Monday, September 11, 2017

Thoughts on academics mixed with Sociology.....

Here we go with the topic this week friends, the topic of mixing Sociology with academics.. Just the thought of hearing academics with Sociology scares people or better yet confuses people because people are like "how can you mix Sociology with academics? Sociology isnt that important anyways". Well, I am here to tell you that IT IS FALSE and that Sociology is just as important as academics and when you put the two together, it can honestly improve the world in many ways..

The big debate about mixing Sociology with academics and then teaching it to the public is very controversial. Based on the readings that i have read, I came to the conclusion that mixing academics with Sociology could make a difference, but teaching it to the public will require much power and attention, which is something that sociologists currently lack on because sociologists isnt being noticed.... For example, sociologists do believe that teaching the public about Sociology or offering their expertise on the topic will help others see the light of things. Karen Sternheimer states "Thinking sociologically is a tool to examine our lives and our society more critically"(2013) and many Sociologists will believe that the purpose of educating the public about Sociology is to help us understand our everyday actions. While others will see educating the public about Sociology as a huge disadvantage and impossible to do. "Activism is about promoting social change,which is a different bottom line than academia, which is knowledge generation".(Fabiorojas,2013). The point of activism is to bring a change to the world and adding academics into it will not help because with academics, you have to have the knowledge which doesnt add up to help bringing a change.

But there are sociologists who believe that adding knowledge with current issues will in fact do justice in the world, and with this they feel that it is right to educate the public but face a roadblock. Let's be honest, nobody would want to hear or listen to a sociologist informing the public about their opinion on a issue. One of the roadblocks that social scientists face is being biased. Karen Sternheimer states that  public sociology can have some challenges; in which some of the information that can be presented could be biased or misinterpreted(2013).With this, when social scientists are trying to talk to a public audience, the information that they are presenting could be faced with personal opinions and therefore the public audience would want to question the social scientists views and say, well why should we believe you or want to listen to you ? Another roadblock that social scientists have while trying to engage with the public is the wording of things. One of the ways in which social scientists could engage with the public is by having the ideas "expressed in ways that are interesting, readable and engaging"(Jurgenson,2012) The problem that social scientists have now is that if people were supposed to be interested in the issue, they wouldn't because of the choice of words that social scientists use. The public views the words as "educational" and that's something the public feel that they do not have the time to be educated or to feel like they are in "school".

In my opinion, social science should not influence public debate, but it should influence public policy. With public policy, it has a huge impact on the whole world, whether people see it or not. So for example, there's currently a policy in which undergraduate students could receive free tuition from SUNY and CUNY if their families make less than 100,000. With this, the social scientist could present facts and graphs in which shows the number of families who suffers from poverty and could also show the number of people who doesn't attend college due to the fact of not being able to afford college. It could get done if social scientist would speak up and not be scared of what other expertise would think of them. The work should be honestly addressed to everyone because it affects everyone in the world and if the work can influence a person, then that person could influence another person and so on and so forth. C. Wright Mills would say that a social scientist should have patience and guidance because people will soon realize that its the social scientist who has the knowledge and the power, they just have to know how to use that power to their advantage. I believe that having this debate on educating the world about sociology is unfair and unjust. I say this because everything that we do has a cause and an effect and its the sociologist job to help us understand why these things around us help influence our behavior? So without Sociology,there would not be an understanding of the things around us, so Sociology actually helps us with our everyday activities whether people see that or not. I think that the conversation might slightly change because it could be random people who has the expertise in social science engaging with the public. However, the public would want to ask that random person, why should we believe you and how do you know your information? Its like the public is never satisfied and that's the sad part about it all.....

Sorry this was a long post, but I just had to rant and let others know how i think of it. Below are references for the above articles that I have referenced in this blog. Next time would be much engaging, I promise :)
                                                                                                                       Peace out
                                                                                                                     - Anikka :)
References for the articles 
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2013. "truth-telling and intellectual activism" in Contexts 12:1, Pp. 36-39. Temple University Press.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2007. "A Journalist's Plea." Pp. 231-238 in Public Sociology, edited by Clawson, Dan, Robert Zussman, Joya Misra, Naomi Gerstel, Randall Stokes, Douglas L. Anderton, and Michael Burawoy. Berkeley, CA: University of CA Press.

Monday, September 4, 2017

Why Sociology?

Mhmm.. to begin.. I've decided to major in Sociology because I really love helping people,especially children. When I was growing up, I always had a interest of helping those, whether it was giving them a $1 or even helping a elderly person with their groceries, I was always the one who would volunteer their services first! As I have grown up, I realized that little by little, there are things around us that helped shaped us to become who we are and for some odd reason, I just wanted to know what are those things that shaped people and based on those things, how it affects society as a whole. Based on this, I will use what I've learned in Sociology to help children become better individuals for our society depends on it.

To me, when I think or hear about the word Sociology, I'm thinking about how do people interact with each other socially? Like, what is around us that helps us communicate or get along  with people? How does the little things that people do or come across with  influence their behavior, whether its positive or its negative? To me, the sociological perspective is a view of a person's actions and based on those actions, how it affects society as a whole. People don't realize this, but Sociology is so useful in the world! Sociology is useful because it helps others to see the things that are constantly around us has a huge influence on us- whether its good or bad. With Sociology, one can say " because of his neighborhood, its causes him to act violently".  Whether its good or bad, Sociology can be the pinpoint to help society to understand individuals' actions.


A sociological perspective has a huge advantage for society. For starters, it could help society understand a person's viewpoint of things, or help society understand a person's experience and how they have learned and grown from that experience. Also, with the sociological perspective, its not only one person who goes through something, its multiple people. So, based on that situation, the outcome might be different, however that situation bring people together and make them as a whole. People think that you can only use Sociology just for school, but that's not the case at all! Whenever, I see a homeless man on the street, I begin to question myself, "what were the factors that influenced this homeless man to become homeless" How can he uplift himself? People don't realize this, but we are always using Sociology around us, whether its seeing a homeless person lying down on the street, or certain neighborhood only have healthy options in the neighborhood. People have to realize that its the little things that is around us that influences our behavior heavily and make us wonder why is this happening?

I hope I didn't bore you too much with this information, but the point of it was to really sit back and think. Think about people's actions and think about personal things in your life! So, the next time you see something and its unfamiliar to you or you just don't understand, think about sociology and come up with a lot of questions! It shows that you are interested and that you care.
                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                               Until next time
                                                                                                              - Anikka :)