Applying the Sociological Imagination: A Toolkit For Tomorrow’s Graduates
In April 2018, at
the British Sociological Association conference, a group of UK sociologists launched
a curriculum in ‘applied sociology’. They
want to tool up new sociology graduates to use their degrees to improve
workplaces, organisations and communities, ensuring the undergraduate
curriculum has an applied component. Professor Nick Fox, co-convenor of
BSA-SoA,
explains…
Sociology is a subject that works best when it faces outward, towards the
world of people and their social groups, organisations and institutions. Toward
the natural and built environment that people inhabit. Toward the ideas,
beliefs, values and norms that people use to constitute their social worlds on
a day-to-day basis. And toward the processes of power and resistance that mark
out both divisions, stabilities and continual change within society.
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Sociologists
have much to say about the grand problems facing contemporary society, from
climate change and migration to wealth and health inequalities. But their
concepts, theories and perspective can also be applied to the smaller problems
of everyday life, ranging from improving urban spaces to enhancing work and
productivity.
So it’s odd that the majority of sociology done in the UK happens not
in workplaces or communities, businesses or local government, but behind closed
doors in lecture rooms, academic libraries and conference halls.
Overwhelmingly, people with the job title ‘sociologist’ work in universities
and research centres. The British Sociological Association (BSA) – UK sociology’s
professional body – has few members outside these academic circles.
That’s not the case everywhere. In the US and a few other countries, sociology
is flourishing in all kinds of workplaces: in business and industry, local and
national government and in charities.
They often call it ‘clinical sociology’, maybe because people consult
sociologists with work or other problems the way you’d consult a doctor, a
therapist or a counsellor. Though in
clinical sociology, the patient will be an organisation or a company rather
than an individual.
Here are a couple of examples. Applied sociologists from Bentley University, Massachusetts analysed how
medical records are produced, to help the transcription industry develop better
documents and use speech recognition technology effectively. A
university sociology department in Norway established an applied sociology
clinic in Trondheim shopping centre, and worked with urban planners, businesses
and community bodies who approached them to address local issues and
challenges.
Those are the kinds of projects we’d like to see UK sociology doing
too. After all, every year, there are 30,000 new sociology graduates in the UK.
That means about half a million citizens in Britain have a sociology
degree! That’s a lot of expertise going
to waste, when there are so many problems that could do with a sociological
insight.
Since 2016, I and my sociological colleagues outside academic
institutions have been asking why UK sociology is so far behind that curve and
what can be done about it. Part of the problem is demand: maybe UK businesses
and public sector bodies just don’t know what sociology can offer. That means
sociology needs to get a lot better at explaining what it is and what it does.
Developing a new job role is a big ask, of course. Which will be the
first UK company to employ a sociologist and put that job title on their office
door? Who will invest in a sociologist
when they may be more familiar with economists and work psychologists? But if demand
is part of the challenge, then too is supply, and perhaps that’s a good place
to start. We need sufficient
sociologists with the skills, knowledge and, as importantly, the professional
outlook and demeanour to fill the jobs when demand gets going.
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| MyStock photos: reproduced under Creative Commons CC0 licence |
A team of ten academic and applied sociologists agreed a definition for
applied sociology. We defined it as ‘solution-focused sociology,
analysing and intervening to address, resolve or improve everyday real-world
situations, problems and interactions practically and creatively’.
With that definition
in mind, what is involved in becoming an applied sociologist? We set about identifying the learning
outcomes necessary to work as an entry-level applied sociologist. We organised these outcomes into four key
themes – knowledge, skills, employment and careers, and practice.
First and foremost, an applied sociologist needs the sociological
knowledge to be able to work independently to analyse a situation and offer a workable
solution. For instance, how might a
concept such as social control or a systems approach to organisation help
address how a business operates smoothly?
So the ‘knowledge’ component encourages students to integrate and
synthesise what they’ve learnt during their degree, enabling them to gain
insight into the practical relevance of sociological knowledge, as opposed to
its theoretical deployment in academic research.
Applied sociologists also
need a wide range of skills, some of which are generic and transferable, such
as communication, problem-solving, observation and listening. Others are more specific to sociology,
including the capacity to appraise evidence critically and design and conduct
research. They will also need to be able
to work independently to seek
to address, understand and resolve a wide range of situations and problems in
work or community settings. Considerable self-awareness and
emotional maturity will also be required.
Then they will require resilience and resourcefulness to establish and
sustain a career as an applied sociologist.
For this reason, we include materials on employment, careers and the
ethics of applied sociological working. Applied
sociologists need to understand different models of working, career development
and the ethics of working as an applied sociologist in a variety of social
contexts. That’s what the ‘employment’
component explores.
Finally, because applied sociology is a practical activity, we also
emphasise the need to provide students with practical experience as part of
their introduction to applied sociology.
A practice component supplies the means to deepen understanding of work
as sociological practitioners, and try out the concepts, theories and project
management and research skills developed earlier in their degree. It will help students gain insight into what
it means to actually do applied sociology.
Our curriculum doesn’t attempt to timetable lectures, seminars or
placements: that’s up to each university to decide, based on their exiting
course structure and their style and orientation toward learning. But we do offer some suggestions for learning activities and assessment of
this curriculum; resource material for staff adapting the applied sociology
curriculum for their degree programme; links to useful website including
international bodies supporting applied sociology, and a full list of sociological
concepts, theories, and the skills with which applied sociologists need to be
familiar.
We are offering the curriculum
pack free to UK departments of sociology and related disciplines. It will provide
an outline for an undergraduate module to be studied in the third year of a
sociology degree, though it could also form the basis for a Master’s in applied
sociology.
The curriculum was
formally launched at the BSA conference in Newcastle this April. You can read the entire curriculum document on
the bespoke website. If you work in a UK department
of sociology or related discipline you may also download the curriculum
document in Word or pdf formats from that site.
Research makes a real difference.
Discover more at www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/realworldimpact.htm
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