The Return of the Repressed: Recovering the Public Face of U.S. Sociology, One Hundred Years On

Abstract

At its inception one hundred years ago, the American Sociological Society was concerned to separate itself from the social movements and reform impulses to which it had hitherto been connected. One hundred years of professionalism have achieved the splitting and amassed an impressive body of theory, empirical analysis, and innovative techniques, but sociology’s public face has remained underdeveloped. Public sociology today requires rethinking the meaning of the public sphere as well as that of the discipline of sociology. Moreover, in today’s world, reaching out to publics demands recognition of the interests of the different social sciences within the new global dispensation.