How Is It To Be Done? Building a Social Science of Radical Reform

Abstract

The science of inequality has delivered robust evidence on the depth and severity of inequality in the contemporary United States. Yet despite the accumulation of evidence highlighting the consequences of profound inequality for individuals and communities, our inequality policy is largely focused on incremental interventions. Faced with this disconnect, sociologists reasonably ask what can be done to forge closer links between research and policy. In this commentary, for the Socius “Special Collection: Sociology’s Role in Responding to Inequality,” I consider just how such links might be forged. I argue that we must invest in infrastructures that support sociologists in developing policies that reflect the ambition and insights of our discipline. Of special importance is building institutions that increase cross-disciplinary research communication, improve access to administrative data, and increase the influence of sociologists in the public sphere.