The Study of SociologyMichael Burawoy Public sociologies .docx

The Study of Sociology
Michael Burawoy
“Public sociologies: Contradictions,
Dilemmas, and Possibilities”
Joel Best “Telling the Truth about Damned Lies and Statistics”
Purpose of Sociology?
Provide abstract analytical “models” of society
to aid in understanding
Getting back to social reform…
C. Wright Mills and criticisms of “the

power elite”
2
Applied sociology
Between extremes… using sociology to solve problems
NAACP
1954 Brown vs Board of Education
Environment
Social responses to natural disasters
AIDS
Education
Business
Difference between reform (radical…desire to rebuild
society…we need a new system) and applying expert knowledge
to particular contexts
“Public sociologies: Contradictions, Dilemmas, and
Possibilities”
Michael Burawoy

Sociological knowledge for whom?
For what purpose?
NOT easy questions!
“Since the middle of the 19th century,
social scientists have been asking about the influence of their
work on society (27)
Contribute to social order and stability?
Promote social change?
Address problems; devise solutions?
Objectivity? Neutral and value-free? Passion?
Opening scene of the essay…
“Public sociologies: Contradictions, Dilemmas, and
Possibilities”
References a meeting of the ASA in 2003. Why?

Vote on a member resolution
Should sociologists have or act on opinions regarding important
“issues of the day”?
Overwhelming opposition to the war in Iraq
“Foreign interventions that do not have the support of the world
community…” (27)
Intervention could spark terrorist attacks…
Passed by 2/3 majority (22% abstained)
In an opinion poll; 75% opposed the war
Ethos
Historical shift…1968, Vietnam war
Hypotheses of shift
1) ASA – has moved further left
In 1968…many sociologists held beliefs similar to the majority
of the country population (54% opposed the war)
In 2003, the inverse…75% sociologists opposed the war; 75% of
the public supported it
2) the world itself is different
1968… world ripe for change…the 60s/70s
Public context and sociological conscience moved in opposite
directions….

The vote
Controversial
Ethics/ code of conduct
Scientifically and professionally derived knowledge
Is taking a moral or political position incompatible with
scientific objectivity?
What is Burawoy’s position? Explain.
Pure science/ public engagement?
Policy interventions?
Education?
Housing?
Healthcare?

Public sociology
Engages the publics beyond the academy (beyond the
university) in dialogue about matters of political and moral
concern (30)
Focuses in solutions to specific problems defined by clients
(volunteerism…expertise in addressing problems; services
contracted for a fee)
Businesses
State
Multilateral organizations
NGOs/ CBOs
Community of scientists
Committed to working on important puzzles through research
programs
Inside/ outside academia
Government agencies (eg: Census Bureau, department of
corrections)
Consulting companies
International NGOs or CBOs
In schools
Agricultural extensions

Sample projects:
Displaced workers
Toxic waste
Housing inequalities
Educational reform
Public health campaigns
Training community organizers
Professional sociology
Provides legitimacy
Expertise
Distinctive problem definitions
Relevant bodies of knowledge
Techniques for analyzing data
According to Burawoy what are four political stances regarding
the role of Sociology in the world?
Four Political Stances regarding the Discipline of Sociology
1. professional self-defense;
2. policy intervention;
3. public engagement;

4. a place to debate possible stances (collective deliberation).
Knowledge for whom?
Talking to each other??? (academia)
Wade into society with expertise (29)
Talk to who? How?
Knowledge for what?
Values and goals…
Should academics/ sociologists be in the business of stimulating
discussions about the possible meanings of a “Good Society”
Public sociology…policy sociology
Pays tribute to
Weber, Durkheim and Marx…founding fathers
Professional sociologists
Symbolic interactionism, functionalism, conflict theory….
Feminism, post-structuralism

Structural functionalism, stratification theory, sex-gender
systems, experimental social psychology….
What according to Burawoy
IS
the distinctive object of Sociology?
What does this mean, and what have been some ways that
sociology has interacted with politics in different contexts?
Civil society
Sociology……value and resilience of “the social”
“Sociology is born with civil society and dies with civil
society” (32)
What IS “civil society”?

Civil society:
Definition: society considered as a community of citizens linked
by common interests and collective activity
the elements such as freedom of speech, an independent
judiciary, etc, that make up a democratic society
Interest of Sociology
Expansion of civil society becomes the interest of humanity –
locally, nationally and globally
Need to recognize our distinctive relation to diverse publics
within and across borders (33)
Question:
1) Can you think of a contemporary social problem that would
combine the development of a sociological perspective with the
skills of your major in addressing that social problem or
meeting a social need?
Telling the Truth about Damned Lies and Statistics
Statistics get thrown about…
To impress
Sell

Convince
Authority
Use/misuse of statistics
1) What is the main idea in Best’s essay? What example does he
use to make his point? Is it convincing?
2) What did you make of Best’s opening discussion on a
student’s use of statistics for a dissertation? Did this make you
rethink how you may read, or use statistics in similar ways?
“Grabber” statistics…
“Every year since 1950, the number of American children
gunned down has doubled.” (53)
….by 1970, the number would have passed a million…
By 1980 one billion
1983…8.6 billion (almost twice the earth’s population at that
time)
………………“mutant statistics”

Attention to details
Thinking critically and interpreting data
Children’s Defense Fund
What IS Best’s point about statistics? Should we NOT use
them?
Statistics NOT magical
Move beyond being “awestruck”
Don’t believe (or use at face value)
Represent a “typical” case or an exceptional one?
Adopt a critical approach to numbers we encounter (and
humanize them)
Of the two essays you read for today…which did you respond to
MOST/LEAST…why?

Works cited:
Best, Joel. “Telling the Truth about Damned Lies and
Statistics.” Part I The Study of Sociology. In Readings for
Sociology. Seventh edition. Ed. Garth Massey. New York: W.
W. Norton and Company, 2012. 51-56. Print.
Burawoy, Michael. “Public Sociologies: Contradictions,
Dilemmas, possibilities.” Massey 57-63.
Henslin, James M. “The Sociological Perspective.” In Essentials
of Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach. Seventh Edition.
Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2006.
Developing a Sociological Consciousness
Ibn Kaldun 1300s Tunisia
Ibn Khaldun: historian and historiographer (1332-1406). B
North Africa (Tunisia)
*

Origins of Sociology
Sociology emerged:
with census taking in the Roman Empire
in the “dark ages” ….476 to 1000 AD
as a rebirth of consciousness during the Renaissance
about the middle of the 1800s when observers began to use
scientific methods to test their ideas
the 1950s and early 60s
“…humans have had a long interestIn understanding themselves
and their social arrangements” (3)
YET it has only been in the last two centuries or so that human
beings have sought answers to these and related questions
through science.”
Social sciences looked to the natural sciences….
Invitation to Sociology
(Peter Berger)"People who like to avoid shocking discoveries,
who prefer to believe that society is just what they were taught
in Sunday School, who like the safety of the rules and maxims
of what Alfred Schuetz has called the "world-taken-for-
granted," should stay away from sociology. …(Berger 1963, 24)
Sociology…a “special kind of passion”“A demon that possesses
on…” (11)
“…the Sociologist…is a person intensively, endlessly,

shamelessly interested in the doings of men. His natural habitat
is all the human gathering places of the world, wherever men
come together” (8)
What is part, parcel and unchanging about Sociology as a
discipline?
How has the field changed over time?
How does this passage reflect some of these changes?
Relation to other disciplines
exploring “social worlds”
Individual…society…culture“Culture”
Ethnography
Exotic/ familiar
Culture shock
Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Bronislaw Malinowski, 1922
Part 1: The Study of Sociology
Simmel-symbolic interactionist
Mills- Conflict theorist
The Study of SociologyWhat do Sociologists
do?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFdUtCAXAUM
What do they study?
Sociology as a Social Science
Methodology
Theory (theoretical perspective)
Style of writing

Methods: a. secondary analysisb. ethnography….participant
observationc. formal/ informal interviews…snowballingd.
documentse. surveysf. experimentsg. unobtrusive measuresh.
network analysisi. oral historiesj. auto-ethnographyk. visual
ethnography
Ethics
No harm to subjects
Informed consent
Purpose of Sociology?
The Debate: Heuristic or Reform? Three theoretical
perspectives:FunctionalistConflict theoristSymbolic
Interactionist
Feminism (need attention to women’s perspectives and
voices)Rational choice theory (self-interest)Postmodernism
(pluralism in flux)
Do you think a sociologist should study society dispassionately
or get involved…apply what they know to reforming
society…or applying knowledge to pressing social matters of
the day?
How did the authors address this?
Main Theoretical OrientationsFunctionalism: This perspective

stresses the maintaining of social order, building consensus,
social order, social integration, social solidarity. Holism/
society as an organism. Social “functions” keep groups and
society in equilibrium)
Conflict Theory: Groups compete for scare resources. Alliances
are “surface alliances” as underneath is a struggle for power.
Symbolic interactionism: Individuals evaluate their own
conduct by comparing themselves to “others” through symbols,
associations, labels, etc…(“Verstehen”)
Two Levels of Sociology:
Macrosociology
Microsociology
Macro or micro & why?Tally’s Corner (Elliott Liebow, 1967)
19% of American children live in poverty (DeNavas-Walt,
Proctor and Smith, 2009)
National study that conducts research on newest waves of
immigrants and how they are adjusting to relocation (five cities)
Examination of global patterns in low-wage work…mobilities of
migrant or immigrant workers from one region of the world to
another
What is “The Sociological Perspective”?

How would you “define” it?
What did C. Wright Mills mean by it?
“Understandinghuman behavior by placing it within its broader
social context” (Glossary)
Bourdieu, “cultural capital” in Delaney 284)
Sociology:Offers perspective; eg: a socio-cultural oneOpens a
window onto unfamiliar worlds;Offers a fresh look…A new
vision….of social life.
A place to “observe others”And to question one’s own
assumptions (4)
The Sociological Perspective Allows us to grasp the connection
between history and biography” (CWM)
What does this mean? What did he mean? And is that “old”
perspective (1959) or is it relevant for 2015?
“Seldom aware of the intricate connection between patterns of
their own lives and the course of world history”

“Men (and women) usually do not define the troubles they
endure in terms of historical change and institutional
contradiction” (13)
“the Power Elite”
Studies:
Micro or Macro?
1. What is the structure of this particular society as a whole?
2. Where does the society stand in human history?
3. What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society
and in this period? (16)
According to Mill…..Questions for Social Study
Individual and Social Levels of Problems
Perhaps the most fruitful distinction with which the sociological
imagination works is between 'the personal troubles of milieu'
and 'the public issues of social structure.' This distinction is an
essential tool of the sociological imagination and a feature of
all classic work in social science.
Personal troublesSocial issues

Personal problem or social issue?In these terms, consider
unemployment. When, in a city of 100,000, only one is
unemployed, that is his personal trouble, and for its relief we
properly look to the character of the individual, his skills and
his immediate opportunities. But when in a nation of 50 million
employees, 15 million people are unemployed, that is an issue,
and we may not hope to find its solution within the range of
opportunities open to any one individual. The very structure of
opportunities has collapsed. Both the correct statement of the
problem and the range of possible solutions require us to
consider the economic and political institutions of the society,
and not merely the personal situation and character of a scatter
of individuals. (CWM)
Think about the life problems faced by your family, friends or
self.
Are any of them attributable to structural factors as opposed to
individual characteristics? (p. 6)
Can you think of any contemporary issues where structural
changes and structural factors could be considered an important
factor as to what could shape a person’s circumstances? Their
behavior? Their “personality”?
Key terms in Mills
“Personal” experiences and issues vs public social “structure”
“Individual” and “social”
(Criticisms of) “Power elite”

Sociological imagination
Peter Berger (1963) and
C. Wright Mills (1959)
Peter Berger b. 1929
Main idea?
1. What do you think characterizes Simmel’s “Stranger”? Do
you think Simmel employs this term in a conventional way or
does this sociological concept present a paradox?
2. What are some of the attributes that Simmel posits as being
characteristic of the stranger? How would you summarize the
role of the stranger?
Insider/ outsider status
Georg Simmel ‘s

“The Stranger”
Simmel discusses the stranger in terms of spatiality and
sociality…in
“position as a full-fledged member” …inside the group and
outside, and as an insider has to a degree gained the trust and
confidence of the group ? Does commitment come into play in
the role of the stranger? Why or why not?
Can you think of any examples from people you’ve known or
have met who took on this role, or perhaps you’ve had this form
of relationship in a particular group; anything you would care to
share in class?
What do you think are some possible interactions between one
who is considered a “stranger” & an “insider”? (refer to the text
and/or brainstorm a list)
Questions? Comments? Anything to clarify before moving on?
Is there a passage you’d like clarified something that you’d like
to better understand? What questions would YOU raise for in-
class discussion? Does this essay prompt any questions for you
NOT covered, here?
Next class: 6. “Telling the Truth about Lies Damned Lies and
Social Statistics” (Joel Best) AND #7 .“Public Sociologies:
Contradictions, Dilemmas, Possibilities (Burawoy)
Which essay (who) did you respond to most, and why?

(C.W.Mills or Georg Simmel)
Do you think a sociologist should study society dispassionately
or get involved…apply what they know to reforming
society…or applying knowledge to pressing social matters of
the day?
How did the authors address this?
Emile Durkheim
(1858-1917)
“What makes sociology different?”
-Functionalist perspective
- “Social facts”
- Constraint
Works Cited:
Berger, Peter. Excerpt. “Sociology as an Individual Pasttime”
from Invitation to Sociology. In Readings for Sociology edited
by Garth Massey. Sixth edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co,
2009: pp 3-12.
Best, Joel. “Telling the Truth about Lies and Damned Statistics”
in Readings for Sociology pp: 53-59.
Brandt, Allan M. “Racism and Research: The Case of the
Tuskegee Syphilis Study.” In Readings for Sociology pp: 60-74.

Burawoy, Michael. “Public Sociologies: Contradictions,
Dilemmas and Possibilities” in
Readings for Sociology pp: 27-33.
Durkheim, Emile. “What Makes Sociology Different”? In
Readings for Sociology pp: 19-26.
Henslin, James M.”The Sociological Perspective.” In Essentials
of Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach. Seventh Edition.
Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2006.
Hughes, Michael and Carolyn J, Kroehler. Sociology: The
Core. 10th edition.McGraw-Hill, 2011.
Mills, C. Wright Mills. In Readings for Sociology pp: 13-18.
www.googleimages.com
www.images.com
www.stockimages.com
IMAGES CITED:
“Racism and Research:
The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment” by Allan M.
Brandt
“The Mai Lai Massacre: A Crime of Obedience”
From Crime of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of
Authority and Responsibility by Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee
Hamilton

1
“Racism and Research:
The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment” by Allan M.
Brandt
Good science?
Ethical research?
A “sociology of medicine”
perspective
Imagine Macon County Alabama …1930s
Imagine the US in the 1930s?
“Imagine a country”
US -1930s….
The Great Depression - 1929…
Era of Jim Crow ( 1876-1965)

Olympics Berlin (1936)
“The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” (1937)
“Strange Fruit” (1939) Billie Holiday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs
Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (1932)
Lasted 40 years 1932-1972
Great Depression in Macon County Alabama & in the US
(1930s)
Imagine….
Your home is a little country shack with a dirt floor
You have no electricity or running water
You never finished grade school
You make a living doing odd jobs
You haven’t been feeling too well lately, but can’t afford to go

to a doctor (Henslin 212-213)
Announcement: “Free to Join”… Miss River’s Lodge
Free physical exams (for life) at Tuskegee University
Free rides to/from the clinic….hot meals on exam days
A lifetime of treatments for minor ailments
After your first physical exam, the doctor tells you that you
have “bad blood”
Miss Rivers will give you some free medicine, and schedule you
for your next exam…but “ if you go to another doctor…no more
exams or medicine” (Henslin 212)
The U.S. Public Health Service told 399 African Americans that
they had joined a “social and burial society”. Why?
6
Questions:
1.) Why was the experiment conducted? Why in Tuskegee?
What was the difference in defining it as a “study of nature”
versus “experimentation”? Which do you think it was?
2.) What was the nature, scope and method of “ the
experiment”? Do you think that this “medical experiment” was

value-free and “ethical” and justified? Do you think that Brandt
demonstrates that science is “value free”?
3.)Penicillin was discovered in 1928, was this why
the experiments were stopped?
4.) Do you think that the experiment offered more insight about
the pathology of syphilis or the pathology of racism in an era of
Jim Crow?
7
Do you think….
that there are social policies, today (in the US or the world),
that influence health, wellness and even life expectancy? What
role does culture play in shaping social values and social
policies?
“The Mai Lai Massacre:
A Crime of Obedience”
From Crimes of Obedience toward a Social Psychology of
Authority and Responsibility by Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee
Hamilton

The Tuskegee Experiment ran for forty years: 1932-1972
The Mai Lai Massacre : March 16, 1968
Charges brought in 1968 and 1970
US and global context, 1960s
Pronounced ‘me lie’
Vietnam War
Cold War era military conflict
(1954-1975)
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
North Vietnam (supported by Communist Allies)
South Vietnam (supported by US and other non-communist
allies)
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong viewed the war as a colonial
war and didn’t want to be a “puppet state”
The war ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon to the Vietnam
People’s Army
Vietnam war…. Resistance War against America or American
War
How do psychological and sociological approaches to
understanding

the “Mai Lai Massacre” differ?
Sociological vs psychological explanations
Psychological: madness, insanity, character traits/flaws
Sociological: what were the “social”, environmental and
circumstantial reasons for men to do “the unthinkable”?
Authorization
Routinization
Dehumanization
12
The Unthinkable…What happened
in the village of Song March 16, 1968?
March 16 1968

Around the world…
Charlie Company C: an “average” unit
Most had volunteered for the draft
Few had gone to college
Nearly half African Americans, few Mexicans
Most were 18-22 years old
“Most believed in the War or lacked the social resources to
avoid participating in it” (33)
Chain of Command: The Son Mai operation was planned by Lt.
Col. Frank Barker
Capt Ernst “Mad Dog” Medina gave
(vague) orders to “search and destroy”

Lt. William Calley, platoon leader
“Surfside 5 ½ “
24 years old
No “written orders” ever issued
Lt. Col Barker…said no one should be in the village at 7:00 am;
the “innocent” would be at the market
Conflicting accounts for the Song Mai area to be obliterated
Destruction of houses, dwellings, livestock, food stuffs
Capt. Medina transferred the (vague) orders to his own men the
day after a popular sergeant was killed by a booby trap
Frustrations were high
Waiting for battles that never came, and forays led by
incompetent and inexperienced commanders.
Living/ serving in an area with booby traps and mines
Hamlet of Mai Lai
Instead of finding Viet Cong
Old men
Women
Children

Babies
Over 500 non-combatants and civilians killed
AFTER the shooting, “all the villagers became Communists”
(35)
AFTER the executions…reports of rapes, tortures, killings
Did “everyone” behave badly?
Did “everyone” behave badly?
Hugh Thompson, Jr
(Helicopter pilot)
Ron Ridenour, door gunner on an observation helicopter
“Pinkville” letter
Ron Haeberle, Photographer
Seymour Hersh
Journalist at My Lai
21

What do the authors argue
With regard to … how it happened?
How did it happen?
Authorization,
“Just” Following orders
Allegiance to blind authority
Just following orders
Routinization
Stabilization of authority
Authority in the social institution
Dehumanization?
Don’t see “people”
See “others” as less than human
What do Kelman and Hamilton offer in their account of the
“Mai Lai Massacre”?
Sociological explanation: effects of environment &
authorization, routinization and dehumanization
One aspect of the incident involved “blind obedience to
authority”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr5cjyokVUs
Any contemporary examples relevant to the assertion of social
influences that shape situations?
Obedience to authority?
…the effects of authorization, routinization, and
dehumanization?
…beliefs that “If I were there” I would NOT have…
Stanley Milgram “The Man who Shocked the World”
How far up or down….?
Lyndon B. Johnson, Commander in Chief
Clark M. Clifford, Secretary of Defense
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, USA , Chairman
Adm. U.S. Grant Sharp Commander in Chief, Pacific Command
Gen. William C. Westmoreland, Commander MACV
Lt. Gen. Robert E. Cushman Jr., Commanding Gen., III MAF
Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Koster, Commanding Gen., Americal Div.
Col. Oran K. Henderson, Commander, llth Inf. Brigade
Lt. Col. Frank A. Barker Jr., Commander, Task Force Barker

Capt. Ernest L. Medina, Commander, Charlie Company
Lt. William L. Calley Jr., Platoon Leader
Calley's sentence:
"To be confined at hard labor for the length
of your natural life; to be dismissed from the
service; to forfeit all pay and allowances."
On November 9, 1974, the Secretary of the Army announced
that William Calley would be paroled. In 1976, Calley
married. In August 2009, while speaking at a Kiwanis meeting
in his hometown of Columbus, Georgia, 66-year-old Calley
offered a public apology for his role at My Lai: "Not a day
goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day at
My Lai. I am very sorry."
End notes:
“Calley apologizes for Mail Lai Massacre” (Democracy Now
archives)
Over forty-one years after the My Lai Massacre, when US
troops killed more than 500 men, women and children in
Vietnam, the former Army lieutenant who was convicted for his
role in the killings has publicly apologized. William Calley was
the only US soldier held legally responsible for the slayings. He
was convicted on twenty-two counts of murder, and his sentence
was later commuted by President Reagan. Last week, William
Calley publicly apologized for the first time, saying, There is

not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what
happened that day in My Lai." He added that he had been
following orders.
Uploaded on Aug 24, 2009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPHEvaNjdhw
More contemporary events
Routinization and
dehumanization?
On thinking “If I were there”, I WOULD have acted
differently…
"If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went
down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that
first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we're going to land
somewhere safely, don't worry.'"
What aspects of Wahlberg’s comments are relevant to some
aspects of this essay? How do you think that many responded to
these comments especially if they had family or friends on that
flight?
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty
whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.
-Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist, and psychiatrist (1905-

1997)
Works Cited:
Brandt, Allan M. “Racism and Research:
The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment” In Readings
for Sociology. Seventh edition. Edited by Garth Massey. New
York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company. 1996. 2012. 64-78.
Print.
Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach.
Ninth edition. Allyn and Bacon. 2011.213-214. Print.
Kelman, Herbert C. and V. Lee Hamilton. “The Mai Lai
Massacre: A Crime of Obedience” From Crimes of Obedience
toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility . In
Readings for Sociology. Seventh edition. Edited by Garth
Massey. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company (1996)
2012. 32-50.
Images cited:
Google Images: www.googleimages.com. Accessed April 8,
2012.

The Study of SociologyMichael Burawoy Public sociologies .docx

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