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The greatest conceptual challenge that moral panic studies has struggled with over the past half century is the problem of disproportion. Since the field's inception, moral panics have been conceptualized as disproportionately conservative overreactions to ostensibly insignificant problems. It did not take long for critics, many of whom were working in moral panic studies or related fields of inquiry, to point out that disproportion is construed in a normative rather than empirical manner, and to supplement the conventional focus on conservative overreactions by drawing attention to either conservatively conditioned underreactions (missing panics) or socially progressive overreactions that are cultivated on the political left rather than the right (good moral panics). This article explains how the dynamics of disproportionate social reactions are more complicated than conventional moral panic scholars and their critics alike have recognized. By theorizing the nuances involved in disproportionate social reactions, the article develops a provisional framework to encourage theoretical and conceptual investigations into different kinds of moral boundary violations. The focus of analysis is on the problem of disproportion as it appears in moral panic studies, but scholars working with a broader range of realist, materialist, and/or critical perspectives will recognize and identify with the normative challenges posed by the problem of disproportion in their respective areas of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Quality & Quantity was established in 1967 and in 2017 it completed its half century. The journal is interdisciplinary in nature and it mainly discusses methodological application of mathematics and statistics in the social sciences, particularly sociology, economics, and social psychology. It was created with the idea of advancing methodology of the various social studies. This study looks back journey of the journal from 1967 to 2017 aims to develop a bibliometric analysis of all the publications of the journal. Web of Science Core Collection database is used to collect data. The present study discovered the significant contributions of the journal in terms of impact, topics, authors, universities and countries. Utrecht University of Netherlands is the most productive university. Asian Universities are emerging and growing quickly in the recent years. Although USA leads among the countries but Europe leads among the six supranational regions. Finally, the visualization of similarities viewer software is used to present network visualization of the bibliographic coupling, co-citation, citation, co-authorship and co-occurrence of keywords. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review takes a critical position with regards to Treagust and Duit’s article, Conceptual Change: A discussion of theoretical methodological and practical challenges for science education. It is proposed that conceptual change research in science education might benefit from borrowing concepts currently being developed in the sociology of emotions. It is further suggested that the study of social interaction within evolving emotional cultures is the most promising avenue for developing and extending theories about conceptual change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on archival research and ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines the continuities between everyday life, routine politics, and contentious action. Focusing on a case study, the 6-day road blockade in the Argentine Patagonia in June 1996, the article dissects these connections through a thick description of (a) the intersection of this episode of popular protest with the biography of one of its key participants, and (b) the modes in which routine politics and local history have an impact on the origins and shape of the protest and on the activated identities of the actors who collectively voice their discontent during the protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalism and social mobilization are two of the most prominent areas of research within the social sciences since the end of the Second World War. Yet, the scholarly specialization has so far impeded a mutual exchange of the theoretical and methodological literatures of both areas. While theorists on nationalism dispute about the validity and scientific efficacy of approaches such as primordialism, perennialism, modernism, functionalism or – more recently – ethno-symbolism, scholars concerned with social movement theory have been divided about approaches commonly known as resource mobilization, political process, framing, or new social movement theories. The recent proposal forwarded by McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly (MTT) in their book Dynamics of Contention is an important attempt to overcome the scholarly specialization by presenting a new explanatory framework that aims at opening new analytical perspectives to a better comprehension of contentious politics beyond the “classic social movements agenda.” This article on the rise and development of Basque nationalism, however, while accepting the proposal as a valid focus for the macro-analysis and comparison of broad structures and processes, is rather sceptical as far as its hypothetical productivity on the theoretical meso-level (analysis and comparison of one or a few single cases) is concerned. Instead, in the light of the historical evolution of Basque nationalism since the end of the nineteenth century, including its more recent violent dimension, it is suggested that a productive and intelligent combination of approaches coming from both areas: theories on nationalism and on social movements, is still a useful and necessary task to carry out in order to facilitate a better understanding of nationalism in particular and contentious politics in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the course of more than three decades, Larry Reynolds has presented a series of thoughtful critiques of the sociological enterprise as it is organized in the United States. This essay will focus on two volumes published recently by Larry Reynolds on the sociology of sociology, hereafter referred to as "Reflexive" and "Self-Analytical", which are essential reading for anyone who is remotely concerned about the state of American sociology. Throughout the pages of these texts, Larry Reynolds raises important questions about the fundamental nature of sociology.

This article describes the contemporary appeal of the Chicago sociology perspective in France, and analyzes the bases of its attraction. Old Chicago sociology/anthropology was a heady and fruitful conjoining of ethnography, urban ecology and geography, interactionist social psychology, and pragmatist epistemology. Using the vocabulary of science, it spoke of the city of Chicago as its laboratory, but what this meant was that its students were exhorted to exit the library in order to roam, observe, and undertake what then were termed case studies and today, urban ethnography. The laboratory was particularly exciting because of the growth in the population in Chicago, Illinois. Immigrants had been flooding the U.S. and its urban centers throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, and Chicago was a nodal point. Within Europe of the period there had also been migrations on a lesser yet also significant scale, especially from the east to the west. In France, Europe, an throughout the world, an intense process of urbanization has been occurring. The challenge has been how to understand and describe the processes and their consequences, other than being publicly appalled. Jammed side by side in these immense cities are clusters and communities of families and peoples differing in languages, religions, ethnic-cultural origins, and social race.

The paper places the model of the media field in the context of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's theory of fields, capital and habitus. It illustrates the media field approach by analyzing several field case studies. Through systematic comparison with other approaches to media research, it highlights the unique contributions offered by the field theory while pointing out some still unresolved difficulties. Bourdieu and associates developed a new paradigm for the sociology of journalism centered around the concept of the media field. Their basic thesis is that as journalism has become less autonomous from the economic field, its influence and pervasiveness have also increased. The news media serving as an agent of dominant power are undermining the autonomy of other spheres of cultural production and thus the optimal social conditions for the production of scientific knowledge and artistic innovation. In service of this intellectual project, Bourdieu and associates contribute to the Anglo-American tradition of news media research in various ways.

In this article, researchers suggest that one should revisit the biblical text from a sociological perspective for several reasons. First, the story of Adam and Eve is extraordinarily successful. In the West, Genesis, as conveyed through official teachings, foildore and artistic conventions, has found primordial appeal across enormously varied cultural turfs. The social psychology that may be gleaned from the text might reveal a somewhat larger audience and application than is usually the case for sociology. The second reason is that this myth captures dimensions of experience that are difficult to keep under systematic consideration when emotional life is represented in idioms of contemporary social science. Myths are stories and their narrative character is especially valuable for sociological theory. When they describe metamorphoses, myths capture processes of transformation to a radically altered condition, in so doing they make central just what much of contemporary social analysis, in focusing on correlations with different states, ignores. Emotions flow with striking fluidity and in momentary episodes from one state to another.

The question of the proper methodological foundations for the social, political, and historical studies is now seemingly in a greater state of intellectual contention than at any time this century. Perhaps this is a consequence of the incipient breakdown of neo-Enlightenment modes of thought with their at least partial coherence around projects of rational inquiry and promotion of progressive social justice. The propagation of new and ever more sophisticated versions of relativism now poses a serious threat to the whole possibility of intersubjective understanding and explanation, not just of society but of nature too. It is feared that with that possibility goes the possibility of rational, democratic, emancipatory transformation of the world. Social critique and rational emancipation would seem inevitably to depend on some universalistic concepts, as well as on a commitment to the principles of equality and democracy. Structural historiography, correctly speaking, includes what goes under labels of economic history, social history, and historical sociology. They are or should be the same thing in so far as they see their object as the empirical explanation of changes in societies as structures. And the study of structural history should be the core of a unified science of society because society is both inherently historical and the structural context and object of human action and thought.

The article discusses about some central machinery of social organization. It deals with categories and not necessarily with what sociologists might call groups, organized groups and organizations. It is quite important to see that presumptive representat

One main purpose of this paper is to encourage sociologists to fully support their sociological association leaders' efforts to further develop and implement comprehensive plans to improve the image of sociology, especially among those who can employ our graduates, but also among the general populace. Preceding a proposed multi-level plan is an attempt to integrate and present many of the competencies that sociologists and social psychologists have identified through research into a classification of sociological and social psychological skills. The typology can facilitate the selection of competencies appropriate for academic courses or seminars. In brief, the ten categories of this typology are: (1) Communication Skills; (2) Conceptual Tools; (3) Critical Thinking; (4) Problem Solving Strategies; (5) Special Competencies Applicable to Work Organization; (6) Group Dynamics; (7) Group Counseling; (8) Applied Social Research Methodologies; (9) Consulting Expertise; and (10) Competence in Self-Marketing Skills that Students Need. The several examples of skills within each of the ten classifications could be considered by faculty for possible inclusion in their syllabi. A discussion of the necessity to better inform business, industry, foundations, and government agencies of sociological competencies is provided followed by a multi-level public relations proposal, "A Plan to Put Career Vagueness Behind Us." The plan presented is not intended to be the plan. It can serve as a check list or supplement to the strategic plans currently being developed and implemented by the ASA and other sociological associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research methods should be the core of a sociology curriculum, but they need to be taught with more emphasis on application and with greater recognition of the importance of managerial and communicative skills. Participation in practicums or where feasible, internsbips in the private or public sector, should be part of that research training. Departments should select areas of specialization within sociology that reflect the faculty`s expertise, the university strengths or distinctiveness, and the social, economic and demographic characteristics of the area. But such basic sub-fields as history, stratification, theory, social psychology, demography and social organization must be included in every curriculum. How to go about selecting a worthwhile research problem and how to communicate results are skills that should be taught in a graduate program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many sociologists believe that behavioral sociology is alien to traditional sociological thought, and some have questioned its legitimacy as a sociological perspective. This paper takes the position that behavioral sociology is very much in accord with basic tenets of sociology. The belief that it is not results from misunderstanding and confusion about the foundations and practice of behavioral sociology. Three key concerns about behavioral sociology are addressed: (1) the subject matter of behavioral sociology and its distinction from behavioral psychology; (2) the unexplained "givens" of behavioral sociology (the origins of existing reward systems), and (3) the concern that behaviorists view human behavior as mechanistic and unfeeling. The paper concludes that many differences between behavioral sociology and other sociological perspectives have been exaggerated, that behavioral sociology does exhibit most traditional characteristics of the discipline, and that the concern with the legitimacy of behavioral theory in sociology has obscured the one significant difference that does exist disagreement over the goals and conduct of a science of human behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study analyzes the effect of theory group association on the evaluative content of book reviews in sociology. Analysis of 219 book reviews written on 79 major works over a 30 year period reveals no significant differences in the evaluative content of reviews written by reviewers associated with the same theory, when compared to those associated with a different theory group than that of a book's author. Some evidence is presented which indicates that member, of one's own theory group are the most critical of an author's work. The implications of these findings and general mode of inquiry are discussed within a sociology of science framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social interaction has been the focus of laboratory research and social contingencies of reinforcement have been the focus of field research in behavioral sociology. Most sociology is social psychological in one degree or another, and we cannot define a perspective as nonsociological simply because it is interested in some way in individual conduct. The criticism that behavioral sociology does not account for the givens of structure and existing patterns of social contingencies is well addressed by Molm. Therefore, a behavioral analysis of the givens without substantive input from sociological, anthropological, biological or other theory or from observation and experimentation will not succeed. One cannot directly test the basic principle that behavior is developed and maintained through a process of differential reinforcement this way, however, because findings of no-effect still can be dismissed simply as failure to find the real reinforcer for this particular behavior. The social behaviorist would propose direct effects of reinforcement on behavior as the primary concern but also recognize indirect effects of past or current reinforcement mediated by internal variables.

It is opined that photography gives time to see, to "read." It may rightly be objected that photography is static. Yet dynamism is implicit in it. In contrast to videotape, cinema and television, photography lets itself be looked at, granting the time needed for reading. In common parlance, "informing" means passing on news, delivering messages, clarifying specific data and situations when needed. Yet in the act of informing there is something else. At the very moment it informs, information may form, deform and transform. It cannot be reduced to a simple addition: it is an exchange which calls in question the addressee and the sender, it removes, moves and arouses, obliges a re-shuffling of the global situation. For this reason every act of information has a basically problematic aspect which escapes common awareness, but which it is important to recall and analyze. To inform means initially to leave the silence and open up to the other, the person who is different, and to hold out one's hand. This is an operation as needful as it is dangerous, simply because human relations, because they are human, are unforeseeable, and so are necessarily dramatic.

In recent years, Jörgen Habermas has moved towards the construction of a systematic theory that combines the analysis of communicative action, social evolution, and the historical rationalization of society. In this way, the telos of critical understanding built into linguistic communication can be used as the basis for an attempt to solidify a concept of reason by means of formal pragmatics as well as to make the concept of communicative rationality applicable to institutionalized loci of interaction. Communicative action becomes a more basic principle of association. In his view, it provides the general medium for the reproduction of all life-worlds and, as linguistically mediated communication between actors, is the ultimate form of social interaction itself which underpins their varying contents and establishes at their core a species specific nature.

The concept of distributive justice and the theoretical and empirical work conducted on it during the past two decades are examined. Three questions provide the structure for this examination: (i) What are fundamental conceptual dimensions of distributive justice and the specific substantive issues to which they are related? (ii) What central questions has recent work on distributive justice addressed? and (iii) What are the most important emerging issues on which work in the near-term future should focus? Much of the theory and research examined in the paper is social psychological in nature, but reference is made to related work in related disciplines, particularly sociology and philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that the explanation of change in the form and content of social control is central to the social sciences, although the concepts and methods used to analyze it are subject to considerable debate. Among Marxists, issues raised by the corporate liberal and class conflict approaches to legal change have in themselves been subjects of controversy. The corporate liberal model leads to examine the dominant clan, especially the extent to which it perceives reform as stabilizing social relations. It leads to the presumption that the dominant class initiates stabilizing reforms in response to disruptions or other expressions of discontent from below. The application of these guidelines to the birth control movement, however, ignores the complex class relations associated with the movement's early stages in favor of a description of corporate domination in its later stages.

The most popular perspective on deviant behavior at the present time is commonly called the labeling approach. The deviant is one to whom that label has successfully been applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label. Sociologists who describe deviance as a process of labeling draw upon the symbolic interactionism of sociologist George Herbert Mead. Mead provides the social-psychological framework for understanding how the individual comes to be labeled deviant in the first place and then, as the consequence of this labeling, to manifest the various subjective orientations. The Meadian perspective enables sociologists to designate the process of becoming deviant rather than merely to assert that mind or personality or some other intervening unknown or black box acts as a deterministic transmitter of forces, impinging upon the actor and making him deviant, then, the labeling approach to deviance studies organizational and social-psychological conditions and consequences not as separate issues but as related in an ongoing dialectic. Organizational factors do not deterministically force individuals into deviant patterns of behavior.

For the recent decades there have been attempts at assimilating into sociology, and such related disciplines as anthropology or social psychology, a program that might be called, after Neurath, the guest for terminological empiricism. Such a program can be reduced, in a considerable extent, to the postulate of eliminating the terms without empirical meaning from the language of science. As a result, it has been expected that problems and propositions giving rise to unending disputes will disappear. The underlying assumption was that same type of disputes cannot find an end because they are essentially insoluble, as they involve judgments of truth or falsehood of propositions including terms lacking in empirical meaning as their predicates. Such propositions do not entail any definite empirical consequences, i.e., if they are at the same time accepted and rejected, no contradictory statements on observable facts are implied. Problems of truth of such propositions are spurious and ought to be expelled from science.

In this article, the authors discuss what is qualitative sociology and why the journal "Qualitative Sociology," has been named so. Qualitative sociology is the endeavor to apprehend the basic elements constituting human social relations. It proceeds by self-awareness, reflective participation in relationships of meaning with the human actors who are under study, whether directly through participant observation or, less directly, through hermeneutic interpretation, historical reconstitution, or theoretical analysis. It respects the meanings in terms of which the activities under study, as instances of human activity, are configured and anticipates the creativity of all situated human endeavors. It emphasizes reflective creativity and expects the vitality of creative conduct to reside in particulars, but connects the possibility of creativity to ongoing institutions that may be large and complicated. Qualitative sociology thus must encompass the fields of macroanalysis and theoretical generalization, even if it is most often practiced in the form of ethnographies of specific situations.