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Jonathan H. Turner 

“The Consequences of the Transforming of American Sociology Association, and Sociology More Generally, into a Movement Organization”

Abstract:
Over the last fifty years, sociology has been moving toward activism, while at the same time reducing its earlier commitments to science. It was perhaps inevitable that the conflict between value-neutral science and value-laden programs for amelioration of problematic conditions in American society and elsewhere would come into conflict. Why did this transformation, accelerating as I write this abstract, occur? What have been the consequences of this change? What will be the future of scientific sociology?  What will be the future of ASA? What will be the kinds careers will be available for sociologists? Will sociology have to be re-invented by another name—my preference, the original name for sociology, Social Physics?  As someone who has advocated for a “hard science of sociology,” this transformation is unsettling but, as I see it, now inevitable and not likely be reversed. Many are leaving ASA in light of this transformation. Indeed, in 1965, when I started graduate school, ASA had a membership of around 9,000, and then over the next decades had two peaks at just below 15,000 in the 1972 and 2007, with a drop to 9,400 in 2000, the last reported year on ASA’s website (but with membership probably down from this last figure). There have been and will be further consequences for American Sociology of this shift in emphasis away from science, and the trend it likely to continue. What further consequences lay ahead?  Answering that question is important for anyone is now a professional sociologist, or for all those who thinking of becoming a professional sociologists.

Bio:
Jonathan H. Turner is 38^th University Professor of the University of California system. He received his B.A. degree form U.C. Santa Barbara in 1965, his M.A. at Cornell University in 1966, and his PhD at Cornell 1968. He was a professor at U.C. Riverside for fifty years, and remains affiliated with U.C. Riverside and U.C. Santa Barbara campuses. He is primarily a general theorist with specialties in a number of areas, including the sociology of emotions, interpersonal behavior, institution, and evolutionary analysis. He is the author of 45 books, 10 edited volumes, and several hundred research papers and chapters. He is also Director of the Institute for Theoretical Social Science in Santa Barbara, CA.

His most recent books are On Human Nature: The Biology and Sociology of What Made US Human (2021), The First Institutional Spheres (2022, with S. Abrutyn), Inter-Societal Systems: Toward a More General Theory (in press, with T. Roberts), and Bio-Social Evolutionary Analysis (in press, with A. Maryanski). Future books in progress include: The Stratification of Human Emotions: Theoretical Principles, The Sociology of Interpersonal Behavior: A General Theory, and Sociological Principles of Sociological Practice.

March 16th (Thursday) 12:30-1:30pm MT