About the Book
Throughout their careers, social scientists must come up with compelling research topics, decide when and where to publish, and revise their manuscripts for publication. Despite the importance of these skills, they are seldom if ever addressed in the course of graduate training. Heavy emphasis is placed on conducting research, and other core activities such as teaching also receive attention, yet fundamental academic practices are left almost entirely in the shadows.
Practicing Sociology brings together a range of leading sociologists to reflect on their work and demystify this tacit knowledge. In conversational and engaging essays, they provide practical guidance and hard-won wisdom for readers at any stage of their scholarly careers. The book's three sections explore the art of finding new research questions, best practices in publishing, and how to make the most out of the peer review process. Contributors' distinctive voices come through as they recount their frustrations and failures as well as the joys of the sociological craft. They provide a range of perspectives, underscoring that there is no one "right" way to practice sociology but a constellation of different approaches that together give the field its vitality.
Practicing Sociology features a team of skilled scholars including Peter Bearman, Paul J. DiMaggio, Wendy Espeland, Marion Fourcade, Shamus Rahman Khan, Eric Klinenberg, Michèle Lamont, Jennifer Lee, Mignon Moore, Mario Small, Duncan Watts, and many more.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Vision, Decision, Revision: Finding Topics, Audiences, and Voices, by David Stark
Part I. Encountering: Discovering a New Research Project
1. The Art of Recognizing What You Ought to Have Wanted to Look For, by Andrew Abbott
2. Keeping One’s Distance: Truth and Ambiguity in Social Research, by Delia Baldassarri
3. Notes for “Heuristics of Discovery”, by Peter Bearman
4. Heuristics and Theorizing as Work on the Self, by Michela Betta and Richard Swedberg
5. Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat, by Barbara Czarniawska
6. Four Mechanisms for Finding (and Being Found by) Research Problems, by Paul J. DiMaggio
7. The Education of a Sociologist, by Marion Fourcade
8. When a Dissertation Chooses You, by Eric Klinenberg
9. Heuristics for Discovery, by John Levi Martin
10. Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index: The Fabrication of Serendipity, by Johannes F. K. Schmidt
11. Openings, by Lucy Suchman
Part II. Publishing: What Is Your Publication Strategy?
12. Shall I Publish This auf Deutsch or in English?, by Jens Beckert
13. A Paper Is Like a Horse—and a Book Is Like a Whale?, by Massimiano Bucchi
14. What’s Good Enough?, by Wendy Espeland
15. Publishing in Modern Times, by Neil D. Fligstein
16. Habits, Canvases, and Conversations: How I Think about Publishing, by Shamus Rahman Khan
17. On Publication Strategies, by Kristian Kreiner
18. How to Publish, but Most Importantly, Why, by Michèle Lamont
19. From Public Engagement to Publication, by Jennifer Lee
20. Not Having a Publication Strategy Is My Strategy, by Celia Lury
21. A Balanced Publication Strategy, by Christine Musselin
Part III. Revising: How Do You Improve a Manuscript for Publication?
22. On Second Thought: Re Revising, by Bruce G. Carruthers
23. Working at Writing, by James M. Jasper
24. When Revising a Text Can Transform Your Research, by Mignon R. Moore
25. Revisions as a Complex Intellectual Journey, by Amalya L. Oliver
26. Author, Editor, Audience, by Eric I. Schwartz
27. Why I Rewrite, by Mario L. Small
28. To Revise or Rewrite Anew: That Is the Question, by Marta Tienda
29. Thank You, Reviewer 2: Revising as an Underappreciated Process of Data Analysis, by Stefan Timmermans and Iddo Tavory
30. Five Feet at a Time, by Duncan J. Watts
31. Abolish the R&R, by Christine L. Williams
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index
About the Author :
David Stark is Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, where he directs the Center on Organizational Innovation. He has studied factory workers in socialist Hungary, new media employees in a Silicon Alley startup, derivative traders on Wall Street, electronic music artists in Berlin, bankers in Budapest, farmers in Nebraska, video game producers, and megachurches that look like shopping malls.
Review :
Practicing Sociology is not a book of epistemology or methodology. Instead, adopting the approach of science studies and drawing on contributions from eminent scholars, it shows the importance of the writing process, from observations to publishable texts. It sends a message that all sociologists should hear: don't think you write what you think, but if all goes well you may end up thinking what you've written and rewritten over and over again.
This book will greatly help demystify what sociologists do while retaining the complexity and idiosyncrasies of our pursuits. It will probably be of most interest to doctoral students and those entering the profession, as well as to readers already familiar with the authors’ works.
