| Website for the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association |
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THE THEORY PRIZE The ASA Theory Section is committed to advancing sociological theory in both scholarly as well as professional respects. Neatly fulfilling this dual end, the section awards prizes for the best publications in sociological theory (the Theory Prize), the best papers written by students (the Shils-Coleman Student Prize), and career achievement in sociological theory (Lewis Coser Award).
Below are details on previous recipients from these years:
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 2008
Theory Prize for Outstanding Book: JAMES M. JASPER and WILLIAM H. SEWELL, JR. |
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2007 Theory Prize is awarded to co-winners James M. Jasper for his book Getting Your Way: Strategic Dilemmas in the Real World (University of Chicago Press)
and William H. Sewell Jr. for his book Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation (University of Chicago Press).
The 2008 Theory Prize committee members were Susan Silbey (Chair), Uta Gerhardt, Karin Knorr-Cetina, Paul McLean, and Bob Shelley. |
| 2007
Theory Prize for Outstanding Article: JEFFREY ALEXANDER |
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2007 Theory Prize is awarded to Jeffrey Alexander for his article, "Cultural
Pragmatics: Social Performance between Ritual and Strategy," published
in Sociological Theory, 2004. Alexander presents a theory of cultural
pragmatics that brings meaning structures, contingency, power, and materiality
together in a new way. He argues that the materiality of practices should
be replaced by the more multidimensional concept of performances. Drawing
on the new field of performance studies, cultural pragmatics demonstrates
how social performances, whether individual or collective, can be analogized
systematically to theatrical ones. After defining the elements of social
performance, he suggests that these elements have become "de-fused" as
societies have become more complex. Performances are successful only insofar
as they can "re-fuse" these increasingly disentangled elements. |
| 2006
Theory Prize for Outstanding Article*: KARIN KNORR CETINA & URS BRUEGGER |
| The 2006 Theory
Prize went to Karin Knorr Cetina and Urs Bruegger for their article, "Global
Microstructures: The Virtual Societies of Financial Markets," published
in the American Journal of Sociology, 2002. Using participant-observation
data, interviews, and trading transcripts drawn from interbank currency
trading in global investment banks, this article examines regular patterns
of integration that characterize the global social system embedded in economic
transactions. To interpret these patterns, which are global in scope but
microsocial in character, this article uses the term "global microstructures."
Features of the interaction order, loosely defined, have become constitutive
of and implanted in processes that have global breadth. This study draws
on Schutz in the development of the concept of temporal coordination as
the basis for the level of intersubjectivity discerned in global markets.
* Given the fact that no Prize was awarded in 2006, the voting officers of the section voted, on a one time basis, to award two article prizes in 2007: one for the 2006 period (beginning in 2002) and the other for the 2007 period (beginning in 2003). |
| 2005
Theory Prize for Outstanding Article: NOAH MARK |
| The 2005 winner of the Theory
Prize is Noah Mark (Stanford University) for his article, "Culture
and Competition: Homophily and Distancing Explanations for Cultural Niches" [JSTOR], American
Sociological Review 68:319-345, 2003. This article formally analyzes
and empirically tests two answers to the question, Why do different kinds
of people like different kinds of culture?: the homophily model and the
distancing model. Computer simulation demonstrates that these models are
alternative explanations for the finding that different cultural tastes
and practices are concentrated within different sociodemographic segments
of society. Conflicting implications of the two models are identified.
Although both models predict that cultural forms compete for people (i.e.,
people are a scarce resource on which cultural forms depend), the distancing
model differs from the homophily model in that the distancing model predicts
a dual ecology: Not only do cultural forms compete for people, but people
compete for cultural forms. According to the distancing model, the larger
the segment of society in which a cultural form is liked, the smaller is
the proportion of people in that segment of society who like that cultural
form. The homophily model predicts that people do not compete for cultural
forms. Instead, it predicts a local bandwagon effect: The larger the segment
of society in which a cultural form is liked, the larger is the proportion
of people in that segment of society who like that cultural form. An empirical
test using 1993 General Social Survey data supports the prediction of both
models that cultural forms compete for people. The analysis also reveals
a local bandwagon effect, yielding further empirical support for the homophily
model and disconfirming the distancing model's prediction of a dual ecology.
This is the second time that Dr. Mark won the Theory Prize. Congratulations! |
| 2004
Theory Prize for Outstanding Book: ANDREW ABBOTT |
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The 2004 Theory Prize committee
was very pleased by the superb quality of the nominations and their theoretical
range, taking this as testimony to the vibrancy of sociological theory-building
in our discipline today. This year, the prize went to Andrew Abbott for
his book, Chaos
of Disciplines, University of Chicago Press, 2001.
In the words of the University of Chicago Press website, "Abbott presents a fresh and daring analysis of the evolution and development of the social sciences. Chaos of Disciplines reconsiders how knowledge actually changes and advances. Challenging the accepted belief that social sciences are in a perpetual state of progress, Abbott contends that disciplines instead cycle around an inevitable pattern of core principles. New schools of thought, then, are less a reaction to an established order than they are a reinvention of fundamental concepts. Chaos of Disciplines uses fractals to explain the patterns of disciplines, and then applies them to key debates that surround the social sciences. Abbott argues that knowledge in different disciplines is organized by common oppositions that function at any level of theoretical or methodological scale. Opposing perspectives of thought and method, then, in fields ranging from history, sociology, and literature, are to the contrary, radically similar; much like fractals, they are each mutual reflections of their own distinctions." The prize committee found Chaos to be a masterful combination of abstract analysis and empirical research in an overall enterprise of theoretical thinking. Abbott has effectively called social scientists' attention to a pervasive abstract pattern, self-similarity, and demonstrated some of its major manifestations in cultural and social structures. He develops interlocking theories of the origins and consequences of such patterns, and he does so with strong originality as well as wit and stylistic panache. The 2004 Theory Prize Committee consisted of Julia Adams (Yale University), Chair; Karin Knorr-Cetina (University of Konstanz); John Lie (University of California-Berkeley); Noah Mark (Stanford University), and Robert Wuthnow (Princeton University). |
| 2003
Theory Prize for Outstanding Article: EDWARD J. LAWLER |
The 2003 winner of the Theory
Prize went to Edward J. Lawler (Cornell University) for his article, "An
Affect Theory of Social Exchange," in the American Journal of Sociology 107(2):321-352, 2001. Lawler's article
"develops a theory that explains how and when emotions, produced by social
exchange, generate stronger or weaker ties to relations, groups, or networks.
It is argued that social exchange produces positive or negative global
feelings, which are internally rewarding or punishing. The theory indicates
that social units (relations, groups, networks) are perceived as a source
of these feelings, contingent on the degree of jointness in the exchange
task." (from the abstract).
Jack A. Goldstone (George
Mason University) received an honorable mention for this prize for his
article, "Efflorescences
and Economic Growth in the World History: Rethinking the 'Rise of the West'
and the Industrial Revolution," in the Journal of World History 13(2):323-389,
2002. Goldstone's article offers a bold and sweeping reassessment of the
rise of the West and the Industrial Revolution in England. Goldstone urges
analysts to see historical episodes of growth and development as frequent
and normal occurrences that took place throughout the world, not as an
isolated phenomenon confined to Europe. |
| 2002
Theory Prize for Outstanding Book: R.S. PERINBANAYAGAM |
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R. S. Perinbanayagam, Hunter
College CUNY, received the 2002 Theory Prize for The
Presence of Self (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000). The Presence of
Self completes a three-volume study of signs and signifying practices.
Drawing on and then extending the ideas of Charles Sanders Pierce, George
Herbert Mead, Kenneth Burke, Mikhail Bakhtin, Susanne Langer and others,
Perinbanayagam focuses on social acts as essential and fundamental to being,
specifically being human. Perinbanayagam places the act as rhetorical and
dialogie to make the case for the self as a social being, and the act as
communicafion. Perinbanayagarn creatively draws upon sociological classics
to articulate a novel research agenda, demonstrating how sociologists can
draw on unconventional resources of literature and poetry. Chair, Theory
Prize Committee, Jane Sell, Texas A&M University. . . |
| 2001
Theory Prize for Outstanding Article: PAUL DIMAGGIO |
| The 2000 Theory Prize Committee consisted of Carol Heimer, Noah Mark, Linda Molm, Guillermina jasso and Richard Swedberg (Chair). Twenty four articles were nominated for the prize. All the members agreed that the winner was "Culture and Cognition," Annual Review of Sociology (1997), by Paul Dimaggio, Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. The main thrust of the winning article is that the study of culture can be substantially improved by drawing on recent research in cognitive psychology and social cognition. This is particularly the case when it comes to some of the presuppositions of cultural sociology There is also die fact that recent research in cognitive psychology and social cognition fits very well with the current tendency in cultural sociology away from viewing culture as a coherent whole of values to be internalized, and towards a view of culture as a toolkit or repertoire of resources. The role of schemata is especially highhghted. lt is noted, for example, that people are more likely to perceive information that is germane to existing schemata and also to recall this type of information more quickly and more accurately. People may even falsely recall events that fit their schemata hut which never took place. Areas where insights from cognitive psychology and social cognition can be usefully applied in cultural sociology are indicated, as well as key problems in the study of culture and cognition that need to be addressed. |
| 2000
Theory Prize for Outstanding Book: CAROL HEIMER & LISA STAFFEN |
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The 2000 Theory Prize Committee
consisted of J. David Knottnerus (chair), Julia Adams, Noah Friedkin, Edward
J. Lawler, and Noah Mark. Nine books were nominated for the prize. Among
them, the clear winners were Carol A. Heimer and Lisa R. Staffen for their
book, For the Sake of the Children: The Social Organization of Responsibility
in the Hospital and the Home (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998). The Theory Prize Committee also awarded an Honorable Mention to David Willer (ed.) for his book, Network Exchange Theory (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999). For the Sake of the Children is a highly original piece of work that carefully interweaves theory with empirical analysis, takes a creative problem (responsibility), and uses theory to generate broad implications. The book focuses on the social organization of responsibility by asking who takes responsibility for critically ill new-borns. In addressing this question the study draws on medical records and interviews with parents and medical staff and examines the social dynamics of two neonatal intensive care units. The authors' concern is not to treat responsibility as an ethical issue (i.e., from a normative approach), but rather to show how responsibility is socially created and maintained, especially within a bureaucratic world. The book is innovative in that it suggests an analytical/empirical treatment of responsibility taking. That is, the authors identify responsibility as a theoretical concept, provide a measure of responsibility taking, and assess variation in responsibility taking across individuals. This innovation is productive in multiple ways including the careful identification of several dimensions of responsibility taking and distinguishing the social factors that contribute to high levels of responsibility taking along these dimensions. The book is notable for the way it renders complex ideas and arguments dealing with the social organization of responsibility, linkages between moral and social theory, and policy decisions remarkably accessible to a range of readers. Network
Exchange Theory describes the development of a successful, sustained,
and intensive program of work on theory construction, testing, and refinement
concerned with social exchange networks (involving a program of research
developed collaboratively by David Willer, Barry Markovsky, John Skvoretz,
Michael J. Lovaglia, and their various associates). The work is grounded
on formal theory and data from experiments and is cumulative in nature.
The theory examines under a variety of conditions the relation of social
action to social structure and provides a valuable approach for structural
analysis at both micro and macro levels. |
| 1999
Theory Prize for Outstanding Article: NOAH MARK |
| The 1999 Theory Prize Committee consisted of Ira Cohen (chair), Douglas Heckathorn, Linda Molm, Murray Milner, and Cecilia Ridgeway. Eighteen articles were nominated for the prize. Among them, the clear and decisive winner was Noah Mark, assistant professor of sociology at Stanford University, for his article, "Beyond Individual Differences: Social Differentiation from First Principles" (ASR, June 1998). The article draws on arguments from Rousseau, Spencer, Durkheim, and symbolic interactionism to propose a formal dynamic model for the emergence of social differentiation, which is defined as the degree to which interaction occurs within distinct sets of individuals among whom there is little interaction. Social differentiation is seen as arising through a positive feedbackprocess. Initial selection of interaction partners reflects homophily, a tendency to associate with others who share similar information. Subsequent interaction further increases similarity of knowledge through sharing and generation of information during interaction, and forgetting of information that is not shared during inter-action. The effect of this dynamic is to increase the similarity of those who interact frequently, and reduce the similarity of those who interact infrequently or not at all. An important conclusion is that the emergence of differentiation does not depend on individual differences. Rather, differentiation arises through a stochastic process in which patterns of association generate differences among individuals. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the model for the sociology of culture and for studies of social inequality. |
| 1998
Theory Prize for Outstanding Book: LINDA MOLM |
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The 1998 Theory Prize for the best book in sociological theory was awarded to Linda D. Molm for Coercive Power in Social Exchange. Molm's book is a treatise on coercive (punishment based) power in exchange. She constructs a coherent theory of the use of coercive power in social exchange relations based on a program of experimental research conducted over a decade. The results of this program of research are ultimately surprising and, in some cases, counter-intuitive. Perhaps the most striking finding is that coercive power can be a highly effective means of increasing one's rewards in an exchange relation, especially if a power-disadvantaged actor uses coercive tactics to punish the non-ex-change or low level of exchange of a more powerful partner. Molm's findings also clarify why coercive power may be ineffective if it is used too infrequently or in a non-contingent manner. A controlled experimental setting was developed and then through careful, planned variation in key factors (e.g., structural power balance or imbalance, availability of options to reward and to punish, etc.) systematic results from a long series of experiments were obtained to test hypotheses derived from the theory, or formulated to help develop the theory. The book represents a model of the type of disciplined theory that can be produced from sustained, sequential, cumulative programmatic research. The Theory Prize is awarded annually to recognize outstanding work in sociological theory. Members of this year's committee were: Murray Webster, chair, Karen Cook, Stephen Turner, Henry A. Walker, and Harrison White. Approximately fifteen books were submitted, and of those, eleven were judged suitable in topic and content to be considered in detail. Some of the other books contributed to an understanding of methods of theory testing, summaries of theoretical knowledge in a field, and theoretical analyses of historical events. Molm's work was judged, overall, to provide the strongest contribution to theory building of the set of high quality books considered this year. |
| 1995-1997 Theory Prizes |
| Please send information on recipients from these years to the Website Editor, if you have it. |
| 1994
Theory Prize for Outstanding Book: DONALD BLACK |
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The 1994 Theory Prize for
the best book in sociological theory was awarded to Donald Black for The Social Structure of Right and Wrong.
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The Theory Prize recognizes outstanding work in theory, communicates the
principle that theory is plural and broadly defined, and promotes the interests
of the Theory Section. The Theory Prize is given for a book or for an article,
book chapter, or published or publicly presented paper. Only titles from
the four years prior to the award year are eligible for the Theory Prize. Details on the most recent competition are typically posted on the 
"The action,
or behavior, of the system composed of actors is an emergent consequence
of the interdependent actions of the actors who make up the system."