1st Edition

Practicing Social Science Sociologists and their Craft

By Devorah Kalekin-Fishman Copyright 2017
    314 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    314 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    How is the process of globalization effecting changes in the structure of knowledge in sociology? This path-breaking volume looks at the human dimension of developments in the discipline by compiling a set of interviews that exemplify the life and work of a sociologist today. Their ideas and conceptualizations show to what extent a "paradigm shift" has taken root, answering questions such as whether sociology still remains a differentiated, relatively autonomous social science. The chosen interviewees are about equally divided according to gender and have been selected from among professional sociologists in different parts of the globe, with an emphasis on areas that are under-represented in English publications, such as East Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Analysis focuses on changes which are becoming clear from the on-going confrontation between "traditional" sociology which emerged as a project of modernity, and the sociology practiced by sociologists who are called upon to adapt the discipline to the upheavals of the twenty-first century.

    NOTES ON INTERVIEWEES

    PREFACE

    INTRODUCTION: PRACTICING SOCIAL SCIENCE

    PART I: DECLARATIONS AND DILEMMAS

    CHAPTER 1. DISCIPLINE, CAREER, PROFESSION: SOCIOLOGY IN PRACTITIONERS' LIVES

    CHAPTER 2. COMMUNITY PROCLAMATIONS: OUTLINING PROFESSIONALISM

    CHAPTER 3. HOW DOES SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION HAPPEN?

    CHAPTER 4. THEORIZING GLOBALIZATION

    CHAPTER 5. SOCIAL CHANGE IN A NUTSHELL: THE BRICS AND ECHOES FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD

    PART II: PRACTITIONERS AND THEIR CRAFT

    CHAPTER 6. INTERVIEWING COLLEAGUES

    CHAPTER 7. THE INTERVIEWS

    CHAPTER 7A. BRAZIL

    SIMON SCHWARTZMAN

    MARIA LIGIA BARBOSA

    JOÃO BACHUR

    CHAPTER 7B. RUSSIA

    DAVID KONSTANTINOVSKIY

    ANNA TEMKINA

    CHAPTER 7C. FROM THE CHINESE WORLD

    HSIN-HUANG MICHAEL HSIAO

    AGNES SHU-KEI KU

    XIANGQUN CHANG

    CHAPTER 7D. SOUTH AFRICA

    JOHAN MULLER

    TINA UYS

    MARYAM SEEDAT KHAN

    CHAPTER 7E. FROM THE MUSLIM WORLD

    HABIBUL KHONDKER

    ÇIĞDEM ADEM

    CHAPTER 8. SUBTLETIES OF PRACTICE: CONTINUITIES AND SMALL SHIFTS

    POSTWORD: RECAPITULATION WITH CLUES FOR DESIGNING FURTHER INQUIRY

    REFERENCES

    INDEX

    Biography

    Devorah Kalekin-Fishman is Emerita and Senior Researcher in the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa in Israel. Recent publications include: From the Margins to the Center: An Autoethnography of Passage between Disciplines (with Lea Hagoel, 2016) and The Shape of a Sociology for the 21st Century (ed. with Ann Denis, 2012). She was Vice-President for Publications (2006-2010) for the International Sociological Association.

    'This book is a fantastic dive into sociological reflexivity. Looking at the ways sociologists in different corners of the world live their discipline, the author offers the reader an inspiring way to reflect about contemporary sociology. While the sociologists interviewed disclose their lived experience Kalekin-Fishman crafts their discourse into a powerful interpretation of present day challenges confronting not only sociology but all the social sciences.' - Elisa Reis, Professor of Sociology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    'Thinking globally is not only understanding the global economy. It also means analyzing the world today with new tools, and taking into account recent perspectives that are opened by social scientists all over the world - not only in English. Nobody could do it better than Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, with her experience as a former vice president for publications at the International Sociological Association.' - Michel Wieviorka, President of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France