Search

The multiple problems that the planet is currently experiencing—climate crisis, conventional and unconventional wars, planetary disenchantment with political systems, growth of inequality, increase in all kinds of intersectional violence, destructuring of the political economy of morality, etc.—are not a favorable scenario for thinking about hope. This paper nevertheless offers a summary presentation of the sociology of hope, presenting some of its central sources and components as well as a proposed study agenda for the future. This article seeks to foster discussion of what could be the central axes of a sociology of hope. To achieve this purpose, the following argumentative strategy was chosen: (a) the "place" of hope is explored in some classics of sociology, (b) the central components of a sociological investigation of hope are synthesized, and (c) an agenda is presented as a summary for a future development of a sociology of hope. The article seeks to draw attention to the urgency of hope as an important element for the future of sociology and social sciences in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that the COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for sociologists and other social scientists to focus their scholarship on this apparently new event, while applying theoretical and methodological traditions that were established during pre-pandemic times. I substantiate this argument by critically reviewing published sociological research on COVID-19, especially as it developed early on during the pandemic, in the light of the historical development and original ambitions of sociology and other social sciences. Evaluating these contributions, I make a case for the value of a collaborative notion of interdisciplinarity to analyze the multi-dimensional dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic from the viewpoint of various disciplines. On the basis of sociological work on celebrity culture during the pandemic, I argue that this task can be accomplished without resorting to all too readily made judgments concerning the unprecedented nature of the pandemic. Studying the multiple dimensions of the pandemic, each of the social sciences can usefully contribute to interdisciplinary research by relying on the proven perspectives of their respective disciplinary orientations and specialty areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to formulate sociological research opportunities in food tourism. The study used the literature review method with bibliometric analysis to find the most discussed issues and opportunities for discussing new problems that have yet to be widely discussed. This research used VOSViewer software edition 1.6.18 to analyze 3,055 research articles on the ScienceDirect website from 1999-2023. The publication period is divided into three according to the ability to download, which can only download 1000 articles in each period. This research analyzed the development of publications, publishers, scope, main keywords, clusters, density visualization maps, overlays, and research networks. The analysis found that the research on the sociology of food tourism has increased, but sociology journals have yet to become publishers with the highest number of articles. Research opportunities exist on the topics of policy, inequality, and migration. Opportunities also exist in relating new and old issues to other matters. Previous studies have yet to study many interactions between actors providing food and other actors forming food tourism destinations. It is suggested that further research covers the topics of policy, inequality, migration, sociological theorizing of food tourism, and interactions between actors in the production of tourist attractions.

Sociology is the science of social life, and as such, it is different from the pursuit of social justice and other efforts to evaluate or to reform the social world. Still, the idea of social justice is intimately connected with the idea of sociology. It arises along with scientific understandings of the social world and draws from these understandings to reshape society. The problem is that in practice, social justice activists often draw from only one type of sociological theory, conflict theory, and from a particular form of conflict theory known as critical theory. In doing so, they may ignore potential problems with the theories they are drawing from, and they may overlook many possibilities for effective reform. Conflict theory orients activists toward fighting oppression, but other theoretical approaches could help societies to achieve other possible moral goals, such as promoting understanding, increasing virtue, incentivizing virtue, making virtue easier, and strengthening solidarity., Author(s): Bradley Campbell [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.253561.6, 0000 0001 0806 2909, Department of Sociology, California State University, Los Angeles, , 5151 State University Drive, 90032, Los Angeles, CA, USA [...]

This article examines the continuing phenomenon of trust in climate stability. Such trust is mediated by specific social contexts and evolves in response to societal events, material constraints and scientific evidence and media representations. We consider the ways in which normalized understandings of climate are influenced by experiences with extreme weather events. Paradoxically perhaps, we argue that weather extremes are occasions that actually reinforce trust in the stability of climate. The ways in which extremes are dealt with and explained by society provides an important clue for the semantics of environmental representation generally and climate specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a significant shift among antipoverty nonprofits toward what we call 'relational work,'which involves working with clients over time on life changes. Some scholars discuss this, often in negative terms, as part of a broader neoliberal trend. We argue that relational work is an important and unavoidable part of ongoing efforts against poverty and homelessness. We also discuss the broader theoretical context that make scholars suspicious of this kind of antipoverty work, and argue for a multifaceted approach topoverty that includes attention to relational work and the agency of clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists are not taking philanthropy seriously enough. New approaches to philanthropy such as venture philanthropy, philanthrocapitalism, strategic philanthropy, and effective altruism are creating what is often broadly termed 'the new philanthropy.' Living hands-on mega wealthy donors such as Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, and John Arnold have publicly committed their energies and wealth to transforming society through philanthropy. Some of these philanthropic endeavors, notably in K-12 education, are creating jurisdictional challenges to the public sector. Others are approaching transversal and transnational issues in ways that are difficult to do through government policies. This essay provides an overview of these issues and, drawing from the other essays in this symposium, makes the case that scholars should do more research on the social contexts and consequences of philanthropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features Lewis Coser who was born in Berlin, Germany on November 27, 1913 from a privileged Berlin family. Topics discussed include his capacity for cosmopolitan comparison, skilled aesthetic and sociological judgment, how he was a celebrated master in writing interesting and informative review of difficult books and his intellectual achievements especially as a sociologist of culture.

We take mild issue with some of the conclusions Gross draws from his research into the political commitments of academics, and we draw attention to other research that suggests there are epistemic costs associated with the political imbalance that Gross observes. We question whether incentives and controls currently existing within the social sciences are sufficient to counter these epistemic costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the ongoing U.S. Supreme Court debate on whether or not the principles of the U.S. Constitution are fixed or subject to change. He examines the view of originalism advocated by Justice Antonin Scalia and his opposition to "purposivism" or presumed intention of a text. The author believes that taking an originalist position is contrary to the compromising nature by which the Constitution was conceived and that such a principle should apply to past and present issues.

The article investigates the weakness of Aristotelian ethical naturalism as a justification for social sciences to facilitate the establishment of good society and human flourishing. It cites that the Aristotelian approach fails to acknowledge the role of complex moral decisions in the application of sociological research. The author infers that Aristotelian naturalism is less concerned about methodical inquiry and inadequate at providing guidance to moral dilemmas in politics and life.

The article examines whether or not ethical naturalism validates the principles of activist public sociology. It notes that public sociology may be a similar expression of ethical naturalism in terms of promoting human well-being and its commitment to engage public debates outside the academic environment. It also cites that ethical naturalism is fundamentally different than public sociology with its emphasis on virtues as a precondition to living the good life.

Peter Baehr highly praises Berger's contribution to sociology, and yet sharply criticises his claim that unmasking or debunking is he signature method of sociology. Baehr hold such method of enquiry to be dangerously corrosive and in tension with the humanist intentions of Berger. I largely agree with this critique, but I have doubts that a viable alternative could be developed within the framework of the social sciences. Thus, I would suggest that Berger was right in linking unmasking/debunking with the humanist enterprise, despite the negative implications highlighted by Baehr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The career of Lewis S. Feuer spanned several disciplines-Philosophy, Sociology, Politics, and History (especially the History of Ideas); his books and articles covered several centuries, and were devoted primarily to exposing the emotional undercurrents that animated the thought of intellectuals. Feuer tended to be highly suspicious of intellectuals, because they were susceptible to the allure of ideologies, which masked a dangerous will to power. His greatest achievement was to connect the contours of political and social thought to the drives of persons and to the context of institutions; his greatest limitation was to miss, at least in the United States, the deeper problem of popular hostility to science and to knowledge itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of public sociology over the past decade represents the end of a string of crisis moments in sociology. Since the 1950s and, especially, the 1960s, sociology was argued to be in a crisis because the discipline was thought to be conservative and contributing to sustain the status quo. As a result, the 1970s witnessed a radicalization of sociology, but the 1980s saw a general decline of sociology. Upon a resurgence during the 1990s, the crisis advocates have come back with a vengeance in the form of a renewed commitment to a heavily politicized sociology under the heading of public sociology, a perspective that is now thoroughly institutionalized and widely embraced. In sociology, the effects of the 1960s thus began to be felt in earnest some 40 years late. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the periodical "Trans-action."

Invitation to Sociology makes known that sociology is a coherent and value-added academic discipline. In exploring the continuing relevance of Invitation to Sociology, the time is ripe to reconsider sociology as a value-added intellectual enterprise. This paper answers this question: What does sociology have to offer beyond what the humanities and its sister social sciences already provide? This paper answers this question by identifying the four elements that compose the sociological tradition. These elements are social action; embeddedness; social problems; and social construction. I argue that these elements are more pronounced in sociology than in any other academic discipline, and hence contribute to the value-added character of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses different philosophical concepts of human nature. In the age of Enlightenment both philosophy and its wayward offspring, sociology, began to move away from an examination of human nature as their essential foundation. In the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth, the rise of eugenics, racialist doctrines, and the science of genetics temporarily revived interest in human nature--now understood biologically--as an essential concept in the social sciences. There is, however, another and more important way in which renewed reflection on the question of human nature will exert a powerful moral influence. Consciously or unconsciously our conception of human nature affects how we conduct our lives, evaluate the actions of others, and order our societies. It affects the laws and institutions which we create to guide and shape us, and the meaning which we attribute to our lives and the lives of others.

This article discusses the book "Ancient Law," written by Henry Sumner Maine. This book spans the ancient world, in which individuals were tightly bound to traditional groups, and the modern world, in which individuals are viewd as autonomous beings, free to make contracts and form associations with whomever they see fit. The dichotomy Maine drew between status-based societies and contract-based societies is a variation on a theme that has dominated the social sciences history, which is the distinction between community and society.

This article discusses the consequences of the public image problem adolescents carry and describes themes derived from the social science research that could be used to construct journalism about youth. The trends in journalistic coverage of the social science about adolescents and adolescence have serious effects when it comes to people taking more responsibility to help ensure the well-being of young people outside their own families. Public Agenda reported in its national poll that the more media focus is given to huge, impossibly complex social problems among children and youth, the less the typical community resident feels able to do anything about the situation. That sociological conclusion echoes psychological research that rather consistently has found moderate levels of task difficulty to be enabling, whereas if a task is seen as too difficult, behavioral paralysis can result.

This article discusses the views of sociologist Edward Shils in the context of contemporary higher education and to assess his views about the university. A concern with the societal importance of tradition was a recurring theme in his work. This underscores a deep conservative trend in his work. He repeatedly stressed the importance of social cohesion and emphasized the importance of intellectuals and of academic institutions in helping to reshape the central ideas of society. Higher education and science were among his major concerns and preoccupations throughout his career. He was a strong believer in academic meritocracy and in judgment by peers.

This article discusses the interrelationship of realism and romanticism in sociology. Realism seeks to describe the world as it is, not as the observer of that world wants it to be. Premised on the once path-breaking but by now somewhat stodgy epistemological assumption that the social world is knowable, the politics of realism were once radical. The driving force of contemporary romanticism in social science is an attack on bourgeois values. Romanticism elevates the individual hero over the collectivity to which the individual belongs. In contrast to romanticism, realistic styles of social science emphasize the boundaries, limits, and ties that define particular identities rather than the liminal experiences that challenge them. Without such constraints, there can be no realism.

This article discusses the fragmentation of sociology in the 1990s. Despite its struggles for logical coherence, intellectually sociology has always had an ad hoc character. Coming late to the academic table, it got the scraps, those forms of collective action not already taken over by earlier arrivals. History commanded the past and anthropology non-western exotica. Psychology had the individual, economics the market, and political science the state. Sociology got what was left: the family, crime, immigration, race and all the other topics conceived of at the time as social problems. Because there were so few sociologists, they had to make common cause in the academic arena. So, whatever the differences in the actual subject matter, they looked for common themes.

This article attempts to describe some of the failures of sociology. One of the fundamental transformations in the contemporary world has been the rapid economic ascendancy of Japan and other East Asian countries. What is happening is not just an economic miracle of enormous proportions, but the first instance of successful modernization in a non-Western cultural context that should be of special interest to sociologists. Here is a case of capitalist modernity, obviously of great interest in and of itself, but of even greater interest from the standpoint of a theory of modern society.

This article claims that what makes Society magazine different is its unique attempt to forge a moral economy. What inspires magazine editorial board was the belief that social science is the jewel in the crown of contemporary democracy. This is so because the worth of the person is the end product of wonderment about people. Like that of democracy itself, the social science vision is ever skeptical about institutions, ever respectful of individuals. On this distinction the magazine stakes its claim to uniqueness.

Comments on the concept of subjectivism in social science. Influence of subjective factors on decision making; Origin of sociological subjectivism; Notion about reality in political and social sciences.

This article examines whether social sciences are inferior to natural sciences. The social sciences and the natural sciences are compared and contrasted on many scores, and the discussions are often unsystematic. There is a great deal of truth, and important truth, in this comparison. Some philosophers were so impressed with the invariance of nature and the variability of social phenomena that they used this difference as the criterion in the definitions of natural and cultural sciences. This is not satisfactory, nor does it dispose of the main issue that natural phenomena provide more invariance than social phenomena. The main difference lies probably in the number of factors that must be taken into account in explanations and predictions of natural and social events. Only a small number of reproducible facts will normally be involved in a physical explanation or prediction. A much larger number of facts, some of them probably unique historical events, will be found relevant in an explanation or prediction of economic or other social events. This is true, and methodological devices will not do away with the difference; but it is only a difference in degree. The idea behind a comparison between the "objectivity" of observations and explorations in the natural and social sciences may be conveyed by an imaginary quotation: "Science must be objective and not affected by value judgments; but the social sciences are inherently concerned with values and, hence, they lack the disinterested objectivity of science."

Focuses on the contributions of Transaction's flagship publication "Transaction/Society" to the social science field. Goal of the struggle for the survival and growth of Transaction; Changes in the field of sociology; Linkage of social science research to democratic goals.

Assesses the state of health of the social sciences by examining their patterns of citation. Growth of citation studies in general from 1965 to 1985; Questions raised by J. Michael Brittain about the status of social science knowledge based on studies of international patterns of citation; Attempt of social science departments in Europe to emulate the models established by American universities.

This article focuses on the emergence of social science in the agenda of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The invisibility via emergence of the 1950s gave way to the emergence of a distinct social science identity in the decade of the 1960s. Organizationally, social science was transformed from being listed under Other Sciences, to becoming a Program, then an Office and finally in 1969 as full-fledged Division. As NSF social science moved into the decade of the seventies, new directions were signaled, new clouds on the horizon. The record of accomplishment is vital and strong, but rarely has it been able to penetrate and modify stereotyped conceptions of social science as soft or as being some form of ideological advocacy.

Focuses on the cognitive status of the social sciences. Ontological differences between the natural and social world; Methods appropriate to social studies; Information on J. Michael Brittain's opinion about the nature of the differences between the natural and social sciences.

Comments on J. Michael Brittain's article "National Limits of Information Flow," published in the July/August 1985 issue of the periodical "Society." Examination of whether footnotes are the measure of the scientific character of the social sciences; Practice of footnoting as evidence of erudition and scholarly attainment; Development of social sciences in the Soviet Union which are largely modeled on American patterns.

Comments on the article by J. Michael Brittain about the issue of information transfer system for the social sciences. Historical roots of social science; Difficulty in retrieving and disseminating information in the field of social science; Distinction between narrow-gauged relativism and total or extreme cultural relativism.

The Most Dangerous Places in the World for Women Thomson Reuters Foundation has released a report on the five most dangerous countries in the world for women. In rank order, [...]

The section presents a list of books on social sciences available as of March 2003, including "Negotiating With the Dead: A Writer on Writing," by Margaret Atwood.