K A Cerulo
Biographic Data
| ID | 21691 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K A Cerulo |
| GIVEN NAMES | K A |
| FAMILY NAME | Cerulo |
| SIGNATURE | CERULO K A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8159-2102 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 85 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 696 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 83 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
What Shapes Our Dreams for the Future
Karen A. Cerulo on social identity and realizing imagined futures
Enduring Relationships: Social Aspects of Perceived Interactions with the Dead
Is it possible to interact with the dead? Belief in such encounters is more widespread than we might think. Yet sociologists, unlike other disciplines, have not fully engaged the question. Here, I review both long-standing theoretical objections to such research and recent theories that encourage attention to the issue. Leaning on the latter, I use closed- and open-ended survey data collected from 535 Americans to explore what I call “living-dece…
Last Words
It seems like just yesterday that I was introducing myself as the new editor of Sociological Forum. Now, 17 volumes later, I am writing to say good-bye. It has been my great honor and pleasure to edit the flagship journal of the Eastern Sociological Society (ESS). To be sure, editing a journal is a yeoman's task. At the same time, it is a wonderful experience. In fact, as I have said before, it is the best postdoc one could hope for. Reading new …
What Should Sociologists Do
This essay underscores the importance of public sociology and the critical and policy outcomes it encourages. The work also notes the importance of translating sophisticated theory and high quality, intricate methods for public consumption. The essay concludes by reviewing the growth of public sociology in the field at large and the special focus Sociological Forum has built in this area since 2015
Odeurs et préjugés: Olfaction, production et attribution de sens
Comment les odeurs sont-elles investies de sens et comment ces significations structurent-elles les interactions et les relations de groupe ? Pour explorer ces questions, je mobilise les théories culturelles de la production de sens dans le cadre d’une enquête réalisée sur l’univers des parfums commercialisés. En utilisant des tests olfactifs à l'aveugle dans des groupes de discussion, j'examine la façon dont des individus attribuent un sens à ce…
Introduction to the Forum
Revisiting Election Predictions
This essay introduces a series of articles that revisit pieces published in a special issue of Sociological Forum entitled “Foresight in 2020: Race and Gender in the Upcoming Election.” The articles review the veracity of predictions made regarding the 2020 U.S. elections
Future Imaginings: Public and Personal Culture, Social Location, and the Shaping of Dreams
Using data derived from focus groups, interviews, and the content analysis of widely circulated cultural scripts on dreaming, we document the social patterning of people’s future imaginings. People attend to, store, and activate different cultural scripts in building dreams for the future. These scripts derive from “pubic culture”—widely available repertoires, including values and beliefs; concepts; story frames, scripts, and narratives; customs,…
Introduction to the Special Issue Culture and Cognition: New Approaches and New Applications
In recent decades, a burgeoning literature finds cultural sociologists incorporating ideas from the cognitive sciences—cognitive anthropology, cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and philosophy——and significantly reshaping sociologists’ approach to culture, both theoretically and methodologically. Elsewhere, we have reviewed the cognitive turn in cultural sociology (Cerulo, Leschziner and Shepherd, 2021). But in this special issue, a…
The Forum Mailbag
Missing Voices, Missing Issues in the 2020 Election
Introduction: Resistance in the Twenty‐First Century
This essay introduces the articles that comprise a special issue of Sociological Forum titled “Resistance in the Twenty‐First Century.”
Scents and Sensibility: Olfaction, Sense-Making, and Meaning Attribution
How are smells invested with meaning and how do those meanings structure interactions and group relations? I use cultural theories of meaning-making to explore these questions, situating my inquiry in the world of commercially marketed perfumes. Using blind smell tests in focus groups, I examine how individuals make sense of certain fragrances absent direction from manufacturers or marketing materials. I find that most participants can correctly …
I Don't Want to Be With Those Guys!”: Speaking Up Against Bias and Injustice
Demonstrations, rallies, changes to the law, increased prosecutions—all of these things are vital to making sure that all lives—black, brown, or white; female or male; Christian, Jewish, or Muslim; gay or straight—are equally valued by the public and in the execution of the law. But just as important is the stand that ordinary people take in everyday situations... the raising of voice as situations arise in the forums of our lives. Giving voice i…
Why Do We Publish
Culture and Cognition
Culture and cognition is a rapidly growing subfield within sociology. Scholars working in this area address how aspects of both social structure and culture impact the ways in which social actors think. From the literature, one learns about specific processes and styles that individuals adopt when engaged in thought, cognitive patterns that characterize certain groups or communities, and thought styles that emerge in specific situations and socia…
The Forum Mailbox
The Forum Mailbox
To Life: Optimism Bias and Technological Ties in the Face of the Worst
This essay addresses a recent media controversy. Two journalists actively questioned the appropriateness of a popular blog that chronicles a young woman's fight with cancer. Elaine Replogle ( ) unfolds the facts of this case and discusses the role of fame and status in understanding the journalists' response to the blog. Here, I extend that conversation, exploring how our culture's optimism bias, as well as the increasing importance of our techno…
What Should a Sociology of Culture and Cognition Look Like
Forum Mailbox
Continuing the Story: Maximizing the Intersections of Cognitive Science and Sociology
This article is part of a special journal section addressing the sociology of culture and cognition and its future. In this essay, I use the areas of “serial position effects” and “sequencing” to illustrate ways of creating interdisciplinary dialogue between sociologists of culture and cognition and cognitive scientists. I view the body as an integral link in connecting these two fields
Apologies of the Rich and Famous: Cultural, Cognitive, and Social Explanations of Why We Care and Why We Forgive
In recent years, U.S. and other Western media have inundated the public with celebrity apologies. The public (measured via representative opinion polls) then expresses clear ideas about who deserves forgiveness. Is forgiveness highly individualized or tied to broader social, cultural, and cognitive factors? To answer this question, we analyzed 183 celebrity apologies offered between October 1, 2000, and October 1, 2012. Results are twofold and ba…
Reassessing the Problem: Response to Jerolmack and Khan
This article offers reflections on Jerolmack and Khan's article 'Talk is Cheap: Ethnography and the Attitudinal Fallacy.' Specifically, I offer three suggestions aimed at moderating the authors' critique. Since the sociology of culture and cognition is my area of expertise, I, like Jerolmack and Khan, use this literature to mine supporting examples
The Forum Mailbox
Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions
The study of identity forms a critical cornerstone within modern sociological thought. Introduced by the works of Cooley and Mead, identity studies have evolved and grown central to current sociological discourse. Microsociological perspectives dominated work published through the 1970s. Sociologists focused primarily on the formation of the 'me,' exploring the ways in which interpersonal interactions mold an individual's sense of self. Recent li…
Nonhumans in Social Interaction
Sociological analyses of social interaction have been primarily directed toward human-to-human exchange. Recently, some have begun to actively question that stance. Challenges are found in new theoretical ideas and in empirical study-experimental, field, and survey data on people's attitudes and behaviors toward nonhumans. Such developments are leading many scholars to carve out a more central role for animals, objects, images, and both memories …
Scents and Sensibility: Olfaction, Sense-Making, and Meaning Attribution
How are smells invested with meaning and how do those meanings structure interactions and group relations? I use cultural theories of meaning-making to explore these questions, situating my inquiry in the world of commercially marketed perfumes. Using blind smell tests in focus groups, I examine how individuals make sense of certain fragrances absent direction from manufacturers or marketing materials. I find that most participants can correctly …
Mining the intersections of cognitive sociology and neuroscience
Symbols and the world system: National anthems and flags
In the name of: Legitimate interactants in the dialogue of prayer
Reframing Sociological Concepts for a Brave New (Virtual?) World
The articles that make up this Sociological Inquiry feature emerged from the 1995 meetings of the American Sociological Association. The authors included in this issue were expressly solicited for a special session on 'Technologically Generated Communities.' The authors were asked to individually provide their own perspectives on the intersection of technology, community, and social action. My essay attempts to crystallize several key changes tha…
Continuing the Story: Maximizing the Intersections of Cognitive Science and Sociology
This article is part of a special journal section addressing the sociology of culture and cognition and its future. In this essay, I use the areas of “serial position effects” and “sequencing” to illustrate ways of creating interdisciplinary dialogue between sociologists of culture and cognition and cognitive scientists. I view the body as an integral link in connecting these two fields
Reassessing the Problem: Response to Jerolmack and Khan
This article offers reflections on Jerolmack and Khan's article 'Talk is Cheap: Ethnography and the Attitudinal Fallacy.' Specifically, I offer three suggestions aimed at moderating the authors' critique. Since the sociology of culture and cognition is my area of expertise, I, like Jerolmack and Khan, use this literature to mine supporting examples
Sociopolitical Control and the Structure of National Symbols: An Empirical Analysis of National Anthems
Journal Article Sociopolitical Control and the Structure of National Symbols: An Empirical Analysis of National Anthems Get access Karen A. Cerulo Karen A. Cerulo State University of New York at Stony Brook Direct correspondence to the author, Department of Sociology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 68, Issue 1, September 1989, Page…
Analyzing cultural products: A new method of measurement
I Don't Want to Be With Those Guys!”: Speaking Up Against Bias and Injustice
Demonstrations, rallies, changes to the law, increased prosecutions—all of these things are vital to making sure that all lives—black, brown, or white; female or male; Christian, Jewish, or Muslim; gay or straight—are equally valued by the public and in the execution of the law. But just as important is the stand that ordinary people take in everyday situations... the raising of voice as situations arise in the forums of our lives. Giving voice i…
Future Imaginings: Public and Personal Culture, Social Location, and the Shaping of Dreams
Using data derived from focus groups, interviews, and the content analysis of widely circulated cultural scripts on dreaming, we document the social patterning of people’s future imaginings. People attend to, store, and activate different cultural scripts in building dreams for the future. These scripts derive from “pubic culture”—widely available repertoires, including values and beliefs; concepts; story frames, scripts, and narratives; customs,…
Death comes alive; technology and the re‐conception of death
(1997). Death comes alive; technology and the re‐conception of death. Science as Culture: Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 444-466
The rest of the story: Sociocultural patterns of story elaboration
Apologies of the Rich and Famous: Cultural, Cognitive, and Social Explanations of Why We Care and Why We Forgive
In recent years, U.S. and other Western media have inundated the public with celebrity apologies. The public (measured via representative opinion polls) then expresses clear ideas about who deserves forgiveness. Is forgiveness highly individualized or tied to broader social, cultural, and cognitive factors? To answer this question, we analyzed 183 celebrity apologies offered between October 1, 2000, and October 1, 2012. Results are twofold and ba…
Television, Magazine Covers, and the Shared Symbolic Environment: 1948-1970
Social Interaction: Do Non‐humans Count
A growing body of research suggests that non‐humans play a central role in many social interactions – not simply as objects used by humans as interaction props, but as fully participating agents of action. In this essay, I examine these innovative ideas, reviewing survey data that documents this trend and theoretical and empirical work that seeks to better understand it
Coming Together: New Taxonomies for the Analysis of Social Relations
In previous work, we have noted a certain rigidity in sociology's approach to the topic of social relations (Cerulo 1997; Cerulo and Ruane 1997; Cerulo, Ruane, and Chayko 1992). With few exceptions, literature on the subject dichotomizes social relations with reference to the scope of the interaction (small group versus large group) and the mode by which social actors connect (direct connections versus mediated connections). Further, many researc…
Social Disruption and Its Effects on Music: An Empirical Analysis
Data on musical compositions in six countries show the effect that varying conditions of a war period can have on the construction of music. Prior to World War II, pieces mitten in these nations display similar characteristics when measured across a set of musical properties. However, the outbreak of battle precipitates a deviation in this pattern. Works created in areas exposed to a high degree of social disruption exhibit change on several of t…
Introduction to the Special Issue Culture and Cognition: New Approaches and New Applications
In recent decades, a burgeoning literature finds cultural sociologists incorporating ideas from the cognitive sciences—cognitive anthropology, cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and philosophy——and significantly reshaping sociologists’ approach to culture, both theoretically and methodologically. Elsewhere, we have reviewed the cognitive turn in cultural sociology (Cerulo, Leschziner and Shepherd, 2021). But in this special issue, a…
Why Do We Publish
What Should a Sociology of Culture and Cognition Look Like
The Forum Mailbag
The Forum: Second Thoughts on Presidential Politics
In this essay, we confront the “conventional wisdoms” promoted throughout this long presidential campaign. By conventional wisdoms, we mean the common knowledge of politics—the things that commentators and analysts forward as taken‐for‐granted assertions and beliefs. We will revisit just a few of the campaign season’s conventional wisdoms and review them with a sociological eye. In so doing, we find that in politics, as in most other areas, conve…
Television, Magazine Covers, and the Shared Symbolic Environment: 1948-1970
Social Disruption and Its Effects on Music: An Empirical Analysis
Data on musical compositions in six countries show the effect that varying conditions of a war period can have on the construction of music. Prior to World War II, pieces mitten in these nations display similar characteristics when measured across a set of musical properties. However, the outbreak of battle precipitates a deviation in this pattern. Works created in areas exposed to a high degree of social disruption exhibit change on several of t…
A Social History of Modern Art: Vol. 1: Art in an Age of Revolution, 1750-1800
Analyzing cultural products: A new method of measurement
Sociopolitical Control and the Structure of National Symbols: An Empirical Analysis of National Anthems
Journal Article Sociopolitical Control and the Structure of National Symbols: An Empirical Analysis of National Anthems Get access Karen A. Cerulo Karen A. Cerulo State University of New York at Stony Brook Direct correspondence to the author, Department of Sociology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 68, Issue 1, September 1989, Page…
To err is social: Network prominence and its effects on self-estimation
The Police and CMHCs: The Transition from Penal to Therapeutic Control
The deinstitutionalization of chronic mental patients and the establishment of Community Mental Health Centers creates a new role for the police—i.e. agents of therapeutic control. In this new role, police must move beyond their traditional behaviors as agents of penal control, and play an active part in initiating patients to psychiatric treatment. Social scientists and mental health professionals recognize the need for police training in this a…
Representing Order: Crime, Law, and Justice in the News Media
Symbols and the world system: National anthems and flags
The Shape of Culture: A Study of Contemporary Cultural Patterns in the United States.
1. Culture as structure and meaning 2. The American cultural landscape 3. Reproduction and decline 4. Co-ocurrence, tipping in, and bridging 5. Organizational assembly and disassembly 6. Increasing returns on diminishing artists 7. A little more on the hobby horse 8. Masses and classes 9. The transformation of American culture.
The Intellectual Construction of America: Exceptionalism and Identity from 1492 to 1800
Professional Deceit: Normal Lying in an Occupational Setting
Normal lies are those that social actors legitimate as appropriate means to desirable outcomes. Such lies have been acknowledged in the literature as tools for maintaining social order. Yet, little has been done to document the social structural sources of normal lying. This paper offers a first step in filling this research gap, examining aspects of occupational structure and their connection to the practice of normal lying. Specifically, we dis…
The Costs of Privacy: Surveillance and Reputation in America
An Ecology of Communication: Cultural Formats of Control
Altheide's new book advances the argument set in motion some years ago with Media Logic and continued in Media Worlds in the Postjournalism Era: that in our age, information technology and the communication enviroments it posits have affected the private and the social spheres of all our power relationships, redefining the ground rules for social life and concepts such as freedom and justice., Articulated through an interactionist and non-determi…
Voicing Social Concern
The Dream of a New Social Order: Popular Magazines in America, 1893-1914
This study explores how magazines became the first mass medium in the USA and how they expressed a new American culture based on dreams of a better future. Schneirov argues that the birth of the popular magazine at the turn of the century helped to form the foundations of contemporary consumer culture. Revolutionary concepts and products from the skyscraper to the automobile were extolled in these publications as symbols of the might of science a…
Death comes alive; technology and the re‐conception of death
(1997). Death comes alive; technology and the re‐conception of death. Science as Culture: Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 444-466
Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions
The study of identity forms a critical cornerstone within modern sociological thought. Introduced by the works of Cooley and Mead, identity studies have evolved and grown central to current sociological discourse. Microsociological perspectives dominated work published through the 1970s. Sociologists focused primarily on the formation of the 'me,' exploring the ways in which interpersonal interactions mold an individual's sense of self. Recent li…
Reframing Sociological Concepts for a Brave New (Virtual?) World
The articles that make up this Sociological Inquiry feature emerged from the 1995 meetings of the American Sociological Association. The authors included in this issue were expressly solicited for a special session on 'Technologically Generated Communities.' The authors were asked to individually provide their own perspectives on the intersection of technology, community, and social action. My essay attempts to crystallize several key changes tha…
Coming Together: New Taxonomies for the Analysis of Social Relations
In previous work, we have noted a certain rigidity in sociology's approach to the topic of social relations (Cerulo 1997; Cerulo and Ruane 1997; Cerulo, Ruane, and Chayko 1992). With few exceptions, literature on the subject dichotomizes social relations with reference to the scope of the interaction (small group versus large group) and the mode by which social actors connect (direct connections versus mediated connections). Further, many researc…
Sociological Perspectives on New Communication Technologies, Part II: Introduction
Sociological Perspectives on New Communication Technologies: Introduction
The technological leaps of our day, especially those in the communications area, touch issues at the very heart of sociological discourse; new communication technologies problematize the definition of interaction, the nature of social ties, and the scope of experience and reality. In light of such developments, one might guess that sociologists would be very busy. Yet, our voice on these matters registers as a mere whisper in comparison to many o…
Overcoming rigid conceptualization: Culture, cognition, and new approaches to traditional ideas
The rest of the story: Sociocultural patterns of story elaboration
The Behavior of Culture . . . Courtesy of Donald Black
Sociology (77 works) · Computer Science (49 works) · Media studies (45 works) · Citation (33 works) · Library science (33 works) · Social and Cultural Dynamics (26 works) · Psychology (24 works) · Political science (20 works) · Social science (19 works) · Law (18 works)