The Sociological Research Online digital archive of papers, amassed over 30 years, is a valuable but hitherto under-acknowledged trove of materials relating to the many relations that pertain between sociology and ‘history’. We peruse the archive to ascertain what it discloses about how sociology conceives of historical processes and longer-term social change. Three major thematic fields are broached. First, how to situate oneself as a sociologist, in relation to historical materials and phenomena, and in historical time. Second, methodological issues concerning both the relation of data and interpretations thereof to generalising social theory, including in relation to age cohorts and generations. Third, making sense of collective memory formations is juxtaposed with the salience of non-Western locations, phenomena, and analyses thereof. On these bases, the article considers how the archive may be actively developed beyond current limitations. In addition to insufficient coverage of non-UK and non-European historical phenomena, and of historically oriented analysis about and from the global South, the ‘Englishness’ of the archive also needs to be transcended.
BornatJRaghuramPHenryL (2012) Revisiting the archives. Sociological Research Online17(2): 1–12.
11.
CastañedaE (2009) Charles Tilly: Connecting large scale social change and personal narrative. Sociological Research Online14(5): 287–292.
12.
CookT (2013) Evidence, memory, identity, and community. Archival Science13: 95–120.
13.
CooperM (2021) ‘21st century welfare’ in historical perspective. Sociological Research Online26(2): 326–342.
14.
CrowG (2005) Towards a sociology of endings. Sociological Research Online10(3): 159–168.
15.
CrowGTakedaN (2011) Ray Pahl’s sociological career. Sociological Research Online16(3): 184–193.
16.
DuncanSEllingsæterALCarterJ (2020) Understanding tradition: Marital name change in Britain and Norway. Sociological Research Online25(3): 438–455.
17.
EliasN (1987) The retreat of sociologists into the present. Theory, Culture & Society4: 223–247.
18.
ElliottJ (2013) ‘Talkin’ ‘bout my generation’: Perceptions of generational belonging among the 1958 cohort. Sociological Research Online18(4): 122–137.
19.
FlintJPowellR (2012) The English city riots of 2011. Sociological Research Online17(3): 153–162.
20.
FowlerB (2020) Pierre Bourdieu on social transformation. Theory and Society49: 439–463.
21.
FrostDPhillipsR (2012) The 2011 summer riots: Learning from history. Sociological Research Online17(3): 145–152.
22.
GoodwinJO’ConnorH (2013) Ordinary lives: ‘typical stories’ of girls’ transitions in the 1960s and the 1980s. Sociological Research Online18(1): 191–199.
23.
GorskiPS (ed.) (2013) Bourdieu and Historical Analysis. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
24.
HallJR (2009) Apocalypse in the long run. Sociological Research Online14(5): 124–136.
HearnJ (2009) The origins of modern nationalism in the North Atlantic interaction sphere. Sociological Research Online14(5): 147–160.
27.
HobsbawmE (2008) Critical sociology and social history. Sociological Research Online12(6): 105–109.
28.
HockeyJMeahARobinsonV (2009) Fast Girls, Foreigners and Gis. Sociological Research Online14(5): 175–186.
29.
InglisD (2024) Better late than modern. European Journal of Social Theory27: 521–539.
30.
KilminsterR (1987) Introduction to Elias. Theory, Culture & Society4(2–3): 213–222.
31.
KramerA-M (2014) The observers and the observed: The ‘dual vision’ of the mass observation project. Sociological Research Online19(3): 226–236.
32.
LambertPPrandyKBotteroW (2007) By slow degrees: Two centuries of social reproduction and mobility in Britain. Sociological Research Online12(1): 37–62.
33.
LeavyP (2005) The memory-history-popular culture nexus. Sociological Research Online10(1): 1–16.
34.
MayrlDWilsonNH (2020) The archive as a social world. Qualitative Sociology43: 407–426.
MüllerK (2021) Digital Archives and Collections. New York: Berghahn Books.
37.
NathansonCA (2009) Problems, crises, events and social change. Sociological Research Online14(5): 137–146.
38.
NettletonSUprichardE (2011) ‘A slice of life’: Food narratives and menus from mass-observers in 1982 and 1945. Sociological Research Online16(2): 99–107.
39.
NilsenABrannenJ (2014) An intergenerational approach to transitions to adulthood. Sociological Research Online19(2): 1–10.
40.
ParisH (2003) ‘Lifting up the little form’: Victorian images of childhood and death 1870–1900. Sociological Research Online8(3): 1–16.
41.
PhillipsonCLeachRMoneyA, et al (2008) Social and cultural constructions of ageing. Sociological Research Online13(3): 1–14.
42.
RayL (1999) Memory, trauma and genocidal nationalism. Sociological Research Online4(2): 125–132.
43.
RigaLKennedyJ (2013) To build a nation: US state department nation building expertise and postwar settlements in 20th century East Central Europe. Sociological Research Online18(2): 72–89.
44.
RushMLazarusSI (2018) ‘Troubling’ chastisement: A comparative historical analysis of child punishment in Ghana and Ireland. Sociological Research Online23(1): 177–196.
45.
SakaiT (2009) Trans-generational memory. Sociological Research Online14(5): 187–195.
46.
SavageM (2007) Changing social class identities in post-war Britain. Sociological Research Online12(3): 14–26.
47.
SavageM (2009) Against epochalism. Cultural Sociology3(2): 217–238.
48.
SchroederR (2002) The consumption of technology in everyday life. Sociological Research Online7(4): 45–59.
49.
SicaA (1995) A sociology archive and the discipline’s future. The American Sociologist26(2): 70–77.
50.
SkarpelisA (2020) Life on file. Qualitative Sociology43: 385–405.
51.
StanleyLDampierH (2009) The number of the South African War (1899–1902) concentration camp dead. Sociological Research Online14(5): 161–174.
52.
VanderstraetenR (2005) On secularization. Sociological Research Online10(4): 69–70.
53.
VanderstraetenR (2009) Modes of individualisation at cemeteries. Sociological Research Online14(4): 37–49.
54.
VázquezR (2009) Modernity coloniality and visibility. Sociological Research Online14(4): 109–115.
55.
VertigansSSuttonP (2001) Back to the future. Sociological Research Online6(3): 31–35.
56.
Vinitzky-SeroussiVTeegerC (2010) Unpacking the unspoken: Silence in collective memory and forgetting. Social Forces88(3): 1103–1122.
57.
WallissJ (2002) Loved the wedding, invite me to the marriage. Sociological Research Online7(4): 60–70.
58.
WeberM (1978) Economy and Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
59.
WeberW (2000) Germanness in one country. Sociological Research Online5(1): 139–147.
60.
WoutersC (2011) On friendship, equality and introductions. Sociological Research Online16(1): 128–136.
61.
WrightV (2021) ‘Housing problems . . . are political dynamite’: Housing disputes in Glasgow c. 1971 to the present day. Sociological Research Online26(4): 976–988.
62.
YamamotoOHNetoAC (1999) Sociology of education and Marxism in Brazil. Sociological Research Online4(1): 17–28.
63.
YeomansH (2009) Revisiting a moral panic. Sociological Research Online14(2): 70–80.
