Sociology at the End of the Century Author(s): Norman K. Denzin Source: The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 37, No.

4 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 743-752 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Midwest Sociological Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4121414 . Accessed: 07/04/2011 10:48
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Blackwell Publishing and Midwest Sociological Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Sociological Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

SOCIOLOGYAT THE END OF THE CENTURY

Norman K. Denzin* of University Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign
I want to read Steven SeidmanthroughJacques Derrida,who argues,as PatriciaClough remindsus, thata theoryof the social is also a theoryof writing. A theoryof writingis also a are work.Theory,writing,andethnography inseparable theoryof interpretive (ethnographic) materialpractices. Togetherthey createthe conditionsthat locate the social inside the text. Hence those who write culturealso write theory. And those who write theorywrite culture. view of sociology. But Seidman'stheoryof the social is inscribedin his postdisciplinary the writingside of culture,that withinhis text is the otherside of Derrida's formula, repressed is, the world of ethnography.Paraphrasing Clough (1994, p. 162), there is a need for a and theoretical texts back "onto each reflexive form of writing that turns ethnographic vision is not anchoredin the writingworld other." Seidmandoes not go far enough. His formations Thesetwo worldsmustbe joined, if the postdisciplinary by produced ethnography. he imaginesare to become realities. In these brief comments,I proposeto bringthe writingcultureprojectinto the new social writingas they theory.This involves a discussionof the criticismsof the new ethnographic feminist (Ryan bear on Seidman'sproject.I will end by briefly outlininga postpragmatist, moralethic1(Christians, Ferre,Fackler1993).I will connectthis ethic 1995), communitarian, to a civic sociology and a publicjournalism(Charity1995). I startwith history. AND SEIDMAN'S DREAM HISTORY American,but not Europeansociology (Giddens,Habermas, Duringthe 1980s, mainstream turned its back on the methodologicalcontroversiessurrounding positivism, Bordieu) sothat criticaltheory,and constructivism were sweepingacrossneighboring postpositivism, cial science fields, including anthropology (Geertz 1983; Rosaldo 1989), psychology (Cronbach1989; Smith, Harre,and Van Langenhove1995), and economics (McCloskey and 1985; Heilbroner Milberg 1995). of These controversieschallengedthe presuppositions objectivesocial science, as well as to traditional includingthe use of termslike reliabilways of bringingauthority thatresearch, ity and validity. Many came to reject the ontological,epistemological,and methodological to foundational that sociology appeared require. Gone were bepresuppositions a traditional methodsto andthe use of quantitative liefs in ontologicalrealism,objectivistepistemologies, was replacedby a morerelative, verify hypotheses.The notionof knowledgeas accumulation constructionist position (Gubaand Lincoln 1994, p. 114).
326 of to University Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign, *Directall correspondence NormanK. Denzin,Editor,TheSociologicalQuarterly, LincolnHall, 702 S. WrightSt., Urbana, 61801. IL The SociologicalQuarterly,Volume 37, Number 4, pages 743-752.
Copyright ? 1996 by The Midwest Sociological Society.

All rights reserved. Send requests for permissionto reprint to: Rights and Permissions,Universityof CaliforniaPress, Journals Division, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720. ISSN: 0038-0253.

744

Vol. THESOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY 37/No. 4/1996

sociolThis is the spacethatSeidmanenters.His text offersanother way to undotraditional are and of ogy. He anda new generation social theorists ethnographers developinga complex work.With theoretical for set of pragmatic, criteria evaluating interpretive, postfoundational, others,Seidmanholds to a utopian dream,a vision thatthe field of sociology at the end of the This recognitionwill open politicalunconscious. centurywill come to recognizeits repressed inHe the field to a series of postdisciplinary formations. outlinesa series of provocations, is foundationalism recognized as a deadend,theoretical tendedto move this projectforward: closure is unattainable,and the notion of an objectivesocial scientistis a myth. This new discipline, in its fragmentation,will honor epistemologicalpluralism.It will and reinscribeHabermas'sthreeformsof knowledge(positivistic,hermeneutic, therapeutic), it will make the recognitionof difference normative.The empiricalwill no longer be the privilegedsite for adjudicatingknowledgeregimes(andclaims).Moraldiscourseshifts from universalto pragmatic reason(see below). Seidman'sdreamcan be placed alongsidethe mid-1980s' WritingCulture(Cliffordand versionof the twin crises of representain Marcus1986) experiments anthropology,another tion and legitimationin the humandisciplines(Denzin, 1996a,1996b).Seidman'stext is an and incitementto new forms of ethnographic theoreticalwriting. since experiments (andtheoretical) Accordingly,it is necessaryto rereadthe ethnographic who were 1986 (WritingCulture)as more than the vagrantself-indulgentefforts of a few of (andsocial theory). Those ethnography challengingthe bordersand boundaries traditional who would dare to engage ethnopoetics,self-narratives,the new journalism,queer theory, texts, even poems,mysteries,and novels were (and are) threatperformanceand standpoint the establishedorder,the very essence of science itself (Prus 1996, p. 227; Shelton ening 1995). text of Even as the boundaries the traditional were being challenged,counterforceswere were policed,punished,mocked,even ridiculed.Resistances to mobilized. The transgressors and the hegemonicorderwere marginalized, the deviantswere labeled,- some called them the new ethnographs 1991, p. 475; Snow andMorrill1993, 1995 a, b; Prus 1996 (Farberman the p. 218). With this reading,which emphasizes moves and counter-moves hegemonic who want to do order is displaced,resistedby a new tribe of theoristsand ethnographers are things differently. Progressis at hand. And just as the transgressors put back in their new spaces are openedup for new transgressions. place, resistanceand subversioncan lead to But thereis a dangerin this model. Foregrounding the optimisticbelief thatthingsare gettingbetter(Stabile 1995, p. 406). Underthe resistance are model the old ways of doing social theoryand ethnography changing; this is confirmed present.This by the fact thatnew theoryandinnovativewritingformsseem to be everywhere and position ignores the recuperative conservative practicesof the hegemonicdisciplinary the orderwhich insists on marginalizing new, not treatingit as a versionof a new orderof variationon the traditionalway of doing things things, always defining it as an aberrant (Altheide, 1995). Put bluntly,the verdictfor many is in. The old, betterthan the new, can do the work of sociology. But thereis more at issue then differentways of writingtheoryand culture.The materialand ethical practicesof an entiredisciplineare on the line.

Sociologyat the Endof the Century POLICINGTHE NEW

745

In 1995 JoanHuber (1995, p. 213) criticizedthose who followed the new sociology and the methods,and their writingcultureexperimentsfor theirradicalpolitics, theirantipositivistic lack of civility. The disciplinecould no longer toleratethese sociologists who had apparent washed into the field on the currents postmodernism. of Not surprisingly, thereis a soft, interpretive versionof Huber'sconservative, realist,posiinto tivist critique.This is the versionthat,like Huber, turnspostmodernism a negativepoint criticizesthe new sociof referenceand then, using the methodof guilt throughassociation, for being postmodern.Postmodernists have a numberof negative characterflaws, ologists intenselyantiincluding being "highlycynical,completelyrelativist, pervasivelydespairing, scientific"(Prus 1996, p. 218). Postmodernismand its so-called "anything goes" position offer "elementsthatare radical,fatalistic,absurdandnihilisticin the extreme"(Prus 1996, p. 1991 p. 476). These harsh 218), perhaps it also "emitsa faintly nativistaroma" (Farberman words invoke notionsof politicalcorrectness. rejectsthe conceptof intersubjecsimultaneously Accordingto the critics,postmodernism tivity and the notionof an objectivelylocatedobserverin the world.2 In holdingthese berisk liefs, the postmodernists violatingthe "basicnotionsof an intersubjective/ethnographic social science"(Prus 1996, p. 226). In rejectingthe narrative turnin the humandisciplines, the criticsalso rejectthe formsof textualexperimentation go with thatturn.They nostalthat aboutnarrative gically invoke an earlier,morepurehistoricalmomentwhen these arguments were not present. In that moment,the social sciences' golden age, unfettered, theoretically sophisticated, conceptuallydense sociological work took place (Lofland1995). This is the place of Huber'sdisinterested observerseeking objectivetruthabouta stable (Prus 1996, pp. 246-247), reality.Only a few wordshave changed.Realityis now obdurate involvedwith this worldof study.Thusare not objective,andthe observeris intersubjectively inquirymaintained. practiceand methodprivileged,and the notionof objective,interpretive devices as poems, This criticismtakesstill another form: the critiqueof "suchattenuation accounts... andtheatrical (Prus and or artifacts, contrived fictionalized productions" pictures, 1991, p. 474). Peoplewho do 1996, pp. 227-278; Snow andMorrill1995b,p. 361; Farberman but these thingsmay be artistic,or postmodern, they are not social scientists,and theirsis not "thisperformance turn,like research (Prus1996, p. 227). But moreimportantly, ethnographic from the field of social will the preoccupation with discourseand storytelling, take us further as actionand the real dramasof everydaylife and thus signal the death knellof ethnography an empiricallygroundedenterprise" (Snow and Morrill1995a, p. 361, emphasisadded). The use of ethnography a platform moral, political,or social criticismis also chalfor as RobertPrus(1996, p. 227) will havenone of this, andDavid Snow andCalvinMorrill lenged. in (1995a, p. 362) arefearfulof ethnographers usingtheirethnographies moralways, "Itis our view thatthereis little to be gainedandmuchto be lost by makingmoralclaimsandengaging in moralposturing.It is far betterto jettisonsuch impulsesandfocus on the questionof how best to describeand interpret experiencesof otherpeople and othercultures."Thus, we the have a value-freeethnography just tells it like it is. Politics must be kept out of our that in ethnographic practices.There is no place for Huber'sirrationalists ethnographytoday. Marxism,feminism,culturalstudies- these interpretive perspectives mustbe set aside for they bring values into this scientificproject. were a choice or an option. In It Finally the termpostmodernism. is as if postmodernism LawrenceGrossberg (1992, p. 24) puts his discussionof culturalstudiesandpostmodernism,

746

THESOCIOLOGICAL Vol. QUARTERLY 37/No. 4/1996

it this way, "Cultural studies'interestin postmodernism not a matterof acceptingthatthe is of the modemhas come to an end; it is rather postmodernism that history poses a new project for culturalstudies." We inhabita cultural momentthathas inherited(andbeen given) the namepostmodern. An social science informedby poststructuralism, Marxism,feminism,and the standinterpretive point epistemologiesaims to make sense of this historicalmomentcalled the postmodern. The postmodern, it was for C. WrightMills (1959), is our project.We seek an interpretive as of that accounting this historicalmoment,an accounting examinesthe very featuresthatmake this momentso unique.At the same time, we desireto separate ourselvesfrom the modernist to wouldpoliticallymanagethe postmodern sociological project.The sociologicalmodernists their own ends, includingattackingthe new writingand all it standsfor. In summary, strategicmoves are usedby those who believe the old ways arebetterthan six the new. These moves allow those in power to marginalizethe new sociological writing forms. 1. The new writing not scientific, is it be therefore cannot partof the sociological project. 2. Thenewwriters moralists, moral are are and judgments notpartof science. 3. The new writers havea faulty epistemology; do not believein disinterested they observers study reality is independent human who action. a of that 4. Thenewwriting fiction; is notscience. uses this of 5. Thenewwriters notstudylivedexperience, do whichis thetrueprovince socioHence, logicalethnography. theyarenottrueethnographers. 6. Thenewwriters postmodernists, thisis irrational because are and is postmodernism fatalistic, nativistic, radical, absurd, nihilistic. and Takentogether,these six beliefs representa formidable, dubiouscritiqueof the new yet with the old ways of doing sociology. writing. They makeit clearthatthereare no problems thenthey solve. These beliefs serve to place the Indeed, the new ways createmoreproblems or new writingoutsideethnography, in outsidescience,perhaps the humanities the arts.While Huberwould ban these writersfrom academia,Farberman Prus, would merely exclude and them from certaintheorygroups. MODEL A FEMINIST, COMMUNITARIANETHICAL Of course,few todayaccept the soft andhardversionsof positivism'sfact-valuedistinction.3 Feminist (Ryan 1995), standpoint (Benhabib1992) propo(Clough 1994), and postmodern nents challenge the stance that accords a "privilegedposition [to] scientific knowledge" moral (Sjoberg,Gill, Williamsand Kuhn 1995, p. 9). With this challengecomes alternative and ethical guidelines. The communitarian to ethical system is basedon an interactive, approach postpragmatist community,self, and inquiryin the televisualage. This model breakswith classical liberal ethical models and their revisions.It contendsthat communityis ontologicallyand morally and is priorto individuals, thatdialogicalcommunication the basis of the moralcommunity. Civic transformation the majorgoal of any ethical(andoccupational) is practice. This entails a commitment the commongood and to universalhumansolidarity.It calls for a sacred to

Sociologyat the Endof the Century

747

conceptionof science, a conceptionthat"honorsthe ecological as well as the human" and stresses humandignity,care, justice, and interpersonal respect(Lincoln 1995b, p. 284). A personally is not involved,politicallycommitted sociologicalethnographer presumed, the in morallyneutralobserverof positivism. Those studiedare askedto be active participants the collaborative researchprocess. A new, local, and civic sociology joined with a public journalismis imagined. In this framework, every moralact is a contingentaccomplishment measured moraluniversalism (Benhabib1992, p. againstthe ideals of a feminist,interactive, 6). its research judgedby its authenticity, fairness,and its abilityto is Feminist,communitarian that provoke transformations speak to conditionsof oppression in the public and private al. spheresof everydaylife (Lincoln 1995a, p. 277; Christians,et. 1993, pp. 194-195). This researchvalues relationality, friendly,cooperativeconnectedness,and neighborlinessbea tween researcher researched(Lincoln1995a,p. 287). This researchis intendedto serve and the "community which it is carriedout, ratherthanthe communityof knowledgeproduin cers" (Lincoln 1995a, p. 280). In this way, the communitarian modelsets itself off fromthe traditional, positivistacademic with its commitments objectivity,contracts,neutralobservers,and utilitarian to community notions of the greatergood. The positivist concept of inquirydestroyscommunity,as the feminist communitarians understand term. that Thusis addressed chargeof ethicalrelativism, the whichthe critics(Huber1995) simplistically bring to the new sociology. Indeed, the shoe is put on the other foot. The morally conservativeutilitarians the relativists (Christians,et. al., 1993, p. 59). are WRITINGCULTURE THE SIXTHMOMENT4 IN In the presentcontext, there are two normative,inscriptive systems, two ways of telling things aboutlife in a democratic society, two ways of writingtheory,culture, and society in the sixth moment.5Journalism operatesunderthe rule that the publichas the right to know certainthings;the FirstAmendment freedomof the press. Social science operates guarantees underanotherrule:the cloak of secrecyassociatedwith a state-sponsored project thatmaintainsthe illusionof privacywithinthe postmodern world.These two normsclash. They must be merged,with sociology's normsmoving closer to those of a publicjournalism. A civic sociology implements writingcultureprojectin the sixth moment. Like public the journalism(Rosen 1994, p. 376), this sociology willingly breakswith old routinesand evidences a desire to connect with people (citizens),theirconcerns and their biographical that problems. It producecs ethnographies move people to action,worksthatpromoteserious discussionaboutdemocratic personalpolitics. and Whenmodified, normsopen thedoorfor a civic sociology, for local ethnograjournalism's of problematic democratic forms(Charity1995, p. 146;Carey1986, p. 195). This is a phies socially responsible ethnographic sociology that advocatesdemocracyby creatinga space for, and giving a civic voice to, the epiphanalexperiences that occur in the local moral answersto a new readership,the biocommunity.6Local, civic, sociological ethnography in graphicallysituatedreaderwho is a coparticipant a public projectthat advocates democratic solutionsto personaland public problems(Charity1995, p. 146). this Taken to the next level and transformed civic sociology as moral ethnography, into answersto the following normsor goals. Civic sociology: writing

748

THE SOCIOLOGICAL Vol. 37/No. 4/1996 QUARTERLY * Helps citizensmakeintelligentdecisionsaboutprivatetroublesthathave become public issues (Charity1995, p. 2; Mills 1959, p. 8); * Promotesinterpretive works that raise public and privateconsciousness.These works deliberative, help peopleutilizeexpertandlocal systemsof knowledge,while facilitating civil discourse(Charity1995, pp. 4-8); * Rejects the classic, heroic model of those investigative journalistswho "rootout the " inside story,tell the bravetruth... [and]expose corruption (Charity1995, p. 9); * Seeks a writerwho is an experton publiclife, knowshow to listento the talkof citizens, hears and presentsconsensuswhen it emerges(Charity1995, p. 10); * Sees the writeras a person who contributes deliberative,participatory to community discourse(Charity1995, pp. 104-105, 127). * Values writingthatpromotescivic transformation et. (Christians, al. 1993, p. 14); * Exposes complacency, bigotry,and wishfulthinking(Charity1995, p. 146), while "atitself' (Rosen the temptingto strengthen politicalcommunity'scapacityto understand 1994, p. 381); * Seeks dramatic storiesthatseparate factsfromstoriesandjoin privatetroubleswith public issues (Charity1995, p. 72; Mills 1959, p. 8). * Promotesa form of textualitythat turnscitizens into readersand readersinto persons who take democratic actionin the world(Charity1995, pp. 19, 83-84)7

These are ideal ways of merging social theory with critical ethnography (Carspecken 1996), with applied action research (Reason 1994), with the new public journalism, with civic sociology in the sixth moment. A new type of writer is imagined. Always a skeptic, this writer is suspicious of conspiracies, of alignments of power and desire that turn segments of the public into victims. So these works trouble traditional, realist notions of truth and verification, asking always who stands to benefit by a particular version of the truth. These goals assume a sociologist who functions and writes like a public journalist. Thus, sociology as storytelling (Lemert, 1995, p. 14) will be given greater emphasis. This writer, as a watchdog for the local community, works outward from personal, biographical troubles to those public arenas that transform troubles into issues. A shared public consciousness is sought, a common awareness of troubles that have become issues in the public arena. This consciousness is shaped by a form of writing that merges the personal and the biographical, with the public. Of course there remains the struggle to find a narrative voice that resists the long tradition favoring autobiography and lived experience as the sites for reflexivity and selfhood (Clough 1994, p. 157). This form of subjective reflexivity is a trap that too easily reproduces normative (and deviant) conceptions of self, agency, gender, desire and sexuality._ The sociologist's tale is always allegorical, a symbolic tale, a parable that is not just a record of human experience. This tale is a means of experience, a method of empowerment for the reader. It is a vehicle for readers to discover moral truths about themselves. More deeply, the sociological tale is a utopian tale of redemption, a story that brings a moral compass back into the readers' (and the writer's) lives. In the stories people tell one another about the things that matter to them the sociologist-as-ethnographer discovers the multiple "truths"that operate in the social world.

IN THE END
Seidman reminds us how American sociology is so deeply embedded in American culture. As U.S. culture has gone postmodern and multinational, so too has sociology, although not

Sociologyat the Endof the Century

749

definethe contemporary, global culturalsystem. In this willingly. Differenceand disjuncture reflexive sociology is no longer an option, and the right to study (or write about) world, strangelands have come home. Fraganyone can no longer be presumed. Anthropology's familiarare now everywherepresent.Magical menteddiscourseand the vaguelyunfamiliar realism, science fiction, comic book fantasies, and moral allegoriesdefine utopianthought today. are Like American journalism, sociology's "faultsand triumphs prettymuchcharacteristic of the cultureas a whole" (Carey 1986, p. 194). The faults first: obsessive voyeurism,a on overreliance experts, the constantsearch with preoccupation records,details,andstatistics, with the for rationalexplanationsof problematic conduct, naive realism, a preoccupation to failed attempts be objective,andcomplicitywith big businessand with capitalsuperficial, ism, race, class, and genderbiases. But there are triumphs:a willingnessto listen to ordinary people, a watchdogof cultural of the production storiesthatmove people to and values,powerfulstoriesaboutthe underdog an andthe ordinary, abilityto explainevenof, action,a celebration and love for the concrete the trulyimportant,a disrespectfor the rich and to tuallyanything,an unwillingness let go of and the powerful,a voice of empowerment, a commitmentto democracy(Carey 1986, p. 194). and betweenjournalism the social Since the turnof the century, the historicalrelationship to factual,scisciences has been complex.Both professionshave been committed producing betweenfacts and truthful statements aboutsociety. Both have made distinctions entifically fictions.Both have endorsed the tenetsof liberaldemocracyand the belief thatan informed of society.Eachwas given the responsibility producing citizenrywas the key to a democratic and to accurateinformation the public-at-large to its children. and disseminating factually Listen to RobertE. Park (1950, pp. viii-ix), "Accordingto my earliest conceptionof a and Together,the sociologist-as-reporter sociologist he was to be a kind of super-reporter." still underdiscussion, and the journalisthave made and told news that was local, timely, relevantto the lives of communitymembers (Park 1950, p. 63). Such news has addressed of "thesolid and unyieldingstructures social life" (Carey 1986, p. 195). However, things change. At some point in this sharedand collective history,journalism and sociology became identifiedwith, and definedby either(in the case of journalism) the news, the news flash,the news bulletin"(Carey1986, p. 195), or, as with sociol"breaking or the hottestnew theoretical,methodological, political issue, which, to repeat, often ogy, of to had little relationship the "solid and unyieldingstructures social life" (Carey 1986, p. of "ourunderstanding journalism[and sociology] as democratic 195). When this happened, social practiceswas impossiblynarrowed" (Carey 1986, p. 195). started As Carey (1986, pp. 195-196)observes,journalists thinkingof themselves as "bewas to get the storyfirst,not to dig deep and uncoverthe ing in the news business." The goal confronting unknown. Sociologistswere in the businessof makingtheirpracticerespectable, track of praxisand the politics of theirtrade. In and living throughcrises, too often losing earliermoments, sociologistschasedpositivistscience,believedin objectivity,and produced to monuments timeless culturaltruths(Rosaldo 1989, pp. 30-31). More recently,self-doubt a bornof intensereflexivityhas produced paralysisof form,a fear of the self and its place in the writer'stext. So hereat the end, at the beginningof the sixthmoment,the promiseof sociology as a form social practiceis reengaged. Seidmanand Marx([1888] 1983, p. 158) of radicaldemocratic

750

THE SOCIOLOGICAL Vol. 37/No. 4/1996 QUARTERLY

remind us that we are in the business of not just interpreting, but of changing the world. A feminist, civic sociology working hand-in-hand with public journalism is one way to forward this project.

NOTES
social ethics thatstressesthe dialogical,narrative 1. This is a normative foundations self, commuof on nity and society, placinga premium the valuesof humandignity,love, care,solidarity,andempowerment.A feministcommunitarianism seeks to "'engender' subjectof moralreasoning" the (Benhabib 1992, pp. 10) througha narrative-based, that interactive, dialogicuniversalism views every moralposition as a contingentaccomplishment. This communitarian ethic is groundedin a theoryof community and the dialogic self thatstandsin sharpcontrast classic liberalism'sahistorical, to atomisticconception of autonomous, isolatedindividuals society (Benhabib1992, p. 70; Christians, al. 1993, p. 15). A in et. communitarian ethic stresses humansolidarity,love, care,justice, stewardship, reciprocity,empowerment,the dialogic self, community, civic transformation, mutuality and et. commitment, (Christians, al, 1993,p. 13). Drawingon the worksof Taylor,Walzer,Sandeland MacIntyre, versionof communithis tarianism not to be confusedwith Etizioni's (1993) project. is 2. Of course,no one rejectsthe conceptof intersubjectivity, althoughsince Husserland Derridano assumesthat intersubjectivity not easily accomplished.There is no objectiveplace is poststructuralist from which anythingcan be studied. 3. I thankKatherine RyanandCliffordChristians theirassistance criticalcommentson this E. for and section. 4. Elsewhere(Denzin and Lincoln 1994; Lincolnand Denzin 1994) five momentsof ethnographic the and blurred inquiryare identified: traditional, modernist, genres,crisis of representation, present,or fifth moment.The sixth moment(Lincoln 1995b,p. 40) chartsthe future. 5. This is a simplification. discoursesof the postmodern The worldinvolve the constantcomingling of literary, fictional,factual,andethnographic journalistic, by writing.These writingformsare mediated the televisualand cinematicapparatuses the culture. of 6. At the same time, it is understood "participating a citizen's initiativeto clean up a polluted that in harboris no less politicalthandebatingin cultural of journalsthe pejorative presentation certaingroups in termsof stereotypical images"(Benhabib1992, p. 104). 7. For example,I am involved,with WalterFeinbergand Belden Fields, in a studyof one community's educational attemptsto bringa form of radicaldemocracy(site-baseddecision making)into the classroom.We are experimenting with these normsand goals in this project.

REFERENCES
Altheide,David L. 1995. "Horsing Is aroundwith Literary Loops, or Why Postmodernism Fun."Symbolic Interaction18: 519-526. in Benhabib,Seyla. 1992. Situatingthe Self: Gender,Community Postmodernism Contemporary and Ethics. New York:Routledge. of Carey,James W. 1986. "TheDarkContinent AmericanJournalism." 146-196 in Readingthe Pp. News, editedby RobertK. Manoffand MichaelSchudson. New York:Pantheon Books. Phil Francis.1996. CriticalEthnography Educational Research.New York:Routledge. in Carspecken, New York: GuilfordPress. Charity,Arthur.1995. Doing Public Journalism. CliffordG., John P. Ferre,and P. MarkFackler.1993. Good News: Social Ethics and the Christians, Press. New York:OxfordUniversityPress. Clifford,James, andGeorgeE. Marcus.eds. 1986. Writing Culture.Berkeley: University of California Press. Clough, PatriciaTicineto. 1994. FeministThought: Desire, Power and AcademicDiscourse. Cambridge,MA.: Basil Blackwell.

Sociologyat the Endof the Century

751

MeasureafterThirtyYears."Pp. 147-171in Intelligence: L. Validation Cronbach, J. 1989. "Construct and Public Policy, editedby RobertL. Linn.Urbana: Universityof Illinois Press. ment, Theory, American to Denzin, NormanK. 1996a. "AnInstitutional Approach Sociology:A Responseto Huber." Journalof Sociology, 102. Practicesfor the 21st Century. Denzin, NormanK. 1996b. Interpretive Ethnography:Ethnographic ThousandOaks,CA.: Sage. the ReDenzin, NormanK., and YvonnaS. Lincoln. 1994. "Introduction: Entering Field of Qualitative search."Pp. 1-18 in TheHandbook Qualitative Research,edited by NormanK. Denzin and of YvonnaS. Lincoln.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Etzioni, Amitai. 1993. The Spirit of Community: Rights, Responsibilities,and the Communitarian New York:Crown. Agenda. New York: American the Democracy. Fallows,James.1996.Breaking News:How theMedia Undermine Pantheon. Close Encounters a Dubiof and Farberman, HarveyA. 1991."SymbolicInteractionism Postmodernism: ous Kind."SymbolicInteraction14: 471-488. New York:Basic. Geertz,Clifford. 1983. Local Knowledge. Lawrence. 1992. We Gotta Get Out of ThisPlace. New York:Routledge. Grossberg, Research." 105in Pp. Guba,Egon E., andYvonnaS. Lincoln.1994. "Competing Paradigms Qualitative 117 in The Handbookof QualitativeResearch, edited by NormanK. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln(eds.). ThousandOaks,CA: Sage. New Heilbroner, Robert,andWilliamMilberg.1995. TheCrisisof Visionin ModernEconomicThought. York:Cambridge UniversityPress. Huber,Joan. 1995. "Centennial Perspectiveson Sociology."AmericanJournal of Essay: Institutional 101: 194-216. Sociology Lemert,Charles.1995. Sociologyafter the Crisis. Boulder:WestviewPress. and for QualCriteria Qualityin Qualitative Interpretive Inquiry." Lincoln,YvonnaS. 1995a."Emerging itative Inquiry1: 275-289. Research." Studiesin in Problems Qualitative Lincoln,YvonnaS. 1995b.'The SixthMoment: Emerging Interaction19: 37-55. Symbolic Lincoln,YvonnaS., andNormanK. Denzin. 1994."TheFifthMoment." 575-586 in TheHandbook Pp. Research,editedby NormanK. Denzin and YvonnaS. Lincoln.ThousandOaks, of Qualitative CA: Sage. Journalof Contemporary Features, Lofland,John. 1995. "Analytic Failings,andFutures." Ethnography: 24: 30-67. Ethnography Marx,Karl.[1888] 1983. "Theseson Feuerbach." 155-158in ThePortableKarlMarx, editedby E. Pp. Kamenka.New York:Penguin. McCloskey,Donald. 1985. TheRhetoricof Economics.Madison:Universityof WisconsinPress. New York:OxfordUniversityPress. Mills, C. Wright.1959. TheSociologicalImagination. Note."Pp. v-ix in Race and Culture: Essays in the SociolPark, RobertE. 1950. "AnAutobiographical Man, by RobertEzraPark.New York:Free Press. ogy of Contemporary Research.Albany:SUNY Press. and Prus,Robert.1996. SymbolicInteraction Ethnographic to Reason, Peter. 1994. "ThreeApproaches Participative Pp. Inquiry." 324-339 in The Handbookof Oaks, CA: K. Research,editedby Norman DenzinandYvonnaS. Lincoln.Thousand Qualitative Sage. Rosaldo, Renato. 1989. Cultureand Truth.Boston:Beacon. of Rosen, Jay. 1994. "Making ThingsMore Public:On the PoliticalResponsibility the MediaIntellec11: tual."CriticalStudiesin Mass Communication 362-388. from Female E. Ethics and Issues of Social Justice:Contributions Ryan, Katherine 1995. "Evaluation A MoralThinking."Studiesin SymbolicInteraction: ResearchAnnual 19: 143-151. Shelton,Allen. 1995. "TheMan at the End of the Machine." SymbolicInteraction18: 505-518.

752

Vol. 37/No. 4/1996 THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

E. Sjoberg,Gideon,ElizabethGill, NormaWilliams,and Kathryn Kuhn. 1995. "Ethics,HumanRights and Sociological Inquiry:Genocide, Politicide and Other Issues of Organizational Power." AmericanSociologist26: 8-19. Rom Harre, L. Van Langenhove. 1995.Rethinking and eds. Smith,Jonathan, Psychology,Vol.1: Conceptual Foundations.London:Sage. Crisis of Faith: on Snow, David, and Calvin Morrill.1993. "Reflections Anthropology's Ethnographic Review Essay: Cultureand Anomieby Christopher Herbert,The Savage Witchesby Henrika Motivesby GeorgeStocking,Jr.,andColonialSituations GeorgeStocking, Kuklick,Romantic by Jr."Contemporary Sociology 22: 8-11. in Snow, David, and CalvinMorrill.1995a."Ironies, Puzzles,and Contradictions Denzinand Lincoln's 22: Vision of Qualitative Research." Journalof Contemporary Ethnography 358-362. ReSnow, David, and CalvinMorrill.1995b."A Revolution? of Review-Essay:Handbook Qualitative Journalof Contemporary 22: search,co-editors,N. K. DenzinandY. S. Lincoln." Ethnography. 341-349. Critical and Stabile,CarolA. 1995. "Resistance, Recuperation, Reflexivity:The Limitsof a Paradigm." Studiesin Mass Communication 403-422. 12: