An epistemology of empathy and modern methods of social research: Intimations of the mind and early Chicago sociology.

Empathic qualitative methods have become emblematic of early Chicago sociology. Yet methods were not formalized through the early 20th century and empathy was not in usage as a term. Only at mid-20th century did methodological formalization in sociology begin to occur, and an additional quarter-century passed before writing about empathy in sociological methods began to crystallize. Nevertheless, a portion of early Chicago sociologists, assimilating pragmatist thought, established a framework for the deployment of empathic acumen. Because empathy involves understanding others, it is argued that it is central to the study of social life. The article contends that understanding empathy must be as central to the social scientist's knowledge as it is to the effective deployment of research methods: a competent quest to generate knowledge about social life is premised on empathy. To heighten awareness of empathy, an epistemology is necessary. To this end, the article examines empathy as situated by a set of organizational and historical conditions that account for its origin and ascendance as a prescriptive characteristic of sociological work. The author draws attention to the significance of suffering and suggests that its religious precepts are transmuted for the conditions under which sociology develops in turn-of-the-century Chicago.

"Successful" ageing in later older age: A sociology of class and ageing in place.

Supporting people to 'age in place' - to live independently at home and remain connected to the community - is an international policy priority. But the process of ageing in place is mediated in a socio-cultural context where neoliberal tropes of successful ageing reproduce a pervasive model about 'ageing well' by elevating ideals of individualised choice and self-governance. Based on two waves of qualitative interviews and interim observations, we employ a Bourdieusian logic to explore the ramifications of this context on the experiences of 46 people in later older age (80+) ageing in place in North East England. All participants enacted everyday improvisatory practices to render their homes habitable. But our participants - most of whom were located in middle-class social positions - supplemented such improvisions with a strategic disposition to plan for and actively shape their ageing-in-place futures. Our participants conveyed a distinct sense of agency over their ageing futures. Underpinning their orientations to practice was an awareness of the value attached to individually 'ageing well' and a distancing from the agedness associated with the fourth age. Our analysis demonstrates the role of capital, accrued throughout the life course, in bringing such future trajectories into effect. The central argument of this paper therefore is that the embodiment of (neoliberal) ideals of successful ageing in place requires the deployment of classed capital. In sum, contrary to the individualising narratives ubiquitous in policy pertaining to ageing well, we show the importance of classed structural moorings in this process.

The practices of artist-entrepreneurs located outside Canada's creative hubs viewed through the lens of the pragmatic sociology of critique.

Artists-entrepreneurs struggle with the tension between their artistic and entrepreneurial values. Previous research on this tension focuses on urban creative hubs and shows the presence of politicians to create, with the artists, a structure constituted of investment formulas to ease this tension. Based on Boltanski and Thévenot's On Justification theory, our research focuses on the case of artist-entrepreneurs located outside Canada's creative hubs. The tension between artistic and entrepreneurial values is expressed as a tension between the inspired and market worlds, which is managed through the civic world in Canadian creative hubs. The results of 50 semi-structured interviews with non-urban Canadian artist-entrepreneurs reveal that politicians are less implicated in these regional cultural industries. In order to manage the tension between artistic and entrepreneurial values, artists themselves are developing individual and collective investment formulas to create structure in the cultural industries that compensates for the low-level of involvement by politicians. Thus, we identify that the tension between the inspired and market worlds is managed through the presence of the projective world in the case of Canada's non-urban artist-entrepreneurs.

Les artistes­entrepreneurs sont aux prises avec une tension entre leurs valeurs artistiques et entrepreneuriales. Les recherches étudiant cette tension se concentrent sur les pôles de créativité et montrent la présence du politique pour créer, conjointement avec les artistes, une structure mettant en place des formules d'investissement permettant d'apaiser ladite tension. En prenant appui sur la théorie de la justification de Boltanski et Thévenot, cette recherche s'intéresse au cas des artistes­entrepreneurs situés hors des pôles canadiens de la créativité. La tension entre les valeurs artistiques et entrepreneuriales se décline comme une tension entre les mondes de l'inspiration et marchand et celle­ci est gérée grâce au monde civique dans les pôles canadiens de la créativité. Les résultats de 50 entrevues semi­structurées avec des artistes­entrepreneurs hors des pôles canadiens de la créativité pointent vers une implication moindre du politique dans les industries culturelles. Afin de gérer la tension entre les valeurs artistiques et entrepreneuriales, ces artistes se dotent de formules d'investissement individuelles et collectives palliant ainsi la faible implication du politique dans l'élaboration d'une structure pour les industries culturelles. Ainsi, afin de permettre la gestion de la tension entre les mondes de l'inspiration et marchand, on relève la présence du monde des projets dans le cas des artistes­entrepreneurs hors des pôles canadiens de la créativité.

Engram Studies: A Call for Historical, Philosophical, and Sociological Approaches.

In this chapter, we identify three distinct avenues of research on the philosophical, historical, and sociopolitical dimensions of engram research. First, we single out the need to refine philosophical understandings of memory within neuroscientific research on the engram. Specifically, we question the place of constructivist and preservationist philosophical claims on memory in the formulation of the engram concept and its operationalization in contemporary neuroscience research. Second, we delve into the received historiography of the engram claiming its disappearance after Richard Semon's (1859-1918) coinage of the concept. Differently from this view, we underline that Semon's legacy is still largely undocumented: Unknown are the ways the engram circulated within studies of organic memory as well as the role Semon's ideas had in specific national contexts of research in neurosciences. Finally, another research gap on the engram concerns a socio-anthropological documentation of the factual and normative resources this research offers to think about memory in healthcare and society. Representations of memory in this research, experimental strategies of intervention into the engram, as well as their translational potential for neurodegenerative (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) and psychiatric (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder) conditions have not yet received scrutiny notwithstanding their obvious social and political relevance.All these knowledge gaps combined call for a strong commitment towards interdisciplinarity to align the ambitions of a foundational neuroscience of the engram with a socially responsible circulation of this knowledge. What role can the facts, metaphors, and interventional strategies of engram research play in the wider society? With what implications for philosophical questions at the foundation of memory, which have accompanied its study from antiquity? And what can neuro- and social scientists do jointly to shape the social and political framings of engram research?

[A body is born: contemporary transformations in the knowledge produced between Sociology and Health]. / Nasce um corpo: transformações contemporâneas no conhecimento produzido entre a Sociologia e a Saúde.

In what ways have the social phenomena understood as belonging to the sphere of "health" provoked Sociology in recent decades? This essay takes this question as a starting point for linking Sociology and Health, proposing a reflection on how knowledge can advance at the intersection between these two fields of knowledge. The article is structured in three sections: in the first, a brief reflection on the notion of "contemporary sociological problems" will be presented, indicating the questions of the Sociology of Health that can be taken as a vector for this inquiry; in the second, it examines some contributions of the Sociology of Health, especially from the late 20th century, indicating how this area has had to organize solutions and reconfigure sociological problems to deal with contemporary phenomena; and in the last section, it proposes new questions for thinking about health as a sociological problem in the contemporary political context.

De que modo os fenômenos sociais entendidos como pertencentes à esfera da saúde provocaram a Sociologia nas últimas décadas? Este estudo parte dessa pergunta para articular Sociologia e Saúde, propondo uma reflexão sobre a maneira como o conhecimento pode avançar na interseção entre essas duas áreas. O texto é organizado em três seções: na primeira, oferece uma breve reflexão sobre a noção de "problema sociológico contemporâneo", indicando as questões da Sociologia da Saúde que podem ser tomadas como vetores para essa indagação; na segunda, examina algumas contribuições da Sociologia da Saúde, sobretudo a partir da segunda metade do século XX, pontuando a maneira como essa área precisou organizar soluções e reconfigurar problemas sociológicos para dar conta de fenômenos contemporâneos; e por fim, na terceira seção, o texto propõe novas perguntas para pensar a saúde como problema sociológico contemporâneo no contexto político atual.

¿De qué manera los fenómenos sociales entendidos como pertenecientes al campo de la "salud" han provocado la Sociología en las últimas décadas? Este ensayo parte de este interrogante para articular Sociología y Salud en una reflexión sobre cómo el conocimiento puede avanzar en la intersección entre estas dos áreas del conocimiento. Este texto se organiza en tres apartados. En el primer apartado se reflexiona brevemente sobre la noción de "problema sociológico contemporáneo" indicando las cuestiones de la Sociología de la Salud que pueden considerarse como motor para esta cuestión; en el segundo, se examinan algunas aportaciones de la Sociología de la Salud, especialmente de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, en las cuales señala cómo el área necesitaba organizar soluciones y reconfigurar los problemas sociológicos para abarcar los fenómenos contemporáneos; y, en el tercer apartado, se plantean nuevos interrogantes para pensar la salud como un problema sociológico contemporáneo en el contexto político actual.

Race, community, and doing sociology.

What further evidence is needed to effectively address the unsatisfactory schooling experiences and educational trajectory of Black youth to help shape their path toward more successful social outcomes? I return to this persistent question in my research to reflect on how I have used sociological research in prior observations, and to build on earlier studies. I show how following research participants over a period of time, and with attention to how they relate to and are nested in community, family and peers, has enabled me to more effectively document their experiences, imaginations, and ambitions from adolescence to adulthood. I contend that longitudinal studies, framed by a community referenced approach, best ensure that we attend to the complex, diverse, and transitional lives of Black youth, and the social, cultural, educational, economic, and political contexts they navigate. At this time of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives, sociology could help to advance education about, and initiate action for, Black people so that the equity promised by Canadian multiculturalism might be realized.

Quelles sont les preuves supplémentaires nécessaires pour traiter efficacement les expériences scolaires insatisfaisantes et la trajectoire éducative des jeunes Noirs afin de les aider à s'orienter vers des résultats sociaux plus satisfaisants? Je reviens sur cette question persistante dans mes recherches pour réfléchir à la manière dont j'ai utilisé la recherche sociologique dans des observations antérieures et pour m'appuyer sur des études antérieures. Je montre comment le fait de suivre les participants à la recherche sur une certaine période, en prêtant attention à la manière dont ils sont liés et imbriqués dans la communauté, la famille et les pairs, m'a permis de documenter plus efficacement leurs expériences, leurs imaginations et leurs ambitions, de l'adolescence à l'âge adulte. Je soutiens que les études longitudinales, encadrées par une approche référencée par la communauté, sont le meilleur moyen de s'assurer que nous prenons en compte les vies complexes, diverses et transitoires des jeunes Noirs, ainsi que les contextes sociaux, culturels, éducatifs, économiques et politiques dans lesquels ils évoluent. À l'heure des initiatives d'EDI, la sociologie pourrait contribuer à faire progresser l'éducation sur les Noirs et à lancer des actions en leur faveur, afin que l'équité promise par le multiculturalisme canadien puisse se réaliser.

Proxy failures in practice: Examples from the sociology of science.

Following John et al., we provide examples of failing proxies that might help to contextualize the role of proxy failures in applied research. We focus on examples from the sociology of science and illustrate how the notion of proxy failure can sharpen applied analysis, if used in a way that does not obscure other dysfunctional effects of proxies.

The problem of context revisited: Moving beyond the resources model.

The problem of context, which explores relations between societal conditions and science, has a long and contentious tradition in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. While the problem has received little explicit attention in recent years, two contemporary positions remain evident. First is the resources model, which seeks to maintain the autonomy of scientists by denying contextual influence, restricting the role of contexts to providing a pool of 'novel inputs'. Second is the contextual shaping position which recognizes that societal conditions influence science but remains conceptually vague and theoretically undeveloped. This paper argues, given current disciplinary conditions, the problem of context deserves renewed attention. In this paper I first review the history of the debate from the 1930s, highlighting several anxieties that continue to hamper the open study of the problem. After this historical review, I provide a critique of the resources model and assess the possibilities and shortfalls of the contextual shaping position. By addressing past and present perspectives, my goal is to move firmly beyond narrow accounts of context, as exemplified by the resources model. Instead, I propose a renewed program of research in which rich empirical studies are combined with equally rich theoretical work directed toward developing conceptual tools better able to capture the multiple intricacies evident in context-science relations.

[United in difference: on the vocation of Brazilian sociology at the Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro, 1973-1977]. / Unidos na diferença: sobre a vocação da sociologia brasileira no Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro, 1973-1977.

This article investigates the first generation (1973-1977) of researchers trained in the Graduate Program in Sociology at the Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro (IUPERJ). While IUPERJ is known as the birthplace of modern Brazilian political science, sociology there is less well known. Using documentary resources, interviews, and the secondary literature, we take a nuanced look at this generation, which has been described as both excessively heterogeneous and less original in comparison to political science at IUPERJ. For them, theoretical and methodological specialization was seen as central to a political sociology that sought responses to the demands of a society at the crossroads between modernization and redemocratization.

Este artigo busca compreender a vocação científica consagrada pela primeira geração (1973-1977) de pesquisadores do Programa de Pós-graduação em Sociologia do Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro (Iuperj). Embora o Iuperj seja visto como berço da moderna ciência política brasileira, pouco se sabe sobre sua sociologia. Para tal, baseamo-nos em documentos, entrevistas e bibliografia secundária. Queremos nuançar diagnósticos sobre essa geração, ora vista como excessivamente heterogênea, ora como pouco original se comparada à ciência política iuperjiana. Na vocação daquela geração, o elogio à especialização teórico-metodológica era parte central de uma sociologia política que buscava dar respostas às demandas de uma sociedade na encruzilhada entre modernização e redemocratização.

Pragmatism and medical sociology: Three precepts.

While medical sociology has long incorporated insights from pragmatist philosophy, recent contributions call for a more explicit engagement with this tradition. Complementing Greenhalgh and Engebretsen's (2022) call for a pragmatist analysis of public health policymaking and crisis, we systemize medical sociology's engagement with pragmatism. We suggest three precepts of pragmatist philosophy as they relate to medical sociology: First, a focus on consequences in action, or understanding medical phenomena through what is done rather than established definitions; Second, problem solving, or how medical actors move between habit and creativity; And third, negotiation of meaning, or analyzing patient-provider communication through ongoing action and interpretation. Such systematization, we argue, would enrich both new and existing topics in medical sociology, from medicalization to mask-wearing.

Is it time sociology started researching incompetence?

There appears to be a mismatch between apparent incompetence in the world and the amount of sociological research it attracts. The aim of this article is to outline a sociology of incompetence and justify its value. I begin by defining incompetence as unsatisfactory performance relative to standards. Incompetence is thus intrinsically sociological in being negotiated and socially (re)constituted. The next section foregrounds how widespread and serious incompetence is. This renders effective sociological understanding crucial to welfare. The article then systematically analyses uses of the term in the British Journal of Sociology (a good quality general journal) to assess the current state of research. This analysis fully confirms the neglect of incompetence as a research topic. The next section proposes suitable methods for preliminary incompetence research addressing distinctive challenges like the stigma of being incompetent. These sections then allow incompetence to be better contextualised by other contributing concepts like power, bureaucracy and meritocracy. The final section justifies suggestions about directions for future research.

Detecting value(s): Digital biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and the valuation of new diagnostic technologies.

This article explores how the meanings and values of diagnosis are being reconfigured at the interface between technological innovation and imaginaries of precision medicine. From genome sequencing to biological and digital 'markers' of disease, technological innovation occupies an increasingly central space in the way we imagine future health and illness. These imaginaries are usually centred on the promise of faster, more precise and personalised diagnosis, and the associated hope that if detected early enough disease can be effectively treated and prevented. Underpinning and reproduced through these narratives of the future is a re-conceptualisation of diagnostic processes and categories around the anticipation of future risk, as noted by recent theoretical developments in the sociology of diagnosis and related disciplines. Adding to this literature, in this article we explore what makes these emerging diagnostic arrangements valuable, to whom and how. Drawing on interviews with experts involved in the development of digital biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease, we trace how multiple and at times conflicting applications of the tools, and the value(s) attached to them, are coproduced. We thus ask what possibilities are pursued, or foreclosed, through the work of imagining the future of diagnosis.

Life funds, urban development, and the experimental practices of financial sociology.

How did the Norwich Union, a life and general insurance company, come to see itself as a 'local developer with people always at the centre of our planning'? This article explores how a small number of insurance companies, capitalising on their long history of property investment, used their investment funds, or 'life funds', to transform the built environment of UK in the twentieth century. In the postwar period life funds were contracted by local governments to finance, plan and develop solutions to urban issues that paralleled those targeted by post-war welfare reforms. This involved companies in developing expertise, working practices, instruments and collaborative arrangements that are not adequately represented as financial investment. Ventures into development on this scale had also to be ventures in futures planning, calculated bets on how people would - and how they should - live, work and spend. These are enterprises that I characterise as 'experimental practices of financial sociology' as a provocation that acknowledges first, that non-sociologists sometimes devise huge sociological experiments and second, that the separation of economics from sociology, and of finance from society, is a disciplinary move that is far less strictly enacted outside the academy.

Radicalisation studies: An emerging interdisciplinary field.

This research note provides an overview of Radicalisation Studies as an emerging interdisciplinary field aimed at developing more holistic understandings of how and why individuals and groups turn to extreme ideologies and political violence. It traces the evolution of radicalisation research across core social science disciplines, including sociology, psychology, anthropology, and political science. While this burgeoning scholarship has expanded knowledge, persistent gaps remain due to studying radicalisation in disciplinary silos. To address this fragmentation, the research note proposes an integrated Radicalisation Studies approach grounded in critical social theory and reflexivity. This paradigm synthesises concepts and mechanisms from across disciplines to investigate the complex interplay between individual vulnerabilities, group dynamics, and broader socio-political contexts in generating radicalisation. The note outlines theoretical foundations, guiding research questions, and methodological strategies for this new field focused on mixed-methods, multi-level analysis. Radicalisation Studies holds promise for advancing theoretical integration, contextualised explanations, critical perspectives on radicalisation discourse, and evidence-based preventative policies. While challenges remain in institutionalising this emerging field, Radicalisation Studies has the potential to steer research towards greater interdisciplinarity and the nuanced understandings necessary to elucidate this complex phenomenon. The research note aims to spur debate on constructing Radicalisation Studies as a viable scholarly enterprise.

Animism and science in European perspective.

The European tradition makes a sharp distinction between animism and science. On the basis of this distinction, either animism is reproved for failing to reach the heights of science, or science is reproved for failing to reach the heights of animism. In this essay, I draw on work in the history and philosophy and science, combined with a method from the sociology of scientific knowledge, to question the sharpness of this distinction. Along the way, I also take guidance from the research of North American Indigenous scholars. As it turns out, there is a rich, if largely overlooked, tradition of Aristotelian animism running through the history of modern European science, and this tradition sometimes resonates with Indigenous perspectives. By challenging the entrenched distinction between animism and science, I aim to help reconcile ongoing tensions between Indigenous and European scientific groups, and so strengthen prospects for their mutually beneficial cooperation.

Psychiatric epidemiology and the Chicago School of Sociology.

This article explores the Chicago School of Sociology's influence on psychiatric epidemiology. While the Chicago School text usually associated with psychiatric epidemiology is the 1939 book by Faris and Dunham, it is important to acknowledge the influence of earlier Chicago School projects during the 1920s. These projects, tackling everything from homelessness and delinquency to the ghetto and suicide, provided models not only for Faris and Dunham, but also for numerous methodological and theoretical insights for the social psychiatry projects that would emerge after World War II. The social sciences and the humanities still have important roles to play in informing contemporary approaches to psychiatric epidemiology and deriving ways to tackle the socio-economic problems that contribute to mental illness.

Generations, events, and social movement legacies: Unpacking social change in English football (1980-2023).

This article critically employs the case of association football in England, from 1980 to 2023, as a social movement timescape, to examine the political consciousness and long-term mobilisations of a generation of football supporter activists, and their capacity to influence politics, and respond to new, emerging, critical junctures, through networks of trust and shared memories of historical events. This is of crucial importance to sociology because it reveals the tensions between what are considered legitimate and illegitimate social practices which characterise contemporary society's moral economy. Focusing on temporal contestations over regulation, policing, governance and cultural rituals, the article deconstructs the role of generations in social movements, and critically synthesises relational-temporal sociology and classic and contemporary work on the sociology of generations, to show how legacy operates as a multifaceted maturing concept of power and time. In English football's neoliberal timescape, the supporters' movement has reached a critical juncture; the future will require a new generation of activists, to negotiate, resist and contest the new hegemonic politics of social control and supporter engagement.