ASA Meeting Roundup

The American Sociological Association held their annual meeting in Boston in early August.  The theme of this year's meeting was "Worlds at Work," the the interconnections between work—broadly conceived—and society. Work is one of the most basic of social activities and institutions and has far-reaching correlates and consequences.   MIT Press attended the ASA meeting for the first time in many years.  We asked acquisitions and marketing folks who attended the four day conference to share their experiences with us. Here are thoughts from an acquisitions point of view. 

At the ASA meeting, I attended the business meeting of the Environment and Technology section, where I was invited to speak for a few minutes about the MIT Press environment list, our book series, and other sociology-related areas in which we publish, including Science, Technology, and Society.  Attendance at the business meeting was an estimated 75-100 people.  This is a growing section of ASA, with dues-paying membership currently at 450.  They have their own website, where they post debates, papers, job openings, etc., and they're working on establishing virtual conferences/panels on topics of interest.  Our author J. Timmons Roberts won an award for "invaluable contributions to the field of environmental sociology" - a kind of lifetime achievement award for publications, teaching, organizing the section, etc. - even though he's relatively young. 

At least three senior sociologists at the meeting told me that MIT Press has by far the best book list in environmental sociology and in the environmental social sciences in general, and an informal survey of the displays and catalogues of other presses in attendance (particularly Oxford, Cambridge, NYU, Chicago, and Cornell) indicated that none are publishing much in environmental sociology.  Our series Urban and Industrial Environments, edited by Robert Gottlieb, is where the majority of our environmental sociology books are published, but some also appear in our Global Environmental Accord, Politics, Science, and the Environment, and Food, Health, and the Environment series. 

I attended several panels sponsored by the Environment and Technology section and think this seems to be a growth area in environmental scholarship, with lots of enthusiastic graduate students and younger faculty members.

Tomorrow, we'll provide  a view from the booth.