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This paper revisits research procedures used to collect and analyze data for Fifty Years of the Southern Sociological Society: Change and Continuity in a Professional Society (1988) to comment on methodological issues. The fifty years of change were conceptualized as having shifted the Southern Sociological Society from a disciplinary to a professional mode of organization. The shift occurred both from evolutionary processes and from deliberate revolutionary actions of officials and members. Data for the study came mainly from the Society’s Archives. It included personal accounts by presidents, secretary-treasurers’ and committee reports, annual programs and newsletters. Evolutionary processes of adapting the association to the growth of membership, to differentiation of fields of sociological study, along with the rationalization and formalization of the Society’s governance and operation, were extracted mainly from annual programs, the most continuous and objective body of archival information. Revolutionary changes, including adaptation to societal challenges including racial segregation, from the Society’s founding onward were inferred from personal accounts, committee reports, and newsletters, and were confirmed from interviews with long-standing members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the American Sociological Association (ASA) as a portrait of organizational success and intellectual paralysis. There are many important things that the ASA does very well. Its conventions are now quite large and complicated, with more than 200 sessions and close to a thousand persons participating in the sessions. Planning for a convention starts four years in advance with the choice of a site, and program committees work hard for a year in setting up sessions and recruiting session organizers. The sessions have changed over the past few decades, as of 1981. In the early days, sessions were organized more casually, networks of acquaintances being used frequently as means to solicit papers for sessions. Now, participation has been placed on a more universalistic basis. More opportunities are provided for members to exchange ideas and information about work in progress through luncheon roundtables, workshops, and poster sessions. The ASA also is successful in publishing its journals and in running a monograph series. The journals do come out more or less on time and are delivered to the right addresses. If there is an establishment in the ASA, it is composed of persons who are well known, mainly through their scholarly works or other activities that bring them to the attention of the members. Although the ASA must be reckoned successful in a bureaucratic sense, it has not been successful in advancing the intellectual side of the discipline.

This article comments on the history and accomplishments of the American Sociological Association. The most astonishing activity of the ASA is an annual production, the extravaganza called the national meetings. In the 1940s and 1950s the national convention was sometimes criticized for being a market fair at which young academics were forced to kowtow to the mighty for jobs, rather than being able to take delight in truly intellectual discourse. Over the decades, the business meetings of the ASA have remained unchanged in one important way. They always have been poorly attended, except for a few times in the late 1960s. This intense apathy is characteristic of a well run learned society. First it shows the good sense of sociologists, for there is little worth capturing at the business meeting. Second, most of the time the Council and the national staff have succeeded in attaining harmony with the vibrations of their constituents, and thus, they often have made entirely independent decisions that pleased the others anyway. Even in the high drama of business meetings in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it should be noted, established sociology was the main target. In response to the sociologist's usual preference for egalitarian policy, the 1960's charges of elitism, and the sheer growth of research money, the number of papers or presentations has grown, certainly faster than the membership.

The article presents a report of the Section on Theoretical Sociology, a committee of the American Sociological Association of the U.S. The Section has confined its activities to the presentation of programs at the Annual Meeting. For the 1970 meetings John McKinney developed two sessions: one on "New Perspectives on Max Weber" was chaired by Talcott Parsons and involved the contributions of Benjamin Nelson, Vatro Murvar, Thomas Burger, and Vytautas Kavolis; the other on "Problems of the Interface Between Theory and Methodology" was chaired by John McKinney and consisted of presentations by Karl Schuessler, Edgar Borgatta, Norman Denzin, and Frank Young. For the 1971 meetings Peter Blau has organized two sessions. The first will be a panel discussion on "Contrasting Approaches to Social Theorizing." The other session comprises four invited papers on the general topic "Social Theory and Research." The contributors will be Richard Emerson, Hubert Blalock, Morris Zelditch, and Peter Park. The issue of what activities other than annual program sessions should be undertaken by the Section will in great likelihood rise again at the next Council Meeting and at the Business Meeting.

The article presents a report of the Section on Medical Sociology, a committee of the American Sociological Association of the U.S. The success of the Section this past year is due to many groups and individuals. Particularly important has been a grant from the Milbank Memorial Fund which continues to provide partial support for many of the Section's ongoing activities. The Section on Medical Sociology has continued to engage in a variety of activities and projects during 1970-71. Its members have participated in increasing numbers in national and regional meetings and in the activities of the Section's working committees. The Committee on Teaching of Behavioral Science in Medical Schools has been operating in an advisory capacity to the Section's project on the teaching of behavioral science in schools of medicine. The Committee on Health Data Systems, under the chairmanship of Joseph W. Eaton, is developing a proposal for a grant application on service delivery social data development.

The Social Sciences have been almost continuously concerned with appropriately delineating subject matter among disciplinary fields. The role of one branch in relation to others often has been discussed with the general notion of staking a claim to a substantive area of study, to an intellectual function or to service to society. Interrelations among the Social Sciences may be analyzed in three contexts, substantively through study of the extent that the disciplines contribute concepts, hypotheses, evidence etc. to the explanation of behavior, organizationally through studying the interrelations among curricula, courses of study, degree requirements and among institutional subdivisions and individually by analyzing the extent that individuals have bridged gaps between fields through their varied experiences particularly educational experiences. The article examines one kind of evidence on the individual basis of integration among the Social Sciences, formal educational experiences represented by degrees in major subjects and by minors and majors of baccalaureates.

The article presents a report from the representative to the International Sociological Association (ISA) of the U.S. Some of the items mentioned in the report are as follows. U.S. representation to the ISA Council of National Delegates has been settled through agreement among the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP), and the Rural Sociological Society (RSS); it has also been accepted by the ISA Executive Committee. Thus, the ASA will have the official voting delegate, while the SSSP and the RSS will each have an alternative delegate. The alternates will have the right to attend all Council meetings with every privilege but the vote. The alternates will have rotating priority in assuming the vote when the ASA delegate is absent. A new and sharply escalated national dues structure has now been approved by the ISA Executive Committee, though there will be negotiation with the constituent national associations over the amount at issue. The article also contains a report on measures taken for the constitutional reorganization of the ISA.

This article deals with the struggle of sociologists testing whether their discipline or any discipline so conceived and so dedicated deserves to endure. They meet annually in a hotel battlefield of that war. Annually, sociologists dedicate a small portion of their effort to consecrate the contributions of their forbearers who pursued truth far from the citadels of power. Through caucus, committee, and Council, they strive to extend freedom and equality for all. They exalt their growth in numbers but deplore their failure to multiply knowledge and extend understanding to a world that takes little note nor long remembers what they say. The turbulence of the past has diminished but the direction of their mission remains unclear. Counsel is mixed. Some press the Association for direct action to penetrate the corridors of power with policy pronouncements. Others say turn their resources to the enhancement of the profession by building protection for their members. But in a larger sense can these goals be advanced unless they take increased devotion to the unsatisfied work stated in Article II of their Constitution: The objectives of the American Sociological Association shall be to stimulate and improve research, instruction, and discussion, and to encourage cooperative relations among persons engaged in the scientific study of society.

This section presents the report of the Social Psychology Section of the American Sociological Association as of August 1, 1972. The Section has had a year of virtually unprecedented activity consisting of the filing of the annual report which represents a break with the recent past, a heated exchange of public and private correspondence over the future of the section and the scheduling of a discussion of the future of the Section at the Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

This article provides information on the report of the representative to the Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists (ASBS). For the first time since ASBS came into existence in 1935, American Sociological Association (ASA) was formally represented at the ASBS 37th Annual Meeting. Many ASA members have not been aware of the work of this group or even of its existence and it is urged that ASA continue to recognize ASBS by sending a formally designated representative to the Annual Meeting and to keep a close liaison with it in the future.

The section provides information on the new computerized services developed by the American Psychological Association (APA) through the funding of the National Science Foundation in 1972. In addition to its own publication, Psychological Abstract, the APA now offers three search services tailored to the specific one-time needs of the individual scholar or project. These are known respectively as PASAR, PADAT, and PATELL. PASAR stands for Psychological Abstracts Search and Retrieval -- a service that permits a prompt computerized search of the abstracts contained in the printed volumes of Psychological Abstracts. PADAT is Psychological Abstracts Direct Access Terminal which makes the tape file of Psychological Abstracts directly accessible to institutions for a subscription charge of $25 per month and $1.00 per minute of terminal use with a minimum of one hour use per month. This enables the institutional search to query the tape directly in selecting the desired bibliography. PATELL is Psychological Abstracts Tape Edition Lease or Licensing. The tape edition for 1971 leases for $3,000. The APA system abstracts all articles in some 160 journals and searches regularly another 600 publications.

This article calls for nominations to the 1972 Sorokin Award of the American Sociological Association.

The article presents a report of the Section on Methodology, a committee of the American Sociological Association of the U.S. The Section on Methodology issued two informal newsletters during the year. The first noted the current status of the Section, its past difficulties, and raised questions about the future. Correspondence following the newsletter suggested that the matter should be discussed at the 1971 ASA meetings, and a two hour session has been scheduled for a business meeting and meeting of the Section Council. The second newsletter announced the new officers and also carried information of publications now available that should serve the needs of members of the Section, both as authors and audience.

The article presents a report of the Section on Organizations and Occupations, a committee of the American Sociological Association of the U.S. The Section on Organizations and Occupations is just in its second year of operation. The Section Day program at the 1971 Annual Meeting is designed to facilitate interaction among members and to focus attention on a number of salient issues. Following the regular business meeting, panel discussions will be presented on the following topics: The Changing Nature of the Professional-Client Relation; Organizational Measurement; Problems in Categorizing Occupations; New Directions in Research on Organizations and Occupations; and Beyond Bureaucracy--The Changing Forms of Organizations and their Social and Human Implications.