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Erving Goffman has a reputation as an intellectual maverick who did not fit neatly into any disciplinary mold. His failure to adhere to professional conventions and occasionally off-putting demeanor are mentioned as an aside that has little to do with his oversize influence on the science of society. This paper advances a thesis that Goffman's status as the most cited American sociologist and widespread influence across social science is related to his principled refusal to fit his scholarship into prevailing scholarly canons. The argument is made that Goffman shared with his mentor, Everett Hughes, misgivings about the narrow professional focus in contemporary sociology, that his cross-disciplinary approach advanced social inquiry beyond its traditional confines, and that his colloquial style and penchant for long essays helped disseminate his ideas. The discussion starts with an overview of Goffman's professional career, after which it moves to the reception of his ideas by fellow sociologists and the impact of his work on neighboring disciplines. The study draws on the interviews, correspondence, and other documents assembled in the Erving Goffman Archives, as well as on several social science citation indexes and datasets illuminating Goffman's stature in various fields of scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a step-by-step guide for the undergraduate instructor in how to launch a student journal. The authors describe their experiences over the past four years in publishing the student journal at Wayne County Community College in Detroit, Michigan. Though there were some problems and pitfalls, the authors concluded that it was a rewarding educational experience and strongly recommend its replication at other undergraduate institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Goffman's terms, qualitative interviews are social encounters with their own realities. Hence, the 'situational critique' holds that interviews cannot produce knowledge about the world beyond these encounters, and that other methods, ethnography in particular, render lived life more accurately. The situational critique cannot be dismissed; yet interviewing remains an indispensable sociological tool. This paper demonstrates the value that situationalism holds for interviewing. We examine seemingly contradictory findings from interview studies of middle-class identity (cultural hierarchies and/or egalitarianism?). We then render these contradictions comprehensible by interpreting data excerpts through 'methodological situationalism': Goffman's theories of interaction order, ritual, and frontstage/backstage. In 'situationalist interviewing,' we suggest that sociologists be attentive to the 'imagined audiences' and 'imagined communities'. These are key to identifying the situations, interaction orders, and cultural repertoires that lie beyond the interview encounter, but to which it refers. In sum, we argue for greater situational awareness among sociologists who must rely on interviews. We also discuss techniques and measures that can facilitate situational awareness. A promise of situational interviewing is that it helps us make sense of contradictions, ambiguities, and disagreements within and between interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social ontology studies the nature and properties of social reality while social metaontology examines the relationship between ontology and the social sciences, which is often treated as a normative question. However, social sciences themselves contain ontological theses, raising the descriptive question of how these internal ontologies relate to the rest of the social sciences. This paper argues that important parts of sociology have an anti-foundationalist metaontology. This descriptive claim is used to build a normative argument against foundationalism and is supported by examining the works of Durkheim and Weber and how their metaontological beliefs continue to influence many sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merton proposed middle range theories, not as ends in themselves, but as bases for a consolidation to explain broader phenomenon. More than a half century has passed since Merton's consolidation proposal and in that time a number of experimentally tested middle range theories have been developed. Certainly, the next step should be a consolidation. Yet, to our knowledge, no one has previously offered a consolidation of experimentally tested theories and applied it for explanation. This paper offers a consolidation of middle range theories formulated to explain the rise of the pristine state. Two theories of this consolidation, Status Characteristics Theory and Elementary Theory, form the core of what Analytic Sociologists have called a toolbox of theories. Our toolbox forms an integrated consolidation in two ways. First, the social structures modeled by the theories form a path-dependent process of increasing benefits gained by the elites of the structures. Second, the end conditions of each step of the process are the initial conditions of the next. Whereas the theories in our toolbox have previously been seen as applying exclusively to microstructures, we have encountered no difficulties in scaling them up to apply to macrostructures. While we hope the consolidation has validity in explaining the occurrence of pristine states, this paper's significance lies in its demonstration that today social theories can be consolidated and applied for explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a collaboration between a sociologist and a writing instructor to develop a Human Ecology course that stresses problem-solving and written communication. The emphasis on thinking and writing skills means reduced time for lectures but increased student ability to identify, resolve, and communicate issues in sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the paper is to identify the logic of the sociological field in the GDR, looking at how it was spatialized in the city of East Berlin. In this regard, I am less interested in providing an overview of the different research streams of the main sociologists operating in the scientific and academic institutes located in Berlin than in reconstructing some crucial dynamics at work there and highlighting their effects at the social and symbolic levels. The underlying idea is that, especially in East Berlin, the sociological knowledge produced was less homogeneous than it has been represented in the existing literature. Without negating the existence of shared aspects characterizing Marxist-Leninist sociology, also superimposed on the political elite, a field analysis enables us to see how the different positions and trajectories of GDR-sociologists had an impact on their approaches to theoretical, epistemological, and methodological questions, and on their understanding and uses of concepts deriving from both Marxist-Leninist and "bourgeois" sociology. In the analysis, I will first compare the social trajectories of two of my interview-partners as paradigmatic of two different sociological habitus depending on their different academic/political socialization, networks, and positions in the field. As a second step, I will present a sketch of the sociological field drawn from 63 curricula of sociologists active in East Berlin in an attempt to pinpoint, on a larger scale, the homologies between the social and symbolic spaces of the field. Thus, the underlying idea is to examine the intersection of the "quasi-structural properties" of the field with its "phenomenological aspects" concerning the "feel for the game." While the two understandings of field are interdependent, it is in the second one that the physical space as a localized social space played a crucial role in defining the material, social, and cultural constraints and opportunities actors faced which, in turn, influenced their practices and choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport scandals have attracted significant interest within and beyond the sociology of sport. However, developing a theoretical understanding of sport scandals has so far been neglected. Therefore, the two-fold purpose of this conceptual paper is to outline a theoretical model for understanding the form of a sport scandal, and to construct two typical sport scandals that can assist us in theorizing and differentiating how sport scandals may have varying effects on society. In our work, we rely on insights on form formulated by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann combined with notions of ideal types derived from Max Weber. Accordingly, scandals are described as examples of paradoxical forms where excluded meaning re-enters to create spaces of temporary liminality. Despite their common characteristics, we are able to construct two ideal types of scandals – bureaucratic fallacy and charismatic failure – to understand why scandals may have varying impacts on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comment on a previous article that appeared in a previous issue of the journal Review of Religious Research. According to the author the article by sociologists R.W. Bibby and M.B. Brinkerhoff contains some interesting ideas, especially when taken together with their closely related paper, which, as well, is a major contribution to the literature on church organization and of why people join churches. However, the article has some problems that call to question some of its conclusions. First, the paper seems to set up a questionable "straw man" to justify its own existence. The authors say "It has been a popular pastime in armchair and social scientific reflections upon religion to assert that the religious are drawn from the ranks of society's deprived." According to the author of this article his understanding of the deprivation literature is that it usually seeks to explain why people join new and somewhat deviant religious groups, and how such groups and movements are started and grow.

The rich tradition of stigma theoretics in marketing and consumer research develops understanding of consumer stigma management, mitigated via marketing-mediated solutions, broadly within a Goffmanian liberal frame. However, building on classic liberal formulations of stigma, sociologists of stigma further examine the impact of the neoliberal political economy in terms of where stigma is produced, by whom and for what purposes. Using the empirical illustration of the emergence of HIV PreExposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), this paper seeks to develop these stigma theoretics towards the concept of stigma diffraction exploring the multiple stigma effects that can be identified and conceptualised through a diffractive lens. This encompasses and theorises beyond traditionally stigmatised contexts, groups and individuals to conceptualise a dynamic and diverse field of 'stigmas that matter'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of research using Talcott Parsons's papers at the Harvard University Archives, Charles Camic read "Prolegomena to a Theory of Social Institutions" in manuscript form. Given sociologists' continuing interest in Parsons's ideas, Camic suggested that ASR make the paper widely available. We are pleased to do so in this issue. Camic's prologue places "Prolegomena" in the historical context of Parsons's work. Both James Coleman and Jeffrey Alexander have previously written about Parsons and were asked to comment on the implications of "Prolegomena" for our understanding of his theoretical contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the appointment of its first full-time professor in L.T. Hobhouse in 1907, British sociology lost an environmental approach that might have substantially altered the shape of the discipline. The environmental approach was that of Patrick Geddes, who made the relationship between people and their environments central for individual and social well-being. In spite of the fact that urban Britain was undergoing environmental crisis due to the negative effects of unrestrained industrialization, a range of other circumstances, personal as well as political and both inside and outside the academy, conspired to coalesce in the more or less deliberate exclusion of Geddes' ideas. The paper suggests that sociologists need to take a radically reflexive approach to the history of their own discipline that recognizes its embeddedness in the wider social world, since both individual and social action, as well as structural forces, may be as influential as quality or coherence in determining the fate of the ideas and theories that they create. In Geddes' case, this leads to a re-examination of both the historical context and the debate surrounding the establishment of sociology at the London School of Economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most social scientists agree that case studies are useful for "theory building," but ethnographic methods papers often look to survey research for case selection strategies. This is due to a common but untenable distinction between theoretical and empirical generalization, which obscures how theoretically inclined ethnographers make implicit external validity claims. I analyze several exemplary ethnographies to show that (a) the distinction between theoretically and empirically oriented ethnography revolves around competing conventions for making claims that others accept as provisionally externally valid, (b) comparative-historical sociology provides a framework for evaluating how theoretically oriented ethnographies make such claims, and (c) each approach to making validity claims is optimized by different kinds of cases. Empirically oriented ethnographies make inductive claims via "pointy" cases wherein a phenomenon is pronounced or bifurcated. Theoretically oriented ethnographers are like post–Millian historical sociologist who triangulate past studies with resolutive or negative cases to make constitutive arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reply to the comments made by sociologists Pat Lauderdale and Gerald Larson on their paper discussing the Marxian conflict and the sociology of law. The authors express their discontent on the comments and clarify that their paper primarily reviewed the conflict-consensus debate and the Marxian perspective on crime and law that has emerged. Lauderdale and Larson are concerned with the conclusion that the version of the Marxian perspective examined in the paper is (1) prone to logical errors, (2) largely unconfirmed, (3) often unconformable and (4) possibly quite frequently false. They argue that the charge that the perspective is unconformable raises the thorny issue of what are considered testable hypotheses within the perspective. It is opined that rather than presenting evidence on this issue, Lauderdale and Larson simply ignore it. Further, in their comments on the paper, Lauderdale and Larson are concerned that the paper has confused the external and internal validity of sociologist Anthony Platt's findings. However, it is Platt, if anyone, who confuses the issue of internal and external validity.

Why was the "American Sociological Review" so atheoretical? The principal aim was to improve both the quality and quantity of theory in the Review. One possible answer is that the reviewers are defining theory too narrowly, that there was more theory in the Review than met their eyes. The term is ambiguous, with many different meanings for different sociologists. The limits to the powers of an editor are best seen by working backwards through these six stages. One would suppose that at least in deciding what is published the editor has great powers. He does-over about a third of the manuscripts submitted. An important principle on which any journal is founded is that decisions to publish are the collaborative product of intersubjective agreement on what is fact and what is reasoned inference. This means that the power of an editor to decide the fate of a paper is limited to those instances where referees disagree or those where they agree that a paper should be revised and resubmitted.

Independently as departments and collectively as an association of professionals and teachers, sociologists are beginning to address seriously the need to restructure the sociology major. The development of a senior capstone course, which helps students to synthesize and integrate their sociological experience, is a fundamental aspect of the curricular restructuring. This paper provides an account of one department's attempt to restructure the curriculum and achieve desired student outcomes. Developing a capstone course and assessing students' progress toward established objectives provided the impetus for significant restructuring. The capstone course, with its possibilities for use in evaluation, is no panacea for curricular weaknesses, but it provides excellent opportunities for actions that will improve both the major and the graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has produced an upsurge of interest in affect and emotion. The classic theorists always recognized the important motivating force of affective response. In the late 1970's, sociologists challenged the popular view that emotions were a private, biological or psychological phenomenon by expressing the insight that most emotions originate in social events. Much debate has centered on the dispute between positivist autonomic and social constructionist positions. There are many signs now that the fast-growing research on emotions is maturing into a more highly developed substantive area. Having successfully declared the sociological relevance of the new subfield. Researchers interested in the new social analyses of emotions have formed their own community to a large extent. Quantitative work in the emotion area seems to be focused on stable aspects of affective response. Some surveys use traditional questionnaires to assess cultural beliefs. Others measure sentiments, the relatively enduring affective features of ongoing relationships.

Sociology, like all the social sciences, is concerned with understanding human behavior, particularly behavior directly linked to social processes. There is considerable overlap between sociology and its sister disciplines, all of which appear to experience a problem with the publication process. In its most concrete form, sociology may be identified by what is published by sociologists as sociology. The thesis of this paper is that there are serious problems with regard to the review process, particularly among the three major general journals, for they lack either a particular substantive or theoretical focus. Furthermore, it is argued that these problems have serious implications for the content of sociology journals and the behavior of many sociologists. It the investigator decides to work within an existing paradigm then, indicates, this wilt frequently lead to serious distortions of reality in the data collection, analysis, and presentation. In contrast, investigators who decide to disregard existing paradigms have virtually no guidelines on how to proceed, for one of the basic functions of paradigms is to provide guidelines.

The article documents the writings of sociologist Samuel Wilson Blizzard. Some of them are "The Attitudes of Rural and Urban High School Students Toward the Values of Rural Livings" published in 1946. "The Value of Man," published in February 1948. "Problems in Meeting Religious Needs in the Rural-Urban Fringe" an address given at the National Presbyterian Town and Country Conference, Champaign, Illinois. "Social Participation Patterns of Husbands and Wives Who Are Migrants in the City" published in 1952, "The Church and the Community: A Discussion Guide for Christian Action; and an Instructor's Manual," published in 1952, "The Rural Church and its Community Relations," a paper presented at the Rural Leadership Institute, University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture and Home Economics, Lexington, April 1953, "The Place of the Social Sciences in Theological Training for Rural Ministers, The Christian Mission in the Rural Social Process," (New York: National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., Department of Town and Country Church), October 1955; and many others.

The papers by Mauksch and Baker posed two fundamental questions: (1) How can academic culture be changed to recognize the critical importance of instruction in higher education? and (2) How can academic culture be changed to recognize teaching as a reputable professional activity of obvious significance to institutions of higher education? Most of the discussion of the two papers centered on policies or theories of action. With the exception of Baker's small-win strategies, we did not discuss specific tactics through which the principal goals night be achieved. Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect that this symposium would or could have done so. But an agenda of goals has been laid out, together with a handful of policies or strategies to attain them. Now it is time to operationalize those policies, and we invite all sociologists, or other readers who share these interests, to consider specific activities to serve that end. The lime is mole propitious than it has been for decades. The publication of, and widespread media attention to, national reports critical of instruction and curriculum in undergraduate education has opened a window of opportunity. These reports have received attention, critical attention, in many states. Action is almost sure to follow. If the academic profession wishes to remain in control of its own house, it must act as well, and quickly. Teaching Sociology, which is now published by he ASA and which replaces the Teaching Newsletter, is one vehicle through which suggestions and programs can be circulated. We sincerely hope that the coming months will see them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the Run has spurred public debates about the ethics of ethnography. The controversy surrounds the fact that the sociologist/ethnographer drove a participant who was armed with a gun and the intent to commit murder. Ethical concerns are not new to ethnography. A previous generation of sociologists and ethnographers faced similar dilemmas: Did those who studied jazz bands also take drugs with the band members? Did those who studied gangs have knowledge of criminal activity to which the police might prefer to be privy? And yet, with new technologies and media-sharing platforms, ethnographers face increased scrutiny. The paper, as a result, focuses on debates regarding perennial ethical conundrums: what to tell, whether to tell, and to whom it might be told. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author explores the legacy of the late sociologist David Frisby and his contribution to sociology. The author highlighted Frisby's translation of "Philosophy of Money," by Georg Simmel. The author describes Frisby's generosity and thoughtfulness. An overview of the papers included in the February 2013 issue of the "Journal of Classical Sociology," as a tribute to Frisby is provided.

Despite the decolonial turn among sociologists, we have yet to engage a vast amount of thought produced by anti-colonial movements. The circumvention of much of this thought indexes overly restrictive understandings of what constitutes social theory, and I diagnose three ways in which this plays out. Anti-colonial movement texts provide striking demonstrations of this limitation, and of what is lost as a result. Through a close study of a banned 1970s pamphlet from Pakistan, I show that critically deepening the decolonial project through an engagement with movement texts raises ethical questions about the academy's relationship to political struggle and demands new methodologies of archival retrieval that recognise the scattered, fragmented condition of texts subject to colonial violence. If addressed, southern movement texts reveal counter-infrastructures of knowledge production replete with counter-political vocabularies that challenge homogenising academic definitions of the Global South and enrich our theories of decolonial praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines recent innovations in the way the concept of the state is employed by geographers researching forced migrants’ and refugees’ experiences. A still-dominant body of thought tends to essentialize the state and foreground both its institutional forms and coercive powers by asking questions that take the primacy of these attributes for granted. In response, poststructuralist geographers and sociologists have begun to forge alternative views of states, drawing upon a useful cynicism over the coherence of the state, as well as an engagement with Foucauldian notions of governmentality. The paper examines these alternative approaches in order to distil the characteristics of an emerging critical asylum geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will highlight the evolution of defensible space theory -- from Newman's original theoretical model to some of the subsequent theoretical and empirical developments that have been made in the past 35 years. By charting these developments in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of defensible space, the aim of this paper is to illuminate the aspects of the theory that remain ambiguous and those that have been clarified to some extent by developments in criminological research. This paper will suggest that the most ambiguous of Newman's concepts is that of 'milieu'. It will be argued that this key defensible space concept draws on situational aspects of spatial layout and accessibility, land-use patterns and routine activities of place. With this in mind, this paper will attempt to re-conceptualize defensible space within the context of situational crime prevention theory by elucidating the effect that routine activities of place have on territoriality and the creation of defensible space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sociologists have had a longstanding interest in religious leadership and congregational authority structures, most of the research in this area ignores the fact that many congregational leaders started the congregations they lead. Being in this unique position, founding pastor, likely gives them unusual authority to shape church policy and practice in, as yet, unexamined ways. Using three waves of the National Congregational Study, we examine differences between congregations led by their first (i.e., founding) pastor and congregations led by subsequent pastors hired by or assigned to those congregations. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is one of the final volumes in the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe and is entitled Verstehende Soziologie und Werturteilsfreiheit. It is ostensibly on Weber's methodological writings but most of the contents appear to be rather minor pieces— a large number of conference comments, small contributions, and several book reviews. Yet, this is an important work because of those pieces as well as the two major essays on methodology: "Über einige Kategorien der verstehende Soziologie" (1913) and "Der Sinn der 'Wertfreiheit' der soziologischen und ökonomischen Wissenschaften" (1917), both of which were originally published in the journal Logos. As with all of Weber's writings on methodology, these two essays are difficult to comprehend; yet, they are critical for grasping Weber's sociology. The first one sets out Weber's conception of "understanding" in history while the second explains why he believes his distinction between facts and values is critical for scholars. He suggests that we may not understand everything that occurred in history but we can understand enough; if we did not, then there would be no historical discipline. His words concerning the need for intellectual honesty are as important today as when he wrote them more than one hundred years ago. This book is a worthy companion to the forthcoming volume Zur Logik und Methodik der Sozialwissenschaften and is crucial for understanding Weber's path to sociology. It is a worthy final addition to the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe. And, it is a worthy successor to the Gesammelte Schriften zur Wissensschaftslehre. For anyone hoping to understand how Weber became the famous sociologist, this book is necessary reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myth is a meta-language that shapes our cultures and the way we individually and collectively make sense of reality. This paper presents the methodologies of French anthropologist and sociologist Gilbert Durand as a way to unveil how ancient myths contribute to the symbolic construction of societal leaders in times of crisis. To do so, it analyses the controversy of the selection of Time magazine's Person of the Year, which confronted the figures of Julien Assange and Mark Zuckerberg. The myth analysis of their Wikipedia biographies will show that despite the fact these two personalities are considered almost opposites, the structure of the collective shared narratives about each of them follow the structure of the myth of Hermes, one shaping the grand narrative of the postmodern era. Realizing why and how the myth of Hermes promotes our contemporary leaders, sometimes apparent antagonists, contributes to better understanding of the unconscious drives of their symbolic construction, and enabling critical engagement with the rationales of their emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have long reflected on what should be taught in sociology. In recent years, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has produced several important publications on key principles and learning goals for the introductory course. However, little current work has systematically examined what peer-recognized leaders in the field deem important for introductory sociology. This paper is an effort to fill this research gap. Our research questions include: What do leaders think students should understand after an introduction to sociology course? Do the goals of Teaching Award winners differ from those of other leaders? How do the leaders' goals compare with those expressed in leading SoTL publications? To address these questions, we interviewed a sample of 44 leaders in 2005-2006. Using qualitative content analysis, we systematically coded, analyzed, and compared their goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some sociologists of religion would argue that there has been a move away from‘religion’, in terms of institutionalised dogmas and established corporate ways of believing, towards‘spiritualities of life’ where the emphasis lies on the personal, the individual and the experiential (;). Given the evidence for the apparent popularity of spirituality in contemporary Western society, it is surprising that between 1996 and 2000, the Zone concerned with religion at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich was re-namedfrom‘The Spirit Zone’ to‘The Faith Zone’. A range of political, economic and religious interests lay behind the Zone’s re-naming, and both the name (and the content) changed to reflect‘religion’ rather than‘spirituality’. The process of constructing the Zone thus moved in a diametrically opposite direction to some of the trends associated with religious belief in modern Britain. An investigation of the dynamics behind the construction of the Faith Zone at the Dome provides an opportunity to evaluate what‘counted’ as religion () at a specific time and context in British society. The paper also shows that behind the Labour Government rhetoric of‘inclusion’, various dimensions of spiritual belief and activity in Britain areexcludedfrom the public sphere. When it comes to religion, taken-for-granted criteria operate– resulting in the prioritisation of the official, the‘representative’, the‘respectable’, and‘the unified’ over the unofficial, the deviant, the private, and the contested. This paper looks at the struggles and the conditions associated with the idea and the policy of inclusion in relation to religion in modern Britain, using the Faith Zone at the Dome as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant position on research methodology and methods among British sociologist has for many years been that of 'methodological pluralism'. However, concerns have lately been expressed about the lack of research involving quantitative methods, not least by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). A study of the four mainstream British journals over two years, tighter with associated sources, demonstrates national patterns of research methods used in published work, the topics tackled and variations between authors in the methods chosen. The findings suggest empirical support for the concerns recently expressed by the ESRC, and an argument, not for less qualitative research, but for more quantitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article develops an alternative vision of public sociology. Whereas public sociology is often defined through the actions of professional sociologists, this article calls for a recognition of reverse tutelage in public sociology. Here, publics are seen as sociological interlocutors who can, and often do, produce sociological theories and analyses that can inform professional sociology. I demonstrate this reverse tutelage by focusing on anticolonial and anti-racist social movements, including the Zapatistas, Black Lives Matter, Palestine Action, and Cops Are Flops. I highlight how they produce sociological theories of power, neoliberalism, race, bordering, and violence that can orient professional sociology toward relational forms of analysis that build connections between different sites of resistance. In doing so, I highlight how the boundary between what Burawoy terms "professional" and "critical" sociology is much more porous than initially theorized and that critical sociology—from wider publics—can significantly shape professional sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authors find John Levi Martin's comments on their paper cogently argued and provocative. The main burden of Martin's comment is that authors should accept a false antimony between external determination and unexplainable chance and consequently are reluctant to see human action as causal. First, authors contend that the conception of human agency as cause entails certain insuperable difficulties in analyzing some forms of human conduct, whether on the individual or the collective level. Second, they believe that chance as others define it is defensible as a component of much social behavior. Although social behavior is self-directed, constructed by the actors. As authors have tried to show in their paper, there is a need to recognize an indeterminate, chance component in certain instances. Such instances are most likely to be those entailing blocked or ambiguous courses of action which require decision making. When human beings encounter problematic situations, many alternative possibilities may be present and the outcomes may resist best efforts to explain them causally. The authors insist that this difficulty is ontological not a product simply of ignorance.

Replies to an article on sociologist Erving Goffman's status in the academic community, published in the journal 'Philosophy of the Social Sciences' in 1980. Goffman's marginality from the mainstream sociological community; Ontological existence of citations on Goffman's work.

The thesis of this paper contends that many sociologists who have attempted to apply Kuhn's argument in analyzing the status of sociology have misunderstood, or have refused to accept, the central meaning of his paradigm concept. In this paper we first clarify the notion of paradigm as explicated by Kuhn and by Margaret Masterman, and note that the "exemplar" is the central element in the concept. We then analyze the usage of the concept by sociologists who have attempted to ascertain the paradigmatic status of sociology and we focus in particular on the work of Friedrichs and that of Ritzer. In so doing, we show that they have concentrated almost exclusively on the less important, more general meanings of the paradigm concept and thus lose the major thrust of Kuhn's argument. Possible reasons for this misuse are discussed. Finally, we argue that sociology has relatively few exemplars, lacks a clear-cut puzzle-solving tradition, and tends to operate from discipline-wide perspectives. In this regard, sociology is not a mature science; attempts to treat it as such within Kuhn's framework are misdirected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the relevance of the sociology of science for the study of power. Though there is by no means complete agreement between sociologists of science, recent work in this area has suggested that (a) scientists negotiate not only about scientific but also social reality, and (b) the distinction between macro- and micro-sociology is an impediment rather than an aid to analysis. Thus, though there are indeed differences in scale, it is argued that these should be seen as the outcome of differentially effective attempts by scientists to impose versions of scientific and social reality.
The present paper extends this argument by considering the way in which a set of pharmacological experiments was undertaken in order to generate results and control aspects of the scientific and social environment. It is suggested that the experimentalist acted like an entrepreneur, combining a variety of potentially unruly resources with the aim of simplifying these and reducing them to docile figures on a sheet of paper. The strategies and materials used in this process of control are considered and three classes of potential resources are identified: natural objects or devices, people and inscriptions. It is argued that these have certain properties that render them relatively durable and transportable and hence convenient for the purpose of long distance social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent article in this journal Graham and Taylor discuss the development of demography and criminology and attempt to draw similarities between these 'sub-disciplines'.[1] The parallel development of these sub-disciplines is held to be comparable along several dimensions. The purpose of this comment it to point out what I perceive as an oversimplified and, in some cases, erroneous conception of demography. As a sociologist-demographer I claim no special competence in criminology; accordingly, my remarks are restricted to the characterization of demography as presented by Graham and Taylor.
Before examining specific points in the Graham-Taylor paper, several general remarks concerning their analysis are warranted. First, their conception of demography is extremely narrow and restricted. The sociologist unfamiliar with demography could easily form the impression, on the basis of their paper, that demography was primarily, if not exclusively, concerned with fertility and family planning. Other important topics such as mortality, population distribution and composition, population growth and decline, internal and international migration, urbanization, etc., are given only fleeting attention or are ignored altogether. Of course, any discussion must necessarily focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have typically defined "sect" and "church" or "denomination", the polar opposites of church-sect theory, in terms of multiple characteristics. Stark and Bainbridge, noting that competing lists of characteristics have caused confusion and that the use of several characteristics has limited the ability to measure transition from sect to denomination, proposed focusing instead on a single dimension, the religious group's tension with society. This paper tests the usefulness of this reformulation by exploring one such source of tension: holding a deviant position on military service when a state imposes conscription. Since part of the process of reducing tension between sect and state is accommodation by one or both parties, the paper also examines relations between a religious group and governments in a conflict situation, and the process of accommodation-or failure to come to terms-between them. It considers when accommodation occurs, which side accommodates, and the conditions under which failure to come to terms occurs. The vehicle used in this study is the evolution of the Seventh-day Adventist position on military service over the past 130 years. The Adventist position has been transformed during this period. The paper considers how successfully this measures Adventism's shift from sect towards denomination. Since church-sect theory has typically focused on a single country, but Adventism is a highly centralized international denomination, the paper introduces a new dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociology is just as much an art form as it is a science. And while sociologists and those in cognate disciplines have long experimented with their writing, the search for new academic forms and practices has acquired new urgency and potentiality. How we write up our research is of paramount importance: our language can be used in experimental and innovative ways to offer nuanced, critical commentary without foreclosing alternative viewpoints, and without excluding others from dialogue. Sociography offers spaces for new sensibilities and sensitivities; unresolved or incomplete argument; multiple, multi-dimensional and multiplying possibilities: for writing differently. As an intervention in writing the social, our collection works to resist the ideological promotion of dry, dispassionate, and seemingly 'objective' discourse, one which has traditionally upheld a set of dominant, privileged voices. And in so doing, our collection explores the potential of new ways of writing the social for both a trans- and post-disciplinary academy and a wider reading public; and seeks forms of writing that do justice to the critical curiosity that animates sociology. In sum, the challenge embraced by this collection is to argue for and showcase a praxis that activates sociological knowledge and enlarges the sociological imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper about what happens when a form of knowledge moves to another part of the university. The author, identifying himself as an 'ex-sociologist', investigates the relationship between the sociology of work, employment and organization and various 'critical' traditions within the business school. I argue that the contemporary divide between sociologies of work and employment, and Critical Management Studies ( CMS) within the business school rests in part on developments in UK sociology in the 1960s and 70s. This means that divergent understandings of the role of sociology and its relevant theoretical resources provided the deep structure for the current tension between CMS on the one hand and research on work and employment on the other. The movement of sociologists and industrial relations academics to the business school provided the preconditions for two very different critical traditions. The paper concludes with thoughts on what it means to be an outsider inside an institution, and on the future prospects for Burawoy's 'critical' or 'public' sociologies in UK business schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that sociologists interested in service work in consumer culture should pay attention to customers' understandings and accounts of their experience and participation in service encounters. It takes the market for sex as a case study and counters the neglect of customers within the study of service work by analysing customer service reviews of paid-for sex published on a UK website, Punternet. It argues that male customers, familiar with the norms of consumer culture, assess the erotic, aesthetic and emotional labours performed by female workers to make judgements of service quality which suggests that the feminised 'good worker' is defined as professional when they disguise the market transaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This overview of the publication market for sociologists in Austria also examines a few recent publications by Austrian sociologists. Writing in German, Austrian sociologists are highly dependent on the market in neighbouring Germany, where approximately one-third of the books written by Austrians are published. Particular deficiencies of books by Austrians published in Austria are careless editing, indexing and copy editing. Among types of publication, most common are volumes of collected papers and monographs. A small number of publications attempt 'diagnoses of the era', addressing a larger audience. Core areas are the history of sociology and the humanities, immigration and the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's response on the paper "The Obligation to bring about Good in Social work Research," by Ellen Bogolub on nursing research. He relates the paper from his own experience as a sociologist. He suggests that the hallowed first research rule is insufficient. He points out that one needs to try perform small courtesies for the research participants.

The paper offers reflections on the author's working experience as an industrial sociologist from the 1960s. It seeks to contextualise this in more general considerations of the part played by industrial sociology in the development of sociology in the UK. This is evidenced in thematic concerns, the importance of historical perspectives as well as the use of case studies and the development of ethnographic work. It discusses the role which industrial sociology has played in bringing issues of power, authority, control and class into sharp focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the classical sociological hypothesis of conservatism, specifically the 'Mannheim Hypothesis,' and its bearing on liberty or liberal modernity. The original formulation of the Mannheim Hypothesis posits that conservatism tends to oppose the 'principle of liberty' and, hence, liberal modernity or liberalism, defined as its immediate antagonist. This paper presents the Mannheim Hypothesis of conservatism and liberty, as well as its initial general solution by Mannheim and other classical sociologists. Then it attempts to solve this hypothesis by presenting relevant theoretical arguments and supporting empirical evidence. Overall this essay reaffirms the classical sociological solution of the Mannheim Hypothesis of conservatism and liberty in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the French Revolution constituted the basic metaphor through which Pierre Bourdieu perceived and analyzed gender hierarchies; that the class structure of the ancien régime and the mechanisms of its legitimation were the major metaphors he used through his scathing critiques on the order of the sexes; and that the ideals of liberté, égalité and fraternité were always his reformatory aims for a just, gender-neutral society. The paper shows how this preoccupation with the Revolution of 1789 structured Bourdieu's analysis of gender relations and sexual identities in contemporary society. It exposes the ways in which he identified men with the nobility and women with the third estate; it presents his analyses of the role that traditional ideologies and state bureaucracies play in legitimating this arbitrary order of masculine domination; and it analyzes his proposals for a sexual revolution while exposing the counter-revolutionary forces that persistently negate attempts to reform gender hierarchies. Fundamentally, this new reading of Bourdieu's exegeses on gender suggests that he was working with a ready-made interpretive scheme, a model of society that he was inclined to see as always reproducing itself: the ancien régime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Theory’ is one of the most important words in the lexicon of contemporary sociology. Yet, their ubiquity notwithstanding, it is quite unclear what sociologists mean by the words ‘theory,’‘theoretical,’ and ‘theorize.’ I argue that confusions about the meaning of ‘theory’ have brought about undesirable consequences, including conceptual muddles and even downright miscommunication. In this paper I tackle two questions: (a) what does ‘theory’ mean in the sociological language?; and (b) what ought ‘theory’ to mean in the sociological language? I proceed in five stages. First, I explain why one should ask a semantic question about ‘theory.’ Second, I lexicographically identify seven different senses of the word, which I distinguish by means of subscripts. Third, I show some difficulties that the current lack of semantic clarity has led sociology to. Fourth, I articulate the question, ‘what ought “theory” to mean?,’ which I dub the ‘semantic predicament’ (SP), and I consider what one can learn about it from the theory literature. Fifth, I recommend a ‘semantic therapy’ for sociology, and advance two arguments about SP: (a) the principle of practical reason—SP is to a large extent a political issue, which should be addressed with the help of political mechanisms; and (b) the principle of ontological and epistemological pluralism—the solution to SP should not be too ontologically and epistemologically demanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper arose from a larger study designed to explore what leaders in the field of sociology think are the most important goals and principles for students to understand after taking a college-level introductory course and how they teach those principles. A population of scholarly leaders in sociology was defined by various forms of peer recognition and included elected presidents of national and regional professional associations, recipients of national awards, and recipients of competitive research funding. In 2005 and 2006 we interviewed a sample of 44 leaders to gain an understanding of key principles and how they are taught. We report their teaching strategies and compare their strategies to those of other teachers and the recommendations in McKinney et al. (2004). Although similar in many respects, leaders are considerably more likely than other sociologists to engage students in research and somewhat more likely to use simulations or games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]