Sociology is a damaged brand, associated with a particular kind of politics and with particular sorts of social interventions. These remain controversial. But a damaged brand is still a brand. People who are attracted to these causes are not put off by the fact that sociologists have a narrow range of political preferences, a range with a narrow spectrum on the Left. Indeed, this may be a significant part of the attraction to sociology: it delivers a consistent message. Sociology has successfully occupied a particular niche in the larger arena of policy debate. It has identified itself with ‘social justice’ understood as the removal of various kinds of social inequality. Sociologists can claim expertise on these topics: not the exclusive, authoritarian expertise of ‘science’, but the expertise that comes from possessing facts that originate from stable and acknowledged fact-producing methods. Sociologists will not be regarded as ‘honest brokers’ in these discussions, but they will be expert participants with a point of view legitimated by their connection with the groups for which they speak.
Stephen Turner, American Sociology: From Pre-Disciplinary to Post-Normal, Pg 115-116
Raiding the inarticulate since 2010
accelerated academy acceleration agency AI Algorithmic Authoritarianism and Digital Repression archer Archive Archiving artificial intelligence automation Becoming Who We Are Between Post-Capitalism and Techno-Fascism big data blogging capitalism ChatGPT claude Cognitive Triage: Practice, Culture and Strategies Communicative Escalation and Cultural Abundance: How Do We Cope? Corporate Culture, Elites and Their Self-Understandings craft creativity critical realism data science Defensive Elites Digital Capitalism and Digital Social Science Digital Distraction, Personal Agency and The Reflexive Imperative Digital Elections, Party Politics and Diplomacy digital elites Digital Inequalities Digital Social Science Digital Sociology digital sociology Digital Universities elites Fragile Movements and Their Politics Cultures generative AI higher education Interested labour Lacan Listening LLMs margaret archer Organising personal morphogenesis Philosophy of Technology platform capitalism platforms populism Post-Democracy, Depoliticisation and Technocracy post-truth psychoanalysis public engagement public sociology publishing Reading realism reflexivity scholarship sexuality Shadow Mobilization, Astroturfing and Manipulation Social Media Social Media for Academics social media for academics social ontology social theory sociology technology The Content Ecosystem The Intensification of Work The Political Economy of Digital Capitalism The Technological History of Digital Capitalism Thinking trump twitter Uncategorized work writing zizek
Mark Carrigan 