Public Sociology: From Social Facts to Literary ActsPublic Sociology, 2nd edition offers a fundamental enriching of method far beyond the scope of research methodology textbooks. It looks at sociology as a social act-as writing-in arguing for a public sociology that can more fully embrace and address crucial public issues. Building on the philosophy of science and recent postmodernist critiques, Agger shows how the social science text reproduces the existing social world, suppressing science's author in order to position itself as simply a mirror of nature, not a deliberate human version replete with ontology, theory, values, and politics. As such, method is an argument that polemicizes quietly for a certain view of the world. Agger peruses how science could be crafted differently, acknowledging, even embracing its authoriality while opening it to crosscurrents of other humanistic writing. Only by liberating sociology from the 'secret writing' of science can its ineradicable humanity be realized. But rather than dwelling on recent critiques, this, more than any other book, looks ahead to a new way of doing science-one that is simultaneously more scientific and humanistic. Its prescient view of how social science can take the lead in building a more democratic public sphere will make it a must-read for every student and researcher. |
Contents
Review and Revision as Argument | 173 |
Was Sociology Always Like This? | 201 |
Sociological Writing in the Wake of Postmodernism | 237 |
Copyright | |
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abstract academic acknowledgments Adorno American Sociological Association American sociology analysis argued argument ASR articles authors become bibliography Burawoy called capitalism career citations cited claim critical theory critique cultural studies cumulation deconstructive Derrida Dialectic of Enlightenment disciplinary discipline discourse discussion Durkheim editor empirical especially faculty field Figure findings footnotes Frankfurt School gestures Habermas homogamy ical intellectual issues Jacoby journal articles journal sociology labor language game Lemert literary literature review mainstream marginalia Marx mathematical method methodological methods-driven Mills narrativity one's paper perspective political polyvocal positivism positivist postmodern problems produce professional prose public sociology public sphere published quantitative readers revision sample scholars science aura scientific soci social physics social science social theory Sociological Imagination sociological positivism sociologists sociology journals sociology's statistics suggests technical tenure theoretical theorists tion topic undecidability University variables Weber World Fertility Survey Wright Mills