Read more
Throughout their careers, social scientists must come up with compelling research topics, decide when and where to publish, and revise their manuscripts for publication.
Practicing Sociology brings together a range of leading sociologists to reflect on their work and demystify this tacit knowledge.
List 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.
Summary
Throughout their careers, social scientists must come up with compelling research topics, decide when and where to publish, and revise their manuscripts for publication. Practicing Sociology brings together a range of leading sociologists to reflect on their work and demystify this tacit knowledge.
