Social Research: An International Quarterly

31/10/2025

Happy Halloween! For this day of spooks, we leave a treat from our 2014 issue “HORRORS.” Dive into why we're obsessed with zombies, demons, and the “metaphor of the living dead”—and how real-life fears, from 9/11 to witch rumors in Malawi, shape our deepest, darkest frights.

🔗 https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/31366

30/10/2025

Are you feeling scared yet? This , we look back at our 2004 issue “Fear,” analyzing the political uses and abuses of fear, covering its neuroscience, psychological basis, impact on civil liberties and nationalism (post-9/11), and historical context, such as McCarthyism.

🔗 https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/28841

29/10/2025

As flu season nears, this reminder of unequal impact is critical. In our Summer 2020 issue "In Time of Plague," experts show how COVID-19 & AIDS exposed social and racial inequalities, making vulnerabilities a matter of societal structures, not just biology.

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28/10/2025

As immigrant life is put under attack, this National Immigrants Day, we reflect on the complex relationship between migration, diversity, and social inequality examined in the Spring 2010 issue “Migration Politics.”

This issue analyzes US and European migration politics, covering racial discrimination, the US quota system's origins, group rights, and integration policy to call for recognizing America as a "great metropolis on a global plain."

🔗 https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/28886

26/10/2025

For this week’s , we ponder the question: What defines the value of work in today’s capitalism?

Dive into our Summer 1997 issue, featuring Richard Sennett's analysis of "The New Capitalism," exploring how flexibility and short-term work affect personal purpose, self-worth, and stable social relations. Plus, a look at the enduring relevance of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" and more fascinating reads on altruism, social evil, and the state of philosophy in post-unification Germany.

🔗 https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40043696

24/10/2025

What do freedom and baseball have in common? Both are cure for, or at least relief from, extreme loneliness, argues Christian Sheppard in his essay “Take Me Out with the Crowd” written for our 2021 issue on loneliness—a great read, especially as the gets under way.

“There are different degrees of loneliness. . . . And yet loneliness can feel worse when you are with others, in the midst of a crowd, but with whom you feel nothing in common, disconnected, excluded.

“A game is something that brings out the kid in us all. A game allows us to relate to one another again, to find the just balance we need to be alone without being lonely, the just balance to be ‘with’ the crowd rather than ‘of’ the crowd.”
🔗 https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/845713

23/10/2025

to Spring 1979 when Social Research went "BEYOND CHARISMA"!

Guest editor Johannes Fabian and contributors like James Fernandez and John M. Janzen challenged the "dying" concept of charisma, arguing for the reinterpretation of religious movements as discourse. A pivotal moment in the anthropology of religious movements.

🔗https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40043630

22/10/2025

To prepare for our Fall issue, revisit “Culture and Politics” from 1991 with analyses of Edmund Burke's Reflections, the role of ethnicity in American cinema, and the development of cultural policy in Côte d'Ivoire. It nicely sets the stage for our take on "Football Politics."

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Most issues of Social Research address a single theme, which is addressed by scholars, writers, and experts from a wide range of disciplines. Some of these issu...

21/10/2025

What was Social Research publishing 50 years ago?

In Fall 1975 we presented an issue that captured the intellectual spirit of the mid-1970s, showcasing the wide-ranging contributions from sociologist Daniel Bell, economist Robert Heilbroner, philosopher William Barrett, and more.

The issue explores the postindustrial age, the limits of unified social theory, the future of sociology, the politics of IQ, and a major multi-essay examination of boredom.

Take a look back at the intellectual landscape of the 1970s.

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Most issues of Social Research address a single theme, which is addressed by scholars, writers, and experts from a wide range of disciplines. Some of these issu...

20/10/2025

Influential philosopher and public intellectual Yirmiyahu Yovel was in 1935 in Haifa, Israel. He was a key figure in modern philosophy, focusing on Spinoza, Kant, and post-Kantian German philosophy. He taught at the New School for Social Research from 1994 until 2010.

Yovel’s other legacy lies in illuminating the complex relationship between Jewish identity and experience and modern European thought. His 1988 Social Research article “Tolerance as Grace and as Rightful Recognition” exemplifies this legacy.

🔗 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971291

Photo via Dan Porges/Getty Images

19/10/2025

Is "community" a feeling, a place, or a set of moral obligations? What does a community really mean? What does it look like today?

This , we’re looking back to our 1975 issue “The Idea of Community” for a deep dive into the concept from every angle. Explore topics from the psychotherapist’s role and the essence of community in classic American writing to the ethics of neighborhood government. The authors featured on this issue are: Adolph Lowe, David Gutmann, Reinhard Bendix, and more.

Read it in full here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40075937

17/10/2025

Polish historian and essayist Adam Michnik was in 1946 in Warsaw, Poland.

A former political prisoner who endured six years behind bars for challenging communist rule in Poland, Michnik later joined the Solidarity delegation at the 1989 Roundtable talks that successfully dissolved the regime. He was a co-founder of the Workers' Defense Committee (KOR) in 1976 and became a key adviser to the Solidarity Trade Union Federation in the 1980s. Following the end of communism, he co-founded and became the editor-in-chief of “Gazeta Wyborcza,” a major independent newspaper, continuing his work as an influential voice for democracy and free speech.

Michnik contributed his commitment to freedom and human rights to Social Research in “Nationalism” (part of our 1991 issue, “Nationalism: Central and East Europe”) and “The Montesinos Virus” (part of our 2001 issue, “Civil Society Revisited”)

Credits: Photo via Mateusz Skwarczek, Belg Photo