W. E. B. Du Bois at the center: from science,civil rights movement,to Black Lives Matter

I am honoured to present the 2016 British Journal of Sociology Annual Lecture at the London School of Economics. My lecture is based on ideas derived from my new book, The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. In this essay I make three arguments. First, W.E.B. Du Bois and his Atlanta School of Sociology pioneered scientific sociology in the United States. Second, Du Bois pioneered a public sociology that creatively combined sociology and activism. Finally, Du Bois pioneered a politically engaged social science relevant for contemporary political struggles including the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.     

Dwelling in epistemic disobedience: A reply to Go

In Thinking Against Empire: Anticolonial Thought as Social Theory, Julian Go continues his vital work on rethinking and redirecting the discipline of sociology. Go’s piece relates to his wider oeuvre of postcolonial sociology – found in works such as his Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory (2016) as well as multiple journal articles on epistemic exclusion (Go 2020), Southern theory (Go 2016), metrocentrism (Go 2014), and the history of sociology (Go 2009). In this response article, my aim is to think alongside some of the central themes outlined in Go’s paper rather than offering a rebuttal of any sorts. In particular, I want to think through how the recent work on ‘decoloniality’ may play more of a central role in Go’s vision of sociology and social theory than he acknowledges. In doing so, I hope to engage in Go’s prodigious scholarship through centering discussions of the geopolitics of knowledge, double translation, and border thinking. Before proceeding to this discussion, I will offer a brief review of my reading of Go’s paper.     

Reply to Commentaries: Black Sexual Politics Revisited

In this reply, I comment on one theme raised by each symposium author, expand on explicit ideas in Black Sexual Politics (2005) Collins, P. H. 2005. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, New York: Routledge.  [Google Scholar] itself, and/or raise additional questions that broaden those of the symposium participants. First, I examine Ange-Marie Hancock's claim that my seeming privileging of race in Black Sexual Politics contradicts my prior work on intersectionality. Next, I respond to Shanette Harris's analysis of the power of the gaze. Finally, I examine Jean Wyatt's focus on the interior space of black humanity to speculate about the ways in which healing constitutes a site of politics.     

The philosophical bogeyman: misunderstanding the relation of theory and method

When my article ‘The relation of theory and method: causal relatedness, historical contingency and beyond’appeared in The Sociological Review August 1988, it was followed by two critical responses in the same issue by Platt and Bulmer. In my opinion both of these responses seriously misrepresent and profoundly misunderstand my arguments. In what follows I identify the more salient of these errors and attempt to rectify them.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this issue. The Limits of Institutional Reform. By Matt Andrews. Hunger in the Balance. The New Politics of International Food Aid. By Jennifer Clapp. Divided Nations: Why Global Governance is Failing and What We Can Do About It. By Ian Goldin.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Deflated Democracy: The Phantom Public. By Walter Lippmann. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. 1925. $2.05. $2.00. Reviewed by: Read Bain

Deflated Democracy: British Politics in Transition. By Edward M. Sait and David P. Barrows. The World Book Company, Yon-kers, New York. 1925. XVI, 319 pp. $1.80. Reviewed by: A. Gordon Dewey

Deflated Democracy: New Aspects of Politics. By Charles E. Merriam. The Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1925. pp. 247. $2.50. Reviewed by: R. C. Atkinson

Deflated Democracy: The Character of Races. By Ellsworth Huntington. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1924. pp. v, 393. $5.00. Reviewed by: S. C. GilFillan

Deflated Democracy: Our Rural Heritage. By James Mickel Williams. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1925. pp. xi, 246. Bruce L. Melvin     

Subnational Migration States and the New Politics of Immigration

Using Catherine Dauvergne's The New Politics of Immigration and the End of Settler Society (2016) as a starting point, this article explores subnational policy dynamics in Canada, Australia and the United States. It considers whether the trends associated with legalization, two-step programmes, rapid policy changes and economic discourses are present in Canadian provinces as well as in U.S. and Australian states. It shows that the forces described by Dauvergne contribute to a further rescaling of policymaking and to the emergence of subnational migration states. However, this article also demonstrates that this common movement varies in its consequences and identifies two central subnational policy responses typical of the new politics of immigration: 1) the “economic subnational migration state” (Canada and Australia) and 2) the “access subnational migration state” (United States). The models and the global trends described in this article have implications for immigration policymaking in federations.     

Representing representations: the ethics of filming at Ground Zero

In this paper I analyse the ethical challenges that informed the production and filming of my documentary September Signs and Symbols. The film focuses on the material objects that commemorate the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and how this memorabilia circulates in New York City. The film explores how these objects have come to be complex signifiers containing within them the possibility for a range of meanings for people who create them, sell them, collect them, and use them and this paper reflects on the complex ethics of filming at Ground Zero – a highly charged political and cultural site. I analyse the ethics of representing a hyper‐represented space, the necessity for self‐reflexivity in the process of demystifying signifiers that have had meaning appended to them and my own complicity in the dialectic of production and consumption that informs any engagement with the objectified discourse of September 11th.     

Book Reviews

Reinventing the Family: In Search of New Lifestyles. Elisabeth Beck‐Gernsheim. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Peoples of a Spacious Land: Families and Cultures in Colonial New England. Gloria L. Main. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Woman‐to‐Woman Sexual Violence: Does She Call It Rape? Lori B. Girshick. Boston: Northeastern University Press. The Wedding Complex: Forms of Belonging in Modern American Culture. Elizabeth Freeman. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2002. Same‐Sex Marriage, Legal Mobilization, and the Politics of Rights. Martin Dupuis. New York: Peter Lang. 2002. Symbolic Childhood, Daniel Thomas Cook (Ed.). New York: Peter Lang. 2002. Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies. Marcia C. Inhorn & Frank van Balen (Eds). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 2002. Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life. Sally K. Gallagher. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2003.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this issue. Growing Apart: Oil, Politics and Economic Change in Indonesia and Nigeria. By Peter M. Lewis. The Politics of Aid: African Strategies for Dealing with Donors. Edited by Lindsay Whitfield. The Hypocrisy Trap: The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform. By Catherine Weaver. Ethics in an Era of Globalization. Edited by M. S. Ronald Commers, Wim Vandekerckhove and An Verlinden. Eliminating Human Poverty: Macroeconomic and Social Policies for Equitable Growth. By Santosh Mehrotra and Enrique Delamonica. The Complexity of Decentralisation Reforms: An Analysis of the Spaces for Community Participation in the Education Sector in Cambodia. By Arnaldo Pellini. Fixing Fragile States: A New Paradigm for Development. By Seth D. Kaplan. China into Africa: Trade, Aid and Influence. Edited by Robert Rotberg.     

Marrying the social and the biological? A rejoinder to Newton

Marrying the biological and the social raises a complex series of issues that defy easy answer or simple resolution. In this brief rejoinder to Newton's (2003 ) recent paper in this journal –‘Truly embodied sociology: marrying the social and the biological?’– I take up some of these issues through: (i) a restatement of my own position in these debates and the broader sociological context within which it is located; (ii) a discussion of various problems and tensions within Newton's own critique of this ‘nascent material‐corporeal’ project to date. Newton's paper, it is concluded, is a welcome, timely and topical contribution to these (evolving) debates, though any such ‘dispute’ is probably more apparent than real: a case, in short, of reinforcing arguments about the complexity of these relations and the consequent need to ‘tread warily’.     

Beyond property or beyond Piketty?

Capital and Ideology represents a significant further statement from Thomas Piketty. The arguments made by the “New Piketty” are largely compatible with those of his previous Capital in the Twenty‐First Century, but reflect broadening of scope and deepening of causal analysis, most markedly through the adoption of a world historical perspective. The result is a fuller offering for understanding inequality's pattern in the world, why it exists and how we can best respond to it. The book presents a wide range of arguments, which do not on first glance appear unified. This review essay distills these into six propositions, describes and evaluates each in turn, and identifies some threads that link them. In the process, it provides a critical assessment of Capital and Ideology.     

Researching by Camera

Abstract

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: History of Art. By Elie Faure. Trans. by Walter Pach. Vols. II–IV. Harper and Brothers, New York, 1922–1924. 433, 401, 517 pp. $7.50 a vol.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: History of Art. By H. B. Cotterill. F. A. Stokes Co., New York, 1923–24. 2 volumes. 442, 566 pp. $10.00.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: The History of Art. By G. Carotti. E. P. Dutton &; Company, New York, 1923. 3 vols. 420, 375, 365 pp. $3.00 a vol.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: Apollo. By S. Reinach. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1924. 350 pp. $2.00.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: The Outline of Art. Edited by Sir William Orpen. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1923–1924. 2 volumes. 231, 491 pp. $4.50 a vol.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: A Primer of Modern Art. By Sheldon Cheney. Boni and Liveright, New York, 1924. 383 pp. $6.00.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: Masters of Modern Art. By Walter Pach. B. W. Huebsch, New York, 1924. 118 pp. $3.50.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: A History of Ornament, Renaissance and Modern. By T. D. F. Hamlin. Century Co., New York, 1925. 521 pp. $5.00.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: The Nature, Practice and History of Art. By H. Van Buren Magonigle. Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1924. 319 pp. $2.50.

The History of Art and the History of Civilization: The Appreciation of Art. By Eugen Neuhaus. Ginn and Company, Boston, 1924. 250 pp. $3.00.

Government: The Political Parties of Today. By Arthur N. Holeonhe. Harper and Brothers, 1924. viii, 399 pp. $3.00. Reviewed by: J. P. Watson, A. Gordon Dewey, George A. Lundberg

The American Kevolution and the Making of the Constitution: the Convtilution of the United States; an Historical Survey of its Formation. By Robert Livingston Schuyler. The Macmillan Company, New Yorlr, 1993. 211 pp. $1.50. Reviewed by: E. P. Tanner

The Colonial Baclcground of tha Arnarican Revolution. By Charles M. Andrews. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1924. x, 218 pp. $2.50. Reviewed by: Harry J. Carxan

Imperialism and World Politics: Syllabus on Intamational Relations. By Parker Thomas Moon. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1995. xix, 276 pp. $2.00. Reviewed by: A. C. Flick

Imperialism and World Politics: The Open Door Doctrina in Relation to China. By Mingchien Joshua Bau, Ph. D. Macmillan CO., New York, 1993. xxviii, 245 pp. $2.50. Reviewed by: E. B. Hewes

Imperialism and World Politics: Manchuria, Land of Opportunities. By the South Manchurian Railway Company. Rev. Ed. (New York, 1924. ix, 98 pp.)

Imperialism and World Politics: White and Black in East Africa. By Hermann Norden. F. R. G. (Small Maynard &; Company, Boston, 1924. 304 pp. $5.00.)

Miscellaneous: History of Western Europe, VoZ. I. By James Harvey Robinson. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1924. 531 pp. Reviewed by: A. C. Krey, Eugene N. Curts

Miscellaneous: Great Peoples of tha Ancient World. By Dorothy M. Vaughan, M. A. (Longmans, Green &; Co., London, 1925. x, 178 pp. $1.90.) Reviewed by: Margaret Bancroft     

Postmodern Research,Postmodern Practice: Studying the Barriers to Cyberliteracy Among Mentally Disabled Women

The conversation about the postmodern challenge to sociological practice is just beginning. Harding advocates a positive tension between the postmodern vision of an antiessentialist, antiepistemological future and the postmodern vision of successor science projects grounded in the epistemologies of marginalized communities. In this paper, I describe my study of barriers to cyberliteracy among mentally disabled women and how it has been informed by these two contrasting postmodern visions represented, respectively, by the work of Newman and Holzman (The End of Knowing: A New Developmental Way of Learning, Routledge, London, 1997) and Smith (Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Zed Books, London, 1999).     

Contradictions of state socialism: the case of Poland*

This article originates from an invitation to give a paper at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw m the Autumn of 1980. As then drafted, the paper consisted mainly of a discussion of the writings of selected Polish and British sociologists on the structure and workings of contemporary state-socialist societies, and it was my intention to revise it for submission to the Sociological Review as a sequel to, and commentary on, the article by Christopher G.A. Bryant published in the issue of February, 1980.¹ On return from Warsaw, I decided against doing so for two reasons: first, it seemed to me that the writings which I had taken as my starting-point were too remote from the actual course of events in Poland; second, I did not see how I could use the many informative conversations about those events which I had had with Polish sociologists and others in an academic journal article. On further reflection, however, I do not believe that either of these reasons should prevent my attempting to set out and justify my view of the implications for sociological theory of the Polish case, even though it is based in part on non-documentary sources and (more seriously) I lack the knowledge of the language which would give me direct access to the documentary ones. In what follows, accordingly, I first outline the framework within which the forms and distribution of power in state-socialist societies in general and Poland in particular can, in my view, best be analysed; I then set out in slightly more detail what I see as the reasons why events in Poland between 1956 and 1981 followed the course they did; and I conclude with a brief discussion of what I believe to be the principal weakness in the recent British sociological literature on state socialism insofar as it relates to the Polish case.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article: The Migation Acquis Handbook. Edited by Peter J. van Krieken The UNHCR and Work Politics: A Perilous Path. By Gil Loescher The International Migration of the Highly Skilled Demand, Supply and Development Consequences in Sending and Receiving Countries. Edited by Wayne A. Cornelius, Thomas J. Espenshade, and Idean Salehyan The Multiculturalism of Fear. By Jacob T. Levy Immigration and European Integration: Towards Fortress Europe? By Andrew Geddes Immigration and American Unionism. By Vernon M. Briggs, Jr. U.S. Immigration Policy and the Undocumented Ambivalent Laws, Furtive Lives. By Helene Hayes The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again. By Michael Barone The West Indian Amricans. By Holger Henke Manufactring Hope and Despair: The School and Kin Support Networks of U.S.‐Mexican Youth. By Ricardo D. Stanton‐Salazar Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970. By Xinyang Wang Betrayal and Deceit: The Politics of Canadian Immigration. By Charles M. Campbell The French Enigma: Survival and Development in Canada's Francophone Societies. By Robert Stebbins The Chinese in vancouver 1945–80: The Pursuit of Identity and Power. By Wing Chang Migrant Belongings: Memory, Space, Identity. By Anne‐Marie Fortier Whitehall and the Jews 1933–1948: British Immigration Policy and the Holocaust. By Louise London     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article: Citizenship and Migration. Globalization and the Politics of Belonging. By Stephen Castles and Alastair Davidson Workers without Frontiers. By Peter Stalker Issues in the Economics of Immigration. Edited by George J. Borjas Regularisations of Illegal Immigrants in the European Union/Les régularisations des étrangers illégaux dans l'Union Européenne. Under the supervision of Philippe de Bruycker Immigrants and the Labour Force: Policy, Regulation and Impact. By Ravi Pendakur Border Games: Policing the U.S.‐Mexico Divide. By Peter Andreas Immigration as a Democratic Challenge: Citizenship and Inclusion in Germany and the United States. By Ruth Rubio‐Marin Multicultural Citizenship of the European Union. By Juan M. Delgado‐Moreira The Origins of Multiculturalism in Australian Politics 1945–1975. By Mark Lopez From Ellis Island to JFK. New York' Two Great Waves of Immigration. By Nancy Foner Immigrant Mind, American Identities: Making the United States Home, 1870–1930. By Orm Øverland Immigrant Mothers: Narratives of Race and Maternity, 1890–1925. By Katrina Irving Transatlantic Tier in the Spanish Empire: Brihuega, Spain and Puebla, Mexico, 1560–1620. By Ida Altman Public Attitudes Toward Immigration in the United States, France and Germany. By Joel S. Fetzer New York Befire Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776–1882. By John Kuo Wei Tchen New Chinese Migrants in Europe – The Case of the Chinese Community in Hungay. By Pál Nyíri In Search of an Identity: Essays and Ideas on Anglo‐Australians, German‐Australians and Others. By Johann Peter Weiss Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home: Transnationalism and Migration Between the United States and South China, 1882–1943. By Madeline Yuan‐yin Hsu Indians in Britain. Anglo‐Indian Encounters, Ruce and Identity, 1880–1930. By Shompa Lahiri Women Migrant Workers in China's Economic Reform. By Feng Xu West Indians In West Afiica, 1808–1880. By Nemata Amelia Blyden     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Environmental and Natural Resources Issues : Arizpe , Lourdes , M. Priscilla Stone, and David C. Majors (eds.). Population and Environment: Rethinking the Debate. Environmental and Natural Resources Issues : Lund , Jens . Flatheads and Spooneys: Fishing for a Living in the Ohio River Valley. Environmental and Natural Resources Issues : Du Puis , Melanie E. And Peter Pendergrass (eds.) Creating the Countryside: The Politics of Rural and Environmental Discourse. Environmental and Natural Resources Issues : Kromm , David E. And Stephen E. White (eds.). Groundwater Exploitation in the High Plains. Environmental and Natural Resources Issues : Vickers , Daniel . Farmers and Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630–1850. International Issues : Wilson , Richard . 1995. Maya Resurgence in Guatemala: Q'eqchi' Experiences. International Issues : Jeffrey , Patricia and Roger Jeffrey . Don't Marry Me to a Plowman! Women's Everyday Lives in Rural North India. International Issues : Weaver , Frederick S. Inside the Volcano: The History and Political Economy of Central America. International Issues : Wachtel , Nathan . Gods and Vampires, Return to Chapaya. Rural Politics : Finegold , Kenneth and Theda Skocpol . State and Party in America's New Deal. Rural Politics : Watkins , Marilyn P. Rural Democracy: Family Farmers and Politics in Western Washington, 1890–1925. Rural Culture and Rural Development : Rowley , Thomas D., David W. Sears , Glenn L. Nelson , J. Norman Reid, and Mervin J. Yetley (eds.). Rural Development Research: A Foundation for Policy. Rural Culture and Rural Development : Billson , Janet Mancini . Keepers of the Culture: The Power of Tradition in Women's Lives. Rural Culture and Rural Development : Sontag , M. Suzanne and Margaret M. Bubolz . Families on Small Farms: Case Studies in Human Ecology. Rural Culture and Rural Development : Rank , Mark Robert . Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America. Rural Culture and Rural Development : Scott , Shaunna L. Two Sides to Everything: The Cultural Construction of Class Consciousness in Harlan County, Kentucky.     

Book reviews

Handbook of Sociology Neil J. Smelser (ed.) Culture and Agency: the place of culture in social theory Margaret S. Archer Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations Diego Gambetta (ed.) Global Restructuring and Territorial Development Jeffrey Henderson and Manuel Castells (eds) Capitalism and Unfree Labour: Anomaly or Necessity? R. Miles Multi-Racist Britain P. Cohen and H.S. Bains, (eds) The Free Economy and the Strong State: the Politics of Thatcherism Andrew Gamble The New Right: Politics. Markets and Citizenship Desmond King The Politics of Local Government Gerry Stoker J. Baudrillard. Selected Writings edited and introduced by Mark Poster Science, Technology and Social Change Steven Yearley The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and The Nineteenth-Century Middle Class Janet Wolff and John Seed (eds) Microdrcuits of Capital: ‘Sunrise’ Industry and Uneven Development Kevin Morgan and Andrew Sayer The Economics of Television: The UK Case Richard Collins, Nicholas Garnham, Gareth Locksley Teenagers and Teenpics: The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s Thomas Doherty The Abolitionists: The Family and Marriage Under Attack Ronald Fletcher Problems of Childhood and Adolescence Michael Kerfoot and Alan Butler Within School Walls: the Role of Discipline, Sexuality and the Curriculum Ann Marie Wolpe Education, Training and the New Vocationalism Andrew Pollard, June Purvis and Geoffrey Walford (eds) The Sociology of Old Age Graham Fennell, Chris Phillipson and Helen Evers Joining Forces: Police Training, Socialization and Occupational Competence Nigel G, Fielding The Regulation of Madness: The Origins of Incarceration in France Robert Castel ‘Am I that Name?’: Feminism and the Category of ‘Women’ in Denise Riley Nonsexist Research Methods: a Practical Guide Margrit Eichler, Allen and Unwin Doing Research in Organisations Alan Bryman (ed.)     

Book reviews

Books reviewed in this article: Tcmards Socialist Work Steve Bolger, Paul Conigan, Jan Docking, and Nick Frost. The Social Basis of Scientific Discoveries Augustine Brannigan. Social Standing in America Richard P. Coleman and Lee Rainwater with Kent A. McQelland. The Politics of Poverty David Donnison. Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism Anthony Giddens. Forms of Talk Erving Goffman. The Grand Domestic Revolution Dolores Hayden. Automatic Poverty Bill Jordan. The Politics of Social Theory: Habermas, Freud and the Critique of Positivism Russell Keat. Do It Yourself: Hungary's Hidden Economy János Kenedi. Structure, Interaction and Social Theory D. Layder. The Politics of Poverty Susanne MacGregor. Contemporary Italian Sociology Diana Pinto (ed). In Gods We Trust Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony (eds). Perspectives on the Sodology of Education Philip Robinson. The Degradation of Work? Stephen Wood (ed).