Search

The Regional Science Association was founded 50 years ago in December 1954; however,the institutional origins of the field were much earlier, perhaps when Walter Isard began his graduate studies in economics at Harvard University. This article briefly traces the history of the field of regional science and its association from those beginnings to the present. The focus of the article is the evolution of the association as an institution, and some of its major contributors, and to a much lesser extent, on the scope and scholarly content of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section introduces the articles featured in the spring 2002 issue of The American Sociologist. The half-dozen articles here, along with Brym's engaging introductory essay, help us regain a sense of sociology as an unfolding international movement and also of the distinctive experiences of sociologists in particular national contexts. Rather ironically, in light of the sweep of the paradigms and macro-level theories that are sociology's coin of the realm, there are strong parochial tendencies in the field. In the United States, for instance, many departments of sociology tend to relegate international and cross-cultural matters to anthropologists, and many textbook writers produce analyses that focus overwhelmingly on their home country. One consequence of such tendencies is to speak as though formulas that fit one context have a general or universal applicability. As the papers here inform us time and again, sociology in Canada has struggled with the Anglo-French division of society and culture, which has generated two separate and largely unengaged spheres, and has segregated even the respective social sciences. Meanwhile, Canadian sociologists have worked to develop a voice of their own that is not distorted by the influence of sociology produced in the United States or in Europe.

The article introduces as series of articles dealing in a variety of ways with critical theorists and critical theory. The first three papers offer insightful analyses of the work of several critical thinkers Erich Fromm, David Riesman, C. Wright Mills and Leo Strauss. Neil McLaughlin examines David's Riesman's synthesis of the German critical tradition and U.S. pragmatism in his best known work, The Lonely Crowd. In McLaughlin's view, Riesman's classic analysis of U.S. society in 1950 bears a strong resemblance to many postmodern writings, particularly since Riesman self-consciously assumed the mantle of the public intellectual. James Abbott examines the thought of political philosopher Leo Strauss, with particular attention to its relevance for contemporary controversies concerning facts and values. Abbott is drawn to Strauss's analysis of the crises of modern liberalism and of twentieth century social science, and brings this to bear on the contemporary paradox of a sociology that simultaneously advocates visions of the good society while denying the possibility of trans-historical standards that would validate such visions. Joel Best offers incisive reflections on sociology's status in the academic world. Ironically, despite its image as a minor field, sociology has arguably been among the most influential of disciplines and has spawned a series of specialties that migrated to independence.

This note outlines the type of papers which the U.S. periodical "The Sociological Quarterly" wishes to publish. The periodical is a general sociological journal, and as such does not place any quotas on the number of papers it shall publish in any specific area. It nearly always considers scholarly sociological research and writing done by sociologists as being within the journal's acceptable limits. The note airs a special call for articles on the teaching of sociology as well.

The article presents an abstract from the book "Divorce and Remarriage: International studies," edited by C.A. Everett. This book is a reprint of the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage-1997, vol. 26. The collection covers 12 countries in 15 papers. The authors come from behavioral sciences, demography medicine, pastoral psychology, psychology, sociology, social sciences, and social work. There is no unifying theme, nor comparative analysis of divorce and remarriage in any of the articles. Thus, it is an international collection of papers which deals with some aspects of the topic at hand. The editor has a one- paragraph introduction in which he states that "it was not possible to assemble manuscripts under specific themes." The shortest chapter compares divorce rates in Hungary and the United States using 1985 data. The findings are that divorce rates were higher in regions where marriage and suicide rates were higher. An introductory essay, some bridging between topics, and a possible epilogue would have made this book worthwhile.

This article presents a commentary on a paper by Robert A. Stebbins in a previous issue of The American Sociologist which provided an account of professional and amateur sociology in the U.S. Amateur sociology was the parent professional, the child Park was a professional writer, an amateur sociologist. He did join the sociological fraternity, to that extent he became professional. Sumner wrote a book it got adopted by sociologists. Sumner accepted the adoption very unwillingly, and made no change in his writing or thinking. At present, sociology has a professional structure, and can control what is published as sociology, but the commenter is grateful that people cannot control what is written on sociological matters or in the sociological mood. The commenter cites that unless sociologists get much more bureaucratized, it will always be possible for people to be writers of sociology. At present, sociology has a professional structure, and can control what is published as sociology. There is no virtue in being amateur. Researchers, professional or not should not try to publish their reports in the regular journals. In this way new lines of thought and research will reach the widest audience of interested readers.

This article presents a commentary on a paper by Robert A. Stebbins in a previous issue of The American Sociologist which provided an account of professional and amateur sociology in the U.S. Stebbins' account of professional and amateur sociology unearths a set of boxes nesting in one another that according to the commenter, contain issues going to the foundations of current social science, conceptually and institutionally. The most encompassing issue is embedded in Stebbins' assertion throughout that the discipline and profession of sociology exists, has definable and agreed aims, and is thereby a special stream in science as well as within social science. He presumes that there is some accurate version of sociology into which laypeople can and should be indoctrinated. The commenter relates that many institutional structures support this version of the division of scientific labor, a version based more on professionalism and careerism than on ideas about the unity of science. Skepticism, is missing from this account of sociology. The proposal mostly takes up issues of craft, unrelated however to the research questions for which the particular tactic of volunteer sociologists would be more useful than another.

The article announces that the Wenner-Gren Foundation will start a new biannual series of supplements to publish papers resulting from Wenner-Gren sponsored symposia in the U.S. on October 2010. The Foundation believes that open-access publication in "Current Anthropology" is the best way of nurturing new approaches in anthropology and the highest-quality research in the field. It encourages anthropologists to share their ideas at any stage of development.

The local cemetery might not seem like an obvious place to learn about demography, but students can gather life-span data from tombstones and compare survival patterns in different historical periods. High school and college teachers looking for ideas such as this one can check out EcoEdNet from the Ecological Society of America. The growing collection of resources includes links to useful Web sites, background reports, fact sheets, and primers on writing papers. EcoEdNet also offers many lab and field experiments.