Philip N Cohen
These are this century's 23 presidents of the American Sociological Association.
5 were best known for research that was substantially quantitative at the time of their election (marked light yellow). That is 1 of the last 14.
(My counts, happy to be corrected.)
#sociology
Jun 9, 2023 at 4:58amIvory for iOS
Show threadLaura K. NelsonJun 9, 2023
@philipncohen Ridgeway is a tough one to categorize. Is formal theory substantively qualitative? I'm not sure. Anyway, interesting!
Show threadAlex HannaJun 9, 2023
@LauraNelson @philipncohen Could argue EOW was more quanty, but yeah at the time of his election it was all Real Utopias work.
Show threadPhilip N CohenJun 9, 2023
@alex @LauraNelson that's what I was thinking. (Don't know what it makes me that my first step is crudely sorting people into two piles)
Show threadJonathan HorowitzJun 9, 2023
@alex @LauraNelson @philipncohen I would definitely categorize Wright as more quant-oriented than qual-oriented if those were the only two options, but I think most people would identify him as "theory."
Show threadPeter CatronJun 9, 2023
@philipncohen Nominations (not who wins) are more mixed? I recall Mike Hout being up recently, maybe others.
Show threadJonathan HorowitzJun 9, 2023
@philipncohen Those all look yellow to me!
Show threadPhilip N CohenJun 9, 2023
@jonathanhorowi1 good point. Changing to "light yellow"
Show threadJonathan HorowitzJun 9, 2023
@philipncohen There appear to be two main determinants of who gets elected. (1) They have a "big idea" associated with them. (2) They are strong proponents of a "critical" perspective of some kind.
Show threadJonathan HorowitzJun 9, 2023
@philipncohen Personally, I don't care as long as the president is interested in good governance but that doesn't seem to be a thing anymore.
Show threadPhilip N CohenJun 9, 2023
@jonathanhorowi1 yes that is a good lesson for power-hungry quants
Show threadColin J. BeckJun 9, 2023
@philipncohen The more illuminating data is who they were up against. The pattern seems to be that the more widely assigned your work is, the more likely it is you win. The largest voting bloc is students and they are low information voters.
Show threadPhilip N CohenJun 9, 2023
@cjb would be cool to see the voter turnout by career status. (I was once part on an ill-fated townhall type meeting at which grad students expressed preference for one chair candidate, and faculty preferred the other. Guess who got the job. That was a lesson.)