American Sociology Research Articles

Our friend Melvin Kohn

In the genre of oral history of sociology, the author narrates his experience of communication with the famous American sociologist, former president of the American Sociological Association (1987), honorary doctor of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy Melvin Lester Kohn (1928–2021). It is about the friendship and cooperation of Melvin Cohn with Ukrainian colleagues, his participation in the organization and holding of international research with the participation of Ukraine. The creative heritage of the American sociologist is important for the development of sociology in the world and in Ukraine, in particular for better understanding the social structure of Ukrainian society.

Modernization of the society under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic: global and local transformations

The paper studies how COVID-19 influenced the processes, related to the modernization of the social development. It presents the results of the domestic and foreign social studies, related to the conceptual consideration of the global and local social changes, caused by pandemics consequences. The study demonstrates how modernization processes are associated with the growing trends of deglobalization, strengthening of social inequality, weakening of the international relations, and also with the transformation of the former social structure and conventional forms of social interaction. The paper notes the contradictory nature of the influence of the post-COVID changes on the modernizing trends. On the one hand, new vectors to modernize a number of spheres of social life (systems of health care, education, government management, trade) were indicated, wide possibilities for digitalization and development of IT appeared, on the other hand – the isolationist and conformist intentions are intensified. An increased focus is put on individual and personal estimation of social modernization. The author, relying on empiric data of her own studies, analyzes the concept of “modern personality” by the American sociologist А. Inkeles, showing its efficiency under the circumstances of the quickly changing realities of the post-COVID society. The qualities of the “modern personality” (openness to changes, social responsibility) allow giving an adequate response to the new challenges and risks. It is assumed that the representatives of the generation of millennials and generation Z, who have a significant modernizing potential and have been formed under the circumstances of the specific “conditions of growing-up”, are one of the most adapted to consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic social groups in Russia and foreign countries.

Edward Shils as Stranger, Social Thought as Vocation

This essay is a response to Struan Jacobs, “Recovering the Thought of Edward Shils,” which is an extended review of Adair-Toteff and Turner’s The Calling of Social Thought. It considers Edward Shils as a “stranger,” in the sense defined by Georg Simmel, relative to contemporary sociology. Christian Smith’s claim that American sociology is implicitly pursuing a “sacred project” is invoked, in contrast with Shils’ vision for consensual sociology. The expansion by CST to “Social Thought” as a calling (vocation), and its ties to science as understood by Polanyi, are strongly affirmed.

Miloš Broćić, Daniel Silver, “The Influence of Simmel on American Sociology since 1975”, Annual Review of Sociology, (forthcoming)

Miloš Broćić, Daniel Silver, “The Influence of Simmel on American Sociology since 1975”, Annual Review of Sociology, (forthcoming). Un article de la revue Simmel Studies (Volume 25, numéro 1, 2021, p. 9-168) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.

Pragmatism as Problem Solving

At the level of sociological practice a three-sided debate occurs in American sociology between the rationalist tradition, in which the goal is the better understanding of society; the emancipatory tradition, in which the goal is improvement of society; and the skeptical tradition, which argues that we cannot know if either our knowledge or our norms are correct, and therefore it is not possible to expect progress in either. Each of these strands runs into difficulties: for the rationalist tradition, an inability to cumulate knowledge; for the emancipatory tradition, a difficulty in grounding the norms that would determine what counts as emancipation if norms are socially constructed; and for the skeptical tradition, inability to accept the logical conclusion of the argument, which is inaction even in the face of extreme injustice. The author shows that when pressed on these points, each tradition moves in the direction of pragmatism understood as problem solving, and that the practice of problem solving offers resolutions to these dilemmas.

Demonstrative consumption - the way of life of part of the elite group of citizens of Ukraine

The essence of demonstrative consumption of material and spiritual goods in modern Ukraine are researched in the article. Consumer activity is seen as a process of conscious active behavior based on the needs and excessive financial capabilities of a person with the use of social benefits intended for material and spiritual development. Therefore, consumer activity can be considered as an element of the way of life of a person, and the cult of demonstrative consumption – an integral part of the way of life of a particular social stratum of the population of Ukraine. The emergence of distorted in the value dimension of some forms of commodity fetishism is revealed. In representatives of a particular social group (stratum), it asserts itself in the form of consumption of various objects of human activity. Such objects are not only material things, but also materialized cultural values, cultural mass events (theatrical performances, private parties with the participation of famous actors of theater and cinema and music, dance and singing shows). Functional and social properties and characteristics of things affect a person's acceptance of the way they are consumed. It is noted that people of this execution are beginning to demonstrate their own lifestyle, just as people of the previous, less overwhelmed by the choice of the era (twentieth century), consumed ordinary foods. In the context of the basic worldview principles of secular humanism, the significance of the "lazy class" theory of the famous American economist, sociologist and psychologist T. Veblen for the scientific analysis of everyday behavior of such representatives of the modern Ukrainian elite is revealed. Emphasis is placed on the manifestation of Ukrainian patronage in the late twentieth and early twentieth centuries.

Объяснить, «как... на самом деле функционирует политика»: немецкий историк Вольфганг Райнхард, теория переплетений и микрополитика

The conceptualization of the role of informal relationships, including patron-client relations, in the development of Early Modern state institutions in modern European historiography is usually associated with the names of R. Munier, S. Kettering and A. Maczak, whose works have long since become classics. Less well known in this context is the Verflechtungstheorie (lit. theory of entanglement), developed in the 1970s by the Freiburg historian W. Reinhard. The aim of this article is to examine the Verflechtungstheorie in historical perspective and its theoretical foundations, as well as the history of its reception in the context of the development of social history in Germany. In doing so, the author explains the reasons why Reinhard's approach occurred less influential in comparison with the works of the historians mentioned above. The article is based on a detailed study of Reinhard's works dedicated to the Verflechtungstheorie (since the 1990s micropolitics), starting from his 1979 monograph Freunde und Kreaturen (“Friends and Creatures”) and ending with the most recent publications in the 2010s. The beginning of the article is devoted to the formation of the conceptual apparatus of Reinhard's theory. He understands the term Verflechtungen as the result and foundation of social interaction based on four relationship types - kinship, compatriot, friendship and patronage, playing, according to Reinhard, a key role in premodern times. The theoretical basis of Reinhard's explanatory model is formed by the sociometry of the American sociologist J. L. Moreno, and Reinhard viewed his concept of elite relations as a kind of network analysis. Further on the article moves on analyzing the reception problem of the presented theory. According to Reinhard, the Verflechtungstheorie experienced reception difficulties within historical scholarship mostly for being technically ahead of its time. However, as the article shows, the main reason was that the concept failed to meet the zeitgeist prevailing in postwar German historiography. While social history developing under the influence of the Bielefeld school focused on the study of microhistorical subjects, Reinhards's approach was mainly a political one. Abandoning the term Verflechtungen in the mid-1990s and replacing it with the term micropolitics, Reinhard did not solve the problem. This change was a merely linguistic one, and Reinhard continued to argue that informal relations mark a negotiable stage, which is characteristic for societies with a high level of mobility and an underdeveloped statehood. In conclusion, the article shows that the results of Reinhard's scholarly work should not be considered a failure. The main merit is its continuity: some of Reinhard's former students proved that informal relationships are by no means a parasitic atavism associated solely with corruption.

Dialogue with the classic (to the 95th anniversary of the American sociologist of the conflict, Professor Louis Kriesberg)

Dialogue with the classic (to the 95th anniversary of the American sociologist of the conflict, Professor Louis Kriesberg)

Концепция «организации трансформирующие идентичность» (ITOs): идеи, критика и перспектива применения в религиоведческих исследованиях

The article discusses the concept of “Identity Transforming Organizations” (ITOs), which was proposed by American sociologists of religion in the 70s. XX century in the course of research of the society of Alcoholics Anonymous. The purpose of such organizations is to transform the identity of the newly converted member, change his cognitive, behavioral and affective attitudes. One of the mechanisms of such transformation is encapsulation – the inclusion of a new convert into the organization, through his social, physical or ideological isolation from the outside world. Encapsulation is a social cocoon that protects an individual in a stressful situation from an external environment that becomes aggressive for him. In the course of it, the new convert acquires a new social status and role (catechuchman, Christian, alcoholic, devotee, etc.); new identity; new reference group; new life attitudes, as the affective, cognitive and behavioral components change. In addition to changing behavior, assigning a new status and forming a corresponding identity, the activities of ITO are aimed at the emergence of new reference groups and references in an individual, not only the individual himself changes, but also a change in his social environment. There are organizations in which the transformation of identity, active proselytism is one of the main internal and external processes, and there are those in which such a transformation is activated in special cases or through special units. To illustrate the concept, examples of authors associated with the organization Alcoholics Anonymous were given and texts of a Russian religious association, whose activities correlate with theoretical provisions (Preobrazhensky Brotherhood), were included. The concept presents researchers with a new toolkit in the study of socially active religious associations.

THE DISCOURSE OF PATRIOTISM IN MODERN AMERICAN MASS CULTURE: THE CASE OF “WATCHMEN” TV SERIES

This article examines the role of popular culture products as a factor in changing the concept of patriotism in the United States. The discourse of patriotism is formed through a “sum” of images including an assessment of the political system, values and national history. According to American sociologist Jeffrey Alexander, “gaining power depends on the outcome of struggles for symbolic domination in the civil sphere”. The exacerbation in the last decade of problems related to race, gender and social justice led to a split in society and created the demand for a critical revision of the history of the United States, and as result the revision of the concept of patriotism. Nowadays, more and more graphic novels and media-shows based on patriotism are focusing on issues of social justice, and play an important role in the “culture wars” in the United States. An example of this is the popular series “Watchmen”, which has received various influential awards. Through the plot about superheroes, its authors construct a new narrative of civic patriotism. This narrative assumes that the racial issue has been a key factor in US history and that the country was founded on the principles of intolerance and oppression. In addition, it is suggested that the political system, in turn, is only formally democratic and the founding fathers created a state that is prone to authoritarianism and suppression, regardless of which political party is in power. Therefore, radical reforms are required for the United States to become a truly democratic and inclusive country.

Donald Clemmer’s Concept of Prisonisation

Prisonisation is a concept that has permanently entered the conceptual apparatus of prison science, while the phenomenon itself has become the subject of numerous studies by criminologists and penitentiaries. The author of this concept was the American sociologist and prison officer D. Clemmer, the author of the classic monograph “The Prison Community,” the first such comprehensive work that presented the social aspects of prison life. The article presents the essential elements of the concept of prisonisation as a dynamic process during which inmates adapt to the conditions that occur in prison.

Explaining away crime: The race narrative in American sociology and ethical theory

Rates of crime for Blacks in the United States in the post-slavery era have always been high relative to Whites. But explaining, or minimizing, this fact faces a major problem: individual excuses for bad acts point to deficiencies, in the agent, which are perhaps forgivable, such as mental deficiency or a deprived childhood, but at the price of treating the agent as less than a full member of the moral community. Collectivizing excuses risks implying group inferiority. The history of attempts to provide an explanation of crime that mitigates blame without undermining full participation to the moral community is long and convoluted, leading to the presently widespread claim that crime is itself a product of victimization through pervasive racism. Three basic strategies – rejection of comparison, attribution to racially invariant causes and explanation by reference to uniquely Black conditions, such as subculture or extreme stigmatization – are identified and their ethical implications distinguished.

The Functioning of Cities in the Context of Globalization: Saskia Sassen's Theory

The current trends and specifics of transformations of modern sociological theory are determined by the challenges that faced by societies of the XXI centuries. Social changes require theoretical understanding and need to develop new approaches that allow us to interpret modern reality. One of these approaches is proposed by the modern American sociologist Saskia Sassen. She builds an integral concept of modernity with the corresponding content of the subject field and problems. The scientist focuses on the current processes of globalization, urbanization, transnational migration and inequality, including global inequality, revealing the essence and specifics of the transformations of modern societies, which necessitates a detailed analysis of her theory. The article considers the main groups of factors that influenced the formation of Saskia Sassen’s theory, including the atmosphere of interdisciplinarity and multiculturalism, within which the sociologist carried out her scientific and research activities, as well as socio-historical conditions, in particular, globalization and global problems. The key theoretical and methodological approaches and research directions that determine the specifics of the formation of scientific views of the sociologist are closely related to the selected groups of factors. In particular, special attention is paid to the analysis of marxist and neo-marxist approaches, theories of society in the second half of the XX century, sociological theories of globalization, and sociological theories of the city. The author attempts to systematize the structural components of Saskia Sassen’s sociological theory, to reveal the heuristic potential of her theoretical and methodological approach, to identify the specifics of the interpretation of globalization and differences from other approaches to the study of modern global trends.

Bláha, Obrdlík a Eubank: brněnské kontakty s americkými sociology v souvislostech mezinárodní sociologie

This paper examines the relations of the interwar sociologists in Brno with their American colleagues and international sociology in general. It describes the international contacts of Inocenc Arnošt Bláha and Antonín Obrdlík in the 1930s with a special focus on the professional and personal liaison between these two and American sociologist Earle Edward Eubank. These contacts are subsequently located within an imperfect, but genuine homology that existed between Czech sociology on the one hand and American and international sociology on the other. Previous research has shown that inside the international sociology of the 1930s, which centred around the Institut International de Sociologie (IIS), the eclectic French sociologists who controlled the IIS allied with American detractors of scientism, whereas their principal opponents, the Durkheimians, were close to the sociologists at the University of Chicago. In terms of their international networks and their substantive positions, Bláha’s Brno group was part of the anti-scientist alliance, whereas the sociologists in Prague displayed an affinity for the Chicago School in particular. To substantiate this claim, the paper shows that the American networks of Obrdlík and Otakar Machotka (Prague), both Rockefeller fellows and later exiles in the US, were highly consistent with the observed divisions in American and international sociology.

ОТ МИФА К ИСТОРИИ: ВАРИАЦИИ СКАЗКИ «ЭГЛЕ, КОРОЛЕВА УЖЕЙ» В ЛИТОВСКОЙ СОВЕТСКОЙ И ПОСТСОВЕТСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ

В статье представлены произведения литовской литературы, варьирующиe мотивы архетипической сказки, которая гипотетически считается контрольным текстом для понимания литовской культуры. Материал исследования структурирован в соответствии с делением на четыре исторических периода: 1) начало советизации Литвы, 2) время «зрелого социализма», 3) последнее советское десятилетие, 4) этап восстановленной независимости и членства в ЕС. Выявляются семь парадигм отношений истории и мифа, поднимается вопрос о необходимости существования разных текстообразующих механизмов. The idea for this article came from the hypothesis that the famous folk tale “Eglė, the Queen of Serpents” is a foundational text of Lithuanian culture, as it underpins many other works. According to Eleazar Meletinskij, the method of neo-mythologism helps us understand the chaos of cataclysms by giving form to historical experience in the current literature. The author approaches the work through Lithuanian-born American sociologist Vytautas Kavolis’ theory, which facilitates the tracing of internal changes in the history of Lithuanian cultural consciousness, while also studying the transformations of one important motive. Representative texts from the Soviet and post-Soviet era are examined: the poemtale “Eglė, the Queen of Serpents,” by Salomėja Nėris, the poem “Nine Brothers,” by Justinas Marcinkevičius, the short story “After They Became Trees,” by Kazys Saja, the play “The Daughter of the Earth,” by Marcelijus Martinaitis, as well as the production of the same title by Vilnius Theater Lele, by Vitalijus Mazuras, a few episodes from the novel “Vilnius Poker,” by Vytautas Gavelis, and finally, the plays “Madagascar” and “Expulsion,” by Marius Ivaškevičius. The analysis is divided by historical periods and compares these works to Christoph von FurerHaimendorf’s model of moral systems, which Kavolis proposed for a better understanding of historical processes in Eastern Europe. We come to the conclusion that seven paradigms of consciousness consecutively replace each other during the discussed period: 1) duplication, by the transition from a system of freedom to a system of rules and authority, selecting the vector of infantilization; 2) the idealization of national unity, the moral system of social harmony, and the tendency for hybridism or archaization; 3) the discovery of Aesopian language, which is an internal form of resistance to Totalitarianism; 4) the loss of connection with archaic culture and the destabilization of values; 5) the understanding of history as an eternal repetition of evil, and the critical evaluation of Lithuanian identity; 6) the transition from a system of rules to the paradigm of freedom, through the demythologization of history, and the unfolding of individual relations with historical figures; 7) fragmentation in the face of new emigration and the establishment of liquid identity in the contemporary world. This study reveals the emergence of a counter-mechanism capable of opposing the mythologizing and abstraction that are typical of patriarchal forms of consciousness, examples of which can be observed in emigre literature of the 1960s and onward, as well as in creative explorations since the restoration of Lithuania’s independence in 1990.

N.A. Vitke & School of Human relations

Modern economic science pays considerable attention to the study of labor economics, an integral part of which is the problem of human resources in the production of material goods. The study of this problem has been initiated by the scientific labor management school and Nikolay Vitke. His work and ideas were undeservedly forgotten and they require more attention. The authors’ goal is to draw ones attention to the fact that the concept authorship of human relations, the beginning of the problem development of communication between psychology and management was initiated by domestic scientists. Later, this concept was developed in numerous of works of foreign scientists, who consider the authors of the American psychologist and sociologist E. Mayo. The concept of N.A. Vitke should be taken into account as one of the important, according to the authors, in the development of modern control theories. The study can be the subject of further discussion about the prospects for the development of management theory, the life and personality of N.A. Vitke as well as his colleagues.

Eugenics and the Interwar Approach to Inventors and Invention

Seabury Gilfillan was an American sociologist who is considered a seminal but neglected author in invention studies. Gilfillan published his first important contributions to the sociology of invention at the end of the 1920s, and he corresponded with Schumpeter in the 1930s. Comparisons between the two authors show that they are closer than we might expect. Gilfillan rejected the hero and genius accounts of inventors and supported instead an anonymous view of the invention process. Nevertheless, as shown by previous literature, Gilfillan could not fully get rid of a genius representation of inventors. We argue that Gilfillan’s elitism can be explained by his lifelong support of eugenics, which he also used in his policy prescriptions to increase the “quality” of inventors. Engaging with Gilfillan’s adoption of eugenics is indispensable to understand his approach to inventors and inventions.

The Afghan refugees of Lajpat Nagar: The boundaries between them and Delhi

The political and social implications of the refugee crisis have positioned refugee studies as a crucial discipline to understand politics in contemporary times. This article aims to contribute to the discipline by exploring the example of a community of Muslim Afghan refugees in Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, India, and studying their ‘refugee experience’ through the theoretical concept of ‘boundaries’ as developed by noted American sociologist Richard Alba. The article studies the various aspects of the segregation of the refugee community by focusing on the different constituents of the boundary separating them from the citizens. The article initially discusses legal boundaries, that is the legal marginalization of refugees in general and Muslim refugees in particular by the Indian state. Through the perceptual boundary, which involves the negative perception held among citizens towards the refugee community and vice versa, social distance between the citizens and the refugee community is widened. The spatial boundary, which is the de facto ghettoization of the refugee community to a certain geographical space, forces the citizens and refugee communities to maintain minimal contact with each other. Through the linguistic boundary, further conditions leading to reduced social contact are created. In the presence of so many intersectional boundaries, this article showcases how the boundaries are sometimes blurred, and how aspects such as food or commerce can help the process of boundary breaching. The study of boundaries, their formation, effect and permeability also throws light onto other important aspects of the lives of members of the refugee community – their perception regarding mainstream Indians, their daily problems and challenges, aspirations and demands.

Black cargo

Black cargo

W.E.B. DU BOIS E A INAUGURAÇÃO DE UMA SOCIOLOGIA INTERSECCIONAL

As a brief exercise in the critical sociology of sociology, this article demonstrates W.E.B. Du Bois’s undeniable contributions to the history, discourse, and development of American sociology in particular, and the wider world of sociology in general. This dialectical approach to Du Bois’s sociological discourse will enable objective interpreters of his work to see that when compared and contrasted with the monumental work of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, what was and what remains really and truly distinctive about Du Bois’s sociology is precisely his unpretentious preoccupation with uniquely and unequivocally American social, political, and cultural issues, such as, for example: race and anti-black racism in the context of slavery, lynching, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, segregation, and other forms of racial oppression in the United States; racial capitalism and the racial colonization of social classes in the United States; the racial colonization of gender and sexuality in the United States; the racial colonization of religion in the United States; the racial colonization of education in the United States; and, finally, the racial criminalization of blacks, among other racially colonized and poverty-stricken people, in the United States.