Harassment of Working Women, Catharine MacKinnon notes that men’s victimization of women “is sufficiently pervasive in American society as to be nearly invisible” (1979:1). Since the publication of her book, sexual harassment has become increasingly visible, and variants of MacKinnon’s broad sociocultural explanation have gained broad acceptance (Schultz 2001; MacKinnon 2002; Tangri, Burt, and ...

Collections of human tissue (biobanks) are thought to be an essential resource for biomedical research. Biobanks have, however, been a source of debate in both bioethics and sociology. In recent years this theorising has been supplemented with empirical research, including a significant body of qualitative research, into donors' experiences and attitudes. To date, this literature has not been s...

The study of mass communications is a broad, multidisciplinary field to which sociology has made major contributions. Some of these contributions have been reviewed in earlier works by Riley & Riley (1959), Larsen (1964), Janowitz (1968), McQuail (1969), Davison & Yu (1974), & Ball-Rokeach (1975), and Wright (1975a). Several chapters in Annual Review of Psychology, although not explicitly socio...

1. The Scope of the Field: Addictive and Non-Addictive Substances 2. History of the Field 3. Theoretical Perspectives and Research Methods in the Sociology of Addiction 4. Studies of Careers in Drug and Alcohol Use and Abuse 5. Studies of the effects of substance use and abuse on relationships and of relationships on substance use and abuse 6. Studies of Drug and Alcohol Subcultures and Specifi...

Social scientists have drawn attention to the role of hype and optimistic visions of the future in providing momentum to biomedical innovation projects by encouraging innovation alliances. In this article, we show how less optimistic, uncertain, and modest visions of the future can also provide innovation projects with momentum. Scholars have highlighted the need for clinicians to carefully man...

by Frank Elwell Rogers State University I originally created this web site on Weber (pronounced "Vay-bur") in 1996 for my students in social theory. Most of the paper is fairly standard, it is based on information and insights from standard texts or through other secondary sources. My intention in summarizing this information was simply to present Weber in a fairly coherent and comprehensive ma...

Even as rational choice theory is increasingly used in sociology, ¢nding its way into such diverse subdisciplines as the sociology of the family, religion, gender, crime, race, strati¢cation, and economic sociology, it remains hotly contested. It has spurred a rancorous debate that, at its worst, ‘‘degenerates into a caricatured contrast between a cold and calculating egoist engaged at the brea...

The growing interest in public sociologies marks an increasing gap between the ethos of sociologists and social, political, and economic tendencies in the wider society. Public sociology aims to enrich public debate about moral and political issues by infusing them with sociological theory and research. It has to be distinguished from policy, professional, and critical sociologies. Together the...

There is much that is attractive about Michael Burawoy’s examination of the critical turn to a public sociology. I find plausible his account of the academic nature of 1970s radical sociology especially that mobilized notions such as Althusser’s “theoretical practice.” I also was cheered to read the account of the positive developments currently in train in the USA and especially with how socia...