Are minority women sociologists in double jeopardy?

We examine whether minority women in academic sociology face disadvantages that exceed those that would be expected by simply compounding the disadvantage of being a woman with that of being nonwhite or Hispanic. In a national survey of sociology departments, evidence of such “double jeopardy” appears in minority women’s severe underrepresentation among full professors, in both very small and very large departments, in undergraduate programs, in the Northeast, and in public institutions. Minority women are somewhat better represented among graduate students, but disadvantaged relative to minority men in their share of financial support. A pool of doctoral students now exists from which minority women faculty may be recruited, but these women appear to be leaving faculties faster than they are being replaced. His research interests include intergenerational family structure, social support across the life course, and U.S. antipoverty policy. He is currently collaborating on a longitudinal study of institutional predictors of the pace of affirmative action for women faculty in sociology. Her major research interest is in the area of work and personality. She is collaborating on a longitudinal study of women and minorities in U.S. sociology departments.     

Disciplinary schisms: Subspecialty “drift” and the fragmentation of sociology

One component of the often discussed malaise in sociology has been the problem of subspecialty “drift” — applied specialties given birth originally within the field now forming separate departments or programs. The historical and ideological origins of this problem are discussed, focusing primarily on the schism early on in sociology between pure and applied work. Anecdotal evidence presented from interviews with faculty in social work and criminal justice programs suggests sociology has in many cases facilitated development of new programs. In order to evaluate the relative position of applied programs within departments of sociology, a comparative analysis of the 1986 and 1996 Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology “special program” and department titles is undertaken. Contrary to the perception that applied programs are leaving sociology, results indicate an overall increase in special programs with an applied or practice component. Furthermore, masters programs are significantly more likely to have changed department names and to be in combined departments than doctoral programs. We suggest that while sociology has lost ground in the applied arena to more practice and policy-oriented disciplines, program changes within departments in the past decade may help to stem further subspecialty drift. The article concludes by suggesting that state sociological associations are particularly well suited to play a leadership role in addressing these issues. Dr. Bennett M. Judkins is currently doing research on community change and multiculturalism. Address correspondence to: Department of Sociology, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, NC 28601. Dr. Carl M. Hand is currently doing research on changes in undergraduate and graduate enrollments in sociology. Address correspondence to: Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA 31698.     

Graduate education in an age of decline

In the 1980s, sociology departments in a number of universities have been caught up in a deteriorating educational environment. Many have experienced reduced numbers of faculty and students, often becoming little more than service departments. This article looks at this process as it occurred at a midwestern university noted for its strong theoretical tradition in graduate education. How this happened and the effects it had on graduate students is the focus of this work. Barbara Ryan graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1986 and presently is teaching in the Department of Sociology at Northern Illinois University. Her specialty area is social movements and her dissertation was an analysis of change in the contemporary women’s movement.     

From Affirmative Action to Diversity: Critical Reflections on Graduate Education in Sociology

This article explores the contradictory results of the shift from a race‐conscious affirmative action discourse to a broader “diversity embrace” that advocates tolerance, equality, and respect for cultural differences on university campuses. Drawing on critical race theory and research on the practice of affirmative action in organizations, we argue that the diversity embrace subsumes recognition of racialized histories, social relations, and practices in favor of a “color‐blind” rhetoric that reinforces negative assumptions about the academic merit and worthiness of underrepresented minority students (URM). Our review of the status and condition of URM graduate students in sociology departments reveals that minority inclusion is part of a larger strategy that emphasizes individual and group differences rather than corrective action for past discrimination. We find that access and inclusion in graduate programs in sociology have been uneven with relatively few departments producing a majority of URM sociology doctorates. The diversity embrace obscures their continual low representation in graduate programs, fosters professionalization practices detrimental to these students, and undermines efforts to create a “critical mass” of faculty of color. Such practices constitute a racial project that preserves White privilege at the individual and institutional levels.     

Teaching, tracking, and marketing our product

Many sociology departments have faced difficult times in the past decade. This article examines how this crisis confronted two universities in North Carolina and the strategies which they used to strengthen their departments. Major emphasis is given to how state associations can assist departments in developing applied curriculum, publicizing their successful endeavors, and recruiting students. The article also provides insights about dealing with outcomes assessment as well as administering internship programs. Jan Rienerth teaching interests are in women’s issues, applied sociology, and experimental learning. Her research has focused on women and the elderly in prison. Martin Shultz primary research area involves the long term changes in the American family, especially divorce. In the past ten years, he has developed additional interests in applied sociology with an internship program. Richard Caston interests include socio-economics, health, and applied research.     

Unfeeling knowledge: Emotion and objectivity in the history of sociology

The theoretical concern of this paper is with the relationship of gender, personal life, and emotion to the social construction of sicentific knowledge. I examine this question through biographical research into the life and work of William Fielding Ogburn (1886–1959), a major figure in the history of American sociology. Ogburn believed that emotion was inimical to science and that statistics could help control what he considered to be its distorting effects. My analysis suggests that there was a personal component, reflecting Ogburn's search for masculinity, to the development of his ideas about how scientific sociology should be defined and practiced. I also suggest that Ogburn's ideas were favorably received by his mostly male audience because they spoke to broad cultural and historical currents. My analysis shows the need for a view of scientific knowledge that takes into account the effects of gender relations and emotion on intellectual activity.     

The sociology of social problems in Japan

The sociology of social problems in Japan has different characteristics from its counterpart in the United States. These differences are the circumstances surrounding an individual’s knowledge of social science prior to World War II, and the two main streams of social science after the rush of American sociology into Japan following that war. A few legends in some of the main fields of study are reviewed. Additionally, one of the most urgent social problems facing sociologists in Japan, the decline and survival of departments of sociology, is described and discussed.     

Networks,communication and productivity in a natural science research facility

There is a need in the sociology of science to study relationships among sets of scientists, where each set consists of an entire organization of scientists, or an institute or department of scientists within such an organization. In this paper, colleague choices are aggregated between the institutes (departments) of a single large natural science facility and a multidimensional scaling technique is employed to produce a social map of the facility. Next, hypotheses about the positions of the department in that map are tested. Disciplinary similarity; scale of phenomena investigated (cellular, molecular, or atomic); availability of appropriate apparatus at the facility; and, for the applied and service institutes, the type of assistance they provide (general or more specific) all help explain the social locations of the institutes within the facility. Then, productivity scores for the institutes of the facility are determined and related to the social map and to likely patterns of communication employed by the institutes. The institutes vary in productivity, measured both with objective indicators and with more qualitative assessments. Centrally located     

Save the World on Your Own Time: Or, What’s the Matter with Sociology?

This essay explores the question of why sociology departments, compared to other university departments, are often viewed negatively by higher-level administrators (deans, provosts, chancellors and presidents). We are asked to consider, as sociologists, how departments are ranked and evaluated by administrators. The characteristics of any good university department are identified (e.g., grants, support from alumni, publications, quality of teaching, national rankings, student enrollments); and, the characteristics of dynamic and healthy departments are outlined (e.g., student learning is primary; there is a commitment to the goals of the larger organization; leadership is provided by the unit to solve all-university problems; there is a focus on learning; faculty are productive; there are strong communication links across the organization). The question is posed and then systemically answered as to how sociology departments compare in terms of these standards. It is suggested that a major factor in terms of how and why sociology departments are negatively evaluated is the fact that sociology uses narratives of power and explanations of organizational behavior that are inherently oppositional, i.e., there is an “us” and “them” mentally that sometimes develops. Other reasons for organizational marginalization are identified such as the “canon wars” and their lingering effects, and the fact that the sociological enterprise has been diluted by the teaching of “sociology” in many other campus units, such as composition programs. Finally, questions are raised about how sociology, as an intellectual enterprise, differs from other disciplines in terms of pedagogy, the sequencing of courses, “grand” theory, and forms of apprenticeship. It is recommended that sociologists act positively to help the organizations within which they work to identify common problems and solve them. It is argued that sociology can and should “own” the area of civic engagement as a means of making a positive and distinctive contribution. Sociological “stories” grounded in the reality of everyday life are compelling. It is suggested that sociologists need to deepen connections with their communities and to offer real solutions to real problems.     

What Can I Do? Applying Classroom Knowledge to Service Work, or Doing Practice Sociology

Faculty members are frequently asked by students and parents, “what can I do with a Sociology degree?” This paper suggests ways to address the question and take action to insure that majors have the knowledge and skills to be successful in the job search and the work world. In addition, the paper indicates ways that combining service learning and applied sociology serves goals of students, faculty, universities, and communities. Approaches to teaching applied (practice) sociology in departments and to integrating service learning and course content show the “natural synergy” between the two types of learning. Finally, the article discusses practical issues related to service learning in applied settings: getting the support of faculty and administrators; convincing students of the benefits of service learning; revising curricula; and setting up the service learning experiences. The conclusion is that combining service learning and applied sociology courses has positive results for all involved.     

The Changing Academic Ecology of Sociology: Learning to Live With More Frogs in the Pond

Sociology exists in a dynamic academic environment that influences how students view and evaluate the discipline. This essay explores the changing academic context of sociology through the author’s experience as a professor and department chair over a span of four decades. Increased co-curricular programming, changing student goals, and more competitive disciplinary neighbors present sociology departments with new challenges in attracting students. Central to these challenges is the erosion of sociology’s once distinctive niche in the academic ecology. Questions and suggestions are explored regarding adaptive strategies that might enable sociology to find a niche wherein it can thrive.     

Rescuing from oblivion: social characteristics and career destinations of early British ‘sociology’ graduates, 1907–39

Those students who were among the first sociology graduates in the UK barely feature in standard histories of the discipline, which all have an intellectual and institutional focus. This article remedies this neglect by researching the social backgrounds and later careers of sociology graduates from the London School of Economics and Political Science [LSE] and Bedford College for Women from the first such graduate in 1907 until those graduating in the 1930s. Data for this exercise were compiled from a variety of sources. The more important are: UK censuses, especially that of 1911; various civil registration records; archived student files; and, for the graduates who entered university teaching, issues of the Yearbook of the Universities of the Empire [later the Commonwealth Universities' Yearbook]. The dataset includes all identified graduates in the BSc(Econ), Special Subject Sociology, degree from 1907 to 1935 and all in the BA (Honours) in Sociology degree from 1925 to 1939. LSE sociology graduates tended to be older and to have more cosmopolitan backgrounds, with fathers more likely than for Bedford College graduates to come from commercial rather than professional backgrounds. Both institutions' graduates' careers tended to the Civil Service and local government. LSE graduates gravitated to education, especially to higher education if male, whilst those of Bedford College went into welfare work, countering a stereotype from some previous literature that especially women graduates were heavily constrained to follow careers in schoolteaching. The article also gives comparisons with the social‐class profile and career destinations of several cohorts of postwar sociology graduates, noting a number of similarities.     

Whatever Will Happen to Industrial Sociology

Industrial sociology faces a renaissance if the leaves of social change can be read correctly. The permissive freedom of the 1960s and 1970s is being curtailed by some harsh economic realities. Parents and students alike are seeking the economic promise of job guarantees when the students graduate. Liberal arts education is on the defensive. Such training must demonstrate it has vocational opportunity or can be converted to such opportunity by postgraduate training. Sociologists who have had the freedom to do their own thing for 20 to 30 years are being forced to make some agonizing appraisals. The entire field of sociology has been placed under scrutiny. The drastic cuts in research funding are only one index of the governmental depreciation of sociology and most other social sciences. The loss of sociology majors and enrollments is another index of student and parental lack of confidence in sociology as a good investment. Academic sociologists who have placed applied sociology in a second-rate category are beginning to recognize that research training of graduate students must turn to applied training or jobs will not be available for many, if not most, of their graduate students. In a similar manner, research funding and graduate fellowships will not be available unless this change is made.     

Toward professional civility: An analysis of rejection letters front sociology departments

I received 124 rejection letters from 124 sociology departments across the United Slates during my job search in 1996 and 1997. In this article, I analyze those rejection letters with regard lo the messages they send to individuals and organizations. I argue: (a) that rejection letters constitute a unique form of mass media in contemporary life as they are sent and read massively by individuals and organizations; and (b) that they may socialize entering practitioners into a specific discourse of attitudes and behaviors, sustaining a particular tradition of collegiality, morality, and interpersonal relationships for an organization, discipline, and profession. On the basis of this analysis, I offer suggestions lor positive change that will promote professional civility. Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Hawaii-Manoa. He is now assistant professor in sociology at California State University-Northridge. Dr. Shaw is interested in the study of deviance, crime, social problems, social control, and organizational behavior. He has published widely in those areas.     

Sociology as a vocation: Reputations and group cultures in graduate school

Graduate training in sociology involves more than meeting organizationally imposed demands such as satisfying departmental requirements, taking exams, and completing a dissertation. More central is the development of identity through institutional and interactional forces. We examine the experience of graduate students as tied to the social psychological processes associated with professional training. We consider the faculty-student relationship, identifying how student identities as future sociologists are negotiated and constructed within a reputation market linked to status politics. Through this process, graduate students construct frames of interpretation that make sense of a status system in which criteria for evaluation are often variable, uncertain, or undisclosed. To recognize how graduate students fit into their occupational routines, we build upon three core disciplinary constructs: identity, reputation, and group culture. This perspective permits graduate education to be grounded in sociological understandings, underlining the role of a sociological imagination. We propose strategies that sociology departments might follow to facilitate the professional socialization of graduate students, emphasizing the establishment of group culture and presentational norms. In the absence of these changes, we offer advice to graduate students on navigating their current programs.     

The representation of women in top ranked sociology departments

This paper compares the status of women in highly ranked sociology departments with their status in departments nationwide. The top ranked departments influence the profession markedly through their disproportionate share of the nation’s graduate students and faculty, and their production of more than half of the faculty in graduate departments. Women on top ranked faculties are more often at advanced ranks with tenure than their national peers, but there are proportionally fewer of them than in departments across the nation. Gender gaps in rank and tenure are also narrower in top ranked departments. Although women graduate students are less common in top ranked than in national departments, the former have financial assistance more often. Recent hiring practices have merely maintained women’s current level of representation, but men are disproportionately vacating faculty positions. With most departments growing slowly, if at all, this will result in a small increase over time in women’s fraction of faculty positions. where he is developing, with colleagues, a longitudinal model of the institutional factors that promote and impede progress in affirmative action in academia, and is completing a study of “double jeopardy” for minority women sociologists. This study was funded, in part, by the American Sociological Association, the Pacific Sociological Association, the University of Oregon Center for Women in Society, and an Arizona State University support grant. However, these organizations are not responsible for the views expressed in the paper.     

Before theory comes theorizing or how to make social science more interesting

The basic argument in this article is that sociology and social science more generally are today severely hampered by the lack of attention being paid to theory. Methods – qualitative as well as quantitative methods – have proven to be very useful in practical research (as opposed to theory); and as a result they dominate modern social science. They do not, however, do the job that belongs to theory. One way to redress the current imbalance between methods and theory, it is suggested, would be to pay more attention to theorizing, that is, to the actual process that precedes the final formulation of a theory; and in this way improve theory. Students of social science are today primarily exposed to finished theories and are not aware of the process that goes into the production and design of a theory. Students need to be taught how to construct a theory in practical terms (‘theorizing’); and one good way to do so is through exercises. This is the way that methods are being taught by tradition; and it helps the students to get a hands‐on knowledge, as opposed to just a reading knowledge of what a theory is all about. Students more generally need to learn how to construct a theory while drawing on empirical material. The article contains a suggestion for the steps that need to be taken when you theorize. Being trained in what sociology and social science are all about – an important precondition! – students may proceed as follows. You start out by observing, in an attempt to get a good empirical grip on the topic before any theory is introduced. Once this has been done, it may be time to name the phenomenon; and either turn the name into a concept as the next step or bring in some existing concepts in an attempt to get a handle on the topic. At this stage one can also try to make use of analogies, metaphors and perhaps a typology, in an attempt to both give body to the theory and to invest it with some process. The last element in theorizing is to come up with an explanation; and at this point it may be helpful to draw on some ideas by Charles Peirce, especially his notion of abduction. Before having been properly tested against empirical material, according to the rules of the scientific community, the theory should be considered unproven. Students who are interested in learning more about theorizing may want to consult the works of such people as Everett C. Hughes, C. Wright Mills, Ludwig Wittgenstein and James G. March. Many of the issues that are central to theorizing are today also being studied in cognitive science; and for those who are interested in pursuing this type of literature, handbooks represent a good starting point. The article ends by arguing that more theorizing will not only redress the balance between theory and methods; it will also make sociology and social science more interesting.     

Undergraduate research experience as preparation for graduate school

Graduate students learn to be sociologists in part by doing research. Many undergraduate institutions whose roles have been primarily defined by teaching have inadequately addressed the need of their students to obtain research experience. When such opportunities are available, and when they are properly structured and coordinated with the undergraduate curriculum, advantages accrue to both students and the profession. This paper examines curricular and extracurricular ways to strengthen undergraduate research opportunities as preparation for graduate school. It is suggested that such preparation is also beneficial to many students who do not go on to graduate school. His primary research areas are methodology and urban sociology. He is currently working on models of urban housing markets and neighborhood change and is editing a book on those topics with Donald J. Bogue. This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (8852039).     

Teaching the history of women in sociology: Or Dorothy Swaine Thomas,wasn’t she the woman married to William I.?

One characteristic of feminist scholarship is the attention paid to the lost history of women in a wide variety of arenas. This interest stems from the insight that history is a social construction. As such, it is likely influenced by sexist assumptions. This train of thought led to the author’s interest in the possibility that sexism had biased both the opportunities for women in the past and the way the history of sociology had been conceived. This article describes an effort to explore these questions in an undergraduate research seminar. The article describes a variety of means the author used to unveil these problems with her students, and to engage them in asking new questions, reading standard sociological materials in critical ways, and working toward the creation of a less biased understanding of the history of sociology. The reactions of the students and professor, and the products of this course are specified. This course is one of many examples of the way feminist questions and perspectives have the potential for transforming sociology. Shulamit Reinharz is an associate professor of society at Brandies University and the author ofOn Becoming a Social Scientist (Transaction 1984). Her recent articles in feminist sociology focus on such areas as the meaning of miscarriage, the integration of gerontological and feminist theory, an analysis of the ideology of socialist Zionist feminist, Manya Wilbushewitz Shohat, and an overview of the work of Mirra Komarovsky.     

Comment se font les administrations : analyser des activités administratives constituantes

Between studies in historical sociology on changes in public administrations and microsociological analyses of the ordinary work done by civil servants, an intermediate perspective is advocated, one centered on “constituent administrative activities”. Following a panorama of the varied researches on public administrations, the proposal is made to focus on the arrangements that shape administrations and form their essential operations. Recruitment, personnel evaluation, the division of labor, the restructuring of hierarchies and the activities of keeping written records and statistics (writing and counting) should be the subjects of study. When placed in their historical and social contexts, they help us better understand how public administrations last and change. Discussing the scale of analysis and making comparisons over time and in space, this article presents the other contributions to this special issue. Less linear approaches are suggested for analyzing the historical processes of the “bureaucratization” and “managerialization” of administrative systems.