CALL FOR PAPERS! In a world of vertiginous inequality, escalating ecological disaster, and extraordinary political and economic turbulence generated by a winner take all society seemingly designed to concentrate privilege and power in the hands of a very few, the central question that faces sociology is whether social protest will change anything or whether elites will continue to lead the planet and its population to disaster. All the important topics of contemporary sociology, including racial justice, environmental change, immigration, economic inequality, and education, to name a few, turn around this issue. The question of the power of elites, and the conditions under which that power might be tamed, happened to lie at the heart of the historical sociology of Richard Lachmann, who died tragically and suddenly this Fall. In his honor, we solicit papers that address the issues of elite and nonelite influences on political and social processes and outcomes. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers. Submissions could be, for example, reprises of elite theory, critical summaries, critiques, discussions of class versus elite power, developments of alternatives (i.e., nonelite influences, people power), empirical evaluations of the relative power of elites and nonelites, or concrete investigations into the processes that maintain and undermine that power. Possible topics include the origins of capitalism, empires, elites and contemporary capitalism, social movements and elite conflict, and popular culture and influencers. Abstracts are due to Rebecca Jean Emigh (emigh@soc.ucla.edu) and Dylan Riley on January 28th, 2022 and should be no longer than 500 words. We are collecting papers with an eye to publishing them as an edited volume for a major university press.
Fatma Muge Gocek writes with a talk of interest to CHAT’s members at UM’s “Sociologists in Action” group:
We are very lucky to have the wonderful Ricarda (Rici) Hammer on campus — she is a Weiser PostDoc here[…]Since Rici’s work is very cutting edge, I asked her to discuss two of her articles with us:
One appeared in Sociological Theory in 2020, is entitled “Decolonizing the Civil Sphere: The Politics of Difference, Imperial Erasures, and Theorizing from History” and is attached.
The other is written with Jose Itzigsohn (whom we had before on SIA) and is entitled: “The Racial Structure of Sociological Thought: Colonial Modernity in Historical Sociology” and is also attached.
Once again, this reading group brings together those sociologists interested in the post/de colonial critical perspective that explicitly identifies taking action for social justice and liberation as one of the fundamental premises of sociology, hence the name of the reading group, “Sociologists in Action.”
The zoom invite is here:
Topic: SIA Meeting
Time: Oct 28, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://umich.zoom.us/j/99377320305
Meeting ID: 993 7732 0305
Passcode: 557465
Mattias Smångs writes about an article he just published that may be of interest to some CHAT members. It is called “The White Working Class and the Legacy of the 1960s Ku Klux Klan in the 2016 Presidential Election” and was published in the latest issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Ashley Rubin’s The Deviant Prison (Cambridge University Press, 2021) uses organizational theory and punishment and society research to understand how Eastern State Penitentiary, alone among early nineteenth century U.S. prisons, rejected strong field-wide norms and failed to conform to a highly homogenous vision of how prisons should be designed and managed. On March 31 (1p ET), Rubin will give a virtual public talk at the American Philosophical Society on her book. The link is here.
Isaac Reed writes to publicize a postdoctoral fellowship at UVA:
Rising Scholar Postdoctoral Fellowship, Political & Social Thought and Sociology
Review of applications will begin April 12, 2021.
In conjunction with the Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Mellon Foundation, the UVA Department of Sociology, together with the Distinguished Major in Political & Social Thought, seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Fellow in the study of Race and Racism, Social Theory, and Political Philosophy. We seek a rising scholar whose research and teaching are interdisciplinary in nature, and touch on one or more of the following: historical sociology, political theory, intellectual history, histories of the Black Atlantic, race and power, modernity and racialization. The successful candidate will be affiliated with the Sociology Department, and participate in course training and syllabus development for, and teaching in, the Political and Social Thought major. More information about the PST major can be found here: https://pst.as.virginia.edu/ Candidates who received (or will receive) their Ph.D. degree between August 24, 2019 and August 24, 2021 are eligible to apply. Information about the Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellows Program, including instructions for submitting an application, can be found here: https://graduate.as.virginia.edu/rising-scholars.
Please contact Isaac Ariail Reed, Professor of Sociology (iar2c@virginia.edu) and Michael J. Smith, Thomas C. Sorenson Professor of Political and Social Thought and Associate Professor of Politics (mjs9t@virginia.edu) with any questions.
Over at The Conversation, Ashley Rubin explores the irony of high COVID-19 rates in prisons. She writes:
Jails and prisons often lack basic hygiene products, have minimal health care services and are overcrowded. Social distancing is nearly impossible except in solitary confinement, but that poses its own dangers to mental and physical health.
As a prison scholar, I recognize a sad irony in this public health problem: The United States’ very first prisons were actually designed to avoid the spread of infectious disease.
Aldon Morris has published an article in Scientific American exploring the links between the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter through the lens of a historicized social movements theory. He writes:
[Black Lives Matter] faces many questions and obstacles. The [Civil Rights Movement] depended on tight-knit local communities with strong leaders, meeting in churches and other safe spaces to organize and strategize and to build solidarity and discipline. Can a decentralized movement produce the necessary solidarity as protesters face brutal repression? Will their porous Internet-based organizational structures provide secure spaces where tactics and strategies can be debated and selected? Can they maintain discipline? If protesters are not executing a planned tactic in a coordinated and disciplined manner, can they succeed? How can a movement correct a course of action that proves faulty?
Pierre Francois writes to announce a discussion of Sociologie historique du capitalisme:
[…]a second English-speaking online event about about our Sociologie historique du capitalisme book is scheduled for March 15: https://capitalism.eui.eu/events/ — in case you want to ask us difficult questions! […]The March one will become a podcast afterwards; and in case are curious to learn what our book is about, but not available for online events, here are a few webpages set up by our colleagues in Cambridge following the previous one (https://www.histecon.magd.cam.ac.uk/sociologie/index.html)
A new book series has been launched for historical sociology with Cambridge University. The editors are Stephanie Mudge (UC Davis) and Anthony Chen (Northwestern University).
In The Nation, Mabel Berezin asks how Donald Trump’s behavior compares with historical examples of fascism. She suggests:
Trump is a classic authoritarian personality with a fascist rhetorical style. That alone should ring alarm bells. Yet the label “fascist” can sometimes hide as much as it reveals about the illiberal tendencies in contemporary American politics. Trump’s presidency exposed the fissures embedded in our democracy, and concentrating only on his fascistic actions distracts from the unstable political landscape that led to his rise in the first place.