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Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science

Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice

Works Count: 37403

Description

This cluster of papers explores the intersection of sociology with public discourse, policy, and global issues. It delves into social theories, postcolonial perspectives, symbolic interactionism, and the role of sociology in addressing social justice and globalization. The papers also discuss the impact of intellectual movements on sociological research and emphasize the importance of ethnography and the sociological imagination in understanding societal phenomena.

Keywords

Public Sociology; Social Theory; Globalization; Postcolonialism; Symbolic Interactionism; Intellectual Movements; Ethnography; Sociological Imagination; Scientific Communication; Social Justice

Methodology of Social Sciences

2017-07-05
Max Weber

Human Nature and the Social Order

2017-07-12
Charles Horton Cooley
This work remains a pioneer sociological treatise on American culture. By understanding the individual not as the product of society but as its mirror image, Cooley concludes that the social … This work remains a pioneer sociological treatise on American culture. By understanding the individual not as the product of society but as its mirror image, Cooley concludes that the social order cannot be imposed from outside human nature but that it arises from the self. Cooley stimulated pedagogical inquiry into the dynamics of society with the publication of Human Nature and the Social Order in 1902. Human Nature and the Social Order is something more than an admirable ethical treatise. It is also a classic work on the process of social communication as the very stuff of which the self is made.

Introduction to the Science of Sociology

1922-08-01
Robert H. Gault , Robert E. Park , Ernest W. Burgess
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The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences

1969-09-01
Rondo Cameron
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content. An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

The Rules of Sociological Method

1982-01-01
Émile Durkheim
This series aims to create a forum for debate between different theoretical and philosophical traditions in the social sciences.As well as covering broad schools of thought, the series will also … This series aims to create a forum for debate between different theoretical and philosophical traditions in the social sciences.As well as covering broad schools of thought, the series will also concentrate upon the work of particular thinkers whose ideas have had a major impact on social science (these books appear under the subseries title of 'Theoretical Traditions in the Social Sciences').The series is not limited to abstract theoretical discussion -it will also include more substantive works on contemporary capitalism, the state, politics, and other subject areas.
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Social Theory and Social Structure

1958-06-01
Eva J. Ross , Robert Κ. Merton

Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction

1964-06-01
Brian Sutton‐Smith , Erving Goffman

How Institutions Think.

1988-05-01
Bruno Latour , Mary Douglas
1. Institutions Cannot Have Minds of their Own 2. Smallness of Scale Discounted 3. How Latent Groups Survive 4. Institutions are Founded on Analogy 5. Institutions Confer Identity 6. Institutions … 1. Institutions Cannot Have Minds of their Own 2. Smallness of Scale Discounted 3. How Latent Groups Survive 4. Institutions are Founded on Analogy 5. Institutions Confer Identity 6. Institutions Remember and Forget 7. A Case of Institutional Forgetting 8. Institutions do the Classifying 9. Institutions Make Life and Death Decisions

Field Theory in Social Science

1953-04-01
R. L. French , Kurt Lewin , Dorwin Cartwright

Constructing Social Theories.

1969-12-01
Robert W. Hodge , Arthur L. Stinchcombe
Constructing Social Theories presents to the reader range of strategies for constructing theories, and in clear, rigorous, and imaginative manner, illustrates how they can be applied. Arthur L. Stinchcombe argues … Constructing Social Theories presents to the reader range of strategies for constructing theories, and in clear, rigorous, and imaginative manner, illustrates how they can be applied. Arthur L. Stinchcombe argues that theories should not be invented in the abstract or applied a priori to problem but should be dictated by the nature of the data to be explained. This work was awarded the Sorokin prize by the American Sociological Association as the book that made an outstanding contribution to the progress of sociology in 1970.

Sociology in Question

1995-01-01
Christian Ghasarian , Pierre Bourdieu , Richard Nice
The Art of Standing Up to Words A Science that Makes Trouble The Sociologist in Question Are Intellectuals Out of Play? How Can `Free-Floating Intellectuals' Be Set Free? For a … The Art of Standing Up to Words A Science that Makes Trouble The Sociologist in Question Are Intellectuals Out of Play? How Can `Free-Floating Intellectuals' Be Set Free? For a Sociology of Sociologists The Paradox of the Sociologist What Talking Means Some Properties of Fields The Linguistic Market Censorship 'Youth' is Just a Word Music-Lovers Origin and Evolution of the Species The Metamorphosis of Tastes How Can Anyone Be a Sportsman? Haute Couture and Haute Culture But Who Created the `Creators'? Public Opinion Does Not Exist Culture and Politics Strikes and Political Action The Racism of `Intelligence'

Roles in Sociological Field Observations

1958-03-01
Raymond L. Gold
Journal Article Roles in Sociological Field Observations Get access Raymond L. Gold Raymond L. Gold Montana State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar … Journal Article Roles in Sociological Field Observations Get access Raymond L. Gold Raymond L. Gold Montana State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 36, Issue 3, March 1958, Pages 217–223, https://doi.org/10.2307/2573808 Published: 01 March 1958

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity

1969-09-01
Erving Goffman
CONTENTS 1. Stigma and Social Identity Preliminary Conceptions The Own and the Wise Moral Career 2. Information Control and Personal Identity The Discredited and the Discreditable Social Information Visibility Personal … CONTENTS 1. Stigma and Social Identity Preliminary Conceptions The Own and the Wise Moral Career 2. Information Control and Personal Identity The Discredited and the Discreditable Social Information Visibility Personal Identity Biography Biographical Others Passing Techniques of Information Control Covering 3. Group Alignment and Ego Identity Ambivalence Professional Presentations In-Group Alignments Out-Group Alignments The Politics of Identity 4. The Self and Its Other Deviations and Norms The Normal Deviant Stigma and Reality 5. Deviations and Deviance
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Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination

1999-01-01
Dorothy E. Smith , Avery F. Gordon

Exchange and Power in Social Life

2017-09-29
Peter M. Blau
In his landmark study of exchange and power in social life, Peter M. Blau contributes to an understanding of social structure by analyzing the social processes that govern the relations … In his landmark study of exchange and power in social life, Peter M. Blau contributes to an understanding of social structure by analyzing the social processes that govern the relations between individuals and groups. The basic question that Blau considers is: How does social life become organized into increasingly complex structures of associations among humans. This analysis, first published in 1964, represents a pioneering contribution to the sociological literature. Blau uses concepts of exchange, reciprocity, imbalance, and power to examine social life and to derive the more complex processes in social structure from the simpler ones. The principles of reciprocity and imbalance are used to derive such processes as power, changes in group structure; and the two major forces that govern the dynamics of complex social structures: the legitimization of organizing authority of increasing scope and the emergence of oppositions along different lines producing conflict and change.

Justice in Social Exchange

1964-04-01
Peter M. Blau

The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology.

1971-04-01
Steven Deutsch , Alvin W. Gouldner

For Public Sociology

2005-02-01
Michael Burawoy
Responding to the growing gap between the sociological ethos and the world we study, the challenge of public sociology is to engage multiple publics in multiple ways. These public sociologies … Responding to the growing gap between the sociological ethos and the world we study, the challenge of public sociology is to engage multiple publics in multiple ways. These public sociologies should not be left out in the cold, but brought into the framework of our discipline. In this way we make public sociology a visible and legitimate enterprise, and, thereby, invigorate the discipline as a whole. Accordingly, if we map out the division of sociological labor, we discover antagonistic interdependence among four types of knowledge: professional, critical, policy, and public. In the best of all worlds the flourishing of each type of sociology is a condition for the flourishing of all, but they can just as easily assume pathological forms or become victims of exclusion and subordination. This field of power beckons us to explore the relations among the four types of sociology as they vary historically and nationally, and as they provide the template for divergent individual careers. Finally, comparing disciplines points to the umbilical chord that connects sociology to the world of publics, underlining sociology's particular investment in the defense of civil society, itself beleaguered by the encroachment of markets and states.

Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age

2005-02-08
Tiziana Terranova
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Three Propositions On Informational Cultures 2. Open Networks 3. Free Labour 4. Soft Control 5. Communications' Biopower Bibliography Index Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Three Propositions On Informational Cultures 2. Open Networks 3. Free Labour 4. Soft Control 5. Communications' Biopower Bibliography Index

The Sociological Imagination

1959-09-01
Charles W. Mills
Journal Article The Sociological Imagination. By C. Wright Mills. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959. 234 pp. Index. $6.00.) Get access Journal of American History, Volume 46, Issue 2, September … Journal Article The Sociological Imagination. By C. Wright Mills. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959. 234 pp. Index. $6.00.) Get access Journal of American History, Volume 46, Issue 2, September 1959, Pages 355–356, https://doi.org/10.2307/1891592 Published: 01 September 1959

The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology.

1989-07-01
Joey Sprague , Dorothy E. Smith

That's Interesting!

1971-06-01
Murray S. Davis
Answer: Interesting theories deny certain assumptions of their audience, while noninteresting theories affirm certain assumptions of their audience. This answer was arrived at through the examination of a number of … Answer: Interesting theories deny certain assumptions of their audience, while noninteresting theories affirm certain assumptions of their audience. This answer was arrived at through the examination of a number of famous social, and especially sociological, theories. That examination also generated a systematic index of the variety of propositional forms that interesting and non-interesting theories may take. The fertility of this approach suggested a new field be established called the Sociology of the Interesting, which is intended to supplement the Sociology of Knowledge. This new field will be phenomenologically oriented in so far as it will focus on the movement of the audience's mind from one accepted theory to another. It will be sociologically oriented in so far as it will focus on the dissimilar base-line theories of the various sociological categories that compose the audience. In addition to its value in interpreting the social impact of theories, the Sociology of the Interesting can contribute to our understanding of both the common sense and scientific perspectives on reality.

Institutional ethnography: a sociology for people

2006-04-01

The Interaction Order: American Sociological Association, 1982 Presidential Address

1983-02-01
Erving Goffman
A presidential address faces one set of requirements, an article in a scholarly journal quite another. It turns out, then, that ASR's policy of publishing each year's ASA address provides … A presidential address faces one set of requirements, an article in a scholarly journal quite another. It turns out, then, that ASR's policy of publishing each year's ASA address provides the editor with an annual breather. Once a year the lead space can be allocated to a known name and the editor is quit of responsibility for standards that submissions rarely sustain: originality, logical development, readability, reasonable length. For in theory, a presidential address, whatever its character, must have some significance for the profession, even if only a sad one. More important, readers who were unable or unwilling to make the trip have an opportunity to participate vicariously in what can be read as the culmination of the meeting they missed. Not the best of warrants. My expectation, then, was not to publish this talk but to limit it to the precincts in which it was delivered. But in fact, I wasn't there either. What I offer the reader then is vicarious participation in something that did not itself take place. A podium performance, but only readers in the seats. A dubious offering. But something would have been dubious anyway. After all, like almost all other presidential addresses, this one was drafted and typed well before it was to be delivered (and before I knew it wasn't to be), and the delivery was to be made by reading from typescript not by extemporizing. So although the text was written as if in response to a particular social occasion, little of it could have been generated by what transpired there. And later, any publication that resulted would have employed a text modified in various ways after the actual delivery.
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The Sociological Imagination

1960-01-01
Joffre Dumazedier , Charles W. Mills

Field Theory in Social Science

1952-12-01
H.J. Eysenck , Kurt Lewin

Social Structure and Anomie

2017-11-30
Robert Κ. Merton
This chapter suggests that certain phases of social structure generate the circumstances in which infringement of social codes constitutes a "normal" response. Whatever the sentiments of the writer or reader … This chapter suggests that certain phases of social structure generate the circumstances in which infringement of social codes constitutes a "normal" response. Whatever the sentiments of the writer or reader concerning the ethical desirability of coordinating the means-and-goals phases of the social structure, one must agree that lack of such coordination leads to anomie. The American stress on pecuniary success and ambitiousness for all thus invites exaggerated anxieties, hostilities, neuroses and antisocial behavior. "The-end-justifies-the-means" doctrine becomes a guiding tenet for action when the cultural structure unduly exalts the end and the social organization unduly limits possible recourse to approved means. The lack of high integration between the means and-end elements of the cultural pattern and the particular class structure combine to favor a heightened frequency of antisocial conduct in such groups. A stable social structure demands a balanced distribution of affect among its various segments.

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

1989-01-01
Edgar H. Schein , Everett C. Hughes , Melville Dalton +1 more

The Sociological Imagination

1960-08-01
Joseph Greenblum

Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction.

1962-06-01
Milton Bloombaum , Erving Goffman

Social Theory and Social Structure

1950-01-01
N. S. Timasheff

The Structure of Social Action

1938-10-01
Earle L. Rauber , Talcott Parsons

Field Theory in Social Science

1951-06-01
Ruth Reed , Kurt Lewin

Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers.

1951-06-01
Daniel O. Price , Kurt Lewin , Dorwin Cartwright

Exchange and Power in Social Life.

1965-10-01
Robert Bierstedt , Peter M. Blau
In his landmark study of exchange and power in social life, Peter M. Blau contributes to an understanding of social structure by analyzing the social processes that govern the relations … In his landmark study of exchange and power in social life, Peter M. Blau contributes to an understanding of social structure by analyzing the social processes that govern the relations between individuals and groups. The basic question that Blau considers is: How does social life become organized into increasingly complex structures of associations among humans. This analysis, first published in 1964, represents a pioneering contribution to the sociological literature. Blau uses concepts of exchange, reciprocity, imbalance, and power to examine social life and to derive the more complex processes in social structure from the simpler ones. The principles of reciprocity and imbalance are used to derive such processes as power, changes in group structure; and the two major forces that govern the dynamics of complex social structures: the legitimization of organizing authority of increasing scope and the emergence of oppositions along different lines producing conflict and change.

The Rules of Sociological Method.

1938-08-01
Émile Benoît-Smullyan , Émile Durkheim , Sarah A. Solovay +2 more

What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next?

1996-12-31
Katherine Verdery
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After Method

2004-08-12
John Law
John Law argues that methods don't just describe social realities but are also involved in creating them. The implications of this argument are highly significant. If this is the case, … John Law argues that methods don't just describe social realities but are also involved in creating them. The implications of this argument are highly significant. If this is the case, methods are always political, and it raises the question of what kinds of social realities we want to create. Most current methods look for clarity and precision. It is usually said that only poor research produces messy findings, and the idea that things in the world might be fluid, elusive, or multiple is unthinkable. Law's startling argument is that this is wrong and it is time for a new approach. Many realities, he says, are vague and ephemeral. If methods want to know and help to shape the world, then they need to reinvent themselves and their politics to deal with mess. That is the challenge. Nothing less will do.

Ethnography In/Of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography

1995-01-01
G. E Marcus
This review surveys an emergent methodological trend in anthropological research that concerns the adaptation of long-standing modes of ethnographic practices to more complex objects of study. Ethnography moves from its … This review surveys an emergent methodological trend in anthropological research that concerns the adaptation of long-standing modes of ethnographic practices to more complex objects of study. Ethnography moves from its conventional single-site location, contextualized by macro-constructions of a larger social order, such as the capitalist world system, to multiple sites of observation and participation that cross-cut dichotomies such as the “local” and the “global,” the “lifeworld” and the “system.” Resulting ethnographies are therefore both in and out of the world system. The anxieties to which this methodological shift gives rise are considered in terms of testing the limits of ethnography, attenuating the power of fieldwork, and losing the perspective of the subaltern. The emergence of multi-sited ethnography is located within new spheres of interdisciplinary work, including media studies, science and technology studies, and cultural studies broadly. Several “tracking” strategies that shape multi-sited ethnographic research are considered. The review concludes with observations about the reflexive persona of the ethnographer as “circumstantial activist” in which methodological discussions about multi-sited research in anthropology are now being developed.

What is Wrong with Social Theory?

1954-02-01
Herbert Blumer

EMPIRICAL AND POSITIVISTIC SOCIOANALYSES AND THE AMAZON

2025-06-24
Cloves Barbosa , Armando Wilson Tafner | Journal of Interdisciplinary Debates
The behaviourist science began with Francis Bacon and It yours developments until to Comte’ positivism. It jointed most person of the modern science. This philosophy is influence over modern into … The behaviourist science began with Francis Bacon and It yours developments until to Comte’ positivism. It jointed most person of the modern science. This philosophy is influence over modern into the thought about science. it has the focus about actual social order’ conservation.

The Science of Housework by Ann Oakley

2025-06-24
Ipsita Pradhan | The Sociological Review Magazine

Beyond “platitudes of support or denouncement”: researching antiracism at a time of monsters

2025-06-20
Alana Lentin | Ethnic and Racial Studies

A sociology of dragons: danah boyd on AI, Trump, and critique

2025-06-20
danah boyd , Elif Buse Doyuran | Journal of Cultural Economy

Theorizing the Colorblind State: Race, Public Ignorance, and the Strategic Use of the First Chicago School in French Sociology

2025-06-19
Élodie Edwards-Grossi | The American Sociologist
Abstract Despite recent criticism of the Chicago School of Sociology on its mixed legacy in US-based sociological circles, an increasing number of French sociologists have turned to Louis Wirth, Ernest … Abstract Despite recent criticism of the Chicago School of Sociology on its mixed legacy in US-based sociological circles, an increasing number of French sociologists have turned to Louis Wirth, Ernest Burgess, and Robert Ezra Park to understand racism and migratory processes in contemporary France since the 1990s. They have actively engaged with the writings of the first Chicago School of Sociology to find empirical case studies that they can adapt to the French context. This article will show that the recourse to American sociological classics can be analyzed as a legitimizing strategy for French sociologists working on uncovering structural racial inequalities and racism in France. This renewal of interest was a direct response both to the increasing backlash faced by French sociologists studying race in the wake of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s pivotal election results in 2002 and the rise of an increasingly outspoken far right in France, and to a French model of integration that wholly overlooked race, then the doxa within the social sciences in France. Sociologists of race and ethnicity in France looked for new ways to tackle colorblindness and the structuring of public ignorance on race, considered both as an analytical tool and an identification category.

Identity theory and social identity theory

2025-06-19
Christine Cross , Malcolm Patterson , Pauline Dibben | Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks

The Fault Lines of Knowledge

2025-06-19
Brendan Luyt | Routledge eBooks

A brief reply to Bhambra and Holmwood

2025-06-19
Martyn Hammersley | Journal of Classical Sociology
This a reply to Gurminder K. Bhambra and John Holmwood’s response to my article discussing their book Colonialism and Modern Social Theory . This a reply to Gurminder K. Bhambra and John Holmwood’s response to my article discussing their book Colonialism and Modern Social Theory .

The strengths and weaknesses of different theories of symbolic interactionism

2025-06-17
Thomas Janoski | Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks

Where symbolic interactionists seldom tread: social mobility, organizations, charisma, and the unconscious

2025-06-17
Thomas Janoski | Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks

Editorial

2025-06-13
Gabrielle Durepos , Amon Barros | Management & Organizational History

Anthropology and Sociology

2025-06-13
Richard A. Bartle | CRC Press eBooks

Ray Pawson, How to think like a realist. A methodology for social science. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar 2024

2025-06-12
Jan Ch. Karlsson | Sociologisk Forskning

Exploring the Moral Underpinnings of Sociological Theory: A Collaborative Exercise for College-Level Courses

2025-06-12
Shai M. Dromi , Samuel D. Stabler | Teaching Sociology
This article introduces a pedagogical exercise aimed at enhancing students’ engagement with sociological theory courses. Despite their importance, students often feel disconnected from these courses in their daily lives. This … This article introduces a pedagogical exercise aimed at enhancing students’ engagement with sociological theory courses. Despite their importance, students often feel disconnected from these courses in their daily lives. This exercise, adaptable for various class sizes and formats, encourages students to explore the moral and ethical dimensions of sociological theory. It involves group work where students analyze statements reflecting diverse moral orientations toward sociology and identify and discuss theorists’ moral underpinnings in their writing about what sociology is and how it should be conducted. Groups then present their findings in class and engage in a class-wide discussion about the necessity of these normative preconceptions in ongoing research and debate. The exercise aims to shift students’ attention from detached theories to passionate statements about the social good and to foster engagement and critical thinking while acknowledging the moral foundations of sociological thought.

Sociological Knowledge in Latin America

2025-06-12
Diego Ezequiel Pereyra | Routledge eBooks

A Destruição dos clássicos da sociologia

2025-06-09
Carlos Eduardo Sell | Revista Brasileira de Sociologia - RBS
A denúncia da seletividade político-epistêmica representada pelos clássicos da sociologia (Marx/Durkheim/Weber) tornou-se hoje um tópico recorrente da teoria sociológica contemporânea. Reagindo a esse novo consenso ortodoxo, o objetivo deste texto … A denúncia da seletividade político-epistêmica representada pelos clássicos da sociologia (Marx/Durkheim/Weber) tornou-se hoje um tópico recorrente da teoria sociológica contemporânea. Reagindo a esse novo consenso ortodoxo, o objetivo deste texto é interpelar, de forma crítica, aspectos da discussão internacional e brasileira que questionam um suposto cânon da sociologia. Após caracterizar, a partir da distinção entre história e sistemática, os principais modelos de crítica dos clássicos na pesquisa brasileira, identificam-se determinados problemas teóricos presentes na discussão. Em primeiro lugar, aponta-se que os parâmetros históricos utilizados são unidimensionais, e em segundo lugar, que os pressupostos epistemológicos da crítica aos clássicos tendem a conduzir a sociologia a uma inadvertida homogeneização paradigmática. Frente ao colapso da dimensão histórica da sociologia como zona de negociação teórica, a terceira parte delineia breves pistas para repensar o caráter sistemático da teoria sociológica, seja por via de uma pesquisa histórica instruída pela sistemática, seja pelo retorno a uma sociologia geral.

The Destruction of the classics of sociology

2025-06-09
Carlos Eduardo Sell | Revista Brasileira de Sociologia - RBS
The critique of the political-epistemic selectivity represented by the classics of sociology (Marx/Durkheim/Weber) has become a recurring theme in contemporary sociological theory. In response to this new orthodox consensus, the … The critique of the political-epistemic selectivity represented by the classics of sociology (Marx/Durkheim/Weber) has become a recurring theme in contemporary sociological theory. In response to this new orthodox consensus, the aim of this study is to critically examine aspects of both international and Brazilian discussions that challenge a presumed canon of sociology. After characterizing the main approaches of criticism directed at the classics within Brazilian research, based on the distinction between history and systematics, certain theoretical problems present in the discussion were identified. First, it is noted that the historical parameters employed are unidimensional; second, the epistemological assumptions underlying the critique of the classics tend to lead sociology towards an inadvertent paradigmatic homogenization. Given the collapse of the historical dimension of sociology as a zone for theoretical negotiation, the third part of the study outlines brief suggestions for rethinking the systematic character of sociological theory, either through historically informed research guided by systematics or by returning to general sociology.

Where Memoir and Method Collide: Reconstructing Rules of Sociological Inquiry

2025-06-09
Jacob Avery | Symbolic Interaction

Sociology in crisis

2025-05-31
Lawrence Eppard , Jukka Savolainen , Bradley Campbell +1 more | Theory and Society

Walking Toward Relationality

2025-05-31
Brian Grant | Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change
In this essay, I share an autoethnographic walking experience that is part of my inner work as an early-career sustainability scholar seeking to relate differently with land, people, and knowledge. … In this essay, I share an autoethnographic walking experience that is part of my inner work as an early-career sustainability scholar seeking to relate differently with land, people, and knowledge. This research began after I learned about the Exodus: the 1875 forced removal of Yavapai (Yavapé) and Apache (Dilzhę́’é) peoples from their ancestral lands in today’s Arizona, USA—the region where I, a white settler, was born and raised—which provoked in me intense shame. To unpack my relationships with settler colonialism and begin a process of becoming naturalized to place, I walked a section of the Arizona Trail that is part of the Exodus route. Employing a critical, relational walking methodology, as well as arts-based methods, I propose an autoethnography to illustrate six personal (un)learnings that aim to be insightful for the emerging relational paradigm in sustainability science. This includes drawing attention to the ways in which settler colonialism, intertwined with religions and science, may unconsciously orient relationships to land (ontology), people (axiology), and knowledge (epistemology) that are anti-relational. My walking experience underscores the importance of relational ethics as embedded in Indigenous relationality, which taught me that learning to relate differently with land in a more-than-human sense necessitates healing relationships with the First Peoples. This situates the turn toward relationality as far more than an intellectual endeavor that includes embodied experience, embracing difficult emotions, and acknowledging inner work as important for systems change.

W.E.B. Du Bois on colonialism and empire, 1896–1963

2025-05-29
George Steinmetz | Journal of Classical Sociology
This article explores the scholarly and journalistic contributions by W.E.B. Du Bois to the history and theory of modern colonialism. Because Du Bois’s understanding of colonialism evolved radically over his … This article explores the scholarly and journalistic contributions by W.E.B. Du Bois to the history and theory of modern colonialism. Because Du Bois’s understanding of colonialism evolved radically over his lifetime, this article examines all his relevant writing on the topic—nearly 300 separate texts, written between the 1880s and the twilight of his life. The article also traces the connections between Du Bois’s ideas about colonialism to changing intellectual, political, and personal contexts. While showing that there is no singular “Du Boisian” theory of colonialism, the article concludes that Du Bois made several important suggestions that can contribute to further colonial studies. Du Bois urged researchers us to track historical transformations in the forms of colonial rule, to compare national styles of colonialism, to trace the connections between colonialism and class formation and racial oppression in the metropoles, and to focus on the ways colonialism stems not only from economic and political power motives but also from ideological discourses and practices, including racism. He argued that the slavery ended in the New World when it became more profitable for European capital to exploit African labor in Africa. He supported the political program of amalgamating the political units inherited from the colonial era into larger African states. He pointed to the relations between science and colonialism. While some of Du Bois’s statements could be read as violating sociology’s present-day norms, such as his support for certain forms of colonialism and his description of certain colonized populations as “semicivilized,” the article argues for a tolerant, multiplex approach to historic thinkers that pays attention to the ways in which they both conform to and move beyond the intellectual constraints of their time and place. The conclusion argues that sociology should accept the fact that social research is never complete, and that the history of sociology needs more research rather than a “canon” or an “index” of forbidden works.

Once again on modernity: reflections on ideology and politics

2025-05-28
Elena Chebankova | Полис Политические исследования
The purpose of this paper is to conduct a historical and exegetical analysis of two sets of ideologies that influence the current political climate of the world: modern and postmodern. … The purpose of this paper is to conduct a historical and exegetical analysis of two sets of ideologies that influence the current political climate of the world: modern and postmodern. The paper argues that the ideational substance of both groups of ideologies is frequently conflated in the political discourse of not only Russia, but also numerous other nations. The discussion argues that liberalism as the predominant and fundamental ideology of modernity can be divided into two distinct categories – modern and postmodern – both of which exhibit significant differences and, in many ways, oppose each other. In addition, the paper reinforces the point that classical liberalism of modernity serves as the ideological basis of the entire modern era. Fascism, on the other hand, is often considered an ideology of modernity, while this article argues that it serves as the fundamental basis of postmodernity and the watershed ideology between the two eras. Finally, the paper observes that Russia, as well as many countries of the global South, are gravitating towards modern ideological constructions, and that an important way forward would be to reinvent and reintroduce the paradigm of modernity in the contemporary postmodern world. In Russia, some academic debates on this issue are underway

The Polarization of Inequality Perceptions in the New Gilded Age

2025-05-27
Hannah Waight , A. Goldstein

Social Research and Sociology: Problems in the Funding of Knowledge

2025-05-27
Robin Williams

Rethinking conceptual frameworks: A response to Martyn Hammersley

2025-05-26
Gurminder K. Bhambra , John Holmwood
We are grateful for the detailed attention Martyn Hammersley pays to our book, Colonialism and Modern Social Theory. It may seem a little odd to say that we also appreciate … We are grateful for the detailed attention Martyn Hammersley pays to our book, Colonialism and Modern Social Theory. It may seem a little odd to say that we also appreciate its critical character. Of course, authors will always value praise, but arguments are advanced and different understandings reached through disagreements. This was the spirit in which we wrote our book, and it is the spirit in which we would want it to be read. Here, we respond to his review of our book.

Publishing in General Sociology Journals

2025-05-24
Andrew S. Fullerton , Amin Ghaziani , Laurel Smith‐Doerr

Live Methods as creative resistance: Crafting a PhD and solidarity in the neoliberal university

2025-05-24
Tim Wadsworth , Zoe Walshe , Beth Bramich
The call to revisit Live Methods prompted us to consider the legacy of this text at Goldsmiths college, where the editors and many of the contributors were writing from in … The call to revisit Live Methods prompted us to consider the legacy of this text at Goldsmiths college, where the editors and many of the contributors were writing from in 2012. We are PhD students in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, a space where Live Methods has left a marked influence through practices of teaching, learning and research. At Goldsmiths, the 2021–2023 academic years saw an extensive and deeply unpopular ‘restructuring’ process imposed on the college community by senior management, with staff unions responding through extended industrial action. This article reports on PhD student solidarity and creative resistance during that time. We discuss how the ‘Live Methods manifesto’ was used as an intervention on the picket line and as a critical resource for fostering resistance against the neoliberal restructuring of our university. This creative resistance was deeply rooted in the solidarities and affective infrastructures of support that grew out of our weekly Sociology graduate student seminar, ‘Crafting a PhD’. In this article, we present a multimodal account of these events, including narrative and audiovisual material. A decade on from the publication of Live Methods , with the neoliberalisation of UK universities intensifying, we argue that the manifesto’s call for sociologists to embrace a creative and critical orientation towards research is more vital than ever. Live Methods is a resource not only for research, but for inspiring creative resistance and sustaining our collective projects of learning and life within the university.

<i>Live methods</i> and live things: Cultivating attentiveness to dormant things to develop a vital sociology of the everyday

2025-05-23
Sophie Woodward
This article focuses upon unnoticed objects in the home, such as those stuffed in a junk drawer, to explore how we can be attentive to the everyday in cultivating a … This article focuses upon unnoticed objects in the home, such as those stuffed in a junk drawer, to explore how we can be attentive to the everyday in cultivating a ‘live sociology’ which illuminates the close at hand, locating the shared, public and moral in the everyday. I argue that attentiveness to the vibrancy of everyday things can expand the possibilities of a vital sociology. Attentiveness is a way to retrain the ‘sociological gaze’ away from the unusual to the unnoticed elements of everyday lives and objects. I consider here both what we are attentive to – affects, connections, potentials, materiality – as well as how we can cultivate attentiveness – through ‘being-with’ data and forms of slow scholarship. I do this by drawing on fieldwork in the UK on objects that are kept but not currently being used. Forgotten things covered with dust on a shelf may seem ‘dead’ or inert, yet framing these as ‘dormant’ exposes their histories, hauntings as well as imagined futures. The article takes case studies of junk drawers, bags of old cables, and other unnoticed objects to explore what happens when we are attentive to dormant things and how a seemingly personal and private collection allows the possibilities for connection and can materialise people’s hopes, and expose social inequities. Finally, I develop the ethics of attentiveness as both a practical engagement in research as well as a core value of a vital sociology in how we tell people’s stories.

‘Methods was always a place where sociology happens’: Revisiting <i>Live Methods</i> with Les Back and Nirmal Puwar

2025-05-23
Emma Jackson , Kirsteen Paton

Sociologically unspeakable? The ethics of ethnography and live methods

2025-05-23
Shamser Sinha
Live Methods argued that there is an ethical imperative for sociologists to really listen to what precariously positioned people say. Research methods can be exploitative in how they render people’s … Live Methods argued that there is an ethical imperative for sociologists to really listen to what precariously positioned people say. Research methods can be exploitative in how they render people’s presence. This paper discusses how I practised Live Methods in one ethnography conducted with young migrants in London over 15 years. This research was meant to last two years, but continued on the basis of an emerging ethical covenant with participants – that both researchers and people taking part believed that these individual stories said something about individual lives, but also about others’ experiences of precarity. A tension emerged between keeping this covenant and sociological strictures that forbade making general claims from qualitative ‘samples’. In this article, I work productively through this tension in close engagement with ethnographic encounters with one participant, Mardoche. I argue that conducting research across time and the in-depth quality of the interviews opened up the possibility of making more general claims from individuals’ stories. I conclude that while my ethnographic iteration is in keeping with Live Methods ’ ethical imperative, whether it is ‘speakable’ within the discipline of sociology is questionable.

Introduction to Live Methods Revisited: The roots and conjuncture of <i>Live Methods</i>

2025-05-23
Kirsteen Paton , Emma Jackson
In this introduction to Live Methods Revisited, we reflect upon the conjuncture in which Live Methods was originally published as a way of contextualising and appraising its legacy. In doing … In this introduction to Live Methods Revisited, we reflect upon the conjuncture in which Live Methods was originally published as a way of contextualising and appraising its legacy. In doing so we focus on an aspect of Live Methods which has had less attention – the politics of methods. Live Methods offered a reassertion of the promise and potential for sociological practice through reimagining methods, in the face of a proclaimed crisis of empirical sociology. Resultantly, it made an important intervention into how sociological research methods are practised, understood and written about. Following the 10-year anniversary of its publication, the reflections on the legacy of Live Methods have taken on greater meaning, in a different kind of crisis, that of Higher Education. The dire impacts of marketisation have borne directly upon the institution in which Live Methods was created, marking this special section in The Sociological Review as offering a critical reflection and an act of preservation of the distinct contribution of Goldsmiths Sociology. We reflect upon the role of Live Methods in the current political conjuncture and how it may, in renewed ways, offer different kinds of interventions to help navigate and creatively resist this contemporary crisis.

Nancy Fraser’s 21st-Century Socialism: Conceptual Expansion, Theoretical Contributions, and the Absence of Humanistic Dimension

2025-05-21
Shuiqing Li
在美国新一轮社会主义思潮中，南希•弗雷泽所提出的21 世纪社会主义理论具有一定的代表性。弗雷泽强调构建21 世纪社会主义的理论框架需以资本主义概念的深度拓展为逻辑起点。弗雷泽扩展资本主义概念主张资本主义应被全面理解为涵盖非经济体系与经济体系在内的总体性社会结构，其中非经济体系作为经济体系的基础，遭受着来自经济体系的侵蚀。在此基础上，21 世纪社会主义被构想为资本主义的替代方案，亦被重新诠释为一种涉及两大领域及其关系的制度化社会秩序。该替代方案以社会正义与社会再生产为核心线索，“制度划分、社会剩余价值、市场”经典主题的新阐释构成了其理论架构的核心内容。弗雷泽深刻探讨了21 世纪社会主义概念的界定展现出三大理论优势：在概念上超越了经济主义的狭隘视角、展现出社会主义与现实问题的关联性以及对社会主义经典主题的创新性阐释。尽管弗雷泽的21 世纪社会主义理论缺少有关人的本质与人的解放问题思考，并表现出有别于科学社会主义的倾向，但21 世纪社会主义理论无疑是对美国资本主义危机综合爆发的一种理论回应。 在美国新一轮社会主义思潮中，南希•弗雷泽所提出的21 世纪社会主义理论具有一定的代表性。弗雷泽强调构建21 世纪社会主义的理论框架需以资本主义概念的深度拓展为逻辑起点。弗雷泽扩展资本主义概念主张资本主义应被全面理解为涵盖非经济体系与经济体系在内的总体性社会结构，其中非经济体系作为经济体系的基础，遭受着来自经济体系的侵蚀。在此基础上，21 世纪社会主义被构想为资本主义的替代方案，亦被重新诠释为一种涉及两大领域及其关系的制度化社会秩序。该替代方案以社会正义与社会再生产为核心线索，“制度划分、社会剩余价值、市场”经典主题的新阐释构成了其理论架构的核心内容。弗雷泽深刻探讨了21 世纪社会主义概念的界定展现出三大理论优势：在概念上超越了经济主义的狭隘视角、展现出社会主义与现实问题的关联性以及对社会主义经典主题的创新性阐释。尽管弗雷泽的21 世纪社会主义理论缺少有关人的本质与人的解放问题思考，并表现出有别于科学社会主义的倾向，但21 世纪社会主义理论无疑是对美国资本主义危机综合爆发的一种理论回应。

Reseña de Juárez, Flores y Gutiérrez (2025). Pensamiento y representaciones sociales en Latinoamérica frente a la COVID-19

2025-05-21
Salvador Iván Rodríguez Preciado | Athenea Digital Revista de pensamiento e investigación social
El texto describe, discute y pormenoriza el libro reseñado, exponiendo sus riquezas, sus potencialidades y sus áreas de mejora. Pese a tratarse de un trabajo colectivo, identifica también las líneas … El texto describe, discute y pormenoriza el libro reseñado, exponiendo sus riquezas, sus potencialidades y sus áreas de mejora. Pese a tratarse de un trabajo colectivo, identifica también las líneas transversales comunes en todos los trabajos.

Public Sociological Film: Modes of Engagement with Publics

2025-05-19
Habib A. Moghimi , B Sadighi

Voices at the margins

2025-05-17
Nitya Nanda Timsina
This study examines the experiences of Nepalese students pursuing higher education in Denmark, illuminating the distinct challenges they encounter as international students. Framed within the context of globalization, the research … This study examines the experiences of Nepalese students pursuing higher education in Denmark, illuminating the distinct challenges they encounter as international students. Framed within the context of globalization, the research critiques the dominant, often homogenizing narrative of international student mobility, which centers on English-speaking nations and overlooks diverse cultural identities. These students encounter significant economic pressures, cultural isolation, and instances of societal prejudice, intensified by growing anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe. Drawing on Doreen Massey’s concept of space alongside the philosophies of Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and others, the study challenges the notion of a singular international education experience and emphasizes the resilience of Nepalese women as they balance cultural values with academic pursuits in a foreign setting.