Association of Humanist Sociology

The Association for Humanist Sociology is a community of sociologists, educators, scholars, and activists who share a commitment to utilize sociology to promote peace, equality, and social justice.  AHS, a part of the American Sociological Associations was founded in 1976 in order to response to a growing setback with mainstream sociological organizations and a belief that sociological practice should reflect humanist values.  The AHS emerged from the realization of the fact that conventional mainstream sociology was unresponsive to people, their needs, concerns and values. Human lives in US and throughout  the world faced crisis regarding this problem. Humanist sociologists strive as professionals, as scholars and as activists to uncover and address social issues, working in groups to lessen the pain of social problems. The society genuinely concerns about  people and sees them not merely as products of social forces, but also as the ones who shape social life, capable of creating social balances in which everyone's potential can unfold. Difficult times give humanist sociologists chances to apply their special skills and perspectives for the purpose of creating a more humane world. The association intends to be an active support network for sociologists and other scholars committed to humanist values, as they practice in institutions often hostile to such an approach. They say that they strive to inspire, support, and learn from one another to make their humanist practice more conscious and skillful. They invite activists, sociologists and scholars into their community.This Association is a non-profit, scholarly, voluntary organization that eagerly provides a forum for sociologists actually concerned with the value-related aspects of society’s theory, research and professional life. It seeks to extend the boundaries of humanist sociology through exploring connections among sociology and other disciplines.In order to accomplish these objectives, the Association carries out the mission statement of the organization, and hold conferences, publish  journals and a newsletter, and engage in related activities which will see through the examination of underlying value implications and moral and ethical dimensions of sociological inquiry. The Association will also invade possible connections among sociological perspectives, views and modes of analysis and deductions of other social scientific and humanistic disciplines. The Association considers it an ethical responsibility of social scientists to contribute actively through their scholarly practice to improvements in the quality of human life, rather than merely to increase understanding of social reality as an end in itself.