Four Days in California

[ixion]

Published on Tuesday, August 24, 2004 by the Guardian / United Kingdom
Four Days in California
US Sociologists are Finally Challenging the Intellectual Stranglehold of Economists

by Jonathan Steele

In the ocean-fed air and mild August sunshine of America's most beautiful city, optimism flows easy. But the real mood-lift these past few days was in the windowless conference rooms of two downtown mega-hotels. More than 5,000 American sociologists, plus a few foreign scholars, held their largest and, many said, most vibrant annual convention for years.

Bush and Kerry were campaigning through nearby states. Their soundbites were rarely mentioned, but the lack of serious debate is one reason for US sociology's new political engagement after decades of quiet since the 60s.

The profession's center of gravity is moving left. There is a drive to inject ethical standards into the analysis of what most agree is a US society becoming increasingly polarized beneath its veneer of shared consumerism.

Above all, sociologists are starting to challenge the intellectual stranglehold of American economists who have managed to get the neo-liberal model of competitive individualism and corporate globalization to dominate public discourse and policy-making for the past 20 years.




http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0824-02.htm


Having been a sociology / English major in college, I was happy to see my brothers standing up to facism.

Sociologists are the true rebels. We rule! :yourock:

[patdem]

1. I took sociology and criminology in the same semester and it had

my head spinning. Seems the crininologist said that the great depression proved that economic deprivation was not the reason for crime. But he never addressed the fact that the President and all of the country was pulling for the economically depressed in those times...and not for the individual oppressed in other times?

My head was spinning I aced sociology...and got a C in criminology...because I did not agree with the professor!! Another example of fascism!

[Sugarbleus]

2. Wow, your experience is interesting...

More than likely, I would have done poorly in criminology too..especially under those circumstances with that ideology. Yikes.

[Downtown Hound]

3. One of my favorite teachers of all time was a sociology teacher

She could stomp any right winger into the ground in a debate.