Abstract
The International Sociological Association’s RC33 Research Committee ‘Logic and Methodology’
President
Secretary
Vice President - Finances
Vice President - Membership
Vice President - Information
Vice President for Online Communication
Vice President for Awards
Vice President for Conferences
Past President
Report from the President
Dear Members,
On behalf of the entire Board of RC33, I am pleased to welcome you as the newly elected President. As stipulated by the Statutes, the election of the new Board took place after the ISA World Congress in Melbourne, a short presentation of the candidates was given in the last RC33 Newsletter. Thank you to all members who took part in the online vote and thank you for your trust! The new team (many of whom were already active on the previous Board) is more geographically diverse than ever before: in addition to members from European countries, colleagues from Japan, Taiwan, South Africa, India and Mexico are also represented, which underlines our global ambition as a worldwide scientific organization.
Our goal remains the global networking of scientists in the field of social science methodology. We aim to achieve this through ongoing information via our weekly mailings by email and our involvement in the journal BMS, including the biannual RC33 Newsletter. An essential part of our work is also the organization of conferences: this year we are participating in the fourth SMUS (Spatial Methods in Urban Sustainability) conference, which will take place from 26 to 28 July in Thailand and will simultaneously be our 4th RC33 Regional Conference in Asia. In 2025, RC33 will be represented at the ISA Forum of Sociology in Rabat, Morocco, and in the same year we will organize our own conference in Naples, Italy. The series of regional conferences shall also be continued.
We would be delighted if you could attend these meetings in large numbers; please find out more from the current mailings and via our homepage. We also want to improve and expand our program in the near future.
Please support our activities by remaining (or becoming) a member of RC33. We are also happy to receive your feedback and suggestions at
RC33 President
Report from the Secretary
New ISA Initiatives
2024 is a vibrant year for all the ISA community, and RC members will embrace and benefit from some important new initiatives:
International Sociological Association Charter on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
The ISA is developing its first Charter on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (last draft 8 November 2023). According to this, the RC33 community will enhance strategies to ensure equal opportunity.
Vision
The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit association established to support the pursuit of sociological scholarship and action across the globe, by providing opportunities for dialogue, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and mentorship.
The realization of this vision, however, depends upon the full participation of all ISA members regardless of sex, gender, class, ethnicity, race, indigeneity, religion, sexual orientation, physical capacity, age, nationality and geography, or any other identity. Ensuring such full participation requires the active removal of systemic barriers to, and the progressive cultivation of, full participation in the Association based on equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as encouraging and supporting an EDI-positive institutional culture both within the ISA, and within other domains of international sociological practice.
Conceptual Framework
Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion for the ISA Charter Policies
These policies are intended to support the ISA in achieving greater Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the organizational structure of the ISA and for all association staff and members. The ISA will ensure the pursuit of equal opportunity by prioritizing equity, diversity and inclusion in its staff and membership recruitment activities, and practices associated with establishing event locations, soliciting meeting attendance and event participation. The ISA will pursue equity-enhancement strategies in order to ensure equal opportunity and representation in all elections and nomination processes held within the ISA, including offices and awards, and will call upon all RCs, TGs, and WGs, to do so as well. The ISA will strike a permanent Committee to pursue Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, that will report directly to the ISA Executive. This will include Directives, and Terms of Reference, including the establishment of a fair and representative nominations process, for the functioning of this Committee. To maintain an environment free from all forms of harassment, including unwanted physical or sexually suggestive behavior; exclusion or discriminatory behavior; and abusive, demeaning, or intimidating behavior, the ISA will establish a policy of intolerance toward such behaviors occurring during ISA member activities, and institute mechanisms to respond quickly, systematically, and fairly to expressions of concern or complaint. Recognizing that power differentials often prevent victims from coming forward, and that the lack of clear and responsive procedures are harmful to all, the ISA will establish mechanisms that include clear avenues for lodging complaints for victims and witnesses of behavior that is sexist, racist, ageist or otherwise demeaning, abusive, or offensive; establish systematic means of evaluating those complaints, and determination of repercussions for the accused. Formal complaints regarding the violation of any of the policies embedded in the Charter on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion will be received and processed by the EDI Committee. Formal complaints may take one of two forms: 1. Notice of complaint, with no intention to pursue investigation; 2. Pursuit of formal complaint prompting investigation and determination of repercussions. In the event of formal investigation, the EDI Committee may decide: 1. Insufficient evidence to support recrimination; 2. The accused may receive a warning; 3. The accused may be expelled from the conference or other activity at which the offense occurred; 4. The accused may have their ISA membership revoked, for a definite or indefinite period of time. Accused parties will have the opportunity to appeal decisions of the EDI Committee. Two or more professional ombudspersons will be designated for each ISA Congress and Forum to be available for confidential consultation regarding occurrences that emerge during these events, one who identifies as a woman and one who identifies as a man; and at least one representing low- or middle-income nations. The RC, TG or WG organizers of events such as pre-conferences will be responsible for designating an ombudsperson for those events. The ISA will develop programming and initiatives to support embedding equity, diversity and inclusion in the Association’s institutional culture. In recognition of the fact that discriminatory practices are deeply embedded in our academic institutions, realizing the goals of equity, diversity and inclusion will require the cultivation of new norms and practices. The ISA will promote the institutional embedding of EDI by developing activities and events in conjunction with regular association meetings and engagements that support EDI mentorship and training, and showcase the membership’s diversity. The ISA will periodically gather, track, and assess data reflecting its progress in pursuing the goals of equity, diversity and inclusion, and make this information available in the form of a Report every four years. This report, as well as the Charter on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, should be readily accessible to its members, including for example prominent positioning on its website. The Charter will be reviewed on a biannual basis and revised as needed, by the EDI Committee.
RC33 fully supports this initiative. We have already endeavoured to implement equality and inclusion in our activities in the past. One example is the initiation of regional conferences to enable more scientists from less prosperous countries to participate in scientific exchange. We want to continue along this path in the future.
ISA new social media strategy for the RC/WG/TGs
A social media strategy built on more robust support for RC/WG/TG social media has been approved. The aim is to improve the social media presence of the RC/WG/TGs and, above all, to harmonise it with ISA. In addition to support from the ISA Secretariat, there will also be recommendations for the design of mailings. This should also make the affiliation to the ISA more visible in the activities of the individual RC/WG/TGs.
RC33 will discuss the implementation of this strategy in the coming months and report on it in one of the next RC33 Newsletters.
RC33 Secretary
Report from the Vice President for Information
This issue of the RC33 Newsletter will appear in the Winter-Spring 2024 issue of the BMS which will probably be out in April.
As mentioned in the previous RC33 Newsletter, we continue to distribute weekly information to all RC33 members on conference calls, workshops and job possibilities, as we have been doing for several years now. But we now try to supplement that information almost each week with mentions of books, reports or articles having to do with sociological methodology. Since our last issue of the RC33 Newsletter, the following documents are some of the most recently mentioned:
[bms-rc33] Book - Handbook of Sociological Science: Contributions to Rigorous Sociology, 21 Aug 2023
[bms-rc33] Book - Multivariate scaling methods and the reconstruction of social spaces - Papers in honor of Jörg Blasius at CARME23, 1 Oct 2023
[bms-rc33] Report - Pew Research “Online surveys: opt-in samples vs. probability-based panels”, 6 Oct 2023
[bms-rc33] Book - Handbook of Sociological Science: Contributions to Rigorous Sociology, 3 Nov 2023
[bms-rc33] Report - ISA’s XX World Congress Program Organizers Survey Report, 17 Nov 2023
[bms-rc33] Article - Survey Nonresponse Trends & Fieldwork Effort in the 21st Century, 7 Dec 2023
[bms-rc33] Report - Increasing the value of an early bird incentive in a mixed-mode longitudinal survey, 21 Dec 2023
[bms-rc33] Report - SimPaths: An open-source microsimulation model for life course analysis, 28 Dec 2023
Vice President for Information