{"title":"Rediscovering Fei Xiaotong: Blending Indigenous Chinese Thought and Western Social Science","authors":"A. Sinha, Pooja Lakhanpal","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09526-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09526-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47585646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Value of Strident Agnosticism: Dorothy Pawluch and the Endurance of Ontological Gerrymandering","authors":"S. Woolgar","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09524-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09524-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46966968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Self at Stake. Sociologists and Dirty Work in Argentina","authors":"J. Blois","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09525-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09525-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48670063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AMERICAN SOCIOLOGISTPub Date : 2022-01-01Epub Date: 2021-04-30DOI: 10.1007/s12108-021-09483-3
Thomas Kurtz
{"title":"The End of the Profession as a Sociological Category? Systems-theoretical Remarks on the Relationship between Profession and Society.","authors":"Thomas Kurtz","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09483-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09483-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Following reflections by Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann, this paper is concerned with the changing meaning of the profession as a sociological category for analyzing modern society. Professions are practical academic occupational groups oriented to certain social values, to which a special significance for society was attributed in the social sciences for a long time, thus marking a connection between professions' research and theory of society. This paper now describes that the causal relationship between profession and society is limited to a historically relatively early period. In the transition to modern society, this close network of relationships begins to dissolve, and now professions operate in the context of some function systems of society whose task is the professional assistance of single clients, such as in the fields of health, law, and pastoral care. However, the professions' highlighted position in the knowledge and action structure of single function systems seems to dissolve more and more today so that one can ask whether we can speak here already of an end of the social form profession. This would correspond with the observation that actually the professions no longer appear at all in the newer theories of society and therefore their function as an important mechanism of social structure formation is no longer attributed to them.</p>","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s12108-021-09483-3","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38959105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AMERICAN SOCIOLOGISTPub Date : 2022-01-01Epub Date: 2021-08-06DOI: 10.1007/s12108-021-09504-1
Estrella Gualda
{"title":"Altruism, Solidarity and Responsibility from a Committed Sociology: Contributions to Society.","authors":"Estrella Gualda","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09504-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09504-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A careful look at the international development of Sociology highlights the centrality that the study of social problems and the approach to possible solutions to them have had in the history of this discipline, not infrequently for the sake of better social integration, stability, development, social change or even modernity. Recent approaches suggest shifting this focus of attention, arguing about the deficit in sociological research and practice concerning theor etical frameworks that pay attention to the positive aspects. This text reflects on the contributions that altruism, solidarity, and collective responsibility can have to improve the quality of life in contemporary societies and face humanitarian emergencies with a certain degree of success. For instance, the so-called refugee crisis or the current COVID-19 pandemic poses significant challenges for societies. This article also explores briefly new roles of data science in connection with responsibility and altruism. The text invites us to revisit sociology, thinking about the lights more than the shadows.</p>","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s12108-021-09504-1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39298569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Constructionist as Claims-Maker? A Pragmatist Intervention into Social Problems Theory.","authors":"Antony J Puddephatt","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09493-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09493-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In 1985, Steve Woolgar and Dorothy Pawluch wrote an influential essay about social constructionism, warning against the pitfalls of what they referred to as \"ontological gerrymandering,\" which is to treat certain actors' claims as socially constructed, while at the same time making realist claims about social conditions. Instead of this unbalanced and asymmetric approach, the best way forward for constructionists is to treat all claims made by any and all acting parties as putative, not necessarily true or false, and to avoid making any independent claims about the actual social conditions that actors are striving to define. Since this time, social problems research, science and technology studies, and environmental sociology have encountered both epistemic and political difficulties with this strict constructionist approach to being fully agnostic about social conditions and the reality of actors' claims. Drawing on the social pragmatism of George Herbert Mead, I consider some of the problems encountered in the strict constructionist approach, and argue that ultimately, the sociologist herself cannot escape the general problem of having to make objective claims about the empirical social world. Instead of being agnostic about all claims made, sociologists are best to fully accept the responsibility and advantages of being full blown claimsmakers themselves.</p>","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s12108-021-09493-1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9206385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AMERICAN SOCIOLOGISTPub Date : 2022-01-01Epub Date: 2021-11-09DOI: 10.1007/s12108-021-09523-y
Emiliana Mangone
{"title":"Altruistic Relationships, Responsibility, and Sociology: An Attempt at Theoretical Systematization.","authors":"Emiliana Mangone","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09523-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09523-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The book <i>Beyond the Dichotomy Between Altruism and Egoism</i> (Mangone in Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc., 2020a) raised compelling comments by distinguished scholars. Some of them were, in my opinion, particularly poignant, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses of the elements addressed in the book. I aim to answer the remarks by Roberto Cipriani, Estrella Gualda, Ratiba Hadj-Moussa, Adrian Scribano, and Nikolay Zyuzev. I will leave the strengths aside and focus instead on the aspects that most attracted the reflections of the commentators, which I can summarise in three macro areas: 1) the centrality of the relationship; 2) responsibility and choices; and, finally, 3) the role of sociology. I will attempt to get to the heart of these areas with a theoretical systematization, providing a general answer to the remarks as well as addressing the specific points raised by each commentator.</p>","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8577636/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39622712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Responsibility in Medical Sociology: A Second, Reflexive Look.","authors":"David A Rier","doi":"10.1007/s12108-022-09549-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-022-09549-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Personal responsibility has emerged as an important element in many countries' public health planning, and has attracted substantial debate in public health discourse. Contemporary medical sociology typically resists such \"responsibilization\" as victim-blaming, by privileged elites, that obscures important structural factors and inequities. This paper, based primarily on a broad review of how contemporary Anglophone medical sociology literatures treat responsibility and blame, points out advantages of taking responsibility seriously, particularly from the <i>individual's</i> perspective. These advantages include: empowerment; responsibility-as-coping-mechanism; moral dignity; and the pragmatic logic of doing for oneself, rather than passively awaiting societal reforms. We also offer possible reasons why sociologists and their subjects view these issues so differently, and suggest some areas for future research.</p>","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9540162/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10469142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pragmatism and/or/vs Hermeneutics?","authors":"J. Côté, Daniel R. Huebner","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09522-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09522-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43248005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Genealogy of Unmasking: Antiquity to Modernity","authors":"Paul J. Jackanich","doi":"10.1007/s12108-021-09519-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09519-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46678,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42638635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}