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. deflem@sc.edu Published in Perspectives,
the newsletter of the Theory section of
This paper was last revised in March 2005, but is now no longer updated. Some links may not work anymore, but this should still be a helpful resource or have historical relevance. Search engines will help retrieve items. |
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Introduction
The arrival of the internet has already been evaluated and re-evaluated from good to bad and worthwhile to trivial as fast and furious as the speed with which the worldwide web has been developed and cyber information can be accessed and downloaded. But whatever the internet has become over the past years, it clearly provides a new opportunity for sociologists to do their thing in matters related to their research and teaching. This essay provides a sketch of the current presence of sociological theory on the internet. It is particularly intended to be helpful to those readers to whom the internet is still something relatively new or unexplored. All underlined words and the images are hyperlinked to internet sources. You can adjust the size of the windows to your preference (close windows after viewing). |
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Accessing the
Internet
The easiest and most general way to walk into cyberspace is via so-called search engines. Among the more important search engines are the following (note that I have omitted the prefix http:// in the URL addresses provided in this paper and that online searches are indicated between square brackets): www.yahoo.com - www.google.com - www.altavista.com - www.hotbot.com - www.excite.com - www.lycos.com - www.northernlight.com |
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More search engines can be found through any one search engine, simply by typing in [“search engines”]. So-called meta-search engines group together searches from various individual search engines. Examples include www.metacrawler.com, www.dogpile.com, and www.mamma.com. Note that some recent e-businesses pose as search engines but actually pre-assemble information and do not establish exclusive links to webpages located on other servers. Examples of these sites are www.studyweb.com and www.about.com. |
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From personal experience, I have found simple search engines most convenient, both those that only list individual pages (e.g., Google) and those that additionally classify pages in categories (e.g., Yahoo). On most search engines, multiple word (or phrase) searches have to be conducted by putting the entire phrase between quotation marks. For instance, the search [Emile Durkheim] will yield pages mentioning Emile or Durkheim, whereas the search [“Emile Durkheim”] will only retrieve pages that mention the full name of our discipline’s founder. Online searches and URL addresses are not case sensitive (e.g., [“herbert spencer”]). |
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Sociology and
Sociological Theory on the Internet
There are already several webpages devoted to the gathering of and linking to online information on sociology and/or sociological theory. Among the more helpful websites for sociology in general are the following, most of which provide information in different categories, such as journals, areas of specialization, and departments:
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Many
sociological websites deal with sociological theory and, more particularly,
sociological theorists. The following sites are a sample of these theoretical
sites, typically providing summaries of theoretical ideas, biographies
of leading theorists, and online versions of primary and secondary writings:
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Classical and
Contemporary Theory and Theorists
Next to the sociology and sociological theory sites, search engines are the most convenient way to find both very precise and more general information. Including more keywords in a phrase will lead to pages on more delineated topics, whereas more general pages will be retrieved when the number of keywords is kept to a minimum. Not all information found through a search will be relevant, but search engines provide a brief description of the linked pages. An example may clarify the procedure. Suppose we are interested in materials on or by Craig Calhoun. A search for [“Craig Calhoun”] on Excite is less than useful, because it yields, amongst other pages, links to two no longer functioning pages on Calhoun’s work, a reference to a book co-edited by Calhoun, and a link to the website of the police chief of Hayward, California. However, the same ["Craig Calhoun"] search on Google is much more successful, as the first page retrieved is already a link to our colleague’s homepage at NYU. |
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You can also narrow down a search by typing in additional information relevant to your topic. For instance, a search for [“Emile Durkheim”] in Yahoo yields more than 3,000 webpages, while in Google we find no less than 11,000 pages. Examples to narrow the search could be [“Durkheim’s sociology of religion”] or [“aboriginal religion according to Durkheim”] or [“religion in Durkheim”] or [“Durkheim’s elementary forms”] and so on. As some of you may have noticed, not all searches will produce the best of results. But do not stop after just one search. It is exceedingly worthwhile to search repeatedly with different keyword combinations. The typical search takes a search engine anywhere between .06 and .89 seconds, so you really won’t waste a lot of time! |
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Make sure that all the keywords in a search are meaningful (in the case of a computer that means consisting of three characters or more) and enter the words in the precise order in which you expect them to appear in a written document. For in the case of computers, indeed, il n'y a pas de hors-texte. Note that phrases with brackets, hyphens, or other signs can be retrieved with or without inclusion of those signs. For instance, all of the following search combinations will lead to good results: [“Max Weber’s Theories of Bureaucracy”] or [“Bureaucracy: Weber”] or ["weber’s bureaucracy"]”. |
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A particular search will oftentimes also yield helpful information not originally looked for. For example, via Google we retrieve some 1,790 pages on [“Randall Collins”]. The top pages mentioned in the search results are all relevant, including links to Collins’ homepage, a page with online papers, and an announcement of a lecture by Collins in Denmark. One of the Collins pages provides a picture of the sociologist, not all too relevant for most of us were it not that the picture was posted on the occasion of a colloquium at UW-Madison. The colloquium turns out to be part of a theory initiative, theory@madison, organized by Mustafa Emirbayer and Phil Gorski, which has its own website with much more information, including interviews and online articles. It would be useful to save such accidentally found sites through the ‘add to favorites’ or ‘bookmark’ option on your computer or to cut and paste the URL together with a short-hand description for future reference. It was through such an accidental find that I recently discovered that most all of Durkheim’s books are freely available as online pdf files: perso.club-internet.fr/khoua/freetext.htm. |
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Cyber Theory:
The Search for Online Texts
The availability of online texts in sociology and sociological theory is an exciting feature of the internet. Helpful in this respect are, first of all, the computerized indices that provide bibliographies with abstracts and/or online articles. To access some of these indices, you will need to work from a computer at an institution that subscribes to the service. You should consult your local librarian for more information, but here are a few examples:
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Many
cyber-minded scholars have already developed specialized websites on sociological
theories and/or theorists. Although the usefulness of these sites is uneven,
I highly recommend the reader to consult these pages because some of them
provide excellent information. Here is an arbitrary sample of these pages:
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A
very handy way to find a particular paper or chapter is to type in between
quotation marks a very distinct phrase that appears in the text you are
interested in. For example, in Yahoo the search [“open
opportunities to various elites”], a passage from The Power Elite,
will result in a link to a collection of quotes from the work of C. Wright
Mills. On Google, the search [“ohne
Gott ist eitel”] leads to several pages on Max Horkheimer. Also on
Google, a search for [“sociological
form of the stranger”] brings up a complete online version of Simmel’s
famous essay. Note that search engines never capture all information on
the internet, so it is always useful to also consult the specialized sociology
sites. Also, let your colleagues know of your online efforts in sociology
and sociological theory, such as:
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On
a final note, readers may be aware of my efforts to preserve the integrity
of academic work on the internet (Deflem 2000, 2001). In my view, the internet
is nothing but easily accessible space on computers and it is up to all
of us to use that space --and use it well. With many people, especially
younger folks and (prospective) students, now using the internet as their
primary source of information, I appeal to my colleagues to make sure that
online sociology is and will remain a part of sociology, not a commodity
of e-commerce.
A somewhat shorter print version of this essay was published in Perspectives, the newsletter of the Theory section of the American Sociological Association. |
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About
the Author
Mathieu
Deflem is working as usual. An outspoken critic of the commercialization
of scholarly work in cyberspace, he maintains the following academic web
domains:
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To my homepage:
www.mathieudeflem.net
