Directions for Public Sociology: Novel Writing as a Creative Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashleigh Watson
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Social World ◽  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Public Sociology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociological Work ◽  
Sociological Thought

This article presents a creative direction for public sociology: novel writing. Narrativity is embedded within much contemporary sociological work, and sociologists and novelists share a number of complementary approaches for understanding and interpreting the social world. This article argues that novel writing presents sociologists with a process and medium through which they can expand their work for a more public, engaging, affective, and panoramic sociology. Here, the historical development of sociological thought is considered as well as the recent progress of public sociology. Three key strengths of sociological novels are presented: promoting public sociology and interlocutor engagement; transforming knowledge exchange from mimetic to sympractic communication; and addressing issues of scope. Two recent sociological novels are discussed: Blue by Patricia Leavy and On The Cusp by David Buckingham, both published in 2015. Finally, two linked aspects for (thinking about) writing sociological fiction are explored: the concept of glocality and the methodology of ethnography. Employing creative mediums such as novels as public sociology may cultivate a wider, affective public engagement with significant academic ideas such as the sociological imagination. Sociological novels work to bring the local and global into dialogue, and may help achieve the scope and panoramic depth that sociology requires.

Generations Later: The Same Furious Passage of the Black Graduate Student

2022 ◽  
pp. 000276422110660
Author(s):  
Jalia Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Student ◽  
Social World ◽  
Professional Standards ◽  
White Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociological Thought ◽  
Informal Rules

In this article, the author relies on a narrative based format to explore the interactions between everyday race-making processes and the white space of academia. Recognizing the unique ways systems of power interact with their experiences in the social world, they chronicle their engagements detailing the pervasive ways rules of white space are placed. The article recognizes three informal rules of white space in academia: the accepted reification of white sociological thought; the acceptance of white professional standards; and the continued centering of white comfort.

scholarly journals What Do ‘We’ Know That ‘They’ Don’t? Sociologists’ versus Non-Sociologists’ Knowledge

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 671-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Mesny
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
Public Sociology ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Embedded Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Critical Policy ◽  
The Relationship

This paper attempts to clarify or to reposition some of the controversies generated by Burawoy’s defense of public sociology and by his vision of the mutually stimulating relationship between the different forms of sociology. Before arguing if, why, and how, sociology should or could be more ‘public’, it might be useful to reflect upon what it is we think we, as sociologists, know that ‘lay people’ do not. This paper thus explores the public sociology debate’s epistemological core, namely the issue of the relationship between sociologists’ and non-sociologists’ knowledge of the social world. Four positions regarding the status of sociologists’ knowledge versus lay people’s knowledge are explored: superiority (sociologists’ knowledge of the social world is more accurate, objective and reflexive than lay people’s knowledge, thanks to science’s methods and norms), homology (when they are made explicit, lay theories about the social world often parallel social scientists’ theories), complementarity (lay people’s and social scientists’ knowledge complement one another. The former’s local, embedded knowledge is essential to the latter’s general, disembedded knowledge), and circularity (sociologists’ knowledge continuously infuses commonsensical knowledge, and scientific knowledge about the social world is itself rooted in common sense knowledge. Each form of knowledge feeds the other). For each of these positions, implications are drawn regarding the terms, possibilities and conditions of a dialogue between sociologists and their publics, especially if we are to take the circularity thesis seriously. Conclusions point to the accountability we face towards the people we study, and to the idea that sociology is always performative, a point that has, to some extent, been obscured by Burawoy’s distinctions between professional, critical, policy and public sociologies.

scholarly journals Formation of sociological imagination in students of technical institutions in education in the process of teaching sociology

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
L. Lipich ◽  
O. Balagura
Keyword(s):  
Social Problems ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Teaching Sociology ◽  
Educational Role ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status

The article is devoted to the problem of formation of sociological imagination in the process of teaching sociology to students studying in technical educational institutions. The concept of “sociological imagination”, introduced into scientific circulation by the American sociologist Wright Mills, is being clarified. It turns out that the concept of sociological imagination has acquired the status of one of the main in modern sociology and began to play an important educational role, and in sociological science, respectively, methodological and methodological. Attention is paid to the peculiarities of teaching sociology in technical educational institutions, and in view of this, the problem of forming the sociological imagination of students. The fact is that sociology in technical educational institutions is not professional, so it is taught exclusively as a general discipline of worldview. The purpose of teaching sociology in such higher education institutions is to promote the formation of students’ sociological imagination, ie to help future specialists in engineering to develop the ability to think socially, ie to adequately perceive, comprehend and interpret social processes and phenomena, analyze and be ready to solve complex social problems. The solution of this problem involves the use of such methods of teaching sociology, which would be related to the specific practices of modern society, taking into account the universal and professional interests of future professionals. The own experience of teaching sociology at the National Transport University is analyzed. There are examples of using different methods of teaching sociology, aimed at forming a sociological imagination that allow students to perceive the social world around them and relate their professional problems with general social problems, educate and shape their civic position and increase their general cultural level.

A post-secular reading of public sociology

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Hashemi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Public Sociology ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Social

There are two theses originally put forward by Michael Burawoy but which still need to be highlighted; the first is the necessity of challenging the assumed neutrality of the social sciences and the second is the necessity of public engagement in the form of encouraging co-practice in society. Burawoy suggests public sociology should play a role in the struggle to protect humanity against the tyranny of the market. I tend to challenge this by arguing that a post-secular and post-neutrality public sociology could only work as a frame of dialogue about the priority of each struggle. Otherwise, it can be easily turned into a target for the criticism of those who do not share the interest in Burawoy’s preferred struggle. The article would also suggest that Ali Shariati’s political rereading of religious ideas not only to adapt to the modern world but also to transform it makes this Iranian intellectual a classic figure of the traditional post-secular public sociology.

scholarly journals Diversidade, Imaterialidade e Globalização

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (01) ◽  
pp. 163-184
Author(s):  
Artur André Lins
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social World ◽  
Cooperative System ◽  
Immaterial Labor ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Sociological Thought ◽  
Capital Humano ◽  
The Way

Resumo: Este ensaio pretende lidar com os problemas colocados à reflexão sociológica pelo processo de globalização, especificamente no contexto da segunda metade do século XX. Quais temas, objetos e conceitos que, desde então, desafiam a compreensão do mundo social? Em que medida o mundo contemporâneo se transformou e quais os impactos dessa transformação para a nossa reflexividade? Partindo dessas questões preliminares, o texto elaborado se estrutura em três principais partes: 1) primeiramente, argumenta-se sobre o contexto de surgimento das ciências sociais e a historicidade de suas categorias de análise e o modo como a mudança social, nesse caso, o processo de globalização, nos colocou em face de novos desafios para a reflexão sociológica; 2) posteriormente, procuramos pensar o processo de reestruturação do capital e do trabalho após 1970, colocando o problema posto pela noção de “trabalho imaterial” e “capital humano”; 3) posteriormente, nos dedicamos à compreensão do sistema cooperativo das Nações Unidas e o modo pelo qual, nesse contexto, se estabelecem tensões com a estrutura do Estado-nação, sobretudo a partir da emergência de um novo emblema sociológico: o discurso da diversidade. Palavras-chave: diversidade; imaterialidade; globalização; pensamento social. Abstract: This essay aims to deal with the problems placed to sociological thought by the globalization process, specifically in the context of the second half of the 20th century. What themes, objects and concepts have since challenged the understanding of the social world? To what extent has the contemporary world been transformed and what are the impacts of this transformation on our reflexivity? Based on these preliminary questions, this papper is structured by three main parts: 1) first, it argues about the context of the emergence of social sciences and the historicity of its categories of analysis and the way in which social change, particularly, the globalization process, has brought us new challenges  for sociological thought; 3) later, we try to think about the process of restructuring of capital and labor after 1970’s, facing the problem posed by the notion of “immaterial labor” and “human capital”; 2) afterwards, we dedicate ourselves to understanding the United Nations cooperative system and the way in which, in this context, tensions are established with the structure of the nation-state, especially from the emergence of a new sociological emblem: the discourse of diversity. Keywords: diversity; immateriality; globalization; social thought.

scholarly journals Perspective by incongruity in the performance of dialectical ironic analysis: a disciplined approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cate Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
World View ◽  
Social World ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Perspective By Incongruity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociological Thought ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
The Way

The importance of dialectic to sociological thought has been recognised by many of the discipline’s most eminent thinkers. Adopting a dialectical world view infused with irony provokes insights revealing logical contradictions, so opening up possibilities for the development of alternative interpretations of the social world. There is, however, very little in the way of method to support the development of dialectical irony as a key analytical tool for the social sciences. This article seeks to remedy this deficit. Drawing on three key examples (trained incapacity, functional stupidity and interpassivity) the article examines Kenneth Burke’s ‘perspective by incongruity’ as a means for interrogating the dialectical moment, so contributing towards the development of dialectical ironic analysis within a methodology of humour.

Sociological Imagination and Literary Intuition

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. Misztal
Keyword(s):  
Digital Age ◽  
Social World ◽  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
A Current

The paper argues that if imagination is paramount for sociology’s status and if literary intuition is a source of such imagination, we should rethink the value of literary insight for social analyses. It reviews the changing relationship between literature and sociology and shows how sociology can draw from literature as a starting point for understanding the social world and a way of invigorating sociological imagination. By framing the digital age as a current moment of change that has reconfigured the relation between sociology and literature, it illuminates the impact of challenges faced by both sociology and literature. It argues for the validity of literature for sociological use in the digital future and calls for more reflection on the utility and scope of the linkage. It asserts the literary inspired way of doing sociology, which takes advantage of the chance provided by the e-revolution, is one of ways forward for sociology.

Knowledge Contribution in Organizations via Social Media

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Behringer ◽  
Kai Sassenberg ◽  
Annika Scholl
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Expectancy Theory ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Abstract Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Willingness To Contribute ◽  
Social Media Tool

Abstract. Knowledge exchange via social media is crucial for organizational success. Yet, many employees only read others’ contributions without actively contributing their knowledge. We thus examined predictors of the willingness to contribute knowledge. Applying social identity theory and expectancy theory to knowledge exchange, we investigated the interplay of users’ identification with their organization and perceived usefulness of a social media tool. In two studies, identification facilitated users’ willingness to contribute knowledge – provided that the social media tool seemed useful (vs. not-useful). Interestingly, identification also raised the importance of acquiring knowledge collectively, which could in turn compensate for low usefulness of the tool. Hence, considering both social and media factors is crucial to enhance employees’ willingness to share knowledge via social media.

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