Sociology as Praxis: Living an Applied Life

• In Event: 2481 - Sociology in Practice Settings Symposium Roundtable Session
  In Informal Discussion Roundtable: Table 05. Translating Academic Sociology to Applied Careers

Abstract

The biggest fear I had when I stepped off the academic assembly line was the loss of identity—the feeling that I wouldn’t know who I was without an institutional title and wouldn’t be able to engage deeply in social transformation without a dedicated intellectual community surrounding me. In this talk, I show how you can take the girl out of the academy, but you can’t take the academically trained sociologist out of the girl. Using Mill’s concept of the sociological imagination, and visionary pragmatism, a concept advanced by black feminist scholars (e.g. Patricia Hill Collins 1998) and recently revisited by the philosopher Romand Coles (2016), I use my own experience as a part-time educator and freelance business strategist and innovation consultant to demonstrate how I’ve applied sociology to add financial and social value to the organizations I work with and have discovered a community of active intellectual engagement in the process. Regardless of where I’m working, I’m always a sociologist looking for ways to design responsible and rigorous research practices and build stronger more equitable communities through insight and knowledge. I think systematically and draw from previous research and social theory to understand current social patterns and future possibilities. Sociologists are moonshot thinkers and serious optimists—we believe it can always be done better, and engage with others to try to influence and enact systemic change. A humanistic sociological practice can help companies and organizations design, develop, and deploy adaptive strategies and successful implementation plans, because at all stages, in all moments, we work to protect and honor the people. This also means honoring ourselves and bringing the intellectual into public spaces. I believe that sociology is more than just a discipline; it’s a way to live and build a good society—it’s a set of guiding principles and practices that bring clarity to the human experience and strategic direction to change initiatives. Now, outside of the academy, I continue to live an embodied humanistic sociological practice; it sits within my bones and I use it daily in my attempts to answer today’s toughest social and cultural challenges.

Author

• Jillian Powers, Independent Scholar