Book review: The public and their platforms: public sociology in an era of social media by Mark Carrigan and Lambros Fatsis (original) (raw)
Public Sociology in the Age of Social Media
I informally examine how the idea of public sociology has been a ected by the rise of social media. New social media platforms disintermediate communication, make people more visible, and encourage public life to be measured. ey tend to move the discipline from a situation where some people self-consciously do "public sociology" to one where most sociologists unselfconsciously do sociology in public. I discuss the character of such "latently public" work, the opportunities and di culties it creates for individuals, and its tendency to be associated with academic elds that believe in what they are doing.
Ossewaarde, M. (2007) ‘Sociology Back to the Publics’, Sociology 41 (5): 799-812.
Sociology, 2007
This paper is a reading of the 'new sociology' that is mainly identified with the works of C. Wright Mills and Alvin Boulder. Its main argument is that the new sociology has given back a public face to sociology during the past forty years. This is arguably different from the 'old sociology' that has not been able to free itself from private social values. It is argued that Mills' power elite and Boulder's coming crisis theses have provided the foundation for many new sociologists' common enterprise to develop a critical and public sociology, which is informative for shaping what Mills called a 'democratic society of publics'. The new sociologists share the same critique of modern societies, namely, that though most modern societies have formal democracies, a substantial democratic social structure of publics is often lacking, due to the erosion of the public sphere by private values.
Global Transformation of the Public Sphere in the Digital World: From Public to Silent Sphere?
Academia Letters, 2021
The Internet has revolutionized the way we interact globally. As the world turned out to be a 'global village' marked by the economic, cultural and political interconnectedness of people across the world by using digital social platforms as public spheres, it is a fundamental necessity to redefine the term of the Public Sphere coined by Jürgen Habermas, on which public opinion can be formed after public discussions dealing with social and political affairs (Habermas, 1974). The Public Sphere (Öffentlichkeit) is a confidential space which is sterilized from authorities and enables the bourgeois society to hold political debates. Yet, participation in these debates extends beyond the bourgeoisie to all kinds of citizens, who can now access social platforms along with the World Wide Web and find their voices within these spaces. It is, however, inevitable to question whether digital public spheres are becoming less democratic as users today are surveilled and controlled with sophisticated technologies. Citizens who are gravitating to online social platforms as alternative public spheres are concerned about the future of democracy as authorities enforce surveillance policies, especially during Covid-19. Especially social media users complain about their continuous watching by authorities to gather data on online platforms. However, this statement is objected by governments and law enforcement agencies since the surveillance is implemented for the purpose of security and public peace. This paper focuses on how democratic and efficient digital platforms as public spheres are for each citizen to express their views and shape public opinion whilst advanced surveillance technologies are misemployed by such authorities as governments, policymakers, intelligence agencies, etc. This paper relies on fundamentally qualitative methods to explore concepts and theories in depth. This is an interdisciplinary paper within the scope of Sociology, Media Studies and Surveillance Studies. In this research, social platforms as global public spheres are evaluated
Why Sociology Does Not Need to Be Saved: Analytic Reflections on Public Sociologies
The American Sociologist, 2005
After reviewing the debate about public sociologies in the American Sociological Association over the past few years, we offer a response to calls for "saving sociology" from the Burawoy approach as well as an analytic critique of the former ASA president's "For Public Sociology" address. While being sympathetic to the basic idea of public sociologies, we argue that the "reflexive" and "critical" categories of sociology, as Burawoy has conceptualized them, are too ambiguous and value-laden to allow for empirical investigation of the different major orientations of sociological research and the ways the discipline can address non-academic audiences. Debates about the future of sociology should be undertaken with empirical evidence, and we need a theoretical approach that can allow us to compare both disciplines and nations as well as taking into account the institutional context of the universities in which we operate. Research into the conditions under which professional, critical, policy, and public sociologies could work together for the larger disciplinary and societal good is called for instead of overheated rhetoric both for and against public sociologies.
Introduction: Rediscovering Society in the Age of Social Media
2016
Not very long ago, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) announced that “Today, everything is about Social Media”. The meaning of this statement is straightforward – if you do not have an account on social media platform, you are out of online domain. Nowadays, this claim appears to be soft or even out of date. It is more likely that if you do not have an account on social media, you are absent both online and offline. Whether we like it or not, the explosive growth of social media has changed the ways modern society is conceptualized, diagnosed, and examined. By sharing, liking, commenting, tweeting, rating, following up etc. users have established new communicational practices spreading beyond social media into a wider social context. Television viewers use Twitter to express live their emotions evoked by presidential candidates debating on controversial issues. Tourists take ‘selfies’ and put them on Instagram to share a wonderful holiday they have. Headhunters use LinkedIn to find candidat...
The American Sociologist, 2005
After reviewing the debate about public sociologies in the American Sociological Association over the past few years, we offer a response to calls for "saving sociology" from the Burawoy approach as well as an analytic critique of the former ASA president's "For Public Sociology" address. While being sympathetic to the basic idea of public sociologies, we argue that the "reflexive" and "critical" categories of sociology, as Burawoy has conceptualized them, are too ambiguous and value-laden to allow for empirical investigation of the different major orientations of sociological research and the ways the discipline can address non-academic audiences. Debates about the future of sociology should be undertaken with empirical evidence, and we need a theoretical approach that can allow us to compare both disciplines and nations as well as taking into account the institutional context of the universities in which we operate. Research into the conditions under which professional, critical, policy, and public sociologies could work together for the larger disciplinary and societal good is called for instead of overheated rhetoric both for and against public sociologies.
Sociology, 2007
This article is a reading of the 'new sociology' that is mainly identified with the works of C. Wright Mills and Alvin Gouldner. Its main argument is that during the past 40 years the new sociology gave back a public face to sociology. This distinguishes it from the 'old sociology' that had not been able to free itself from 'private' social values. It is argued that Mills' power elite and Gouldner's coming crisis theses provided the foundation for a common enterprise among many 'new sociologists' to develop a critical and public sociology that would seek to shape what Mills called the 'democratic society of publics'.'New sociologists' share a critique of modern societies, namely, that though most modern societies have formal democracies, a substantial democratic social structure of publics is often lacking, due to the erosion of the public sphere by private values.
From Mass to Social Media? Advancing Accounts of Social Change
Social Media + Society, 2015
I suggest that Social Media and Society will be substantially focused on questions of social change. Thus, I urge a historical perspective that avoids the temptation to consolidate the vision of mass media as concentrated, passively consumed, and unidirectional in influence by contrast with today's supposedly more dispersed, participatory, globalized, peer-to-peer social media. I then observe that many diverse disciplines are interested in social media and express concern that while they have considerable expertise regarding the "social" and "society," they too-often appear content to black-box "media." This requires us to enter the fray to explain how the media part of the equation matters too. Since, I suggest, this matters whenever the material or symbolic dimensions of communication are important to or contested within the unfolding action, that is very often indeed. I then suggest some pressing questions to which I hope this journal will contribute. These concern (1) the wider ecology of communication within which, intriguingly, the dimensions that best characterize face-to-face communication are still used as the yardstick by which to judge social (and other) media; (2) the imperative to adopt a multi-and trans-cultural gaze as we grapple with (rather than presume we already know) the ethnographic diversity of social media "users" in all their complexity-including emerging social media literacy and its relation to social media legibility; and (3) larger questions of the theoretical framework by which to conceptualize power relations "at the interface"-of speakers and hearers, producers and audiences, or, today, affordances and users.
Recapturing the Sociological Imagination: The Challenge for Public Sociology
2009
The tremendous enthusiasm with which the idea of public sociology has been embraced is a positive development. It indicates that many sociologists are aware that their discipline is not simply “academic” and that the kinds of questions they engage with require a wider conversation with a wider non-professional public. Some proponents of public sociology also aspire to embrace the role of a socially aware intellectual. Back in the early sixties C.
$#*! Sociologists Say: e-Public Sociology on Twitter
Keywords This paper explores how individuals who self-identify on Twitter as sociologists holding teaching posts at institutions of higher education use the popular micro-blogging social media site. A total of 152,977 tweets from profiles of 130 sociologists were collected and examined using qualitative media analysis.
2014
over the past few years, we offer a response to calls for “saving sociology ” from the Burawoy approach as well as an analytic critique of the former ASA president’s “For Public Sociology” address. While being sympathetic to the basic idea of public sociologies, we argue that the “reflexive ” and “critical ” categories of sociology, as Burawoy has conceptualized them, are too ambiguous and value-laden to allow for empirical investigation of the different major orienta-tions of sociological research and the ways the discipline can address non-academic audiences. Debates about the future of sociology should be undertaken with empirical evidence, and we need a theoretical approach that can allow us to compare both disciplines and nations as well as taking into account the institutional context of the universities in which we operate. Research into the conditions under which professional, critical, policy, and public sociologies could work together for the larger disciplinary and societ...
Constructing Public Space: Global Perspectives on Social Media and Popular Contestation
This introduction to the special section on the construction of public space in social media activism discusses (1) the types of social media practices involved in the construction of publicness during contemporary episodes of popular contention, (2) the particular political institutional contexts in which these practices are articulated, and (3) the technocommercial architectures through which they take shape. Building on the five articles in this section, we argue that public space is not readily available for today’s citizens and activists, but is conquered and constructed through processes of emotional connectivity.
Mass Audience Movements in the age of Social Media Activism
Abstract book of the 16th IAMCR Conference., 2018
This research study intends to investigate the extent and effects of public engagement on the existing crime and justice system, empowered by online networks especially social media in the current age of Citizen Journalism and Social Media Activism. The manner and magnitude of public involvement in candid arguments and debates over controversial social, cultural and political issues have been entirely transformed across the world, often facilitated by dynamic social media platforms. This research, thus aims to systematically evaluate the inconsistent promises, threats and pressures of such public and civil society engagement, especially on the crime and justice system in Pakistan. In modern digital age, social media activism and civil society engagement are assumed to have the potential to initiate egalitarian debates in democracies that are confronting all sorts of political, cultural, religious and gender-based discriminations, violence and vigilantism. Triangulation method will be adopted for data collection; including qualitative analysis of relevant cases, in-depth interviews of sampled opinion leaders and policy makers, and an elaborate audience survey, strategically drafted for the purpose. This study is trying to gauge how audience activism is supposedly influencing media content across diverse media platforms and thereby how it is presumably used by policymakers and opinion leaders for their socio-political campaigns and civil right movements to influence crime and justice system in the country.