Sociologists and other social scientists confront a number of trends in American society and even inside the academic world such as anti-intellectualism and a preference for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Often, people in the public have a misperception about what social sciences are and what sociologists do. However, a number of important people such as Martin Luther King offered an explicit vision of the mission for social scientists. That vision entails social scientists as progressive social change agents. Two sociologists who fit that vision are Ernst Borinski and Howard Becker. These public scholars spent a lot of time understanding in-group/out-group dynamics. They also took on the insider/outsider roles to conduct their research and pursue other endeavors. Becker and Borinski and other sociologists were able to show the public why sociology is important in the day-to-day lives of individuals. Drawing on the works of Becker and Borinski, the author offers some suggestions on how to convey insights from the discipline to reporters, writers, and other opinion leaders.
American Sociological Association. 2014. “ASA Council Established Task Force for Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major: Volunteers Sought.” American Sociological Association Footnotes42(8):4, 12.
2.
BakerKevin. 2010. “The Vanishing Liberal.” Harper’s320(1919):29–37.
3.
BeckerHoward. 1973. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: The Free Press.
4.
BeckerHoward. 2014. What about Mozart? What about Murder?Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
5.
BeckerHoward.2015. E-mail correspondence with the author.
6.
BergerPeter. 1963. Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
7.
BjorklundDiane. 2002. “Sociologists as Characters in Twentieth-century Novels.” The American Sociologist32(4):23–41.
8.
BorinskiErnst. 1966. “Discussion of Professional Anomie.” Unpublished presentation at Mississippi State University. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, October 13, Jackson, MS.
9.
BorinskiErnst. 1972. “Knowledge of Sociology and Sociology of Knowledge.” Unpublished presentation at Millsaps College, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, February 18, Jackson, MS.
10.
BorinskiErnst. 1980. “Response of Ernst Borinski at the Plenary Session in His Honor.” 44th annual meeting in Southern Sociological Society, Knoxville, TN; Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, MS, March 28.
11.
BryantPhil. 2015. “Criminal Class vs. Law Enforcement.” Clarion Ledger, May16.
12.
CollinsRandall. 1989. “Sociology: Proscience or Antiscience?”American Sociological Review54:124–39.
13.
Consortium of Social Science Associations. 2014. “Year in Review: Advocacy for Social and Behavioral Science.” 2014 Annual Report, Consortium of Social Science Associations. Retrieved January2, 2016 (http://www.cossa.org).
GopnikAdam.2015. “The Outside Game: How the Sociologist Howard Becker Studies the Conventions of the Unconventional.” The New Yorker, January12, p. 2631.
21.
GouldnerAlvin. 1968. “The Sociologist as Partisan: Sociology and the Welfare State.” The American Sociologist3:103–16.
22.
GrossNeil. 2013. Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.
23.
HoultThomas. [1968] 1970. “Who Shall Prepare Himself to the Battle?” The American Sociologist3(1):3–7.
KainEdwardHendleyAlexandraContrerasLaurentWyatt-BaxterKrystal. 2007. “Sociology in Two-year Institutions.” Teaching Sociology35:350–59.
27.
KennedyRobertJr. 2005. “Disinformation Society.” Vanity Fair, May, pp. 212–268.
28.
KingMartin Luther. 1968. “The Civil Rights Needs the Help of Social Scientists.” Journal of Social Issues24(1):2–12.
29.
LatourBruno. 1991. “The Impact of Science Studies on Political Philosophy.” Science, Technology, & Human Values16(1):3–19.
30.
LatourBruno. 2002. “The Science Wars.” Common Knowledge8(1):71–9.
31.
LucalBetsy. 2015. “2014 Hans O. Mauksch Address: Neoliberalism and Higher Education: How a Misguided Philosophy Undermines Teaching Sociology.” Teaching Sociology43(1):3–14.
32.
LundbergGeorge. 1945. “The Social Sciences in the Post-War Era.” Sociometry8(2):137–49.
33.
LundbergGeorge. 1952. “Science, Scientists, and Values.” Social Forces39(4):373–79.
34.
LyndRobert. 1954. Knowledge for What? The Place of Social Sciences in American Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
35.
McSeveneyDennis. 2000. “1998 MSSA Presidential Address: Technology, Innovation, and Higher Education: The Role of Sociology in the 21st Century.” Sociological Spectrum20:3–13.
36.
MertonRobert. 1972. “Insiders/Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge.” American Journal of Sociology78:9–47.
37.
MesnyAnne. 2009. “What Do ‘We’ Know that ‘They’ Don’t? Sociologists’ versus Nonsociologists’ Knowledge.” Canadian Journal of Sociology34(3):671–95.
38.
MillsC. Wright. 1974. “The Social Role of the Intellectual.” Pp. 292–304 in Power, Politics, and People: The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills, edited by HorowitzIrving. New York: Oxford University Press.
MooneyChris. 2011. “The Reality Gap: Now More than Ever, Republicans and Democrats Are Separated by Expertise—and by Facts.” The Prospect22(6):18–25.
41.
PersellCarolinePfeifferKathrynSyedAli. 2007. “What Should Students Understand after Taking Introduction to Sociology?”Teaching Sociology35(4):300–14.
42.
RozmanStephen. 1999. “Breaking through Stereotypes in Mississippi.” Pp. 93–122 in Affirmed Action: Essays on the Academic and Social Lives of White Faculty Members at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, edited by FosterLenoarGuydenJanetMillerAndrea. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
43.
RudnerRichard. 1966. Philosophy of Social Science. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
44.
ShapiroJudith. 2000. “From Sociological Illiteracy to Sociological Imagination.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Section: Opinion & Ideas, p. A68. Retrieved January2, 2016 (http://chronicle.com).
45.
ShinJeanFloydBethVitulloMargaret. 2015. “High School Sociology Front and Center Once Again at NCSS.” American Sociological Association Footnotes. Retrieved January2, 2016 (http://www.asanet.org/footnotes/jan15/highschool_0115.html).
46.
SiebelCatherineSmithKatherine. 2009. “How Public Are We? Coverage of Sociology by the Associated Press.” American Sociology40:289–308.
47.
SimmelGeorg. 1950. “The Stranger.” Pp. 402–408 in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, trans. WolffKurt. New York: Free Press.
48.
SklairLeslie. 1977. “Ideology and the Sociological Utopias.” American Sociological Review25(1):51–72.
49.
Spalter-RothRobertaVoorenNicole Van. 2011. “Are Master’s Programs Closing? What Makes for Success in Staying Open?” Data Brief: 2011 Directors of Graduate Studies Survey, American Sociological Association. Retrieved January2, 2016 (http://www.asanet.org).
ZakariaFareed. 2015. In Defense of a Liberal Education. New York: W.W. Norton.
54.
ZetterbergHans. 1963. Acta Sociologica. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
