The state of American Sociology

Sociology appears to be one of the most internally divided disciplines, if not the most. Departmental struggles, which have led to sociologists complaining to administrators about each other, have put the field in bad repute among campus officials and have endangered its survival in some schools. The American Sociological Society and American Sociological Association have been among the most conflict-ridden associations in academe for generations. Severe internecine struggles have a long history in the field. It may be suggested that they are related to the propensity of the field to attract social reformers and political activists. But hard evidence indicates sociology graduate students are among the weakest, as judged by test scores.This is an elaboration of an American Sociological Association presidential presentation to a plenary session of the Southern Sociological Association on April 2, 1993.     

Diversity in sociology and social policy analysis: Education reform and the immigration act of 1990

Against the criticism of extreme specialization in sociology, it is argued that such specialization can prove insightful to the implications that social policy in one area may have for social policy in other areas. Such insight derives from sociologists straddling two or more areas of specialization. The example of the implications that the Immigration Act of 1990 has for education policy, in relation to social class and race, is used to illustrate the argument. Earlier versions of parts of this paper were presented at the Association For Humanist Sociology 16th Annual Meeting, October 26, 1991, Ottawa, Ontario; and at the Eastern Sociological Society 62nd Annual Meeting, April 4, 1992, Washington.     

Sebastião Salgado and Visual Sociology

This paper links the work of Sebastião Salgado, recipient of the 2010 American Sociological Association (ASA) Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues, with the discipline of sociology. I reflect on Salgado’s biography, method, and concerns in order to demonstrate how his work contributes to the awareness and understanding of social issues. Toward this end, I summarize sociology’s record of involvement with visual documentation. Prior to 1915, the American Journal of Sociology regularly included photographs that provided visual documentation of environments under study. However, as sociology moved away from social reform activities and toward scientific investigation, the regular publication of photographs ceased. During the 1930s and 1940s, photographic projects in disciplines and social movements beyond sociology developed a variety of methods that would prove useful to sociology. During the 1970s, sociologists once again began to use visual methods in their teaching, research, and publication, putting sociology in the position to both contribute to and benefit from insights and social commitments that have distinguished Sebastião Salgado as a globally significant photographer and social activist during the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries.     

North Central Sociological Association Presidential Address the Community College Conundrum: Pitfalls and Possibilities of Professional Sociological Associations

Abstract

This presidential address examines the “community college conundrum” within our discipline. Although it is reported that 44 percent of first-time undergraduate students attend community colleges, community college faculty are underrepresented in the American Sociological Association (ASA) and within our regional associations. This lack of participation has two roots: (1) our disciplinary lack of interest in studying community college education as a unit of analysis; and (2) the failure by sociologists to understand community college education as a social justice concern. Data for this study include an assessment of membership and participation in our disciplinary associations, content analysis of the journal Teaching Sociology, and a review of ASA syllabi sets. Findings reveal a common theme: community college sociologists are ignored and afforded a marginal status—a “less than” status—within our discipline. Recommendations include calling on the ASA and all sociologists to recognize the importance of community colleges in doing the work of “public sociology.”     

Environmental Sociology in Japan and Environmental Problems in Asian Societies

This paper discusses typical aspects of environmental sociology in Japan and what characteristics can be found in Japanese environmental problems when they are viewed from their relation to environmental problems in Asian societies.
The most prominent feature of environmental sociology in Japan is that it has been mainly the sociology of environmental problems, whereas in the United States is has been mainly the sociology of the environment. The second characteristic is closely related to the first: environmental sociology in Japan has focused on the local community and the life of people and victims affected by environmental problems.
The third property would be that many studies by environmental sociologists have been accumulated by the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology, which was set up in 1990.
The approach to the study of environmental problems in Asian societies reflects these characteristics. Views from the historical interaction between Japan and other Asian countries are essential to the study of environmental problems in Asian countries.     

Revisiting regional traditions: An emerging sociology of the great plains

Meliorism, empiricism, ethnography, locality, and reform characterized Midwestern American Sociology at the turn of the twentieth century. Almost a century later, the mini-regional Great Plains Sociological Association, through its refereed publication, The Great Plains Sociologist (TGPS), maintains a variant of this tradition. We examine the first decade (1988-1997) of published articles (N=52) in TGPS with a focus on authorship, affiliations, editorship, and components of the earliest Chicago sociology and its diffusion to the University of North Dakota and the region through the work of John Morris Gillette. The results show that TGPS is uniquely a publication representing empirical studies, of homespun social issues, involving local samples, by sociologists and criminologists affiliated with a range of colleges and universities in and around the Dakotas and that a sociology of the Great Plains is emerging. Implications for the journal, state and mini-regional associations, and the discipline are discussed. Morten G. Ender research areas are social psychology, military sociology, and undergraduate education. Shihluang Huang research areas are drug laws/policies, systems analysis, corrections, and community corrections. Both authors served on the faculty at the University of North Dakota where this project was completed.     

The isolation of crime,law, and deviance from the core of sociology

The study of crime, law, and deviance is considered to be an isolated subarea of sociology that draws upon but does not contribute to the core of the discipline. Subareas, the specific and substantive topics of sociology, may be expected to make less obvious and direct contributions to the core than do theory, methodology, social organization, and social psychology as the major areas of sociology. And within subareas, studies that are readily applied may be considered less integrated and contributory to the discipline than the more “pure” or basic science subareas. This analysis examines the relationships between areas, subareas, and the core of sociology; the subject matter of sociological subareas; the actual versus perceptual isolation of crime, law, and deviance studies from the core; and the meaning of contribution. Measurement of contribution is limited to a survey ofSociological Abstracts, theCumulative Index of Sociology Journals, and the 1993 program for the American Sociological Association annual meetings. Comparing area and subarea publications and conference sessions suggests that, contrary to expectations, crime, law, and deviance research constitutes a significant portion of the available knowledge base. The perceived isolation of crime, law, and deviance from sociology may be explained by professional bias against applied studies of stigmatized populations. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the 1992 American Sociological Association Annual Meetings.     

General education,participant observation,and reflexive sociology

Based on the author's case study of and experience teaching in an experimental general education college which was later closed by administrators, this article addresses the question of the meaning of the discipline of sociology in a general education curriculum. The author, reflecting upon insights gained through his participant observation in the experimental college, proposes that all sociologists look to the new sociology of knowledge and its reflexive methodology to help in the presentation of sociology as a humanistic discipline contributing to general education. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Pacific Sociological Association meetings, San Diego, California, March 1976. An even earlier draft was presented to a “Sociology Colloquium and Pot-Luck Dinner,” at the University of Hawaii, May 1975. I would like to thank the students who also presented reports at the colloquium: Branden Johnson, Vivien Lee, and Eric Yamamoto; and the colleagues who made helpful suggestions and warnings: David Chandler, Libby O. Ruch, Edmund Volkart, and Eldon Wegner.     

Bringing our bodies and ourselves back in: reflections on a past, present, and future "medical sociology"

This paper is a revision of an address given upon receipt of the Leo G. Reeder Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Medical Sociology. It was presented on August 14, 1990 to The Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association during its annual meetings, held in Washington, DC. Herein I reflect on the structured silence of personal bodily experience and on the unfinished paradigmatic challenge of feminism as a way of leading to a new praxis in medical sociology.     

An argument for momentary sociological isolationism; or,you don’t always get what you expect

This article critiques Janet Chafetz’s suggestion that sociologists borrow ideas from other disciplines. I argue that sociologists who study gender on the microsociological level have borrowed too much from other disciplines, particularly psychology, and have yet to develop on adequate, sociology of gender. The microstructural perspective is proposed as a useful particularly sociological framework for the study of gender. Her current work focuses on the development and testing of a microstructural perspective on gender and intimate relationships. This article is based on a paper presented at the Southern Sociological Association meetings held in Nashville, Tennessee, March 1988.     

A History and Analysis of Radical Activism in Sociology, 1967–1969, with Special Reference to the Sociology Liberation Movement,the Black Caucus,the Executive Council,the War in Vietnam and a Few Other Things*

Radical activism in sociology can be explained as reaction against developments in American society, university structure, social theory and the American Sociology Association. Beginning in 1967 with a controversy over a Vietnam resolution, it has grown to include organized opposition through the Sociology Liberation Movement and the separation of the Black Sociologists Association. The assumptions behind sociology as an academic field and an occupation, have been and are being tested and found erroneous by an increasing number of sociologists.     

“Apathetic,active, or antagonistic”: A history of the American Sociological Association’s involvement in high school sociology

The role that the American Sociological Association (ASA) has historically played in reforming high school sociology courses has been alternately apathetic, active, or antagonistic. Apathy marked the time period between 1905 and about 1960, and again during most of the 1970s and 1980s. The Association played a much more active role during the New Social Studies movement of the 1960s, and has also been actively involved since the late 1980s. But even in its activity, the ASA has been antagonistic toward high school courses and teachers. During the 1960s, and again since about 1989, the ASA has pushed solely for the teaching of sociology as a scientific discipline. This approach has proven problematic for two reasons. First, it directly contradicts the traditional objective of the social studies curriculum—citizenship education. Teachers are much more concerned about molding good citizens than exposing students to the nuances of scientific inquiry. Second, it ignores the well-documented fact that high school sociology teachers typically have little training in, exposure to, or experience with formal, academic sociology. For that reason, they have had great difficulty satisfying the demands made by academic reformers. I conclude that the ASA must address these two issues and several others if it is serious about improving secondary sociology courses. This paper was awarded the 2004 Graduate Student Paper Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on the History of Sociology. I thank Larry Nichols and Afshan Jafar for their thoughtful feedback on an earlier draft.     

Standardizing basic concepts in sociology

The idea of standardizing concepts in sociology is not new, but we have made little progress, despite the early hopes of such theorists as Durkheim and Weber. This article refutes the arguments of some who contend that we do not need standard concepts, we cannot make standard concepts, social phenomena are too complex and changeful, sociologists are too individualistic and sociological concepts are too context-dependent. The author proposes that the American Sociological Association appoint a Committee on Basic Sociological Concepts to investigate and recommend the official adoption of a basic conceptual language in American sociology. This paper is excerpted from a longer discussion first presented to a session on metatheory at the 1990 meetings of the American Sociological Association, and forthcoming in a collection of papers from that session.     

The political economy of sociology: An interview with William V. D’Antonio,American Sociological Association

The Executive Director of the American Sociological Association discusses the many uses of sociology as a practical and knowledge-producing discipline, as well as a profession with many constituencies. While hailing gains in sociology’s relations with Congress, the media, and other social science disciplines, he laments that too few talented students elect to pursue social science degrees. D’Antonio concludes with thoughts on the certification of sociologists. His research has centered on the social and political dimensions of science and technology, especially research evaluation, public understanding of science, misconduct in research, and career patterns of scientists and engineers. His latest book (co-edited) isInterdisciplinary Analysis and Research (Lomond 1986).     

In Conversation with the American Sociological Association President: Randall Collins on Emotions, Violence, and Interactionist Sociology

Randall Collins est professeur de sociologie à l'University of Pennsylvania et Président de l' American Sociological Association . Dans cette entrevue, R. Collins parle de la sociologie des émotions, de la tradition interactionniste ainsi que de la violence. L'entrevue permet de situer les contributions de Collins dans le développement contemporain de la sociologie critique et la microsociologie interactionniste.
Randall Collins is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and is the President of the American Sociological Association. In the following interview, Collins discusses the sociology of emotions, the interactionist tradition, and violence. The discussion situates Collins' contributions as part of an intellectual trajectory that incorporates elements of critical sociology and the micro-sociology of interaction.     

Afro-Americans as a Political Class: Towards Conceptual Clarity

Abstract

This review article is based on N. J. Demerath, III, Otto Larsen, and Karl Schuessler (eds.), Social Policy and Sociology (New York: Academic Press, 1975). Professor Angrist is associate professor of sociology in Carnegie-Mellon University's School of Urban and Public Affairs. She is also the current president of the North Central Sociological Association, and she has chosen the theme of the 1976 NCSA convention as the title of this article. [Eds.]     

2007 North Central Sociological Association Presidential Address: Teaching and Learning and the Culture of the Regional Association in American Sociology

Abstract

In this essay, I examine the role of teaching and learning in the culture of the regional association in American sociology. I analyze the programs of (1) the 2007 joint meeting of the North Central Sociological Association (NCSA) and the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS); (2) the 2007 annual meeting preliminary programs of the Eastern Sociological Society (ESS), the Pacific Sociological Association (PSA), and the Southern Sociological Society (SSS) along with the 2006 annual meeting programs of the MSS and NCSA, as well as the American Sociological Association (ASA); and (3) the 1991 NCSA and 1992 ASA annual meeting programs. I identify program trends with regard to teaching, professional development, undergraduate students, graduate students, and research on higher education. I conclude by identifying regional association annual meeting best practices regarding each of these areas.     

The professional ideology of social pathologists transformed: The new political orthodoxy in sociology

In a landmark article published in 1943, the young C. Wright Mills roundly criticized early American sociologists who focused on the sociology of social problems. These “social pathologists,” Mills argued, were social conservatives with homogeneous viewpoints who strove to maintain the established social order. A review of recent surveys on the political attitudes of sociologists, an analysis of recent articles on social problems published by the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the Society for the Study of Social Problems, an examination of social problems textbooks, and a consideration of the proceedings of the ASA annual meetings reveal an extraordinary turnabout. An ongoing trend toward the politicization of sociology and the radicalization of the sociology of social problems has resulted in a diminished stature of the profession which jeopardizes its future.     

Toward Prevention of Obsolescence in Sociology

Abstract

This review article is based on Mineral Resources and the Environment, the main report of the Committee on Mineral Resources and the Environment of the Commission on Natural Resources, National Research Council. It is available from the National Academy of Sciences (LC 75–4176, ISBN 0-309-0243-2). Professor Catton, of Washington State University, is the author of From Animalistic to Naturalistic Sociology (McGraw-Hill, 1966), and is one of the founders of the section on environmental sociology of the American Sociological Association. [Eds.]     

Sociology and value neutrality: Limiting sociology to the empirical level

The scientific objectivity of sociology depends upon adherence to value neutrality, an adherence that strengthens the social power of sociologists. Yet all disciplines, including science, are motivated by values. This article argues that value neutrality is both possible and desirable for sociology, even though a number of values appear to be necessary to the sociological project. Among those values, some are necessary to the project of science as such, while others guide research interests. I argue that value consensus among sociologists regarding any extrascientific (research guiding) value raises questions of scientific integrity: Critical rationalism and humanitarianism are considered in this context. The scientific status of sociology is also compromised by nonempirical pronouncements, including the advocacy of certain values (such as egalitarianism) and of positions regarding the status of values (e.g., cultural relativism). I propose that the role of social scientist be kept distinct from the roles of moral philosopher and of theologian, and that this division of labor be accomplished by a scientific adherence to value neutrality. An earlier version of this paper was first presented at the 1990 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.