Journal Article

Discontents Within the Discipline

Embrick, David G.

2017

Overview

This essay represents an extended version of my comments presented at the 2016 American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meetings town hall held in Seattle, Washington. I offer my thanks to Professor Aldon Morris for his gracious invitation to serve as a panelist on this important topic. This opportunity cracked open the door and allowed some of us to provide our thoughts on the myriad ways that we, as individual sociologists and a collective discipline, produce, reproduce, and maintain the very social inequalities that we claim to research and from which some of us claim aversion. To that end, Professor Morris tasked us with addressing five questions pertaining to sociology's ability and commitment to critically tackle the social problems of our times, both within and outside our discipline. These are not easy queries to answer, but self-reflection, whether from individuals or organizations, is never easy-and sometimes the ugly truth is what is needed to bring us back to reality in terms of the work that we want to do, the type of person we want to be, and the collective movements we want to make. In thinking about how far our discipline has evolved, and yet, the work we have still have to do, I am reminded that this is not a new conversation. Concerns about inequalities within our discipline are not new concerns. And we are neither the first, nor do I suspect we will be the last, scholars to put a call out to address issues of inequalities in the house of sociology. Unless we actually do something, take some collective action, take some collective responsibility, above and beyond another panel, another publication, or another petition, we will be nothing more than broken records. I do not suggest that the aforementioned actions are not important. What I do suggest, however, is that we do not make those actions the period at the end of our statements. In this post-Obama era of Trump, it is more important than ever that we do the hard work of cleaning our sociological house so we can collectively fight the good fights.

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Subject: Academic disciplines / Claims / Cleaning / Collective action / Collective responsibility / Denial / Essays on Voices from the Margins: Inequalities in the Sociological House / Intellectuals / Negligence / Professional associations / Selfreflection / Social inequality / Social problems / Sociologists / Sociology / Truth