oh, man am I in favor of this
Plenty of IYIs in that discipline, as well as some other fields we can politely call "soft."
Why are some people richer than others? What drives societal ills or ignites a social movement? Why aren’t people having more kids? These are some of the most important questions facing the country today. The answers shape our lives, polarize our politics and supercharge our culture wars.Sociology, the discipline tasked with pursuing the answers, would seem well poised to take these issues on....
eeeh, no. That looks like the domain of political science and economics -- at least these days, if not eternally. (Back in my uni days, hanging out with insane lefties, this view used to be known as "economic imperialism" because, I guess, imperialism is bad... even though everyone understands econ is the queen...)
"today, sociologists are embroiled in an ideological and existential battle of their own—one that is increasingly public and at least in part of their own making. The study of people, in other words, has a people problem.""today, sociologists are embroiled in an ideological and existential battle of their own—one that is increasingly public and at least in part of their own making. The study of people, in other words, has a people problem."
sociology, long derided by many academics in humanities and the “harder” social sciences for its perceived squishiness, is being criticized from within.
The American Sociological Association promptly denounced the move as a blatant mischaracterization of the field and an effort to needlessly politicize a bastion of social science. Yet that same year, the ASA’s president described sociology to its members as “a form of liberatory praxis” that is “currently undergoing a renaissance as antiracist, decolonial, feminist, queer and transnational theorizing lead us to more inclusive insights.”
...shocking. Also, nice way of proving the point, retards.
one contingent, Sociologists for Palestine, is boycotting the ASA’s annual conference (theme: “Disrupting the Status Quo”) next month. The reason? The ASA refused to authorize a vote on their own proposed boycott—of Israeli academic institutions.
because of course, everything must be shoved through a conflict thousands of miles away insight into which is impossible for anyone here to have. Cool, good. Bread and circus
An increasingly vocal group of sociologists say the discipline’s cratering reputation is especially vivid when compared with economics, psychology and political science, all of which can seem more serious and pragmatic—gateways to law school or business school or an advanced degree in healthcare.
Even godfather WEB Du Bois himself was skeptical of the literal shite modern sociology has become:
many contemporary sociologists, steeped in postmodern theory, the insistence that a single truth exists is a fallacy and objectivity itself, a tool of oppression.
yeah, ok, but then maybe shut up, go home, and stop "studying" anything?
"“Based on the narrative in sociology, you’d think America is some kind of racist hellscape and that white people are uniquely depraved,” al-Gharbi explains. “In reality, people get along across difference in America better than any other country on the planet.”""“Based on the narrative in sociology, you’d think America is some kind of racist hellscape and that white people are uniquely depraved,” al-Gharbi explains. “In reality, people get along across difference in America better than any other country on the planet.”"
article goes on to interview four more professionals. Worth reading the full thing
Ah, man, I love reading articles that schmozes my priors and puffs up what I already believe.
archive: https://archive.md/HeJQw
What you are describing isn't the fault of sociology as a field. It's the infiltration of sociology with politics.
The field of sociology isn't inherently infiltrated by politics. It just happens that in the US a lot of the uni departments are.
Sociology can also be a very interesting empirical field of study - similar to psychology just not about the psychology of individuals but about the psychology of crowds and families and peoples.
This is a good point. If I weren't working on Bitcoin privacy research, I would find it fascinating to be a human behavior analyst.
Politics skews human behavior, so it becomes an economic derivative, not a concious choice.
not a conscious choice? is it political or economic or both? why does it matter? elaborate please
I'm entering a restaurant while other customers are leaving. There is a bottleneck at the door. If I see the passerby is a stereotype of my political opponents, I rush through first and do not hold the door open for them. If I see the passerby is a stereotype of my political allies, I smile, nod, and hold the door open for them.
This sort of friction exists in every single interpersonal medium because politics distorts the cooperative game, and turns society into a backstabbing match. There's no point in tracking intermediary steps towards inevitable political violence, you'd be better off just studying combat tactics.
Why are you entering a restaurant? If the reason is hunger you would not hold the door for anyone
Hold the door for females, be a gentleman
Unless it's a Lulu Lenin leftist
A field is what it does, no? Maybe there's a good way of doing sociology, a good reasonable way of investing its subject matter. Nobody has seen it since e.g., Weber
That's who I was going to bring up.
I'd say the role of Sociology should be to find interesting associations for economists to untangle: i.e. the observation and hypothesis formation steps of social science. Economists can get into the messy weeds of causal inference.
Modern leftists took one not particularly surprising idea: that power dynamics can influence knowledge production, and just totally ran with it down the field and off the ledge huh
...and then some.
Every time I read or hear about sociology the first thought that pops in my head is Ellsworth Monkton Toohey and the Fountainhead. If Ellsworth is any indication of the tintype of people that go into sociology then good riddance it’s on its way out. At one point I wanted to study sociology but then I read the Fountainhead and it changed my mind. The world has too many Toohey’s so if we get rid off the assembly lines where they are assembled we can only hope they go out of style.
The moment a discipline replaces empirical truth and objectivity with "liberatory praxis," it ceases to be a science and becomes pure ideological engineering.
It's hilarious how the ASA tried to deny being politicized while literally defining their own field using a student activist manifesto. Economics and hard data might not be perfect, but at least they still require reality to check your math.
When "studying people" turns into telling people they are inherently depraved based on postmodern theory, it's no surprise the discipline is cratering.
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