Back in 2004, David Brady of UC Riverside published an article called “Why Public Sociology May Fail” in Social Forces that was somewhat skeptical of public sociology. Looking at proposals for public sociology from scholars such as Michael Burawoy and the new Contexts magazine, he was worried that public sociology was more bark than bite. In this post, I cite Brady in block quotes and then respond to each point. Brady had five big points.
NO CONCRETE PROPOSALS FOR PRACTICE… limitations to Gans's plan, this was a valuable contribution. Unfortunately, Burawoy does not offer any set of concrete proposals for practice. After the ASA meetings, many of us may be wondering how we can pragmatically implement public sociology. The examples of successful public sociology that Burawoy has offered are rather unconvincing. Most are individual cases of a dedicated sociologist toiling away. Few present a program that can practically be generalized to other settings and adopted by other sociologists. (1631)
I would say that Brady is still correct. If you ask sociologists about doing public work, they can point out to a few “dedicated sociologists toiling away.” Alondra Nelson at Federal government’s Office of Science and Technology Policy comes to mind. (Note she just stepped down!) I would also nominate Rashawn Ray at Brookings. Still, a sociology-policy world pipeline has yet to be built.
Perhaps the biggest problem that public sociology faces is that there are few rewards for it in professional sociology. I am not a rational choice theorist. But I think we need to take seriously the lack of incentives for public sociology within most universities. (1632)
I am a rational choicer so I am not afraid to say that Brady is essentially correct here. The incentives are non-existent. At my own university, for example, my chair gave me some much needed support for running Contexts and many folks at ASA appreciated the effort. Beyond that, I edited Contexts because I thought it was interesting. I have not seen many professional benefits. Furthermore, I still don’t see policy relevant experience as salient to most hiring decisions in sociology. If you want a job in sociology, publish. Policy work and outreach usually won’t get you there.
Instead of bold assertions, it may do us well to appraise what has been learned about how intellectuals or sociology can shape civil society from the vibrant literature on civil society. Without empirical evidence, I am skeptical that sociologists can have much impact on U.S. civil society. I am more confident of this potential in other countries. (1633)
Brady again has a point here. It is entirely unclear what the relationship is between an active sociological profession and civil institutions. What would people say are the most important impacts of sociology on US civil society? Some impact, however, may be found in the private sector in the form of sociologists informing tech. For example, the sociologist Pepper Schwartz helped create resources for dating and sociologists have been hired at some tech firms like Facebook and Google. Still, I would guess that Brady thinks this is modest compared to the claims of public sociology.
THE STATE IS DEMONIZED… Burawoy does not even acknowledge the many good things that a state can accomplish if guided by sociological research and theory. This appears to be part of a broader Marxist tendency to almost nihilistically deny that the state can do any good at all. Of course, sociologists have shown how the state can reduce poverty, fight disease, enhance well-be- ing, and educate children. In this era of welfare retrenchment and neoliberal privatization, is sociology really best served by demonizing the state? (1634)
I always found this to be a puzzling passage in Brady’s essay. Marxists believe in the literal abolition of private markets and the nationalization of industry. Marxists may believe that states captured by private interests are bad, but they do seem to love states in principle and frequently endorse real world states. I think Burawoy is making a rather sensible point. You can do sociology as part of a governance project (e.g., see Nelson working in science policy) or independently as a way to help people critique existing society (e.g., speaking in the media). Still, once you get beyond Burawoy’s essays, most folks who promote public sociology seem to be progressive “good government” types, not free market libertarians.
The final concern I have with Burawoy's public sociology is that he offers no tangible measures of success. I would encourage readers to reflect upon this ASA theme ten years from now, and I expect they will confront a dilemma of vague uncertainty. (1635)
I’ll give Brady partial credit here. Here is correct that public sociology’s defenders are often thin on measurement of outcomes. He’s wrong in another way - it’s pretty easy to generate some measurements:
Sociologists directly advising on state policy
Sociologists cited in government reports/court cases/Congressional testimony.
The creation of programs that create bridges for routine movement between academic sociology and other sectors.
Private actors hiring sociologists to design their policies.
Sociologists speaking on their research in public forums.
For most of these measurements, Brady’s description of a “few dedicated” sociologists seems apt twenty years later. For every Alondra Nelson, there’s probably dozens of her colleagues from Ivy League programs who barely speak to anyone outside of an ASA panel. It would be very hard to argue that there is a robust pipeline between sociology and other sectors. Perhaps the exception is “sociology in the media.” Since 2004, it seems that there are more sociologists who can place editorials in well regarded venues, such as Victor Ray or Tressie Cottom. I don’t know if this is the result of the rise of social media (blogs in the 2000s, then Twitter in the 2010s) which facilitated the rise of a few folks, or that there is a genuinely increased demand for sociology.
Bottom line: Brady was maybe a little harsh in 2004, but his criticism of public sociology needs to be reckoned with twenty years later.
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Thanks for reading!
Fabio,
Thanks for inviting me into a public discussion about this essay. Gasp, can't believe it has been nearly 20 years! As usual, I really appreciate you stirring the pot for debate and discussion. I will however reply on Twitter - so people can check out my response @DaveBrady72.