2.5. Sociologists as Activists and Change Agents

In the United States, sociology has struggled with an identity crisis of sorts in recent years, as prominent American sociologists have spoken out about the lack of clout that sociologists have in policy circles—at least compared to economists, who dominate the research staffs of government agencies and think tanks alike. When he served as president of the American Sociological Association, Michael Burawoy (2005) argued on behalf of public sociology—a kind of sociology that would be more engaged with the general public. Public sociology can be thought of as an effort to move sociological knowledge out of university campuses and into contentious debates over policy and politics.

Some sociologists believe that public sociology puts too little emphasis on sociology as a science, while others argue that sociology is, has been, and must remain public (Jeffries 2009). It should also be noted that interest among sociologists in taking a more active political role has risen and waned over the many years that the field has existed (Calhoun 2007). Nevertheless, it is hard to ignore the fact nowadays that economists are regularly appointed to high-level positions in government and corporations, while few sociologists have that degree of influence over policy. This may not be just a matter of the practical relevance of sociologists’ work. The New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof (2014), for instance, blamed sociology’s lack of “political diversity” for its lack of clout: “Sociology … should be central to so many national issues, but it is so dominated by the left that it is instinctively dismissed by the right.”

An alternative explanation for sociologists’ lack of public clout is that policymakers put greater stock in “hard” quantitative data that is seen to be more rigorously collected and analyzed. As we will discuss later in the book, this bias against qualitative research is not warranted, given that qualitative researchers use other standards for the rigor and appropriateness of their methods. Furthermore, in terms of public understanding of social scientific research, qualitative data may be more accessible to nonscientists, who tend to think in terms of narratives rather than numbers.

In addition to the lack of consensus about whether sociologists should engage in public sociology, there is also confusion about what exactly “doing” public sociology actually entails. Is it about crafting policies? Writing essays or other articles in mainstream news outlets? Engaging in activism?

We have already talked about the ways that sociologists can influence policy debates as policy advisers and program evaluators, and as we will describe in Appendix A: Presenting, Writing, and Publishing, writing articles in news publications based on your research can be an effective way of disseminating sociological knowledge more broadly. Here, we want to say something about sociology and activism. Activism is, by definition, a contentious topic, and this is especially the case when it involves social scientists, who have an ethical and professional obligation to seek out the truth—regardless of how their findings are ultimately received by political friends or foes.

That said, there is a long and inspiring tradition of sociologists engaging in participatory action research, with the goal of improving the conditions of a particular community. Action research does not limit itself to merely measuring and explaining a social problem. Rather, it strives to identify and implement specific solutions to that problem. The idea for action research originated in the 1960s and 1970s during a time when politically mobilized scholars were interested in supporting popular movements for independence and self-determination among formerly colonized people around the world. Advocates of this approach argued that social scientists should not be exploiting poor and disadvantaged communities by studying them and then abandoning them. Instead, they should engineer each research project so that it produces tangible positive outcomes for the people they study (Reason 1995).

Closely related to action research is community-engaged research, which focuses on people in the communities being studied as active participants in the research process, rather than passive “subjects” or sources of information. Scholars involved in this type of research usually identify stakeholders within a community—the various individuals or groups with a “stake” in the outcome of the work being done—and actively involve them in the design and execution of the study from its very beginnings.

In the United States, many universities have launched centers aimed at promoting community-engaged research. As described in the sidebar below, Sociology for the People, the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Community Engagement works to build relationships between university researchers and community partners within its central Virginia region. One of the country’s oldest centers for community-engaged research is the Institute for Community Research (ICR) in Hartford, Connecticut. Soon after it was founded in 1987, the IRC began studying the impacts of HIV/AIDS in the United States and abroad, collaborating with local organizations in South Asia, China, and El Salvador at a time when the stigma and misinformation surrounding the disease was particularly intense. That research helped develop culturally appropriate interventions to prevent HIV transmission among illicit drug users and other high-risk populations. Locally, the IRC launched a participatory action research project that brought together numerous neighborhood organizations and government agencies to collect data on Hartford communities. Frustrated with the shortcomings of the U.S. Census, the project’s organizers mobilized the metro area’s residents—including local youth—to design a survey instrument and gather data that would guide later neighborhood improvement efforts.

While you obviously don’t need any sort of educational credential to be an effective activist, sociological knowledge can inform the organizing and strategizing that activists do. It’s worth mentioning that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. majored in sociology when he was a student at Morehouse College. He and many other American civil rights leaders drew from sociological ideas when advocating on behalf of their cause—particularly from the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, a pioneering African American sociologist whom King eloquently memorialized in one of his last speeches. Sociologists who study social movements learn about the factors that allow such movements to flourish—which have a lot to do with larger political and cultural conditions, but also with how well movement activists are able to exploit existing social ties, grow their interpersonal networks, and build coalitions of like-minded groups.

Knowledge of research methods such as conducting interviews, fielding surveys, and analyzing content can also be helpful to activists when they need to organize people or advocate for certain agenda items. Furthermore, advocacy organizations today conduct intensive online campaigns and manage sprawling mailing lists, and individuals savvy about data and digital research methods are natural fits for handling those tasks. To get a job as a community organizer, the best approach is usually to start volunteering or interning for a particular advocacy group, labor union, or activist network whose work you support. Many larger activist networks routinely recruit on college campuses, and well-resourced labor unions and advocacy groups put on boot camps and training workshops for aspiring organizers.