''Contexts'': ''Understanding People in their Social Worlds'' is a quarterly

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal and an official publication of the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...

. It is designed to be a more accessible source of sociological ideas and research and has been inspired by the movement towards public sociology.

Sections of the Journal

* Backpage * Books * Culture * Feature * From the Editors * In brief * Q&A * Teaching and Learning * Trends * Viewpoints

History

The journal was established in 2002 by Claude Fischer and is published by

SAGE Publications SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...

; until 2011, it was published by the University of California Press. Fischer was succeeded by Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper, who edited the journal from 2005 to 2007, injecting a certain amount of controversial humor such as New Yorker cartoons and a column written by "Harry Green" (actually Jasper) called "The Fool." The current editors are

Rashawn Ray Rashawn Ray is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. Since 2017 he has been the editor of '' Contexts'' magazine, published by the American Sociol ...

( University of Maryland-College Park) and

Fabio Rojas Fabio Rojas is Virginia L. Roberts Professor of Sociology at Indiana University Bloomington. He is the author of several sociological books, and starting with the first issue (Winter Issue) of 2018, he will be the co-editor of ''Contexts'' magazin ...

( Indiana University).

Former Editors

* 2002: Claude Fischer * 2003: Fischer * 2004: Fischer * 2005: Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper * 2006: Goodwin, Jasper * 2007: Goodwin, Jasper * 2008: Doug Hartmann, Chris Uggen * 2009: Hartmann, Uggen * 2010: Hartmann, Uggen * 2011: Hartmann, Uggen * 2012: Jodi O'Brien, Arlene Stein * 2013: O'Brien, Stein * 2014: O'Brien, Stein * 2015: Philip N. Cohen, Syed Ali * 2016: Cohen, Ali * 2017: Cohen, Ali * 2018:

* 2019: Rojas, Ray * 2020: Rojas, Ray

Characteristics

The journal differs from a typical academic journal as it is targeted more toward students and the general public. It is used widely in courses,, and a selection of its premier articles is available in book format through ''The Contexts Reader,'' published by W. W. Norton & Company, now in its second edition. The new editors have introduced a blog feature on the magazines website, Contexts.org. New print issues are published quarterly in February (Winter), May (Spring), August (Summer) and November (Fall).

Awards

''Contexts'' won the Best Journal Award in the Social Sciences (2003) by Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers.

Notable Articles and Interviews

One of the most notable articles in ''Contexts'' is Ann Morning's interview with Rachel Doležal. The interview has aired on many TV news networks, such as Fox News, BBC, and USA Today, over the possibility of a trans-racial identity. The academic journal ranges in topics from

social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...

, immigration, race, Donald Trump's potential border wall, and ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...

''. One of the board members for ''Contexts'', Tressie McMillan Cottom, appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to discuss the impact of for-profit higher education in the United States on disadvantaged students.

Abstracting and indexing

''Contexts'' is abstracted and indexed in

SocINDEX EBSCO Information Services, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a private company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. EBSCO provides products and services to libraries of very many types around the ...

and Sociological Abstracts.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.contexts.org/ Publications established in 2002 Sociology journals SAGE Publishing academic journals Quarterly journals English-language journals 2002 establishments in the United States Science education American Sociological Association academic journals