Comments on: the term ’sociological’… http://contexts.org/crawler/2008/09/03/the-term-sociological/ Sociology Online Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:38:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: bigbruther http://contexts.org/crawler/2008/09/03/the-term-sociological/#comment-165 bigbruther Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:32:02 +0000 http://contexts.org/crawler/?p=214#comment-165 I saw this in the NYT as well. My gut reaction was instantly negative, but after thinking about it, I kinda felt the author was on to something. I kinda agree that there is something sociological about how the country reacts to, gulp, Ms. Palin; although what I think that is, is probably different than the article's author. Anyway, I think sociology should get - and needs - good press, so the fact that our discipline is mentioned in this context sits right by me. I saw this in the NYT as well. My gut reaction was instantly negative, but after thinking about it, I kinda felt the author was on to something. I kinda agree that there is something sociological about how the country reacts to, gulp, Ms. Palin; although what I think that is, is probably different than the article’s author. Anyway, I think sociology should get - and needs - good press, so the fact that our discipline is mentioned in this context sits right by me.

]]> By: Anonymous http://contexts.org/crawler/2008/09/03/the-term-sociological/#comment-158 Anonymous Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:10:40 +0000 http://contexts.org/crawler/?p=214#comment-158 I think that sociology is already a pretty diffuse field, so I doubt that vague references are going to do make it more diluted. Wikipedia calls it the scientific study of society, which in the mind of sociologists, makes everything fair game to study. I find it interesting that while the author wants to make the distinction between sociology and political science, he does a poor job. He says it challenges images of a traditional family in the White House, but then ponders on the effect of the story on voting behavior. I think it shows that there are many ways to approach this story, and these disciplines often overlap. As a sociologist-in-training, I find myself doing the same thing, so I really don't fault him. I think that sociology is already a pretty diffuse field, so I doubt that vague references are going to do make it more diluted. Wikipedia calls it the scientific study of society, which in the mind of sociologists, makes everything fair game to study.

I find it interesting that while the author wants to make the distinction between sociology and political science, he does a poor job. He says it challenges images of a traditional family in the White House, but then ponders on the effect of the story on voting behavior. I think it shows that there are many ways to approach this story, and these disciplines often overlap. As a sociologist-in-training, I find myself doing the same thing, so I really don’t fault him.

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