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

In this paper, I outline a general framework for cultural analysis consistent with an "analytic" approach to explanation in social science. The proposed approach provides coherent solutions to thorny problems in cultural theory. These include providing a coherent definition of culture (and the "cultural"), specifying the nature of cultural units (both simple and complex), and outlining the processes making possible episodes of cultural genesis, transformation, and reproduction within bounded units characterized as cultural causal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we attempt to rehabilitate the notion of role by linking sociological role theory to recent work on motivational, affective, and cognitive neuroscience specifying the internal mechanisms behind motivated action. We argue that there is nothing inherently problematic or retrogressive in the idea of "role," once its link to a purely normative account of motivated action is severed. Instead, by conceptualizing roles as emerging and persisting around structured reward systems, we are able to incorporate contemporary motivational science such that rewards become the proximate causal mechanisms currently missing in role theory. Consequently, a key implication of our argument is that the best way to link role, action, and structures is by reviving the idea of institutions as literal reward systems, which allows us to envision roles as the mechanisms via which the pursuit and delivery of rewards and goal‐objects are routinized. Implications for a motivational theory of roles, rewards, and institutions is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine what it means for culture, in both its personal and public forms, to be implicit. I begin by considering a recent attempt to develop a descriptive taxonomy of other people's views of practices developed by Stephen Turner. A key result is that a specific combination of claims about the properties of practices yields an ontologically problematic category, which is a candidate for elimination. Following Turner's lead, I provide my own refurbished taxonomy of practical culture that does not contain ontologically problematic members. Another key result of the initial analysis is that implicitness is a relational property presupposing at least one agent with awareness (or unawareness) of the cultural element in question. This epistemic dependence implies that only personal culture internalized by people can be coherently thought of as 'implicit' (to them). Finally, I conclude that using mentalistic versions of implicitness to characterize public culture, such as texts, language, monuments, tools, and classifications on paper, yields the same ontologically incoherent category eliminated in the first step. Following from this, I argue that it is desirable to conceptualize 'implicit' in a way that makes sense for public culture without stirring up the ghosts of collective minds and related conundrums. I propose one such (weak) version of implicitness when speaking of public culture that does not run afoul of this issue. I then return to personal culture, considering whether 'implicitness' is a unitary property of this kind, answering in the negative. This conclusion requires us to develop a principled taxonomy of the distinct ways personal culture can be ‘implicit,’ yielding personal culture that is implicit because it acquired 'automatic' status, versus personal culture that is implicit because it lacks (access) consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The image of Max Weber as an "interpretivist" cultural theorist of webs of significance that people use to cope with a meaningless world reigns largely unquestioned today. This article presents a different image of Weber's sociology, where meaning does not transport actors over an abyss of meaninglessness but rather helps them navigate a world of Chance. Retrieving this concept from Weber's late writings, we argue that the fundamental basis of the orders sociologists seek to understand is not chaos. Action is rendered interpretable, rather, to the extent persons orient themselves to possibilities and probabilities, which remain real but unknowable. In this framework, interpretation and probability are allies, not antagonists. Weber's systematic use of the probabilistic notion of Chance as a central resource for concept formation and sociological explanation seriously challenges current understandings of probability as a purely statistical, atheoretical concern. We outline the conceptual difference it makes when basic categories of sociology are understood as rooted in Chance, and we point to the larger implications of Weber's probabilism for contemporary debates around issues of prediction, action, and interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a history of concept formation focused on Pierre Bourdieu's probabilism to provide the groundwork for a probabilistic sociology. We argue that not only was Bourdieu a probabilist, but that reframing probability along heterodox lines holds empirical promise when it is also linked to new concept formation, as evident in the case of Bourdieu. For the anglophone sociological field, probability is of primary significance for method and epistemic commitment. Sociological theory continues to react to the integral role of probability used for the purposes of sociological knowledge but finds very little in the way of concept formation that does not adopt the same commitments as the methodologists. The history we outline retrieves a different approach, one which finds Bourdieu aligned with objective probability borrowed from the sociology of Max Weber. This version of probabilism locates probability directly in the world and makes it a source of concept formation without the intervention of the methodologists. This article follows Bourdieu as he recognizes objective probability in the work of Weber (around 1973) and then engages in novel concept formation on these grounds. Ranging between spaces of objective probability (fields), spaces of randomness (games of chance), and spaces of determinism (apparatus), Bourdieu's mature probabilism reveals the conceptual and meta-methodological differences that come with making probability objective. Probabilistic expectations derive from the world itself, rather than existing as part of explanation or method. Specifically, this history of concept formation reveals a looping relation between objective probability (chances) and learned probability (expectations) that, as Bourdieu himself appreciated, holds wide-ranging implications for best knowledge practices and empirical sociological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate what social, psychological, personality, and behavioral factors affect overtime heart rate changes of college students. Participants: The daily heart rates of over 600 undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame were unobtrusively recorded via Fitbit devices from August 16, 2015, to May 13, 2017. Method: Latent Growth-Curve modeling strategy is utilized to examine how daily mean heart rate and its standard deviation change over time, and what foregoing factors predict observed changes. Results: The mean heart rate increased and its standard deviation stayed the same over the 637 days. Heart rate levels go up with that of social contacts, an indicator of peer influence. Both daily heart rate levels and changes are also affected by multiple external factors. Conclusion: Human heart rate is not only a physiological phenomenon but also a social-psychological one, as it is systematically affected by peer networks, social contexts, and human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fitbit wearable devices provide users with objective data on their physical activity and sleep habits. However, little is known about how users develop their usage patterns and the key mechanisms underlying the development of such patterns. In this article, we report results from a longitudinal analysis of Fitbit usage behavior among a sample of college students. Survey and Fitbit data were collected from 692 undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame across two waves. We use a structural equation modeling strategy to examine the relationships among three dimensions of Fitbit usage behavior corresponding to three elements of the habit loop model: trust in the accuracy of Fitbit physical activity and sleep data (cue), intensity of Fitbit device use (routine), and adjustment of physical activity and sleep behaviors based on Fitbit data (reward). More than 75 percent of participants trusted the accuracy of Fitbit data and nearly half of the participants reported they adjusted their physical activities based on the data reported by their devices. Participants who trusted the Fitbit physical activity data also tended to trust the sleep data, and those who intensively used Fitbit devices tended to adjust both their physical activities and then sleep habits. Psychological states and traits such as depression, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism help predict multiple dimensions of Fitbit usage behaviors. However, we find little evidence that trust, Fitbit usage, or perceived adjustment of activity or sleep were associated with actual changes in levels of sleep and activity. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding when and how this new monitoring technology results in changes in people's behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Recent work has begun to use relational approaches to study taste. • However, this work relies on vague genre labels. • These labels hide macrogenres, overstating boundaries. • I propose a link-clustering approach. • The proposed approach uncovers valid microgenres. Recent work in the sociology of taste has begun to grapple with the relational properties of traditional survey-based data using techniques inspired by network analysis. Despite productive results from this endeavor, critics rightly question the face and ecological validity of the vague macrogenre labels included in standard arts participation surveys (e.g., Classical, Rock, Rap) which feed into these novel methods. In this paper, I propose a link-clustering approach for discovering focused microgenres from standard survey-based information on cultural tastes, exploiting the underlying relational patterns realized by the indirect connectivity structure of genres (via people) in a two-mode network. The link-clustering approach partially answers two of the challenges of macrogenre critics: The fact that actual genres are overlapping and not crisply bounded and that there is hidden heterogeneity within the broad labels we usually focus on. To showcase the fruitfulness of the proposed approach, I engage in two "case studies" featuring the vague macro genres of "Heavy Metal" and "Latin/Salsa" music and show the focused microgenres produced by the link clustering procedure are segmented in ways that help resolve puzzles that have emerged in previous work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, the effect of both fixed and time-varying individual, social, psychological, environmental, and behavioral characteristics on temporal growth trends in physical activity (PA) among younger individuals remains an under-studied topic. In this paper, we address this gap in previous work by examining how temporal growth trends in PA respond to changing social, environmental, and behavioral characteristics using a large sample of college students (N = 692) who participated in the NetHealth project at the University of Notre Dame and from which fine-grained longitudinal data on physical activity and social interaction were collected unobtrusively via the use of wearables for 637 days (August 16, 2015 to May 13, 2017). These data are augmented by periodic survey data on fixed sociodemographic and psychological variables. We estimate latent growth-curve models for daily activity status, steps, active minutes, and activity calories. We find evidence of both a generalized friendship paradox and a peer effect for PA, with the average PA level of study participants' contacts being on average larger than their own, and with this average level exerting a statistically significant effect on individual PA levels. Notably, there was limited evidence of temporal growth in PA across the 637 days of observation with null temporal effects for three out of the four PA indicators, except for daily steps taken. Finally, we find that social, psychological, and behavioral factors (e.g., large network size, high extroversion levels, and more courses taken) are systematically associated with higher PA levels in this sample. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of social, environmental, and behavioral factors (such as peer networks and daily sociability) in modulating the dynamics of PA levels among college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociological theories suggest that urban life affects human sociability in negative ways. People in urban areas are expected to have fewer and weaker ties than those in rural areas. Rural areas should have proportionally more local ties, whereas urban areas have stronger nonlocal ties. We test these hypotheses using comprehensive large-scale data from a mobile phone company in Spain. We examine urban and rural differences in terms of the average number of ties and the composition and strength of local vs. nonlocal ties of subscribers in 6,124 postal codes. Consistent with urbanism theories, networks in more urban areas are smaller but the effect is weak. What is more pronounced are urban–rural differences in the composition and strength of local and nonlocal ties. There is a tradeoff between strength and number of ties. In urban places where local ties are weaker, there are more such ties, whereas in rural places where local ties are stronger, there are fewer local ties. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political orientation is one of the most important and consequential individual attributes studied by social scientists. Yet, we know relatively little about the temporal evolution of political orientation, especially at periods in the life course during which individuals are forming new social relationships and transitioning to new relational contexts. Here we use Stochastic Actor-Oriented models (SAOMs) to examine the co-evolution of political orientation and social networks using two feature-rich, temporal network datasets from samples of students making the transition to college at the University of Notre Dame (i.e. the NetSense and NetHealth studies). Overall, we find a great deal of stability in political orientation, with a slight tendency for the 2011 NetSense study participants to become more conservative during their first four semesters in college, but not the 2015 NetHealth study participants. Partisanship is the best predictor of changes in political orientation, with students who identify or vote as Republicans becoming more conservative over time. Neither network influence nor selection processes seem to be driving observed changes. During this formative period, relatively stable identities such as party affiliation predict changes in political orientation independently of local network dynamics, selection processes, socio-demographic traits, and dispositional factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop an institutional movement logics approach to analyze the structure and dynamics of the US social movement field from 1960 to 1995. Using protest event data taken from the Dynamics of Collective Action dataset, we elicit the most salient combinations of issues, tactics, and targets reported to co-occur at protest events in four periods: 1960–1965, 1966–1972, 1973–1987, and 1988–1995. The analysis reveals the existence of six movement logics of varying breadth, flexibility, and stability. We also detect two important shifts in the overall structure of the field, one toward a broad and flexible form of state-centric politics and one toward several differentiated and narrowly defined forms of nonpolitical contention. We find support for two key premises of the institutional movement logics framework, limited diversity, and relative stability within and between logics while showing that a longer time frame offers a window on field dynamics not visible with shorter study time frames. We close by providing suggestions for further research seeking to build on the institutional movement logics approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the origins of religion in society in context with classes and classification. Topics include using social class as a structure of inequality that is rooted in the social relations of economic life, discussion on Geometric Data Analysis (GDA) showing different dimensions and different criteria for classification, and description of distinct theoretical attitudes toward classes and classification.

The concept of "form," and the associated problem of the relationship between "forms" and "contents" is a central theme in Simmel's overall work. This paper shows that recent work in cultural sociology has taken a "Simmelian turn" in conceptualizing how cultural goods can serve as the primary engines of sociation in (post)modern societies. In this, they serve as the most common type of minimal formal content featured in domains characterized by Simmelian sociability. At the same time, there has been a renewed concern with rethinking the dynamics of cultural spread diffusion and their link to cultural identity along Simmelian lines. Here, formal features of cultural goods and consumption styles, such as their quantitative spread, are transmuted into contentful forms, capable of performing semiotic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Drawing on the dual process framework from social and cognitive psychology, this paper reconciles two distinct conceptualizations of trust prevalent in the literature: “rational” calculative and irrational “affective” or normative. After critically reviewing previous attempts at reconciliation between these distinctions, we argue that the notion of trust as “reliance” is the higher order category of which “deliberate trust” and “intuitive faith” are subtypes. Our revised approach problematizes the conflation of epistemic uncertainty with phenomenological uncertainty while providing sound footing for a key sociological insight: that reliance on the routine social order is both the cognitive default and based on substantial practical evidence. We develop two broad suggestions for future research from these implications: (1) sociological research should examine the role of intuitive faith—as opposed to deliberate trust—in late modern societies, and (2) analysts should challenge the role of deliberate trust as the “modal” form of reliance in contemporary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments at the intersection of cultural sociology and network theory suggest that the relations between persons and the cultural forms they consume can be productively analyzed using conceptual resources and methods adapted from network analysis. In this paper, I seek to contribute to this developing line of thinking on the culture-networks link as it pertains to the sociology of taste. I present a general analytic and measurement framework useful for rethinking traditional survey (or population) based data on individuals and their cultural choices as a two mode persons × genres network. The proposed methodological tools allow me to develop a set of “reflective” metrics useful for ranking both persons and genres in terms of the pattern of choices and audience composition embedded in the cultural network. The empirical analysis shows that these metrics have both face and criterion validity, allowing us to extract useful information that would remain out of reach of standard quantitative strategies. I close by outlining the analytic and substantive implications of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Weber’s distinction between ‘ideal’ and ‘material’ interests is one of the most enduring aspects of his theoretical legacy, it has been subjected to little critical commentary. In this article, we revisit the theoretical legacy of interest-based explanation in social theory, with an eye to clarifying Weber’s place in this tradition. We then reconsider extant critical commentary on the ideal/material interest distinction, noting the primarily Parsonian rendering of Weber and the unproductive allegiance to ‘generic need’ readings of Weber’s action theory. We reconstruct the basis of the ideal/material interest distinction in the work of Rudolph von Ihering and provide a sounder basis for its analytic role in Weber’s ‘grand’ project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While cognitive sociology is a relatively new area in U.S. sociology, the subfield has a lengthy history in French sociology. Developing a typology based upon the existing literature, we identify three branches of cognitive sociology in France. The first was initiated by Raymond Boudon, one of the scholars most responsible for popularizing the area, who envisioned cognitive sociology as helping delineate the role of beliefs in rational action. Second, another group of researchers seeks to found sociology upon a naturalistic basis, thus drawing upon the disciplines constitutive of cognitive science (e.g., psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive anthropology). Finally, the third approach to cognitive sociology in France takes inspiration from linguistics as a foundation for sociological investigations. We conclude the paper by discussing the relationship between these three sub-fields and by examining the relationship between French and American cognitive sociologies in order to identify fruitful directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread reliance on representationalist understandings commit social scientists to either partially or totally decouple belief from reality, limiting the domain of phenomena that can be treated by belief as an analytic concept. Developing the contrastive notion of practical belief, we introduce the hysteresis effect as a situational phenomenon involving the systematic production of agent-environment mismatches and argue for its placement as a central problem for the theory of action. Revealing the dynamic, embodied conservation of belief in the temporality of practice, hysteresis appears when environmental contexts change in a way that leaves actors without an ontologically complicit relationship to institutions as scaffolds of action. Under these circumstances, a past-inflected reflexiveness replaces a forward-inflecting practical belief in the actor's temporal relation to the world. Drawing from a variety of historical case studies, we locate hysteresis in routine disjunctures between the temporality of practice and the temporality of environments. Our analysis reveals four distinct types of reflexiveness produced the hysteresis effect, each with a unique dispositional impact on actors and extensions to group-level phenomena. We conclude the article by emphasizing the non-eliminativist relationship between belief as disposition and belief as representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While influential across a wide variety of subfields, cultural analysis in sociology continues to be hampered by coarse-grained conceptualizations of the different modes in which culture becomes personal, as well as the process via which persons acquire and use different forms of culture. In this article, I argue that persons acquire and use culture in two analytically and empirically distinct forms, which I label declarative and nondeclarative. The mode of cultural acquisition depends on the dynamics of exposure and encoding, and modulates the process of cultural accessibility, activation, and use. Cultural knowledge about one domain may be redundantly represented in both declarative and nondeclarative forms, each linked via analytically separable pathways to corresponding public cultural forms and ultimately to substantive outcomes. I outline how the new theoretical vocabulary, theoretical model, and analytic distinctions that I propose can be used to resolve contradictions and improve our understanding of outstanding substantive issues in empirically oriented subfields that have recently incorporated cultural processes as a core explanatory resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce the idea of the dual process framework (DPF), an interdisciplinary approach to the study of learning, memory, thinking, and action. Departing from the successful reception of Vaisey (2009), we suggest that intradisciplinary debates in sociology regarding the merits of "dual process" formulations can benefit from a better understanding of the theoretical foundations of these models in cognitive and social psychology. We argue that the key is to distinguish the general DPF from more specific applications to particular domains, which we refer to as dual process models (DPMs). We show how different DPMs can be applied to a variety of analytically distinct issues of interest to cultural sociologists beyond specific issues related to morality, such as culture in learning, culture in memory, culture in thinking, and culture in acting processes. We close by outlining the implications of our argument for relevant work in cultural sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I provide evidence for the substantive relevance of a phenomenon that has been argued to be crucial in connecting cultural inequalities to stratification outcomes: “ culture talk, ” or the use of popular culture and the arts as conversation subjects with friends and acquaintances. In spite of its theoretical importance, this outcome has not received much empirical attention. To address this gap, I document the socio-demographic correlates of culture talk using survey data from a probability sample of Americans. I report three main findings. First, culture talk frequency across five culture consumption domains is stratified by socioeconomic status, primarily be education and secondarily by income, net of self-reported culture-consumption frequency. Second, the socioeconomic status effect on culture talk is strongest for those who are most culturally active. Finally, engagement in traditionally high status cultural pursuits (e.g. the fine arts) is a better predictor of culture talk across all domains than consumption in less class stratified domains (e.g. movies). I close by elaborating the theoretical and substantive implication of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses cultural symbols and cultural power. It provides a definition of the concept of cultural symbols as motivated mapping between external form and cognitive meaning. It looks at how cultural symbols link the external and the mental. It also looks at what cultural symbols can and can't do.

Most research in the sociology of taste has focused primarily on the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in modulating patterns of cultural choice. This has led to a general neglect of the role of age as a structuring factor in its own right. In this paper, we turn our attention to cross-sectional and over-time differences in expressions of cultural taste across age groups. We concentrate on the phenomenon that Bryson (1996) has referred to as “symbolic exclusion”: namely, the (differential) propensity of persons to express dislike for certain cultural styles. Comparing musical dislikes from the 1993 General Social Survey data to a replication of the same instrument in 2012, we find that, overall, Americans are less likely to express dislikes across most musical categories, with the most substantial declines observed for Rap and Heavy Metal, especially among college-educated young adults. The exceptions to this pattern are the Country, Folk, and Religious styles, all of which are more likely to be disliked in 2012 than they were in 1993, and Rock and Classical music, both of which are increasingly rejected by high-status young people at the same time that they are less likely to be rejected by their same-status older counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we outline the analytic limitations of action theories and interpretive schemes that conceive of beliefs as explicit mental representations linked to a desire-opportunity folk psychology. Drawing on pragmatism and practice theory, we recast the notion of belief as a species of habit, with pre-reflexive anticipation the primary mechanism accounting for both the formation of beliefs and their causal influence on action. We demonstrate the utility of this approach in three ways: first, by linking it with recent research on the cognitive and motor development of infants; second, by drawing out a typology of belief states that accounts for a range of different experiential traits; and third, by applying the new model to reinterpret two belief-based phenomena of broad sociological interest: “irrational” decision making and religious conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I argue that the very form of the grammatical construction 'a sociology of culture and cognition' (which is a specification of the more general schema 'a sociology of [X]') is symptomatic of a deeply entrenched form of 'Primitive Classification' (which I will refer to as the 'Comtean schema') that governs the way in which sociologists conceive of their place in, and engage with other denizens of, the social science landscape. I will also argue that while this style of disciplinary engagement might have worked in the past when it came to dealing with the standard (nineteenth-century) social science disciplines and even some late-twentieth-century upstarts, it will not work as a way to engage the now-sprawling postdisciplinary field that I will refer to as 'Cognitive Social Science' ( CSS). The takeaway point is that if sociologists want to be part of CSS (and it is in their interest to be part of it because this constitutes the future of the behavioral sciences), then they will have to give up the Comtean-schematic thought style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research and theory at the intersection of cultural sociology and network analysis have converged around the notion of cultural holes: patterns of cultural choice that position the person as a bridge not between other persons but between cultural worlds. This is an approach that promises to open up new vistas in our conceptualization of the relationship between social position and cultural taste, but that so far lacks operational grounding. In this article, I draw on Breiger's () formalization of the idea of the duality of persons and groups along with classical formalizations of brokerage for sociometric networks (Burt ) to suggest that the 'cultural ego network' of a typical survey respondent can be reconstructed from patterns of audience overlap among the cultural items that are chosen by each respondent. This leads to a formalization of the notion of omnivorousness as relatively low levels of clustering in the cultural network: namely, omnivorousness as cultural network efficiency. I show how this metric overcomes the difficulties that have plagued previous attempts to produce ordinal indicators of omnivorousness from simple counts of the number of cultural choices, while providing novel substantive (and sometime counter-intuitive) insights into the relationship between socio-demographic status markers and patterns of cultural choice in the contemporary United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the prevalence of identity in cultural patterns, importance of cultural resources in allowing for negotiation and expression of identity, and the centrality of schema accessibility in identity construction.

In this paper, I provide a critical examination of Warren Schmaus’s recently systematized “functionalist” approach to the study of collective representations. I examine both the logical and the conceptual viability of Schmaus’s brand of “functionalism” and the relation between his rational reconstruction and philosophical critique of Durkheim and the latter’s original set of proposals. I conclude that, due to its reliance on certain problematic philosophical theses, Schmaus’s functionalism ultimately falls short of providing a coherent alternative to the Durkhemian position or serving as a useful starting point from which to understand the origins of abstract categories in concrete experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We empirically evaluate the proposition that the very same situational mechanisms that tend to evoke multiple identities—the processing of cognitive and affective information from the standpoint of discordant self-identifications—also produce variations in the experience of embarrassment. We integrate the classic Goffmanian model of the social sources of embarrassment with recent theorizing on the ecological features of encounters that invoke multiple identities (audience size, multiplexity, and audience heterogeneity). We use survey data obtained via the experience sampling method to show that these same mechanisms are connected to the higher self-reported levels of embarrassment in systematic and predictable ways net of fixed individual-level factors. We close by outlining the implications of our results for the revitalization of sociological research on embarrassment, specifically an approach that connects systematic features of the structural and relational position of persons with the concrete characteristics of situations in which interaction occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I this paper, I draw on recent research on the radically embodied and perceptual bases of conceptualization in linguistics and cognitive science to develop a new way of reading and evaluating abstract concepts in social theory. I call this approach Sociological Idea Analysis. I argue that, in contrast to the traditional view of abstract concepts, which conceives them as amodal 'presuppositions' removed from experience, abstract concepts are irreducibly grounded in experience and partake of non-negotiable perceptual-symbolic features from which a non-propositional 'logic' naturally follows. This implies that uncovering the imagistic bases of allegedly abstract notions should be a key part of theoretical evaluation of concepts in social theory. I provide a case study of the general category of 'structure' in the social and human sciences to demonstrate the analytic utility of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we show that large-scale macro-political change can powerfully condition how institutional practices shape individual cultural choice. We study the paired comparison of Portugal and Spain, two long-similar societies that moved from authoritarianism to democracy through divergent pathways in the 1970s. Data from the 2001 Eurobarometer indicate that while the cultural choices of persons born before democratic transition are comparable across the two cases, Portuguese youth born under democracy are substantially more omnivorous than their Spanish counterparts. We shed light on this puzzle through a structured, focused comparison. Our argument is that whereas revolution in Portugal overturned hierarchies in numerous social institutions and unleashed an ambitious program of cultural transformation, Spain’s consensus-oriented transition was largely limited to remaking political institutions. We show that this macro-political divergence resulted in a key cross-case difference at the institutional level. Whereas pedagogical practices in Portugal encourage young people to adopt the post-canonical, anti-hierarchical orientation toward aesthetics constitutive of the omnivorous orientation, corresponding practices in Spain restrict omnivorousness by instilling a hierarchical, largely canonical attitude toward cultural works. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This paper builds on the general connection between culture consumption and sociability which has been the focus of recent research in the sociology of culture. I propose that cultural variety, as given by the number of cultural activities that the person engages in, is tied not only to static properties of social networks (such as range), but also to the likelihood of having benefited from this connectivity (social capital). Taking the classic example of finding a job via a network contact as the main outcome, I show that persons who have a propensity to engage in a wide variety of cultural activities have a higher likelihood of having found out about their current job via a weak tie and that different types of weak tie activation are selectively correlated with distinct cultural taste profiles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Scores of sociological studies have provided evidence for the association between broad cultural taste, or omnivorousness, and various status characteristics, such as education, occupation, and age. Nevertheless, the literature lacks a consistent theoretical foundation with which to understand and organize these empirical findings. In this article, we offer such a framework, suggesting that a mechanism-based approach is helpful for examination of the origins of the omnivore-univore taste pattern as well as its class-based distribution. We reground the discussion of this phenomenon in Distinction (Bourdieu 1984), conceptualizing omnivorous taste as a transposable form of the aesthetic disposition available most readily to individuals who convert early aesthetic training into high cultural capital occupational trajectories. After outlining the genetic mechanisms that link the aesthetic disposition to early socialization trajectories, we identify two relational mechanisms that modulate its manifestation (either enhancing or inhibiting it) after early socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper I propose a new understanding of the often-noted phenomenon that much of our conceptualization and reasoning about moral propriety is framed by a set of metaphors that originate from a conceptual structure generated from our experiences with dirt and cleanliness. I argue that reliance on the dirty-clean dichotomy to conceptualize moral propriety or impropriety emerges from metaphorical extensions into various realms of experience (e.g., sports, governance, introspection) grounded in an idealized cognitive model in which dirt is conceptualized as matter out of place and clean is conceptualized as ordered arrangement. The analysis provides a unified framework with which to understand the use of dirty and clean as metaphors to categorize objects, events and actions in the moral domain. Finally, I suggest that the dirty-clean distinction is useful for understanding broader cultural issues (such as moral panics regarding media, immigration and disease), and I show that the conceptualization of certain non-moral properties can be understood using the same framework (e.g., the quality of being exceptional) of objects and actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay responds to article 'How Has Bourdieu Been Good to Think With? The Case of the United States,' which appears in this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between social networks and cultural taste. It presents the results of research which indicated that individuals with stronger and narrower cultural preferences are more likely to have members in their networks who are also connected to each other. People with milder and more diffuse cultural preferences are more likely to have social networks with patterns of disconnection between the other participants. These patterns of disconnection are characterized as structural holes, and the implications of these findings are discussed.

In this article, I attempt to address some enduring problems in formulation and practical use of the notion of structure in contemporary social science. I begin by revisiting the question of the fidelity of Anthony Giddens' appropriation of the idea of structure with respect to Levi-Strauss. This requires a reconsideration of Levi-Strauss' original conceptualization of 'social structure' which I argue is a sort of 'methodological structuralism' that stands sharply opposed to Giddens' ontological reconceptualization of the notion. I go on to show that Bourdieu's contemporaneous critique of Levi-Strauss is best understood as an attempt to recover rather than reject the central implication of Levi-Strauss' methodological structuralism, which puts Bourdieu and Giddens on clearly distinct camps in terms of their approach toward the idea of structure. To demonstrate the-insurmountable-conceptual difficulties inherent in the ontological approach, I proceed by critically examining what I consider to be the most influential attempt to resolve the ambiguities in Giddens structuration theory: Sewell's argument for the 'duality of structure.' I show that by retaining Giddens' ontological focus, Sewell ends up with a notion of structure that is at its very core 'anti-structuralist' or only structuralist in a weak sense. I close by considering the implications of the analysis for the possibility of developing the rather neglected 'methodological structuralist' legacy in contemporary social analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current theories in the sociology of emotions posit contradictory expectations regarding the relationship between status and the relative experience of anger, with some predicting a negative relationship and others proposing a positive one. We test the compatibility of these opposing hypotheses by examining the relationship between anger and a key dimension of socioeconomic status - the occupational status score of an individual's occupation - for a representative sample of Americans. We connect different strands of theory and research in the social psychology of emotions to posit a non-linear relationship between occupational status and the experience of anger. Analyses of data from the 1996 General Social Survey's emotions module (N = 1460) are consistent with this integrative account. Individuals located at the two opposite ends of the status and prestige hierarchy are more likely to experience anger than those of middle status. We use insight from Blau's macro-structural theory to help elucidate this complex relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most sociological research assumes that social network composition shapes individual beliefs. Network theory and research has not adequately considered that internalized cultural worldviews might affect network composition. Drawing on a synthetic, dual-process theory of culture and two waves of nationally-representative panel data, this article shows that worldviews are strong predictors of changes in network composition among U.S. youth. These effects are robust to the influence of other structural factors, including prior network composition and behavioral homophily. By contrast, there is little evidence that networks play a strong proximate role in shaping worldviews. This suggests that internalized cultural dispositions play an important role in shaping the interpersonal environment and that the dynamic link between culture and social structure needs to be reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we attempt to characterize the key differences and points of convergence between two contemporary approaches to the relationship between culture and cognition in sociology which we label the toolkit and strong practice theory perspectives. We follow recent work at the intersection of culture and cognition in attempting to explicitly formulate the cognitive underpinnings of these two approaches in terms of the assumptions that they make about cultural acquisition, transmission and externalization. Our analysis suggests that in spite of very important differences in emphasis and explanatory range, toolkit and strong practice-theoretical approaches are complementary, although the specific types of modal situation for which each of them is best suited need to be more clearly specified. We develop a framework that shows how the two approaches can be deployed in conjunction as well as specifying the modal settings and situations that each will be more likely to handle best as well as those in which they will run into trouble. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss topics including peer review processes, sociology methodology, and turn-around time for publishing time-sensitive articles.

In the article the author examines the debate between sociologists Emile Durkheim and Herbert Spencer concerning the rise of individualism. The author believes that Durkheim's model of individualism, a consequence of division of labor, is different from Spencer's model. He asserts that Spencer is a theorist of bio-psychological individualism with issues such as survival, pain avoidance and reproduction. Durkheim discusses the development of sociological individualism in his paper "The Division of Labor."

Traditional theories of culture and socialization in the social and behavioral sciences have concentrated on how attitudes and values come to be "internalized" and thus shared by members of a collectivity. The emergence of practice theory challenges the classical theory of socialization and acculturation by shifting the focus of analysis away from explicit symbolic representations and towards tacit,motor-schematic procedures. In this paper I argue that even as they reject the traditional object of older socialization-based accounts, most practice theorists continue to operate with the same outmoded theory of socialization and acculturation inherited from classical sociology. I useWacquant's (2004) "carnal ethnography" of becoming a boxer to outline an alternative approach--grounded in recent research in cognitive neuroscience--which provides a more adequate explanation of how practices come to be acquired and transmitted from person to person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay I show how the Devil has and continues to be one of the most pervasive symbols of the workings of capitalism and its historical penetration into communal and everyday life. First, I briefly sketch the historical transformations in popular and literary images of the Devil throughout post-medieval Western history, connecting these to specific historical transformations of capitalism as a historical social system. Second, I draw on Michael Taussig's work on the role of metonymic symbols in the social representation of capitalist practices and on Fredric Jameson's notion of cognitive mapping to show how we can conceive of the repeatedly observed appeal of the figure of the Devil in those terms. Finally, I examine recent representations of the Devil in Hollywood film to show that the Devil continues to be an intuitive symbolic resource to “map” the global, consumer-based capitalist system in late modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fact that women are more religious than men is one of the most consistent findings in the sociology of religion. Miller and Stark (2002) propose that a gender difference in risk preference of origin might explain this phenomenon. While acknowledging the utility of their risk-preference mechanism, we believe that their assumption regarding the genesis of this difference is a premature concession to biology. Returning to Miller's original paper on gender, risk, and religiosity, we draw on power-control theory (PCT), developed in the work of John Hagan and colleagues, to introduce a plausible socialization account for these differences. We evaluate these claims using data from the General Social Survey. Women raised by high-socioeconomic status (SES) mothers are less religious than women raised by low-education mothers, but mother's SES has little effect on men's chances of being irreligious and father's SES has a negligible effect on the gender difference in religiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this short response, we selectively address some of the key issues and criticisms raised by our esteemed commenters. First, we our standpoint vis à vis “biological” arguments, underscoring that our article is not to be read as hostile to all forms of explanations that incorporate biology into the explanation of religious behavior and belief, but only against those explanations that attempt to imply that socialization plays no role (“the it's all biology” argument). Second, we the explanatory scope of our proposal by showing that our argument is not vulnerable to the “simpler” counterexplanation proposed by Hoffmann. Finally, we where our contributions fit in terms of more encompassing arguments regarding the operation of gender and gendering processes as multicausal, multilevel phenomena, as well as explicitly stating our perspective on the role that “risk” should play in the explanation of religious behavior and belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]