To mark the beginning of a new millennium, The American Sociological Association has published a special issue of the American Sociological Review (ASR) on "Looking Forward, Looking Back: Continuity and Change at the Turn of the Millennium." With articles by leading sociologists, this issue provides insightful discussion of broad social trends over the past century and reflects on the state of society at the beginning of a new century and millennium.
Looking forward, Alejandro Portes (Princeton University) sets the stage in a keynote article entitled "The Hidden Abode: Sociology as Analysis of the Unexpected." Portes describes the difficulty of social forecasting by pointing to historical examples of the negative consequences that can result from well-intended large-scale purposive action. Major social upheavals of the 20th century-the great Depression, the rise of Nazism, the fall of Communism-were not generally anticipated by sociologists. Because efforts at human betterment can yield results that are actually the opposite of those intended, Portes concludes that sociologists can better serve human society as "social craftsmen" than as social engineers.
But, whether as engineers or craftsmen, sociologists must-like the Greek God Janus-peer forward and back simultaneously to explain the past and anticipate the future. The remaining articles in this issue do just that on key questions affecting people and societies-modernization, globalization, industrialization, secularization. Sixteen authors contributed to this volume, including, David John Frank (Harvard University), and Ann Hironaka and Evan Schofer (Stanford University), on "The Nation-State and the Natural Environment over the Twentieth Century"; and Hayward Derrick Horton (SUNY-Albany), Beverlyn Lundy Allen (Iowa State University), Cedric Herring (University of Illinois-Chicago), and Melvin E. Thomas (North Carolina State University), on "Lost in the Storm: The Sociology of the Black Working Class, 1850 to 1990."
By design, this millennium issue is one of breadth without sacrificing depth.
Topics include:
- Suppose average income in the world continues to ratchet upward in future centuries. Will any income level satisfy human beings? In an increasingly affluent world, where will the relative demand for material goods and services gravitate?
- Since all individuals and all experiences are unique, is it futile, as the post-modernists claim, to generalize about social organization?
- Is the world really more globalized now than it was 200 years ago?
- Does standardization of activities relating to protection of the environment reflect a trend toward a world society?
- What do we know about the Black working class?
- Is it possible that Western society has become more secular without becoming less religious?
The American Sociological Review, an official journal of the American Sociological Association is published bi-monthly by the ASA.
Copies of the special millennium issue of the ASR (February 2000) are available at $7 to ASA members, $15 to non-member individuals, and $20 for institutions. Orders for individual copies must be prepaid and should be sent to: ASA Publications, 1307 New York Avenue NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005-4701. Credit card orders may be phoned in to (202) 383-9005 x389.