The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fifty people, the first president of the association was Lester Frank Ward. Today, most of its members work in academia, while around 20 percent of them work in government, business, or non-profit organizations.

ASA publishes ten academic journals and magazines, along with four section journals, including the American Sociological Review and Contexts.

The ASA had 9,893 members in 2023, as an association of sociologists even larger than the International Sociological Association. It is composed of researchers, students, college/university faculty, high school faculty, and various practitioners Sociologists debated whether there was a need for a separate organization from the American Economic Association, American Political Science Association and the American Historical Association, which most sociologists at the time were members of.

In 1953, during the annual meeting in Berkeley, California, each of the (living) past presidents of the society would compose a voice recording to address the coming generation of sociologists.

1981–present

ASA membership peaked at almost 15,000 in 2007 before declining to its current level below 10,000.

100-year anniversary

In 2005, in celebration of the association's 100th anniversary, ASA published a 201-page book entitled A History of the American Sociological Association, 1981–2004. The publication picks up where the 1981 Rhoades history concludes, continuing the story and capturing the association's history from 1981 through 2004. It was the culmination of over two years of detailed research by Katherine J. Rosich.

Code of Ethics

The ASA is governed by a code of ethics, which has been revised since 1970, with the first ASA code of ethics being written in 1970. ASA members are bound by the code of ethics. The association also has codes for meeting behavior, disclosure, award revocation, and removal from leadership positions.

Publications

ASA Style Guide

ASA style is a widely accepted format for writing university research papers that specifies the arrangement and punctuation of footnotes and bibliographies. Standards for ASA style are specified in the ASA Style Guide, which is designed to aid authors in preparing manuscripts for ASA journals and publications.

ASA Academic Journals and Magazines

The association publishes the following academic journals and magazines:

The ASA also publishes Footnotes, a newsletter aimed at the association's members. Footnotes was established in 1979 and is published five times per year.

Presidents

The following persons have been presidents of the American Sociological Association:

Meetings

The Annual Meeting of the ASA is held each August to provide opportunity for sociologists to share research, develop professional networks, give awards, and hold committee meetings. The 2023 meeting had 4,802 attendees and featured 3000 research papers.

Awards

Every year, in August, the ASA presents awards to individuals and groups deserving of recognition. The awards presented are:

  • Distinguished Scholarly Book Major ASA Award
  • Dissertation Major ASA Award
  • Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues Major ASA Award
  • Jessie Bernard Major ASA Award
  • Cox-Johnson-Frazier Major ASA Award
  • Award for the Public Understanding of Sociology Major ASA Award
  • Distinguished Career Major ASA Award for the Practice of Sociology
  • Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Major ASA Award
  • W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award

Additionally, the Sections of the ASA administer separate multiple awards, which are presented each August during the annual meeting.

Controversies

Jailing of Rik Scarce

In 1993, then-doctoral student Rik Scarce was jailed for more than five months as a result of following the ASA's code of ethics. Scarce's Ph.D. research was on the radical environmental movement. Based on an FBI investigation of an Animal Liberation Front break-in, federal prosecutors argued in court that Scarce may have engaged in conversations with individuals believed to be involved with the incident. Prosecutors demanded that Scarce testify to a federal grand jury about those conversations, but Scarce refused to answer three dozen questions, citing the ASA Code of Ethics and the First Amendment as his reasoning for remaining unresponsive. Scarce's refusal to answer resulted in a contempt of court citation and 159 days spent in jail. He was never suspected of wrongdoing and—in keeping with contempt of court practice—he was never read his Miranda rights, arrested, or tried.

Frances Fox Piven and Glenn Beck

In early 2010, ASA publicly expressed outrage over a controversy involving Frances Fox Piven and Glenn Beck, asking Fox News to stop Beck's comments. An article written by Piven concerning mobilization of unemployed individuals had spurred the commentary by Beck. ASA suggests in their public statements that the line should be drawn at name calling and that political commentators should instead rely on gathering evidence related to the topics and then drawing the proper conclusions.

The Belfast Project

In January 2012, a United States district court ordered Boston College to turn over material from the "Belfast Project", an oral history project pertaining to the violence in Northern Ireland. Boston College filed an appeal in February 2012, challenging the district court's decision. ASA became involved in the case to help protect human participants from the subpoena of confidential project research data. The statement by the ASA council cited the potential damage this ruling would have on social science research by stifling the ability to study controversial topics. ASA is looking for an affirmation by the court for confidentiality in research.

Sociologists for Palestine resolution

From 2023 to 2024, in response to the war in Gaza sociologists organized to request that the American Sociological Association establish a stance calling for a ceasefire and pursuing divestment from arms. In December 2023, a letter signed by 125 sociologists including six former ASA presidents, asked for a statement in support of ceasefire.

Beyond calling for "an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza", the adopted resolution specifies that the association "supports members' academic freedom, including but not limited to defending scholars' right to speak out against Zionist occupation."

Critique

Within the environmental sociology section of the ASA, in 2016 an ad hoc Committee on Racial Equity investigated racial and ethnic diversity within the section in response to critique that the section was overwhelmingly white. Their assessment of the professional climate for scholars of colour concluded that the section was a 'white space' characterized by the overwhelming presence of whites and dominated by white leadership. They concluded that this situation acts as a barrier to inclusion of people of colour in the field, and that the field of environmental justice was likewise marginalised.

See also

  • List of sociological associations

References

  • North Central Sociological Association website