Michael Schwartz - Sociology is an applied science, and the application is social change: a contribution to the discussion of Aldon Morris' The Scholar Denied - Ethnic and Racial Studies - 2017 (original) (raw)
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I argue that W.E.B. Du Bois’ expulsion from academic sociology at the beginning of the twentieth century was not only animated by the gatekeepers’ desire to maintain academe as a whites-only domain. It also constituted an active effort to defend Social Darwinist dogma, which dominated (white) social science at that time, from the formidable challenge of a resourceful and scientifically superior perspective. The successful exclusion of Du Bois (and his growing legion of colleagues) allowed sociology to drift into functionalist dogma, with its immutable hierarchy and denial of sociology’s role in facilitating social change. The exclusion of Du Boisean analysis, which placed human agency – and especially subaltern groups – at the centre of social change – rendered sociological analysis irrelevant to addressing social problems and social justice, until the Civil Rights Movement in America broke down the walls of the sociological ghetto, allowing it to access the rich Du Boisean perspective
Symposium on WEB Du Bois' exclusion from Sociology; A discussion of Aldon Morris' The Scholar Denied
The publication of Aldon Morris' The Scholar Denied has triggered a comprehensive discourse around reintegrating Du Boisean scholarship into sociology (after 70 or more years of rigorous institutional exclusion and another 40 years of episodic campaigns to ameliorate it). This new round of discourse (and institutional initiatives) holds the promise of finally making Du Bois and his scholarly perspective an integral part of socological scholarship and course curricula. Among the most interesting (and I think constructive) symposia generated by The Scholar Denied has recently been published by Ethnic and Race Studies, My contribution to the symposium calls out the activist element in Du Bois scholarship (and Morris’ book), arguingthat what we need is to embrace Du Bois’ conception of sociology as an applied science in order to make sociology relevant to the 21st century issues facing human society. The text includes all the contributions, including an interesting response by Morris to the original four. You can find mine on page 92, just before Winant's excellent essay and Morris' rejoinder
Towards a new canon? Rewriting the history (and the future) of sociology
Quaderni di Sociologia, 2020
In the U.S., over the three past decades, there has been a huge interest in W.E.B. Du Bois and in Black scholars; only recently we are witnessing the proliferation of works on their role as founders of U.S. sociology. While there are differences between them, they all converge in seeing W.E.B. Du Bois as a pioneer of scientific sociology in the United States and a pioneer of public sociology, combining sociology and activism, relevant for contemporary political struggles including the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. Indeed, alongside the scientific debate regarding the history of U.S. sociology, there is a parallel discourse about the objectivity of the social sciences, and both are increasingly attracting attention and controversy. In this note the Author will focus on the role of Du Bois in founding the discipline in the United States, the relevance of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory, the debate on objectivity and neutrality as a pre-condition for science, and the call for a “Du Boisian sociology”. (openedition at http://journals.openedition.org/qds/4114 )
W. E. B. Du Bois at the center: from science, civil rights movement, to Black Lives Matter
The British journal of sociology, 2017
I am honoured to present the 2016 British Journal of Sociology Annual Lecture at the London School of Economics. My lecture is based on ideas derived from my new book, The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. In this essay I make three arguments. First, W.E.B. Du Bois and his Atlanta School of Sociology pioneered scientific sociology in the United States. Second, Du Bois pioneered a public sociology that creatively combined sociology and activism. Finally, Du Bois pioneered a politically engaged social science relevant for contemporary political struggles including the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.
Is There a Du Boisian Sociology?
Contemporary Sociology, 2023
Du Bois’ oeuvre demonstrates that modernization always contains a dark side: there is no modernity that is not simultaneously a racialized modernity. This essay considers the contours – and limits – of the ongoing project of establishing a properly Du Boisian sociology. How to fundamentally reshape the discipline’s theoretical orientation without allowing Du Bois to be co-opted into mainstream sociology?