malpractice or best practice? the fight over “rigor” in criminal justice reform

The following is a guest post by Jonathan Ben-Menachem.

Two criminal justice reform heavyweights are trading blows over a seemingly arcane subject: research methods. In a tweet, Jennifer Doleac, Executive Vice President of Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures, accused the Vera Institute of Justice of “research malpractice” for their evaluation of New York college-in-prison programs. In a response posted on Vera’s website, President Nick Turner accused Doleac of “giving comfort to the opponents of reform.” 

introducing theory and social inquiry

The below is a letter from the editorial board of a new journal, Theory and Social Inquiry. Here is the statement in its original PDF form. While I had no hand in this, I wholly endorse the endeavor.

“where dada?”

Note: This is a post about why I am voting in favor of the ASA resolution sponsored by the Sociologists for Palestine.

how to run an article award committee

Last year, I had the honor of chairing two article award committees for ASA: the Granovetter Award for the Economic Sociology Section and the Junior Theorist Award for the Theory Section. Both committees ended up similar processes that worked fairly well, so I thought I would share a brief description in case it’s helpful to any future award committee chairs taking on the task for the first time.

asa defense of christina cross

Christina Cross, an Assistant Professor of Sociology, was recently subject to bad faith accusations of plagiarism by Christopher “incite a moral panic over Critical Race Theory” Rufo. Rufo leveraged similar allegations against Claudine Gay into forcing her resignation. Cross’s alleged plagiarism involves similar text to other articles… in the boilerplate description of large, commonly-used survey datasets like the PSID. Harvard Crimson discusses the story here.

The American Sociological Association has issued a response, reproduced in full below because I could only find it as a pdf linked from the site formerly known as Twitter and I thought folks might want to be able to link the text to a stable URL not requiring a login.

college and underemployment

The Strada Education Foundation released last week a major report, “Talent Disrupted,” on college graduates and underemployment. Trumpeted by the Wall Street Journal as demonstrating the importance of majors and internships, the large-dataset study claims to show that majoring in useful things like health sciences and quantitative-heavy subjects, along with having an internship, are the ways to avoid underemployment after college.

statements from the asa theory section council on t&s editorial changes

The ASA Theory Section Council just released two statements on the editorial changes at the journal Theory and Society. The first statement responds to the new editors’ statement of goals and addresses inclusivity and pluralism in social theory. The second addresses editorial independence and Springer’s handling of the editorial transition. The two statements are reproduced in full below.

2024 junior theorists symposium call for papers

SUBMIT YOUR PRÉCIS HERE

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 22nd, 11:59pm Eastern Time

The 18th Junior Theorists Symposium (JTS) is now open to new submissions. The JTS is a conference featuring the work of emerging sociologists engaged in theoretical work, broadly defined. Sponsored in part by the Theory Section of the ASA, the conference has provided a platform for the work of early-career sociologists since 2005. We especially welcome submissions that broaden the practice of theory beyond its traditional themes, topics, and disciplinary function.

guest post: some reflections on theory and society

The following is a guest post by Musa al-Gharbi.

In recent weeks, there has been significant turmoil around the journal Theory and Society. The previous editorial board has resigned en masse. A new set of lead editors was brought in. The journal is poised to relaunch with a new mission statement to accompany the new editorial board.

I am one of the scholars who joined that board. While reading about the controversy around the journal in recent days, I encountered Dan Hirschman’s post on scatterplot that included a handful of questions he’d like to have the new editorial board members answer.

I admire Hirschman and his work, and I think the questions are reasonable, and they present a good opportunity to reflect on the direction of the journal and the field more broadly – so I fired off some responses below.

Although it will probably be obvious as people read this, I should say at the outset that I did not consult at all with Springer, the new lead editors, or other members of the new editorial board in answering these questions. I’m speaking for and as myself alone and can’t speak meaningfully about how representative my answers are with respect to the rest of the board or other stakeholders.

guest post: springer nature response on t&s

The following is a press release from Springer, the publisher of Theory & Society. It was written for Retraction Watch (which is covering the story) and also shared with me.

they work hard for the money

The following is a guest post by Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra.

What do market incentives do to the structure and content of knowledge? Over the past few years, I have reflected on this question in various ways, both personally and professionally. Sometimes, they alter the distribution of power within our organizations. Sometimes, they indirectly shape the course of our careers. Sometimes they alter the mechanics of how knowledge is produced and disseminated. This last path is particularly relevant today, as editorial infrastructures fall under the increasing control of a small number of for-profit publishers.

This is what, I believe, sits at the crux of the recent changes to Theory & Society, a storied journal that offered a visible and respected venue for social theory.

questions for the new theory & society editorial board

Late last month, the senior editors of the journal Theory & Society announced their collective resignation. Springer, which owns the journal, had decided to replace the existing editor-in-chief and take the journal in a new direction without consulting the existing editorial team. These resignations were soon followed (on January 4th) by the resignations of the rest of the editorial board (the corresponding editors). The full text of both resignation letters is below.

The new editors-in-chief were then announced and recently posted a statement of goals which might be politely described as “controversial” and, at a minimum, very counter to the prior focus of the journal.

Today, the new editorial board was listed on the journal’s website. The timing suggests that this editorial board had already been recruited before the prior editorial team had resigned en masse. This timeline also raises the question of how much the incoming editorial board members knew and when. I would like to invite any of the incoming editorial board to speak to the process by which this transition (takeover?) occurred. Specifically, I would like to invite them to answer the following questions:

1. When were you asked to serve on the new editorial board? What was the pitch you were given when you were asked?

2. Did you the know the previous editorial board was not consulted about the change in editors?

3. Do you stand behind the statement of goals released by the new editors?

4. Given the way the transition happened, do you intend to stay on the board?

asa panel – the future of democracy

ASA 2023 has been a good meeting (thus far at least)! A well-attended session on the future of democracy featured Melissa Murray and Louise Seamster (ably moderated by Scatterplot’s own Dan Hirschmann). The conversation was great, and I learned quite a bit from both of the scholars. Recent court decisions by SCOTUS and the lower courts really do threaten democratic representation, and the talks explained just how these decisions are at once dangerous and ungrounded. Similar for other institutional questions, e.g., egregious gerrymandering.

That said, the panel raised a couple of issues I thought I’d raise here (after the break)….

resources for new assistant professors

A couple of months ago, I asked on Twitter if there were any resources for new assistant professors comparable to Jess Calarco’s A Field Guide to Grad School or Fabio Rojas’s Grad Skool Rulz. Folks there had a bunch of suggestions that I thought I would compile here for posterity. Note that I have not personally read all of the suggestions. And please feel free to suggest more resources in the comments!

Condemning online harassment

I am writing today to make the online-facing sociology community in Canada and the US aware that a serial harasser is using multiple anonymous Twitter accounts to target, harass, and impersonate several Muslim women sociologists. Muslim women graduate students in particular are receiving the brunt of this harassment, including impersonation and the posting of disparaging remarks and outright lies about their personal lives. 

You may be aware of other online harassers that have plagued sociologists. Similar to other harassers who have targeted sociologists in the US, this anonymous person claims a victim status, purporting to be harassed, stalked, and marginalized within academic spaces. In doing so, they seek to develop a following and to garner sympathy from others.

These accounts pose as a Muslim woman and actively participate in topical online discourse to reinforce this image; however, the people I have spoken with suspect that this is not the case. Their anonymity, and their habit of switching accounts repeatedly, posting photos and false information, lends little credibility to their persona or their stories of victimhood. On the other side, real people whom I know and trust are being harassed by this person.