Tag: sociological study

Relevance of a Sociology Degree

How relevant is a Sociology degree? Most of us, when we are considering a major, want to be sure that we can find a job, generate sufficient wage and maybe even make our mark on the world.  Learners often wonder what they can do with a sociology degree and parents may be hesitant to shoulder the bill for the study of sociology.  After all, there are very few well-known sociologists, right?  Actually, many well-known people, both past and present received sociology degrees.

First, let us discuss some sociologists who were well-known for their sociological work.  Ever heard of WEB Du Bois, innovator in civil rights activism, who compared Booker T. Washington’s accommodationist state policies and had written The Souls of Black Folks? What about C. Wright Mills who had written The Power Elite, or Jane Addams, one of the creators of Chicago’s Hull House which offered public solutions to the poor, inner-city residents?  More lately, sociologists such as Lillian Rubin (Worlds of Pain), Barry Glassner (The Culture of Fear) and well-known presenter, journalist, and connection advisor, Pepper Schwartz have obtained well-known interest with work that resonates with the American mind.

Considering going into politics and thinking what a sociology degree will do for you?  Would you be amazed to know that former President Ronald Reagan double majored in sociology and economics?  Or that first lady, Michele Obama, has a bachelor’s degree in sociology?  Considering becoming a member of Congress?  Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), Maxine Waters, (D-CA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Tim Holder (D-PA) are all present or former Congress members.  What about group planning or activism? Then you are in good company. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, Ralph David Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, Sr. and the father of community organizing, Saul Alinsky, all had sociology degrees. Sociology is actually an excellent major for individuals with a variety of passions.  Because it concentrates on examining and knowing the world around us, it provides degrees with the capability to view problems from every side, and with the analytic resources to connect personal problems with social and traditional styles.

Sociology to the Public

Providing sociology to wider community exposure and impact is perhaps the greatest and most primary objective for this field, showing the overarching perception that sociological study and education is essential to creating and keeping an excellent society and that it’s often losing from press protection and comments, governmental discussion and attention. To that end, one of the primary projects is to recognize, sometimes repackage and do everything we can to distribute the scholarly public science that is of most attention, transfer and importance to the community.

It is also good to be enthusiastic about growing sociological information and knowing wherever and whenever we find it, even if its writers do not even call what they are doing “sociology.” This is what you might call “found” sociology. One came in information of a younger documented film-maker known as Eugene Jarecki who was working on a film about prisoners providing life in jail for various medication violations. It was a quotation from Jarecki himself that was very interesting: “And yet making a film about individual experiences is a snare. The viewers walk out thinking not about the bigger issues, the system, but about the person they liked.” The quotation just hopped off the charts. It is a better, more brief, more emotional summary of the issue of a sociological viewpoint.

The other tale was brief, but provided a complex set of concepts and factors from the estimable Jeffrey Toobin. In the content, Toobin had written of voter ID regulations and the Supreme Court’s choice to review the milestone 1965 Voting Rights Act (“the most efficient law of its type in the history of the United States”). To start with, some excellent sociological backdrop and alignment rests in the backdrop of the item. One is historical: according to Toobin, The Roberts Court believes factors have modified in the South since the Sixties. As the Chief Justice asked at one point: “Is it your place that these days, Southerners are more likely to differentiate than Northerners?” Whatever your response to that query, Toobin makes it obvious that the actual problems have, as he places it, “moved on and mutated.”