On the Facilitating Actions of Service Sociology

Abstract

In 1906, at the height of the Progressive era, Lester F. Ward asserted that the mission of applied sociology was the intentional improvement of social conditions. Over a century later, applied sociology is actively involved in addressing a variety of social problems. In today’s culture of service, a new applied humanist sociology of social problems—service sociology—is emerging. Service sociology has its heritage in the Progressive era reformism of the three early American sociologies of the social gospel, settlement sociology, and charity sociology, as well as in the three contemporary neoprogressive sociologies of humanist/liberation sociology, communitarianism, and public sociology. The main goal of the sociology of service is to proffer neighborly service to recipient partners in need and from a communal orientation. In this article, I discuss the nature and structure of the sociologically informed, solutions-oriented practices that are at the core of service sociology, its facilitating actions.