Search

This special issue gathers empirical papers that develop and employ digital ethnographic methods to answer core sociological questions related to community, culture, urban life, violence, activism, professional identity, health, and sociality. Each paper, in its own right, offers key sociological insights, and as a collection, this special issue demonstrates the need to bring ethnographic methods to digital communities, interactions, practices, and tools. Both as a topic and a methodological approach, "the digital" points us to the need to update, rethink, and grow qualitative sociology. The exemplary papers comprising this special issue exhibit this curiosity and expansiveness, with lessons and implications for an interdisciplinary set of fields and research problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do abstract philosophies turn into lived reality? Based on 2 years of ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews of vipassana meditation practitioners in Israel and the United States, the paper follows the process through which meditators embody the three main Buddhist tenets: dissatisfaction, impermanence and not-self. While meditators consider these tenets central to Buddhist philosophy, it is only through the practice of meditation that the tenets are experienced on the bodily level and thereby are 'realized' as truth. This realization takes place in the situated environment of the meditation center, where participation in long meditation retreats facilitates the production of specific subjective experiences that infuse the knowledge of Buddhist tenets with embodied meaning. The paper illustrates how abstract concepts and embodied experience support one another in the construction of meditators' phenomenological reality and suggests a general framework for studying the variety of relations that exist between the conceptual and embodied dimensions of different types of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the fragmentary nature of research findings and conceptual models, the Durkheimian legacy remains undervalued in contemporary spatial theory. The paper addresses this neglect by proposing a unified Durkheimian model of place which can be applied to case history and comparative analyses. It draws together the fragmented insights of Durkheimian theory to characterize four elementary forms of place: sacred, profane, liminal and mundane. These place/space identities are maintained and transformed through rituals and narratives which depend upon contingent human actions for their sustenance. The paper concludes with an extended case study which deploys the model to explain the changing meanings of the site of the Bastille (Paris, France) over the past two centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the use of aerial photographs to study the social structure of a dairy farm neighborhood in St. Lawrence County, New York. The paper compares information from aerial photographs of farmsteads and farm work to data gathered in a sociological survey. I examine how the visual data compares to other sociological information; how photographs, in this research, amplify, supplement, or contextualize nonvisual data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Those who use autobiographical perspectives in the practice of sociology and related disciplines have noted, with concern, the association of their work with self-indulgence (Devault, 1994; Jackson, 1990; Okely, 1992; Kreige, 1991). This paper elaborates this concern by directing analytic attention to the nature of the charge of self-indulgence. The paper reads as an autobiographical defense of autobiographical sociology. It uses the naming of my own work as self-involved as a point of departure for explicating the implications of this regulatory practice. The device of irony is used to expose how self-indulgence, as a critique invoking highly insular relations of readership, authorship and subject/object distinction, relies on the conventions of a traditional masculine academic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the social organization of a craft profession (as opposed to an art world), namely production pottery. The analysis focuses on control as the important dependent variable and examines features of the social organization that may influence the amount of control that a production potter has over matters such as work schedule, product and choice of marketing outlets. One conclusion is that stratification along a time dimension (i.e. the length of time that one has been in the profession) is an important independent variable influencing amount of control. The paper concludes with a brief analysis of the controversy surrounding the concepts of "art" and "craft" as members of the study perceive this distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the satire of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 to examine the arguments posed by William J. Goode's analysis of the function of the inept in social life. Drawing on methodology developed in our earlier paper on Catch-22 ("Social Death: or What Happened to Doc Daneeka?") this paper shows first the depiction of Major Major Major Major's group relationships which are useful in developing ideas which further Goode's essentially functionalist orientation; and second how other material from the novel extends the functionalist direction and presents an entirely new look at the sociology of the inept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scope and structure of social theory are often analyzed as part of or preamble to theorizing proper. This paper takes an indirect approach to the metatheoretical question, "what does social theory look like in terms of scope and structure?" by analyzing a form of social theory that sociologists tend not to think of as social theory: namely, judge-made law produced in Federal appellate courts. We argue that judges engage in social theorizing on a routine basis, and that they arrive at some of their theoretical claims through a process of theorizing that has features in common with sociological theorizing. The social theorizing of judges holds up a mirror to our own. By recognizing and examining judicial social theorizing as a form of structured, social theorizing, we aim to facilitate a clearer understanding of the social conditions enabling (and constraining) the production of social theory within sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a response to the comments made by Jay Corzine on the paper Conspiracy, Paranoia, and the Problem of Knowledge, by Charles W. Lidz. Corzine seems to want to define Lemert's empirical assertions and methods. My objections, however, are not primarily directed to either of these but to Lemert's approach to knowing the phenomenon, to his epistemology. Thus, Corzine objects to one of the two ways in which I suggest that one might go about assessing the objective existence of a conspiracy, namely, to use as a criterion the intentions of the actors involved. I proposed this only as one of the ways Lemert might have meant to assess the objective reality of the conspiracy, since it is a frequent criterion in interactionist sociology. My own position is clearly that it is a mistake to separate existence of a conspiracy from the way it is known, something required by any objective determination of whether or not a conspiracy is real. However, suppose for a moment, that I am wrong about what Lemert means and Corzine is right in every detail. Then it is hard to see why the paper is so widely thought to be important. Corzine's Lemert discovered only that sometimes people unite against people who are labelled paranoid but that this has no causal significance in the production of paranoia. Since Corzine's Lemert believes that conspiracy is a frequent occurrence in U.S. Organizations, there is no reason to believe it occurs more often to people labelled paranoid than to those who are not. While this position can argue that the paranoid has grounds for his feelings of persecution, so does just about everyone else. Corzine defends Lemert by condemning him to triviality.

Every social scientist knows that it would be a mistake to treat a sample of journal articles as a true representation of the phenomenon at hand. Yet the group of eight articles that have been selected for the July 1, 1997, issue of "Qualitative Sociology," strikes the author as providing windows on some of the key changes that are now occurring in American families. Every single paper addresses some new aspect or recent development in family life, ranging from new family forms to egalitarian gender roles and new ways for families to relate to the wider community. At the same time that they raise new issues in new family settings, all of these articles contain a common theme. They reveal a fresh understanding of how feminism actually works in family life. The papers intertwine two contrasting themes, on the one hand, an exploration of how new family forms can liberate women from traditional ascriptive bonds that are imposed by the familiar gender system, and on the other hand, a discovery that traditional and particularistic solutions crop up in many aspects of child rearing and family life.

Presents an introduction to the December 1985 issue of the journal Qualitative Sociology.

This paper examines the central problems that affected a team research effort in a study of professional socialization. The researchers draw the reader's attention to the unanticipated difficulties they encountered in conducting the research--difficulties which, they suspect, are widely shared, but infrequently reported, in the discipline. The authors focus the analysis and discussion around the theme of competing commitments which affected the pace and direction of the research and created strains in team relations, leading eventually to the reconstitution of the team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the state imagine the people? In what ways does it come to know the targets of its policies? This paper examines the transformation of the state through a focus on the visions implied in tools and practices of results-based management in state bureaucracies. When scholars have discussed the state's vision or imagination they have often critically examined how the state constructs aggregates of the population as a whole. But an emphasis on or critique of aggregation can only be the beginning of understanding the multiple and sometimes contradictory ways in which people are imagined in governance today. Results-based management has created a new way in which the state imagines people. In some policy arenas citizens have been turned into 'beneficiaries' through the practices of state managers. Beneficiaries differ from citizen in a number of ways: Citizens are thought to benefit from policies with broad goals; beneficiaries are shown to benefit from specific interventions. Citizens are owed service; beneficiaries are selected for intervention if it suits specific funding priorities. Citizens are the origins of politics and the end of policies; beneficiaries are a means to an organization's success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An afterword to a special issue on knowledge in practice is presented.

An afterword is presented to a special issue on knowledge and practice.

This paper explores inherent tensions between two democratic ideals: citizen representation and accountability of the state. Specifically, I argue that the method by which state officials make themselves accountable-through their creation of the appearance of transparency-results in the exclusion of alternative, non-scientific ways of knowing, including those that are gendered, local and indigenous, because these ways of knowing often employ non-standardized methods which are not 'transparent' in the same way as science and therefore easily dismissed by state officials as indefensible to citizens' questioning. I explore this tension by drawing on examples from ethnographic work I completed with two groups of knowledge practitioners, Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations (Native American) traditional marine harvesters and government biologists, both of whom work with clams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary art, the curator plays an important role in the production of artistic meaning through exhibition-making. Although sociology has tended to see this work as the exercise of tacit or embodied knowledge, curatorial knowledge and plans may be elaborated and altered by the situated actions of exhibition installation. While curators know a successful installation 'when they see it,' this depends on the indexical particularities of artworks and environments which cannot be predicted in advance. In demonstrating the practical ways in which culture is mobilized in situations of object (inter)action, this paper emphasizes the 'making' in artistic meaning-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial intellectual movement has been growing in the social sciences around the adoption of mechanism- and process-based explanations as complements to variable-based explanations, or even as substitutes for them. But once we have recognized the validity and dignity of studying mechanisms and processes, what is the next step? Recently, both political scientists’ and sociologists’ discussions have begun to turn away from correlation to mechanism-based approaches to causation. But there is still a widespread assumption that mechanisms are unobservable. We maintain that ways can be developed to observe the presence or absence of mechanisms either directly or indirectly. In this paper, by way of example, we put forward four methods—two direct and two indirect—for measuring mechanisms of contention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A commentary is presented which looks at the article "Methods for Measuring Mechanisms of Contention," by Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly. The author commends the article for its take on various sociological methodologies, but criticizes it for being unable to effectively change practices. McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly's discussion of indirect methods used to study elite defection is reviewed. The author also looks at their book, "Dynamics of Contention." Three criteria for examining the presence of a problem's cause, also called a mechanism, are presented.

This article discusses the negotiated order approach to organizational analysis in qualitative sociology. The approach represented in the concept of "negotiated order" tends to lead to a focus on the species rather than on the environment. Both, however, need to be embraced, by sociologists as much as by actors. Sociologists turnout to be rather good teachers, or at least rather good at producing appropriate documentary evidence to back up their claims to being good teachers. The author suspects that all studies of the social construction of data have given sociologists an edge in the generation of paper to fit performance indicators. Overall, sociology seems to be around the middle of the research rankings, which is about what would be expected from a discipline that is heavily represented in 1992 universities with a limited research tradition. For a discipline so identified with collectivism, sociologists are remarkable individualists who remain reluctant to learn from their own discipline's work. They know the importance of teamwork in successful organizations and they reject the lessons for their own.

Presents an introduction to the September 1993 issue of the journal "Qualitative Sociology."

Very little sociological research has been carried out on political assassinations and the methodological experience in sociology regarding this issue is consequently very limited. This paper presents an analytical summary of the methodological problems and experiences which were encountered during three years of research on the sociological and criminological patterns of political assassinations by Jews in Palestine and Israel between 1882-1988. Similar methods could be used to study other phenomena where the information can be characterized as secret, dirty and hidden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I describe my experience as a qualitative sociologist on the research staff of a government policymaking agency. Using specific examples from my experience, strategies for survival as a qualitative sociologist in a quantitatively-oriented setting are presented. It is proposed that: 1) qualitative methods need to be promoted as a credible and valuable approach to research and the individual researcher must "sell" him or herself as competent in the use of such methods; 2) social support networks with similarly inclined co-workers and sociologists outside of the workplace need to be developed and maintained and used to enhance the status of qualitative methods and qualitative sociologists; and 3) as is true for all researchers working in a policy making or applied setting, it is necessary to recognize the reticular nature of social research and to demonstrate how qualitative methods generate information that is useful to policy or other applied purposes. By application of this approach in my own workplace, qualitative research methods have become an acceptable and even desirable part of many research projects of the agency and I have been able to continue to practice and to maintain my identity as a qualitative sociologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes fieldwork experiences in Algeria following the revolution of the 1960s. It is generally known that political context affects both the methodology and findings of research. Although it is assumed that the political scene and the economic circumstances profoundly affect fieldwork, we have few descriptions of how this occurs. We need more reports of the way sponsorship determines access to the setting, permission to study there and the researcher's relationship with in formants. Sociologists are influenced as much by their own ethnic and political identification as they are by sponsorship. How do these factors interact? This reflection on fieldwork in Algeria offers a case study of the various factors influencing access to informants. It contrasts two approaches-the overt and covert presentation of self as a sociologist. I present this note as a contribution towards a sociology of fieldwork conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature attempting to explain revival phenomena has resorted to psychological explanations to the exclusion of sociological factors. The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation of revival behavior employing a normative framework. Four propositions are stated, each the prerequisite for the next. First, sinner and the revival culture must interact, and definitions of self and others must be forged. Second, structural facilities must be available for learning the Christian role. Third, opportunity structures must present themselves to afford the expression of appropriate behaviors that are in accord with pre-established patterns. Fourth, the status passage from salvation to sanctification is an orderly one, requiring that a sinner be saved before sanctified. The position taken Is that in order to arrive at adequate explanation, revival behavior must be observed as a social process. Therefore, the necessary requisite of the participant observation strategy is noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the 1999 issue of "Qualitative Sociology," vol. 22.

Presents an introduction to various articles of the December 1998 issue of the journal "Qualitative Sociology."

Presents an introduction to the December 1997 issue of the journal "Qualitative Sociology."

Cultural sociology has recently developed new tools with which to understand and analyze meaning in terms of cultural discourse. Specifically, this paper further develops the Alexanderian form of discourse analysis through application on the micro-level. Utilizing extensive ethnographic data, the mythopoetic men's movement is examined in terms of how its participants construct political meaning that motivates and guides their action. In empirical detail, these actors can be seen as creating a cultural discourse that constitutes the social movement at a fundamental level while at the same time the discourse is continually negotiated, contested, and reconfigured. Exposed is the “discourse of liberational masculinity” which is used by movement participants to challenge and confront hegemonic masculinity in American society. Examining the mythopoetic men's movement from this perspective demonstrates the analytic utility of this approach through revealing in unique ways the dynamics of morality, political belief, and perceived hegemony within this popular contemporary social movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The upsurge of Chinese language media—publications, radio, television, and the Internet—mirrors the linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity of the Chinese immigrant community, its vibrant ethnic enclave economy, and its multifaceted life in the United States. This article explores the causes and consequences of the ethnic media and its impact on the process of adaptation among Chinese immigrants. The data on which our study is based entail a content analysis of a selection of newspapers, television and radio programs, and websites, supplemented by telephone or face-to-face interviews. We attempt to answer a fundamental question: Does the ethnic media inhibit or promote the assimilation of immigrants into American society? We find that the Chinese language media not only connects immigrants to their host society, but also serves as a road map for the first generation to incorporate into American society by promoting the mobility goals of home ownership, entrepreneurship, and educational achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about symposium on methodology in qualitative sociology. The symposium presents papers that critically reflects upon the methodological strengths and limitations of works of qualitative sociology. This symposium addresses the concern, shared by quantitative social scientists, general readers, and not a few qualitative sociologists themselves that qualitative sociology lacks methodological rigor and, accordingly, truly reliable or generalizable findings. Some social scientists view qualitative sociology, in no uncertain terms, as methodologically and empirically "soft" and highly subjective, if not completely solipsistic, a characterization that a few qualitative researchers have ironically embraced. At best, according to certain critics, qualitative sociology might generate provisional hypotheses that more rigorous social scientists can then go forth to test and revise, but it cannot itself glean much solid understanding of the social world. or a vast social movement. Qualitative researchers are able to see social settings in much of their richness.

This research is concerned with fieldnotes as they form the building blocks of ethnography, at the representational intersection of self and other. Using fieldnotes generated by graduate students, we explore their dialectics of revelation and concealment, publicity and privacy, and awareness and unawareness, in the context of disciplinary politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"When we say "politics of memory," how many of us really mean that memory could constitute a politics? We aren't thinking of memory as some autonomous force that in and of itself dictates a political situation. Recent developments in sociology of memory further emphasize the blurred lines between past and present. Just as Emile Durkheim discarded the idea of the lonely suicidal individual, the sociology of memory, in exploring the social aspects of the mental act of remembering, rejects the existence of "mnemonic Robinson Crusoes." Memory is "a perpetually actual phenomenon,' writes Pierre Nora, "a bond tying us to the eternal present. It is common knowledge now that our memory of the past is affected by our present social environment. Scholars highlight this structured character of past recollections: The "relational setting" in which actors are located affects the depth, tone, and the very facts of their memories. This article can be seen as an attempt to build upon these recent developments in the domain of the sociology of memory. At the same time, it provides a more finegrained analysis of the structuring and relational character of collective memories.

Presents an introduction to the September 1998 issue of the journal "Qualitative Sociology,"

The kinds of research questions asked in the sociology of sport are no different from those generated by other substantive areas of sociology. However, while the more established areas of social inquiry have developed methods of research specifically suited to the situation in which their research is done, the sociology of sport has not yet reached this stage of development. The theoretical frameworks borrowed from other areas in sociology generate relevant questions, while the research methods borrowed from other areas in sociology often require adaptation to the particular situations found in the sociology of sport. This paper looks at three specific areas of sports study, and points to those problems that require new adaptations of the available research methods in order to deal with specific situational constraints. These areas may be roughly defined as: (a) the analysis of patterns of ownership in professional sports; (b) the analysis of athietic careers within the occupational culture of sport and (c) the analysis of sports audiences. The authors conclude that theoretically informed and relevant research can be conducted in these areas provided that researchers are able to find imaginative adaptations of their techniques and procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noting the emergence of ethnographic or fieldwork methods as the preferred methodology of many researchers in the sociology of deviance, this article focuses on a particular problem which occurs when such methods are adapted to the study of deviant groups, namely the strains that develop in researchers' relationships with professional colleagues and significant others, particularly family and friends, outside of academia. The article is based on the authors' observations of others' reactions to their research on the homosexual or gay subculture, informal conversations with sociologists who have done fieldwork among stigmatized groups, and more general observations of the ways in which sociology is practiced. The authors seek to increase awareness of the problem especially among those who will do similar studies in the future, and to offer practical suggestions that may be employed to reduce the possibility of labeling and its accompanying problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are "good" kinds of archival evidence for theorizing? Surprisingly, the word archive and discussions of the archival process rarely appear in methods textbooks or discussions of methods in historical sociology. Yet, much recent historicized sociology relies upon documents left over by a small group of actors to make large-scale claims. To address this oversight, we leverage the evidentiary strengths of qualitative sociology and translate them for historical sociology. Our central argument is that three kinds of archival evidence are likely to produce generalizable claims: positive contingency, learning by mistakes, and plausible alternatives. Examples are illustrated with the cases of jail overcrowding in Los Angeles County, anti-redlining policy in the Federal Reserve, and immigration policy in the Dillingham commission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 1 year of ethnographic fieldwork in Los Angeles, this article examines how Latina nannies create workplace solidarity in a public park. This article reveals how nannies use public spaces in the neighborhoods in which they work to establish ties similar to co-worker relations in other settings. This paper demonstrates how nannies create a community at the park by incorporating park staff into their activities, reinforcing group values such as sharing and reciprocity, and distinguishing themselves from their employers. Adding to previous research which highlights the atomization and stigmatization that comes with domestic employment, this article shows how nannies create co-worker relationships that are buffers against unfavorable job conditions such as solitary work settings and unappreciative employers.

The article presents information on the December 1989 issue of the journal Qualitative Sociology. The issue presents four specialized studies of social and cultural elements of mundane reality. Many practitioners of mainstream sociology will be quick to object to such studies. Once again, some will say, qualitative sociologists are wasting their energies on irrelevant trivia. The development of a systematic body of sociological knowledge requires research into the mundane aspects of social activities. It is precisely through studies of this kind, which attend to details of social and cultural life because of their direct import for a sociological curiosity, that one can examine most immediately the fundamentals of social life. It is when sociology gives free rein to its disciplinary imagination, unconstrained by a concern for practical consequences, that it constructs its purest data. Various scholars, including many social scientists have made much of the biological conditioning of human culture.

In this article, the authors discuss what is qualitative sociology and why the journal "Qualitative Sociology," has been named so. Qualitative sociology is the endeavor to apprehend the basic elements constituting human social relations. It proceeds by self-awareness, reflective participation in relationships of meaning with the human actors who are under study, whether directly through participant observation or, less directly, through hermeneutic interpretation, historical reconstitution, or theoretical analysis. It respects the meanings in terms of which the activities under study, as instances of human activity, are configured and anticipates the creativity of all situated human endeavors. It emphasizes reflective creativity and expects the vitality of creative conduct to reside in particulars, but connects the possibility of creativity to ongoing institutions that may be large and complicated. Qualitative sociology thus must encompass the fields of macroanalysis and theoretical generalization, even if it is most often practiced in the form of ethnographies of specific situations.

While the National Organization for Women (NOW) has endured over time, it has faced significant internal factionalism. In this article, I ask why some of these factions resulted in schisms, while other factions persisted in NOW over time. This is a critical question for understanding how organizational location and factional collective identities combine to produce different outcomes when internal conflict breaks out. My analysis of interview, archival, and secondary data indicates that organizational location influences factions' independent collective identities, shaping what they want and their perceptions of opportunities to change their organization. Compared to national level factions, local factions also lack the ability to use NOW's hierarchical structure to their advantage in their effort to stay. This sheds lights on the distinct patterns of factionalism and schism in formalized groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can local public sociology look like, and what does it accomplish? This essay tracks the origins, makings and impacts of the book Invisible in Austin to evaluate its model of public sociology: as a collective enterprise with a local aim. Invisible in Austin: Life and Labor in an American City, the culmination of a three-year collaborative qualitative research project between a professor and twelve graduate students, depicts social suffering as lived for 11 individuals in Austin, Texas-a booming, highly segregated city with one of the country's highest levels of income inequality. In its design, production, and effects, it envisions public sociology in a two-fold sense-in its joint, horizontal making, and in its intent to intervene in the local public sphere to make visible the daily lived experience of social marginality for those whose labor allows Austin to survive and thrive as a hip, creative technopolis-house cleaners, office machine repairers, cab drivers, restaurant cooks and dish washers, exotic dancers, musicians, and roofers, among them. Reflecting on the origins of the book, its joint assembling, and its outcomes thus far, we take stock of the lessons learned. In so doing, we provide a rubric for evaluating the wide spectrum of possible impacts of a public sociological intervention: through direct and indirect audience engagements, on the project's subjects, and on local public policy. This reflection concludes with three suggestions: to approach public sociology as collective enterprise, to take narrative seriously, and to seek wide exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do individuals' sexual identities, in the sense of who they are as sexual beings, change? Research addressing this question in the modern U.S. setting points to several factors, including macrolevel societal transformations, vernacular culture, interpersonal interactions, psychodynamics, and life course transitions. Yet it is less clear how these diverse factors are configured in broader social processes. This article draws on and extends the pragmatist mechanism-based approach to social theory to illuminate a key causal pathway whereby individuals' sexual identities may change. I argue that habits, specifically taken-for-granted ways of doing and thinking about sexuality, are a crucial constituent of sexual identities. But when individuals encounter problem situations to which existing habits are inadequate responses, they are more likely to do and think about sexuality creatively. Incorporation of these creative responses into stocks of habits can readily encompass shifts in sexual identities. The argument is illustrated using people's dramatic reflections on the first three iterations of the Lascivious Costume Ball, a sexuality-themed party that occurred at the University of Chicago. The Ball dramatized the radical historical moment of the Sixties and functioned as an exceptional problem situation for all but three of my respondents. The utility of the theory centers on its capacity to (1) generate more precise explanations of how individuals' sexual identities change; (2) integrate distinct literatures on sexual identity into a carefully generalizable theory of individual change; and (3) highlight a crucial relational dimension of certain problem situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occurring at a time when military interventions appeared to be a matter of the past, the coup attempt of July 15, 2016 left a major mark on Turkish society and politics. This article approaches the July 15 coup attempt as a contingent and transformative event and investigates how symbolic processes helped determine its immediate outcome as well as its cultural, social, and political consequences. Linking the sociological literature on events with social performance theory, the study argues that the putschists' ineffectiveness in projecting legitimacy and power in the critical hours of the coup attempt significantly contributed to its failure. The retrospective construction of an authoritative 'Narrative of July 15' in the following weeks, on the other hand, enabled the government to implement specific institutional changes in the cultural, economic, and political domains. The study proposes a two-step analysis for the cultural construction of political events and suggests that social performance theory provides useful analytical tools for tracing the course and explaining the outcome of this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics related to cultural power including the model of classical cultural theory, cultural sociology and the power of culture through the idea of ontological emergence.

This article elaborates the social ontology and methodology of carnal sociology as a distinctive mode of social inquiry eschewing the spectatorial posture to grasp action-in-the-making, in the wake of debates triggered by my apprenticeship-based study of boxing as a plebeian bodily craft. First I critique the notions of (dualist) agent, (externalist) structure, and (mentalist) knowledge prevalent in the contemporary social sciences and sketch an alternative conception of the social animal, not just as wielder of symbols, but as sensate, suffering, skilled, sedimented, and situated creature of flesh and blood. I spotlight the primacy of embodied practical knowledge arising out of and continuously enmeshed in webs of action and consider what modes of inquiry are suited to deploying and mining this incarnate conception of the agent. I argue that enactive ethnography, the brand of immersive fieldwork based on 'performing the phenomenon,' is a fruitful path toward capturing the cognitive, conative, and cathectic schemata (habitus) that generate the practices and underlie the cosmos under investigation. But it takes social spunk and persistence to reap the rewards of 'observant participation' and achieve social competency (as distinct from empirical saturation). In closing, I return to Bourdieu's dialogue with Pascal to consider the special difficulty and urgency of capturing the 'spirit of acuteness' that animates such competency but vanishes from normal sociological accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtually nothing is in print on sociological applications of artificial intelligence (Al). Neither of the major sociological discourses- correlational and participant observational - have shown any signs of alteration at the methodological level, and barely any at the theoretical or technical levels, in several decades. The goal of AI is to understand and aid thinking, and that requires locating thought as a process within culture. Continuously since its mid nineteenth century beginnings in England, qualitative sociological research has been about the uses, construction, and de- and reconstruction of thought. That's one of the surprises about AI for many sociologists: the programs are especially effective where, as two scientists work on the grammar of medical records exemplifies, they help bring about more sophisticated readings of social texts. In "A Rationalist Methodology for the Social Sciences," David Sylvan and the author applied LOGLISP, a logic program, in an effort to better understand Simmel's conflict-cohesion hypothesis, and in work with Ernest Sibert and Anne Shelly.

The article discusses epistemological dilemmas in cultural sociology. Topics include the methodology of cultural sociology including qualitative and quantitative methods, the role of layers of social and political realities in understanding individual and collective behavior, and the correlation between methods and meanings in sociology.