prediction. At the crossroads of totalitarian society and the utopian ideas of the post-totalitarian situation, the once powerful project of modernity and the blurred contours of the post-modern alternative, the humanities and critical theory, Critique and Humanism will seek its own road. Each issue of Critique and Humanism has its own theme, but that does not imply that each paper will be strictly limited by its thematic scope. The Institute for Social Critique is financed by empirical sociological research projects, various sponsoring foundations and by the publishers of Critique and Humanism. Primarily the Laboratory carries out the Institute's empirical projects for Ethnomethodological Experiments; while the Critique and Humanism School aims at training specialists in the areas of critical theory and phenomenological sociology.