Professional Resources

The American Sociological Association (ASA) has a number of sections organized that bring together sociologists who have interests in theoretical issues, including:

• Theory Section
• Section on Marxist Sociology
• Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI)
  Sociologists who work from the symbolic interactionist perspective have long had their own professional association, the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI).
   
• Sociological Theory
  Theoretical work in sociology is advanced, in part, through the publication of an official journal of the ASA, Sociological Theory. The journal publishes work in all areas of social thought, including new substantive theories, history of theory, metatheory, formal theory construction, and syntheses of existing bodies of theory.
   
• American Anthropology Association (AAA)
  Anthropology is a social science related to Sociology and is defined as the study of humankind, from its beginnings millions of years ago to the present day. The American Anthropology Association (AAA) has two purposes including to advance anthropology as a science that studies humankind in all its aspects, through archeological, biological, ethnological, and linguistic research and to further the professional interests of American anthropologists, including the dissemination of anthropological knowledge and its use to solve human problems.

Other Resources

• The Stanford Prison Experiment
  The Stanford Prison Experiment Web site features an extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment. What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? These are some of the questions the researchers posed in a dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in the summer of 1971 at Stanford University [self-characterization].
   
• Stanley Milgram
  Dr. Thomas Blass, Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, maintains a website dedicated to providing accurate information about the life and work of one of the most outstanding social scientists of our time, Stanley Milgram [self-characterization].

  There is no shortage of sites on the World Wide Web that provide more general information about the sociological enterprise. The following are meta-sites that attempt to organize sociology on the Web:
   

• “Julian Dierkes’ SocioLog”
• Open Directory Project: Sociology.
  The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web, constructed and maintained by a vast, global army of volunteer editors [self-characterization].
   
• The SocioSite
  The SocioSite was designed to provide access to information and resources which are relevant for sociologists and other social scientists. It was designed from a global point of view, as it offers access to the worldwide scene of social sciences. The intention is to provide a comprehensive listing of all sociology resources on the Internet. The SocioSite is a project based at the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam [self-characterization].
   
• WWW Virtual Library: Sociology 
  Great Social Theorists, by Frank W. Elwell.In an attempt to promote greater understanding of classical macro-social theory, particularly its implications for social criticism and prediction, I have created an Internet Web Site on eight classical social theorists. I have included bibliographies, PowerPoint lectures, links to primary sources, and other worthwhile Internet materials. I developed these web sites as aides for myself and my students to further our studies of these theorists. They were developed because they offer incisive commentary on the contemporary world order and seeming chaos [self-characterization].