Presidential Address on ALTRUISM AND SOCIOLOGY

This article concerns the study of altruism. Highlights of the research history of altruism in sociobiology, psychological social-psychology, and sociology are reviewed. Examples from the author's work on kidney and bone-marrow donation are interwoven with this history. The sociological mechanisms producing altruism, particularly normative obligation, are emphasized along with the psychological mechanisms (e.g., empathy). The need for better integration across subareas in sociology is discussed. In addition, it is concluded that some scientific work significantly trivializes altruism.     

Presidential Address on CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION IN SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT

Attribution research is the study of people's perceptions of what causes the events that happen to them. The classical formulations of attribution theory by Heider, Jones, Kelley, and Weiner have been criticized as inadequately social. Recent concern has shifted to the interpersonal functions that attributions serve, particularly the role that attributions play in self-presentation strategies. Psychological social psychologists have developed a statement of impression management theory that is informed by sociological perspectives. This address reviews the development and promise of a self-presentational perspective as a means of linking attributional behavior to social and cultural context variables through the mediating variables of values and expectations. Sociologists can contribute to the development of a self-presentational theory of attribution by articulating the influence of sociocultural context on these mediating variables.     

Presidential Address On THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION REVISITED

This article offers a critical reading of C. Wright Mills's The Sociological Imagination (1959). Such a reading reveals the need to reassess the basis, practice, purpose, and impact of sociology. Accordingly, interpretive materials drawn from stories about and by alcoholics and a new cultural grouping, Adult Children of Alcoholics, are used to illustrate the foundations of a minimalist sociology.
Know that the … sociological imagination has its chance to make a difference in the quality of life in our time. (Mills 1959, p. 226)     

Presidential Address: The Faculty Time Divide

The time demands of academic life are examined, drawing on data from a large national sample of faculty. I outline the divide between full-time faculty, who work long hours irrespective of rank or institution type, and part-time faculty, who work at low pay with little job security, status, recognition, or fringe benefits. The expectations of academic life in dual-career couples are hard to reconcile with the demands of parenting. This is a common problem because assistant professors are generally too old to wait until they have tenure to have children. The segmentation of academic life into an overworked core and a marginalized periphery tends to perpetuate gender inequality.     

Presidential Address Rural Sociology at the Crossroads*

Abstract A complex array of socio‐historical, demographic, and organizational factors have combined in recent years to threaten both the current status of and future prospects for the discipline of rural sociology, and for the Rural Sociological Society (RSS). This paper examines the somewhat problematic recent trajectories of the RSS as a professional organization and of rural sociology more generally and notes a degree of disciplinary and organizational inertia that have limited the pursuit of new directions. It also presents a discussion of selected factors that have contributed to these concerns, including both “external” factors that are largely beyond the organizational reach of RSS and “internal” factors that are more directly linked to organizational characteristics and actions. Drawing upon the distinctions between “red ocean” and “blue ocean” strategies outlined by market strategists Kim and Mauborgne, the discussion then shifts to a focus on action alternatives that, if pursued, could help to create an expanded set of opportunities and a brighter future for rural sociology, and for the Rural Sociological Society.     

Presidential Address INTERACTIONISM AND THE STUDY OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

This article presents a set of six analytic categories–collective activity, network, conventions–practices, resources, processuality-temporality, and grounding—collectively as a paradigm for studying social organization. A review of recent interactionist scholarship generated these categories. The article focuses on the meso domain, where situated activity, history, and structure converge. Some theoretical, methodological, and substantive implications are suggested.     

Comments on Michael (1993): Establishing Operations

The present comments concern Michael''s concept of motivative variables, and the implications of that concept for our understanding of the nature of reinforcement as well as the extinction of responses maintained through positive and negative reinforcement. We note that both extinction and altering motivative variables decrease responding, but they do so differently. The former does so by discontinuing the response-reinforcer relation. The latter does so by altering the motivation to respond. We emphasize that we shouldn''t conclude we have extinguished a response just because we have performed some operation that results in decreased responding. The difference is especially important for an understanding of how we might reduce maladaptive avoidance responses, such as found in phobias or obsessive-compulsive disorders.     

Standards and the Form of Agreement 2002 Presidential Address Western Economic Association

Contract stipulations tend to be subject to commodity standards. Standards make it clearer what transactors have agreed upon. They also bring stipulations from different contracts under a common denominator. The lower the cost of measuring an attribute and the wider the range of its application, the higher the likelihood that the attribute will become subject to new standards. New standards are predicted to increase the role of contracts in agreements and to reduce that of long-term relations; to lower the prices of the commodities that use the standards; to increase the rate of theft of these commodities; and, by making it clearer what it is that parties exchange, to reduce the level of vertical integration. Finally, new standards propel markets toward perfect competition.     

Presidential Address: Heroes,Warriors, and Burqas: A Feminist Sociologist's Reflections on September 11

My presidential address looked back at the gendered imagery of American heroes and warriors, Muslim terrorists, and oppressed Islamic women as they appeared in comparatively sophisticated media sources in the first 6 months after September 11. The imagery was conventionally gendered, but the actions of women and men reported in the same sources showed multiple gendering—heterogeneity within homogeneity. Making this multiplicity of gendering visible blurs and undermines gender lines and the inequities built on them. The social constructions of heroism, masculinity, and Islamic womanhood are core parts of the gender politics of September 11, a politics deeply embedded in the current debates over the causes and consequences of terrorism and war.     

THE TYRANNY OF DEAD IDEAS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING: Midwest Sociological Society Presidential Address 2010

Clinging to dead ideas about teaching and learning limits our practice as professors. The resulting tyranny means we fail to educate our students as effectively as we might. This address challenges faculty to reconsider their understanding and habits in three areas: the preparedness of students, the impact of grading policies on learning motivation, and the role of technology in teaching. The good news is that learned behaviors, sociologically informed reflection, and the application of the research in the scholarship of teaching and learning can liberate us and improve the experiences of teachers and learners alike.