Containing 13 original empirical studies of the day-to-day knowledge-making activities of social scientists and specialists in related areas, this volume represents the first comprehensive effort to bring the “turn to practice” to bear on the understanding of social knowledge. Inspired by advances in the interdisciplinary field of science studies, where over the past quarter century researchers have plumbed the inner workings of the physical and biological sciences using a variety of social and historical lenses, contributors to the volume tackle a range of previously unexplored questions about the situated practices involved in the production, assessment, and use of diverse forms of social knowledge. In so doing, authors address topics including the changing practices of historical research, anthropological data collection, and library usage; the knowledge evaluation practices of peer review panels, institutional review boards, and multi-disciplinary research consortia; and processes of knowledge production and application in private and public arenas beyond the academy, such as global banks, survey research organizations, and policy venues in national security and economic regulation. Assembling a stellar cast of senior and junior researchers from sociology, history, anthropology, and science studies, the editors bring into dialogue scholars at work on these different historical and contemporary subjects and, on this basis, propose a new research agenda for the study of the production and evaluation of social knowledge in the social sciences, the humanities, and a broad range of non-academic settings.

To bridge the gap between poverty scholars and culture scholars, the editors have assembled papers around the topic "Reconsidering Culture and Poverty." Chapters concern cultural orientations concerning upward mobility, finding a job, and sexual behavior, fatherhood, civic participation, and other topics. Contributors include Nathan Fosse, Joshua Guetzkow, Biju Rao, Paromita Sanyal, Sandra Smith, Stephen Vaisey, Maureen Waller, and William Julius Wilson. We hope that this issue will demonstrate the importance of cultural concepts for poverty research, serve as a model and a resource for poverty scholars who wish to incorporate cultural concepts into their research, assist in the training of future scholars working at the nexus of poverty and culture, and identify crucial areas for future methodological, theoretical, and empirical development. Order a copy (http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/lamont/Annals_Brochure_May2010_v629.pdf) from the Annals or read the policy brief (http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/lamont/Reconsidering-Culture-and-Poverty_PolicyBrief.pdf) from the National Poverty Center. Read the American Sociological Association's coverage in the July/August 2010 edition of Footnotes: "Social Scientists Offer a Multifaceted Picture of Poverty’s Consequences." Response to Steinberg's Boston Review piece on our issue on Reconsidering Culture and Poverty. (http://educationpolicyblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/mario-small-responds.html)