THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION WORLDWIDE COMPETITION FOR YOUNG SOCIOLOGISTS.

The four articles that appeared in the 1990 issue of the journal "International Sociology," by William Rogers Brubaker; Dongno Kim, Solomon Mombeshora and Nao Oyama, have won the first Worldwide Competition for Young Sociologists that the International Sociological Association (ISA) launched in 1988. The fifth winning paper, by Lu Jianhua, will be published in the March 1991 issue of the journal "International Sociology." All authors are under 35 years of age. Being the top winners of an international competition for young intellectuals, these papers could be read as indicators of the topics and ways of thinking characteristic of the rising generation. However, that they deserve first to be read for what they are: to put it simply, first-grade articles. Started three years ago in very hazardous conditions, this first Worldwide Competition ended up landing in its net a rich catch of 335 papers written in ten different languages and coming from all parts of the world. As such it was not only a competition; it was also an experiment, yielding unexpected and at times very surprising results. This is why it may be of interest to retrace, however briefly, its short history and salient features. The idea of such a competition was first put forward in March 1987 by Margaret Archer, who had in summer 1986 been elected President of the International Sociological Association for four years. Chairing the first meeting of the new Executive Committee, making people understand that ISA finances were quite low, she nevertheless expressed her wish to reach out towards the immense regions of the so-called Third Worlds where the ISA was little known.