The Grand Theory Is Alive: An Interview with Jonathan H. Turner

Jonathan H. Turner is the Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Riverside and, for many decades, the world’s leading authority on sociological theory, with research interests in many other areas such as human and societal evolution, social stratification and inequality, philosophy of science, and historical sociology. Professor Turner has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited a number of works, including more than 43 influential books, which have been published in twelve different languages, including The Structure of Sociological Theory, The Emergence of Sociological Theory, and many others. He is a member of the American Sociological Association and a former president of the Pacific Sociological Society and the journal editor for Sociological Theory. Professor Turner received a B.A. with honors from University of California at Santa Barbara, a M.A. and a doctorate in sociology from Cornell University. The interview is Professor Turner’s critical reply to the arguments raised in the article “Against Grand Theories: A (Cautionary) Tale of Two Disciplines,” which presents the view that universally accepted grand theories in social sciences are not achievable because of the lack of a common methodology or a theoretical core which results in their multiparadigmatic nature, value-leadenness and insufficient objectivity. The interview took place on March 23, 2021 online.

To Accompany and to Observe: Engaged Scholarship and Social Change Vis-à-Vis Sub-Saharan Transmigration in Morocco

In this interview with Sabina Barone, Mehdi Alioua—Sociology Professor at the Université Internationale de Rabat (International University of Rabat), Morocco—reflects on the transformations that Sub-Saharan African migration has brought to Moroccan society over the last two decades, in particular with reference to identity and the denominations of the foreign others, the internal and regional dynamics of (im)mobility, and the challenges to social coexistence and national migration policies. He proposes conceptual categories such as "transmigrant,” “migration by stages,” and “migratory crossroads” to capture the complexity of the mobile experiences unfolding in Morocco. Based on his trajectory of engaged scholarship in favor of migrants and refugees, he calls for a renewed South-South and North-South academic collaboration and cross-fertilization through small scale, bottom-up research made possible by friendship among scholars.

The Profile of the Sociology professor at the Canoinhas / SC Regional Education Coordination

Sociology as a school component has fundamental attributes for the construction of a better society, through the training of its students. His contribution to society is the subject of debates and discussions in various social contexts. Based on this assumption, so that the sociological contribution happens fully in the formation of students, the figure of the sociology teacher comes into the spotlight. Being protagonist in the formation of its students. Therefore, this study has as object of research to analyze the profile of sociology teachers of the Regional Coordination of Education of Canoinhas / SC. In this direction, research of quantitative nature, with closed questionnaires were used for the application of interviews to the 16 sociology teachers. In order to understand the profile of this teacher who is teaching the discipline of Sociology in the Coordination. It was concluded with this research, that the professor of sociology, teaches in addition to sociology, other disciplines to complement his workload, not exclusively dedicating himself to preparing and teaching sociology classes, moves to the other municipalities of the Coordination and has not been working in the classroom for a long time. From this analysis, it is possible to understand who this teacher is and whether he faces difficulties in the process of teaching Sociology in high school.

Consent and ethics within sex work and research: An academic and practitioner perspective

In this short piece, we explore some areas of consent within BDSM in relation to our roles as a practitioner and as an academic researcher. Beverly Yuen Thompson is a sociology professor who specializes in ethnographies of deviant subcultures with an emphasis on an intersectional approach. In this short piece, she uses her experience of conducting a long-term ethnography in a BDSM community. Miss Couple (2018) is the author of The Ultimate Guide to Bondage: Creating Intimacy through the Art of Restraint and a relationship and intimacy coach. Miss Couple was previously a manager of a BDSM establishment, from which she draws on her experience for this piece.

Student ratings to evaluate the teaching effectiveness: Factors should be considered

The study discusses the student ratings of a professor teaching sociology disciplines in different undergraduate courses. The data were obtained from questionnaires consisting of a series of inquiries about the discipline, focusing on how it fits in the curricular structure (discipline evaluation) and, also, on teacher’s performance (professor evaluation). A total of 480 students answered the questionnaire and, for each question they had a total of five possible answers: very poor (1 point), poor (2 points), fair (3 points), good (4 points) and excellent (5 points). Considering discipline and professor evaluations, students from Animal Science, Food Engineering and Veterinary Medicine courses consider "fair" the performance of the sociology professor. Regarding to the professor evaluation, the students of the three undergraduate courses considered the performance of the teacher "good". For discipline evaluation, the Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine students considered the discipline "fair" and the Food Engineering students considered the discipline "poor". The results obtained can serve as a basis for the design of a institutional evaluation system of teaching based on student ratings, however the evaluation of the discipline and the performance of the teacher must be considered separately.

Bringing method to the madness: An example of integrating social science qualitative research methods into NVivo data analysis software training

It is not uncommon for researchers who wish to delve into qualitative data analysis to be lacking in qualitative methods training. Data professionals who support these aspiring qualitative researchers are well positioned to recognize and develop resources, training, and services to address this methods gap. This article describes a specific training session aimed at bridging this gap: a collaboration between a sociology professor and the author that integrates a qualitative methodological framework with specific features of NVivo qualitative data analysis software that complement and facilitate research guided by that framework. This article (1) outlines how this collaboration came to be; (2) describes the roles that the sociology professor and the author play in the collaboration, including specific examples from the training session; and (3) offers a reflection on the experience, including successes and growth possibilities going forward.

Spark: A Book Review

Spark, a social research novel by Patricia Leavy, innovatively explores the complexities of doing collaborative, complex research. The story follows Sociology Professor Peyton Wilde during a week-long research seminar in Iceland with, as her invitation reads, "some of the greatest thinkers of our time." With an intriguing setup, swift plotline and lively characters, Leavy reaches to the heart of key concerns in interdisciplinary and mixed-methods research. Such concerns are well-discussed in the wider scholarly literature; Leavy uniquely handles and examines these concerns in fiction in a way that will be valuable to teachers and students alike. Spark makes an impressive contribution to fiction-based inquiry.

School of self-education reading as a mean of training teacher for professional activities

At the Derzhavin Tambov State University, on the basis of which the regional branch of the Russian Reading Association was opened (the head of the local branch is Doctor of Sociology, professor of Derzhavin Tambov State University N.A. Stefanovskaya), relevant project “School of self-education reading” has been implemented for several years. Classes at this school are a necessity for all university employees: the project meets the needs of students’ academic work, research and pedagogical practice of graduate students and teachers, as well as intellectual amateur inquiries in the acquisition of cognitive and fiction literature for everyone who wants to improve reading skills. We disclose the experience of organizing work with student readers at the Theory and Methods of Pre-School and Elementary Education Department of Derzhavin Tambov State University. We reveal means and methods of reading activity of future teachers, the issues of reading circle formation and reader’s interests. We pay particular attention to the study of the motivation development of children and teenagers to read, which is one of the main skills of the future teacher. We name the sources of modern literary education of students and their teachers. The conclusions of the article are related to the transformation of educational reading into the process of improving the reading culture at all levels of reading.

Comparing Finnish and Russian Work Life

Tiina Saari – Post Doctoral Researcher, University of Tampere, Finland. Address: 4 Kalevantie, 33100, Tampere, Finland.E-mail: [email protected] Markku Sippola – University Lecturer, University of Tampere, Finland. Address: 4 Kalevantie,33100, Tampere, Finland.E-mail: [email protected] Harry Melin – Professor, Vice Rector, University of Tampere, Finland. Address: 4 Kalevantie, 33100, Tampere, Finland. E-mail: [email protected] Azer Efendiev – DSc in Philosophy, Professor, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: [email protected] Evgeniya Balabanova – DSc in Sociology, Professor, National Research UniversityHigher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow, 101000, RussianFederation. E-mail: [email protected] Citation: Saari T., Sippola M., Melin H., Efendiev A., Balabanova E. (2018) Comparing Finnish and Russian Work Life. Mir Rossii, vol. 27, no 2, pp. 90–108. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2018-27-2-90-108 This article compares the differences and similarities between Finnish and Russian work life, with special focus on how employees perceive the importance of employment and pay, favouritism in the workplace, and satisfaction with leadership. The contrasts between the two countries make for an interesting comparison: Finland is one of the world leaders in quality of work life, while many workplace practices in Russia date from the Soviet era. Our analysis shows that, as expected, pay is much more important than job content to Russian employees, while job content is more important than pay to Finnish employees. Work and employment is highly valued in both countries, but more so in Russia. Russia is often described as backward in its management and leadership styles, yet we found that Russian employees are more satisfied with some aspects of leadership in the workplace than Finnish employees.