Disciplinary schisms: Subspecialty “drift” and the fragmentation of sociology

One component of the often discussed malaise in sociology has been the problem of subspecialty “drift” — applied specialties given birth originally within the field now forming separate departments or programs. The historical and ideological origins of this problem are discussed, focusing primarily on the schism early on in sociology between pure and applied work. Anecdotal evidence presented from interviews with faculty in social work and criminal justice programs suggests sociology has in many cases facilitated development of new programs. In order to evaluate the relative position of applied programs within departments of sociology, a comparative analysis of the 1986 and 1996 Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology “special program” and department titles is undertaken. Contrary to the perception that applied programs are leaving sociology, results indicate an overall increase in special programs with an applied or practice component. Furthermore, masters programs are significantly more likely to have changed department names and to be in combined departments than doctoral programs. We suggest that while sociology has lost ground in the applied arena to more practice and policy-oriented disciplines, program changes within departments in the past decade may help to stem further subspecialty drift. The article concludes by suggesting that state sociological associations are particularly well suited to play a leadership role in addressing these issues. Dr. Bennett M. Judkins is currently doing research on community change and multiculturalism. Address correspondence to: Department of Sociology, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, NC 28601. Dr. Carl M. Hand is currently doing research on changes in undergraduate and graduate enrollments in sociology. Address correspondence to: Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA 31698.     

Reconstructing Chinese Sociology: A Quest for an Applied Science

After nearly a 30-year absence from the curricula of higher education, sociology as an academic discipline was reestablished in China in the late 1970s. Like Chinese sociology in the pre-communist era, contemporary sociological research in China embraces an applied orientation. This article reviews issues confronting Chinese sociologists and explains why Chinese sociology continues to evolve as an applied science. A directory of major sociology departments and research centers in China is provided.     

Applied sociology? Even musicians give concerts

Applied sociology is basically what sociologists do for nonsociologists and sometimes for themselves. Applied sociology includes the teaching of sociology as one of the liberating arts and sciences. It also involves the practice of sociology outside academia in the public and private sectors. Either way, applied sociology needs support groups, and state sociological associations need useful things to do beyond their traditional interests in academic teaching and research. Professional sociological associations, and especially those that serve at the local, state level, can become important support groups for applied sociology. This article suggests five types of applied sociology projects appropriate for state associations. These are volunteering applied sociology; doing applied sociology through consulting; making the value of sociological applications more visible; identifying applied sociology jobs for our baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral graduates; and helping to improve the socioeconomic outlook for our academic colleagues and, in turn, ourselves. State associations provide an organizational base, proximate members, and local opportunities for applying sociology. Ron Wimberley, teaches sociological research methods and does research on the southern Black Belt and other topics. He also attempts applied sociology through volunteer work, consulting, and occasional leaves from his university position. Catherine Harris of Wake Forest University is appreciated for suggesting the topic. The author is responsible for the views expressed in the article.     

Sociology and High School Teaching

Teaching opportunities for sociolgy majors have traditionally been oriented to the college or university. There is, however, a clear need for qualified sociolgy teachers at the high school level. Such teachers could generate interest in the sociological imagination among precollege students. By doing so these teachers could provide skills for those students entering the workforce and encourage enrollments among those students opting to attend college. The American Sociological Association is aware of this opportunity and has addressed it in a variety of ways over the past thirty years. There has been renewed commitment by the ASA in the 1900s to develop programs that can enhance high school sociolgy. This article suggest that the state sociological association may be in a strategic position to assess the needs of high school sociolgy teachers, to address their resource needs as well as the concerns of teacher certification and competency. Jan Rienerth, teaching interests are in women's issues, applied sociology, and experiential learning. Her research has focused on women and the elderly in prison. Paul Lindsay, most recent teaching and research interests are in the areas of the sociology of education, educational policy and conflict resolution. Michael Wise, recent teaching and research is in the area of deviant behavior.     

Save the World on Your Own Time: Or, What’s the Matter with Sociology?

This essay explores the question of why sociology departments, compared to other university departments, are often viewed negatively by higher-level administrators (deans, provosts, chancellors and presidents). We are asked to consider, as sociologists, how departments are ranked and evaluated by administrators. The characteristics of any good university department are identified (e.g., grants, support from alumni, publications, quality of teaching, national rankings, student enrollments); and, the characteristics of dynamic and healthy departments are outlined (e.g., student learning is primary; there is a commitment to the goals of the larger organization; leadership is provided by the unit to solve all-university problems; there is a focus on learning; faculty are productive; there are strong communication links across the organization). The question is posed and then systemically answered as to how sociology departments compare in terms of these standards. It is suggested that a major factor in terms of how and why sociology departments are negatively evaluated is the fact that sociology uses narratives of power and explanations of organizational behavior that are inherently oppositional, i.e., there is an “us” and “them” mentally that sometimes develops. Other reasons for organizational marginalization are identified such as the “canon wars” and their lingering effects, and the fact that the sociological enterprise has been diluted by the teaching of “sociology” in many other campus units, such as composition programs. Finally, questions are raised about how sociology, as an intellectual enterprise, differs from other disciplines in terms of pedagogy, the sequencing of courses, “grand” theory, and forms of apprenticeship. It is recommended that sociologists act positively to help the organizations within which they work to identify common problems and solve them. It is argued that sociology can and should “own” the area of civic engagement as a means of making a positive and distinctive contribution. Sociological “stories” grounded in the reality of everyday life are compelling. It is suggested that sociologists need to deepen connections with their communities and to offer real solutions to real problems.     

Occupational sociology as career and employment counseling: Patterns and possibilities

This article contends that career and employment counseling should be viewed as an aspect of the clinical practice of occupational sociology. First, the actual development of career and employment counseling is briefly traced. Then, against this backdrop, past and present linkages between occupational sociology and career/employment counseling knowledge are identified. Finally, sociology training and internship possibilities for the counseling component are suggested.     

Historical approach to environmental sociology

Focusing on the problem of the so‐called exploitative or pillage economy (Raubwirtschaft in German), the article explores the potential and the limitations of sociology as a method of environmental research. The term ‘exploitative economy’ designates the over‐exploitation of nature and natural resources by industrial societies, in disregard of the interests of future life and future needs. Traditional sociology has responded inadequately to environmental problems, and attempts to develop a new, environmental sociology have remained sporadic and marginal. The present article has addressed the problem of exploitative economy in the context of the tradition of historical sociology and suggested that this tradition would gain from environmental sociology, environmental history, and institutional environmental economics, with their new views of economic and industrial development.     

Feminism and Imperialism, 1890–1920: Our Anti‐Imperialist Sisters—Missing in Action from American Feminist Sociology*

This article retrieves part of our historical past to address two omissions in American feminist sociology on the subject of global imperialism. The first section addresses the inadequate attention feminist sociologists have paid to how major leaders of the women's movement responded to U.S. overseas expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It documents how these early feminists had both progressive and reactionary responses to the anti‐imperialist struggles of their era. Particular emphasis is given to how issues of race, class, and gender were interwoven in their discourses on imperialism. The second section focuses on how the writings of the most famous woman theorist and critic of imperialism during this era—Rosa Luxemburg—are virtually ignored in U.S. portrayals of feminist sociology and women founders of sociology. To address this omission, Luxemburg's theory of imperialism is examined, as well as how it has influenced contemporary global feminist works. A critical analysis of these Luxemburg‐inspired works considers their implications for understanding global imperialism today. In this way, the past is used to clarify the present.     

Are minority women sociologists in double jeopardy?

We examine whether minority women in academic sociology face disadvantages that exceed those that would be expected by simply compounding the disadvantage of being a woman with that of being nonwhite or Hispanic. In a national survey of sociology departments, evidence of such “double jeopardy” appears in minority women’s severe underrepresentation among full professors, in both very small and very large departments, in undergraduate programs, in the Northeast, and in public institutions. Minority women are somewhat better represented among graduate students, but disadvantaged relative to minority men in their share of financial support. A pool of doctoral students now exists from which minority women faculty may be recruited, but these women appear to be leaving faculties faster than they are being replaced. His research interests include intergenerational family structure, social support across the life course, and U.S. antipoverty policy. He is currently collaborating on a longitudinal study of institutional predictors of the pace of affirmative action for women faculty in sociology. Her major research interest is in the area of work and personality. She is collaborating on a longitudinal study of women and minorities in U.S. sociology departments.     

The many faces of sociology: Ambivalence and conflict in graduate education

This article addresses how the ambivalence of the discipline of sociology affects students’ understanding of it. We consider this ambivalence as multi-layered. The first level embodies the usefulness of sociology as a discipline and sociologists’ ambivalence toward their profession. The second involves applying a sociological perspective to our everyday lives. We discuss the administrative organization of our department, the examination structure, and the structure of asymetric power relations. We conclude that one possible solution toward resolving ambivalences both in our everyday lives and within the profession is to take our critical theoretical training seriously. with special interests in social psychology and qualitative research. She is planning a dissertation on how ideology affects the structure of battered women’s shelters. Barbara G. Brents is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Missouri with special interests in political economy and aging. She currently is working on a dissertation entitled “The Class Politics of Age: The Social Security Act of 1935.”     

Toward a political sociology of privatized punishment: Contestation,state structures,and stratification

Privatized punishment—in which nonstate actors carry out state-mandated criminal punishments—has developed into a common practice since its rise in the 1980s. Many disciplines, including criminology, political science, public administration, and economics, have examined its use over the past four decades. However, privatized punishment has not garnered much attention in sociology. This is surprising, as privatized punishment touches on the key themes in sociology, and in the political sociology in particular. In this paper, we attempt to insert privatized punishment into classic and contemporary discussions in political sociology. Below, we offer an overview of privatized punishment and provide a high-level review of how other social scientific disciplines have studied the phenomenon. Then we argue that political sociology provides a useful, if underutilized, lens for studying privatized punishment. In particular, we highlight three political sociological themes—contestation, state structures, and stratification—that can be fruitfully applied to the study of privatized punishment, and we sketch multiple lines of future research informed by these themes.     

The Impact of Gender Characteristics on Mentoring in Graduate Departments of Sociology

There has been much research on gender inequality in graduate education and the benefits of mentoring. However, most of this research focuses on how mentoring addresses female graduate students’ experiences of gender inequality instead of how the gender characteristics of departments impact the level of mentoring they offer. In particular, I examine how the gender composition of departments in terms of faculty and administration as well as faculty awareness of gender inequality or feminist issues influences the types of mentoring structures found in graduate departments of sociology. Bivariate correlations indicated that these characteristics (gender characteristics in particular) had significant relationships with mentoring structures in departments. This study concludes with a discussion of these relationships, an overview of policy implications, and suggestions for future research.     

Towards design sociology

In this review essay, I introduce and map the field of what I call “design sociology”. I argue that design research methods have relevance to a wide range of sociological research interests, and particularly for applied research that seeks to understand people's engagements with objects, systems and services, better engage publics and other stakeholders, work towards social change, and identify and intervene in futures. I discuss 3 main ways in which design sociology can be conducted: the sociology of design, sociology through design and sociology with design. I explain key terms in design and dominant approaches in social design research—participatory, critical, adversarial, speculative, and ludic design. Examples of how sociologists have already engaged with design research methods are outlined. The essay concludes with suggestions about what the future directions of design sociology might be.     

Developing an Undergraduate Internship Program in Applied Sociology

In this paper, I describe the steps taken to develop an undergraduate internship program in applied sociology at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I begin with an introduction to the internship program, including examples of student projects. I discuss the program's goals and leadership and the structure of the program, including scheduling, credit hours, prerequisites, admission requirements, project supervision, and curriculum. Afterward, I outline how internship opportunities were identified and describe the continued coordination of the internship program. I end with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the program.     

What Can I Do? Applying Classroom Knowledge to Service Work, or Doing Practice Sociology

Faculty members are frequently asked by students and parents, “what can I do with a Sociology degree?” This paper suggests ways to address the question and take action to insure that majors have the knowledge and skills to be successful in the job search and the work world. In addition, the paper indicates ways that combining service learning and applied sociology serves goals of students, faculty, universities, and communities. Approaches to teaching applied (practice) sociology in departments and to integrating service learning and course content show the “natural synergy” between the two types of learning. Finally, the article discusses practical issues related to service learning in applied settings: getting the support of faculty and administrators; convincing students of the benefits of service learning; revising curricula; and setting up the service learning experiences. The conclusion is that combining service learning and applied sociology courses has positive results for all involved.     

Interdisciplinary agendas in visual research: re-situating visual anthropology

In this article I review recent literature on visual research methods in the social sciences to explore two questions. First, I examine how recent interdisciplinary exchanges have portrayed the founding disciplines in visual research and representation through a focus on visual anthropology (and to a lesser degree visual sociology). Second, I critically survey the common aims and interests of academics promoting visual methods from/for their disciplines. As we delve into the “new” visual research literature, it becomes clear that contemporary visual researchers from different disciplines have common interests: reflexivity; collaboration; ethics; and the relationship between the content, social context and materiality of images. I shall argue for a more collaborative interdisciplinary approach to visual research whereby disciplines might learn from each other without seeking narrative foils to assert the supremacy of their own discipline at the expense of others.     

“The Past in the Present: Mills,Tocqueville and the Necessity of History”

Historical sociology has achieved a reasonable degree of respectability in the discipline, and there is much interesting work being produced. But a pronounced aspect of much of this work is an indifference to the question of the value of studying the past as a way to understanding the present. This article argues that, rather than trying to outdo the historians by producing “better,” more theoretically sophisticated history, sociologists would better advance the case for historical sociology by showing how any particular historical study helps illuminate contemporary concerns. The article draws upon the writings of C. Wright Mills and Alexis de Tocqueville to show not just the need for historical sociology but also as indications of how this might best be done.     

Changes in the stratification structure of sociology, 1964–1992

Early sociological studies of the American higher education system noted that despite a widespread ideology of egalitarianism, both individuals and departments are highly stratified. Their main findings were that 1) the distribution of Ph.D. departments in any given field tended to cluster at the low end of the prestige hierarchy; 2) a few elite graduate programs graduated the vast majority of all Ph.D.’s awarded in the United States; 3) downward mobility for all but a handful of Ph.D.’s was inevitable; and 4) elite graduate programs protected their prestige through inbreeding. Since those studies there have been few attempts to document changes in the structure of stratification in scientific disciplines in general, and sociology in particular. I use longitudinal data on departments and individual data on recent sociology Ph.D.’s to study changes in the structure of the stratification system in sociology over the past 30 years. My results reflect a mixed picture of change and stability; while the distribution of departmental prestige, the production of Ph.D.’s, and inbreeding mechanisms have shifted since 1964, the pattern of placement of new Ph.D’s in doctorate-granting departments has changed very little. Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, MD, March 1994.     

A Sociology of the Periphery Versus a Peripheral Sociology: Rural Sociology and the Dimension of Space1

Abstract Rural sociology is intrinsically concerned with the spatial dimensions of social life. However, this underlying research tradition, particularly the use of space as a research strategy, has been insufficiently addressed and its contributions to general sociology are little recognized. I outline how concern with space, uneven development, and the social relationships of peripheral settings have provided substantive boundary and conceptual meaning to rural sociology, propelled its evolution, and left it with a legacy of strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. A willingness to tackle the dimension of space and the thorny problems it raises often sets rural sociologists apart from other sociologists. This research tradition contrasted with general sociology's concern with developing generalization, aspatial covering laws, and proto-typical relationships of modern or Fordist development settings. Conceptual openings have left sociologists questioning their past agenda. Coupled with the “creative marginality” inherent in the questions and contexts addressed by rural sociologists, this makes the subfield central to contemporary sociology.     

From Affirmative Action to Diversity: Critical Reflections on Graduate Education in Sociology

This article explores the contradictory results of the shift from a race‐conscious affirmative action discourse to a broader “diversity embrace” that advocates tolerance, equality, and respect for cultural differences on university campuses. Drawing on critical race theory and research on the practice of affirmative action in organizations, we argue that the diversity embrace subsumes recognition of racialized histories, social relations, and practices in favor of a “color‐blind” rhetoric that reinforces negative assumptions about the academic merit and worthiness of underrepresented minority students (URM). Our review of the status and condition of URM graduate students in sociology departments reveals that minority inclusion is part of a larger strategy that emphasizes individual and group differences rather than corrective action for past discrimination. We find that access and inclusion in graduate programs in sociology have been uneven with relatively few departments producing a majority of URM sociology doctorates. The diversity embrace obscures their continual low representation in graduate programs, fosters professionalization practices detrimental to these students, and undermines efforts to create a “critical mass” of faculty of color. Such practices constitute a racial project that preserves White privilege at the individual and institutional levels.