Reflections on public sociology: Public relations, disciplinary identity, and the strong program in professional sociology |
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Authors: | David Boyns Jesse Fletcher MA PhD |
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Institution: | (1) Sociology at California State University at Northridge, USA;(2) California State University at Northridge, USA |
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Abstract: | Public sociology is an attempt to redress the issues of public engagement and disciplinary identity that have beset the discipline
over the past several decades. While public sociology seeks to rectify the public invisibility of sociology, this paper investigates
the limitations of it program. Several points of critique are offered. First, public sociology's affiliations with Marxism
serve to potentially entrench existing divisions within the discipline. Second, public sociology's advancement of an agenda
geared toward a “sociology for publics” instead of a “sociology of publics” imposes limitations on the development of a public interface. Third, the lack of a methodological agenda for public
sociology raises concerns of how sociology can compete within a contested climate of public opinion. Fourth, issues of disciplinary
coherence are not necessarily resolved by public sociology, and are potentially exacerbated by the invocation of public sociology
as a new disciplinary identity. Fifth, the incoherence of professional sociology is obviated, and a misleading affiliation
is made between scientific knowledge and the hegemonic structure of the profession. Finally, the idealism of public sociology's
putative defense of civil society is explored as a Utopian gesture akin to that of Habermas’ attempt to revive the public
sphere. The development of a strong program in professional sociology is briefly offered as a means to repair the disciplinary
problems that are illustrated by emergence of the project of public sociology. |
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