On Hybrids and Histories of SociologyA History of Sociological Analysis. Tom Bottomore , Robert NisbetHistory of Sociological Thought. Jerzy Szacki

Isis ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-473
Author(s):  
Robert Alun Jones
2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092110053
Author(s):  
Naoto Higuchi

Between the decline of mass protests in the 1970s and the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima nuclear meltdown in the 2010s, which resulted in the resurgence of mass demonstrations, social movements were widely regarded as uncommon in Japan. In this essay, the author reviews Japan’s social movement studies in the last decade, focusing on the influence of the lack of mass protest since the 1970s on scholarly interests. The essay examines the following four topics: (1) slow responses to the resurgence of mass demonstrations in post-3.11 Japan, (2) quick responses to the rise of the radical right movement, (3) the emergence of cynical approaches to studying social movements, and (4) the redemption of the history of Japan’s postwar social movements. Despite some twists and turns, we can see how social protests are a perpetual element of Japanese society that sociologists study as a common phenomenon.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franck Cochoy

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the sociological process behind the development of the American Marketing Association (AMA). It shows how the shift from isolated endeavors to an organized movement happened in marketing, how and why marketing pioneers merged to build a professional body and what this body provided to its community and to society at large. Design/methodology/approach – This paper studies the history of the AMA from the perspective of the sociology of science and relies on the marketing literature and other written sources. Findings – The paper shows that the AMA is both the result and the center of a coupling procedure. Isolated pioneers in the marketing field found it useful to communicate with those who were engaged in endeavors similar to their own. The meeting resulted in a dialog, and the dialog had necessitated the establishment of the AMA as a common reference point. The AMA provided the marketing community with a language and an institution that could help them to exist and move forward together. Originality/value – This paper provides an up to date account of the history of the AMA as well as a sociological analysis of its development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Charles Turner

Social types, or types of persons, occupy a curious place in the history of sociology. There has never been any agreement on how they should be used, or what their import is. Yet the problems surrounding their use are instructive, symptomatic of key ambivalences at the heart of the sociological enterprise. These include a tension between theories of social order that privilege the division of labour and those that focus on large-scale cultural complexes; a tension between the analysis of society in terms of social groups and an acknowledgement of modern individualism; sociology’s location somewhere between literature and science; and sociology’s awkward response to the claim – made by both Catholic conservatives and Marxists – that modern industrial and post-industrial society cannot be a society of estates. These ambivalences may help to explain why the attempts to use social types for the purpose of cultural diagnosis – from the interesting portrait of arbitrarily selected positions in the division of labour to more ambitious guesswork about modern culture’s dominant ‘characters’ – have been unconvincing.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 510-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fouad Jabir Kadhem al-Zurfi

The Arab world today is encountering a destructive resurgence of sectarianism, which, up to a few years ago, had been confined to books and rhetorical debates. In the first half of the 20th century, Iraqi sociologist Ali Al-Wardi pioneered the critique of sectarianism in the Arab world. Unlike others, he approached the issue from a specific and unique perspective. His observations of Iraqi history were made from a sociological standpoint that aimed at revealing the impact of sectarianism on Iraqi politics. Al-Wardi's writings were carried out to two phases: the first extends from the early 1950s to the early 1960s; and the second covers the period between the publication of his two books, Study on the Nature of Iraqi Society (the year of publication is unknown) and Social Briefs from the Modern History of Iraq (1971). The first phase focused on Islam's heritage and a number of social phenomena; the second focused exclusively on the study of Iraqi society. A number of factors influenced Al-Wardi's personality and thinking, a fact especially evident in the kind of methodology he used, which was new when addressing the sectarian issue. Based on Al-Wardi's research, this paper traces the historical factors and process that affected the historical development of the divisions separating two main sects of Islam – Shi'a and Sunni – resulting in a duel between them, which led to the configuration of Iraqi society along sectarian lines. It elaborates on the methodology used by Al-Wardi in his studies of Iraqi society, as well as his attitude with regard to sectarianism in modern Iraq. It also explores the intellectual and political influences that helped shape his thinking in this domain and its legacy on sociological thought in the Arab world.


Man ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 383
Author(s):  
Christopher Pierson ◽  
Alan Swingewood

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 137-146
Author(s):  
Constance A. Nathanson

This paper proposes a theory-based approach to the understanding of social change and illustrates that theory with examples from the history and politics of public health. Based in large part on the work of anthropologist Marshall Sahlins (see in particular his Islands of History published in (1985) William Sewell Jr. has proposed an ‘eventful sociology.’ In this work ‘event’ is a term of art meaning occurrences in human affairs that result in social change. Sewell's approach and that of Charles Tilly are in many respects complementary, a major difference being Sewell's far greater emphasis on meaning and interpretation by engaged actors as essential to understanding of how historical processes unfold. In this paper I further elaborate Sahlins’ and Sewell's ideas, first by showing their connection with concepts that may be more familiar to sociologists and, second, by examining the contingent character of social change. Drawing on my own research on the history of public health, I argue that the transformation of ‘happenings’ into events and of events into meaningful social change are highly contingent on the social and political context within which these events occur. More generally, I hope to show that ‘eventful’ sociology is an exciting and productive approach to sociological analysis.


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