The theme of this year's Theory Mini-Conference is "Theoretical Pragmatics: Methodological Challenges", focusing on the different (and sometimes contending) ways in which sociologists link the practice of theory with substantive research. The Mini-Conference consists of four invited sessions and one open paper submission session, with panelists representing the diversity of theoretical perspective that characterizes the Theory Section.

We hope to highlight the theoretical values and assumptions underlying choice of methodological techniques, as well as the practical challenges involved in wrestling theoretically with the complexities of the empirical world. We’ve asked the panelists to reflect upon their personal experiences as theoretical practitioners, so the panels will take the form of spirited dialogue rather than formal paper presentations. We’re anticipating provocative, self-reflective discussion by the panelists, as well as lively response from the audience. While we don’t expect to reach a consensus on what constitutes theory or method (or the link between them), we can at least gain a better understanding of the contours, tensions, and possibilities of approaches that might be quite distinct from our own.

1.  Dilemmas of Theoretical Reduction: Why, How, and How Much?
     Sunday, August 3, 4:30-6:10pm   (Invited session)

Organizer and presider: Ann Mische (Rutgers University)

“Process Isolation Is Not Reductionism: Yes, You Can Really Study an Army in the Laboratory” - Alison Bianchi (University of Iowa)

“Boiling it Down and Blowing it Up:  The Role of Formal Modeling in Theory Advancement” - John Mohr (University of California, Santa Barbara)

"Ethnography as Experience: Visceral Complexity as a Path to Theoretical Elegance” - Erika Summers-Effler (University of Notre Dame)

“Vicissitudes of Representation: Necessary Reductions, Suspensions, and Misrecognitions” - Robin Wagner-Pacifici (Swarthmore College)

"Don't Bogart that Joint Homomorphic Reduction, Or, When You Turn Social Life into a Bunch of Ones and Zeros, From Where Do You Get the Ones?" - John Levi Martin (University of California, Berkeley)

Discussant: John Levi Martin (University of California, Berkeley)

Session description: In this panel, participants from diverse theoretical perspectives reflect on the simplifying representations that all research involves in order to reduce, focus, and illuminate the complex buzz of social life.  To what degree are these simplifying models useful, revelatory, generative?  Or to what degree do they obscure, rather than reveal, the dynamics of social life?

2.  Becoming Theoretical: Pragmatic Challenges
     Monday, August 4, 10:30am-12:10pm   (Invited session)

Organizer and presider: Neil Gross (Harvard University)

 “Theorizing Across Disciplines: The Joys and Perils of Social Psychological Theory”
- Steve Hitlin (University of Iowa)

“Feedback and Supplement: Theory and Methods in the Approach of Opaque Problems”
- Erin McDonnell (Northwestern University)

"Choosing the Kind of Theorist You Want to Be: Patterns of Valuation and Devaluation in the Theory Field" - Omar Lizardo (University of Notre Dame)

"Keeping One’s Distance: Odysseus and the Role of Ambiguity in the Making of Social Sciences (and Our Lives)” - Delia Baldassarri (Princeton University)

Discussant:  Neil Gross (Harvard University)

Session description: In this panel, younger scholars from a variety of theoretical perspectives reflect on the intellectual, institutional, and practical challenges they face as they attempt to become theorists while also engaging in substantive research of different sorts. ** Younger theorists are especially invited to attend this session and join in the discussion.

3. Theoretical Careers: How Practice Shapes Ideas
     Monday, August 4, 12:30-2:10pm   (Invited session)

Organizer and presider: Ann Mische (Rutgers University)

“The Self in a Social Ecology: Networks, Niches and Situated Identity” - Lynn Smith-Lovin (Duke University)

 “Phenomenology and Weber / Utopia and History” - John R. Hall (University of California, Davis)

“Doing Research to Find Out, ‘What My Dependent Variable Is’” - Art Stinchcombe (Northwestern University)

“Theorizing: The Connection between Disconnected Projects” - Diane Vaughan (Columbia University)

“Charles Tilly: The Struggle of Ideas and Practices" - Jack Goldstone (George Mason University)

Session description: In this panel, senior scholars reflect on their own careers, discussing the ways in which their theoretical ideas have been shaped, channeled, and transformed by their methodological engagement with the empirical world.   ** This panel will include a special remembrance of Charles Tilly, who was originally scheduled to speak on this panel.

4. Linking Theory and method: Programs, Problems, and Possibilities
     Monday, August 4, 2:30-4:10pm   (Invited session)

Organize and presider: Ann Mische (Rutgers University)

“Reflections on the Relationship between Theory and Method in the Social Sciences” - Michael Hechter (Arizona State University)

“What is the Evidence Doing? Irritations and Theoretical Defenses” - Karin Knorr-Cetina (University of Chicago)

"Methods of Theoretical Research Programs" - Peter J. Burke (University of California, Riverside)

 “Linking Theory and Method and . . .” - Emanuel Schegloff (University of California, Los Angeles)

“Cultural Mismatch and the Study of Institutions in Action” - Ann Swidler (University of Califonia, Berkeley)

Session description: In this panel, senior scholars reflect on how they link theory and method in their own work.  They will discuss the problems and challenges they have encountered, along with where they think theoretical practitioners should be going in the future. 

5.  Theory in Method: Representational Strategies and Challenges
     Sunday, August 3, 2:30-4:10pm   (Open paper submission session)

Organizer and presider: Andrew J. Perrin (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

“Beyond the Antinomies of Structure: Recovering the Insights of Methodological Structuralism“ - Omar A. Lizardo (University of Notre Dame)

“Writing Theory in(to) Autoethnography: The Case of LAST WRITES“ - Laurel Richardson (The Ohio State University)

“Garfinkel and Information Theory“ - Anne Warfield Rawls (Bentley College)

Discussant: Joshua A. Guetzkow (University of Arizona

The Theory Section will host a joint invited session, with the Section on Sociology of Culture, on Global Differences in Conceptualizing Culture, Friday, August 1, 10:30am-12:10pm.

Organizers: Mark D. Jacobs (George Mason University), Paul R. Lichterman (University of Southern California), and Ann Mische (Rutgers University)

Presider: Paul R. Lichterman (University of Southern California)

Presenters:
    Thomas S. Eberle (University of St. Gall)
    Daniel Cefai (University of Paris X-Nanterre, France)
    Evelina Dagnino (University of Campinas, Brazil)
    Eiko Ikegami (New School for Social Research, Graduate Faculty)
 
Discussant: Michele Lamont (Harvard University)

Session description: This panel explores how academic conceptions of culture differ, intersect, and travel across diverse national and regional contexts. "Culture" has arguably become one of the central conceptual terms in U.S. sociology over the past two decades. Yet, the concept remains ambiguous, and it doesn't always "translate" well into other national and regional sociological traditions. We aim to begin a conversation with these questions in mind: What accounts for these difficulties in translation? How can U.S. sociologists communicate our culture concepts to counterparts from other parts of the world? How can concepts that originate outside of American sociological conversations inform and deepen cultural sociology in the US? Which concepts work well, for which kinds of questions, across national boundaries? How do the different intellectual traditions and national histories behind different sociologies inform their embrace or avoidance of culture concepts today? What do the soc iologies of different countries see, or highlight, or not see so well, as a result of their relations to culture concepts?

The Theory Section's open roundtables, organized by Orville Lee (New School for Social Research) will take place on Monday, August 4th, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Complete details will be here soon; meanwhile, they are included in the full program guide at the ASA website.

The Theory Section Business Meeting will be held on Monday, August 4, 9:30-10:10 a.m.. All section members are invited to attend! This meeting includes the Theory Section prize announcements, financial report, committee elections, and other section business.  All section members are encouraged to attend.

A joint reception will be held with the Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology and the Section on Sociology of Culture, Friday, August 1, 6:30pm to 8:10pm, at the Sheraton Boston.

The second Lewis A. Coser Lecture and Salon will be hosted on Saturday, August 2, 2:30-4:10 p.m., in honor of the winner of the 2007 Coser Award winner, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva.  The 2008 award will also be presented to Loïc Wacquant (University of California-Berkeley, Centre de sociologie européenne-Paris). 

The Junior Theorists Symposium will be held at Harvard University, July 31, 2008, 8:30am-4:15pm, organized by Isaac Reed (University of Colorado) and Erika Summers-Effler (University of Notre Dame).

History of Sociology Invited Session: Theorizing the History of Sociology
        Saturday Aug 2, 8.30-10 a.m.

Organizer and presider: Jennifer Platt (University of Sussex)

“Imperial and Anti-Imperial Sociology in the US, France and Germany” - George Steinmetz (University of Michigan)

“Network Processes of Sociological Production” - James Moody (Duke University)

“Modes of Narration in the History of Sociology” - Neil Gross (Harvard University)

Discussant: Jonathan van Antwerpen (University of California, Berkeley)