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This special issue of Information, Communication, and Society (ICS) is edited by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section of the American Sociological Association and includes papers that were first presented at either the 2021 or 2022 ASA meetings or Media Sociology Symposia. For this special issue, an innovative editorial approach was taken that brought the editing process into a graduate classroom. That process is described below along with a brief introduction to themes of the selected articles. Key themes for this special issue include content analysis, ethics, privacy, new economy, and digital inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer review is a central institution in academic publishing, yet its processes and effects on research remain opaque. Empirical studies have (1) been rare because data on the peer review process are generally unavailable, and (2) conceptualized peer review as gate-keepers who either accept or reject a manuscript, overlooking peer review's role in constructing articles. This study uses a unique data resource to study how sociological manuscripts change during peer review. Authors of published sociological research often present earlier versions of that research at annual meetings of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Many of these annual meetings papers are publicly available online and tend to be uploaded before undergoing formal peer review. A data sample is constructed by linking these papers to the respective versions published between 2006 and 2012 in two peer-reviewed journals, American Sociological Review and Social Forces. Quantitative and qualitative analyses examine changes across article versions, paying special attention to how elements of data analysis and theory in the ASA versions change. Results show that manuscripts tend to change more substantially in their theoretical framing than in the data analyses. The finding suggests that a chief effect of peer review in quantitative sociology is to prompt authors to adjust their theoretical framing, a mode or review I call 'data-driven.' The data-driven mode of review problematizes the vision of sociological research as addressing theoretically motivated questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions on inequality have traditionally focused on an economic perspective, centering around how the unequal distribution of wealth or resources impacts the life chances of different groups of people, and how it leads to social segregation, polarization or fragmentation. The explanatory power and influences as such remain to this day. Recently, however, some scholars have tried to investigate inequality from an angle of institutional culture. The author examined the presidential addresses of the American Sociological Association over the past 20 years, and found that at least five of them dealt with inequality through culturalist lens, which indicated the relevance of cultural forces to inequality. This paper synthesized their arguments into 'categorization and classification systems of otherness' and 'effects of childrearing/parenting'. The preliminary finding shows that 'categorization and classification systems of otherness' are the main mechanism of social inequality, while 'effects of childrearing/parenting' act as latent factors behind most educational inequality. In this study, the former are explicated from two dimensions, namely, cultural foundation and institutional operation, and the latter from cultural knowledge and cultural guides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs related to philosophy in the U.S. A call for papers is issued by the College at Brockport in Brockport, New York for its annual philosophy conference on April 22-23, 2011. The 69th Annual Midwest Political Science conference will be held at Chicago Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, Illinois from March 31 to April 3, 2011. The 106th Annual Meeting of American Sociological Association will be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 20-23, 2011.

The current period of disruptive social change is inextricably bound up with new means and modes of communication, information, and media streams. The Communication, Information Technologies & Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS) locates these factors at the center of our collective interests, investigating them through a plethora of methods, theories, and empirical cases. Each year, CITAMS runs a special issue in ICS showcasing select works presented at the previous year's American Sociological Association conference and the affiliated Media Sociology preconference. Papers in the 2022 CITAMS Special Issue reflect a social context defined by a prolonged global pandemic and wrought by democratic uncertainty. Across these social circumstances, technology and media loom large. Simultaneously, everyday life continues and classic CITAMS scholarship sustains relevance for the ways people interact, construct identity, consume, and mobilize. All of this and more are contained in the pages of this year's Special Issue, from which readers can get a sense of what CITAMS has to offer and consider how their own work may fit within the broad CITAMS umbrella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents guidelines for submitting various types of manuscripts and ancillary materials to the American Sociological Association's journal "Teaching Sociology."

This article is an adaptation of the sixteenth Lewis A. Coser lecture, given virtually in 2021 for the American Sociological Association Meetings. In this article, I pay tribute to Lewis and Rose Laub Coser by engaging with their past work, which inspired a theoretical provocation about what it means to theorize from the margins. I specifically address the questions of who gets to be a theorist and what kinds of theoretical work get marginalized. I outline the process of epistemic oppression involved in trying to publish marginal ideas in mainstream journals. I argue that the relationship between mainstream sociology and what I refer to as "marginal" requires a relational perspective that (1) situates both marginalized scholars and their scholarship in the broader discipline of sociology and (2) examines the epistemic oppression of their theories regardless of their sometimes-powerful institutional positioning in highly ranked departments or as leaders within various professional associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the 2007 annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, we presented a workshop entitled "How to do the Scholarship of Teaching." The workshop had three main goals: to introduce participants to the literature on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and to various SoTL outlets, to guide participants in the process of doing their own SoTL research, and to enhance participants' chances of getting their SoTL work published, especially in the discipline's teaching journal, Teaching Sociology. The overarching purpose of the workshop and this paper is to help participants and readers think about how their own experiences in the classroom could be transformed into research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erving Goffman's written legacy bears on sociology as a whole, or so he argued in his Presidential Address to the American Sociological Association (Goffman, 1983). However, while being celebrated as important to the discipline, his work is also interpreted in inconsistent ways, often downplayed or marginalized, and even neglected. This paper claims that Goffman's "well known aversion to self-disclosure" (Shalin, 2013) does not justify overlooking his trajectory, from the unknown "margins" of a Canadian small town to the elusive "center" of American sociology—and much less does it justify still circulating assessments of his personality, crafted while overlooking his life experiences—and, especially, his writings. Anecdotal evidence of his "enigmatic" personality (Lemert, 2003), or "bad-boy outrageousness" (Berger, 1986), works as a derailing tactic, leading to unwarranted appraisals of Goffman's personality—and, more importantly, to the neglect of crucial aspects of his work. From a theoretical standpoint, Simmel's treatment of "the stranger" as a social relationship, and Merton's concept of "moral alchemy", are used here to try to make some sense of the mixture of celebration and neglect still surrounding "Goffman". Historical data was gathered in part from the "Erving Goffman Archives'' (Shalin, 2013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the intellectual benefits and lessons learned from a symposium for junior sociology scholars, sponsored by sponsored by the History of Sociology (HoS) Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), at the New School for Social Research on August 10, 2013. Among the lessons learned are the need for long-term perspective in decision making, little money for food, and flexibility in the exclusion and inclusion of criteria for participation. Information on papers submitted for the symposium, including on sociology, social change, and the work of sociologist W. I. Thomas, is also presented.

Professional organizations all exist in resource niches and, over time, confront varying degrees of density and, hence, competition with other organizations. The initial founding and growth, the precipitous decline, and the subsequent revitalization of the Pacific Sociological Association over the last six decades can be analyzed from an ecological perspective, suggesting strategies for the further survival of PSA in an every more dense resource niche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In summer, 1976 Norm Denzin and Norb Wiley acted, as a Symbolic Interactionist lobby, to try to get a more centrist, middle-of-the-road editor for the American Sociological Review. We wanted one who could represent female epistemology, which is less narrow than that of males. We also wanted a female as editor She would be the first female ASR editor. So it was a gender lobby as well as Symbolic Interactionist. Wiley attended the American Sociological Association Council meeting where this issue was discussed. We wanted to formally state our position in an address to the ASA Council. The ASA Secretary, Bill Form, attempted to keep us off the agenda, and we needed a vote from the Council approving our inclusion. This paper describes the fight at the meeting between Bill Form and Wiley, along with comments from the Council members. The lobby got the required votes and Wiley gave the prepared statement. As a consequence we did get a female editor (Rita Simon). And we promoted the issue of how representative the American Sociological Review and the other sociology journals should be. Later Wiley continued to promote social theory, and Denzin achieved several important accomplishments toward broadening and democratizing the field of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been common for studies presented as about American sociology as a whole to rely on data compiled from leading journals ( American Sociological Review [ASR] and American Journal of Sociology [AJS]), or about presidents of the American Sociological Association [ASA], to represent it. Clearly those are important, but neither can be regarded as providing a representative sample of American sociology. Recently, Stephen Turner has suggested that dominance in the ASA rests with a 'cartel' initially formed in graduate school, and that it favors work in a style associated with the leading journals. The adequacy of these ideas is examined in the light of available data on the last 20 years, which show that very few of the presidents were in the same graduate schools at the same time. All presidents have had distinguished academic records, but it is shown that their publication strategies have varied considerably. Some have had no ASR publications except their presidential addresses, while books and large numbers of other journals not normally mentioned in this context have figured in their contributions, as well as being more prominent in citations. It seems clear that articles in the leading journals have not been as closely tied to prestigious careers as has sometimes been suggested, and that if there is a cartel it has not included all the presidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay describes institutional ethnography as a method of inquiry pioneered by Dorothy E. Smith, and introduces a collection of papers which make distinctive contributions to the development of this novel form of investigation. Institutional ethnography is presented as a research strategy which emerges from Smith‘s wide-ranging explorations of the problematic of the everyday world. Smith‘s conception of the everyday world as problematic involves a critical departure from the concepts and procedures of more conventional sociologies. She argues for an alternative sociology which begins with the standpoint of the actor in everyday life, rather than from within a professional sociological discourse aligned with the society‘s ruling institutions. The familiar sociologies of everyday life do not suffice for this purpose, since they deal with local settings and social worlds, but stop short of examining how these are knitted into broader forms of social organization. In contrast, institutional ethnography examines how the scenes of everyday life are shaped by forms of social organization which cannot be fully grasped from within those scenes. The principal tasks of institutional ethnography include describing the coordination of activities in the everyday world, discovering how ideological accounts define those activities in relation to institutional imperatives, and examining the broader social relations in which local sites of activity are embedded. The four papers which follow demonstrate that specific contributions to institutional ethnography can be made in relation to a wide array of topics, methods, and interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including American Sociological Association awards, theorising sex and gender and the history focused on homosexuality and education.

Jane Sell’s contributions to social psychology include guides to theory building, experimental methods, public goods, prosocial interaction, gender, race, and status processes. She serves on committees and panels at the American Sociological Association (ASA), the ASA Social Psychology Section, and the National Science Foundation. Her doctoral students attest to her wise and patient guidance, and she continues to enrich social psychology through her research, her service, and her many students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following American Sociological Association’s recommendations for a cumulative curriculum in sociology, sociology faculty at Pacific Lutheran University created cumulative writing competencies to integrate writing into the curriculum on a department level. In this article, I explore the rationale for this programmatic approach to writing, describe the process by which we developed cumulative writing competencies in our major, discuss implementation, and describe our plans for assessment. The writing competencies emphasize that good writing is about more than good grammar; it also requires clear and complex thinking. This model of writing instruction offers students an opportunity to develop their writing skills in a sequential, intentional, discipline-specific way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The American Sociological Association and the American Society for Public Administration are widely recognized as being among the premier professional associations in their respective fields within academia and beyond. Although a commitment to the promotion of ethical competence among their members is clearly viewed by both organizations as being central to the accomplishment of their missions, their techniques for doing so have included unique, as well as similar initiatives, to include, perhaps most importantly, periodic reviews and revisions of their marquee Codes of Ethics. While these reviews, which have been undertaken from an intra-disciplinary perspective, have been productive, it is the position of the authors that to approach future reviews of their ethics codes, and other ethics initiatives, from an interdisciplinary, collaborative perspective could serve to facilitate even more insightful modifications. To that end, this paper 1) provides a comprehensive, comparative overview of the ethics initiatives of the two professional associations, 2) presents a summary of what the authors will have learned with respect to the feasibility of continuing to pursue the proposed collaboration between the two associations, and 3) if it is determined that continuing efforts are warranted, presents a formal plan for moving the initiative forward toward a positive conclusion with regard to the ASA and ASPA as well as for potential expansion to other organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact the paper "The Missing Feminist Revolution in Sociology," written by Judith Stacey and Barrie Thorne in 1985, had on the study and teaching of sociology. The paper argued that sociology, in contrast to other social sciences, had warded off attempts by feminist scholars to transform the field's theoretical and conceptual frameworks. A discussion of a study of the paper, which took place at the 2005 meeting of the American Sociological Association is presented.

This paper is based on a workshop of the same name presented at the 2007 American Sociological Association meetings. The purpose of the workshop and this article is to focus attention on teaching methods that require students to actively investigate sociological phenomena. During the workshop, participants practiced constructing inquiry-guided learning activities suitable for a range of different courses taught throughout the curriculum. These activities are described here. Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) includes a variety of teaching methods that assist students in their investigation of questions and problems. Fundamental to IGL in sociology is the notion that students should think and act like sociologists. IGL activities provide a means whereby the instructor models and the student practices the same disciplinary activities. Students "do" sociology rather than just learning about the results of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been renewed interest over the past 5 years among sociologists in empirically examining the status of sociology in high school. The few studies that have recently been conducted, however, have focused almost exclusively on high school sociology teachers. The nature and structure of the courses themselves have been largely ignored. Given the American Sociological Association’s recent attempts to develop and implement an Advanced Placement course, it seems especially important to examine the characteristics of existing sociology courses. This paper uses the results of a national mail survey to describe and discuss three aspects of the nature and structure of a random sample of sociology courses that were offered during the 2005–06 school year: instructional materials and pedagogical resources, teaching techniques, and course content. I demonstrate that these aspects of the courses look remarkably similar across the country: Teachers rely overwhelmingly on standard introductory textbooks to structure their courses. They are also apt to utilize supplemental materials from textbook publishers and from newspapers and newsmagazines, and to use a combination of lecture and discussion in their sociology classes. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American Sociological Association (ASA) used social science research and data informed approaches to engage community college faculty in the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double-blind peer review is a central feature of the editorial model of most journals in sociology and neighboring social scientific fields, yet there is little history of how and when its main features developed. Drawing from nearly 70 years of annual reports of the editors of American Sociological Association journals, this article describes the historical emergence of major elements of editorial peer review. These reports and associated descriptive statistics are used to show that blind review, ad hoc review, the formal requirement of exclusive submission, routine use of the revise and resubmit decision, and common use of desk rejection developed separately over a period of decades. The article then argues that the ongoing evolution of the review model has not been driven by intellectual considerations. Rather, the evolution of peer review is best understood as the product of continuous efforts to steward editors' scarce attention while preserving an open submission policy that favors authors' interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative coding procedures emanating from grounded theory were limited by technologies of the 1960s: colored pens, scissors, and index cards. Today, electronic documents can be flexibly stored, retrieved, and cross-referenced using qualitative data analysis (QDA) software. We argue the oft-cited grounded theory framework poorly fits many features of contemporary sociological interview studies, including large samples, coding by teams, and mixed-method analysis. The grounded theory approach also hampers transparency and does not facilitate reanalysis or secondary analysis of interview data. We begin by summarizing grounded theory's assumptions about coding and analysis. We then analyze published articles from American Sociological Association flagship journals, demonstrating that current conventions for semistructured interview studies depart from the grounded theory framework. Based on experience analyzing interview data, we suggest steps in data organization and analysis to better utilize QDA technology. Our goal is to support rigorous, transparent, and flexible analysis of in-depth interview data. We end by discussing strengths and limitations of our twenty-first-century approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on efforts to establish master's-level internships in nontraditional health care settings. With the encouragement of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association seven students were placed in the following settings: workplace wellness programs, a center for independent living for the physically handicapped, an educational program for unwed adolescent fathers, a health policy organizational, a community-based AIDS intervention program, and the Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space Center. The project addressed the following issues: the advent of new problems in health care, such as those resulting from AIDS; the increase in health care work accomplished in nonmedical settings; the increased importance of credentialism in sociology; and the increasingly blurred line between research and practice in the sociology of health. Suggestions are made for the application of findings to the management of undergraduate internships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) to take place in Chicago, Illinois in August 2015.

Although the issue of boundaries is not new, in recent years sociologists have shown renewed interest in the topic. For example, the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in 2006 featured the theme of boundaries. This paper is an exploratory effort to analyze sociological work on boundaries and to compare and contrast this work with a biblical view on this topic. In doing so, the following issues were discussed: the blurring of boundaries, overemphasis on boundaries, idolatry, and more specifically, issues of boundaries in the area of marriage and family, gender roles, social identity, and materialism. From this it can be concluded that there are gaps that should be addressed, discussed and written about from a Christian perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, Paul J. Baker and William Rau justifies findings in their paper. According to them, their paper is more that a theoretical statement with supporting evidence. It concludes with several policy implications that are pertinent to various arenas of decision making. Professional associations such as the American Sociological Association, local departments and colleges in all types of schools, departments in major universities that train most teachers of undergraduates. They justify that their statement "Suggestion are non sequiturs" is a simplistic stratification model that dichotomizes all higher education into elites versus the masses. Critics cited some of the recommendation by Rau and Baker as non sequiturs and suggested that the solution to improved teaching in the so-called mass sector is to reduce teaching loads while redefining and enhancing research, and that we are looking to elite universities to solve our problems. Rau and Baker do not agree that their recommendations were non sequiturs. They would be non sequiturs if the proposals would not help to solve the problems which they address.

Scholarship on teaching undergraduates increasingly emphasizes the benefits of providing students with an active role in their education whereby instructors are more aptly described as facilitators of knowledge rather than merely providers of it. Additionally, recommendations from the American Sociological Association aimed specifically at the undergraduate sociology curriculum argue that students must engage as practitioners of sociology at each level of their program development. In short, undergraduates should do sociology—not just read or write sociology. Applying this recommendation to teaching statistics, I suggest organizing a course around a student-led research project in which students generate the topics, questions, and data that are then used to complete a substantive research paper. Students are given the opportunity to be actively engaged in all stages of the research and data-gathering process. Students also present their work in student roundtables, further legitimating their important contributions as researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents an introduction to this issue of "Teaching Sociology." The article explains that manuscripts published in the issue discuss the major topics, lessons learned, and the challenges presented at the workshops available at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. The American Sociological Association presents an annual arrangement of teaching-related workshops, paper, and thematic sessions. The article also thanks Nancy Greenwood, Jay Howard, and David Yamane for serving as peer reviewers for the manuscripts published in this issue.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the amicus brief provided by the American Sociological Association (ASA) on the Supreme Court case Dukes v. Wal-Mart Inc. which deals with gender discrimination in employment.

This paper revisits the observation made by Ward and Grant (Current Perspective in Social Theory 11:117–140, ) that there had been a “peculiar eclipsing” of women in sociological theory. It provides longitudinal studies of women’s participation and recognition in three conventional outlets for sociological theorizing: the theory section of the American Sociological Association (ASA); sociological theory textbooks; and sociological theory journals. It finds that the percentage of ASA Theory Section members who were women increased from 12% in 1982 to 31% in 2008, but is not nearly as high as the 53% in all ASA sections taken together; that women’s recognition in sociological theory textbooks grew, more between the 1980s and the 2000s than between the 1960s and the 1980s, undoubtedly reflecting the increasing respectability of feminist theory within the profession; and that women’s relative participation as authors in sociology theory journals increased from the 1980s to the 2000s by about 33%, but nowhere near as much as their participation as authors in the American Sociological Review, where their relative participation in the 2000s was more than three times what it had been in the 1980s. We speculate that, given women’s increasing leadership roles in both the Theory section and the theory journals, women may be using less conventional outlets for their theorizing than is offered by either the section or the journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a notice to those wishing to contribute papers to "Teaching Sociology." Information on policies for submitting multiple manuscripts, as outlined by The American Sociological Association (ASA), manuscript processing fees, and requirements for the submission and processing of manuscripts including style and format is presented.

This paper examines the articulation of goals and means of sociological instruction in course syllabi. Three questions guide this inquiry. First, do sociology instructors articulate common learning goals? Second, what pedagogical means do instructors commonly employ to meet these goals? Third, to what extent have sociology instructors incorporated the recommendations presented in Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major (Eberts et al. 1990) and in its updated version (McKinney et al. 2004)? To answer these questions, we analyzed syllabi from 418 courses published by the American Sociological Association's Teaching Resource Center. We found that aside from course-specific goals, most syllabi shared only a few general, abstract goals in common. The pedagogical methods or requirements of students tended to be fairly traditional (readings, writing, and exams). Requirements that required more active types of learning were less common. While these goals and means do seem to reflect what sociologists consider to be important, they do not correspond closely to the American Sociological Association's Taskforce on the Undergraduate Major's recommendations for the sociology major. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on two joint sessions of the British and American Sociological Associations held during the course of 2001 as a first step toward more structured dialogue and debate between the two national associations. Drawing on the comments of a number of leading academics on both sides of the Atlantic, this paper presents a series of discussions about the role and future of urban sociology. It explores the challenges and opportunities offered to urban sociology by increasing interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity in the field of urban studies as a whole. It then explores the role of sociology in understanding the relationship between contemporary processes of globalization and urban change and the degree to which this constitutes a new dynamic core of sociological theory and research. The paper reveals that there are a variety of alternative futures for urban sociology and there would appear to be little agreement on one specific route, nor on how to get there. Urban sociology continues to face a variety of challenges and more debate on its future trajectory is clearly needed but it remains a vital and expanding sub–field. Cet article rend compte de deux sessions communes des associations de sociologie britannique et américaine qui ont eu lieu en 2001, premier stade vers un dialogue et un débat plus structurés entre les deux organismes nationaux. Partant des remarques d’un certain nombre de grands intellectuels des deux côtés de l’Atlantique, ce travail présente plusieurs discussions sur le rôle et l’avenir de la sociologie urbaine. Il examine les défis et possibilités que lui offrent l’interdisciplinarité et la pluridisciplinarité croissantes dans l’ensemble du domaine des études urbaines. Il explore ensuite comment la sociologie aide à comprendre la relation entre les processus contemporains de mondialisation et de changement urbain, et la mesure où peut ainsi émerger une nouvelle dynamique nodale pour la théorie et la recherche sociologiques. L’article expose plusieurs avenirs possibles de la sociologie urbaine, sans qu’il y ait apparemment d’accord sur une voie particulière ni sur le moyen d’y parvenir. La sociologie urbaine rencontre toujours de multiples défis et il faut manifestement approfondir les débats sur sa future trajectoire, mais elle demeure un sous–domaine à la fois crucial et en expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the curricula of colleges and universities in North America, the discipline of sociology is a relative newcomer. During scarcely more than a century since the founding of the first American degree programs in sociology, little agreement has emerged over what sociology actually is or does. Rather than regard this dizzying diversity as a source of confusion and consternation, though, might we ponder what would happen to us and our efforts if, instead, we were to view the many forms and aims of contemporary sociology as an irreplaceable advantage, and the practical pluralism that surrounds us in our work as a font of riches, embarrassing or not? Would not multiple visions thus be engaged at once? Could we not at last proceed, as the Beatles urged us, "all together now"? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offers a look on the trends of environmental justice based on the presentations at the meeting of the American Sociological Association in Toronto, Canada, in 1997. Two generations of environmental justice inquiry; Details on the models, dimensions and variables involved in environmental justice; Theories involved in environmental justice; Conclusion.

The article presents information about American Sociological Association's (ASA) Projects on teaching Undergraduate Sociology. ASA Projects on Teaching Undergraduate Sociology has entered its third year. Projects are supported by grants to ASA from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and the Lilly Endowment Inc., the activities of the teaching projects have attracted the interest and participation of hundreds of sociologists. In the past two years, a number of activities and publications have come from the three working groups of the Project. Three teacher development workshops have been held, several bibliographies are available for distribution and work from the Project task groups has generated papers read at national, regional, and state sociological association meetings. The Teacher Development Group held a number of workshops during the 1976-1977 academic year. The Task Group will also present brief sessions in conjunction with state and regional sociological associations.

The article discusses the book "The Structure of Social Action," by Talcott Parsons. The paper was prepared, at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association in 1987, a session held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the book and it drew a large and interested audience. The Structure, would at that time have been taken as a founding event in a relatively consensual, proto-scientific discipline. For even as late as the mid 1960, Structure was still seen as parsons had originally presented it: as a framework of accumulated theoretical knowledge, on the basis of which predictions could be made and compared with what social scientists had subsequently discovered about empirical fact. But there are even more important reasons for the continuing contemporary relevance of Parsons' early work. It is not only that there continue to be important discussions about, and in relation to the book earlier concepts. It is also that people can now understand the influence of Structure in a more reflective and more accurate way.

In this paper we describe a predoctoral internship program sponsored by the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. In three years, the program placed 15 graduate students for three-to twelve-month internships in a variety of clinical and research settings and organizations concerned with the development of health policy. We review the history, purpose, accomplishments, and future directions of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This article examines the peripheral position and future of historical consciousness in sociology. While many sociologists consider meta-historical research to be purposeless and self-indulgent, I argue that preserving the historical imagination can improve sociology by fostering disciplinary coherence, avoiding intellectual regurgitation, and understanding the previous intellectual battles out of which current scientific discourse came. Despite these advantages, meta-historical knowledge is severely undervalued in contemporary sociology and, as I demonstrate by presenting data from both the American Sociological Association (ASA) and department websites, such knowledge will likely continue to dissipate more than it already has. Some scholars have taken note of the current lack of historical curiosity in sociology, though this observation has only been grounded in impression. For this reason, this article provides this impression with an empirical basis, and presents indicative support for the expectation that historical consciousness will further deteriorate in sociology's future. This unpromising future for the history of sociology has received little attention in recent discourse, though this article gives reason for sociologists to deliberate over the potential consequences that would come along with the continued withering of historical consciousness. Disciplinary implications concerning the death of the historical imagination are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an acknowledgement by the editor to his colleagues for entrusting the job of editorship of the "Social Psychology Quarterly." They will strive to publish the highest quality work that significantly advances the understanding of the complex links between the individual and society. To that end, invitation for the submission of both empirical and theoretical papers that address those links, regardless of theoretical perspective or investigative and analytic strategy will be made. They will also encourage the submission of papers from scholars around the world and across academic disciplines. Although this journal officially belongs to the American Sociological Association, it is believed that it is the property of a much larger scholarly community. That community spans the globe as well as traditional disciplinary boundaries. Its members include everyone committed to systematic study of how the individual is shaped by and shapes her or his social and cultural environment.

The article discusses the sociology of the American Sociological Association annual meeting. The author considers a picture he took of his friend and fellow sociologist Howard Freeman at a meeting some 30 years ago. The photo, which is featured on the cover of this issue, show Freeman turning to greet a friend. The author ponders the implications of this one image and its role as a piece of sociological evidence in a larger body of photographs and in the context of the conference. The article also includes the front-matter for the issue.

COVID-19 has focused global attention on disease spread across borders. But how has research on infectious and noncommunicable disease figured into the sociological imagination historically, and to what degree has American medical sociology examined health problems beyond U.S. borders? Our 35-year content analysis of 2,588 presentations in the American Sociological Association's (ASA) Section on Medical Sociology and 922 articles within the section's official journal finds less than 15 percent of total research examined contexts outside the United States. Research on three infectious diseases in the top eight causes of death in low-income countries (diarrheal disease, malaria, and tuberculosis [TB]) and emerging diseases—Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)—was nearly absent, as was research on major noncommunicable diseases. Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) received much more focus, although world regions hit hardest received scant attention. Interviews suggest a number of factors shape geographic foci of research, but this epistemic parochialism may ultimately impoverish sociological understanding of illness and disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a critique and an addition to observations raised by Ballantine et al. in this issue. After reviewing the strengths of Ballantine et al.’s article about the need for a core in sociology, I argue that this debate has gone on long enough and needs to be reframed around areas of agreement. Three major curricular projects (that have already begun to move this discussion forward) are presented, including the American Sociological Association (ASA) High School National Standards; the ASA Task Force on Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major, Updated, Third Edition; and the Measuring College Learning (MCL) Project. A critical outcome of the MCL Project in sociology is the Sociological Literacy Framework, which is already changing conversations about sociology curricula and learning outcomes. The Sociological Literacy Framework is summarized, and use of this framework is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This first issue of the 1986 volume of the periodical "Teaching Sociology," is a cause for celebration on several accounts. First, it marks the successful transition of the periodical from Sage Publications to the American Sociological Association (ASA). Therefore, it is fitting at this time that we salute Sage Publications. Sage took the initiative with the publication of "Teaching Sociology," more than a decade ago, at a time when no one else seemed particularly interested. The acquisition of "Teaching Sociology," also marks the maturity of the ASA's Teaching Services Program, also begun in the 1970's. The Teaching Resources Center housed in the executive office offers more than 60 publications and boasts an annual sales volume of over 22,000 dollars. The Teaching Newsletter, published at the executive office for the past five years will now become part of the journal. The culminating event of 1985 was a special two day symposium that was held in Washington D.C. in late August just before the annual meeting. Six commissioned papers examining contemporary problems in undergraduate teaching set the framework for discussion.