Sociology: Engaging with Social Justice

• In Event: 2524 - ASA Award Ceremony and Presidential Address

Abstract

I presume that no one becomes a sociologist to make the social world worse. However, from its inception, our discipline has existed with tension between goals of a “value-free science” and sociologists advocating an engaged sociology intending change for a better world. I chose a theme for this conference to emphasize our social justice traditions. This also requires recognizing sociology’s beginnings as an empirical science that continues today. For most of the previous century nearly all sociologists were white, middle-class, heterosexual, men. That is clearly no longer the case. Members of communities that were previously the objects of sociological research, are now taking their place in the discipline as subjects. As faculty and researchers, we are challenging sociological theory and practice with interdisciplinary concepts and approaches to research -- calling for further attention to race, class, gender, LGBTQ, indigenous, and differently abled perspectives. Further, we are conducting research in our communities’ issues and priorities. Nourishing a sociology engaged in social justice for a better world does not mean giving up empirical, grounded, valid and reliable research. But it does require acknowledging the historic role that gatekeepers have played in defining research agendas through mechanisms including funding and prestigious placing in the academy, and recognizing the function that hostile teaching and learning environments have played in maintaining the status quo.

Author

• Mary Romero, Arizona State University