The Relationship between Theory and Research: a Study in the Sociology of Sociology*

While the importance of the relationship between theory and research is given credence in sociology, little has been done in delineating the specific nature of such a relationship. In order to do so, the present article examines data concerning the theoretical orientation and methodological procedures employed by the authors of 1,434 articles (in five substantive areas) which have appeared in nine major sociological journals over the period 1950 to 1970. Analysis of these data reveals the presence of a strong affinity between the utilization of a realist theoretical perspective, centering upon the study of group properties, and the employment of less empirical research techniques. Conversely, those authors shown to employ a nominalist theoretical approach, and hence those focusing upon individual properties, were found to use more empirical techniques and procedures in their research. Further analysis of the relationship between the theoretical and methodological orientations utilized by the authors surveyed appears to indicate some tendency for one's mode of data analysis to be as much a reason for, as a function of, one's theoretical perspective.     

Productivity of women scholars and gender researchers: Is funding a factor?

Articles by women scholars and proportions of articles focused on gender have increased steadily in major sociology journals since 1974. Women are more heavily represented as journal authors than as members of graduate-program departments, the institutional bases where most published work originates. We consider whether funding might account for these patterns by examining acknowledgement of support in published articles. We find no significant relationships among author gender, article topic, and notation of internal funding. Male-authored articles focused on nongender topics acknowledge external funding significantly more often than women-authored works and articles focused on gender written by women or men. Funding patterns therefore do not appear to account for increased productivity by women and gender researchers. She is currently studying the educational achievement of immigrant students. Linda Grant is an assistant professor of sociology and faculty associated of the Institute of Behavioral Research at the University of Georgia. Her current research focuses on gender and academic careers and gender relationships in schools. Her current research includes the feminist critique of sociology and publishing, and the U.S. women’s movement.     

Women’s sociological research and writing in the AJS in the pre-World War II era

Recent revisionist scholarship on the history of sociology suggests that women scholars in the pre-World War II era made distinctive contributions to the development of the field of sociology. Most research, however, has focused on women prominent in their era, whose works might or might not be typical of all women who published during the same periods. Furthermore, few studies have made explicit comparisons between works by women and by men writing in this same era, so it has been difficult to sort out gender effects from historical era effects. This study explores writings by women and men in the first volumes of the American Journal of Sociology, from 1895 through 1940. As the oldest continuously published sociology journal in the U.S., AJS played a central role in the development of American sociology. We find that women authors were present in AJS from the earliest days, though their share of authorships never was large, and fluctuated year by year. Women’s work was distinctively different from that of men, with more women than men writing empirical, evidence-based articles, focusing on women, children, immigrants, the poor, and other have-not groups, and advocating for social reform. Writings of rank-and-file and prominent women sociologists were similar in methods, content, and form, and their distinctive contributions to sociology paralleled many of the concerns of feminist sociologists today.     

Measures of success in American sociology

This research examines two measures of success in American sociology: publication in major sociological journals and election to the presidency of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Variables considered include the total number of publications in major journals, total number of citations, number of books written, graduate institutions, and year of doctoral degree. The productivity of authors is found to be consistent with the pattern first suggested by Lotka. Publication in top journals is a relatively open process with a large number of different authors publishing over a 20-year period and considerable circulation of top publishing authors in adjacent decades. Top publishers and ASA presidents appear to follow different career paths. ASA presidents tend to receive their doctorates from more elite institutions, publish substantially more books, and place fewer articles in the major journals than do cohorts of top publishing authors.     

Social explanation and socialization: on Bourdieu and the structure, disposition, practice scheme

The standard narrative of the sociology of education accounts for the perpetuation of relative differentials in class access to education by a structure‐disposition‐practice scheme in which the central explanatory weight is carried by properties of socialized agents. The dominant scheme of this kind is now that inspired by Bourdieu. In this context, it is, therefore, appropriate to interrogate the competence of socialization in sociological explanations of social events and processes. The argument adopts a position of scientific and critical realism, and it is suggested that a realist sociology might find in Bourdieu's approach, notwithstanding specific theoretical and conceptual weaknesses, a framework strong enough to sustain the multilevel explanations of inequality/difference necessary in the sociology of education.     

Objective and Reputational Rankings of Ph.D.-Granting Departments of Sociology, 1965–1982

Abstract

From its inception in 1965 until 1975 when it stopped publishing such studies, The American Sociologist (TAS) published numerous quality rankings of Ph.D.-granting sociology departments and several articles that compared different rankings. During these years TAS published far more rankings of sociology departments than did any other journal This article reviews these studies as well as the rankings of sociology departments found in three major multi-disciplinary rankings (Cartter, 1966; Roose and Andersen, 1970; Jones, Lindzey, and Coggeshall, 1982). It discusses the major methodological approaches used in these studies and reviews the debate among scholars regarding the most appropriate ways to rank departments. An analysis of the various objective and subjective rankings reveals that there is an elite group of seven departments that consistently rank at the top regardless of the ranking method employed.     

Feminism and Imperialism, 1890–1920: Our Anti‐Imperialist Sisters—Missing in Action from American Feminist Sociology*

This article retrieves part of our historical past to address two omissions in American feminist sociology on the subject of global imperialism. The first section addresses the inadequate attention feminist sociologists have paid to how major leaders of the women's movement responded to U.S. overseas expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It documents how these early feminists had both progressive and reactionary responses to the anti‐imperialist struggles of their era. Particular emphasis is given to how issues of race, class, and gender were interwoven in their discourses on imperialism. The second section focuses on how the writings of the most famous woman theorist and critic of imperialism during this era—Rosa Luxemburg—are virtually ignored in U.S. portrayals of feminist sociology and women founders of sociology. To address this omission, Luxemburg's theory of imperialism is examined, as well as how it has influenced contemporary global feminist works. A critical analysis of these Luxemburg‐inspired works considers their implications for understanding global imperialism today. In this way, the past is used to clarify the present.     

Developing a mestiza consciousness theoretical framework

Abstract

This article offers Gloria Anzaldúa’s mestiza consciousness as an appropriate theorizing frame when analyzing lived experiences and perceptions of contradiction. First, I discuss the main theoretical frameworks used in sociology when examining the experiences of U.S. women of color: Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. Next, I introduce mestiza consciousness as an additional sociologically appropriate framework and discuss how it fits into the tradition of Black Feminist Thought and intersectionality. Finally, I conduct a brief case study in the subdiscipline of the sociology of religion to illustrate mestiza consciousness’ appropriateness as a theoretical frame.     

Interactionism in the Twenty‐First Century: A Letter on Being‐in‐a‐Meaningful‐World

Half a century after its crystallization, interactionism faces new challenges. While elements of this theoretical tradition have percolated into the broader field of sociology, some of its most radical promises have been ignored. This essay provides a blueprint for how to approach interactionism today: not as a historical remnant, but as a living tradition with much to offer contemporary scholarship. Yet to do so, we argue, interactionism must develop some of its core tenets, offering more explicit links both to the sociology of culture, and to other areas in sociology. Focusing on our own experiences and writings, we point to ways in which the careful study of interaction can provide a font of ideas for the broader sociological discipline. We address the significance of affordances, situational webs, group commitment, embeddedness, and disruption, and show how such reorientation can help us better analyze oppression and privilege.     

Racialization in a ‘homogenous’ society? The case of Buraku people in Japan

This paper examines the puzzling status of Buraku people in Japan through the methodological prism of historical sociology. I develop a theoretical approach that emphasizes the concept of racialization to illuminate the historical and social construction of Buraku status. I propose this approach as a complementary alternative to prior analytic perspectives. Two major perspectives have dominated research on the status of Buraku people. First, an earlier approach that focused on the legacy of caste discrimination. The second framework focuses on Buraku people as part of the struggle for universal human rights. This article raises three basic, but interrelated questions about the historical development of Buraku status in Japan. Why did the Buraku people become subject to such overt discrimination in local community life, and through government policy? How was the state involved in the social construction of Buraku people? How did the Buraku liberation struggles challenge formalized discrimination?     

Inventing the axial age: the origins and uses of a historical concept

The concept of the axial age, initially proposed by the philosopher Karl Jaspers to refer to a period in the first millennium BCE that saw the rise of major religious and philosophical figures and ideas throughout Eurasia, has gained an established position in a number of fields, including historical sociology, cultural sociology, and the sociology of religion. We explore whether the notion of an “axial age” has historical and intellectual cogency, or whether the authors who use the label of a more free-floating “axiality” to connote varied “breakthroughs” in human experience may have a more compelling case. Throughout, we draw attention to ways in which uses of the axial age concept in contemporary social science vary in these and other respects. In the conclusion, we reflect on the value of the concept and its current uses and their utility in making sense of human experience.     

Reading “Monosexual”

This essay interrogates the meanings, uses, and implications of the emergent U.S./U.K. bisexual community’s adoption of the term “monosexual” to define non-bisexuals. The authors provide a historical and theoretical context for the term, explicitly linking its oppositional rhetoric to that coined by other recent identity movements, and to that inherent in psychological and psychoanalytical models of identity development. The authors further emphasize their own personal and political responses to and dislike of the term. The essay examines the inconsistencies implicit in the meanings and uses of the term, highlighting the differences between sexual behavior and sexual identity. The unsuitability of the monosexual/bisexual paradigm for a bisexual movement that always overlaps—theoretically, politically, and personally—with other movements is also discussed. The authors conclude by stressing the importance of developing language that expresses the complexity of sexual identity and divergent political affiliation.     

How Has Bourdieu Been Good to Think With? The Case of the United States

The essay discusses the impact of Bourdieu on modern U.S. sociology. Specifically, I offer five observations about the reception and adoption of Bourdieu by U.S. sociologists from the perspective of someone who was involved in the process I describe as an active but not fully invested participant.     

The National Family Caregiver Support Program: A Multivariate Examination of State-Level Implementation

Research on caregiver support policy implementation has offered valuable insights but has not incorporated theoretical frameworks or multivariate analysis. This article describes how the communications model for intergovernmental policy implementation was used as a framework to examine predictors of successful statewide implementation of the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP). Using data from the National Center on Caregiving State of the States survey, U.S. Census, Administration on Aging, and historical records, implementation (extent of service delivery) was examined in 50 states and the District of Columbia. State-level characteristics (demographic, historical, political, and organizational) were tested for their ability to explain more or less successful implementation. Bivariate and multivariate findings suggest that historical characteristics predict the likelihood of delivering more counseling, support group, and training. States that recognize caregivers as both service recipients (through counseling and support groups) and service providers (through training) may demonstrate more effective implementation.     

Sociology and the case for realism

It is argued that in the present era of ecological threat we need a critical sociology, which requires a realist ontology. Using Beck's Risk society as an example, I maintain that to the extent that postmodernist sociology rejects realism, its critical and substantive potential is compromised. The second half of the article argues that realism must extend also to moral positions, which are assessed in terms of knowledge of the natural and social world. Through various examples it shows that while postmodernist thinkers reject meta-narratives and universal truth, they are inevitably moral realist in practice when talking politics. Contra Bauman, sociology cannot dispense with the project of emancipation. The moral realist discourse of human needs permits us to move from statements about the world to recommendations for action.     

Graduate education in sociology: What do we need to do differently?

Research methods should be the core of a sociology curriculum, but they need to be taught with more emphasis on application and with greater recognition of the importance of managerial and communicative skills. Participation in practicums or where feasible, internships in the private or public sector, should be part of that research training. Departments should select areas of specialization within sociology that reflect the faculty’s expertise, the university’s strengths or distinctiveness, and the social, economic and demographic characteristics of the area. But such basic sub-fields as history, stratification, theory, social psychology, demography and social organization must be included in every curriculum. How to go about selecting a worthwhile research problem and how to communicate results are skills that should be taught in a graduate program. She has been working on immigrants and U.S. immigration policy, and her most recent publication isInternational Migration: The Female Experience (co-edited with Caroline Brettell).     

The Relationship Between Theory and Research: A Longitudinal Perspective*

An earlier study of the theoretical and methodological postures used by the authors of 1,434 sociological journal articles found that those with a realist or social factist theoretical approach tended not to involve empirical data gathering and analysis techniques. In contrast, nominalists or social behaviorists used more highly empirical research procedures. Using the same data set, this study investigates the direction and nature of changes which occur over time in the theoretical or methodological orientations for 67 authors of multiple journal articles. The theory-methods pairing used by authors in their first article, when compared to those of their last, shows that about 80 percent of the authors have gravitated to or toward those theory-methods relationships found earlier. Such movement toward theoretical-methodological consistency was more often the result of authors' changing their methodological rather than their theoretical perspective. Implications for the changes in the theoretical-methodological linkages of sociologists over their careers are discussed.     

WITHIN U.S. TRADE AND THE LONG SHADOW OF THE AMERICAN SECESSION

Using data from U.S. commodity flow survey, we show that the historical Union–Confederacy border lowers contemporaneous trade between U.S. states by about 13%. The finding is robust over econometric models, survey waves, or aggregation levels. Including contemporaneous controls, such as network or institutional variables, lowers the estimate only slightly. Historical variables, such as slavery, do not explain the effect. Adding U.S. states unaffected by the Civil War, we argue that the friction is not merely reflecting unmeasured North–South differences. Finally, the border effect is larger for differentiated than for homogeneous goods, stressing the potential role for cultural factors and trust. (JEL F15, N72, N92, Z10)