Challenges for Public and Global Sociology: An Interview with Brigitte Aulenbacher and Klaus Dörre (Global Dialogue, 24/02/2023) (original) (raw)
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The Possibility of Global Public Sociology
In this paper, I revisit the debate on public sociology within the wider institutional context of higher education. Once ramifications of globalisation of higher education are taken into account, institutional constraints placed on public sociology turn out to be much larger than previously thought: a) the institu-tionalisation of world university rankings reinforces the dominance of professional sociology over public sociology and; b) the commercialisation and vocation-alisation of higher education worldwide undermines the discipline of sociology as a whole. At the same time, however, globalisation of higher education facilitates the formation of transnational networks of sociologists examining transnational social problems, ranging from marketisation to climate change. These emerging transnational networks are likely to serve as infrastructures for sociologists to engage publics in formulation and dissemination of research on transna-tional social problems and thereby forge a sociology that is simultaneously global and public.
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.
The promise of public sociology
The British Journal of Sociology, 2005
Michael Burawoy's Presidential Address to the 2005 ASA meeting was an extraordinary event. There was a buzz of excitement, the culmination of a week of high energy discussions of 'public sociology', and the product also of a year in which Burawoy had criss-crossed the USA speaking to dozens of groups and urging those who often give the ASA a pass in favour of local or activist meetings to come to San Francisco. The excitement was fueled also by a sense of renewed engagement with the reasons many -especially of the baby boom and 1960s generations -had chosen to become sociologists in the first place. A ballroom with seating for several thousand was filled to overflowing (I arrived early yet had to stand in the back). The talk ran to nearly twice the allotted time but few left. And at the end, teams of Berkeley students wearing black T-shirts proclaiming Marx 'the first public sociologist' roamed the aisles to collect questions.
Public Sociology: Working at the Interstices
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The article examines recent debates surrounding public sociology in the context of a UK based Department of Applied Social Sciences. Three areas of work within the department form the focus of the article: violence against women and children; community-...
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“Is Public Sociology Such a Good Idea?”
Public Sociology
Michael Burawoy's call for a public sociology disciplined by professional and policy sociology, on the one side, and driven by critical sociology, on the other, exposes the ideological biases of sociology to publics. In so doing, public sociology will thwart non-ideological efforts for sociology to exert influence on broader publics and on political decision-makers. In order for sociology to be able to influence public opinion and the decisions of key players in the political and economic arenas, it will need to earn respect through a long evolutionary process of careful research and explanation without ideological fervor. To expose the ideological biases of sociology will thwart this evolutionary process. In contrast, sociology would be much better to develop an engineering mentality in addressing issues, problems, and concerns of publics in present-day societies. It is striking that a discipline devoted to the study of human organization is, at best, a marginal player in public debates and important policy decisions. Since most public debates and policy decisions deal with problems of social organization and with proposals to reorganize some aspect of society, it would seem natural that sociology, as a discipline, should be a major player in the "public sphere," in the halls of political and economic decision-making, and in most social arenas. Sadly, such is not the case; we are left standing on the sidelines, while presidential historians, economists, political scientists, lawyers, and even psychologists engage the public and whisper in the ears of those who have the power to make decisions that affect the organization of society and, hence, people's lives. American sociology appears to be embarrassed by the fact that it has very little impact on the public and on policy decisions by both governmental and economic actors. The listing of sociologists who are "In The News" with each issue of Footnotes is, I think, confirmation of sociology's small impact on public and political issues. If we were secure in our position, we would not need to trumpet those relatively few occasions when sociologists are asked by the press to say something. It is almost as if we needed to say to ourselves: "See, we influence the public, really we do." It is this sense of being marginal, if not impotent, that provides the context for Michael Burawoy's (2004a, 2004b, 2004c, 2005) call for "public sociology." Sociologists rightly perceive that as the field of inquiry that studies virtually all dimensions of human societies, we should be players when issues, debates, and decisions affecting the organization of society are being made. The call for a