Letter from the Incoming Editors (original) (raw)

2010, Social Science Quarterly

is the most prominent publication forum for Nordic sociology today and a brief look at the 2018 volume reveals a generalist sociology journal that publishes articles from various subfields and relies on a broad spectrum of research methods. The four most recent issues include articles on topics ranging across family and welfare, migration and diversity, education, the various dimensions of social stratification, social mobility, climate change, protest, and populism. Further, the articles represent a broad range of methods, including surveys, qualitative interviews and historical-comparative work. We want to continue such an emphasis on substantive and methodological variety. Along these lines, it has been suggested that the sociological perspective is particularly valuable and able to gain attention during times of great societal changes. There is no doubt that the Nordic countries, Europe in general and the world at large is undergoing such changes at the moment and we want to capitalize on the importance of understanding society at a broad level-from identifying the broad social institutional arrangements that societies are built on, to the interaction between different kinds of groups and individuals. And of course, we are especially interested in work that links the two, as highlighted by C. Wright Mills in his seminal book, The Sociological Imagination. This underscores the uniqueness of the sociological perspective, allowing us to understand how large institutional, historical and cultural factors impact the lives and experiences of individuals. It further emphasizes the importance of seeing the world through the eyes of the other, and stresses the importance of bringing together insights from various subfields and methodological approaches to understand issues that are critical in the current era. Some, but limited, examples of areas that we view as particularly critical at the moment are immigration, populism and challenges to democracy, globalization, health and well-being, and various types of inequalities built on ascriptive and achieved characteristics. Beyond a deep understanding of various social issues, a major strength of sociology has always been a rich tradition of methodological diversity. While valuing methodological debates, we believe that sociological knowledge should be based on a broad variety of approaches and methods; a review of any 'literature' should reveal a mixed-methodsbased knowledge. Based on this, we welcome manuscripts that address a variety of topics and that use the broad range of research tools available to sociologists. We will do our very best to process all incoming, manuscripts by having them reviewed by the most appropriate experts. Bearing witness to the quality of the articles that are currently published in Acta is that the journal's growing impact factor now places it among the best generalist sociology journals. Although we should never be too fixated on the rank-race of the journals, this is nevertheless good news not only for Acta, which is being read and cited way beyond the Nordic context, but for Nordic sociology generally. Clearly, the outgoing editorial team from Finland has done an excellent job. We have had the privilege to meet with them to discuss their approach and outstanding editorship and our priority is to keep up their good work. We aim to maintain and ideally increase the journal's international success. We strongly believe, just like the outgoing editors, that ensuring high quality and broad topical and methodological variety is the way to go. We look forward to hosting Acta in Iceland for the next four years, and to do our best to contribute to the quality and visibility of Nordic sociology around the world.