Sociology Lens (formerly Journal of Historical Sociology)

Our March issue of Sociology Lens is out! 🎉

New articles bridging historical sociology and urgent contemporary debates.

Huge thanks to our authors, reviewers, and editorial board.

Take a look 👇 #Sociology #HistoricalSociology

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/2832580x...

Alongside her editorial and international research leadership, Professor Wells is currently co-editing major handbook projects on childhood studies and global development. We look forward to her insight supporting Sociology Lens’ vision connecting historical and contemporary sociological debates.

Professor Wells brings over 20 years of research on global childhoods, with major contributions through books such as Childhood in a Global Perspective, Childhood Studies: Making Young Subjects, and Visual Cultures of Childhood. Her work shapes debates across sociology and childhood studies.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Karen Wells to the Sociology Lens Editorial Board.
A leading scholar in childhood studies and global development, her work bridges international political economy and socio-cultural approaches to childhood across contexts.

Privilege Versus Right: Vigilantism Against Israel's Palestinian Citizens This article addresses three core questions: What is the social origin of vigilantism? How do vigilantes justify extra-legal violence and intimidation? What are vigilantism's long-term effects? The a...

The article also shows how vigilantism can move from street violence into formal political power — leaving lasting institutional effects.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Now available via Early View (Open Access).
#EarlyView #OpenAccess #HistoricalSociology

Bringing together moral panic, vigilantism, and the tension between privilege and rights, this article shows how extra-legal violence can emerge when historically privileged groups perceive equality as loss.

#OpenAccess #PoliticalSociology #Rights

New Early View article (Open Access) in Sociology Lens.

This article asks a difficult but important question: how can the expansion of rights sometimes trigger violent backlash? It develops a theory of political vigilantism through the case of anti-Palestinian vigilantism in Israel.

#EarlyView

Using field theory, this study shows how colonial power in Egypt (1882–1922) was negotiated across courts, policing, and agricultural production — revealing indirect colonialism as a contested social field.

#OpenAccess #ColonialStudies #Sociology

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Field Theory and Colonialism: Indirect Colonial Situation as a Social Field in Egypt (1882–1922) This paper argues that Egypt under British rule (1882–1922) constituted a field of power in which the local state of Egypt and the British administration competed to dominate three key subfields to e...

Rather than a simple colonizer–colonized binary, this article shows how local state actors could reconfigure symbolic, physical, and economic power to resist and renegotiate colonial control.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#EarlyView #OpenAccess #Theory #SociologyLens

New Early View article (Open Access) in Sociology Lens.
How did colonial power actually work on the ground? This article uses field theory to show how British rule in Egypt operated through competing power domains rather than absolute domination.

#EarlyView #OpenAccess #HistoricalSociology

@wileysocsci.bsky.social Please RT

Persophilia and Aryanism: Beyond Orientalism in European Intellectual Thought This paper examines Persophilia as a racialized esthetic–intellectual formation within European thought that reimagined ancient Persia not as an exotic other but as the Aryan cradle of civilization a...

From European intellectual history to Iranian nation-building, this article shows how racialized admiration traveled, localized, and shaped modern political imaginaries.
Now available via Early View.
#EarlyView #HistoricalSociology #SociologyLens

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

How did European thinkers reimagine ancient Persia as the “Aryan cradle of civilization”?
This article traces how philosophy, poetry, and racial science transformed admiration into hierarchy — with long-term political effects.
#IntellectualHistory #Race #SociologyLens

New Early View article now available in Sociology Lens.

This study examines how European Persophilia helped shape Aryanist racial thought and later influenced Iranian nationalism and identity debates.
#EarlyView #Sociology #SociologyLens

Want to stay informed about our latest Early View articles? You can sign up for alerts via the alert section on our website.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/2832...

Thank you @soc-forum.bsky.social such an inspiring sociology journal. We truly value the dialogue across journals and look forward to future collaborations.

Check out the Sociological Forum’s December 2025 issue and visit us on Blue Sky, @soc-forum.bsky.social. Let’s get connected to keep our voices heard and our sociological ideas relevant to everyday life.

A Structure/Process Approach to Legitimacy: A Local Official's Selection and Legitimation of a Tax Policy in Mid‐Late Ming Dynasty China Most studies on the connection between the legitimacy of an authority and its policy selection and legitimation follow a structure approach to legitimacy, which recognises an authoritative actor's se...

Read the full version here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Enjoy reading.

The article shifts state legitimacy analysis from abstract universal models to concrete political, institutional, and cultural processes unfolding in specific historical contexts. It revisits Weberian debates by offering a process-based reading of mandarin administration and official mentalities.

Using a negative case from mid–late Ming China, Chen shows how nationwide survey data shaped local tax collection while also exposing mismatches between survey results and local tax registers. The study connects everyday administration with broader theories of state legitimacy.

Dr. Zetao Chen develops an “integral process” approach to legitimacy, arguing that authorities select policies they expect will be seen as legitimate and then actively work to justify them. A Ming China tax case links legitimacy debates to fiscal state formation.

From Sociology Lens Archive!
Dr. Zetao Chen develops an “integral process” approach to legitimacy, arguing that authorities select policies they expect will be seen as legitimate and then actively work to justify them. A Ming China tax case links legitimacy debates to fiscal state formation.

We’re delighted to welcome Yagmur Karakaya (Sociology, Yale University) to the Sociology Lens Editorial Board. Dr. Karakaya works at the intersection of political sociology, cultural sociology, and collective memory, with a focus on nostalgia as a collective social force.

VACANCY (2 of 2...)

Lecturer in Sociology @uomsociology.bsky.social with research expertise in the field(s) of racial inequalities, anti-racism and theoretical debates in ‘race’.

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www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Dr. Karakaya received her PhD in Sociology from University of Minnesota (2020). Her work spans cultural sociology, sociology of emotions, political sociology, comparative/historical sociology, and collective memory studies. Welcome to the team Yagmur!
sociology.yale.edu/people/yagmu...

Her research explores how nostalgia shapes both populist political discourse and popular culture. Her book project examines the contemporary Ottoman revival in Turkey, tracing tensions between state-driven neo-Ottomanism and popular, entertainment-oriented “Ottomania”.

We’re delighted to welcome Yagmur Karakaya (Sociology, Yale University) to the Sociology Lens Editorial Board. Dr. Karakaya works at the intersection of political sociology, cultural sociology, and collective memory, with a focus on nostalgia as a collective social force.

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Call for Papers | Sociology Lens

Special Issue: Further Right — Social Performativities, New Modes of Power & Democratic Inversions

For details: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/2832...

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