This paper examines the influence of racial epistemologies on social science research methods and knowledge production. Neo-liberal understandings of positivism and the institutional power that perpetuates them are criticized in favor of epistemological diversity in the academy. Drawing on the insider/outsider debate in sociology, particularly the dialogue with the “new Black sociology” movemen...

One of the most important developments in recent sociological theory is the relationship between ‘social structure’ and ‘social agency.’ According to George Ritzer (1996), this issue has been mostly investigated among European theorists, while, on the other side, the parallel issue of the ‘micro-macro linkage’ has attracted the main interest in American sociological theory. Again, according to ...

The historical and professional development of Sociological Social Psychology is described, with attention given to particular accomplishments from mid-century to the present. Then several of the more recent perspectives that contribute to the growth of social psychology are discussed such as symbolic interaction, social exchange theory, expectation states theory, and theories of everyday life....

Applied sociology is usually taken to mean the application of sociological theories and findings to issues of social policy. In this paper, we present some examples of a quite different notion of applied sociology: one in which sociological insights are applied to the design of computer software. Sociology’s primary concern as a discipline can be considered to be the study of the interaction of...

Do international organizations really do what their creators intend them to do? In the past century the number of international organizations (1Os) has increased exponentially, and we have a variety of vigorous theories to explain why they have been created. Most of these theories explain IO creation as a response to problems of incomplete information, transaction costs, and other barriers to P...

Field Editor: J.J. Chrisman The informal economy consists of economic activities that occur outside of formal institutional boundaries but which remain within informal institutional boundaries for large segments of society. We draw from diverse disciplines to frame research concerning entrepreneurship in the informal economy around three separate theories: institutional theory, motivation-relat...

This article describes both sociological and genetic theories of illness causation and derives propositions expected under each and under a transdisciplinary theoretical frame. The authors draw propositions from three theories -- fundamental causes, social stress processes, and social safety net theories -- and tailor hypotheses to the case of alcohol dependence. Analyses of a later wave of the...

Given the pervasiveness of language in social life and the implications that language use can have for one’s individual and collective identities, attempts were made to explore the theoretical and empirical advantages in connecting social psychological theories of identity and sociolinguistics in order to explore language and identity among second generation British Asians. This paper features ...