100 Years of Social Forces

кортинко тыцабельно

Social Forces is the second oldest sociological journal in the United States that has been published continuously under the same name. Founded in 1922, it has been housed since then in the Sociology Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Social Forces focused on the South early on, was affiliated with a regional sociological organization (Southern Sociological Society [SSS]), and then expanded into an explicitly international journal publishing work from authors across six continents. Social Forces has regularly ranked as one of the top three general journals in Sociology, along with the American Journal of Sociology (AJS—the oldest continuously published sociology journal, founded in 1895) and the American Sociological Review (ASR—established in 1936).

The 100 years of Social Forces reflect patterns associated with the development of sociology as a discipline and profession, such as changes in the norms and practices of scholarly journal publishing (i.e. peer reviewed submissions as opposed to invited articles), the refining of methodological approaches, and the changing boundaries of the discipline in relation to other social sciences, such as anthropology, political science, history, and economics (e.g., see the essays in Calhoun 2007 [по ссылке пройдите, чтобы смотреть всё]). Social Forceshas pushed back against disciplinary silos as a more “general” social science journal, promoting interdisciplinary research.

There has been a close relationship between the UNC Sociology Department and Social Forces through the years. All the editors have been UNC Sociology faculty members. Its founder, Howard W. Odum, had a strong supporting cast within the UNC Sociology department, many of whom were his students—such as Katharine Jocher, Guy Johnson, Richard Simpson, and Rupert Vance—who helped Odum produce a collective product that reinforced a sense of common purpose within the Sociology Department.

This essay provides an historical overview of the 100 years of Social Forces. We trace the journal’s relationship to the evolution of sociology and of journal publishing. Over time, there have been significant changes in the subjects and structure of articles. Our discussion of broader trends in the discipline and journal publishing complements the bibliometric analysis of the content of Social Forces provided by Moody, Edelmann, and Light (2022) in this issue. We also supplement the essays describing central topics that appear in this issue (on the South, globalization, and race) and the three other issues in Volume 101. We highlight significant shifts in the production of the journal that have redefined its scope and purpose, such as: peer and blind reviewing; electronic review processing and other technological advancements; and relationship to various publishers.

We organize our overview in terms of the editors of the journal that define three main eras in the evolution of Social Forces. These eras differed somewhat in their topics and authors of articles, as well as in the norms and practices by which articles were published.

—Early Years: 1922–1961. Howard W. Odum (1922–1954); Katharine Jocher (1927–1961); and Gordon W. Blackwell (1955–1956);

—Professionalization: 1960s–1990s. Rupert B. Vance (1957–1969); Guy B. Johnson (1961–1969); Everett K. Wilson (1972–1982); and Richard L. Simpson (1969–1972; 1983–2004);

—Internationalization: 2000s-present. Judith Blau (2003–2005); Peter Uhlenberg (2005–2007); François Nielsen (2007–2010); and Arne L. Kalleberg (2010–present).