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This article is a commentary to Benjamin Singer's essay on the criterial crisis in academe. It highlights several issues about which young academics and their elders routinely kitbitz at campus watering holes. Singer's lament is fundamentally an embroidery on lunchroom complaints and coffeehouse chatter dressed up with headings and a fine bibliography. Cynics may conclude that his article a good example of the "proliferation of journals and redundant and useless papers." And others may wonder, in the interests of reflexivity, whether Singer's paper was submitted to other journals before it was accepted by Sociological Inquiry and whether the paper as published was exempt from the vagaries and vicissitudes of peer review that Singer deplores. Since Singer suggests that few published papers are ever read, he will no doubt be surprised that his was discovered among the hundreds of sociological journals in our university library and that my reading of his work prompted the following observations about sociological publishing and tenure decisions.

This article presents information related to a business meeting. The annual AKD business meeting was held on August 31, 1986, at the New York Hilton. Jerry Michel, scholar at the Memphis State University and AKD President presided the meeting. Those present were: Candace Clark, Helen Clarke, Al Clarke, Ken Davidson, David Demo, Marie Fuller, Rose Helper, Mark Butter, Lyn Lofland, Mike Malec, Betty Maynard, Annabelle Motz, Wayne Seelbach, Don Shoemaker, Jim Skipper, Jim Williams, Kenneth Wilson and Donna Darden. In addition to normal items of business, the following announcements and decisions were made at the meeting. The winners of the 1986 paper competition were as follows First prize: Tracey Watson, Skidmore College, Second prize: Jane Melada, Montclair State and third prize: William Axinn, Cornwell. Watson's paper, "Women Athletes and Athletic Women: The Dilemmas and Contradictions of Managing Incongruent Identities," will be published in the journal "Sociological Inquiry." The Council voted to name Dennis Peck, scholar at the University of Alabama-Bitmingham, as new editor of the journal.

This paper outlines the origins of the functionalist perspective as it was used by American social scientists to explain social inequality during the first four decades of the twentieth century. The author then argues against the assumption that the basis for development of the perspective is found in the work of Parsons and his students who applied Parsons' general framework to studies of social inequality in complex industrial society. Instead, it is suggested that the research of social anthropologists, such as Robert and Helen Lynd and W. Lloyd Warner, was equally important to the development of the functionalist perspective. The author further argues that early twentieth-century British social anthropology, with its strong ties to Durkheimian functionalism, greatly influenced the direction of studies on social inequality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the intellectual ancestries between these theoretical pioneers and Parsonians and offers an explanation why Parsons' work dominated sociology during a critical period of the discipline's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine facilitative aspects of field research with deviant Street populations. Based on the authors' research with the homeless and with male Street prostitutes, the facilitative aspects include access to settings, social relationships, acquisition of information, and the maintenance of researcher interest. The authors argue that in each of these aspects street deviants may in some ways be easier to study than other populations. The paper concludes with suggestions for maximizing the efficiency and quality of fieldwork with specific deviant populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of agency is central to several important debates in contemporary sociology. Unfortunately, discussions of agency can become embroiled with issues related to free will and determinism. George Herbert Mead developed an approach to agency that avoids unsolvable metaphysical problems about free will and determinism. This paper presents Mead's work relevant to agency, revealing both Mead's method and the details of his theory. First, it shows how Mead followed the basic methods of behavioristic psychology, which require that abstract philosophical and psychological concepts are defined in terms of the actual behaviors involved. A strict focus on behavior helps in avoiding metaphysical impasses when dealing with such complex issues as decision making and choice. Second, the paper presents an overview of Mead's specific theories about awareness, meaning, decision making, choice, creativity, and social responsibility, showing how he analyzed these concepts in terms of the central nervous system, language, inner conversation, taking the role of others, reflective intelligence, the ‘I’ and the ‘me,’ and related concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an historical survey of problems arising in German mathematics during the rise and rule of National Socialism. Underlying this effort is the goal of developing a theoretical understanding of the social history of scientific disciplines in modern societies. The first part of the paper gives a brief description of the social system of mathematics and the characteristics of National Socialism. Second, an analysis of the background and structure of the attempt to construct a ‘German’ mathematics related to Nazi-ideology is given. This appears as an anti-modernist movement prompted by the rise of mathematical formalism. The basic relations between mathematical and political thought are analyzed and the reasons for the failure of the ‘German’ movement discussed. The third section examines the integration of mathematics into Nazi-German society, focusing on the twin processes of adaptation and resistance by professional societies. It is argued that social differentiation within the system of mathematics, as well as its modern cognitive and social universality, were preconditions of adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

his paper examines the claim that positivism and humanism are mutually exclusive alternatives to the study and amelioration of human society. In the first part of the paper, eight theses normally associated with twentieth-century positivism are documented and explicated at length, ranging from the verification doctrine and the unified-language thesis to an emphasis on the nomological-deductive model of explanation and the fact-value distinction. In the second part the claims associated with a humanistic sociology are then examined, particularly those concerning scientism, the value-laden character of all scientific inquiry, and the relation between science and human emancipation. In the third part of the paper a distinction is between those claims which were definitive of positivism and those which were either peripheral or later amended by the leading positivists. It is then argued that a number of the criticisms leveled against positivism such as the latter's supposed affirmation of strict determinism, of scientism, and that normative considerations, being nondescriptive in character, are of little consequence, are entirely unfounded criticisms. Such claims were never an explicit part of the positivist program. On the contrary, it is argued that both contemporary positivism and humanism are motivated by parallel ideals of enlightenment-through-science, by a concern with reliable social knowledge as the basis for rational public policies, and—to quote Hempel—with ‘the broadening of our (moral) horizons.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers discussion about reports published within the periodical and about how sociologists offers lose their ability to write creatively because of the emphasis placed on writing fellowship applications. In writing for sociology, students are taught to write logically rather that freely. The author relates how sociology writers utilize narrative, structure, and story telling to make writing fresh and alive. The author states that writers should never write as a habit or as a reflex, two processes which will produce stale composition.

Differential participation after recruitment remains a black box in the social-movement and voluntary-association literatures. This paper identifies several dimensions of membership participation in a professional social-movement organization (SMO) with a national membership and analyzes the determinants of differential involvement in these forms. In general, members’ ideological beliefs, social and organizational ties, perceptions about their SMO, and communication with SMO officials all predict participation across the various forms. Our findings extend previous work on differential participation in three ways. First, we statistically isolate cultural dimensions of postrecruitment participation and, in so doing, complement recent ethnographic research. Second, our findings suggest that the distinct dimensions of external and internal participation found by Knoke (1988) in a national sample of voluntary associations may not generalize to national SMOs studied individually. Third, our results indicate that models combining ideological and microstructural factors should explain the multiple forms of participation in SMOs lacking these distinct dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the interactional underpinnings of social scientific research. Based on a detailed examination of a two-hour research interview it describes aspects of the conversational practices through which social scientific knowledge is generated. Put critiques of interview research have been somewhat unilateral in their focus, typically examining how researchers impose understandings on their subjects' reports. This paper moves beyond the unilateral focus to describe how researcher and subjects interact to mutually develop procedures for doing the actual research and collaboratively assemble their product. The analysis treats evaluative knowledge as a locally managed, interactional achievement. It stresses the practical, the situ character of how knowledge is co-produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some macroecologists study population characteristics using a single variable, while others specify a system of interrelated variables. The purpose of this paper is to offer an ecological model which is theoretically appropriate and correctly bounded. Based on population (P), information (I), space (S), technology (T), organization (O), and level of living (L), or PISTOL, it is argued that the addition of two variables to the most famous ecological model (POET), namely L and I correctly bounds the POET model since each component is theoretically important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is a method of policy analysis that offers great potential for integrating scientific policy analysis into a democratic political process. This potential has not been realized in large part because there has been no theoretical framework to guide SIA. In this paper I propose such a framework, using Habermas' (1970) pragmatistic approach to policy. The framework suggests heavy emphasis on use of SIA early in the policy process and on methods that emphasize impact identification and portrayal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the literature considered for issues pertaining to gender in the 1950s is David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd (1950), John Seeley, et al., Crestwood Heights (1956), William H. Whyte, Jr., The Organization Man (1956), Jules Henry, Culture against Man, and essays by Talcott Parsons on the family. The paper shows how the authors apparently document the modernization of gender and the family by ignoring or downplaying conventional and conservative factors. In fact, they were more sanguine than even their own evidence warranted, although they seemed unaware of this. By seeing only progressive indicators they neglected the constraints on women, often identified as the "feminine mystique." Three gender and family issues are considered for actual evidence about what was happening in the 1950s but also for contradictions in the authors' work that yield insights as well. These are whether feminine and masculine sex roles were converging in modern America, the development of companionship marriage, and the issue of "maternal overinvolvement" (or the domineering mother) in childrearing. The work under consideration suggests contradictory gender messages and developments in the postwar period, indicating a period in which possibilities for equality between the sexes were being both created and denied to women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis is advanced that sociology's strong links with welfare-state liberalism have also led to the widespread acquiescence to ‘liberal taboos’ regarding some topics of social research such as affirmative action. The relationship between sociology and liberalism is examined. Radical and neoconservative influences are also noted. Adverse encounters with affirmative action taboos by intellectuals and social scientists are discussed as is the ‘fashionable’ consensus on affirmative action in sociology. That this consensus may sometimes be shallow and relatively uninformed is suggested by reactions by the author's Southern California colleagues regarding his proposed studies of (1) the extent of widespread public discussion of affirmative action in the 1970s, and (2) the social psychological impact of such policies upon white males. The paper concludes with a discussion of related taboos in sociology and other fields and the dangers involved in ideological allegiances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyze the social, economic, and political sources for the emergence of modern Soviet sociology in the 1950s. While it does not address extensively the characteristics of current Soviet sociology, it is suggested that those characteristics of a methodologically sophisticated and economically oriented sociology are largely the result of a compact between Soviet leaders and sociologists which allowed and required its post-Stalin emergence. Four sets of factors are evaluated in terms of their effect on the emergence of Soviet sociology. These are 1) the Marxist-Leninist vision (that is, the utopian elements of ideology), 2) the Soviet ideology (that is, the elements of ideology oriented toward system maintenance), 3) the diffusion of ideas, and 4) the mandate of Soviet economic development A brief evaluation of these sets of factors as they affect the emergence of Chinese sociology in the early 1980s is also provided It is concluded that the future shape of sociology in the USSR and China is dependent upon the evolution of ideology in the two countries, an evolution that is intimately tied to the succession of political leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to describe the shared orientations that are relied on in producing talk that is designed to elicit just that information that the speaker might want to know. If an interactant wants to find out something from a co-interactant, one of the ways of doing so is to directly ask about it. Information-eliciting tellings operate with respect to the participants' orienting to two types of knowables, designated in this paper as type 1 and type 2. Type 1 knowables are those that subject actors as subject actors have rights and obligations to know. For example, ones name, what one is doing, and so on are assumed to be available to a competent subject-actor. Type 2 knowables are those that subject actors are assumed to have access to by virtue of the knowings being occasioned. The recipient's work, as subject-actor, involves finding an event that will fit with and account for that which was reportedly experienced by the prior speaker.

This paper outlines a program of needed research on principled nonviolence as a conflict and conflict resolution strategy in international relations. A multi-pronged program of research is proposed, including, conceptual analyses and model generation, hypothesis and variable development; psychological analyses, laboratory simulation, and analyses of current ongoing, international conflict situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a commentary regarding the depiction of Professor J. H. Turner of the symbolic interactionist position of Talcot Parsons. In his paper, Turner advances two simple and straight forward contentions, Parsons is a symbolic interactionist in the way in which he sees human society but for reasons of methodological strategy Parsons proposes to study human society differently than is done by symbolic interactionists. Turner endeavors to support the first contention by arguing that there are basic similarities between Parsons' view and the symbolic interactionist analysis suffers from several forms of theoretical weakness. This article, discusses these two contentions in the light of the symbolic intearactionist position of George Herbert Mead.

The article is a response to writer Michael Hill's comment on the author's essay regarding criterial crisis in academe. Hill alleges that "small journals" are being denigrated, a point which simply is not true since small journals have neither criticized nor mentioned. To the contrary, many of the problems delineated are connected with major journals, the kind described by Arnold Relman, editor of "The New England Journal of Medicine, as having "very exacting standards." The author has not argued against publications in "obscure" journals. In fact, a different method of assessment was called for, a means which could create a balance in favor of "small" and "obscure" journals, the kind in which ideas are more important than peer review or disciplinary status. The author has argued for greater intellectual risk-taking and originality and against the kind of centripetal academic culture which facilitates journals that publish massive amounts of trivial, fact-laden but largely irrelevant reports. The new media technologies that make possible the dissemination of scholarly knowledge and ideas were not criticized, nor has the author argued against the use of personal computers, information retrieval through compact discs, or any of the other communication technologies.

Understanding police violence is important in part because police violence, if generally tolerated, could transform a society based on law into one governed by political and personal whim. This research asks whether the conflict perspective can explain which groups are more likely to approve of police use of force, and whether several dimensions of power are at issue or just a few. Previous studies have found that race is the most important factor in determining approval of police use of force. Gender, age, class, and other variables have shown mixed results. Using a national sample (1998 General Social Survey), this paper contributes a more comprehensive examination of this issue to the small body of literature in this area. We look at approval of police use of force in five scenarios. Our findings show that minorities and women are more likely to disapprove of police use of force. Supporting a narrow application of conflict theory, other dimensions of power appear not to affect attitudes toward police hitting citizens. Context of violence matters too. When situations are not actively threatening for officers, by near consensus, violence is unacceptable. Disagreement comes from less clear-cut circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media, in the sociology of natural disasters, are mainly viewed as management tools used to influence people's preparedness and response to natural disasters. As a consequence, research in this area has been limited to the warning, preparedness, and recovery phases. Through interviews with residents of eight communities in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, impacted by Hurricane Georges in 1998, this paper shows that through integrating mass communication research to disaster theory we can obtain a more accurate picture of the media–audience relationship during natural disasters. In addition to the manifest functions of providing information, the media also have latent functions in disasters, which consist of emotional support and companionship. The media also help isolated individuals to feel connected with the “outside world.” These functions are most salient in the impact phase of disasters. These functions are also particularly crucial as they have been shown to reduce the negative effects of stressful life events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author introduces a series of articles that present highly divergent views on the present and future of sociology. The sciences command serious consideration for their rule-driven inquiries. Sociology, having failed to establish powerful rules, compels no such attention. Respect for science is respect for an enterprise transcending its participants. Unless they are themselves giants, individual physicists, chemists, or biologists, for example, must subordinate their analytic individuality to the collectively held paradigms that dominate their disciplines. Individual imagination is certainly useful, but it is not a necessary precondition to successful participation. Knowing the rules and being willing to work within them do, however, constitute such preconditions. In a literal sense, science constitutes an establishment and, like all establishments, it views the exercise of originality with discomforting suspicion. Sociology is in need of saving, but not from its perceived inadequacies. These can be tolerated so long as sociologists able to produce compelling alternatives do so. No, sociology needs to be saved from the silence of those most qualified to speak.

This paper addresses the standards of scientific behavior and research within the context of academic scholarship. Factors which lead some researchers to transgress the ethical boundaries associated with the publication process are presented and discussed. Included is an examination of the central issues related to the ‘publish or perish’ syndrome. It is argued that the intense pressure to get one's work into print often distorts the serious pursuit of knowledge. Linking tenure and promotion primarily to publications has led to emphasizing the length of the scholarly record rather than its quality. To avoid such outcomes, the academic/scientific communities are urged to develop policies which on the one hand protect the integrity of the scientific enterprise, and on the other strike a reasonable balance of expectations and performance regarding teaching, research, and service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sociology is founded on the assumption that the natural resource base of a society establishes the limits or constraints within which that society must operate. Thus, a change in the resource base on which a society depends will necessitate changes or adaptations within that society. This study attempts to empirically test these assumptions by looking at the effects of groundwater availability in the Great Plains of the United States from 1940 to 1980. Using a model derived from human ecology theory, it was found that irrigation development had major implications on nonmetropolitan counties during the time period studied. Irrigation development resulted in increased agricultural production, variations in the structure of farm enterprises, and in increased retention of both farm and nonfarm populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the relationship between the philosophy and sociology of language. Language has been studied by philosophers for a long time, but its analysis has usually been restricted to hypothetical statements or utterances to illustrate particular concepts. A theory of speech acts must be sociological if it is to have any significant relationship to the everyday world as experienced by the members of a group or culture. Sociologists will be quick to point out that many social conditions are implied in Austin's notion of performative utterances, including the role of sociocultural knowledge and local circumstances that must be known for an utterance to be spoken, followed, or rejected. The initial stress placed on rule-governed aspects of grammar for the study of semantic issues by philosophers and linguists has been of minimal help for the understanding of the way participants of social interaction interpret their experiences and use general world knowledge.

This article focuses on the research techniques in fields with weak links between theory and method by briefly examining two sets of techniques, causal models and methods of network analysis, which have been used extensively in the sociology of science during recent years. The author emphasizes the ways the said techniques have interacted with substantive concerns rather than their formal methodological characteristics. The continuous appearance of essays criticizing the foundations of commonly used research techniques is symptomatic of the disjunction between theory and method in sociology and it also characterizes controversy in the sociology of science. New approaches to network analysis are still being developed, and the kind of interplay between technical innovation and substantive concern outlined above will probably also characterize future developments. Thus far, sociologists of science have used network techniques primarily for structural description rather than for detecting underlying principles that may govern network configurations. This is not a result of technical backwardness; it stems from the fact that substantive theory in the sociology of science does not yet embrace the latter issue. Like other methodological approaches in sociology, techniques for network analysis are only loosely related to substantive issues in the research areas that employ them.

This article addresses the sociological issues of research problem retention and research problem change in science. A scientist rarely makes a career decision more consequential than the selection of a problem for research. Areas of ignorance in Science are variously defined as fundamental or peripheral for the advancement of knowledge. To recognize, to choose for investigation and to solve a fundamental problem provides greater satisfaction, derivative prestige and more diverse resources for research than solution of a peripheral problem. Patterns of problem choice have not been accorded much attention in the sociology of science. The handful of systematic analyses are largely found within studies of more encompassing sociological questions. This study of social structural conditions making for problem retention and problem change is only another step in the still barely explored subject of problem choice in science. It does not consider the sources and consequences of differing durations of research in a problem area; it does not consider the consequences of an expansion of the number of problem areas pursued at the same time by scientists; and it only hints at the biographical characteristics that may be related to incidence of one or another of these patterns of problem choices.

This article focuses on sociology of science. Research in the sociology of science cannot easily ignore related perspectives in the philosophy of science,just as research in that field has grudgingly begun to include sociological perspectives. In this article the aim of the author is to review current sociological and philosophical work bearing upon cognitive change so as to identify their potential convergences while recognizing their inevitable differences. Practically all sociological work on cognitive change in science focuses on one or more of three sets of questions: (1) theory choice and evaluation (2) problem choice and (3) resulting cognitive groups. In dealing with questions of theory choice, contemporary philosophers of science, at times it seems unwillingly, tend to oscillate between normative and descriptive accounts: how scientists should choose among competing theories and how they actually do choose. The foci of attention in the sciences are of course no more than the aggregated problem choices of individuals working in those sciences.

This article focuses on the social construction of documentary reality. A documentary reality is fundamental to the practices of governing, managing and administration of this form of society. The primary mode of action and decision in the superstructures of business, government, the professions, and other like agencies, is in symbols, whether words, mathematical symbols or some other. It is a mode of action which depends upon a reality constituted in documentary form. The social scientist's ordinary knowledge of her society originates in and depends upon these documentary forms. This is more, much more, than merely her use of statistical and other information produced by census bureau, departments of health welfare agencies, internal revenue departments and the like. The organization which actuality acquires in the accomplishment of a fact is not simply an explication of an order which is already perceived, though it may sometimes be just that. But it is important to recognize that facts are constructed in a context of telling. The organization that is created aims at this telling and aims therefore at the purposes for which it will be told. The selection of categories and conceptual procedures expresses that structure of relevance.

The article presents a letter from the editor of "Sociological Inquiry" concerning the August, 2006 issue. The author discusses his trepidation in taking over the journal from the previous editor, Professor Charles E. Faupel, and his preferences for sociological research. In order for sociology to make a real impact on society, interesting language that separates it from the staid world of academia must be used, and the importance of interesting writing with a definite literary style is emphasized.

Although abortion became legal four decades ago, Americans remain staunchly divided over its acceptability. While researchers have been interested in the factors shaping abortion attitudes, there are almost no reviews of this work. We examine the factors shaping Americans' abortion attitudes and assess the state of published peer‐reviewed articles in this area over the last 15 years. Using a mixed‐methods systematic review, we analyze and critique the findings from 116 journal articles that have examined attitudes about abortion between 2001 and 2016. Among the many predictors and outcomes examined, we show that religion is by far the most utilized statistically significant independent variable, followed by education and income/employment. In addition to examining the factors that shape attitudes, we provide insight into the characteristics of this published work. We offer several suggestions for improving research on this important topic, including a better utilization of social science theory, examining the attitudes of teens, increasing the use of mixed‐methods studies, and drawing on longitudinal data and analyses that consider the influence of the larger context for shaping attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on culture identity and dress. The sociology of dress is a vibrant field, exploring intriguing theoretical, methodological, and empirical domains. During the mid-twentieth century, clothing scholars began investigating the sociological and psychological implications of dress and appearance. In 1989, a group met to discuss the direction of the analysis of dress. The published papers from that meeting considered a wide range of topics, including identity, social psychology, cultural anthropology and sociology, semiotics, affect and cognition, social construction of gender, literary analysis, as well as qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Recent textbooks in the area continue to thaw from sociology and other fields to refine theories of dress and human behavior. Related to the misperception that dress only applies to the psychology of the self is the notion that dress is trivial both substantively and theoretically. Perhaps sociologists' neglect of dress might also be linked to a misperception that it is nonrational behavior similar to other actions that do not lend themselves to systematic analysis. Again these articles provide a contrasting view. In organizational and institutional settings, such as greedy organizations, total institutions, and mass media, dress and all it symbolizes are debated and discussed in ways that can be studied scientifically. Further, all of the articles have identified patterns in how dress is used in identity embracing and distancing that can be incorporated into broader theoretical frameworks.

The article focuses on the developments related to the periodical "Sociological Inquiry." The author would like to congratulate his predecessor, professor Harry Johnson, for the excellent job he did in editing the journal "Sociological Inquiry" and for the high quality of the manuscripts published during his tenure. The author would also like to thank him for the aid he has given him during the transition period. This issue as well as Volumes 52, Number 2 and 52, Number 3 contain manuscripts which were accepted and processed during the time Professor Johnson was editor. Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) is the International Sociology Honor Society. Its purpose is to promote an interest in sociology, sociological research, and other social and intellectual activities concerned with the human condition. "Sociological Inquiry" is the official journal of Alpha Kappa Delta. It is designed to implement the scientific aims of AKD by communicating and reviewing developments of sociological interest in the service of faculty, investigators, and students alike. Since the journal has a broad constituency, to meet its objectives it must maintain a perspective general enough to cater to the interests and needs of sociologists and other social scientists with differing theoretical and methodological backgrounds engaged in a wide variety of activities in and out of academia. Thus it supports no particular theoretical, methodological or substantive area interest, but in a larger sense is concerned with them all.

This issue of "Sociological Inquiry" presents a new and rather exciting feature which I believe will be of great interest to the readers of this journal. They are, for the first time, publishing the winning paper of the Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) undergraduate paper competition. The editorial advisory board strongly recommended publishing the winning paper as "Sociological Inquiry" is, after all, the official journal of AKD, the international sociology honorary society. They also know that many of their subscribers are students. The editor hope that they enjoy this rather unique look at an aspect of human society that has been virtually untouched by sociologists. As they read this article, he hope also that they come away with a sense of satisfaction with knowing that the next generation of sociologists is being well trained in their discipline. Recognizing that much of this behavior has little to do with intended suicide, and cannot necessarily be linked to other pathologies, Sarah Hodgson interviews individuals who engage in this type of self mutilation through online chat rooms. Her analysis reveals several layers of learning that take place, as well as numerous mechanisms that are employed to maintain their credibility in a society that otherwise stigmatizes such behavior.

Abundant research investigates the content of public discourse about social problems. Far less is known about the quantity of social problems discourse. This article employs original data to address this gap by examining the emergence of single-parent families as a social problem within U.S. popular magazines and social science journals. I trace the growth of discourse about single-parent families in magazines indexed by the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature ( N= 3050) and social science journals indexed by JSTOR ( N= 1376) between 1900 and 1998 and explore factors associated with this growth. The results indicate that contemporary issues functioned as rival social problems and depressed single-parent family discourse within magazines but not within journals. Increases in the prevalence of single-parent families were associated with increases in related discourse in both arenas, but discourse increased earlier in journals. Growing popular concern about single-parent family formation in the 1960s was associated with a reduction in the quantity of single-parent family discourse within journals but not within magazines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his popular introductory sociology text, Stark identifies W. E. B. Du Bois and Albion Small as important cornerstones of the U.S. sociological tradition. While the work of the “Chicago School” is well known in sociological circles, Du Bois’ sociological legacy is not. The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996) is a classic empirical sociological study that is rarely included in discussions of the development of scientific sociology. Likewise, The Negro Church ([1903b] 2003) represents one of the first empirically based sociological studies of a religious institution. Sociologists of religion routinely discuss the contributions of Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel while virtually ignoring Du Bois. This is ironic because Du Bois’ work on religion was based on ethnographic data, field interviews, surveys, and census data. This article provides an overview of Du Bois’ sociological study of the Black Church in the United States by identifying some of the main themes developed in The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996), The Souls of Black Folk ([1903a] 1994), and The Negro Church ([1903b] 2003). These studies reveal that Du Bois was a pioneer in the areas of evaluation research, public sociology, service learning, and congregational studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the social dimensions of interpersonal dispute resolution. Although the concept of social control is a primary concern of sociologists, it is rarely considered as a dependent variable. Instead, researchers and theorists alike generally attempt to describe the functions and relative merits of the various forms of social control in terms of such constructs as efficiency or effectiveness. By framing the research question in these terms, variation in the construct of interest, social control, is not explained. There are several problems with the existing dominant approach. First, most studies evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of various forms of formal and informal social control. A large body of literature addresses the issue of deterrence. General deterrence studies usually evaluate whether the presence of police, a high arrest rate, or a high crime clearance rate drives down the subsequent rate of crime. A second problem with the existing paradigm is that its focus is often on explaining rates of crime or victimization at the aggregate level. The most serious problem with this is that definitions of crime vary both across time and across social space.

The article examines the perceived certainty of sanctions among offenders mandated into intensive probation violations in New Jersey. Deterrence theory has been repeatedly used to explain individuals' choices to commit vs. not commit crimes. Its utilitarian premise is that individuals will choose to commit or not commit crimes based on the certainty, swiftness, and severity of punishments. This study examines the perceived certainty of sanctions among offenders mandated into intensive probation and the effects of varying levels of perceived sanction certainty in deterring offenders from violating probation requirements. Deterministic theories about law-abiding and lawbreaking behaviors have dominated explanations of crime and deviance for much of the first half of the twentieth century. The renewed focus on using threats of sanctions to control behavior derives from the age-old utilitarian philosophy of the Classical School of Criminology and underlies deterrence theory. The Classical School views human beings as rational individuals who efficiently weigh the costs and benefits of their actions in attaining desired goals. It posits that "actions are taken and decisions are made by persons in the rational exercise of free will." As a derivative of the Classical School, deterrence theory postulates that individuals choose to obey or violate the law by making rational calculations about the potential costs and benefits of such acts. The deterrence model argues that once legal sanctions are applied, individual rule-breaking will desist among those directly sanctioned and among those who were only aware of the sanctions.

This article argues that the epistemic and ethical implications of surrendering sociological privilege underlying the debate among qualitative sociologists over the "crisis of representation," is much about values as much as epistemology. Nowhere are the links between epistemological, political, and ethical issues more visible than in the recent highly polarized debate among qualitative sociological researchers over the "crisis of representation." The crisis of representation involves a profound questioning of ethnography's claims to scientific objectivity and, in turn, the authority of the ethnographer's account. In sociology, a group of self-consciously postmodern researchers see themselves as a "loosely defined interpretive community," which is, nevertheless, carrying out a "quiet revolution" against conventional, realist ways of doing qualitative research. While these postmodern ethnographers are relatively few in number, their critique is important because it raises serious questions about qualitative sociology's reason for being and its method of doing.

Many recent signs, empirical and analytic, raise questions about dependency/world-systems theory. The difficulties are not new warnings but reminders that the theory has always had problems stemming from the close and logically unavoidable connections among three major beliefs or tenets. (1) the unchallenged omnipotence of the North Atlantic metropole throughout the world; (2) the neglect of indigenous variables as possible explanations of development; and (3) the implied assumption that growth and development are the normal state of affairs. It is argued that the first, and defining, tenet of dependency theory cannot be sustained unless the other two are also true and that this is the source of an increasingly ill-fitting correspondence between the theory and major characteristics of the Third World. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tamotsu Shibutani is a contemporary proponent of the Chicago School of pragmatic sociology who has devoted his academic efforts to using the Chicago School of pragmatism to analyze problems of contemporary social life and to refine the theoretical tools available to the discipline of sociology. He has evaluated such topics as the Japanese relocation centers, the racial construction of rumor, demoralization in Army life, the dynamics of ethnic stratification, and the resolution of ethnic tension. Shibutani's books on social psychology and general sociology synthesize micro and macro variables, with careful attention to both agency and social control. His work is free of metaphysical puzzles and is true to the scientific method, clearly reflecting the essence of the Chicago School of pragmatic sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two important traditions of research on the causes of voting preferences, one that stresses social variables and is associated with the University of Columbia and the other that examines current issues and is identified with the University of Michigan Survey Research Institute, are drawn upon to help provide an analysis of political party preference in Greece. Among the social variables used in the study, age is the only significant one. Issues related to foreign policy concerns, socioeconomic redistribution, and government record tend to have strong effects on left-leaning party preference. It is suggested that Greek parties do tend to proclaim rather distinct positions on foreign policy issues and socioeconomic redistribution, and Greeks perceive a difference between the parties on these issues. However, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) in reality may not be as radical on foreign policy issues as some of its rhetoric suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James P. Spradley developed a systematic program for using personal experiences as data for cultural analysis. According to the program, the diversity of urban culture can be studied using ethnographic interviewing, participant observation and life history techniques. Spradley studied a Kwakiutl chief, tramps, cocktail waitresses, and deaf people and stimulated the study of variety in modern society. Teaching and research are integrated in Spradley's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have approached Durkheim's thought primarily from the starting point that he was a positivist. Although Schopenhauer's philosophy is not generally invoked in Durkheim's work, it appears that Schopenhauer's philosophy supplanted Comte's positivism at the turn of the century and that Durkheim was enamored with Schopenhauer's philosophy. In this essay Schopenhauer's influence upon Durkheim is traced, and the implications of this influence are discussed in terms of their effect upon sociology. By applying this starting point to Durkheim's thought and the Parsonian-Merionian goals-means schema, it is demonstrated that Durkheim, like Schopenhauer, assumed the oppos~ of the Enlightenment belief that human reason could dominate passion. Implications for interpreting Durkheim's work are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does accumulation of knowledge occur in the social sciences, and if so, under what conditions? Three research programs in Dutch sociology are evaluated with regard to theory accumulation: figurational sociology at the University of Amsterdam; structural individualistic sociology at the University of Utrecht; and data-based sociological practice at the University of Leyden. In the first two schools, a wide international orientation is accompanied by the use of a closure mechanism, i.e. a publication and citation network that is restricted to members of the same research program. The result is a high degree of theoretical unity within a context of program diversity. The article concludes with some observations on the future of Dutch sociology, followed by a list of publications in each of the three programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay articulates a comparative approach to the sociology of science. It suggests that even historically there have been numerous scholars interested in the national components of scientific knowledge. I develop a model which allows me to compare the differences in scientific growth in Sweden and Denmark. My model consists of three interrelated levels: metaphysical bias, national scientific interests, institutional structures. The comparison between the two countries shows them to be markedly different on all three levels. Finally, I suggest how the model can be applied to contemporary material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay focuses on one epoch in one culture, the ‘war painter’ system m Nazi Germany, and considers its social trappings (professional, political) as characteristics shared by another epoch and culture, evaluation systems in contemporary Western science. The parallels are instructive not only for a self-critical sociology of knowledge such as that envisioned by Karl Mannheim and Alvin Gouldner, but moreover as an anthropological test of cultural relativism as explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier research indicates that the ‘academic hierarchy’ encourages and reflects both meritocratic standards and long-standing status distinctions. Using a nationwide survey of graduate and professional students, this study considers the relative and independent influence of students' social class, sex, race, undergraduate achievement, and rank of undergraduate institution attended on rank of graduate or professional school they attend. Students in the total group, universities and colleges, as well as public and private institutions are examined. Analysis of covariance results suggest that undergraduate rank is the strongest predictor of rank of institution attended. Attendance at highly ranked undergraduate institutions predicts appropriate location at prestigious graduate and professional schools. Level of undergraduate achievement also has independent effects. Higher achievement predicts attendance at both highly ranked and slightly lower ranked institutions. Social class influences location in the academic hierarchy, but in an unexpected direction. Working class students often attend higher ranked schools than their upper middle and middle class counterparts. Findings show that men and women attend similarly ranked institutions, and female students attend higher ranked schools than males. The independent effects of race also indicate that racial groups attend different as well as similarly ranked institutions. Finally, limited interactions of three independent variables show that expected merit, social class, and sex advantages do not persist for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary views on the nature of science and technology describe them as symmetrically interdependent subcultures, in contrast to the older view of technology as applied science. On closer inspection, however, these accounts provide two distinct descriptions. The first, that of "distinct subcultures," sees science and technology as distinguishable based on their products, sectoral locations, or objectives. The second, that of a "holistic research system," denies that any single dimension delivers the ideal typical constructs that have long been used to characterize science and technology. On balance, social studies of the research process would do well to dispense with the terms, except insofar as their use constitutes an explanatory project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]