Public sociology

Public Sociology is a recent current within American academic sociology to push the discipline to engage more deeply with issues of public importance and do so in a fashion that is accessible to popular audiences outside of academia. There is no clear and agreed-upon definition of Public Sociology. It is not a set of ideas about how the world works, but a general movement that is affecting many professors, students and departments.

Public Sociology has its critics who charge that it undermines the empirical and scientific nature of the discipline of sociology and claim that Public Sociology carries with it an implicit normative and political agenda.

See also

• C. Wright Mills — 'turning private troubles into public issues'.

External links

• Contexts Magazine - American Sociological Association publication
• American Sociological Association's Task Force on Institutionalizing Public Sociologies
• Public Sociology at Berkeley
• Papers by Michael Burawoy