Sociologica - International Journal for Sociological Debate

27/02/2025

This article introduces three essays in the Focus section on “Problems of Democracy” adapted from the 25th Anniversary Conference of Columbia University’s Center on Organizational Innovation (COI). It argues that an ongoing shift in the organizational form of society from mass to network production and communication requires a new set of questions around the organization of democracy. Specifically, democracy’s core function of connecting power to accountability is shown through these essays to be increasingly dis-organized by this shift, necessitating new ways of addressing this old problem.

Jonathan Bach
Global Studies, The New School

Introduction: Democracy Disorganized? Authors Jonathan Bach Global Studies, The New School, New York Jonathan Bach is a Professor of Global Studies and Interim Dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies at The New School in New York. He is the author, inter alia, of What Remains: Everyday Encounter...

26/02/2025

This reply to the three reviews serves three purposes: it briefly recapitulates the core points of the book, addresses the specific comments raised by the reviewers, and provides general, forward-looking reflections on research in this field. For each comment raised, the responses offer elaborations and extensions, connecting the discussion to broader questions such as knowledge, truth, and the interplay between subjective and objective uncertainty.

Patrik Aspers
Research Institute of Sociology, Universität St.Gallen (HSG)

Coping with Knowledge Conditions: A Reply to Reviewers Authors Patrik Aspers Research Institute of Sociology, University of St. Gallen https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9840-8669 Patrik Aspers is Chair of Sociology at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). He has previously been Chair at Uppsala Univ...

24/02/2025

In this critical commentary of Patrik Aspers’ book, I consider some of his assumptions that uncertainty is a universal human challenge that can be addressed through systems of mutual adjustments. I argue that a broad approach to risk that acknowledges both its rational knowledge and non-rational elements such as emotion, and combines future orientation with interrogation of the past, provides a way of understanding strategies for managing uncertainty. I consider the ways such an approach can be applied to a real-world case-study, the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/20391

Andy Alaszewski
University of Kent

Uncertainty, Fear and Action. A Critical Commentary on Patrik Aspers’ Book Authors Andy Alaszewski University of Kent https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6312-7306 Andy Alaszewski is an Emeritus Professor of Health Studies at the University of Kent (United Kingdom). He is an applied social scientist who h...

22/02/2025

Patrik Aspers (2024) clearly shows that a sociological study of uncertainty that does not reduce it to calculable risk is promising. At the same time, his focus on the reduction of uncertainty through public knowledge limits his interest for how the same forms of public knowledge contribute to the production of uncertainty, in effect limiting what we can find out about how the reduction of uncertainty actually works. It seems necessary, then, to bring Aspers’ approach together with other strands of research into uncertainty that also avoid reducing uncertainty to risk, but focus on other dimensions of dealing with, reducing, creating and navigating uncertainty.

Tobias Werron
Faculty of Sociology, Universität Bielefeld

Uncertainty, Reduced. A Discussion of Patrik Aspers’ Book Authors Tobias Werron Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0902-9393 Tobias Werron is a Professor of Sociological Theory at Bielefeld University (Germany). His main research interests include competition, n...

20/02/2025

Uncertainty is part of the human condition, stemming from both social and natural sources and mitigated through different social solutions. It may be ubiquitous, but it isn’t monolithic or unvarying. Neither is uncertainty reduction. The generic solution to too much uncertainty is more knowledge, which can be created in a variety of ways. But knowledge isn’t monolithic or unvarying, either. As Aspers (2024) well appreciates, human knowledge is reflexive and influences its own premises. Aspers’ book is useful because he addresses this important topic in a disciplined and insightful way. He doesn’t treat all aspects of his topic (impossible to do in a book barely 200 pages long), and a more systematic discussion of power and uncertainty remains to be pursued, but he certainly lays some critical groundwork (dare I call it “bedrock”?) that others can build on.

Bruce G. Carruthers
Department of Sociology, Northwestern University

The Certainty of Uncertainty. A Discussion of Patrik Aspers’ Book Authors Bruce G. Carruthers Department of Sociology, Northwestern University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2703-3107 Bruce G. Carruthers is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University and a Long-term Fellow...

18/02/2025

This essay introduces a Debate Section of Sociologica discussing Patrik Aspers’ book Uncertainty: Individual Problems and Public Solutions (Oxford University Press SA - Higher Education, 2024). It delineates the differences between risk and uncertainty as well as between individual means to reduce uncertainty and public ways of reducing uncertainty.

Ugo Corte
Universitetet i Stavanger

On Uncertainty and Uncertainty Reduction Authors Ugo Corte University of Stavanger https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7994-3399 Ugo Corte is Professor of Sociology at the University of Stavanger, Norway. He is the author of Dangerous Fun: The Social Lives of Big Wave Surfers (University of Chicago Press, 2...

16/02/2025

What role does the media play in shaping public life, in guiding the practices of democracy, and in maintaining or disrupting the capitalist economic system? How does the media interact with both social movements (groups of people dedicated to changing one or all of these macrosystems) and public intellectuals (people dedicated to thinking about these systems)? How do all three groups relate to each other? And when one group changes — when there are alterations in the structures and practices of the media, intellectuals, or social movements — how do the others change alongside them? These questions and others like them preoccupied American sociologist and communications theorist Todd Gitlin, and through an examination of both Gitlin’s career and his intellectual trajectory we can see some of the answers he provided: both the ways he rose to the challenge of understanding the sociology of late 20th century media, and the ways in which he fell short.

Christopher W. Anderson
Department of Social and Political Science, Università degli Studi di Milano

Between the Center and the Margins: Todd Gitlin and the Politics of Communication Authors Christopher W. Anderson Department of Social and Political Science, University of Milan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3893-8411 Christopher W. Anderson is a Professor of Cultural Sociology and Communication at th...

14/02/2025

The general lessons that I have learned while mentoring while Black include realizing that I will often be called into situations that I did not create nor do not always desire to enter into, but feel compelled to do so to help ensure that the most positive outcome for African American students might emerge. It also means that I may have to assertively defend my involvements with some students because others may determine my place in their lives as interfering with their own goals and objectives. However, there also are a few lessons that I’ve drawn from the day that I took a student on a walk with my son’s dog. An implicit one is that drawing from behavior that has significant cultural meaning to people can serve as a segue into reaching them in their own comfort zone.

Alford A. Young, Jr.
Departments of Sociology and Afroamerican and African Studies, of Michigan

Mentoring While Black: A Testimony Authors Alford A. Young, Jr. Departments of Sociology and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5654-7731 Alford A. Young, Jr. is University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, Edgar G. Epps Collegiate Profe...

12/02/2025

Walter W. Powell
Graduate School of Education, Stanford University

I use this essay to reflect on my experiences, both as a mentee and a mentor, and to share ideas about the reciprocal nature of mentorship — the way it can foster mutual growth and respect. I was fortunate to have a variety of mentors early in my career and equally fortunate to have guided dozens of doctoral students in strong, shared experiences. I claim these students as mine; whether they claim me is a question you would have to ask them. Over time, I have come to see mentorship as a two-way relationship in which both parties learn and grow.

Passing It On Authors Walter W. Powell Graduate School of Education, Stanford University https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2319-5815 Woody Powell is Jacks Family Professor of Education, and Professor of Sociology, Organizational Behavior, Management Science and Engineering, and Communication at Stanford U...

10/02/2025

I have tried to reflect on how mentorship is both absolutely necessary, and yet also runs orthogonal to the operations of contemporary academia. In this respect, they might be seen as a contradiction which lies at the heart of a neo-liberal managed academia. There is little or no incentive for senior academics to pursue good mentorship in the highly strategic and goal-oriented culture of the contemporary university: by definition (or at least, by the definitions I have championed here), good mentorship cannot be calibrated or formally weighed up in a way which allows it to be used as some kind of metric for career advance. And yet, for all the thrill one obtains from the kudos of publishing a good article or winning a grant, perhaps when relaxing in the evening it is ultimately the pleasure of seeing someone you are interested in, and care about, fulfilling their potential that is the biggest reward of all?

Mike Savage
Department of Sociology, The London School of Economics and Political Science - LSE

Some Personal Reflections on the “Mentorship Paradox” Authors Mike Savage Department of Sociology, London School of Economics https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4563-9564 Mike Savage is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics (United Kingdom) and a Professorial Research Fel...

08/02/2025

Mentorship requires time and academic interest from both parties. Despite the challenges it faces, it continues to occur, evoking one of the central values of the university: the formation of a core of reflection and the pursuit of knowledge.
Notwithstanding, the modernization of the university seems to go in the opposite direction

Darío Rodríguez — Faculty of Social Sciences and History, Universidad Diego Portales (Chile)

What Is This Thing Called Mentoring? Authors Darío Rodríguez Faculty of Social Sciences and History, Diego Portales University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9800-2087 Darío Rodríguez graduated in Sociology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and obtained a PhD in Sociology from the Un...

06/02/2025

There is always a tendency to overlook the micro-practices of cooperation and collaboration that go beyond a one-to-one relationship between a mentor and a mentee (C***a, 2011; 2013). The conversation that follows seeks to foreground mentoring as a collegial and distributed practice of reciprocity, care, and support happening in the interstices of academia.

Silvia Gherardi — Department of Sociology and Social Research, Università di Trento
Michela C***a — Department of Organization and Management, Mälardalens universitet
Laura Lucia Parolin — Department of Culture and Language, Syddansk Universitet – University of Southern Denmark

Mentoring as a Distributed Practice of Care: A Conversation Authors Silvia Gherardi Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7026-2418 Silvia Gherardi recently retired from the University of Trento (Italy). Her research interests include feminist....

05/02/2025

We are very sad and deeply affected by the tragic news of the sudden passing of Michael Burawoy.

He was a dear friend of Sociologica, and a founding and permanent member of our Advisory Board.

The very first article published by the journal in its inaugural issue, way back in 2007, was the Italian translation of his very important essay "On Public Sociology": https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.2383/24188

Over the years, a relationship of mutual esteem has been preserved and nurtured with other stunning contributions, among which today we want to remember the amazing conversation with Riccardo Emilio Chesta entitled "The Modern Prince and the Sociological Imagination", in 2019: https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/9392

Michael Burawoy was a generous, brilliant, outstanding scholar and his legacy will always be precious and inspiring for all of us.

04/02/2025

There is a peculiar expression that appears in the Talmud twice. It can be translated literally as “make for thyself a Rabbi”. I cite it when I speak to newly admitted PhD students, because I think it contains several important lessons about mentoring and being a mentee.

https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/20360

Gil Eyal — Department of Sociology, Columbia University

Keep Your Mentee Disappointed Authors Gil Eyal Department of Sociology, Columbia University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7194-3864 Gil Eyal is a Professor of Sociology at Columbia University (USA), where he has taught Social Theory and the Sociology of Expertise for 22 years, prior to which he taught...

02/02/2025

Mentoring is a much more complex thing. Besides the learning of scholarly skills, it includes helping a young aspirant to acquire the ambitions, the behavioral skills, the emotional regulation, the right use of “professional” body language, to make “playing the game” a second nature — knowing how to position themselves in the field, how to enter into alliances, and how to chose opponents (and to reject those who do not deserve to be opponents). It also includes helping them in their professional path to overcome constraints, and to detect and use opportunities.

László Bruszt, Central European University

Finding a Mentor and Being a Mentor Authors László Bruszt CEU Democracy Institute, Department of Political Science, Central European University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7624-0308 László Bruszt is the Director of the CEU Democracy Institute and Professor of Sociology at the Central European Un...

31/01/2025

In addition to publishing creative research, curating special issues on vital topics, organizing author-meets-critics debates, and conducting interviews with leading sociologists, Sociologica also plays a leading role in the discipline by offering reflections on important aspects of the sociological craft. Throughout their careers, social scientists must, for example, come up with compelling research topics, revise their manuscripts for publication, and decide when and where to publish. Despite their importance, these skills are left in the shadows — seldom if ever addressed during graduate training.

In our efforts to demystify this tacit knowledge, we have published 3 special features: “Heuristics of Discovery” (vol. 12, no. 1), “Publication Strategies” (vol. 13, no. 1), and “Revising” (vol. 16, no. 1). These 30 essays were brought together in a book, Practicing Sociology: Tacit Knowledge for the Social Scientific Craft (Stark, 2023) in which I also offer my own reflections on what it means to practice sociology.

For this issue, we invited leading sociologists from Latin America, the United States, Eastern and Western Europe to contribute to a special feature: On Mentoring.

David Stark , Co-editor-in-chief of Sociologica

Continuing Our Reflections on the Sociological Craft Authors David Stark Department of Sociology, Columbia University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2435-9619 David Stark is Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, where he directs the Center on Organizational Innovation. He has stu...

29/01/2025

The new issue 18(3)/2024 of "Sociologica. International Journal for Sociological Debate” has been published and is now freely available online, at the link:

https://sociologica.unibo.it/issue/view/1350

The issue proposes an amazing Special Feature titled “On Mentoring”, edited and introduced by David Stark, with seven contributions by László Bruszt, Gil Eyal, Silvia Gherardi, Michela C***a, and Laura Lucia Parolin, Darío Rodríguez, Mike Savage, Walter W. Powell and Alford A. Young, Jr.

The Essay Section hosts an interesting contribution by Christopher Anderson, titled “Between the Center and the Margins: Todd Gitlin and the Politics of Communication”, while the Section Debate/Author Meets Critics is focused on Patrik Aspers’ new book “Uncertainty: Individual Problems and Public Solutions (Oxford UP, 2024), edited and introduced by Ugo Corte, with three challenging commentaries by Bruce G. Carruthers, Tobias Werron and Andy Alaszewski, followed by Patrik Aspers’ reply.

The issue is completed by an engaging Focus on “Problems of Democracy”, edited and introduced by Jonathan Bach, with three contributions by László Bruszt, Gina Neff and Pablo J. Boczkowski.

We hope you will enjoy this brand-new issue of the journal!

21/11/2024

I have been very critical of rational choice accounts of trust as introduced by prominent scholars such as James Coleman and Russell Hardin. However, in the spirit of sensemaking, I would not say they have been wrong, but their conceptualizations have been simplistic and incomplete.

Guido Möllering, Universität Witten/Herdecke

Practice(s) of Trusting. Commentary on Gil Eyal, Larry Au and Cristian Capotescu’s “Trust Is a Verb!” Authors Guido Möllering Reinhard Mohn Institute of Management, Faculty of Management, Economics & Society, Witten/Herdecke University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1157-7289 Guido Möllering is...