Integrating sociology: Observations on race and gender relations in sociology graduate programs

Issues related to the integration of race within sociology doctoral programs were explored. Two sets of data were analyzed: open-ended interviews with 26 women of color graduate students and 92 questionnaires completed by Ph.D. programs on faculty, graduate courses, and expertise in race. Quantitative data show that faculty of color are likely to be the one member of their race in the department. EuroAmerican faculty are over-represented in the rank of Full Professor and Associate Professor and faculty of color are under-represented in the tenured ranks. Less than a quarter of departments included the study of race in required theory courses. Departments listing race and ethnicity as a specialty in the area did not always offer graduate courses in the field and courses that were offered did not necessarily focus specifically on U.S. race/ethnic/minority relations, but included international studies and broad topics in social organizations and stratification. Comments by a sample of women of color graduate students point out a number of critical issues: curricula that are outdated, ignore race, are monocultural, and look better in the catalog than in the classroom; faculty that are top-heavy with older White males; students discouraged from pursuing what attracted them to the academy in the first place; and students in conflicts with racial overtones over scarce resources and favors. Qualitative results show that women of color graduate students perceive the inclusion of students and faculty of color to include an acceptance of their racial and ethnic experience in the intellectual and social culture of the department. They linked the goal of integration of the student body and the faculty to be inseparable from integration of race into the curriculum in both required and nonrequired courses, and assigned readings.     

Durkheim's sociology and theories of degeneration

This Paper explores the relationshipbetween theories of degeneracy inspired by medicine and psychiatry in the nineteenth century and the sociological theory of Emile Durkheim. After briefly reviewing the main themes of degeneracy theory, there follows an analysis of Durkheim's writings of the 1880s and 1890s and 1890s on crime, suicide and birth-rates. The paper argues, first, that Durkheim's relationship to degeneracy theory is considerably more complex than is generally portrayed in the secondary literature and undergoes considerable modification over time: second, that Durkheim's theoretical efforts were not only aimed at sociological as opposed to biological explanations of the phenomena studied by theorists of degeneration, but also grounded a new normative understanding of these phenomena that was consonant with the humanitarian ideals of ethical individualism.     

Long-Term Capital Management and the sociology of arbitrage

Arbitrage is a key process in the practice of financial markets and in their theoretical depiction: it allows markets to be posited as efficient without all investors being assumed to be rational. This article explores the sociology of arbitrage by means of an examination of the arbitrageurs, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM). LTCM's 1998 crisis is analysed using both qualitative, interview-based data and quantitative examination of price movements. It is suggested that the roots of the crisis lay in an unstable pattern of imitation that had developed in the markets within which LTCM operated. As the resulting 'superportfolio' began to unravel, arbitrageurs other than LTCM fled the market, even as arbitrage opportunities became more attractive, causing huge price movements against LTCM. Three features of the sociology of arbitrage are discussed: its conduct by people often personally known to each other; the possibility and consequences of imitation; and the limits on the capacity of arbitrage to close price discrepancies. It is suggested that by 1998 imitative arbitrage formed a 'global microstructure' in the sense of Knorr Cetina and Bruegger.     

Ethics and the unintended consequences of social research: A perspective from the sociology of science

It is argued that successful social science requires the development of a social ethic or sense of research responsibility. An examination of impediments to ethical reflection in sociology suggests that an individualistic orientation is ineffective in coping with the unintended consequences of social research. Such consequences can be particularly harmful in the sociology of science where policy research and governmental support for its production often entails an indiscriminate advocacy of knowledge. Such advocacy raises anew questions of the power of scientific knowledge, the definition of client-professional relationships, and the collection of data which may not only violate the intent of individuals and groups supplying information, but may undermine the credibility of sociology itself.An early version of this paper was presented at the Sixth Annual Alpha Kappa Delta Sociological Research Symposium, Richmond, Virginia, February 19–21, 1976.     

“Selling out” and the sociology of knowledge

Personal experience suggests that it is a great oversimplification to assume that those analysts or scientists who work on government sponsored contracts are forced by their personal economic and power interests to make their work conform to the ideology of the military-industrial establishment. The sociology of knowledge on which this assumption is based must be supplemented by a culturology of knowledge. In terms of the latter an important obstacle to good policy analysis for government comes from the fact that most analysts are heavily influenced by a rather narrow academic and intellectual subculture that makes it difficult for them to understand with sufficient balance the problems that face decisionmakers in the real world.