AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION AND OTHER SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONSMinority Affairs; Academic and Profession-
al Affairs; Public Affairs; Public Informa-
tion; Research on the Discipline and
Profession; and the Spivack Program),- The launch of the ASA’s Spivack Program
in applied social research and social policy
and a continuous, intentional effort to
bring research to bear on public poli-
cy issues, - The beginning, and end, of the ASA’s
certification program, - The beginning, and end, of the journal
Sociological Practice Review, - The beginning of the MOST program
(Minority Opportunities for Summer
Training for the first five years and
Minority Opportunities through School
Transformation, for the next five years,
funded by the Ford Foundation), - Greater autonomy for sections and an
increase in the number of sections, - New policies on ASA resolutions and
policymaking, - Revision of the Code of Ethics, as an
educative document, which serves as a
model for aligned sociological groups, - Restructuring of ASA committees to a
more targeted ‘‘task force’’ model, - Addition of a new ‘‘perspectives’’ journal,
- Increased attention to science policy and
funding, including collaborations with
many other groups, - Increased attention to sociology depart-
ments as units, and to chairs as their
leaders, as shown in the Department
Affiliates program, - Active collaboration between the ASA and
higher education organizations such as the
American Association for Higher Educa-
tion and the American Association of
Colleges and Universities.
Members (and nonmember sociologists) have
differing views about the current form of the ASA,
which is discussed at the end of this article.
The ASA is but one organization in a network
of sociological organizations or associations in
which sociologists comprise a significant part of
the membership. These groups operate in a com-
plementary way to the ASA; some were formed in
juxtaposition to the ASA to fulfill a need the ASA
was not serving or to pressure the ASA to change.
The genres of these organizations are briefly dis-
cussed below.REGIONAL AND STATE ASSOCIATIONSIn many disciplines, a national association includes
state and regional chapters. In sociology, those
regional and state groups have always been inde-
pendent entities, with their own dues, meetings,
and journals. Nonetheless, the ASA has worked
collaboratively with these associations. The ASA
sends staff representatives to their annual meet-
ings, offers to serve on panels and meet with their
councils, sends materials and publications, and
convenes a meeting of regional and state presi-
dents at the ASA’s annual meeting. In the 1960s
regional representatives sat on the ASA council.
Everett Hughes (1962) provided a sociological
critique of this approach to governance, suggest-
ing that the ASA was a disciplinary not a profes-
sional association. He argued that the ASA should
not be organized as a federation of such repre-
sentatives, and this regional delegate format end-
ed in 1967. Later, candidates for the Committee
on Committees and the Committee on Nomina-
tions were nominated by district (not identical to
regional associations) to ensure regional represen-
tation. That approach ended in 1999.Twenty-four states (or collaborations among
states) have sociological associations. Some are
extremely active (e.g., Wisconsin, Minnesota, North
Carolina, Illinois, Georgia) and have some special
foci that link to their state-based networks. The
Georgia Sociological Association, for example,
sponsors a workshop for high school teachers; the
association also honors a member of the media for
the best presentation of sociological work. Wis-
consin sociologists used the Wisconsin Sociologi-
cal Association to organize to defeat a licensure
bill that would have prevented sociologists from
employment in certain social service jobs. The
Minnesota sociologists have made special outreach
efforts to practitioners and include these colleagues
on their board.