Commentary on some of the Russian writings of Pitirim A. Sorokin

The roots of Sorokin's sociology are found in his Russian works. Barriers of language and politics however, have prohibited their study by many social scientists and historians. This article is the most systematic effort to compile, translate, and annotate the catalogue of Sorokin's scholarly writings from 1910 to 1922. The recent changes that made this bibliography possible have stimulated a resurgence of Russian respect and interest in Sorokin, and opened new opportunities for research and collaboration. These are explored in the closing section of the article.     

American legal realism and sociological jurisprudence: The methodological roots of a science of law

There remains a good deal of confusion concerning the respective roles legal realism and sociological jurisprudence played in the movement to demythologize the study of law in the United States. It is asserted that this confusion is the result of a failure to recognize that American legal realism was part of the intellectual tradition of the thennew behavioral sciences–in particular, adopting as its methodological premise the ideal of a divorce between the study of fact and value. In contrast, sociological jurisprudence under the influence of Roscoe Pound, relied upon the tradition of pragmatic philosophy, ultimately denying that the realist's separation was either possible or desirable. As such, American legal realism should be seen as the true precursor of more modern attempts to engage in the study of judicial behavioralism and to attempt more scientific studies of the judicial process.     

Joining a consumer society: Russian immigrant versus American materialism

• Regardless of their home country, immigrants to the United States often arrive in search of personal freedom and a share of the riches of this country. Prior research has identified a range of knowledge and skills that immigrants must acquire in order to navigate such a consumer society. One aspect of joining a consumer society that has not been addressed, however, is the role of material goods in one's life. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changing role, if any, of material goods in the lives of immigrants arriving in the United States from a non‐consumer society and to compare the level of materialism among such immigrants with that of Americans. The results of a study of 278 Soviet‐era Russian immigrants and 200 native‐born Americans indicate that at the time the immigrants arrived, they were just as materialistic as Americans and became no more materialistic, the longer they lived in the United States. Both Americans and Russians, however, became less materialistic with age. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

     

The construction of self-injury in the clinical literature: a sociological exploration

This article presents a sociologically informed critique of a range of academic literatures relating to self-injury. It is noted how a lack of consensus on definitional issues, together with the inaccurate portrayal of the "typical self-injurer" in the clinical literature, has impeded the development of a sound understanding of self-injury. Some of the more problematic explanations for self-injury are explored. The individualistic focus of existing research is found to be inadequate, since it fails to account for the social context in which self-injury occurs. Social scientific approaches critically examine psychiatric and psychological constructions of self-injury, explore wider social and cultural meanings of the behavior, and examine its distribution across different social groups. The inclusion of social scientific perspectives into current debates will greatly improve understanding of self-injury.     

Sorokin and Parsons at Harvard: Institutional conflict and the origin of a hegemonic tradition

The early history of Harvard sociology is closely entwined with the careers and personalities of Pitirim Sorokin and Talcott Parsons. The processes and conditions that led to Parsons's rise and Sorokin's decline are essential to understanding the development of Harvard sociology. Edward Tiryakian's work on theory schools and hegemonic traditions in the social sciences is a useful framework for analyzing and discussing these developments. Following Tiryakian, one can simultaneously trace the operating factors in Sorokin's failure to achieve lasting power and the development of a Parsonian sociology which would vie for hegemony in the discipline. Personality, milieu, forms of theorizing, and sociology's movement toward maturation are keys to the major changes in Harvard sociology during the 1940s. Analysis of this case deepens understanding of the conditions that contribute to the emergence of important intellectual traditions.