Search

Despite being a central topic, current theories of motivation in sociology remain underdeveloped. This paper supplements existing sociological theories on motivation with insights from affective and cognitive neuroscience to address this issue. The resulting sociological affective model of motivation treats affect as an independent force that sometimes coordinates with cognition while taking charge at other times. Drawing on recent work in the neuroscience of motivation and reward, the paper shows how two affective mechanisms—wanting and liking—can shed light on various behavioral outcomes of interest while allowing for sharper theorizing of key distinctions that need clarification in the literature. By examining the distinctive contribution of each process, the paper reveals a proactive, desire‐driven agent often overlooked by prevailing sociological models emphasizing a reactive actor responding creatively and deliberately when internal meanings and external cues are incongruent. The paper concludes by outlining the broader implications of this synthetic affective model of motivation for sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Tammy L. Anderson b is a Professor in the University of Delaware's Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and the principal investigator of the Delaware Opioid Metric Intelligence Project, funded by the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. B Catrin Lundström b is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Ethnicity and Migration at the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO) at Linköping University. She completed her B.A. in Sociology at UC Berkeley in 2003 and earned her PhD in Sociology from Princeton University in 2009. B Logan Neitzke-Spruill b is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Delaware, specializing in the areas of sociological theory and the sociology of health and medicine. [Extracted from the article]

Over the last 20 years, suicide rates have grown across most demographic groups in the United States, making the sociological study of suicide as imperative now as it was in Durkheim's day. For the most part, however, sociologists study suicide solely using Durkheim's analytic strategy. The following article recovers a text on suicide long since forgotten by sociology. Divided into three parts, the article begins first by revisiting Ruth Cavan's social disorganizational theory of suicide, eventually culminating in a formalization of her theory. Second, the article brings contemporary social scientific ideas to bear on her theory to modify and extend its empirical utility. Third, the article considers the implications this theoretical exercise has for an increasingly vibrant and creative sociology of suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite important efforts by postcolonial scholars to "decolonize" sociology, this endeavor remains limited by the scaffolding of empirical research, or the institutionalized practices and beliefs embedded within data collection and researchers' relationship to research subjects. In its current form, this scaffolding excludes "subaltern" voices from critiquing and extending sociological theory, deriving benefits from the study, or informing social actions that stem from the research. This limits the field's understanding of the multi‐faceted impacts of colonialism and retrenches inequalities between scholars and participants. Participatory Action Research (PAR) offers an alternative, decolonial infrastructure. PAR acknowledges the value of knowledge from the periphery and calls for (1) the participation of marginalized research populations in each step of the research process; (2) co‐learning between researchers and participants; and (3) collaborative social action that centers the needs of marginalized research populations. Drawing on a case study of PAR in Rio de Janeiro, I demonstrate how PAR allows sociologists, in partnership with historically colonized groups, to decolonize sociology not only in theory, but in the concrete practices of empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Souls" essay was composed over April and May of 1910 (Hughey 2020) - the same period Du Bois finished composing I Prayers i (Du Bois 1980:v). For example, Du Bois cites Esther 4:9-16 and writes, "Mercifully grant us, O God, the spirit of Esther that we say: I will go unto the King and if I perish, I perish - Amen" (Du Bois 1980:21). No more than two decades after composing these 71 prayers, Du Bois admitted he did not believe prayer functioned as a "fitting petition" to a "King of the world" who would "change the course of world events" (Du Bois 1929). [Extracted from the article]

His primary areas of interest are cultural sociology, cognitive social science, computational social science, sociological theory, and political sociology. Luis' research areas include the sociology of culture, sociological theory, economic sociology, political sociology, and qualitative methods. B Alina Arseniev-Koehler b is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. [Extracted from the article]

Sociological theory and historical precedent suggest that pandemics engender scapegoating of outgroups, but fail to specify how the ethnoracial boundaries defining outgroups are drawn. Using a survey experiment that primed half of the respondents (California registered voters) with questions about COVID‐19 during April 2020, we ask how the pandemic influenced attitudes toward immigration, diversity and affect toward Asian Americans. In the aggregate, the COVID prime did not affect attitudes toward immigrants, but did reduce support for policies opening a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and reduced appreciation of California's diversity. Respondents reported rarely feeling anger or fear toward Asian Americans, and rates were unaffected by the COVID prime. A non‐experimental comparison between attitudes toward immigrants in September 2019 and April 2020 found a positive change, driven by change among Asian‐American and Latino respondents. The results provide selective support for the proposition that pandemics engender xenophobia. At least in April 2020 in California, increased bias crimes against Asian Americans more likely reflected politicians' authorization of scapegoating than broad‐based racial antagonism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]