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Most every sociology department in the United States has a course entitled, "Social Problems." Few, if any, have a course entitled "social solutions." This orientation - whether in our teaching or in our research - suggests a crisis in the relevancy of our discipline in solving the many issues facing local communities, regions, our nation, and our world. Are we to be content in just analyzing and describing the myriad of problems facing our society, or are we to become more engaged in working with others in seeking solutions to these problems? This is at the core of discussions around public sociology over the past decade.
We should not assume that producing quality sociological research or being objective in our research precludes working on innovative solutions in addressing society's challenges. The same research and analytical skills that allow us to gain an understanding of social problems can be used to go a step further in exploring solutions. We should not be satisfied with studying what is, but rather be part of the process of exploring what can be.
There certainly is a tradition of emersion in local communities in sociological research. The rich ethnographies of the Chicago School sociologists in the 1920s and 1930s, the now classic study of Boston's North End Italian community by Herbert Gans (1965), or Robert Courtney Smith's recent study of Mexican immigrants in New York City (2006) are certainly examples of the connection of our field to day-to-day community life. There have been prominent examples of sociologists getting involved in high-profile research that informs and ultimately helps to shape policy. James Coleman's work on education and Daniel Moynihan's work on welfare are prominent and controversial examples of such work.
However, if academic sociologists step away from an exclusive focus on doing research for publication in peer reviewed journals, and move toward more policy work or activist work, they start walking onto thinner ice in terms of support from their discipline and the academic departments that enforce the standards of that discipline. Signposts mark the dangers. Colleagues raise questions about how "balanced" a researcher is as the researcher works with community organizations in seeking solutions to local problems. In tenure and promotion policies, departments do not always value sociological research work...