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Perspectives
A NEWSLETTER OF THE ASA THEORY SECTION


Letter from the Chair: Theory in the Trenches

12/18/2019

2 Comments

 
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Greta Krippner - University of Michigan
As I suspect is the case for many members of the Section, my identity as a social theorist is inseparably tied to my identity as a teacher of undergraduate and especially graduate courses on sociological theory. ​​Certainly, my engagement with and commitment to especially classical sociological theory has been deepened by my experience teaching the first-semester theory course to incoming graduate students at the University of Michigan almost continuously now for well over a decade. The task of brushing the dust off of canonical texts and making them sparkle anew for fresh recruits to Sociology – whether or not they see themselves as inclined toward theory – is an exhilarating challenge that defines the fall for me as much as shortened days and turning leaves.​
Lately, this challenge has become a more daunting one. The canon is now under assault in a way that requires those of us who have oriented our teaching careers to transmitting these works to new generations of students to pause and take a step back. Graduate students have become increasingly skeptical – and in some cases, totally dismissive – that works written by “dead white men” (namely, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim) could have produced insights that are in any way relevant to the contemporary practice of sociology. My own syllabus is particularly vulnerable to these critiques since it begins not with classical sociological theory per se, but with the utilitarian/liberal tradition in political thought against which Marx and Durkheim in particular reacted in constituting a nascent sociological approach. (If you think that it is difficult to convince skeptical graduate students that there is any utility in reading Marx, try convincing them to read Locke!)

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Mechanism as Metaphor: Conversation with Carly Knight and Isaac Reed

12/18/2019

2 Comments

 
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Carly R. Knight
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Isaac A. Reed
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Interviewed by Luis Flores, Perspectives Co-Editor
In their article “Meaning and Modularity: The Multivalence of ‘Mechanism’ in Sociological Explanation” (2019, Sociological Theory), Knight and Reed disentangle and explore contradictions between “modular” and “meaningful” mechanistic models. The disjuncture, they argue, is grounded in “incompatible causal foundations and entails mechanistic models with distinct and conflicting evidentiary standards.” Below is a conversation with the authors on their provocative article.

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Soc-Fi: Sociological Fiction

12/18/2019

1 Comment

 
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We asked members to share their favorite works of fiction that illustrate sociological theory in particularly evocative ways. Below are the submissions of Soc-Fi we received.

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Book Symposium: The Crisis of Expertise, by Gil Eyal

12/18/2019

5 Comments

 
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Elizabeth Popp Berman
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Stephanie Mudge
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Steven Epstein
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Gianpaolo Baiocchi
A group of scholars gathered at the Social Science History Association meetings in Chicago to discuss Professor Gil Eyal’s most recent book. That discussion and Prof. Eyal’s response are published below.

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Recent Member PUblications - Fall 2019

12/18/2019

3 Comments

 

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    FALL 2022 Content

    Letter from the Chair: "Theory as Translation"

    "An Interview with Jordanna Matlon, author of A Man Among Other Men"

    Book Symposium on A Man Among Other Men by Jordanna Matlon
    • Jessie Luna
    • Annie Hikido
    • Yannick Coenders
    • Anna Skarpelis

    Colonialism, Modernity and the Canon: An Interview with Gurminder K. Bhambra

    ​Emerging Social Theorists Spotlight
    • Heidi Nicholls
    • Miray Philips
    • Feyza Akova
    • Davon Norris

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