Potential expansion of the academic job market: Opportunities for sociologists

Following a period of a restricted and declining academic market, an expansion of such opportunity for sociologists is forecast. The next decade will be characterized by increasing enrollments, particularly after 1995, and an increasing percentage of faculty currently employed within academia will pass the normal age of retirement. The “uncapping” of age of retirement is not expected to have a significant impact on the need to replace older faculty. Despite a decline in the production of Ph.D.’s during the 1980s, there continues to exist a significant pool of underutilized sociologists. The impact of this oversupply will depend upon more than the increase in demand within academic institutions. The number of sociologists employed outside academia increased during the 1980s, and this trend is expected to continue. Conclusions must remain tentative because of the severe limitations of available data, and additional data collection and analysis is suggested. Nevertheless, the next decade is seen as a time of expanding opportunities for sociologists, and the market for their service is seen as becoming increasingly competitive. He served as vice president for academic affairs and provost from 1980 to 1988. He is the immediate past vice president of the American Sociological Association.     

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.     

“It’s not rocket science!“: High school sociology teachers’ conceptions of sociology

Since academic sociology’s birth in this country, sociologists have not been shy about publicly praising and ridiculing the discipline. Though sociologists have been the primary participants in the seemingly endless debates about sociology’s proper subject matter, methods, and purpose, there is another group that has also struggled over the past 95 years to formulate a conception of the discipline—high school sociology teachers. At this point, we know virtually nothing about what the thousands of high school teachers who offer sociology each year, actually think about the discipline. This paper uses questionnaire and interview data collected from high school sociology teachers to examine their thoughts on four topics: (1) sociology’s strengths, (2) its weaknesses, (3) whether high school students are capable of understanding the discipline, and (4) appropriate course objectives. The results indicate that high school teachers view sociology quite differently from academic sociologists, and that their conceptions are based primarily on “textbook sociology.” I conclude by discussing the far-reaching implications of teachers’ current thinking about the discipline. I wish to thank Larry nichols for offering helpful comments on an earliar draft of this paper.     

Garfinkel before ethnomethodology

A short story titled “‘Color Trouble’” by Harold Garfinkel was published inOpportunity in 1940,The Best Short Stories 1941, andPrimer for White Folks in 1945. Garfinkel wrote this short story before World War II while a research fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill under Howard W. Odum, the founder ofSocial Forces “‘Color Trouble’” narrates poignantly the racial victimization of a young black woman traveling on a public bus through the State of Virginia. The short story provides sociologists with a different medium through which to examine the seminal interests of ethnomethodology’s founder. In a literary form, the short story depicts such ethnomethodological concepts as the breaching experiment, the “et cetera clause,” “ad hocing,” and the status degradation ceremony. Garfinkel’s “‘Color Trouble’” also suggests the way in which ethnomethodology overlaps with, as well as diverges from, Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective. He received his doctoral degree from the graduate program in sociology at York University, Toronto, Ontario. His article “Autonomy and Responsibility in Social Theory” will appear inCurrent Perspectives in Social Theory, Volume 10.     

Sociologists in the Press

Stimulated by debates on public sociology in the recent years I studied contributions of sociologists in daily newspapers in Austria. Although sociologists are rather present in the Austrian press, I argue this remains without noticeable effects on public opinion formation; the topics sociologists write and talk about are rather arbitrary and they lack factual content. Although my data refers to sociologists in the Austrian press, the study’s conclusions might be true to the wider sociological community: Through such exposure, a public profile of sociology cannot evolve. Furthermore, the article discusses criteria that prevent and complicate the relationship between sociologists and the press: avoidance of publicity, the problem of values and ideology, incompatibilities of language-games, divergence of relevance criteria, and deficient cultural empathy.     

An accidental journey: Becoming a sociologist

This sketch describes how I accidentally became a sociologist. More importantly, it describes undergraduate sociology training at a private liberal arts university during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The University of Maryland began a Ph.D. program in sociology just before World War II began. I report on graduate training there, as well as the social and intellectual life of the department. C. Wright Mills began his academic career at Maryland. I consider his place in the department, my experiences with him as my dissertation director, and how he influenced my lifelong study on the bearing of social stratification to politics.     

Sociology’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Suicide</Emphasis>: A Forensic Autopsy?

For decades Durkheim’s theory of suicide has been tested and found wanting. Yet, rather than being consigned to the dust-bin of history, it lives on and is pointed to as an exemplar of the powers of sociological theory and research. If this rationalizing and/or dismissal of so many falsifications of the theory were an isolated phenomenon, it might be evidence of some lemming-like propensity for suicide or a disciplinary death-wish, among a few sociologists. But it appears to be a much more widespread and common occurrence. In this paper we explore some possible explanations of this ‘falsification denial’—‘The Social Misconstruction of Reality’ (Hamilton 1996), ‘When Prophecy Fails’ (Festinger et al. 1956), ‘Underdetermination’ (Duhem 1954; Quine Journal of Philosophy 67:178–183, 1970, Erkenntnis 9:313–328, 1975; Lakatos 1970), and ‘Boundary Maintenance’ (Erikson 1966), and we outline some of the more important and pernicious consequences of this falsification denial for the discipline and future of sociology.     

Much ado about Goffman

“The claim that all the world’s a stage is sufficiently commonplace for readers to be familiar with its limitations and tolerant of its presentation.” (Goffman 1959, 72, 254) “Given that the logic of privatization....now odiously shapes archetypes of citizenship, [and] manages our perceptions of what constitute the ‘good society’....it stands to reason that new ethnographic research approaches must take global capitalism not as an end point of analysis, but as a starting point.” (Kincheloe and McLaren 2000, 304) “My abhorrence of neoliberalism helps to explain my legitimate anger when I speak of the injustices to which the ragpickers among humanity are condemned. It also explains my total lack of interest in any pretension of impartiality, I am not impartial, or objective...[this] does not prevent me from holding always a rigorously ethical position.” (Freire 1998, 22)     

Charles A. Ellwood and the End of Sociology

Charles A. Ellwood was one of the larger than life figures of early American sociology. Into the 1930s he was recognized as the ‘father’ of sociological social psychology. His work theoretically and methodologically paved the way for Symbolic Interactionism. He also saw sociology as a means to an end, that is, to make the world a better place. True sociology could only be thought of in that light. By the 1920s however, sociology was changing. The advent of scientism and statistics amplified factions within the disipline. William F. Ogburn and his students began to push sociology away from the ideas of people such as Ellwood, Ross, Small and many of the early American sociologists. By 1930 a full scale battle was ensuing which Ellwood would lose. The following is an account of Ellwood’s fight with scientism through his publications and correspondence.     

Gender-based faculty-pay differences in academe: A reduced-form approach

I test for gender differences in faculty salaries for the academic year 1987–1988, using a basic sample of 560 higher education institutions. The ratios of female faculty pay to male faculty pay are regressed on a reduced-form equation for implicit marginal productivity ratios and rate of departure ratios. Marginal productivities depend on faculty and administrative inputs and proxies for technology. Rate of departure ratios depend on various institutional characteristics, such as size, unionization, administrative intensity, Carnegie Foundation classification, type of ownership, and degree of faculty tenured. The results indicate that, after adjusting actual pay ratios for implicit marginal productivity ratios, female faculty pay is at least as high as male faculty pay for much of the sample (74 percent).     

Women in Academic Sociology, 1925–75

Abstract

The career patterns of two distinguished sociologists, Arnold and Caroline Rose, exemplify male-female differentials in academic career patterns in sociology. Arnold's career was a straight and steep line of progression; Caroline's, despite her record of scholarly productivity, existed on the fringes of academia—night school, correspondence courses, and extension and part-time teaching. Examination of the authors and reviews in the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review confirms this model of women at the academic margins: over the years, women have written a far greater proportion of the book reviews than of the articles. This pattern parallels that women in academic life generally, although not all of it can be attributed to discriminatory factors. While the participation of women in mainstream academic life has increased in very recent years, these historic patterns indicate the possible need for different formal models of male and female academic careers.     

The prospects for sociology into the twenty-first century

In contrast to the malaise that Collins (1986), characterized for sociology of the 1980s, I argue that the future for sociology and sociologists is bright. There are three structural changes that lead to my optimism. First, the professoriate is changing from one that has been overwhelmingly white, male, and tenured, to one that will become younger and more diverse by gender and race. Second, the fiscal crisis of the state will limit monies for funded research, which will lead to more critical and more qualitative research. Third, societal and global changes will present sociologists with unprecedented opportunities. Globally, three momentous historical turning points present sociologists with incredible opportunities: (a) the shift to a post cold war era; (b) the ecological crises threatening the worlds’s ecosystem; and (c) the transformation of the economy. Within the United States, there are many contemporary trends with considerable sociological relevance: the aging of the baby boom; the increasing proportion of the elderly; the growing racial/ethnic diversity; the regional shifts as the frost belt loses population, resources, and power, while the sun belt gains; and the growing urban underclass that is being left further and further behind. In short, the next two decades or so will present sociologists with exciting opportunities and challenges.     

Prophetic versus priestly sociology: The salient case study of Arthur K. Davis

Arthur K. Davis was President of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association in 1975–1976 and in 1995 received the association’s Outstanding Contribution award. In Canada, he was particularly known for his article on “Canadian Society and History as Hinterland Versus Metropolis,” originally published in Ossenberg’s anthology of 1971. This article was frequently cited from 1972–1994 and was reprinted a number of times. Davis was also known for his articles on Thorstein Veblen, which continue to receive citation. Davis’ career merits careful study for at least two reasons. The first is that he was a Ph.D. product of the early Harvard sociology graduate program, which has received much less attention than it deserves from sociological historians (unlike the Chicago School). As such, Davis studied under of Talcott Parsons, Pitirim Sorokin, and Robert K. Merton. The second reason is that Davis’ career clearly illustrates the usefulness of Robert W. Friedrichs’ distinction between the priestly and prophetic roles that sociologists may fulfill. Davis’ career started under the influence of a priestly orientation (as symbolized by his doctoral supervisor Talcott Parsons) and then gravitated to a prophetic stance as influenced by Pitirim Sorokin, Paul M. Sweezy, and, more distantly, by Marx and Veblen. Since this transition took place just when the Cold War was falling, his career reveals some of the pitfalls that await the prophetic sociologist in times that favor security and conservatism rather than activism and change.     

The victim-bind dilemma of black female sociologists in academe

In this article, the author argues that black female academicians, in particular sociologists, are in a “victim-bind,” which indicates their paradoxical ambivalence and produces stereotypical perceptions. This article examines the purpose and functions of stereotypic perceptions of black females in various phases of graduate school and early career development. It draws on the limited literature as well as the experiences and observations of the author and points out how the political culture and institutional structures of academic communities and departments shape images and career patterns of black women being professionalized as sociologists and social scientists in general. It concludes that stereotypic perceptions of black females are tied into the institutional systems of gender, race and power relations which represent in microcosm, the society at large. Her research areas are social psychological consequence of underemployment, racial/gender differences in social comparison processes, racial/gender inequality in academe, and racial/gender differences in perceptions of labor unions.     

The stranger as seer or voyeur: A dilemma of the peep-show theory of knowledge

The belief that ‘the stranger’ (outsider, disinterested third party) sees things more clearly, i.e. is more “objective,” is seen to be a corner-stone of folk wisdom; underlying Western judicial thought and concepts of objectivity in the social sciences. The author raises the dilemma that both positivistic and humanistic sociologists accept this belief—suggesting 1) that it is a residue of positivism and a quest for certain knowledge, or 2) the possibility that ‘the stranger’ does gain deeper insight into group life than members. The paper examines the concept of the stranger, considering the aura of charisma that seems to have been attached to it in ordinary discourse as well as within the sociological dialogue. Two types of strangers are described: outsiders and enemies within. Finally, an attempt is made to examine the testimony of prominant strangers as they describe their marginal status and speculate on the ways that status has made them unusually perceptive observers of social phenomena.     

Contested memory: Notes on Robert K. Merton’s“the Thomas Theorem and the Matthew Effect”

Conclusion Merton’s 1995 article shows the sociological complexity of a question that appears on the surface to be a simple one: Who wrote,“ If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”? Yet, simple things can be stated simply: the evidence for W. I. Thomas’s authorship of this sentence is far from conclusive; therefore I believe it should be attributed to both authors of the book in which it appears. It is ironic that Merton, having spent much of his professional career studying the role of citations in science, bears some responsibility for the lack of credit Dorothy Swaine Thomas has received regarding these words. This incident should therefore act as a cautionary tale about what happens when we stray too far from the scholarly practice of documenting our sources, even though we may believe we have good reasons for doing so. I am averse, however, to conclude my response to Merton’s article on a strident note. My hope is that this episode will help us move toward a“new era” of not the politically but the scholarly correct citation. It would be a pity if this issue leads to citation wars where old scores are settled and political correctness wins out over scholarly civility. On this point, I am sure Merton and I can both agree.     

Becoming an Academic: Early vs. Later Professional Experiences

Abstract

This paper investigates the relevance of both formal training and current career conditions for the professional activity of an academic. We focus on the socialization of a sample of Ph.D. sociologists submitting papers for publication. Using regression procedures, we relate productivity of the training faculty, current publication pressures, sex, and year of degree to publication-related activity. We find that current publication pressures is a better predictor of professional activity than is productivity of the training faculty. In addition, sex appears to mediate professional socialization experiences.     

“Please don’t think of me as a sociologist”: Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge and the early Chicago school

There has been a concerted effort in the last three decades to identify early female sociologists and to add or restore their works to the sociological canon. This effort has generated a substantial body of work, much of which examines the relationship between the women and men of the Chicago School in its early years (1892–1920). Two primary assumptions about this relationship have emerged over the years: (1) the women were frustrated sociologists; frustrated by a lack of acceptance in the discipline and a department run by men; and (2) the women were displaced sociologists, forced out of the discipline by the men into disciplines such as household administration and social work. This paper examines these assumptions through a case study of the life and work of Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge. Breckinridge is among those characterized by the literature as a frustrated and displaced sociologist, but Breckinridge’s own words to a friend, “Please don’t think of me as a sociologist,” suggest that this was not always the case.     

Power Mapping: Enhancing Sociological Knowledge by Developing Generalizable Analytical Public Tools

In this article, I argue for and illustrate ‘power mapping’ as a concrete research approach that can benefit specific publics while enhancing professional sociological knowledge and theory. I present power mapping as an example of a more broad approach to public sociology which seeks to harness sociological theory and knowledge in order to create generalizable analytical tools that social movements, policy makers, concerned citizens, voluntary associations, and community organizations can use to develop their own strategic assessments of the sociological contexts in which they act. One of the ironies of the current discussion of public sociology is that it has been conducted in an abstract, hyper-theoretical discourse which is precisely one of the factors that has disconnected so much sociology from general publics. In this article, I instead turn towards presenting a specific concrete research strategy which could engender mutually beneficial research collaboration and dialogue between sociologists and specific publics.     

Using Analytic Space: A Challenge to Contemporary Psychoanalysis

As psychoanalysts, we have to be constantly aware of the impact of external reality upon the analytic process, whether this comes from the world outside the consulting room or from within it. In particular, I am concerned with the disturbing influence that may come from the analyst’s devotion to new theoretical positions and ways of working. Also we cannot prescribe ‘good experience’ for any patient. We can only follow the process, and this may require of us that we survive being used by the patient to represent all that has been worst in the patient’s life. We should never deflect that.