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2007 American Sociological Association Michael R. Hill University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]

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This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Department, Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Hill, Michael R. 2007. “American Sociological Association.” Pp. 130-134 in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, Vol. 1, edited by George Ritzer. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. 130 American Sociological Association

Lyman, S. M. (1998) Gunnar Myrdal's An Amer­ architects of what became the American ican Dilemma After a Half Century: Critics and sociological tradition and included (with Anticritics. International Journal oj Politics, Cul­ institutional affiliations and dates of ASS ture, and Society 12(2): 327-89. presidency): Lester Frank Ward (Brown Uni­ Myrdal, G. (1944) An American Dilemma: The versity, 1906-7), William Graham Sumner Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Harper & Brothers, New York. (Yale University, 1908-9), Franklin Henry Smith, C. V. & Killian, L. M. (1990) Sociological Giddings (Columbia University, 1910--11), Foundations of the Civil Rights Movement. In: Albion Woodbury Small (University of Chicago, Gans, H. (Ed.), Sociology in America. Sage, New­ 1912-13), Edward Alsworth Ross (University of bury Park, CA, pp. 105-16. Wisconsin, 1914--15), George Edgar Vincent Southern, D. W. (1987) Gunnar Myrdal and Black­ (University of Minnesota, 1916), George Elliott White Relations: The Use and Abuse oj An Amer­ Howard (University of Nebraska, 1917), ican Dilemma, 1944-1969. Louisiana State Uni­ and Charles Horton Cooley (University of versity Press, Baton Rouge. Michigan, 1918). The pioneering work of the Wacker, R. F. (1983) Ethnicity, Pluralism, and Race: ASS and its ever-growing membership is Race Relations Theory in America Before Myrdal. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. chronicled in the 23 volumes of the Papers and Proceedings of the American Sociological Associa­ tion (1906-28) and in the pages of the American Journal of Sociology (AJS). The AJS, founded in 1895 by Albion W. Small and published by the University of Chicago Press, predated American Sociological the ASS. The AJS, under Small's editorship, became the voice of the ASS and reprinted Association many of the articles and official reports appear­ ing in the Papers and Proceedings (Meroney Michael R. Hill 1930a). From the beginning, ASS membership The American Sociological Association (ASA) grew steadily from 115 in 1906 to 1,812 in is currently the largest and most influential 1930, with the largest proportion of members membership organization of professional (41. 7 percent and 41.5 percent, respectively) sociologists in the US. The ASA began its coming from the Middle West and the East. organizational life in 1905 when a small group In the early years, to 1922, annual meetings of self-selected scholars representing several focused single-mindedly on a topic chosen and existing scholarly organizations (including the organized by the Society's president for that American Economic Association, the American year, with an average of only 43 members Historical Association, and the American participating on the program of any given Political Science Association) proposed a sepa­ meeting. These relatively small gatherings rate and independent American Sociological provided maximum opportunities for detailed Society (ASS) ("Organization of the American discussions and face-to-face interaction Sociological Society" 1906). The first ASS between presenters, discussants, and the atten­ annual meeting convened December 27-29, dees as a whole. When Columbia's Franklin 1906, in Providence, Rhode Island, with 115 H. Giddings presided at the 1911 meeting in members and a full program of scholarly Washington, DC, for example, the program papers. In 1959 the organization's name was roster included 14 participants, an all-time formally changed from the American Socio­ low. The introduction of separate sectional logical Society to the American Sociological meetings (organized around special topics) Association. As of 2004, the ASA reported within the ASS began in 1922, resulting in 13,715 paid members and an investment port­ larger total numbers of program participants folio valued at $7.1 million. during annual meetings and, simultaneously, a Corporately, the first ASS presidents trend away from extended discussions of the comprised the major white, male, intellectual presentations toward the reading of large American Sociological Association 131 numbers of formal papers per se (Meroney Chicago. Park favored perspectives advocated 1930b), a pattern that continues today. By by Booker T. Washington and this made room 2004 there were 43 separately organized sec­ for limited African American participation tions, representing such diverse fields as within organized sociology. Partly in conse­ teaching and learning; medical sociology; quence, E. Franklin Frazier, with a doctorate Marxist sociology; sociology of emotions; from the University of Chicago, became - in mathematical sociology; history of sociology; 1948 - the first African American ASA pre­ animals and society, etc. sident. Nonetheless, Frazier later recounted Despite the existence of numerous female instances of racial discrimination at ASS meet­ sociologists during the first years of the twen­ ings. Little changed during subsequent years. tieth century, the ASS was overwhelmingly a In 1968 the Black Caucus, led by Tillman male club. When women were invited to par­ Cothran, was organized to confront the con­ ticipate on the annual programs it was typi­ tinuing marginalization of African Americans cally as discussants rather than as major within the ASA. As of 2001, African Amer­ presenters (albeit the programs organized by icans comprised approximately 6 percent of Edward A. Ross (1914 and 1915) and William the ASA membership. Two additional African I. Thomas (1927) were more inclusive of Americans have been elected to the ASA pre­ women). Men dominated governance of the sidency: William Julius Wilson (1990) and ASS during its first 25 years. Women rarely Troy Duster (2005). Compounding sexism reached the inner sanctum of the ASS Execu­ with racism, no African American woman tive Committee. The few who did were Emily has ever been elected to the ASA presidency Green Balch (1913-14), Julia Lathrop (1917- (Deegan 2005). 18), Grace Abbott (1920-23), Susan M. When the ASS was first proposed in 1905, Kingsbury (1922-25), Lucile Eaves (1924- Edward A. Ross, then a professor at the Uni­ 26), and Ethel Stugess Dummer (1927-30). versity of Nebraska, endorsed the idea but also Foreshadowing the end of what Deegan wrote: "As the American Journal of Sociology (1991) called the "dark era of patriarchal will no doubt publish the best part of the ascendancy" in American sociology, extending proceedings, I see no reason for our group from 1920 to 1965, Dorothy Swaine Thomas doing any publishing." By 1935, however, a became in 1952 the first woman elected to the disgruntled faction within the ASS chafed at ASS presidency. Since 1969, members of the editorial control exercised over the AJS by Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) the University of Chicago, as well as the Chi­ have lobbied for wider participation by women cago department's unbroken administrative in governing the ASA. Subsequent female lock on the ASS office of secretary-treasurer. ASA presidents include Mirra Komarovsky By a two-to-one vote at the annual business (1973), Alice S. Rossi (1983), Matilda White meeting in December 1935, the ASS member­ Riley (1986), Joan Huber (1989), Maureen T. ship established a new journal, the American Hallinan (1996), Jill Quadagno (1998), and Sociological Review (ASR) - and it remains an Barbara F. Reskin (2002). As of 2001, women official ASA journal today. Of those support­ comprised approximately 52 percent of the ing this change, Frank H. Hankins (of Smith ASA membership. College) was made the first editor of ASR, African American sociologists also experi­ Henry P. Fairchild (of New York University) enced variable inclusion within the ASA was elected ASS president, and Harold Phelps membership and governance structures. For (a non-Chicagoan from Pittsburgh) was elected example, W. E. B. Du Bois, America's most secretary of the Society. It was a clean sweep noted and prolific African American sociolo­ for the rebels (Lengermann 1979). Nonethe­ gist, neither attended ASA meetings nor held less, the strong Chicago influence within the any ASA office. Indeed, Du Bois was profes­ ASA continued. For example, of the 25 ASA sionally ostracized due to the ideological oppo­ presidents elected from 1946 to 1969, fully 12 sition of Robert E. Park, an ASA president (48 percent) had earned their doctorates (1925) and an influential faculty member of at Chicago. Harvard University, the only sig­ the sociology department in the University of nificant challenger to Chicago's enduring 132 American Sociological Association dominance, trained six (24 percent) ASA pre­ mention a modicum of researchers and admin­ sidents during this period and seven other istrators employed by well-endowed private schools trained but one ASA president each foundations and large government agencies. (Kubat 1971: 582). The ASA's professional services, programs, The 1935 "rebellion" against Chicago exem­ awards, annual meetings, special conferences, plifies numerous quarrels characterizing sociol­ and publications directly reflect the needs and ogy generally and the ASA specifically, among interests of this bureaucratically sophisticated, them internal departmental conflicts between well-educated, upper-middle-class constitu­ powerful professors (e.g., Talcott Parsons vs. ency. Pitirim Sorokin at Harvard; Philip Hauser vs. The ASA publishes several academic serials Donald Bogue at Chicago); elite departments and currently requires subscription to at least competing with each other (e.g., Chicago vs. one major ASA journal as a condition of ASA Harvard vs. Columbia, ad infinitum); aca­ membership. These serials include American demics from large schools vs. small schools; Sociological Review, Contemporary Sociology (a so-called "pure" scientists vs. "applied" journal of book reviews), American Sociologist, researchers; large vs. small ASA sections; radi­ Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social cals vs. liberals vs. conservatives, etc. The fight P~ychology Quarterly, Sociology of Education, over Pitirim Sorokin's nomination and election Teaching Sociology, Sociological Theory, Con­ to the ASA presidency (1965) is an illuminating texts, City and Community, and Sociological case study of organizational turmoil (Johnston Methodology. The association's professional 1987). More recently, the 1976 ASA president, newsletter, Footnotes (begun in 1973), is dis­ Alfred McClung Lee, fought heatedly with the tributed to all members. Additional publishing ASA Council and subsequently decamped to projects include the Rose Series in Sociology form the Society for the Study of Social Pro­ (formerly the Rose Monograph Series), an blems (SSSP), a more openly liberal, action­ annual Guide to Graduate Departments, a bi­ oriented sociological organization (and when annual Directory of Departments, a monthly Lee discerned that the SSSP had in his view Employment Bulletin, a bi-annual Directory of become too much like the ASA, he again bolted Members, the Final Program for each yearly to co-found the Association for Humanist ASA meeting, and a variety of miscellaneous Sociology). It is a curious fact that the status, publications on special topics. prestige, and power struggles among sociolo­ Day-to-day operations of the association are gists are so little studied by a discipline in administered by the ASA Executive Officer, which such matters are otherwise standard who is selected and hired by the ASA Council inquiries. (the Council is itself elected by the ASA Over the long century since the founding of membership from a slate of candidates the ASA, countless former sociologists have selected by an elected Committee on Nomina­ been lured away by cognate disciplinary orga­ tions; write-in candidacies are possible, but nizations. This silent disciplinary migration rare; and ASA membership is essentially open includes many who are now identified as to anyone willing to pay the annual dues). social workers, criminologists, urban planners, The first full-time ASA Executive Officer, geographers, anthropologists, demographers, Gresham Sykes, was hired in 1963 with offices rural sociologists, prison administrators, ger­ in Washington, DC. From that point forward, ontologists, statisticians, economists, political the ASA executive office, as a formal bureau­ scientists, high school and community college cratic organization in its own right - with the social science teachers, and the like, who have vested interests inherent in all such organiza­ clubbed together in their own independent tions - grew in size, complexity, and influ­ groups. As a result, the ASA is neither as ence. Sally T. Hillsma,n, who became the ASA intellectually robust nor as professionally Executive Officer in 2002, is the ninth full­ diverse as it might otherwise be. For the most time appointee to hold the position. As of part, the ASA today is largely an organization 2005, the ASA executive office included some by and for tenured academic sociologists at 25 paid staff members. With the rise of the large universities and elite colleges, not to executive office, the ASA President has American Sociological Association 133 become much less responsible for ordinary comprehensive studies have yet appeared. A bureaucratic tasks and typically concentrates new archival depository for ASA records has his or her energies on chairing the Program been arranged at Pennsylvania State Univer­ Committee and presiding at Council meetings. sity, but few official records prior to 1950 are As an ongoing bureaucratic entity, the ASA extant (save reports published in the Papers executive office frequently represents the col­ and Proceedings of the American Sociological lective face of American sociology to legisla­ Socie~y and materials surviving in the personal tors, government agencies, courts of law, papers of various ASS members and officers). private industry, media, research foundations, other non-profit associations, and to practicing SEE ALSO: British Sociological Association; sociologists and would-be sociologists. For Chicago School; Cooley, Charles Horton; Du good or ill, the ASA executive office has itself Bois, W. E. B.; Komarovsky, Mirra; Park, become a consequential force in shaping and Robert E. and Burgess, Ernest W.; Parsons, promoting the public image of disciplinary Talcott; Patriarchy; Small, Albion W.; Sorokin, sociology in the US. Pitirim A.; Sumner, William Graham; Ward, It must be noted that the structure and Lester Frank constraints of the AS A, as an organization, are not congruent with the particular needs and goals of all sociologists as sociologists. A REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED variety of independent organizations serve READINGS special interests and agendas not met by the ASA and include, for example, the Society for Centennial Bibliography Project Committee, Ameri­ the Study of Social Problems, Society for the can Sociological Association Section on the History Study of Symbolic Interaction, Association for of Sociology (2005) A Brief Centennial Bibliogra­ Humanist Sociology, Rural Sociological Asso­ phy of Resources on the History of the American CiatIOn, Association of Black Sociologists, Sociological Society I Association. Online. www. mtholyoke.edul courses I etownsle/HOS/Bib. pdf. Sociologists for Women in Society, Association Deegan, M. J. (1991) Early Women Sociologists for the Sociology of Religion (formerly the and the American Sociological Society: The Pat­ American Catholic Sociological Society), the terns of Exclusion and Participation. American Harriet Martineau Sociological Society, and Sociologist 16 (February): 14-24. the Clinical Sociology Association, among Deegan, M. J. (2005) Women, African Americans, many others. These organizations, some larger and the ASA, 1905-2005. In: Blasi, A. J. (Ed.), than others but all smaller relative to the size Diverse Histories oj American Sociology. Brill, of the AS A, collectively represent a significant Leiden, pp. 178-206. number of dedicated sociologists. Further, Johnston, B. V. (1987) Pitirim Sorokin and the whereas the ASA is national in scope, several American Sociological Association: The Politics of a Professional Society. Journal oj the Histo~y regional and state sociology organizations pro­ oj the Behavioral Sciences 23 (April): 103-22. vide meetings and professional outlets on a Kubat, D. (Ed.) (1971) Paths oj Sociological Imagi­ more local level. Many sociologists participate nation: The Presidential Address before the Amer­ in both the ASA and one (sometimes more) of ican Sociological Association from 1946-1969. the smaller sociological organizations or regio­ Gordon & Breach, New York. nal societies. Some of these organizations Lengermann, P. M. (1979) The Founding of the work in tandem, alongside the ASA, some in American Sociological Review: The Anatomy of a splendid isolation, and yet others largely Rebellion. American Sociological Review 44 within the ASA. (April): 185-98. The history, politics, and activities of the Meroney, W. P. (1930a) Index to the Sociological Papers and Reports of the American Sociological American Sociological Association are the sub­ Society 1906-30. Publications oj the American ject of numerous short studies and scholarly Sociological Society 25: 226-58. articles (see Centennial Bibliography Project Meroney, W. P. (l930b) The Membership and Committee 2005). Two in-house histories have Program of Twenty-Five Years of the American been sponsored by the ASA itself (Rhoades Sociological Society. Publications oj the American 1981; Rosich 2005), but no independent Sociological Society 25: 55-67. 134 analytic induction

Organization of the American Sociological Society instances that negate the causal hypothesis. (1906) American Journal of Sociology 11 Oanuary): This general strategy, which combines the 555-69. method of agreement and the method of dif­ Rhoades, L. ]. (1981) A History of the American ference, involves the following steps (see Sociological Association, 1905-1980. American Robinson 1951; Buhler-Niederberger 1985; Sociological Association, Washington, DC. Rosich, K. ]. (2005) A History of the American Schwandt 2001; Silverman 1993; Flick 2002): Sociological Association, 1981-2004. American Sociological Association, Washington, DC. A rough definition of the phenomenon to be explained is formulated. 2 A hypothetical explanation of that phe­ nomenon is formulated. 3 One case is studied in light of the hypoth­ esis, with the object of determining analytic induction whether or not the hypothesis fits the facts in that case. Norman K. Denzin 4 If the hypothesis does not fit the facts, either the hypothesis is reformulated or Originally associated with the work of Florian the phenomenon to be explained is rede­ Znaniecki (1934), analytic induction is an fined so that the case is excluded. interpretive strategy that seeks universal expla­ 5 Practical certainty can be attained after a nations of the phenomenon in question. Ana­ small number of cases have been exam­ lytic induction involves a process of generating ined, but the discovery of negative cases and then testing hypotheses against each suc­ disproves the explanation and requires a cessive case or instance of the phenomenon. reformulation. Its decisive feature "is the analysis of the 6 This procedure of examining cases, rede­ exceptional or negative case, the case which fining the phenomenon, and reformulating is deviant to the working hypothesis" (Buhler­ the hypotheses is continued until a univer­ Niederberger 1985). Negative case analysis sal relationship is established, each nega­ may be regarded as a "process of revising tive case calling for a redefinition or a hypotheses with hindsight" (Lincoln & Guba reformulation. 1985). Analytic induction directs the investi­ gator to formulate processual generalizations Alfred Lindesmith's (1947, 1968) research that apply to all instances of the problem. on opiate addiction provides an illustration of This differentiates analytic induction from this method. The focus of his investigation other forms of causal analysis, including the was the development of a sociological theory multivariate method where concern is directed of opiate addiction. He began with the tenta­ to generalizations that apply, not to all tively formulated hypothesis that individuals instances of the phenomenon at hand, but who did not know what drug they were rather to most or some of them. receiving would not become addicted. Conver­ sely, it was predicted that individuals would DESCRIPTION OF ANALYTIC become addicted when they knew what they INDUCTION were taking, and had taken it long enough to experience distress (withdrawal symptoms) Strategically, analytic induction represents an when they stopped. This hypothesis was approximation of the experimental model to destroyed when one of the first addicts inter­ the extent that explicit comparisons are made viewed, a doctor, stated that he had once with groups not exposed to the causal factors received morphine for several weeks, was fully under analysis. Conceptually, this represents aware of the fact, but had not become the classic "before-after" experimental design, addicted at that time. This negative case and when employed in the field method it calls forced Lindesmith (1947: 8) to reformulate for the investigator to search for empirical his initial hypothesis: "Persons become addicts