Sociology of Development

A new Sociology of Development Policy Brief is out! Volume 4, Issue 3 (2019) is “The Organized Hypocrisy of Development Funding: Maternal Mortality Changes in Sub-Saharan Africa” by Jamie M. Sommer (University of South Florida), John M. Shandra (State University of New York at Stony Brook), Michael Restivo (State University of New York at Geneseo), and Holly E. Reed (Queens College, City of New York).

Also, here is a message from our Policy Brief editor Alaka Basu:

The plan now is to have one brief out every month, so I welcome expressions of interest. While I am open to any ideas you have, your pitch should ideally include a reference to something you have published on the subject, so that we can assume a base level of peer reviewing of the material.

Alaka M. Basu, Professor
Department of Development Sociology
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
ab54@cornell.edu

We are seeking a new co-editor of our section newsletter, Sectors. This is a great opportunity for a junior scholar to become involved with the section and network with other individuals in our subfield. The newsletter is published semi-annually (in the fall and spring semesters) and includes Council and section news, feature stories, calls for papers and other opportunities in the field, and the section’s official reports. Sectors is e-mailed to all current section members through the listserv and posted on the section’s website.

The co-editor will have a two-year term from August 2020 to July 2022. During the first year (2020-2021), the new editor will work in a team with one of the current co-editors. During the second year (2021-2022), they will continue working with a new co-editor selected in 2021. Both co-editors will work collaboratively to shape the content and formatting of the newsletter. They will seek out and develop original content for the newsletter and maintain regular features.

The Section Council will select the co-editor from all interested parties, and the co-editor will report to the Council regularly (during council meetings). The co-editor will work closely with the Chair and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Section.

Qualifications:

• Member of the Sociology of Development Section;
• Strong organizational skills, including ability to meet deadlines;
• Strong written communication skills;
• Strong MS Word and Acrobat Reader skills
• Graduate students are welcome and encouraged to apply.

Application consists of:

• a one-page statement of interest, qualifications, and ideas for the newsletter
• a one-page CV

Please submit applications to: socdevsectors@gmail.com by December 30, 2019. Applicants will hear back by the end of the Spring 2020 term.

The Sociology of Development section of the American Sociological Association invites
nominations for three awards recognizing outstanding scholarship in the area of the sociology of development: Book Award, Faculty Article Award, and Graduate Student Paper Award.

Sociology of Development Section Book Award

All books published in 2018 or 2019 are eligible. A brief letter of nomination (self-nominations are welcome) and a copy of the nominated book should be sent to EACH of the committee members listed below by March 1, 2020. In accordance with ASA policy, all award nominees must be current members of the association in order to be considered.

Chair: Kristy Kelly, Drexel University
537 Penn Street
Bethlehem, PA 18018
USA
Email: kek72@drexel.edu

Committee Member: Meghan Kallman
93 Capwell Ave
Pawtucket, RI 02860
USA
Email: Meghan.Kallman@umb.edu

Committee Member: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle
419 S 45th St Apt 5
Philadelphia, PA 19104
USA
Email: firuzeh.shokoohvalle@fandm.edu

Committee Member: George K. Danns
3820 Mundy Mill Road
Oakwood, GA. 30566
USA
Email: george.danns@ung.edu

Committee Member: Anne Mook
American University of Sharjah
Department of International Studies
P.O. 26666, Sharjah
United Arab Emirates
Email: acmook@ufl.edu

Sociology of Development Section Faculty Article Award

Please send a letter of nomination and an electronic version of the article to EACH of the committee members listed below by March 1, 2020. If the article has been published, the copyright date must be 2018 or 2019. However, unpublished articles are also welcome and self-nominations are encouraged. In accordance with ASA policy, all award nominees must be current members of the association in order to be considered.

Chair: Poulami Roychowdhury
Department of Sociology
McGill University
Email: poulami.roychowdhury@mcgill.ca

Committee Member: Bandana Purkayastha
Department of Sociology
University of Connecticut
Email: bandana.purkayastha@uconn.edu

Committee Member: Zach Levenson
Department of Sociology
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Email: zachary.levenson@uncg.edu

Committee Member: Heidi Rademacher
Sociology
SUNY-Brockport
Email: hrademacher@brockport.edu

Committee Member: Tom VanHuevelen
Department of Sociology
University of Minnesota
Email: tvanheuv@umn.edu

Sociology of Development Section Graduate Student Paper Award

Please send a letter of nomination and an electronic version of the article to EACH of the committee members listed below by March 1, 2020. If the article has been published, the copyright date must be 2018 or 2019. However, unpublished articles are also welcome and self-nominations are encouraged. The author must be a graduate student who has not received the PhD by March 1, 2020. For co-authored papers, all authors must be graduate students. In accordance with ASA policy, all award nominees must be current members of the association in order to be considered.

Chair: Jordanna Matlon
School of International Service
American University
Email: jcmatlon@american.edu

Committee Member: Alvin Camba
Department of Sociology
The Johns Hopkins University
Email: acamba1@jhu.edu

Committee Member: Holly Reed
Department of Sociology
Queens College, CUNY
Email: Holly.Reed@qc.cuny.edu

Committee Member: Steven Schmidt
Department of Sociology
University of California, Irvine
Email: seschmid@uci.edu

Committee Member: Barbara Wejnert
Political Sociology
College of Arts and Sciences
University at Buffalo, SUNY
Email: bwejnert@gmail.com

Click HERE to view recipients of Section Awards.

A new Sociology of Development Policy Brief is out! Volume 4, Issue 2 (2019) is “The Varieties of Chinese Capital in the Developing World” by Alvin Camba (Johns Hopkins University).

Also, here is a message from our Policy Brief editor Alaka Basu:

I welcome expressions of interest. While I am open to any ideas you have, your pitch should ideally include a reference to something you have published on the subject, so that we can assume a base level of peer reviewing of the material.

Alaka M. Basu, Professor
Department of Development Sociology
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
ab54@cornell.edu

We invite you to submit news and announcements for the fall 2019 issue of Sectors, the Sociology of Development section newsletter. In particular, we welcome:

• Announcements about new book or journal publications (abstracts are not required, but encouraged)
• News of completed dissertations, research grants and awards, and/or new positions and promotions
• Announcements about upcoming conferences and workshops organized by section members, calls for proposals and papers, and job fellowship/grant opportunities (with late December deadlines or later)
• Job and fellowship/grant opportunities (with late December deadlines or later)
• Job market candidate spotlights, including (1) name, (2) affiliation/school, (3) email and website, (4) specializations, (5) dissertation title, and (6) short dissertation abstract (150-200 words).
• Short descriptions of member research projects in progress and photographs related to research, with an accompanying description
• Book reviews of texts with a development focus (please email us with your idea and we can work out the details)

We also encourage junior scholars (i.e., graduate students, recent grads, postdocs, and new faculty) to submit short articles (500-600 words) for Notes from the Field, a series that offers scholars an opportunity to share their research in progress with the section community. Notes from the Field essays should reflect on the research process–for example, providing a description of recent fieldwork, describing experiences in the archives, or reflecting on behind-the-scenes challenges of data collection and analysis for quantitative work. Faculty mentors are welcome to encourage their students to submit.

Please send all materials to Sectors editors Maria Akchurin and Jeb Sprague at SOCDEVSectors@gmail.com by November 15, 2019. The Fall 2019 edition of Sectors is scheduled for release in early December, so time-sensitive news items (such as calls for papers, job applications, etc.) should have deadlines in late December or January.

If you have any questions, please contact us at SOCDEVSectors@gmail.com.

Sociology of Development is looking for volunteers to staff our three award committees: the Book Award, the Faculty Article Award, and the Graduate Student Paper Award.

This is a great opportunity to play an active role in recognizing outstanding scholarship in our field! Please be aware that committee work typically occurs between March and May, with awards announced in early June.

If you wish to serve on one of these committees, please email the Chair of your preferred committee by October 14 to indicate your interest.

Chair of Section Book Award Committee
Kristy Kelly, Drexel University
kek72@drexel.edu

Chair of Section Article Award Committee
Poulami Roychowdhury, McGill University
poulami.roychowdhury@mcgill.ca

Chair of Section Student Award Committee
Jordanna Matlon, American University
jcmatlon@american.edu

Our President, Jennifer Keahey, is calling for suggestions for panels at ASA 2020 in San Francisco. Please see below for her message and for how to submit suggestions!

I am delighted to announce that the time has come to finalize the themes for our section’s panels at the ASA 2020 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

As our section day falls on the final day of the conference, we have been awarded an additional program slot. This means we have four panels to plan.

In accordance with section tradition, I have decided that one of our four panels will be an open-topic panel.

In the spirit of our diversity clause, the second panel will focus on perspectives from the global South.

I am calling for suggestions for the third and fourth panels. If you have a topic that you would like to suggest, please email me at Jennifer.Keahey@asu.edu by no later than Wednesday, October 9.

Preference will be given to development topics that have been underrepresented in previous ASA section panels or that intersect with the ASA 2020 theme of power, inequality, and resistance at work. I particularly welcome suggestions for underrepresented topics that also have fairly broad appeal.

Kind Regards,

Jennifer

A new Sociology of Development Policy Brief is out! Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019) is “Broadband Internet, Fertility and Work from Home” by Francesco C. Billari (Universita’ Bocconi),  Osea Giuntella (University of Pittsburgh), and Luca Stella (Universita’ Bocconi and IZA).

Also, here is a message from our Policy Brief editor Alaka Basu:

Here (at last!) is the first of the new series of Policy Briefs being edited by me, Alaka Basu, for the Sociology of Development section of ASA.

Our first policy brief is titled: “Broadband Internet, Fertility and Work from Home” by Francesco C. Billari, Osea Giuntella and Luca Stella (2019, volume 4, issue 1).

The plan now is to have one brief out every month, so I welcome expressions of interest. While I am open to any ideas you have, your pitch should ideally include a reference to something you have published on the subject, so that we can assume a base level of peer reviewing of the material.

Alaka M. Basu, Professor
Department of Development Sociology,
Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY 14853
ab54@cornell.edu

The editors of the Sociology of Development section’s newsletter, Sectors, invite you to submit news, recent publications, calls for papers, and job market announcements for the Fall 2019 issue of Sectors. In particular, we welcome:

• New book or journal publications (abstracts are not required, but encouraged)
• News of completed dissertations, research grants and awards, and/or new positions and promotions
• Upcoming conferences and workshops organized by section members, calls for proposals and papers, and job fellowship/grant opportunities (with late December deadlines or later)
• Job and fellowship/grant opportunities (with late December deadlines or later)
• Job market candidate spotlights, including (1) name, (2) affiliation/school, (3) email and website, (4) specializations, (5) dissertation title, and (6) short dissertation abstract (150-200 words).
• Short descriptions of member research projects in progress
• Book reviews of texts with a development focus. Junior scholars are particularly encouraged to submit reviews, and faculty are welcome to recommend reviewers.
• Photographs related to member research, with an accompanying description

Please submit all materials to Sectors editors Maria Akchurin and Jeb Sprague at SOCDEVSectors@gmail.com by November 15, 2019. The Fall 2019 edition of Sectors is scheduled for release in early December, so time-sensitive news items (such as calls for papers, job applications, etc.) should have deadlines in late December or January.

We also encourage junior scholars (i.e., graduate students, recent grads, postdocs, and new faculty) to submit short articles (500-600 words) for Notes from the Field, a series that offers junior scholars an opportunity to share their research with the section community. Notes from the Field articles should provide a description of recent fieldwork. Faculty mentors are welcome to encourage their students to submit. The deadline for all Notes from the Field submissions is October 31, 2019.

If you have any questions, please contact the editors at SOCDEVSectors@gmail.com.

New Issue Alert! The Fall 2019 issue of Sociology of Development is published and live. This is a special issue on Developmental Idealism, guest edited by Arland Thornton and Keera Allendorf. Table of contents and link below.

Sociology of Development, Table of Contents, Vol. 5 No. 3, Fall 2019
Link to issue: https://socdev.ucpress.edu/content/5/3

“New Research on Developmental Idealism”
Keera Allendorf, Arland Thornton
(pp. 225-228) DOI: 10.1525/sod.2019.5.3.225

“Developmental Idealism, the International Population Movement, and
the Transformation of Population Ideology in Kenya”
Susan Cotts Watkins, Dennis Hodgson
(pp. 229-247) DOI: 10.1525/sod.2019.5.3.229

“Television and Development: Anticipated Changes at the Local Level”
Rukmalie Jayakody
(pp. 248-264) DOI: 10.1525/sod.2019.5.3.248

“The Spread of Ideas Related to the Developmental Idealism Model in Albania”
Arjan Gjonça, Arland Thornton

“Developmental Idealism in Internet Search Data”
Shawn F. Dorius, Jeffrey Swindle
(pp. 265-285) DOI: 10.1525/sod.2019.5.3.265

“The Reliability and Stability of Measures of Individuals’ Values and
Beliefs Concerning Developmental Idealism in Nepal”
Arland Thornton, Dirgha Ghimire, Linda Young-DeMarco, Prem Bhandari
(pp. 314-336) DOI: 10.1525/sod.2019.5.3.314